The X-Project

Kevin takes Cessily to the prom but it goes bad quickly for the crowd intolerant duo and they quickly ditch out for easier to handle plans.

After a night of e-mailing Nori and then a night of gouging on KFC chicken with Nori while she told him the entire time through both what a crazy girl Jay was Kevin felt a bit better about things. At first he'd felt bad that Jay was so upset and then Terry told him what an idiot was, but Nori had actually understood his point and backed him up. Because of her they had also decided that dating Jay was proof he was straight, not an argument against it, since Jay was such a girl. All the time. Despite his reservations about it he'd done powers training earlier in the day. It all combined for him to actually have a smile on his face by time he knocked on Cessily's door for the prom. Earlier in the week he'd gone hunting, near literally, for a tux that wouldn't melt off his body. Eventually one was actually found. Possibly the only one in all of existence and it luckily was classic and black rather than being powder blue or something equally awful.

He shifted the box with the orchid corsage in it from hand to hand while he waited for any of the girls inside to answer the door. Kevin wasn't nervous because he and Cessily really were just friends. But he didn't feel like having the entire world telling him what an asshole he was for taking a friend and not asking his boyfriend, who wasn't even a student, to go to a prom that wasn't even his.

Cess ran around the suite, completely unready to leave. She shoved decorative pins into her hair as she ran to answer the door. She pulled it open and beamed at Kevin. "Hi, I'm late, come in and sit down, I'll be ready in two shakes."

Kevin blinked at the frenzied state she seemed to be in and just nodded. Silently he slipped through the door of the suite and found a spot on the couch quickly. Girls took forever to be ready for anything, he knew this in theory. He'd just never actually witnessed the chaos before. Mental Note: This might be why girls are scary. Kevin sat quietly and patiently with the corsage clasped in his hands on his lap while she finished whatever she had to finish.

In what looked like it should have very well accomplished nothing, Cessily dashed around the suite with her dress trailing behind her in a diaphanous cloud. When she finally took a breath, she was ready.

It still took her a full minute to spot the corsage. Her face lit up in a smile. "Is that for me?"

"Uh, yeah," Kevin answered somewhat awkwardly. He hesitated before standing again, unsure if she was going to streak off and decide there was still something else to do before she was quite ready. To stop his jaw from dropping slightly at the sight, once Cessily all dressed up registered in his head, Kevin actually reminded himself he had a boyfriend. "If you're actually ready, anyway. Ah'm withholding 'til then."

She pointed at the lapel of his tuxedo. "You are completely right. Do NOT move." She whirled into her room and returned, waving a flower around like a flag of peace. "NOW I'm ready. And this is for you."

"Ya know, Ah'm gonna hold it 'gainst ya if you go an' draw blood on me," he warned in a light hearted tone. It was easy enough at the moment to feign happiness for the event and to pretend he wasn't worried about his boyfriend. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't entirely see what Jay's point was about the prom. He felt bad that Jay was upset but he wouldn't have asked his boyfriend anyway so what was the point? Kevin bit back to a sigh that wanted to make itself public and instead gave Cessily a small smile he hoped looked natural. It was always easier to smile and mean it around her so if he just waited maybe that effect would happen again.

Cess bit her lip in concentration as she pinned the buttonniere to Kevin's lapel. She straightened the fabric with a satisfied smirk. "See, not a drop of blood." She held out her hand for the corsage. "Shall we?"

Kevin eyed her warily, more for effect than anything. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt that she wouldn't spear him through with the small pin. "Ah'm very proud." Kevin slid the orchid corsage into place around her wrist and then offered her his arm. "Yes, ma'am"

As they approached the entrance to the party, Cess could feel the beat of the music through the soles of her feet. She'd never admit her nerves, but if she had a stomach, it was quivering in near-terror. She may have squeezed Kevin's arm harder than she meant. "Can you see how many people are in there?" How many possible eyes to see her naked if she lost control?

A gloved hand patted her hand as reassuringly as he could. This kind of proximity made him tense in a way that no amount of powers usage could cure. He hoped she wouldn't notice because he was using all of his willpower to feel from flinching or fleeing as he wanted to. Ultimately he figured she wouldn't know the difference because she didn't know him well enough to. She also looked pretty damn preoccupied herself which likely worked in his favor. "Well, kinda the whole school. Okay, most of the people in the mansion in general. At least you can go an' meet more people, right?" He didn't sound like he thought this was going to reassure her but he wasn't sure why it wouldn't.

