"Your dad... is he... Scary? Like would he be mad if he saw you hanging out with a boy? Am I going to have to pass some sort of inspection?"

Elke laughed nervously, but managed to cover it up at the last second with a wave of her hand. "My dad? Naaaah, He's  a big softy." ... Never mind the fact that Saph was one of the only people who actually managed to strike fear into her on a regular basis... or that he had access to some crazy #$%&... or the fact that he expressly forbade her from interacting with anyone of the male persuasion until she was 45.

....Not scary at allll.

"If you met him you'd think so too. He's a huge push over." She shifted the subject them, ignoring the beads of nervous sweat rolling down her neck.  "So do you live with your brother? Want me to kick his #$%?" She cracked a grin at him, flexing her free arm at him. Given how active she was both in and out of school, she was pretty well build. Even with her short stature she could take on most non-mutants her age with ease. 

"Or do you live on your own?" She kinda hoped he did. It would score him another cool point in her books and give her something else to brag about.

"Oh good," Bailey breathed in deeply. If her dad was a pushover, then maybe he actually had a chance of not losing any limbs if they ever met. The boy suddenly went bright red as that thought crossed his mind.

That was assuming a lot of one day playing video games. That was assuming that they, like, got to the point where they were meeting parents and everything and that was just way too fast. He looked down at his shoes as he walked and tried to refocus some of his thoughts.

"I mean, it's not that I, like, expect to meet your dad or anything," he mumbled. For some reason he felt the burning need to clarify that to Elke, even though she clearly hadn't been on the same train of thought. "I mean, like, totally not trying to put that pressure on this day..."

Bailey trailed off, his face tomato red. He was at a loss for words suddenly. That never happened.

"Oh, I live with two of my brothers and my dad," Bailey shrugged. His face had not returned to its normal shade, especially since he was now even a little more embarrassed about not living by himself. It seemed that that was what Elke was hoping for. Should he be living on his own yet? He had thought that people were supposed to move out after high school, but maybe that wasn't the case.

"This is it," he gestured to an old, tall apartment building that they had just walked up to. "It's on the third floor."

He began to walk up the stairs two at a time, expecting that Elke would follow. He hadn't shown someone to his new place yet, so he was sort of excited-but-also-a-little-nervous about it. It was a lot smaller than his old house in Stratford, but it was sort of cool. Plus it was in New York!

"I mean, it's not that I, like, expect to meet your dad or anything, I mean, like, totally not trying to put that pressure on this day..."

She blinked at him, thoroughly confused by his sudden hue change and the fact that he seemed flustered. Was meeting someones parents a weird thing? Was she supposed to be flustered as well? She'd never taken any of her old friends home when she still lived with her biological parents.... and the few school friends she had came over to visit the school often, though mostly for study groups that were monitored religiously by her adopted dad. She frowned slightly and pondered on that. "Meh, it aint got me flustered, so no worry." She shrugged it off, not one to worry on things for long. 

"Oh, I live with two of my brothers and my dad,"

"So i'm about to meet your dad, then? ... see, halfway done!" She grinned at him to cover up the minor disappointment she felt. He was a normal dude, then. No cool pad to himself. Probably didn't own a Harley, either, but meh. She had unrealistically high expectations of people.

She glanced up at the tall building he pointed out as his own, and eyeballed the stairs. This was it, huh? He started up the stairs and she followed after, easily keeping pace. "So how long have you worked at that ice cream joint?" She was curious what it was like, considering she would be looking for a job of her own as soon as she graduated. Something to help her afford the degree she was looking into. Someplace where you got really really good tips, like a bar or whatever.

Bailey nodded at Elke gratefully, thankful that she hadn't been too put off by either his insinuation or his rambling that followed it. He really needed to work on getting it into check, even if she said that she didn't mind. Some day it was going to get him into big trouble.

