[ooc: backdated to a few days after Laura and Penance's return to the Institute]

The moon was a yellow, gibbous thing in the sky. Nearly pregnant, not quite halved, but bright in a cloudless sky. It had been a clear day and that had carried on once the sun had set, the chill spreading more rapidly through the evening than it would have been if there had been clouds to insulate the world once night came.

So the sky was empty of everything, save for the moon and the stars. Nothing should have interrupted the stretch of velvet black, the diamond-cold pinpricks of stars, the ethereal glow of the pale oval in the sky...and yet, against the moon's light, something moved. A soaring shape, a winged shape, it cut across the sky. Wide, flared wings briefly blocked out the moonlight as they passed overhead and the shadows they cast sent shy, nocturnal creatures scurrying for cover.

If they'd known that it was someone as unthreatening as Jay Guthrie, they wouldn't have bothered hiding.

The boy was no soft-winged owl with hunger in its eyes and death in its talons - he was just a young man who couldn't sleep. No amount of tossing and turning and swearing lowly when he rolled too much onto a furled wingtip made the teasing prospect of sleep deign to come anywhere near him. And, in the end, frustration had launched him aloft.

He did this, sometimes, flew and flew until he was physically exhausted enough to tumble back into bed and sleep both. He'd swoop and soar and push himself, his wings a washed out grey in the absence of sunlight to pick up the brilliant crimson of his feathers, all in the hopes of calming his mind to the point of quietness. And flying was that - calming. Sometimes it was exhilarating, that daring sense of flying too close to the sun. But at night? When all was silent and still and he was the largest thing abroad in the world?

Then he was calm.

Jay had been flying for nearly half an hour now and, curiously, he wasn't tired yet. As his wings beat strongly around him, he peered down at the ground, as intrigued as ever by the way the land of the Xavier Institute changed quite so much when moonlight, rather than sun, was the illuminator. Some features were nigh on invisible, lost in the shadows, but some...some were only apparent now, without any other distractions.

So it was that a light in the forest made Jay frown, bank and dive, all in that order. His bare feet (bare because he had literally thrown himself out of bed and into the air without putting on shoes, or in fact a shirt) touched the forest ground with a noise that betrayed his complete lack of stealth skills. With twigs crackling and breaking softly beneath his steps, Jay moved closer to what he'd seen from above, brow furrowed in confusion. Because there was a light on in Logan's old cabin, which had stood empty for months now.

Just who the hell was in there?

Home. Home was an illusive dream, Laura had decided, a story to tell young children, or else a recurring waking nightmare, haunting one's mind and heart with the unobtainable prospect of belonging somewhere, to someone, bound with 'cords that cannot be broken' as the song said.

But it was all for naught.

There was the dull think of something hitting the thick wooden floor and Laura turned, only to find Penance looking innocently, curiously up at her, one of Logan's thick beer mugs laying on its side near her. The cupboard said cup had been stashed in had it's door ajar, tell-tale gashes in the otherwise relatively smooth wood. Laura sighed, and sent the red-skinned mutant a tired look. She recognized, could even verbalize, that what she felt for Penance was the same, yet different for what she felt for Logan, and even, in the back of her mind acknowledged that she felt the same for Miss Munroe, but she could not deny, by any scope of the imagination, that she was not tired. Those weeks of long, sleepless nights sitting in front of the television, worrying constantly and neglecting her body's basic needs, internally stressing over it all because above all else she was a weapon (and an old, rusted weapon was just as useful as a death wish, and she knew this, knew she should have been taking care of herself because if something had happened, like it did, if someone had found her and sent people after her it would have been ridiculously easy to take her in), and taking care of Penance, trying to keep up with the girl's nearly boundless energy and near constant presence had taken a toll on her Laura did not know was possible.

"Aren't you tired yet, Pup?" Despite knowing it was pointless to speak to the girl, Laura found herself doing just so frequently. If she had taken the time to think about it, she probably would have recognized it as a fulfillment of the subconscious human need for companionship, the need to hear some voice, any one, to break the silence. Truthfully the television had been on almost constantly in their home, the rather large house that had become their 'Den' in the city, but it was not the same as having, hearing a real live voice in your ear, even if it was your own.

