Molly, Marius, Kyle, and then Marius, Kyle, Crystal, Laurie and Eamon

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

(Backdated to very early this morning)

Molly finds Marius in the snow, and then Kyle finds Marius in the snow, and they have a -very- awkward conversation about, er, cake, and realize something odd is going on here.



Molly had far too much soda earlier that night so she couldn't really sleep. Not wanting to wake Meggan up, she crept down into the kitchen to make a sandwich. She was hungry. Turkey, lettuce, mustard, bread, cheese. Sandwiches were easy to make and did not set things on fire, which would make the adults happy.

As Molly reached into the drawer to pull out a knife to cut the sandwich with, she spotted something out on the lawn. It was a dark fleck. And since there was snow, dark flecks on snow was weird cause it was faaar away. Sneaking back upstairs for a moment to pull on her snow boots (with furry on top!), Molly tip toed out toward the fleck to see what it was. The fleck got closer, and closer, until she was very sure it was not a fleck at all but instead a man.

Tilting her head to the side, Molly reached down and picked up a stick nearby to poke him with it.

"Um...are you okay Mr. Sleeping Guy? It's probably not a good idea to be sleeping on the lawn."

Her eyebrows rose expectantly as she waited for some signs of movement.

Hopefully he was not Mr. Dead Guy.

Generally speaking snow was not Marius' preferred choice of bedding, though under the circumstances he had not particularly bothered by the initial exposure of several bodyparts to sudden cold. Of course, he also hadn't been expecting to stay there long enough to doze off, nor be awoken by a young girl with sleep-tousled hair and a stick. However, since no one was going after him with a cricket bat whilst screaming for the police it still failed to land the coveted award for "Most Unpleasant Awakening After A Make-Out".

The Australian took a mental catalog of his bodyparts, found them intact or at least attached, and cleared his throat. "Yes," he said, "I am well. And I concur. As ideas go, this was definitely not my best." After a moment he added, "Incidentally, you can cease poking now."

Molly jumped when Mr. Sleeping Guy spoke, nearly dropping the stick. She proceeded to hide it behind her back.

"Oops, sorry," she said, biting her lip. Craning her head in to get a better look, she blinked a few times.

"Why are you sleeping here? It's very cold. Do you need a jacket? I can get you a jacket."

"Ah, no worries. The cold's probably kept the swellin' down." Marius rubbed his eyes and realized it was the new girl, Molly. He made the executive decision not to mention his probable ankle fractures lest she offer to carry him back into the building.

Belatedly, he realized he was in the snow, in the dark, with a girl he had never spoken to before. In a minute this was going to start feeling like a Dateline investigation.

"Ah, my apologies," he said, sitting up rather awkwardly. "Molly, correct? My name is Marius. I was just, ah, waitin' for someone."

Molly peered at him with confusion. She knew what swelling was. She broke her finger once trying to get some gum out of the gumball machine without paying. Her mom was not happy.

The Not-Sleeping-Man was saying a lot of things that didn't make sense so she continued to stare at him, occasionally blinking.

"But...you were sleeping. And...what's swollen?"

Adults made her head hurt.

By the time Kyle had gotten hungry enough that another round with Laura was going to require food, rather than food just being a vaguely appealing idea, and then found pants because he was not about to go on down to the main kitchen in just a pair of boxer briefs, and then convinced Laura that no, he'd be right back he just needed to get food or he would die it was actually quite a while later than he realized.

As a manner of habit he checked his phone during the short walk down the stairs and found the series of increasingly urgent texts from Marius, and finally a resigned voicemail. So 'food' became 'grab leftover pizza and might as well get some for Marius too'. At least he knew where Marius was this time.

So it was a shirtless Kyle wearing a pair of jeans with a distinctive Kyle-claws shaped hole in the lower left leg, and with some healing scratches, and two large pieces of pizza that walked out to the snow, following the set of smaller footprints, and the sound of Molly's confused voice. "Uh. Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" He said, slightly startled by the fact that it was stupid o'clock in the morning and of all the people to find Marius before he did, it was the twelve year old

Well, it could be worse, he thought. It could've been Rachel.

Molly's eyes widened when she saw it was Kyle, quickly looking down. She felt her cheeks going red but maybe he'd think cause it was cold.

"I....was hungry and then there was a speck on the lawn so I went to see what it was and then it was Mr. Not Sl---Marius. And he said something is swollen and he was sleeping and waiting on someone. So I offered to get him a jacket," she said, nodding just as quickly as her rapid-fire explanation.

"Maybe a blanket?" she also offered, looking back to Marius.

