One Year On: The Aftermath

[x-volcanic.livejournal.com]

Backdated again, Amara breaks up a fight at the Day Zero vigil by scaring off the participants, and loses most of her clothes in the process. Ever the gentleman, Bishop comes to the rescue with her jacket. A detour to pool hop on the way turns from a harmless bit of fun to a serious conversation when they discuss Amara's outlook on life and having fun.

The fight had started to get out of hand - it hadn't helped that many of the attendees had been holding candles when the fight broke out, but quite a few of them had had bottles that were now being turned into make-shift weapons. Amara had been trying to talk people down from the fighting, but after an overzealous guy had accidentally backhanded her when she'd been trying to yell at him to stop, she knew it just wasn't going to happen. She wove and ducked her way through the crowd to find Bishop once more - which wasn't hard, given how tall the man was - and shoved her purse and the shoes she'd kicked off once she'd been able to stop.

"Hold these for me!" She said without waiting for an argument, instead ducking back out into a clear space near some of the worst of the fighting and lighting up. One moment the fighting raged near her, the next moment it stopped as the figure of flame turned to look at them. Her change certainly hadn't helped the panic - if anything, there was even more now - but there were quite a few people now too shocked to keep up the fight they'd been having.

Bishop only laughed softly when Amara handed him her purse and shoes. He wouldn't be able to fire into the crowd, of course, and his powers didn't lend themselves to an awesome display without something to at least charge from. Instead, he let his date take control to clear out the crowd. The former cop could always get involved if he was needed and he did like to see a strong woman work.

A year ago, it probably wouldn't have even occurred to Amara to throw herself into the fray like this. Getting in the middle of a fight just did not seem like a good idea - ever - and especially not deliberately using her powers like this. But she had several months of X-Men training under her belt, and she felt mildly confident that she could handle this. Bottles and candles did not really pose much of a threat, and there were few people who would try and start something with someone on fire. -- at least not at an event like this.

Amara's actions did have their desired effect - the momentary pause in the fighting meant that more people were able to get clear, and those who had been fighting were kept from returning to it by other good Samaritans and the security guards that had shown up. Amara fell back to where Bishop was standing, still on fire.

"Bishop," she said in a strangled voice, trying not to speak too loudly. "Could I borrow your jacket?"

Without argument, Bishop took his jacket off and held it out for Amara. "If I'd have known, I'd have brought a longer jacket." He smirked. "Or a better camera, there's really no telling."

"Oh, that's not even funny," Amara replied, in the voice that usually accompanied her blushing a vivid red. She powered down, the world getting a flash of Amara in her underwear before she drove for Bishop's jacket, wrapping it around her in a hurry. It was probably a good thing he was so much taller than her, the jacket falling to part way down her thigh.

"Thank you very much," she said with all the dignity she could muster, her cheeks a bright red now. "I forgot my dress wasn't flame retardant."

"You know, it's said that women wear black underwear when they expect their underwear to be seen." Bishop left the comment at that, helping to usher Amara out of the crowd and back to his car.

Bishop, you were so not helping with her blushing problems.

Amara's door was held open as she entered and, after entering himself and starting the car, Bishop looked over to her. "Now what?" He gave her a smile somewhere between cautious and teasing.

Amara settled down into the seat, tugging his jacket in close around her. The blushing had faded to just a slightly embarrassed smile, and she was extremely glad that most people had been too busy getting out of the area to notice her walking around in only a jacket.

"Do you think someone at the Brownstone would lend me something to wear to get home? As lovely as your jacket is, I don't really think it's very appropriate."

"I'm sure they will but that's going to lead to rumors." Bishop said that only to warn her as he began to drive them back to the Brownstone. "Taking you back to the mansion would too, though."

"I think there are less people to talk at the Brownstone, perhaps? And it is a shorter drive there than back to the mansion." And Amara was pretty sure sitting in the car for the amount of time it took to get back to the mansion in just his jacket would get a lot more embarrassing than facing the people at the Brownstone in search of clothes.

Especially given how many people she could run into if she went back to the mansion.

Without warning Amara about his plan, Bishop drove past the Brownstone to affluent neighborhood not too far outside the city. He didn't want to give her too much time to worry herself and she likely wouldn't notice much wrong until he turned the car's lights off before fulling pulling up next to a nice, gated house with a large and probably heated swimming pool that bordered the street.

Amara hadn't been paying too much attention to their surroundings, just simply because she didn't know New York well enough to really know it that well. So when Bishop did pull up at the house, she was confused, to say the least. "Where are we?"

"Not as important a question as what we're about to be doing. Pool hopping." Bishop smirked to Amara as he stepped out of the car and moved around to open her door for her. "You've probably had a sheltered enough life to have no idea what that is and I'm going to teach you."

