Meet my Baby

[Mia Keystone]

It was fair to say Mia's room had changed somewhat since Jonah's last visit. There were still blinking lights and screens everywhere, as she had slowly been rebuilding her collection, but this time, there was a lot less obvious spyware. She was learning, after all.

She was learning to keep her ass covered.

Rejoicing at the return of her Xbox, and her PS3, and her Wii, and everything in between, the technopath was introducing her new pet to the wonders of playing Left for Dead 2 on Xbox live against complete strangers. It was highly entertaining for her, and for the snake, to see how people flipped out when their own characters started shooting at the screen, or each other, then cursing them and their mothers to blue hell and back when they started mouthing off.

"See, Cable? That's why mommy is the most badass zombie killer in the world," she murmured to her baby ball python as the snake wound around her neck and poked his forked tongue in her ear with a hiss.

And maybe, knowing Jonah was visiting soon, she'd actually put some thought into her pyjamas, and maybe she'd found a reason to put her pyjamas on before the sun went down, or before it was three, come to that.

Because yes, she would wait. But if he chose to go for it, then she wasn't exactly going to play the prude card with him.

Not that all she wanted was sex, of course. After months without talking to the one person who seemed to think she was a person instead of some sort of evil robot, even Mia's low needs for human interaction had been starved.

[Jonah King]

Jonah had been pleasantly surprised by how well he was fitting in at the college. The other boys on his corridor took his silence as a normal and natural thing, and he was by now an accepted part of their group. He was getting used to going out to bars, and he had even been to a club – the music had been so loud it had pulsed in his bones, and he’d been almost stifled by the heat and noise of so many people, but he had chalked it up as a learning experience. On the whole, when they crammed into someone’s room to watch a film nobody minded having the subtitles on – and several of the girls had taken him on as a case: they were teaching him to cook.

But fun as it was, there was always one person missing: Mia. He couldn’t visit her after 6pm, and she wasn’t allowed to stay out of school past then – and the combined hours of their classes meant that it was difficult to work out when they could see each other.

Today, however, Jonah had a whole free afternoon: and Mia had told him that she did, as well.

It was drizzling with chilly rain, and Jonah made it to the school with as fast a walk as he could manage. By the time he got to Mia’s room (he had a visitor pass for the school so that he could come for power training sessions) he was cold and damp. As he tapped the code into her keypad lock he rubbed a hand over his wet hair, grimacing as he felt how waterlogged the collar of his t-shirt had become under his hooded sweater and coat.

If Mia didn’t want to be interrupted, she would have ensured that the door would remained locked – it was as effective as a knock. But as he was able to turn the handle, Jonah assumed that she wanted to let him in: he stepped through the door and gave Mia one of his bright, open smiles. Jonah nodded hello, and then froze for a moment as he took in her outfit. ‘Hey,’ he managed, smile suddenly turning shy.

Wow.

He didn’t even bother to hide the effect she was having on him. Instead he just decided to change the subject: he took a step closer as if to kiss her, but was brought up short by the large reptile sitting on her shoulders. Slowly he reached out a hand and stroked the python on the side with one gentle finger. ‘I think he’s going to get jealous of me.’

[Mia Keystone]

Mia's mouth twitched into a smile almost against her will, and in a contrary effort she worked to smooth it out. It was just... it was funny, how after four years of dealing with her answering the door in her knickers, or banging his door down to show him her new bra after her.. growth spurt, how different his reaction was now.

He sure as hell hadn't looked at her like that before, even when she was just in a towel.

And how for once she felt a tad self conscience. For a girl who's second favourite physical activity involved little to no clothes, it was an unusual and new feeling which honestly reminded her a lot of having indigestion. Mia chose to ignore it. She was good at that. She was also good at ignoring the rather unsettling urge to get all huggy, something that she was not a fan of at all, ever, unless it was done after a near death experience.

"Hey yourself," she grinned as she got up, smirking at the sight of the water running down from his hair. "No umbrella, King? Or did you just figure you could sneak in a free shower?" It took her a moment to realise why he was keeping a bit of space between them and the technopath carefully unwound Cable from her neck. He had a tendency to squeeze if she did it too quickly.

