ax_main | Nico and Yana| Post- Genosha| Backdated to June 5th

Yana and Nico have a talk post- Genosha about what went down, and how much they miss eachother.

Illyana glanced at the time on her new phone and plopped back on her bed.

It was the middle of the night, and she couldn't sleep. Vex didn't seem to be having any problem with that - she could hear her roommate's slow, even breathing from across the room, and was half tempted to go crawl in with her, which would probably help. Vex wouldn't even mind, she didn't think.

Except honestly, she didn't really feel like going to sleep. Which was part of the problem.

Picking her phone up again, she pulled up the time conversion app. Genosha was in the same time zone, which meant it was the middle of the night there, too. Which meant she'd have a great chance of catching Nico both alone and awake.

She sat up and called up a stepping disk. It should be easy enough to scry for Nico in Limbo. She'd just pop in and see how he was doing.

Nico was sitting cross legged on the ground of the room he was staying in. It was...odd. This new place. He took comfort in reaching out to the dead around him, the life lines ebbing and flowing.

A circle of silver-white light appeared a few feet in front of him, followed moments later by Illyana. Who smiled to see Nico sitting cross-legged on the floor, and plopped down to sit across from him. "Hey newbie. Miss me?"

Nico cracked open one of his eyes and gave Yana a lazy smile. "Don't you have to be gone for a while for me to miss you?"

"Well, it's been almost a week. I figured that'd be long enough. But I can always go and come back in a month or two if you want," Illyana retorted, wrinkling her nose, though her eyes sparkled with amusement.

"Nah, you can stay. Wouldn't want you to get lost in limbo," Nico responded, finally opening both eyes to look at Yana fully. "What's up?"

"Just figured I'd pop in and see how you were doing and make sure you didn't, y'know, get killed taking over a country." Okay, fine, she'd known he hadn't, considering she'd scryed him a few times since. Still. "Give you my new phone number, see if you wanted to bail and come hang out at Xavier's for a while?" She said the last with as much negligence as the rest, but watched for his reaction. Because yeah, she was serious about that part, at least.

"Isn't Xavier's a school? Never figured you for the studious type," Nico joked, pulling out his phone as he spoke. He offered it up to Yana to add her number.

"Really not," Illyana admitted. "But it's not that bad. And there's more to do than there was back at the base." She glanced around the former Genoshan Prime Minister's mansion. "Not sure about here. How are you liking it?"

Nico frowned slight and shrugged. "It's not too bad...they mostly leave me alone. I'm not sure they like my friends very much."

"No accounting for taste." Illyana shrugged. She'd never had an issue with Nico's "friends". Unlike demons, they did what they were told. "I can't promise people at the school would either," she admitted. "Some of them have issues with me, though to be fair? More of them had issues with Pyro than Limbo. And anyway, some don't."

"They already have issues with you? You've only be there a minute," Nico responded with another frown. Was she trying to get him to...go to school? "Doesn't sound very welcoming."

"Oh, not now. I was there before I was with the Brotherhood," she explained. "People have actually been pretty cool about me coming back."

Still, the school got Yana to leave once already. Sounded fishy to Nico. "I don't know Yana, I owe everything to the Brotherhood."

"Yeah, and Magneto counts on that." Which okay, really wasn't fair, considering she'd never actually met him, just whoever was mind controlling him. But still, she was pretty sure she was right, anyway. "If it turns out to be shitty with him back, or if anything doesn't seem right, you'll call me, right? I'm not bailing on you just because I'm bailing on the team."

"Bailing is bailing right?" Nico frowned, turning his eyes down. "Why'd you leave, anyways?"

Illyana shrugged awkwardly. "You heard about what happened in Genosha, right? After...that, I 'ported us to Limbo to get out, and...Pyro and I got into it. And I was pissed and sent him back, and...when I came back, I mis-timed it. So by the time I got back? You guys had already rescued Magneto and were busy overthrowing a government. And I was still pissed at Pyro, so I just...stayed at the school."

So it boiled down to...a guy. Nico wasn't sure that was the best reason to make life decisions, but who was he to judge. "And you like it there?"

"It's okay so far. I mean, I miss you and the others? But it's not half bad." Illyana shrugged again and offered a crooked smile. "Sure you don't want to join me?" she asked hopefully. Because yeah. That would make it better. A lot.

"I don't know Yana..." Nico hesitated, frowning slightly. He wasn't sure he liked what was happening with the Brotherhood but...he wasn't sure he wanted to leave them either.

Well, that was better than she'd hoped for. "Just think about it, ok?" she urged. "And come visit me. You can check it out for yourself."

"You'll have to send me a picture...if you think people won't mind me popping up in the shadows," Nico added as an afterthought.

"I don't really care if the mind or not." Illyana offered a crooked smile. "Besides, I'm rooming with Vex; her brother shadow walks too. She probably wouldn't even blink. But yeah, I'll send a picture."

Now THAT piqued Nico's interest. "He shadow walks too?" What?! He had never met someone else who could do what he did. "Can he...I mean, that's just part of my power."

Illyana shook her head. "No, he can't raise the dead. His powers are all shadow related, I think." She made a face, considering. "Even the shadow walking's not quite the same, or it doesn't feel the same, anyway. Kinda like how Billy and I both teleport, but not the same way?" She grinned. "I can introduce you to him if you come visit. Vax is cool, you'd like him."

"Huh...okay, yeah, I want to," Nico agreed. Shadow related, huh. So like him. But not quite like him.

"Cool." Illyana smiled and relaxed, stretching her legs out in front of her. "So, how was the fight? I didn't see you on TV, but I think I saw some of your friends kicking ass."

"I wasn't really TV ready," Nico joked, relaxing his shoulders that had tensed slightly during their discussion about leaving the Brotherhood. "But yeah, you know, I did my thing. Helped where I could."

"That's awesome. I mean, really." Illyana sighed. "I kinda wish I'd been there."

Nico gave her a look that he hoped encompassed 'you-could've-been'.

"Don't look at me like that," Illyana replied defensively, having interpreted the look just fine. "I told you - I mistimed it. And I wasn't about to try again with the drugs still in my system. I'm lucky I just lost a few days."

Nico held up his hands and gave in, "Okay, okay. I know. I'm just saying." He ran a hand over his hair and sighed. "It just...isn't the same without you."

Yeah, the Brotherhood was who took him in when he had no one. But Yana made an effort to actually make sure he had someone living and breathing to talk to when he needed it.

He's like 50 percent sure the rest of the Brotherhood views him as the Grim Reaper.

Illyana fell silent for a while, her eyes dropping towards the floor. "I'm sorry," she said finally, looking back up with a sad, apologetic expression. "I...it's not the same without you, either." And it wasn't. She loved Kitty, and Vex, and Billy - but Nico understood what it was like to feel like you were always on the outside looking in in a way no one else ever seemed to, and without her having to try to explain it.

Nico nodded, not sure what else to say. Yana was the first person who seemed to just...accept him. No questions.

The last person who did that was Bianca. Well, the only other person. Now isn't that a depressing thought.

"So uh...do you have to go to classes and stuff?"

Illyana smiled, just a little. At least he wasn't just writing the idea off entirely. She'd take it, for now.