x-men AU.

[justashotaway]

Since Warren disappeared back into a past she'll never know, Laura's felt more numb than anything. Something else should be there, some sensation besides he was here and now he's gone, but life doesn't seem to change much. She fights bad guys. She eats Chinese food. She falls asleep during a Golden Girls marathon with Gabby and wakes up at three AM with Jonathan sitting on her chest, staring unblinking into her eyes.

And if she misses Warren--or Scott, or Bobby, any of them--the feeling lives someplace inside her without drawing attention to itself. She does miss them, she knows that much intellectually, but she does not want to dredge up the sensation if it's willing to lay dormant someplace inside her.

More than anything, she's restless. And one night, when Gabby and Jonathan have both been invited to the school for some kind of party ("It's a lock-in," Gabby'd explained, "and I'm only going because there's going to be nachos"--which is true, if only because Gabby's never actually been a student there), Laura goes out, too. Not as X-23, but as Laura Kinney, in a leather jacket and black jeans, sitting down at a cheap bar beside a curly-haired girl and ordering a beer.

This, she knows, is how Logan would deal with heartache. She's not sure that's what she's feeling, and she knows better than to take Logan's habits as suggestions in general, but she's willing to give it a try.

Comments

[sulahnan]

"Too busy to drink cheap beer at a dive bar?" She makes a face, weighing the statement. "That's probably a good thing, right?"

Tessa herself is usually too broke to be hanging around in bars, or not interested enough in getting drunk to bother. And not always inclined to accept when friends invite her out. And--well, the list goes on.

[justashotaway]

The question draws a smile out of her. She takes a sip from her pint glass. "Probably."

It's not like the alcohol has much effect on her anyway--she'd have to drain half the bar to feel more than a slight buzz. The beer she's drinking now has all the strength of foamy water, but the flavor's smooth enough.

"Where do you work?" she asks, after a moment or two. Somewhere in the background, an underpaid musician's doing a Bon Jovi cover.

[sulahnan]

Tessa makes a face. A how do I condense this down to one sentence face.

“Around. I mostly just do odd jobs. Gig economy, ya know.” Another shrug and she looks Laura up and down. “I’m guessing you’re...a roadie? Or a rockstar?”

[justashotaway]

Laura's brows lift, surprised, at the suggestions.  Roadie isn't too hard to imagine doing--she could haul amps all day, even if she'd be bored to death by it--but rock star is baffling. The next time she has reason to talk to Dazzler, she might have to tell her about this.

"I've never gotten 'rock star' before."  Not that she gets a lot of guesses in the first place. She can't remember the last time that she met someone new and talked to them for more than a few minutes, and not because of work.  She saves people or infiltrates their lives for a while--like the time she'd posed as a high-school gym teacher--but doesn't actually stay around long enough to ask about jobs and give truthful answers. "It's more like...security."

But frankly, talking about it is likely to be more headache than it's worth.  She's not familiar with every mutant in the city, but she doubts she's talking to one right now. Instead, she asks, "What kinds of odd jobs?"

[sulahnan]

Tessa snaps her fingers. “Security! That was gonna be my next guess.” Well, bouncer, but Laura doesn’t have the stature of most bouncers she’s encountered.

“Oh, like...courier, barista, dog walker. One time someone paid me to break in new shoes for them.” Another set of new customers draws a glance from her, but yet again, it’s nobody she knows. She props her chin up in her hand and returns her full attention to Laura, the shift in position making it so she can’t even see the door anymore. “I can’t believe nobody’s called you a rockstar before. You definitely look the part.”

[justashotaway]

Her first thought is Gabby would like her, incongruous and unasked-for; if Gabby were here, she'd be demanding to hear the story of the shoes, then probably chattering on about her investigations into wolverine-wear-for-actual-wolverines and Jonathan's reactions to booties. Laura, on the other hand, doesn't ask. But she's tempted to.

"If you wore leather, you would, too." She assumes that's what's giving the impression that she belongs anywhere near a stage, let alone a stadium. It's certainly not her singing voice. Finishing off her beer, she signals the bartender--and, on a whim, adds, "And another for her."

When she came out here, she'd assumed she'd be alone with her thoughts for the night. Finding otherwise is proving to be a pleasant surprise.

[sulahnan]

"I guess it depends on the leather," Is that shameless? Sure. But let it never be said that Tessa doesn't take an opportunity when it walks up and shakes her hand. Or buys her a beer.

