Ever since Devon agreed to going on a date with him last Saturday night,  Derek Menes has literally turned into a Disney Princess. At ten o'clock that morning, Derek got up and immediately started to get ready. He checked for any messages, responded to them, then quickly hopped into the shower.  He scrubbed his body with his all natural cedarwood body wash and stayed in there for a good ten minutes. After feeling like he was clean enough, he turned the water off, wrapped a towel around his waist, and stepped out of the shower. When he finished brushing his teeth, washing his face, and putting his deodorant on, he walked out of the  bathroom and back into his bedroom. 

Derek sat on the edge of his bed, disturbing the sleeping fox at the foot of it. 

"I know, I know. You're tired," Derek cooed at her as she started to put on his cocoa butter lotion, "I still haven't come up with a name for you, yet," he paused in thought, "what about Vixen? That's a nice name for a fox." Vixen agreed before getting up from her place at the food of his bed and flopping down on top of Derek's pillow. The mutant chuckled and once he was lotion-ed down, slipped on his boxers and gray t-shirt.

It took him about ten minutes to finally decide on an outfit: a button down green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a pair of khaki joggers, and Converses. Derek looked at himself in the mirror and nodded his head in approval. 

Now the fun part. 

Derek had bought a picnic basket the day before along with some groceries. He knew that on the first date to always avoid garlic or messy foods so instead, he decided to make some food for them. It was also Derek's way of introducing Devon to some southern food that he may not have had. 

So after he packed up the food as well as grab two large bottled waters, he made sure to grab his phone, wallet, headphones, keys, a blanket, and his a bottle of antihistamine just in case Devon had allergies.

As he started to walk out, Vixen started whining about wanting to come with him.

"Vix, c'mon, it's a date in Central Park, why would you want to come?" Vixen stared at him, "...you're right, let's go." 

He took a towncar to Central Park and arrived there in fifteen minutes. He thanked the driver before getting out and wandering around before finding a place to sit.

Derek first laid down the red and white blanket, then set the basket down on top of it. He then sat down on one side of it and sent Devon a text to tell him that he was all ready to go. Vixen wandered around before crawling on Derek's lap and going back to sleep.

It’s an interesting thing learning there’s another version of you running around a world not totally unlike your own. Here you make your bed in the morning, keep your closet clean, drink very rarely and carefully, and oh aren’t you the sweetest, kindest young man who ever started a company? Everything was volunteer for this and help people that. Devon had vomited many times in his life, but never had he been so nauseated.

Flitting around to avoid your doppleganger is not easy, but thankfully when he is so organized that you can track his itinerary it makes it far easier to be out when necessary, slip to Sanctuary when you need to, and catch a drink at the Inferno on someone else’s dime. Now he’d avoided his home, well His home but not his home… It was confusing; it made Devon’s head hurt. So he grabbed a drink for that too.

But oh so sweetly Ms. Frost at the front desk reminded him of the ‘lunch date’ meeting he had with Derek Menes out on the park before he could even take a sip of the early afternoon bourbon punch he’d ordered. She seemed surprised, pleased evening that his meeting with the Brooklyn Youth Learning had been quick after all. Devon smiled, pleased it actually wasn’t.

Devon had been avoiding Goodie Goodie Devon’s friends with success but this sounded like the perfect way to test things out. He was very hesitant to head upstairs but thankfully the code and key worked. It seemed they were of like mind with the passcode. Clearly the security team saw he was whom he said he was and biometrics agreed too. Wonderful.

Very carefully Devon cleaned up and changed his clothes, being sure to put everything back carefully where he’d found it. This Devon was an OCD piece of work. Had he been in the military? The place was spotless, but maybe he just wasn’t around that much to use it. Most everything seemed the same. Even the filing on the computer, though with far better detail. Bravo Devon.

