Brunch and a Flick (Lani.)

[Odion Martins]

Odion nodded. Of course he assumed that Lani would enjoy listening to more than just one band. And he was interested in knowing all of Lani’s interests, though he doubted he ever would. People were like the weather – ever changing, and unpredictable. Yes there were constants, and a sour mood was a sour mood much like the sun was hot, but when one would be that way was never for certain. “Besides Sinatra?” Odion asked, giving Lani a long and level stare. Was he actually interested, or was this a joke? “Ever heard of Passenger?” It was a band Jared had introduced to him and Odion liked them very much. He had learned early on in life that if the music he listened to was too intense, he had a hard time ever finding peace.

Chuckling in unison, Odion knew that no matter how much time would pass, Lani would always be attractive. It was hard to think of growing old, but they would just like everyone else. For someone so vain, Odi was surprised he wasn’t more concerned of this inevitability. He was still convinced of course that he would eventually figure out how to wind himself through time so he could exist forever. It wasn’t necessarily living, but he would never really die. Odion laughed at Lani’s question, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Well I don’t know about your laugh lines, but with the amount of worrying you do, you just might sprout some grey hairs sooner than expected.” A look of mock concern swept over the top of Lani’s frock. With his light hair, the blond really had nothing to worry about.

Odion’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You don’t really get a choice,” he teased, giving Lani a little nudge. Just like Lani couldn’t change the fact that there were many things Odion didn’t like, and many other things he had a preference towards. Though Odi did suppose that Lani being okay with these things may signify that he accepted Odion’s differences. So Odion smiled warmly at his assumptions. It was their differences that made things interesting, and their similarities that made the other understandable and relatable.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Odi said, putting the tickets away until they would have to pass security. He was grinning like he had won an unspoken something. “Let me l…” The word died in Odion’s throat and he cleared it. Yes he did love Lani, but he was still wary of where they were in their relationship. “Just let me do something nice for you.” It wasn’t something he asked to be allowed to do every day.

“This entire row,” Odion teased, pointing at a variety of M&M’s and mini chocolate bars. When Lani didn’t respond, the redhead glanced over, finding himself being caught with a genuine smile on his face. Maybe if he gave strangers that smile, they may smile back. The clerk behind the counter asked if they had made any decisions and Odion’s smile turned sly as he caught the blush on Lani’s face. “Yes. Two of these for me,” he said, tossing a couple bags of chocolates onto the counter, before stepping aside so Lani could finish up and pay for the order. Lani should be thankful Odion was being so gracious, and didn’t go ahead and order the kid combo for Lani.

[Lani Hunter]

It didn’t help that music tastes varied by mood as well, no one wanted to listen to something happy when they were angry or sad and no one wanted to listen to something sad when they were happy. Lani nodded and cocked his head interested in Odion’s answer. It was just like the redhead to make him wait for the answer. Lani met Odion’s gaze and for a discerning moment before Odion spoke again he could have been sure that he was going to fall into their depthless pools. How could someone have such beautiful eyes? He hummed as he thought about the name, unintentionally he was humming the tune to ‘Let her go’ but he couldn’t place it. “The name sounds familiar but I can’t think of any songs off the top of my head.”

Lani wasn’t sure how he felt about being young forever, but he was definitely not looking forward to when his body started to shut down, it was not a fun time when one had to start letting people take care of them. Lani had a feeling he was going to be one of those old men that didn’t have the patience to deal with kids, who probably would be very much like he was now. “Ah,” Lani cried a hand swiping through his hair before he gave Odion a narrow eyed look. He smile tipped up on one side and gave him an impish appearance. He held it for a moment before breaking into laughter. This was so easy, had they missed this almost a year ago? How had he forgotten this in the midst of all of the pain. His heart nagged, was this happiness worth the pain? Lani pushed the thoughts away for debating later. “See, here’s the thing, we Hunters don’t go gray, we are actually immune to that rule,” Lani said clearly pulling things out of his ass.

Smiles widening Lani couldn’t help but chuckle. Odion seemed to have forgotten Lani’s ability to snack. If Odion did like popcorn, well they would just have to get double because Lani was a nibbler. If there was something sitting on the counter or in a bowl, chances were Lani was eating it. It was most of the reason why he didn’t actually keep anything that allowed for nibbling in his apartment, or else things might get bad, but he really wasn’t concerned with all of the roof running he did, he needed to stay in shape. They were different, Lani wasn’t going to shove popcorn down Odion’s throat if he didn’t like it, just like Odion wasn’t going to make Lani drink tea since he didn’t like it. Burgers were a different story, because in that regard Odion was just wrong, burgers were amazing.

