Being outside in a baggy, ill fitting t-shirt and a pair of Saphirus' work out shorts, barefoot to boot, just felt odd. Very strange... and yet oddly comfortable.

The clothes smelled like him, they were warm, and didn't constrict her. Her toes wiggled in the grass and she could feel the dirt underfoot. Considering her many physical faults, being able to feel things like that were one of the joys she had honesty forgotten about. Her gloves often prevented her from feeling anything with her hands... at least, not without destroying it in the process.

While her... Partner.. (Could she call him that now? Boyfriend, maybe?).. set about laying down the blanket and basket, Andrea situated herself across from him and tucked her legs under her neatly.

"...I have never had a picnic before, So I'm afraid I don't know the proper etiquette for such a thing..."

She eyed the man, fidgeting nervously, and plucked a few blades of grass from the ground between her fingers. He had chosen a rather... romantic spot, whether on purpose or unintentionally. Either way, it set her cheeks ablaze. Two giant rose bushes sat to either side of them, boxing them in. A small field and playground sat some distance behind then, and in front sat a quietly burbling fountain.

Very romantic.

She didn't know what to do... so glanced at him from the corners of her eyes and played with her pieces of grass. "...What would you like to talk about?"

He had taken down high level mob bosses, drug rings, and even fought Cthulhu himself... but he'd never been on a picnic before, and he'd sure as heck never set one up... He started by laying down the blanket as neatly as he could, and then he set down the picnic basket, and stared at it for a moment...

Did you take the crap out of the basket? He tried to think back to the old cartoons... all of the stuff was usually laid out. He nodded to himself, and went about setting things out.

The pantry had been a little low, as it was the day before they normally filled it. Also, he wasn't sure on what classified as picnic food... So... well...

He laid out four lunchables, a half a loaf of bread, ketchup, mustard, ham, cheese, oreos, olives, a couple sodas and a half of a pie he'd found. He stared at the assortment nervously for a second, and scratched the back of his head while he looked up at the patiently waiting Andrea, wondering if she was going to critique the menu.

"...I have never had a picnic before, So I'm afraid I don't know the proper etiquette for such a thing..." Oh sweet, she was just as lost as he was. He could totally make up anything, and say that it was what normally happened during a picnic.

His face turned red at what that thought implied. "Er... Um... Well... It normally starts with a kiss." God, did he really just say that? Picnics definitely didn't start with kisses! He was a liar! But... Maybe he would be a kissing liar, and that sounded fine to him.

"And... you know, we can talk about what ever you want to talk about if thats okay with you, and I would understand if you didn't want to talk about some things, but it's really important to talk, cause... talking... is... important." Yup, perfect time for nervous chatter.

Side note: He most definitely had no clue the location was romantic.

Her eyes widened, and a deep flush rolled over her cheeks. A kiss? Kissing?!

Oh... oh boy. She wasn't well versed in that department at all. She had only ever kissed someone once... and that person had been Saph. And... well, that had been a long while ago. Fidgeting with her shirt, she glanced at him from the corners of her eyes.

"..A k-kiss?"

What kind of a kiss? A peck on the cheek? On the...lips? Ohdear. He explained the other things, but she was honestly stumped by the first. Too busy working up the courage to actually do it, while trying to figure out what kind of kiss was appropriate.

After a moment of sitting quietly, with a deep flush on her cheeks, she decided to just go for it and get it over with. Really, the worst that could happen was that he would laugh at her... right?

More suddenly than she would have liked, Andrea turned and leaned over, pressing her lips to his a little harshly. Unfortunately, she leaned a little too far and lost her balance, falling straight into him.

"..A k-kiss?" Uh oh... this wasn't gonna end well.

You messed up, Saphy... you went and got greedy, and now she's gonna call your bluff... might as well pack up and leave before you get yourself yelled at-Holycrapshewasmovingin!

He watched as her soft green skin, her blushing cheeks, and sunglass covered eyes moved closer, and then she fell into him, and their lips met like two trucks colliding. Did he kiss her back? You bet he kissed her back? Did he let them fall? Yer darn tootin he let them fall, and then he kept kissing her, not really caring for being neat about it.

This was a genuine moment of passion, he wasn't about to let nerves trample all over it. After all, you only lived once, right?

He would kiss her until she didn't want to kiss anymore, questions and picnic be damned.