Devon the Totally Nice Guy sauntered out onto the park, dressed in Dear Devon’s black loafers, a pair of dark denim jeans, and a simple black shirt that clung to his frame. A slight cleft in the collar was a nice touch. If he could get home – if his home still existed beyond that apparent rip – he’d order one. Getting back home was going to be difficult if the security was to be believed.

It wasn’t hard to pick out Derek from the description Devon had read up. Dear God in Heaven was that a picnic basket and blanket? Devon suppressed the need to roll his eyes and instead put on one of his big, practiced political meeting grins. This was going to be absolute torture wasn’t it?

“Hey Derek,” Devon cooed, “I hope you weren’t waiting long… Sorry, long day, long week.” He nodded very slowly before sliding down into a spot on the blanket. “Work, am I right?”

Derek's ears perked up as soon as he heard Devon's voice. His head lifted from his lap to see Devon walk toward him and eventually slide out onto the blanket. Vixen peeped her head up over the basket and gave a couple of sniffs in Devon's direction. She gave a disgruntled growl before falling back to sleep. Derek could feel beads of sweat start to form on his forehead, but tried to remain cool.

"Hey, Devon," he returned with a bright smile. He noticed that his eyes had dark circles underneath them. Was this due to the fact that he had a long work week? Derek chalked it up as such and pushed the nagging thought that he was...different, "yeah, work," Derek smirked and chewed on his bottom lip.

Unknown to Derek, his worser half, Primal, had ventured into this new universe and was having a bit of fun at the zoo.

"So, uh," Derek stared at the picnic basket, then up at Devon again. He stared at him for a bit before snapping himself out of it and opening up the basket, "anyway, I decided to make you food that tells you a little bit about me," Derek reached into the basket and started to pull out tubaware worth of food, "I have mac and cheese, fried chicken, collards, yams with marshmallows, bottled water, and chocolate cake for dessert." Derek listed as he set them out. He moved the basket to the side and smiled at him. "I know it's pretty heavy, but I got...excited."

Derek thought that showing Devon that he could cook would be a good thing, but then he realized that the food he made was a little heavy. Okay, a lot heavy, but maybe Devon would appreciate the kind gesture.

"So, tell me about yourself. Where are you from?"

A brow quirked up over a blue eye as Devon glanced at the fox. The guy really was an animal person if he brought pets to a date. Could he control big animals too or was it all foxes, puppies, and kitties? Maybe the fox was a normal thing, but there hadn’t been any mention of that.

The boy was nervous with his lip chewing and stammer. Devon smiled, if partially for his amusement and also to soften the kid up. He tilted his head to the side at the mention of homemade food. That was a rare treat for Devon. He rarely cared to cook, rarely had time to eat in. He leaned forward as Derek went into the basket, “Well now I’m starving.”

Derek described the dishes and while heavy, Devon was still excited. A surprising grin spread across his face as he peered down with admiration. His eyes widened at the yam and the chocolate cake. Ah chocolate. If this guy could cook, then maybe the Derek back home was around some kitchen somewhere. There was still a question as to where this world differed from his exactly, but it was clearly already things weren’t quite so tense. Haven was certainly boring…

>> "I know it's pretty heavy, but I got...excited."

“I don’t eat this well very often at all, Derek,” Devon continued the soft-spoken, breathy cadence. “I’m excited too,” he nodded slightly, grinning wider. “A little of everything to start only seems polite,” he winked a blue eye.

As they started making their plates Devon suppressed a frown at the lack of anything but water. He’d hoped there was a bottle of wine – or anything else – hiding in the basket. But alas, just silverware and the like. Devon kept the smile on as Derek asked for more details on his past. Hopefully things weren’t too different here…

“I grew up in Boston,” Devon shrugged a shoulder as he picked up a fork. “I had a mix of school and academic society education. My dad was an anthropologist for BU. I guess psychology wasn’t a far throw away from that. I was always trying to figure out what was wrong with people, with me.” He chuckled and then put a piece of chicken in his mouth.

“What about you? What was growing up Derek like? When did you start talking with animals?” he asked between chews with a glance to Vixen.

