Callisto & Vanessa | early Wednesday morning

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Finally home, Vanessa gets some much needed sleep. But there is something a bit different about tonight's festivities.

Callisto wasn't sure why she'd woken up.

Usually it was pretty obvious - her sharp ears would catch the echo of a siren or some other noise from outside - footsteps, a passing car. Sometimes Vanessa would have heard it too, still asleep but with her hand beneath the pillow where, Callisto knew, her fingers would now be wrapped tightly around the grip of her knife.

Tonight, though, there was nothing - oh, plenty of the usual nighttime sounds, but nothing that should have roused her from her sleep.

Callisto opened her eyes, her vision adjusting almost immediately to the dark, the ceiling almost daytime crisp as its colour and texture resolved above her as she lay, as usual, sprawled on her back, the other woman curled against her, head on her shoulder, arm wrapped around her waist, their bare legs tangled.

It had become easier, this strange arrangement, had come to feel more normal as time went on for all that it was slowly dawning on Callisto that it probably wasn't very normal at all. They'd fallen into a sort of rhythm where they'd go to their own separate beds each night, sometimes after falling asleep in front of the TV, sometimes not, and it would be when Vanessa woke in the early hours of the morning that she would pad through to Callisto's room and slip between the sheets, insinuating her way into Callisto's arms and sleeping the rest of the night away beside her.

This rhythm had been altered just slightly in the past couple of weeks, of course. It hadn't taken Callisto long to notice that Adrienne and Vanessa had begun to share the occasional 'entente' between friends - just once or twice a week, but the mere... presence of people actually having that sort of fun in close proximity had finally spurred Callisto into doing something she herself hadn't felt the need to in years, and she'd begun going clubbing again, picking up young women - or rather allowing herself to be picked up - coming home a few times a week at two or three in the morning to peel off her clothes and jump straight in the shower, her hair still damp when Vanessa crawled into bed beside her soon after. It had had the effect of relaxing her considerably, her behaviour a little less plank-like in the other woman's presence - not 'cuddly' per se, but certainly more pliable, moving with her as she tossed and turned, and as often as not she'd wake spooned protectively against Vanessa's back, arm slung loosely around her waist.

But tonight, she'd woken lying on her back like the old days, staring up at the ceiling she knew rather well by this point. And she didn't know why she was awake, but something itched in her head as she lay there and made her turn to look at the woman resting beside her.

To see herself.

Perhaps some part of her had already figured this out, because she didn't start. She did stare, though, eyes flickering across the face she was so used to seeing in mirror image this time flipped the right way, scar snaking across the other side of her face.

Even to a mind as slow as Callisto's it was obvious what must have happened - Vanessa, blue from her relaxed state, had been able to take on Callisto's form, and with their contact, it had somehow happened unconsciously while she slept. A strange sensation settled in Callisto's stomach as she contemplated this, processed it. Vanessa was in her body - no more than that, she knew enough about the other woman's mutation to know it was more than that. Right now, Vanessa was her, right down to the last molecule. A perfect copy.

Of its own accord, her hand raised to Vanessa's face - her face, fingers trailing lightly down her cheek in the path of that long, white line, feeling the smooth scar tissue and the slight pucker of the skin around it for the first time as though it didn't belong to her, the scar new and alien beneath her touch without the responding sensation on her own cheek.

Then there was a hand sliding up her arm from her elbow to close over her hand gently, mild, light-coloured eyes coming open to meet hers. It happened before she could even react, and she froze - as much because she knew it was the best thing to do as out of surprise.

The brunette came into rapid focus, the room growing from dark to light in a matter of moments rather than minutes. Confusion ran across her face. It was too bright to be Callisto's room but it didn't look like her own. Everything everywhere she looked was in perfect focus, bright as daylight though the clock on the wall claimed it was only three. That brought the panic so quickly Callisto never had a chance to consider pulling her hand away from Vanessa's face. The metamorph's hand went from laying placidly over the other woman's to gripping her wrist, vice-like and unforgiving, while her other hand snaked under the pillow to reach for her knife. Only her hand got there too quickly.

