Piotr and Em train in the Danger Room

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To Marie, Piotr made the most sense of someone to
train with to start, and he was pleasant and cheerful
company as well. He came bounding up to her room
after lunch, finding her just after she'd showered and
changed. Hank had been making disapproving noises
about her spending too much time hovering over a
sleeping Logan -- she protested that she did not
hover, thank you, she'd been reading -- so she'd
retreated to her room to get ready.

She and Piotr went to find Scott together to get
approval for their training plans and Em found herself
remarkably anxious, a cold knot in her stomach and her
hands damp and chilly in her gloves. She bit her lip
and tried not to look worried as they waited outside
Scott's door.

"You haven't seen him today?" she asked Piotr after a
minute had passed with no reply.

Piotr thought. "No, in fact I haven't seen him for
the past few days..."

Em scowled darkly. "Well, that's un-Scottishly
irresponsible of him not to say where he's going."
She leaned against the wall opposite Scott's door,
arms crossed over her chest. "Now what are we going
to do? Scott's the most likely one to say yes about
this stuff. Everyone else is going to just wimp out
and say to go ask him. After all, you know, you're
such a delicate flower and I could bruise you..."

"I'd like to see you try!" Piotr scoffed. "Isn't
there anyone that has the access code into the Danger
Room besides teachers?"

Em stopped trying to will Scott to appear by glaring
at his door. "Is that all? I thought we should get
supervised if we were going to try anything, but... I
can code in anything but the upper levels. We don't
want anything serious anyway, right?"

"We could just practice using our powers without
fighting. Let's give it a shot. No one should mind.
We're old enough," he mentioned. "Lead the way."

"Yeah," Em said, pushing away from the wall. "No
fighting. Just... working. Refining." She started
walking. "Good idea, Piotr. Thanks for helping, by
the way," she gave him a rare smile.

Em and Piotr worked their way down to the Danger Room
passing by curious students passing awkward glances at
the stange couple. Reaching the doorway, Em pinged a
few numbers into a pad and 'voila' the Danger Room
was all theirs.

"Well, how would you like to go about this?" Piotr
inquired.

Em put her hands on her hips and sized him up. "Well,
I suppose I should see if I can lift you, to start.
See, I'm stronger now, and I can fly, and I still do
if I'm not careful, like if I'm dreaming. I can get
hurt easily, though, just like before. If you fell on
me and I didn't try and stop you, you'd squish me like
a little bug." She grinned and held out a gloved
hand. "Let's see if I could actually stop you from
squishing me. I'll try and pick you up. ...this all
still weirds me out a lot," she added under her
breath.

Like magic, Piotr transformed into his metallic form
before Em's eyes. With this, he also increased in
height and weight. All of a sudden it didn't seem so
easy to pick him up. Piotr approached Em slowly and
offered a raised foot to hoist him into the air.

Em grinned. "Now that's a challenge." She put her
hand under his foot and took one of his hands in the
other. "Step up, big boy, and we'll see if I'm woman
enough to handle you."

"I'm afraid that no woman will be able to handle me,"
he said with a smirk. Then, as if Piotr was a
feather, Em lifted him easily into the air. Baffled
by this suprise, Piotr fell limp and collapsed onto
her.

Suddenly overbalanced, Em squeaked and jumped out from
under him, flipping him and letting him fall the last
feet to the floor with a resounding thud. "Piotr!"
She leaned over him where he lay on his back. "I'm so
sorry! Are you okay?"

"Da, everything is fine," he muttered. He extended
his hand for her to help him up. Taking his hand she
started to pull when not thinking about it allowed
Piotr to grab her bare arm for support. Once
standing, Piotr realized his 'oops' and quickly jerked
away. He paused, "wasn't your power supposed to suck
my energy on contact?"

Em looked at her arm and yanked her sleeve down.
"Well, it doesn't always work right away, but... I
should have felt something and there was nothing.
Nothing at all." She looked at him speculatively.
"Could I..." she hesistated. "Could I try again?"

"Uh, sure. Just don't hold on too long. I'd like to
see how long I can hold out myself," Piotr replied.

She took off her right glove and, biting her lip,
reached out and put her hand on Piotr's arm. Her
fingernails were painted shiny silver chrome and they
matched his metallic skin. She laughed. "Oops.
Could have picked a better colour for this, couldn't
I?" Then she frowned a tightened her grip.
"...nothing!" She scowled and concentrated. "Do you
feel ANYTHING?"

Piotr shook his head, "Nothing. Try concentrating
harder, I do have steel over just flesh."

Em looked up into his eyes and nodded. "I've never
had to TRY to do it before, you know..." She set her
jaw and concentrated on drawing his power out of him,
through her fingers and palm and into her hand,
imagining the metal fading away and leaving her in
contact with warm flesh.

His arm warmed a little under her hand, but maybe it
was just an illusion. Then, as though she were
watching a movie, her sight was filled with images:
white feathers, white snow, and then a streak of red
and black that consumed it all. She let go, shoving
Piotr away from her, pulling back so fast she stumbled
and fell to the floor, clutching her bare hand to her
chest.

"...I'm sorry," she blurted out, trying to focus on
him through the flood of thoughts she had drawn into
herself.

Piotr stood up slowly and turned his head towards Em.
She could see one silver tear run down his cheek.
"Please Em. You can't tell anyone..."

She shook her head, pulling her glove back on. "I
won't. Confidential, I swear." She got to her feet
and approached him, arms open a little, offering.
"It's okay, Piotr."

They embraced tightly and slowly walked out of the
Danger Room.