Lex and Julian | Thursday Afternoon

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex walks in on a brooding Julian and decides to invite the kid out to the garage to cheer him up.


Julian opened the fridge with slightly more force than was required, slamming it against the counter-top next to the coffee machine- which made an indignant sound. He muttered something before pulling the orange juice from its spot inside the door and slamming it shut again, his eyes glowing a slight shade of green as he pulled a glass down from a shelf and floated it to the island where he now stood.

Lex was heading towards the kitchen when he heard the toaster grunt in what he thought was frustration. I hate that thing, he thought, preparing himself to deal with the machine's incessant noise. They did not have a good relationship, mainly because Lex threatened to fry its circuitry at least once a day, several more when he actually had to cook in that kitchen. As he entered the room he noticed Julian standing by the counter, and thought he looked even more brooding than normal. "Hey, Lazybones, what's eating you? Please tell me it's the coffee maker, I'd love a reason to turn it to slag." He gave the infernal machine a look before opening the refrigerator hard enough to slam against the counter. The thing made another noise, which he ignored and grabbed an apple."

Julian looked up at his fellow trainee, "Nah, don't trust Doctor McCoy's invention any more than you or anyone else, but it's...well, it's not that." The whole situation with Nico had reached a boiling point within the last hour and after detonating some rocks in the quarry, he needed a bit of juice. "It's giving you a hard time, eh, Hamster?" as much as Julian disliked his trainee name, he was glad he wasn't called that.

"No more than usual. The thing is an abomination, don't get me wrong Hank is a damn good engineer but sometimes I have to question the practicality of his undertakings. I mean, if I had the ability to create sentient electronic devices a coffee maker would be at the bottom of my list of things to install it on." He looked the kid over and then laughed. "Well if the toaster isn't causing you problems then I don't know what is. I give up." He made a mock huffing sound and pulled up a stool at the counter, taking a big bite of his apple. He wondered what could possibly upset the telekinetic, then he remembered that he was a teenager and tried to think of things that couldn't upset him. Both lists were frustratingly short.

"What would you install it in?" Julian pondered, trying to imagine the rest of the kitchen sharing HB2.7's network and little aware that to some extent, they actually did.

"Honestly, I can't really think of anything. There are too many ways a sentient device can backfire. If I were being adventurous I would put it into a vehicle of some sort, or maybe I would put it in a robot. It would be pretty cool to be able to talk with a helper-bot, though that could again lead to many issues." The more Lex thought about it the more he realized that he hated the idea of something hooking into the internet and going crazy. He loved Terminator but found the movie terrifying for just that reason, too many ways an electronic device could try to take over.

The younger mutant nodded and poured another glass of juice before, calmly, putting the carton away. "They already sort of have it for cars though, don't they? I mean, GPS and whatever."

"Those aren't sentient," Lex said dismissively, "they're just fancy toys." He hated people who used GPS for non-military actions. The only time you needed to be that precise about where you were was when you were about to launch a bomb the backside of a militant dictator. "I'm talking Nightrider or that one with the beetle. Give a vehicle a personality and you are dealing with one of the most useful, and probably dangerous, things on earth."

"Can't be that dangerous," Julian shrugged, "and you're thinking of Lohan's movie Herbie or something, I think." He'd had a crush on the starlet growing up, but it had faded in recent years as she'd delved deeper into insanity and he'd developed as a mutant. "My car has a GPS, it's never tried to kill me."

"Yeah, that's because they aren't sentient at the moment, but the potential is what's terrifying." Lex had eaten the apple while they chatted and was longing to get back to the garage. It was his refuge and anyone who was close to him knew he could be found their most days. Looking at the kid he decided that he would invite him to tag along to help. "What are you up to right now?"

Julian shrugged, "No plans here," he downed the juice in a series of loud gulps. "Unless I get the urge to break something fragile again."

"You know, that makes me feel like you have woman problems." His smile was knowing, and his chuckle was full of sincere sympathy. "Do you think you can keep your anger in check long enough to tk some delicate equipment for me so I can install some new modifications to one of the cars in the garage?"

One eyebrow went up, "What sort of modifications?" He floated the empty glass to the sink and rinsed it before leaving it in the basin for someone else to wash.

