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As one enters the X-Mansion tonight, one would hear the sounds of music from aways down the hall. If one were to follow the sound of The Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk" down the hall they'd come to a living area, off to the right, where the music gets significantly louder. And if one were to enter this room, they would find Illyana Rasputina, the Queen of Limbo and possibly heroine known as Magik, watching American Bandstand and trying with some success to mimic the moves of the dancers on the screen.
Upon returning to the United States, the first thing Doug did was find a little room to let in New York; the second, retrieve his car from where it had been stashed. And third, and finally, he packed an overnight bag and drove up to the school. He didn't even bother to call ahead. You don't have to, when you're going home. He pulled into the gate, parked, grabbed his bag, strolled inside, and looked around, before he took a deep breath. Like he wasn't gone for a day, instead of graduating and saying his tearful goodbyes and immediately takaing off to see the world. He tilts his head to the sound of Dick Clark's voice. Probably one of the kids. Right? Either way, he drops his bag, and goes to check it out, becoming visible when he steps into the doorframe.
Lorna stepped down the stairs from the upper floors where she had therapy sessions with Emma Frost. It had gone later than expected and the green haired mutant looked more exhausted than she had any right to be for this time of the night. She dragged her hand through her hair as she came down the steps, and tilted her head at the sound of the music playing and followed it, curious.
There she came to a halt as she took in the sight of Doug and Illyana further into the room.
She couldn't help the giggle that came to her at the sight of seeing her former roommate Illyana trying to mimic the moves on the television. "Yana, I think you're off a beat." She called.
Illyana has no idea, for the moment, that somebody's watching. Not until she spins at Lorna's voice and stops halfway around when she spies Doug in the doorway. "Doug!" she pronounces. "You sneaky little linguist!" She launches herself toward the door, grabbing Doug in an enthusiastic, if brief, hug. "Taking off without telling anybody where you were going. We had to use Cerebro to keep tabs on you!" When she releases him her eyes go to Lorna in turn, and her brows rise curiously.
He's been a busy bee! Going all over the world. His embrace of Illyana is heartfelt — she was never a big hugger, but there's an affirming squeeze there. "Well," He says, his hands on her arms, "You know me. If I had to stick around for long goodbyes I'd just fall apart" He looks up to Lorna and grins, wide, maybe a little impish. "Lorna." He winks at her, and then he strokes his chin with a thumb. "Anyway, I figured I'd come up to the school for an overnight, see who was aroundI probably should've called ahead, huh." He shakes his head. "It's so good to see you!"
Lorna grimaced at Illyana's look, rubbing the back of her neck. "I uh, just got done with therapy. It went longer than expected." She mumbled, her eyes were faintly red-rimmed in the corners, as if she'd been crying. But otherwise she looked well enough. Her gaze swung toward Doug, and it took her a moment to register that she in fact knew the man.
She smiled weakly, "Hey. There's rooms available. I'm not living here anymore, so my old room is there if you're not sure where to crash." She offered.
The front door leading into the mansion that houses the institute opens, and Warren Worthington the third strolls into the main foyer of the estate. Hearing the noise from the other room, the sounds of obvious laughter and people having 'fun' brings a much needed smile to his face. He strolls into the room, slipping his shirt on over his bare torso and tucking it into the waistband of his jeans. "Is this fun? Who said there could be fun? Did Charles approve of this?"
Illyana still isn't much of a hugger, but when she's more manic and enthusiastic she'll do it for shock value, if for no other reason. She takes a step back and away after the embrace has gone on long enough, raises an eyebrow at him. "Was it that," she asks, teasing, "or did you want to run off without breaking the hearts of half a dozen girls in Salem Center, hmmm?" She nods to Lorna. "I was just a little surprised 'cause I thought you were avoiding the place right now. Good to see you, though, roomie. Fun? What fun?!" Her eyes go wide as she looks to Warren, any semblance of a smile falling from her face in an instant. "We don't allow 'fun' in my town. I find any fun around here I'll stomp it 'til it's good and dead."
Doug rolls his eyes upward. "Welllllllllll" Oh hey, it's Warren! "Hey, Warren!" He offers the older man an enthusiastic handshake. "You're looking" He pauses. Was he blue when Doug left? "Good! You're looking good." He turns to the others, and says "I've got a place in New York, and i'm going to go to work as a translator for awhile. All these international business deals, foreign dignitaries, you know how it is—" He shrugs his shoulders, and steps back a bit.
