Laura is a pragmatic superhero (nomorestrings) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-01-16 15:07:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, cassandra cain (blackbat), laura kinney (wolverine) |
Who: Laura Kinney, Cass Cain
What: Fixing Cass's window, trying to help.
When: Right after New Year's, after Mystique broke everything.
Where: Their condo.
Rating/Warnings: PG, this log is pretty tame.
Status: Complete!
There were plenty of things that Laura could do. She was learning more and more of them from the dream world, too, though those dream things were mostly horribly bad things like how to efficiently kill someone. Mystique sounded like she might deserve to be killed, but that wasn’t Laura’s call. And she couldn’t track the woman like everyone else was.
She didn’t know what to do to help Cass, either, though she felt like she should try. Cass had hardly left her room since everything had gone down, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to be alone. Laura thought she might really need some company right now. The two of them didn’t really know each other well - Laura had tried to give Cass her space after their initial misunderstanding - but the younger girl thought that she should try, anyway.
Plus, she had a new pane of glass to fix her roommate’s window with. So she knocked on Cass’s door one afternoon, with the glass in the other hand, “It’s Laura. I have some glass and tools here, I’m going to fix your window.”
Ever since Cass had found out that Simon had really been a woman called Mystique, who just so happened to be a villain from Jubilee and Logan’s dreams, she’d been completely distraught. It wasn’t so much that she missed Simon, but that she had been used by this woman and she didn’t know why. She still didn’t realize that she was the same woman who she’d danced with at that bar Jubilee had brought her to and maybe if she had, she might have realized why Mystique had done this to her. Still, she’d been used and above all else, she felt violated. A year ago she was still blushing and becoming embarrassed any time someone mentioned anything to do with sex, but over the last year, she’d loosened up; who wouldn’t with friends like Jubilee and Logan? She wasn’t quite so uptight about her sexuality anymore and she’d thought she could finally express that with Simon and now she regretted that more than anything.
Ever since that night, five days earlier, Cass had been in her room, only coming out to eat and use the bathroom. Her blown out window had been covered up with plywood and at some point it would be fixed. Realistically she knew she couldn’t stay in bed forever, but at the moment the last thing she wanted was to go outside where Mystique might be, in almost any form. She didn’t know how she was supposed to trust anyone ever again and that frightened her.
Hearing the knock at her door, following by Laura’s voice, she sat up and ran a hand through her hair, which hadn’t been washed in a day or two. She knew she looked awful, but she didn’t have the drive to do anything about it, “Come in.”
Feeling used and violated was something that Laura could definitely identify with, though mostly it was her dreams that made her feel like this. She'd never been through what Cass was going through, and if she had she thought she'd never leave the bed, either.
She opened the door and made her way in, pushing in the piece of glass first, then making her own way through. There was a bag of tools in the other hand, and she held it up as she shut the door behind her, "This is my first time installing a window on my own, but I've watched my mother do it. I got some tools and advice at that Ace store down the block."
Talking about the window was easier than talking about the other stuff.
Cass sat there, watching as Laura came in with the pane of glass and the tools, her legs pulled up to her chest as she sat against the headboard. “Did they look at you like you were one of the eight wonders of the world? A girl replacing a window.” She was teasing, but her tone was off and she just sounded miserable, which wasn’t like Cass at all. On occasion she could get upset due to certain dreams, but for the most part Cass had always been a fairly happy person. Until now.
"I think they wanted to. The one guy kept looking at my breasts and talking down to me like english wasn't my first language, so I asked him if there was someone more experienced I could speak with," Laura replied, with a bit of a smirk.
It was still a little cold out, and Laura resisted the urge to mother hen and tuck more blankets around the other woman. She walked around the bed and pulled a hammer out of the bag, then knocked it lightly against the plywood, "Do you want me to grab you an extra blanket or something hot to drink? It's probably going to be colder in here until I get this done."
Cass shook her head, “No. I’m fine.” She was already wearing a hoodie, t-shirt and pajama pants, so she didn’t really feel the cold, “Is this going to take a long time?” If it was going to take a while Cass might just go out onto the couch or something for a little while, but she really didn’t want to leave her bed at the moment.
"Uhm..." Laura wasn't really sure how long it would take. And she wasn't sure she wanted to say yes, because it might mean that Cass would leave the room. They wouldn't get a chance to talk, then, and talking seemed kind of important.
"It shouldn't take too long. I know that you don't... really want a lot of company right now. I understand."
She turned her attention to getting the plywood off of the window, so that Cass would see her making an effort to get things finished quickly.
It wasn’t that Cass didn’t want company; it was that she didn’t think she was very good company at the moment. She didn’t want to bring down anyone else’s mood because she was depressed. “No, it’s okay. Take your time.” Cass would rather have the window put in correctly then have the plywood up any longer. The longer the room was unsecure, the more of a chance that Mystique could come back. Realistically, she knew she wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there in the back of her mind.
It was probably a valid enough fear. And plywood over a window was dangerous in any populated neighborhood. That was one of the reasons Laura had wanted to fix it.
"I think... There are things that the older generation say that we like to laugh off. Like... 'A stitch in time saves nine'. Or that thing about the bird in the hand being worth two in the bush," Laura rambled, a bit awkwardly, as she put the plywood off to one side, "But my moms used to say 'Well begun is half done'. I would roll my eyes at them. But it actually makes sense, I realised this when I started working on motorcycles and cars. If you start the project out right, you save yourself a lot of cleanup or extra correctional steps later on."
She carefully pulled the frame out of the window and set it down on the floor. There were still a few pieces of broken glass attached to it, and she started to carefully pry them loose, "They'd say 'time cures all ills' too, but I always thought that one was bullshit."
