((Continued from Hanging Out))

Kaz listened to Kat rattle off a few questions before he spoke again, "Well, if you trust horses, I guess I can too. I can't remember exactly right now, but I think Nicki knows something about horses." Kaz shrugged a bit, "When this is over maybe we can all go on a bit of a trip, eh?"

Looking around Kaz realized they were nearly to the Canteen, "Abyss...If you see a big red guy, with a monkey tail, that's him. He may look kinda...Hulk-ish, but he's a really cool guy. I'd have to say, he's the closest thing I've had to a 'best friend'." The way Kaz said the last two words, someone could easily infer that Kaz had never had an actual best friend. Laughing, "No no. I can't breath under water. If you've ever seen scuba divers with oxygen tanks strapped to their backs," He turned his head a bit to look at her, "I bring a few down into the water with me and a couple weights to hold me down. It's really peaceful, once you get use to breathing underwater."

Kaz turned the corner and entered the hall in front of the Canteen. Taking a deep breath, "Ooh, smells like they've got some good eatin's in there." Kaz shifted his legs and torso back to normal, getting lower and lower to the ground so that Kat would be able to get down when they got to a table or something similar.

Nicki sighed as she looked around the Canteen. She had explored the place the best she could and found that she was still pretty lost. She had wanted to go to the library, but this place was an alright substitute. Kaz had advised Nicki to leave their barracks sometime and get to see the place a little bit more. While the idea sounded vaguely like torture, Nicki bit the bullet and listened to Kaz: as antisocial as he was at most times, he did understand how to get people to be on his side and that's what Nicki needed right now.

She felt out of place here. She was one of the few people who were aware of all three groups (mostly because of Kaz) and it seemed like most of the X-Men were in the dark...or not here. She was worried about Nika, about Michael...about all of them. She was still pretty uncomfortable around most of the people in the Order as well, with the exception of Abyss and now Vibe. Syn made her uncomfortable, and aside from them, she didn't really know many of them. And as for this group headed by Hunter...Nicki was trying to trust them, since Kaz did, but she just didn't. She felt that things weren't on the level but she just didn't know what any of it could be...

Nicki's thoughts were holted as the Canteen doors opened. She smiled as she saw Kaz and Katrina come in. Things felt less awkward now. She waves happily at both of them.

At the mention of Nicki, Katrina wondered idly where she was. She hadn't seen her all day, maybe she'd be at the resistance meeting in the evening. She was reminded of another one she hadn't seen in awhile; she hoped her horse, Galahad's Triumph, wasn't too lonely. He didn't understand about people going away. She hoped that someone would ride him and give him exercise while she was away so he wouldn't get too fat.

She listened as Kazelf described Abyss. He sounded interesting, and if he was best friends with Kaz he must be nice. She looked forward to meeting him. As for the sitting underwater thing...

“Isn't there enough air in those things to last for hours? You must be pruny all over when you get out,” she teased him. She also ruffled his silvery hair, taking advantage of being on his shoulders. Since he was so tall compared to her, she might not get the chance to do it again for quite some time. Despite it's somewhat spiky appearance, it was actually quite soft, with no hint of gel or hairspray. Nicki probably liked to run her fingers through it; Katrina would if she was dating him.

They had arrived at the canteen. Katrina and Kaz both ducked to get through the door without hitting her head against the frame. From her perch, Katrina looked around the canteen, scanning both the buffet line and the tables to see what there was to eat and who there was to eat it with.

It looked like there was pizza, which made her stomach rumble. There was also Nicki, waving hello. Katrina waved back and smiled. Her stomach was glad she would be eating and she was glad they would have company.

Kaz nodded at Kat's comment about him being pruny after getting out of the water. With a bit of a chuckle, "Yeah, they last for a while. And yeah...I'm usually wrinkly afterwards...but that goes away as soon as I dry off. That happens really fast." Kaz remembered the first time he met Syn, how he had been relaxing in the pool until it was disturbed. He had gotten out and dried himself off by making the muscles all over his body shiver so fast he heated up and basically evaporated the water on him.

Kat ruffled his hair a bit, and to him, it seemed a bit odd since only Nicki played with his hair. He dismissed it mostly, putting it in curiosity over his oddly colored hair. After they entered the Canteen, Kaz hear the slight grumble of Kat's stomach and stifled a laugh. Sometimes his better than normal hearing made normal things a bit more interesting and amusing.

Kaz didn't notice Nicki right away until she waved. Still holding Kat's legs, he gave a small wave to Nicki and began to head over to her. "How did the exploring go?" Kaz would normally give Nicki a kiss, but with Kat on his shoulders, that would be a bit more difficult so he opted not to. "You hungry love? I know Kat is, and I could go for a nice steak."

Nicki smiled as the two walked over to her...or rather that Kaz walked over to her and Katrina rode on her boyfriend's shoulders. Nicki smiled and stood up, kissing Kaz on the cheek. She wanted to give Katrina a hug as well but the girl was a little too high for her to reach.

"Hey there guys," Nicki smiled happily. "I didn't do too much exploring...I think I did more like a 'I'm gonna get lost for a couple hours' thing. But yeah, food sounds good."

Nicki tilted her head and looked up towards Katrina specifically. "It's fun when he does that huh?" Nicki asked, chuckling honestly. She like Katrina a lot and, though she was still slightly nervous around the girl, she wanted to make sure she was making an effort to at least seem comfortable.

“We almost got lost, too,” Katrina said to Nicki as she wriggled off of Kazelf’s shoulders and less than gracefully to the floor, “but then Kaz did this cool thing with one of those computer panels in the wall and it showed us the direction to go to get back here. He should show you how to use it so you can find your way around, but exploring is fun too.”