Lorna grimaced again at Illyana's words, averting her gaze. "Well yeah.. but Miss Frost wants me to work through my issues here where it's safe if I have a meltdown." She muttered and glanced toward Warren, her smile returning to her expression.
"Hey. I dunno about Charles being around, I'm pretty sure he's chasing after Miss Moira again. Which means we won't be seeing him all that often is my guess." She glanced at Dough and arched a brow.
"Oh yeah? That's groovy. I bet there's all kinds of need for a translator in the city these days."
Warren smirks at Yana, nodding. "Yeah, I call bullshit. I heard laughter in here, don't deny it….hey, is that Bandstand?"
He looks to Doug and cocks his head to the side, "Looking good? That is the best you can come up with? I'm blue….it's ok, you can say it. You don't even know the half of it." He manages a wink, turning to Lorna, "And you. You I can't see to get away form. Everywhere I go, there you are. I'm starting to wonder if you are tracking me, Ms. Dane. And if you are…why?"
"Yes, it's Bandstand," Illyana replies, noting how Doug does not deny her teasing accusation. There may be gossip to be found in town if she starts spreading the news that so and so from the class of thus and such is back in town. Delightful. "But no fun! No fun whatsoever! Aha!" She grabs a throw pillow and tosses it on the ground before starting to jump up and down on it. "You thought you could keep away from me? NEVAARRRRR!"
Illyana might be a touch wired at the moment.
Doug rubs the back of his neck, and then says, "Well… Blue is a good color!" Then he's staring at Illyana, and letting out a faint '…Heh'. "Well, I guess it's either this or fangs and the walls start to bleed… then again I kind of got used to bleeding walls back in the day—" He clears his throat. "Anyway! Let me just go… grab a guest room!" He jerks his thumb out the door.
Logna glanced back to Warren and hooked an eyebrow upwards. "Hey, I've been here for a few hours already. You just got here. So it stands to reason, you're stalking me." She teased right back with a grin, her hand settling on her hip. Then of course, came Illyana's hyper moves and she blinked repeatedly, staring for a moment and then glanced back to Doug.
She was used to Illyana in all her moods. This didn't surprise her at all.
"Do you need help carrying anything Doug?"
Warren chuckles and watches Illyana amused for a while, "Who gave her sugar? Didn't we say no sugar after 10? I swear that there was a rule like that sometime ago. I need a drink just watching her."
He looks back to Doug and shrugs a shoulder, "True. At least I am not baby puke green. It could be worse…good to see you."
He grins at Lorna. "You have a point. Still, we keep running into each other. Not that I mind." He looks between Lorna and Illyana and back, addressing Lorna again, "She going to be ok? Seriously. I've never see her so…wired."
"It was very, very rare that the walls bled," Illyana observes. "Like, twice. And once it was that demon bear thing. That had -nothing- to do with me." She is emphatic on this point, and throws herself onto the couch with a huff. "There's something in the air," she says. "It's got me bouncing off the walls."
Doug sighs, "No, it was ME who wasn't allowed to have sugar after ten. One stomachache—" He shakes his head slowly and then says "Well, it can't be me visiting." He shrugs. "Plain old, boring me…" He gives the gentlest of shrugs, and then says, "Actually, it's nice to see her so happy. Because I remember the alternative." He pauses, and then he says, "Hold on." He strolls back up to Illyana, and tweaks her nose between two fingers. "Hey." He says, before he slips his hand into his pocket. "Got your nose."
Then he ducks out to get his bag. "Back in a jiffy!"
Lorna shrugged at Warren's comments about sugar and Illyana. "I dunno, I don't live here anymore." Then her fcus returned to her former roommate for a few moments of consideration. "Right.. well, to be fair if there's something in the air then we're all in trouble." She murmured and grinned.
Then as Doug mentions he'll be back Lorna waved and flashed him a smile. "Cya around," She sighed, looking over at the clock on the wall. "I should start heading home. I've got a drive back into the city. It was nice to see you guys again."
Warren chuckles. "I can give you a lift, Lorna, if you want. I was just flying in to grab something I left the other day." He shrugs, "Just give me a minute."
He looks to Illyana, "Well, whatever it is I hope it isn't contagious. Or, you know what…maybe it should be. We could use a bit of happy round this place."
