Mirror had been working really hard not to be an overprotective boy/girlfriend. Really. She did. She gave it an honest effort. That should count for something, right? Evelyn was on the X-team now as a trainee and everything. She could look after herself. Mirror could save him/herself the trouble of keeping an eye...

... screw that.

Maya darted out of the Mansion just minutes after Evelyn retired to her room to sleep off her latest adventures. She would talk to her later. That would require tact.
Talking to the guy, on the other hand...

"Hey!" she called after the guy as he walked away from the Mansion. He had dropped Eve off like a parcel, and Maya was pretty sure she had heard about this guy before "Hold up for a sec."

Kyle had been about halfway onto his bike when someone had yelled after him.

Inwardly, Kyle cursed. He had hoped to drive Evelyn back here, drop her off so she could rest and get treated and head off to recover himself before anyone could even realize he'd been there. He was certain he wasn't on the Mansion, or the X-men's list of favorite people right now. And he had been so close to being able to pull that off. So very damn close.

Compared to Evelyn, Kyle was far from in trouble physically. He'd taken a few hits during the adventure at the museum, but nothing that would kill him. He'd be sore for a bit but he'd grown accustomed to that. Heck, he was barely even out of breath due to his power's neat little side effect. That didn't mean he wanted to go out and face down the whole town.

Sighing, Kyle turned his head towards the source of the voice, a woman making her way from the mansion in his direction. His outer face a solid mask of nothing, Kyle lowered the helmet he was just about to put on to address her. "You have a sec. Make it quick."

>>"You have a sec. Make it quick."

Way to be a ***hole, dude. Maya caught up and looked at him, not sure how to start talking without punching. She really had no reason to punch. Not yet anyway.

"What exactly happened out there?" she asked, folding her arms and looking at the guy on the bike. The guy. Had a freaking bike. That he brought Evelyn home on.

"I know I could ask Eve, but I wanted to talk to you too. I think she has mentioned you before, but I don't think we have actually ever met."

She held out a hand.

"I'm Maya."

For a moment, Kyle debated shrugging his shoulders, telling the girl to ask Evelyn herself and take off for home. It wouldn't have been the worst thing he'd ever done and after the day he'd just had, he wanted to head back to Sanctuary, heal up and maybe spend some time practicing some new ideas he'd come up with.

But something in the way that this Maya was looking at him, in her tone of voice, made him pause. And from the sound of it, Evelyn had mentioned him to this woman...his brain did a small spiral as the gears turned in his mind. Could this be, I wonder?" he mused to himself. Only one way to find out.

He stared at her hand for a moment before briefly shaking it. "Forte." No need to give out his real name to someone from the mansion he didn't know, not right away. Besides, Evelyn might have given it away anyway, but that was besides the point.

Shrugging his shoulders to her question, Kyle placed the helmet between his legs, twisting a little to face this Maya properly. "Not much to tell; shit went down at the museum and I helped Evelyn fix it. If you want more details, asking her would be better. She remembers it all anyway.

I can't say, Maya, that Evelyn has ever mentioned you, before, however. Are you one of her fellows in the X-men?"

>>"Forte."

That was a mutant name, or some parent was just really crappy at making decisions. Maya shook the hand, and didn't comment on it.

>>"Not much to tell; shit went down at the museum and I helped Evelyn fix it. If you want more details, asking her would be better. She remembers it all anyway."

"I will" she nodded. Something about how the guy talked about Eve in such a familiar manner rubbed her the wrong way. He did not only know her powers...

>>"I can't say, Maya, that Evelyn has ever mentioned you, before, however. Are you one of her fellows in the X-men?"

Ouch.

"Yeah, I'm a team leader." Maya nodded shortly. There was no need to go around it, she had gotten plenty of media coverage as a team member, and if this guy was on good terms with Eve, he probably knew it anyway. Maya also didn't elaborate on her relationship with Eve. She was not going to be the one to out her to a... an acquaintance.

"I can't say I have seen you at the Mansion before, though. Are you new in town?"

A team leader. Crap. That meant this Maya could and did have the power to call the X-men or even the police, if she so chose. It was the kind of person he'd hoped to avoid running into whenever he had to grace the mansion grounds with his presence. Couldn't have just been some student or someone passing through...well, that's the kind of day its been..

He didn't get much more in the way of Evelyn's relationship to this Maya, but then, sometimes it was the things left unsaid that said the most. Now, Kyle couldn't be certain, but something about her made that voice in the back of his whisper that trouble would be coming soon. His instinct was to get away from here before things got worse; but then, he wasn't much for running. Not until he got some real info.

Then it came; a question that he had two options in the way of answering; through a lie or through the truth. Kyle remained silent for a few moments after, pondering his answer...it didn't take him long to decide.

