Illyana and Pyro | Backdated to 10/17
Oct. 17th, 2017 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainPyro visits in the aftermath of Innocence Lost. Many things are said, and even more left unsaid.
She must, Illyana decided, really look like shit. It was the only reason she could think of why the Professor would have given her such a look of concern before agreeing to Pyro's visit - which was a surprise in and of itself. Still, she had to admit he'd been...decent, the night before, when he'd called her to his office to find out what had happened in Limbo.
Far better, in her opinion, than she'd deserved. After all, it had all been her fault.
That hadn't stopped the rumors from starting, of course, especially once someone had latched onto the word "demon". Which didn't bother her. At all. She was just...
Illyana sighed and swiped at her eyes, and sat down on the ground outside the mansion, oblivious to the cool temperature. Granted, the Professor had said Pyro coming was fine, provided she didn't give him access to any Restricted areas, but she didn't want him to have to deal with any shit from the students if they could avoid it. It was enough - more than enough - that he was coming at all.
She still couldn't quite believe he'd even offered.
A portal opened and Pyro stepped out, giving Fatale the nod before it closed behind him. Front steps of that huge fucking house, check. No longer crying, definitely crappy-looking girlfriend, check. No one else around, motherfucking check. He moved in to hug Magik, joining her on the steps if necessary.
Illyana's breath caught as she saw Pyro step through the portal, and she bit at her lip as she got to her feet, resisting a very strong urge to throw herself into his arms and start crying again. "Hey," she managed to choke out, forcing a trace of a smile.
Pyro didn't bother saying anything straight away. Instead, he just wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
That was all it took. Arms wrapping around him in turn to cling tight, Illyana buried her face in his shoulder, taking in the scent of smoke and lighter fluid and Pyro, who'd actually come, just because she'd needed him. With that thought, and the reminder of what had happened to other people who'd recently come because she'd needed them, she began sobbing again.
Pyro didn't know what to do with the way he felt hearing her, feeling her break down like that against him, so he hardened his jaw and just kept on holding her. Were there even words to say? He sucked at words, so hopefully holding her would do the trick. He was the worst, coming over to help and unable to say a single word, but he wasn't sure he wanted to try to speak with how tight his throat felt right then, anyway.
For what seemed like forever, Illyana let herself cry, all the frustration, guilt, and exhaustion of the last however long it had been pouring out. When she finally stopped, her breath coming in broken rasps, she stayed there, her face hidden away in Pyro's shoulder. "I don't know what to say," she managed to whisper, despite the lump in her throat and the tightness in her chest.
Not to him, for coming when she knew how much he didn't want to, couldn't want to. Not to Kitty or Billy, who had every reason to hate her but who pretty obviously didn't. Not to the rest of the student body, who she was pretty sure did. Normally, she had some kind of clue, but right now...
No. She had no idea. All she knew was that she should really let go, and couldn't bring herself to do it.
"Makes two of us," Pyro replied after a moment. He kept his voice low, which meant it was hard to hear how thick it was at seeing her like this. Well, 'seeing', whatever. He moved a hand to her hair without pulling back from the full body hug, stroking it tenderly.
There wasn't anything to say to that, at least, so Illyana just closed her eyes, trying to pull herself together and focusing on the way Pyro's fingers felt, stroking her hair. Gradually, her breathing quieted, some of the tension draining away. "You don't have to say anything," she whispered finally. Because honestly, what could he say that him being here didn't say already?
He took her at her word and didn't say anything, at least for a while longer, just holding on to her, stroking her hair, and her back. Eventually, though, he leaned back to look at her. He'd meant to say something, but all of his words felt lame, so he just leaned in and kissed her instead, hoping to put it all into the action.
Illyana kissed him back, and offered a faint smile as she broke the kiss and pulled back. "Thank you. For coming, I mean." She took a deep breath and exhaled. "It...really, I -" Why did everything sound so fake, when she meant it so much? She shook her head and met his eyes. "Maybe I should've just kept texting. I can't seem to manage to say anything right."
"That's the good thing with this, instead of texts," Pyro remarked, holding her gaze. "Neither one of us has to say anything." He glanced at the mansion behind her, then looked back at her. "You think we could go somewhere a little more private?" He did not want to run into anyone.
"Yeah. Inside or out?" Illyana smiled faintly and shrugged. "I figured I'd leave it up to you." Which was why she'd been sitting on the steps outside to begin with. She'd just gotten sidetracked for a while.
"You know the place better than I do," Pyro replied, but looked around. "Guess we're less likely to see anyone outside?"
"Probably." Illyana slipped her arm around him and started heading towards the hedge maze, then paused. "You're not going to get in trouble for this, are you?" she asked, concerned.
"Wanda agreed to cover for me," Pyro replied, and started them walking again, an arm around her shoulders. He was getting very used to having her in his space like that, and he didn't mind. "I'm not sure whether I would be, anyway." It was hard to tell, with Magneto.
"Tell Wanda thanks for me?" She tilted her head in against his shoulder and walked on without speaking for a few long moments, thinking. "I expected to be in serious trouble," she said finally. "I mean, this time I actually deserved to be, right? But the Professor just looked at me for a long time, then shook his head and said something about finishing out my latest grounding with a bit more attention to the part where I was actually grounded."
"Wow, he stopped being an asshole," Pyro stated dryly. Of course she didn't deserve to be in trouble, none of this was her fault. "How long do you have left?"
