Rogue and Matt -- High Flying Adore, backdated to November 23, 2014

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

In which Rogue and Matt go for a random flight around town, enjoy delicious treats, and learn something new about each other



Matt liked flying with people. Planes....less so. He was better with them now as an X-Man, but the first time he'd flown....no thanks. He liked it better with people. November in New York was cold though and it got colder the higher they went so he bundled up snugly for his flight with Rogue. It was a delicate balance, staying warm and still being able to use his powers best.

"You ready?" he asked, knocking on Rogue's door.

"Mmhmm!" Rogue grabbed a jacket and a hat before opening the door. "When you said you weren't going to let me forget, you weren't kidding."

Closing the door behind her, she started to walk to the roof. "Anywhere in particular ya wanna go, or are we jus' flyin' for the hell of it?"

"Anywhere you want, I'm just there for the view," Matt joked. His ability to see things that high was so different from the ground because of the lack of things to bounce sound off of. It was amazing and just so....open. But not quiet. It was loud, but in a different way. "Just no hitting planes."

She gave a little snort. "I'll have you know, Mister, that I have yet to hit a plane. Or a bird. Not even Fabio can say that." A pause. "Wait, are you old enough to know who Fabio is?"

"Uh...." Matt had heard of Fabio, but nothing was coming to mind. "So, we going anywhere in particular? Or just up?" Better to ignore questions he didn't want to answer.

"Up is a safe choice," she answered, noting his non-answer to her question.

Yup, he was definitely a young'un‎.

"I thought we'd just fly around Westchester. If you wanna go somewhere in particular, we can do that too. I'm easy."

Given that it was flying, 'up' was a very easy answer. "Maybe get drinks?" Matt suggested hopefully. He had a thing for hot beverages that weren't coffee. Coffee was gross and he did not understand how anyone could drink it. "It's cold and all that. Hot drinks are required for the cold. And maybe snacks."

"Y'all jus' gotta tell me where ta go, and I'm there." His enthusiasm was catching and she was definitely looking forward to it.

‎Reaching the flier's platform, she shrugged on her jacket and put on a warmer pair of gloves. "Okay, ground rules: I'm gonna cradle hold you. I'm covered up completely, but jus' don't move your hands from where I put them. If you wanna go down, or you're uncomfortable, tell me,kay? I ain't no telepath so I can't read your mind."

"You can't anyways," Matt smirked, "My brain processes so much information at once, it reads like TV static to telepaths. It's not worth their effort to break through it," which he found reassuring, "Also means I used to get horrible migraines until I learned to process all the extra info."

The kid jumped around more than a pair of Mexican beans, she thought to herself. "Well, so long as ya don't touch me, we should be good."

Scooping him up, she ensured his arms went over her many scarves. Once in position, she took flight, heading up high quickly. She liked to fly with some cloud cover -- it didn't do when everyone could point you out.

"You okay?" she finally asked after they'd settled at a comfortable speed and altitude.

‎
"MMhmm," Matt agreed. "Awesome," the view for Matt up this high was so different than the one he got on the ground or even up in trees or buildings. There was so much....nothing. His radar didn't ping on anything practically and he resisted the urge to pull out his cane for orientation. His orientation was 'too high up' right now and it was definitely amazing!

*~*~*

"Nothing like a hot, buttery croissant and a mocha," she crooned, holding her drink in her hands.

After forty-‎five minutes of aimless flying, she'd brought Matt to a little mom and pop bakery she loved to frequent. It was all homemade deliciousness,and it seemed the perfect place to relax.

"I hope you enjoyed that. Must be strange for ya, to be up in the air when you're used to having ‎your feet on the ground."

Matt had a chocolate croissant and a hot dark chocolate. Because he liked chocolate and coffee was gross. "What's strange is the lack of...things. I'm so used to my sonar hitting things, but up in the air there's not really a lot. It's mostly empty. That's strange. When I first went blind, the first thing they taught me was how to orient myself with my cane. To know where down was. To use it to extend my reach and therefore broaden my world. Up in the air like that....there's no end."

Rogue nodded in agreement. "Kinda felt the same way, when I learned how to fly. It's hard figuring out three dimensions, and realizing that up an' down‎, left an' right -- those are just words ya know? Up there, there's nothin' to orient a body," she said,using his words. "Gotta think beyond all that.". She took a bite of her croissant and chewed thoughtfully.

