Jean & Wade | Tuesday Afternoon (slightly backdated)

[x-deadpool.livejournal.com]

Wade goes to the pool for a swim, only Jean's already there.


Though Jean was used to living in dreary grey climates, even after awhile she had her fill. So, on a particularly sunny day, armed with her beach towel and enough sunscreen to dunk herself in, Jean took to the pool for some laps and general slothery. It was high 80s, making it just warm enough to make things worthwhile.

Standing on the diving board, Jean took a few steps back, then ran, charging at the water and slipped in with a splash. She soon started to make her way across the pool with a breast stroke, then zig zagged and headed down another line, pausing every couple of moments to take a breath.

It'd been a while since Wade swam laps but he was running out of kata he felt like repeating and there was only so much running a man could do before he decided to just veg out on the couch with Cheetos, so he'd changed up his routine for the day. Which was why... he found himself confronted with the younger version of the Jean Grey he'd known before the world exploded. He could've kicked himself for the routine variation that'd led him to this point, but instead... he just clamped down on his mental whatever the way McSparkles had told him to and made himself think about absolutely nothing. No waves, no wind, no desert, no elephants. He maintained an empty space in his brain as he let a practiced, easy smile slide into place on his face and offered the woman in the pool a salute. "Hey, I'm in desperate need of some laps, mind if I crash your party?"

Jean slowed, bobbing up and down like a buoy as she caught sight of the guy she'd seen around the mansion in various places, most recently the star of the pie eating contest from Memorial Day.

"Don't mind at all," she said with a smile. "It's a free pool. Wade, right? I'm Jean."

"Yep, Wade Wilson. Nice to meet you, Jean," Wade said, moving over to the deeper end of the pool. He put his towel down, along with the cooler he'd brought, and tugged his shirt off over his head. Emptiness. Total emptiness in his brain. He refused to let himself think of his friend. He refused to let himself think of the person responsible for the end of the world as he'd known it. He refused to think about anything but the sun coming through the mostly-glass ceiling, the water in the pool, and the fact that he was going to swim until he basically couldn't breathe. He had simple goals for the day.

"Nice to meet you too," Jean said, the soft smile lingering but turning curious. He seemed polite but somewhat tense and rigid, a complete departure from the person she'd seen before from afar at the barbecue. The one laughing and stuffing his face seemingly without a care, the jokester and the conversationalist on the journals. It was hard not to wonder what caused this change.

Perhaps it was another case of unknown telepath syndrome. She'd noticed it with some of them in her presence, the way they acted just the way Wade was acting now. Like she should be someone to be wary of, an aberrant variable. She decided was going to give him time and space, just like she did the others.

Turning away, Jean went back to swimming and focused on seeing how fast she could glide through the water. She could pretend to be a mermaid, letting the water flow around her. She'd been particularly fond of The Little Mermaid as a child.

Diving into the water, Wade let it close over his head as he started swimming, his pace moving from a little tense to a lot furious and then, after a few laps, back to a manageable range 'oh, hey, I totally just remembered my lungs like not inhaling water.' So he slowed down, moving from the butterfly, which negated any sort of conversational possibility, into a more sedate freestyle. Utilitarian, but with the possibility for distraction, if someone wanted to make the effort.

After awhile, Jean got in her fill of laps and decided to give Wade the pool to himself. She wasn't sure what to say since he seemed pretty focused on what he was doing in an attempt to not talk to her and felt like trying to interrupt verged on awkward.

Swimming over to the shallow end of the pool, Jean climbed out. She was headed to grab her towel when a small unseen patch of water had other ideas and she slipped, yanking her legs out from underneath her and causing her to flail before hitting the ground rather ungracefully.

Wade jerked to an immediate halt mid-motion and was halfway out of the pool before he'd registered he was moving. "You alright?" He asked. He didn't have super speed, but he could move pretty quickly when he felt like it.

Jean laid on the ground for a moment or two before slowly sitting up with a groan. She reached back to touch the back of her head but didn't feel blood. Good sign. But it still hurt like hell.

"...Yeah," she said finally.

"This is why I was never on the swim team in school."

Reaching down to help her stand, Wade asked, "Don't you have like, TK or something? You could like, stop yourself from hitting the ground?"

Jean resembled an old woman, hunched over slightly, one hand clutching her tailbone, the other the back of her head. She laughed. "Yes to the TK, not so much with the stopping myself from falling, especially when I'm distracted. I've been working on my reflexes but..apparently I have a ways to go. Thanks for the help up."

