As a journeyman electrician, Ashton mainly did work on construction sites, or at houses. Rewiring, installing, etc. His boss also occasionally found his workers (including him) handyman stuff for a bit of extra cash, and to kill time “off-hours.” This was one of those.

The bar owner had some work that needed doing, and knew his boss through some sort of network of friends and acquaintances.

Ashton had come on time, and introduced himself. The woman was pretty, and He was learning to be pretty professional, so he had introduced himself as Mr Drake, and she was Appropriate honorific Surname. No first names, here. Just polite smiles and pleasantry.

”Now what seems to be the problem, ma’am. What needs doing?” Ashton asked.

He was wearing a blue collared shirt and tan slacks. The picture of professionalism.

It had apparently been A Night at the bar. Lee had woken up to three messages that Matt had sent while she'd been sleeping about an altercation and the resulting damage that had occurred. Then before she and Tarin had finished their morning run, Lee had gotten another message saying that he needed her at the bar by no later than 10:30 that morning because he had someone coming in for repairs.

Part of Lee was frustrated and annoyed at Matt. What he had described hadn't sounded so bad for him to force her in that early and sit around while these repairs were made.

But Lee also knew that Matt took extreme pride in his bar, and that he normally slept until noon after closing up the bar at night.

Which meant that at 10:20 Lee was sitting at a table in the front of the bar doing what little paperwork she needed to do that day as she waited.

Though she didn't have to wait very long, and a young man soon walked into the bar. And introduce himself as Mr Drake. After introduce herself as Lee Smith, full name since he was being so proper and professional, she looked him toward the back of the bar where the washrooms were.

”There was apparently an incident that got a little out of hand last night before the bouncers could step in,” she said as they walked. ”Got some broken tiles in the men's room that need replaced.”

As they walked into the men’s washroom, Lee indicated the wall where hopefully a shoulder, possibly a head, had hit. There were a couple of missing tiles and about a half dozen broken. Lee then indicated a box of tiles on the counter by the sink along with a tub of…putty stuff to make the tiles stick.

”It’s really not a whole lot, but Matt had already spoken with your boss before I was able to see the damage.”

Broken tiles. He could do broken tiles. He would just need the appropriate stuff for handyman repairs, and— oh, those had already been provided. Good. Saved him from having to match the tile, and make a list of supplies needed, for approval. Saved him a trip to the store, unless they ran out of stuff.

He did not usually do handyman, but he could be a handyman. He had grown up with a dad who fixed stuff around the house. He got roped in on those occasions, and had helped whenever he could. So tiles? No problem. Had installed tiles.had plenty of experience running to stores for stuff.

The damaged tiles were on the wall, rather than just floor. Like someone had impacted. Yeah. That fit her description. Out of hand incident. Probably a big ol fight. Some were missing. Might’ve been taken home in someone’s hair, as powder.

>>>”It’s really not a whole lot, but Matt had already spoken with your boss before I was able to see the damage.”

”It’s no problem. I’ve done this sort of thing before. I’ll get to work, then.” Ashton said.

He rolled up his sleeves, and started doing the task. It took an appropriate amount of time. He wound up having enough materials, and did not need to run to any stores. It was nice when people had done most of the hard work already.

After he was finished, Ashton showed her the room and explained how long the whole thing would take to dry and set. He explained any additional information he thought she might need, and they handled payment. Pretty run of the mill engagement, really. He washed up, tidied up, and said:

”Should be all set then. Unless there was anything else?” If not, he would head on out.

Mr Drake said that he’d done this kind of thing before, and Lee nodded. At least as far as Matt had told her, this was all that needed to be done, and Lee had made sure to have the supplies in here that Mr Drake would need.

”Sounds good,” Lee said before making her way back out to the table she had been sitting at to finish up her paperwork.

Lee wasn’t sure how long it had been that she was sitting there as she didn’t check the time, but when she felt someone approaching her from the back of the bar, Lee turned to see that Mr Drake was making his way over. Telling her that he was finished.

As they got the payment and details about the repair taken care of, Lee shook her head when Mr Drake asked if there was anything else. ”No, I believe that should just about cover it,” She told him.

Perfectly average, run-of-the-mill, job. He did the stuff, He got paid. He left. The job had been simple, perfectly satisfactory upon completion. No issues. Tiles. Bam. He moved on with his life.

After the job, He went and got lunch. Steak sandwich. And while Ashton could have grilled or fried himself up a steak at home, it was nice to treat yourself once in a while after a payday. Plus, it drastically reduced the dishes he would have to wash. He kept his place neat, but it was a constant battle, uphill. A war.

He did some errands afterwards, got a few groceries. By that time, it was getting later in the day and creeping towards 3 or 5. He figured he could hit up the mansion and maybe train a little, or jog on the grounds. Weight room maybe? They let him use that stuff. He knew as guy. Maybe even occasionally took a class. “Betterment,” or something.

