Blind?!

Kealey made a surprised little "Oh!" sound when the revelation was made and tilted her head to get a better look at the person inside the hood. His hair was red, and his face was heavily affected by his mutation.

"I hadn't realized. I'm sorry if I was insensitive."

The boy was still scared, just on the edge of something primal that Kealey couldn't exactly sense. What had life done to him in such a short time? The blonde's heart went out to the young man, but she didn't force her issues. She'd made the offer, he'd heard, and it would stand as long as he wanted it to.

Excusing herself, Kealey made her way out of the living room and down to the admission office. She obtained Serena's room placement from the greeter on duty, and made her way to the students' quarters. As the blond went down the hall, she stretched out with her powers, looking more deeply into what was going on in the rooms as she passed. Many were asleep, their emotions the flat calm that came with the early cycles of sleep. Later, their dreams would change things, but there was always this calm at first.

Stopping at the door, the blond tilted her head, as if she was studying the wood. The emotions didn't necessarily seem asleep, and there was a light coming from under the door. Kealey rose a fist...hesitated...then knocked, the action bringing a smile to her face. How many times had she knocked on Shin's door like this? Ah, The Mansion...hopefully Serena was awake to hear.

Serena had been hard at work for several hours. She was feeling a bit sleepy, but couldn't give in to sleep just yet.She was still behind on her Biology studies after missing a few months and was working like hell to get back up to speed.

She had been working for ages now... She assumed Liz was either out, sleeping, or just being quiet. She was scribbling away viciously at her note pad with her pen, making notes on the transpiration of plants, urgh, notes, too many notes.

Serena was too distracted, then she heard the muffled swearing in celtic from Liz's parrot in his cage, and something about knocks on the door while he was sleeping. Serena got up and crept over to the door. She was still wearing jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt, her hair was also still done up with the blood red hair pins from earlier that day.

She quietly opened the door to see a blonde woman standing outside. "Hello." Serena whispered.

Kealey could feel the movement in the room before she could see the shadows moving in the little crack of light above the carpet. She was pleased though, she hadn’t woke anyone and the Mansion’s visitor would get to see his friend.

The door opened and Kealey found herself looking into a pair of blue eyes. Being quite petite, this was something of a novelty and the blonde smiled at the other blonde.

”Hi, I hope I’m not bothering you…my name is Kealey, I'm the librarian here, and I'm on supervision duty tonight. I was walking on the grounds a bit ago and I ran into a rather unique young man who says he is a friend of yours.” it all came out in a bit of a rush, Irish accent tinging the words slightly.

Kealey let her words sink in for a moment, then took a step back, so as not to crowd the door.

”I told him I’d see if you were awake and send you to the livingroom to see him if you were. I promised snacks. His name is Sylar, and he requested meat.”

Kealey smiled, pleased with her hospitality. ”Can you think of anything you’d like to snack on? If you’re wanting to see him, I’ll go get the food and meet you two there, if you’d rather not see him, I’ll go and tell him you are asleep.”

The words had come on the fly, and Kealey suddenly realized she might be putting this young girl in a difficult situation. She’d have to gauge the girl's emotions carefully. This had suddenly become a delicate situation.

Serena smiled at the woman. A librarian. She would certainly have to pay the woman a visit at some point, she was going to run out of reading material at the speed she could read.

She wondered who it was that Kealey could be talking about, a friend of hers? A guy. She didn't know that many guys, and the way she said it made her think it couldn't be Drew or Sam, Kealey surely knew them if she worked here.

Could it be... Yes. The Irish lady's voice confirmed it. It was Sylar! He had come to visit the mansion after all. A huge grin spread across Serena's face. Things began to run across her mind. He had come. Maybe now he could finally get treated properly and see that the world was not as bad as he thought.

At least Serena hoped so. "One sec!" She dashed back into her room quietly and grabbed a hoodie and put it on. She came back out and quietly closed the door.

She smiled widely at Kealey. "A glass of water if that wouldn't be too much trouble. Thank you for coming to fetch me!" Serena was so happy, she gave Kealey a quick hug and went to go and find Sylar.

Sylar had continued to kind of pace around the living room while he waited. He wasn't one for sitting still, and he figured it would probably be bad if he tried to sit on the sofa or a chair. Living in the sewers, wearing torn stolen clothing, and dumpster diving all tended to leave a scent on a person, and Sylar's nose could easily pick apart the smells on his form. Maybe he should have stolen a fresh outfit, or something before coming. Girls didn't like bad smells, at least his mother always used to complain about odors. He wondered if Kealey had noticed an odor. Normal people didn't have a sense of smell as powerful as Sylar's, but his odor was probably still pretty bad to the average person.

