It really wasn't that had to see that she had struck a nerve with her student, which was good. The more Rebecca could get out the easier her life would be. If she kept this in for too long, she was going to find herself in far more pain than anything else.

No one knew that better than Emerald.

Emerald just didn't want the same emotions that would hold her back at time to hold back her student as well. Of course, that's exactly what they seemed to be doing.

"Difference is, I wasn't in love with Akshay, you were in love with Agnes. That changes everything," Emerald replied, with no flash of emotion on her face.

Her voice didn't even reflect her own emotions on the subject, it just sounded like it was stating a simple fact. Which it was. It was part of the reason the two had broken up, the fact that Emerald never cared for him that way. Despite how hard she tried.

"You know what," Emerald started as she put her arms up in a defensive position. "Come over here and start waling on me. Just give me everything you got and I won't move a damn inch. As you can see I've been through far worse so you taking out your anger and emotion won't damage me too much."

Emerald handled Rebecca's rude counterargument swiftly and with the accuracy of a poison dart. Emerald and Akshay were dating, but it was different. Rebecca and Agnes were on a level where both were openly thinking about a shared life together. That was what left Rebecca feeling so dismantled.

Emerald's offer was bizarre, and Rebecca was ready to dismiss it. Before she could say anything, she looked over her teacher. Compared to the girl of modest height and strong build, Emerald was a pillar that might as well have been crafted out of adamantium with skin pulled over it. "...You sure?" Emerald seemed to have no doubts in her plan, so Rebecca struck before she could overthink herself.

She started punching Emerald's stomach quickly and with as much force as she could muster. As her fists pounded away at the scarred flesh, Rebecca's mind flashed from moment to moment.

The first fight when Rebecca joined the X-Men...

The library night...

The fight...

Gawain...

Lexi...

The lake in Paisley...

Before Rebecca realized it, she was crying. At first, a few tears were trickling down her cheek, but eventually, there was a steady stream. Finally, she reached the point where her emotional state overtook her physical one and her punches were nothing more than weak nudges against Emerald as the student sobbed.

Rebecca rested her forearms and her head against Emerald as she cried. "Why daes this have tae be sae hard?"

Right to the stomach, the blows started flying. Emerald should have known to brace her stomach so the first actually knocked the wind out of her a bit. She quickly tightened up and allowed Rebecca to keep pounding on her.

Her student needed this far more than she thought she did and judging by how the blows were going, Emerald knew that. This is when Emerald's high pain tolerance came in handy. This sort of thing, the wolf woman knew all to well, the pain of each memory with every single blow, it was something she went through more often than she should have.

The redhead took a chance to gaze down at her student, now feeling the blows getting weaker and weaker until Becca finally broke down. Emerald felt the young girl lean against her, saw as well as smelt the tears running down her face. People's scents always changed when they were crying, different chemicals or something of that nature.

Without a single word Emerald opened up those scarred up muscle banded arms of hers and engulfed Rebecca in a Lupin bear hug. Things never got easier, even as time went on, but having someone there for you helped ease the pain a little.

"It just does, life just is never easy for anyone. We just have to live even if our lives are filled with more bad than good," Emerald attempted to reassure Rebecca, knowing she wasn't really good at it. "Take it from someone who is destined to fight demons for the rest of her life, you'll get through it. And if you don't I'll just beat the crap out of whoever isn't letting you."

Beating people up, Emerald Lupin's patented solution to every problem.

The hug was welcomed and needed. Rebecca needed to be held, or she worried she might melt into the ground to escape everything. Obviously Emerald was not going to beat up Agnes, and the bug girl did not deserve to get beaten up anyway, but it was the thought that counted.

"Ah know..." Rebecca admitted with a sniffle. "Thanks." She lifted herself up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Emerald's cheek as a sign of appreciation.

She returned to her flat-footed position and brushed away some tears with her forearm. "And Ah dornt think you'll be fighting forever. Dae you?" Rebecca was happy to be an X-Man, but she knew there would be a day where she would happily retire and move on for a quiet life with--

Well, with someone, anyway.

Being comforting was something that Emerald wasn't really used to. The best she could be a lot of times was a good big sister for Ruby in order to protect her and keep her safe. It was sort of nice for her to have people that she could be the big sister to again. For a while she thought that she was going to be a lone wolf again. Emerald's arms fell to her sides after Rebecca shuffled a bit a way.

