"That's alright. I'd rather know than have you just deal with it on your own and never let me in," she admitted. It was a little strange, but also good to see the other side of Sam. It let her know that he wasn't completely incapable of dealing with things, and that there could be hope of him getting past them.

The corners of her mouth turned upward and she let out a weak laugh. She'd spent most of her childhood running away, and it hadn't really gotten her anywhere. In fact, it had left her with few childhood friends and a ton of resentment toward her family. She was done running.

"I'm not going to run just yet," she shook her head ever so slightly and looked back up at him, "but I do want to get out of this room. It's a bit stuffy." She glanced back down at the shards of ice on the floor that were quickly forming a large puddle. "How does a walk sound?"

”I can do a walk…” Sam agreed as soon as it was mentioned. The idea of getting out of his room sounded like a good idea and the fresh air might help distract him from his feelings the good and the bad.

Sam was about to say something else when he saw Bruno run to the door. Even if it was late at night and he was dead asleep the word ‘walk’ was a powerful one. A low whine at the closed door could be heard behind them as Sam smirked and pushed himself up from the bed. ”You gonna be oaky with a walk.” Sam asked trying to lighten the conversation slightly. Offering her a hand to pull her up he added, ”It is pretty early.”

Juliette climbed off the bed and looked a Bruno sitting at the door, where he was making an enthusiastic plea to go with them. It was hard to argue with his statements, really. Especially with the big chocolate eyes staring up at her. She made her way across the carpet, trying not to focus on the wet patch on the carpet that greeted her feet, or the things that made them. She pushed any morbid thoughts out of her head as quickly as they appeared, and tried to focus on the dog.

"You want to come too, eh?" She mused as she scratched the top of his head. He seemed to appreciate it, but clearly his thoughts were elsewhere, since he hadn't rolled over to try and garner a belly rub. "I think that could probably be arranged."

"I'll be alright," Juliette looked back at Sam after a second. "I think you've forgotten that I like to run in the mornings. Besides, I can make light as well as absorb it." Sure, it sucked that it was dark outside, but she'd gotten good at holding potential blasts in her hands and focusing on that rather than the darkness around her. It wasn't something she did in public, but near the mansion it worked well enough. "We might even catch the sunrise."

"Just let me grab a sweater." She gestured to the tank top and shorts combo that she'd gone to sleep in. The weather wasn't quite warm enough for that kind of attire yet, even if it was unseasonably warm. 

Bruno whined and stared at the door only stopping when he got the brief pet from Juliette. Once she stopped the whining started up again. Sam walked over to the door and then looked back to Juliette, ”I’m usually up by now anyways.” Sam smirked, even if that wasn’t always the case. The icemancer slept when he could and where he could, sometimes next to Juliette sometimes on his desk or sometimes not at all.

”Well gee… guess I’ll have to put a shirt on as well huh?” Sam said sounding disappointed. ”A sunrise would be nice.” Sam agreed as he opened the door allowing Bruno to run out of the room and down the hallway. Knowing that the dog would somehow meet them outside Sam shut the door and went to grab an old shirt he should have thrown out a few months ago.

”So nightlight… lead the way.” Sam teased after a few moments.

"Sure you are," Juliette nudged him playfully and then crossed the hallway to her room. She knew full well that Sam either slept in, or didn't sleep at all. There wasn't a lot in between. Sometimes she even found him passed out on his desk downstairs.

She went into her own room and plucked her favourite hoodie out of her dresser and put it on. Then followed some yoga pants and shoes. Finally, she put her hair into a pony tail and tightened it as far as it would go. When she was finished, she rejoined Sam out in the hallway and nodded at his request for her to lead the way.

"To the yellow brick road it is, then," Juliette kept her face straight as she joked. It was getting easier to keep a light mood, despite all that had just happened. They made their way down the stairs and out towards the door, where Bruno was waiting for them.

”I know the reference just never seen the movie… but follow, follow.” Sam said as he walked a little behind his girlfriend. Bruno could be seen waiting in front of the door now, which was odd because like him there were a handful of other people that were up at all hours, they usually let Bruno outside and then back in. Sam looked around then shrugged, maybe some of them finally got a good night sleep for once. Must have been nice.

”Waiting on us bud?” Bruno let out a loud sigh the way a teenager would when they were asked to do something. ”Okay, okay.” Sam said as he took a few steps then opened the door. Bruno bolted out and ran in no apparent direction zigzagging in the expansive grounds. Looking back to Juliette then stepping out of the mansion Sam smirked glad the night was becoming a far more bearable, ”Acts like he has been cooped up for days.”

Looking outside and feeling a little chill in the air Sam placed his hands on his head, ”We aren’t going to run are we?” Sam asked curiously.

