She was sobbing as quietly as possible, but hero Gawain looked more and more upset. That made her more and more upset.

He had said she could stay and it didn't matter if she messed up.
He had said she could stay and this place was safe.
He had said she could stay and she didn't have to be what they expected her to be. Did they expect her to serve? Would she have a purpose here? A job? Anything would be preferable to where she was. Anything, so long as heroes were here to take down the mad kings and queens of this world.

"Noooo."

She wanted a hug. She really, really did and that was clear by her tone even if the content did not match.

But he was a hero and a demigod. He was nice and all, but what if she scratched him? What if he was still woozy after his healing? She needed to not be too dependent on him despite the fact that Kalos wanted nothing more than to sob into his shirt for a while.

>>"Noooo."

There were words, and then there was language. Kalos continued sobbing, finally breaking down after the insane day they had, rescues and fights and travel and ending up a the Mansion. Honestly, Gawain was surprised she had held it together so well for so long. The kid, like many mutant kids, was a lot stronger than she seemed. Until one was reminded that she was still a kid.
She was holding out, shaking her head about the hung, but at the same time she leaned, and Gawain's hand touched the coral on her shoulder. The mirrorwalker sighed, remembering times long before he was a street kid, back when Mom was still around to make sure he was safe. Sometimes people spoke without speaking.

"Alright, c'm'ere" he muttered, lowering himself to one knee to pull Kalos from the chair into a hug. She was light, and not very tall even while sitting on the kitchen chair, and she was still sobbing. Gawain wrapped his arms around her, unconsciously making a comforting little sound like Mom used to make. "'tis okay, little one. You're gonna be okay."

It was strange, being here above land. Kalos did not miss the garbage, but she missed knowing what was going to happen next. For all the bad at least there was consistency. She knew what to expect. She had been able to learn what guards would kick and which would only humiliate her if the other guards were looking. She had learned when the lights died for the day, where the best places were to hide to avoid notice. And how to plug her ears when bad things started happening that she could not stop.

> "'tis okay, little one. You're gonna be okay."

She sobbed against hero Gawain's chest. Because no one had missed her leaving. Because she only knew one person here and it was even a stretch to say that she knew Gawain. Nobody wanted her here. Actually, she was pretty sure that nobody wanted her.

Strangest of all, being hugged by a demigod was not as bad as she'd imagined. He was strong and he was warm and he tried his best.

Kalos devolved into a sort of full body hiccup and clung to her hero.

"C-can I s-stay with you?" She knew it was a very selfish request, but if she had to go somewhere else then she'd be all alone in a strange place with no one that she knew. "Please?"

Kalos devolved into a puddle of tears and some hiccups. Gawain hugged her close, waiting for all the sadness to come out. It was strange, being the one that ended up comforting the kid, but he found that he did not mind. She was definitely easier to deal with than an infant, and he had done just fine with that too, once upon a time. Just. Fine.

>>"C-can I s-stay with you? Please?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you can stay." he did not have a roommate anyway, and honestly, he would have felt bad leaving the girl alone in a room for the night. The free bed would be the best option for her. Gawain stood up, lifting Kalos up too. "Let's go find you some clothes and get you to bed, hm?" he could feel the goosebumps rising on his skin, together with the heavy sleepiness that always preceded the shifting. "I've got to change too..."

Gawain walked, or rather carried, Kalos down the hallway to his room. She was light. Before opening the door, he remembered just in time to pause.

"Um... I have a dog. Her name is Angua, and she is a very friendly dog, but very big. Are you okay with dogs?..." Angua usually roamed the Mansion grounds all day, but she tended to come back for the night to the room.

She could stay! Kalos pushed her face into his shirt and felt the wetness of her tears warmed by her hero's skin. She could stay. She could stay! He picked her up which was good considering that she was not letting him go. Maybe never ever again, she resolved with her arms around him, even if she knew that was not possible.

