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om_mainAlisha and Jack curl up on the couch for some TV-time, which Nathan interrupts with some yelling and flailing - which leads to more yelling, as well as wrangling, name-calling, and... maybe a plan for Alisha.
Being here, lying in someone's arms, was a bit new for Alisha for a couple of reasons. There was the touching, of course, and the fact that if she moved just right, she could remind herself that he wasn't completely immune to her. But there was also the fact that she didn't squirm just to prove a point. There was the fact that she was going against all of the last few years worth of instincts and was still staying put in his arms.
It wasn't like she didn't date, but mostly her relationships ended like they had with Bobby: one of them - usually her - had moved on to someone else. Not that she'd be caught dead pining for her ex, but now she was pining for something else and maybe it was just as bad. She'd probably apologize to Bobby if he hadn't been a complete prat. She focused her attention on the show instead of thinking about the brief moment when she'd had someone and shifted a little, settling more comfortably against Jack.
This was almost as good. In some ways, this was even better.
"Isn't that the girl from Glee?" she asked after a minute as she watched the pair dancing, clearly showing she hadn't been paying attention to their introduction.
Jack managed not to suck in a breath as she adjusted. Heightened sensitivity and arousal were the "not quite" portion of his not-quite-immunity to her power, but he'd manage (...and probably text Pietro for an assist, post-TV time). He was propped up on one elbow, sort of spooned behind her in order to fit his long frame on the couch. One arm was draped easily over her waist, fingers skimming distractedly up and down the bare skin of her arm. He wasn't paying overly much attention to the show either, instead enjoying the closeness and the touch, which was honestly almost as therapeutic for him as for her.
Insistent erection aside, this was wonderfully normal for Jack, just the easy intimacy he'd always had with friends. ...well, friends he'd had sex with (which, once upon a time, had been most of them). Not that they had, but somehow his immunity to her power made it feel like they shared something just as important. Not that he didn't want to, either. Even without her power, Alisha was more than capable of eliciting this response from him. But to Jack's mind, there were some major gray areas about crossing that line, and too much chance of ultimately cheapening or ruining this. Alisha deserved this intimacy too, and he could give it to her.
Dancing with the Stars and all. With a little snort, he mused, "Why does that question feel like a trap?" Sure, he knew the answer; admitting it was an entirely different story.
It wasn't like Nathan had been looking for Alisha. He tended to gravitate to the TV rooms and the kitchens for them being two places what had absolutely shit to do with learning, and little to do with being a mutant. In a school packed with over-achieving freaks of nature, he liked that about them. So it wasn't unusual for him to poke his curly head in if he heard someone watching something while he was on his way here or there.
That it was some douchey magazine-model type boy spooning Alisha up like chocolate ice cream interested him even less. Hers had to be the hungriest pussycat in the whole of the school, maybe even the state! America'd no idea what it was in for when it got her. That didn't mean he particularly wanted to creep on her and her latest walking penis. He'd rather stay out of it, unless they needed sound mocking.
He rolled his eyes - hadn't she been after the footballer? - and almost moved away from the open door, until it suddenly registered with him what was so off about the scene, like epiphany's very own freight train.
"LLLLLIAR!" Nathan was yelling as he threw himself into the room, accusatory finger thrusting in Alisha's general direction while he almost crashed out over an ottoman, toppling the poor thing before righting himself to stand just in time to avoid a faceplant. He scowled at it, giving it a little kick aside before continuing on after Alisha. "You're a fucking liar! All this, 'oooh, don't touch me, you're disgusting,' that was just to put me off! You haven't got a death touch at all!"
Alisha felt Jack's arm go tight against her, but he needn't have bothered. The day she couldn't handle Nathan was the day that people would know there was something really wrong with her. So normally she'd send him on his way with a 'fuck off' and ignore him. But here he was, interrupting the first fucking show of the newest series of Dancing with the Stars and if he didn't move right this minute, he was going to move from 'really annoying' to 'pissing her off' in her index of moods.
"I said it was none of your fucking business and it's not." Not that she really expected him to give up just like that. He would if he knew what he was good for him, but Nathan never knew what was good for him.
Normally Jack would've told the guy to back off. Even now, he might've overlooked his policy of 'don't speak [to a new person] until spoken to' if this had been almost any other student, but he knew this kid. Nathan Young. He was the one (the other one) who'd been killed by the Facility. Only he hadn't been working for them first. Jack had less than no right to talk to him, nevermind give him orders.
So Jack didn't say anything, not even a solitary comment to Alisha, but he was poised and ready to intervene if Nathan tried to touch her. It'd be awkward, but he could be in between them at a moment's notice.
"It is so! I've got as much right as Curtis or Barry! And definitely more than this arse," Nathan protested, looking at Alisha rather dejectedly for a moment. He really didn't understand why he was apparently the last person on Earth she would tell what her power was. Or how it could possibly be so bad that she didn't think he'd survive it, when she had guys like this all over her and they were just fine.
He went quiet for a beat, narrowing his eyes. Then he launched himself at Alisha, hands grabbing for her arm. "One way to find out!"
Jack saw him move and reacted in sync, pushing himself up and forward to intercept the closer of those hands. With a quick twist, he let Nathan's momentum force the arm behind his back and into a lock. To get better control (and put some distance between Nathan and Alisha), Jack sat up the rest of the way, dragging Nathan sideways in the process.
"How about not?" he offered dryly, forcing away the guilt as he kept the squirming Irish boy pinned. Not how he was hoping their first encounter would go. He turned to Alisha, giving her a look that clearly asked are you okay?
"You," Alisha told Nathan as she pushed herself up from the heap Jack had left her in when he'd moved, "are an idiot. Because for one, you wouldn't even remember if I touched you." The look she then shot Jack was equal parts annoyed and fond. She was a big girl and could take care of herself. Especially from the likes of Nathan. "Let him go, Jack."
