Kalos was studying.

Correction. Kalos was supposed to be studying. But it was hard. She sighed from her spot in the window seat with her legs akimbo and head draped over the edge. Her hair had started to grow in throughout the last year, with her head dangling she could feel gravity tugging at her scalp with the weight of its growth. No longer did she look like a refugee. Now she had little springs of red twisting out of her scalp. It was still short, curls were only long while wet, but it was hers and she was allowed to keep it.

Her homework mocked her from where it sat alone on the table. Why did she need to know about the history of the United States? She and her people didn't have any part in it, and there was a whole, entire world of history that she also didn't know about already, including the Greece. The place where Atlantis had once been... around? She was rather unaware of how that split happened considering her status below the sea.

Kalos dropped her history book with it's dumb letters that formed dumb words that were small are difficult to put together. It hit the floor below her head with a nice, satisfying thud and with it, she dropped the responsibility that'd been weighing her down.

If they wanted her to learn about history, she'd go learn about history her own way.

The coral girl squiggled to her feet and went to go look through the stacks of books. She found some. Then more. A few more than she could read in a day, more than she could read in a week! She stacked them the boring way, and then in more interesting ways. Eventually, she wasn't looking for historical books as all. She was building a castle. No one seemed to mind that it was right next to the door of the library.

He had finally brought himself around to doing it. The Mansion. A place he never thought he would willing step into. The Mansion to Erik was the Sistine Chapel of Mutandom. For the longest time he didn't feel like he had earned the right to step foot on the grounds. It would have been to awkward for so sacrosanct a place. He knew it was basically a school and realistically wasn't much more than that but a base of operations for the X-Men. Even then what right did a gutter rat and long time criminal have to walk around and explore the place? Hopefully the unexplainable feeling of weirdness would pass eventually.

Erik had gotten signed in as a visitor and got a badge that he had clipped to his tank top with the simple name 'RED'. Spelling it in lower case wouldn't have made much sense for the blaringly large and utterly red man that was meandering through the halls to drink the place in. One could almost feel the knowledge and chaos seeped into the wood. It also felt remarkably homey for such a large place. It felt so normal and that very normalcy was starting to give him the creeps. 

Eventually he found himself in the Mansion's rather large library and gave a bit of a satisfied smile at the private collection of books. It was inevitable that he eventually spotted the quaint little book fort. Compared to the organized aire of the rest of the place it stuck out like a sore thumb. Stalking closer he raised a big eyebrow and tilted his head somewhat as he realized it was occupied and not some art piece promoting historical literature.

"Hello?" His big form rumbled the words out as soft as he could manage. Swearing he saw some bit of movement behind the stacks of books. "What are you making?" Keeping a safe distance away as he knew he could be intimidating eyeing the titles of the books and noting they had certainly started out as historical literature it had quickly dissolved into some organization that he couldn't discern.   

A big thumping walker wandered in. Kalos had staked out just about every Mansion resident. She didn't know everyone by their walks, but she did know there was no one besides a few alumni that had Very Big Walks.

The coral girl ducked behind the latticed front wall of her growing castle. The structure was sound and she saved material by leaving holes, but it left her far more exposed than she preferred. And of course, of course while she was scoping him out, he turned and looked for her.

She froze, a bunny in the sights of a GIANT predator. This one was b-i-g big. He was red, but who cared? She was pink. But he was big, wasn't he?

And he spoke. Nice words. Nothing mean. Kalos wrinkled her nose at him for a moment, but had nothing to accuse him of, other than being new. There was no crime in that. She'd done it once, too.

"I am making a book report." Her vowels and the way she formed her words outed her as not-quite-native. She spoke to him through the screen, less shy for the barrier even though someone that big would make wood dust of it in short order. Maybe it was considered rude. Maybe Kalos didn't care one bit about rudeness.

"The subject matter is stupid. Old rules of dead people are dumb. It is better as a castle." Cautiously, Kalos took a big, fat tome of an encyclopedia that spanned H through L. She slid it off the table behind her and snuck it onto her wall. She figured that he might leave her alone if he saw she was busy and uninteresting.

A kid if he was to guess correctly. His truest weakness. He loved kids even if he wasn't much elevated above that status himself. Now there was a pink tiny one hiding behind a castle of books and he couldn't help but be intrigued. 

Sure she had wrinkled her nose at him. Kids were delightfully honest with their feelings. Something he felt put them above adults in that regard. The unexplainable and untrained emotions being the flipside to that coin.

Fighting to keep a silly smile off his face as he listened to what was going on. As she spoke he moved to sit on the ground and rested his chin on his knee. "Is that so? What is your book report supposed to be about exactly? Maybe I could help?" Her description didn't give him a lot to go on. If it was something about old English rulers the wasn't going to be much help sadly.