Lani huffed and looked away since he couldn’t immediately fix his annoyed expression. He raised a brow and looked sidelong at Odion as he struggled with his words, that wasn’t typical of Odion. Whatever it was that they were silently fighting about the request couldn’t be ignored by Lani’s heart and against his will he melted. He bit back a smile, very touched by Odion’s gesture, and sighed exasperatedly to cover it, like he would allow it but he didn’t have to be happy about it. “Fine, let’s just go get snacks, eh?” Odion won this round but Lani wasn’t going to let him have everything. He was putting his foot down and paying for their food and Odion was going to deal with that even if Lani had to float his wallet onto the ceiling. He wanted to do nice things for Odion too, Odion couldn’t have it all, well, Lani wanted to give him everything, which was probably why it felt strange taking. Or perhaps it was only strange because Odion was the only person Lani felt strange about taking from even when it was freely given.

Laughter bubbled from Lani’s lips and he would have right then and there happily gotten Odion the entire row. Well, another thing learned, Odion loved chocolate. Lani gladly stepped forward and handed over a few bills. He also added two water bottles for them and handed over one to the redhead along with his candy. Lani grinned at Odion over the popcorn and pocketed his wallet. “I’m so excited for this movie,” Lani finally admitted, “I heard it was really good.” Not to mention super hero movies were awesome. Lani was extremely excited about the fact that they were making comic book stories into movies.

[Odion Martins]

Odion watched with interest as Lani seemed to be falling. Not in the physical sense, but Odion knew when he was being looked at, and he knew when someone was intoxicated by him. It was pleasant because he hadn’t been trying to get Lani to fall for him, he was really and truly being himself, and had been most of the time, especially when he was an asshole and didn’t care what Lani thought one way or another. Odion grinned, his head tilting to the side. “Are you sure?” Odion asked, wondering if Lani was playing a little mind game, or if he as truly unaware that he was humming a song by Passenger. “Do you know ‘Let Her Go’ by chance?” Odion wasn’t one to wait for the answers he desired.

Odi laughed, thinking nothing of the past and focusing only on this moment. It was nice, to be happy and not so jaded. Moments like these didn’t happen all the time, and Odion wasn’t about to squander it. “Right,” Odion said, going along with this no-grey phenomena, “although, your father is not too shabby looking…” Let Lani make from that remark what he will, Odion was truly teasing at this point. Odion’s specialty was making things awkward at the most inconvenient times after all.

Nodding in agreement as they made their way to the concession stand, Odion wondered if Lani knew that he wasn’t putting up much of a fight in terms of Lani paying for snacks. For two thieves, one would think such gestures would be arbitrary. We are looking at two very stubborn thieves however, which may change the rules slightly. And besides, Odion liked being treated like this. He hadn’t had such a good day in nearly a year.

Taking the treats, Odion glanced up to see which theatre they’d be going to. Waiting in line, Odi smiled in Lani’s direction. He was glad Lani was glad. “Me too.” He didn’t really care about the movie that much, he cared about the man beside him. Handing over the tickets, the employee ripped off the tab and handed the remainder of the tickets back. “To the left,” she said, also handing Odion two pairs of glasses. He frowned at them, handing one over to Lani. “Since when do you need to wear glasses to see a movie?” It was really a shame Odion wasn’t with the times.

[Lani Hunter]

It was a good thing Odion didn’t say anything about it because Lani probably would have been rather embarrassed that it was so obvious. Really it was all Odion’s fault, if he wasn’t such an annoying, confusing and amazing person he wouldn’t be so easy to fall for. It spelled a question, why did Odion pretend to be someone else, when Lani was falling head over heels for what he already was? Lani frowned and tapped his lips as he hummed in thought and shrugged still not able to put his finger on it. “Ah!” He declared and pointed a finger as he got it, “Yes, that’s it. Good song.” He nodded continuing on, still not connecting the dots. Now that he knew the song he was able to imagine it in his head. “I haven’t heard much else than that,” he added looked at Odion, perhaps the world might just stop right now and start spinning backward and Odion would school Lani on music.

“Wha… Ah… um…” He started and failed miserable to come up with something to say to that. He glared, first for being compared to his father, then for the fact that Odion wasn’t wrong. He stared at Odion for several moments in shock. He opened his mouth once or twice with a retort that died somewhere between his brain and lips. Finally giving up, Lani laughed for lack of anything else to do and scratch his head uncertainly and finally dropped his hand giving up. “I have no idea how to respond to that,” he finally admitted. It could be a compliment, but Odion was treading on thin ice. Lani’s father wasn’t unattractive, but that was honestly a thought that had never in a million years crossed Lani’s mind.

