{SCE} Breath In Your Body

[Nico Martell]

Nico raised his brows at the mention of getting her naked. The implication was clear: if he really wanted to get to see her naked, he'd probably try flirting a little more. Not that he didn't sort of enjoy hanging around the girl: he just didn't have any particular interest in seeing her without clothes. He had the internet for that if he was really desperate.

Lucy stepped back. Nico did as well, though he wasn't sure why. His hands went into his pockets while he watched her work through it. It was strange, seeing the slight vibration around her as she went just intangible enough for the water. As usual, his power worked on the clothing too, though Nico's eyes immediately dropped down. Yep, what he was worried about happening looked like it might have actually done so.

"Your shoes," he said, taking a step forward. "Don't panic," he kept his voice as level as always, "but you're about halfway into the bottom of your shoe. Just do it again and take a step back." She was still going to collect crap, but as long as she moved fairly quickly, she wouldn't have plastic inside her or a shoe with blood in the space between fabric and plastic.

[Lucy James]

Lucy's eyes dropped to her feet and she felt her entire body tense up. What. The. Fuck. Opening her mouth to speak, she stopped herself as she looked at the boy with narrowed eyes. "Why didn't you tell me this beforehand?" she asked, shaking her head. Do it again. Take a step back. How the actual fuck did he plan on her doing something like that without a clear mind? Getting her shoes stuck in-- okay, she could totally handle this. Right.

Taking a deep breath, Lucy's eyes closed as she tried focusing once more. She could feel the tingly sensation start again as she took a step backwards. Remaining perfectly still then, she furrowed her brows. No pain. Was that a good sign, or nah? Opening one eye, she looked over at the boy, her brow quirking somewhat. She didn't dare to look down.

"Did it work?" she asked finally. She could feel her pulse increase and her heart was beating rapidly in her chest. See, this was exactly what she hated about mimicking people's powers. She mimicked their stupid lack of control too and shit like this happened. From now on, she would just stay away from the whole thing, even if that meant getting sick.

[Nico Martell]

Nico raised his brows at Lucy's near panicked question. The near panic would be precisely why Nico hadn't warned her about this particular fun little side effect. Technically she could start phasing through stuff around her, since the forest wasn't exactly clean or anything, but he thought she was probably safe. He hadn't had anything too bad happen to him.

He also was glad he'd neglected to mention the possibility of blood filling her shoes. That had happened to him just the one time, and that one time had definitely been enough. At least his power didn't hurt: otherwise he'd probably just be locked into a bubble.

"Looks like," he said, moving forward and picking up her shoes. He picked them up to look inside, running a finger along the bottom, knowing what to look for. There was some slight warping, but nothing that you wouldn't notice unless you knew what to look for. He nodded and held them out, figuring that she'd probably be snatching them and giving him a tongue lashing for withholding certain details.

[Lucy James]

Lucy found herself taking a deep sigh of relief at his words. Well, this surely was the last time she'd ever use his power. That much she knew already. "Thanks," she replied as he handed her her shoes after examining them. She decided against asking exactly what he'd been looking for. She had a feeling she'd rather not know and was probably better off without. After all, there was little point in thinking about what could have happened when she was clearly fine. Or fine-ish. At least she was somewhat dry, so there was that.

Moving over to sit down on a cut down lodge, the brunette started the process of pulling on her shoes. She felt a little queasy, and she could still feel the slight tingle lingering on her skin, but she was none the worse for wear, she supposed. it surely wasn't one of the worst side-effects she'd mimicked, that much she knew, even though the shoe ordeal had been far from appealing.

At least she wasn't throwing up her own guts, so she supposed it was progress. Or something. "For someone who appear as if he doesn't give a shit, you put in a lot of effort to prove otherwise," she commented, her eyebrow quirking as she rested her hands in her lap.

[Nico Martell]

The thanks drew a disinterested shrug out of Nico. It was just a way of getting her to stop complaining or whatever. Besides, he still couldn't help but think that she was a tolerable enough sort, at least better than a lot of the people that were around here. Helluva lot better than some.

Nico just moved over to sit near the area he'd been clearing out a few moments before. He stretched his legs out, only sort of watching Lucy out of the corner of his eye as he did so. She spoke. He shrugged again.

