Klara & Wade | Saturday Afternoon

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Klara is practicing with her powers when Wade stumbles upon her in the greenhouse... he decides to hijack her afternoon and Minion Number Three is found.


Wade liked the weight room. It was... well. It was a weight room. And it had the the treadmills in it, which had been his favorite pieces of workout equipment until he went exploring on the grounds more. But it wasn't necessarily the best place for him to be doing the Kata all the time. So the mercenary went in search of somewhere quiet and hopefully serene. Since it was still pretty cold out, he wound up wandering - until he came to the greenhouse. It was bright inside, and positively balmy.

Smiling, he pulled his hoodie off and started poking about to see if he could find a place big enough for his meditation.

There was a space big enough, but it was currently occupied by a diminuitive teenage girl with light grey eyes and a long, dark braid. The greenhouse was one of Klara's favourite places. It was quiet, warm, and the perfect place to practice with her powers. Since people knew her and knew about her abilities, it wasn't a problem if a plant was growing faster and larger than it could on its own. Klara generally tried to leave the greenhouse as she found it and to reverse the growth of plants she had "supersized". On occasion, she forgot. At least here it wouldn't attract the attention of the local news.

At the moment, Klara was working with some roses. Of all plants, roses responded best to her. She had built up her repetoire and gained a familiarity with a wider variety of plants, but roses remained the plants that she had the greatest affinity with. They were even the basis for the codename she so rarely used; Rose Red.

She was so focused on the roses that she didn't notice Wade approaching. Raising her arms, she grew the tiny rosebush in front of her into a giant mass of roses with blooms the size of basketballs and thorns as long as her hand.

Wade paused and blinked when he saw the roses basically erupting out of the ground and - holy shit, how big were those thorns? He could totally use one of those to slice somebody's jugular wide open. "Wow," he said, pausing because... seriously, the tiny chick with the cute braid was a killer plant wielding machine and he was not recruiting, damn it. "Uh... so hi."

Klara whirled around, the roses jolting up in surprise as a result of her connection with them. She hadn't been expecting company, and supposed she should be grateful that she hadn't been singing one of the songs she liked while practicing with her powers. She did on occasion, and that would have been so much worse.

"Hello," she greeted, looking down while shuffling her feet a bit. It was a little awkward to have been caught off guard. She forced herself to look up and look him in the eyes. "I don't believe we've spoken before."

Wade took a step back when the roses bristled, his head quirking to the side. If only he could stop thinking in terms of practical uses for these kids' powers when putting them in combat positions... his brain just wouldn't be his own. He could acknowledge that. "Nope. I'm Wade. Is that thing gonna throw spikes at me? Cause it's cool if it does, I can try dodging and stuff. But I was gonna run through the Kata first, so can it fling the spikes at me after that?" He was smiling as he spoke, head tipped to the side still.

Klara blinked. It was a strange question, although she supposed odder things had happened around here than a giant rosebush launching its thorns at someone.

"My name is Klara...and it won't. I'm controlling it, and I have no idea how to do something like that with my powers."

Admittedly, she had never tried. With plants she was very familiar with, she could not only make them grow much larger than they could on their own, but she could reinforce them so that they were much sturdier - even in proportion with their large size.

"Sweet, thanks," Wade said, nodding. "It's nice to meet you, Klara." Walking forward, he offered the young girl his hand. "You should see if you can get it to do something like that. It seems like a pretty effective defense, if you ever need one." Nodding to the rosebush behind her, he asked, "Do they talk to you? The plants, I mean?"

"The roses do," said Klara, shaking the offered hand. "The rest, I can tell them to do things, but if they're saying anything to me, I can't sense it."

She hadn't considered using her powers like that, but Klara didn't think combatively. At most, her idea of defense was making a fortress of thorns, or trapping someone in vines that were much stronger than they looked.

"I don't think they would want to detach and throw parts of their body," she said thoughtfully. "But it might not hurt to work a little more on defense."

"The best offense," Wade said, nodding, "is a good defense." Though, really, he'd been talking about offense, if he was honest - flinging massive spikes at somebody was pretty offensive. Tipping his head to the side, he said, "Can you make them move? Like if I was to come closer to you and be threatening or something, would you be able to make the vines and things move toward me? Sort of... to keep me farther away from you, if that makes sense? And if I still kept coming, maybe make it jab at me or something? That way it's not losing bits of its body like you said."

