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*
Lorna walked along the green of the Frost Institute, supposedly heading toward her dorm. It was late, the sun having set some time ago. She'd left and come back to meeting Miss Frost, having had little choice in the matter. Irritation sat heavy on her shoulders and she squatted down on the grass, muttering under her breath. In one hand she cupped a number of quarters, frowning down at them and trying to push them away from her. But all the metal did was cling even more stubbornly to her skin.
"Are you kidding me?" She snapped at her hand, throwing it out before her and standing up. Yet the coins still hugged her skin like magnets, unmoved by her now flapping hand.
A chill wind swept over the campus and a small shiver crawled up Lorna's spine and she burrowed into her coat even further. She was to irritated to sit inside, or even to try to sleep. Her mind continued to race over and over again. And she huffed, peeling off the coins from her skin and throwing them down.
"I can freaking float, I did it. I should be able to shove a few /quarters/ away." She groaned, smacking her forehead only to wince at the still nasty looking bruise on her forehead.
*
"I should get a camera for this, no?" asks a familiar voice from nearby. It is Pietro Maximoff, with a thicker accent, and looking… slightly different than he had several days ago — definitely hungrier than he was. At the very least, he looks at people the same way he used to look at Twinkies.
Right before stealing said Twinkies.
The bearded, silver-haired fellow holds up a finger, then disappears in a streak of blue before returning with a photographer's camera — which he has directed at Lorna. "Okay, give me frustration!"
He smirks again.
*
A startled yelp follows at the sudden voice and Lorna stumbled forward and twisted around awkwardly. Her green eyes going wide as she spots the strange looking man before her. "W-What?" She gapes at him much like a fish out of water, her lips parting and shutting repeatedly as she struggled to comprehend that someone had not only heard her mutterings but had appeared without alerting her at all.
"Who are you? What are /you/ doing out here?"
*
"Pietro," says he while clicking the camera at her from several different angles. "And taking pictures. That was a… how you Americans say, 'a swelling trick'. 'Swell trick'. Wait — just a moment!"
The young man disappears again, leaving a trail of blue and grey behind him, only to return with a folding chair, and a couple of lattes in takeaway cups. He holds one latte out to Lorna, smiling lopsidedly.
"Better! Hope you're thirsty." And his eyes glint dangerously at her. "I know I am."
*
Lorna looked even more confused, and partially blinded as the flash from the camera goes off and utterly destroys her night vision. She twists this way and that, a grimace pulling at her lips as she blinked repeatedly and rubbed at her eyes as he disappeared and reappeared.
"W-what? No! What are you—" She wrinkled her nose at him, her hands held up before her cautiously.
"Could you explain yourself? Please?"
*
Pietro appears in front of the young woman, camera around his neck, and a coffee in each hand. He indicates one of the drinks by lifting it a bit, then extends it to Lorna. Tilting his head to the side a fraction, the speedster's eyes glint.
"It's called a latte. Lah-tey. And you were supposed to give frustration — not confusion. Can't do anything with confusion. My name's Pietro, and that was a swell trick," he repeats before holding forth the steaming cup again.
"Drink?"
*
A blink, and Lorna completely deflated, her hands falling back limply to her side as she stared at him and then the camera and down to the drinks. Then she smiled, and reached out for the offered cup. "Eh, I guess?" She tilted her head to the side.
"I'm Lorna by the way.." A pause, "Do you go to school here?" If he let her take the cup she would cautiously sip it.
"You uh… er.. what are you doing out here? With drinks like this?"
*
"School? Here?" he asks, raised eyebrows while he sips at his own coffee. It really does not hit the spot. "Oh, sure! Yes. Yes, I went to school here. I had Mister…"
And he leaves the sentence hanging, as though prompting Lorna to fill in the blanks for him. The more he looks at the young woman, the hungrier he feels, and any time she glances directly at his eyes, they seem oddly hypnotic.
He might even be trying to use them for that very purpose… and having some difficulty. The young man frowns, and drinks more coffee. His nose wrinkles.
