Cal and Luornu | Backdated to 11/10/14

[om_triptych]

Cal and orange-eyed Lu make music and talk



A tiny smile lit Lu's face as her bow slid over the strings. It had taken her a while to find the music classroom, and she hadn't been at all sure about playing in her room - what if her roommate didn't like it? Or the girl who'd posted the note on her door about noise? She hadn't wanted to annoy anyone, and had been getting a little frazzled about the lack of practice until Sis had finally asked someone for her.

At least, she reflected, she didn't sound too bad - and if she hit a wrong note, it wasn't like there was anyone around to hear.

Cal had been headed over to the music room to try and get some guitar practice in without Irvine being there, even if it was more frustrating than anything else. He could've just doubled back when he heard the violin, but he was curious about who was playing, and he was curious to try it out, since he never had. He stopped in the doorframe, leaning against it and crossing his arms loosely over his chest as he watched Luornu, or one of them (he couldn't see her eyes right now), work on the instrument.

She wasn't sure if she'd heard footsteps, or just had that vague, odd feeling that someone was watching her (which, okay, she had that sometimes anyway), but Lu paused and glanced over at the door, then startled a little as she realized she wasn't alone. "Oh, hi Cal," she said with a self-conscious smile. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were there. I was just finishing up anyway - you can have the room."

"Oh, no - well, I mean, if you've got some place else to be, don't mind me, but..." He'd walked a few steps into the room, and was rubbing a hand at the back of his neck with a sheepish half-smile. "I was looking forward to trying out the violin, if you're gonna stick around."

"No, it's fine - I mean, I was just practicing." She smiled a little and gave him a reassuring look, holding out the violin and bow for him to take. "Don't worry, she's not here. It's just me."

"Don't they have another one? You keep this one," Cal assured her, turning to go look through the school instruments. "And - I'm not avoiding her, does she think I'm avoiding her? I'm not avoiding any of you."

Lu shook her head, looking just a little awkward. "She doesn't. We just, umm...well, Sis thought we should wait and see if you were still feeling weird about it, so she told her not to be a pest?"

"Oh, right," Cal acknowledged, and found what looked a violin case. He turned around, bringing it back with him. "That's sweet. I'm cool, really." He was still feeling weird, but whatever.

Lu gave him a skeptical look. "I d..don't think you are. Not really?" She smiled faintly and shrugged. "It's okay. It's weird sometimes for us, too. We're just mostly used to it."

"I can be cool and still feel weird about it," Cal assured her with a hint of a frown, there and gone. He didn't as a rule like people telling him how he felt about things. But he grabbed a chair to sit with her, opening the violin case on his lap. "I don't like doing the awkward thing, really."

"O..okay," Lu said, forcing a smile. "Sorry? I..." she shrugged. "I'm sorry, I'm not doing this very well, huh?"

"Not sure there's a way to do this kinda thing well," Cal assured her with a half-smile. "We're good." He meant that, too. Seeing her so insecure, they couldn't be anything but good, given the urges that set off in him. He took the violin and bow out of the case, then set that down on the floor beside him.

"N..no, the rest of me's pretty good at it," she disclaimed, smiling faintly. "I mean, this hasn't happened before, but...other stuff has?" She shrugged. "It happens." She watched him curiously, then asked, "Do you play? Because...I'm n..not very good."

"I beg to differ - what I just heard really wasn't bad," Cal stated as he put the violin in place. "And I'm pretty happy about that because no, this is about to be all you." He started playing the piece she had been working on, more or less exactly the way she had. There was some difference due to temperaments, but his strengths and weaknesses in terms of technique were the same as hers.

Lu listened, smiling faintly at the music and letting it wash over her for a while before picking up her own violin and joining in, playing the second violin part to the piece.

Cal grinned when they came to the end of the piece, lowering bow and violin into his lap. "Well, that was cool. Hard on the fingers," thankfully, playing guitar had helped a little, "but totally cool."

Laughing, Lu nodded and set down her instrument as well. "You get callouses after a while, and then it's not so bad?" she admitted, holding her left hand up as evidence, then grinned a little. "Too bad you can't mimic those too?"

