(no subject)
OOC: Log DONE! Journal to come after RP with Magneto. Derek's not gonna be stopping to write between the two scenes.
<> West Shore Apartments #210 - Toxin(#2869RC)
Stepping inside this room is almost like going back in time. Flickering light dimly illuminates it, electric brass "torches" line the walls, providing the majority of the light. The only other light comes from the black marble fireplace, with an elegantly carved mantel above. Varnished cherry wood covers the floor, with small Persian rugs scattered here and there. The walls are a thick cream color, one covered with a fresco painting, depicting an ancient battle. Two low tables and a tall bookcase stuffed with books match the floor, made of the same cherry wood. A large overstuffed couch rests against the wall, covered in the softest black leather, with a matching loveseat on the opposite wall. A thickly cushioned settee sits next to the bookcase, a black and white fur throw tossed on the floor in front of it. A wide Dutch door provides entrance to the kitchen. Soft cello music eminates from hidden speakers, and a soft, fresh scent permeates the room.
[Exits : [A]ramina's [R]oom, [B]edroom, and [O]ut ]
[Players : Toxin ]
There's absolute silence in this apartment tonight. Curled up on the corner of her couch, Toxin is waiting for Derek to arrive. Even this late at night, she assumes that he will be prompt. It doesn't take -that- long to get from the island to her apartment. Still dressed in her Brotherhood uniform with her hair hanging loose, her eyes are drawn occasionally to the door, but for now they're fixed on the rain pounding at the windows.
For Toxin, Derek will be prompt. Toxin's word also gets him clearance to get off the island a lot quicker than anything else. So he dressed (street wear, of the attractive and formal variety he so often favors) and came straight away. The stops in front of the door just long enough to put his sunglasses into his breast pocket (after using them to check his reflection briefly. Then there comes a quick rap rap rap on the door.
"It's open." comes the prompt response. Toxin does manage a pretty smile for her boyfriend, who looks oh so dashing in his clothes and sunglasses. Sunglasses in the rain. It's very cliche', but Toxin finds it cute. Even now, when she's about to tell him something that could likely get her killed. But at the same time, she really doesn't want to keep it from him. Tilting her head to one side, she looks him up and down. "Don't you ever wear a raincoat?"
Derek expected the door to be open and comes in promptly, closing the door behind him. "Now what fun would that be?" he replies lightly. "I tend not to bother when the weather's warm enough to pass on it. Give it a month and you won't see me out of doors without my trenchcoat." He approaches her, his smile fading to a more serious expression as he looks Toxin, dressed in her uniform, up and down. "So. What's up?"
Toxin manages another smile, jerking her head towards the couch. "Sit down, would you?" she asks, waiting until he's settled himself before speaking again. Taking a deep breath, she just plunges right in. "I...Magneto and I, we..." and she trails off. She can't force herself to say the words.
Derek frowns briefly at the invitation to sit. Sounds serious. He has no reason to disobey, so he sits, looking at Toxin curiously. At this point, he is truly thinking along the wrong lines. The uniform, the mention of her and Magneto; the first thing he thinks of is the Brotherhood, that this might be some sort of official business. But Toxin is looking decidedly unhappy. "You and Magneto?" he prompts. "Is this...gonna be about Sabella?" Sabella being the natural topic that Derek thinks would presently make Toxin miserable.
Toxin shakes her head. "It's not about Sabella. Forget about her." Yes, she's rather unhappy. And it doesn't help that Derek is refusing to think along suspicious lines. It would make everything so much easier. "I slept with him." And silence, as she peers at him through eyes decidedly more green than gold. "I...I'm sorry." At the moment, that's all she can offer.
Derek blinks into the silence, taken thoroughly off guard. "You...?" He stares at her, but there is no misunderstanding the words. Bewilderment passes over hurt very quickly and turns into anger in his eyes. "You fucked Magneto?" Somehow he is standing without being aware of having pushed himself up, towering up, dark and angry as a storm cloud.
Toxin simply looks up at him and nods. At this point, it's all she can do, and saying that she's sorry again would be rather redundant.