"How have you never seen the Wizard of Oz?" Juliette asked incredulously, cocking her head as she turned back to look at him. The Wizard of Oz was a classic. It was easily one of Juliette's favourites from when she was a kid. Sure, it was cheesy, but it had aged well, all things considered. "We'll need to fix that at some point. But what else haven't you seen? Star Wars? Princess Bride? Lord of the Rings?"

She shook her head as she stepped outside, watching Bruno run free. That was the thing about dogs; no matter how many times they experienced the same thing, it never really got old to them. 

Taking a deep breath of the cool air, Juliette strained her neck a little in order to glance down the path that she usually took when she ran. It could work for either a walk or a run. It didn't particularly matter. "We can walk if you're worried about keeping up with me. Wouldn't want to show you up or anything," she teased.

"Just talk to me as we go. That's all I want." For that morning, anyway. She housed slightly ulterior motives regarding her long game, but she didn't say any of those out loud. Talking while they walked was good for the morning. 

”I thought we talked about my childhood a bit?” Sam asked rhetorically but throwing just a little extra sass in his question. ”I spent like a year in Russia… They didn’t really air it too much there.” Sam said with a smirk. ”We can add that to the movie night list.” the next three were more familiar, ”Yes, no, and yes.” Sam said somewhat proud. ”I had a conversation like this with Shin a few years back and he made me watch all of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.” Sam said and then raised a finger, ”Though I still don’t understand why Jar-Jar was important.”

”Unless you can zip through the air at the speed of light I think you might be the one that has a hard time keeping up.” Sam said smirking, ”I might not be in my best shape but I’m good at running from things.” Sam said with a little chuckle. He meant it to have multiple meanings.

Sam reached his hand out to Juliette and nodded his head as he started to walk with her. ”If that is all you want… I will try my best.” the icemancer told her trying his best to make a promise he couldn’t keep. Juliette did deserve this, she had put up with him as long as she did.

”Soooo…” Sam said forming a snowball with his free hand and then throwing out into the dark. The outline of a big hairy dog went for the snowball trying to catch it but missing mainly because Bruno was too uncoordinated. ”I’m not sure how to follow up our conversation now. I keep wanting to apologize for scaring you.” Sam said frowning slightly like he should have kept his mouth shut.

Well, at least he'd seen those two series, Juliette figured. They were essentials. "Alright, then. Next movie night is Wizard of Oz and then the Princess Bride. No boyfriend of mine is going to go around without watching either of those," she winked. "Maybe we'll throw in Gremlins or something, too. Just to keep the theme of cheesy effects."

She laughed at the idea of being able to run at the speed of light. "Well no, I can't do that, but it sounds cool. Why don't we just walk so we don't have to worry about you running away from anything." She wanted to talk. That wouldn't exactly be possible if they were trying to outrun each other.

Bruno tried his very best to catch the snowball that Sam threw, but was unable to do so. The poor guy just didn't have it in him. Juliette grinned as she watched him circle back and sniff the thing that he'd been unable to catch.

"It's alright," Juliette told Sam as she took his hand and gave it a light squeeze. An hour or so before and her response wouldn't have been so kind. She had definitely been scared, but she hadn't been harmed, and that was what she thought about at that point. "Just... talk to me about what's bothering you, I suppose? I don't have any leading questions like a therapist would, or anything."

She raised her free hand and created what would have been a blast if she shot it off. It stayed there, providing light to the dark path that they were about to walk down.  

”That predictable huh?” Sam asked with a little chuckle. It seemed that Juliette knew his thoughts before he had them, because he would use them running as an excuse to run and not talk. ”and I met a mogwai once in china… she didn’t like me throwing water at her.” Gremlins he had seen before. It was one of the few he saw as a kid. The idea of being able to clone the gremlins was what first gave Sam the idea of using body doubles of ice.

Sam smirked at Bruno then formed another ball of snow in his hand and if Bruno knew what was going to happen next he looked up and gave a low bark. Sam offered the snowball to Juliette but made sure to keep his other hand laced with hers. ”and how does that make you feel?” Sam said trying to mock the words he heard Gemma use to him before.

”They aren’t all bad…” Sam said almost blurting out the words. She wanted him to talk so as uncomfortable as it was for him talking about everything he was going to. ”the memories I mean. Some are pretty nice.” Sam summed up. ”it makes me sad sometimes…” he said adding a little humor to answer the question he joked about when he asked his girlfriend a few seconds before. ”Bruno was there too, ya know? A little older but he was there.”

Taking the snowball, Juliette tried to focus on what Sam was saying rather than the fact that Bruno was jumping around excitedly in front of them. With her free hand, she tossed it a few feet ahead of her, trying her best to avoid the trees that they were quickly approaching.

