Kyle, Yvette - Saturday evening

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

As arranged in these emails, Kyle takes Yvette out to see the fox cubs.




Despite it being the start of spring, it was still too chilly for Kyle to go barefoot outdoors yet. Shoes made it harder to move quietly, but not impossible, but since they kept his feet from freezing off, he'd put them on. Reluctantly.

He sat on the steps of the back patio re-tying the laces on his disreputable-looking Converse sneakers while waiting for Yvette. Even with the chill, he'd not bothered with socks and his toes poked through the ripped-out tips of the shoes.

There was the soft sound of the backdoor closing behind him, the muffled sound of sock covered claws on the wood of the back porch and then Yvette appeared next to him, a broad smile on her face. "Hello!" she chirped at him.

"Hey you." Kyle said, tying the last knot in his shoes. He glanced up at the sky, where the sun was just starting to set. "I dunno how your night vision is, but we should have enougn time to get to see them before it gets real dark. Getting back in the dark's easier. We don't have to be so quiet and sneaky."

"It is being a little easier to be seeing in the dark, but I am having to be careful with my eyes being glowing." Yvette sat down beside him to pull off her socks. "But I can be being careful."

"Can be." Kyle corrected absently. "Be and being are the same word, so you only need one of them." He sat quietly while Yvette took off her socks, taking in the evening air and sounds. "It's too bad sunglasses would mean you couldn't see. It'd cover up the glow. But I don't think it'll be a problem tonight. The foxes'll be more upset by noises then lights anyway."

Once Yvette had her socks off, Kyle stood up, leading the way to one of the underused paths in the woods, shortening his stride so as not to lose Yvette.

Stuffing her socks and then her gloves into the sleeve of her leotard, Yvette scampered after him, using her hands almost as much as her feet. "Thank you for be... for taking me," she said, trying to remember the right verb conjugation. Kyle was good at telling her where she was getting things wrong.

"You're welcome. This stuff is neat to share, so I don't mind at all." Kyle said. He ducked down as he walked, to avoid a low (for him) hanging branch. He reached back to lift it up out of Yvette's way, and then gave her a grin as he realized it wasn't at all necesary. "See, everybody tells me being tall is awesome, and I gotta say, blocking Forge in basketball is a plus, but you don't get smacked in the face with dead leaves, so I think you win."

She giggled. "Ah, but you can be reaching the cookie jar in the kitchen, yes?" she pointed out. "There is the good for both, I am thinking." The cool damp earth underfoot didn't bother her - in fact, she found herself wriggling her toe-talons in pleasure, not having to worry about scratching something she shouldn't.

At the point where the path turned into barely a worn place in the leaves and dirt, Kyle paused, frowning. "Crap. Usually I go up from here. I didn't think of that.." He looked up, gauging the branches and the distance from them to the ground, and then the path ahead thick with brush and tangle. "I can't go through the brush. I just crash around like a buffalo or something."

"Buff... oh, you are meaning the big hairy cows, yes?" Yvette considered the tree - she could climb, but not as well as Kyle, and the first branches were horribly high up. "I am being good at being quiet in the brush," she mused. "Perhaps if... how you say? You are taking the high road, and I am taking the low?"

"I can do that. I can stay low enough that if you run into anything that gets you stuck, I can hear and drop down or something." Kyle said. He pointed ahead to where in the distance, there was a tree stump, and a small clearing. "The fox den is just past that, and the last time, I dropped down onto the stump. Meet me there?"

Yvette nodded, her eyes gleaming bright blue for an instant. There was plenty of cover, and she'd been practicing moving silently. And if she moved stealthily enough, she might just even surprise Kyle at the meeting place. "I will be seeing you soon yes," she replied, before melting into the bushes with only the slightest of rustles.

Almost before Yvette disappeared, Kyle crouched down, fingertips almost touching the ground and leapt up, catching the branch and swinging up to it. He pulled himself up to stand on the branch and kept going up, crossing from branch to branch, mostly in single leaps, and occasionally swinging from tree to tree like an overly large monkey.

