Penthouse, money, and staff, oh my...[Alex]

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Totally serious. I do have internal organs, they're just...different. My liver works like it should, for instance, so do my kidneys, they're just comprised of more plant-like cells."

Arching a brow as he took in the sight of her near empty dish, her grin grew to match his. Perhaps even going a bit wicked in the process.

"I don't know...how do you feel about venus flytraps?" she asked, gazing up at him through her lashes and failing miserably at keeping her grin in check.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex took a deep breath. "Let's see... lures its prey with brightly colored foliage and the promise of food..."

He rapped his fork against his plate meaningfully.

"I dunno, looks like you have me right where you want me."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

She set her glass down and folded her hands in her lap, eyes glittering softly through her long lashes. "Oh, I don't know about that...I had you where I wanted earlier. This isn't close enough..." Shifting, she glanced briefly over her shoulder towards the comfortable lounge chair they'd been curled up in before dinner.

Lana paused mentally, only afterwards considering how her words sounded, and wondering at how freely they'd come. Her cheeks warmed, a faint golden-green glow illuminating her features.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex's eyebrows started climbing - maybe a bit higher than he'd ever been aware they could go. This didn't sound at all like the retiring, terminally self-conscious girl he'd chased down in the hallway at school a couple months ago. He faltered for a clever reply, but it was hard to hear himself think over the pounding in his ears.

"Well... we could do something about that," he said, and he lifted himself out of his seat and offered a hand to Lana.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Not for the first time since she'd arrived in Los Angeles, Lana thanked her lucky stars that she'd met Alex on her first day at school.

Briefly averting her gaze, she took a deep breath and rose gracefully from her seat, sliding her hand into his. They walked side by side, quite close together. Almost as close as they had been earlier, standing together in the kitchen.

"Much better." she said softly, features still warm as they descended the few steps to the pool deck, towards the end of the patio where the view was the best.

[Alex Kaine]

"Yeah," Alex said, now feeling the slightest bit flustered, "yeah, it is."

It wasn't like the frantic, panicked journey down to the pool to get Lana into the sunlight - for one, instead of pallid, she was absolutely radiant, and her warmth pressed up against him was penetrating, enveloping. She was beautiful - how had he never noticed that before? Oh, no, he'd thought she was beautiful before, but he'd never noticed it like this. He'd never been this close to anyone before. And there, for a few breathless moments, the world faded away, and she was all that was left.

Until the world reasserted itself in the form of warm, fuzzy lump about shin height darting right in front of him. He stumbled to stop himself from kicking Lily into the pool, and the Samoyed puppy skittered out of the line of fire, but the tip of Alex's shoe had already planted itself on the corner of a tile, and he'd released Lana to try to brace himself as fell, except the only thing to fall on was the upward-rushing wall of sparkling blue water--

***

Money could not buy happiness. But it could buy a fifty-two-inch OLED HDTV fed by satellite with over a thousand channels into a custom media center with a 4-TB DVR, an eight-hundred-watt 7.1-channel digital receiver, and five high-fidelity tower speakers with a two-hundred-watt subwoofer. Granted, it took a lot of money, and so did having it delivered and installed in a high-rise apartment in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Los Angeles one floor below a penthouse owned by a wealthy Russian socialite. But once you had that, really, who needed happiness?

"Volquez is going to be looking for a sweet pitch to hit with the count in his favor, and here's the wind-up..." CRACK "It's a monster hit, lifted high into fair territory, and it's going, it's going, and that ball is gonna beee--"

The monstrous speakers gave an almighty thump, and the TV flashed a color OLEDs were never meant to know before the whole system went dark, followed by a string of desperate curses from the man on the couch. If money can't buy happiness, it should at least remember to spring for a surge protector.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Next time, Alexanderrr, just kick the puppy into the pool...she can swim just fine, trust me." Lana managed to say breathlessly, trying and failing at containing her laughter as he surface, spluttering.

The electricity arcing around him and streaking through the water faded as he glanced up at her, something about his look warming her clear through. She bit her lower lip and took a chance at sitting on the edge of the pool, long legs dangling in the water. A soft, pale green towel waited in her hands as she watched him eyes glittering brightly.

