ax_main | Shen and Warren, August 9

After talking to Tamara, Shen informs Warren that he's an idiot. Warren comes as close to understanding as he ever will.

Shen had still not managed to find her zen since the park incident a couple days ago. She'd replied to all sorts of comments online, but in the end, she'd had to stop, because it was making her more angry than anything else, and she was getting nowhere fast with those stupid haters. She'd been letting out steam in the gym and the Danger Room, and of course, up in the air, but she was still in a less upbeat mood than usual as a whole.

And she was supposed to meet Warren outside for some flying. She could just not go, and he'd probably get the message, but a lot of boys needed it spelled out for them. And he had been pretty all right for a rich white boy, so far, so maybe he was worth educating some.

Besides, Tamara didn't like where things were right now, so it was practically Shen's duty, as her friend, to go help the idiot boy figure out how to make things better.

So she flew out of her window (because why not) to head around the mansion and land on the front steps, where she was supposed to meet him.

Warren was already there, doing some loops in the air just to work out a few kinks from a recent nap. He was, as usual, shirtless, shoeless, and wearing jeans. He dropped to the ground beside her and smiled. "Heyyyyy, how's it going?"

"Heyyyy," Shen mimicked his tone, although she wasn't smiling, "you're such an insensitive jerk. How could you not know she liked you?" Tamara hadn't exactly been discreet about it. And the lake incident. Please.

So she was not doing this right at all, but she was kind of pissed at the whole world right now. She was hoping to move on to doing this right, if he wasn't a total asshat about it.

Warren blinked, caught off guard, but he picked up the thread fast enough. He flushed, starting at his chest and slowly crawling upwards. "I mean... I knew she liked me. And I liked her. I just didn't... know..." Right, why he had even shown up not expecting this, he had no idea. But he didn't want Shen to think he was a total dick (only mostly a dick), so time to get on his game face.

"Oh, so you knew, you just didn't think," Shen summed it up for him. "This cool girl likes you, and you like her, and you've been flirting all summer. She goes through something traumatic, and she has no freaking family in the entire world but us, and you wait until the next morning to check in, and come over proudly sporting your hickeys? What the hell, Warren."

"I know," he admitted, because that about summed it up. "And I told her I was sorry--I honestly didn't think she'd want to see me. Really. I had no idea I was--I was important." And it wasn't false modesty, either. His timing had been calculated with Worthington social culture precision.

And it had been wrong. "That was dumb."

"Yeah," Shen confirmed with a nod. "You were dumb." She wasn't going to let him get away with anything but owning his mistakes, even linguistically. "And you aren't dumb, so use your brains to acknowledge other people and their feelings, now."

Warren nodded at her slight correction of his verbiage--fair--to let her know he wasn't trying to get away with it. "Now that I know, I will, honest. We need to have a good talk about--about what it is she really feels and what it is I feel and how we can work it out.

"But please, Shen, believe me: I legit did't know, or I wouldn't have shown up there--like that. I mean, the hickeys weren't going anywhere, but obviously if I thought she'd be bothered I would've--I would've said something before even I went out on a date." Because the more Warren thought about it, the more that was the only way to avoid it. And why should he be the one? Well, because Tamara wasn't going out with anyone else, and he was, so that was on him, right?

Except that still didn't feel quite right.

Boys were so, so stupid. Shen sighed, her wings drooping a little. "You don't owe anyone an account of your dating statuts." Seriously. "You only owe them the truth about what the flirting you've been doing all summer means, and what they can expect from you, or not." Keeping it gender-neutral because that wasn't just about Tamara. She'd moved on to trying to do it right and teaching him something.

Warren rubbed at the bridge of his nose, trying to figure this out, wings ruffling behind him. "Okay. I just--I think maybe I still don't get it, then. Because I agree totally, but I didn't think... I seriously didn't think we'd gotten to the point where we needed a discussion. Or I would've discussed. But she did. I mean, how could I know that?" This was a question entirely in earnest, because Warren simply didn't understand. Tamara had thought things were further along than him, clearly. That... how do you fix that, once it's been fucked?

