Tamara and Warren, September 22

[ax_angel]

Tamara and Warren clear the air once and for all--and then do some wing work.


TEXT FROM WARREN: You busy after class? Feel like I haven't seen you in forever. Barely saw you at the party.

Tamara raised an eyebrow a the message, carefully considering her response. Homework blows, lets def hang out instead

Name the place and I'm there.

Courtyard after class? She wanted to soak up as much sun as possible before it started getting cold. Gotta work my wings out, you can help. ;)

Hell yeah! See you there.

And just as promised, when classes were over, Warren was in the courtyard. This time he actually had on a plain, white tank top, but it clung to every plane and line of his torso like it was painted on. No shoes, though. That meant he expected to fly. He waved.

Tamara followed a few minutes later, wearing a loose black halter top and some leggings, the waistband folded down so it wouldn't rub the base of her wings where they joined her back just above her tailbone. If it left a little of her stomach showing, well, she'd never had a problem showing some skin.

"Hey you," she greeted him, smile a bit more withdrawn than usual as she nodded toward the lake. "Come on, lets get some grass under us in case I fall."

"Hey stranger," Warren replied, grinning. He started toward the nearest field, hands tucked into his pockets, by Tamara's side. "Let's rock n roll, yeah. We need to get some of those gym mats out here. The big puffy ones. Especially considering how man fliers we have these days."

"Jeez, how bad at this do you think I'm gonna be?" Tamara rolled her eyes, trying to keep a smile from breaking through. Mostly she'd learned that if she got overeager while working her wings out she could knock herself onto her ass by mistake, but she wasn't aiming to get airborne yet.

"I didn't mean just you!" He held up his hands I surrender and laughed. "Maybe a net would be better for aerial maneuvers anyhow.

"How are they feeling?" He indicated her wings, stretching out his own and lazily checking out her midriff.

Tamara turned to face him as they reached a likely patch of grass. Catching his eyes on her body, she flapped her wings to puff air at him.

"Hey, both my eyes and my wings? Up here." She was smirking, and it was playful, but there was just a bit of edge to it too.

Warren snapped to attention and flushed. "Sorry, Tam. Inappropriate." He could ogle whomever he wanted, so long as they wanted it too. He was aware that he'd lost privileges, if not before last weekend... well, after it, he'd given them up entirely.

Shit. Should he tell her? He should tell her. He didn't wanna tell her.

"You know I don't mind inappropriate," Tamara replied, rolling her eyes at him. Like a puppy, srsly. "But I'm not a free show, and I'm pretty sure you're never actually gonna make a move. So unless and until that changes..." She gave him a shrug and half a smile. "Eyes front, solider."

"Actually, you're right, and I'm glad you brought it up," he admitted, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Our timing was off. All over the place. I don't want to screw around. I don't like who it makes me."

And I do like who JP makes me. And Simon too. Better not bring that up. Ahem.

"And I don't wait for anyone," Tamara told him. It hurt to hear him say it, because she had been waiting for him, even if she hadn't meant to. Not super romantically or anything, but waiting for the moment to be right.

All summer - waiting for Warren, waiting for her back to heal, waiting for people to speak up about the protest, waiting for her mom to come around, waiting to learn to fly -

As of last night, Tamara was done waiting.

Warren smiled wryly. He could try arguing: I told you where I stood, I told you why. He could try logic: you never made a move either. But something told him if she ever would've cared, she was long past it now.

Not like he was blameless. Opposite. But he'd been there done that with her. So all he said was, "Good."

"...good? That's it?" Tamara looked just a little put out. She'd expected him to at least argue a little, or maybe apologize (he tended to do that), or... something. What the hell was wrong with all the boys around here? (Well, not all, Tommy's performance was extremely satisfactory so far...) Srsly, this was terrible for her ego.

Warren had halfway expected her to yell, so this was... better, at least. He nodded. "Yeah. It's good that you know you don't have to wait on anyone. That you deserve what you want on your own terms. So... good."

