Nobody's Pawn

[She smiles.]  I’m sure that’d make for a more interesting scoop.  Please, do explain the dancing frogs.

Hey, I'm David.  How can I be of service?

A friend?  Well that’s refreshing to hear.  He could use someone as grounded as you in his life, I’m sure.  I’ve heard very good things about you, David.

I like to think it's a friendship we both benefit from.

"Sure, I’ll pop a squat.  Maybe there’s a reason I was drawn here in the first place."

"Magic, then?"

Luckily, David’s phone conversation gave her enough time to think about what else she could say.  She returned his smile when he hung up, and locked her hands behind her back.  ”Cool!  So we’ll head back to your place, you can throw on a shirt that doesn’t smell delicious, and then I can take you out for a replacement bagel!  Then you can get to work and pretend that no weirdo chick ruined your morning.  Sound fair?”

Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he nodded, "Sounds like a plan, although for the record... you didn't ruin my morning.  In the grand scheme of things, you probably improved it.  This beats work any day, trust me."

He sure as hell ain’t wrong, that’s literally all they did to him throughout the entirety of New X-Men. And it’s STILL like that - it’s still nearly always about the adult X-Men and THEIR bullshit politics, rather than the lives, happiness and well-being of the kids who look up to and depend on them. He has a lot of good reason to hate the X-Men and strike out on his own, and I love how they’ve been dealing with this in YA so far.

Unknown Mathematician

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Reaching out, she accepted his hand and gave it a friendly shake.  ”I’m Karolina.  But you’re more than free to call me ‘clumsy’ after that stunning display I made.”  She motioned the way he’d pointed, “If you’ll lead the way, I’ll trail along.  I promise not to axe murder you or anything.  I mean… usually I might consider it, but today I think that would just add insult to injury.”  She really hoped the joking tone came across well, because she’d been making enough of a fool of herself today without adding ‘implicating yourself as an axe murderer’ to the list.

"Hey, it's David.  Going to be a little late today... yeah.  Yeah.  No, I'm sure you guys can manage without me.  Like... two, three hours, tops?  Mmmhm.  Thanks."  He flipped the phone closed and then looked back to her with a smile, "We're all clear."

So freaking disorganized.

Just a friend of mine.  Why?

Have you talked to her lately?