xp_logs | Jay & Yvette

A helping hand turns into a little talk and confessions are exchanged until something wrong is said.

The new semester had only just begun and already there was homework. Yvette huffed a small, slightly disgruntled and entirely adolescent sigh as she left the classroom, hefting her book bag higher on her shoulder. Stupid mathematics. At least she had a free period now to get a start on it while it was still fresh... A classmate, one of the newer students attending Xavier's for powers training on a temporary basis, brushed past her in his haste to get outside and she instinctively pulled back, her hair scraping against the wall briefly. She stopped and said something rude under her breath in Albanian as she realised she'd damaged the wallpaper.

And suddenly, the weight of her bag lifted some as Jay walked behind her and then let go in a teasing manner, walking up in front of her. "What was that you said? Cause Ah know normal talkin', you know, flappin' the gums," he mimicked with his hands, pretending to chomp at her with them but obviously not so close that she would be uncomfortable. He walked backwards, raising his eyebrows and pointed at her with both hands. "Cause Ah know Ah didn't hear a swear word from you.."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I am not the innocent baby, you know," she replied, mock-offended. "I had to avoid the boy leaving class and I scratched the wall. So now I will have to ask Kyle to help me to fix it." She looked put out. "My hair, it is the nuisance."
"Yer hair has character," Jay countered and shrugged. "Kyle lives for problems. Ah reckon he'll be that sorta husband for someone, fixin' shit that's broke, fixin' shit that ain't," he clucked and gestured for her bag. "Want me to?"

She unhooked it from her shoulder and held it out to him. "If you want to be the gentleman, then, yes," she replied with a smile. "How are you, Jay? You must be busy - I have not seen you so much again lately."

He took it from her and slung it over her shoulder, grunting before he turned around and fell into step along side of her. Naturally he was frowning on the weight. "Yeah, between DR trainin' , school, work and Red X, Ah'm lucky Ah can stand here and carry this damn thing. The innocent baby luggin' a brick house?" he asked, pausing to switch to his stronger arm and shoulder. "Maybe yer tryin' to break shit on purpose wit this thing, never mind yer hair."
"Blame the teachers, they are the ones giving me all the homework!" she protested in the same vein. "I think they are wanting us to be doing the weight lifting at the same time as going to class, to save the time in the gym, yes?"

"So yer seventeen now right?" he asked, gripping the bag and pulling it over his shoulder more. He reminded himself to do more heavier weights for his chest to bear burdens like this. "So you workin' out then fer all the boys?" he asked but couldn't help the teasing smile.

Yvette ducked her head, embarrassed. "No!" she replied, perhaps a little too quickly. "I am working out for the X-Men training. I need to be stronger, after the kidney transplant, so I am making sure that I am the best health I can be, yes?"

"Sure." Oh he smirked at that. How could he not! There was just no way not to smirk knowingly at such embarressment. Oh Yvette, how you gave yourself away there. "So who? On the team or no?" he asked, heading for the stairs.

"I do not know what you mean," she replied, eyes blazing with embarrassment. "There is no-one."

"Yvette," he pulled the all serious tone. "Ah'm the King of knowin' a crush when Ah see one. Spill."

She literally squirmed under that tone. "It is not anything important," she said, desperate to avoid having to admit to Jay what she was barely admitting to herself. "And it is not like either of them would ever see me as anything but the little sister..." As soon as she said it, she clapped a long-fingered hand over her mouth.

"Oh No! Kevin?!" Jay's laughter forced him to stop on the stairs and he gripped the bannister, howling.

Yvette's face stiffened slightly as her powers kicked in, triggered by teenaged humiliation. "I said it was not important," she said with hurt dignity. She would have stalked off then and there, only Jay still had her book bag. "I am glad that I am able to be such the joke to you."

"Oh c'mon," Jay sobered and started climbing the stairs. "Kinda weird, don't you think? He's mah ex, but it ain't that. All the girls gotta crush on him, who wouldn't? He's hot." He smiled down at her. "Who's the other guy?"

