Laura and Ororo - Backdated

[ax_storm]

Laura wants to thank Ororo for the book. Cuteness alert!


A lot of the time, Ororo liked to curl up in one of the library armchairs to read. But sometimes, she preferred the common room. Those were the moments when she was less committed to reading, and completely open to interruptions.

This was one of those moments, as she did not much like Charles Dickens, it turned out, and was only reading his Oliver Twist for class.

Laura had been putting off trying to find Ororo and thanking her for the gift, mainly because she had no idea how to properly thank anyone for a gift. She didn't know the protocol and in the end had to asked Megan what to do.

Unfortunately, Megan's advice had been to over excitedly declare that she loved the gift and jump up and down a little. So, instead Laura brought some of the cookies she had found in the lobby and wrapped them in a napkin. She tracked Ororo down to the common room, peeking in to find the white haired girl sitting on one of the couches while looking bored while she read a book. She quietly crept up to the other and cleared her throat.

Ororo looked up at the noise, then broke into a smile at the sight of the other girl. "Hi," she greeted her, closing the book on the post-it she used as a bookmark. "How are you doing, Laura?"

Laura took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out quietly through her mouth as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Oh. This was nerves. This is what being nervous felt like and Laura decided her hated it. "I am fine. How are you doing?"

"Bored," Ororo replied, and raised the book slightly. "I don't like Dickens. Do you wanna have a seat?"

"I'm afraid I do not know of Dickens. Are his books bad?" She took a seat when it was offered, placing the small napkin of cookies in her lap.

"Well, I don't like them," Ororo rephrased her answer. "But a lot of people do. To each their own."

Laura nodded, then quickly held out the napkin filled with cookies towards Ororo. "These are a thank you gift for the book. I'm grateful you made it possible for me to read the ending."

She didn't like the worried feeling she got when she hoped Ororo would like the gift.

Ororo broke into a touched smile, and reached for the cookies. "Thank you. And you're welcome. Did you bake them?"

"No. I've never tried baking or cooking. These were in the lobby with a note instructing us to eat them, but you don't have to worry about poison or anything of the like. I had a few and I did not experience any issue." Laura nodded matter of factly.

"I trust you," Ororo told her warmly, and bit into a cookie, offering one to Laura without a word. She swallowed her bite of cookie, eyes twinkling. "They're really good!"

Laura nodded and took the offered, liking that Ororo trusted her not to feed her poison. She took a bite, still liking the sweet flavor of the cookie and swallowed as she glanced over at the book Ororo had been reading. "What is it about?"

"An orphan in Victorian England," Ororo answered, glancing at the book as well. "I have to read it for class and I'm not enjoying it very much."

"An orphan." It was bound to be a sad book then, Lauara learned that many things that included orphans tended to be sad. "It sounds like it would be depressing. What class is it for?"

"Communication," Ororo replied, holding it out to Laura in case she wanted to read the back cover. "It's not exactly uplifting, so far."

Laura took the book when it was offered, giving a soft hum in answer to what Ororo said as she skimmed the summary. Yes. Sad. Exactly like she had thought. "What kind of books do you enjoy?"

"More relevant books, I think," Ororo answered after a beat. "Books that feel real." This one didn't.

Laura frowned a little in confusion. "You mean...nonfiction?"

"Not necessarily," Ororo shook her head. "Just... The characters, their emotions, their reactions. They all have to feel real, even if they aren't."

"Oh." Laura looked down at the book in her hand again. "I do not think you would like Pinocchio then, I liked it mainly because of my mother and the idea of becoming real someday. But Pinocchio was always doing bad even when he had a Father who tried to help him, what kind of child would do that?"

"A lot of them, I think," Ororo assured her with a half smile. "I was often naughty when I was a kid."

"You were?" Laura asked, surprised that someone who seemed so kind and calm could have been a disobedient child. "Did your parents become angry?"

"Sometimes," Ororo confirmed. "They punished me when I pushed it too far."

"How?" Laura asked, not aware that it was a strange question to be asking. She wondered what real parents did to children they loved when they disobeyed, probably nothing like what Rice had done.

"No dessert, no afternoon snack, going to my room?" Ororo offered. She wasn't sure what Laura had gone through, but she didn't bat an eyelash at the oddness of the question. "Honestly, I'd feel bad already if they only raised their voices."

Ah, so depriving children of things that they wanted, not needed, was a way and it made sense. Laura almost smiled at the idea of a small Ororo quickly obeying only because her parents were disapproving. "Your parents sound very smart."

"They were great, from what I can remember," Ororo confirmed. And then explained, "They died when I was five." Her memories of them were vague, but she cherished them.

