Marius, Kyle: Class Reunion
Jan. 9th, 2024 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAfter the formal debrief, it's Kyle's turn to interrogate his old friend.
Kyle's phone had buzzed twice, back to back, with near identical text messages.
He was out the door of his suite and into the hallway, unbuttoned shirt and basketball shorts and slippers and fresh bandages on his wrists and cheek and forehead and then it buzzed a third time, a shorter message but still the same content.
The pain had stopped bothering him, he knew it was there, moving, breathing, raising his arms over his head all hurt like anything but hydrocodone was great. The pain was there, but it was like wearing earplugs to dull out a lawn mower at five am. He just couldn't be bothered to pay attention to it at the moment.
He came into the infirmary and spent a brief minute assuring Dr Voght that he had showered, Terry had helped with fresh bandages, and that he was taking the antibiotics. If she noticed his hurried tone, she never commented, but that was her taciturn way. She may have noticed - and not thought it efficient to comment.
The door to the safe room was closed, but unlocked, and Kyle opened it, peering in.
Marius was sitting in the chair beside the bed, staring at the floor.
His skin had returned to its normal olive. A long length of gauze had been wrapped around his chest to secure a few light dressings over his pectorals, but other than that there was no sign of injury. The only indication of what he'd just been through was the utter void of expression on his face.
His reaction to the door opening was delayed. Slowly, amber eyes lifted . . . and blinked.
"Kyle?"
"Hey." Kyle had not thought at all about what to say when he got to the room, he'd replayed the fight over and over in his head, and avoided everything else. "Hey, um. I. They uh. You're awake."
Marius had never been good at schooling his reactions. It required more internal editing than he cared to do. For that reason his friend was treated to the full progression of his reactions to Kyle’s appearance: shock and gratitude, and then the sudden twist of horror at the extent of his injuries.
"Fuck me," Marius breathed.
"My ears do kinda still work." Kyle said. "Docs think I'll be fine in a day or two." He attempted a grin, realized the missing canine teeth hadn't come back yet, and then stopped himself, looking more like his face had twitched violently on the side with the bruises. "I have opioids and I've had worse. Nobody had napalm this time."
"No, though Jubilee managed a credible impression." The rejoinder was automatic, and regretted instantly. Marius grimaced. "Mate, I'm so sorry. I was out of my head."
Kyle sat down on the edge of the hospital bed, legs criss-crossed under him. "No shit. I thought you were on some like, trust fund bro vacation, not joining a cult. What the hell, man." His voice was flatly calm, and he drawled out the words a little, the tones of a man who if not for genuine emotional devastation, could be described as 'high as fuck'.
Marius' shoulders dropped. He slumped forward in his chair, a man collapsing in on himself.
"Yeah. That was the presser for the Foundation, at least." He raised a hand and stared at the mouth nestled in the palm. "It was medical leave. End of 2022 I started to relapse. Thought I was just getting older, slowing down a bit. Then I started bruising, dropping weight. By next spring the hunger was back in full force. Our work's with mutants. It wasn't safe for me to stay on." Marius snorted. "I'm not out, you know. My eyes and hands, those I can dress up. But not attacking a coworker because I had a crash."
"Well I didn't see you as like, joining on purpose. I figured it was an Ahab situation." Kyle rubbed at his face, which was itching. "It sucks that we have a way to describe that, but what the hell. Did Moira just not - I mean I know she's not our Moira, but she didn't have anything for you? No chance of borrowing family DNA again?"
The other man's laugh was bitter. "That's the stupid bit: I never asked. Last time I was on Muir it was to see it destroyed. Didn't particularly want to go back if I could help it. I thought, there are other specialists, and seeing them wouldn't require me going back to the place I saw friends murdered in front of me. Maybe I'll try them first. And I did find one -- a bloody good one, actually. I just didn't realise he had commitments other than the Clinique Lentz."
Kyle stared, shook his head and then bonelessly flopped his entire body backwards into the bed. "You could've come here you absolute dumbass."