Derek's fists ball. With an effort of will, he keeps them firmly at his sides, afraid that if he lets them move, they will be moving out of his control. "After Bella? After I said, okay, that's fine, but it's gonna be different if it happens with a guy? After all this shit, and an' you go and FUCK HIM?" His voice gradually builds, despite his efforts to keep in control.
Toxin gets to her feet without realizing it. It's a good thing the walls are fairly soundproof. "I didn't -plan- it, all right? It just happened. I don't know WHY, but it happened! Would you rather have heard about it from Amara or Padraig than from me?" To her, this is the honest thing, tell him. Because someone would have found out, sooner or later.
Derek's fists tremble at his sides, the knuckles gradually paling under the pressure of over-exerted muscle as his fingernails imprint themselves more and more deeply in his palms. "You don't know why, but you're sorry? Why come you don' know why? Why come you gotta go an' fuck th' only two people on th' islan' tha' you's prolly closah to tha' me?" As he gets more worked up, his accent slips further into a mixed urban dialect.
Toxin sighs, her shoulders slumping. "No, I don't really know why. I can't give you a specific reason! Magneto is different, but it's not like that. I don't love him, not like I do you, and I -am- sorry. But I can't go back and make it unhappen again." Despite her shaking interior, Toxin keeps her voice even and calm.
Derek's hand comes up, still in a fist and hovers in front of his face. Slowly, he extends his index finger, apparently regaining a tenuous, trembling control of himself. When his speaks, his voice is lower again and back to the even, well modulated sounds that better befit his actual upbringing and education. "Well, Veronica, you better think about why. You tell me...you tell me /now/ that you love me. Is that true? Is that what this is to you, or am I just a fuckbuddy?" But for the trembling of his muscles and the angry glint in his eye, he sounds quite even. "Cause I gotta know, right here and now what this is to you."
Toxin takes a second to compose herself. She's not afraid of Derek, no. Not this girl. Straightening up, she crosses her arms over her chest and looks him square in the eye. "What is it you want, Derek? Do you want the truth, that I want -you- and I made a big fucking mistake? Or do you want us to just pretend, and sneak around behind each other's back? Because I cannot do that. I have -never- lied to you. Even now, when it would have been a hell of a lot easier." She's not trembling, but her eyes are slowly sliding towards a golden color.
"Yes, I want the fucking truth!" Derek replies. His hand drops back down to his side. "Because sometimes it's hard to tell. Especially when you wind up fucking around, twice, in quick succession." The anger in him seems to be cooling rather than building at this point, undoubtedly a good sign. "You never lied, yeah, but it doesn't change the mistake. Dammit, woman, I think I'm in love with you, but there's only so much I can put up with before I blow my lid and go fucking postal! And believe me, you /never/ wanna see that." With an effort, he squeezes his eyes closed, then opens them again, making an effort to further contain his rage.
Toxin finally throws her hands up into the air. "You want the truth? You want to hear all the nasty gory details? Fine. You want to hear that he fucked me in that bed over there, that I enjoyed it? That we both needed someone, just to be there? That when I got up that morning the -first- thing I thought about was you, and I've spent the time in between beating my brains out trying to figure out how to tell you? That's the truth, Derek."
Derek's jaw clenches. It takes him a moment to unclench it. "I...coulda done without the first part," he says a little dryly, as he casts a brief, resentful look over at the bed. "Okay, dammit, listen...listen." With this, he manages to haul his hand up again and open the fingers, making a cooling down gesture at her that is fundamentally more for his own benefit than Toxin's. The crescents from his fingernails are clearly visible in his palm. Fortunately, his nails have been trimmed short enough to prevent him from drawing any blood. "Veronica. I do want you. But I can't handle this happening every month. So you're gonna have to sit down and think hard about why this happened. 'Cause if I don't, an' worse, /you/ don't even know, then it's a pretty damn big stretch today to get me to trust that it ain't gonna happen again. It's good you told me. It's good you're sorry. It's good you think it's a mistake. If that all weren't true, I don't think there'd be much point to this conversation." His breathing is still noticably fast, but his tone is much more reasonable and the murderous fire in his eyes has been banked.
