Twyla had been holed up in her room for the last day and a half. Two nights ago she’d done her girl talking with Henrietta and the day before she’d talked to her brother and gotten some good, healthy Nate advice. The rest of the afternoon had been spent list making–lists of pros and cons, lists of possible scenarios, lists of what she wanted out of the situation. These lists had taken up an entire notebook of paper and were now scattered about her already messy floor in seemingly haphazard piles that actually had some meaning, at least to the blonde girl that had placed them in a careful pattern. Maybe to some people this was weird and slightly ridiculous behavior, but to Twyla Ashby it was the most efficient way of thinking things over.

Not that lists were going to save her now.

All the thinking and the writing and the half baked planning wasn’t making the girl feel any better as she paced around the balcony of the library. She’d chosen to meet in the library because she knew that on a day of vacation it would be practically empty and perfect for...talking. That and she loved the library, it felt like safe territory and had none of the closed in awkwardness that a bedroom would afford. So she’d sent a note via younger mutant (similar to the fashion she’d sent the clubbing invitation) and told Maya/Gawain to meet her at a certain table in the upper section of the library at four in the afternoon. It was three fifty and Twyla was using her ten minutes to pace and otherwise freak out.

It was funny, how things had gotten so out of control with something so simple.

A kiss. That was all it was. It should have been simple, easy even. A kiss between a boy and a girl who had chemistry. It wasn’t though. Most kisses didn’t involve mutants who changed genders on a daily basis–if they had there wouldn’t be any need for talking at all...at least not of this particular kind. Twyla was still confused on exactly what she was supposed to be talking about. How did one go about bringing up topics that were so weird to talk about? Hopefully Maya/Gawain had a better grasp on the situation than she did or they’d be having a long conversation. Not that the conversation didn’t already stand to be a rather lengthy one but things had a habit of standing still when neither party spoke.

What had she decided again?

As Twyla paced she tried to mouth the carefully thought out phrases she’d practiced the night before in the bathroom mirror. The problem was: she couldn’t remember them. Maybe it was cheating if she knew what she was going to say before her counterpart got his/her two cents in? She must have cheated, because she had never been so nervous to see someone in her entire life. The pacing had turned into a half run, so Twyla flung herself down in one of the chairs near a large window and waited impatiently for Maya/Gawain to show up. Why do I have to be early for everything?

Don't get your hopes up, kid.

Two days. One for Gawain, one for Maya. One spent with mentally kicking himself all over the place, the other with physically getting herself kicked all over the place.
It felt like friggin' eternity.

Gawain was not in the best shape ever.
All right. Understatement.
It only took him this long to get into the habit of avoiding the Doc like the other students did; getting wounded in a fair fight was one thing, getting messed up because one went looking for trouble was another. With Emmy, none the less. Doc would have flipped.

So now when Gawain was walking towards the library, he was wearing clear signs from the fight the day before. His forehead was bruised, with a cut and several scratches, one cheek was beautiful colors of green and blue (although thank God it was at least not swollen anymore), his knuckles were skinned, and there were several other cuts and bruises all over his body, not visible at the moment.
Who the heck expected her to send for me so soon?
Who the heck expected her to send for me at all?...

There was still light outside; he couldn't use the library windows like he did before. Had it really been two months?...
He walked in through the door - something he didn't do all that often - and saw Twyla a few moments before she saw him. She was sitting at a table; and looked a bit upset. Also... well, as usual. Adorable.
Good thing the library was empty.
Gawain could feel his heart rate picking up.
Here goes nothing.
Clearing his throat, he walked out from his half cover behind a bookshelf, and stood in front of her.

"Hey. You wanted to see me?"

I should go make a snowman. The girl near the window thought to herself as she looked through the clear panes at the snow covered grounds. Snowmen were fun. So were snow angels and snowball fights and a whole number of other activities that could be done outside involving the fluffy white stuff. Going outside sounded like a pretty good idea to Twyla. In fact, she was so focused on distracting herself with thoughts of winter entertainment that she didn't hear or see the boy until he was right in front of her chair. Before looking up, she replied instantly to the question. "Yeah, I thought we could--What happened to you!?"

