The last time she'd done this, Maya had gone on to have a date with what turned out to be her brother. Before that, it was the guy who'd gifted her a tongue. No wait. In between those there was the guy who went evil. Of course Sebastian had turned quite the villain as well.

The aeromancer stopped just past the bouncers inside the club as realization dawned on her. Like some women turned people gay, did Ghost turn people evil? It was that or she was really just that bad at judging a person's character.

The gaggle of younger, more beautiful girls who'd been behind her in line brushed her shoulder as they streamed past Ghost toward the dance floor.

She didn't really want to be here. She wasn't the type to pick up a man at this sort of establishment.

Maya smoothed her skirt down and tried to push those insecurities away. She wasn't here to get a man. She didn't need one. Maya was here to have fun. Because young successful people of New York went out and partied. And you didn't even have to be all that young or successful. You just had to be willing. Or, that was what Sam had told her a long time ago.

So, to the bar she went. It was the same club Sam had taken her to years and years prior for her first ever alcoholic drink. This time, she chickened out and ordered seltzer even though she was now actually old enough to partake. For now, this one step of being here was brave enough.

Sequels tied up, check. Touring done, check. Payment received, cheque. Operation "Drunk in New York" is green lit.

Is the text he had sent his boyfriend. Sadly New York City wasn't going to police itself. He wished it would. He'd been out of town so long... Who knew filming and publicizing movies took so much time? They hadn't told Cafas.

Looked like a solo operation tonight. To the Bar-mobile!

~~~
He fancied he could see the bass in his glass. Each driving thud becoming a fleeting, liquid sculpture.

That's enough of that thinking.

Cafas brought himself out of the daze he'd fallen into. A brief check of his phone told him Calley was working later than first anticipated. So much for partying. Solo parties, as it turns out, are just kind of sad.

A familiar sound broke through the music. The exited laughter of young women.

Brace yourself...

Nothing. He looked around. They were just dancing. They hadn't so much as noticed him. New York was a hell of a place. Someone else drew his eye momentarily, a figure in his peripheral vision. His brain said something was important about this person. Why?

He followed the path instinct told him she'd taken. His eyes fell upon a familiar face. He watched her order. Was she here with someone? Meeting someone? Would he be intruding? A single drink. Non-alcoholic. He waited a beat. No-one appeared with her.

A quick approach, darting in to surprise Maya.

"Boo!"

Ouch dude... Just... Wow that was bad.

"You have exactly three seconds to brace for a hug."

3

2

1

Over-estimate how much Ghost weighs and throw self off balance!

Rapid blink mode engaged.

If Cafas had been launching a real attack, Maya would have been in trouble. As it was, he'd simply succeeded in a mild startle.

"Cafas Johnson." She breathed his name in relief after her brain caught up. Thankfully her instincts were no longer to run at first provocation and she'd never been one to jump to violence. "It's been a long— EEK!"

What composure she'd maintained was wrecked when Cafas actually launched himself into a bear of a hug. Maya found herself laughing as she bent backwards to compensate and stumbled under his weight. He'd said he would. She wasn't sure why she didn't think he'd follow through.

"Cafas. Cafas, you're heavy! She teased him even as she hugged back. This. She missed things like this. Friends like this. Unfortunately, she was in impractical yet pretty 4 inch spike heels that were sliding along the slick club floor. Soon he'd have her pinned against the actual bar if he didn't let up.

"Heavy? Why I never!" Subtle shift of weight. Arms flashed out to pad the landing. Cafas would likely have thought twice about winding up pinning other females to the bar. They could misinterpret it, onlookers could misinterpret it, much could go wrong.

Funny how typical social barriers collapse when you meet someone you used to face imminent death with, especially after so long apart. Then again, pink hair and social norms were somewhat at odds to begin with. He was dyeing it out of habit at this point.

Wonder how she's holding up?