Her tumble didn't end as she had anticipated... Instead of falling over and bonking heads... he had fallen over with her.

...and was kissing her.

...and not just a polite 'Lets start a picnic' kind of way, either!

He was passionate, if a little greedy... and it floored the poor Greek. She froze where she was, staring at him for the first few awkward moments... before she allowed herself to settle. Never mind the fact that she was half laying on him, and that he was easily keeping her there with the grip he had on her.

Andrea, flustered beyond measure, let her eyes slip closed slowly and attempted to copy him. They way he kissed, that is. Being so new to it, she was sure it probably felt to him like he was kissing a fish. Lip, lip, and more awkward lip...

But... after a while, she found herself falling into pattern with him. It became easier, and she didn't pay so much attention to her own silly follies. The warmth of him, and the warmth of her own body was comforting. Andrea, quiet suddenly, discovered that she very much enjoyed the act of kissing.

Very much so.

Her kisses became hungrier, more greedy than his by a long shot, and she lost herself in it entirely.

It wasn't until a pair of kids happened upon them, and uttered two very loud, very grossed out, "EWWWWW!" 's, that she pulled herself away. Shamefully, upon noticing who had caught them, Andrea flushed deep brown and scrambled a respectable distance away from Saph. "...I... um.. Sorry. I think.. I got a little carried away..." With a cough, she turned her attention to the food he had brought, as the kids ran off.

"... Soooo..."

She wasn't a great kisser, but that kinda thing came with experience, and he really didn't mind... besides, it appeared she was a quick learner, as after a while she found his rhythm, and it became rather... well... musical almost, for lack of a better word.

It was near impossible to describe how the simple actions of holding her close, pressing his lips to hers, and just laying there made him feel; suffice to say it was nice. It made him feel warm inside.

Before too long she got into it, almost overtaking him in eagerness; his arms grasped her and held her firmly as they locked lips with reckless abandon.

And then it was ruined.

"EWWWWW!" Like a chorus of woe, a choir of torture, the kids chimed in on their objection to their public displays of affection. He took it graciously, sitting up quickly, and watching her politely retreat.

"It's okay... I mean, getting carried away ain't so bad sometimes...but yeah..." His eyes wandered over to the two kids, who were already retreating. Damn... Damn damn damn! He'd chosen this place because people didn't come here often, but as the two kids were joined, and a nice little game of kick ball was started just shy of uncomfortably close to them, he sighed... Oh well, no reason to let it ruin their picnic. He absentmindedly reached for something, and found his hand touching a glove, placed on the dainty hand that had reached for, by chance, the exact same thing as he. His hand quickly retracted, and he coughed a little, and started making a sandwich. "So... eh... anything you wanna talk about?"

He retracted his hand, and hers stayed right where it was. Floating, hovering over an object that was suddenly not important any longer. She watched him nervously, fiddling with her fingers in her lap, as he set about making himself a sandwich.

He... had pulled his hand away so quickly... Perhaps she had been too forward, and he was simply being polite?

Such a thing coming from him seemed, odd. She wasn't sure if she was fully ready to believe her own theory or not yet... "I...um..." What should she say? Should she ask about something? Bring up something proper to start off a mild conversation? ...After the, erm... lip locking... she had just been through, calm conversations just didn't fit in her mind. She didn't feel that asking about the weather would strike him as a proper topic anymore.

Not that he would have wanted to talk about weather in the first place...

Instead of asking something, or bringing something up right away.. she inched her way back over to his side, and latched into one of his hands gently. She didn't bother looking at him. Choosing instead to stare across toward the fountain, while a rather heated blush lit up her cheeks.

"D-did... you really mean it?" She finally asked, after a moment or hesitation and awkward silence. ".... What you said back there... in... in the room?"

Apparently there was no reason to retract his hand in the first place, because to his surprise she diffused the awkwardness of the situation with incredible ease by slowly scooting closer, and grabbing his hand softly in her own... Yup, now things weren't awkward, at least for him, but they were still silent.

He couldn't help but smile as she spoke. "Yeah... Yeah I did." It wasn't as if he needed to say more. He'd already explained how he felt about her.

His innocent smile turned to a sly one as he continued. "19 left... You get 20 questions. No more, no less. Ask away."

