Morgan & Nick, then Vanessa & Lex | Sunday

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Sunday morning Morgan stops by the mansion for some cathartic target practice and to check out the wolfboy on Jean-Paul's behalf.

The convenient thing about the mansion was that it accumulated a fair number of people in one place. Morgan could show up at Xavier's on the premise of visiting any one of a number of people. She could show up saying she just wanted to use the pool or the archery range or the shooting range. Given the occupational irritation she'd had recently, firing off a few dozen rounds on the shooting range sounded like an ace idea. But she wasn't actually trying to scare the kid to death so she kept the gun in the bag slung over her shoulder and kept her eyes peeled for the teenager.

Nick the wolfboy, prey of the day. She would've been happy to sit him down and give him the "you hurt her and I kill you slowly" lecture all on her own if she'd been paying enough attention to know the kitten had started to date him. Weren't cats and dogs not supposed to get along? Morgan shrugged to herself. Somehow Jean-Paul had decided in the midst of his hermit aspirations that he wanted to make sure the kid was good enough for Catseye. It was admirable and if he was invested in Catseye it was a good sign. She was sure it would bode well to encourage attachment, so she was here on his behalf to make sure Nick was sincere. At least those were Jean-Paul's words.

Nick had already stuck a play under his arm and begun shuffling off towards the woods. Although he was working his way out of his emo-funk, the boy wasn't about to go for spending too much time in the mansion until he was able to face Megan and the others without wanting to run out the front door screaming. But something was different as he hit the bottom step. Someone he didn't recognize. With his fear of strangers firmly in place, and the hair on the back of his neck instinctively standing up and telling him to turn into a wolf and run out the door, he swallowed deeply, taking a few steps back, but tried to remain calm. "Um... can I help you?" He knew that if the stranger was in the mansion, she was more than likely a friend, not a foe, but after the incident with the girl called Regan last month, he didn't want to take any chances.

Morgan gave the kid one of Vanessa's smiles, warm and curving her entire mouth up gracefully into the expression. Yet it was Morgan's amused sarcasm that said, "Not unless you've decided you want to play the target on the shooting range." A white eyebrow quirked upward and she tilted her head to the side, pretending to try to place his face. "Aye, you're Nick, yeah? One of the new-ish students? I'm Morgan, I used to teach self-defense before I took a job in the city with Snow Valley." What Snow Valley did was an open secret in the mansion, but that didn't mean he'd paid enough attention to get in on the information.

Nick did a quick double take. Of all the visitors to the mansion, it was very rare that anyone knew who he was. Scratching the back of his head with one hand, he pushed one into the front pockets of his jeans, rocking back on his heels in an awkward motion. "Yeah, I'm Nick." He swallowed hard again before the first half of the statement sank in. "But I think I'll have to pass on the whole human target thing, never been the most agile kid."

Feigning a sigh, Morgan shrugged. "That's probably for the best, really. I wasn't trained for shooting to disarm or subdue. There's pretty much only one really you should ever really shoot someone, otherwise you've got other options." Although depending on the situation sometimes shooting was the only way to disarm someone. Then again, sometimes you shot the hostage instead. Why did she suddenly have a very Looney Toons situation in her head that involves shooting a pulley that dropped a massive, metal pipe on someone's head. "You're friends with the kitten, aye? Not really much in the mood to go and maim her mates anyway."

Nick let out a nervous laugh. He tried not to let the comment sink in too much. Through the strong work of Kurt, Shiro, and few others he wasn't completely petrified of everyone in the mansion, but he wasn't going to drop the paranoid nature without some hesitation. "Kitten?" The boy had to think for a few seconds before the purple-haired girl jumped into his head. "Oh, you mean Catseye? We're um..." He swallowed again. "We're close..." He never knew how much he should say about Cats. The vision of Jay's metal wings and Forge's pipe still flashed in his head.

"Aye, Catseye." There was a fond, but distinctly amused smirk on her face. The expression was Morgan's, not Vanessa's, with only one corner of her mouth pulled into it. The kid was filled with anxiety, she could see that just from his body language. Interesting. She wondered if he was always that jumpy or if he'd had one too many friendly conversations about his girlfriend. The catgirl did have a fair few protective types as friends, after all. "So, are you always this twitchy or am I special? 'Cause the gun's not loaded and the clip's in my pocket. The gun's in the bag." She nodded to the bag slung over her shoulder. "I'm not going to shoot you." She was pretty damn sure he wasn't going to end up deserving it.

