Serena was walking a path in the mansion which she hadn't walked in quite some time. It had been where she would have walked when she went to fetch Leon to hang out. Serena had felt so betrayed when he left in the way he did. She had become close to him, and even began to truly trust the man, and he got up and left.

She remembered walking down this hallway at about midnight for the first time all those months ago, when she had come up with that wonderful mutation game. That was when Leon and her had first started to properly bond, and then he had stabbed her in the back.

Aaaaand she had stabbed James in the shoulder. It was an accident! Really she hadn't even meant to fire the blood lance... Which was directed at Leon, James had just been in the way. And then he had been lanced in the shoulder. And was quickly taken to Doc Prof for healing. The doc hadn't even been mad with Serena, he had dealt with her before and knew what her power what it could do to herself and the people around her, so was needless to say, sympathetic.

This brought her to what she was doing today. Her and James had been friends... Kinda. And she had ruined a perfectly good shirt. She also knew he was a gamer. And his rough size. So she had bought him Christmas presents! In the form of 3 shirts.

She had bought the boy: A 'still alive' lyric portal shirt, with a cake picture! Am Alliance Vs horde shirt, and a league of draven shirt. She hoped he would like at least one of them.

She walked up to the door. Weird. She knocked in a 4 knock pattern.

James had been sitting down with his laptop as usual, playing a bot game of League of Legends to get used to the new champion he had just purchased. His Christmas eve had been rather...lonely. The empty half of the room a painful reminder of how he had ended up playing games...by himself on Christmas. Without even a family to celebrate it with, not that he had much to complain about, considering the ordeal with his ex-roommate and the pretty blonde girl. He had learned, rather guiltily, that the other mutant was just as alone as himself. If not more so. It hadn't been clearly stated, but James was intelligent enough to put two and two together. 

He was so immersed in his game that when the knocking came, it made him jump out of his skin. Headphones off his head in a flash, James vaulted over his bed and jumped to the door. The first thought in his head was; Who exactly would want to talk to me? Aiden maybe...? He didn't think so, besides, Aiden didn't know which room was his. That left one thing. I've done something wrong. Ah. 

With his hand on the doorknob James's mind kicked into overdrive, searching the endless vaults for excuses which were believable. He had many, but now that his mind came to it, the alibis were slippery and elusive.

Turning the doorknob James took in a deep breath, ready to bark out apologies at a seconds notice. However he was surprised  to see the top of a head, one covered in long blonde hair....framing a familiar face.

Two things hit James, the second harder than the other. First; Relief. This was not the face of accusation. Second; Social awkwardness. Which, as usual turned his spine to steel, allowing any usual fluid movement impossible. Probably caused by him mostly looking at her considerably attractive face.

"Oh...Hi, I...urm...Merry Christmas?"

 He really had no idea how to reply to the girl who had practically torn his shoulder off his body. She had apologised profusely and James had told her it was all right, considering it was an accident. Which was true, he hadn't blamed her one bit. But she had been avoiding him...and admittedly he had been avoiding her, a little...for different reasons. Hot girls were not normally something which settled well with James's introvert mind.

Serena had prepared for this. This wouldn't be too awkward. Or so she hoped. She had the wrapped present held behind her back. "Merry christmas!" she happily cheered in response. She quickly swung the present around from behind her back and held it out for him to take.

She smiled gently at the slightly awkward boy. "So... Sorry I haven't really spoken to you since.. Well you know, Since the whole thing with Leon. I guess I kind of felt really bad and stuff." She smiled to him awkwardly.

Yup between the two of them, her no awkward plan was being tossed right out of the window. Her mind was drawn back to her meeting with Aiden in the autumn, when she had found the wonder of snow in the fall.

That boy had been so bloody awkward. It wasn't even funny, or cute. It was just annoying.

Serena wondered what James would think of the presents. She was pretty sure she had just caught a glimpse of LoL running on the boy's PC, she grinned.

James smiled shyly when he saw the present. It probably didn't show on his face but it meant more than she could have possibly imagined. Considering it was literally the only present he had received this year. Involving his birthday, which had been equally as lonely. He reached out and took the present, it was squishy. Probably clothes or something. That was good, James could use them. Not that it really mattered, its the thought that counts and all that jazz.

