Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, sometime in the fall of 1999 (or, well, Saturday)

[trigons_child]

After returning to Fandom and having a good cry, Raven texted Jono, asking if he was busy and if she could come for a visit. When he let her know it was alright, she teleported to Xavier's school in his home dimension and waited outside the door to the mansion, sending him another message to let him know she'd arrived. After what her mother had said to her earlier that day, she didn't want to be alone.

One of these days she was going to be able to visit Jono without being ready to burst into tears, really.

Comments

[furnaceface]

//Th'room is mine,// Jono replied, actually perking a little at the thought of getting Joni back. And then letting his brain kick in again and giving his foot a little scuff against the front step. //But I'm not in it very often. Th'bed's barely slept in, luv. I'd never be around for her.//

And now he was kind of feeling like the worst cat owner ever.

[trigons_child]

"Then she will remain with me," Raven said, leaning against his shoulder. "But I will bring her with me the next time I am able to visit, or you may see her if you come to Fandom." Except the island had left EuroDisney and moved to Pleasantville, but like that would stop a teleporter if he still wished to go there.

"She misses you, but she is not unhappy," Raven promised.

[furnaceface]

//Well, that's good to know,// Jono replied, pulling her closer and resting his forehead against her hair. //And bringing her to visit... I'd like that. And I'm going to have to make time to visit the island more, myself. They might have to be short visits, though, what with things on fast-forward here as they seem to be.//

Still unnerving. But he wasn't, like, fifty to Raven's eighteen, so it wasn't exactly a disaster yet or anything.

[trigons_child]

"Perhaps you will choose a time when Fandom does not decide to transform us into other people or ponies or fruit," Raven teased.

She knew it wasn't Jono's fault, of course, but Fandom's whimsy sometimes sorely tested her patience.

"I would welcome a visit of any length from you, though the longer the better," she said. "And there are many others I know would be happy to see you as well. But you know that. And Sookie and Emma will be leaving at the end of the summer, and I am certain they would like to see you again before they must go."

[furnaceface]

//I'd like to see them before they go, too,// Jono admitted. //It's been far too long, from this end. When it is, back on the island?//

It was entirely too easy to lose track, but aside from recent infestation trauma and a mother who sucked immensely, it didn't seem as though Raven had been through very much since the last time they'd seen one another.

[trigons_child]

"It is the thirteenth of August," Raven said. "Almost a month since I saw you last when I came to take Joni. I believe the remaining graduates on the island will be required to depart within two week's time."

She hated that part. Sookie and Tahiri would have to leave soon, and other friends as well.

"How much time has passed for you since then?" she asked. "I hope it has not been too distressing for you." She knew how his world was.

[furnaceface]

//About three months,// Jono replied. //Running odd jobs and tripping over my feet like th'junior member is expected to.//

Maybe if they gave him a job he was suited for, he'd make less of an ass of himself out there. And end up with fewer holes in his torso.

//It hasn't been too bad, I suppose. Busy.//

[trigons_child]

Raven tilted he head, studying him. She had no idea what the average week of an X-Men was like, but she had some guesses. "I hope it has not been very dangerous for you," she said.

She did try not to worry too much, but she knew his world had many dangers, like her own, from those with powers and those without alike. And she knew that in some futures he'd been terribly injured and she hadn't been there to help him. It was strange to feel guilt for something that hadn't even happened and possibly might not even happen.

[furnaceface]

Jono tilted his head, studying her right back.

//It varies,// he admitted, because after so many years of throwing himself headlong into danger, between here and Massachusetts and Fandom, there really wasn't much point in dancing around it anymore. //They don't usually send me on th'more dangerous runs. I am still one of their newest, after all.//

And the only ones that really treated him like an adult human being were an ex-prostitute and a midget wildman from Canada.

[trigons_child]

"And I know you know how to take care of yourself," Raven said. She'd seen that many times over, in Fandom and without.

She shook her head, wishing she could shake her worries just as easily. "I am sorry, I know I worry too much," she said. They'd talked about this before, after all. "I should try harder not to dwell on it. Distract me, please? Show me around your new home."

[furnaceface]

Distraction. Distraction, right. So they were going to be steering clear of that lovely view of whatever was going on in the Danger Room at the moment.

That was a good plan, there.