"Isn't he the best?" the short girl said reverently, the snake now draped over her hands as she held them up so Jonah could admire her baby. "He's already grown like, an inch since I got him, he's gonna be as long as me one day." It was rare to hear Mia use this much enthusiasm with anything that wasn't, well, metal, and it was with obvious reluctance that she put Cable down in his tank.

"You can hold him later, if you want," the technopath promised, then climbed up to stand on her bed so she could reach better. The height difference gave him a clear advantage, one she was already developing strategies to overcome. "Heads up; want to kiss you now. Then you can meet Cable and we can catch up and stuff.... But, seriously, here; get."

And, given she had provided fair warning, she raised her eyebrows and patted Jonah's still wet hair in a 'in your own time, slow poke' sort of way. On the bed, she was nearly taller than him! Was a rather strange experience, really. So this was what her room looked like to giants.

[Jonah King]

Jonah made a face at Mia’s teasing – it hadn’t been raining when he’d set off from college, and he was never one to bring an umbrella when it didn’t look like he’d need it. Besides, he couldn’t even remember if he owned an umbrella. He should probably think about getting a waterproof coat of some kind, but that would involve spending money he didn’t have – and the coat he was wearing at the moment was perfectly serviceable.

He watched as Mia took the snake from her shoulders – he had no problem with snakes, but he’d never been this close to one before. Or at least, he’d never been this close to a snake which wasn’t behind a centimetre of glass. Jonah peered down at Cable: he had to admit, as snakes went it was a pretty good specimen. Not that he was any sort of judge, but he knew that Mia would scour the Internet for days looking for the best way to keep the snake in the best of health.

It was a little strange to see her so affectionate about something which wasn’t Kaylee – Jonah stifled a smile as he watched her put Cable back into his vivarium. She would kill him if she knew what he was thinking: that she seemed somehow softer when she was holding her pet.

While she dealt with the snake, Jonah shrugged off his damp coat and hung it on the back of the door – where he had always hung his coat, every time he had visited. It felt somehow remarkable that everything could be so familiar, while it felt as if everything had changed.

The surprising thing was, it really did feel as if things had changed for the better. Jonah couldn’t quite believe it.

They were at eye level when Mia stood on the bed, and Jonah found his smile widening at her words. He’d been exposed to so many new things over the past few weeks that he had come along in leaps and bounds when it came to controlling his ability: going to that club had been hard, but it hadn’t been as difficult as it would have been a year ago. Alcohol was never going to be something he could imbibe, but handshakes got a little easier every time he attempted one.

The only side-effect of this increase in control seemed to be his lack of ability to keep his own thoughts straight with the ones he still managed to pick up. There were moments when Jonah couldn’t work out if he had come up with something, or if he had been hearing things in his sleep.

But he wasn’t going to worry about that now: Jonah stepped closer to the bed and kissed Mia. With his eyes closed, sparks began to flicker in his vision (another side-effect: he could hear Mia’s thoughts as a distant buzz, but his ability didn’t seem to want him to ignore it. When he really tried to block something out, it came through as an image or a colour), but they weren’t enough to distract him. He could feel his shoulders relaxing as his arms tightened around Mia’s waist, and when he finally pulled away it was with a pleased smile. ‘I’m getting better at control,’ he said softly, hoping that she would understand what he was hinting at: every step forward at controlling his ability was a step towards…more sustained physical contact.

He moved his leg a little, and something sharp dug in through the pocket of his jeans. Suddenly remembering, he pulled a piece of very high-quality card from his pocket, and wordlessly offered it to Mia. There was a clear question in his expression: what did she make of it?

We request your presence at the annual van Drakke Halloween party…

[Mia Keystone]

Taking his smile as a legally binding sign of agreement, Mia barely contained herself from throwing her arms around Jonah's neck with perhaps a little more excitement then was seemly. Kissing, which had always been a slightly boring means to an end, was a lot more enjoyable, something Mia could not logically explain. There were a lot of reactions she felt with Jonah that did not fit her logical understanding of the world, actually, when she thought about it. So she didn't think about it.

