Mondo and Yvette - Apples and Muppets and Being Brave, O My!

[x-mondo.livejournal.com]

Mondo has taken it upon himself to turn Yvette's frown upside down. So he brings Muppets and food and talk of bravery and their futures. Set after dinner.



Mondo, DVD in one hand and his newly-recovered stuffed Kermit in the other, went to go find a certain Apple Ninja of his acquaintance. Now that everybody was back and coming as close to normal as they ever came he figured it was time to do something fun and nice for a change. Get rid of the last icky stress and let their collective hair down. So, remembering to knock for once, there he was at Yvette's suite door.

Yvette herself was at her desk, catching up on the work she'd missed. "Please to be coming in?" she called out, laying aside the over-sized pen with the padded grip she used to handwrite with. She would have thought it was Laurie, only Laurie wouldn't have knocked, living there as she did.

Mondo opened the door and walked in with his usual Big Smile on his face. "Oh, good. I was hoping I'd catch up with you here." he said, showing her the DVD she'd bought him. "Oh, you're working." he said. "I was going to ask if you wanted to watch some Muppets with me. Figure with everybody back safe-and-sound it's OK to enjoy ourselves again, do something fun."

"Fun is being good, yes," she told him rather solemnly, her face still too hardened to actually smile. "I am being almost finished, Mondo. I can be watching the DVD with you, if you are liking - I can be finishing later."

"OK! Tell you what. If you can, why don't you go ahead and get everything set up. I'll make a quick run down to the kitchen." he said. "I understand that Miss Rahne stopped at a farmer's market today and got some fresh right-out-of-the-tree apples..." he said temptingly. "Or I can set everything up and we'll go down together, get a snack. Sound good?" he asked cheerfully.

Yvette looked at the DVD and then at her hands, the talons still wickedly long. "I think it is being easier if you are being setting up, Mondo," she said reluctantly. "But I can be bringing the snack when you are doing that?" Her eyes flared brighter. "I can be finding you the Spam, for the sandwich?"

"The Spam would be delicious right now." he said with a laugh. "Go ahead. I'll get set up here. Kermit will save you a spot." he said, showing her the doll. He ambled over to the entertainment center and got everything turned on and the DVD in and the stupid credits and the impressive-looking FBI warning skipped past. Then, once everything was all set, he put his beloved rescued-from-his-power Kermit on the couch cushion next to him.

About ten minutes later, Yvette reappeared, holding a basket - it was easier for her to manage than a tray. Inside were half-a-dozen apples, several sandwiches (Spam for Mondo, tomato for herself), cookies in a ziplock bag and a bottle of milk. "Miss Dani is being there, for to be helping me," she said, sounding rather more cheerful than she had in a long time. "She is saying we are to be having the picnic, with the basket, so there is much the food."

"A pick-a-nick basket!" he said in a very, very strange voice. "Excellent!" he added, in his normal tone. "Come on, hop up. We have Muppety goodness to watch!" he laughed. He snatched his Kermit out of her spot so she had a place to park herself.

She blinked at him, then placed the basket on the coffee table and went to get two tumblers before joining him on the couch. "You are liking the birthday present then, yes?" she asked, curling up with the usual careful gesture to make sure she wouldn't cut the fabric up.

Mondo nodded. "The Muppet Show is, as my suitemate might say, made out of awesome." he said with a laugh. "Just the thing when you're getting over an extended bout of the scaries, eh?" he said, pressing PLAY.

"To be laughing is good, yes. The friends being home and safe is also to be good." Yvette reached for the basket. "You can be to be pouring the milk, please?" she asked, sounding a little resigned. "It is being to be difficult for me now."

"Sure." he said, and poured her a tall glass of milk. "Do me a favor and cut up one of those apples for me? It'd be good with the Spam." he said, digging his way through the basket for the Holy of Holies after handing Yvette her cup. On the screen, Scooter was being given endless amounts of grief by Kermit.

Taking a sip of her milk, Yvette set it aside and grabbed an apple, before carefully stripping off one glove. It was the work of moments to cut it into pieces for Mondo, and she handed it over to him with the gloved hand. A small giggle escaped her as Miss Piggy appeared, declaring her undying love for 'Kermie'.

"PIGGY!" he said, clapping his hands in glee and managing not to make applesauce. Then he took a slice of apple and crammed it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully and enthsiastically.

Yvette got an apple for herself, cutting off individual pieces and nibbling at them. Eating was always something she had to remind herself to do when her skin was as hard as this, and whilst the Muppets and company were doing much to cheer her up, she was still far too thoughtful. "Mondo," she said eventually. "Are you being scared, that the bad things will happen?" she asked at last, during a lull during the special musical guest spot.

Mondo stopped for a moment to give that question the full weight of thought that it deserved. "Sometimes." he admitted. "But I have faith." he added after a moment. "In my friends, in the staff, in this place and what we're trying to do here. Sure, it gets scary out there. Really scary. And sometimes bad things happen. But this place - you, me, everyone - we're all special." he mused.

"Sometimes there are being so many bad things, it is being hard to remember that there are being good things too. But I am having the friends, and you are being right, this is the special place." She sliced off another chunk of apple, spearing it on the tip of her talon. "And we are being here to be learning to be bigger than the bad things."