If Odion let him, Lani would have done a lot more. Lani was stubborn and had Odion refused to let him pay the telekinetic may very well do something stupid. Holding onto the popcorn Lani wondered if it would freak people out if he just casually took his hands off of it. Probably. Smiling Lani resisted the urge to call Odion out. He wasn’t a movie person, which meant he’d probably done a lot of work to find the right movie. That called a smile to Lani’s face and he rolled his eyes toward Odion giving him a sly look. Lani smiled at the girl and laughed taking the pair Odion handed over. “Oh, Odion,” Lani said with mock sadness chuckling as he put the glasses on his head for temporary purposes.

“It’s for 3-D,” Lani explained, “Did you not realize that when you got the tickets?” He snickered a little bit and walked toward the theatre. He bobbed his head and the glasses fell down on his nose. Take a finger he pushed them into place and grinned at Odion. Now, Lani didn’t know quite what possessed him to do what he did next, but he did it anyways. “Now you’re in 3-D. It’s almost like you’re real.” He teased and reached his hand out as it groping for Odion. This ended in Lani’s hand gracelessly landing on Odion’s face.

[Odion Martins]

Odion had grown up using a series of masks. It wasn’t until recently that he realized he didn’t know who was under them. It was a philosophical question he hadn’t had the time for, as it seemed rather silly to consider. It had taken nearly twenty years for him to realize he had a heart, for him to realize it wasn’t his fault he had been abandoned when he was a wee one, and that he was capable of great things that were good. There had been many a wrong turns, but he was righting many wrongs now.

Odi laughed and shook his head. Apparently Lany was truly unaware to his little recital. Odion found Lani’s humming something particular to the blond, a tic – something that made him utterly unique to all others. “From the group you mean,” Odion said, drawing on his own tic of explicit details in all mutterings. “You could always find more songs online, I’m sure.” Now didn’t seem like the right time to whip out his phone and play another song or two for Lani to listen to, though Odion’s fingers did twitch towards the device inadvertently.

Chuckling, Odion couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction from rendering Lani speechless. It seemed to be an endless game they played, constantly trying to shut the other up in the best of ways. Unable to wipe the grin off of his face, Odion only bubbled into laughter. Between watching Lani try to come up with a remark, and then admitting that he couldn’t, Odion couldn’t decide which was funnier. He wiped at his face with his eyes, giving a sigh. “Well, you had to get your good looks from someone,” he said, ending the statement with a half smile. His eyes turned joyful. “Your mum probably had a hand with that as well.”

With the chocolates tucked away safely under his arm, Odion continued to glare at the glasses like they were made out of pins and needles. He shrugged at Lani’s question. “I don’t remember,” he lied, realizing belatedly that yes, the checkout had said something about 3D, he had just been too excited to care. Odion grinned at Lani, holding the glasses between his thumb and pointer finger, like he did when he was taking out the used cat litter. Odi glanced up just in time to receive Lani’s petting. “I wonder if a slap would work in 3D...” Odion pondered, pushing Lani’s hand away from his face. He decided not to let go of Lani’s hand in the end.

Theatre number four loomed ahead, and Odion was deliberate in making sure he stepped with Lani. He wasn’t about to pick seats for them, though he had bought tickets. No, he was going to let Lani lead, even if that meant purposefully falling behind. “After you love,” Odion said with ease, nodding towards the oncoming theatre entrance.

[Lani Hunter]

That could definitely be shared blame. Lani knew who he was beneath the masks and Lani had hated himself. That person who hid behind the mask was a horrible human, Lani knew, Odion had helped him change that perception, but inversely he had also helped solidify that impression. Lani guessed it was true that the higher someone build another person up the greater distance they had to fall. There was only so long that Lani could ignore the root of the problem and somewhere between the harsh words and Odion’s return Lani had had to face himself and for one, he had figured many things out. It didn’t help much in situations like this, Lani was no less scared of letting his walls down, but he did it anyways.

“What?” Lani demanded, confused and slightly annoyed that Odion had found something funny and Lani had no idea what it was. Was there something on his face? “I’m sure,” Lani agreed giving Odion a wary look before smiling, oh well, whatever it was it couldn’t matter that much. Right? But what had been so funny. Lani frowned slightly and fixed Odion with a level star trying to see if he was any better at reading the redhead’s mind. Apparently not, Lani gained no special insight from Odion’s secret mind. “I’ll have to do that.” He finally said letting it slide a bit but keeping his sharp eyes on Odion, looking for any slip that would give him a clue. Lani was helplessly clueless and that was one thing that simply hadn’t changed over the years.