"Oh." Laura twitched a little, feeling a little guilty for bringing up parents when Ororo's had lost hers. "I am sorry, I did not mean to bring up sad memories."

"It's all right," Ororo assured her easily. "What about your parents?" she asked gently, hoping that it was okay to ask.

"My parents..." Laura thought through how best to describe exactly what her 'family' was. "I've never met my father and my mother was...a little distant, but she read to me as much as she could."

"That sounds nice," Ororo stated softly. Something must have happened to her, but she did not want to prod.

"It was." Sometimes. Most of the times Kinney had tried to read to her Laura hadn't been very interested, but did so because she had nothing else to do. "I should not have taken her presence for granted while she was around."

"It's what kids do, I think," Ororo told her. "Don't beat yourself up over it. At least now you're appreciating her." Some people never learned even that much.

Surprisingly, the idea that she had done what other kids did made Laura feel a little bit better. Maybe she wasn't as far off from being like everyone else as she thought. "Thank you. That helps. Who raised you after your parents?"

Ororo was quiet for a moment, before she answered, "His name is Achmed El Gibar." She said his name with a clear Arabic accent. "He took me in, and a lot of other kids. He taught us to fend for ourselves."

"That is good." Laura stated. "Children need to know those things in order to function as adults."

Ororo could not help but smile. "I'm not sure anyone needs to know what he taught us, but as a rule, yes." She shrugged, then explained, "We thieved for him. And for ourselves." For him more than for themselves, but it had taken her a while to realize that.

Laura frowned deeply at that. Stealing was wrong, and to teach a child to do that seemed to be even worse. But then again, slaughtering people had been wrong and she had done that multiple times. "He taught you to steal for him? Why could he not take them for himself?"

"No one person can steal as much as a group of kids," Ororo replied simply. Not to mention that it had been safer for him, getting them to do the dirty work.

Laura looked confused. "Did you swarm your targets?"

Ororo chuckled at the notion. "Occasionally. But mostly, we had many."

"Ah, I see." Laura nodded in understanding. "Were you ever caught?"

"Not me," Ororo replied, the light of humor gone from her eyes. "But it happened, sometimes."

Laura felt the mood shift, guessing that even if Ororo had not been caught, children she knew did and they most likely did not meet a happy fate. Her hand jerked in an abortive move to reach for Ororo, not sure how the other would take being touched at the moment, but she had always felt a little better when Kinney would reach out. She took a sharp breath in and reached out again to lay her hand over Ororo's lightly. "I am sorry."

Ororo turned her hand around to give Laura's a squeeze. "Thank you."

Laura let her hand be squeezed and was surprised at how warm it made her feel, liking the feeling of giving comfort to someone like Ororo. She didn't remove her hand, waiting until Ororo felt it nessecary and fiddled with the empty napkin in her lap with her free hand. "Are you glad to be here now? Or do you wish you were still with that man and the children?"

"I already wasn't with them anymore," Ororo replied with a small smile. "But I'm glad to be here. It feels like the right place to be, or I would not have come." She had talked to Ainet and to the Professor for a long while, before making up her mind.

Laura thought about what had brought herself to the mansion and wondered if she had made the right choice, but Kinney had said it would be the best place. "My mother recommended I go to this school, so I am hoping that it turns out well. Though I am glad that you decided to come, you have been very kind to me and I appreciate it."

"I'm glad you came here too, Laura," Ororo told her warmly, and completely genuinely. "It's a good place for kids like us."

"I agree. Hopefully it stays that way." Laura replied, trying to be optimistic for the first time instead of wondering when a nice thing like this would be crushed by reality.

"A lot of that hope is up to us," Ororo remarked. They would have to protect it, in every way possible.

Laura had not thought about it like that and pursed her lips a little at the idea of fighting for something she actually wanted. "Are you talking about the Professor's idea of a group?"

"In part," Ororo answered with a nod. "But it's not just outside forces we'll need to protect it from."

Laura frowned at that and turned to look at Ororo questioningly. "You mean, protect from inside as well?"

"In the sense that any community is as safe as the people inside it make it," Ororo nodded. Hopefully not in any more nefarious sense.

Laura blinked and wondered who in this school could be considered not safe. She had not met many people yet, the only girl who seemed upset or unwell had been the red haired girl. Jean. She had some of the most dangerous powers as well. Laura shifted a little uncomfortably. "Do you know of any who you would consider unsafe?"

"I don't know," Ororo answered with a shake of her head. "It's all a matter of situations and dynamics."

“Mmm.” Laura hummed softly, looking out at the room before them. “Then, hopefully we can keep everyone here together.”

Ororo smiled warmly over at the other girl. "All we can ask of anyone, and of ourselves, is that we try our best."

Laura turned back to Ororo and offered her a very small smile. “Yes, we can try.”