[cassxward]

weapcnisedgirl·:

***

Klara shrugged. “I am… frustrated with handling them. And if I am, I get in trouble.” Apparently Klara’s methods for dealing with assholes were not appropriate for a school environment. At least, not outside the danger room. Even in the danger room, she’d been taught less how to fight and more how to hold herself back. Most of the time these days, she managed it just fine, but when she got angry she… forgot.

Cass raises a brow with a light smile, wondering what exactly ‘handling them’ entailed. His eyes break away from her when Isla lands in his lap and he murmurs something to her, when she nods he kisses the side of her head. “Well Isla and I were about to go get ice cream from this place I saw in town before I got here.” It’d been a long week of hitching rides and taking buses. He’d had time to walk through town before making it to the mansion, making note of every place he could take his niece. “Want to come? I’ll handle any assholes, so you don’t have to get in any trouble.”

[cassxward]

weapcnisedgirl·:

Klara laughed softly at Isla’s reaction, unsurprised by it. The little girl was often quiet around her. But she seemed comfortable around this stranger, which was far more remarkable. Perhaps he was not so unfamiliar to Isla. But that only begged the question: who was he? Especially since Opi seemingly trusted him to take care of the little girl. Not that she was truly in danger here. Klara knew that this place was as safe as could be for mutants like this, even children like Isla.

“Oh. That, um. That makes sense.” Well, the bit about the room did anyway. He said the bit about Opi so nonchalantly, she felt like she ought to know why Ophelia would trust him. So she doesn’t dare ask, but she was curious. His question distracted her anyway as she became a little sheepish. “Is nothing. Just a asshole.” The insult comes out sounding more American than her other words, repeating it the way Jean taught her.

/

Cass can tell she’s confused about more than why he’s in the room, but he kind of likes the little scrunch of her eyebrows. He smirks, watching he try to piece it all together but full out laughs at her explanation for her skittish behavior. She sounded like she was mimicking someone and he supposed she was. It was clear English wasn’t her first language, not that it bothered him or made it hard for him to understand her, but her careful way of speaking and her accent was a dead giveaway. 

“Really? I’m sure you can handle them,” he says like he’s genuinely confused why she would want to hide out. He wondered what her mutation is, it wasn’t a visible one like his. Not that she could see his, his wings securely strapped beneath his shirt. 

[cassxward]

weapcnisedgirl·:

Klara felt a rush of relief when she spotted Isla. Isla she knew, the little one had lived in the house long enough. But this boy, she didn’t recognise at all. Who was he? A new student perhaps, but then why would Isla be hanging out here like she knew him? “Hello, Isla. Where is Ophelia?”

She stepped into the room, glancing over her shoulder as she did. No one seemed to have spotted her at least. “This room was empty, I thought…” She offered an apologetic smile. “I can go. Just… one minute so I am not seen, yes?”

Isla looks up from the tablet at the sound of her name and smiles wide at Klara. She liked Klara, and most of the other girls who lived here, but they were much older than her so she only saw them once in awhile. She waves and then buries her nose back in the tablet rather than answer. That earns her a playful shove from her uncle’s foot which she swats away distractedly.

Cass rolls his eyes at the little girl before looking at Klara again, feeling a tell tale stir in his stomach. She was pretty, there were a lot of pretty girls here, but she caught his eye in a different way. Clearing his throat, he gestures for her to close the door. “It was.. til a few days ago,” he explains as he finishes marking his place in his book before setting it aside. “Opi is in class, some remedial stuff. I’m watching Isla for a bit.” He doesn’t explain that further, kind of liking the little mystery he’s set up for her. Glancing towards the door where she seemed to be anxious about what was waiting on the other side, he adds, “Who you hiding from?”

[cassxward]

weapcnisedgirl·:

It was an empty room. Or, at least, it had been yesterday. Klara had just wanted somewhere to duck into quickly, avoiding being caught by another student who seemed to take issue with her. But today when she opened the door, she wasn’t greeted with an empty, unused bedroom. She was greeted with a stranger. 

“Um.. I… Uh.. Hi.” Her English was still accented, even though she was almost fluent now. But at times like this, it was like her brain just forgot every English word she knew. “Sorry,” she managed finally. “I thought… Um.”

Ophelia had been a lot less happy to see him than he thought, which he tried not to take too much offense to. Isla on the other hand... She hung upside down from his bed now, her hair mostly on the floor and her dirty shoes on the wall. Neither of those things bothered him though, he glanced up at her periodically from where he was reading one of the many books the Professor had handed him when he told Cass that he had a lot to catch up on for classes. 

He raises a brow at the girl who walked into his room like she owned it, an amused grin at the corner of his mouth. He doesn’t interrupt her rambling, finger resting on the page so he doesn’t forget where he left off. She was much more interesting. “Yeah okay,” he nods when she seems to finish. “You can come in, if you want. We don’t mind, right Isla?” The little girl chirps from where her face is buried in the tablet he let her play on.