Lani’s face bloomed crimson as Odion started to laugh. He hated it when Odion had him stumped like this, he felt like an idiot, unable to keep up. He wasn’t sure he had a good comeback that might stump Odion without making himself sound like an ass. Lani snorted and shook his head. “And you pick my father?” He wrinkled his nose in distain but shrugged, “I don’t see it.” He stated, though now he was wondering. It had always felt a little bit like looking in an aged mirror but Lani still shook his head, unwilling to accept any more relation to the man than that they shared blood. Lani flushed red again and shook his head. Giving a nervous laugh he waved a hand dismissively. “Okay, that’s… We’re done with that.” He never really liked to think of how he had gotten here, for some reason that was a taboo thought when it came to his parents.

Lani snickered. This was Odion, who had been completely freaked out by shared shoes, he looked none too happy about having to put glasses that someone else might have worn on his face. Lani laughed harder and grinned like a loon. His fingers laced with Odion’s and the telekinetic gave the time turner an innocent grin. With that impish expression on his face he probably looked about as innocent as a raccoon caught in the scene of the crime. He couldn’t get the smile to leave his face and honestly he didn’t want to try. He didn’t care if it was temporary or if later he felt like it was false, the fact of the matter was that right now he was happy and being with Odion made him happy.

After you love. The statement gave him pause and he swallowed turning as if he found something very interesting way over there. His grip changed on Odion’s hand. Squeezing it and tugging a little bit. Lani didn’t say anything and it wasn’t until he was too late for him to think about it that he started wondering if he should have said anything. His mind was flying in a million different directions and as a result he didn’t really think very much, he just identified a few empty seats and lead the way. Not quite at the back, but not quite in the middle either. “Here?” He asked before he took a seat, willing to move if Odion couldn’t see or something but otherwise very lost in his own head. He reflexively ran his thumb over Odion’s hand and smiled, reminding himself rather forcefully to remain in the moment. He took the doubtful thoughts and tossed them to the back of his mind for later pondering and instead looked over to Odion. “So do you know anything about the X-men?”

[Odion Martins]

“Nothing,” Odion said, giving a shrug, “can’t I admire you?” That would surely shut Lani up. There wasn’t anything funny going on, it was a laugh of joy. Odi continued staring and gave a sleepy smile. There wasn’t a lot to read here, only that Odion found Lani and all his peculiarities attractive. Odion gave a nod when Lani said he’d look into Passenger a bit more. It wasn’t as though he was going to check and make sure Lani actually did, it wasn’t a matter of vast importance.

“Well no, I didn’t pick him, you see I wasn’t even around when your mother and father...” Odion couldn’t finish the statement, he could only start laughing again. The redhead sighed, blinking a few times to ward off tears. A flash of a woman with red hair came to mind and his expression went very serious. Everyone looked like where they came from. Glancing sidelong at Lani, Odion gave a curt nod. “Yes very well, moving on.” His mind was playing tricks on him again, and Lani seemed done with the subject anyways.

God, the way Lani laughed and held his hand... If only he hadn’t forgotten everything they had had together before he decided to take his own memories away. Every one of Lani’s details seemed to speak to him now. The tint of his hair, the oh so innocent grin, the way the lighting played with the angles Lani’s neck muscles made. And then there was his smile of course. Odion would give anything in the world right now to just stop and kiss Lani like he meant it.

Odion noticed the deafening silence. No smile, no smart remark as they moved forward. Well, at least Lani was still holding on. He couldn’t decide if Lani didn’t enjoy being called ‘love’, or if he did and didn’t know what to do with that feeling. Odion sighed, all thoughts fading as he followed along as he had intended to do, his vision adjusting as they entered the slightly lighted theatre. Odion found the room fascinating, since he hadn’t ventured into one before. He also found it amazingly dirty. Lani had stopped and was asking a simple question. “Oh. Yes, sure.” He smiled reflexively and sat down in the center of the row. “Not really,” Odion admitted, “other than they’re super human. An all too familiar story.” It was strange, as much as they had discussed things, their own manifestation stories had never been shared. Odion looked around the theatre again, his eyes settling on what was in front of them. The large screen was darting through ads, which reminded him...

