It was late in the afternoon, and Chris had been sitting in his old worn-down van outside the gates of the Mansion for the better part of an hour. Through the gates he could see the familiar grounds, and behind them, the old mansion itself.

He had intended to return sooner, but had always found a reason not to. It was first recently, after he'd met Mirror, that he'd tried to put a finger on his resistance towards returning. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the Mansion - it was probably the safest place for mutants in New York, and the few friends he had had lived there.
Was he ashamed of leaving? He had no reason to be ashamed, he told himself. He'd learned a lot since he left, and now he was able to stand on his own legs and look out for himself. His appearance was a bit ruffled and threadbare after living on the streets, but that didn't bother him.

This introspection had no purpose. It was just making him nervous. Chris had come here with a purpose: to see how the Mansion had changed and if any of his old friends still lived there, and to attempt to pay back what was owed.

It was drizzling slightly when he exited the car: not that he minded, the moist was good for him. He decided to take it as a good sign.
He walked up to the gate and frowned when he caught sight of his old nemesis: the touch-screen entrance console. He put his finger on it, but, just as expected, it just skidded straight over the surface, leaving a slightly slimy trail on the console. Chris tried two times more until he gave up - his old code would probably not work anyway, he'd been away for two years, after all - and pressed the ASSISTANCE REQUESTED button next to the console. He weighed from one foot to the other while waiting for the answer, feeling a bit antsy.

Summertime meant that Locke's time was split between San Francisco and the Institute. Currently he was still at the school, enjoying the break from college and spending weekends at KD's place. Although he still was incapable of sleeping without music and some sort of light, Locke had gotten to the point where so many students and staff actually was a bit taxing at times. Still the place gave him a bed to sleep on when he wasn't at school, and there was food for his stomach. All he had to do was be a good X-Men. It gave him purpose that his job at Toys 'r Us failed to do. Saph's warning about having a relationship still bothered the young man some days, but Locke just looked at the students who were learning here at the school and his resolve was strengthened.

Not every day required him to rush out to save the world, or to watch over students in the Danger Room. Those slow days were good. He could do his own training without worry about keeping professional. Locke's training was dirty and rough, and hardly ever indoors. He also was able to take a nap, or jump on Skype to talk to his little sibs. Sometimes he went into the city and just tried to get himself lost for the day.

Today was one of those slow days. Fresh from a shower that had managed only to get the dirt out of his hair and off his skin, Locke wandered about the school. He had an idea for a Danger Room program that would be good for some of the younger and smaller students and Kendra was willing to help him to write it. All he needed to do was sit down at his laptop and send her an email about it, check to see what visuals she had come up with so far. But first a snack.

As he walked out, an apple for fuel gripped in his hand like a baseball, there was a small buzz to let someone know that someone outside the entrance needed help getting in. Shrugging his shoulders Locke took a bite and checked the peephole to see who it was.

Maybe it was because he had known Eaan for so long, or maybe it was that the two of them both were going to colleges in New York City, but when Locke flung open the door he was hardly normal. Arms reached out and latched onto the person there, squeezing them tightly. The apple fell to the ground and bounced a little. Oh Locke knew that the guy wasn't much for the hugging, and when he had been glomped by an Eaan years ago had practically melted down, but comfort be danged, Locke hadn't seen his friend Chris in a long time and it was good to see him.

Chris turned around at the sound of the opening gate and suddenly found himself getting embraced. At first he went completely rigid, feverishly considering the quickest way to get loose - elbow in the guts? Bite the arm? - but then he recognized the guy who'd hugged him.
"Locke!" he exclaimed happily and relaxed visibly.

He didn't hug back, but when Locke withdrew he clasped his hand between both of his and gave it a shake, which was about the fondest gesture you would get from Chris. He was sure Locke wouldn't mind. Chris looked up at his old friend - it seemed as if the Earthwalker had gotten taller since the last time he'd seen him, or maybe he just remembered it wrong. His hair was shorter and didn't cover his scar and his white, dead eye anymore, which made him seen... surer of himself. Less vulnerable.

"It is good to see you, my friend," Chris said somberly, but he was smiling a genuine smile. He gave Locke's hand a last shake before letting go. "I was hoping you'd still live at the mansion."

Chris didn't hug Locke back, but he wasn't flailing, which to Locke was a good thing. Alright so Eaan had hugged Chris at high speeds, but Locke's hug was impressive in its own right. He was the guy that regularly wrestled with rock golems. That combined with carting the portable Fluffy on his back had given Locke a great amount of upper body strength. It had to have been almost bone crushing, but Chris had put up with it. For that Locke wasn't offended when his friend offered a hand to shake rather than reciprocating the hug. Chris was probably just as awkward, if not more, so, as Locke, and physical contact just wasn't his thing. Locke gladly accepted the handshake.

