Lex and Lil | Late Tuesday Morning

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex tries to apologize to Lil. He fails miserably.



Lex groaned as he finished his last set of the morning. He knew when he told Nick to go that this was going to happen. It'd taken him almost an hour and a half to get it to the mansion and once there he'd spent another hour cleaning it. Now his muscles burned like a raging wildfire and he barely had the strength to move. Serves me right, he thought bitterly, I should just keep my big mouth shut.

Standing, he groaned again. This time it wasn't out of pain, it was because he saw Lil moving right towards him. He froze for a moment--feeling strangely like a deer in the headlights-- before he could even react. He tried to wave at her, but being to tired he left it with a sullen nod. "Hey."

Lil returned the nod without the slightest hint of a smile on her lips. Straight back, determined strides, she walked past him then dropped her bag beside the elliptical with the air of someone claiming their territory. "Lex," the blonde said then turned and mounted the machine, cold but civil instead of the fiery anger that had stormed before.

This was going to be harder than he thought. Turning back, Lex walked up to the elliptical, "Lil." It was all he could say at first, standing there looking at her. He tried very hard to make sense of her anger, but nothing was coming to him. "Sorry," he mumbled.

She lifted her head almost regally: the ice queen that was Diamond Lil fully in place. "Sorry for what exactly?" the blonde woman asked before flicking the machine on and starting her routine with seemingly little care toward the man beside her.

How infantile of her, how absolutely stuck up. Lex wanted to walk away but he knew if he did he'd just be promoting her attitude. "For pissing you off." It was the only honest thing he could say. He couldn't very well apologize for her airing their laundry on the journals.

Lil looked at him again and lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. "If everyone in the mansion apologized for pissing me off every time they did, it's all I'd ever hear." He still had so much to learn about her; her attitude, her ego. Her anger management problems. "Plenty of others who've gotten deeper under my skin than you. Must be because you're pretty," she snarked and upped the speed.

"I guess so," was all he managed. Damn, but she's infuriating, he thought, trying to piece together what he should do next. He knew he'd probably have more luck banging his head against the wall than trying to deal with her like this. "Look, I'm just gonna go. If you want to talk," he paused, trying to think of neutral ground, "I'll be around the kitchen most of the night. I've got a lot of food to prepare." It wasn't exactly neutral, but it was the best he could think of.

"Why would I need to talk when I can apparently read all I need to about you?" she replied, unable to keep the venom from her voice as she pedaled harder on the machine. "You're more truthful in the journals, anyway."

"Is that how you really see it," he asked without turning. He hadn't lied to her, as confused as he may have been, but if that's how she saw it then he'd have to correct her opinion. He wasn't in the habit of lying. In fact, he didn't lie unless it was absolutely necessary, and never to someone he cared about. "I said less than half a dozen words about us and you think I was more truthful then. I meant what I said in the garage, but that doesn't mean I'm going to have an easy time adjusting to it." He refused to turn around to see if she was looking at him, if only on principle.

"You acted like everything was fine then announce you're gonna take over the fucking woods to kill some animals and threatened Kyle," Lil pointed out, her eyes flashing again. "It wasn't the words, it was the stuff behind it. So, if you wanna go on about someone being mature and talking to someone in private, you shoulda done it first. I told you the fucking truth about Madison before anything happened." She'd been up front with him early on; of course, she didn't expect him to to be elated but she also didn't expect a 'must.kill.something' testosterone surge, either. "I told you I ain't looking for a relationship. You want that, there's plenty of other women - and men - in this place that'll be in for it."

"Fuck!" He shouted, not even looking to see if someone had heard him. "You can't help it, can you? Every time I say anything you have to twist it around so that I'm in the wrong." Lex couldn't believe he was having such a hard time trying to communicate with her, all he wanted to do was let it go and try to be more than just awkwardly civil. Now it seemed like every word he said became another point on her little mental notebook to check off. 'Rub point A into his face, and then point B.'

He turned and started to walk away, "I didn't talk to you because I didn't want to push you away. How the fuck was I supposed to tell you that I felt like a confused little Labrador thrown on the street?" Yeah, it was fucking pathetic, and he knew it, but he really didn't know what else to say. He breathed deeply, "You have all right to be pissed, but come the fuck on... If it pissed you off that much you should have just dialed my number and had out with it. Now, I am King Asshat of the Mansion. Well, maybe just below Sam."

"Oh fucking Christ," Lil swore, climbing off the elliptical and balling her fists against her hips. "An abandoned dog? You just met me and you're comparing yourself to a kicked puppy! The juniors at this school could come up with better lines than that!" What was wrong with this guy? Lust was one thing, acting like a teenager was another completely. Especially a forlorn one. "You worried about the way I made you seem to the mansion? They don't care who is fucking who and who isn't. It's gossip for two weeks top and then something else comes along - usually in the form of Weird Shit and explosions. Cut the egotistical bullshit; you're the new guy and people don't really care that fucking much about who is in your bed and who isn't. Especially when it comes to me."

"Alright, so the dog part was a bit much, but it got you to fucking turn around and face me." He sighed, she really was mind-numbing. "Now I can say what I really wanted to say... You ar--wer--are one of the few people at this place I feel I connect with naturally, and I trust you. If you want to say 'fuck off, I never want to see you again' all you have to do is nod." He shrugged deeply, and stared at her, waiting.

"That would make training with the X-Men and missions pretty damn hard to get through if you're gonna dive back out the door each time you see me," she snorted, crossing her arms and popping her hip to the side. Lil was beginning to wonder if mens' brains worked more than fifty percent of the time when there was a woman in the room. "And I've been working too damn hard to get screwed up by this. I've been through much fucking worse. Trust me."

Out of gas, Lex gave up being angry. "Well, I guess that's a bit redundant," he said, forcing a playful smile on his face. "And I wouldn't want to step on any more toes, not for a while anyway." He looked at her, tensing slightly in preparation to avoid being hit if she swung at him.

Lil shook her head and barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes at him. Worse than the ankle-biters. As if she would throw away months and months of training to make Alpha because of an insignificant tiff with him. "I'm invulnerable; try and step on my toes and we'll see what gets broken. But I'll give you some advice: you got a lot to learn about this place and you'd better do it before someone worse than me puts you through a wall, 'cause Sweetie, I'm fucking sunshine compared to someone like an angry Logan."

"Thanks for the advise," he said, his voice tinted with sarcasm, "It's been good, but I've got better things to do than argue with you. Have fun." He'd wanted to say, "than beat my head against a wall of your childish fury,' but he felt that would probably just set off another tirade. So, Lex turned and gave up on a lost cause. If she wanted to make it right she could take the next step, he'd already tried.

She couldn't stop the eyeroll this time. Manchildren were worse than men. "Whatever, Lex," Lil said as she climbed onto the bike, calm and secretly amused at his ridiculous reactions. The 'arguement' barely rated that on her scale of confrontations; no bloodshed, no screaming on her part, no being screwed against the wall afterwards. Just a minor bump in the road with someone who apparently needed to do a lot more hunting to get over himself. "Enjoy your stay at the mansion and don't say I didn't warn you."