Gwen seemed to jump at every little noise as she stood on the platform waiting for the train to arrive. She had taken to riding the train around the city all day for the past week. She couldn’t really pan handle while doing this and therefore hadn’t really ate in days and days but at least she knew that if she was on the subway and on the move she could be safe. Or at least she hoped she could be safe.

Ever since she saw those men outside of her favorite dinner she had been spooked on an red alert. They couldn’t have found her again could they. Maybe she had stayed in New York City too long. Maybe her plan on hiding in plainish site was never going to work. Maybe it was all doomed from the beginning and there was no way she could stay away from her ‘parents’. Not really anyway.

She let out the air she had been holding in as the train moved into the station and the doors opened. Finally she wasn’t’ stuck. Finally she was going to be moving again. She walked across the yellow line and crossed the gap into the silver metal car of the 5 train. She would ride this all the way up to 150th and then take the B back down.

Up and down Manhattan she would go until the trains stopped running and then she would walk around the streets of Manhattan until she couldn’t. As you can guess she hadn’t really slept in days. She kind of fell asleep on the train yesterday for a few hours cause she couldn’t keep her eyes open but then she freaked out and hasn’t slept since. Sleeping was dangerous. You couldn’t’ keep yourself safe when you were sleeping.

Gwen moved through the car finding a seat in the corner where she could keep an eye on everyone with her. She faced her back to the corner and settled in for the short right up to the Bronx.

Jude leaned against the subway pole to counteract the backward momentum when the train took off. They'd gotten inventory sorted at the Full Circle and now the copycat was ready to let his brain be jelly.

His powers, however, had another idea. He felt the pull so hard, Jude nearly stumbled. There was a powerful mutant on this train. Once he looked the crowd over, he knew just who it was too.

"Lucy?" Stringy hair, bags under the eyes, and hollow cheeks. He knew better than to step toward her. Skittish little thing. Well, bigger than him now that he was a kid again.

Ah. This was going to get awkward. Jude cleared his throat. He was just going to have to push through the weirdness because he couldn't just let someone he knew waste away right in front of him. Not if he could do something about it.

"How's it going? It's me. Jude." Wait. He could prove that. The frenchman fished out his stegosaurus wallet and held it out to the brunette.

He raised his eyebrows like a facial shrug. "Surprise."

Gwen looked the kid up and down and raised an eyebrow at him, “Really kid?! Jude’s about 10 years…” She was cut off by the thing the kid pulled out of his wallet to show he was who he said he was.

She was going to regret this and she knew it. Her eyes turned a glassy milky opaque white as she used the full extent of her powers to focus in on the Copycat this boy claimed to be. She focused in on the boy before her and the powers he possessed. This was really Jude.

She blinked a few times falling out of the trance and giving the kid a weird look. “What the hell happened to you Copy Boy? Last time I saw you you were well… older and hotter.”

She kind of assumed this had something to do with his mutation but she had no way of proving it so she had to ask. She had rather looked looking at his pretty face before.

He waited patiently. She'd figure it out eventually.

When her eyes went white, the other car's occupants scooted away to give the two mutants space. The only time people gave you space in the subway car was if you were hobo bag lady crazy or actively showing a mutant ability. Jude rolled his eyes. "Der."

>"Last time I saw you you were well… older and hotter.”

He grabbed at the shirt over his heart. "Oh. That one hurt. It's a long, dumb story that ends with me actually being 14." Moving on. "What I'm more concerned about is you." The look he gave her was not one that belonged on a 14 year old's face. It was a look more at home on a mother or grandmother. "You look like crap. Not az bad as last time, but still. You can't keep doing this to yourself."

The subway car slowed and riders queued for the doors. Jude still had a few stops to go.

Gwen scrunched up her face to show her distaste, ”Awwww. Well seek me out again when you are 21.” Gwen turned to rolling her eyes at his next words. “Whatever do you mean?”

Yes she knew exactly what he meant but she wasn’t going to show him that. She had way more important things to worry about then a nosy kid who cared about some silly homeless girl he only barely knew. Yes she owed him her life but that didn’t’ give her permission to keep on saving it.

When he was 21, eh? Jude rolled his eyes since it wasn't polite to punch women and doubly impolite to kick them while they were down.

"I'm not hitting on you," Besides. That'd get her into more trouble than it would be trouble for him.

