....that worked surprisingly well. Now Cafas was talking, and he just had to kind of listen. Except he listened properly, because maybe Cafas would actually have something to do.

Early ideas were not helpful. Classes? Education? Like, school? Sit in a room and carry bags to and from that room? How would that help anything? Wouldn't that just make things worse? A lot worse?

His disbelief miiiiight have shown up a bit in his face, but Cafas moved on and Adder debated giving him a second chance to suggest something useful.

Idea number two wasn't much better. He didn't want to do that stuff. He didn't see a point to the games he saw rich kids playing. They just yelled at each other and wasted energy and then yelled at each other more. Maybe he should have bolted with the tea. This was turning into a waste of-

"Weren't you 'training' when you got your face beat up?" he asked, surprised into a moment of open incredulity. His face also clearly said something along the lines of and you expect me to do that with you, but don't like me fighting?

Adder very nearly threw himself out of his chair, restlessness irritated by the failure to solve it, and stalked to where he could more easily reach the food. In all honesty, he wasn't even hungry any more, but what else was he supposed to do?

The looks Adder gave him suggested that Adder actually getting friends and an education would take quite some convincing. Currently they seemed like they just irritated him. The complete lack of guile Adder was displaying with his facial expressions was a welcome relief to most people's more measured reactions. Cafas could actually read it. He wondered if this is how intuitive normal conversations were for other people.

Probably.

The training offer didn't go over much better. Adder was out of his seat and reaching for food. Well, at least he hadn't left entirely. Cafas could see his point on the whole face thing too. Actually, he totally got why people didn't want to train with him when they saw the state of him after a session.

"Yeah, but I'm constantly pushing my limits when I train alone. It's literally life or death when I do this stuff for real, so getting a bit beat up in training is an acceptable price for living." Cafas chewed through a mouthful and swallowed. Plus Doc Prof is on hand, so injury is temporary and leaves no lasting effect." Cafas smiled at Adder, a smile that was very grateful for Doc Prof. He'd have far fewer teeth without the old man.

That never gets less painful...

"If you were training with me though, we wouldn't even have to do combat training. I can always do that alone and just bring you in for the fitness stuff." Another bite of food was taken as Cafas waited for a response. His face didn't even try to hide the fact he wanted Adder to agree to training. It would give him a daily excuse to catch up with the shifter, and post workout food requirements would let him teach him how to cook.

Could be good for him.

Cafas swallowed and added a small post script. "Of course, there are some days I just won't be able to make it, so it would probably help if I could contact you to let you knwo if that happens."

"Sounds like you go out of your way to get hurt," Adder muttered. He eyed Cafas, a bit sidelong, and tried to decide if he was joking, had some magical reason to WANT to get hurt, or was just stupid. People were so weird and made no sense so much of the time.

He worked his way steadily through his second round of food stuff, not as rapidly as the first but still definitely practiced for maximum food ingestion without choking. Eating fast was probably much easier with his teeth than other people's, but it wasn't something he could or wanted to bother trying to test.

What he would much rather would be to know what half of what Cafas was saying meant. He was throwing around words Adder might have heard before but wasn't used to using. They were words that described things in a world he hadn't touched even when his parents had been alive.

Whatever it was he truly meant, though, he seemed to be hoping for Adder to agree. That was suspicious, very suspicious... But when Added thought about what he knew of Cafas, what the metal manipulator had done and what he had asked and what he had assumed, the suspicious weakened. A tiny bit. It was still an improvement over his usual reaction-

Although his other type of usual reaction was still fully available. Complete confusion. "Can't you just find me?" he asked, and only belated realized that he hadn't told Cafas he wasn't interested in the weird 'training' stuff. Whatever it was. He could hardly make a decision without knowing what was involved.

"Sounds like you go out of your way to get hurt,"

"More like I don't go out of my way to avoid it." Though it certainly was a thin and blurry line some days. He had to though. He had to be better. Better than human, if he could manage it. If he wasn't, it could cost him his life, or the life of his partner. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only X-man that took training that seriously, but he had no idea how everyone else trained on their own.

"Can't you just find me?"

"Not always going to be an option. Wouldn't be the first time I had to travel half way around the world on an hour's notice." To rescue kids that really needed to pull their heads out of their asses and come into the real world. Also the jet. That thing would be difficult to replace. "Probably easiest with a cell phone. You have one?" They certainly made communicating much swifter. So much easier than having someone try to find Adder and deliver a message.

Cafas shifted in his seat, energy reserves picking up, stiff muscles eager to be moving again. He calmly sipped his tea instead. It was still just a little too hot. Not damaging, but painful to swallow. He winced and blew across the surface again. It continued to accomplish little to nothing, but it did make him feel better.

"What do you say? At the very least it'll give you something to do, and it never hurts to be a little faster, stronger, and fitter."