Still, for Pen's sake, Laura had come here, to the cabin. The girl had spent much of her time at the school, truthfully, but she had bonded to Laura and Logan for some reason, and though they'd never truly shared the place, the small, rough-hewn cabin served as a marker for Laura, as a constant, a place she could always come to, run to, a semblance of home. She hadn't a clue as to the circumstances that had brought Penance to Xavier's and then to her, but Laura figured the least she could do was give the girl this, a home. Well, another one. even if she didn't believe in the concept herself.

Laura just wished the girl would sleep. Ever since they'd gotten back from the city, from the small warehouse Laura had modified to keep the girl contained and occupied in her absence, Penance had crawled into and over and onto everything, every inch of counter space, rooms space, the trees outside and even burrowed into the ground at one point, all without taking a single moment to rest. Laura was exhausted. She'd fallen asleep in her old room the night she'd spoken to Miss Munroe, and since then she'd been up and after the girl. Though in a way she had been grateful for the girl's never-ending energy because it had kept her from thinking too hard about Logan's absence and reintegration into the school and how alone she was in the world save for two people, one of which was a veritable baby, but Laura dearly, dearly wanted to sleep.

So when Penance hunkered down next to the door and sent her that expectant look, only her years of training kept a groan from crossing her lips as she crossed the room. This way, at least, she could get some kind of rest. Penance was bound to come back to her, or at least back to the cabin, and if she got lost Laura was more than capable of finding her, of bringing her back. But if she denied the red-girl Penance would be almost literally bouncing off the walls in no time, and no amount of food could get her to calm down. So Laura let her out, watching the leather-clad form disappear into the treeline from where she leaned against the door jamb. There were no wolves in New York, and even if there were, they were hardly a threat; Laura could take down any number of them before they her her cub, and so she felt relatively safe enough to let the girl bounce about till she decided to come in. Perhaps it was bad parenting, but Laura wasn't trying to be anyone's mother; she'd leave that to Logan, thanks. And if she somehow spoiled Pen before he came back, well, then it was his own fault, wasn't it? Little girls needed structure, and dependability. And discipline. Yes.

Goodness, she was rambling. She didn't even realize when her eyes slid shut. Didn't until a peculiar scent, one from the school, but not one she'd ever encountered, hit her nose. Blue eyes slid open then, slowly, a testament to her exhaustion, and scanned the surrounding trees. "I know you're out there. You're a student. You might as well come out."

Jay was no ninja. He wasn't even someone with a normal ability to be at least somewhat stealthy. Instead, he was a twenty-year old man with big, bare feet and two extremely large and visible wings sprouting from his back. In no world whatsoever was he ever going to count as someone who could easily pass unnoticed.

And that was even if he was standing stock still. In motion, he seemed to have an innate ability to find each and every dry, brittle twig with his feet in order to make them break with a noise that sounded like gunshots in the night. His wings had a tendency to either trail through the leaf litter with a dry, crackling noise or - if he held them out behind him - to rustle through tree branches, sending them flapping back into place with a whipping noise.

No, Jay was not subtle. Or silent. Or stealthy. And, really, he shouldn't have been surprised to have been caught so easily.

But his interest had been piqued and, in spite of the quiet nervousness humming through his veins - he'd always been the twitchiest of the Guthrie siblings currently at the Institute - he had found himself to creep forwards through the undergrowth to a point where he'd thought he was hidden. From there he'd watched with baited breath as a door opened...then flinched in quiet surprise when on odd, leather-and-red form darted outwards. He held still in startled shock as it disappeared off into the woods and he could hear whatever it was moving through the undergrowth. Luckily, not towards him.

There was no doubt that Logan's old cabin was inhabited then and, belatedly, Jay realised that the red thing may not have been the only resident. He turned from where he'd been staring off at the direction it had disappeared into, eyes resting on the cabin once more and that was when he saw her.

It was also when he heard her.

Jay flinched again, this time with embarrassment and guilt. He couldn't get a good look at the person through the screen of vegetation, but he did also know that no one meaning students any harm could get onto the grounds. Abashed and at least vaguely sure that this girl wasn't going to hurt him (or so he thought) Jay pushed through the bushes, wincing a little when a thorn snagged a wingtip and brought him up short.

"Uh...sorry," he said lamely, awkwardly stooping over to free his wings. As he stood up straight again, he blinked at the girl he could now see clearly and a tremor of vague recognition shot through him. "Um, Laura, right?" Logan's strange, silent daughter with whom he'd never actually talked before, but had heard of nonetheless. When had she gotten back? Was Logan back as well? In spite of his embarrassment, interest sharpened in his eyes as he stared at her, overtly curious and more than a little bit confused...

