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poster: nacey date: 2 August 2001, 1:08pm EST It didn't matter how many cold showers I took, how long I kept my pillow in the bar fridge in my room, or how many times I entertained myself, I could not get to sleep. No amount of titty mags smuggled to me by fellow students would help either, in fact I told Bobby to go get laid for once in his life. 'Lucky bastard,' I thought. 'He was *allowed* to get laid. If he got caught in the act, he'd get slapped on the shoulder and told to use protection. Nooo, not Max Stockard. Max Stockard has to be a freakin' animal, with all these stupid rages and hormones and urges and junk.' Max growled and clawed at the kitty play jungle Jubilee had bought him for a joke. Sadly, it ended up being quite useful. He knew there was another reason why the sex thing was a no go. Too young. His body knew nothing of too young or too old. All it knew was that it needed contact, skin, touch, breath, sweat, lips touching, saliva... Oh geez there he went again. He paced, thumping his head on a handy wall when he could. He needed to get sex out of his mind. He needed to get Sarah out of his mind. No, all his brain allowed him to do was remember her fighting, her ducking, weaving, rolling on the ground, falling beneath him, the give of her flesh underneath his hands. Dear GOD! He thumped his head again. 'This isn't YOU dude,' he said to himself, 'You're not a fucking sex maniac! You don't even GET girls, you pine from afar and mope on your own!' Sweat broke out on his brow, and he gripped his hands together. The claws met his flesh, the large pads of his pseudopaws squeezing together. Calm Max, calm... He jumped up, throwing on a pair of grey school sweat-pants and padded from his room. With his feet bare, it could be seen they weren't just feet, they were elongated into the structures of the cat's back feet. Sort of. They were built as so he could walk bipedally too. His freaky mutant genes weren't stupid. He fell to all fours, galloping lazily down the main corridor, and he kept loping along till he found the door to the gymnasium. He would have preferred the Danger Room, but he was only allowed access to that whilst the X-Men were awake. He galloped over to the punching bag, leaping upon it, kicking it, rolling away and steadying himself for another attack. Hopefully the fight, the exertion, it would wake him up, snap him out of it, something. The cool air braced around the bare slivers of flesh on his chest, back and arms that were surrounded by soft gold fur dappled with black spots. He kicked, growled, rumbled, attacked, ducked. He fought, and fought, and kept fighting. Just so he could stop thinking, just for a moment.
poster: Amezri date: 3 August 2001, 1:45am EST Kurt loved the shroud that darkness provided and the freedom it allowed him. Lately, though, he desired companionship; someone to share the night with. Cassie had always been more than understanding, which was rare among mutants who looked... normal. The only other mutant at Xavier's whose mutation caused physical abnormalities was Max. As much as Kurt liked the teenager, he didn't "swing that way," as Jubilee would say. Spotting the vine of moonflowers on an old tree stump, Kurt carefully snapped off a bloom-covered tendril. "For you, Zauberin." "What's a 'zauberin'?" Cassie had asked when Kurt first started calling her that. He'd shake his head and laugh, not giving a definitive reply. Judging by his reaction, Cassandrea thought the remark derogatory and turned to an online dictionary. She discovered that the German word could mean either fairy or sorceress. To get back at him, she started calling him "Duende" -- Spanish meaning elf or goblin -- the next day. Smiling, Cassandrea gingerly took the nightblooming flowers from Kurt's outstretched hand. "They're beautiful. Thank you." The odd pair made their way to one of large maple trees. Cassie sat on the worn bench and laughed as Kurt lunged onto a low branch, hunging upside down like an acrobat on a swing. He teleported from branch to branch before settling back on the first one and sitting back on his haunches like a cat, tail flicking behind him. Cassie giggled. /Two can play that game,/ she thought with a sly smile. Cassandrea turned the lower half of her body