Yvette, Jay - Friday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Jay comes across Yvette and they chat. Things are much less awkward post-Whistler.



He felt good, really good for a Friday and coming back from his test, heading towards the mansion in flight only applified that. He had thought he had done well for the test, despite a terrible hang over hammering at his temples for most of the day. He supposed there was some terrible irony there and thought he should write about it when he got back, only when did movement blow catch his eye. Detouring down, Jay headed for the treehouse and touched down on the ground, just below. "Hey?" he called out to what looked like Yvette, but he wasn't a hundred percent sure.

Yvette's head popped through one the windows, eyes glowing brightly. "I saw you flying!" she exclaimed. "Without the harness and the being in the hurry! It was..." Words deserted her.

Arching his back a little, he rested his head back, watching her from where he was. "Can Ah come up?" he asked, cutting her off before she embarrassed him.

"I do not think you will fit," came the slightly amused reply. "With the wings. I shall come down." And with that, Yvette disappeared from the window and reappeared at the hatchway, scrambling down like a squirrel. As she touched ground, she seemed to remember she was wearing a dress over her body suit today, and her eyes flickered bluer as she settled herself, Yvette's version of a blush. "Hello."

"Well Al'ight," he called up to her, shoivng his hands into his pockets and waited. With her sudden appearence at the hatch, Jay looked back up only to get a flash of what was beneath her dress. Yeah, he didn't need to see that and averted his eyes quickly, clearing his throat with a certain degree of discomfort. When she landed, he gave her a smile, though wasn't sure why her eyes were turning blue. He thought he should point it out but most people didn't like their mutations being made obvious. "So, wha'cha up to up there?" he asked.

"Reading," she replied, perhaps a little defensively, but she didn't want people to think she'd been hiding again. "Sometimes the mansion, it is so noisy, and I do not feel the cold so much. It is the good place to be quiet." She recalled his response to her journal post. "You exam, did it go well?"

"Yeah, don' blame ya. If Ah' could fit, Ah'd probably be up there too." Jay could probably fit but it'd be really tight and uncomfortable. He was worried about getting stuck."It went good, thanks. Ah think Ah passed but Ah ain't sure until Monday when they call us back in. If Ah pass, Ah get a job placement later on in tha week. So hopefully. Ya been good since we last spoke?"

"I wish you the luck, then. Having the job, it is the good thing. It gives you the..." She paused, searching for the word. "Purpose, yes? And I have been good, but very busy. There is much school work to be catching up on, after I was away."

"Ah think so. It gives ya money at least. An' a means ta pay fer stuff." He wasn't sure what he would buy with any money he got in but that some of it would be sent to his mother to help her out as much as he could. Even if Sam was there, a little bit went along way with them. "Ah saw tha'. Where'd ya go?"

Yvette wrinkled her nose at him. Jay really did live in his own world, didn't he? "Home, to Kosova," she replied, a little teasingly. "Like I did say in my journal. I needed to go visit my mother for a time, and to think about what I am wanting to do."

"Sorry, Ah breeze tha internet an' sometimes Ah don' even log in fer a time." He was notorious for not checking to see what people were doing, often a day or three later before he'd reply. "An' did ya figure it out? Ah mean, wha' ya wanna do?" As an after thought, looking over his shoulder, he gestured for her to come with him. "C'mon, let's walk."

She had to scramble to keep up with him, his long legs twice her stride almost. "Yes," she replied. "And I will be staying here, at the school. I was not so sure before."

Noticing this, he slowed down a little, pausing only long enough to flap twice and shake out the excessive feathers that were bothering him. He was molting less and less, which was a relief, especially since Lorna changed his diet and told him how to manage it better. "Well, yer only what? fifteen? Sixteen? Ah think ya would wanna stick 'round people tha' ya can relate ta. Wha' was yer other options, if ya don' mind me askin?"

"I will be turning sixteen in August," she told him, almost primly for a moment. "And yes, there are the people who I can be relating to here, but there is also the danger here. I have been eaten by the dinosaur, kidnapped and put into the place that was making to kill me, and made the evacuation many times. The teachers sometimes are having the fights with the powers, and sometimes it is seeming that if you are not the X-Man or a trainee, you do not matter. But..." And here Yvette gave a wry little smile. "I can learn here, about my powers. I can have the better education than I would have back home. And I can be the Red X volunteer, and work to being with them as the job when I am finished the schooling, and this is what I want to do, more than anything. Also... it is not to be home, with my mother. She loves me, but she does not understand, I am not being the same person any more. Not just this..." She gestured with a long-fingered hand at her face and hair, hanging in stiff spiral curls today. "But inside, also. I am not the same person as the girl who lived with her mother in Sarajevo."

