Yvette and Fred - Catching Up

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

Yvette comes down to visit Fred in the garage and they wind up having a serious discussion about their mothers.




Fred had left the safety of his garage squat for almost two hours today. Surely he could not be faulted for treating himself by staying up all night and changing all the hoses on his truck?

With 'The Drive-By Truckers' softly wafting out of the tape deck he refused to throw away, Fred had to admit that the time apart had made him feel a lot more seperate from everyone. Trying to find free time to hook up with Angelo, or catching up with Kyle to see what was on his mind, or working up the courage to talk to Callie...It all made Fred feel a lot less sure and a lot more old.

There were a few things he was always sure of, though, and one of them should have been swinging by at any moment, if her journal message was to be believed...

Yvette's footsteps were distinctive - soft, yet with a slight scratching noise on hard surfaces, like the concrete of the garage floor. "Fred?" she called, peering around the large space with glowing blue eyes. "Are you still in here?"

Fred grinned, almost literally from ear to ear with his mutated mouth. He waited until the scratching footsteps were almost at the front of the truck, and the slid his out from underneath the engine up to his shoulders, smiling with an ease he hadn't felt too often recently, "Vette, seriously, when am I anywhere else...?"

"I am starting to think you are in love with your truck, you spend so much time with it," she teased. "I brought some brownies. Jean-Paul has been doing the worry baking and the kitchen is full of yummy things." She held up a small basket which was scarily full of baked chocolately goodness.

Fred pulled himself out from under the truck, his mass fluctuating like a lava lamp as he righted himself. It finally settled somewhere between top heavy and cartoonish while he reached for one of the brownies, his brow furrowing, "Is he alright...?"

Yvette blinked at him, then shook her head. "You have been the hermit again," she replied, sounding a little exasperated. "Vanessa was kidnapped and they have only just found her. She was in the medlab, but she left about a week ago. Something about the magic healing." She wrinkled her nose a little at that thought - magic was just wrong. "Any way, there has been a lot of worrying and being unhappy and baking. Lots of baking."

"Medlab sucks, magic or otherwise..." Fred sighed, lighting a cigarette to cover his face. He had to start getting out of the garage if he wanted to keep calling these people his friends. He found space in his ancient toolbox for the tape and flashlight he had been using before speaking again, "So, uh, how've you been, Vette...?"

The small red girl found a place to perch, literally, more comfortable when she didn't have to worry about her hair scratching something behind her. "Okay," she replied, with a little shrug. "School has been busy, but I have not had the X-Men mission for a little while, so it balances out. And there is the RA job..."

Fred let the cigarette smoke curl out of his nose, his smile fading a little as thoughts went to his family, "Sounds like what my Uncle Frank likes to call 'Champagne Problems'..."

"First world problems, they are called on the Internet," she informed him, wryly. "Although, it is strange to think of myself as champagne class. My mother, she worked so hard to bring me up..." Her eyes dulled a little with regret.

Fred went quiet, too, chewing slowly on the inside of his mouth, "You...how...Are you doin' ok...?"

"I miss her," she said at last. "She was not the best mother in the world, but she did try her best when she was not well. I wish we had spoken, before she..." She sighed then, biting her lip as she looked over to Fred. "I cannot help wonder if she would have killed herself if I had been the one to speak first after our fight. Maybe she died because I was being stubborn, yes?"

Fred was quiet for a long moment, then moved over to where his jacket hung over the passenger door, "Did...Ah never really told you about my mom, did I...?"

Yvette shook her head, watching him. "No, you did not. I know she died, yes?"

Fred reached into his coat and wordlessly handed over a worn and beaten photograph to Yvette. In the picture a woman, prematurely old and uneccessarily thin, sat completely relaxed in an old plastic lawnchair, eyes closed and head tilted back serenely.

Yvette studied the photograph silently. "She has the kind face," she said softly. "How old were you, when she died?"

"...Twelve." Fred finally exhaled the word after a long drag on his cigarette, "Just old enough to feel bad for forgetting so many things since then." Fred scratched the side of his brow, unsure of what to say.

"I am sorry. That she died." Yvette studied the photograph again. "Did she know that you were a mutant?" she asked at last. "Before..."

Fred cleared his throat, because of the smoke from the cigarette obviously, before slowly nodding, "She...yeah, she did. My Uncle Frank saw me playing with a 22 rifle with some friends. One of em shot me in the hand. Ah reckoned Ah'd gotten lucky, like the bullet was a dud of sumthin. But Frank kinda figured it out. He's a sharp guy. When Ah told him Ah was a mutant a few years back, he...told me he'd known, talked about it with Mom a little before she....yah know, passed on..."

"And you must miss her, to carry her photograph around with you." Yvette realised she had very few pictures of her mother and none displayed anywhere. Almost like she'd been ashamed. "For all of my life, I felt like the burden to my mother. The punishment, for what happened to her. Her father's family agreed with this. But she did nothing wrong. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, not so different to me with my mutation."

Fred delicately placed the photo back in his pocket, "Y'know there's no one to blame for wrong place wrong time, Copper Top. That there's nuthin anyone can really do when someone...wants to check out..." Fred scratched at his stubble, taking a step closer to Yvette. He had never been the best at comforting, and wished to God that Angel or Jules would magically appear and help him out.

"I suppose." Yvette sighed. "Thank you, Fred. For coming with me to the funeral and for now. I did not mean to be the emo at you." She gave him a small smile. "The Parents' Day is not only hard for the students without family, yes?"

Fred grinned and reached out, giving Yvette a quick, tight hug. While he wasn't the best at comforting, everyone liked hugs, right? "Ah think family is just plain hard for everyone, Vette. In one way or some other, yeah?"

She shifted her head to avoid tearing up his shirt but returned the hug - Fred was on her 'safe' list. "Yes," she replied, her smile growing. "But these brownies are not eating themselves. Would you like to get outside for the little while and have a brownie picnic by the lake?" she asked, her tone turning teasing. "Or should I leave the brownie trail to lead you outside?"

Fred laughed, the joke catching him off guard, and nodded, "A picnic where the main food is brownies? Ah don't need much convincing."