Raw fish, telekinesis, and iron cajones :O (Josh)

[Toni Craft]

Toni pokes the...thing...on her plate.

“You know, I tend to make an effort not to eat anything that brightly coloured purple. It'll make me all tye-died on the inside!” She stabs it again with a half-broken chopstick. “I think I need to get it from behind. It’ll never see me coming that way.” Spinning her plate, Toni lowers her head down to table level and lets her copstick weilding hand approach from the rear.

Once she has a hold of the strange purple object and its rice bed, she holds it up triumphantly, grinning until she notices that it has spots. “So...it’s purple, has spots, smells like,” She sniffs, “Something I’d rather not think about — and seems to be pretty slimy.” It falls from the grip of the chopstick and splats back onto her plate. She pokes it again. “I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess it’s a type of frog sushi. The japanese eat frogs, right? I mean, they eat just about everything else. Frogs can’t be that weird for them.”

Toni gives up on her sushi for a moment to lean across the table and peer at Josh’s exotic meal. “What do you have? Can I borrow it? I want to see if it’ll fight my frog.” She prods a piece of sashimi on his plate before assaulting a glob of wasabi on her own.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> “I think I need to get it from behind. It’ll never see me coming that way.”

Josh raises an eyebrow. "Didn't your mother teach you never play with your food? I thought she the straitlaced one in your family." He maneuvers his chopsticks to pick up a piece of sushi.

> The japanese eat frogs, right? I mean, they eat just about everything else. Frogs can’t be that weird for them.”

He shrugs. "They eat a lot of weird stuff, but I've never heard of frog sushi before." Josh squints at the strangely-colored item on Toni's plate. "I have no idea what that is." As far as his own meal was concerned, he'd only ordered tame choices - tuna, salmon, shrimp, california rolls... whereas Toni had immediately gone for the most exotic looking pictures on the menu.

> “What do you have? Can I borrow it? I want to see if it’ll fight my frog.”

Josh pushes his plate towards Toni. "Go ahead. It's your celebratory dinner, anyway. I'd feel bad if you didn't get anything decent to eat." He'd been meaning to take Toni out to celebrate her promotion to full X-Men for months, but things had kept getting in the way. Warren was supposed to be along, but a last minute business trip had landed him in California. "Congratulations, by the way. Not that I haven't said it before, but... still."

The waitress materializes out of nowhere and refills their glasses, and then disappears just as quickly. Josh takes a drink of his tea. "Why do you even drink? I mean, it doesn't affect you, right?" He looks oddly at Toni's sake. "Most people don't drink liquor because of the taste." He didn't. But he'd never live it down if any of the Institute students caught him drunk while underage, so he'd been pretty good the past year.

"So, any man prospects? I know you're on the market." Josh charges forward without waiting for an answer. "There's this guy I could set you up with in my biochem class. He's smokin' hot. Straight, too... I think. You never know, I guess. And he's intelligent - he wants to be a doctor." Josh blows out a sigh. "I guess you'd kill me if he ended up gay, right?" Josh waggles his eyebrows. "You really need to scout outside the Institute. All the guys who aren't your students are gay, taken, or both."

[Toni Craft]

"Didn't your mother teach you never play with your food? I thought she was the straitlaced one in your family."

“Oh she is. But she realized pretty early on that I’m a hard kid to tame...so she just kept on serving me stuff that was hard to play with. You know, like soup.” Toni chews on the end of a chopstick while the other makes patterns all over her plate with wasabi.

"Go ahead. It's your celebratory dinner, anyway. I'd feel bad if you didn't get anything decent to eat." Happily, Toni plucks a piece of salmon Josh’s plate and swirls it around in some soya sauce before plunking it down next to her ‘frog’. "Congratulations, by the way. Not that I haven't said it before, but... still."

“I could stand to hear it more often. Makes my wee little ego get all big and fluffy.” Aside from her more exotic selection of food, Toni had also ordered a plate of tempura, so she munches on that happily. “So, when do I get my own action figure? That’s what happens when you’re on the team right? I hope my tiny self looks cool. I wonder I’ll say a little catch phrase or something. It’d better not be lame.” She could already picture the little action figure shrine her mother would put up in the living room back home.

"Why do you even drink? I mean, it doesn't affect you, right?" Toni stares at her sake before taking a sip.

“Not in the teensiest little bit, but with all the moolah I’m makin’ I gotta spend my dough somewhere, right?”

"So, any man prospects? I know you're on the market. There's this guy I could set you up with in my biochem class. He's smokin' hot.” She perks up, and not just from the wad of funny tasting beige fish she just stuck in her mouth.

