Post by angel on Oct 25, 2006 8:14:16 GMT -5
It was sometimes a very good thing, Warren reflected, that he had money. This was one of those times.
That he'd been able to buy one of the top-of-the-line digital cameras without having to think twice was suddenly proving to be quite a bonus. Because it would capture every detail, every contour and every shadow - and the subject was the kind that deserved to be captured in great detail.
Well, she was hot. There was no denying that, and there was nothing wrong with looking.
Well, maybe in Bobby's mind, but hopefully Iceboy would be able to get past that once he saw the pictures.
"You ready?" He knocked once on the door, still not sure if they were going to take pics in Paige's room, or out in the woods, or somewhere entirely different. Either way, he didn't want to walk in on her naked.
... The flash was on. She'd realise if he 'accidentally' snapped off a picture.
For Bobby, of course.
Paige laughed. Truth be told, she’d spent more time making sure her hair looked okay than worrying about being dressed before Warren showed up again. Adjusting the straps on her favourite blue two piece(it showed off her blue eyes pretty spectacularly), she peeked out the door.
“Sure. Where do you think we should do this?”
Okay so she couldn’t help some innuendo. Warren was a gorgeous boy. Though her opinion of him was slowly changing to partner-in-crime or big brother than hot single boy, Paige figured there’d always be that attraction. And God bless them. They were doing their best to play along.
“I say we start in here,” she pointed to her bed “since Jubilee isn’t around and well, beds are hot. Then we can just see where inspiration takes us?” Stepping out, she couldn’t help but grin at him.
"Oh, don't tempt me. You're going to get me in so much trouble."
It was bad enough that he was in the girls' dorms with a camera. He already felt like accusing eyes were looking at him like a total pervert, even though he had a perfectly legitimate reason and there weren't actually any girls around to see him.
Still, it was the principle of the thing.
"Come on then." Putting his hands either side of her waist, Warren directed Paige back into her room with a grin. Well, he'd have worn the same expression if it was Bobby - he was only playing around, after all.
Ah, girls' rooms always smelled interesting and looked even more so. All those little knick knacks they seemed to collect, combined with the clothes that they always seemed to leave around the place always left him curious.
Well, he was an only child.
Picking the camera up from where it was dangling around his neck, Warren motioned rather vaguely.
"Must say, the last time I did this was much more fun. Only because the photos ended up forgotten for a while there." The smile on his face left no doubt as to what he was talking about, if there had even been a question about it in the first place.
She could have groaned, the way he was teasing her, but she didn’t. Paige just cleared her throat, and had a seat. Suddenly, she was just a touch self conscious. But that went away pretty quickly as she slipped aside and onto her stomach, folding her chin onto the back of her hands. The curve of her body was always her best feature when she was on her stomach, and she knew Bobby liked it. Remembering his hand drawing down the slope from her shoulder to her waist, then up to her hip made her suddenly sad.
Fixing her eyes on Warren, the feeling mingled into something else. What a strange and confusing situation.
Smiling slowly, she bit her bottom lip. “How many girls have you been with?”
"What, like... Been with been with, or been in a relationship with?"
God, that was a loaded question if ever he'd heard one. He snapped off a few shots while he thought about how to answer - he didn't actually keep exact figures in his head, for one, and it wasn't the sort of thing that he usually just answered outright. Most girls seemed to have a thing about low numbers, even though experience was definitely a good thing to have.
Warren didn't hold to the double standard that a lot of people seemed to have. He was, to be completely honest, a bit of a man-ho. Still, he didn't regret his experiences.
"Enough. Why?"
Rolling to her stomach and reaching out to tug him closer by his pantsleg, her blonde hair splayed out wildly around her. She laughed. “Completely idle curiosity. I don’t mean to pry. I mean it’s not like it effects me or anything. You just seem… comfortable, you know? I haven’t really been with that many guys, but I had a big family and Mama never let us feel shy.”
Running her fingers under the string tie at her hip, she fixed him- err, the camera- with a flirtatious expression. This was fun. She could get used to modeling. But she wasn’t sure all the photographers would be this hot.
"Nothing to be uncomfortable about. I'd offer to strip down to my underwear, but I think we really would get in trouble then. And you don't seem to have any issues with the situation."
Shrugging, with a small smile on his lips, Warren snapped off a few more pictures.
"I just don't see the point in worrying about it, you know?"
Even though he'd avoided her question.
"I don't know exact numbers, but think double digits." Still vague, but pinned things down a little more for her.
"What was it like having a big family? I'm an only child, had all the pressure to live up to the family name."
Click. Click. Click.
“Come down here with me..” she said, trying her best not to sound suggestive as she tugged him onto the bed. “I want some closeups for him.” God she hoped he wouldn’t immediately think of those eerily gynecological porn shots you’d see on the internet. That wasn’t what she meant, hot guy or no.
Thinking about what he said, she arranged them until he was kneeling over one of her legs looking down at her. She put her arms over her head.
