Maddie and Frank: Explosions (Backdated)

[x-pinnochio.livejournal.com]

In which Frank is sulking and Maddie interjects.

Frank stuck a cigarette into his mouth, out in the grounds, and lit it. It had been a complicated few days since he'd come back to Xaviers, to say the least, and right now more then anything he wanted some privacy- space to just not think for a bit.

He felt extraordinarily guilty, without quite knowing why. Topaz hadn't spoken to him since they'd kissed. Somehow, he was convinced that was his fault. He wanted to fix that, but...

No. Not thinking right now.

He took a sullen pull on his cigarette and sat on a tree stump.

The universe had other ideas, however, and Frank was only allowed a few seconds of blissful peace before the cigarette was pulled from his lips by an invisible hand and floated just out of his reach.

"Cut that shit out," said Maddie as she made her way toward the tree stump. Normally, she would have just snuck up on the boy, pulled the cigarette from his lips, and stomped it out before he had time to realize what was going on, but circumstances being what they were, the redhead's mind moved much faster than her crippled leg and crutches could carry her, and she had to make do with other plans. So the cigarette floated just out of the boy's reach as she slowly but fluidly made her way over to his stump.

"That's disgusting," she said. In one swift motion, she plucked the cigarette from the air, threw it down, and used one of her crutches to grind it into the ground. "I'll pick that up when I leave and throw it in the garbage."

"Now be a gentleman and scooch over so the cripple," she motioned to the cast she wore on her right leg and the crutches that she was currently leaning on, "can sit down too."

Frank closed his eyes and breathed out through gritted teeth. Calm. Be calm. Anger had gotten him nowhere. Besides, it was Maddie- she didn't back off when people got mad, she counted it as a win.

"Hey Maddie," he said evenly. "Long time no see." He shifted over obligingly. "What happened to you? You take up kung fu since I been gone?"" He asked, gesturing towards her crutches.

"Oh this?" A few small hops was all she needed to situate herself on the stump (pushing against Frank to gain more butt space in the process), crutches resting at her side. "Just a stress fracture. Not growing pains like I was originally advised. I was playing Ice Capture the Flag and fell on my ankle so we got an X-Ray just in case cause I was having trouble putting any weight on it. Turned out was just a bad strain but that I also had a stress fracture in my tibia so they told me to stay off it for 8 weeks and put me on crutches and a boot cause I had ignored it and the doctor wanted to be conservative so it doesn't get worse. It's no big." She waved his concern away.

"You really shouldn't smoke though, it'll mess up your ability to hold an erection. Totally true. Learned that for a project I did in Health Class before I came here where we came up with anti-smoking messages. My teacher got really annoyed with my talking about erectile dysfunction, but whatever. It's totally true and I thought it was better than the usual 'Smoking causes cancer' things most of my classmates did."

She got a smirk for that. "Always about the sex with you, ain't it, Pryor?" He asked, amusedly. "Seriously, you ever manage to have a whole conversation that didn't turn into chatting about a dude's dick? Or is it just me that brings this out in you?" He was surprisingly grateful for the distraction.

"A) It's science." She counted off each point on her fingers. "I can't help that science shows that nicotine messes with penes. B) Sex sells in advertising, even with anti-advertising. Have you seen some of those ads about getting tested for AIDS down in the city? They show that being safe is sexy, instead of highlighting how AIDS turns you into a living skeleton. C) I forget what C was. But to answer your final question:

D) In my defense, you are the amazing walking Wood, so of course you inspire talk of penes. And I have plenty of not penis related conversations. If you don't believe me, ask Sue."

"Aah. Well, with a list like that, you've clearly thought it through. Although I must admit, I like the name. The Amazing Walking Wood, huh?" He looked out at the wood around them again. "Subtle, but still hitting on the dick jokes. Classy." He stood up again, stretching his legs. "So what's this I hear about you being a cheerleader? The great Maddie Pryor, shakin' her pom-poms for all them jocks? Say it ain't so."

