xp_logs | Molly and Kyle: Head over Heels

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Molly meets Kyle and she is pretty much fascinated by his abilities.

Molly had class. It was by herself with a lot of the teachers so it was kind of weird but that was okay because she liked them. They tried to entertain her because she was little so they often went overboard. When class was over she was realllly hungry so she had a burrito that the green haired lady made. It had healthy stuff in it which meant it was kind of gross so she hid most of it in one of the plants.

Now Molly was bored so she decided to try to find the animal guy who posted on her journal. She snuck around, trying to look for someone who looked like the pictures.

"Does anybody know where Kyle is?" she called hopefully.

"Me!" The very tall, blond, and very windblown looking young man said. "Also, I happen to be Kyle. Helpful how that works out, huh?" Kyle paused for a second. "And I mean like I'm really Kyle, not like, I'm Jake or Vanessa pretending to be Kyle. I mean me. They're shapeshifters, I'm not, you're Molly, right? I know because of the hats."

Molly spun around, eyes widening. She asked and he was like right there! It was like magic.

And then Kyle said a lot of stuff and she didn't know who a lot of the people were so she got all confused until he said 'shapeshifter' so she stared at him, blinking for a moment before shaking it off.

"Yep!" she said, nodding, patting her hat proudly with a beaming grin. She peered at him closely.

"OOH! I like your ears!"

They were pointy, like a vulcan. Or an elf.

"Me too. I mean, I only see them in mirrors, but you know, I think they work for me. It means I can hear people asking about me from a couple of rooms away." Kyle explained. "I was coming in from putting sand down on some of the paths. You called about me just after I got my jacket and boots off." And sure enough, he was barefoot.

"So if people whisper realllly quiet far away can you hear 'em?" Molly said, her voice subconsciously dropping a little as she presented the thought.

Her eyes trailed down to his feet. He had clawed toenails and his feet were really big. Molly's eyes got all big as well. That happened a lot, though. But it wasn't fear, and the curious questions came, in rapid Molly fashion.

"Are they sharp? Can you scratch people? Does your socks get holes in 'em a lot? Do you like walking without shoes better? It seems like they'd be really uncomfortable."

It was like every first day of class Kyle'd had since he'd started in college. Only a lot easier to take from twelve-year-old-Molly as opposed to the 20-somethings in some of his classes. "I can hear a lot of stuff, but if someone's whispering and they're far away, it's harder. But there's a clock in one of the classrooms that I can hear all the way outside. It makes this really irritating noise whenever the minute and hour hands overlap." He leaned against a wall and pulled one foot up. "And, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and yeah. I try to keep my claws away from people, and I totally hate shoes. My friend Clarice made me these great winter socks that have holes for my claws and that rubber grippy stuff on the bottom."

Molly made a face. "Yeah, that would suck. I don't like clocks either," she said.

"Sometimes at my old school and I was late to class the teacher would be like 'do you see the TIME!' and point at the clock all grrr like," she said. Mrs. Rhine was really mean. "But Will kept picking on my friend Becca in the gym so I had to help!"

Drawn by the sudden movement, Molly looked back down at his feet.

"But don't your feet get cold?"

Kyle shook his head. "I mean, in the winter I wear shoes so they don't, but most of the time, not really. I'm kinda used to it. But sometimes you gotta, so I've got sandals." He put his foot back down, after Molly had seemed to get enough of a good look. "And yeah. Wow, when I was like, twelve... I think I was probably late for everything. But mostly because dude, there were water fountains. I couldn't go to class without water. Or people. Or food. Or people with food. Or water fountains. I got distracted a lot."

Molly nodded, listening very intently. She actually didn't mind learning things too much unless they were boring.

"I wouldn't either. It'd be nice to walk around everywhere without shoes. But I still like my shoes, though," she said, lifting up a brand new(!) black snow boot covered in rainbow stars.

Molly then giggled at the rest of Kyle's story, beaming broadly Most of that pretty much sounded her junior high experience.

"Me too!"

She inched a little closer to him without really thinking about it, then pulled something of her pocket and presented it to him.

"Hey! Want some gum? It tastes like mint."

Kyle grinned, but shook his head. "Thanks, but I have this whole ... senses thing, so a lot of stuff that most people like is weird to me." His nose wrinkled up almost automatically and he sneezed twice, loudly. "Like that. Came with the ears and feet. On the other hand, hey, I can walk on my hands sometimes."

Molly nodded thoughtfully. "What about meat? I don't think they have meat gum, though. They have bacon mayo, though!" she said.

Kyle's sneeze made her blink but she giggled quickly. "Bless you!"

She paused with a perk of interest. "Walk on your hands...like upside down walking?"

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, the ears and claws came with the senses and like, agility. So I land on my feet, I can climb like, anything, and I can walk on my hands. Doc Hank and Kurt can too, and I'm pretty sure Dori can but I've never seen her do it." He scratched his head, considering it for a moment and then gave a small shrug. "And I know there's regular not mutant people who can. Angel can for a couple of steps, and Kurt's said that tons of people from his family can. But he's like, from some circus in Germany."

