Log: Matt and Sarah, Friday night

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While having trouble sleeping, Matt runs into Sarah, who's also still not able to get a good night's rest since Genosha.


Sleep wasn't something that was easy coming to Matt since Genosha, even in his room. He loved his room and his bed, but...his mind wouldn't stop reeling. What had happened was...horrific. Was that too strong a word? Matt didn't think so. Wandering down to the kitchen to get something to eat, he tried to keep quiet so that he didn't disturb anyone who might actually be sleeping. As he approached the kitchen though, he was surprised to hear another heartbeat. Who else was up in the middle of the night like this?

Rest wasn't too hard to come by for the most part, largely due to lots of time spent with Layla, cuddling and resting together. The night times, however, were marked by waking up several times, often in a cold sweat, and Sarah was going through another bout of that tonight. Maybe if she'd got up and had something cold to drink or to eat that'd help, she figured, so she'd donned her housecoat and had headed for the kitchen, not bothering to grab a hat because who else would be up at that hour? She stood by the counter, pouring up a glass of milk while she wondered if taking a few cookies with that would have been a good idea or a bad one.

"Hello?" Matt called as he entered. He was thinking about some milk maybe or mac and cheese. He was hungry enough for a meal.

Bobbling the milk carton at the sound of someone's voice, Sarah jumped and fumbled with it for a split second before it fell to the ground. "Ahhh, crap!" She quickly scooped it up before too much milk spilled out, thankfully, but sighed anyway at her skittishness. "Hey Matt, sorry, you startled me there for a second." Normally she wouldn't have been so jumpy but given how late it was and her current condition there wasn't anything for it, really. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?" She tore off a paper towel and bent down to start cleaning up the mess she'd made.

Matt snorted, "What's that?" he asked, a hand on the counter as he walked in. He didn't have his cane back yet. It had been lost in Genosha, but he didn't need it really, not at Xavier's where he was familiar. "Sorry for startling you," he recognized Sarah's voice. "Didn't expect anyone to be awake now."

"I know right? It's ok, I startle easy these days anyway. And it's ok, it's just a bit of milk." She smiled a little as she remember the old saying. "Don't worry, I'm not crying over it or anything." It only took a couple of swipes and dabs with the towel before she'd cleaned up the small amount on the floor. Getting back to her feet, she walked over and threw the paper towel into the garbage. "Not too many are, I guess, and maybe the ones who aren't are still in their rooms."

Going to the pantry, Matt ran his hands over the various boxes and there labels on the shelves to identify things. Lorna had used a label maker to put raised labels on the shelves to help him ID things. "Mac and cheese?" he asked, holding the box up for Sarah to look at.

Looking over at what he was holding up, Sarah nodded before realizing how stupid that was. "Yup, that's it." She went to a cupboard herself, caving in and taking a few cookies out for herself to go along with the milk before putting the milk back inside of the fridge. "Just getting a little milk and some cookies myself, I don't think I could eat anything that big this late." Even though she probably wouldn't be able to sleep afterward anyway, it still wouldn't have been possible for her.

"Growing teenager," Matt replied, getting a pot and filling it with water to boil. He knew how to make basic things like macaroni from a box. "You can have some if you change your mind though. Why aren't you sleeping?" he assumed it was the obvious, but it was possible that it was something else.

Sarah went back to her milk, with three or four cookies in hand, waiting to be dunked into the milk. Was that a juvenile thing to do, she wondered? It didn't really matter so she went right ahead and dunked one in while she spoke to Matt. "Nightmares again, it's been pretty rough since... everything happened, I guess." It was too difficult to get specific because so much had happened to them all in Genosha. "Even though I can't remember what happened, I... I guess I worry, and picture things happening, not that I want to, I just can't stop sometimes. It's scary." She shook her head, not wanting her brain to wander off again into 'what if?' scenarios, then she took a big bite of her milk soaked cookie. "How 'bout you?"

Waiting for the water to boil, Matt listened to Sarah, "Oh, you know," he shrugged, "I didn't see anything, so I'm fine," he thought that sounded pretty weak, even to him. A lot of people thought that not seeing meant not imagining though or not being affected. Hopefully Sarah was one of those people.

