xp_logs | Forge and Marius, Thursday night

After seeing something odd in the infirmary, Forge rushes to try and find Marius. Who is, of course, perfectly fine. Forge also catches up on some sleep, which is sorely needed.

The first thing Forge realized as he rushed up the stairs and down the hall to his suite was that he couldn't hear screaming anywhere. That meant Marius was either outside the building - or worse, somewhere he couldn't scream, or somehow in no condition to.

Kyle. Kyle could smell him out, or he could hear him. There was no way Marius could survive another teleport so soon after getting out of the infirmary. Kyle would find him and then they could get him medical attention. Forge swept a loose lock of hair off his forehead, barging into the suite.

"Kyle! We've got to get moving and... find... Marius?" He slowed down, seeing Marius himself kicked back on the suite's couch reading a magazine and looking completely healthy and quite bemused at Forge's panic.

"Here," Marius said, raising a quizzical eyebrow at his suitemate. He took a bite of his apple and cocked his head at Forge. "You know, if you're desperate for my attentions you just have to say."

Forge looked at Marius, then down the hall, back to Marius, repeating the sequence a few times, mouth moving with no words. "You... you teleported from the lab to here and you're fine?'

Marius frowned. "I what now?" he said, eyeing Forge skeptically. He raised one hand and turned it this way and that with exaggerated caution. "No, don't think so. See, I still have skin." The boy dropped his hand and added, "Besides, next checkup's not 'til tomorrow, an' buggered if anything short of physical violence gets me back down there after last week. You're seein' things, mate."

Forge shook his head. "I just saw you down there with this girl and... wait..." he pointed at his suitemate's everpresent gloves. "You weren't wearing your gloves. And you looked a hell of a lot healthier. But she had the mouth... things." He wiggled his hands to pantomime. "You're sure you weren't in the infirmary?"

Marius snorted. "Mate, I referr you back to the reference of physical violence. Think 'not even if dragged by wild horses,' but with more heartfelt loathing. And cheers. It warms my heart to hear your obvious hallucination was kindly disposed towards my physical well-being. That's friendship, there." Marius folded his magazine closed and took another bite of his apple. "So, was this fictional girl attractive then? So long as your hallucination is seeing to my happiness, that is."

"Hot? Oh my god yes. But she wasn't like, all over you. She had the hand things and it looked like she was going to be all feeding off you and..." Forge paused, cocking his head to look at Marius closely. "Wait a minute... wait a damn minute..."

He sprinted over to his computer, browsing to the school's alumni directory and looking through photos rapidly. Stopping at one, he blanched. "Dude... it's your sister."

Forge pivoted his monitor to show the smiling school photograph of Monet St. Croix to Marius.

Marius blinked at the photo, then shuddered. "Mate, I don't think I want to be part of your fantasies anymore. Not to judge you as a person or anything, but that's a few steps left of Wrong and straight on ahead." His gloved hand tightened almost imperceptibly around the half-devoured apple. Some hallucination. I'm not contagious. It hardly seemed fair, though. By all accounts his half-sister's mutation had been beneficial. Exceptional, even. Marius hadn't caused their father even half the grief she had, and yet he was the one stuck with this.

Ah, let it go. "So what, then?" Marius asked, turning away from the photograph. "I warned you about that leftover pasta. I knew there was something suspect about that so-called cheese."

Forge laughed, shaking his head. "It's been a while since I... okay, I haven't slept since Tuesday. That's probably a clue."

Marius' forehead wrinkled at that. "The booksigning? The remarkable encounter where you somehow managed to be neither attacked nor kidnapped?" He'd noticed Forge not sleeping, but had assumed it had been because he was . . . well, Forge. Forge's hours were not human hours. Not that he'd been in an exceptionally observant mood, that is. Forge wasn't the only one who'd been missing sleep the last few days.

He didn't understand it. Sleeping had been all he'd been able to do for a week. Now he could run and run, and nothing was enough.

"Miraculous, isn't it?" Forge joked, turning the screen off and flopping bonelessly into the overstuffed chair across from the couch. "Walked right up to Mystique, handed her a copy of the book, and I said 'Free of charge'. How badass am I? Totally badass, that's what."

Marius nodded solemly. "You're hardcore, mate. One could almost forget you booted your lunch right after." Ah, friendly confidences.

Forge reddened slightly, then shook his head. "I am not too proud to admit it. Mr. D. says that it took a lot of courage. I find that courage seems to be a whole lot like nausea."

Marius softened slightly. "It did. It did at that." He needed to back down. He knew what the encounter must have done to Forge. Hadn't their first meeting been right after the other boy had been rescued from the Brotherhood? And he'd visited Marius every day in isolation. That had meant a lot, even if Marius could have done without graphic description of just how hideously he had almost died. Marius raked the hair away from his eyes, irritated at himself. Forge didn't deserve . . . whatever it was he was dealing with here. My worries, my problems. Fair enough. Now get on with it.

"Way I see it you're doin' quite well for yourself in general," Marius continued, playing with the apple now. "How many eighteen year olds have published biographies of bonafide criminal madmen? Most interesting thing I sign my name to is a check of ridiculous amounts. Can make a bloke feel a bit inferior."

"'m not eighteen until August," Forge said with a yawn, settling deeper into the chair. "I just felt... people ought to know as much as they can about someone before judging him. Learn what... makes him who he is. Then say he's insane and needs to be..." another long yawn, "locked up."

Marius nodded. "Ah, so informed comdemnation. If you deserve to be damned, may as well be for things you've actually done. A sound argument by all accounts." He paused a moment, watching the other boy sag in his chair. He smiled faintly. "Go get some sleep, mate. I won't be burnin' my skin off again anytime soon, so no worries on my account. The world does not turn on Red Bull and blasphemously processed food alone, you know?"

The only answer was a quiet yet deep snore from the chair, where Forge had completely sunken into sleep, both arms wrapped around a cushion.

Marius snorted quietly and pushed himself to his feet. A brief delay saw Forge covered up with the afghan draped across the back of the couch, then apple and magazine were reclaimed from the coffee table.

Sleep well, mate, Marius thought, retreating to his room. Good to know at least one of us will.