Talk to me (Monroe)

[Adaryn Breslin]

They had gone to his dorm shortly after she agreed to join him on whatever plans he had in store. It was almost expected by the girl, but Adaryn was still a bit puzzled when he brought her there. They had hot chocolate machine's in the common room. However, Addie kept her mouth shut because she really didn't want to get tossed over his shoulder again. That wasn't fun.

She had thrown away the cup not too long after they actually stepped inside, so in replacement of the cup, her bag was held clutched to her stomach. She'd put in a change of clothes just in case anything spilled on her during work, but it also held a sweater. Adaryn didn't request to take it back to her dorm, mainly because she had plans for the change of clothing in the future. And not in the way most people thought, either. Addie was still Addie, after all.

They stepped into the dorm, and was ushered to Monroe's room. Well, not ushered, but more like she took herself there instead of staying out in the common area. She sat herself on his bed, and clutched the bag to her chest. Throughout their walk over there, they made small talk and pleasantries, but she really wasn't up to conversation until they were relatively alone.

"So why your dorm again?" She asked curiously.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Because I owe you a hot chocolate," Monroe told her, looking over at her. She'd sat down on the edge of his bed, but she looked rather uncomfortable, clutching her bag as if she needed something to hold onto. The last time they'd been here together things had started out bad, then gotten better, and then ended very badly. He could only hope that after the lengths he'd gone to so he could repair things paid off and he wouldn't mess up again.

He walked over to the coffee pot after filling the plastic measuring cup full with water and dumped it in before running it. He wasn't used to just making hot water. Caffeine was a necessity and hot chocolate didn't give you that. He bent down under the table to grab a hot chocolate packet from the basket he and Dante shared. "I hope you like Swiss Miss, because that's all I've got. But it has mini-marshmallows." He turned and smiled in her direction.

[Adaryn Breslin]

She was uncomfortable, being back in the bed where it all went downhill. It was one of the reasons she did what she did. Not a direct reason, but it contributed. Adaryn felt she lost one of her really good friends because of what happened, and well, Monroe would find out soon enough.

He said he wouldn't judge her. She could only hope that was true.

"You kind of do," Adaryn nodded, looking over at the boy with a small smile. He returned to the coffee, and that is when she resorted to looking around a bit. The brunette didn't sneak through drawers and such, just simply took a look around. The bed sheets were relatively neat. He probably rarely slept in them, after all. She didn't have much time to observe much else, as his gaze fell back onto her.

"It's chocolate, you can never go wrong with chocolate."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Once again, you girls and your chocolate," Monroe said with a shake of his head as he poured the hot water into a random mug he grabbed from the shelf underneath the coffee pot. He looked over his shoulder at her to see her eyes glancing around the room. "What? Are you wondering why it's not a mess?" It's because he was hardly ever there. Otherwise it would have been a sty. His room at home was.

He turned back to the mug to pour the mix in and stir. "This is one of my favorite mugs," he told her, walking over to her and holding out the mug. "It's probably not as good as Starbucks."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Thank you," Adaryn gave him a polite nod, staring down at the mug with an amused giggle. Of course that was his favorite cup. It just screamed 'Monroe'. His power caused him to be sleep deprived, which made the cup far more humorous than the original designer probably intended it to be.

"I figure you've never really slept much in here, with your power and all." The girl belatedly commented. She was still peeking around, though it wasn't like she wasn't in there before. It was simple, and she liked it.

"Starbucks hot chocolate can be really bitter. I add extra sweetener because they use dark chocolate instead of milk." Swiss Miss was much more appealing to her because of the milk chocolate taste. "So you don't need to apologize. I'm freezing, too. So anything warm is nice."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"What? So I like to buy mugs off of Amazon. It's something to do at four a.m. when you're not sleeping," Monroe said in his defense, but he couldn't help but crack a smile. Of course, he hadn't bought a new mug in a while. Life wasn't quite as lonely as it used to be and so he'd had more things to do or at least think about so he wasn't surfing Amazon for new hilarious coffee mugs every night. "There's a lot funnier ones than that one. But I think I'm moving too fast. Not even on our first date and I want to show you all of my coffee mugs."

