xp_logs | Kurt and Yvette, Friday afternoon

Kurt finds Yvette in the treehouse, offers some advice and manages to divert her quite successfully from the loss of Attilan.

Since Attilan had disappeared, Yvette had been spending more time outside. Not hiding - she knew better than that these days - but certainly not going out of her way to associate with people. There was too much in her head and in her heart, and not enough words or gestures to express it. Today was no exception - she was perched in the doorway of the treehouse, letting her legs dangle and chipping half-heartedly at a chunk of wood. Logan's advice about momentos had been a little premature, but doing something helped a little. And Laurie had taken the other refuge of kitchen busy-work.

Kurt had been looking for her, and not finding her in any of the usual places inside the house, came outside. He appeared at the foot of the tree in due course, looking up. "Yvette?"

"Hello, Mr. Sefton," she replied, with a brief flare of her eyes that died away too quickly. The crushing grief of immediately after had gone, leaving behind a kind of dull ache, and she was finding it hard to react to anything. Shock, Dr. Samson had said, shock and a sense of being overwhelmed. "Are you wanting to be coming up? I think it is being strong enough."

"I will come up, yes. But there is no need to test the strength of the treehouse, when there are branches." The next moment, he was standing in the doorway beside her, precariously, but immediately leapt to hang from a nearby sturdy branch.

That got a reaction, another brightening of her eyes. "You are still being the acrobat, yes?" she offered, setting aside her carving. It wasn't much more than a block of wood with a few shavings removed.

The purpose of the small display had been to divert her, however little, and he was glad to see the reaction. "I will always be an acrobat", he told her solemnly.

"It is... how you say? The calling, yes?" she asked, sounding a little less listless. There was still a somehow sad cast to her frozen features, and she idly ran a talon over the leg of her bodysuit, watching the cloth shred and reknit.

"That is right", he agreed with a slight smile. "I was raised to believe that special talent, whatever its source, should not be wasted... and, well, I love it."

"It is being good, to have such a thing." Yvette sounded wistful, watching Forge's miracle cloth repair itself. Speaking of callings... he'd been so pleased to see it work. At last she looked up at Kurt, gave him a little shrug. "I am sorry. I am not so much the good company today."

"I understand", he said quietly. "I did not expect it of you. But it is not always good to be alone at times like these."

"No, I am supposing it is not." Yvette looked down at her swinging feet, sighing a little. "I miss them," she said softly. "I know that these things can be happening and people are dying, but... I cannot understand why it must to be my friends."

"Everyone who dies has been someone's friend", Kurt told her gently, careful not to let the words sound harsh, even if the truth was. "But it is always hard to understand when they are yours. And to accept."

She nodded, eyes dimming a little. "I am knowing this," she said. "But to be accepting... yes, it is being very hard." She looked up at Kurt again, and admitted: "With my map, that Miss Maximoff is to be giving me, I am taking away the pin for Attilan. Because it is not being there any more."

Kurt nodded. "That is your choice, of course. But, perhaps... you might find some other way to mark where it once was? I do not think you want to forget, after all."

"Perhaps," she echoed. "I will not be forgetting so easily, I am thinking, but it is being... too hard, at this moment, to remember. The engagement is the happy thing - why are we not being able to have the happy things with there not being something bad to happen?"

"It is not always that way. Have you never had a happy thing that was not spoiled by anything else?" It was meant to nudge her memory more than anything.

"Since I am coming to the school?" Yvette had to think about it for a long moment. "The trip to be ice climbing, with Mr. Dayspring?" she said at last, almost hesitantly. "And the trip to Hungary, to be meeting Mr. Barath. But was to be sad also, because it is the memorial for the bombings."

"The ice climbing trip", he said encouragingly. "And meeting Mr. Barath counts, whatever the reason for you both being there was, if you enjoyed it."

"He was the very nice man." Her eyes brightened a little at the recollection. "And he was not being afraid of me." Forge and Medusa both had been at that meeting, she remembered, and Crystal had been on the ice climbing trip. But they were good memories, nonetheless. "Mondo and I were to be racing when we are climbing. He is winning, but I am not minding, because he is my friend."

"That is a good way to look at it", he said with a faint smile. "Among friends, it does not matter who does better."

"Because we are all being good at something." Even if she hadn't figured her thing out yet. "I like to be talking to you, Mr. Sefton," she went on, suddenly shy. "It is always to be making me feel better."

The smile grew at that. "I am glad, Yvette. It is why I came out to find you, after all - even if I can only do a little."

"It is not such a little thing." She ducked her head again, but this time because she was embarrassed. "Maybe, if you are not being busy, we could go for the walk?" she suggested, hopefully. "It is being not so hot in the woods."

"I am not busy." He swung idly from his branch for a moment. "How are your foxes?"

"They are good. They are to be growing very quickly. It is being harder to sneak up on them now, because they are very clever." Yvette pulled her gloves back on and prepared to climb down the ladder. She could use her powers, but she didn't want to hurt the tree. She liked this tree; it was old and shady and comfortable. "But there are many other things in the woods also, if you are to be looking. Kyle is showing me where the frogs are to live, and sometimes he is catching them. But not to be hurting them, just for the practice."

"Perhaps you could show me these other things too, then", Kurt suggested, waiting for her to get a good way down the tree, then following - not with powers, because it wasn't necessary and there was no huge need for speed.

"I would be liking that." As he reached the ground, she reached for his hand, taking it in one of her gloved ones. A small, almost casual gesture, but one that took a lot more courage than Kurt would even know. "This way."