xp_logs | Kevin, Cammie & Yvette | Saturday evening (Reply)

The remaining three Untouchables find themselves in the medlab together talking about the "right thing to do" where their mutations are concerned.

Since the discovery had been made that their mutations could be taken back through contact with Derek, Kevin had stopped taking his pain medication. He needed to think but he couldn't do that through the haze of percocet. The trade off was a world of hurt every time he inhaled, every time he exhaled, every time he even started to think about moving never mind when he actually did. He was perched on a bed in an empty room in the medlab as far from where Derek was as he could get mostly because he didn't want Derek overhearing things that could be said. "We could take ours back. He'd still gotta live with the rest of it...but we could take ours back." Kevin didn't want to. He didn't think anyone wanted to. But he was pretty sure he would anyway.

Yvette was a ball of misery in the corner, curled up on a chair away from the other two. Bad enough the reaction from the others when they'd discovered what Haven had done, what Yvette had asked her to do, but this... "I did not know," she repeated yet again, unable to move past the sight of Derek in her mind's eye. "I would never have asked if I had known."

"Yeah, too late for that now, Pinky. Why are we even having this discussion?" Cammie asked, turning her stare on Kevin, "Why aren't we doing this right now? This isn't about us. Someone is getting put through hell on the account of some sick ass bitch and some selfish desire. You guys do what you want, I'll find a way to take mine back. We can't fix everything, but no one should live with my curse. Just like no one should have to live with yours, or hers," a finger back to Yvette. "Some of us should have a little fucking bit of human fucking decency."

"It's called processing, calm down." He sighed. "Ah don't think anyone disagrees that it's messed up what happened to him. Ah don't think anyone wants to leave him with our mutations so he can't even try to wear clothes...if you can find something that can fit over him. But let people process that and taking stuff back, would you? 'Cause it's harder for some people to agree to go back knowin' what's there than it was for them to choose to leave it." He wasn't talking about himself and that much should have been obvious. He was talking about Yvette.

She couldn't meet his eyes, keeping her gaze fixed on the floor. Kevin was right - she didn't want to take her powers back. She knew it was the right thing to do, that she couldn't leave Derek to suffer, but it wasn't like she'd asked for any of this. All she could think of was how unfair the situation was. And how selfish she felt. "We cannot leave him like that, no," she said at last, her voice heavy. "It is not right."

Cammie threw her arms up, "Finally!" she exclaimed, "I mean seriously, this isn't a multiple choice test. There is only one option here." Sometimes, for her, the world did boil down to black and white, right and wrong, and she liked it better like that. She could process that easier. "Who goes first?" Each one of them had a rather deadly gift, this was like that stupid riddle about the fox, the chicken and the bag of feed.

"Me," Kevin answered without hesitation. After he answered he thought about what that would mean. It would mean being a victim of his own mutation. And Yvette's. But his mutation was his burden to bear and no one else's. Only God had the right to see fit to putting it on someone else. He didn't want either of his friends hurt by his mutation. "Ah won't have y'all gettin' your arm decayed off 'cause of me."

There was a small pause before he looked at Yvette and simply said, "She goes last." His eyes turned back to Cammie and he asked, "You okay with that?"

"Sure, I'm totally okay with that. Then she can wuss out if she wants. It will be her call," Cammie said simply, "Then let's get this over with. The less time spent thinking about it the better."

- Hide quoted text -
Yvette flushed red. "I will do the right thing," she said stiffly, getting up from her seat, her voice constricted with holding back tears and anger. "Just let me know when it is time." And with that, she left, closing the door behind her with something that from anyone else would be called a slam.

Kevin watched Yvette leave and had to decide between going after her and dealing with Cammie. Finding Yvette would probably be easier so he stayed and turned to the friend with a stick jammed a mile up her ass. "Stop bein' a bitch to her or so help me God, ribs and you bein' a girl or not I will punch you." Kevin knew Cammie could fight, but he had no doubt that if his fist connected she would hurt. "It's hard for her. She caused this. She put that on that kid and she wouldn't wish harm on anyone. Not even you. Gimme a night. Give all of us a night. It ain't the same for you as it is for us. You make people sick and you can kill people with what you got but you got more flexibility with how you interact with the world'n we do. So would you give me tonight? We'll do it tomorrow. Ah'll talk to Derek myself. He's already stuck with all that shit, twelve hours ain't gonna make a difference and losin' your arm ain't worth whatever righteous anger you got."

