Breakfast for two Who: Juan and Taylor Where: The kitchen When: Morning
Taylor was feeling a little better this morning. Not great, but she at least felt reasonably human. A little annoyed at being quarantined the day before, although it could've been worse, she thought. Dhaval, Mia, and Loren were nice enough company at least. She wasn't sure how she felt about finding out that it was a mutant spider bite and not the plague going around. On the one hand, she was relieved that she wasn't contagious or anything, but the thought of mutant spiders running around didn't exactly make her feel great either. It was just creepy, and she'd made a note to start checking under her bed before going to sleep every night.
Her stomach seemed to be behaving itself a little, so she threw on some clothes and headed down to the kitchen, hoping to find... something that wouldn't send her back to praying to the porcelean god. She didn't quite know what was left, exactly, but maybe there was still some cereal or crackers or something that wouldn't tax her too much. She kind of hoped she didn't run into anyone- even if she felt a little better, she knew she looked like hell. Wandering barefoot into the kitchen, she began looking through the cabinets and pantry for something that wouldn't send her stomach into complete revolt.
Juan woke at the crack of dawn. He didn't normally do this, but he was feeling restless and getting out and about the hotel early was the only way to sate him. The quarantine of Mia the day before had him worried... but then again... the thought of giant mutant spiders biting was something that was a close contender for scariest thing he's ever heard of. Since the moment that came to light, he checked every corner of his room and stuffed towels in any spaces spiders and/or other creepy crawlies could get into which included blocking up the main door to the hallway completely. Not like he needed it or anything. He hefted his backpack onto his shoulder. It contained the rations he had found days earlier with Rowan which he had forgotten to put downstairs.
In a flash he disappeared from his room and appeared again in the kitchen. Instantly he locked eyes with a girl he wasn't quite familiar with, "Oh, hey." Juan was surprised. She looked around the same age as he was. He had heard there were others, but he had only seen Mia. Ignoring her sickly appearance he offered her his hand, "I'm Juan. Nice to meet ya."
Taylor had found a half-eaten box of cheerios in the pantry and was just turning around to find a bowl when the boy appeared in front of her suddenly. It shocked her, to say the least, almost causing her to drop the box. She briefly contemplated that she really should be used to strange things happening around her, but it was still a bit of a surprise when people just randomly popped in and introduced themselves. "Um, Taylor," she said, tentatively reaching out to shake his hand. "Wait, I t'ink I remember you from da meeting now." Well, vaguely at least. She remembered that she'd been translating for Minuette and had trouble remembering the French word for "teleport." It's not like it was one that came up very often, really. "So dat's teleportation, eh?"
"Oh, yea hey! You were the one translating!" Juan's mind finally caught up to his body as he remembered the meeting from so long ago, "Oh, heh, sorry if I startled you. I know I'm used to this, but I shouldn't assume others are as well." He laughed easily and shrugged his backpack off of his back. He had only had time to grab some canned fruits and veggies since he figured that'd be about the only thing that would taste okay without cooking. "Would you like sommmmme..." he trailed off as he rummaged through his pack, "...peaches?" Without waiting for a reply he grabbed a can opener and started opening himself a can of pears.
"No t'anks," Taylor said, holding up the box of cheerios. "I'm still a little sick, so I'm trying to take it easy on my stomach till I know it's not going to come back to 'aunt me." She smiled. "But t'anks anyways." Right now the idea of the fruit kind of made her a little queasy, to be honest. Still, it was nice to know that it was an option down the road. "And it's okay. I should be use to surprises by now. Probably any oder time, I wouldn't even have flinched." She looked around until she found a bowl and poured the cereal in, fighting the urge to scratch her chest. Because, yeah, gross. "So, where did you get dose, den?" she asked, nodding towards the can of food.
"You were one of the quarantined? I'm glad to see you're feeling better!" Juan hadn't even spoken to Mia yet, much less saw any of the others, "Still though... spider babies? Yech. When I heard about that, I checked every inch of my room and cut off any entrances for bugs." After opening the pears, Juan grabbed a fork and teleported onto the counter. Showing off his ability was a bit of a curse of his, but it was so much fun! Juan smiled when she asked about the food, "Oh, I popped out one afternoon a while back with Pepper." Once again he caught himself yammering on about Pepper, but he couldn't help himself. She was... just so cool! "Ya'know the big Yeti Woman?" he held his arm up to denote her height, "She's awesome. Good with a crowbar!" The fruit was a welcome change from dry cereal of days passed. He'll need to go out again to find more canned goods. His talk of that day was so light and happy, one could almost see them frolicking through the streets of chaos and destruction which was a far cry from the horrible run in with the furry snake creatures, but Juan didn't want to worry her. "Your accent... where ya from?" he asked almost absentmindedly. He kinda remembered her saying something about it during the meeting, but the exact location escaped him.