Maddie snorted in derision. "Um I have an awesome letterman jacket, okay dude? And it's more for school spirit and getting the crowd pumped up than for the jocks, who are too busy playing to really notice our presence."

"Suuure they are." He grinned crookedly at her to take the sting out. "I'm just sayin', I hope you're comfortable with a football player fantasising about you, the outfit, and possibly a friend. Because it's gonna happen. If it hasn't already."

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Now who's the one all about the sex?"

"Hey, I'm just playing to my audience here." He grinned again, and leaned against a tree. Best to let her have to stump. "How's Sue? You two still cool?"

"You mean are we still dating? Yes. Yes we are."

"Tell me about Topaz, Frank."

It was like a switch had been thrown. Frank went still. His face blanked out under a slightly furrowed brow. His whole posture suddenly screamed

"What about her?"

Maddie chose to ignore this obvious change in demeanor and continued to speak in an easy manner. "You tell me." She shrugged half-heartedly.

"No, no, I think I'm good." He reached for a cigarette, not looking away from her. "Where's this coming from?"

"Yeah, no. This isn't a "if you feel like it" sort of deal." The redhead paused and watched him. "You're not smoking that either. We already established that it will harm your penis. It's a disgusting habit. No wonder Topaz didn't like you kissing her."

"You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, Pryor," Frank snarled, throwing down the cigarette. "And last I checked I didn't ask for your opinion." There was an angry beat. "Sue told you," he growled.

There it was. That emotion she had been aiming for. It almost made her smile. All this wallowing in anger and pity was doing him no good; what he needed was a slap upside the back of his head. And that's just what she gave him.

"Well that got you out of your total overwhelming self pity and angst."

"All Sue told me was that she saw the kiss and felt bad about teasing both of you. But when I mentioned Topaz you got all blocked off, so that comment about her not liking the kiss was me pushing your buttons. And to keep you from smoking; it really is a nasty habit you don't need."

"But it's obvious something is going on with you and you need to talk about it."

"And you thought," Frank growled in infinite contempt, "that the best way to get me talking was to piss me off? Because I don't do that. I don't talk."

He could feel his temper roiling through him. As tempting as it was to let it out, though, it wouldn't help. He clamped his jaw shut and reined himself in. "What happened with Topaz was... dumb," he managed eventually. "I kissed her, she didn't want me to kiss her, that was it. I don't know what else you're looking for, here. The instant Sue walked in she kicked me out."

"Say what it is you really want to say." Maddie crossed her ankles, propping the injured leg on the other, and settled in, showing that her intent was to stay firmly rooted. "I can tell by your jaw alone that you're holding something back. All that tension. And anger. It'll consume you slowly and twist you until you are completely unrecognizable."

"And I won't let my friend date somebody who is so filled with anger. You like Topaz, we both know you do, so... tell me about Topaz."

That did it.

"You won't let her?" Frank asked incredulously. "You won't... let her. Jesus fucking Christ, Maddie, what is she, your DOG? You don't own her. You don't own anyone! And this has nothing to fucking do with you! You want to know what happened? Do you? Okay then. She didn't want me. She thought she did for a minute, I'm sure. Or maybe she just didn't want to fuck me up, that's a thing that could have happened too. I don't know. I was kissing her, and then Sue fucking walked in, and suddenly it was all she could do to get rid of me. THAT is what this is about. There's no... no fucking...."

He was shouting. He stopped. Frank sank back against the tree, suddenly more tired than he cared to admit. "There's nothing else to say," he said, dully. "She doesn't want me. And after I kissed her, she went to the Brownstone to get away from me. And as pathetic as I'm being, I have enough self respect to take a hint. No-one's supposed to see this."

He looked at the cigarette he'd thrown down.

A wry smile spread across the redhead's lips as she began to slowly clap, the sound muffled by her heavy gloves but audible still the same. "Bravo, Frank. Feel better? Less like you're about to turn into one of those evil trees from the 'Wizard of Oz'?"

Not waiting for him to reply (for it was obvious that he was wiped out), Maddie shoved her hands back into her pockets and continued. "Frank." Her voice was gentler, and if he were to look at her he'd see the kindness in her eyes. "Topaz is my friend. I care about her and her well-being. And she's gone through a lot of crap in her life. I don't want to see her hurt."

