Somehow over the course of the subway ride, Amber refrained from saying or doing anything stupid. Well, maybe Kai hadn't even realized that her mind had betrayed her and she started thinking things like, my was he actually rather cute. Her veil, bless its bright red heart, hid her blushes rather successfully. Now, all she had to do was force her mind to be quiet and all would be well.

Once off the subway it was only a very short distance to walk to actually make it to Sanctuary's golden doors. "This is h-home," Amber announced grandly, opening the doors. Or rather, it would have come out rather grand sounding if not for her infernal and ever-present stutter. But it was, without a doubt, announced.

Once inside Amber spotted a very familiar 9 year old girl who appeared to be bugging Lisa about some thing or another. When she had been that age she had never been the type to actually bug the adults to get the things she wanted, not really, so she had no idea what the girl might be bugging Lisa about. However, Lisa had that long suffering expression on her fact that said she'd been at it for some time. "Hi Kaitlyn," Amber called out across the room. On the one hand she wanted to spend more time with Kai but on the other hand she really did feel bad for poor Lisa. Hopefully Kai would understand. She gave him a quizzical look, hoping he was ok with calling the girl over.

"Kaitlyn," Lisa said, almost laughing, "I am not going to give you the Sanctuary's credit card."

The girl was leaning over the secretary's desk, feet barely touching the ground as she pouted with all her might. "But..."

Lisa raised her eyebrows. "Are you finally going to tell me why you want it so badly?" Kaitlyn slid back to her feet in silence, defeated. Lisa leaned in with a friendly grin. "You know I can't give you the card, but if you tell me why you want it, I'll see what I can do. So..."

"Can't." The girl looked down.

"Why not?" Silence. "...I can keep a secret." More silence. As the child went back to giving Lisa a pleading look, the secretary swiveled her chair back to the computer, punctuating the foyer's silence with the rapid clicking of her keyboard. Kaitlyn kept staring for the better part of a minute.

"It's important," She said finally.

The typing stopped for a second. It quickly picked up again. "Really?" The secretary asked disinterestedly, concentrating on the computer screen. "Tell me about it." Saying nothing, the girl walked around the desk and behind the computer, poking her head above the screen so the secretary could see her pout. Sigh.

>>"Hi Kaitlyn."

Both heads turned toward Amber and her guest. Kaitlyn gave the secretary one last pained look, then waved at the two newcomers as she approached them. "Hi Amber," she said cheerfully. "Who's your boyfriend?"

Kai flushed a brilliant red when the younger girl, Kaitlyn, walked over. He involuntarily backed up a step. Even if he hadn’t learned just earlier that day that she was the one who caused his shop to explode, the fact that she called him Amber’s boyfriend would have been enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Especially since Kai historically didn’t have the greatest luck with girls and trying to be romantically involved with them in any way.

“Uh, I’m n-not. We-we’re not… There’s no. We’re just friends.” Kai finally managed to get the words past his lips. The last part might even have made sense, if he was lucky.

He tried to recover some smoothness and a his dignity by adding, “And we’ve kinda met already. At my flower shop…” he let his explanation train off there. He didn’t blame Kaitlyn for what happened, not really, but he didn’t know how she felt about the whole thing and didn’t really want to bring it up. He still couldn’t really think about his shop without wincing.

"B-boyfriend?" Amber asked, slightly horrified. Her face turned bright red at the question and, once again, she was grateful for the fact that she still had her veil on. Judging by Kai's reaction he was just as flustered as she was by the assumption. "J-just friends," she agreed with Kai's flustered denial of the fact that they were anything but. Good thing they were on the same page there, otherwise things would get awkward. Well, even more awkward.

"H-how are you doing Kaitlyn?" Amber tried to change the subject, feeling it was better for all involved. Not only did she most certainly not want to think about the whole boyfriend prospect (not that it was a bad thought, more like it was a terrifying thought), but she also wasn't sure that it was best to be talking about the whole flower shop incident. It honestly hadn't been Kaitlyn's fault, it wasn't her fault that she sometimes accidentally blew things up when she wasn't meaning to.

It was now abundantly clearthat these two did not want anyone to think that they were romantically interested in each other. Grinning, Kaitlyn was prepared to sing about this guy, Amber, and sitting in trees, just as soon as she got the guy's name...

The grin was gone with mention of the flower shop. She looked him in the eyes, her expression giving away a mixture of guilt and sorrow. This was the tree-guy.

"I''m okay," she answered Amber's question dismissively, continuing to stare at the former merchant. Her eyes went down. "Sorry about your shop... I was gonna get some money from the Sanctuary to help you rebuild it, but I don't think Lisa'll let me."

Hm... Maybe it was too soon to mention the shop, after all. But he really hadn't tried, it was just that it was the most major incident in his life recently and it seemed like everything he did revolved around it or was influenced by it. Even the people that he met seemed to be connected to the event.

He sighed, sick of thinking about and replaying it over and over in his head, but unable to stop himself from doing it.