"Yeah, he's a bit odd, so just be warned. Actually, I don't even know if he's home. He might be at a rehearsal or at a club or something," he shrugged as he climbed the first flight of stairs. His dad's schedule was confusing and full of things that didn't include him. He didn't mind much, though. He knew that his dad was doing something that he had always dreamed of, and it gave him and his brothers a bit more freedom.

>>"So how long have you worked at that ice cream joint?"

"Few weeks," Bailey shrugged again. "I just moved here a little while ago, and my dad wanted me to pick up a job when we got here. Y'know, to help with the bills and stuff..." He trailed off and coughed. There it was with his rambling again. He wasn't supposed to be telling people about that... Something like being confidential about money or something?

"Anyway, this is it," he stuck a key in the door the third floor apartment. He just hoped that his brothers had been nice enough to not leave everything they owned out like they usually did.

"Can't be any worse than my folks." She snorted, trying to envision his dad from that very brief description. Some kinda actor? Singer? "Theater geek or something?" A lot of wild, fanciful ideas danced through her mind. She drew herself back from them when he started talking again.

"Really? That new?" He was practically a baby in the city, then. "I've been tearing up the streets here since I was in diapers... whatchu think about my city?" New York was the type of city that could easily chew you up and spit you out if you weren't used to it. The people were a breed of their own, and the culture could definitely be overwhelming if you were the sensitive type.

She tried to peer around him as he unlocked the door, curious as to what it looked like inside. "Di'ju luck out and get one of them places without its own community of roaches?" Bugs and vermin were serious issue in quite a few places within the city. Heck, even outside the city! She'd had to deal with them quite a bit back on the reservation at her moms place.

"Woah, what's with all the stuff?"

"Uh yeah, professional stage actor," Bailey told her sheepishly. It wasn't exactly a high paying job or anything, but it was kind of cool. "Though, he would tell you that 'all the world's a stage'," he had puffed out his chest and done his best impression of a Shakespearean stage voice as he quoted As You Like It by the famous bard.

"It's cool," Bailey grinned, leaving off the last consonant. He hadn't been in the city long, yet somehow it felt like much longer. He could barely even remember his life in his old town. Okay, that was a lie, but it sounded poetic in his head. "There's lots to do, but sometimes it feels a little too big, y'know? Like I'll never be anything or do anything more than anyone else. But I mean, that's really not that big a deal. And it's not like things would be much different in my old town either. I mostly just hung out with my friends and goofed off and stuff."

"Di'ju luck out and get one of them places without its own community of roaches?"

"I dunno. Haven't seen too many roaches, but I saw a spider or two. And some ants," he shrugged. It wasn't like his family were the cleanliest of folks.

Bailey closed his eyes and scrunched up his face as he got a good look inside of his apartment. Damn, it seemed that things were worse than ever. The apartment was an absolute mess, and his older brother Benji sat eating two slices of pizza at the kitchen counter.

"Sorry," Bailey mumbled. "I guess we all just got used to my mom cleaning things up. That does really happen here, so no one does it."

"Hey Bailey-boo," Benji sang, "who's your girl-ie-friend?" 

"Uh yeah, professional stage actor, Though, he would tell you that 'all the world's a stage',"

She chuckled at his impression. Whatever the case, it at least sounded cool! Professional stage actor was like, one step away from tv actor, right? 

She listened as he talked about moving to the city and his impression of it. She nodded a few times and tucked her hands in her pockets. "Nothing wrong with goofin' off and junk. S'pretty fun actually. I used to do that a lot before my old man cracked down on me." 

"Sorry, I guess we all just got used to my mom cleaning things up. That does really happen here, so no one does it."

"Hey, no skin off my nose." She waved the issue away, really not bothered in the least. She'd seen worse. However, when his brother spoke up a grin cracked her lips and she shot an entertained side glance at Bailey. "...Bailey-boo..." If that wasn't the gosh darned cutest nickname she'd ever heard! 