"A few weeks." She smiled faintly and peered up at him. "After which I vote we disappear for a weekend before I can get myself grounded again."
Pyro would rather they disappeared forever, but hey. He'd take a weekend. "Whatever you want," he said, and meant it a little too much.
"What do you want?" Illyana asked curiously, relieved to just not-think about recent events for a while.
"To run away with you for a lot longer than a weekend?" he offered, glancing at her.
Illyana's lips quirked up and she tightened her arm around him and returned her head to his shoulder. "Sounds nice." Maybe not do-able, realistically. But still. Really nice.
"Sounds fucking perfect," Pyro replied. 'Nice' didn't do it justice, what could he say.
"Okay, perfect then. Where would we go?" After all, it was nice to dream, right? She could use a few that weren't nightmares, these days.
He figured 'the clubhouse' wasn't the answer she was looking for, but the truth was, Pyro didn't know much of anywhere else he'd like to be. "Honestly, I don't care. Anywhere you like. You're the teleporter."
"I'm a teleporter who really hasn't been much of anywhere," she pointed out. "Limbo's not really my idea of a vacation spot." Except that sometimes, it was. Still, it wasn't an option at the moment.
"Mage, you've been to fucking London," Pyro pointed out. Now he'd been nowhere, not unless you counted their missions for the Brotherhood, and he didn't.
"Well, yeah. But just to pick people up, mostly." She grinned a little. "And one shopping trip with Vex. I got my outfit for the party there. But I didn't figure you really wanted to go shopping."
"I've been even fewer places than you have, was my point," he replied, feeling all kinds of inadequate all over again, and he didn't even know why. She didn't care about that shit, or why would she be with him?
"So? Let's go somewhere." She smiled, then let it fade and sighed. "Or not. I really need to deal with Belasco before I do much teleporting."
"Not on your own," Pyro said, immediately and firmly. No fucking way, over his dead body.
"And you get to tell me no, why?" Illyana asked, her eyebrows raising. "I told you, I'm not letting anyone else get hurt because of me."
Pyro stiffened and stopped walking. "Why do you think I'm here, Mage? I fucking care about you."
"Yeah, well, I fucking care about you, too," Illyana pointed out. "I don't want to see you dead, okay? And I definitely don't want to end up in a situation where I have to kill you myself!"
"Why would you have to kill me?" Pyro asked, his level matching hers.
"Because I had to kill Cat and Ashake, okay?" She swiped at her eyes, which were tearing up again "I had to. And Belasco would do something to make sure I had to kill you, too!"
That took the wind right out of Pyro's sails, and he just stared at her in silence for a beat. But then resolve settled on his face again. "We won't let that happen."
"And we're going to do that, how?" Illyana demanded. She pushed her hand back through her hair, then held it, in a fist, off to one side. "Belasco loves puns. Want to be turned into a fire demon and be ordered to burn me to death? Because that could happen. Except he'd stop you short, because he doesn't actually want me dead. He'd just think it was funny." She sighed and let go of her hair. "Maybe I should just let him have me. Then it'd all be over."
"For someone who says she doesn't want to hurt the people she cares about, you're coming up with all the worst solutions," Pyro stated, his arm having fallen from her shoulders when she'd put her hand in her hair. "He would have you already if it wasn't for Kitty and Billy." Which wasn't easy to admit, but whatever, it was true. "They were able to hold him off for how long? Think of what you could do with a team who's actually had training. We've got the Billy original." Soul-mother, whatever. That shit was way too complicated for him.
"And I've got a new weapon. That's what kept Kitty and Billy alive - Kitty was using it." She met his eyes. "Besides, would you really want to risk him killing off your team? I wouldn't. They were nice to me at the party."
"There's a lot less risk of anyone dying if we all go in together," Pyro replied stubbornly. If there was one thing he'd learned with the Brotherhood, it was the value of having a team. "You danced with us. They'd come." That song had meant something, okay? Stupid though it sounded to think so. He'd ask about the weapon in a moment.
Illyana sighed. She wasn't exactly sure what having danced with them had to do with anything, though she remembered feeling as if she were a part of things. She'd figured that was just her, though - maybe not? "I'll think about it, okay? I'm not going to do anything yet, anyway. I need to get some practice in. I haven't used a sword much in years.""
"That's how Kitty used against the demons? A sword?" Pyro asked. He held blades and their danger in high regard; just look at Fatale. But he'd expected something a little... more. "Is it magic?"
"It's very definitely magic." Illyana looked around - there was no one in sight, and they were nearly to the hedge maze anyway - and then stared at her hand and concentrated, until a glowing silver sword began to materialize. "It was one hell of a spell, but it worked."
"That's sick," Pyro stated appreciatively, glancing from the sword at Magik's face. "What does it do?"
"I'm not totally sure," Illyana admitted, pulling her attention from the sword, which had now manifested fully, and looking back at Pyro. "Kitty said she disintegrated S'ym with it, but I really didn't ask her for details. I'm going to have to do some experimenting to find out."
"So he's dead?" Pyro asked hopefully. Disintegration sounded pretty... final. And he was all for that dick being dead.
"Maybe?" Illyana wasn't entirely ready to commit to that just yet - she'd seen S'ym survive too many things to believe it until he actually didn't show up again. "I've never seen him disintegrate before, so I think that's probably a good sign."
