Rowan frowned slightly. He didn't like thinking about how the monster was part of him, or how it might want to stretch it's legs more often. But that didn't matter. He was done shifting. He was going to be a normal kid from now on. The pat on the back and the slight increase in walking speed made Rowan groan, but he wasn't about to admit defeat in front of his teacher.

He listened to Sam, occasionally looking up at his teacher. It was...odd, hearing an adult talk about a time where he didn't have control. Rowan hadn't expected him to be so...open about it. His thoughts were paused by the two almost getting run over by some speeding students, and Sam reprimanding them. Rowan looked at the fellow students curiously, still getting used to the whole 'living with a lot of mutants' thing.

Rowan gave the two students a timid wave before following Sam into the kitchen. Once inside Rowan immediately hopped onto one of the counters, thankful to finally have a place to sit down. He had made it to the kitchen without passing out, gold star for the day. He accepted the glass of water with shaky hands. He was going to say thank you, but his instincts took over. Rowan chugged the glass of water with ferocity, some of it running down his chin. Halfway through he began to cough and sputter, his body unable to keep up.

The young mutant wiped his chin on his sleeve, forcing himself to drink the rest of the water slowly. The cold being very refreshing.

>>"Why I know you can’t be a weapon. You don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Rowan looked down at his cup, hands still shaking from exhaustion.

"I don't...think I want to hurt anyone...even the other two time's I shifted...I just wanted to scare them...'cause I was scared..." He looks up at Sam. "And I'm not counting this last time, you baited me into shifting!"

He closes his eyes, a slight smile on his face.

"But that's okay! I'm all done with the Danger Room and shifting and stuff! I finished my evaluation and now all I have to worry about is math!"

”No one’s stealing the waster from you. We got more. Slow it down.” he also knew that chugging water after working out caused sluggishness. He was pretty sure Rowan would consider the time shifting a workout. He could barely make it up the stairs.

”Not gonna apologize for that one.” he said taking a sip off his coffee. ”Needed results and needed to see what you can do. Figured the sooner we got it over with the sooner you could not worry about it.” he shrugged again. Sam was direct, it gave him time to get more coffee.

Rowan’s monster just wanted to scare them. Sam understood that one all to well. It was a good deterrent. ”It’s a good motivator. Fear has it’s uses but try to remember there isn’t anything to be scared of here. It’s a safe place. For everyone. Even your ‘Monster.’” he paused for a second. ”You should give him a name other than Monster. Might make him less scary.” he said trying to break the serious tone of the subject.

”....” Sam exhaled over the coffee mug and didn’t say anything for a moment. ”Got bad news for you Rowan.” he thought how best to say it and just decided not to dance around it. ”That was just your first lesson in the danger room. I’m going to recommend more sessions. A lot more. With me and the other staff here. You seem tired now, too tired to turn into whatever you want to call it. Gonna be the safest option for everyone. Yourself included, both of you.”

The young mutant hopped off the counter with his glass, walking towards the sink. He shrugged.

"I mean...calling it 'Fluffy' or 'Spot' really won't change what it is."

Rowan noticed Sam acting a little...weird? He seemed really serious all of a sudden, no more smirks and bad jokes. And then Sam broke the news to Rowan. He slowly turned to face Sam, his blood running cold. He had to...do more sessions in the Danger Room...He paused a moment, unsure if he heard him correctly.

"N-no...that's not...fair...I was told there was an evaluation...I didn't...know..." His voice grew soft, his hands shaking.

And just like that the feeling of calm was gone from Rowan. The Monster was back and gnawing on his heart, filling him with fear.

"Gonna be the safest option for everyone."

Rowan inhaled sharply, puffed up, hands in tight fists by his side, his disbelief and pleading turning very quickly to anger.

"That's...that's bull****! Is teaching a dog with a biting problem how to bite more the 'safest option for everyone'?!" Rowan snarled, sharp teeth showing. "You can't...you can't make me! I refuse!"

The young mutant winced, his head swimming with the sudden rush of emotions. For a moment he swayed slightly, his body still exhausted from his shift. But Rowan fought through it, he wasn't about to faint now.

Sam shrugged, if he wanted to keep calling a part of himself a monster then Sam wans’t going to convince him otherwise. He just thought I might change his fear with it. Try being mad at something called fluffy.

Ripping the band-aide off was something he would have preferred, not to be lead around and not to be lied to. So he figured the direct approach was the best option. Sadly for him Rowan would have preferred to have been lied to. Sam didn’t panic when Rowan started to react poorly to his comments he just sipped his coffee. In fact if anything he seemed more relaxed. So relaxed he leaned up against the counter behind him where the coffee maker was. His cup was getting low.

”Take a breath Rowan.” he said calmly. The kid was showing teeth and snarling now. ”How do you think this was going to go down? We just let you into the school and if you shift by mistake and kill another student we just pat you on the back and pretend it didn’t happen? You want to live a lie like that?” he started to pour his coffee.

