Raven plonked herself down on a grotty bench opposite a large, victorian house. As she sighed, rubbing her calves, she noticed the house appeared to be separated into three flats; glancing at her arm, she saw that the apartment number was 12C. C meant that this girl had the basement apartment. She groaned; contrary to popular belief, she actually enjoyed watching the world go by, as prejudiced and ugly as it was. The building looked like it had been burnt; scorch marks were licked into the brickwork, blackening the house, and the top apartment looked abandoned, with rotting planks boarding up it's windows. Raven really hoped the trek and the fitful night of rest would be worth it.
Last night, after she'd knocked out the sorry-looking homeless guy she had fallen on, Raven finally walked to Chiswick, she had scouted round for one of those rough-housing student hostels, and settled herself in for the night. Raven had then mulled over what face she would chose to hide herself with for the foreseeable future. It was difficult; of course, each face she wore was normal enough, but they weren't her face. She couldn't wear her face. Erik would find her, or Charles. Or Hank. Or someone. The point was, human!Raven wasn't an option. She'd have to tweak it somehow. She stared down at her dark hands as they rested on her thighs, he legs dangling over the side of the bed. She was still wearing appearance of the Indian woman from when she went to go make the call, wild hair and freckles prominent. It wasn't that she didn't like this face, it was more the fact that it wasn't her. She was a different colour. She wasn't human. She was Mystique, not Raven. She wanted to be blue.
Then the idea hit her. She liked this form now, but it wasn't her, so she could make it her. All it would take was a few features re-arranged...and bam. With a ripple of scales, she was herself. Sorta. Just a little more Indian.
She slept awfully that night, the hostel bed was hard and unyielding, and all through the small hours Raven worried one of the other dorm members would awake to find a blue mutant in the bed next to them and rat her out. Luckily, no such occurrence happened, and she walked out of the hostel late in the morning, wearing her new skin proudly. The expression on the confused receptionists face had her giggling all the way to Lorna's house.
Raven waited on that bench for a good hour, until the nearby church struck 11 o'clock, and she deemed the time suitable for her to knock on that basement flat without being rude. At least, she thought 11 was a good time. Considering this girl was a student, then a suitable time wouldn't probably be until after 3 when the hangover finally left.
Descending the slimy stairs, Raven noticed that the door to the basement apartment was painted a garish lime green, the windows were washed sparkling clean (even though the curtains were drawn and she could not see inside) and there was loud dance music emanating out of what seemed like the pores of the bricks. At least it's kept in good condition, she thought. If there was anything Raven did not like, it was dirt. Or mud. Or anything untidy. Her motto in life went as follows; if you were unclean/messy and you could do something about it, do it. Otherwise, she would do it herself, and that would probably be slightly more violent than the cleaning methods most people had in mind.
Raven plonked her heavy bag down on the concrete floor and adjusted her fur coat, looking over herself in the mirror-like windows. Her outfit seemed inconspicuous yet stylish, and a perhaps a little old-fashioned for this day and age of glow sticks and lycra, but what was a 60s child like herself to do? Old habits died hard, and she just had to take the plunge.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
...
...
...
Nothing.
Raven tried again, a little more forcefully.
...
...
...
Nothing.
She looked around for a bell to ring; finding a brand new electric one, she pressed it a couple of times, and heard the trill of Debussy's Claire De Lune underneath the dance music.
...
...
...
Still nothing.
At this point, Raven was becoming irritated. She had walked at least 10 miles for this nonsense, she was not going back without meeting this girl and t least looking around the apartment. Bending down, she pushed open the post flap, and put her mouth level with it.
"Hello?" She called into the slot, "Lorna Dane? It's Raven, I'm hear about the - Oh!" At that point, Lorna Dane decided to open the door and Raven fell, rather startled, into her open arms. Her rather sweaty open arms, she noted.
"Oh gosh, I'm so rude!" Lorna pulled Raven to her feet, smiling broadly. She had a young face, Raven noted. Green eyes peeked out underneath short eyelashes, and rosy cheeks were plump and welcoming. A wild spray of permed brown hair flowed from underneath a half ponytail and sweatband, the same sweat bands adorning Lorna's wrists and ankles. She appeared to be in a hideous fluorescent-green lycra and baggy t-shirt combo, which just about highlighted her sweat patches as much as a colour could. Raven realised the girl was spouting about something and tuned back into her words, "-Normally I'm really good with deliveries and people ringing the doorbell and stuff, but I was literally just starting my exercise VHS and had it up super loud, I'm really sorry about ignoring you!
She was irritating, Raven decided, but not in that I-want-to-bite-your-head-off way that mod girls seemed to be in these days. More like and and Erik way, the kind where when he knew he was wrong, he wouldn't stop apologising, but when he knew he was right, well...Raven had a fair idea of what this girl was like. She figured that was okay, she was used to dealing with people like that. As long as this girl showered after her exercise VHS-thing.