Adder prodded his mug again, impatient for it to cool enough to drink but also thinking about Cafas' phrasing. He didn't see an immediate difference, but after a moment he saw the comparison between running into dark allies waving money around and not bolting from every threat. All right. Adder still thought that there was a little too much intention in Cafas' going and getting hurt, but he wasn't going to press it.

Once again, the concept of outside-the-city skimmed over Adder's head, barely rustling his hair. Knowing, vaguely, that something existed wasn't the same as knowing what it was like. Like how he knew what a cellphone was, but had approximately zero idea of how to use one. He shook his head to Cafas' question and prodded his tea again. Still hot, but.... He pulled it toward himself to give it the telling test.

Tolerable! At least to his fully healed mouth-skin. The mint-flavour, weaker in his mouth than in his nose, made the back of his throat tingle a little bit. If anything, it made it feel clean, not that that was a place he ever thought of as getting dirty.

Never hurts. Well, that couldn't be literal because Cafas had been literally hurt by it just today. He should think about this logically, though. If he were spending time doing this stuff, well the time cost wasn't significant right now because he had more of it than he needed. But he'd use more of other resources, because exercise made him hungry and thirsty and tired. Mostly hungry and thirsty, unless he was doing it once he was already hungry. Food in particular was actually in excess here, although a lot of it remained in forms he couldn't just eat. Other people did things with those forms to make them food, like the nose-burning stuff Cafas used, but he didn't know how to do those things, or why they made non-food-things into food.

So all the costs were to things to which he had sufficient access. If that changed at all, then he could just stop the 'training' stuff. That was logical.

"I could try it," he said, unhesitant in his eventual answer. There wasn't any excitement or resignation to his tone either; he simply said it like he was commenting on something idle and pointless like rich people always seemed to be doing.

Was he starting to act like a rich person? The skin of his back flicked a bit like a wave ran through the fur that wasn't there right now, and he drank more tea.

He did like tea.

A silent no on the cellphone. Also, Cafas was saying cell phone. When had that started? When had it gone from mobile to cell in his own head? Honestly, he was becoming more Americanised every year. He dismissed the thought as Adder sipped his tea.

It would be useful.

"Well, I think I'll get you one, for convenience sake." Plus it might encourage Adder to socialise a bit. He'd found it much easier to talk online when he'd been younger. Younger than Adder even, but then, he'd had Sophie to force him out of his solitude. "That way you can call me if you ever get in trouble, and I can let you know if training is cancelled." Clearly those were the only motives.

"I could try it,"

Well, he didn't sound like he hated the idea, at least. Some excitement might have been nice, but he knew from trying to convince Maya that he was unusually motivated in the matter. The metal manipulator sipped his tea again, head nodding almost of its own accord. "A try is all I can really ask. You'll need to keep at it to see results though." Another sip. Okay, more of a mouthful. He just didn't have the patience for the pace most people seemed to drink beverages.

Too tight of a time budget maybe? Or is it just an understanding of how limited your time is with your current line of work?

"We'll start tomorrow, if you're up for that. Around ten in the morning. Try not to eat in the two hours leading up to it. Breakfast finished by eight at the latest. Trust me on that one." Cafas finished the tea, still perhaps a fraction too hot for how much he'd just swallowed. He set his mug down and smiled, glad that he might be doing Adder some good. "I can bring you your phone then too, unless you'd rather come with me to buy it?"

Get him... a... cell phone? Adder's forehead knotted a bit. Why would Cafas do that? Other than the reasons he just gave.

Something else knotted a bit at the passing thought of being able to call on someone else for help -

but that was something he'd learned not to think about so long ago it was almost before Before, and his thoughts turned away without even planning on it so well had he learned it. It was better to think about not thinking about it than to think about it, and then he could go on to other things.

Like why there wasn't any more tea in his mug, just the bag that kept slipping down and hitting him in the nose. It smelled like tea. It hadn't seemed like it was meant to be eaten when Maya made it, but then Cafas had made it differently. Not that Cafas showed any indication of eating it. Was it like nose-burning-numbing-spice-stuff, making food but not being food, or was it like tomato, both making food and being food?

Ew flaky leaf bits. Adder grimaced and tore the bag off the tooth it had snagged on. Tea bag was like nose-burning-numbing-spice stuff. Noted.

"Ten?" Adder glanced around quickly. There was a clock on the stove he could read. Those round ones with sticks didn't make much sense, although he got the overall concept, but for actual time numbers he liked clocks with, well, numbers. He'd just have to stalk the kitchen so he knew when it was time to meet Cafas.

He felt something vaguely positive about that. Was it just having a plan, something specific to do? Probably. Probably.

Wait, Cafas was serious about the phone thing? Adder's ears shifted back, uncertain about - so much of it. "I... don't think I'd be welcome," he said quietly, finally settling on not well received by stores as something to say.

