The I'll think about it was good enough for him. That usually meant yes, but I'm too suborn to let you have your way right now. He'd gotten pretty good at speaking Elke over the years.

"...Did you really mean it? That you'd teach me stuff?"

They were almost to McDornalds when she spoke up, and he nodded a bit. "If you're an X-Man, I'd just be doin my job, right? I could teach you to kick all kindsa ass... Don't get me wrong, I was super impressed by your ability to high kick lanky rich kids who want to be gangsters, but that @#$^ don't cut it against real criminals."

He opened the door for her. She had to have assumed this was where they were going. He knew where all of the locations in New York were, and he didn't like actually paying for expensive food.

"How're the grades? You make up that Geography exam you skipped?"

Twice. She skipped it twice. Didn't like the teacher. Said he smelled like moldy bread and lied about which lands belonged to the natives at which times or something like that.

Ah, Mcdornalds. Not her favorite place, but she didn't mind. It was easy getting free stuff from there. She followed him in without protest. 

When he brought up her most recent geography test though.... oh boy. Now probably wasn't the time to mention that she'd gotten removed from that class for threatening to break a globe over the teachers head. Detention for the next foreseeable future, and then probably an even longer grounding at home when the school eventually got around to calling him within the next few days. Quick, change the subject!

"So what's up with that artist chick, huh?" She shoved her hands into her pockets and avoided looking at him, sweating a bit as she tried to swing the conversation away from school. 

"She just a really good lay or are you actually serious?"

"So what's up with that artist chick, huh? She just a really good lay or are you actually serious?"

Was she deflecting? Yes. Did she get his attention with that one?

COUGH.

"Uh, what? Oh... Um... Well... Figure it's like this... You know when you shoot an arrow all quick like you do. It's super quick-like, right? You don't think of it, it just happens in the moment... It's kinda like that with her, I guess. It kinda happened, and I'm seeing where it goes."

He waved to the man behind the counter, who got his order started. They knew what he wanted.

"I like her though... I really do. Ain't gonna ask you to like her. I think pissing you off is hilarious." He shrugged, and pulled his wallet out. "Wachu want today?"

After the order, he stepped off to the side and leaned against the wall. "...How do you feel about her?"

"Uh, what? Oh... Um... Well... Figure it's like this... You know when you shoot an arrow all quick like you do. It's super quick-like, right? You don't think of it, it just happens in the moment... It's kinda like that with her, I guess. It kinda happened, and I'm seeing where it goes."

She scowled at him. "That is literally the worst analogy I've ever heard. Only an idiot shoots an arrow without aiming for sumthin." She huffed at him, crossing her arms. 

"I like her though... I really do. Ain't gonna ask you to like her. I think pissing you off is hilarious."

Aiming a sneer his way she barked out her own order to the poor guy behind the counter and plopped into a seat opposite of where Saph was standing. "Well good, because I ain't gonna like her. Don't need no stupid stuck up know-it-all messing around in my life more than the one I already got." She pointedly glanced at him, and the sneer shifted into a smirk.

"hmm.." Other than the things she'd already pointed out about the woman, there wasn't much to say. The one defining plus side she had was that she seemed to make Saph happier. "I think she makes you happy, and that's good, and as long as she stays out of my way we won't have problems."

"That is literally the worst analogy I've ever heard. Only an idiot shoots an arrow without aiming for sumthin."

"I know but... I was... Elke, why you gotta be such a turd?" He gave up trying to explain this to her. Any more effort would just be responded with more snark.

"Well good, because I ain't gonna like her. Don't need no stupid stuck up know-it-all messing around in my life more than the one I already got."

Saph grumped noticeably, grabbing his food from the man behind the counter, who had called out their number. He pointed to the nearest table, and walked over to take a seat, listening to her assessment of Shelby.

"Alright, then... I ain't askin you to like her. I don't think it would hurt to give her a chance, if you can... You'll have tons of time to try, figuring how you won't be leaving the mansion for a month for anything but school. No math club, either." He folded his arms, waiting to gauge her reaction to that.

Once he was done with that, he started constructing his masterpiece, pulling apart a mick chicken and putting a double sr burger inside of it, loading fries into it, and then shoving it as flat as it would go.

As he did this, he spoke.

"We start training tomorrow. I'll see about maybe getting Sam to show you some stuff too. Maybe I can have one of the Trainees help you, too."

"you'll have tons of time to try, figuring how you won't be leaving the mansion for a month for anything but school. No math club, either."

She opened her mouth to respond, thought better of it and simply reclined back in her seat to moodily eat her burger. He was serious about the whole being grounded thing. She'd kinda maybe hoped he'd just forget. Crap!

"We start training tomorrow. I'll see about maybe getting Sam to show you some stuff too. Maybe I can have one of the Trainees help you, too."

