Erik remained blissfully unaware of any potential dangers involved with the lack of her gloves focused as he was on his self assigned job and lack of any forewarning.

Rummaging about under the sink as she was he raised an eyebrow and waited patiently. "Same. It was good to truly relax for once." Sloth finally made its move and tried to nuzzled up against his hand and of course he absently rubbed it without thinking too much about it. "You sure your not lust? No cuddling right now ok? We are busy." Chuckling at the little tongue lick  his hand got.

Once she got standing back up he noticed the little bubble blob and fetched a fresh towel. "Andrea wait a moment. You don't want to get any soap in your eye." Eyeing the offending steak maring her otherwise nice skin and dabbing at it lightly with the clean towel. "There! All better."  Flashing a small smile to her as he was quite pleased with himself.

 

Andrea shivered at the petting, but made no comment. She still wasn't ready to tackle that subject, even with herself.

The bubbles were another matter because in all her years past 9 she didn't think a situation like this had ever come up.

Erik wiped the bubbles away in possibly the cutest fashion possible, and all she could do was stare at him as her face slowly changed colors yet again.

His announcement after a job completed and that winning smile were her undoing. She forced herself to physically turn and start washing again, slipping into her mother tongue to thank him with enough stuttering to make a dictionary weep.

"S-so... What will you be doing with the rest of your day...?"

For her it was easy, seeing as she had the day off. No obligations really.

Erik resolved to learn greek at some point, but even he could get the gist, greek thank yous certainly seemed to have a lot of the same sounds repeated though. He had wondered if he did something wrong since she returned to cleaning dishes so fast. Unable to figure it out he put it aside for now and returned to drying what she was doing. 

"Oh... I uh.." Well now that sort of put him on the spot. "I took the day off.. wasn't sure how badly off you were going to be." Was that too much to say? He felt like it was too much and the annoying red blossomed on his cheeks.. for the first time ever he wished he was in his bigger, far more easily to hid blush, form. 

"What do you do on your days off?" He wondered aloud at her. Genuine interested coloring his tone slightly. Working jobs he tended to refrain from getting too in depth and focused on his work. Outside normal pleasantries most people were enigma's to the man.

Her blush was never going to get a chance to go away, was it?

He had taken the whole day off..? For her?? "o-oh..." Gosh she could understand the sentiment because really, if she were in his shoes she'd do it too... But hearing him day it send her pulse soaring. "Thank you, again... You really--... I never expected--" She clammed up. "Just... Thanks." She managed a small shy smile just for him

When there were no more dishes to scrub she wiped the sink down and stashed her sponge and gloves away. Her slim green fingers would have glared up at her if they could have... Constantly wrapped in latex or rubber had left irritated areas here and there. But, seeing as company was present she gave them no choice in the matter.

"Well, nothing terribly exciting I'm afraid. The rumors are pretty much spot on: I read. A lot... If I can I try not 5o step foot outside unless I have too."

Leaving the kitchen, still in her apron to boot, she headed back toward her room and opened the slim closet beside her dresser. Aside from being where she kept all of the 5 dresses she owned, she had a stockpile of boxes medical grade gloves hidden within. Everything she needed to touch along the way had been swapped with materials her power wouldn't change. Metal, plastics, some rubber here or there.

In fact, a lot of the things in her apartment were synthetic if you looked hard enough. Only her and the plants being obvious exceptions.

After her hands were taken care of, she removed her apron and pointed Erik to the bookcase in the living room

"I like to give myself a book a month goal, at the very least."

Whelp it seems like that had been a mistake telling her that. She clammed up and got all embarrassed. Erik lamented the fact he hadn't actually fell over the balcony earlier in the morning. Then she said thank you.. well twice technically, but the first felt hollow. When she followed up the last with that damned smile of hers he wanted to melt and go right into the drain. "Your welcome it is no problem, really." It felt so weird to be thanked. He tried not to stick around in any situation long enough to be thanked.  