“Hectic. You learn to rely on yourself. My brother Sam still had the ‘family name’ issues- though from what I hear, it was a world of difference from you. He didn’t have a big company leaning on him. Just a coal mine.” She smirked, then winked as he clicked another shot, and laughed at herself.
“You never have quiet, you never have privacy… which sounds sad, but it really only means that I can’t stand to be alone and I never shut up.” Another smile. Maybe that’s why she constantly sought him out. Nothing was worse than waking up alone with no one to talk to over breakfast.
Yeah, she was really going to get him into trouble if anyone walked in.
"Doesn't matter what the business, that pressure totally sucks." It was unlikely Warren would ever go into pharmaceuticals, although eventually he supposed he'd have to make some kind of effort. Which meant, in his eyes, hiring someone else to do all the work.
"It's funny. I can't imagine being around people all the time. I mean, yeah, obviously I don't like being alone constantly, but sometimes... It's nice to fly away from it all."
Clicking away a few more shots, Warren smiled down at her. "What do you think, almost done in here? I feel like I'm going to get in trouble. This is... quite a compromising position."
Paige laughed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel weird.” Unravelling herself from him, she got up from the bed and kissed his cheek. Nabbing her bathrobe, she put it on. “What do you think. In the grass? I bet we can find a relatively secluded spot.”
"Not weird. Worried for my safety. Bobby's got a hard fist. Not to mention what your brother would say if he got here and someone told him... you know, that the weird guy with the wings has been taking dirty photos of his sister."
He grinned - surely he could get up high enough to avoid both of them. What did Paige's brother do, anyway?
"We'll find somewhere, we can always go for a quick flight if you think there's too many people around."
She had to put clothes on, didn't she? It was such a shame.
Paige smiled, and tilted her head, talking a bit more seriously.
“Really sugar. If I thought either of them would do anything to you, I wouldn’t put you in the position. Sam’s protective, but he’s not unreasonable. And Bobby, well. Bobby trusts me.” She nudged his arm. “And you.”
“And you know, a nice flyabout doesn’t sound like too bad an idea. You have any places in mind?”
"I just want to be careful is all."
Hey, he'd never thought that Steven would have issues about his little sister either - he was a reasonable guy. Except, it had become apparent, when it came to his little sister.
"Don't know really, just down to the more... secluded edges of the estate. Don't want to mess up your hair too much." He had no doubt that the current mess was very deliberately styled.
Slipping a pair of sandals on, she peeked out her dorm room door and slipped into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
As they walked out to the nearest balcony, she looked sidelong at him. “Thanks for taking the risk anyway. I really appreciate it. I can’t imagine what I’m going to do if Bobby doesn’t get out of this.” She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the balcony.
“Ooh. Thank god it’s warm today…”
"You don't have to imagine, he'll be out soon enough."
The power of positive thinking... Well, he'd never really believed in it before, but anything was worth a try, right? As Warren saw it, Bobby wouldn't get out until they had some kind of proof of Emma's involvement, and that would be hard to get.
"Oh, yes, it would be a terrible shame if it was cold." His tone was obviously sarcastic, and he gave her another grin.
"I am, of course, talking about photo opportunities." Nothing that could be called debauchery in the slightest. That was his story, and he was sticking with it.
“Of course,” she said with a teasingly proper tone in her voice.
Turning to him, she slipped her arms around his neck. “Well then. Shall we?”
Oh god. Her bare stomach touched his. She lost her cool for a moment, and tucked her bathrobe around her body before putting her arm back around him.
“Shit,” Paige whispered, before she realized she’d said it out loud.
Adjusting the camera slightly - it wouldn't be good if they were to drop it, after all, Warren was about to slip his arms about Paige's waist when she swore.
He'd noticed the contact, but thought nothing of it. After all, it wasn't like they were trying to get physical with each other, it was just the nature of the job at hand. He'd had Bobby pressed up against his naked chest plenty of times, after all. He gave her a quizzical look.
"You alright?"
Laughing a little, it sounded almost nervous. Definitely not something you heard often from the gregarious blonde. To add to it, her voice was a little hushed.
“Well damn Warren, you’re not exactly Quasimodo.” Holding him tighter, she nudged him a bit. “Let’s get going.”
Warren was likely one of only two people at the school to have witnessed Paige Guthrie blushing. So she got caught reacting to his closeness, and he was oblivious. It twisted her in knots all of a sudden. Of course she knew the attraction was only natural, hadn’t she been reminding herself of that? She’d thought she was safe to assume Warren would feel the same. He didn’t… and that sent her back to earth with a crash.
It was all for the best.
"Oh. Right."
He frowned a bit, slipping his arms around her waist and launching the pair of them off the balcony.
She was swearing because of how he looked?
Wait did she...
Ohhhh.
Well, there was nothing wrong with that. He was used to this kind of contact, at least when he was taking anyone flying. If she'd just been pressed up against him for no reason... Well, Warren was fairly certain that she'd have had no trouble getting a reaction out of him. If she was single.
Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby.
