Marie and Yvette: Treehouse picnic

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Marie takes a picnic lunch out to the mansion’s newest resident. After a very unusual “It’s not you, it’s me” moment, the two end up talking about the South, entering the school and Logan.

Sunlight fell on the small red-skinned girl sitting in the treehouse, carefully turning over the pages of a book. There was a slight chill in the air, but the sun was warm and the day quiet. A perfect moment, as far as Yvette was concerned - she liked her new friends, but sometimes she preferred to keep to herself. It gave her a chance to think, to try and process things.

Marie floated up to peer into the window of the treehouse, smiling as she spotted Yvette. Holding up a large picnic basket, she cleared her throat to get the younger girl’s attention. "Care for a bit of company?" She didn’t cook often, but there were a few things she knew how to make well and she’d decided that Yvette deserved her very best.

"Please to be coming in..." Yvette glanced toward the door at the sound of the voice, blinking as she failed to see anyone. Puzzled, she looked around, her mouth forming a soft 'O' as she caught sight of Marie hovering there. Laying the book aside, she came to the window, peering at the hovering girl. "You are flying?" she asked, delighted and awed.

Marie grinned at the girl’s amazement. "It is one of my many talents, yes." She swung the heavy basket through the window as if it were nothing more than a feather, setting it gently on the ground, before entering the small structure. "And to be honest, it’s my favorite power," she admitted.

"It is being a very wonderful thing," Yvette said, a little wistfully. To be able to fly, that would be an amazing power to have. And it didn't hurt anyone. She resumed her seat, indicating Marie should sit as well with a wave of a long-taloned hand. "You are having other powers?" she asked shyly.

"Ah have a handful," she replied. "Ah’m pretty strong," she said as she took a fork out of the basket and bent it in half. "And Ah’m invulnerable too." Rolling the edge of her glove down, she placed the bent fork’s prongs against her skin and pushed, the metal bending. She paused as she tried to figure out the best way to explain her other power to a young girl with a minimal grasp of English.

Yvette watched the fork bend, increasingly amazed. "You are not being hurt?" she asked, processing the word 'invulnerable'. "Would that mean I could not be hurting you, if I was touching you?" She began pulling off her glove - her encounters with other people whose powers protected them from hers had made her a little more bold about interacting with people.

Marie smiled sadly at the girl. "You wouldn’t hurt me, but Ah might hurt you." Rolling her glove back up, she continued. "My skin…it’s like poison. When Ah touch people, Ah absorb their energy, their memories and their powers if they’re a mutant." She busied herself opening the basket and started pulling things out, nervous as to how the girl would take the news.

"Oh." Yvette took all this in, trying to process not only the English but also the implications. She was quiet for a long time, watching Marie pull out food, and then reached out, carefully patting Marie on the knee, relying on the glove to protect the other girl's clothing. "I will be being careful, then," she said, wanting to say more but not having the words. Pulling back, she looked curiously at the food. "You are making this?" she asked, trying to identify the item

Marie nodded, both in response to Yvette’s question and her saying she would be careful. "Fried chicken, potato salad, biscuits, okra and some peach pie for dessert," she said, gesturing to each item as she named it. Handing Yvette a plate, she smiled. "Ah’m not quite the chef Lorna is, but Ah’m not half bad at Southern cooking." She began serving the younger girl, continuing to talk as she did. "Ah’m not from as far away as you, but Ah’m not from around here either."

"Thank you, for being making this for me." Yvette's eyes glowed a little more brightly in lieu of a smile and she carefully balanced the plate on her knees. "In my country, biscuits are being sweet," she observed, sounding amused. "Where are you being from?"

"Ah’m from Mississippi. It’s why Ah’ve got this little drawl when Ah talk." Quickly serving herself, she gestured to Yvette to dig in. "Sweet biscuits seem so strange to me. In the South, biscuits are always flaky and usually served with gravy." She smiled as a memory bobbed to the surface. "The first time the professor offered me a biscuit to go with some hot tea, Ah remember thinking it was the strangest combination for an afternoon snack. " She poured a cup of lemonade for Yvette and then one for herself.

Cutlery was still semi-impossible, so Yvette pulled off one glove with her teeth and carefully skewered a chunk of potato from the salad. Tasting it, she made an appreciative noise. "It is being very good," she said, and then ducked her head. "I am sorry to being rude, eating with my... fingers." She settled for the usual word, even if she had trouble believing the new shape sometimes. "When are you coming here, to the school, Miss Marie?"