He arrived at the mansion in shorts (gray), and a dri-fit tank top shirt (black). Jog, it was. A warm up. Cardio, while he figured out the rest of his afternoon. He did some paces around the outside ring of the mansion grounds. Starting to work up a comfortable sweat.

Nothing that day had gone how Lee had thought it would when she'd gone to bed the previous night. She hadn't expected to wake up to multiple texts from Matt about an altercation at the bar the night before. Lee hadn't expected to be told while she was on her run with Tarin that morning that she needed to be at the bar for a repair that morning.

And Lee had not expected to have all of her paperwork finished before noon, leaving her with nothing to do and hours to occupy before Tarin would get home from work.

And the Mets game they had discussed watching would start.

They'd recently moved Kevin to the mansion, so Lee wouldn't even have the possibility of him coming out of his room to ask a question to break up the boredom.

Except that she didn't have to sit around at home.

But that also didn't mean that her son, with his new-found semi-freedom, appreciated a surprise visit from his mother.

So much sooner than Lee had been wanting, she was walking out of the mansion once more. As she came down the steps at the front, Lee saw someone running through the grounds. A man, not a student, who seemed familiar to Lee. And while she couldn't place where from at the moment, she was pretty sure that he wasn't familiar from seeing him here at the mansion before. Not overly surprising since Lee had known quite a few people over the years who had lived, or at least stayed, at the mansion but had had jobs in the city.

Still, the fact that she couldn't place where she knew him from was bugging Lee enough that she stopped shortly after reaching the bottom of the steps in front of the mansion, looking at the runner.

And then he ran past her. He mentally hit the brakes, skid skid skid, and did a backwards run. Stopped in front of her. Ran in place.

”Oh hello again.” Ashton said, amiably.

The woman from earlier that day. His job, at the bar. With the tiles. He wondered what she was doing at the mansion, but then, he wasn’t going to pry. People have lives. She probably had business here, or a friend, or family. People have lives. Kid, maybe?

He shouldn’t pry. People have lives. Good to separate business from socializing. But then, he really wasn’t doing any business presently. That had been concluded.

Ashton stopped running in place.

”From earlier, with the tiles. In the bathroom, right? Man, life is funny. I did not expect to run into you twice in one day.” a weak laugh. Heh. Really, what else could he say? He didn’t really know her.

”Visiting someone?” He found himself asking. Really, it had just slipped out.

The runner saw her and stopped. Then he came back, and closer to Lee. Jogging in place as he said hi.

"Hi," Lee said, her voice a little slower than normal as she puzzled over how the repair man from that morning was now jogging here at the mansion.

But he seemed to take that as meaning she didn't remember or recognize him, as the man started explaining that he'd fixed the tiles at the bar that morning.

"Oh no, I remember you Mr Drake," Lee replied. He hadn't been expecting to see her twice in one day? Well, valid point, there were a lot of people in this city. "I just didn't expect to ever see you here."

Then again, if Lee didn't know that they were already affiliated with the mansion and she hadn't directed them here, Lee would have been surprised to run across anyone here. Even if she knew them to be a mutant.

"My son," Lee replied. "I had some spare time since I got all my paperwork done at the bar this morning, so I thought I'd come see him."

Yeah. This was a bit awkward. With the slow talk, and him explaining, and her very clearly remembering him. Since it had not even been 24 hours.

And here, he’d gone and asked about her son. She had a son.

She was free. Got work done early.

”Thank God for small favors.” he said. Finishing work early is great.

He jerked his head towards the mansion. ”I was just warming up before I see about doing a session in the danger room.”

He had access. He could do that. What else would he do with his time? Maybe he’d practice the newer aspect of his power, making things trade places with things. Always interesting, that. Orrr maybe he’d just go home. He hadn’t decided yet. Now he felt all self conscious.

Small favours, like finishing work early. Not that that was normally much of a concern for Lee anymore. Her work for the bar was now generally speaking very flexible. As long as she got the orders in and payroll done on time, it really didn't matter when she did the work. Or even where she did it.

It was the same thing when she was doing the taxes and bookkeeping for Rachel's boutique. As long as things got paid on time, Lee could work on it whenever she wanted to.

That certainly made working around Kevin's, and now Tarin's, schedule easier to do. Most of the time. That morning hadn't worked out quite as well in Lee's favour, but that was the exception, not the rule in her working life now.

"It certainly did make it easier to handle having to go in so early today," Lee ended up saying to Mr Drake.

But then he mentioned possibly heading to the danger room after he finished warming up, and Lee's eyebrow rose in question. "I'm not sure if that's on the tour for every prospective student," Lee commented with a slight shake of her head. "But you might want to not throw that out in general conversation with students' parents so you don't freak out the ones that don't already know about it."

There was a discarded football on the green, and it was even within range. It would be the work of a moment. An easy escape. He was not proud to admit that his first thought had been to just leave. Trade places with something. Teleport away.

He had offended her. She had reprimand him and He had offended her. His talk of Rooms of danger, apparently was not approved parent talk. Students might, what, learn?

