Magik of the Season

Summary:
November 29 2014: A brief stopover home turns into an impromptu thanksgiving dinner

Unit 24F

Jericho's and Illyana's safehouse is a comfortable apartment on in the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River


Characters

NPCs

  • K'nert

Mood Music:
[* None]


'Busy' is an odd word for Jericho. There's a lot of things in the Hacker world that one simply has to wait on, so not unlike his prior life 'busy' here often consists of bursts of activity followed by a lot of waiting while algorithms run, data compiles and processors strain and overheat. Well processors that aren't his head. This does mean he gets a fair amount of free time in between being 'busy' and while some things in Russia need an eye kept on them he does sometimes slip back via the K'nert express. Having ways to globe hop is so handy sometimes. It means he gets the chance to restock the fridge and make sure there's plenty of vodka. Which he needs sometimes. Just at the moment he's unloading some groceries and poking at the latest on the Hydra networks. Just because his focus is elsewhere doesn't mean Hydra has forgotten him and so it does not do to let them go unsupervised.

"Mmmmm… order out… or cook." He's leaning toward delivery himself.

-

"I hope your answer was 'delivery'." Illyana says even as she's stepping through a disk. How she seemed to know the question before the portal opened? Don't think on it too hard. She has a couple of bags of takeout, rich aromas of Indian cooking.

The blonde is dressed in leather and chains, and one has to wonder what kind of picture she made to the restaurant. A few demons slip through the portal after her and disappear into the apartment's meagre shadows. There's always a few of them in the apartment, but they tend to keep their presence quiet. Another line of defense. The only one that tends to ever show up in Jericho's room is K'nert.

Illyana leans in to buss Jericho's cheek lightly and then hands off the food to him to unpack. She doesn't ask how he is or where he's been. She knows he'll let her know any of the important parts. That part of usual conversations seems to annoy her for some reason. That whole asking how people are when you don't really care about the ansewr, or don't want anything other than 'fine'.

-

Jericho smiles, accepting the kiss and the food, and returning his own on hers, then goes to unpack it into serving bowls and set the table. He doesn't bother asking how she's been either, though of course he's interested. Mostly he doesn't bother because he can sense in general terms how she is. Specifically whether or not she's in distress as well as general direction and a vague sense of distance.

"Ran into a man named Mimic in Russia." He says conversationally as he brings all the food over to the table. K'nert settles himself atop the fridge, his usual spot, and narrows his eyes, watching.

-

Illyana that gets a slight blink and she looks back over at him. He can feel her tap his power lightly, draw on a thread of the magic he can't do anything with and twine it with her own to summon a magical illusion of Calvin in his usual X-Man uniform at all of a foot high in the palm of her hand. "This him?" Her surprise is mild, and not concerned.

"By the way, I find it amusing you're spending more time in Russia than I do." Illyana adds dryly. Probably the only reason her Russian is still as good as it is is because she would speak to her brother with it so often. She's been away for a long time.

-

"That's him." Jericho nods. The sensation of her tapping his magic is… odd. Before it was always painful, even if she did it slowly and gently. Now? It's not painful. He's not sure he can adequately describe how it does feel but painful is not it. "I mistook him for Piotr in the low light and he was then curious how I knew Piotr."

Jericho shrugs and smiles at her amusement. "Not by choice. Nothing I particularly want there but information." If Illyana were there it'd be different but as it stands… "We found a tear in reality, Illyana. The Russians and Japanese have it locked down but it's there, widening and shutting in cycles. They'been studying it for fifteen years."

-

"Ah, he was all armored up?" Illyana closes her hand and the image winks out. "Like the name implies, he can copy the powers of others. And he's not from this reality, which he might have mentioned. My brother's is one of the powers he usually keeps 'in memory'." Hey, it's a good power!

She works on getting drinks for them while Jericho plates up the food, proving that she doesn't make him do all the work.

He can almost feel the sharpening of her attention at that news. "'Studying' often means 'experimenting' which means 'playing with fire'. Tears in reality are never good. Do you have any idea of what's on the other side?" Illyana doens't ask if they know. She figures if the Russians and Japanese know, her hacker does.

-

"No, other than they found it very interesting." Jericho shrugs. "I'm still working on extracting all their data. It was nearly destroyed in a fire. I'll have the full picture in about a day or so. I can tell you though that your brother was sent through the rift as part of a five man expediton - their first and only manned team. The craft broke up in the portal itself and they never recovered any of the bodies." But it was so savaged everyone was presumed dead.

Jericho sets plates laden with food down, one for him, one for Illyana. "I also know things have come back out the other side and some of them have been very dangerous. Mimic seems interested in probing the other side of the portal and I thought I'd bring it up to you too, since it does concern you." And Jericho would be glad to have her along. He always is.

