Log: Matt & Wade

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Matt asks Wade to go to college orientation with him. And leave the sock puppets at home. It's a tough call.



Nervously, Matt tossed the packet of college information he had towards Wade in the kitchen before going to get himself something to eat. "Can you go?" he asked, even though he had no idea if Wade was looking at the right pages or not. He and Angelo had discussed class options and majors a little, but he wanted Wade to attend the actual orientation with him. He returned to the table with a bowl of popcorn. Sea salt. Yum.

Wade shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth, swiped a bit of mayo off his lip with his thumb, licked it off, and wiped his hands off so he could pick up the packet of papers without getting them dirty. There were a lot of cheerful, accomplished looking students holding books and smiling at the camera. Obviously somebody needed to tell these kids that 'candid' didn't mean staring meaningfully at the photographer. "College college," he said, quirking a smile. "What, you want me to go to the orientation part? I can do that, sure. Is there anything I need to do? Like sign up or email somebody to say I'm going?"

"Just let me know which weekend in April you can do it," Matt replied, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth and then pushing his hair from his face. He really needed to think about that haircut. "I think I can sign up online. And you gotta drive," because the last time Matt got behind the wheel was the last time Matt got behind the wheel. "And not use your sock puppets to imitate the speakers or whatever." Not that he didn't enjoy that.

"Whatever, my sock puppets are awesome," Wade said, flipping through the pages absentmindedly. Blocking off one of the designated weekends, the mercenary hummed quietly. "I'll get back to you on picking a weekend. I can't remember if Marie-Ange and I made plans for one of them or not." He frowned a little. Sometime in April there was going to be a really nice dinner with wine at that new place she wanted to try. "There's a bunch of activities and stuff - you know kind of what you're interested in doing?"

Matt shrugged, "I need to talk to my counselor and sign up for classes and talk to the disability services person for books and whatever else I'll need," he knew they needed time to prepare the materials he'd need, "and probably the clubs and stuff like that. I plan on talking to Mr. Summers about the X-Men once I'm 18, so that'll probably take a lot of my free time," well, that and riding the bus to campus. Plus homework. "I don't need to view the dorms or anything..." Was he forgetting anything?

"Cool," Wade said, reaching over to nab a pen so he could write a note to himself. "You sure about the X-Men thing?"

That was the first time someone asked him that, "No," he finally replied, "but it feels right. And if it's not the right thing, then I stop," it seemed simple enough. "I want to do good and...I dunno. After Genosha, I think this is the best way."

Wade didn't respond immediately, just tapped the pads of his fingers softly against the counter top. Then, "After Genosha..." The mercenary stopped and frowned. Genosha wasn't something he liked to think about, wasn't something he readily discussed with people. He and Matt had discussed what'd happened there, in the woods, and he knew for a fact that Matt'd talked to his therapist about it because yeah, that was necessary. That was required. Especially after everything else that'd happened once they'd gotten back. "Look, it's all well and good to get involved with things, to want to do good." He didn't really get the whole morality thing the X-Men had going on, but that was neither here nor there. "Just think about it in terms of what you're willing to do. They're the good guys, but things still get violent. People still get hurt. They still have to hurt other people, you know? It's not just training and then talking people down off of ledges or whatever."

That was definitely something to think about, Matt knew that. He had a strong sense of morality though, of right and wrong. "I'm not willing to kill," Matt stated with certainty. That he knew. "And I know people get hurt on both sides. It's not black and white, but...I want to try. I'm not a mercenary like you," Wade was many things, but there was no denying that he could do very bad things when required. "but at the same time, sometimes, people need justice not found through the system."

"Yeah," Wade said. "And sometimes people need justice that the X-Men aren't willing to provide because it goes against their code. That's why there's other teams. Just think about it more before you got o Summers. It won't be a bed of roses." But at the same time, there was no way he could see the kid in X-Force. "There's always the X-Corps, too. You're on good terms with Espinsoa, right?"
"Yeah, he's been helping me choose classes," Matt replied. He wasn't too sure what X-Force did, but he knew it was shady, "I think the X-Men code fits me better than some of the other options. And like I said, if it doesn't work, there are other options."

"Good. Just, y'know. Keep that in mind." Wade said, nodding. "It might be a good idea to hold off on the X-Men thing, anyway, until after you see what your load's gonna be like at the school, too. That stuff can get out of hand if you're overworked."

That was a point. "Well, let's see what orientation holds," Matt offered, "I don't turn 18 until May anyways," he had some time.

"Sounds like a plan," Wade said, shuffling the papers back into some semblance of order. "I'll shoot you an email about which weekend is best and we'll go from there."