"I wish I could do it. I'm in gymnastics but I just started before I came here so I didn't learn a lot of stuff," Molly said, resting her chin in her hand woefully.

She glanced up at him then, eyes widening.

"Could you teach me? Oooh, and maybe Kurt too. AND Dr. Beast. We could be like...those really expensive circus people in Las Vegas! Cause we got costumes and stuff."

Kyle couldn't help but laugh, it was such a ridiculous but cute idea. "Yeah, but we all wear the same ones. Well, except you guys in the New Mutants, you wear those red and yellow things." He was so glad he didn't have one of those things. They were just so awful.

"I bet you could learn how. It's not super hard, it's just all about like, balance and stuff. It's easier if you're little, cause then you don't have as much you gotta hold up." And now that he thought about it, he'd bring it up to Monet or whoever was working with her on powers. Because it might be a neat powers training exercise.

"I know! Aren't the New Mutant costumes cool! No offense, but the biker outfits look kinda weird...like you're...bikers...and you don't wanna show up somewhere and have the bikers confuse you with bikers. There's a show about it. It gets dangerous. They have motorcycles," Molly said as she plopped down in a chair.

"We can all wear similar costumes in the circus troop because they do that sometimes, y'know. Like Robin. His family wore the same costume. Then we could do shows! Everywhere!" Molly said, spreading her arms out wide. She wanted to go everywhere.

"And.....I'm not a New Mutant right now, am I? I still gotta talk to the leader, right?"

She used 'leader' because she forgot who they said it was.

Molly squinted at Kyle's explanation and she quickly nodded. "That'd be cool! I bet I could hold up a lot, huh?"

"Can you show me now? We can practice!"

Kyle resisted the urge to ask Molly if she was breathing. He kind of hated it when people asked him if he breathed while speaking, and besides, she wasn't turning funny colors. "Yeah, I'm sure there's like a mat free in the gym." He held up a finger, indicating that she wait a second, he needed to try to go back through all those things she said. "Yeah, you probably have to talk to Tabitha, she's the librarian and also your like, mentor. Oh, and we're not bikers, even though uh, some of us have motorcycles. Which is probably confusing, yeah."

Molly sometimes did not know when to slow down when she was excited or liked someone and right now was one of those times. And he was making the face her dad did when he was about to get a migraine. If he had a migraine he never wanted to do anything with her. So she didn't want to make Kyle have a migraine.

She made her own face, then nodded. "Oh," she said , digging her hands into her pockets as she bit her lip.

"Well...nevermind on the..showing...maybe...later or...not. I should go away now. Nice to meet you for real and I like your feet..." she said, waving. She slowly backed up, trying to remember which way was the kitchen.

She had hoped to sneak in and get something else to eat before the green haired lady saw her.

"Whoa there, pint-sized, I'm not mad at you." Kyle said. Because that was a face he was so very familiar with. When you had a mouth full of teeth like his and claws, people tended to sometimes think you were crankier than you were. "I just had to remember all your questions, it's fine. I forget to stop when I talk too. You're excited. How about we go find a snack or something, and I can check and see if the gym's free and I'll teach you how to walk on your hands."

Molly glanced up at him, quiet for a few moments. "Really? Are you sure?" she asked. She really did like Kyle, and she wanted to keep hanging out with him. Cause food AND learning how to walk on her hands sounded equally awesome.

"Cause we can later..."

This was showing a saintly amount of patience for a twelve year old to suggest later. She wanted it NOW but she knew she had to pick and choose if there was a potential for badness.

"I'm totally sure. Lets get you some food, and we can check the gym schedule." Kyle said. "That way you're not super hungry when you're learning, and we can make sure we're not like, interrupting anyone."

Molly smiled softly. "Okay, cool," she said, nodding eagerly.

"The green haired lady gave me a burrito earlier but I hid it," she whispered.

"It was gross."

Kyle winced. "Okay, first step, we go find that burrito and 'hide' it in a trash can." Because it would probably end up smelling and he'd be the first to know. "Then we'll get you some real lunch, and maybe you should sit down with Lorna, that'd be the lady with the green hair and let her know you don't like whatever was in the burrito. She was always cool about me not eating stuff that tastes awful to me anyway." He suggested. Feeling definitely weird that he was the authority figure here. He could still remember being the one getting the 'Mr. Gibney, you have to eat -some- vegetables." lectures.

"But. Not right now. First, sandwiches, I make awesome ones, and then hands walking."

Molly blinked at Kyle for a moment or two, tapping her cheek quizzically.

"Um...which...one was first again?" First he said throw away burrito was first and then he said tasty sandwiches were first.

"Oh, right. First, find the burrito. Then we go get sandwiches. I have food on the brain. So, where'd you hide it?" Kyle said, grinning. "I used to hide stuff I didn't like in my pockets, and then try to feed it to Alex's dog."