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X-Men Time
Monday, May 25th
The red eyes of the young albino boy who resided in the room slowly cracked open, a blurry gaze focusing on the bright blue digital numbers of the clock at his bedside.
Casper's eyes slowly closed again as he buried himself further into the blankets, wrapping himself up like a small, white-meat burrito. However, after a few seconds, the boy practically flew out of bed, tossing the covers back and leaping up off the mattress with a gasp. Planting his feet on the floor, Casper scrambled his way into the bathroom, an expression of pure terror on his face as he turned on the faucet and set about brushing his teeth. Once he was done, he rinsed, dried of his mouth, and closed the door for a small bathroom break, followed by swinging open the door again and running back into his bedroom. He was obviously in a hurry for something as he jerked open a drawer, digging through underwear and socks before pulling out a par of white swim shorts, accenting with black stitching and lining. After stripping himself of his underwear and pajama pants, he pulled on the shorts, then looked towards the door. For once that morning, Casper paused, simply staring at the door, then shook his head, his tousled, curly hair flopping around on top of his head. Taking a deep breath, the mutant quickly began to transform, his skin taking on a blue, and much hairier, hue as his body changed into that of Addy's. Luckily he had thought to keep his shirt on - past experiences had forced him to learn better. With a fanged-grin, Casper suddenly disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, heading right for
X-Men Pools.
Rook came into the room, stripping down as he went. All the clothes made it to the hamper, and he took a moment to pick up Casper's clothes as well, putting those into the smaller boy's hamper. A little digging found him a pair of shorts that were not his, but borrowed from someone at some point or another and making it back to their room, and pulled them on, grateful for the drawstring he used to tie them. A large t-shirt went over that, and he paused long enough to grab one of the towels hanging in the bathroom before going out the door again and to
X-Men East 2nd.
It was a long while before
Rook returned, slamming the door behind him. The latch didn't catch and Rook didn't notice that the door opened a bit behind him as he wandered towards his bathroom. He was inexplicably angry. It was stupid. At least he thought so. There was no reason for it and he was embarrassed by his own reaction to that girl saying mean things to Gavin. The mean things weren't even directed at him. But he was feeling...prot
ective. That was odd. The boy had already started trying to find some long sleeved shirt that he could change into, ignoring the fact that his door was ajar behind him.
Gavin walked into the room before pausing with his hand still on the doorknob. Should he close it? It was probably best that people do not just barge in with Rook like this...but closing the door seemed a little... He frowned slightly before leaving it just barely ajar, like how Rook accidently (not that Gavin knew it) left it. It was only when he turned away from the door that he noticed Rook was not even in the bedroom portion of the dorm. Suddenly unsure of his own right to be there, the bird-boy began slooooooowly, quiiiiiiietly opening the door to sneak back out.
Gavin didn't know it, but Rook was currently looking at his own reflection in the mirror. He was trying to decide if he liked what he saw or not, but it was hopeless when he was this angry and he gave up, huffing back into the room without a shirt since he couldn't find a clean long sleeved one. His 'summer attire' wasn't prepped with this. Not yet anyway. He froze when he saw Gavin and debated about backing into the bathroom again in an attempt to disappear. Not many people saw him in this state of undress, mainly because he was never in this state of undress.
Gavin froze at the precise moment Rook did. He sees me... Ok...Sneaking out is no longer an option...What are the options? Option one: Act like everything's normal. Option two: Act like he is afraid Rook was going to explode or something. "That's not a bad look on you, Hisoka," the bird-boy gave a small smirk--much smaller than his usual expression--but his eyes were glued to Rook's face since he was still unsure of the smaller boy's mood.
This time when he started turning red, Gavin could clearly see that it started at his collar bone and headed upward from there. Rook was still looking emotionlessly deadpanned, but his face was slowly turning red from sheer embarrassment. "I need to go shopping for summer clothes," he stated carefully before glancing towards his closet. Maybe there was something clean in there. He turned and opened the door, trying not to draw any more attention to himself. Gavin must think he looked way too skinny and young. Even with the muscle definition, he was still scrawny. Rook pushed a bunch of shirts aside before he decided on a long sleeved pajama shirt that would at least cover him.
"Your training really shows, huh?" With Rook facing away from him, Gavin's eyes finally scanned over every visible inch of skin. "You know, it won't take too long before your frame catches up with the rest of you. Coupl'a years and people will be lining up from miles around for a shot with you. And the blush definitely doesn't hurt any~" Now the bird-boy's smirk was stretching across his face with a smug light in his eyes. He left the shopping unaddressed with the assumption that he probably should not go with Rook--he was a fairly obvious mutant, after all.
Rook turned slowly, the shirt clutched in front of him as he looked at Gavin with narrowed eyes. He was confused at the word choices but understood the gist of what was being said. "I greatly doubt that," the younger boy said, his hand automatically going to brush the hair out of his eyes. Gavin said he needed to keep the hair from his face, but no way was Rook going to cut it.
Gavin shrugged, not surprised at all with Rook's disbelief. "Doubt what you want, but for our age you're a stud," he said bluntly. The smirk was now completely gone and replaced by an intense expression. The bird-boy was obviously thinking very hard about something.
