Date Night with Fred and Yvette (BACKDATED to Jan 27th)

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Yvette and Fred. Date. Cuteness.




After much advice, soothing and plain old logic, in between letting Angel and Sooraya dress and arrange her, Yvette was finally pushed out of the door of her suite to make her way downstairs to meet her date. She was desperately running through the calming exercises in her head that Ms. Frost had taught her, if only to avoid shredding her outfit, so much so that she wasn't really paying attention to the young man waiting for her downstairs.

Fred stood, his back to the stairs, currently distracted by the tie how he had somehow managed to mess up...by walking around...in the span of an hour...

"Dammitalltahhellanback..." he muttered, unaware of his current company... "How? Ah just wanna know how Ah did this..."

A soft giggle caught his attention. "Fred?" came Yvette's voice from the stairs. "You wore the tie?"

Fred chuckled before he began turning around, "Dumb, huh? Ah was tryin tah take Jello's advice about..." Fred's voice trailed off as he finally turned to see Yvette.

"About what?" she asked as he stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes glowed brighter as she realised he was staring at her, and she ducked her head shyly. "Do you like it?" she asked bashfully, touching her hair briefly. "Angel and Sooraya helped."

Fred, after a considerable amount of what could only be considered ogling, managed to nod, "Hot yeah look great yah Ah think 'mazin Jello tie...?" The end of his sentence curled up, and Fred sighed, looking down shyly himself and covering his mouth, sure the words made sense when he thought them. When he looked back up, after a few more blinks at Yvette, he grinned and nodded once more, "You're a knockout, Vette."

Her smile was brilliant, happy and relieved with her eyes glowing bright in satisfaction, and she might have preened just a little as she came down the rest of the stairs. "Thank you," she said, beaming up at him. "And you look very nice too. But if the tie is driving you crazy, you do not have to wear it." She appreciated he'd tried, at least.

Fred was already loosening it before Yvette had finished the thought, but let it hand loose around the collar of his shirt, "It ain't wearin it that's tha problem. It's keepin it near mah damn neck. Only way Ah can stand it is if it's loose, but then Ah look like onna those My Chemical Romance boys the kids like, but if still might look cool Ah guess and..." Fred trailed off, realizing he was equal parts rambling and continuing to stare. He shook his head and little, and ran his hand through his recently brushed (and blessedly overdue for it) hair, "Ah, uh...none of any a that made a lick a sense, did it...?"

She giggled again and shook her head. "Not really, no, but that is part of your charm, the losing the ability to talk when I am around," she teased gently. She reached up, standing on tip-toe, and snagged the end of the tie with her long (gloved) fingers. "Here, I will keep it for you until later and we can pretend you wore it."

Fred restrained the urge to grasp the smaller mutant at the hips. At least, he mostly restrained it. Or didn't. At all. He smiled broadly when the tie was gone, and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, which he was sure was placed their by sadists... "My heroine, Copper Top. Cars out front and ready, Jello made us reservations for grub, and there is a lot of stuff showing at the Cineplex on the other side a town if yah are feelin up tah it after we eat..."

She liked it when he did that, even if she wasn't exactly sure what she should be doing. "I am the X-Man, after all," she said, stuffing the tie in her handbag. "Although I do not believe I saw neckties on the villain database." She stepped away, but let her hand slip into his. "I think that sounds lovely. Let us go, yes?"

Fred squeezed her hand, considering it with a warm smile for a moment before fishing his keys out of his myriad cargo pockets, "An we're off..."

***

Fred looked down the half empty glass of juice like it was a snowglobe, or a crystal ball. During the dinner, after Yvette had explained some of what Albanian Cuisine was, she had asked Fred about the time he spent away from home, before he came to the Mansion. It was only something he'd really visited with while talking to Callie, or Angelo when he managed to pry it out of him...

"...it wasn't all that excitin'." Fred finally said, moving some of his food around with a fork, "Ah mean, lookin back, they basically took care of me like a kid brother..." he blushed a little, and then shook it off, "...most of em, Ah mean. There was Sunder, that was Mark. He was basically the dad to me'n Tommy the Girl an' Jitters, and there was Bliss, who was kinda...'mom', I guess? She and Sunder an Erg an Tarhead were the most of us, uh, that were 'us', Ah guess...? But a lot of folk came an went a bunch. It was all about havin a safe group while yah were figurin' stuff out, Ah guess..."

"Do you still have contact with them at all?" Yvette asked gently, sensing it was an important topic for him. It had been really nice of him to find a restaurant that served her homeland's food, and she was seeing a side of him she rarely saw. One that intrigued her a lot.