“Really now? How interesting. I might have to affectionately maul him. But…” Toni smiles, taking another drink of sake. “Jack might have something to say about me fondlin’ other guys.” She has to wonder if Josh already knew about her and Jack. They haven’t told anyone, and she doesn’t think it was that obvious that they had been out on a few dates already. “He’s already starting to give that Julian kid the evil eye, but then again, Julian’s probably been starin’ at my bum again. He does that all the time. Not that I can blame him, I do have a lovely, enchanting bottom. Don’t you think?”

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> “So, when do I get my own action figure? That’s what happens when you’re on the team right? I hope my tiny self looks cool. I wonder I’ll say a little catch phrase or something. It’d better not be lame.”

Josh cocks an eyebrow. "What, 'It's clobberin' time' just doesn't do it for you? I better call the factory back when we get home!" He puts up a hand to fend off blows. "Just kidding! As far as I know, there isn't a Fortress action figure in the works yet. But you know how Jake is with the merchandising... there will be one sooner or later."

> “Jack might have something to say about me fondlin’ other guys.”

Josh looks surprised. "What now, did you guys finally act on all those dirty thoughts I keep picking up? Or wait..." He thinks back to their visit to 2027. "You weren't...married, were you?" He bursts out laughing after seeing the expression on Toni's face. "YOU WERE! Oh my god, that's like the worst way ever to decide to start going out! How did I not pick up on that?" Josh pauses for a second, thinking of his encounter with the future Warren and his worries about Nathan. "Um. I guess I might have been a little preoccupied with family matters."

> “He’s already starting to give that Julian kid the evil eye, but then again, Julian’s probably been starin’ at my bum again. He does that all the time. Not that I can blame him, I do have a lovely, enchanting bottom. Don’t you think?”

Josh rolls his eyes. "Julian stares at everyone's ass. Except my own, thank god for small favors. I dislike him enough - it's not like I need another reason to want to throw him into the path of oncoming cars." He tries to get an angle on Toni's ass, but obviously fails due to their seating arrangement. "I think you can bounce quarters off it, Toni... and probably hubcaps, come to think of it."

A nagging feeling crops up in the back of Josh's mind, and he tries to ignore it, until he figures out the source. A table of men on the other side of the room are paying attention to himself and Toni. Josh focuses his telepathic powers on the men, hoping to pick something up.

...damn muties have it coming.

Josh picks up another piece of sushi, despite having suddenly lost his appetite. "Toni... 10 o'clock. Someone seems to have taken exception to our genetics." His body tenses, and he takes mental inventory of their surroundings. Hopefully it wouldn't come to a fight. The owner of the restaurant was a friend of the Institute's, and he'd hate to trash the place.

A few of the men get up from their table and make their way over.

"Look! It's the newlywed AND Iron Girl. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company tonight?" What seems to be the leader of the group speaks up first.

Josh tries to keep his voice light. "I'm afraid you're behind the times - I've been married for over a year now. But you obviously know who I am, which means you have me at a disadvantage."

The man scoffs. "Forgive me. I don't keep track of your kind - the mutants or the queers."

Josh grits his teeth. "I can't say I asked for your approval on either account. If you don't mind,we're having dinner here."

[Toni Craft]

"What, 'It's clobberin' time' just doesn't do it for you?” Toni shakes her head fervently.

“No sir. It’s just too cheesy...and I refuse to be compared to that big orange sexy hunk of a rockman, even if he is irresistible and the focus of all of my late-night fantasies.” She stares off while absently chewing on a piece of sweet potato tempura.

"You weren't...married, were you?" Pausing amid a sip of green tea, Toni makes eye contact with Josh, looking like a deer in headlights. “YOU WERE!” A handful of gentlemen across the restaurant glance over at their table, intrigued by his outburst. “Oh my god, that's like the worst way ever to decide to start going out! How did I not pick up on that?"

“For argument’s sake, Jack and I weren’t married. We just lived together...and did all sorts of naughty things together...and raised some kids together...one of whom actually turned out really hot and I tried to hit on him. Remember that? That was funny.” She pours herself some more steaming tea from the ceramic pot. “And what’s wrong with us dating? So maybe we were procreating like feral chihuahuas in the future — that doesn’t mean that we can’t share a milkshake or martini or an intentionally too-small sleeping bag.” Finger point. “And you, Mr. ‘I openly have sex in midair with my seagull boyfriend’, shouldn’t be trying to lecture me on the...stuff...between Jack and I.” She’s back to the sushi, pulling some rice off of one of Josh’s rolls and soaking it in soya sauce before eating it.

