Amara/Marie: On the Porch

[x-molten.livejournal.com]

A quiet night on the porch.

Marie pulled the blanket around her shoulders, as a cool night breeze blew past her. As usual, she hadn't been able to sleep well, so she had ventured outside and curled up on the porch swing. Staring up at the stars in the sky, she rocked back and forth, the gentle motion soothing her mind as she entered a semi-trancelike state.

Amara still hadn't grown used to the mansion's noises, so different from the noises she fell asleep to at home. So she found it hard to sleep, harder to sleep well, and thus took to exploring Xavier's when she thought she was least likely to run into another person. She wouldn't admit to herself she was also having nightmares and terribly homesick. Coming out onto the porch, she spotted a girl on the porch swing and hesitated in the doorway.

The noise startled Marie slightly, until she turned and saw the blond girl with an uncertain look on her face. "Care to join me?" she asked, gesturing to the other half of the bench with a gloved hand. She wondered what Amara was doing awake so late, but with the way she'd come to the mansion, she could make a decent guess.

Amara finally recognized the girl from the rescue team who saved her in Nova Roma. After a moment's hesitation, she slowly walked over to the swing, sitting on the empty half. She was wearing jeans and a large Xavier's sweatshirt, but no shoes or socks, still preferring to stay barefoot. Hugging her knees close, she said with a slight smile, "I should have remembered a blanket."

Marie smiled at Amara as she unwrapped the blanket from around her shoulders and offered it to the younger girl. "Ah don't really need it," she said. "More of a mental comfort thing, y'know?"

Flashing a grateful smile, Amara took the blanket and burrowed into it, tucking the edges under her limbs until she made a cocoon. "Blankets are always very comforting. I had a rocking chair at home, and whenever I needed to feel better, I would sit down, wrap myself in a blanket, and read a book." She looked around and added, "Two out of three isn't bad."

"No, it really isn't," Marie agreed, lapsing into silence. Brushing a piece of hair out of her eyes, her eyes focused on the stars and she smiled. "It's just so peaceful out here, y'know? When hardly anyone else is awake and the stars spreading out above."

"Peaceful, yes, but different. Everything's different. The buildings, the people, the noises. Even the stars are strange. Logically, I know why that is, but a part of me keeps feeling disappointed when I look up and don't see the same sky." Amara untucked a foot and started rocking the bench slowly. "I never thanked you for saving me."

"It's a lot different from where Ah grew up to," Marie said, blushing a little at Amara's last statement. Once again she was reminded of why she was on the team...so people like Amara and Julio could be safe. "And really, there's no need to thank me. It's part of what we do...Ah just wish we coulda gotten there earlier." That's what Ah always wish.

"I wish you didn't have to come at all, because that would have meant that Nova Roma was safe from the cultists, and safe from me." Amara would never forget that she proved a bigger danger than the cult members that night, and that she had caused the deaths of innocents. "When you say that it is part of what we do...what exactly do you do?"

"Well..." Amara had seen them in their leathers and Marie had just assumed that one of the others had explained the X-Men to her. "Some of us here, we train hard in the use of our abilities so that we can go out and do what we did in Nova Roma. Take down the bad guys and save as many innocents as we can." Marie shrugged. It was not the most eloquent response, but it was all her brain could come up with at the late hour.

And indeed Amara did know about the X-Men, kind of, but she was looking for something more precise, more concrete. She liked to know the ins and outs of things. Nodding at Marie's response, Amara put the topic aside. "Where did you grow up, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Not at all. Ah was born and raise in the South, Meridian, Mississippi specifically." She smiled. "That's why Ah don't quite sound like all the Yanks 'round here." Her smile grew dark and there was a hint of pain in her eyes. "Never left there 'till my own manifestation."

"It seems a lot of manifestations aren't the best of experiences." She hugged her knees tighter. "I miss what my life was like before I manifested, when each day was predictable, simple, uncluttered. And now it's all turned around."