Tilting her head and pushing her newly dyed green and black hair out of her face, it was hard for the usually clinically faced technopath not to show just how glad she was to get the news. Not that she was impatient... "Having an incentive helping, eh?" she smirked, eyes sparkling. "Should have promised to shag you a year ago, we'd be set by now. We talking weeks, months, days maybe?"

Despite the crude humor, she was happy, overjoyed even. It wasn't just the sex thing, it was just... well, it was a connection, a real one, and even computes had male plugs and female sockets. One of her hands found his and she squeezed it quickly before running her fingers through his rain slicked hair to style him a mohawk. "No pressure, King. I'll just show off my spidergirl costume to Cable."

Any sense of lightheartedness in Mia dropped, along with her stomach as she took the note (not without a 'what the fuck, dude, you're cock blocking yourself' roll of her eyes of course) and read the name. The card bent as her fingers tightened, and her pallid expression turned even whiter.

"She found you?" the technopath whispered fiercely, glancing over Jonah again in case he was wearing a bug that'd been forced on him or something. "How did she find out where you live? Are you ok? Do you need to hide? New identity? I have papers-" Jumping off the bed, as soon as she'd finished talking Mia started throwing things from her desk into the air, looking for, well...

Ok, so maybe she was panicing. And Jonah hadn't looked obviously worried, just curious. Did he not get it? How could he not find this worrying?

Oh... Turning slowly, Mia strode quickly up to him and thrust the invite over her head in Jonah's face, one finger pointing to the name. "Ring any bells?" she asked, trying not to think about how she wanted to hit her head against a wall repeatedly, or give him the same treatment. "We broke into her house, you mind melded with the security guy? She's sort of insanely dangerous?! Any of this striking a chord?!"

She was shouting. The DANGER light had been flashing in her head and he had forgotten Operation Suicidal Insanity and the smurf coloured jumpsuits. Throwing the card onto her bed, the technopath reached up and grasped Jonah's collar, dragging him down to her eye level. "How did she get your address?" she asked, knuckles white. "Have you seen her? Does she know what we did, Jonah?"

It was hard to tell what was taking up the most space in her mind; anger at King, fear for King, or plans on what she would do to Miss van Drakke if she did anything to King.

Oh, and the mood was ruined. That was something else she could fume over.

[Jonah King]

Mia had always had an extraordinary gift to make Jonah feel completely tongue-tied. Whether it was making inappropriate comments or doing inappropriate things, she never failed to pull him up short when she wanted to. And as Jonah didn’t speak even half as much as most people, it was no mean feat to make him not want to say any words at all. Mia’s comments made him blush redder than he thought he’d ever blushed before (his face was burning), and he looked at her with a distinctly shy expression. Jonah wasn’t used to having conversations like this – he was usually the one watching while Mia talked about the problems she was having with some bloke or another. To be the one on the receiving end…well. There was a first time for everything.

He didn’t answer her questions, just shrugged his shoulders and tried not to look as embarrassed as he felt. But Jonah smiled when Mia stroked his hair, and just smirked at her when her expression changed as he gave her the invitation. He knew exactly what she meant by that, but he wasn’t going to rise to the bait: this felt a little more important than kissing.

Jonah hadn’t, however, been prepared for Mia’s subsequent reaction as soon as she read the words printed on the card. Within moments she was as white as a sheet, and then she was talking so fast he almost had trouble reading her lips. Try as he might, Jonah couldn’t find the answer to this in his mind – all he could do was stand as still as he could and wait for her to tell him what was really wrong, here.

Then she held the card up to his face, and her words made ice-cold fear creep up his spine.

Oh, shit. It didn’t seem like an adequate reaction to what Mia had just said to him (he could tell she was shouting, and he was glad that he couldn’t hear it. Her voice had probably reached decibel levels unknown to man), but for a long moment it was all he could think. He stared at Mia in amazement, trying to work out what to answer first. He always had to decode what she really wanted to know, and answer her as plainly as he could: it was what he had been doing for years. ‘She sent it to the college to give it to me,’ Jonah began, trying to allay Mia’s fears about Miss van Drakke knowing where he lived.