He had wings.

This rather idiotic statement was thankfully made in the safety of her own mind, but Laura still found the energy to be exasperated by herself. Really, it was obvious the boy had wings, large and red as they were, though they did look sort of brown-red-black-grey-ish in the darkness. He smelled of cold air and sweat, teenage boy and hay for some reason, and Laura supposed he might have spent sometime in the stables. He was also similar, in scent and physique, to that one instructor, a Something Gunty, or something. The woman had mentioned, in one of the few classes Laura had ever attended, that she had other siblings. She gave a mental shrug. It did not matter. The boy was whoever he was, it could not be changed.

She could see him clearly in the little light that was to be had. Shirtless and barefoot, and radiating curiosity. She didn't know how she felt about people being curious about her. She wasn't some creature to be peered at at their leisure. "Was there something you wanted, or is spying on people a usual nocturnal activity for you?"

She wasn't sure how she felt about him knowing her name either. No one, but Ororo and Scott, and she wasn't sure how she felt about him, either, called her 'Laura'. Perhaps the other teachers did so, but she hadn't ever given them the chance to do so to her face, and so she would not know, but the student's all called her
'Logan's kid' or 'that crazy chick with the claws' or something to that effect, she was sure; it was different, pleasing, good? to hear her name, her actual name, come from someone else' lips. She wasn't sure how she felt about that either.

She was too tired to do more than stare at him for a moment. "You know my name, but I do not know yours. Perhaps you should fix this."

People left the Institute. Jay had seen it happen. But, most of the time, it was for mundane, normal reasons. Job transfers. Graduation. Moving on in life. People grew up and they moved on and, sometimes, that meant growing out of and moving on from the Institute.

Recently, though, people had been leaving for darker, more dramatic reasons.

The Professor had gone. And no one had quite explained to the students just how they had ended up with a young man they were expected to call Charles Xavier, or why. Then Logan and Laura had left in the night, quietly, but their absence had been keenly felt, particularly the man's. And then it had been Miss Braddock's turn and her departure had been much louder. And scarier, both because of the violent words she'd flung around and the fact that she'd thrown Miss Munroe into the bannister...and Miss Munroe had let her.

Yes, it had been an unsettling time at the Institute. Jay had been here for just over a year now, so maybe he wasn't qualified to judge what was normal here or not. But Jay knew weird, and this was that.

Sometimes though, apparently, people came back. Like the young woman standing across from him now, looking at him with disconcerting directness. Her words were also far out of what he'd expect from a girl her age. He flinched a little at the strict categories of her question and it was instinctive to flinch a little.

"Um, no," he said, repeating his indecisive noises. "Neither of the two, actually." He dared to take a wary step closer - not that her expression was encouraging, but he could only lurk in the undergrowth for so long. "It's just I was flyin', and I saw a light and..."

His voice trailed off a little and he shrugged, feeling supremely awkward. "You and Logan have been gone a long time. The place has been dark. I didn't know who was in the cabin..."

And oh, okay. Introductions. He could do those. Lucinda Guthrie had made sure that all of her children had decent manners as their default and so it was automatic to take even more steps forward, wings rippling a tad nervously behind him, until he was able to extend his hand towards her.

"My bad - I'm Joshua Guthrie. Jay." A wry look. "You've probably met some of my siblings."

"Indeed."

So she could not gut him right then since he'd only been curiously checking to see just who was in Logan's cabin. Curiosity killed the cat, yes, but death was a little tired at the moment. Laura blinked slowly at him, seriously, if sleepily, considering the pros and cons of inviting him inside, if only to keep herself awake for a little while longer.

Another part of her mind was smugly exalting in her correct assumption that this boy - Jay, he had a name - was a Guthrie. It seemed her skills weren't all dulled, and as foggy and disconnected as her mind felt, it was good to know she was still useful, if only in the smallest of ways.

