Crystal and Forge - Birthday dinner

[x-aerial.livejournal.com]

Crystal prepares a romantic dinner to celebrate Forge's birthday, this time leaving the cooking to others. The dinner does not go as planned, however, when the conversation turns to unpleasant thoughts.



Forge turned the small card over and over in his hand, careful not to wrinkle the paper with his metal fingers. He'd found it tucked into a pocket of his lab coat that morning, simply reading "Birthday dinner - tonight" in Crystal's precise handwriting. He smiled at the thought, although trepidation grew as he approached the door to their suite. His girlfriend's last attempt at cooking had been rather... well, "unconventional" would be generous, he admitted.

But as he opened the door, something smelled... good?

That couldn't be right.

Peering about the suite, Forge arched an eyebrow as he quietly shut the door behind him. "Crystal?" he called out cautiously, wondering just what was going on.

"Good, you are right on time," came Crystal's reply as she walked into view, smiling. Although Crystal's normal method of dress was by no means what most people would term casual, tonight she was even dressed up for her in a halter dress. "I wanted you to have a very nice dinner for your birthday, so I had someone else prepare it this time. Filet mignon, pasta in a basil and garlic sauce, and a vegetable medley in a lemon butter sauce."

As the lights dimmed, Forge could see the small candlelit table that had been placed in the middle of the suite's common area. It must have taken Crystal all day to get this set up while he was down in the machine shop, he figured. "This is... wow," he said as he walked over and held one of the chairs out for Crystal, laying a quick kiss on her cheek as she sat down. "I am impressed. This is almost as sneaky as the car decals. You must have had..."

He stopped in mid-sentence, deciding not to waste the evening trying to analyze everything. Sliding into a chair next to Crystal, he placed his hand over hers and smiled. "Thank you," he said quietly. "For everything."

"You have been working hard, and I wanted today to be special," Crystal told Forge. "Eat before the food gets cold, yes?"

"Mhm," Forge answered, eagerly digging into his meal. "Blackbird's up and running, and all the systems are checking out great. Callisto's been a big help with the wrench jockeying. Gives me more time to work on the software. Of course, with the majority of the work done, Amelia's decided I'm ready for physical therapy..." he punctuated the sentence with a roll of his eyes. "Doctors. Feh."

"Do you not want to be ready for physical therapy at this point?" Crystal questioned. "Being ready for physical therapy means that your recovery is progressing as it should, does it not? Is this not a good thing?"

"It does, just..." Forge pushed a forkful of vegetables around the plate as he mused. "I shouldn't blame the doctors. Not their fault that I can't just bounce back from injuries. Folks like Marie and Cain, you can hit them with a truck and they're fine. Kyle and Garrison can recover from darn near anything. Even Nathan..." The thought of Cable, down in the medlab still unconscious after his Alaska ordeal, weighed heavily on the young inventor's mind.

"I just hate being the weak and fragile one, you know?" he said quietly. "The past two months have kind of made it abundantly clear that maybe I'm not cut out for field work."

"Oh?" Crystal's fork paused, just off her plate. "Why do you say this? Not everyone possesses accelerated healing or invulnerability? You speak of Nathan; he has been injured on numerous occasions and yet he has always made the decision to continue doing what he does, as I have no doubt he will do once again."

The fork shook in Forge's hand before falling to his plate with a clatter. "Nathan's not exactly a role model. He's got more people wanting to kill him than... well, come to think of it..." Toad. Milan. Cortez. Nimrod. Abyss. Magneto. Forge swallowed hard and took a long drink of water as he thought. "It's funny," he said half to himself. "Back in January I told Prime Minister Barath that if people are actively trying to kill you, it means you're probably doing the right thing."

He looked down into his glass, an inscrutable look crossing his face. "One day, though. They're going to get one of us. And I can't help thinking the odds are good that it'll be me."

Crystal frowned, her fork lowering slowly back onto her plate, the speared piece of meat untouched. "Are you wanting to go out amidst battles now, or is this because what happened to you occurred during what was not supposed to be any sort of involvement with something even potentially dangerous?"

"I don't know," Forge replied, eyes downcast. "It's not like I haven't been in the thick of it before. The dinosaurs, Japan, Masque - it's not like I haven't seen danger. But now I'm wondering if I just got lucky all those times, coming out basically unscathed. What if my luck's up? What if the next time I go out to try and help with, I don't know, rescuing mutant orphans or stopping an out-of-control kid from burning down his town, what if then I don't get so lucky? I'm the weak one out there, the vulnerable one. The liability." He almost hissed out the last word, a shadow of self-loathing and condemnation darkening his voice. "Maybe they're right when they tell me 'shut up and stay in the lab. Build us stuff.'"

"So do that, if that is what you wish." This was not at all what Crystal had imagined when she had planned Forge's birthday dinner. "Build what is needed. Can you say that helping in this way is any less of a way to help than it is to go out and physically fight someone?"


Forge shrugged. "I don't want people to think I'm a coward."

"You are not a coward." Crystal frowned slightly. "I do not believe that people think that you are a coward, and I do not believe that they will think that you are a coward if you chose to cease being out and physically active with the X-Men. After all, did you not tell me that you did not want to fight and yet you knew that it would not always be avoidable?"

Dissembling for a moment, Forge pondered Crystal's words. "You're right," he finally said with a nod. "To each according to his means, after all. I know where my strengths are. And, regrettably, my weaknesses as well. It's about time I accepted that."

"That is not what I meant," Crystal told Forge. "I did not say that acting behind the scenes rather than in the middle of dangerous situations is something that would be done due to a weakness. Nobody is perfect. The X-Men act as a team, yes? One person does not go out on his or her own; they are a group and they work together, each knowing what he or she can or cannot do for the team. If you are not comfortable with being involved in the action part of the team right now, there is no need for you to do so simply as an attempt to prove yourself to anyone. What you do, what you have done, and whatever it is that you continue to choose to do, these are all very important parts of what does end up happening when the actual battlescenes occur."

"You might not have meant it," Forge countered, "but I did. You're exactly right - I can't do everything. And maybe nearly getting killed was a way of learning just what I can't do. It doesn't matter what I'm comfortable with, it matters what I need to be doing. I'm sorry, I didn't want to ruin dinner like this," he said, laying his fork and knife down on his plate. "I know you put a lot into this. Change of subject?"

"I will be traveling to Sri Lanka with Red X in a few days," Crystal said. "We will be away for a week, installing a new water purification system."

"Sri Lanka?" Forge raised an eyebrow. "That's... oh, the water thing! Mac Hudson, right? Brilliant guy. Amazing work in micronization, works with Department H? Wow, you guys are getting the big guns. Good to see it." Forge took another bite of his steak, chewing thoughtfully. The young inventor's admiration for Hudson's work was obvious in his tone. "But still, after all that mess in India, are you sure it's safe?"

"Dr. Hudson is the one who has been working on the new system, yes." Crystal picked up her fork again. "Minister MacDonald is the one who sent the request to those of us involved with Red X. The man seems, ah, rather unique, but I do not believe that he would have asked for Red X participation if he believed that he would be putting children into a dangerous situation. We will be staying in a Red Cross camp the entire time, not going off to wander around the country."

"Guy's crazy like a fox," Forge agreed between bites of his dinner, finishing the last of it with a satisfied sigh. "This was great. Thank you."

"You are very welcome," Crystal said, glad the topic change seemed to have worked to get away from the somber mood that had pervaded the rest of their dinner.