"Derek, it happened because I wanted him. Just once."
There follows a brief silence after these words. Then Derek shakes his head. "No, see, I don't think that it. You gonna tell me Bella leaving, betraying you like that, and just after you'd finally slept with her, that you didn't want a little comfort from an old friend 'cause of that? That you didn't wanna strike back at her by nailing her ex-lover?" As he talks, extrapolating psychiatry from the flimsiest evidence, he seems to grow calmer. The reasoning both cools him and engages the analytical portion of his mind, and even provides him with a context in which to begin to understand what Toxin has done. "Any of this on the mark? Or am I pulling this shit whole cloth outta my ass?"
Toxin lets out a sigh. "It has to do with Bella. But not in the way you think." She pauses to collect her thoughts, her arms once more wrapping around herself, as if for comfort. "Erik Lensherr is everything to me. He has been father, mentor, friend, and savior. He saved me when I most needed it, and chased away the demons of my childhood. Anything I have in my life that is good, including you, I owe to him." She stops to catch her breath, sucking it in deep before continuing. "When Bella and Magneto got together originally, I was devestated. But that was years ago. Since then...it's been more because Bella was here that nothing happened. She would have been hurt as badly as I was back then."
Derek nods slowly as Toxin speaks. "So. This has been something there for a long time," he says slowly. "It's been a long time, and with Bella taking herself out of the picture, it burst out. Okay, I get that." He looks down at the floor for a minute, frowning. "But you tell me nothing is gonna happen again. Bella being hurt kept you from doing it, but me being hurt didn't do it." He grimaces and shakes his head, then looks up. "So. How're you sure it's not gonna happen again?"
"Because I can never be anything more than someone to sleep with to him." Toxin responds slowly. She has to pick her words very carefully, because angry Derek means broken furniture. And she likes this stuff. She lets out a soft sigh, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm his lieutenant, Derek. To some degree I already belong to him. But he can fuck any woman on the island. He doesn't -need- me." She pauses and shakes her head. "I don't know if that makes any sense."
Fortunately, it does make sense to Derek. And if it pisses him off at all, it's at Magneto rather than Toxin. At least for Toxin's furnature this is fortunate. "Yeah. Okay. I get that." There is a moment's pause as he glares at a spot on the wall. "All right. I can't...just be over this, right now this instant. I'm hurt and I'm pissed." His eyes turn back on Toxin and with an effort, he reduces the intensity of his glare. "I think everyone deserves a fuck-up. But this was a big one, and if it happens again..."
Technically, this is Toxin's second fuck-up, not her first. But she's not about to point out that fact to him. Not shrinking under his glare, she nods. "It won't." If it does, she'll send him a letter while she's on a boat to China. Another sigh, and her arms cross over her chest again as her head tilts down. "I don't expect you to forgive me. Not really. But..." she trails off, leaving the rest unsaid.
Derek's jaw ticks for a moment. "I ain't quite sure if I can. But listen...Veronica. I think you're a catch. I always have. And I think I probably /ought/ to forgive you. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go and head back to the island and find some things to blow the fuck up so I don't spend a week AWOL on the mainland fucking everything that moves. I wanna talk again. In about a week, I think, when I'm cooled down." Other than his jaw and face, he stays still, almost eerily so.
Toxin shakes her head. "Then go, and do whatever it is you have to do." she says. Her eyes suddenly flash, and her body tenses up, becoming more rigid. "So...in a week we'll talk again, and you get to decide whether or not I go back to being your island arm candy, is that it?"
Derek looks up at Derek, his eyebrows come together. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Though his temper is burning, there is a hint of honest confusion. "You telling me that I don't respect you enough? After you went and stepped out on /me/?"
"You didn't seem to mind the first time." Toxin points out, sounding a little irritated. "Just pissed that you weren't around to watch. What I want to know is what in the hell you plan to do when you get back to the island."