She turned back to Nathan and she suddenly looked tired. It almost seemed as if telling Nathan would be like telling the whole school and not because he'd go out and blab his mouth to whoever would listen. He was the last person from back home who didn't know. It was like by telling him, she was losing something. "Why are you so desperate to know?"
"How about speaking of noneofyerbloodybusiness," Nathan shook out of the other boy's grasp as he eased off, like an indignant eel, but he didn't make another go at touching Alisha. "Mostly because you're so dead-set not to let me find out," he admitted, sighing in exasperation where he stared at her. "Just... I know I'm not always entirely complimentary, all right? But everybody else in this school has seemed to fucking figure it out, or at least the other ASBOs sure have done. So what's it mean that I'm not good enough to know, but the Tooth Whitener Advert here does?" He jerked his head in Jack's direction, but he was still looking at her.
"It's the dimples that really sell it," Jack informed them sarcastically, leaning back and warily crossing his arms over his chest to watch the proceedings. Although clearly Nathan hadn't gotten a good look at him, or he wouldn't be commenting on Jack's teeth... but adjusting his pants would only draw attention, and they were having a moment. Jack knew when he was supposed to be invisible. Well, at least just part of the scenery.
That wouldn't stop him from intervening again if he needed to, of course, no matter what kind of look Alisha gave him.
She leaned in to whisper to Jack. "Behave and I'll show you later how much I like your dimples." She pushed away from him again with a hand to his chest. Boys. Did they always have to be sulky and everything? She couldn't deal with Jack being defensive and Nathan being - god help her, she didn't think she'd ever think this - right. In a way.
"I didn't tell him, Nathan. He found out the same way Curtis did. He touched me." She shivered a little at the memory of the look on Curtis' face when he finally realized what was going on. "Well, more like saved me from getting a concussion when falling near the pool."
Nathan still looked entirely put-out, like a cat pulled from the bath. The bath with lots of conditioner in. After a bit of a hot air drying. Speaking of which, both of his hands went up for a wretched tug at the handfuls of his curls on either side as he tried to brain this out. "Well how come some people can touch you and some can't, then?! Is there a qualification process or something? An entry fee for the amusements?"
"You're disgusting, has anyone ever told you that?" Entry fee. "I don't know why some people can't touch me. If I knew how it worked, I'd be able to stop it and I wouldn't have had to come here in the first place."
That wasn't strictly true. He and Simon going missing and those creepy fuckers showing up at the community centre had really been the reason she'd left. Perverts who she bet liked to look at girls in the shower…right before they shot her in the head. She shuddered a little and wrenched her thoughts back to Nathan.
"Fine. You want to know what would happen? Your dick would come to attention and Jack here would have to drag you away until you'd stopped wanting to fuck me." Her chin lifted up and she almost dared him to say something crude. "And you'd almost barely remember doing it."
"Memory effects too?" asked Jack, one eyebrow raised at her (and ignoring Nathan). He'd never heard the full explanation before, and that seemed like an important detail. He didn't want to call her out on it, but how could she say she didn't know how it worked? Clearly there were psychic aspects of her ability that his mental shields protected him from, and just as clearly there were other factors in play, likely biological.
"You mean..." Nathan looked at her with his face scrunched up at Alisha, trying to sort that. "You're...the walking date-rape drug?"
Nathan turned back on Tooth Whitener, shoving a long, bony finger into his chest. "But you don't trip balls over a cuddle, do you? Why not?"
It was like being bombarded from both sides and Alisha shifted a little to move away from Jack. She folded her arms across her chest and stared Nathan down without actually answering Jack. "You could put it like that." She tried not to let on how the phrasing had actually hurt. That was her. Or had been. Now she only did it when it was by accident. Or for a dance at a club.
Jack had been glaring angrily at Nathan over his comments (but pretty unphased by the finger on his chest), but then Alisha moved - and agreed with him. Catching his words, Jack turned toward her again. Sure, Nathan could put it like that-- "Or he could not," Jack informed her flatly. He knew better than to reach over, to try and chase away vulnerability with comfort, but like hell he was going to let that comment stick. He turned back to Nathan. "Mental shields," he informed him dismissively, then nodded towards the television. "Now maybe you should move, we were watching that."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were an old friend of hers from all the way back in her orange phase - OHWAIT, that's right, you weren't!" Nathan flicked his finger on the other boy's chest, then backed off of a couple of steps to talk to Alisha all the better. He didn't try and touch her though, not this time.
"You could've said so," was all he could think to say at the moment, standing there and watching her expression curdle - and that was something in and of itself. "You know all the things you never wanted about me. You could've just...told me."
"You don't care about people knowing the things we never wanted to know," she pointed out. Hell, he was the one who told everyone about the things. She shrugged, tried to ignore the way Jack was looking at her, and focused on Nathan. At least she could deal with him. She wasn't sure she wanted to have the conversation Jack would probably want to have when this was done.
"I didn't - I don't - want people to know about this." If it was getting easier to tell, it was only to the people she actually wanted to sleep with. Or to the people she had accidents with, like Jack.
If Jack was angry (and he was trying very hard not be), it certainly wasn't with Alisha.
"Hey, crazy idea - what if it wasn't about you at all?" he said to the Irish boy, trying to keep the sneer out of it as much as possible. Alisha had enough to sort through without Nathan heaping undeserved guilt and accusations on her. Who did this kid think he was?
Nathan screwed up his face at Alisha, flapping a hand in Jack's direction. "Where do you even find these toolbags? Am I not allowed to talk to you without his say so? Did you ask him to shut me down and I just missed it?" If there was one thing that Nathan trusted (and admired) about Alisha, it's that she could tell anybody to fuck off when she wanted. Him of all people. And she hadn't yet, so he was inclined to think that they were still talking.
"Enough. The both of you. Jack, stop baiting him. The one thing you should know about Nathan is that trying to get him to back down always backfires. Which you should have noticed since that's what's happening right now. Nathan, stop being a dick. You're not making this easy and Jack's just trying to help. Me, not you. And you should know better than to think I'd have anyone else try to 'shut you down'."
