A Night To Forget (Circe)

The elevator apparently moved on her demand. Of course, the problem was, she hadn’t requested for all those sudden movements.

Balance - a state of bodily equilibrium.

Alexandra did not possess it. As soon as the elevator started to move, her feet were quick to betray her. Alert! Incoming wall- Scratch that. Incoming Sam. Alexandra landed exactly in Sam’s arms. She gave a short look up, more of a reproachful look, as if Sam was the one guilty of the sudden disappearance of her equilibrium.

Hmph-ing, she pushed herself off of him and did her best to grab whatever that could be grabbed inside the elevator and hold on for dear life.

By the time the elevator stopped, she was holding a hand on her belly and groaning. She was sick. Why did everyone consider that she was a sack of potatoes today? A mystery that was. The doors finally opened, and her first instinct was to throw herself out of the damn box. However, she just eyed the opening. Then Sam exiting and offering his hand to help her.

Blue eyes trailed up to him, throwing him a short glance. He smiled. She didn’t. With a straight face she bent down slowly and picked up the jacket that had fallen off her arm sometime when she was fighting for her dignity balance. Careful, she straightened herself up, and, taking a deep breath and keeping her eye on the exit, she ignored Sam and his offer of help completely, and went past him, only her arm brushing against him for a brief moment. Pft. She would have rather crawled out of the stupid elevator rather than accept Sam’s help.

As soon as she was out of the damned thing, Alexandra turned around and looked at Kaz. Then, she eyed the elevator. “Kazzel…” Her free hand went up to her chin, scratching it lightly while her eyes trailed back up to Kaz. “Did you just pull the elevator up?” She asked, although the answer was pretty much obvious and she already knew it.

Becoming more and more frustrated with the situation he was in he was continued to be ignored by Alex. Hearing Kaz’s voice Sam frowned more clearly Kaz wasn’t aware what ‘remain hidden because mutants are being rounded up and tossed in camps because of what they were’ meant that he shouldn’t reveal himself as a mutant, and lifting an elevator was in his opinion counter productive to that goal, and then there was the secrecy factor he will now have to deal with when conversing with Kaz in public where they could be linked together as ‘fellow mutants’ the eyes and ears might have been a giveaway but they could be concealed the brute strength would defiantly be harder to play off.

Wishing the day would be over so everything that happened tonight could be either forgotten or forgiven Sam looked from Kaz to Alex and then said simply, ”Just remember we are supposed to remain low key, I don’t want you getting carted off somewhere because you were sticking out like a sore thumb… but thanks…”

Sam tapped Alex on the shoulder and said, ”Now come on beauty time to put you to bed or the beast will have to carry you there…” he said simply as he motioned towards the hallway where both his room and hers resided. He didn’t want to carry her or force her into her room but if he had to he would, to many things were happening and a drunken Alex who was threatening the head receptionist wasn’t help any.

Kaz chuckled at Sam before he looked at Alex. "You're welcome." He could tell she was very glad to to out of the elevator, which made Kaz want to know what exactly happened inside it. He quickly weighed asking now (or soon) and asking later, as in the next day or so. Considering how drunk she seemed, soon would probably be best, but later would be easier. He shook his head slightly as she turned and snapped a bit at Sam before making her way towards her room singing. It made him smile.

"You don't get it do you. They've known what I am since I got here." From his perch on top of the elevator he looked at the man. "Besides, in this place, money talks, and when my room costs me $3500 a day, and I'm paying them half that again, they listen very well. Of course my company is quite well known, they wouldn't want that type of bad press. Seeing as I am the sole owner of it, it's not hard to believe I have some technical skills, so getting this thing," He knocked on it a few times, "To move, or getting you two out, isn't so far fetched."

He stood up and back from the doors, "So do me a favor Sam: Keep your 'thanks' and stop thinking you're the only one with a working brain." Kaz bent his knees a bit and jumped into the shaft, the pressure he exerted on the elevator caused it to shake a bit. A few more 'hops' had Kaz up to his floor. Holding himself in place next to the door, he placed his ear against it and listened carefully. When he was sure no one was around on the other side, he pried the door open and slipped into the hall and shifted back to normal.

