Sit Down, It's Just a Talk

[Luxanna Viera]

A soft chuckle escaped Luxanna as she lifted her hand to wave it in front of Tim's face. It was amusing; Why exactly, she didn't know, but the boy's awkwardness was part of why Luxanna enjoyed being around him so much. It made her feel a little less alone, since she too was awkward. It was nice to see someone react the same way she probably would have had someone kissed her out of the blue.

Waving her hand once more, Luxanna let out yet another chuckle before shrugging. "Anyone home?" she asked softly before pulling back a little.

And as the amusement grew, Luxanna felt herself growing a little more confident; Cocky, even. Which felt extremely unnatural, but she welcomed the feeling nonetheless. "Wow, makes me wonder what would happen if I kissed you-kissed you," she mused, tapping her chin with the tip of her index finger. Smirking a little, the brunette shook her head. Sadly, she wasn't that daring, or else she might have tested it out.

"Don't worry though, I won't kiss you-kiss you. I like you far too much than to make you do... Whatever it is that you're doing right now."

[Tim Tawfeek]

Nope, nobody was home. Didn't even register that there was a hand waving in front of his face, for that matter. Well, technically Tim registered some movement, and he was pretty sure that he saw that movement coming from Lux. He thought he heard something about her kissing him, kissing him, wait, was that like? It was like his brain had suddenly snapped into the Lux channel now, all Lux, all the time. No kissing you kiss you, like him too much.

... and thus, Tim just got friend-zoned. He could almost feel it descending, and some part of him felt utterly crushed by the thought. But really, he supposed it was the best he could expect. The nerdy guy didn't end up with the princess, even if she was kinda awkward and princess of furbies or whatever. Friends was better than nothing, and Tim wanted to hang out with Lux enough that he'd just sort of accept that.

Stupid all over.

"Whazzat?" he said, blinking. "I was, uh, just, communing with bats," he waved his hands in a spacy manner. "Happens all the time. Honest," yeah, like that wasn't the most obvious lie to ever be lied by a liar. Tim knew it though, so he tried to pass it off with a chuckle, reaching for his coffee to take a sip. "I think this is coconut or something,' he said, looking down at it again, as if answers would float to the top any minute now.

[Luxanna Viera]

When Tim finally snapped back to reality, Luxanna shook her head, "I said that I like you too much to make you uncomfortable," she said, smiling a little. Arching her eyebrow, Luxanna chuckled, "I didn't know there were bats in Kalispell," she mused, "I thought bats were shy and hid away in caves... Or stuff." She didn't really know the first thing about bats. Like at all. Where they lived, or if there was any in Montana at all.

Leaning back, Luxanna moved her chair back to it's original place where she once more wrapped her hands around the warm cup containing the hot beverage. She wasn't going to take another sip. At least not yet. She could still feel the aftertaste of the coffee from before, but it made itself a nice warmer-upper for her hands, so there was that. "Sounds about right," Luxanna nodded.

"What else have you been talking about in your blog? Apart from the prom, and who people should vote on, I mean." Luxanna was interested in it, which she had made obvious during hers and Tim's first meeting, and she was sure he talked about something other than telling people who to vote for.

[Tim Tawfeek]

"Oh, there are, but they don't usually come out," said Tim, speaking without thinking. It was actually true though, which was probably why he could just rattle it off like it wasn't a big deal or anything. "I was actually just spacing though," no, stop, no truth, truth bad. "Happens around pree-----coffee. Totally happens around coffee," wow, he sucked at this. He just took another sip of his coffee, pretending like that was totally what he wanted right now. Totally.

A question, a legitimate question that wasn't humiliating or anything. He should totally try and answer that and everything. "Uh, stuff," he started, looking up. He tried to get comfortable. "I talked about SPECTRE the other day; tried to get that one into the general public, and it's gotten some hits," yeah, that would totally put him in a good light. he tapped his fingers against his mug. "I also talked about a few people I've seen, what happened and all," he shrugged, meeting Lux's eyes. "I'm also thinking about putting up something to counter DL. They put up something lately, like, a bunch of cruel rumors and stuff. Totally not cool."

