(no subject)
18 February 2007
Piotr's room
Though he has not been such a common sight around the mansion in the past few weeks as he usually is, the last few days have seen something of a return from Piotr, and for the second time this week he is staying at the school for a period of time longer than it takes him to run up to his room and grab something before heading back to the city. Currently, he is searching through the drawers of his desk, although for what is not entirely certain, and a pile of papers has already begun to form in front of him.
To say there is a grapevine at Xavier's is somewhat of an understatement. It is through a fourishing vineyard of gossip and chatter that Kurt Wagner has heard Piotr is on the premesis. There is a muted sound just outside of the door of Pete's room, then two quick knocks. There is not a moment's hesitation before there is a bamf on the innner side of the door and Kurt appears in his usual special effects, complete with that stink of brimstone. "Ach, mein Gott, I pray that I have not appeared while you are pantsless, Piotr. Are you pantsed?"
Kurt's arrival is not, perhaps, entirely unexpected -- or perhaps it is, and Piotr is just too used to sudden arrivals by now to be startled by it -- but either way he gives no reaction to the unorthodox method of gaining entrance to his room other than a stifled sound that may be a cough at the smoke of Kurt's teleportation, or may be a chuckle at his words. "I am fully dressed, Kurt," he informs him as he turns towards the new arrival.
Yellow eyes are peeking out from between four thick fingers, which had been held up as a impromptu blindfold upon Kurt's realization of the fact that he had teleported into his friend's bedroom. "This is a great relief." Kurt's smile is full of good humor and pointy teeth. "You have not been around much as of late. I had grown worried!"
"I have been somewhere where the company is far better," Piotr informs Kurt with a smile to match his companion's toothy grin, an expression that one could almost mistake for /teasing/. He takes a few steps back from his desk towards the bed, sitting himself down on the edge with his hands either side of him, grabbing fistfuls of covers as he looks up towards his blue friend. "My sister is back."
Kurt's right hand is frozen in the middle of trying to dramatically clasp itself over his heart at hearing the reason for Pete's absence of late. He stops, even his tail freezing in mid-swish behind him. After that shocked moment, his posture rearranges itself. He stands straighter, his tail raised high in interest, and his eyes just a little wide. "She is? This... this is a reason to be absent! Where is she? How is she?"
Piotr's smile becomes a little more sheepish as Kurt answers, nodding quietly and looking up once more with shining eyes. "She is staying with Emma Frost, I do not know if you know her? She helped Illyana a lot while she was here last, and she is taking care of her again, at least until she is ready to come back to the school. She is-- unharmed, but a little unsteady, not ready to be surrounded by a lot of people, I think."
For Piotr's sheepishness, Kurt counters with pure energy. He actually leaps forward, jumping onto the foot of Piotr's bed to balance on one foot upon the bedpost there. His tail lashes wildly to keep his balance, and his hands come up to aid in this as well. "This is wonderful news, Piotr! Miraculous, I would almost say. How is it that you are not running through the halls screaming in elation? It has been years!"
Lifting a hand up to brush through his hair almost in defence at Kurt's exuberance, Piotr grins and pulls his feet up onto the bed, besocked toes folding around the bed cover there for a moment. "I think you would not be so surprised if you had seen me when she first arrived," he says, his smile still not fading even the slightest bit from his face. "In truth, I have hardly left her side since. Coming back here for the ball was the longest I have been away from her in two weeks."
The fuzzy elf remains balanced there upon Piotr's bedpost, beaming down at him. "I cannot blame you for a single moment for this. Life goes on here in it's most usual way. Terrors in the middle of the night with police officers and earthquakes and telekinetic murders of coffee-makers. You are not missing a thing!"
A quiet laugh huffs out Piotr's chest at that as he rolls a shoulder back to reposition his arm in a more comfortable place, raising his eyebrows towards Kurt as he asks, his tone weary, "What has Cassy done now?" he asks, folding his other arm across his lap and curling his fingers into a comfortably lose ball.
"Oh no, The Cassy had no hand in it." Kurt switches feet with a little hop. He might be showing off a little. "I startled Dr. Grey in the kitchen in the middle of the night and she... crushed the coffee-maker. Which startled young Julio in the hall, which caused a minor tremor. Also, Ororo's playmate with the eyebrows, whos name I cannot recall, was there as well. I believe he helped terrify Julio. It was an impressive mess."