All of a sudden he was hyper aware of her in his arms, and he nodded with his head towards the area he'd been thinking of.
"Little grassy spot down there, what do you think?"
“Oh that’s a good one, definitely!” She said after laughing. She always laughed freely when he maneuvered through the sky- the feeling was so amazing, and it took such abandon to not be terrified you’d be dropped, that the exhilaration made her giggle.
On their feet again, she caught her breath and laughed softly at herself before dropping the bathrobe. Taking a moment to readjust a miniscule sting here and a patch of fabric there, she looked at him.
“When did you learn to fly? Did you have to figure it out or did you just… know?”
"Hmm?" He raised the camera, taking a quick cameo shot of her.
"It took some trial and error - I had to wait 'til my wings were big enough, first, that took a couple of years. But no, I mean... some of it is just instinct, but I did have to get used to it." It wasn't natural for humans to fly, after all, and even with his modified bone structure it was still a bit awkward flying with wings in the wrong place in comparison to normal birds.
Snapping a couple more pictures, Warren smiled. "But no, I only had a couple of mishaps before I learnt to just go with it. I have trained myself since then, agility and the like, but there's only so far you can go with wings. Limitations, you know?"
He was looking intently at the back of the camera, smiling at the shots he was getting. Some of these were really good.
Bobby will be happy.
"What about yours? Is there anything you can't do? How do you change what's underneath?"
Turning and walking in the grass as he took pictures, she suddenly had a great idea.
“It’s about texture, color, substance. If I understand the consistency of something, I can feel the change beneath my skin. Then it’s just a matter of stepping out of the old and into the new.”
Pivoting a bit, she touched her hairline along her forehead and pulled down, revealing a brilliantly shining chrome Paige beneath. Slipping her skin off in a downward motion, she leaned down until it was down to her ankles, and stepped out of it. When it was just human skin, it came off so easily. Getting out of steel was usually far more complicated.
Looking at him with her pupil-free steel corneas, she smiled. Sure, she was completely naked, but she was made of steel. Some rules were made to be broken.
Raising his eyebrows, Warren looked from naked-metal-Paige to the little leftover skin thing on the ground, then smiled.
Well, her bikini was down there on the ground with her other skin. Nothing wrong with that.
He pressed a button on the back of the camera, turning off the flash. Then he shot a few more pictures, getting one really gorgeous one with the sun lighting up one side of her.
"You're trying to get me into trouble, aren't you? Just tell me when to turn around so you can change again." Right now, though, his eyes were fixed on her, roving over the smooth metal skin with obvious fascination and admiration.
Getting down on her hands and knees until she was on her stomach, her knees splayed out a bit and her heels touched over the small of her back. She looked up at him with one of those wicked expressions.
“I won’t be changing until we get back. If I do, I really will be naked.” Licking her bottom lip with a pink tongue, she was always a bit fascinated by the lack of sensation she had in some of these forms. Steel didn’t easily pick up on touch, after all. “Might as well get used to this, if you’re going to help me train.”
"You've got your bathrobe," he pointed out with a smile before taking a few more pictures. Well, it stopped him from commenting on her tongue.
"Does it make you heavier? Not that it'd be a problem, I can lift quite a bit, I'm just curious." It made sense, in Warren's mind, but then things didn't always work the way his head thought they should. He wondered for a moment if anyone had introduced Paige to Peter.
"You should definitely come into the Danger Room like that one day - the program Forge put in the other day is great." Well, he liked dinosaurs. Even if these ones weren't quite the type he'd played with as a kid.
Rolling onto her back, Paige discreetly slipped her hand between her legs to cover the most interesting parts of her body. Of course that only gave an impression of an entirely different sort, one she didn’t try to hide in her expression as she looked at the camera and Warren took another picture.
“A little, but not by much. It’s only a layer so in total, it doesn’t weigh much.”
“I want to see how it’s going to work… I know I can withstand quite a bit in this form. Bullets for one.” Arching her back, she bit her lip and couldn’t help but grin through it.
Oh, sweet Jesus.
Was she trying to get him into trouble? For some reason, Warren really didn't think that some of these shots should be sent to Bobby - firstly, because his mail could very well be being checked out, and secondly because while he was sure Bobby would enjoy them... Well, Iceboy was liable to realise that Warren had enjoyed them too.
She's got a boyfriend. One of your best friends. Eyes on the prize... No, that's not right. Focus!
"How'd you figure that out? You get shot at often, corrupting all the ... er, young, innocent sons?"
Paige laughed. "I got my brother to try it out with his pellet gun first. Then we just got lucky, I guess." She chuckled and rolled onto her side, tucking her legs up close to her.
"So." She fixed him with a mischeivous gaze. "You think we have enough?"
He snapped a few more shots before pressing a few buttons and checking out the numbers.
186 pictures. Considering he'd started with about seventeen... Warren cleared his throat and smiled.
"Yeah, I think we've got enough." Not that I'd mind continuing in the least, though.
Not all of them would be any good, even the ones that were good couldn't all be sent to Bobby. Surely they had enough variety now, though.
