Morgan & Lex | night

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

After dinner with Adrienne Morgan stops by to check up on Lex post-mission and their friendship unintentionally "evolves."

The only thing she really missed about mansion life was that when it got slippery and snowy on the ground she could just borrow one of the community vehicles to get where she needed to go. A motorcycle was just not friendly with the northeast of the country. Morgan had managed to hop on a ride to the mansion with someone earlier in the day, though it meant she was a little stranded unless she convinced Adrienne or Garrison to give her a ride back to the city. It was too bad she wasn't friends with any of the teleporters and she lacked that faster than the speed of sound boyfriend now. Those would have been damn convenient ways of getting about, in a really self-centered sort of way and all.

Milling about the mansion, though, Morgan had heard that the X-Men had been unleashed on the world and that her little boy toy had been taken along for the ride. He really hadn't hesitated to jump into the middle of things, had he? Figuring checking up on Lex was as good as any other option for things to do, Morgan detoured into the town center, grabbed a six pack of Bass and then headed off to his suite. Of course, she realized as she knocked on his door, it was entirely possible he wouldn't be there. Then she'd just have to leave the beer outside the door with a ribbon tied to it and head back down to the pool, which is why she'd come to the mansion anyway. She could put in a few more miles in the pool, it wouldn't hurt. Her hair was still wet in its braid from her swim earlier anyway.

Lex sat comfortably in his apartment. He heard the knocking, and moved slowly towards the suite door. He'd seen a few visitors since his return from the mission, but for the most part he was content with lounging about in his boxers and doing nothing. It was a good way to celebrate such an awkward victory. In one mission he'd been poisoned and paralyzed, shocking a teammate and sending one of their targets to the great beyond by throwing him beneath a train. The images induced by the psychotropic venom still harassed his senses, forcing their way into his dreams and attacking his peripheral vision. He'd have to see Hank about that later.

"One moment," he called, wondering if he should put on some pants. He decided that anyone knocking on his door would be alright with seeing him dressed as he was, and if they didn't he'd simply tell him it was part of being injured.

Morgan arranged her face in an annoyed near pout when she heard Lex call out, doing her best to look thoroughly put out by the wait. She also stashed the six pack behind her back as best she could, though in order to not appear overly obvious she did have to let it dangle there behind her. The six pack was a bit visible but as long as Lex's eyes were on her face when he opened the door instead of her crotch he shouldn't notice it too quickly.

Opening the door, Lex expected it to be another teammate checking up on him. He did not expect Morgan to be standing there, especially not with an extremely annoyed expression on her face.. "Uh, I, uh...Hello." He couldn't really say anything else because he didn't know what was going on. After a moment his wits returned to him and he decided he should let her in. Stepping back he waved for her to enter.

"Just leave me out here in the bitter, frigid cold of the hallway. Make me wait. What am I, your tween fan or summat?" Her eyes were up near the top of the doorway, not on Lex in the least as she said that. When they swept downward the well-crafted look of annoyance faded and Morgan quirked an eyebrow up. Her eyes went from the bandage across Lex's chest, bounced from one bruise to another and then down far enough to note that he was amazingly undressed. "You undress nicely, soldier boy," Morgan told him with a dry note of sarcasm and an underlying note of appreciation in her voice. "You even come colored. How cute. Purple's not really your color." Her hand reached out, finger tracing the edge of one bruise. "Green suits, though."

He made sure not to flinch when she touched tender areas of his body, but it did not stop him from looking down self-consciously. There was nothing to say, he simply closed the door behind her as his cheeks blushed. It's not like I did it just for her, he thought, hoping that she wouldn't harass him too much. "Well, I did where a lot of camo when I was younger," he threw out, to cover for his embarrassment, as though younger was not a mere eight months ago. "But that's not important. What is, is why you happen to be here today." He quirked his eyes in the most alluring look of inquisition he could muster.

