He hadn't eaten in hours. It felt like days even. Drew had never trusted airplane food and he hadn't been willing to start doing so on his way home. As a result he made a brief detour into the city itself to get himself something to eat before showing his face in the Mansion again. He wasn't avoiding the Mansion so much as he'd rather not show up on an empty stomach. It would be embarrassing, if comical, for his stomach to protest loudly while he was making his return.

The line in the deli he'd picked wasn't too bad. Drew stuck his hands in his pockets while the person ahead of him ordered a reuben. He'd had quite the trip and come back better for it. At least he thought he had. Not that he intended to admit what had happened to the folks at the Mansion straight away. Mutations could do a lot of strange stuff but two alternative lives in that short a space was a bit much.

Drew dismissed his thoughts. Thinking about both of those lives left him a bit sad and this was going to be a happy day. After a very long time he'd be returning to his home and friends. Hopefully there wouldn't have been too much change in the time he'd been away. Finally it was his turn at the counter. Drew ordered a club sandwich and a cup of coffee. Once they were done he retreated to a corner of the smallish shop to eat his meal. He wanted to be done swiftly. There was a large home full of people he hadn't seen in a lifetime waiting on him.

Since her breakup, Rebecca was more bold than usual. She was never one to seek attention, but there was something about being noticed that made her feel worth looking at. Skirts a little shorter, tops fitting a little more snugly. It was shallow and it was cheap, but her confidence needed the boost.

It was not the coldest fall day in New York; probably still too cool for Rebecca's attire, but she would endure. Her black and white striped thigh-high socks compensated for her black skirt, and her white jacket was compensating for the midriff-exposing top underneath.

Okay, she was still cold. She was rushing back to the mansion from class, looking forward to wrapping herself up in layers and layers of blankets.

Her bookbag was slung over her shoulder, and her arms were crossed tightly over her body to conserve warmth. She was walking with purpose, having no intention of stopping and letting her blood flow cool down.

And then she could have sworn she passed by a familiar face she had not seen in quite some time.

She was certain her eyes were playing tricks on her, but turning around, her suspicion was right. Rebecca ran at the young man's seat and launched into an arm-wrapping hug that hit him with such force that the chair almost came off its own legs. "Drew!"

It was a good sandwich. The coffee wasn't bad either. Drew was glad that his memory hadn't failed him in thinking this place was good. Unfortunately he only had time for a few bites of the sandwich when his meal was disrupted by a swiftly moving red head that halfway tackled him out of his seat. It was only through luck and some coordination that he managed to remain upright. The voice was a familiar one but it was incredibly difficult to focus on anything when there was a rather perky set of breasts occupying most of your vision.

Drew could certainly appreciate the view as he was hugged nigh to death by the red haired apparition. An apparition whose name he remembered to be Rebecca. When last he'd seen her she'd been an awkward Irish girl just settling into the Mansion. This was certainly a change of attire for her. Though he was glad to see that she'd become more sure of herself Drew detached the eager ginger from himself.

"Good to see you too Becca. You've certainly changed a bit since I saw you last. Want something to drink or eat? I'll pay."

The outfit she was wearing didn't seem quite appropriate for the season to him but it wasn't his place to judge. At least that was what he told himself to keep from reaching over and zipping that coat up himself. Drew was well aware that women could get away with less. However after his experiences while he was away he was used to attire that covered more. Getting used to his old life again would take longer than he'd thought.

Admittedly, Rebecca's surprise and excitement to see her old friend, (or rather, one of her oldest friends Stateside,) got the best of her with her tight embrace of love and apparent boob-crushing. She finally released Drew so he would not die before explaining where the heck he disappeared to.

He mentioned that she changed quite a bit, and it was definitely the truth. Since she last saw Drew, she had gone through a happy relationship, joined the X-Men, toned herself into great physical form through training with Em, went through a nasty breakup, made some... post-breakup questionable choices, and changed up her mindset about three times.

But at a glance, Drew was probably just going off of her physical form and how her mindset... emphasized it. She considered closing up her jacket, but she reminded herself that she had nothing to be embarrassed about. She was an independent young woman who could take care of her darn self!

A warm meal though... she was happy to accept. "That sounds lovely. It'll be a little different than th' last meal you treated me to." As she sat down, she wondered if he remembered their sushi date. To her, it was her first date and helped her piece herself together, but to him, it was probably just another date with a naive girl.

"Dae they have soup here?" A nice warm soup would feel nice in her exposed tummy. "An' more importantly: What the hell have you been up to?!" She did not remember hearing about Drew taking a leave from the mansion. One day, he just seemed to be gone, and it upset her.

As Becca mentioned the last meal he'd treated her to Drew remembered said meal. It had been an interesting night but it was clear by the end of it that Becca's interests certainly weren't geared toward him. Even after she'd kissed him.