-

"Probably because he's a reality jumper." Illyana says, not terribly thrilled with the idea of probing something that's already eaten on Rasputin. She gives a slow exhale, nodding when he says he'll have more information soon. She points at him, "No jumping through that thing unless you're sure you'll come out intact on the other side." She tells him, thought it's not like she needs to. "It might be safer for me to watch from this side, and try to get you out if something goes wrong. Normally, that wouldn't be an option but finding you is…" She smirks. "Particularly easy. I'm pretty sure I can get to you anywhere in time and space." Which does wonders for not fretting about what he might be doing. Especially with friends like Partisan.

-

Jericho nods. Being a squishy human - one with bells and whistles but human all the same - means that he has to be a lot more circumspect about that kind of thing than the likes of Carol Danvers or Mimic. Possible that he'll remain on this end himself if he can't definitively say that the crossing won't kill him. Certainly its broken up a dedicated dimensional travel craft already. He's got no intention of not coming back from this.r
"That's particularly comforting." He smirks back. And it is, knowing that she can find him if need be. If only the reverse were true. He suspects K'nert can probably help him find her but it's not as simple as just coming through a disk. "I'll keep you appraised then." Unsaid, there's an off chance that this didn't kill her brother. Eat him, perhaps, but not kill him.

-

Illyana doesn't bank on that potential though. Maybe if it were Piotr, she would. But she never knew Mikhail. She'll look into it, but it's decades past. The sense of urgency is long gone. "Shoot me a message when you're up to stuff. If I'm free, I'll come along." She does try to be a bit careful of what she does, given she's part of the face of the X-Men. And Russia is particularly volitile of late.

Illyana takes a seat and spends the time to inhale the scent of it all before she starts to eat. Her blue gaze rests on him though, not the food. Watching him with a keen interest.

-

The hacker starts to eat slowly, savoring the food. It's occurred to him that it's Thanksgiving. He's not one for traditional celebrations these days, nor is he very demonstrative in many ways. But… he is thankful for some things and people this year. More than last year to be sure. After a few minutes he notices her eyes on him and not the food and looks up, canting his head in question.

-

Illyana gives him a flash of a grin. One that's not mocking or with that dangerous, feral edge. It touches her eyes, making them light in a wholly natural way. Perhaps the source of the word 'delight'. He hasn't known Illyana through a set of holidays before to know how she deals with them, and even today, she could have simply lost track of time and not realized what today was.

"Worried?" She teases his curiosity.

-

Jericho's return smile is that small, genuine smile that she sees and close to no one else ever does. "Not especially." He's usually worried about something but Illyana isn't generally one of those things, at least as it applies to him. "Should I be?" He teases back. His own holiday memories are not particularly fond, at least the recent ones. He's spent most of them trying to stay alive in one fashion or another. Another bite of garam masala and a bite of naan bread (fresh and delicious) occupy him while he watches her watching him.

-

"Always." Illyana assures him. "Now, go back to eating so I can enjoy watching you." Because that seems to be exactly what she was doing. "I like the way you enjoy your food. The way you… feel content and safe, which still surprises you at times, I think." Living too long under fire.

Seemingly out of left field, she asks "Do you skate?" Then she corrects, "Ice skate."

-

Jericho chuckles and does go back to eating. Her observation about the feeling safe is shockingly on the mark. He'd never really thought of it that way but yes. He always expects to be interrupted, always expects to have security and comfort taken away from him. It's part of why he's so protective of Illyana, in his way. "Mmmm? Skate?" Jericho chuckles. "Not well, no. Well, not on figure skating levels. I can put skates on, move over the ice and not fall down." He cants his ehad again. He's never seen her skate…

-

"Kitty and I used to do it every winter. She's really good at it, so of course she drug me along when we went to Xavier's together." Illyana says around eating. She has oddly impeccable tablemanners at times. Holdovers from eating at the table with a Victorian-age sorcerer. "And I don't expect you to be great at it." She assures him with a chuckle. "Not having to worry about you pulling me down to the ice will serve." Apparently she has plans to include him on the outing with Kitty. Hopefully Logan will be there or the conversation will be all clothes, makeup, hair and—oh wait. Wrong women.

-

"Sounds like fun." And Jericho means it. Apparently he categorizes most any time he can catch with Illyana as fun. And ice skating? Welcome to living in a part of the world where that can be done. It was a rare treat for him back in Los Angeles growing up. Jericho's table manners are not impeccable. They're soldierly. Which is not to say he's a mess, just that Illyana's notably more proper than he is.

"Just let me know when. I'll be there." This is, after all the kind of thing he'll make time for.

K'nert slips down of the fridge and comes over closer to observe. Jericho and Illyana aren't 'normal' and probably won't ever be but this is still a damn sight closer than the demon normally gets to see. He's not sure if he approves or not yet.