"Do I have to need clothes?" Atlanteans could walk about in whatever state of undress they wanted, especially if they were beautiful. Kalos always tried to cover herself, to cover her pink skin that was too pink so that she would minimize her offense, but now...? Now Kalos could run around in what she needed and no more. No more too hot days in too much cloth! But if hero Gawain needed to change, she would have to let him go... Kalos held tight for now. When she had to let him go, she would have to let him go. No sooner.

"Could I wear your shirt when you're done with it?" She could feel like a hero if she had a heroes shirt, of this Kalos was sure.

> "Um... I have a dog."

Angua? Like anguish? That was the exact type of name they had given to the hounds that helped hunt down escapees. Tapeínosi, Pónos, Dóntia... she'd met them more than she ever wanted to.

"Is it for hunting?" She couldn't help the panic that made her voice high and reedy. "Does it have to be here? Can you have no dog? Can it go somewhere else?"

>>"Do I have to need clothes?"

Oh boy. Gawain had seen how Atlanteans dressed, which was not much, really, due to their Greek origins, but the coral kid running around nekkid was bound to raise some eyebrows around the Mansion. "Yeah... you're gonna need some."

>>"Could I wear your shirt when you're done with it?"

Gawain looked down at his shirt, part of his X-men uniform, torn and bloody. Kalos was still clinging to him as he carried her, so it now also had some tear and snot stains on it, not to mention some sewer dirt and some sweat.

"Um... maybe not this one? I can give you one of my other shirts."

They stood near the door when he asked her about dogs, and he could hear the panic in her voice. The hate for Atlantis bubbled up again. Just what the hell did they use dogs for over there?!

>>"Is it for hunting? Does it have to be here? Can you have no dog? Can it go somewhere else?"

"No, she is not for hunting. She is a pet. But you can meet her later." shifting Kalos to one hand, Gawain opened the room's door. Angua appeared immediately, sniffing curiously in the direction of the child. Gawain turned away and held up a hand.

"Angua, no. Not now. Go sleep in the living room. There's a good girl."

The large dog understood the hand signs, and jogged away down the hallway. Gawain walked inside his room (kind of a mess since he last left it), and closed the door. The spare bed that currently had no roommate in it was relatively clean. The mirrorwalker set Kalos down carefully.

"Alright. Now, you're gonna have to give me a minute..." he shuddered "... look, Kalos. What you are about to see is a part of my powers. It is normal, okay? I do this every night..." this was most of what he managed to get out before the change began. Gawain sat down on the floor, waiting for the shifting to be over. He hated to shift awake, but it was not exactly painful; in a few moments, Gawain's place had been taken by Maya, letting out a huff.

Did he want to cover her up because she was ugly? Kalos was sure she had no tears left, and yet they showed up anyway. She tried to climb up a bit higher to get her legs out of dog sniffing reach. The dog was big. Very, very big. But it also very, very listened. That was good.

"Are you not healed?" She felt a shudder run through her hero as he set her down on a bed. A real bed. A squishy real bed!

Kalos pushed on the squishy and tried not to ignore what hero Gawain was saying. He was having a power problem and it was normal. Normal was okay.

What she saw was incredible. Gawain sort of shrunk a little, his hair changed, and his shoulders were less. When he looked up at Kalos from the floor she realized that Gawain was no longer a man. His face was now a her face.

Her eyebrows went up. They came back down. She spent a long sullen moment looking at how her hero had changed. No wonder she had liked him, if he was really a girl.

"Can you change into anybody?" Powers were all different. Hero Gawain was still her hero. In fact, she liked her more, now. She looked far more nice.

The change completed in a few minutes, and Maya let out the breath she had been holding, running a hand through her longer hair. She watched Kalos for her reaction, hoping that the kid would not freak out from the sight. She had no idea what kinds of powers she was used to, or had seen before, and if she was cared of mundane things like dogs, then she might be scared of others as well...

