"Oh well that makes a ton of sense," Bailey said, throwing his hands up in the air and leaning back slightly on the mall bench. His feet lifted slightly off of the ground as he did so, and he brought them back down with a thump. 

He sat there nodding for a minute in silence, reflecting on the fact that their problems that day had been caused because of Emily's mutation, whatever that was. A few minutes in, he realized that Emily would likely have no idea why he was nodding, or what he was eluding to.

"Oh! Sorry, I should explain. See, I'm what's called an adapted. Or, at least, that's what some X-dude and the internet told me. I take away peoples' powers whenever I'm in a certain range. So, do whatever you want with your mutant powers, but it's not gonna work on me, ya know?" He grinned to punctuate the end of his last sentence.

"So what can you do then?"

Makes a lot of sense? So he DID have some kind of a power suppressing thing going on. Or did he mean that the fact she was acting weird and being sick made a lot of sense because she was a mutant? It was infuriating that she couldn't get any kind of a read on him, because until he said something, and more importantly she believed him she just didn't have anything to go on. She gave off a huff. "What's that supposed to mean?" 

She leaned forwards as he explained, wide eyed and listening. She'd never heard of anything like that. Why had she never heard of anything like that before? She shrugged a little uncomfortably and tilted her head looking at him for a moment. "So- Um. I mean, well it really doesn't bother you that I'm a mutant?" She replied, in a low voice. 

She didn't answer his question just yet. 

Did it bother him that she was a mutant?

"Not really," Bailey shrugged. He'd met plenty of mutants - some pretty cool, some a little less so. Either way, he figured, they were just people when it came down to it. People that could do things that others couldn't. Why should they be treated any differently than anyone else?

Anyway, he'd thought that he was a mutant for years of his own life, and he'd been fine with it. The fact that he'd be wrong about his own genetic structure didn't change his stance on the species as a whole. 

He gave her a good look up and down. There didn't seem to be anything physical about her mutation at first glance, but he really had no idea what was... OKAY. He was not going to let his mind go there. Especially when she was sitting right in front of him. There he was, blushing again about a subject that he should not have been dwelling on in the middle of the mall.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and rubbed the back of his neck as he continued. "No, it doesn't bother me. You're just a person, right? A person who can do something cool. Something cool which you still haven't told me about, by the way."

He sounded casual. Could casual sound sincere? Could people hide sincerity very well with their voice? She wasn't sure. How could she be? She glanced up into his face, uncertainty flickering across hers. She practically tackled him to the ground in a hug. He was telling the truth. She hugged for what was to most people a little longer than comfortable.

Then stood up and smiled at him. "Thank you." She murmured simply. He was actually kind of sweet. She tilted her head and smirked. He was actually quite relaxing to be around when she wasn't freaking out. "Well, I'm an Empath. So normally I can tell what everyone around me in a fairly large radius is feeling. But when I'm close to you it cuts off, and then when you step away it suddenly floods back. It's a headache." She replied honestly.

Her eyes narrowed, something about the words 'still not told me' rung in her brain for a moment. She punched him in the arm. Now, Emily wasn't exactly a model of upper body strength, in fact she was pretty weak. But it was enough to make her arm sting a little, so his probably would. "Jerk. What did you think was wrong with me? Did it not cross your mind that you had a weird effect on mutants?" She huffed.

Bailey wondered for a second if he'd done something as he watched a flicker of uncertainty cross Emily's fa-

He was being hugged. One second he was seated next to her, and then next he was letting out an 'oof' noise as all the air he had in his lungs was forced out of his body. The force of the hug-tackle caused him to slide off of the plastic-lined cushions, so that he was crouched on the mall floor, still being hugged by Emily. All that separated his Levi's-encased bottom from the filthy floor were a pair of worn-out converse that he was balancing precariously on.

"Oh cool! So you, like, feel what other people are feeling? What am I feelin- oh wait, never mind. You don't know. Duh," he hit himself with the heel of his palm and blushed a little, feeling utterly stupid. He was rather glad that she actually couldn't feel what he was feeling, though. That probably would have made things pretty weird.

"Ow!" Bailey yelped as he was punched in the arm. It hadn't actually hurt, but the minimal force from the blow made him lose whatever sort of balance he was maintaining before, causing him to topple onto the mall floor. Yep, that was gum that his hand landed in.

