timelined currently
Noriko sat puddled into a ball on the porch, watching it snow and lazily playing with the steam her breath made as it puffed out; she had a hat on covering part of her shock of blue hair. She wasn't really sure what the hell she was doing here, other than taking up space. She hadn't gone to high school; hell, she hadn't gone to middle school. How she was expected to do college was just...beyond her scope. Nori half-mumbled and half-sang a Japanese lullaby she faintly remembered, something about the snow being like cherry blossoms.
Rogue stepped onto the porch, steaming bowl of gumbo in her hands. She grinned as she shut the door behind her, "Hey, sugah." She stepped over and curled up into one of the chairs, beginning to blow on the food a little.
"Huh?" Nori looked up, a little startled because she'd been in her own world. "Oh, um...hey," she greeted. "'S up?"
"Just comin' out ta enjoy tha snow," she smiled. "Y'all doin' alright?"
She nodded, though saying she was okay was either a real big stretch or an outright lie. She shifted, the many metal pieces of her clothes clinking. "'M okay. Just....thinkin'. Ain't been in school in a long time...dunno what I'm doin' here."
"Tryin' it out is what ya doin', hun." She shrugged, "Ah hadn't been ta school since Ah was twelve... Came here at twenty." She took a bite and made a pleasurable sound, sliding down a bit in her seat as the gumbo warmed her from the inside out.
She nodded again, biting her lip. "'M just...I dunno. Whassat?" Noriko looked up at the bowl that was steaming...and smelled good.
Rogue arched an eyebrow then looked down, "Gumbo. Fresh pot on tha stove if ya want some... Real spicy though."
"Used to spicy." She ate a lot of whatever she could get; usually that was asian, if she looked pitiful enough the cooks would give her some of whatever they had. And it was spicy, sometimes. "Might."
She hesitated. "I don' want to be deported."
Rogue paused with a bite halfway to her mouth, "Deported? Where's that comin' from, darlin'? Y'all ain't gonna get deported."
"Ain't supposed to be here. 'M from Tokyo...an' here illegally." She'd been terrified of being deported for the first year of being here. "I...hopped a military transport out of Yokota to get here."
Rogue arched an eyebrow, "Well that's diff'rent. Guess Ah'll go call homeland security'r whoever now..." She cracked a tiny grin and took another bite. "Gal, nobody here cares where ya come from'r who ya got here. We won't go tellin' on ya. Go get some gumbo already."
She hadn't gotten to where she was--or managed to stay alive and relatively in good condition--by trusting, and it didn't come very easily. But she got up anyway, hugging her coat tighter as she ventured into the kitchen. It took her a little longer to come back than it should have.
Rogue looked up as she came back out, her bowl nearly half-gone by now. "Ya find it alright?"
"Mhmm." She nodded slowly, coming to sit beside Rogue. Her pupils were small, like little black pinpricks in eyes a shade too blue to be natural on her. "Just...um. Warming up."
Rogue arched an eyebrow. "What'd ya take?"
Noriko didn't look up, but turned the spoon over, twirling it again and again in surprisingly dextrous hands; she was only wearing fingerless gloves, and it was cold enough to be snowing. "Usual stuff. 'S all."
"Y'all's idea o' usual an' mine'r way different, sugah."
She swallowed tightly. "Jus' heroin. Ain't gonna kill me."
Rogue narrowed her eyes and reached out to put her bowl on the table, sitting up straight and taking Nori's bowl as well to put next to hers. She took Nori's arms and pushed her sleeves up to look at them. "Where is it," she demanded gently after she'd found the fresh track marks.
Her arms tensed up almost immediately. "Lemme go," she pulled back on Rogue's grip. "Ain' got any more," she lied quickly--a little too quickly. "It ain't gonna hurt you..."
"Ain't me Ah'm worried 'bout, darlin'." She narrowed her eyes and shook her head, "Where is it?"
"Told ya, I ain't got any more," she said. The kit--all of it--was in one of her side pockets, on her left thigh. "I can't give it to ya." She shook her head fast, a strand of blue sticking to her mouth before she brushed it away.
"That's bullshit." Rogue's eyes got a little more dangerously narrowed and she shifted to the edge of her chair, "Ah don't know how ya got it, but Ah know better'n ta believe that y'all'd let yaself run out after one go at it. Addicts make sure they're stocked up when they start ta get low. So either hand it over'r Ah'm haulin' ya down ta Hank an' he can search ya."
"No," she said, more forcefully. "I can't. I can't give it up," she shook her head again, backing up for every shift forward Rogue made. "I gotta take it, keeps me from blastin' people."
Rogue stood up and put her hands on her hips, "Cain't, never could, sugah. What tha hell happened ta tha patch, huh? Y'all even think 'bout that? Or was Ah just wastin' mah breath?"
"N--no, I did," she protested, shrinking back into as tiny a ball as she could make herself. "I thought about, I did, but I...I don' wanna mess anything up, not any worse than it is now..." Sure, Rogue was on the patch and it was fine but she wasn't on any of the stuff Nori was.
"Mess what up? Sugah, it don't mess anythin' up." She crossed her arms and cocked one hip out. "Only thing that makes anythin' worse is that crap ya load ya bloodstream with."
"I...I--I jsut can't," she murmured. "'S...I gotta take it."