"You can't know it for sure without talking to people," Shen told him, trying to let his earnestness placate her, rather than his... boyness annoy her. "Hence the need to talk to people. You were flirting like crazy all summer long. It's not like she wasn't making her interest clear."

See, that was what he didn't get. Tamara hadn't talked to him, either! And yet... "Well, it was clear she was interested, but not how interested. That's the thing, though, like, where's the line? My line would've been, like, we kissed or arranged a date or something. I would've said, 'Hey, awesome, but just so you know I'm seeing someone else, so are you okay with that?'

"I kind of feel like if I'd said something before then I'd have been a presumptuous dick," he admitted, feathers ruffling in frustration. Scott had seemed to agree with him, but... well, Scott. He'd said himself he wasn't the authority, which was why Warren had thought his outside opinion would be useful, but now Shen was saying the opposite and Shen was fucking smart, so... "But you're saying--no?"

Ugh, boys. "I'm saying there's more options on this Earth than being an insensitive jerkface or a presumptuous dick." Seriously. Shen tried to force her wings to relax, but it... wasn't really working. "Like, 'So we've been flirting for a while and I was wondering what it meant to you', when you know you're up for seeing other people." It was a good thing her talons had already been out when she'd gotten there, or they might have shifted from her anger, and that never sent the right message. (They were seriously sharp.)

That made a kind of sense, and not just because he could sense Shen was getting super annoyed. He nodded. "I'll do better in the future," was about all he could say. And then he was wondering who else he'd been flirting with and needed to have A Talk with. Fuck. Flirting was supposed to be not complicated! Now, he had all the problems of a girlfriend but none of the good stuff.

Including the wrath of her friends when he was an insensitive dick.

"Thanks for explaining things. It'll help when we talk again. I mean, assuming she's willing."

"She says you're acting weird," Shen let him know. Which of course meant that Tamara wished he would act normally. So... "I'm pretty sure she'll talk to you."

Warren winced. "I was trying not to make things worse. Being polite. I knew she'd hate it but I--I mean, my instinct is not great when it comes to actual emotional connections. Clearly." Thanks, Mom and Dad.

"I don't know, if you knew she'd hate it, I'd say your instinct is pretty great and you should've listened to it?" Shen remarked, but no longer aggressively. She sighed, shaking her head. "Look, she doesn't like people putting on masks anymore than I do, I'm pretty sure. Just be yourself. I can't believe it's the first time you've been in this situation." Not with his looks and his charisma - not to mention the fact that he was half-decent, for a rich white boy.

"Believe it or not, it'll still be true." Warren made a face that showed just how much he was enjoying it, too. It looked like he'd bitten into rotten sushi. "I've never been around one girl--one person who would--would feel that around me--for this long before," he admitted, trying not to think too hard about Cam. Thank god she wasn't a telepath... "Not at a stretch. It's never come up, so I just kind of default to politeness because I don't know what--normal people do."

He felt like a dick saying that last part, but seriously. He'd spent his childhood at boys boarding schools and as an accessory for his parents at their social events. Shit was never this real.

"Get ready for it to happen a whole lot more out here in the real world," Shen warned him, then looked up at the sky for a beat, before looking back at him. "You still wanna go fly a bit?" If she stopped hanging out with boys who were stupid, she would only have female friends.

Warren was relieved she was still willing, and so without another word on the subject of Tamara, he nodded. "Definitely. My wings are cramped up from sleeping. I rolled over on them sometime in the night."

"So you're saying I'm gonna leave your ass in the dust even more easily than usual?" Shen deadpanned, although she couldn't hold her small smile back as she spread her wings. So she gave up, and just shot him a challenging grin before bending her legs, then pushing up into the air with a great burst of displaced air.

"We'll see about that!" Warren jumped and beat his wings hard, following her as fast as his wings would let him.