> "My name is Svetlana. Nice to meet you."

"Collin." He shook her hand and knew this would come back to bite him some day.

"Why do you keep saying zat you're dangerous?" He knew her power could be dangerous, but the ways she talked about it was like she had some kind of phobia or something. "Your power iz a part of you. Hating it won't make it go away." Oh. And she could have her hand back now. He quit shaking it.

>>"Collin."

The shook hands. He was very enthusiastic about it.

>>"Why do you keep saying zat you're dangerous? Your power iz a part of you. Hating it won't make it go away."

"I am stating a fact" she sighed "I don't hate them, I am just careful. My power... triggers other mutant powers. The more contact, the stronger. I have caused serious trouble before... and people got hurt. I can even turn... people into mutants. So, better be careful." she smiled a bit "Maybe one day I will learn to control them."

"I'm already a mutant. You don't have to worry zere." He shrugged. But they did have to worry about the setting sun. Technically the park had operation hours. And he was pretty dang proud of himself too. He'd touched her and he hadn't switched powers. He'd been near her, not even thinking about it and he was pretty sure the only coffee buzz he had was thanks to her.

"Do you sink you'll learn to control your power someday?" Some people never could turn theirs off and on. Jude figured his was always on, always looking for a new power, but he'd at least managed to hang on to a power he liked. "Is zere somesing you can do to make it not so dangerous for you?"

>>"I'm already a mutant. You don't have to worry zere. Do you sink you'll learn to control your power someday? Is zere somesing you can do to make it not so dangerous for you?"

"Well, I can practice" she nods, musing a bit about it "Hopefully wid people who can't cause much trouble. I know many mutations are... controlled by the mind and emotions. So I can just keep trying until I get it right."

Looking around, she noticed people leaving the park. Was it really that late already?

"So... you can be invisible, huh. How does that work?"

Just out of curiosity.

"It's a lot like closing your eyes. You can't go invisible if you can't relax." He closed his eyes as he spoke and began to relax. As his shoulders drooped and face relaxed, he became more and more transparent. He breathed in one good yoga breath and made it all the way invisible.

"I'm not ze best at it, actually. I haven't practiced as much as I should have." He grinned invisibly, but the smile was apparent in his voice.

>>"It's a lot like closing your eyes. You can't go invisible if you can't relax."

She watched him disappear. It was amazing. The stuff of fairy tales she used to read as a child.

"Sometimes I wish I could do something cool like that" she smiled.

>>"I'm not ze best at it, actually. I haven't practiced as much as I should have."

"It looks pretty convincing to me" she laughed "I can't see you at all." Reaching out, she tried to find him with her fingertips; trying not to poke an eye out in the process. "When did you find out you can do this?"

She jabbed him in the cheek and he caught her hand with his invisible one. It was fun to see her looking through him. Almost like she was blind. He guided her hand around his face so she could feel that he was grinning like an idiot.

> "When did you find out you can do this?"

His smile faltered a bit. He found out that he could do this when he caught a guy trying to sneak something out of Future Sight.

He had to keep this power. He had to keep this power until he told her the truth, otherwise she would know that he wasn't Collin, the invisible Frenchman.

"Svetlana... I..." He didn't want to say it, but he was becoming more visible by the second.

She could feel his hand guiding hers; she could feel him smiling; but she couldn't see him. It was... interesting. She smiled too. Mutations could be really, truly fascinating sometimes; even a simple one, like invisibility.

>>"Svetlana... I..."

She could see him becoming visible. She pulled her hand back.

"Yes?"

He wanted to say something. She was listening. She was having a good time, despite the whole screaming business; she was curious what he was going to say next.

"I don't want to mislead you. You are..." The love of my life? My sunshine, my only sunshine? These things would send her running and screaming in the other direction. He wished that she hadn't taken her hand back into her own possession. Jude settled for scooting closer. "You are possibly ze most awesome person in New York." Geez, this sounded like he was breaking up with her, instead of trying to confess his love!

Jude floundered to change the direction of what he was saying. "Ze girl I love, zat I have loved for so long... she's here and..." and his face was turning redder by the second. She's here and she's you was too abrupt. She wasn't going to believe that when she still thought he was a stranger.

He needed to switch tactics.

>>"I don't want to mislead you. You are... You are possibly ze most awesome person in New York."

Sveta laughed.

"No I am not. But thank you anyway."

Well, at least she managed to cheer one lovesick person up. That was her good deed for the day. Knowing she made him happier, even if he never found his true love... that was nice to know.

>>"Ze girl I love, zat I have loved for so long... she's here and..."

Sveta's eyes narrowed.
Wait a minute.
Something was off here.

He was looking at her like... but that can't be. She can't be the girl he was talking about, they just met.
Unless... unless he was lying.
It did not make sense.

"Do I... do I know you?"

His heart skipped a beat. She was going to strangle him.

"Collin is my middle name. Jude" —His blue eyes flicked back and forth between each of hers, searching for the slightest hint that murder was on its way.— "is my first name. You asked when I found out zat I could turn invisible and the truth is zat I copied zis power yesterday. And you gave me my mutant power."

Well, he felt better in theory. Now he just had to wait for her judgement.

>>"Collin is my middle name. Jude is my first name. You asked when I found out zat I could turn invisible and the truth is zat I copied zis power yesterday. And you gave me my mutant power."

Ice blue eyes went wide.

The Frenchman did not speak like Jude.
He was Jude.

Sveta opened her mouth to say something, but words did not come, her brain desperately trying to make sense of what he just said.

She looked.
The eyes. The smile. The hair. The look on his face. The accent.
Of course he was Jude.
How did she not see it before?!

"Jude?..."

It came out as a whisper. She was still in shock. Somewhere a tiny voice in the back of her mind was ranting away about 'he might have mentioned this before'. It did not process.

Well, damn.

"I-I'm sorry I jumped you before, The clinic was trashed and I hadn't been there for a while and I looked for you all day and zen you were here and the flowers and..." He stopped to take a breath. He was going to keep explaining for as long as she was going to let him keep breathing.

"And I grew up." Though, that about summed it up. "Forgive me?"

>>"I-I'm sorry I jumped you before, The clinic was trashed and I hadn't been there for a while and I looked for you all day and zen you were here and the flowers and... And I grew up. Forgive me?"

Sveta stared.
The clinic was trashed. Yeah, she remembered that. That she could process.
He had been looking for her.

Where had Jude been all this time?

The fowers... were for her. She looked down at them. There was a princess in China.

Jude grew up.

Forgive him?
For which part?...

This did not make any sense at all. But it did make a lot of emotions.

Leaning over, Sveta wrapped her arms around Jude and hugged him.
That, once again, did not make sense at all.

She didn't say anything. Oh he was in such trouble! She was never going to talk to him again and this was...

unexpected.

One moment they were sitting next to each other, the next Svetlana had launched herself into his arms. He hesitated and then wrapped his arms around her. Her power pushed at his control, this much proximity was more than he had really tested, but he wouldn't give it up for the world.

He pat her back gently as if she might break. "Are you... alright?"