om_main | Vance and Pietro, Saturday afternoon

Pietro catches Vance being something other than a cartoon character; Vance gets a glimpse of Pietro's paranoia. ~~Also, more matchmaking!~~

Vance glanced around the sun room, triple-checking it was empty, before pulling his book from his bag. It wasn't that he was being secretive or anything, just people would probably think it was weird. Both because of the subject material, and because it was him. And, he had to face it, he was kinda goofy and dumb. But, with the room being empty and all, he was safe to read and within moments, he was deeply involved in the text.

Which was probably why he didn't notice the slight breeze that ruffled his hair--or if he did, maybe he thought it was the air vent--when Pietro blew into the room. He was looking for a book, but was distracted when he saw what Vance was reading ."Wow, dude. Heavy."

Vance looked up, startled, and quickly tried to shove the book out of sight. "Hey Pietro. What's up?"

Rather than reply directly, Pietro just grinned. "Vance, dude. You do not have to hide your Nazi propaganda expose from me. I just finished Berlin Diary. I feel your pain, my friend."

He blushed. "Guess I'm caught, huh? What'd you think of Berlin Diary? Any good?"

"Chilling," Pietro admitted. "Not awesome, personality-wise, but worth reading. You can borrow it, if you want?"

"Thanks." Vance sat up more fully, since he'd been lounging while reading. Despite knowing he was already caught, though, he didn't pull the book back out. "You, uh...you won't tell anyone? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with reading it, but...I mean, it's me, so..."

Pietro cocked an eyebrow and planted his hands on his hips. At first, of course, he didn't understand--but two seconds of superspeed brain figured out something that may or may not have made sense. "You know, I admit, I wouldn't have expected to find you reading this. You seem pretty, uh, you know. Chirpy.

"But if I think about it, it makes sense. I mean, we did have that whole Hebrew School talk."

"My grandparents came here from Poland. After." Vance explained. "But, I mean...I don't want people to...I don't know."

He flushed again. Sounded stupid, now that he said it out loud. But he just didn't want people to think of him as...not happy? Didn't want them to see him trying? Vance couldn't have even really said; no wonder he sounded like an idiot.

"Hey, man." Pietro threw himself onto the couch. Though he was a little more comfortable with the whole thing now he'd spoken to Phil, it was still very much on his mind. "I mean, you heard from my bio dad about his parents. And, I mean, shit was always pretty terrible for the Roma in Europe, but my grandparents got out just before the Third Reich thing rolled over it.

"I definitely get it. It's only natural to have an interest. It's not, like--" Pietro glanced at Vance, who had gone all... awkward-adorable. "--creepy, or anything. Though I get not wanting everyone to know about it. None of their business."

"Something like that." Maybe 'creepy' wasn't the exact word Vance would've used, but it was something like that, anyway. Close enough. "I mean, it just seemed like a good idea to know about it, right? If you don't know the past, you are doomed to repeat it?"

But Pietro was still looking at Vance, trying to figure out what his deal was. "Yeah, that's how I feel. I mean--who doesn't feel that way? Fuck 'em, if they don't get that.

"And honestly, around here--you're in pretty good company when it comes to that. Not everyone talks about it, but all of us with brains are thinking it. So don't, like, feel weird."

Vance shrugged uncomfortably. "Maybe you guys with brains are, but...I'm not one of those guys with brains. I mean, I'm just some random kid, right? Makes people uncomfortable, to see me read stuff like this."

And if there was one thing Vance actively tried to avoid, it was making people uncomfortable. Especially if he didn't know them well.

Pietro cocked his head slightly, examining Vance as if for the very first time, head to toe. After the briefest of silent beats, he said, "It's one thing if you'd rather they didn't know you were smart. That's your choice. But why does it matter what they--whoever the fuck they are--want you to be?"

The younger teen blinked slightly, feeling nervous and like he'd missed a step somewhere. "I, uh....well, I'm not actually smart. Memory just let's me fake it. For example, you've...well, you've kind lost me."

Vance smiled uncomfortably, looking chagrined. "Sorry."