"No point in dragging this out for long. No, I'm not new and you wouldn't find me around this place either. I live in Sanctuary most often that not." Kyle's body remained loose as he revealed this crucial little bit of information that would most likely bring some heat, but anyone who knew him knew that he could go from loose to battle ready in a moment's notice. Maya didn't know that though. Advantage to him for now.

>>"No point in dragging this out for long. No, I'm not new and you wouldn't find me around this place either. I live in Sanctuary most often that not."

Maya's eyes narrowed. No wonder she had not heart Eve talk about this guy before. How did she even...

"So... how do you know Evelyn exactly?..."

She was not okay with this. She was so very far from being okay with this. She had known people from the Sanctuary, and she had yet to meet one that was not a murderous psychopath. The idea that Eve was on friendly terms with one of them only went to show how much she didn't know about local mutant history.

It was easy to see that this Maya wasn't taking kindly to the fact that he came from Sanctuary. One could hardly blame her, honestly. Kyle knew just as well as anyone that a good portion of Sanctuary's mutants were there because of their ill reputations; heck, he'd fought with some of them on more than one occasion. It was a home away from home for those hunted by the law or who could not function in normal society as a mutant.

But it was also a place for your everyday mutant too and that fact was often overlooked by those judging the place. If you weren't at the mansion, it seemed, you were a bad seed to most. Kyle wasn't one of the better seeds, but he wasn't one of the worst either.

His eyes remained cold and emotionless in response to her slightly more wary stance, although his body slowly grew ready just in case a fight was about to start. "You're awfully curious about my relationship with Evelyn. It makes me wonder what yours is, to show so much care for her well-being.

How do I know Evelyn? What does it matter, how I know her? If she finds no wrong with me, you'll excuse me if I don't particularly care how you feel about me, Maya".

>>"You're awfully curious about my relationship with Evelyn. It makes me wonder what yours is, to show so much care for her well-being. How do I know Evelyn? What does it matter, how I know her? If she finds no wrong with me, you'll excuse me if I don't particularly care how you feel about me, Maya".

Now he was getting smart. Maya's eyes narrowed again.

"I am her girlfriend, not that it is any of your business, Forte. More importantly, I am also her teammate, and I am responsible for the security of the school. As someone who has seen a resident from the Sanctuary eviscerate two people without thinking twice about it, I don't approve of you waltzing in and out. You brought Evelyn home? I thank you for that. That doesn't mean I want to see you around here ever again."

Like a puzzle suddenly made clear, Maya's mention of being Evelyn's girlfriend was the piece that made this particular situation finally come to proper sense. It not only answered why she was so curious about him, but the addition of the teammate and mention of protecting the school also made another particular puzzle come to light. Evelyn had showcased skills she had not had last time they met and from the sound of it, she had gotten them from joining the X-men. A bit of a stretch, but not as far as one might originally think.

As Kyle recalled, however, Evelyn's girlfriend was also...oh, the situation grew more and more clear by the second. Quite an interesting situation he'd wandered into.

His face remained an impenetrable mask, showing nothing in revelation to his news or the threat that was anything but subtle. Besides, Maya had given him a few juicy targets with which to counter verbally. That's where this fight was beginning...for now. "Ah yes...the woman that is a man and yet a woman. I believe she has mentioned you. Briefly. Before she turned to better things to discuss." Not exactly untrue, really; she just switched topics because of how embarrassed it made her. No need to admit that though.

"You disappoint me though; you've seen a couple of us do "bad" things and thus all who reside there must be just as bad? That is a stereotype I'd expect from a human who dislikes mutants; not another mutant themselves. But I'm sure everyone who lives here must be a shining example of goodwill and honestly.

You don't approve of me? Too bad that your opinion matters little to me. What matters to me is Evelyn and her safety; if I find either in need of aid, to hell with that other people think. And if you don't like that...I'd like to see you stop me, It."

>>"Ah yes...the woman that is a man and yet a woman. I believe she has mentioned you. Briefly. Before she turned to better things to discuss."

Now he was just being plain hostile. Maya didn't bother to answer that; clearly Evelyn had told him enough for him to know about the gender shifting, which meant she was not ashamed of her. The rest he could spin however he wanted.

She didn't say anything about his quip on honesty either; she had seen what she had seen, multiple times. If he liked sharing a roof with a bundle of sociopaths, that was his funeral.

>>"You don't approve of me? Too bad that your opinion matters little to me. What matters to me is Evelyn and her safety; if I find either in need of aid, to hell with that other people think. And if you don't like that...I'd like to see you stop me, It."

"Oh, ouch" Maya winced at that last bit "You know, nobody has ever dissed me about my sexuality before. How very... original of you."

