Baby steps

[rileyfletcher]

She listened to Warren as he began to talk and soon stoped in the middle of his sentence. He then took off his sandals and shirt, then began working on his pants. She heard him finish his sentance, by saying that is she doesn't mind getting them wet. Then down went his pants and boxers, and he went straight into the water.

He does have a point. I don't want to be walking with wet spots all over my clothes. Also I guess I shouldn't make him feel a bit left out, since he is skinny dipping and I wasn't. Plus I haven't gone skinny dipping for awhile, so I guess it wouldn't hurt. she thought to herself.

Riley soon took off her shirt and then her pants. After she got those off, she decided to take her under garments off too, since Warren was still underwater. She then dove off of the roof and into the water, making a very tiny splash. Once she was in the water, she came up for some air and looked around to see where Warren was at.

[Warren Worthington III]

It occurs to Warren only after he splits the water's surface that he hasn't gone swimming since he was a little kid. (After the wings started growing in, Dad never let him go out without the harness and an overcoat... and swimming alone in the pool wasn't any fun.)

So perhaps diving into the deepest part of the lake before testing the waters isn't the cleverest thing he's ever done. This becomes clearer when he tries to spread his wings out under the surface to swim with, and ends up struggling with the unfamiliar resistance, tumbling ass-over-ankles and losing track of "up" amidst the turbulence.

The fatigue poisons and alcohol in his bloodstream don't help either... accelerated metabolism or not, he's not at his best.

He tries to fold his wings back up against his back to swim normally, but they're now too waterlogged to compress well. His lungs are starting to burn, and it occurs to him that he could actually drown here. And wouldn't that be an insanely stupid way to go out! Magneto would laugh.

Though who knows? Maybe it'd help. He has a brief vision of normal humans around the country reading about it in the local paper ("Mutant Spokesperson Drowns in Stupid Accident") and deciding maybe mutants aren't such a threat after all if they can be this stupid. Humans and mutants live together in peace and harmony, drawn together by mocking Warren Worthington III.

Well, there are worse justifications for existence. And it seems like a peaceful way to go out. He isn't even struggling any more, he realizes... and he's not entirely sure why.

[rileyfletcher]

Riley continued to look around the lake and there was still no sign of Warren. This was begining to get her really worrid. She swam around in search of him, hoping he is alright. After what seemed forever, she heard something. She listened carefully and soon reacontized the voice, it was Warren, but it really was his thoughts. She was only catching bits and peices of his thoughts, but she followed them.

She was soon really near by to him and knew that she had to go underwater. Riley then took a deep breath and dove underwater. She began to look around in search for Warren and hoped that he was alright. She continued to listen for bits of his thoughts, that she was getting, to find him.

After going really deep and close to the bottom, she soon spoted him. She noticed he wasn't moving, and what was keeping him under was his wings. She quickly swam towards him and grabbed his arm. She then began to swim towards the surface. Riley was swimming as quickly as she could, but Warren's wings weighed them down a bit. It was a really good thing that Riley was an excellent swimer, or else they would be in a lot of trouble.

Eventually, she managed to get to the surface, and she pulled Warren up as well. She then made sure that Warren's head stayed above the water, and began to swim back to the shore. She knew that he couldn't stay in the water any more. "Warren are you alright? Please say something." she said to him. Riley didn't know if he was still breathing or not, but wasn't going to know until they got onto the shore.

Soon they reached the shore. Riley pulled Warren onto the shore. She then kneeled down by him. "Warren are you alright?" she asked him again. She waitted for a reply, and if she didn't get one, she would have to do CPR to get him breathing again, if he wasn't.

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren comes to as she drags him onto the lake shore, not quite sure if he ever actually passed out in the first place.

He must have, though.

Certainly, he hadn't just given up and let himself drown with hardly a struggle. Certainly, he hadn't felt relieved at the idea of just ending it all. Not hotshot millionaire celebrity mutant playboy Warren Worthington, adored by millions, with so much to live for. Absurd.

It was just a stupid accident. Definitely. And he'd just forgotten to use his TK. That's his story and he's sticking to it.

He considers just lying there and letting her perform mouth-to-mouth. There's probably good reasons not to, though.

Well, first off, it's unethical. Second, we're naked. Except that last one doesn't belong in the set of reasons not to do it. He tries again.

First off, she's a telepath and can probably tell. Second, it's unethical. On the other hand, there's that whole naked thing.

Third, she'd probably crack my chest open.

That does the trick. He opens his eyes, sits up cautiously, nods at Riley. He's not really sure what to say, though. 'Thanks' seems an absurd understatement.

