fandomhighdorms | The Roof, Wednesday Morning

Ivanova quite liked the roof, really. It had a great view, there was usually a nice breeze. She wasn't being emo at all, really. She hesitated when she saw Bel there already, but nodded to him in a vaguely polite manner before finding a perch of her own, crosslegged on the wide railing that would probably be quite dangerous in high winds.

Bel stayed politely downwind until he finished his cigarette. "Hey," he said in greeting to Ivanova as she settled on her perch. "Careful there, you could fall off."

"Would it be very dramatic if I said that at this moment I didn't really care?" she murmured with a smile.

"Could be," Bel said. "What's wrong, or do you not want to talk about it?"

"Girlfriend troubles," she said succinctly. "Not troubles with the girlfriend per se, rather troubles associated with the two of us being together."

"She's graduating, and you're not?" Bel ventured a guess, glad that he and Phoebe were in the same class.

Ivanova shook her head, hugging her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them. "She isn't a student. And as of two days from now, she isn't going to be a townie, either."

Bel leaned against the railing. "Why don't you go with her then?" he asked.

"She asked me and the first thing out of my mouth was 'Yes'," she replied, sighing a bit. "But I can't. We can't. She's been called home into a war, and I have standing orders to return to my station as soon as I graduate. Neither of us have much choice."

"That sucks," Bel said, imagining how he would feel if he and Phoebe had to part like that. "You can't like disobey orders or anything?"

"Always a possibility," Ivanova replied. "One that I have considered. Tonks would never let me do that for her, though. Just like I'd never let her do it for me. That's what makes it hard for us. Both of us are just too damned . . . honourable, I guess you could say. It isn't in us to abandon our posts." She abruptly buried her face in her knees. "I wasn't supposed to fall in love when I came to Fandom."

[[Must flee for class.]]

On the other side of the roof, Victor was walking around on the side of the building, thinking about the night before and his life in general. It felt like lately these waves were crashing down on him, and he didn't know what to do, except try to endure them. Thankfuly, he'd been able to deal with his problem with Nadia. He wasn't sure if he could ever fix his problem with Rory, though. She just didn't seem like the kind of girl who was ready to forgive and forget. Even with those two in perspective, though...he still felt like there was a lot more unfinished business.

As he got closer to the top of the wall, he heard voices talking on the rooftop. He didn't want to disturb them, so he shifted to look like the wall and peeked over the edge. When he saw that it was Ivanova and Bel having what looked like a personal conversation, he ducked abck down and began to crawl down the wall to his room. He had too much respect for Ivanova to eavesdrop on what she was saying, and Bel...well, Ivanova was his friend, at least.

Then, he paused. Maybe that was something he could fix, too. Everyone seemed to be scared of Bel, but if he and Ivanova were talking about something personal, maybe he'd calmed down a bit. Victor pursed his lips in thought, then nodded and continued his descent. There was something he could do, and he hoped that Bel was mature enough to be cool about it.

"Me neither," Bel said. "But I did and...it changed my life." He felt a little helpless, not knowing what to say. "Maybe you'll see each other again," he said. "And until then, you can try to be happy with the memories."

[np!]

About 20 minutes later, Victor came up the stairs to the roof, making sure to make lots of noise. In his hand was a plastic sack with several black, rectangular things in it.

Bel heard Victor's approach. "Hey," he said in greeting. Ivanova appeared ~~to be in class~~ ~~lost in emo~~ lost in thought.

"Hey." He approached Bel and sighed. "I'm really sorry to inturrupt, but can we talk about something? If not now, then maybe later?"

"Sure, what's up?" Bel asked.

Victor paused a moment, a little thrown off. He recovered quickly, though, and said, "I've been going through a few things lately that are really stressing me out. I'm just...tired of fighting with people over stupid bullshit, so I'm trying to fix things." He held out thebag for Bel to take and smirked a little. "Here's every copy I own of the tape of you and the Morality Bot. You'll have to talk with Veronica and I think Nadia to get the last ones, but here's every other copy of the tape. It's kinda my peace offering, if you're willing to take it."

Bel eyed the bag warily, as if expecting some sort of trick. "Thanks," he said, taking the bag. "Change of heart, huh? I can identify with that."

"Yeah, it seems like I've been getting a reputation as an asshole, and even though I'm not, certain people don't seem to want to listen. So, I figured I'd stop worrying about them and work on myself. I'm sorry if I made you upset with the posters I made, but I was just trying to have some fun, y'know." He looked down and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Not like anyone showed up, though. Too bad, too. You would've cracked up at what I had planned."

