Two years after she’d first moved back to New York, Juliette had stepped off of her plane looking a little more sun-kissed than usual. Two years since she’d made some of the biggest steps of her life and fallen farther than she’d ever thought she could. Job changes, a tangled mess of failed relationships, and now this.

Booker breaking up with her hadn’t come as all that much of a surprise, if she was being honest with herself. As much as she liked him, and she was pretty sure that he liked her, there was no future in it. Not when it made her sick to spend more than a few hours around him, and her powers only seemed to be reacting more harshly to it with each passing day. That wasn’t, however, to say that it didn’t hit her like a punch in the stomach. She and Sam had been doomed from the start, but she’d still cheated on him when she thought that she and Booker were meant to be. She’d clawed and carved her way right to rock bottom and was somehow surprised to see herself sitting alone again.

When she’d moved to New York, she’d been a nurse, fresh out of school and looking forward to a long career. Then, a flashy mutant with pink hair had made a public speech and she’d been swept away in the idea of being a superhero. Saving people before they were brought into the ER. For a while, it seemed like that was the place for her to be, but she also knew that she was very much out of her element.

So, with little warning, she’d packed her bags and headed south. South, originally with no direction in mind, but she’d ended up right back where she started. Quite literally. In the Dominican Republic, she’d explored her roots and tracked down her father and discovered a little more about him. Some she’d half expected. The rest… had come as a shock. A nearly two months travelling had both answered questions and given her questions that she’d never expected to need to ask.

Her current, burning question? What did one do when they’d gone to find themselves and come back more lost?

She couldn’t go back to the Mansion just yet. She wasn’t quite ready. She’d been back to her apartment, but even that was different. Every piece of grounding she’d clung to in the past few years had shifted under her feet like sinking sand and left her without direction. The mansion would likely take her back if she asked, but did she want to be back? That was the real question. To face everyone after leaving suddenly; to go back to avoiding Sam in the hallway… it all seemed a little overwhelming.

The one thing that wasn’t overwhelming was the little bit of sunshine that New York had been blessed with in the middle of February. Despite having spent the last while in a tropical climate, she was still eager to be able to spend time outside in the nice weather. She was sitting on a bench in central park, her eyes closed and her mind clear, blissfully unaware of the person who happened to take a seat next to her on the bench.

It was always refreshing to get out and visit Central Park, to get some clean air and see all the green. He was not teaching that day. They were still repairing the math classroom. There had been an... accident at the mansion. Some children's powers had interacted strangely when they'd been working together on some particularly difficult math problems. They'd been stressed, and somehow, there had been an explosion. A math-based explosion. A sonic boom, really. It had shattered all the windows. Nobody had been hurt. Startled, but not hurt. Doc Prof had been annoyed, regardless. How could anything so stupid had happened? So they'd taken a day to do some repairs. Thus, he had the day off. He was using it to feed the ducks.

Was it okay to feed the ducks? Some signs said not to... it didn't matter, either way. The ducks weren't biting. Pigeons were far more interested. He didn't really want to feed bread to pigeons, though. Who would? They were dirty.

The Asian sighed. He stuffed the remnants of the bread roll into the pocket of his heavy black peacoat. There wasn't any point to wasting it. He could throw it to them when he left. For now, he'd just sit and enjoy the day. The weather was quite nice.

With a murmured greeting, Shin plopped down onto a park bench next to a woman. He didn't spare more than a glance in her direction. He hadn't ever really met Juliette, besides any mentions or brief introductions Sam had made. They'd never really interacted. He was familiar with mansion staff, usually, but the face simply didn't click. Triangular pupils settled on a duck with a green neck ring as it waddled up in front of the bench and quacked at them. Another sigh. Shin tore a hunk off the bread roll, and let it roll across the ground to stop in front of the bird.

"They need to make up their minds." the Asian muttered.

It was funny how the world could just stop for a while if you closed your eyes for long enough. It was almost like not existing for brief moments. When she closed her eyes, there were no more problems, no issues calling for her attention. It was just Juliette at peace with the sun, and there was nothing getting in the way of that. Nothing, of course, until someone else sat down beside her.

For a second, Juliette just kept her eyes shut tight, hoping that whatever was happening would pass and she would be alright to sit there for the next foreseeable future. Maybe it would finally happen; maybe she would officially just dissolve into nothingness. It would almost feel like a relief at that point, considering all that she was avoiding in her life. To be able to take a step back and have the weight lifted off of her shoulders, even just for a short time, sounded like an incredible blessing. It was no way to deal with things, but it would undoubtedly make everything a little easier. She could do with a bit of easier.

