Issue 1 Downtime

Callie hesitates at Victoria's door for a few minutes, but ultimately she ends up knocking. Very lightly.

She actually looks pretty nervous standing there, waiting for Victoria to answer.

Victoria opened the door, and, just as you might expect, was immediately on the defensive. "What."

Callie just stands there for a moment, like a deer caught in the headlights. She was planning on yelling at Victoria, starting a fight, making her take back what she had said...

Instead she stepped forward and kissed Victoria. Not violently or angrily. Just a gentle, normal, slightly hesitant kiss.

There was a slight hesitation as Victoria shifted on her feet, kissing her back, first going for her hair in their usual fashion, then hesitating again and returning the kiss uncertainly, but in the same manner that it was being given.

It was probably the most awkward kiss either of them had ever done. With anyone.

After what seems like an eternity, Callie pulls away, her hands on Victoria's shoulders. Callie was trembling, "...Listen...I'm...I'm sorry. I just..."

"...I think I'm falling in love with you," Callie says awkwardly.

Victoria sighed, leaning hard against the door. "Damn it, I didn't think you were going to be the first one to admit it," she sighed. "Come in."

Callie follows Victoria inside, "How long...?"

"What, you mean before we completely fucked ourselves up and took that lovely seven-year vacation to mutant and magical rehab, or after?" Victoria countered.

"Both?" Callie says, "I mean..."

"God, I'm so fucking stupid."

"You've never been stupid, cut that shit out. Maybe a little delusional, but never stupid." She flopped over onto her bed, laying sideways across it, staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, I know that I sure as hell felt like I hate you half the time."

Callie sits next to Victoria, "Yeah, well, I made that easy enough."

"Well yeah, but half the time I think I hate myself, too, so..." she shrugged.

Callie slides her hand along Victoria's waist, just looking down at her for a minute.

"Do you want to hate me?" Callie asks, a bit hesitantly.

"Of course I don't," she scoffed. "I mean, I know that in a couple hours we'll be fighting and acting like it, but that's kind of our thing."

Callie smiles, "So, what do you want to do until then?"

"Help me not be actually pissed off at you, maybe?" Victoria sighed. "Seriously. I... god damn it, I didn't want to believe you were actually mixed up in that mess..."

"It's not ideal," Callie admits, "But better me then someone that'll encourage them. Or worse."

"And I'm sorry I wasn't there to stop them at the park," Callie says, "I am so goddamn sorry for that, but if I give up on them now, I'm just one more reason not to trust anyone."

"Goddess," she sighed. "Seriously, did it have to be the goddamn Brotherhood?"

"They look up to them," Callie says, "God knows why. I met some of the Brotherhood on Muir Island. They were kind of pathetic."

"Seriously! 'Unus the untouchable'? What kind of a goddamn rep is that? 'Look at me, I might win a fight, but I obviously never get laid because, well, untouchable!'"

"Well, if he's really pious maybe he'll get reborn as someone with a better power."

"And don't even get me started on the Blob," she said, rolling her eyes. "But... gah. No hope of re-focusing them?"

"Not immediately," Callie says, "Whatever happens is going to take time."

She sighed. "Goddess... I just... that's way too much like when we all used to hang out in that building across the street. Floor rivalries and all."

Callie lays down, leaning her head on Victoria's chest and curling up a bit, "Do you want me to give up?"

"So help me goddess, if I answered 'yes' to that, your answer had better have been 'well tough shit.'"

Callie smiles softly, "I don't think I ever could have forgiven you."

She slides her hand under Victoria's back, kissing Victoria's collarbone softly.

Victoria snuggled right back, seeming rather tired now. "Scared?"

"A little," Callie says, "I've never tried being gentle before. Might screw everything up."

She shrugged. "If you fuck it up, I'll call you a stupid bitch, and things will progress pretty normally. So I think we're okay. I meant about your kids, though."

"I meant about the relationship," Callie says quickly, "Not...but yeah. I'm terrified about something happening and it being all on me."

"Ariel...I mean, he might seem like just an overstuffed kid on Tumblr, but he scares the crap out of me. He's too powerful for his own good and I think there's something...wrong with him."

Victoria looked at her warily. "'Wrong' with him how, exactly?" she asked sounding worried.

"I don't know," Callie says, "He just sets me on edge somehow. Glares when he thinks I'm not looking. Odd lies. That sort of thing."

"Riot had a cat hidden somewhere in her room. God knows what she was feeding it," Callie says, "And one day it disappeared. Ariel told me Bruiser had gotten angry and threw it outside to piss Riot off, but both Ariel and Bruiser had been gone the entire day it went missing."

"Weird stuff like that. It's..." Callie grasped for the right word, "Spooky."

"So what you're saying is that you're in over your head," Victoria clarified, with... surprisingly little judgement.

"...Maybe a little," Callie says, "But I also think I'm limited on my options. As long as me or the kids aren't in any immediate danger, I don't want to do anything drastic."

Victoria sighed and nodded. "Ever wish we had normal problems? Bad hair days, who to ask to the spring formal, speeding tickets..."

"God no," Callie says, "Worrying over a bad hair day? I'd rather eat a plate of broken glass."

"Is it Wednesday already?"

Callie smirks, "Seriously though...I don't regret anything, I guess."

"It could've worked out much worse."

"You could have been prom queen," She agreed. "Stigma would've stuck with you forever."