Shiro & Marie, Monday evening

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Shiro offers Marie her first sushi experience, and it's very much not a date. She also lets him in on a little secret of hers.


"I find myself with a dilemma," Shiro said to Marie as she opened the front door to the suite she shared with Dani. "I require sushi to function, but do not want to try flying there yet, and I do not know how to drive. And I have had enough with public transportation. Therefore, you will drive me. And I know you want sushi, too, so it is a win-win situation, ne?"

She stared at the Japanese man for a minute before a giggle escaped her. "Or Ah could fly us and save the environment," Marie teased. "Just let me grab my coat." Slipping into a black peacoat, she shut the door behind her. As they walked down the hall, she cast a glance over at Shiro. "So you really want sushi, huh? No chance you're secretly in the mood for some fried chicken?"

Shiro rolled his eyes at her. "That trip down to Georgia last summer was enough American South to satisfy me for the rest of the decade. You can keep your food down there, too. If I ever have to so much as see grits again, then I am getting rid of Alabama. Possibly Tennessee, too, just for emphasis."

Marie shook her head as the pair entered the garage. "Okay, Alabama Ah understand, but Tennessee would just be plain mean. Imagine the mourning if you destroyed Memphis. Where would all the Elvis impersonators go on holidays?" Moving to stand by the bike, she pulled out the spare key she'd made the week after Logan showed her where he kept his key.

"Las Vegas?" suggested Shiro. "Oi, isn't that Mister Summers' motorcycle? And since when do you know how to ride it?" But he realized as he asked it that it was probably an unnecessary question. She had had Logan in her head, after all, and Scott too, for all he knew. Creepy.

"Nope, it's Logan's. He finally got his own. And Ah've been riding since my first year here." Ever since her first absorption of Logan, she'd developed a taste for riding bikes, but it wasn't something she'd done a whole lot of until recently. Tossing Shiro a helmet, she made a face as she put one. "Stupid mandatory helmet laws. One thing Ah hate about bikes is helmet hair." Straddling the motorcycle, she waited for Shiro to get on.

Shiro brushed back his hair before donning the helmet. "Maybe you should have kept your hair short," he suggested. He climbed on behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He realized that it was a good thing that she was sitting in front of him and that his face was covered. He must have been glowing red.

As soon as she felt the pressure around her waist, Marie leaned forward and set off towards the sushi restaurant. They arrived in much less time than it should have taken and Marie had a huge grin on her face as one booted foot hit the kickstand to steady the bike in place. Taking off the helmet, she ran one gloved hand through her hair to fluff it before tossing it over her shoulder. "Nah, Ah prefer it long."

"Me too. For me, I mean." Shiro shook his head when he pulled off the helmet, breathing some air into his newly long hair. "Logan showed this place to me last summer. I was surprised to see an authentic sushi restaurant in Westchester County of all places." Complete with tatami mats, even, but Shiro asked for a table for Marie's sake.

"Westchester has lots of little surprises like that," Marie said as she settled into her seat. Glancing over the menu, her cheeks paled a little as she read the descriptions of some of the rolls. "Some part of my brain just can't get over what sushi is even though Ah think Ah like it now."

A waitress came by to offer them tea and a bowl of small multicolored sliced pickles. Shiro greedily grabbed a purple one with his chopsticks and plopped it into his mouth, savoring the salty crunch. "Oishii," he crooned. "I suggest the eel. It is very soft and not too fishy."

Marie picked up her chopsticks and expertly grabbed a pickle, though she looked at it oddly before hesitantly sticking it her mouth. "Eel almost seems worse than fish," she said doubtfully after she finished chewing. "But Ah'll give it a try." Snagging another pickle, she paused with it in mid-air. "How's school going?"

Shiro shrugged and took another slice. "The term is almost complete, so I have three projects due within the next two weeks, and two final exams. My favorite time of year, really," he said wryly. "And you? Do they have you analyzing psychos yet? I mean, besides the other residents of the mansion.

She waited to answer until the waitress had taken their order. "You know, it's funny. Everyone in my abnormal psyc class was saying how the cases we were discussing suddenly made them feel like everyone they knew was normal. An' they all looked at me funny when Ah didn't pipe up and agree." Marie carefully balanced her chopsticks on her plate. "Don't think much of anything in our books can compare with the psychopaths Ah've seen or the level of crazy Ah've experienced myself."

"You need to write your own textbook, ne?" Shiro reached across the table to put Marie's chopsticks on the rest. "More couth this way," he said as he sat back in his own seat. "Mutant Psychology: an exploration of the next evolutionary stage of psychosis. You could get your doctorate for that."

