xp_logs | Kevin &Yvette | Wednesday afternoon

After Yvette finds Kevin hiding in the treehouse he asks her if she's scared their mutations will come back

The treehouse was a place Kevin tended to pretty firmly associate with Yvette. Rather, he associated it with her hiding. It was entirely possible that his presence there had more to do with hiding than with her. After all, she was excited about her lack of mutation and would probably be living it up as much as she could just as she had when she'd worn the inhibitor last year. He figured that meant she wouldn't be out here much so it gave him somewhere to hide where people wouldn't normally look for him. It was quiet and he swore even the birds were giving him funny looks for only wearing a ribbed tank without any other layers, but that was probably his imagination, right?

The best laid plans, however... There was movement at the base of the tree, a girl's soft voice cursing a little as someone came up the ladder and then Yvette's head appeared at the trap door. She had her long hair tied back in a braid, but wisps had escaped and framed her face with small curls that stuck to her skin where she was damp with the humidity. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I did not know anyone was here, Kevin. I am sorry to disturb you." She made to climb back down again - Kevin confused her lately, between the Jean-Paul thing, the dirty talking with Cammie which she took to mean they were sleeping with each other (or intended to) and the fact he persisted in such things in front of her despite her discomfort and yet had issues with Jared not being polite by calling Laura a "hottie with claws".

Turning to see who it was when he heard the trap door, Kevin had to stop and stare for a moment. He'd seen Yvette with the normal, brown hair and the normal skin last summer but the image had never really stuck with him. She just wasn't very Yvette-like without the red and blue that typically colored her. Staring, he reminded himself, wasn't polite so he diverted his eyes before speaking. "Hey. Ah didn't expect you to be up here much. You don't gotta leave if you don't want to."

She paused and then made her decision and climbed into the treehouse with less of her usual grace - she was still getting used to the fact she couldn't grip with her toes. "I was just coming up to read," she explained in response to his statement. "I have, how you say? Been overdoing the social things." She gave him a small, wry half-smile. "I did not think I could ever have too much of being able to be touched, but I have for now."

"Yeah, Ah didn't think you could either. Figured you'd be holed up somewhere more accessible when you wanted to read." Yvette was all about taking advantage of this fully, just as she had been when she'd worn the inhibitor. Kevin wondered if that way was better. Maybe the loved and lost approach to life was better than this own approach. It wouldn't surprise him if it was.

"It can be tiring, having people close all the time, especially when you are used to being alone." Yvette looked up at him then with those large brown eyes and face solemn. "I have noticed you have not been around very much, Kevin. Is it too much for you, to lose your powers?"

Kevin laid a hand flat on the floor of the treehouse. He waited, as he had been for days, for that tug behind his navel that came when his mutation drained the life out of something. It didn't come. "You aren't scared they're going to come back? Our mutations disappear overnight and you're not scared they'll come back just as sudden? And what if someone who thinks it's a great idea to hug me since Ah'm 'safe' is doin' that at the time? Ah don't wanna be in the middle of people if my mutation comes back, 'cause unlike you Ah wouldn't know it until somethin' happened."

Yvette felt a stab of guilt and blushed, looking away. "I suppose that is the sensible thing to do, yes," she admitted. Even if her powers came back suddenly, she'd know by the change in her appearance. The only way it might be dangerous would be if she was stuck in a crowd or at the deep end of the pool. "Perhaps there are things you can do that would not be so dangerous if your powers came back?" she suggested. "I feel bad that you cannot enjoy this as we are."
"Ah can, Ah just don't like the risk." Kevin had a very specific experience where his mutation was concerned. Technically he was still considered a danger to society, and for good reason as well. "Ah can do everything Ah could do before, and then Ah can decide if the rest is worth the risk or not." In a way he thought shutting off his brain for a while and just doing what he wanted was the best idea. But then he thought about what he tended to do when his brain shut off and what could happen if his mutation came back in the middle of it. A rock and a hard place.

Yvette nodded and sighed, an unhappy sound. "I wish we could find out one way or the other," she said quietly. "It is not fair for you to be living like this and I feel responsible since I was me who asked Haven to cure us. I could have just asked for myself, but it did not seem right." Tears welled up and she blinked them away, unused to the reaction - she couldn't cry with her powers active.

She was going to cry. Kevin thought of himself as being awkward enough without crying girls to contend with. On top of that it was Yvette of all girls. With a small sigh he got up and went over to where Yvette sat. When Kevin settled beside her he looped an arm around her shoulders. "Don't go feelin' bad. You did a good thing. You and everyone else is real happy you did it, too. Ah just...think too much and worry too much and maybe am a little more paranoid than Ah outta be. That ain't your fault. What you asked for, that's a real good thing."

She reached out and lay a small hand on his jean-covered knee. "I hope it turns out for the best. Cammie is so sick and you are so worried about your powers coming back... I guess I did not think of such things when I asked." She gave him a wan little smile. "Wishes are not supposed to be so complicated. You rub the lamp and the genie appears and everything is happy ever after, yes?"