Klara nodded. She could do that much fairly easily now. "I think I could, yes."

Admittedly, she didn't know why Wade would suggest she attack him at all, even if it was just for practice. Then again, he did mention the word kata. A martial artist? Klara didn't know much about martial arts, but she had heard the term associated with karate.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Wade said, smiling a little. "It's the kind of thing that's good to know. I'm a big fan of self-defense." Lifting his chin toward the rosebush behind her, he asked, "What's it saying? Or do you have to ask it specific questions?" Could the plant act as a sentry? There were so many possibilities for the mutations these kids had. He sent up a silent apology to the Professor and tried to explain, in case the guy was listening, that he wouldn't actually do any of the things he was thinking. It was just so hard not to think tactically.

"They don't communicate the way humans do," said Klara. "It is a little hard to explain but usually it's a request for water, more sunlight...things like that. I try to remember to always thank them when they do what I want."

Not that the roses took offense if she forgot. She knew that. Still, good manners were impressed upon her.

Wade quirked a smile at that despite the still-bristling rosebushes with their thorns of doom and spiky pain. "Well, I'll let you get back to your roses, I guess. I gotta find a place big enough for me to do the Kata."

"Good luck finding a big enough spot," said Klara, smiling. "It was nice meeting you, Wade."

Giving the girl a small salute, Wade nodded. "You, too, Klara." He turned to leave so he could continue his search for an appropriately sized area for his meditation, but paused and tipped his head to the side instead. "Do you cook?"

"All the time," said Klara. "I like baking better, though. If you have ever seen enough baked goods around to feed a small army, there is a good chance I was responsible for them. Especially if there is fruit in them."

"Fruit..." Wade tipped his head to the side. "Fruit like bananas? The kind that would go into banana nut bread?" His expression was hopeful as he asked. "I haven't been here all that long - not long enough to notice mounds of baked goods just begging to be eaten."

"The mounds of baked goods usually go very quickly around here," said Klara with a chuckle. "I would have to look up the recipe, but I'm sure I could make some banana nut bread."

Turning back around properly, Wade grinned. "Klara, I dub thee Minion Number Three and would love you forever and ever if you would make me some banana nut bread."

Klara couldn't help but giggle at that. "Minion Number Three? I did not know you had minions."

Although if he was proclaiming her his third minion just like that, it was obviously informal and meant as a joke. "I do not mind making you some banana nut bread, though. I will even spell out 'Wade' in nuts on the top of the loaf so that it will be obvious who it was meant for."

Holding his hands up, Wade formed a heart with his fingers, his thumbs making the little point at the bottom. "I have two other minions - Minion Number One and Minion Number Two, Kevin and Meggan respectively. I think you'll make a fantastic addition to my minions." He nodded toward the door, letting his puppy dog eyes slide into place as he asked, "Can we have banana nut bread now?" Kata and powers training - pssh. Banana nut bread trumped everything.

Puppy dog eyes worked all too well on Klara. She often indulged her eldest brother's children when she went to visit him.

"I suppose that a good minion would say yes," said Klara, amused. "But you will have to help me find the recipe and any ingredients that are not in the kitchen cupboards because Minion Number Three lacks money at the moment and is not proficient in the use of google."

"As your Benevolent Overlord - BO for short, it is my duty to provide you with all the items necessary for you to complete your minion-related tasks," Wade said, somehow managing to sound very formal. "So I'll totally get the ingredients and teach you how to google, for my google-fu is strong and I can pass my skills on."

Klara covered her mouth and suppressed a giggle at the short form for Benevolent Overlord. She decided if she was going to keep the joke up, she would call him the full title instead of BO, so that it didn't sound like she was calling him Body Odor.

"Very well, Benevolent Overlord," she replied, still very entertained by all of this. "I will do my best to learn google-fu from you and complete my minion-related tasks."

"Excellent!" Wade grinned. That made three minions who could cook, which was probably the best thing ever. It meant it was entirely unlikely he'd starve or be forced to eat boxed foods for the rest of his natural life. "Want to learn some google-fu now? Cause I'm kinda really in the mood for banana nut bread..."

"Just give me a minute to bring the roses back to normal," said Klara. Making a downward motion with her hands, she addressed the roses. "Lie down, please. Thank you."

The roses shrank back to normal size swiftly, and in under a minute, they looked like a perfectly normal rosebush.

"I am ready for google-fu now. Lead the way."