The Ever-Broken Heart(Kealey)

His suspicions had thus-far been confirmed. This place was soft. Entering had been a process of little complication. He'd just taken the form of a young girl, curly red hair, rosy cheeks and big eyes, the kind most adults were suckers for. After that task had been accomplished, all he'd had to do was wait about the outside of the front gate and pretend to cry. When an adult rushed up to inquire about said wailing, he'd simply told the man he was playing, and that a bully had teleported him outside the gate. 

From there, he'd had to run about frolicking with some of the local children, playing some asinine game until the adult thought all was well, and wandered off. From there, the little ginger girl had planned to make his escape, but for one annoying detail.

One of the boys had taken a liking to him. His name was Kevin, and he never stopped talking. He wanted to strangle him, but that might gain the ire and attention of the adults in the area... A shallow smile was maintained as the boy went on an on about his friends. No, literally, he went on and on. He had two sets of lungs, so he never stopped talking. He'd taken to ignoring him, and providing statements of confirmation to let him know he was totally listening, all while planning some form of escape rout, or possibly finding something really high to jump off of.

"I have more friends here than I ever had because there are more people like me and you here. Donny said that, and I mean that he mindspoke it cause he doesn't have a mouth,""Uh huh.""Donny said that this is the highest concen-conce- consternation of mutants in the whooollle city. I dunno what that means but I think it's cool,"Yup" I haven't seen you around, you're pretty, my friend Joe says that when you see a pretty girl you have to tell her she's pretty." "Oh, yeah."

What was he going on about? No matter. The front door was near, and from there, he could make a break for it, shift into an adult, and perhaps snoop through their records for a bit... That was why he was here, after all; to gather information, and to assess the group known as the X-men for their possible usefulness to his campaign. He started fiddling with his hair as Kevin went on, taking a moment to get lost in thought... Living was way too tiring... No real options there, though. Even the most clever plots had failed to end in the elimination of self; all because of that damned compulsion. He couldn't even cry about the futility of it all... No tear ducts, go figure.

"Definitely"

"R-really? You'll be my girlfriend?! No one's ever said yes before! Wow, I've never had a girlfriend before. Joe says that everyone should have a girlfriend, he's older, though, I bet he didn't ha-"

Oh dear...

"Listen, I don't think this is going to work out. We should see other people."

"w-what?"

The 8 year old ginger immediately turned and walked toward the stairs, leaving the confused Kevin to stand there, mystified, but oddly pleased that he'd managed to have a girlfriend, if just for a few seconds.

That left a small, brooding, yet innocently smiling ginger standing in the middle of the mansion's living room, glancing about at the splendor, and wondering who could possibly have the audacity to provide such great living to people for free. How the hell did a place like this exist?