Cass wasn’t entirely sure what Laura was talking about at first, but as she continued talking it became clear that she was referring to her work on the window. “Have you repaired windows before?” Cass had never actually met another girl who fixed windows or bikes. She knew that there were plenty of female mechanics and carpenters, but Laura was the first one she’d met. After all, Cass had spent the majority of her life around gymnasts and none of those girls did such physical things like Laura was doing.
"Not on my own, no. This is my first time doing it by myself. But it's actually straightforward with this model of window... Well. Straightforward if you've seen it before, I mean." Laura wrinkled her nose a bit, worried that she was accidentally insulting Cass.
She held up the empty metal frame and pulled one corner apart, showing her, "There's this grey insulation cord in here that pads the glass against the frame and keeps the frame together. All I should need to do is pull it out and install a new bit, set the glass in, and hammer it shut again. Then I slide it back into place in your window and you should be all set."
Laura sheepishly added, after a pause, "I broke a lot of windows at home."
“That’s actually really cool that you know how to do that.” Cass said, arms wrapped around her knees as she watched Laura. Of course when the other girl said something like that it caused Cass to become extremely curious, “What happened? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.” She couldn’t expect Cass to not ask after bringing up something like that.
"Oh man..." Laura laughed a bit, while pulling some supplies out of the plastic bag she'd brought in with her, "Well... I was a tomboy. There were balls going through the windows a lot. One time I wasn't paying attention and kick-boxed a hole in my bedroom window. We were picking glass out of my carpet for a week. I found most of it with my feet."
“I never played ball or anything like that. I was always too busy in the gym,” She sighed, running a hand through her messy hair. She had briefly thought that it might have been better if she’d just stayed with her parents; none of the crazy things that had happened over the last year would have and while she’d still be forced to train, she wouldn’t have been taken advantage of by Mystique. But Logan was right. If she hadn’t left when she had then she’d be completely miserable.
"I had to spend some time in the gym, but I like being outside too much. I was more cross-country running or soccer or football than basketball and gymnastics. It takes a lot of skill for those sports, but they just weren't for me."
Really, when she thought back, running had been her favorite. She could escape into her mind and sort things out or just be at peace with the world all around her, and it always felt better to be moving away from something. The sad part was having to run back home.
"But... I really did like the martial arts stuff I did, too. And kickboxing. I should find a place here to do that."
“There’s actually a kickboxing class at the gym I go to.” If Cass was honest, she felt a little better after talking to Laura. She’d wanted to talk to Jubilee and Laura and her other friends since the incident with Mystique, but she hadn’t wanted to bring them all down with her mood, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed. Maybe she needed to talk to them. She still didn’t want to go out just yet, but maybe after Laura finished, she’d go take a shower and venture out of her room for a little while.
Sometimes talking helped, even if the talking wasn't about the things that had been going wrong lately. And Laura's reaction the idea of taking kickboxing classes with Cass was a good one. She grinned and nodded her head, "That would be awesome."
Her attention had been on the window, but she looked up at Cass, "I was worried that you hated me. Or still thought I was creepy. We don't get a chance to talk, I'd like to do that more often. Maybe... under better circumstances though."
She picked up the glass and started setting it into the window pane after that, giving Cass a few seconds to herself.
Cass hadn’t realized that she’d given off that vibe when Laura had first shown up and she felt horrible about it, “No, I don’t hate you. I was just a little shocked is all.” She’d only just found out about Jubilee’s time travel adventure when to her it felt like Jubilee had never left, so finding out about Laura had been a bit of a surprise, “I’m sorry if you thought that. I’d like to hang out more too.” This girl obviously meant a lot to Jubilee, so Cass felt that she should get to know her better.
"You had every right to think it if you did, I mean... Me showing up out of the blue like that. It really did seem very creepy stalker."
Laura didn't even look upset about it at all. She smiled at Cass, in fact, like she was trying to cajole her or at least encourage her, "I would have called the cops on me, too. I'm glad you didn't, though. Can you hold this up for me while I get the hammer out?"
“Well, I couldn’t call the cops on someone that Jubilee could vouch for.” Cass didn’t expect to be asked to help and had Laura asked her when she’d first come in, she didn’t think she would have gotten up, but now, Cass slid out of bed and moved across the room to hold the pane of glass up for Laura, “Like this?”
"That's perfect, thanks!"
The younger girl pulled a small hammer out of the bag that appeared to be made out of plastic instead of metal. She grabbed onto the other side of the frame with one hand and gently tapped down with the hammer, sealing the glass into place. The frame locked together with another tap, and Laura nodded her head, "You can let go now. Sorry about that, I forgot about this step."
“It’s okay. I didn’t mind helping,” Cass said as she took her hands away from the glass. She had to admit that having the new window in made her feel a little bit safer than when the piece of wood had been in its place, “Thanks for fixing that. It makes me feel a little better.” She gave Laura a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, but she hadn’t done much smiling recently.
"I'm really glad that it does," Laura replied, with an encouraging smile. She picked up her tools and put them back in the bag, then got to her feet. The plywood was still off to one side, so she grabbed that, too, so she could pull it out of the room, "I want you to feel safer. Or at least... I wanted to try."
"It helps a lot. Thank you," Cass ran a hand through her dirty hair, "I think I'm gonna go take a shower then maybe come out to find something to eat." As much as she'd like to, she couldn't stay in bed forever and talking to Laura had actually helped her a lot. They would have to hang out properly at some point, when Cass wasn't as scared to go out.
Laura nodded, and started making her way out of the room. It was good to see Cass getting up and around. She knew Jubilee would be thrilled, too, "There's some leftover chinese takeout in the fridge for you. I'll put this plywood away and let you get to it."