Everything was too bright and she was reacting with unusual speed. Her eyes moved over the near blank expression of the woman staring at her and found nothing of use there. "Where are we?" her lips asked in a voice not her own just as her expression asked a more pressing question, what was done to me?

Callisto blinked rapidly, her own expression suddenly shifting to one of concern. "It's okay," she murmured, wincing a little as Vanessa's fingers dug into her wrist. "We're just- it's fine. You're... uh. You shifted, in your sleep I guess. You're okay."

Vanessa's grip tightened and she spoke with her borrowed voice even lower, "Not the question I asked." Shifting, that would explain her voice. It might explain why she was faster. If she shifted in her sleep the only person she could have turned into was...Callisto. Which explained the reflexes even more. It might even explain her eyes adjusting to the dark so quickly. But did it really explain why it was so damn bright in a room that wasn't hers with a clock claiming it was some time it couldn't be? There had to be windows behind her but if the woman in front of her wasn't the one she thought it was then turning her back could cost Vanessa her life. Confirming windows wasn't that important, all things considered.

"The question y- this is my room. We're..." Even though her wrist must be in considerable pain at this point, Callisto hesitated a little in her explanation, looking slightly shy, suddenly. "You're... with me, just like..." Comprehension dawned. "I see real well in the dark," she said suddenly.

Vanessa's borrowed eyes unfocused a little as she considered that. It didn't take long for her grip on the other woman to first loosen, then cease altogether so she could hold her own hand up in front of her. Vanessa traced the lines of the black tattoos that swirled around and over her skin. Callisto's skin. "It's like daylight in here," she mumbled and noted how much louder her voice sounded. It wasn't unlike borrowing Laura, really, just...skinnier.

The metamorph dropped her hand and her eyes as well. "Sorry." This time her voice dropped to a whisper but it was still clearly audible.

Callisto shook her head, though she did wriggle her fingers a little as she pulled her hand away, as though checking they still worked. "It's fine," she murmured. "You're okay," she said again. She pushed herself up a bit, sitting up in the bed, her eyes never leaving the form of the woman beside her, gaze travelling across every angle and line with open curiosity.

Now that she was, well, slightly reassured everything was fine, Vanessa took the time to sit up and look around properly. It really was Callisto's room, or a remarkable reproduction. The paranoid woman even went as far as to get out of bed and walk out the door. A lap around the flat, weaving in and out of each doorway, checking her gun safe and even opening the front door seemed to finally assuage her suspicions that she had been taken and her flat had merely been recreated to lull her into a false sense of security.

With that done, the metamorph padded back into Callisto's room. She crawled onto the bed, sitting on her knees in her former spot. "Sorry," she whispered again, noting the differences in how she enunciated words with the other woman's voice. "I haven't copied anyone in my sleep since..." Vanessa went a little pale. "Since I was dying."

That shake of the head again, and Callisto sat forward a little. "Don't worry about it," she said quietly. "Just... relax. It's really okay." She smiled - that tight little upturning of her lips that Vanessa had come to know, in a strange way, as a mark of fondness.

Relax. As if it was that easy. She knew Callisto didn't actually think it was a switch Vanessa could flip, but sometimes she felt like everyone believed it was. Relaxing would come eventually. And when it did maybe she would be able to drop the mimic of Callisto because while Vanessa was trying to flip that switch it wasn't budging. "I learned ages ago not to pick people up unintentionally. Guess I've got to re-learn that as well."

"You will. It's..." Callisto was obviously doing her damnedest to be supportive and say the right things, for all that she was obviously still quite thrown by the presence of, well, herself, sitting next to her - albeit a rather more eloquent version with a rather different accent. "I mean, it's great that you can, right? It's a good start."

