backlog: Matt and Jubilee

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Matt goes looking for Amanda and finds Jubilee at the brownstone instead. There is spaghetti.



Gym bag slung across his chest from his aerial arts classes, Matt knocked on the door to the brownstone hoping to catch Amanda and crash on her couch instead of going back up to Westchester right then. The weather was gross and he was feeling blech, so an hour long train ride north was not his idea of a good time. He had texted her, but she hadn't replied yet, then again they hadn't made plans so maybe she was off doing something? She had her life. Hopefully though someone would let him in or she would be there or something.

Jubilee was heading out to grab some food, she'd pondered the lack of choices in her kitchen and had decided that today was going to be a takeout day since she couldn't do any grocery shopping till Friday. She heard the knocking as she came down the stairs to the front entrance and opened the door.

"Dude, there's buttons for a...oh, hey Matt, what's up?"

"Yeah, your buttons aren't labeled that I can read," Matt wasn't sure if they just weren't labeled or if they were and he couldn't read it. Even with his powers, he was still sometimes limited, "Hey Jubilee. I was hoping Amanda was here so I can borrow her couch. No?" He couldn't hear her heartbeat, but then New York was loud and the brownstone was fairly large. It was possible that he was just missing it.

"She's not around right now, and like, I'm totally not sure when she's going to be back."

Jubilee hesitated for a moment, weighing up the pros and cons of just letting him use her couch. Kurt was at the mansion tonight, and she had a bunch of paperwork to get through but most of the mansion kids were pretty good at entertaining themselves.

"You can hang out in my place till she's back if you like, or crash on my couch if she doesn't. I'm like, just out to get some food but I can take you up and then go if you like."

"Yeah, sure," Matt agreed. He still wasn't interested in the hour long train ride back to Westchester, then trying to get from the station to the school. "If I give you cash, will you get me food?" he asked, reaching for his wallet. It was in his gym bag since he was still dressed from his classes earlier.

Jubilee waved him off, and then realised she was gesturing at a blind dude. She grinned in slight embarrassment and spoke instead, pushing the door open wider to let him in.

"Come on, I'll let you into my apartment, and no need for money, dude. It's Italian tonight, so let me know what'ya want and I'll cover. You can like, pay next time or something."

"Italian?" yum! "How about spaghetti?" he asked as he stepped into her apartment. That was easy and pretty basic. There was always the risk of wearing it, b

"Back on the rack, yeah," he was naturally neater than a lot of people his age, not because he hated mess or anything, but because he needed to always be able to find things again and that was made more difficult if they weren't where they belonged. Also, while his powers helped compensate for his site quite well, he was still sometimes prone to tripping over things on the floor. There wasn't much sound directed towards the floor for his sonar, but also, Matt didn't pay as much attention to the floor as he did other areas.

Hands running over the boxes quickly, he easily separated the ones with the notches from the ones without, "You want to eat from the containers?" Matt asked, opening them and setting them in front of two chairs and then sitting down.

"Take out is always eaten from containers, Dude."

Jubilee handed him a set of utensils and pulled her own food toward her, digging in.

"Especially since I totally don't want to have to wash dishes tonight. Totally a perk of being an adult without a housemate, by the by."

"Just making sure," Matt joked, taking the fork and eating with gusto, "When I was in the group home, if you didn't maintain their minimum for manners then you didn't eat," he explained, "and that meant eating with dishes and then doing chores to clean up after," thank goodness Xavier's wasn't like that, though he did try to maintain some semblance of decency. Sometimes.

"Bogus, dude. That's like, the worst. Didn't spend much time in homes when I was a kid, but like, denying people food cause they're not doin' what you want them to do? Mega suck."

Jubilee slurped up a string of spaghetti with a humming noise of pleasure. Best spaghetti bolognese, ever.

"It was a while back," Matt shrugged, "Before Xavier's and before I went to rehab the first time," which meant he was like 15 or so. "After juvie though," which was why he was in the group home instead of a foster family. "Anyways, you were in the system? Lame. The whole thing is so screwed up. And we're the lucky ones."

"Sort of, I got adopted out pretty quick. Cute kid, ya know? Ran away after things got a little intense and ended up on the street. Nothin' like what Mandy went through, mostly ended up hanging out in a set of malls in SoCal, sleeping rough when I had to but it doesn't exactly get all that cold down there."

Jubilee twirled her fork to pick up some more spaghetti, a thoughtful look crossing her face. She hadn't exactly talked to anyone about her early life outside of a therapist and Kurt in years. It was weird how distant it felt when it'd been a reason once upon a time to pull all sorts of 'I'm better then you' crap. She could almost hear Amanda's 'sarcasm voice' in her head over that one.

"Was juvie before or after the pill addiction?"

"Ah, the hard streets of SoCal," Matt nodded solemnly, a smile quirking up in the corners of his mouth. He'd never lived on the streets. "I picture you surfing all the time and it being this giant party. Which is probably wasn't, but..." he shrugged. "SoCal."

Pausing a minute to eat, Matt finally answered, "During, actually," he answered truthfully. "I got on the pills from doctors all legal and above board. Like House on TV. So I was in juvie and the nurse was giving them to me every day just like any other kid with meds. They didn't really help, but that's something else entirely," they didn't help control his powers or turn them off or anything like that, so in the end they hadn't done a ton of good. Learning to control his powers and understand them did more for ending his psychological need for them than anything. He still got the physical cravings, addiction worked on many levels, but powers control helped immensely. "Juvie sucked."

Life without money sucked. Not that Matt had all that much now, but he had access to the settlement from his accident years ago and he wasn't exactly hurting. He had plenty to pay for what he needed and not worry about things, especially with scholarships too. The professor wouldn't let anyone at Xavier's go without, but Matt liked not needing to rely on him anymore. Maybe he would help pay things forward in time, too. "Kinda seems like it was all a lifetime ago, doesn't it?" he asked. Matt wasn't quite 19 yet, so it was still very recent past for him, but it stilled seemed like so long ago sometimes, "We're very adaptable. People, I mean. Not just us in particular."

"Only if we wanna be, Dude." Jubilee hadn't always been a cynic, even now she had flights of believing in a better world. She'd been forced to become a realist though, not just through the job but through life experience as well. "People can choose to adapt, but your person on the street? They kinda fear and hate change. They like their little boxes and all the safety that comes with knowing exactly who you are and what you're meant to be doing. Take that away? Things tend to get like, totally unpleasant."

"I wasn't thinking so much on a personal level," Matt replied thoughtfully, "but as a whole. But people can individually too, if they choose. And yeah, most people don't choose, because it's hard. And it's scary and you never know what's on the other end. At the same time though...you stagnate...you grow stale and old and die. And you're usually miserable," at least in his experience. "I guess I've never been afraid of stuff like that." Or never had the opportunity to resist. They were similar in a way.

"You've still got a bit of faith, I'm thinking, more then I do and I won't say that's a bad thing. Heck, you guys are good for me, make me remember that not everybody is a monster waiting for their chance." Jubilee stretched a bit, and then dug into her food, waving for Matt to do the same. It wasn't that she minded a good old fashioned chat, it was just that her food was getting cold and that could not be allowed to happen.