Mirror has had a lot of things to sulk about in the past several years. Her sexuality, however, was never one of them. She was born with it.

"I appreciate your trying to do your hero bit here, Forte. But clearly, you don't know Evelyn as much as you'd like to, or you'd know that she absolutely hates having a bodyguard."

Oh, this Maya was proving herself to be an odd mixture. On one hand, she was almost dismissing his words as if they were nothing to hear, a weak arrow bouncing off a strong shield. Some people, without naming any names, were easily provoked, either making them easy to manipulate or to gain an advantage over. Those people were easy to beat. Maya wasn't one of those...yet. For Kyle could see that some of his words were getting through to her, stroking the fires within to a possibly explosive outcome.

He wondered how hard he'd have to push to get that fire to ignite.

"Oh, that wasn't an insult. I just don't know which to call you; do you prefer to be a he or a her? Hmmm...and I wonder which Evelyn will prefer, in the end. Which half of you she'll want out more than the other." After all, even if it was the same person, a guy and a girl would have fundamental differences, even if they were slight, in personality.

"Oh, you think I'm her bodyguard? That I need her permission to do as I see fit? Well, surely you're right. I imagine that if she needed help, well, that you'd just stand by idly because you know she doesn't want someone protecting her. Such a wonderful person you are, to adhere to her wishes.

Shamefully, I'd not nearly as nice. I'd protect her, help her, if I deem the situation requiring so. Because that's how much I care about her. It seems we differ in that department."

>>"Oh, that wasn't an insult. I just don't know which to call you; do you prefer to be a he or a her? Hmmm...and I wonder which Evelyn will prefer, in the end. Which half of you she'll want out more than the other."

Maya felt her hands curl into fists. It was one thing to taunt her about the gender-shifting; it was another to pry into her private life that she happened to share with Evelyn.

"You don't need to call me anything."

>>"Shamefully, I'd not nearly as nice. I'd protect her, help her, if I deem the situation requiring so. Because that's how much I care about her. It seems we differ in that department."

Snap.

Talking about gender shifting.

Gawain was a guy, talking to another guy who claimed to care about her girlfriend enough to protect her from harm.

Maya was a girl, talking to a guy who claimed to...

... oh to hell with it.

The fist that had been curled for the past few minutes flew at his nose. Left-handed. Maya was already mid-motion when she reflected on how lucky it was that the guy did not have his helmet on yet. It would not have stopped her if he did.

Thank you Sam for teaching me how to throw a decent punch.

Everybody in the world had buttons inside that, when pushed, would set their blood on fire and compel them to action. It had taken a bit more prodding and fishing with this one then it did on some of the other people Kyle knew(which, to be fair, not all of them were on the level...of sanity) but in the end, Kyle had managed to find just the right buttons to push. Now all he had to do was push back twice as hard.

Kyle's right arm snapped up, catching the fist as it came in and slapping it aside by hitting his knuckles to her wrist hard while shifting his head sideways to avoid the rest of the blow. He was already stepping away from her and his bike, dropping his helmet next to it as he did. Her blow had been quick, brutal...and utterly predictable. She could have been wearing a neon sign on her that screamed she had been going to strike.

Had she not been showing the signs with her body language, Kyle might have actually been hit. He'd have to stay on his guard. His face still neutral, he shifted his stance a little, looking bored as he motioned her with his fingers to try again. "Oh please...Evelyn throws a better punch then that. No wonder I'm always the one to help her; obviously you're not up to the task."

>>"Oh please...Evelyn throws a better punch then that. No wonder I'm always the one to help her; obviously you're not up to the task."

Now he was taunting her. After her left-handed punch got slapped aside, Maya regained her balance and stepped back; she was not going to start wrestling the guy in the middle of the street.

He had gone too far at this point, though. If he had countered her punch with a hit of his own, this would have turned into all-out brawl really fast. Maya was trained for combat, but also not experienced enough in emotional issues not to keep throwing punches if Forte kept offering them.

But he didn't. He decided to get smart instead.

Maya trembled for a few second, every muscle in her body as tense as a bow.

... good thing she didn't have her bow, by the way...

The taunt went too far, though. Too far to bother. It was either back out now, or all-out war.

"I ain't gonna fight you over this." she said finally, forcing herself to exhale and relax her arms. It took an insane amount of effort in itself. She still felt like she wanted to murder the guy. She just didn't want to fight him.

"Evelyn chose to date me. That's good enough for me." she glared at Forte for a few seconds, before she raised an eyebrow "It's probably hard for you to understand. Maybe it's about the part you don't have."

Turning on her heels, Maya started marching towards the gates, hoping to get away before she changed her mind.