Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2020 0:57:20 GMT -5
In The Ring
His dumb smug face was plastered across a huge pad. And that was tilted against the turnbuckle.
Ade, in a loose-fitting muscle shirt, leggings, and her boots, backed up to the middle of the ring. With a running start, she lept up with a flying kick and totally whiffed on the pad. Falling backwards, she folded up like an accordion … and then uncompressed with a pained grunt.
Rolling onto her stomach, she was seconding guessing this idea to try something new at the Carnage training facility.
“You’re back!”
Dressed in his workout gear, Silvio strolled into the room, beaming. His expression registered disgust as he had a look at the photo of Adrienne’s opponent on the equipment, but it was just as quickly replaced with amusement as he realized how she was motivating herself.
“Nice,” he laughed. “Trying something new?”
With a little exertion, Adrienne pushed herself up from the mat.
“Tried,” she said emphatically. “Maybe later.”
Ade hadn’t seen Silvio since the Halloween party. After … things, her focus became admittedly singular.
“Yeah. My neighbor couldn’t watch Buster for much longer.”
And finally, she stood up, her knee a little ginger from the failed impact. Hesitation mired her words as she continued.
“And with my first title defense looming, I had to get back.”
Silvio nodded, giving a thoughtful hum. “I have every confidence in you. I know it’s important not to count your chickens before they’re hatched and all that, though. If there’s any way me or anybody else can show our support, just let us know.”
Adrienne winning the championship that night had made his heart so glad. If anybody on the roster deserved a victory like that, it was the Set’s Ace of Spades. Although truth be told, the Halloween party in LA with her performance and the time hanging out afterward held their own special triumph.
“If you don’t mind me asking...did you and Silvie have fun on the town together?”
Adrienne swallowed a lump in her throat. She was very aware that there would be no judgment from someone so fantastic like Silvio but for her Ade it was like being caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“We didn’t really go anywhere,” she said sheepishly. Her cheeks colored as she spoke with a bit of a sputter, “I-I’m sorry if that was a little weird. I think I like her.”
“It’s not weird at all,” he replied gently. “If I were in your shoes, I would have done the same thing.”
He, Axton, and Zach had made a quiet retreat when they’d noticed how Adrienne and Silvie were getting on. While he had, admittedly, not known Adrienne for a terribly long time, he’d never seen her with the expression she wore when looking into Silvie’s eyes. It was like the world outside of them didn’t exist.
He smiled wistfully in spite of himself before looking to her again.
“I think she likes you, too.”
“I hope I’m not being too forward,” Ade whispered, also making sure to look around for anyone else. This, after all, was a public space, “but I think…”
She stopped herself. Pacing a little in the ring, she considered her words carefully.
“You get it, right?”
“I get it,” he said. “Did...you want to talk about it? We can do it somewhere else if you’d prefer more privacy.”
No matter how accepting or ready any person could be for this sort of situation, however obvious it might be to an outside observer, this was a big thing to figure out about oneself. Silvio was hardly about to dismiss Adrienne’s more circumspect approach. All he could do was try to demonstrate he was a safe person to be open with about this.
Adrienne only nodded.
Silvio's
“The first time I realized I had a crush on another boy, I was fourteen.”
Silvio settled into the sofa in his living room, mug of tea cupped in his hands. He’d figured something like this would be best discussed where there wasn’t any fear of eavesdropping of potentially hostile parties. The last thing he wanted was to unknowingly discuss LBGTQIA+ things in the presence of an aggro homophobe with someone who was only just wading out into the shallowest of queer waters. The subject matter of their conversation along with his apartment looking like something out of a family sitcom already made this feel like a ‘very special episode,’ situation.
“His name was Sean. He had strawberry-blonde hair and hazel eyes; a smile that could light up a room. Face full of freckles and a laugh that could make you feel like a soda bubbling over,” he said, voice soft with nostalgia. “At first I didn’t really understand it. We were working together on sets for a school play; painting backgrounds and making props and stuff. I was an affectionate kid and I’d never really questioned what that meant when it came to girls. But, you know, you get older and...for guys, who are so inclined anyway...it’s difficult to stay agnostic about who you’re attracted to.”
He smiled, watching the steam coil up from his tea.
“So, we’d spend our class and after school time together working on art projects.” Silvio grinned, raising a brow. “It was basically perfect. Probably one of the happiest times I ever had in school. We’d talk about everything, and every day I’d look forward to seeing him. I loved sharing new things with him. The look on his face when he was surprised or delighted by something? I lived for that. He was always the best part of my day.”
Ade listened intently, clutching her mug as she leaned into his story. For everything that had transpired, she never passed up the chance to hear about these sorts of things. Perhaps all this time she lived vicariously through what she never had. In an effort to maybe understand, she dug deep into something that seemed so meaningless all these years. It was said softly, still unsure of its relevance.