Sylar wasn't even sure what he would say. It made sense to him to come in the middle of the night, but even if Serena was still up, wouldn't she be tired by this time of the night? Sylar sat for a moment, a crouch with his wrists resting on his knees. "Do I just say Hi? Amazing house?" He frowned slightly. Sylar had never really had friends, and though he wasn't sure he could call Serena a friend having met her only once, part of him wanted to interact with her at least somewhat normally. "She's just a girl, a mutant girl. A really friendly mutant girl." Sylar lifted a hand to his head and scratched, very softly, but scratched with a bit of annoyance. "I feel like I'm being stupid here."

Sylar pulled his hood forward a bit, the feeling of hiding his face helping to calm him a bit. He got up and began to pace around the room again, ending up before the television. He reached up and pressed the palm of his hand against the smooth glass. Weird how he could get so spooked by something he couldn't perceive. Even with his thermal vision, he still wondered how different life would be if he'd been born with normal eyes, instead of broken ones. A weird comparison to this situation here, he'd met Serena once, but now coming to meet her a second time, not knowing if she'd show up, or be happy to see him kind of bothered him. Maybe this was a normal fear for people trying to make friends, but as someone who'd always been too afraid to try, he'd never really experienced the anxiety of social interaction before.

He sighed softly, remaining before the TV, his tail swaying behind himself in a bit of mild frustration, before he heard a soft sound in the distance of the house. Movement, footsteps, either Kealey coming back, or maybe Serena? He turned toward the hall way and stood up, realizing if it was neither of them, he'd be in a bit of trouble again.

After speaking to Kealey, Serena set off down the corridor. She was going to go and meet Sylar in the living room. The blonde blood bender moved through the mansions moonlight hallways.

She moved into the living room to see a hooded teenager muttering to himself. She ran over to him "Sylar! You came!" Serena ran over to the sewer dwelling teenager and gave him a hug.

Regardless of what temperature he was, she was warm. She had been working at a desk for literally hours.

She realised that this was probably ever so slightly awkward... She blushed and let go. Her face felt slightly hot. "Urm... Sorry, hugging is sorta like an involuntary reflex for me when I See my friends..."

Sylar heard Serena's footsteps as they grew closer and louder, focusing towards the hall she came from. As she came into view, Sylar had little time to predict what she would do, raising his right hand a bit to greet her only to be assaulted with physical contact. Serena's arms embraced Sylar, a feeling he hadn't felt in years, even before his first change. Her arms would feel a thin lean boy beneath the hoodie, a bit too thin even for a smaller guy. Sylar's impression was immediate confusion though. He froze up a bit, his tail straightening out behind him like an exclamation mark, and stuttering words leaking from his mouth. "Wha...What're you..." His voice lost it's usual stern and stoic nature, instead jittery and very human.

Even through his hoodie, Sylar could feel Serena's warmth. The girl was so friendly, so endearing, even when she made him feel nervous, Sylar felt like he could interact with her. She'd brought him out from the sewers, and now he was here coming out of his shell. Sylar's body was lean, a bit malnourished, but meeting Serena again, as well as her affectionate greeting left him feeling a bit heated from embarrassment. His hands kind of just flailed a bit at her sides, unsure of what to do, but for a brief moment before she pulled away, his claws gently rested against the girl, maybe just enough to count as returning her hug.

Serena backed away from the hug, Sylar quickly found himself retreating a step as well, his hands coming to his face to pull his hood in a bit tighter. But not in time to hide his own reddened cheeks from her sight if she was paying attention. He continued to stutter a bit, entirely flustered at the moment. "N...No...it's fi..fine, I mean I just haven't been hugged, like since I was normal..." He tried to calm himself, but her last word seemed to catch his attention hard. "...Friends?" He asked, he couldn't remember having a real friend, so hearing her use the word quickly drew his attention entirely to the word. His tail, which had turned to stone for a moment, slowly started to move, kind of de-kinking itself then relaxing, the tip of his tail laying lax towards the floor.

The young haemokinetic had reduced the normally 100% serious creature, who was detirmined he was a monster, to nervous jittering. Although, mind you, she had also been reduced to redness and awkwardness herself.

It was generally an amusing and awkward situation. Her heart melted at his comment about not having recieved a hug for years. If he decided to stay at the mansion, he would be recieving plenty to make up for all of the hugs that he had missed from his years of living in solitude in the sewers.

She pondered what he said for a moment and then a smile spread across her face. "Well you trusted me enough not to run away intitally, you never attacked me, and you then trusted in what I said and you have come here to the mansion investigating, and also asked specifically for me. That tells me that I can trust you, so you are my friend."

The words flowed out of Serena like a gentle breeze. It was obvious how sincere the young blood bender was through her tone of voice and because of the passion with which she spoke.

Sylar's tail swayed back and forth a bit, remaining relaxed, a sign of his current content feelings in this place. He didn't smile, but considering the animal he'd become, maybe this action was the replacement of the normal human reaction. His hands fell from his hoodie and came to rest at his hips, his two claws clasped together. He felt a bit overwhelmed, but for once it was in a good way. She trusted him, and said he could trust her. He couldn't really ever remember feeling that kind of bond with another person, even his parents had grown distant with him over time, so parts of his psyche long neglected suddenly came alive in the back of his mind.

