Sunday night - Xavin and Matt

[xp-xavin.livejournal.com]

Xavin knocked on the door and then opened it into the office. "Hi. Uh, you're Mr Murdock, right?" Xavin stopped just inside the door, arms crossed, heart pounding. It was one thing to talk to a lawyer when they came over and visited your father. It was another when you were, you were, you know, talking to a lawyer. A lawyer who wore sunglasses indoors and carried a cane and oh my god, could blind people even be lawyers? Like, how did they even read stuff, or email people or... go to court? Did you have to tell a blind person that you were in the room? But he probably knew, right? Right?

Standing, Matt carefully propped his cane up against the wall and then came around the table where his laptop was set up and offered his hand, "Xavin?" he asked, not recognizing the kid's heartbeat other than that he was nervous. "I'm Matt. You want some water or anything?"

Xavin shook hands with him and sat down in the other chair. "No thanks. I'm uh. I'm alright."

Taking his seat, Matt slipped a set of headphones over one ear, but not the other, then tapped a few commands into the keyboard, "Okay then," he tugged the headphones off, "I'm going to record everything instead of taking notes if that's alright? You doing okay? Settling in?"

Apparently that was how blind lawyers worked. They listened to everything after. "Yes sir. I'm good. I start school tomorrow. I think I'm still kinda on West Coast time, though." Xavin kicked one foot against a chair leg a couple of times and drummed fingers on one knee.

"It'll take a few days to get used to the time difference," Matt agreed, it was three hours difference between the east and west coasts, it was enough to feel, especially if you were more sensitive to it, "You ready for school then too? You've been out for a while." He hoped Xavin would relax a little, he wasn't going to gnaw on his arm!

Xavin shrugged. "Well, I kind of flunked everything last year, so I'm still a junior and probably we're going to do the same stuff again this year, so I might, like, pass this time around." Define ready. Did ready include spare underpants, just in case and still not being sure which shape you were going to school in tomorrow? Because then, yes. 100% ready. "It'll be good." This was said with a nod and smile. If you said something enough, it became true, right?

"You sound like you're trying to convince yourself," Matt replied, "Which....actually can work if you say it enough. I've not taken classes here, but it seems like they know what they're doing and are used to working with non-traditional students. Probably still have to do your homework though. I haven't figured out how to get out of that one yet." Sadly.

"It's not here-here. It's, you know, in town and here for powers stuff." Xavin's shape slipped and they curled back into the chair, feeling vulnerable that this man was going to see her like that. Maybe he hadn't noticed. Deep breath, a second one and they shifted again, back into the boy form they'd walked into the room in. "There's a bus," they offered.

"I know the bus," Matt knew he was a shape-shifter and as he slipped, Matt paused for a moment, "Hey, you'll work it out and get things under control. It's scary at first, but...it gets better," he was thinking back to learning to use his cane at orientation and mobility classes after he was blind. "Do you want me to use the pronouns of the gender you're presenting in or something else?"

I've been trying for a year now and my powers are still all over the place Xavin thought but didn't say anything. They hunched over in the chair, bringing their knees up and wrapping their arms around them. "I uh. I don't know, sir. Um. How did you know that I..." they waved a hand back and forward and grimaced. "You knowed."

"Mutant," Matt pointed out, "blind and mutant. Your heartbeat and respiration changed and I put two and two together with what I already knew. I lived with my uncle and his husband through my teenage years, I know English doesn't offer a lot of great options for pronouns. Think on it, get back to everyone."

"No way. You can do that? What else can you hear? I sounded that different?" She shifted again. "What about now? I mean, yeah, my voice changed, but... whoa." She almost forgot to be cautious of him in her fascination with his powers. It was one thing to see a purple chick and be teleported - that was.... yeah. Yeah. This was something else entirely. This was a normal guy who could probably hear that Xavin had eaten a bit too much fruit at breakfast.

Grinning, Matt shrugged, "Your voice is obvious. The rest is...less so. It's partially about what your body is doing and partially how you react to it. The rest is educated guesswork," which was a big part of life. "So. Back to business unless you'd rather take a break?" Matt could hear her (his?) stomach gurgling, but wanted to be polite about it. Sometimes these things passed, sometimes a moment was needed.

"Yeah, uh. No. I'm good," Xavin replied. "You asked about pronouns. Um. Can we um. Maybe. Come back to that later or something?" It was an uncomfortable topic to even think about. "Back to business. Yeah, that sounds good."

"Well, it's not too difficult," Matt ran a finger over a couple lines of braille refreshing himself on a few details, "Basically, you're 17. No matter how successful you were on the streets, you're not supposed to be there and you need a guardian. We have a strong case against your parents, too. The catch is that the system will want to put a California minor in California, not here. We need to convince them otherwise. And that Xavier's is best. Leave that to me. The other part is that you stole $2000 from your parents. Justified or not, it's still stealing and your parents can press charges for that. It doesn't matter that you're a minor or related, it wasn't yours to take. $2000 is also a felony offense, which leads to it's own snowballing of issues," felony's were not so good. Thankfully, this was the sort of criminal defense that Matt loved. "What I propose is knock both birds out with one stone."

Leaning back slightly in his chair, Matt recrossed his legs to get comfortable, "They won't press charges against you for stealing the money and in return, we won't charge them with child abuse and endangerment. Any questions about that?"

Xavin's lips quirked in a half smile. "Mr Murdock, sir, I wasn't exactly successful. I stayed in a really crummy motel until I ran out of money and then I got kicked out of one refuge, beat up and then put in touch with you. Here. Things. I know it was wrong to take the money but... What was I going to do? I couldn't... " they trailed off. "I couldn't go home. I couldn't. And I didn't have any other options because someone would have found out I was a mutant. But... I don't have to go home? I can stay here?"

Chuckling, Matt nodded, then pushed his sunglasses up. He was trying to give Xavin the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was being too generous. "I'm not judging," he assured the teen, "but...no. It's not in your best interests and honestly? You'd run away again and end up in an even worse situation," let's just be realistic about these things. "Now. Anything else? Other questions?"

"I wouldn't. I'd try to just... get by." But this was still better and right now, the promise of more time to just figure things out, control this stupid, stupid power that had ruined everything seemed like a godsend. "Yeah, do I really have to go to school tomorrow? Can't I just stay here for a bit?"

Shrugging, Matt was flag that Xavin was relaxing now, "Probably. At least so they can place you academically. And the sooner you get into a routine, the better. But here," he handed Xavin his card, "you need or want anything, give me a call or text. My info's there. I wasn't in the same situation as you as a kid, but there are similarities. If I can help, I will."

"Figures," Xavin sighed, closing one hand around the card. "I will, you know. Call you, I mean."

"Good. I look forward to it," and he meant it, too. Xavin seemed like a good kid in a shitty situation. There were too many of them, which was a big part of why Matt hadn't gone into juvenile law. He couldn't handle it. But one kid like this? That he could do and it would make a difference. "I'll see you around then, Xavin. And I'll let you know when I have more information about what's happening to keep you informed."

"Thanks."