Derek glowers at Toxin. "What, you want me to be /more/ pissed about it? Yeah, double standard, whatever, you didn't seem to mine when it worked in your favor. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna brood and be a miserable, angry fuck for a week or so. And I'm gonna talk to Magneto. And I'm gonna start learning how to use explosives." Oh, that sounds like a fun combination.
Toxin growls under her breath. "Oh, so there's a double standard. Contrary to what you -might- think, I don't forget about you when it's convenient. And I'm supposedly the one hanging off of your arm, your pet, your toy. Are you really pissed because I cheated on you cause you really care, or are you pissed because someone else made a claim on your posession?"
For a moment, Derek looks amused and stunned at the idea that Toxin is his pet. Then the storm clouds gather above him again. "What dumb fuck asshole thinks that /you/ would be a goddamn pet? Damnit, you're no kinda pussy, and /I'd/ thrash anyone who said so!" He steps forward and takes hold of Toxin's upper arms suddenly. "I just /told/ you I fucking love you! I, just, I, I," he sputters for a moment, "What the hell do you think I should feel?"
Toxin is about to snap back at Derek when he grabs her. Wincing, she starts to struggle, but she's nowhere near as strong as him. "Derek..." she says, struggling again. "You're hurting me."
Derek looks down on Toxin for a moment, then lets go abruptly, turning away as he breathes hard. "Shit!" he exclaims. "Shit. Shit, Veronica, I'm sorry. I don't wanna be that guy. Damnit. Veronica, I just want a week...apart. I'm not gonna fuck around, and I'm not ...Damnit, Veronica," he says, finally turning back, "I won't make a fool outta you."
Toxin steps back and rubs her arms gingerly, looking down as her blonde hair tumbles into her face. She finally looks back at him, brushing it back. "Then you should probably go. You can...find me later if you want to talk." At this point, she doesn't want him near her. Breaking things she expected. Touching her? Nope.
Derek starts to move away, backwards, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I should go," he agrees, reaching for the door. "In a week. I'll come to see you." He pulls the door open, to beat a quick retreat, his expression just a little horrified at his own actions.
Toxin doesn't respond, instead backing up a couple more steps and watching him with haunted eyes as he leaves.
<
Stepping inside this room is almost like going back in time. Flickering light dimly illuminates it, electric brass "torches" line the walls, providing the majority of the light. The only other light comes from the black marble fireplace, with an elegantly carved mantel above. Varnished cherry wood covers the floor, with small Persian rugs scattered here and there. The walls are a thick cream color, one covered with a fresco painting, depicting an ancient battle. Two low tables and a tall bookcase stuffed with books match the floor, made of the same cherry wood. A large overstuffed couch rests against the wall, covered in the softest black leather, with a matching loveseat on the opposite wall. A thickly cushioned settee sits next to the bookcase, a black and white fur throw tossed on the floor in front of it. A wide Dutch door provides entrance to the kitchen. Soft cello music eminates from hidden speakers, and a soft, fresh scent permeates the room.
[Exits : [A]ramina's [R]oom, [B]edroom, and [O]ut ]
[Players : Toxin ]
There's absolute silence in this apartment tonight. Curled up on the corner of her couch, Toxin is waiting for Derek to arrive. Even this late at night, she assumes that he will be prompt. It doesn't take -that- long to get from the island to her apartment. Still dressed in her Brotherhood uniform with her hair hanging loose, her eyes are drawn occasionally to the door, but for now they're fixed on the rain pounding at the windows.
For Toxin, Derek will be prompt. Toxin's word also gets him clearance to get off the island a lot quicker than anything else. So he dressed (street wear, of the attractive and formal variety he so often favors) and came straight away. The stops in front of the door just long enough to put his sunglasses into his breast pocket (after using them to check his reflection briefly. Then there comes a quick rap rap rap on the door.
"It's open." comes the prompt response. Toxin does manage a pretty smile for her boyfriend, who looks oh so dashing in his clothes and sunglasses. Sunglasses in the rain. It's very cliche', but Toxin finds it cute. Even now, when she's about to tell him something that could likely get her killed. But at the same time, she really doesn't want to keep it from him. Tilting her head to one side, she looks him up and down. "Don't you ever wear a raincoat?"
