Gabriel & Adrienne - Fitting

[x-velocidad.livejournal.com]

Gabriel has Adrienne alter a stolen tux. Adrienne reads it. Oops.

The hoodie and the shades might have been a bit much, but Gabriel hadn't been back to (or near) District X since his incident. And he wasn't taking any chances that he'd been recognized by the crazy lady couple or one of their sure-to-be-weird mutant friends. So when he'd decided to make his way to eVolution with a garment bag in his hand, he figured he'd play it safe.

What was inside the garment bag currently slung across his arm was a whole other source of consternation. He'd been cleaning out his room in Manhattan when he'd come across it, a souvenir of sorts that he'd swiped in Austin after a relationship with a menswear boutique owner went sour. Even though he'd sworn to Jean he'd try to change his ways, Gabriel sort of figured he could grandfather in things he'd already stolen without violating their agreement.

As he removed his sunglasses and lowered his hood, he took a glance around eVolution. It was a nice store, nicer than anything else he'd seen around District X anyway. And he was impressed with the selection, which he figured must be some kind of reflection of Adrienne. Speaking of which. "Uh, hello?" He called out.

Adrienne swept in from the back room, stashing the pencil she'd been using to sketch out a design behind her ear. "Hello!" she greeted cheerfully, softening her usual businesswoman smile when she recognized the customer as one of the mansionites. "You're... Gabriel, aren't you? Adrienne Frost." She held out a hand. "I don't believe we've officially met yet?"

"Yeah, that's me." Gabriel smiled back at her, extending his hand from under the garment bag and shaking hers. "Nice to meet you for real. Sorry if I'm catching you at a bad time - you've got a really nice place here."

"It's not a bad time at all," Adrienne answered with a wave of her hand. "I was just in the back at the drafting table. Tangerine was supposed to be manning the front end but I let her beg off early for a date with the latest trouser-stuffing gomer she's seeing. And then I forgot I let her beg off early. But if you tell anyone that, I'll have to kill you," she added with a smirk. "I'm glad you like the place. It's not often people bring garment bags into it, I've gotta say," she murmured, eyebrow raised. "Are you donating something?" The shop took in a lot of donations for Tandy's uncle's soup kitchen and shelter, but Adrienne had never seen anything come in in a garment bag before.

"Huh? Oh, no." Gabriel glanced down at his arm. "No, I needed - I thought you might be able to help me with something." He scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. "My roommates and I were cleaning up our place - you know, since I moved to the mansion, they can't afford it - and Jack found his ex-boyfriend's old tux in his closet."

He rolled his eyes. "I don't know. The guy had practically moved in, which was a problem of its own, and it was a messy breakup, so he's not returning it. But Thom - that's the ex - and I are about the same height, and I tried it on, and it kinda fits but not really. I thought, you know." He looked at their surroundings. "What with you owning a boutique, you might know a tailor?"

Adrienne raised an eyebrow at Gabriel. "All you had to say was you needed something tailored," she informed him with a good-natured smirk. "I didn't need the backstory." He seemed a little nervous. Was he intimidated by her? Was that the reason for the story? Some people were just chatty, though, she reminded herself. "I can do some minor alterations if you'd like," she carried on, "but if it's anything major I can give you the name of a proper tailor."

"Yeah, sorry." Gabriel shrugged. "I'm a blabbermouth when I meet new people. On top of already talking too much. It's kind of a problem. Plus, District X makes me nervous." He didn't bother explaining. Either she'd heard or she hadn't. Either she would or she wouldn't. "I 'm not sure how major it is - probably just needs to be taken in a little bit? Thom was a hide-your-body type, and I am, you know, not. No need to be."

"Well, put it on and we'll see what needs to be done," Adrienne shrugged, gesturing to a walled changing area with curtains across the doorway. "How come District X makes you nervous? Been targeted by some anti-mutant hatred lately?"

Gabriel followed her her gesture and went behind a curtain, garment bag and all. He pulled off his hoodie and tossed it in a corner. "Something like that, only not really. I made enemies of the wrong two mutants last time I was here, which was kind of my own fault, but I didn't know any better. Hadn't really met any mutants in a while."

"Really?" Adrienne grabbed some tailoring tools from a drawer behind the counter while Gabriel spoke. "I guess you know you've lived in New York too long when it seems crazy for someone to not meet any mutants in a while. Where do you hail from?"

"Texas." Gabriel unzipped the suit bag. "El Paso. But I've lived here for a little while, and Austin before that. I just didn't, you know, meet any. None that I knew of, really. I mean, you meet people, and sometimes you know. Sometimes you don't." He frowned as he realized he'd skipped a button on his tuxedo shirt. "I guess I don't have a mutant radar."