"And right you are about that. Sometimes I even clean when I can't sleep. That's why it looks so neat in here all the time. That and Dante's always on my ass about having a clean space. He's weird...don't get me started." There wasn't much to mess up when he was hardly here though.

"Well, look at you, all educated about Starbucks drinks," he commented, smiling over at her. "I'm just glad my Swiss Miss isn't worthless to you."

At hearing she was cold, he felt he should find her a blanket or something. He was the one who kept her standing in the cold after all. His eyes darted around the room and landed on a black hoodie draped over his chair. He picked it up and held it out to her. "Here, I've been told that our hoodies are comfier than girls'."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Most people stare at the ceiling and contemplate the meaning of life. You shop for ironic mugs." Where was this confidence to say whatever and not feel uncomfortable coming from? After weeks of not speaking, Monroe somehow managed to make it seem like they had never been apart. How did he do that? It was a mystery to the light-eyed brunette, but even still, she was grateful for the feeling of... normalcy between the two. After all, she was hoping to get a bit of information out of Monroe in this visit. They needed as much comfort as they could get.

At the mentioning of 'date', Addie hid her face by taking another sip of her hot chocolate. She doubted that hid her blush, though; he'd probably had already saw that her face was way too red to be natural.

The view from the mug was limited, but she could still see Monroe smiling down at her. She nodded, confirming the statement with yet another sip of the chocolate. By this time, she was pretty warmed up, but he offered her his hoodie.

"Oh, you do--" Adaryn quickly cut herself off, and gave put down the cup on the nightstand, her other hand grabbing the hoodie.

"Thank you," She said. Hadn't she learned that Monroe wasn't the kind of guy to take no when it was a simple and harmless request? Adaryn obviously learned nothing. The brunette slipped her arms through the fabric, and wrapped it around her. She had never worn a guy's hoodie, so she wasn't aware of that fact. There didn't seem to be much of a difference between the two, but she enjoyed the fact that it smelled like him. Coffee... and just... purely Monroe.

The girl made no move to return the jacket, but she did pat the seat beside her. "I hope I'm not keeping you from sitting on your own bed. I really don't want to be the only one to ruin it by sitting here."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"I also stare at the ceiling, but when there are so many hours in a night, that gets really old. I can only contemplate life for so long, there are plenty of mugs to look at," Monroe said with a smirk. The date thing he'd been joking about, but then again, it wasn't exactly out of the question, even if Monroe didn't know how to even take a girl on a date. A dinner and a movie was cliche and boring and he wasn't really one for either of those. Somehow he had a feeling he'd fall asleep during the movie and that it was a possibility at dinner as well, unless he had about five cups of coffee with his food...Besides, he hated the pressure that the word 'date' put on two people. Why was it called that anyway? A date was a time, a month, a day and a year. He saw her face redden slightly at what he'd said and wondered what the two of them would even do on a date. He wouldn't even call it that, why couldn't they just hang out without the pressure of that word hanging over their heads?

"I see you're learning not to argue with me," he told her with a smile as she accepted his hoodie after half of a protest. "Don't worry, it's clean. Mostly." He shrugged. "You're not keeping me from sitting on my own bed." Actually, she was making him want to sit on his bed, but he wasn't about to say that. "And you sit so carefully and still, how would you mess it up anyway?" He made his way over, plopping down next to her and running a hand through his hair. "Soo...Swiss Miss...am I impressing you yet?"

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Fair enough," Adaryn breathed, watching him carefully as his expression went from that of sarcasm to contemplation. It was subtle, but you could tell he was thinking. There was also a faint light of confusion slipping through his aura, which only further confirmed her suspicions.