Taylor had to smile a little at him using his power just to go across the room. Juan's cheery mood was definitely a pick-me-up, and she appreciated it. "Yeah, I met Pepper last time I went out. Sweet girl." She didn't feel the need to mention that she'd been terrified of Pepper the first time she'd seen her, because she'd proven that while she looked monstrous, in actuality she was far from it. She leaned against the counter and began picking at the cereal in the bowl. She still wasn't terribly hungry, but knew she needed to eat something. "I'm from Flint, at least recently, but originally I'm from Montreal. Which explain da accent, eh?" She smiled again as she popped a cheerio in her mouth. "And I'm feeling a little better, but still not a 'undred percent yet. Maybe seventy five? I don't know. You from Detroit?"
He smirked, "Montreal? Awesome. Heh, yea. I'm from Detroit born and raised." Taking a moment from the conversation, Juan downed another halved of pear. It was just too good, "Mm, Never been out of Illinois actually. Why are ya so far from home?" Juan almost regretted asking that the moment he said it. He didn't want to open any old wounds, "Ahh! You don't have to answer that if it's painful or anything. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry..."
Taylor fiddled with the cheerios in her bowl some more. It was so nice to be talking to someone her own age for a change. Sure, some of the adults had been nice, like Tayne and Dhav and Mini, but it was just so much more comfortable with someone her own age. "Oh, it's no big deal. I've been in da States... merde, about ten years now I t'ink?" She shrugged. "My mom moved us down 'ere to be with 'er girlfriend in Flint, and we just kind of stayed." She wondered for a moment which "home" Juan had been referring to. "If you mean Flint, I was down in Chicago when da craziness 'it, and dis is about as far as I made it." She didn't feel the need to explain that she'd actually been headed for Canada in a "borrowed" car when she got stuck in Detroit. She looked over at Juan, who really seemed to be enjoying his pear, then down at her bowl of semi-stale cereal. "I t'ink maybe, I will try some of dose peaches. Somet'ing a little fresher at least." She put the bowl down on the counter and moved a little closer to Juan.
He was glad he didn't upset her. Talking about 'home' and 'parents' was still a tough subject for him but seeing others handling it well made him feel like maybe he could as well. Juan listened intently as Taylor spoke of her mother and was unfazed by her mother's 'girlfriend.' While he wasn't specifically taught to be kind to all lifestyles by his parents, just growing up in this city exposed him to all sorts so it wasn't a big deal... though it musta been interesting growing up that way. Juan smiled an award winning smile when his over-zealous eating won Taylor over, "Stay there! I'll take care of it for you." He hopped down from the counter top and grabbed up a bowl, the can of peaches, and the can opener. He poured the peaches into a bowl and offered it to her with a spoon. "Enjoy! Hey, if you tell me your favorite food, I could see if I can find it next time I'm out and about the city," Juan grinned as he returned to his own bowl of pears.
Taylor gratefully took the bowl of peaches and tentatively took a bite. They weren't too bad, actually, just a little sweeter than she'd been used to. "Well, I doubt you can find any pizza or poutine around, but if you do, I'll be first in line, eh?" She took another bite. "Dese are really good, actually. Going down better dan I expect." She smiled, glad that it didn't seem to be messing with her too much. Hopefully it would stay that way. "So what grade are-were..." she chuckled a little, not sure how to ask the question. Technically, they were both school aged, but school didn't really matter much anymore, did it? "You know what I mean."
"I'll keep an eye out!" he assured her with a laugh, "But I'm glad to see the peaches didn't make you sicker. I don't have the skills to deal with vomit." The thought of getting outside again didn't sound so bad. After all the quarantines and bugs and sick people, getting out of the hotel sounded like a blessing. The question about school made him think about Joyce and her talk of starting classes again. He grinned, "Ahh... I'm 15. I was gonna be entering my sophomore year of school, but yea. Guess that's not happenin' now." Juan finished his pears and stretched, "How's about you? You look around the same age as me, yea?" He paused for a moment and looked back at her, "And... do you have a power? Mine's kinda easy to spot so it usually overshadows others... well, unless your Pepper."
"Seventeen, actually. I just look a little young." Now that Taylor was sure that the peaches weren't going to immediately make her sick, she was eating them with a bit more gusto. "'eading into my senior year, supposed to be anyways. Not dat I mind. I was ready to get out of dere already. 'igh school just isn't for me, I t'ink. I wasn't exactly one of da popular kids." She shrugged. "Guess da fat girl 'oo played games and read comics all da time kinda gets picked on. Even if she does play volleyball and is on da wrestling team." She took another bite of the peaches. Slow down, girl. Don't push yourself too hard, she thought. "And I got a power, but I'm still not sure 'ow it all works, really." She had to think for a moment about how to explain it. "It's like, I've got super agility, kind of. But I t'ink I 'ave to 'ave seen it done before I can actually do it. It's weird, I know." She shook her head, unsure if that really made sense or not.