"I think you can bounce quarters off it, Toni... and probably hubcaps, come to think of it."

“Hey, if you wanna toss’em, I’ll bounce’em. It’d be a great physics experiment, don’t’cha think?”

"Toni... 10 o'clock. Someone seems to have taken exception to our genetics." Toni turns to see who Josh is referring too, and spots the men studying them from afar.

“Awww, how sweet. I always knew my DNA was sexy, what with the curves and the twists and all.” She grins and waves happily at the men, but only receives frowns and stares of disapproval. So instead, she sticks her tongue out at them and turns back to her food.

"Look! It's the newlywed AND Iron Girl. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company tonight?" Glancing up at the group of men at their table, Toni chews on her chopstick again, eyes wide with innocence and interest.

“But you obviously know who I am, which means you have me at a disadvantage." She can hear the tension in Josh’s voice, but decides against making any remarks until she’s sure that the situation calls for them. No need to ruin their supper over something as trivial as a disgruntled fan, right?

"Forgive me. I don't keep track of your kind - the mutants or the queers." Right then, that’s her cue to step in.

"I can't say I asked for your approval on either account. If you don't mind,we're having dinner here." As Josh speaks, Toni backs him by standing to stare the man down. The leader of the little mutant-hating gang stands eye to eye with her, but fails to be as intimidated by her standoffish pose as she’d like.

“Darlin’,” She starts, arms crossed and eyes narrow. “We’re sorta in the middle of celebrating my promotion from Iron Thug to Royal Queen of Handing Asses to People who Piss Her Off, and we were really really enjoying ourselves and our purple frog bits. So to continue on that trend — and to avoid me squishing you into fleshy pellets the size of your pituitary glands — I think you should just wander on back to your miso soup and leave us alone.” After a few moments of confused silence as the offending visitors try to comprehend what Toni had just said, the leader laughs — a sort of haughty snicker — and never breaks eye contact.

“What are you? His bodyguard and faghag? Can’t the little pillow munching mutie take care of himself? Or is he afraid of breaking a nail?” Toni eyes him levelly, then looks back at Josh, scratching her head.

“So...you wanna deck him? Or shall I?”

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> “We’re sorta in the middle of celebrating my promotion from Iron Thug to Royal Queen of Handing Asses to People who Piss Her Off, and we were really really enjoying ourselves and our purple frog bits.

Josh keeps a stoic veneer, but inside he's giggling at Toni's turn of phrase. No one else talked like Toni - which was probably a good thing, as if it wasn't Toni the sheer inanity of it would make him want to smack anyone else.

> “What are you? His bodyguard and faghag? Can’t the little pillow munching mutie take care of himself? Or is he afraid of breaking a nail?”

Josh's eyes widen. This one is really spoiling for a fight. He could see the hatred seething below the surface of the man's brain. Josh blinks a little. He really, really does despise me for everything I stand for.

He'd often thought that anti-mutant groups were basically full of posturing... but apparently some of their members fully espoused the credo. This one was anti-gay just to make things interesting. It just burns bigots up to see a loving, functioning, normal gay relationship, doesn't it? How were they supposed to protect the family if he and Warren weren't out and about, spreading corruption? Josh resists the urge to roll his eyes.

> “So...you wanna deck him? Or shall I?”

He shakes his head once, quickly. "No. We're not giving him what he wants. He wants all these people to see us as striking with no provocation. After all, we're dangerous." He says the last thing like the bullshit that it is. Around them, people are edging away, but he can feel that their fear is directed at the men in front of them, not at himself and Toni. "And besides, Rosalie would kill us if we trashed her place."

Josh twists his lip slightly. "And by the way, pillow muncher? Too bad you don't have any need to bite any pillows..." He hears a snicker or two from the other end of the room.

The man in the lead turns ugly. "Well, I'll be! Trying to put on some fancy morals? That's rich, considering." He glances at his companions. "Guess he and the hag are gonna go home now." His beady eyes fix on Josh. "Back home, to your slut? Or maybe he's busy fucking the Human Icicle?"

That's the last straw. Josh's eyes narrow. Sorry, babe... Warren wouldn't approve. But this was going to feel really, really good. "You want to give me shit, fine. But no one gets to call Warren names." He hauls back and smashes a fist into the man's jaw, internally realizing that he's probably the only one at the Institute who can set broken bones - and only psychos set their own bones.

He can feel pain radiating out from his knuckles, but backhands the next man, toppling him backwards. "Oh no, I think I broke a nail."