"Thanks, that's...that's really amazing." James thanked her softly.

The mention of Leon made James wince and glance at the empty bed on the other side of the room subconsciously. Then Serena tried to apologise.  At first James was going to interrupt and tell her something like "No! Shush, don't talk about it." But that would have been rude and he really didn't want to seem ungrateful for the present. 

He waited patiently for Serena to finish and chuckled a tad awkwardly. "Listen, really its okay. Accidents happen." He patted his shoulder to make a point. "See? Its still there, no lasting damage. Its okay."

Standing in the doorway would be even more awkward, so, for the first time in his life he let a girl into his room. Taking a step back and waving his hand behind him he asked Serena if she wanted to come in. "I don't suppose you want to come in? There is plenty of space." He said quietly, eyes moving from her, to the door frame, then back to her. A blush creeping up his cheeks.

Serena's smile widened as James seemed to be pleased that he had received. Even if he was socially awkward, and even if she had been avoiding him for fear of reminding herself of bitter betrayals.

She grinned upon being invited in. She stepped into his room as he moved aside to let her in. "Thank you, I would love to!" She examined his room. It was rather messy.

Well, at least on his side of the room, the other was pretty bare and untouched. She felt like pouting about this. What was the mansion doing? Why hadn't it given James a new roommate? They really should have by now...

Unless James had done what Serena had done, and not requested that he receive a new roommate. Although Serena had done that because she blamed herself for Liz being dragged home by her mother and she didn't want to bring what appeared to be her curse of constant mis-fortune down on another poor soul.

She spotted his monitor and grinned. "Now that's a game a recognise... You're dying, by the way." she giggled.

James pushed the door closed with his foot as he turned around, the mess which was his bedroom would have embarrassed him, but it wasn't the embarrassing kind of messy. The one with underwear and dirty clothes slung around, it was just messed up bed sheets and various packets and CD cases lying around.

Serena exclaimed that she recognised the game, Hmm well it was a well known...Wait. What?! Serena knew the name of a game? Well, that was, what, unexpected? Yes, it was shocking. So shocking that James was literally speechless. More so than usual.

"Y-Y-You recognize..." James slapped himself mentally. Come on say something NORMAL. "Wait. You. Recognize. LoL?" Half of his mind was rejoicing. Screaming about how it was some common ground with which he could minimize awkwardness. The other half was muttering stuff like; Great, The hot girl gets hotter. James tried pushing that part away, but it just made him blush even more.

Needing something to do or he would die of embarrassment, James sat on the bed next to his laptop just in time to see his health hit zero. Deciding it was probably pointless to keep going he closed down the game and pulled his headphones out, letting Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars start resonating through the expensive speakers.

"Wouldn't have won that one, not a chance." It wasn't true, he could always win. There was always a way, but he couldn't be bothered. Besides..Present!

Feeling a little self-conscious James waggled the gift at Serena. "Do you want me to open it now, or wait 'till Christmas day?"

Serena smiled as she glanced around James' room, she was glad to see that the boy listened to music. She was a very music orientated person herself. She had never really had much interest or talent in it herself, but it wasn't very often she found herself alone and not listening to music.

She hummed along to the music. She liked 30STM. Their lead singer, she could never remember his name, had such an amazing voice.

She turned and gave the boy a cheshire grin. "Should I not know it?" She then winked at him.

She pondered his question for a moment. The League related shirt would certainly seem appropriate. She had guessed he was a gamer by now, simply through glances at his side of the room when visiting Leon, and through brief mentions from Leon himself before he had departed from the mansion.

She supposed regardless of the shirts designs, he would appreciate them. She distinctly remembered him not having a massive amount of clothing. The young Haemokinetic shrugged. "I really don't mind, it's up to you." She smiled.

"Should I not know it?"

Well, It wasn't so much that she shouldn't know it, but more along the lines that (James didn't like to use stereotypes, but in his experience this was largely true.) girls didn't seem to play games as much as guys. He knew some did...but then again, he could just have that impression because he never went near the opposite gender by choice.

