Lex and Adrienne- at Harry's (backdated to Thursday night)

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Lex runs in to Adrienne at Harry's and after she tells him of her recently contracted Serious Illness they discuss the X-Men and Lex's frustrations with his training, which leads Adrienne to offer help of a sort Lex is sure he doesn't need.

After calling ahead to Harry's to be certain that Garrison wouldn't be at the bar, Adrienne happily headed over to catch the baseball game (though it did feel a little strange watching without the Jays fan.) After downing two beers within the first inning and another two in the second, she started yelling at the television screen.

By the fifth inning, she was starting to wonder why she'd ever wanted to watch by herself when it was much more fun to watch with Garrison. Green eyes lit up however when she spotted another victim coming into the bar. "Lex! Lex! Come watch baseball with me! I don't wanna watch by myself!"

Lex made his way across the bar, ordering a whiskey straight up on his way over to Adrienne's table. He watched the girl flailing at the television and wondered how much she had already had. Deciding it would be a bad idea to ask he took a seat with a devilish grin. "So, I see you're already having fun," he said turning to the screen, "What game we watching?"

"Baseball!" she answered cheerfully. "And baseball is always fun. Do you like baseball? It doesn't sound like you like baseball, if you have to ask me what we're watching."

"Ah, you got me." He said with a smile, "I'm not a huge fan of watching it, but I'll make an exception for a pretty girl like yourself." His drink came and he downed it with a quick gulp, ordering another one with the flick of his hand. The days seemed to be much longer when there wasn't a rigid structure to them, and he found himself at a loss for how to deal with his extra time. Training helped, as it provided him something to focus on, but it was also very draining.

"Yay, I'm pretty!" The crack of a bat had her head whipping around from Lex to the television. When the play was over, however, she turned back to him. "Don't try to flatter the pretty girl though, G.I. Joe," she warned, giving him her sternest expression. "I should warn you, I have recently come down with a serious disease."

"Well, that is sad," he said with a pleased grin, "I hope it's nothing too serious." He turned to the game with her and watched for a few moments before getting bored.

"It's really serious, I think," she answered, frowning. "I've come down with a case of feelings for another guy."

"Now that is serious," he feigned a face of dour contemplation. "I hear the best cure for that is to tell the man what's what..." He said, leaning back heavily. He didn't know who she liked, and frankly he couldn't care less, but if it provided him with an opportunity to take his mind off training he'd be more than willing to listen to her. "Or the nearest male-of-no-import."

Adrienne made a face. She definitely wasn't going to be telling him what was what. The thrill of having confrontations about her personal life had faded. Best just to avoid Garrison until the feelings went away. "Aww, come on, don't be like that," she pleaded, addressing his other comment. "You're not of no import. You're definitely import-able. Just because Lil chose to go back to her husband and leave the mansion doesn't mean you weren't import...ant." The baseball game distracted her again and she got momentarily lost in it, and her beer.

"Not what I was talking about, but..." He just let it die off, he didn't want to talk about her. Trying to focus on the game while he collected his thoughts, he realized that he needed another drink. He flagged the waitress down, pointing to his drink and smiling. She nodded and he was glad he didn't have to say anything. "I meant it more as me not being part of the situation." He waited till she turned back to him and gave her a sarcastic shake of the head, as though she should have read his mind.

"Well why didn't you just say that?" she questioned. "Doesn't matter anyway," she muttered after a pause, shaking her head to send sable curls bouncing around her face, "I'm not telling the man who's not part of the situation what's what either. Mostly because I don't know what's what yet. I have to figure out what's what. And until then, I'm hiding out from him. How was your luau?"

"It was good. They came, they ate, they destroyed the back lawn so I spent most of the night helping Amara clean it up." He shrugged, "If it didn't clear me, I'm sure Jay's antics did. He's stolen my asshat of the week crown several times over now." He hoped that would cheer her up, but with his earlier failure he thought she might just shrug.

"See, I told you," Adrienne answered, toasting him with her nearly-empty beer, "we've all done it. Jay's a pro. Though I have no idea what you're talking about, so obviously his is not quite as bad as yours or it would have been on the public journals, not some filter."

