Astrid's eyes flickered back and forth between Abby and the blonde woman. Was she serious? She was actually offering to get her food? That had never happened to her before. At least, not without her giving them something in return.

She was starving, though, and there was an option for food presented to her. Despite it being far from evil, it felt counterproductive to give that up.

"Okay," Astrid agree cautiously, standing up from the soap box. She tucked her cello away into its case and walked slightly closer to them, still trying to err on the side of caution. She couldn't help but worry that it might be some sort of trick from the harpy to get her back. Then again, she could always take the food and run if necessary.

Serena's suggestion was great! And since it wasn't Abby who was asking, Astrid was more likely to agree. Then maybe the two of them could... she didn't know what they could do. Something, they could do something.

>>"Okay."

Abby grinned at that. Yes! They could do, whatever it was they needed to do to keep her and the winged girl from fighting. That would be nice. Abby bounced on her toes as she smiled. Her day wasn't turning out so bad after all.

Serena grinned as the girl tentatively agreed, hopefully she could get the young mutant to relax a little more and definitely get her to eat something substantial. She knew quite a few places that weren't too far, and some that were quite mutant friendly. She stretched her arms and grinned at the warm sunlight, she seemed to not be burning in the sun, which was a bonus.

She stood debating for a second. "Oooh. I know where would be a good place to go. It's not too far away, 5 or 10 minute walk." She was biased, they served good tea and coffee too. The blonde looked down at Abby to see the other girl bouncing a little bit. She grinned at her.

Even if Abby was transitioning into a teenager, she still had that adorable, childlike wonder about her that made Serena love kids. They all seemed to see the world in a special way, and found it very easy to get excited about things. She set off walking in the direction of the cafe that she was taking the two of them to, occasionally glancing back with a reassuring smile, making sure that Astrid was keeping up okay.

She wouldn't try to push any conversation until she was more relaxed with food, she didn't want to scare off the other girl.

They were making her walk. Like, actually walk. A good distance, too. She would have much preferred to fly, but obviously the other girls were earthbound. Her cello grew heavier by the minute, serving as a tether to the earth, just as the people who were buying her food were. She longed to be in the sky, but that seemed like it wasn't going to happen.

Astrid watched the two girls carefully, keeping her eyes locked on them at all times. She walked behind, knowing it to be easier to watch them from behind than the side. Besides, she didn't feel like making small talk.

"How longer?" Astrid asked after another minute, clearing sick of both walking and carrying her cello.

Abby stayed a little behind Serena, but in front of Astrid. She didn't know where they were going but at least Astrid wasn't accusing her of being evil anymore. It was nice to just walk. No small talk. No trying to think of something to say.

>>"How longer?"

Though apparently she was the only one who thought that way. She looked back to see if Astrid was having problems. The older girl seemed to prefer her wings to her feet. Her cello looked heavy though. "I could carry your cello if you'd like," she offered.

Serena smiled happily as she strolled towards the street side, waiting for the lights to change before crossing, urging the two younger girls with her to do the same. Most of the trip was conducted in relative silence, but at the very least there wasn't much of the hostility from earlier.

Serena turned her head at the grumble of how long they had been walking, she made a mental note to try and speak in plain language with the girl as her English skills were evidently a little on the limited side of things. "Not too much longer now, don't worry." She gestured at the building they were coming up to, and smiled at the winged girl. "It's just around that corner, just a few minutes." She promised.

As the blonde turned her head back to face the direction they were walking in she felt an amused smirk touch her lips at how Abby was talking with the other girl, she was definitely being much nicer now, and sweet.

She suspected the other teenager would likely decline Abby's offer, possibly in a very abrupt way. But that was okay.

"No!" Astrid hissed at the harpy, venom dripping from her voice as she clutched the cello case close to her chest. There was no way she would ever let her touch her prized cello. Or anyone, for that matter. It was just about the prettiest thing she had ever laid eyes on, and it had taken a great deal of effort and planning to steal.

Filthy toddler hands would not ruin it for her.

A few more minutes she could handle. She was, after all, being rewarded with her first decent meal in a long time. If it were any other time, she would have complained more, but she stopped. She didn't want to completely steam roll any chance of the woman being kind to her.

"Fine," Astrid huffed, but walked a little farther away from Abby.

Abby jumped a little at Astrid's yelled response. Abby lifted her hands in the "I surrender" position to show she didn't want any trouble. She just couldn't seem to stay on the older girl's nice side. If she had a nice side that is. She'd have to remember not to sit next to her if they ended up with a booth. That could lead to bad things. Abby stayed silent the rest of the way to the restaurant. She didn't want to cause Astrid to flee or something. She also didn't really want to fight. Maybe if it didn't feel like they could actually exchange blows.

Serena winced lightly as Astrid screeched at Abby. She didn't think that was going to end well though, so she wasn't entirely surprised. She sighed and carried on walking in silence for another minute or two, until they reached the little hole in the wall. She walked down the staircase leading the two of them briefly into an underground section before walking upstairs with them.

The opened the large doors and gestured for the two of them to go inside. It was a fairly spacious room, there was a wooden counter for the actual serving area of the cafe which was styled like an old pub. But the actual interior of the place was quite quaint. There were artistic designs on the walls, some graffiti art, and some actual painting hung up here and there.

The seating was a mixture of comfortable chairs, sofas and beanbags, and the place was a heavy assortment of colours, she led the two of them over to the slightly darker area, highlighted by the gothic art style that surrounded it, lots of chains and metal. She thought that the troubled teen would be a little more comfortable there. She led them to a decently sized table so that Abby and Astrid could spread out, gestured for them to take a seat.

