Marie-Ange & Wade | Thursday Evening (backdated)

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Wade drops by to see how Percy's doing and absconds with Marie-Ange.


Wade tipped his head back and looked up at the brownstone's facade, then shrugged to himself and hit the buzzer. There were quite a few ladies living in this place and quite a few ladies meant he was going to be enjoying himself, he supposed. In a mannerly kind of way. The lovely ladies aside, he wanted to stop in and check on Percy, which meant he'd need to find out where Marie-Ange was, but he had excellent deductive reasoning. Most of the time, anyway.

Luckily for Wade, Marie-Ange had been tending to some of Amanda's plants in one of the windows, and had seen him approach. So she'd headed down the stairs before the buzzer even sounded, and waved off the old man on the first floor who had stuck his head out to see who was buzzing.

When she opened the door, Wade grinned. "Hi," he said. "Ostensibly, I came to check on the penguin, but I can acknowledge that's a really lame excuse for coming by to see you, so there it is, all acknowledged. We'll need to find another pink elephant to stick in the corner of the room now."

Marie-Ange ducked her head slightly and broke into a smile. "Perseus is making himself a comfortable nest in Amanda's spare bedroom, safe from any jellyfish or other tentacled monsters." She waved behind her towards the brownstone building. "I did not have any rocks for him to nest in, so he is making due with pillows and an eyemask."

"An eyemask?" Wade paused to consider that, then nodded. "Inventive. Is it green? I bet he'd like a green eyemask in lieu of rocks." Quirking an eyebrow, he tipped his head to the side so he could see her smile. He kinda liked it.

"It is blue, it has rice or grains or something small and hard and like grains in it. And herbs, they smell like mint." Marie-Ange explained. "Perseus keeps it safe for me when I do not need it. He is an excellent guard penguin." She nodded, as if to punctuate the remark. "I could take a picture for you, if you like?"

Wade leaned against the door frame, not boxing her in but getting a good bit closer than he'd been a moment ago. His hands were in the pockets of his jacket as he stood there, quirking an eyebrow. "Or you could show me."

Marie-Ange laughed, clearly very amused. "I could, but you would see how very little I have unpacked and how many shoes I own and then I would be a stereotype." It really was a lot of shoes. She had no idea how many until she'd started moving them all from the apartment she'd formerly shared with Doug to the room in Amanda's apartment. "I could buy you dinner and then show you the penguin's eyemask because then it would be too dark to see the mess." There was no logic in her statement, but it made sense in her head.

"Deal," Wade said, grinning. "I'll wait here while you get shoes and things and then we can eat and then I'll inspect Percy's nesting site in the dark." He had faster reflexes than most, which meant he'd more than likely be able to nab the bill for dinner from her before she actually paid. Wade didn't intend to let her pay - that wasn't how you did things. At least not if you were planning on doing them right.

Marie-Ange returned quickly after getting 'shoes and things'. Shoes and things was a coat and scarf and a purse that looked suspiciously like a messenger bag. It did have a designer label on it, however. "I never asked you, what brought you to the mansion? Because I am curious. Or nosy, you can consider it being nosy if you like."

"You're lucky you're not a cat," Wade said, tone somewhat philosophical. Then he smiled. Everyone wanted to know why he'd come to the mansion. He'd only told the doctors, really, and that was sort of how he wanted to keep it. "Just needed some help with my mutation - agility, strength, that kind of thing. I've got a healing factor mixed in with everything else. Seems like a lot of people went to school there - did you?"

"I did. I was there for years ten, eleven and twelve." Marie-Ange explained. "With, oh, Jubilee and Amanda and approximately half of everyone else on the journals. I sometimes come back to chaperon prom, because who better to find out who spiked the punch than a lot of spies?"

Wade kept his smile up and offered Marie-Ange his arm. "I don't think there's anyone more qualified, personally. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want to try to get anything past a group of spies. That just doesn't seem very smart." Reaching over with his free hand, he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and then quirked a brow. "Any portents of doom hit you where Percy's concerned?"

