1963-08-27 - Quotas
Summary: Keith lends Piotr a hand with some reading. Piotr encourages Keith to find out about remaining at the Institute.
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
vorpal piotr 


Up until this week, the back corner booth was not his booth, but lately? Lately, Piotr has practically been living there any time he isn't on the school grounds or actively out with, ahem, someone else. He is also not normally a fan of coffee, yet here he is, blindly setting an empty mug near the end of his table in a silent request for a refill as he continues to read.

Piotr had not precisely been taking the files lightly before, but there is… urgency now that had not previously been present. He's practically glaring down at the poor, helpless paper as his eyes scan it, his sketchbook open nearby waiting for him to write notes.

*

%r%r"Figured you'd be here."%r%rThe redhead who ambles to the booth is no longer on crutches. He seems to have graduated to a small cane now, his limp has decidedly improved. %r%r"What's shaking, pussycat?" He asks, sliding into the booth, "I haven't seen you 'round the medbay."%r%r

*

"Figured you'd be here."

The redhead who ambles to the booth is no longer on crutches. He seems to have graduated to a small cane now, his limp has decidedly improved.

"What's shaking, pussycat?" He asks, sliding into the booth, "I haven't seen you 'round the medbay."

*

Piotr lifts his head and blinks twice. He hadn't been expecting company. Still, he cracks a smile when he sees who has come, so clearly he isn't avoiding it.

"Keith. You are looking better. I have been… in and out," Piotr replies with a slight sideways nod-nod-nod of his head, his smile going wry. His time 'in' no doubt coincides with Kitty's time in there.

"Nothing is sh—" He straightens slightly, making a face at himself. "Oh. What is new. Ah… nothing good, I am afraid," he grumbles, gesturing towards the files. "Two of our friends are missing and I cannot figure these damned things out."

*

Keith frowns and leans into the table, his voice lowering. "… what? Who is missing? I haven't exactly been keeping up with things while recovering."

That and he was trying very very hard not to poke his nose in. He really wanted to poke his nose in… it itched. It took all of his self control not to scratch.

Keith narrows his eyes and studies Piotr for signs of fatigue, "You've been sleeping at all?"

*

"Akihiro a few days ago," Piotr replies quietly, bringing his eyes back to Keith. "…Jean, yesterday."

He waves his hand dismissively at the question, setting his pencil down and leaning back in his seat. "I have been sleeping, just not well," Piotr assures him, and it is true. Most of the fatigue pulling at his features is of the emotional kind. Most. "I will sleep better when this is over."

*

Keith frowns. "I haven't met Aki… the first person, but of course I know Jean." Who could forget the Ratatouille. "You don't think…" he ponders out loud "… you don't think that creepy girl at Coney tracked us down…?"

He scratches his chin, pondering. "What's in these things you're reading?" he says, tapping one of the files. "… can I read them?"

*

"Please. I cannot read half of them, I am not a doctor," Piotr replies tiredly, gesturing towards the small stack of file folders. "Help would be… very, very welcome."

Piotr falls quiet precisely long enough for a waitress to breeze past and refill his coffee; she gets a warm smile and a quiet 'spasiba' that doesn't get responded to with so much as a batted eyelash. Ah, to be a regular. "Akihiro… he thinks that girl might be family," Piotr says lowly, returning his attention to Keith. "Their powers are similar, and he said she smelled it." He shrugs. His nose is not amongst his talents.

*

"Tell me what you know about these two vanishings, Piotr," Keith says, looking over the files. "Maybe we can draw some correlations with the disappearances…"

He asks the waitress for a cup of coffee. He casts a worried glance at Piotr, and then opens the files, looking.

*

"As much as you do," Piotr replies with a tight laugh in his voice, spreading his hands helplessly. Yeeeah, someone is starting to feel the stress of the situation. "Rogue told me the other day that Akihiro had not been seen recently, and Jean just… didn't come home. I do not know where she was."

The Russian rubs his face, his eyes drifting down to stare at the file open in front of him. "Akihiro, though… I doubt they needed to go looking for him. He has been trying to find that girl himself. I worry he managed to do so."

*

"You know… for a team, you guys sort of have a problem with the communication and teamwork thing. And this is the cat pointing that out."

He sighs and looks over the files. Doctor gobbledygook. "I wonder if I could take this to…" he pauses, and then shakes his head. "No, we can't trust any outsiders with this."

Then he looks up at Piotr. "Then again, I'm an outsider myself, aren't I?"

*

"We are a team, yes, but we are also just…" Piotr shrugs his shoulders helplessly. "…people. With lives outside the team. We are not all together all the time, you know," he notes, picking up his mug and bringing it up for a drink. The way his nose wrinkles suggests coffee is still in the process of becoming an acquired taste.

Piotr cracks a smile once he's lowered the mug. "Not so outside anymore, I do not think. Who did you have in mind?" he asks, raising his eyebrows. "There is someone I might ask, but I have only met him the once."

*

"I was thinking we could find someone at the University… but we'd need to find someone who is sympathetic to mutants." Keith flips through the files, rubbing his forehead at all of the sciencetalk. Cheshire cat does not science well.

"Well, I have been with you guys for a while now, but I'm almost recovered by now. That means I need to make tracks and head out before I overstay my welcome."

When his coffee arrives, he takes a full swig of it. "I'm gonna miss you guys, but I have been eating you out of house and home for a few weeks now."

*

"Bah. If we considered it a burden, you would know," Piotr says confidently, waving the notion away with a hand. "So I hope that if you do head out, that is not the reason why. And stay in touch," he adds, smiling lopsidedly as he reaches for another file. "You are a good person. Might be nice to spend time together when we are not being shot at, for a change."

*

Keith chuckles and reaches out to pat Piotr's hand, "You're a sweet guy, Peet. I can totally see why Kitty is loco for you… of course, you don't need me to tell you it wasn't just the concussion talking. But I'm not a mutant. I don't think the Professor would ever let me stay- you gotta think pragmatic'lly: any non-mutant up at the house is someone taking resources away from any mutants who might be in need."

"Sleeping on the road is no big deal, I've been doing it for almost a year now, y'know." He takes a sip of his coffee. "… do you have someone who can… y'know, teleport or portal like I do?"

*

Piotr does not speak Spanish, but he can guess what 'loco' means from the context, he… thinks. But that isn't the part he's focusing on, anyway. "You would not be the only non-mutant in the house," he notes with a smile, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. "If you like it here, what can it hurt to ask? But if you are ready to move on, then you are ready to move on."

He flips the new file open and starts to read, propping his chin up in a hand. "My sister, Illyana," Piotr confirms, eyes briefly flicking up from the page. "It is… disorienting. Different. But she is capable of similar."

*

"… asking is hard," Keith admits, looking at the files. "And if your sister can do it, you don't really need me. In fact… there's a mutant I met the other day who could probably use the spot I'm usin' up. She controls the weather, but she's living in Queens. She has to steal to feed herself…"

*

"You say that as if we have a… what is word. Quota?" Piotr asks with an odd smile, and now Keith has his attention rather than the file. "If you would like to ask, I will go with you. Would that make it easier?" His note about the mutant in Queens does get Piotr to lift his head, his brow furrowing. "We have more than one room available, you know. You should mention her to the professor."

*

Keith swallows his coffee and stays silent for a few moments. Then he answers Piotr.

"Let's… not ask just yet. We can ask when this whole mess is over and we've gotten down to the core of this. I can't exactly leave now, I wouldn't be able to sleep wondering if something happened to you bunch of loons."

He smirks, "'Sides, someone has to find Jean and teach her how to cook or you're all gonna die of botulism."

*

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License