"Well, not exactly sheltered," she protested, getting out of the car with the jacket still wrapped tight around her. "But we call pools at home are very different to what Americans call pools." She looked over at the house, her eyes wide. "But it is true, I have never heard of pool hopping before. What is it?"

"When we find a nice pool, like this one, and help ourselves to it." Bishop should have just let Amara fly over the fence but that was losing half the fun. Instead he hoisted her up and over by the hips before jumping the fence himself. "Remember to be quiet and ready to run." He knew the residents weren't home from patrolling the area in the past but he didn't have to share that with her.

"What!" Amara squeaked, too surprised to do anything except let Bishop lift her over the fence, then stand there looking mildly panicked. "Seriously? Is this even -- okay?! What if the people who live here wake up? Or come home?"

"We run." Bishop laughed softly, pulling off his shirt as he pushed his shoes off with his feet. "That's supposed to be half the fun."

"Really?" Amara quickly looked away from Bishop, somewhat glad the dark was probably hiding her blush. "Do you do this sort of thing a lot?"

"Haven't even thought of it since I was a teenager." It was a simple reply that Bishop didn't think too much about. Instead, once he had stripped down to his boxers, he dove in with only a light splash.

Amara bit her lip, hovering at the pool's edge, unsure of whether she should follow him in. In a fit of impulsiveness she shed the jacket and slipped into the water, momentarily shocked by the cold as she sank until she was submerged up to her chin. Oh my oh my oh my.

Bishop surfaced and smiled to Amara when he saw her in the pool. "I hoped you were going to join in." He hadn't been sure if she was going to be the type of person to let herself be impulsive occasionally. He was glad it turned out that she was.

"I'm still not sure that it is a very good idea," she said with a little bit of a smile. But she'd been encouraged on more than one occasion to let herself have fun occasionally, and if this wasn't the perfect opportunity for it, then what was? Apart from the possibility of getting caught.

"It's not supposed to be." Bishop laughed again softly and waded close enough to Amara they could talk softly without being too close. His experience is judging body language was useful to him often enough he was still even surprised by it. "That's part of the point."

"Oh, I see," she said with a nervous laugh. She pushed away from the wall slightly, just enough so she wasn't obviously clinging to it. "I'm sure I should be disapproving of you encouraging bad behavior. But this is nice."

"I got the impression that you didn't indulge in some bad behavior as often as you should." Bishop didn't back up when she moved away from the wall, even as she closed some of the distance between them. This escape was for her to have fun and do as she pleased without as much worry. After the fight she deserved it.

She laughed a little at that. "Before I came to America, I did not at all. I could not embarrass my father in such a manner. And now I am the only citizen of Nova Roma present in America. Perhaps few know about it, but if we ever did go public, I would not like my behavior to reflect badly on us."

"Why? Afraid some dumb jackasses are going to judge an entire country and culture based off the actions of one single person? I'm not sure why anyone would care what someone like that would think in the first place." Usually when a topic like this came up Bishop would close off. Today, since Amara had opened up to him in some ways, it was only fair to return the favor. "You shouldn't let any of those people control you with their prejudice. That's not their right."

"Yes," she said very seriously. "My father is the leader of our people. Is it not the responsibility of a leader and his family to set a good example?" Amara looked over to him, her nervousness about being in the pool with him forgotten. "I would shame my father forever if I acted like some of the women with whom I attend college, and I would shame myself. I would not be able to live with myself if I did either of these things."

"If you try to please everyone then you're not going to be able to please anyone." Bishop shrugged at the idea of trying to not be shamed. He wasn't suggesting that she be absolutely wild but after a career in law enforcement he knew that people had to do what was right independently of what people thought.

"Oh, I do not think it is worth trying to please everyone," she said with a smile. "I do know that is impossible. But I do try to please the people I think are worth pleasing." While her father and her people were high on that list, so were the friends she'd made in America. "And it does not cost me anything to be nice to those who are not." Which wasn't exactly true. Amara still spent so much time swallowing what she thought and how she felt so as to not upset the apple cart.

"Just make sure to have fun occasionally." Bishop laid back a bit in the water, floating freely for a moment was he watched his company.. He left the topic fall away. He had made his point and she had made hers; even if they did still seem to disagree a bit. He'd be better served helping her by taking her out than by trying to change her mind.

"I'm having fun now," she pointed out with a wider smile than before. And she was, despite the serious turn in their conversation. She did enjoy spending with Bishop, and despite this being technically trespassing and technically something they could get into a lot of trouble (or well, at least what was serious trouble for Amara) for, she was enjoying herself.

"Lets make sure it stays like that, then." Bishop offered a smile in return as he floated in the pool with her. He didn't seem to be concerned at all with anything other than enjoying the moment with Amara.