into a serpentine form, easily leveling herself with Kurt. The nightcrawler slitted his yellow eyes and flashed his fangs. With his trademark *bamf*, he teleported himself halfway across the lawn. Cassie shifted fully to her liquid form and spiraled towards him, looking a great deal like a stream of water. A split second before she reached him, Kurt teleported himself a hundred yards away. Cassandrea changed her trajectory easily enough. Again, Kurt just teleported a split second before she was about to tackle him. With a new strategy in mind, Cassie stopped and spun to face him. Reshaping herself to look more like, well, herself, she stepped slowly towards him and took deep breaths. "Goddess Gaia hold him fast," she chanted under her breath. "Let not his feet leave your ground. Let not his body move through your air. 'Til I touch his mortal flesh." The concentration necessary for this kind of spell was extraordinary. She'd only performed it successfully once. On a small squirrel. "Um, Cass," Kurt said, slightly panicked. He struggled against invisible bonds unable to move. He'd seen Cassie perform small feats - a floating pencil here, a spark of fire there - all things that his adoptive gypsy family had been capable of, but nothing like this. "Tag, Duende, you're it," she chuckled, tapping him on the forehead and shifting back to her flesh and blood form. "That wasn't funny," he scowled. "I really couldn't move." "That was the *point*, silly," Cassandrea giggled, throwing an arm around Kurt's hunched shoulders. "Besides, why didn't you just teleport?" "Oh, you mean like this?" Kurt threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold and teleported both of them back to the maple tree. "Whoa. That was.. that was.." "Disconcerting?" "So cool!" Cassandrea's face lit up like a kid at Christmas. "Can we do that again?" Kurt smiled. "Perhaps another night. Teleporting another person is a bit... taxing." "It's a date. Thanks for bringing me along with you tonight." Cassie placed a quick kiss on his fuzzy cheek. "We'd better be getting back. I have class in the AM." Kurt nodded in agreement and the two made their way back towards the mansion. OOC: You know, I was gonna set up a Brotherhood plot here... but I changed my mind. Oh well.
poster: Jen date: 4 August 2001, 12:28am EST OOC: I have been seriously stuck. This isn’t an unstuck - this is a punt. Sarah sighed and stripped her clothes off, folding them neatly, she placed them on a chair and set out her boots for her morning run before climbing into bed. I can’t remember the last time an adult actually talked to me. Not yelled, not ordered, but talked as if I were a person, like Logan did tonight. Like Mama used to. He said he’d give me lessons; teach me to control the urges. I’m not sure if I like that idea or not. I’d like to have some control, I mean, it’d be nice not to be jumping the first guy I see, but then again, there’s something to be said for cutting loose... Bad thoughts. Very bad thoughts. Thoughts that will lead you to seeing if you can scent out Max and finish... nope not going there. I am not a slut. Not. I am in control of myself and my actions. Who the hell am I kidding? The last five school said I had ‘impulse control problems.’ I’ve just never had them about sex before. That was the one area of my life I had under control. Knew it couldn’t last. Sarah settled down beneath her electric blanket, feigning sleep when Cassandrea returned to the room. She smelled of sulphur and flowers and a man. So Cassie had a boyfriend. Maybe she could give better advise than: ‘take a cold shower and wait until you’re eighteen,’ which was all Mr. Logan could come up with in the short term. Usually sleep came quickly and easily, especially after heavy exertion. But not tonight. Tonight, when she closed her eyes, she saw him stalking through the trees, his eyes reflecting the moonlight. Images of what might have been flashing relentlessly, returning to play insistently no matter how hard she tried to banish them. Savagely, Sarah grabbed the blanket controls and turned it off, hoping that a serious drop in body temperature would let her sleep. It didn’t. Hours later, she finally gave up, tossing off the covers and dressing quietly as not to disturb the sleeping Cassandrea, headed down to the gym.