Tamara studied him intensely for a moment before saying, "I can't decide if you're being sweet or a dick."

"Probably both, though I'm really just trying to be..." Warren shrugged, wings rustling behind him in slight frustration. "Honest. I don't think you should wait for anyone or anything. I know you don't need to."

Tamara was still frowning, though not too severely, and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well could you at least have the decency to look at least a little disappointed, or something?" Did that not factor into his supposed honesty? If nothing was going to happen, fine, but she still wanted him to feel like he was missing out - was that so much to ask?

Warren smiled, but did manage to repress the laugh threatening to bubble up. In truth, "I am disappointed. Believe me. And when you look like that, it really drives it home." Seriously, that fire... literal fire sometimes, but metaphorical fire too. "Our timing was just off. I'll regret that for a long time."

A smile was tugging at Tamara's lips too. "Alright, that's better anyway," she said, smirking a bit. And teasing Warren was always gonna be fun, so, "He must be really good."

She didn't mean it, of course, it was just her way of asking about him and JP. She flared her wings, starting to stretch them out in preparation for actually working them.

He laughed. "Oh, just ask him. He'll tell you." Warren could tell her too, but... too soon.

"Watch out, I just might," Tamara pointed out, tongue in cheek as she started flapping her wings, trying to build the muscles up.

Warren laughed and watched her wings, stretching his own up and out. He figured someday they'd be able to talk about their respective love lives. But probably not today. "They look really strong, Tam. All your work shows."

"Thanks!" They were starting to feel really good too - this kind of exercise didn't hurt anymore, not until she'd really pushed it. "Might even get airborne one of these days..."

"Very near future," Warren said with a serious nod. "How's internet fame treating you these days?"

"Oh, y'know," she said, having a little more trouble focusing on the conversation now. Keeping her wings steady and even was tricky. Unlike Warren and Shen's wings, hers had long, thin 'finger' bones running their length and influencing the pull and stretch of the webbing and muscles. "There are some sick fuckers out there, and they're all lining up and demanding my attention."

Warren admired her form--with quite a different look than the one he'd been giving her midriff a moment ago. Her wings worked so differently, it was fascinating. He hoped he'd still be able to help, but hey. Moral support, if not, right? "Anything I can do to provide backup?"

"Without going public, you mean?" Tamara had worked up enough power that she was puffing air over Warren, but lost her focus and got off-balance, nearly knocking herself over as one wing pushed harder than the other. She righted herself with a tense frown, focusing again. "Not unless you're able to do something about all the nutjobs and creepers." Which would surprise her.

"Depends," Warren admitted. "I'm guessing Tessa or someone already has you protected from anyone figuring out where you are, yeah?"
"Kitty," Tamara replied, "though Tessa had something to do with it too? Dunno, I don't really know her at all." Then, unrelated, "Here, hold my hands?"

She held both hands out to him expectantly, wings going still for the moment.

He took her hands and planted his feet shoulder-width apart to stabilize himself. "We're lucky to have so many geniuses. I mean, of course, since we're the best, but still. You should meet Tessa though. She's... different. And I mean that as a compliment. Mysterious but upfront? It's crazy."

Tamara flapped a few times to test how stable he was, saying, "I've seen her around," the school was too small not to know who pretty much everyone was, "but she's always seemed... kinda creepy?"

She bit her lip and started really pushing her wings, stretching them all the way out so they filled completely with air. She'd never done it like this before (any time she got close she ended up knocking herself over), but with Warren anchoring her, she started to feel herself lifting into the air.

"She is," Warren admitted. "But it's kinda in a hot way." And then-- "Whoa! Nice!"

"God, you're such a boy," Tamara accused playfully, but it was strained as she focused on keeping herself off the ground, wings flapping about as fast as she could make them go. She was managing to hover at about Warren's eye level, and her face lit up with a grin. The longer she kept at it, the easier it got as her wings figured themselves out.