Fred nodded, scooping a large portion of cucumbers and lamb into his mouth and chewing it quickly, "Ah talk tah Sunder an Erg an Bliss at least once a month or so." Fred chuckled, finally finishing the food in his mouth, "They call me College Boy an all that. They like tah tease." His eyes got a little further away as he thought more, "Jitters an some a his buddies kinda...last Ah heard they weren't inna good place. Ah kinda dread goin out on a mission one day and it turns out him or Tar or Buggy or someone finally fell in with the wrong group..." Fred stabbed another fork full of vegetables up, "Tommy went out west, tryin tah make it as a singer, last Ah heard. She was... Tommy an Ah don't do much talkin..."

"Perhaps that is something you could do, see if the friends who are in the bad place need help before they get into trouble?" Yvette suggested. "That is the sort of thing the Professor likes us to do for X-Corps, after all." She smiled at the way he was enjoying his food. "So, the Albanian food is good, yes?"

"Stuff rules." Fred said between bites, blushing a little and slowing down his pace. He had spent so long eating at the Mansion, he'd forgotten how quickly most folks ate, "How bout you, Vette? Before the Mansion, Ah mean. Ah...know bits and pieces, cause a what's, uh...y'know, happened an all..." Fred did his best to be tactful, leaning in closer to Yvette and dropping his volume when he asked.

Now it was her turn to look down at her plate. "It seems like a long ago bad dream," she admitted, before she looked up at him again. "I was only fourteen when I was brought to the school, and it seems like the lifetime ago now. My friends at school, my cousins... they have all moved onto their lives and it would be so difficult to explain things now. But, I do still email my sister - my half-sister, that is. The one Sarah and I met when we were in Kosovo for my mother's funeral. It all must be secret of course, because my father's family do not like to be reminded that I exist." Oh, her history was a complicated and somewhat sordid tale. "My life is here now," she reiterated. "Here in America, with the Xavier's people as my family."

Fred's hand almost swallowed Yvette's when he placed it gently over her glove, "Hey, no worries, Copper Top. Trust me, Ah get crappy fathers. Nuthin tah be ashamed of, and speaking for everyone as Xavier's: screw Albania. You're here, so their loss, yeah...?" It was a weak attempt at a joke, but Fred wasn't exactly a wordsmith...

She appreciated the sentiment, as well as the words. "Exactly. And if I was not here in America, I would not have met you, so that is the even bigger good thing, yes?" she suggested. "So we are both being lucky to find our place."

"Lucky is the best word Ah can figgure for it," Fred grinned, then looked over his shoulder at where they had parked outside, "So, how would yah feel about a movie?"

"That would be good. I do not know about you, but I am, how you say? Stuffed."

***

"I am sorry about your shirt," Yvette apologised as they came out of the theatre. Fred's shirt was looking somewhat abraded where she had hidden her face against him during the gory parts of the movie. "I am not so brave in the scary movies."

Fred, still holding Yvette's hand, grinned down at the small holes lining the side of his shirt where Yvette had hidden, " 's fine, Vette. Ah got, like, eight more shirts just like it." He had almost laughed when she had hidden during the Troll fight, but was enjoying being close to her far to much to give her guff.

"My kinda movie though, yah know? Some unnecessary nudity, plenty of gore, good practical FX..."

She poked out her tongue. "I do not remember the fairy tale being so bloody. And the exploding people was unnecessary." Apparently not, given how the audience had reacted. "I am afraid you will find my taste in movies boring after this."

Fred lit a cigarette, blowing the smoke in the opposite direction of the conversation, "Ain't about bein' borin, Vette. Jus about what rings your bell, yah know?" Fred grinned broadly at his date, giving her hand a small squeeze, "Admit it: yah like the Notebook an sappy stuff like that, don't yah?"

"I am preferring the term "romantic"," she told him, unable to help her grin despite her mock-serious tone. "And yes, I did like the Notebook. Also Pride and Prejudice and Much Ado About Nothing."

Fred tried to stop himself from chuckling, but between Yvette's 'seriousness' and her list of films, he couldn't stop himself, "C'mon, Copper Top! All those flicks are 'bout some folks lookin at each other like they really wanna bone, and tryin not tah make like they wanna make out, or somethin like they don't like each other, but they totally do, then they, like, don't make out, an their buddies tell that they should totally make out, or their dads or something tell them not to bone or whatever, an you're sittin there, just waitin for onna them tah grab the other, pressum against the wall, and just go at each other, yah know...?"

Fred's eyes kept catching light at the nape of Yvette's neck, or the top of her ear, as he tried to explain his feelings on 'romantic' flicks. The more he talked, the more he couldn't stop tracing her profile with his eyes... Blushing and rambling towards the end, Fred took a drag from his cigarette and looked the other direction. Man, the Cineplex had some really interesting shrubbery...

