Alice seemed to knowledgeable and worldly. Sure, Astrid had paid her dues and spent the time necessary to become acquainted with the harsh realities of real life, but there were just so many things she didn’t know. Without a regular childhood or really anyone to talk to, Astrid often felt like she had missed out on so much experience and information. Sometimes she just had to make up for it in unorthodox ways.

Like in a bar with a pretty blue-haired girl.

She had admitted to something that hadn’t even occurred to her until that moment, but it felt impossibly right. Yeah, it felt better the longer she sat with the idea. Boys just weren’t for her, but girls could be. The right girl, anyway. It was still strange to want to have feelings that weren’t evil or bloodthirsty.

She had almost expected Alice to give her more explanation about what to do next, but all that she did was thank her for being willing to tell her. Why wouldn’t she have told her? Alice had just told her about it, after all, and it didn’t seem like something that a person should keep a secret. Astrid just didn’t understand.

”Is this being hard more the time?” she asked cluelessly, cocking her head at the girl again before taking a sip of her wine. Really, she could have lived under a rock and known just about the same amount of information that she did there. It was hard to be someone living alone that didn’t speak the native language in a city that big. It was easy to get lost in the shuffle, especially if it wasn’t something newsworthy.

The only other thing that Alice said was to offer to answer any questions that Astrid might have. Now that was really something that she wanted to hear. She had lots of questions, even if some of them hadn’t occurred to her yet.

One really stuck out to her. She’d just ‘come out’, and she was sitting in a bar with a pretty girl drinking wine, but was there something more to it? ”Which am I being do next?” she inquired. Some guidance was exactly what she needed. A very pretty girl to show her exactly what it was that girls did when they dated…

Wait...

Was it hard? That was a, difficult question. Looking at it objectively, things were so much better nowadays for people coming out, especially teenagers but it was hard to accept that with all the leering faces and creepy comments she got in high school. Or the numerous boys saying she was lying because she was, quote, a frigid b----. Showed them though didn't you girl? Started dating the girl all those horny boys fantasised about.

"Yes and no,which I know doesn't really help. We have it way better off than we ever did, but there's still people around who want to hate anyone different to them." Would it be easier to make a more relatable analogy? "You know how there's people who hate mutants, just because they're mutants. It pretty much like that."

So yay for more ammo for the bigots. Alice was lucky, her mutation wasn't visible so mostly people just threw out the usual insults for a lesbian, Astrid wasn't so lucky. Well, she was pretty, could fly (couldn't she) and had a spare tongued mentor more than used to dealing with a---holes.

Astrid really, really needed to stop messing with her head so much. Either she was as clueless as she appeared, or she was the most masterful flirter the blue haired teen had come across. Ugh, how awesome would it be it that was the case, it opened up so much more fun possibilities right then and there, so many. But no, she had to be the good gay mentor, not hit on her protege and make things harder.

Why did doing the right thing have to feel so damn bad!

"Well, I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with the idea. You could spend a few days or weeks wanting to process everything, or you could find a girl you've been crushing on and ask her out." Not the best option for saving feelings but hey, it'd worked for her. "I basically went and asked her out and well, she wasn't into girls like that."

Taking a long dramatic pause before dropping the best part, "Apparently her older sister was. Her gorgeous older sister." That had been a great relationship. Sire it had ended but she could honestly say she had no regrets about it.

Lots of what Alice said was very confusing. She used topsy turvy logic and phrases that had Astrid lost somewhere in the first sentence. What she could understand was that it was sometimes hard and sometimes not. That was very confusing.

For Astrid, it hadn’t been that hard, anyway. It was probably because of her lack of exposure and therefore prejudice, but she didn’t really care that much. Figuring it out had been weird and confusing, but admitting it wasn’t as big of a deal to her. Especially since she learned that it wasn’t weird to do so. That made everything better.

The question was really about her next steps. Sure, she could go back to her old life and ignore what she had figured out about herself, but that seemed stupid and pointless. What was the use in figuring it out if she wasn’t going to do anything about it? Alice would surely tell her what to do in the frightening wonderland that she was about to fall into.

More big English words followed by a personal story. What Astrid mostly understood was that she had to ‘ask a girl out’ when she was ready. That was a phrase that she knew from television. Asking out was supposed to be a scary thing that people did when they were in love, whatever that was like.

The idea of love had always been elusive and far off for Astrid. It was never hers to have, only to observe from afar. She wasn’t sure whether or not she would like it if she ever had it. There was only one real way to know, though.