“Chocolate?” He asked, ripping open the bag with his teeth, a gesture that was truly uncharacteristic of him. But he had to pretend like this soiled place wasn’t bothering him, and without any alcohol, some good acting and chocolate would have to do. Odion tilted the bag in Lani’s direction.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani’s mouth opened slightly as if he were thinking about saying something and well with a little ‘um’ Lani shut his mouth and gave Odion an annoyed look. Why did he always do that? Probably because he knew Lani always got flustered and brain dead when Odion said something like that. Odion continued staring and Lani narrowed his eyes staring right back. Lani tilted his head ever so slightly and raised a brow at the redhead, hating that he was the first person to have to break eye contact. “Listen you.” He huffed turning away. He peeked back at Odion to see him giving that sweet smile and Lani couldn’t help but smile himself. Odion was sly and very easy to look at, Lani wouldn’t make the mistake of calling him adorable again, at least not out loud.

It was like Odion’s sole goal in life was to make Lani uncomfortable. “Whoa whoa whoa!” Lani cried shaking his head and his hands in a desperate attempt to stop the path of this conversation. He collected himself as Odion laughed and Lani’s face just grew hotter. Lani covered his eyes as if that would get the mental image out of his head, in doing so he missed the change in Odion’s expression and when he dropped his hand Odion’s face had changed and Lani gave him a questioning look. “Are you okay?” He squeezed Odion’s hand his eyes flashing with worry. Well, at the very least Odion dropped that topic, but Lani wasn’t sure he liked that look Odion had on his face.

Lani glanced back and watched Odion look around the room taking it in. If the telekinetic knew Odion, he figured the redhead would feel the need to shower after this. Lani raised a brow, and sat with Odion. It was interesting to think that these two people crossed paths from such different pasts. Lani had read comic books when he was little and loved these movies. “I think you’ll like it,” Lani said with a smile. He had to nod in agreement. Manifested powers and young children was not a fun time. Lani didn’t know Odion’s manifestation story and Lani hadn’t told Odion his. He hated reliving his story which is why he’d avoided that for so long, he wondered if Odion’s story was similar. “It gives the kids hope, they have super human powers, perhaps they can be superheroes.”

“Huh? Sure,” he smiled snagging a small chocolate, “Thank you. Popcorn?” He offered, despite the fact that he knew now Odion didn’t like it he felt better offering anyways. He looked over at Odion, still holding onto the redhead’s hand he couldn’t help but smile. Lani leaned toward Odion, nibbling on popcorn now. He couldn’t believe that this was the first time they had done this. They had never been typical people but one would have thought they would have eventually gotten around to going out to the movies. “So, you don’t watch movies a lot, but you have to have seen the old Disney movies right?” He was curious, Lani might not admit outright that he liked them, but he did have a little sister that gave him an excuse to go see the Disney movies that were coming out.

Lani leaned back in the chair and found he couldn’t take his eyes off of Odion, he wasn’t sure how much of the movie he was going to be able to watch. His eyes traced over Odion’s face, his eyes, his lips. He turned his eyes forward again catching the tail end of an ad and the theater started to dim as the previews started. He pushed on the 3D glasses and grinned at Odion. He had seen the three X-Men movies and the one right before this one, he was extremely excited about where they were about to go with it now. He shifted a little bit, getting comfortable. He was very aware of the person next to him and kept glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. He loosely held Odion’s hand, a grip that would change as soon as the first scene started.

[Odion Martins]

“I’m fine.” Odion said, concentrating on where they were right now. The movie theatre, that’s where they were going. He frowned. “I thought I saw…” He swallowed hard. No, it couldn’t be, they had never met. His hopeful mind was creating people to fill a void that would always break his heart. Odi cleared his throat, unwilling to let time games ruin their date. “It’s nothing,” he said, a woman with dark red hair and an unfamiliar face passing them by, “I just thought I recognized someone.” Which didn’t make any sense. He pushed on a smile and sighed. “That’s what I get for talking about your parents in such vulgar ways.”

The way Odion treated the everyday grime in this world was much like how someone felt the need to take a long hot shower after doing something they weren’t very proud of. As though the shower itself could take away their bad decisions. After putting himself through hell, sleeping in streets and being so doped up he didn’t even know who he was anymore, keeping his environment clean seemed to be a way to atone for his sins. It gave him a sense of security he didn’t otherwise have when he was not himself. So being in a movie theatre put him on edge, though he hoped the movie would be enthralling enough he would forget about such silly nonsense.

Nodding at the summary, Odion gave Lani a contemplative look. “And what of the villains?” Odi didn’t watch many movies, but he did read old books, and for every hero there was someone else trying to stop him, or some kind of government against the greater good. Otherwise there would be no story. Everyone would be happy and no one would want to change a thing. Only stupid people were like this.

