Kyle and Miles. A few days before Sound and Fury.

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is backdated like a mofo. Kyle takes Miles climbing. Lets hope Alison never finds out, or my boy is a crispy critter.



Kyle had very strongly considered climbing the tree he was currently leaning against. Except that would take work, and he had a sunbeam, a bottle of water, and a bag of cookies. Chewy ones with dried cranberries and not a single thing that would make him barf and they were all his.

He shut his eyes and inhaled, catching the smell of leaves and water and dried grass and a little bit of smoke - someone was probably burning leaves, he thought. Scratching his back slightly against the trunk of the tree, he settled down, seriously and deeply considering a nap.

The shushing of small sneakers on grass accompanied by the occasional crackle of dead leaves heralded Miles' arrival long before anything else - a straight beeline from the mansion to the tree where Kyle was leaning, in fact.

Kyle opened one eye, then the other. That wasn't a very loud noise, and whoever it was smelled like cotton, and peanut butter and ... he sniffed cautiously. brown sugar? Maybe maple syrup. Unless that was pancakes. His stomach growled at him, reminding Kyle that he'd opted out of lunch, because the smell of someone's overly spicy food had made his face hurt.

The footsteps had stopped nearby and the stomach growl generated a muffled giggle, clear amusement showing through at the sound. "Miles thinks someone is hungry." The peanut butter smell intensified at that as Miles carefully took a plastic sandwich bag out of his pocket, carefully stepping a bit closer while avoiding the biggest leaves to sit down nearby. "Would Kyle like to have a peanut butter sandwich?"

Kyle opened his other eye. Oh. the green kid. Who wasn't related to the purple girl, or the blue people, -or- Alison directly. And he was going stop trying to make sense of any of this before he gave himself a headache. He held up his baggie of cookies and grinned toothily. "Sure. Want a cookie?"

A very pleased grin answered that - clearly Kyle was someone who knew what the Important Things were in life, which placed him rather well on Miles' good side. "Yes! Miles would like a cookie, please!" The last word was tacked on cheerfully, even as half a sandwich was handed to Kyle as fair trade material. "Miles made sure Kyle could eat peanut butter and not be sick, so the sandwich is safe."

Kyle handed over two cookies - of his five - with a grin. "Cranberries, and oatmeal." he said, by way of explanation. And he wasn't sure Miles could eat either, but figured if he couldn't, the little boy would say. And then it would just mean a trip back to the kitchen for more cookies, because lunch trading was a time honored tradition and you -didn't screw it up-.

The cookies were accepted with all the solemnity the situation required, Miles carefully balancing them on his knee before taking a healthy bite from his sandwich half. About half the sandwich was quickly dealt with before the little boy spoke again. "Is Kyle happy here?"

Kyle screwed up his face, trying to think. "I guess so." He wasn't sure he could explain that he and happy hadn't been really talking lately, except in short bouts of really, really bizarre moments where everything was funny. "Its not home, but its okay. Most folks are nice, there's stuff to do, and the outside's kinda cool. All the trees." Kyle liked trees. A lot.

"Here is very nice. Miles didn't know it could be like this, before." The boy nodded earnestly, carefully making sure Kyle was eating as well. He'd been held by bad people too, just as Miles had been. "Miles likes trees. Mister Cain is very tall and helps Miles climb high!"

Mister Cain? Kyle was confused, briefly. Oh. Mister Marko. The one who smelled like rocks who was the size of a truck. Not even a small truck, but one of those huge ones with "oversized load" taking up two lanes. "Definitly with you on the climbing." Kyle grinned. The claws were a pain, and God, if his handwriting had been bad before, it wasterrible now. Maybe even worse than terrible. But -climbing-. Spending the better part of an afternoon in the trees was worth it, definitly.

Lifting up a green hand, Miles displayed his own - noticeably lacking in the same number of fingers. The three-fingered hand was studied for a moment, before Kyle was given a solemn look. "Miles does not have the same number of fingers but is okayat climbing. Only, Miles this the claws must help Kyle climb fast a lot." There was a definite tinge of admiration in the little boy's voice.

