Players:
Summary: After the trip to Chattanooga, Jinx corners Lucas about what happened.
Date: July 8, 2010
Log Title: Never Play It Again, Sam
Rating: PG
Quad
There is a square side walk of pavement with a nice grassy area in the middle with a few stone benches and trees along the corners. The pavement leads to the paths to the grounds of the school, the Dining Hall in Xavier's and the Ramsey Dormitories. It's not particularly large but it's a nice place for students and teachers to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
Jinx is out on in the quad on this hot summer night. The air is shimmering with heat and humidity cast off from the lake and kids are out doing their thing away from the cloistered rooms of the Mansion. Jinx is sitting on a bench with a sketchbook curled in her lap, her tail a neat arc around her and her feet crossed before her. On the bench is a small stone that she tries to reinvent on the page in a series of rough scribbles.
Lucas is walking from the mansion towards the cove. He's wearing a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a wife beater, with a pale blue short sleeve button up shirt over it. It's left unbuttoned, however, and he is carrying a well used accoustic guitar. When he sees Jinx, he pauses for just a moment, and then walks over towards her. "Um… Hey," he says, hesitantly.
His scent is masked by the blowing breeze and the pop tarts he must have been eating. At the voice, she looks up from her page and her eyes narrow into a frown that is anything but friendly. "Lucas," she says tersely. "I already made Connor cry. You here for your turn?"
Lucas chews his lip for just a moment, resting the base of the guitar on the ground, holding the neck to keep it upright. "Ah don't understand why you're so angry with he and Ah," he says, very honestly. "But Ah'd like to. Because Ah'd like to be able to apologize." He shrugs a little, "An', Ah reckon if whuppin' my ass is what you need for it to be right, then… well…" He nods a little, "Okay."
Jinx hisses a soft sound. "You don't get it," she shakes her head. "He knew what you were up to and agreed. You did all that without asking me. Just threw me into the situation without a head's up! Who was I, Lucas?" She flunks her book down with a smack on the bench. "Who was Sam?"
Lucas swallows, and he nods. But he doesn't look away from her. "You're right." He nods, and sighs. "Ah'm sorry. In my head… Ah was so excited that you could help my maw that when you didn't ask what Ah needed your help with, Ah just… Ah never thought to say." He furrows his brow a little, not seeming nervous at all, since it's the truth. "Sam was girlfriend. It was a long time ago. My maw doesn't know we ain't together no more. Ah didn't wanna ruin that hope for her."
Jinx frowns at the boy. "A girlfriend? I figured that by what you said. And why did you look at me like you were looking at a ghost? That is a really creepy way to look at someone. It wasn't me," she eases her feet off the bench, claws digging into the ground. Her tail is a ribbon of black and white behind her.
Lucas stares at her a long moment, but his gaze is far away, almost through her. Finally, when he speaks, his eyes look down at her feet. "Because she's dead." Then the move quickly back to Jinx's eyes. "Ah swear, Ah asked you to do that for my maw. Not me. Ah ain't after nothin' creepy out of it."
Jinx reels back and her lip lifts above one tooth. "You had me pretend to be your dead girlfriend for your sick mom's benefit, and didn't think it would be important to tell me??" Her voice rises in pitch, outrage bright and sharp in her eyes. She shakes out her hands in a gesture. "Lucas! What a shitty thing to do!"
Lucas sighs, and his shoulders slouch just a little. He purses his lips, and lowers his gaze. "No. Ah didn't think… Ah was too excited…" He sighs, shaking his head. "You've given me hope what Ah can't really explain… An' Ah totally was a shitty dickhole to you to get it. Not on purpose, but…" He nods again, and looks back up to her. "Ah'm sorry."
Jinx's eyes watch him carefully. He's backing down from her where Connor rose back to yell back in her face. "You gotta apologize to Connor too," she huffs softly. Her arms cross over her chest and she glowers. "I yelled at him and hurt his feelings pretty bad. I had to hose him down because he was going postal. By rights, I should claw your eyes out or something."
