Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.
I just thought everyone should know, its five days into the month and this story already has over one thousand hits. You make me feel loved.
Chapter 16
They sat in silence for a short time. It wasn't a companionable one, it was more like the silence where people were trying to say something but the words were clogged at the throat. Emily's voice sighed, "You down here hiding or something? Cause its rare anyone comes down here but Storm. So why are you here?"
Naomi sat looking at her hands, they were flat against each other between her knees. "You know about everyone here right?"
There was another silence, "Yes, well most of them. Some of them have better defenses in their minds." There was a pause long enough for a slight head tilt, "You should try and get some, you're minds an open book."
"You could teach me that right?"
"Psh, so that's why you came here? To use me?"
She shook her head, then replied aloud not sure she could sense a head movement, "No, I actually just wanted to know more about who I'm living with, including you. You're the one who brought up telepathic defenses."
A moment of silence, "Touche. There isn't much more to know about me, I don't have a favorite color or food, I haven't eaten food in years." Emily's voice sighed, "But I do miss chocolate." Naomi felt something prod at her mind, "Oh, you had chocolate covered strawberries?" The voice sounded jealous. "With Rune?" Surprise," He's usually such a cheap person."
Naomi quickly closed her eyes and tried to force the Emily out of her mind, "Nope, its not that simple dear girl. The best way to protect from intrusion is to have a defense already there, its harder to make something leave than it is to keep something out. You don't put up a wall once somethings inside, you try and cut them off from what you don't want them to know."
What didn't she want her to see? Well, everything, but there were things that Emily already seemed to know about her that she'd taken from her mind already. Everything else had to be protected. Naomi began to mentally cover things with black cloths, much like someone would cover art work in a gallery or furniture when people moved away and left things there.
"Its a start, but its a flimsy cover." Emily stated. "So, who do you want to know about?"
"Anyone who I haven't met."
"How about... Tori, she's not back from her vacation yet." Emily began, "She goes by Sparky. Tori's not allowed to touch anything electronic, she has a tendency to fry things when she does. She creates electrical currents. Oh, and she has a major thing for Hart."
Naomi smiled, a sigh that almost sounded like a laugh crossed her lips, "Why wouldn't she? Hart's a great guy, even if he can change how a person feels. I think that first feeling when he comes into a room is him just sensing the feel of the room not trying to change things though."
"Yeah, its become a habit of his I think. It gets him into trouble." Emily's voice sighed. "Poor guy though, Hart can't get Sparky not to not like him. From what I've observed in the school up there, she's over zealous in everything she does, including how she feels. I think it overwhelms the poor empath."
Naomi looked over at the perfectly still form for the first time since she'd arrived, "Do you ever get out of here?"
"Not really," Emily said with a sort of sad tone. "I can wander from mind to mind in the school and watch, but I don't physically leave this room ever." She sighed, "Its snowing... I wish I could actually see it, or even feel it."
Naomi closed her eyes for a moment. She felt the skin on her hands crackle, she mentally searched the school grounds for a nice shady place she'd seen before. She willed the shadows to open. She opened her eyes and looked up at a particularly dark shadow above them and connected the two. It took a moment, and the spidery cracks on her hands spread up to her wrists and left her fingertips blackened.
She watched it for a moment, nothing happened then slowly. Flakes of white began to flutter down around them. Emily gasped when the first of them began to settle on her body. "That is amazing! Its so cold!"
"You can still feel?"
"Yeah, Storm tries to keep the room the same temperature all the time but... its annoying." The voice hummed in enjoyment as more of the flakes drifted and fell against her skin. "This is the first time anyone's ever done anything for me. Thank you."
"Well, you helped me, I thought it would only be kind to return the favor." She looked at her hands, the cracks were still spreading slowly. "I'm going to close it, then I should probably go. I'll come back next time that I can alright? Maybe you can help me more with mental protection."
"Sure, I was starting to feel a little tired anyway."
Naomi closed the shadows, then walked to the door and closed them. It wasn't a regular conversation, but it hadn't killed her to sit there and talk with the comatose girl in the basement either. Her mind distracted with thoughts of, wow, I can't believe I made a portal to bring snow into the house, Naomi nearly bumped into someone else on the stairs. It was a girl, her skin looked like granite, in fact her entire body looked to be made of granite. "Sorry, I should learn to pay attention." the girl said quickly. "Gah, I'm late!" She darted off down the stairs and disappeared around another corner.
Naomi smiled, all these people, it was comfortable. It was perfect. She went and grabbed some food before heading off to bed.