Wade and Adrienne - Meeting log

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

While jogging Wade comes across a bulb-planting Adrienne and the two play quid pro quo about Wade's lovelife; Adrienne becomes convinced that Amanda is right about Wade being mad.Humming to herself, Adrienne tipped her watering can over the last pot of tulip bulbs on the smoker's porch and set it down, rocking back on her heels and putting a hand on the plastic surface. After a moment, she pulled her hand away and pouted. "Aww, come on," she said to the fall bulbs, "you can't all die! Some of you have to make it til spring! Wait, what if I get Callie to help?" She touched the pot again. "Nooo! This is so unfair! You need to live!"

Wade did not smoke, but he did like running of a morning, which meant he sometimes passed the smoker's porch on his circuit, depending on which path he took. He did so this morning - just in time to hear the new brunette lady's comments. "I have a minion who can grow plants. Her roses have thorns the size of my hand, no lie. I'd ask her to help, but she went back to her family while I was in Europe."

"You mean Klara?" Adrienne asked this new, very cute, sort of sweaty man who had jogged up. Except he probably wasn't new, she reminded herself, she was new. "I've seen her powers in action," she smiled. "In India. Beautiful roses." Roses that had helped save their lives, her life. "It's too bad for these tulips that she's left the school. She's a great kid. So how did Klara become your minion, exactly?" she asked curiously. "Who are you?"

"Yep, Klara. She made me banana nut bread and I made her one of my minions. I'm Wade Wilson. Who're you?" Wade grinned, brows rising a bit.

Adrienne rose from her crouched position and held a hand out to Wade. "Adrienne Frost. I'm the new history teacher. Who is also the old math teacher. I like that you have minions." She gave Wade her best wicked grin. "As in, plural. So who else is your minion around here?"

"Kevin Ford is Minion Number One and Meggan Szardos is Minion Number Two. Klara's Minion Number Three, but abstaining from her duties with permission, given the circumstances under which she needed to leave. I'm a very civil Benevolent Overlord, all kinds of understanding and lenient. Thus, the 'benevolent.'" Wade grinned, brows rising. "Math and History don't usually go together. Why aren't you teaching Math again? Or did they oust you? Did you mix up unreal numbers and imaginary ones?"

Adrienne raised an eyebrow but was smiling. "Seeing how I don't know what imaginary numbers are, maybe I did unwittingly mix them with real numbers. Maybe I was ousted without knowing it... maybe Charles didn't ask me to switch because I'm close to being certified in history which fills Sam Guthrie's vacancy while leaving Bobby Drake in the math department where he's certified, maybe he was really ousting me but lying to me to keep me from initiating a hostile takeover?"

Wade nodded sagely. "Maybe. He's canny, that Professor Xavier. Canny like a fox. On wheels. A fox popping wheelies?" He had to pause to let first the mental image of a fox on a bicycle popping wheelies exit his brain, and then the image of the Professor wearing a hat made of fox fur with a little tail flapping in the wind popping wheelies in his chair. Wow, sometimes he had to wonder about his own mental health. "Anyway, maybe not, too."

"A... fox popping wheelies?" Adrienne questioned, bemused. "Say, just out of curiosity, are you one of those people who's mandated to be here by the government?" In other words, are you crazy?

"Nah, I'm here because my healing factor's doing weird stuff," Wade said, grinning broadly. "Why, you think I should be locked somewhere safe, away from the public eye and impressionable children?"

"Oh, no, not at all!" she retorted quickly, using water from the watering can to wash dirt off her fingers. "I'm just being nosy. So how long have you been here?"

"Technically, two weeks. Ish. Give or take a little. But I showed up for the first time back in February and then sojourned across the pond to Muir for a few months before coming back, so." Wade shrugged. "What about you? Just get ousted after a summer vacation, or was your switch over to the humanities planned from the very beginning?"

"Well, I just spent fourteen months being used like a puppet by an evil league of supervillains who told me if I contacted anyone I'd met from the school they'd kill them," she told him with a wry grin, "so no, the switch wasn't exactly planned. But in my fourteen months of hiding in a dingy apartment I got a little bored so I started studying online. History is... sort of related to my powers, so I started out wanting to understand my powers better but now that I can fill in a gap at the school, without ousting Bobby from math, it all worked out."

"That..." Wade paused to stretch his legs for a moment. "That is one of the most original reasons for switching subjects that I've ever heard."

"I wish I'd made it up with my bountiful imagination," Adrienne smirked. "Sadly, it's all true. So, can I be a nosy bitch and ask what 'weird stuff' your healing factor's doing?"

"Sure, you can ask," Wade said, smirking right back at her. "Doesn't mean I'll answer, but go ahead. Give it a shot."

The psychometrist chuckled at the answer. "The girls were right about you, you are odd," she muttered. "Okay, here's me asking. What sort of weird stuff is your healing factor doing that brings you to the mansion?" Quirking a brow, Wade considered her for a moment, then said, "I'll answer one of yours if you answer one of mine in return. Deal?"

"Maybe I've been here too long, because before I came here I would never have agreed to that, but I guess this place makes people more inclined to be all... sharey. Deal. Ask away."

Grinning, Wade said, "First - my healing factor. Mostly, it's not working like it should be working. That's why I'm hear. Now my question..." His grin grew just a little. "What else did 'the girls' say about me?"