Wow. Okay. This was definitely a whole new side to Vance Astrovik, but Pietro wasn't sure at all what it meant. He kicked his legs on up on the coffee table and put his hands behind his head, as if he was settling in for the long haul... and decided to take a chance: "Pretty sure memory counts. I'm not actually smart--my mutation is just superspeed, and it works on my brain. Some might say that just lets me fake it. So, you know, forgive me if I'm not convinced that you're an idiot."

Vance shrugged. "Got an eidetic memory...or just about, anyway," he paused before quickly adding, "but don't tell anyone? Please?"

For some reason, people always thought 'photographic memory' meant 'genius' or 'savant' or something. And that wasn't it at all. "Promise, I'm not an idiot or anything, but I'm just average. Aside from that."

Pietro arched an eyebrow. "Okay. But I still think it's cool as fuck. Does that bug you?"

The younger boy blinked, somewhat owlishly. "No? I mean, I guess not."

"Good, cuz not like I can change it, but it seems like a weird thing to have to apologize for." Pietro said this all good-naturedly enough, but he had caught onto something he couldn't explain here--except that it was definitely fucking odd. Not just the usual lack of confidence, not just an eagerness to please, but something that ran, like... deep, somehow.

And was fucking odd. "Cool, and I swear I won't tell anyone, okay?

"But I guess I don't understand. I mean, you're obviously uncomfortable with people knowing about it--which is fine, I mean, whatever, no one's business unless you make it their business. But I'm not sure I get why. Because you're afraid they'll think you're smarter than you are and that's annoying?"

"Well, I mean...it's not that it's annoying, just that, y'know...it's a lot to live up to, I guess. And I'll disappoint them." That was part of it, anyway. The other part was the part that made Vance's stomach feel weird though. "But really...I don't like making people uncomfortable."

He smiled self-deprecatingly. "Like I'm probably doing right now, huh?"

"Vance, it takes a lot weirder to make me even slightly uncomfortable. Look at me. This is a guy who is comfortable." Pietro gestured to his stretched out form--complete with neon Bikini Kill shirt and jeans that left nothing to the imagination. "It's usually me making people uncomfortable, but--eh, not a lot I can do about that without super-inconveniencing myself. Seeing as my mutation provides me with plentiful inconvenience already, fuck that noise."

"Fair enough." Vance scooched a little further into the couch, trying to regain his usually happy demeanor.

Pietro had been hoping that declaration would get him a pass into what the hell was up with Vance--but apparently not. He tried again. "Anyhow, everyone around here is weird as hell. You're more likely to run into someone who thinks your reading habits are cool. Liiiiiike, oh, me."

"I don't know about 'cool.' I mean, it just seemed like a good idea. Y'know. " He shrugged awkwardly. "I mean, with everything that happened and everything, might as well be prepared, right?"

"See, I find that particular attitude extremely cool." Ignore the fact that Pietro was the opposite of cool and had been his whole life, and that might actually mean something, but whatever. "I mean, I'm not all dark all the time, but sometimes I worry people aren't connecting the dots or taking it seriously enough. Even with the whole code name, danger gym, headmasters with intense pasts thing."

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, which part?" Yep, no fear of Pietro expecting Vance to be super-smart, over here. Well, unless this was part of his weird little act that made no sense, but whatever. Either way, it was like trying to hold a conversation with Victor, Jesus. "I assume you mean in general my justification for thinking your reading material indicates coolness, but I am not sure which part of that justification was unclear."

"I mean, how're people not taking it seriously?" Vance clarified.

"Some people don't seem to be making the connections." Pietro gestured to Vance's book. "Now, usually, I would say comparing WWII atrocities to anything is shitty, but just from a preparation standpoint it's something to keep in mind here. People like to sugarcoat. It won't be that bad, or whatever.

"That, to me, is not taking it seriously. Maybe it won't. But possibly it will."

"I don't think it can be," Vance admitted, shrugging. "Not because human nature has changed, but because the acceptability of that kind of behavior has. Especially here, in the U.S. The whole world is a stage, now, and the world is watching. It makes it harder to get away with some of that kind of stuff."

