Steve and Kitty, backdated to May 4th
May. 4th, 2014 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
om_clarius posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
om_mainWhen Steve ends up breaking his laptop - with a little help from Jack - he goes to Tony's not-a-minion for some help.
Steve stared down at his laptop. It'd been a few days since he'd dropped it and it wasn't working. One of the hinges seemed to be broken and it wasn't turning on at all and wasn't that just perverse. Being turned on was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place. But he hadn't really needed it until now and so he'd completely forgotten about it until he went to go grab it and remembered it'd gone crunch. Right. Jack had offered to fix it, but he'd said he wanted to actually meet Kitty and so he'd ask her if she could fix it first. Except then other things had gotten in the way and now he actually needed it.
He grabbed it and the power cord and made his way to wherever she and Tony had set up shop, asking people along the way to make sure he was going in the right direction. Maybe she wouldn't be able to fix it, in which case he'd have to go back to Jack with his proverbial tail between his legs, but at least he'd have the chance to meet someone who sounded interesting. Not-a-minion, indeed.
"Kitty?" he asked when he got to a place that seemed likely to be at least part of the area they were working in.
Deep in a basement beneath the basement, down the hall from the state-of-the-art infirmary, several labs and workshops existed behind closed doors, some with signs on them like 'Keep Out' or 'Work in Progress' or even 'Bring Doritos'. Okay, most of those signs were on the same door, which was mostly shut, but cracked partway. Inside, there was a small crash as Steve called out, and a tiny yelp in reply.
A moment (or three) later, the door swung back and Kitty blinked out at the guy in the hallway, her hair floofed out from her ponytail and a very small tool that looked like it might have been an electric screwdriver in her hair. She thought that maybe she recognized him, but if she did, it was from Philosophy, and she never much paid attention to anyone but Mr. L in that class.
"Uh?" she asked eloquently.
"Not Tony's minion, right?" he asked with a small grin. Maybe that would help her remember where they'd talked. Or at least conversed. "You helped me out with the phone. I still don't know how you - or Jarvis - put up with him." Of course, he wasn't sold on Jarvis being more than maybe Kitty having fun with Tony, but it had definitely seemed like he - it - had been conversing at a 'not merely a program' level.
"Riiiight," Kitty smiled. "Hey, sorry. I think I'm starting to spend way too much time down here. That and there's like kids popping out of the woodwork. Hi! And well, JARVIS. He's patient. And Tony's not so bad, once you get to know him."
Not that she really thought she knew him at all, but that was beside the point.
"One of the only schools where you get new students pretty much the entire year," Steve agreed. "I was actually wondering if you could help me out with something. Or at least point me in the right direction." He hefted his laptop up and showed off the damage. "I kind of dropped it -" And he wasn't mentioning the circumstance, although there was a slight blush that sprung up. "-and I was wondering if you could or you knew someone who could fix it."
Kitty was shrewd enough to notice the color in his cheeks, but kindly didn't ask about it, instead giving him a bright smile and motioning him inside. "Well, if I can't, I'm sure there's someone here that can. Jensen's amazing with computers, and well. Tony, obviously. What's going on with it? You know, since that happened."
Because obviously the damage was obvious.
Steve shrugged. "It didn't turn on and I didn't need it right away." A faint flush came over him because of how it had fallen in the first place and he was more than glad that she hadn't asked that question...yet.
Taking the laptop, Kitty inspected it and led the way back into the lab toward her desk to fish around in a drawer for her screwdriver and pliers. "It's probably just a disconnected wire from the screen detaching. Easy peasy. Your information should be safe and sound."
"Oh, just," Steve replied, a smile on his face. "Sorry, my high school didn't have electrical engineering as one of the classes." And it wasn't something he'd have been interested in, either.
"Sorry," Kitty grimaced as she set the computer down on her workbench. "I didn't mean to sound, you know, patronizing or anything. It's actually a relief to get to work on something. I've been having some trouble coming up with ideas lately."
"No, it's fine. Now, if you played a mean game of basketball, then we might have to talk." But he knew there were some things that he had to be better at than she was and other things he was terrible at. Fixing his computer was one of those last ones. "Ideas for what?"
She tugged a screwdriver out of her desk drawer and began to loosen the screen off of its hinges. "Anything, really. Tony's got his AI and holographic technology. Claudia has all of her gadgets. Jensen has computers. I'm not really sure where I fit in anymore you know? It was different when I was in my old school. I thought that everything I did was special. Unique. Here, it's...probably been thought of before."
