Awkward Conversations: Yvette and Laurie - Monday afternoon

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Checking on Yvette given the possibility of them working together to do Yvette's regular blood tests, Laurie finds it's not always so easy to address the past.



Laurie knocked on the door of the suite that Yvette shared, stepping back to wait for her one time, and hopefully still, friend. She'd wanted to talk to the younger woman before they did anything with Jean, although if things kept as they were, it would be Yvette and Kurt working together rather then her and Yvette. Which... would possibly be a little more comfortable for the other girl, all things considered. Still, whatever happened she wanted to change things between the two of them.

There was a pause and then the door opened to reveal Yvette, back to her normal self and with the bodysuit, gloves and socks under her everyday clothing. "Oh, hello Laurie," she said, after only a moment's hesitation. "Is Dr. Jean sending you?"

"No," Laurie said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, she'd noted the hesitation. "I thought maybe we could talk a bit, even if Kurt ends up being the one helping you, I figured it couldn't hurt for us to discuss everything a little. I've been helping him get used to things, but it can be a little hard at first."

She deliberately didn't mention any of the problems they'd had in the recent years. While she did want to talk to Yvette, and solve those issues, perhaps move beyond them to a real friendship rather then this shell of one they seemed to be just hanging onto. Laurie thought it might be better for the other girl if they came to them gradually. If there was one thing her travel had taught her, it was the value of patience.

"Oh," Yvette said again, her expression unreadable. After a moment she stepped aside to let the other girl in - it would be rude to send her away, and they were going to have to work together if she was going to be able to continue the usual tests she was going to need to ensure everything was working as it should. But it had been a very long time since Yvette had felt comfortable with Laurie. "Please, to come in. Would you like the drink or something?" she continued, polite as always.

"If you were going to get yourself something, yes," Laurie said, eyes scanning what used to be familiar territory, but now seemed different and foreign. It had been a long time since she'd lived in this suite. "Otherwise, I'd rather just talk, no need for anything special."

Yvette gestured at the couch and went into the kitchenette to pour two glasses of juice - she was still having to keep her fluids up to make sure her new kidney was working. It took a bit of time, since she was clumsy and awkward with her long fingers and gloved hands, but it gave her time to think. Carefully carrying the glasses back, she returned to the living area and placed them on the coffee table - it was difficult for her to hand people things. "Did you have the good trip?" she asked - getting Laurie to talk about herself would be a good ploy to avoid whatever awkward conversation the older girl wanted to have.

"I did," Laurie noted, a genuine smile appearing this time, and some of the tenseness disappeared from her body language. "Crystal's very easy to travel with, and we got to see quite a bit. Are you looking forward to classes starting up again?"

School was a safe topic, wasn't it? Small talk had never been something Laurie was particularly adept at, but she would try.

"I would like to be able to have some of the vacation first," Yvette replied, a little wryly. "But after that, yes, the classes will be good. I am looking forward to the training with the others again, too."

"Make sure you don't have more then two mansion people with you if you go outside the mansion on that vacation stuff," Laurie noted with a grin. "We figured that was the break number for incidents."

"Perhaps that is the reason why I was getting blown up," Yvette replied, although her tone was less humorous than Laurie's. "Too many people from the mansion being there."

Well, if that didn't bring things into focus, she didn't know what did was Laurie's immediate thought. She winced slightly, and picked up the glass that Yvette had placed on the table, making a study of the pattern as she sorted through possible replies.

"Sometimes things just happen, and there is no reason for it," she finally said, taking a sip of the orange juice.

"Yes, they do." Yvette sighed a little. "It is what happens when you are going to the old war zone where there are land mines. People are being blown up. At least it is being me, not the little girl. She would not be so lucky as I am being."

"No, she'd have died," Laurie replied, looking Yvette in the eyes. "You did a good job, something that no one else there would've been able to do. And even though it meant you getting hurt, I don't think anyone would ever fault you for doing what needed to be done."

Laurie certainly wouldn't, as much as it had hurt to see Yvette lying there in the hospital, and it had hurt, more then she'd expected it to.

"I would be doing it again, even if there was the same chance of being hurt." Yvette gave a small, wry smile. "Although I would not be stepping back the way I did."

"I'm told hindsight is always 100%" Laurie noted, placing her glass of orange juice on the table and then having to snatch it back again as she felt a playful gust of wind try to grip it. She wondered if Crystal ever had this problem, or if she'd become so used to the almost sentient feel of the air currents around her that it just didn't register anymore.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to the new abilities. It's been confusing."

"You are swapping the powers also?" Yvette asked, awkwardness forgotten in the face of the strangeness going on with people's powers. "It must be very strange." A part of her was almost... jealous? that she hadn't been impacted too.

"Yeah," Laurie replied with a wry smile, wondering if you could give air a 'talking to', and noted privately to herself that this must be what going mad felt like. "I got Crystal's, so it's been a bit interesting getting used to things. I really want to learn how to fly with them, but I don't know how long it'll last, and I think it'd take awhile to learn control enough for that."

