JP and Noriko

[om_surge]

Reunion over breakfast!


"Hey!"

Jean-Paul literally pounced as soon as Nori entered the kitchen. It was as much a challenge as an embrace; he lifted her clean off of her feet and swung her around, practically inviting retaliation as soon he set her back down. And he obviously gave no fucks. "All right, so how much have you been slacking off while I've been gone? Have you seduced Philip with your culinary skills yet?"

Noriko was so surprised that she instinctively clung to Jean-Paul when he spun her about. The punch she gave his shoulder after he put her back down was half-hearted at best, and a token protest more than anything else, since a smile was twitching up the corner of her lips. What could she say? Jean-Paul was here, and she'd freaking missed him.

"Yeah, I made us sushi," she confirmed, but it hadn't exactly been a seduction. "Not a total disaster. But you tell me everything."

"Not on an empty stomach." Jean-Paul headed for the fridge. "How far have standards here slipped without me? Tell me there's more than pop tarts and mac and cheese left for us to work with."

"Steve cooks pretty decently," Noriko replied, following after him. Honestly, she was still getting used to him actually, really being there, and it was amazing. "He's not you, but..." Definitely still good stuff getting stocked.

"I'd forgotten," Jean-Paul admitted. "We didn't talk much before I left." He gathered eggs, cheese, green onions and ham. Omelets were more difficult than they looked, and a good way to get back into practice. "All right, where do you want me to start? Or I could just tell you it sucked and we can go back to cooking lesson."

"Cooking lesson can wait until next time," Noriko replied immediately, without a trace of uncertainty. Seriously. "I want to know everything." It mattered a lot more.

He handed Nori the ham. "Here, give me about half of that diced as fine as you can get it." He began grating cheese, sighing out from between his teeth as he worked. "Well, to start, we got stuck in barracks as soon as we got there. It kind of made sense -- not everyone can commute to Ontario every day -- but it was still a pain. Especially considering the psychos that were in the boy's bunk."

Barracks. That sounded so military to her, but as often in English, she wasn't sure if it was just her or if she had it right. She grabbed a chopping board and a knife, getting started on the ham. "That bad?"

"I'm not a big fan of anything that forces people to tamp down on their individuality and fall into lockstep," Jean-Paul said, "but even given my bias...yes, pretty bad."

"No, I mean - psychos?" Noriko clarified, glancing briefly over at him.

"The reason I'm back now is because one of them tried to slice me to ribbons on a whim," he clarified. "It gave me the leverage I needed to get out on my terms, but so far as I can tell, they are keeping him on the team."

"Seriously," Noriko let out, flatly, abandoning the ham to look at Jean-Paul and see for herself that he was right to say 'tried to'. Her hands had tightened into fists inside her gauntlets, one of them holding a knife, and her instinct was to want to track down the asshole and give him a little taste of electricity for his trouble.

"Seriously," he confirmed. "They're so desperate to get their little comic-book team in the public eye that they're willing to take anyone right now."

"But that's..." Irresponsible, insane? They didn't seem like strong enough words to Noriko. She managed to close her mouth, then opened it again. "You know, some people tell me I'm too hard on governments and whatever, but that's even worse than I thought." Because it was downright moronic.

"It's a gamble," Jean-Paul agreed. "They're taking a chance with the mutants in their charge and our reputation in general. Imagine what it will look like if that asshole loses and attacks some bystander."

"But you're alright," she checked, just to be certain. They could go back to badmouthing the Canadians in a second.

"Faiza healed me up," Jean-Paul assured her. "I'm good as new now."

Motherfucker. "How bad was it?"

"Bad," Jean-Paul sighed. He knew Nori's opinion of him would plummet if he tried treating her like some fragile kid. "Left side of my face and torso clawed up and stabbed, and I dislocated my right shoulder twisting away from him. I did at least get to break his face in return."

Shit. But at least... "And they don't have a healer," Noriko checked. The asshole deserved to be in pain.

"Non, but he has a healing factor. He was physically fine by the time they had me stitched up."

"Well, I hope his healing factor hurts," Noriko gritted out, then met Jean-Paul's gaze more calmly. "How are you doing?" Really, and not physically, since Faiza had taken care of him.

"I made it out," Jean-Paul said quietly. "Crawley too. We got the information we needed, we got out alive, and we made it back home. So overall, I am doing pretty good. Once I stop looking over my shoulder every three minutes, I will be even better."

"Anything I can do to help, let me know," Noriko stated evenly. She meant it. Even if it was some more hugging - just maybe give her a heads-up this time.

"This is helping," Jean-Paul said firmly. "Just doing this with you...getting back to normal." He ran his hands back through his hair. "It got to the point that lying...the paranoia...that was normal. And I want to leave that behind."

"That means we're going running," Noriko informed him, and turned back to the ham. "After breakfast." There was nothing like running to make her forget about everything else for a bit, and she was hoping it'd work the same, for Jean-Paul. Even if it didn't, it was such a them thing to do.

But that didn't matter so much, because Jean-Paul was smiling at her again. "You're on. And I'll fill you in on the rest of it while we eat."