[rileyfletcher]

Riley sat there waitting for any sign. Soon he opened his eyes and sat up. She smiled and was really glad that he is alright. She then began to wonder what had happened down there. "Are you ok? What happened out there?" she asked him. Not knowing if he would answer her last question, she thought might as well ask him.

Through the whole ordeal, Riley had managed to forget that they were both not wearing anything. So while sitting there, she suddenly felt a cool breeze and remembered that she wasn't wearing anything, and here she is sitting by Warren on the shore with nothing on. If she was still in the water she wouldn't have cared, but since she wasn't in the water it was a different story. So Riley quickly tried covering herself as best as she could with her arms, trying to make it to obvious to Warren that she was a bit embaressed.

Riley ended up blushing a bit, and looked around to see if anyone else was up, but was glad that it was only them, since she wasn't doing a very good job at keeping herself covered. She then looked back at Warren, hoping he didn't see her blushing.

[Warren Worthington III]

> "Are you ok? What happened out there?"

"I'm not really sure."

The answer is honest enough, though evasive. He's not sure what happened, and he's not sure he's OK. Granted, he's pretty sure he just tried to kill himself again. (A stray fragment of grammar-teacher replies No, you tried, again, to kill yourself. He chuckles. It's amazing what goes through your head at moments like this.)

A breeze goes by, cold against his wet skin, and he notices Riley wrapping her arms around herself. "Cold?" He leans forward a little and wraps his wings around the both of them for shelter.

"Sorry about getting that... um... fouled up. I... haven't done much swimming since I got my wings."

And that's true, too, though also misleading. He's glad it's dark out, suddenly... if she could make out his features she might realize how much lying by omission he's doing. But really, what's he going to say? He doesn't even understand it himself.

He wonders if he should talk to one of the folks in charge. Mr. McCoy's got a pretty obvious mutation, unlike most of the others... he might understand. Then he blinks, uncertain what he meant by that. Understand what? I'm not ashamed of my wings. I'm not! I'm proud of them. That hasn't got anything to do with... whatever happened just now.

He shakes his head as if to clear it, ending up spraying water over himself and Riley... then, trying to recapture their previous playful mood, he grins as if he'd done it on purpose. "We used to have a golden retriever who did that to us all the time. Drove us nuts. Kinda miss him, though."

[rileyfletcher]

When Warren asked her if she was cold, once the breeze had gone by them, she looked up at him and he had moved closer and wrapped his wings around them. "Thanks." she said to him with a smile.

He then was telling her that he was sorry about what had just happened and that he hadn't gone swimming since he got his wings. "Do worry about it. But may I just suggest to stay in the shallow end until your use to swimming with your wings." she told him with a smile. Riley wanted to get back into the fun an playful mood they were in before the inccodent had happened.

Soon they both went into a bit of silence, with Warren thinking about somethings and Riley was looking at Warren's wings. She felt almost memorized by them for some reason that she had no idea why. After a few minutes had gone by, Riley soon felt water being splashed at her and she quickly looked over at Warren. She smiled at him, when she realized that he shook his, causing water to spray them.

Riley listened to Warren as he told her that he use to have a golden retriever that use to do that, and that he missed him. "Dogs are always adoreable when they do that, even if they drive you nuts. But I wouldn't really know what it's like, cause I've never had a dog or any pet." she told him. But then she quickly added after, "Anyways, what was his name?" she asked him.

[Lumen]

Fishbowl pools. Shayla thought, trying to remember was her dream was about, the only thing that came to her mind was standing in front of a huge pool, filled with flesh eating fishes. Odd dreams weren't a problem, falling asleep again was. She turned to the side, facing the window. A window that led outside, outside from the room where the others girls were sleeping. She got up from the bed and walked over the window, leaning on the edge. Being as careful as possible not to wake anyone up she sat on the edge of the window, ready to leave the dormitories.

Lumen decided to create a small sphere of light to hover above her hand. With one last look at the room she jumped down and while descending the little sphere followed her down. Before her feet touched the ground she jumped again until that part of the building wasn't visible anymore. After that there wasn’t a real need to keep jumping, a little floating ball in the middle of the night would be visible to anyone that would look at their window. After that Lumen walked aimlessly around the institute.. There's no point in picking a place. Walking around will just tire me out. There wasn't clock or anything that could tell her the time but she guessed that maybe half an hour has passed when suddenly the sphere went out, she walked a bit further before deciding to make another sphere.

The light illuminated a small part of the ground around her and that's when she saw...

Naked man. Naked woman. Naked man with wings. Together. Wings. Angel. Nice looking naked Angel. Brain overload. It wasn't the first time she saw something like this but... there were people she had seen before. They were also in lake where most students went, could she ever go to the lake with those images in her mind? The sort of images that weren't supposed to be visible for other but the sphere pretty much ruined that.