"I know." Marius gripped the sides of his head, curls bunching between his fingers. "Don't you think I know that? I didn't want it, all right? I didn't want the reminders, I didn't want introductions to people I personally knew to be gruesomely, needlessly deceased. I just wanted a bit of normal." Taking a deep breath, Marius slowly unclenched his hands and leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes, steadying himself.
"So, yes," he continued, "once again I am faced with the consequences of my own deeply stupid actions."
Kyle sat up, and let out an unwanted, uncontrollable hiss as his ribs shifted. His fingers left ragged tears in the hospital sheet. "Fuck I think my hydro whatever is wearing off." He shifted uselessly, changing position did nothing to soothe cracked ribs that were angry because of his dramatic gesture. "I want to, I dunno, punch you for being stupid and leaving me on read and not even like. Giving me a hint. I told you about Laurie, man." His movements stopped, utterly still despite the aches. "I don't think I can get up right now. Pretend I just hit you in the mouth."
Marius shook his head. "Mate, for the better part of a year there I was seeing doctors almost weekly while discreetly searching for mutants both willing to donate their marrow and sign an NDA regarding same. I was just . . . tired. Of talking about it. Thinking about it. Watching my world fall apart around it. I didn’t want that to be my life with you, too.”
Kyle's mouth opened to retort, and then closed with the clack of teeth against teeth, and his face flashed guilt. "Yeah, okay, fair." He looked off to the corner of the room. "So, is your marrow still fucked? How bad? Like, weekly, monthly, how often do I need to be on the stick my arm in the thingy roster?" His face said concern, and worry, and guilt, his voice still said 'pain meds', strangely flat coming out of a mouth that had bared fangs against rib and chest pain a moment before.
"By the end it was back to every 10-14 days. Now . . ." Marius pushed a hand through his hair and leaned back into the chair as if willing it to close around him. "Akkaba's doctors fixed it. Bit embarrassing to have an avatar with dietary restrictions, I suppose. Thing is, they also 'fixed' a lot of other things, like how they dredged up those old mutations I used to carry. Those have gone, but the cure? I don't know. Platelets are as good an indicator as any, and at last check I was well within normal, but I just fed on at least three people. I . . ." The laugh came out in a bark, short and sharp. "Mate, what am I supposed to say? 'Apologies for attempting mass murder, that wasn't me, but now I might attack you for entirely different reasons'? I don't exactly have much to recommend myself here."
"Well good thing it's not a job interview, man." Kyle snapped out. "I guess we'll figure out if you're still chompy in a week or something, and then we'll make a donation rotation again. Look, how many damn people here used to work for Magneto? Willingly? If the chompy comes back, I dunno, we'll get someone to rig up one of those diabetic patch thingies, and it can beep at you and sedate you if your platelets drop or some shit. Lets not have three times of you fucking off to be a dumbass about your mutation."
The other man didn’t rise to Kyle's snap. Instead when he spoke next the life seemed to have utterly leached from his voice.
“It won’t happen again." Finally, Marius dragged his amber eyes down to look at Kyle. "What would I end up as, that third time?"
"How about next time you just fucking tell someone, okay?" Kyle made deliberate eye contact. "Like, please, man, do I need to be in my feelings here? I will go get some more feelings if I have to. I don't get it, I don't get the relapse thing I don't get the medical stuff, I know, okay but I do get that, like, you can just say 'I think the hunger is back, please tell someone' and I'll tell someone else and never bring it up to you again if that's what it takes, as long as you tell me one time so I can make sure you're not doing this dumbfuck shit again, because I can't lose any more fucking friends. We've got a new Forge, and he's a complete asshole, we've got a new Julio and he's a kid and we've got a new Catseye and she's so fucking weird, and I can't go find a new Marius because there won't be one!"
Even through the fog Kyle's vehemence struck something in him. Marius' eyes widened, just a little, before he slid his gaze away again.
