xp_logs | Cecilia and Domino (Reply)

Around dinnertime, Cecilia ventures out of medlab to get some food, but before she can get to the kitchen, the last month decides to catch up to her at once. She skips the kitchen in favor of seeking some privacy in the woods, and gets it - for about five minutes. Damn Dom's luck.

Once she'd been sure medlab was calmed down enough to survive without her for a little while, Cecilia had let Hank know she was going to run up and get a little bit of dinner. It had been her original intention, honestly it had, but the downside to leaving the medlab was that she was no longer working - and that gave her time to think.

She'd been at Xavier's for barely a month. Columbia happened just before, and resulted in her being chased out of.. well, her life, basically. Nevermind that she was getting it back now, it had still been absolutely terrifying, on more than one level. Then there was Asgard so soon after she arrived, Nathan's kidnapping, brainwashing, and assassination attempt on Charles so soon after that.. now this?

Food could wait. Walk now.

Cecilia wasn't sure how long she'd been walking.. only that she was now in the forest on the school's grounds, and far enough into it that she couldn't see the house anymore. Good. Choosing a likely-looking tree, she briskly crossed over to it and dropped down to sit on the ground at its base, and tried to see just how tiny a ball she could curl into if she really, really tried.

She had never been a huge fan of wandering around in the woods at night, but the house was entirely too abuzz, and Domino was even less of a fan of chattering, anxious teenagers in large groups. Moira hadn't let her see Nate, either - apparently the idiot had been catching planes and needed his rest - so after a token amount of stomping around and hissing, she'd decided to get some air. The grounds were veyr extensive, after all, and if she walked for long enough, she was sure to find some remnant of her peace of mind running around out here somewhere.

What she had not expected to find was Cecilia, huddled beneath a tree and looking utterly miserable. "Hey," Domino said, startled. "My punching-bag buddy... you okay?" As she crouched down beside the other woman, though, it became perfectly clear that the answer was no.

The Cecilia-shaped ball startled at the new voice, and she quickly lifted her head to see who it was, making a mental note to thank.. somebody, for just how dark the trees kept things. Maybe she didn't look as miserable as she thought she did in the low light. "Fine," she replied quickly, ignoring the waver in her voice as she reached up to hurriedly wipe at her eyes and forced a smile. "Just needed some air."

Domino laughed softly, a laugh without any kind of edge. "Bullshit," she said, sitting down and pulling her knees up to her chest, careful to give Cecilia a little bit of space. For now, at least. "It's been one thing after the other since you got here, hasn't it? It's okay if it gets to be too much."

She eyed Domino for a moment before she made a vague noise of defeat, letting her head tip forward to rest against her knees again. "For longer than that, but yes, more or less," she admitted quietly.

Domino smiled faintly, knowing she probably couldn't see it in the dark. "Tough girl," she said quietly. "I figured that as soon as we met."

Cecilia laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Have to be," she pointed out, and inwardly winced. The waver in her voice wasn't going away, it was just getting worse. "Shit."

"What?" Domino prodded, lightly. "The world will stop, if you do? Hate to tell you, babe, but it keeps turning. Even if you run off into the woods for a good cry."

"I didn't come out here for a fucking cry!" Cecilia snapped, curling up more tightly. Maybe if she tried, she could manifest the ability to shrink, or teleport, or something equally useful. "And I didn't say the world would stop if I did, but I'd be failing him! He told me I needed to be strong, and running off into the woods for a good cry isn't very strong, is it?" Nevermind that it was exactly what she was now doing, but she was trying to ignore it.

"Failing who?" Domino asked in a very different tone, subtly coaxing.

Oh. Shit. "Don't want to think about that right now," Cecilia whimpered, her voice almost pleading, her eyes squeezing as tightly closed as she could make them. "Only m-make it worse."

Domino shifted a little closer. "Hey," she said very quietly, still in that carefully encouraging voice. "It's just you and me, Cecilia, and I keep secrets real well."

Cecilia shook her head, and though a corner of her mind was aware Domino had moved closer, she didn't shy away. That would require moving, and that was far too much effort to try and gather up right now. "Not right now," she repeated quietly, tilting her head enough to wipe the tears staining her cheeks off on the knees of her jeans. "Having a hard enough time keeping it together as it is. 'nother time."

