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[chickbro]

Who: Noah Morgan & Charles Xavier
What: Noah sneaking around after she loses her sense of touch for betraying the royalty. Oops.
Where: Xavier Mansion
When: 23rd. After Tony read the note she left him.
Warnings: IDK CUTE SHIT. I:

Comments

[chickbro]

She just stayed where she was, not trusting herself to move away from the counter just yet, because she knew she wouldn't be able to walk straight. Saying she had been drinking probably would have been the best option, but she just admitted she had gotten out of work - as vague as that could be, because nobody actually knew where she worked. It's not like she got drunk for a living though. That would have been nice and convenient.

"Noted. I will try and find one that isn't locked and sleep in there. Thanks for the offer. Cause, not gonna lie, sleeping in that big ship by myself gets kind of lonely, you know? Spent most of my life in there, it wouldn't kill me for a little change in scenery." She laughed again, but stopped as soon as he said she was bleeding.

"Huh--" She glanced down to her hand, once again glad that her mind was still able to work with her right now and she slowly pulled it away from the counter to inspect the wound she didn't know she had inflicted upon herself, "Oh, so I am. You know that happens once a month with most women. I wouldn't be too concerned," she shrugged - as best she could - and stepped away from him a bit, not wanting him to see the terrified look in her eyes, or like keeping her distance from him would actually make his telepathy null and void.

"It's just a little cut. I'll live."

[arethebettermen]

"I do know." He said, keeping his sentences short and to the point. It would have been a tip off to her that he was worried, but then again she was rather preoccupied. Charles instead pushed himself to the counter and reached up for the rag in the sink, holding his hand out for hers.

He had stepped out of her mind and was waiting for her to make a comment about it. If she wanted to keep secrets, he didn't want to intrude. It was that simple. Charles was already worried but wasn't sure how to ask her when it was obvious she didn't want to share, and trying to read the thoughts of what was bothering her wouldn't work either. Not when he was met with an overwhelming sense of 'Get away.'

"Most women do, however yours was last week." Charles commented with a particularly glance that said 'Because I heard you complain loudly about it.'

[chickbro]

She noticed, but she didn't say anything about it. Because she was trying to keep him from reading her mind. It wasn't like she wanted to though, she just had to for the sake of her plan not failing. Not that she thought he would ruin it or anything, but...it was complicated, and she didn't really know how to go about asking for help. She didn't want to get him involved in her stupid plans, which is why she was hoping she could just sneak in, go to bed and sneak back out in the morning. They were at an impasse now though. With neither of them saying what they wanted to.

He would probably notice how slowly she moved her hands, like she was trying to calculate everything she did instead of just...doing it. She reached out to offer the wounded palm to be cleaned, staring silently whenever he wiped the cloth over it and noting that she couldn't feel it. Yup. This sucked. She wasn't just imagining it all either.

"Charles..." she started, biting her lip and wishing she could feel that, too, "Why aren't you in my head?"

[arethebettermen]

Oh, he did notice, which made him gently take her hand in his, simply holding it for a moment. Then he pressed the rag against her palm, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. It was a minor cut, but she hadn't even acknowledged it until he mentioned it. It worried him, but what made him scared was the fact that she was trying to hide something that scared her.

"That," he glanced up at her for a long moment before looking back at her hand, "is because there's something you don't want me to see. You're thinking about it, but you're trying not to, and you certainly don't want me to know..."

He paused. "If I'm not in it then you don't need to worry about it."

[chickbro]

She frowned, because she really would have preferred if he just pried a bit and got the answers from her even if she was trying to hide everything. It would have made things easier and she wouldn't have to explain anything.

"It's not you," or, rather, it wasn't just him that she was hiding things from. No one knew what she was doing, what she was planning, how dangerous all this was. She had been doing a good job keeping on the down low and no one even suspected anything. The one guy that knew she was a guard was gone, so there was no one to even rat her out if it came down to it, "I can't--" dammit, "I haven't told anyone, but I won't be able to hide this really." she took a deep breath, "You can't tell anyone this, but..."

She curled her fingers around his, gripping tighter than she knew, "I can't feel anything." and if he wanted to know why, he had better get in her head.

[arethebettermen]

He raised his head again when she started to talk, keeping his eyes on hers. He was patient, waiting for her to say what she was trying to communicate, but winced slightly when she gripped onto his hand. Grip was a bit of an understatement, but he wasn't sure he had a word for it at the moment.

