Arrival
Characters: Scott Summers and Christa Fall Location: The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning Timeline: Present Description: Christa arrives at the mansion for the first time and is given a tour.
Christa had spent a couple of days at the shelter with Oni before he had managed to find a spare couple of moments to speak with the staff at the Xavier Institute and get Christa's name on the enrollment list.
It was with a lingering sense of dread that she let Oni take her up to the mansion and with even more dread that she said goodbye to him as soon as her few possessions were in the room that was to be hers. She spent the first hour she was alone in the new room crying because she was disoriented and scared, and it was only after a student ran down to see Scott - who was more than a little harrassed himself spending the time marking papers and trying to make sure that the new rotas for the X-Men on active duty were all completed - that he went up to see her, having left her in the care of another student who had obviously not been listening when told that Christa couldn't see.
He felt the emotions hit him as soon as he reached the corridor and instantly stopped, taking a moment to pull himself together and push the alien emotions away before he opened the door, wishing that someone else had come to deal with this - someone better at comforting crying teenagers than himself. He pushed the door shut and stepped inside, looking at the girl on the bed with a small sigh.
Christa lifted her head. "You don't wanna be in here," she said, tipping her head at him and then rubbing her hand over her cheeks as if it would make the tears go away. "It's alright, Mr Summers," she said, feeling his guilt after a moment, "I'll be alriht once I get my bearings."
He crossed over and sat down beside her, reaching out tenatively and touching her shoulder. "I shouldn't have left you alone, it must be scary," he said quietly, trying to reassure her as she nodded, expression crumpling again. She couldn't pretend to be okay with all of this, not when she couldn't even walk around the room without hitting something.
There were too many emotions flying around, in every corner of every wall for her to get to grips with it all, her head was pounding and she curled her fingers around the bag she had on her knee. She took a breath and ran a hand through her hair before she turned her head towards Scott again, fumbling in her bag with her other hand for her cane, collapsed it was small enough to fit into her pocket.
"So, am I going to get a tour, Mr Summers?" she asked, knowing that she would need to get to grips with it sooner or later. She took a deep breath and her cheeks flushed a little as she visibly worked to restructure her walls, unconsciously using the relative calm of Scott's mind to anchor herself. Though, the brief touch into his emotions gave her a deeper understanding of the man known as Scott Summers than many who called themselves his friend knew. She felt the guilt and the almost constant fear that haunted his mind about something going wrong with his powers, or a team member getting hurt.
He smiled a little and got to his feet, belatedly remembering that she couldn't see it before he reached out a hand, chuckling at himself and was honestly surprised when she located his hand and took hold of it, slipping her collapsed cane into her pocket and rising gracefully to her feet.
"Of course," he said softly as she let go of his hand, fumbling for the door and thanking him softly as he stopped her from walking into the dresser. "Are you going to need someone to look after you for a couple of days?"
"I don't need a babysitter," Christa said, a little harshly, before she realised how that sounded. "I- uh- I don't know." she admitted honestly a moment later. "I just need to get my bearings... I've never tried to find my way around somewhere this big..."
"Well don't worry, I'll get someone to help you get your bearings." Scott offered, trying to mentally run through a list of students around her age that he could ask to keep her company for a couple of days that wouldn't absolutely hate it. "Just while you're down in the main area."
Christa didn't say anything else as Scott gently started guiding her through the mansion on a tour, slower than usual because she was trying to get a feel for everything, asking questions he didn't usually hear, such as 'how does this room sit in relation to the kitchen?' and 'how many steps between here and the stairs?'
The tour took almost three hours, going back over places that they had already done to try and make sure that she could remember as much of the layout as she could, spending a little bit of time in every 'section' as she tried to remember her way around. Scott took her back up to her room and told her about dinner and that it would be served later, and that they would be looking into getting braille on everything in the kitchen.
Later on that evening, Christa was still trying to work her way around the mansion, bumping into things and already she was pretty sure she would be sporting colourful bruises on her shins, knees and hips from bumping into everything that it was possible for her to bump into. She gave up for the evening and headed back towards her dormitory room, counting the doors before she slid into her room and sitting down on the bed. She slid off her sunglasses getting changed into her pyjamas, climbing into her bed and grabbing one of her braille books, fingers skating over the pages and lips curling up into a small smile as she read.
Scott sat in his office and made a note to himself to apply for a braile computer and for everything that Christa may need, text books and labels for the cupboards in the kitchen and foods in braille. He glanced at the time and rubbed at his temples. It looked like he was in for another late night.