[for Jamie]

[butterflyfactor]

There were things about the island that Layla had come to enjoy. They were little things, but they kept some fraction of her curiosity sated, so she had to appreciate them. Resenting how little of her time and energy they took up didn't help anyone. The bookshelf had books that were published in universes not her own, and they were frequently hilarious and revealing. Sometimes the island did things to the population that were really like wide-scale social experiments, albeit conducted without consent, but those were too few and far between to her liking. In general the island was boring, and as much as she tried to find the silver lining in the fact that there was a wealth of notable science fiction characters on the island to talk to and that, though she hadn't found evidence, it was highly likely that she herself was part of a work of fiction, somewhere, the sheer volume of physical crap that made up the house of cards that was Jamie Madrox's island endeavors was starting to depress her.

Mostly his ongoing investigation into the disappearances. She'd seen a few people appear, and she walked around the island and met various inhabitants and found out how they'd arrived, and she was sure to her bones that there was no rhyme, reason or pattern to be found, anywhere. No wonder Cable spent his time meditating under waterfalls- the bizarre randomness of the island and the forces behind it were enough to make an agent of chaos miffed as hell. Layla was not an agent of chaos.

If anything, I'm an agent of Control. Not 99, though. I can't pull off a beret like Barbara Feldon.

Layla was home, at the hut that she shared with Jamie, which felt a hundred miles away from anything or, more importantly by his design, anyone else. She had gone for a swim and not brought a towel, just air dried on the way back, and so was sitting with dirty feet and wild hair on the front steps, eyes fixed on the canopy of the trees and the color of the sky beyond it. Occasionally Richards would flop down next to her, edge close enough until he could stick his nose under her thigh, doze off, then wake up and run around the house for a while more before returning. Layla didn't move except to pet his head when he joined her.

She had decided she was going to watch the stars show up, and see if any of them looked familiar, or if any of them would randomly decide to be airplanes. She wouldn't put it past them.

Comments

[howmanylives]

Though Jamie had, during monsoon season, started to think about possibly relocating to a less isolated location, he was, in that moment, absolutely grateful for his home's distance from the rest of the island. Following his less than ideal conversation with Theresa a few hours prior, he'd needed the time to decompress, his heart rate spiking whenever he afforded the incident more than a passing thought -- and given what they'd talked about, it was pretty much all he could think about. While she'd had a point, saying that her love life was none of his business, it had been the only real argument she'd had in her favor, and he was filled with the sort of righteous indignation that had fueled so many of his efforts back in the real world, where Sergent Brad Colbert mercifully didn't exist.

By the time the house -- and Layla, he noted -- was in view, he was only marginally more calm than he'd been, his steps heavy against the packed dirt. Richards ran out to greet him, but he didn't pay the dog any mind, walking by him without so much as leaning down to pat his head.

"You will not believe the day I've just had."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla lowered her chin to look at Jamie, then shared a look with a perplexed terrier.

"Given our histories and present location, this should be pretty good." She leaned back on her hands and crossed her legs at the ankles.

"What happened?"

[howmanylives]

"Theresa just informed me that she's engaged to a man who has involved himself with a certain married, male ex-council member, and that, to add further insult to injury, she's not only fully aware of the situation, she's happy with him because he's, and I quote, 'normal,'" he spat out, disdain dripping off his every word as he gesticulated in punctuation. "Can you even believe that?!"

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla had the grace to look a little bewildered, and leaned forward, planting her chin in her palm as she carefully went through the information Jamie had presented to her.

"....Not really," she answered, finally.

"Not that I'm going to be casting any first stones any time soon, but I'm pretty sure the 'normal' argument is fully undermined by everything else you just said. When did this happen?"

[howmanylives]

"The engagement or the conversation?" he asked. Too tense to sit down, he stayed standing, though he did bend down long enough to drop his bag on the ground. Then he shoved his hands back over his head, fingers curling tightly in his hair as he tugged it out of sheer exasperation. "Because I only have an answer in regards to the second."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"I was operating under the assumption that the conversation happened sometime in the last few hours," Layla said. She chewed the corer of her lip.

"So she's only marrying the one person, who is involved with another married person, but no one except the two married men are involved with each other?" she asked, because she wanted to clarify, even at the risk of Jamie having an embolism.

[howmanylives]

"Well, only the lover is married," he said, rolling his eyes at the absurdity of something that even sounded remotely like a justification. It wasn't, of course. There was, he felt sure, no justifying this. "And with any luck, it'll stay that way. I mean, Terry can't possibly marry this man, it's, it's... Ludicrous! Who the hell agrees to something like that?"

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"People do traditionally go crazy when they're stranded on uncharted isles," Layla offered.

"Although..." She shrugged a little.

"Deadpool."

[howmanylives]

"Terry's taste in men has always been lacking," he said, lowering one hand from his head to gesture to himself. He was, after all, a prime example of that fact. "She just usually has the sense to not get married to them."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Layla protested at the gesture, "don't talk shit about my boyfriend."