Watching her idly as she built her flammable fortress. "Most castles are built to defend a strategic point and house soldiers. They are usually also much less flammable." Smiling just a bit and showing off his teeth that seemed too white in contrast to the deep blood red.

Making himself small was something that was completely impossible, but non threatening was a good first step. She also didn't seem entirely terrified of his presence for which he was eternally grateful. Trying to explain why a kid was screaming bloody murder was not on his to do list for the day.

He did not leave her alone, but he did try (and fail) to make himself small. This was a tricky one. He wanted something. She didn't know what he wanted just yet. But he did. Smiley ones always did.

"It doesn't matter. I will only not turn it in." So far, they hadn't really found a way to strong arm Kalos into caring about her education. She had no plans for the future. She'd had, until recently, no future at all. And, even if she did want to turn it in, she wanted to see what the big red man thought of that. Every move she made was careful and deliberate, on a hair trigger so she could turn and bolt at his first sign of aggression.

> "Most castles are built to defend a strategic point and house soldiers."

"I am worth defending." She'd been told so by Gawain therefore it was true. If Gawain was confident, that made Kalos triply so.

> "They are usually also much less flammable."

That gave her pause, mid book-addition. He was red. Books were flammable. Was the red a hint at his power set? The pink was, certainly, a part of hers.

"You will not breathe fire on my castle." She tried to keep moving and keep sounding confident, but she was tense, still on that most delicate trigger.One false move and she would be out the side exit before he could sneeze.

This little pink child was a squirrely one. Which meant she was a smart one. If HE had someone walk up to him with the same size difference he would have been squirrely too. 

"We make choices and we live with them. I never had to do a book report in the short time I went to school. Still feel like I missed out on something." Not having gone he couldn't really say what it was he was missing with any strong definition. Giving a slow tiny shrug of his shoulders.

"I bet you are." His tone completely void of sarcasm or dishonesty. Though he did raise his eyebrow a bit at her at the strange leap of logic that had been made there.

Ah. AH. So that was the rub. He was an invader from an outside land intent on destroying her castle hmm? Well best dispel that notion. "I can't breathe fire what you see is what you get, I am just big and strong. Though that would be cool.. and even if I could I wouldn't use it to burn down your castle. I don't want to hurt you or damage the school. Was actually thinking of maybe joining and taking a few classes. Not really sure if I would fit in though." Slowly he moved to lay on his back and stare at the cieling with his hands folded on his stomach. 

"Everyone calls me Red, what's your name?"  

Short time he went to school? That sounded promising. Kalos felt her face soften at the idea and that surprised her back into readiness. No. He wasn't going to win her over that easily. He could still be a strangler or a child stealer. He even admitted to being big and strong. Hah!

"The bigger they is, the harder they fall." The most scared dog barks loudest. In the same way, Kalos would go on distrusting and barbing him with her words. His responses would be everything.

And he was considering taking classes, hm? After not doing all of his school before? She had skeptical eyes. Shifty, skeptical, non-believing eyes.

"You're old. Why would you have a class now?" To his credit, he'd completely derailed her from her building project. Kalos held a book in her hand, totally forgotten. Because he was... laying on the floor? He was practically begging to be trapped like that guy in the book. Gilligan's Travels. Gulliver? Gubble...? Whatever. He had a stupid name and a bad idea of laying down. Just. like. Red.

She eyed his name tag comparing it to what he said, but could not catch him in a lie. R-e-d. She could read that much.

"If you're Red, I am Pink." She figured the likelihood of his actual name being actually Red was about the same chance as hers being Pink. Fair was fair.

"Why're you on the floor like Gublibar? Does your tummy hurt?" Maybe she shouldn't be mean to him if his tummy hurt.

"Isn't that the truth. Hard part is tipping them over though and getting out of the way after." Now he was the giant on the beanstalk. Certainly this kid was doing their best to make him feel like the bad guy. Was he that out of practice with talking to little ones? Probably. It didn't help he was big nor could he help that fact. Well he would just have to make the best of it. 

"Old? Not that old. I don't grow like a tree and keep getting bigger as I age." He laughed a soft rumbly soft of laugh even as he kept staring at the ceiling. "Hmm good question. I suppose it is because you are never too old to learn. Having had to teach myself also mean I might have missed something. By missing something people I care about could get hurt." He replied honestly. It was crazy the sort of things people could relate to and having some knowledge of that fact often helped earn people's trust. The more eccentric the individual the more they found boring things like old Russian literature fascinating or something else as equally dull.

She earned another laugh out of him. "Fair. Though given our size difference I believe Pinky would be more appropriate." Raising a hand slightly to wiggle his pinky finger like an inchworm a moment before chuckling again. He took in a slow breath and ended up smiling again.