"Sorry, I don't normally differentiate between the filters. He started in about nicknames and got himself into a lot of trouble with the team." Lex drained his glass, and feeling a little lightheaded decided he was done for the evening. Adrienne could continue to drink all she wanted, and he'd walk her home, but he wasn't going to let himself get any worse, in case he started talking about inappropriate things.

Adrienne called to Briar to order Lex another drink. "You're on the team now?" She couldn't remember if she was supposed to have known that earlier or not. "How do you like it so far?"

"Frankly, I suck. I feel like a killer being retrained to fit into society. It's not that I don't agree with the team's methods, it's just very difficult to ignore my instincts. Beyond that, I can't control my powers well enough to complete even the basic scenarios without some serious luck. I don't understand how they all can control their abilities so easily, I can't seem to keep my energy expenditure at the appropriate levels to incapacitate people without taking forever to calculate it." He said, looking from her to the barkeep, and back. He wanted to say that he'd had enough, but the look on her face told him he was in for the long haul. He thought he might be able to keep pace, if he didn't slam the next couple right off the bat.

Tearing her eyes away from the television, Adrienne sipped at her beer and focused on Lex. She'd heard about half of what he'd said. "Ever try meditation? I have to do it to control my powers or they go haywire and I can't get out of a reading I'm in, or I'll read something unintentionally. And then usually I fall down."

"Uh, no. I don't think meditation would give me better control over my powers. I think it's a little more complicated than that." His voice was unassuming, though he was kind of annoyed at her dismissive tone. He knew he needed to figure out how to move forward, but he didn't have the first idea how, even with all of Scott's help.

"So what, my powers aren't complicated?" Adrienne asked, defensive. "Meditation helps with all kinds of shit, because it's all about getting your mind clear and ordered, and it seems like you could use the help. Besides," she added, shrugging as she polished off another beer, "you say it's complicated, but obviously if you knew what you were doing you wouldn't suck, so maybe you shouldn't sneer at my suggestion until you've actually tried it."

"I'm not saying that." Lex knew he was straying into bad waters, "I wasn't knocking your suggestion, well maybe I was, but it's not because I didn't think it was good. I'm just stressed out and I don't think it'll work for me." He looked at her and tried to make himself look cute and innocent, but knew he probably looked a far sight more hilarious than anything. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"You're still not getting this, are you?" Adrienne laughed, wondering how dense he really could be, "it's something you're supposed to do when you're stressed out. And if you're going to be so close-minded not to even try, then I give up. I'm not offended. I'd have to actually care to be offended." She turned back to the screen and waved for another beer.

I'm too tired, or too drunk, to be talking, Lex thought to himself, If I open my mouth again she's probably going to hit me. Despite his own thoughts, he tried to reconcile what he was saying, "Adrienne, I..." How to proceed from such a terrible beginning? "I'm really not trying to be closed-minded, I appreciate your offer, and I really would like to do it with you..." Somehow that didn't sound right in his mind, too sexual. "What I mean is-" For fuck's sake, he thought, How the hell am I ever supposed to master my powers when I can't even talk right?

He shrugged and ordered another drink, waiting for the world to send him a sign.

"What you mean is what, G.I. Joe?" Adrienne inquired lazily, still watching the game.

"What I mean..." He paused to take a drink, "is that I am just going to shut up and enjoy the game with you. I think I need to take a bit of a leave from training, starting tomorrow." He knew he'd made his mind up earlier in the week but he hadn't told anyone yet. He'd have to email Scott later, but he wasn't looking forward to it.

"Giving up already?" Realizing how harsh that sounded, Adrienne turned reluctantly back to Lex in an attempt to soften what she'd said. "I guess you need time to get your head on straight. You did jump into the team kind of fast. I could help you with the meditation shit if you want to try. I'm still learning it but I can teach you the basics. I kickass at teaching when I haven't been drinking."

"I'd like that." He said, glad that he hadn't pissed her off to the point where she wouldn't talk to him. "I'm not giving up, not even close, but after the evaluation Scott gave me. I clearly need to get my head on straight.