"No, actually, it's not." Vanessa frowned, though on Callisto's face it had more the tell tale sign of a pout than the thoughtful expression it often was on her real face. "If I'm picking people up in my sleep it means that bit's broken, too. It was sort of...not really a skill so much as learned behavior, I guess? Like when you sleep somewhere unfamiliar and you sleep even more lightly than usual so you can keep an ear out for any potential threats. It was sort of like that, only my brain went into 'do not copy' mode instead. It took me months to learn that and years to get it down pat. If I've got to learn it the hard way again?" Vanessa sighed. She was either going to have to start wearing clothes to bed or Callisto was going to wake up with herself quite a bit.

"Ah. Shit. Sorry."

A shrug attempted to play it off like it was nothing though they both knew better. After a moment of silence the metamorph sheepishly admitted, "And I'm stuck. For now."

"Right." Callisto blinked, perhaps as though she expected to open her eyes and find that Vanessa had somehow turned back. "Okay. Well. Uh." She still seemed torn between not knowing where to look and being too curious not to. "What does... nevermind."

An eyebrow rose in a manner that was distinctly Vanessa. "What does what?"

Callisto frowned. "What does it feel like? I mean. Being. Me."

And back to a frown. "That's...difficult to explain." Vanessa fell silent while trying to figure out how to phrase it. "In some ways it's a lot like being Laura. Movement is graceful without trying. And there's strength in every movement. It's...for lack of a better word, sexy. There's something very serpentine about the way you can move if you choose to. It's a little bit of information overload because of your hearing, sight and sense of smell. Your brain sort of processes sensory information quicker because it's got so much to go through in way. If I hadn't worn Laura so much before I'd probably have a pillow over my head with my eyes squeezed shut."

Almost gingerly, Vanessa picked up Callisto's hand and flattened her palm against the other woman's. Their hands were, of course, a perfect mirror of one another. "There's a confidence to being you. Physical stuff is just...easier. And that surety is sort of like..." She paused, trying to figure out how to put it and smiled when something occurred to her. "It's like that woman who is dead sexy and knows it. She walks into a room and she knows she can have anyone she wants if she decides to have them. That utter confidence...that's what it's like being you. Well, that's what it's like being me being you. I could be you being you but this is probably strange enough for you already."

Callisto stared at their hands, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. Then her gaze flickered to Vanessa's torso. "My tattoo. You've... never seen all of it. And the scars from the time I was shot. Does that mean you don't have them?"

"Probably not." She dropped her hand and looked at the tribal design up her left arm. "I guess that stuff works from what I know. Always thought I could only copy DNA so the tattoos never made sense. But now I shift pigment when I walk out the door so I guess whatever does that makes your tattoos and the scars I assume are on my face." She fell silent for a beat, then smirked. "Are you going to ask me to take my top off?"

The other woman's frown deepened. "No..." she said, a little defensively.

This time the shrug really did seem nonchalant. "Monet practically inspected me when she played dress up with me wearing her once upon a time. I put nothing past people when presented with the strangeness of another them right in front of them." She smiled. "At least you didn't scream. A bloke did that to me once. That was... interesting."

"I don't scream."

"Everyone screams sometimes," came the reply, utterly sure of itself. "It's just a matter of figuring out under which circumstances."

"I've never screamed," Callisto said, on slightly surer footing now. "I reckon by now if I was gonna I'da done it."

"Never in your life? Not because you were excited? Not because you were terrified? Not because you were in pain? Not because the orgasm was that good?"

The other woman's expression flickered a little, but she just shook her head. "I'm just not a screamer, I guess."

"Pity," Vanessa pouted. "That's no fun. Someone has got to figure out how to push your buttons better. But then lacklustre button pushing is what you get with one night stands."

Callisto raised an eyebrow at this, just a shade, but she didn't rise to the bait. Or perhaps she did, because she shot back, then, "I do want to see. If it's okay with you. I mean, if you wouldn't be uncomfortable."

Vanessa adjusted herself to perfect, straight-backed posture and, without a moment's hesitation, pulled the lower edge of her tank top up and over her head. "Why should I be uncomfortable with you ogling your own body?"

