Noel had been busy. She'd been sleeping and recovering mostly, but she had put her pens and sticky notes to good use as well.

Since Hadden had denied her access to his memories and since she had turned down accessing the psychic's memories, that meant Noel was re-learning English the hard way: context, repetition, and vocabulary. She could hope that one of his 'friends' would volunteer to let her skip all this, but she needed continued access and consistency.

She needed a long term commitment for platonic make out sessions where she could explore someone's past at her whim. That wasn't an easy thing to come by.

Instead, the posh interior of her apartment was littered beneath a dusting of sticky notes. She'd started with the kitchenette and worked out from there: coffee maker, coffee, toggle switch, coffee filters, mug, bread, butter knife, spoon, fork, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff... there was no rhyme or reason to the complexity of the words, only that each thing in sight had a label. She'd been using her phone to take a picture and image search for an answer.

Even the window was labeled in a tight, unpracticed scrawl of letters. It didn't matter that her label obstructed the view. The view was unnecessary.

Today, she had her apartment door wide open and Noel was sitting in the dim light of dusk with her overhead light off. She was barefoot and half sprawled on the floor trying to figure out what the English word for 'haukuttavana' was. When she took a picture of it, she was pretty sure that it was returning colors or a brand name. She wasn't especially great at reading just yet. And when she went to images 'haukuttavana' returned pictures of bears and women in very ugly sweaters.

But Noel was on the case! She would figure this one out before she bothered to change out of her pajamas for the day!

Max walked off the elevator with a broad grin. He had just completed a very entertaining session in CLASS. Sure the place was meant for training, but the excellent sound system and the controllable bots made for an excellent place to have dance practice. Max had just completed choreographing a lovely group of Pirates to one of his favorite songs. It was a sight to see.

He walked down the hallway towards his apartment in his sweatpants and little else. He had been sweating profusely in the training room and his shirt had made a wonderful makeshift towel. Slapping on some deodarent to ensure he wouldnt be unbearble to anyone he passed he had headed upstairs to shower and eat. His shirt now hung around his neck as he walked.

He passed an open door and glanced in, and then stopped and did a double take. The apartment he was looking into looked like an OCD person's wet dream. Everything was labeled, everything. Sticky notes plastered over every object in the place. In the living room he saw a girl in pajamas sitting on the floor looking at a something. She seemed deep in thought.

He gave a small shrug and knocked on the open door.

"Hey there. You seem pretty focused. Need any help?"

Some guy popped his head into her room. Rude. Ah, but he was speaking English so she immediately forgave him.

"Yes! I—" Huh. She noticed that where the young man was standing was brighter. Her room was dark? Noel looked at the window to see a setting sun. She'd been doing this all day. Noel rolled her lips together, caught unaware. Hmm. Well, she supposed that now she didn't have to put on her pajamas?

"English is bad language." That was a strange echo of the boy she'd used to tutor in English. What a surreal moment to be on the other side of the coin. "Many falls. I you please to practice."

Her stomach growled an aggressive reminder that she'd been doing this all day instead of taking care of herself. Noel uncurled her stiff limbs and stood with a mighty stretch. "And having cooking?" She was hopeful the answer was yes, that he knew how to cook.

Max raised an eyebrow in confusion as the girl spoke in broken English. She seemed surprised by his presence like she was coming out of a trance. She explained in a short manner how English was bad and she was practicing. Oh that made sense, the post it notes were not for organization purposes they were to help her with the language. It was like a crash course of hooked on phonics. Her last statement made him think she was asking for help practicing.

"Of course. What can I do to help?" Max said with a smile.

Her stomach gave made a growling noise as she rose and stretched. Max heard the popping of stiff joints and smiled. He was absolutly starving and food with company always beat dining alone. He hung his shirt on the coat hooks by the door and walked into the apartment.

"I can cook. I'll throw something together." He said.

He walked over to the kitchen and opened the cabinets. Bachelor cooking instincts sprang together a number of meals he could make easily with the materials and ingredients present. He saw a apron bunched up in a drawer and put it on. Cooking shirtless was not always a bright idea. He glanced down and read the text on the apron. "KISS THE COOK" was printed along the chest. Thank God English wasn't the girls strong suit.

He pulled out some pans and placed them on the stove top, turning on the heat. He stopped down and pulled out a pair of lids

"Pasta sound good to you? I could make something else if you'd prefer." He said popping his head out from behind the cabinets.

This wasn't so bad. She was getting this language thing back pretty quickly based on how easily he seemed to understand her.