Lucas swallows, and he nods. "Ah'll talk to him. Mean time, if'n you wanna whallup me, Ah'll let you." He glances away for a moment, and then back to her. "What you did for me an' my maw in there… It was amazing." He shuffles his left foot a moment. "Thank you."
Jinx finds it hard to be mad at someone who is apologizing. And thanking her. "I am really angry still," she warns, just so he doesn't think she is going soft. Her ears are folded back still, though easing. "I know you needed that to happen. I could smell just how sick your Mom was. I waited until I was not in Sam's body to slap your face," she murmurs to him, these small gifts as she looks aside, the hot breeze blowing through her hair. "I thought you were dating Rashmi. What would she say about all this? Does she know?"
Lucas sighs once more, and he looks off at a tree. "Sam was before Ah came here, before Ah met Rash. She don't know." He looks down, and he shrugs. "She don't know Sam's dead. Ah think she knows Ah dated her before…" Now he's starting to smell a little nervous. "The doctor thought it was best if'n we didn't tell my maw everything what happened. There was worry she wouldn't be able to handle it. She don't know about my hands none, neither."
Jinx frowns again. "Sounds like you've done so much lying to protect people that you don't know when to tell the truth anymore," she states with the confidence of a girl who thinks she knows it all. She walks up to him then, and pokes a clawed finger at his chest. "You listen here, Lucas Whatever-your-last-name-is. You stop this lying and half-truth business right now. There is no way in hell that I would follow you anywhere or ask anyone else to follow you unless I know I am getting the whole story as best you can tell. Got it?" She looks up at the boy through her bangs, her eyes a dark sort of purple that is unnatural as the black and white swirling fur over her frame.
Lucas looks down at her poking claw, and he mutters, "…Heathe… Lucas Heathe…" He looks back up at her, meeting her eyes, and holding his stare with her. Very quietly, he just whispers, "Ah murdered her." He looks a little agitated that he said that, and he asks, "Why couldn't you just let it go?"
Jinx's eyes flash open wider. "You murdered who?" She asks, having a good idea but wanting to make certain. She doesn't back off, but she does lean back on her heel. Despite his destructive capabilities, she doesn't seem overly worried. "What are you talking about?"
Lucas holds his own ground as well. "Ah said Ah was sorry… Ah told you enough… But you had to push for more…" He shakes his head a little, and the air around them both gets a little warmer. "…Ah loved her…," he says, as a sizzling sound and the stench of burning lacquer begins to come from where his gloved hand is touching the guitar. "It was Prom night…Ah was excited… It was our first time, an' when Ah…" He furrows his brow a little, skipping that next thought as the air gets a little warmer. "My hands exploded… Ah wasn't a freak before then… Ah oobliterated the entire house…" There's a spark from his glove as the material begins to fail. Then another spark, and a hiss. Lucas doesn't seem to notice. "…Ah loved her…"
Jinx slaps her palm to his naked chest. She knows what is happening. "Lucas," she says, as her own powers flood out. There is the utter peace of the laughter of his mother in younger days, when they'd picnic along the river in the summertime, on a day just as hot and humid as today. It's the feeling of apple pies and checked tablecloths and the song of a family member singing in the shower, off-key. It's Home, distilled into the touch of the mutant who looks like a giant spotted skunk. "Chill out. Take a deep breath and chill yourself out."
Lucas doesn't seem to hear her say his name. The guitar falls to the ground with a clang as fire begins to leap from the cuff of the left glove. "…Ah lost everything…," he says, and then her touch is on his chest, and he freezes. He gasps, twice, and then begins to breath, quite rapidly. He drops to one knee, and assuming her touch moves with him, he begins to nearly hyperventilate, each breath accompanied by a grunt through his gritted teeth. He squeezes his eyes shut, muttering, "…no no no no no no no…" And slowly, the fire from the glove begins to putter out, and the air around them returns to normal.