That same part of her mind abruptly changed its tune, switching from exualtant to blaring a warning in a fraction of the time it took to think a thought. She was on dangerous, dangerous ground. Exhaustion was a state of being she'd been forced and trained oto work through before, inthat other life she wanted to put behind her, but her present state of mind and body was on a whole other level than she'd ever experienced. It was like, and yet totally different, when she had attacked that man in the city: the emotional upheaval she'd been subject to made everything harder, stronger, deeper, twisting the general need for rest and rejuvenationinto a sweeping, snarling beast itching to sink its teeth into her and drag her down, down, down...

The sudden snap of a branch startled her, eyes popping open and senses flooding with stimuli: the darkness of the surrounding trees pressing against her irises, pine and cedar and other leafy things pressing against her nose mingled with recently trampled grass, Penance and that which made Jay smell like himself, the wind, recently calm and soothing but now stiff and rebellious, chilled against she skin, filling the air with the voices of hundreds of little leaves overlaying Penance's general noisy ramblings, and Laura needed a full minute before she could trust herself to be calm, before those adamantium claws she was so known for could be retracted back into her arms, before she wasn't ready to spring into the air and deliver death's summons to some hapless creature. Her heart hammered in her chest, and Laura fought to even out her breathing; clearly she was not in her best form. Eyes still skittishly searching the forest around her, she wondered numbly how much longer she could go on like this, taut and wired jumping at nothing, before she did something irreparable. The notion upset her, and she decided she needed rest, regardless o how she got it.

"Would you like to come inside?" She had nearly forgotten he was there, standing just barely at the edge of the circle of light, but Jay was not a presence she could completely forget, strange and new as he was. Beneath the heavy, fog-like mantle of fatigue that was rapidly crawling back over her mind, Laura knew that, middle of the night or not, it was a monumental step she was taking, inviting someone into her home. There was a level of trust there that few, if any, had been exposed to. This boy, lanky, all elbows and knees and hardly a scrap of useful muscle on him, was not Ororo, after all. He had not been tried and proven his worth, probably would fail severely by her standards. Yet he was here, and he was needed, and even through all that Laura was, she could not deny what she needed.

"I am sorry I snapped at you. It has been a trying few days for both myself and Penance, but that is no reason to be rude." She steadied herself, the world around her seeming to tip on its axis, before half turning to the door. "Would you like something to drink? There is something I would like to ask you, if you would not mind." And clearly she was too tired to make sense of the things that were coming out of her mouth. Or maybe it was just the beginning of those changes she had both feared and wanted. Laura did not know. She was too tired to.

The same noises that so set Laura on edge were hardly noticeable to Jay. He was not a warrior. He was not a weapon. Hell, even when he hadn't had his wings painting a big red stinking target on his back for all the world to see, Sam and his Dad had always been much better at hunting than he was. They'd been better able to pay attention to their surroundings, to the little, minute sounds that spoke as clearly as day to them on the location on their prey.

Jay was pitch perfect and would rather have been at home strumming quietly on his guitar. Didn't that just say it all?

So even as Wolverine's daughter person was exhausted and tense and on edge...the winged boy before her was just nervous. He could in fact hear someone moving around the grounds, which made him send a wary glance this way and that, but his faith in the safety of Xavier's was rather all-encompassing and blind.

But it wasn't as if the X-Men would let them get hurt on their own turf, would they? Jay may not have wanted to become one of them, not when he was ultimately a pacifist, but he also had faith in their strength, in their cohesion as a team, in the way that they would keep the students who were their charges safe.

Jay believed. And Laura obviously did not. But, with an inherent sort of tact, the boy held his tongue until the younger student seemed to relax a little...but he did blink in surprise at her offer.

It had not been, ah, what he had been expecting of her.

"I. Um. If you're sure," was his final answer, his left wing joint mantling apologetically. "I know it's late and all." But no, Laura of all people seemed determined to be a host and a polite one. This made Jay's eyes widen and sent him rather off balance, leaving him to scramble around for words in his own head. "Hey, no, if someone was lurkin' in the buses outside the home I grew up in, I think my Ma would've shot them first and asked questions later." All too true. "So...thank you. For not shootin' me, you know?" Okay, lame joke was lame and Jay smiled weakly even as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm okay on the drinks front, but...go ahead. Ask me whatever. I'll do my best to answer."

She was too tired to be pleased that he'd accepted her invitation. Also too tired to censor herself, so when the words "Would you watch the door while I take a nap" slipped out of her mouth it took a moment for their meaning to register in her mind.

