The waitress's return interrupted the gargoyle's teasing stare, and Gina still wore her mischevious smile in her eyes. She had the look of someone who'd just been caught, red-handed, in an innocent secret... which was, to be honest, pretty accurate. Gina eagerly turned her attention to the small bowl of miso soup, offering a chirp of "Thank you!" to the waitress's retreating form. A psychic girlfriend, huh?

Gina took he small spoon... ladle... thing... and carefully scooped a cube of tofu up. She exhaled to cool it, then carefully ate it. Even if miso soup was good as a whole, everyone knows you got it for the tofu. Her gaze flicked back towards her girlfriend, a smile lifting at her lips. While Vanessa was psychic, Gina was decidedly enough. So she asked permission to hear her thoughts with the look in her eyes.

>> ”This is so crazy. I can’t believe I just told you. I still can’t believe I’ve told anybody.”

A grin. Gina returned to her soup. Nessa expanded on the sentiment.

>> ”I’ve told you. I told Booker. I told Winnie. Oh, and a private investigator figured it out on her own.”

A private investigator? Gina had taken another spoonful of miso when Nessa announced that. She looked up again.

>> ”That’s it. Four people in the world know this huge thing about me.”

"So, Winnie and Booker know," Gina reiterated, as if making note. There was an unspoken "good" at the tail-end of that staement. She didn't really know any other acquaintences of Nessa's, but it still helped to know who was on the "inside" and who was on the "outside". Accidentally outing Nessa as a "mutant" wouldn't sit right with the gargoyle. It could sometimes be as big of a deal as sexuality, when it came to non-visible mutants.

"How did they handle it? Are they cool about it?"

Gina was still collecting data. As in, were they weird about Nessa being a mutant, and thus it was something Gina really shouldn't talk about around them, or were they cool? Gina doubted they were anything less-than-cool with Nessa's power, but it helped to know. You never knew, with people.

Gina waited an appropriate amount of time before pressing-on, "How does that work with Booker's power? Can you read his mind when you stand outside of his aura?"

Or did being an Adapted make him effectively null against telepathy?

After picturing all the nightmare scenarios in her head for years, Nessa finally came clean to a girlfriend about her mutation. She was unsure of how Shelby or Chloe or any of her other exes would have reacted, but she felt fortunate beyond measure that Gina was the one she could be honest with. The gargoyle was handling the news so well, it put Nessa at ease. With that out of the way, what reason would she ever have to keep secrets from her girlfriend?

Now that the cat was out of the bag, Gina wanted to know how she was doing when it came to coming out with other people. Booker and Winnie were the other people who really mattered in her life, and Gina cared about Nessa being happy and loved by the people around her. ”So Winnie handled it well. We were… kinda drunk when I came clean. It honestly helped. Very sappy, sloppy best friend love. She’s annoyed that my power is better than hers though.” Winnie was adorable when she was in kiwi form, but she hated how impractical her power was, especially when she found out her bestie had mind reading capabilities.

”Booker was… a little more rough. He didn’t care that I was a mutant or a mind reader. His aura keeps me from reading his thoughts; it’s like he is in a bubble that my powers can’t pop.” In or out of his aura, there was no peeking into Booker’s mind, which was definitely for the best. ”He was upset that I kept it from him for so long and did not think I could tell him. He was right,” she admitted, disappointed with herself in hindsight.

She looked back up over the table and took Gina’s non-soup hand. ”That’s why I wanted to come clean to you, Gina. I did not want to carry a lie in secret from you anymore. I need to learn to trust the people in my life who matter. And Gina… you really matter.” She took a deep breath and met Gina’s eyes, finally ready to put everything she had into her relationship without holding anything back. ”I love you, Gina. I really and truly love you, and meeting you is one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

The gargoyle listened dutifully as Nessa explained her experiences… the sloppy, drunk confession to Winnie brought a soft smile to the gargoyle’s face. Said smile puckered into a brief frown when Nessa explained that Booker didn't take the news as easily.

“Were you born psychic, or did it activate later-on?” it was a very mutant question to ask. Gina was a rare case, someone who'd started somewhat mutated and developed over time. Most people suddenly acquired their powers. It didn't change the fact that exposing yourself as a mutant was a very scary thing.

Gina set her spoon down when Nessa took her hand, and Gina coyly rested the now-free hand against her neck. It didn't take a psychic to know that they were treading into heartfelt territory. Now that Nessa had come clean about the nature of het mutation, Gina made a point of looking at her. Nessa was looking away, though. Being a mutant was scary… and knowing exactly what your loved one thought, unfiltered, had to be even worse.

>> ”That’s why I wanted to come clean to you, Gina. I did not want to carry a lie in secret from you anymore. I need to learn to trust the people in my life who matter. And Gina… you really matter.”

Finally, Nessa found the courage to look Gina in the eyes. Behind therm, she'd find nothing but a comfortable silence there. A warm, scintillating acceptance. An innocent, gleaming love.

“I appreciate that…”

That didn't even graze the surface. Nessa probably knew that, though. It was times like these that the gargoyle swung from effervescent bubbliness to tender demonstrativeness.

>> ”I love you, Gina. I really and truly love you, and meeting you is one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

How did you respond to that? What could you say that didn't discount what your girlfriend just said. A soft smile… and lavender blush… Gina lifted Nessa’s hand and brushed her knuckles with a kiss. Her eyes only ventured away when she closed them, to kiss her hand.

“The feeling is mutual,” Gina assured Nessa, her brown eyes practically dancing with delight. God, I'm so lucky.