"Gublibar? I am not familiar with that name. My tummy also does not hurt, though thank you very much for asking." Glancing past his feet to look at her a moment. "I doubt many of the chairs would hold me Pinky and seeing as how I am a guest it would be rude of me to go around breaking things. I am also trying to make you more comfortable by not looming above you is it working any?" He doubted it. With how the world was he wouldn't be surprised if the X-men and the mansion had some mutant equivalent of stranger danger. Name Tags be damned.

"What is it like living here? Do you like it? You seem like a good person to ask."

How old was this creature? He laughed a deep throated chuckle that was low enough to make her say with confidence that he was an adult. Children did not rumble.

> "...you are never too old to learn. Having had to teach myself also mean I might have missed something. By missing something people I care about could get hurt."

"Seems to me that by being in class, you are away from the people who might being hurt. Street smarts is a kind of smarts, too."

> "I believe Pinky would be more appropriate."

What was appropriate or inappropriate about being called Pinky instead of Pink? He was Red. She was Pink. One to one comparison was fair, in her mind, but rather than pick a fight about a fake name with a big person, Kalos went back to building her castle. She hadn't thought about chairs not holding people. Typically, she was too small for the things people used daily. It was a totally new way of thinking to be too big.

> "I am also trying to make you more comfortable by not looming above you is it working any?"

"You can also tie yourself up. Then, I would worry not at all about you." There was no malice in her voice, just the facts. If he wanted to be totally safe, that was the way to do it, right? Oh. Except he'd said he was strong... hmm. Maybe not rope, then.

> "What is it like living here? Do you like it? You seem like a good person to ask."

"Living here is better than where I was before. They let me eat whenever outside of class. Snacks and junk AND sugar." And so far, despite her various food stashes being cleaned up, she hadn't gotten in trouble for rotting apples or hidden bits of pancake either. "And I can use the kitchen to bake and I have a bed." And a bathroom. He didn't have to know every detail, though. "I like the people and I do not go outside. So I don't know if other places are better. This is the place for me."

The walls of her castle were reaching the point where it was becoming difficult for reaching the top in a steady way to stack the books in a strong way. Kalos stretched onto her tippy-tippy toes.

"Seems to me that by being in class, you are away from the people who might being hurt. Street smarts is a kind of smarts, too."

His eyes narrowed slightly at the thought. It was a wise statement from someone he least expected it to come from. Kids! Hopefully they would maintain that attitude as they got older. 

"I don't think one can get enough of either. There is a debate for specialization though. I personally prefer to be a jack of all trades type myself." He was far too paranoid to not maintain a certain level of self sufficiency. HIs drive to do so wasn't nearly so great as it once was, but he would never allow himself to become dependent on anyone. 

"Tying myself up would be a challenge plus you could never be sure I wasn't just making it look good or if I did a real good job. Trust, but always verify Pinky." Then she opened up a bit about where she came from.. and wanted to punch someone. Not that it wasn't a story he hadn't heard aas he worked at Sanctuary and even semi lived there on occasion. He sat up and looked at her fortification. It was a safer building material then she might guess. He wouldn't damage a book if he could help it. 

"I remember not having a home. It is not the greatest feeling to be unwanted." he shrugged then managed a smile. "Snacks, junk food, and sugar are some of my favorite things too. Should we go hunt down some for us to share?" Mostly because he didn't want the little rascal to get semi crushed by a pile of books. No doubt someone would blame him for it. He also didn't want to librarian to pop up out of the woodwork and make him take responsibility for her impromptu construction project. Yes, best to relocate before any undue attention fell onto him.

Oh. One could get enough, eh? One, what? And specialization? She knew the words, or rather, she had heard the words. She didn't especially understand their context in this sentence. "You sounds plenty book smart to me." She stacked another book on her stack. Kalos was building smarts. That what they said to her in class and now she was literally building with it. Made perfect sense.

She grunted at his 'trust but verify' nonsense. Even he didn't trust him. So now she was double not gonna.

Kalos did slow her next stack when he started talking about not having a home. Kalos had a home. It's name was Atlantis. She just hadn't had a house for a long while, even in her homeworld. Unwanted was a rather nasty hit to the ego for all its truth.

"Do people want you now?" She peeked out from behind her wall and he took the opportunity to invite her to go junk food hunting. Tempting. Very, very tempting.

"I think there's chocolate cereal hiding on the shelves I can't reach." An olive branch... made of almost pure sugar.

The kid sounded way to brutally honest to be lying to him, yet he still found it suspicious. He wasn't about to lose the moral high ground however! After a brief chuckle he smiled. "Thank you, it took lots of studying." There. Good deed for the day accomplished in regards to being a positive influence on children. He was probably only behind about 1000 of those. Today was a good day!

Ah! What he assumed was a furious construction pace for the.. pre-teen? Slowed as he forced her to consider things in a new light. Finally! The little pink daemonette poked her head free from her fortress of knowledge. "Hmmm.. I believe there are people who miss me when I am not around. It is hard to be sure though. People can be difficult to understand."

