Jono's Apartment above the Boards, Sunday evening

[trigons_child]

When the auditions seemed to be winding down, Raven went to Il Pollo to fetch some Italian take out. She dropped off Troy's portion with him, then headed upstairs with her and Jono's food to wait. She happily passed the time playing with Joni.

She hadn't brought his belongings yet; she was just going to just teleport back to her room to get it all when she was ready to surprise him. Of course she had no idea someone had spoiled the surprise, KARLA.

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono grimaced a little, and then shook his head.

"No, it's fine. I know you didn't mean it like..." He shrugged, trying to get that grimace to look like a smile that was at least a little less pained. "I'm sorry, luv. I'm just rotten at table manners, I think. Little bit out of practise, you know?"

He skewered a little more of the lasagna on the end of his fork, and then lifted it up slightly between them.

"Cheers?"

[trigons_child]

"I --." She caught herself before she said "I understand," since Karla had said she shouldn't do that. Which she really didn't like.

Instead she did the same as he, catching a chunk of lasagna on her own fork and raising it to tap against his. "Cheers," she said, smiling at him.

[furnaceface]

Jono's smile was a little more genuine for a moment at that. He hadn't really been expecting it, but it was...

Well, it kind of let him repress long enough to get through dinner, at least. He nodded, and then got back to quietly eating, focussing on the flavours instead of worrying too much about the myriad other thoughts that tried to crash down on his mind.

Shouldn't take things so personally, Starsmore. You probably look stupid when you chew. Was melted cheese always this stringy? Hopefully I didn't get any meat on her fork when we tapped them together like that.

Mm, garlic.

[trigons_child]

Jono was lucky Raven couldn't read minds. She'd be sorely tempted to thwap him. Though she would be touched he was worried about accidentally getting meat on her fork. He was such a considerate boyfriend!

She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin when she'd finished, hoping she didn't have sauce smudged on her chin. "When you are ready, you must stand up, and close your eyes, please," she said.

[furnaceface]

Jono still had a bit of food to go, lettuce, a bite of lasagna, the last of his bread, all of which was being stuffed into his mouth pretty much all in one go at that.

Now be probably looked stupid when he chewed. But, well, he didn't really want to hold her up any longer, either. He had a vague idea of what she was surprising him with- Karla had handed him the Ramat Stone personally, after all- but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little excited about it.

"Right then," he announced, pulling himself to his feet and shutting his eyes. "Surprise me, Sunshine."

[trigons_child]

"I will be right back," Raven said, rising to her feet. "Do not peek!"

Jono would have felt a whoosh of displaced air when she teleported back to her room. It only took a few seconds to pick up his guitar and the box of keepsakes and teleport back, though she once again felt dizzy when she reappeared. She shook it off and set the box down at her feet.

"Hold out your arms," she instructed, bouncing on her feet with eagerness.

[furnaceface]

Jono wouldn't dream of peeking, honest. Smirking a little, sure. Holding out his arms like she'd told him to? Absolutely. Peeking? No, not so much.

"Holding out my arms," he reported, in case, for whatever reason, she had her eyes closed too.

What? It wasn't like he could tell! He wasn't peeking!

[trigons_child]

Raven gingerly laid the guitar across his arms, keeping her own ready just in case it started to slide toward the floor.

"There," she said, beaming with happiness. "You may open your eyes now."

[furnaceface]

Jono couldn't help it. At the familiar weight of the guitar settling in his arms, his lips turned up in a little smile. He really hadn't thought that he'd ever see it again, right along with everything else that he'd left behind at Xavier's.

It wasn't a surprise, per se, when he opened his eyes to look at the cherry-red Stratocaster in his hands, but he did let loose a low whistle, smiling appreciatively as he ran his fingers over its body.

"Bloody hell, I've missed this."

[trigons_child]

Raven tapped the box on the floor gently with her foot. "Your other belongings are in here," she said. "I hope that everything you were missing is there. We got your music as well, though we left the clothing, and your comic books I gave to Leech as thanks for helping us. I did not think you would mind."

How could he mind? Leech was adorable.

[furnaceface]

Jono was quickly re-learning what it was like to feel your heart skip a beat. At the sound of Leech's name, he was holding his breath, his gaze falling from the guitar down to the floor.

"He's safe," he murmured, softly. Karla had shown him the boy, happily running down the hallway racing the girls, but it was still...

"I don't mind," he said after a moment, still somewhat short of breath, still not quite able to look up again. "He and Artie always appreciated them more than I did anyhow."

[trigons_child]

She felt that twist in his heart and frowned a little in concern.

"He is safe, yes," she said, laying her hand on his arm. "He is happy and well, though he misses Artie and is unsure where he might be. There is a community of tents outside the X-Men's mansion now, and he dwells there. They are watched over by several enormous robots."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon's eyes shot up at that, his brow furrowed, his lip curling back slightly. If the guitar wasn't in his hands, he'd be making fists. The ache over what he'd had a hand in, over what Leech had gone through, didn't fade. But it had a bit of competition as a cold rage settled over him.