"It's kind of my thing." He forced a half-smile over his face, but still couldn't let himself relax at all. Nick had learned that just because any current or former member of the mansion didn't have a loaded gun ready and at their fingertips, didn't mean that they weren't dangerous.

"How does one end up dating Catseye when you're that twitchy," she wondered aloud. "Seems like she'd fuck with you just to make you twitch more." Morgan couldn't help smiling at that. She would have done the exact same thing, actually. It was probably a damn good thing Lex wasn't that twitchy. Well, not since he'd stopped twitching because he thought she might kill him any moment. "If it makes you feel any better, the gun wasn't for you and the mutation isn't offensive."

The boy tried to relax just a little bit, but the most he could do was push his other hand into his pocket to stop himself from shaking. "She does sometimes. It's..." He paused for a second to think through his words as a true smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as the purple cat came into his mid. "It was annoying at first, but it's actually kinda fun now." He turned his head to the side, still trying to get a read on the woman in front of him.

"Sounds like the kitten. Don't tell her I still call her that, though." The metamorph got a shifty look on her face. "She gets really annoyed at me for it." Morgan, however, was completely unrepentant about that. She watched the teenager, the smile on his face and the way his body language changed. He seemed to be calming down a little, maybe even relaxing a bit. But not much. She could respect that. But that smile was real and the fondness that went with it was as well. "Sometimes you need someone to push your buttons, you know. Gets you out of your comfort zone, forces you to interact on another level. If it's done right it can be good for you. Seems like her button pushing is."

"Yeah, if it wasn't for her, I'd probably still be holed up in my room most of the time. I don't think of it so much as button pushing as her gently nudging me every now and then." Nick was surprised even at himself, being so open with the new visitor. But she was talking about one of his favorite topics. "Do you want me to grab you some food, or anything?" The boy felt awkward in the entrance hall, and during his short time at the mansion had quickly come to realize that a lot of his best talks in the mansion happened inside the kitchen. Maybe there really was something about the healing nature of food.

"You know, 'food' is like the magic word." What she wouldn't give to have Jean-Paul around and being her bitch to do something with all the venison she handed over. Sure, there were plenty of people who would do something with the meat about still but it wasn't quite the same. Morgan gestured for Nick to lead the way. "Nudging's good. A nudge here, a prod there. People who like to hide in their shells end up finding out they've lost half their shell sometimes that way. It's not a bad thing necessarily."

"Yeah, but it's hard to stay in your shell when you have a purple paw batting at you every few seconds." The boy began pushing his way through several of the small doorways on the ground floor of the mansion. It was still hard to believe how incredibly lost he had been during the whole summer when trying to bob through the same path. "So I take it your another of Catseye's 'big siblings'?"

"Um, I'm not sure I qualify for that. I don't have talks about where babies come from or try to help her develop as a person. Mostly I was a willing pillow and petter when I lived here. Aye, but I got a little attached to the fuzzbucket," she admitted with an affectionate tone. "It's a little hard no to, really." She didn't mention Jean-Paul because his appropriated paternal role here was his own business to disclose or not. Morgan just followed the teenager through the mansion to the kitchen.

As Nick rounded his way into the kitchen, he quickly began rummaging through the fridge, trying to find something that he knew how to cook. Anything that could help him out as a social lubricant would be most appreciated. "Sorry about the accusation, but I was just ready to add your gun to the list of metal wings, a pipe, and a nail gun." As he pulled his head out of the fridge with a frozen pizza under his arm, he tried to smile. "But I guess the guys were a little less subtle, and a little more kick my ass first, ask questions later."

Morgan laughed and shook her head. "You know, I could give you my honest response to that if you wanted, but I'm not sure how much you're going to appreciate my honesty with the gun in my bag and all." She thoughts the guys were a lot of talk, honestly. If anyone was likely to actually, physically hurt the guy and not feel bad about it then it was Morgan. She didn't think he wanted to hear that, though.

Ripping off the plastic around the pizza, Nick had to squint at the directions on the top of it's cardboard cover before punching in the numbers to preheat the oven. As it beeped back at him, he hoped that he had done something right, and not something that would need several of the professors to come sprinting in to stop the mansion from catching on fire. "All I can tell you is the same thing I told them. I would never do anything to hurt Cats, and would leave in an instant if I ever thought I was doing anything that would harm her in any way." Dropping down into a chair opposite Morgan, his eyebrows furrowed together. "And that's a promise."

