Cafas rubbed his eyes and stared into the mirror some more. With a yawn, he rubbed his hand through his stubble and eyed his razor. He should, but it felt like quite the effort three minutes after getting up. His hand moved to his hair, pushing it up to glance at the white roots. The hiss of the cistern ended sharply, shortly followed by a soft knock on the door. Another yawn as the bed haired X-man shuffled sleepily to the door and opened it.

"Mornin' Ro, do you need to go?" His voice had gone rusty over night from lack of use.

"Yah."

The pup rubbed his eyes and walked blearily past Cafas, with a pause for a hug on the way. Ruffling Rowan's hair, the X-man closed the door, hoping Maya might get a bit more sleep, and went back to the sink. The tap squeaked as he turned the hot water on. Retrieving a face cloth spent the wait for the water to heat up. The cloth was tossed into the basin just long enough to soak, retrieved, and squeezed out. "Wipe" He didn't really need to be told, but better safe than sorry.

The heat of the cloth against his face was lovely, it radiated through him and kick started his brain a little. Not as much as coffee, but Maya meant no coffee. Cafas stepped aside at the behest of a tapping at his leg and sleepy "Excuse me". "Careful, it's hot." Rowan nodded, the cold tap turned. He waited, soaped, rinsed, turned off the tap. Cafas smiled, Ro was a good kid. The X-man passed the still warm cloth to Rowan.

"Here, wash your face for me."

"Please."

Cafas chuckled out a "Please." His voice gaining momentum with use.

The metal manipulator took his brush and shaving soap, rinsed the former with more hot water, and started brushing lather on his jaw, eyes on the mirror.

"What's that?"

Cafas looked down at Ro, processed, and smiled. He loved the curiosity in Rowan. "Shaving foam."

"What's it for?"

"So I can shave and it doesn't hurt my face."

"Oh."

A moment passed, and Cafas went back to brushing the lather onto his stubbly face.

"Why d'you shave?"

Cafas looked back to Ro again. Apparently, he was full of questions despite the early(ish) hour.

"So I don't have bristles, or a beard."

Rowan failed to hold in a laugh, which Cafas was not going to let go.

"What's funny?"

"You look funny with that on your face."

"Oh yeah? Well, so do you!" Cafas brushed a little lather onto Rowan's cheek, to the sound of laughter and a yip of surprise. Cafas stood back straight and put the brush down as Rowan rubbed the soap off his face. The next part was less fun, but it was just routine. He picked up the razor, carefully held his power in check, and started shaving.

It was so sweet to listen to. Maya told herself that and knew it to be true. Still, she pressed her grating headache into the softness of the pillow and made sure the comforter of the bed was pulled all the way up to her chin. As if that would soothe whatever was happening to make her head hurt.

The first day had been fine. DocProf insisted they stay close so Cafas and Maya had flipped their routine around a bit to compensate. Normally at this time of the week they'd be back at the apartment. For now, they were all in the adult accommodations at the Mansion.

Rowan laughed, an inescapably shrill child sound. She wished he had better volume control, but it was still a good sound. She just had to keep reminding herself of that fact.

Maya pulled the blanket up to her scalp so that only a few tufts of white hair poked out.

By day three she started to feel a little bit off. Vertigo and nausea went hand in hand. The doc had warned her that this might pan out a bit like Cafas' detox. Paranoia. Irritation. And he'd have to keep giving her shots once a week for at least a month. They were combating 8 years of lead poisoning. It wasn't going to go away overnight.

Every day she felt a little bit more.

And every day she felt more, she felt a lot worse.

Cafas finished shaving under a bombardment of questions, answering as best he could while concentrating on not destroying his razor. One nick was all it took to lose a blade. On the plus side, he didn't get any nicks.

"Why doesn't Mommy shave?"

"Because she's a lady, and ladies don't get face hair like men."

"Why not?"

"Because they're different. They get hormones."

"What's horimownes?"

"Hormones are like chemicals inside your blood that tells your body when to do things."

"Oh..."

He didn't get it. That was fair enough, it was hard. At least he had the information, even if he didn't understand. It'd hopefully help him understand at a later stage.

"Will I have to shave."

"I don't know, maybe. It's hard to tell with mutants like us."

"Because sometimes we're puppies, or statues?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Maybe he meant Gina? Probably wouldn't have had to shave anyway.

