Yvette, Laurie - Friday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

The day after her experience at the mall, Yvette is having some brooding time when Laurie tracks her down.



Laurie walked between the large trees, ears alert for her roommate, while Yvette was quiet enough that she might not necessarily hear her if she didn't want to be, she knew the other girl was usually polite enough to make herself known.

"Yvette?" she called out, moving aside a couple of low hanging branches. "You here?"

There was a rustle, up above her head, and a flare of blue light. "I am here," came Yvette's voice, after a moment. She was perched on a large branch in nothing but her body suit, bare hands and feet digging into the wood. On the trunk, fresh scratches showed where she had climbed.

Laurie looked up, hands going to her hips in had she but known it, a perfect imitation of her mother. "You going to tell me what's wrong, or do I need to climb up there?"

There was an answering flash of blue light. "You could be asking, before demanding," came the somewhat irritated reply.

"Why did you disappear, Yvette?" Laurie asked, gaze steady and unrepentant.

She'd been searching for Yvette for the past half hour, unsure as to where her roommate was, and considering the history of the school, worried.

"I needed to be thinking, and it is safer for me to be outside, when I am like this," came the equally unrepentant reply. "I am have the, how you say? Bad hair day." It was said perhaps a little bitterly, the memory of how just backing up into the cardboard Santa had shredded it fresh in her memory. That and the horror in the faces of those boys.

"You didn't tell anyone where you were going to be. Have you at least got your phone on you?" Laurie asked, frowning at her excuse.

Yvette's hands dug a little more into the wood. "Mr. Forge is making the security, yes? I am being on the grounds. It is perfectly safe." Her phone was in fact with the rest of her outer clothes, left in a neat pile on a nearby stump. "Or is the mansion not the safe place we are told?"


Laurie wasn't sure how to answer that for a moment, from the case files she'd read , the invasion of the school on at least three separate occasions would say that 'no, it isn't safe'. She somehow thought Yvette knew that though, otherwise why would they have regular drills on what to do in case of an emergency?

"You know it's not, Yvette." she replied, giving Yvette a steady look.

"Mr. Forge would not like to be hearing that. He is very proud of what he is doing to make things safe." Yvette pulled back a bit, her skin and the black bodysuit blending with the shadows of the tree trunk. "Or do you want to be scolding me for being not so smart? The silly little girl, yes, who does not know better and must have the people to save her?" As usual when she was upset, Yvette's English started slipping.

"No...I" Laurie said, looking helpless for a second as she tried to find a way to explain. "You're my friend."

The eyeglow dimmed somewhat, and when Yvette spoke next, her tone was softer. "Yes, we are the friends. But I am not the child, Laurie. I am not the X-Man trainee, but this does not make me needing of the rescue. If you were worried about me, you could be asking me, not making the demands and giving me the lecture, like you are the teacher."

"I'm sorry. I never meant to treat you like a child."

Laurie stepped back slightly, giving her a better view of the other girl, suddenly aware of the cold seeping through the coat and gloves she'd put on. She'd forgotten her hat, a habit she needed to break herself of.

Yvette sighed. "You may not mean for it to be so, but yes, you do. It is more so, since you are being the X-Man trainee. You make the jokes and such with the other trainees, and sometimes it seems that we who are not are not so important to you any more. That we are just people you must be looking after." In the dim afternoon light, the sharpness of her skin was clear to see, her hair once again long, razor sharp spikes. "I do not wish to be the victim even to my friends, Laurie. I cannot do the things that you do, and when I am going out, people are making to stare and whisper, and sometimes there are people who are frightened of me. But this place... I can be the normal girl here, or as close as I may be. When you treat me like I am someone who must be looked after, you are taking that away."

"I don't know how to change that," Laurie answered honestly, rubbing a hand against her temple for a second, before looking back up. "I see, I have seen, so many things that make me frightened for my friends."

She leaned back against the trunk of the tree, blinking as several snowflakes shook loose from the bare branches above.

"But it is not for you to be saving us," Yvette pointed out. "Sometimes, we can save ourselves." Her voice had become more sympathetic, however. "I think you need to be talking to someone, about being so frightened for us, Laurie. It is not helpful to you, or to us."

"I think you're right." Laurie replied, finally admitting to herself what she'd been fighting for awhile now. "Will you tell me what had you hiding, please?"

Her tone wasn't a demand this time, merely a question to be ignored or taken up on as Yvette desired.

Considering what she'd just told Laurie about being able to help herself, this was going to be embarrassing. "There were some boys yesterday, at the mall. They were not liking the mutants, and said some things. I... broke the Christmas decoration, with my hair, and it frightened them. Miss Jane made them go away, so we were not hurt, but it makes me sad. That I cannot go out to such the ordinary place, without making things the problem."

"Yvette, it's not your fault that a few people don't like mutants and want to make trouble." Laurie said, smiling softly. "You do know that, right?"

That earned her a slight eyeroll. "I am not stupid, Laurie," she said. "I know there are people who hate mutants and that this is not my fault. But I am very much the mutant. I stick out like the sore toe, yes? If I go to a place, I should be thinking about if there will be the problem for my friends, because I cannot hide what I am."

Laurie snorted at the eyeroll, unable to help herself.

"So...you want to protect your friends then? Because obviously they can't make a decision about whether they're okay with standing out a little bit more by themselves?" Laurie replied, tone gentle now.

There was a frustrated noise, and a small shower of bark as Yvette raked her fingers along the branch. "You are being the smart alec, yes?" she replied, but rueful rather than angry. "Very well, I am sad and angry because I cannot go out to the place which is normal without being made to feel like the monster. Is this what you are wanting to hear?"

"You're going to hurt the tree." Laurie replied mildly, calmer now that she wasn't dealing with her own problems.

Yvette sighed, looking at the marks she'd made. No, she didn't want that. There was a brief movement as she scurried along the branch on all fours, dropping herself down from the end to land on the ground in a low crouch. The fact her feet were bare in the cold slushy mud didn't seem to bother her. "I am sorry," she said, straightening and meeting Laurie's eyes. "I am, how you say? Emo girl?"

"It's one of the clubs, I think. Although, you might have to ask Kevin for your membership pack." Laurie said, a tentative smile forming. "You want to help me make some cranberry fudge for Christmas?"

"Okay." Yvette gave her roommate an equalling tentative smile. "Before you are catching the cold from sitting out in the snow with no hat."

"Or no shoes on our feet." Laurie replied, giving Yvette's bare feet a look. "You have to be cold standing in snow like that."

Yvette shrugged. "A little. But it is good, to be able to feel it." She'd have to cover herself up again soon enough.

"You can't feel normally?" Laurie asked as they walked back to the mansion. She'd never actually asked Yvette about the practicalities of her mutation before.

Pausing at the stump to collect her clothes, Yvette shook her head as she pulled on her socks. "Not so much, no. I can feel the extremes, yes? Hot, cold, when something is hitting me hard... But the rest, not so much. My skin, it is too hard, and then I am keeping it covered when I am near the people." Then she shrugged. "I am being used to it now. Let us go make fudge!"