xp_logs | Yvette and Amara

x-penance.livejournal.com posting in

Yvette and Amara meet up on the ESU campus and talk about a number of things, including a Christmas plan for HeliX (and the New Mutants)

The Empire State campus was much like any other inner-city university, with buildings crammed into a relatively small space and green areas put wherever they would fit. Of course, at this time of year the green areas were largely abandoned, which meant Yvette gravitated to them more - crowds were still her personal bane in life. Today she was sitting on a bench, munching an apple and reading through her history notes while waiting for Amara to get out of class and meet her.

Amara emerged from the building the way she did everything these days - quickly, but managing to seem perfectly calm and sedate. She was talking animatedly to a couple of people until she caught a glimpse of Yvette, at which point she broke off from the group and moved toward her friend.

She took a seat next to her on the bench, an exhalation close to a sigh escaping before she flashed Yvette a smile.

"One day I will remember that arguing with people in class typically comes to resemble hitting your head against a brick wall. But it seems that day is not today." She wrinkled her nose a little.

"Which one was it today?" asked the small red girl, grimacing as well. "The boy who thinks women have the smaller brains than men, or the one who thinks mutants are a virus on the planet?"

"Neither," Amara said with a twist of her lips. "Today it was the charming gentleman who believes anyone who believes in anything other than the Christian god is a lunatic, and his lovely friend who believes magic is superstitious nonsense. I am not sure why either of them are taking a class in comparative religions, but there you have it. It was all I could do not to threaten to invite Amanda or Nico to a class to prove them wrong." She took a deep breath.

"But I am a better person than them. And I know I am right and they are ignorant fools."

Amara felt much better for getting that rant out.

"Just watching Nico take that staff out of her chest would be enough to change minds, that is for certain," Yvette agreed. "Apart from the foolish people, is it a good class? Less boring than my world economics at least, I hope!"

"Oh yes," Amara grinned. "It's very interesting. Even the foolish people can make it interesting sometimes, but today..." She rolled her eyes. "I think they are lucky I am so good at being calm these days. A couple of years ago, I probably would have burst into flames at some point in the discussion."

"Wouldn't that make it the flame war?" Yvette replied, innocently, although there was a hint of mischief lurking in the hint of a smile.

It took Amara a moment, and then she burst out laughing.

"Yes, I suppose it would." She grinned over to Yvette. "But that is probably enough of my complaining for today. How are your classes going?"

"Good, although there is so much to prepare for the exams," Yvette sighed. "Lots of reading to do, which is easier than the debates for me, but sometimes I am tempted to make the shredding out of all the papers they want me to read." Politics was a lot about people wanting to put forward their own ideas, apparently.

"I know that feeling," Amara said ruefully. "Though my temptation was fire. I've been reassured that it is all worth it in the end, once we are finished. Hopefully that turns out to be true in the end."

"As long as there are no X-Men missions between now and finals, I should be all right?" Yvette sounded hopeful, although she reflected that she'd probably jinxed herself. "What about after the finals - do you have the holiday plans?"

"Nothing in particular," Amara said with a shake of her head. "I'll probably spend Christmas at the mansion, it's always nice to go back. There's not really enough time to go home to see my father, and we never celebrated it in Nova Roma."

"The mansion is not such the bad place to spend a holiday; there is always plenty of food, with everyone who is liking to cook." Yvette grinned. Something about her mutation meant she could eat plenty and not really gain weight, especially with all of her training. "Perhaps you could convince John to join us there?"

"Hopefully," Amara said with a smile. "If he's here for Christmas. Or Angelo doesn't drag him off to lunch with his mother. But, I suppose it can't hurt to ask."

"It will be good to have you both there," Yvette encouraged. "And John has been so busy, he needs to take the break, yes?" She was fond of both of them, but had a soft spot for John after Murderworld.

Amara nodded. "He really does. I'm sure he'd hate for people to know this, but I'm fairly sure he's one of the hardest working people in the Elpis office. The hours he keeps..." She shook her head, a fond smile on her face.

"Between us, we will have to make sure he does not work for at least an entire day. More, if we can manage it."

"I am sure you will have better methods to make sure of that than I, but yes, it is the deal." Yvette's eyes glimmered with mischief at her - for her - rather risque joke.

"Oh, yes," she admitted. "But that is not very conducive to either of us being social." Amara grinned and went a little pink at the same time.

"But to change the subject, since there is much to do before Christmas. I have been talking to one of the soup kitchens, and after some initial hesitation they agreed that they would find HeliX volunteers very helpful over the holiday period. It can be difficult for them to find enough people to staff the place as people get very busy around Christmas, and the cold keeps people inside much more." She smiled a little sadly. "And yet it is a very busy time of year for them."

Yvette eyes literally lit up. "That is a wonderful idea!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Especially for those of us who do not usually celebrate Christmas as well - it is not such a big thing to go and help." She considered the plan for a moment. "Would it be something to perhaps see if the New Mutants would also be able to be involved in, you think? It falls within the community service angle, yes?"

"That's actually a really good idea," Amara replied with a grin. "I can talk to Tabitha and the Professor, see what we can arrange. The more the merrier, I am sure."