Mixing Business with Pleasure (Kealey)

Tiny things were cute. That was the general rule of the world. The smaller, the more adorable. Minuscule dogs had one up on greyhounds, with the only exception being Scrappy Doo. That's what brought Shin to the 20-minute mark of his office-training session. That, and the words of certain empaths and coffee-boys, and the image of dashing tuxes.

And so, he focused on the triangle-tot. Shin worked the itsy-bitsy shape into line with its construct brethren, and things were good. He'd make a miniature pyramid, the likes of which Ancient Egyptians had never imagined. And then, he'd make more... if he could figure out the math.

A voice came in on the intercom. A familiar voice. The pyramid vanished as Shin moved forward to respond.

>> ”It’s Kealey, Shin, I’m here to meet with Sam about the uniforms.”

"Be done there in a second," Shin replied. He got up from his seat, and walked down to the main gates. He smiled at Kealey as they swung open. "Hey there. Been a while. Follow me, and I'll take you to Sam's office..."

Shin turned, and lead. As they went through the doors to the mansion, Shin glanced back at her. "So. Uniforms? How are those coming?"

They moved across the carpet of the main hall, towards Sam's office, as they spoke.

>>”We should do that again sometime.” ”Er…I meant the going out part…the fun stuff…not the uh….”

Shin opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. Um. He'd momentarily forgotten that he'd spooned with her. It hadn't been an attraction thing, after all, just a platonic enjoyment of warmth. The going out part, yes. That had been okay. Fun, also. They might have to do it again some time, indeed.

"Remind me to stalk Aurum for that recipe, next time we go out..." He met Kealey's eye with a jokingly-serious look. Cheesecake Oreo Brownies... Aurum was an angel... or maybe, the Devil in disguise.

As they reached the doors, he asked her about the uniforms. Shin remembered they'd talked about those that night, too.

>>”They’re good. I’ve got two finished already. Thought I’d bring them to see what Sam thinks.”

Kealey replied.

"That's good," Shin nodded. "I've been working a bit on my own. Once I start up college, I'll be able to get a bit further..." He still hadn't found out if he'd gotten in. He'd need the math, if he was making a tuxedo out of tinyshards. So far, all he'd managed was tiny pyramids...

>>”Why do there have to be so many teenagers here?”

Shin looked at Kealey with a grin. "We lure them here with promises of free education and a place to live," he deadpanned. "Like the pied piper of Hamlin."

>>”How’s things with you? Things have been pretty quiet in the city lately…at least as far as I’ve seen.”

"Better," Shin replied. "Now that I know what I'm doing, and don't have as much worry on my mind..."

"And, thanks... I couldn't have made the decision without you..." For a moment, Shin was quiet. It had been a tough decision, breaking up with Kasumi. He'd needed both Kealey and Aurum to help him with it. But now that it was over, he felt better... that much, he knew.

His mood shifted as they approached Sam's office. Shin swung up the cheerful, yet-serious, facade, and knocked on Sam's door.

"Hey, Sam. Clothes-designer, here to see you. Can I come in?" He kind of wanted to see the costumes Kealey had made. He wasn't certain if Sam wanted him to see them, yet. Sam certainly hadn't talked with him about his own.

Kealey had to laugh when Shin pointed out that he was going to have to stalk Aurum for the oreo cheesecake brownie recipe, ”I told him that those brownies would only lead to stalking.” she said, shaking her head in amusement, ”But if you manage to figure them out, you’d better make sure you tell me.”

Shin pointed out that he was getting ready to start college, and Kealey grinned over at him, ”So you decided to go through with it! That’s excellent Shin!” she exclaimed, glad that so much good had come out of that night. More than anything, the sense of camaraderie that she’d developed with Shin and Aurum. It was nice to have people she felt she could rely on. Even if Shin preferred to make his own costume, rather than relying on her for one, she shrugged it off…the concept Shin had come up with was pretty awesome.

”Well, if it turns out you need a backup, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.”

His response to her comment about teenagers warranted a laugh from the blond and she nodded her head, ”It must be that way….because it’s as emotionally conflicted in here as any high school I’ve ever seen.” She was doing pretty well though, apparently there wasn’t too much drama at the moment.