Yellow and green eyes met pale brown briefly. He took a step back and dropped his arms. Eyes faded to a lightish brown. He'd barely considered how recent cultish events might have affected Ghost after the fact. Was it after the fact? He was so out of the loop.

Has this pause been awkwardly long?

"So, how's the world been treating you?" If he knew anything of the lives of X-men, not amazingly. The job had a way of resulting in some nasty injuries and emotional scars. He had always been a little negative though.

Behind him music and people combined into a maelstrom of hormones and excitement. He could smell the alcohol and axe body spray from the bar. That very well may have been the groups of people trying to order, but he chose to interpret it his way.

How many of them will need a cop or an ambulance before the night is out?... Stop being such a downer man...

Well. He pinned her. There wasn't a graceful way to make an exit from their embrace so she decided to roll with it. It wasn't like Cafas was interested in her anyway. She didn't have to be careful around him.

Plus she was grinning like a dope. What must the people around them think?

"Like a piece of crap!" She punctuated her cheerful tone with laughter that made it seem like the drink in her hand was more than just carbonated. "But I'm back at the Mansion and it can really only get better from here."

Maya pulled her arms back from around Cafas' body and smoothed the front of his shirt. Just habit. Just maintaining that last little bit of space. "I've got a little boy, Rowan?" Not that she was unsure about that fact, but she was unsure if Cafas knew. "He's three years old and so stinkin' smart."

She smiled. Cafas looked so serious. "What about you? You look..." Maya gave Cafas an appreciative once-over as much as their proximity would allow. He had grown into himself since they'd last teamed up. Filled out. Had he been working out? Her cheeks pinked with embarrassment. "You look good."

"Like a piece of crap!... But I'm back at the Mansion and it can really only get better from here."

Ah, the Mansion. He often wondered why he's moved. Money and a desire to live with his boyfriend a bit more privately aside, he now had to take care of his own place, travel if he wanted to use the Danger Room, make appointments to see people rather tan just collide with them in hallways.

"I've got a little boy, Rowan? He's three years old and so stinkin' smart." Three!?! Had it really been so long? He supposed it had. Cafas made appropriate noises one makes when parents speak of their children. Inside he was trying to comprehend where his life had taken him that he didn't know Maya had a child?

"What about you? You look... You look good."

Well now, that's something one always like to hear. Was the flexing that followed her comment an accident? Subconscious? Deliberate? We may never know.

Subtle man, real subtle.

100% deliberate.

"Oh you know, keeping on keeping on. Moved in with Calley, not that I ever see him, between filming and advertising I'm pretty much never in NYC." Or any other single place for more than a week. He'd even been back to Australia. They still didn't like mutants much. Unsurprising, an ever Xenophobic society.

Hey and how about that not even TRYING to see your parents? Look man, they coulda come found me. Yeah, them find the guy who's schedule was so booked he barely had three hours off, excuses abound.

"It's been getting in the way of the vigilantism." No crimes stopped in almost a month. No less savoury people dealt with in... Actually, producers. "I must admit it's nice not having my nose broken every other day." Especially since DocProf didn't travel with him. He'd hate to be stuck with a new nose.

"So how smart we talking with your kid? Any chance it's a mutation, or just a natural result of sharing your genes?"

Oh man did that come out flirty? Not half as flirty as the flexing before... It's not meant to be!

So that's where Calley had gone. It was good to hear that at least some of her friends had stayed in the city. So many others had gone far and away, settling down and growing up.

She flushed again. What was she doing here, in a bar, when she had a three year old at home?

"That's right. You're in those movies." She'd seen Cafas' face on the big billboard in Times Square and then again on the cover of the book his films were adapted from. Maya laughed again. "Your face was all over my bookstore for a while. I think we even had a cardboard cutout. So Technically I've probably seen you more recently than you've seen me." Her most notable difference was her hair, now long with some awkward horizontal strips of brown. She hated it, but no dye would take on the white parts. And the one time she'd tried bleach it just turned urine yellow.

