xp_logs | Kyle and Crystal, this afternoon

x-wildchild.livejournal.com posting in

Catching Crystal as she's coming in from a flight, Kyle takes a few minutes to explain just why he was such a gigantic jerk for a few days, and why Sabretooth freaks him the heck out.

Crystal landed softly about twenty feet away from the mansion. It was time to go back to her room, time to go back to the crowded atmosphere that came from so many people sharing the same space. She didn't really want to, but she didn't really have much choice in the matter.

Even a few days on crutches and having to hobble around and stuck indoors had been too many for Kyle. Between that and the lingering feeling of restlessness from his dream-self being still in jail, he decided that he and the sky needed to get reacquainted. So he'd thrown on the battered and entirely disreputable Converse sneakers and his Red Wings jersey over his t-shirt, and headed for the back porch. He could just as easily review his notes outdoors as indoors.

Crystal was finished with her outdoors time but it looked like someone was about to start his. "Hello, Kyle," Crystal said as they met on their respective paths. "Having a good afternoon?"

"Better than my last couple, so yeah." Kyle said. He shifted the bookbag on his shoulder, and glanced up at the sky. "In from a flight?" He was guessing, because Crystal never looked windblown, not like Sam or Jay ever did, but she also flew a lot. Kyle figured it was like him and climbing. It's what she did.

Crystal nodded. "Yes, I like to go outside and fly after classes are over for the day. I like spending time outdoors, up high above the trees." She smiled a bit, shrugging lightly as she recalled that some people who were bound to the earth did not always understand or dismissed the explanation as whimsical. "The past couple of weeks have been rather... interesting."

Kyle grinned, nodding his agreement. "Yeah, I hear that. Interesting's... there's a chinese curse, you know? Live in interesting times. And I hear you on the outside and high up. I only get as far as the treetops, but it's -quiet- up there." He looked out towards the yard, and the trees, and then turned back towards Crystal. "Do you have a second? I said I'd explain that thing, with the cranky and then the not cranky."

"I do not have any pressing matters to attend to inside," Crystal said, nodding again. "I can stay outside." Noting his glance, she asked, "Do you wish to speak while in a tree? I can follow you. Anywhere you can climb, I can fly."

"Not this time, but thanks. Normally I'd be all for trees, but cold, plus tree trunks plus bare feet is a bad idea, even for me." Kyle pointed with his thumb towards his feet and the battered shoes he was wearing. "Do you wanna sit down? I don't know how long the explanation's gonna take." He hoped that she'd appriciate the attempt at politeness, even if he was probably screwing it up.

"I can heat the air around you if you would like me to do so," Crystal offered, not sure how he would respond to that. Her first thought of sitting was to sit in midair, then she decided against it and sat down on the steps, looking up at Kyle.

Kyle sat down as well, leaning against one of the posts for the porch rail. "I'm warm enough. Between growing up in Montana and the healing factor, cold doesn't bother me as much as other people." He grinned, and added, "Back home? This isn't even really considered cold." Then he grew more serious, and fidgeted for a moment. "Okay, you know about the Sabretooth thing, right?"

She was outside in a sleeveless, midriff baring outfit. There wasn't really any need to comment that the cold didn't bother her either, was there? Crystal nodded. "He attacked you."

Kyle nodded. "Yeah. And the first time, he made some comment about, uh..." Despite trying to fight it, Kyle went red with embarassment. "Well, about my mom. And, it was pretty bad. Crude, you know? And you know, I couldn't stop thinking about it. The guy's tall, like me, and we have almost the same mutation." He fidgeted with his hands absently, popping the knuckles. "And then I found out that the guy my mom's married too isn't my actual dad. So I kinda freaked."

"Oh!" Crystal didn't bother trying to hide her surprise. "So you thought... or you think... that he's... your father? I mean, just because he said things... Not all mutants who have mutant parents end up having the same type of mutation. No one in my family has the same mutation. He knew about you and your mother?"

"I.. don't know." Kyle said honestly. "He could've just been making crazy talk, being, you know, crazy. Or he could be my father. I'm gonna see about some DNA tests, because my mom won't talk to me about it, like, at all." Not that he blamed her, exactly. "And, well, I..." And Kyle went red-faced again. "This is stupid, but, I figured, if he was my father, I could end up like him. And I don't want to end up like that."

"Kyle... even if he is your biological father... even if you do have your mutation because you inherited it from him... that doesn't mean you have to be anything like him! That's not who you want to be, that's not who you are..." She shook her head. "I think you know that though, right?"

"Now? Yeah. Kinda anyway." Kyle answered quietly. "It's complicated. If he is, and he's nuts because of his mutation, it could be something I inherit. But.." He pointed towards the school. "Here, I'm better off if it is, because if I do start going all violent crazy, they can do something about it. I don't want to be like that. Not ever." He shuddered, remembering the fight with Sabretooth. "My mutation's a pain in the butt sometimes, but even so? I'm better off with it than without."