And then it was a moment longer before she was properly lucid enough to be shocked. Embarrassed. Incredulous. "I am sorry. That did not come out the way I intended." Had she intended to ask him? It seemed so. Something about this was wrong though. Why would she trust him like that. "And I did not grow up here. I was raised in a secret facility owned by Weapon X. Your mother sounds interesting though. I would have liked to meet her."

Her movements around the small kitchen were robotic and stiff, the room disappearing for long stretches of time while she blinked, and fought to get her eyes open. She did not really want any more coffee (she had practically lived off the stuff for the past few weeks) but the mechanical movements would project a semblance of alertness and that was all she really needed at the moment: if she could trick her her body into staying upright and moving for a little bit longer, then maybe it would stay that way while her brain took a nap.

"I would not shoot you." Truthfully, even though she had been trained in all types of weapons and combat, Laura much preferred the rather assimilated form of fighting she had crafted for herself, and the only weapons she needs are her claws. "There is not much you could do to make me want to, either." And that was the truth. Jay was too mild, too gawky and awkward to pose much of a threat. She wasn't sure why that was a good thing.

"I have had one full night of sleep in the past three weeks. I am sorry if I seem a bit...off...from what you remember, or have heard, but sleep deprivation has a strange effect on the human brain. Even though I may not truly qualify as human..." She trailed off, mesmerized by the steam drifting up from the as of yet untouched cup of hot water sitting on the counter.

What Laura wanted of him...it was enough to surprise him into mute silence.

Not that Jay was the chattiest of people in the long-run anyway, especially not after he'd spent so much of his time here being downright mopey, uninterested in talking to people and just generally miserable to be around. So it was no wonder that he hadn't made any friends because he hadn't made any effort.

Even now, with him trying to backtrack a little, to remember how to at least relate back to the boy he'd once been, handsome and vicarious and popular, it was hit and miss a lot of the time. Nori seemed to be willing to put up with him and he actively counted Casey as a friend. And his family were obviously soothing to have around, for all the typical Guthrie bickering that went along with having four of them in the same place. But friends tended to be ones that he'd only recently made because he hadn't been willing to do so before and, still, he was a far cry from the arrogant, outgoing artistic type he'd once been. He was quieter now, more reserved, more...hesitant even.

So it was with quiet, uncertain curiosity that he watched Wolverine's daughter potter around the kitchen of the cabin, a place he'd certainly never been in before. His wings flickered a little behind them, betraying his lack of confidence and the combination of nerves and curiosity that filled him up inside right now, and for now he was content to let Laura do the talking.

Strange - she'd always had a reputation for being as quiet as he was and yet, right now, she was the one doing the talking. The sharing. He was a little ashamed, really, but he was out of his depth here and that made him...disinclined to talk. In case he said something wrong.

Besides...he was kind of fascinated. Laura wasn't at all like her previous reputation and he frowned slightly as he watched her, not with any sort of hostility, but with a gentle, bemused sort of interest.

It took her finally betraying quite how tired she was for Jay to remember his good manners, the ones his mother had taught him. Immediately, he was ashamed of having been quiet for so long, of having let her continue 'entertaining' him this long.

"Hey, you know, if you're tired, I can stay up." He bit his lip, aware that this was awkward and weird, but he know that, above all else, he had an urge to help this newly-returned ward of Xavier's. She wasn't that different from the rest of them in the end, whatever her origins. "I mean, I was awake anyway." He shrugged, aiming for nonchalance, but that was difficult when wings emphasised every move that you made. "If you'd sleep better with someone keepin' watch...yeah, I can do that." He tilted his head questioningly in her direction. "If you want, I mean. You look...kinda beat."

She wasn't quite sure what exactly she was feeling, some sort of unbalanced combination of relief and amusement, irritation and suspicion, but it flooded through her in a dizzying wave of colors and senses and when the world stopped spinning she was on the floor.

That was fine though. Wood was much softer than metal. Or concrete.

In another dizzying flurry of movement she was on her feet, clutching at the countertop as she fought to keep her balance. In the back of her mind, beneath the cotton-like fog dulling every sensation and behind the walls she'd built to close herself in, Laura was seething at the indignity. Not that she personally felt as if she had much, trained as she had been to be a weapon and nothing more, but to be brought so low, to have so little control over her own body made her ache in a way she had not known possible. For the briefest fraction of a second it crossed her mind that she was more frightened of her former handler seeing her in this state, present day or in the past, than she was angry over the lack of control, but the thought blew away under the force of her fatigue before she could properly grasp it. No matter. Rest was forthcoming.

