Margo sighed contentedly as she leaned back against the counter in the rear of the small coffee shop. She was still settling into the job here, but so far it was pretty awesome. Not that she needed the money or anything, but it never hurt... besides, classes at the Mansion were simple to say the least, and she was ridiculously bored. She came late in the afternoon most days with some book she had borrowed from the mansion's rather extensive library, or some extra homework that she was doing just for fun. (Yeah, she was rather weird that way.) Hey, any place that would hire a fifteen-year old girl and pay her $7 a hour to make coffee, carry out minor assistance to the other workers, and do a little elatte art already went over her expectations. To her great relief, the dreaded mutant question hadn't even come up.

She liked it greatly. The whole place smelled rather nice, a little like coffee (Fine, a lot like coffee!) which was an added bonus. The girl'd never drink coffee, but she liked nothing more than to inhale the aroma of it. Mmm. Sometimes, she got a little tea for free. Just a little, because the manager would get mad at her if she had any more.

Standing up, she filled a mug with the coffee that had finished brewing, carrying it over to the next station. She wasn't doing any of the more finicky parts to her job today, to her great relief. Or not, because she loved doing latte art.

Soon, she had nothing much left to do. Wandering aimlessly to take a little peak into the front, just to see how customer life was, she thought she saw a familiar face. She waited until she was sure the coast was clear to take another look.

There was a certain coffee shop, only a few minutes' walk from Danny's apartment, that sold the most delicious chocolate muffins he'd ever tasted on this side of the planet. He'd never been a big fan of coffee, as his experience with the bitter drink was mostly army rations, but chocolate had always been a favorite of his, even when it had been extremely expensive to get. Now that it was commonplace, he took every advantage of that - and the fact that he pretty much never gained or lost weight.

Today was one of those dull weekend mornings, when Danny had just finished one of his weekend early morning tutoring lessons, so the coffee shop was his first stop.

Imagine his surprise when he saw a familiar face in the crowd.

A few months ago, he had been passing the X-Mansion and stopped a mutant hate crime. He was pretty sure that this girl had been one of the potential victims. She was making the coffee, and as he settled down with his usual order of a muffin and a hot chocolate, he waited for her to finish her shift so that he could maybe talk to her. It wasn't like he had anything better to do, after all, so he finished his late breakfast and read a science magazine until he saw her start to wander his way.

Putting the magazine down, he grinned, waving her over as if to motion to her to sit down. The coffee shop was nearing empty, the morning rush having ended, and so he was pretty sure she wouldn't get in trouble for this.

When Margo finally managed to duck out into the front of the coffee shop and get a clear glance at the familiar face that had caught her attention in the first place, she was in for a surprise. She caught the glance in her direction and drew back with a sharp intake of breath. It had been, what, a month and a half ago that in first coming to the Mansion with Alex, she had seen him? Danny. Of all people to show up here, now?

They'd been on the bus that day, Alex and her, headed to the Mansion, minding their own business; but who must have heard their conversation but some madman with an attitude toward mutants. If it hadn't been for Danny, lurking in a nearby alley and coming to their rescue, somebody would probably have gotten shot. Likely herself. She'd said she owed him before he disappeared.

That didn't mean she exactly trusted him. In fact, by choice she would probably have thanked him and never gone near him again, except for the fact that she owed him. Okay, fine. Also because curiosity was her great downfall and he was so interesting. Was he a mutant? What was his mutation? Did it have something to do with that glove thing on his hand? Was it necessary and why? She had no answer to the questions; being Margo, she needed answers. Even as she made more coffee, yawning bored-ly for no particular reason and played with the thought that she would ignore his presence, she knew it would never happen.

Danny was reading some science magazine, having finished his muffin and hot chocolate, by the time she finally made her way into the front of the now mostly empty place again. He grinned and motioned her over, to which she obliged willingly. His smile was contagious as she sat down across the table from him. "Nice article." The girl commented, reading upside down. She said it rather sarcastically. Her reasoning: the headline of this particular essay, which read "New research shows that the X-gene is responsible for 90% of crimes today". It was just some typical mutant hate thing, as always. Nothing special about it. She read about a paragraph and gave up.

