Flickering

         “at least it still looks good,” he admits, laughing lightly. it’s not something they think they would be able to pull off, but then… their own abilities don’t manifest into anything beautiful. terrifying? certainly, but not quite in the same spirit as this holiday suggests. easier to stick with a regular costume. “i like it! even without a sword. maybe they would have allowed a plastic one, though. i’ve seen a few people with props.” nothing overtly dangerous, thankfully… but they don’t think anyone attending the mash would try and bring an actual weapon. “i got lucky with him, i think. i didn’t even think about having a scooby… and there he was, sitting in the thrift store. that’s also where i got this,” he adds, gesturing to his wig. “i think the dog is a bit better looking, though.”

“Mmhmm, I’d say so” Matteo agreed, eyes tracking River for a moment before turning his attention back to Joey. “I thought about that, but like, decided I didn’t want to risk getting tackled by some security guard or something” He shrugged. Did something like this really need security guards? Probably not. If anything happened then it was more likely that a mutant would do something then anyone in a dumb shirt with security written across it. But Matteo was pretty sure it was something that the city was requiring, which was stupid. He grinned when the other explained how they had come across the scooby “Well he definitely adds something to you and Finley’s costume.” Matteo said before laughing “You know, I don’t know if blonde is your color but I wouldn’t say it’s bad”

         the temptation to have a few drinks is there, but dutifully resisted. she can’t afford to let anything cloud her judgement, even at something as… mindless as a party. let alone one hosted by some colleagues! something going wrong would certainly improve her mood, but instead she has the misfortune of running into yet another of her students. despite that, she remains as ( falsely ) chipper as ever. “so i see! you’ve been practicing,” she says, beaming. “of course, i hope it helps you in more than just not spilling your drinks.”

Matteo grins wider when his teacher notices his improvement. It shouldn’t matter, but it makes him feel all warm and fuzzy to be complimented. Also maybe the alcohol. “I have! I’ve actually been practicing with a classmate and it’s been super helpful” He answered, before shaking his head quickly “It definitely will. I’ll be able to dodge anything that comes my way” Matteo joked, holding his arms like a ninja; with a cup still gripped in his hand. “Now, I do gotta work on being able to dodge attacks that I don’t see coming, but, you know I’ll figure it out”

river welcomes matteo’s kiss with a soft chuckle, before he pulls back and leans his forehead against the other man’s. “yeah,” he whispers, “you’re gonna make the most insufferable superhero ever.” he tugs the plate of nachos away from matteo, “and you’re supposed to be…?”

“I think the word you’re looking for is actually ‘best’ thank you very much” Matteo smirked, closing his eyes for a moment when the other rested his head against his. He leaned back after a second; rolling his eyes when River jerks the plate away. “I’m Westley, from Princess Bride?” He takes out the eye mask out of his back pocket and shaking it slightly. “Dani’s Buttercup.” Matteo popped the chip he had stolen into his mouth, “What about you, I’m guessing an Angel?”

         the explanation is of some sense, so they leave the matter to rest. it matters little if matteo is the type to seek out help when it would benefit him. their only concern is whether they’ll leave the medical center in an appropriate state—and only until their shift is over. “would you like some bandages as well, or will your own supplies suffice?”

Matteo pauses for a moment, considering it, before shaking his head softly. “Nah, I think I can find some at my place.” Chances were, the bandages here would be needed elsewhere more. “Thanks for the meds though, those would probably have been harder to find and all.” Matteo adds getting ready to leave, “Ah, thanks again for this. I mean-like, being here and all.” He says before giving a small nod “Stay safe and all” Matteo turns, and walks out down the hall, towards the doors that he had come in not long ago.

“What seems to be the—” Will’s eyes bug out at the look on his arm and he hurries him into the room. No one’s going to be using it for a while and he doesn’t want to move him to the infirmary just in case the injuries were too severe. Helping him to a chair, Will sits next to him with a worried look on his face as he looks over his injuries. Burnt, but it looks like there’s no pain. This is worse, he fears and he holds the more injured hand, trying to center himself and focus on it healing.

He’d heard that the kid was in bad shape after Danger Room training, but he didn’t realize how bad. “Alright. Can you walk me through it? Do you feel anything on this arm, kid?”