Erik winced at the sight of the gloves on her hands. He wanted to ask why he really did, but he was too embarrassed to do so. Prying into other people mutations seemed like such bad form. The least he could do is extend the same courtesy to his friendcrush.

"I wasn't aware there were rumors about you.. can't imagine any of them being bad.." Settling on slightly consoling but mostly neutral for his attempt. 

At first he watched her go then he followed her, curious why she still had the apron on. His feet stopped at the doorway though and he looked on with thinly veiled curiosity. Whoa those were alot of gloves. Whatever it was must be rather serious.

Retreating once it looked like she had completed what she set out to do he followed her into the living room. "Oh! I noticed those when we came in last night. Some of them look really old. My place is basically just a collection of bookshelves with some workbenches for some.. hobbies." Yes hobbies. Vigilantism was a hobby wasn't it?

"oh, well..." She chuckled nervously, "They are not bad rumors nessesarily. People just like to joke about how much of a shut in I am."

She grinned at him fondly when he explained his own interest in books. Honestly, it was exciting that he shared so many traits with her! They both loved food, they both loved books.

Oh, she was in so much trouble. The feelings were absorbing it all like a greedy sponge, growing steadily larger.

... So much trouble.

Shaking herself from her inward reflection, she reached out to pull a volume from the shelf. Not a speck of dust to be seen suggested she visited the bookshelf often. "Would you want to do a book swap?" She held the book out for him. It was an old one, with well loved pages and a worn cover. The title was antique silver lettering printed on dark blue canvas. 'Aesop's fables', it read.

"There is nothing more interesting than peeking into someone else's collection. I feel it is like sharing a part of one's own mind."

... That may have sounded a little too personal. Ack!

"What are your other hobbies?" She was curious as to what he needed work benches for. Crafting? Wood working? Maybe he liked to build replicas of things? Who knew!

"I have heard the same words used to describe myself." Of course they weren't entirely true. Not that he didn't enjoy spending time alone. It certainly provided a convenient cover for his other activities.

He took the book to examine it, his fingers tenderly running over the lettering as he read it and gave her a wry smile. "I... would love too, but I have little in the way of entertainment reading. It wouldn't be fair of me to take this book and offer you say a book on the Treaty of Versailles or Electronics for Begginers.." An odd sheepish look slipping across his face. "When my mother found out I was a mutant she pulled me from school and my cousins and uncle homeschooled me. When my.. when i got older they got busy and I had to learn to teach myself. Never really fell out of the habit I guess." After a moment of running his hand over it some more he moved to hand it back to her with some hesitation.

"If you are that interested you could always come over and check it out though as boring as it would probably be for you." Wait had he just invited her over? Did that sound like a date? Flushing at the potential disaster for that little nugget he moved onward with a nervous clear of his throat. 

"I like to build gadgets and such.. a bit of woodworking, leatherworking, anything that interests me at the time really. Nothing really craftsman level. Sometimes people have problems and I do what I can to solve them. What about you any other hobbies besides cooking and reading?" Not entirely certain she had any other hobbies with all her work and volunteering.  

She was honestly surprised by his admission, and was yet another reminder that there were others in this life who had similar backgrounds as she. She longer for the day when such deeply held stigmas were no longer a worry for future generations. Andrea smiled down at the book he had handed back. She decided not to pry further due to the slight hesitation she had heard.

"I know how that feels... I was home schooled from a very young age. Though, my father was an American teaching English in the local middle schools, so I had a bit of an edge over others I suppose."

She decided not to go into any more detail than that, as she didn't want to sour their... Um... Whatever this was.

He blushed himself after totally inviting her over, and like clockwork her own blush returned. "I think I would like that... Very much." She held the book out again ernestly. "Take this one as a gift from me, then. It is one of my favorites!"

She hurried to try and leave the book with him so he couldn't argue, turning away to shuffle towards the couch and retrieving a cozy looking sweater that had been resting over one corner.