Really, she was starting to get sick of them both and was starting to consider leaving them to their own devices, even if that meant continuing to bicker between the pair of them.
"Uggggggh," Nathan groaned in reply. "Whatever. Yer kitty's out the sack now, as they say," he turned around and went for the door.
Jack tried not to give Alisha a look, but he couldn't help it. "I'm baiting him?" he asked incredulously. Had they been part of the same conversation? Could you even call that a conversation? Considering the way Nathan had behaved, Jack was pleased with the amount of restraint he'd shown...
"Nathan--" Alisha started, but he was already gone. She'd really done it this time, hadn't she? She glared at Jack. "Yes. You baited him. I know perfectly well how to smack Nathan into place when I need to, but you kept butting your nose in." You had to handle Nathan a little differently than you did most people. Or rather, you had to ignore most of the words that came out of his mouth because they were going to be disgusting. She'd learned to ignore him, but trying to handle both of the boys had been too much.
"Hang on, let's recap: he barged in here, yelled at you, tried to touch you, and has just run off with no guarantee that he'll keep a secret for you." And that was without considering all the things he'd said. Jack was appropriately mystified (and displeased). "How exactly am I the bad guy here?"
"Because he wouldn't have run away if you'd managed to sit back, shut your mouth, and let me deal with him." Every single time she'd been about to have a handle on Nathan, Jack'd had some snide comment - something she hadn't expected to come out of his mouth - and she'd had to start all over from the beginning.
"Nothing he said was okay," Jack replied, anger carefully controlled. What, he was supposed to sit back and let her agree with that crap? She had to know that wasn't an option. "And somehow I don't think you'd be pleased if I told you to sit back and shut up." Understatement of the century, she'd probably murder him. He waited for her to give him the glare that said so before adding, "Exactly."
"When did we start dating? Because then it'll be your business. But until then, I'll deal with my friends the way that I want to." Had she just called Nathan her friend? The world had to be ending. "I dealt with him for months before you even knew he existed and so I think I have the upper hand when it comes to dealing with him."
It hadn't seemed that way to Jack. Nathan had been crude, demanding - cruel, even (although possibly he hadn't meant to be). He leveled an intense look at her. "And so this is what, you dealing with me?"
"No," Alisha said slowly, "this is me yelling at you for not letting me deal with Nathan. Now I'm going to have to go after him and he's going to be angry about more than keeping my power from him."
"So what?" Jack really didn't care if Nathan was angry, and was surprised Alisha did. "You should be angry at him for treating you like that." Jack was.
"If I were angry every time Nathan was a prick, I'd never be anything else. If I'd had ten minutes with him without someone butting in, we could have had this sorted with the minimum of fuss. These things usually roll off him pretty quickly." She hadn't seen a lot that really bothered him. Maybe that thing with his step-dad. But he got over most things pretty quickly. This, though, this she'd have to fix.
"Right, I was butting in. Just like I was calling him names and putting you on trial. Am I Irish too in this rewrite? Because I'll need to practice the accent." It wasn't biting, Jack was just exasperated. She could see it, couldn't she? How bizarre this fight was? He hadn't even properly stood up for her because she was more than capable, but he'd been the one on her side, no question.
Alisha couldn't really put it into words, why she was defending Nathan. Really, she didn't want to put it into words. She cared about him, as much as she didn't want to, like some annoying kid brother. And he was right. Simon and Curtis had known what her powers were almost right from the start. Curtis because he had accidentally touched her, but she'd actually told Simon. So in a way, Nathan had a right to be angry. But how could she explain that to Jack?
"Will you at least admit that I know him better than you do?"
"Sure." Obviously. Jack took a breath and relaxed his shoulders, making a conscious effort to soften his demeanor, to be less defensive. "Do you get why I can't let you agree with him?"
Alisha didn't answer which was as good as a 'no'. She didn't see because Nathan was right. She was a walking date-rape drug. Had been, at least.
And this was exactly why Jack had been pushing back at Nathan. He reached a hand over to cup her face, holding her gaze. "He's an idiot. Your mutation didn't happen to him, it happened to you. He doesn't know the first thing about it," Jack told her firmly. "He doesn't get to judge you."
She turned her face away from his hand. "No, but he knows me. Knew me before I got to this school. You don't know everything I did with my power." Neither did Nathan, but he'd guessed.
True, Jack didn't know. But of the two of them, Jack was the one who had probably gotten people killed with his ability by recruiting for the Facility. He sighed, dropping his hand. Then he adjusted the way he was sitting, pulling his arms across his chest and propping one leg on the couch, closer to her.
"Good thing these mutations came with guidebooks and manuals," he told her, a tired little grin playing at his lips. "Think of all the things we'd have to learn the hard way. Can you imagine?"
"Mine's pretty simple, you've got to admit. Touch and then insert tab a into slot b." She tried to return his grin, but it didn't even reach her lips let alone anything else.
"Not all the time," Jack reminded her, taking both of her hands in his. To remind her. "And everyone's power is pretty simple by that logic." Take him and Nathan: get shot, wake up, move on. "Doesn't make it any easier."
She was sure her hands felt like dead weight in his. "You don't understand, Jack. And either I haven't been clear enough or you're pretending you don't understand. So let's be straight. The first time or two, sure. I didn't understand what was going on and I was fucking scared. But then I figured it out. ...and Nathan was right."
"Actually, I kinda figured." Jack had had a lot of time by now to think about her mutation, what it must've been like. How a person would come to terms with it. Really, it wasn't so far removed from his own ability, the one he'd lost to the Facility experiments. "But I also figure that you're here, doing things differently. Maybe even getting control."
"There is no control. There's people like you and Brian I can touch without you going all 'I want to fuck your tits' and there are people like Bobby who didn't care. And then there's everyone else." And she had to stay well away from everyone else. Or occasionally use her ability just a little to 'encourage' young men to buy her drinks.