"I'm pretty good at it... " Kyle tilted his head for a moment, then sat up on his knees. "Figure you can hang on piggy-back pretty well?" He asked. "I think the tree demands a climb." Trees often did. They said so, just be being all leafy and bark-covered and treelike. Also, Kyle noted - though he wouldn't admit it if asked - autumn was prettier inside the trees.

Someone was asking Miles if he could hang on for a piggy-back ride? The sandwich had been eaten but the cookies were carefully stashed away and put back in the pocket of his coat, Miles then scrambled up to his feet with surprising speed. "Miles can hold on!" The thought of going on an actual tree climb without skipping the whole climbing bit? Clearly meeting with a lot of approval here.

Pondering for a moment how best to do this, Kyle finally just setteled on waiting for Miles to approach and then helping the little boy - who Kyle decided had to be about the lightest thing -ever- - to climb on. There was a light headrush, almost as if the ground spun when Miles got close, and Kyle shut his eyes for a second, trying to get his balance.

The sensation stopped abruptly, accompanied with a definite scrambling back sound. "Miles forgot." There was a distinctly woeful cast to Miles' voice at that. "Miles is so sorry. Is Kyle all right now? Miles dampens mutant powers when Miles gets to close to others," his voice faded to a whisper with that admission.

Kyle blinked. "I'm fine. That .. was -weird-. " He shook his head, as if to clear it and looked up at the tree. Hell, he could do that if he was a little -dizzy-. It wasn't like he hadn't climbed the day he was sick from chocolate. "C'mon. Back up. Just give me a sec to make sure I won't drop you?"

Miles was torn - climbing the tree sounded like fun. A lot of fun. But Kyle had been dizzy and that wasn't fun. But Kyle was bigger and older and he did seem to think it would be all right... and the claws hand't dissapeared. Alison had explained to him that permanent physical mutations didn't seem to be affected by his power. "Miles can keep from affecting people until Miles is a foot close."

Kyle craned his neck to look over his shoulder. "The feet didn't go 'way and so I figure I can get up there without whatever mutant thing that makes me land on my feet when I fall." He'd climbed jungle gyms before he got all fanged-and-clawed, he figured that he could handle a tree branch or two without agility. Besides, there was -no- way he was letting Miles feel bad about the dizziness. "You'll just have to hold on really tight."

"Miles can do that!" Re-assured and entirely willing to try this again, because climbing trees was fun and being allowed to piggy-back ride was cooland probably not like when Hank bounced around the medlab and all but it was still so very cool! He trotted over to Kyle, hopping up just a bit when the older boy crouched down - if there was one thing knew how to do, this was it.

Once he'd made sure Miles really was holding on tightly, Kyle stood up carefully. His normal leap to a low branch would -not- do here, he was far too worried about Miles falling. After a moment, he very delibratly stretched out his fingers, making sure his claws were -all- the way out. One hand, then the other dug firmly into the tree trunk, and then -very- slowly, and carefully, Kyle pulled himself up, digging the claws of his feet into the bark for support once he and Miles were off the ground..

There was no doubt that much glee was involved on Miles' side of things, giggles escaping him during the entirety of the slow climb. He was careful to keep not strangle Kyls as they went along, looking up at the leaves getting steadily nearer with a grin of anticipation.

Maybe eight feet up, or just a little less, Kyle found what for him would have been a low branch, had he been able to take his normal quick scramble up the tree route. He straddled it, gripping the branch with his knees and relaxed his fingers. The climb had been a little bit of a strain, though not quite as much as he'd thought it might be.

Carefully, Miles loosened his hold enough to rest his feet on the wider part of the branch near the tree trunk, still keeping a very good grip on Kyle's coat. "Miles thinks that was much fun!" He did notbounce because that was a bit awkward considering where they were, but there was a definite aura of contagious glee around him. "Kyle does this often?"

Contagious glee was -exactly- what Kyle was feeling. He grinned widely and nodded, wiggling his toes with the claws out. "Its what I do." he said proudly. Kyle was good at climbing, he had found. There wasn't a tree yet that he hadn't managed to haul himself up into.

Miles peered at the claws seriously, smiling a bit - they weren't dissapearing because of him, which was good as Kyle was clearly pleased with them. Making them go away would have been bad. "Miles thinks that is a very cool thing to be able to do." Unabashed admiration was clearly involved in this statement.

