Billy and Ororo - Backdated

[ax_storm]

Ororo puts her exploration of the mansion on hold when she's stared at by another student - but it turns out he's all right, and they even do a spot of flying in the lobby.


Ororo set her bags down in the empty double room. She could put things away right now. Or she could have a look around this (gigantic) place. She'd had long conversations with both Professor Xavier and Ainet before agreeing to come, and she did feel as if he was trustworthy. He seemed to have the same goal in mind as she did. But it didn't mean that she didn't feel as if she needed to know every square inch of this (gigantic) place.

Bags dropped on the left-side bed, Ororo set out without even beginning to unpack.

Dressed in ripped black jeans and a dark grey long-sleeved tee, the white-mohawked Black mutant started to explore the mansion. After thirty minutes casing what felt like only a quarter of the house, she found herself in the lobby, looking around and trying to decide where to go and explore next.

Billy sighed as he shifted his bag on his shoulder, not sure why textbooks, no matter what school it was, were always heavy a freaking bricks. He trudged through the lobby, but came up short when he noticed someone he had never seen before and this person was hard to miss.

She looked like something off of a rock album, her white mohawk being by far the sickest thing. He shook his head when he realized he had been staring and gave a small wave. "Hi."

Ororo looked over at the kid when he stepped into the foyer, and tilted her head curiously, eyebrows slightly raised, when it turned out that he was staring. At her. "Hi," she answered when he finally spoke. She hoped it was about the mohawk, and not the color of her skin. She'd seen a lot of whiteness around so far.

She stepped closer, trying to figure out how to make a casual acquaintance. She'd never really had to, that she could remember. "I just got in, I was looking around." Her accent was discreet but present. She'd learned English as a kid, but she hadn't spoken it regularly since her parents had died.

The accent she had was very subtle, but it sounded really nice and he smiled, his cheeks reddening little at being caught outright staring. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare. Your hair is just really cool. You said you just got in, right? Who are you rooming with?"

So it was the mohawk. Good. Well, better than the alternative. "She hasn't arrived yet," Ororo replied with a shake of her head. "I'm Ororo. Ororo Munroe," she added, figuring that she ought to introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you, Ororo." He made sure to pronounce it right, not wanting to slip up that bad with her to right off the bat. "I'm Billy Kaplan. Wow, so we have even more new students coming in. Now I don't feel quite so alone, I came here only about a week ago. So, from one new kid to the next, welcome!"

He grinned and shifted his backpack again, the straps digging into his shoulders.

"Thanks," she told him with a small, friendly nod. "What do you make of this place so far?" She doubted they would come at it with the same background, but she was still curious.

"Umm...well, it's nice. I mean, I've never been to a boarding school before, but it seems to be a pretty good place to learn and live? So far, pretty much everyone is nice, except for a select few, so that's pretty good." He tried to list off everything he had been worried about when he first arrived.

"Oh! And depending on how well you know your powers, they have a pretty sweet practice room set up so you can try them out without having to worry about destroying stuff or hurting anyone."

"The Danger Room," Ororo remembered. "Professor Xavier mentioned it." It had not sounded as appealing as the wide plains she had just left, but hopefully it would be interesting in its own way. "Have you tried it?"

"Yeah." He nodded, think of the few times he's used it since being here. "It really does help, like take me. I have electrokinesis as my main thing and I have like almost zero control, so it really helps to get in there and work at it."

"You control electricity," Ororo sussed out, after a second. It wasn't a word she had ever encountered before, but thankfully, she had heard of telekinesis before. "Lightning?"

"Well, kinda. I mean it's for sure electricity, but I've only been able to do huge lightening strikes a few times so far." He held up his hand and focused, smiling when a small current of blue electricity wound around his fingers and disappeared into his palm. "I'm still working on it. What about you? What are your powers?"

Ororo smiled as she watched the electricity spark and run across his fingers, then looked back up at him. "Weather control." She held one hand up, eyes going white as electricity jumped all over it for a few seconds, before she dispersed it back into ambient electromagnetism. "Including lightning."

"Holy shit! That's amazing!" Billy squawked, loving how her eyes went white and everything. "So, can you make it rain like all over New York or is it on a smaller scale? It doesn't really matter cause weather control is pretty kick ass."

"I could probably do it," Ororo stated after a beat. If she spent enough time figuring it out. "I'm not sure why I would want to, though."

"To test? But no, you're right. Don't try covering New York in rain, it won't get clean no matter how much you try." He smiled up at her and then had an idea. "Do your powers let you control wind too? Can you lift yourself up with it?"

That was an oddly specific thing to ask. Maybe he had heard of the Windrider, the weather goddess? She was not sure whether the story had made to Western media. "Yes," Ororo confirmed. "Why?"

"Really?!" He said a bit too loudly, his excitement clear on his face. "I had always wondered if a strong enough wind came along if it could carry a person, ya know like a tornado or something, but controlled."

Ororo smiled, before her eyes went white. Wind started whisking through the lobby, and she raised a couple of meters up into the air, hands out at her sides. "Question answered?"

"Oh my god. You are fantastic!" Billy couldn't help but do a little fanboying at her demonstration, even if his hair was flying into his face and mouth.

