fandomtownies | The Park, Monday Evening

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The Park, Monday Evening

Portals elsewhere might break, send you to the wrong planet, or leave you hanging; this one was forever faithful to its own schedule.

Sadly, for those denizens of the island who might have grown attached to their children, that meant it was time to say goodbye. The portal popped up blazing purple in the center of the park, calling to those it had taken here just a few days ago.

Time to go, time to go home, children.

[[ for your AU kidlet goodbyes! Sniff. ]]

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"Then do something impulsive now," Raven encouraged. "The past cannot be changed, but the future is yours to determine."

"So people keep telling me," Jono replied, his tone more than a little wry. "Any suggestions? It's so... so bloody wide-open, I wouldn't even know where to start, these days."

Yes, it was perfectly acceptable for him to pressure Raven into college while at the same time being utterly stumped about his own future. Just so long as he acknowledged how utterly hypocritical he was.

"If I tell you, it is hardly impulsive," Raven said, shaking her head with a soft laugh.

She took a moment to give it some thought. "Teach a workshop this summer," she said. "Something about music."

"Me... teaching an actual lesson?" That caught his attention, at least. "I've done a fair bit of TA work between here and Xavier's School, I'll admit, but I've never actually had to put together a coherent lesson plan for anything that I was going to be teaching myself."

Which wasn't exactly a flat-out no, no. If anything, it was mostly just him squirming over the thought of standing up in front of a classroom, looking the way he did, with the inevitable influx of new residents to the island potentially sitting in front of him and staring.

So much for wanting to be impulsive.

"I could be your TA and help out," Raven offered, "but if that is too much, perhaps offer private lessons on playing the guitar?"

One on one wouldn't be as squirm-inducing as an entire class of 20 students, would it?

It would be far, far less squirm-inducing, by a long shot. Jonothon relaxed a little as the second option was presented, swayed on his heels for a moment, and then nodded a little.

"It's not exactly a long-term plan," he noted, "but... I might be willing to give something like that a chance."

Well, no, Jono. Long term plans really didn't have much to do with being impulsive at all, generally.

"Is not the point of being impulsive to not plan?" Raven teased, as if reading his mind. "If you were to plan this out, it would defeat the purpose of being impulsive."

Technically, telling him to teach wasn't very impulsive either, actually.

"But perhaps I could surprise you with something impulsive," she mused. "You would just have to trust me."

And she'd have to think of something.

"I would, wouldn't I?" Jono considered that for a moment, and then relented slightly. There was still a fair bit of melancholy eating away at him, but he had to acknowledge that his mood was somewhat lighter than it had been before. "Very well, Sunshine. Surprise me."

He'd work on being impulsive himself... sometime.

"I will," Raven promised, beaming. She had the first stirrings of an idea in mind. They'd long ago -- well, much longer for him -- talked about going to see Woodstock. She'd see if she could figure out how to arrange that.

"But then perhaps I will have to insist that you surprise me in return," she teased.

"I suppose this means I'll need to get creative?" Jono offered her a little, wry smile. He didn't exactly have anything in mind. Little inklings, mostly. But he was sure he could come up with something. "I can probably manage something, luv."

If nothing else, it would be practice. Being impulsive.

"I will look forward to it," Raven said.

The emotions in the park were starting to get to her, so she gently tugged at Jono's hand. "Would you mind walking me back to the dorms?" she asked. "I think I am starting to get a headache from all the emotions. Unless you would rather not be alone tonight. I will stay as long as you like."

Jonothon considered her offer for a moment, and then nodded toward the dorms.

"I'll walk you back," he decided. "I might have taken you up on the offer for company, but I've got a weekend of bring a father of five to attempt to sleep off, and I'm probably not long for the waking world myself. Let's get you someplace a little quieter."

"I am tired from just two," Raven said. "I cannot imagine what five would be like. You must be exhausted."

She was able to relax her shields as they moved away from the portal. All the sorrow (and relief) around them had forced her to keep them up and strong.