It was Callisto's own body. And it wasn't. Some part of Vanessa's mind had filled the tattoo out, presumably taking a guess at what design was there from glimpses here, a shadow there. It wasn't the same - that would have been spooky. It was like a different version of her and Callisto felt at once strangely relieved and slightly disappointed.

The bullet scars were different, too, although not by much. Vanessa had obviously seen the visible scars and guessed that they were from a strafe from an automatic, and whatever-it-was that filled this stuff in for her had made an educated guess at their trajectory and got it, well, close enough to right that no one but Callisto, who saw them ever single day with those eyes that missed nothing, would know the difference.

The rest of her was, well, the rest of her. And Vanessa was right, it was only uncomfortable if she thought too hard about it - a point on which she was currently swithering back and forth.

"Close, I guess," she said, dragging her gaze back to Vanessa's face. Well, the face Vanessa had right now.

Her tank top dangled from a held up finger. "Do you need more time or is your curiosity sated? It's a little cold without a shirt." A fact which was rather pointedly confirmed, no pun intended, by her nipples. Vanessa, for her part, seemed wholly unaffected by this state.

"Huh. Oh... sure," Callisto waved a hand, dropping her eyes now, and it was obvious to Vanessa that this was her 'processing' face.

Once the tank was back on Vanessa's posture relaxed into a comfortable slouch. "I should start wearing clothes to bed."

"If that'll help. I can start wearing pyjama bottoms again." Neither one of them observed the option of simply keeping to their own beds. "Although, I mean, aren't you going to need to learn to... not do this... again somehow?"

And a cringe. "Aye. But do you really feel like being the guinea pig? You're not nearly narcissistic enough to want to wake up to yourself. And, trust me, those people exist. In fact, some people love themselves so much they want to fuck themselves. It's...a bit disconcerting."

Callisto shrugged. "I'd fuck me," she said simply.

Vanessa closed her eyes, lips pursing as she tried not to laugh, and shook her head. "I should have seen that one coming." If for no reason than for Callisto to finally score on the blind sided comment board. Granted, Vanessa hadn't put many points on that board in some time. "Though now I'm surprised you let me cover you up by putting my shirt back on."

The other woman looked midly but genuinely confused by this. "Well, I mean, it's a... thing. Hypothetical. You're not me. Maybe some people would buy that, but..." She shook her head. "It's just physical. You're Vanessa."

"I could be you," Vanessa offered. "You think I'm not a good enough study to mirror the pout and the shrug and the frown? I've also got your psi patterns. If I wanted to be you, I could be. I figured one complete you in the bed was enough. Of course, if you'd prefer you..." she trailed off, vague hint of a smirk. "Though I wouldn't want you to get all lusty about yourself. That could get awkward in the morning."

Callisto made a face. "This is a stupid conversation," she said frankly. "I wouldn't... don't be me, okay? It was a stupid comment. I don't want to fuck you. Me." She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Whatever." How did they end up down this line of conversation?

Callisto made a face. "This is a stupid conversation," she said frankly. "I wouldn't... don't be me, okay? It was a stupid comment. I don't want to fuck you. Me." She closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Whatever." How did they end up down this line of conversation?

"Welcome to life with a shapeshifter." Vanessa gestured grandly with an arm and bowed at the waist until her nose nearly touched the bed beside the real Callisto's leg. "It's full of very weird possibilities that sometimes turn into extraordinarily stupid conversations. Some of which I've lived." She gave the other woman a dazzling smile that seemed foreign on the brunette's face despite the way Vanessa's personality lit up the expression.

Oddly, whether it was her words or the grin, this seemed to comfort Callisto a little. "So, uh. What do we do now? I mean, is there a way you can shift back? Is there something I can do?"

