"I mean, you can use the silverware if you want to," he said with a shrug. "It's all personal preference."

Okay so maybe at some point the silence did become awkward, because after a few moments, Lenna called him out on his silence and made him blush and fidget a bit. And then the bikini line made things so much worse.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to I was just....I uhm..." He took a breath, then sipped his soda before going back to his pizza and taking a bite. "I'm not leering!" he protested, shuffling a bit in his seat as he forced himself to look her in the eyes. Her mesmerizing blueish-green eyes...Oh dear.

"I just....uh....You're uhm..." He swallowed. "You're just....very pretty, is all, Lenna," he said, flashing her a sheepish grin.

He apologized, fervently, frantically. Said he wasn’t leering. Stammered, gave an excuse, and— grinned.

When he’d been talking, she had peered at him, listening. And then he’d finished talking, and the only emotion Lenna had felt after the uncomfortable feelings, confusion and annoyance was relief.

Relief. That was what she felt. ”Finally!” She threw her hands up into the air.

After a moment, she grew self conscious and clarified the possible question in his eyes. ”Words.” she said. ”I was worried you hated me or something. And, wait— did you say pretty?”

While she was not the type to stop and drop everything to blush any time someone called her pretty, the compliment had taken her aback. So caught up had she been, in her own relief at the death of silence, that she had almost missed the flattery buried in all the ‘um’s.

There was no blush. However, Lenna did flash Ty a short, but brilliant, smile.

”Thank you. You are pretty, too.”

Lecturing could come in a minute. He had earned himself a moment’s reprieve.

He gave her a look when she shouted and threw her arms up, but she was happy because he was talking. Okay then. Maybe silence just made her nervous or something, though he simply didn't have the words for the moment earlier.

"Yeah, I said pretty," he admitted quietly. "I don't hate you, not remotely," he continued, his voice quiet, but that southern drawl had a fair amount of sweetness. "In fact, I'd say the opposite. I know we only just met a few hours or so ago but...I've had a hell of a time. And...I'm really starting to like you," he said with a genuine smile.

"Thanks. I've never been called pretty before. Guy could really get used to that," he murmured as he took another bite of pizza.

"Hey, uhm. I don't have a phone, but if you wanted to uh...give me your number, I can text you when I get one? You know, keep in touch. Because...honestly I'd like to see you again."

Yes, the pretty comment had taken her aback. And what came after took that aback aback a bit more. Way back. Back to the Stone Age.

He spoke quietly, softly, with that sweet tea drawl. Part of her was stunned, part of her was confused, part of her was flattered, and part of her (there were so many parts)... just did not know what to do. Because.

Technically, technically, TECHNICALLY... nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. Because nobody had ever been in the position to. Because technically, she had never really been on a date.

Being raised on an island in an all-girls school and being isolated, the opportunities to meet boys are few and far between. Unless you count skipping out to gamble with sailors as an opportunity... which she never had...

Other girls had spoken of dates. Older girls. Girls who had been old enough to date sailors. But she had never... she had focused more on her studies. And technically, technically, TECHNICALLY... today had been her first real kiss.

So when Cowboy had said he’d had a hell of a time and was really starting to like her, she had not had one hell of an idea of what to say. So, she smiled bright and said ”Thank you. You are pretty, too.” And she was smiling, she had smiled! But inwardly, she was screaming and lambasting herself for being so freaking awkward.

‘Thanks, you too’... ‘thanks, you too!’

‘Thanks... you too?!’

What did she feel? Was this what she wanted? Had she had fun? Was this fun? Did she like him too?

She had fully been ready to lecture him about being too quiet and sh*+. And then, he had gone and sunk a dagger into her heart with ... with... with fskking sweetness and cuteness. Argh! And then he had pulled it out and stabbed it in again a few more times to make certain she was dead... from kindness.

So yes. He had earned himself a moment’s reprieve from the damnable lecturing. And he had maybe even touched her, a little.

Maybe even her phone number? Her phone...