Rogue didn't even think as she reached down and grabbed Nori's biceps, hauling her to her feet. She hefted her over her shoulder with a small grunt and made her way through the doors. The girl was a lot lighter than she should have been... If Rogue had her strength, she couldn't have felt like she would weigh more than a feather.
Nori let out a terse cry, not quite a shriek but close as she was picked up very unexpectedly and tossed over a shoulder. "Lemme down!" she was unbalanced, feeling like she was going to be dropped as the blood rushed to her head; her hands started to crackle before she pulled it tightly back under control. "C'mon, please, just lemme go..."
"Nope." Rogue kicked the door shut and stretched her leg up to toe the elevator buttons, afraid she'd drop her if she let go. At least she wasn't struggling too much.
She was kind of terrified of being dropped, and so didn't want to struggle enough to be let go. "Where you takin' me?"
"Down." Rogue's tone was clipped and short, letting Nori understand how upset with her she was. She wouldn't have needed to put the tone into it if Bobby had been there. He seemed to be the only one to understand that monosyllables were bad with her.
Nori didn't even respond, but tried to think of how she could palm the smack off, maybe hide it so Rogue wouldn't take it.
Rogue adjusted how Nori hung over her shoulder and did her best not to wince as something dug into her chest. The doors opened and Rogue went through, bumping the lab doors open with her knee and frowning when she didn't spy Hank or Scott. Well, hopefully they'd not get too mad at her.
That would have been one of the buckles around Noriko's knees, that dug in. She hissed at it pressing back into her kneecap too; more so than that at being dropped in the medlab. Again. "What'm I down here again for?"
Rogue carried her over to a chair and unceremoniously dropped her into it. She looked in the offices for Hank and Scott and frowned when neither of them seemed to be hiding in there. She moved over and dug through the supply of patches she normally took hers from and brought one to Nori. "Put it on."
Nori almost fell out of the chair the way she landed in it, and scrambled back into the ball she'd been in before. "Told ya I can't," she explained, a thin edge to her voice heading towards pleading.
"Ya can. But ya won't. There's a big ol' difference there, gal." She held it out closer to her, "Put it on."
"You ain't gonna make me give up my powers. I can deal with 'em, my own way, an' ain't nobody cared how I do yet." She batted Rogue's hand out of the way, and made to stand.
Rogue put her hand on Nori's shoulder to push her back down. "Well we care now. An' who says it's given 'em up? All it does is nullify 'em until ya ready ta try an' control 'em! Hell, Ah'll even help ya with that part. Lord knows Ah've helped lots o' others. But this makes it so ya don't gotta take that crap." She arched an eyebrow, "Then again... Ya powers are tha only excuse ya have left ta try an' validate ya addiction."
"'S the only reason I take the smack. I know it ain't good for me, ya think I'm stupid?" She looked up, angry; clerly, Rogue had hit a nerve, and Noriko's hands started to crackle with the energy she'd absorbed, even though she'd just shot up not ten minutes ago. When she was angry, it could be overriden. "I take it 'cause it down my system, that's it."
"So then put on tha patch, an' it won't be an issue." She held it out to her again.
She shook her head again. "I ain't givin' 'em up. My powers're the only thing I gotta carry with me home. Can't you or nobody else take that away."
Rogue wanted to shake her. "Put on tha damned patch b'fore Ah force it on ya, damnit. Ain't permanent!"
"No."
Her hands were snapping out bolts that didn't connect with anything, eyes glowing with a blue tint.
Rogue laughed and arched an eyebrow, "Alright then." She leaned her hip against the desk and just looked at her for a moment. "How's that crutch workin' out f'r ya?" She nodded at Nori's hands.
"You're pissin' me off, it ain't gonna work, an' ya doin' it on purpose..."
"Ah'm bein' dead serious, gal. That shit's a fuckin' cruth f'r ya powers an' y'r powers're tha excuse ya use ta keep takin' tha damned shit." She picked at the backing on the patch casually, not looking at it.
Noriko didn't notice her peeling the backing, and reined in her energy, feeling like she was pulsing, vibrating with the energy and sheer voltage she was holding in.
Rogue stepped in close, lifted Nori's shirt, and slapped the patch on her stomach all in one quick fluid motion. Hurray for training with Remy.
It reacted with her almost immediately, but the minute it actually completed, she wobbled once, twice, before Noriko dropped to her knees, drained of the energy her body was used to having. It was like being completely stoned, but worse, somehow. "T--The fuck..."
Rogue leaned back against the desk and crossed her arms as she watched Nori. "Give it a few minutes."
Unfortunately, it didn't work so well, and even as the minutes passed she felt lethargic and sick. "Givin' a few minutes ain't workin'..."
"Probably 'cause ya just doped yaself up. Go lie down on one o' those beds."
That was mostly it; the heroin was acting harder on her body now that it wasn't so heavily mitigated by her mutation. Nori stood, for about a minute, and wavered when she managed to pick one heavy boot up, and the other, to fall against one of the beds and slide down to the floor, lax.
Rogue sighed and moved over to pick her up, grunting as she lifted her onto the bed. She took off Nori's boots to make her more comfortable and covered her up. "When Hank'r Scott get back Ah'll have 'em come check ya out. Go ta sleep, hun."
She made a noise, soft and impossible to tell from angry or frustrated or any number of other conditions. All of them sort of applied. But she cooperated with her boots being taken off; she really didn't have a choice.