He took another sip. "I could give you the link if you want. Not to DL, but, like to my site. You could join all the totally cool kids who follow it," he smiled at that, knowing full well that following a vlog by a nerdy black kid didn't exactly count as something the cool kids did.

[Luxanna Viera]

"I see," she nodded, "Bats are really shy creatures, aren't they?" Though, she could actually see that, seeing as how bats only came out during the night. Wait, they only did come out during the night, right? Just like batman. Okay, so maybe her source of information wasn't the best, or even remotely good, which reminded her that she probably had to read up on the subject of bats. "Coffee seems to do that a lot. Well, that and hyperactivity," she added with a chuckle.

Luxanna had to admit that she wasn't in the loop about this 'DL' that people kept referring to. Then again, gossip had never interested her, and she had no interest of getting to know it either. Who cared about what some mean blogger said about others? In truth, Luxanna figured it said more about the person writing said mean rumors than what it did about the people within it. Sadly, not everyone agreed with her.

Luxanna was glad she wasn't victim to most teenage drama. Sometimes being off the radar was a good thing, huh.

"I'd love that," Luxanna said, her smile widening, "I think what you do sounds really nice. Especially with the whole 'countering the mean rumors with good ones'," or so she figured. "I guess you're the internet version of Batman." This was said with a hint of a proud smile tugging at the corner of Luxanna's lips. "You're amazing, did you know that?"

[Tim Tawfeek]

"They don't really like people. We keep messing up their ecosystem and stuff," said Tim, shrugging. He didn't generally like to talk about the bats with people, though, now that he thought about it: "I could take you to some sometime, if they, like, don't freak you out or anything," which was the usual girl reaction to such things. Lux hardly struck him as the usual girl though. Plus, he was pretty sure she'd already asked about that or accepted an offer or something. He totally should've tried that instead of coffee, but he'd wanted the internet to show her stuff, so he immediately dismissed his own second-guessing.

Of course she bought the coffee thing, which practically had Tim feeling guilty again. Practically, because he still didn't want her to know that he got all locked up around pretty girls. She probably wouldn't believes she counted anyway; seemed to fit in with her. She was smiling now though, and damn if she didn't look prettier than any other girl Tim had seen, and he'd seen his share now (thank you Internet). Countering stuff, yeah, this was probably more why he did it: to get pretty girls to smile at him and tell him he was awesome.

"Everyone always calls me that. Batman, that is. I think my parents actually named me after a Robin though," he half joked, reaching up to adjust his glasses again. He chuckled at the amazing thing, shaking his head. "You're one to talk. You've got to be, like, the only girl in school who was upset about being a princess, which kinda makes you more a princess if you ask me," he looked away then, taking another sip of his coffee. yeah, he could totally say something like that, right? Right.

[Luxanna Viera]

"I would love that, and no they don't freak me out," Luxanna said, "If anything, I think they're really adorable, and they look really cuddly," she chuckled. She wouldn't even mind having one as a pet, though, that was probably illegal. "They sort of look like slender, cute furbies," she added, musing. Yeah, she could totally see that. She still adored her furbies, of course, but seeing an actual live bat sounded so much cooler. And to think she had a friend that could like, communicate with them.

She was so envious of his power. She wished hers had been even remotely as cool.

"Nah, you're not a Robin." She was one hundred percent sure that Tim would end up rocking the world one day. People like him often seemed to do that. And part of her was actually hoping he would sometime soon. He deserved that kind of thing. He was far too great to be someone's sidekick, but it didn't seem as if he was aware of it yet. Well, that only meant she had to work even harder at convincing him, "You're going to own the world one day, Tim Tawfeek," she said with a determined nod.