The topic of conversation veered back to the night they’d spent in the bar, and the decision that had been made. Kealey had to admit that she was a little relieved to hear Shin say thanks for what had happened. Kealey could tell from his emotions that he was earnest too. She cast him her own grateful look, ”I’m glad to hear it…I never know how people are going to react..even if they ask me to use my powers. Conversely…thanks for listening to my rants…I need to tell Aurum too.”

Before long they arrived at Sam’s office, and Kealey was shown in. Apparently Sam had been looking forward to this meeting for some time and as she made her way in the door she smiled at someone else the Full Circle had forged her a relationship with. In this case, a most fortuitous one.

As Sam spoke quickly to Shin, Kealey took the opportunity to look around the office. There were two animals there, one of them a large dog. Kealey wasn’t afraid of dogs, but she wasn’t a huge fan either, so she silently made a deal with the large canine that if it left her alone she’d do the same. She also noticed that Sam was wearing an eye patch. It wasn’t a dress-up holiday, so that had to mean that something had happened. Kealey idly wondered if Sam had been in the same concentration camp thing that Shin had been in. It would be rude to ask, though.

The commotion ended finally, and Kealey made her way to the seat that Sam had pointed out after saying her goodbyes to Shin. While she moved, she tested the emotional climate of the room. Sam was definitely radiating enthusiasm towards this meeting, which was a good thing. There was something lurking underneath, though, she’d look closer once things had settled down and she could separate Sam from the rest of the emotions.

He asked how her school was going, and Kealey couldn’t help but feel like she was under the microscope a bit. The scholarship offer had been something of a surprise, and she’d been reluctant to accept…until they’d worked something out with the uniforms. They took up most of her time outside of school and work.

”It’s good. I’m not the very top of the class, but I still have a fair bit of trouble sitting in class sometimes. I’m getting high marks…and still managing the suits. I brought two of them alone, yours and Jewels‘ I figured you‘d want to see what kind of progress I made. ”

A laugh followed his partner in crime as he left the room. Only shin would laugh at his dark sense of humor at the expense of his eye, everyone else would shift awkwardly or in Ghost’s case cry. One of the main reasons he had been avoiding a few members of the team. As his initial excitement continued to extruded every pour on his person Sam sat back down in his rather large chair behind his larger desk. Within a few seconds of him sitting down his cat Cammie reclaimed her throne in his lap letting out a loud purr to show her approval of him sitting.

”I’m glad it’s going well!” Sam said with a smile, it took a lot for a person to go to collage even more to get them to sit through a class when they could read the emotions of everyone in the classroom. Nodding his head quickly he added, ”It sounds like your ability is getting easier for you then?” out of the corner of his eye he watched Bruno slowly inch forward in his crouched position sniffing the air around Kealey.

Not paying it much mind Sam continued, ”To be honest I figured you were going to take a bit longer with the suits but two of them?” he let out a quick laugh, ”Well a congratulations are in order, the only problem is I might need to bump up the number of suits by a few more…” he paused then pointed to his patched eye, ”Even though we had some hardships recently it seems more and more want to join the team, which is good for us but means more work for you… Sorry!” Sam shrugged slightly and sat back in his chair a smile still on his face.

”Now care to show me the two suits you brought, I hope the requests weren’t to difficult to fulfill I know I asked for a lot of them.” again Sam shrugged and his smile turned into an apologetic yet intrigued look Kealey had his undivided attention.

She wanted to make sure she was doing work for her scholarship, this was something he liked the sound of, it was a good thing she had such a positive outlook on the program cause he knew a few of his team mates would be a little hard to work with opposed to others. Some he knew wouldn’t be the kindest Kealey something he expected her to talk about should they be over critical about the uniforms. Some of the X’s just needed people skills. Something Sam had in spades.

For now he prolonged answering Kealey about his eye he would for now prefer to get a little more business done before he had to discuss his mishap over seas. It was a touchy subject after all one that was linked with negative feelings his eye patch was his way of covering those wounds left by everything over there.

Leaning forward towards his desk he eyed the fabric of his shirt and pants and his eye trailed over the seams. It was to be light and comfortable, durable, able to withstand cold temperatures, basically everything his other suit was not. He didn’t have anything against spandex it was just some times it wasn’t the most modest piece of clothing a fact some angry mothers made apparent when he went to visit a school in uniform after stopping a metal manipulator. As luck would have it there were a few tears in his old costume and when he went to talk about the importance of staying in school his backside did more talking than he would have liked.

”….” he didn’t say anything yet but just smiled it was fine work, work he was very impressed with. It wasn’t indestructible but this was far more than he could have asked for. ”Beautiful...” Sam said as he placed a hand over the material to make sure it wasn’t the chaffing kind. A small laugh exited his lips as he ran his hand across the chest of his custom shirt. He would look a little like a surfer but it was a look he felt that would work for him.

”Really out done yourself here Kealey…” Sam said as he smiled and sat back in his chair, ”And yes, I’d love a jacket, though I’d like to request a few pockets on the inside of the jacket as well as the outside.” it was an odd request but there were several times when he wished he had an inside pocket or two.

Sighing slightly and returning back to a few moments before Sam thought he owed it to her now to answer her question, ”Yes, you may ask what happened,” pointing to his eye and his smile fading Sam continued, ”Dashing it may be I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the patch,” pulling the patch down a quarter inch to reveal a scar of a knife wound Sam pulled the patch back up but trailed his finger down the path of the wound.

It passing over his eye and down to the bottom of the patch Sam pulled his finger away, ”I took a knife to the eye trying to protect Al… someone special….” he didn’t say her name or say what she was to him other than someone special, there was a lot of unresolved feelings there that he didn’t want Kealey to feel should he start thinking to much about her.

Love, lust, anger, fear, pain, sorrow, crushed, lonely… the list kept going, there were hundreds of feelings that he felt and the fact that he was in the prescense of an empathy was all the more reason to avoid feeling what he was feeling. ”So!” Sam clapping his hands and tossing on a fake smile trying to mask his other feelings, ”You said you brought Jewel’s new suit? May I see that one?”

Shaking his head at the seamstress Sam interjected, ”Zipper sleeves will not be needed,” the air around them got cool for a moment, ”I make my own climate, and…” Sam paused as Kealey seemed to be far too overwhelmed for a moment, he heard the bell and immediately knew why. Class changes, they were he’d imagine a menace to her seeing as she could feel what all those hormonal teens were feeling. Waiting a few moments till Kealey seemed to regain her composure Sam looked at his watch and waiting another moment till the next class should be starting up. ”Just be happy you didn’t come when school gets out, we would have to lock you away somewhere…”

”No worries,” Sam said tapping the left side of his head, ”There have been a few perks to me losing my eye I think I might have become a more successful teacher, it seems a few of my students thought it was time to challenge me on the mats…” Sam snapped his fingers and ice formed at his fingertips then quickly shattered to demonstrate a point, ”They went down just as fast as they would have if I had both eyes, think next time I might try to go at them blind…” he smirked at the thought of not being able to see and it didn’t really concern him to much, one of the many perks was his new extension of his mutation. One that made him able to feel the heat coming off his students, ”It would defiantly be a good training exercise…” more for him than his students seeing as he had little to no control of his newest ability.

Smiling Sam eyed Kealey’s next creation. Sam laughed when he spotted the flash and the pizzazz it was he thought perfect for Jewel’s mutation. Precious metals decorated the jacket and the gold lining caught his attention. Defiantly an expensive suit far more expensive he imagined than the other and the workmanship showed how hard Kealey worked on them. ”I like the idea of having the metals on her clothing opposed to her neck… Always worried she might get choked out somehow…” Sam said to himself more than he was saying to Kealey.

Hearing a giggle surprised Sam slightly, it seemed so out of place from her previous enthused and focus tone. He smirked tempted to reach across the desk and pat Kealey on the head like he would one of his students, ”Very good indeed!” he however refrained from petting Kealey cause even if he found it funny he wasn’t exactly sure how she would react to the gesture. ”So who did you have in mind next to work with?”