xp_logs | LOG: [Dani, Haller]: Incidental bonding

Dani and Haller catch up in that bastion of social convenience, the kitchen.

The nights were just beginning to get a bit of a bite to them when Dani went on her morning run and that meant it was just about chili time. Instead of working on her classwork, Dani was standing over a simmering pot of what would become chili. Already the kitchen smelled of spices. In the oven were several trays of corn bread baking, both sweet and savory cornbreads. It was a rule that chili required corn bread.

"That looks good," Jim commented as he let himself in. He closed the porch door quietly, though there was little point. Mere wood could not withstand the shrieking of the only slightly unseasonable super-soaker fight going on outside. Scuffing his docs on the mat, Jim nodded towards the pot. "Planned meal, or just feel like it?"

"It's that time of year. This is the meat batch, the blue kettle is vegetarian," she replied, tasting a little off the spoon. "Here, tell me what it needs," she held the spoon out towards Haller, one hand cupped underneath to catch any drips.

The counselor shifted his sketchpad to the opposite hand and moved up to the counter obediently. "Vegetarian? That's good. I'm sure Karolina will appreciate it . . . mm." Jim took a taste of the chili, still warm on the wooden spoon. He licked his lips, trying to remember anything Lorna had attempted to impart about proper seasoning and failing miserably. "Maybe some pepper," he hazarded under the assumption that stronger was better, "but really, it tastes good. How's your new semester going?"

"Pretty good," Dani tasted the chili again and added some pepper and a touch more paprika, "It's easier now that my powers are kinda under control, ain't it? What about you?" she wasn't sure what he'd been up to recently, but she was pretty sure it wasn't anything that had made his brain leak. That would be bad.

"Not bad. Except for starting the year with that rafting accident, anyway. I may take a shot at night classes again next semester. Which means something unspeakable's going to happen, but that won't be anything new." The tall man migrated to grab a plate and a good-sized knife from the rack before tucking the pad under his arm. Holding plate and knife haphazardly in one hand, he opened the refrigerator and fished a pomegranate out of the fruit drawer. He deposited all his acquisitions on the kitchen table, sat down and placed the fruit on the dish.

"How are you doing lately, anyway?" he asked, setting the knife against the bulby protrubance on the fruit and slicing down with a solid thunk. "Powers-wise, I mean. Laurie's been having a rough time lately, and it can be a little contagious. Are you doing okay with that?" End cut, he began to draw the knife down the side of the pomegranate in quarters. He wasn't sure how much interaction Dani had with the girl on a regular basis, but she was one of the students' RAs and he had to wonder what happened when you mixed an empath with a pheromone-based projector.

"Any particular major?" she asked, intrigued. Picking her own major had been obvious, business administration, but she was curious why others picked theirs.

There was a reason there were two RAs and only one was an empath. Pheromones and empathy did not mix well. "I'm...okay," she said, checking on the cornbread in the oven, "Been having more dreams recently," when stressed, she tended to have nightmares and when she lost control of her powers the nightmares tended to come alive and invade other peoples dreams. She was no where near that point, thank goodness. "Ain't gonna lose control though."

"I major in Psychology, specializing in trauma therapy. Approximately. 'Psychic counseling' isn't a popular field yet. The plan is that eventually I'll be licensed to treat people rather than just volunteer." Jim split the scored pomegranate open with a wet snap, exposing the white pulp and shining red seeds. Red juice glistened on his fingertips. He examined them for a moment, then stuck his fingers in his mouth and wiped them on the side of his jeans. He reached for his sketchpad.

"What sort of dreams do you have?" Jim asked, his tone not changing a beat. A page of paper folded back and the pencil began to work.

"Are you asking as Haller or as Dr. Haller, head shrinker extraordinaire?" Dani asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. Not that it mattered entirely, head shrinkers and friends were both things that Dani made use of. Friends were just more fun.

Shrugging, Dani headed to the fridge to see what cheeses they had, "Good dreams actually. Which I never have. Ever," she saw fears, not hopes. Seeing hope actually unnerved her just a little.

Jim had snorted softly at the question of what he was asking the question as, largely because he'd probably have a much better social life if he'd ever managed to differentiate. Still, an eyebrow raised at her revelation. "Never?" he asked, briefly looking up from the pomegranate and sketchpad. "That's kind of weird. Has it always been like that, or was it a manifestation thing?"