Matteo raises an eyebrow at the other’s expression. Sure, his arms didn’t look great, but you would think he was half dead and bleeding from the teachers expression. “Oh yeah, you’re one of the newer teachers, right?” He asks, forgetting that not everyone is used to him being around and fucking with the fuses “I can control electricity. I can’t generate it but like, I can pull it from something and send it elsewhere. I’d show you but..” He trails off, glancing down at his hands, stiffening when the teacher touches his arm. The darker lines are burning, shots of pain emanating from them when it moves or something touches it. The charred center feels more numb then anything; leading to a strange mix of feelings. “It looks worse then it is, I’m basically fine” He says quickly, lips in a thin line. “I still have feeling in the arm; the palm is where it’s a little numb and stuff” Matteo offers before continuing on “But uh, this is something that can happen if I over-use it.”

 “I’m in my third year of the program, so I was training with Victor and he wanted me to get to my limits and..” Matteo licks his lips, “It would heal on it’s own in like a week or so; but Victor said that you could have it fixed way sooner. I don’t wanna get behind, you know?” He asks, eyes bright-but there are dark shadows underneath them. It had been hard to sleep the previous night; which was what had really pushed him to come by in the first place. The ointment he had and bandages didn’t do much other make it so he could do the very basics; and he didn’t have time to just sit around and let his body do it’s thing.

You’re Lachlan from Essex, right? A phrase he’s heard a million times over by now, and he’s trying not to deflate when he processes Matto’s follow up question. One of Dani’s friends? It’s both a relief and a point of pure curiosity how this stranger has already clocked that much about Dani. He blinks a couple of times before nodding through Matteo’s explanation. “That would be me. Funny how that works, huh? Small world. It must be nice that you two get to reconnect.”

“Ah, yay I was right” Matteo jokes with a grin. “Yeah, it’s wild for sure. She was the last person I expected to run into at the Institute” He says, the smile deflating slightly. It had been 10 years of wondering what had happened to her, of hoping that she had succeeded in life, and been happy. For him to find out that instead she had been forced to live in the hell that was Essex had been heart breaking. “It is though. I missed her, so I’m we’ve found each other again” Matteo scratches the outside of his ear “But uh, it sounds like you really helped her when you were both inside so...thanks”

~

Zia glances over her shoulder as if there will be someone, likely her Mother, standing there with some disapproving look. Breaking and entering is still a crime, even when no one lives in the house. But, she’s also painfully curious, and slightly worried about leaving this kid to his own devices. It’s definitely mostly curiosity that has her nodding. “Yeah… yeah, sure. Wait up.” She makes her way through the gate, checking to make sure the coast is clear one last time, before heading up towards the boy. “You sure you do this all the time, kid?”

Matteo smiles to himself when he sees the girl agree to follow him. It’s been awhile since he actually came out here with someone else; so it’s a nice change of pace. He waits for her to make her way in, before nodding. “Yep!” The ‘p’ popping in his mouth. “Not always this place. But you know, there’s quite a few abandoned places in this city” Matteo says, heading towards the doorway into another room, avoiding the random trash and glass from broken bottles. “Also, I’m not a kid” He stated matter-of-factly, eyes already distracted by the things in the room, before they centered on the outlet. “You’d be amazed how long the outlets in some of these places last for.”

          Classes  were  annoying.   Learning  had  been  something  he’d  loved  as  a  kid   but  now  it  felt  like  he  learned  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again  and  it  didn’t  really  help  that  he’d  lived  through  a  lot  of  things.   Xavier’s  wasn’t  that  bad  though  since  he  could  look  up  what  he  wanted  to  learn.   Moth  was  thankful  that  he  could  argue  with  the  history  professors  about  the  truth  of  the  matter.   There  wasn’t  anything  with  his  power  that  he  could  train  for.   Actually,   he  didn’t  exactly  like  dying  and  coming  back,   but  he  wasn’t  interested  in  pushing  and  learning  more  about  how  his  power  worked.   One  day  he  was  sure  he’d  not  come  back.   

          They  didn’t  really  want  to  talk  to  Matteo.   Not  after  everything.   But  he  looked  so  pathetic  attempting  to  wrap  his  own  burns.   Moth  let  out  a  sigh  and  walked  over.   “You’re  doing  it  wrong.   Let  me  do  it.”   He  pointed  towards  the  bandages.   “If  you  don’t  mind.” 