"It sounds like you might be the person who stops them from blowing up the rest of the school," he pointed out. Which was good since he lived there. "But I guess what you have to ask yourself is what you want to do and kind of ignore what the others are doing. I'm sure you'll come up with something unique. What is it you like doing?"
"I don't know. I mean, stuff like this, you know?" Kitty motioned to the computer. "I like helping people with things that just sort of come up. But sometimes there isn't a whole lot of that. Before, I was working on upgrading the Danger Room. But that's done. And I helped Noriko upgrade her gloves. But that's done. I guess I could see if like, the image inducers could use a boost."
"I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances," he said. "It's not as if most of us can just go to the local store and buy a new computer. So we need things like that fixed." He went silent as he thought about her problem. "Is it that you're not as fond of helping Tony or he's a bit too...Tony for you?"
"Oh, I love helping Tony," Kitty grinned, glancing up before returning to the task of exposing the wiring and the disconnected cable. "It's just that sometimes you want something to call your own. Or at least, I'll need something like that when I start college classes. What about you? Don't you want to find something that's unique to you?"
He shrugged a little. "I guess there's not much unique about me. Jean-Paul is as good a cook as I am, if not better, Cal's getting together this entire team of people who play basketball." There was one thing, but it was a kind of definer he didn't really want to think about. "I guess the only unique thing about me is my power and people like Professor Xavier would be able to do that, too."
"There's something unique about everyone," Kitty protested as she looked up from what she was doing. "I gotta believe that. You'll figure it out. What's your power?"
"I can tell when someone's lying. Just that. It's supposedly related in some way to empathy, but I can't even tell when someone's lying if I'm not looking at them directly, let alone anything else that might be empathy-related." So, not something that someone else couldn't do. "And I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up. I thought I did, but..." His voice faded away as he shrugged.
Kitty chewed on her lip. His power was very specific, and telepaths could probably do the same thing as him, if on a broader degree. She knew there'd probably be a use for it in everyday life, though, which was important. "What did you think you wanted to be?"
"ATF," Steve answered simply. "And I guess I still could, but things are more complicated now." Now that he knew about mutants. Now that he knew that he was one. And especially because now he knew there were people out there who had kidnapped kids and experimented on them. What he wanted was as fuzzy as what he might be able to do without risking a lot.
"Ooh, that would be really cool. Someone with your power would be really useful in the ATF," Kitty grinned. "And you've got a couple of years to figure it out, too."
"A few," Steve agreed with a grin. "They require you to get a bachelor's degree, so that's at least four years plus the rest of school here." And he'd have plenty of time to figure out what he wanted to do. Although not much more time to figure out which degree he wanted to go for.
Kitty leaned down, reattaching the wiring with a pair of pliers, her nose scrunching in concentration. "Well, I think it sounds perfect for you, and the way people have been reacting to mutants coming out so far, I bet they'd love to have someone like you working with them. You should definitely go for it."
His grin only got wider. She was definitely cute. If you were into that kind of thing. "It's definitely one of the options. So, how's it coming, doc? Will she live?"
Another twist of her fingers and the screen was screwed back into place. She turned it around for him on the desk. "Okay, give it a go."
He held his breath as he pressed the power button and let it out when the start up screen came on. "You're a master." And then he flushed a little. "And discreet." Because she hadn't asked about the why's and how's of it getting broken, even though it was probably one of the top questions.
She just grinned. "Pretty much every laptop-breaking-story is embarrassing so...I get it. Well, I don't get it. Or know it. Or would ask about it. So. You know."
"I can think of one that isn't. 'I tripped on the stairs.'" And then he really thought about it and laughed. "Okay, maybe that one's embarrassing. Just not in the same calibre." There was some kind of huge gulf between tripping and making out with Jack.
"See? No one wants to admit they tripped on the stairs." But the calibre comment made her think that his story had a different kind of element to it. Then again, she wasn't supposed to ask, so she just flopped down in her chair and waved to him. "But it should be fine now."
Steve closed the laptop and stood up. "Thanks. And if you ever need help brainstorming on what, specifically, you want to be your thing, let me know."
Kitty grinned and gave him a stiff salute before winking. "I will, definitely. You uh, you know, be careful next time."
Steve managed to keep the blush under control...until the wink. "Yes, sir," he said and saluted her back before heading out. Now to tell Jack that the machine wasn't forever broken.
