xp_logs | Clea & Stephen | Let's Go Back Home

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Clea approaches Stephen in the library and makes a suggestion that is both complicated and incredibly easy to agree to.

Stephen sat in the library and Kamar-Taj, one of the multitude of books on any number of magical topics on the table before him while Wong puttered around shelving things and listening to Beyonce. He thought no one knew, but everyone knew. Stephen wasn't really reading, he was sort of cheating, just taking in the pages one by one and then flipping them so he could go over them later.

And it kept him from practising more with his sling ring or going through more kata with some of the Masters, so as long as he was being mildly productive, Stephen didn't feel too terribly guilty about only half-studying.

Clea walked, quickly, through the library with purpose. Locating the tables and a certain someone among them with once again a mountain of books. The redhead made her way over to Stephen and suddenly appeared next to him, her elbow on the table, holding up her head with hand, looking up at him. "How did I know you would be in the library again?" Looking down at the book and then back up at her best friend, "What are you doing?"

"Is this a trick question?" Stephen asked, looking up from the book so he could squint at Clea for a moment. Briefly, he caught the scent of fresh air and that ephemeral sense of sunlight that trailed her into the room before the library's usual smell of old paper, binding glue, leather, and candle wax took hold again. "I feel like it's a trick question. Because this is where you almost always find me, assuming I haven't texted to tell you I'm somewhere else. To what do I owe the pleasure?" He was grinning despite the formality of his question, sitting back in his seat, though he kept a finger in the book to mark his place.

Clea looked at her phone and then back at him. "Steve, it has been three hours since your last text." She gave him a playful smile. "But I forgive you since you are reading." Clea lifted the book slightly to get the title of the book, "Some book about magical theory or whatever. Oh, I think this one I was supposed to read...I'll ask you for the cliff notes later." She teased and lowered the corner of the book back to its place. "I am always a pleasure. So, I have been thinking. Maybe we should go back to the mansion."

Taking the change in topic in stride, Stephen tilted his head a bit and asked, "Okay, how come? I mean, I'm not objecting, but what're you thinking?"

"We are both thriving in our individual training and we both have gotten stronger and more capable with our powers." Clea looked around and then back at Stephen. "But we don't actually have to live here anymore. We were given the sling rings and we can sort of get to where we want to go anytime. Our friends are there and the way I see it, we can still come back to Kamar-Taj for our training and reading duties. Plus we won't be really far away, the New York Sanctum Sanctorum is literally in the same time zone."

Sanctum Sanctorums weren't quite the same, but Stephen got what Clea meant. "Yeah, our friends are there," he agreed. "And the sling rings really do make it a lot easier to get around without having to coordinate with one of the masters to open a portal for us. It'd be nice being closer to Amanda and everybody else. And there've been a lot of recent additions. Could be nice, getting to know new people..." He trailed off, fiddling with the family ring he wore on his thumb. "Do you already have a timeline for this laid out? Have you talked to anyone about it?"

"It has been very lively there from what Amanda told me." Clea sat up just as Cata jumped onto the table and sat right on the book that Stephen was reading. "I went to visit Amanda a couple of weeks ago. She welcomed me back like I was never gone..." Clea smiled as she lifted her hand for Cata to sniff before the fae cat rubbed her head on her fingertips. "It felt like home. Not like here. It feels like a watered down version of Hogwarts."

Giving up the book, Stephen freed his finger from it and reached out to give Cata a few good shoulder scritches. "Yeah, I went to see her after the whole... France and District-X fiasco. It'd be nice to be there to help with things again." Then he gave Clea a very pointed look and said, "Never let Amanda hear you compare anything magic to that awful terf's books. It was bad enough when she wasn't transphobic. Amanda might actually curse us, now. Something like leaving out every vowel in the words we speak or only being able to speak words that don't contain the letter A."

Cata welcomed the new scritches as she closed her eyes and purred every louder. "It shall be erased from my vocabulary." Clea said, "Never to be mentioned again. But you get my meaning."

"Yeah," Stephen agreed, nodding. "There's really not much here we can't access easily enough. We're going to have to take up self-defense again, not just the kata we've been doing here. I mean, can you imagine Mr Kane's face -- Clea. We're so out of practise."

"I mean we really didn't have a need for that kind of training. But I would say my offensive and defensive spells have gotten better. I mean, unless we want to become true Masters and Mistress of the Mystic Arts." Clea placed her hand on his shoulder, "If you want we can go practice a little to see what we remember and maybe Mr. Kane won't make us run 100 laps around the mansion."

"Oh, you poor, sweet summer child," Stephen intoned. Neither of them had really kept up with their self-defense because, as she'd noted, neither of them faced any real physical threats while in Kamar-Taj. It was all... well. Studying and learning and more studying and more learning. With kata thrown in for physical and spiritual health.

"Yeah, okay. I'm convinced. We can move back to the mansion and -- well. Actually. Don't you have all the training with X-Force?" Groaning melodramatically enough to attract Wong's attention, Stephen covered his eyes with his arm and spoke to his elbow as he said, "You'll be fine. I, on the other hand, am going to have to run ten million laps around the whole bloody estate."

"Hey, I am the oldest here." Clea poked his shoulder. The redhead laughed when she realized she was free from the running of the laps, "And I'll be there cheering you on from the sidelines while holding those tiny little cups of water. You'll be fine. You'll be fine." She patted her best friend on the shoulder.

"Yes, fine," Stephen said, dropping his arm so he could pet Cata again. "Besides, more physical activity wouldn't hurt me. And my program director will be thrilled he can overload me on practical courses once I'm back in New York."

"A win-win situation if I ever saw one." Cata stood up and slowly walked onto Stephen's lap and curled up. "You might be here for a while, so I'll leave you be. I was going to invite you to see if you were hungry and get some food, but you have been chosen."

"Cata," Stephen said, speaking directly to the Fae creature. "How about you hop on my shoulder and we'll go for a stroll and then I'll slip you bits of food when Clea's not looking?" He raised his eyebrows at her and patted his shoulder in invitation.

Cata looked up at Stephen with the look of 'I won't be bought' but after a few more seconds she stood up and slowly climbed to his shoulders and gave him a little lick on the ear before settling down to a comfortable position and wrapping her tail behind his neck to his other shoulder.

"You spoil her too much." Clea shook her head but had a clear smirk on her face.

"Well, she's very spoilable," Stephen said, standing up carefully so as not to unbalance Cata. "Now, you mentioned lunch?"