It amused her that some of her guesses had been correct, and they reminded her why she liked him as much as she did. How the admission that he liked to help people if he could tumbled out so casually from his lips, without a hint of it being said to brag.

She sighed a little, adoration creeping into her expression as she watched him.

"I suppose I do dabble in music a little, but nothing too serious. I can carry a tune and play simple things on a piano or violin. I used to be better, honestly, but I haven't been keeping up with it."

Seating herself on the couch, she drew her legs up and leaned back. Flexing her toes, she tried to think of anything else.

She loved the crap out of some good old fashion tales of romance, but... That was not a topic she would be bringing up. No siree Bob.

"If I may ask, what does your power entail, exactly?" She knew a bit from things she had seen or been told, but there were more blanks than answers still. So many more things she still wanted to know! Did he have to get undressed every few hours, no matter where he was?

She covered her cheeks with the sleeves of her sweater to cover a deep flush at the thought.

The fact she had been homeschooled as well made him feel like that much less of an outcast. To him it seemed like home schooled kids in America were usually the result of some other underlying social stigmata from whatever path their parents chose and left their kids at the mercy of what was usually over controlling parents. Not that his homeschooling had any curriculum to speak of and in his teen years his education shifted to a more street knowledge focus. 

Oh boy she just had to say it like THAT. She wanted to come over. He would have to tidy it up a bit beforehand. Something always ended up out of place when he got really into doing something. Stupidly his hands stuck out as she handed the book to him. A gift. His face burned harder and he clutched the book to him since she ran away so quickly. The suddenly meek heart in his chest just didn't have the strength or desire to refuse her. That just left him clutching a book to himself awkwardly for a few moments as she went to sit down.

It felt even more awkward to watch her dress, even if it was to put on a sweater and he contented himself with looking over his new cherished possession a little smile playing at his cheeks unbidden. Whatever he was about to say to her got drop kicked out of his head as she looked at him in a way he wasn't familiar with. He coughed and quickly focused on the book until she talked again. 

"I have always wanted to learn to play something, but always seem to be busy with this or that." This usually being punching someone and that being shooting someone. "With a bit of practice I am sure you could be pretty good." 

She asked about powers and he made a bit of a face. A thoughtful expression adorning his face as he pondered how best to talk about it as he maneuvered towards the couch. He gestured towards the couch to ask permission before sitting down on the opposite end of her still cradling the book. Finally he shrugged and looked at her. 

"Not flashy in the slightest, usually I just heal.. well regenerate is probably a more appropriate term. Some side effect of it causes me to adopt a larger frame and I am stuck like that for a few hours until I shrink and it starts all over again. Don't need to sleep, but unfortunately there is only so much I can do in my larger state. The extra cell division requires fuel and that explains the appetite." Smiling over at her with a shrug. "Not nearly as interesting as you are-er your powers are-not that you aren't interesting!" Gods above! He slid a hand down his face as that twice damned blush appeared again. Why did he blush so much around her?!

She tried to wave the topic away a little, "Oh I don't know... I haven't really got anyone to regale with music so I don't think I'd get too much deeper into it. I tend to only play at the date Auction Carol and Anthony throw every year, anyway."

She stewed over the information he gave, but got stuck somewhere around him not needed to sleep. In a way, that sounded wonderful. In another, it reminded her of Matt and his insomnia. He had been overjoyed when she had inadvertantly knocked him out.

"Do you miss it?" She questioned, "Sleep, that is."

Having her mishmash of powers complimented still didn't sit terribly well with her, even after years of working to accept them. She supposed she couldn't blame him for it though as she had been the one to bring it up first.

Rubbing at an eye reminded her that she had slept with her contacts in. She excused herself for a moment to take care of that.

When she toddled back in and reclaimed her spot on the couch her old sunglasses were propped on the bridge of her nose; a relic from the past.

What had they been talking about again? Oh, right.