So, she had to ask out a girl. That seemed weird. Astrid didn’t like many people. There were a few girls in honeycomb, but she mostly hated them, and they were all old and weird. Anyone else that she knew was old or male.

Except for Alice…

Pretty, pretty Alice who liked girl and was sitting right there… and what was the point in looking for someone else to crush on when it seemed so perfect? They had just met and knew absolutely nothing about each other, but she was really pretty, and Astrid had never felt anything like that before. It seemed too good to waste.

”Well… if you are liking the girls and I am liking the girls then maybe we are liking each other?” Astrid asked slowly, stumbling over her words. It sort of made sense, but not totally. She hoped that Alice would be able to decipher her broken English.

Wait....what? She couldn't be hearing right, there was no way Astrid had just asked her out. No, there had to be something else to it, why would someone as cute as her want to ask out a weird English girl?

It must just be some sort of translation error, just a fluke. She didn't mean it girl, she's only a bit confused about stuff. Stop freaking out inside and process it. There was a simple and logical answer and all she had to do, was calm down a little, figure it out and go from there. Just don't freak out on the poor girl OK. Easy enough, right girl?

Alice hated her brain right now. It just was not handling this. Opening and closing her mouth a couple of times trying to say something, she took an almighty swig of her beer. OK her new friend, who had only just found out she was gay, was basically asking her out. In a way. It's just, should she go for it? Was it something else? Why wasn't she at least saying something to the young woman in front of her?

"I, well yes I do like you. More than a little." Damn pale skin, she couldn't get away hiding the blush or heat creeping up her neck. "If you mean what I think you mean at least."

Well Alice, it's was go for broke moment. Astrid was cute, french, was fun to hang out with and oh yeah, had wings! There was no reason she shouldn't say yes. If she wasn't flailing and being an idiot. Which she was known for doing from time to time.

"I think you're cute and awesome and oh god why I am i the one freaking out about this?" In for a penny in for a pound girl, "but if you are asking if want to go on a date with you, then of course I'd want to."

Reaching her hand slowly across the table, this was the moment of truth. Resting it lightly on her (maybe more than) friends hand, Alice looked her in those beautiful black pits she had for eyes, "Do you feel the same way?" Her voice was small, quiet and so damn hopeful.

How the hell had drinks turned into awkward teenage flirting!?

Astrid was certain that she had said something wrong. Alice was completely silent for a while, which made the teen fret. Maybe it hadn’t translated right? Or maybe she’d said something totally offensive? It was strange. She’d never worried about being offensive before, but now it was all that she worried about. She didn’t want to make Alice angry or uncomfortable. In fact, she was just about ready to take back all of her words and leave if she needed to.

What had become of her? Confident Astrid with her murder-stabbing tendencies was suddenly worried about what some girl thought of her, and she had barely had any of her wine. It was like she was two different people, one with Alice and one with the rest of the world. For some reason (Alice), she was more okay with that fact than she would have been if she’d heard about it a week ago.

>>"I, well yes I do like you. More than a little. If you mean what I think you mean at least."

THat revelation made Astrid’s heart flutter all strangely. Alice liked her too! Maybe. If her head had translated that right. She blushed a little and looked down at her glass. Was she supposed to be that nervous? Was that right? She would have to ask Jude.

>>"I think you're cute and awesome and oh god why I am i the one freaking out about this? but if you are asking if want to go on a date with you, then of course I'd want to."

Black eyes shot back upwards to meet Alice’s blue ones. A… a date? Astrid had never been on a date. She’d never even thought about going on a date before. Was that what was supposed to happen next? Oh God, what was she supposed to do?

While she was having confusing inner turmoil, Alice had placed a hand on top of hers, which felt so nice. Her skin was so soft and pretty, and the touch was so light. It wasn’t often that Astrid received any touch that wasn’t intended to harm. It was so strange but so welcome. Was that what everyone else felt on a regular basis? No wonder they were so damn happy all the time.

>>"Do you feel the same way?"

”I… yes? I am think yes? I am not being on date once,” she admitted quietly. Every experience was new for her, but she really wanted to try them out. All of them felt so good and right and she had thought that they wouldn’t. It was worth trying.

You've done it girl, ruined any chance of a normal friendship with someone as awesome as Astrid, all because of a pair of pretty eyes and graceful wings. Was she really so hard up she was hitting on some poor girl who'd only just discovered a whole other aspect of life, still coming to terms with it. But damn was her hand so soft and pale and lovely.

