Laura and Pietro, late Sunday afternoon
Jan. 27th, 2013 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainPietro checks in to get another Laura Opinion, resulting in more feels--this time a little more eloquently expressed. Not that that's saying much.
Lately, Laura seemed more likely to be indoors than out. Pietro didn't know if that was a cold thing, a snow thing, or what, but it did make it a little easier to track her down--if and when she wanted to be tracked. He had no doubt that if she wasn't in the mood, Laura would disappear, and no amount of superspeed roaming the grounds would lead him to her.
He was okay with that. It was part of the general... Laura-ness.
But once more, he wanted her opinion on something important--and, really, just to check up on her, as he had been on his other friends all afternoon. He'd made his plans with Eames, hugged Alison tight, made sure Tessa wasn't working too hard. Shit had gotten real, like they'd all known it would, but even Pietro wouldn't have predicted the televised violence and the way it had the media frothing at the mouth. It would've made him sick, for all the reasons he'd told Tessa, if he hadn't been so well prepared for it, in a general way, beforehand. And if Wanda hadn't come the week before--
No point thinking about that. She was here. It was on. The end.
He knocked on Laura's door, fully expecting it would either be immediately opened, or he would be on his way to search the woods in five seconds or less.
The door did open, though with a slight hesitation in the movement that possibly only Pietro would have ever noticed. Laura was dressed in black yoga pants and an athletic tank of dark gray that suggested she had possibly been planning to go down to the gym. Barefoot, she stepped back from the door, silently inviting Pietro inside.
He accepted, but with a measuring look at her, head to toe, that had none of its usual implications. Laura didn't hesitate--usually her movements were deliberate, her actions clear and considered. She was somehow not okay. Pietro's mind was whirring with ideas, and they were all totally worthless. "Just, you know. Wanted to talk. If that's okay. I mean, if you feel like it. If I'm not interrupting."
Yep. Still disrupting his brain activity. What else was new?
"You're not interrupting," Laura told him, and closed the door before moving back to her bed, which, while still neat and properly made, looked far more slept in than it had in her first few months at Xavier's.
See, Laura was the one person (not related to him and therefore obligated to love him) he believed, when they said things like that. He waited for her to settle before following a little tentatively, even so, and lowering himself onto the edge. "Yesterday was really fucked up. I guess I just wanted to see how you felt about it. What you think."
"My opinion," she clarified, looking up at him through a dark curtain of hair.
He nodded, for once silent, a tiny and slightly wry smile tugging at one corner of his lips. Pietro leaned back on both hands and sprawled his legs out before him, settling in more comfortably.
Quietly, she pulled her knees up and hugged them, turning her gaze toward the opposite wall. "I couldn't help her."
Pietro's eyebrows drew down and together as his mind continued to whirr. He glanced at Inara's bed, but no, that didn't make sense. What other "her"? He scooted backwards on the bed, kicking off his shoes so he could pull his feet up, closer to Laura. Needed to be able to see her eyes to tell. "Elaine Dupree?" he guessed, for lack of a better answer.
She nodded, not moving away, though her thumb rubbed absently at the inside of her left arm.
Now he could see her properly, he stopped to examine her again--the barest split second of pauses, but long enough, for him. A weird fidget--one he wasn't sure he'd seen before. Otherwise, nothing.
"I kind of understand--I mean, no one deserves to die for a stupid mistake. God knows I'd be long gone. Ten times over." Which was a lot of why Pietro's heart had begun to soften towards the girl even before Wanda had shown up. After that, all the bitterness had bled right out; all he wanted to do was look forward. Do what he had to to protect what was his. If she was an adult, whatever--but she was a stupid kid who'd mad a stupid kid mistake. Like him. What he didn't get was, "Why do you think that was down to you?"
"I have the ability to avoid the cameras. To get her out without being seen. With my skills, I could have returned her to Xavier's." Laura frowned. "And endangered everyone I...everyone."
For once, he didn't have to ask what she meant. "I know it sucks to have to let one go to save a lot," Pietro admitted. He felt a little bit--okay, a lot stupid for not having seen this coming, but hindsight was a bitch like that. Shit. "I think the day we stop feeling that is the day we're really fucked. Actually, I suddenly feel really shitty for just giving her up for lost, myself."
But he had, the day she'd posted that first video. Pietro's only thought had been for the danger Wanda was suddenly in--maybe no more than he was, but isolated from him, from the protection of family, of people who loved her. His shoulders slumped and he looked down at his own lap. "But your hands were tied, Laura. Anyone who talks to you for five minutes knows you would've if you could've."