He gestured towards the book. "Doesn't mean I don't think we've got things we should learn, though. My grandpa said once that the only difference between them and us was that they'd had better press."

"Mmm," Pietro said, a kind of wishy-washy agreement he felt for... about half of what Vance had said. As in the second half. "Now I can't decide if you're trying to be optimistic just because you don't want me to think you're not--or don't want me to be uncomfortable--or if you really feel that way."

Vance looked ashamed. "I'm stupid and weird, but I promise, I'm not really a liar."

"That wouldn't be lying," Pietro pointed out, not bothering to be gentle. The only kind of stupid this kid had was the willful kind. Wow, it really was like trying to have a conversation with Victor. "It'd be putting someone else's feelings above your own, or trying to protect yourself--and when it comes to lies, personally I think motivation is everything.

"But you are weird, if not stupid. Which is the entire point of this conversation: you are one of the kids I've seen actively being smart about this whole situation."

"Well...I'm glad you think so." He gave Pietro a small smile, hoping to recapture some of his usual...Vance-ness? That could be a word, sure. "But hopefully I won't need it. It's gonna go different this time around."

"From your lips to god's ears. Any god--though I'm starting to think Loki's responsible for most of this world, at this point." Pietro sighed. "I am not as hopeful, or convinced that this shit," another gesture at Vance's book, "Is less likely to occur here and now. But obviously, I hope you're right."

"Well, but that's just it." Vance told him, for once looking and sounding like the teenager he was rather than the child he typically acted like. "If we don't believe it, it won't happen. Self-fulfilling prophecy. If I believe everyone is out to get me, I will treat them like they're dangerous and hate me, and they will come to hate me. Which will make them dangerous. If you believe people can be good, that's the only way they will rise to the occasion."

"It's a pretty theory, but try telling the Roma who are getting the beatdown in Hungary right now that they should've thought more positive and it'd all be hearts and rainbows." Pietro's tone wasn't dismissive, though; Vance and obviously thought things through and wasn't just being an optimistic douche for no reason. Pietro could... Sorta almost kinda respect that. "I get what you're saying, I just don't know if it's practical."

"Different situation," Vance pointed out, though his tone was thoughtful rather than combative. "They were already hated there. We're starting with something of a blank page, right? I mean, that poor girl....but, that was one crazy guy. We've got no history, though, no starting point. We can actually influence how they see us."

"Some of them, yeah," Pietro agreed. "And I'm not saying it's not different, because everything is different from this. To makes comparisons even more dangerous--and honestly, sometimes more insulting to all parties--than usual, even. There's never been anything like us. Ever.

"But that just means we're even more different. We can't convince them all not to fear us--no matter what we do, most of them will right out of the gate. We might be able to pull some of em back with education, but... Not to go all Yoda on you, but it's human nature that fear leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering."

"Fear can lead to hate. But it doesn't have to. I'm afraid of a lot of stuff," Vance confessed. "But I don't hate them."

"I wish more people were like you," Pietro said with a sigh. "Though you may not believe this, Vance, you are a rare gem of a dude. It's okay, I'm not fishing for compliments or anything, feel free not to respond." That, at least, made him smile.

Vance laughed, even as he flushed. "Well thanks, but I don't know about all that. And I know you weren't fishing for compliments, but I promise you're awesome."

"Well, that's true." Pietro laced his fingers over his belly and chuckled. "Speaking of fear and hate--not to change the subject--but what was up with Vic's ex's friends? He said they accused you guys of being on a date or something?"

Okay, Pietro knew what'd happened. He just wanted to get Vance's take, maybe. Sue him.

"Yeah, it was weird," Vance said, glad for the subject-change. "I mean, yeah we were at a pizza place together, but it was the middle of the day and I had a bag from a bookstore. Besides, pretty sure Victor's got better taste. But yeah, they were asking him if I was his boyfriend or whatever and telling me he'd break my heart next."