"I'll go order. Do either of you have any food preferences, stuff that you can't eat or drink?" She asked in as plain and clear a tone as she could, for Astrid's benefit.

Astrid did her best to avoid the harpy as much as possible as she followed the woman into the restaurant. She looked around, somewhat surprised by what she saw.

The interior was a bit of a mixing pot of decorating styles. There were so many colours that it was starting to make her head spin. There was far too much going on at once for it to be even somewhat cohesive. If it had been her way, everything would have been black, from the tables to the walls to the stupid plastic menus. It was hard to go wrong with black.

To Astrid's surprise, the blonde woman led them to the more Gothic area of the restaurant. Astrid blinked, having assumed that she would have brought them to a more brightly coloured area, at least judging from her outfit.

The area wasn't actually horrible. She even sort of like it if she tried really hard not to look anywhere else.

The girl slumped down in a chair, having chosen the one farthest from the harpy, and looked up at the blonde woman. She really was starving.

>>"I'll go order. Do either of you have any food preferences, stuff that you can't eat or drink?"

"No. Just food." Astrid said quickly. She needed the woman to hurry up. Her stomach was not going to wait all day.

Abby was a little bouncy by the time they got to the cafe. She really wanted to know why Astrid seemed to hate her, but from experience, she wouldn't get an answer. The inside of the cafe was really cool. It seemed like one of those places where you could see a whole lot of different room types.

The darker area Serena led them to seemed to help Astrid a little. It made sense, since every time she had seen Astrid she was wearing black. Abby plopped down in one of the couches. She didn't think Astrid would sit next to her, but it was an option.

>>"I'll go order. Do either of you have any food preferences, stuff that you can't eat or drink?"

>>"No. Just food.

"A sandwich, please?" she asked. After Serena left, Abby tried to think of something to say to the older girl. She couldn't think of anything that would help ease whatever tension they had. Eventually, she just blurted a question out. "Why do you hate me?"

Serena smiled at both of them as they took a seat. She didn't have a coat or anything, and she was obviously going to keep her handbag with her, so she waited for both to make their orders, a little surprised that neither of them wanted anything specific, given that she was paying for it. She nodded gently at the two of them. "Okay, I'll be back in a minute. Try not to kill each other, please." She pleaded and spun around, moving over to the counter.

She smiled at the person working the counter, it was a nice girl she recognised (And crushed on, while nobody was looking). Serena gave the woman her most radiant smile and greeted her. "Hi Charlotte! So I've got two slightly at war teenagers over there who want food, sandwiches have been suggested, and I feel like some lemonade might be a good idea too. Any suggestions?" The woman smiled and responded. "We have some nice fresh ones today, do you just want a selection?"

Serena nodded with a grin, and got a latté for herself, before returning to the table with a platter of sandwiches while one of the patrons brought over the drinks. She glanced between the girls, trying to see if they were getting on. "I made sure to get plenty, so eat as much as you like." She said to both softly and then took a seat at the edge of the table, taking a slow sip of oh so lovely coffee.

Astrid kept her eyes firmly locked on the harpy. There was no way she would let her get away with anything funny here. Nope, no way. She set down her cello next to her chair and kept her hand resting just on top of it. It was hers, and no one else was going to touch it ever again. Especially not that stupid Domonique woman or the harpy.

"Why do you hate me?"

Astrid blinked. She hated her because... Nothing came to mind. Why did she hate her? The scream was part of it, but there really wasn't any other reason. At that point, it was mostly just her stubbornness that she was hanging onto.

"If not know then not tell," Astrid huffed and crossed her arms as she waited impatiently for the woman to come back with the food.

Eventually, the woman did appear. She was carrying a big plate of sandwiches. Astrid wrinkled her nose, clearly unimpressed. She had hoped for something a little more sophisticated.

Then again, it was free food. Astrid grabbed three of the sandwiches in her hand at once and shoved them into her mouth. God, she was famished.

>>"If not know then not tell."

Abby just stared at the black haired girl. Seriously? She wasn't going to tell her? How was Abby supposed to know anyway?  Astrid was the one who did the kidnapping and the threatening.

>>"I made sure to get plenty, so eat as much as you like."

The little blonde jumped a bit when Serena sat down the plate. She was still a little stunned at Astrid, so she didn't pick up any of the sandwiches. They did look yummy though. And Astrid seemed to think so, she had grabbed three. "What did I do?" Abby asked quietly. "To make you hate me?"

Serena blinked at Abby slowly as the girl spoke to Astrid. She really didn't want the probably homeless teenager to leave before she had eaten properly. She opened her mouth but didn't say anything yet. She was curious as to Astrid's response to the question. She simply sipped her coffee and sat back, watching the two of them with curiosity. Her body language didn't betray any particular feeling beyond that.

She wondered why Abby thought the other girl hated her... By the sounds of things, and their reactions to each other it was mostly just a case of misunderstanding and venom on both sides of their previous meeting.

Neither of the girls in particular understood true hate as far as she was concerned, they were both too young. Serena had felt it before, she'd even given into it once or twice and nearly seriously injured people, she did her best every day now to avoid lashing out in emotion, she tried to be logical and methodical with her approach to tricky situations, like the one they were currently in.

Her stomach protested at the lack of attention she'd given it that day. She gently picked up one of the sandwiches and bit into it. Her mouth flooded with flavor. She'd almost forgotten how good this place was. She chewed it thoughtfully, keeping an eye on the two girls as they spoke to each other.