Kyle couldn't argue. In the grand give and take of his mutation, climbing was making up for a whole host of annoying -crap-. Still gripping the branch with his knees, he dug around in his jacket pocket for the baggie with the cookies. Once found, he took out two, and handed one over to Miles. "I'm liking it. 's cool that I can haul you up here too." he said. "Not so sure your mom wouldn't have a cow if we went higher... " Kyle peered up above his head. He'd been nearly to the treetops, but he wasn't worried if -he- fell. Miles, on the other hand, was entirely a different story.

Cookies were good and keeping a careful hold with one hand, Miles freed the other - the best way to celebrate a good climb was a cookie, without a doubt. A muffled thanks was followed by the cookie being very much appreciated, Miles looking over the view the height afforded them before peeking upwards. "Mr. Cain has helped Miles go higher before and kept watch." Although it hadn't been thatmuch higher and Cain was just really tall that way. It was very tempting to go higher. And he knew Alison would not mind if it was safe. "Maybe Kyle and Miles could go a littlehigher together?"

If the kid was sure, and he'd done it before, Kyle wasn't going to complain or argue too much. He looked up, trying to figure out a path that would avoid the less sturdy branches. Sure or not, he wasn't going to just blindly climb without checking first. "I think we can go up a little bit more... you're gonna have to hang -on- though. Your mom'd kick my butt if you fell."

"Alison would!" Miles was entirely too cheerful about that, making sure that he was hanging on properly once more in a way which wouldn't impede Kyle's progress (or breathing for that matter). "How high does Kyle think is safe?"

'Ehh. I figure we can at least go up a couple of more feet.' Kyle said. There were definitly a few more study branches, and the big oak a few feet away had that really thick branch only a couple of feet up. Any higher than that, and he'd have needed that agility that his mutation gave him, but for now, he could just hang on and climb like any other person.

Kyle was while hauling Miles along with him, the little boy wasn't about to complain. And he still had the cookies Kyle had given him to share in celebration of the climbing victory later. "That is high enough for Miles!"

Kyle shifted his shoulders, rolling them to loosen them up, and hitched Miles up a little further onto his back. A few already dug out clawmarks made it eaiser to pull himself up another set of branches, moving mostly on all fours for steadyness. Normally, he'd have cheerfully leapt up, or across, but there was -just- no way he was trying that with Miles clinging to his back.

The slow climb was the truly fun (and amazing) part of things. Maybe when he got his power under control someone would take him flying - it was Miles' truly secret wish, although he'd never really told anyone except Alison. He knew how dangerous it would be, if he suddenly lost control of his dampening field in that kind of situation, after all.

But this, Miles reflected, was a world of cool in it's own right. "Miles has not had fun climbing trees like thisin... always!"

Kyle laughed. "Climbing's fun." He settled down into a crouch, eyeing the medium-sized branch he was perched on, and a much larger branch about two feet away. Oh, lord. if Alison -ever- heard about this, he was so -very- going to be dead-ed. But... he wasn't entirely sure that the branch he was on was sturdy. Taking a deep breath, he tensed, and leapt - more of a hop, really, landing on the thick branch with not even so much as a stumble.

The shift wasn't too sudden, giving Miles time to realize what Kyle was up to and take in a deep breath to keep from letting out a whoop of glee. Which was released when a few moments after Kyle had landed, somewhat muffled as the little boy remembered at the last second that Alison had warned him about Kyle's sensitive hearing. "Fun!"

Kyle noted that getting -down- was definitly going to be much easier than up as he sat down, straddling the branch with his knees. Just a matter of a straight climb down. "I think we're probably high enough.. " He pointed up with his thumb. "Not sure those branches would support both of us, much less -me-."

"Miles had never been so high before unless Mister Cain was helping and watching after." He sat down carefully on the branch, keeping a hand on the trunk of the tree to stabilize himself, and then took out the cookies form his pocket. "And there are two cookies left. Would Kyle like one?" Grinning endearingly, the little boy lifted the sandwich bag now containing the two cookies Kyle had given him earlier.

Far be it for Kyle to turn down food. Ever. He took the bag and removed the smaller of the two cookies (though not smaller by- much) and nibbled at it. "Lesee. Cookies. Tree. No homework. Coolest green person I know." He grinned lazily. "I could get used to this place."