"Wait, I probably could," Cal stated, focused, watching the fingertips of his hand curled around the violin's neck... and grinned again. "Aha! I should've thought of that." And for his guitar time with Irvine, too, except... "But I like working up my own, anyway."

"H..how did you do that?" Lu asked, surprised. "I mean, I know you can copy what I can do, but that's...not, right?"

"Physical ability? I can like, copy people's strength, for example," Cal explained. "It makes sense - the callouses allow you to be a better violinist, so yeah, I can grab that, too."

"That's pretty cool." She smiled, then cocked her head a little. "C..can I ask you a weird question?"

Cal nodded. "Shoot."

Now that she had permission to ask, Lu paused, trying to figure out what, exactly, she wanted to know. "Jeanne-Marie asked if we're all there, when we're combined. Which...we are, kinda, I know that." She shrugged and smiled crookedly. "I just...is it a lot different, when there's just one you? You're kind of the only person who'd maybe know."

"Different from what?" Cal asked, not sure what she was after. Because, well, obviously it was different when he was split and when he wasn't, but that was a little too obvious.

Lu's forehead furrowed as she tried to think of a better way to explain it. "When you mimicked me. The you who went off wit Sis said something about how you were pretty sure you weren't there like we are when you weren't mimicking us." She smiled crookedly. "She didn't think anything of it, but I just kind of wondered if it's a lot different? But it's not a big deal or anything, I'm just curious."

"Oh, right," Cal acknowledged as he realized what it was she was talking about. Actually, one of the definite pros of his mutation was how he could help everybody else figure theirs out. He really liked that. "Well - when I'm not mimicking you," which he was still not doing, mutation-wise, "I'm not - integrated, the way you guys are. I don't have to be, right? 'Cause there's only one of me. But when I mimic you, I guess there's always the three of me waiting to split, or something? I don't really know, I didn't spend a lot of time mimicking you without splitting, I just... What the other you said, about how the hothead in me could make it happen. It didn't feel right? I don't know, am I making sense?"

"I think so? It seems so weird. I mean, even when we sort of took turns, we...didn't, mostly." She smiled a little more, and impish look in her eyes. "The doctors were really confused. It's not supposed to work that way. I think we screwed up all their tests."

Cal chuckled. "Well, good for you. And good if it makes sense, too." He really wasn't sure it did, to him. But he sobered up, and asked, "How was it, growing up with that?" He couldn't imagine it.

Lu shrugged. "What's it like growing up without that?" she countered, her smile dimming a little. "The normal psychiatrists weren't that bad, really. I mean, they didn't like me much, or Sis - the one with the purple eyes, I mean, though she didn't have them then, y'know? But it was okay, and Grandma stopped taking us to see them when she got custody anyway." She made a face. "The h..hospital?" She shook her head. "A..ask one of the others, okay? "

"I'm sorry nobody got it," Cal stated with a sympathetic smile. He wasn't going to ask her to talk about anything that made her uncomfortable, thanks. "Apart from your grandmother. Did you - did you look into getting her DNA?" He figured it might give them some answers, one way or the other.

Lu shrugged a little - really, they couldn't have gotten it, right? - but then smiled gratefully and nodded. "Dad checked in our stuff at home and found her old hairbrush. I'll get it when I go home for Thanksgiving, if that's okay? Or he can send it if you need it faster." She shrugged crookedly. "He's contacting my mom, too, so we don't have to. I don't think there's any way to get anything from my biological dad, though."

Wow, that was a lot of info Cal hadn't had before. So she was a foster kid, huh? Not surprising, if her grandmother had had custody for a while. And they didn't wanna have any contact with their mom, okay. "Whatever you can get will be great, and there's no deadline on this," Cal assured her with a half smile. "I just hope it'll help you out."

"With what?" Lu asked. "I mean, I get how it'll help Dr. MacTaggert's research. But we're mostly just curious about the results; it's not like we want to change anything."

"Oh, no, not change," Cal agreed with a shake of his head. "I mean, with understanding your history, that kinda stuff."