Steve stared down at his laptop. It'd been a few days since he'd dropped it and it wasn't working. One of the hinges seemed to be broken and it wasn't turning on at all and wasn't that just perverse. Being turned on was what had gotten him into this mess in the first place. But he hadn't really needed it until now and so he'd completely forgotten about it until he went to go grab it and remembered it'd gone crunch. Right. Jack had offered to fix it, but he'd said he wanted to actually meet Kitty and so he'd ask her if she could fix it first. Except then other things had gotten in the way and now he actually needed it.
He grabbed it and the power cord and made his way to wherever she and Tony had set up shop, asking people along the way to make sure he was going in the right direction. Maybe she wouldn't be able to fix it, in which case he'd have to go back to Jack with his proverbial tail between his legs, but at least he'd have the chance to meet someone who sounded interesting. Not-a-minion, indeed.
"Kitty?" he asked when he got to a place that seemed likely to be at least part of the area they were working in.
Deep in a basement beneath the basement, down the hall from the state-of-the-art infirmary, several labs and workshops existed behind closed doors, some with signs on them like 'Keep Out' or 'Work in Progress' or even 'Bring Doritos'. Okay, most of those signs were on the same door, which was mostly shut, but cracked partway. Inside, there was a small crash as Steve called out, and a tiny yelp in reply.
A moment (or three) later, the door swung back and Kitty blinked out at the guy in the hallway, her hair floofed out from her ponytail and a very small tool that looked like it might have been an electric screwdriver in her hair. She thought that maybe she recognized him, but if she did, it was from Philosophy, and she never much paid attention to anyone but Mr. L in that class.
"Uh?" she asked eloquently.
"Not Tony's minion, right?" he asked with a small grin. Maybe that would help her remember where they'd talked. Or at least conversed. "You helped me out with the phone. I still don't know how you - or Jarvis - put up with him." Of course, he wasn't sold on Jarvis being more than maybe Kitty having fun with Tony, but it had definitely seemed like he - it - had been conversing at a 'not merely a program' level.
"Riiiight," Kitty smiled. "Hey, sorry. I think I'm starting to spend way too much time down here. That and there's like kids popping out of the woodwork. Hi! And well, JARVIS. He's patient. And Tony's not so bad, once you get to know him."
Not that she really thought she knew him at all, but that was beside the point.
"One of the only schools where you get new students pretty much the entire year," Steve agreed. "I was actually wondering if you could help me out with something. Or at least point me in the right direction." He hefted his laptop up and showed off the damage. "I kind of dropped it -" And he wasn't mentioning the circumstance, although there was a slight blush that sprung up. "-and I was wondering if you could or you knew someone who could fix it."
Kitty was shrewd enough to notice the color in his cheeks, but kindly didn't ask about it, instead giving him a bright smile and motioning him inside. "Well, if I can't, I'm sure there's someone here that can. Jensen's amazing with computers, and well. Tony, obviously. What's going on with it? You know, since that happened."
Because obviously the damage was obvious.
Steve shrugged. "It didn't turn on and I didn't need it right away." A faint flush came over him because of how it had fallen in the first place and he was more than glad that she hadn't asked that question...yet.
Taking the laptop, Kitty inspected it and led the way back into the lab toward her desk to fish around in a drawer for her screwdriver and pliers. "It's probably just a disconnected wire from the screen detaching. Easy peasy. Your information should be safe and sound."
"Oh, just," Steve replied, a smile on his face. "Sorry, my high school didn't have electrical engineering as one of the classes." And it wasn't something he'd have been interested in, either.
"Sorry," Kitty grimaced as she set the computer down on her workbench. "I didn't mean to sound, you know, patronizing or anything. It's actually a relief to get to work on something. I've been having some trouble coming up with ideas lately."
"No, it's fine. Now, if you played a mean game of basketball, then we might have to talk." But he knew there were some things that he had to be better at than she was and other things he was terrible at. Fixing his computer was one of those last ones. "Ideas for what?"
She tugged a screwdriver out of her desk drawer and began to loosen the screen off of its hinges. "Anything, really. Tony's got his AI and holographic technology. Claudia has all of her gadgets. Jensen has computers. I'm not really sure where I fit in anymore you know? It was different when I was in my old school. I thought that everything I did was special. Unique. Here, it's...probably been thought of before."