She smiled back, matching his shyness in stride. "Do you get to ask me twenty questions too?" She could only imagine the kind of things he would want to ask her, while she was finding herself rather stumped with what to ask of him.

She blinked, and started. "Oh, no! That didn't count as a question did i- Oh!" She slapped a hand over her own mouth, and ducked her head. With her forehead resting against her knees, she tried to contemplate what she could possibly want to know about him.

Well... she knew some things, but there was a good lot that she still couldn't fathom. "...What..." She paused, to collect her words, then continued a little shakily.

"What did you do before you came to the mansion...?"

"Do you get to ask me twenty questions too?" His smile widened, and he squeezed her hand just a little as he watched the realization dawn on her face.

"Oh, no! That didn't count as a question did i- Oh!"

"Eighteen left, and yeah, I get 20 too; these things work both ways y'know."

He watched the adorable act of her hiding her face, basked in the adorable way she chose her words, and fell flat on his face(metaphorically) when her next question was a real doozie.

"Uhm... be-before I came to the mansion... Well... That depends on what you mean... It depends on what you want to know about me before I came here." He was dodging the question... he knew he really shouldn't... after a paused he sighed. "I really wasn't much of a great guy before I came here... Like a lot of people, I guess I came to the mansion to turn over a new leaf."

He paused. "That work?"

His eyes slowly widened. "Wait, I didn't mean for that to be a question... Eh... dangit."

She sat, fiddling with various things as she was used to, and listened to him speak. The way he had squeezed her hand helped to lessen the impact her nerves were having on her.

"I really wasn't much of a great guy before I came here... Like a lot of people, I guess I came to the mansion to turn over a new leaf."

Turn over a new leaf? What did that mean?... she pondered what kind of a person he had been before she had met him, that he would talk of himself in such a manner. Andrea wrinkled her nose at him, shooting him a mixed look from behind her glasses when he stopped without any further explanation. Really, it didn't satisfy her at all, nor did it really answer her question.... but, she wasn't the type to press for answer... at least not right at the moment.

Instead, she giggled and squeezed his hand back. "For now... I guess it will do..."

she still have seventeen more questions... though she honestly couldn't figure out what to ask him still. The most pressing matters were hard to bring up... and with him holding her hand she honestly didn't want to.

But... it was probably best to ask those types of questions first, right?

"...So... how exactly did I end up in your... um.. bed?"

"...So... how exactly did I end up in your... um.. bed?"

Yeesh, she wasn't messing around was she? What was his story, there? Oh yeah.

"I... I was desperate, When I saw the scene at the church, I knew you were in danger. So I went online and called for help... And someone answered. They didn't tell me who they were... only that you would be here soon. The next thing I know, some kid in a mask dropped you off." He was, of course, lying out of his ass, but he was a decent liar, and she had no reason not to believe him... Still, he had to change the subject before she started asking more, and he knew exactly what he wanted to ask about.

"So... What happened at the church? Did someone attack you?"

He squeezed her hand gently, and tried his best to be reassuring; he wanted her to know that he was safe to talk to.

"So... What happened at the church? Did someone attack you?"

She froze. Her hand gripped his slightly, and she refused to look at him. All of the humor in her body seeped away, and Andrea found herself floundering for something to say.

Had someone attacked her? Yes. What exactly had happened?... that was far more complicated. "...That is two questions." She commented, "...You are at sixteen."

Before she dove into answering him, she thought more on what he had given her in response to her question. She hadn't been aware that one could simply go online to find... help, and she honestly didn't know if that answer satisfied her, or simply confused her more. Who had that masked man been, and what had all of that noise been? If something bad had been going on, she surely wouldn't have been happy if it had all been caused by Saph's panic over her sudden disappearance.

She wanted to know more, about how some random masked man could have even gotten her past the mansions security, without anyone noticing her being carried inside. "I shall have to ask around then, and see if anyone saw this man... Though it was unnecessary for him to kidnap me like that, I understand. I should thank him for bringing me back to you."

With a sigh, she squeezed his hand and relented. There wasn't much more she could do to avoid the subject. She needed to come clean with him, however vaguely. "....As for the incident... I had stumbled upon something, I still do not know exactly what it was. A man came barreling out of the dark into me, and when I tried to help him someone--" Her eyes squeezed shut, and she pressed her free hand onto Sloths body. The large snake had dozed off slightly, since she was no longer throwing herself around willy-nilly. "...Someone killed him."