"Oh." Lu considered that for a moment, then shrugged and smiled. "I think we mostly just want to know about Grandma, to be honest. Though Dad's curious now too, so he'll probably be interested."

"Well, whatever, I'll be glad to help anyway," Cal assured her with a half smile. He liked that she seemed to have relaxed, too. "Wanna play something else?"

"Sure, why not?" Lu agreed with a smile of her own, lips twitching with just a hint of mischief. "And then you can tell me something about you for a change? You keep getting me talking - it's only fair."

"Anything," Cal offered with a charming smile, and set the violin on his shoulder again, thinking about the pieces she knew - and which would be best for two violins. Then he launched into one of them, eyebrows raised as he looked at her, to see if his choice worked for her.

Lu nodded enthusiastically as she set her violin in place, and took up the other violin part without hesitation. It was nice, she decided, to play with someone. Maybe she would try taking music next semester after all.

"Seriously, this is amazing," Cal concluded when they finished that piece.

"I know, right?" Lu set down her violin and began stretching her fingers. "I can't believe you've never played before."

"I've mostly been focusing on guitar so far," Cal confirmed, putting the violin and bow back in the case to, like her, stretch his fingers out. They could totally use it.

"Oh, with Irvine?" she asked as she leaned down to put her own violin away. "Or are you taking a class?"

"Mostly with Irvine," Cal confirmed. "I can sorta play some stuff on my own now? But not a lot."

"Show me?" Lu asked hopefully. She grinned a little. "You might as well while you've still got the callouses."

"Seriously, I kind of suck for now, on my own," Cal warned her, closing up the violin case.

"I promise not to laugh," she assured him, then paused. "If you really don't want to, though, it's okay. I don't like performing for an audience either."

"Nah, I don't mind," Cal assured her, although it would be different, doing something for an audience without somebody by his side that would serve as a safety net. "Just don't want you to expect something too awesome," he added with another half-smile at her, before he moved to go put the violin back when he'd found it, and grab a guitar.

Lu laughed. "I promise to not expect too much," she assured him. Closing her case, she sat back in her chair and waited expectantly.

"Right," Cal acknowledged, and brought the guitar over. "Do you sing?" he asked as he got it out of the case, laying out a couple of chords to check that it wasn't all out of tune. "'Cause this could use a second singer." And everybody knew that song, and loved that song, right? Whatever, he got started on the simplified chords of Somebody that I Used to Know, mostly not butchering the song, and then distracted from what little butchering was happening by starting in on the first verse. He was an okay singer, really, nothing out of the ordinary, but he could carry a tune - and apparently, Lu was just the same, since he sang pretty much like he always did. Maybe he'd be able to carry the female part better once he got to it, if she didn't want to sing?

Blushing, Lu nodded a response to Cal's first question, though she wasn't altogether sure whether or not she was going to join in. Her smile widened, though, as she recognized the song, and by the time he got to the girl's part, she'd managed to drum up enough courage to start singing - hesitantly at first, then with more confidence when he didn't immediately start laughing.

They finished the song together, and Cal grinned as he flattened his hand on the strings to stop them making sound. "Way to go," he stated with a grin. "Let's see, what else... Okay, how about this." He started on the chords for Sweet Child of Mine - way more his usual kind of music, yeah. He played it a lot more simply than he was supposed to, of course; this was tough, without Irvine around. The same three chords all song long was definitely his plan, and he started to sing to it, hoping Lu would join in again.

Lu laughed and shook her head, happy to listen, though partway through the song she grinned a little and bent down to pull her violin back out of its case. "I thought you said you weren't that good," she said, then grinned just a little mischievously and set her violin back on her shoulder. "Do you know this one?" she asked, then started in on an adaptation of It's Time that she'd found on YouTube the last time Sis had complained she never played anything written by anyone who was still alive.

Cal shook his head at her first words, chuckling, because he really wasn't that good at all, and that simplified rhythmic guitar line was pretty much proof of that, but then he stopped playing when she started. He listened, then shook his head again. "Sorry." He'd heard it, sure, but he had no idea how to play it. "I'll be happy with my level of guitar playing when I can try and figure out how to play songs on the spot." He was really not there yet. Although let's be real, even then he'd want to get better. It was who he was.