"Fingers crossed." All of this was making it hard to keep hating Kitty, but if it was the price to pay for Magik's survival (and, hopefully, S'ym's death), he'd take it.
Illyana held up her free hand, showing that her fingers were crossed as well, then looked down at the sword and sighed. This was the one part she wasn't incredibly fond of, though she'd done it a few times just to make sure it worked. "Okay, don't freak," she advised Pyro. "I'm just going to put it away."
Turning the sword around, she closed her eyes and plunged it, point first, into her chest, reflecting that really, there had to be a better way.
"Holy fuck," he let out, with feeling. "You have to do that every time?"
"So far, yeah." The sword disappeared, and Illyana reopened her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "Not sure if that was part of the spell or because of something Billy or Kitty did after I passed out. Probably the former, though - nothing in Limbo comes without a dark side."
"How about driving it into like, your thigh instead of your chest?" Pyro asked. "Or your hand, or... anything that doesn't look like ritual suicide."
"It's a soul sword," Illyana pointed out. "Apparently, it figures my soul is in my heart or something. Though I tried my stomach once, and that worked okay too." She quirked just a trace of a smile. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't even seem to cut anything. It just kinda absorbs."
"Soul sword. That sounds hippie and badass at once." Pyro winced. "Maybe you could pretend your soul's in your hand."
Illyana's eyebrows rose and she looked at Pyro with an "are you serious?" expression. "It doesn't work that way. I'd have to believe it, and I know my soul's not in my hand." She grimaced. "Well, what's left of it, anyway." She froze a moment later, the blood draining from her face. "Oh, fuck."
"What?" Pyro asked with a frown, taking a step closer to her on instinct.
"My amulet. That son of a bitch was wearing my amulet." Illyana reached up to push her hair back from her forehead and closed her eyes. This was not good. She wasn't sure what, if anything, Belasco could really do with it without the other two bloodstones, but she didn't like him having it anyway.
"What..." Pyro wasn't sure whether that was supposed to mean something to him. "What does that mean?"
"That means...damn. I was kind of hoping to avoid this conversation," she admitted, reopening her eyes. Not that Pyro would necessarily care - she suspected he probably wouldn't - but it was just really hard to explain. She sighed and gestured to the opening in the hedge maze. "Let's go find somewhere to sit down first, okay? This might take a while."
"Okay," Pyro replied hesitantly, still frowning. But whatever. He walked with her into the maze, hoping they'd come across a bench or whatever soon.
They didn't find one soon, per se, but it wasn't terribly long before they found themselves at the gazebo in the heart of the maze, where Illyana plopped down gracelessly on one of the benches. "Right. My amulet." She looked over at Pyro awkwardly. "I told you Belasco lured my into Limbo when I was a kid, right? Because he wanted to use me to release the Ancient Ones to Earth?"
"Yeah," Pyro confirmed, still frowning.
"So, to do that, he..." She looked over at him. "He formed a blood stone. He cut me for the blood, then took a piece of my soul, warped it, and set it in an amulet. When all five were full, he said, that's when the power would be mine, and the Elder Ones would return." She grimaced. "And before you say it, yes, this is real, not just some bullshit he fed me. Ashake confirmed it. That's why she worked so hard to try and keep me from him - she didn't want him to do it again."
"Wait, so. Souls are an actual thing." Soul sword or not, this was kind of new to him. "And he took part of yours."
"Yes. And yes." She took a breath and exhaled. "Three parts of mine, total. I'm really not kidding when I say I'm part demonic."
"So he's done three stones, but there's still two to go?" Pyro checked, to make sure he was understand it all.
Illyana nodded. "Still two. But right now, I'm mostly just worried that he's got his hands on the three. I brought the amulet with me when I took off," she explained, "but he was wearing it when I woke up there."
"So we gotta take it back," Pyro stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. If anyone was going to own pieces of Magik's soul, it really ought to be her. "Can he do anything with them?"
"Anything more than he's already done?' Illyana shrugged and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, her forehead in her palms. "I don't know. Nothing I know how to do, but that doesn't mean much. He might be able to use it to track me, but if he got his hands on it, he knows where I am anyway. Luckily, he can't come here himself."
"Why not?" Pyro asked with a frown.
Illyana raised her head to look up at him, puzzled. "He can't leave Limbo. He's...basically, he's stuck there. All he can do is send demons after me."
"Huh." It was a limitation, and they ought to be able to make something of it, but Pyro sucked at thinking strategically, and he gave up almost immediately. "OK. So. You need to practice your swordfighting, and we need to get that amulet back. And he might send demons after you in the meantime."
"You make it sound really easy," Illyana complained, though she straightened back up, feeling, just for a moment, as if it might not be impossible. "And I still haven't agreed to the 'we' part."
"Because you're still emotionally fucked up over what just happened," Pyro stated bluntly. "But you're not an idiot, and I really hope you don't have a death wish, so you'll come 'round." It was the only way he could see this going. Anything else and he would be out the door, honestly.
"I don't have a death wish," she said. "I just...sometimes it feels like it'd be easier, y'know?" She peered up at him, fingers brushing back through her hair to hold it back from her face.
It felt like his blood ran cold when she said that. "Don't talk like that. Easy's bullshit." He reached for her hand, because he had to touch her then, or he might start shouting.