"Okay, first, saying that it's not working like it should be working is not really answering my question. I was hoping for details, like, 'it keeps creating pus-filled boils on my ass' or something like that. But I'll answer your question anyway, because I'm a good person now. The girls said that you're cute, and weird, and mostly harmless, and kind of sweet, that you're mad as a meataxe... whatever that means... but that you're generous. I like that," she grinned.

"Mad... as a meataxe?" Wade considered that for a moment. "Huh. Interesting. I was hoping for something more along the lines of, 'He has amazing abs that he puts to fantastic use between the sheets.' Oh well." He shrugged philosophically. "And, just so we're clear, I do not, in fact, have puss-filled boils on my ass. Marie-Ange wouldn't let me near her bed if I had puss-filled anything on me, I'm pretty sure." Pulling up his shirt so she could see the puckered scar on his side, he said, "This is what I mean about my healing factor not working right. It heals stuff up, but then leaves scars and stuff behind. And it takes forever in terms of healing factor functionality to actually heal things up." He let his shirt drop back down into place. "But none of the docs can figure out what's going on with it." Or the cancer, but he didn't really want to talk about the cancer with the pretty brunette.

Adrienne wrinkled her nose at the sight of the scar, though it was a sympathetic wrinkle rather than a disgusted wrinkle. "It just stopped working right one day out of the blue, or has it always been like that? Also, what is it you do that you need it to work fast at healing things up? Because if you had a nice quiet desk job you probably wouldn't even know it was malfunctioning, right? Are you an X-Man? Or some kind of cage fighter or something?"

Wade actually laughed out loud at that. "A cage fighter, seriously?" He shook his head, still chuckling. "I used to be in the military, then I started working the private sector - protection details, that sort of thing. To answer your first question, though, it's always been this way. Until I met up with some other guys who had healing factors, I never realized it wasn't working right."

"Damn, I like cage fighters," Adrienne said with a mock pout. "My powers used to knock me unconscious, but I got that fixed here. I'm sure the doctors here can sort you out as well," she told him sympathetically.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I can fight in a cage, it's just not how I self-identify." Wade gave her an eyebrow waggle and then nodded toward the plants. "So what's your power, then? You can see the future? My girlfriend can do that, sometimes. But she won't tell me if she's seen anything about me. It's all portents and brain scans or something."

"I can see everything," Adrienne informed him with a grin. "Past, present, and future. Of anything I touch... except people, unless they've been dead at some point. Of course, the future's a bitch most of the time because mostly there are no guarantees what you see once is what you'll see a second later, what with free will and circumstance and all that. Your girlfriend and I are sort of... friends... because of the similarity in our powers, actually. I'm fond of her. So, you know, don't make me give you the spiel, huh? About hurting her, and how if you do I'll have to cut off your balls and feed them to one of the ferals?"

"I don't plan to hurt her, but I can tell you if I ever did, I wouldn't stop you from seeking retribution. That said, I'm pretty sure she could take care of cutting off my balls herself," Wade said, figuring he should give credit where it was due.

Adrienne seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Yes, this is true. She definitely could. I'm glad we understand each other," she nodded. "So you're the one responsible for bringing a baby moose to the school?"

"Hah! Yes. It was a gift for my half-pint, Molly. She said she hoped I brought her a moose when I got back from my last trip to Canada. So, y'know. I did. Now, though, I've asked Kurt to teach her how to swashbuckle and avast, since she wants to be a pirate. I figure she should know how to use one before I give her a sword."

"Did Kurt go off and become a pirate while I was away?" Adrienne questioned curiously. "I don't know when he learned how to swashbuckle and avast and such," Wade said, stretching again. "I just know he's gonna teach Molly."

Adrienne raised an eyebrow as she had a thought. "I should really use my powers on his keypad, break into his room, and take readings on a bunch of his stuff to find out when he was a pirate. Maybe college?" she smirked.

Laughing, Wade shook his head. "No idea. But I don't think invading his suite's as good an idea as just asking him, maybe."

"Good, maybe. But sneaking in is more fun," Adrienne shrugged.

"Shady lady," Wade said, waggling one finger at her. He was grinning, though, as he said, "But I agree. Sneaking is more fun."

Adrienne grinned back. "As long as the students don't see," she added. "I wouldn't want to be a bad role model or anything like that."

"Are you sure? Cause being a bad role model is the best kind of role model to be." Wade paused for a moment, then leaned in as though he were sharing a great secret. "I taught Kevin how to hotwire a car."

"I'm sure," the psychometrist nodded. "I'm already suspected of laundering money through my modelling agency, I don't need to be any worse of a role model right now. Hey, can you teach me how to hotwire a car?" Her eyes lit up.

Wade considered Adrienne for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure. I was planning to teach Meggan, anyway. But if you don't want to be a bad role model, maybe I should do separate lessons."

"That would be great," Adrienne laughed. "I can definitely see why Marie-Ange is so fond of you."

Grinning at that, Wade gave the woman a playful half-bow and then nodded toward the path. "I'm gonna keep up my run, but I'll email you about the hotwiring class."

"I'll hold you to that," she promised. "I can be very annoying when I get an idea in my head about something I want, and now I really want to learn how to hotwire a car."