Dani shrugged, trying to think. It had been a while, her powers had manifested well before she had arrived at Xavier's, but never as strongly as they were now. Part of that she suspected was that she'd lived in a much more rural area where there were less minds, and less trauma, to wander across unconsciously in addition to the more common maturation of abilities, "Since I was a teenager, I guess," she said. "Maybe 14 or so. They don't much scare me anymore."

"Huh. Well, I guess that makes sense given your power's emphasis." The eraser tapped against Jim's chin. "Do you think the fact you're having good ones now might be a control thing, or a personal thing?"

"It's unnerving," It didn't seem to be a control issue, whether she was controlling her powers or not, she always drifted towards fear and she wasn't doing anything differently. "It could be personal," she allowed, momentarily sidetracked, "but why now? Ain't nothing different in my life than normal."

"It's not always a sudden change. Sometimes it's just because you've got to a place where you feel . . . . safe. The brain has a tendency to decide things without telling you." Jim gave her a half-smile. "Dreams aside, do you feel happy?"

"Do you think we need a salad for this too?" Dani asked, still mostly focused on her cooking. It was a testament to Lorna's teaching that she was thinking of the salad both in terms of nutrition and colour balance. Brown and yellow needed another colour. "I feel like I always do," she said, finally answering Haller's question. Tired, stressed and overall, content. Her life was not perhaps as drama filled as many of the other residents of the school, but that suited her just fine.

It wasn't exactly a yes, but it didn't sound like a no, either. Jim pondered this as he surreptitiously added a few lines to his sketch. "Salad-wise, the option of nutrition is always good. As far as dream go, well . . . if you can't figure out why you're having them, you could always try writing them down. The brain works in mysterious ways, but sometimes it leaves clues."

It was by conscious choice that Dani did not write her dreams down. There were some things that just did not need to be written and dreams were on the top of the list. The Cheyenne had a strong oral heritage of story telling, writing a dream down was to destroy it. "Salad it is then!" Leaving the chilies to simmer, she began pulling vegetables out of the refrigerator to chop them in the food processor. Food processors made things so much easier. "Are you going to eat the pomegranate or just draw it?"

"Eventually. It's more of a prompt than a model. My family used to eat a lot of these around this time of year. I guess I'm drawing what the it represents rather than the thing itself." He reached out and peeled a few seeds loose from the papery core, then popped them into his mouth. "The good thing about drawing the past is that it's okay to eat the present."

That made an odd sort of sense, "Then you won't mind if I do too," Dani reached across the table and scooped a couple seeds loose. She'd never had a pomegranate until a few weeks ago and they were GOOD. As much as she liked to proclaim that she was resistant to the money of Xavier's that was passed around so casually, she knew she would never fit back in on the rez either. She'd seen and done too much....and she wanted more for herself than the rez could provide. She was beginning to understand Forge's father better now. "Why did your family eat them?"

"Rosh Hashanah, because it's a new fruit of the season. Ummee used to make khoresh fesenjaan." Jim hesitated over his sketchpad, belatedly realizing the overlap. With a slight shake of his head, Jim went back to his sketch and just glossed over the slip. "I haven't been practicing since I was a kid, but sometimes I indulge the nostalgia."

The salad done except for a dressing, something rarely added before the students ate as everyone always wanted something different, Dani sat down at the table. "And in English?" She was fluent in two languages, but whatever it was he had used, was not one of them. She had come from a very insular society and hadn't been exposed to many other religions or cultures as a child.

"Rosh Hashanah's the Jewish new year, and khoresh fesenjaan's just an Iranian chicken dish. Ummee's his mom. Um, my mom, I mean." The telepath pinched the bridge of his nose, smoothing out the twinge of pressure in his head. David, Jemail. The memory bleed was more organic than it had been, but the discrepancies were still uncomfortable.

All right, we're done. Jim reached out and thumbed another few seeds loose. "Anyway, that is the personal significance of the pomegranate. Mostly it's just about remembering where we came from."

"Well, happy new year then," Dani took a couple more seeds. Vaguely, she remembered Kitty mentioning something about a Jewish New Year, but she couldn't remember. "Remembering where you came from is very important."

Jim gave her a wry smile as he picked up a torn part of rind to offer her the remaining fruit. "A matter of life and death."