The girl shot from her chair at the sight of the large bruises and crossed the space between them to get a better look at his face. Half of his face was shades of blue and green and purple bruises all in different states of healing and the rest of it was covered in cuts and scratches. He looked like what the cat dragged in. Worry erased any surprise at his appearance almost instantly on the girl's features. Quickly, brown eyes took stock of the rest of him. When she saw his hands the worry changed to understanding. He must have been in some kind of fight because his knuckles were missing some skin. At that realization brown eyes became a little harder but she didn't sy anything, just waited for his explanation.

Assuming makes an ass out of you and me. She reminded herself when sudden anger boiled from her stomach. This anger wasn't real anger, it was just the next stage in the worry process. As if things hadn't been rough enough over the holidays, her friends didn't need to go around getting into fights. Hopefully they hadn't been getting into fights and it just looked liked Gawain or Maya had been fighting with someone or something.

>>"Yeah, I thought we could--What happened to you!?"

I teamed up with a werewolf and picked a fight with a gang downtown to kill time till you make up your mind.
...
Nah, probably not a good excuse.

Gawain hung his head, hair falling onto his forehead, not really covering as much of the bruises as he wished. He felt himself blush, quite uncomfortable for many reasons. Ever since Mom left, he never had to answer to anyone about what kind of mess he got into. But Twyla apparently cared.
"Ya should see the other guy." he muttered with a smirk. Yeah. Real smooth, Sir Gawain. Sounds very original.
Even though he happened to have a point there. The 'other guy' (guys, to be honest) were in no shape to walk around at all. Anytime soon. Courtesy of the full moon and a werewolf named Emerald.
"Emmy and I did some public service." he sighed "We cleared the streets from some jerks who tried to hit on us the wrong way." glancing up at Twyla's face, he could tell she was not impressed. He could also tell that last sentence sounded off.
"... on Maya, I mean. 'twas yesterday." he muttered, scratching the back of his neck as a sign of awkwardness "No big deal."
Even if it wasn't, it was about time to change the subject.
"Soo..." he started, lifting his head to finally look at her "What did you wanna talk about?..."
He tried not to sound as nervous as he was. He really tried.

Fighting. FIGHTING. She'd been right, Maya had gotten into some kind of fight with some creepers with Emerald. "No big deal..." She muttered, her disapproval barely evident in her soft tone as her hand moved of its own accord to carefully examine a large bruise with hesitant fingertips. When she realized what she was doing the hand came back down to her side quickly. Mixed signals much? Maybe a no touch policy should be enforced until things...get sorted. The girl decided right before the boy in front of her brought his head back up and blatantly changed the subject. Twyla would let it be changed, but grudgingly. He wasn't in the clear yet, she'd get to the bottom of whatever it was the Maya and the wolf girl did the day before. That was a promise.

"That's a good question..." She mumbled to herself mostly. In her normal tone she said: "Um, you wanna sit?" Without waiting for any sort of response she sat back in her chair by the window. There was another one at the table and if he wanted to sit closer, Gawain could move it. A glance out the window gave the girl more focus, but not bravery. When she spoke again she was still looking at the frosty pane. "I've been thinking about what happened New Year's and I figured we cold talk about it..." Jean covered legs crept up to the seat of the chair and tucked themselves under their body.

Looking back out at the rest of the room, but still not meeting the hazel eyes of the boy, she added: "So do you want to speak your piece first or should I?" It was ridiculously direct, but Twyla didn't have the tact for anything else. She had literally almost no idea how she was to go about discussing her feelings on the subject. Not that she was good at talking about those kinds of things anyway they were just so...awkward.

Please don't pick me. Please don't pick me. The girl crossed her fingers like she used to in class when she didn't want to be called on by a teacher for the answer.

Well, she didn't buy the 'no big deal' either. That almost made Gawain smile. As shy as Twyla was, she could read people pretty well. Or he got worse at lying in the past few months. He could also tell he was not off the hook with the whole fighting issue. When she reached up to his face he winced; it wasn't because of the bruises. Well, not really.