[Toni Craft]

"No. We're not giving him what he wants. He wants all these people to see us as striking with no provocation. After all, we're dangerous." Oh, Toni knew that. The last thing the Institute and all of mutant kind needed was some mutant running around bashing the skulls in of all the normal folks. She considers punching the thug anyway, though...he deserves it.

It doesn’t sound like the crowd in the tiny sushi shop would oppose either. Some of the patrons are backing away from their confrontation, but the rest are just idly watching, and most of them seem to flinch at the insults the man keeps throwing out.

"Guess he and the hag are gonna go home now. Back home, to your slut? Or maybe he's busy fucking the Human Icicle?" As much as Toni wants to slam the idiot into the floor for verbally bashing her friends, this doesn’t sound like her fight just yet.

"You want to give me shit, fine. But no one gets to call Warren names." And then the evil doers are flailing backwards in the aftermath of Josh’s physical assault. A string of (mostly) approving howls erupt from their audience, followed by a slur of curses from the men on the floor.

“Hah! Darlin’,” Toni grins, clapping a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “You’ve been spending way too much time around me. Punching folks is just the start! Next thing you know you’ll be kissin’ half of ‘em too!” To emphasize, she gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“You little fuck!” Grinds the gang leader, pulling himself off the floor and wiping a stream of blood oozing from his split lip. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!” And, even though he knows Toni and Josh have mutant abilities, not to mention superior combat training, he lunges at them.

A fist comes flying at Toni’s face, but she just grins wide and holds her ground. There’s a sick crunch as bones in her assailant’s hand snap and splinter against her unmoving iron cheekbone.

The man blinks in shock at first, then slowly pulls his crumpled fist back. Toni can practically see the pain shooting up his face as his jaw clenches and he stifles a yell through his teeth. Though his broken hand does little to quell his anger, and he dives at Josh again, opting for the seemingly weaker opponent.

Some of his little buddies also decide to join in, figuring their odds are better if they fight the mutants together. “And just when I was getting to nerve to actually eat that frog thing…” Two men tackle Toni, knocking her back into their table. Wood collapses under their combined weight and here’s a flurry of pounding fists as they try to keep her pinned down. “Wow...this is a night to remember...this might be the closest I’ll ever get to a threesome, like, ever. Kinky.”

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh tries not to feel too self-satisfied as he hears the catcalls come up from the crowd around them. For once, people were on their side - they saw the ugly truth that was the anti-mutant movement. It also felt astonishingly good to punch their leader, despite the mess his hand was going to be in this evening.

> “You’ve been spending way too much time around me. Punching folks is just the start! Next thing you know you’ll be kissin’ half of ‘em too!”

Josh ducks under a high punch and shouts over the melee to Toni. "I don't think Warren would like that very much. Anyway, I'm a one-guy kind of guy." He catches a hateful glance from the gang's leader, and realizes that it was probably unwise to bring Warren back up. Fuck that. I can talk about whatever - or whoever - I want.

Three of the men converge on him. Josh jerks one of them forward, cracking the man's head into his partner, and the two of them immediately drop to the ground. Their leader winds up for a hit. Damn, this one's going to hurt - -

Josh throws his forearm up, erecting a telekinetic shield. The man's fist connects squarely with the force barrier, and Josh can hear the crunch of bone. A horrible howl escapes the man's mouth, and he falls to the floor, clutching his arm.

A lance of pain causes Josh to grab his shoulder. Blood...? He spins, and is confronted by a thug with a knife.

"Drop it. Now." Josh's voice is icy. The man scowls, and takes a firmer grip.

"Don't be an idiot." He adds his mental voice to the command, letting it reverberate in the man's rather empty skull. The man's hand begins shaking.

With a small movement of his hand, Josh sends the knife sailing out of the man's hand. It gets stuck in the ceiling, safely out of reach. The thug takes one look at his now-empty hand and turns tail, running for the door.

Josh spins, wondering how Toni is faring. "You okay?"

[Toni Craft]

It takes a few punches, but finally the men on top of her ease back, panting, and staring at her in a bewildered daze. Toni stares back, grinning.

“Are y’all done?” The two thugs glance at each other, then back at her. “Good!” With a kick and a buck, Toni sends the men flying backwards. They crash at the foot of another table, much to the surprise of the patrons still sitting there. “You know, that wasn’t a half bad try! I think I almost felt some of those.” She pulls herself off the crumpled table. “Awww...I liked this shirt.” She groans, pulling smashed salmon and rice off her “Free Tibet* *With the purchase of one Tibet of equal or greater value” t-shirt.

“You okay?" Josh seems to have been able to handle himself, and has ridden himself of most of the offending thugs.