Mondo just grinned at her, then synched to his necklace so he could ruffle her stationary and quite spiky hair. "There's always good things in your life. Sometimes it gets hard to see them and hard to bring them to mind, but they're always there. I have pictures, little things to remind me." he told her.

"Like the pictures of your family?" she asked. "I am having the map, that Miss Maximoff is giving to me." Her eyes brightened at the hair ruffle. "I am having the pins showing where all my friends are being from."

"See? There you go." he said. "That's exactly it. The little things that make you smile, that bring to mind the good times. That's what we could all use." he said firmly. "OOH!" he exclaimed to the TV set. "PIGS! IN! SPAAAAAAAACE!" he intoned in time with the announcer.

Yvette couldn't smile, but she could laugh. And she could join in with Mondo as he quoted and sang along with the television.

The episode came to an end as Mondo had finished off his apple and was about to bite into his delicious Spam sandwich. "I love this show. It makes me laugh, it makes me smile, and it's deliciously silly." he said. "Sure, it's childish, but what's wrong with being childish for a while, hrm? The real world will suck me in soon enough. I'm gonna enjoy ducking it for as long as I can."

"It is strange. You are being wanting to stay the child, and I am being wanting to not be treated like one," Yvette mused. "But you are being right - it is good to not be the grown up all the time."

"Don't get me wrong - there's a time when you need to step up and be very, very serious. Like when our friends got kidnapped." he said. "But there's no harm in a little silly to break some tension, to make somebody smile again." he added. "Mainland Americans are so serious, so in a hurry all the time. People need to slow down, relax some, yah?" he said, sounding uncannily like Wakka from Shiro's Final Fantasy game.

Yvette made a small snorting noise, missing the reference completely. "I am being thinking the Americans are being too... how you say? Not formal? In the classroom, they are being so loud, and not being listening to the teacher. It is being very strange. I am thinking I must be seeming to be very serious to you."

Mondo just had to laugh at that. "it's just the way you are." he said, ruffling her hair again. "You feeling better now?" he asked as Waldorf and Statler heckled from their balcony. "Things got pretty scary for you." he said sympathetically. "I understand. It's hard, when people you're friends with disappear just because they are different but want to be just like everyone else."

"I was being very scared and worried, yes," Yvette replied softly, eyes on the screen, not on Mondo. "Because I am knowing that there are being very bad people who are wanting to hurt people like us. It is happening to me, and Jennie and Marius, they are finding me. I... am not knowing how to be helping, and so I am hiding. It is very hard to be brave." Then she shrugged a little. "I am being trying to be better."

"You're, what, fourteen? Fifteen? You don't have to be brave all the time." he pointed out around bites of his sandwich. "Some people are, some people aren't. You have time yet to learn to be brave, to stand up. If you slip and fall, we'll be there to help pick you back up."

"Almost to be fifteen," Yvette replied, with a sigh. Too old to be hiding under the bed with a stuffed toy. "Many people are being telling me this, that it is not being needed to be brave, but I cannot be helping the other people if I am not. And that is what I am wanting to be doing. Helping the people, like the X-Men are being."

Mondo hrmmed at that, and finished off his sandwich before speaking again. "Maybe the Professor or one of the other teachers can help you. To be brave, to stand up tall when you decide it is the right time to. I wish I could, but I don't know what to tell you."

"I am being seeing Dr. Samson. He is being good to being talking at. He is helping me to be not so scared." Yvette sighed. It was a topic she had gone over many times in the last week, and it seemed no-one was able to give her actual answers. Dr. Samson was right - she had to find the answers for herself. "What are you wanting to do when you are being the grown-up, Mondo?"

"I really don't know." he admitted. "I was thinking I might want to teach. Or maybe go into wrestling like my cousins - if my knee can withstand it. How about you? You said you wanted to help people - any ideas as to how?"

Yvette shook her head. "I am not being sure. I wanting to be working with the Red Cross or the Amnesty International - to be helping the people in the places where things are being bad. Perhaps with Mr. Dayspring's Elpis group - I am liking to be the helper there."

Mondo nodded to that. "That's cool." he said with a grin. "If I don't go into wrestling I think I want to work with kids." he said definitively. "That'd be really cool."

"The wrestling is only being as long as you can be doing it," Yvette pointed out. "To be a teacher, or to be helping children... that is for always."

Mondo nodded at that. "Which is why I might do both. Wrestle for a few years, then go into teaching back home." he said. "We'll see. I don't have decide for a while yet."

"It is being the long time, yes," Yvette agreed. "There is the high school to be finishing first, yes?"

"Pretty much. And you have an assignment to finish, and we have stuff that needs to be disposed of." he said. "The Muppets will keep."

"Mr. Haller is thinking I may have to be doing the summer school, to be catching up," Yvette admitted. "So it is best for me to be studying, yes." She sounded regretful, though. "Thank you for to be watching the Muppets with me, Mondo. It is being nice, to be laughing."

Mondo grinned at her. "Any time." he said, ruffling her hair again. "And next time you feel scared and want to go hide until it's all gone? Come and find me. Maybe we can be brave together, hrm?" he asked with a grin.

Yvette nodded. "I will be remembering this, yes. Thank you, Mondo." She patted his arm. "It is being good to be having a friend to be helping me not be afraid."

"That's one of the things friends do." he told her, patting her arm in return.