Jack made a mental note about 'Bobby' - the guy Jean-Marie was dating? - but focused on Alisha. This part he'd heard before, and he'd never known enough to question it. Now he felt like he had to try. ...carefully. "You might be surprised, actually. And," he headed off the reproachful glare, "I really would know. I used to have a similar ability."
Before the Facility. Well, now they were on rocky ground for both of them. At least that was playing fair, right?
"And how many people did you use yours against?" Alisha shot at him. Oddly, she didn't exactly like the idea that there was someone out there who had, or used to have, the same kind of power as hers. if the powers made any sort of sense, she would be able to see why Jack would have had the power he did. What she was curious about was why he 'used' to have have that ability.
"Plenty," he replied flatly. His pheromone control had never been on the level of her mutation, but the things he'd used it for... He locked those thoughts away. "My ability was more subtle than yours. Pheromones. It's amazing how far a little arousal can get you," he told her with a smirk. "But it took a while to figure it out; I learned control almost without realizing."
She studied him carefully to see if he were lying. She didn't think he was and she couldn't decide whether that was better or worse. Sometimes it felt as if she were alone in what she could do and she used it as a shield against the world. Against being a mutant. Against being in a strange city with people who were training to be soldiers, in some cases literally.
"How did you..." she started. She stopped talking when she decided that she wasn't going to ask the question. She hated feeling weak and that question would prove that she was. "Never mind."
Jack tensed just slightly. Logically he knew that her mutation was dangerous, that it made her miserable... but after losing his own ability, having it burned out, taken from him, that she wanted to ask how it'd happened--
Well, it struck a nerve. "I don't recommend it." He took a deep breath, forced himself to let it go (well, he tried at least). "But my point is that if you figure out how it works, you might be able to get control. And you've got people here to help, and to keep you safe." He couldn't quite keep the edge out of his voice as he added, "Believe me, you could do a lot worse."
Except that asking how it had happened had never occurred to her. Or at least it had, but only after the more important question. "No. How did you control it?" She flushed. She didn't even know if what she could do could be controlled, but if he had managed it, maybe it was just that she wasn't willing to try. She hated the idea that she might be responsible for her own misery.
Jack blinked at her. "Oh. Right. Better question." Now that he'd made an ass of himself. Still, he was relieved. "It was really just a feeling, something I noticed when I was charming people. I didn't get a real handle on it until I learned how it worked, though. That was when I learned how to turn it off.
"Actually," now that he thought about it, "we can enlist Simon to help to figure it out. You can't touch him, but you can touch me - and he could figure out what exactly it is that your power does to me." Aside from the obvious (which was becoming obvious again because he was still holding her hands). With a smirk and a shrug, he amended: "Well, how it does that, anyway."
"Simon? My Simon? No, no, no. Bad idea. He wouldn't do it anyway." Which was to say, she didn't care if he would or wouldn't do it, she wasn't letting him do it. She supposed she liked Simon well enough. The problem was now that she wasn't just finding him the typical shy boy she'd known back in London. He looked good. And there was something else about him that she couldn't quite figure out. Maybe it was just that he'd grown himself a backbone. Whatever it was, it made her uneasy, especially when they were talking about using her powers against him. She'd done it once, just the once, and didn't care to try again.
It was only after she'd objected maybe a little too much that she realized she'd misunderstood and he'd meant that she should touch him and not Simon.
Jack couldn't help quirking an amused eyebrow at her as he clarified. "Simon Tam - who is commonly regarded as belonging to Jean-Paul Beaubier. Since when do you have a Simon?"
And then, just when she thought she couldn't be more embarrassed, Jack informed her that he was talking about another Simon. The wannabe doctor and not... She groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I meant the Simon I know, not Tam." She hadn't meant to make it sound like she had Simon in any way.
Jack nearly laughed, except he'd remembered who the other Simon was - the guy who'd been at the Facility with Nathan.
Still, it was pretty funny, and he was still grinning as he put his hands on either side of her face and pulled her forward to plant a kiss on the top of her head. She just seemed so embarrassed. "Any objections to working with Tam?"
"Objections to working at all," she said. "I already told Alice. I have no interest in experimenting." The protest, however, was not as strong as it could have been. He would probably wear her down. Eventually. She wasn't going to go without a fight.
He didn't blame her, not at all. But she had so much to gain. "No lab rat experience, I promise. Tam's a good guy, and good at what he does. This would be safe, for everyone, and strictly for the purpose of getting you some information." He smiled at her again. "When you're ready, it's a place to start."
"I'll think about it, okay?" she said. "But look. Take it easy on Nathan, okay? He's right. I should have told him. And he's...right about the other thing. Even if he didn't know he was." For all that he was an idiot, he could be surprisingly insightful. It reminded her of that whole 'what if monkeys wrote Shakespeare' thing. Except there was only one Nathan. One was more than enough.
"Well, if he's right, so am I." Compromise, right? Jack didn't like it, but knew this was too complicated to overcome in a single conversation. Besides, other than leaving a bad taste in his mouth (...metaphorically), he really had nothing against Nathan. The guy was an idiot and an ass. The world would keep spinning. "But think about it. I'll mention it to Tam; when you're ready, we'll be ready too."
And sure, Simon wasn't exactly friendly with him, but Jack would be shocked if he wouldn't overlook that to help another student.
Alisha threw up her hands. "Fine. Fine. If I decide to follow through on this stupid idea, you'll be one of the first I'll come to. Alice did want me to tie people down."
"Always knew I liked Alice." Jack grinned at her again. "Well, can't ask for more than that I suppose. You still look like you want to hit me though."
"Or kiss you," she muttered under her breath.
"Sorry?"
"Like you didn't hear that." She smacked him lightly and then pressed a kiss to his jaw.
Or both, apparently. Jack didn't pull away, but he didn't exactly lean in either, mostly shooting her a confused look. "What was that for?" he asked, but was quick to add, "Not averse, just confused."
"For caring." It wasn't something she'd had a lot of. Sure, she'd had friends, but she'd never really thought they'd care about her enough to do this kind of thing. At least not until she'd gotten here.