“I got soya sauce on my butt!” She turns and points to the brown splotch on her pants. “How come whenever I go out I end up ruining my clothes? It’s just not fair. Look at you! You only got blood on you, but me, my entire outfit’s gone. Even my socks have frog gunk on them!” Toni stabs a finger at her foot.

One of the fallen men rises and tries to lunge at Toni again, but she just buffets him off with swing of her arm. His buddy, who had been considering flinging himself at her again, turns and flees out of the restaurant, pausing only to pick his companion up from his flight through the japanese paper wall as he goes.

Toni brushes herself off, checks to ensure that the mutant-haters were gone, then turns to Josh again. “You know, that blood really goes well with your colouring. Compliments your skin tone really well.” She grabs him by the shoulders and spins him to inspect the knife wound. “Aww look at that. Little Joshikins got his first gang fight boo-boo. I should take a picture of it and have it framed. You could put it up in the bedroom! It’d go real nice, I bet.” She observes the bleeding rate. “You want me to stitch it up, for ya? I’m not real good at sewing, but I can give it the old college try. I’d earn an A for effort at the very least.”

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

“You know, that blood really goes well with your colouring. Compliments your skin tone really well.”

Josh winces and looks at his shoulder. The cut was actually a bit wider than he thought, and was unlikely to close on its own.

“Aww look at that. Little Joshikins got his first gang fight boo-boo. I should take a picture of it and have it framed. You could put it up in the bedroom! It’d go real nice, I bet.”

He puts a wry smile on his face. "Right... I always want to remember this as the time I lost my temper because people were insulting my man." Josh's voice turns sour. "Assholes. They deserved what they got."

“You want me to stitch it up, for ya? I’m not real good at sewing, but I can give it the old college try. I’d earn an A for effort at the very least.”

Josh shakes his head, trying not to shudder. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather not have some kind of Frankenstein zigzag scar for the rest of my life... and, there's really no need." He lets a breath out, and carefully applies telekinetic pressure to the wound. The bleeding lessens immediately. "That should do it until I can get to someone who can treat me. No offense or anything..." he says, grinning. His hand throbs. Better have someone look at that, too...

A brown-haired woman with glasses on approaches them, shaking her head. "I can't say I blame you for throwing that first punch, but...." The woman sighs theatrically, and shakes her head, looking amused but horrified at the same time.

"Sorry, Rosalie. Send us the bill... it's my fault." Josh looks around. "There wasn't very much damage, but Rosalie was going to have to replace some tables and chairs. "I shouldn't have let my temper get ahold of me."

Rosalie shakes her head. "I've been wanting to update the dining room anyway..." She grins. "And this is Toni, right? Pleased to meet you. Warren and Josh come here a lot on Friday evenings to escape the kids back at the school."

[Toni Craft]

"Right... I always want to remember this as the time I lost my temper because people were insulting my man."

“Hey, I’d rank it up there with the time I lost my virginity...if that’d happened yet. For some reason all the men around here seem to go for all the other men, and that’s just not fair. Little Toni needs some lovin’ too.” Toni pouts to herself, but then smiles again.

"Assholes. They deserved what they got."

“Damn right! They made me ruin my new pants! I don’t think this soya sauce is ever gonna come out, and last time I checked, the whole ‘I’m a dirty nasty whore’ look went out of style last year.” As Josh goes on about looking like some sort of stitched together and back-from-the-dead monster, Toni attempts to prop their broken table back up. Forcing the two halves together, she tries to make it stay that way with some improvised iron staples, but the end result is still a sad, sagging excuse for a table.

When the restaurant manager shows up, a touch displeased at the fight they caused, Toni stands in front of the broken furniture that used to be their seats and acts as casually as possible. She gives up the act however, when the damaged table gives way under its own weight and collapses back into a heap.

“Send us the bill... it's my fault."

“And mine! Don’t forget me! I broke stuff too!” She announces voluntarily (and somewhat proudly), waving her hand in the air.

"And this is Toni, right? Pleased to meet you. Warren and Josh come here a lot on Friday evenings to escape the kids back at the school."

“The one and only, ma’am. And please, the boys say they’re escaping the kids, but really they’re just trying to get a moment’s rest in between all their hot and heavy bed bumpin’.” Leaning in toward the woman, Toni raises a hand to her mouth, as if actually believing it would prevent Josh and the other patrons from hearing her. “Frankly, we’re all uber happy when they leave because we’re missin’ out on just as much sleep as they are. The things I hear at night comin’ from their room, I’m tellin’ ya…”