She'd only just clocked exactly how pale the younger girl was. The tone gave even Alice the look of a tan and she never left her room. How could she still be finding ways this 'raven' was amazing her?

Lost in those dark orbs she almost didn't catch the response. Almost.

"You....really?" Did she just get a date? That was.....surprisingly easy. A blush was developing and her heart was beating out a happy little dance in her chest, it was really weird. She never usually flailed about this much when asking a girl out. Or getting asked out as was kind of the case there but still why was this hitting her so hard?

It must be the wings and stuff, yeah that was it. Alice did have to admit she was in that very small group that found physical mutations particularly attractive so it must have been that. She was just a little excited about it, that was all. No other reasons for it. At all.

Lying to herself made it easier to deal with, for now. Calmed her down a little too, the gears started to turn again and she was already making little plans and figuring out logistics for a date. A movie might be cool but would it be comfortable for her? Maybe a meal? Ooo maybe she could make a bunch of stuff and they could have a picnic in the park! That had always been a dream date of hers.

"So do you have a phone number? I think we kind of exchange numbers now, or something." Way to act subtle and confident, totally convincing there girl, "And is there anything you really like food wise, just out of interest?" Very subtle.

With a little time she might be able to practice some french style cooking, make something really special. Oh this was going to be awesome, she really hoped this went well, it'd been a while since she'd had a girlfriend and she missed being able to share that kind of intimacy, that trust. 

In truth, Astrid wasn’t really aware of the implications that her words might have. Yes, she knew what dates were, and she knew that they were important, but she didn’t know whether they would be scary or nerve wracking. Sure, talking to Alice about it was terrifying, but she had figured that she was just strange and unpracticed. Surely Alice would have a much better handle on things.

Apparently not.

Both girls were blushing profusely and making awkward teenage movements. Astrid wasn’t as strange and unusual as she had thought that she was, which was good to know. Maybe life hadn’t completely screwed her over.

Her heart was pounding hard in her chest. So hard, in fact, that she was afraid it might just burst through her rib cage in order to have more room. She was so impossibly nervous. Her hands were shaking as she brought her wine glass to her lips to take another sip.

>>"So do you have a phone number? I think we kind of exchange numbers now, or something."

”Yes,” Astrid responded proudly. She reached into her dress pocket(!) and dug out the phone that Panu had bestowed upon her. Yes, she had a phone. Yes, she was connected to the world. Sure, she only had about five numbers on it and it mostly sat unused, but it was still fun to be able to show people that she wasn’t so in the dark that she didn’t have her own tech.

The teen opened her contacts and passed the device over to Alice, hoping that the French text wouldn’t confuse her too much. If she had ever had a reason to learn English, it was this.

>>"And is there anything you really like food wise, just out of interest?"

Astrid paused for a minute. She was more than used to just eating whatever was there or whatever she had enough money for. It had been nice to have a kitchen at Honeycomb, but she was still exploring food and what she liked. Growing up, there hadn’t really been much choice. If she had to say what she liked…

Oh! ”Grape!” Astrid replied, a wide smile growing on her face. Yes, grapes were the best, and they were so fun to throw at people.

Astrid seemed to react so weirdly to some stuff and other things were totally normal. Or just so innocent to it that it really wasn't a big deal to her. Either way she looked so pretty when she was blushing and that was something Alice was going to file away for later. Seeing her blush again was a definite goal. For totally innocent reasons.

Accepting the offered phone and quickly keying in her own number, it only took a second figure out what how to save it in contacts. It might be in french but a phone was a phone and they had pretty similar interfaces. Her's put in and checking her own phone quickly for some french translations she also had Astrids number memorised, handing the phone back to her.

Well, wasn't it usually harder to exchange numbers? At least with someone you fancied. Whatever this was going to be like between, Alice was damn sure it'd be fun.

"Ooo, grapes are nice. Never cooked with them much but I love them in fruit salads." Hard to hate grapes to be honest, they were sweet and succulent little balls of flavour. And wine. Wine was good.

Right she had a little information, a favourite food and a few plans on what she might want to make. Not too hard then, now she guessed they should just hang out have some fun? It'd be a cool way to get to know each other, maybe be a bit less awkward in their company. Being able to get through a few sentences without massive blushing or freaking out would be nice.

She was so pretty it hurt though! How had she scored a date with someone like her?

Oh she'd be squeeing so much to her friends over the next few days, chances are they'd get very sick of her talking about the french angel she'd met, who'd then asked her out.