His eyes narrowed slightly in concentration as he entered her mind again, trying not to seem so forceful about it, in order to find out why she couldn't feel anything. He knew it was a very recent event, but didn't know what was the cause until he found the surface memories of earlier that day. Noah was a Royal Guard. Traitors had one of their main senses taken away as punishment.

If he could have stood, he would have jumped up and grabbed her by the arms. Instead he leaned forward further, pulling her closer by tugging on her arm, keeping his gaze locked with hers. He wasn't angry, he was terrified that she had put herself at risk like this. He wasn't even sure where to start.

"Noah." Charles said evenly, which he admitted wasn't all he wanted to say, but the tone got his distress across.

[chickbro]

She just stood there, staring back at him and waiting to see what he would do next. When that familiar feeling of having him in her head returned, she exhaled the breath she didn't know she had been holding. It was be so much easier to have him do that, instead of trying to tell him the entire story. Ever since those guard sign ups she had been planning this, nothing would have stopped her, and she was determined to actually help those people that wanted to shake up the system and find a way out.

She didn't know how much it would help, but anything was good in her eyes, and she had given them a lot of useful information in that letter, along with what she would be sending in the form of videos on the network soon. Her connection to other sources would also be helpful in the long run. She didn't know what would happen after this, but she counted herself lucky that losing one of her senses was the only thing that happened so far. She could easily fix it by admitting her treachery. But not yet.

"Charles." She said in a slightly mocking tone, "How mad are you?"

[arethebettermen]

"Don't talk in that tone." He said, eyes narrowing slightly. "I'm not mad. I'm worried." Scared.

Charles kept himself out of the equation. It had been planned before he even arrived in the city, so it was fairly selfish and childish to ask why she didn't think about how important she was to him, even if it was his first reaction. No, he had to keep his view and stance out of the matter. He arrived far to late to stop it. Though it clearly bothered him. She had taken the mantle to help others at the cost of herself, which is what he would of done, and that absolutely terrified him. For humanity he gave up his family and his ability to walk. What more was Noah going to sacrifice to give up to help everyone escape from the city?

"You planned this from the start. You meant to do this all along. Why didn't you tell Anthony? When he finds out it is you, Noah, don't you realize what that's going to do to him?"

[chickbro]

"Then don't scold me like you're my mother, Charles," she frowned though, rubbing her thumb along the back of his hand subconsciously, but unaware that she was doing it at all, unless she actually looked down. For now though, her eyes were locked on his, "Stop worrying. I know what I'm doing," sort of.

It took her a moment, but eventually she figured out what exactly she wanted to say in response to that, "I did. I planned it as soon as the first Royal Guard sign ups came around. I guess I was the only one that had the balls to go through with it, because all the other guards seemed pretty dedicated to the king and queen," traitors, "What? Why the hell would I tell him? He would have stopped me and I wouldn't have gotten far at all." she knew Tony a bit too well after that ten year thing,

"I would have told him my plan and he would have tried to intervene as much as he could so he could get the brunt of the punishment. He would have been all 'I have the suit blah blah blah' and everything." she glanced off to one side then, "It's not going to do anything because he won't know it was me. ...I hope."

[arethebettermen]

"We both know that Anthony is going to find out." Charles said, even if he had no intentions of telling Tony. He wanted to, but he knew that Noah would ask him not to. "He is a genius, Noah. He'll ask why you weren't at the meeting or he'll wonder why you're staying here. Anthony is going to be coming over often because he is working on something for me. If you intend for him not to find out by simple method of deduction, then I suggest you find a very good excuse for why you are knocking things over and you can't feel pain."

Charles let out a sigh and gave her hand a squeeze, though he knew she couldn't feel it. "And you're right, I'm not your mother or any sort of figure like that. I'm someone who cares."

[chickbro]

Of course she knew that, "Yeah, but it's better that he finds out after the fact instead of before." they both should have known by now that he would have just played the self-sacrificing role and wouldn't let her go along with the plan by herself, "Besides, I'm a big girl and I know what I'm doing," sort of, "He won't see me. Then I won't have to explain. Problem solved." she was going to hide as much as she could anyway, "So long as you don't tell him he won't even know I'm here. And just say I'm staying here because I have a fetish for guys in wheelchairs and you fit the bill."

Okay, jokes apparently weren't going to work right now, but she was trying, "I'll be fine. People will get their answers and hopefully use the information to find a way out of here. That's what everyone wants, right?"

[arethebettermen]

"You have a half-thought out plan on what you want to have happen. That doesn't mean it works out that way. I understand that far better than most." Charles said evenly. They were supposed to defeat Shaw and become heroes and be accepted as mutants, not hiding from the world and waiting for a better time. Erik wasn't supposed to leave. "Don't treat him like an idiot, Noah."

