What had James been doing? Well, besides the LoL binge and amount of books he had mentally consumed since the incident with Leon? Hmmm, still not much admittedly. He had started his, what he had decided to call, operation steel.

The new fitness program he had set for himself. Running while made of steel did wonders for his level of fitness and now it was getting to the point where walking around while not made of steel made him feel as light as a feather. His body had also started to shape itself in a way which he hadn't originally intended.

When he looked in the mirror James was a lot more muscular than when Serena had last met him. His arms were quite thick and his leg muscles were like tree trunks. James was pretty sure he had gotten to the 'Don't mess with this guy if he is in an alleyway with you' sort of point. Quite the opposite to his usual shy/timid nature.

The incident in the alleyway with Aiden had made him even more determined to get stronger. He was confident in his physical capabilities but he couldn't say the same for his ability to defend himself without his mutation. The ugly bruise that had ached on his stomach for a long time was enough to tell him that.

But now? Well, now James's abdomen was considerably more muscular and he could tense his muscles as a small level of defense, unlike before. 

"You mean besides LoL and all the books I've read? I started practicing with my mutation a lot. I don't know if you noticed but exercise with steel skin produces considerably better results."

Crap. James thought after saying it, he didn't want to sound like a prat flaunting his body. Plus, he realized, the comment would get Serena to look at him. That would just make him embarrassed, even if he could see it coming.

Serena chuckled at James. She could imagine that the weight of the steel on your muscles probably meant that they also gained mass faster, similar to working with weights as resistance training.

Serena probably wouldn't have even been able to move her arms if they became steel... She didn't have a huge amount of muscle mass, she wasn't particularly athletic either, pretty much the only thing in regards to physical condition that the girl has going for her was quick reflexes.

"I imagine that it certainly would produce better results. Similar to the way that resistance training increases a persons muscle mass faster than simple physical excercise does"

Serena realised how what she just said had sounded. "Sorry... I can be a little bit of an anatomy nerd at times..." she said with a smile, brushing a stray hair out of her eyes and pushing it behind her ear.

Serena chuckled and James blushed, as usual. Ugh, why did he do that? It was like a reflex reaction, just more embarrassing and awkward.

Serena apologized for being a bit of an anatomy geek, well, that did make sense. Her mutation was all about blood, which was linked to anatomy. It seemed peoples mutations changed them a little. James would never had imagined ever being how he was now, physically, he'd never needed it. Now it seemed like a necessity. Especially with the X's playing at the back of his mind, that and how pathetic the Aiden incident had made him feel.

"It is kind of to do with your power...I guess."

An idea was flailing at the back of James' mind, trying to get his attention. It did and it was brilliant. Without thinking he said; "Vladimir!" He pointed absentmindedly at his guest, but his eyes were distant. Basking in the idea's awesomeness. Then sanity pulled him back and b**** slapped him.

Wait...what? Oh, a nickname. Ah, had he just said that out loud? Yes, yes he had. Would it annoy Serena? James didn't know, he was half expecting another blood lance to pierce his other shoulder.

Regardless the amount of blood flowing to James' face had definitely increased.

Serena shrugged with an enchanting smile. "I was a biology nerd, looooooong before I found out about my power." she then gave the young boy a small wink. Serena hadn't stopped to consider that the wink might cause another burst of awkward in the other teenager.

She stopped in her tracks for a moment at the comment. It took her a moment to process it, imaginary gears in her brain winding, clicking together until that light bulb went off. Ah. That's what it was.

She almost immediately packed out giggling. She had been given many nicknames by people in the past, she was called a book worm by her classmates, several nicknames from her older brother, but never anything quite like what James had just spouted out at her.

After a few moments of uncontrollable giggling, she took a few deep breaths. "Well... I've had some nicknames before, but never have I been referred to as a blood mage who happens to be male." she giggled a little more.

Again with the winking! God, you could even think she had some obsession with making him feel uncomfortable! His eyes snapped down to the bedsheets again, watching his finger trace the spiral pattern. James was pleasantly surprised when Serena started having a giggle fit.

Evidently the Valdimir comment hadn't upset her, quite the opposite. Lifting a finger, he watched the girl giggle, it was kind of funny, actually. "I...uhhh..." James tried holding it in, his cheeks puffed out a little, but he gave in.

Falling onto his back again, James also started laughing. That felt strange, he hadn't done much of that recently. If you didn't count the weird laugh where you kind of blew air out of your nose, he'd done some of that.

"Maybe I could have come up with a better one, It was kind of a spur of the moment thing." He chuckled.

Serena finally wound down from the constant giggling. It was a rather amusing situation, being nicknamed after a male video game character simply on the basis of her mutation.

Serena came to a silent realisation. She didn't dislike her mutation anymore. Sure, she didn't like having trouble controlling it, and she didn't like losing control, or if she pushed herself too hard with it, but she didn't mind that fact that it was simply there.

It had become a part of who she was. Something she could use, like an arm or a leg. She had used to to help other people, and unfortunately in the case of James, injure them.

It had gone from her being terrified of her own power, to being able giggle continuously about a nickname revolving around her power in a matter of months. And it felt good.

She chuckled lightly. "It's fine. It made me laugh." she smiled gently at the other teenage mutant.

James was lying on his back, looking at the ceiling when Serena calmed down and spoke. He felt unusually chilled, neutral, even. Strange, he hadn't felt like this for a long time. Maybe a good laugh was all he had needed?

Delicately, James probed the back of his mind, something felt wrong, missing. No...that wasn't right, something had been replaced. Replaced with...comfort? Hmmm, it was certainly new. He considered it for a moment, what exactly was it?

