Zoe smiled when Dante said that he felt that him and Duke were meant for each other. That was good, pets were always happier when they seemed to complement their owners’ personalities. Though, Zoe wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that regarding Dante since he said that Duke normally bit people.

Dante sounded confused when she was talking to Duke, so Zoe looked over at him with a smile. ”Duke was just telling me a little secret,” Zoe replied playfully. ”He might not like me anymore if I start blabbing.”

Then Dante explained how, at least briefly and simply, he was able to manipulate smoke that he inhaled. ”That is rather interesting.” Then Zoe frowned and looked over at Dante. ”Wait, you keep the smoke in your lungs?” How was that even possible, she wondered. It didn't matter that he was a mutant, how could he survive holding smoke in his lungs?

Great; his dog was telling her secrets. Honestly the smoke manipulator didn't know what to think about that. He wasn't quite sure the nature of her power, and Duke actually liked her. At the same time, he knew the dog had quite a few secrets on him, but he figured Duke loved him--obviously--so therefore wouldn't tell anything too revealing, right? Did dogs even have a code of decency? God this was confusing as hell.

Then came the obvious question. "Yeah. I probably should have mentioned that I can breathe smoke without any sort of repercussion, huh?" he said with a shrug. Honestly, he thought that part would be obvious, or at least easily inferred. But some things weren't that straightforward.

As they walked, he exhaled just a tiny ring of smoke, keeping the shape very tight, and letting it 'travel' with them as they walked, always the same distance away. The circle bent into a heart, a square, a five-point star, slowly and gradually transitioning shapes before going back to a circle, which he let float away, up into the air before finally turning to a cloud like smoke normally does, then fading into the air.

He took a breath, giving another light shrug. "It's mostly just for show, but it has its uses."

Since she was looking over at Dante, smiling after her playful comment, Zoe saw that the man didn’t look all that happy about the idea that Duke had told her a secret. Her smile faded slightly. If he was that worried about the dog telling her things, what kind of secrets did this man hold?

But Zoe didn’t know Dante that well, didn’t even really know him at all, she’d only happened across him while he was playing guitar in the park, only talked to him because of his dog. She definitely couldn’t ask him about what secrets he was hiding.

Dante seemed pretty nonplussed about how the smoke didn’t bother him at all, didn’t affect him. ”That would have been helpful,” Zoe verbally poked at Dante. But then he blew out a smoke ring which moved along with them, and stayed in a perfectly round ring. And then started changing shapes. Zoe’s eyes darted back and forth between the smoke ring...square...heart...shape, and Dante’s face with a smile. ”Well, it looks pretty cool,” Zoe told him with another smile. "But how do you find it useful?"

It wasn't every day that Dante thought about odd things, like how well did dogs keep secrets. But really, how talkative was Duke? Sure, he loved and trusted his dog, but...this was weird.

"Well I don't really think about it often," he said with a shrug as they walked. She liked his power, which was good, but then she was asking questions, and he wasn't sure how to answer without giving away too much. "Well, being able to breathe smoke is an obvious one, but you saw how many more people came up after seeing my little smoke trick," he explained.

"I could make a smoke screen, if need be." He could also blow a puff of smoke in someone's face, but he didn't see that as striking this lady as 'useful.'

But the walking and talking was rather nice. It'd been awhile since he could just...talk. Not that he was very social, but it was still nice.

He didn’t say anything else about the ‘secret’ that Duke had told her, ubt Dante still didn’t look all that happy about the fact. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the playful, teasing tone in her voice when she’d mentioned that Duke had told her a secret. Or maybe he just wasn’t that much of a joking person. Maybe Zoe would just have to come out and tell Dante what Duke had said. It’s not like it really was a secret, she had just thought that she’d have a bit of fun.

Before she was able to tell him, Dante went on to explain some of the things that were useful about his powers. Zoe smiled and nodded when he mentioned that there had been a lot of people who had been drawn to his performance when he did his little smoke show. ”That did get quite a bit of attention,” Zoe agreed. ”It’s quite interesting to watch. Seeing the smoke form the shape, and not drift apart like you’d expect.”

As they continued walking along, Zoe looked down at the dog walking with them. She figured this was a good time to tell Dante the ‘secret’ that Duke had told her. ”Duke thinks you like me,” Zoe finally said with a shrug of her own as she glanced sideways over at Dante.

He snorted a little, smirking just a bit. "Yeah, I admit it's kinda neat being able to give physics the finger, but my control gets looser as the smoke gets farther away. Then past a certain point, it does exactly what you'd expect it to."

"Duke thinks you like me."