Then, as James was coming to believe was something she did purely to tease him, Serena winked. For some reason he could never fathom, this made him feel self conscious and embarrassed. Probably because winking had cheeky connotations, either way it had its usual effect. James's already pink cheeks edged even closer to a deep red. He quickly looked somewhere else. Where to look? Where...to...look. Ah! Present!

Eyes snapping the the present he decided on weather he should open it now or later. It was usually awkward opening presents with the person who gave it to you. Trying to gauge how happy you should be to have it was always difficult. You didn't want to look too enthusiastic about it, but you also didn't want to look unenthusiastic. Deciding that he already felt pretty awkward as it was , he might as well open it.

Shrugging he pinched the corner with one hand, ready to tear. "Might as well now, Its probably going to be the only one I get. Either way." James spoke in an upbeat tone, seemingly unfazed by the fact that his Christmas was going to most likely end up as a gaming marathon.

He tore the top off, the childish excitement which always came with presents nestled comfortably in his gut booting out the social awkwardness.

The result was what looked like two or three shirts, folded on top of each other. That was pretty freaking brilliant, actually. He needed more of those. Not only were they shirts, but they were clearly James's kind of shirt.

"Bloody hell, Serena..." James said, looking at her with a slightly shy grin. "I don't suppose you can read minds?"

Serena had a mental smile, to accompany the physical one, at the slight colour change in James' face as she teased him. It was nice to not be on the projecting end of the awkward as when she spent time with Amelia.

She giggled as he moved on and began to tear into his present. She had been semi-confident that he would at least appreciate the shirts before she had walked in, now she was fairly sure that he would enjoy them.

She pouted at his comment about receiving a single present and then pondered it for a moment. "I was about to say the same, but Amelia actually surprised me on my birthday, so there is a decent chance it's the same story with Christmas. I know I got her something." She grinned.

She smiled as he tore open his present. Tapping her arms she waited patiently as he opened it. Apon his comment her smile spread into another grin. She giggled. "Well, I do try." More giggling. "I'm glad you like it."

He looked at the three shirts. A League of Draven one, which was ever so appropriate. A Horde Vs Alliance one, he'd played WoW for a while, so he liked that one too. The Portal shirt was also equally appreciated, the lyrics made him smile. It reminded him of his last shopping trip which had been...interesting to say the least, let alone embarrassing.

"I've been a bit low on the clothing front." He said studying the presents, "I've kind of been avoiding the whole shopping thing since Amelia took me..." The memory made him blush even more, shaking his head a little he tried to push it off the cliff of recall and back into his sea of memories.

James wondered if his mother would try contacting him on Christmas day, he could only hope.  Usually his aunt would come to stay for Christmas up to new years, but he didn't know how she would feel about him being a mutant. James wanted to believe she wouldn't mind, but then again, he would never have suspected that his mother would have reacted the way she did.

"I don't suppose you have any plans for Christmas, Serena?"

Serena smiled as James spoke. He liked the shirts. This was good. She had picked them out based on what she had seen, and little things that Leon had mentioned. So she had a hunch that he had been a gamer. So she decided to shop as if she was shopping for her late brother, which had turned out to be the perfect way to shop for her new friend.

She giggled as he mentioned a shopping trip with Amelia. "I could think of... worse people to shop with." She smiled again and then thought about what shopping with Amelia was like. It had actually been how the girl had first met Amelia.

"Funnily enough, I think I actually first met Amelia when I was out shopping." she giggled.

Plans for christmas? Well, one normally had to have a family to do something like that, and she was running on empty in that regard. Or, you could have a lot of friends with no plans and do something in that regard, but her few close friends still had families, so were probably all spending their's with their respective families.

She shook her head at the boy "As I'm sure you gathered during our.... Encounter with Leon, my family are all gone, so I don't really have anyone to plan anything with. How about you? Have you spoken with your mother recently?" she asked in a gentle tone.

"As I'm sure you gathered during our.... Encounter with Leon, my family are all gone, so I don't really have anyone to plan anything with."