"Yeah, that's supposed to be how it works. Ah guess life's just not meant to be that simple, though, right?" He gave her a small smile, though it didn't hold any real spark of happiness. "You're having fun bein' all touchable though, right? Running 'round hugging people and playing with kitties?"

"I had forgotten how soft everything is," she admitted. "Even when I had the inhibitor on, I was too sick a lot of the time to really enjoy things. Now... I want to touch everything and everyone!" She blushed again at how that sounded, cheeks going rosy-red.

An eyebrow raised as Kevin regarded her. "Everything? If you get arrested for indecency Ah'm not bailing you out, just so you know. Wanderin' hands, those can get you in trouble. Just 'cause you got little hands don't mean people won't notice 'em." He was, of course, implying that her hands would be on someone somewhere and that it might be in an inappropriate way. Yvette wouldn't do that, of course, but he wanted to see if he could get her to blush darker.

The blush intensified, her ears going red as well, and she covered her face with her hands. "That is not fair!" she exclaimed. "I cannot hide my expressions any more!"

Now Kevin was grinning. "Rest of us can't hide 'em any time, Ah'm thinkin' it's totally fair now." He was trying very hard not to laugh and was mostly winning but any moment Kevin might have found himself losing that battle. The arm still looped around her shoulders gave her a one-armed hug before it fell away. "'Sides, it's cute when girls blush."

She smacked him playfully on the knee. "It is still not fair - I cannot make you blush, after all." The fact the blush hadn't left showed that she still liked it when he told her she was cute.

Frowning, Kevin rubbed his knee as if the small smack had hurt. "You can, probably, you're just too polite to say anything to make it happen." It was incredibly rare that Kevin blushed and to date he could only count one or two people who had caused it. A naked Clarice and a naked Cammie had both done the job if he remembered correctly.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Yes, I know. You are the boy, so it is always the sex with you. Or perhaps it is because you are the American - most of the people here all seem to have the one thing on their minds, yes?" She shook her head, her own blush fading to pink. "Nevermind. I will concede the defeat about the blushing."

That actually did make him frown. Tone turning serious, Kevin said,"It ain't all about sex. Yeah it could maybe get me to blush and Ah might joke about it or have conversations about it in a real general way, but it really ain't all about sex." He held his hand out to her, open and palm up. "May Ah?"

There was a slight hint of a mulish pout on her lips, but it became a smile at the gesture and she carefully lay her hand in his, so as not to startle him.

His eyes were on his empty hand until she laid hers in it. Moving with the same level of care he would have before their mutations had disappeared, Kevin laced his fingers through hers and just watched their hands for a moment. "If you want the truth it's about that. For me." It was something stupid, but this one stupid thing was important to him. "Most people don't get it, but Ah figure you do."

"Then why...?" She stopped herself. Now wasn't the time for her silly issues. This was an important gesture, especially considering the conversation of earlier. "Yes," she said instead. "It is like this for me too." Her fingers tightened very slightly on his for a moment, the movement somewhat awkward for being unused.

For Kevin it was an easy, comfortable gesture. It was familiar, but not so much that he could manage to not pay attention to the way her small hand fit in his larger, calloused one. Kevin looked up to meet Yvette's eyes and gave her a small shrug. "It's important to other people. It's the most important thing ever to a lot of them. It's easy to joke around about. It's possible to talk about sex and joke about it without it having to be real important to you, y'know." For Kevin it had been incredibly important as a wedge that had stood between himself and Jay. Jean-Paul taught him that it wasn't like that with everyone. Jay's feelings in the subject weren't an across the board opinion. "If you notice, Ah never seriously talk 'bout me doin' anything. 'Cause what Ah do or don't do ain't no one's business but mine."

"It just seems strange, that you talk so to Cammie when you have the boyfriend already. At least to me." Yvette shrugged a little and looked away, embarrassed, although she didn't slide her hand from his. "I will never understand this country, it feels like."

"Who says you've got to understand it? And it ain't the country, it's the culture. Not entirely a difference but sorta is." He frowned a little and let his gaze drift off into the trees. "Cammie's my friend. She's my really crass, vulgar, rude friend, but she's my friend. We aren't serious together a whole lot. We're never going to date and no matter what she says we're never going to have sex. For lots of reasons. It's...just the way our friendship works. Dunno if Ah can explain it better than that."

"If it is to be my home now, I must understand it, yes?" Yvette's face closed off - her lack of powers might make things different with her mother, but she doubted it. And Yvette could be stubborn, too, her mother's daughter in that sense at least. "I will try to remember that. As long as you do not mind that I leave when you are talking such with her. It makes me feel... I am not used to people saying such things in the open or using such words."

"Or you could just poke me real hard in the ribs when Ah forget?" He usually tried to keep Yvette's conservative outlook in mind, but he was still a twenty-year-old guy and sometimes he forgot. With Cammie especially Kevin had a tendency to get caught up in their ridiculous conversations.

"I will try," she replied, looking down. "I am not so good at doing such things. It is easier to just leave, I suppose."

"You just wanna see if anyone comes after you," Kevin joked and shook his head at her. "Girls."