He knew Kyle considered him to be someone worth keeping in his life, and always had. They wouldn't have kept in contact for all these years if not for that. But now, in this moment, Marius couldn't understand why. He looked at the determination on Kyle's face and felt only a great emptiness.
Mate, you think I'm so much more than I am. You all did. But I've never been like the rest of you, however much I wanted to be.
But he could pretend. He owed Kyle that, at least.
"Right," Marius said aloud. "Well, no worries. I feel as if I've caused everyone enough trouble, eh? Consider this a lesson learned."
Kyle shut his eyes very slowly, in defiance of Marius' false even-handed tone. "Uh huh. Yeah, this isn't gonna be that. I had to take classes on this shit, I teach teenagers." He pulled a phone out from the depths of the terrible lime basketball shorts. "This is me texting Terry, and god I hope you like bread because expect she'll be showing up a lot to make it. The catering kitchen's still fucked. Whatever room they put you in, you get a roommate until, I dunno, I decide you're not gonna go toss yourself into a volcano." His voice finally had expression, firm stubbornness and a break as he said aloud the fear he had, that Marius would consider suicide. "We don't have any volcano kinetics here right now, don't get any ideas. You get me, my grading papers at 5am and Shamu sleeping on your butt."
"Eh, sorry?" Marius said, unsure whether he'd parsed the rush of words correctly. "I'm going to . . ?"
"You're going to be living with me until such a time that someone decides you're not actively fucking suicidal." Kyle said, eyes still closed, voice on the verge of a growl. "Which means my girlfriend is going to show up at all hours to make food, because that's what she does, and you're going to tolerate my cat who probably is going to sleep on you because he loves everyone more than me."
"I wouldn’t hurt myself," Marius protested, although even he could perceive the frisson at the end of the sentence that implied an unspoken 'here'. He shook his head dismissively. "Look, I appreciate the concern, but this isn't necessary. It's just . . . it's hitting me all at once right now, all right? Once my head's straight again she’ll be right. I'm adaptable. It's one of my few redeeming features."
"I don't believe you." Kyle said. "My ears still work, you were all 'what would I end up as the third time', and you're assuming it'll happen and assuming the platelets are fucked, and man, of everyone I'd think you know I'm not as dumb as I pretend. I'm the... " He cut himself off. "It doesn't matter, you get a suitemate for a while. If nothing else, it means if your platelets are fucked, you're safe. Consider me the emergency parachute."
Marius opened his mouth, then shut it. Finally he met Kyle's gaze, and held it.
"Never in my life have I thought of you as dumb," he said.
Slowly, the Australian folded his arms across his chest and settled back in the chair, legs stretched out beneath him.
"So you're the man with the plan now, eh?" he continued. "Funny, that. The strategy that got me to you, then overloaded me -- thought I could detect a certain familiarity with some of my least impressive moments. Kurt's not got that sort of mind, and Garrison and I weren't what you'd call close."
"You called it, we were team together." Kyle said. "I got to sit in a tree and make a plan that I hoped might not kill my friend and you can suck it up and deal with me wanting to be sure you won't off yourself and ruin my hard work." He looked down, pointedly, at his bandaged wrists. "You're one of the only people who doesn't buy my himbo bullshit, don't make me try to buy your 'everything is fine, mate'." His impression of Marius' accent was abysmal.
Once again Marius felt that gulf of emptiness open in his chest. Kyle shouldn't have worried about his survival. If he hadn't maybe Marius wouldn't have been able to activate the final attack. It had been a city killer. If Garrison hadn't done . . . whatever it was he had done, NYC would have been a lifeless husk.
An entire city dead to save something even less than a man.
There was no use in voicing the thought. It was done, and it certainly wouldn't have helped convince Kyle of his mental health. Marius only nodded.
"You have established your martial superiority. I promise not to spoil your efforts." He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. "My compliments, incidentally. Seems you've cultivated quite the devious mind over the years. You had me on my knees there. Who was that at the end? With the mutation that wasn't . . . compatible?"