Or maybe that was just this guy? He walked right into a stranger's room, like it was no big deal. Maybe it was the limited access that others had to these living quarters? Noel moved stiffly to the door and closed it. Ah. Maybe she had left it open after she left the little note that read "hallway" outside. She also slid the light switch upward in its track and the lights came on dim, but faded up to something pretty bright in no time. She touched the note beside it:
LIGHTS
↑ON
↓DOWN

"I forget nocturnal. Lights were down." But, again, he didn't seem to mind. By the time Noel padded back to the kitchen he was in full command of the space. It was impressive, truly. She took a seat at the breakfast bar that backed up to the stove range to watch and learn.

Luckily pasta was pasta in Finnish too. Noodles seemed universal. "Any food is okay." It was safe to trust a stranger cooking here because this was her food in her apartment. She was watching him make it. Could he really slip something scary past her? And weren't all these people picked by Hadden, himself?

"Can you say? Every touch is word." If he talked through what he was doing, it really would help Noel. "Oh. And name. Your name. My name is Noel."

The lights came on and Max grinned as Noel sat across from him at the bar. She looked genuinely interested in what he was doing. Max always worked best with an audience. He nodded as she gave her name.

"Nice to meet you Noel. Welcome to cooking class. I'm Max." He said cracking some pasta noodles in half.

He dropped the noodles in the pot and pulled out spaghetti sauce from a cabinet.

"Boil the noodles till they are soft, it helps to add a dash of salt." He said doing just that.

The lid to the sauce came off and Max poured it into a skillet. He opened the fridge and grabbed some beef and threw it in. Before grabbing an onion and chopping it.

"Brown the neat with the sauce. The juices help make the sauce taste better. I add onion for flavor and throw in some garlic for a bit of zest." He continued.

As he worked he looked up at the girl. It wasn't everyday you just stumbled into someone's home and started making a meal. Max was not known for his shyness with strangers bit even for him it was a bit of a stretch.

"So are you new to the country?" He asked, " I haven't seen you around Haven. I've only moved in a few weeks ago."

Cooking? That seemed like an odd name. She typed it into the translator. Oh. No. Not cooking. What else had he said? Max. She typed that in too. It basically translated out to "the largest amount possible."

"..."

Noel set down the phone. This was going to be a lesson in context, then. The phone was sort of not helping.

And he pulled no punches either. Mr. Largest Amount of Cooking went at what must have been a normal pace for him, but Noel was trying to keep all of this in her head and learn to cook?

"Is it not better cook onion at the first?" There was raw meat in there! That seemed iffy, but she wasn't the expert which is why she asked instead of insisting. Plus, he broke the noodles. What was the point of having long noodles, then!?

He asked if she was new. The answer was yes and no. She just had to sit with a furrowed brow for long enough to think of how to phrase it.

"Here in Hadden place is new. New York is old. I am a bad muisti because of the power I am having." Noel tapped her temple. Muisti was Finnish for memory. She only sort of had a handle on English, but her Finnish was alright.

"Is it not better cook onion at the first?"

Max looked up to see Noel's confused expression. He could see she was trying to understand all he was saying and follow him.

"I'm an idiot" He thought to himself.

This wasn't about showing off, this was about teaching. Max wasn't used to language barriers. That coupled with the fact that he naturally talked fast made for a bad combination. He needed to slow down and relax.

"Sorry. I got carried away." He said smiling.

"I'm" He said pointing at himself, "Max."

He held up the onion that he and chopped up and placed it in the skillet with the meat and sauce.

"Onion cook with meat and sauce," He said slowly, trying not to sound condescending, " heat make onion and meat good. Get rid of bad."

-"Here in Haddon place is new. New York is old. I am a bad muisti because of the power I am having."

Max tried to follow what she was saying. So she was new to Haddon, but had been in New York for a while? Okay check that made sense. What is a muisti? Max couldn't understand from the context.

"Oh you're a mutant?" He asked, "What is your power?"

Err. He noticed that he was going too fast, but the results made Noel facepalm. Hard. Owwww. She miserably let her face sink to the bar counter and let it sit against the cool countertop for a moment while she gathered her thoughts. It was far easier to understand than it was to speak. How did she communicate that, though?

She sat up again and pointed at Mr. Largest Amount determined to be understood.

"You are not having talk normal. Talk normal! I am want to talk normal, please." This may be a lost cause. She was stubbornly trying not to burn out despite feeling overwhelmed. If she stopped trying to communicate, she was done for. It was just so hard without cheating through it with her power.

And why was he insisting on being max!? "You are largest amount?" Really? He was playing tricks on her, surely. Thankfully, he settled back into a more normal sounding cadence. It made it difficult to keep up, sure, but she didn't want to sound stupid for the rest of her life just because she had learned to speak English from someone patronizing.

> "What is your power?"

"2 power. Eyes forget and I taste yesterday." She point to her eyes and then to her tongue. There was so much pointing going on, and this was not likely to be the last of it. Hadden had said this was a place to help and house mutants so she thought back to how he'd said it and echoed his question. "What is your power?"