As for said vigilantism, "Once I moved out of the Mansion, I hardly got any calls anymore from the X's. I figured you guys had it all in hand. Turns out Sam was just being overprotective since, you know. Kid." They had it worked out now, though. With Rowan at the Mansion, he was never alone anymore. Maybe things were better this way.

It felt so good to laugh again and Cafas just kept making it happen, whether he meant to or not. "All my injuries, I never did get a broken nose." No, it took something considerably worse to hurt the intangible.

"Oh, he's definitely a mutant. But uh, not for his smarts." Maya seemed a bit worried about that fact, actually. Well, if Cafas came to visit, he would see. It was a bit hard to explain without the accompanying visuals.

"What brings you out tonight?" Were they going to stand in their own little world the whole night? Maya took her hand from Cafas' biceps. Ah. Maybe that would help.

"That's right. You're in those movies. Your face was all over my bookstore for a while. I think we even had a cardboard cutout. So Technically I've probably seen you more recently than you've seen me."

Shame, shame everywhere. Cardboard cut-outs Of Cafas? How embarrassing. He knew about them of course. He'd signed more than one. It still never failed to creep him out. He very much hoped he could ignore it and make it go away. Was her hand still on his bicep? Not that he was complaining.

No, more complaining! Be good!

"Once I moved out of the Mansion, I hardly got any calls anymore from the X's. I figured you guys had it all in hand. Turns out Sam was just being overprotective since, you know. Kid." Sam being protective was an odd change from Cafas' recent dealings with him. Cafas recalled him intending to take Aiden and Persi to the North Pole for a camping trip. Still, Maya held a much firmer spot in his icy heart.

Hand's still on my arm... Still haven't done anything about it.

"All my injuries, I never did get a broken nose." Cafas wished he hadn't. The shattering of bone had become so commonplace a feeling to him he barely noticed the last time his nose had been knocked askew. "I can tell, no way that nose 's been broken. Hell mines starting to show signs of it through DocProfs work." He was convinced it was starting to skew. Then again, maybe he'd just spent too long staring into mirrors recently.

Seriously you gonna do something? No...

"Oh, he's definitely a mutant. But uh, not for his smarts." Sounded fair enough to Cafas. He had to wonder how the X-gene worked with children. Was it dominant? Recessive? Probably recessive, but two mutant parents would then guarantee it right? Biology was apparently not his best subject. Her hand was still on his arm. "So just your genes shining through then."

"What brings you out tonight?" Did he even really know? Kinda. Kinda would have to do. Hand moved off arm and Cafas was slightly ashamed of the sudden sense of disappointment. "Well, I've been out of town for ages. I was meant to go out with Calley, but he's off saving citizens in the name of the law or something. So I guess, just getting drunk and hoping I'd run into someone I know." Out of the 8 million people he had decent odds right?

Well this is turning into a bummer. Good job Cafas.

Cafas threw more than double a drink's value onto the bar and downed a random stranger's jack and coke with a muttered apology. The money made any complaint go away. He'd learned that pretty fast. He smiled at Maya, took her hand in his and dragged her towards the dance floor. "Come one, we can't just sit here in our private world all night! Let's dance!"

Maya was glad that Cafas did not return her curiosity. It would have been hard to explain why she was here. She wasn't even sure that she could put her finger on the "why" of it.

Instead, he just threw money around like a proper rock star and stole a stranger's drink. Though she wanted to be offended, Maya found herself just too amused at the absurdity. And then they were supposed to go dance?

"Do we? Oh. Leave the dr— Oh. O-okay! Yeah! Let's dance!" Her drink was only seltzer so it shouldn't have made her sputter so when she tried to down it really quickly before joining her friend on the dance floor. And it was better to not leave your drink unattended anyway. Or waste.

"Do you really just go out to get drunk?" Was Calley not paying him enough mind? That was... not something Maya had expected to worry about tonight.

Maya did her best to trot out after the metal manipulator, but there was some pizazz or aura that she just didn't have. She was trying to keep up. Really, she was, but the crowd closed in between them. People made way for Cafas, but they paid her absolutely no mind.