"April Parker. Shit has gotten really weird here, she's from another universe, and has some kind of, man I don't even know, she can turn into like, another form and it's weird." Kyle half-explained. The science was well over his head. "I remembered the whole thing about that, the whole Masque thing and the other guy, when your bitey mouths came back, weird mutations fuck your system, energy fucks your system, it was just like how many powers can we fuck you up with, between her and Jubes..." He shrugged. "And then Gar... he said he thought at worst, if that all didn't work he might have something."
Marius worked a finger against the back of his head. "It got a bit fuzzy near the end. Think I might've exploded once or twice? Unclear. Seemed effective, though." He paused, considering. "Oi, did you tell Amanda to shoot me between the eyes?"
"Did I what?" Kyle asked. "Jesus no, I didn't want you dead, I wanted you like, extremely not that thing." If the painkillers weren't wearing off, he'd have flopped backwards again, just for effect. Instead he stayed up and rigid, one hand knuckling his sternum and ribs. "We didn't have any intel on what Nur did to you, I was guessing. That's why I got all up in, there'd be my healing factor in your system and hopefully it would be smart enough to keep you alive. It's worked before."
So Amanda had been free-styling, eh? Marius wondered what the East London version of a fruit basket might be.
"It was a good guess," Marius said. One crossed foot began to jog against the other in a mindless tic. "You did have me down there, at the end. But I couldn't stop. I wasn't allowed to . . . well." He exhaled. "Something happened when Dominion hit me. The world went strange, and it felt like I came apart. Unravelled. The Akkaba augments went. What I took from the rest of you, too, I think, because I don’t have any mutations banked and I'm only healing at normal speed. It was like a factory reset. The inhibitor couldn't cause that, right?"
"Education degree, man. I dunno." Kyle shrugged. "That sounds like magic shit. Magic shit do be like that, Gar hangs out with Amanda, maybe New York did him a solid."
"Hm. Well, probably not important." Marius sighed and pulled his hands down his face. "Can I get a phone? I ought tell my parents I'm back from the 'retreat,' try to get some things moving. Maybe activate a few credit cards. Not quite sure what the protocol is here, but I've never seen a situation do anything but improve with access to vast amounts of cash."
Kyle pulled out his own phone and texted. "Yeah, I'll ask team technology to send one down. I know Doug's awake and around, hopefully he can get one setup before Clarice gets her hands on it, she's got a box of punitive rugged cases for people who make dumb decisions." He showed Marius his own phone, with a case that said "Don't follow me I do stupid things" in black text on the green case. "Stepped on a nail last week, pulled it out myself." He put it back away after a few text exchanges. "Yeah, phone's on the way, and, speaking of money. I do not need an apology vehicle but uh. I might need advice on buying an expensive thing. When you have time and are like, in the right mindset. Which is not now."
At this Marius quirked a thick eyebrow.
"You needn't have waited til I knocked out your teeth to ask," he remarked. "I'm always happy to subsidise our friendship. Money is, has, and ever shall be an enduring benefit of associating with me and my frankly obscene trust fund. Consider it compensation for all those years of lending me a healing factor."
"I have the money." Kyle said. "Warren Worthington gave everyone like two grand in the annual christmas card. I don't even work for the dude, it was just like a pile of hundos. I don't think he knows how money works but..." He gave a flash of an embarrassed grin. "I have money, I'm just going to need advice, like, later. After February though, I don't wanna be a gross cliche."
The Australian blinked at him for a moment, then smiled. Really smiled for the first time that night.
For the first time in so many nights, he realised.
"Right,” Marius said. “After February."
He crossed his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and exhaled.
"Guess I'd better start making plans, then."
Kyle's phone had buzzed twice, back to back, with near identical text messages.
He was out the door of his suite and into the hallway, unbuttoned shirt and basketball shorts and slippers and fresh bandages on his wrists and cheek and forehead and then it buzzed a third time, a shorter message but still the same content.