"Thank you." She was stumbling towards the staircase before she realized she was moving. The steps were a difficult thing to master, but in less time than it took to breathe it seemed she was at the top of the stairs, blinking into the room that had been her father's den.

Laura was asleep long before the door clicked shut.

Jay...yeah, Jay wasn't really all that sure how he'd ended up here, in Wolverine's old cabin, being on guard essentially. As far as he was concerned, he'd gone for a late night fly and a bit of a wander. Then, one lit window investigated later, here he was, and Jay had to admit to being slightly baffled.

...that didn't mean he was about to back out on the offer, though.

He'd been a little startled by just how fast Laura could move, her dizzying shift into an upright stance being enough to make him reflexively flare his wings. They were always more excitable than the rest of him, more prone to reacting to stimuli around him, and by nature of being big and red and unusual, they always, always tended to draw attention to themselves.

He controlled their movements soon enough, though, distantly aware that a tired and still dangerous Laura (hell, who was he kidding, she was probably always dangerous that daughter of Wolverine from what he'd heard) probably wasn't going to respond well to him making sudden movements either. And, schooling his expression into something that he hoped was pleasant and reassuring and non-threatening, Jay just nodded.

"Sure," he said, accompanying the words with an awkward 'I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I'll play along anyway' little wave. "Uh...sleep tight?"

Even as she left the room, he knew that had been a moronic sort of thing to say and he rolled his eyes at himself even as he turned uneasily to examine his surroundings. Predictably, he'd never been in the cabin before, since angry and clawed people lived there, so duh. And, he supposed, since he was going to have to stay awake to keep his words...well, he had plenty of time to kill exploring the lower levels of the place. Unless he found a book or something. Or a tv with a working remote.

...damn. Now he wished he'd brought his guitar. But, even as Jay sighed and settled in for a long and sleepless night, at least he knew his mother would be proud of his good deed for the day.

It was hours before she woke up.

Not many, according to the digital clock on the bedside table, a new development, but enough that she felt refreshed, able to make it through a few more days if she had to, without the threat of losing control hanging over her head.

Laura stretched on the mattress, luxuriating in the freedom of relaxed muscles and sticky-closed eyes. Of a bed empty of all but her. No sharp claws pressing into her skin, drawing blood, accidentally tempting her. Her hair a mess, the sheets an unelegant tangle around her bare legs. It was good. She felt good. Perhaps she could get someone to watch the cabin while she slept more often.

Her moment of peace did not last long. he telltale thump-click-guuurt of Penance's manner of movement sounded on the stairs only moments before the shiny black-clad body burst into the room, taking only seconds to hop onto the bed, greet Laura with a far too enthusiastic headbump and scurry into 'her' corner, where she'd piled all sorts of things she found interesting. Laura gave a fond smile; as demanding as the girl's care was, Laura couldn't regret taking care of her. The sleep though, she would need more of.

Penance moved again, click-thumping across the floor and down the stairs, and Laura remembered Jay. The winged young man had probably already left. Probably couldn't be bothered to sit around in the creepy wooden cabin at the edge of the woods while she slept. Had probably bailed a long time ago. As soon as she'd come up to bed even. The sky outside was a strange dark green only seen in the early morning hours. No way he had stayed that long. Not that she was angry or anything. Laura couldn't quite believe she had completely expected him, Jay, a complete and utter stranger, to stick around in her dad's house while she slept. Because she didn't like sleeping in an unguarded house. And her brain had been too fried to set up her own defences. So if he had left then that was fine. Really. She'd thank him for entertaining her nonesense later in the day, since it actually had done some good and she actually had gotten some sleep and no secret agents or assassins had tried to kill her. At least not that she knew of.

But if Jay had left the cabin in the middle of the night, who had let Penance in?

The thought had her heart racing, legs kicking off the suddenly oppressive sheets and feet stumbling to balance the rest of her body on the cool wooden floor. Pants, pants were thrown on in seconds because Logan would tease her about her skinny legs and then she was hurrying down the stairs, making far more noise than she ever would in any other circumstance, fingers flying through her messy ponytail before she slid into the living room and kitchen area, eyes flicking back and forth, heart dropping, plummeting to somewhere near her feet, eyes losing the hopeful glint they had had only seconds before, heart slowing to a near stop...