Smiling again, Jack picked up her hand and placed a kiss on it. "No problem."
Being here, lying in someone's arms, was a bit new for Alisha for a couple of reasons. There was the touching, of course, and the fact that if she moved just right, she could remind herself that he wasn't completely immune to her. But there was also the fact that she didn't squirm just to prove a point. There was the fact that she was going against all of the last few years worth of instincts and was still staying put in his arms.
It wasn't like she didn't date, but mostly her relationships ended like they had with Bobby: one of them - usually her - had moved on to someone else. Not that she'd be caught dead pining for her ex, but now she was pining for something else and maybe it was just as bad. She'd probably apologize to Bobby if he hadn't been a complete prat. She focused her attention on the show instead of thinking about the brief moment when she'd had someone and shifted a little, settling more comfortably against Jack.
This was almost as good. In some ways, this was even better.
"Isn't that the girl from Glee?" she asked after a minute as she watched the pair dancing, clearly showing she hadn't been paying attention to their introduction.
Jack managed not to suck in a breath as she adjusted. Heightened sensitivity and arousal were the "not quite" portion of his not-quite-immunity to her power, but he'd manage (...and probably text Pietro for an assist, post-TV time). He was propped up on one elbow, sort of spooned behind her in order to fit his long frame on the couch. One arm was draped easily over her waist, fingers skimming distractedly up and down the bare skin of her arm. He wasn't paying overly much attention to the show either, instead enjoying the closeness and the touch, which was honestly almost as therapeutic for him as for her.
Insistent erection aside, this was wonderfully normal for Jack, just the easy intimacy he'd always had with friends. ...well, friends he'd had sex with (which, once upon a time, had been most of them). Not that they had, but somehow his immunity to her power made it feel like they shared something just as important. Not that he didn't want to, either. Even without her power, Alisha was more than capable of eliciting this response from him. But to Jack's mind, there were some major gray areas about crossing that line, and too much chance of ultimately cheapening or ruining this. Alisha deserved this intimacy too, and he could give it to her.
Dancing with the Stars and all. With a little snort, he mused, "Why does that question feel like a trap?" Sure, he knew the answer; admitting it was an entirely different story.
It wasn't like Nathan had been looking for Alisha. He tended to gravitate to the TV rooms and the kitchens for them being two places what had absolutely shit to do with learning, and little to do with being a mutant. In a school packed with over-achieving freaks of nature, he liked that about them. So it wasn't unusual for him to poke his curly head in if he heard someone watching something while he was on his way here or there.
That it was some douchey magazine-model type boy spooning Alisha up like chocolate ice cream interested him even less. Hers had to be the hungriest pussycat in the whole of the school, maybe even the state! America'd no idea what it was in for when it got her. That didn't mean he particularly wanted to creep on her and her latest walking penis. He'd rather stay out of it, unless they needed sound mocking.
He rolled his eyes - hadn't she been after the footballer? - and almost moved away from the open door, until it suddenly registered with him what was so off about the scene, like epiphany's very own freight train.
"LLLLLIAR!" Nathan was yelling as he threw himself into the room, accusatory finger thrusting in Alisha's general direction while he almost crashed out over an ottoman, toppling the poor thing before righting himself to stand just in time to avoid a faceplant. He scowled at it, giving it a little kick aside before continuing on after Alisha. "You're a fucking liar! All this, 'oooh, don't touch me, you're disgusting,' that was just to put me off! You haven't got a death touch at all!"
Alisha felt Jack's arm go tight against her, but he needn't have bothered. The day she couldn't handle Nathan was the day that people would know there was something really wrong with her. So normally she'd send him on his way with a 'fuck off' and ignore him. But here he was, interrupting the first fucking show of the newest series of Dancing with the Stars and if he didn't move right this minute, he was going to move from 'really annoying' to 'pissing her off' in her index of moods.
"I said it was none of your fucking business and it's not." Not that she really expected him to give up just like that. He would if he knew what he was good for him, but Nathan never knew what was good for him.
Normally Jack would've told the guy to back off. Even now, he might've overlooked his policy of 'don't speak [to a new person] until spoken to' if this had been almost any other student, but he knew this kid. Nathan Young. He was the one (the other one) who'd been killed by the Facility. Only he hadn't been working for them first. Jack had less than no right to talk to him, nevermind give him orders.
So Jack didn't say anything, not even a solitary comment to Alisha, but he was poised and ready to intervene if Nathan tried to touch her. It'd be awkward, but he could be in between them at a moment's notice.
"It is so! I've got as much right as Curtis or Barry! And definitely more than this arse," Nathan protested, looking at Alisha rather dejectedly for a moment. He really didn't understand why he was apparently the last person on Earth she would tell what her power was. Or how it could possibly be so bad that she didn't think he'd survive it, when she had guys like this all over her and they were just fine.
He went quiet for a beat, narrowing his eyes. Then he launched himself at Alisha, hands grabbing for her arm. "One way to find out!"
Jack saw him move and reacted in sync, pushing himself up and forward to intercept the closer of those hands. With a quick twist, he let Nathan's momentum force the arm behind his back and into a lock. To get better control (and put some distance between Nathan and Alisha), Jack sat up the rest of the way, dragging Nathan sideways in the process.
"How about not?" he offered dryly, forcing away the guilt as he kept the squirming Irish boy pinned. Not how he was hoping their first encounter would go. He turned to Alisha, giving her a look that clearly asked are you okay?
"You," Alisha told Nathan as she pushed herself up from the heap Jack had left her in when he'd moved, "are an idiot. Because for one, you wouldn't even remember if I touched you." The look she then shot Jack was equal parts annoyed and fond. She was a big girl and could take care of herself. Especially from the likes of Nathan. "Let him go, Jack."
She turned back to Nathan and she suddenly looked tired. It almost seemed as if telling Nathan would be like telling the whole school and not because he'd go out and blab his mouth to whoever would listen. He was the last person from back home who didn't know. It was like by telling him, she was losing something. "Why are you so desperate to know?"