Matteo frowns, glancing down at his handiwork. Sure, it doesn’t look pretty, but it’s the harder hand to do and...He sighs, ending the internal discussion. “I’m only saying yes because I know you’re good at it” Matteo hands over the bandages. This isn’t the first time they’ve been in this situation; which is how Matteo knows that Moth knows what they are doing. Not that it doesn’t pain Matteo to actually have to say it.  He scoots back a bit so that Moth can sit down if they want to. “I also don’t really know if there’s a wrong way to this but you know, work you’re magic or whatever” He holds out both arms; not sure which one the other wants to start with. 

                     -ˋˏ ༻✿༺ ˎˊ-

Dani can’t look at Matteo, can’t risk seeing pity or fear or god forbid, disgust, on his face, but as she watches the spike retract she feels his arms close around her again. He says he’s sorry and she believes him, doesn’t bristle at the condolences like she does when they come from strangers, and Dani buries her face in his chest and lets her tears soak the front of Matteo’s t-shirt.

Then he begins his own story, steps back and takes her hand. It isn’t a surprise to hear how his foster parents had reacted; Dani can almost see Paul’s self-righteous sneer, can almost hear the fear ( half performance, half genuine ) in Kelly’s voice. She hates them for it, but at the same time it’s hard not to be grateful that Matteo has been free of them for so long. Even if… okay, living on the streets of Boston isn’t what she’d imagined all those years as she tried to picture what he might be doing. But the important part is that he made it out - that someone from Xavier’s found him like they had just found her and brought him back here, to a place with walls that feel more like those of a fortress and less like those of a prison.

When she feels Matteo start to shake Dani wraps her other hand around the one already clasped in hers. She’s still crying, tears running silently in salty-hot trails down her cheeks, and when he says the word beautiful she lets out an involuntary and extremely unflattering snort, almost laughter but much closer to distress.

“Please, don’t–they’re not, they can’t be beautiful, Matteo, I…I hurt people, when I was in there. They made me do it but I just–I got so used to it and–” Dani breaks off abruptly into another choking sob and steps forward to plant her face in his chest again - the only place she can think of where he can’t see her crying.

He hates seeing her cry. He always has; even when it was just from a scraped up knee from playing on the playground. The silent tears are almost worse then if she was sobbing loudly, because it tells him that she’s had to hide them before. Hide her feelings, stay quiet as to not draw attention. Matteo brings up the hand that isn’t currently in use and uses his thumb to gently wipe away the tear he sees falling. He doesn’t know what to say that will make this better; he’s not even sure there was anything to say at all. 

Matteo welcomes her into his embrace, bringing a hand up to wrap around her back so that his hand cups her head. “That wasn’t you.” He whispers; finally finding his voice, fingers brushing through her hair carefully. “It was something you were forced to do. Something you had to do to survive.” The memories of what Milo had said about the prisoners being forced to battle against each other float in; and Matteo closes his eyes for a moment. He can’t imagine what she’s gone through, what she’s had to go through. 

“But you’re not there anymore, ok? I know you, you aren’t going to hurt anyone out here. You’re a good person Danica” He murmurs, not breaking away from her. “And...we can figure something out if you don’t want the antlers anymore.” His eyes move glance towards them; trying to understand how they work. He doesn’t dare move his hand that’s wrapped around her and his other one is still locked in by her hands; though he wouldn’t just touch them regardless. Matteo returns his gaze back to Dani, or rather the top of her head. “I’m here though, ok? I’m right here. And I’m not going anywhere” 

         “certainly, challenges exist. but in more serious cases, it’s best not to rely on the care of volunteers.” did it matter? not particularly. in a perfect world, volunteers would have been in charge of everything that humanity could want for. medical care, food, housing… the current state of it was abysmal. but that was a matter that would be fixed in time. “we’re not a doctor, no, but we are medically trained. doctors are hard to come by in places like these.” not unheard of, but why volunteer when they would no doubt have a job lined up? humans couldn’t go without rest as readily as their own kind. “here,” they added, carefully offering two small white pills and a small glass of water. “insufficient, but the best we can offer for pain.” 

Matteo shrugged “I guess, but I mean, if it was that bad, I probably wouldn’t have much say in the matter” He knew how to take care of himself for minor things; and if it was ever bigger then that then he would actually drag himself to the institute’s infirmary. If they couldn’t handle it, then he probably wasn’t super conscious. “Yeah, I know, just figured it didn’t hurt to ask” Matteo says, taking the pills and swallowing them dry before taking a sip of the water. “The best you can offer is all that’s needed” He adds with a small smile.