A slight wave of dizziness swept over him. He placed a hand on the wall so he wouldn't fall. The dizziness passed quickly and Kaz made his way to his room. He hadn't made it too the bathroom to wash up when there was someone at the door. "Yes?" He called as he pulled a knife from his ankle sheath. "Your champagne Sir." Oh, right, he had forgotten about that. Putting the blade away, he opened the door. The woman at the door looked at his hands, "Ah, sorry, I just got back to my room. Tell Abrams I couldn't get the elevator moving, but the two are no longer stuck inside." The woman brought the three bottles inside and began to set them on the bar. "Actually.." Kaz slipped the woman a few bills as a tip and sent her to deliver to Alex's room, and another to Jewel or Streaks room. He knew how Alex and Sam were, but Jewel didn't seem to resist Streak, in fact she had seemed quite happy when he carried her away.

After the woman left, Kaz called room service for some more food to be delivered to the room while he cleaned up.

… And Alexandra stopped, one foot remaining in the air for a few seconds while blue eyes remained locked on Sam. So. What exactly was Sam doing in her room? Did he possess some special power which allowed him to walk trough walls or what? And, apparently, he did love to do everything she told him not to. Alexandra frowned, the thought of yelling at him crossing her mind for a moment. That is, before Sam spoke.

”Can you put your shirt back on? We need to talk.”

Her mouth closed. She was annoyed. Good, if Sam ignored every little thing she told him, so be it. She could play that game. While blatantly ignoring the fact that she was wearing only a bra in the presence of a male, Alexandra frowned again as she let the damn shirt fall from her hand. “Aaand, why would I do anythin' you tell me to do?” Alexandra asked, now starring at Sam’s back. She took a deep breath, while she picked up the bottle from the bar again, and took another swig out of it.

“It’s myyy room, I didn’t invite you in and I’m gonna do whateeever I want in it.” She blinked lazily, looking in the direction Sam was in, but not exactly seeing Sam. Or at least not seeing only one Sam. “I caaan take aaaall of my clothes off.” She shrugged, snorting at the ice mancer. “And you can’t do anythin' about it.” Laughing at Sam, she took the bottle to her lips once, drinking again, before walking over to Sam. “Got it beast?” She asked while poking his chest with a finger.

”Well now that those are there, and your key isn’t left in your door, and I wasn’t invited I don’t really have any business being here.”

That… went surprisingly well. Alexandra eyed Sam a bit suspicious as he spoke, and shrugged as the sentence ended. Stepping to the side, Alexandra leaned against the wall, taking another swig from the bottle.

”You have a good night Alex, and remember we have somewhere to be so try not to stay up to late.”

Alexandra simply snorted in response. “Yeah, yeah.” Slowly, Alexandra slid down the wall until finally she was seated on the floor, head resting on the wall, bottle to her chest and legs sprawled in front of her. She didn’t even bother to look at Sam and, even if she wanted to, a dresser blocked her vision. “That’s what everyone cares about anyway.” She muttered, drinking again.

…Alexandra go there, Alexandra do that. Hell, if she didn’t know about responsibility and the current situation then no one really did. But no, she was needed to be reminded by mister perfect that she had somewhere to go. No shit! She really had no idea!...

And she drank until there was nothing left. She eyed the bottle, and with a shrug, she threw it to her side then sighed and closed her eyes. “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.” She called out at Sam bitterly.

Hands traveled to her temples, rubbing against them hard as a headache made its appearance, trying to empty her mind. Off Sam, off the mission, off everything, even if it was for just a couple of seconds. It didn’t take long for the short time of meditation to be suddenly disturbed by a knock. Alexandra winced and kept her eyes closed and hands still on temples as she spoke. “Yeah?”

“Room Service.” A female voice called out.

For God’s sake- “I didn’t ord-”

“Champagne sent from Mr. Corydon.”

For a few moments Alexandra asked herself who the hell Mr. Corydon was. When she actually remembered that she had seen the name somewhere else before and in the end realization kicked in and she associated Kaz with Corydon, she smiled, shaking her head slightly. “Come in. It’s open.” Finally opening her eyes, Alexandra placed her hand on the frame of the bathroom door on her side in an attempt to help herself up. She was dizzy, and yet, she found the strength to get up and quickly enter the bathroom before hearing the woman entering her room.

With small steps, Alexandra made her way to the mirror, hands placed on the edge of the sink for support as she only glanced for a moment at her reflection before letting her eyes travel to the reflection of the woman in the room as she delivered the champagne. “Good ol’ Kazzel. He must have known I’m missin’ my champagne.” Alexandra smiled again, as eyes traveled back to her reflection. “Tonight I need to cel-” She continued, but stopped abruptly as she stared at her reflection. She needed to celebrate? What? Was there anything worth celebrating?