>>"That's a good question...Um, you wanna sit?"

"Sure." Gawain picked up the other chair, spun it around, and sat down on it backwards, resting his folded arms on the back of the chair.
She didn't prepare a speech. He wondered what that meant, after two days of waiting.

>>"I've been thinking about what happened New Year's and I figured we cold talk about it... So do you want to speak your piece first or should I?"

Gawain blinked, and looked away. Okay, so this was awkward. It had every reason to be. Twyla probably asked for advice from who-knows-who, and she was still not sure about... whatever.

"I spoke my piece already" he said with a sigh, resting his chin on his arms "And I still mean it. All of it. But ya're right, Bubblegum, we should talk. So... what I can offer is ya can ask whatever ya want, and I'll do my best to answer, okay?" he looked at her with a smirk "Look, I've been shiftin' even before I was born, so no matter what ya say ya probably can't make me feel uncomfortable. Shoot."

He was lying. A bit. More like... shifting the truth. Because there was hell of a lot Twyla could have said to make him feel uncomfortable. Or even worse. But as long as she wanted to ask for explanation... yeah, sure, he could deal with that.

Twyla was nervous. Not as nervous as she had been when she was pacing, but the nerves were still there making her hands shake and her heartbeat elevate. They were both obviously uncomfortable, and her phrasing hadn't exactly gotten the ball rolling in the right direction. But that was life sometimes, things didn't come out perfect and situations weren't what you imagined in your head. Speaking of imagining things. Twyla seriously wished she'd made note-cards or something because she'd somehow forgotten all the things she had wanted to tell Maya/Gawain. It was like she came to class unprepared on speech day and she was the only one speaking.

Of course she already knew what he was going to say. He's said it that night and she'd heard him. It was all on her to either smash those sentiments against the wall and stomp on his feelings or to shower him with matching affections. At least that's what she should have been doing. Neither course of action sat totally square with her which was probably why she'd forgotten what she was planning on saying--she didn't know if she wanted to say it or not. For a moment she sat in her chair, worrying her lip and racking her brains for the things she'd wanted to ask the night before.

And then they hit her.

It could be said that Twyla Ashby had never dealt with public speaking well. Dancing, flipping, twirling in public she could do. She even liked performing certain things in front of a crowd. Talking...not so high on her List Of Favorites. When called upon in class the girl usually ducked her head, mumbled something and then either laughed or teared up a bit (along with her usual blush). When called to the stand this particular instance, she began to giggle. And hard. For some strange reason the situation had become intensely hilarious.

And then she realized that she was giggling.

Red faced and teary eyed she suppressed the noise long enough to choke out: "I'm so sorry." Giggle giggle. "It's just..."Giggle giggle. "I don't know." She had to wipe her eyes and cover her mouth for a moment. "I'm not laughing at you." The giggles were dying down now. "It's just I don't know why I'm so nervous." In a few more moments Twyla had gained control of herself and was sitting prim and proper in her chair once more (minus the legs tucked beneath her).

"Let me try that again..." She took a deep breath but found it wasn't needed, besides a few remaining jitters the girl was calm. For the first time in the last few minutes, she looked the boy right in the face. "We're friends. Really good friends actually, you're one of my best friends. So things shouldn't be so weird with this. We're friends and that means we care about each other for a reason. My brother said...well, actually my sister told him that you're friends with people for a reason. So the reason we're best friends is something that's a little gray right now but we can find that reason..." The blond trailed off, she'd been on a roll for a while and then something else occurred to her. "But Henri said that I shouldn't pursue things if I only like you when you're Gawain--and she's right, that would be a lot more mean than I could handle. And that's the root of everything...I don't know if I like girls. It's not something I think about...on the other hand I don't think about liking boys either. I've never actually gone out of my way to get a boyfriend, it's just not something I've never thought about...I'm not kidding either, girl's at my old school always wanted to talk about boys they thought were cute and I wanted to talk about gymnastic or what book I was reading..." Pausing, she bit her lip and remembered lunch time conversations that she'd totally ignored because they revolved around who was dating who. "So I don't know...." Her voice was quieter as she trailed off. The fire that had pushed her speaking faster after her giggle fit was dying down and she was starting to get nervous again. Had she said something totally weird there?