The corners of Cafas' mouth turned up even as he rolled his lips in on themselves. It would be tactless to laugh. Probably embarrassing for Adder. His eyes crinkled slightly, but he managed to hold back any audible mirth. Watching his pry the bag off his tooth, and the leafy residue it left behind, made him feel a little sorry for Adder.

"Ten?"

The glance around made Cafas pause. Did Adder not know how to tell time? Just how young had he been when he left home? Maybe Cafas was just being too quick with jumping to conclusions. If he didn't know, he'd probably ask right? "Yep, in the morning. I'll swing by your room to pick you up." That way there would be far less delay. He was already starting to plan a routine for Adder. Cafas was hopeful he'd still be able to get a useful work out in. Maybe the Wolf boy wasn't as unfit as his undernourishment suggested.

"I... don't think I'd be welcome,"

It was Cafas' turn to knot his brow. "Why not?" The question was probably foolish. Cafas knew full well what he'd gotten up to in the name of survival. The question was, would Adder admit to it? Never know, he may well just mean because his clothes made him look like he couldn't afford anything. Maybe it was just prejudice. Yeah, maybe.

Adder let out a tiny, tiny huff of air through his nostrils. It would have been much larger if he'd actually noticed Cafas' laudable attempts to not laugh, because then he would have been quite offended at being considered worthy of entertainment. He wasn't trying to be funny!

If Cafas were going to go to his room at ten, then Adder would have to make sure he was there at some point before then and then wait. That would be the way to be there at the right time. Okay, that could work. He could pull that off. It was easier than avoiding people who wandered the streets without noticeable pattern. People like that he basically had to stalk, or trust purely to his senses and ability to dodge and hide if he picked up on them. Neither were good for the nerves or resource management.

Adder set down his mug with less firmness than would have been required to clear away his thoughts, and spoke with a similar degree of reservation. "They always think I'm trying to steal stuff, even if I have money or if my feet are just cold," he muttered. "Or they say things like they'll catch something from me." Or that the world would be better off if he'd just crawl into some alley and die, but he was too stubborn to listen to that.

Cafas held back a few choice comments by sucking his teeth, and only partially succeeded at softening the scowl that darkened his face. Those comments followed the homeless everywhere, apparently. Kindness was rarer, to say the least. Being a mutant could hardly help. Actually, it could only really hurt.

"Well, you might be surprised how much less inclined they are to make those comments with me around." Over six foot of muscle had a way of shutting people up. There was a lot to be said for an intimidating presence. "Let's add new clothes to the list anyway. Some that don't look like they're two days from retirement." Doomed to die in the very near future. The vest Honestly couldn't be providing that much protection. For one thing, ti was a vest. Cafas had never seen the point, but then, he'd once worn boxing hand wraps as makeshift fingerless gloves.

We appear to be out of tea...

"Those you will have to come with me for. I'm useless at guessing sizes." He couldn't properly justify that one, he worked on custom armour all the time. Maybe the constant access to measurements was what made him so bad. Never having to guess, always with numeric data right there. "Plus that way you can pick things you like."

Could sign him up for trunk club...

Cafas' face darkened, and Adder shifted closer to the back of his chair. He watched the metal manipulator very, very closely, but Cafas made no real move before his face stopped looking so much like previous people who were about to hit things. Adder would much rather not get hit, especially by someone Cafas' size.

Which... kind of forced agreement with what the x-man said next. People did watch their tongues more when faced with solid threats. Angry Cafas definitely fit in that category. Adder did not want to see him fully angry, much less make him so.

That train of thought was so far removed from Cafas' next comment that it took Adder several heartbeats to make sense of it all. "New clothes?" He glanced down at himself. But he'd got most of it after he'd arrived here, from not-cop-face-shifter. They were new, by his standards. "They'll make it to fall!" His retort was edged with defensive protest on behalf of the maligned garments. They did fine.

"Why would you do this?" he asked, very quietly.

Cafas would have laughed if Adder didn't seem totally serious in his defensive assertion for his clothes. To fall. That was the kind of thinking Cafas had seen in a few of the people he'd known on the streets of Sydney. Typically the ones who weren't as good at theft, or too proud for it. Cafas had never had such inclinations. Well, not until recently. It was amazing what moral ideals you'd let slip if you were scrounging for every cent.

"They'll make it even longer if you have other clothes to swap them out with." The big man smiled gently at the apparently uncomfortable shifter. He seemed almost lost in the situation, like he'd never been there before. If anything, Cafas might have expected anger at a perceived attempt to replace a parent. He was just the right age for that sort of outburst.

"Why would you do this?"