"I dunno! I just thought that... you know... I don't want to say it out loud!" He whispered the last part of his sentence and tried to focus on peeling the old gum off of his hand. That was not where he had seen that conversation going. "How was I supposed to know you were a mutant, anyway?"

Emily was amused by his reaction, he had barely kept his balance from the hug, but he hadn't complained about the hug. And close proximity to him felt.. Right. She suppressed a giggle when he forgot that her power wouldn't work on him. She'd be so uncertain about him, but he was just so honest and adorable, it was hard to keep up that kind of paranoia around someone you felt like teasing about their clumsiness. 

Emily smiled in some satisfaction as he feel to the ground and exclaimed. She was aware that she couldn't actually have done any real damage to his arm. She just didn't have that kind of upper body strength. Falling was a nice touch though, her lips were spreading into a nice big smirk. 

Emily's eyebrow quirked in a mischievous sort of way, mirroring her lips. Her tone came out a mixture between irritation and teasing. "Say what out loud? Did you think I was some kind of a mental case?" She asked, getting a grim kind of satisfaction from the teasing question. Her lips pressed into a neutral expression. "That's besides the point, I've never heard of an Adapt-whatever you said. But you've clearly been around mutants before." She replied sharply. 

Had she seriously not understood what he meant? Bailey cocked his head at her exasperatedly as he clambered back onto the mall bench, trying to decide what exactly to say to her. "No, not a mental case..." He turned his head back and forth, trying to see if anyone was listening in to what he was about to say. "You know... I thought... you know... well... uh..."

Bailey swallowed before continuing in a hushed tone, "you know, what happens to girls each month? I heard somewhere that it sometimes gives people headaches... so..." His face was bright red by the time he'd finished, and he couldn't stop looking around to make sure that no one was listening in.

Her next sharp reply he was a little more comfortable answering. He retracted his head back into his neck a little, trying to make it clear that he was taken aback by what she was saying. "Well yeah, I've spent time around mutants, but you're all so different! If I went up to people and asked if they were a mutant every time they started acting weird, then I'd probably get punched a heck of a lot more often. People are sensitive about that sort of thing, y'know.

"Besides, Adapteds all do the same thing, so now you know. We're not common, but you'll know for next time," he'd lost a little bit of the edge of his smile, but he definitely wasn't grimacing. He rubbed his arm a little defensively, and picked up the water bottle that had fallen to the floor, forgotten.

As Bailey stammered through his answer, Emily found that the general area of the answer became more clear, her eyebrow remained quirked. A mischievous smile threatening to tug at the corners of her lips. "You thought I was 'well uh' what?" She asked, doing her best to keep a teasing tone out of her voice.

As he finished answering her reaction and demeanor just melted away. "You... Wha-" Her response was cut off by a bout of heaving laughter. It went on for a good minute or doubling over and clutching her sides as she laughed. It wasn't quite what she'd been expecting, but it was MUCH funnier.

It was another minute or so before she was able to catch her breath and curb the laughter, she felt a little dizzy from the whole ordeal, and bent forwards to pluck the water from Bailey's grip and take a long drink. Before snorting out a few more chortles of laughter. "Time of the month.." She stammered as she stifled another chuckle.

Now that she'd fully recovered her breath, her lips were spread in quite a large smile. She leaned in near Bailey and helped him straighten out, brushing some of the dust off of him and promptly looping her arm around his. "Well, now that I know nothing is wrong with me and I'm not dying or anything, lets continue with the shopping. I'll just get my Mum a scarf or something. Might be fun to get my dad some new video games."

By that point in their outing, Bailey was basically a human tomato. He doubted that there was any part of his body that hadn't turned bright red from his blushing.

Judging from Emily's reaction, he decided that it had been stupid for his mind to jump to period related things. He made a mental note to never, ever bring something like that up again, or to assume it. Doing so would probably be safer for him in the long run, and hopefully would include a bit less blushing.

He matched her grin slowly as she straightened him out. He had started to feel a little better about the whole thing since she'd stopped laughing, but it was still a little bit awkward. He just hoped that his face wouldn't betray that fact. 

He cleared his throat and nodded at her suggestion to go find a scarf for her mother. That sounded a lot better than the perfume store, and it would likely end a little better than their time spent in that horrid store. 

They stood up, Emily with her arm linked through his, and began to walk through the mall again. All things considered, their shopping trip ended up being very successful.

[End]