Illyana took his hand and squeeze it, then nodded. "I know. I'm not sure I'd know what to do with easy if I had it." She forced a tired smile and tugged at his hand. "How long can you stay?" It was a change of subject, and at the same time, it really didn't feel as if it was.
"How long d'you want me to stay?" he asked, instead.
"I'm guessing forever would be way too long, huh?" Illyana shook her head. "Kidding, sorry. As long as you're willing to?" She smiled, a little. "I still can't believe you came."
"I don't know what kind of asshole you think I am, but you said you couldn't stop crying," Pyro pointed out. Of course he'd come, and now he shifted closer and put his arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her forehead.
"I don't think you're an asshole." Illyana rolled her eyes and leaned into him, tilting her head onto his shoulder. "I just know you hate it here."
"I like you more than I hate it," he muttered against her hair.
And once more, Illyana was at a definite loss for words. He'd had a point though, earlier. Sometimes you didn't need them. She turned and reached up to pull his head down, and kissed him slowly.
Pyro poured those feelings into the kiss, eyes closed, heart hammering at what he'd just said, and how true it was.
There'd been a lot of kissing since they'd first started doing whatever it was they were doing, Illyana mused as she tried to put everything she couldn't figure out how to say into the kiss. This seemed different, in a way she couldn't exactly define. Maybe it was saying everything she couldn't, and he couldn't...but at the same time, it seemed to be saying everything, in a way that made her heart pound and her head spin, and which somehow made her want to simultaneously want to run away and cling tighter. When she finally broke it, she tilted her forehead in against his and closed her eyes, trying to make sense of it all without any notable success.
Maybe he was right, and she was just still emotionally fucked up over what had happened in Limbo. Or maybe not.
Pyro's fingertips stroked the side of her face as he kept his eyes closed, throat tight, not sure what to do with the amount of feelings swelling up in his lungs. He swallowed, cleared his throat, then pulled back just enough to be able to look at her, unaware that all of the feelings in question were obvious in his eyes as he requested, "Please don't go up against him alone."
Whatever it was she was feeling, it was obvious from the look on his face that he was feeling it, too. Somehow, that was both reassuring and not, all at once, but conflicted feelings were definitely a thing, just now. Illyana chewed at her lip, knowing that if she promised, now, she was going to have to stick to it. After a long moment's deliberation, the silence thick between them, she nodded. "I'll try not to, okay? If I don't have a choice, I'm going to have to." She wouldn't go looking to, not unless something happened. But that, she couldn't promise. Things happened, sometimes.
Pyro wanted to protest that she would always have a choice, but he could tell he wasn't going to get anything better out of her. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know." She tilted her face towards his fingers, letting her eyes slip half shut for a moment before reopening them to meet his. "I don't want anything to happen to you, either. Can you understand that?" Too many things had happened to too many people she'd cared about, already.
"Nothing's gonna happen to me," Pyro assured her immediately. "I'm not gonna go and do anything without my team. And I trust them to have my back."
"Sounds nice," Illyana admitted. She smiled a little. "I mean, I trust my friends? But...I've never been part of anything like that. And I'm not really up for signing up for the one here, I don't think." She wrinkled her nose. "Partially because I have this bad feeling they're gonna end up butting heads again with yours at some point."
"You think?" Pyro had made a point not to ask too much about that team when she'd mentioned it, but she couldn't say something like that and expect him not to want to know more.
Illyana shrugged. "I don't know? But based on the people signing up or it, I'd guess so. Maybe." She offered a faint smile. "I probably should have paid more attention to what the Professor was saying about it, but I wasn't really interested and I was having too much fun watching people spaz out."
Pyro really hated the thought of going up against other mutants - unless they all were like Dragoness, fine. No, really, even then. But he would if he had to, and who knew. Maybe it wouldn't get to that. "So why else don't you wanna join?" he asked, instead, and chewed on his bottom lip as he waited for her answer.
Illyana frowned, her forehead furrowing in confusion. "That's not enough of a reason?" To her, it was. Granted, she'd like to have Kitty's back - but her roommate had lots of other friends, and a boyfriend who was signing up. She didn't need her.
"You said partially," Pyro stated with a frown. Did that word not mean what he thought it meant? Now he felt like an idiot.
"Oh." Illyana rubbed at her forehead. "Yeah. Sorry. I guess...well, that's mostly the reason?" she admitted. "Plus it all just seems...stupid, I guess. I'm all for defending my friends; not so much people I don't even know. And I'd make a horrible example or whatever they're looking for."
"You're too good for them, anyway," Pyro stated quietly, and kissed her hair again.
"And I'm the one who's supposedly prejudiced?" Illyana smiled softly and leaned back in to tighten her arms around him, less desperately this time.
Pyro wasn't sure what prejudiced meant, and he kissed her forehead, this time, to give himself time to come up with something to answer that didn't let on that fact. "You are, that's all." There. Not only was it true, but it would hopefully work.
"Definitely biased." Still, Illyana smiled, and just sat there a moment longer, letting some of the tension drain away. Because it was definitely bullshit - the reverse was considerably more likely to be the case - but it felt like he meant it. And just now, that felt really, really good.
Biased, that much he understood. His smile was audible in his voice as he answered, "My bias is the best bias, okay?"
"I'm really not arguing it," Illyana admitted. She should, probably - but she had, and it wasn't as if he didn't know pretty much everything at this point, anyway. She was giving it up as a lost cause.