Cafas finished up his shave and rinsed his face. A touch of moisturiser, a quick check that he'd got everything. He was satisfied that he was done. The X-man rinsed the basin and put his shaving gear back neatly to dry. The whole time Rowan busied himself telling Cafas a frequently tangential anecdote about how he'd seen a robot, but like a small transformer. The pink haired vigilante bent down and lifted Rowan up, making appropriate sounds to indicate he was listening.

"Come on, we gotta get dressed so we can get breakfast."

"Breakfast!"

Rowan had been so excited to have them both there for so many days in a row. Cafas knew Maya didn't want him having to commute every day, but the boy really should get as much time with his mom as he could. Maybe he'd bring up moving Rowan in with them again. He could make the place Rowan proof, surely? He'd just have to confine all his metalwork to the forges. Maybe put some of the more delicate stuff on higher shelves.

I can live with that if it means a happy Rowan.

Rowan shushed Cafas as they left the bathroom, giving an over loud whisper of "Mommy is sleeping." The X-man nodded and put a finger to his lips in agreement. He also put the finger to Rowan's lips, which made him giggle before he became all serious about being quiet. As he carried Ro towards the dresser, he noticed Maya had further buried herself in blanket. Ah, so they had been a bit loud. Oops.

"Here." Cafas set Rowan down. "You choose some clothes. Make sure you get clean undies." He kept his voice low, smiling, worry kept inside where Rowan didn't have to see it. The Pup nodded and set to pulling drawers open as quietly as he could. He knew the boy was going to be silly, but he wanted to check on Maya, and it was better for Ro to think she was asleep than unwell, in Cafas' opinion, if she wasn't up to getting out of bed.

Man the treatment's hitting her harder than the poisoning../

The pinkermint mutant stole over to the bed, taking a knee next to where Maya should be. His voice dropped even further. "Hey, you wanna come down for breakfast, or should I just bring you back some toast?" He set his hand lightly on where he figured her stomach was and waited for the reply.

She hated this. Before, when she felt less, she didn't feel enough to feel bad. As it turned out, feeling was embarrassing and weird and terrible. For the first time, she actually believed DocProf when he said she was dying. Because, for the first time, it actually sorta felt like it.

Cafas touched her through the comforter and she had a choice. Stay a miserable toad holed up all day in the room or brave the Mansion kitchen.

The blanket edged down until just her eyes were visible. "I'll go." She felt her breath come back to her under the blanket and was glad for the barrier. She needed a good toothbrushing. "Just... give me a bit to get up?" Maya made herself smile so that the words came out sounding happier than she felt. There was no reason to worry. This was temporary. Hopefully.

"Not to freak you out, but this reminds me a lot of being pregnant. Only this time, no shock bracelets." So. That was an upside.

One big breath to steady herself and Maya was pulling herself out of bed and into a hug. He was there. Almost as comforting as bed, if not as comfortable. Cafas made for a more appealing target.

Around Cafas' shoulder she spied Rowan who had found the pajama drawer, but Maya just didn't have the energy to start the battle against wearing pajamas in public. At least he understood that the tag went in the back so he didn't dress himself backwards anymore.

"Underwear on first, honey. We might be superheroes, but we're not indecent." There. Once she'd started to sound less grumpy it was like the hard part was over.

She touched Cafas' jaw and pulled his face down to her cheek even if his face was a tad mooky from the aftershave. It was worth rewarding good shaving behavior. It was worth feeling for moment like this. "I'll catch up?"

Cafas hmmmed happily, arms closing around Maya. If she felt as wretched as the previous day, she wasn't showing it. Then again, you could always trust Maya to do her best not to bring people down. It was the end of the day, when her emotional resilience had been drained, that would be the really telling point.

Not sure how alarming I'd find that.

Cafas kept that thought to himself. Those sorts of statements were better off saved for more stable points in life. As were several of the others that floated through his mind as he held Maya. For them, it was best to simply keep her close for as long as he could. By the sounds of it, Rowan was nearly dressed. Sort of. When he got the ordering right. Underwear on the outside was for the comic books. A touch on his jaw was the only signal he needed, lowering his face down next to Maya's.

>>"I'll catch up?"

"If you must. No ghosting, we don't know how it will affect treatment." He turned his head so he could kiss her cheek, booped his nose on hers, and pulled away reluctantly, hand trailing to Maya's hips. "Just take your time. I've got this." The end of his assertion was punctuated with a relaxed smile and confident wink. Dropping his hands, the X-man-come-father figure spun to face Rowan as he walked, eyes lingering on Maya's until they could no more.