"I remember it. Sushi and a kiss later. I have to say you certainly know how to greet a fella."

Drew smirked and winked at Becca. Then he glanced over at the menu boards to refresh his memory.

"Yeah they sell chili and a soup of the day. Today's is..." Drew craned his neck to see around a rather expansive man standing in line, "chicken noodle likes like."

When Becca asked what he'd been doing since leaving the Mansion Drew smiled. He wasn't ready to talk about most of it. Not at all. Drew wanted to come to terms with it himself before he revealed anything particular.

"Oh you know, just the usual soul searching stuff. Traveled around. Learned things. Nothing special."

Hopefully Becca wouldn't mind the lie when she found out the truth later.

Rebecca was happy to know the date was still in Drew's mind. Even if it ended in platonic fashion, it was still her first date and her first kiss, (if the peck in Agnes's closet didn't count,) and it would have been deflating to know he forgot about the night while he was away.

Chili was good, but too hearty, and she did not feel like getting sauce on her white tanktop. (And it would happen. It was the luck she had.) "Chicken Noodle definitely sounds nice."

Drew's explanation for the months he spent away was rather vague, but she could gather that he needed to take a trip of self-discovery. There was no need to pry if he was telling her the trip was unspectacular. "Ah hope you had some fun travelling at least. It definitely would have been helpful having you around the past month or two." Rebecca had friends around to help her bounce back from everything that happened, but there was no cap on how many friends she needed in her life, and Drew was a good friend, even if he was absent for a while.

Drew wanted to ask Becca what she meant but he was standing up and fishing out his wallet from his back pocket.

"Hold that thought Becca and I'll be back shortly."

Whatever it was it seemed he wasn't the only person to have issues recently. Frankly that didn't surprise him at all. Drama was a common occurrence in Mansion life. Perhaps just mutant life in general. Whatever had happened to Becca, he'd be there for her. Once again he waited through the line, this time ordering some chicken noodle soup and returned to the table a few minutes later bearing a steaming paper carton of soup and a plastic spoon. Setting them down in from of Becca, Drew put away his wallet and sat back down.

"And there we go. As for my travels they were...interesting."

That was definitely an understatement. He had gotten a bit of real traveling done. In fact most of his time had been spent that way. It was only the past day or so that was different.

"Anyway, enough about me. What happened?"

Because realistically, while Becca may have missed him someone only said something like that if something had gone wrong that they'd wished you had been there to help with.

Drew left the table to order Rebecca's food like the gentleman he was. It was not hard to remember why she chose him to test against her feelings for Agnes; he was one of the nicest guys she had met and cute to boot, so it was a good sign when her date did not cause her feelings for Agnes to waiver.

Except now things were not as clear and happy. While he was in line, she was deciding how much she should open up with her issues. Drew was probably going through his own big life changes, so she did not want to burden him. There was no point in hiding the breakup, but it was probably better to leave out the flask in her purse (that she snagged from a friend at Columbia) or her... other recent vices. Those were her business, and would probably just worry him.

He returned with her soup, and the scent floating through her nostrils put her at peace like a fireplace.

God, she was still kinda cold.

She consumed a spoonful of the liquid and noodles, soothed by the warmth traveling through her throat. With that out of the way, she had to answer his expected question. "Um, well, it's been a really busy time. Adjusting tae college-- Ah'm in Columbia U. Ah'm an X-Men nowadays too." She took another sip of her soup before trying to add as a nonchalant footnote, "Oh, an' Agnes and Ah sorta... broke up..."

Trying to quickly move the subject, she added, "But yeah, it's jist been a pretty busy time, full o' change, y'know?"

Drew listened to Becca's news attentively. It was a mixed bag really. He was certainly glad to hear that she was in college and having her as a fellow X was great. However it was a shame that she and Agnes hadn't worked out.

"Well I'm glad to hear about the college and it's great to have you on the team. Shame about you and Agnes though."

He knew well enough not to dwell on the issue. Breakups were always difficult and unless Becca wanted to dive into the nitty gritty of it with him Drew wouldn't mention it further. Instead he just nodded when she mentioned it being a busy time of change. It was indeed. Readjusting was difficult for Drew. You didn't have to sleep with a weapon nearby at all times here. He did wonder how much of the skills he'd developed had stayed with him. It was something to test in the Danger Room later.

"Anything major happen at the Mansion? I know I took off pretty hastily last month."

Better to go in with some info so that he wasn't completely shocked.

Drew offered Rebecca his condolences on her relationship, but kept the topic brief, which she was thankful for. She was finally moving on from dwelling on the memory, and Drew was kind enough to follow suit.

