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[The first thing Kurt sees is a flash of skin and lacing, and immediately closes his eyes. Because he is a gentleman.]

Sorry!

What're you sorry for? Everything's covered.

[ Mostly, anyway. Excepting the inches-wide strip of her bare legs that can be seen from her ankles all the way up to her hip. ]

Oh?

[Kurt cracks his eyes enough to see that she's telling the truth, the bare flesh he saw were her legs. His face darkens slightly even as he grins sheepishly.]

Well I've made a fool of myself.

I know I gave you a bit of an awkward first impression, but I don't generally wait by the door with no pants on. [ She can't not laugh at the idea that he thought she might, though. Of all the assumptions that have been made about her, Kurt's have at least been entertaining. Once she's done tying the lacing securely at her ankle she stands back up, car keys and a wallet on a chain dangling fro her fingers. She's wearing makeup for the first time since he's probably seen her, and it does look good, if understated. ]

Not unless I really like whoever's on the other side of it, anyway.

It would not be the strangest thing I've seen a person do. [Partial nudity is nothing new to Kurt. Being in and traveling with the circus, he's very accustomed to sharing a small changing space with many people dressing and undressing in a hurry between acts. Generally he knows them a little better than he does Noriko, and none of them were lacing themselves into a pair of leather pants. He's also aware his reaction is fairly ridiculous, given some of his old costumes make said pants look like Sunday best.

His grin turns into a silent laugh, eyes squeezing shut with it.] No such lucky person today?

I'm torn between curious now, and afraid. [ It amazes her, the short span between them meeting and being able to tease like this, but Kurt's a fun guy when he's not worried--unfortunately that appears to be much of the time. She likes seeing him laugh because she can already tell it's been a while since he could; there are markers that say it infinitely better than words ever would, and not all of them are physical.

And when he asks her about such a lucky person she really, really wishes she'd managed to make that hologram work on her own, because that's part of the errands. If she could show it to him, maybe Kurt would come along. Who knows. ]

Not today. Today there are errands and a mutant nightclub waiting for me, and hopefully not being totally alone. [ She smiles at him, hand turned to the door. ] Last chance to blow this popsicle stand?

I lived in a circus for most of my life, and I've been told what I consider an average day is varying levels of strange to normal people. [He doesn't mention that certain aspects of it were weird even by those standards. He'd be one of those aspects, his mother and their family traditions another. Many traveling acts have a fortune teller even now, but few witches on Margali's level.

The smile that's lingered fades into sharp interest and a little surprise when she mentions the mutant nightclub.] Ja? I didn't think there would be places like that, with so many mutants living in the open.

I doubt you'd shock me that badly if you told me. [ They're halfway like a circus at the school, with all the learned accommodations for each others' powers, the things you don't talk about and the easy platonic intimacy that comes with not being alone, the way a lot of them were. If any of them were inclined to make a go of it, they'd just be missing the tent.

Noriko cocks her head at him for the surprise and shakes her hair for a minute, the long loose strip of her braided mohawk swinging--she's never been confident enough to actually shave her head--and leans back against the wall with a chuckle as it comes to lay still over one side of her head. ]

--Of course there are. Sometimes you just want to hang out with people who don't think you're a freak. It's not the Ritz, but it's nice.

Edited 2014-12-04 07:22 (UTC)

Perhaps not. [That air of order-in-chaos, of comradeship that rejects, on different levels, the world that rejected them, the unspoken code of conduct learned by observation; all of this reminds Kurt of the home he's waiting to come back to him. Its a comforting familiarity, even being on the outside of it.]

I suppose that wouldn't have changed. [Kurt mutters to himself, a muscle near his mouth twitching as he remembers his manners. Instead of apologizing he raises his voice to a conversational level.] There were--if the place is like I am picturing, I have been a few times to clubs like it. They weren't called mutant clubs and most of the people in them weren't. We were all.. Ill-formed.

No. It's not like that, it's not a freak club.

[ She shakes her head slowly, but without lowering her chin any; she knows two definitions for that term, and this place is neither. ] It's not just for those of us who don't pass in everyday life.

[A muscle in Kurt's cheek twitches when she calls it a freak club, his face afterward tightening into an otherwise carefully neutral expression. He shouldn't have said anything, of course someone who looked like her wouldn't understand. Sometimes he doesn't.]