Pyjamas to pyjamas... Maybe leave that one until we're away from the woman with the headache.

"Okay, now go brush your hair please, while I get dressed." He gently but firmly steered Rowan into the bathroom with a hand on the back, smiling the whole time. Once he was safely in, Cafas turned back and quickly dressed himself. He didn't exactly have many choices to um and ah about at the Mansion. Actually, he was rather lucky his supply of clean underwear was still going. He'd have to do laundry later. He should stop in on Adder and Abby too to make sure they didn't have any.

"Laundry day by the look of things. You be okay to mind Ro while I do that? Or should I see if you dad can take him? You know how he gets when he's bored, and Laundry is hardly exciting."

No ghosting. No escape. "Yes, doctor Cafas. I'm pretty sure I've heard that one before." Practically from the moment she'd manifested the ability to ghost, people had been telling her not to. Nobody seemed to understand that it was as natural as breathing and freeing and most of all: safe. Ghosting was her safe place. And, people just expected her to... not.

"C'mon." Maya put her hand at the back of Rowan's head to help steer him toward the bathroom mirror. A stepping stool that he probably didn't need any more waited for him near the sink. He was alarmingly tall standing next to her reflection in the mirror. "When did you get so tall?"

"When I sleeped. I think I got even more muscles too." Rowan flexed and Maya nearly choked on her toothbrush. Which hurt her head.

But. In a good way.

She obliged him in an arm squeeze while she finished her teeth and that made him giggle. His hair brushing was a top-layer attempt only so mom had to take over there.

"Nah. I think dad's got papers to grade or something." Maya gripped the counter. All she wanted to do was put her cheek against the cold surface and be miserable for a minute. Maybe later, she promised herself. "We'll be okay. Worst case, he can play with my phone." Rowan took up a semi-irregular chant of phone, phone, phooooone, phone! He could navigate the thing better than she could most days. Stilly touch screens. Why'd they ever think that ditching buttons was a good thing? Still, it was reassuring that laundry day had come. They didn't keep a lot here since they usually spent more time near Central Park.

"How terribly domestic." His fans would probably beg even to see him do laundry but then anything the person you loved did could be interesting. Even bending down to grab up some little kid-sized socks.

"Are you still tired, mom?" A little rough hand touched her arm. She'd been a tiny bit distracted. "You have vines in your eyes."

Tired? "No. I'm okay. Just moving a bit slow." She had her own face to wash, hair to brush, and clothes to change. Hopefully Cafas remembered to leave her some. "Save me some toast."

"Yeah I suppose that works. School had to go back eventually." Phones were a brilliant distraction. He kind of wished he had more time to get lost in his the way some of the mansion kids did. Hell, some of the other people his age were constantly lost in theirs too. He really did appear to be the odd one out, with far too much going on in a given moment to actually lose himself in anything but blissful moments with may. Who was grumpy at him for telling her not to Ghost.

Cafas quickly pulled on his boots, neglecting to tie the laces in favor of just pushing them down inside. It would at least keep them out of the way. Oh, Ro's sock. that should get washed too. Cafas bent to pick it up. Wherever the second one was, it wasn't nearby. Maybe Verdy could find it for him. Cafas gave a wiggle for a certain droll dame's entertainment, and deposited the sock in the laundry hamper.

I'll find it later...

Cafas ducked into the bathroom while Maya had Rowan in hand. He wasn't as good at getting ready with Rowan hanging off of him. That was definitely more Maya's domain.

"Are you still tired, mom? You have vines in your eyes."

"Veins buddy. Veins in her eyes." Cafas called from the bathroom. The finer points of the different blood vessels could wait. The Metal manipulator ran the hairbrush through his hair a few times. Just enough to get it under control. He'd have put a bit more into styling it, but it felt more like a "presentable" day than a "hot celebrity" day. His teeth would survive til after breakfast. They'd have to come back anyway, Rowan couldn't wear pyjamas all day.

Cafas swung back out of the bathroom, trying to make up for Maya's lack of energy with his own excess. "Toast? Deal." He'd save her some other stuff too. He knew she felt awful, but if she was feeling up to eating properly he wouldn't be the one to blame for that not happening. "Come on Ro, kiss Mom." Cafas lifted the happily squealing Ro up to Mayas cheek. His own face was apologetic for his poorly considered move. "Love you."

"Love you mommy!"

