om_main | Harley and Steve Jinks, backdated to October 4

Really, Harley was just trying to make Jack's life a little miserable - Steve just got in the way. Then his attempts at big brother-ing go terribly wrong.

It was too early. It was a weekend and, no matter how early he could or did get up on the weekdays, weekends were supposed to be for sleeping in, at least a little. But no, Jack was already gone on some errand and he'd properly woken Steve up no matter how much he hadn't meant to. He could have headed back to his room, but his books were already here and the bed was already warm and surely Jack would be back at some point before his stomach decided food was more important than staying in bed.

He was neck deep in some article about the current state of affairs in the Middle East when the click of the door caught his attention. He was already starting to smile as the person came in. The smile froze in place when he realized that it wasn't Jack coming back.

"...Harley?"

...

...busted.

But how was she supposed to know that Steve would be in Jack's room when Jack wasn't? She'd definitely seen Jack headed downstairs to one of the secret basement things, right? She glanced around nervously to confirm he wasn't there before taking another step toward Steve, tugging nervously at one of her pigtails. "Um, hi?"

Okay, she wasn't looking as if she'd come in looking specifically for him and he was pretty sure he hadn't knocked to begin with. That only made him frown more as he tried and failed to come up with any sort of good excuse why she was here. He really doubted she'd been looking for Jack.

"Hi back. What's going on?"

Well, this was her chance to talk her way out of trouble. "Um, I'm 'sposed to come find you--"

Steve shot her a look. Didn't she know better than this by now? "Lie," he shot to remind her that he knew when she was telling him the truth and when she wasn't.

"Um, I wanted to talk to Facility-guy--"

And that time he raised both eyebrows. "I don't even need powers to know that you're lying now." He couldn't imagine a situation that would have her going to see Jack unless it was to maybe blackmail him over something.

Clamping her mouth shut, Harley fidgeted on the spot. She couldn't tell him why she was really here - but he'd know if she was lying...

"You weren't 'sposed to be here," she huffed finally, stepping the rest of the way into the room and plopping herself down on floor next to the bed. She really wanted to go sit on the bed with Steve, but it was Facility-guy's bed and just no way.

That was all right because Steve moved to the end of the bed and slid down next to her. "I kind of figured that part. What was supposed to happen?"

"I was gonna poke around in his stuff," she replied, precariously maintaining a straight face. It wasn't a lie - she just left out that she was planning to then steal something and leave behind a flour bomb...

And that was an explanation and even the truth, but Steve needed more of an explanation than that. "Why?" he pressed.

Harley shrugged, making sure she was looking somewhere else. "Bored, I guess." Her blue eyes darted back to his curiously. "Are you guys, like, roommates now, too?"

"We're not roommates." He wasn't about to explain that yes, he had been sleeping here. She was getting older by the minute, but she wasn't that old yet. "And if you're not going to answer, at least don't lie to me." Looking away? A dead giveaway.

Harley wilted, eyes falling to the floor and lower lip pouting forward. "You wouldn't get it anyways," she mumbled miserably.

"Not if you don't explain it," Steve replied gently, wrapping a careful arm around her shoulders.

She didn't push his arm away, but she looked up at him, glaring through her pout. Maybe she shouldn't lie, but then he shouldn't pretend. "Uh huh. Like you got it when I told you about him? You took that warning real seriously."

"Listening doesn't always mean agreeing," Steve said. "I heard him out just like I heard you out. And then I made up my own mind." And she'd been more than a little biased and unwilling to listen to anything she didn't want to hear. Of course, he had a few subjects of his own he wasn't willing to listen about, so he couldn't really blame her. "But that didn't mean I didn't try."

"He worked for the bad guys," she complained, still looking hurt. "He helped them find people like us and hurt them. What did he say to make that just go away?" Harley really did want to know. After all, lots of people liked Facility-guy, including people who rescued River and Laura, which just didn't make any sense...

"It didn't just go away," Steve said patiently. "But you're only seeing the side of the story you want to see. It sounds like you want a villain you can see and hate and he's it. But he must have had a reason to leave them, right?" He thought about it for a minute and then realized they already had the perfect example. "You know a little about what's going on up in Canada, right? That new mutant team?"

Harley wanted to argue, but she decided to wait, nodding through her sulk. "With Jean-Paul and Lil."

"It's not, but what if the Facility were running that place? It'd be an easy way to recruit people. Have a public side and a not-so-public side. Make mutants believe that the best place for them is there. And then 'persuade' the reluctant ones. But most people wouldn't see that side of it. They'd only see the part where they'd look like they were helping." Of course, he wasn't talking about Canada at all, but it would be an idea she wasn't set against.

"But it wouldn't be true," Harley ventured, not sure she understood what they were talking about.