poster: nacey date: 5 August 2001, 3:22pm EST I'd been bashing the stuffing out of the shiny black punching bag for a full half hour when the scent that had been haunting me peaked and tickled my senses. I froze, hearing a movement, praying to God that it *wasn't* her, that perhaps Cassandrea was going for a late night hot cocoa and decided to walk completely our of her way to the gym and accidentally smell like Sarah. This wild hope fell down for two reasons. First, the person in the doorway didn't smell like Cassandrea would smell from hanging out with Sarah. She smelt like what Sarah would smell like after hanging out with Cassandrea. The smell had a distinct effect on me. My fur sprang to life (as well as other parts, embarrassingly enough), and I had the urge to race over there and divest her of her modesty as well as letting my tongue meet her tonsils and have a nice little party. I was going insane, that was it, completely and utterly insane. I looked back to the punching bag and gave it hell. "What are you doing here?" Her voice was deceptively small sounding at that moment. "I'm thumping an inanimate object," I said, sounding a little terse. "Could ask you the same thing." She looked around herself and shrugged. "I felt like giving something a good thump too." She pointed to the punching bag. "You beat me to it." With a shrug I stepped back, pointing to the bag and sinking onto the floor nearby, leaning against the cold concrete wall. She cocked a lip at me, and I pulled off my hand wraps and threw them aside. After a moment of watching me carefully, she began her assault of the punching bag. "So you like to watch huh?" she said, voice shaken by the force of her blows. I nearly choked. Confusion blasted through me, as half of me wanted to say "Yeah baby, let's make something of it," and "Who me? No, I mean yes I mean - Mommy!" I opted for smiling weakly. "You're good. It's rare to see someone near my age fight like they know what they're doing." She eyed me as she struck the vinyl coated canvas target in front of her. "I thought you all learnt fighting here." I shrugged. "They do. A lot of the students just don't do it very well." She nodded and got back to it. The shudder of her muscles as she impacted with the punching bag, the way she blew her lips out, the way her skin was a cool unaffected tone, it all got under my skin, making my arms twitch, my knuckles whiten as I gripped my hands together. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth, trying to force back the raging inside of me. I leapt up, pacing back and forth, flexing my claws and growling deeply. "You shouldn't have come here," I said, "You don't want me around you right now." She turned from the punching bag, ticking a brow. "Why's that?" It was a question she asked just for the sake of getting me flustered, I could tell. I ran my hands through my hair before sinking onto my haunches, my ears ticking around, changing their direction. "I dunno what's wrong with me," I said. "I dunno how to control it. Logan says-" "Logan says a lot of things," she said. "Doesn't mean all of them is right." "He's right about this," I said, gulping, thumping my head to the floor. I was so frustrated, so burning up with need that I wanted to cry. "I'm not like this!" I cried, "I'm not a God-damned animal!" I wasn't expecting the touch on my shoulder. It was cool, calming, and when I glanced up at her she looked afraid, but it didn't seem to be of me, of what I was. Her eyebrows tilted up, her face almost a frown, but she looked more sad than anything. I skidded backward, raking my claws over my body, just to get them into something, resisting something. Of course the skin knitted itself right up, only a lick of blood remaining. The pain distracted me. Hopefully the sight of me mauling myself would put her off. She just looked alarmed. "Don't do that," she said. She seemed surprised at herself when she muttered this. "Why not?" She shrugged. "I don't know," she turned away, "I don't care, I don't." I turned away, crawling on my 'paws', grinding my head against the wall. It stopped me racing over to her, it stopped me wanting to mark her as mine and keep her for always. It was insane, crazy behaviour. Shit like that belonged in mental hospitals, not schools, or gymnasiums, or in front of gorgeous girls. "I'm sorry," I said, my voice a painful moan. "I'm sorry you're seeing this. You should go, you shouldn't see this."
poster: Jen date: 5 August 2001, 4:17pm EST Sarah stalked out of the gym, hoping she could get somewhere private before the tears started. You come onto him and he jumps away like you were diseased. No. Not diseased. A freak. A freak that not even somebody with fur and claws would want. I could see in his eyes how wanting me disgusted him. Well screw him - well not literally. Anyone who’d rather slice their own skin open than touch me can just go to hell. I don’t need him. I don’t need anybody. Sarah reached the base of the stairs and looked around not sure where to go. Breakfast would be starting soon, but she’d eaten yesterday. The gym and sauna were out. Max didn’t want the lizard anywhere near him. "Who can blame him?" a little voice taunted. Her tears fell of their own volition and Sarah wrapped her arms tightly around herself and headed back to her room. Hopefully, Roommate Code would prevent Cassandrea from blabbing that the new girl was crying already.