Marius smiled and waved her away. "Cheers, but it's fine. He's who I was waitin' for." He turned to Kyle, his expression becoming somewhat less amiable. "Bit late, aren't you? Forget to charge the phone?"

Kyle coughed into his fist. "I got the first text and then, uh, distracted." He jerked his head towards the side, trying to indicate a set of scratch marks on one arm. "You tell me Laura wants... " Crap. Twelve year old. "A midnight snack, and I was busy with that and not with answering my phone."

"A midnight sn . . ." Marius' brain took only slightly longer to engage than Kyle's, which was fortunate considering which track his train of thought veered onto once he saw the scratches. "Here, wait, you mean Laura . . . ah . . ." he glanced at Molly, "took her . . . cake . . . to your room?"

Molly glanced between the two of them, still a little confused until he mentioned....

"Cake?" she said with a bright smile.

"Oooh, can I have some?"

The glare that Kyle gave Marius was very clearly a "This is your fault." look. "Uh, I'm pretty sure the cake is ..." He stopped, and looked around. "Wait. Marius, uh, how much did you want cake? Because it seems kinda weird that all of us wanted cake all at once." He stopped -again- and held the pizza out towards Molly. "Cake's gone, but, uh, if you promise not to mention this to anybody, here, pizza. And I won't tell anyone you were up and outside at what time is it anyway?"

Molly squinted at the two of them. Something was weird, even she could tell that. Why would they not want her to talk about Mr. Not Sleeping in the snow? Still, she would've gotten in trouble being outside AND he was going to give her pizza, which was way better than sandwich.

"...Okay," she said, nodding a little as she took the pizza, peering at the two of them again with a quirked brow.

"Well um...bye!" she said as she turned to leave, taking a bite of the pizza as she went.

"Can't say I was particularly hungry when I got in," said Marius as the girl departed, "but after a few minutes . . . yes. I can safely affirm I did most assuredly crave cake. Which is peculiar, as whilst the cake was indeed enticing I make it my policy to avoid that sort, considering my tendency to . . ." he hesitated; Molly wasn't quite out of earshot, ". . . dia . . . betes?"

"I hate metaphors." Kyle sat down somewhat abruptly in the snow, and carefully prodded at one of Marius' legs. "Pretty sure you're looking at bad sprains at best, dude. We should get you to one of the docs. And yeah, it was like zero to cake in about 6 seconds, and now that I think about it, there were some pretty, uh, cake-ish sounding noises from other rooms.."

"Oh, sod. Had hoped it'd just be a quick borrow." Marius sighed and scratched his head. Whilst not generally a detail he would share, it seemed relevant. And besides, this was Kyle. "Though back to matters of cake, now that I think on it it did seem Laura an' I were gettin' worked up to an equal degree, and not just in the category of baked goods. It was a bit . . . well . . . bitey." Glancing at Kyle's scratches, he paused. "Suppose it may be a feral thing, but if it's the entire floor in a hungry mood I find the situation a bit suspect, there bein' a limited number of explanations that would cause every healthy adult in the area to simultaneously suffer hunger pangs and have me throwin' out bitey vibes."

"Yeah, that's basically two whole explanations for that that aren't gonna, you know, mean we'll be in therapy." Kyle agreed, after putting that through the Marius-to-English filter in his head, and then back. He watched until Molly's silhouette was gone and he was fairly sure she was inside and then went for broke. "And one of those is supposed to have a hepafilter thing in her room, but I know she and whatshisface were having the crazy sex earlier, because man, that girl is not quiet."

Marius gave him an aggrieved look. "Thank you for that charming anecdote, in return for which I remind you that whilst you were partaking in la petite mort, the only girlish gasps I have heard this evening were those uttered as my ankles snapped. You're breakin' my heart with these reminders, mate." The Australian flexed his legs experimentally, then sighed. "I wouldn't want to be the one knockin' on that door, both in general and in particular. Laurie an' I do rather tend to loop."

"Hey, I heard her going at it before Laura decided she was gonna go for anyone willing." Kyle retorted. "But, uh, now that I think about it, not that long before. It is pretty suspicious. Okay, okay, lets... uh, well, lets get you to the docs because I'm pretty sure I don't wanna try setting your ankles myself, even if you borrow powers." Also that involved blood and Kyle'd had enough of that scratched out in the last hour.

"Can't say as I disagree with the logic," Marius replied, reaching up an arm so the taller boy could take him. "Suppose we can talk strategy on the way. It is a bit of a puzzle. Although if it is the least traumatic of the varied explanations, a simple solution may lie before us."