Illyana's eyes cross when Doug tweaks her nose, and then roll when he continues. "Yeah, yeah, Ramsey. You'll get yours," she promises without any rancor. And then she covers a yawn. "Sorry. Long day." The day, for the record, has been spent watching TV, doing a crossword puzzle, watching more TV, stealing somebody's leftover spaghetti out of the fridge, and finally trying to dance. While watching TV.
It's hard to be the Queen.
A moment later, Doug comes back, having seized a guest room and literally tossed his bag inside. "Like I said I'm just spending the night here, I'll say the rest of my helloes tomorrow, then head back to New York—" he perches on the edge of a chair, and looks around, and then at Warren and Lorna, and he frames the two of them in a box with his fingers. "Drive safe." He says, before he glances back to Illyana, and murmurs "Where'd everybody else wind up?"
Lorna shrugged, "I drove over here. So you're welcome in my car or somehow making sure my car ends up at my father's house in the city tomorrow." She grinned and offered a nod to Illyana and Doug.
"I had a long day too, Mutant Town had a new shipment of pipes that needed installing and that was an all day event." She stifled a yawn, and rubbed at her eyes. "It's nice to see you around again Doug. Hit me up sometime if you want to hang out. I'm staying with my father in the city. His number is around here somewhere." She waved to them both and headed out.
"Xi'an's here," says Illyana. "Dani too, though I don't actually see her at the school much. Amy and Sam were around, but they both took off this spring." She taps her chin briefly, thoughtful. "Bobby too, I guess. I mean, you know how it is. People come and go." Her eyes flick to his for a moment, pointedly, though there's no malice in the look. "We'll get together as a group when there's a big mess and somebody needs us all, but then we drift apart again."
"That's how family works." Doug says, with a shrug. "You find lives. You grow apart. We all knew it wasn't going to be us here together forever, much as we might've wished it was different." He rests his elbows on his knees. "But what matters is if you call, we come, right?" He gives a little smile, and then reaches out to tousle Illyana's pin-straight hair. "Hey. You're not mad that I took off, are you?" …For four. Years.
"Doug, I spend about half my time ruling a demon dimension," Illyana points out, voice dry, lips quirked in a wry smile. "I never get mad at people for leaving. I'd leave plenty of things if I could." But not here, she thinks. This is home. "Now, that pretty little redhead who worked at the drive-in about a mile south of town? She's probably mad."
"It's not like I was dead!" Doug says. Really unhelpfully. Then he pauses, and rubs the back of his neck, and his cheeks turn a flaming shade of crimson. "Yeah well." He looks down, and says, "You speak French to a girl and she thinks you're gonna get married" He looks away and says, quietly, "I missed all of you. Every day. I thought about calling but if I called, I would've just come running back andI needed time. Time toy'know. Figure out who I was. And then one day I realized I'd been wandering all over for four years and that who I really was… was all of you guys. And*this* place. I mean, I don't know if I should move back to Salem Center, I saw a girl I used to date when I stopped in town to get gas and she gave me such a side-eye…"
Illyana is clearly amused at this. "That's because you like the ladies a little too much, Doug," she says mildly. "But you haven't burned your bridges here, anyway. Welcome home."
Doug rubs the back of his neck and looks away. "Yeah well, I knew better. That and every woman *in* the school was out of my league. Or if I had asked them out, you would've laughed at me —" He coughs. "They! Would have laughed at me. They would have laughed. Thank you, Illyana," He says, "It's nice to be back. I'm reliving a lot of old memories."
"I probably wouldn't have laughed," Illyana observes, ignoring Doug's slip. "Laughing would have been rude — and I may be terrible, but I try not to be cruel. But I also wouldn't have said yes. I don't date." Her shoulders rise, fall. "Glad to do it," she says, "but I should probably head to bed for now. Seriously, though, welcome back. We -have- missed you."
"Yeah well," Doug says, "If the side-eye I got in the gas station was any indication, I shouldn't date either." Then he shakes his head, and says, "Night, Witch Hazel." He clambers off the chair he was perched in. "I knew I should've headed out earlier. We can grab breakfast in the morning before I go back to New York—?"
"Sounds like a plan, Doug," the young woman replies as she pulls herself up from the couch. "I'll see you in the morning." She rises and heads to the door, turning back for a moment before she leaves. "For me it's kind of a necessity. For you… maybe just don't date so many girls at once, hmmm?" She winks, and then heads on out and off to her bedroom.