"Want me to punch im'?" She was only half serious, but cracked her knuckles just in case.

"Want me to punch im'?"

"No," Bailey shook his head and cringed at the nickname that his brothers had so kindly bestowed upon him. When there had been five of the boys, there had been a specific order in the household. However, when they had been separated, things changed. Their mom was no longer there to keep them all from fighting, and the oldest brother couldn't look out for the younger ones. 

So, Benji had taken to picking on both Bailey and Brian, who could be heard in the other room talking on the phone. Bailey rolled his eyes at his older brother and gave him a pointed look.

"She's not my girlfriend, doofus. Aren't you supposed to be at work right now?" Bailey crossed his arms and stared at his brother.

Benji stood up, showing off his full height of 6'3. "It's my day off. Aren't you supposed to go be disappointing somewhere else?" He took the final bite of his sandwich and then walked over to the sink, where he piled his plate onto the overflowing mountain of dishes. "Nice to meet you, Bailey-boo's not-girlfriend."

Benji extended a hand to Elke and grinned at her. Bailey glared at his hand and stepped forward down the hallway.

"The x-box is in here," Bailey mumbled and gestured for Elke to follow him.

"Don't go making any little electronic babies!" Benji called after him and made some mature kissing noises.

"Nice to meet you, Bailey-boo's not-girlfriend."

She grinned, accepting the handshake with a firm one of her own. "Sup, dude." Bailey was already on his way toward his room, so she nodded at the brother and scooted on after her date. 

"Don't go making any little electronic babies!"

"Don't worry, i'm on the pill!"

She cackled to herself as she followed him into his room, then paused to take a look around. She'd only ever been in other girls' rooms before. They tended to be over-full of crappy stereotypical 'girl' things. Elke's own room was pretty sparsely decorated, with just a few prized possessions, trophies, and posters here and there. It helped that she had a roommate... one who was into boys bands and pink things. 

"So... what're we gonna play first?"

Bailey opened the door to his room and ushered Elke in. It wasn't exactly clean, but it was at least a little bit better than the rest of the apartment. There was a bunk bed against the wall; the top was his, and the bottom was Brian's. The walls were lined with movie and video game posters, and his dresser had a few pictures of him and his family, as well as his band at his old school. 

He sat down in a beanbag chair and nodded to an old television that was hooked up to endless chords. "Here we go," he grinned and turned everything on one by one.

Bailey glanced at Elke and chewed on his lip. "Oh..." There were no more chairs in his room. "Uhm, here." He rolled off of the chair and landed with a thump on the floor next to it. He gave a dramatic gesture to it and boomed, "after you."

The tv booted up and displayed the x-box symbol with a fuzzy picture. He reached forward and grabbed a stack of games from the shelf nearby and handed them to Elke. "Anything look interesting?"

She flushed a little when he moved out of the chair to let her sit down. It was sweet, but un-needed. She would have been more than happy to sit on the floor.

With a chuckle, she nudged the chair out of the way with her foot an plopped down on the floor right beside him with a grin. "Thanks, but I prefer being down here with you."

When presented with the games, she took a moment to shuffle through them before she stumbled on one she recalled. She'd played it a lot and had fond memories of it! "Oooh! This one!" She held it out to him. It was a wrestling game notorious for it's horribly silly graphics and character creation engine. You could so do so much with it though!! And the voice acting was hilarious!

"What do you think?" Cross-legged, she shifted the other games onto the floor in front of her.

"Well alright then," Bailey shrugged at Elke as she joined him on the floor. It was a bit of a weird move, considering the floor was so much less comfortable than the chair. "But the chair is a lot more comfy than the floor. Do you not like to be comfy or something? Or do you have like a tailbone injury, or..."

Bailey blinked for a minute as the cogs in his brain turned very, very slowly. She wanted to sit with him. "Oh..." He trailed off and fell silent as he blushed a deep red.