Was he blushing? Head tilting to the side, Morgan stared at Lex and decided that yes, he really was blushing. "Cute," she commented without explaining what it was in reference to. She tried to suppress her grin over it but it resulted in more of a smirk than anything else. So she turned and walked further into the suite before holding up the six pack and letting it dangle from the fingers that held it. "I was already around, heard you got dragged off with the leather brigade recently, figured I'd check that all your limbs were intact. Nate'd always come back and end up in medlab. Not sure how many concussions he ended up with before he finally quit the team a few months ago."

"I remember," he said while looking over the beer. Bass, he grinned, how thoughtful. "I did end up in the medbay but I was released to allow for Hank's caring of more serious injuries. Mine are more psychological anyway." He didn't explain, just smiled and held out his hands for the beer. He'd grab two and put the rest in the fridge.

She placed the beer in his waiting hands gently, letting go of it later than necessary as if she wasn't sure he'd manage the weight. "Psychological? So you're now pretty but entirely fucked in the head and might snap at any minute and try to kill me? Lovely. Why don't they ever warn you in advance that they're crazy and prone to snapping?" The last was mostly muttered to herself under her breath.

Lex laughed as he handed a beer back to her, moving around towards the fridge. "No, more like I can't really recall what happened after a minute or two into the action, and what I can remember doesn't make any sense. The doc said I was poisoned with some sort of psychotropic substance? I don't remember, it was above my pay grade. I mean, over my head." He smiled as he finished putting the other beers away.

"Cheers."

"Psychotrophic?" She considered that and smirked. "So like hallucinations and shit? The happy naked faeries sort or the creepy monsters out to get you sort?" Cracking her beer open, Morgan raised it to Lex and gave him a nod. "Cheers. To us all surviving your impending psychotic break!"

Their bottles clinked and Lex took a large swig before speaking. "Yeah, hallucination isn't quite strong enough in my opinion. I thought reality had disappeared and was replaced by a terrifying nightmare. It was strong enough to make me lose control of my powers, shocking the hell out of Jay." He laughed a little, the blue man had stopped by to apologize and neither of them had expected the other's reaction.

Morgan quirked an eyebrow up at him. "Obviously we gotta work on your impulse control issues," she joked lightly. "Friendly fire's never acceptable. Aye, and you need better mental images. What, you couldn't have thought you stepped into the Playboy mansion instead? At least then you'd be happier, no doubt. Even if you would need a lot of..." she trailed off and raised a hand to make finger quotes when she said, "'private time.'"

"I think the point of hallucinations is you don't get to control them." Lex looked at her and stretched a little, letting his muscles tense and relax as he did so. He could roll with a joke as good as any of them. "Besides, then they'd have to be cleaning up two messes."

He was doing that on purpose, Morgan was sure. And she was completely falling for it because she wasn't quick enough to stop her eyes from following the movement of his muscles under his skin when he did that. Bastard. "Aye. Unless you got too excited over it and your powers backfired on you. That could be unfortunate. How do you feel about life as a eunuch?"

Ignoring her question for a moment, Lex stood up and proceeded to the fridge for another round of beers. He made sure to continue teasing Morgan as he did so, fully aware that she couldn't ignore the movements of his exposed flesh. He couldn't think of a witty response to her question, but he knew how to play the game well enough.

Eyes narrowing on Lex as he walked past her, Morgan chose to walk away from him and the kitchen. She stopped at the window because that was nice and safe even if the view left something to be desired. Winter wasn't a pretty season unless snow covered the ground and even then old snow didn't exactly inspire epic poetry and power ballads either.

Beers in hand Lex proceeded towards the woman framed elegantly by the window. As he approached he sensed a subtle change in her manners and so he stepped up beside her and remained silent. He held the beers, ready to pass one along as soon as she asked, but made no motion to interrupt her thoughts. His were a chaotic blend of intrigue and desire, and he did not know how anything would come out.

"I haven't liked winter since I was a kid and could hope for snow days to shut down school," she commented. "I miss deserts, actually." It wasn't the cold that bugged her about the northeast of the US. It was the way everything living died suddenly. Everything had a shelf life but did everything have to turn around and kick it at the same time? Morgan swallowed down the rest of the beer in her hand. "Sorry, I should be stupidly perky to cheer you up since you're all battered but I think I'm all out of stupidly spastic today, love."