*
Lorna turns as he starts to talk, bending to pick up the quarters that she had flung away from her, or at least trying to. It was dark outside after all. "Huh? Well, I haven't even started school yet. Miss Frost and the committee just accepted me for next semester. But I'm auditing and trying to keep up with the content so I don't fall behind."
A grimace pulls at her lips as she turns her green eyes skywards and pouts, shoving the quarters into her pocket.
"It's just so much harder with everything else going on. You know? I mean, I guess you've got powers and all too," She gestures to him. "But mine never want to behave. I'm still trying to control them. And well, there's a bunch of personal stuff going on too."
She trailed off briefly as she caught herself staring and seemed to have some trouble not doing so.
*
Pietro chuckles.
"Powers… yes. Behaving… boring." He tosses the coffee aside, and zips around behind Lorna — standing just a little bit too close for comfort. His nostrils flare and he swallows in his throat just a little.
"So, Lorna, why are you all the way out here by yourself, at night?" he asks as amiably as he can manage. Still creepy, though. "Aren't you worried?"
*
Lorna blinked as disappeared from her direct line of sight to whip around behind her. She stumbled forward to try to reclaim her personal space, nearly spilling the latte as she did so. She blinked, her brows furrowing as she looked at him.
"Well, I can't exactly practice my powers openly during the day.." She mumbled, heat rising her cheeks. "I can't practice them inside either, not unless I have someone to help me. I might sort of.. uhm.. rip things apart." She reached out a hand, turning her focus to the earth below her feet.
"I can manipulate metal I guess? I'm like a magnet, sometimes. Not always. It's kinda hard, but they really get out of control when I'm upset. I've been working on it though. And as far as why I'm out here really.. well okay, I'll admit, I was upset… personal reasons." She grimaced, and set the cup down.
*
"And here I thought it was just your personality," Pietro teases a bit, after hearing Lorna self-described as a 'magnet'. He still keeps trying to make solid eye-contact, to make his newfound hypnotic abilities work — he hasn't had them long — but is met only with failure.
And he's thirsty.
Frowning a bit, he takes a step back and spreads his hands in a 'let me help' gesture. "Anything I can do? My sister tells me I'm very good with… 'personal reasons' — helping, yes."
It's a lie.
He's terrible.
Too impatient. (i.e. get over yourself already, yes?!) Still, this 'living magnet' has him intrigued, so much so that he licks his lips. Instead of biting her, however, he flashes over to the chair he just 'borrowed', unfolds it, and sits down.
"Start at the beginning," says he with a grin, in a vocal tone not unlike a psychologist just as a session commences.
*
A crinkle of her brow follows and Lorna tries and fails to be able to follow him as he darts about. "Well, errr.. I guess.. I uhm.." She chewed her lower lip, fidgeting on her toes.
"I just.. well, it's complicated. Really complicated.. So, see, I met this person that has the same power as me like a week ago. And well, someone suggested that we might be related.. and my teacher looked into it, and found out that I was adopted.." She shrugged, raising her hands up as she paced a little from side to side.
"My parents, the people I thought were my parents lied to me, my whole life. So it turns out that this guy that I met, might actually be my father. Which is really, really, strange, because like what are the odds of that? Even more so since I'm apparently not even from the US. I was a war-baby! From Poland! For all I know my mother was a victim from those rotten Nazis and I'll never know who she was!" She throws up her hands and grimaced.
If the chair he sat on was metal, it might have just shaken as her voice warms to the story of what was bothering. Really, this girl was way too open.
*
The chair is metal.
And it shakes.
And a moment later… Pietro appears several feet away, standing, glaring in accusation at the chair. He is also standing awfully close to Lorna again. "Oh, was that you? The chair? That's a horrible story!"
Bor-ing!
"I really, you know, feel for you, Lorna."
You smell delicious…
He turns to look at her, leaning around and to the side as though trying to get her to look back at him. "I'm sure everything will be alright, in the end…"
Look into my eyes… You are getting very sleepy — wait, is that how this is supposed to work? Pietro, you idiot! You can't bite her — that would be… so tempting. Better than a Twinkie…
Thus goes his internal monologue, while trying to at least appear genuinely interested in Lorna's story — after all, he did just find another person with 'gifts' like his and his sister's. That's a good thing, right?