"Good," Pyro stated, and squeezed her tighter for a moment.
She must, Illyana decided, really look like shit. It was the only reason she could think of why the Professor would have given her such a look of concern before agreeing to Pyro's visit - which was a surprise in and of itself. Still, she had to admit he'd been...decent, the night before, when he'd called her to his office to find out what had happened in Limbo.
Far better, in her opinion, than she'd deserved. After all, it had all been her fault.
That hadn't stopped the rumors from starting, of course, especially once someone had latched onto the word "demon". Which didn't bother her. At all. She was just...
Illyana sighed and swiped at her eyes, and sat down on the ground outside the mansion, oblivious to the cool temperature. Granted, the Professor had said Pyro coming was fine, provided she didn't give him access to any Restricted areas, but she didn't want him to have to deal with any shit from the students if they could avoid it. It was enough - more than enough - that he was coming at all.
She still couldn't quite believe he'd even offered.
A portal opened and Pyro stepped out, giving Fatale the nod before it closed behind him. Front steps of that huge fucking house, check. No longer crying, definitely crappy-looking girlfriend, check. No one else around, motherfucking check. He moved in to hug Magik, joining her on the steps if necessary.
Illyana's breath caught as she saw Pyro step through the portal, and she bit at her lip as she got to her feet, resisting a very strong urge to throw herself into his arms and start crying again. "Hey," she managed to choke out, forcing a trace of a smile.
Pyro didn't bother saying anything straight away. Instead, he just wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
That was all it took. Arms wrapping around him in turn to cling tight, Illyana buried her face in his shoulder, taking in the scent of smoke and lighter fluid and Pyro, who'd actually come, just because she'd needed him. With that thought, and the reminder of what had happened to other people who'd recently come because she'd needed them, she began sobbing again.
Pyro didn't know what to do with the way he felt hearing her, feeling her break down like that against him, so he hardened his jaw and just kept on holding her. Were there even words to say? He sucked at words, so hopefully holding her would do the trick. He was the worst, coming over to help and unable to say a single word, but he wasn't sure he wanted to try to speak with how tight his throat felt right then, anyway.
For what seemed like forever, Illyana let herself cry, all the frustration, guilt, and exhaustion of the last however long it had been pouring out. When she finally stopped, her breath coming in broken rasps, she stayed there, her face hidden away in Pyro's shoulder. "I don't know what to say," she managed to whisper, despite the lump in her throat and the tightness in her chest.
Not to him, for coming when she knew how much he didn't want to, couldn't want to. Not to Kitty or Billy, who had every reason to hate her but who pretty obviously didn't. Not to the rest of the student body, who she was pretty sure did. Normally, she had some kind of clue, but right now...
No. She had no idea. All she knew was that she should really let go, and couldn't bring herself to do it.
"Makes two of us," Pyro replied after a moment. He kept his voice low, which meant it was hard to hear how thick it was at seeing her like this. Well, 'seeing', whatever. He moved a hand to her hair without pulling back from the full body hug, stroking it tenderly.
There wasn't anything to say to that, at least, so Illyana just closed her eyes, trying to pull herself together and focusing on the way Pyro's fingers felt, stroking her hair. Gradually, her breathing quieted, some of the tension draining away. "You don't have to say anything," she whispered finally. Because honestly, what could he say that him being here didn't say already?
He took her at her word and didn't say anything, at least for a while longer, just holding on to her, stroking her hair, and her back. Eventually, though, he leaned back to look at her. He'd meant to say something, but all of his words felt lame, so he just leaned in and kissed her instead, hoping to put it all into the action.
Illyana kissed him back, and offered a faint smile as she broke the kiss and pulled back. "Thank you. For coming, I mean." She took a deep breath and exhaled. "It...really, I -" Why did everything sound so fake, when she meant it so much? She shook her head and met his eyes. "Maybe I should've just kept texting. I can't seem to manage to say anything right."
"That's the good thing with this, instead of texts," Pyro remarked, holding her gaze. "Neither one of us has to say anything." He glanced at the mansion behind her, then looked back at her. "You think we could go somewhere a little more private?" He did not want to run into anyone.
"Yeah. Inside or out?" Illyana smiled faintly and shrugged. "I figured I'd leave it up to you." Which was why she'd been sitting on the steps outside to begin with. She'd just gotten sidetracked for a while.
"You know the place better than I do," Pyro replied, but looked around. "Guess we're less likely to see anyone outside?"
"Probably." Illyana slipped her arm around him and started heading towards the hedge maze, then paused. "You're not going to get in trouble for this, are you?" she asked, concerned.
"Wanda agreed to cover for me," Pyro replied, and started them walking again, an arm around her shoulders. He was getting very used to having her in his space like that, and he didn't mind. "I'm not sure whether I would be, anyway." It was hard to tell, with Magneto.
"Tell Wanda thanks for me?" She tilted her head in against his shoulder and walked on without speaking for a few long moments, thinking. "I expected to be in serious trouble," she said finally. "I mean, this time I actually deserved to be, right? But the Professor just looked at me for a long time, then shook his head and said something about finishing out my latest grounding with a bit more attention to the part where I was actually grounded."
"Wow, he stopped being an asshole," Pyro stated dryly. Of course she didn't deserve to be in trouble, none of this was her fault. "How long do you have left?"
