Jared & Yvette | Jared's room

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Yvette shows up at Jared’s doorstep with a housewarming gift and a really nice dress…

 

It wasn't unusual for Yvette to give people apples. It wasn't even unusual for her to bestow apple-y goodness on new people. It was, however, unusual for her to wear her best dress over her body suit and spend a couple of hours before hand doing the exercises Ms. Frost was teaching her in order to make herself as non-spiky as possible. And yet, here she was, dressed up and looking a little nervous as she clutched a basket of apples in her long-fingered hands, summoning the nerve to knock on the door of the latest mansion resident.  

Jared definitely heard something behind the door but actually waited for that something - or someone - to knock before he opened the door. As he just jumped out of the shower, a simple white large towel was hanging on his hips and the sight of young Yvette startled him for a few seconds. "Uh, yeah! Uh... you look good! How you doin?" Jared was not used to be around the opposite sex on such regular basis, but he had always been comfortable with his body, and being that under-dressed was no worries to him. Except maybe for the person on his doorstep...

Yvette's eyes widened and she promptly turned around. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I did not mean to disturb you! I was just bringing you the housewarming gift." If she could blush, her face would have been on fire, but that didn't stop her taking a sneaky peek over her shoulder to make sure that yes, he was just wearing a towel.

"Hey! Don't look that embarrassed! It's all on me. I grew up on the country, so, clothes were not top priority", he said, trying to be funny to ease the moment. He still needed to adjust to the co-ed community life. "So, what did you bring me?" 

She looked again - still just the towel. Her eyes flared brighter and she glanced away again. "S-some apples," she managed to stutter, holding the basket out to the side. "But please, can you be getting dressed? It is hard to talk to someone in just the towel."

"My bad", he said, moving back inside the room heading to bed. Grabbing an old Tau Kapp t-shirt, "Speaking about clothes, you are quite dressed for a regular day. Is there a special occasion?"

"Oh, this? It is not so special," Yvette babbled, turning around now it was safe. "Just the first thing I was throwing on, yes?" In order to distract him from the fact she had  dressed up, she continued. "So, you are, how they say? Settled in?"

"Settled in?" he asked, still amused but fully dressed. The shirt was obviously wet, but he couldn't feel it anyway, so he didn't bother to look at it. As he invited Yvette in, he added: "That is not the word I would use. Look for yourself." More than a week after he took John's room, Jared never took time to unpack. Clothes were still in his bag and a simple sheet had been spread over the mattress. A Wayne State Wildcats sticker was the only decoration he had brought to the room yet. There wasn't much to unpack, or to put on the walls anyway...

"Perhaps I should have brought you a plant as the housewarming gift, yes?" Yvette replied with a shy smile. It was easier to talk to Jared now the distracting bare chest was gone, even if the shirt was clinging to him. Or rather, his forcefield - she recalled that he had mentioned his clothes went over his shield. "You look as if you are only visiting, still."

Jared shrugged. "It's not easy, you know, getting in a place where everybody acts like family. It's like everybody has known each other forever and... there's me." Jared turned back, facing his bed and added: "Anyway, my last two 'homes' were a bedroom above a bar, so the whole housewarming is not my specialty. But thanks for that anyway." It was much appreciated to have someone that caring, for a change. "Oh, I need to tell you something: I may... might have found a job. It's at Harry's. Not the kind of place I usually work at, but this Agent Kane said he could help me get in. I could use the money for that lunch I promised, and for some stuffs for the room. By the way, where do you live in here?"

Yvette set the basket of apples down on the coffee table and took a seat on one of the chairs, perching carefully so her hair didn't cut the material and so that her dress didn't ride up. She had her bodysuit on, of course, but it would still be embarrassing. "A job is good. It means you are less visiting and more staying. It can be hard at first, I know. I came here in the coma and did not know where I was when I woke up. It was very scary. But after a while, it was like home." She gave him a bright, reassuring smile. "And I live on the student floor, with Meggan and Nico and Megan." With a giggle, she added. "It can be confusing with Meggan and Megan, especially since both can fly."

Jared noticed how the girl was working hard to get his attention but his constant habit to push people away from him kept giving him a hard time when it came to connecting. Still, he felt the least he could do was to return the favor. "Well, I've never been in a coma, nor am I scared at all around here. But I don't have roommates. At least, I can count on you to look after me every once in a while. I should really think of something to make it up to you." Right now, he was thinking about taking her to a hockey game or a country music festival, but those things were nowhere to be found anywhere close. And asking her to visit at Harry's would not work, Yvette looking obviously under 21. "I notice you look different. I mean, the spikes, they are not exactly the same. How do you do that? Do you train for that?"

She looked pleased he'd noticed - it had taken some work to actually achieve this much relaxation - and nodded. "Yes. I have the teacher who is helping me learn to control my powers and when I do not want to be so spiky, I do the relaxing exercises. My powers, they react to how I feel, yes? So when I am upset or angry or scared, I am becoming like the hedgehog, all spiky and sharp. When I am happy or relaxed, I am not so bad." She shrugged a little. "I still cannot touch anyone without hurting them, but it is the start."

"Well, as long as I have no control over my power and can't deactivate it, you can touch me anytime..." That came out wrong. In so many ways. "Speaking of which, I may ask for some teaching about powers and stuff. I guess that's what most people do around here. Any chance you'd know who I could ask for?"

Yvette's eyes glowed brighter and she ducked her head, a little embarrassed that she was thinking entirely the wrong thing to that statement. "As I was saying when we met, there are a few of us who cannot touch. Most of the time it is the concentration thing, so it is important to learn to be calm and control ourselves. As for the training, perhaps talk to Dr. McCoy? He can help you find the best person to train with." She looked up shyly. "And if you like, I can be helping you? The study buddy, yes?"

He found amusing to receive help from such a introverted teenager. Amused and starting to see a future here, Jared starting taking stacks of clothes from his bags and finally putting them in the drawers where they belong. Then he thought about her whole 'concentration' speech. "You don't mean I'm going to take yoga classes, right? Because staying there, sitting and waiting is not really for me. I'd rather bounce against the walls..." With his last words, he let himself fall on his bed. Then, pulling his head back up, he said: "As for the study buddy thing, I fine with it, as long as it's not so much about actual studying. My study buddy bros back in college were not that much into study..."

She giggled at that. "Well, perhaps there will be some sitting, but it is not the only sort of training there is. As for study... I am still the senior in high school, so perhaps I cannot help so much with that, but the powers training, certainly." She tilted her head at him, considering. "Perhaps you would like to come down and join the other students for dinner with me? It would be good for you to meet more people, I think."

Jared nodded. "You do know how to talk to boys... Food's my one and only God! Or maybe not only...", he said, with a thoughtful look, holding his chin and looking away. "What's for dinner? I heard some girl, Lorna, was quite the cook! Everybody talks about 'Lorna cooking this' and 'Lorna baking that' but for now, all I've tried were my pasta with extra pasta!"

"Oh, I do not know that I am so good with the boys..." Yvette blurted out before she could stop herself, and then tried to change tack again. "But yes, Lorna is the very good cook. I do not know what is for dinner tonight, but if it is Lorna cooking, it will be good." She got up from her perch on the chair. "It is close to being time for dinner. Perhaps we should go now? That way we can find the good seats in the dining hall."

Jared rolled from the bed to the floor, face down. He grunted by reflex, though he didn't feel a thing. Back on his feet, he jumped to the door. The same way he invited her in, he pointed the way out: "Shall we?"

She giggled and shook her head at his unique way of getting up. "We shall!" she declared with a happy smile, and led the way out.