Layla & Matt | BACKDATED Saturday afternoon

[x-mandelbrot.livejournal.com]

Layla shows up just in time to see Matt more or less faceplant in a tree. Unfortunately for the photo ops he pretty much makes it out alive and relatively unscathed. There's always hope for more treeplanting!

Parkour was something Matt had only just discovered thanks to Johnny. Sometimes, being youtube-deprived did not work in his favour at all. He was practicing now outside, trying to climb the side of the school. It hadn't seemed all that hard at first, there were plenty of hand holds and things, but now he was two stories up and well....yeah. Not as easy as he thought. He wasn't stuck, but he wanted to try to jump to the nearby tree and he wasn't sure he could make it or not. This would be a bad time to break his fall with something important, like his head.

The driveway to the school was pretty long which meant Layla had plenty of time to try to figure out what the hell was on the side of the mansion as she rolled along the pavement on her skateboard. Tilting her head, she figured it was a person. She just couldn't figure out if it was a person who could fly or a person who was...stuck? Crazy? Stupid? The blonde hopped off her board, popping the nose up and grabbing it before she jogged over to the side of the building. She had to get pretty close before she realized it was Matt. "Dude, what are you doing? You don't have like weird glue hands or something, dude. If you break something I'm totally not sticking around when Voght yells at you." That was, of course, totally helpful and Layla's own special way of conveying that she hoped he knew what he was doing and didn't get hurt.

"Climbing!" Matt called, recognizing Layla's voice and heartbeat. "Well...I'm trying to decide if I can jump from the side of the building here to the tree. Or not," he hoped he could. He didn't want to get yelled at by the doctor either. "Ever hear of parkour? The new guy, Johnny, does it!" And it was bad ass!

"This is totally one of those 'if your friends all jumped off a cliff' things, ain't it?" She held up a hand and squinted at him, "Uh, so, you probably can't really 'see' the branches behind the leaves, can you? Or where the thicker branches are? 'Cause it would suck to jump and get over and then the branch breaks and your ass gets handed to you by the tree." Layla considered for a second trying to drag one of the gym mats out here but that probably would take too long. "I promise to drag you to the medlab when you break yourself?"

"No, I can see them," Matt replied, ignoring her comment about the cliff. "I'm just not sure if I can make the distance or not and this isn't like trapeze with a net!" Nets were good for these sorts of things. "That's fair though. You can roll me along on your skateboard."

"Sure, I can like stick you on it for like your upper back or whatever and then pull you by your ankles." Walking over to the tree, Layla stood under the gap between Matt and the branches. "I dunno, dude. It seems like an epic bad idea. Like if I'm saying that then it's bad. Like, I don't think the branches are strong enough close to you even if you like sugar glider your ass all the way over." But maybe she was wrong. And maybe he would try anyway. in which case she should probably move so he didn't fall on her.

Biting his lip, Matt waited for her to get out of the way, then launched himself at the tree. He grabbed at the branch with an off, clutching it awkwardly as he hung from it. Ow. "Oh, this hurts," he moaned, not moving. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. "Shit. Remind me never to listen to you!" Okay, so Layla said it was a bad idea. Whatever. "Are my glasses on the ground?" They weren't on his face.

"What? You should listen to me like all the time instead of jumping off buildings and shit." Even as she corrected-slash-scolded him she went looking for his glasses. After not finding them she sighed and looked back up at Matt dangling like a limp noodle. And then she found his glasses. "Nope, they're in the tree. If you shake they'll probably fall out," she told him, grinning. "Or, you know, if you just bite the fucking bullet and fall because wow you look sort of useless up there."

"I hate you," Matt retorted. At least he'd caught his breath a little bit better. Hauling himself up on the branch, he realized that he had to be careful. It was not going to hold him. At all. Shitfuck. "Shitfuck!" he cried as the branch broke and he fell, though thankfully not all the way to the ground. Only a few feet to another branch. Grabbing it, he climbed closer to the tree trunk as fast as he could. "Did my glasses hit the ground?" he asked. In all the confusion, he hadn't noticed.

Whether to laugh or ask if he was okay...decisions decisions. In truth Layla had gone a little wide-eyed when he'd fallen but since he was scrambling along on his newest branch she decided snickering was more than acceptable. "Good job shaking," she told him as if she meant it but he could probably hear the laughter hidden in her voice. "I mean, really, very thorough. But, yeah, the glasses are free." She even swiped them and hung them on the front of her shirt's collar for safe keeping. "So, howler monkey, you think you're gonna make it outta there alive?"

"Bite me, Bonobo!" Matt called back as he swung out of the tree and landed on the ground. Other than being a little banged up and really dirty, he was no worse for wear. "Nyah," he stuck his tongue out at her and then reached for his glasses, slipping them back on to hide his eyes. "I'm so glad to see how concerned you are and all that. But I'm fine."