"Business as usual," she replied with a perfect mimic of Callisto's shrug. "Sleep, hope I turn blue. Maybe if I turn blue I won't pick you back up. If I do then maybe my brain will have switched the 'stuck forever' switch off by then? I dunno. I'm usually fine when I wake up... with you." The last two words were mumbled so quietly even Callisto's hearing barely made them out. "So I figure it was the, uh, 'oh fuck, where am I?' moment that fucked me over and got me stuck."

The other woman nodded slowly. "Oh... kay," she said. "Sorry, I'm..." She shook her head again. "I don't mean to be weird. I think I just. I guess I've never felt like anyone understood what it was like to be in this body before. And now you are and I'm just... I guess all this stuff is pretty normal to you after all these years."

"Yeah, I mean, it's sort of like changing clothes. Or like wearing something outta your usual style." A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of her mouth. "I'm less comfortable in dresses than in other people's bodies. I used to pick up a body and live in it for months. Or I'd swap between bodies so quickly I'd forget who I was wearing. You learn to adapt to the differences in how they move and react and feel just as quickly as you learn to adapt to the feel of different fabrics against your skin. Some are still sort of interesting and novel because you wear them less frequently, like satin or silk on bare skin, but you know it well enough for it to not be jarring really."

"Took me long enough to get comfortable in my own skin," Callisto murmured, her eyes scanning across the woman in front of her again. "And then all over again, after... well, after what happened to my face."

"You've got good skin. It's...like a well tailored suit in a way." She was sure that wouldn't make sense to Callisto and while she could have slipped into the other woman's thought processes to find a way to put it that would that just seemed like it might be a touch too creepy for the other woman. "Sometimes I'm more at home in other people's bodies than my own still. I didn't spend much time as me once I figured out how to shift intentionally and then drop mimics."

"That's..." Callisto trailed off, shook her head. "Never mind."

"What?" Vanessa quirked an eyebrow. The expression didn't quite seem at home on Callisto's face. "Just say it."

"I just think it's a shame," she said. "I mean. Just the idea of you not spending much time as... you. You... suit you," she says, seeming... not awkward, exactly, but certainly slightly reluctant.

"I'm a shapeshifter. Changing is what I do, what is encoded into my DNA. It's not a shame, it's natural." Vanessa did not sound defensive in the least. Rather, she sounded like she was trying to explain something very simple. "That's sort of like saying it's a shame water isn't wet more often. Water is always wet, even when it's ice or gaseous. I'm me regardless of what body I wear."

"I guess that's clear," Callisto said now. "I don't think my mouth has ever said 'gaseous' before. Or 'encoded'."

"It has now." She smirked. "Twice."

"Y'know..." Callisto said thoughtfully - well, as close to 'thoughtfully' as Callisto really got, "we could totally train together. If you were me. I mean, without me having to go easy."

The instant reaction was a somewhat cocky, self-assured grin. "If I was you then you wouldn't be able to take me. Without your speed and strength advantage you don't have much on me." She was entirely kidding. While Vanessa was more than proficient hand-to-hand and with weapons she wasn't one to actually think she was the biggest dog in the yard. Training with Logan when he'd been around had made sure any inclination toward that had been beaten out of her.

Callisto's lips twitched into a slight smirk at this - she'd clearly picked up that Vanessa was at least partly kidding for her tone was knowing as she spoke. "I dunno... I've been in this body a lot longer than you have, we've got a pretty good thing going..."

"Never underestimate the power of newness. After all," she began, shoulders slowly rolling back one at a time, "you take your body for granted. I'll appreciate her in a way you don't anymore. You're so used to it, like a well worn glove. You may have more experience in it, but you've begun overlooking its full capabilities. I bet I use your body better than you do."

The other woman seemed to think about this, her lips pulling into that trademark pout, brows drawing together a little as she pondered. Eventually, she shook her head. "I don't take my body for granted," she said. "It's the best thing I have. It's what makes me me. I always know my... full capabilities," she said, a little slowly, as though she understood the word but wouldn't generally think to use it. "I am my body. When you said..." She trailed off, trying to remember. "You said it was like being sexy and knowing it. I get that. I feel that, all the time, what I can do, how strong I am, how fast. And I never stop pushing myself to do more." Her lips twitched in the direction of a smile again. "You couldn't take me. Not even now."

