Crystal and Lorna - Relationships

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Backdated to a month ago. As mentioned on Tatiana's journal, Crystal goes to Lorna's house for dinner. Lorna tells Crystal about some of her upcoming plans, and gives her some valuable advice on relationships.




Crystal stepped onto the front porch of Lorna's house, carrying a basket with various cheeses. She'd been here before, when the house was full of puppies. She expected it would be a lot less noisy, and less furry, this time around.

The air outside was cold and crisp and tinged with the scent of wood smoke. Warmth glowed from the windows, muted piano music playing somewhere within. Even before Crystal could knock, the door opened. "Hey, thought that was you. Come in, it's freezing out there." Not that it mattered to Crystal but Lorna hated even the appearance of cold. "Your timing's perfect, I was just finishing up."

"I did not think that you were expecting anyone else," Crystal replied as she stepped inside, artfully refraining from making any sort of comment along the lines of 'If I were cold, I would wear some sort of warm clothes instead of a sleeveless top and short skirt."

"I'm not but you never know who's going to wander over. There's a new guy who moved in down the road. He came over twice to borrow ingredients in the last week. I can't tell if he's here for Alex or me." Lorna grinned and swung the door closed behind Crystal. By contrast to Crystal's breezy summer gear, Lorna was bundled into a sweater and gray plaid wool pants, hair braided back away from her face.

"This is for you," Crystal told Lorna, offering the cheese basket to Lorna. "You are welcome to share it with Alex, of course."

Lorna lit up, "Oh this is fantastic, thank you! Would you like a drink?" With a slight incline of her head she indicated that Crystal should come with her to the kitchen. As usual, the house looked tidy but not pristine. People lived here, that much was obvious. "I opened a bottle of wine to go with dinner but if you wanted something else there's options."
Crystal smiled, glad that Lorna appeared to like the basket even before she had had a chance to examine it. "What are the other options?" Crystal asked.

"Soda, iced tea, Perrier, what amounts to a full bar since I use a myriad of things to cook." Lorna set the basket on the counter to cackle over in a moment, first attending to her guest. It was occasionally still surprising to her that they'd managed to become friends after such a rocky beginning. "Ask and I'll do my best basically."

"Iced tea is fine, thank you," Crystal replied, glad she hadn't had to say anything about the fact that, due to American laws, she wasn't allowed to drink alcohol in the United States.
Lorna had been raised to drink wine with dinner but didn't really make a big deal about it. "Sugar or lemon?" she just asked instead, getting out glasses and moving to the refrigerator.

"Both, please." Crystal glanced around the kitchen for a moment. "It is very quiet here without your house being full of puppies.

"Just Lili and Crush now. I think they're sleeping on the guest bed." Lorna smiled a little wistfully, she missed the puppies, though not the mess and stress that they'd caused. "I really don't know what they're going to do when we have to split them up again. Lili moped about for weeks last time."

"Is Alex looking for a place of his own?" Crystal asked. She couldn't help but wonder if this moping had really only been on the part of a dog.

That was a subject no one ever touched on. Even Lorna's very best friends knew better than to ask. "Not at the moment, he's not. It's cool, we're so used to each other that it's not a big deal to be sharing a space this big. Plus, he's a great excuse to get rid of dates that are bugging me."

Crystal nodded, hiding her puzzlement. Hadn't Lorna just said that the dogs would need to be separated? What else had she meant by that, if not referring to the fact that Alex would be moving out at some point? "I am sorry; I must have misunderstood. I thought that you meant that Lili and Crush would be separated because Alex was moving out."

"Oh, um, about that." Lorna fidgeted and picked up a towel to wipe off an already immaculate counter. "Have I ever told you about my sister?"

Crystal's eyes widened slightly. "A sister? I thought that you were an only child."

Lorna poured herself a glass of the red wine she'd opened and retrieved a small plate of hors d'oeuvres from the refrigerator. "I am, or sort of. I'm adopted, actually. My biological parents were killed when I was a year old so my aunt and uncle adopted me. They already had a daughter who...didn't much like getting a little sister. She took off when I was still little and she very deliberately fell off the radar. Last year, I tracked her down for a meeting."

"Oh." Crystal paused for a moment. "I am sorry to hear that. Is it good that you found your sister?" Her automatic thought had been than of course it was a good thing to find a missing family member you had never known, but Lorna had never mentioned having a sister, and the way she spoke about her now... Crystal wasn't sure what to think.

"It was...unusual. She offered me a job when we met. I declined, obviously. I had school to finish and the team and teaching. It just wasn't practical to move back to California." Lorna sipped her wine, face pensive, "We've kept in...well, I don't know that you'd call it touch. I occasionally get gifts or notes from her assistants. Reminders that the job offer stands. I really don't know what she thinks about me, to be honest with you."

"Again, I am sorry; I am confused as to what this has to do with separating Lili and Crush, unless... have you changed your mind? Are you going to take her up on her offer and move?" Crystal certainly hoped this wasn't the case. During her year as a student, she would have been thrilled if Lorna had moved away to parts unknown, but now...