[Alex Kaine]

Minutes later, Alex was in the bathroom peeling off wet clothes that stuck to him like velcro. His brown shirt and T-shirt went over the edge of the bathtub with a wet smack, and he started on the waistline of his waterlogged jeans.

"It's actually not so bad," he yelled across the door. "I can just squeeze them out, run a hairdryer over them for a couple minutes, and they'll be fine."

Until now he hadn't considered that a bathroom could be a seat of luxury. But that's exactly what this was. It was larger than the bedroom he shared with Jim, for one thing, with a wall-to-wall mirror over the marble countertop with dual sinks, and the bathtub was a sea, with steps leading up to it like some kind of altar. It almost made the swimming pool redundant.

Alex pried down his jeans with a wet sort of sucking sound, and he grabbed the pant legs and twisted them as hard as he could over the bathtub, issuing a stream of chlorine-stinking water.

"Seriously, I'll be out in no time. Way before Sergei could get back here with a fresh change of clothes."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"You underestimate Sergei..." Lana said with amusement, leaning against the wall beside door of the bathroom. "...what would you prefer, though? I wouldn't want to send him for something you won't wear."

Armani would be nice...given how well tailored it is. Maybe Michael Kors? Oh who am I kidding...he'd look good in anything. She sighed softly and touched her warm cheeks with her fingertips, wondering at how sudden it seemed that her reaction to him had changed. Not that it was really that sudden...if she was going to be honest with herself, she'd had a crush on him since the afternoon he'd chased her down on the first day of school. It had just gone deeper than a crush without her realization.

Right. Clothes. He fell into the pool, Lana, get your mind on..err, off...back on topic, dammit. Her blush brightened and she thanked the gods that the door was still closed and that he'd be behind it for a while.

"Ohh...and he'll need to know which size to buy, too."

[Alex Kaine]

He had to sit down and stretch his socks inside-out to get them off. And then he was acutely aware that he was about to be completely naked with Lana just three inches of pinewood away. He turned and glanced at the pitiful pile of clothes with water pooling around them. Ten minutes with a hairdryer would probably make them wearable again, but could he stall Lana that long?

"You're not going to send him to some designer store, are you?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"I...was...going to suggest he go to Armani, but I'm guessing that its not really your style."

She replied, the smile curling her lips evident in her voice. She stretched where she stood and absently pulled the clasp out of her hair, letting it tumble loose around her shoulders and halfway down her back. Fingers toyed with the platinum locks as she tilted her head to look at the door.

"Seriously, Alexanderrr...it'll take too long to have your clothes washed and dried enough to wear. Just tell me what size, and I'll send Sergei to whichever store you'd prefer. Even if I think you'd look really, really good in Armani."

Oh hell that last part wasn't supposed to be out loud...

[Alex Kaine]

Armani? As in Armani suit?

"Does it really make a difference?" Alex asked before he could stop himself. "I mean... all I'd need is jeans and a T-shirt. That's, um. That's all we're talking about, right?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"No, it doesn't. And of course that's what we're talking about. I only suggested Armani because they make really...comfortable jeans. But like I also said, you tell me where to send him, and that's where he'll go."

Lana replied, leaning her head back against the wall and casting her eyes up towards the ceiling.

"Or, you can dig the hairdryer out from under the left-hand sink and stay in there for the next hour or two."

[Alex Kaine]

"I didn't even know they made jeans."

A part of him wanted to tell her to send Sergei to Goodwill - after all, that was where this pair had come from, fashionably pre-fatigued. But he hesitated, and he wasn't even sure why. Maybe he didn't want to sound like he was belittling an intended gift, or maybe, surrounded by all this luxury, he really was embarrassed.

"Look, I, uh... it doesn't matter. Jeans are jeans, right?"

Fearing he was about to get an extensive answer to a stupid question, he blurted out, "Okay, thirty-two by thirty-two for the pants and large for the shirt. Is that all you need?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"That's all...Sergei will be back in about fifteen minutes, so just sit tight. Did you find one of the robes in the linen closet?"