Ororo lowered herself slightly, towards him, until she could hold her hands out to him. "Want to join me?"

"Oh." Billy blinked, then grinned with a small nod, letting his heavy backpack fall to the floor with a loud thud. Reaching out, he placed both his hands in hers and only for a second thought of trying to use his own levitating powers, but decided against it cause it wasn't everyday people were lifted up by actual wind!

"Don't drop me. I'm extremely ungraceful."

"I won't," Ororo told him, as the winds around him focused and intensified. "Focus on your core strength, or it won't be as comfortable a ride."

"Oh, uhhh..." He didn't exactly want to tell her that he really didn't quite know what his core was, so he just tried to focus on tightening everything. "Okay got ya."

Ororo grinned, and together they raised in the air, until they were halfway up to the (remarkably high) ceiling. "How does it feel?" she asked him, her grip steady on his hands.

"It feels crazy weird!" He laughed as he looked down at the floor. "I mean, I can kind fly, but this is on a whole other level."

He it was weird feeling wind on the bottom of his feet pushing up, like something was there but not!

"What's 'kind of flying' like?" Ororo asked with an amused smile, even as she lowered them back to the floor. When they reached it, the winds died down as her eyes regained their natural blue.

When Billy felt the ground under his feet again he felt a little easier and gave her a sheepish smile. "Well, kind of flying is where I know how to get up in the air, but I'm too much of a chicken to go too high or try anything besides levitating."

"It took me a couple of months to dare go higher than a couple of meters," Ororo assured him, letting go of his hands. She smiled playfully. "Are you calling me chicken?"

Billy's eyes widened, scared he had put his foot in his mouth already with the new girl, but when he saw her smile he relaxed a little and smiled back. "Well, obviously not, since you got over that hump. You graduated from chicken to eagle."

Ororo laughed at that. "And you will too, in time."

"Well, it is nice when good flyers have faith in you." Billy smiled as he picked his bag up again. "Where are you from, by the way? It's faint, but I can hear a little bit of an accent. It's really pretty."

It was not that faint, which told Ororo he did not want to be rude. "I grew up in Cairo. Egypt." She had no idea how much geography your basic American high school student knew.

"Whoa. That's pretty awesome!" Billy gushed, wondering how it was possible he was able to stand in the presence of someone so cool. "So, you lived right by the actual Nile?"

"Yes," Ororo confirmed, slightly puzzled by his response. Was he a river enthusiast? The Nile certainly was beautiful.

"Wow." He marveled and then realized she looked a little confused. "Ah. Sorry, I've only been out of the country like twice and once was to Canada, so to meet someone from Egypt ranks pretty high on my list. On my list of awesome!"

"It is a beautiful country," Ororo confirmed, now smiling with understanding. Not everything about Egypt in general, or Cairo in particular, was beautiful, but there was no use destroying Billy's wonder, not when a lot of it was.

"So, did you move all the way over here to go to school here?" He asked with a head tilt and a smile. "That's a long ways to come, but I guess this school is kind of one of a kind."

"The Professor's vision felt like it was worth moving for," Ororo replied honestly. "And word was spreading about me. It was not safe to stay where I was."

"Vision?" Billy tilted his head to the side. "Word was spreading? You mean, about you having powers?"

Since he had moved on from asking about the Professor's vision, Ororo focused on the second part of his questions. "Yes. It wasn't safe for anyone for me to stay. So I came."

"Oh no." Billy's expression moved into more of a concerned look. "Well, I'm glad you came here even if it wasn't for a hundred percent happy reasons."

"It was a good opportunity," Ororo agreed. She paused, then asked, "What is your favorite place here, Billy?"

"My favorite place?" Billy had to think about that, it wasn't something he really thought about a lot. He liked his room, but that was cause he had a cool roommate so that didn't really count. "Well, even though I really still kinda suck with my powers, the Danger Room is kind of nice, specially since you don't really have to worry about what your powers might do if you mess up. Also, the rec room is pretty great."

"No," Ororo smiled, shaking her head. "Your favorite place. Not somewhere that's nice. Somewhere that feels like yours, even if you have to share it sometimes. I won't steal it, though," she assured him, smiling again. "I'm just curious - about you, and this place."

"Oh." He flushed, feeling a little silly, but smiled when the answer was clear. "Then, yeah, I guess it would have to be my room. I know that sounds lame, but it's quiet and my roommate is nice. It's got all my stuff too so there's that."

She was new so he probably couldn't ask her the same thing, but he wondered if she could find a favorite place here. "What room are you in? I hope you get a really nice roommate, so you can have a favorite place too."

"I'm sure I'll have a favorite place regardless," Ororo assured him, "but I hope she's nice, too. I'm in 206."

"Oh, I hope so too." Billy liked Ororo, she seemed really nice and cool. She deserved to have a roommate just as nice and cool as her. "Can I ask you a question that I'm sure you get a lot?"

Ororo was not sure what question he might mean, but she nodded all the same. "Ask."

"How do you get your hair to stand up like that?"

Ororo laughed at the question. "It's the first time in a long time. I frizz it. Then I can shape it however I want."

"Alright." Billy started, holding up his pointer finger. "Let's pretended I don't know what frizzing is, cause I obviously do, but what exactly does fizzing entail?"