Turning towards her, Lex didn't know what to say. He set the bottles on the windowsill and took her hand in his. It was a simple gesture, but one he hoped would communicate an understanding of the sentiment, if not where she was coming from. He'd seen more death than most but it shook him sometimes to hear another's perspective on the matter.

Vanessa swallowed the lump in her throat from the sudden contact and set her eyes on their hands. She was tall and that gave her long fingers but Lex's hand still dwarfed hers, the blue swallowed in his grasp. A small smile followed and her eyes moved back up to Lex's face. "Don't worry, I won't wilt or anything." A lot of the Irish in her voice melted off, her Boston accent thickening in response.

"Not what I was worried about," he replied softly, taking her head in his other hand and running his fingers gently through her soft white hair. The change in her accent didn't register on a conscious level, he was too wrapped up in the moment.

What was he doing? Did he know what he was doing? Maybe it's the hallucinations, she told herself. Vanessa licked her lips for want of something to do. "What were you worried about then?"

"To be honest," he paused, slightly overwhelmed, "I'm not sure. I, uh, didn't know whether you'd appreciate it and if you didn't I thought you might, you know, react on instinct." It was the best he could do to put his intense desire and fear into words. He paused in stroking her head, if she didn't want him to continue he could withdraw it and let the issue fade with the contact.

"Worried but you don't know why. React on instinct and figure if I don't want you to I'll stop you," she trailed off, head tilting to the side while she watched him. "But now you're second guessing that decision." Vanessa tried to stop the slightly amused smile that came onto her lips but she didn't try that hard really. She made the decision abruptly and likely could have explained why she'd done it but Vanessa would really have rather not thought about it too much when her hand shifted in his.

She didn't pull her hand away, just shifted until her fingers could lace through his. Then she kissed him, very lightly. "Thinking's obviously not your strong suit, soldier boy," she whispered, voice playful and affectionate though the presence of both was subdued but the note of curiosity present.

Lex accepted her kiss, tensing in arousal, and drew closer to her in the process. Forgetting about his half-nakedness he cozied up to her and looked her in the eyes. Everything seemed to make sense, from one moment to the next, but he couldn't quite fathom why. She's right, was all he could manage to think.

As their lips met a second time, he brought his hand gently down to her neck supporting them both as he let go of any attempt to analyze what was happening. It would be better just to experience than to try and explain how he'd fallen for the one person he feared in his new life. It simply wouldn't make sense.

Letting go of his hand, Vanessa let her hands smooth over his skin up his arms and across his shoulders. So much tension and it wasn't all the right kind. That much she could tell by touch. A half step closer brought her body flush against Lex's, her clothes the only thing stopping the contact of skin-on-skin. She let her fingers lace into his hair, pull him closer as she let the kiss deepen. You didn't have as much experience as Vanessa did without learning to read people's bodies. He needed to relax more, calm in a way, and this was the only way she knew to help him find that.

Melting into her body, Lex found himself at peace with what they were doing. The aching in his muscles dulled as Morgan's hands slid over them. With each passing moment he let go of some small worry until nothing remained but a sense of deep elation. He wanted nothing more than what she'd given him, and so he turned all of his attention to pleasing her, shifting his now free hand down her back until it rested at the base of her spine.

Old habits, she thought to herself, though she knew it wasn't true. Maybe bits of it were. Knowledge from old habits applied for different reasons still made it different, right? It was enough to make her back off from the kiss, though. Vanessa let it end slowly, lips lingering longer than they needed to. He had relaxed though, that counted for something. She leaned back a little, back arching to put distance between their upper bodies though her hips still pressed against his body. "Aren't you supposed to be half-terrified that I'm going to snap and kill you any minute?"

"Past that," he replied in a dark and gentle tone. He wanted to tell her she'd stolen his line, but knew that it would not come out right. Instead, he followed her body and brought his cheek against hers so he could whisper in her ear, "No more words." Then he kissed it and buried his head between her neck and shoulder. Solace.

"Mm..." Vanessa nodded, fingers running through his hair. She could handle no words. There were plenty of other ways to say things if they needed to be said. Then again she was rather adept at silence as well.