>>"Disturbing,"

That was one way to put it. Not the word Maya would have used, but that was the main thing about art, everyone was entitled to their own opinions.

>>"Who's Eve?"

"My girlfriend. She works at the Met. She is a lot better at art than I am."

>>"...did you unlock the restroom doors before we left?"

"Er..." Maya turned to look in that direction and noticed the frustrated German guy. "Oops. Gimme a sec."

Backing out of the exhibition to the glass doors, and making sure no one was looking, she hopped back into the mirrors and over to the bathroom. After a few seconds of waiting she unlocked the door and walked out, daring the German guy with a stare to call her out on being in the men's room. Walking past the guy who muttered something in annoyed German, she circled back to Chris.

"Yeah. Thanks for reminding me."

When Mirror mentioned her girlfriend Chris nodded.
"Aha. Yes, she would probably be helpful."
He knew as much about dating as he knew about wine tasting; it looked like fun, seemed to be a lot of rules to it that he didn't get, and it probably wasn't for him in the end. He knew that some considered dating someone of your own gender wrong, but he had never understood why.
Besides, regular gender norms weren't exactly applicable to Mirror.

When Mirror went to lock up the bathroom Chris continued to look at the light installations. He began to understand that she probably had a point with what she had said earlier - this wasn't just something you could pop in and expect to understand in just ten minutes. Maybe he really should have started from the beginning...

When Mirror came back from the bathroom Chris was looking at a video installation of a girl who was dressed from top to toe in lightbulbs. They went out one after the other, leaving the room she stood in in more and more darkness. But what was the point of it?

"Yeah. Thanks for reminding me."
"No problems," he answered, and then admitted: "I think I begin to understand why people find art frustrating."

He looked over his shoulder at her.
"Why did you join the X-men? If it's okay that I ask."

>>"No problems. I think I begin to understand why people find art frustrating."

"No kidding" Maya grinned, glancing at the video that was on a loop "Good thing we can all make up our own minds about this."

They kept strolling through the exhibit, and Chris apparently decided to change the subject.

>>"Why did you join the X-men? If it's okay that I ask."

"It's okay" Maya smiled "It's kind of a long story, though... The first time I went to the Mansion it was because of a girl. And then I kinda stuck around... I've never been really great at school, or going to college. But I like using my powers to help people, and with all the sh*t that's gone down in New York lately... I felt like the city can use all the extra help we can get. And the X-men are a good way to do that."

Chris was looking at some kind of laser show while she spoke, but she definitely had his attention. He wondered if Mirror's girlfriend, Eve, was the same person she'd gone to the mansion for.
To be honest, he didn't know much about the X-men or what they did. He'd been too nervous to talk to any members when he'd been staying at the mansion. He mostly used his abilities to keep himself alive, but that didn't mean he didn't appreciate what the X-men did for the city and for mutantkind - or the sacrifices they went through to keep people safe.

"For what it's worth, I think you are important," he said in a low voice. "Show humans that we aren't all thieves or psychos."
He turned back towards Mirror as another thought struck him.
"Do you get paid for being in the X-men? Is it a full-time job, or more like a hobby? Calling. I mean calling."

He realized that he might be coming off as a bit too curious and quickly added:
"Don't worry, I'm not thinking about joining. Just curious."
She probably wouldn't think that a scrawny, nearsighted fish mutant who had been caught breaking (sneaking) into an arts museum would have any interest in joining the X-men, but it was always good to be clear.

>>"For what it's worth, I think you are important. Show humans that we aren't all thieves or psychos."

"Aren't we" Maya grinned, folding her arms. Of course, she was kidding. Among the large number if mutants she had met in her life, thieves and psychos were the minority. They always made the front page, though. That's media for ya.

>>"Do you get paid for being in the X-men? Is it a full-time job, or more like a hobby? Calling. I mean calling. Don't worry, I'm not thinking about joining. Just curious."

"Not exactly" Maya chuckled "But I guess we get expenses paid, and a home. That's more than most vigilantes get, right?" she glanced at Chris "Not many people end up at the Mansion wanting to join the team right off the bat. It usually happens over time, when someone decides to pitch in on a mission, or start training with their powers and see where it takes them. I never thought I was the hero type."

>>"Not exactly. But I guess we get expenses paid, and a home. That's more than most vigilantes get, right?"'
Chris gave her a confused look. How was he supposed to know what other vigilantes did or didn't get? Oh, right. Rhetorical questions. Sometimes he missed that.

All this talk about vigilantes made him think back on his time at the Mansion. He didn't have to think he wasn't the hero type, he knew it. It just wasn't in his nature. Still, there was that time when one of the few people at the Mansion he'd actually made friends with had forced him out on a mission. Chris had been armed with a baseball bat and told to help Saphirus attack a gang. It had turned out... about as well as you'd imagine.
"I see," he said when Mirror had finished talking. He hesitated. "Speaking of which. Did you follow me in here because you're worried I'm going to steal something?"
He gave the flashing lights next to them a sideways glance.
"Because I wouldn't have any use of lamps anyway. Don't have any light sockets in my van."

>>"I see. Speaking of which. Did you follow me in here because you're worried I'm going to steal something? Because I wouldn't have any use of lamps anyway. Don't have any light sockets in my van."

Maya chuckled at that and shook her head, then paused for a moment, and shrugged.

"Partly" she admitted to following him "But mostly to make sure you didn't get into trouble. Mutants have a thing for ending up being blamed even if their intentions are good. Sneaking into places without paying gets blown out of proportion, especially when one of us is involved... Believe me, I've been there."

At gunpoint, but that was a long story.

"So... you live in a van?"

Chris just nodded when she admitted that it was one of the reasons she'd followed him. That made a lot of sense to him. Sneaking into places and stealing were strongly linked together, after all - even if he had no intentions of stealing today. And X-men worked together with the law... come to think of it, he should probably be grateful she hadn't dragged him off to the authorities.
"I... want to thank you for not telling the guard," he said quietly, still looking at the exhibition rather than at her. "And for your honesty."

What she had said about being in the same situation definitely caught his interest, and he turned around to look at her, his curiosity clearly written on his face.
"Yes," he said when she asked if he lived in a van. But his living situation wasn't nearly as interesting to him as what she just had mentioned.
"You snuck into a place? What happened? If I may ask."

>>"I... want to thank you for not telling the guard. And for your honesty."

"Anytime" Maya smiled. It wasn't that big of a deal, but she was happy that she had gained some trust from this guy, even if he was never going to return to the Mansion.

>>"You snuck into a place? What happened? If I may ask."

"Er..." she scratched the back of her neck with a sheepish smile "I was in-between... um, apartments, so I spent a night in the New York Palace. Except, I got busted, and I had to run, and I ended up in a crazy old man's bathroom to clean up a cut from the mirror. And then he made me clean up the bathroom at gunpoint. We have been best friends ever since."

Wherever he was at the moment.

"My powers kind of go well with sneaking in and out of places. I try to do less of it now that I'm all official and X-men-like."