It was only when the person next to her actually said anything that she even opened her eyes. As casually as she could, so as not to have it look like she was staring, she glanced at whoever it was sitting next to her. Her eyes opened a little wider once she realized that she actually knew the person she was sharing the bench with. Shin, as Sam always called him, had been an X-Man for many years longer than she had. He was even a fellow teacher at the institute. While she had seen him in passing and at a few meetings, she'd never actually interacted or worked with him before. It was quite the coincidence that she would run into him in the park in a city that large. She had specifically sat there to be able to avoid her life, too.

Even when she was running from it, the mansion followed her.

Maybe it was a sign. Someone up above was laughing at her and showing her that she'd made a commitment, and that commitment was for life. There was no real way to run from it, as much as she might try. She'd gone two months, and now it was time to go back to life as she had known it and try to pick up the pieces. There were a lot of pieces, though.

"Shin, right?" she asked, turning her head toward the man and brushing the strands of hair off of her face. She hadn't been listening to whatever he had said before, and in all honesty, she didn't really care. She was engaging because she'd received her sign, loud and clear.

He nearly jumped. Nearly. It wasn't like he hadn't expected the woman next to him to talk, but his focus had been on the ducks. He gave her a quick calculating look. She knew his name. He ran through the processes in his mental database, and tried to place a name to the face.

It was always awkward when a mental search went through, and came up dry. His face slipped into an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry." He said. "I seem to have forgotten your--" Something in his mind pinged. There it was. "Wait. Juliette, right?" He pointed one finger at her. "You work at the mansion. I remember you at some staff meetings, and--" He didn't recall having seen her recently. As his brain went through the motions of recalling information, it hit on another fact. "I think Sam mentioned you? Sorry," He apologized again. "I can be such a scatterbrain at times. Doesn't help I've been holed up in the DR and teaching rather than socializing at the mansion lately, after that whole dimensional rip thing and all that." He made a face.

All that had included a kidnapping and a breakout from a secured government location in another reality. But you can't just come out and say THAT. He'd gotten a handle on his old mutation and started sorting out the new mechanics along with the old once he'd broken the mental block. He'd needed to, in order to escape. Prison cells held bad memories for him. Ducks were far nicer. He tossed another chunk of bread out to the birds.

She’d only seen Shin in passing, so, honestly, it wasn’t that surprising that he wouldn’t recognize her. She’d only just lost the “Trainee” status in front of her X-Man logo, too, so that was another thing. It took him a moment to place her, but he did get it eventually. Her eyes travelled down to look at the finger he was pointing at her, but she nodded gently.

Yes, she worked at the mansion; yes, he would have seen her at staff meetings; and yes, Sam likely would have mentioned her.

Karma was a f***ing b****.

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” she said awkwardly, putting her hands on her knees as she took in an uncomfortable breath. She knew nothing about this guy other than the fact that he worked at the mansion and was an X-Man. Not a whole lot to go on. Even his powers were a mystery to her at that point. He could have been using it that very moment and she would have been none the wiser. The mansion wasn’t a big place, but there were still ways to completely avoid a person if you wanted to.

The dimensional rip was still a thing, too. Juliette had put it out of her mind as she travelled around, but coming back to New York where it was still very much the forefront of everyone’s minds was a little strange. That was the big thing on everyone else’s plate. On hers there was just a whole lot of shame and damage that she was in charge of.

But she was talking to Shin, the X-Man that the universe had sent her to give her a big old slap in the face. “I was gone for awhile, anyway, and we haven’t interacted a whole lot. I really only know the few things that I heard from… Sam…” Digging deep into old wounds. “Anyway, what brings you to the park?”

That tone sounded awkward. Was this awkward? Had he made this awkward? Why was it that ninety percent of the awkward conversations he had happened in Central Park?

The way she said Sam was awkward, too. Ex cop senses told him there was something there. Maybe his ex cop senses had sensed an Ex-girlfriend? He would have been floored just for the wordplay if he'd also detected an ex-X Ex, as well. But some things just are too good to be a reality. Or too horrible, depending on which angle you choose to examine a situation from.

