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It's her first evening away from home, and even Papa's strong mental presence has left her range by now.
It's lonely.
She knows that humans aren't lesser than mutants, per se, but she's still used to a different flavor of minds thrumming against hers when she's trying to go to sleep.
She and Emily aren't the only mutants on campus, though. There aren't a lot of them, but there's one other, at least...
She reaches out to them.
Hello?
He takes a moment to think about that.
Then he lies his head down on her shoulder (even though it's a slightly awkward position to be in).
i'm trying to save the gross crying for later but i'm warning you now that it's gonna happen.
There is nothing gross whatsoever about crying. And we're alone.
i mean...we're still in the middle of the library.
Not quite the middle, but...still a public place.
...got me there.
He lays his head down in her lap.
It would probably be a little difficult to tell that the little shaky breaths that come next are actually crying if he hadn't told her beforehand.
It won't take much looking to realize that he's afraid that he's showing too much, too fast. He's practically broadcasting it. This is the kind of thing that chases people away, he knows it.
Beside it, though, there's a deep sense of relief.
She pets his hair and presses kisses to his forehead and makes affectionate soothing noises.
After a few minutes, he sniffs and hiccups a little and sits back up, wiping his eyes quickly.
"...Does that include Emily, I don't by default keep things from her that aren't sexual in nature but I can if you want me to."
He weighs it carefully.
"...she's okay. I, uh...trust you trusting her."
His eyes are stubbornly continuing to water. He rubs them again.
"Okay." Pet, pet. "We do trust each other, she and I. Absolutely. And I mean that as in our trust in each other is absolute, if I told her that there was no time to explain but she needed to burn down an orphanage she'd trust that I had a good reason."
"It helps that I've been telepathic since before we were born."
"...you've been in each other's heads since before you knew anything else."
He can't imagine being that close to someone. He's a little jealous.
She snuggles him. "That's not quite true. We each knew our incubating parent before the other. But--it wasn't two-way, with them. It was different." She kisses his temple. "...One of my favorite things about you is how you feel about my telepathy."
He nods a little at the explanation.
The second part makes him pause, though.
"...what d'you mean?"
Oh.
"Well...yeah. I guess a lot of people would rather hide. But..."
He tries to pick his words carefully.
"I like that I couldn't hide. Even if it'd be..."better", I guess. Even if I wanted to."
Pause.
"Plus it's just amazing you can do it in the first place, so of course I want it to happen to me, you know?"
"Yeah.
You could hide if you wanted to, I respect consent. I don't have to. But I do."
He nods.
"I'm...glad I'm somebody like that. Whose head you can be in. You definitely deserve it."
He squeezes her back!
"Let's get out of here. I need to ease into the whole 'being in the library' thing."
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