"How about speaking of noneofyerbloodybusiness," Nathan shook out of the other boy's grasp as he eased off, like an indignant eel, but he didn't make another go at touching Alisha. "Mostly because you're so dead-set not to let me find out," he admitted, sighing in exasperation where he stared at her. "Just... I know I'm not always entirely complimentary, all right? But everybody else in this school has seemed to fucking figure it out, or at least the other ASBOs sure have done. So what's it mean that I'm not good enough to know, but the Tooth Whitener Advert here does?" He jerked his head in Jack's direction, but he was still looking at her.
"It's the dimples that really sell it," Jack informed them sarcastically, leaning back and warily crossing his arms over his chest to watch the proceedings. Although clearly Nathan hadn't gotten a good look at him, or he wouldn't be commenting on Jack's teeth... but adjusting his pants would only draw attention, and they were having a moment. Jack knew when he was supposed to be invisible. Well, at least just part of the scenery.
That wouldn't stop him from intervening again if he needed to, of course, no matter what kind of look Alisha gave him.
She leaned in to whisper to Jack. "Behave and I'll show you later how much I like your dimples." She pushed away from him again with a hand to his chest. Boys. Did they always have to be sulky and everything? She couldn't deal with Jack being defensive and Nathan being - god help her, she didn't think she'd ever think this - right. In a way.
"I didn't tell him, Nathan. He found out the same way Curtis did. He touched me." She shivered a little at the memory of the look on Curtis' face when he finally realized what was going on. "Well, more like saved me from getting a concussion when falling near the pool."
Nathan still looked entirely put-out, like a cat pulled from the bath. The bath with lots of conditioner in. After a bit of a hot air drying. Speaking of which, both of his hands went up for a wretched tug at the handfuls of his curls on either side as he tried to brain this out. "Well how come some people can touch you and some can't, then?! Is there a qualification process or something? An entry fee for the amusements?"
"You're disgusting, has anyone ever told you that?" Entry fee. "I don't know why some people can't touch me. If I knew how it worked, I'd be able to stop it and I wouldn't have had to come here in the first place."
That wasn't strictly true. He and Simon going missing and those creepy fuckers showing up at the community centre had really been the reason she'd left. Perverts who she bet liked to look at girls in the shower…right before they shot her in the head. She shuddered a little and wrenched her thoughts back to Nathan.
"Fine. You want to know what would happen? Your dick would come to attention and Jack here would have to drag you away until you'd stopped wanting to fuck me." Her chin lifted up and she almost dared him to say something crude. "And you'd almost barely remember doing it."
"Memory effects too?" asked Jack, one eyebrow raised at her (and ignoring Nathan). He'd never heard the full explanation before, and that seemed like an important detail. He didn't want to call her out on it, but how could she say she didn't know how it worked? Clearly there were psychic aspects of her ability that his mental shields protected him from, and just as clearly there were other factors in play, likely biological.
"You mean..." Nathan looked at her with his face scrunched up at Alisha, trying to sort that. "You're...the walking date-rape drug?"
Nathan turned back on Tooth Whitener, shoving a long, bony finger into his chest. "But you don't trip balls over a cuddle, do you? Why not?"
It was like being bombarded from both sides and Alisha shifted a little to move away from Jack. She folded her arms across her chest and stared Nathan down without actually answering Jack. "You could put it like that." She tried not to let on how the phrasing had actually hurt. That was her. Or had been. Now she only did it when it was by accident. Or for a dance at a club.
Jack had been glaring angrily at Nathan over his comments (but pretty unphased by the finger on his chest), but then Alisha moved - and agreed with him. Catching his words, Jack turned toward her again. Sure, Nathan could put it like that-- "Or he could not," Jack informed her flatly. He knew better than to reach over, to try and chase away vulnerability with comfort, but like hell he was going to let that comment stick. He turned back to Nathan. "Mental shields," he informed him dismissively, then nodded towards the television. "Now maybe you should move, we were watching that."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were an old friend of hers from all the way back in her orange phase - OHWAIT, that's right, you weren't!" Nathan flicked his finger on the other boy's chest, then backed off of a couple of steps to talk to Alisha all the better. He didn't try and touch her though, not this time.
"You could've said so," was all he could think to say at the moment, standing there and watching her expression curdle - and that was something in and of itself. "You know all the things you never wanted about me. You could've just...told me."
"You don't care about people knowing the things we never wanted to know," she pointed out. Hell, he was the one who told everyone about the things. She shrugged, tried to ignore the way Jack was looking at her, and focused on Nathan. At least she could deal with him. She wasn't sure she wanted to have the conversation Jack would probably want to have when this was done.
"I didn't - I don't - want people to know about this." If it was getting easier to tell, it was only to the people she actually wanted to sleep with. Or to the people she had accidents with, like Jack.
If Jack was angry (and he was trying very hard not be), it certainly wasn't with Alisha.
"Hey, crazy idea - what if it wasn't about you at all?" he said to the Irish boy, trying to keep the sneer out of it as much as possible. Alisha had enough to sort through without Nathan heaping undeserved guilt and accusations on her. Who did this kid think he was?
Nathan screwed up his face at Alisha, flapping a hand in Jack's direction. "Where do you even find these toolbags? Am I not allowed to talk to you without his say so? Did you ask him to shut me down and I just missed it?" If there was one thing that Nathan trusted (and admired) about Alisha, it's that she could tell anybody to fuck off when she wanted. Him of all people. And she hadn't yet, so he was inclined to think that they were still talking.
"Enough. The both of you. Jack, stop baiting him. The one thing you should know about Nathan is that trying to get him to back down always backfires. Which you should have noticed since that's what's happening right now. Nathan, stop being a dick. You're not making this easy and Jack's just trying to help. Me, not you. And you should know better than to think I'd have anyone else try to 'shut you down'."
Really, she was starting to get sick of them both and was starting to consider leaving them to their own devices, even if that meant continuing to bicker between the pair of them.