"Kevin, Pinky didn't do this. She signed us up for the program, but this isn't her fault. It's that Haven bitch's, and so help me god, when I get my arm back, I am going to go find her and I am going to teach her a slow and painful lesson," she pointed towards Derek's room, "Look at that. Take a good long look. If you change your mind in twelve hours, I won't. I'll risk my arm to take back my poison. And you're right, it's different for me. I get to watch people I don't kill instantly slowly get sicker and sicker the longer I spend around them. Unless they end up with an allergic reaction to something, then it's pretty much instant. Everything that comes from my body is somehow toxic. I'd almost rather not being able to touch anyone at all, it's less to worry about. But I get it. Twelve hours before I go in there first, it's not a decision for me, it's a fucking responsibility," Cammie said, standing up.

"The three of us can't fix everything, but it will be a start."

"Ah ain't gettin' into what it is for each of us. It ain't just about responsibility. You wanna simplify it down to that then go ahead." Sometimes dealing with Cammie was a lot like bashing his head against a wall. She was his friend, but didn't mean she couldn't be frustrating. "Ah ain't changin' my mind, for the record. What God put on me ain't no one's to bear but mine and Ah'll see to that. But we all thought we somehow got a free pass. We found out how yesterday and today we found out that we can do something to fix things for him a little. But it'd've been easier if we didn't have a choice. If there was no way to reverse it. Then we could feel guilty but we'd still get the normal life we all wanted. And don't pretend you'd be any different. But we do have a choice and whether or not you take responsibility or not, that's still a choice. Go out. Do stuff you're not gonna get to do again after tomorrow. Consider it your last night of freedom. Just lay off the bitch act. Yvette blames herself and you sure as hell make it sound like you blame her, too."

Kevin wasn't going to get into the whose mutation was worse debate with Cammie. In the end, he had little sympathy for her plight compared to Yvette's. Cammie would make people sick, but sick could be treated. Sick could be fixed. What Yvette did needed stitches in a best case scenario. What Kevin did there was nothing to help short of a healing factor. Cammie's situation sucked, but on the grand scale of suckage she wasn't at the top. He was pretty sure she knew that deep down somewhere, but Kevin didn't need to spell it out. Arguing it wouldn't solve anything anyway.

"Yeah, I'm really not in the mood to go out and do anything," Cammie snapped, "Wanting a normal life doesn't fucking matter. I didn't have a choice in the matter," she wasn't conceived to be normal. And normality was robbed from her when she killed Greg. "I'd feel sick if I went out to have a good time right now. I'll be staying here tonight," she turned towards the exit, "Catch you in twelve."

Staying where he stood, Kevin raised a hand and saluted Cammie with two fingers. "Ah'll see you then." That hadn't exactly gone well. The Southerner was left wondering when Cammie had grown such strong morals. He got it, he understood, he just wasn't sure why she was so inflamed and overly passionate. Maybe it was just her anger at Haven, but that didn't seem to be all of it. Sighing, Kevin decided it was time to talk to Derek and then go search out the tiny one.

After leaving Cammie and going to talk to Derek, Kevin goes in search of Yvette - and misses his pain killers terribly in the process.

He'd talked to Cammie, then stopped by to tell Derek what was up. The guy was surprisingly understanding about it. Then again, this was probably the first time the burden of other people's mutations had ever been taken away from him. The fact that they would own up and reclaim them was probably a novel thing for the guy.

Now, however, Kevin was searching for Yvette. The effects of the percocet he'd stopped taking had been steadily fading as time went on. He could think through pain more than the drug haze, but that didn't mean pain wasn't still damned inconvenient. Going up stairs hadn't been the best idea he'd ever had but he had forgotten there was an elevator. Hopefully he'd find her soon and be able to stop and breathe for a second. Not that breathing didn't hurt too, but hey it was something right?

It wasn't easy, finding a place where one could cry without interruption and questions in the mansion. Yvette didn't go up to the roof that often, but it was where she had decided she'd get at least a half hour's peace from well-intentioned questions. The last thing she wanted to do was try to explain that she didn't want to ease Derek's suffering by taking her powers back - the very thought made her as much a monster as Haven. A choked sob escaped her as she sat, curled in a ball on the old couch Angel had appropriated and put on the roof, and the tears she'd struggled to hold back down in the medlab began streaming down her face.

The very fact she could actually cry without her powers wasn't lost on her, and only made it worse. Giving in to her grief, Yvette laid her head on her knees and sobbed.