Pulling Marius into a fireman's carry wasn't all that hard, and Kyle figured it was the easiest way to not jostle the injured ankles. And besides, it gave Marius plenty of chances to smack Kyle upside the head, which in all fairness, he -had- let the guy sit around in the snow long enough to take a nap. "Yeah, and hey if it is Laurie, it gives me more reasons to throw her in a lake, which she's long overdue for."

"Do so on general principle. In our last go in the Danger Room she thought it'd be a good idea to pull the suspicious lever." Marius adjusted himself on Kyle's shoulder for greater comfort and sighed. "Oi, Kyle?"

"I was gonna let you do that one, seemed fair." Kyle didn't set off back towards the mansion until Marius seemed like he wouldn't fall over backwards. "Huh? What's up?"

The depression in the other boy's voice was palpable. "Just tell me . . . how was the cake?"



A few (two) hours later - after Kyle takes Marius to the infirmary, they go find Crystal, and proceed to wake up (or something) Laurie and Eamon to get the problem dealt with. With air. And water guns.



Crystal had just stepped out of the shower when she heard a knock at her door. That was curious; most people weren't up this early, and if they were surely they didn't go around knocking on other people's doors if they weren't expected. Crystal certainly wasn't expecting anyone this morning; who could it be? She picked up the nearest piece of clothing, which happened to be a red silk nightgown lying on her bed, and slipped it over her head as she made her way to the door. The sight that greeted her was quite unexpected and she looked at Kyle in surprise for a moment before offering a polite greeting. "Hello, Kyle, Marius. May I help you?"

"So, uh, Marius and me... uh... " Kyle shook himself, which had the added effect of shaking Marius, who was on Kyle's back. "Okay, Laurie's power is going haywire and could you maybe, uh, pants, because I don't mean to be like, rude but it's -that- kind of power haywire and Marius already threw himself out a window already." He was pretty sure that didn't make sense, but it was hard to think when your friend (the idiot one)'s ex-girlfriend was wearing red clingy silk.

"What my noble steed is attempting to express," said Marius from his position on Kyle's back and sporting newly applied splints, "is that Laurie and Eamon seem to've made a night of it, and we have reason to believe the filter that keeps her pheramones in check may be a bit buggered. I seem to recall you kept your room well filtered when you an' Jen roomed together, and we were wonderin' if perhaps you could do similar for the floor until it's all sorted." And, since Kyle's mutation was newly settling in his system despite the discomfort in his ankles, Marius felt compelled to add: "The pants would not be a priority."

Crystal stared at her visitors for a moment. "What exactly is happening with Laurie's powers, and what does this have to do with Marius throwing himself out of window?" From the splints on his legs she could tell that he had already received medical treatment, so at least she did not have to worry about that.

Kyle wasn't sure how to exactly answer that without being offensive. So he gave up. It would just have to be blunt. "We think Laurie's air scrubber isn't working because, uh, there's a lot of sex. I mean like a -lot-. Laura jumped Marius, Marius jumped out the window, Laura jumped me." After a slightly lame excuse about Kyle helping her stretch. Which even Kyle wasn't dumb enough to fall for. "And it's not getting any better." He was entirely grateful the jeans weren't tight, and that his boxer briefs -were-. But he was going to have to adjust soon, or suffer even more discomfort.

"Yes. And we were wondering if you could perhaps, er, ventilate the corridors somewhat." Marius hesitated and added, "And . . . er, quickly, if you wouldn't mind. I've not a lot of practice with Laurie's power, and now I've essentially been marinating in it. Think I've brought a bit of it with me." Privately, he was wondering what on earth she and that Eamon bloke were up to. It had been hours. He absently pondered giving the man some sort of commemorative plaque. In just a few minutes, Crystal had learned more about the sex lives of the mansion residents than she had ever cared to know. She was sure that a lot of people having sex didn't necessarily mean that Laurie was the cause of it, but she trusted that Marius could tell that her powers were being used. And if he had brought it with him now...

"First of all, we must stop this at the source," Crystal told the two young men standing in front of her doorway. "I can rid the air of the pheremones that have already been produced, yes, but if more keep on finding their way into the air there will be little point to having me do this." This had to be stopped quickly! She stepped out of the room, going around Kyle and Marius, and began to make her way down the hall, the idea of pants or no pants completely forgotten.

At least with Crystal moving, the air was less loaded with the pheremones, and so some of Kyle's discomfort waned. But only some, and once Crystal had passed, Kyle took a moment to adjust -parts- before he followed. At least walking wouldn't hurt as much.