"I'm not interested in putting up with people's crap or getting into trouble," he offered. He adjusted his leg, disturbing a few of the leaves. "Doesn't mean I'm a complete asshole. Just," he shrugged, looking over at Lucy, "as much of one as anyone else on the planet."

[Lucy James]

She supposed she understood what he meant. Though, she didn't wholly agree. Each to their own, of course, and the brunette hardly cared enough to even bother implementing the guy with her own opinions and personality traits. Just like him, Lucy didn't really give a shit. "Fair enough," she nodded, and decided to leave it at that.

She checked over herself one more time - just to be certain before she kicked the tip of her shoe down into the dirt. See, this was one of the reasons Lucy didn't enjoy being a power mimic. Especially as she mimicked someone's control along with it. At the odd chance she picked up a power someone couldn't control at all, she was fucked. More or less. Especially as she didn't mimic the understanding of a power along with it.

Pursing her lips then, the brunette fell silent as she let her blue eyes wander over the treeline. She didn't know what else to say to the guy. Or if there was even anything to say. She actually found herself enjoying the silence.

[Nico Martell]

Nico nodded at the fair enough. There wasn't anything else for him to really add at the moment. And he'd always been one to enjoy silence. He could see Lucy working through the whole power thing and no doubt wondering if there was something she should be saying. People did that around him from time to time. They used the noise for comfort or something and not having it made them uneasy.

So Nico was slightly surprised to find that Lucy didn't fill the silence with words. They actually lapsed into something of a comfortable silence for a few moments there. Nico looked away, his gaze going to nature around them. There were some ambient noises, animals chittering, some distance calls of people and what have you, but they weren't distracting. Nico felt like he should be bothered by the lack of noise or something, like, he should be longing for honking horns or traffic or the sounds of gunfire or something along those lines.

Instead he just stared for a moment, before looking at Lucy. "The silence is nice sometimes," he commented, figuring that he could share that much with her. She might, just might, "get" it.

[Lucy James]

Tossing the boy a sideways glance, Lucy nodded in agreement; "Yeah, it is." She totally understood the need for silence. Despite her often having a tendency to linger around in clubs where there was a lot of people - or just parties in general, Lucy was a creature that enjoyed her solace. She enjoyed the peace and quiet as much as the next person. But then again, she also needed something to happen. Not constantly - that would have driven her insane, but still.

But she had never been an overly talkative person. Idle chit chat never sat well with her. She saw no point in talking just for the sake of talking. It seemed like a pointless waste of time. So, the presence of the boy was surprisingly welcome.

He was calm and quiet. He didn't bitch or complain about his horribly sad life, and he didn't expect anything from her. Why couldn't more people be like that? Instead of treating her like some broken down toy that needed fixing. She wondered though, if only just briefly; "Did you just come to Bellefonte?" she asked as she looked at him, her eyes narrowing.

[Nico Martell]

Yeah it is. Just a few words, but what loaded ones they were. Too often Nico wondered if everyone around him didn't feel the opposite. so many of them liked to fill the air with empty chatter, to hear the sound of their own voices or maybe someone responding in kind. It was nice to have someone who at least pretended to get it, or got it for other reasons, or at least understood. Nico would settle for at least understanding.

Interesting that she came up with a question. Nico didn't know what made her ask it either; he just looked to her, his expression a little blank. He blinked. "Yeah," he offered, again monosyllabic, adding a slight shrug. "We met on my first week. Shipped over from Canada."

Which always seemed to get people, since Nico looked no more Canadian than he did Japanese. Then again, people didn't seem to quite think of Canada as being quite as diverse as it actually happened to be. Didn't help that Nico was technically American either, but, well, all of that was assumption, which didn't seem that likely to actually come forth.

[Lucy James]

"Ah," she said, nodding. She had no interest in knowing more about it than what he'd offered, and saw little need in pushing. So, he'd transferred from Canada. That much, she'd gotten from her few months at being at Bellefonte. There was so many schools around, and for some reason, so many people seemed to come to Bellefonte, which she honestly didn't understand at all. After all, the school was hardly that great.

But, Lucy was also incredibly biased in her opinion. She didn't like Bellefonte because one, it was the only school she knew, two, she didn't want to be a mutant or have this stupid powers, and three, she didn't particularly enjoy being locked up at a school she didn't care for. After all, she was a free bird that didn't go along well with authority.

Which was partly why she was on this stupid trip to begin with. But alas, one way or another, Lucy was going to get away from here, even if it ended up killing her. She was not going to spend the next few years locked up at that stupid school.

