Lex and Julio | Early Monday Morning

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex and Julio meet before coffee and have a minor struggle in communication before deciding to go on a run together.



Coffee. That was what Julio needed. Delicious, hot, black coffee. No cream, no sugar, just black like the inside of his head right now. Julio before his coffee was legendary. Often, he forgot how to speak English. And occasionally Spanish. On particularly bad mornings he could only communicate in grunts.

This morning, however, wasn't that bad. Bad was when he had finals. This morning was only medium-level suck. He'd had RA duty last night, and now he was up at stupid o'clock for his morning run.

Coffee. Where was the coffee?

Lex heard someone out in the common area, and drew his knife instinctively. He looked around and realized that he was in the Mansion. Damnit, he thought, I'm never going to get used to living with others. He opened the door, and looked to see who it was. The man in front of him was somewhat familiar, but it was too early in the morning to tell. He was still running on instinct.

"Morning," he said, though he was pretty sure it sounded more like a growl than words. Noticing that the man was looking for coffee he opened the refrigerator and started rummaging for the Bailey's.

The young man mumbled something that could be interpreted as "Hola?" Julio's eyes were half-open, and he was in no state to register his new suitemate's mental state. He was lucky at this point to not walk into a wall. This would be why there were clean coffee mugs strategically located next to the coffeemaker. Too much broken crockery had proven that Julio was also incapable of fine motor skills along with basic communication early in the morning.


Lex, not finding any Bailey's, decided that he was going to have a glass of orange juice, and a pear. "Hey, you want a pear?" he asked, pulling two out and taking a seat. He wasn't really sure what he should say to the man, as he was pretty sure the sum and total of their conversations amounted to introductions and early morning greetings. Well, he thought, it's time to try.

"Que?" Julio looked up. He was being spoken to. He focused blearily on the pear. "Un pera? No, no me gusta. Gracias. Julio shook his head. He poured himself a cup of coffee and then went to the freezer for an ice cube. Communication was probably going to be required of him, that meant drinking his coffee faster.

"Suit yourself, I'm going to eat them both then." He chuckled as he spoke. "So, what are you doing up so early?"

Julio waved a hand and mimed 'running' with two fingers. He dropped the ice cube in his coffee and then took a large swallow. Unfortunately it was still too hot. "Ay, chinga," his hissed, and then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Well, that made him a little more awake. He turned to his suitemate. "...and tu?"


"I'm going hunting," he said, drawing his knife. "If you haven't heard, there's going to be a luau on Friday." He took a deep swig of orange juice, and then put the cup down. "You're invited, though I'm not so sure it's going to go over as I originally hoped."

"The hunting?" Julio said, not quite following along with Lex. He downed about half his coffee cup and grimaced. At least he was remembering what language he needed to use. Sometimes it would get really wacky and he'd throw in some bonus Japanese.

"I was talking about the luau... I made an ass of myself a few days ago, and I'm not sure people are going to be too happy with me." He sighed, he hoped the food would be good enough to win them over. Then it struck him, maybe Julio would like to help, it would certainly give them an opportunity to bond.

"Luau, okay," Julio said, nodding. He smothered a yawn and cracked his neck. There needed to be a faster way to get caffeine into his system. He supposed he could talk to Forge-- no, that was the path of madness. He took another swallow of coffee. "Usually food is a good peace ...chinga ...thing." Julio said. "But it depends on how much you made people mad. You might have to just be laked."

"I doubt it's that bad. I just said some inappropriate things, and I think they all believe I'm on a power trip." The more he thought about it the more it had seemed to be a terrible idea. He really was bad at explaining himself. "I'm offering food... Speaking of which, can you cook?"

"Uhhh-" Julio racked his brain. It wasn't so much that he felt cooking was women's work. He was just so bad at it. He was lucky that Nori was charmed by his ability with a microwave. Or she pretended to be to save his pride. Same thing. "I can stay out of the way? Oh, and I can make flan. That's about it."

"Hmm... Well, I was going to offer to let you cook with me, as a kind of get to know you better type of thing, but I don't think that's going to work." He paused, unsure of what to say next, "Do you drink?"

Julio made a face. "I go with my friends, but I always have just a coke. My power is the ability to cause earthquakes, que no?. Alcohol is always a bad idea." Julio had not touched alcohol since his manifestation, since the last thing the world needed was a drunk terrakinetic. He went to refill his coffee cup. Now that he was feeling more human, he also took an orange from the bowl on the counter and began to peel it. "What sports do you play? Basketball, fu--soccer?"

"Well, I haven't played either in almost six years," Lex said after a a brief pause. "I'm not sure that I'd be any good, but if you want to we could, uh, get a game going sometime." He'd never realized how awkward regular conversation was. He could flirt, talk shop, but saying hi and being civil, it just wasn't his thing.

Julio shrugged. "Doesn't matter. We play a game of pick-up every Friday afternoon, me and Gibney. You should join us." Julio thought back to his ex-roommate and the incident on Lex's journal. "One thing about Kyle, he doesn't carry grudges. You know?"

Lex knew what the man was talking about. He didn't want to admit it, but it might be good for him to go there and apologize. "Yeah, and it might even give me a chance to apologize... if it'll help." He was done with his first pear and about to dig into the second, "Are you sure you don't want one of these? They're amazing."

The younger man waved a hand again and pointed to his orange. "I prefer these. Good fuel for when I'm running, yes?

"Agreed," he laughed, "So, I guess that's what your doing up at the ass-crack of dawn. Where do you run?"

"There's a trail through the woods, it's a good 6 mile run. I have to do it early in the summer. Too fucking hot otherwise," Julio said, finishing the rest of his orange and tossing the peel in the garbage. "It's habit. My class here at Xavier's, we were all athletes, pretty much."

"Huh," Lex said, "Mind if I tag along? I've been doing a circuit of the campus, but I wouldn't mind changing my route." He really was pushing this whole 'get to know you' thing. Did he really need to be accepted that much? He decided that since he'd already made the proposition he was going to stick with it.

Julio nodded and put his cup in the sink. "Yes, not a problem. Come on," he retrieved his water bottle and ipod from the counter, and made his way to the suite door.

Lex toyed with his knife a moment, wondering if he should bring it or not. It was customary for him to bring it along, but if he was going to be accepted he would probably have to start making exceptions to that. "On it," he replied, setting the knife and sheath on the table and following the smaller man out.