Odi shook his head no at the offer of popcorn. The redhead glanced at Lani for half a second when he moved in before his eyes darted away again. It was odd, being beside someone rather than across from them. It took much of the attention away, the focusing being the gigantic screen of course. Odi grinned and popped a chocolate in his mouth, making his hands didn’t touch anything else. “What? Like Cinderella?” It was hard not to know of these things, Odion didn’t live under a rock. But with everything new that constantly bombarded the screens, it was hard to keep up with it all.

As the movie theatre darkened further, Odion tensed. Hopefully this was supposed to be happening. When previews for other movies started playing, Odion took a little breath, glad this hadn’t been a trap of some kind. Imagine if the floors opened in front of them and the seats bent forward and they were never seen again. And they had paid for the experience to boot. Mimicking Lani, Odion also put on the glasses, and it only took a moment to get used to the dizzy sensation. Movies had certainly changed in a short amount of time. At least Odion was the perfect movie goer – he jumped and tensed at all the right places. It was hard to know what to expect in a dark room.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani’s eyebrow rose casually as he waited patiently for Odion to decide if it was something or nothing. Really, Lani was very aware that it wasn’t ‘nothing’ it was very well something, but he was willing to wait until Odion had come to his own conclusion before he went into a counter argument. Lani side eyed the woman who passed them. He didn’t recognize her and he didn’t realize the connection Odion’s mind had been making. His focus was quickly distracted and he nodded pointing an accusing finger at Odion. “Absolutely, I hope you’ve learned something,” Lani said jokingly, laughing easily. He was glad to see that particular subject dropped. There was the vague knowledge in the back of his mind about what had to have happened, but beyond that Lani did not care to think about that side of his parents.

It would be interesting to see how the obsessive cleaner and the disorganized chaos reacted when they were put into a situation where such habits were no longer so endearing. Lani had an idea of why cleanliness was so important to Odion but he’d never actually asked for any sort of verification. He always thought it was part of the need to wash away any signs of the life he used to have. Again, Lani only had but a small understanding of what that was like for Odion. It just wasn’t something that they had ever talked about and well, now hardly seemed like the appropriate time. There were still so many secrets between them. Between the two of them they had a full library of well kept secrets behind them, there was no way to sift through all of them in a short period of time. They could very well spend the rest of their lives learning about each other.

“Well, I suppose they are better examples of what not to do,” he said with a sly grin. Movies and books tended to favor good versus evil and well, as everyone knew good always triumphed evil. It was a rare thing indeed to find a situation in which evil triumphs against good. In the real world villains won all the time, villains like Lani won all the time. Then, no one is a villain in their own story, especially not in this world colored in many shades of gray. To the police they were certainly villains, sick individuals who took pleasure in stealing from others. Lani and Odion knew differently and it really didn’t matter what the greater population thought about them. Lani’s smile faded, how had it come so quickly back to this. Odion’s opinion was the only one that mattered. Lani ground his teeth in frustration, he knew he’d opened the door for this, but he wasn’t expecting it to be so hard. His heart didn’t want to be exposed again and yet here he was offering it back to the one person who had destroyed it.

Lani snorted a little laugh. “Yes, like Cinderella,” he replied looking at Odion, while the theater was still bright enough to see the person next to him. Odion had to at least know the stories at the very least. Lani’s eyes moved back to the screen and the previews that started to flash. Lani couldn’t hold back a smile when he felt Odion tense next to him. What really did Odion think was going to happen? Well, what did he think was going to happen that they couldn’t deal with. Lani was fully distracted by the movie once it started. It was a fair assessment that Lani was no prepared for the emotional roller coaster that was this movie. Not only were old beloved characters being slaughtered in the first scene but they came back and were going to be killed again.

Not to mention the ending of that movie. When a familiar redheaded woman appeared Lani’s jaw dropped. Lani forgot that Odion had never seen the movies and expected the same reaction, hence he squeezed Odion’s hand tightly. It was an interesting way they had manipulated the time stream and as the credits started up Lani was interested to see what Odion had to say about that. There was all sort of physics breaking and twisting that went on in these movies, which Lani loved and he hoped that Odion felt the same. “Holy shit,” Lani muttered, making no move to leave when the credits started to roll.

[Odion Martins]

Odi nodded once. “Or, good ideas for future use.” Just because something was intended to be taken as a warning did not mean that it would be. Odion couldn’t count how many times he had seen something morally wrong and then had replicated it at a later date. There had to be both good and evil in life, stories were merely a reflection of the truth. All he knew, was that everyone had a story to be told.