//Absolutely, luv,// Jono opened the door, one arm still curled around Raven's shoulder, and led her inside. //I can show you th'classrooms or something. Some of th'classes here aren't really all that different from Fandom's, for that matter.//

[trigons_child]

"Do you take any sort of classes yourself now?" Raven asked. Graduating high school certainly didn't mean an end to learning, after all. "Or is there no time or requirement to do so?"

She looked around curiously as they moved through the building, giving smiles and nods of greeting to anyone they might pass.

[furnaceface]

Most of the people that they passed by gave similar smiles back, vaguely curious about the girl who was hanging around with the flaming X-Men boy, but accustomed enough to seeing new faces around here that they didn't press the matter.

//I don't really have time for any,// Jono replied, lifting a shoulder a little, //though I suppose I wouldn't mind a teaching position or something of th'sort around here, if ever there was time for it. Music, maybe. Or some sort of literature course.//

[trigons_child]

"I think you would be an excellent music teacher," Raven said. "After all, you have taught me a great deal about it and shown me types I might otherwise have not listened to on my own."

She might still be listening to mostly just Yanni and Enya were it not for Jono broadening her musical tastes.

[furnaceface]

//Well, there's more to music than being able to appreciate how it sounds,// Jono noted, //or at least more to the teaching end of it. An understanding of musical theory helps. And I'd have a hell of a time trying to voice-train anybody.//

For obvious reasons.

[trigons_child]

"But you could teach someone to play the guitar, could you not?" Raven said. She knew nothing of musical theory herself; she just knew what she liked based on the sound and the emotions it provoked.

"Is that something that you would find enjoyable?"

[furnaceface]

//I would find it... normal.// There was a bit of a wistful note in that statement that suggested that Jono really didn't think that 'normal' was such a terrible thing at all. //It would be a nice break from running about in uniform, really.//

For certain definitions of the word 'uniform' that more or less translated to 'they let me ruin my own leathers so long as I wear the stupid belt buckle with the giant X on it.'

[trigons_child]

"Then I hope you have the opportunity to do so," Raven said. "And perhaps you will be able to play while I am here? I have missed listening to you."

[furnaceface]

//I've missed playing,// Jono admitted, not even bothering to hide how pleased he was at the request. //And I did pick up some amplifiers recently. I had to get rid of a lot of my equipment before leaving Massachusetts. I haven't had th'chance to really break any of it in, yet.//

You know. Extensively. For an audience, even if it was an audience of one.

[trigons_child]

"Then I would be very pleased to listen as you do so," Raven said with a delighted smile. She listened to music in her room and at work, but it was so much better to hear in person, and a hundred times better than that when it was Jono doing the playing.

She may have been just a tiny bit biased here.

[furnaceface]

Only a teensy bit. Itty bitty.

//My room's this way, luv.// Jono turned back toward the staircase. If she was going to be here for a little while, then there really wasn't any hurry to show her the classrooms just yet. //Have you got any requests?//

[trigons_child]

"If you will indulge my selfishness -- something that reminds you of me?" Raven said. "But I would be happy to hear most anything. It has been far too long since I have heard you play."

She didn't want to hear anything sad, but she probably didn't have to tell him that.

[furnaceface]

//Something that reminds me of you...// Jono considered that request for a moment, and then nodded. //I think know just th'thing.//

Something calm, but not sad. Something wistful, but hopeful.

He led her up to his room, closing his door behind them, and went over to pick up his guitar. His room was fairly sparsely decorated, looking more like a dorm room that hadn't been lived in yet at all than anything that had ever belonged to Jono. There were a few books on top of the dresser, a few stray articles of dirty laundry shoved hastily into a corner, and his guitars, and everything else was out of sight.

//Make yerself comfortable, Sunshine.//

[trigons_child]

Raven dropped herself across his bed, bracing her elbows against it and resting her chin in her hands, watching him with a smile.

"You really have not spent much time here," she observed as her eyes swept the room. She couldn't help but tease. "Or else it would be much messier in here."

[furnaceface]

//I haven't,// he confirmed, at least having the grace to look sheepish about it. //I'm getting very good at grabbing moments of sleep in between missions while sitting in a jet. It just doesn't seem quite right until I have to mow a pathway to get to my bed from th'door, though, does it?//

It was so empty in here!

He looked at her thoughtfully, and then nodded once, decisively, and started to play. And if, as he played, he let loose with psionic murmurs that weren't quite lyrics, but certainly felt the way the lyrics meant, that would be the closest to singing that he'd done for anybody in years.