The pain had stopped bothering him, he knew it was there, moving, breathing, raising his arms over his head all hurt like anything but hydrocodone was great. The pain was there, but it was like wearing earplugs to dull out a lawn mower at five am. He just couldn't be bothered to pay attention to it at the moment.
He came into the infirmary and spent a brief minute assuring Dr Voght that he had showered, Terry had helped with fresh bandages, and that he was taking the antibiotics. If she noticed his hurried tone, she never commented, but that was her taciturn way. She may have noticed - and not thought it efficient to comment.
The door to the safe room was closed, but unlocked, and Kyle opened it, peering in.
Marius was sitting in the chair beside the bed, staring at the floor.
His skin had returned to its normal olive. A long length of gauze had been wrapped around his chest to secure a few light dressings over his pectorals, but other than that there was no sign of injury. The only indication of what he'd just been through was the utter void of expression on his face.
His reaction to the door opening was delayed. Slowly, amber eyes lifted . . . and blinked.
"Kyle?"
"Hey." Kyle had not thought at all about what to say when he got to the room, he'd replayed the fight over and over in his head, and avoided everything else. "Hey, um. I. They uh. You're awake."
Marius had never been good at schooling his reactions. It required more internal editing than he cared to do. For that reason his friend was treated to the full progression of his reactions to Kyle’s appearance: shock and gratitude, and then the sudden twist of horror at the extent of his injuries.
"Fuck me," Marius breathed.
"My ears do kinda still work." Kyle said. "Docs think I'll be fine in a day or two." He attempted a grin, realized the missing canine teeth hadn't come back yet, and then stopped himself, looking more like his face had twitched violently on the side with the bruises. "I have opioids and I've had worse. Nobody had napalm this time."
"No, though Jubilee managed a credible impression." The rejoinder was automatic, and regretted instantly. Marius grimaced. "Mate, I'm so sorry. I was out of my head."
Kyle sat down on the edge of the hospital bed, legs criss-crossed under him. "No shit. I thought you were on some like, trust fund bro vacation, not joining a cult. What the hell, man." His voice was flatly calm, and he drawled out the words a little, the tones of a man who if not for genuine emotional devastation, could be described as 'high as fuck'.
Marius' shoulders dropped. He slumped forward in his chair, a man collapsing in on himself.
"Yeah. That was the presser for the Foundation, at least." He raised a hand and stared at the mouth nestled in the palm. "It was medical leave. End of 2022 I started to relapse. Thought I was just getting older, slowing down a bit. Then I started bruising, dropping weight. By next spring the hunger was back in full force. Our work's with mutants. It wasn't safe for me to stay on." Marius snorted. "I'm not out, you know. My eyes and hands, those I can dress up. But not attacking a coworker because I had a crash."
"Well I didn't see you as like, joining on purpose. I figured it was an Ahab situation." Kyle rubbed at his face, which was itching. "It sucks that we have a way to describe that, but what the hell. Did Moira just not - I mean I know she's not our Moira, but she didn't have anything for you? No chance of borrowing family DNA again?"
The other man's laugh was bitter. "That's the stupid bit: I never asked. Last time I was on Muir it was to see it destroyed. Didn't particularly want to go back if I could help it. I thought, there are other specialists, and seeing them wouldn't require me going back to the place I saw friends murdered in front of me. Maybe I'll try them first. And I did find one -- a bloody good one, actually. I just didn't realise he had commitments other than the Clinique Lentz."
Kyle stared, shook his head and then bonelessly flopped his entire body backwards into the bed. "You could've come here you absolute dumbass."
"I know." Marius gripped the sides of his head, curls bunching between his fingers. "Don't you think I know that? I didn't want it, all right? I didn't want the reminders, I didn't want introductions to people I personally knew to be gruesomely, needlessly deceased. I just wanted a bit of normal." Taking a deep breath, Marius slowly unclenched his hands and leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes, steadying himself.