"I was very concerned," she insisted with the passion of someone talking out of their ass. "Do you have any idea how dirty my board would have gotten if I had to haul your broken, leaf-adorned ass to the medlab on it?"

"You could've cleaned it," Matt had no remorse at all. "Anyways, you let Sue on it. She could have crashed it and all that," he brushed some leaves off him and out of his hair. "Did it look cool at least?"

"Nah, Sue got the super sturdy one Korvus made me for Christmas," she told him, intentionally wasting time before giving him the answer he wanted. She even turned and started to wander off, assuming he would walk along with her even though she was letting the silence stretch out. "The leap looked cool," she told him eventually. "The whole almost not grabbing anything and then hanging there like a fucked up rag doll was way less impressive." A sly smile slid onto her face and Layla looked at Matt from the corner of her eye. With a tone that mixed between teasing and I-have-a-secret, Layla added, "I'll tell Sue you looked awesome."

Unfolding his cane from his back pocket (and how he hadn't lost that he had no idea), Matt blushed as red as his hair. "I hate you," he stated without malice as he followed the other girl, "And I bet you couldn't do that. It was fun up until the sudden stop of my lungs meeting the tree. And the almost falling part. But I''m not hurt and I didn't fall, so it's a win!"

The blushing alone made Layla grin and she pursed her lips tightly to keep from giggling in a most undignified manner. "I could totally tell Sue I saw you being an amazing spider monkey. I mean, it's sort of true if I leave out the totally pathetic failing part at the end." Now she was snickering again. "But, man, total props for not breaking your face. That woulda made it way harder to convince her you were awesome or whatever."

There! That was more like it! Not breaking faces was a good thing too. "Hey, live and learn, Layla," Matt retorted. "Chicks dig scars, right? So if I got hurt I'm sure she'd nurse me back to health. But she doesn't have to so even better. You ready for school to start?" he was. He was sort of bored, which was part of how he had ended up making this mess now.

"Chicks don't dig scars if they're like your whole face," she pointed out without any attempt at subtlety. She was even making a weird gesture that involved her open hand going in circles in front of her face, clearly indicating the whole thing. "And school...." Layla let all the air in her lungs out and deflated. "Meh. It's my last year which is awesome and most of my classes don't suck so...like I guess I'm ready? But then I have to figure out what the fuck I'm doing after and, yeah...no idea."

Matt knew all about facial scars. That was part of why he wore his sunglasses now, to hide them. Well, that and his eyes. "Yeah. Senior year, man. Kinda a big deal," he knew he was going to apply to colleges, but where and what major and would he get in and could he afford it and well....there was a lot going on. A lot. "I'm ready for high school to end regardless."

"You finally like totally one hundred percent a senior now? So I don't have to be like the only senior? 'Cause like I could totally work that status probably but it's sort of boring never having anyone else in class usually." She did way better in one-on-one and super small classes than she ever did in the bigger classes she was used to before coming here...but it still got sort of boring sometimes if she was the only real live student there.

"I'm a senior," Matt stated proudly. "Took what? Two summers of summer school? But I caught up," it was something to be proud of. He'd worked hard to do it and graduate at 18 despite all the stumbles his education had taken prior to Xavier's (and sometimes at Xavier's). "I dunno how many classes we'll have together though. I've been doing a lot of one-on-one stuff, especially in math." It wasn't really like seniors ruled the school though since the school was so tiny.

"Congrats! You get an apple." Layla grinned, matching the bright chirp of her voice. "Or okay, maybe cake. But only maybe. And, uh..." What classes was she taking that would involve another person? "We probably have English together, right? Since that's got to be the same class unless you're taking like AP shit or something. No one else takes anything else I take now that Megan graduated."

"I signed up for that, trapeze, science, history and debate at the public school," Matt tried to remember if that was it. He was a senior, but he needed a bunch of credits to graduate still, "Oh, and self defense. But that's always been a one-on-one thing for me."

The word "trapeze" elicited a tinny squeal and a bounce in Layla's step. "You're taking trapeze? Someone other than me is gonna be faceplanting in net? That's badass. I wonder if Herr Wuschelig will put us in a class together of if he's gonna be all one-on-one guy. I think I have Sue convinced to do trapeze too. Like instead of normal phys ed. Not like she really needed convincing but half the time people are all 'oh that's cool I wanna do that' and then they don't or they pussy out or they were just talking out of their ass anyway. But I think Road Rash is actually going to do it. We could be the Amazing Flying Monkeys!" As she announced their apparent name one hand moved in front of her as if she were spreading out a banner of some sort.

