xp_logs | Log: Forge and Dani, Saturday afternoon

Backdated to Saturday afternoon - Dani and Forge run into each other while both trying to avoid certain parents roaming the school

It wasn't right for the school's administrative assistant to be hiding under her desk, but that's where Dani was along with a paper plate with a fresh salad on it. She hadn't had time to eat lunch and was starving and this had been the only place she had been able to get to quickly where she wouldn't be bothered while she ate it. This was ridiculous and a testament to how well the school was doing overall.

Forge stuck his head in the door quickly, and upon seeing the office empty, slid in and shut the door behind him. "Finally!" he breathed quietly, crouching down to lean against a filing cabinet with a plate of pie on his lap. "Some peace and quiet."

He was on his second bite when he noticed the feet sticking out from under the desk. "Um. Hello."

"Hey," Dani replied, scooting out from under the furniture. "Why're you hiding?" for the exact same reasons she was, but she had to tease him about it anyways. She wasn't hiding. She was eating her lunch in a less-trafficked area of the school. It was all about how things were phrased according to her last english teacher.

"I am not hiding," Forge insisted through a mouthful of pecan pie. "I'm simply doing the world a favor and NOT subjecting myself to more of Kyle's mother. I swear to God I'm going to hit that woman with a wrench."

"Don't be so hard on her, she's terrified," Dani chased the last bit of salad dressing on her plate with a cucumber slice before popping it in her mouth, "I hadn't expected to many people."

Forge nodded, leaning back and swallowing. "I suppose it's an eye-opener. Bringing people here who don't see this place as normal. We've become used to it. Flaming kids doing cartwheels in the hall, a jet under the basketball court, people kidnapped by ninja assassin cultists every third Tuesday, shit we should just sell tickets!"

"We could make t-shirts, 'I was kidnapped at Xavier's and all I got was this t-shirt'," Dani laughed. She had only been kidnapped the once, but it was more than enough. Being able to laugh about it was a good sign though.

Forge snorted, setting his empty plate on the floor. "They'd be the new school uniform at this rate. We could just hand them out pre-emptively at orientation."

Dani crawled out from under her desk completely, she didn't really fit under there, "I was here for over two years before I was kidnapped, ain't it?" she informed him as if that were an accomplishment, "Not wearing black leather and kevlar helps prevent that you know."

"True," Forge agreed, "but it helps with knowing what to do when the inevitable happens. And really, it's only inevitable if you put yourself in the path of it, and by doing so make it more... evitable for other people. Is evitable a word? Non-inevitable?"

He shrugged, lacing his fingers behind his head and stretching out on the office floor. "It's weird. When I was down in Florida with the Brotherhood, I became resigned to the fact that they'd kill me when I did what I was told. I accepted it as an inevitability. Then the X-Men came busting in to pull me out of there. Since then... I don't think I've ever doubted them. No matter how many times they come back bruised, broken, and bloody. They're the ones out there fighting the good fight, and taking the lumps that come with it."

"It's not that I doubt them or disagree, it's that...." how to put it? "This ain't the first time something like this has been tried. And it's never worked in the past and I don't want my friends in jail. Or worse." And the X-Men hadn't recused her when the girls had been kidnapped, they'd rescued themselves and then Cain had picked them up.

Forge shook his head, eyes still closed as he lay on the carpet. "Part of the price we accept for the life we lead. For every time these horrible things happen, look at the wonder of our lives. Here at the school, we're taking kids who sometimes have nowhere else to go, and helping them cope with who and what they are, and helping them find a place in the world. The X-Men save lives and change the world, in uniform and out. Anyone who makes that kind of impact, mutant or not, they're going to make some enemies."

He opened his eyes, watching the ceiling fan slowly rotate. "The option's to stand and fight, or run and hide. I believe in what we do. And I'm willing to take everything that comes with it - it's worth it. If I didn't... I'd go hide out at some college somewhere and pretend to live a normal life. But that's not me. I'm not that coward anymore."

"So then I'm a coward for not joining too?" Dani asked, her mouth set in a line, "Someone has to stay with the kids while everyone else is saving the world or too hurt in the medlab to teach. Not everyone has to be a nationally known hero in a costume."

"Not saying that," Forge explained. "But you're still here. You've seen how bad it can get. You've dealt with seeing some of the worst that can happen here... and here you still are. If you were a coward, you'd have walked by now. You'd have found something more important."

He sat up, one arm wrapped over his bent knee as he looked Dani in the eye. "There's any number of things I could be doing - things I could be immensely successful at. Pushing HeliX to bigger levels, going into business with my inventions, spending all my time on research. But this?" He gestured around at the walls of the mansion, "this is my vocation. This is what I think is important. And as long as they'll have me, I'm going to use what I can do to help."

Things weren't so black and white to Dani, for her this was more of a stepping stone to other things...once she figured out what those other things were. She was content with what she was doing, "I passed all my classes this past semester. I even made an A in digital literacy and research skills." She hadn't owned a computer when she had first arrived at the school and now she not only had a laptop but used computers every day for work and school as if it were no big deal.

"And that's ten kinds of awesome," Forge said with a nod, scooting around to sit next to the older girl. "Big step from when you first got here. Lot less of the crazy, too. Well, the personal in-your-head crazy as opposed to the life-in-general crazy."

"If you want, I could be crazy just for you, but I like the not-crazy me too," Dani teased, she had a lot on her plate, but she enjoyed it and she was rarely bored. "I guess everyone manages to adapt eventually."

"I know enough crazy," Forge said softly, patting Dani on the knee. "I like what sane I can get. So, I figure Kyle and his dad must have evacuated his mom by now, so it's probably safe out there. Feel up to braving the crowd?"

"I wasn't hiding. This is my office," Dani pointed out although that was exactly what she was doing. No need to admit it though, "but I think I could be nice to a few more parents."