Illyana and Sharon (Oct 5)

[om_catseye]

Illyana tracks Sharon down to ask if the birthday invite is an accident. They rekindle their friendship.



Yana glanced down at the invitation in her hand one last time. No, it wasn't making any more sense than it had the first twenty or so times she'd looked at it. Sharon hadn't said two words to her in months, but had invited her to her birthday party.

Sighing, Illyana took the invitation with her, walked to the room Sharon shared with Rahne, and knocked on the door. If it was some kind of mistake, she'd rather know outright. For all she knew, Steve had sent out the invitations.

Sharon was in for the afternoon, so she answered the door, head tilting when she saw Illyana. "Hi," she said.

"Hi." Illyana stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, then sighed and held up the invitation. "Misdelivered?"

Sharon's brows furrowed and she shook her head. "No. Made it to you, yes?"

"Yeah. That's why I figured it'd been misdelivered." Illyana took a deep breath, then exhaled. "You haven't exactly been talking to me. For, y'know, months now?"

Sharon shrugged. "Thought you were angry. If you're not, want to come?"

Illyana shrugged, her lips quirking up in a smile. "Sure, why not? And for the record? If I were mad for months, you'd definitely know."

Sharon tilted her head. "Okay." She gave Illyana a small smile. "Up for camping?"

"Mmmm." Illyana wrinkled her nose. "Never done it," she admitted. "It sounds like a really great way to get eaten alive by mosquitos."

"They make spray," Sharon said with a laugh. "For delicate, tasty people."

"Yeah, but the spray stinks." Illyana wrinkled her nose again, just on principle, then rolled her eyes and smiled. "Okay, fine. Camping. Who's all coming?"

"Not sure yet. Invited bunch of people, but don't know who'll come or stay. You, yes. Tony, Steve-- Tony's not staying. Clint and Kitty said yes."

"Kitty's camping?" Illyana didn't bother to hide her surprise, even as she mentally ran through the names. Kitty was good. Clint - well, more than likely she and Clint could manage to go for a couple of days without getting into a fight. No mention of Vance, which was even better. She hadn't lied; she wasn't mad at Sharon (who, okay, was pretty much a social idiot), but she wasn't trusting herself to play it cool if she had to watch her hang on Vance, either. Especially if he showed signs of enjoying it. It was hard enough in class.

"Oh, no," Sharon corrected. "KItty's just coming for party. Fleeing for electricity when sun goes down. Tech kids are afraid of the wilderness," she said sagely.

Illyana let out a snort of laughter. "Sounds about right. Can I bring Nico if I can talk him into coming?" Which...okay, that was unlikely, but not impossible. If nothing else, they could scope out the woods for dead bodies. He'd like that.

"Of course!" Sharon said. "Wasn't sure if people would want to bring partners, but figured wait to see. Easier that way."

"Cool. I'll see if he's up for it." Illyana smiled crookedly. "He's mostly not a big fan of parties, but he likes hanging out in the woods. It might win out. If not, it's not personal."

Sharon nodded. "Don't know well, so wouldn't take personal. Not everyone likes lots of people. Think Rahne is coming, because woods, but she may hide."

"It'll depend on whether or not Phil Coulson's there, probably." Illyana eyed Sharon with interest. "Do you know if she ever got up the guts to talk to him?"

Sharon made a face. "Coulson's coming. Not good fit for her. Told her, but likes bad ideas best I think. Or, well, makes sense to like people that are nice, but... really, really bad idea. Invited lots of people, so she shouldn't have to spend time with him? So many other people to talk to."

"Mmm, she probably still will anyway if he's there. Just to try and prove she's cool with it." Illyana made a face. "I know what you mean, though. It seemed really, really unlikely, but she was so sure he liked her." She tilted her head and grinned a little. "Speaking of Coulson, any idea what's going on with him and Clint?

Sharon tipped her head and asked, "Why?"

"Oh, I took Clint somewhere a couple of weeks ago. Phil stopped in at Kitty's to say thanks, and...well, he seemed more concerned about Clint waking up to find him not there than I would've expected?" Illyana grinned a little. "Took it a while to sink in - I was kind of brainfried - but then I got to thinking." She shrugged. "Wish I'd have known sooner. I would've tried harder to talk Rahne out of hitting on him."

Sharon shrugged. If Phil had mentioned Clint waking up without him, he'd given enough away himself. "They're both ridiculous," she said. "Don't think they knew or know. Both still very special. But Philip takes care of Clint, always has, so hope everything works out. Good together."

"Good for them," Illyana said sincerely. Hell, if Clint managed to find someone, Pietro might actually be right - there might be hope she would, eventually. She grinned a little and shook her head. "I've gotta admit, I never saw that one coming."

"Mind not spreading?" Sharon requested. "Very private about it. When more comfortable sure they'll care less, but think afraid it's bad luck to say it out loud." Given Clint's powers, she hoped Yana would understand that even if she didn't know them very well otherwise.

"Yeah, not a problem." Her smile widened. "Bad luck aside, sometimes sneaking is just fun."

"Feel that way about air ducts," Sharon said with a grin.

"I've never tried air ducts," Illyana admitted, grinning back.

"Not too tall for air ducts," she mused. "Some." She raised her tail, as if measuring Illyana's height.

Illyana let out a snort of amusement. "Shorter than you." By quite a bit, actually. Unless Sharon was climbing through air ducts as a cat, which, come to think of it, wasn't at all unlikely.

"Sometimes," Sharon agreed, because as a cat was always easier.

"We could test it?" Illyana's eyebrows rose a little and she grinned.

"Want to come for drag? If you get stuck, can get Kitty to phase you out," Sharon suggested with a smile.

"If I get stuck, I can probably teleport out." Illyana smiled back. It'd be interesting to find out if she could or not, anyway. "But sure, why not? I'm all for sneaking."

Sharon brushed her tail against Illyana's leg. "Let's go play then."

Illyana laughed. "You're on." Granted, she knew she was still going to want to cringe when she saw Vance and Sharon together, but honestly, there wasn't anything she could do about that. Besides, other than Sharon behaving like, well, a cat, there wasn't really anything to get jealous over, anyway. Vance had said it himself. They were just friends.