"The whole... mansion. Sure." She felt an eyebrow wavering and absently smoothed it back into place. She took a fortifying breath. "All right, we can do this. It's a big room, we can find a less occupied corner." She moved around the side of the room, dragging Kevin behind on the wall side. When she stopped, there were a whole five feet of clear space around them. "How's this?"

He didn't complain or make a word about her anxiety as she pulled him along. His eyes glanced around checking for his boyfriend in case he showed up but he found no red wings in the room. Finding his feet had stopped when Cessily had stopped he looked back at her. She looked like she was possibly going to jump out of her skin. It was still skin, right? Sorta? "It's fine. Um, Cess? Normally Ah'm the one that's this freaked out over crowds. What's up?" He almost offered that they could leave but he wasn't sure if it was necessary or if she'd think he was trying to ditch her by saying it. One person upset at him--scratch that, two-- was more than enough.

She gave him a too bright smile. "It's just-" She broke off to eye the crowd. "I didn't realize there would be so many people, and my control over my powers isn't at its best right now. If I lose it, all these people-" She turned back toward him. "I don't think I could handle that. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

Kevin thought about her control and how she could end up like a puddle. Sure, it was embarrassing but it wasn't anything awful, right? She just had to--oh. Right. Re-form. She couldn't exactly form into her dress, could she? For the first time Kevin actually had that thing click in his head that pointed out the obvious. Cessily is a girl. And then she'd be a naked girl. His eyes dropped to the floor as he flushed faintly. "Well, you can move, right? So if you, y'know, then at least mah jacket'll cover you, right? Or you can move outta the room and Ah'll bring your dress an' all. No problem." He sounded like he meant it. It'd be easy to work around, but he was sure she didn't think of it like that. "But we can go. Whenever ya want, Ah mean."

She couldn't seem to get her eyes into any size smaller than "saucer," no matter how much she tried to narrow them. "Oh yes, logic. I can do logic." She drew in a deep breath and let it out. "This is no problem, let's just..." she looked around the room, looking for something to do. Punch was out, there was just too much of a crowd, a crowd of--

"Let's dance!"

Now it was Kevin's turn for his eyes to go wide. "Let's wha?" His eyes squeezed together before one cracked open at her. In a rush of quiet words nearly swallowed by the sound of everything else he implored, "Not the middle. No where near the middle. Please," he nearly sounded like he was prepared to beg her. Panic attacks did no one any good. Especially not in public. So far Jay was the only one to personally witness that one and Kevin was content to keep it that way.

A quiet laugh escaped her, her body firmed up with her delight. "I thought right here would be a good spot. Who's going to complain?" She gestured to the completely unnattentive crowd around them.

The answer to her question immediately sprang to Kevin's mind. Jay. If anyone noticed, especially anyone who wasn't especially fond of Kevin, which almost guaranteed them to be a friend of his boyfriend's, and it got back to Jay then he'd be even more suspicious and hurt than he already was. "Trust me," Kevin mumbled, "it's not a good idea here." He glanced toward the dance floor. There was enough room to not bump into people near the edges of the dancing crowd.

Cess followed his gaze. A small sliver of disappointment shot through her, but she quickly pushed it away. Instead she reached out with a slightly more malleable hand for his. "Does over there look good to you?" She made a few steps in the general direction.

"Yeah," he agreed with a nod. The fact that her hand was softer than it should have been in his hand wasn't lost on Kevin and he kept eying her closely. The song wasn't exactly slow but it was slow enough that contact was required to be kept. Mentally assuring himself it was fine, Kevin placed one of her hands on his shoulder before his gloved hand lightly rested on her waist, barely touching her at all. He did look at the hand he held before glancing up at her. "Ya okay? Ah think Ah'll get accused of bein' a really bad escort if ya end up drippin' off me," he said in a light tone that he hoped would get the words across as a joke.

Her eyes widened again, right before her features started to slide down her face. It took less than five seconds for Cessily to turn from a teenaged girl into a puddle on the floor under her dress. It trembled there for a moment before streaking off to a side door.

