2013.06.03 - Yep. Gonna be an Ice Cream Night

After Peter had seen Illyana at the Great Flash Mob Riot of 2013, he may or may have not sat at the cafe where she introduced him to her brother. But she didn't go there that day. Then he came the next day. But she didn't go that day either. But on the third day-it's always the third day-he's sure she's going to be there. He's seated wearing dark glasses and having a bottle of coke. He's been having the same bottle for an hour because, duh, poor. And so he waits.

It's normally a weekend breakfast, but sometimes that doesn't work out. And so today, it's an early dinner. Or maybe late lunch. Either way, it's the weekend and the Rasputin siblings are getting together. They stroll into sight together, Illyana's arm linked through her taller brother's as they chat in Russian. Her expression is always somewhat lighter around him. Smiles that aren't tainted by sardonic humor coming more easily. She's got on those heavy boots she's partial to, but the Metropolis U T-shirt and plain jeans are pretty damned casual for the demon sorceress. She hasn't noticed Peter amidst the crowd yet as the pair are directed over to a table. Being an odd time of day for eating, the cafe's not too crowded.

Sometimes it doesn't work out because sometimes Piotr is in space. No, really. He's been telling Illyana all about it since they met for lunch/dinner/whatever. << And then Kurt brought us back to the Spacejammer and we got out of there as quickly as possible. They would have caught us except for the damage Scott did to their engines. >> He pauses to take a seat then adds << If you think the Blackbird is impressive, you should have seen the spaceship. I would love to pilot her. >>

There they are! Peter grits his teeth, trying to think of something to say. She was with her brother, which sucks, but only because he's somewhat afraid the big guy might pound him. Well, he's big, but Peter's fast. And he has to say what he has to say.

Peter stands up from his place in the corner, behind Illyana, and makes towards their table.

Illyana Rasputina is an alert sort but it's a cafe in New York and Peter's behind her. She places her order for tea while unfolding the menu before looking back to Piotr and chuckling. << Well good. I'd have been very upset if something happened to you. That's a *bit* beyond my safe teleportation distance! >> By like... a lot. In fact, she's not even sure she could. And if she did she might end up back in the time of the dinosaurs or something. << At least it wasn't aliens coming here. >> Because that's something she watches out for. << I'll have to see if we even managed to flag their ship coming in. >>

"Hi," Peter says to her back as he takes a deep breath. But then the visage of Piotr makes him widen his eyes a bit as if he momentarily forgot about him, but then was reminded. "Hi," he says to Piotr in a slightly different tone. "Look," he begins. "I'm just gonna be honest here, I saw you a couple of days ago." She knows that. Duh. She was there, Peter. "I saw you a couple of days ago, and I would have really liked to say high and to see how you were, but I didn't get the chance. So I wanted to say hi." Pause. "And see how you were."

Illyana Rasputina's brows arch upwards as Piotr looks past her and calls her name, and turns in place to look behind her. There's a slow blink of those chilly blue eyes. "Peter." It holds a measure of surprise. Greenwich is hardly Peter Parker's stomping grounds, though Spider-Man might swing on through. "Yeah. Seems like something always gets in the way, huh?" Her tone is sry, but not quite cruely mocking. Maybe it's Piotr's presence, bringing out the Nice Girl. "I'm... fine..." Now this has moved into kind of awkward territory and the silence starts to stretch.

Piotr isn't paying any attention to Peter as he talks. He's watching Illyana and judging her reaction to Peter talking. As the silence lengthens, he says "Sit." Just the one word.

"Well I just, I mean. You know," Peter stammers, but when Piotr says sit, Peter sits. After doing so, he looks over towards the big Russian, "Okay."

Illyana Rasputina's gaze flicks over to Piotr as he gives the command, and then she does smirk a bit as Peter promptly sits. A glance is given to Piotr again and finally she leans back in her chair. "I don't know how to do this." She says finally, figuring the pair of them have the best understanding of that particular failing of hers. "It's been months. I figure if we were going to still be friends or something, it wouldn't be now."

"It is not for you to do anything at the moment." Piotr tells his sister. "It is Peter's. He seems to be a nice boy and feels bad about how things ended. He is here to apologize and make amends. It is courteous of you to let him." The gaze he turns on Peter is easy to read. 'Begin.'

"Right," Peter says nervously towards Piotr. "It's just that, when things went down, I felt a certain way. Things were hard for me, and while I know why I did what I did, I didn't take your feelings into account and when I lo..." His eyes go to Piotr and then back to Illyana, "When I look back, I know that we should have at least tried to be friends. And I'm sorry for that." He looks back at Piotr with shifty eyes, wondering if that was okay.

