xp_logs | Molly & Wade | Saturday Afternoon

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Wade goes looking for Molly. Molly makes him have another heart attack. Discussion of the past few months ensues.

Molly was swimming in the pool. She knew there was supposed to be a lifeguard but she swam in the ocean all the time and did okay. She had a swim cap on with plastic flowers all over it but just wore it like a hat, leaving her hair out. It was bea-u-tiful day and she started floating on her stomach with her head down in the water, peering down at the bottom of the pool to see if she could see the penny she left down there.

Wade had checked the rec room and the kitchen and even made a pass by the room Molly shared with Meggan, all to no avail. He couldn't find his half-pint anywhere, which was kind of distressing. Deciding he should go work off the rest of his excess energy, he donned his swim trunks and headed for the pool - which happened to be where he caught sight of a little body floating on the water. A little body with a fantastic water-hat. Floating. On the water.

Pausing, Wade waited to see if she moved or anything, attempting to tell himself that, even though her strength and invulnerability didn't mean she could breathe under water, the chances of her actually drowning were fairly slim, but television shows where kids wandered outside and drowned kept coming to mind. He ran for the water, dove in, and scooped her up, heading for the side of the pool. He knew how to kill people in many, varied ways - why had he never really paid attention to how you kept people alive beyond "don't make them bleed"?

Surprised by someone grabbing her out of the water, Molly inadvertently wound up sucking in some water when trying to let out a squeak of surprise. She coughed and started to flail reactively, not really seeing who it was until she finally opened her eyes.

"W-ade-Mn?" she said, coughing as she spoke. "Dude!!"

"Sh-snickerdoodles," Wade said, setting Molly on the edge of the pool and patting her back as she coughed. "Kid, you nearly gave me a heart attack. Again. Are you choking? Can you breathe?"

After a couple more coughs Molly was able to breathe better. She rested her elbows on her knees for a moment before twisting around and giving Wade a (gentle) bear hug.

"You're back!" she squealed excitedly. "When did you get back did you like Europe thank you for the hats dude I met some GHOSTS!"

"I got back a couple days ago, yeah I liked Europe, I got stuck in a priest hole, you're welcome for the hats, and wait what? Ghosts?" Wade grinned a little at Molly's enthusiasm. Sometimes it was difficult to remember she was twelve-turning-thirteen.

Molly nodded quickly, like one of those bobble headed dolls. "YEAH! Nico kinda did a thing at the antique shop so these ghost came and they wanted us to help them find their stuff. And this hippie guy named Roman came and woke me and Meggan up but he was cool. He liked to sing. And then I helped a guy who was all...obsessed with radios and stuff and he said there's thought police...He was kinda weird," she said, reaching up to adjust her cap.

She paused. "And then some other stuff happened," she mumbled quietly.

"Other stuff?" Wade asked, tipping his head to the side. It was entirely unlike Molly to not be hyper about things. "What other stuff?"

Molly made a face. Uh oh. She hadn't meant to say anything. She shrugged a little. "Y'know....stuff."

"Like you dropped another rock on yourself or you fell out of a tree stuff or are you talking about the stuff with the bad guys who broke into the mansion? Elaborate on the stuff for me, half-pint."

Molly wiggled her toes in the water, watching the waves ripple off as she moved. She folded her arms, biting her lip.

"Well...Artie's mom used her powers to make us go down in the sewers so we could live with her and be her kids but the X-Men saved us. Artie's mom got arrested and Artie was mad. He called me some names but we made up cause he was just mad at what happened and not me."

Wade scrolled through his mental index of names and faces and identities until he got to Artie - kid with the forked tongue who couldn't talk and who could probably wind up doing some really awesome stuff with his powers if he worked at it. He should probably just leave it alone, since it was the kid's mom and an angry teenaged boy would always, always say and do things he didn't mean. Wade knew that from experience, obviously. Still, he couldn't stop himself from asking, "Those names he called you, did they upset you? Are you still upset?"

Molly frowned. "Yeah, a lot. But he didn't mean it. He apologized," she said. She didn't like what he said because it was what some people called her in LA. The mean boys and girls. But he didn't mean it.

Reaching over, Wade tugged on a piece of her hair. "You wanna tell me what he said? And it's good that he apologized. That doesn't change that he upset you, though." God, Wade sucked at this whole 'feelings' thing. It was so much easier when he was here and feelings were like. On the other side of the city or something.

