The worst part about being the only underage person in your friend-group was having to lug your drunken friends back to their dorm rooms. The young couple behind them managed to support themselves, but Gina was currently propping-up a six-foot-tall rugby player (to the best of her ability, anyways.)

"That party was lit," the burly guy proclaimed, staggering against the diminutive gargoyle, "Did you see Garrett? With the lamp!?"

"Garrett looked very funny with the lampshade on his head," Gina admonished, smiling.

"YOU LOOKED FUNNY, GARRETT," the rugby player hollered to the couple behind them.

"Shut up!" the other guy in-question, Garrett, laughed. They parted ways at the edge of campus, since their two friends lived in dorms that were in the opposite direction of the rugby player's dorm. Gina guided him back to his room, politely declining his inebriated advances ("Let's talk when you're sober, then I'll think about it."), and went on her merry way. Strangely enough, living off-campus had proved more cost-effective for her, which meant she would have to make the venture home alone.

Nothing wrong with a little night-flight. Nothing wrong at all. Gina took the moment to just walk, for the time being, soaking-in the quiet of the campus at night. (Not silence, mind you-- there were plenty of late-night revelers whose shouts could be heard far and wee.) Buildings that were usually bustling and alight during the day were dark and quiet. The gargoyle's dark eyes drank it in-- the nighttime really was her time. But then, a bright building shone through the darkness. A stone monolith situated in the middle of campus, the library was a beacon to the wayward and the studious.

"Could use another poetry book," Gina murmured to herself, changing her direction. It was bound to be quiet, at this hour of the night, which meant no awkward dancing around fellow students in the narrow stacks. She'd be free to wander as she wanted.

It was a quick walk up the front steps and into the main entryhall of the library. A single attendant sat at the front desk, and was reading a book of her own. She lifted her gaze towards the gargoyle. Both young women were regular fixutres here, at night.

"Evening," Gina greeted, "Slow night?"

"As expected," the attendant sighed, "What are you getting tonight?"

"Dunno, I'll see where the spirit moves me."

"If there are any copies of Tracy K Smith's 'Life on Mars', you should give it a shot. It's super fun. Lots of sci-fi references."

Gina and the assistant had very similar tastes, the gargoyle had realized after many-a conversation.

"I'll keep my eyes peeled," the gargoyle assured her and, with a wave, made her way to the stairs. Poetry was on the second floor and, half-consciously, Gina's feet took her there. She first went to the computer through which she could access the online catalog. Tracy K. Smith, the attendant had said, right?

Serena's afternoon had started with the realisation that classes had started up again, and a rush off to make sure that she was on top of all of her work. She was as it turned out, but she was averaging a fairly high grade and she wanted to keep it that way. And as a result she'd kinda.. spent her afternoon living in the library. She'd started with an essay on blood compatibility, then moved onto her lit assignments and barricaded herself in the poetry section.

She used to adore poetry, but as she'd began studying it that had... waned a bit. She still enjoyed reading it, but she found other artistic pursuits to be a lot more fun. She was still a fiction geek, her library in her apartment was probably making up most of the weight of all of her possessions.

And as a result she'd completely lost track of time, it was dark outside but her she sat with her laptop open, doing edits to a chapter her editor had fired back, surrounded by notes from earlier as an extremely pretty mutant walked past to the computers near her she blinked and quickly sat bolt upright, feeling a wave of nausea from standing up too quickly. She wobbled for a second before she cleared up.

She stood, staring a little at the mutant for a minute or two before saying something. "G-Gina, right? I met you once or twice at the mansion!" She exclaimed in greeting, keeping her tone low, though her excitement still carried through.

>> "G-Gina, right? I met you once or twice at the mansion!"

"I'm Gina!"

The gargoyle looked up from the library database, inclining her head towards the person who stammered her name. Usually she was more... excitable when someone she knew had noticed her. But it was very late, and the fact that someone from Xavier's was not only at the library but new her by name? It took Gina a few moments to process that.

A grin broke across Gina's face, "Yeah! Serena!" finally her memory had stuttered to life, "How've you been? It's been a while!"

The gargoyle found the book she was looking for, in the database and-- grabbing a golf pencil and a scrap of paper-- quickly jotted the call number down. She stuffed the paper into her pocket and meandered over to the other young woman.

"I didn't know you went here."

Serena perked up when she realised she'd gotten the right name. The Gargoyle mutant was pretty distinctive, but the name had taken her a couple of moments to properly recall. She smiled at the other girl pleasantly. "I've been fairly good! It's been forever since I've seen you around, how have you been?" She asked with a very obviously pleased tone.

The fact was she might not have seen Gina because she moved out a few years ago, but still. It was nice to see old friends.

As the other girl moved over towards her little workspace Serena blushed and hastily began to clean up the table a little, folding and piling the pages neatly so there was more room and also it didn't look like she'd just taken part in some sort of office space explosion. "Sorry, I kinda got lost in work. It's a mess." she replied hastily and began to save things on her laptop.