“Alright, so tell me some of the good memories. Tell me about your life,” she suggested. That seemed like an easier thing to ask of him than to ask him to share any of the difficult stuff again.

Bruno chased after the snowball she’d thrown for him, trying in vain once again to catch it. It seemed that the snowballs would be his white whale that morning, the way he pounced on his fallen prey. “Was he any better at catch?” She asked with a smirk, nodding to the dog as he bounded ahead of them.

”No, he never got any better at catch.” Sam laughed as he formed another one tossed it then formed a second one and offered it up to Juliette again. ”He was older but that was pretty much it.” Sam said trying not to stall with the important question., ”One of my birthdays, my kids made me a cake.” he smirked when he remembered both kids being covered in flour. ”They burned the kitchen down and burnt the cake but it was still a good memory.”

Sam’s nostrils flared and his grip tightened around Juliette’s. ”and it was lives, time moved faster there than out here.” Sam said remembering quite a few. ”They gave a sense of Déjà vu when things seemed to happen more than once. I never caught on though. She didn’t want me to.” a slight venom saturated that statement. Amanda in Sam’s mind ruined his life and then curbed stomped any chance Sam had to get it back together. At least until now.

”Ayrin’s wedding day.” Sam smirked a little as a tear reached his eye. ”All of them started the same though.” Sam said thinking about it, ”the lives I mean. I never raised her, she was already in the double digits when I first met her.” Sam said once again wishing he wasn’t recalling everything so perfectly, ”Her mother did a great job raising her. Neither one of them wanted me or my son around.” Sam trailed off while they continued on their walk. The icemancer wasn’t sure if this was helping them or making things worse.

Various memories made their way from Sam and hung in the air. Juliette listened quietly, doing her best to be as supportive as possible. Just like earlier, it seemed that the deeper he got into the stories, the more difficult they became to tell.

She couldn't blame him, of course. She could hardly imagine what it must've been like to experience.

"Why didn't they want you around?" She asked curiously, wanting to stop him from falling silent. He was on a roll, and she wasn't about to let him stop at that point. There was still more to talk about, more to unpack. More that hadn't been said.

She made a mental note to text Devon when they got back from their walk. 

”A few reasons, X-Men, my past the future.” Sam said as he trailed off trying to sum it up as simply as possible at first though the more he thought about it the more he wanted to tell Juliette as if all his repressing and drinking kept him from doing the one thing he needed and wanted to do. Talk.

”Alexandria and I had a complicated past and eventual future. She was hired to spy on me at first gain my trust then who knows. It didn’t pan out the way the people who paid her wanted. We broke up, then she tried to kill me again, then the next time she had my kid…” Sam said trying not to make talking about his ex-girlfriend/wife/whatevershewas awkward. Though the more he was holding Juliette’s hand the more he became a little unsettled. He had a policy not to talk about ex’s with current girlfriends but Juliette wanted him to talk so he continued.

”and then Ayrin didn’t want me around because I was a ‘deadbeat dad who was never around’.” Sam said trying to imitate his daughters voice, it just sounded like sarcasm though. ”It took some time and the activation of her powers for her to like me at all. Eventually I bought a house and left the X-Men.” Sam said raising his hand and forming a large doughy snowman in front of them that ran towards Bruno.

Bruno barked at first ran away then snuck behind the snow-man and jumped him causing the large blob of snow to the ground. He didn’t really think about the fact that two golems scared the heck out of Juliette a little while ago. This one was far less threatening, especially with Bruno taking chunks of snow out of it’s back and chewing it.

”One of the reasons why the mind control worked so well was because it gave me everything I ever wanted.” Sam said finally, ”it felt real, smells, touch sounds.” he went silent for a moment, ”Everything.”

Listening to Sam talk about his tumultuous relationship was... interesting. Juliette was trying to decide how to feel. She was trying to be supportive while listening to him speak, but it was difficult to hear some of it. She was far from the jealous type, but it seemed that hearing him talk like that brought out the worst of her.

Some small part of her empathized with Ayrin. She doubted that if her dad had turned up when she was a teen that she would have taken kindly to him. She realized that she still probably wouldn't, even at that age. Knowing that that information was far from helpful, she kept her mouth shut and didn't comment on the subject. She was glad that at least for part of the lives, things worked out for the best for Sam and his daughter. For a while, anyway.

An ice golem appeared to chase Bruno, and was apparently much more interesting than the snowballs had been. Juliette's jaw clenched as she remembered the events that had taken place just over an hour before, but again, she kept her mouth shut. She was being a trooper.

"What finally made you realize that it wasn't real?" Juliette asked, chiming in. She'd grown rather sombre over the course of the conversation. It was inevitable with such a heavy topic, really.