Many things went through Rook's mind, like if he was such a stud, why he couldn't date anyone. Not that it mattered, because a single touch sent people to their knees and not in a good way at all. Rook's expression softened into something that was almost depressed, but not sad enough to be fully there, and he just stared at the floor near Gavin's feet. He wasn't aware of Gavin's expression, either. "Is this like one of those teenage girl movies where all my friends are going to try to convince me I am pretty?" he asked, trying to mask his overly emotional self with some sort of humor.
Gavin immediately scowled. "Geez, apparently we need to work on your taste in movies. And I'm not trying to convince you of anything. It's my first time seeing you without a shirt and the potential for hunk-hood is freakin' there," a taloned hand gestured to Rook's torso. Gavin seriously doubted that the worst of Rook's insecurities would be over his appearance, anyways.
Rook looked down at himself and frowned. He didn't see anything to be super excited about. But he saw it everyday and wasn't impressed anymore. "You do realize that I am called too skinny on a regular basis by other people, right?" he asked, looking up at Gavin finally. He didn't compare to the colorful boy in front of him in looks, and now that Rook's mood was evening out again, he realized he was still standing without a shirt on in his room in front of his crush and he started turning red again.
"How many of them have seen you without a shirt? Because people who are undernourished don't have that much definition." Gavin raised a feathered eyebrow. "Besides, your proportions are about right, from what I know... They probably just forget your age and think that martial-arts people are supposed to be bulkier or something." He nodded to himself, deciding that the theory made sense. "Whatever people tell you nowadays, Hisoka, they'll be eating their words by the time you can vote."
Even if he doubted it, Rook wasn't one for extended verbal confrontation. He just shrugged and started pulling on the shirt in his hands. It went over his head and tousled his hair back into his face, which he didn't bother to fix. Now that his arms were properly covered, he wouldn't be in danger of depowering someone should he brush against them or be touched by them. He mostly wanted to be alone, and to try to figure out what was going on with his anger issues up on the roof, but he would never kick Gavin out. "What now?" he asked, waiting for the boy to decide what he wanted to do. With the advent of the party that should have been outside, it would be unsurprising if Gavin wanted to go out into the woods or something.
Gavin made a point of pouting when his view was obstructed by the stupid shirt. Then his expression became a small-but-thoughtful frown. "Hmmm. I'm kinda bored with people, right now. I vote we go get snacks as stealthy-like as we can, then find a room with a game console or DVD player. If Dev's out, mine will do." Surely Devlin would not mind~ And keeping Rook away from crowds seemed like a good idea, either way.
"Could I hide in your room?" Rook asked after a moment's contemplation. He really didn't want to venture back out into the hall, and it would make more sense for him to stay behind. After all, Gavin could grab something he would want to snack on but it was unlikely he would chose something Gavin would like. And Gavin's roommate wasn't bad. They actually did get along well enough.
Gavin blinked at Rook's question. It took a couple seconds for him to process the subtext--that Rook did not want to go get the snacks. "Yeah, sure. I hate sleeping in crumbs, anyways. Wouldn't be surprised if Dev's the same." The bird-boy nodded his head as though he had spoken some great, eternal wisdom.
Rook gave a nod as if that settled everything. He turned, closing his closet and frowning slightly that he still wasn't in proper clothes. But that didn't really matter to Gavin, it seemed. The shorter boy had seen the way he looked, his eyes glued to Rook's diminutive form. There was no escaping that fact. Rook moved away from the clothing options and turned to look at Gavin once more. "Should...do you want me to bring any of my games?"
"Hm? Only if there's one you really want to play. I mean, Dev's got a great selection, but he doesn't have everything you do." Gavin shrugged and gave a small smile, not particularly caring either way what game they played or even if they just watched a movie instead. If anything, the feathered teen seemed remarkably calm compared to his usual hyper-competitive self.
Rook didn't miss it. Not in the least. Usually Gavin had the game he wanted to play all picked out. But this was odd. He wasn't even hopping to get to competing. "Are you sure you want to play a game?" Rook asked quietly after a moment. "We can do something else if you wish." Whatever the activity, so long as it didn't require Rook to socialize any more than absolutely necessary, he wouldn't mind.
"...I...I'm up for anything, really. Why don't you choose for once?" Gavin smiled a little wider, before giving a slight grimace. "Ok, yeah, that sounded weird. I'm just drawing a blank here. I have no idea what I want to do." He accentuated this statement with a blatantly bored expression. "Let's just grab a bunch of options and figure it out as we go."
With a nod, Rook pulled out his empty book bag and started putting random things inside. He even fit his laptop before he turned to look at Gavin, half expecting the bird boy to say something along the lines of he didn't need to bring it. But they didn't know what they were going to be doing, so it was worth bringing along at least.
"Your laptop? Don't tell me you're getting bored with my outstanding company-keeping skills?" Gavin raised a feathered eyebrow before giving the shorter boy a teasing smirk. "Or are you going to be looking up walkthroughs and cheat-codes? Shame~ I thought I knew you better than that, Hisoka~" The corner of his lips twitched, wanting to spread into a complete grin at how ridiculous the thought was. Of course Rook would never cheat!
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