He shook his head a little, before disapprovingly admitting, "Honestly? It was kinda rude. I mean...I get wanting to defend your friend, but Tommy wasn't even there. Why go and yell at Vic when there's no point?

"Because they're dick-bags." Pietro sing-songed that last word. "I mean--don't get me wrong, I'm the first to jump into the ring to defend a friend, but like you said, man. What the hell, even?"

He turned his head to look Vance in the eye. Aaaaand that had worked faster than he'd expected. Awesome. Opportunity presented! "What is up with you two and all the self-deprecation, though? Vic said the same thing--Vance has better taste. I got news, you're both adorbs."

Vance snorted. "You were in the room with me for that conversation we just had, right? Where I was weird and annoying?" He shook his head a little. "You're right, though. Vic's great. I have no idea why he'd say that."

"I will bet you fifty dollars right now that if I tell him about this conversation, he will say the same thing about you."

"He shouldn't, and I don't have fifty dollars," Vance replied, though he was smiling. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, though."

"I like to spread it around to those who are deserving," Pietro assured him, smile going slightly smug. Oh man. Like candy from babies. Adorable mutant babies would should totally make out and stop each other being so goddamn ridiculous all the time.

"Then I'm honored," Vance said, chuckling. Something sank in then, and he looked at Pietro curiously. "Victor said I'd have better taste? He's joking, right?"

"My beloved sweetheart of a roommate suffers from that same flailing teenage self-loathing you seem to, my friend." As did Pietro--and basically everyone he knew, in one way or the other, let's be real. "I can tell him a million times that he's beautiful; he will tell me I'm just saying that." Pietro snorted. "I'm sure you can relate to that particular form of crazy. Something tells me. Somehow."

"Yeah, I've heard that," Vance agreed, nodding a little. "Wish I could make him believe me, but...." He shrugged a little helplessly. It's not that he didn't want Victor to believe him, he just had no idea how to get him to.

"Eh." Pietro shrugged. "He believes you're his friend, and that's a start. Honestly, sometimes it's even harder to believe someone else would give a shit than it is to believe you're not some kind of scary-looking troll or whatever. So you already did the hard part, right?"

Subtle, Maximoff. You are sooooo good at this... Well, except it was true. Hell, he still had moments where he couldn't believe someone like Eames would give a shit about him--in spite of having it proven over and over. And over. Alison, the famous pop star who was genuinely concerned about his emotional wellbeing. Laura, who didn't need anyone, but chose to hang out with him regularly.

There was nothing insincere in his matchmaking, at least?

"I guess," though Vance didn't sound all that certain at all. He shrugged slightly. "I mean, it won't matter, probably. He'll get a boyfriend that gets it, so his friends will have an easier time convincing him, right?"

"Sure, I'll buy that," Pietro agreed happily. "What about you, Astrovik? It gonna take a boyfriend who gets it before we can convince you that you're awesome?" A deliberate beat. "Or girlfriend. Whatever." He gestured lazily in the air with one hand as if to illustrate this concept somehow.

Vance laughed. "I'm too inept for a boyfriend or a girlfriend," he assured Pietro. "But I'll try and be less trouble for my friends, if you want."

Gooooood answer. Pietro grinned. "You be all the trouble you want, man. We'll enjoy it.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Vance said, shaking his head. So he guessed since Pietro knew something of the story, it wouldn't be too weird if he asked, "did it upset Vic? What they said?"

"About you guys? Hell no." Pietro waved it off. "He was just annoyed by the general douchebaggery."

"I was more worried about the douchebaggery," the younger boy explained. "He's real torn up about this thing with Tommy, and I just hope....y'know, I hope they didn't make it worse. Did it, do you think?"

Yes, please show more concern for Vic's emotional wellbeing. PERFECT. "I don't know--honestly, he doesn't talk to me about it that much because he knows I thought it was a bad idea in the first place--but I think at this point we're talking tiny shades of gray."

It wasn't like Vance had much experience with heartbreak, but maybe Pietro was right. Maybe when you felt that bad, feeling worse wasn't really something you noticed. Or something, anyway. He hadn't known about the first part, though. "Why'd you think it was a bad idea?"