Slowing down seemed to be a bad idea. Noel seemed frustrated and requested that Max speak normally. He felt dumb, like he was trying to solve a puzzle and kept missing the corner piece he so desperately needed. He wanted to help, but only seemed to be making things worse.

"Okay. Sorry my bad." He said.

- "You are largest amount?"

Max raised an eyebrow quizzically. What did that mean? He looked down at himself unsure if it was a remark on his weight but that didn't make any sense. His confusion was only compounded as she spoke again.

"2 power. Eyes forget and I taste yesterday."

Max gave a sad sigh. He couldn't make heads or tails of it. Eyes forget? That sounded like a weird power.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand. Taste yesterday? Eyes forget?" He replied.

He picked up a spoon he was using to stir the pasta and used his power in it. It floated above the pot.

"I have gravity powers. I can make stuff heavy or make it float." He explained.

Her confused question confused him in turn. It was so frustratingly ridiculous that Noel just had to laugh. "Max. You know. Max." She chuckled. How could she not? This was the stupidest thing to explain and the worst way to explain it. "Max is largest amount. Not name."

And her power. Geez! How was she ever going to explain that? Noel threw her hands up in the air to signal defeat. "Bad power."

Gravity? He demonstrated. Ooooooh. Gravity. Noel leaned across the bar to tap at the spoon and send it into a lazy spin. So cool. Everybody seemed to have cooler powers than she did.

"You gravity people? Or only gravity fork?" She selfishly wanted to experience zero g's if at all possible. If she could manage to ask it.

"Max is largest amount. Not name."

Max couldn't help but laugh. Her earlier comments made total sense now that he understood what the intention was.

"My whole name is Maxwell, but I just go by Max." He explained.

She threw her hands up when asked about her power and simply stated it was bad. This instantly made Max more curious as to what her specific ability was, but continued questioning seemed to be a poor path for understanding.

She tapped his spoon and it spun away lazily. Max caught it and ended his power over it. She seemed excited by his ability and he smiled proudly. He pointed at the spoon with his free hand.

"Can you show your power? Does it work like that?" He asked.

"You gravity people? Or only gravity fork?"

Max smiled and set the food on simmer to make sire it didnt burn. He sent his power out over himself. He floated upward a few inches and extended his hand towards Noel.

"Oh yeah. I can use my power on people. Wanna check it out?" He asked.

Words were hard. Action was easy, sharing a moment with someone spoke volumes more than words ever could.

Max... well? So that was the largest amount of good health, right? She could see how a mother might name a son that. Maxwell was much more of a name than just Max.

Could she show her power? Noel shook her head. It was more a matter of should she show her power? It was far trickier to show off without messing something up and it was better if she was able to ask permission first. Which, given the communication problems they were already experiencing, seemed like a bad idea.

The cooking lesson seemed to be forgotten. Noel grinned when Maxwell applied the same trick he did to the spoon and took off. It was just like every moment of outer space footage she'd ever seen. There really was no translation needed when he extended his hand.

Noel stood and took a step up onto her bar stool in order to catch his hand before he got too far away.

She didn't feel terribly different at first. That is, until she looked down. She wasn't touching the ground anymore. Noel looked at Maxwell, looked at the ground, and looked at Maxwell again before she grinned again.

"Swim now?" How were they supposed to get around?

She shook her head when prompted about her power. This was a mystery Max would just have to wait on. Maybe after he English improved. She took his hand and Max expanded his field of gravity over her, allowing her to float up beside him. A grin spread across her face, probably the first legitimate smile from her Max had recieved. She seemed overjoyed at the experience and Max felt his heart swell, he loved making people happy

-"Swim now?"

Max let out a laugh as the quation. He remembered how disorienting his first time messing with gravity had been. If he wasn't clumsily floating through his bedroom he was helplessly pinned to the floor after accidently doubling the gravity on himself.

"Just shift your weight in the direction you want to go. No gravity means any force you exercise will be the direction you head." He explained.

He tensed his chest and shifted his weight upward as an example. Slowly he rose higher nearly touching the ceiling. He shifted left and started floating out into the middle of the living area. He spun and offered his hand.

"I can help you get used to it." He offered.

No. Wait! Was he leaving her!?

Maxwell let go and she didn't immediately fall down as she expected to. Instead, her new friend moved upward while he spoke. She sort of got the idea from the context, but there was no way she was coming back from with any new vocabulary from this experience.

Noel tried to go upward and instead started to list to the side like a sinking ship, her long hair and feminine shape made her balance different. That made her wave her arms, which hurt and stretched the healing wounds in her side. She curled up to nurse her hurt side and that sent her into a slow spin that took her back into the kitchen.

She was not perfectly aligned, but Noel 'landed' with her bottom against the refrigerator. Her toes made contact with the cool metal as she uncurled enough to push off the giant appliance in order to go much more quickly than she intended to toward Max's outstretched hand.