"No, but I am not sure one can actually do a tarot card reading for a stuffed penguin. Jubilee knit him a very squashy hat though." Marie-Ange took Wade's arm. "I .. have not explained the portents of doom in context, have I?" She asked, after a moment of reflection, and an even briefer moment of deja vu. "Which is perhaps a conversation I should have over food. It is much less troublesome if I can distract you with food."

Tucking her hand into the crux of his elbow, Wade shook his head. "Nope, you didn't explain the portents of doom to me before, but I'm all ears now - and I'm easily distracted pretty much all the time, anyway. I mean - oh, shiny..." He turned to look at a flashing bit of metal attached to some woman's wrist across the street. He thought it was a bracelet, probably, but flashing bits of metal were often other things, like guns, and he didn't want to have to kill anyone while he was attempting to woo someone. Then he grinned. Woo. And he had his knives. That was why Marie-Ange's hand was at his elbow. He had his wrist sheathes on for his throwing knives. They'd be fine.

He tipped his head back to her, the grin still on his lips. "Please, don't hold me in suspense. Tell me what these portents of doom are. And explain tarot to me. I've never really understood it."

"They vary." Marie-Ange let Wade lead her down the block. "I have nightmares. The doom ones are usually, ah, it is stereotypical sometimes, my brain. Stormclouds, flooding, the seas turning to blood, the dead rising, cats and dogs living together, that sort of thing." She nodded her head sort of in the direction of her shoulder. "Tarot is.. it is complicated, because I do not really always use it as it is meant to be used. I cheat."

"How do you cheat at cards? I mean, I know you can see into the future and things, but... isn't that like a double whammy? Isn't tarot supposed to help you see into the future, too?" Wade didn't get it, but he was willing to listen. Give him a gun any day over a deck of cards with mystical meanings that were often left up to interpretation.

"It is complicated. I have precognition, and also I sometimes use the cards, and sometimes it works but it is sometimes very vague and there is a lot of 'sometimes'. So I do not always use them, and I collect them but mostly for the art." Which was Marie-Ange's standard explanation leaving out all the 'magic' and 'Tante Mattie' and 'New Orleans' and 'possibly crazy', and adding the word 'sometimes' a lot. "Mostly I have nightmares and I make jokes about portents of doom."

"Huh," Wade said, nodding. "Well, I'm sorry you have nightmares and I hope you don't actually get any portents of doom from me, cause that'd be depressing. Do you read the cards for other people?"

"No doom for you, no. Actually, very little doom lately." Marie-Ange explained, as they waited for a crosswalk signal. "I do a lot of card reading. Also I can cheat at poker but I am not as good at that as Remy or Doug, or even Kurt. Kurt looks and speaks like he is an innocent, but he is a cheat at cards." Not the most deft subject change, but better than explaining the migraines, or the little bottle of pain killers in her desk that might knock out a horse.

"Oh, cheating at poker," Wade said, grinning. He went with the change of topic, his only homage to their former conversation a quick, "Would you read the cards for me if I asked nicely?"

Marie-Ange quirked an eyebrow. "Perhaps, but I think I would have to ask you questions first." She slid her arm down slightly and patted his forearm. "Those are subtle, but perhaps unnecessary, no? Which makes me wonder, why? I know why I have cards in my bag, but I think maybe you are too worried New York has crime? It is not as unsafe as people like to say."

"It's like being a boyscout," Wade said, entirely unfazed that she'd noticed his throwing knives. He was sporting Selma, in all her glory, at his belt and he had multiple other knives stashed about his person. He'd considered bringing Bea with him, but decided against that, as he hadn't had a chance to scope out the diligence of the police force in New York just yet. "I like to be prepared for anything."

"I hope you are prepared for Girl Scouts. The tiny mercenaries are all over the city with their cookies and their wagons and the colored vests with badges and their "please support out troop!" Marie-Ange said, pointing with her free hand at a group who was just packing up their table in front of the nearby newsstand. "You should know so you are prepared that I have a taser in my bag and both of my shoes have steel toes." And it was -expensive- getting steel toes put in cute heeled suede boots. "So we are prepared if some unfortunate should decide we look like a mugging target."