"Soo..." That was Margo-logic for starting a conversation for you: say nothing and wait for the other person to say everything.

"Nice article, was the first thing she said to him, and he glanced down at the magazine, having just flipped the page. He winced. This wasn't the most reputable science journal out there, but it did have quite a bit of tips on hacking. In fact, probably more tips than should be strictly legal, but it wasn't like he minded. Any non-hacking related article was usually complete and utter crap, as demonstrated by this title.

"Soo..." Right, she was still there. There'd been a few moments of silence as she read a bit of the essay upside-down, but clearly she had finished. He waited for her to say more, but she didn't, so he assumed that meant he should be the one to do most of the talking.

He shrugged, a bit unsure of what to say now that his brilliant plan of calling her over had finished. "Yeah, sorry for invading your shift, I come here often. I, uh..." He motioned in the general direction of the sprawl of actually somewhat classy condos down the street. "I live nearby." Only realizing then that an advertisement for said condos was up - with an exorbitantly high price for one - he hurried to change the subject, not willing to dwell on the topic of his considerable wealth. "I, uh, was surprised to see you here today. Haven't seen you before. So how's the X-Mansion? Tried to break into there recently. Wasn't fun." And his failure of conversation skills strike again. Goddammit. He needed to talk to more people, at this rate.

Danny had no way of knowing, but in her private thoughts, Margo wholeheartedly agreed.

Rather amused by his awkward attempt at conversation, she smiled. That boy, if she had any right to call him that, needed to socialize more. Not that she was one to talk. "Yeah, sorry for invading your shift, I come here often. I, uh...I live nearby...I, uh, was surprised to see you here today. Haven't seen you before. So how's the X-Mansion? Tried to break into there recently. Wasn't fun."

Quite the load to dump at once. "Shift? Not really. It's more like, show up and we'll pay you kind of thing." She reassured, raising an eyebrow at his next couple comments. She saw the ad his eyes flicked over before he hurriedly changed the subject. Ah, so he was rich and didn't want to dwell on it? Interesting. Did he live by himself? What, how old was he? She let the question hang in the air, unspoken. "You wouldn't have. I, uh, just figured recently that I might do something a bit useful with my spare time. The X-Mansion is cool. I'd have no reason to think though, that somebody might attempt to... break in." The last part was said rather coldly. Not that she really meant it.

By this time, the shop was rather deserted. Thank goodness, because the last time she had talked with a boy this age in public about touchy matters like these, the results had been unpleasant to say the least. Deja vu? Nah.

"Shift? Not really. It's more like, show up and we'll pay you kind of thing. You wouldn't have. I, uh, just figured recently that I might do something a bit useful with my spare time. The X-Mansion is cool. I'd have no reason to think though, that somebody might attempt to... break in."

He had learned several things from that. One, he might get a job in this coffee shop at some point. His schedule was hectic, in between various petty crimes and holdups and real work and the such, so that might be an easy way to make money. Not that he needed it. And another point - it looked like she had seen the ad for the condos (dammit), and the unspoken question of his age hovered in the air. And breaking in. It was said coldly, and he winced slightly, waiting until she was done speaking to respond. Maybe now was a good time to answer that age question.

"Yeah, about that. I'm a mutant like you, as you may have noticed." He assumed she was a mutant - she had been headed to the X-Mansion with her mutant friend, and their attacker had been a mutant-hater. "That's why I went to your rescue - my mutation is basically a phoenix thing. I go by Firebird sometimes, because what happens is when I die, I die in a fiery explosion, and promptly come back to life. I heard something about humans who could neutralize mutants' powers, and as you could imagine, with my specific skill set, I got worried." He was unconsciously reminded of a conversation with another female mutant recently. It looked like he wasn't getting over the whole breaking in thing anytime soon. "I broke into the X-Mansion for information, got caught by one of the X-Men, and left." He didn't mention the whole 'getting left in the forest while dead and soaking wet' thing, though he let his distaste show when he said the last part.