Giggling. Gawain did not expect giggling. He blinked a couple of times, trying to find out if he said something funny, or she was just that nervous, or maybe there was something in this whole situation to giggle about. Either way, it took her some time to start speaking again, and Gawain shook his head in amused disbelief.

>>"We're friends. Really good friends actually, you're one of my best friends. So things shouldn't be so weird with this. We're friends and that means we care about each other for a reason. My brother said...well, actually my sister told him that you're friends with people for a reason. So the reason we're best friends is something that's a little gray right now but we can find that reason..."

Gawain nodded, and listened to her patiently. It looked like Twyla finally found whatever she planned telling him, so the least he could do was shut up and wait till she got everything off her chest. A smile played on his lips as she listed the people who gave her advice. Was it a girl thing?... Nah. It must have been a family thing.

>>"But Henri said that I shouldn't pursue things if I only like you when you're Gawain--and she's right, that would be a lot more mean than I could handle. And that's the root of everything...I don't know if I like girls. It's not something I think about...on the other hand I don't think about liking boys either..."

Gawain started to chuckle as she trailed off. It wasn't the nervous kind like her giggling earlier; it was more like the sound of some ice breaking.

"Took ya long enough to figure that out, Bubblegum." he smirked "I somehow guessed Maya was the problem here. Well, that, or I'm jus' settin' off your creeper radar." he added with a grin "Anyway. Listen. Ya wanna guess how much time it took me to find out if I liked guys or girls?..."
Oh, it didn't took all that long. But it was not easy. Back when being a teenager was something new.
"Okay, here's the deal. Henri's a smart girl, datin' me every second day wouldn't work anyway, even if I tried it, and believe me, I would try it for you." he stopped in his tracks for a moment there - did I really just say that?... - but then shook his head, blush creeping back to his face, and went on, better finish it before he forgets "But the thing is, Maya's not a different person. It's me. I know it's... very hard to get used to, people are... better off jus' thinkin' about me as 'they', but that's really... not correct." he frowned "So. What we could do is..."
Stay friends and forget about all this mess
"... maybe I could, y'know... take you out, on a date... um. As Maya. Just to see if..."
It was his turn to trail off now. It did not sound this bad when he first thought about it. About two minutes before.
Damage control.
"I... I mean, if ya, y'know, considerin' this. At all. And if ya aren't, I..." deep breath "I understand. It's okay. Really."
Not really.

Laughter followed her half finished speech. It wasn't mean laughter or nervous giggles, it was just laughter. Happy, wonderful, normal chuckling and it made the girl relax a bit. Normal laughter, so normal and so wonderfully comforting. She blushed when he smirked after saying it took her a long time to come to the girl issue. "It was more than that..."She started to mumble but stopped--he'd let her rant, it was his turn. It really had been more than that. All her other qualms had just been easier to logic out. The lists on her floor were a testament to that fact. Take for example: Did she really have feelings for Maya/Gawain's personality? That had been something her brother had helped her with when he told her what Jeanie had said. Another issue was whether or not she wanted a significant other in the first place and she'd riddled that by herself. She was eighteen now and she obviously had some kind of feelings for someone--why not? In any case, she didn't need to discuss these things with the boy now. They could remain conversations with herself. Twyla almost commented on the 'creeper radar' but she held her tongue with her smile, reminding herself that it wasn't her turn anymore.

The girl nodded in all the right places, and soaked in what the boy was staying. She paused (as did he) when the words: 'I would try it for you' came into play. Whoa, hold up. Both of them blushed at the sentiment. What he began saying after he recovered made sense--except being with someone had to do with chemistry as well, not just mental and emotional attachment. He was right--it was hard to...

Wait, wait wait. Date? With the Maya model?