She pulled the jacket closer to herself as he continued, despite the fact that she nearly swam in the fabric. "I'm sure the only reason it has to be cleaned is because of coffee stains." That was a bittersweet memory, really, but instead of getting upset and quickly apologizing for it, she smiled instead. Because the sight, minus the hurt foot, of Monroe with a giant coffee stain on his shirt was actually a bit amusing. How could somebody be so clutzy with such sturdy boots?

Her body was pushed up by the sudden weight beside her, and she squealed. Grasping onto the edge of the bed. It was short and quick, but she wasn't expecting it. "Well, maybe a little. Impress me a little more and tell me about yourself?" It was phrased as a question because she wanted to make sure he knew it was strictly optional. He didn't have to speak if he didn't want to.

She just really hoped he would.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

It was times like this when Monroe knew that he thought way too much, other times he felt he didn't think enough. When could one find a healthy balance? When she said the next thing, he realized that it was the very hoodie he'd worn that day, when he'd tripped and fallen in his dorm room entrance and spilled hot coffee on himself in the process. He might have washed it since then, he honestly didn't recall. "Yeah, there's that," he agreed. Would that day forever be something that came up between them? The day he invaded her privacy? He hoped not. He truly regretted it.

What came next threw him off, mostly because he wasn't used to people asking about him. He asked about others, people were just usually like "that guy is so sleep deprived." Maybe sometimes they asked why, but that was about it. Still, he'd always hated when someone asked him to define himself or something of the sort. Honestly, he found it difficult. Besides, that was so broad. What was he supposed to tell her? What did she want to know? "Uh," he stammered, caught off guard. He realized that he hadn't really told her much about him. "My name's Thomas. Monroe's my middle name." Would she realize how important it was that he told her that? He didn't advertise it. "It doesn't feel like me." That was a start, right?

He laughed at her reaction when he'd plopped on the bed. "Sorry, I have a tendency to just let myself fall onto things." He settled there beside her and craned his head to look over at her.

[Adaryn Breslin]

"Thomas..." The name tasted odd on her tongue when referring to Monroe. She glanced over at him, and she shook her head. No, he didn't look like a Thomas. He looked like a Monroe. Brown eyed, shaggy haired Monroe. The one who wore Combat boots, Monroe. Not Thomas. "Nope," Addie turned, her eyes expressing a smile despite the fact that her mouth was occupied by another sip of the cooling drink in her hands. "You're as Monroe as I am Adaryn." It was a weird way to phrase it, but it made sense to her. That was all that mattered, right?

Her lips pursed at his next words, or rather, his reaction. He laughed at her, and she didn't want to be laughed at. Not now. "Be nice. Stop laughing. I didn't laugh when you fell flat on your butt on the ice." Addie placed the cup down and crossed her arms, though that in itself was probably a humorous sight. There was far too much fabric on the jacket, and not enough Addie to cover. She looked like a little girl wearing her father's shirt to bed.

"But really, You know a lot about me. My past, my fears. And no, I'm not blaming you anymore. But I want to know about yours. I want to know where you came from, how you manifested. You don't have to give me the most disturbing parts, if there are any, but I want to get a better sense of who the man I'm looking at right now, is."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Hearing Addie say his real name, the name on his birth certificate, was weird. It was weird when anybody said it, including himself. "I'm glad you agree," he told her. "I've never felt like a Thomas. I don't think I ever will. And you are definitely an Adary." He couldn't explain it, but names just fitted people. And if they didn't seem like it fitted them, you wouldn't be able to match their name to their face. Monroe remembered more than one occasion where he upset someone by saying "You don't look like a (insert name here)."

"Yeah, well, I didn't squeal when I fell on my butt," he shot back lightheartedly before shit seemed to really get serious. She was looking at him so intensely, wanting to know about him and it was hard because Monroe wasn't sure he knew himself. He was too busy trying to deal with his power and not disturb everyone around him. "I'm from a small town in Maine, that state in the corner of the East Coast." He made a strange gesture, as if he was pointing to a map of the United States. "I live with my mom, or lived, I should say. She's a child psychologist. Quiet. Doesn't share much," he rambled, shrugging his shoulders. "No dad. At least, I don't know who he is. And no siblings." He realized how he was telling this story was very fragmented, as if he was casually discussing a common day subject that everyone knew about so he didn't have to go into much detail.

