"Been to a showing? Of course I have. One of the best dates I've ever been on." A few weeks after prom some tickets had been given to her and her friends. They had gone ham on dressing up. Wait, did Mal of pictures? This, this she had to see. For science. "Oh my god Mal, this is the best thing ever." Damn the guy had good legs. Could pull off a corset better than some girls she knew as well. "Well, since you showed me yours," she said with a grin, pulling her own phone out and finding the pictures she had from then.

"If you can drag your eyes away from the beauty in the middle, I'm the girl in the lab coat holding her hand." While it might not have worked out between them, the fact that she was still her best friend hadn't changed. There were just some more fun parts to the friendship now.

Oh, yeah that. Being surrounded by horny teenagers was bad enough when you couldn't tell what they were feeling. That must have been really awkward at times. She would have probably started punching people if every moment was spent knowing some creep behind her was checking her out.

His reasoning made a lot of sense to her. As soon as she had learnt of her power, and gained a little control of it she'd started stalking the X-Men, begging them to let her join. Thank god Becca had taken pity on her, eventually. "I get that. It's pretty much the reason I'm here in the first place, to be honest. Since mines made for fighting, it made sense to join Becca and the others, even if I don't like hurting people." Agnes making jibing comments about her resolve was one thing, but others around here sometimes doubted her ability to do what was needed. Someone needed to be the optimist, the fool. If only for the very small chance she was right

He beamed when she responded in kind, blinking a few times. "Really?" he didn't usually meet all that many people who'd been to a Rocky Horror live show. This was fantastic! He was going to have a lot of fun around Cait if these were the types of things that she normally got up to with friends. 

Her reaction to the photo had been pretty much what he'd expected, and he was quite pleased with that outcome. Even more so when she'd responded in kind with her own, letting out a burst of pleased laughter he looked closer at the photo. Smirking his head spun back to Cait. "It was not her I noticed first, you look pretty damn fine in a lab coat."

Picking up on her sympathy he grinned and leaned back again in the seat, hand meeting behind his head as he relaxed.

Wow. She was very open and genuine about her feelings on these things. That was good, if only because he sensed a lot of people being buttoned down around here. "Mhm, I sort of guessed that. You're just the type to do that, and I'm glad you have that outlook. Some vigilantes do what they do because it's an environment in which they can take a supposed moral high ground while hurting people, you X-men don't really give me that impression."


A thought struck him. "Wait, why are you all X-men...?" He blinked a few times. "Is it a sexist public image thing or something? I swear that like, at least two thirds of you are actually of the female persuasion." Tilting his head. "And isn't your leader a chick..." he mused. "I'm so confused." 

She had to grin at his comment. She'd still been a bit scrawny then, if her hair had been any shorter she would have easily passed for a skinny guy. It was sweet he was complimenting her though and he did seem to genuinely mean it. "I do try, not that I could hold a candle to a real life doctor," she added lightly, imagining Mal in his own coat.

If it wasn't for the way he spoke now, she'd keep forgetting he was picking up on her emotions and it was pretty good to get some confirmation for outside that they were actually doing something good. "I can't speak for everyone here, but I don't think any of them are here because they think they're better than anyone else." No, some of them just seemed a little too happy to get into fights. "Although one or two," definitely one, "are a little bit over eager in combat from time to time."

Well this was a fun question to answer, given the nice light hearted conversation they'd been having. "I don't know why they first started being called the X-Men or when, but theres a good reason we call ourselves that now. I'm guessing you know there was an incident a while ago, a lot of the X's didn't make it." Cait had managed to piece bits together over the years from various people. "Becca kept the name, I guess to honour them and none of us are about to argue with her over the name."

"At the end of the day it's what we're known as, what we get recognised as. I don't think it matters anymore why, just that we are." She hadn't asked the boss some questions, out of respect. It didn't feel right to.

Another snort followed her next comment. Man, some people were pretty clueless. "Hah!" grinning again. "That's what you think, having breasts gives you a much bigger advantage than having a PhD" He winked. It was clearly humourous and non-serious, he knew of people that genuinely thought that way. But Empaths had the advantage of not seeing people around them in black or white, they were way way more complicated than that. 

Smiling again he patted her leg. "I know. I get that from them, if I thought the people here had bad intentions, do you think I would go out of my way after 12 hour shifts to come and patch the lot of you up?" he offered with a placating tone. "Hell, I've been dragged out of bed at 4am after getting off at 2 before, THAT is not something you do for people unless you have some serious faith in them." 

Hmmm. Her inflection turned a lot more serious when he asked this question. Sometimes it would be interesting, he thought, to see inside people's heads more deeply like a telepath. Get a real good look at what their internal dialogue is like. On the other hand though, his manifestation was enough of a nightmare as it was, imagining how bad it'd have been with telepathy was enough to make anyone shudder. 

"Thank you for explaining that." His tone, much deeper and more thoughtful than before. Rebecca's disposition made so much more sense now. "I understand." 