Now, see? That was exactly what he was talking about. A weak "Why?" As if it'd never happened before. As if he could never remember someone doing something just because they cared. He'd either had crappy parents, or none at all. That was how it seemed to Cafas. A firmness of resolve gripped him, and leaked into his voice. "Because everyone should have someone to watch out for them, someone to pick them up and dust them off when the world kicks their ass and get ready to face round two with 'em. I'd be a pretty crappy X-man if I saw someone that didn't have someone in their corner and did nothing. So now you've got me in your corner." Cafas tried to sip his empty tea and took a moment to stare in slight confusion at his empty mug.

Oh right.

"Now, you wanna go clothes shopping now, or tomorrow?"

But if he were swapping out his clothes, he couldn't carry them all. What if he suddenly had to relocate? He'd lose it all, plus leave more stuff that could be used to track him. Plus it was summer. It was warm. He didn't need layers. Cafas would probably have some logical excuse around that too, like just stay in one place, but that didn't work, something always happened to ruin a corner. Always. Just because it hadn't happened here yet didn't mean that it wouldn't.

Cafas' long answer to his little 'why' covered much of his discomfort, at least. And made it worse, even if it was harder to pin down why that happened. Cafas was so serious about this, but he'd managed just fine without anyone watching out for him or even knowing he existed. If he had managed without than it wasn't necessary. Right? Right. Because if it were necessary, he wouldn't have managed by giving it up. Not that he'd chosen to give up the people who had been with him in the distant past. But he had chosen not to fall in with new groups who just tried to use him and control him and make him do dangerous things he didn't like.

...but he had decided to do something because he wanted to. And it had worked out. It had worked out well. Now he didn't hurt and he'd had food and tea, and he supposed he didn't entirely mind talking to Cafas, although he would rather do more listening and less talking because he always kind of felt that he didn't quite know the right words to say what he actually meant, or felt he should say.

So maybe doing things that weren't completely necessary wasn't so bad. Sometimes. He supposed it would be easier if his senses weren't the only ones that might pick up on some approaching threat, even if the other senses were human-dull. Cafas' eyes seemed to work okay, at least. So there was that. But existing in closer contact with Cafas didn't change other things. He still couldn't carry multiple sets of clothing around all summer, and he was possessive enough that he didn't want to risk losing them-

but he also didn't want to lose the shelter and food of this place. It got loud sometimes, yes, but the rampaging kids were more annoying than dangerous, and some of them weren't so bad. He couldn't remember actually being as little stressed as he was getting. Maybe that was dangerous in itself, but... he didn't want to leave.

So that left... what, exactly? He shifted on his chair. Leaving the clothes he wasn't wearing in one place? He supposed he could add them to the pile of blankets and pillows he'd pulled into the closet. That could work, as long as he didn't have to stop being in this place.

Okay. "I don't have anything else to do now," he said slowly. Later would work too, but he and Cafas had a plan for tomorrow already. One plan per day was enough or he might not have time to still get food and stuff so that meant that they should do this other stuff today, right? But that was kind of sudden and rushed and Adder still wasn't completely sure that he really needed more clothes, just that Cafas wanted him to have more.

Adder took his time in responding, like he was juggling too many thoughts. The type of thinking where one thing trips over another, or punches it in the face and kicked it a bit. At least that's how it was for Cafas when he got like adder was, though he couldn't actually speak for Adder's thought processes.

His answer, when it came, seemed hesitant. That might have been his imagination though, and he wasn't one to question an affirmative. Well, maybe under different circumstances. Like, well, yeah, you know. You know what, forget it.

The big X-man stood, full of enthusiasm and smiles once again. He had a plan. He knew what he was doing. He was back in territory he understood, shopping. Buying things for people. He'd done it with Maya and no-one had burst into flames, no matter how many protests Maya had made to him buying her expensive things. That meant he was perfectly well equipped for the task.

Or so he was going to tell himself.

"Great, let's go. Pretty sure someone's car will be hanging around the garage. I'm not sure how comfortable my spare helmet would be with your ears, and I'm not taking you on the bike without it." Technically wearing one in a car would probably be beneficial too, but the lack of peripheral vision was probably not as good of a pay-off in those circumstances. Airbags would just have to do.

He extended a hand to help Adder up. "Probably something you haven't considered in a few years, but what sort of clothes do you like the look of best?"

Cafas' excitement had Adder on his feet in the space between heartbeats, though even Adder was hard pressed to tell if it was fueled by nerves or maybe the ghost of wolfish interest. His focus was on Cafas, ears up and forward, and the excess of thoughts settled into background noise.

Bik- oh right. Adder could remember the cloying haze of fuel and the pounding noise. His ears shifted back at the unpleasant memory, but it didn't sound like he was going to have to go close to the thing. Cars were less weird, for all they were more dangerous to have driving towards him. They'd been normal, once upon a time. Not that the thought lingered for evaluation.

"Your bike smells bad," he said bluntly. "And what does it matter what clothing looks like?"