Issue 1 Downtime

Cal was in his room, seeing what he could quickly pack and what wasn't going to be so easy to carry out.

He quickly realized that yes, he may have obtained more possessions than could be easily packed and carried by one person.

So presently he was sorting through things that could be left (mostly his money-raising projects) for anything important, boxing them up. The little cube sat on his desk, apparently trying to cheer him up.

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>> :(
>> <3

"It's going to be all right," Cal said, breathless. "We just... have to get out of here. It's not safe. Never safe."

There was a knock on the door--which actually just started pushing open since a certain pint-sized Texan had destroyed the latch as Cal was in the middle of packing.

Cal looked back, then scowled a little. "What," he said.

Haley looked like she'd been crying for a while now.

Can....we talk?"

"Yeah, I guess," he said, reaching for a bag to start shoving essential bits into.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know," he said. "Yet." Maybe see what those Brotherhood tools are doing... they looked like they would make good sheep...

"What about us?"

"You made that pretty clear," he said more than a little bitterly, a very distinct catch in his voice.

"So trying to take care of you is a bad thing? I'm the bitch now?"

"There's two sides!" Cal snapped at her. "There's me, and there's the people fucking with me! What side do you think helping that bitch mug me is!"

"The only person fucking with either of us is a ghost who sucks so bad at everything she couldn't even kill herself right and now exists mostly to make people feel like shit. So no, there's not two sides, and stopping you from being an idiot is the best possible thing I could do to help you."

Haley moved closer to Cal.

"Damnit Cal, I like you. I like you so much. I want to still do so much with you...but you're sick and you won't let me take care of you."

"Right, so she didn't just rob me down there," Cal shot back.

"Did you use it on Regan?"

"Of course I did. It was attacking her," he said with a distracted gesture at the cube.

"....annnnnd you think it's normal for schools to let students keep weapons that they use on other students?""

"It's not a goddamn weapon! It can't do a single thing to any person here! Are they making fucking amazon girl walk around in restraints or confiscating any fucking metal that her boyfriend has? They putting a psychic block on you? But when I won't drink the goddamn kool ade and buy into their bullshit, they'll sure start taking all of my stuff from me!"

"Cal, she *is* a person," she sighed. "She's a ghost. Yes it sounds crazy, but yes, they're fucking real!"

"Well, then have fun with it," Cal shot back. "Here at the happy Xavier's school, full of 'ghosts' to terrorize you, where we want everyone to learn to use their gifts as long as they aren't questioning anything."

Haley bit her lip, trying to avoid starting the waterworks again.

"So, basically, you don't trust me. The girl who has done nothing but stick up for you. Hell, I even fought that bitch once because she was talking shit about you. Difference is, I didn't build a weapon to try and hurt her. I trusted you. Trusted you not to try and go too far when we're messing around. Trusted you before almost anyone else with some of my deepest secrets....but you know, I guess that just doesn't matter to you, because in Cal's world, everyone's out to get him, and it's him versus everyone else."

Cal wouldn't meet her eyes, but he looked like he'd been given a good smack. "Well what do you want me to do. I've tried to get by in this place. Now they're starting to take all my stuff and no one's backing me up." This is probably just another control program anyway. Can't even tell what's real now that they took the staff... probably why they did it...

"I want you to take your fucking medicine, and stop living in some fantasy world god damnit!" she cried. "I'm not a god damn program!"

For just a moment, Cal stopped. And thought. The staff was still somewhere, after all... and once he could get his hands on it again, or even just the parts he couldn't replace so he could remake it, he'd be on his way to being able to tell what was real and what wasn't again... And what did reality ever get me...

Hesitantly, he turned his gaze back at Haley, looking guarded and, just for a moment although she'd be able to see it before he hid it again, terrified.

"And now all you're thinking about is how to get your god damned toy back."

Arguing with a bad telepath has got to suck.

"And why shouldn't I?" Cal shot back. "It's- wait, you heard me say that." The shifting train of thought was about as sudden and dramatic as a train collision. That never touched my systems. Even if they're hacking me, I didn't query any of that yet. That means... "Oh thank God, you're real," Cal sighed, slumping back against the wall, that familiar look of over-caffeinated exhaustion sliding over him as the adrenaline drained out of him for a moment.

Haley cautiously approached him. "...see? I'm on your side. Do you want to lie down, take some of your meds? I kept them in my purse..."

"I just... I mean... do you think I should?" he asked, sounding (oddly) more than a little lost.

Haley leaned in close and planted a kiss on his cheek, before pulling him towards his bed. "Yes," she said quietly, a faint smile on her lips.

"What? Oh, I'm not tired," he clarified, his voice and tone increasingly sounding like a completely different person. "I just... I..." He took a deep breath. "Yeah, give me the pills."

"C'mon, lie down with me..." she said grabbing the pills and another can of soda from his stash before sitting on the edge of the bed.

Hearing the five words that no man can say 'no' to when uttered by a hot girl, Cal sat down on the bed, looking around his room. Hell, how far would I have gone before I turned around and came back anyway? he thought as he reached for the pills. "Don't think that week with no pills was good..."

"Don't think so neither."

He swallowed the pills, then sighed, leaning against her. "Still going to steal my stuff back," he said, deflating a little bit.

THe he hesitated. Dammit... "...And I'm sorry."

Haley chose to ignore that.

"....it's okay," she said after a long pause.

"I'm..." he hesitated. "I don't know what I am. But I'm sorry. I... don't have any illusions that you couldn't find a guy that was less of a pain in the ass than I am just by snapping your fingers."

"I'm not exactly low maintenance," she smirked lightly, sniffling to clear the last remnants of tears.

Haley lay down on the bed and left room for Cal to do the same.

"Yeah, but at least your repair manual isn't written in Martian," Cal said with a weak smile, laying down next to her.

She kissed him on the cheek softly. "So. Feel like trusting me again?"

"I... I do trust you," Cal said quietly, actually sounding a bit ashamed of himself for once. "I just..." He sighed. "I don't know."

"Tell me. Please. I want to know everything about you."