Odion smiled a bit in response. “My childhood was lacking… entertainment such as this.” He said, waving a hand towards the giant screen in front of them. He wasn’t implying that Lani’s childhood was so grand, only that he was unawares of many of the things people took for granted. Once the movie started, Odion was intensely focused on what was going on. Some of the plot elements meant to be emotional triggers were lost on him, as he wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters. However, he did find the story fascinating in and of itself.

Odion recalled Lani mentioning the telekinetic shown at the end, a Ms. Grey. He looked down to find Lani grasping at him. Apparently her appearance meant something significant. Blue eyes flicked back to the words now scrolling up the screen, nearly too fast to read what was going on. “Is it over then?” Odion asked in response to Lani’s proclamation. Everyone else in the theatre was leaving, but Lani wasn’t. Odion assumed that he knew something that they didn’t, either that or he was truly taken aback by the story.

“I think I need to see the rest of these,” he said, a wry smile on his face. Whether he saw them on his own or with Lani was up for debate, but now he was curious, and everyone knew the saying about what curiosity could do.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani shrugged in acceptance, warnings could be taken and ideas could be improved upon, there was always a fatal flaw in these villains plans that allowed the ‘heroes’ to cut in and destroy it. Mainly that flaw was arrogance, always plan for someone to be able to stop, Lani almost opened his mouth to say such but thought better of it, not feeling like getting into their old bickering about planning versus not planning. It was feeling so natural, so normal, that Lani’d almost been able to forget all that had happened. Almost. He couldn’t seem to help himself, things with Odion were just right, he wasn’t going to say they were easy, because it was the far from easy. They were a thing worth working for, but Lani couldn’t quite let it go yet. Not quite yet.

“Ah,” Lani replied and looked away from Odion, the echoes of memories rattling in his brain. “ But you can’t understand that because everything is fucking magical in Lani’s world.” He closed his eyes and pushed away the memories, memories Odion had blocked out. Lani felt bitterly jealous suddenly, that he couldn’t forget. It was an insane connection, but his brain was very good at insane connections and had a terrible habit of making them in the worst possible ways. He shook his head a little bit and put a smile back on his face. “I think you’ll really like this,” was all he had time to mutter as the movie started up.

Lani nodded then shook his head. “Yes and no, there’s a scene at the end,” he said still partially in shock unsure of how to feel about the ending of that movie. It seemed to tie together all too nicely, but Lani couldn’t get a nagging feeling that there were holes in this plot that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He shrugged, there were a few people sticking around, Lani was surprised that Marvel had been making movies this long and people still hadn’t caught on to the added scene. “What did you think?” Lani asked his eyes sparking with excitement in the still dim theatre. Lani was blown away, he had not expected this movie to be such an emotional roller coaster, for lack of a better term.

Grinning through the dim light. He elbowed Odion playfully. “What did I tell you?” He asked rhetorically, “Definitely, it kinda makes a little more sense.” He looked at Odion now the lights were starting to come up slightly, enough for the exiting people to be able to see, still bright by movie theatre standards. “That girl at the end,” Lani started and bit his lip, he wasn’t sure he wanted to spoil it for Odion if he wanted to see the rest of the movies but he was dying to tell him. “I can’t even imagine, that’s insane.” He was practically gushing, one might get it into their heads that she was a bit of a telekinetic hero to him. And maybe she was, maybe she wasn’t, but Lani would never admit to it. She was fiction, this life was real and real telekinesis was terrifying and painful.

[Odion Martins]

“A scene at the end?” Odion asked, confusion over his face as he glanced back to the giant screen. He only looked back when Lani asked him how he thought it was. “A little confusing,” he admitted, seeing as he hadn’t seen the other movies and this was supposedly the last one to the series. Although knowing how much people loved money, there would probably be more to come. Who knew someone could be paid so much for pretending to be someone else? It was this thought that made Odion wonder if maybe that was something he could get into…

When Lani started talking about a girl, Odion glanced back at the screen. Was something happening? But no, Lani was only raving. Odion studied Lani for a bit. The girl wasn’t someone who was real, though she may be a hero, she was far from realistic. But the look in Lani said she was at the very least, idealistic. “I don’t really understand it. There aren’t really different classes of telekinesis are there?” He thought there was different stages, not different kinds.