Seeing the look of appeasement on Devon's face made Derek's light up even more. He telepathically told Vix to go play, but to also remain in sight. Vix, with a light growl, did just that now leaving the two mutants alone with the food.

>> “I don’t eat this well very often at all, Derek,”

Derek chewed on his bottom lip while he studied Devon's face. There was something different about him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. With a quick breath, he commented quietly, "well maybe...that'll change." There was a bit of confidence in his voice. Derek wouldn't mind cooking for Devon after a long day's worth of being a charitable supermodel. Though, that was the twenty year old projecting into the future.

"If there's somethin' you don't like, just let me know. I'll make sure not to add it to the menu," he chuckled a bit as he tried not to pile his plate full of food, "or...yeah." He sniffed and continued to smile. Derek noticed the slight shift in Devon's facial expression, but didn't say anything about it.

Derek listened closely to Devon tell him about how he grew up. "That's very...interesting," he responded after a couple of seconds of quiet, "psychology is also an unique field to go into. Studying the way the human mind works is," he paused, " --it's formidable." Was that the right word to use? God he hoped so.

"As for me, I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. Life was...good. Though, I did struggle with bein' both gay and mutant among other thin's but it was good." Derek shoveled a spoonful of macaroni and cheese. Damn, he did do a good job, "though, when I first learned about my power I was sixteen. Stopped an overly aggressive animal from attackin' me."

"What about you? When did you find out that you had control over the weather, Windrider?"

>> "well maybe...that'll change."

Devon grinned and quickly commented, “Here’s hoping.” The conversation then moved to their pasts, growing up, all that typical date back and forth. Derek was quiet a moment after Devon finished, which gave the Totally Nice Guy a chance to try the greens and macaroni.

He nodded bout psychology being a formidable study. It wasn’t quite so unique in how many practiced it, but Devon assumed that was more a reference considering his interests, abilities, etc. Apparently the Devon here took it wayyyyyy more seriously than he did back home. What a goodie goodie.

North Carolina was that border of the south that Devon wasn’t sure he’d ever cross. Gay and mutant there sounded not so fun. Poor guy. He seemed too nice to sick one’s pets against them when they said something racist or homophobic. It only took a few dogs to send a message.

But sixteen? Interesting time to really find your power. Maybe he’d had it a while but it hadn’t quite shown up. Wait. Windrider? Was that some Devon actually called himself here? God this guy was lame. Did he kiss babies while stopping storms from ruining 1st birthday parties? Probably.

“Was the aggressive animal attacking you a bear?” Devon asked first before answering Derek. He put his fork down, set his plate in his lap, and then raised both hands to curl his fingers like a big scary animal. “Bears can be pretty aggressive when they see a young, cute guy,” he chuckled and winked again.

“But me? I was about ten when I started realizing what I could actually do,” he nodded slowly. “Over the course of the next year I realized it was more than wind, but rain, snow… And the humidity of New England didn’t bother me anymore.”

Derek chuckled at Devon's impersonation of a bear. He placed his plate to the side too and raised his by the sides of his head to make dog ears. "Nope, it was a dog. A very aggressive dog. Bad owner." Derek chuckled more and lowered his hands into his lap. The twenty year old mutant wanted to take a picture of Devon doing that, but decided to save pictures for the second date. Derek scooped mac and cheese into his mouth ate.

As Devon explained what age he used his powers, Derek nodded his head. He was really listening to what he had to say. Everything that came out of his mouth sounded like music to his ears.

"That's amazing! Being able to control the weather is...such a powerful mutation to have," Derek smiled more, "I know you don't usually do it, but can I see you...y'know? Make a cloud or somethin'? If not, then that's okay. We can go on to talk about our favorite genre of music." Derek was sure that classical would be on Devon's list.

>> "Nope, it was a dog. A very aggressive dog. Bad owner."