"¡Van a ser la puñeta!" There her mouth went, leaving her confused mind behind and shouting things when she was supposed to be quiet and well, unseen. Shit.

[Warren Worthington III]

"His name was Barley... well, actually, his full name was Barley-The-Dumb-Dog-Except-Not-Really-Dumb, but I'm the only one who ever called him that, and I was about 7 at the time." He grins. "He was a great dog, actually. He used to --"

Warren hasn't noticed Shayla's approach, too distracted by his own dark thoughts and the attempt to keep them out of what had been supposed to be a friendly, flirty chat to pay much attention to his surroundings. (Well, his surroundings other than Riley, anyway. And technically speaking that relationship was the other way around at the moment.) On top of that, his eyes have been adapting to the darkness this whole time. So when Shayla's light-sphere goes off, he's surprised and blinded.

"What the - Riley, get down!" His windsense can vaguely make out a humanoid figure a few meters away, and he steps between it and Riley, flaring his wings out behind him to protect her. (Later, he'll justify that particular maneuver by explaining that she can heal him if he's injured, but not the other way around. The truth is, the thought didn't even cross his mind, and he'll never quite be sure if that makes him a hero, a chauvanist, or just a mutant with a deathwish.)

> "¡Van a ser la puñeta!"

The voice is familiar, as is the shrill Spanish, and it stops him from charging the new arrival. He's not really sure what she just said, but a couple of years of high-school Spanish is enough to work out "Gonna be/make the something."

Then his vision returns, albeit blurrily, and he sees the expression on light-bulb girl's face, and remembers that his clothes are back on the roof, and context is enough to fill in the blanks. No wonder he didn't learn that word in high-school Spanish.

Oops.

He wraps his wings around himself instinctively, feeling his cheeks burning and knowing he's probably blushing over most of his body. Then he remembers he's leaving Riley uncovered... hardly gentlemanly, that, even if she does have wings of her own... and unfurls his left wing like a curtain in front of her while keeping his right wing wrapped around himself.

Great. One night stands with mutant-groupies after raves is one thing, but this is not the reputation I'd wanted to have in the Institute. And I bet light-bulb-girl gossips.

He tries for a confident smile, wondering if he can bluff his way through this somehow. "Um... hi?"

[rileyfletcher]

Riley smiled at Warren, as he told her about his dog. She thought the name was cute, even the full name that Warren was telling her. While she was listening to Warren, she soon heard him stop in mid sentence, right when there was a blinding light. It took about a few moments to be able to slowly see again.

Once Riley was begining to see again, she heard Warren yell at her to get down. She then noticed him, quickly jumping up, so he was between the person that made the blinding light and her. Riley didn't move, but she looked to see who it was, and making sure that she was still covered.

Soon Riley heard the person saying something in spanish. She realized that it was one of the girl students at the school. Riley started blushing quite a bit, cause of course she wasn't wearing anything and neither was Warren. Right away, Riley saw Warren quickly cover himself with his wings, but then he lets his left wing out to cover her as well.

Damn it! I hope she doesn't get the wrong impression. Wait! Of course she is going to get the wrong impression! God damn, I'm sitting here naked with a guy, who is also naked! I really hope no one is going to hear about this, cause if people do, then what are they going to think of me! This is the type of moments that I really wish that I was able to control my powers, and would be able to use them to bring our clothes over, since we left them on the damn roof of the boat house!"

Riley felt so bad about this, and would be mentally yelling at herself for a very long time about this. She then heard Warren trying to talk to the girl that was there. Riley quickly let her wings come out of her back, and quickly covered herself, so then Warren can use his other wing. She decided to keep her mouth shout, and see how well Warren could get them out of this mess, but if he had any troubles, she would help him out with it.

[Lumen]

Hi...? Well, there were worse things to say, and Lumen doubted most people thought about what they would do if they were found naked with another chick in the middle of the lake. Found by a girl with a little ball of light. Her 'other' self adds, yeah, because the normal Lumen couldn't be enjoying this and wouldn't be adding little mental comments. There was no enjoyment in watching the now covered naked angel meanwhile her obsessing-evil-fan girl self squealed in delight.

Lumen started moving her hand up and down, the little sphere following her, making it look like it was doing weird patterns in the darkness. She was actually trying to make the sphere disappear, but her nervous state complicated things.

"Sorry for interrupting." She replied when the sphere had finally gone out, making the whole area dark again. Now with her hands free Lumen covered her eyes up, a total childish act, but it was for the sake of her brain... even the reply wasn't the greatest but what was she supposed to say? 'Oh sorry, just go back to doing whatever you where doing and pretend I'm not here. No problem really.' Then again, it sounded too bad since both comments were assumptions.