His eyes lit up as she selected a particularly poorly made wrestling game from the stack. That one was perfect, especially if she didn't really like video games. It was a good one for both the experienced and the inexperienced. 

He grabbed the case and removed the little disk as his system booted up. He then placed it in the system and selected his avatar with the username SockGamer99. The game load screen appeared and he handed Elke a controller.

"Pick a character, any character!" Bailey yelled enthusiastically and shot a hand in the air like a carnival worker. 

"Oh..."

She cackled at him. He was so freakin' adorable! A wide grin settled on her lips as he got the game set up. Most guys were usually so full of themselves it was painful. Bailey was just so... not.

He handed her a controller and she scanned it quickly, attempting to reacquaint herself with it. It had been such a long time since she had last played a game, she couldn't really remember which buttons typically did what. Was x jump? Did Y attack?

She watched as the opening animations rolled through, pressing a few buttons when prompted until she was in character creation. "Prepare to be amazed!"

A few moments later her masterpiece was finished. A minuscule speck of a woman, with stringy pink pigtails and twiggy little arms and legs, who sported gigantic nerd glasses and had the most MASSIVE nose ever to appear on a human face, was sashaying down the ramp toward the ring while making a complete ass of herself... like any wrestler worth their salt would. She was truly a spectacle, and she was lovingly named 'Shelby.

Elke was giggling like mad. It was too perfect. She waited for Bailey's character to join hers, and then prepared for the battle that was sure to follow. If luck would have it, ladder, pile drivers, lion tamer's, and suplex's would be involved.

"Amazed I am!" Bailey grinned at the tiny pink hair woman that Elke had made. It didn't look like she would be able to take on a very big character, but then again, she was probably packing something in those pig tails. Plus, it was a video game, where logic and physics were thrown to the wind.

He pressed a few buttons and got himself to the character creation screen, where he started on his own masterpiece. 

Bailey went through and chose the second last option in all of the categories, and ended up with a lumbering man with the biggest nose and the tiniest hips known to man. All in all, it was not a pretty sight. He titled his creation 'Benji', after his wonderful brother.

He eyed the door and leaned over to Elke, whispering in her ear. "If he comes in here, let me know. He'll pummel me if he sees this."

"Alright, you ready to start?" He grinned and resumed a normal volume.  

She giggled at his creation, and blushed slightly when he leaned in to whisper to her. Thankfully, it was hard to see on her skin tone. "If he tries it i'll get him with a pile driver."

With a grin, she nodded at him and waited for the actual fight to start. Of course, considering what kind of game this was, she went for one of the fancy moves right off the bat. As soon as she was able to move her character around she tried to rush in, jamming buttons to try and get moves to work, or combos, or anything really.

At one point she got stuck outside the ring and couldn't figure out how to get back in. Then she went after the referee... and then the npc's who were stationed at the table just outside the ring, with a chair. After that, much like she'd wanted, a ladder was suddenly involved, and she managed to climb it, and then throw herself off of it to no effect seeing as she missed her target. Then her phone beeped at her and she cursed at it as she attempted to subdue Bailey's character with the stairs to the ring. Who would have figured they'd make them a usable object?

.... wait....What?

She dropped the controller and dug her phone out, quite surprised to suddenly find it back on. Hadn't she turned it off a while ago? Maybe she'd sat on it wrong and it had turned itself back on?

Oh... she had a message... from her dad.

Home. NOW.

She stared at it long and hard for a moment, before stuffing it back in her pocket. "Right!... So... I gotta go before by dad traces my phone and kills me." She wriggled up out of her sitting position, then turned and looked at Bailey with a guilty little smile.

"This was really, fun... though. I wish I was able to stay longer." She paused, digging her phone back out and handing it to him. "Can I have your phone number so we can do it again sometime? I'll give you mine too."

She wasn't sure if he would, but either way she'd stuff her phone back in her pocket and lean in to peck him on the cheek before standing and heading for the door.