>>"Archery huh? Sounds like fun I'm no good with a bow. How's the X-men thing? It sounds like a lot of all work and no play."

"You can say that again." Maya chuckled. She liked being on the X-team, honestly, and sometimes, when things did not go horribly wrong, it even felt like play. A serious kind of play.

Angua's size apparently surprised Max, and Maya chuckled as she called the dog over to her.

>>"Nice to meet you. Jesus is your last name Stark Maya? Is game of thrones still considered a pop culture thing since I left?"

"Yes it is. But I had Angua way before Game of Thrones was cool, thank you." Maya grinned, feeding a bite to the wolfhound. "And my last name is Morris."

>>"As for me I'm pretty easy to figure out. Music's my passion. I dance mostly but I've been fooling around trying to learn guitar... Oh man. I just remembered I had my iPod and headphones on me when I died. Man there goes my whole library and those headphones were the best."

"We'll get you new ones" Maya chuckled "I used to dance a lot... did street dancin', before I moved into the Mansion. I've got a lot of music. We can share."

- "I used to dance a lot... did street dancin', before I moved into the Mansion. I've got a lot of music. We can share."

Max grinned broadly. Talking to a fellow dancer always made him happy. The experience of dancing was something many people have tried and seen but not truly given themselves to. To allow yourself to give into the music, to let the tempo and melody dictate your movement and touch you. It was pretty intense.

"Street dancer huh?" Max began, "What we're you into hip hop? Tutting? Swing?"

He felt a rush of excitement. Xmen? He knew very little. Suddenly returning from the dead? Totally out of his wheelhouse. But dance? That he knew. He stood from the table and looked out the glass doors onto the patio outside.

"What do you say we take this outside and have some fun? I haven't gotten to dance with someone in ages." Max asked.

Maya could see the guy's face light up when she mentioned dancing. She knew that look. She would have had the same look had she met another street dancer when she first arrived to the Mansion years ago. It had been a while since she had done that kind of dancing - lately, she danced with girlfriends at parties and events, mostly - but that did not mean she did not miss it...

>>"Street dancer huh? What we're you into hip hop? Tutting? Swing?"

"Hip hop, mostly." Maya shrugged "And bits and pieces of whatever I else I picked up on the street." It was entertainment, as much as a way of getting some spare change in the years she had spent out there, but she had never really gotten serious about it, they others sometimes did.

>>"What do you say we take this outside and have some fun? I haven't gotten to dance with someone in ages."

Maya chuckled at the offer.

"Dude, you just came back from the dead. Shouldn't we sort that out first?..."

Max deflated slightly at the reminder of his circunstance. It was true, he should probably be focusing on the issue at hand. It was just like him to get swept up in the moment when it came to dancing.

"You make a good point. It's hard to believe this but after getting some grub I feel good, really good. Is that normal?" He asked.

Even as he said it he could feel nervous energy pulsing through him. He knew he should probably be more somber but his body wouldn't comply. It was like it knew he had been inactive for a long time and wanted to get up and make up for the lost experiences.

He didn't have a reference for this feeling. Sudden revivals weren't something you experienced everyday after all. Max tried to put a pin in his enthusiasm, there would be plenty of time to burn off this manic energy later.

"We can take a rain check on that. So oh great and powerful spirit guide what do I need to do? Is there a form I fill out when I suddenly find myself back in the land of the living?" He joked.

>>"You make a good point. It's hard to believe this but after getting some grub I feel good, really good. Is that normal?"

"For coming back from the dead?" Maya shrugged with a smirk "I think it's pretty normal. When I did it, I remember being... very happy to be alive. So yeah, you're probably still hopped up on that energy. And food is good too."

Probably not quite the time for a dance-off, but no one expected Max to mope about. Maya didn't, anyway.

>>"We can take a rain check on that. So oh great and powerful spirit guide what do I need to do? Is there a form I fill out when I suddenly find myself back in the land of the living?"

"Um... yeah, probably" Maya chuckled "I'm gonna have to change your status in the records. And you should probably contact your family... I can help you with that if you want. And... um, you'll need some stuff. Some of your things might still be in storage, or with your family, if they picked it up..."

Mirror's explanation made sense concerning his revival. It was comforting to have somone who had gone through the same thing he was currently dealing with. Her statement raised a single question in Max's mind though and he asked before he could over think it too much.

"So how did you die and come back?" He said.

It was the strangest question he had ever asked. It was like something you would expect to read in one of those hip church newsletters in a dumb article named "An Interview with Jesus." What a complicated world they lived in now.

She informed him of him of what kind of logistics he had to deal with now and he felt a wave of panic at the mention of contacting his family. He and his parents had not been on the best of terms since he moved to the city, in fact the last conversation he had had with his dad had been something like; if you're going to waste your life with your head in the clouds you can do it without me.

He had been gone for a year, they would have been here dealing with his death for a year. Emotional baggage aside his dad was a doctor, people just didn't come back from the dead. He would want answers.