Her face fell. And then it lit up! She dove for her purse and scrounged around for a second. There it was, next to the knives and the gun and the secondhand wallets and the Kleenex. Lenna whipped it out and held it up!

It was your typical smartphone, with a plain black phone case that was completely unassuming. As her thumb touched the center button, the screen lit up revealing a lock screen. The background of the lock screen was blue. In the center, there was a police style shield with an eagle’s wings and head sprouting out from the shield’s top. At the eagle’s neck, there was empty space in the shape of a Star. And in the center of the shield, the word SUPER was there in oversized letters.

Lenna tried to unlock it. Lenna tried to unlock it again. Lenna tapped it over and over, and bopped it in the table. She swore sulfurically.

”Damned thing.” She concluded.

Ty's mind was going through a similar process. She was pretty, and he had asked her to make out, but she teased him even though he meant it as a joke. And then they made out, and now were on a date? It was...amusing. And unnerving.

She pulled out her phone and fiddled with it, and he gave her an inquisitive look as she seemed to get frustrated. "Hey, I can unlock it for you," he offered, holding out his hand. Taking the phone, as soon as it touched his palm, his mind was taken back to the phone being manufactured, bought, and given to some government type.

~The phone saw a lot of time in the guy's pocket, and a lot of time doing odd things. Some sort of government esque breakroom. Fireworks on the fourth of July. Some cheesy picture in front of the statue of liberty. And...ew this guy liked to pick his nose. A lot. He didn't really understand what was going on but he then saw a hand reach in and grab the phone--and there was Lenna. More pocket time, and then him taking the phone in a weird inception-like moment.~

"Looks like I'm not the only charming thief at the table," he said quietly, an amused smirk on his face as he unlocked the phone and told her the code to get in. "You should probably change that. And after I text you, change the number. And you know...make it more...you," he said with a smile. "So less drab and more interesting. Oh and uh...wash your hands. That dude liked to pick his nose."

This was the first time Lenna had watched Ty utilize his mutant power. Half an hour ago, she had not even considered that he could have a mutant power, other than being cute, or what it was, other than being cute. So, seeing him take her phone and do what he did had been a surprise.

Her face had been curious as she had relinquished the phone. One eyebrow was quirked like a comma. She was mildly annoyed she’d never figured out how to open the phone herself, or asked around. Uncertain what he would do, and interested to see it happen. And that was on top of the swill of emotions she had felt earlier, though they were dulling in the background and idling

What would he do? What could he do? Her first thought had been something mundane. Maybe he simply had a way with such devices. Then he’d just touched it with a bare hand and focused. Which spoke of something else. And unlocking power? Would have helped with stealing vehicles. Or some sort of affinity for machines and technology. But, then he would have had far less trouble hot-wiring a vehicle. No, she could not tell what he’d done at a glance. But it had gotten results.

He spoke, and for some odd reason, Lenna both frowned and blushed. Whatever she had been expecting, it had not been to be called both charming and a thief. What was his power, that he could learn such a thing?

The phone’s main background was the same as it’s lock screen, which was boring. But then, she was not aware such differences could have existed. Lenna took the unlocked phone from Cowboy, and did not stare down at a picture of a familiar man’s face with arms crossed, posing like a tough guy with tight lips and imposing eyes. It was just some stupid eagle shield thing, like it had been.

What did those numbers mean? Would she need to memorize them? How did one change the code? And the number? What was more... her?

He was smiling at Lenna like he had done something clever. She felt a little foolish, because she would have to be asking of him many questions. She now had a phone she could utilize, however, which made her feel... happy. So, she smiled and told him “thank you, Cowboy.”

Then, his words about the nose-picking hit and her face shifted into one of revulsion and she held the phone away from herself a small distance.

”He picked his nose?” she said.

”Disgusting. How do you know this? And also. All of that other stuff. You will have to show me how. I am, well...” She paused. What? From another time? Of another age? New to these things? Lenna still hardly believed Swiss Miss’s statements, in spite of odd circumstances and happenstance. ”I stole it,” she said, going with simple truth without any embellishment or mystery. ”I have never owned a phone like this. I was jealous of the Megan girl and her phone.”