"The difference between me and the guys with the wings, the nail gun and the pipe is that I figured that out already. You look smitten and you smile when she's brought up. You only started to relax when I brought up Catseye. Your body language even shifted a bit. Someone who knows what they're looking for can read all that and know what you just told me without you having to say it." It was the perk of having studied people for the better part of the past decade. Morgan could read most people's body language the way other people read books.

"The guys resorted to those tactics because they don't get how to intimidate people, for one. If you want to put real fear into a person you keep it vague because a person will always think up the scariest possible thing to them, but you've got no idea what that is. I'm sure they were all very well intentioned, but don't let them scare you too much. I guarantee I'm scarier, but I'm not going to threaten you. 'Cause I think you'd rather stake yourself than hurt her and I respect that." It even made her smile.

The comment made the boy blink several times as he tried to take everything in. "Well... uh..." Morgan was right about one thing, she seemed to be by far the scariest of the four. "Well, I guess I'm going to have to keep on her good side then, right? After all, you already know I'm not so great with the whole dodging the bullets thing..."

"I have a rule against killing minors," she told him with utter sincerity. "I try not to maim them either.." There was something in Morgan's voice that was almost playful and friendly. It was an odd fit with her words. "I think it's a lot more about malice than accidental hurt feelings, for the record. People get hurt all the time. Everyone wants to protect people they care about, but sometimes they need to fall down and get scraped up. It's the only way they learn. Sometimes you hurt people without meaning to. Sometimes it just happens. I wouldn't hold that against you. But if you do something intentional, or if you're a total ass to her then I might hold that against you."

She set her bag down on the chair next to her in order to visually and physically separate herself from the gun she'd mentioned having. It was a way to disarm herself in a sense. Morgan couldn't help sort of liking the boy. He was honest, even if he was awkward. Actually, she might have liked him more for being awkward. "But I know the guy with the wings isn't a minor. And he has a healing factor. Not sure who the pipe and nail gun guys are, but if they get a little too aggressive about making you pay for a mistake? I've got damn good aim. Even with moving targets. Arrows do both less and more damage." Yes, she'd just offered to shoot people for him if they gave him shit. Somehow she didn't think this would win her good role model points in the eyes of others. Luckily for Morgan she didn't much give a toss what other people thought about her.

Nick laughed instinctively for a second, but then quickly realized that she was serious about the whole offering to shoot Jay, Forge, or Kyle. He quickly shook it off for a second as he tried to defuse the situation as much as possible. "I do pretty well for myself, and to be honest, if I were in their shoes, I would've been pretty protective of her too." With another beep from the oven, he shuffled his way back to the oven, shoving the pizza pan in over the glowing orange coils. "But if you every catch me being an ass to her on purpose, you can feel free to post a bulls eye on my back while I'm asleep."

The woman shrugged, utterly nonchalant. She realized that maybe wasn't the most reassuring thing for him, but what else was she going to do? "I'm much more inclined to smack you upside the head, tell you that you're being an ass, why you're an ass and to stop it or else. The bulls eye is no fun because then everyone gets to play and the only ones with a right to get to thwappin' are people who know why you deserve it." She didn't need to shoot Nick's would-be thwappers. She was pretty sure anyone who needed a nail gun to threaten someone didn't really have the balls to make good on it anyway. Besides, it was entirely possible the kid could handle himself. Wolves were resourceful and vicious when need be.

Nick smiled as soon as he heard the word thwap. Suddenly he began to see a little bit further into the earlier life of Catseye at the mansion. It was a good feeling. "I'm gonna hold you to the whole smacking thing though. It'll keep me on my toes."

****

Having told Lex she'd be in the mansion, he and Vanessa go out to explore the American Museum of Natural History in the city.

Vanessa wrinkled her nose a bit. Her head cocked to the side while she gazed at the gold, woven cloth. "Four years to make that? Spiders are not the way of silk production." It was pretty, sure, but it wasn't the most fascinating thing she could think of. Also, spiders were creepy. Vanessa maintained that nothing really needed that many eyes. Her arm wound around that of the man at her side and she tugged lightly so she could pull him on to something else. "I wonder where they're hiding the Incan road photos." Incans, now that she could get behind. And it was definitely something worth dragging Lex into the city for despite the cold. Or so she thought anyway.

Lex took his eyes off the shimmering fabric as the elegant fingers pressed into his body. He beamed at the woman escorting him with a look of mock disappointment, "It says they needed over a million spiders to make it. I can't imagine dealing with that many arachnids." He shivered unconsciously before trying to spot the sign for the exhibit she had mentioned. "I think it's over this way," he said, gently pulling her along with him. He was fairly sure they were actually heading to the Butterfly Conservatory.

