Face the Blood - Yvette and Fred

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

In Bosnia, Fred realises there are some good things about his life after all.



Fred had been ready for landmines or injured people. Not photo sessions and twenty questions.

As he moved towards the food area, Fred sighed and thought about what he'd signed on for with Red X, where his life had taken him in only the past few months. The Mansion, school, his powers, Red X, Jules, Yvette...Callie. It all seemed so overwhelming. So lost was Fred in his own head that his movement towards the cafeteria had been slowed, and he'd forgotten he was in the presence of company...

"The penny for your thoughts?" came a soft piping voice from somewhere down by his left elbow. Glowing blue eyes peered up at him as Yvette gave him a soft poke with a gloved finger. "You are being very far away, Fred. Are the things being okay?"

Fred shook his head with a small spastic motion, "Oh, Vette...hey, uh, sorry..." Fred laughed softly at himself, "I'm alright. Just...man, who'da thunk I'd be in Bosnia, huh?" and he scratched the back of his neck.

"I feel the same sometimes, back at the school. Imagine me being at the school in America!" She laughed a little, but patted his arm. "It can be strange, yes. The world is so much more big than what we know, yes?"

Fred grinned broadly, his hand going to Yvette's shoulder, "Yea, I mean...I thought because I spent a little time on the road I knew it all, but...this world it, uh, it has a way of surprising us, huh?"

"And the good surprises, too," she replied cheerfully. "It is the good thing, to be back so close to my homeland. Perhaps some day you can visit Kosovo with me, and see where I am living before?"

The idea of home brought pictures of Lubbock to his head, and with what had happened...Fred managed a small smile through the fracas of his own emotions, "Yea. That sounds nice, Vette. You, uh...you ever miss it?"

She felt him tense a little through the hand on her shoulder, and raised her own to pat his briefly again. "Sometimes, but not so often as I once was. The food, being able to be speaking my own language, my mother, when she is not being the crazy person..." It was said with a wry grin, something that would never have happened several years ago. "She is getting better, I am thinking, with me being safe at the school. She is worrying about me too much."

Fred nodded a little, and moved his hand to grab his own personal pacifiers; with a flick of his old Zippo he inhaled deeply from his cigarette, feeling much calmer as the nicotine pulsed through him, "Why don't you have her come visit the school? Or go visit her for a holiday? I mean, with everything the Mansion's got, shouldn' be too much trouble..."

"I am thinking that perhaps it would be the good thing for her to be visiting in August, after my birthday. I will be seventeen and I am needing the permission from her to join the X-Men as the trainee, so it would be good for her to be talking to Mr. Summers or Miss Munroe." She scuffed a pebble out of her way with long toes as she walked, feet bare for a change - she couldn't damage earthen floors for tents or the dirt roads they used to get from place to place. "I think I am still able to do the Red X things and be a trainee at the same time, if I am working hard."

Fred nodded, and gave an earnest smile to his smaller friend, "Sounds like you've gotta good plan there, Vette and...I..."

Fred looked around at the disheveled scenery and haphazardly scattered tents and debris. Somewhere along the way, he'd gotten lost. His face fell in confusion, "Aw hell, where're we supposed ta go for food again?" and looked around, cursing to himself slightly...

She laughed and tugged at his arm, leading him down between a row of tents. "This way, silly Fred. You are getting lost in the paper bag, yes?"

Fred grinned toothily at Yvette as he followed, "You know, I think I liked you better when you didn't know me well enough to make funna' me," and he noogied Yvette's head lightly. No small feat, given the consistency of her hair, but Fred did it without a blemish to show for it.

She poked her tongue out at him playfully - a playful Yvette was only to be seen with her closest friends, those she trusted to not get hurt or take care of themselves around her. "You will be sorry you are coming, yes?" she teased.

"Sorry?" He'd spent the morning asked about why he was doing this, and it still hadn't occurred to him to actually think of the answer. He thought about the minefields, about the kids around here, about how much he could help them...just be kids for a change, rather than casualties waiting to happen...

He smiled once more at Yvette, and held open the entrance to the eating area for his friend, "Sorry I get to help make a difference? Never, Vette. Now c'mon. Food's on me," he laughed a bit more.

Yvette didn't reply straight away, but her smile and her eyes grew brighter as she walked into the tent ahead of him. "I will be good and not say I was telling you so, yes?"

Fred smiled and followed behind Yvette, "Heh, thanks. Makes me feel better already..."