"Uggggggh," Nathan groaned in reply. "Whatever. Yer kitty's out the sack now, as they say," he turned around and went for the door.
Jack tried not to give Alisha a look, but he couldn't help it. "I'm baiting him?" he asked incredulously. Had they been part of the same conversation? Could you even call that a conversation? Considering the way Nathan had behaved, Jack was pleased with the amount of restraint he'd shown...
"Nathan--" Alisha started, but he was already gone. She'd really done it this time, hadn't she? She glared at Jack. "Yes. You baited him. I know perfectly well how to smack Nathan into place when I need to, but you kept butting your nose in." You had to handle Nathan a little differently than you did most people. Or rather, you had to ignore most of the words that came out of his mouth because they were going to be disgusting. She'd learned to ignore him, but trying to handle both of the boys had been too much.
"Hang on, let's recap: he barged in here, yelled at you, tried to touch you, and has just run off with no guarantee that he'll keep a secret for you." And that was without considering all the things he'd said. Jack was appropriately mystified (and displeased). "How exactly am I the bad guy here?"
"Because he wouldn't have run away if you'd managed to sit back, shut your mouth, and let me deal with him." Every single time she'd been about to have a handle on Nathan, Jack'd had some snide comment - something she hadn't expected to come out of his mouth - and she'd had to start all over from the beginning.
"Nothing he said was okay," Jack replied, anger carefully controlled. What, he was supposed to sit back and let her agree with that crap? She had to know that wasn't an option. "And somehow I don't think you'd be pleased if I told you to sit back and shut up." Understatement of the century, she'd probably murder him. He waited for her to give him the glare that said so before adding, "Exactly."
"When did we start dating? Because then it'll be your business. But until then, I'll deal with my friends the way that I want to." Had she just called Nathan her friend? The world had to be ending. "I dealt with him for months before you even knew he existed and so I think I have the upper hand when it comes to dealing with him."
It hadn't seemed that way to Jack. Nathan had been crude, demanding - cruel, even (although possibly he hadn't meant to be). He leveled an intense look at her. "And so this is what, you dealing with me?"
"No," Alisha said slowly, "this is me yelling at you for not letting me deal with Nathan. Now I'm going to have to go after him and he's going to be angry about more than keeping my power from him."
"So what?" Jack really didn't care if Nathan was angry, and was surprised Alisha did. "You should be angry at him for treating you like that." Jack was.
"If I were angry every time Nathan was a prick, I'd never be anything else. If I'd had ten minutes with him without someone butting in, we could have had this sorted with the minimum of fuss. These things usually roll off him pretty quickly." She hadn't seen a lot that really bothered him. Maybe that thing with his step-dad. But he got over most things pretty quickly. This, though, this she'd have to fix.
"Right, I was butting in. Just like I was calling him names and putting you on trial. Am I Irish too in this rewrite? Because I'll need to practice the accent." It wasn't biting, Jack was just exasperated. She could see it, couldn't she? How bizarre this fight was? He hadn't even properly stood up for her because she was more than capable, but he'd been the one on her side, no question.
Alisha couldn't really put it into words, why she was defending Nathan. Really, she didn't want to put it into words. She cared about him, as much as she didn't want to, like some annoying kid brother. And he was right. Simon and Curtis had known what her powers were almost right from the start. Curtis because he had accidentally touched her, but she'd actually told Simon. So in a way, Nathan had a right to be angry. But how could she explain that to Jack?
"Will you at least admit that I know him better than you do?"
"Sure." Obviously. Jack took a breath and relaxed his shoulders, making a conscious effort to soften his demeanor, to be less defensive. "Do you get why I can't let you agree with him?"
Alisha didn't answer which was as good as a 'no'. She didn't see because Nathan was right. She was a walking date-rape drug. Had been, at least.
And this was exactly why Jack had been pushing back at Nathan. He reached a hand over to cup her face, holding her gaze. "He's an idiot. Your mutation didn't happen to him, it happened to you. He doesn't know the first thing about it," Jack told her firmly. "He doesn't get to judge you."
She turned her face away from his hand. "No, but he knows me. Knew me before I got to this school. You don't know everything I did with my power." Neither did Nathan, but he'd guessed.
True, Jack didn't know. But of the two of them, Jack was the one who had probably gotten people killed with his ability by recruiting for the Facility. He sighed, dropping his hand. Then he adjusted the way he was sitting, pulling his arms across his chest and propping one leg on the couch, closer to her.
"Good thing these mutations came with guidebooks and manuals," he told her, a tired little grin playing at his lips. "Think of all the things we'd have to learn the hard way. Can you imagine?"
"Mine's pretty simple, you've got to admit. Touch and then insert tab a into slot b." She tried to return his grin, but it didn't even reach her lips let alone anything else.
"Not all the time," Jack reminded her, taking both of her hands in his. To remind her. "And everyone's power is pretty simple by that logic." Take him and Nathan: get shot, wake up, move on. "Doesn't make it any easier."
She was sure her hands felt like dead weight in his. "You don't understand, Jack. And either I haven't been clear enough or you're pretending you don't understand. So let's be straight. The first time or two, sure. I didn't understand what was going on and I was fucking scared. But then I figured it out. ...and Nathan was right."
"Actually, I kinda figured." Jack had had a lot of time by now to think about her mutation, what it must've been like. How a person would come to terms with it. Really, it wasn't so far removed from his own ability, the one he'd lost to the Facility experiments. "But I also figure that you're here, doing things differently. Maybe even getting control."
"There is no control. There's people like you and Brian I can touch without you going all 'I want to fuck your tits' and there are people like Bobby who didn't care. And then there's everyone else." And she had to stay well away from everyone else. Or occasionally use her ability just a little to 'encourage' young men to buy her drinks.
Jack made a mental note about 'Bobby' - the guy Jean-Marie was dating? - but focused on Alisha. This part he'd heard before, and he'd never known enough to question it. Now he felt like he had to try. ...carefully. "You might be surprised, actually. And," he headed off the reproachful glare, "I really would know. I used to have a similar ability."