"No problem," Wade said, attempting to wipe some of the water off himself. It was pretty much a no-go, though. His Captain America swim trunks would just have to keep on dripping. "Just uh... don't slip on all the water I'm tracking everywhere."

Smirking, Jean laughed again. "I think one embarrassment per day is enough for my plenty bruised ego and ass, thanks," she said. Spotting Wade's towel, it floated into her hand and she offered it to him.

"You're a Cap fan?" she added, noticing his trunks.

"Dude, yes," Wade said, drying off a bit. "I mean, I know he didn't actually punch Hitler, but man."

Jean waddled over to a nearby bench and sat down with a hiss of pain. Luckily she could tell nothing was broken so all she'd need was ice. "You ever meet him? I did once, a few months ago. He was....very tall. And muscular. Had his shield too, just like in pictures." She let out a wistful sigh.

"And damn, he was hot. But...he was right in the middle of kicking our asses with the rest of the Avengers for claiming we encroached on their turf so I didn't really get to do much interaction other than that."

"Not sure I was here for that," Wade said, shrugging a little as he wrapped his towel around his shoulders. "I might've been in Africa. Or I might've just been distracted by a lot of burritos." He gave it a hand waggle. "Even odds either way."

Jean laughed. "That's probably a good thing. Don't they say never meet your heroes? I think he's still a good guy, though. I'm hoping someday we'll be able to get them to realize we all want to help people."

Her towel floated into her lap and she used it to dry off. "Luckily Indiana Jones isn't real. I was always a big fan."

"Yeah, probably for the best - I mean, I'm probably the only person who'd try and stop a fight for an autograph, but dude, I absolutely would for Cap."

"Well, if I ever run into him again I'd be glad to try to get you something signed," Jean said with a small grin. "Let me guess, you have the vintage cards and the comic books? My dad does too. Along with the replica wooden shield that came out in the late 40s to go with the Captain America Uniform Playset. He got it from my grandfather. He was in the war back in the day. Never served with Cap but he says he saw him at a USO show before he went to the front lines."

"Yup," Wade said, smiling a little despite himself. "Also, all the DC comics stuff you could possibly imagine. It's lucky I've got a lot of houses or I'd've used up all the Prof's attic space with my collections."

Jean's eyebrow rose. "You have enough to fill multiple houses? Wow," she said.

"So does each house have a character theme and is filled with that specific type of comic? Batman house with a Batcave... Superman apartment overlooking the city...Star Wars death star?" she said, grinning as she took to drying her hair with her towel.

"What do you do that you can afford all these houses and comic books?"

"Currently, I work for X-Force. Before that, I was a free agent," Wade answered. "Mercenary work, for the most part. Some protection details. Some other things."

Jean quirked a brow, smiling. "Huh. Mercenary work sounds pretty lucrative. I heard it similarly described that way by Kevin Sydney. I think he's on X-Force as well?" she said. Though she had a feeling 'other things' also probably contributed to his wealth along with the other aspects of his free agent jobs. She tilted her head thoughtfully.

"If you're ever interested, I occasionally have need of a protection detail when I do work with the mutant underground." While she could protect the mutant while she got them wherever they needed to go, it was always good to have back up waiting in the wings in case trouble ever arose.

"Eastern Europe can get particularly dicey."

"Yes, it can," Wade agreed. "Just give me a heads up the next time you think you might need some help. If I can't do it myself, I know people in that area who wouldn't mind making a bit of cash on the side. But back to the first bit, yeah. Kevin's on X-Force. We're a pretty eclectic bunch."

"With any luck, things will go smoothly from now on and I'll never need to ask you for help...Heh. I wish. But more realistically, yeah, I'll let you know if any trouble pops up," Jean said, then laughed. "And yeah, I think eclectic is good term for your group. Other than you and Kevin, I've met Amanda, the resident witch, once, and Wanda and I go way way back. It's a lively mix," she said thoughtfully.

"I think I know more people from X-Force and parts of X-Factor than my actual team. For better or worse, anyway." She got to know both sides of Warren.

Wade offered her a small smile as he headed back over to where he'd left his cooler. "I'm sure you'll meet everybody once things settle down. But I think I'ma head outside." His cognitive dissonance was finally starting to kick in post adrenaline rush, which meant food was probably a good idea.

Rising from the bench, Jean smiled back. "And I'm going to grab some ice and Aleve," she said with a laugh.

"It was nice to meet you, Wade. Ill-timed pratfalls aside."

"You, too," Wade said, snagging his cooler and heading for the door. Now, to eat his way through everything in the cooler before he contemplated anything that had happened today. Simple goals, he reminded himself, double checking to make sure his brain was still locked down tight.