Pietro knew well enough by now to know that the whole truth and nothing but the truth would not be taken well. So he cut off the hardest parts and let the guy have the long and short of it: "It was built on a lie. I know dick about relationships, but the amount of shit that would have to go exactly right to keep it from ending in heartbreak--the odds were astronomically bad. And if things went really sideways with it, it could've brought attention to the school. As in, where almost my entire family currently dwells in relative safety in a world where mutant kids are assassinated on live television."

The younger teen took that in for a minute. He guessed Pietro might have a point about the first part; it woulda been hard to hide the truth forever, and the whole thing might've ended just for that. And Victor knew that -- it was why he'd done what he'd done.

But, "if we don't make the effort to make them like us, don't we just make it more likely that we get shot at?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. I am all for the effort to make them like us. But let's not pretend that Vic in that situation isn't even more dangerous than you or me in it--and that's still fairly dangerous. Even if Tommy found out and was cool about it--he's a nice kid, really--what if he tells just one person? I mean, how could he not? What if someone else accidentally finds out--wouldn't take that much of an accident, let's be real." Pietro shrugged with a nonchalance he did not feel; the way his mouth twisted up in an unhappy grimace gave him away. "It just takes one person to flip their shit.

"And wait, I know, that's not fair, right? Victor deserves a real life, the life he wants."

"Not accusing you," Vance said placatingly. "And I'm not saying you're wrong. Just thinking that our totally justified fears and the way to address them are kinda at cross purposes."

"Won't always be that way. Step one is securing our position enough that Victor can go out without having to hide his pretty--and that Warren doesn't have to look like a hunch-backed London Fog ad, that kinda thing." Pietro relaced his fingers over his belly. "It'll never be completely safe, but it never is. Just need to get it to a point where they can be secure enough to, like, have a life."

"But how do we get there without letting people take risks?" Vance asked. His voice wasn't hostile, but was genuinely curious. People couldn't accept what they didn't know existed, right?

"It's one thing to put your own life in danger for something you want. But the risks we take, we take for all of us. That's why when we take the inevitable risks, they have to be calculated ones," Pietro said, fixing Vance with a dead serious look. He realized that his reputation painted him as impulsive--he was impulsive. But not when it came to protecting his own. "That poor dragon girl dragged us into her risk--but she didn't even know we existed. She thought she was alone. We know better."

Pietro had a point, but Vance still wasn't convinced entirely. He totally agreed that people should think things through and take the others into account, but he wondered if may the older boy wasn't a little Too afraid.

Of course, Vance's family wasn't here either, so maybe that was the difference.

"We've gotta tell them something though, right?" He pointed out. "Anti-mutant press only works when people don't know better. Uncertainty to fear. Fear to anger. All that jedi stuff."

Pietro saw this more as agreement than anything else. "Exactly. We have to set the stage before we start putting the kids who need the most protection from that crap out there to be unmasked at random. Have to give them control over how and where it happens, and have them in a position of relative security. A series of calculated risks, one at a time--it'll never be perfect, but it's our best chance to avoid more fear. And violence."

"So...where d'you think we should start?"

"I'm sure the old man has something going on with Xavier--I mean, come on, what else is all this" --Pietro gestured vaguely again, this time as if to encompass the house-- "about? I know Lydia Martin has some kind of weird consultant jargon-sounding project going to statistically figure out what kind of people will be the most receptive to which kind of education--as in the kind that lets us be more honest without sending the normals into a panic."

Another gesture, this time around and around with one finger. "Other wheels are in motion, too. The faster they go, the sooner we can all get to living."

Vance blinked as he tried to process that kind of information overload. It sounded really...calculated. and sure, he didn't think they should go in with no plan, but that didn't mean they had to think of everyone else as the enemy.

"Guess I should wait and see then, huh?"

"I hate waiting," Pietro said with a crooked grin. "But I'm kinda fucked there, right now, yeah."

"It'll do," he said out loud. But his thousand-watt grin said, The best.