"Don't worry about it, Kaitlyn," he attempted a smile, and probably failed. "I'm working with the insurance company now." A little late, he thought that maybe she would like to help as a way of saying sorry. "But I'd be happy to take donations, I guess. I don't really know how this process is supposed to go..."

Kai trailed off then tried to change the subject, "Anyway, Amber was just going to show me around, so..." Again with the trailing off...

The idea that Kaitlyn was trying to get money from Lisa in order to help Kai rebuild his shop was about the last thing that Amber would have expected of the girl. She smiled down at her, despite her lingering embarrassment. She really was a sweet kid with a good heart, it was just too bad that her life had turned out the way it had so far. It was tough with a power like hers. Still, if Amber had gotten her life turned around, there was no reason Kaitlyn couldn't do the same, especially surrounded by the good people of Sanctuary like she was.

"I think we should s-start at the k-kitchen," Amber stated, trying to get the conversation off of the uncomfortable topic of Kai's shop. Even though she and Kai had just had ice cream, she knew teenage boys were always hungry and Sanctuary really did have good food. Hopefully Kaitlyn would also like a bit of a snack to tide her over while the tour commenced.

Donations... Once again, Kaitlyn asked herself whether it would be worth it to let Lisa know about her role in blowing up the flower shop. Once again, she decided against it. Too risky. People might worry about her doing that to the Sanctuary itself. So far, the accidents she's had here haven't been that bad...

Amber was touring her boyfriend through the Sanctuary, and they were starting in the kitchen. "Kitchen's this way." Kaitlyn led them as quickly as she could through labyrinthine hallways, hoping to get there before most of the dining hall staff did. They made the kitchen a crowded place, and many of them were obviously afraid of her. Kaitlyn didn't want to look scary in front of...

"So, what's your name?" she directed this question over her shoulder at the hapless former merchant as they walked.

When they reached the kitchen, it was dark and, to all appearances, empty and quiet. Kaitlyn flipped the light switch, revealing a strange reptilian individual perched upon a chair like a bird, staring at a measuring cup with a tea bag and warm water in it. One wide, orange eye turned to look at the trio, while the other continued to aim itself at the cup. "Itsss tea-time." he informed them. "Ssscone? They're cssinnamon..." A scaly hand gestured toward a tray, to which Kaitlyn unhesitatingly helped herself.

Kai approved of their first destination. You could learn a lot about a place if you could look at their kitchen. How many residents were there? And did they eat meals together like one big happy family- indicated by lots of large mixing bowls, pots, pans, and serving dishes. Or did everyone fend for themselves and meticulously label eat item and Tupperware container? Were they inviting and welcoming of visitors, leaving bowls of fruit or something, sitting out for anyone to take as they passed?

He fervently hoped they were the latter kind. His stomach might just have an apple shaped hole in it, if one was available to fill it.

His two guides navigated a few turns, eventually leading through a doorway into an unlit space. Not a good sign for the bowl-of-fruit, he thought. If it was the come-and-go, center of attention type of place the lights were usually bright and always on. “I'm Kai,” he answered Kaitlyn's question a little belatedly, just as she was flicking on the lights.

And the kitchen wasn't as vacant as he imagined that it would be. A lizard-like boy sat on a chair and gestured towards a pile of pastries as they came in.

Kai shrugged at the boy's appearance. He probably would have been more surprised if they had encountered a non-mutant. The days when he couldn't find two mutants in New York to rub together were long gone. He almost took if for granted when he met people that, even if they didn't look like mutants, they had some kind of trick up their sleeves.

He picked up a scone and took a bite out of it. “Fanks!” he told him. The pastry was good! Maybe he'd have to reevaluate the kitchen. He glanced at Amber and then back to the plate of scones, she seemed much more relaxed in her own environment, but he wanted to ensure that she was happy. He smiled. “Good tour so far!”

The kitchen had to be one of Amber's favourite places in all of Sanctuary. Well, most of Sanctuary was pretty nice but the kitchen had a special place in her heart. Mainly because the food was, for the most part, delicious. Secretly she suspected there must be some magical mutant cook with the power of delicious food, or something like that, although no one had expressly told her as much. Still, why not recruit a mutant cook with the power of delicious? That's what she'd try to do if she ran a place like that.

Amber waved at the lizard man when she walked into the kitchen and Kaitlyn flicked on the lights. She hadn't actually met him before, but she was pretty sure she'd seen him around a couple times. He was kind of hard to miss, with the scales and the birdlike stance. In her experience odd looking mutants were nothing to be afraid of, it was the humans, jealous and irrational, that one had to be weary of. "I'd love a s-scone," she answered, taking one off the table with a smile. "Cinnamon is m-my favourite," she confided, conspiratorially and winked at Kaitlyn.

"So, where should w-we go now that we're fed?" Amber asked. Now that she thought of it, as much as she loved her home in Sanctuary, it really wasn't that exciting of a place to tour. Unless one wanted to gape at mutants, but that was beyond rude and she woudln't condone it, not at all. "We d-do have some neat things in the garage."

