Kyle & Terry | So I Wanna Be An X-Man...
Jan. 14th, 2024 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTerry instigates a conversation just to make sure Kyle's got not objections to her joining the team. (Heavily backdated.)
Sitting cross-legged in Kyle's 'new' bed, Terry fiddled with the hem of the leg on the lounge pants she'd decided to wear, amused that she didn't actually need them because the t-shirt she'd chosen for sleeping in was Kyle's and she could essentially swim in it. She'd braided her hair back, a careless sort of plait that would probably fall out in the middle of the night, but it didn't really matter.
Mostly, she just kept fidgeting because she wanted to bring up a topic she'd never discussed with Kyle before and she wasn't entirely sure how he'd react. Not that Terry thought he'd react badly, this was just... well. It was more like she had quite a few questions and while she could have spoken to Jeanie or Sooraya or Alison, she just felt like it might be better to start with Kyle.
Because his answers and opinions mattered.
Building back lost muscle sucked, with a capital uck. It added a very boring set of workouts to his already slightly over-packed routine, even if Danger Room runs and hand to hand classes with Maya and therapy were on hold until shit calmed down a little bit. Kyle hated the weight room, it was boring. He usually got it done and over with in the morning, when he could at least be social with Scott - or whoever else was in the room that day, sometimes Matt, sometimes Doug, sometimes Clint, but mornings were taken up with swimming because his endurance sucked right now by his own standards, and jogging, because Marius had decided to start running on the grounds and Kyle wasn't going to not run at the same time.
So a third workout in the weight room was now his nighttime activity, followed by raiding his fridge for whatever protein wasn't boring - he was not going to start eating protein powder, that was disgusting and smelled like feet and the kinds he could digest were expensive, and then a second shower and so with damp hair and a full stomach and comfortable shorts he came out of his temporary bathroom still drying his face - leftover peanut chicken meant his beard smelled like peanut butter, it had to go, so he'd spent extra time getting rid of it.
"Sorry, I could not stand my own face." He said casually to Terry, as he tossed the towel one-handed into a laundry bin. "I've already done like two pre dawn snack attacks, I don't wanna wake up craving peanut butter and bacon sandwiches."
Smiling despite thoughts chasing one another around in her head, Terry said, "Well, that's a sentiment I've never shared regardin' your face. But if y'had crunchy peanut butter, I'd be tempted t'join you when y'wake for your nighttime snacks." She flicked the end of her braid at Kyle, then tipped her head to the side. "Y'have a moment t'talk about the X-Men, love? Or would y'like t'read? All the exercisin' you're doin', you've got t'be exhausted by this time o'night."
Kyle laughed a little. "I do have crunchy peanut butter, but if my face smells like it I wake up at three am hungry. I already pre-dawn accidentally texted people once, trying to not do that again. I woke up April's dog." He sat down on the edge of the bed, let himself drop backwards and looked up at Terry. "You are hella fidgeting, so I absolutely have a moment, or nine, or however many it takes. Reading can wait, my to be read list isn't going anywhere. Weight room was empty anyway, so I did audio books while I was super boring for an hour."
Terry smiled despite herself, reaching out to run her fingers through Kyle's hair for a few moments before she said, "I've been thinkin', since the riots in District-X... I could hear everythin' goin' on through the comms. It was... nice in a way, t'know what was happenin' an' that everyone was as safe as possible given the situation, but then I heard you give the orders for the last bit. And it was odd -- o'course, there was worry. But something else, too." Eyes focusing on the bedpost for a moment, Terry gave herself a bit of a shake before looking back toward Kyle. "Sorry, that's not what I meant t'say. It's just... I want t'be... no' more useful, but I'd like t'be doin' more in general t'help. An' so, I wanted t'check with you t'see if you'd mind me joinin' up. With the X-Men, I mean."
"I don't know - um." Kyle said. "Jesus, Ter. I want to be okay with it, and I want to say, yeah, go for it." He sat up, scooting backwards until his back was against the headboard. "I am saying go for it, before I go off and sound like a butt, I am saying do it, if you want to, do the thing." He took a deep inhale, held it and let it out all at once. "Just, you know how bad it gets." His teeth had just finally fully re-grown, his claws re-grown, his sternum didn't ache when he swam anymore.
Terry didn't have a healing factor.
Kyle knuckled his ribs, digging out ghost pain. "Unqualified yes, because I think you're badass, Alison never. shuts up. about you and the crabs, she might have a crush, but I'm probably gonna worry."