"I don't really find them interesting, personally." She unfurled one hand to flex her gloves fingers. All of them, yes... Even the snakes, she could live with. The only one she had any personal attachment to currently was the amount of good she could do to save people with her blood.

"More stress than it's worth most of the time..." She chuckled, and pondered how to turn the topic back on him. "...But I don't want to bore you with vain complaints."

She spotted sloth trying to slither stealthily across the back of the couch toward him.

"They really like you, you know... That is quite rare."

"I wouldn't mind hearing what you could do if the mood struck you. Just.. not at whatever a date auction is. Given the sound of it I want nothing to do with that." Shooting a fast smile over her before shivering.. a date auction. What sort of insane person does such a thing?!

Never one to answer a question without giving it some actual thinking he thought about it. "It has been long enough that I hardly remember. I never get tired in a physical sense though I do get mentally drained. I do find myself needing to be somewhere quiet and relaxing from time to time." Not that he was going to mention he was not good at being the center of social attention in large groups. Too much to keep track and be wary of not to mention the shear stress of trying to fake his way through it.

When she got up to take care of her eyes he finally released the precious clutching he had done to the book so he could idly flip through a few pages. Realizing it probably looked a bit odd to be holding it to himself he set it down somewhere near him and refocused his attention on her. She looked rather cute in the glasses and he blushed a bit as he thought that.

He listened to her quietly when she returned. It was hard to say which part of what she said had struck him so hard. The dry chuckle or the odd indifference or some combination of both it was hard to tell. A thousand little needles pricked at his heart. He couldn't lock it down like he did so many rampant feeling. This one slipped free of the crushing depths he buried most of his feelings into. It wriggled like some untamed animal and it broke the surface with a harsh vengeance. 

Erik felt his eyes burn and his throat tighten. Absently he sought out the comfort of Sloth as ingenuine as the snakes feelings probably were to their heat lamp. His little shiver had returned. 

His eyes focused somewhere on the carpet yet so very far away. "Please don't talk like that. I may feign indifference towards my powers because they certainly aren't as flashy or cool as eye lasers or controlling an element, but they are part of me and I have grown to accept them even if they do provide a very real source of unending pain. Without them I would not have become the person I am today for better or worse." He finally looked at her, to her not even realizing his eyes were sparkling with moisture.

"To hear you talk like yours are something to be endured. To be suffered. It hurts unimaginably. I-I don't know what all you can do or what it has cost you, but they apart of you. Something to be accept and be cherished." As he spoke he had brought Sloth closer without really thinking about it. Swallowing hard as he finished and speaking. His face had disappeared into his knees as he clutched at and nuzzled the snake. A little sniffle sounding from its protective depths. The little tremor had become a full body shiver he couldn't seem to tame down and had given up. Intent on just riding it out with minimal damage to his body and soul as he could muster.

He reacted poorly to what she had said and she was more than a little shocked. She hadn't felt it was that bad, a mere shadow of the way she used feel about herself. Clearly, she had been mistaken.

Sloth found its place in his lap, and eventually in his arms. She was slowly tugged from her spot as the great big snake started to draw the rest of its length toward Erik. It left her awkwardly shuffling toward him more to prevent herself from falling over.

She truly saw how effected he was when he looked at her she saw his eyes.

Guilt steadily grew until it was an enormous dragon settled on her shoulders, weighing her down. Seeing him so... so broken tore at her insides in an unfamiliar fashion. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, realizing quite suddenly that she didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry." She finally got out, quietly and unsure. "I.. I didn't mean to-- I shouldn't have--" Her jaw snapped shut and her teeth creaked audibly as she clenched it.

"A-all I can do is apologize. I did not think before speaking, and I have hurt you." She reached out, fingers clenching for a moment as she hesitated, and then she gently placed her hand upon his back.

"It was not mature of me at all, and I should have considered things more before... before speaking."

A breath left her in a slow huff, and she started rubbing his back in a small, gentle circle. The same motion often helped her patients through stressful events at work.