"What did you expect me to be? An angel?" He laughed, watching her with delight and squeezing her hands.

She was glad he was tethering her as one wing went a little awry, and she swung to the side (but luckily didn't lose any altitude). "Oh-- oh, okay, got it!" She beat her wings harder, unable to stop her sideways movement. "I think..." God, the way her wings moved in three dimensions was just so complicated... she over compensated and shot back in the other direction and upward. "Eep!"

Warren hung on, doing his best to stabilize--and not let her fly off in random directions. The way she was moving, she'd end up on her head in a pile of leaves. "I have no idea what your wings are doing, but if it helps, it looks cool as hell."

"It helps," she told him, pretty flustered but not giving up yet. She tried to course-correct, almost got away from Warren as she went higher (which sent her heart pounding because height was bad, she didn't know how to land without help, crap--), tried to fix it and instead ended up crashing forward into Warren with a yelp.

He wasn't ready for that--he should've been, what he wasn't. He went sprawling backwards onto his wings--which made for a nice landing, at least, even if the primaries felt a little pinched on the right one. He did manage to throw his arms around Tamara safely, though, so she wouldn't injure her wings. That was the last thing she needed, now she could finally use them.

And then, when they were on the ground, her on top of him... he started laughing. "We... gotta stop meeting like this..."
Once he laughed, Tamara cracked up too. Laughing meant she hadn't hurt him.

"Ohmygod, are you okay?" she asked, sitting up (carefully, so she didn't catch his wings under her knees or anything). She didn't try to get off him yet, because that would require getting her own wings straightened out first, and making sure Warren wasn't hurt came first. It was the truth, too - straddling him for a minute was just an entirely enjoyable side effect, but she wasn't making a move (he should be so lucky). "Jeez, my wings are totally hazardous to your health."

Warren kept chuckling--and actively reminding himself not to notice that it felt good to have her legs wrapped around him. Talk about inappropriate... "I'm fine, I'm not that breakable. I can totally handle our crashes. Hell, I'm starting to enjoy them.

"You okay?"

Tamara was grinning down at him, hands on his chest where they'd landed, and for a moment her expression went sultry - trouble, trouble, we could enjoy them so much more - but she made herself push the thought away. Right, they weren't doing that anymore. Didn't change the instinct...

"I'm perfect, I had you to break my fall," she pointed out with a smirk. She glanced over one shoulder, lining her wings up so she'd be able to stand without catching the long finger-like bones on the ground, because that was super painful. And apparently something the bird-types didn't have to worry about... "Okay, I think I'm good," she said, pushing herself carefully upright, and only sending him one flirtatious look when she was standing over him, before carefully stepping away without catching his wing underfoot. She offered him a hand up, saying, "And you're sure your wings are good? Can you really just land on them like that?"

Warren couldn't help laughing at and enjoying her little looks and touches. This was... how things were going to be, though. God knew he wasn't tempted in any real way--she was hot, but he knew what he wanted now--but the attraction wasn't going to disappear into thin air, right?

He accepted her hand and rolled to his feet, then shook out his wings. "Yeah--sometimes I even end up sleeping on them for a while. They get cramped but as long as they're tucked up right, it's all good.

"Yours look way more flexible--maybe they'll be the same?"

"Maybe?" Tamara didn't sound too hopeful. She turned so Warren had a view of her wings. "They've got these long 'finger' bones," she said, stretching that portion of her wing. She was close enough that he could touch if he wanted, she didn't mind. "If it was just the big bones, that'd be fine, but laying on those is really painful. Like pulling your fingers back the wrong way, but way bigger."

Carefully, Warren touched the end of one of the "finger bones" and then held it between two fingers, pulling gently to see how it worked. "Wow. This is complicated. It really is like a hand, but not. So cool."

