Who: Cecilia and Bobby ((ha, I had to, I'm sorry)) What: A late-night chat When: Sunday, May 1, at 2 a.m. or something absurd Where: Xavier Institute
Cecilia Reyes was not a happy camper.
It had been an inexplicably long night helping out at Grasslands Hospital (the last time, she decided, she'd ever say "I owe you one" to anyone in the medical profession), made worse by the fact that the tasks she'd been ask to perform were fairly menial. Five or six years of residency only to be woken up to help an intern take blood? And it didn't help matters much that she was seemingly the only doctor of color in the suburbs--which she was fairly sure was the reason nobody bothered to ask for her assistance during the night's one surgery.
But that was not the reason Cecilia was currently unhappy. Somebody--she was guessing Hank, or maybe Scott--had finished her coffee. The Cafe Rico that her mother had brought back on a recent trip to the island.
And now, after a few short bursts of sleep, she was stuck with Chock Full o'Nuts instant. "Heavenly coffee, my ass," she muttered, putting a kettle on the stove.
Bobby wandered into the kitchen, searching for a late night snack. He always felt guilty about eating so late, one heard that it was bad for your metabolism this late at night. But since he'd started doing the freeze thing he'd been packing away the food. He guessed it had something to do with his body changing, much like puberty. It was funny that he always craved ice cream though.
"Oh," he said, stopping just inside the door. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone else was up."
"We happy few," she said dryly, turning over her shoulder to the door to the younger man. She recalled that he was one of the newer mutants to come through these doors, but she struggled to remember his name. Billy or something similarly whitebread and generic. Man, she was tired. "It is late, I suppose," she shrugged. "Trouble sleeping? Any chance you're interested in some coffee?"
"Hungry actually," Bobby replied, moving further into the kitchen. "I seem to get ice cream cravings this time of night. But coffee sounds good too, thanks."
He walked over to the cupboards to grab some bowls, "You want any?"
"Ice cream for the ice man," she grinned for a moment, turning back around to turn the stove off. "I'm okay, but thanks. Have to keep up that girlish figure." She was starting to babble now--and sound like a dolt. "Sorry," she murmured, grabbing two cups from the open cupboard. "I'm not usually this obnoxious."
He shrugged again, "Don't worry about it, at this time of night no one should hold judgment. What are you doing up so late?"
"Work," Cecilia passed him a cup of coffee. "I owed someone a favor and covered at Grasslands for the night so he could go on a date." She poured her own and plopped the kettle into the sink. "Or propose to his girlfriend, maybe?" She scrunched her forehead, trying to remember what excuse it was that Ian had offered. Hardly mattered.
Cecilia sat at the table and began undoing the braid she had put in her hair. Running her fingers through her frizzy hair, his name finally came to her. "So, Bobby, how are you settling in? "
Bobby raised one shoulder, apparently shrugging was one of his more common expressions. "Not to bad. Most of the people seem nice enough. A few weirdos though."
She remained quiet for a moment, watching him eat and thinking about how young he was. She remembered what it was like to be his age and suddenly be aware of how different you were. As if coping with the onset of adulthood wasn't difficult enough.
"I don't know that you ever get used to it," Cecilia finally said. "The... people shooting things with their eyes and moving things with their mind." She blew on her coffee to cool it slightly before taking a sip. The instant was, as she'd expected, disgusting, but it did the trick. "And Logan's claws," she added, grinning slightly. The grin faded, and she returned his shrug. "But it starts to feel... well, not exactly normal, but something close to it."
Bobby snorted and reached out towards her cup with one finger, a small gust of cold air blew over it and her hands, not enough to freeze, but enough to cool her drink down. "Maybe, meanwhile I will just amaze myself. So what do you do?"
He stuck his finger into his coffee, chilling it almost to freezing.
Cecilia glanced at her hands, her eyes widening a little as she felt the chilly breeze touch her fingers "Nothing as impressive as that," she chuckled, looking back up at him. "Thanks," she flashed him a warm smile. Briefly, she wondered if his hands were always cold, but Cecilia figured she'd get to know him better before she asked.
"It's a kind of force field." She wished she could remember how Charles Xavier had explained it to her, since he apparently understood it better than she. "It's not a catch-all or anything, though. Like, if you tried to freeze my hands, I'd feel the cold, but I wouldn't get hurt."
Bobby looked impressed, "That's handy. I'd like some sort of protection like that, if things get as dangerous as the rumors say it will. But if you ever are worried about burning your tongue, I'm your man." He smiled ruefully.
"It sounds better than it is," she murmured, partially in response to his expression. "I mean, I still feel every punch, and I can't stop them from coming." Cecilia's eyes were now intently focused on her cup. "Besides, at least you can control it. And you can fight back." She closed her eyes, her mind drawing her back once more to the moment she realized what her talents were. No, not talents or gifts--she hadn't fully bought into the school of thought that Xavier was determined to propagate.
Aware that her lips were now pursed and her brow furrowed, Cecilia opened her eyes in the hopes of grounding herself back in the present. "Anyway," she shrugged, "that's why we're here, isn't it? To help each other and to work together. To get a better handle on what we do." She brought the coffee cup to her lips.
"Who knows, maybe you will learn to direct it more. A few weeks ago I couldn't do that little bit there, I'd have frozen your coffee solid. All it takes is practice and a strong will," he replied, the last bit sounding like he was quoting someone, which he probably was.
It was a spunky statement, one which Cecilia probably would have teased someone else for. Given her relative lack of familiarity with the boy in front of her, she decided to let it slide. "You're probably right," she said wearily. "And that's something to work toward. Sometimes it's just easy to lose sight of that fact." Hearing those words made her realize how jaded she already sounded, which seemed impossible given her limited experience with 'mutant stuff' when compared to other facets of her life, like medicine.
Scraping the last of the ice cream out of his bowl, Bobby stood up again. "Well, I should probably get to bed, Danger Room stuff tomorrow and I'd rather not give Wade any reason to kick my ass."
Cecilia laughed at that as she stood, taking his bowl and placing it on top of her own. "Valid point. Get some sleep, since Wade will probably kick your ass anyway, reason or not." For her part, she planned to have another cup of coffee and sort a few things out. "I'll see you tomorrow," she smiled at him, tapping him lightly on the shoulder before moving to the sink.