poster: Amezri date: 5 August 2001, 9:16pm EST
OOC: Thanks to Jen for the real-time chat assist as Sarah! Much (okay, all) of the Sarah dialog here is hers. Go, cooperative authoring Cassandrea was up and showered by 6:30am, which was impressive considering her late night out with Kurt. "What a goofball," she giggled as she rinsed the conditioner out of her hair. "A really cute goofball." She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off, making her way towards her overly packed closet. Cassandrea pulled on a navy tank top and a pair of denim jeans just as Sarah entered the room and shut the door behind her. "Hey," she said softly, noticing the younger girl was crying. "What's wrong? Are you okay?" Sarah wiped at her tears and scowled. "I'm fine." She grabbed her duffle bag and began packing her meager personal posessions. "Damn, that bad huh?" Cassie joked. Sarah glanced at her soon to be former roommate. "Whatever. I'm outta here." /Oh, gods. She's really leaving,/ Cassandrea paniced. "No, wait. I mean, do you wanna talk about it?" "Nothing to talk about. He's just like the rest of them," the exotherm growled. "Who... you mean Max? What did he do? Am I going to have to kill someone?" Cassie fumed, only half-joking. She'd barely known Sarah for a day, but she was already in over-protective mode. "Nope, he didn't do a damn thing. And if I need anyone dead, I'll do it myself," Sarah hissed, slinging the bag over her shoulder. "Wait, just hold on a second. Please? Look, I know we haven't known each other that long, but I wanna help." Cassandrea pleaded, hoping that Sarah's need for a friend was greater than her need to flee. After a short pause, Sarah dropped her bag and sank heavily on the bed. "I thought... I didn't think it bothered him..." Cassandrea frowned, slightly confused. "Didn't think what bothered him?" "What else?" Sarah snarled, holding up a bare hand. "You don't mean your mutation?" She hadn't been expecting this, but the look on Sarah's face was all the confirmation Cassie needed. "Sarah, I know Max. I mean, with the crap he's put up with, he just... he *wouldn't* do that to someone." Sarah looked up, tears forming in her eyes. "Yeah well you weren't there." She blinked her blue eyes and wiped the tears with the back of her hand. "We still shopping today?" /I.. I guess that means she's staying,/ Cassandrea thought. /Good. I just... just gotta remember not to defend Max too much right away, 'cause she's not going to want to hear it right now./ "Yeah," she finally nodded. "We're going shopping today. I have class from 9 to 1, so I should be back by 3, okay? And I'll try to keep Rogue off your back while we're out." /That's the last thing that she needs right now./ "You wanna go get breakfast in the meantime?" Sarah shrugged. "I ate yesterday, but I guess I could come down and grab a coffee." She hoped to god that Max wouldn't be there.