”You think one day I just got over freezing people? No, I had to work for it kid. Still working for it and what you need to do is work to keep Fluffy under control.” he said showing off his teeth back, ”You can growl at me all you want kid. I’m more worried about everyone else. Yourself included.” he looked back down at his coffee making sure he didn’t spill any.

”If I thought you were nothing more than a dog I wouldn’t be here talking to you. You showed some control. You tell me you don’t want to hurt anyone. Prove it, show me you don’t want to hurt anyone.” he sighed, ”I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do but I won’t sit by and watch you hurt anyone either...”

”You refusing to try and control what you can do... That’s a one way ticket to a cell where people will try to turn you into a weapon they’ll use shock collars to control you. Don’t give them a chance to. Work at controlling it. I don't want you to have to go through that.” Sam said calmly. ”Like I did. Show everyone yourself included you aren’t a monster.” he finished with a sip of his drink.

Sam's calm and cool responses only seemed to rile Rowan up more. And why did this guy keep drinking his coffee when they were having such an important conversation?

Rowan tensed up again.

"I was doing just fine before I showed up here! And I’ve never killed someone! There was just a moment of hesitation in his voice.

“And I'm sure if I shifted some X-Men or whatever would come and kill me! And no one would even care!"

His voice cracked slightly, the young mutant tensing up to ignore the stinging in his eyes. He tried to take a deep breath, to calm himself down, but he was overwhelmed...by everything. From being alone at a weird new school to coming to terms with the fact that he'd have to get used to shifting. He didn't want to control his mutation, he wanted it gone.

Something about the last thing Sam said resonated with Rowan, and his expression softened just a bit. He was a monster, that much was clear to the young mutant, but he didn't want to be a weapon. He didn't want to hurt people. And the way Sam phrased it...maybe he could relate to the younger mutant.

He tried to puff up again, tried to sound angry, but his defenses were slipping.

"I'll just end up...wasting your time."

”Were you?” Sam asked the young shifter. ”Because you don’t sound too sure of yourself.” he said calmly from his mug. In Sam’s opinion this was the hardest part of being a staff member at the school. He could take on Ninja Assassians or crazy telepathic ex-girlfriends but looking a kid in the eye trying to convince them they were worth helping.

Sam sighed, ”X-men don’t kill and I’d care. Just meant I failed to do my job.” he said flatly. Sam did, that was just because he often found what he was doing for the X-men wasn’t enough. That and he was pretty sure some of the team members weren’t capable of dealing with it like he could. The icemancer was taught young.

”I can live with a lot of things in life but not being able to help a punk kid like you deal with the power you were given. That I’ll have a hard time dealing with.” he said sipping his mug. ”It’s only a waste of my time if you give up on yourself. Who are you?” Sam asked?

”Don’t be hard on yourself, like you said you didn’t kill anyone yet and if I can help it you won’t have to. That’s what the school is here for. To give you a safe place to learn and control what you can do so you can grow up as close to ‘normal’ as everyone else. Without hurting anyone, right?”

Rowan stood quietly as Sam spoke. And while the young shifter still looked puffed up and grumpy, he no longer looked like he was on the verge of breaking something. Sam had been able to reason him out of his rage, although he wouldn't want to admit it.

Who was he? He was Rowan. A rotten kid and a horrible monster. He grumbled under his breath.

Normal...that was all Rowan wanted to be now. And he had been so close to being normal, getting to be a regular kid, but using his power was what ruined those chances. Maybe he just had to accept that living a normal life was beyond his reach now.

With a huff Rowan stomped away, heading towards the kitchen's exit. He stopped in the doorway and, finally, took a deep breath. He turned slightly back towards Sam.

"Fine."His voice again was soft, dejected. "When's my next session."

He was too exhausted to fight back anymore. He'd have another Danger Room session, and he'd prove to Sam that he wasn't worth teaching.

Sam didn’t hear what he wanted to hear so he helped the kid out again, ”You’re Rowan. Not a weapon.” he said clearly. ”I’ll quiz you on that later too.” he smirked and took a sip of his coffee and pushed himself up from the counter.

”I’d say now but you don’t look like you’d be able to do much...” accepting Rowan’s defeat in arguing with him. Sam was right, it was time more people got on board with it. Rowan seemed to understand that enough. ”Let me know the next time you feel a shift coming on. We can get you down in the danger room so there won’t be any problems.” he said shrugging his shoulders.

”Until then, get some rest, take some deep breaths and drink plenty of water. The more we work with Fluffy the easier it will be on you and I’ll be able to sleep better at night.” he sippied his coffee then paused looking up quickly focusing on his thermal senses.

”Alright, it was nice meeting you kid and stay away from the third floor... Erin just set the hallway on fire again.” he sighed and started to exude cold till his body started to steam. ”See you soon kid, I’ll get this paper work in and we will be talking with you about it soon.” he said with a slight wave as he grabbed the paperwork and started to jog down the hall to the stairs.