Piotr gives a bewildered blink at this remarkably hypnotic list of minor catastrophes leading off from each other, impressed indeed despite his long years in residence at the school. "Jean crushed a coffee maker?" he repeats with a look of surprise and concern, tipping his head towards Kurt before the surprise vanishes. "And Julio caused a quake? Was everyone all right?"
Kurt nods his head and his tail bobs in sympathy for it. "Everyone was fine, though rattled. Rattled in more than one way, ja? The shaking was minor, it did no damage except to poor Julio's nerves."
"Well, that is good to hear, then," Piotr says, relief chasing the concern off his face and replacing it once again with the trace of a smile that has been his default expression since Illyana's return. "For poor Julio especially. I have not had a chance to speak to him since the ball, but he did very well then."
"Ja, Julio is a good kid, I think. It is unfair that he is cursed with a gift that is so hard to control and so dangerous both." Kurt frowns thoughtfully for a moment, but then shakes his head, dismissing it and summoning his smile back. "Time and practice will bring peace to his worries."
Piotr nods in agreement with Kurt's sage words, saying with more than a little sympathy, "Yes, you are right. I am sure that he will be just fine, given long enough. Though," he adds, more seriousness coming to his tone as he sits up a little straighter, "we have perhaps worries of our own to look to, or concerns, at least. Did you see the newspaper on Thursday, I think it was?"
The nod Nightcrawler gives this time is more serious, to match Piotr's tone. "The fact that the president's tap-dancing is soon going to have to come to an end?"
"Da," confirms Piotr, frowning slightly at his accidental slip into Russian and amending, "Yes. How long will it be, do you think?" he wonders aloud, his look towards the older mutant now more ssearching.
"I think it depends on the media. If they become rabid, calling for answers, the president will have to answer, ja?" Kurt shrugs his shoulders, looking down helplessly at his empty palms. "I do not know what we can do, other than brace for our little band of Merry Men," Rossi has inspird Kurt it seems, "to suddenly become public knowledge."
Or perhaps Kurt just likes the idea of running around in tights. "And what will that do, do you think?" Piotr asks with a tiny, querulous tilt of his head. "I was at college today, and a group of people decided to chase away the woman I was talking to, because they know I am a mutant. Will they trust us more? Is there any way they could trust us less?"
"I think that at this point, mein Fruend, that our fate lies in the hands of Gott." Kurt's energy level has come down to a light simmer, his tail held low and swaying gently. He clambers down from the bedpost, in favor of standing beside the bed. "Perhaps people will be inspired by us, perhaps it will terrify them. We can only pray that knowing we exist will show them that mutants are not all Magneto."
"Yes," agrees Piotr quietly, the seriousness of his expression lightening somewhat as he continues, "that is something to hope for. Perhaps it is not so very wild a hope, either. Once people hear about Liberty Island... Yes." This is said with a little more conviction than before, "there is certainly room for hope."
"My friend, by now, you should know what I am to say here." Kurt's smile grows wide and warm. "There is always room for hope."
Piotr's smile grows to match it, a nod adding to the display of confidence in Kurt's words. "Yes, you are right. One of the things I have learned from you, in all this time."
Kurt reaches a hand out to pat Piotr's shoulder. "I will leave you so that you can get back to Illyana, mein Fruend. I wanted only to check on you to make sure nothing was wrong."
"Nothing is wrong, I assure you. I am not certain anything /can/ be wrong, with her returned to me." There is a light in Piotr's eyes as he says this, an unashamed show of love and devotion as he pushes himself up to stand, and then pauses half off the bed, his feet on the floor and one arm supporting his weight as he looks towards Kurt with a single, jovial word. "Pirates."
Kurt's grin nearly explodes. "Only a matter of days. Only a matter of days!" His laughter is rather loud and excited, and in the middle of it, he teleports away. The laughter cuts off to be replaced by that oh-so-familiar 'bamf'.
Piotr and Kurt talk of many things, including pants, sisters, governments and things that go bump in the night.