"So, yes," he continued, "once again I am faced with the consequences of my own deeply stupid actions."
Kyle sat up, and let out an unwanted, uncontrollable hiss as his ribs shifted. His fingers left ragged tears in the hospital sheet. "Fuck I think my hydro whatever is wearing off." He shifted uselessly, changing position did nothing to soothe cracked ribs that were angry because of his dramatic gesture. "I want to, I dunno, punch you for being stupid and leaving me on read and not even like. Giving me a hint. I told you about Laurie, man." His movements stopped, utterly still despite the aches. "I don't think I can get up right now. Pretend I just hit you in the mouth."
Marius shook his head. "Mate, for the better part of a year there I was seeing doctors almost weekly while discreetly searching for mutants both willing to donate their marrow and sign an NDA regarding same. I was just . . . tired. Of talking about it. Thinking about it. Watching my world fall apart around it. I didn’t want that to be my life with you, too.”
Kyle's mouth opened to retort, and then closed with the clack of teeth against teeth, and his face flashed guilt. "Yeah, okay, fair." He looked off to the corner of the room. "So, is your marrow still fucked? How bad? Like, weekly, monthly, how often do I need to be on the stick my arm in the thingy roster?" His face said concern, and worry, and guilt, his voice still said 'pain meds', strangely flat coming out of a mouth that had bared fangs against rib and chest pain a moment before.
"By the end it was back to every 10-14 days. Now . . ." Marius pushed a hand through his hair and leaned back into the chair as if willing it to close around him. "Akkaba's doctors fixed it. Bit embarrassing to have an avatar with dietary restrictions, I suppose. Thing is, they also 'fixed' a lot of other things, like how they dredged up those old mutations I used to carry. Those have gone, but the cure? I don't know. Platelets are as good an indicator as any, and at last check I was well within normal, but I just fed on at least three people. I . . ." The laugh came out in a bark, short and sharp. "Mate, what am I supposed to say? 'Apologies for attempting mass murder, that wasn't me, but now I might attack you for entirely different reasons'? I don't exactly have much to recommend myself here."
"Well good thing it's not a job interview, man." Kyle snapped out. "I guess we'll figure out if you're still chompy in a week or something, and then we'll make a donation rotation again. Look, how many damn people here used to work for Magneto? Willingly? If the chompy comes back, I dunno, we'll get someone to rig up one of those diabetic patch thingies, and it can beep at you and sedate you if your platelets drop or some shit. Lets not have three times of you fucking off to be a dumbass about your mutation."
The other man didn’t rise to Kyle's snap. Instead when he spoke next the life seemed to have utterly leached from his voice.
“It won’t happen again." Finally, Marius dragged his amber eyes down to look at Kyle. "What would I end up as, that third time?"
"How about next time you just fucking tell someone, okay?" Kyle made deliberate eye contact. "Like, please, man, do I need to be in my feelings here? I will go get some more feelings if I have to. I don't get it, I don't get the relapse thing I don't get the medical stuff, I know, okay but I do get that, like, you can just say 'I think the hunger is back, please tell someone' and I'll tell someone else and never bring it up to you again if that's what it takes, as long as you tell me one time so I can make sure you're not doing this dumbfuck shit again, because I can't lose any more fucking friends. We've got a new Forge, and he's a complete asshole, we've got a new Julio and he's a kid and we've got a new Catseye and she's so fucking weird, and I can't go find a new Marius because there won't be one!"
Even through the fog Kyle's vehemence struck something in him. Marius' eyes widened, just a little, before he slid his gaze away again.
He knew Kyle considered him to be someone worth keeping in his life, and always had. They wouldn't have kept in contact for all these years if not for that. But now, in this moment, Marius couldn't understand why. He looked at the determination on Kyle's face and felt only a great emptiness.
Mate, you think I'm so much more than I am. You all did. But I've never been like the rest of you, however much I wanted to be.
But he could pretend. He owed Kyle that, at least.