"How would they know? Sure, we know absolutely the people who run this school, but think about normal schools? They have a principal and then...who's above them? It's not like kids know everyone in charge. They only know the people they see personally or the people they've heard about. And if they're not told the truth..." He hoped she'd follow the argument through.

"...so?" Harley wasn't sure what he meant, and waited for him to make his point.

"So, if they didn't know the truth, they'd think they were just going to school. That everything was normal. Right?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Harley's frown intensified. "But it's safe here!" Even just thinking about this place not being safe made her shiver...

"It is," he said and hugged her a little tighter, "but where Jack was, it wasn't safe. And he didn't know who he was working for. He thought he was doing the right thing. By the time he figured it out...well, he ran into the rescue party." Of course, things were a little more complicated than that, but that was the reason why Steve had ended up understanding and accepting where Jack had come from.

"But River and Laura weren't working for them," Harley insisted. Facility-guy had had freedom, and he chose that. "And he knew they were there, and he knew they were doing things to them! He could've helped them!"

"He could have," Steve agreed. "And instead, once he figured out what was really going on, he helped get them out."

"But he's fine, and they're not!"

"He has nightmares, Harley. He's teaching me things no one our age should know just to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again." Child warriors. He'd always thought those were for other countries. "He's not 'fine'."

Harley snorted, unimpressed by that argument. "I have nightmares," she replied, not realizing her overshare - and sounding much more grown up than she usually did, "and it had nothing to do with me."

"And are you going to tell me that you're 'fine' after having your friends kidnapped?" Steve pointed out gently.

Harley's lip pouted over slightly as she considered that. "...everyone else is," she muttered.

"You know about the teams put together by Noriko and Scott, right? I'll bet you anything those girls are one of the main reasons they put the teams together in the first place." That and the team from Canada.

"Well yeah, but..." That wasn't really the point, was it? Harley wasn't sure anymore.

"Everyone's dealing with this in their own way, Jack included. Just because you don't think he's upset or that other people have forgotten, it doesn't mean that's always true."

Harley glared up at him. "What do you know anyways?" she demanded. "You weren't here when it happened - you don't know what it was like! They were just gone, with big empty spaces where they used to be - and when they came back, they were broken and people nearly died!"

"And I'm reminding you that Jack was one of the people who helped get them out." He didn't know the exact reasoning for helping get them there in the first place, but he was going to give Jack the benefit of the doubt. He was still allowed in the school, after all. Besides. Jack just wasn't the type of person to do the kinds of things that had happened to the girls. He just wasn't.

"Too late!" Harley was shaking her head almost frantically now, because it was filled with dark thoughts and memories, like it hadn't been in forever.

"Maybe late," Steve agreed, "but not too late. They're here, right? They're back?"

"They cut into River's brain!" Harley wiggled away from Steve, lashing out with her arms as she scooted away. "They made Laura into a weapon and she tried to kill her friends!"

Steve winced. He'd known that they'd been taken, but he hadn't really known the specifics. "And you think Jack wanted that to happen?" he asked.

"Stoppit!!" Harley was staring at the floor with her hands in her hair, trying not to close her eyes (mostly by yelling). "Stop trying to confuse me-- it doesn't matter what he wanted, it matters what he did!!"

"Why matters just as much as what. I had a picture - my only picture - of my sister taken. Should I be mad that it was taken or think about why it might have been returned?"

"That's not the same!" Now Harley was on her feet, though she didn't remember standing, yelling down at the older boy. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that was trouble, but she couldn't stop. "That's not even a little bit the same!"

"It hurt when it was missing," Steve said, his voice getting quieter as hers got louder. "Should I condemn the person who took it?" In the back of his mind, he knew that he was being a hypocrite, but he quickly put that thought out of his head.

Harley's conflicted emotions all seemed to solidify into one intensely reproachful glare. Lower lip quivering, whole body shaking, she wordlessly clenched her hands into fists at her side.

Then, in a burst of motion, she lunged into a handspring that took her over Steve and onto the bed; as she passed him, her hand dipped into the Pocket space and reappeared just in time to slam a small plastic bag full of flour squarely on Steve's head. It exploded in a cloud of white powder, most of which Harley neatly avoided by being on the bed. A quick flip got her to the door, ready to run off. She stopped in the doorway (well out of reach), angry look giving way to an amused, self-satisfied smirk as she surveyed her handiwork. Then she took off down the hallway.

Steve squawked and jumped away from whatever it was she was pouring on him. By the time he realized it was only flour, she was already half gone. He tried to chase after her, but she could be fast when she put her mind to it. ...Actually, she could be fast all the time. Just faster when she was trying. In the end, he heaved a sigh and slowed to a walk. He'd have to confront her another time.