"Dinosaurs?" Yeah, he knew that vaguely as it had been brought up in a previous conversation but decided he didn't really want to know anything more about that. There was nothing scarier than the possibility of 3000 pounds clamping down on your body, mid flight in a retreat. He didn't even want to entertain the thought. He blinked, her words registering a little late. On second thought. "Wait, did ya just say you were eaten?" It was possible for her to survive, just like it was possible Kevin would survive something like that too. But Jay only ran a hand through his hair, trying to ignore the shiver that crawled down his spine and not because of the cold.

"Yeah, Ah know that feelin'," he agreed, kicking at a rock which didn't roll and only ended up tripping him. He caught himself in the stumble and continued to walk. "People change, especially 'ere. So maybe it's a good thing huh?" He walked around a tree inbetween them and resumed walking next to her as he mulled over thoughts in his head. "Ya like being a part of Red X? Ah mean, it gives ya a place to call yer own, Ah reckon. " He nodded to her mother not understanding. "She ain't got any powers or nothin'?"

Yvette nodded, her face going momentarily blanker as her skin hardened at the memory of the previous year's field trip. "Yes, I was eaten. My skin, it was protecting me, and I made to cut my way out." It wasn't something she liked to talk about a lot, so she leapt onto the rest of what Jay had said. "My mother is not a mutant, no. She is... very frightened for me. To be different, to her, is to be the target, and there are always the people who want to be hurting us. The war... it was about the people hurting the people because they were different, and my mother is afraid to be a mutant will mean someone will hurt me. It is making her... too much protective. It is hard, to be myself, when I am there." Her eyes brightened. "Red X, it lets me help the people, to not sit back and wait. It is what I want to be doing, I think."

He could only imagine how gross that was, aside from scary, having to tear your hands into the belly of some dinosaur, if she even got that far. He wanted to ask out of curiosity but the conversation turned away from it. "Sounds like it's somethin' good fer ya to be doin'. As long as ya like it, an' if Ah may say, yer eyes," he gestured to his own, referring to hers. "They get a twinkle in 'em when ya talk 'bout it. If it gives ya purpose, who am Ah ta argue." Stepping up on a fallen tree, Jay balanced, walking the length of it and spread his wings for balance, grinning at her. He knew she liked his wings. "When's yer birthday?"

"August the 8th," she replied, moving to climb up and crouch on the trunk. A quick movement removed the socks from her feet, and long toe-talons gripped the dead wood. "What about you, Jay? Are you finding the thing that is good for you, that you want to do?"

He tapped his temple. "Ah'll remember. Ah suck at alotta things but rememberin' a birthday ain' one of em." He turned around and couldn't believe she just pulled off her socks. Seriously, he should stop thinking that's a weird thing. He tried not to stare at her feet. "Oh uh, me? Ah dunno." He crouched down, pulling his wings in and lingered there, rubbing his hands together for warm to the cold he didn't feel. "Ah havn't got it all figured out yet. 'cept this bartendin' thin'. Ah don' drink, but it's somethin' ta make money while Ah find ma way. Just busy tryin' ta deal with a few things, ya know, like Tommy fer instance."

"Ah." Yvette nodded, looking down. She slipped off one glove to pick at the dead wood with her finger, leaving small gouges. "If it is not to be rude... are you dealing? With Tommy?" It was said with studied casualness, but it wasn't hard to hear the hope underneath.

He wasn't sure why he wanted to tell her this. Maybe it was because he had inadvertently started something, ending up looking like the bad guy and wanted to to be fixed. Jay's fingers brushed over the wood and he wondered if she felt it the same way he did. "Sorta." He looked down, thoughtful. "He scares the shit outta me an' Ah feel like a fool, talkin' ta him, like Ah'm settin' maself up fer somethin' bad. With tha way he talks, Ah can' figure out if he wished he finished me off, or jus' wish he never knew who Ah was. Maybe both."

"Sometimes I think Tommy does not know that himself," Yvette said softly. "He wants to be the new person, but is afraid that people will only see who he was. It would be easier for him, if things had not happened at all. And if he had killed you, the decision would already have been made, to send him to the jail where he would not have to try at all."

"Well, Ah gave 'em a song tha' Ah wrote after he did tha'. Ah never finished it. Couldn'. Maybe he can an' we'll see where he stands." He smiled at her. "Ah wish Ah had a camera right now. Ya look very smart in yer dress there."

Yvette'e eyes flared brightly again, and she ducked her head. "Now you are teasing me," she protested.

"Ah am not," he quickly retorted. "Wha'? No one told ya that before or somethin'?"

"Sometimes, but not usually..." She coughed a little, embarrassed, and finally squeezed out. "Not usually the boy."

"Oh." Jay paused, chewing the inside of his cheek until he realized what she was saying. "Oh! Well, Ah just meant tha' ya look nice an' all. Not like that. Not that Ah wouldn't, if Ah was, ya know, straight an' all. But yer young an' - can we just keep walkin'?"

"Yes, please. I think that would be a very good idea."