Amanda and Adrienne - Catching Up (and broken brain)

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Adrienne drops by with supper and a present for Amanda, and the two discuss Tandy and Topaz before Adrienne has some difficulty seeing what's in front of her and realizes Jason Wyngarde must be messing with her.

Paper sack of food in one hand and dress box in the other, Adrienne rapped on Amanda's apartment door with her knuckles and announced her arrival in a singsongy voice. "Supper's here! And a present! Open up to receive the goods!"

There was a pause and then the thump of feet on the floor and the door opened, Amanda grinning easily at her friend. "You know I'm a sucker for food," she said holding the door open for Adrienne. "'Specially when I've lost track of time with the research thing."

"I do know this about you," Adrienne grinned back, stepping into the apartment. "I worry sometimes that research will be the death of you and I'll come by one day and you'll have been half-eaten by wild dogs." She set the food sack down and passed Amanda the dress box. "So, I did a bunch of knitting when I was getting my head straight after Avalon," she explained, "and this is what came of it. It made me think of you so it's for you."
"I'd need to get some wild dogs first," Amanda pointed out with a snort. She speedily opened the box, tossing the lid on the floor and eagerly pulling out the tissue paper. A confused expression crossed her face as she discovered a coiled-up mass of knitting in variously coloured stripes, but then a squeal escaped her as she shook out a Tom Baker era Doctor scarf. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, dropping the box and draping the scarf several times around her neck before lunging at Adrienne for a hug. "This is totally fantastic and I love it and thank you!"

Laughing, Adrienne returned the hug attack gladly. "You're quite welcome. I figured it was just a little thing I could do to show my gratitude to my, y'know, sponsor," she smiled. "Especially after all the hand-holding you've had to do since I put in for guardianship of Tandy." They hadn't had a chance to speak about Tandy lately- not since the power-draining had happened.

Flopping down on the couch, she started opening the packages of fish and chips she'd picked up from Atlantis. "You heard about the shipwreck and everything, right?" she asked, which was her way of saying that maybe she'd come for a bit more hand-holding.

"A bit," Amanda replied, plopping herself on the couch alongside, scarf still in place. "Since it involved Bucket-Head, we got a report on the whole thing. You all right?"

"I am, yeah," Adrienne nodded, handing Amanda a container of fish and chips. "There were some uncomfortable feelings about having to pretend to Gar that I'd gone over to the Brotherhood, but we talked about it afterwards and it turns out he knew it was a ruse, so yeah. Things could have been a lot worse." That made her laugh wryly. "How sad is it that getting shipwrecked on an island fortress ruled by a global terrorist is something that can be shrugged off?" She pulled plastic forks and napkins out of the bag and dug into her fries. "That's a new one for me," she pointed out, "being this degree of okay with something like that. I'm starting to think my brain's saving up all its massive freakouts to use on Tandy. Christ knows she's going to give me plenty of opportunities," she added with a roll of her eyes. "Has Topaz been giving you any more hijinks to react to since Tandy got her to drain her emotions?"

Amanda waved away the offer of a plastic fork, but took a napkin. Fish and chips was meant to be appreciated with your hands, in her book. She did grab a small plastic sachet of malt vinegar, however, and began pouring it over her chips. "Considering Gar knows Uncle Pete better than I do, he wouldn't have had a worry about you pretending to change sides. 'S a time-honoured sneaky bastard technique." She stuffed a couple of chips in her mouth and continued, somewhat muffled. "And if he wasn't, I'd smack him in the head until he was. Maybe with a fire hydrant." Swallowing, she continued."Topaz is doing all right. She's a bit prickly and doesn't trust easy, but she knows she fucked up, so I think we can avoid that mistake again. I just hope the other kids aren't giving her too much shite."

Adrienne chuckled at the 'sneaky bastard technique' comment, pleased to be included among such storied ranks. "Fire hydrant, nice choice," she grinned, digging into her fish. The Topaz comments garnered a nod as she chewed. "They don't seem to be. I've been trying to keep a closer eye out since the emotion-draining," she admitted, waggling her fingers at Amanda to indicate she was doing so with her powers, "and while I know Maddie and Hope can get sort of self-righteous sometimes- Maddie about Matt's addiction issues, and Hope about... her weird views on what's 'ladylike behaviour'-" she said with a bit of an eyeroll, "everyone's been pretty supportive. In public places at least." She wasn't about to go poking around their suites with her powers, of course, but she figured keeping tabs on the public places was better than nothing. "Like you say, Topaz knows she fucked up, and it's not as if the rest of them have perfect track records, and they seem to get that."

The psychometrist set her fork down, the food making her thirsty. "Can I make us some tea?" she asked, getting up off the couch. "I would have brought beer," she added apologetically, "but I realized I was drinking a lot after the shipwreck and between that and my stress about Tandy, what with us supposed to be hearing back from the guardianship hearing soon, I figure I should cut it out for a while. Gateway addiction and all that."

"Oh good. I've been trying to get over to the school more often since, so I can do the supportive mentor thing for Topaz, but with the job and all..." It was an explanation in itself. "And 'm glad the kids aren't giving her a hard time - from what Topaz first told me, it sounded like they were all taking Tandy's side, when she was just as responsible for the whole thing. Let me put the kettle on." Rather than getting up, Amanda let herself sink through the couch and the floor, reappearing in the kitchen. "While I'd normally say fish and chips without beer is a crime against Englishness, special circumstances and all."