"A few weeks." She smiled faintly and peered up at him. "After which I vote we disappear for a weekend before I can get myself grounded again."
Pyro would rather they disappeared forever, but hey. He'd take a weekend. "Whatever you want," he said, and meant it a little too much.
"What do you want?" Illyana asked curiously, relieved to just not-think about recent events for a while.
"To run away with you for a lot longer than a weekend?" he offered, glancing at her.
Illyana's lips quirked up and she tightened her arm around him and returned her head to his shoulder. "Sounds nice." Maybe not do-able, realistically. But still. Really nice.
"Sounds fucking perfect," Pyro replied. 'Nice' didn't do it justice, what could he say.
"Okay, perfect then. Where would we go?" After all, it was nice to dream, right? She could use a few that weren't nightmares, these days.
He figured 'the clubhouse' wasn't the answer she was looking for, but the truth was, Pyro didn't know much of anywhere else he'd like to be. "Honestly, I don't care. Anywhere you like. You're the teleporter."
"I'm a teleporter who really hasn't been much of anywhere," she pointed out. "Limbo's not really my idea of a vacation spot." Except that sometimes, it was. Still, it wasn't an option at the moment.
"Mage, you've been to fucking London," Pyro pointed out. Now he'd been nowhere, not unless you counted their missions for the Brotherhood, and he didn't.
"Well, yeah. But just to pick people up, mostly." She grinned a little. "And one shopping trip with Vex. I got my outfit for the party there. But I didn't figure you really wanted to go shopping."
"I've been even fewer places than you have, was my point," he replied, feeling all kinds of inadequate all over again, and he didn't even know why. She didn't care about that shit, or why would she be with him?
"So? Let's go somewhere." She smiled, then let it fade and sighed. "Or not. I really need to deal with Belasco before I do much teleporting."
"Not on your own," Pyro said, immediately and firmly. No fucking way, over his dead body.
"And you get to tell me no, why?" Illyana asked, her eyebrows raising. "I told you, I'm not letting anyone else get hurt because of me."
Pyro stiffened and stopped walking. "Why do you think I'm here, Mage? I fucking care about you."
"Yeah, well, I fucking care about you, too," Illyana pointed out. "I don't want to see you dead, okay? And I definitely don't want to end up in a situation where I have to kill you myself!"
"Why would you have to kill me?" Pyro asked, his level matching hers.
"Because I had to kill Cat and Ashake, okay?" She swiped at her eyes, which were tearing up again "I had to. And Belasco would do something to make sure I had to kill you, too!"
That took the wind right out of Pyro's sails, and he just stared at her in silence for a beat. But then resolve settled on his face again. "We won't let that happen."
"And we're going to do that, how?" Illyana demanded. She pushed her hand back through her hair, then held it, in a fist, off to one side. "Belasco loves puns. Want to be turned into a fire demon and be ordered to burn me to death? Because that could happen. Except he'd stop you short, because he doesn't actually want me dead. He'd just think it was funny." She sighed and let go of her hair. "Maybe I should just let him have me. Then it'd all be over."
"For someone who says she doesn't want to hurt the people she cares about, you're coming up with all the worst solutions," Pyro stated, his arm having fallen from her shoulders when she'd put her hand in her hair. "He would have you already if it wasn't for Kitty and Billy." Which wasn't easy to admit, but whatever, it was true. "They were able to hold him off for how long? Think of what you could do with a team who's actually had training. We've got the Billy original." Soul-mother, whatever. That shit was way too complicated for him.
"And I've got a new weapon. That's what kept Kitty and Billy alive - Kitty was using it." She met his eyes. "Besides, would you really want to risk him killing off your team? I wouldn't. They were nice to me at the party."
"There's a lot less risk of anyone dying if we all go in together," Pyro replied stubbornly. If there was one thing he'd learned with the Brotherhood, it was the value of having a team. "You danced with us. They'd come." That song had meant something, okay? Stupid though it sounded to think so. He'd ask about the weapon in a moment.
Illyana sighed. She wasn't exactly sure what having danced with them had to do with anything, though she remembered feeling as if she were a part of things. She'd figured that was just her, though - maybe not? "I'll think about it, okay? I'm not going to do anything yet, anyway. I need to get some practice in. I haven't used a sword much in years.""
"That's how Kitty used against the demons? A sword?" Pyro asked. He held blades and their danger in high regard; just look at Fatale. But he'd expected something a little... more. "Is it magic?"
"It's very definitely magic." Illyana looked around - there was no one in sight, and they were nearly to the hedge maze anyway - and then stared at her hand and concentrated, until a glowing silver sword began to materialize. "It was one hell of a spell, but it worked."
"That's sick," Pyro stated appreciatively, glancing from the sword at Magik's face. "What does it do?"
"I'm not totally sure," Illyana admitted, pulling her attention from the sword, which had now manifested fully, and looking back at Pyro. "Kitty said she disintegrated S'ym with it, but I really didn't ask her for details. I'm going to have to do some experimenting to find out."
"So he's dead?" Pyro asked hopefully. Disintegration sounded pretty... final. And he was all for that dick being dead.
"Maybe?" Illyana wasn't entirely ready to commit to that just yet - she'd seen S'ym survive too many things to believe it until he actually didn't show up again. "I've never seen him disintegrate before, so I think that's probably a good sign."
"Fingers crossed." All of this was making it hard to keep hating Kitty, but if it was the price to pay for Magik's survival (and, hopefully, S'ym's death), he'd take it.