Before the Facility. Well, now they were on rocky ground for both of them. At least that was playing fair, right?
"And how many people did you use yours against?" Alisha shot at him. Oddly, she didn't exactly like the idea that there was someone out there who had, or used to have, the same kind of power as hers. if the powers made any sort of sense, she would be able to see why Jack would have had the power he did. What she was curious about was why he 'used' to have have that ability.
"Plenty," he replied flatly. His pheromone control had never been on the level of her mutation, but the things he'd used it for... He locked those thoughts away. "My ability was more subtle than yours. Pheromones. It's amazing how far a little arousal can get you," he told her with a smirk. "But it took a while to figure it out; I learned control almost without realizing."
She studied him carefully to see if he were lying. She didn't think he was and she couldn't decide whether that was better or worse. Sometimes it felt as if she were alone in what she could do and she used it as a shield against the world. Against being a mutant. Against being in a strange city with people who were training to be soldiers, in some cases literally.
"How did you..." she started. She stopped talking when she decided that she wasn't going to ask the question. She hated feeling weak and that question would prove that she was. "Never mind."
Jack tensed just slightly. Logically he knew that her mutation was dangerous, that it made her miserable... but after losing his own ability, having it burned out, taken from him, that she wanted to ask how it'd happened--
Well, it struck a nerve. "I don't recommend it." He took a deep breath, forced himself to let it go (well, he tried at least). "But my point is that if you figure out how it works, you might be able to get control. And you've got people here to help, and to keep you safe." He couldn't quite keep the edge out of his voice as he added, "Believe me, you could do a lot worse."
Except that asking how it had happened had never occurred to her. Or at least it had, but only after the more important question. "No. How did you control it?" She flushed. She didn't even know if what she could do could be controlled, but if he had managed it, maybe it was just that she wasn't willing to try. She hated the idea that she might be responsible for her own misery.
Jack blinked at her. "Oh. Right. Better question." Now that he'd made an ass of himself. Still, he was relieved. "It was really just a feeling, something I noticed when I was charming people. I didn't get a real handle on it until I learned how it worked, though. That was when I learned how to turn it off.
"Actually," now that he thought about it, "we can enlist Simon to help to figure it out. You can't touch him, but you can touch me - and he could figure out what exactly it is that your power does to me." Aside from the obvious (which was becoming obvious again because he was still holding her hands). With a smirk and a shrug, he amended: "Well, how it does that, anyway."
"Simon? My Simon? No, no, no. Bad idea. He wouldn't do it anyway." Which was to say, she didn't care if he would or wouldn't do it, she wasn't letting him do it. She supposed she liked Simon well enough. The problem was now that she wasn't just finding him the typical shy boy she'd known back in London. He looked good. And there was something else about him that she couldn't quite figure out. Maybe it was just that he'd grown himself a backbone. Whatever it was, it made her uneasy, especially when they were talking about using her powers against him. She'd done it once, just the once, and didn't care to try again.
It was only after she'd objected maybe a little too much that she realized she'd misunderstood and he'd meant that she should touch him and not Simon.
Jack couldn't help quirking an amused eyebrow at her as he clarified. "Simon Tam - who is commonly regarded as belonging to Jean-Paul Beaubier. Since when do you have a Simon?"
And then, just when she thought she couldn't be more embarrassed, Jack informed her that he was talking about another Simon. The wannabe doctor and not... She groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I meant the Simon I know, not Tam." She hadn't meant to make it sound like she had Simon in any way.
Jack nearly laughed, except he'd remembered who the other Simon was - the guy who'd been at the Facility with Nathan.
Still, it was pretty funny, and he was still grinning as he put his hands on either side of her face and pulled her forward to plant a kiss on the top of her head. She just seemed so embarrassed. "Any objections to working with Tam?"
"Objections to working at all," she said. "I already told Alice. I have no interest in experimenting." The protest, however, was not as strong as it could have been. He would probably wear her down. Eventually. She wasn't going to go without a fight.
He didn't blame her, not at all. But she had so much to gain. "No lab rat experience, I promise. Tam's a good guy, and good at what he does. This would be safe, for everyone, and strictly for the purpose of getting you some information." He smiled at her again. "When you're ready, it's a place to start."
"I'll think about it, okay?" she said. "But look. Take it easy on Nathan, okay? He's right. I should have told him. And he's...right about the other thing. Even if he didn't know he was." For all that he was an idiot, he could be surprisingly insightful. It reminded her of that whole 'what if monkeys wrote Shakespeare' thing. Except there was only one Nathan. One was more than enough.
"Well, if he's right, so am I." Compromise, right? Jack didn't like it, but knew this was too complicated to overcome in a single conversation. Besides, other than leaving a bad taste in his mouth (...metaphorically), he really had nothing against Nathan. The guy was an idiot and an ass. The world would keep spinning. "But think about it. I'll mention it to Tam; when you're ready, we'll be ready too."
And sure, Simon wasn't exactly friendly with him, but Jack would be shocked if he wouldn't overlook that to help another student.
Alisha threw up her hands. "Fine. Fine. If I decide to follow through on this stupid idea, you'll be one of the first I'll come to. Alice did want me to tie people down."
"Always knew I liked Alice." Jack grinned at her again. "Well, can't ask for more than that I suppose. You still look like you want to hit me though."
"Or kiss you," she muttered under her breath.
"Sorry?"
"Like you didn't hear that." She smacked him lightly and then pressed a kiss to his jaw.
Or both, apparently. Jack didn't pull away, but he didn't exactly lean in either, mostly shooting her a confused look. "What was that for?" he asked, but was quick to add, "Not averse, just confused."
"For caring." It wasn't something she'd had a lot of. Sure, she'd had friends, but she'd never really thought they'd care about her enough to do this kind of thing. At least not until she'd gotten here.
Smiling again, Jack picked up her hand and placed a kiss on it. "No problem."
