Skye pulled the hood of her hoodie over her head as she stuffed her hands in her pockets, slumping slightly against the cool breeze. Luckily her hoodie was enough to shield against it; she really needed to pull out some of her winter clothes, but they just weren't the same. They were bulky and uncomfortable.

Her hair was indigo at the moment, with indigo light glowing from the inside of her pockets, showing that she was content, peaceful. She was getting used to the day to day life in the city, which was nothing like her small port-hometown in Maine. But she figured she could get quite used to living here. Especially since she wasn't nervous as often; as good as purple looked on her, being a nervous wreck all the time wasn't on her bucket list. But it rhymed with bucket...

Speaking of things that can go to hell, a light crack of thunder could be heard as little droplets of water slowly began to drizzle from the sky. Cursing to herself, Skye's hair turned blue, the light following suit. And by now it was quite a walk back to Blaine's apartment...Just great.

Instantly, the light drizzle turned into a furious downpour, soaking the emotional light-source from head to toe as her blue hair clung to her face, and her hoodie clung to the rest of her body. Soaking wet, she ducked into a nearby store-front, shaking slightly and muttering to herself.

Even though she'd only been in New York a couple of weeks, her mutterings may have showed that she'd already been around her uncle Blaine a bit too long...

Lately, the rain made Benji think of that night in the storm when he'd nearly died. If water man had been for real, and not simply defending himself while hunting for the true murderer... it didn't bear thinking. He hadn't held it against the man. Hard to hold anything against a puddle that looked like a Sonic the Hedgehog villain, who had to half-drown you by sticking your head in his body in order to talk.

He hadn't gone back over to the other side yet. It had been a while. Why? Well, he'd worried about his secret identity possibly having been exposed during a scuffle in the middle of the city. When it had been shown on a big screen in Times Square? Yeah... and it had almost been easier getting a temporary job here than going back and dying every day doin code work or breaking his back tryin to get into an orchestra group.

There was untapped potential here for art. For people. For a world where mutants were treated better, if only slightly. And also, he worries he was being hunted by a shadowy government organization. And that made one duck their head. Unless they went out during storms in order to patrol the city and stop crimes. But whatever. He hadn't seen anyone so far. So he walked in the storm, out of costume, waiting for some sign of trouble to urge him to transform.

He paused a moment, as the rain grew from a drizzle to something worse. A heavy rain. Hrm. He had a black jacket on, and he had a hood so he was dryer than he could have been, but an umbrella would have been nice. Nicer than the motorcycle helmet with the dopey grin that he had under the crook of one arm. He glanced towards the nearest shelter and his eyes fell on a girl with blue hair and a similar idea.

Benji ducked into the shelter of th shop front by her, and shot her a friendly smile. Then his eyes drifted past the girl, to the shops display. He let out a bitter laugh. "I don't know if that's irony or if someone's got a sick sense of humor up there, but-" He nodded to the display. To all the raincoats and umbrellas and stuff they could use. "The store is closed," Benji said. His tone was the only dry thing about him.

Skye forced a smile as she found herself with a temporary companion--to wait out the rain. At his words, her eyes drifted past the "CLOSED" sign for the first time, seeing what the store was actually selling. "Life can be a cruel, cruel mistress..." she murmured, a cynical, bitter dryness to her own tone. She shook her head, pulling the hood of her hoodie down to reveal that the rain had soaked through her hood, and her hair was now soaked and matted to her head, the soft blue light still emanating from the hands that were still stuffed in her coat pockets.

"Well, looks like we're going to be here for awhile," she sighed after a moment, looking up at her new acquaintance. "We may as well get to know each other a bit better, so....my name is Skye," she said after a pause as she removed her still flickering hands from her pockets and folding them across her soaked chest.

It seemed they were in agreement. Life was mean. Like 'angry dog who hasn't been fed lately mean.' And also, apparently, a woman. Luck's a woman. Life's a woman. What hasn't been personified as a woman? The thought drifted briefly and breezily through Benji's brain before it floated out the other ear and vanished into the rain. He nodded at the thought. "Sure can."