Logan wasn't there. There was just Jay, and Penance curled up on the couch. No Logan, no Logan ever again. It hurt to think that, but Laura knew she had to, had to make herself comfortable with this fact permanently, had to accept it and move on, had to build a life for she and Penance, only she and Penance.

Because Logan wasn't coming back.

Jay, like most young men his age, loved his sleep. He was more than capable of sleeping for fourteen hours at a time (though usually less these days since he tended to wake up hungry, damn that metabolism of his) and it wasn't like him to miss a night's sleep. He was boring like that, not a party animal anymore or particularly invested in any sort of social life that would keep him from sleeping at a reasonable hour.

So, all-nighters, not a normal occurrence in his life.

And yet, for a girl he really didn't know - definitely not someone he counted as a friend (because he could basically count those on one hand) - Jay found himself blinking away sleep, forcing himself not to get drowsy, pinching himself anytime his eyelids felt too happy. By the time the sun was coming up, even his wings were drooping, and Jay had made himself stand up just to avoid any temptation to sink back into the softness of the couch...

Still, he yawned though, one large hand coming up to cover his mouth. His guitar calluses scraped against the skin of his face and his mouth pulled wide with the action, tears prickling briefly at the corners of his eyes. Wiping them away he scruffed absently at his hair, ruffling it even more out of disarray than usual. He wasn't the sort of person who looked good on very little sleep, pale as he was, and he now looked wan, with dark circles underneath his eyes. No, Jay certainly wasn't built for roughing it and today was going to be hell now, given how little sleep he'd had.

And yet...she'd been so tired. Laura. He couldn't have just left her. And so, not knowing what else to do, jay had kept his promise. He'd stayed awake so she could sleep, even though he was exhausted now, even though his entire body felt heavy...

Then a noise at the door jerked him out of his tiredness and, warily, he crossed over to open it. A crouched red shape darted past him and he actively yelped, abortively moving out of the way, but then the other form was already heading upstairs. Jay hovered, unsure of what to do now. Who was that? Was Laura going to be okay?

Then he remembered that this was Laura and, yeah, dumb question.

Hovering uncertainly by the couch, Jay's wings flickered uncomfortably as he watched the red girl reappear and, soon afterwards, the sleeping girl herself. Jay shoved his hands in his pockets, even more awkward than usual, but decided to err on the side of cautious politeness.

"...sleep well?"

Under the crushing weight of her disappointment, Laura was able to be amused. jay looked like hell. Pale skin, baggy, dull eyes, trying to look as if he wouldn't topple over at the slightest breeze. Laura stifled a smile, thought for a moment, then released it. Smiling was fine. it was normal. She had to be normal now. Normal.

"I did, thank you. You will forgive me if I limit myself to thanking you and do not feel the need to apologize for my earlier weakness, correct? And the fact that I find your unkempt appearance most amusing?" Perhaps it was a bit rude to say she thought he looked funny, but normal people were rude, weren't they? Sometimes, at least.

She fidgeted, stubbornly pushing all thoughts of her father out of her mind. Later. She would address it later. "Adolescent males like yourself have a fondness for food, do you not? I am not as skilled as the cooks up at the school, but I am able to prepare a reasonable breakfast, if you like." Laura did not wait for him to respond, instead throwing him another amused look over her shoulder and heading into the kitchen prior. Penance had taken a liking to bacon of all things while they were in the city, and so that definitely would be on the menu, even though it invariably led her to think about Canadian bacon, and from there, Logan. And there would be fruit, a lot of it. Perhaps sandwiches would be the main fare, or pancakes. Laura wasn't sure. Pancakes made her think of syrup, which made her think of Canada, which in turn led to Logan.

She thought about Logan too much. Perhaps Ororo could help with that. Or the Red-Haired Woman. Maybe. She'd think about it.

Jay, though, was here, when none of those other people weren't. With effort Laura made herself focus on the lessons that'd been drilled into her, about courtesy and being a good host. Of course it was all for her to maintain a ruse until such time as she was able to remove the target, but the lessons, at their core value, still stood.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" The stove had been lit and frying pan set on it, and she pulled various things from the fridge. "I can tell you'd rather be in bed, but you've done me a great service here. I would feel odd if I were to send you away without even a meal.". And that was only partially true. Laura didn't truly care one way or another if Jay was tired. He'd stayed to watch the house all through the night, even when she was sure he would leave as soon as she had nodded off. She was fixing him breakfast, and he'd eat it too, if he knew what was good for him.