"Right," Marius said aloud. "Well, no worries. I feel as if I've caused everyone enough trouble, eh? Consider this a lesson learned."
Kyle shut his eyes very slowly, in defiance of Marius' false even-handed tone. "Uh huh. Yeah, this isn't gonna be that. I had to take classes on this shit, I teach teenagers." He pulled a phone out from the depths of the terrible lime basketball shorts. "This is me texting Terry, and god I hope you like bread because expect she'll be showing up a lot to make it. The catering kitchen's still fucked. Whatever room they put you in, you get a roommate until, I dunno, I decide you're not gonna go toss yourself into a volcano." His voice finally had expression, firm stubbornness and a break as he said aloud the fear he had, that Marius would consider suicide. "We don't have any volcano kinetics here right now, don't get any ideas. You get me, my grading papers at 5am and Shamu sleeping on your butt."
"Eh, sorry?" Marius said, unsure whether he'd parsed the rush of words correctly. "I'm going to . . ?"
"You're going to be living with me until such a time that someone decides you're not actively fucking suicidal." Kyle said, eyes still closed, voice on the verge of a growl. "Which means my girlfriend is going to show up at all hours to make food, because that's what she does, and you're going to tolerate my cat who probably is going to sleep on you because he loves everyone more than me."
"I wouldn’t hurt myself," Marius protested, although even he could perceive the frisson at the end of the sentence that implied an unspoken 'here'. He shook his head dismissively. "Look, I appreciate the concern, but this isn't necessary. It's just . . . it's hitting me all at once right now, all right? Once my head's straight again she’ll be right. I'm adaptable. It's one of my few redeeming features."
"I don't believe you." Kyle said. "My ears still work, you were all 'what would I end up as the third time', and you're assuming it'll happen and assuming the platelets are fucked, and man, of everyone I'd think you know I'm not as dumb as I pretend. I'm the... " He cut himself off. "It doesn't matter, you get a suitemate for a while. If nothing else, it means if your platelets are fucked, you're safe. Consider me the emergency parachute."
Marius opened his mouth, then shut it. Finally he met Kyle's gaze, and held it.
"Never in my life have I thought of you as dumb," he said.
Slowly, the Australian folded his arms across his chest and settled back in the chair, legs stretched out beneath him.
"So you're the man with the plan now, eh?" he continued. "Funny, that. The strategy that got me to you, then overloaded me -- thought I could detect a certain familiarity with some of my least impressive moments. Kurt's not got that sort of mind, and Garrison and I weren't what you'd call close."
"You called it, we were team together." Kyle said. "I got to sit in a tree and make a plan that I hoped might not kill my friend and you can suck it up and deal with me wanting to be sure you won't off yourself and ruin my hard work." He looked down, pointedly, at his bandaged wrists. "You're one of the only people who doesn't buy my himbo bullshit, don't make me try to buy your 'everything is fine, mate'." His impression of Marius' accent was abysmal.
Once again Marius felt that gulf of emptiness open in his chest. Kyle shouldn't have worried about his survival. If he hadn't maybe Marius wouldn't have been able to activate the final attack. It had been a city killer. If Garrison hadn't done . . . whatever it was he had done, NYC would have been a lifeless husk.
An entire city dead to save something even less than a man.
There was no use in voicing the thought. It was done, and it certainly wouldn't have helped convince Kyle of his mental health. Marius only nodded.
"You have established your martial superiority. I promise not to spoil your efforts." He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. "My compliments, incidentally. Seems you've cultivated quite the devious mind over the years. You had me on my knees there. Who was that at the end? With the mutation that wasn't . . . compatible?"
"April Parker. Shit has gotten really weird here, she's from another universe, and has some kind of, man I don't even know, she can turn into like, another form and it's weird." Kyle half-explained. The science was well over his head. "I remembered the whole thing about that, the whole Masque thing and the other guy, when your bitey mouths came back, weird mutations fuck your system, energy fucks your system, it was just like how many powers can we fuck you up with, between her and Jubes..." He shrugged. "And then Gar... he said he thought at worst, if that all didn't work he might have something."