Kevin frowned but he didn't sigh until after the liquid silver was out of sight. "And this is why ya don't have a prom at Freak High," he muttered to himself. He dutifully bent down and folded her now empty dress over his arm while he gathered everything else that was abandoned as well. Great, so where did she got exactly? He slipped out of the side door she'd headed toward and hoped he wasn't seen. He'd rather people speculated that he was off making out with Cessily than to realize why they'd actually disappeared. Very pointed he was going to ignore the fact that he had his date's underwear folded over his arm under her dress where no one would see it. Embarrassing enough for her. Embarassin' enough for me. Great, we're even. Kinda. Jay would not take well to Kevin carrying her underwear around so everyone in the world could just wipe that from their memories as far as he was concerned.

"Uh, Cess?" His voice was soft when he called out, a combination of trying not to be heard by anyone inside and his natural volume. "Where're ya? Can't ya jus', y'know, slide into the light so Ah can catch a reflection maybe?" He frowned and took very cautious steps forward as his eyes swept around for a silver puddle.

A sliver of liquid metal crept into the light. Then it went back, and in the shadows started to grow and form. Cessily kept her face toward the wall, arms wrapped around her middle. "I- I'm sorry." She looked back over her shoulder and swallowed. "Thank you for bringing my things."

Kevin walked over to where she'd peeked out into the light for him to find her, but when he got there he was polite enough to keep mostly turned away from her once he noticed she was solidifying. Cessily was only visible out of his peripheral vision and he extended his arm out toward her so that all actual clothing was easily within reach for her. Her shoes dangled off the fingers of his other hand along with her corsage. "Well, Ah'm sorry if Ah added to...the cause at all. Didn't mean to." His eyes closed out of respect when he saw her reach out for her dress and Kevin repositioned himself so as to block her from possible view if anyone came through the door.

"I'm sorry, no. It's just-" She sighed. "I guess- I'm sorry. This really has been a mess, hasn't it?" She tried to figure out which end of the dress was up. Her panties dropped to the floor and it took every last ounce of her willpower to stay semi-solid. She'd left those in the middle of the dance floor! "Maybe I should just quit wearing them," she muttered to herself.

"Ah think it's in the best interest o' everyone if ya wear clothes, though," he told her without realizing it was underclothes she was referring about. With his eyes remaining squeezed shut Kevin tried to think of something to make her feel better. He was coming up short. "D'you wanna try again?" He was really hoping she didn't. That entire place with so many people made his skin crawl and it was a miracle he hadn't actually jumped out of it yet. "Or we could figure out something else to do. Ah mean, it's a Friday and all..." his voice trailed off. She'd really wanted to come and he felt bad it was all going badly for her. A small part of his mind was telling him this wasn't worth fighting with Jay over and pointing out he'd wanted to ditch it the moment they'd walked through the doors. This whole day was a disaster.

She struggled into the dress, trying to make sure all important bits were covered. Not that she really had such bits anymore, but there was the principle of the thing. She pursed her lips, mind flipping through possibilities. "Do you like ice cream? We could swipe a pint or so from the fridge and find some place to eat or something." She looked over her shoulder again, in the direction of the dance room where the crowd noises filtered through. "I just don't think, I don't think I can go back in there."

Some of the tension that had twisted his shoulders and neck into knots visibly leaked away when Cessily opted to not return. He wasn't much of an ice cream person, or much of a junk food in general person but ice cream looked amazing next to the idea of going back into the prom. "It's okay, Ah wasn't really lookin' forward to walkin' back in either," he admitted quietly as he mentally added Cessily to his comrade in arms where crowds were concerned. Now he, Yvette and Cessily were a triple threat of ruin people's times in crowded areas. His eyes were still shut, though they were at least relaxed now and he wondered if she was totally dressed yet. "We could snag a car," he offered. "Y'know, get away from here totally and avoid them. 'Void the questions 'bout why we left 'til later an' all. Find a park or a view o' the sky er somethin' an' eat ice cream." It sounded like a better plan than hanging out around there and people finding them, then asking questions. Away from people sounded like a brilliant idea.

Boyfriend, Cessily, boyfriend, she reminded herself firmly. "That sounds absolutely brilliant," she said softly. She internally debated the underpants issue before shoving the practical cotton into a decorative vase. Things like that really weren't necessary anymore and it was time she admitted it. She flounced the last ruffle into place before turning around. "I'm decent now, you can relax," she teased.

Kevin flushed at her last words as he cracked an eye open to check. She was back to wearing clothing, and being girl-shaped. He relaxed slightly more as his eyes opened fully. He didn't say anything, just tried to will the blood to drain from his face again as he headed off with the assumption she'd follow.