"Most Southern food is made to be finger food,” she said with a wink and she peeled off a glove and picked up a piece of chicken. Taking a bite, she used the time it took to chew to figure out how to answer. "Ah came here to learn about my power and to be safe. Ah left for a bit," she said, carefully leaving out the reason, "and came back to teach and go to college nearby."

"You are not being safe away from the school?" Yvette asked, thinking of Tommy and his reluctance to leave the school grounds. She wasn't sure of the reason why, but given he'd been part of an anti-mutant group and was now a mutant, it wasn't hard to figure out the generalities. Being a mutant was far more complicated than she could have imagined.

"It was different before," she said reassuringly. "When Ah first found out Ah was a mutant, things got complicated for a bit. But Logan and the X-Men found me and helped me." She took a long drink from her lemonade, as those memories also rose to the surface. Pushing them away, Marie did her best to smile soothingly at Yvette. "Now Ah go off school grounds all the time, for school, for shopping, just to visit with friends in the city."

"Logan..." Yvette tried to put a face to the name. "I am not sure I am meeting him yet. He is being your rescue friend?" She tried the chicken, carefully slicing off some of the meat and popping it in her mouth. It was very good. "Like Paige is being for me?"

"Logan is indeed my ‘rescue friend’,” she said, tickled by the girl’s phrasing. "He is a gruff, furry guy who is usually wandering around with a scowl on his face or popping out a claw," she said. Marie’s face was very solemn, but her eyes twinkled as she winked at Yvette. "Don’t tell anyone, but he’s really just a big teddy bear."

Claw? Yvette squeaked a little as she realised Marie's 'big teddy bear' was the same... person who she'd fought with in the woods. "I think I am being a bad girl," she whispered, dropping her eyes to her lap. "I am being hurting your friend, in the woods. He made fright... made me afraid," she corrected, remembering Tommy's phrasing. "And I was attacking him. He seemed so..." She searched for the word in English, and failed. "I am sorry."

"Oh sugah, don’t worry. " She reached out and brushed her gloved hand against the red girl’s shoulder. "You’re not a bad girl. He can be a little scary. " Ok, so that was an understatement. "And he heals, so you don’t even have to worry…he doesn’t stay hurt."

"Is this why he was not bleeding when I am making cut to him?" Yvette asked, unconsciously leaning into the touch a little. She missed that, people reaching out to her - even with the special clothes, there was so much need for caution. "He was to be talking Serbian, and I was being so confused... I was thinking I was back in Kosovo, being a little girl and hiding with my mother again. I did not want to be hurt, so I make fight with him."

Marie noticed the girl’s reaction to her touch and felt a pang of understanding. It still surprised her when people didn’t hesitate to touch her, even through her clothes. If her eyes glistened for a moment, it was barely noticeable. "Ah’ve only seen him bleed a couple of times..." Yeah kid, when you took my powers. Her eyes widened very slightly, but she kept talking. "Ah can understand why you reacted the way you did if you’d been hurt before. It’s perfectly natural to feel that way when you’ve been through a traumatic situation. "

"I would be saying sorry to him, only..." Yvette squirmed a little. "I am being afraid of him still. He is being so angry. But I do not wish to be... how you say? Butt monkey? Like Kyle. I have been doing wrong and I should be making right."

Marie coughed as she choked on the large bite of potato salad she had taken right before Yvette had used Kyle’s phrasing to describe her behavior. "What you did and what Kyle did aren’t quite the same. And you might want to say, um, you know Ah actually can’t think of another word for that…nevermind. If you want to talk to Logan, you could always take someone with you so it wouldn’t be so scary…or you could just send him an email.” She smiled at the girl. “Ah don’t really think you need to apologize for being scared, but if you want to, you should find a way that won’t get you to be frightened again.

Yvette considered the options. An email could be a good idea... she could make the apology without hiding in the nearest closet. "Would you be helping me, Miss Marie? In the writing of the email? My English is not so good and I would not want him to be not understanding what I am wanting to be telling him." A thought occurred to her. "Mr. Logan, he is being like the Heffalump, but I will be brave and be doing the right thing."

Marie suddenly knew exactly what she’d be getting Logan for Christmas. "You are very brave indeed. Ah’d be more than happy to help you. But first, why don’t we finish our little picnic and enjoy the fresh air for a few minutes more?

Oh, Yvette certainly didn't have problems with delaying contacting Scary Mr. Logan. "I am liking that plan very much," she agreed, and started giving the food the concentration it deserved."