Things got awkward again, and fast and Twyla didn't believe for a second that if things...didn't go in a certain direction that it would be 'okay'. They'd be weird for a while at least, that much the girl knew. Now she was left with two options and both of them were rather uncomfortable. So the question was, did she let things sink? Or would she jump? Twyla worried her lip as she thought quickly.

A deep breath.

And then: "Um, maybe we could do that...?" It was more a question than a reply. "I mean, sure. But," she paused. "No matter what things can't get weird. I need you to be my friend." She looked the boy in the bruised face as she said this. "We can try whatever, so long as we stay friends." Twyla didn't have many friends in New York--there was no way she'd willingly give one up because of kissing. No way. No freakin' way.

>>"Um, maybe we could do that...? I mean, sure. But. No matter what things can't get weird. I need you to be my friend. We can try whatever, so long as we stay friends."

"You mean weirder than it is right now?"
One thing to know: with a bruised cheek and scratched face, smiling friggin' hurt.
Gawain did it anyway.

"Deal." he nodded, standing up just to turn his chair around and sit on it in the normal way, moving closer to Twyla to look at her. "Ya know, Bubblegum, it would take much more than some kissin' for us to get that weird." he chuckled. Resting one elbow on the table, he reached out to hook his little finger into hers, and lift their hands up like little kids do "That's a promise."

Friends. He could do that. He was telling the truth too, it would take a lot of awkwardness and major heartbreak for him to stop caring about her. And that was just not happening. He was constantly thinking about how her lips felt on his, so what. That doesn't mean friendship was not an option.
It was just a teeeny bit harder this way.

"Ya didn' get many of those either, did you." he smirked, tilting his head to look at her "Friends, I mean. Cuz, y'know, I haven't had any before you came along. Explains a lot, huh." he added, pulling a face.
Good thing that was in the past now. If the freak school was good for something at all: it was a good place to make good friends. Hopefully friends that would last. At least for a little while.

Gawain was silent for a moment or two, watching her and swaying their hands back and forth without really thinking about it. "We don' even have to call it a date, y'know. We could just... go out an' do somethin' fun. Would be a shame to let all that snow outside stay untouched."

Deal. Good. Things would be fine. Gawain stood up and readjusted his chair before he hooked his little finger with hers. He promised her things wouldn’t get weird, sealing it with a pinky swear. Twyla knew one thing, you didn’t break a pinky swear unless you were a terrible, evil person, in which case she didn’t want your promises anyway. The idea was to stay normal-ish through whatever it was they were going to do next–be it a date or what-have-you. Twyla was going to hold this boy to his promise, and she pretty much told him as much when she said with a smile: “Good.”

Even after she spoke, the girl didn’t drop their hands, just sat there with her pinky wrapped to his. There was nothing odd about it, or at least Twyla soon forgot that they were even connected like that. She got sucked back into what he was saying so fast that what her hands were doing got lost in the trickle of words from the boy’s lips. Her smile was soft when she replied with: “Not really, just people who were kinda friends...” They were people she kinda missed randomly, but at the same time she was obviously decently fine without the girls from her high school back home. “It explains why you have such poor taste in good friends.” She meant herself. The girl laughed at her own comment while rolling her eyes. Not that there weren’t much better people he could have been talking with at that moment, what she said was partly the truth depending on your point of view.

Twyla perked up at the thought of snow. Without thinking about it, her eyes drifted to the window and gazed at the grounds that were so prettily white. “This is very true...It seems like a waste to just let it sit there...What better purpose can something serve than for our entertainment?” She giggled and noticed again that their hands were connected and moving back and forth. In a fluid motion she untangled herself and positioned her hand so that it was holding his, their thumbs were up and hers looked poised. “One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.” She laughed as she recited the little rhyme that she hadn’t spoken since she was very little. Her thumb darted this was and that–challenging the boy’s thumb to play the silly game with it.

>>“It explains why you have such poor taste in good friends.”

Gawain's face took on a serious expression that was meant to look dangerous, minus the smile playing on his lips.
"Say what about my friends?" he demanded "Watch your mouth, lady, I don't allow anyone to talk 'bout them like that."

>>“This is very true...It seems like a waste to just let it sit there...What better purpose can something serve than for our entertainment?”