"It sounds like you might be the person who stops them from blowing up the rest of the school," he pointed out. Which was good since he lived there. "But I guess what you have to ask yourself is what you want to do and kind of ignore what the others are doing. I'm sure you'll come up with something unique. What is it you like doing?"
"I don't know. I mean, stuff like this, you know?" Kitty motioned to the computer. "I like helping people with things that just sort of come up. But sometimes there isn't a whole lot of that. Before, I was working on upgrading the Danger Room. But that's done. And I helped Noriko upgrade her gloves. But that's done. I guess I could see if like, the image inducers could use a boost."
"I'm sure you'll have plenty of chances," he said. "It's not as if most of us can just go to the local store and buy a new computer. So we need things like that fixed." He went silent as he thought about her problem. "Is it that you're not as fond of helping Tony or he's a bit too...Tony for you?"
"Oh, I love helping Tony," Kitty grinned, glancing up before returning to the task of exposing the wiring and the disconnected cable. "It's just that sometimes you want something to call your own. Or at least, I'll need something like that when I start college classes. What about you? Don't you want to find something that's unique to you?"
He shrugged a little. "I guess there's not much unique about me. Jean-Paul is as good a cook as I am, if not better, Cal's getting together this entire team of people who play basketball." There was one thing, but it was a kind of definer he didn't really want to think about. "I guess the only unique thing about me is my power and people like Professor Xavier would be able to do that, too."
"There's something unique about everyone," Kitty protested as she looked up from what she was doing. "I gotta believe that. You'll figure it out. What's your power?"
"I can tell when someone's lying. Just that. It's supposedly related in some way to empathy, but I can't even tell when someone's lying if I'm not looking at them directly, let alone anything else that might be empathy-related." So, not something that someone else couldn't do. "And I don't even know what I want to be when I grow up. I thought I did, but..." His voice faded away as he shrugged.
Kitty chewed on her lip. His power was very specific, and telepaths could probably do the same thing as him, if on a broader degree. She knew there'd probably be a use for it in everyday life, though, which was important. "What did you think you wanted to be?"
"ATF," Steve answered simply. "And I guess I still could, but things are more complicated now." Now that he knew about mutants. Now that he knew that he was one. And especially because now he knew there were people out there who had kidnapped kids and experimented on them. What he wanted was as fuzzy as what he might be able to do without risking a lot.
"Ooh, that would be really cool. Someone with your power would be really useful in the ATF," Kitty grinned. "And you've got a couple of years to figure it out, too."
"A few," Steve agreed with a grin. "They require you to get a bachelor's degree, so that's at least four years plus the rest of school here." And he'd have plenty of time to figure out what he wanted to do. Although not much more time to figure out which degree he wanted to go for.
Kitty leaned down, reattaching the wiring with a pair of pliers, her nose scrunching in concentration. "Well, I think it sounds perfect for you, and the way people have been reacting to mutants coming out so far, I bet they'd love to have someone like you working with them. You should definitely go for it."
His grin only got wider. She was definitely cute. If you were into that kind of thing. "It's definitely one of the options. So, how's it coming, doc? Will she live?"
Another twist of her fingers and the screen was screwed back into place. She turned it around for him on the desk. "Okay, give it a go."
He held his breath as he pressed the power button and let it out when the start up screen came on. "You're a master." And then he flushed a little. "And discreet." Because she hadn't asked about the why's and how's of it getting broken, even though it was probably one of the top questions.
She just grinned. "Pretty much every laptop-breaking-story is embarrassing so...I get it. Well, I don't get it. Or know it. Or would ask about it. So. You know."
"I can think of one that isn't. 'I tripped on the stairs.'" And then he really thought about it and laughed. "Okay, maybe that one's embarrassing. Just not in the same calibre." There was some kind of huge gulf between tripping and making out with Jack.
"See? No one wants to admit they tripped on the stairs." But the calibre comment made her think that his story had a different kind of element to it. Then again, she wasn't supposed to ask, so she just flopped down in her chair and waved to him. "But it should be fine now."
Steve closed the laptop and stood up. "Thanks. And if you ever need help brainstorming on what, specifically, you want to be your thing, let me know."
Kitty grinned and gave him a stiff salute before winking. "I will, definitely. You uh, you know, be careful next time."
Steve managed to keep the blush under control...until the wink. "Yes, sir," he said and saluted her back before heading out. Now to tell Jack that the machine wasn't forever broken.
