Things were going okay until she said 'handsome', at which point Luke definitely made a weird noise, and quickly started chugging more milk. He wasn't sure for a second who she was asking about, but he was relieved once he realized that she was probably trying to tell him about someone she liked.

"Yeah, go ahead." He quickly returned to eating; he had almost cleared his plate and for his own safety it was probably best to minimize the amount of time he would have food in his mouth in this conversation.

"Wait, lemme guess." He quickly swallowed and grinned. He didn't want to seem super uncomfortable even if he was a little. It wasn't Rivka's fault, it certainly wasn't on purpose. "Uh..."

Crap, he was blanking on guys their age. "It's not me, right?" His tone was joking, but only a moment after he spoke, he began to consider that he may have made a terrible, horrible mistake.

"No silly, no interested in you!" she said, then cringed. That sounded awful. Luke wasn't a bad guy, but he'd never seemed interested in her. Or, well, was he? Had she just crushed the poor guy? Eeek! 
"Am sorry, no mean sound like 'you awful'! Will make great boyfriend, ah, someone?" she said, stumbling through an apology. She gave him a weak smile, hoping he understood. 

She hurried on to get away from her faux pas, "No, meet someone Xavier's Rivka no believe exist until come here!" she whispered conspiratorially, as if someone was going to overhear. Which was silly, since other than them, there was no one else in the kitchen right now. 

She didn't, however, actually spill the beans and say who the mystery person, the object of her affections, the heartthrob of the house, might be. But the fact that she might have just broken someone's heart continued to nag at her. 

"Um, were Luke, um, err... hoping it you?" she asked cautiously. She started to move her hand to reach across the table for his, only to have her left hand tackle her right wrist so she wouldn't do that. It was about as subtle as a brick. Maybe she needed to rethink things? After all, Luke was closer in age, and if he liked her and, oh dear... Her brain started to get tied into knots as she started to really overthink the whole matter. 

This was both completely different and somehow worse than he'd expected. She hadn't even asked Luke out and he still had to turn her down.

Luke could tell she didn't mean to hurt his feelings, which was nice, Rivka was a sweetheart. Unfortunately 'oh, that's a relief' was...maybe not the best way to put it.

He didn't pull away from her hand, though he would have liked to; not for the Rivka touching but just the touching, again. Like before, it was a hard habit to break. Still he was glad she stopped herself, in a rather literal way but still. "Nah, I get what you mean."

Luke smiled. He felt like the tables of being awkward and uncomfortable had turned, and now he kind of felt bad that he'd put her in that spot. It wasn't like he wanted to embarrass her, just...ugh, people were hard. "Like, I think you're great, but, we don't have to like, like, each other, right?" Luke wasn't sure he was making himself clear. She wasn't interested in him like that, so it was okay that he wasn't interested in her, right?

Now finished with his food and drink, Luke was kind of hoping to get past the awkward. "So, who is it?" He leaned in seriously. He didn't actually need to--she could whisper across the room and he'd probably pick up the gist of it--but it was a little lighthearted and he'd like if they went for that over continued cringe.

Don't have to like like each other. Rivka's expression looked puzzled for a minute as she tried to sort that out. She thought she had the jest of it; be friends, but neither was really interested in dating? She hoped that was what he meant, but couldn't get up the nerve to try and make sure. She'd already put her foot in it well enough for one day. 

"Gawain!" she said, in an excited whisper that could probably be heard all the way out in the dining room. "Who is also Maya" she added with a quirky, dreamy, smile at the thought. It really wasn't a point that was necessary to point out, but she'd done it anyways. 

"Is all could want. But... older" she confessed the one flaw in her plan and her biggest hesitation. "No sure if seeing someone" she went on. She'd been covertly trying to keep watch on the Object of her Affection, but that was hard with classes and everything. "No want to get in trouble, so no have said anything." It wasn't entirely clear whether Rivka was worried about getting herself in trouble, or Gawain. After all, Gawain was staff, and the leader of the X-men no less. Rivka was a 16 year old student. Nevertheless, she was giddy at the thought. Give the girl credit for setting high goals at least! 

She seemed to handle it okay. Luke was pretty sure she got the jist of what he meant with his admittedly-bumbling explanation. Leaning back in his chair, Luke was glad that the awkward part was over and now they could talk without-

Wait.

Well this was just a very unfortunate time for all involved, including the rat who at least had the sense to escape first. Luke tried not to react, again, but he definitely rocked forward in his chair in surprise. There was a lot to take in with just this one person. For one, Gawain/Maya was a nice...person, and Luke had to admit he was a handsome guy. He was also only a guy half the time, though. Unless Rivka was into both of him.

Well if she was bi, Luke couldn't really say anything. But he was also like a decade older than either of them. That was, well, not...good? Maybe it was less weird where she was from, but he wasn't sure, and definitely didn't want to assume. That said...it was probably not okay over here. Age gap aside, Luke didn't think teacher/student was generally accepted anywhere.

"Yeah, no, I getcha." Luke would feel really guilty if he'd made her feel bad, though. "I mean, I can see what you'd see in him. Her, y'know." Luke could...see the appeal in older guys, but this was not the same and also not the point. He also definitely didn't want to out himself to her right here and now. Maybe eventually, he supposed, but not now. "I see why you were not sure about sharing it, though. People might, you know, not think it's great."

Ugh, he was really screwing this up. Maybe if he just walked away this would magically fix itself. "Don't worry about me, though, I won't tell." Now ideally, Luke wanted to gently deflate the tension so that they could move onto a less minefield-like topic. "Maybe you can do missions with him? Are you planning on doing field stuff?"

Seemed fair, harmless, didn't push anything on her too much. That was the best Luke could come up with, but it wasn't too bad, right?

"Uh.... long time no ready for mission" Rivka said with a crooked, embarrassed, half-smile. "Trapped self in own bubble during training*. Still figure out what happen" she confessed. She could tell that the subject of who she liked was making Luke uncomfortable. Americans seemed more shy of discussing relations, though she would admit, this one was odd on multiple levels. As such, she figured maybe she ought to change the subject. 

"So, maybe can help with English?" she asked. "Was at class, you know maybe Fred and Walter?" They were a couple of wise-guys that were seldom seen without the other. "Well, they confuse. Was in class, and Walter comes in. No teacher, was early. Fred see Walter, then say 'What's up Dick Wad?'  Was confusing thing, because not his name. Look up, and 'Dick' is used for 'Richard', no Walter. Look up 'wad' and mean 'lump of padding or stuffing'" she explained, showing him the definition that she'd just brought up on her phone. 

"Can please explain?" she asked, looking at him with big sincere eyes. She'd get English down if it killed her. Or Luke. His student sat, ready to learn all about American Slang...


* Double Bubble Trouble

Luke Benson
   Tag or End, your choice.

"Ahh, you'll pick it up. Takes practice, is all." Luke nodded reassuringly. He could go into the issues he'd had getting used to his mutations, but that wasn't really fair. He didn't want to make her feel like it was easy. If anything, figuring out how to 'use' a power like her's and not just 'have' one like him seemed pretty hard!

"Yeah, I can try." Luke agreed to help and immediately regretted it. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"Uh, well that's...not a name." Ugh, why this. "In this case, 'dick' is uh, 'penis'. And a wad is, well..."

Okay, maybe the awkward accidental-maybe-hitting-on thing wasn't so bad. This was definitely worse.

((Thread concluded!))