"I do not think I should tell you," Yvette huffed. "You will only laugh at me again." The small red girl sometimes took herself way too seriously, especially in the area of romance and relationships.

"Ah won't laugh, serious. Kevin sorta threw me but Ah should of known that one right off the bat anyways. Who is it? Dukes? Keller? Haller?" he chuckled, throwing Haller in there to throw her off.
She nearly choked at the last. "No!" she protested. "Not Mr. Haller!" Her voice dropped to a mere murmur as she confessed: "It is Kyle. But he has the girlfriend already."

Jay leaned back and his smile was brimming from ear to ear. Both his exs!? That was just too rich, although he didn't laugh! He promised her he wouldn't laugh! "Damn..."

If she could blush, her face would have been scarlet... more scarlet, that is. "See? You think it is funny!" she retorted. "I know it is foolish to think anyone would ever see me like that, but you do not have to be laughing at me for liking someone!"

"Ah'm not!" Jay insisted, still smiling. "C'mon it's like, Kevin and Kyle and you're tellin' me. You don't think that's irony there somewhere?" he asked, making it to the top of the stairs and turning down the hallway. "But seriously, both are good, if you can get their attentions, yanno? Who's to say you can't?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Kyle already has the girlfriend," she pointed out. "And Kevin thinks I am like his little sister. And even if that was not the case, I am not exactly good girlfriend material unless you enjoy having your lips sandpapered off every time you are kissing."

"Okay, first, you need to get outta that mentality cause Ah reckon there's someone out there that would love to be with you, even if it didn't mean uh... kissin you." Tame Jay, keep it PG. "Look at Kevin and Ah -- can't touch him, didn't know he could kiss, yanno? But that didn't stop me. Ah wanted to be with him, Yvette, yanno?" Jay's smile didn't waver, if not, it brightened at the memory gone.

"But it did not last," she pointed out. "And part of it was because of his powers, yes?" She could be annoyingly observant sometimes. "You wanted to be able to do more and he could not."

Jay blew out a sigh, puffing out his cheeks as they headed towards her room, hoping that where he lead her was where she wanted to go. "No," he replied finally. "It ain't causeof his powers. It's cause of me. We stay apart cause of me. Not cause of him or his powers. Sure, there's times where it's frustratin' not to be able to touch or hold hands but someone's always willin togo the extra mile and hold out, wait. Maybe find a way to get around the powers thing. You'll find that out too, find some guy that's gonna wanna be more than physical. Maybe he'll bring you flowers, shower you with cards, do somethin' amazing for you everytime til you wanna be in his company all the time."

Jay stopped and looked down at her, in all seriousness of someone who had taken the risk but his own personal problems got in the way. "Being in a relationship don't mean you need to have sex. Some guy's gonna wanna call you his girlfriend or wife cause yer gonna be his bestriend. That's more vital to a relationship than you think."

"You could be fooling me," she replied, perhaps a touch bitterly. "I read the journals, Jay. I know how important touching is for people." She shook her head. "It does not matter. I have the crush on the two people who will never feel that way about me, and all of the boys my age at the school have the girlfriends already. It is, how you say? The non-topic?"

"Ah dunno Vet. It'll be hard to convince you til you got some dude tailin' yer ass and tryin' to get yer attention. Like an idiot too, he'll probably be all annoyin' and stuff." Come to think of it, Jay had been fairly up-in-your-face about Kevin. "Forget about school tho'. If yer thinkin' school's the only place to look, then we gotta get you out more."

Yvette made a small snorting sound, not really believing anyone would be tailing her any time soon. "There is the drama club," she offered. "There are the students from the other schools in the area to be meeting."

"That's a start. Red X too, yanno? You work with a lotta guys in there." And so did Jay although he was kept well away from the people in need because of his communications position. "Ah ain't tryin' to screw with you Yvette, but seriously, ah'm gonna have a camera and everything when you meet this guy." Was Jay confident? Oh yes, because he knew there were guys out there equally passionate as himself in ways of the heart. "Drama's good but maybe you just need to stop walkin' around like a cattle prod's up yer rear. Try somethin' different. Yanno? Like... flirtin'. "

That stopped her in her tracks. She opened her mouth to protest she did not have anything up her rear, before realising this was Jay and Jay said things like that. Instead, she looked down at the floor and scuffed the carpet with her socked toes. "I do not know how to flirt," she admitted. "I have never done it before."