Illyana held up her free hand, showing that her fingers were crossed as well, then looked down at the sword and sighed. This was the one part she wasn't incredibly fond of, though she'd done it a few times just to make sure it worked. "Okay, don't freak," she advised Pyro. "I'm just going to put it away."
Turning the sword around, she closed her eyes and plunged it, point first, into her chest, reflecting that really, there had to be a better way.
"Holy fuck," he let out, with feeling. "You have to do that every time?"
"So far, yeah." The sword disappeared, and Illyana reopened her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "Not sure if that was part of the spell or because of something Billy or Kitty did after I passed out. Probably the former, though - nothing in Limbo comes without a dark side."
"How about driving it into like, your thigh instead of your chest?" Pyro asked. "Or your hand, or... anything that doesn't look like ritual suicide."
"It's a soul sword," Illyana pointed out. "Apparently, it figures my soul is in my heart or something. Though I tried my stomach once, and that worked okay too." She quirked just a trace of a smile. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt. It doesn't even seem to cut anything. It just kinda absorbs."
"Soul sword. That sounds hippie and badass at once." Pyro winced. "Maybe you could pretend your soul's in your hand."
Illyana's eyebrows rose and she looked at Pyro with an "are you serious?" expression. "It doesn't work that way. I'd have to believe it, and I know my soul's not in my hand." She grimaced. "Well, what's left of it, anyway." She froze a moment later, the blood draining from her face. "Oh, fuck."
"What?" Pyro asked with a frown, taking a step closer to her on instinct.
"My amulet. That son of a bitch was wearing my amulet." Illyana reached up to push her hair back from her forehead and closed her eyes. This was not good. She wasn't sure what, if anything, Belasco could really do with it without the other two bloodstones, but she didn't like him having it anyway.
"What..." Pyro wasn't sure whether that was supposed to mean something to him. "What does that mean?"
"That means...damn. I was kind of hoping to avoid this conversation," she admitted, reopening her eyes. Not that Pyro would necessarily care - she suspected he probably wouldn't - but it was just really hard to explain. She sighed and gestured to the opening in the hedge maze. "Let's go find somewhere to sit down first, okay? This might take a while."
"Okay," Pyro replied hesitantly, still frowning. But whatever. He walked with her into the maze, hoping they'd come across a bench or whatever soon.
They didn't find one soon, per se, but it wasn't terribly long before they found themselves at the gazebo in the heart of the maze, where Illyana plopped down gracelessly on one of the benches. "Right. My amulet." She looked over at Pyro awkwardly. "I told you Belasco lured my into Limbo when I was a kid, right? Because he wanted to use me to release the Ancient Ones to Earth?"
"Yeah," Pyro confirmed, still frowning.
"So, to do that, he..." She looked over at him. "He formed a blood stone. He cut me for the blood, then took a piece of my soul, warped it, and set it in an amulet. When all five were full, he said, that's when the power would be mine, and the Elder Ones would return." She grimaced. "And before you say it, yes, this is real, not just some bullshit he fed me. Ashake confirmed it. That's why she worked so hard to try and keep me from him - she didn't want him to do it again."
"Wait, so. Souls are an actual thing." Soul sword or not, this was kind of new to him. "And he took part of yours."
"Yes. And yes." She took a breath and exhaled. "Three parts of mine, total. I'm really not kidding when I say I'm part demonic."
"So he's done three stones, but there's still two to go?" Pyro checked, to make sure he was understand it all.
Illyana nodded. "Still two. But right now, I'm mostly just worried that he's got his hands on the three. I brought the amulet with me when I took off," she explained, "but he was wearing it when I woke up there."
"So we gotta take it back," Pyro stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. If anyone was going to own pieces of Magik's soul, it really ought to be her. "Can he do anything with them?"
"Anything more than he's already done?' Illyana shrugged and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, her forehead in her palms. "I don't know. Nothing I know how to do, but that doesn't mean much. He might be able to use it to track me, but if he got his hands on it, he knows where I am anyway. Luckily, he can't come here himself."
"Why not?" Pyro asked with a frown.
Illyana raised her head to look up at him, puzzled. "He can't leave Limbo. He's...basically, he's stuck there. All he can do is send demons after me."
"Huh." It was a limitation, and they ought to be able to make something of it, but Pyro sucked at thinking strategically, and he gave up almost immediately. "OK. So. You need to practice your swordfighting, and we need to get that amulet back. And he might send demons after you in the meantime."
"You make it sound really easy," Illyana complained, though she straightened back up, feeling, just for a moment, as if it might not be impossible. "And I still haven't agreed to the 'we' part."
"Because you're still emotionally fucked up over what just happened," Pyro stated bluntly. "But you're not an idiot, and I really hope you don't have a death wish, so you'll come 'round." It was the only way he could see this going. Anything else and he would be out the door, honestly.
"I don't have a death wish," she said. "I just...sometimes it feels like it'd be easier, y'know?" She peered up at him, fingers brushing back through her hair to hold it back from her face.
It felt like his blood ran cold when she said that. "Don't talk like that. Easy's bullshit." He reached for her hand, because he had to touch her then, or he might start shouting.
Illyana took his hand and squeeze it, then nodded. "I know. I'm not sure I'd know what to do with easy if I had it." She forced a tired smile and tugged at his hand. "How long can you stay?" It was a change of subject, and at the same time, it really didn't feel as if it was.