The Mansion question took some thought. It was a relatively quiet month compared to the normal calamity in the mansion. Still, after a moment or two of recollection, she was able to come up with a few things. "Um, let's see. Agnes moved tae college," just to get that part out of the way first, "Emerald went away like you, Ami and Gawain broke things off, a few new girls joined th' Academy, so did an' amnesiac guy who is pretty nice," she mentioned with a faint blush, "and... um... oh, Ah heard about some guy with four arms stomping 'round, bit that may jist be a rumor."

Rebecca took a sip of her soup, slurping up a particularly long noodle from the amber broth. Dotting her mouth with her napkin, she added, "Um... that's it Ah think. Oh, and Gina is dating Koga now. I think. Yup, that's pretty much everything."

So maybe it was not the quietest month ever.

He soaked in the gossip about recent happenings fairly quietly. Mostly relationship oriented stuff. Agnes had moved out. Drew didn't know this Emerald person so he couldn't say much about her journey. New folks were always nice to here about. After all the Mansion was there to help out where it could. Gina and Koga dating surprised him a bit but Drew didn't really react. As protective as he might feel of her Drew had to trust her to make the right choices. Koga seemed like a decent enough guy from what little Drew remembered of him.

"Sounds like it's been busy enough, in its own way."

This was the down side of going away for a time. Once you came back you had to restart those friendships again. Trying to rekindle said friendship with Becca was proving a bit awkward. At least, to him. He had little idea of what to say next. So he distracted himself with his coffee and sandwich.

He wasn't exactly ready to share what his own month had been like. Well, if he wanted to be technical it was the last day of that month that he didn't want to share.

"I wandered around Europe for a while. Hopped a plane to Australia and spent the rest of the month there. Nothing particularly special."

Drew shared a little bit of his journeys, even if it was nothing more than his travel itinerary. He was withholding plenty from her, and there were probably reasons for that, but it made conversing with him more difficult. Were things so awkward before he left on his trip, or had they just changed and the adjustments were still in the works?

"That sounds like fun to me. Ah've ne'er been tae Australia, bit Ah did gae to Europe recently!" Sure, she technically lived in Europe for years, but she was not used to going to new countries, and the UK was a different beast from mainland Europe entirely. "Gawain and Ah went tae Hungary!"

Her cheeks pinkened lightly as they did whenever she mentioned Budapest. She slurped up some noodles to stifle an accidental grin. "We went for a mission. Well, mostly." It would be facetious to call bar crawling "the mission."

Sae..." she wanted a question to fill the silence, but more than that, she wanted to know how one of her "oldest" American friends was really doing. "Have you been... well, good? Happy?"

Drew looked at Rebecca. Not just a glance but a long look. He probably, no definitely, owed her more than he was giving her. So he sighed and sat back in his seat. The information about her trip to Hungary wasn't particularly of note at the moment. He was trying to answer her question of whether he had been good and happy.

"For a while there, yeah I was. Now...well I'm working on it I guess you could say."

Drew frowned as he remembered the end of his trip and the reason he'd returned to New York.

"My trip didn't exactly end well."

He wasn't ready to say much more than that. What had happened still hurt very badly. Drew took a moment to remind himself that what happened wasn't the kid's fault and then focused back on the present and his reunion with Rebecca. He gave her a slightly strained smile and hoped that she got notion that he wasn't ready to say any more.

Rebecca was already most of the way through her soup as he gave her his update. It was the end of his trip that took a turn for the worst. It was probably what made him decide to take the trip back home; if he was still happy where he was, she had to believe he might have stayed where he was. Something changed, and it was probably still affecting him. She could have asked for more, but he was probably still recovering, and if she went through something traumatic or upsetting, she would probably need plenty of time before she was ready to move on.

She chose to reply with a warm smile and an invitation to move the conversation on. "It's how life is sometimes, Ah guess. Regardless, it's nice tae see you around." And it was; whatever happened was something sad, but for her, just having Drew around was a silver lining.

"Sae you're on your way tae the Mansion Ah suppose?" From what she knew of Drew, his hometown was in the southern part of the country, and she was pretty sure the Mansion was his only residence in New York. "Coz Ah'm heading back, if you want someain tae walk with. If nae, Ah can jist see you when you get there." She would certainly understand if he wanted to walk on his own for a while, or possibly make a personal stop before his return to the Mansion itself.

Sitting back in his seat, Drew stretched for a moment. It was time to put thoughts of the trip aside or he'd be leaving Becca to go find the nearest bar for a few lonesome drinks. So he nodded when Becca asked if he was heading back to the Mansion.

"I sure am. And what kind of fool would I be if I turned down the opportunity to go home with a beautiful red head?"

Drew shot Becca a cheeky grin as he stood up and set about cleaning off any remaining trash and pulling himself together. Very shortly he was ready to go and waiting on Becca. Of course he'd be draping his coat around her the moment they got outside but there was no need for her to know that yet.

"Whenever you're ready Becca."