She ate the muffin! Great! The trip would begin soon!

No, Sadly, our good hero was not the type for such hi-jinks. He was, however, the type to remain standing awkwardly until he was invited to sit. He smiled and took his place, minding her personal bubble.

She let him know it wasn't his fault. He nodded. "I know... I have dealt with... I dunno, stuff that is different, but similar. All my life, really." He smiled as she went on, but inbetween every statement ate more muffin. 

"It's okay, Juni. I think everyone panics a little sometimes. Just know that if you ever need me, I'm here, and if I'm ever making you uncomfortable, you can tell me." He gave he a reassuring nod, and looked down as the cat approached him. He opened up his lap and let Clyde climb on, beginning with an absent petting as he kitty settled.

"I'm pretty good at it, though I have only tried a few recipes. If there are instructions I can do pretty much anything. I could help you make something some time, if you are interested!"

Jesuschrist, he'd been like this his whole life? What did that kind of pressure do to a human brain after 17 years?

Maybe he really was a serial killer. Everyone needed an outlet somehow.

She audibly snorted with a mouthful of muffin as he told her to let him know if he ever made her uncomfortable. "Xavier, I think you are the only person on the planet incapable of making me uncomfortable." She known him for like, a month now? and he was the least threatening giant she had ever met. She'd actually been able to relax her constant habit of phasing in and out while around him.

She made no comment on the panicking thing, because she didn't want to let on at all that she spent like 75% of her time panicking about pretty much everything anyway. Instead she glanced at her bare little kitchen nervously.

"I dunno. I don't even have any baking supplies or whatever. Like, I hardly cook at all." She was starting to feel like she was admitting too much. He was probably just going to drop another embarrassing comment about her lack of things.

He tilted his head as she stated he couldn't make her feel uncomfortable. "Wow... Thanks, I think! That's a complement, right?" He liked the idea of being someone that couldn't make someone feel uncomfortable. That sounded nice, actually. He smiled widely. 

When she mentioned not having anything to bake with, his eyes widened a little bit. "Wait, what?" He stood and bolted toward her kitchen.

He had to see. He opened the bottom of the oven compartment. No baking dishes. He blinked a few times, and opened the bottom cupboard next to it. Junk food? What? Who put their pantry there?! He opened the next one over... More... junk food?

He opened another cupboard and blanched at rows of empty liquor bottles shoved into it.  He closed that one and forgot about it. No, he had to see. Top cupboards! Yes, her dishes would be in there!

The first one? Junk food. The second... Top Ramen. Rows of top ramen. Oh lord. The next one? A bowl.

A big bowl. It was the only dish. 

Where were the other dishes? How did she eat? She only had one bowl! Where were the plates?! Next cupboard. A pot! It was probably for the ramen. He opened the next one, revealing a single coffee cup.

Holy @#$%. He stepped back and stared...

She was.... She was the god of all bachelors. One might say... A legend amongst F*&%bois. 

"Juni... We are going to my apartment. I need to remove you from this harmful environment." He reached out a hand to her. "Come with me, if you want to bake."

"Waitwhat?!" He was sprinting into her kitchen. It was like, three steps for him. @##$%!!

She lurched to her feet to stop him and dropped the rest of her muffin in the process. "NOWAIT."

Too late. He was already rummaging through all her cupboards. She blushed a decent shade of red and promptly turned to try and flee from the apartment via the fire escape.

He turned and caught her literally half phased trying to sneak through her window. She looked like a guilty cat who'd been caught with her nose somewhere it didn't belong. He offered a hand at her, and dramatically demanded she leave with him.

Face fully red, she pointed at her door. "Out!"

--

A few days later around 8pm in the evening, Juniper hopped through their dividing wall excitedly. "Adonis!"

She landed awkwardly on his couch but recovered quickly. "You're coming with me to a punk show!" She looked excited for the first time in.. ever? Yeah, she hadn't really looked this excited before. Also, she had quite the shiner around one eye. She was already prepared in jeans, sneakers, and an Alabama state hornets hoodie that was a little too big.

Juniper hopped off his furniture with a bounce.

He flee-ed, giggling like a wee school girl.

---

It was two days later. He was doing pull ups, what else did you do at 8pm? He was almost done with the 3rd set of 25 when Juniper popped through the wall and started bouncing about. He lowered himself to his feet, looking over at her, and then double-taking. 

"Holy @#$^ Juni, what happened to your face!" She had a big old bruise and a black eye! "Were you attacked?!" He hurried up to her, pausing as she casually mentioned they were going to a... punk show?

"Wait, what? Why?" He looked down to himself in his wife beater and gym shorts. She was dressed and ready to go. He was not. "Like... now?"

She blinked at him. "Oh, yeah. That. I went to a baseball game." She nodded. That was totally enough explanation, right?