Her hair was a mess. Laura knew it, and wasn't entirely sure she felt like fixing it either. Still she couldn't very well cook with her hair hanging all loose and whatnot. It'd drive her mad in a minute. Thankfully, this was a fairly common occurrence in the Howlett cabin, and Laura had, reluctantly, prepared the space for the eventuality of her coming in without a hairnet. In the top drawer by the sink were head bands, thick, stretchy headbands she could slip over her head and keep her hair from flopping every which way. Laura pulled it on, then judiciously washed her hands in the sink before turning back to the counter. Eggs first, or bacon? Penance suddenly bumped up against her leg, bright blue eyes gazing at her in a way that was imploring despite the lack of any definable emotions shining through them. Bacon it was then.

Despite the fact that Penance didn't seem to understand any form of speech, Laura still found herself talking to her. "In a minute, Pup. I've got to make it crispy for you." It wasn't a situation she had much faith would change, but if it did, Laura would be there to handle it. As for right now, she would smile and talk to the girl as much as she wanted. At least the red mutant responded to her voice, if nothing else.

"I hope she didn't scare you last night, or whenever it was that you let her in. Penance can be rather startling the first time someone meets her." She was tempted to ask the girl if she'd been nice for their host, but the action was borderline frivolous, and so she declined.

And hadn't he screamed like a little girl a few minutes ago? Was that because of Penance? "I hope she didn't scare you too much? I would have mentioned her last night but..." Yeah, she didn't have a way to finish that sentence.

Behind him, one wing stretched out and then in, indicative of a kink in it that needed working out. Outside, Jay may have flapped them both furiously (usually spreading dust and loose feathers everywhere in the process) but indoors? There were too many things that could be knocked over, or broken, especially when it was an area that he was unfamiliar with. A wingspan of almost twice his height was not convenient indoors, the average building not being designed for a winged person.

So he was limited to small, restrained and, admittedly, somewhat ineffective movements as he tried to work some of the stiffness out of a wing joint. It was a niggle in the back of his mind, though, as he studied Laura and tried to keep up with the puzzle of a girl who was the daughter of one of the more brusque teachers at the Institute. She spoke so strangely sometimes, alternating between silence and an almost aggressive sort of formality.

She was just...confusing in general and Jay, who was hardly the best with people anymore, always felt wrong-footed around her. And not necessarily in a positive way, given how awkward she made him feel.

She made assumptions. She said things that should have been insults. And yet Laura was just so decidedly odd that Jay was more bemused (or perhaps uncomfortable) than insulted and he just stared at her a little before blinking and shaking some of the confusion out of him. Instead, he just looked vaguely questioning before he shrugged. "I think everyone looks a little rough after a night with no sleep, don't they?" he asked, half dry and half awkward.

Jay wanted to argue against the label of adolescent. More than that, he kind of wanted to just leave and actually see if he could get some sleep before his classes. But - in keeping with the cliche she mentioned - he was starving. Partly in the normal young man sort of way, but also because his mutation meant that he tended to always be hungry, especially after a sleepless night.

"Food...would be nice," he said. Possibly lamely, definitely awkwardly, but he crossed over towards the cooking area nonetheless, hovering a little tentatively as he watched her retrieve pots and pans. (Hovering in the metaphorical sense, which needed to be clarified since he was actually capable of doing it literally.) "Juice would be nice, but water's fine after all," was his response to a remarkably domestic question from a girl he'd never really talked to before until now. And now she was making breakfast.

His life really was surreal sometimes.

Lucinda Guthrie's upbringing showed in Jay's expression now as he watched her, in that and his next question. "Is there anything I can do?" The question was politely phrased, but an unpreventable yawn chased on its heels and Jay looked vaguely embarrassed afterwards, even if it had been beyond his control.

The red...girl? Yes, a girl. She was back and Jay eyed her with a mix of curiosity and wariness before Laura addressed her presence. The winged lad shook his head, slightly lank hair moving around his face. "I've had worse frights," was his dry response, his tired eyes lingering on the oddly-formed mutant. "Is she a student here...?"