Adrienne chuckled at his 'mutant radar' comment. "If that's a real thing, sign me up. I want some. Of course," she added, wrinkling her nose, "if we were to bottle mutant radar I'm sure it would do more harm than good. Especially with the climate around here these days. So I guess we'll have to leave mutant radar up to the telepaths, huh? Like Jean?" She recalled her conversation with Jean about Gabriel and couldn't resist stirring the pot a little there. "She brought you to the mansion, didn't she?"

Gabriel thought he detected something sly in her words, but he figured he was imagining it. So he returned his focus to getting dressed. "Yeah, pretty much. We met at a bar, and she gave me her card. Took a while before I actually called her." He glanced down at his feet, realizing he forgot to bring a pair of dress shoes. "She's something else," he added admiringly, "that's for sure."

"Yeah, she is," Adrienne agreed. "You know she's married, right? And... I wouldn't normally care, but her husband's an okay guy," she said pointedly.

"What?" Gabriel snorted. "Yes, duh." He raised his eyebrows at his reflection in a mirror. "What are you even..." Now fully ready to go, he pulled the curtain back and stepped toward her, clad in a tuxedo that wasn't quite slim enough with a hem that needed to be fixed. "I'm not interested in Jean, if that's what you're thinking." He wrinkled his nose. "No way."

Adrienne looked him up and down, but she couldn't focus fully on her task. "What do you mean 'no way?' What's wrong with Jean? Jean's amazing!" She felt obligated to defend one of her closest friends. "She's super smart. I mean, she's a fucking doctor. She's brave and compassionate and she's funny And she's probably fantastic in the sack. So why 'no way?'"

"Uh, married women are not really my type." Gabriel shrugged. "I've already told you how great I think she is. Now you're making it all weird."

"It's what I do," Adrienne shrugged. "When I'm not in public, anyway. Okay, fine. No married women. Forget I brought it up. The suit's nice." She tried to put the Jean stuff away and looked Gabriel over with a practiced eye, grabbing a handful of pins from a pincushion she'd recovered from the drawer. Still flustered about their conversation about Jean, she forgot to turn her powers off when she reached out to pin a length of the suit and Read a little of it before turning her powers off. "Dude. You stole this?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, though she didn't sound affronted by that fact.

Gabriel bit his lip and winced. "Stole is maybe a little strong." It wasn't, but Gabriel figured relationship justice deserved its own guilt-free category. "But, uh, I didn't exactly buy it, no." He studied her for a second. "How did you even know that?"

"Mutant," Adrienne shrugged again, waggling her fingers at Gabriel. With greater control over her powers this time, she set about pinning the suit and making markings in chalk. "My power is psychometry. History of objects. Sometimes I can't control it. Sorry. I didn't mean to pry," she added feebly.

"No, whatever," Gabriel said just as feebly. He figured if he acted like it was no big deal, it was no big deal. Sound logic, surely. "I mean, I used to steal things. So. You know. That's how I met Jean. But I'm trying to turn over a new leaf and be honest." He shrugged, for lack of anything else. "What exactly did you see?"

"Wait, you tried to steal from Jean?" Adrienne asked incredulously. "Seriously?"

"Oh, yeah." Gabriel waved a hand casually. "I mean, I didn't know she was, you know. A mutant genius force to be reckoned with. I'm young and stupid, and probably a little impulsive. Shit happens."

"This is true," Adrienne nodded. "At least you learned from your mistake or whatever. New leaves are good." She crouched down and started pinning the hem of the trousers. "Is it out of line if I ask if one of those leaves is you not being a gigolo anymore?" the psychometrist asked, copping to what she'd seen in the Reading. "Don't get me wrong. I've used sex to get plenty of stuff in my young and stupid phase," she carried on easily, "so I'm not judging or anything. It's just, if you're gonna bring that game to the mansion, you gotta be careful, y'know? Kids and shit."

Gabriel blanched. So much for casual. The way mutants sprung their traps on him kept getting more unnerving. "I... that's..." He wasn't even sure where to begin. "I left that behind in Texas. It was – I don't know. It - I don't really want to get into it, and it's not..." He closed his eyes, wishing he could basically die on the spot. "There are a lot of things you didn't see. It was complicated."

He finally looked down toward her, trying to make eye contact without showing too much of his shame. "You can't tell anyone," he said rather firmly. "I don't - nobody knows about that. Jean doesn't even know about it. I don't want people to know."