He gave a humorless laugh. "I would say I'm honored to fit your fetish, but I'm certain you could do far batter than me."

His shoulders sagged and he removed the rag, looking at her hand, before raising it and kissing her fingers. At least the notion was made, regardless if she could feel it or not. Sometimes the notion meant more than the action.

"No." Charles said, looking back up at her. "Just as you didn't want to save Natasha and those girls at the cost of your friend, we do not want to leave this city at the cost of any of our loved ones."

[chickbro]

"Oh, shut up," she closed her eyes, giving an irritated sigh in response, "My plan is more than half thought out and Tony is an idiot. He would have done the same damn thing anyway if he had the idea. He'd go in, not mention it to anyone and do it all himself and then have some dramatic reveal at the end like 'Surprise, I just helped all you bitches!'" She knew him, okay, Charles? And she didn't even have to be in his head for that, "Maybe you should give me some more credit."

For once it'd be nice to actually be useful. With all these superheroes and magical people around that could do amazing things, she kind of felt useless being the human fighter pilot. What could she do? Nothing in comparison to them. She could fly jets, and they could turn said jet into a magically enhanced robot that shot rainbows or something. Probably...she wouldn't rule the possibility out.

Not that point though.

She frowned, watching when he kissed her fingers and wishing she could actually feel it, "If I die, I'll come back. The benefits of a dream world are awesome, you know. I doubt they'd kill me though. At worst I'll just get locked up or something." she didn't really want to keep standing like this, so whether he liked it or not she flopped down in his lap, "You can't tell Tony though... I have to do this."

[arethebettermen]

"Which is exactly why you need to tell him. If you know what he'd do, then you know how he is going to react when they finally find you." Charles said, wishing she'd understand. Noah knew Tony, but she wouldn't be the one to deal with the fall out. "I give you credit for being brave and keeping your plan to yourself this long, Noah. But, you don't need to--" he was cut off as she sat down in his lap. He flicked his eyes upwards, almost as if rolling them, before wrapping his arms around her and holding her close.

"Just because you can come back does not save everyone else the emotional turmoil." He sighed. "Do you truly believe you're that useless and unneeded compared to the rest of the world?"

[chickbro]

"No, because if I tell him now he'll try and stop me, or something will go wrong and things will be fifty times worse. He'll try and make it all about him so he can go in there instead of me. I already had someone die because of me, and many others get hurt because of my poor decisions, I'm not doing it again." she really didn't want to be lectured about this, but here she was.

"They'll be fine. Tony will just drink himself stupid and then get over it. Like I said, at worst I'll just be locked up or something. Pretty sure that's worth it to make sure everyone gets what they wanted, because I'm sick of no one doing anything besides whining about how they want to leave." she furrowed her brows a little, "I am useless. Lookit you and your telepathy, Tony and his suit. Hell, even the little girls around here are more impressive than me."

[arethebettermen]

He gave a sudden ghost of a chuckle and shook his head. "You truly are far too much like me in that regard, my dear." After all he had taken the wounds to keep Erik safe, and it landed him in a wheelchair.

Then he fell quiet at her explanations, watching her before looking forward at the wall in front of them. Noah didn't quite understand, but in all honesty, he didn't expect her to. She wasn't in his head; she wouldn't understand. There were so many ways he could approach the situation because he needed her to understand. No matter what happened, he felt that she had to understand at least how important she was.

They hadn't known each other long, but time hardly mattered to a telepath. He only knew Erik for a few short months and they were best friends (and would apparently remain so, given what the TARDIS had showed him). He and Raven quickly developed a sibling relationship. When he could and did know everything about the other person, it hadn't mattered that they just recently met. What mattered was that he understood them, and despite their faults, he still cared for them.

Charles finally turned his attention back to her, having decided on how to approach it. "Noah." He shifted as best as he could to make sure he was looking at her face when he spoke. "Telepathy has not gotten me very far. If anything, in most cases, it's only made it worse. Look at me. I used my mutation to understand a man to save his life. Where did it end up? With a best friend who can manipulate magnetism. A best friend who deflected a bullet into my lower spine and rendered me paralyzed for the rest of my life. It also left me without a best friend and my sister. I told Raven to leave because she was no longer happy being with me. I promised as a child never to read her mind... and because of that I never understood how truly miserable she was.

"Being a telepath has not made my life any better. If anything, it's made it far more complicated than it ever should have been."