"... I have spent my whole life compartmentalizing the various stages of my mutation." She attempted a little smile, and to catch his eyes. "I was born green, and I looked nothing like either of my parents." She thought about what to filter out as she went, "They were very staunchly catholic and I was a rather unexpected bump in the road for the idea of what they wanted. I was home schooled from the beginning to save our name from, I don't know.. ridicule I suppose." She hadn't bothered to quiz them on it the last time they spoke.

"For a very long time I held this particular belief that god had cursed me. In fact, it is the very reason I am here today in this city. I thought he meant to use me as some message, some warning to others." She laughed nervously, "It was a very silly belief looking back, but I was very, very sheltered. As soon as I stepped outside that door all the way across the sea my beliefs started changing. I first met someone else who looked like me here, at that school for children with powers."

She smiled again, recalling it fondly. "For the first time in my life I questioned everything that had been instilled in me, and I was happy for the first time in..." How old had she been? Lord, it seemed like ages ago. "... 18 years, I believe."

Falling quiet for a moment she removed her hand from his back and let it settle in her lap with the other.

"I briefly lapsed back into that kind of thinking when the snakes appeared, and I pushed those that I love away. They were angry and feral. Snapped at everything and anyone. And... they had the same awful power as me."

Standing and peeling Sloth away, she padded across the carpet to the kitchen counter and grabbed an apple from a little fruit bowl. Padding back, she retook her seat and peeled one of her gloves off.

"I thought at the time that because I was so dangerous I needed to hide. I couldn't be out there with the others because every time I tried it got worse."

Gripping the apple loosely, she watched as it gradually started to shift. Plump and red shriveled into dark grey. Smooth skin suddenly rough and cracked and hard. After only a few moments of holding it she set it down on the table before her with the clack only stone made, and sighed.

"I named them after each sin I was sure I was being punished for, and for a long time we hated each other quite a bit. Sloth used to bite me, as well as the others." Right on cue, one of the smaller black ones slithered past her ear. She patted it reassuringly.

"Today, right here and now, I am a different person then I was before. I have accepted all of these things as being me, and I no longer hold any silly fancy's about how I got them. But... I am still human, and so sometimes I do dream of being able to feel things with my hands. To touch someone without causing irreparable harm, to look at someone without glasses or contacts and not have them pass out on me."

As amusing as that was sometimes.

"I think, most of all, I wish I wasn't so colorblind. I don't even know what color your eyes are!"

She poked the stone apple guiltily.

"But, long story short I suppose, even with all of those wants I have accepted myself... mostly from a lot of help from people such as you."

She started to apologize and he immediately felt worse. It wasn't what he had intended, to make her feel sorry. Even he wasn't sure where the raw unfiltered emotion had come from. A brief recognition of the itense amount of anguish his own self acceptance had been born from. He knew he rather hated the big version of himself at times, born more from the limitations of being so large in a world designed for people half the size. He wanted to tell her to stop that it was ok, but he just felt so.. so exhausted.

How was he supposed to tell her it just hurt him so deeply because he cared for her? Cared about the way she saw herself. Cared about making sure she was safe. Then she touched him and his body tensed momentarily before relaxing into it. The soothing touche causing the worst of his tremors to subside. It felt really nice and acknowledging that made his face positively burn. He wanted it to keep going forever. Then she started to rub his back and he completely forgot about everything. His shivering slowly fading into the background of the pleasantry and reassurance. 

She moved to look at his eyes and he looked at her. Listening to her quietly as she spoke. It was nice and she had a wonderful voice. More importantly she was talking about herself. A subject that would never bore him and he resolved to make sure to do that just as soon as he could trust his voice. Her story was fascinating and he learned so much about her in such a short time. Frowning a bit as his emotional support Sloth was gently taken away so she could continue her story. Slowly drying eyes held onto her with fixed fascination. She even had a demonstration of why she had gloves on..