The frown remained, as did her folded arms and she let out a breath.

"He said I was retarded. And...asked if my mom and daddy left me here cause they couldn't cope with me being retarded and asked if I had a lobotomy.." Of all the big words she knew what that one meant cause her parents were doctors.

"Matt punched him a lot."

She reached down and ran her fingers through the water.

"I wanted to punch him but I was good. So we talked. And he said he was mad cause his mom got taken away and he wanted to do something bad so they could kick him out and he could go back to the Morlocks so he picked on me and everybody...and I do mean EVERYBODY," she said, spreading her arms out wide.

So that was why Matt had beaten Artie up. Wade would have to take the kid out for food or something. "Well," he said, attempting to find something diplomatic to say and failing horribly. He knew it was bad to say Matt had done the right thing, but it was also kind of difficult to excuse what Artie had said. "Like I said, it's... good he apologized." Wade always assumed Molly acted the way she did just because she had a naturally bubbly personality or something, but if other people thought it was weird... well. Wade didn't necessarily agree with them. "It was still mean and untrue, though, so I think maybe he got what he deserved. Also, if he says that again or anybody else does, let me know and I'll have a little conversation with him." Oops.

Molly fell silent for a few moments, then squinted in confusion. "So...punching people is good, but only if they deserve it?"

She tilted her head. "How do you know if they deserve it if they're a good guy?"

Hm. Wade supposed he'd walked into that one. "It's difficult to tell, sometimes, but usually the good guys deserve to get punched by other good guys when they're being mean. Which isn't to say you should go around punching people for doing little things like putting the milk carton back in the fridge with only like a half inch of milk left in the bottom or something, but when they're purposefully mean..." Stopping himself, Wade sighed. He usually just decided people deserved it and took care of things himself. "But I think you should stick to your rules and be good and not punch anybody at all, because punching people can get you in trouble, too, and you don't want to confuse other good guys, right?"

Molly started to giggle, covering her mouth with her hand when he started talking about milk. After he was finished she tapped her chin with her hand, nodding.

"Monet says it's bad to punch good guys with our powers cause we might punch too hard accidentally."

Her eyes lit up."Oh! I can TOTALLY punch things now almost without falling asleep!" she said, wriggling about with excitement. She splashed her legs and feet in the water and clapped her hands.

"I gotta be calm about it, though...cause if I do it when I'm mad then I can still get sleepy...cause all the...y'know...adrenaline and stuff..."

Wade took a step back when her legs started kicking, not wanting to wind up with more bruises so soon after his return to the mansion. Then he grinned and splashed some water at her. "Makes sense about your powers. Also, you didn't ask me if I brought you any presents back. You should really ask me about that."

Molly abruptly stopped moving, staring at him with eyes as big as she could make them.

"Is it a SWORD?!" she asked.

They had swords in Europe! And knights! And Italians!

Blinking, Wade paused and then shook his head. "No, I didn't know you wanted a sword - maybe you should start learning to fence here at the mansion or something and then I can get you a sword. Because swords are awesome. I wonder if anyone knows how to use one here. We should find out so you can acquire one in the future and make proper use of it."

"Kurt does!!!" Molly said. "He has a pirate program he uses to like...swashbuckle and avast! Ohmygosh that would be so cool! I wanna meet Jack Sparrow!"

She hopped up, then blinked herself, realizing midway through her excitement she still had some unfinished business.

"OH! Did you bring me presents?" she paused. "Presents with an s? There are more than one?"

Wade laughed. "We'll ask Kurt, then, if he'll teach you how to swashbuckle and avast. And yes. Presents with an s. I dropped them in your room with Meggan's."

Molly's eyes went wide again. "Come on!" she said, reaching for his hand as she attempted to try to drag him back to the mansion, completely forgetting the both of them were soaking wet.

"Why don't you go get a towel so you don't freeze when you hit the bought air and I'll meet you at the door?"

Stalling a moment, Molly peered down at herself then nodded. "Oh, right!" she said, grabbing the towel she'd brought with her. She gave it a shimmy shimmy shake down to get most of the water off and sprinted toward the mansion.

Wade shook his head, laughing a little as he hauled himself out of the water. Maybe he'd go swimming later. For now, he definitely had to see Molly's face when she opened her presents.