Jinx is down on one knee too, and her brows are drawn into a frown of concentration. When he seems like he's got himself under control, she gradually pulls her fingers away. "I told you I'd make you cry," she grumps softly, biting her lip and not too proud of her success in upsetting her schoolmates. Her fingertips rest on his shoulder lightly before pulling away completely as she stands. She is silent, not knowing quite what to say about the whole terrible tragedy. To say that it wasn't his fault would be a trite lie that he's heard a hundred times before. "You would have broke your mom's heart if you died too," she says softly, bending to get his guitar and wipe of the singed lacquer from the neck. "Can you play this?"
Lucas slowly recovers his breath, and he stares at the ground for a minute as he recuperates. Finally, he looks at the guitar. He just quietly responds, "…yeah…"
Jinx blinks a little. "That's awesome. You'll have to play me something, sometime," she smirks a little, whiskers flicking. It seems the natural thing to say, after all. She lifts the instrument and hands it to him. Her lips press into a thin line. "I am happy I could make your mom sleep."
Lucas furrows his brow, looking up at her, then at the outreached guitar. He pauses a moment, then takes the instrument, pushing himself to his feet. "You helped me touch her. Ah haven't touched her in almost two years." He looks at the neck of the guitar, maybe assessing the damage, before looking at Jinx once more. "Ah know Ah suck, Jinx, an' Ah got no right to even think y'all'd help me again, but… would you help me learn to shut my hands off?"
Jinx looks at him hard now, thinking over his words. "You just did it yourself. I don't see why you need me to help you," she mumbles, reaching up to push back her long bangs away from her eyes. She breathes a short breath, looking away and hooking her thumbs in her skirt. "You have to apologize to Connor. Come clean with him. Then maybe I will think about it," she looks back to his face. "Deal?"
"Ah did it with your help. Ah need help figuring out how to feel that on my own, how to do what you help me do on my own." Lucas shakes his head affirmative. "Ah will. Deal." He smirks a little, "Can Ah ask you a personal question?"
Jinx looks back at him, a slow blink over her eyes. Her tail lay in a slow arc against the grass of the quad, held just above the surface as to not collect leaves and debris or god forbid *bugs*. She thinks of the thousands of personal questions she'd rather not answer. "Sure?"
Lucas studies her carefully, and then asks, "Were you always furry? My hands didn't happen until a few years ago…"
Jinx shakes her head. "No. It happened when… well, when it always happens, right?" she kicks the dirt with her foot, scuffing her pawpads against the trimmed grass. "Started when I was 12 or so."
Lucas nods, "Do you…" He furrows his brow, it's the face of a young man debating whether to ask the follow up or not, but he goes for it anyway. "Do you have your inducer programed with what you'd look like?"
Jinx's whiskers twitch. "No," she answers flatly. "I don't know what I'd look like… but I figure it doesn't matter anymore, right? This is what I am," she nods to herself. "So the image inducer is what I would want to look like. If you could choose, wouldn't you do the same?"
Lucas gets a confident halr-grin, "No. Ah'd look like me. But Ah look pretty good, so…" He shrugs. It's a half joke, but he's also a little serious.
Jinx snorts a laugh and doesn't answer. The question has left her brooding on the subject of her appearance as much as any teen girl. "At least I never got much acne," she murmurs softly. Her tail gives a restless shake behind her.
Lucas nods, smiling a bit at her. "True." He shrugs, "And Ah reckon you're great to snuggle with." He actually gives her a little wink, and he looks back at the guitar again, which makes him sigh when he sees the little burns.
At his words, she floofs a little. It is her equivalent to a blush, not that she would let the secret on to anyone. She shuffles in the grass. "Yeah well, Thanks," she smirks, and looks away. He has a GF, after all. "I am mad at you, remember," she reminds him for the umpteenth time. "And we have a deal and all and I.. ah.. should go…"
Lucas looks back at her, and he nods, "Sure. Ah'll just go ahead an' repent and grovel at your feet until you're ready to forgive me." He smiles at her, "Thank you, Jinx. If that's your real name…"
Jinx casts him a glance. Now he's just teasing. "Mostly real," she answers. Turning away, she moves off towards the mansion. "See ya, Lucas," she calls over her shoulder. "Say hi to James for me." The skirt sways as she moves in a rhymic pattern eclipsed by the shade of her tail.