"Yes, like now! There's supposed to be a big concert over at Isham park like right now! I've never been to a punk show. I wanna go see what it's like."

She turned in a circle, hand hand on her chin with the other tucked behind her back. "I wonder if I should bring my guitar. Jamming out with old punk rockers would be so freakin' cool."

She turned to cast a look back at him, pouting dramatically.

"I can go alone if you don't wanna go. I just figured you'd, ya know, wanna tag along since i'm so small and there are probably lots of douches there."

Blinking happened. "That's not what happens at baseball games!"  She glossed over it like it was nothing, and he was still sorting through that as she brought up a punk show at the nearby park.

"I- I mean, sure, but, a punk show? In New York? At night? And you want to bring your acoustic guitar? Have you... heard punk music before?" He had. It wasn't really his cup of tea, but he didn't mind pretty much anything, so he was down.

His palm went to his forehead as she looked back and pouted. "Yes! Yes, fine, I'll go with you. No guitar, though. They'd smash the darn thing." The giant of a young man turned to head into the bathroom to get changed. "What brought this on?" He spoke through the door. "And what happened at the baseball game?"

"But it did!" She shot right back stubbornly.

She blinked at him like he was dumb. "Of course I've heard it before! Like, a few songs, specifically. 'Welcome to 1984' is completely acoustic!" She was being defensive slightly, maybe. Whatever!

She stuck her tongue out at him as he went to change. "Fine, no guitar!" He made a pretty good point that she wasn't going to validate with a further response.

And then he brought up the baseball game again. He wasn't gonna let that go, huh? Well poop. She certainly wasn't about to tell him she'd saved a kid and that's how she got the shiner. He'd probably get more insistent about calling her by that dumb hero name he'd thought up.

"There was some kinda tussle between fans and I got caught in the middle of it. I got elbowed by a Karen because one of those dudes who can stop powers was there."

Ew. Just thinking about it made her skin crawl again. The ability stolen right away from her. Being helpless like that.

She shook the thought off.

"I can't go outside until it heals up because people keep trying to give me hotline numbers for batters spouses and shit. I'm going stir crazy! I figured a concert where people probably won't bat an eye at a black eye would work fine?"

She didn't have any other reason. She was bored and it sounded like fun.

He mock wiped his forehead in relief as she agreed to leave the guitar behind. He knew she had money, but it wasn't good to just throw stuff like that away! Wait, where did she get all that money, anyhow? 

"So... what, you're on vacation at work, or something?" He paused and raised an eyebrow. "Where do you work, anyway?" Tangent.

They got back to the baseball game, and his eyes widened. "Ohhh, I've heard of those mutants that turn off powers. Gosh, what was that like? It must be frustrating for you, huh?" He didn't think he would be thrown off too much, on account of only having his power a month now, but her? She used it all the time since she was a teen. 

She finished explaining her reasoning for all of this, and he smiled, and nodded. "Alright, then, I will accompany you. We wouldn't want some poor mugger stumbling across you and not having me there to save them, right?" He winked, and stepped forward, holding out an arm for her to hook with her elbow. 

@#$%, Xavier didn't pull his goddamn punches, did he?

He hit her with two very difficult things to explain to normal people and she fidgeted on the spot for a second. Where did she work? Well...

"I sell nudes online." It popped out like a well practiced line, because it was. "Cam girl stuff, ya know? Can't really do the typical 9-5 like everyone else." She left it at that. If he wanted to dig more, she had a plethora of pre-prepared things she could dig up on her phone.

Rounding the topic of her power being taken away from her was all together more difficult, and awkward. She didn't like the subject because she didn't like how weak it left her. "It was awful, obviously. Without my power i'm just a normal person. Nothing to hide behind." It didn't occur to her that she may have let slip a little too much with that comment, but she was still thoroughly distracted with the idea of the punk show.

She glanced at him slightly as he offered his elbow to her, slipping a hand into the crook of it as she turned and pointed at the window that led to his balcony.

"Lets go out that way, it's faster!" She was serious.

Without waiting for an answer, she phased the both of them and started tugging him with her straight through his own wall, and then straight into a leap off of the third floor fire escape and out into open air above the somewhat less busy street below.

"Don't close your eyes!" 

She laughed like a lunatic on the way down, making sure she had a firm grip on his arm for the duration of it.

Her landing wouldn't be the greatest, but she was sure he would probably make it look easy as pie.

Huh. She Sold nudes. "Woah, neat. That must be fun." Hey, people did what they needed to do, right? If she found a way to afford all of this then all power to her. He wasn't about to look her up; it would be a bit of an invasion to do that to someone you knew, you know? That would be just way too awkward.