And she was sick of it.

You know those shampoo commercials where the model's hair whips in some wind that has absolutely no right to be wherever the model is? That's what Maya did.

After an initial blast out from her person to get a little breathing room, she walked in her own little rockstar bubble leaving the same, if not more, whispering and awe in her wake.

Her skirt flapped, her heels clicked, her crazy white and brown hair waved at all the little people.

Some days, it was good to be a mutant.

She caught up to him easily now and extended the plucking fingers of air to Cafas' pink. "So lets dance."

There were so many ways to answer that question and he didn't know where to begin.

Part of him was still in marketing mode, wanting to laugh it off as a joke or hyperbole.

"No of course not," he would laugh, flashing a smile, "Just out to see who I see!" Made it sound like he had enough friends he could always run into someone. Made him sound fun, like he lived in the moment.

There was of course the more rock-star answer.

"Yeah, gotta party while we're young!" He'd shout the end, raising his arms, addressing and including the crowd. They'd all scream back, no words just an affirmative cacophony. Sure, older people and wiser people would think him a fool, but the young party crowd would love it.

Jaded confidence was an option, the man that had seen to much to care what people thought of him.

"What of it?" An aggressive opener. just stare her down from there. He'd seem like an ass. Hell, he'd be one to do it; That was the point, no longer caring. He'd certainly seen and done enough to justify the attitude.

He could ignore it. Go on like he never heard. It was probably the simplest option. Likely she wouldn't pursue it. Even if she thought he was ignoring it, it would be somewhat rude to pursue it. That way he got of light.

Ultimately though, it was Maya. They had to trust each other with their lives, may as well let them know what it is you're trusting the with...

"Yeah, it's kind of how I've been dealing with the loneliness of the publicity tour. Actually it's how I deal with most of my issues recently."

Oh... he'd lost her in the crowd while he was thinking. He looked around, searching for her, but the constantly shifting light made it hard to distinguish her hair from anyone else's.

A sudden gust blew through the club. Cafas spun to face it, looking for the ostentatious mutant who was just casually showing off. Out of the parting crowd strode a wind caressed woman it took him a moment to place. In commercials it always looked good. In real life it was borderline divine.

"Woah..."

I think you said that out loud... Oh, oops... Yeah she had to have heard that...

People weren't hiding their stares, though they were giving Ghost and Cafas space, more than Cafas was used to receiving in clubs. Her approach brought with it the breeze Ghost was summoning.

Well, the separation between Maya and Ghost is now readily apparent...

"So lets dance."

"Of course." A smile of impressed amusement crossed his face. "That certainly is a show-stealing ability."

Cafas felt woefully under-equipped for the amount of attention they were receiving, but he did his best. He'd done more than a little dancing for Dusk, more than they'd bothered to use. He did his best to channel some of that now. Perhaps that was why he danced closer to Ghost, and held her tighter, than their acquaintanceship might dictate. He could almost hear the director telling him it still wasn't close enough, tight enough or passionate enough. He tried to ignore it.

Loneliness. She was sick of that too.

"Don't usually feel showy." She flushed and tried very, very hard not to register what was being said about the pair of them. She'd wanted the space away from strangers even if it came at the cost of being other.

She stepped into Cafas' personal space. She might not want to be around strangers, but a friend was something different. Cafas was a safe harbor with mirrored sentiment.

That was probably why they were able to match almost every sway and step. Why she didn't mind being close and why he didn't mind the continued wind show. They both had somebody. Cafas wasn't her somebody, but right now he was as close as she was going to get. Sure, Cafas was good people. Good company. Good fighter. Good friend. He wasn't the somebody she wanted, though. She had a feeling Cafas wasn't too far off that thought.

But now wasn't the time to be sad. Now was the time to put all that heart that wanted to go somewhere into the beat of the music.

"Don't usually feel showy."