The snow idea seemed to be a win. Gawain smirked to himself, he knew Bubblegum enough to know she could not resist playing in the snow. It was just too much like her. Just like pink hair, and randomness, and...

>>“One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.”

Gawain blinked. "Whoa Bubblegum ya shoul' be in the kindergarten, not in Mutant High" he grinned, accepting the challenge. It had been ages since he played this game, and she was not half bad at it either. Should it have been arm wrestling or something of the sort, he would have won, but Bubblegum seemed to possess extraordinary abilities on this particular field.
No way. There was no firggin' way he was going to lose against her. It was a war all right.

Gawain didn't even notice he was laughing.

If she was just looking at Gawain's eyes she would have taken his scary expression seriously, but his smile was wide and that totally negated any intensity in his hazel eyes. She just smirked, the look in her eyes half challenge half laughter. A teasing reply almost escaped her mouth but she locked her lips and made no comment. She had been kidding for the most part anyway.

Twyla would very much enjoy doing something that involved the winter weather. If it wasn't so late in the afternoon she'd want to go out right then. It was nice inside, and she had bigger things on her mind at the moment, like, her global domination plans involving her thumb. First Gawain, then the world.

Muwahahahaha.

The thumb war she had began resulted in the enemy telling her that she was not mature enough or something to be in high school. Twyla just laughed at this and bit her bottom lip in concentration as she tried to 'pin' t Gawain's thumb. After a moment of intense advances and retreats she finally replied to the comment. "I like to think that I just have a healthy appreciation for childish entertainment." Her other hand was fighting not to join in the fray, but that would be cheating and cheating was never justified--unless she was losing. Thus far in the battle they had been pretty evenly matched, but then the girl saw an opening and took it--even though it left her totally open to a sneak attack. The foe's thumb was basically hers, unless the foe in question had more tricks up his sleeves.

"And that, my good man, is--"

((OOC: Feel free to either accept defeat or take advantage of Twyla's open defenses. ))

>>"I like to think that I just have a healthy appreciation for childish entertainment."

"Sure ya do." Gawain grinned, doing his best to fend her thumb off with his. This game actually took more trickery than he'd imagined, and apparently Twyla was good at it too. Pulling on her hand, he tried to take advantage of his hand being bigger than hers, but to no avail; he was still hopelessly loosing the battle.
Go figure.

From the corner of his eye he could see her other hand twitch; his other hand shot out instinctively and grabbed it to prevent some obvious cheating. This, in turn, resulted in a pair of hands fiercely battling and another pair crossing over them. Gawain laughed again, but the laughter was cut short.
The heck did that come from?...
Whatever trick she just pulled, his thumb was pinned under hers.

>>"And that, my good man, is--"

Utter and very embarrassing defeat.
"Aww dammit." the gallant knight frowned as a sign of being a glorious looser. Then, in an attempt to destroy evidence, Gawain grabbed the winning hand like the other, and pulled Bubblegum off her chair. Her arms crossed over her chest, she had a very limited space to move. Of course, she could always wriggle. Not that it would help.
"Gotcha." he grinned up at her "We can call it a draw."

Any attempted cheating was prevented by her hand being captured by the enemy’s special forces (Gawain’s other hand). And the battle raged on...

It ended with a victory for the blonde girl with pink highlights–at least so she thought until she was suddenly pulled off her chair. Her arms were crossed in front of her and both her hands were trapped inside of his. A draw he says? Twyla thought not. A strange urge struck her, but she ignored it and blinked a few times to buy herself some proper thinking time that didn’t involve anything...as awkward as what she had just imagined.

The girl relaxed her arms and bent her elbows while taking a step closer to the boy on the chair. Her face came dangerously close to his but it remained far enough away that he could see the playfully stubborn expression on her face. “A draw is just another name for defeat. I think we’ll call it total Twyla domination and leave it at that.” One of her cuter smiles flashed across her face and she made no move to either struggle or give in to his demands.

No way, she’d won fair and square. She’d get out of the arm hold one way or another if she had to...