Hobbling up each flight of stairs had taken its toll on Kevin. He thanked God when he finally found Yvette on the flier's deck because it meant he could rest before going back down all the stairs. He took a few deep breaths which intensified the pain but gave him a moment to steel himself against the pain enough to try to push it back from his face. Controlling his expression against pain was easier than against medication.

Walking very slowly and carefully over to the couch, Kevin sat down beside his friend. An arm reached out and slid around her waist so he could pull himself up close to her. It hurt, his ribs weren't happy, but that wasn't the important part right now. "Y'know, Ah'm probably not any good with cryin' girls," he told her as he laid his cheek against her temple.

The contact undid her in some simple, basic way - if there had been any chance of self-control, it was lost now, and the small girl simply turned and buried her face in Kevin's shoulder, crying as if her heart would break. Which it was, in a way.
For a while, she just wept, unable to speak through the sobs shaking her small frame.

He was right, Kevin wasn't any good with crying girls. He let her cry, thankful he was wearing a shirt for a change so there was something to sop up the tears. Mostly he just held onto her with his head laid atop hers. "Ah get not wantin' to take 'em back," he told her in a whisper after some time. "No one says you have to. Derek'd probably even understand. He's a nice guy. Wants to help folk. But Ah know you and you'd feel guilty 'bout that. Sorta no win, ain't it?"

There was a muffled noise of assent and a jerky nod and slowly the tears ebbed. Then Yvette lifted her head, eyes red and her face blotchy. With a sniffle and trembling lips, she managed to choke out: "It's not fair, Kevin. I know I have to take my powers back, but it's not fair!"

"Ah know." He wiped at her cheek with his thumb in an attempt to wipe away the tears. Mostly he was just making his thumb wet but Kevin figured it was the thought that counted, right? "Now you get why when Ah knew my mutation was comin' back Ah didn't wanna go out and experience stuff? Knowing what you're giving up's a lot harder. But we don't gotta do it until tomorrow, for whatever that's worth."

"Cammie thinks I am the monster," she sniffled, digging around in the pocket of her pants for a tissue so she didn't have to wipe her nose with her sleeve "She thinks I would leave him like that. I hate her!" The vehemence with which she said the word - one she seldom used - was startling. "Just because she can still kiss people even with her powers, she thinks she knows so much."

"Cammie thinks Haven's a monster and bein' bitchy to everyone," Kevin corrected gently. "Went off on me too. Ignore her, she's got a stick up her butt or somethin' and ain't no one asking her opinion on anyone right now anyway." He was trying to focus on that part because he wasn't sure what to do about that last bit. Kevin had been able to kiss people with his mutation, too. He really didn't want to know what eating would be like if he couldn't. He couldn't fully understand Yvette's predicament there any better than Cammie could, but at least he was more sympathetic to it. "That ain't all it's about though. The kissin', Ah mean. Ah know there's more to it than that for you."

"It is not. It is everything." Yvette balled up her fists in Kevin's shirt. "I cannot even cry when I have my powers. Can you be imagining how frustrating that is? To have that feeling, and not be able to let it out?" Her voice turned bitter, even through the occasional hiccuping that was the aftermath of her weeping. "She has the choice. She is making sure I know that, by talking about the sex all the time, rubbing it in my face."

"Ah don't think that's why she talks 'bout it, 'Vette. Ah think that's just Cammie. It's something she talks about, that's all. It ain't 'bout rubbin' your face in what you can't have. And you ain't interested in havin' sex with someone you ain't married to anyway so..." At least he was pretty sure that's what she'd told him the last time they'd had a conversation about all this. God, he really hoped she didn't just tell him she did want to have sex because Kevin was pretty darn sure there was nowhere that conversation could go but straight to awkward.

Yvette sighed and sat up a bit more, letting go of Kevin's shirt to rub her hands over her face, scrubbing away the tears. "Sometimes I do not know what I want, Kevin. And other times, it seems like there is no point wanting anything, because it is only taken away again. Like this. I really did think that this time I had the chance of being happy, yes? Of being able to have the life that my friends have. I should have known it would not last, just like last time."

"You don't gotta have the life they got in order to be happy. But long as you think that's the only way to get happiness you'll never have it." Kevin understood the perspective she held, though. He understood the frustration. He understood how utterly lonely it got. But he also understood that it didn't have to be that way. There were alternatives. He'd experienced it a couple times, Kevin knew she could too with the right person. "There's always work arounds. If someone wants you enough and if you want them enough you figure 'em out. Maybe you die a virgin, but there are worse things in life."