How long had she been in here?

>> "I've been fairly good! It's been forever since I've seen you around, how have you been?"

"Okay I suppose," Gina trilled, "Just going to school."

Gina was also all smiles, her hands tucked behind her back as her brown-eyed gaze swept over the cluttered desk.

>> "Sorry, I kinda got lost in work. It's a mess."

"You should see my room," the gargoyle grinned, "This is like home, for me."

"What are you studying?"

Either in the most immediate sense of the word, or in terms of her major. Gina was curious either wway. The gargoyle hummed and rocked on her feet. She didn't want to distract her friend for too long, if she was in the swing of things.

Serena chuckled and finished cleaning up so Gina had a place to sit if she wanted to chat a little more. Most students in groups did actually chat at the library, they were just told to keep it quiet otherwise leave, and Serena was pretty good at adhering to that rule, even if she was a little excited at having come across an old face from the mansion again after such a long time.

She smirked. "You should see mine." She quickly blushed and shook her head. "Oh my goodness, that came out wrong. I didn't mean it like that!" She hastened to add. She was a taken girl, and even if she wasn't she would NEVER be that forwards with someone after having just met them. Well... Unless they were a redhead. Maybe.

She smiled. "I meant," Clearing her throat little. Yup, that helped. "That my place gets into a similar state, especially when I'm working~" She smiled at the other girl, letting the awkwardness wash right on by.

Aha! A fresh topic to latch onto! "I'm an Advanced Bio-Chem major, and I do Lit course stuff on the side, because I'm a crazy person apparently." She smiled.

>> "You should see mine. Oh my goodness, that came out wrong. I didn't mean it like that!"

"Like what?" Gina said sweetly, kicking her legs. The humored and mischevious glitter in her eyes implied that she had known what Serena had meant (at least, she did now that she'd reacted so theatrically), but she gave the girl a way out of that pronouncement. Gina hd literally just said the same thing and thought little of it.

>> "I meant that my place gets into a similar state, especially when I'm working~"

"Oh, of course," Gina sang smilingly, "Same."

>> "I'm an Advanced Bio-Chem major, and I do Lit course stuff on the side, because I'm a crazy person apparently."

Gina took a seat wherein the spot had been cleared for her. The gargoyle wrinkled her nose at the mention of science. She loved science, but science certainly didn't love her.

"Never been very good at science," Gina commented offhandedly, "Super interesting, though! I'm double-majoring in fashion and social work. Fashion is where my heart is, though."

Honestly, social work was just an addition to appease her mother. Though she did genuinely want to work with and help others (particularly disadvantaged mutant kids), she would much rather make adaptive clothes for mutants in-general.

Serena stuck her tongue out at the attractive gargoyle at her teasing. "Oh, you know what I meant!" She responded with some playful prissiness. Once upon a time, Serena would get into a lot of misunderstandings from thoughtless comments. Thankfully these days she was a little more verbally adept.

Serena smiled at Gina's comment on the topic of science. "It just always seemed to work for me to be honest. Science and Literature, possibly the only subjects I've ever had an affinity for." She murmured with a chuckle. The comment of course was a little over exaggerated, She'd been a fairly diligent student, it was just that the two of those were the ones that really caught her interest.

Fashion! Now that was a subject she didn't know anybody from. She leaned forwards, immediately more engaged by an unfamiliar topic. "Ooooh, what's that like? I've got a few friends on product design courses, but nobody in Fashion." She admitted.

And obviously, social work was generally a nice thing. Serena did volunteering, but she wasn't really sure if that counted in that regard.

>> "Oh, you know what I meant!"

The gargoyle's tail curled and flicked coyly at the blonde's rebuttal, a smirk on her plump lips. Her friends always seemed shocked to learn that the gargoyle "swung for both teams" as it was euphemistically put. How could she not? There were beautiful ladies and handsome men in this big wide world, and they needed romancing! The gargoyle was given to occasionally, brazenly flirting with anyone who'd let her, and Serena seemed to have opened the door just a crack

>> "It just always seemed to work for me to be honest. Science and Literature, possibly the only subjects I've ever had an affinity for."

The gargoyle nodded attentively. Liberal arts and physical science. Both ends of the spectrum. Usually people had an affinity for one or the other, and yet Serena held an interest in both.

"How interesting," Gina commented sincerely.

>> "Ooooh, what's that like? I've got a few friends on product design courses, but nobody in Fashion."

"It's... challenging," the gargoyle replied, after momentarily reflecting on what a good word-choice might be, "I love every minute of it, of course, but there are a lot of aesthetic things going-on, lots of minutae, that I never even thought about. And the professors are very honest in their critiques."