Yvette loved the woods. She didn't have to be on her guard all the time, she could (potentially) go without any of Forge's magical self-repairing cloth (although modesty meant she didn't) and it was quiet; sometimes the mansion was just too overwhelming. So she spent at least an hour every day, roaming the grounds, seeing just how quietly she could move, creeping up on the deer and rabbits. So it was she reached the stump Kyle had indicated far more quickly than the last time they'd been out in the woods together, moving like a shadow. Only her eyes gave her away, and she tried to keep as much undercover as she could, so the foxes wouldn't be disturbed.

Not much longer after Yvette reached the stump, a soft rustling of leaves was heard, and then Kyle dropped out of the tree, first hanging from a low branch by his knees, and then letting go to flip in midair and land in a crouch atop the stump with a very muffled 'whump'. as the only sound accompanying the fall.

It took him a moment to spot Yvette, and only then more by recognizing the girl's scent rather than seeing her in shadows. "You're getting good at that..." he said quietly.

There was a sudden flare of blue as her eyes brightened in pride at the praise, and then, very softly, Yvette asked: "The den... it is being close?"

"It isn't too much further." Kyle said, pointing ahead to where there was a group of trees clustered together tightly. "They're denning under the roots of the middle tree there. We have to go kind of around and there's a place to sit where we can watch for them."

Yvette nodded and let Kyle take the lead again, following him like a small, spiky shadow. As they reached the sitting place he'd mentioned, she dropped into an easy crouch, sitting on her haunches. Her eys glowed softly with expectation as she watched the spot Kyle indicated.

By comparison, Kyle was lying down on his stomach, ignoring the leaves and dirt. Even sitting, he made a distinct profile against the trees and brush, and lying down meant, he hoped, that the foxes would have less of a chance to notice him.

He wondered sometimes if his mutation made it easier to be patient about this kind of thing. He knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt that he wasn't patient about most things, but sitting and waiting around for a couple of fox cubs to poke their noses out didn't bother him.

Sure enough, after almost ten minutes of waiting and sitting silently, the pair of cubs peered out of the den. They still had most of the greyish-brown fur they had been born with, instead of the vibrant red of their parents, keeping them slightly hidden in the shadows. "There they are.." Kyle said, almost whispering.

"Oh!" It wasn't so much a word as an exhalation of delight, and Yvette ducked her head lower, to shield the inevitable eye glow behind the bushes. A smile crept across her face as she watched one, then the other cub, creeping slowly and carefully out of the den. They didin't go far - just enough to show themselves, really, but it was enough. "They are being so small!" she whispered, almost too soft for anyone but the hearing enhanced to hear.

Kyle nodded. "They can't be more than a month old. They only just started coming out of the den last week." He bit back a laugh watching one of the cubs pounce on something - probably a bug or blown leaf. It was funny, but if he was loud, the cubs would retreat back into the den.

"They are being very cute!" she responded, hands clasping in front of her as she watched the two cubs playing, leaping among the sprouting grass and leaves. Then there was a short barking noise, and the mother fox appeared at the mouth of the den, warning her cubs against going too far. Obediently, they came back to the den, nipping at each other at her feet as she sat and sniffed the wind for intruders. Yvette went very still.

Kyle froze, flattening against the ground until the mother fox went back inside the den, and the cubs followed. "Her mate will be back soon, probably. We might want to head back. Foxes won't attack anything as big as us unless we do something to them, but I don't think we want to keep him from bringing food back." He suggested.

"No, that would be bad," Yvette agreed solemnly. She glanced at Kyle, her smile broad and happy. "Thank you for being bringing me, Kyle."

"You're welcome." Kyle said, grinning just as broadly. "Any time you want to come out and see them, as long as I'm not up to my neck in homework, just ask." He sat up and brushed the leaves and dirt off his t-shirt. "And we can probably mark the path with something so you can find it on your own. Maybe tie something to some of the branches..."

"I think that is being a good idea. Sometimes the bushes, they are being looking the same, when you are being in them." Yvette giggled a little, and looked up at the darkening sky. "We should be going back, yes? It is being time for dinner soon." Her grin turned mischievous. "Last one is to being the slow poke, yes?"