“Mmm,” Devon nodded, keeping his mouth shut as he chewed. He was a drunken playboy, not a monster. He had training after all, fine dining training. You didn’t make out with the host’s wife until after you’d had polite dinner conversation in between chewing. People that chewed and talked at the same time deserved to get hit by lightning.

Some of them did.

>> "That's amazing! Being able to control the weather is...such a powerful mutation to have,"

Devon the Sweet grinned, feigned modesty, and shrugged.

>> "I know you don't usually do it, but can I see you...y'know? Make a cloud or somethin'? If not, then that's okay. We can go on to talk about our favorite genre of music."

Sound liked Devon didn’t use his abilities often. Wow, what a stick in the mud. Publicly a mutant but didn’t use his powers around his friends? What was the point of being open about it if he didn’t use them? God, this guy sounded terrrrrrrible.

“Sure,” Devon nodded. “For you.” He grinned as his eyes went black, darker than pitch and coal. The edge of the universe bore no light and neither did Devon’s eyes. The wind whipped up a bit, gaining maybe a few miles per hours as a larger gust stirred the top of the nearby trees.

Moisture collected and swirled as the currents above swam eagerly, but a few were going to form. “Sorry, takes a few minutes,” Devon smiled, “But I like to take my time in all I do. Why rush, right?” His smile widened into a devilish grin as he glanced back to the forming pockets of moisture.

There, small wisps of clouds formed and grew into puffy little cotton balls. They rolled and spun and widened, throwing a large patch of shadow down across the open hill they were next to. A few other park-goers looked up in question. There had been odd weather off and on for the past few weeks…

Devon’s eyes returned to vibrant blue as he lowered his head. “Won’t take much and they’ll get the drizzle, but I’d hate to get someone all wet without enjoying the fun,” Devon laughed. “Besides, don’t want to risk getting rained out right?”

He laughed again, “Don’t worry, I won’t let it.” He sipped his water – ugh – and then gestured with a quick side nod. “Who’s the other fox?”

Derek watched in awe as Devon preformed his mutation. His eyes looked so...dark. Did they usually do that when he used his powers? Derek had no idea, but it was really arousing. With the power to manipulating the weather, Devon had the potential to be a very powerful.

After be the rain cloud was formed, Derek gave Devon a couple of claps. "That's amazin', Devon! You're really talented! And yeah, the last thin' I want to do is ruin this date over my curiosity."

The other fox? Derek blushed at thought, "Um," he cleared his throat and nodded to the fox that was currently stalking a pigeon, "that's Vix. She helped discover the rift and fought along side me and Arty." Derek answered with a smile. "And thank you for the compliment."

"...I'm glad you agreed to this date, Devon. I was so nervous to ask you," Derek chuckled a bit and ate some more of his food.

>> "That's amazin', Devon! You're really talented! And yeah, the last thin' I want to do is ruin this date over my curiosity."

Oh flattery. Wow, that didn’t seem this Devon’s style. Ah modesty. False modesty. What a piece of crap. Who didn’t think controlling the weather was amazing? “No, I’m not. And don’t you worry, that’s what dates are about right? Getting to know each other,” Devon said with practiced sincerity. God, how did Devon here tolerate this?

Thankfully his comment got the reaction from Derek here that Devon wanted. Ah look at him blush. Wasn’t that cute? This guy had no confidence. I mean, Devon was rather gorgeous but this guy was rather attractive too, great features, friendly eyes, good hair… “You’re welcome,” he replied. And polite too. This guy was a real innocent heart wasn’t he?

Ugh, gross.

>> "...I'm glad you agreed to this date, Devon. I was so nervous to ask you,"

“Yeah me too,” Devon nodded slowly as he put his fork down. “I don’t date often,” he said with a sincere grin. That was quite true; he never dated. What he did was never called dating. Did this Devon? Seemed like a busy guy.

“And nice to meet Vix,” Devon nodded again. “Looks like she’s hungry,” a chuckle came with the words. “Your cooking is great, by the way,” Devon said once more with a sincere grin. He was enjoying himself even if it was sure to put on ten pounds by the evening. The kid had skill, though he needed to learn to bring a bottle of wine to the next one. Water? Geez. I mean even lemonade. That he could spike, but best to leave the flask hidden.