Illyana Rasputina frowns at Piotr's explaination, but she's prone to doing that when she's thinking. So maybe it's not actually an 'I'm annoyed' frown. Entirely. She seems like she might say something, but she aborts that thought when Peter starts to talk. Then the frown deepens a bit more and... she looks over to Piotr, as if asking him as well, if that was OK. He said he's sorry, is she supposed to be OK with him now? Poor Piotr.

Piotr sits back in his chair, symbolically moving himself out of the conversation. But he's listening. Oh is he listening. "Perhaps if you explained just what it was that you were feeling and why you did what you did." He was taking notes.

Peter nods at Piotr, "Well, I'm not crazy about the girls I care about dancing with other guys. It hurts my feelings. And so rather than have that kind of thing continue, I just cut it off. It was kind of impulsive, but that's why I did it."

Peter adds, "And I'm not here looking to try and get back together. I'd like to still be friends, if it's something you'd be willing to do, but if you don't, that's okay to. I just want you to know that I'm sorry for how it ended."

Illyana Rasputina's fingertip taptaptaps the top of the table thoughtfully, the furrow in her brow showing how much she's having to work through what Peter's saying. "I didn't know. I was waiting for you. I was just... keeping myself entertained until you got there. Would you still have been hurt if I was dancing with another girl?" She got that it bothered Peter of course, but she could never quite *understand* the issue he had. "And... I dunno. Are you gonna just cut off being friends if I do something you don't like and I don't even know I'm doing it too?"

Piotr doesn't need to say anything here and drinks from the water glass.

Pete sits for a long while quietly, "I'm not sure how I would have reacted. I think if I'd been dancing with another girl, you might not have liked it. Maybe you don't think it would matter, I don't know. But that's the way I feel. And I can't predict the future. I can just tell you I'm sorry.

"If you'd been kissing her, I wouldn't have liked it. We talked about that." Illyana points out. They had to talk about it? Yeah. Apparently they did. She slides her hands down into her lap and leans back, her gaze on the table for a long moment before pushing her breath out in a sigh. "I liked it. When we were friends. But you gave me something more, and then took it away. And it was very hard to let you take that from me."

Piotr just watches everyone else in the place. He's heard it before anyway. But make no doubt that he's listening.

Peter nods, "And I appreciate that. And I'm sorry. I get the feeling that I hurt you. Maybe a lot. And that wasn't right of me to do."

Illyana Rasputina gives a short huff of breath that might have dreamed of being a laugh. "I don't think you understand how you hurt me. But then, I don't exactly understand how I hurt you, either I suppose. So what do you want here, Peter?"

Now that's a question Piotr's interested in too.

Peter shakes his head as he looks down at the table, "You know, I never really thought about that the whole time--the past few days that I've been rolling this conversation in my head. I guess I'm just hoping to have you as a friend. I miss having you in my life."

"You cannot expect her to give you an answer to that now." Piotr interupts, letting Illyana know she doesn't need to try. "She needs time."

Illyana Rasputina arches a brow at that, some of her usual smirk curving her lips. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that." She says dryly, before glancing to Piotr. "Present company excluded." Piotr speaking up has her lapsing back into silence. He's giving her the out not to put her foot in her mouth. Or potentially make a scene.

"Well, that's how I feel." Peter nods to Piotr, "No, of course not. He purses his lips and raises his eyebrows. "Think that's my cue. You guys take it easy." He stands up, grabbing his coke, and looks for the exit. It's a long way back to Queens.

Piotr shifts his gaze from Peter to Illyana.

Illyana Rasputina's gaze drops from Peter to his drink as he picks it up. The drink without any condensation to coat it like you see in the commercials to show you just how refreshing it is. "How long have you been here waiting?" She asks, instead of saying goodbye, blue eyes coming back up to look at Peter.

"About three hours," Peter says as he ducks out the front door and onto the street.

Piotr watches Peter leave then looks back to Illyana. After a moment, he says "I know a place in San Francisco that serves the best Indian ice cream. We will go get dessert after dinner, da? It will be interesting to sample their flavors."

Illyana Rasputina watches Peter leave as well, and then looks over to Piotr as he moves on to ice cream. She manages part of a smirk at him. "You're trying to make me feel better." She says. "You always give me ice cream when you think I'm feeling bad." She knows his tricks. She looks back towards the door after Peter, the smirk fading away. Yeah, she probably wants ice cream tonight.