Oh. That was it? Heh; he guessed the dog really was man's best friend. So he guessed his little temper problem or his pink boxer briefs were still safe secrets, though the former would likely be out sooner or later.

"Well, he's not wrong," he said with a straight face as he looked at her. And it was the truth, she seemed okay so far. He looked around, still somewhat getting the hang of the city, but the area was looking familiar. "My apartment's not too far from here. I'm glad you and Duke took to each other so well. If he trusts you, then you must be alright."

Zoe laughed a bit as Dante talked about giving physics the finger. ”That probably would be pretty fun,” Zoe agreed after a moment. ”You’re just lucky I’m not a physicist, or I wouldn’t leave you alone trying to figure out how you can control the smoke like that.”

After Zoe had told Dante what Duke had said, he looked over at her but his face was blank, no smile, but no frown. But he did say that Duke wasn’t wrong. Then he went on to say that since Duke liked her, she must be alright, and Zoe smiled a little wider. ”Well, he’s told me that you’re good to him, and if he was abused when he was young, that says a lot.” And it did tell her a lot; animals didn’t exactly lie about how people treated them.

His apartment wasn’t far from there? Were they going to go all the way to Dante and Duke’s place before they separated? Zoe hadn’t expected that, she had figured they’d go for a bit of a walk in the park and then go their separate ways, but it was true that they had already left the park and were walking down the sidewalk. ”My place is still a bit off.” Zoe shrugged.

"Well, mutants are kind of in our own little category. In a way, we've transcended current science. The smoke I exhale does what I want merely because I want it to," he said plainly. "Scientists have spent ages trying to discover how animals communicate, and how we can interact with them, and then when your powers activated, you gave basically told all that to go to hell." He gave a dry chuckle before another plain statement. "Science...doesn't like us." But then again, he didn't really like it either, so they were even on that count, he guessed.

He nodded as she spoke. "Yeah. We've brought each other through some pretty tough stuff. Guess that's why most tend to keep their distance." His voice was somewhat dark, though it was hard to tell if that was regret or pride in his voice, given the tone.

"That's why I like this park; I live maybe three blocks from here, so it's not far to walk. Especially not with a dog and a guitar," he said with a shrug. "Unless there's somewhere you wanted to go; I don't say this often, but you aren't terrible company," he said, lightly joking but his dry humor was starting to show.

As Dante spoke, Zoe looked over at him, nodding slightly. It was true, there was a fair bit about mutants, and their powers, that didn’t seem to conform to traditional science. And as Dante continued, Zoe laughed. ”I guess I kind of did, didn’t I?” Zoe asked, a slight frown on her face despite the laughter. ”I have done some research into that, and haven’t found anything that makes sense.”

Then Zoe blushed slightly, glancing down. ”Sorry, like I said, I’m not a physicist,” Zoe said, glancing up at Dante quickly before lowering her eyes again. ”But I am a biologist, and I forget that not everyone is as interested in it as I am.” And really, no one was interested in biology and animal communication like she was. The only one who was even close to being interested had been Jay, and that was simply because he couldn’t talk to other dogs when he was shifted.

As Dante explained that him and Duke had been through a lot, Zoe simply nodded. But Dante didn’t really go into any detail, so Zoe didn’t say anything; she really wasn’t sure what she could say to that. Though, then Dante went on to ask if she wanted to go somewhere. Because she wasn’t terrible company.

Zoe raised an eyebrow, looking over at Dante. ”Oh I’m not?” She asked, a slight smile on her face. Then she shrugged. Where could they really go with a dog in tow? ”I was going to grab something to make for dinner, but otherwise had simply been planning to head home. But it does get old always eating alone.”

"Well, you've done more research on it than I have," he said with a dry sort of humor to his voice.

"Biologist, huh? I'm just an aspiring tattoo artist," he replied, shrugging lightly. "Maybe not, but if you're interested, you're interested. Follow your passion and **** everybody else," he said, doing his best to encourage her, but he wasn't exactly good at that;; he hadn't needed to be in quite some time, so he'd lost what little skill in it that he'd had.

The smile told him that his not-so-good compliment worked at least a little. "No, you're not," he answered with something akin to a smile. "Well, I could always drop Duke off at home and we can talk some more, or something," he said with a shrug. He normally wasn't a 'go out' kind of person, but she seemed decent. So....why not?

Not only could Dante play the guitar and sing well, but he was a tattoo artist? Zoe always liked looking at art, though she was often hesitant about showing her own. Then Dante continued, and Zoe couldn’t help the laugh that came out. ”I guess that is one way to look at it,” she said. Though, Zoe didn’t typically live following that philosophy, though there were times she wished she did.