”Maam,” Ashton began. His tone was apologetic. ” I’ll keep it quiet in the future. I don’t mean to upset you. Or blow the lid off some secret. But really…” He grimaced at her. Did she not know?

” It’s provably the worst-kept secret here… kids probably learn about it in the first half hour on campus… I think at least one person broke in this past month. There were burn marks on the wall, near a brand new lock. So… wait, I’m making it worse. That’s worse. Sorry. You trying to shield your kid?”

Hard to shield kids these days. Better to teach them to protect themselves. Knowledge is power. Mutants take that to extremes. Self knowledge. Self defense. Generic humans don’t care if you know your powers or not, when they come after you… that was a worst case scenario… still. No need to simplify things for bad people, and kids talk a lot. On-site holo-deck? Who wouldn’t blab? And not even about training usages. Teenagers think about some pretty base things in passing. Ugh. Good thing it had locks.

Lee just stood and looked at Mr Drake as he rambled off apologies and explanations, her eyebrow still raised in question.

"Shield him?" Lee asked once she was sure the younger man was finished speaking. The only shielding of things from Kevin she had done was to keep from him the horrible things that had happened in her life and the dangerous side of his father's powers since he wasn't going to have to deal with it or experience it. No, Lee had been trying to prepare her son as best she could for life in this world as a mutant

"He's been training and getting some lessons at an MMA gym since he was 7," Lee explained to Mr Drake. "I'm just hoping that he manages to get to his first class before he tries to sneak his way in there.

"I was thinking more that human parents sending their children here, if there actually are any, might be a little perturbed to know that the school has something called 'the danger room'."

Uh oh. He’d done it again. The stupid thing. He’d talked.

‘Here it comes,’ Ashton thought.

He was ready. Really. Bring it.

>>> "He's been training and getting some lessons at an MMA gym since he was 7," Lee explained to Mr Drake. "I'm just hoping that he manages to get to his first class before he tries to sneak his way in there.

"I was thinking more that human parents sending their children here, if there actually are any, might be a little perturbed to know that the school has something called 'the danger room'."

Oh no!! Critical hit. She had mom’splained him dead. Or was it ma’am’splained? Either. He was pretty sure he had psychic damage. He just stood. He took it. He nodded.

”Yeah. ‘Danger room’ is a bad look. Like those signs in Spanish, peligro. Hay peligro de fuego. Warning. Danger of fire.” he saw those at national parks. Trees burn sometimes.

He granted her that it was kind of worrisome to name something like that, tohave something like that, too. And good on her for training her kid! But—

”I’m just being conversational, but how many times do you think people have accidentally started fires, or slipped on wet floors, or burned themselves on hot food, before they were legally required to put pictures of mouth cancer on cigarettes? Maybe the name is a warning, to try and keep kids out. One with the opposite effect, sure. I was once a kid. Danger sounds fun!”

He wondered how many human parents had seen the mansion since the remodel? Would they have read the news about the crazy magic folks he had missed. That had to have been front page news… unless people had been made to forget. And he did not think that was a thing.

Yeah, the danger room definitely could have been named better. Yes, it could be used to train in dangerous situations. Lee had seen Sam do that once, when he was helping her with her people radar. But still, calling it the danger room?

Even simply calling it a training room would be better. And still accurate.

How many times had things happened before warnings had to be put up? That was a tangent. Quite a random one, it seemed to Lee.

"Uh, not sure how many people," Lee admitted. "But for most of those, probably after the first time the company lost a lawsuit.

"And you and I must have had very different childhoods, because danger definitely did not sound like fun to me," Lee continued. Then again, until shortly before the doctors visits had started, Lee's life had been quite fully occupied with friends and music lessons. Then, there had been too much exhaustion to even consider danger might possibly be fun because she already hadn't had enough time she could do the things she wanted.

"But that is a good point," Lee said after a couple moments of thought. "It might be worth talking to Sam about changing the name. Though I doubt that would help for the kids who are already here."

>>>”Uh, not sure how many people," Lee admitted. "But for most of those, probably after the first time the company lost a lawsuit.

Ashton wagged a pointed finger at her, like yes! Exactly! He nodded a little. Did she get his point? Mansions and Ass covering? No, from her next comment, it seemed not.

>>>
"And you and I must have had very different childhoods, because danger definitely did not sound like fun to me," Lee said.

He had respondes for that, but age looked like she were thinking. Ashton gave her a moment.

Lee agreed, maybe it was a valid point. He thought she got there. But then she talked more and proved she had reached a different location, altogether. Or maybe the same one? He did not know. His face still fell in a disappointed frown.

”Maybe it’s a guy thing. Or an 80s kid thing. Danger being cool. Loud music that damages hearing? Cool. Most of the other self destructive stuff from then…. Cool? What I meant was, maybe the name is covering their asses. Legally. Hard to argue people weren’t warned. You don’t call a gun range a training park. There are guns there.”He finished lamely.

Words matter. Word choices matter. It has to have been intentional. That name was absolutely a choice.

They lock the room best they can, and warn people.