Disappointed, Lu stopped playing and shrugged, setting her violin back down on her lap. "It's hard to do," she admitted. "Do you read music? Or are you just doing it by ear?"

"Third option," Cal replied with a half smile. "I can read music, and then I can't. And then I can again..." Cal shrugged. "I should probably try and learn it, but honestly, I've already got enough on my plate with other stuff."

"Ouch." Lu made a face, sympathizing - she could remember being good at some things when she was with the others, but not so much on her own. "You're really busy with the infirmary, then? Or do you do other stuff, too?"

"Yeah" Cal confirmed with a small laugh. "There's the genetics stuff, I've been working on the inducers with Angie, squad training, JVX training, basketball, and I try to sit in on all kinds of electives to, you know, soak stuff in." And then he actually liked trying to have a social life...

"Wow. You're a busy guy." Lu stared for a moment, wondering how he fit all of that in when there was only one of him, then ran back over what he'd said and smiled. "Angie's the girl you were at the Halloween party with, right? And I understand the basketball and squad practice, but what's JVX?"

"Sounds cool, doesn't it?" he stated with a grin. His boy Irvine had come up with the best name, no question there. "It's - have you heard about the team Scott Summers is putting together? I... don't know if they finally got a name."

"Bits and pieces," she admitted awkwardly, because she had, and it had prompted a huge argument amongst herselves. "Some kind of private sector answer to Alpha Flight, right?"

"Pretty much," Cal confirmed with a nod. "Well, JVX is kind of training for that - or for something like it, anyway." He was well aware that some of them had zero intention of ever joining Scott's team. At all. For his part, he didn't even know if Scott would want him on, so... he'd see.

"So, powers training," Lu said, trying to decide if that made her more or less apprehensive. "Any chance of you pointing out to Sis that we're not exactly what superheroes are made of, before she gets any ideas?"

"Powers training is what the squads are about," Cal shook his head. "This is about more. And, well... why not? If she wants. We don't just have people with combat mutations. A lot of the training's got nothing to do with mutations at all."

"Because when they get injured, I still end up in the infirmary?" Lu sighed and pushed her hand back through her hair. "I'm so going to get outvoted on this if it ever comes up, I just know it."

"Well, as long as it's just the training..." Cal stated thoughtfully. "But I guess if part of you wants to join a proper team, later, that's kinda the sort of thing all three of you should agree on?" Given the potentially deadly repercussions. It wasn't just like choosing a different elective.

Lu cocked her head and gave Cal a doubtful look. "If we waited until we all agreed, we'd never do anything," she pointed out. Shrugging (because she wasn't going to worry about it yet, and maybe she'd be wrong, even if she doubted it), she forced a smile. "Anyway, you sound like you're really busy, but if you ever want to learn how to read music, I can help."

"Honestly, I think I'll do without," Cal stated honestly. "I don't really need it, so..." He shrugged. "And yeah, I've already got a thousand and one things going on. Approximately."

Lu's smile faded and she nodded. "Okay. Well, I won't keep you then, if you're, y'know, b..busy." She bent down to put her violin away, then fastened the case.

"I'd totally love to play more violin, though, whenever you like - if you like," he added, giving her a hopeful half-smile.

"I'd like that," Lu replied, offering a faint but relieved smile in return as she picked up her case. Good, maybe she hadn't been pushy? She hadn't meant to be, but...well, she wasn't sure if she had been, or not. "I'll s..see you around, then?"

"Totally," Cal nodded, genuine. "And seriously, no awkward, please don't avoid me - any of you, really.

"I'll tell them." Lu smiled and headed for the door, resolving to keep that to herself for a while longer. Cal was a nice guy - he really didn't need Sis pestering him, and she had no doubt whatsoever that she would.

"Cool," Cal appreciated that. "See you around!" For now, he'd keep practicing the guitar without Irvine's presence a little while longer.