Ty knew there were going to be questions, and he was prepared to answer them.

"It's just what I do. I can touch something, and I can see it's...memories, I guess. Everywhere it's been, everything that's happened within sight of it. Everything." He nodded, taking the phone back. "Okay, so I just go to settings..." he murmured, jotting down the phone's number and putting it in his jacket pocket, and then going through the phone settings. "Okay, here's where you change the unlock code. Pick four numbers you won't forget, or a password that you won't forget," he said, then once that was squared away, he looked at the screen.

"So for the background images..." He smiled before turning on the phone's camera and snapping a quick selfie. Then, the ginger mutant got up and slid into the booth right beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and snapped a picture of the two of them.

"There, now let me set these as your background..." Done, and of course he explained how to do this in case she didn't want him on her phone screen. It was just a placeholder.

"Megan...that name has a ring to it...I think I knew a Megan but...I don't really know. Everything's kinda a blank before last week," he said with a shrug.

So strange... he could touch things... and see their memories. The possibilities for that were endless.

She only spent a moment contemplating, though, because she wanted to focus on what he was saying... rather than the logistics of the power, and how it could best be utilized. Perhaps that was why he had worn gloves up until he’d touched her cellular phone?

Could he read her?

What had he really learned, other than the nose picking?!

But then, she was distracting herself again from listening. Yes, yes. ‘Settings.’

She noted him getting her number, and leaned forward, resting her chin against her hand. Fingers curled up to cover a slight smile as the other idle thoughts walked away. He had her number now, yes? Good.

She needed to give him four numbers or a password?

”Does it have to be four? Can it be 6?” she asked.

Once he’d answered her, Lenna rattled off six digits that might seem awfully familiar to him. They ended with a 20.

After a moment, she explained. ”Since it is the phone’s birthday.” She stated innocently, fingers still covering up her mouth. ”I will remember the day I got this phone to work.”

For that reason alone, and nothing else.

Once that was squared away, Cowboy— Lenna was unfamiliar with phone cameras, as she had never had one or cared much about modern phones until recently when the definition of modern had changed. So when he did the thing with the flash, then got handsy it took Lenna a moment to understand.

It almost reminded her of a camera flash, with the shutter sound. Did her phone have a camera?! Her phone had a camera!! Was he taking a picture of them, together?

A lesser Lenna, a less-trusting Lenna, a Lenna of 48 hours ago, would have reacted quite differently to the sudden proximity than the Lenna of here and now. She might have shoved the strange boy up against the side of the booth, or tumbled him out to the floor. Or else the orange of the world might have receded down to a point around some innocuous object her mind had decided could be used for defense. A water glass might have wiggled, A knife might have jiggled, and then something bad might have happened to his face. But this Lenna was far more trusting, and her cowboy make out sessions had caused her to be more comfortable around Ty. It he had wanted to hurt her, he would have had ample opportunities. But he had not, so she did not... do anything bad to his face. In fact, the thought had never even crossed Lenna’s mind. Assassins honor.

And since we have established Lenna’s thought-innocence and her apparent lack of violent hostility towards that sweetheart, Ty, we can move on to what actually happened, rather than what could have been.

Ty and Lenna took a picture, and Lenna beamed like the sun. Radiant.

He set the picture to replace the ghastly eagle shield and showed it to her and told her how to do it, for the future. Then, he gave her back Kyle’s phone.

She leaned forward with the phone in both hands, staring at the background on the screen. And then, Lenna kind of sort of stopped paying attention to him.

It may have been due to him talking about Megan, even if she’d mentioned the girl herself. But more likely, it was because she hadn’t seen how the picture had turned out until just then. And—

”We are really cute in this picture.” Lenna said quietly. Lenna had not meant to say it out loud. Still, the words had found a way out, all on their own.