What did cause him to tilt his head was her next statement. "But Juni, why do you need something to hide behind? Powers are cool and all, but I don't think they make the person. I think you would be just as cool without your power!" He smiled reassuringly. 

Things got bonkers the second she looped arms with him and decided that they were taking the balcony down. His eyes widened as she pulled him through the fire escape and flung them off. By instinct, however, he applied his powers while they took the last step, and...


WHOOOSH! Nearly weightless, they were flung high into the air before he could comprehend exactly what was happening. Oh boy, they were... pretty high now. "Uhhh... Juni..." Like... they were weightless, right? Falling couldn't hurt them too much, but... Gosh this was high. 

Pretty cool without your powers

... huh.

That bounced around her head for a bit and she pointedly snatched it up and buried it deep down where the light of day couldn't find it.

Nope. Not going there.

Nope!

She had been prepared for a fall. Nice, easy, and familiar. She had not at all been prepared to get blown away higher into the sky by what she assumed was Xavier's power.

Cars below grew pretty dang small. This was higher than she'd ever jumped before. "WHATTHEFUCK."

She still had a grip on his arm, so before she could get flung away and leave him plummeting to his doom, she reeled in and latched on with arms and legs as best she could before they reached the apex of their lift.

Huh.. the city was pretty neat looking from up here.

... And then they started to fall. It was actually a little exhilarating!

"How far does your repel work?!" She had to yell a little, what with the air ripping past as they plummeted. She idly wondered if she would need to break a foot to stop the momentum from this high. She sure as hell wasn't going to let him take the brunt of it.

"Can you redirect this fall to the side?!"

They were high. Dizzyingly so. She was clinging on to him, good, they could make it out of this together. Looking down upon the world, way higher than he'd ever been... He felt a bit of fear, sure, but greater than any other feeling?

Thrill. This was amazing. Exhilarating. She was panicking a bit, and he smiled nervously. "It only works on touch, Juni... Do you trust me? You have to make something solid, right? Make my shoes, knees, and hands! Hurry!" The ground was starting to get close. He could feel the weightlessness of being phased, and it was spectacular... It also meant he might be able to make this landing happen. The air rushed through his form as they plummeted toward the earth.


Hopefully she would comply, because as the ground came closer, he tucked her in close, and came in for a rolled landing, only contacting those areas.

It worked, he distributed the force into a roll, wincing as his knees contacted, but they came to a stop across the street from their apartment, releasing her gently to the ground next to them, and looking down at his bleeding left knee. "Huh... that could have been worst. Got a little cut." 

He smiled widely. "Well, ready to go?"

She didn't close her eyes, and the grin on her face legitimately hurt. It seemed he had a plan, and she was gonna go with it. "Of course I trust you, you big idiot!"

She concentrated on un-phasing the parts he requested, leaving only her fingers solid on her own body to clutch on and make sure she wouldn't phase through him on accident.

The pavement rose to greet them in the blink of an eye, and it took all her willpower not to flinch or wince her eyes shut as they landed. Xavier seemed to have a handle on things though. The world flipped upside down dizzily fast as he rolled them, and then suddenly they were upright again and stopped.

Juniper wiggled away when he released her, righting her sweater and attempting to run a hand through her wind whipped hair.

She was still grinning, almost big enough to match one of his signature smiles. "You bet!"

She did glance at his knee, though she doubted a scrape like that would put him out of commission. After figuring out which direction she was facing, she took off toward the park a decent pace. If anything their impromptu flying lesson had made her a little more eager to go!

"Is your knee okay?" She asked, spinning back around to face him while she walked. "That was pretty fun! Can you imagine being able to do that to bounce around the city? You'd get places in record time!"

If he had a combination of her weightlessness with is mutation, he'd be able to pop up virtually anywhere for his hero work. Wouldn't that just be so neat?

He smiled when said she trusted him. Great, because he wasn't sure if the whole thing was going to work. He'd never been .5 pounds and falling from 120 feet before. It all worked out in the end, though, and he stood there, looking up at the apartment balcony, and over to her with a beaming smile.

"That was one of the coolest things I have ever done." He nodded firmly as they started walking, reaching in his pocket for a small bundle. Unfolding a ziplock he produced a package of bandages, and popped a collector's edition X-Men Juka bandage on his knee before folding it back up and placing it in his pocket. "Knee's fine. I come prepared!"

He didn't react like he used to, following her around as she walked backward; he watched her, not the road behind her. She knew where she was going, and she would be fine. 

"That would be cool, for sure! You'd have to be clinging to me all the time, though." He scratched the back of his head. "Are we gonna be a crime fighting duo, now? Oh! Bonnie and Clyde2?"

He chuckled and then looked up in thought. "What bands are playing, anyway? I honestly listen to more mainstream stuff than punk."