Tandy and Adrienne - Dinner and a Discovery

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne makes dinner for Tandy and the two discuss how Tandy is doing. Afterwards, Adrienne accidentally reads something of Tandy's and is shocked and confused by what she sees.

Adrienne scooped manicotti out of the pan she'd just removed from the oven in her kitchenette and dished a couple each onto two plates, then added some salad to both plates and brought them to the table. The smoked salmon and cheese manicotti had turned out to be a surprisingly easy recipe for someone who rarely cooked, so Adrienne was proud of herself. She brought over the bowls of the minestrone soup she'd bought at the grocery store and had heated up on the stove and then added two glasses of milk to the table and sat down to wait for Tandy.

Taking joint legal guardianship of someone wasn't proving to be nearly as terrifying as Adrienne had originally thought it would be. In fact, it had been kind of nice so far. Like the meals. Adrienne had insisted she and Tandy share at least one meal a day together so they could talk, whether that meal be a lunch made of leftovers from Lorna's cooking the previous night or a ten minute 'hey what are you up to today?' chat over a piece of toast for breakfast. Or a three course dinner, like tonight's; the first Adrienne had actually cooked (part of) for Tandy. She was quite looking forward to it.

Tandy made her way to Adrienne's suite at the time she has asked for the teenager to stop by. She didn't knock on the door this time but walked right in, "Hi Adri." Tandy stopped to look at the food on the table, "You cooked?" Her voice giving away to her surprise.

"Hey!" Adrienne exclaimed, sounding wounded. "I cook sometimes! I cook...very rarely," she added as an afterthought, giving Tandy an innocent look. "And okay I didn't actually cook the soup, I just heated it up, but I totally made the filling for those manicotti all by myself!" She gestured for the girl to sit down.

Tandy took a seat and looked at the food, "I didn't mean it like all mean like and all. Just...used to small meals." The teenager offered a tiny smile at Adrienne. "I can't wait to try them and I am starving."

"Go ahead," Adrienne grinned, gesturing to Tandy's plate. She picked up her spoon and sipped at her soup, nodding in approval, then grabbed a dinner roll from the plate she'd put on the table previously. "So how were classes today?" she asked with a mouth full of bread.

"Bor....fine." Tandy stopped her self as she picked a fork and went for the manicotti. "Pretty much the same as every day...and considering your my math teacher. I still don't know how you can teach math."

The near-vocalization of 'boring' wasn't lost on Adrienne, who snorted a little as she tried the manicotti. "I teach math because math is awesome, she answered, trying to sound like an overenthusiastic camp councilor. "It also happens to be possibly the only school subject I actually know anything about." She knew a bunch of history stuff now, mostly thanks to her powers, but there was just way too much history to learn to ever be able to say she knew anything about the subject as a whole.

"It hurts the brain." Tandy pointed out to the professor and being truthful. She tried a mouth full of the manicotti and chewed it before nodding. "Not bad. You made this?" She grinned at Adrienne sheepishly before taking another bit of the food. "But I am doing okay in classes."

"Good," Adrienne nodded, grinning herself. "I was really hoping I wouldn't have to bribe any of my fellow faculty members to give you good grades. And yes," she added, mock-glaring at Tandy, "I know it's difficult to believe, but I made this. It's just salmon and a bunch of different cheeses," she shrugged, though it was plain to see she was proud of what she'd made.

"It is the homework I have a problem with, test are super easy. Homework is just boring." Tandy put another bit into her mouth, "You should make more of this stuff often." Reaching over and picked up the glass of milk and had a sip, it was clear that Tandy liked Adrienne's cooking.

"Well, the faculty will have to have a brainstorming session about how to make homework more fun," Adrienne smirked, "though I don't know that we'll have any success with it. How about the nightmares?" she inquired casually. "Any better lately?"

"I guess I don't find it challenging enough to do them." Tandy put down her fork and looked at Adrienne, the nightmares. "No. I still dream of her. You would think it would be over and done with since it was over a month ago." She gave a forced laughed and then slumped into her seat. "I think my roommate is afraid I will explode one night."

"Well, I can certainly make your homework more challenging." Adrienne cocked an eyebrow, slightly amused despite the seriousness of the topic. "Somehow I doubt you'd actually explode. Though if Renée really is concerned about that, maybe we should get you into the medbay just so Je... Doctor Grey-Summers can tell us for sure if that's actually a possibility?" Shit, now Adrienne was worried Tandy would explode. "And I hate to point this out, but for something as traumatic as what you went through? I wouldn't be surprised if the nightmares lasted for months." If not years. But she didn't want to say that.

"Just don't tell the others. I don't want them to get mad at me because I was the cause for more challenging homework." Tandy played with her food with her fork, "I think if I get one of those mosquito nets up and around my bed she should be fairly safe. I mean my daggers don't go through things that don't breathe. But if you think it might help..." Her voice trailed off and bit her lower lip and looked up at Adrienne again. "Months?"

"Oh, I never said I was making everyone else's homework more challenging. And I like the mosquito net idea," Adrienne nodded, grinning at the mental image. She winced when Tandy bit her lip and looked at her like that, though. "Hopefully not?" she amended, though the optimism sounded false in her ears.

Tandy smirked at Adrienne, "There isn't a mosquito net laying around is there?" Tandy rubbed her temples in thought, "I also hope not...I like to sleep."

"I'm sure we could find a mosquito net at an army surplus store... or, if all else fails, the internet," Adrienne shrugged. She was less concerned about the mosquito net and more preoccupied with the nightmares and Tandy's comment about sleeping. "Can you not get back to sleep after a nightmare?" she inquired as she sipped at her soup.

