Zaid was feeling braver the day after meeting Beau. In fact, he felt brave enough to try cooking again while the younger mutants were taking classes and the mansion was somewhat quiet for a bit. He had fished out a variety of vegetables, and glancing at the clock, he decided there was time to make a decent cream soup. It would be nice to eat more than whatever he had scavenged for the day, and he was sure Jude would feel better knowing he hadn't lived off cookies and potato chips today. 

With a cutting board on the counter, he started with potatoes and peeled, cut and set them in to cook. He picked out some carrots and broccoli too, but would save those for later when the starchy vegetable was softer. Mushy carrots never appealed to him anyway. Wishing he had his phone to pull up old recipes, he did his best collecting what he would need for a good sauce. The fridge was stocked with enough supplies like milk and cream, along with some white cheddar that seemed promising. That he would prepare in a bit.

The veggies were coming along well, and he was in the process of collecting spices for his mise en place, when his ears heard a sound of someone approaching. Curious, he turned, nose trying to pick through the scents of his cooking for who was nearby. 

It had been many days and nights since Jude had left Chief at this unfamiliar holding-place for children... how many days and nights, though, was unclear. And sufficed to say, the prawn did not like it. It was loud. Everyone was friendly. It felt... fake. There was a real and tangible danger beyond the gate, beyond these four walls, and they wanted to play mutant-school. They wanted to play family. At any moment, the Bad Doctor Lady who had tortured Chief could come waltzing through the gates and they'd be none the wiser.

The prawn had steeled herself in the safest place she could think of-- firmly in the corner of her closet, nestled amongst sheets and blankets that she had peeled off of the bed.

That was when they sent Miss Grey.

Miss Grey-- redheaded, and very nice-- had tried to assure the prawn that it was safe to leave the closet. Miss Grey had tried to entice the prawn with promises of food and friends. But Chief was resolute.

Miss Grey-- or Becca was fine, as the woman soon yielded-- began to bring Chief food, but never stopped singing the praises of the world beyond the bedroom. The prawn wouldn't even lift the tablet to contradict her.

Miss Grey talked about classes, and games, and the nice, hot shower.

The prawn wouldn't budge.

That was when Miss Grey's visits stopped... as well as the food.

Over a day had passed.

The hunger in the pit of Chief's stomach grew more insistent until it was un-ignorable. She would have to go outside for sustenance.

Chief waited until the house was silent before venturing out. The room beyond the closet was bright. Too bright.

The prawn crawled on all fours, the fabric of her clothes catching on the spines of her legs and shoulders. She was dressed simply, in jeans and a sweater, two sizes too big-- that was all Chief would have until they received more donations.

She crept towards the door, slowly drawing it open. No reaction. No noise. She stepped out, lavender eyes casing the hallway.

As an afterthought, she retrieved her tablet, and then Chief made the slow progression down the hallway, crawling in the opposite direction from whence she'd been brought in. (She hadn't passed a kitchen the night she was brought to the Mansion. So she assumed it was on the other side of the house.)

For a while, Chief wandered the Mansion on all fours, scurrying into some safe nook each time she heard footfalls. Then her slow search would continue.

Finally, the scent of food brushed her antennae, and that was when the prawn knew that she was close. Chief sidled after the scent, rising onto her hind legs as she approached the brightly-lit doorway. She peeked into the kitchen-- and was met by the dark eyes of the chef.

Chief ducked her head again, her heart leaping into her chest, eyes flitting nervously as she weighed her options. She was hungry... but there was some random person there! Was he even a safe person? How would she know?

"Errrrr..." the prawn groaned anxiously, the sound reverberating in her chest. She was too hungry to turn back, but too scared to go in. The creature hunched on the floor, wrapping its arms around its legs.

When the prawn entered the kitchen, Zaid found himself in a strange position. His own instinct had been to hide, but seeing the equal reaction of anxiety he paused. He didn't have a nose as strong as some animals, but fear was something even humans could smell from time to time. This girl, this mutant, was afraid. And he knew how that felt.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I, I have soup cooking or I would leave so you can find something to eat. You came because you didn't want to run into anyone, right?" He checked the burner, trying to figure out if he could leave the pot unattended. He felt like he was in a bad position, and his ears flicked downward unhappily.

What should he do? He put his spoon aside and did all he could think of, lowering himself so he was crouched closer to the ground, more at the mutant's level. He didn't assume gender, given the nature of the mutation and the fact his own was so often mistaken. "You're hungry too? I am making soup but it's not done yet or I would give you some...I, I'm avoiding people too." He admitted. He wasn't wearing his hoodie today so his arms still showed a number of bruises and burns in various stages of healing. His eyes had dark circles, and while he was doing better, there was still a level of anxiety surrounding him.

The prawn remained hunched out-of-sight as the boy addressed her, his tone sympathetic. It helped somewhat quell the nervousness in the prawn's throat, which was rising like a bile. Chief couldn't bring herself to stand, though.

His apology was simple. He hadn't meant to scared her, and if he wasn't in the midst of cooking something, he'd leave. When the boy made the observation that she was probably there "because she didn't want to run in to anyone", Chief breathed a low, affirmative hum. She lifted her head, rolling onto her forelimbs so as to peer through the doorway from a lower vantage point.

The boy was at her level now. The prawn recoiled slightly, her antennae flattening against her cranium. A persistent chirr was rattling in her chest, a nervous and involuntary noise-- almost like a cricket chirping. The noise only stopped when Chief swallowed, hard, and then continued.

When he spoke, though, she managed to quell the noise. Her head poked imperceptibly further around the door's frame. Then Chief nodded. Yes, she was hungry. And she was hiding.

