((OOC: Set one month before Leons Departure from the Mansion))

James woke up late on a Saturday morning and rolled out of bed lethargically, groaning when he looked at the clock on his bedside table. Half twelve, damn. After spending five heavenly minutes rolled up in a cocoon of bed covers he forced himself to get up, have a shower and get dressed. He had meant to go for a run, but it was too late for that. People would be up and he didn't want them to see his power.

James walked over to yesterdays shorts and pulled out his phone, moving down to the notes App he had a quick look. He had awoken with a feeling that he was missing something and the phone said he was right. There was only one note which read; "MEET MUM YOU WUSS. P.s. Bring another Mutant". The first part was simple enough. The Mansion was great but James was starting to miss his old forms of entertainment, namely his gaming Laptop and Xbox. Plus he needed to talk to his Mother, try to make up with her somehow.

The second part; "P.s. Bring a Mutant" was in theory, simple enough. He intended to bring another mutant with him, make a good first impression and then break the ice that they were the same as him. The idea was that after meeting a nice mutant she would change her mind about mutants. It was a weak plan, with no basis for success. But it was worth a try at the very least.

Now, who to bring. James scratched the back of his head while contemplating the issue. The obvious choice was Leon, but considering his current predicament with his family the other mutant might not be so willing to help with nothing in return. James was considering other options. Serena? She was nice and the kind of person who would be happy to help a friend with a problem like this. But James didn't know her all that well, not like Leon did.

No, the only choice was Leon, considering he was the only real friend James had at the mansion, hell. Leon was James' only friend, Full stop. Switching to contacts he flicked down to Leons name and sent a message. "Hey, Just woke up. Where you at?"

So far the day had been good to Leon, after waking up at a reasonable time he had managed to get  some breakfast and relax for a bit. Which in his mind was a wonderful morning as he had yet to meet someone that would pester him with petty problems and test his patience. 

*BZZZZZ*

He fished out his phone with a slightly confused thought, he wasn't entirely sure who would be messaging him at this time, but more importantly he was conflicted if he could be bothered to check and see who would be asking for help. As inevitably most messages break down into some form of favor or task. After a moment of deliberation he decided to look at the message, which simply asked where he was. 

After a moment of thought he decided to reply, after all James is an alright guy and he would only need something if it was important, even if it was just to hangout it would be alright. Quickly typing out the message "I'm in the living room relaxing some others are around, why whats up?" He hit send and rest his phone on his leg awaiting a reply. 

Serena was sitting on the chair, wearing a cyan summer dress. Leon was sitting opposite to her. She had one leg resting over the other, sipping from her tea mug. One of the things she did enjoy about hanging out with Leon was that he had an appreciation for tea.

Not many of her limited number of friends could boast the same. So it was nice, to occasionally hang out with him. Even if he did seem to have a minor aura of social awkwardness about him.

That was alright though, Serena was enough of a social butterfly to counter his awkwardness.

She watched quizzically as the boy's pocket went off, and he withdrew his phone to respond to someone. "What's up, everything alright?" she asked.

"Nothing, just looking for somewhere to chill. That's all" James replied as he left his room.

James ran to the Dining Room, grabbed himself a couple of pieces of buttered toast and ate them quickly. Five minutes after texting Leon he was on his way to the living room, thinking about how he could persuade the other mutant to help him out.

He was halfway through a plan which involved cigarettes as a bargaining chip but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Serena sitting with him, Great, I have to ask for an embarrassing favor in front of her. Oh well. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would laugh in his face about that kind of thing but still...

Shrugging James walked towards the short blonde girl and the well dressed ash manipulator. Admittedly he had gotten pretty used to Leon and hadn't felt socially awkward around him since their first encounter. Serena on the other hand was a girl, and no matter how many times he meets girls the social awkwardness was always there.

Maybe it only took him a while longer around them to feel less awkward, that would make sense. After all James hadn't met any girls more than once before, besides the obvious exceptions of course. Most girls found him weird and avoided him after first impressions. For all he knew Serena could have been doing the same.

James pushed the thought out of his mind. Negatives were not welcome. Especially avoidable ones like that. It made the unavoidable ones easier to ignore. He tried to look natural as he sat with Leon and Serena but wasn't at all sure how convincing it was. Leon knew that James wasn't socially awkward around him anymore so the sudden re-immersion of it would have a slightly obvious cause. James hoped the other teenager wouldn't put two and two together.

"Hey Leon, Serena how are you..." James cut short when he saw the tea mugs in their hands and swallowed, realizing he hadn't drank anything today...and that he hadn't drank tea in too long. "Tea...I haven't had any of that for like...two days."

"Yeah everything is fine, just James." He said to Serena kindly. He thought she knew James but he couldn't be very sure, he couldn't remember ever really seeing the two of them together, but it could have have happened. 

Pretty soon he saw James enter the room, he had gotten to know James quite well he thought and was definitely past the begin stage of awkwardness, which he knew was quite a problem for James, one that he hoped would clear up in the future as having social awkwardness can be rather annoying at times. 

He continued sipping his tea as he watched James make his way towards them, as he got closer Leon could see him starting to get more awkward which was annoying as he hoped they where past that, but there could be another reason as this was the first time he had seen James around Serena since arriving at the mansion. He couldn't help but get a little grin as he realized why he was starting to be awkward. 

"Sup James, finally decided to wake up? Ah well doesn't matter come and join us." He said lightheartedly, he hoped making the comment about this sleeping pattern would help to ease him a little, but it could always backfire but he didn't really mind both would suit him just fine.  

Serena wondered what James could be texting Leon about... Come to think of it, she didn't think she actually had Leon's phone number. She was a little surprised that he had managed to acquire a phone so soon after getting to New York. Maybe he had planned it in advance or something.

She smiled as James entered the room, giving him a small nod of acknowledgment. She remembered when she had first met the two of them, some time ago. James' mutation revolved around metal skin if she recalled correctly. And Leon's mutation was one Serena was very familiar with after the other night.

She giggled mildly at James' comment. "Well the pot is just over there if you want to grab yourself a mug and have some. Nobody should be without tea for so long after all." She gestured to the table near them, before winking at the boy.

She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it back to rest behind her ear, it was a habit which Serena had been doing for a very long time. "So, did you just get up?" she inquired in a friendly tone.

James was sure that Leon had noticed his social awkwardness around the female. He was also sure that Leons comment was not made to calm him down, it was an attempt to tease him and make him feel even more awkward. Unfortunately it worked and James was wishing for a hole to tartarus to open up beneath him. Naturally that didn't happen so he did his best to push the awkwardness down with sheer willpower.

Why Leon, oh why? Even though his roommate had put him in an awful state of self-consciousness, James couldn't bring himself to get angry at the guy.

That had started to work...until the attractive blonde girl talked to him and then...That was the final straw. She winked at him. A girl winked at him. For most guys this probably wouldn't have been a problem but for James...damn. The wink made James look away rather too quickly. God dammit why?

Luckily for him he was able to focus on getting up and making himself a cup of tea. By the time James had sat back down and taken a sip of his brew the shakiness had stopped and he didn't feel nearly as awkward. Come to think of it, why had he been feeling awkward? James had met Serena before and he wasn't nearly this bad then...just a little quiet maybe.

When Serena spoke again he wasn't the kind of "I-can't-physically-act-like-a-normal-person-awkward". But more the kind of "Okay-I-am-being-really-self-conscious-about-what-I'm-saying-awkward".

"Yeah my alarm was kind of off. I had been planning on going for a run but that's not happening now"