He laughed at that, a dull, tired sound entirely without mirth. "I know, Mads. I saw the fallout." He sighed. "I'm not gonna hurt her. Jesus, I don't want to do that. This..." he looked at her, held her stare. "I get mad. Always have. But here, that fucks everything up. I just... I can't let people see it. That's why I'm out here. There's nothing to talk about, I just didn't want to take it out on anyone else."

"There are people here who'll help you with that. The whole getting angry thing." She pushed herself off the stump and hopped determinedly over to where Frank was sitting and plopped down next to him. It was an entirely ungraceful and awkward sight, she knew, but whatever. "And you don't know what Topaz wants. Half the time she doesn't know what she wants. Okay, a lot of the time. And she's still trying to get used to this place and the people in it.

"It could be she doesn't like you, or it could be that she's confused." Maddie had a suspicion that this may have been Topaz's first kiss, but she didn't say this. Based on what she knew of the other girl's life, though, Maddie was almost completely positive that she was right.

"Besides, it was just a kiss. G-d, I kissed Artie once (he graduated like the year before this past May) and he like totally freaked out. Was I embarrassed? Yeah. But it wasn't the end of the world or anything. Shit happens, you move on. And he and I are still friends.

"Sometimes you get scorned. And it sucks. But sometimes you get lucky and the other person likes you too."

"Yeah, well. I got scorned, Maddie. I got scorned pretty hard and now I... I really just don't know how to fix this." He wanted his smoke. "She's my best friend here. I've been hanging out with her since I got to this place. What... precisely am I supposed to do, now? I mean, I'm the jerk who... eugh." Frank growled in frustration.

Maddie watched him, lips pursed in contemplation. She was used to having these conversations, but they were usually more of the "why doesn't he like me" variety, but it all boiled down to the same basic concept. Frank was obviously lacking in some serious self-confidence (a trait he definitely shared with his object of affection), and Maddie had a sneaking suspicion he probably didn't have much experience in dating either, which of course would only add to (or maybe it was take away from?) his self-confidence level.

Sigh. Damn her bleeding heart. He needed her help, even if he was too proud to admit it.

"Well, you have a few options here," she said. "First is you can stay out here and wallow in the freezing cold and turn into The Amazing Icicle, which I strongly advise not doing. Or you can be a gentleman and help me up. The trees may have protected the ground here from being snowed on, but it's still cold as fuck and slightly damp, so my ass is going numb from the cold. Then we can go inside where it's warm. And after I change into some sweatpants, I can take over your suite's kitchen area and make us two steaming mugs of hot chocolate or tea or something and you can let me help you.

"I hate to break it to you, dude, but unless you run away and join a silent order of monks you're going to have to learn how to talk to people. And you can yell and cuss at me all you want, I won't care." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"So what'd ya say, Frank? Care to help a damsel in distress?"

He looked at her, incredulous for a moment. His face slowly shifted from that into resigned amusement, and he pushed himself upright. "Seems to me if I don't, you're just gonna freeze out here," he replied slowly. Frank offered her a hand up.

"You do this with all the misanthropic loners, or am I a special case?"

"Why thank you kind sir." Grasping the hand, Maddie hauled herself, managing just barely to keep from knocking Frank over as she found her balance. Which ended with her resting a hand on his shoulder for support. She gave it a comforting squeeze. "And Frank, no matter what happens with anyone else, whether I visit tend million misanthropic losers or ten or zero, you will always have a special place in my heart. For you are the one, the only Amazing Tree Man, and don't you forget it. And never (do you hear me?), never let anyone feed you to the woodchipper, okay?"

While she spoke, one by one her crutches floated over and were now properly situated under both of her arms. "Now. Shall we be off, Mister Ludlum? And return from whence we came?"

He grinned, glanced back at the mansion. This was probably going, he thought, to be a really complicated week. But complicated could be survived. The grin faded. "Yeah. Fuck it. Why not."