[Nico Martell]

Ah, a nod, and no pushing. Nico continued to like that about Lucy: how she seemed content with his minor answers and selected quiet. Too much blather among the rest of them.

But Nico could still figure out a few things even from her bits. Clearly she didn't like it here, and clearly she'd done or said something either now or in the past that had dragged her out here with the rest of the "criminals." He knew that he had a record, knew that Selina had something like one, knew that Jack consistently got in trouble with the school, knew that there was that super-violent near cultist, knew that they'd sent the most militarily minded person along that the school had employed. Plus he'd seen her reaction to picking up his own relatively crappy power, though Nico figured that hers had to be better than his. At least she could ditch the damn phasing.

"This whole thing sucks," he offered, feeling as though he summed up everything in those four words, before looking away into the woods again. It sucked... but it wasn't like an alternative was just laying in the woods out there for them to find.

[Lucy James]

Looking over at the boy, Lucy remained quiet. It sucked? Yeah, she supposed that was a nice way to put this - whatever it was. There was a million places she'd much rather be and most of them were far away from any and all. Now, this boy wasn't nearly as bad as many of the others she'd met. At least he didn't talk - much, and he didn't push for every little detail in her life.

If only more people could be like that.

"Yeah, it does," she sighed as she leaned back as much as she was allowed without falling onto her back. Lifting her gaze, she looked up at the sky and finally, closed her eyes. Focusing on the feeling of the gentle breeze against her skin and the sounds, Lucy felt herself calm down - if only just a little. "Could always make a run for it," she said, half jokingly.

Now, she sincerely doubted they'd get anywhere even if they had. Either they'd get caught, or they'd end up lost in the middle of the woods, and she wasn't sure if that was any better than this.

[Nico Martell]

Yeah, it did. Lucy got that, as Nico suspected she would. He hadn't quite picked up on that from their first meeting but now, talking with her now, he began to get it. She'd been trapped here just like he was. Well, judging by what she said next, apparently not quite as trapped as he happened to be.

he had to shake his head, a bit of sadness creeping in. "Can't," he gestured with his chin, "we'd die out there. Get eaten by something big and hairy. And that's if they didn't catch us. Elsewhere," he shrugged, "they've got trackers; they find people," he knew that firsthand, though he hadn't been the one to make a dash. He kept looking toward the distance as he finished: "If they find me, I go back in prison. This sucks, but it beats that."

Which ended probably the most words he'd offered to someone in some time. Yes, he realized at least on some level, that Lucy had probably been joking. He could sense the frustration. But it was simple: he wasn't. Life sucked here, but it could be worse. He knew that. So he buckled down and moved forward. that was what he'd tried to communicate there. He thought she'd get it. He didn't care if she didn't.

[Lucy James]

"Ah, well," she started, looking at the boy for a moment. She looked as if she was about to say something, but decided against it. Instead, Lucy simply shrugged. He had a point, though. The part about prison was something she hadn't quite expected, though, thinking about it, she supposed that did explain his indifferent nature. Perhaps he simply acted like that not to get into any trouble - and it also explained his dismissive nature towards those boys that had tried starting shit the first time the two of them had met.

Falling silent again, Lucy pushed herself off the log and sat down on the ground. She leaned her back against it and dipped her head back, allowing her eyes to slide shut. She didn't care enough to start digging for information and the guy didn't exactly strike her as the type who wanted to share, so Lucy simply left it at that.

As she very often did. She knew how much she hated it when people dug for information about her. She wasn't that much of a hypocrite that she'd do the same thing towards someone else.

[Nico Martell]

Two words. Nico looked over at Lucy, waiting for more, expecting it. Surely she'd at least ask something about why he'd been in prison, what he'd done, something along those lines. But instead he just watched her slide back down to the forest floor, relaxing. That last actually surprised him more than he cared to admit: it meant that she was lowering her guard around him, at least on some level. He found himself looking at her again.

Shame she was so skinny, because Nico was pretty sure he could get to like this girl. He'd settle for a friend if it came to it: wouldn't hurt to have one or two more. He settled in again, looking out toward the water that had started their whole little exchange. Still felt strange, without the noises, but Nico was finding himself enjoying it, just, enjoying it, and silently promising himself that there was at least one person around here who deserved his attention and loyalty, weird as that even felt to think.