"That is so creepy," Adrienne pointed out with a raised eyebrow and wide eyes. Even though her rational mind told her that this was just part of Amanda's mutation, part of her still saw it as magic, which still freaked her out to a huge degree, despite how many years she'd now been friends with the witch. "Well, I'm glad the English are letting me off with special circumstances," she smirked, padding into the kitchen after Amanda. "And nah, I don't think that was the case with Tandy- at least, Haller and I certainly weren't taking her side. She instigated the whole thing so she could stop feeling sad and scared, after all, and she never tried to make me believe otherwise. Did your old fridge die?" she inquired when she saw the different fridge residing in the kitchen.

"Fridge?" Amanda looked at the fridge, frowning. "Nah, that's the same one I've always had."

Adrienne's gaze left the fridge so she could stare at Amanda and frown at her comment. When she looked back at the fridge, she grinned and scoffed, ignoring the flash of pain in her head that vanished as quickly as it appeared, making her think she'd tweaked something in her neck as she turned her head. "Oh, right. Of course it is!"

As she waited for the water to boil she helped herself to two mugs out of a cupboard, admiring the patterns on them as her thoughts drifted back to the Tandy-Topaz topic. "So Topaz really told you she believed everyone was taking Tandy's side? Is it just me, or does she remind you a lot of Cammie?" she inquired with a hint of a smile. "She's got the same 'I don't deserve any trust or anything good to happen to me, I'm an awful person' emo-kid thing going on, huh? At least, that's how she's been around me. Makes you want to beat the shit out of whoever made them believe that," she added with a touch of something dark in her voice.

The kettle boiled and Adrienne went to pour it into the mugs she'd picked out, but frowned at them. "Heeeey, why'd you switch the mugs? I picked two from the same set so we could be twins," she smirked. "You don't wanna be samers?"

"Remind me of Cammie? Fuck, she reminds me of me..." Amanda began to reply, then looked at Adrienne as if she had gone crazy. "Is something wrong with your eyes or something?" she asked. "Those are the same mugs."

"Well, sadly, I wasn't lucky enough to know you when you were that age," Adrienne smirked. She was still staring at the mugs. They definitely were not the same. "No, they aren't. Stop messing with me! Whatever spell you're doing, I'm on to you, okay?" she said with a laugh, though she was only half-joking. This magic stuff was definitely creepy! "You had your fun, but the joke's over!"

Now Amanda look worried. "Adri, I didn't do anything. You sure you're all right? You haven't hit your head or something? 'Cause those are exactly the same mugs you got out of the cupboard."

Adrienne looked over at Amanda to frown at her, then let out a vehement "ow!" as pain shot through her temples. It vanished as quickly as it had come over her, though, leaving her confused. Clearly, she wasn't alright, but "I didn't hit my head." Unless she had, but couldn't remember! "This has happened a couple times lately," she admitted, "but I don't..." Suddenly a horrible thought came into her head. "Wyngarde." She lunged forward, eyes wide, and gripped Amanda's forearm tightly. "Wyngarde. Emma said yesterday that I should tell her if an enemy of mine was messing with me. I didn't think there was anything to it at the time. But what if she's right? What if it's Wyngarde? Do you know what happened to him? When I checked with Steed after the meeting in London, she said his body wasn't found. What if he's alive? What if he's doing this to me? To get back at me?"

"Woah, calm down." Amanda stopped what she was doing, alarmed by Adrienne's sudden panic - and by the thought that perhaps something could be seriously wrong. "Look, I can look into the Wyngarde thing for you, make sure he's out of the picture, yeah? And maybe you should stick close to the school for a bit, just so you're somewhere safe? Maybe get someone to check out your head?"

"Jean's checked me out twice," Adrienne answered, shaking her head. "There's nothing wrong with me. But if it's Wyngarde, I... I should get away. Not stick close to the school. I should go away to make sure he can't hurt anyone. Except... I can't go away." She gave Amanda a confused, almost desperate look. "I went away before, and Garrison almost didn't forgive me for it. I'm supposed to ask people for help. So yeah." Her fingers were still gripping Amanda's forearm, nails digging into the witch's skin. "I need help. If you can find Wyngarde, so we can stop him again, I'll be okay. This'll stop, and it'll be okay."

"The school's got security out the arse and the X-Men can double the watch," Amanda said, as soothingly as she could with Adrienne's nails boring into her arm. She patted Adrienne's hand for good measure. "You'll be fine. Stick to Garrison like glue and nothing will happen to you and we'll make sure Wyngarde is so far in the dirt he won't even be remembered."

Adrienne watched Amanda pat her hand and blinked a few times, then took a couple deep breaths and released the witch's arm. The reassuring words seemed to finally sink in. "Right. Okay. Yeah." For a split second Adrienne's self-preservation instinct had her wanting to ignore her friend and start packing her bags. But the instinct was tamped down as soon as it wormed its way into her head. The difference between now and three years ago, when she fled to Boston, was that now she actually trusted what Amanda said. She had faith in everything Amanda said: that the security at the mansion and the X-Men could protect her, and Garrison, and that Amanda would help make sure Wyngarde couldn't fuck with her anymore. "Thanks," she nodded with a grateful smile.

Still breathing deeply to steady herself, Adrienne finally poured the tea and picked up one of the mugs, her hands still shaking a little. "I know I said earlier I wasn't drinking, but given the circumstances, two questions for you? One: can we put some booze in these, and two: if we put booze in these can I stay here tonight?"

"Yes and fuck yes." Amanda rubbed the life back into her arm even as she headed for the cupboard that doubled as a wine "cellar" - living with Marie-Ange meant there was always plenty of red wine available. "Luckily, we good girl scouts here - always prepared."