She could still see his face. It would forever grace her with its presence, burned into her memory along with the other... The poor cop who had only stopped to help her. "...I ran. I don't remember what the other man looked like, or what he said to me. All I know is that he followed me back to the church, and... and, well, you saw the rest."

Her serpents awoke and writhed in her hair, upset by her sudden change of mood. She could feel herself getting lost in the memories again, as if it had happened just yesterday. A chill washed over her and she pulled her arms around her, letting go of Saph's hand in the process.

There had been so much blood. So much pain... she could still feel it sometimes. Phantom aches and twinges from wounds that had long since healed. The pain still lingering around her scalp served to only remind her further of that ill fated night. Enough so that she found herself shivering.

"...Have you ever seen someone die?... Right before you, while you were trying to help them as best you could... and then, nothing. No light at all in his eyes... and so much blood...." Though part of her regretted the incident as a whole, the same part that still chided her for not accepting the fathers offered ride home, she knew that there was nothing she regretted more than not being able to save that mans life. Maybe... if she had just acted quicker, he would have gotten away and lived.

...just maybe.

He gave her that look when she taxed him on the two part question. Argh, he would have to be more careful. Still, it was the thrill of the game, and the slight battle of minds that made it more interesting. The playful air slipped away, however, when she squeezed his hand back, and then left go of it, recalling the terrifying things that had happened to her as she withdrew into her self.

He couldn't help it, as she pulled away, he moved in to wrap his arms around her, ignoring the weak, newborn snakes strewn about her scalp. There was no way he could leave her alone; even through her glasses he could see that look in her eyes... He knew it well; he'd seen it in the mirror, and on so many faces before. What she'd witnessed had been horrible.

"...Have you ever seen someone die?... Right before you, while you were trying to help them as best you could... and then, nothing. No light at all in his eyes... and so much blood...." His eyes went from a show of concern to an understanding frown...

"Yes... Yes I have. It happens a lot when you're like me... an X-man... Or someone who lived with nothing for the longest time... Sometimes the world takes people from you even if you try your hardest to defend them... That's why I was so worried about you... I couldn't bear for you to be someone I failed to save, because if I can't save the people I love... I don't deserve to call myself a hero..." He sat in silence for a moment, and his eyes wandered to the kids and their little game.

"So... do you like kids?" It was a more light hearted question... He felt like they needed one.

She nodded, but she wasn't really listening. His words went in, were gathered into a pile somewhere to be evaluated later, and she went on recalling things that were better left alone. It wasn't until he mentioned how he felt as though he had failed her, that her attention was drawn fully back to him...

It made her heart ache to hear him say such things.

"I love children... They are pure, innocent, and adorable..." She muttered, leaning into his arms as much as she could. "Back home, there were always plenty of kids out in the streets, running around haphazardly... If I had been allowed outside, I would have probably played with them..."

She could remember days when she had wished for nothing more than someone her own age to have as a friend. The imaginary ones hadn't lasted very long, and her dolls just weren't the same. Her cat had been her companion for a while... until she had hurt him on accident, then that had been over as well.

It hadn't been until she had come to the states that she had really met other people. Other mutants, as well. Verdy had been her very first friend, and it had surprised the Greek that she had adapted to friendship so easily. Saph... Saph had been a different story. Her first impression of him hadn't been a very good one at all... but, then she had seen beyond his outward appearance, and the way he carried himself.

In the few years she had known him, he had become something else. Andrea shifted, bringing her shielded eyes to his face, and smiled softly. "You are so strong... and brave. I have never met anyone like you... not once in my time here. You... you saved me from myself a long while ago. Because of you I am not afraid to show people who I am... I owe you a lot, and yet... I do not think you are the type of man who would ever ask me to repay you."

Her cheeks heated softly, and she fidgeted again nervously. All of the bad things plaguing her mind ebbed away and she found that he was the only thing she wanted (or needed) to concentrate on. "You were the first person I have ever kissed... and I have known that I love you with everything I am, since the day you took me to watch the fireworks." With a little sigh, she wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her head upon his shoulder. Memories like that were warming and pleasant.

"..I was so afraid that I would hurt you, or someone else, Sloth and the rest appeared, that I panicked. I could not bear the thought of putting you in danger. I am still... very much uncertain..."