"And who came up with up an' down anyways? Maybe my up is your down."


"Uh....gravity, actually determines that," Matt chewed thoughtfully, "Gravity orients our bodies and our ears are actually pretty important for balance. When the two work together, down is down for everyone unless they have something like vertigo or whatever that changes things. The word 'down' is arbitrary, but it's still down for everyone regardless of what it's call," he paused, then took a sip of his hot chocolate. "Even flying up in the air, down is still down."

"And this, my young friend, is why I'm not a philosopher. Can't even muse properly," she teased. Another bite of her croissant‎, followed by a healthy sip of her drink. "You should hear me get confused by grammar. Is it one pokemon or two? Why is sheep plural and not singular? If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around, does anyone care?"

"I can't decide if I'm too sober or not sober enough right now," and Matt didn't often feel that way. "Do you usually have this effect on people?"


"If you mean do people generally look confused after a conversation with me, then yes. I do." She leaned back in her chair, and smiled. "I like it. It makes me unique. I can sit here and make connections between anything."

He wasn't sure he liked it. "Well...so long as it's not just me," he agreed, a little dubious. "But I guess it means you're never bored."

"I guess not." Rogue straightened up. "I never thought of it that way. Impervious to boredom. What do you do when you're bored?"

Matt shrugged, "Sleep?" Okay, that was a copout answer, "I try to stay busy. Keeps the cravings at bay, but they aren't too bad anymore."

She cocked her head. "Cravings? Like for smokes?"‎

"That's nasty," enhanced senses meant he didn't much like the smell of cigarettes. It took Matt a moment to realize that she didn't know. That was both good and bad in different ways. "Nothing major. I'm clean now, wasn't always. Part of why I got into aerial arts and stuff was to keep the cravings down."

"Okay. Now it's my turn to be confused. What are you takin' about? Clean from what?"
‎
Fiddling with his napkin nervously, Matt replied, "Drugs. E most recently, but mostly pain killers. I've been clean almost two and a half years," he fiddled in his pocket and pulled out his 2 year coin from NA.

"Oh," she replied, her eyebrows raised. "Wow. That's great to hear, sugar. I would've never guessed." And it was true -- he was the picture of a clean-cut young adult, with no signs of anything adverse. It took her by surprise, but she tried to recover quickly. She didn't want him to think she judged him. So she told him so. "That's really strong of you, two and a half years. I know this probably means nothing coming from someone that didn't know you during that time, but I'm real proud of you. I used to do some addictions work back in B.C., and it really is a one day at a time thing."

"I've been arrested twice. Sent to juvie once for assault and once to rehab, plus a second detox without an arrest under my belt," he grinned and finished his pastry, "All sealed now that I'm 19. And repeating that fun isn't in the plans. But that's actually better than average where I grew up. I mean, I finished high school. That right there's impressive."

"Right," she added excitedly. "First one too, if I remember correctly. And in a way, those life experiences have helped shape who you are now, which‎ I have to say, is pretty awesome."

She gave him a sly look. "Assault though... you are one tough blind guy."

Matt shrugged, disagreeing, "Anyone's tough with a baseball bat," he explained. "Now, now I'm tough on my own," he grinned flexing an arm, "X-men training and everything else? Now I don't need the bat. And I know of at least three better options than beating someone like that and getting arrested. I was sloppy and inexperienced."

Rogue laughed heartily. "Man, ya gotta explain that to Scott one day. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know he's taught you valuable skills." Finishing off her drink, she continued. " ‎I know what you're sayin' though. Kinda funny to think of it in that way, but we have training some governments could only dream of. We kick some serious butt."

Now there was a bad idea if he'd ever heard one! "Well, most of those alternative ideas don't involve violence. Shocking, I know. But age, maturity, not liking jail, yadda, yadda, yadda," not going to jail was important. "But yeah we do. Good thing we use our powers for good and not evil."
"Amen to that!" She'd seen firsthand how their powers could be abused. It wasn't surprising that some people were afraid of mutants, all things considering. She tried to keep that in mind whenever she dealt with that kind of discrimination.

"You about ready to go? This time, we are so doing barrel rolls."

Standing, Matt began to clear the table of his snack, "Let's do it!" he agreed wholeheartedly. Sounded like fun.