"If, once we get them on the laptop and have a good look, you don't like them... Well, we can always get some more, right?"
He really hoped that she'd put some clothes on before coming into his room. Not that he had anything against naked!Paige, but because he really did think he'd get himself - and her - into trouble.
Getting up, she turned away from him and stripped out of the steel skin. It was a bit more difficult, the metal cracked or bent and fell in jagged stripps to the ground. She scooped up her bathrobe and tied it around her, turning to look at him.
He'd have to know Bobby was the only reason she'd turned away. Paige just wasn't that shy.
Walking over to him, she kissed his cheek again, putting her arms around his waist. "Thanks again. He's going to love them."
It took a moment, a moment where his face was all shock and curiosity and... well, a good measure of attraction, before Warren snapped his eyes shut.
He thought it had been long enough. It hadn't. She was bending over and scooping up her bathrobe...
Oh, god.
It didn't help that she'd just kissed his cheek and put her arms around his waist.
Oh. God.
He looked up to the sky for a moment, biting his lower lip.
She's naked under that bathrobe, you know.
Apparently, his brain was having a state the obvious day. He reminded it that she also had a boyfriend, who was one of his very good friends and currently in the worst position imaginable for Warren to even be thinking that way about Paige.
Spreading his wings, he bent quickly, slipping one arm under her knees and scooping her up.
"Don't want everyone to have a... view if they look up."
Powerful strokes lifted them into the sky and back to the mansion. As far as Warren could tell, she had no idea how hard it was for him at that moment. No idea at all.
This time, having been nude in the grass with the breeze over her bare skin had relaxed her, and there was something about the day that had her feeling languid and warm. Paige tipped her head back and let her arms go, letting Warren fly her in his arms while she sighed, feeling the inertia in her own form.
"Wow..." she murmured.
Back on her feet, she smiled at him. "I'm going to throw some clothes on. Meet ya in your room?"
Clearing his throat, Warren nodded.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea."
The clothes bit, not the room bit. He still thought that the room bit could be very dangerous indeed, but now that she was out of his arms and he had something to concentrate on, things were starting to look easier to deal with.
With a nod, he headed off, throwing on a striped t-shirt when he entered his room and sitting cross-legged on the bed, his wings hanging over the edge as he opened up his laptop.
Looking at pictures of her dressed in very little wasn't much of an improvement.
Paige knocked on his door a few minutes later, peeking her head in. She'd changed into a pair of low-slung jeans and a blue tshirt, her hair windswept and yet still perfect somehow.
"How'd they turn out? We get any good ones?"
She moved to kneel beside the bed and folded her arms on his thigh, leaning to look at his laptop.
"Yeah, actually, there's some really good ones."
He'd been sorting through them, putting the less than perfect ones into a folder. Of course, there were a couple that he really loved that were just cameo pics, Paige looking gorgeous if not entirely sexy, but he didn't think they were quite the ones that Bobby would want.
"Take a look." He pushed the laptop over to her, showing the first of what he thought Bobby would like. It was one of the bedroom pictures, and as she scrolled through them she'd see about thirty really great pictures from the whole day.
"I wasn't sure if people would be reading his mail, so there's some really hot ones in another folder, you know, in case you wanted to keep some for only him to see?" Well, only Bobby and Warren, but that wasn't really the point.
"I don't know, do you think they'd keep them from him? My brother went to jail for a bit but you know, I never sent him porn." She smirked.
Getting comfortable in her position as she scrolled with one hand, her arm went around his back and she rested her hand along his back between his wings. It was the first time she'd really felt the feathers against her skin and for a moment she turned to look at them, smiling.
Her attention was soon on the pictures again. "You do a good job actually. Is it weird, the steel ones you think? I think they're pretty but is it... gross or anything?"
"I don't know if they'd keep them from him, but... You know, you don't know how many people would be looking at them?"
She was a very physical girl. He had to keep reminding himself that he was quite physical most of the time himself, and it really didn't mean anything. Just because she was hot and nice and comfortable in her skin (no pun intended) didn't mean anything.
"I like the steel ones. Especially the one with the sunlight, but it could be a bit... artsy? You know, we should have gone for ice, I bet Bobby would have liked that."
She gasped. "Oh gosh I never thought of that! We'll have to save that one for a umm... private session." Paige chuckled. Yes, she did have some things she considered just for Bobby.
"I'll make sure to credit you, how's that sound." She laughed.
"Alright, let's put that set together. Mind burning the whole set to a disc for me though? I'd love to have them. Never know what I might want them for."
"Not necessary, really."
Warren really didn't want Paige bringing him up when she was doing her thing with Bobby. For Bobby. Was it even possible for two ice people to... No, he didn't want to think about that.
"Yeah, that's all good." Unfolding himself almost reluctantly, Warren wandered to the desk and grabbed his little photo printer and a DVD. In a few moments, he had the laptop doing its thing, and he was back to sitting on the edge of the bed - this time, opposite Paige.
