Work Text:
Jono turns the TV on in the bar and stands in front of it. No one pays much attention at first; he's got the volume down low and there's nothing on that anyone else wants to watch. It's almost an hour before someone glances over.
London's burning.
Every time the news channel cuts to footage of Croydon fire leaks through the bandages around Jono's face, but otherwise he betrays no reaction.
The bar begins to fill up as the evening wears on. Rahne emerges from a knot of New Mutants and joins Jono at the TV.
"Birmingham's gone up," she says quietly. "Manchester too, and Bristol. I wouldn't be surprised if Glasgow went too."
He gives her a sideways look, but stays silent. After a moment his gaze returns to the TV.
She watches with him for a while, but eventually returns to her friends.
She's not the only X-man to join him over the course of the evening. Sometimes there's a small crowd around the TV, sometimes Jono's alone. Kitty stands beside him for a while. When they show Clapham Junction she starts to cry. Piotr pull her into a hug and leads her away. He dials Pete Wisdom's number for her, and she talks to him in a broken whisper she's finally reassured that he and the rest of eXcalibur are fine. They're doing their best to help the police calm things down, but it's just too big, it's too widespread. All they can do, he says, is wait it out. Come morning it'll just be smoke and broken glass and overtired teenagers.
The bar's beginning to empty when Remy takes his turn in joining Jono's vigil.
"If you were there, ami, what would you do?"
Jono blinks. For the first time since he switched the news on he seems to be back in the bar.
-I dunno,- he says. -Join the rioters, probably. Got more in common with them than the other lot.-
"Really?"
Jono shrugs. -Dunno,- he says again.
"You wish you were there." It's not a question.
-Yeah. At least then...- He sighs. It's a strange sensation that ruffles minds across the island, though only Remy is close enough to know what it is. -It's home.- He says.
"I was here when Katrina hit N'awlins," Remy says. "Well, not here."
-But 'here'. Yeah.-
"Oui."
Remy puts a hand on Jono's shoulder. Jono leans into the touch, a slight shift of his weight invisible to any onlookers, though they're pretty much alone in the bar now.
"You should get some sleep, ami."
-I don't sleep any more.-
"Then you should get some air."
Remy leans forward and turns the television off. He keeps his hand on Jono's shoulder and uses it to steer him out of the bar. The cold air hits them as soon as they get outside, the sound of the waves lapping against the island unpins the sense of solitude. They're not alone, though.
"Hey, London! No setting Utopia on fire." Daken leans against a broken rail, ragged metal bent towards the ocean where Colossus hurls someone through it last week. "I predict a riot," he sings. Badly.
Remy's hand tightens on Jono's shoulder. Jono rolls his eyes, and Remy swears if the boy could he'd be smiling. He feels in it in the back of his mind, a sardonic twist of the lips and a sense of dark, dark humour swirling like oil.
-This place isn't worth setting on fire,- Jono tells Daken. -You have to care about a place to be so hurt by it you want to hurt it in return.- He shrugs, an easy gesture that dislodges Remy's hand. Remy fills his now empty fingers with a cigarette. -You might as well set fire to a hotel while you're staying there.-
"Maybe if the service was bad enough," Daken says.
-Nah. Maybe if you worked there, though,- Jono says. -I might set fire to you if you don't fuck off, though.-
It's said with the same casual tone he used to talk about the hotel, and it takes Daken a moment to realise he's serious. Remy watches him square Jono up, throw his shoulders back in the beginning of pre-fight posturing, but something in Jono's eyes dissuades him. He leaves without another word.
"Do you want me to go?" Remy asks.
-Are you going to be a twat?- Jono asks.
"Non."
-Then stay.- They take Daken's place at the rail. Jono accepts a ciagrette from Remy and lights it under the bandages, holds it between two fingers and watches it burn, flecks of hot ash catching on the wind and darting over the waves like short-lived fireflies. -When did you go back?- he asks.
"Back?"
-After Katrina.-
"I haven't," Remy admits.
-Do you want to come to London with me?-
Remy nods.
-Then New Orleans.-
Remy's fingers tighten on the rail. Jono waits patiently, until finally Remy nods.
-Plan, then.-