poster: nacey date: 6 August 2001, 9:07am EST She left. She turned and left, and the animal inside began howling. Once she was gone, I did what I felt like. I ripped off my clothes and began racing around the room on all fours, ripping and scratching at the equipment, letting my inner beast howl and rage. The sounds that came from me where like none I'd made before. They weren't just throaty growls or guttural grunts. They were hollow-chested full bottle roars. Like tigers do. Bellowing roars that echoed off the walls. I did that for some time, till I became utterly exhausted. My claws were tatters, my body slick with sweat, blood dry on my body where I mauled myself. I had upset her. I'd pushed her away. All I wanted to do was protect her, make sure I didn't hurt her. She didn't deserve to be hurt by me. I loped to bed, my clothes sticking to me as I went, and my shower didn't wake me up at all. As I fell into bed, I thought of Sarah, and when I slipped into a dead sleep, I had a brief dream of her. I held her softly in that dream, and we were sleeping side by side. It surprised me. In such a state I expected a more violent sexual dream, but it was the kind of dream most fourteen year old teenybopper girls have. It was nice. The next morning I was woken by a thwap to the head with one of my pillows. I growled, one of those new scary growls I wasn't used to, and Wolverine just cocked a brow at me. "You've slept in," he said, "Get up." I looked down at myself, at my hands. The faint smell of my blood was in the room, and my claws were now immaculately regrown. I swallowed, looking back up at Wolverine. "Sorry." "T's'awright," he said, turning a chair around and sitting astride it, his arms leaning on the back of it. "You were up late last night in the gym?" "Taking your advice," I said. "I don't think I told you to mutilate yourself," he said evenly. "It stopped me from fucking Sarah senseless," I said. "She left. I think I offended her." "She'll get over it," Wolverine said, shrugging. "Buy her some flowers or something." I blinked at him like he was mad. "Dude - have you talked to her at all? If I bought her flowers she'd shove them fair up my ass!" Wolverine just smirked. "Kid, she's a girl. A woman. They wanna feel special. And they are special - you just gotta show Sarah that." I snorted. "Why do you care? I thought you didn't want me touching her." "No, I don't want you getting her pregnant or getting her hurt," Wolverine replied, "Different thing entirely. There's no rules against dating. If there were it wouldn't just be you climbin' the damned walls." I nodded and grabbed one of the kitty scratching poles, sharpening and shortening my nails with deep gouging clenches. Throwing it aside, I went to my wardrobe and sighed. "Is she out having breakfast?" "Dunno," Wolverine said. "Go find out. And be back by this afternoon for training okay? I'm going to teach you some control techniques." "Control?" He got up, nodding. "Yeah. Stop you destroying any more equipment for the Professor." I blushed. "Sorry about that." "He understands," Logan said. "Just don't do it again." "Right," I nodded. "Right." It was near nine, and I should have been in history class with Storm. Obviously Logan didn't mind me doing otherwise, but that didn't mean Storm would appreciate me goofin' off. Honestly, I don't think she'd want me in her class with the way I've been behaving. Flowers. It was such a stupid idea. Sarah just didn't seem the kind of girl who's appreciate that kind of shit. Wolverine was older though, and obviously had some experience. I dunno. All I knew was that I'd hurt Sarah, and I had to make it up to her, or I'd go even more crazy. It was weird, feeling what I was feeling, feeling that it was important. I dunno why, but she was important, important for more than the fact that she made me feel less weird. I knew I made her feel less weird somehow. I covered myself in gloves, pulling a beanie over my ears. I threw on a long sleeved sweater and pants. In all honest I'd prefer a singlet or something, seeing as my slivers of fur and high metabolism kept me above human temperature and therefor quite warm, but it wasn't an option with my bizarre appearance. The fur on my jaw and neck was often mistaken for exoticly dyed facial hair, so that was okay. Though people assuming that I'd go and choose to have leopard print facial hair is kinda worrying. The mall was packed that day, and it did everyting to irritiate me. Stupid girls and effeminate men were spraying pungent and headache inducing perfumes in my face, smiling blandly and asking me to buy cK. I wished they had *my* sense of smell. They'd realise how toxic their shit smelt and put it the fuck away. Through the head spins and the overpowering scents, I thought I smelt her. Just an echo, I thought. I found the florist stand that I'd seen plenty of times, and felt like a right dink standing there. A completely ridiculous problem presented itself to me. What kind of flowers do you buy a girl that could beat the shit out of you in under five seconds? There was a strange arrangement in front of me, with some exotic looking jungle flowers there. Orchids or something. They were surrounded by some funny big grass shoots, probably palm leaves. I leant forward to sniff it. It didn't really have much of a smell at all. It was really quite beautiful though, a deep rich purple with a violently yellow and white centre. I pointed to that set, and nearly fainted when I heard how much it costed. I bought it anyway. Surely the Professor wouldn't mind me using my allocated Am-Ex card for the first purchase I've made in six months. I took the bunch of flowers, absolutely dying. In the engulfing sweet scents of the flower stand, the nearby doughnut shop and the cK drones, I'd not smelt her distinctly close by. She was close by, however, because I ran right into her, bunch of flowers under my nose. It was right about then I wanted to crawl up my own ass in embarrassment. Cassandrea glanced at me, at the flowers, and smiled. Ohhhh great.