Derek expected the door to be open and comes in promptly, closing the door behind him. "Now what fun would that be?" he replies lightly. "I tend not to bother when the weather's warm enough to pass on it. Give it a month and you won't see me out of doors without my trenchcoat." He approaches her, his smile fading to a more serious expression as he looks Toxin, dressed in her uniform, up and down. "So. What's up?"
Toxin manages another smile, jerking her head towards the couch. "Sit down, would you?" she asks, waiting until he's settled himself before speaking again. Taking a deep breath, she just plunges right in. "I...Magneto and I, we..." and she trails off. She can't force herself to say the words.
Derek frowns briefly at the invitation to sit. Sounds serious. He has no reason to disobey, so he sits, looking at Toxin curiously. At this point, he is truly thinking along the wrong lines. The uniform, the mention of her and Magneto; the first thing he thinks of is the Brotherhood, that this might be some sort of official business. But Toxin is looking decidedly unhappy. "You and Magneto?" he prompts. "Is this...gonna be about Sabella?" Sabella being the natural topic that Derek thinks would presently make Toxin miserable.
Toxin shakes her head. "It's not about Sabella. Forget about her." Yes, she's rather unhappy. And it doesn't help that Derek is refusing to think along suspicious lines. It would make everything so much easier. "I slept with him." And silence, as she peers at him through eyes decidedly more green than gold. "I...I'm sorry." At the moment, that's all she can offer.
Derek blinks into the silence, taken thoroughly off guard. "You...?" He stares at her, but there is no misunderstanding the words. Bewilderment passes over hurt very quickly and turns into anger in his eyes. "You fucked Magneto?" Somehow he is standing without being aware of having pushed himself up, towering up, dark and angry as a storm cloud.
Toxin simply looks up at him and nods. At this point, it's all she can do, and saying that she's sorry again would be rather redundant.
Derek's fists ball. With an effort of will, he keeps them firmly at his sides, afraid that if he lets them move, they will be moving out of his control. "After Bella? After I said, okay, that's fine, but it's gonna be different if it happens with a guy? After all this shit, and an' you go and FUCK HIM?" His voice gradually builds, despite his efforts to keep in control.
Toxin gets to her feet without realizing it. It's a good thing the walls are fairly soundproof. "I didn't -plan- it, all right? It just happened. I don't know WHY, but it happened! Would you rather have heard about it from Amara or Padraig than from me?" To her, this is the honest thing, tell him. Because someone would have found out, sooner or later.
Derek's fists tremble at his sides, the knuckles gradually paling under the pressure of over-exerted muscle as his fingernails imprint themselves more and more deeply in his palms. "You don't know why, but you're sorry? Why come you don' know why? Why come you gotta go an' fuck th' only two people on th' islan' tha' you's prolly closah to tha' me?" As he gets more worked up, his accent slips further into a mixed urban dialect.
Toxin sighs, her shoulders slumping. "No, I don't really know why. I can't give you a specific reason! Magneto is different, but it's not like that. I don't love him, not like I do you, and I -am- sorry. But I can't go back and make it unhappen again." Despite her shaking interior, Toxin keeps her voice even and calm.
Derek's hand comes up, still in a fist and hovers in front of his face. Slowly, he extends his index finger, apparently regaining a tenuous, trembling control of himself. When his speaks, his voice is lower again and back to the even, well modulated sounds that better befit his actual upbringing and education. "Well, Veronica, you better think about why. You tell me...you tell me /now/ that you love me. Is that true? Is that what this is to you, or am I just a fuckbuddy?" But for the trembling of his muscles and the angry glint in his eye, he sounds quite even. "Cause I gotta know, right here and now what this is to you."
Toxin takes a second to compose herself. She's not afraid of Derek, no. Not this girl. Straightening up, she crosses her arms over her chest and looks him square in the eye. "What is it you want, Derek? Do you want the truth, that I want -you- and I made a big fucking mistake? Or do you want us to just pretend, and sneak around behind each other's back? Because I cannot do that. I have -never- lied to you. Even now, when it would have been a hell of a lot easier." She's not trembling, but her eyes are slowly sliding towards a golden color.