Lana asked, waving Sergei to the door as she picked up her Blackberry. He sighed with mock exasperation as he went, and she pressed call once she found the boutique in her contact list.

"Buona sera, Sonia. Sì, sì, sto bene .. e io adoro il vestito che hai ordinato per me, grazie. Ho un favore da chiedervi. Mando Sergei al negozio per prendere un paio di le cose. Avrò bisogno di un paio di jeans scuri, una delle magliette logo grigio, e un paio di calzini. Ohhh ... e una delle giacche nuova luce. destro, Sergei ha le dimensioni e si dispone la mia carta in file. Grazie ancora ... "

She laughed, pressing her fingers to her cheeks as she shook her head. "Il suo nome è Alex, e questo è tutto quello che stai ricevendo da me stasera. Buonanotte ..." Quickly ending the call, she grinned and then bit her bottom lip. She didn't want Alex to think he needed to change, because she adored him just the way he was. She just liked treating people to nice things whenever she could.

"Ok...that's settled. Dark wash jeans, grey tshirt, and a pair of socks. I might have also gotten you a jacket, but we'll see how it fits when it gets here." We'll see how good it looks, you* mean, when you pop the collar up and muss his hair just right...

[Alex Kaine]

Alex was used to bathrooms being noisy and full of echoes, but the whine of the hairdryer seemed to stop at the walls. Alex, clad awkwardly in a pale green robe that felt like a wearable cotton ball, waved the dryer back and forth over his boxers. It was tedious, but as long as he was going to be a captive audience, he figured he'd make use of the time.

"Okay, so," he said, "apparently it's a night for revelations, so let's just make it official. Q & A time. We'll take turns. If it's a question you don't want to answer, just say 'pass.' Sound good?"

He shut off the hairdryer, waited for her consent, and smoothed out a few wrinkles in his boxers. "Okay, first question. You've got this enormous mansion at the top of a tower and a butler who drives you anywhere you want. So what do you do in your free time? What do you do for fun?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

"Sounds perfect."

Lana smiled, curling her feet beneath herself as she perched on the padded bench opposite the door. Lily came trotting in, pawing and yipping at the bathroom door before eliciting a laugh as she tried and failed at jumping up onto the bench beside her. She picked the pup up and settled her into her lap.

"Free time? Fun? I don't know what you're talking about...I carry a perfect four-point-oh, thank you, and I play a hell of a game of tennis..." Lana laughed softly and leaned her head back against the wall. "Ok, ok...I'm kidding...I do have free time. I love shopping, as if that's a shock, and I listen to music...oh, and I've been looking into taking salsa dance lessons."

"Your turn..." she paused, staring at the door and pondering what to ask foor the next several moments. "...I'm curious...are you...seeing anyone right now?"

It was such an easier question to ask when there was a door in the way.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex suddenly found himself visualizing Lana in a vividly red dress, skirt whipping around her ankles as she spun circles around her partner, until he dipped her low, low, perilously low... Suddenly he started wondering who her partner was.

Lana's question startled him so much he had to remind himself she didn't have the ability to read minds. This was... forward.

"Uh... no, actually," he replied. "What about you? Anyone waiting for you back in St. Petersburg?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Her fingers didn't even bother rising to her cheeks, she could feel the warmth that had planted itself there and hadn't receded in the least. Maybe there's hope, she dared to think, blinking as her brain caught up to the fact that he'd continued.

"Me? No...no-one. Boys have always had a way of keeping their distance. Not...not sure why." Lana said quietly. She did have some suspicions, but nothing concrete or worth worrying about now. She wasn't in Saint Petersburg anymore. It didn't matter.

"Anyone catch your interest at school? There's lots of pretty girls around."

[Alex Kaine]

Alex laughed as he pulled his boxers back on. "There's lots of shallow, self-absorbed girls around, too. More interested in their place in a social hierarchy than meaningful human contact, especially with a mutant. Mundane in every sense in the word."

He paused, realizing he'd let his mouth run off without so much as a cursory inspection, and with Lana on the other side of the door, he had no idea how she'd taken it.

"There is this one girl," he said hesitantly, feeling his ears burning. "She's a good friend. I think maybe she could be more."