Jay mimicked her earlier snort. "Everyone knows how to flirt. Don't give me that. Come to think of it, you did it when you asked Kevin if you should be jealous in his journal about them waffling thingers. And he totally bit the worm on the hook, right? So you got it, you just gotta harness that shit. Just don't lay it on thick with Kev too much, he gets real uncomfortable. What about... oh, that new guy? Luke? Nuke?"

"Al," she corrected. "And I think he is too old to be thinking about teenaged girls." She lloked up at him. "So that was flirting, on the journals? I thought I was just being cute and teasing him, yes?"

"Cute n' teasin' is flirting there. See? Yer allready doin' it and ya don't know it. Know what Ah think?" Jay asked, even though it wasn't a question. "Ah think yer just not payin' a whole lotta attention."

"This from the person who is never remembering people's names," she countered. "What am I not paying the attention to?"

"Ah don't really read the journals," Jay reasoned before he stopped at her door and dropped her backpack to the floor. "Shit that's heavy. Okay, flirtin' is teasin. Especially at yer age, sometimes even when it's hurtful and all you wanna do is kick 'em in the nuts." Hello Kyle. "You think too much about this stuff, yanno? Just roll with it. Tho' you might wanna set yer sights on someone who is available. Kevin's...well... Ah dunno how he feels about you and Ah reckon as you get older, he ain't gonna tell you either. Maybe stick with yer drama club for now. Oh hey! I could go sometime, couldn't Ah?"

"If you did, you would not complain so much about not knowing what is happening," Yvette reasoned back. "And perhaps you could come. There wouldn't be anyone for you to flirt with, however - we are all high school students and that would be, how you say? Stealing from the cradle?"

"Robbin' the cradle," Jay corrected. "Like hell Ah would go for anyone else but you. Ah'd go on yer behalf, seriously Yvette, time's already cramped up as it is and besides," Jay grinned. "Ah'm spoken for."

"I am not sure I am trusting your taste, even if I have the crush on both of your exes," Yvette began dubiously. But then she realised what he'd said and blinked. "You are spoken for? Who by?"

"Ah bet you'll like this one too. Not sure Ah can trust yer tastes though," he teased her, withholding information with a devious grin. As if that grin couldn't get any wider.

She pouted. "That is not fair. I told you mine!" she protested. He'd practically had to pry it out of her, but she had.

"Oh alright ya big complainer. Warren, yanno? Blond hair, blue eyes...What? Don't look at me that way."

"The angel man? With the wings?" Yvette frowned a little. "Isn't that difficult for you? To see someone with the wings like you used to have?"

The smile dropped instantly.

"That's the most tactless thing you've said to me in all the time Ah've known you."

Yvette winced. "I am sorry," she said, looking down again. "I did not mean to be. It is just... I remember how hard it was for you, with the new wings..." She recalled him begging her to cut the wings off as if it was yesterday, his raw pain burned into her memory. "I did not think. Please, to be ignoring that I said such a thing." As always when she was flustered, her English started slipping.

"It's fine. Forget it. Anyways," Jay ran a hand through his hair. "Ah gotta get goin. Said Ah would run some things to the dump fer Kyle. Don't study too hard," he teased but it didn't reach his eyes as he turned and headed back down the hallway.

"Jay..." she began, but he'd already left. Yvette swore in Albanian under her breath, her hair spiking abruptly into long points and her fingers ripping through the gloves for a moment, tearing through the self-repairing cloth faster than it could repair itself and making long rents through the dress she was wearing over her bodysuit. A moment later and the gloves were whole again.

"Damnit!" she exclaimed, looking down. Some days it seemed she couldn't do anything right.