Her hair was still blue, not that he had expected it to change. What he hadn't expected, however, were the blue glows from her pockets. Glowing hands? Hand glows? He could be blue too, for the record... if he spun fast enough for a second.

The girl said they'd probably be there for a while, and sighed moodily, then salvaged that oh-so-sunny mood with an introduction. She moved the glow hands from pockets, and folded arms across chest. Yep. Blue. And her name was skye.

"Skye Blue?" Benji said. He didn't laugh at her. He just thought it was another bit of life having a sense of humor. "My name is Benji. Nice hands, by the way. Blues a good color."

He tapped into his power, just like he'd figured he could, and spun real quick in place for one second. Blue streamers from his mutation trailed round and round till they blurred from the speed and it looked like a rave. Then he stopped. And leaned against the side of the building feeling like some sort of idiotic dizzy clown.

"See?" He said groggily. "Blue. And that was not showing off." It totally was. "Actually--" Damn. Without thinking, he'd spun and shed water like a dog. Which meant... it had splattered her. He was probably not her favorite person right that second. Although maybe she was already so drippy a few more drips wouldn't matter? He WOULD NOT say it was just a drop in the bucket. That was too cheesy, even for him.

He'd lost the helmet at some point. It rested on the ground next to him, rocking slightly from the speedy trip. Black with a big lipped comical grin, it smiled at them both.

She smiled lightly as he called her 'Skye Blue' and commented on her hands. "Thanks, Benji. They're not always blue; in fact they change color frequently," she said, though she figured it would stay blue as long as she was cold, wet, and down about it. Then, suddenly, he started spinning at an ungodly fast speed, drenching her with water much like a dog that had just had its bath. Very briefly, her hair and the lights on her hands flickered to a pulsing red light, but then faded to orange as she realized that what he had done. Though...it also seemed to have taken some effort out of him, as he now looked beat.

She smiled lightly, giggling a little as her hands flickered the happy orange glow. "That's pretty neat," she said. "Mine's not at will. It just...happens." She gave a smirk; he was quite the goofball, wasn't he? Though...she didn't think he was obnoxious about it. In fact, it was rather amusing to her.

"So, Benji," she said after a moment, letting him gain some energy back. "Are you always a goof, or just when you're trying to flirt?" she teased lightly, that sly smile still on her lips. Reaching down, she picked up his helmet, handing it to him. "Interesting design, but....I don't see a motorcycle," she commented, sort of trying to picture this guy on a motorcycle.

She couldn't, but anything was possible, right? Thunder cracked and lightning flashed across the sky, signifying that the rain didn't intend to let up anytime soon.

Now he just felt silly, what with the misunderstanding her power and the spraying with her and water and all. He saw it now, the way it had changed from blue to red, then orange. The question that passed through his mind was, why does it change? With powers, there's usually some reason or rhyme behind a thing. Not always, but usually. Was there a pattern or was it random? Did it reflect some change within her? Too little information. He could not say.

The world stopped spinning. His stomach relaxed. It wasnt every day he used his power to spin. He could usually handle the speed. The motion itself, however... one couldn't simply prepare one's self for spinning at 100 miles per hour. The dizziness was the problem. If one could simply shrug off dizziness in an instant, like if she could, what would that make her? Invulnerability to disorientation from spinning. If Skye had that-- or he supposed, if he were goofball enough to blame her for his spinning -- that would make her some kind of... dizziness princess. Urgh. Why was it his mind went straight to the cornball jokes around cute girls? She'd already grasped the fact he was a showoff and a flirt, and it had literally been less than 10 seconds. Talk about speed...

He smiled at her, and her goof / flirt comment, and pushed off from the wall. "Caught, blue-handed. Or, well, blue-streaky-ed. As it were." He said. "I guess cute girls just bring out the cheese in me." He paused a second, for emphasis, then added "See?" What was the first cheese that sprang to mind, ladies? Some sort of processed American cheese Singles. Telling, huh?