"I manifested four years ago. I was fourteen. I dream walked in my mother's dream, on accident of course. My father was in it. Except he stayed. She called him Everett, Ev, Rett, or even Thomas." Maybe that's why he hated the name. It came from him somehow. "I woke up and went into her room, freaked out and thinking it was my own dream. I didn't understand. How had I dreamed about someone I didn't even know? But it wasn't my dream." He let out a breath. "I remember jumping on her bed and asking her who Everett/Thomas was and the look on her face....she had no idea how I knew that. She told me to go back to bed and in the morning, the recruiters were there."

Had he ever even told that story? Or thought about it since then?

[Adaryn Breslin]

"If you did, I would have gotten it on video." Adaryn scowled softly, but even the thought of him doing that threatened to put a smile on her face. She couldn't have that though. He was teasing her! And Addie didn't want to be teased, especially after him picking her up and draping her across his shoulder.

But the time for complaining and whining was over, because Monroe finally started speaking about his history. And unlike some, Adaryn understood how hard it was to open up in such a way. She tried not to stare, but she wanted him to know that she was, indeed, listening to what he had to say.

"Your manifestation was really... sudden, then." Adaryn breathed slowly. Her manifestation was quite different, actually. She had been taking to a doctor because they feared she had developed bi polar disorder or something of the sort. But.. come puberty she was sitting there, seeing aura's all around her and some were actually very terrifying. It was sudden, but then the tests confirmed that she was, indeed, more than just an average human and then they packed up and moved to Vermont. Together. Though that togetherness didn't last long.

Her right arm began to throb.

"I manifested about 4 years ago, too. Funny how we just managed to meet now. But then again... I was only 12." Yes, she was practically two years younger than Monroe. Was that a problem? She hoped not. But even if something did happen between them, he was graduating this year. Then what?

His aura was reading discomfort and nervousness, so she slowly placed the mug on the nightstand and slipped her now free hand in between his. "You don't have to be uncomfortable, Monroe." Her cheeks were heating up, and she wanted to remove her hand from his to make it stop, but she kept it there. "The last person who'd ever judge you is me."

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"And I would have tickled you until you deleted it," Monroe told her, a very serious look on his face. "I have to protect my manly status you know." Of course it was all joking. He didn't have a status and if he did, he doubt it would be as manly.

He could tell she was taking this seriously, really listening to him, but trying not to scare him by seeming too interested. He was grateful that she cared and wanted to know about him, but it didn't make talking about himself any less awkward. "Yeah, really sudden," he agreed. "I remember trying to find a logical reason for it, but there was none."

He watched as she shifted, setting the mug down. And then her hand simply slid into his, warm from grasping the mug. He did't have to be uncomfortable? Man, somehow that made it all the more uncomfortable. When he made a move to kiss her or hold her hand or pick it up, it somehow didn't phase him because it was him doing it, but when Adaryn made the move to grab his hand, somehow it sent his senses on high alert. "It's not that I'm worried about you judging me..." he trailed off. "It's more like I'm just really not that interesting." And that's honestly how he felt. "I just don't have a lot to say."

[Adaryn Breslin]

"I'd say... that a guy who wears combat boots and goes out of his way to find a girl who he didn't know to see if she was okay, well, I think that says you're pretty interesting." He was likely not to see it that way, as most would. Hell, whenever she had gotten compliments, she dismissed them because she had this specific self image that nobody could break. Not even Monroe.

Not yet, at least.

Adaryn could feel his discomfort the minute she slipped her hand in his, and her heart fell. In response, she pulled her hand away, scooting away from him out of a bit of nervousness. It was obvious from the sudden fluctuation in emotion that she was the reason for the intense discomfort.

Her eyes fell to her hands, and her tone fell. "Sorry for that," She mumbled.