Fred and Yvette (BACKDATED)

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Fred and Yvette talk after some less than pleasant conversations on Yvette's part... (backdated for the sake of sanity)




Fred thanked God for the umpteenth time that he still had retained his ability to ignore temperature shifts, and to hold his breath for so long. He stood, silently, at the bottom of the deep end of the swimming pool, dressed some green scrubs he'd absconded with from the MedLab. Fashion, for Fred, had become a constantly fluctuating thing since his return. As had many things: his relationships on campus, his motivation, his body itself; it was no wonder he'd looked to one of his favorite meditative spots in the world for a nice centering rest.


Over the past week, Yvette had been concentrating on her schoolwork, glad her roommate was the quiet type. Apparently she wasn't capable of talking to anyone without upsetting them. But she knew she couldn't keep hiding - the mansion was big, but not that big - and she was an X-Man now. She was a grown up and grown ups faced their issues.

She decided on Fred first - he at least had seemed amenable to talking to her again. Now she just had to find him.

Fred spotted the flash of red above the water as if skirted across the courtyard, and blinked, before putting two and two together. Walking towards the shallow end, Fred breached the water as Yvette moved back towards the smoker's porch. "Vette!" he called out, figuring the only smoker she'd be looking for was currently standing waist deep in the water.

She jumped a little, eyes flaring brighter, and then she turned, giving Fred a hesitant smile. "That is not a place I would be thinking to look for you," she said, coming to crouch at the edge of the pool. "Hello."

"It's, uh, heh..." Fred moved to the side of the pool, and extracted a dry cigarette and his Zippo from where he'd discarded his coat, "It's,uh, my own little place, y'know? It's quiet, and, uh...y'know, I've always loved the water...it's nice. Uh, calming...heh 'zen'." Fred held up his fingers in quotes at the last word as smoke billowed out his nose.

"Like me in the woods," she replied, nodding. "The place you can be thinking, yes?"

Fred paused, and smiled, nodding, "Right on the money, Vette. So ya were lookin' for me, right? I, uh, heh...didn't me tah startle yah..." He shook water out of his hair, and took another drag from his cigarette.

She hunched a little more in her crouch, eyes dimming a bit. "I know you said it was all right in the email," she began, a little hesitantly. "But I wanted to say I was sorry again, for making you upset. I was being selfish, thinking of myself."

Fred smiled and held out his dripping hand for Yvette to take, "Vette, I promise: it's okay. It's more than okay. It's understandable. I show up lookin' like...heh, onna' those Abercrombie wussies." He chuckled at his own pathetic attempt at a joke, "And gummin' on about how 'weird' it was, and there you were, lookin' at some one who had what,uh, is was yah wanted and couldn't shut up about how it was 'weird' and..." Fred took a moment to shut up and inhale from his cigarette, "Look, uh...what I'm saying? I'll take your second apology, Vette, iffen you'll take my first one."

"I do accept it." She reached out and shook his hand, glad she had the gloves on since she had no idea if Fred's powers were still around enough for her not to cut him. She moved from her crouch beside the pool to sit on the edge, feet dangling in the cold water. "And I also understand, about the weird... When I was wearing the inhibitor, it felt very odd at first, especially to be walking and such. I did not realize how much I have changed."

"It's, uh...heh. It's a change alright. For one thing, nuthin I own quite fits no more." Fred shrugged, "And Vette, I meant what I said, on the mirror I mean. You're a lot more beautiful than ya think ya are. I know it's, uh, it's more than just the looks and all. That yah wanna interact with the world way other people do an' all, but..." Fred thought for a moment, deciding his usual rambling wasn't quite eloquent enough, "Yvette, can I ask ya something?"

She blinked at him, glad she didn't blush. As serious as the conversation was, she was always girlishly thrilled when someone said she was pretty. "Oh course you may ask, Fred," she replied encouragingly.

Fred had the moment to think, which allowed him to speak without his usual lag, "If you weren't the way you were, if you hadn't gone through all the crap and the hurt...d'yah think you'd be as great a person that y'are? I mean past the gorgeous and all that. You're caring, you're smart, you're passionate and funny. You're patient, kind...I don't mean to be weird or mean or nothing, Vette, but do you think you'd be the same person, the same great person, if you'd had everything easy? Stayed in Albania, never become a mutant, never had such a hard time with your powers?"

Now it was Yvette's turn to fall silent. "I... do not know," she said at last. "Without my powers, I would not have been taken from my mother, but I also would not have come here. I would not have the same chances, or the same friends. Without the powers, I would not think so much about the other people to be careful for them, so perhaps I would be more, how you say? Self-centered, yes?"

Fred smiled and leaned over, pecking Yvette on the forehead. "I doubt that, uh, any world that existed, yah'd be a bad person in, Yvette. Don't worry bout that, cause I don't think it'll ever happen." He covered up the fact that his lip was bleeding a little by taking a drag off of his cigarette, "It was just something I was thinking about the other day mahself. What if I didn't look the way I do, y'know? Same thing. Well, heh, not the same, but y'know what I mean..."

Her eyes glowed brighter at the contact and she covered up the pleased shyness with a small smile. "Thank you, Fred. And what do you think you would be like, without your powers?"

Fred's face went weird for a moment; little bolts of concern, anxiousness, fear, anger, and confusion darted over his face before Fred finally just said, a little reluctantly, "Honest, Vette? I'd probably be a lot less like my Ma' and a lot more like my Father. Cause I've always been big, I've always done my best to be careful. To think about those around me. Try and, uh, put people at ease with me, y'know?"

She smiled gently. "I know very well, yes," she replied. "I do the same." Then the smile faded. "You have not spoken much about your father. He was... not so careful of people?"

Fred lit two cigarettes at once and dragged off the both of them. Fred could be quiet about himself, keep his feelings inside, but his father was one of those subjects that never seemed to slide past him. "My...My, uh, Father...The three most important things to my dad? Him, his job, his wife. In that order..."

"It is the pity," the small girl crouched by his side said. "He was missing out on knowing the very kind and generous and nice person."

Fred, for all the tempestuous feelings his father called up in him, actually grinned as heat rose to his cheeks, "C'mon, Yvette."


"Come on where?" she asked, but rising to her feet as asked, eyes alight with curiosity.

"No. I, uh, I meant...nevermind." Hoping he could continue moving the conversation as far from his father as possible, Fred spoke up again, "So Vette, what's really on your mind? We've talked since the whole shed thing. Why's it still bothering you? What's really on your mind?"


"Oh! I am sorry! You did not mean..." Yvette's eyes blazed with embarrassment. "The English, it is such the silly language sometimes!" She laughed a little at herself and then continued. "I was wanting, to make sure. I have been making the people upset with me many times lately, and I did not want to be losing my good friend. So, I needed to be sure, yes?"

"Whoever it was, Vette, uh, if they're actually your friends? You got nuthin to worry about. Everyone who knows you knows you'd never willingly do anything to hurt a soul and especially not your friends." Fred reached out once more, touching Yvette's hand, "Believe me: English is my first language and I still suck with it. People misspeak all the time, you know?"

She wrapped her gloved fingers around his, smiling at him again. "Then we are, how you say? Good, yes?"

Fred, all warm smiles and chuckles, nodded, "Of course we're good, Vette. We always will be."