"I don't know...I mean would you want to go back to sleep after dreaming about a demon that was snacking on you? And it is always the red eyes..." Tandy was starting to feel like she was saying too much - not that she didn't trust Adrienne. It was something that she didn't tell anyone about.

"No, I don't suppose I would," Adrienne mused as she forked up some more manicotti. "And those red eyes were pretty freaky. Have you talked to Haller about this at all?"

Tandy was silent now and picked at her food. She didn't want to talk to anyone else about her sleep problems or the fact that she kept dreaming the same dream every night. The blonde had to break out of her habit of not trusting adults with her problems, but she was afraid. Afraid that they would see right through her.

Chewing silently as she waited for the answer that she realized wasn't coming, Adrienne only nodded. "I hate shrinks too," she muttered with her mouth full. Sure, she liked Haller, but as far as his profession went, Adrienne had never been a huge fan. "Something that helps me is putting a light on after I've had a nightmare," she told Tandy. Well, really, having someone to wake up with you and be close to you while you fell back asleep, making you feel safe was the best solution Adrienne had found, but she wasn't about to suggest that to Tandy. "A candle or a bedside lamp on low. I find it easier to fall back asleep with the light on. But I don't know that you can really do that with Renee in the same room," she added, frowning. "You could come and stay with me for a while if you wanted, though," she offered. "I don't care if you put a light on."

"Thanks Adrienne. I will keep that in mind. Though lights have no problem. I glow in the dark remember? I am my own personal night light." She smiled again at that before she started to eat again. "It isn't the dark that I am afraid of - it is what is lurking in the dark."

Whoops, she'd forgotten the glowing part. "In that case, maybe something that will help is getting to the point in your self-defense training where you feel like you can take on what's lurking in the dark," Adrienne suggested. They'd been down this road before, but Adrienne maintained her belief that building self-confidence about being able to defend oneself could attribute to battling back that subconscious fear that manifested through dreams. At least, it had worked for her. Mostly. "Just don't, y'know, join any superhero teams once you have fighting skills," she added wryly. "Because once you're on the team, you're exposed to more of the nightmarish villains, and run the risk of putting the people you care about in danger. Which reminds me," she muttered, "I need to talk to Scott about getting a code name."

"I will keep that in mind when I am a skilled ninja." Tandy smirked and bit her lower lip as she started at Adrienne for a long time in silence. "Code name....what about..." Her blue eyes looked around the room and her eyes landed on a magazine with the picture for an advertisement for Cover Girl makeup. "....Cover girl?"

Adrienne laughed at the skilled ninja comment and her eyes widened in amusement at the code name suggestion. "Covergirl? I like that a lot," she grinned. "I'd been thinking of something that reflects my powers, but maybe advertising what I do isn't a great idea all the time," she mused, and her smile widened. "I really like Covergirl. Thanks, Starlet."

Tandy took off one of her rings and set it down on the table and wiped her hands with the napkin. "I am glad 'cause my other thought was 'Numbers Master'. Plus Covergirl suits you better."

Adrienne laughed again. "Numbers Master? That might be good for throwing people off the scent about what my powers are. They'd probably think I was some sort of..." she paused to think it over as she continued eating. "Actually, I have no idea what sort of powers a Numbers Master would have," she chuckled. "But I'm going to try to think of something, and then wish I had those powers instead of my own."

"I don't know...the only thing I can think of is being a really good accountant."

***

After Tandy left, and she'd fired off an email from her phone to the X-Men leaders about a code name before she forgot again, Adrienne set about cleaning up the kitchenette. Clearing the table, she noticed that Tandy had left one of her rings behind. She picked it up, intending to take it back to the girl, but found herself sucked into a Reading instead. She'd had no trouble with the cutlery or dinnerware during the meal, so she'd figured her coating solution hadn't faded as it sometimes did, but sometimes certain items had a pull that exceeded the solution's ability to block the Readings, as it did now.

Tandy walked down the hallway back towards her room, leaning up against the wall as she went. Her head was lowered but she wasn't feeling down - in fact she wasn't feeling anything at all. A weary smirk played on her lips as if she was thinking of something pleasant. She opened the door to the suite she shared and stood in the doorway with a far off gaze for a couple of seconds before she continued walking all the way to her bed.

" Sleep before it wears off. That would be bad." The teen didn't bother changing into pajamas and crashed into her bed - shoes and all. "So tired...no more nightmares."

Shocked by Tandy's comments, Adrienne surfed back through the ring's timeline, trying to figure out what the hell Tandy had taken. She saw her ward hanging out with friends, in class, watching tv, and doing all sorts of other things, but couldn't see her actually use anything. But why the hell would she have said 'before it wears off' if she hadn't taken something? Was she just talking about a feeling? Feeling good about something, feeling safe? But she looked, to the former addict, like she was on something. What the fuck was going on?!

She whipped her suite door open and strode out into the hall, intending to find Tandy and raise hell. But halfway down the corridor, she stopped herself. She didn't want to bust in accusing Tandy, or demanding to know what the hell was going on. Tandy didn't trust people; she'd already clammed up when Adrienne had mentioned talking to Haller about her nightmares. If Adrienne went to her, guns blazing, wouldn't that just piss Tandy off? Adrienne knew it would have pissed her off if their positions were reversed. But what else could she do?

Retreating back to her suite, Adrienne flopped down on the couch and picked up her computer. Asking for help was getting less difficult for her, at least where Tandy was concerned. It was so important to Adrienne not to do anything to screw Tandy up, and she recognized both that she was way out of her element most of the time and that she was lucky to be in a place with so many people who knew so much more about this sort of thing than she did. Haller would know what to do.