Molly and Marius: Saturday Afternoon

[x-minibruiser.livejournal.com]

Marius has a problem and Molly helps the best way she knows how.



Only now was Marius beginning to realize the true abhorrence of Christmas lights. Yes, they could look quite festive when applied with appropriate restraint, but the items themselves were quite obnoxious. The untangling, the affixing, and the maintenace thereafter, all inconveniently timed to transpire whilst university students were in the midst of final projects and year-end exams: Marius now understood why there mere news of a dislodged strand had evoked from Kyle a torrent of profanity.

As a friend, teammate, and student who had not put off his papers to the last moment, Marius had volunteered to fix the lights in Kyle's stead. The ladder locked quite firmly to the side of the roof, but the lights had been in a less than optimal location. Marius had left the relative security of the ladder for the more convenient position of the rooftop. Then, after one ill-planted step, he had left the convenience of the roof for the superior view presented by dangling from the edge of a gutter.

Dangling by a thoroughly snagged jacket several stories above the grounds, Marius considered his options. He'd called for help once or twice, but no one had seemed to hear. This left "fall". He hoped it wouldn't result in spinal damage. Even with a healing factor that would be a bugger.

Molly was headed for the lake. She wanted to see if it was hard enough to skate on. She didn't have any skates but she figured she could slide with a trashcan lid that she had grabbed from off one of the trashcans. She had just left the house when she spotted a long, dangly shadow on the ground. Slowing to a stop, she glanced up, blinking.

"Um...are you okay?"

"Eh?" Marius glanced down. Molly. Well, it was not optimal, but an extremely small audience was better than none at all. He flashed her a smile. "Oh, well, in the immediate sense yes, I suppose I am. Long-term prospects are somewhat less promising, however." He paused to look at her expression and added, "I slipped trying to fix the lights."

His joke was lost on her as she blinked at him with a frown before she suddenly brightened. "I wonder if we have a trampoline!" she said.

If he fell then he could jump!

"Do you know if we have one?"

It may have said something that Marius took the suggestion under serious consideration. "Perhaps," he said. "With all our physical training I would be surprised if we didn't. Perhaps the gym--"

The gutter currently standing between him and gravity gave an urgent little creak. He cleared his throat.

"Or perhaps you could get an adult. Preferably a flier."

Molly gulped, then quickly nodded. "Okay!" she said. She turned to leave but paused a moment, trying to think of which ones were fliers. Monet could fly right?

Something in Marius' jacket pocket, which was currently nearly level with his ear, began to buzz. It was his cell. Even if it wasn't someone in the mansion, this might be a justifiable use of the panic button. Marius waved at Molly with one hand while he started to grope for his pocket with the other.

"Oi, hold on, maybe I can call--"

The gutter, angered that it was no longer the centre of attention, now broke.

Seeing Marius wave, Molly took a step back, then her eyes widened as she heard the snap of the gutter. She knew she was strong and unsquishable...so she held out her arms in an attempt to catch the falling man.

It did work, at least in the sense that Molly did indeed manage to successfully intercept Marius. However, when the catchee was almost twice the size of the catcher, precision was an irrelevant bonus.

On the plus side, Marius only had the wind knocked out of him rather than, say, his spine.

Molly blinked up at Marius before suddenly wobbling and eventually teetering over while still holding him, leaving an indentation in the snow. It wasn't that he was heavy, she was just surprised since she'd never caught a real person before.

For a moment there was nothing but silence. Then, with painstaking slowness, the older mutant reached into his pocket, extracted his still-buzzing phone, and hung up on the call.

She giggled, then quickly got serious.

"Are you good? Nothing broken?"

Marius, still on top of the smaller girl, did a brief inventory. He thought for a moment and concluded, "The gutter. But let's be honest, it had it coming." He rolled off Molly, wincing a little at the muscles twinging in his back. "Cheers. That was very nearly inconvenient."

"It did?" Molly said, glancing up toward the metal tube thing detached from the house. She hopped up and brushed the snow off, then offered him her hand up.

"What were you doing on the roof?"

Marius got to his feet and brushed off his jeans. "Fixin' the lights for Kyle, as I said. No worries, fall about knocked that thought of of my head, too." He glanced up at the swinging gutter. "Think Kyle'll notice?"

The last thread of metal holding the broken gutter to the roof gave way.

Molly let out a squeak as she quickly jumped out of the way and the gutter disappeared into the snow with a thwack, leaving a line in its wake. She looked back at the mansion again then curled her nose.

"Maybe?" she said.

"Curses." Marius contemplated the gutter for a moment, then shrugged. "Ah well, I'll think of something. However, for now: as you have saved me from great bodily harm, I am in your debt. You may name your reward."

Tilting her head at him, Molly thought about that. She smiled.

"Pizza?" she said.

"An excellent choice." Marius brushed off his hands one final time, then extended a scarred palm to Molly. "Shall we?"

Molly nodded, reaching out to take his hand. "Okay!" she said.

As they walked back toward the mansion she looked down at her hand in his.

"What happened to your palm? Did you get hurt?"

"Sick, actually. Powers thing. Used to be a mouth." Marius raised his free hand at her, wiggling his fingers as he displayed an identical scar. "If you want to see the teeth, I've still got 'em. Made some quite nice paperweights."

Molly peered down at the scars with wide eyes before glancing back up to him.

"Really?" she said.

"You mean like the Wraith?"

"I do not know what you are referring to, but if it's a bloke with mouths on his hands then yes. Though if that is the case, I may need to sue for copyright infringement." Marius shook the hair out of his eyes. "They were quite the bugger. Useful at times, as I didn't need to worry about havin' a sharp object on hand if I needed someone's blood to borrow a power, but inconvenient. I distinctly remember losin' a hand-tooth in a carpet."

Molly didn't quite know how she felt about that so she kind of just stared at him, her eyes still very large. She couldn't say anything except....

"Dude."

Marius nodded solemly. "'Dude' indeed. And, happily, all in the past." He gave her a bright smile. "So, what do you take on your pizza?"

"Pepperoni," Molly said, eventually blinking out of her momentary haze.

That was the weirdest, coolest thing ever.

"It shall be done," Marius vowed. "And afterwards, should you wish, you may see my disturbing paperweights."