Get in Get out (pg13)

Arabella was finally feeling well enough to move around without entirely being worn out. Her legs still hurt occationally but it was bearable. She pulled on a pair of jeans one of the girls at the school lent her and a pair of shoes. Someone washed Chris' shirt she had been wearing when she was taken. She put that on as well and checked herself in the mirror. She debated the ponytail she was wearing. She had been doing her hair to hide the stitches in her face.

She looked up from the mirror towards the bathroom where Chris was getting ready. " Babe are you almost ready? I wanna get this done before it gets dark. Maybe we can grab some lunch at mels if we get this done soon enough."

Chris had slept in a bit and felt a great deal more rested than he had the previous day. He and Arabella planned to pick up some of their things from the apartment and she had gotten ready while he sat in bed sipping a cup of coffee. Once she had finished up, he went about brushing his teeth and combing his hair. He still had on the shirt Arabella had brought him, but opted to put on his old pair of jeans due to the cold weather.

"Yeah, lunch sounds good," he called back to her then stepped out of the bathroom, taking a seat on the foot of the bed and moving to put on his shoes. "It shouldn't take us too long."

Ari was a little nervous going back to the house. Even though she knew Ray was dead it still made her a little anxious to be there. She felt silly for feeling that way since all she really wanted was to go back to his apartment and hide away from the rest of the world.

She sighed in aggravation at her hair/face combination and left her hair in a ponytail. " Well at least my hideous face will scare off anyone who interrupts us. " She mumbled. She would grab her purse but well... yea it was at the apartment too. She put her hands in her pockets and walked over to him. Feeling affectionate she kissed the top of his head gently and nuzzled him then stepped back to let him finish putting his shoes on. A coat of an old student was laid on the bed for her. " Ready when you are. " Her tummy growled a little bit.

Chris slipped on his shoes and went about tying them, smiling up at Arabella when she kissed his head. They looked cleaner and rested, but he knew that neither of them would be entirely comfortable until they had some of their personal belongings with them. He, for one, could only wear someone else's clothing for so long before he started to feel strange and the young man suspected that his girlfriend felt similarly.

After he tied his shoes, he stood up and nodded over toward her. "Ready, sweetie." He stepped out into the hallway, holding the door for her and felt in his pocket for the keys to the apartment. For the time being, they were the only things on his person that belonged to him. Everything else was borrowed from someone else but he could only be grateful that situation would be remedied shortly.

Ari followed after him feeling alot quieter than usual. She was smaller and a little shorter than most of the people her clothes were borrowed from. She felt selfish but more than anything she wanted her cello back. It was like missing her arm. Her notebook too.

She followed him out into the hallway and shrugged into the coat from the bed while he closed the door. Walking with him she buttoned the buttons on the coat. It was a black peacoat with a hood. It smelled faintly like perfume. She didnt even want to think of what happened to the previous owner. She appeared to be deep in thought as they walked.

Chris closed the door behind them and then joined with Arabella walking down the hallway. The mansion looked different in the day time with the sunlight peeking through the windows and more activity in the halls. With the sight of so many mutants, he felt even more assured that the Institute was a safe place for their kind and somewhere they could stay long term. He wouldn't voice his opinions to Ari, though, at least not so soon given he knew her feelings on the matter.

Her silence, however, prompted him to nudge her lightly as they came to the stairs in the main hall leading toward the front door. "You're awfully quiet this morning. Everything alright?"

She held onto his arm on the way down the stairs. She was healing very nicely but she still had a fair amount of pain she had to deal with. " You really like it here. Dont deny it i saw it in your mind. I dont care if you do... i do to in a way. I just miss the apartment. Im also a little anxious about going back. I really dont know what im thinking Chris."


She really didnt say much more until they were outside and away from other students and adults. "That night.... the night Ray took me. The night we um.. ya know...we havent done anything since. Was i bad? Im sorry if i was bad at it. You are the only...um... um you know. Guy i did that with."

Chris allowed a student to pass by them by standing behind Ari as they made their way down the steps and arched a brow moving beside her again. "Mind probing me in my sleep, huh? Kinky, kinky." He smirked, not really minding so much given that it was her though he would prefer they talked things out like a normal couple. At the same time, he knew they were both far from normal and so the idea of normality in their relationship wasn't really something to be focused on. "Careful, though. Do that too much and you might find yourself with a neural shock cause apparently, I can tell when anyone is doing anything to me up there."

He was teasing her, of course. He'd never intentionally harm her and poked her teasingly as they stepped out into the sun. When Chris heard her next words, he couldn't help but blush, grateful for their being alone and stopped, turning toward her, shaking his head. "No. It was wonderful. It's just that, with everything that's happened, we haven't really had time for it, you know? Daring rescues, war in Times Square then passing out in the mid afternoon... we're like two old people."