She does it pretty well for not usually doing it.

Songs whirled by and Cafas lost himself somewhat to the music and the dancing. The minutes blurred together, the surrounding crowd shifted around them, first one group then another. Their separation couldn't help but remind him how unlike the "common people" he was.

Mutant, vigilante, celebrity.

They couldn't empathize with him. How could they? Most would never experience half of what he had, for better or worse. Yet all they saw was how different he was. It was lonely.

Then there was Maya. The X-men. Calley. He clung to them like a drowning man to passing flotsam. Yet he couldn't keep them in his grip any more. Gone more than they were there. Or was that him? He didn't know.

Maya was there at that moment however, and it gave him hope.

Cafas shook himself from his self pitying melancholy, shouting over the music. "I don't know if it's the alcohol or company but I feel human for the first time in months." A smile returned to his face, with it the energy in his dancing.

The dancing was fun and it was doing wonders to get her out of her mental pity party.

Typically, a crowded space with lots of moving bodies was hot and funky, but with the right amount of air circulation, it was downright pleasant. And, despite not usually being a fan of this kind of thing, Maya really moved. Maybe it was a result of her pouring out her frustrations, but she was NOT the shy woman who'd last set foot through these doors. She let herself have fun with it.

She'd had a lot of life experience between then and now. She learned a thing or two about her own body, having a husband, having children, having been left behind, having a mutation that was killing her.

And more than her own body, Maya moved in a flurry of her own power. Every hip shake impressed more when her skirt flounced up after it. Every step and turn came with hair that shampoo commercials dreamed of. She touched Cafas and enjoyed his reciprocal touch. She hadn't realized just how very much she'd been pretending didn't bother her.

Her cheeks glowed pink with effort after a few songs.

> "I don't know if it's the alcohol or company but I feel human for the first time in months."

"I'm feeling decidedly less human, but in a good way." She teased and sent a strong enough breeze through the crowd around them so that the other club patrons responded with surprised yips and cheers depending on how their wardrobes responded.

"I'm feeling decidedly less human, but in a good way."

The sudden gust's results were appreciated by many patrons, Cafas included. He made sure not to be distracted too long, it felt somewhat rude seeing he was dancing with Ghost. "I believe the term is super-human."

Air is so much cooler than metal. Well... Except the whole dying thing.

Not that Cafas was jealous. Not at all. He did cool things, plus not dying when shot was nice. But being your own special effects was pretty awesome. A few camera flashes revealed that others thought so too.

A few more songs passed before the effect of touring on his fitness began to show. He hoisted Ghost above him into a 'flying' pose as the latest song came to a close. Breathing heavily Cafas motioned to the bar and set her down before edging his way through the crowd.

Guess that settles who the space was for.

One drinks order later Cafas was searching for a spot to sit. When he found an empty booth he sat, nay, flopped into the barely cushioned spill proof seat.

Super-human. She pursed her lips and tried not to be too pleased at the terminology. The bad guys had been saying it all along, that they weren't human.

But that was something to think about and today was not about thinking.

Apparently today was about dancing and a fantastic Dirty Dancing finale. It helped that she didn't weigh a lot, despite her height. Her laugh settled more into a chuckle once she was back on her feet. Really. She'd never let herself just be so... free. It was refreshing and, after so much freedom they both needed a refreshment.

She gave Cafas a quick thank you in the way of a hug, again, that just wasn't her usual but it felt right.

Maya cut the wind show and it didn't take long for the party people to move in on the dance floor. Someone even offered her a high-five as she passed. She didn't mean to leave the guy hanging, but it was just so outside what she was expecting that Maya walked right on past it.

Still too intimidated to buy alcohol, Maya settled for a Shirley Temple: cola and grenadine with a cherry on top. It looked like it could have been alcohol, but instead was super, duper sweet.

Cafas flopped, Maya found herself slipping back into more comfortable behavior. "May I?" She asked before she sat. No point in assuming at this point.