"Glad you like them," the reptilian man told the group, returning to staring at the measuring cup. Enthralled by the scene before him, he started to mumble something about how interestingly the tea was behaving in the tap water today, and how entertaining it was compared to teabags in filtered water.

>>"We d-do have some neat things in the garage."

"Yeah!" the kid agreed, and out the door she went, expecting the group to follow. Exotic, dangerous power tools (which she was not supposed to touch), a hodgepodge of cars, a helicopter, and a tank were the main attractions of the garage, and those were all had the potential to be interesting. Of those three, though, the helicopter was by far the most interesting. Which reminded her: "Kai, do y'know how to fly a helicopter?"

The girl expected the garage to have one or two people working in there when they arrived. Perhaps she could introduce Kai to the guy who she once heard was "shaving keys" to make extra money, which always seemed to her like a silly thing to do.

Kai shrugged. He didn't know what there was to see, so it was hard to make a suggestion. He was interested that Kaitlyn mentioned the garage. Garages tended to have cool things. He imagined that the one for such a huge place would be extra impressive.

“A helicopter?” he choked, “No, I can't say that I have every flown a helicopter.” Or even seen one up close... he amended silently. Once they had hired a small plane to dust their crops with insecticide one year when the bugs were particularly nasty. So that was as close as he'd gotten to any small aircraft. Or large aircraft, as he'd never flown before. Now he was really curious to see this garage. He imagined it filled with planes, cars, motorcycles, and helicopters, all with custom paint jobs.

He picked up the pace, almost unconsciously. Then, when he found himself in the lead, though he had no idea where he was going, he finally blushed and slowed down to let Kaitlyn pass him. “Sorry, I got really excited there for a second.” He bowed gallantly to Amber and Kaitlyn. “Lead on, dear guides.”

In truth, Amber had only been to the vehicle once and that had been when she first arrived at Sanctuary. Half asleep and with a torrid of emotions going through her, ranging from joy at finding a family to terror of her unknown future, she didn't really remember much of what she'd seen. One thing which she most definately did not remember was the presence of a helicoptor!

"I d-don't even think I remember a helicopter," Amber replied with a sheepish grin. "I haven't b-been down there much." Now that the helicopter had been mentioned, she suddenly wanted to go down there even more than she had when she mentioned it. A helicoptor would be something to see indeed.

Amber giggled at Kai's enthusiasm, feeling just as enthusiastic herself. "believe Kaitlyn would make the p-perfect guide," she suggested, gesturing gallantly for the girl to take the lead. That would leave her a little bit behind, free to walk with Kai with some small semblence of privacy. Not that she had any reason to want privacy of course. Nope, not at all.

Kai couldn't fly a helicopter? Shrug. Kaitlyn didn't expect any answer to the contrary. Some day, though, the child was sure that she would find a person who could pilot the thing. And how could Amber not have seen the helicopter? It was a helicopter! Anyone who was down there even once should have seen it, and it should have left a deep psychological impression on them, because helicopters are awesome.

Kai's bow and Amber's assertion that Kaitlyn would be "the p-perfect guide" twisted her mouth into a grin. Suddenly, she was an expert at something. She, unlike Amber, had spent nearly all of the last half-year in the Sanctuary, and just about every nook and cranny had been investigated by her eyes. If anyone could give a Sanctuary tour, it was her. Distracted by her ego boost, she barely noticed some opaque pink fluid fall through a small, newly made hole in the ceiling and rapidly burn another in the center of the floor several paces in front of the group.

When she finally did notice, the child jumped and yelped, stopping in her tracks. The edges of these holes were discolored and sizzling, as if the pink stuff was still eating away at them. With a sickening, retching noise that could be heard faintly through the ceiling hole, another stream of pink stuff burned another set of holes through the ceiling and the tile floor nearby.

It took a few seconds for the cause of this phenomenon to register with the child. "Lisa!" The redhead turned around and shouted down the hallway, "Someone fed Oscar ipecac again!"

With that, Kaitlyn continued leading the other two towards the vehicle bay, only now she kept close to the right-hand wall of the hallway. "Don't walk in the center," she told the others with a frantic seriousness, "And don't touch those holes."

Kai stared horror struck at the blobs plopping on the floor. Were they... burning through the ceiling? On some level of his consciousness he heard Kaitlyn yell to Lisa, something about an Oswald or Oscar or someone... But then she led them on down the hallway again.

He stared fixedly at the ceiling for a moment longer, trying to judge if it was still structurally sound and then made the determination that if they went quickly, they should be fine...

"Be careful!" He whispered urgently to Amber. He grabbed her hand and led her to the safety of the edge of the hallway. He pressed himself unnecessarily close to the wall and scooted along it until they had both crossed the danger zone. Then he veered back towards the center of that hallway, still holding her hand. He smiled at Amber as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.