She doesn't count the minutes that turn to hours that they're at the bar, trading questions for answers and stories for more stories. Unheeded in her pocket, her phone buzzes with a text from her friends that they had to bail, but by that point she's not even waiting for them anymore.

By the time it's last call, they've taken an equal amount of turns buying rounds, and Tessa has told Laura her guesses for each person in the bar; what they do, why they're here, fantastic backstories that are far more interesting than reality ever is. She finally sees the message from her friends when she takes out her phone to look at the time, and her laugh fades into her remark of "Ah, shit. It's late. I gotta jet."

[justashotaway]

The night slips away from Laura so easily that she's surprised when they hit last call. Have they really been talking all this time? It doesn't feel possible--few people who know Laura would describe her as talkative--but she's spent hours listening to Tessa and offering her own, terser, comments.

"Will you be all right going home?" They've had more than a few beers, and Tessa's not likely to handle it quite as easily as Laura does. A woman alone and inebriated is a recipe for danger on some streets, and she's not sure where Tessa lives, beyond a broad neighborhood description.

If she offers to walk her home, or to let her stay over on Roosevelt Island, she knows what it'll sound like--but in the moment, she has to wonder how much she cares. Enough, she decides, after a moment. She isn't drunk; Tessa might be. That isn't a place she wants to be. She could simply tail Tessa, keep to the shadows and remain unnoticed, but she doesn't want to be there, either.

So it's with some care that she says, "I have a spare couch, if you'd prefer."

[sulahnan]

Tessa raises her eyebrows, amused.

"A spare couch? Like, a specifically-for-guests couch?" She grins, chuckling as she fetches up her bag with the toe of her shoe. From it she extracts a pen even as she's navigating the apps in her phone. "I'll be fine, I can order a Lyft."

With transportation ordered and a mere three minutes away, Tessa reaches for Laura's hand and holds it flat to write her number on her palm. And, just to be extra shameless, she blows on the ink to help it dry.

"Maybe next time, Rockstar," she says. Bag on her shoulder and pen tucked behind her ear, she hops off the barstool and walks to the door--she may have had a few beers, but they weren't exactly strong. Just strong enough to make things loose and easy. Before opening the bar door, she turns to flash another smile at Laura, and then she's gone.

[justashotaway]

"When there isn't a pet sleeping on it," she replies--but a Lyft works just as well. Tessa scratches a number into Laura's hand, smiling like she's about to pull off the perfect heist. Laura smiles back, and that's it.

By the time she gets back to the island, it's close to daylight. She crashes on the couch with the early-morning news playing and only stirs again when the front door bangs open and Gabby calls hello.

"I didn't sleep at all," she says brightly, plopping down on the floor next to Laura's head. "I want to make it all the way til tonight. You wanna go get breakfast?"

"Mmmph," Laura answers, planting her face back into the sofa cushion.

Gabby rolls her eyes and tugs on her hand. "C'mon, the waitress at the Greek diner said I could have extra cheese on my omelet next ti--hey, what's this?"

She's pointing at the number scrawled on Laura's hand, a little smudged by now but still legible. There's no time for an explanation, though, with Gabby cheering next to her.

"Did you get somebody's number? All right, Laura!" Gabby's getting up, padding around the apartment in mismatched socks with Jonathan following behind her. "Who is it? Did you go on a date last night?"

"It wasn't a date." This is all the sleep she's getting, apparently. Hauling herself up from the couch, she trudges toward her room. "How are you so cheerful?"

"A lot of Pixi Stix."

They end up going to the diner, even Jonathan, who's probably the only literal wolverine allowed in restaurants in the country, let alone the city. Gabby insists on putting the phone number into Laura's phone for her, and the rest of the day goes on. And then the rest of the week. And half of another one. Things get busy, the way they always do, and it's not until she's lying in bed, waiting for the gashes in her side to finish closing themselves off, that she picks up her phone.

Tessa? This is Laura from the bar.

[sulahnan]

No more than four minutes later, the reply comes:

yooooooo
what’s up, rockstar??

For her part, Tessa is sitting cross-legged on her bed, binge-watching some immensely calming British show about restoring art and furniture. So, ya know. Being productive.

[justashotaway]

Not much.

Just regrowing a spleen. By Kinney standards, that's a pretty average day - the only real novelty is the fact that it's taking longer than usual, for reasons she doesn't especially want to explore (but probably will have to if this keeps up).

How has the good economy been?