She was a bit surprised by his response because, well, there had been a lot going on that you didn't really need to see to be affected. On top of that, she knew Matt's other senses were heightened so he must've been just as exposed as most of them were, if not more so in other ways, but maybe he just didn't want to talk about it. That she could relate to, since she couldn't even remember a large chunk of her own time in Genosha and what she might have done, which was painful to even think about let alone talk about with others. Others she might have hurt or betrayed.

So instead of pressing him on that point she just smiled a little and dipped another cookie into her glass. "Maybe it's some kind of jet lag or something then, that can be a pain to get over too."

"Probably," he agreed. Weren't they a pair, not wanting to talk about things? He stirred in the noodles into the boiling water, "You ever been out of the USA before?"

She had to think about that for a bit. "Well, other than recently against my will, heh, my mom's parents immigrated here from Hungary through Canada, and I think when we were little we visited some of their friends in Canada. I can't really remember that though." Sarah shrugged, it had been a long time ago. "How about you, have you done much travelling?"

"No," Matt checked his pasta as it cooked, "I've always lived in New York. Westchester was the farthest I'd been and went to the beach for the first time last summer. I discovered that I don't like planes on the way home from Genosha. They hurt," his ears. Made his entire body feel like it was vibrating and would shake apart. It had been unpleasant. And terrifying.

"Mmm, yeah, I'm not too fond of planes either, really." For her it was less to do with the fear of flying in general but a more specific fear that her powers might go haywire and cause the plane to crash or something. Thanks to her time at Xavier's that was less of a worry but she still wasn't too excited to fly, and a few times her ears had fail to pop properly which also was an annoyance. "Hopefully you're feeling better then, after the flight, I mean." And after everything else too, but she was just referring to the plane ride for now rather than being too specific.

"My migraine's mostly gone," Matt agreed. That was better. The nightmares still happened, which was not, but there was food and the shower and his nice, quiet room, so things were better than Genosha. His migraine had started in Genosha and hadn't begun to abate until just a little bit ago. Too much stress on his powers, too much overwhelming them. "I'm glad to be off the plane. I went flying once with Warren, do you know him? Anyways, that was terrifying too. I like flying, but only when I'm in control, I think." And his 'flying' was more of the gymnastics sort, which was very different.

"I'm glad to hear you're feeling better." Migraines were horrible, thankfully not something that she had experienced all that often, and she was glad to hear Matt's was over. "I know who he is, yeah. I'd find it pretty scary too I bet, wow." Sarah didn't really know Warren that well but she knew who he was at least, and she was definitely in agreement that doing something like that would require her having a lot more control over the situation than that would've given her. "I'm much more content to stay on the ground I think, heh."

Blind kids, Matt had learned, tended to dislike climbing too high or other things that separated them from their point of contact with the world, which was frequently the floor. Matt was different in that he loved gymnastics, which frequently did that, but at the same time, he had powers that helped to expand his world and compensate for his vision loss. Taking his bowl of pasta to the table, he started eating, "Any summer plans other than not being kidnapped and all that?"

Sarah followed him over to the table with her glass of milk in one hand and the remaining cookies in the other. She slipped into a seat across from him and shrugged, dipping another cookie into the glass. "Not really, I guess. I'm enjoying my job for now with XFI, a lot actually, so I guess I'll keep doing that if they'll have me." She'd e-mailed Vanessa about her hours perhaps being weird for awhile but hopefully she'd be able to get back into a more normal schedule again soon. "Hanging out with Layla, probably a trip home at some point, that's about it. How about you, any plans?" Pulling the cookie out before it got too soaked, she munched on the softened treat while looking over at Matt.

"Nope, none," Matt replied, eating. The joys of being a foster kid. "I have summer school to try to help me catch up so I don't graduate too much later than I'm supposed to, but otherwise, that's it. I don't mind summer school though, it's not so bad. I had it last summer too," though, he could still do without the Genosha-related nightmares. That sucked.

"I kinda like not having plans sometimes, so you can go with the flow, you know?" Sarah smiled, then finished off her last cookie. She yawned, glancing at the clock before looking back to Matt. "Well, I think I'm going to try this whole sleep thing again, see how it goes." There was still a bit of milk left so she drained the remainder of her glass and then brought it back over to the sink. "I hope you can sleep well when you get there, Matt, have a good night."

Matt was mostly done with his mac and cheese, though politeness said he should clean his dishes and the pot before going up to bed. "Good luck," he replied, "And yeah....I'll try again in a while."