"I like cats," she commented, being led along in a direction she wasn't entirely sure was the right one. "They catch spiders and kill them. You ever hear that story when you were a kid about the spider that laid eggs in some guy's eye while he was asleep? It got all swollen and red and then it erupted in all these tiny, baby spiders?" Vanessa actually shuddered at the thought. "Swear to God that traumatized me for life. It wasn't even true. Just some scary story in a book of ones for kids, you know?" Spiders she could do without. Incans would be better. Were those the ones who committed ritual human sacrifice? No, maybe that was the Aztecs. Maybe that was all three of them. She couldn't remember, really. Forcing her brain away from spiders, Vanessa let her hand fall down and catch Lex's. Her fingers twined through his without even thinking about it.

Letting his hand close gently around hers, Lex noticed an added bounce to his step. It would have been imperceptible to anyone other than him, but he felt lighter. "Cats are alright," he commented after a moment, "As long as you are willing to let them do their own thing. My mother had a cat for a while, though my father was convinced he could train it like a dog. Every night he'd sit there, trying to get it to roll over, and every night it would just lay in front of him. I swear it was sticking it's middle claw up at him and saying, 'How the hell do you make it through the day? If you think I'm dumb enough to roll over for a bit of cheese you've got no idea how the world works." His laugh was cut short by the thought of his family.

It'd been a long time since he'd thought about them in concrete terms. It was easier to let the past go than to face it. "Ah, here we are. You said you wanted to see butterflies, right?" Lex said, putting on his most innocent smile. His family would have to wait for some other time, he was enjoying himself too much to let them intrude.

It was hard to tell that her red eyes slid to the side, the coloration difference of her irises faint against the otherwise solid red. Vanessa wore a sort of smirk that clearly said she saw he was up to no good there. "I'm pretty sure I said 'roads of an ancient South American civilization,' soldier boy." Her mouth pulled upward into a smile and she leaned in to kiss his cheek. Vanessa whispered into his ear, "But it's okay, I won't tell everyone that you've got a weakness for butterflies. We can pretend you're suffering through them for me." Laughing lightly, the woman gestured for Lex to lead the way. "But I am not helping you catch one to smuggle back to the mansion so you can try to keep it as a pet. Besides, I don't think butterflies learn to roll over very well."

With an almost imperceptible smile, Lex entered the conservatory proper. He let his eyes rove over the various colors and then stole a glance at the beautiful woman beside him. He would never tell her that she was why he wanted to see the butterflies. That, in her presence, he could truly appreciate the natural variance of colors and the individuality of each being. Moving forward, he pulled her along and stooped low to see one of the specimen up close. "You have to see this," he said, a sly grin growing on his face. "It says here that the butterfly's elegant coloring is what attracts its mate."

"Poor butterfly," Vanessa said with a playful tone of sympathy, "your mate will never care about your inner beauty. It's just like women who wear a lot of makeup, I guess. Or peacocks." Vanessa never wore makeup if she could help it. Mascara and lip gloss was pretty much where she drew the line; only work could get her to bother with anything more. The practical braid she wore her hair was more about keeping it out of her way than being pretty. "What happens if you end up being the sad little grey butterfly? No mate?"

"I'm not sure," Lex admitted, he hadn't thought about it that way, "They probably have to perform some sort of aerial dance." He winked as he spoke, hoping she'd understand it as an invitation. Walking forward he released her hand, moving to a display where he could get an orange slice to attract the beautiful creatures. A Mexican Sister Butterfly gently shifted its wings on a nearby leaf and he slowly gestured Vanessa towards him. "Others don't have to do much of anything, just be responsive to their instincts."

"I think I'd rather be the grey one and lure someone with a dance," she told him, a note of flirtation evident in her tone. Vanessa watched Lex leave her to get the orange. It was fascinating in a way, to watch him be genuinely interested in the pretty little instincts. Look at that, soldier boy had a soft spot that didn't involve a kitchen. She knew he wasn't all hard, rough edges but he was still a man. The delicate creatures required a sort of tenderness to lure them closer and he had that about him. It drew her just as easily as it drew one of the butterflies.

Vanessa drifted closer, movements slow and silent. She stopped just a little behind and to the side of Lex. She didn't want to scare off the butterfly that had just landed on his orange slice. "Maybe," she whispered close to his ear, "all you really need is to be sweet. Seems to be working for that one alright."

The inadvertent shiver of excitement caused him to twitch just as the butterfly was landing. It hovered for a moment cautiously before landing. Lex brought it up so they could get a closer look. "Then I'll just have to be like this orange: sweet, with the slightest hint of tang to keep you at bay." He smiled and kissed her on the cheek as he spoke.