”I guess that means that you’re a pretty good artist,” Zoe said after a moment. ”I wouldn’t mind seeing your work at some point. I mean, if you don’t mind, of course....” Zoe’s voice trailed off slightly, a little embarrassed by what she had just asked of a man she had just met.

But then Dante said that he could always drop Duke at home so that they could go somewhere where they could talk some more. Zoe smiled over at Dante. This never happened to her, not after people had seen her actually talking to an animal. ”Yeah, I’d like that,” she replied. ”Maybe we could grab something to eat? Anything in particular you might like?”

His words were somewhat rooted in pain; things he'd been through, not even from being a mutant. His mutation had only surfaced over the past year and a half or so, so he didn't have much experience there. He'd just learned that the majority of people sucked in general.

"Well, I've been told I'm pretty good," he said with a slight shrug, though he himself sometimes questioned his ability. "Well, I may have a loose sketchbook at home; I keep most of my works at the shop to use as samples. Maybe when I drop off Duke we can see if I can dig something up. Most of my **** is still in boxes though," he said with a soft shrug.

"Eh, I'm not really picky. Maybe just take a walk, and see where it takes us." He really wasn't good at this sort of thing; he never had been.

Either he was being humble about the quality of his art, or Dante was self-conscious about it just like she was, Zoe thought as she listened to Dante. And he was saying that he may have a sketchbook at home that he could grab. ”I’d like that, if it’s not too much trouble,” she told him as they walked along. ”I draw a bit, too, though I’m probably not as good as you. But I like seeing what other people do.”

Then she looked over at Dante, her head tilted slightly. ”Still in boxes? Did you just move or something?” Zoe asked. Though she had just met Dante, she was truly curious. He had mentioned his ex before, did that mean they had just broken up and he had just moved out on his own?

When she suggested they get something to eat, Dante didn’t refuse or turn her down. In fact, he suggested that they just walk and see what they came across because he wasn’t picky about food. Zoe nodded, a smile on her face as she looked over at the man beside her. ”That sounds like a good plan,” she said. ”I normally cook, so I’m really not sure what’s around in terms of restaurants. Shops and markets I know, but not restaurants.”

Maybe he was humble, or maybe he was just so used to being abused back when he was apprenticing and working in California, that he really didn't think very highly of his work. Likely, it was the latter, but that was just one of the many secrets that Duke held. "Maybe we can trade work sometime," he said with a small shrug.

"Well, I've been here over a month, there are just a few odds and ends I have left to unpack; so it's maybe....three boxes. All of which in the middle of the living room," he replied nonchalantly. "Yeah, I haven't wandered too far yet, but I've found a decent cafe and a sub joint, Chinese...but aside from that I haven't really ventured," he said with a shrug as they made their way to his apartment, which really wasn't that far.

Going inside, he went up a flight of stairs and unlocked the door, unhooking Duke's leash, after which the large dog lumbered inside and lay in the corner. Then, Dante rummaged through a few things, finally coming out with a sketchbook; it wasn't for tattoos or anything, just random doodles, but it was better than nothing. Sitting on the obviously used couch, he held it out to her.

Dante actually wanted to trade artwork with her sometime? Zoe was a little nervous about that, she didn’t show many people her drawings. But, with simply being told that he was a tattoo artist, Dante was willing to show her some of his drawings, drawings that weren’t in the shop to show customers. ”Yeah, maybe sometime,” Zoe allowed, though her voice was quiet. She was unsure, worried about what Dante might think of her drawings.

”Oh, well three boxes isn’t all that bad,” Zoe said. ”You made it sound like everything was still in boxes. I probably still have a box or two tucked away, and I’ve been in my apartment for a couple of years.”

Apparently, Dante had found a couple of places that were good nearby. But about then, they had apparently reached his apartment. Zoe was about to hand over Duke’s leash, expecting Dante to simply run up quickly and then come back down. But Dante didn’t take the leash, he went inside and started to make his way up the stairs. So Zoe followed him in, Duke making his way up the stairs in front of her.

It didn’t take long to get up to Dante’s apartment, he was only on the second floor, and Zoe somewhat awkwardly followed him inside, simply standing by the door as she watched him unhook Duke and start rummaging through things while the dog went to lay down. Then he sat down on the couch, holding the retrieved sketchbook out toward her.

Slowly, Zoe made her way further into the apartment, sitting down on the couch beside Dante and taking the book from him and opening it up. ”Wow, these are really good,” Zoe said after a minute, looking up at Dante.