"But yeah, that's what I've been doing. No biggie. What about you?"

"Yeah, about that. I'm a mutant like you, as you may have noticed. That's why I went to your rescue - my mutation is basically a phoenix thing. I go by Firebird sometimes, because what happens is when I die, I die in a fiery explosion, and promptly come back to life. I heard something about humans who could neutralize mutants' powers, and as you could imagine, with my specific skill set, I got worried. I broke into the X-Mansion for information, got caught by one of the X-Men, and left."

Talk about dumping loads. Ha. And she'd thought the previous outburst was awkward. "Did I say anything about being a mutant?" It was a sort of rhetoric question, but hey, his response could tell a lot of things about him. She was just checking! One could never be to sure when the first mutant with a mutant name met in the city turned out to be a giant cockroach. Also since the particular tone in this boy's voice when he referred to the x-men strangely resembled the cockroach's.

Considering what he was saying, she stared at him. Thoughtfully at first, but then a little wide-eyed as she figured out the implications. He was immortal? He'd explained that pretty well, but... gosh, how did that work out? How old really was he? And what was that about humans who could neutralize mutants' powers? It didn't matter to her, but still. "No biggie? You got to be kidding. As for me, well, life is going on. You'd think it shouldn't, but it is."

Then the other part, the fiery explosion part, finally hit her. Wait a second.. Was anybody thinking what she was thinking?

Narrowing her eyes, "Do you ever die on purpose?" The question was carefully worded. Because either way Danny chose to answer this, he was getting pushed into the chasm of death.

"Did I say anything about being a mutant? Danny didn't respond, only giving her a look that pretty much said that it was obvious, for all the reasons he'd used to deduce it before - heading to the X-Mansion with a mutant friend, getting chased by a mutant-hater...

"No biggie? You got to be kidding. As for me, well, life is going on. You'd think it shouldn't, but it is." Strange thing to say. He'd've hated for his efforts in saving her to have gone to waste so soon. And seriously, to him, it was no problem. This was literally a way of life for him. It was just strange to her because she wasn't used to being immortal.

Her next question caught him by surprise, though. "Do you ever die on purpose?"

"Uh, yeah," he responded, a little confused but mostly taken aback. "That's why I stepped in between you and your attacker when we first met and tried to motion you two off. I was kind of hoping he'd shoot and incapacitate himself in the resulting explosion. Also, this." He waved his gauntleted arm, tapping the black and blue glove. "Suicide button's on this. It serves to fight, as a taser glove thing and to blow me up." He sincerely hoped she didn't try to test that theory. He really did like this coffee shop.

"Uh, yeah...That's why I stepped in between you and your attacker when we first met and tried to motion you two off. I was kind of hoping he'd shoot and incapacitate himself in the resulting explosion. Also, this....Suicide button's on this. It serves to fight, as a taser glove thing and to blow me up."

Well. That sure did it. As far as she could tell, he had pretty much admitted it; Danny, Firebird, was a walking, talking bomb.

Cover cover cover, Margo thought. To all appearances she considered the idea briefly (just so nobody would be suspicious at her apparent lack of interest),nodded, and dismissed this particular topic to move on. Eyeing the fancy looking glove thingamajig curiously, she commented, "Nice tech." With a grin, "It looks like it needs to be dismantled sometime soon so I can study it. Kidding, but seriously. It looks killer." And no, she didn't even notice her own pun. Her mind was whirring, far from the subject on hand.