‘She came to find me. I was out walking. She said – ’ Jonah tried to remember her exact words. ‘She talked about a – a meta scholarship program. She said she wanted to sponsor me.’ He racked his brain. ‘She didn’t say anything about her house, just that she’d heard about me.’ Jonah reached a hand up and covered Mia’s clenched fists, hoping that she would release his collar. ‘I said I would think about it. I was going to ask for your advice.’

[Mia Keystone]

Sometimes, like, right now, Mia was possessed by a strong strong urge to smack Jonah upside the head. And not a friendly slap, but one that would make his telepathic brain rattle in his skull. He was just staring at her as she ranted and why didn't he say anything?

"She offered to sponsor you?" Mia asked, slowly loosening her fingers with a serious effort. "Why?" and she didn't mean it in a 'who would sponsor you' sort of way, because duh, Jonah had so much potential it was crazy that no one else had tried to give him a boost before, but in a 'how did a crazy rich woman find out about you' way.

You were going to as me for advice? On something that wasn't connected with computers?

Having let go of his collar, Mia grasped Jonah with a hand on either side of his face. "She. Is. Dangerous." she said slowly. "She put Mr Dalton in hospital, and he left the country. You can not leave the country, King. I just got you back."

So maybe she was letting her brand of logic take her to unrealistic places. Her shoulders were still heaving, so Mia let go of King abruptly and turned to pick up Cable. Turns out that her snake was even better then her computer at calming her down when she was feeling like hitting things. Setting him around her neck like a safety blanket, the tiny girl flopped onto the bed and looked up. "Was she, I mean, did you get any scary thoughts from her? Anything that made you uncomfortable?"

There was a chance that this woman had no idea the two teenagers had broken into her house and stolen from her, sure. And she could afford to give out a bit of money, yes. But that didn't change the whole almost getting one of her teachers killed thing.

[Jonah King]

In answer to her first question, Jonah shrugged his shoulders. ‘She wouldn’t tell me why.’ It was the main reason he had been so wary of saying anything which would make her think he wanted to accept her offer – if someone wouldn’t tell you what their motives were, it was a good bet that their motives were not particularly savoury.

He watched Mia’s words helplessly. There was no way of calming her down once she had reached this kind of state – all he could do was stay as still as possible and hope that she would wear herself out. He was also mentally berating himself: he couldn’t believe he’d been so dense as to not recognise her name. Mind you, he had never seen Mia say it aloud, before: she had only written it down. Reading words and reading lips were two very different things.

Jonah sighed heavily, sitting down on the bed when Mia did, and looking over at Cable – the snake seemed to be eyeing him, as if enquiring why Mia was so upset. Suddenly, Jonah was very glad that he did not possess animal telepathy.

‘There was something strange,’ he told Mia, trying to remember exactly how it had felt. ‘I couldn’t work out what it was. When she spoke, there was – something behind it.’ He shrugged, unable to work out what had really happened. Anastasia had put him very on edge, but he hadn’t been able to work out exactly what it was that made him uncomfortable. Then Jonah looked over at Mia, and said firmly: ‘I didn’t want to read her mind.’ Mia should know it wasn’t Jonah’s style. He didn’t reach into someone’s mind unless he really, really needed to.

That didn’t stop it being tempting, though.

[Mia Keystone]

The next question on Mia's mind sounded so insane even she hesitated from asking it but, well... there were bigger things at stake, and Jonah knew how her mind worked. "Did she try to seduce you?" she asked seriously, because while she had never gotten all the facts about Dalton, some things sort of clicked and were, well, obvious. Hot Russian woman, english dude at her house, Dr Prideaux getting into a car accident.... "And I swear, if you laugh I will feed you to Cable one finger at a time, King."

Sure, her baby python was only just over a foot long, but Mia had an overactive imagination and after Operation Suicidal insanity, she'd gotten enough magazine clippings to know Eva was blonde with legs up to her ears and, in her own opinion, totally bangen. And while jealousy was a new thing for Mia, like everything about her it was huge and without logic and basically ready to consume everything in its path.