"You really are a hardcase, aren't you?" Domino asked, shaking her head. "Why do you need to keep it together? If you were needed in the medlab right now, you'd be down here. You're not. Where's the logic here, hmm?"

"Because he told me to, and I'll never be able to put it all back together if I let myself fall apart," Cecilia replied patiently, eyeing the other woman out of the corner of one eye. "And I don't recall ever claiming to be a logical person, Domino, or saying that I was talking about medlab. I don't want to think about fucking medlab right now."

"Ahh," Domino said wisely. "Can't blame you. I mean, kids turning themselves into nuclear bombs, other idiots flying off to be right there for the fireworks..." Her jaw tightened a little. She'd seen the jet come down, and even when she hadn't known Nathan was in it, it hadn't been a pleasant sight.

"Don't want to think about it," Cecilia said firmly. Or, well, it would have come off firmly if she hadn't had to choke back a sob halfway through the sentence. "Would you please stop talking?"

No, dear, I think I'm going to keep right at it, actually... "One thing after another," Domino murmured, her eyes still fixed on Cecilia. "Whatever whoever told you, we human beings can't handle that, mutations or no mutations."

Obviously, she hadn't gone far enough into the forest. She could fix that. Gritting her teeth, Cecilia uncurled so she could begin shifting in preparation to stand up, blindly reaching back for the tree so she would have something to steady herself against.

"I'm just going to follow you," Domino warned her. "I have this thing about leaving cute women crying on their own in the woods at night."

"Get over it," Cecilia muttered, and made a rather clumsy attempt at getting to her feet. Clumsy enough that she was flat on her butt again in no time, with a snarled curse.

"See," Domino said dryly, "that was my power kicking in or something. I'm going to be terribly unlucky unless I stick with you, so you fell over."

"If you don't shut up, I swear to God, I will ignore my oath and punch you in the mouth," Cecilia snarled, tugging her knees back up against her chest. Right. No walking. Back to being a ball. "Go away. You're only making it worse."

"If you want to punch me in the mouth, go right ahead," Domino said helpfully. "You won't connect, and you'll probably wind up either on your ass or on your face, but trying would probably make you feel better."

"No, it really wouldn't," Cecilia muttered, her arms moving so her hands could clamp dow'n over her ears. "If you're so keen on me having my damned breakdown, why don't you go away so I can do it in private, like I wanted to in the first place?"

"Because it's not going to do you any good if you do that," Domino said with the confidence of several years spent dealing with people who preferred to have their breakdowns in Decent Privacy and were then Just Fine, Thank You!

"And being watched like a sideshow attraction is doing so many good things for me?" Cecilia countered, looking over at Domino with narrowed, watery eyes. "Maybe the company would help if you didn't seem so fucking amused, but as it is, the only thing I want from you right now is some consideration. You give me that and let me do this my way, or you go the hell back to the house, or re-re-rediscover New York's nightlife, or something equally as away from me as you can."

"Oh, sweetie," Domino said, a note of real pain in her voice. "You think I'm amused?" She sighed, laying her hands on her knees and watching Cecilia. "Just trying to return the favor. The fact that I'm not as good at it as you are is... well, not entirely unexpected. I'm not the world's most sensitive person."

She just nodded and let her head fall back against her knees. "You're doing better than most people would," Cecilia admitted quietly, giving up and letting herself teeter dangerously to one side. Staying upright was hard. "Still here, after all."

"I am insanely persistent," Domino said, then on impulse, shifted so that she was beside Cecilia, her back against the tree as well. "And very hard to chase away."

"Very hard," Cecilia agreed, looking up to offer a weak smile. It didn't stay there for very long, though, and the mere thought of apologizing to Domino for the way she'd been behaving since the other woman found her was the straw that broke the camel's back. One sob, then two more, and she decided to forego her normal aversion to human contact for just a little while as she crumpled against Domino's side, hiding her face against the mercenary's shoulder.

Domino sighed and put her arm around her. "It's going to be okay, you know," she said very softly. "We get knocked down, we get back up. Trying so hard not to fall just winds up hurting more in the end."