Fred cleared his throat a little, taking another drag before trying to speak again, "All Ah'm sayin is, gimmie a flick with a little less restraint. Jaws 4, Evil Dead 2, Iron Sky...classics, you know...?"

"Well, yes, but is not that like real life? Look at you and I, with all the confusions and misunderstandings before we finally realised that we actually liked each other?" Caught up in arguing her point, Yvette wasn't paying attention to the fact she was comparing herself and Fred to a classically romantic couple and wasn't crippled with shyness. At least, not yet. "But your movies with the zombies and the giant sharks... there is nothing to relate to. They are silly, and maybe a little fun when they are not scary..." She realised he was still studying her. "What? Do I have something on my face?" A terrible thought occurred to her. "Oh no, I have the popcorn stuck to my skin again, do I not?"

Despite the majority of his brain focusing on self-restraint, Fred managed to laugh a little as he looked at Yvette touching her face and blinking, "...nah, Vette. Nuthin stuck. You're good."

"Oh, that is lucky." She shook her head at herself. "Did I ever tell you about the time I got Laurie's shower puff thing stuck to my back?"

Fred's reaction to his cursory understanding of the combination of words Yvette just used left little doubt that, had he been drinking anything, it would have exploded out of his nose and mouth. Coughing and clearing his throat a few times to cover, Fred pulled off his cigarette once more, "uh, no...don't believe you told me bout that one. We gotta short drive tah home, why don'tcha explain that one tah me on the drive back...?"

***

Yvette gave a small little sigh as the car swept up the drive, the mansion appearing in the headlights. "Well, here we are," she said, a little regretfully.

Fred turned down the Springsteen belting out of the tape deck until it was a dull, soft background. He turned to Yvette, and lit another cigarette, looking at her like he was trying desperately to figure out what he wanted to say.

"Yeah," Fred finally managed, "Here we are."

He wasn't the only one trying to find words. "I had the lovely time," Yvette managed at last, then winced at how cliched and lame that sounded.

Fred nodded and smiled a little, "Here. Lemme get your door."

Fred stepped out of the car and stood outside for one, two, three moments. He stepped back into the car, and leaned a little closer to Yvette. Fred's face was unreadable, somewhere between a grin and a grimace, but his eyes were bright.

"...Nah. Yah know what? Nope. Ah ain't gettin the door, cause we ain't done havin a lovely time, Yvette."

"You are not, also?" Yvette wasn't sure what he had planned, but she was glad that he didn't want the evening to end as well. "Then what..."

Fred cut Yvette off by pressing his lips against hers fully and placing his hand where her hair had been lifted from her neck.

She should have expected it, looking back, but it still came as a surprise. Perhaps because she was so used to being the mansion's little sister. But after a brief (and muffled) startled noise, she leaned into the kiss, putting her hand softly on his shoulder.

Fred closed his hand on Yvette's waist and pulled as he leaned in closer, seeming to try and do everything he could to close the distance between the two of them.

Finally, reluctantly, Fred pulled away just far enough so that he could look Yvette in the eye, giving her a look that was sheepish, almost embarrassed.

"Uh...that. That's what Ah wanted tah do." He said, finishing the half-question Yvette had managed before his little 'attack'...

"Just as well that it is something I very much like to do as well," she replied with a shy-yet-mischievous smile. Her hand tightened a little on his shoulder as she pulled herself closer again, planting her own kiss on him with a boldness that was completely new for her.

It was Fred's turned to be shocked, actually falling backward a bit into the seat as he pulled Yvette closer and over himself, hands lifting Yvette by her hips and softly digging into them. Fred made some small, suprised noise in the back of his throat as he was mercilessly kissed...

Yvette was breathless when the kiss broke this time, but her eyes were glowing brightly enough to light up the interior of the car. "I hope you do not think I am too forward," she said, with only a little hint of embarrassment. "But I could not be helping myself."

Fred grinned broadly in the glow if Yvette's eyes and the radio console, "Copper Top, do yah hear me complainin...?" A little bolder, Fred let his grip on Yvette's sides loosen, and ran her hands over her back lightly, "Ah got an idea. How bout, instead a callin' it, since we obviously dont wanna go back and still maybe got a few more things tah...discuss...lets go tah tha diner down tha road an Ah can buy yah a cup a coffee...?"

It was odd. She usually shrank from contact, and yet here she was practically in Fred's lap and not a bit worried at all. The opposite, in fact. But she nodded, and shifted back into her seat. "I like that plan," she replied with a smile.