Wade grinned. "You want some Girl Scout cookies? I'll buy you some." He'd totally gotten a mental image of Marie-Ange kicking a girl scout with her steel-toed shoes and stealing a box of cookies. God pity the person who thought mugging them would be a good idea. Wade understood intellectually that she could take care of herself, given the apparently very shady work she did, but that didn't mean he'd let a mugger get away with both legs functioning and a heartbeat if somebody actually tried to hurt her. "And it's good to know those dainty little things pack more of a punch than they look like they would. See, you're always prepared, too. Don't give me a hard time about the wrist sheathes."

"Oh, no. I have five boxes in my office." Marie-Ange didn't add that two were for bribing Jubilee, because the little Asian woman ran on sugar and one was for Artie for the next time he came to do powers work. "I would never give you a hard time. I am curious, because they are unusual and like you said, it is good I am not a cat, no?"

Wade quirked a smile. "Yeah, I did say that, didn't I?" He paused for a moment and pointed down at his ankle. "They come in handy," he said, shifting his foot so she could see the bulge caused by the knife he had stashed there. "What with guns being illegal in New York and everything." Lying was out of the question for obvious reasons, not the least of them being that he felt like lying to someone he might potentially be wooing would be a bad plan. The fact that she was a precog kind of played some part in his decision to go for part of the truth. "I was in the military, so I even know how to use them all the right way, too."

"How many of those do you have?" Marie-Ange asked lightly. "I feel as though perhaps I should have frisked you before we left for dinner." She was mostly teasing, although the number of people she knew who had three or four knives just on them casually were limited to people who had interesting pasts and now she was even more curious. "Guns are not illegal if you have a permit."

"Only if it's an unrestricted license," Wade said. "I haven't got one of those. Mine's basically a target license. So I can have a gun on me at home, if I wanted to, and I can transport my gun from home to a shooting range, but not a lot else. There's other licenses I could've applied for, but they're a hassle." Not that he knew much about all that, really. No, not at all. "And like I said," he grinned as they continued walking, "I like to be prepared."

"If I remember correctly, the Professor will ask you to keep your gun in a safe, no? In case of unfortunate events?" Marie-Ange knew Garrison kept his in a safe. "Yes, gun licenses are a lot of paperwork. We keep several on hand just in case. The licenses, that is. Not the guns." Just one gun, and not hers, thankfully. "Were you ever, oh, what is the Scout badge? Eagle? Hawk? It would be one of the predator birds."

"Nah, I never had time for that when I was a kid," Wade said, shaking his head. "But the Professor did tell me I could keep Bea in a case in my suite. Mostly it's easier to deal with knives from day to day. Can you shoot?"

"I am able to, but I do not prefer it." Marie-Ange answered. Leaving out the whole explanation that if she was going to kill someone she was going to do it personally. "Personal style I suppose? Also a shoulder holster would mean no more clingy tops." And she was not going to wear one of those ridiculous thigh holsters.

Wade didn't even bother trying to suppress his smile. "I'm in favor of clingy tops on you, I think. And skirts. I'm very in favor of skirts. You promised and you delivered, even despite my sneak attack." He pulled them to a stop, tipping his head to the side as they approached a pizza place he hadn't been to yet. He liked pizza. "How do you feel about pizza?"

"I do not dislike pizza?" Marie-Ange .. sort of.. answered. "I like it well enough, unless it is that terrible kind from microwave boxes and then it is no, because I found out very fast that not only is it terrible, but if you microwave it too long then you have to buy a new microwave." She'd just started getting frozen dinners instead. "I do not think I have been here before. Which is not unexpected, since I was out of town for six months."

"Okay, hang on - authenticity check." Wade made a 'pause' motion to Marie-Ange and then stuck his head into the restaurant. "Hello!" He said rather loudly.

"Hey," said the man at the front of the shop. He had a very thick accent. "Come in, bring your girlfriend, sit - eat. Welcome." He was a little old man with a dirty t-shirt on and he kept gesturing for Wade to come inside. "I am Angelo, my sons make the best pizza you ever tasted!"