"Quickly now, before everyone eats all the breakfast!" Not that they were at risk of that, but a sense of urgency might just buy Maya some more quiet. The boys trotted out the door, hand in hand. Once they were out of earshot, Cafas shot a serious look down to Rowan. "You can wear pyjamas to breakfast, but you gotta put on proper clothes when we go back."

"I don't wanna!"

"You have to."

"No!"

Cafas pulled up and dropped into a crouch to be level with Rowan. "Come on bud, if you wear your pyjamas outside, what will you wear to bed?"

"Nothing."

"Nope, gotta wear your pyjamas. Which means you can't ruin them. Which mean you can't play. Do you want to play?"

Cafas received a defiant look for his effort, but it softened somewhat when there he showed no sign of budging.

"Yeah."

"Good, then you gotta put on proper clothes after breakfast. Plus it'll make Mom happy. Now, let's go so she doesn't catch up, and we can pretend it was your idea, okay?"

"Okay."

Rowan didn't seem happy, per-se, but he didn't argue too much. Cafas internalised a sigh of relief. He knew Rowan was banking on Maya maybe giving him a reward for being so good, he'd seen the wheels in motion behind his eyes, but if it worked, it worked.

Don't mess with the system...

The pair made their way down to the dining room, where the early risers among them were already busily eating and chatting. Cafas steered Ro over to the food and got him all set up with breakfast at the nearest available table so he could keep an eye on the pup while the diligent boyfriend made up a plate for Maya, with the toast kept carefully separate. No good getting it all contaminated with other food if Maya couldn't stomach the other food.

That was ferried back to the table. Last trip, Cafas' plate. Eggs, mostly, though he did allow himself some bacon. No toast though, empty carbs and all. Nope, pretty much just eggs.

Stupid fitness... They have waffles and everything.

Counting to 10 was how long it took her to get back to the bathroom, then a count of 12 before she let herself sink down right where she was standing. Maya'd meant to make it to 15, but no one was looking. Nobody to be proud for. No one to keep from scaring.

She touched her cheek, the one Rowan had kissed. It was wet. Gross, but sweet- Maya wiped her cheek with fingers that felt a little too large for her hand. Her other cheek was probably picking up the grout pattern from between the tiles. She could feel that too. And the coldness. The cold felt good on her head.

It took her a minute to flop over onto her back so that she could look up to where the light was set into the ceiling. It was a defined shape in a sea of black air. Just like usual. She took a couple breaths and tried to pack herself back together just a little bit more. She could feel the hard floor digging into her hips. Heck, she could feel the cold. But the light was still gone.

She wasn't surprised. Just disappointed.

It was only day 3. Maya rubbed her eyes and briefly considered ghosting. Day 3 was good because it meant there was still time to get more feeling back and get better. Day 3 was bad because yesterday had been bad. And today was feeling pretty similar, if not worse, in the headache department.

Enough wallowing. She made herself get up the old fashioned way and grabbed whatever clothes were left. Surely Cafas had left her things that matched. So far no one had said anything. She washed her face again, checked the blank, smooth surface for a reflection that wasn't there and went to find her boys and her toast.

Day 3. She could complain about that later.

Maya barely dodged a little kid who was after a much larger teen and sank into her spot at Cafas and Rowan's table. "Smells good." All smiles. No problem here. "thank you."

He knew he was hungry, dinner had been twelve hours earlier. It wasn't like the food was unappetising either. Not complicated, but very nice all the same. He just couldn't seem to find his appetite. Cafas sighed and frowned at his plate, as if willing the food to just teleport to his stomach.

She's going to be fine. The info sheet said there'd be side effects. What if it's kidney failure though? That was on there. I'm sure it's not dude... You don't sound real sure, captain lies to himself.

At least Ro was eating. Someone had to. Cafas glanced at the pup, deeply suspicious of the relative silence he was being left to worry in. As it turned out, he just had his mouth too full to speak. "Slow down please Rowan, you'll choke."

"'O uh o-eh"

"Don't speak with food in your mouth either." The X-man clenched his eyes shut and shook his head, letting out a long breath before opening his eyes again. He forced a mouthful of food into his mouth and swallowed.

>>"Smells good. Thank you."

Cafas started as Maya's voice broke his clearly pointless worrying. He hadn't noticed her approaching. Then, why would he? That telltale metal signature no longer existed. He hadn't realised quite how much he'd come to rely on that tiny marker of her presence. "I got you a little more than toast, just if you feel up to it. How you feeling?"