The younger girl's question didn't surprise Emerald in the slightest. Of course Rebecca didn't think she would be fighting forever, she didn't know the full extent of what was out there. The wolf woman had unfortunately seen far more cruelty than anyone was meant to.

"I know I will," Emerald replied simply, giving her student a small shrug. Those blue eyes of hers looked off into the distance . "No matter how much I fight there will always be someone else behind them taking their place. Human, Mutant it doesn't matter, monsters take many shapes and in the end it doesn't matter who it is or what they are,I'm going to be there to stop them no matter what,"

Rebecca plopped herself down, not caring about the state of the sweatpants she was dirtying. There was a water bottle she placed on the ground before her stretching, so she leaned to the right to pick it up and brush away some dirt and dust.

"Is that whit you want?" She took a drink of the water, enjoying the coolness as it saturated her tongue. "Shouldnae that be the point of the X-Men? Raise th' next o' kin and change th' guard?" Fighting was important, and fighting for the cause was noble, but there should be something else in life. When the time for fighting came to an end, Rebecca wanted to know that she could hand off the torch and end her life happily and in peace. Hopefully at someone's side, but there was no point in jumping to that conclusion yet.

She screwed the cap back on her bottle. "Ah jist think at some point you'll earn yourself something 'asides fighting. Bit that's jist me." Rebecca held the bottle out to Emerald. Her teacher had stamina and could probably go without, but the offer would not hurt."Thirsty?"

The X-men, now that was something Emerald almost forgot about. Even if she technically was one, Rebecca probably noticed the werwolf stayed away from them. Emerald leaned against a nearby tree, letting her upper body rest a little.

"Not really,"Emerald admitted, looking oddly okay with this whole thing. The redhead tucked a stray strand of hair behind her mauled ear, relaxing a little.

She looked over at her student for a brief moment, thinking about her mentioning the X-men. Considering the fact that she and this "New X-Team" hadn't exactly seen eye to eye, she figured another lesson was in order.After all, Rebecca was learning all of her skills from the "Rogue" of the group and she sort of hoped they didn't get on her for that bit. Especially not that pansy that was knocked out by a napkin holder..psh what sort of hero was that?

"If there is one thing I taught ya, I would like to hope it was the fact that ya may be part of a group but your own ideals come first. If you ever disagree with what they think is right, go with your gut, might piss some people off, but in the end you'll be happier. Just make sure what you're doing isn't hurting others you care deeply about or yourself.Your pack is the most important thing." Emerald told her young "apprentice".

It was a lesson everyone had to learn at some point in their life. Hell, Emerald was still learning it in a way. At least that last part.

Emerald reached over and grabbed the water bottle and took a short swig,figuring she should refuel herself a little bit. While she has some of the best stamina, she knew how important it was to keep herself hydrated.

"So what else did you want to talk about, believe it or not I'm not the most social person," Emerald laughed a little. "But seriously, talking to someone is nice for a change."

The wolf woman was being light hearted about this whole thing, but her eyes reflected conflicting emotions that were almost too quick to catch. A tiny bit of loneliness, sadness and resentment it seemed. The big bad wolf was a lot softer than people gave her credit for.

Emerald gave Rebecca advice that was certainly fitting of Emerald's personal beliefs. There was an obvious rift between Emerald's world views and those of the X-Men, and Rebecca was a person who knew well enough to learn from anyone who was worth listening to and develop her beliefs from there. The X-Men had valid opinions worth remembering, and Emerald's were also important to take and think through. "Ah know. If Ah didnae think something was right for me, Ah doubt Ah'd let anyain tell me different."

Emerald took the bottle and asked Rebecca what direction she might want to take the conversation. She thought about the offer for a moment. "Hmm... okay. How about something lighter than this mood?" There was a lot of talk of sadness and lifelong battles; maybe she could talk about something a little silly and a bit more stereotypically girly than the two women. "Whit dae you think is important tae look for in a boy? Ah'm still trying tae piece that together." So far, she was working with examples like Andrew, Gawain, and Vicente, and she still had no definite idea of what would be important qualities to define a "good guy."

Emerald Lupin could fully admit that she didn't know everything. She was a woman that knew a lot about fighting,nature and the human condition. Even hunting had it's place in her vocabulary, especially the best take down tactics of various prey beasts.

However, ask this girl about boys and the game changed. Out of all the people to ask, Emerald was probably the least likely to know various things about the opposite sex. Sure she had dated people, sure she had been in a few relationships at this point of her life. Problem was, the majority of them didn't end in the way she hoped. This meant that Emerald was out of her element.