“Where you’d learn to cook?”

"I'm guessin' you don't," Derek smiled a bit. He himself was trying to get into the scene of dating. Being in New York, he sort of hit the jackpot of homosexual men. Though, California had their portion of fruits and nuts, too. He chuckled a bit at the thought, "you're always so busy bein' a good person, savin' mutants from hatred an' givin' them a place to stay at Sanctuary-- you're a really good person." Or so, Derek thought. There was something nagging him at the back of his mind with "Devon". Perhaps it was just his nerves getting the best of him. Derek didn't know, however, he knew that he probably shouldn't be projecting himself onto Devon. 

Derek shifted his weight a bit, "oh, yeah. She likes huntin' the pigeons," he sniffed and continued eating, slowly. While he did that, Derek was sending telepathic messages to Vix for her to play nice with the pigeons and that she had food back at the apartment. The fox made a disgruntled noise in response and ran over to Derek to lap at his face. This caused the mutant to laugh and playfully nudge Vix away, "go have fun! Stop bein' noisy." Derek teased with a chuckle. Vix yelped and scuffed off to do whatever foxes do.

>> “Where you’d learn to cook?”

"Hm? Oh, my mom," he answered with a shrug. Derek took the bottled water and unscrewed it, "...do you cook any?" Derek asked, checking his phone for messages. When he saw that it was mostly from Persephone and Merida, he slid to the side. "Or do anythin' for fun other than do charities an' bein' a supermodel?" Or being the king of Olympus. 

Derek seemed to agree; Devon didn’t date much. Right. Who could? Way too much going on, way too easy to get it on. Did he really seem like the settling down type anyway? He was twenty-one!

>> "you're always so busy bein' a good person, savin' mutants from hatred an' givin' them a place to stay at Sanctuary-- you're a really good person."

Devon smiled slightly, nodding quite a few times before putting more food in his mouth. There wasn’t anything he could say in response to that that wasn’t going to give him away. Things like how he was such a good guy cause he loved everyone, or how saving mutants was simply the right thing to do, how he was the best person cause he had so many good people around him… Gross. There was a big bull mutant around here somewhere because his leavings were all over the place.

Attention thankfully turned to the fox as Devon had intended. Good deflection. Political aspirations were sure to happen if he could change hard conversations over to the topic of cute animals. Excellent. This was easy. No wonder this world had all these cute, happy do-gooders. Everyone was too busy hugging bunnies and making the world a better place. Wasn’t everything just so wonderful? Devon pushed the bile down with another long gulp of vodka. A shame it tasted so much like water.

He chuckled at the fox playing with Derek before he encouraged Vix away. Noisy? Could he communicate openly with them? Interesting. That was a useful skill. He’d be all to gather all kinds of information from a horde of animals spies. Maybe this Do Good Devon had some smart ideas.

Devon nodded at the mention of Derek’s mom. That made sense. Most learned to cook from family, and seemingly the south had a stronger family dynamic than the new England area. Catholic Italians aside maybe. Man, all those jokes he could make right now but Devon the Sweet and Honorable probably didn’t make racist or ethnic jokes. Yawn.

>> "...do you cook any?"

“Not really,” he shook his head. “I’ll throw some things together like a salad or put meat in a pan, but not cooking, not like you.” No, there was eating and there was cooking. Putting salad together was not cooking. Heck, he didn’t even grocery shop. He usually grabbed food from Haven or had food delivered.

>> "Or do anythin' for fun other than do charities an' bein' a supermodel?"

“Ha!” Devon laughed loudly, awkwardly. He knew he was good looking, sure. But charity? Well yeah, he did those even in his world but they were a bit Haven member serving if not entirely. Yeah maybe someone got some cash but so did the host’s business friends. Mmm, tax ride offs. Okay maybe mutants got help, but that was about it. Still, the idea of charity and supermodel was humerous. Of course, Devon was going to focus on the latter.