"That's fair," Terry said. "And it's no' as though I'll be rushin' out at the first emergency. I know there's a lot o'trainin' t'do and other things before I'd be able t'go anywhere. I'm no' too keen on the fightin' bits. But I didn't like no' bein' able t'do more'n hold off the crowds -- and after a certain point, I couldn't even do that." She gestured toward her still-bruised neck. "I just mostly wanted t'make sure I wouldn't cause y'some sort o'trouble or distraction, I suppose." Turning so she could scoot a bit closer to Kyle, she settled when their knees touched. "Alison's a dear, but all I did then was give her the sound she needed t'make hand lasers." Terry quirked a small smile. "Literally, lasers comin' out o'her fingertips. That poor baseball field'll never be the same again."
"Eh, Peter Angelos could afford to rebuild it, he's basically rich and evil." Kyle waved off the damage to Oriole Park. "I mean I can't say I won't be distracted by you in leather pants, but..." He tilted his head, and grinned. "I mean not in a fight but I will fall into a Danger Room pit at some point for sure."
That mental image broke Terry's somewhat somber expression as she laughed out loud. "Lord, an' seein' y'all decked out in your own set o'leathers..." Shifting so she could kneel up on her knees, Terry pressed a kiss to Kyle's forehead, the tip of his nose, and then his lips. "I do love you, Kyle Gibney, y'delightful soul."
"I love you too." Kyle's thoughts briefly traveled to his savings account, and a pinecone he'd kept on a bookshelf in his classroom for years now. "My leathers are beat to shit right now, they are the opposite of sexy." Technically he did have backup sets, but it took time to break them in. "Which, serious talk time, are you gonna be okay? You're gonna see more of me getting, I dunno, I can't think of a creative injury, and I'm running out of new and unique ways to get a week of Vicodin from Doc Voght and the tooth fairy owes me at least a hundred bucks by now."
The reminder of everything that had happened to rough up Kyle's leathers like that brought Terry back to the stray thought she'd briefly begun speaking about before she'd gotten herself back on track. "Y'know," she murmured, eyes going a little distant. "For a moment, after I heard y'lay out the plan t'remove Death from the field, I thought y'were dead. I'd've sworn to't." Eyes focusing back on Kyle, Terry briefly let one hand fall from his face to his neck as she ran her thumb up and down the side. "'t'was like... somethin' took me by the throat an' all I could see was you. But then that man grabbed me so... maybe I've just confused the two thin's. I don't know. The feelin' went away and I screamed him into a brick wall."
Not bothering to try to hide her worry, Terry felt her brows draw down. "I worry about y'no matter where y'go or what you're doin'. First an' last thought when there's an emergency. Bein' there t'see y'with m'own eyes won't make me fret more than I already do, love."
"Right after, or like." Kyle rubbed his sternum. "How right after? I mean, I wasn't even in it for at least a few minutes after the plan. We had to give Death a bunch of Jubilee before he got me, and I think Wanda was in there somewhere too." He twisted around until his head was on Terry's lap, and his legs were dangling off over the side of the bed. "I'm fine. Worst of the damage was before my healing factor was off, and I don't even think I had more than a couple of little heartbeat hiccups. I was conscious..." He stopped himself. "I was mostly conscious the entire time. I kind of passed out on purpose when Yana was my evac. I can't handle Limbo right now."
Grounding herself by pressing the palm of one hand against Kyle's chest over his heart, Terry listened to it for just a few moments before she said, "I... y'laid it out and I felt -- like m'lungs seized up. I thought it was anxiety, the riots were still on. M'chest got tighter an' it was like..." She trailed off, fingertips trailing softly through Kyle's hair as she attempted to recall the specific feeling. "Like someone had hold o'my throat." Moving her palm from his chest to the divot between Kyle's collarbones, Terry rested the base of her pinky just above that divot and continued, "A wicked grip, just here. Large hand. Cold. I dunno how long I stood there like that, but the only thought in m'head was that y'were dead an' gone an' I just... I needed t'scream. But then the thought blinked out an' that man actually did have me by the throat."
"I mean. That sounds like, maybe you blacked out?" Kyle said, hesitantly. "I definitely wasn't dead, the worst was just like a, uh, I dunno the medical term, not a heart attack, some other thing, like I said, little heart hiccups." He tapped his chest. "My heart's great, Doc Voght ran a bunch of EKG on me before she let me out. Probably worth us doing a couple of pair trainings in the Danger Room to make sure it's not gonna be a thing for you though. You can meet Furious George, he's my gorilla nemesis."