"Don't think you'll have any problems there, soldier boy," she murmured, smiling at the kiss even though she was trying not to. He seemed to have that effect on her.

Later, the two of them decide to go across the street to Central Park.

****

Even as the cold bit into his skin Lex couldn't help but smile. The vaguely fresh air and the company were enough to make him want to laugh. "So, what do you think would be more fun? Ice skating or a nice meandering stroll through this winter wonder land?" He thought either would be fun, but he wasn't about to volunteer to put himself on ice in front of such a nimble woman unless she really wanted him to.

"I'm pretty sure I'd end up on my ass if I tried to go ice skating." That probably wasn't entirely sure. "I went once last summer, but Sam was kind of hopeless and I didn't go again so, yeah. Sort of out of practice. Last time I skated much I was a kid playing ice hockey with the neighborhood boys." She grinned, but the expression vanished when she shivered. Cold was not something she had acclimated to very well after years spent in Africa and the Middle East. Vanessa wrapped her scarf around her neck and huddled down in her coat. She was trying quite desperately to not hook her arm through Lex's because she was more than aware of her current desire to be physically attached to him. He, on the other hand, might enjoy having his limbs to himself. "On the other hand, ice skating raises body temperature."

"And I'm pretty sure I can think of better ways to raise our body temperature," he said with a sly grin. "Come on let's walk to the Boathouse." He reached for her hand and then decided to take it a step further. Grabbing her waist, he pulled himself towards her gently and then wrapped himself around her like a coat. It was made slightly less perfect by her being just taller than he was, but he felt the overall affect was good. "Well, what say you to some warmth and good food?"

Vanessa was visibly fighting against the smile spreading across her lips. Fighting and losing spectacularly. She leaned into Lex, a hand sliding along one of his arms until her fingers could wrap around his hand. "Mm...it's like the magic words: warmth and food." She smirked a little then and brushed her nose along his jaw. A kiss was placed at the corner of his jaw and she whispered, "I can think of better ways to raise our body temperatures, too." There was a small, quiet laugh after she said that.

Vanessa had no intention of skipping ahead to sleeping with Lex and he knew as much. It didn't mean she didn't want to or that she didn't think about it, but she wanted to be sure he was going to stick around first. She wanted to know that he wanted to do this whole relationship thing with her for sure first. Because otherwise she was a little worried she'd end up too attached to him. Vanessa was already attached enough as it was.

"Well, we'll figure something out," he whispered back, and then thought of an awful joke. "But for now we should get inside, you are looking absolutely blue right now." He probably shouldn't have said anything, but he couldn't help himself, the moment just seemed to force itself upon him. As he waited for her to respond he hoped she wouldn't go so far as to slap him. After all, he only meant it as a joke and a compliment.

She didn't slap him. No, Vanessa elbowed him. In the ribs. She didn't do it hard enough for it to really hurt, just enough for it to sting a bit. Only afterward did she stop to think about whether or not he'd gotten himself broken recently. Oh, she hoped he didn't have a stupid cracked rib there or something. "You should give up the comedy act, love. You suck at it."

"Oof, I guess I probably deserved that." Lex gently put his hand on her shoulder, trying to show sincere remorse over offending her. He hadn't expected her to find it brilliant, but he also didn't think it would have caused such a visceral reaction. "Let me make it up to you, I really do have a nice reservation for two." He really needed to figure out how to deal with her. It wasn't that her shape shifting was a problem, or the idea of dating a fellow mutant, but rather that she was a woman. He chalked it up to his military background as he waited to see if she'd forgive him.

Vanessa wasn't actually upset or offended over it. It was a bad joke but there was a small smirk on her face to indicate she wasn't actually holding it against him at all. Her head tilted to the side so she could look at Lex better. "One day I'm going to figure out why you think I'm the kind of woman who warrants the sort of place that needs reservations." It was sort of novel that he actually did think that. Maybe one of these days she'd even learn to be a lady rather than just play one when she was in another body. That'd be odd. For all the skirts Vanessa could wear, though, she'd still rather be climbing a mountain or swimming or running through the woods.

In a bid to reassure him that she wasn't mad enough for anything to need to be made up for and to make it obvious she didn't actually disapprove of the reservation he apparently made, Vanessa caught Lex's lips in a light kiss. "But who am I to go an ruin your plans if you're so thoroughly entrenched in your delusions?" An amused smile spread over her lips.