"How long d'you want me to stay?" he asked, instead.
"I'm guessing forever would be way too long, huh?" Illyana shook her head. "Kidding, sorry. As long as you're willing to?" She smiled, a little. "I still can't believe you came."
"I don't know what kind of asshole you think I am, but you said you couldn't stop crying," Pyro pointed out. Of course he'd come, and now he shifted closer and put his arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her forehead.
"I don't think you're an asshole." Illyana rolled her eyes and leaned into him, tilting her head onto his shoulder. "I just know you hate it here."
"I like you more than I hate it," he muttered against her hair.
And once more, Illyana was at a definite loss for words. He'd had a point though, earlier. Sometimes you didn't need them. She turned and reached up to pull his head down, and kissed him slowly.
Pyro poured those feelings into the kiss, eyes closed, heart hammering at what he'd just said, and how true it was.
There'd been a lot of kissing since they'd first started doing whatever it was they were doing, Illyana mused as she tried to put everything she couldn't figure out how to say into the kiss. This seemed different, in a way she couldn't exactly define. Maybe it was saying everything she couldn't, and he couldn't...but at the same time, it seemed to be saying everything, in a way that made her heart pound and her head spin, and which somehow made her want to simultaneously want to run away and cling tighter. When she finally broke it, she tilted her forehead in against his and closed her eyes, trying to make sense of it all without any notable success.
Maybe he was right, and she was just still emotionally fucked up over what had happened in Limbo. Or maybe not.
Pyro's fingertips stroked the side of her face as he kept his eyes closed, throat tight, not sure what to do with the amount of feelings swelling up in his lungs. He swallowed, cleared his throat, then pulled back just enough to be able to look at her, unaware that all of the feelings in question were obvious in his eyes as he requested, "Please don't go up against him alone."
Whatever it was she was feeling, it was obvious from the look on his face that he was feeling it, too. Somehow, that was both reassuring and not, all at once, but conflicted feelings were definitely a thing, just now. Illyana chewed at her lip, knowing that if she promised, now, she was going to have to stick to it. After a long moment's deliberation, the silence thick between them, she nodded. "I'll try not to, okay? If I don't have a choice, I'm going to have to." She wouldn't go looking to, not unless something happened. But that, she couldn't promise. Things happened, sometimes.
Pyro wanted to protest that she would always have a choice, but he could tell he wasn't going to get anything better out of her. "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I know." She tilted her face towards his fingers, letting her eyes slip half shut for a moment before reopening them to meet his. "I don't want anything to happen to you, either. Can you understand that?" Too many things had happened to too many people she'd cared about, already.
"Nothing's gonna happen to me," Pyro assured her immediately. "I'm not gonna go and do anything without my team. And I trust them to have my back."
"Sounds nice," Illyana admitted. She smiled a little. "I mean, I trust my friends? But...I've never been part of anything like that. And I'm not really up for signing up for the one here, I don't think." She wrinkled her nose. "Partially because I have this bad feeling they're gonna end up butting heads again with yours at some point."
"You think?" Pyro had made a point not to ask too much about that team when she'd mentioned it, but she couldn't say something like that and expect him not to want to know more.
Illyana shrugged. "I don't know? But based on the people signing up or it, I'd guess so. Maybe." She offered a faint smile. "I probably should have paid more attention to what the Professor was saying about it, but I wasn't really interested and I was having too much fun watching people spaz out."
Pyro really hated the thought of going up against other mutants - unless they all were like Dragoness, fine. No, really, even then. But he would if he had to, and who knew. Maybe it wouldn't get to that. "So why else don't you wanna join?" he asked, instead, and chewed on his bottom lip as he waited for her answer.
Illyana frowned, her forehead furrowing in confusion. "That's not enough of a reason?" To her, it was. Granted, she'd like to have Kitty's back - but her roommate had lots of other friends, and a boyfriend who was signing up. She didn't need her.
"You said partially," Pyro stated with a frown. Did that word not mean what he thought it meant? Now he felt like an idiot.
"Oh." Illyana rubbed at her forehead. "Yeah. Sorry. I guess...well, that's mostly the reason?" she admitted. "Plus it all just seems...stupid, I guess. I'm all for defending my friends; not so much people I don't even know. And I'd make a horrible example or whatever they're looking for."
"You're too good for them, anyway," Pyro stated quietly, and kissed her hair again.
"And I'm the one who's supposedly prejudiced?" Illyana smiled softly and leaned back in to tighten her arms around him, less desperately this time.
Pyro wasn't sure what prejudiced meant, and he kissed her forehead, this time, to give himself time to come up with something to answer that didn't let on that fact. "You are, that's all." There. Not only was it true, but it would hopefully work.
"Definitely biased." Still, Illyana smiled, and just sat there a moment longer, letting some of the tension drain away. Because it was definitely bullshit - the reverse was considerably more likely to be the case - but it felt like he meant it. And just now, that felt really, really good.
Biased, that much he understood. His smile was audible in his voice as he answered, "My bias is the best bias, okay?"
"I'm really not arguing it," Illyana admitted. She should, probably - but she had, and it wasn't as if he didn't know pretty much everything at this point, anyway. She was giving it up as a lost cause.
"Good," Pyro stated, and squeezed her tighter for a moment.