"Sentinels? And the X-Men are okay with this?"

Not to mention... Tents. How many mutants were there left in the world? They couldn't have all been Xavier's students. They'd dumped him in some hospital to get him out of the way, why the hell weren't they letting mutants like Leech at least come inside?

Sentinels. There were Sentinels.

God damn it, Jono wanted to go back there right then just to punch Scott in the eye.

[trigons_child]

She didn't need to be an empath to see he was upset. "I do not understand," she said. "Leech was not troubled by the presence of these 'sentinels' -- he patted one on the foot as we passed it by. Please, sit with me and tell me what they are? I will answer any questions you have about what we saw there."

And hopefully she could draw a little more out of him about what had happened. And she'd have to tell him about Warren and Bobby vanishing.

Oh, and Paige.

[furnaceface]

"Raven, he's Leech. If you were to show him a photo of Trigon and tell him it was Saint Nick, he'd probably believe you and try to give him a hug if ever they met," Jono stated, trying like hell not to raise his voice as he set his guitar down on top of the box at his feet and ran his hands through his hair. "Sentinels are a form of... of population control, created specifically with mutants in mind, Raven. I've thrown down against more than a few, myself."

Agitated was not quite the word for this. While he had no love for the X-Men, he was concerned about those mutants who were apparently set up in tents around the mansion. He had a pretty good idea as to how the American government operated when it came to mutants, thanks.

[trigons_child]

"He said they were there to keep them safe," Raven said, trying not to panic at the thought of leaving Leech in danger. She cursed herself for being foolish and naive. They should've stayed longer and asked more questioned.

"He said they were there to protect them, the 198 who were left, from something he called the Sapien League."

[furnaceface]

"I don't even know what that is," Jono stated, stepping forward and sinking back into his chair. "Some anti-mutant group or other, no doubt... But nobody I've ever heard of."

... Granted, he'd been in a coma for more than a short while, there. And news hadn't exactly gotten to him even after he had woken up.

"Bloody hell."

He shouldn't have left. He should have... have...

Look, he didn't know. But here he was playing musical director, and there were people back there who...

... Who... still had their powers...

And he had...

He sighed, leaning forward and resting his forehead against the table.

[trigons_child]

Raven reached out to touch his shoulder, caught herself, and pulled her hand back against her chest. She couldn't tell him about Bobby and the others now; he might go rushing back and get himself hurt or killed because of how he looked.

Moving back to her own chair, she pulled it around to the other side of the table close to him and sat down, stilling her own emotions. "Stop that," she said, as firmly as she could. But she had to bite back a "please."

[furnaceface]

"Stop what?" Yes. Yes, he was absolutely talking into the tabletop. "I'm napping."

No. No he was not. And a moment later he was straightening up a little, his face still twisted as though he'd just tasted something exceptionally bitter.

"Haven't been sleeping well, after all."

[trigons_child]

"Then you should avail yourself of my offer to help you sleep," Raven said.

She clasped her hands in her lap to keep them occupied. "Or you could talk to me," she said. "You are keeping too much inside, and that is not healthy. That is disruptive to rest."

[furnaceface]

Jonothon watched her quietly for a few more moments, and then he sighed, shaking his head slightly.

"I don't want help sleeping," he muttered. "And the things that are keeping me up at night aren't anything that talking is going to rid me of."

And now he was being stubborn. Dammit, Jono.

[trigons_child]

"Why are you being so stubborn?" Raven said. "You are letting this fester inside of you, like -- like a poison. You have kept a space between us since you returned to Fandom. Do you no longer trust me? Do you think I cannot handle what you might say? I enslaved an entire planet with my father's power. I think I can hear what you have to say."

It was hard for her to talk like this, but she someone managed to keep her voice firm.

[furnaceface]

"The planet got better, Raven," Jono replied quietly. "The people I helped them harvest for spare parts are still as dead as ever."

Did she want to hear what he had to say, really?

"It isn't that I don't trust you, Raven. It's nothing like that at all."

[trigons_child]

She was glad for her Azarathian training at suppressing her emotions; it allowed her to not flinch at his words. Spare parts? Harvesting?

"You need to talk about it," Raven said. She knew it, Karla knew it, somewhere inside he had to know it, too. "And I am here to listen. Please, Jono, talk to me."

[furnaceface]

"Where would I even start? I went undercover into Weapon X, I made a stupid mistake, I got caught? And then I spent the next god-only-knows how long doing their dirty work, which, considering the American government's high opinion of mutants, was a fair bit more dirty than you'd care to hear details on."

So blasé. He certainly didn't feel that way, though.

"Leech was at Neverland, Raven. They had him strapped up to a power amplifier and were using him to keep the prisoners powerless, while they walked around with automatic weapons and robotic sentries. He's lucky to be alive right now."