"It's fine," Raven said briskly, running a hand through her ginger hair, "It's good you take pride in your health."
This made Lorna laugh. "To be honest, I'm only really doing it because the outfit is fun, but yeah! The other thing works too! D'ya wanna come inside?" Lorna moved aside from the door, and beckoned Raven in. Raven supposed she really didn't have a choice anymore. SHe picked up her bag, and crossed the threshold, with Lorna leading the way into the living room.
"As you can see, I re-decorated recently! It's not normally this tidy but, y'know, I'm sure if you moved in you could whip me into shape," Lorna was already bustling off into the kitchen, a small alcove with a window into the living room which she proceeded to lean on. "Right, do you take tea, or coffee?"
"Uh, tea, please." God, thought Raven, it's like living with Charles again. No-one's asked me if I wanted tea since we left England the first time. While Lorna bustled about, assembling beverages, Raven wandered around the living room. It was large, for just one person to be living in, with pastel green walls and a black carpet across the floor. There were piles and piles of VHS's next to a fancy looking television, which was faced by a leather armchair and a scruffy corduroy sofa. There were a couple of old fashioned painting of the walls that reminded Raven of Xavier's Mansion, painfully so,so she looked away and wandered towards the incredibly small kitchen.
"Now, I know the kitchen isn't big, but we probably aren't gonna be cooking too many dinners here, and I've just had one of those new-fangled refrigerators installed so there's lots of space for keeping stuff! We've got a hob, and oven, a microwave, and some cupboards so we really do have everything we could possibly need." Lorna handed her a cup of tea, "Sugar?"
"No thanks," replied Raven, poking her head through the window and into the tiny kitchen. Lorna was right; there really was everything you could need for cooking in there, it was just really compact.
"Follow me, I'll show you our bedroom and the bathroom," Lorna walked out of the kitchen and towards a hallway to the left of the front door. The hallway was painted the same pastel green, except it had two doors on the inside, to the left and the right. "So, right is our bedroom. It actually kinda big, let me open up..."
As Lorna swing open the door, and fumbled for the light switch, Raven mulled over the living room. It was nice, a bit cluttered and cliche but nice. SImple. Inconspicuous. And Lorna herself, well...she seemed like she didn't have a bad bone in her body. Of course, Raven had been room about this kinda stuff before, but she had a good feeling about Lorna.
Then, the smell of body-odour emanating from Lorna's room hit her.
It was awful. The room smelt like five teenage boys; how on earth did one girl produce all that? Lorna must've noticed her appalled expression because she quickly laughed as she flicked the light on. "That's the skip outside. Don't worry, you get used to it, it's normally better at night when the rubbish isn't being heated up." Now Raven realised why the girl needed a roommate so badly. All the expensive renovations, coupled with student life and no-one wanted to share a room next to a skip...she must be hard up for cash AND company.
If Raven could get past the smell, the room wasn't so bad. It had two double beds and each end of the chamber, with two desks back to back in the middle of it. the window where the smell emanated from was covered by a large wardrobe and what looked like multiple air fresheners hanging off of the wardrobe, the kind you got in cars.
Lorna studied Raven intently. "So...I guess this is the only bad thing about the place." Raven took a sip of her tea, nodding slightly, "Really, you do get used to it. Do you want to see the bathroom or...?"
"Personally, I'd rather talk about rent." Raven felt herself replying, instantly cursing herself. That gave the impression she was definitely going to live her! WHich she might not be! At least, she didn't thin she would.
"Oh, seriously? Ace! Let's go back to the sofa then. Lorna practically bounded back into the main room, a grin stretching her pretty face childishly, patting the space next to her for Raven to sit down,"So, my landlord right now charge £40 a month, which we can split 20-20. SHe's super nice; sometimes she comes down and brings biscuits. Anyway, that includes maintenance, so it's pretty damn cheap. Anything left in the fridge can be used by both of us unless specifically named, we can sort out a TV rota or something, and I'm at Uni right now, so my schedule is pretty late. Don't worry about it, I don't make too much noise at night, I just have a lot of thesis' to moderate and stuff. I think that's about all the conditions..." Lorna's face scrunched up, trying to think of anything else to add, "Oh yeah! the boiler down her is for the ground floor and the basement, so you can only really get hot water at like 5 o'clock in the morning. Have you got any questions?"
Raven sighed; part of her hated this basement flat, with it's cliche decorations and terrible smelling bedroom, and would like nothing better than to go and break into some penthouse and sleep there. However, another part of her craved this domesticity, and couldn't help feeling sorry for the bubbly-yet calculating girl in front of her. She wanted to help. She also want to be safe. And this dingy little light-less subterranean flat seemed the safest place in the world.
"What do you study?"
"S-Sorry?" Stuttered Lorna, surprised the question was so off topic.
"Well, I figured, since we're going to be roommates and all, I should at least know what you study." The frizzy-haired student beamed like the sun shined out of Raven's arse, "But please, no hugging, not until you've had a shower."