"It isn't about other people," she pointed out. "But one thing is certain. It's better that she was killed, rather than taken."
No, it wasn't about other people, and Pietro knew that Laura had no high opinion of herself, now he thought about it. She'd said something like... what I am is nothing to be proud of? He couldn't remember exactly, but she'd totally shut the conversation down when he'd tried to argue.
So, okay, he wasn't going to chase away the issues of a lifetime in five minutes of throwing metaphorical glitter over her. But Laura often inspired an odd kind of patience in him; he was undaunted. "Definitely--and if they're not already looking for more of us to stock up in Area 51 or whatever, they will be soon." Insensitive, maybe, but Laura wasn't gonna thank him for not being honest. He hesitated, but took her hand just to press it, like this would let her know he was serious. "Maybe that's something we can do, too. Not just protect the people we care about here, but help with that stuff. If it's less public, and it'll have to be... no one's hands are tied, right?"
It wasn't the publicity stunt type stuff he'd been thinking of, when Tessa had mentioned it the other night. But looking at Laura all fucked up like this, his mind had been hyperdrive trying to think of something he could say or do. If he couldn't fix the past, and the present was fucked, all that left was the future, right?
She didn't pull her hand away, but closed it more warmly in his, looking up to meet his gaze. "Pietro. Promise me. If they come, you will take your sisters and you will run. Very far, very fast."
"Sure. If everyone else comes with." He squeezed her hand. "If I walked away and left Victor to fend for himself with those fuckers, how could I expect Wanda to ever look at me again? Forget looking in the mirror."
"There might not be time to save everyone, Pietro," she told him. "But I can hold them off."
Pietro's heart hurt. Like, really, really hurt. First for Laura, for what it meant for her to say that to him. Belatedly, he had the thought, Awesome. Not only do I go head over heels for a girl who won't love me back, but a girl who won't love me back and who also has a death wish. I'm a goddamn genius.
But he said, "I can honestly promise you that if it comes down to it, yes, I will take my sisters and I will run until they're safe." Assuming that Wanda doesn't hex the fuck out of me for even thinking about it, and Lorna doesn't stop my blood in my veins and fight to the death over my unconscious body. But yeah, no, he was cracking jokes internally to keep himself from getting all burny-eyed. He wasn't making light of Laura's request.
The very next thought was: And I will drop them off and turn right back around and come back for you. "But we have a chance, right now, to make sure that doesn't happen. Tessa's in the library planning away. Phil's probably doing the same in his room. And I'm sure as shit my father is. So let's just work on that, okay?"
Laura listened to the sound of his hummingbird-heart speeding up; a repetitive buzz against her eardrums. "They won't kill me, Pietro," she pointed out. "I don't think they can. But...okay."
"You said yourself that being taken is worse." He leaned over and pressed an absolutely different kind of kiss at her temple, against her hair, before pulling back again. He didn't let her hand go. "You can't care what happens to people, but expect people not to care for you. That's not the way it works, hate to tell you." And yeah, that last bit was irony. Just a little.
She blinked up at him, eyes big and round at the soft, chaste kiss he'd pressed into her hair. The other kisses she had understood. The other kisses made sense, but he wasn't aroused right now. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that, or his redefining her parameters on how caring worked.
Aaaaand if Pietro's heart ever had a chance of escaping unscathed, that blew it all to hell. God. Those eyes. Just. Fucking. Shattered him. He did manage to say, a little gruffly, "Just saying. Might as well get used it. You're stuck with me giving a shit. I'll try not to be too annoying about it, though." He tried to smile, but it faltered a little. Superspeed brain rendered useless once more.
Laura paused, then nodded, answering quietly, "So are you. Stuck."
"I'll deal," Pietro promised. That time, the smile made it. "Can you?"
"Deal?" she asked curiously.
Pietro snorted out a tiny, silent laugh and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Yes. I will manage knowing that you care whether I and my sisters are safe or not. That you want us to be safe. It was sort of sarcastic of me--but in a nice way. Because I like it. A lot." A lot more than I'll say, even. So long as it doesn't make you sad, anyhow.
"I'll...manage knowing that you care about me getting taken," Laura agreed finally, then added, "And I will work on waiting for Tessa and Philip and your father to decide what should be done."
"I care about more than that," Pietro said, smile going lopsided. "But that'll do, yeah."