>>"Can you change into anybody?"

Maya blinked, getting up off the floor and shrugging in her clothes that did not fir quite well anymore.

"No... I just go between guy and girl. When I'm a guy, I'm called Gawain, and when I'm... like this, then I'm called Maya. I only have these two forms. I change every midnight."

She stood for a moment, not sure where to go with the conversation after this.

"Soo... how about we get you cleaned up, and then you can go to bed?" she asked, nodding towards the bathroom door.

Kalos did not know what a 'gai' was, but from the clues hero Gawain laid out for her, she was able to assume it meant 'male' or maybe 'boy' since she (she!) had said girl instead of woman.

"What age are you become a woman?" She had thought that hero Gawain was a man, but it was possible they looked at ages differently above the sea. "You have the features of a woman. Are you not grown?" Kalos indicated which features she meant with both hands. They were not overly ample, but she was sure of what she was seeing.

She swung her legs for a moment, happy to be on a soft, squishy bed and loathe to jump off. But! Hero Ga- uhh. Hero Maya had said that it was time to wash herself. It wasn't even that time of year! Kalos followed her hero into a little closet full of amenities. The waste pot, Kalos identified right away.

"Toilet." She recalled the visitor's word for it and pointed at the toilet. It had water in it, but the water was not moving.

"Sink. And this is a bathing tub." She was very proud of herself. "I know how to wash myself. Show me where to draw water. It doesn't have to be hot." A bath! She was getting a bath! Today!

Well, at least Kalos took the gender shifting in stride. Thank God for small miracles. Maya smiled, clearly her new... uhh, trainee?... did not have a preference for Gawain. That would have been awkward, if she only trusted 50% of her, every other day.

>>"What age are you become a woman? You have the features of a woman. Are you not grown?"

Maya blinked. It took her a few moments to identify where the miscommunication had happened. Kalos appeared to be very literal in many ways. She'd have to remember that.

"Uh... yeah, okay, I'm technically a woman." she chuckled, shrugging. This is what you get for trying to talk to the kid as if she was a child. Which she is. But not a usual one.

Maya led Kalos into the bathroom and switched the light on. She expected more explanations to be needed, but the coral girl was clearly not as lost as she thought.

>>"Toilet. Sink. And this is a bathing tub. I know how to wash myself. Show me where to draw water. It doesn't have to be hot."

"Well, okay... This is how the faucet works." she showed Kalos how to turn the handle "This way is hot, this way is cold. And... here's the body wash, and here's a clean towel. I'll go find you a clean shirt to sleep in. Let me know if you need anything else, okay?"

She said that last part as she walked out, pulling the door mostly closed behind her, but leaving it open a crack just in case Kalos did not have the handle on bathroom issues as much as she thought. Then, she found a shirt, Gawain sized, and then she waited awkwardly, hoping the kid was getting along well with bathing herself.

Was this what being a parent felt like?

Water came out of the-! Kalos ducked her head into the tub to get a good look at the spigot. It was like a fountain. They had plenty of fountains in Atlantis. And plenty in bath houses. It was just that no one had a bath house in their room. hero Maya had everything ready, the bath oils and a towel. Kalos' excitement grew.

"Thank you!" She peeled out of the sort-of smock of discarded cloth she'd been wearing and slipped into the tub. It was hot! It was possibly the best thing she'd ever had in her life. Kalos poured some of the bath oil into the water and immediately bubbles sprang to life around where the water poured in. Bubbbbbbles. Kalos flushed with pleasure and captured some bubbles only to have them pop between her crusty fingers. She looked around to confirm that her hero would not see and removed a single finger cap. The softer surface of her tentacles did not pop the bubbles. Kalos squealed in joy and shucked all her fingers.

She built a bubble palace. She gave herself a bubble beard. She heaped up a big mound of bubbles and then, like a cresting whale, crashed down into them.