He got a lot more than toast, but then food was practically one Cafas' love languages. Maya took the full plate for the expression of concern that it was and sank into her chair with Rowan between them.

"Momma said there'd be days like this." She plucked the toast apart and took it little nibble by little nibble.

"Moo mon' hamb a mom."

"What's that? I can't understand you with your mouth full."

Rowan took the hint and chewed fast. "You don't have a mom. Cafas doesn't have a mom either, do you?"

Huh. Maya took a bigger bite of toast so that she'd have more than a second to chew it over. "Everybody has a mom."

"I don't have a mom." Jude invited himself to the table. "But I do have a scheduling conflict. Can you sign this off-campus extracurricular permission sheet, most lovely legal guardian?" He bat his eyes and passed over the paper.

The paper that appeared blank to Maya. She looked at it studiously just in case words decided to appear. "What is this for?" She put the last of her toast in her mouth so that she could use both hands and flip between blank pages.

"The Wong can only come on campus on Tuesday/Thursdays."

Even if she couldn't see the page, Maya could see the teen eyeing the still full plate. She nudged it over toward Jude.

"Mr. Wong, your martial arts instructor?"

"And Phys. Ed. credit. But! His time slot conflicts with basketball, see?" Jude had taken up the fork from Maya's plate and pointed to a spot on the second page with the help of some eggs. Maya ferreted the last bit of bread off of what was now Jude's plate while Rowan tugged at Cafas' sleeve in order to ask him what Phys. Ed. was. "So, if you approve, I could actually go to Wong's dojo in the city instead. At a more convenient time for everybody."

"Alone?"

"Well, there's Alex. He's training with Wong too."

Oh. Right. The murder kid. Such great company. "Is he even allowed off campus yet? If not, you'd be going alone. Into the city. I'm guessing after school's out so that'd be night."

"Oh, come on. Like nobody does patrols around here alone. Or at night."

Maya folded the papers in half. "Sounds like somebody needs a mom."

"No. I need to learn to kick butt." Jude grumped at his plate.

Maya passed the papers to Cafas. "What do you think?" Jude was old enough to join the x-men and making strides toward doing so. He had a point that the permission slip seemed a bit superfluous just because he wasn't yet his own legal adult.

Cafas forced a slightly easier forkful into his mouth, grunting an affirmation of Maya's sentiment. He was glad she was there, too. He couldn't exactly say anything to Rowan with food in his own mouth.

Well, not without being a massive hypocrite.

The metal manipulator managed to swallow and dragged his eyes from his plate up to examine the movement in his peripheral vision. He needn't have bothered, the voice would have been identification enough. The X-man's eyes flicked to the form changing hands and back to the french boy's face. "Hey Jude." Cafas nodded, not particularly expecting a response.

Man I could use a coffee...

Not-mother and son continued their discussion, Cafas listening for lack of anything better to do, until a tugging on his shirt caught his attention. "What's up mate?" The word sounded so wrong with his developing accent. The last recognisable hints of Australian did nothing to salvage it.

"What's Fizz Head credit?" The pup asked, poking himself in the face with food as he missed his mouth. He managed with the second try at least. Cafas reached for a napkin. "Phys ed is Physical Education. It's like exercise class, with stuff about bodies and staying healthy." The Pinkermint X-man wiped the remnants of food from Rowan's cheek despite the boy's efforts at resistance. "A Phys Ed credit means Jude doesn't have to do some of that class, I think. Your mom probably knows better, we didn't have credits like that at my school."[/b]

Just as he'd managed to turn back to his food, Cafas was being brought into the conversation. He accepted the folded form somewhat uncertainly and started to skim it. "I mean, in theory I don't see why not. An evening trip into the city can't be more dangerous than a mission." Like, at all. Cafas' eyes flicked over the bold and underlined details of the permission form. "He's also not lying, that's totally what this form says." Which was pretty much the only reason he could imagine for being invited into the discussion.

I'm certainly no father figure to him.

"Plus he really could use the training. Never know, formal martial arts training might force some respect into him." Cafas flashed a good-natured wink at captain concussion, a hint of a smirk playing at his lips. He handed the form back to Maya. "This form is interestingly mum on how he's going to get there though. You drive yet Jude?" Not that most people in NYC did. Tourists, cab drivers, the odd person who couldn't just walk or catch the subway. Cafas looked between Jude and his mother, taking the opportunity to eat more. His appetite seemed to be picking up, now that the day seemed normal again.