"Sorry, I'm being a little circuitous, I guess." Lorna fidgeted another moment, looking like she was going to run her hand through her hair but aborting the gesture before it went anywhere, "Um, yeah, kinda. I've been thinking about grad school for a year or so now. Actually applied various places, just to see, you know? Anyway, I got an email from her...well, for her from someone else but you know what I mean. Go to Berkeley and she'll cover it. Which, I mean, I can't help looking for a hook but it's so perfect. It's exactly what I've been wanting to do."

"Oh." Crystal took a sip of her iced tea before continuing. "I see. You have been accepted to Berkeley, then? You will be moving to California after the end of the school year?"
Why did that feel like censure? Oh, because Crystal was extremely good at that. "Essentially, yeah. I'll head out there in May for a summer internship then obviously classes are going to start in the Fall."

"May?" Crystal frowned slightly. "Is that not prior to the end of the school year at Xavier's? What about the classes you teach?" What was it with her friends and wanting to leave the mansion as soon as possible, just when she was ready to stay in New York herself?

"That's when the internship starts. The last few weeks of the semester are all gearing up for exams anyway, no new material to teach, just a lot of review." It wouldn't have been her first choice, cutting out before the end of school, but it was the one she'd needed to make. Her goal was to get her degree done as quickly as possible, no matter how much it meant pushing. She'd put this off so long as it was.

Crystal nodded, again taking a sip of tea. "I am happy for you," she told Lorna, meaning it even if she wasn't at all thrilled about any of this herself. "This is a good opportunity for you, and perhaps a chance to get to know the sister you never knew, yes? Clearly, she wants to be involved in your life."

"To a certain extent. Berkeley's north and Zala's based in LA but yeah, with any luck we'll be able to talk every now and then." Lorna was comfortable telling Crystal some things about Zala but not by any means all of it. Keeping her sister and the Attilani princess separate just seemed like a good idea for all involved. "I'm hoping to convince her at least to get in touch with Mom and Dad. They miss her a lot, even if they won't admit it."

"I am quite sure that they must miss her very much," Crystal said, "and I would think that she must miss them, too, even if she has been the one responsible for choosing to remain out of contact."

Lorna privately doubted that but just smiled. "Anyway, enough about my nonsense. What are you up to these days? How goes the Forge wrangling?"

"The Forge... wrangling?" Crystal looked at her hostess, confused.

"Dating. Seeing. Spending occasional time with in a way that is more than merely friends." Lorna's hands fluttered, "I'm just asking about the state of your life. In particular the state of your life in regards to my hostage buddy."

Crystal deliberately chose to politely refrain from raising an eyebrow at Lorna's charming way of mentioning Forge. "It is going quite well," Crystal said. "We have been dating for one month now."

"Has it really been that long? Jeez. Time flies. Are you still having fun with it?" Had it really been a whole month? This might be why Lorna sucked at relationships in the long run. She could never keep her dates straight.



"I did not think that one month was considered a long time to be in a relationship," Crystal said. "It took almost a month from the time he kissed me until he asked me out to dinner."


Lorna tipped her head one way, then the other, "It all depends on the couple and the history. I think it's impressive if I see a guy more than three times. A whole month is major for me these days."

"Oh," Crystal said, then sipped her drink again. "If you do not like the man, of course you should not go on a date with him again."


Lorna nodded but it wasn't really an agreement. "Liking them isn't usually the problem. I just get bored." Okay, technically her therapist called it 'serious commitment issues' but that was just semantics. "Anyway, so things are going well for you. That's good."

Lorna became bored? By the third date? Just how many men did Lorna wish to date? Crystal couldn't fathom the thought of agreeing to go on a date with someone already knowing you would not wish to pursue a relationship and already planning on breaking it off after only a few dates. "Should I be expecting things not to go well?"

"What? Oh God, no." Lorna shook her head and sipped her drink, "Expectations ruin everything. You shouldn't assume that things are going to go well or go terribly or anything like that. Just take things as they come and be honest about your position."

"My position?" Crystal asked.

Every now and then Lorna wondered if they were really speaking the same language. "Where you stand. What you want from the relationship. Any relationship. What you're looking for. Communicate, basically, is what I'm saying."

"Oh." Crystal nodded, wondering if Lorna told her dates up front that she didn't plan on a fourth date ever taking place or if being honest about your position only applied to someone you saw more than three times.


"Oh?" Lorna repeated, raising her eyebrows at Crystal, wondering what was behind that innocuous syllable.

"We talk," Crystal told Lorna.

Lorna chuckled, "Well that's good. Relationships aren't based on making out alone."

Crystal's face turned bright red.

"Don't worry, I don't want those details. That would cause me too much trauma. I'm just saying, relationships should include a balance." She knew that she should probably change the topic before Crystal turned purple. Except that it was kind of funny.

Crystal hadn't even thought about giving details. Lorna would probably be very disappointed if she knew them. "Do not worry," Crystal said after a few moments. "We do not spend all of our time making out." She barely managed to get out those last three syllables.

Aw, now Lorna felt bad. Should have backed off sooner. "Breathe, Crystal. I'll stop teasing. Pick a different topic."

"Dinner?" Crystal asked, relieved to switch their conversation to something other than any physical activities in which she might or might not have been engaged. "What did you make for dinner?"

"Le caneton braisé aux kumquats et miel d'acacia," Lorna turned to check it and smiled, "And it's just ready. I begged the recipe off an old friend of my mentor's. Most of the people around here prefer plainer fare so I don't get to indulge very often."