* * * * * * * *


It wasn't long before Crystal reached Laurie's suite, Kyle and Marius not far behind. She'd been altering the path of the air and redirecting the pheremones as she moved, keeping them away from the others in the hall. An open window was needed right about now. Her signature raps of wind on the outside of the door announced her presence, and if the sound was a bit more insistent than usual, and if there were a few extra ones thrown in for good measure, would anyone really blame her?

Eamon was entirely busy "waking up" his girlfriend with a strategically placed hand when the knock came. A string of unintelligible Irish responded to the sound before a few muttered words about bleeding manners and impolite hours of the day. Laurie, however, seemed to have other plans for that knock which did not involve ignoring it. She managed to squirm away from him only for a muffled giggle to sound from behind the door. The sound of cloth hitting something solid came just before the thud of footsteps running quickly toward the position of the people knocking. Laurie opened the door in what could only politely be described as a state of dishevelment, and would impolitely be called, naked save for an oversize man's t-shirt and socks.

"Yes?" she asked, trying to control her giggling. Eamon had not wanted her to leave the bed, and she'd had to hit him with a pillow to get him to stop tickling her.

Eamon took longer to appear, his boxers just barely having made it up high enough to cover all potentially inappropriate bits of anatomy before he showed up behind his girlfriend. He conveniently used Laurie's body as a shield since the kids at the door didn't need to know how happy he was to be waking up his girlfriend in his preferred manner. One hand came to rest on Laurie's waist, the other very carefully sliding up the back of her neck and into her hair. The greeting he gave the strangers at the door could best be described as a grunt before his face was half buried in his girlfriend's neck. He didn't do anything inappropriate in front of the wholly uninvited company, but the hint of it was there for Laurie..

"Good morning. I am sorry for disturbing you," Crystal told Laurie and Eamon, "but it has been brought to my attention that Laurie's pheremones have pervaded throughout at least a section of the mansion, leading to the accidental and unintentional sharing of your current state on mind with many other mansion residents. It has been suggested that there may be an issue with the working order of Laurie's air scrubber, which would usually prevent such a situation from taking place even should she lack control of her powers for a temporary period of time."

"But..." Laurie began, looking back over her shoulder to Eamon, uncertain of how to respond. It wasn't every day you were disturbed early in the morning to be told you'd just caused an orgy.

Marius shrugged from his position around Kyle's shoulders. "I'm fairly sure runoff has occured -- long enough that I suspect I've started bleedin' off some pheromones of my own." He tilted his head at Kyle. "Kyle, we've been in direct physical contact for a bit. This a reasonable assertion?"

Kyle's affirmative answer was more of a frustrated grunt, as he was gritting his teeth and trying not to breathe. Unfortunately - or perhaps not - the gritted teeth and effort of carrying Marius made the effect more like baring fangs than anything less hostile. "Make it go away."

Laurie blinked at him a moment or two more. "I have an air scrubber," she replied, unwilling to give up on that particular fact just yet. It couldn't possibly be her pheromones she'd just changed the...Oh dear. "Oh crap."

"Yes, you have an air scrubber, but it seems to be malfunctioning at the moment," Crystal explained. Perhaps the air scrubber had suffered from a overload and broken from being pushed to work so hard, but Crystal was not about to voice such a thought out loud. "May I come in? I will open a window and clear out your suite, and then I will need to clear out as much of the mansion as I can." What they did after that was their own business, but Crystal planned on just happening to pass by the suite a little bit later to check on the status of the air. Upon receiving a nod from an embarrassed-looking Laurie, Crystal slipped into the suite, bringing the pheromone-filled air from the hallway with her, and began the task at hand.

"No worries, accidents happen." The Australian looked from his currently-purple teammate and over to Eamon, eyebrow raised. "An' may I say, sir, we are all duly impressed."

Eamon tipped his head to the younger man, still using his girlfriend to block him somewhat, and gave the Australian a rather unabashed grin. "Aye? And here I thought I was the old man in the building and ready for pasture. Guess youth innit what it used to be. Tragic, that." He was having very vivid thoughts about how to make Laurie more purple, air cleaning be damned. It was probably smarter for him to kidnap her and turn her purple in the city. Or on the way to the city. He could multitask...

With one on the other's back, there was no way Kyle and Marius could exchange significant looks. And that was why their peers in the X-Men would have been all the prouder of the way Kyle accepted the supersoaker from Marius without a single word passing between them, and, in seamless unison, sprayed the two lovebirds with ice water.