After a moment's thought, Laura leaned up, pressing a kiss to his temple, just as he'd done for her.
Lately, Laura seemed more likely to be indoors than out. Pietro didn't know if that was a cold thing, a snow thing, or what, but it did make it a little easier to track her down--if and when she wanted to be tracked. He had no doubt that if she wasn't in the mood, Laura would disappear, and no amount of superspeed roaming the grounds would lead him to her.
He was okay with that. It was part of the general... Laura-ness.
But once more, he wanted her opinion on something important--and, really, just to check up on her, as he had been on his other friends all afternoon. He'd made his plans with Eames, hugged Alison tight, made sure Tessa wasn't working too hard. Shit had gotten real, like they'd all known it would, but even Pietro wouldn't have predicted the televised violence and the way it had the media frothing at the mouth. It would've made him sick, for all the reasons he'd told Tessa, if he hadn't been so well prepared for it, in a general way, beforehand. And if Wanda hadn't come the week before--
No point thinking about that. She was here. It was on. The end.
He knocked on Laura's door, fully expecting it would either be immediately opened, or he would be on his way to search the woods in five seconds or less.
The door did open, though with a slight hesitation in the movement that possibly only Pietro would have ever noticed. Laura was dressed in black yoga pants and an athletic tank of dark gray that suggested she had possibly been planning to go down to the gym. Barefoot, she stepped back from the door, silently inviting Pietro inside.
He accepted, but with a measuring look at her, head to toe, that had none of its usual implications. Laura didn't hesitate--usually her movements were deliberate, her actions clear and considered. She was somehow not okay. Pietro's mind was whirring with ideas, and they were all totally worthless. "Just, you know. Wanted to talk. If that's okay. I mean, if you feel like it. If I'm not interrupting."
Yep. Still disrupting his brain activity. What else was new?
"You're not interrupting," Laura told him, and closed the door before moving back to her bed, which, while still neat and properly made, looked far more slept in than it had in her first few months at Xavier's.
See, Laura was the one person (not related to him and therefore obligated to love him) he believed, when they said things like that. He waited for her to settle before following a little tentatively, even so, and lowering himself onto the edge. "Yesterday was really fucked up. I guess I just wanted to see how you felt about it. What you think."
"My opinion," she clarified, looking up at him through a dark curtain of hair.
He nodded, for once silent, a tiny and slightly wry smile tugging at one corner of his lips. Pietro leaned back on both hands and sprawled his legs out before him, settling in more comfortably.
Quietly, she pulled her knees up and hugged them, turning her gaze toward the opposite wall. "I couldn't help her."
Pietro's eyebrows drew down and together as his mind continued to whirr. He glanced at Inara's bed, but no, that didn't make sense. What other "her"? He scooted backwards on the bed, kicking off his shoes so he could pull his feet up, closer to Laura. Needed to be able to see her eyes to tell. "Elaine Dupree?" he guessed, for lack of a better answer.
She nodded, not moving away, though her thumb rubbed absently at the inside of her left arm.
Now he could see her properly, he stopped to examine her again--the barest split second of pauses, but long enough, for him. A weird fidget--one he wasn't sure he'd seen before. Otherwise, nothing.
"I kind of understand--I mean, no one deserves to die for a stupid mistake. God knows I'd be long gone. Ten times over." Which was a lot of why Pietro's heart had begun to soften towards the girl even before Wanda had shown up. After that, all the bitterness had bled right out; all he wanted to do was look forward. Do what he had to to protect what was his. If she was an adult, whatever--but she was a stupid kid who'd mad a stupid kid mistake. Like him. What he didn't get was, "Why do you think that was down to you?"
"I have the ability to avoid the cameras. To get her out without being seen. With my skills, I could have returned her to Xavier's." Laura frowned. "And endangered everyone I...everyone."
For once, he didn't have to ask what she meant. "I know it sucks to have to let one go to save a lot," Pietro admitted. He felt a little bit--okay, a lot stupid for not having seen this coming, but hindsight was a bitch like that. Shit. "I think the day we stop feeling that is the day we're really fucked. Actually, I suddenly feel really shitty for just giving her up for lost, myself."
But he had, the day she'd posted that first video. Pietro's only thought had been for the danger Wanda was suddenly in--maybe no more than he was, but isolated from him, from the protection of family, of people who loved her. His shoulders slumped and he looked down at his own lap. "But your hands were tied, Laura. Anyone who talks to you for five minutes knows you would've if you could've."