"You know your morality will kill you one day?" she pointed out, deflating slowly like a punctured beach ball. "I mean, I get why you're like that, and you know I love you for it, but jesus King," her hands were clutching her mattress so tightly her knuckles where white, "Is seeing into someone's head that bad?"

Because if whatever it was they had was going to last, he would drop it at some point. It was exhausting putting up barriers constantly, Mia only did it occasionally when there were a lot of people using the internet at the same time, because it was honestly like being constantly smacked in the face with random shit, and it was surprising how vocal refrigerators could be, let alone microwaves....

"We should go." she said suddenly, "And find out what her deal is. Because she has a fuckton of money, and if she can actually give you some, then it would be good. And if it's a party then there will be more people and we can just avoid her and if worse comes to worse, kick her in the shins and run. I mean, I know I'm skinny, but pretty sure even I could snap her." Her expression was fierce as she looked up at him. "I'm going to figure out what the fuck she wants from you, and I dont need to read her brain to do it."

[Jonah King]

As much as he hoped it wasn’t the case, Jonah was sure that Mia could tell from his expression that he was trying not to chuckle at her question about ‘seduction’. It was the last question he ever would have expected her to ask him. Instead of laughing (because he knew even before she mentioned any sort of horrible torture that she would never tolerate him laughing at her), he just gave her the most puzzled expression he could – although he couldn’t hide his obvious amusement. ‘Why would she seduce me?’ he asked, genuinely curious. Mia wasn’t the paranoid type (at least, she never had been before), so she must have a reason for suggesting that Anastasia would be likely to do such a thing.

‘It is that bad,’ Jonah told her, knowing that he didn’t really have to explain it to Mia, of all people. She knew him too well to think he would ever be the kind of person who would go into someone’s mind at will. ‘If I start thinking like that, and doing that, where does it stop?’ He looked over at Mia, expression gentle. ‘I’m not going to be that kind of telepath.’

When he had read the surface thoughts of Miss van Drakke’s erstwhile security guard, it had been terrifying and exhilarating. But knowing the power he had made him even more nervous about doing that sort of thing. It felt almost right, and how would he be able to stop if he did that sort of thing all the time? Tempting as it was, Jonah didn’t want to run the risk. With Mia, it was different – she knew what was likely to happen when they had prolonged physical contact, and she seemed perfectly OK with it.

But that was involuntary, and Mia knew it. If he started reaching into people’s heads at will, he didn’t trust himself to stop.

Jonah hadn’t expected Mia to say that they should go – he stared at her, momentarily stupefied by the suggestion. He watched her little speech in confusion, wanting to ask if she was suggesting all of this in case Anastasia really did want to try and seduce him. But that was a sure fire way to get hit in the face by a small, angry technopath, and he knew from seeing the same thing happen to other people that he really didn’t want to go through that.

‘OK,’ he agreed reluctantly, as keen as Mia was to know why the offer was being made to him. If this was the way to find out, then so be it. Jonah reached over and took Mia’s hand, before leaning forward to kiss her until his mental vision began to flicker with neon sparks. ‘But I’m not going to dress up in anything stupid.’

[Mia Keystone]

"Because she's an evil Russian seductress, dude," Mia muttered, scowling darkly as Jonah had to bite back a laugh. "What the fuck do you think happened to Dalton? Or did you not notice Dr Prideaux bursting into tears on a weekly basis?" It was not that absurd, and sure, Mia might be, well, paranoid, but she trusted Jonah. Firstly, he was incapable of cheating without having a crisis of conscience due to his brain and secondly, it was widely known Mia would identify then destroy anyone who even suggested posing a threat.

Still, she did not trust this rich, beautiful woman, who had managed to mess with an old english dude who had been as romantic as a puppy vomiting hearts and rainbows. "So she could control you with her women whiles, of course!" Mia burst out, not able to see how he didn't get it. "Because it's an easy way to get guys to do what you want, obviously."

It was, indeed it was. Oh Reeve.

She sighed and shrugged, "I know," she mumbled, chewing on her lip ring. "But if you think someone might hurt you..." it was no good, Jonah just wasn't like that. He, unlike the other telepaths Mia had met, did not want to use their power as a way of always knowing what was going on. He had better control then anyone she'd met, and that included her teachers. To be fair though, Mia was rather bias.