Round, lavender eyes drank in the boy's appearance. First, Chief noticed the ears-- the Doctor wouldn't employ someone with rabbit ears. Then, she noticed the old wounds that lined his body-- the burns and bruises that punctuated the surface of his skin.

The prawn made a woeful noise, crawling on all-fours into the kitchen, its gaze sweeping for anyone else that might be in there. She sat on her haunches when she'd drawn closer to the boy, and she extended a hesitant hand towards his injured arm. If he let her, Chief might even nudge his arm. Any sudden movement or sound would send her scurrying against the cabinets though.

The two-pronged benefit and detriment of having a carapace was that wounds didn't show. So even if the prawn was clearly damaged by the time she'd been under the Doctor's "care", even if she'd taken a beating and the likes, nothing showed.

Chief removed the tablet from beneath her arm, opening it as Jude had showed her. Her motor control was still too rough for speech-to-text typing, but she could write words with her fingertip. It was almost like a glorified whiteboard.

The prawn set the tablet on the ground, opening the painting app and tracing letters with her fingertip.

W... h... y...?

Chief held the tablet up for the boy's consideration.

Why?

She pointed at his arm.

At first, Zaid thought the mutant would run away despite his efforts to comfort them. He let his nose keep watch over the pot, and waited as his ears followed the movement at the door. The noises had no specific meaning to him, but he wasn't exactly versed in all forms of animal noise. Were they animal? With the shell and differences to the skin it seemed perhaps something aquatic? What was a shrimp categorized as? Prawn?

It was more than he was ready to think about so far, so he let it go.

There was a little noise that sounded like it was confirming hunger, so Zaid waited. He didn't hear anyone running, so clearly, they were at an in-pass.

Then, suddenly, they were next to him. Zaid stayed perfectly still in a way only a rabbit could, only his nose lightly twitching once to make sure the food wouldn't burn. He forced himself not to flinch as she touched his skin, heart speeding up in his chest.

It's okay, they don't mean anything... He had to comfort himself this time as the anxiety twisted in his rabbit genes. Run. Run. He had to shut down that part of his mind with a calming breathe. He was safe, they were safe. No harm was meant right now.

Then, there were 3 letters. Why? Zaid gulped once, and gave a sad smile. "There...there are good people, and there are bad people. I...I met some of the worst ones." he hugged his knees slightly, and felt his hand tremble as he did. He was trying to calm the new arrival, but here his own nerves were getting to him. It was hard saying things out loud, but he knew it would be cruel to make the mutant write more. If there were questions in the expression, he would have to do his best to answer them.

"My... Jude, he brought me here, so I could be safe. People seem to think this is a good place to hide. But, there are a lot of people. A lot of noises and smells..." He rubbed his forehead, wondering how much they were understanding. The lavender eyes held intelligence and understanding, even if words seemed hard. It was hard to pinpoint an age, and he didn't want to assume he was being understood, but also he didn't want to act like they were dumb. That was a poor way to earn a friend.

"My name is Zaid. What's your name?" he asked gently. Hopefully that wouldn't take too many letters. The tablet was useful, but long words seemed like they would be challenging.

The prawn listened and, as the boy spoke, its antennae lifted. Bad people… bad people had hurt him? The prawn extended an index finger, and pointed at its own chest. Tap, tap. Her too, Chief was trying to say. Bad people found her too. Chief paused and tapped her chest again, for emphasis. She pulled the tablet back towards herself again, clearing the digital canvas.

When the boy mentioned Jude, though, the reaction was much more enthusiastic.

"Ah!" the prawn proclaimed, an almost human interjection. Her hand flitted over the screen, hastily jotting another message. Chief held the tablet for the boy's consideration.

Me too! Jude found me!

She'd written so hastily that the letters seemed almost cursive but not quite.

If the boy knew Jude, that meant he was an okay boy. And he understood that this place was too loud and too smelly and too crowded with unfamiliar people. The prawn nodded. He understood! He was Chief's people.

The prawn wiped the table clean, and wrote a little more calmly. Thankfully, he seemed to be the patient type.

I hide in closet. Dark, quiet.

There was space beneath the the first response. At the bottom of the screen were two words.

"Chief."

This was circled and written bigger than the word that followed.

"Jacquelyn "Jack" Dyer.

This had a line drawn through it. She preferred "Chief".

Zaid was surprised by the reaction the mutant gave him. They had been hurt too? He wasn't sure if that was recent or in the past, but he felt a wave of understanding wash toward them. It seemed this place had been a haven for more than just him. He considered what he had said to Beau and remembered that the world had a lot of darkness in it, and sometimes it was easy to focus on just that.

Then, she got excited. Zaid blinked, then realized she was responding to his comment about Jude. The tablet was offered with the confirmation. Zaid smiled.

"He is good like that. We just started dating. Then, this mess happened. I...I feel bad for causing trouble for him. But, I'm glad he was able to help you. He is a good man." He felt a surge of pride for his boyfriend. Maybe Jude wasn't an x-men, but he did what he felt was right and he never hesitated to help when needed. Sometimes, the world had bigger issues and problems than one school or organization could handle. He felt like Jude was out there doing important things, which made it easier to let him leave even when it left Zaid stuck here on his own.

Zaid sniffed once, noting the food was getting close, but staying where he was until then. "The closet doesn't seem comfortable, but I spent a lot of time hiding in a giant burrow of blankets, so I guess I haven't done much better. I would appreciate the quiet." He pointed to his ears with a sad smile. "It's a lot noisier when you are part animal."

He watched the words being written, and smiled. "Nice to meet you Chief. Is it okay if I finish the soup? You can have some too if you want?" he asked politely. He wouldn't move unless she said it was okay.