He chuckled at the notion and reached up, cupping the side of her face softly with his hand. "We'll make some alone time once we get settled in."

She liked the feeling of his hand on her cheek. She nuzzled into his hand as he cupped her cheek and she closed her eyes. She could see all his memories now. She concentrated on not letting them take over completely. " You know i cant control it if i touch someone."

She opened her eyes and looked up at him with her greenish blue eyes." I cant see everything Chris. Theres things that you hide from me consciously or not i dont know. I Just- we never talked about it and i wasnt- i mean. oiy Vey." Her cheeks flushed from either embarrassment or the sudden cold of outside. It was probably a safe bet on embarrassment. Which only made her cheeks turn a brighter shade. " Okay so we should probably get going then."

Chris nodded in affirmation knowing all too well how lack of control felt, though he'd come a long way since his days moving from bar to bar. He wouldn't go as far as to say he had dominated his ability, but perhaps that was why he was sticking around the school. "All the more reason for us to stay here a bit, babe. This Xavier guy may be able to help with that. I read something he wrote a while back - couldn't understand a lot of it since it's Doctorate level stuff, but he seems to know what he's talking about."

The young man smirked and kissed her softly when she blushed. "I know you can't see everything and that's probably a good thing. Besides, when it comes to... intimacy... I like it better that way. Guess I just like talking to you about things is all. It's nice." He offered her his hand and pointed to a vehicle parked nearby. "Think they'll mind if we borrow this? Walking to the city isn't on the agenda today."

Ari pulled a set of keys out the borrowed coat pocket and handed them over. "Its hard to be around charles right now. He reminds me too much of them. jean lent us one of the suvs. I guess its one of the ones they used to bring me here..."

She chewed her lip on the way to the car, alot of things on her mind. "My sister called. Alec told her where i was. She asked alot of questions. The trio is coming to the US...She didnt seem happy about this news.

Chris could understand where she was coming from about Charles, but also felt it was necessary to face it eventually. He found out the hard way that running from fear of reminders concerning one's past was never a path to anything other than misery. He didn't voice those opinions though, and to ensure she wouldn't pick up on it by accident or otherwise, Chris not only immediately began thinking of the SUV she mentioned but also caused his neural charge to grow as to create confusion in his thoughts and memories.

"That's a terrible idea," he remarked rather nonchalantly when she spoke of her sisters, "Alec has seen first-hand how much of a warzone this country has become with MRD coming after us. Getting your sisters involved could give MRD leverage that we don't need them to have." He unlocked the vehicle with the keys and held her door for her before stepping around to the drivers side and getting in.

Ari didnt get in. She stood in the cold frowning at him."You know i cant control my powers. Id actually love it if i didnt have my powers. But dont shut me out like that. Yea i know its a warzone but i cant control what everyone does dammit!"

The young man looked over at her when she didn't get in and arched a brow at her words then looked away shaking his head with a smirk. "Ari, there are some thoughts and memories I like to keep to myself. I'm entitled to my secrets, just as you are."

The second bit he did agree on and nodded. "No, you can't and I don't recall saying that you should. I was only voicing an opinion on the matter. I don't like it because of the danger it could put your family in. Your family is the closest I have to one, so yeah... get mad at me if you want, I'm allowed to worry about innocent non-mutants running into crossfire."

"Im not mad!"She yelled. Shw slammed the car door shut and started stomping down the driveway through snow and ice stubbornly. "I dont wanna know all your secrets i just dont wanna be shur off from you entirely. Oh when arent me and my family in danger. Cocky asshole."She muttered angrily as she trudged through the snow.

Chris didn't have to be a mind reader to know that Arabella was upset with him. Her tone alone gave that away followed by the slamming of the door and storming off, it was a no brainer. He sat there in the SUV a moment watching her walk off, tempted to just go and get their things on his own and allow her time to cool off but felt that talking to her about what he thought on it all was necessary and she was going to hear it whether she cared about what he had to say or not.

"So you're going to walk all the way to the city," he commented, "you'd make one hell of an icicle." Realizing that it wasn't necessarily a proper time for sarcastic jokes, he sighed. "So you get mad because I shield my thoughts? Well, sorry if I wanted to strive to be less freak and more human so we actually have to talk about what we feel. And if it's about your family, then get mad atme about - pout, storm off, do whatever. I'm not changing my feelings on it for you or anyone else. They're innocent people and I have ever right to care about their safety. I'm a cop for God's sake, and before that a soldier. Protecting the innocent is just who I am and if you don't like that, then I had you all wrong."

He went on, furrowing his brow and stepping in front of her. "Now you may not want to, but you're gonna listen to me this time: my family hates me. They'd rather see my ass in a coffin than alive and breathing. Must be nice to have family that gives a damn enough about you to risk their lives to come to see you. So before you go off and get pissy, think about what you have and realize I give a damn enough about you, Alec and three complete strangers that I've never met to want to keep them from being captured and used to lure you out, or killed. You're stuck with me loving you and, with you, your family for life so deal with it. Now are you going to walk to New York and likely freeze to death before you get there or are you going to act like the woman I know you are and get in that SUV so we can get in there and get out before we draw attention to ourselves?"