As for his comment about her being a princess, Luxanna grimaced, "I don't know about that," she said silently. She still didn't like the wording, but that could easily be because of the stereotype that often followed with the nickname. She wasn't going to drag the mood down though.

"But yes, I would love to go bat-hunting with you. I like spending time with you."

[Tim Tawfeek]

Cuddly? Tim thought of a few of the bats he knew. Some of them were adorable, yeah, especially the kids, though Tim probably wouldn't use that exact word when describing them. But cuddly? Then she had to compare them to furbies, which actually had him laughing. She totally would, and, well, he could sort of see it, maybe a little, especially with someone as obsessed with the dang things as Lux.

"Hey, I'm talking about the cool Robin, the one that ends up, like, leading his own team of superheros and stuff," he protested, tapping the table. He ended up freezing again as she insisted that he'd own the world someday. Which did leave her time to protest the whole princess thing, which essentially had the two of them both denying the other's compliment. Lux fortunately redirected things back to bat hunting.

"It's less hunting with me," admitted Tim, glad for the change of subject. "I know where they hang out and they recognize me by now. Helps that I can talk to them and stuff. They'll probably get all close and personal with you though. It'll be like one of those Disney movies where the strange creatures flock to the princess to bother her and I'm doing it again, aren't I? Sorry," he rubbed at his face again, before lowering it to lay against the table. "I am so not good at this," he mumbled, hoping that Lux didn't pick it up. Given that her power wasn't super-listening, he was pretty sure he was safe.

[Luxanna Viera]

Grinning, Luxanna chuckled, "Okay, okay, you can be cool Robin," she laughed. Either way, it didn't change her compliment; She truly did believe Tim to be a great guy, and she wished more people would see it. He really did deserve all the glory that came with it. At least that's how she felt about it. He was a good guy, and good guys deserved good things. But again, what was 'good' depended on opinions, so she wasn't entirely sure what that would be. She didn't know him well enough to know exactly it was that he wanted.

"It's okay," Luxanna shrugged, "I still want to join you sometime, regardless of it being a hunt or not," she added with a smile. "Actually seeing the bats is the fun part, no?" Besides, it wasn't always about what you did, but who you did it with, right? She wasn't going to argue it though. She had said her piece and wasn't about to nag. It was entirely up to him how it all went down, and if it went down, since again, it was his thing to show off, not hers.

Moving her hand, Luxanna ran it through her hair as she let her eyes wander over the different people within the coffee shop. It was a little odd, thinking about how much history hid behind all the unknown faces. To think that they were all so different, and that so few would discover what hid beneath; It was a little sad, but also sort of beautiful at the same time. It was childish too, because it made her want to get to know every single person on earth, just so she would know just how different they all were, and learn all of their stories. "Do you ever wonder about what other people are thinking about? Having the power to read minds must be so nice."

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim almost sighed with relief when Lux insisted she still wanted to go along. "Yeah, well, it is for some people, if that's what you're looking for," he said, trying to cling to the bat thing. Didn't quite stop him from making a fool of himself and ending up with his head buried on the table for a few moments of shame. He looked up, noticing that Lux looked around. what was that about? Just as Tim started to ask though, Lux provided the answer instead.

"Sometimes," he admitted, adjusting his glasses and shrugging. "Honestly, I kinda wonder what it would be like to have a cool power all the time. All I can do is talk to animals that don't exactly show up in normal places or get all batty, which pretty much means echolocation. Reading minds sounds super cool by comparison. Just look at someone and know what they're thinking," he laughed, then grinned at Lux, leaning forward.

"But they say if you, like, know somebody, then you could pretty well do it anyway, right? I'd rather have the ability to fly or something. With really cool wings," Tim nodded, then chuckled, tapping the computer, "That's probably why I keep getting in gliders and making an idiot of myself. That and you'd think the whole bat thing would actually help there." That was Tim's thought, anyway. He sighed again, rubbing his computer. He didn't feel pressured to really say anything. It was obvious that they could say, well, whatever they wanted and it would be cool.