He kept a neutral face in the face of all the awkwardness and subtle hints. Maybe if they just refused to acknowledge it, they could have a friendly conversation that didn't devolve into awkward overtones. Or even undertones? As far as the conversation went, she'd said she had been gone from the mansion for a while, and that they didn't really know each other well. Nothing deeper. That was good enough for Shin! Awkwardness avoided, for now. They could keep it up. They just needed to avoid cute animals. Kittens, especially. As point of fact, the most awkward conversation he'd had in his life had been about a lost kitten in Central Park. That's a situation one does not really want to repeat. Awkwardness after rough breakups and Post Romania concentration camp PTSD. Overblown doesn't begin to describe it. Speaking of cute animals...

Shin looked down at the remnants of the loaf of bread in his hands. "I was, uh. Feeding the ducks." He said. Cute animal talk. Crap crap crap. Disengage! Without further ado, he hauled back his arm and chucked the bread across the park. Birds and ducks scattered, then fell on it like something from an Alfred Hitchcock film. Bread disposed, he turned back to her, all smiles. He continued as if he hadn't just lobbed a hunk of bread ten feet away like a crazy person. "Normally, I would be teaching, but the kids blew up the math classroom. Divided by zero," He explained. Suppressing a smile, he added "At least, with mixed super powers. I never would have expected that reaction in a million years. But anyways. At least the weather is nice." He smiled at her. "You?"

Okay, so Juliette knew very little about Shin, but what she did know was that he was that he was very… peculiar. Juliette had her hands on her knees as she watched him throw the piece of bread that he had been holding in the opposite direction. He had clearly just been using it to feed the ducks from, so there was no obvious reason why he would need to throw it away. His movements, too, seemed almost frantic. Was he… alright? Had he hit his head or something? Juliette narrowed her gaze and tried to pinpoint any signs of a concussion.

It was difficult to tell, really. He just continued along as if he’d done nothing at all; as if he hadn’t just done something very strange. Could he feel the awkwardness too? Was he trying to diffuse the tension? If so, that was an even more uncomfortable way of doing so.

He turned back with a smile, which Juliette just couldn’t seem to match. Normally, he’d be teaching. Normally, so would she. Except, his math class had been blown up. Unfortunately, that was just one of the many hazards associated with teaching at the Xavier institute. The school was no stranger to having rooms blown completely to smithereens, and it seemed to have a very large budget for repairs. Juliette simply nodded at the comment, not bothering to laugh at the math joke. She really wasn’t feeling up to it and he was being a little dodgy. It was off-putting.

The question was turned over to her, and she simply shrugged. He wasn’t really making her feel comfortable enough to be truthful, so it seemed like her best option lay in being vague or lying outright. “The weather is nice,” she agreed, glancing up at the sun. It was nice not to have to come back to snow. “I guess I just thought I would spend some time outside before I head back to… everything.”

Half truth. She had wanted to be outside, in a way.

Yeah. He could understand wasting time before getting back to things.

"Sometimes you just gotta kill time. Enjoy the scenery. Stop and smell the roses. 'Specially when you're avoiding things. I speak from experience." Shin commented. He didn't smile knowingly or anything because he figured he was reading into the awkward pauses and significant body language too much, and smiling knowingly about it would be creepy.

He lived with a woman who could feel everyone's emotions. That really had helped Shin become more self aware, more in touch with his own emotions. Working with troubled mutant kids certainly didn't hurt his own personal levels of empathy. It wasn't his power, but... it was a skill he constantly worked on developing.

He felt like he needed to explain. If she were feeling troubled, she wasn't going to open up to him. She didn't know him. He didn't know her well. There was no trust. It hadn't been built. It needed to be earned. All he'd done so far was interrupt her personal time and lob bread at ducks.

"I, uh. Hope this isn't too personal. The talking about not wanting to deal. But--" Shin glanced away. He didn't feel like making eye contact when talking about this. Eyes are windows into the soul and he didn't want to share this particular view. "About ten years ago, I went on a mission with the X-men and got captured and put in a mutant camp. And this July, I got captured by some secret shadowy government organization on the other side of the rip. They wanted to mess with me, and--" He paused a beat, then continued. "I relapsed, remembering it all."

"The memories helped me power through a mental block that had been preventing me from accessing all my powers, which was good. I broke out in about a day. But... I sure did avoid spending time with other X-folk, friends and family for a while. Which was rough."

"Yes, I realize that's a lot to unload on a person. Sometimes you just gotta chill out and not think about things, I guess. And throw bread at ducks." To ducks. He'd meant to ducks. Whoops.