Hanging around

[Shade]

Shade pulled a leg closer to her body, resting her chin on her knee. He was so different from her, so grim and bitter, an attitude that was completely alien to her but that she might understand if she knew more about him. "I will." she said, keeping her eyes on him. Whenever they talked although this conversation was not as hostile any more, she felt slightly anxious. She was not her usual joking, teasing, caring self, but did not let those dominant sides of her personality shine through that easily. People who got to see her humourous side were people where she did not have the feeling of constant waryness. She had the feeling that talking to Pietro was always kind of a test, a kind of power struggle where she needed more pride than usual to keep up. Maybe, to some extent this was also just simple stubbornness.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro felt a pain in one of his ribs; his arm had jostled it, and he managed to mostly suppress the wince, though he hissed through his teeth. He stretched his legs out, moved his hands to his sides so that he would not brush his ribs a second time. Bad enough that he had that shameful experience which led to these injuries; if he lost his control in front of her, he could not stand to have another conversation with her again. Not that they were particularly friendly, but he could not stand being weak in the eyes of others.::

[Shade]

There had been a small pause between them during which Shade had looked over the grounds, thinking. She refused to see things in a light as gloomy as Pietro did although she guessed maybe she was seeing things a little too easy at times. She wiped that thought away. It was no good thinking about that sort of threat for too long, she knew it would scare her if she did. She had not forgetten the Danger Room session, her own helplessness... and her anger about having run into a dead end.

When she heard him hiss, Shade turned her head to look at Pietro. "You all right?" she asked. There was no mothering tone in her voice, nor sarcasm, it was merely a question that slipped out although she guessed he was not the type of person who would admit pain in front of others.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro knew he looked as though he had escaped from an infimary, and thus did not answer "yes," as he might otherwise have done. He was far from all right, not only physically, but emotionally, and in this condition could not pretend he was. He settled for another answer, one that was true enough, though it had a double meaning.:: "I should be."

[Shade]

Shade studied him for a long moment. ´Did he beat you up like that?´ The question was on the tip of her tongue along with one related to it: ´Did he do it to avenge what you and your sister did to him when he disappeared?´ She did ask neither of these questions, both because she had understood by now that Magneto was a touchy subject and because the second question in particular would sound somewhat reproachful which she did not intend.

She nodded. "I´m sure you will be." she said, the most obvious encouragement she could allow herself with him for now.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::She scrutinized him. Pietro did not know for how long she did, but it felt like an eternity. Then she spoke, and it had little to do with how she had stared. It was unsettling.:: "If you have something else to say, you shouldn't hold your tongue."

[Shade]

Shade had to chuckle inwardly. So Pietro had noticed. Of course he had, it must have been obvious that she was pondering about things she didn´t say out loud. "I´m not scared to speak them." she said, just in case he thought she was not asking those questions because she was afraid of his reaction to them. "I just thought it would be better to not dig into the topic again."

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro nodded once in reply to her answer; she showed restraint he had not given her credit for. More about Magneto, no doubt. Until Uncle took his advice, there would be no escaping that madman's influence.:: "That is probably for the best."

[Shade]

"I´m sure of that." Shade said, gazing out at the grounds again. He did not intimidate her so it had definitely not been fear that had held her tongue. Apart from thinking that it was merely better to not get back to the topic of Magneto, she did not want her questions to sound reproachful. it would simply not be a polite thing to do seeing how miserable Pietro looked. "See?" she said, tilting her head slightly, raising an eyebrow in very faint amusement. "Don´t wanna get you mad." Not that I´d fear you.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::The look she gave Pietro seemed at odds with her words. Particularly since she had been the more reluctant one when they called truce the last time they spoke. The look was one of vague amusement, while he took her words to be more serious. Perhaps she had intended them to be humorous as well, but he took them seriously regardless. He was weary of being angry; it drained him of his very essence. He nodded slightly, glancing out at the grounds before his gaze settled on her once more.:: "It's appreciated."

[Shade]

Shade nodded. She almost felt mean for it, but she nearly had to bite her tongue not to chuckle at his choice of words. No matter what reasons Pietro had to be so uptied, she had never in her whole life met anyone so uptight and ... tense. It was an attitude completely different from her own. It was not that she had never been in situations where she had felt a cheer up would do good - Rogue had been down because of various reasons and it was always rather easy to cheer her up, Gambit had been moody now and then because of his lack of coordination and whatever else had troubled him lately, but she usually got through to him too. Pietro was different there and sometimes she thought that he was extraordinary stubborn to an extent that made her want to just jump up and punch him for fun to see what kind of reaction such a behaviour would draw from him. Probably a scowl and a one liner.

She involuntarily grinned slightly at those thoughts and turned her head away slightly to pretend she was just gazing into another direction. She didn´t want Pietro to think she was making fun of him, because although his behaviour seemed strange to her at times she in all honesty didn´t. Maybe her generally cheerful mood these days further added to that grin. On a sunny day like this with positive emotions like hers, even with Pietro´s dark mood and determined words it seemed impossible for her to stay in a determinently serious mood for too long.

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro followed her gaze out to another part of the grounds. She had grinned, then turned away, hoping he had not seen it. The grin was not at his expense; years of living with Hank had taught him that if you teased a person, or mocked them, you made sure they knew you had done it. Her smile was something entirely different; perhaps it was the weather. After all, it was uncommonly pleasant out today.

He was not one for idle chatter, but it did not seem as though she should be met with silence. She taught, he remembered, and that seemed as good a place to start as any.:: "How are classes this semester?"

[Shade]

It was the first question he had ever asked her where Shade thought it was thought for conversation - not for self defence, stating a point or standing up against her. She was almost sure Pietro had seen the expression on her face and the fact he didn´s comment on it or react in a negative way probably meant he had not taken offense. She was fine with that. As much as it satisfied her to know she was strong enough to not back down against someone like him, as much had it started to slightly annoy her their conversations were more awkward silence interrupted by one liners - or single words - than anything, based on a latent mistrust. She didn´t like to have that sort of relationship with people. She either avoided people she did not get along with well or dealt with them. In Pietro´s case it was the latter. They had had a bad start all those months back, one that lingered and was enhanced by the fact that he saw things so different from her, but that didn´t mean they could not get along in some way. Her ambition when it came to people was too proud to just avoid him. She would have felt like a coward if she had done so. So whatever, Shade thought, they could talk like normal people did. If his view on the future of mutants was really the more accurate one they would do better getting along than opposing each other.

"Nice so far." she said, turning her head to look at him again. "My history class is somewhat smaller than the writing one but that´s the usual trend. Teenagers are more into that."

[Pietro Maximoff]

::Pietro nodded slightly, not surprised by that fact. When he had been a student, they had no control over their schedules. Uncle and Magneto had been the only instructors, and it was easier for everyone if all the students took the same classes. Education had been bland that way. Yet given the opportunity, he doubted he would have actively sought out most of the classes he had taken. Not that he was a writer, but Wanda had been; she could have benefitted from such a class.:: "I'm sure the children value a place where they can speak their minds without being hurt."

[Shade]

Shade nodded. Again, the last bit of his sentence spoke his what she thought to be typical bitterness, but she got his meaning nonetheless. "They do." she said. "For many it´s not easy though. Not because they´re mutants, just because they´re teens. Fear of getting embarassed and all that."