Ah, so I was right. James would have said something like 'I'm sorry for your loss/losses' but that seemed lame and untrue. Mainly because he didn't really feel sorry, that wasn't the right word for it. He felt sympathy and maybe a bit of pity, but he doubted she wanted to know that. Besides. Serena had probably heard it enough, the topic of her family probably wasn't one she wanted to talk about. So he just looked at her and nodded in a way which he hoped said something like 'Yeah, I gathered. That sucks, worse than I could probably imagine."

"How about you? Have you spoken with your mother recently?"

Guilt, there was some of that. No, he hadn't spoken to her since losing his cool and...flipping the table. His first thought was to make a cutting comment, something bitter. But remembered he had nothing to complain about. At least his mother was alive, that he should be happy about. It was hard not to take her for granted.

"No, I haven't. I plan to though, apologize and all that. I'm hoping she might contact me on Christmas day, if not I will go to her." He shrugged. That's if he could pluck up the courage. Not much scared James, but his mother slamming the door in his face was one of them. Rejection was a hard thing to get over, especially if it was from someone close. "She seemed to like you, though. She's good at noticing nice people I guess, even if she is a bit..." He grasped for the words. "obstinate."

Serena smiled as James responded. She understood perfectly, it must have been extremely difficult to approach a family member who had cast you out, even if Serena thought it was simply because his mother misunderstood and feared mutants.

James wasn't really a mutant to fear, his mutation seemed mostly defensive... Except against blood lances, then it crumpled like paper as the two of them had unfortunately discovered.

>>"She seemed to like you, though. She's good at noticing nice people I guess, even if she is a bit..."

She smiled sweetly, "Well, If you would like some help with speaking to her when you get around to it, even if it's just for moral support, or displaying that mutants are no more necessarily dangerous than humans. Feel free to ask."

She gave a gentle warm smile, pondering whether or not the boy would accept her offer. She would really be happy with helping the other teenager, she was a person generally very good with talking, and diffusing volatile situations.

James tried to not let the surprise register on his face, It probably did, at least a little. The last think he wanted Serena to think was that her being nice was a surprise. It shouldn't have been but James was still getting used to the concept of having a friend, let alone one willing to help you with something sensitive like this.

He lay down on his bead, legs crossed. Admittedly he didn't feel quite as awkward around Serena as his did around others, mainly because he had talked to her a lot, but it wasn't entirely gone. He laughed a little internally at 'displaying that mutants are no more necessarily dangerous than humans.' She herself had proved the destructive power of mutants. Not that she would ever intentionally use it to hurt someone, with obvious exceptions, say for example; Leon.

It shamed James to admit that, he himself had been a fingers width away from loosing it to the point of no return with the other teenager. Funnily, in some ways, Leon had been exactly like James's mother. With the narrow-mindedness and inability to see reason.

He started tracing spirals on the bedsheets with one of his fingers as he thought of a response. James had believed that his behavior towards his mother the last time Serena came with him would have put her off, he had obviously underestimated the other girl. That made him feel a little bad. After all, Serena had never done anything to prove otherwise.

Then again, Serena was the only one who had come off with a good impression that time. James had just managed to make himself and Leon look like jerks...only one was right on that account. Leon was definitely a jerk.

There was no doubt that the young hemokinetic was a social adept, master extrovert and as worthy of a speech level of 100 as anyone else he knew.

"Yeah, If it comes to it I'll let you know." He smiled, this one was unusually normal and not awkward. "I appreciate it, and if worse comes to worse, you are probably the best person for calming a raging mother. Not really my...forte"

Serena nodded slowly, showing that she understood. "Talking with people and dealing with volatile situations is something I've always had a particular talent for, I used to be quite a social butterfly when I still went to highschool in the city." She smiled.

She wondered if James had ever spent a christmas alone before, she certainly had. She remembered being only recently moved in with her new roommate, and feeling a little awkward about practically being shoved on the other teenager. But, she did manage to at least somewhat enjoy it.

There was a certain kind of happy spirit which hovered around the mansion this time of year, so many bouncy and excited young kids, the teenage students enjoying themselves thoroughly it rubbed off on other students.

She grinned at him, deciding that a change of topic might prove apt. "So what have you been up to as of late? I haven't spoken to you in quite some time."