"Sooo... what's the plan for the rest of the day?"
That he'd been able to buy one of the top-of-the-line digital cameras without having to think twice was suddenly proving to be quite a bonus. Because it would capture every detail, every contour and every shadow - and the subject was the kind that deserved to be captured in great detail.
Well, she was hot. There was no denying that, and there was nothing wrong with looking.
Well, maybe in Bobby's mind, but hopefully Iceboy would be able to get past that once he saw the pictures.
"You ready?" He knocked once on the door, still not sure if they were going to take pics in Paige's room, or out in the woods, or somewhere entirely different. Either way, he didn't want to walk in on her naked.
... The flash was on. She'd realise if he 'accidentally' snapped off a picture.
For Bobby, of course.
Paige laughed. Truth be told, she’d spent more time making sure her hair looked okay than worrying about being dressed before Warren showed up again. Adjusting the straps on her favourite blue two piece(it showed off her blue eyes pretty spectacularly), she peeked out the door.
“Sure. Where do you think we should do this?”
Okay so she couldn’t help some innuendo. Warren was a gorgeous boy. Though her opinion of him was slowly changing to partner-in-crime or big brother than hot single boy, Paige figured there’d always be that attraction. And God bless them. They were doing their best to play along.
“I say we start in here,” she pointed to her bed “since Jubilee isn’t around and well, beds are hot. Then we can just see where inspiration takes us?” Stepping out, she couldn’t help but grin at him.
"Oh, don't tempt me. You're going to get me in so much trouble."
It was bad enough that he was in the girls' dorms with a camera. He already felt like accusing eyes were looking at him like a total pervert, even though he had a perfectly legitimate reason and there weren't actually any girls around to see him.
Still, it was the principle of the thing.
"Come on then." Putting his hands either side of her waist, Warren directed Paige back into her room with a grin. Well, he'd have worn the same expression if it was Bobby - he was only playing around, after all.
Ah, girls' rooms always smelled interesting and looked even more so. All those little knick knacks they seemed to collect, combined with the clothes that they always seemed to leave around the place always left him curious.
Well, he was an only child.
Picking the camera up from where it was dangling around his neck, Warren motioned rather vaguely.
"Must say, the last time I did this was much more fun. Only because the photos ended up forgotten for a while there." The smile on his face left no doubt as to what he was talking about, if there had even been a question about it in the first place.
She could have groaned, the way he was teasing her, but she didn’t. Paige just cleared her throat, and had a seat. Suddenly, she was just a touch self conscious. But that went away pretty quickly as she slipped aside and onto her stomach, folding her chin onto the back of her hands. The curve of her body was always her best feature when she was on her stomach, and she knew Bobby liked it. Remembering his hand drawing down the slope from her shoulder to her waist, then up to her hip made her suddenly sad.
Fixing her eyes on Warren, the feeling mingled into something else. What a strange and confusing situation.
Smiling slowly, she bit her bottom lip. “How many girls have you been with?”
"What, like... Been with been with, or been in a relationship with?"
God, that was a loaded question if ever he'd heard one. He snapped off a few shots while he thought about how to answer - he didn't actually keep exact figures in his head, for one, and it wasn't the sort of thing that he usually just answered outright. Most girls seemed to have a thing about low numbers, even though experience was definitely a good thing to have.
Warren didn't hold to the double standard that a lot of people seemed to have. He was, to be completely honest, a bit of a man-ho. Still, he didn't regret his experiences.
"Enough. Why?"
Rolling to her stomach and reaching out to tug him closer by his pantsleg, her blonde hair splayed out wildly around her. She laughed. “Completely idle curiosity. I don’t mean to pry. I mean it’s not like it effects me or anything. You just seem… comfortable, you know? I haven’t really been with that many guys, but I had a big family and Mama never let us feel shy.”
Running her fingers under the string tie at her hip, she fixed him- err, the camera- with a flirtatious expression. This was fun. She could get used to modeling. But she wasn’t sure all the photographers would be this hot.
"Nothing to be uncomfortable about. I'd offer to strip down to my underwear, but I think we really would get in trouble then. And you don't seem to have any issues with the situation."
Shrugging, with a small smile on his lips, Warren snapped off a few more pictures.
"I just don't see the point in worrying about it, you know?"
Even though he'd avoided her question.
"I don't know exact numbers, but think double digits." Still vague, but pinned things down a little more for her.
"What was it like having a big family? I'm an only child, had all the pressure to live up to the family name."
Click. Click. Click.
“Come down here with me..” she said, trying her best not to sound suggestive as she tugged him onto the bed. “I want some closeups for him.” God she hoped he wouldn’t immediately think of those eerily gynecological porn shots you’d see on the internet. That wasn’t what she meant, hot guy or no.
Thinking about what he said, she arranged them until he was kneeling over one of her legs looking down at her. She put her arms over her head.
“Hectic. You learn to rely on yourself. My brother Sam still had the ‘family name’ issues- though from what I hear, it was a world of difference from you. He didn’t have a big company leaning on him. Just a coal mine.” She smirked, then winked as he clicked another shot, and laughed at herself.