"Yes, I want the fucking truth!" Derek replies. His hand drops back down to his side. "Because sometimes it's hard to tell. Especially when you wind up fucking around, twice, in quick succession." The anger in him seems to be cooling rather than building at this point, undoubtedly a good sign. "You never lied, yeah, but it doesn't change the mistake. Dammit, woman, I think I'm in love with you, but there's only so much I can put up with before I blow my lid and go fucking postal! And believe me, you /never/ wanna see that." With an effort, he squeezes his eyes closed, then opens them again, making an effort to further contain his rage.
Toxin finally throws her hands up into the air. "You want the truth? You want to hear all the nasty gory details? Fine. You want to hear that he fucked me in that bed over there, that I enjoyed it? That we both needed someone, just to be there? That when I got up that morning the -first- thing I thought about was you, and I've spent the time in between beating my brains out trying to figure out how to tell you? That's the truth, Derek."
Derek's jaw clenches. It takes him a moment to unclench it. "I...coulda done without the first part," he says a little dryly, as he casts a brief, resentful look over at the bed. "Okay, dammit, listen...listen." With this, he manages to haul his hand up again and open the fingers, making a cooling down gesture at her that is fundamentally more for his own benefit than Toxin's. The crescents from his fingernails are clearly visible in his palm. Fortunately, his nails have been trimmed short enough to prevent him from drawing any blood. "Veronica. I do want you. But I can't handle this happening every month. So you're gonna have to sit down and think hard about why this happened. 'Cause if I don't, an' worse, /you/ don't even know, then it's a pretty damn big stretch today to get me to trust that it ain't gonna happen again. It's good you told me. It's good you're sorry. It's good you think it's a mistake. If that all weren't true, I don't think there'd be much point to this conversation." His breathing is still noticably fast, but his tone is much more reasonable and the murderous fire in his eyes has been banked.
"Derek, it happened because I wanted him. Just once."
There follows a brief silence after these words. Then Derek shakes his head. "No, see, I don't think that it. You gonna tell me Bella leaving, betraying you like that, and just after you'd finally slept with her, that you didn't want a little comfort from an old friend 'cause of that? That you didn't wanna strike back at her by nailing her ex-lover?" As he talks, extrapolating psychiatry from the flimsiest evidence, he seems to grow calmer. The reasoning both cools him and engages the analytical portion of his mind, and even provides him with a context in which to begin to understand what Toxin has done. "Any of this on the mark? Or am I pulling this shit whole cloth outta my ass?"
Toxin lets out a sigh. "It has to do with Bella. But not in the way you think." She pauses to collect her thoughts, her arms once more wrapping around herself, as if for comfort. "Erik Lensherr is everything to me. He has been father, mentor, friend, and savior. He saved me when I most needed it, and chased away the demons of my childhood. Anything I have in my life that is good, including you, I owe to him." She stops to catch her breath, sucking it in deep before continuing. "When Bella and Magneto got together originally, I was devestated. But that was years ago. Since then...it's been more because Bella was here that nothing happened. She would have been hurt as badly as I was back then."
Derek nods slowly as Toxin speaks. "So. This has been something there for a long time," he says slowly. "It's been a long time, and with Bella taking herself out of the picture, it burst out. Okay, I get that." He looks down at the floor for a minute, frowning. "But you tell me nothing is gonna happen again. Bella being hurt kept you from doing it, but me being hurt didn't do it." He grimaces and shakes his head, then looks up. "So. How're you sure it's not gonna happen again?"
"Because I can never be anything more than someone to sleep with to him." Toxin responds slowly. She has to pick her words very carefully, because angry Derek means broken furniture. And she likes this stuff. She lets out a soft sigh, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm his lieutenant, Derek. To some degree I already belong to him. But he can fuck any woman on the island. He doesn't -need- me." She pauses and shakes her head. "I don't know if that makes any sense."