Human bomb. Human bomb! He wouldn't even have tried to scare off the man, instead choosing to blow the surrounding area up. Not that it mattered, because he had every right to. Hey, he had saved her life, hadn't he? What really worried her were the implications... Suddenly, every crime involving an explosion she'd heard of recently started to look rather suspicious. What if? With such a power, how could he have actually stayed out of those kind of things? If people found out, he would get dragged into them no matter if he wanted to or not. On that subject, she'd heard of a bank robbery recently...

[OOC: SO SORRY SCHOOL IS A PAIN]

”Nice tech. It looks like it needs to be dismantled sometime soon so I can study it.” Even though he was almost a hundred percent sure she was joking, he still bristled a bit, though not visibly. He was rather fond of that gauntlet, considering he’d built it himself. Also, dismantling it was probably not a good idea, considering he’d likely be left with his whole hand rather mangled by the end. He could just kill himself some other way, but it was better to just avoid situations or thinking about situations that included the removal of the glove.

”Kidding, but seriously. It looks killer." He dismissed the pun as innocuous at first, but then realized something. She had moved past the more explosive part of his mutation rather quickly, and from what he knew of her, she didn’t seem like the kind of person to do that. Only then did he review the past bit of conversation and the put the pieces together.

Well, whoops.

“Um, just for the record, I don’t really run around town killing myself for no reason,” he said quickly. “Because suicide is still a rather unpleasant experience, and I have no reason to just blow up things because it’s fun.” More like because he had a reason, but he wasn’t going to implicate himself any further. Trying to change the subject, he said, “So, enough about my mutation. What about yours? I guessed before that it was either the animals or something else, but it looked more like the other kid was the one who could control the hawk."

(OOC: No problem, but good luck at school!)

When he finally caught up to what she was thinking- fine, she admitted a lot sooner than she'd thought he would- Danny didn't hesitate to defend himself. Actually, pretty awkwardly. “Um, just for the record, I don’t really run around town killing myself for no reason. Because suicide is still a rather unpleasant experience, and I have no reason to just blow up things because it’s fun."

"Oh?" Margo said. "Um, just for the record, I didn't think so?" She'd have been an idiot to think that anyone would do that. But she read between the lines, or at least thought she did: no reason to blow up things for fun meant he thought he had justification for blowing things up. He hadn't really denied that, had he?

She was about to question him further, but was forced to drop it when he barged ahead to another topic, obviously hoping to distract her."So, enough about my mutation. What about yours? I guessed before that it was either the animals or something else, but it looked more like the other kid was the one who could control the hawk." And since she couldn't exactly sidestep the question... They would just have to come back later.

Kid? She raised an eyebrow, catching up after a moment. "Alex?" A note of fondness crept into her voice, almost unnoticeable. She hadn't really talked to him for a bit, but she couldn't really deny that he was probably the only friend here she had so far. "Yeah, the hawk thing was him." She said, not sure how much to give away. How much should she give away about her own mutation anyway? From what she'd told the cockroach about messing with people's minds... to the technical, complete truth that apart from Lucy, only Alex knew?

"Mine might as well not exist, it's just that useful." was what she settled with for the moment. She expected Danny to question her further, and she would tell him then, not before. "And, uh, keep your voice down. Not that it matters that much, but I'd rather keep this job, you know?"

"Oh? Um, just for the record, I didn't think so?" Okay, that was good. He was really, really bad at not implicating himself of doing bad things, which probably came from years and years of not needing to be careful.

"Alex?" She sounded quite fond of him, actually. "Yeah, the hawk thing was him. So he had been right on that, at least. Good to know.

"Mine might as well not exist, it's just that useful," she finally said after what seemed to be hesitation. She didn't seem like Danny in that she would boast about her mutation everywhere - he was a bit arrogant in that sense, but mainly because there were no possible repercussions that would affect him unduly. "And, uh, keep your voice down. Not that it matters that much, but I'd rather keep this job, you know?" Oh, whoops.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, glancing around. The coffee shop seemed to be pretty much deserted by now, with only a bored looking barista working at the counter. He motioned to her, saying, "It looks like your shift is about over. Want to head somewhere more private?" And that came out more creepily than intended. Much, much more creepily. "Uh, not like that," he hurried to add on. "I meant that Central Park is nearby, and there's a significantly smaller chance of us getting attacked by anti-mutant supremacists, if you know what I mean."