“You never have quiet, you never have privacy… which sounds sad, but it really only means that I can’t stand to be alone and I never shut up.” Another smile. Maybe that’s why she constantly sought him out. Nothing was worse than waking up alone with no one to talk to over breakfast.
Yeah, she was really going to get him into trouble if anyone walked in.
"Doesn't matter what the business, that pressure totally sucks." It was unlikely Warren would ever go into pharmaceuticals, although eventually he supposed he'd have to make some kind of effort. Which meant, in his eyes, hiring someone else to do all the work.
"It's funny. I can't imagine being around people all the time. I mean, yeah, obviously I don't like being alone constantly, but sometimes... It's nice to fly away from it all."
Clicking away a few more shots, Warren smiled down at her. "What do you think, almost done in here? I feel like I'm going to get in trouble. This is... quite a compromising position."
Paige laughed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to make you feel weird.” Unravelling herself from him, she got up from the bed and kissed his cheek. Nabbing her bathrobe, she put it on. “What do you think. In the grass? I bet we can find a relatively secluded spot.”
"Not weird. Worried for my safety. Bobby's got a hard fist. Not to mention what your brother would say if he got here and someone told him... you know, that the weird guy with the wings has been taking dirty photos of his sister."
He grinned - surely he could get up high enough to avoid both of them. What did Paige's brother do, anyway?
"We'll find somewhere, we can always go for a quick flight if you think there's too many people around."
She had to put clothes on, didn't she? It was such a shame.
Paige smiled, and tilted her head, talking a bit more seriously.
“Really sugar. If I thought either of them would do anything to you, I wouldn’t put you in the position. Sam’s protective, but he’s not unreasonable. And Bobby, well. Bobby trusts me.” She nudged his arm. “And you.”
“And you know, a nice flyabout doesn’t sound like too bad an idea. You have any places in mind?”
"I just want to be careful is all."
Hey, he'd never thought that Steven would have issues about his little sister either - he was a reasonable guy. Except, it had become apparent, when it came to his little sister.
"Don't know really, just down to the more... secluded edges of the estate. Don't want to mess up your hair too much." He had no doubt that the current mess was very deliberately styled.
Slipping a pair of sandals on, she peeked out her dorm room door and slipped into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
As they walked out to the nearest balcony, she looked sidelong at him. “Thanks for taking the risk anyway. I really appreciate it. I can’t imagine what I’m going to do if Bobby doesn’t get out of this.” She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the balcony.
“Ooh. Thank god it’s warm today…”
"You don't have to imagine, he'll be out soon enough."
The power of positive thinking... Well, he'd never really believed in it before, but anything was worth a try, right? As Warren saw it, Bobby wouldn't get out until they had some kind of proof of Emma's involvement, and that would be hard to get.
"Oh, yes, it would be a terrible shame if it was cold." His tone was obviously sarcastic, and he gave her another grin.
"I am, of course, talking about photo opportunities." Nothing that could be called debauchery in the slightest. That was his story, and he was sticking with it.
“Of course,” she said with a teasingly proper tone in her voice.
Turning to him, she slipped her arms around his neck. “Well then. Shall we?”
Oh god. Her bare stomach touched his. She lost her cool for a moment, and tucked her bathrobe around her body before putting her arm back around him.
“Shit,” Paige whispered, before she realized she’d said it out loud.
Adjusting the camera slightly - it wouldn't be good if they were to drop it, after all, Warren was about to slip his arms about Paige's waist when she swore.
He'd noticed the contact, but thought nothing of it. After all, it wasn't like they were trying to get physical with each other, it was just the nature of the job at hand. He'd had Bobby pressed up against his naked chest plenty of times, after all. He gave her a quizzical look.
"You alright?"
Laughing a little, it sounded almost nervous. Definitely not something you heard often from the gregarious blonde. To add to it, her voice was a little hushed.
“Well damn Warren, you’re not exactly Quasimodo.” Holding him tighter, she nudged him a bit. “Let’s get going.”
Warren was likely one of only two people at the school to have witnessed Paige Guthrie blushing. So she got caught reacting to his closeness, and he was oblivious. It twisted her in knots all of a sudden. Of course she knew the attraction was only natural, hadn’t she been reminding herself of that? She’d thought she was safe to assume Warren would feel the same. He didn’t… and that sent her back to earth with a crash.
It was all for the best.
"Oh. Right."
He frowned a bit, slipping his arms around her waist and launching the pair of them off the balcony.
She was swearing because of how he looked?
Wait did she...
Ohhhh.
Well, there was nothing wrong with that. He was used to this kind of contact, at least when he was taking anyone flying. If she'd just been pressed up against him for no reason... Well, Warren was fairly certain that she'd have had no trouble getting a reaction out of him. If she was single.
Bobby. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby.
All of a sudden he was hyper aware of her in his arms, and he nodded with his head towards the area he'd been thinking of.