"I love 'em," Tamara said, smiling over at him, "but they're definitely a hassle. At least I can sleep on my side again now?"

"Nice." Warren let go the wing and smiled. "What did Simon say about them? Maybe he can help with, like, mechanics stuff?"

Tamara smirked, mischief in her eyes. "Yeah, he's been great. ...I kinda found out about his mutation by accident and had him pay for my silence in wings rubs?"

Warren arched an eyebrow. "I knew you were the first to find out; I didn't know there was blackmail involved." Then he cracked a smile. "I think he likes being useful to us, no matter how cranky he acts.

"You should pick his brain about stability issues. He probably has a mental catalogue of useful books, even if his powers can't help."

"In my defense," Tamara said, pointing a finger at him, "I only found out because he got really handsy with my wings and I thought he was being a perv." She let her grin break through, because it was Simon and now that she knew him, it was really funny. "But come on, I never would've outed him, wings rubs or no. I even lied to Shen the other night to keep his secret."

Warren had heard the story before, of course, but this version was decidedly more hilarious. He bit down on his lip, but laughed anyhow. "Please, do not tell Simon you told me this story. But yes, I know you wouldn't have outed him. Actually, I told him that.

"I was super proud of him for what he did, coming out like that. Took major balls."

Tamara grinned up at him. "Agreed - but with a less sexist metaphor, because ew." Seriously, who decided that a) bravery should be linked to testes, and b) that this should be tossed into every day conversations? And no one was ever like 'wow, that chick must have some serious ovaries on her!' or whatever.

But back on Simon. "...did he tell you the part where I tased him?" she asked, trying and failing to contain a smirk. "Because I totally tased him."

Warren winced--but at least it cut him off from reminding her that some women had balls, okay. "That's what those burns were from? Jesus, Tam!"

"What? He was totally feeling me up without permission! I didn't know." She bit her lip, because yeah, she'd given him some minor burns... but it was still funny, because Simon. "...and I'd never shocked someone through my wings before, so my control was maybe not so great? But still! Strangers playing doctor to cop a feel will be shocked, I stand by it." And even if it was funny in retrospect, she still remembered feeling sooooo violated in the actual moment.

"Honestly, I wish there was just something everyone could wear that'd shock the shit out of pervs," Warren said with a chuckle. "It's awesome. I just--I mean, knowing it's Simon, and he's not a perv, it's kind of unfortunate."

"It's also why it's funny," Tamara pointed out, but she did look like she felt at least a little guilty about it. She was genuinely fond of Simon, after all. "But yeah, he's been a total gentleman, almost infuriatingly upstanding." She smirked playfully. "Gotta love a guy who'll still give you amazing wing rubs after being unfairly zapped, right?"

"Sounds like him." Especially the amazing wing rub part, but Warren... yeah. Not going there. Hell, he didn't even know if Simon wanted it out there that he was dating both of them. Even if Tamara was someone Warren could talk to about that. Which for the moment she was not. "I'm glad you guys worked it out. He needs more friends. I worry about that guy."

"He'll be fine, now that he's out," Tamara replied confidently. "Everyone else just has to get the 'not a creep' memo, y'know? But he's one of us, and a good guy. A total dork who needs to learn to talk like a person and not a textbook," she added with a fond smirk, "but he's smart, so he'll figure it out eventually."

Warren chuckled. "I doubt anyone he wasn't massaging would think he was a creep--a stuck-up weirdo maybe, but not a creep. Still, point taken, and I agree. I have faith in him." Warren's smile went a little lopsided before he reminded himself not to get sappy. "And in your wings! Wanna try again?"

Tamara rolled her eyes. "I meant the whole flat-scan studying us where we live cover story," she clarified, but was already moving on with a grin. "And yes, I really do! You sure you're up for it?"

"Always." He held out his hands and let the flat-scan thing lie. He couldn't blame anyone for that. Just because he'd thought it was smart of Xavier. Heh. "Let's do it."