"I am not a freak and i am not pouting!"She shouted back at him. She spun around to really tell him off amd lost her footing. Her feet slid out from under her and she landed on her butt with a soft thud. She didnt have much padding in the rearend department so it smarted a bit.

With her pride and feelings hurt she got back up and dusted herself off with a high level of concentration. She took her sweet time coming back to him and the suv. Once inside she buckled herself in. She stared ahead wordlessly. Like a lady.

Contrary to her words, Chris felt she was pouting but would never feel she was a freak. His words were full of frustration, anger, and sadness brought on from his own life and how society viewed him and his kind. When she fell, he wanted to help her, but she'd gotten up quickly afterward and moved toward the vehicle. Chris followed suit and got back into the driver's seat, grateful that he had left the heater running so that it wasn't freezing inside.

Arabella didn't say anything to him and kept quiet while he fastened his own seatbelt and began driving out of the school premises and down the road toward the city. It began snowing lightly and in good practice he flipped the lights on and the wipers though remaining silent staring through the windshield like a disciplined pilot would an aircraft.

Ari said nothing when she got in the car, when he started the car, and while he drove. She stared out the window while they drove. Just their luck it was starting to snow again. At least chris knew how to drive. Before ari came to america she had never even been in a front seat.

When they arrived at the apartment she made no move to get out or even talk. She stared down at her hands on her lap silently. She hated that they fought and on a lesser note she was anxious to be back in the apartment.

The drive to New York City was full of awkward silence in the SUV with neither Chris nor Arabella speaking. Chris felt that he'd said his peace of everything that was on his mind, though it hadn't been so much related to Arabella as with all that had happened to him over the past couple of years. The closer they got to the apartment, the more he regretted his tone and choice of words with her, but parked the car and stepped out regardless knowing that what they had come to do had to be done either way.

The young man looked at the blonde from the open driver's side door, taking the apartment keys from his pocket. "Come on..." Was all he uttered and took a breath closing the door and walking around the SUV making his way up to the building, instinctively glancing around for suspicious vehicles or passersby that could be taking an interest in them though luckily saw nothing out of the ordinary.

She nodded when he told her come with him. Still staying quiet she got out. Her butt was still a little cold from the snow but it wasnt horrible. She smoothed out her coat and followed him into the building. The closer they were getting to the apartment the more she was feeling shaky. Their door had been replaced by the building super but the evidence of the damage from ray kicking it in was still around the frame.

Chris stopped briefly to look at the damage of the door, realizing that the door had been replaced due to the break-in from his father. Taking a closer look at the lock, he took note that it was the same which came as a relief to him knowing he wouldn't have to request a second key and deal with explaining what had happened; if that were the case, he risked them being reported to the MRD and it wasn't a fight either of them needed.

After unlocking the door and walking in, he flipped the switch to turn on the living room lights that also illuminated the dining room. Evidence of the attack from his father was everywhere, but he put it out of his head and walked to the bedroom turning on the light and going through his drawers and closet packing clothes into a luggage bag he pulled from underneath the bed. Halfway through packing, he stopped and sat on the edge of the bed, running a hand through his hair with a sigh.

Ari walked into the apartment. It was still the disaster zone from that night. Things were overturned and strewn about. She put the coffee table back upright and straightened a few things. She stopped when she noticed dried blood on the coffee table. She vaguely remembered being slammed into it when she tried to run.

She backed away from the the table and tripped over something on the floor. She looked over and found it was her cello. It had been taken out of her case and smashed. She looked around the room amd realized some of the damage wasnt from that night. They had been back. Looking for something.

Her stomach dropped then flipped. She didnt know what they wanted. Chris maybe when she wouldnt tell ray where he was? She stood up quickly and rushed to the kitchen where she threw up in the sink. The fear anxiety was too much.

From where he sat in the bedroom, he stared down into the drawer reaching in and taking a small folded photo out of the bottom and without a word slipping it into his pocket. Chris was about to continue packing his belongings when he heard a noise in the other room and looked toward the door. "You okay?"

No answer. Not verbal, anyway. All he heard was the distinct sound of vomiting that no one would ever forget once they'd heard it once in life. The young man stood and walked into the living room spotting the cello and sighing before making his way to the kitchen, coming behind Arabella. "I'm sorry."

She was cupping water with her hands and drinking it when he entered the kitchen. She splashed some on her face as well before straightening back up. "They came back. After they took me. I wouldnt tell them where you were. Im sorry im ok." She turned back around to face him and seemed at least a little better. "Lets finish up. What else can i help with?"