"Little grassy spot down there, what do you think?"
“Oh that’s a good one, definitely!” She said after laughing. She always laughed freely when he maneuvered through the sky- the feeling was so amazing, and it took such abandon to not be terrified you’d be dropped, that the exhilaration made her giggle.
On their feet again, she caught her breath and laughed softly at herself before dropping the bathrobe. Taking a moment to readjust a miniscule sting here and a patch of fabric there, she looked at him.
“When did you learn to fly? Did you have to figure it out or did you just… know?”
"Hmm?" He raised the camera, taking a quick cameo shot of her.
"It took some trial and error - I had to wait 'til my wings were big enough, first, that took a couple of years. But no, I mean... some of it is just instinct, but I did have to get used to it." It wasn't natural for humans to fly, after all, and even with his modified bone structure it was still a bit awkward flying with wings in the wrong place in comparison to normal birds.
Snapping a couple more pictures, Warren smiled. "But no, I only had a couple of mishaps before I learnt to just go with it. I have trained myself since then, agility and the like, but there's only so far you can go with wings. Limitations, you know?"
He was looking intently at the back of the camera, smiling at the shots he was getting. Some of these were really good.
Bobby will be happy.
"What about yours? Is there anything you can't do? How do you change what's underneath?"
Turning and walking in the grass as he took pictures, she suddenly had a great idea.
“It’s about texture, color, substance. If I understand the consistency of something, I can feel the change beneath my skin. Then it’s just a matter of stepping out of the old and into the new.”
Pivoting a bit, she touched her hairline along her forehead and pulled down, revealing a brilliantly shining chrome Paige beneath. Slipping her skin off in a downward motion, she leaned down until it was down to her ankles, and stepped out of it. When it was just human skin, it came off so easily. Getting out of steel was usually far more complicated.
Looking at him with her pupil-free steel corneas, she smiled. Sure, she was completely naked, but she was made of steel. Some rules were made to be broken.
Raising his eyebrows, Warren looked from naked-metal-Paige to the little leftover skin thing on the ground, then smiled.
Well, her bikini was down there on the ground with her other skin. Nothing wrong with that.
He pressed a button on the back of the camera, turning off the flash. Then he shot a few more pictures, getting one really gorgeous one with the sun lighting up one side of her.
"You're trying to get me into trouble, aren't you? Just tell me when to turn around so you can change again." Right now, though, his eyes were fixed on her, roving over the smooth metal skin with obvious fascination and admiration.
Getting down on her hands and knees until she was on her stomach, her knees splayed out a bit and her heels touched over the small of her back. She looked up at him with one of those wicked expressions.
“I won’t be changing until we get back. If I do, I really will be naked.” Licking her bottom lip with a pink tongue, she was always a bit fascinated by the lack of sensation she had in some of these forms. Steel didn’t easily pick up on touch, after all. “Might as well get used to this, if you’re going to help me train.”
"You've got your bathrobe," he pointed out with a smile before taking a few more pictures. Well, it stopped him from commenting on her tongue.
"Does it make you heavier? Not that it'd be a problem, I can lift quite a bit, I'm just curious." It made sense, in Warren's mind, but then things didn't always work the way his head thought they should. He wondered for a moment if anyone had introduced Paige to Peter.
"You should definitely come into the Danger Room like that one day - the program Forge put in the other day is great." Well, he liked dinosaurs. Even if these ones weren't quite the type he'd played with as a kid.
Rolling onto her back, Paige discreetly slipped her hand between her legs to cover the most interesting parts of her body. Of course that only gave an impression of an entirely different sort, one she didn’t try to hide in her expression as she looked at the camera and Warren took another picture.
“A little, but not by much. It’s only a layer so in total, it doesn’t weigh much.”
“I want to see how it’s going to work… I know I can withstand quite a bit in this form. Bullets for one.” Arching her back, she bit her lip and couldn’t help but grin through it.
Oh, sweet Jesus.
Was she trying to get him into trouble? For some reason, Warren really didn't think that some of these shots should be sent to Bobby - firstly, because his mail could very well be being checked out, and secondly because while he was sure Bobby would enjoy them... Well, Iceboy was liable to realise that Warren had enjoyed them too.
She's got a boyfriend. One of your best friends. Eyes on the prize... No, that's not right. Focus!
"How'd you figure that out? You get shot at often, corrupting all the ... er, young, innocent sons?"
Paige laughed. "I got my brother to try it out with his pellet gun first. Then we just got lucky, I guess." She chuckled and rolled onto her side, tucking her legs up close to her.
"So." She fixed him with a mischeivous gaze. "You think we have enough?"
He snapped a few more shots before pressing a few buttons and checking out the numbers.
186 pictures. Considering he'd started with about seventeen... Warren cleared his throat and smiled.
"Yeah, I think we've got enough." Not that I'd mind continuing in the least, though.
Not all of them would be any good, even the ones that were good couldn't all be sent to Bobby. Surely they had enough variety now, though.