She speared him with a look, many things racing to the tip of her tongue. She forced them into an organized line. "What? Ew! I don't want any of those trainee weirdos watching me train!" Didn't one of them dance or something? How weird was that?

She moved onto her next point, "You sure your girly isn't gonna get her panties in a wad from you spending more time on me? She's been virtually hording you for the last three weeks." She popped a few fries into her mouth and chewed lazily.

His creation was completed. Ah, this favorite. The Masochist burger. Most of the fun was crafting it, honestly. He moved the creation up toward his mouth, and paused when she complained.

"What? Ew! I don't want any of those trainee weirdos watching me train!"

He set his sammich down slowly, staring at her with a deadpan expression. "Elke, you run around wearing a native american head dress that has nothing to do with your actual tribe, collect arrow heads, pop out clones who have trouble with red light green light, and you once sang Method Man while shooting tear gas into a crowd of people; That' just be getting started. You've got em all beat. Sides, you'll have to fight with them at some point if you become a trainee."

He felt like he'd gotten his point across, so he grabbed his Masoburger and went to take a bite again-


"You sure your girly isn't gonna get her panties in a wad from you spending more time on me? She's been virtually hording you for the last three weeks."

He lowered it once more, grimacing. "Moose, you know that ain't fair. She's stuck at the mansion. It's not like that's her choice." He set the burger down, taking a sip of his drink. "Sides... She knows some people at the mansion now. She's blending in pretty well... Who knows, maybe you can teach her a thing or too, eh?"

Her face grew red again and she huffed. "I ain't done that since I was a kid!" She still had all of her old gear, though. It was kind hard for her to give up. Puffing her cheeks out she glared at the man as he tried to eat his abomination burger. "...I don't know know any of them though." She'd done a pretty good job ignoring all of the other kids at the school through the years, as Saph breathed down her neck to get caught up in school.

She took another bite of her burger, staring at him as he explained the woman's situation. She was satisfied with it, for now. "Not gonna happen. She's still on my @#$% list for all of that pink crap." She squinted at him, pointing a fry in his direction for good measure. "... and don't think you are off the hook for that, either!

Not that she had any of that stuff anymore... she'd managed to find a bunch of preppy girls to trade them too. As it turned out a lot of them had been discontinued and were apparently hard to find. Elke had the good ole' boring junk, and she was perfectly fine with them! Wasn't even going to get rid of them this time. She'd already learned that lesson.

"Okay, so here is the deal. I will give this whole training thing a try, but if I don't like it I get to drop out and you don't get to pester me about it." She knew he was aware of the fact that the didn't necessarily mean she wanted to drop the whole crime fighting thing, just the x-men part. She'd find some other way, if it came to that.

"....and, I will leave your weird girlfriend alone... but i'll try to get along with her when I can't avoid her. That good?" She popped the fry into her mouth and waited.

He really did enjoy seeing her get all puffed up like that. It was it's own kind of adorable. He finally took a bite of his burger, and pointed to her when she complained about the pink stuff.

"Where'd all that stuff go now that I think of it, huh? Ain't seen any of it a while."

He gave her a suspicious look. She did her home work with him around still, in case she had any questions, they could both struggle through it, cause he wasn't exactly well educated.

Saph listened silently as she went over her terms for trying out the whole X-Men thing. He gve a slow now.

"Yeah, glad you could volunteer yourself... You know, cause if you don't, and you try to go out crime fighting, I'll make the next year the most boring torment you could imagine." He smiled a bit, and took another bite. D'aww, she thought she was in charge, here. Wasn't she cute?

"Where'd all that stuff go now that I think of it, huh? Ain't seen any of it a while."

She shrugged one shoulder at him. "I keep most of it at school locked away in my locker where it can never see the light of day again."

"Yeah, glad you could volunteer yourself... You know, cause if you don't, and you try to go out crime fighting, I'll make the next year the most boring torment you could imagine."

A bead of sweat raced down her cheek and she sank a little lower in her seat. She puffed up like a puffer fish and silently finished her burger. He could be terrifyingly creative when it came to punishments. She didn't want to even try and press that issue. She was one to pick her battles carefully.

".... I was only trying to be more like you. Thought you'd like that or something." She muttered, pushing around the empty wrapper on her tray.

He wasn't without some satisfaction at seeing her deflate a bit. Elke needed the occasional deflating, honestly. She tended to get her self into trouble if he didn't put her in check. She meant well most of the time, but didn't have any limiters. He'd found that out early on.

She was getting better, though.

"... I was only trying to be more like you. Thought you'd like that or something."

He chuckled for a moment, and then shook his head slowly, placing both elbows on the table and looking at her.

"If I wanted you to be like me I wouldn't make you work so hard on your schooling. You gotta be better than me, Moose. You gotta be the best you can. Don't settle for anything less."