Turning back around, the mercenary raised his eyebrows at Marie-Ange. "Seems pretty damn Italian to me, so it won't be from a microwave." He grinned, eyebrows raised.

"Microwave!" Came an indignant voice behind him. "We got no microwave here."

"See? So you're safe," Wade half-laughed, holding his hand out to her. "Let's see what you think of it."

"You may have created a monster if this restaurant is good.." Marie-Ange took Wade's hand, laughing. "All my co-workers are obsessed with authentic food. Jubilee is making a map, the day after I returned from New Orleans she asked me if I could tell her all of the good French restaurants." Of course she'd obliged, but it was somewhat like being beset upon by a food-obsessed tornado that smelled always of bubble-gum. "If I share, they will order pizza from here always. If I do not share, they will never let me hear the end of it."

"There are worse kinds of monsters to've created," Wade said, keeping the door open with one foot so he could also maintain hand contact while she walked inside.

Angelo seated them in a booth and gave them menus, telling them all the best things to eat - which was pretty much everything - while informing them that they only used real mozzarella, hand-grated, none of that stuff that tasted like plastic bottles. Once the little man had left to get them water, Wade raised an eyebrow at Marie-Ange. "Besides, you'll only never hear the end of it if they find out that you kept it from them."

"They find out. I work with spies!" Marie-Ange said, laughing. "I think they read my emails and listen to my phone conversations." Perhaps not, but they always did find out about some things, like restaurants. "Besides, we are a few blocks from the Brownstone. They will find it and then I would have to lie and say I had never been here and that never ends well."

"I think you should give it a shot anyway," Wade said, grinning. "I don't really like sharing. Maybe don't share for, say... a month? Or something like that. And then they can know about it. That way the shiny newness of it will have worn off."

Marie-Ange laughed again. "I think I have to work with them, and I know they are all terrors. But it may make for a good bribe. Here, go stand in the cold and damp and I will show you a good place to get pizza. " She looked over the menu for a few seconds, and set it aside with a little shrug. "I am not fussy about pizza. Except anchovies." She leaned forward, and with a stage whisper added. "No one likes those. Not even the French."

"That's really good," Wade said, leaning in so he, too, could whisper conspiratorially. "I might've had to not take you on another date if you liked anchovies."

"And that would be a shame, since you still have not gotten to see Perseus' eyemask and the clever hat that Jubilee made for him." The crocheted and knit animals and other things confused Marie-Ange but it was better than some of Jubilee's other antics, so she supposed she would not say anything too irritable. "And clearly the penguin's safety and comfort is of high importance."

Nodding solemnly, Wade agreed, "Percy's safety and comfort really are of the highest sort of importance. Top priority and everything." Angelo came over and took their order, which wound up being a bottle of wine and an extra large pizza with olives, peppers, and Italian sausage. "I can't wait to see the little guy's hat," he continued as though their conversation hadn't been interrupted by the old Italian man.

"Do not tell Jubilee you like it, or else she will start crocheting things for you too." Marie-Ange said, laughing. "It is her latest hobby, and she takes to hobbies with great enthusiastic fervor until she forgets about them." Which was the best part of Jubilee, even though the worst part was the exact same thing. "Unless you want mismatched socks and a hat with a bobble..."

"I could totally rock a bobble," Wade said, somehow managing to keep his face straight as their pizza arrived. "It would be sexy, don't even try to deny it."

The incredulous expression on Marie-Ange's face was made all the more so by the pizza slice in her hand and it's string of cheese that dangled off one side. She attempted to respond, failed, tried again and then just set the slice down, put her head in her arms and giggled for a solid minute.

Wade folded his piece of pizza over in half and took a huge bite of it, then waggled his eyebrows at her. It wasn't a terribly suggestive gesture, given the mouthful of pizza he had going on and the fact that he was pretty much scalding his taste buds off, but he didn't particularly care. She seemed to be enjoying herself and he liked the sound of her laughter.

Marie-Ange didn't even bother to pick her head back up. She glanced at Wade, giggled, glanced again, and then just gave up, head in arms, shoulders shaking with laughter.