"Sort of live here," Locke said gesturing for Chris to come in. There had been enough physical contact between the two and he didn't want to make Chris feel uncomfortable. Chris had been trying to get into the school before he became victim of the bear hug, so Locke better let him actually do that. "I'm in college now, so I'm here on the weekends during the school year and stay here a bit in the summer. They uh... kind of need me close by." Locke felt no shame in being a mutant, and he took pride in being a member of the X-Men. His confidence level had shot way up ever since the trip to San Francisco that Locke had taken with Chris. But telling Chris how he was now one of the people who went out to save the world sounded like bragging.

"Where have you been man? It's been forever,"[/color] Locke asked. That email that he was going to have to send to Kendra was going to be waiting a bit longer. Chris had to catch Locke up on what had been going on with his life.

Locke seemed to be in a good mood. He had put on some more muscle, and seemed to have changed a bit from the timid guy Chris had met in the library.
In retrospect, it had been a small miracle that two of the biggest introverts in the mansion had gotten out of their respective shells long enough to hang out when they were teenagers... but Chris was glad they had.

His two years in the wilderness had made him put on some muscle too, but he had gone the sinewy, wiry route. Other than that he hadn't changed much outwardly - he'd gotten a bit taller, but not very noticeably. The biggest difference, except from his worn-down clothes, was probably that he didn't move as if he expected an ambush waiting for him behind every tree.

Chris walked in through the gate when Locke gestured for him to do so. While the other mutant explained what he'd been up to lately Chris let his eyes wander over the Mansion grounds. The building was familiar, and seeing it still standing there was strangely soothing.

"Here and there," he answered honestly. "I... had some things I needed to figure out. Needed to be by myself. I went back to my grandfather's place for a while. He's dead," he added helpfully in the same tone of voice someone might say look, it's raining. Locke might remember that it had been Chris' grandfather who'd raised him, but Chris didn't remember telling him that the old man was dead.
"I took his van, and have been moving from place to place since then. Mostly north of the border, around the Great Lakes. I've been back in New York for... three months now, I think."
The days had a tendency to run together when you didn't have a real job or took any classes. He didn't go into much detail: somehow he doubted Locke wanted to know exactly what he'd been up to since returning to New York. Not all of it had been, strictly speaking, legal.

He glanced back at Locke.
"Glad to hear you got into college after all," he said. Hopefully Locke would remember their library conversation from three years ago. "So what are you studying? Something with a lot of math?"

It seemed like so long ago that Chris had asked about Locke's dead eye. It had taken a great amount of struggling before he was able to say that his father had died in the same crash that had left him half blind. Chris had managed to piece things together on his own, but it had been important back then that he tell his friend himself. Similar to how Locke had been raised by his father, Chris had been raised by his grandfather. There had to have been some differences in how the two of them had been raised. One thing was sure though, when someone who raised you died it couldn't get brushed off easily.

"Hey man I get it. What happened sucks, and you need that time away from the world,"Locke said. He might have had his dad die, but that didn't mean that he was prepared for what to say to a friend in a similar position. He had never met the man, so he couldn't say anything about how Chris should view the old guy. Even if Chris's parents had been the one to take care of him, and it was just a grandpa who he saw from time to time, Locke still wouldn't know what to say. He didn't know much at all about his grandparents on either side of his family. Kendra's parents were polite to him, but the relationship there was rather strange. The best that he could do was to offer Chris some advice. "I mean I got away from San Francisco and came here. It took me five years before I let myself leave and deal with my Dad. You're not letting it fester. That's good."

There was a laugh from Locke when Chris asked if he was going to college for something related to math. Their friendship started when Locke had thrown a book in frustration. It was a science book but the two of them quickly realized how useless they were with numbers. Getting anything over a sixty five on a precalc test was cause for celebration for the two of them. "Nothing like that. Childhood development and social work stuff."

Locke offered some words of comfort, which did nothing but confuse Chris until he realized his choice of words might have made it sound like his grandfather had died recently.
"Oh. Wait, I might have explained it wrong. He died before I came to New York, his death had nothing to do with me leaving."
Chris had visited the old man's grave during his recent trip to Wisconsin. In movies you always saw people standing by the graves of loved ones, giving long, heartfelt speeches about how much the departed meant for them, how much they missed them... Chris hadn't been able to think of anything to say. Then again, his grandfather hadn't been a very talkative man, so he would probably just have enjoyed the silence.

They hadn't been very close. Chris knew the old man had taken him in when no-one else would, but he'd never felt that his grandfather had loved him, or even liked him. More like he'd been a plight the old man had taken upon himself. He was grateful, of course, but he was also a bit upset - upset that there was so much his grandfather hadn't bothered teaching him.
But you weren't supposed to be upset with the dead! It was probably really bad tact.
Which I would have known if he'd taught me anything about tact, Chris thought nastily.

But this wasn't something you brought up in a conversation, so he just nodded.
"Um, yeah. Not letting it fester."