"It is easy for you to say so - you have had people who want to be taking the risk," she grumbled, then sighed again. "Is this how it is always going to be for me, Kevin? I try not to care so much, but then something happens and here I am, back where I was starting with the wishing to just be who I was before my powers and complaining that I am not having the boyfriend."

"It's a lot to ask someone to risk. And you gotta let people close enough to know you enough to think you're worth it. 'Cause as careful as you are accidents can happen." Kevin was proof enough of that with his cracked ribs. Accidents hurt people and one with Yvette could lose someone an entire limb. "You're worth the risk. Just gotta find the right person. But when they're right," Kevin gave a very small shrug, "it's hard to want to risk them gettin' hurt by you. Even when they think you're worth it you might not think you are. It's a lousy situation."

"The only person who tried was Cam, and it was not a risk for him, just a game." Yvette felt tears welling up again and she swallowed hard. "Is it so wrong to want to have the normal life? Why can I not have that, Kevin? What did I do that was so wrong, to be punished with such powers?"

"Ah dunno, 'Vette. Maybe normal just ain't what you get. There ain't nothin' to do about it but figure out a way to make it work anyway. That whole 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade' kinda thing. It could always be worse." Derek had all of their mutations along with explosions, crab claws and a grasshopper body. He was never getting a normal life. Kevin thought that should have made Yvette feel better about her lot in life, but he got why she wasn't looking at the bigger picture, too. "At least you got friends, people that care 'bout you and somewhere safe to be. It's more than a lot of people get, mutant or not."

"I know. I know." The last came out more as a groan and Yvette balled her fists, driving her nails into her palms so that she wouldn't start crying again. She was being childish, she knew. Kevin was going to go through the same thing and here he was, making sure she was all right and not bemoaning his lot in life. "I am sorry, Kevin, to be such the crybaby. I know that it would be very much worse for me and I do try to remember the good things in my life, I do."

"Maybe you need somethin' else to focus on." Like the sharp pain in his chest from hunting her down. It wasn't the full force of the pain and Kevin knew that but he suddenly was not looking forward to being awake tomorrow. That was going to hurt. "It's your last night to masquerade as a 'normal person,'" he even used the finger quotes and everything, "what do you wanna do with it?"

"I do not kn..." she began, and then paused as an idea popped into her head, a thought that made her blush rosy-red beneath the tear stains. "Well, perhaps one thing," she continued. "But... no, it is too much to be asking."

Kevin raised an eyebrow and replied, "We are not holdin' up a bank. We'd be better at that with our mutations. You could just cut your way into the vault and Ah could threaten to touch people...we'd be awesome criminals." He was smiling by the end of his little ramble.
"No, not that," Yvette said, although she had managed a weak smile at the joke. "The other night, when you were in the medlab, you..." The blush deepened. "You asked me to be your teddy bear."
Nodding, Kevin figured maybe this meant he was getting an Yvette in his bed tonight. He was more than okay with that and maybe he should consider taking a percocet so he could sleep if that was the case. Pain when he was alone was one thing, but he didn't want her to think she was making it worse when it was his own stubbornness making it that way. "You wanna stay with me tonight and play teddy bear again?"

She nodded, grateful that he understood. "It was nice, to sleep with someone next to me and I might not ever have the chance again," she explained, still blushing furiously. "If it will not hurt you, may I?"
"Course. Ah don't really like sleepin' alone anyway. And you were a good teddy bear." Kevin laid a kiss against her temple in a fashion he hoped passed for brotherly but that he wasn't entirely sure was. "You're cute when you blush, y'know." A corner of his mouth quirked upward and he added, "But Ah kinda miss the glowin' eyes."

"They will be back soon enough," she replied with a sad smile, leaning against him carefully so she didn't hurt his ribs any more than she had already - belatedly she realised he must be in a lot of pain after having followed her all the way up here. "Thank you, Kevin. For everything."

"Ah told you before, you're the most important person in the world." Kevin figured it probably sounded a lot more genuine now that he wasn't all drugged up, though. That loopy voice really did undermine a guy's sincerity.

It did - she blushed again and ducked her head shyly. "You are so nice to me and I am such the brat sometimes," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "I am lucky to have you."

"Trust me, the luck goes both ways," he assured her.