Doreen and Johnny (backdated to July 4th)

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Johnny and Doreen catch up during Saturday's festivities.



The smell of food was what brought her in. It was the fourth of July and she knew that. Doreen also knew that she was missing the fireworks back home. The scent pulled her in, but she didn't make it all the way there before another scent got her to side track. She owed an explanation to her friend as to where she had been the last couple of weeks. Outside, and living it up.

It wasn't fair to her friends after all.

When you were built to climb it was really easy to get to where he was.

"Hi, Johnny."

The sudden presence on the porch eaves didn't surprise him so much as who the company actually was. He had started to think she wasn't going to come and it was a pleasant surprise. Johnny hadn't seen Doreen in days, by his own design and (unbeknown to him) hers as well, but it looked like she had been keeping herself busy. He smiled a little and moved to pluck a leaf easily from her hair. "Hey Dori. Come to join in the festivities?"

He seemed to be there for just such a reason, his intentions spelled out by dripping swim shorts and hair weighted with pool water and the freshly grilled burger occupying the paper plate in his hands. Though he had yet to shake off the difficulty of the last week, and likely would not for some time, there was progress in him and relief in the knowledge that Jean-Paul was in his room, likely catching up on rest he deserved and needed even more. And it was nice to be outside with everyone.

"Yeah. I could smell it from a ways away. I guess it is t he fourth, isn't it? I almost forgot," she said, settling down, smiling as he took the leaf from her hair. Monkey Joe made a couple of clicking noises, but his motivation was more food and why they were stopping here. She looked at her squirrel friend, "You can go on. I wanna talk to Johnny, okay?"

Monkey Joe looked at her like he was considering it, and then took off towards the food. His red collar would give him away as not just another squirrel.

Johnny nodded, not doubting for a moment that the aroma had found its way to her in the woods no matter how far she had been, "Yeah. They really went all out for it." His eyes lowered from the girl to the chattering, impatient squirrel, his amusement plain on his face. It dwindled upon her explanation, managing to linger just past the furry creature's energetic departure. He looked at Doreen again, piping up thoughtlessly to delay what seemed the inevitable question about his absence and to offer his friend what had drawn her in the first place, "...You just got here, right? Do you want some?" He gestured to the yet untouched meal on his plate, giving a small grin that was more forced than it should've been, "Fred insisted I take another, but I think if I eat all this by myself I'll burst."

"Yeah and sure!" she said, looking at the plate. The hamburger would take up what she could eat of actual meat for the day or so, but it also smelled good. She remembered when she used to eat all the hamburgers she wanted. In a manner of speaking, anyway, "It looks good, are you sure? Because I can wait until I get over there if you did want it."

The white-haired teen was already working at splitting the burger in half. He offered Doreen the larger of the mostly even pieces that resulted and smiled again, anxiety soothed briefly by that familiar energy in his companion, "I'm sure." Johnny waited until the offer was accepted, then ventured with a hint of apology in his tone and brows, "So...how've you been?"

Doreen took it and had a mouthful by the time the question was answered. Even knowing how much she was supposed to eat she was still always hungry, which was just a fact of life, she supposed. She didn't mind. It wasn't like she was starving to death or anything.

"Oh... you know... stuff. How've you been?" she asked, returning the question.

Had the question not been so quickly turned on him, perhaps Johnny would have given her peculiar answer more thought, but all he could do was lower his eyes and take a small bite of his half of the burger. "...All right," he concluded after a short time, though the rekindled tension in his muscles and tone betrayed him, and he knew it.

Both teens were quiet after that, half-truths and untruths still lingering on each of their tongues. "Sorry I haven't been around lately." The words came from each young mutant almost in unison and Johnny's eyes jerked up, his lips tugged at by an uneasy and uncertain grin. It was almost too absurd not to laugh and only his surprise prevented him.

Doreen bit her lip a little bit, "Um... yeah. So... I've been outside a lot so I guess I missed it if you weren't around," she admitted.

"Same here. I spent a lot of the last week holed up in Lil's room, so I guess I didn't really notice," Johnny supplied, lips straightening and getting tight for a moment. "All of that stuff with Mr. Beaubier..." The boy's small voice trailed off into nothing. He shook his head with resolve and finally laughed a little, unevenly, "...Guess I should've kept my mouth shut and just asked how the trees were treating you."

