kairos : peter maximoff/quicksilver

1: some Planet of the Apes shit

1973.

"Auntie Min-ji?" Roxanne Shin pleads from her spot on the couch. Tock is squirming in her arms, trying desperately to lick her face. "I really gotta go meet Charles and Hank. You know how Hank gets!"

Though the woman in front of her did know how Hank got, she just smiles and keeps pruning one of her many plants. (Honestly how did she keep them all alive? Roxy didn't know the last time either one of them had watered any of these.)
"It would do that young man some good to wait. If you wait long enough, it will be good weather."

Roxy makes an exasperated noise, setting her dog down on the floor. "Why are we talking about weather, Auntie? I'm gonna be late!"

Aunt Min ji gives her a look. "Will you?"

Roxy pouts and drops the act. "Okay, fine, I'm not supposed to go until tomorrow. But I used to go there everyday, and it's been forever. I get restless when I'm in one place for too long."

Min ji sighs. "Just help me put away my work stuff, and then you're free to go." She smiles as Roxy fist pumps and jumps up from the couch.

Her aunt worked as a nurse and was apparently exceedingly good at her job. All Roxy knew was that the hospital didn't have enough room for Min ji to store her things (Assholes) so she had to bring it all home each morning at the end of her night shift. If Roxy was her, she'd just leave it all in a bag in her car, but her aunt liked things to be dealt with care and precision, not haste.

Roxy began counting the disposable gloves and cotton balls to see if she needed to pack more.

"Do you know what the liquid metal in this thermometer is, Roxy?" Min ji tapped on the thin glass thermometer from her bag and glanced at her niece nonchalantly. That couldn't fool Roxy though; she easily recognized her aunt's lesson-telling tone.

"Mercury, right?" She guessed.

"Yes. I believe they named it after the planet Mercury because, while it's the fastest moving planet, this is the fastest moving liquid."

"That's cool," Roxy says carefully.

"People also call it quicksilver, for its startling molten silver color." Min ji explains, pausing from wrapping her stethoscope to look Roxy directly in her silver eyes. Before the girl can interrupt again, she continues. "Quicksilver can describe something that moves or changes quickly or unpredictably, or that's difficult to hold or contain. Or protect..."

Her aunt resumes her organizing. "Or a quicksilver wit." She grins. "Or a quicksilver temper. But did you know it's also one of the deadliest poisons? People once used it for cures, but it's also toxic." Min ji zips the bag shut and turns to face Roxy with a kind look. "I just want you to be careful. Sometimes the things that you think will heal you are actually hurting you, and vice versa... But make sure you don't deny yourself quicksilver if that's your cure. Do you understand me, Roxanne?"

"I don't know. Are we still talking about thermometers?" Roxy grins and dodges a playful swat. "Kidding! Yes, Auntie. I got it."

"If you say so," Min ji chuckles. "I guess you're free to go now."

"Great! Bye! Not sure when I'll be back!" Roxy yelled as she gave Tock a scratch between the ears, snatched her car keys off the counter, and ran out the front door, glitching like an old television program.

Min ji sighed. She worried about that girl.

• • • •

Roxy shoves her car keys into the back pocket of her jeans as she approaches the front doors of the mansion. There had been a car parked out front, and she was itching to find out who it was. Charles and Hank's only visitor was her, now that the school had been shut down, but maybe it was a new student! Maybe -