"You know, maybe you're onta somethin' there," she said with a wry smile. "Though Ah think Ah've got something a bit different for my master's thesis. Ah've been doing some research on induced amnesia and there's not nearly as much out there as Ah woulda thought."

"Induced amnesia?" asked Shiro, raising an eyebrow questioningly. "Now whyever would you be interested in such a topic?" The waitress came by with their food, and Shiro couldn't continue to speak as his mouth was watering in anticipation of the long plank of nigiri sitting in front of him. "Itadakimasu."
"Ah was trying to see if there are more folks out there like Logan," she offered as an explanation. "Or about the kinds of things that were done to him. Turns out, he's pretty rare. Though it's also possible that there are a ton of top secret government files Ah can't get my hands on." Eyeing the piece of fish in front of her warily, she nodded at Shiro. "You first."

"So I figured." Shiro's eyes fluttered shut as he bit into a reddish pink slice of salmon. He didn't indulge in quality food often enough, he decided. Something that ought to change, medically prescribed recovery diet be damned. "Have you discovered anything about him?"

Picking up the piece that she assumed was the eel, Marie sniffed it before popping it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise as she savored the flavors in her mouth. "Not yet," she said, once she'd finished chewing. "But Ah'm gonna keep trying. In all that spare time Ah have between teaching, studying and saving the world."

"See? I told you that it's good," Shiro proclaimed proudly in between bites of squid. "Does Logan know that you are investigating this, or are you planning on surprising him?"

"Logan doesn't know. Ah didn't want to get his hopes up that Ah'd find something," she said with a shrug. "If Ah find somethin' important, he'll be the first to know." Carefully choosing a piece of yellowtail, she resisted the urge to poke it and see if started trying to swim away. How could something that should be so gross taste so good?

"~It's dead~," Shiro chided Marie in Japanese. "I have a weird question, but you do not have to answer it if it offends you. How much do you remember and feel from the people whom you touch? That is, are you enjoying your dinner yourself, or is that Logan or me?"

"Ah don't mind trying to explain, but Ah'm not sure how good an answer Ah can give," she said as she set the chopsticks down on the rest. "Technically, everything Ah get from an absorption is in there. But Ah'm not necessarily constantly accessing it. Bits of a person might slip in, especially if something happens to trigger them." Marie twirled a piece of white hair around her finger. "And a lot of depends on how long or how many times Ah've touched someone or how stressed Ah am at the time." Dropping her hand to her lap, she gave him an apologetic smile. "And Ah know that doesn't even begin to answer your question, so let's try the short version. There's probably a bit of Logan and you affecting my enjoyment of this, just the same as the penchant Ah got for fast things a few years ago. But it's still me having the experience." At least, it is right now.

Shiro carefully chewed and digested this bit of information, much like the tuna sashimi. "So do you ever become another person or feel strongly in a way that is not you? Anou, like, do you ever lust over Doctor Grey?" His grin faded. "Or wake up in the middle of the night sweating and aching?” Which was finally becoming less of a problem. Finally.

"Sometimes other people run the show, for bit," she said with a rueful smile. "Like after the Alcatraz mission. Ah'm still trying to get the cigar stink outta some of my clothes." And get the guts to go back to some of those bars. "An' sometimes Ah can just hear the folks Ah've absorbed commenting on this or that, though Ah pretty much ignore 'em."

"That could come in handy when you have an exam, ne? All those people up there reminding you about things that you might have forgotten . . ." Shiro paused and pondered this statement. "Actually, maybe not. They need psychiatric care, they cannot provide the answers."

"And they aren't always available," Marie said with a smile and a shrug. "Some days are quieter than others and Ah don't know that Ah could make one of them talk if they didn't want to. Certain folks don't like being helpful."

"Imagine that. Well, if it makes you feel any better, then I think that the me in your head would assist you if asked." Shiro felt a little uncomfortable going down this road of conversation (even if he had been the one to bring it up), especially given the circumstances and mechanism of his "introduction" to her. The thought of how that had come to be made Shiro turn red, and his teacup was too small to hide behind.

"Thanks," Marie said as she studiously ignored Shiro's flaming cheeks. Picking up her chopsticks, she shoved a piece of squid in her mouth. After she chewed and swallowed, she glanced over at Shiro's now less heated cheeks. "So what's that one?" she said pointing to an extremely colorful roll on the platter between the pair.