“When I was that age, I watched the cheerleaders instead of the games themselves.”
Averting her eyes from Silvio, she stared into the tea instead.
He grinned. “Yeah, same here. High school initiation for me was becoming a full-on disaster bi. My folks didn’t mind. My mom loved me, and my dad was a garbage fire in human form, but he wasn’t homophobic. He actually went on a diatribe about how the gender binary and compulsory heterosexuality is a bunch of colonialist bullshit, so hey - at least he got that right. Stopped clock, y’know?”
The mug in Ade’s hands wobbled a bit as she set down on a coaster.
“I was only with Danny.”
Silvio knew a little otherwise from previous talks. However, Danny was who mattered. Someone who should have never mattered.
“I think…”
All the way across the country, she confessed that she liked Silvie, sure. However, vibing off Leon’s compassion.
“I think if I didn’t really like Danny, all that he was... then it was cuz I don’t like…”
Struggling for a moment, Ade pushed forth.
“...guys?”
“It could be,” Silvio said. “I mean, it’s common for women to take a little longer in realizing they’re not straight. Comphet’s a helluva drug. You have everything around you telling you that being with a man is the ultimate mark of success for a woman. You’re taught that it’s supposed to hurt the first time you’re with someone, for heaven’s sake. You’re taught that being intimate is more for someone else’s pleasure, so if you’re not having a good time, that’s normal, because you’re not supposed to. You’re taught that it’s totally straight and not at all gay to have little crushes on the people in your life that aren’t men because women are just affectionate like that.”
Rolling his eyes he grinned and put on his best 1940s radio personality voice.
“Just gals being pals! What could be better?”
Hitting a little close to the mark, Adrienne responded with nervous laughter. “I feel like you just read my cover letter.”
“That just means you’re not alone, Ade,” he said gently. “There’s plenty of folks out there who have been in your shoes. Who are in your shoes. I know that a lot of the time, we’re sold this story how, as queer people, we’re alone. We’re isolated. We’re the anomaly. That isn’t true, but people who don’t like us are invested in making us think it is and depriving us of the language of common experience. Isolated queer people without the words to communicate their experiences are in no position to assert themselves and demand recognition and better treatment in life.”
Adrienne thought back to the trepidation that ravaged Jon Willis until he finally stepped on a platform viewed by thousands of people and told them all who he was. His situation was wrought with something sinister and vile but he backed it down and stomped it out in one powerful moment. Since calling out Jon for what she considered to be inappropriate comments, she hadn’t heard much from him. She just figured that rejecting his advance made her person non grata. Perhaps it was a little more complex.
Across from Silvio Leon, someone so outspoken that she wished she had a thimble of his tenacity, she fumbled with how he spoke to her. Spoke about her.
“...I just want to be me, Sil. I want to be alive.”
“That’s a fine thing to want. Heck, I do for myself. If I can help you get there? Figure out what that means for you? I want to do that.”
The fact that she felt forlorn less than twenty fours after leaving LA didn’t seem like a good idea to express. That day was weird. A new experience. And then as the seconds ticked away, a realization dawned that whatever this happened to be was an uncertainty. One step at a time.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “I’m not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t met you. I’m not sure what I have to offer but if you ever need anything, I’m here for you.”
The apartment door swung open a little harder than it really needed to be, rattling a nearby bookshelf. In an instant, the mutant, muzzled mass of Zane King filled the doorframe, his burning amber eyes locking on the pair in the living room where he typically slept.
Silvio’s head snapped in the direction of the door, eyes wide, color draining from his face. He hadn’t expected Zane to be back so early; typically the big man stayed out much later doing...whatever it was he did when he left the apartment.
Shit.
He stammered out something incoherent, glancing between them. Words. Words would be good. He’d had an admirable grasp on them only moments before, but the slippery little devils now eluded him. Where the fuck were the words?!
The Lab Rat King had some words.
“IT’S SUPPER TIME. HELLO PRETTY LADY.”
Eyes wide, Adrienne Levi could barely register that LAB RAT KING had just walked into the room. Silvio’s home. Mouth agape, she couldn’t form words either.
As the mutant advanced on the silent pair, however… he began to simmer. He seemed to hesitate, blinking something from his eyes, his fingers twitching and curling like he was losing and then regaining control of his own hands.
He stopped a few feet away, regarding them both with a sudden air of… confusion. Shame. As though he had just walked in on what was probably a very private moment.
“... Ms. Levi. Uh…”
Brow furrowed, the Lab Rat King’s voice settled to a low, gentle rumble.
“Hey.”
Looking at Silvio, he gave off no indication that this event was actually a surprise.
Back to Zane. Spoken in the mousiest voice possible, “Hi.”