Just as long as he stopped talking about princesses. Gah, he could be such a moron sometimes.

[Luxanna Viera]

Moving her gaze to study his face, Luxanna nodded, "I know what you mean, but then again, there's worse things than having the ability to talk to bats, which I quite frankly think is pretty amazing." At least it was better than having an ability that would eventually kill you. It made her sad, but she had sort of learned to live with it. The less she used her ability, the longer she would have. Or so she thought anyways, which was why she tried not using her ability at all. What she wouldn't do for to have his ability. "There's abilities with some pretty nasty side-effects too," she added with a shrug.

"I don't know about that," she smiled, "But I guess it depends on how well you know someone." Even when you thought you knew someone really well, reading their mind just like that...? Maybe it was possible. "Yeah," she said and looked away, "You could also fly wherever you wanted, and go anywhere, which seems pretty cool." There was so many powers out there, Luxanna didn't know which she'd pick if she could have. Leaning her chin against the back of her hand, Luxanna smiled, "I think I would much more prefer a less visible and less..." she trailed off there and shrugged.

She often imagined how her life would have been like had she and her mother not shared the same fate with their abilities. Had things really been that different? She liked to think so. It had to be, right? Her mother wouldn't have been sick, and wouldn't have been close to dying. How long did she have? Days? Weeks? Months? There was really no way to tell. Not with her mutation, anyways.

But even so, Luxanna was glad so few people knew about it. She didn't want them to pity her or feel bad about it. It made things easier when they didn't know. It was easier to pretend that everything was fine.

"Did your parents have powers too?"

[Tim Tawfeek]

"Well, yeah, I guess," admitted Tim, shrugging. He didn't often think about things like that, about the drawbacks and how he could have it arguably much, much worse than he already did. The bit about side-effects had him wincing before nodding. "I guess. I mean, it would be cool to like, teleport, but if you kept leaving bits of you behind or could only teleport naked or something, it would really suck."

And great, now he was picturing naked teleportation. Except Tim's brain couldn't be nice enough to do it involving the awe-inspiringly gorgeous girl across from him, oh no, that would be too much. Instead he got to picture himself showing up someplace, having teleport there without clothing. Fortunately, the mental image didn't last long, since they were soon on flight, which, well, much more cool.

"You'd look amazing with wings though," insisted Tim with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm. "Just, like, picture big white wings that came out of your back and all. Okay, yeah, they're visible and all, but you'd look like an angel, well, more like one than you do now, but you get what I mean. Plus," Tim nodded and tapped the table, "people are totally used to seeing that. So they'd only, like, stare at you because you were just the most beautiful girl with wings, or maybe the only girl with wings who also has a giant collection of furbies and keeps tripping whenever she takes off to fly. You know, like that."

There, that worked. Mostly. As for his parents, well, Tim shrugged. "Mom's a shapeshifter, uh, rabbit or something, I think. Dad's a norm," so yeah, that happens from time to time. "Yours?" Since that was the polite thing to do, of course.

[Luxanna Viera]

"Exactly," Luxanna replied with a faint smile. Yeah, teleporting naked or losing body parts sounded bad. Really bad. Actually, it sounded a lot worse than her own; She couldn't even imagine how incredibly awkward and embarrassing it would be to teleport somewhere, end up in the middle of a crowd and be completely and utterly naked. She hoped she'd never find out either; Even without the power of teleportation. No, Luxanna felt a lot more comfortable with her clothes on, and she preferred to keep it that way.

Heck, she didn't even like walking around in a swim suit or anything less dressed down than perhaps a dress. But then again, she usually covered that up with boots or leg warmers, or something like that.