"Furious -- " Terry stopped so she could laugh aloud, the solumnity from moments before gone. "Lord, you're amazin'," she said, shaking her head before she bent down to press another kiss to Kyle's forehead. "But you're no' wrong about trainin' together. Mayhap the whole thin's a bad idea, if I black out whenever you're in danger. Can't have that durin' a fight."
"I mean I'm sure Gar and Scott are gonna run nine hundred scenarios where one of us has to see the other one in trouble and hold our shit together anyway. Would not be the first time, like, shit, I ran a ton just when Clarice and I dated for a hot minute." Kyle explained. "If you can hold it together when George throws me across a jungle clearing, you'll be fine. I'll whine a lot though, he has banana breath, it's so gross, Ter. So. Gross."
"They programmed your George of the Jungle to have banana breath?" Terry asked, half disbelieving and half impressed. "I've no love for bananas one way or the other, o'course, but a very large jungle man..." Wrinkling her nose, she laughed softly and reached out to tug gently on one of Kyle's earlobes. "But I'll run as many trainin' programs as I need t'in order t'no' be a burden in the field."
"He's straight up a gorilla. Sometimes has little chimp minions, mostly it's just a gorilla. It's a whole agility and defense thing, Scott built it ages ago." Kyle explained. "I think Kurt runs the same thing, spatial awareness, agility in tight spaces, it makes sense. The banana breath is just because that man is a sadist." He grinned. "So of course I deploy it against Maya. And Alison. And April. I mean what good am I as a X-Man if I can't pass Cyclops' evil Danger Room scenarios down onto the younger set."
"You're an excellent X-Man, regardless o'enjoyin' sadistic trainee torture by Danger Room," Terry said, laughing softly as she rose up on her knees so she could lean in and kiss the end of Kyle's nose. "Now, since we've established you've no immediate objections t'me joinin' the team, can y'think o'anythin' else we might do this evenin' t'keep occupied?" One eyebrow arched, she shimmied just enough to wind up in Kyle's lap. "Anythin' at all?"
Kyle reached over to his phone and tapped an app - and the lights dimmed to dark.
Sitting cross-legged in Kyle's 'new' bed, Terry fiddled with the hem of the leg on the lounge pants she'd decided to wear, amused that she didn't actually need them because the t-shirt she'd chosen for sleeping in was Kyle's and she could essentially swim in it. She'd braided her hair back, a careless sort of plait that would probably fall out in the middle of the night, but it didn't really matter.
Mostly, she just kept fidgeting because she wanted to bring up a topic she'd never discussed with Kyle before and she wasn't entirely sure how he'd react. Not that Terry thought he'd react badly, this was just... well. It was more like she had quite a few questions and while she could have spoken to Jeanie or Sooraya or Alison, she just felt like it might be better to start with Kyle.
Because his answers and opinions mattered.
Building back lost muscle sucked, with a capital uck. It added a very boring set of workouts to his already slightly over-packed routine, even if Danger Room runs and hand to hand classes with Maya and therapy were on hold until shit calmed down a little bit. Kyle hated the weight room, it was boring. He usually got it done and over with in the morning, when he could at least be social with Scott - or whoever else was in the room that day, sometimes Matt, sometimes Doug, sometimes Clint, but mornings were taken up with swimming because his endurance sucked right now by his own standards, and jogging, because Marius had decided to start running on the grounds and Kyle wasn't going to not run at the same time.
So a third workout in the weight room was now his nighttime activity, followed by raiding his fridge for whatever protein wasn't boring - he was not going to start eating protein powder, that was disgusting and smelled like feet and the kinds he could digest were expensive, and then a second shower and so with damp hair and a full stomach and comfortable shorts he came out of his temporary bathroom still drying his face - leftover peanut chicken meant his beard smelled like peanut butter, it had to go, so he'd spent extra time getting rid of it.
"Sorry, I could not stand my own face." He said casually to Terry, as he tossed the towel one-handed into a laundry bin. "I've already done like two pre dawn snack attacks, I don't wanna wake up craving peanut butter and bacon sandwiches."
Smiling despite thoughts chasing one another around in her head, Terry said, "Well, that's a sentiment I've never shared regardin' your face. But if y'had crunchy peanut butter, I'd be tempted t'join you when y'wake for your nighttime snacks." She flicked the end of her braid at Kyle, then tipped her head to the side. "Y'have a moment t'talk about the X-Men, love? Or would y'like t'read? All the exercisin' you're doin', you've got t'be exhausted by this time o'night."