Juan's eyes widened, "People made fun of you for what!? That's insane!" He folded his arms in disgust. "I hate most people at high school. They're just... so judgmental and stupid!" he thought he probably looked more agitated than he probably should be, "I... I'm sorry. I was just picked on terribly during school because I'm too scrawny to play sports and spent most of my time reading comics and playing my violin. And here you're able to do all those things I couldn't do and they picked on you for being fat? You'd think they were partially blind or something because you're pretty too and god knows they hold something like that in the highest regard." Through his random ranting Juan hadn't even noticed that he'd called a girl he just met 'pretty' or that... he called any girl pretty.
Taylor giggled a little at Juan's rant. "Well, let me see... I'm fat, I'm a big nerd, I 'ave two moms, not to mention da accent." She poked at another peach, debating whether or not to eat it or offer it to Juan. "I might as well 'ave been wearing a giant bull's eye on my back or somet'ing, eh?" She put the bowl down, deciding she needed to at least give herself a break before she ate any more. "By da way, if you want some comics, I've got a few in my room if you ever get bored. I brought some on my trip to Chicago, den I stole a few more while I was 'iding out..." Suddenly, the last part of Juan's diatribe sank in. "Wait, did you just call me 'pretty?'" She blushed a little. It was very rare that someone randomly called her 'pretty' without trying to get something more out of her. More so when she looked like death warmed over.
"Tch, all of those labels are just so superficial. I never understood how people could live by judging people before actually getting to know them. There's no point in it," he huffed for a moment more before she went on to comics. "Heh, sure. I was really into X-men before the world ended... I wanna say that Nightcrawler was my favorite character, but people might just think I'm bullshitting." The moment she realized what he had said... was when he realized it, "Ah... I... I mean... you are... you still look a bit pale from being sick, but... um." It was hard to vocalize really. His Spanish/Italian upbringing made his taste in women lean towards more 'full-figured' beauties, but that was something he barely understood much less could explain to someone else.
Taylor blushed a little more, which really stood out against her pale skin now. "Thanks," she said, stopping him from stumbling over his words even more. "And you're not too bad yourself. You got pretty eyes." Oh god, are you really doing this while you're sick? "I did always like Nightcrawler," she said with a nervous chuckle, changing the subject. "He's always fun, especially when he's swashbuckling. I t'ink my favorite was Shadowcat, dough. Always liked da idea of a teenager on da team." She picked up the bowl of peaches and contemplated whether another bite would be a problem. "I t'ink I'm more of a DC gal, dough. Especially da Birds of Prey. You know, Oracle, 'untress, Black Canary." She felt a little awkward now, and she wasn't entirely sure why. Her mind was still on being called "pretty".
Juan's naturally pale skin blushed as Taylor repaid the compliment. He'd never been noticed by girls that way before. Hell, this entire situation was something altogether new to him. "Ah, yea... I don't know much outside of the X-men really..." the subject change was a relief, but he felt bad for not knowing much of comics, "my family wasn't the richest, so I pretty much got passed down whatever my brothers finished reading." Talking about comics was starting to calm him a bit, "If you got any of that DC stuff, I'd really like to see it. Don't really have much else to do." Taylor seemed pretty cool. He was glad he met her. Juan was also glad that he didn't weird her out with his random confession of how pretty she was.
"No problem," Taylor said with a smile. "I've got lots of stuff. Killing Joke, Blackest Night, Brightest Day, Crisis..." she stopped herself from listing all the trade paperbacks she had. Most of the names probably wouldn't have meant much to him anyways. "Anyways, I'd be 'appy to share. I've read dem enough, and beside, it's not like you're going too far to run off wit dem, eh?" She picked up the bowl of peaches, still half-eaten. She didn't want to waste them, so she thought she'd save them for later. "I t'ink I'm gonna 'ead back to my room, but you're welcome to stop by whenever. Room one oh two. I woudn't mind da company, either."
He was amazed by the number of comics she managed to save. Of all the books and comics he left in his old room... there was alot of reading material just lost to the end of the world. He sighed at the loss but knew they just had to carry on with what they had. "Wow, that's a lot! I'll head by at some point," Juan said as he hopped down from the countertop, "It was good meeting you, Taylor." He extended his hand to her for a polite shake as they parted ways.
"Good t'ing about being on vacation when all dis went down, I'd packed plenty of reading material." She moved closer to him and took his hand, taking just a slight bit longer to let go than was normal. "And, um, t'anks for da peaches. I got leftovers, too, so dat's a bonus, eh?" She blushed a little, suddenly feeling awkward again. "Take care of yourself, Juan." She turn around and headed for the door, gracefully running into one of the corners of the counter on her way out. Nice move, Grace.