His voice calmed a bit, but it was still different than his usual, youthful and a bit excited. "I never met another mutant before, so meeting with you kinda sparked my interest." He retorted, Serena really had been the first person to ever interest him into a conversation. At least since he'd saved that little girl some time ago. That was to comfort a child though, and now it was kind of reversed, with Serena comforting the timid creature. "I'm...I mean..." He stuttered a moment, and his left hand came up to softly scratch his head through his hood. "I'm glad we can be friends." He felt the heat return to his cheeks, but he didn't let it stop him this time. "I never really had friends before." Maybe he was being to open about himself, but he felt good right now.

Feeling a bit more comfortable, Sylar took his left hand and pulled his hood back, letting it drop and revealing his face. His hair feel about wildly, dirty and scraggly. The oddest feature he had was still his eyes, unmoving, and rarely blinking over the web-like growths. "This place, it's huge. I was pretty scared when I snuck onto the grounds." He wondered if Kealey would return anytime soon. Even if he came to see Serena, his stomach remembered an offer of food, and he couldn't clear his head of the thoughts of a free meal.

Serena cocked her head to the side slightly and then giggled. "Well I'm glad we can be friends Sylar. You seem like you could use someone you know you can trust."

The blonde nodded. "The building is huge, but that also has it's advantages. Also, it has so many lovely people here, like Kealey, or a little girl I'm friends with named Victoria, or even my roommate Liz."

She wondered what Sylar thought so far, he had met Kealey, who seemed incredibly friendly, which, knowing Sylar, was a good thing. "So... What do you think so far?"

Sylar wasn't really sure if he trust anyone, he'd nearly forgotten the meaning of the word. But if there was somebody he could trust, it had to be someone like Serena. "It's kind of a weird experience, to be a friend, and not just the creature in black." He rubbed his left hand onto his right arm, feeling the plating that was slowly eating away at his humanity with each passing day. " I noticed how big it was when I snuck onto the grounds. Woods, the garden, and the building itself. Alot of mutants must live here." He was surprised at just how kind the mutants here seemed to be, Kealey and Serena both made it very hard for Sylar to stay in his shell.

She asked him what he thought, which was a difficult question for Sylar to answer. He liked this place, it seemed like a home for a big family. For mutants, but Sylar was also afraid of this place, so large, so foreign to him after years underground. He'd never seen the world when he lived with normal people before, and now that he could perceive the world through heat, this building seemed like an alien world to the boy. "It's nice Serena...but for me, this place is still scary as well. I feel...out of place here." He wasn't bothered by the kindness or hospitality, but when you give in so much to your inner animal, to an unusual life style, to come back to the "normal" world, was a shock for him, even if he was just visiting the mansion.

Serena smiled "Yeah, I was taken aback by the size of the building, and how many other mutants live here, but there are huge advantages to it I find, like for example, at night, because it is so big, you can do this sort of thing without anyone really bothering you, and because there are so many mutants, it is very safe for us here."

Serena dropped into the arm chair just across from Sylar. "Anyway, I'm glad you decided to visit. You dragged me away from Biology notes, I think the book was starting to devour me." Serena said sarcastically.

She smiled again and made herself comfortable in the chair that she had taken refuge in. "I wonder when Kealey will get back..." Serena wandered aloud.

Sylar could see how such a home was a safe haven. It was a massive estate, and filled with mutants it was probably like a fort for mutant kind. Maybe if he'd known about this place years ago, he wouldn't have ended up the creature he was today. Though he didn't really feel too much resentment, his mutation seemed like the perfect fit for a homeless criminal who lived underground. Part of him was entirely sure such a life wasn't for him, but Serena seemed to creep her way past his barriers at every turn. A surprising moment came for Sylar in his conversation with Serena, he made a joke. "So you often do late night rendezvous with Sewer monsters?" Though the statement was a joke, his rather taciturn voice made it fall a bit flat.

As she sat down, Sylar kind of dropped down onto his heels, crouching on the floor rather than finding a seat of his own. "I wasn't sure I was going to at first." He told her, breaking into some unknown mansion was a big deal for a timid person, but in the end his desire to see the world Serena came from, and Serena herself had called him here. "Biology? Wow...it's been three years since I had to think bout homework. To be honest I'd entirely forgotten about school work." When you spent everyday worrying about survival, food, and stealth, homework became a distant memory fast. Though Sylar had never really had any trouble with studies when he was normal, blind kids didn't have much time to do anything but learn.

Sylar realized Kealey hadn't come along with Serena just now. "I kinda figured she'd just follow you back. She said she'd bring food..." Sylar kind of held onto that last word, his stomach growling again. When it came to the Predator, and heck boys in general. The golden rule was they thought with their stomachs, and he was no exception.