The image on the mirror screamed pathetic. A woman standing in the bathroom of her hotel room, dressed only in a bra, with messy hair, with a pale face and the little make up she had on was smudged across her face. And her eyes… eyes that usually could pierce trough the toughest people out there, now stared back at her dumbly. She felt pathetic, really. Ashamed, she let her eyes go down, starring at the immaculate white of the sink.

Papa must have been proud right now. Cause nothing she did even disturb his plan, a plan that apparently couldn’t be stopped, not even by a grave. She’d started a damn war. And she’d come here to stop it. So far, nothing had worked. Pacifica refused to listen, Fausto didn’t have any information, she wasn’t sure how Slate’s bribery was gonna save a whole country and the X-Men merrily hopped their way to the borders thinking that that’s gonna make things better.

“There’s nothing worth celebrating in my life.” Alexandra concluded, half muttering. Blue eyes snapped back to her reflection. Nothing had changed during the seconds that had passed. The shame, the guilt, the disgust for herself were still there and all of that was mocking her.

Alexandra gritted her teeth together, hands grasping the edge of the sink so hard that they had turned white. She tried to fight, as ever. But, it was bigger than her. In the end, she lost control. In the next second, her fist was slammed against the mirror. The mirror cracked, and in only moments from the impact, pieces were falling to the floor and in the sink, breaking again.

Her fist was still resting against the little remains of the mirror. Her senses were so numbed that she didn’t feel pain. She felt nothing. Nor did she notice the fact that pieces of glass were sticking out of her hand when she pulled it back.

She did heard the woman behind her gasp at the scene. Alexandra put her hand back on the edge of the sink, watching absently how red lines were being drawn with her own blood on the white of the sink. “Get out.” She simply said, letting her head hang low, hair falling on the sides of her face as a curtain. “I wanna be alone.” The woman didn’t say a thing, but footsteps announced Alexandra that she had left.

Closing her eyes, Alexandra did something that she hadn’t done in a very long time. She cried.

At first it was only a tear, running across her face, but as time passed, tears started cascading down her cheeks while sobs broke the silence that should have been after the hotel employee left. Alexandra hated herself this way, weak and crying like a little child. It had been such a long time since she had last shred a tear.

And there was only one thing that Alexandra hated more than seeing herself crying. It was someone else seeing her crying. She was surprised when two arms were enveloped around her body. Alexandra gasped, confused, as she was turned around, her hand being picked up for inspection.

Teary blue eyes traveled up; from her own hand to the one it was holding it and to Sam’s face. Although she commanded herself to stop crying, tears continued to fall from her eyes. Now, that off all people who could have seen her crying Sam was the one who had found her, she felt even more hatred for herself.

As Sam pulled her into a hug, she did her best to resist him. “What are you doing here?! I thought I told you to leave!”she called out, with words being cut off by sobs. With hands turned into fists she started to punch Sam’s chest, while in the same time trying to push him out of the bathroom. “Get out! Get out!”

Alexandra applied several punches, while her crying instead of ceasing as she commanded only intensified with each kick. And she was becoming tired. Not off kicking Sam but tired of being though when inside she was breaking in thousands of pieces. She didn’t even realize that when she took another step closer to Sam, ready to deliver another punch to his chest, her arms grasped his t-shirt tightly, body moved closer, while she burrowed her head into his chest while she continued to cry.

“Get out…” Her voice repeated the demand one more time, but now weak, and while asking this, her hands grasped his t-shirt tighter and tighter. She still hated herself for crying but, at least she wasn’t alone anymore.

The grip on Sam’s shirt tightened even more, her body pushed into his till there wasn’t any room for further movement anymore. Alexandra fell silent, no requests of him leaving her room, no yells, no punches. Just sobs and the occasional movement of her shoulders as she continued to cry.

There was time to worry about Sam seeing her crying tomorrow, right now in the arms of her beast she found the comfort she needed. Maybe it wasn’t enough to wipe out the pain or the guilt hanging on her shoulders but certainly soothed it.

Alexandra didn’t make the smallest movement to show resistance when Sam had scooped her up and carried her to the bed. Not even her head or hands changed positions when Sam moved her across the room or sat on the bed.

”So I don’t think your crying because of your hand… care to share love?”

…

”Now let’s see if we can stop that bleeding.”

Reluctantly, Alexandra shifted the position of her head, teary blue eyes looking up at Sam. Cut down by sobs, the sentence that played in her head ever since she had seen her reflection in the mirror was muttered weakly. “Is my fault.”

Alexandra let her eyes travel down, not watching anything in particular. The injured hand was unclasped from Sam’s shirt and extended toward him mechanically. “My fault.” She whispered letting her head rest on Sam’s shoulder.

My fault.