Ethan walked down the street, it was a beautiful day and the sidewalk was packed as usual. But today was a even better then that, Ethan was walking around in his normal clothes, no extremly ridiculus amount of clothing to cover his apperance and no waiting underground until his powers deactivated, no he was just out in his total mutant glory. His skin was shining brightly obviously happy to drink in the sun so freely and he hadn't felt this energetic in months. It was about a week ago that mutants were no longer hunted and it took Ethan three days after that to build up the courage to actually go outside.

He wore a plain green t-shirt and a pair of jeans and sneakers, he carried a large paper bag in his right hand. He had wanted to repay a person who had helped him out not to long ago. If it wasn't for him then Ethan would have been shipped off to the camps, and that was what brought Ethan out on this fine day. It would have been so much more quick if Ethan had just flown to the shop but he was still uncomfortable being a mutant in public, flying would push it.

He walked past a small group of girls around his age, as he walked past he gave them a nod, like he had a few weeks ago when his powers were deactivated but they're reaction was so much better then. The girls gave him a scared look and walked in the opposite direction. Ethan hung his head, having his powers definatly did suck most of the time. He hooked a left and walked through a door a small ring sounded as the door opened. Ethan walked in and looked around, yep this was the place.

Work was one of those things that Tarin was having a really tough time with. Over the past few months he'd gotten so used to Lee's help around the shop that her not being there was a huge pain the arse. To a point where he was considering hiring someone. Tarin didn't know though, and thought that maybe it was simply his inability to function every time he thought about the fact that she was gone.

Lee being gone was something that he was going to get used to in time, Tarin told himself. It was like those commercials...if you can get used to getting ready in the morning without a cigarette you can do anything without one....if he could get used to living without Lee...he could get used to anything....except working at the moment.

The shop was pretty much in shambles and so many of the regulars had noticed from Tarin's mood and the state of the shop that Lee wasn't around anymore that he was sick and tired of answering the inevitable questions.

This was a lull in the day and Tarin had sunk into his chair with his head in his hands to think and brood. The bell on the door rang and Tarin hid his eyes as sunlight streamed in, only it didn't stop when the door shut. Something about this situation reminded something of Tarin and he looked up.

"Hey kid!" he said, a smile spreading over his face unbidden as he recognized the young man he'd saved from the police one day. The day that Tarin had met Rupert as well. He'd been so caught up in everything with Lee lately that he hadn't even thought about this kid, obviously he'd either made it through without ending up in the camps or had fared well in the breakout. Now he was here.

"What can I do for you?" Tarin said, the smile already faded, but nonetheless rising from his chair to greet the young man properly.

Ethan smiled at Tarin as he hopped up, "Hey man how's it going?" He said. He noticed that the brightness of his skin was bothering his eyes. "Sorry i get carried away outside," His skin dimmed in intensity to just the equivelent to a light bulb. Tarin asked what had brought him to the shop, "I wanted to say thanks, if it wasn't for you then I would have ended up in the camps. So I ugh...Burgers!" He said raising the bag in his right hand to eye level. He couldn't think of another way to say thanks and it really wasn't much but it was something.

He put the bag up on the counter, he figured it was noon and everyone had to eat sometime. "Watch out theres a few with a 'V' on the wrapper, those are vegi burgers." He said. His apperance had obviously caught Tarin off guard, he must have not been expecting to see him again. Ethan offered his had, "So bro, how'd you fair the registration?" He figured it was an appropriate thing to ask seeing how it was something that was a huge issue when he was last there.

How was it going? It sucked, it sucked a lot and Tarin really wanted to unload on the kid, but that really wasn't fair. Instead he shrugged his shoulders, "It's going..." he said, his smile turning into more of a grimace. The light emitting from his skin dimmed to a bearable level and Tarin shook his head. "Well, I'm glad you're comfortable walking around like that." he said, gesturing at the kid. "It must be nice to be young enough that you only had to hide out a while. I've been running for sixteen years. I have to say though I have it a little easier than you do."

Aww, the kid had brought burgers to say thanks. That was really sweet and Tarin realized that he hadn't eaten...hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. It was nice that the kid had brought something over and Tarin accepted the bag gratefully. Veggie burgers eh? Tarin avoided those like the plague. Even if he had left Texas over fifteen years ago, Tarin was a red blooded American carnivore.

He was three bites into his burger when the kid, Hope if Tarin remembered right, asked how he fared in the registration fiasco. The burger suddenly turned to sawdust in his mouth and Tarin had to try twice to swallow, how was he going to answer?

"Well..." he said, setting down the food and wiping his hands on the front of his shorts, "I didn't fare as well as you did. My fiance ended up in the camps, I ended up helping break her out, and then she left me. So...that's about it..."

Tarin wasn't hungry anymore, so he just kind of looked at the burger as it sat on the table. Way to kill the conversation...Tarin took a deep breath and shook off the feeling, "Well, enough about me! How did you fare? Did you make it through the whole thing without ending up in the camps? "

Ethan looked over his glowing hand as Tarin talked about how long he'd been running for what he was. Ethan was definatly fortunate to get his powers only a few months before mutants were actually accepted, kinda. "Well it takes a bit but walking around is still kind of awkward, lots of stares. Yeah I am very lucky i guess, it's funny all my life I wanted to get super powers and be like the Avengers you know, and i find out later on that i'm a mutant, and that it's not all it's cracked up to be." He noted the look on Tarin's face, the sort that signified pain, not physical but emotional pain. Ethan figured something bad must have happened since the last time he met the mutant.

Tarin dug right into the burgers, seemed to have a bit of a hungry void to fill in his stomach. Ethan noted that he was eating the regular burgers, he still had trouble with the fact that most people out here ate meat. Where he lived back in LA it seemed everyone and there brother was a vegitarian. Ethan pulled out a veggi burger for himself and took a bite.

Tarin told him about how he did during the registration, apparently he had to rescue his fiance. Which Ethan wished he had seen because Tarin didn't seem like the kind of guy to bust someone out of a place like the camps but love made people do funny things he guessed. Then he heard that she left him and Ethans features twisted in a sympath pain kind of way. He couldn't imagine going through something like that for someone that you had risked your life to save.

It was awkward after then, Ethan had no idea what to say to that or after that. But Tarin insisted that Ethan told him his story so he did. "Well i was underground for a few weeks, no sunlight so i looked normal like any other human. Then i was going to call the resistance, with the number that the cop gave me but i ran into another mutant and he sort of exposed himself so we ended up running from the cops. In the end he went to the resistance and i kept hiding."

Well, he hadn't completely killed the conversation. That was at least something to be said. Things for the kid seemed to have gone at least a little bit easier than they had for Tarin in the end.

That was good though, it would be easier for him to forget about the whole registration thing. Hopefully things were going to be easier now that the registration act was over. Sure there were still tons of mutant haters, but at least the kid wasn't going to have to try to hide simply because he was a little obvious as a mutant.

"Well, I'm glad you stayed out of the camps. Let me tell you for sure that they weren't somewhere you wanted to end up. I was only there during the breakout, but from what I saw...it was pretty much carnage."

Tarin knew, he knew for sure, he was still dreaming about it. Puddles of blood, dismembered body parts, people screaming, young mutants running. Yeah, it was bad. Something about what the kid said pulled at Tarin's curiosity though, as did the smell of the burger on the table, he picked it up and took another bite.

"You said you ran into another mutant, what was his name and what could he do? And you never ended up with the resistance? I should tell you too, you were lucky to run into Rupert that day. He really is a decent sort."