"If I wanted you to be like me I wouldn't make you work so hard on your schooling. You gotta be better than me, Moose. You gotta be the best you can. Don't settle for anything less."

She eyed him moodily, her expression flat. "What is this, a motivational army recruitment speech?" Lapsing into silence as she finished off her fries, she thought about what he meant. It was true that he pushed her a lot to be a better person and with her grades.... but what exactly did 'be the best you can' mean?

She struggled to find an answer for a bit, moping to herself, before she sighed and spoke. "So...um... about school and stuff." She'd kinda been dreading this topic for a while, ever since it had been brought up at school a month or so back. "... I kinda already have plans for after I graduate and all... like, um... I've been planning with one of my buddies, actually."

She shifted nervously, glancing at him from the corners of her eyes. "... and i've been kinda putting off talking to you about it, cuz I don't know what you'll think." She shifted her eyes around the room and fiddled with the string on her bow. She was nervous... she didn't know how he would react, or how she would react if he reacted weird. She cleared her throat a little.

".... I want to go to college."

"What is this, a motivational army recruitment speech?"

Saph shot her a sour expression, crossing his arms in front of his chest. His arms uncrossed as she started talking about something serious, resting on the table for a moment as he prepared for some bad news.

Was she leaving? Who was this person she had been talking with about something? Did he need to kick someone's ass? Was he about to put himself in jail?

What ever she was trying to say, she was nervous. She wasn't usually the type, so that meant this wasn't a joke; it was something serious.

His fists slowly clenched, tightening as she cleared her throat.

".... I want to go to college."

Saph immediately jumped up, walking around the table and wrapping her in an embrace. "Oh jesus you scared me... No S$#%, you're going to College, Elke. I would'a freaked out if you weren't goin. S'gud you've realized it, though." He sat down next to her, looking at her for a moment. "You know I'm proud of how hard you've been working, right?" Jesus, though, he thought she was thinking about popping out babies or something.

She jumped when he jumped, automatically reaching back for an arrow on instinct. Then she was wrapped in a hug faster than she could process, so she just stared at him with an owl like expression as he tattered away.

"Oh jesus you scared me... No S$#%, you're going to College, Elke. I would'a freaked out if you weren't goin. S'gud you've realized it, though."

"R-really?!" She blinked at him, ignoring his sudden closeness for the moment as she processed this new information. He was... happy? Well, that was different. Her friend's parents had practically flipped out on her when she had announced it. They had been worried for financial reasons if it was something the family could afford. Elke had been worried for other reasons.... though, now she felt kinda silly that she had been worried at all. Obviously Saph wasn't like her actual parents. 

"You know I'm proud of how hard you've been working, right?"

Her cheeks heated up a little and she squirmed an avoided eye contact for a bit. "S-shut up."

This was new... she wasn't sure how to deal with it. He was proud of her? She wasn't used to that. She stewed over it silently for a bit before she spoke again, putting words together in her head. "...My mah always told me i'd never really amount to anything, Ya'know? And two of my brothers laughed at me when i was little, when i told them I wanted to go to one of those really famous colleges and get a degree. They said i'd never make it." She chuckled, scratching at the back of her head. "I punched that one in the nose so hard that he ductaped me to a tree and left me outside for two days as revenge. He looked like a raccoon for a week though, so it was all good." 

She shrugged at herself, "... I dunno... I was just worried that maybe you wouldn't think I was college material, either." Never mind the fact that he was proud of her...

"....you're the first person to ever say you're proud of me for something..." Well, except for Roach... but that had been different.

"...My mah always told me i'd never really amount to anything, Ya'know? And two of my brothers laughed at me when i was little, when i told them I wanted to go to one of those really famous colleges and get a degree. They said i'd never make it. I punched that one in the nose so hard that he ductaped me to a tree and left me outside for two days as revenge. He looked like a raccoon for a week though, so it was all good."


Saph listened, staring forward as she spoke about a hopelessness instilled by those around her in her past. It wasn't their fault really, though. He knew how she felt. It was a whole atmosphere that came from growing up poor. An education? A good career? The american dream? Those were just that... useless dreams, especially when you were more worried about how you were going to find your next meal.

"eleven years, I lived on the streets... I had a lot of people tell me that same thing. @#$# em. They don't know what we're made of. You're gonna beat em all, Elke." He grinned, and grabbed some of her fries, popping them in his mouth, stopping in thought mid chew, having a beat moment, and then swallowing. "You ain't... you know... plannin on goin too far off for college, are you?"

Sure, he wanted the world for her, but... He didn't know if he was ready for her to run off to the west coast, do all of the drugs, and become some sort of seattlite hipster kinda person. He had enough of that in his life with Shelby!