As she realized she’d said them, Lenna hastily cleared her throat and said ”Oh look at that. We have both finished our pizzas, it looks like!” (They had not). ”That was good. Do I remember someone said ice cream?” Ahem. Because she could most certainly devour some ice cream.

She was cute when she covered her mouth like that. Though something told him that she had other reasons for picking today's date. Hey, as far as he was concerned, today would be a day worth remembering. He had no idea of what could hypothetically happen, though it was worth noting that prior to two days ago, this entire day, and possible future days, would have turned out quite differently.

The picture was a good one, and they both were smiling like a happy couple of kids. His arm stayed around her, hand resting idly on her shoulder as she spoke. And the boy smiled.

"We really do," he murmured, and then she started stammering. "Yeah. Ice cream was promised, yes," he said, ignoring the fact that they had not finished their pizza. But he didn't really mind.

"It's right across the street, and I'm ready whenever you are," he said softly, his arm sliding down her back before his hand lost contact and he pulled away before standing to his feet. But not before leaning in and stealing a quick peck on her cheek.Hey, he was a thief after all, and he knew he could get away with it this time.

It was interesting that she had not noticed the arm still around her until it had gone. Almost as if it were nice to have it there. Normal.

Really, really, she needed to get used to this “date” thing. This was a date, yes? Not just make Cowboy Pay for Everything time?

Which made her strain to recall, had they already paid for their slices of— smooch.

The peck on the cheek derailed her train of thought.

”Hmph,” She smirked at him.

At this point, such blatant thievery was expected of him. She would have to get him back later. But for the moment—

Lenna smiled, and took one final bite of her pizza. Then, she slid out of the booth. ”Give me one moment to— bathroom?” she said.

Then, she vanished.

Water ran. Paper towels dabbed gently at the cellular phone’s surface. It was dried, and put away. Lenna reached into her purse and extracted a powder blue hair ribbon. It was orange to her, but she had asked the person at the store specifically what color it was. Because powder blue was a nice color and went with her eyes.

Quickly, she gathered her hair into a high ponytail and tied it off with the ribbon. Then, she returned to the table where Cowboy had remained. Casually, she pulled an arm above her head in a stretch. Then, she smiled.

”There. Much better. Let us continue to the ice cream part of this date!” She nodded once. Yes. She had decided. A date was what it was. And if he had a problem, he could have it with her fist. A girl is allowed to be just a little romantic.

Just a little. She hadn’t done this before. What was the appropriate amount?

He blushed lightly, flashing her a cheesy grin, and then nodded while she went to the bathroom. He cleared their table, and then leaned against the wall as he waited for her, letting his mind wander. He was actually...on a date? And it was really quite enjoyable.

When she came back, her hair was up in a ponytail, and he smiled. "That looks good on you. I approve," he said with a nod. "Yep. Ice cream. Though I hope it's been an enjoyable date this far? I mean...I think so but I don't have anything to compare it to," he said a little timidly as he led her outside, slipping an arm around her waist tentatively and headed across the street and into the ice cream parlor.

This line wasn't as busy, so they got to the counter, and Ty ordered a mint chocolate chip cone, plus whatever Lenna ordered. He paid the lady behind the counter, who gave the 'lovebirds' a sweet smile, and sent them on their way with their ice cream. This time, when they made their way to the booth, Ty slid in next to her instead of across, letting his right arm remain around her while he ate his ice cream with his other hand.

Lenna smiled at the comment about her “looking good”. ”Thank you,” She said.

She chuckled as he asked her how his date was going.

If she had been more worldly, Lenna might have been compared his comments to some sort of product review or performance survey. She might have even attempted to give him one, with things like kissing: 4 and car-stealing: 5. It was probably for the best that she had not been familiar with such things. Because with her guard down, her actual response was far more real.

”I do not think I am quite qualified to compare dates, either. You and I, we are in the same boat, yes?” She smiled lightly at him, and added ”But I have had much fun.”