Adrienne put her hands up defensively, taking some pins out of her mouth. That was not the reaction she'd expected, and she felt immediately contrite. "Of course. Don't even worry about it. Of course I'm not going to tell anyone. It's already forgotten. Like I said, I've been there. I get it. I'm sorry I brought it up. I do shit like that. It's why I used to get the shit kicked out of me a lot," she said with a wry smirk, hoping her admission made him feel a little better. Quid pro quo, or something.

"Thanks, it's just..." Gabriel shrugged again, unsure just what to say. He actually felt bad that she seemed to feel bad, even thought it was her fault for prying in the first place. At least she'd had the courtesy to bring it up. "Things were hard for a while. Now I'm trying to be on the straight and narrow, or whatever. Live in one place for a while, and do things like wear tuxes and, you know, whatever fancy people do."

"They drink. A lot," Adrienne murmured, nodding. She applied the last pin to the hem and stood back up. "Done. Can I buy you a shot to make up for my powers? Or a pizza or something? We can talk about how... not difficult it is to settle down at a crazy mansion where a bald philanthropist pays most of the bills and the people who aren't underage are mostly all hot and funny and really good company..."

"Oh, uh..." Gabriel looked at her, then looked down at the hem. That was faster than he'd expected, and perhaps not entirely worth the trouble. Clearly he'd have to learn how to do these things himself to avoid future awful social interactions. "Yeah. That'd be nice." He glanced toward the door. "And seriously," he added, trying to sound a little less deflated, "what's with all the hot people?"

Adrienne laughed at that, gesturing for him to return behind the curtain and take the suit off. "I have a theory that the mutant gene only latches itself onto or grows onto or whatever, hot genes. That they go together."

Oh. Right. Gabriel followed her gesture behind the curtain, winked at her, and slid it across the rod. "Maybe, but the two mutants I met at a bar around here - which," he added as he slipped the tuxedo jacket off, "is not where we will be going, by the way." He grabbed a hanger. "They were kinda... well, I guess, attractive if you looked at them a certain way. But mostly severe. And the one was furry, so who even knows?"

Snorting, the psychometrist put her tools away and flipped the sign on the door from 'open' to 'closed'. "They weren't mansion residents, were they? Also, which bar were you at? Zeitgeist or Silver?"

"Hell if I know. I don't think either." Gabriel hung the pants and grabbed his jeans off the floor. "Not really sure if it was in District X or near it or what." He glanced toward the curtain, assuming she was somewhere on the other side. "If you're nice, you can read my lighter and tell me." He had no intention of letting that happen. Lord only knew what she'd see. "If you spot a blond ice queen and a walking cat, you'll know who I mean."

"If it's cool with you, I'd rather live in the mystery," Adrienne smirked in response to his comment about the lighter. Sure, she wouldn't mind acting as a voyeur for some of the shit she was sure he'd gotten into, but he lived at the mansion, and he wasn't one of her students, so he was exempt from her prying. She turned off the computer in the back room while he was getting changed and shut down the till. "Wait...blond ice queen? You met my sister?" she asked curiously.

"Oh Jesus Christ, there's two of you?"

"Oh, yeah. And she's even more unreasonable, rich, and intimidating than I am," Adrienne murmured, still smirking.

"I am not going to survive this place intact. I just know it." Gabriel pulled on his hoodie and suppressed a whimper. "She read things too? Am I going to have to hide everything I own and wear a tinfoil hat to keep any privacy from anyone?"

"You'll be okay," Adrienne giggled. "She's on our side. Most of the time. And yeah, the tinfoil hat is a good idea. She's a telepath. Like Jean. Actually," she mused, "I'm not sure which one of them is more powerful. They're both extremely badass as telepaths. So, yeah. Not so much with the privacy. Lucky for you," she added, "Emma doesn't live at the mansion. So you may be able to stay off her radar."

"Thank God." Gabriel stepped onto the other side of the curtain, the tux on a set of hangers in his hands. "Life is hard enough without worrying about strangers peering into your head or touching your things and finding out all your fucking secrets." He tried to shrug the whole thing off. "Where should I put this?"

"And you haven't even factored in the demon attacks, the mutant hatred, and the kidnappings," Adrienne pointed out, holding out her hands for the tux.

Gabriel just groaned as he handed the tux over. "I run fast. What do you think my odds are of escaping this place before it ruins me?"

Adrienne grinned and clapped Gabriel on the back sympathetically. "Better than most," she assured him with a smirk. "C'mon, let's get you drunk. You're feel better. Probably."

"God. Yes. Alcohol." Gabriel tried not to visibly perk up, because that would have been unbecoming. And he didn't know Adrienne that well, even if she'd already seen more than he'd cared to let her see. "Lead the way, Donatella."