Tim's compliment had the flush heating up in her cheeks again, and she could feel the warmth spread from her cheeks and down her throat. She didn't really know what to say, or even how to say it, so instead, the brunette smiled, "Thank you," she chuckled softly, "I think." No, even as cool as wings was, she didn't think she'd enjoy having such a visible mutation. She wasn't a people person, so in that sense, it wouldn't have mattered, but she figured she'd feel caged had she been forced to stay within the academy grounds. Not that she really left all that often or anything, but it was nice to have the option. "And don't make fun of my furbies; They are really cool," she said with a grin.

"Shapeshifting? That must be cool," Lux nodded, "I suppose that makes sense then. I mean, how you ended up with animal related powers and all." Did mutations even run in the family? Of course, it was in the DNA, and it sort of made sense if it in one form or another ran through the family, just that it only triggered with some. Luxanna's train of thoughts were however ended as Tim asked about her parents. Clearing her throat, the brunette offered him a sheepish smile. Or tried to, anyways.

"My mom has the same ability as me," she drawled. Had she even told her what her ability was? She didn't think so. "Reactive adaption, that is." This was said with a bit of a frown, "And I don't know who my dad is, so," she said with a shrug. She was curious. Of course she was, but her mother probably neglected to tell her for a reason. "My brother though, he's a human lie detector." Which was really cool, come to think of it. "We don't share the same dad." Was that too much information?

[Tim Tawfeek]

Okay, so the compliment about wings had scored, so Tim filed that one away for future usage. Angel comparisons were good to go. Lux would make an awesome angel, all sweetness and light and clumsy awesome. Yeah, he could definitely see that, see it easy. he also had to grin as she defended her furbies, because, well, c'mon, defending furbies. who wouldn't grin at that?

Tim nodded when Lux confirmed, adding a yep. He then waited with an interested expression while she cleared her throat. He picked up his coffee to take a sip, figuring he might as well enjoy that while he listened. Same ability as her, well, that sometimes happened, right? Must actually be pretty good, and Tim wondered about saying it, but the frown threw him off for a bit. Especially with the next bit, as Lux essentially started oversharing: didn't know her dad, brother was a human lie detector.

"Maybe your dad had lie detecting powers or something then," offered Tim, talking quickly, wanting to save them the awkwardness that lurked just around the edges of this conversation. "So possible. And it must be kinda cool, having the same ability as your mom. You'd get to see where you end up in a few years, and she gets to pass her knowledge along and stuff. That's gotta be a cool connection, right?"

Did he sound desperate? He felt desperate. But c'mon! She literally just told him she didn't know her dad (did that make Lux a bastard? Bastardess? Was there a female form there?), that she had a brother, and loads more. That Tim could speak at all without being completely moronic (on purpose) was a small miracle.

[Luxanna Viera]

"No, my brother and I don't share the same father," Luxanna shrugged. She was sort of glad though; At least that meant Niklaus knew his father, even if he was a giant a-hole. He didn't have to be curious, and that made Luxanna happy. He was such a sweet boy, and he deserved everything good in his life. However, as Tim mentioned being able to know what was coming, Luxanna frowned. Unable to keep her composure, she turned her gaze back towards the crowd, "Yeah, I do," she said silently. In a way, she was sort of glad. Even as morbid as it sounded; At least she knew, right? It wouldn't take her by surprise. She got to prepare. "It's..." she began, "It's nice to be prepared."

Was that sad though? That she was happy about being prepared for something like that? She liked to think that it wasn't as it made everything she experienced all the more special. She knew that she had limited time, and got to appreciate everything with that in mind. In a way, it was sort of a gift, right? It wasn't nearly as bad as it sounded. Or, or maybe she was just tricking herself to make herself less scared.

It didn't matter though; She couldn't exactly change it. It was happening whether she liked it or not. "It's a cool connection; I guess you could put it like that," she said and turned finally, offering Tim a grin. No, she wasn't going to be sad about it. Not now. Not here.

"So, when do you want to go watching your friends?" she asked quickly in an attempt to change the topic.