Katrina made her way over to the buffet table, where the wait staff had already piled high the delectable delicacies of the day in preparation for the dinner hour. Kaz, Nicki, and Katrina were the first ones here, so they got the first choice out of all of the fine food. Katrina eyed the table with a glint in her eye. She felt like she hadn’t eaten in days, although that was far from the truth; she had plenty to eat. It seemed that she was either growing or that using her powers used up a lot of energy. In either case, she was starving. She decided to go with her first instinct and put a slice of pizza on her plate, as well as some carrots and celery. If she still had room after that, she’d come back for some of the potatoes with gravy.

As she filled her plate, she asked Nicki, “What kinds of things did you find when you were exploring? I found a library, a music conservatory, an exercise room, a staff room, and lots of long hallways.” She grinned up at Kaz when she mentioned that last bit.

((Two things: 1) Sorry for the long delay in my response, 2) for the short post))

Kaz watched Kat get her food, pizza and some vegies. <An odd combo.> He thought with a small chuckle. Turning to face Nicki, "I gave her a blind piggy back ride down the halls, probably went a bit faster than I should have but," He shrugged an 'eh' before moving towards the food grabbing a few slices of pizza and a bottle of water. "Ya want anything love?"

Nicki shook her head at Kaz's question, content to just sip her soda. She didn't have much of an appetite right now; things were too weird and too up in the air for her to really indulge in any kind of legitamate food. She tried to come off as happy or pleasant but things were kind of going crazy around her.

"I didn't find anything cool..." Nicki sighed, shaking her head as she directed her comments towards Katrina. "You found the library? Oh my God, it's like the blessed angel of the page came down to grant me retreat," Nicki dramatically fell over the bar in mock-swoon. The swoons were somewhat real though...she was thrilled to hear that someone in this place had found where the library was. Surrounded by books was one of the few places she felt at home and she wanted to have something comforting to hold to during this time.

"Which place did you like best though?" Nicki asked as she sat up straight and kept sipping her soda.

Katrina laughed at Nicki's exaggerated swooning. It seemed that she was actually relaxing now, which was good. Nicki gave Katrina the impression that she was nervous sometimes, with all of her lip biting and such. It was good that she was calming down.

“It's too bad you didn't find anything interesting. My favorite room was probably the music conservatory, because there are all these really old instruments and Mr. Antonytail let me play this old oboe that was really cool. We played an oboe and violin duet together. I also liked the library, but I didn't find the young adult section or anything. I also met Calley in the library. We're going to be meeting there to study sometimes because we can't go to a real school.” Katrina was coming around to the fact that she would be studying, there just wasn't enough to do to keep busy if there wasn't school.

She continued, “You can join our study sessions if you want, I'm sure Calley won't mind.” She looked up at Kaz, “You can come too. It's always good to keep learning, no matter how old you get. Anyone is welcome to come learn.”

Kaz chuckled softly at Nicki's swooning, though it would be clear from his eyes that it worried him a bit. "Duet with Hunter huh? I'm not surprised he knows how to play, he's had a long time to practice." Kaz chuckled a bit, keeping his smile on his face, all the while having a 'prickling' feeling in the back of his mind. He wasn't sure why, but something just didn't feel right to him. Sighing slightly under his breath, <Probably just nerves or something.> He thought to himself.

"I'm pretty sure if you and Nicki went to the library, she'd be able to find the young adult section. She knows her way around'em." Kaz's smile widened as he remembered when he and Nicki had first met and talked at the Mansion. "I just get lost and wander around. Though," He looked Nicki in the eyes, "Ya never know who you'll meet or what will happen in libraries..."

After taking a bite of pizza, "Maybe I will stop by...though I've never been the book or school kinda guy. By the way, who's Calley?"

Nicki smiled as Katrina started listing a bunch of stuff. "You play the oboe? That's really neat! I bet an oboe and a violin duet would sound really pretty together too. How long have you been playing?" Nicki asked, sipping her soda again.

"If you ever want to I could go in the library with you and we could search for the young adult section together: if it's goin by the decimal system I should probably be able to find it depending on how big it is," Nicki chuckled, leaning back in the chair slightly. "And if not, I'll show you some books that are just as good."

"I'd love to go study with you and...Calley? Calley's here?" Nicki asked, recalling. Calley was someone from the Mansion...she didn't know Calley all that well but she was sure she knew the name. Hadn't Calley been there when there was the group try-outs for X-Man status?

During the entire conversation, Nicki felt a small anxious feeling coming from Kaz. She was confused what was going on here. Was he picking up on something from her or was she picking up something from him? She sighed, shaking her head slightly, trying to keep everything straight in her head.

Kazelf's question caught her off guard a little bit. He was a boy she had met in the library, but they hadn't talked about where they had come from or anything like that. Nicki knew him apparently, but her reaction didn't clue Katrina in at all. She could tell Nicki was surprised, but didn't know what part of Calley being in the library would be a surprise. “Calley is Calley... from the library. He's a little weird, but fun. He helped me find the music conservatory, too.”

As for Nicki's question, “I've played oboe for six years, since second grade. Do you play any instruments? And you're a mutant, too, right? What are your powers?" She was from the mansion, so probably was a mutant, but it was safest not to assume anything. Maybe there were humans and mutants that could go to that school. It would help humans and mutants get along better if they learned how to get along in school instead of being segregated or hiding what you are.

She had almost finished her pizza, and moved on to her carrot sticks, crunching loudly.

Kaz of course knew of Calley, and his actions at the mansion, though he wouldn't say anything. He also took note to keep Calley out of his thoughts and shove any knowledge of Calley into the very back of his mind, he'd play his roll of 'clueless' well.

Kaz sat down and ate his food quietly as the girls talked. Content to just listen for the moment. Nicki and Katrina seemed like they might have more things in common than he and Katrina did.