Crystal nodded, looking at Kyle. "Yes, but... you don't want to be like him. Even if you did go crazy, people here would know that wasn't really what you wanted. You're not raging around trying to hurt anyone right now, and the thought of being like that clearly makes you ill." She couldn't help wondering, though, if Sabretooth actually wanted to be the way he was, if he acted the way he did because he wanted to or because he felt compelled to do so. "I'm sorry that your mutation bothers you sometimes, but I'm glad that you are also open to seeing its benefits."

Kyle laughed, mostly at himself. "Yeah, it just took losing it to figure out that I actually liked being a mutant better than not being one. Sometimes I have to get the point beaten into me with a phone book." He shrugged, and ran a hand through his hair.

"A phone book?" Crystal looked at him quizzically. "Is this one of those times where I take a statement in literal terms but it means something else, or do you actually mean that you were beaten with a phone book?"

"Metaphorical phone book." Kyle explained. "Because of the phonebook everyone was looking things up in, and also, big heavy thing." He shrugged again. "But not as heavy as, say, a metaphorical anvil, or sledgehammer. Or Mr. Marko."

Crystal laughed lightly. "I see. Well..." she paused slightly, wondering if she should ask the question on her mind. "You said something about a DNA test, How are they going to do that? Did Sabretooth leave behind fur or blood or something they can use to compare your DNA with his?"

"I.. uh.." Kyle held up his hands, claws out. "This is why I freaked out. He attacked me, and I.. " He took a moment to breathe, obviously still upset by the encounter. "I clawed him up pretty bad. In, uh, the face. Eyes. It was under my claws when they brought me back." He pulled the claws back in, and shoved his hands in his pockets. "That's what they tell me anyway. Doctor Voight kinda pumped me fulla painkillers, so I don't remember much."

Crystal's eyes widened. OK, the imagery was definitely disgusting, but it made sense. When attacked, fight back, and fight the best way you can. "So, essentially, you beat the crap out of Sabretooth?"

Kyle barked a laugh, and shook his head. "I wish. He beat the crap out of me, I just hurt him enough so I could get away. But it freaked me out that I could even do that. I mean, it's one thing to know it, and it's another to do it and have some secret service guy asking you a bunch of questions about it."

Crystal smiled a bit. "Well, you still managed to defend yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. Just sitting there, knowing he is a killer, and just allowing him to hurt you... that would have been silly. I can't imagine having to sit through a barrage of questions by secret service." She knew she'd been lucky to avoid the questions that anyone else would have been asked had they thrown men out of a hotel window. Her parents had not wanted their young daughters to have to go through such a series of questions.

"I just... you know, I didn't want anyone to think that all I was was just a ... a mini Sabretooth. And, then, I didn't want anyone to get hurt if I was one." Kyle said. "I mean, if I did go snap-boing-psycho, I didn't want to hurt anybody, so I figured if everyone wasn't around, then when I did..." He shook his head. It had been a stupid idea. "So, that's why I was all crankypants at everyone."

After the weekend she'd just had, and her past two days of pretty much trying to avoid everyone in person and just allow herself to speak freely on the journals for the first time in over a month, the terms "snap-boing-psycho" and "crankypants" actually managed to get a smile and a laugh from Crystal. "Kyle, even if you did go all crazy for whatever reason, you still wouldn't be a mini-Sabretooth, and I don't think anyone here would think of you that way. Even if you did go, ah, psycho, you still wouldn't be a member of the Brotherhood taking orders from Magneto. You just said it yourself: you didn't want to hurt anyone."

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, that's what Doc Samson said, and what everyone's told me. I just don't wanna be ... just some violent nut, you know? Even if I know I'm not, I don't want anything to think I am!" He looked a little embarassed at how forceful his words came out, and added, sheepishly. "Sorry. I mean, for just now, and for in general this last week. Especally for the notes, 'cause you got them despite my being a jerk."

Humor was what people around here seemed to like, right? "Even jerks deserve a good education," Crystal said solemnly, then smiled. "You were going through a rough time, yes?. People seem to lash out at others or push people away when they are going through times of trouble." She so needed to talk to Lorna, try to get things out into the open. Enough was enough; their avoidance or partial avoidance or whatever it was now had gone on for far too long.

"Yeah. Doesn't mean I don't owe a bunch more people apologies though." Kyle said. "Thanks for letting me explain." He felt better, having it out there. And it was one down, about five or six more people to go.

Crystal nodded. "Thank you for being willing to explain it to me. I should probably go back inside now before Jennie tells me how much my hamsters missed me again. If you ever need someone to talk to again.." she shrugged lightly. "I never repeat anything told in confidence."

"It's easier to explain then just keep it all ... secrets. Bleh. Not a fan." Kyle explained. "Then people just ask more questions and try to come up with their own reasons. Also, not a fan." He stood up slowly, using the porch rail for a moment to support himself. The foot wasn't totally healed, and he was so -not- spending any more time in the infirmary then necessary. "I should attempt to get some homework.. " He stopped in mid-sentence, and reached into his jeans for his new phone, which was buzzing. "Hang on a second. I haven't totally figured this thing out yet."

Kyle flipped the phone open, and gave the text message on the screen a puzzled look. "Okkay. Well, Sam wants me to look at the journals, so I guess I'm going in too."