So what was he doing? Jude thought about it for a beat as the subway car got moving again. This time the car was noticeably more empty. "I'm offering you a shower and a hot meal. Maybe a bed if you're polite. You know I'm a gentleman and I know your... quirks. It's a safe place. Behind loads of security so it's safe."

So the offer was on the table. She just had to man up and take it.

Gwen rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest leaning back in the seat. She chuckled ot herself. She had never even thought for a second that he was hitting her nor would she. She really hopped that he was smarter then that considering she would not hesitate to punch a kid in the face.

Ah and there it was. She had been waiting for that. The offer to take her in and save her. She got this offer a lot from people who thought that they knew her. Thought that they had a responsibility to save her cause she was homeless and sad and they could.

“Sorry bud, but I don’t need to be saved. I choose to be homeless because homes are dangerous. Staying in one place is dangerous. Having a home puts you in the system. A place a will never be again.”

She sat looking at him. She could have gotten up and walked away but she knew what was coming next. He would tell her she needed help and she looked terrible and all that stuff one tells someone that needs saving.

She wasn’t a charity case. She was on the run and charity was for those that didn’t have everything to loose.

>“Sorry bud, but I don’t need to be saved."

"Your stench begs to differ." Zing. "Look. I'm offering no paperwork, no records, and high security that you'd be hiding behind. Nobody even has to know you're there." The more he thought about it, the more perfect it was. Yeah. It'd kinda suck for him, but from her point of view, shouldn't that be a fan-freaking-tastic offer?

"You say you don't need to be saved? Well then you'd better start doing a better job of saving yourself because this?" He looked up and down Gwen giving her the full force of his disapproval. This wasn't your typical 14 year old lecture. His older self was peeking through. "This isn't working. Stay or don't stay. I don't care. At least check it out before you spit on my most magnanimous offer."

Yes. He did just say magnanimous.

Gwen couldn’t help by roll her eyes at his comment. She was homeless. Come up with something more original. Because it wasn’t her fault that there were people after her and she hadn’t had enough time to get the money needed to get a meal let alone a shower.

She sighed and listened to him carefully. This sounded a little too good to be true. There had to be a catch. “So where is this magical place where I can hide out with no strings or questions about a teenage boy housing a girl who is at least 4 years older than him? Will I get to meet the Leprechauns and Unicorns?” The sarcasm in her tone was the size of a Mack truck as she did nothing to hide how ridiculous she thought he sounded.

She looked down at herself as he gestured. She hadn’t really taken the time to notice how she looked in a while. She was dirtier than usual and her close were more worn and ripped. She hadn’t’ been taking any time to herself. Her hair was matted and greasy to the touch. She was kind of disgusting really. If she had been someone looking on at her she would have been a little afraid she wasn’t going to lie.

She sighed and gave him a serious look, “Fine. I’ll come with you to take a shower but I make no promises I am going to stay.”

> “So where is this magical place?"

"It's a boarding school and I just scared away another roommate. There's two bunks and I only take up one. Private bathroom and, heck, I'm a growing boy. I can take extra food back to my room for later. I don't think leprechauns are real, but my dad's a unicorn. He's kind of a jerk."

> “I make no promises I am going to stay.”

"I don't want you to stay. If I tell anyone or we get caught, I'm in trouble." And he had enough trouble recently.

One eyebrow up. Yeah. He had her. And one glance at the display told Jude they were mere moments away from his stop. The subway car slowed and he went toward the door.

"You coming or not?"

She shifted in her seat trying very had not to laugh at Jude for ‘scaring away another roommate.’ The idea for some reason was hilarious to her. In her experience he had been nothing but caring and nice. He must be a secret slob or something. Which honestly she could live with. Living on the street kind of desensitizes you to mess. It is really just a part of life at this point for her.

Gwen’s stomach growled again and her eyes narrowed. She had a very hard time trusting people or good things. Usually for her if it sounded too good to be true it was. Things never really worked out the nice way. Though, the fact that this could get him in a lot of trouble and likely would knowing her luck she thought she could live with it for at least a little right?

”Alright Copy Boy, but I’m still not making any promises.” She stood and followed him out of the subway walking only a step behind him and keeping herself fully aware of her surroundings. She was concentrating on her powers trying to see what was going on around her mutant wise. Her ‘parents’ did like to use mutants for their dirty work after all.