[howmanylives]

Jamie dropped his other hand, then, flashing Layla a flat, unimpressed look, though some small part of him couldn't help but be pleased by her choice of title. In comparison to Terry's, their relationship suddenly seemed remarkably straightforward.

"Your concern is touching."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"She's a grown up," Layla said, "as much as anyone in a severely emotionally stunting profession like being a super hero can be. It seems a bizarre choice, and looking at her behavior the last time she caught someone cheating on her, an unlikely situation for her to be in, but it is her choice."

Layla shrugged.

"It doesn't actually concern me at all."

[howmanylives]

"She kissed me," he said suddenly, looking a little lost as he pressed two fingers to his cheek, touching the spot where Theresa had, in fact, kissed him just a few hours prior. "Not on the lips -- as far as I'm aware, she's been faithful to that idiot."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla watched this without so much as a lifted eyebrow. There were people with stronger moral compasses than the pair of them, so it was an interesting comment for him to make from where she was sitting.

"Would you rather she wasn't?" she asked.

[howmanylives]

"I'm not about to pull another stunt like I did back home, Layla, if that's what you're getting at," he replied, which was not what she had asked at all, but bore saying regardless. He didn't have the best of reputations. "And as for what I'd rather, I just want her to leave the guy. I realize you two have never been each other's greatest fans, but I happen to care about her well-being, alright?"

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't worried," she said, "about that. You think she's making a bad call. I can't say it sounds like the best idea I've ever heard, either. You said she's being faithful like it's a bad thing, but at least it shows she hasn't changed. If she wasn't being faithful, wouldn't that seem intrinsically worse?"

Layla rested her elbow on her knee and propped her chin on the heel of her hand, not bothering to push her hair back when it slipped from behind her ear.

"She could still come to her senses. Or maybe it truly just doesn't bother her."

[howmanylives]

"I can't believe it doesn't bother her," said Jamie with a dismissive, if irritated, wave. "Theresa Cassidy may have a greater capacity for forgiveness than most people I've ever met, but there's no way in hell she can just be okay with this. I mean, jeez, who would be?"

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"Well, then, nothing she says or does will change your mind," Layla said, "if you can't believe it. Which means there's nothing to talk about, just fight about, and it all comes down to how you want things between you and Terry to be."

[howmanylives]

Whether or not she has a point doesn't matter. My self-righteousness drowns her out.

"I don't even know what I want anymore," he said, throwing his hands up in the air before he finally stalked over to where Layla was sitting, and dropped down beside her. Pulling a face shortly after doing so, he reconsidered his previous statement. "Which isn't, admittedly, all that unusual, but..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as Richards padded over and pressed his paws to his thigh. Jamie afforded the dog a weary look before reluctantly starting to stroke his back. "Actually, no, you know what? I do know what I want -- I want my friend back. Things between us have been so strained, so... awkward this past year, and if she marries this guy, it's only bound to get worse. And I just... I can't do it anymore. My propensity for ignoring issues only extends so far, and I'm telling you, she's making a mistake."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla sighed almost silently and placed a hand on Jamie's arm. She wished she knew how this went, would have given just about anything for that little cylinder hiding in her room to have anything pertaining to the island on it, and not for the first time. It didn't, though.

"There's nothing you can do," she said.

[howmanylives]

For a long moment he simply looked at her sideways.

"I don't believe that, either," he said once the silence had become too heavy, though there was a wryness to his voice. He dislodged her hand only to slip his arm around her waist instead, scooting closer so that he could rest his head on her shoulder. Even now, after so many months, such intimacy felt as foreign to him as it did inexplicably right. "For the record."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

"I know you don't," Layla replied, leaning easily against him so her cheek was pillowed against his hair.

"Being prone to dogged pursuit is but one of your many charms. And you wonder why the island gave you a terrier." She absently curled and uncurled her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck.

[howmanylives]

"I was under the impression the island gave me a terrier because the island is annoying," he said in a monotone, his hand stilling over Richards' spine. Jamie's eyes flicked up towards Layla, though the angle meant he could only see part of her jaw. "But I'm glad you think I'm charming."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Her lips quirked wryly to one side and she tilted her head a little so she could glance down at him, raising an eyebrow.

"It's better than the alternative."

[howmanylives]

Despite already suspecting the answer, Jamie couldn't help but ask, "Which is?"

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Layla leaned back enough to make eye contact, which she held steadily for a few long moments before her expression shifted ever so subtly toward the wry, and she said, "Not thinking you're charming."

[howmanylives]

"Thanks for the clarification, dollface," he said, brows arched as he lifted his head from her shoulder. He leaned forward, then, to press a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth, lingering for a moment even though his mind was elsewhere. Eventually, he met her gaze again, eyes sliding back into focus as he considered her, only then noticing the state of her hair. He didn't comment on it, and instead tucked one errant curl behind her ear.

"For all the innumerable ways," he murmured, half to himself, "I'm guaranteed to mess up this thing between us, you have my word that that won't be one them."

[butterflyfactor.livejournal.com]

Right back at ya, detective.

"Good to know," she said, solemnly enough but not sounding especially worried. Then, because they were sitting close and he was upset, she slid one of her hands over his and squeezed a little.