Of course, they gave praise where it was due, but as with any artistic field, you needed to be able to take constructive criticism in-stride. It was the only way you could grow. Thankfully, Gina wasn't a proud or boastful student, so she tended to get along with her professors. (Especially given her skill-- she was a good, talented student, and her teachers recognized that.)

Serena smiled as the other girl seemed to be interested. She moved to finish cleaning up the rest of her stuff, intent on continuing the conversation with the attractive gargoyle elsewhere. She might be a taken woman, but that most certainly didn't mean she couldn't appreciate people she thought was attractive, and Gina certainly fit that bill for her.

"Heh. Interesting can very easily translate to boring with just little sarcasm~ And the course varies quite a lot. You know, depending on which lecturers you end up with. Bio is a very mixed bag in that regard." she admitted. Some of her lecturers just were NOT good at speaking clearly. Sadly being world class researchers didn't necessarily translate all that well to teaching skills.

She listened intently before nodding. "I can imagine." She replied sincerely. She had to deal with an editor, and actual critics taking pitchforks to her work. And of course online reviews had all of the trolls clambering all over them, and that was a whole different ball game of crazy.

She grinned as she packed up her things. "Hey, do you want to get out of here and get some fresh air? I'd love to continue getting to know you, but I think if I stay much longer I might grow book shelves."

>> "Hey, do you want to get out of here and get some fresh air? I'd love to continue getting to know you, but I think if I stay much longer I might grow book shelves."

"I'd love the company," Gina said cheerfully. Walking home was nice, but sharing the walk with a friend was even better, "I wanted to grab a poetry book, first-- meet you by the stairwell?"

This arrangement being made, the gargoyle padded off into the stacks, jogging lightly towards the neighborhood wherein the poetry was kept. It took her a moment to find the appropriate row, a few moments longer to find the section of shelves, and considerably more time to find Life on Mars, a slim red tome that was easily dwarfed by the compendiums around it. The gargoyle carefully fished the paperback out and, having thus been successful, trotted to the main aisleway and back towards the stairs.

"Thanks for waiting!" Gina greeted, flashing the poetry book at Serena, "Have you read this? The gal at the front desk said it's a fun read, got some sci-fi themes."

The gargoyle surveyed the cover, which had a billowing nebula in the background and the title proclaimed in stark white letters in the foreground.

Serena nodded happily. "Sure thing!" She'd not touched poetry in such a long time. She preferred novelist prose these days, go figure. She really should go through and look for some more reading recommendations sometime soon, she'd done a little too much of the writing recently, or the text book reading, instead of the fun stuff like bingeing a series...

Though, time was so limited these days, and she'd rather spend much of that time with Ami. She stood reflecting on this at the end of the stair well as Gina rocketed off to grab her poems and stuff.

She flashed a smile back to the enchanting gargoyle as she arrived. "You're quite welcome on that front." She replied. Glancing at the book in the other student's hand she blinked, shaking her head. "No, I'm not quite sure I have. I don't get around to reading as much poetry as I did when I was a teenager."

The gargoyle, on the other hand, preferred poetry. Especially shorter (not novel-length) poetry, which catered to her short attention span.

“See, I’m the exact opposite,” the gargoyle said, her voice completely non-judgmental, “I used to read so many books but now I’m on this poetry kick. It’s kinda nice. You finish books much faster. I feel like some sort of intellectual.”

Gina laughed, as if the thought of being an intellectual was absolutely unheard of. Her voice echoed-up the stairs as the two of them descended. After a short exchange with the librarian at the front-desk, the book of poetry was checked-out, and the two young women were ready to depart.

“Whereabouts do you live?” the gargoyle pried, “On-campus?”

She’d walk with Serena to wherever she was based, and then fly home. Thanks to her nocturnal inclinations, Gina wasn’t even sleepy.

Serena chuckled at the other girl. "I was into it quite heavily when I was a teenager, but these days I feel like I sink enough time into creative endeavors that I just want some easy or relaxing entertainment, more than something complex or thought provoking, if you catch my meaning." She shrugged her shoulder to shift the position of the bag on it a little.

She really needed to learn to pack lighter when she was going to be in the library all day. At least it wasn't particularly hot outside, the walk back to her place would be fairly relaxing, or so she hoped.

Shaking her head with a little smile she chuckled. "No not quite, I live just a little off campus. It's about a 20 minute walk from here. Where do you live, if you don't mind my asking?" She inquired.

The gargoyle was busy wedging her library book into her satchel, having just checked it out. According to Serena, she lived just off-campus, twenty minutes by-foot. Too bad she didn't fly-- they could probably make it in a fraction of the time as the mutant flies. Gina smiled.

"In Brooklyn," the gargoyle said offhandedly, fastening her bag shut once again, "In this cooperative called Honeycomb. It's mutant-friendly and totally rad." In theory, anyways. Just not on her floor, "Not a bad commute by wing, either."

The snaps on her bag were refastened, and the gargoyle appraised the friend before her.

"Ready?"