He could practically see the gears turning behind that pretty little head. The head that could, like, explode from her power. Jude shuddered and gave his own power a slap on the hand as it tried once again to reach toward Lucy. His power liked hers.

It had stupid taste.

> ”Alright Copy Boy"

One nod and the Frenchman turned back toward the exit.

Good.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was getting himself into here, but it somehow felt like the right thing to do. Taking in Lucy wasn't a terrible inconvenience and came with the thrill of bending a rule into a pretzel.

Jude didn't bother with talking to Lucy while they exited the station. He was busy planning ahead for the security measure. In fact he pretty much ignored her until they were walking along the road in a short stretch of business that was mingled in with residences. It would become more and more housing from here on until they got to the Mansion. A perfect place to give her the run down.

"You're going to have to keep your face away from the cameras. There's one at the pedestrian gate, I have a code to get in, and one on the front door." He heard rumors that the Sanctuary residents once came to steal the Mansion's front door. Probably untrue. "After that, it'll be a a short hall to pass the library and up flight of stairs into the dorm hall." The boy's dorm hall, that is.

"No internal cameras that I know of. The crazy security that I talked about? It's mostly in the lawn area around the school so don't go out without a code." And the rest was for the X-man stuff. Danger room and all that, but he probably didn't have to worry about Lucy wandering the halls tonight.

Probably.

Gwen hopped out of her seat seeing him walking away having not expected to be moving so quickly. She couldn’t help but let her mind wonder about what his home was like. What were his parents like. She had never really had real ones. Were families really like they showed them in movies? Would his mother welcome her with open arms? Would his dad do things like call him sport? She kind of hoped not. She didn’t think she could take a family like that.

Gwen sure would like to see a good family but she didn’t want to see them at the expense of her lunch. She was all for kind parents but there was a limit to how much she could take. The thought was nauseating. Well she pretended it was. In truth it was a little sad. Gwen would give everything to have a real family. To make this stupid mutation go away and live a real life. Sadly she would never get that.

She kind of stared at the back of his head the entire time they were walking paying no attention to where they were going or what was around them. She had never really experienced real kindness. Well she had she was just really bad at spotting it. And she usually messed it up so it dind’t last long. Yet this was the second time in the year or so that she had known Jude he had chosen to take care of her. Gwen was a little flabbergasted to say the least.

Though, as they headed through her usual stomping ground she was pulled out of her own thoughts and a bit confused. Jude was a little too well dressed for this part of town. She had always assumed he had at least a middle class family. But as they headed north towards the Bronx that became less and less of an options. Was Jude surprisingly poor?

Then she saw it. The mansion. Why was this place familiar? She looked around at where they were and it hit her. This was mutant academy. Or at least that is what she called it. Out of all the places he could have brought her this was the last one she had expected.

Gwen stopped short before they even got near the pedestrian gate. “Oh. Nonononono. I am not going there. Are you nuts?!” She was practically yelling and waving her arms around for emphasis. There was a very good reason that she avoided this part of town.

The reason was death.

Was he nuts? "Yes." But at least he was calm and confident about his nuts-factor.

"Come on. Your head won't explode. My room's on the outside for the same reason you'd want it to be. We've been over this already. This is a protected place. The less attention you draw to yourself, the less of a chance anybody's going to ever guess you're here."

At least, he had mostly come to terms with living with his headache here. Granted, she had it worse than he did, but his room was the best situated of any she was going to get. "You can still walk away." But his tone made it clear about what he thought about that. "Or, and I'm just throwing this idea out there, you can calm down and take a bath."

Gwen narrowed her eyes at the small boy. Maybe he was right and she would be fine but she had truly always been too afraid to test it. She would probably have always been safer amoung her own kind if she really wanted to push past her fear. She however dind’t want to risk her brain litteraly exploding.

For Gwen the scariest thing aside from being found by those she was running away from was dieing because of what they were chasing her for. Her powers had a scary side effect and going into a place like that was only going to exasperate it.

However, Jude was right in thinking it was the safest place for her. Of everywhere in the city this is the last place anyone would look for someone like her. She didn’t like to stay in one place for long and she hated being around mutants. Who would think she would go and hide in mutant academy?

She paused for a second looking at the building before turning to look Jude in the eye. “Lead the way.” At the very least she could get a shower and a meal out of it and leave.