"You could ask Miss Crystal to be helping? Or Miss Ororo - she is using the wind to fly also, is she not?" Yvette suggested, unable to help herself. "That way you are making the most of the new powers while you are having them, yes?"

"You're brilliant, that's perfect." Laurie said, plans forming in her head at Yvette's suggestion. The other girl was right, both women used wind to fly, and Crystal would be perfect for helping her learn to control what had been, till a few days ago, her own powers. "I've sort of been all over the place the last few days, think you'd like to go for a flight if I can manage to do it?"

"Somehow I do not think the doctors would be liking it so much," Yvette pointed out. "They are telling me I must be careful of the jolting and such, and if you should drop me, I do not think the kidney would like it."

"You're right, it would be a bit much so soon," Laurie said, settling down from her moment of excitement and feeling the air around her swirl slightly and then settle back. "I suppose the doctors will have us all back to normal soon enough. Which is sort of what I wanted to talk to you about. Are you really okay with us working together again? I'm sure Forge could think of something if you're uncomfortable."

"I do not think it is so much if I am not comfortable." Yvette's eyeglow sharpened, fixing on Laurie. "I am not the one who is having the problem with other people's mutations."

"I'm sorry?" Laurie asked, confused. She didn't have any problems with other people's mutations as far as she knew, except obviously the one she was currently trying to come to terms with."Um, who told you I had a problem?"

"You did. When you are calling Kyle the animal. In front of everyone on the journals." Yvette's voice didn't waver. "I am actually hurting you once - if Kyle is the animal because he is hurting someone else who is attacking you, then I must be even worse, yes? The monster, perhaps?" Her eyes narrowed. "I have not seen so much of you on the journals that is making me think you have changed your mind about always being the person who is right, Laurie. So I am wondering, are you able to be trusting me, when I am so dangerous?"

"It's been six months, Yvette," Laurie said, twirling the cup in her hands before meeting the younger girl's eyes. "And I never thought you were a monster, or Kyle for that matter. Angry people say things, and sometimes we regret those things. I can't take back what I said, but Kyle and I, we're okay. Why'd you never talk to me about this before?"

"Because you would not listen. You are not listening now, Laurie. What you said... you are not knowing how much it is hurting Kyle, hurting me, hurting all of us who cannot look normal. You are proving to us what we are always afraid of, that people look at us and only see the outside." She stripped off her glove, held up her hand, the fingers long and sharp as knives. "I was angry, when I was going after the man in Kosovo, when I am hurting you. I am saying sorry. It did not change things for us."

"Should it have?" Laurie asked, looking at Yvette's hand and remembering how she'd fought to try and save her, and still she hadn't been able to do anything. It had taken Forge to do that, and the others. "I said sorry too, but only actions matter, not words."

"I have not hurt anyone again, even in the accident. I am training with the New Mutants in the Danger Room, to make sure I am able to use my powers without to be hurting my friends. I am working with the Red X and with Kyle on the grounds, to keep the grounds tidy. I am training with Miss Frost on the control." Yvette tugged her glove back on, hiding away the sharp skin again. "What are you doing, Laurie? To show that you are sorry, that you will not be saying such things again when you are angry? You went away for the holiday, but you do not seem to have learned very much. All I have seen on the journals is that you are still calling people stupid when they are doing things you do not like."

"You'd have to ask Kyle that, or Crystal for that matter. Considering you have such little faith in me, I figure their opinion would mean more to you."

Laurie stood, and noticed that the temperature in the room had increased slightly, something she hadn't felt before. She quietened her breathing and let go of her anger, walking around the couch and standing on the other side away from her former friend. She wouldn't run away from this, but it was better for her to be a distance if things were wacky.

"I am asking you. You are the one who is responsible for what you said, Laurie." Yvette's eyes flashed, her hair stiffening slightly - she seemed unaware of the temperature increase, but then again, with her skin, she only felt extremes. "Not Kyle, not Miss Crystal. So what are you doing, so that we can trust you again?"

Laurie's expression was unreadable, her stance tense and unyielding, and wind picked up as if from nowhere, sending papers on a nearby table flying.

It was a matter of pride, when you came right down to it. Who was anyone here to ask her to prove anything, they who had never felt a need to prove to her, to earn her trust. They'd simply assumed and left her to herself.

At least...

No, that had been who she was before she'd left. The person who felt so lost, so afraid that there was no way out, no way to know the right words to say, or the right things to do. She had her pride still, but that was not all she had, or all she'd learnt.

"I found myself," she answered simply, and the wind dropped to a breeze, and then to merely a breath of air. "I found a measure of peace in who I was and what I can do. I found that I didn't need to control everything, or need people to trust me to be happy. I found that I could trust others to do their job, and that they would trust me to do mine. I honestly don't know what else to say to you then just that."

Yvette nodded, her face as unreadable as ever, but her hair loosening slightly again and the glow of her eyes softening a little. "That is what I wanted to be hearing," she said quietly. "Not the excuses, not you being the defensive person. That you had thought about it and that you are knowing what you need to be doing." She nodded again, as if convincing herself. "Yes, I think we can be working together now."