Vanessa's borrowed lips curled into a rather cocky, smug sort of smile. She leaned in a bit closer to the other woman, eyes seeming to size her up. "Alfonso and Ignacio open their places at nine if you really feel like testing your claim, pet. I'd hate have to put you in your place so soon, but you might be cute when you're pouting all full of defeat."

It wasn't just that Callisto's eyes saw further and in darker conditions than Vanessa's - they also caught tiny things that would entirely pass by even Vanessa's keen perceptions. That was why, just now, she didn't miss the tiniest dilation in Callisto's pupils as she spoke, caught the flicker of movement inside the other woman's mouth the tiniest tremble from her dry, slightly parted lips as her tongue considered but thought better of darting out to moistened them.

Still, whatever her body seemed to be saying at Vanessa's suggestion, her head shook. "'Nother time, maybe. Besides," she added with a slight smirk, "you're about to notice how fuckin' hungry I am when I wake up at this time of night. And _you_ didn't have three helpings at dinner."

"You've clearly never had a healing factor while extensively injured," Vanessa replied offhandedly. "You've got nothing on Laura's metabolism. She's handy to have around when you've nearly been eviscerated, though." The metamorph's nose wrinkled and she looked down at her stomach. "But now you mentioned food I am hungry. I hate you." Without preamble, she crawled out of bed and headed for the door. "You want anything while I'm up?"

Callisto didn't answer her question, instead murmuring, in a rather pensive voice that she probably wouldn't have heard if she didn't have Callisto's ears, "Yeah I have."

As Vanessa reached the kitchen counter, though, she heard the other woman's presence behind her. "I used to be up about now for a snack every night before..." She trailed off with a sheepish smile.

"Before some crazy chick appropriated you as her bony teddy bear?" Vanessa answered off hand. Sure, okay, they Weren't Talking About It, but they should at least make fun of it, right? Besides, it was an easy comment to make when Vanessa wasn't looking at the other woman. And when she wasn't saying it wearing her own pinkified face.

Callisto didn't answer immediately, instead opening the fridge to inspect its contents, pulling out one of the ever-present cartons of leftovers.

"Am I really that uncomfortable?" she asked eventually, in a tone that was clearly attempting to sound casual but beneath that suggested she'd noted the 'bony' comments on previous occasions and perhaps said nothing.

"Not generally. But your elbows could be deadly if I was on the wrong side of them." The metamorph stopped her efforts to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to inspect Callisto's elbow...the one she was wearing. "I mean, you're not exactly pillow top, but if you were that uncomfortable do you really think it would take screaming nightmares for me to wake up?" She kept her tone nonchalant, though they both could detect that edge of something in her voice, buried. A reluctant confession, a frustration, a disappointment with herself...

"Mm. Well. Guess I'll find out soon enough, unless you get... unstuck," Callisto said eventually, leaning back against the counter and reaching behind herself to retrieve a fork from the dishrack, diving into the cold noodles with gusto.

"Well, you know, likelihood of me unsticking while conscious is basically nonexistent." Vanessa finished her sandwich, eyeballed it, then started building another two before bothering to bite into anything. "Didn't you always just wish you could fall asleep with yourself?"

"Reckon it'll make for some pretty fuckin' weird dreams," was all Callisto said, but she shot a smirk in Vanessa's direction that suggested she didn't mind. Perhaps it was an advantage to not being terribly bright that after her initial disorientation and subsequent curiosity, she now seemed to have moved onto the acceptance stage regarding Vanessa's current appearance.

Vanessa grinned. "If any of them are dirty you should probably seek a psychiatrist, though," she joked.

This time the look she got was a little less readable, Callisto's pale eyes meeting hers as she turned to glance at her without a hint of what was going on behind them. Then she was digging back into the noodles, making steady progress through the carton.