Was it ethical to bribe a kid into liking you? Probably not. Erik also spent zero seconds contemplating that particular moral snag and slowly lurched to his feet. "Well that certainly doesn't sound fair to me. Let's see if we can go find it shall we?" Taking a few steps towards the door before stopping. "Actually.. you lead. I do not know where the kitchen is." Waiting for the waifish kid to do just that. Erik wondering silently if Pinkies' desire for sugar outweighed her distrust.

She mentally subtracted all the thinking she had done that was in his favor. Nono. He wasn't getting her trust when he couldn't even understand people. Psh. PSH!

"People are not so difficult. Still, Kalos stepped around her wall, eyeing the red man with all the suspicion she could muster. His arms were long, she tried to stay at least that far away. "People have things they need. When they have all they needs, then they move on to wants. People are never just happy. Know which thing they want and you know what they do."

Kalos led him, or rather, she assumed he would follow her to the library door that led to a hallway. The hallway would lead to the back side of the kitchen right next to the pantry. It was a primo food sneaking path.

"I don't know what you want." She confessed. "You have doubt and loneliness. Chocolate cereal won't fix that." But it would fill at least one basic need: chocolate. "Your doubt is stupid. You're plenty smart. There is stupider people." Kalos led him down the hall, but slowed as the approached the kitchen entrance.

She was allowed. She was even allowed at all hours. It didn't mean she wanted them to see her going and coming from the kitchen. They could change their minds at any time as well.

Erik matched the suspicious eyes with one of intense scrutiny. It was a vast oversimplification of people, but they weren't wrong. Basics of human understanding he had forgotten or missed somewhere. He also knew this kid wasn't your average kid, not that many mutant kids were. "It is a very simple way to put it, but you are not wrong." The fact that the kid was sorting through his own conundrums was nothing to be ashamed of as far as he was concerned. The average twelve year old had more social skills then he did. 

The red half-giant was careful to maintain the distance the little one had set. From an outsider's perspective it probably looked like some old fairy tale if mutant's ever got around to rewriting them from their perspective.  

"Me? At my heart I think I just want to be the version I can be. For good or bad."  He gave a little shrug. "Doubt it natural when your trying to improve yourself. There really isn't any internally measuring one can do to even know if you have improved at all. Chocolate cereal is darn good though regardless." A little chuckle that probably still sounded loud escaped him. "Smart huh? Is that an observation or a compliment?" It spoke volumes that it took someone almost a decade his junior to be even more socially blunt then himself.

He poked his head in from the back entrance to make sure the coast was clear before entering. Erik didn't want people to see him helping a kid getting their sugar buzz on. Coast clear he entered, well shimmied into the pantry and looked over the shelves till he spotted his target. 'Chocolaty Chocolate Balls' complete with a kid on the box who looked creepily happy to be eating cereal in Erik's opinion. Making sure to confirm the target with Kalos before shimmying his way back out of the pantry with a surprisingly minimal amount of random foodstuffs being jostled and knocked to the floor. 

"So you want to eat it straight or at least go through the motions of pretending it's cereal and add milk?" Handing Kalos the box to do what she would and making himself available to get the required cereal eating implements. Erik gave it even odds the kid was just going to eat it straight.

Simple sounded like an insult, but not-wrong sounded like a compliment. Maybe he did need school. He certainly didn't make annnnnny more sense when he was trying to tell her what he wanted.

"Version? What version?" What was a "version"? Was that like the people who had not yet made babies? And why was bad an option? Good or bad? It should have been good or the BEST. Good or gooder. Kalos stopped short of going into the pantry with him.

She knew it! HE WAS A BAD GUY! Or maybe a bad guy who was undecided if he was bad yet! HE WAS COMING TO SCHOOL TO LEARN TO BE GOOD!

The realizations nearly floored her.

It was up to Kalos to show this poor, stupid foolish bad guy how to be good. Step 1 was already going well. He had been nice to her. He even offered to go get that disgusting cow juice. Kalos accepted the box of cocoa goodies and started walking them over to one of her most favoritest places.

"Did you know milk is from a COW? Have you SEEN those guys? And you only get cow milk if they have a BABY. You're STEALING from a BABY when you use that stuff."

Kalos held open a curtain for Red. "Step into my secret spot." The outside was out there, but she needed regular doses of sunlight to feel well. Rather than actually going outside, she compromised by going between the curtain and the large plate glass window. This time of day, there was a ton of sunlight here. The curtain made it a nice private place to eat cereal. And there was a ledge large enough for Kalos to sit on...

"I... I guess you can sit on the ground so it's not so secret when you're here. Sorry. Your butt is kinda big." Kalos, on the other hand, fit neatly on the ledge when she pulled her feet up.