*
Lorna jumped as he appeared behind her, and the chair flew upwards flying over their heads and crashing into a nearby tree. She threw her hands up over her head protectively, but she was slow and then she was blinking back over her shoulder toward the chair, her gaze catching the intent stare from Pietro and she blinked repeatedly.
"Uhm.. what? Could.. uhh, sorry.. sorry. About the chair. That was me. I told you, I'm still learning. That's why I'm outside, to practice you know? Cause I can kinda float, if I was trying really hard. Like.. uhm…" She furrowed her brows, frowning faintly.
"I'm sorry, I've forgotten what I was gonna say."
*
"Shhh…" Pietro croons in Lorna's ear — or, almost. He's still a couple of feet away. "It's okay, draga Lorna." He slips into Romany briefly, referring to the young woman as something like 'honey', and then extends an arm in an attempt to drape it around her shoulders.
Pietro wets his lips.
"You were talking about floating…" His voice is all but a whisper now, and as he leans in a bit further, the young man's lips part, fangs slowly bared. No sense in rushing a good meal — like drinking a fine wine too fast.
Where's the fun in that?
*
Lorna tried, really she tried to ease back from the man, but then suddenly he was just there and his arm was around her shoulders. That more than anything had her jumping again, only this time, her hands were held out before her and she didn't just jump. A magnetic pulse jumped from her instead and she was tumbling backwards, landing flat on her back on the grass with a yelp.
A groaned 'ow' escaped her lips and she blinked up at the starry sky, the jolt clearing her mind oddly enough. "Sorry, what?" She blinked, dragging herself up to sit up.
"I didn't mean to do that! And stop sneaking up behind me! It's just gonna make me jump!"
*
"Am I making you uncomfortable?"
The question is rather superfluous — it's obvious that Pietro is doing just that. Still, in the asking he also adds a slight garnish of teasing, and he offers a hand toward Lorna, to help her back onto her feet.
If she wants.
But as he reaches forward, his eyes flash and the Thirst that so dominates his thinking now… ever since that 'Bride' kissed him… asserts itself. In that instant, Pietro moves in like lightning, using Lorna's arm to pull her toward him, while he hugs her with the other.
And his teeth sink into her neck.
*
A small sound of a 'yes' escaped her lips, a grumbled word, as she was trying to stand already. Yet when he bent to offer her a hand she accepted it, with a small roll of her eyes. "You're just — " And further response is cut off as he pulls her in close and sinks his teeth into her neck in the blink of an eye.
There was no mind control there, no calming to keep Lorna enthralled, and as such her body reacted violently to the sharp pain that exploded on the side of her neck more than the sudden body in her personal space.
A scream ripped from her lips, as she struggled in his grip, but more so — the metal chair that had been tossed about by her powers came rushing back with all the force it could obtain from the several yards it came soaring over. To smack him in the back. The frame instead so bent and crumbled that it hardly looked like a chair anymore.
Whatever metal was on his body pushed away from her at the same time, zippers, watches, anything and everything. And if the ground below them trembled with the threat of whatever was below it being ripped up, well, that could only freak out both the metal user that pulled the metal to her and the vampire-mutant that had triggered her powers to such a state.
Seconds later, car alarms blasted, and sprinkler systems rioted around them. Lights turned on.
*
He should have seen it coming.
He should have reacted — in time. Even reacting late would have been okay… embarrassing, but okay… but this? Not reacting at all? Utterly humiliating. The metal in Pietro's clothing (particularly his belt buckle) sends him flying bodily through the air across the open space, leaving Lorna on the ground — blood covering her neck from some vicious fang-marks — alone.
Pietro lands in a bush — prickles. Lots of them — half-chagrined for having been caught off-guard, and half-elated for having tasted fresh blood. The Thirst bothers him just a little less.
But he doesn't come back for more.
He doesn't pursue Lorna any further this night.
Instead, he vanishes in a puff of mist — and disappears into the night as if he had never been there. The gravity of what he has done gnaws at him, eats him, torments him. That was a friend — a new friend, but a friend nonetheless. They were bonding.
And he bit her. Big mistake, idiot.
And then she blasted him away. Should've seen that coming…
*
