Monet and Jean-Paul

[x-cynosure.livejournal.com]

Monet and Jean-Paul sun-worship by the pool and chat about graduation, screwed-up families, and kidnapping Jake in good cause.



Monet had taken one look out her window (sunlight in New York in May? No, never!) before pulling her togs on, grabbing her towel and flying out through it. Landing beside the pool, she waved to Jean Paul. "Hey..."

Jean-Paul glanced up from the stack of papers before him at the hail. The speedster was in a pair of dark swim trunks with a white starburst on the right hip, a joke-gift from his sister quite some years back. It was more than a little gratifying that they fit as well now as they had then. He offered Monet a smile and sat up from his semi-sprawl.

"Bonjour, Monet." He knew the young woman well enough to nod to, especially with his own recent involvement in Elpis, but they had not spoken much. "Congratulations on making the team."

"Thanks. It's pretty cool - I'm finally in the good-looking gear," she said, spreading her towel out on the concrete. Gesturing toward the papers, she asked "How much longer till your kidlets are done for the term?"

"Twelve days, fifteen hours, and five minutes. Roughly." Jean-Paul tried to keep a straight face and did not quite succeed. "It has been a long semester."

"Not that you're counting or anything," Monet said, laughing. "You heading off over the summer or anything? Or staying here with the boy?" She'd had a couple of chats with a very amused Dom while the girl had been in town.

"Ideally, hoping to convince Jake that he and his Chief Tonsil Inspector should head somewhere in July, but I have not spoken to him about the matter. I really do need to bring it up -- I think I could convince him that a week or two in Italy would be good for us both." The papers were most definitely forgotten. "And as soon as the seniors have graduated, I am heading up north to get my car. I will probably take Johnny with me. The boy has never even left the state; he needs a change of scenery."

"Good luck with that. You know the man's a workaholic, right? He's not going to stop that, now he's with the trenchcoats. Are you serious? Johnny's never left the state? It's only like, a four hour drive to get three states across. Jesus. The poor kid."

"Do not be so cruel as to crush my hopes just yet, Monet. I could stand some fantasy." Speaking of Johnny did take the smile off of Jean-Paul's face, however. "Absolutely serious. His mother died young and his father barely seems to notice that he is alive. He could not even bothered to show up in person when we rescued the boy from the mutant PETA movement. He had to be mailed the admissions forms just to get him to sign them. I have no problem letting the boy know that someone gives a damn and wants him around, I just hope that I do not have to talk to his father face-to-face about the passport arrangements. It may end with me in a cell, being the next person Garrison lectures about the grim consequences of assault."

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me. Seriously, does every kid in this school come from a messed up family?" The unpleasant truth of the matter was that Monet seemed to be one of the few people there at all with any kind of decent relationship with her family.

"Most of the students and the majority of the staff, I believe. And not all of those who do have a decent relationship with their families wish to stay," he sighed, thinking of Koralina. The promise of getting back to her life outside of Xavier's had done what no amount of professorial interference had managed -- turned the girl into a model pupil. "The death of one parent and the benign neglect of the other rate fairly low on the Xavier's Scale of Fucked Up Family Life. Johnny is probably a two, a two-point-five at worst. It is a depressing thought, non?"

"Just a little, yeah." Monet sighed and rolled over on her towel, pillowing her head on her arms.

"Désolé. It is a bit of a sore spot. If you prefer, we can talk about the ways that I can kidnap and smuggle Jake out of the country that will not get me killed by his current employer."

"I'd call Clarice for that, myself. Or have Jake leave as a woman. No-one would suspect you, then."

"Clarice may be bribable. It would be a poor kidnapping if I had Jake playing along with it." Jean-Paul considered. "Or perhaps a very good one, I am not certain."

"A good one. Your chances of nookie suck if he's all traumatized." Monet nodded sagely.

"An excellent point. I will have to be subtle and clever, as opposed to swift and wielding a blunt object." He heaved a sigh. "Subtle and clever is so much work, though, especially on break. Maybe I can just bribe him as well."

"It's Jake. Of course you can bribe him. I know this one great chocolate shop in Belgium. I'll let Clarice know where it is, for when you run away together."