"It'll get better," Marie said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. "It'll never be the same, Ah can't say that, but it does start making sense again." She stared down at her gloved hands. "It'll make a different kinda sense eventually."

"I wish it would start making sense now." Amara suddenly missed her father and wondered how he was doing, wondered how the city of Nova Roma was doing know that the cult was gone. "How does one cope with having a power that can hurt so many other people?"

The girl probably didn't realize how much of a chord she'd struck within Marie with her simple question. She reached out to squeeze Amara's shoulder, as she remembered how scared she'd been when she first arrived at the school.

"By being careful and learning as much as Ah can about my abilities. And by finding ways to use my powers for helping people." Marie shrugged. "Or at least, that's what works for me. Everybody has to find their own way...and that's part of what being here is about doing. Learning to control your powers the best you can and figuring out what you want to do with 'em."

"That's why I came here, in the end. Because learning control is the only way I can make up for what I did." Amara slipped into silence, enjoying the night sounds. Outside the mansion, she could almost close her eyes and be back in Brazil. "I just don't know how I could ever use my powers to help people."

"Ah used to wonder the exact same thing." She couldn't stop her eyes from falling to her gloves again. "Especially about one of them. But...your power has to do with magma and volcanoes, right? What if one day you could use it to help stop one from erupting or to affect the flow of lava and keep it from hitting a city? There's always a way, if you want to find one."

"Prevent a future Vesuvius or Etna....I think I could do that. Traveling around the world, stopping volcanoes, and even earthquakes, given that they're caused by tectonic plates shifting on the earth's mantle." Amara looked far more at ease now, her fear of her powers evaporated somewhat by the new goal. "What power causes you problems?"

"Well the strength did, when I first got it," Marie said, neatly skirting around the question to give her time to put her thoughts in order. "Ah was pulling things off walls and even now Ah have to be careful when Ah shake someone's hand or give people hugs." She bit her lip and wondered why she was being more hesitant than usual about explaining her powers to a new student. It was important that people knew to be careful around her. With a sigh, she held up her hands a looked away from Amara. "But my true power...Ah'm an energy absorber, Ah guess you'd say. When Ah'm in direct skin contact with someone Ah absorb their life energy and if they are a mutant, the ability to use their power as well. Ah can't turn it off, so Ah wear the gloves."

Amara nodded and felt a welling of sympathy inside. The implications of such a power were obvious to her; it meant you had to go through life constantly aware of the proximity of other people; it meant, maybe, you shied away from physical touch; it meant, maybe, that you would force yourself to remain alone. Without a second thought, Amara shifted until their shoulders touched, blanket safely between. "That's a large burden to bear, but it proves you are strong, on the inside, where it matters most."

Marie looked at Amara in surprise. Most people shifted away, however unconsciously, when she told them about her powers and there was a touch of gratitude in her eyes for Amara's more unusual reaction. "Thank you," she said softly. "Ah'm not always strong enough, but being here helps," she said and gestured around the grounds and towards the mansion.

"I'm beginning to feel that myself, that being at the mansion helps. It seems strange to me now that I was so afraid of leaving when the mansion is so wonderful. Different, but wonderful." It was nearly impossible, in the end, for Amara to board the Blackbird, as if something were holding her back or refusing to let go. But she had, and now she was happier for doing so. "What is it like when classes start? Is there any quiet time left? Or is it all busy and loud?"

"To be honest, Ah'll be finding out along with you," Marie said with a smile. "Ah had been away from the mansion for a years until a few months ago...but if it's anything like it was when Ah was here before, Ah'd say you can count on some busy and loud times ahead."

"Then I guess I should appreciate the quiet and peace while I can." Amara tilted her head back to stare at the wooden rafters, rocking slowly and steadily, enjoying the feel of night around her. "And if on some nights it gets too loud, well, the porch swing's rather nice. Especially with someone to share it with."