Somewhere, he'd lost the helmet. She had it now. A very notable helmet. He'd painted it himself. It was kind of his vigilante costume... and maybe having it out in the open when people were starting to notice the mysterious helmeted hero motif wasn't the brightest idea. He grinned sheepishly. "I sort of left my bike in another dimension." Benji said. "Still working on getting the money together to buy a new one. Got the helmet covered, though." He held up a 'solidarity fist' and pumped it. "Safety first. Painted that one, myself."

She quirked a brow as she looked at him, wondering if he was about to lose his lunch. Or breakfast. Or what have you. If he did, that would likely make him a little less attractive. Or a lot, considering how close they were forced to stand. It wasn't a huge storefront.

She smiled at the cute comment, blushing lightly though the orange glow remained, the joy and amusement of the moment overpowering whatever else she may have been feeling. The smile didn't fade, though; he was definitely an oddball, that was for sure, but...she found it refreshing. Amusing, even.

She laughed lightly. He'd left his bike in another dimension...that raised several questions, but she didn't ask. "Yeah, I understand getting money together. I'm a waitress over at the Missing Link. For now, anyway. If I don't improve, I'm liable to get fired soon," she said with a shrug. "Though my emotional breakdowns make for an interesting light show," she said with a dry chuckle.

After a few moments of awkward silence, she bit her lip. "I do like the helmet though. It's cute, so it fits you perfectly," she said with a smirk.

((ooc finally got around to replying here, whoops!))

Color change note: she smiled. Her glow was orange. Did orange mean pleased? Mood ring mutation. Nifty. If one could figure all the settings out, one would be able to read her emotions plain as the nose on her face. He had to wonder how she felt about that. But no matter! She was smiling!

He bobbed his head at her comment about understanding his situation. Waitressing, Benji decided, was a low paying job. She would understand all too well. Benji's mouth quirked in an angled smile at her chuckle.

'One woman rave,' he thought to himself. 'Just add water.'

Things slipped into an awkward silence, post joke. He'd smiled at it, but he hadn't spoken his comment aloud. He figured he wasn't allowed. Might've been too cheesy, even for him. Her comment on his cute helmet, however, had him smirking.

"Thanks," Benji said. Had she just called him cute? "I'd offer to buy you a coffee. But--" He shot a significant look out towards the pouring rain. "We'd get soaked before we made it ten steps. Unless I tried to brute force our way there with super speed..." He trailed off. That last part had been an afterthought.

How quickly could they move from cover to cover at high speed? He hadn't done much side by side rushing. Hadn't found many girls willing to let him carry them. Perish the thought. It'd take a lot of rushing and trusting and recharge time, but-- eh . It had just been a thought. They could hunker down and talk in the cold just fine.

"I wish I knew how long the rain was going to last." Benji sighed. "I kind of wanted to practice my violin tonight, for my audition." He glanced her way. "Trying to get hired into an orchestra over here."

The rain showed no signs of letting up. On the bright side, it meant that this cute guy couldn't really go anywhere. But there was only so much to talk about. Eventually it would get boring. "Well...I'm not sure about super speed. From what I saw with the spinning, I don't know if my stomach can take it..." she admitted, taking a breath.

"Orchestra? Now that is interesting. I'm not really sure what I want to do with myself, to be honest. I thought about going to school for journalism or something." She bit her lip as she thought a moment, looking out into the rain.

"Well, we're already damp. There's a coffee shop maybe two blocks down. We could always suck it up, briskly walk the two blocks, and I can take you up on that coffee? At least then we'd have somewhere adequate to wait out the rain."

She smiled over at him, shoving her hands in her hoodie pockets.

He'd figured as much, what with the spinning and the sprinting. He hadn't done many side by sides. Whiplash was an actual concern. No magical force fields around to protect people, or speed forces of any kind. Just momentum (and protection for him).