(Ugh, school is soo dumb. Sorry!)

"Um." Margo said. "I don't think, uh, you know," (She was stammering rather eloquently.) "Well, I don't exactly think..." She tried again, breaking off with a sigh. "I don't exactly think that would be the best of ideas. Not to be rude."

Really, there was nothing wrong with Danny's idea, theoretically. It was true that Central Park was nearby, and also true that there was a significantly smaller chance of them being assaulted by random mutant haters if they were at the park. But seriously, you didn't just say "getting attacked by anti-mutant supremacists" in public if you wanted to avoid attention! Which, by this time, Margo was pretty sure Danny wasn't the best at.

It all boiled down to the fact that she didn't trust Danny. She had no idea how she'd got dragged into this predicament, with some apparently immortal, tough-as-heck guy. she might have been liking his company more than she admitted, but still... She didn't trust him to that degree, not yet. Bad things could happen in parks, as Margo had definitely experienced.

"Yeah, sorry." The girl said. "My "shift" is about over, if you could call it that." Glancing over at the now-deserted counter, she considered. "This place doesn't really get too many people after the morning rush." She settled on excusing her selfishness with a piece of the truth. "And I happen to trust, well...I feel just about safer here than anywhere else in the city. Unless you count the Mansion- and we could totally go there, if we really wanted total privacy- I mean, if you have a good attitude about that place, because I know some people don't, and that's totally okay?"

She was definitely having some serious speech issues this morning.

[OOC: I completely understand that feeling. Don't worry, it's fine!]

"Um. I don't think, uh, you know... Well, I don't exactly think... I don't exactly think that would be the best of ideas. Not to be rude."

Oh, crap. Only now did Danny realize that no matter how he put it, it was gonna sound creepy. He needed more work on his people skills, but that was difficult when almost every person he talking to ended up trying to kill him. He could barely step outside his place now without getting attacked, for Christ's sake.

"Yeah, sorry. My "shift" is about over, if you could call it that. This place doesn't really get too many people after the morning rush. And I happen to trust, well...I feel just about safer here than anywhere else in the city. Unless you count the Mansion- and we could totally go there, if we really wanted total privacy- I mean, if you have a good attitude about that place, because I know some people don't, and that's totally okay?"

She seemed nervous, and at least that made the two of them. Thank god he was okay with the Mansion now, because while the coffee shop was nice, it was too vulnerable for Danny’s paranoid mind. “Uh, sorry about that, then. Didn’t realize it’d make you uncomfortable. But, yeah, the Mansion’s okay now. Apparently they’ve forgiven me, and now I kind of spend quite a bit of time there. Things change, huh?"

“Uh, sorry about that, then. Didn’t realize it’d make you uncomfortable. But, yeah, the Mansion’s okay now. Apparently they’ve forgiven me, and now I kind of spend quite a bit of time there...Things change, huh?"

"Man, things change." Margo said half to herself, stifling an unexpected yawn. Heck, she wasn't even tired! It must have been the fact that she had been inhaling coffee aromas all morning, and it had somehow managed to trick her into thinking it was earlier than it was. Which was actually pretty...not early. Things changed, didn't they? Oh, what different things she might have been doing this morning, if she had never found out...if she had never known she was abnormal... "I guess I was feeling awkward in the first place, ha, which is like, totally normal because I'm totally awkward," she said with a quiet laugh.

She smoothed a hand across her hair, which she'd tied up in its usual, plain, sleek style, but she made no move to get up yet.

"Okay-now?" The girl asked, raising an eyebrow. "So apparently 'they' have forgiven you...except what exactly did you do in the first place?"