It took him a quiet moment to process everything. He figured his own apology was in order even as thoughts whirled that she wanted something as simple as to know what color his eyes were and how she wanted to touch someone without causing irreparable harm. A thought struck him and he blinked rapidly. As important as the apology he really needed to make was the thought was most insistent. Pressing on him, urging him to take action. Her attention was focused on the apple she had turned to stone. Instincts and skills of survival learned the hard way allowed him to close the distance soundlessly.

She had yet to put her glove back on and one of his hands grasped her wrist gently, but insistently. He wasn't going to hurt her, but curiosity drove him forward. A sane person would have tested it somewhere far safer. Instead Erik brought her hand up to his face and without pause used his other hand to press it into his cheek. It was.. well it was an odd sensation. Skin attempted to turn to stone and just as quickly went right back in a perpetual state of not stone not flesh. It didn't stop him from feeling her soft hand on his face or the smile from appearing on his face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like it was something you did. It just hurts to hear you talk badly about yourself." He gave the hand on his face a tender squeeze and let it go so she could choose to do with it what she will. The close proximity making his insides do an unexplainable little jig.

Never in her life.

NEVER IN HER LIFE, had she wanted to slap someone and kiss them at the same time so very, very much.

She had been sitting there after finishing her long winded explanation, feeling silly and stupid and all sorts of other synonyms for those two words... when he reached out and snagged her wrist and her train of thought threw on the brakes and came screeching to a halt.

There wasn't time to question him, there wasn't time to shout or yank her arm away before he could hurt himself. He stole her hand and had it flush against one of his cheeks, with his other hand jumping to join in.

She could have maimed him! He could have lost his goddamned hand and half his face after she had just showed him what it could do!

Brief flashes of violent memories sprang up and the most violent shudder ripped through her bodily, yet there her hand was... still touching his face.

He wasn't screaming,

"...what?" Her voice was thick with a lot of emotions all at once and she couldn't process it. The communication tower was down, radio had gone silent.

Her fingers curled, arm still stuck out from how he had been holding it. She was still visibly shaking.

"You..." Her hand flexed, she was staring at it. It shook as she opened it again. He still had a face. Clean and pink and whole.

"You are the most wonderful, stupid, beautiful soul I have ever met..." Bead of something clear rolled out from under one side of her sunglasses. She gathered the courage to reach up and pull them from her face at the same time that her bare fingertips brushed his cheek again.

She was staring at his shirt collar, but her eyes were finally bare. No synthetic contacts, no darkly shades lenses. They were flooded with conflicted tears and her eyebrows were pinched and creased as she tried to sort her feelings.

She had unearthly eyes. Bright and vibrant like orange Sphalerite, with highlights of gold and shadows of garnet. They caught the light and refracted it in such a way that seemed too deep for something made from flesh.

Her fingers trailed his cheek bone as more tears slipped free, and she smiled though them.

"Your cheek is so smooth!"

The violent ripple through her body caused some concern. Gently he placed a hand on her side to brace her against whatever it was she was feeling. He wanted to do more. To scoop her up and tell her everything would be ok and mean every single word of it. Then she finally got sorted enough to speak and it was beautiful. Smiling in spite of himself and what could have ended very poorly for him.. temporarily at least.

"Most people just stick with the stupid part.. those other ones are new." Crap now she was crying and he was pretty sure his own eyes got something in them, simultaneously. It was about the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him save maybe his mother. She also had the most wonderfully soft hands and despite knowing his face was healing where she touched it still felt very nice. "Funny I was going to say the same thing about your hands. They are so soft." 

"Your the beautiful one you know. Your eyes remind me of a solar eclipse. It is very pretty. Mine are just a boring brown by the way." Emotions clouded her face some and he rubbed her side gently. "Tell me what your feeling?" Words soft and gentle like the warmth of a gentle spring morning. Just the barest of touchest and no more for fear it would collapse.