(...Look. No one's ever pointed to her as a matter of talking to people she's interested in.)

[sulahnan]

oh u kno
late stage capitalism doin its thing lol
get to put figure drawing model on my resume after today

[justashotaway]

Sounds exciting.
Are you doing anything after that?

[sulahnan]

Grinning at her phone, Tess falls back onto a pillow and crosses one leg over bent knee.

got something in mind?

[justashotaway]

It depends on when you're finished posing.

Dinner, drinks...something like that. She'll be presentable by then, and Tessa will undoubtedly have stories to tell from this experience.

[sulahnan]

She counts off the hours it’ll take on her fingers. An hour to get ready, three to pose, an hour for traffic...

i can meet u somewhere around 9 if that works for u?

[justashotaway]

That works. Gabby's more than capable of entertaining herself for an evening; she and Tessa can have a late dinner and talk again.

She texts back the name and address of a dim sum restaurant in Manhattan, figuring it'd be reasonably in between the two of them.

[sulahnan]

And one more text back to confirm, then Tessa is up and bustling around to get ready. Posing for a figure drawing class generally calls for clothes that are easy to get out of, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a date afterwards. Though...well, it’s debatable really.

So when she eventually shows up to the dim sum restaurant she’s in sneakers and joggers, a plain shirt and—perhaps as a nod to Laura’s own style—a leather jacket to make it look a little bit less like she’s just biding time before Netflix-and-chill time. Luckily, she’s not too underdressed for the establishment, and only about five minutes late. She spots Laura easily and heads over to join her with a cheerful greeting and a playful: “Come here often?”

[justashotaway]

Laura gets up again when she's about ninety percent sure that she's not bleeding anymore and makes her excuses to Gabby, whose buoyant good mood has taken a suspicious turn. Maybe you-- she starts, and Laura shakes her head, promising she'll be back later.

She knows Gabby's worried, and she understands why. But she needs a night to herself before she dives into becoming Dr. McCoy's mutant medical mystery.

When she goes out, it's with the certainty that she'll be fine, at least for a few hours--and looking forward, she realizes, to the sensation of being something close to a normal person. She's missed that.

It's nothing fancy, the restaurant she's suggested--Laura's not one for fancy, as a general rule. She's sitting at a little table, dressed the same way she was at the bar. When Tessa finds her, she glances up from where she's been toying with a chopstick and smiles slightly. "Yes, actually--my sister loves dim sum. How was modeling?"

[sulahnan]

“Oh, a lot of sitting still in one spot for three hours. I’m just glad they had the heat on in the studio,” The last time she modeled, it was a clothed session, which pays less for barely more comfort. “I gotta agree with your sister, whoever she is: dim sum is so good. One time I was running deliveries and someone ordered some at like, midnight, but they meant to schedule the order for the next day at noon so they just texted me and said dinner was on them.” In the time it takes to relay the story, she puts her jacket on the back of the chair and sits down, scooping up a pair of chopsticks that she then starts toying with as well.

[justashotaway]

Laura listens, amused, and finds herself smiling before Tessa's gotten past I gotta agree with your sister. If she'd had any doubts about the wisdom of reaching out to her again, they've disappeared; listening to Tessa reminds her of everything that had kept her sitting at a dive bar long after she might have gone home, had she been there alone.

"Then you'll like this place." She's eaten a lot of Chinese food in the city, dim sum and otherwise, and this is easily in her top three. (Anything to keep from having to cook for herself. She's also got a lot of opinions on pizza delivery.) "They make very good chāshāo bāo."

And if her accent is unsettlingly good...well, don't worry about it. She speaks a couple of languages.

[sulahnan]

“I know at least one thing I’m getting, then,” she says. Of course, she’s not gonna limit herself. Tessa’s gonna get one of everything if she can. Feigning seriousness, she points at Laura across the table. “But no laughing at how much I suck at chopsticks, ok?”

[justashotaway]

Laura shakes her head, genuinely (well, mostly) serious. "I won't. But it only takes practice."

As though to demonstrate, she brings hers together in her hand, as naturally as if she were born holding them.

[sulahnan]

“You’re welcome to try and teach me, but I usually just—“ Her own demonstration is just closing her fist around both chopsticks and making a stabbing motion towards the table. “Stab.”

Which is, of course, how Tessa snatches up the first dumpling after they order. Two sticks skewered into the one that looks most appetizing, a dunk into some sauce, and then an over enthusiastic bite and the patented reverse-blow because hot hot HOT!