Every little movement, every slight bob kept drawing Alice's eyes back to the wings. She had to know. "I kind of have to ask but can you fly with your wings? That'd be so cool." They were very big and she was so thin, it seemed possible and if it was, that must be so amazing. Soaring over the city, looking down on everyone below.

As soon as Astrid was handed her phone back, she spent a little while staring at the new entry. The list of her contacts barely filled up the screen on her phone, but the rest already didn’t matter in comparison to Alice Rivers. Such a pretty, fitting name. She tried the best she could to commit everything entered to memory, just in case there was ever a technology apocalypse and she had no way to retrieve the number again.

Her thumbs moved across the screen and typed a quick text out to the blue haired girl:

Hello ! I am Astrid.

She knew enough English to get that typed out, at least. She would have a translator at her disposal later on.

Vaguely, she remembered that there was supposed to be a rule about not texting someone for a little while, but she didn’t particularly care. Why wait when Alice was so pretty and she was suddenly sure about something in her life? It was too good to be true, so she had to hold onto it and make sure that it didn’t implode like everything else had.

They agreed on grapes. That made Astrid smile even wider. Was there anything bad about this girl? A few months ago, Astrid would have been looking for bad things, for someone who murdered and did as they pleased, like Isabel. But now… it was actually nice to talk to someone who had a grip; who was normal. Maybe she was softening or changing, but she sort of liked it. Old Astrid would have puked.

>>"I kind of have to ask but can you fly with your wings? That'd be so cool."

People’s eyes often wandered over to Astrid’s wings or her eyes. It was a little annoying having a physical mutation sometimes, but in that case, Astrid liked the attention. Her wings were a part of her that she couldn’t imagine ever parting with, so if she was going date (Old Astrid: what?) someone, then they had to be cool with the fact that she had two extra limbs. Alice even seemed to be a little mesmerized by them.

”It the flying,” Astrid nodded proudly, giving them a little shake to punctate the fact that they could, in fact, carry her. They would be sort of useless if they didn’t, really. There would be no point to them. ”It are the… stab, too,” she added breezily. Sometimes it escaped her that not everyone was a known murderer. It wasn’t like there was really any other word for it, though.

Just as she was putting in the name, she got a quick text and nearly started making high pitched animal like noises with how cute it was! Astrid had sent her a little message and it was just so damn adorable! How could a girl without any experience with this be making all the right moves to capture a girls interest. Like really, was she just some kind of savant when it came to flirting?

OK, she could go really sweet and cutesy with a reply or just be simple. Simple worked, after all it had made her heart flutter like moth near a flame.

This is Alice! Glad to have your number.

That was easy enough, just be cool girl and don't make any weird sounds when she does something so inadvertently amazing. OK, maybe she could giggle, if the situation demanded it. But nothing else, at all.

Then Astrid smiled and a pleased little squeak just popped out before she could even stop it. Damnit! Was she doing this on purpose to elicit all these flaily moments? Because whatever it was it was working at making her look like a bit of an idiot and soooo un-smooth. Couldn't she, just once, get a break and look suave in front of a pretty girl, even if it wasn't true.

But no, she had to look like a complete noob with this stuff.

So they could fly! She'd thought as much but it was great to have confirmation, but what on earth did she mean they stab? They didn't look sharp, frankly they looked incredible soft and comfy. Like you could fall asleep on them. "They...stab? Do they come off or something?"

Maybe it was just a translation error, Astrid did seem to have a little trouble with English.

Astrid got a message back! I repeat: Astrid got a message back!

The teen was more than used to getting no response to her messages, especially when she had tracked down the numbers of some of the more well-known criminals in New York City (she was still trying with them). She had resigned herself to being the sort of person that got by on her own without messages from anyone. She was okay with that. She was fine on her own.

She was fine on her own.

There was no going back from an Alice message. She stared at her screen with wide eyes and her mouth open a little as she read the words on her screen. The blue haired girl was happy to have her number. She was pretty sure that she knew what that meant, anyway. Either way, she was just glad to have a message from her.

A little part of her wanted to lean forward slightly and sniff the screen. Would the phone smell nice? No, that wasn’t how technology worked. She was pretty sure, anyway. She could always check at home to be sure.

With an extra skip in her thumbs’ movements, she typed out a very simple response. It felt right to send something back, but she didn’t want to ignore the very real girl in front of her for too long.

Me to ! :-)

That looked correct enough to her, anyway. Hopefully, Alice would understand her.