Then realization dropped on him like a ton of bricks. He didn't feel awkward. It just wasn't there, in its place sat the nicer feeling of something closely linked to happiness, comfort wasn't quite the right word, but it was the closest he could come to an answer.

Finally, James felt comfortable around a person. Maybe it was because he had made her laugh? The teenager had no idea, it was as if he had laughed all the awkwardness out of him. That was the only explanation he could come up with.

James had made people laugh before, but he hadn't really laughed with someone. Leon maybe, but not really. Admittedly that friendship had been largely one sided on James' part.

He had made his mum laugh in the past, but that was different. If he did she would have just chuckled, ruffled his hair and said something like 'whatever you say, chicken'. But that thought process wasn't going to help anybody.

"You know," James said with a surprisingly confident grin. "I haven't laughed like that since before you tore a chunk of my shoulder of." Although it was by no means a happy memory, James sat up and beamed at Serena, still chuckling a little bit while rubbing his shoulder absentmindedly.

Serena grinned as the tension seemed to leave her teenage friend. Yes, she could think of him as her teenage friend. After all, he was a teenager, and she was technically the adult. Yes, technicalities.

It was good to see the boy so chilled out. He often had seemed very high strung, or like he had a ton on his mind, so seeing him come out of his shell a little and just relax, was a welcome site indeed.

She smiled and gave a nervous laugh. "Yeaaaah... About that, sorry again. I normally have better aim and control than that." She replied.

It dawned on Serena what she had just said sounded like. "Wait! Urgh, things sound better in my head sometimes. I don't go around trying to impale people with blood lances. I meant with my mutation in general." She added awkwardly.

It was funny, a few months ago there was no way in hell she could have claimed to normally have a degree of control. Heh, progress is a thing of wonders.

James raised an eyebrow. Better aim and control? Was the whole stabby stabby thing a regular occurrence. He somehow doubted it.

He hadn't thought so, Serena certainly wasn't the type to go around stabbing people, then again Jame had thought Leon wasn't the type of guy to go around suffocating people with cigarette ash, but he'd been wrong.  Control wasn't something James had an awful lot of when it came to his mutation. It still activated when he was angry, but he had worked out some of the catches and kinks.

Hmm, James wondered if Serena had gone through training or something along those lines when it came to her ability.

"So...you have had training to control it?" He asked curiously. Any information he could gather on the subject might be useful.

>>"So...you have had training to control it?"

Serena shook her head. Serena had a lot of experience over the last year with her mutation, but she'd never had any kind of formal training. She would honestly be afraid of asking.

She would be too scared that either whoever asked would patronise her because she hadn't known her mutation for that long, or would be afraid of her because of her power. Or even worse, they would get injured due to her lack of control.

"I've never had any formal training to control it. I'm certain the mansion offers classes to help people learn control, but with my mutation it would be too dangerous for me to risk it. Most of the practice I've done with it has been on my own. She said wryly.

She then smiled at James guessing that there was probably a reason that he was asking about it. "But I'm sure your mutation would be much better suited to it. From what I've seen of it, your ability is mostly defensive. There isn't really much risk of misfire or catching someone with something which can tear them in two with you."

James hadn't really thought about that, Serena had managed to tear his shoulder off by accident. The amount of damage she could do with a well placed blood lance could potentially be, for want of a better phrase, crazy as f***. James was pretty happy with his level of control over his ability, what he really needed was to learn some self defense. A repeat of the alleyway incident wasn't one he wanted to repeat.

"Well, I'm more interested in learning some self defense in general really. I need metal for my mutation, well it seems that way. If there isn't any around then I cant use it."

It didn't occur to James that he had practically just said 'Yeah, I almost got beaten to a pulp so now I need to know how to not get beaten to a pulp'.

Serena smiled and nodded. Ah, she could see now. James wanted to know how to physically defend himself. She glanced at him, noting how much more muscular he was looking. She assumed that the metal had really been giving him some good resistance training workouts.

She smiled knowingly. "Well for a start, you could try and get a staff member to try and help you work out how much metal you need for a full shift, if you haven't already. Also there are probably a fair few magnetists who could work something out for you." She paused for a moment thinking.

"And as for self defense, there are a few places you could go, I would recommend talking to Sam Johnson, he's a teacher her who specialises in self defense training, an amazing guy. He's got an ice mutation." Serena Smiled.

She had thought about mentioning the Aikido dojo, but then James would also be accompanying her and Amelia... Something felt a bit off about that... Probably that with his muscle mass he could throw them like ragdolls. Yeah. That must have been it.

And she also supposed he was easily scared off by girls, and getting beaten in sparring with one would probably make him hyperventilate so fast his heart would stop.

James sat up and listened attentively, filing the information away into the large filing cabinet that was his brain. It was all helpful, stuff he hadn't known beforehand...well, not in so much detail. Self inflicted solitary confinement kind of left you out of the loop in pretty much everything.

Sam Johnson. He knew the name, it floated at the back of his mind. Self defense training, good. That's what he wanted. An amazing gu-wait. That sounded pretty gushy. James raised an eyebrow, hey, if Serena had a thing for one of her teachers that wasn't his business. Then again, James didn't even know if Serena was into guys, maybe girls? Maybe both? Didn't really matter at the end of the day.

Admittedly James used to have sneaking suspicions about the nature of her friendship with Leon, sneaking off during the night and all...but no. That wasn't any of his business either.

Leon wasn't welcome. Go home, Leon. Sadly the other teenager wouldn't go home, he was there to stay for a cup of tea.

While he was thinking about his old roommate the words slipped out. "Would've asked Leon, if he hadn't...y'know." James muttered, his mind elsewhere.