"Yeah," he agreed. "You'd probably get motion sick or something." And that isn't romantic one bit.

His comment on his music had attracted her attention. He supposed women like a man with passion and talent. Or something. It was interesting, at the very least.

He nodded at her comment. So it sounded like she was in college, then. Or preparing to enter college. That begged the question, how old was she? It's hard to gauge age sometimes. Especially when someone is distracted by pouring rain.

His thoughts got shifted by her follow-up comment. A novel proposition. Walk IN the rain? Why, next they'd be singing and dancing.

"I think I can walk briskly," Benji winked.

"Yeah...getting sick really isn't on my to-do list for the day," she said with a smirk. "Though, it would be interesting to see what color my hair turns for that..." she added, her face more deadpan, though her voice was only semi serious as she followed it up with a scoff.

Her hood was already up, so she was as protected from the rain as she could be without the cramped safety of the storefront. Taking one hand out of her pocket, she offered her bent arm to him as she prepared to venture out into the pouring rain. It was to have coffee and not be in the rain with a cute guy, so in her mind, that would be worth getting wet.

Besides, it's not like water did any real damage; not to her anyway. She just didn't like being cold afterwards. But again...this time would be worth it. And what better to counteract the cold than coffee?

Benji laughed at her joke. Just because she did. If it hadn’t been a laughing matter, he wouldn’t have taken amusement from the idea of her eating sick changing her hair. Nope. Not at all. It is important one is able to laugh at ones self, he reasoned. Nod nod.

Smiling, Benji took the woman’s arm. Together, they ventured out into the rain. He escorted her like a scholar and a gentleman.

The walk took a few minutes. He talked small talk. They decidedly did not talk about the weather. That topic had already been done.

“So, I paint-“ he concluded, as they stopped in front of the coffee shop. He had been talking about what he liked to do for fun. He let go of her arm as he stepped forward to hold open the door. “After you.” Benji said. “Then maybe you can tell me what you do for fun.” He followed Skye into the coffee shop.

((OOC I know it’s been a while. We can probably hand wave how this one finishes up or finish it in a couple posts! Either way. Yummy coffee. No rain. I just wanted to end it on a good stopping point.))

The walk was actually rather nice. They talked about their dreams, hobbies, and as they got to the shop, Benji had asked what Skye did for fun after saying he liked to paint. "You'll have to stick around to find out~" she answered teasingly as they made their way inside. Walking arm in arm was nice, even if it was raining.

All in all, the coffee was warm, and they didn't get that soaked. It was chalking up to be a pretty nice day. "Let's just say what I like to do for fun probably shouldn't be discussed in public," she said quietly, a coy smile on her face as she took a sip of her coffee.

He liked that reply. He most certainly wasn’t going to skate before he found out more about her. Because she, was interesting.

As far as interesting replies went, hers, once they’d gotten their coffee and she’d deigned to answer him about things she liked to do for fun, was quite interesting. But she had teased him, so- turnabout was fair play.

“Ah, I see.” Benji smiled, and nodded significantly. Like he got it. After a beat, he added “I don’t think the NSA has bugged the coffee table so your leet haxxoring on the internet and illegal torrents are probably safe.”

She smirked, this goofy little man that she'd met in the rain was looking to be quite amusing--and he wasn't bad looking either, so that was a plus. She snorted lightly at his reply, her fingers wrapping around her coffee cup and bringing the warm refreshing liquid to her lips.

"Well let's just say my kind of 'file sharing' doesn't require a computer, or the internet," she replied slyly, her voice closer to a low purr as she looked at him with a teasing smile as her hair flicked to bright pink. "Though there is a connection..." Sitting back in the chair, the young woman sipped her coffee as she looked at him.

"After we finish up here, I might be willing to show you what I mean, if you're interested." Pink light flickered from around her hands as she let her free arm rest on the table.