Liam and Kyle, post-Pale Horse Check-in

[xp_wildchild]

While Marius does his apology tour turns, Kyle checks on Liam, does get him to agree to see a therapist, and completely forgets to ask him what he's building and making.

This won't cause problems later at all. Nope.



Liam was hiding in the workshop, happily losing himself in measuring the wood and the whirring of the saw. Easier to do that than to be stuck in his head, watching people attack and fight and worse, die. Maybe it was avoidance, at least a little, but sometimes you needed a break from yourself.

Tracing an outline on a piece of plywood with a pencil, studied it fully when he heard someone else enter. "You need your boots, Sharon!" he called automatically. She was the only one in here recently.

"You still owe me video of her trying to walk in them the first time." Kyle said, leaning in the doorway. "I." he said. "Do not need boots, since my feet are not inside the workshop." True to his word, his bare feet were just outside the door, despite the rest of his body in the doorframe. A pair of boots with nylon cord quick laces dangled over his shoulder.

"It was just as bad as you think," Liam assured him, sitting up and stretching. "What can I help you with?"

Kyle sat the boots down, and stepped into them, ignoring the quick laces. "You know the expression twitchier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?" he asked. "You're like, legit the opposite in body language, and totally that expression in activities. You, uh, logged a lot of hours down here." He looked around - it was tidy, still organized, tools were put away neatly, all the reasons he'd let Liam have a key in the first place. "Pretty much the entire time I was recovering and doing debriefing for X-Men stuff."

He grabbed a stool, and sat down. "Look, I'm not gonna try to like, teacher this shit. This - this isn't like, I'm your teacher time. I mean it is, but I'd do this even if I wasn't teaching. You did a brave and pretty fucking serious thing in the city, and I'm checking in." Kyle picked up a piece of scrap wood, and turned it over in his hands, picking at the edge with his claws. "You saw some shit. I heard Darcy talk to you serious about it, about what you might see. I saw her report."

Part of the reason he didn't look more nervous was that his tail was down his pants for safety. His ears were flattened into 'airplane mode,' which was generally a sign of displeasure instead of moving like little satellite dishes trying to catch every sound. Shrugging, Liam very studiously examined the plywood. "Yeah," he agreed, "It sucked."

He bit his lip, then looked up at Kyle, "I don't wanna do that again. I don't...I don't wanna see her again either," there was no way to say he didn't want to be in that situation, it had been completely unexpected.

"You shouldn't have had to do it in the first plate but I get why you did." Kyle said, more bluntly than Liam had likely heard. "You don't have to talk to her, or hang out with her, but Darcy does live here, so I can't promise you won't see her face. You're allowed to avoid her, and if anybody gives you crap for it, tell them I told you it was okay, on one condition.'

Liam nodded, grateful, "I wasn't going to be rude," he replied, "Just avoid her. I know she lives here."

"Sweet, because I did not have my mansion is a community speech written." Kyle barked a little laugh. "Seriously, one condition. You saw some vile shit, you probably saved a couple lives but you are sixteen. I'm gonna make you an appointment with my therapist. They're cool, they're good at dealing with the shit I've seen and I want you to get ahead of it before you do what I did and melt the fuck down and bite people."

He paused. "Literally, I bit a guy."

He nodded, making a face. He'd never been to therapy, but that probably wasn't a bad idea. "Why'd you bite him?"

"He existed." Kyle said. "I dunno, I was dealing with some shit, and he was my roommate at the time, and needed a shower and I was real mad." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I was your age, it seemed like a good idea. Not sure he ever even told anyone."

"Oh," that.... wasn't at all what Liam expected. He couldn't imagine doing that to Shatterstar or any of his friends. Maybe in a fight, but he'd not been in one of those, so.... "Um. Can I get a code name? Darcy and the other lady, I forgot her name, they kept making up all sorts of cats and," he made a face. None were bad or offensive per se, but he wasn't a fan. "It wasn't the time to say something then."

Kyle covered his face with one hand, trying - and failing - to hide the genuine laugh that came out. "Liam, buddy, don't pick code names when you're sixteen. I mean we can give you one for Gen-X stuff, they're fun as hell, but sometimes when you pick them you get stuck with them. Forever.'

"But I don't want to be Daniel Tiger or Garfield or worst," he paused making a gagging face, "Jorts. I've heard them all and they're dumb. My classmates tried to butter me and it was so gross and took forever to get out of my tail."

"I'm just sayin, make good choices because sometimes when you're sixteen you decide your X-Men codename is gonna be Wildchild, which is great when you're a teenager and less when you're, well." Kyle waved his hand around his entire face, beard and man-bun and healing bruise on one cheekbone. "Pick one you can live with forever."

Sighing, Liam didn't really have an answer. He hadn't really thought of a code name, just that he wanted one that wasn't dumb before someone else gave him one that was. "I dunno. Maybe people think you're holding on to your youth? You're not that old."

"We can brainstorm one for you. You wanna avoid just like, cat names in general?" Kyle hopped upon the workbench after pushing aside a few wood scraps. "Oh, also before I forget, post therapy you get sushi and snacks. There's a couple of good noodle places, an empanada place, a really great sushi place. Therapy's a bitch, you get snacks after."

Liam did like snacks. "I love fish," he agreed, perking up a little. "But it's gotta be really fresh. Because that's better. What's an empanada?"

"Basically like a little hand pie with meat in it. I mean they make a guava one and a veggie one but most of them have meat." Kyle pulled out his phone to pull up pictures to show Liam. "But lets get you the appointment first, you can pick snacks day of."

Those did look good. "Yeah, okay," he agreed.