Oooh, Sue was going to take trapeze? Cool! "Absolutely!" Matt agreed, both to taking trapeze and the name. "I've done it once already and it was so cool! Like doing the high bar, except it moved more. I missed the other trapeze when I jumped, but that okay, there was the net. I wanted to take it before, but my powers weren't good enough yet, you know? Now they are!" Learning to use his powers was working out pretty awesomely. "And I like that name. The Flying Monkeys."

"It's kinda awesome that you can be like the blind flying monkey 'cause of your powers. Everyone gets cooler powers than me." She pretended to pout, something evident in her voice, but anyone who even vaguely knew Layla knew not to take it seriously. "I should make us tee shirts. Or sashes. Or hats. Or something. Or like those total hipster arm band things that people used to wear on their wrists in like 80's work out videos."

Matt snorted, "That's because we're all cooler than you," he replied, joking around, "We just keep you around like our Mississippi." He pondered her clothing suggestions, "What's with people making shirts or uniforms or whatever? But t-shirts are better than the others. Unless you're Molly," she who was hat-obsessed.

Layla, queen of loving her personal bubble popped it in favor of jabbing Matt in the ribs suddenly and leveled a glare in his direction even though he probably couldn't fully appreciate it even with his powers. "Fuck you, I make zombies. It's cool but not practical. Yeah, practical is way better. And I dunno what's with people and uniforms and shit. Maybe I should just make us member ID cards. You know, sort of like how you can be a card carrying Native American and shit."

"Hey!" he protested when she poked him hard in the ribs, "Awww, Layla," he grinned, throwing an arm around her shoulders, "you know we love you. And by 'we' I mean your girlfriend and me, in a completely platonic way," this was actually sort of the first time he had acknowledged her girlfriend. He hadn't entirely been sure of how or if he should before, but it worked this time without being weird. "And my powers are mostly only practical since I'm blind. If I could see....they'd be lame." Matt pondered the ID Cards. "I'd rather have a t-shirt. Cards are too much like registering with the government, you know?"

The arm around her totally made her squirm. Layla didn't pull away because, well, she still thought of Matt as being super blind and if she ducked out from under the arm he might wind up off balance and sprawled on the ground in like three seconds flat. Okay, she knew that probably wasn't what was going to happen but that slim chance that it would, well, that kept her from doing anything other than squirming a little. "You totally forgot like a ton of people!" Layla declared, obviously unfazed by his reference to Sarah. "Sue, my adoring adoptee; Megan, my partner in music shows; Sharon, my partner in cooking; Vibrasocket, my adopted car-slash-driving person; Kyle, my personal superhero..." she trailed off, looking thoughtful. "I can stop listing now, right?" The blonde grinned. Obviously she was only half serious about her adoring fans. Well, probably a lot less than half. "If you could see then you could still pretend you were a dolphin in the water or something. I mean, like sonar is sonar. I bet it's totally useful still even if you were all sight-having and shit."

"Uh huh, I gotcha, you're totally lovable. Got it," he agreed dryly amused. If she let go of him he wouldn't fall, though he might stumble if he wasn't paying attention. He wasn't some fragile doll or anything like that. At the mention of Sue, Matt blushed a little. He had more than a little crush on her. "Do you still play 'mermaids' in the pool, too? " he teased. He had never played dolphins in the pool regardless of sonar. That was lame. "I''d probably use my powers in a different way, but this works too. Plus, I guess I'd have enhanced sight."

Jaw dropping, Layla turned to direct her horrified expression at Matt. "Who told you about mermaids? Sue and Megan promised it would be our secret!" Her faux outrage crumbled three seconds later and the blonde wound up giggling. "You're not allowed to be the dolphin without the fins, though!"

Matt waggled his hands, "No flippers here!" he teased right back, amused, then checked his watch. Damn. He had to go get cleaned up before his counseling session. "Alright, strange and loved one. I've got to go," he said heading towards the house. Stupid counseling. He hated it and the drug tests.

Layla broke out her best pout for him. "Fine, just ditch me. See if I care!" She threw one arm in the air and huffed. In typical Layla fashion, she gave up her faux fit in the time it took her to blink. "Hey, I'm trying these recipes for this German stew, pichelsteiner, and dampfnudel which're these sweet roll things. You want some? I can like leave it in the main fridge for you or whatever and like braille-ify a label with your name or somethin'."

"Sounds good," Matt agreed. He had no idea what she was taking about other than food, but he'd give it a shot. "There should be a raised label maker somewhere in the kitchen. I think it's in the drawer with the other noncooking kitchen supplies. See you later!"

"Awesome, I will totally find it with my mad findy skills!" Grinning, she held up her hand in a peace sign. "Peace out, home skillet!" A second later her skateboard was back on the ground and she was taking off for the path that led to the kitchen. She had a mad cooking spree to start!