"It isn't about other people," she pointed out. "But one thing is certain. It's better that she was killed, rather than taken."
No, it wasn't about other people, and Pietro knew that Laura had no high opinion of herself, now he thought about it. She'd said something like... what I am is nothing to be proud of? He couldn't remember exactly, but she'd totally shut the conversation down when he'd tried to argue.
So, okay, he wasn't going to chase away the issues of a lifetime in five minutes of throwing metaphorical glitter over her. But Laura often inspired an odd kind of patience in him; he was undaunted. "Definitely--and if they're not already looking for more of us to stock up in Area 51 or whatever, they will be soon." Insensitive, maybe, but Laura wasn't gonna thank him for not being honest. He hesitated, but took her hand just to press it, like this would let her know he was serious. "Maybe that's something we can do, too. Not just protect the people we care about here, but help with that stuff. If it's less public, and it'll have to be... no one's hands are tied, right?"
It wasn't the publicity stunt type stuff he'd been thinking of, when Tessa had mentioned it the other night. But looking at Laura all fucked up like this, his mind had been hyperdrive trying to think of something he could say or do. If he couldn't fix the past, and the present was fucked, all that left was the future, right?
She didn't pull her hand away, but closed it more warmly in his, looking up to meet his gaze. "Pietro. Promise me. If they come, you will take your sisters and you will run. Very far, very fast."
"Sure. If everyone else comes with." He squeezed her hand. "If I walked away and left Victor to fend for himself with those fuckers, how could I expect Wanda to ever look at me again? Forget looking in the mirror."
"There might not be time to save everyone, Pietro," she told him. "But I can hold them off."
Pietro's heart hurt. Like, really, really hurt. First for Laura, for what it meant for her to say that to him. Belatedly, he had the thought, Awesome. Not only do I go head over heels for a girl who won't love me back, but a girl who won't love me back and who also has a death wish. I'm a goddamn genius.
But he said, "I can honestly promise you that if it comes down to it, yes, I will take my sisters and I will run until they're safe." Assuming that Wanda doesn't hex the fuck out of me for even thinking about it, and Lorna doesn't stop my blood in my veins and fight to the death over my unconscious body. But yeah, no, he was cracking jokes internally to keep himself from getting all burny-eyed. He wasn't making light of Laura's request.
The very next thought was: And I will drop them off and turn right back around and come back for you. "But we have a chance, right now, to make sure that doesn't happen. Tessa's in the library planning away. Phil's probably doing the same in his room. And I'm sure as shit my father is. So let's just work on that, okay?"
Laura listened to the sound of his hummingbird-heart speeding up; a repetitive buzz against her eardrums. "They won't kill me, Pietro," she pointed out. "I don't think they can. But...okay."
"You said yourself that being taken is worse." He leaned over and pressed an absolutely different kind of kiss at her temple, against her hair, before pulling back again. He didn't let her hand go. "You can't care what happens to people, but expect people not to care for you. That's not the way it works, hate to tell you." And yeah, that last bit was irony. Just a little.
She blinked up at him, eyes big and round at the soft, chaste kiss he'd pressed into her hair. The other kisses she had understood. The other kisses made sense, but he wasn't aroused right now. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that, or his redefining her parameters on how caring worked.
Aaaaand if Pietro's heart ever had a chance of escaping unscathed, that blew it all to hell. God. Those eyes. Just. Fucking. Shattered him. He did manage to say, a little gruffly, "Just saying. Might as well get used it. You're stuck with me giving a shit. I'll try not to be too annoying about it, though." He tried to smile, but it faltered a little. Superspeed brain rendered useless once more.
Laura paused, then nodded, answering quietly, "So are you. Stuck."
"I'll deal," Pietro promised. That time, the smile made it. "Can you?"
"Deal?" she asked curiously.
Pietro snorted out a tiny, silent laugh and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Yes. I will manage knowing that you care whether I and my sisters are safe or not. That you want us to be safe. It was sort of sarcastic of me--but in a nice way. Because I like it. A lot." A lot more than I'll say, even. So long as it doesn't make you sad, anyhow.
"I'll...manage knowing that you care about me getting taken," Laura agreed finally, then added, "And I will work on waiting for Tessa and Philip and your father to decide what should be done."
"I care about more than that," Pietro said, smile going lopsided. "But that'll do, yeah."
After a moment's thought, Laura leaned up, pressing a kiss to his temple, just as he'd done for her.