"Guess there's something about demons and video tape that backfires," Bel said. He put down the bag and lit another cigarette. "You were the second person to try to broadcast something to humiliate me. Didn't work for them, either."

"Actually, it wasn't as much of a humiliation for you as a revenge on everyone else. See, people were supposed to come in, point and laugh, yadda yadda yadda, and then these bots I bought from Agatha were supposed to go off and drench everyone in glitter. It was kind of a way to balance the scales, because I never meant to hurt you specifically; I was just trying to pull a prank. Believe me, though, I definitely learned my lesson."

"Consider yourself lucky, too," Bel said. "Demons don't take well to mockery. Fortunately for you and Nadia I've been trying to be more human than demon." He took a drag off his cigarette and grinned. "But I can appreciate the attempt to glitter everyone else. Too bad it didn't go off. There are a few people I wouldn't mind seeing embarrassed like that."

And Victor didn't take well to threats, but just let it go. Like he had said, he was tired of fighting, and even if that meant that he had to sacrifice some of his pride, being at peace was more important. He hoped that someday, someone would be proud of him for it.

"Well, if you want, I still have the bots I was using. They look just like air fresheners, but when they go off they spray glitter in a stream. You can borrow them sometime if you want."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Bel said. "Who knows, maybe someday I'll have use for them." He sucked in a lungful of smoke and blew it out thoughtfully. "And like I said, I can identify with wanting to turn over a new leaf. It's hard, isn't it?"

"Well, it's not as much as turning over a new leaf as it is repairing the old one, but yeah, I get what you're saying. Sometimes you have to give up your comfort or your pride just to get what you want. it's really tough sometimes, but...I think it's worth it. How about you? I mean...do you want to talk about it?"

Bel took a final drag on his cigarette and dropped it and ground it out. "Not much to say," he said after a moment. "I've done a lot of unspeakable things in my life. Comes with the territory. But I don't do that now, or I don't want to, at least. Hardest part is controlling my temper."

"I came to Fandom because I was running away from love," she said wistfully. "I had thought I'd never get tangled up by it again. And then I met Tonks." She chuckled a bit. "We say we'll meet again, but she's a witch and I'm a captain in an interstellar battle fleet. You can't get much more star-crossed than that."

Ivanova smiled at Victor, but didn't interrupt their conversation. She rested her chin on her knees again and drifted away in happy memories, a soft smile on her face.

"Try a witch and a demon," Bel said, chuckling as well. "We kill each other's kind."

She laughed. "I think you win." She pointed a finger at him and mock-scowled. "Stay away from my girl," she growled, but the laughter in her voice rendered it completely non-threatening.

Bel held up his hands with a grin. "No worries," he said. "I'm a one witch demon."

"Good," she nodded firmly. "They say romance is supposed to be magical, but I'm fairly sure "they" didn't mean it literally." Ivanova chuckled again. "This place is so weird."

Victor just had to grin at that. "Y'know, you remind me a lot of Professor Logan abck at my old school. From what little I know, he's had a tough past, too, and he has one of the worst tempers in the world. But his intentions are good, and he's a really cool guy once you get to know him. I think you two would get along really well."

"But think of all the things you'd've missed if you never came here," Bel said. "Zombies, animated snowmen, vampires, demons, obnoxious chalkboards, singing muppet rats...."

Bel grimaced. "With a name like Logan, I find that hard to believe, but I'll take your word for it," he said.

Victor grimaced as well. "Sorry, I take it you're not a Logan fan. Don't worry, though, this Logan's, like, a hundred years old and really hairy and shorter than I am. Has a set of three razor-sharp claws on the back of each hand, too. But anyway, the point was that he's trying his hardest to save the world with the other X-Men, and even though he may be a little scary at times, he's basically a good guy, so I think that if you keep at it, you can be as good as you want to be, too."

"Not even remotely," Bel said with regards to Logan. "He's an ass. But thanks for the vote of confidence. And with someone like this other Logan at your back, I bet you'll do fine, too."

Victor sighed. "I hope so. I hope things don't get bad enough that the Headmasters send someone to deal with it. That's one of the reasons why I'm trying to make amends, with people, y'know? I wanna have fun at this school and make friends, not enemies." He smirked a little. "I'm kinda like Blair like that. With less sugar."

The Roof, Wednesday Morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject