Thrill of the Hunt (Open!)

Chris froze, still crouching behind the bush, when something came bouncing and barking towards the flock with pigeons. The birds reacted immediately - taking to the air they flapped away over the house, out of sight. Chris sighed and his stomach growled sadly. Oh well, maybe he could track down a piece of raw fish or chicken in the kitchen lately.
His attention went back to the dog that had scared his lunch away, because of course it had been a dog. Chris was not a big fan of dogs - it was hard to forget that memorable evening when he was 14 and had spent a couple of hours running and hiding from a pack of snarling, barking dogs one of his neighbors had sent after him just because he'd gotten a bit to close to the old man's yard. And most dogs didn't seem to like Chris, either - it was probably the fact that he looked human-y but smelled like fish that disturbed them.

At least this dog was on a leash. Chris squinted, trying to make out who the dog owner was - a tall guy with black hair and Asian features. Chris recognized him, he'd seen him in the hallways a couple of times but never really talked to him. He was a Mansion Greeter and some kind of X-man, if memory served right. What was his name again... Shinbo? Yeah, that sounded about right, and... what was the dog doing?

The husky was sniffing around the bush Chris was hiding behind and suddenly started to bark, loudly. Chris reacted instantly, jumping up from his hiding place and backing a few steps with his hands up in front of him if the dog would attack him or something.
"Whoa!!"
His attention was still at the dog, but when he slowly looked up at Shinbo he realized that it probably had looked really weird - him hiding behind a bush and suddenly jumping out like a Jack-in-the-box.
"Ehm... good morning, sir, I was just... I was just..."
He fidgeted nervously with his hands in front of him, searching for inspiration. Some of the Mansions inhabitants didn't really approve of him hunting birds on the Mansion grounds, calling it 'cruel' and 'unnecessary'. But a guy had to eat, right? Anyway, to avoid trouble he didn't talk about the bird-hunts unless he had to.
"I-I was just... just... keeping an eye out... you know... for suspicious-looking characters?" he said, somehow turning the statement into a question. "What with all the... uh... kidnappings and all, you know..."
His voice died away, since he wasn't really sure how to continue. Awkward.

The other mutant presented himself as Tetsuya Shinbo and offered his hand. Good, then Chris had been right about the last name, at least.
"Yeah, I know. I mean, I've heard about you," he said, shaking Shinbo's hand. "I'm Chris Berg. I've been living here for five months."
The X-man actually seemed okay with Chris keeping an eye out, and Chris made a mental note to actually watch his surroundings carefully next time he went out to hunt - maybe he would actually notice a kidnapper or something and make himself useful for once.

The dog was panting loudly, trying to make some sense out of the fish-smelling mutant in front of him. Chris backed away with a kind of wary look in his eyes. He'd prefer to have some air between himself and the animal, just in case.
"Is it, uh... your dog?"

Chris looked down at the black and white dog in front of him that was just sending him some kind of husky grin. Hm. He slowly extracted his hand towards the dog's head, ready to draw it back if the animal made any sudden movements. But he didn't, he just sniffed curiously at the hand, so Chris carefully patted the dog on it's furry head and then quickly withdrew his hand.
"...Nice dog."

Chris scratched his the back of his neck, not really sure if he should go and look for the lost pigeons or if he should stay and talk. Shinbo seemed like an amiable enough fellow, but maybe he wanted to continue to walk his dog. Chris wasn't very good at small talk, but he decided to try anyway.
"So, uh, what´s it like? Being an X-man?"
It was probably the most over-asked question to the ask someone on the X-squad, next to ´so what´s your power?´, but he was actually curious.

Shinbo scratched the dog behind an ear - he really seemed to like his dog. Chris didn´t really understand what made people so attached to their pets. He knew there were some who treated their cats and dogs like they were their children, carrying them around and buying clothes to them and calling them "tiddly widdly sweetie-pie" and stuff like that. Chris really couldn´t see the point in it, but at least Shinbo didn´t show any signs of babytalking.

When he explained how it was to be an X-man, Chris just nodded. He´d asked Fade once, and she´d said something similar. But then Shinbo asked why he´d asked, and that fazed him a little.
"What? Oh, I was just... you know, wondering. I don´t want to be an X-man or something like that," Chris said hurriedly, holding up his hands in front of him. But then he realized that it could be misinterpreted.
"I mean, I don´t mean that it´s anything bad with it, I probably would want it if it were for me, but it´s not. For me, that is. Uh. Sorry," he added for not making any sense.

Chris felt a bit awkward when both Shinbo and Thor started to yawn just after he´d given his confusing explanation to why he didn´t want to be an X-man or something like that even though it wasn´t something bad with it. This was the reason why he shouldn´t open his mouth unless he rreally really had to.
But then Shinbo explained that it wasn´t lack of interest that had caused the yawning, but rather lack of sleep.
"Nobody's forcing anyone into that role. It's a tough role to play."
Chris nodded. At first, when he´d just moved in at the mansion and heard about the X-men for the first time, he´d somehow gotten the impression that they were building some kind of mutant army. That had had him worried for a while, but as Shinbo said, nobody was forced to join. Actually, it was a rather exclusive group with not that many members. And the members where well trained, brave and had astounding powers... actually, he could see why no-one had asked him to give it a try yet.

Then Shinbo changed subject and asked what role Chris would be interested in ´playing´ in the future. Chris fidgeted thoughtfully with his hands in front of him. He´d been thinking about that earlier, hadn´t he? But he still had no reply to it.
"I don´t know," he said slowly. "But not a pastry cook, that´s for sure. I´m not much for... cake."
Somehow he managed to fill that last word with as much disdain as a certain famous TV preacher had pronounced the words "mutant filth" with in a TV show the day before.
"No, then I´d rather be a sushi cook or something like that. Or work in a fresh fish shop. Selling fresh, tasty, scrumptious fish..."
He stopped, a bit embarrased, realizing that he was to hungry to stand and talk about his future. His stomach started to growl, but he gave it a sharp nudge with his elbows and it turned quiet.