Astrid had explained that her wings had two functions. Well, she had sort of explained, anyway. She wasn’t sure how well it translated to English. Her wings could stab and they could fly; it was as simple as that. Alice seemed a bit confused by the idea, though. Maybe she just needed a visual?

”Uhm…” Astrid trailed off as she looked around the restaurant, trying to decide how much it would freak everyone out if she shifted. There were only a few other occupied tables and everyone looked pretty involved in their own conversations, so she figured that she could swing it. If they freaked out, then they would get over it.

The teen’s shoulders tensed slightly and her wings shifted from feather to crystal, glittering in the cold light of the bar. She sat back slightly in her chair in order to support the change in weight, gave Alice a small smile, and gestured to her extra limbs. ”They are… sharp. Stab,” she elaborated.

Behind them, there was a sudden gasp of surprise as one of the waitresses turned to see her wings. Astrid wasn’t sure, but she figured that she might have been there for one of the… agreements between her and the manager.

Another message and she couldn't keep the giggles from bubbling up, it was just so funny and cute how Astrid worked. She was totally innocent and naive with all of this and it was just so precious.

Wow, since when had she been such an air head around a pretty girl? So it was true she wasn't this slick and suave woman or some master flirter, but she did all right. She had some confidence, so where the hell had it gone? Oh god this was what boys felt like around their crush wasn't it. Oh the poor sods, how could they function like this?

And now she felt sorry for teenage boys. Somehow.

If someone had told her at the start of the day she would be acting like an idiot in front of someone, someone who she had kind of helped realise their sexuality, she would have laughed them off. Yet here she sat, drink in hand and being all, teen aged.

It was moderately annoying that she was just like everyone else.

That, well that sorted out the stab part of the equation, Astrid could grow freaking crystals out of her feathers and they looked wickedly sharp. Like really, really sharp. It. Was. Awesome. "Those are amazing!" So she liked them, could anyone really blame her? The way the light caught them and was sent off in glittering patterns was just so entrancing. "Have you been able to do that for long?"

Some peoples mutations were just kind of jaw dropping and the French raven's was the best she'd ever seen. Jack might look really cool and Aleksander was gorgeous but this, this was on a whole different level.

So many questions, so many things she had to know and yet she got a bad feeling. Taking a quick look around there was more than one terrified face, the waitress had gone so pale! Were, were they scared of Astrid? Why!? All she'd done was show her mutation, she hadn't done anything wrong! Bigots, there were always bigots everywhere.

"Come on, I get the feeling some people in here are going to say some nasty stuff and frankly I don't think they even deserve our presence anyway." The words were said pretty loudly, loud enough that she hoped some of them would start feeling a little guilty about it.

"Fancy going for a walk?" Offering a hand as she slowly stood, being careful to not brush agaisnt the sharp wings, she hated having people act like this. Couldn't they just get over mutations, were they really that scary?

What made Astrid happier than anything else was that Alice liked her wings. The girl’s face lit up with joy as the blue haired girl reacted well to seeing her wings change. For some reason, she had been really worried that she wouldn’t like them, so her reacting well was encouraging.

Her wings always had and always would be a huge part of her life, so Alice had to be okay with them. She just did. Feathers and crystals and whatever else life decided to throw at her.

>>"Have you been able to do that for long?"

Almost as an involuntary response to being talked about, a shiver ran through her wings and her crystals clicked softly against each other, making an almost shimmering noise. ”I am being… one… one… when it change.” she answered as best she could. Eleven was a number that she always forgot. Why couldn’t it just follow a pattern like thirteen and fourteen?

She had expected that there would be some sort of adverse reaction to her shifting her wings in the bar, and she had been right. Astrid shot a glance around and frowned. Usually, she would be glad to have that kind of attention, but she didn’t want anyone to interrupt her with Alice. Quickly, she shifted them back to feather and dropped her head. Hopefully, no one would make a scene.

Alice had apparently gotten a different impression of the situation, though. She spoke loudly about the bar not deserving them, whatever that meant. Astrid honestly was a little lost in the English. ”Uhm… yes!” she agreed loudly, mostly wanting to impress the girl that she was with.

A hand was extended toward her, but all that Astrid could do for a minute or two was stare at it. She’d held hands with people before, but not in the same way. Usually, they were dragging her along to show her something or to kick her out of somewhere. It was never that sweet or welcoming.

Slowly, Astrid set her hand in Alice’s, feeling the softness of the other girl’s skin. It was amazing. She took a shaky breath and stood up. ”Yes, walk is being okay,” she nodded. Being around her was dizzying and confusing, but she wanted more.