poster: Amezri date: 6 August 2001, 10:40am EST
OOC: Thanks to Nacey for the Max assist. Poor guy Shopping with Sarah was easier than Cassandrea had thought. Her roommate was a simple t-shirt and jeans girl, so a stop at Abercrombie and the J. Crew outlet had taken care of Sarah's basic outfit needs. Rogue skipped the next stop at Forever 21, opting to shop at the Fredrick's of Hollywood. Sarah cringed as Cassie dragged her into the brightly lit store. She was *not* wearing any of the trashy outfits in here. After resisting all of the items Cassandrea waved in her face, the older girl finally gave up. "Let's get out of here. I think I've got enough." Sarah lifted the shopping bags to emphasize her point. Cassie frowned. She had hoped to get Sarah into something a little more... boy-friendly. The pair exited the store, on their way to find the third member of their party, when someone walked right into Cassandrea. "Max?" Cassandrea furrowed her brow. /Max is *not* a mall person. What's he-- hey.. are those orchids? Did he.../ She couldn't keep the smile from spreading across her face. /Fuck. Could this be anymore embarassing? Oh geez, Cassandrea looks like she's gonna break out laughing. Yeah, laughing at the big dumb idiot. Look at me. I'm standing here in a mall holding fuckin' flowers./ Max stepped back and apologized quickly to Cassie. "Uh.. hi...um.. these are for you," he said, shoving the exotic flowers at Sarah. Cassie watched as Sarah -- who was very confused -- stared at Max, then the flowers, then back at Max again. Max, meanwhile, tugged at his beanie, looking for all the world like he expected Sarah to kick the crap out of him.
poster: Jen date: 7 August 2001, 5:48am EST OOC: Thanks to Nancy for the Max approval. I better head off to work and be a productive citizen. In typical Sarah fashion, my confusion came blurting out before I could stop it. "Why?" Cassie hissed in my ear, "Dude, when a guy brings you flowers you don’t ask why." "Why not?" I hissed back, glaring at Max wondering if I should break his kneecaps or move up to something more painful...like his ribs and his kneecaps after that crap in the gym. I mean having human guys recoil at the touch of my skin is one thing, having another mutant do it... it was much - much worse - especially another mutant who knew the hunt and that thrill like I did."Cause you just don’t. Take them and say thank you." "Thank you." I took the flowers really looking at them for the first time as Rogue made some lame excuse about needing a bathroom and dragged Cassie away. "I’m sorry about his morning..." Max trailed off; looking for all the world like he wished the ground would swallow him whole.I already knew the why and didn’t really want to hear him say it out loud. That would just be too masochistic. "How’d you know about the orchids?" She still sounds pissed. I knew flowers were a stupid idea. "Orchids?" "Yeah," Sarah replied gesturing with the exotic blossoms. "Orchids." "You don’t like orchids?" I wish she’d just beaten the crap out of me. It would have been over faster and would have been a lot less painful than this. "My mother grew them." Well that’s good. I think. "When she died, The General destroyed them all." Or maybe not. This was a seriously bad idea. Now she just sounds sad. She’s sniffing the flowers and darting out her tongue. Wonder what that’s about. Maybe smell. Snakes smell with their tongues, I think. That’s a little weird to watch. "You want ice cream?" Wolverine is always bringing Marie ice cream. I think it kinda goes with the flowers thing. I don’t know. But right now I’d do anything that got me out of standing in the middle of the walkway trying to talk. "Cold blooded girl and you offer ice cream. Is your hat too tight?" Shit. I didn’t think about that. But she’s smiling so I guess I didn’t fuck up too bad. "How about coffee?" Whoa. My groveling is over that quick? Must buy flowers more often. Or else, she’s just setting a trap. "Don’t think coffee and orchids obliterate you being an ass." "I didn’t want to hurt you." "Well you did." That’s it Sarah. He apologizes comes to the mall, buys you flowers and you just have to twist the knife. Damn. That’s harsh and she used that soft little voice. Ow. "That’s not what I meant. Well, it is but..." she looks confused. Well that makes two of us. "I didn’t want to hurt you physically. I had so little control and you touched me and..." "I heal, Max." "I know, but it - it shouldn’t... I don’t want it to be like that. I don’t want to wake up and wonder if - if I forced you or - " "It wasn’t about my skin being cold?" "Is that what you thought? Sarah," he whispered, "I think your skin is neat. It doesn’t bother me at all." "Sorry. People have always..." "Hey. Not me. Like I'd have any room to complain about strange physical characteristics." Hey that got a laugh out of her. Not bad. "We okay?" "Yeah. And thank you for the flowers. They must have cost a fortune. Cassie put you up to this?" "No," Max answered sheepishly. "Wolverine." Sarah grinned and leaned forward to kiss Max on the cheek. "Then I'll have to thank him too."