"We can update my status and check storage but I'm not contacting my family." Max said, "lots of bad blood and for now I think letting them have some closure is fine."

>>"So how did you die and come back?"

"I got shot in a psychic dream a bunch of us shared" Maya shrugged, completely aware how ridiculous her admission sounded when she said it matter-of-factly "The Mansion was attacked, and I was... protecting someone. The moment I died, I woke up, but it felt very real at the time." she blinked "Also, I can walk into movies. If I die in one, I fall out of the TV screen. I have done that a couple of times, although it is not as much fun as it sounds."

It really wasn't. It was a great premise for a date, but Mirror had learned to use it sparingly.

>>"We can update my status and check storage but I'm not contacting my family. lots of bad blood and for now I think letting them have some closure is fine."

"Okay." Maya nodded easily "You're an adult, you know what you wanna do. Let's take it step by step, then. But I wonder..." she tilted her head "Do you... remember anything? You said you got hit, and then you woke up tonight, naked. I doubt you would have been... there for a whole year."

The neighborhood was not that awful, after all...

Max smiled as Mirror explained her experience. He laughed at the idea of her invading a film or television show. Talk about a cool acting exercise. He imagined the girl stepping into a Spanish soap opera and smirked.

She started asking some tough questions. Questions Max hadn't wanted to ask himself. Where had he been and what had he been doing. He took a deep breath and strained to recall what had happened.

"I remember trying to cross the street and the car hitting me. Everything goes black," He said with his eyes shut, "there's just a bunch of nothingness. I remember someone laughing, a sadistic haunting kind of laugh like they found my plight funny."

He didn't realize he was shaking, fighting to recall memories that just weren't there. It was like putting a puzzle together and discovering that a very important piece wasn't missing. He was looking under the table so to speak, trying to locate it.

"I could hear people talking, mumbled voices and then some kind of light. I felt like I was falling and then I woke up in the alley." He concluded

It still didn't make much sense to him. He clenched his fists and opened his eyes. He looked at Mirror and gave a small uncertain shrug.

"Sorry that's all I've got. Maybe a telepath could help me pull more out of here but I just feel like my heads pounding everytime I try to think of it."

>>"I remember trying to cross the street and the car hitting me. Everything goes black... there's just a bunch of nothingness. I remember someone laughing, a sadistic haunting kind of laugh like they found my plight funny... I could hear people talking, mumbled voices and then some kind of light. I felt like I was falling and then I woke up in the alley."

Maya could see that Max was shaking; the shards of memories, as well as the effort of recalling them, must have taken a toll. She suddenly felt bad about pushing the guy to remember all of that, barely an hour after his return. At least he ate, that meant he was not about to pass out or something... and also meant he was definitely alive. Maya put a reassuring hand on Max's shoulder.

>>"Sorry that's all I've got. Maybe a telepath could help me pull more out of here but I just feel like my heads pounding everytime I try to think of it."

"It's okay. We'll work on it later. Don't push yourself." Maya nodded. She's have to go find a telepath that could help with memory work. She wondered if Sam knew anyone. "You can stay here as long as you want... you are registered as a Mansion resident, after all." she smiled "And I'll get you a Pod with some music. Just let me know what kind you like."

Music usually had a soothing effect, especially if it was familiar.

Max felt a pang of shame as Mirror talked to him. She was being so understanding and so helpful. He wasn't used to strangers being this nice to him. She seemed like she really wanted to help. Max felt like he shouldn't be so shaken. He felt like he should have been capable of handling this.

"Thanks. I like just about everything so I should be good with whatever." He said awkwardly.

He stood and started putting dishes in the sink and wrapping up the leftover food. He felt full of energy now. Not at all like he had been dead for a year. Mirror seemed like someone he could be fast friends with. He looked over at the girl and smiled.

"By the way. I owe you one. You don't know me from Adam and you came and helped me out. If you are ever in a jam and need some backup give me a call. No questions asked." He said.

There that felt better. He didn't like taking hand outs. Even though he didn't know if she would ever take him up on it he wanted to at least wanted to offer. Not everyday you find a person who will jump in to help out.

"So what's do we do now?" He asked.

>>"By the way. I owe you one. You don't know me from Adam and you came and helped me out. If you are ever in a jam and need some backup give me a call. No questions asked."

Maya chuckled at that and nodded. She could have pointed out that it was technically her job to hel Max, twice over actually, since she was both Mansion staff and an X-man... but she appreciated the sentiment nonetheless, and he knew that Max meant what he said. People who had lived on the streets at any point knew that owing someone was serious business. Besides, one never knew when she might be in need of backup from someone who could manipulate gravity...

>>"So what's do we do now?"

"Now, we get you a room." Maya decided, standing up "And you're gonna get some sleep, and after that, we're gonna get you some clothes and stuff. And then we figure things out from there. C'mon." she led the way towards the boys' dormitories. People coming back from the dead usually needed a nap to digest the news.