Water splashed over the side of the tub then. Was it not draining? Kalos washed herself and watched the level of the water continue to rise. Her hero had showed her how to make it hot and to make it cold. Did she know how to make it off? She turned it and it got very cold. She turned it and it got very hot. She turned it again to cold and stood up so that her body would not make the tub overflow.

She stuck all her fingers back of before hero Maya could see and and was trying desperately to finish working the bubbly bath soap out of her hair when she decided that she had to ask for help. One wrong move and the water would go spilling over the side of the tub.

"H-hero?"

Splashing and bubbling sounds emanated from the bathroom for a long time. After a few minutes, Maya sat down; she was bone tired from the mission, and exhausted from all the things she had to figure out since she decided to take care of Kalos. The girl was delightful, but also definitely a handful... But for tonight, maybe she would be okay. No beginner parent could make too big of a mistake in one night, right?... Thoughts like that slowly lulled Maya to a half-sleep, and her head just began to nod when the small voice came from the bathroom.

>>"H-hero?"

Maya darted through the bathroom door before she was fully awake, almost slipping on some of the splashed-out bubble water. She caught herself on the edge of the bathtub that was dangerously close to turning into a mini-waterfall. Sizing up the situation, she instinctively shut the water off before she looked at the little pink girl.

"Kalos? What's wrong?"

She asked and her hero came. She came right away. Immediately. Like... like... she cared. Kalos flushed with pleasure again, cheeks tinging purple.

"You are the best!" Slippery and wet and most notably naked, she didn't even think before she'd launched herself at hero Maya for a full hug. She needed the hug and Maya needed to know that she was the best. She was here and Kalos was here and hero Maya even knew how to make the water stop.

"I don't know how to make the water go away." Kalos confessed. Bubbles still wreathed her scalp, but she'd done her best and had obviously cleaned herself considering the lack of dark smudges or worse on her perfectly pastel skin.

>>"You are the best!"

Before Maya could assess the situation any further, a wet and slippery pink cannonball collided with her mid-section, finishing the task the water on the floor had started and knocking her clear on her *ss in the middle of the bathroom. Maya sat down hard, instinctively wrapping her arms around Kalos to make sure she did not collide with the floor or the sink. She was not sure why the excitement was merited, and she checked the girl over for injuries as her shirt soaked up most of the bubbles.

>>"I don't know how to make the water go away."

"Wh... oh." Maya blinked "That's it? I'll show you..." she got on her knees and leaned over, reaching into the tub and pulling the plug. The water gurgled and began to drain. Maya got up, dripping, and picked up the dry towel she'd set aside. "C'mon, let's dry you off."

It was more of a case of bundling the girl in the fluffy towel head to toe; Kalos obviously did not mind being naked, but on the long run, the sooner clothes got on her was the better. Maya ushered Kalos out of the bathroom, and handed her the large t-shirt, likely to go down to her knees at least. "Here, you can sleep in this. We'll get you some clothes your own size tomorrow..."

She hadn't meant to leave the tub because any movement would make a spill, but her enthusiasm carried her. And her hero caught her. Because that was what heroes did.

Kalos learned that there was such a thing as a plug and a plug sat in a drain. The drain was how the water went away, but where it went was a question for another day. Hero Maya helped towel her off and together they managed to slip the overlarge shirt around the bony growths on her head and shoulders and elbows. The shirt was long enough to cover everything important, stopping just before her knobby pinkish knees.

The cloth made her look larger than she was, like a tent, until she tugged the sleeves up over the coral outcroppings on her shoulders and the cloth lay flat against her skin. There.

It was almost like a night dress. Kalos turned and swished the fabric a little. It was soft, but even better it was clean and it smelled like Gawain had smelled except cleaner.

"Is it time for sleeping?" She was both energetic and exhausted. The bed, she already knew, was going to be amazing so she did not want to put it off for one moment longer than she had to.