"If, once we get them on the laptop and have a good look, you don't like them... Well, we can always get some more, right?"
He really hoped that she'd put some clothes on before coming into his room. Not that he had anything against naked!Paige, but because he really did think he'd get himself - and her - into trouble.
Getting up, she turned away from him and stripped out of the steel skin. It was a bit more difficult, the metal cracked or bent and fell in jagged stripps to the ground. She scooped up her bathrobe and tied it around her, turning to look at him.
He'd have to know Bobby was the only reason she'd turned away. Paige just wasn't that shy.
Walking over to him, she kissed his cheek again, putting her arms around his waist. "Thanks again. He's going to love them."
It took a moment, a moment where his face was all shock and curiosity and... well, a good measure of attraction, before Warren snapped his eyes shut.
He thought it had been long enough. It hadn't. She was bending over and scooping up her bathrobe...
Oh, god.
It didn't help that she'd just kissed his cheek and put her arms around his waist.
Oh. God.
He looked up to the sky for a moment, biting his lower lip.
She's naked under that bathrobe, you know.
Apparently, his brain was having a state the obvious day. He reminded it that she also had a boyfriend, who was one of his very good friends and currently in the worst position imaginable for Warren to even be thinking that way about Paige.
Spreading his wings, he bent quickly, slipping one arm under her knees and scooping her up.
"Don't want everyone to have a... view if they look up."
Powerful strokes lifted them into the sky and back to the mansion. As far as Warren could tell, she had no idea how hard it was for him at that moment. No idea at all.
This time, having been nude in the grass with the breeze over her bare skin had relaxed her, and there was something about the day that had her feeling languid and warm. Paige tipped her head back and let her arms go, letting Warren fly her in his arms while she sighed, feeling the inertia in her own form.
"Wow..." she murmured.
Back on her feet, she smiled at him. "I'm going to throw some clothes on. Meet ya in your room?"
Clearing his throat, Warren nodded.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea."
The clothes bit, not the room bit. He still thought that the room bit could be very dangerous indeed, but now that she was out of his arms and he had something to concentrate on, things were starting to look easier to deal with.
With a nod, he headed off, throwing on a striped t-shirt when he entered his room and sitting cross-legged on the bed, his wings hanging over the edge as he opened up his laptop.
Looking at pictures of her dressed in very little wasn't much of an improvement.
Paige knocked on his door a few minutes later, peeking her head in. She'd changed into a pair of low-slung jeans and a blue tshirt, her hair windswept and yet still perfect somehow.
"How'd they turn out? We get any good ones?"
She moved to kneel beside the bed and folded her arms on his thigh, leaning to look at his laptop.
"Yeah, actually, there's some really good ones."
He'd been sorting through them, putting the less than perfect ones into a folder. Of course, there were a couple that he really loved that were just cameo pics, Paige looking gorgeous if not entirely sexy, but he didn't think they were quite the ones that Bobby would want.
"Take a look." He pushed the laptop over to her, showing the first of what he thought Bobby would like. It was one of the bedroom pictures, and as she scrolled through them she'd see about thirty really great pictures from the whole day.
"I wasn't sure if people would be reading his mail, so there's some really hot ones in another folder, you know, in case you wanted to keep some for only him to see?" Well, only Bobby and Warren, but that wasn't really the point.
"I don't know, do you think they'd keep them from him? My brother went to jail for a bit but you know, I never sent him porn." She smirked.
Getting comfortable in her position as she scrolled with one hand, her arm went around his back and she rested her hand along his back between his wings. It was the first time she'd really felt the feathers against her skin and for a moment she turned to look at them, smiling.
Her attention was soon on the pictures again. "You do a good job actually. Is it weird, the steel ones you think? I think they're pretty but is it... gross or anything?"
"I don't know if they'd keep them from him, but... You know, you don't know how many people would be looking at them?"
She was a very physical girl. He had to keep reminding himself that he was quite physical most of the time himself, and it really didn't mean anything. Just because she was hot and nice and comfortable in her skin (no pun intended) didn't mean anything.
"I like the steel ones. Especially the one with the sunlight, but it could be a bit... artsy? You know, we should have gone for ice, I bet Bobby would have liked that."
She gasped. "Oh gosh I never thought of that! We'll have to save that one for a umm... private session." Paige chuckled. Yes, she did have some things she considered just for Bobby.
"I'll make sure to credit you, how's that sound." She laughed.
"Alright, let's put that set together. Mind burning the whole set to a disc for me though? I'd love to have them. Never know what I might want them for."
"Not necessary, really."
Warren really didn't want Paige bringing him up when she was doing her thing with Bobby. For Bobby. Was it even possible for two ice people to... No, he didn't want to think about that.
"Yeah, that's all good." Unfolding himself almost reluctantly, Warren wandered to the desk and grabbed his little photo printer and a DVD. In a few moments, he had the laptop doing its thing, and he was back to sitting on the edge of the bed - this time, opposite Paige.
"Sooo... what's the plan for the rest of the day?"