"Is everything going okay back with the others?" He doesn't ask after the other X-ers often, knowing they like their privacy but he still wants to know that things are well as they apply to her.

-

Illyana chuckles as he says it sounds like fun. There's that edge to it, that should make him worry. Well, worry in a good way. She's likely up to something. Much like a cat, she can be playful in a slightly cruel way. Were Jericho more prideful it might be a problem.

Illyana eyes the small demon as he joins them at the table and slides a small plate over towards him. She doesn't put anything on it though. "The usual. I don't know a lot of details but nothing big enough for the alerts to be sounding."

-

K'nert hops up on the table and eyes Jericho's plate. The hacker eyes back and cants his head in a slightly warning fashion. Okay, so maybe K'nert won't try to swipe some of his food. Instead he grabs (a bit messily) some of the food from the serving plates and sits down to help himself. He seems amused by Illyana's amusement. Possible he has some inkling what she's up to.

Jericho doesn't miss that edge but whatever it is he won't mind it too much. So he just flashes her a grin. "That's good. Nice to get a little peace and quiet after all that." He presumes she'd tell him if there were issues Limbo side. Or he'd have found out himself. He's there often enough.

-

The demons in Limbo have started to talk to Jericho more. Asking him for small things. Checking in with him if something is OK. All too often Jericho has found S'ym watching quietly. But so far that's it. Just watching.

Illyana watches K'nert with amusement as he helps himself, making him a part of their Thanksgiving meal. "We might have to carve it out," Illyana says of peace and quiet time, "But we'll have it."

-

The change in the demon's behavior was really strange to the hacker at first. But he's since come to accept it. It makes sense on some level since he is, after all, Illyana's familiar which seems to have translated in some (currently small) ways to 'representative.' No one's asked or checked with him for anything huge so he hasn't brought it up. He does try to keep an eye on S'ym though. Whatever the demons plans are, he'll be factoring Jericho into them now and that's one thing with K'nert (albeit not a thing to be taken lightly) and entirely another with Illyana's heavy. It's occured to him (and Maxwell once suggested - damn it Maxwell) that if S'ym's making plans about him maybe he needs to make plans about S'ym. Not a bad thought though not something he entirely knows what to do with yet.

"We will…" He'll carve it out of HYDRA if he has to. The hacker gives Illyana that small, genuine smile again. "And it'll be worth it."

-

The rest of dinner goes by pretty quietly, wherein it is discovered that K'nert has a thing for Naan. Illyana takes a few bites away from the small demon, more because she can than because she wants them. Sometimes she just drops it onto her plate and doesn't actually eat them. K'nert ducks his head and goes eerily still when she does, no hissing or grumbling.

Illyana takes her own dishes to the kitchen sink so she can get out a plate and put dessert on it. A slice of pumpkin pie cheesecake. She just makes the one plate, putting the rest away and when she comes back to sit at the table she's turned a bit away from it. A finger is crooked at Jericho.

-

Jericho cants his head curiously and comes around the table over to her. There's a great deal that she does that's important that he doesn't initially understand. And a great deal that she does because she's got a sense of humor he kind of loves that takes him off guard sometimes. Either way he doesn't usually ever have a problem just doing what she asks and that's the case here as well.

-

Illyana's fingers link with his and she tugs him downwards, her feet set far enough apart so he can take a place on the floor between them. When he gets low enough, her fingers comb through his short hair, the stroke of her fingertips against his scalp a caress. Then she uses her fork to cut off a bite of the dessert and brings it down to his lips.

-

Jericho kneels quite easily, lowering his head slightly as he does. He's a bit surprised when pie is presented to him, but quite happily takes the offered bite, looking up at her with a quiet, rather content expression on his face that is probably not something you'd see either on most people in this circumstance or on him in nearly any other.

-

Illyana's feet shift, her legs pressing in against him so he's tucked in close to her. Mild amusement plays over Illyana's features at Jericho's contentmet but really that's just icing to her own. She takes a bite herself before she resumes feeding him with the same fork.

K'nert slinks a bit closer, head low and steps careful. He has a sort of pathetically hopeful expression but Illyana does little more than glance his way.

-

Jericho also doesn't glance at K'nert not because he isn't aware of him but because he is aware of how this game is played. Also, there's an Illyana here which is at all times more important. He takes another bite and - settling himself a bit lower - lays his head against one leg, continuing to watch the blonde sorceress.

-

Illyana's eyes slit half-closed, and he can feel that steady sense of contentment from her. As he lays his head down, her fingers go back to combing through his hair. Petting him. While she continues eating the dessert, it's clear her attention is really on him. He can tell in the press of her legs against his sides and the tease of her fingertips against his skin.

Finally, she pushes the mostly-empty plate aside and tugs him upwards in part so she can stand as well. "C'mon. Shower then bed, I think."


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