poster: nacey date: 7 August 2001, 3:16pm EST She hadn't hit me, and she wanted to have coffee. Inside I was relentlessly thanking God, the quiet appreciation on Sarah's face making me want to write a sonnet. Not that I knew how to write one of those, but if I did, I would have written one, and she's leaning towards me... Her lips touched my cheek, silky and cool, and a purr involuntarily shuddered through me. She cocked a brow at me and I blushed. "Sorry." "It's okay," she said. "It's cute." Ohhh and there was the blushing thing again. I didn't notice till we were walking away that her hand was in mine. She looked down. "It's so warm..." "Huh?" I glanced down at it. "What is?" "Your hand," she said, "Like a-" "Cat," I supplied. "Like a cat." She nodded. "Yes. Warmer than a human." "Mom used to joke about putting me at the foot of her bed to make her feet warm, my skin was so hot. She was terrified that I was sick or something at first, but I wasn't. It was one of the first aspects of my mutation to turn up. Weird thing was - they put it down to high hormone levels. Never thought to check if I was a mutie." "Probably didn't wanted to," Sarah replied. We found a little cafe, and we sat down at a table. I fiddled with the table number stand as we waited, the very tips of my claws sticking through the wool of my gloves and tinking on the metal. "You hungry?" "No," she said. "Not that I'm knockin' you back but... low metabolism, reptile thing. Doesn't make for a big appetite." I curled a lip and smiled. "Funny." "What?" "I have to curb mine or I'd eat the Professor out of house and home." Sarah smiled then. It felt good to see her relaxing, enjoying herself. That urge to make her naked and play how-do-you-do was still there, but the talking, the time spending, the being in public thing - it was helping. A little, anyways. One of the waitresses came over and we ordered. I wanted waffles, cause I hadn't eaten yet that day. Sorry sir, that's a breakfast item only, was my reply. Sarah covered a smile and I sighed. Fine, I thought, have it your way. I ordered a coffee and tray of toasted sandwiches. I tried to be as neat and as civil as possible with my meal, and the waitress stared at me as I started with my gloves still on. Sarah just stared at her back, and I felt her cool touch on my arm. I looked up at her, at her serene blue eyes, and I smiled. "Thank you." She shrugged. "It's no problem." I soon finished off my meal, and we chatted over coffees, the orchid between us. I told her about my regular childhood, playing with GI-Joes, watching He-Man, being a bit of a geek at school and always keeping to myself. She told me about her rather irregular childhood, about being a girl amongst boys, about a father that was obsessed with the military, about a life of controls and rules. No wonder the freedom of the chase and the hunt appealed to her so much. Her first realisations of her mutation were as frightening to her as they were to me, and they only helped me become even more isolated in myself. I think it was the same way for her too. "So," I fiddled with my gloves, claws tapping the table. Okay, I was nervous. "What do you wanna do now?"
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