It took her a little bit to think about Rebecca's question, really pondering this from the look on her face. Her tail thudded idly on the tree as soon as she got her answer.

"Well, I guess a guy I can fight besides if anything," Emerald replied simply. "Just someone who is on my level about things. It makes things easier because to me if you are looking for a guy he should be your hero and you should be his. Also, loyalty is a good quality, not that the poor guy can't look at other chicks but for gods sake he should be able to tell you if he is around another woman."

Emerald might not think so but she knew a little bit more about guys than she really thought. Especially what makes a good guy.With her bad experiences her past ones and the more recent ones Emerald was quite a wealth of knowledge about these things. The wolf woman answer's were usually honest and judging by her past experiences might be what Rebecca needed if she was going after guys.

"Also don't ever date a freaking psychic because they will screw you over, believe me, personal experience. Terrible idea," Emerald advised with a very serious look on her face. While she had been told that not all psychics are like that, every single one she had ever met was an intolerable jerk. So she might be a little biased there.

"I can tell ya my stories if you really want to hear about guys, but I'm likely gonna end up telling you what guy not to date because I certainly know now what counts as a good guy. As well as whats a bad guy." Emerald chuckled, a smile appearing on her face and a humored look in her blue eyes. Despite her bad experiences with guys in general, she didn't mind talking about most of them and if she was going to help someone out she was happy.

It was funny to hear Emerald's ideas on the ideal man, because she was so unlike most women Rebecca had met, or would likely ever meet. Loyal, noble, and fierce: of course the ideal man for Emerald was going to be a wolf. The only way Rebecca could picture Emerald with a man was to think of her back to back with him, surrounded by dozens of enemies to beat up.

And then the curveball rule: no psychics. Humorously, Rebecca only knew one psychic, and it was a guy who thought she was defective and had the social skills of a cyborg. "Alright, sae 'no screwing Slate.' Ah'm pretty sure Ah can handle that."

Rebecca probably was not thinking about "boys to date," to be honest. After Agnes, she was thinking that the past of least commitment would lead to less emotional pain. Still, she was intrigued to hear about her teacher's dating record. Emerald's origins and history were very vague to her, so an invitation to learn more was excited. "Well then, gae right ahead. Ah can take a horror story or two."

While the wolf woman didn’t mind talking about her boy experience to help others, this didn’t mean she particularly liked to. The problem with revealing fragments of her past was she felt those unwanted feelings again of feeling vulnerable like she did back then. Emerald didn’t show a bit of this of course and it was doubtful that she would ever. She had some outbursts in the past but that was because she got caught in a lie or a fib, now she was trying to keep herself quite a bit more in control.

“Alright, no Psychics because my first love, around the time I first got to the mansion, yeah he kinda psychically screwed me over some years back,” Emerald explained, shrugging her shoulders lightly. That secret had been revealed a year or so back thanks to a haunted house and some more psychic kids so it didn’t hurt as much anymore. Of course this didn’t mean she didn’t feel like crap because of how dumb and gullible she was back then.

“There was this other guy, a thief, I shoulda known he was trouble but he was cute and he actually could stand the wolf thing. He was just doing it to help his family and I know what that’s like so I let him do his own thing. I fell for him like a ton of bricks, but the feeling didn’t seem mutual. Finally got the guts to ask him out, he said yes and I thought it was going to be fine till he stood me up. Went on an extra-long hunting trip after that one,” Emerald shook her head, idly punching at the air.

That wound seemed a little fresher than the others judging by that slight bitter edge that tinged her voice. Emerald started doing a technique she had showed Rebecca a while back, shadow boxing. It was a technique to learn how to practice your moves a little better and to maybe match your moves against yourself in battle. It didn’t seem like it made sense, but once you fight a few dopplegangers it comes in handy.

“There’s been others, mainly guys that don’t stick around when I started to have feelings for them. Or guys that left me out in the cold when I told them my feelings. I’ve also turned down a very tiny amount of guys, cause you see when you’re someone like me, guys don’t exactly come banging down your door asking for a date,” Emerald explained, giving a particularly fierce jab to the air. “Moral of the story, don’t fall in love or randomly want to being in some sort of relationship too easily. You will get hurt every time.”

Emerald continued this shadow fight against herself her blows seemingly getting quicker and faster, far harsher than she had showed Rebecca before. She had been holding back a lot of that feral fierceness around the young scott, if only because she didn’t want to petrify the girl. One must wonder though who was she really fighting against.