"I'm tweaking the outputs on one of the engines. I could use your help removing it from the car so I can switch out some of the valves for more efficient valves, that should increase the horsepower a bit." The jeep always needed work but he was a little weary of constantly maintaining it. There were too many things to do and not enough time to do it. "With your help I could get it done in an hour or so, and then we could take it out for a spin."

"I would be happy to lend a hand, but I still need Jean's permission to leave the grounds," Julian admitted, a little dejectedly.

Lex couldn't help but laughing, "And that's stopping you? You must be in some seriously deep shit if you aren't willing to break their rules." He was technically supposed to be restricted to New York but he'd gotten around it more than once.

"Heh, you know how it is. Run off and try to save your family and a couple of teenage girls decide that they want to help and sneak along- so you get painted as someone who leads them into trouble and whatever," Julian shrugged and motioned for the door. "Shall we?"

"They're still on you about that? I thought you did what you had to do to save your family. You should have asked someone who was more qualified to help you, but that's just me speaking from a tactical perspective." He patted Julian on the back before heading towards the door. "Still, your recklessness requires some sort of restriction to teach you a lesson. Don't worry though, they'll get over it soon enough. You just need to behave yourself."

Julian rolled his eyes and followed the electrokinetic into the garage, he hoped Lex hadn't noticed. "So, you need me to lift the block out once you disconnect everything?"

"It's all been disconnected already. You see that rack, I need you to place it in and I'll start working on it. It shouldn't take me more than an hour." He was looking the engine over and hadn't noticed Julian's actions, so he continued on that same vein. "They can be far too uptight sometimes, but they mean well."

"Yeah, so I've gathered," Julian continued his job in silence, wishing he'd brought his iPod- his dock currently sitting on a mobile rack of tools by his car. In the end he considered the silence a nice change from the chaos that had been swirling around him recently. Finally he broke the silence with a question from out of the blue, "Do you think Xavier is right?"

"Right about what?" Lex had no idea what the kid was talking about, but questions like that were often pointed and dangerous. There are too many things to consider when answering. He moved to fix another part of the engine and then turned to the kid, assessing his body language.

"Just something I've been wondering recently," Julian said, leaning back against the Jeep, but keeping his focus on the engine. "Do you think that mutants and humans can exist without killing each other?"

"Are you sure you want me to answer that question? I can tell you what I think, but it does not leave this room." Lex knew he was in dangerous territory but he felt the kid deserved an answer. If he was going to obey the rules he had to know why they were so important.

"Well I had been planning on running and telling Doctor Grey-Summers, but since you asked nicely..." Julian smirked, "don't worry, it won't be repeated...unless the Cukoos are listening in."

Lex laughed and twisted the last valve into place. "In all honesty I can't say that I see it happening. I have witnessed the bigotry, the hatred that many people have for us and I cannot see that going away any time soon. Everyday we find more mutants with more powerful abilities and we have to understand that many will see them as a threat to their way of life." He paused to let it sink in, "However, the Professor is right about one thing. If we don't try to do something about it then no one will. We are the main line of defense between the world and mutants, and though we cannot be everywhere we must choose to be somewhere. I wont' pretend that I know what you should do with your gifts, but I honestly think that you should consider where you're going, how you are being perceived, and decide if that is how you choose to live. If you aren't comfortable with yourself then you'll never be of use to anyone." He hadn't meant to preach but he knew Julian would probably interpret it as such. Even so he felt like he'd needed to say that to someone for a long time, if only to reaffirm it for himself.

Ever the eloquent speaker, Julian shrugged and nodded, "Makes sense I suppose." He pointed to the engine, "She ready?"

It was painfully obvious his words had fallen on deaf ears. "Yeah, thanks for the help." He wiped his hands on a towel before fixing the engine back in place. "So, do you want to go for a ride or not? I'll tell Jean that I was supervising you if she finds out."

Julian shrugged again, "Sure, where were you thinking? If you'd like to hit a drive through, I'll pay." Little did Lex know that his words had not fallen on deaf ears- just ones not quite so able to process the large chunk of data that had just been delivered to him.

Lex was getting very hungry, the idea of getting a burger was quite appealing. "Oh, that sounds like a good plan. Let's head out past Salem, we'll go on a 10 or 15 mile circuit and stop when we see something worth eating." He closed the hood and tossed Julian the keys. "You're driving. I need to hear what the engine sounds like with the new modifications."


The younger mutant caught the keys easily, and with a smile rushed to the driver seat, "Yes, sir."