Kyle laughed a little. "I do have crunchy peanut butter, but if my face smells like it I wake up at three am hungry. I already pre-dawn accidentally texted people once, trying to not do that again. I woke up April's dog." He sat down on the edge of the bed, let himself drop backwards and looked up at Terry. "You are hella fidgeting, so I absolutely have a moment, or nine, or however many it takes. Reading can wait, my to be read list isn't going anywhere. Weight room was empty anyway, so I did audio books while I was super boring for an hour."
Terry smiled despite herself, reaching out to run her fingers through Kyle's hair for a few moments before she said, "I've been thinkin', since the riots in District-X... I could hear everythin' goin' on through the comms. It was... nice in a way, t'know what was happenin' an' that everyone was as safe as possible given the situation, but then I heard you give the orders for the last bit. And it was odd -- o'course, there was worry. But something else, too." Eyes focusing on the bedpost for a moment, Terry gave herself a bit of a shake before looking back toward Kyle. "Sorry, that's not what I meant t'say. It's just... I want t'be... no' more useful, but I'd like t'be doin' more in general t'help. An' so, I wanted t'check with you t'see if you'd mind me joinin' up. With the X-Men, I mean."
"I don't know - um." Kyle said. "Jesus, Ter. I want to be okay with it, and I want to say, yeah, go for it." He sat up, scooting backwards until his back was against the headboard. "I am saying go for it, before I go off and sound like a butt, I am saying do it, if you want to, do the thing." He took a deep inhale, held it and let it out all at once. "Just, you know how bad it gets." His teeth had just finally fully re-grown, his claws re-grown, his sternum didn't ache when he swam anymore.
Terry didn't have a healing factor.
Kyle knuckled his ribs, digging out ghost pain. "Unqualified yes, because I think you're badass, Alison never. shuts up. about you and the crabs, she might have a crush, but I'm probably gonna worry."
"That's fair," Terry said. "And it's no' as though I'll be rushin' out at the first emergency. I know there's a lot o'trainin' t'do and other things before I'd be able t'go anywhere. I'm no' too keen on the fightin' bits. But I didn't like no' bein' able t'do more'n hold off the crowds -- and after a certain point, I couldn't even do that." She gestured toward her still-bruised neck. "I just mostly wanted t'make sure I wouldn't cause y'some sort o'trouble or distraction, I suppose." Turning so she could scoot a bit closer to Kyle, she settled when their knees touched. "Alison's a dear, but all I did then was give her the sound she needed t'make hand lasers." Terry quirked a small smile. "Literally, lasers comin' out o'her fingertips. That poor baseball field'll never be the same again."
"Eh, Peter Angelos could afford to rebuild it, he's basically rich and evil." Kyle waved off the damage to Oriole Park. "I mean I can't say I won't be distracted by you in leather pants, but..." He tilted his head, and grinned. "I mean not in a fight but I will fall into a Danger Room pit at some point for sure."
That mental image broke Terry's somewhat somber expression as she laughed out loud. "Lord, an' seein' y'all decked out in your own set o'leathers..." Shifting so she could kneel up on her knees, Terry pressed a kiss to Kyle's forehead, the tip of his nose, and then his lips. "I do love you, Kyle Gibney, y'delightful soul."
"I love you too." Kyle's thoughts briefly traveled to his savings account, and a pinecone he'd kept on a bookshelf in his classroom for years now. "My leathers are beat to shit right now, they are the opposite of sexy." Technically he did have backup sets, but it took time to break them in. "Which, serious talk time, are you gonna be okay? You're gonna see more of me getting, I dunno, I can't think of a creative injury, and I'm running out of new and unique ways to get a week of Vicodin from Doc Voght and the tooth fairy owes me at least a hundred bucks by now."
The reminder of everything that had happened to rough up Kyle's leathers like that brought Terry back to the stray thought she'd briefly begun speaking about before she'd gotten herself back on track. "Y'know," she murmured, eyes going a little distant. "For a moment, after I heard y'lay out the plan t'remove Death from the field, I thought y'were dead. I'd've sworn to't." Eyes focusing back on Kyle, Terry briefly let one hand fall from his face to his neck as she ran her thumb up and down the side. "'t'was like... somethin' took me by the throat an' all I could see was you. But then that man grabbed me so... maybe I've just confused the two thin's. I don't know. The feelin' went away and I screamed him into a brick wall."