Not talking had been a good idea on King's part; it was hard to continue on an angry rant when someone was kissing you like that. "I still think Operation Sunflower would have worked if you'd worn the dress," she murmured, smirking wickedly as she contemplated how long he would actually protest if she pulled him down on the bed. "You'd have looked hot in pink, King."

I really really really want to take your clothes off.

It just slipped out and she couldn't help it but since they were touching. Mia pulled back and ran a hand over her face. "Dude," the technopath sighed, just hooking her pinkie around his in a real pinkie swear. "You're gonna drive me crazy."

[Jonah King]

Jonah grinned at Mia’s assertion that Anastasia was trying to seduce him to control him. ‘I think she has the wrong guy,’ he told her, clearly amused: even if he hadn’t been the kind of guy to completely refuse to cheat (which he definitely was), Jonah had always had a reputation for being completely oblivious to female attention. Not that he was oblivious – it was impossible to be, when he was constantly picking up thoughts from people – he was just very good at pretending to be. If he acted as if he had no idea that anyone was flirting with him, then he wouldn’t have to act on it. And if he didn’t have to act on it, then he wouldn’t have to embarrass himself.

The overall result was that Jonah was known throughout the school for being hopelessly obtuse when it came to female attention. People had actually been rather surprised when he and Mia had finally become an item – not because the concept was a difficult one, but because nobody could really understand how Jonah had managed to act on something. He knew that they were also speculating on how long it would be before Jonah saw Mia’s bad side, but he knew something they didn’t: that people were just people. Nobody was bad, and nobody was good. If being a telepath was good for something, it was good for reminding you that nothing was drawn in black and white.

If he’d heard her opinion on his ‘control’, he would have smiled. Jonah knew that he didn’t have the came control abilities of many telepaths – he just had a stronger belief that he should try harder not to read people’s minds. Nobody had ever told him that it would be such hard work, being a meta.

Jonah did hear Mia’s wish to remove his clothes, however, and he blushed hotly. ‘You’re already crazy,’ he pointed out, but he knew he was evading the point. Looking down at their joined hands, Jonah gave her another shy smile. ‘Soon,’ he wanted to say to her. ‘I promise.’ But Jonah hated making promises he didn’t know he could keep – so he pulled Mia closer and kissed her again, hoping that she would be able to guess what he was thinking about.

But of course, the best way to avoid talking about something was to talk about something else. And while Jonah didn’t exactly want to avoid that discussion, he didn’t want to give into it just yet. He pulled back and fixed Mia with a serious gaze. ‘What if she recognises us?’

[Mia Keystone]

(OOC: love writing with you too much to NOT reply when I KNOW you've been online, uk )

"Crazy for you, baby." Mia leered, trying very hard to play it off as a joke as she pinched his cheek. It shouldn't be such a big deal, it shouldn't be. She was guilting him, like some sort of pushy quarterback frat boy with his younger virgin girlfriend and it was bullshit, it might ruin everything but it was the only way she knew how to show affection, and she wanted him to know, it was so important that he knew, that she could show because she sure as hell couldn't say it.

Her arms wrapped around him as her fingers clutched at his shirt. Fuck it, she pushed him onto his back and swung her leg over his waist, before setting about kissing him back. The technopath was keeping her hands firmly above his waist because she was going to control herself, oh yes. Her hand found his again and she slipped her fingers in between his, leaning forward until her nose was brushing his as she wrinkled it.

But no, he had to stop. Again. She groaned and let her head fall back. "She's allowed to recognise you. If she was going to, you would know. And I'll wear a werewolf mask or something."

Did he want to keep on stressing? She had had enough of that, he wasn't allowed to bring up something that upset her then kiss her just to bring up the scary again. Her hand clapped over his mouth, and geeze even her hands looked small. "Stop talking about her now." Mia said sternly. "In fact, you need to stop talking."

The time to discuss Anastasia had passed, and anyway, Mia had some teaching to do. Even if it was gonna just be PG 13.

For now, anyway.