Locke's answer surprised him a bit, and he looked at the dark-haired mutant with yellow, inquisitive eyes.
"Why?"
The question might have been taken as him being dismissive about Locke's choice, but Chris didn't mean it to sound like that. He was genuinely interested in why Locke had chosen the field he had. Childhood development and social work were fields Chris was about as knowledgeable about as he was about the natural sciences.
"Does it have anything to do with Mai and Other Chris?" he said, going back to the nickname he'd used when they'd been in San Francisco to differ between the two Chrises. Even an emotionally stunted fish-mutant was able to see how much Locke's siblings had meant to him, so it was a logical leap for him to make.

Usually when Locke had an awkward moment it was around girls his age. They had decreased as his confidence rose, and KD found those moments kind of cute. The point was that Locke had been getting less awkward as his confidence grew and he no longer had to hide behind his hair. For the first time in awhile now he felt that same heat that meant his ears were turning red in humiliation. He had misunderstood what Chris had meant. It was a good thing that this wasn't a school assignment, because he'd probably get a failing grade. Real life was always different from what you read in text books. At least it was giving him experience for when he messed up. "Oh," was about all Locke could answer Chris's explanation with. Even though he had the practical training of helping to raise a kid, twins even, didn't mean he was an expert in anything he was learning at college. About all that he really had gotten good at was changing two diapers at once.

"Sort of. I mean taking care of them as they were growing up is probably the best thing I ever did. And it's how I knew I like being around kids. But I wouldn't say it's just because of them that I wanted to do this," Locke said after some thought. He was silent a little bit longer, knowing that Chris wouldn't expect him to say every thought that went through his head. As he scratched at the palms of his hand he gave consideration as to just how much he wanted to tell Chris. There had been a conversation with Ms. T in which they had discussed things that he could study. That had first really introduced the idea to him.

"I had... a problem," Locke said at last, thinking of how the issue had still not gone away, "Someone had been threatening me and it really made me think about my past. I didn't take my dad's death well, I still don't like to... And that was just one parent. So yeah. I guess it's more of how messed up I am I decided to help others in that messed up state?"

Chris didn't notice any eventual discomfort on Locke's part, but his eyes widened in surprise when Locke mentioned that he'd been threatened. That he found hard to imagine. Calm, polite Locke, who'd been helping him out earlier when he'd really felt like a, a... Chris tried to think of a different figure of speech than 'a fish out of water', but honestly that was what best had described his situation. Locke had struggled with his studies along Chris, they had trained their abilities together, and he'd even taken him to see his hometown.
What had happened in the time he'd been gone that would prompt someone to threaten him?

Instead of digging into it, Chris just nodded.
"I see," he said - it was a very vague comment, but he didn't want to dig into a subject if Locke didn't want to talk about it. A concerned frown had appeared on his forehead, though.

And about Locke's father... well. Chris knew of it, Locke had mentioned it, but they hadn't exactly discussed it thoroughly and it was apparent that it was a subject Locke would rather avoid. What he said about helping other kids in similarly positions sounded very logical. Someone who hadn't been in a tough spot growing up could probably not realize what children in similar situations were going through.
"That makes sense."
Children development... Chris wasn't exactly sure what you did when you worked with something like that, but he remembered something Locke had said in the beginning of the conversation.
"So is that why they need you close by? Are you a teacher here at the school?"

Locke studied Chris for a second. He suppose that he should give the guy at least some sort of explanation other than just the vague one he had handed out. Chris was his friend, even if they had had not seen each other in a long time. With some time he had gotten better at accepting that he hadn't done anything to feel ashamed of. It really wasn't his fault that he had a stalker. The Californian could even understand that his dad wasn't to blame either. Something was wrong with his mother and he was in no rush to meet her and find out. His life really had been improving. Digging into whatever happened in his past that had split his parents up seemed like a bad idea to him.

"A dead person doesn't mail you letters," Locke started, "My dad is gone, I know that. There's only one other person who I can think of that would have all those pictures of me. My mother is out there somewhere, and she wants me. What she wants to do if she finds me I don't know, and I don't want to find out." There. Now Locke had placed on the table what sort of trouble he had gotten himself into since he had last seen Chris. As of yet Locke's mother had yet to be found. She was doing a great job of keeping herself tucked away while still trying to make contact with him. Since the mail that he was getting from his mother started being refused it came less frequently. Especially since he wasn't at the same address as frequently.

Chris was ready to move on to a new topic, and Locke couldn't blame him. In fact he was ready to move on himself. Now the question was why Locke still needed to be around the school, ready to come at a quick summons. Locke wasn't actually a teacher, not yet, and he wasn't aiming to be one in a school. "I've helped a couple of people with their powers, but not a class worth. Just a couple at a time. Kendra's helping me come up with programs for the Danger Room. Nah, what they need me for is X-Men stuff."