Rebecca was almost feeling better about her love life struggles after hearing Emerald's reoccurring struggles with love. Akshay was a pretty good guy, but that became way more noticeable compared to a psychic torturer and an unreliable thief. Regardless, the moral of the story Always seemed to be Emerald putting herself out on the line and getting hurt as a result.

Rebecca watched quietly as Emerald fought against shadows, understanding now where some of her teachers frustration stemmed from. "Ah get it. Ah've been thinking it'll be best if Ah take a break from committing and letting emotions cross my wires."

If Rebecca left herself open to love again, it was only going to be a matter of time before that love found a way to stomp on her insides. Detachment was not the worst thing she could experience, it would seem. "There are worst things than loveless sex in an X-Jet."

She took a swig of water before realizing what she said aloud, coughing up the water with wide-eyes. "Ah mean hypothetical sex." On the X-Jet. Twice.

That shadow boxing continued, Emerald fighting against a shadow version of herself in her mind. In her eyes she could really only be matched by two people in her travels so far, Isabel, the bone manipulator and her own sister Sapphire who was her equal in every way.

However, if she fought herself constantly she could realize her own mistakes a lot easier, seeing the infractions from her punches of her shadows and learn to improve it. It seemed silly but it was how she got better.

Not only this but the Alpha female knew that this method of shadow fighting was an easy way for her to converse with people. Well of course unless they mentioned loveless sex on the X-Jet, now that was enough to get her attention.

With a surprised grunt, that swiftly jabbing fist got out of synch with the rest of the body it was attached to and nearly caused a loss of balance. Despite that frantic backtracking, the renegade X-woman looked over at the other girl with a very suspicious gaze.

“That's an awfully specific way of putting it,” Emerald observed, stopping her routine of fighting to look over at her student. “What person would this hypothetical you be having hypothetical loveless sex with?”

Now, Emerald didn't know if she was making an idiot of herself or not, even if she was she didn't mind. The whole thing was just odd that was all and she wanted to get it cleared up.

Rebecca's comment was far too specific not to pull Emerald's attention, and indeed she watched as the wolf-woman faltered in her focus against her shadowy opponent. Fake fighting time was now over; grilling Rebecca for her promiscuous sex life was the new topic.

"Well, it was... jist a product of a situation. We were on a good will mission, and we both had breakups," not as though that piece of information would give it away, since Emerald was absent for the split between Gawain and Ami.

"We were in Europe, and we were drinking, and sexy things are way more interesting in Europe and with drinks, as it would turn out." It was certainly not how she expected to spend a trip that began with plenty of brooding and angst. "It was... Gawain. Ah slept with Gawain after a Peace Conference in Budapest." Damn Budapest.

Saying what happened out loud caused her cheeks to pinken. She did not regret her actions, but she did feel self-conscious admitting them to someone she basically treated as an authority figure. "Ah mean, it was probably a one time thing. Bit it was fun. And we were both single. And... well, Ah never... you know, with a boy."

Okay, now she definitely felt awkward.

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away Emerald had the sex talk with Ruby. After that, she was sure that she would never have to give anyone a talk relating to that sort of thing ever again. Of course, she had been wrong before and now she was looking at her student, trying her best to be the supportive big sister figure, but hooo boy was it it hard.

"Did ya at least Lysol the hell out of the X Jet when you were done," Emerald asked, as she tried her best not to let the exasperation tinge her voice. It wasn't working too well though and that deep voice of hers just teemed with it.

The wolf woman took a seat on a fairly rotted looking log but it didn't look like she cared at the moment. She had to think of the proper way to respond to this. Then again she had never been about proper ways of responding to things so maybe she should just say what was on her mind and get it over with.

It's not like that had ever gotten her in trouble before.

"Ok, hear me out here, you just had sex for fun right," Emerald began still trying her best to wrap her mind around that concept. "While I think it's good you are trying to get over Agnes, I'm not sure if throwing yourself at anyone is going to help you. Especially not Gawain because as much as a love my strange adopted brother sometimes sister, he needs to find a good, stable girl too. That and maybe it's just a wolf thing but if you are gonna have sex with someone it should be with someone you care for very deeply. Or if you have to do it to save someones life."

It wasn't the best and easiest way of putting it, but with her own past experiences, Emerald knew a thing or two about sex. She knew it was best to have it mean something rather than it mean nothing at all because that empty feeling after the encounter didn't just go away it lingered.