My mistake. It sounds lovely, I hope you enjoy yourself. [Kurt takes a small step back, eyes flicking to one side.]

Edited 2014-12-05 22:48 (UTC)

[ She cocks her head at him for that, and gets the distinct feeling they're talking about two different things. Noriko lowers her hand and slides her wallet in a back pocket, hooking the chain to a belt loop. ] ...Okay, hold up. What do you think I mean when I say that?

[ Because she's pretty sure he didn't take it how she meant it. ]

[Kurt freezes as though in the process of stepping away, despite both feet being firmly planted on the ground. It isn't completely off--he'd been a breath away from teleporting to the Catholic church half a mile away. The ceiling is high and with many shadows to hide in while he prays.]

Exactly what you said. A club for freaks.

[ Noriko laughs--she can't not, out of relief that it's just a misunderstanding--and shakes her head wildly. ] No, no. God, no.

Freak club is a term for a... Well, to put it bluntly a drug meet. Saying someone's ill is a term for being sick because you're in withdrawal. Using the two together, I assumed that's what you were talking about.

[Kurt's pale eyes widen, the brittle stillness of his expression breaking apart into surprise.] Vas?! Nein! Nein nein nein. I won't say that I've never dabbled, but the sort of club I meant were for people who were shaped differently. Most of us were deformed in some way, either by birth or in an accident.

No, no way. That is so not what I mean, it's not like that. Not about how you look.

[ She extends one arm to show him the bend of her elbow, pocked by needle marks several years old. ] I tend to assume sometimes. I really didn't mean to insult you.

The club you are going to, or the type of club you meant when you called it a freak club?

[Without thinking, Kurt reaches to cup the back of her elbow in a hand, his two long fingers curling around the back of her gauntlets. Realizing a second later that he may have erred, he glances at her face with a questioning look on his own.]

Both. It's a nice place, actually--it's like any other nightclub--a bar, a dance floor, music a little too loud.

[ She doesn't flinch when he takes her arm, and though she doesn't release the gauntlets to slide down and off the marks are not yet entirely faded. Such is what comes of being addicted and not to the insufflated form of opiates. Noriko meets his glance evenly, eyes a little too blue to be normal for most Asian peoples, at least according to the popular opinion. ] I'm clean. Since not long after I got here, but I still recognize the signs and the language.

You still interested?

And you think the places I would go weren't nice? [For the most part she'd be right, although it wasn't for lack of trying on the owners' or patrons' part. There really is only so much to be done for the kind of hole in the wall that most of the clubs were in.

He shifts the gentle grip, to let his thumb brush over the little scars showing above her gauntlet.] I'll remember that.

[With a little smile and a shake of his head, Kurt lets go of her elbow.] Nein. I'm a bit too old for a club, but I appreciate the gesture.

Were they?

[ She gives him a tiny smile--a smile because she does think he understands at least a little, but tiny because she knows someone, somewhere around here, will remind him of the junkie she used to be. And how she still loves the feeling of falling like addicts do. ]

I can take you somewhere else if you'd rather be there. I can go anywhere.

[Caught, he smiles ruefully.] Nein, but we did our best to make them so.

[He has the strongest urge to touch the corner of her mouth, try to coax a wider smile out of her. He refrains, not least of all for propriety's sake.]

You don't have to take me anywhere. Go, enjoy yourself.

A big step up from the places I went, then.

[ Noriko just shrugs a shoulder, a good-natured sort of motion that means she's relaxed around Kurt. ] Taking you somewhere would be me enjoying myself. That's why I'm offering.

[ Basically everything about Kurt says he needs a close friend, and Noriko likes having friends. She's an undeniably social creature and she firmly believes no one should feel as isolated as the blue guy seems. ]

You are very kind, Noriko. I appreciate the offers, I truly do, but it would not be safe for you with me.

Kurt. I promise you, it will be fine for us both. No one's going to pick a fight with a girl who's got metal hands and glowing eyes.

[ It's incredibly easy, as she speaks, for her to make that happen, and it's an inhuman glow of bright blue-white, not unlike her hair--or the electricity he's yet to see her manifest. ] Come on.

[Blinking against the brightness, the smile that spreads across his face is gentle and joyful. To see her so unafraid of showing her power is a joy, even if he was looking right at her eyes and now has a couple of dark spots in his.]

You dye your hair the same color. [He's assuming its dye, being as he's noticed her eyebrows are a dark color.]