Marius worked a finger against the back of his head. "It got a bit fuzzy near the end. Think I might've exploded once or twice? Unclear. Seemed effective, though." He paused, considering. "Oi, did you tell Amanda to shoot me between the eyes?"
"Did I what?" Kyle asked. "Jesus no, I didn't want you dead, I wanted you like, extremely not that thing." If the painkillers weren't wearing off, he'd have flopped backwards again, just for effect. Instead he stayed up and rigid, one hand knuckling his sternum and ribs. "We didn't have any intel on what Nur did to you, I was guessing. That's why I got all up in, there'd be my healing factor in your system and hopefully it would be smart enough to keep you alive. It's worked before."
So Amanda had been free-styling, eh? Marius wondered what the East London version of a fruit basket might be.
"It was a good guess," Marius said. One crossed foot began to jog against the other in a mindless tic. "You did have me down there, at the end. But I couldn't stop. I wasn't allowed to . . . well." He exhaled. "Something happened when Dominion hit me. The world went strange, and it felt like I came apart. Unravelled. The Akkaba augments went. What I took from the rest of you, too, I think, because I don’t have any mutations banked and I'm only healing at normal speed. It was like a factory reset. The inhibitor couldn't cause that, right?"
"Education degree, man. I dunno." Kyle shrugged. "That sounds like magic shit. Magic shit do be like that, Gar hangs out with Amanda, maybe New York did him a solid."
"Hm. Well, probably not important." Marius sighed and pulled his hands down his face. "Can I get a phone? I ought tell my parents I'm back from the 'retreat,' try to get some things moving. Maybe activate a few credit cards. Not quite sure what the protocol is here, but I've never seen a situation do anything but improve with access to vast amounts of cash."
Kyle pulled out his own phone and texted. "Yeah, I'll ask team technology to send one down. I know Doug's awake and around, hopefully he can get one setup before Clarice gets her hands on it, she's got a box of punitive rugged cases for people who make dumb decisions." He showed Marius his own phone, with a case that said "Don't follow me I do stupid things" in black text on the green case. "Stepped on a nail last week, pulled it out myself." He put it back away after a few text exchanges. "Yeah, phone's on the way, and, speaking of money. I do not need an apology vehicle but uh. I might need advice on buying an expensive thing. When you have time and are like, in the right mindset. Which is not now."
At this Marius quirked a thick eyebrow.
"You needn't have waited til I knocked out your teeth to ask," he remarked. "I'm always happy to subsidise our friendship. Money is, has, and ever shall be an enduring benefit of associating with me and my frankly obscene trust fund. Consider it compensation for all those years of lending me a healing factor."
"I have the money." Kyle said. "Warren Worthington gave everyone like two grand in the annual christmas card. I don't even work for the dude, it was just like a pile of hundos. I don't think he knows how money works but..." He gave a flash of an embarrassed grin. "I have money, I'm just going to need advice, like, later. After February though, I don't wanna be a gross cliche."
The Australian blinked at him for a moment, then smiled. Really smiled for the first time that night.
For the first time in so many nights, he realised.
"Right,” Marius said. “After February."
He crossed his arms across his chest, closed his eyes, and exhaled.
"Guess I'd better start making plans, then."
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Date: 2024-01-09 11:47 pm (UTC)Great log, guys. I love the callbacks and reminders that these two really have known one another for decades and especially Marius' totally believable (if still kind of dumb, bless him) reasoning for not going back to the people who helped him with his mutation the first time.
Can't wait to see more of their interactions.
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Date: 2024-01-10 02:18 am (UTC)Marius, you silly man. Friendship is about love because of who you are, not because of some high ideal you think needs to be reached first.
Lovely log Frito and Tap. You made me tear up.
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Date: 2024-01-10 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-10 03:07 am (UTC)