They were quickly the only two left in the theatre, and the cleanup crew began their work in the back rows. “We should probably go,” Odion said, though he had no intention of discontinuing the conversation unless Lani was done with it. The redhead touched Lani’s hand softly and gave a smile. He was going to need some fair warning if Lani did manage to figure out how to do half of the things Jean could do.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani nodded and glanced at Odion. He was surprised, how had Marvel put out all these movies and people still hadn’t clued in. Lani nodded, he could see that. It was like jumping into a novel without reading the first hundred pages. “If you ever want to see the other movies, they’re not hard to find and…” he hesitated then, he would gladly watch them with Odion. In fact he would very much like to watch them with Odion, they had a long list of movies to watch now. He cleared his through, “Well, we need to start a list.” He smiled warmly at the redhead. Who knew that dating like normal people could be so much fun. It was so strange to him that they’d never done something so simple before. It felt like they’d spent so much time together doing whatever they wanted that plans never got made, they just happened. In many ways Lani was okay with that.

Idealistic indeed. Lani would kill for that level of control, that level of precision. If Lani was a powerful telekinetic in this world it was something to be said that he wouldn’t be able to compete with someone with Jean’s power. She could squash him like a bug. He looked at the scrolling text and tilted his head considering the question, or rather how to answer it. He hummed as he organized his thoughts thinking back to all he had read and all that he had experienced. “Yes and no,” he said thoughtfully, “No one telekinetic is exactly the same. Take for instance, my telekinesis can’t interact with living things, only the things around them.” He shrugged waving his hand from one direction to another, “On the other hand, I’ve met people who have no problem taking your hand and shoving it this way or that.

“Telekinesis is like an umbrella,” he said spreading his hands in an arching motion, “beneath it are all different variations. There is mine and there is another person’s and another’s, we all have our… I guess you could call them checks and balances,” he said muddling through an explanation. He looked at Odion wondering if any of that made sense at all or if Lani was just spouting nonsense. The main point was that the fictional powers of the X-men were far from reality and should someone with that kind of telekinesis did exist, well, Lani was glad it wasn’t him. Odion shouldn’t worry about Lani doing crazy things with his powers.

Lani looked up at the screen and smiled. “Alright,” he said and got to his feet. He’d have another chance to wait around, Caroline had been dying to see this movie too. The telekinetic stretched his arms up and shook some life back into his limbs form sitting for so long. He grabbed the empty popcorn container and smiled at Odion. “Thanks for this,” he said. He’d forgotten what this was like. He’d forgotten what it was like to feel and to be truly happy. He’d locked away his heart and locked away his emotions, it was like he had to learn how to be human again. To err is human and the misfortunes of the first were a bridge for the second. Lani’s life was made of mistakes and he would only half control his power as he half lived his life if he shut away his heart. Lessons were sometimes hard learned but dared Lani dream that Odion would stay this time? Or was it like trying to grasp onto the wind?

[Odion Martins]

Odion gave Lani an imploring look. “And?” The redhead wasn’t so unaware of such things. Movies could be downloaded and stolen just as easily as anything else in this world. A couple of thieves would be able to easily figure it out. And if not, there was always Jared to ask. But knowing Lani and how much he enjoyed this series, it was highly likely that he actually owned them. “That can be arranged,” Odion said, a smirk on his face. They weren’t so much like normal people, however it was interesting to do ‘normal’ things. Not as much of an adrenaline rush, but still nice.

Listening to the explanation, Odion wondered if things would’ve been this simple when they had first met. It had never occurred to him to just ask Lani how things worked for him, rather than demanding that they worked a certain way and not another. Then again, Odion wasn’t exactly the best at delving into things, it was much easier to assume. “That does seem to make sense, though I suppose I’ll never fully understand it.” And how could he? He was a time controller, who was he to say how telekinesis worked? All he knew about it was what he saw from Lani, and how their powers interacted. Who won in battle was never a sure fire thing.

Standing also, Odion gave Lani a little nod. “My pleasure.” To Odion, Lani had always been the better part of him. Life wasn’t even worth living without him. It was scary and exhilarating at the same time. The most interesting and adventuresome thing he had ever tried. And he would like to keep on trying if Lani would have him. He wasn’t sure where they were going, but it wasn’t he destination that mattered.

“So for you,” Odion began, going out on a limb, “your powers will never be able to manipulate a living thing?” He was curious. There were many things Odion hadn’t been able to manipulate at first, but now… His power could change the current time and make it something else. He could propel himself backwards and forwards simply for viewing pleasure and not affect the moments in the slightest. And lately, he was able to pinpoint a memory or a feeling and let others experience it. There were many possibilities to play with.