Snorting at that, she'd have made a bitter comment at what breasts, but Mal's good mood was too infectious to be bothered by that right now. "Oh trust me, a man in a lab coat who just knows he belongs is much sexier than someone playing dress up. That and a guy who can pull off a corset is way more of a turn on than most will admit." She should probably keep Pat away from the guy. She loved him but the man was really dangerous to introduce to new friends.

Cait certainly knew she got too defensive about the team from time to time. They were good people, people she loved and respected and so much hate got leveled at them. "Sorry if I sound a bit defensive about them. They're just so important to me, and I really do appreciate you helping us out." Knowing he could understand their emotions still took a bit of getting used to. "Oh you'd do it even without your power. You're a good person," adding a cheeky grin and looking at his hand, "even if you're a bit of a flirt."

"Well, you seem trust worthy. Don't know how much that means from the naive one but," she trailed of shrugging. She knew who she was on the team and she wouldn't have it any other way. "But thank you, for listening. With a double life and some of the team members being, themselves, it's sometimes hard to find someone to talk to." Giving him a warm smile, before continuing, "You do realise this means you can't escape now right?"

Not that she wanted him too, it was so relaxing hanging out with him and the plans she had for the two of them. There would be so many musicals. And singing.

 

Wave after wave of laughter and chuckles accompanied Malcom's interactions with Cait, she genuinely just tickled that part of him. It wasn't like he was hard to make laugh to begin with, but her nature just really brought out that side of him, more than most people he met at any rate. "Mmmm, I do feel quite empowered in a corset. Like I'm an amazonian Superhero, only with more style." He chimed. 

Shaking his head gently he tried to put away any guilt she felt over her tone. "Not at all, I understand it completely Cait. It actually gives me more respect for you, if that were possible." he soothed. 

Smirking at the compliment thrown onto the end he quirked an eyebrow. "It takes one to know one, missy." The warmth radiating from Cait really was a little overwhelming, he'd have to be careful not to spend too much time around her or the other grumpier Doctors would really throw him off of his game when he was on call.

Shaking his head. "You're not naive Cait." Smiling very genuinely he patted her arm. "You see the best in people, and you radiate happiness like almost nobody I've ever met, you don't strike me as naive though, and I'm fairly sure I'm a better judge of character than most people you hang around with." He winked at the last word. 

The compliment raised more warmth in his chest. "I think I'm going to hug you now." He warned, before gently scooting the sleeping kitten to one side and moving to wrap his arms around the slightly shorter female. 

"I've heard they're very confidence boosting to wear, not that I'd know. Not really the kind of thing I'm comfortable wearing." She'd never been able to explain her issues with really girly clothes like dresses and corsets. Tight jeans she felt fine in and getting under someones clothes she was all for, but somehow dresses made her feel more naked than, well being naked. "I know an amazonian super hero or two and trust me, you have them beat in a corset any day of the week," she teased.

It did feel odd having someone say they respected her. Logically she knew some people did, but hearing it said somehow made it more real. Punching him lightly on the arm at his joke, "I'm worried about what kind of reputation I'm getting here Mal. Don't you know I'm the childlike, naive member of the team," she finished, putting on a very innocent look.

Cait was, shocked. No one had ever said that to her. The fact it was coming from an empath made it strike home. Her emotions already threatening to well over, him enveloping her in a hug just broke the dam. She just started to cry. It was so stupid, she wasn't sad or upset, just too happy to really process it all. Rather than try, she just hugged him back.

Finally wresting her emotions back into some semblance of normalcy, she pulled back from him. "I.....I'm sorry. Got a bit overwhelmed there." Not that she needed to explain to him, even if he wasn't an empath, a crying girl was usually a good hint. "God that came out of nowhere," she laughed between sobs, "Can't believe I just cried like that, although it's probably good no one walked in."

Malcom found her emotional inflections very interesting, if only because she was still so balanced, and happy at the same time. She barely flickered at all during their conversation from one prevailing mood to another. So when he motioned to hug her, she accepted and he felt the most intense flicker he'd received from her so far, he did a bit of a double take in his head, wandering if he'd done something wrong a for a few moments.

He grinned when they parted hugs, sifting through what he was getting from her much more thoroughly than before. "Don't worry about it." He soothed. "Seriously, there are enough people that are emotionally stunted enough to not recognise their need to cry, it's nice to see when people can physically bleed off some of their bottled up emotions like that." The Brit explained as she recovered from the... Ordeal? Could a hug be considered an ordeal? 

Smiling more he added. "And if someone had walked in, they wouldn't have thought any less of you." He chuckled. "And if they had, I'd have chided the heck out of them, and who around here could possibly resist my startling charisma." 

Standing to his full height, Mal gathered up his phone and gave Cait another quick hug. "Thanks, this really has been fun and awesome, but I'm on shift in 8 hours, and I can already feel myself falling asleep." He said his final goodbyes and yawned as he plodded his way out of the hospital.