Jono didn't really have that problem, these days. Being surrounded by so many people and not hearing any psionic bleed from any of them was still somewhat... surreal.

He'd probably never be quite used to it.

"If I don't sleep for the better part of the week, I'd be surprised. They were handfuls, the lot of them. But... endearing ones."

"You are going to make me feel guilty for asking you to walk me all the way back to the dorms," Raven said lightly. Not really. Well, maybe a tiny bit.

"It was good to see Elizabeth again, though Eirene was a shock," she said. "But I cannot help but be relieved that I was not granted another appearance of Chuck's son." She shuddered a little; Anakin Bass was just creepy.

Jonothon couldn't help but feel rather fortunate that he'd never met Anakin Bass.

"Vedder didn't come back this time around," he mused. "Elle, Cash, and Everett were... a bit of a surprise. And it was good to see Elizabeth again. She certainly kept me on my toes the last time."

It had been years ago for him, but he remembered that child freaking him out on several occasions. Lovingly.

Raven shivered a little. The future that Elizabeth had painted during her first visit had been worrisome, but she thought it years and years away. She'd never taken into account time moving faster for Jono.

"I have a feeling she keeps her parents on their toes all the time," she said affectionately. "I hope she did not learn to teleport in the cradle. She is younger than I was before I learned to separate my body and soul and to move between dimensions."

"Well, I imagine she had one hell of a teacher," Jonothon pointed out, reasonably. "I think I'd have to be somewhat upset with you if you went and showed a toddler how to get anywhere she likes, of course."

There was a bit of tired teasing in that, yes.

"I would never do such a thing," Raven said, teasing right back. "It would be too awkward were she to teleport into our room when we thought we had some privacy."

Though at least with the flames it would be immediately obvious?

That much was true, at least!

Mind, the thought of it had Jono clearing his throat and blushing. A little. While he scratched at the back of his neck and looked especially interested in the night sky.

Not that he thought for so much as a second that Raven couldn't tell how flustered she'd gotten him at the thought of that.

"See, things like this must be why most mutants don't manifest until they're teenagers."

Yes. Yes, that had to be it. To spare their parents the grief, in case they happened to be able to teleport.

Of course she could tell. And she giggled and bumped her shoulder gently against his.

"They call it the 'terrible twos,' do they not?" she said. "Perhaps that is when her powers manifested, just to keep things interesting for us."

"I suppose everybody should be so fortunate," Jono replied, shaking his head a little as they walked. "At least falling out of bed wouldn't be too terrible an issue for her if she had the ability to just teleport before she could hit the floor."

See? Sometimes he could find a bright side. Sort of. Ish.

"I hope I am a good mother," Raven said, the thought of something like that making her fret a little bit. "I fear I do not have much personal experience to draw upon, since I rarely saw Arella when I was growing up."

Not that Arella had been a stunning example of motherhood anyway.

"And my parents must've known that I was laying hollowed out in a hospital bed for months in a bloody coma. It made international news. But they never bothered to so much as call to see if I was going to live," Jonothon noted. "All that aside, none of my children this weekend turned into horrible sociopathic monster-teens. I think if five different versions of myself can manage a half-decent job raising those children after the shite parent-son relationships I've had, someone as compassionate as you are shouldn't have any trouble at all."

From bitterness to reassurance in ten seconds flat. New record for Jonothon?

She was going to get whiplash from turnarounds like that!

"And my father is a demon who wished to use me to destroy and conquer worlds," Raven said. And Trigon would never lay a hand on any child of hers as long as she lived. But she didn't want to linger on disturbing thoughts like that, nor the reminder of her rage that the X-Men hadn't contacted her to tell her about how he'd been hurt, or how they'd abandoned him. She'd purged that rage with Karla, most of it at least, but some of it still lingered.

Squashing that down, she smiled and said, "You will be a wonderful father. Elizabeth and Dalia and the others are all proof of that. And I will be a good mother."

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furnaceface - 2012-04-08 14:02 (UTC) - Expand

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