"Yeah... well... it happens? At least things are going better now?" she suggested, holding a clawed finger up.

Johnny nodded slowly, repeating back, "...Things are going better now. Getting better." He looked at his companion for a long moment. He hadn't noticed until now, but the wildness of her recent days showed in her unkempt hair and unmanaged claws and the slight darkening of her skin. He found himself wondering if she had come back to the house at all before now and, increasingly, what had been the cause to begin with. It seemed a stretch even for Doreen that it was something as simple as a love of climbing trees. "For you too?" He asked, sounding hopeful, but not entirely confident.

"Um yeah... pretty much," Doreen said, shifting as if to get more comfortable, "It's summer and it's pretty much always nice out except for that one day I got rained on a lot. That wasn't so fun, but I don't get to do this that often."

"...Rain's no fun," Johnny acknowledged, careful to keep his sudden feeling of dejection locked up in his eyes. She always did this, put on a smile and found some absently happy remark when he was doing his best to be genuine. He finished his burger and leaned back, resting open palms against the roof. "But I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"It's really not," Doreen said, "And the tree house leaks. Sometimes. But things... sort of smell weird inside right now," she said with a shrug, "And back home there isn't anywhere like this without going to a park or something so I might as well have fun, right?"

Johnny couldn't pretend to understand the acute senses of a feral, but it did not prevent him from catching the one actual explanation she offered for her absence. "...'Weird' enough to make you prefer sitting outside in the rain?"

"...Yeah, I guess so," she said, looking towards the smell of food. Hunger was more than enough motivation to dive right in there, even though she could make out Yvette's smell from here and it raised her tail fur. It just wasn't right. And every time she caught that scent it reminded her of Bosnia. "Besides, I haven't been camping in years. Have you ever been camping? We went to the red wood forest once, me and my family."

"Never," Johnny said, having a distinct sense that being kidnapped and hauled off to a forest in Washington probably didn't count, "City boy through and through before coming out here."

His head drifted slowly back, eyes turning skyward as he started to speak again, "Like I said, though, so long as you're enjoying yourself. But...if you do feel like coming in or if you need anything, you can always come to our suite." He smiled a little, glancing at his friend and teasing just to soften the significance of the offer, "It smells like teen wolf and whatever cologne Julian soaks himself in. Guaranteed to block out anything too 'weird'. Okay?"

"Okay! I already kidnapped Julian the other day. You weren't in your room though, so I couldn't kidnap you. We had a picnic. OOOOH! We should do that later. I mean, everyone picnics today so it's not really special or anything right now. And right now, Julian smells like lonely guy, even the cologne can't cover it. That stuff just stinks," she said, wrinkling her nose a bit, "I don't get how it's supposed to be attractive."

"'Tis the season," Johnny said with a nod and only the smallest unhappiness for being evaded once again. Whatever was going on, she didn't seem to have much interest in confiding in him, now or later, and it was time to quit offering. Maybe it was just too pleasant a day to go dragging these things out. "Count me in."

The white-haired teen frowned faintly. "The Angel thing's still got him down, huh? ...I guess I can't blame him." He sighed, amending, "Well..except for bringing Esme in the first place. I don't know what he was thinking. The Stepfords are bad news. Period." He paused at Doreen's assertion and the pronounced wrinkling of her nose and laughed despite himself, "You got me, Dori..."

"Huh?" she asked to the last, she agreed with him fully on the subject of the Stepfords, they reminded her of every bad experience with girl cliques she had ever had. And there were quite a few there. But his last statement drew her attention to him, fully. Until she almost slapped herself in the forehead, duh. He was talking about the perfume, she was sure of it. "Oh, gag, that stuff is horrible. Never wear it. Ever. Okay?"

Johnny smiled wide, seeming wholly unaware of the start his words had given her and the unintentional meaning that had been briefly attached to them, "Promise." He blinked, leaning to look down at the party still running below as a few people started meandering back to the grills. "Looks like another batch's up. If you want to get some before Monkey Joe swipes it all."

"Yeah," Doreen agreed, "Come down with me? Please? I mean, we really haven't seen enough of each other the last couple of weeks."

"...Sure." The white-haired teen pulled himself up from his seat, offering Doreen a hand up and quipping easily, "But I'm hiding behind your tail if anybody starts telling me I need another burger."