That chick has wings too... does that makes it angel sex? Maybe not looking would make her brain function with some time.

[rileyfletcher]

Riley looked over at Warren then back at the girl. She was feeling really embarassed, about this whole thing. Since the girl had that ball of light, she was able to see the expressions on the girl's and Warren's face. She knew that the girl would also be able to see her expresstions and at the moment, it seemed that everyone had the same expression, which was embarassment.

The girl began to move her hand up and down, and the light was following it, making weird patterns, which caught Riley's eye. She had no idea what the girl was trying to do, but she just hoped that whatever she was doing, that she would stop it.

After a few minutes, the girl said that she was sorry and the ball of light went out, making everything really dark again. It took about a moment, then Riley could see in the dark again. In the dark, she noticed the girl covering her eyes from them.

It was then silent, but Riley's powers were acting up a bit again, and she had caught the girl's last thought. Which just so happened to be, "That chick has wings too... does that makes it angel sex?".

Once Riley had heard the thought, her mouth dropped. Oh my god! She thinks that we were having SEX!! Ahhhhh!!! This is sooo embarassing.

Riley quickly stood up, but her wings were still covering her. "We weren't having sex! Really! We weren't doing anything close to that! We were just swimming and that's all!" Riley said quickly, with out thinking. She knew it might not have been a good idea, but she was trying to defend them and let her know it was nothing like that and she was mistaken.

[Warren Worthington III]

> "Sorry for interrupting."

"Not at all... join us, if you want." Warren can't quite believe he just said that, given what she no doubt thinks is going on... but OK, he can salvage this. "It's a nice night, and we were out for a sw--"

He cuts off as Riley replies, and almost laughs... if there's anything more guaranteed to convince people they were having sex than protesting loudly that they weren't, he doesn't know what it is. Or maybe that's just him... maybe the whole minor celebrity lifestyle has made him cynical. Riley does have an innocent air about her that Warren doubts he could have managed even when he was an innocent. Being a girl helps, he supposes.

He idly considers pulling his wing aside again and pointing out that he's not even slightly aroused, but suspects it wouldn't help, if light-bulb girl (Shawna? Shiela? Something like that) was even old enough to know what he meant. Besides, by now he wouldn't be anyway, and she got an eyeful when she first set off that floodlight.

And a perverse imp in his head suggests feigning dismay and turning back to Riley with some line like "What's the matter, honey... it wasn't good for you?"... or worse yet, chiming in with "Of course not, she's not nearly attractive enough." Except the whole "she can crush my sternum" line of argument is still pertinent. He should at least wait 'till he finds out which one of them flies faster.

So he just nods agreeably. "Right. Swimming."

[Lumen]

"Then sorry for interrupting your swimming time." There. Her brain was starting to work again and she did believe them and her inner self wasn't thinking they were lying. Not that all. Because yelling "We weren't having sex!" or saying "join us" totally helped, and made her mind think the right things instead of having the earlier scenario on a constant replay in her mind. Hopefully the wouldn't notice what she was implying and they would just think she was deciding on what to do.

"Why were you swimming when it's so late though?" Shayla said after a pause, her hands still covering her eyes. Starting a conversation wasn't on her to-do list but it was fault of her feet anyway, they were being stubborn and weren't moving at all.

[rileyfletcher]

Riley looked over at Warren and noticed he was thinking about something, but didn't bother with it. She then heard him agree with her that they were swimming. She then looked over at the girl, whom was still covering her eyes. She heard her say that she was sorry again.

"It's alright, we were coming out anyway." she told her. Remembering that Warren had nearly drowned just a few moments ago in the lake. Riley couldn't hear any more thoughts coming from either one of them and sighed a bit, she was glad that she wasn't hearing anything else.

Then soon she heard the girl as them question. Riley thought about it for a second. "I'm not sure, really. We were just talking to each other and decided to go for a swim." she told her. Riley thought it was a good idea to not tell her the whole truth about it, incase she was one of Warren's crazed fans, and would do something if she had heard them flirting with each other, not to long ago.

But it seemed like she wasn't, since she was looking away and not just staring at him. Riley began to think it might be a good time to quickly fly over to the roof of the boat house to grap their clothes, since they were now dry. So she quickly took off, grabbed their clothes and landed back where she was standing. Riley walked over to Warren and handed him his clothes.

Once he had his clothes, Riley quickly put her clothes on. But before she could put her bra and shirt on, she had to let her wings to go back into her back, in order to finish getting dressed. As soon as her wings were in her back, she quickly put on the rest of her clothes. Riley felt more comfertable now that she was fully clothed, but she still felt a bit embarassed.