Fortunately, it does make sense to Derek. And if it pisses him off at all, it's at Magneto rather than Toxin. At least for Toxin's furnature this is fortunate. "Yeah. Okay. I get that." There is a moment's pause as he glares at a spot on the wall. "All right. I can't...just be over this, right now this instant. I'm hurt and I'm pissed." His eyes turn back on Toxin and with an effort, he reduces the intensity of his glare. "I think everyone deserves a fuck-up. But this was a big one, and if it happens again..."
Technically, this is Toxin's second fuck-up, not her first. But she's not about to point out that fact to him. Not shrinking under his glare, she nods. "It won't." If it does, she'll send him a letter while she's on a boat to China. Another sigh, and her arms cross over her chest again as her head tilts down. "I don't expect you to forgive me. Not really. But..." she trails off, leaving the rest unsaid.
Derek's jaw ticks for a moment. "I ain't quite sure if I can. But listen...Veronica. I think you're a catch. I always have. And I think I probably /ought/ to forgive you. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go and head back to the island and find some things to blow the fuck up so I don't spend a week AWOL on the mainland fucking everything that moves. I wanna talk again. In about a week, I think, when I'm cooled down." Other than his jaw and face, he stays still, almost eerily so.
Toxin shakes her head. "Then go, and do whatever it is you have to do." she says. Her eyes suddenly flash, and her body tenses up, becoming more rigid. "So...in a week we'll talk again, and you get to decide whether or not I go back to being your island arm candy, is that it?"
Derek looks up at Derek, his eyebrows come together. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Though his temper is burning, there is a hint of honest confusion. "You telling me that I don't respect you enough? After you went and stepped out on /me/?"
"You didn't seem to mind the first time." Toxin points out, sounding a little irritated. "Just pissed that you weren't around to watch. What I want to know is what in the hell you plan to do when you get back to the island."
Derek glowers at Toxin. "What, you want me to be /more/ pissed about it? Yeah, double standard, whatever, you didn't seem to mine when it worked in your favor. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna brood and be a miserable, angry fuck for a week or so. And I'm gonna talk to Magneto. And I'm gonna start learning how to use explosives." Oh, that sounds like a fun combination.
Toxin growls under her breath. "Oh, so there's a double standard. Contrary to what you -might- think, I don't forget about you when it's convenient. And I'm supposedly the one hanging off of your arm, your pet, your toy. Are you really pissed because I cheated on you cause you really care, or are you pissed because someone else made a claim on your posession?"
For a moment, Derek looks amused and stunned at the idea that Toxin is his pet. Then the storm clouds gather above him again. "What dumb fuck asshole thinks that /you/ would be a goddamn pet? Damnit, you're no kinda pussy, and /I'd/ thrash anyone who said so!" He steps forward and takes hold of Toxin's upper arms suddenly. "I just /told/ you I fucking love you! I, just, I, I," he sputters for a moment, "What the hell do you think I should feel?"
Toxin is about to snap back at Derek when he grabs her. Wincing, she starts to struggle, but she's nowhere near as strong as him. "Derek..." she says, struggling again. "You're hurting me."
Derek looks down on Toxin for a moment, then lets go abruptly, turning away as he breathes hard. "Shit!" he exclaims. "Shit. Shit, Veronica, I'm sorry. I don't wanna be that guy. Damnit. Veronica, I just want a week...apart. I'm not gonna fuck around, and I'm not ...Damnit, Veronica," he says, finally turning back, "I won't make a fool outta you."
Toxin steps back and rubs her arms gingerly, looking down as her blonde hair tumbles into her face. She finally looks back at him, brushing it back. "Then you should probably go. You can...find me later if you want to talk." At this point, she doesn't want him near her. Breaking things she expected. Touching her? Nope.
Derek starts to move away, backwards, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, I should go," he agrees, reaching for the door. "In a week. I'll come to see you." He pulls the door open, to beat a quick retreat, his expression just a little horrified at his own actions.
Toxin doesn't respond, instead backing up a couple more steps and watching him with haunted eyes as he leaves.