Log: Kyle and Laurie

[x-wallflower-.livejournal.com]

Backdated to July 8th.

A worried Laurie goes to check on Kyle in his tree.



Laurie stood at the bottom of Kyle's favourite tree, looking upwards into the branches in an attempt to spot which particular part of the tree he'd decided to retreat to. After a moment she folded her arms and her face took on a determined expression that she herself was completely oblivious to. "Kyle Tyler Gibney, where the hell are you?"

He probably should've answered, because taunting Laurie was a good way to get Laurie to be so... very... Laurie, but Kyle wasn't much in the mood to be cooperative, possibly because she was demanding instead of just asking, so instead of answering, he dropped a handful of orange peels down out of the tree. One landed on Laurie's head.

Laurie brushed the orange peel from the top of her head and hmphed in frustration. He would be difficult, which was just like Kyle really, so it's not like she wasn't expecting him to be all Kyle-like in that fashion. Pulling a set of gloves out of her pocket, she pointedly placed them on her hands and reached for the lowest branch.

She didn't have the advantage of claws, and tree climbing was not exactly something she'd ever indulged in even as a child. She'd been much more likely to want to run around in the various parks in Salem Centre then climb trees.

"Dude, if you're coming up here to try to give me some kind of medical exam, or medical advice or to nag me into something I'm gonna go find a better hiding place." Kyle's head and shoulders popped out from some leaves, upside down, and above him one foot was visibly sticking out of the foliage. "I'm fine, everything's healed, and yeah, I'm pooping regular, so you can go away."

"Why would I examine you in a tree?" Laurie asked, stepping back from the tree now that Kyle had revealed himself. She saw no reason to risk her hands tree-climbing when she didn't have to. "Also, more then I wanted to know about your daily bowel movements, thanks."

"Hey, the last time you were all Doctor Ladypants, you asked me if I was regular." Kyle protested. "And dude, I don't ask questions about why you do stuff." Mostly he was just feeling grouchy. "So what do you want if you're not gonna try to be all doctor-lady at me?"

"Is it so weird that I'd want to know you weren't off somewhere practicing for the brooding Olympics?" Laurie asked, head tilted slightly backwards so she could see him properly. "I was worried about you."

"You coulda texted." Kyle suggested. "And not like, three-named me when you couldn't find me. Good way to make me decide to just climb higher up." He shrugged, although the motion looked off while he was upside down. "Look, I know everyone's all wigged out about whatshisface the douceboot giving everyone freakout nightmares and dude, that includes me, but jeez, can a guy have a couple of days to cope?"

"Perhaps," Laurie allowed, scrunching her nose slightly at the admittance. "But! I needed to talk to you about New Orleans, and I couldn't be sure you were even looking at your phone right now,"

"Dude, did you need to, or was it that you wanted an excuse to check up on me?" Kyle dropped down out of the tree and shook some leaves from his hair. "Cause look, I appreciate that you care and shit but seriously, I look at my phone. I'm all responsible and crap."

"Little from column A and a little from column B," Laurie replied honestly, a smile illuminating her face for a moment before it settled back to it's usual earnest expression. "I was going to say that I think leaving at the end of next week might be a good time, because really, getting away from the mansion for awhile might do us all some good. But I also wanted to make sure you were okay and not dwelling in a pit of anguish and ennui."

Kyle snorted. "You're not allowed to use any words in conversations that you can't spell without a spellchecker or dictionary." Not that he could either, consistently anyway but he didn't go around using words like ennui. "That or you need to spend less time with Doc Hank and dude, I like the Doc but the man ate a thesaurus. Seriously." He leaned against the trunk of 'his' tree and used the bark to scratch at an itchy place on his shoulder. "Yeah, I could use some get outta here time."

"I'm an only child," Laurie noted, as if this explained everything, and to be fair, at least in her case it really did. "Mom played Mozart to me in the womb and had flash cards from the day I was born. Sometimes I feel like not using big words means I'm letting her down somehow. New Orleans is definitely the sort of place to get out to in a 'I don't want to deal with this stuff' sort of way. Pity that it's not Madri Gras though, I always sort of wanted to go while Mardi Gras was on."

Kyle was torn on the appeal of Mardi Gras. On one hand, fifty-two billion drunk idiots. On the other hand, girls who'd take off their shirts for cheap plastic beads.

He wasn't torn at all, actually. Easy decision.

"Your mom shoulda taught you to spell." He wasn't going to say anything about his thoughts on Mardi Gras, he wasn't stupid and Laurie knew how to put her entire arm, shoulder and hip into a good hard slap. "A week being, you know, regular dumb college students? I am totally down with that."

"Spelling is for the little people," Laurie replied, her tone one of snooty boredom at the very idea of the thing. She maintained expression for all of a minute before a sunny grin broke out. "Besides, I know it gives you such joy to correct me out in public when I do misspell things. It's a pity Rachel couldn't make it, she was born there."

"Except then we'd spend the entire week trying to explain that the X-Men was like our softball league and damn, you know she'd want to see a game and then we'd have to get Garrison to set one up and the last time that happened I had dirt in my ears for a week sliding into third." That Kyle thought softball was for kids under eight, girls, old dudes and corporate assholes trying to suck up to their asshole bosses. "And it'd be totally awkward to flirt with her with Laura there, you know?"

"Why?" Laurie asked curiously, knowing what had happened between Kyle and Laura but unsure why there was still uncomfortableness there. Not that things hadn't been a bit awkward between herself and Forge after they'd decided that them together was a bad idea but Laurie had always assumed that was more due to her inability to behave like a normal person rather then a loose collection of neurosis, high ideals and ambition. "So if the X-men are a softball league, does that make us the Yankies?"

"Just not something you do." Kyle explained. "And fuck no." He pulled a face, and cuffed Laurie on the shoulder. "Fuck the Yankees."