Not bothering to try to hide her worry, Terry felt her brows draw down. "I worry about y'no matter where y'go or what you're doin'. First an' last thought when there's an emergency. Bein' there t'see y'with m'own eyes won't make me fret more than I already do, love."
"Right after, or like." Kyle rubbed his sternum. "How right after? I mean, I wasn't even in it for at least a few minutes after the plan. We had to give Death a bunch of Jubilee before he got me, and I think Wanda was in there somewhere too." He twisted around until his head was on Terry's lap, and his legs were dangling off over the side of the bed. "I'm fine. Worst of the damage was before my healing factor was off, and I don't even think I had more than a couple of little heartbeat hiccups. I was conscious..." He stopped himself. "I was mostly conscious the entire time. I kind of passed out on purpose when Yana was my evac. I can't handle Limbo right now."
Grounding herself by pressing the palm of one hand against Kyle's chest over his heart, Terry listened to it for just a few moments before she said, "I... y'laid it out and I felt -- like m'lungs seized up. I thought it was anxiety, the riots were still on. M'chest got tighter an' it was like..." She trailed off, fingertips trailing softly through Kyle's hair as she attempted to recall the specific feeling. "Like someone had hold o'my throat." Moving her palm from his chest to the divot between Kyle's collarbones, Terry rested the base of her pinky just above that divot and continued, "A wicked grip, just here. Large hand. Cold. I dunno how long I stood there like that, but the only thought in m'head was that y'were dead an' gone an' I just... I needed t'scream. But then the thought blinked out an' that man actually did have me by the throat."
"I mean. That sounds like, maybe you blacked out?" Kyle said, hesitantly. "I definitely wasn't dead, the worst was just like a, uh, I dunno the medical term, not a heart attack, some other thing, like I said, little heart hiccups." He tapped his chest. "My heart's great, Doc Voght ran a bunch of EKG on me before she let me out. Probably worth us doing a couple of pair trainings in the Danger Room to make sure it's not gonna be a thing for you though. You can meet Furious George, he's my gorilla nemesis."
"Furious -- " Terry stopped so she could laugh aloud, the solumnity from moments before gone. "Lord, you're amazin'," she said, shaking her head before she bent down to press another kiss to Kyle's forehead. "But you're no' wrong about trainin' together. Mayhap the whole thin's a bad idea, if I black out whenever you're in danger. Can't have that durin' a fight."
"I mean I'm sure Gar and Scott are gonna run nine hundred scenarios where one of us has to see the other one in trouble and hold our shit together anyway. Would not be the first time, like, shit, I ran a ton just when Clarice and I dated for a hot minute." Kyle explained. "If you can hold it together when George throws me across a jungle clearing, you'll be fine. I'll whine a lot though, he has banana breath, it's so gross, Ter. So. Gross."
"They programmed your George of the Jungle to have banana breath?" Terry asked, half disbelieving and half impressed. "I've no love for bananas one way or the other, o'course, but a very large jungle man..." Wrinkling her nose, she laughed softly and reached out to tug gently on one of Kyle's earlobes. "But I'll run as many trainin' programs as I need t'in order t'no' be a burden in the field."
"He's straight up a gorilla. Sometimes has little chimp minions, mostly it's just a gorilla. It's a whole agility and defense thing, Scott built it ages ago." Kyle explained. "I think Kurt runs the same thing, spatial awareness, agility in tight spaces, it makes sense. The banana breath is just because that man is a sadist." He grinned. "So of course I deploy it against Maya. And Alison. And April. I mean what good am I as a X-Man if I can't pass Cyclops' evil Danger Room scenarios down onto the younger set."
"You're an excellent X-Man, regardless o'enjoyin' sadistic trainee torture by Danger Room," Terry said, laughing softly as she rose up on her knees so she could lean in and kiss the end of Kyle's nose. "Now, since we've established you've no immediate objections t'me joinin' the team, can y'think o'anythin' else we might do this evenin' t'keep occupied?" One eyebrow arched, she shimmied just enough to wind up in Kyle's lap. "Anythin' at all?"
Kyle reached over to his phone and tapped an app - and the lights dimmed to dark.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-19 04:02 am (UTC)A poignant beat that encapsulates a lot of Kyle's worries.
Nice to see Terry and Kyle discussing Terry's movement forward and how it will impact their relationship, but also the fallout from Pale Horse added in with all of the risks inherent to being on the X-Men. The bits about the danger room were a clever way to add levity to the serious topics.
A question for the ages, Terry.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-19 04:59 pm (UTC)