Maybe that statement had bolstered Cowboy’s confidence. He slipped an arm around her waist. Lenna allowed this. Together, they made their way to the ice cream shoppe.

This time the line wasn’t busy, which was kind of unfortunate because Lenna really had wanted to spend a large amount of time staring at all of the flavors. To say that she felt like a kid in a candy shop would have been a vast understatement of the situation.

Lenna had been given ice cream before. Of course. What monster would deprive a child of the experience of ice cream? Even a drug lord with a vast assassin ring could not possibly do such a thing. But to actually go into an establishment that served copious quantities of quality ice cream in myriad flavors... Cowboy probably got a big-eyed show of enthusiasm before her eyes settled on a specific flavor, and she pointed hungrily at the flavor in the case. She tapped on the glass.

”Please. The rocky road.” She said. Her tone didn’t quite say ‘hurry!’ It was polite. But it was definitely a tone with a bit of energy behind it.

The woman scooped, and Lenna got her cone. It, was a waffle cone. And it looked delicious.

Lenna scooted into the booth, and Ty followed after, sitting next to her. The arm around her was warm, which was nice as a contrast to the biting cold of the ice cream.

Ice cream in winter? There certainly were stranger things.

Grinning, Lenna ate.

”I love ice cream,” She mused. ”We never get this many flavors all at once, where I come from. Have not had this one before. But chocolate and marshmallows. What can go wrong? What did you get?” She peered at his cone.

Maybe if it was something she had not had before, he would let her share.

True; we've both had fun, and that's the important thing. I think," he said with a shrug. Though it was nice knowing that she enjoyed his company as much as he did hers. The wide eyed excitement that was plastered on her face coupled with her enthusiasm when she ordered made Ty's heart flutter a little. He didn't know a lot about Lenna since they'd only just met that morning, but...she was so adorable when excited and they seemed to get along rather well. And hey, he already had her number! He just needed a phone...

Sure, it was winter, and that might have accounted for the shop not being that busy, but he promised Lenna ice cream, so dammit they were getting ice cream. Besides, the warmth of the physical contact cancelled out the chills from the ice cream. "I do too, though I can't recall having it in a long time," he said with a shrug. "Yeah, ice cream is pretty straight-forward. Some things you just can't mess up." He gave a soft laugh.

"I got mint chocolate chip," he answered, looking over at her before offering his cone. "You want a taste?" he asked without really thinking about it. Just two kids sharing ice cream, nothing weird here at all.

Mint... chocolate chip? He offered her a taste, and Lenna quietly regarded the proffered cone.

"Only if you try mine as well." She stated. "Fair is fair."

Her point made, Lenna daintily leaned towards him and tasted his cone. She licked her lips.

"Mmm," She said. "Sweet, and refreshing. Your turn."

The girl held up her rocky road ice cream cone. Little marshmallows and chunks of chocolate dotted its surface like rocks on the moon.

In spite of the cold from the ice cream, her cheeks felt a little warm.

"Deal," he said with a smile. After she'd tasted his, he modestly took a small lick from her cone, and gave a nod. "I've never met an ice cream I don't like," he said with a nod. "Though mint chocolate chip is my favorite by far."

He chewed thoughtfully on a marshmallow for a moment. "So...what kinda stuff are you into? Besides me, that is~" he teased lightly, before getting more sincere. "You know, like...music, hobbies, favorite animal, stuff like that."

He'd learned his lesson at the pizza place, and he kept talking, telling her of his odd love of alternative 90s rock music, his love of animals except poodles, and his fascination with exploring the city, especially places he wasn't necessarily allowed to go. There was a smile plastered on Ty's face as he leaned into her a little, finishing his ice cream.

Looking out the window, the sun was beginning to set. How long had they been out? "Man...time went by fast," he mused, looking over at her. "So...do you want me to drop you off somewhere? I promise I'll contact you as soon as I get a phone," he said with a nod, then bit his lip as a thought hit him.

"So uhm...hopefully we can have more dates like today," he finally said awkwardly, blushing lightly.