“You know me, jet setting across the world for magazine shots,” he laughed again. “I like to read I guess,” Devon thought carefully… What did he do? Party? Dance? Drink? Flirt and take fine friends home? Those didn’t seem like good answers. “I probably work too much. Always so much to do,” his brow dropped as he nodded solemnly.

Yeah that sounded like Devon-Do-Good.

>> “Not really...I’ll throw some things together like a salad or put meat in a pan, but not cooking, not like you.”

Derek rolled his eyes playfully at Devon's flattery. He was such a charmer, Zeus was. "Stoppp. It's sort of therapeutic to me in a way. It calms me down from the 'urges' I have." And by urges, he means the want to pluck someone eyes out (you can thank Into the Forest for that). Derek had a lot of dark tendencies underneath his cinnamon roll nature. He tried his best to keep it concealed from the general public. Or anyone for that matter. "Anyway," he shook the thought from his mind.

He laughed along with his date. It was true! Devon could be a supermodel if he wanted to, no problem. "Mhmm, I'm sure you do..." There was a glint of a sultry look in Derek's eyes. The idea of Devon during an underwear shoot for Marco Perez (Calvin Klein) crept inside of his mind and started to lower itself into the mental gutter. Clearing his throat, Derek turned his attention back to the more appropriate subjects.

"You do in fact work too much. You need to take a day off, stay in bed with someone and just watch Binge and order fancy take out. Everyone deserves at least one mental day." Derek chuckled a bit. "or in your case, a mental week."

>> "Stoppp. It's sort of therapeutic to me in a way. It calms me down from the 'urges' I have."

Ding ding ding ding! We have something interesting! Finally.

Unless of course these urges turned out to be the urge to run through meadows, save children from gluten, or ensure ponies got healthcare.

God this world.

Derek seemed fixated on the modeling. The boy needed attention, clearly. The new ones were always so keyed up. It’s why it was so easy to find a republican frat boy and break him. So much of it was running around in their head. Derek, he had to admit, wasn’t that type. There was clearly something else going on there.

Oh and he could cook.

“You’re right, I do need to take some time off,” Devon nodded slowly, putting his nearly empty plate down. “I’ve been too busy to consider it. But staying in to eat sounds a little…” Devon bounced his head on his shoulders, grimacing a little. “Boring.”

He inhaled deeply and grinned, “Maybe a real vacation. Dancing and beaches and boating and running through the woods naked.” He laughed and winked, “Now there’s a way to calm an urge, eh?”

“You’re right, I do need to take some time off...I’ve been too busy to consider it. But staying in to eat sounds a little...Boring."

If there was one thing that Derek knew about himself it was that he had the tendency to be boring. It wasn't something that he did on purpose, something it just...happened. Maybe with Devon, he would be introduced to more fun things. Derek knew that it sounded boring, but at least he offered something? "Yeah, you're right about that." He then started to pack up the picnic basket so that food wouldn't spoil. That would definitely serve as dinner for the next couple of days until he got paid. The food wasn't cheap, especially in New York City.

“Maybe a real vacation. Dancing and beaches and boating and running through the woods naked...Now there’s a way to calm an urge, eh?”

"That actually sounds fun. The last part about running through the woods naked would be very sensual and convivial." Derek smirked and thought about the subject more. "Just...picking blueberries off of wild bushes and feeding them to each other while..." Derek shook his head. No guttering on the first date; that was one of his rules. The second date though was up for grabs. "Anyway, I could totally go for some outdoor adventure." Derek sniffed and took a sip of his water. His eyes glanced at Devon's for a while before they flickered up at his soft lips. Oh, those lips. Derek planned on feeling those lips on his, but in time and when Devon presented the opportunity for him to do so. Until then...

The dark-skinned mutant moved the basket off to the side and scooted a bit closer to Devon, but not too close. He still had to keep a reasonable distance.