It had been three days since Sara had been shot in the head, by one of New York’s former not so finest. Rupert Kelley. The information behind how Sara had been injured only ranged to that information. People knew she had been shot, but she had never given a name. Nor was she going to. It was her hunt, when she chose to partake in it.

Sara had spent the beginning part of the day, sitting sideways on the bed, in the room, she had been given, inside the x-mansion. She didn’t know what time it was and she didn’t really care. Clocks meant nothing to her today. She didn’t have one that said the time out loud, like Lukes, and she had no where she actually needed to be.

She was still trying to wrap her mind around the idea of being blind. For instance the room. Even though she couldn’t see the room, she knew from walking around it, that it was about 10 by 12. The twin bed took up one corner, with an empty dresser at the foot railing, and her duffle bag was on the floor in front of that.

Sara’s ears twitched when she heard someone approach her door.

Koga hefted the meals on a tray, the Pot stickers were delicious, He also grabbed a Tea and a powerade, they were good but not fizzy so it was recomended to him, he had a pait or chop sticks and a fork, and then a pair of choclate cheese cake slices. He was sure that he was going to get mugged on the way to the room, you coudn't walk around this many students with anything remotely good and not have somebody try to bum it off of you, and this stuff smell fabulous.

After shooing away several guy that had just come infrom the basket ball court by convincing them this stuff was full of Brocoli. He made a hustle for his destination. He tapped on the door and called out. " Hi Sssara, It issss Ryuichi, If you don't mind, I brought you sssome food and maybe sssome companany if you are up to it."

He waited staring at the door, He wouldn't try it, she might not be decently dressed or evn awake, word wasshe had been shot and was healin her way back, What was weird is he met her not too long ago. And she was perfectly fine.

Sara wasn’t used to it, but she had found the mansion very hospitable. She’d not only been fed, but clothed in the grey training sweatpants and zip up hoodies. Meaning Sara didn’t have to wander the halls in a paper gown from the infirmary, with the tail side open for all to see. Sara had personalized her sweats by leaving the shirt open to a black tank top, and her pants had needed a hope punched in the seat for her tail’s comfort. Add a long cane, curtasy of Luke, and Sara’s mansion ensemble had been complete.

Sara smelled the food just before the knock came, and Ryuichi called through the door. Witch made her head tilt to the side. She hadn’t been expecting company. “Come on in.” Sara said as she hopped off of her bed and hastelly started shoving her duffle bag under her bed, then moved to a desk that was in the corner of the room, and pulled it away from the wall so she could sit on her bed, and Ryuichi could take the chair.

If Sara hadn’t been in this room for the last few days, she wouldn’t be able to move about the room so easily. She’d spend hours just memorizing the location of the furniture and the room’s dynamics, to get used to it. Luke had been right. She was starting to adjust. Being blind was like living in a giant dark room. If you remembered where thing were in your head, you didn’t have to see them. “This should make a decent table. What do you think?” Sara asked. Her head facing a completely different direction from where Koga stood. Her liquid amber eyes just looked like golden gem stones. The pupils were still so contracted you could hardly see the slits.

~~ “Come on in.”
And so he did.Koga pressed his finger tips to the bottom of the tray and suctioned to it before moving to open the door with his now free hand.(Super Waiter!) He nudged the door with his foot and took a couple of his typically quiet steps into the room, he stealthily moved to the spot that Sara had addressed.

~~“This should make a decent table. What do you think?”

“Abssssolutely, I hope you like pot ssstickersss, causssse I brought a bunch. And you have the option of blue powerade or sssweet tea. Of courssse if neither of thossse ssssuit you, than I can get you sssomething elssse.I brought a fork or chopssstickss if you want a challenge.” He walked over to the table and Set the tray down. After which he lightly touched the back of her hand to show her where he was. “want sssome help finding the sssstuff?” he tapped the desktop where he was placing the stuff and then said what he was putting where, “Fork and chop sssticksss*tap tap* Pot ssstickers *tap tap* dipping sssauce *tap tap* and drink *tap tap* “I guessss just let me know if you need any more help.”

He then took up the chair that was preferred and was much like the one in his own room.“Oh, Yeah! If you need anything or want anything jusssst let me know? I will find it, and bring it, I have a zune, you can borrow, if you don’t mind a motley collection of musssic, I’d think a radio would be about the bessst boredom bussster. It is me, Koga from the Ball, if you didn’t recognize my voice by the way…Ssssorry, I ssshould have introduced my ssself firssst.”

He seemed to manage to calm down as he sat infront of the food. “ alssso if I am being too helpful jussst let me know, there wassss thisss time that I twissssted my ankle pretty bad at practice and people( his parents, his former parents) wouldn’t let me do anything for my ssself and I about went inssssane. Ssso yeah, lt m know.”

Sweet tea or blue power aid was quite a combination with pot stickers. With either choice, someone who just happened to walk in might think the feline was pregnant. Not that Sara was. Sara was definitely not. “sweet tea is fine for me.” Although blue power aid. Maybe later she could have some. She’d never actually tried any.

“And the chop sticks.” Sara found the utensils as Koga tapped out the locations of everything else. Sara was wishing she hadn’t needed the help there and her nose had darkened slightly into a blush but she had been thankful the boy hadn’t just grabbed her hands to show her where things were. Actually the tapping was close to what Luke had been working with her on. To find things by sound. And so the training continues.

“I guessss just let me know if you need any more help.”

Sara was starting to adjust the chop sticks in her fingers and tapped the thinner ends together. “This is fine. I actually didn’t expect room service. Thanks for the offer of the Zune, Koga, but I prefer things to be quiet. If I had music playing, I wouldn’t be able to listen to the sounds of the room as easily.”

Drink wise, Koga got his favorite drink, the PowerAde and a conservative choice, a bottle of Nestea. Tea his parents had taught him, went with everything.

~~ “Sweet tea is fine for me.”

“Okie dok.”

~~“And the chop sticks.”

“mmmkay.”

A couple of taps came after the replies.

~~“This is fine. I actually didn’t expect room service. Thanks for the offer of the Zune, Koga, but I prefer things to be quiet. If I had music playing, I wouldn’t be able to listen to the sounds of the room as easily.”

“My pleasssure, I usssualy am looking for sssomething to do around here. I dunno I feel like sssuch a moocher for living here if I am not helping around here. Plusss, It givesss me a good reassson to ssstop by and meet interesssting people. Hope you don’t mind the tapping, My Uncle isss blind and that wasss how he had usss tell him where ssstuff wasss, one sssummer I ssstayed with him and he had me wear bellsss on my anklesss becaussse I walked too quiet and wasss too well behaved for a young man.”

Koga then let out a slight sigh knowing that he would more than likely never talk to him again, he was just as distrustful of mutants as his parents if not more so.

He then simply began to eat, he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask but he doubted that he would be in much mood for conversation if he was shot in the head. He would let her decide on how much they did or didn’t discuss.

“You miss him.” Sara said with out really thinking as Koga finished. It was a statement. Just by the way Koga had stopped talking and sighed. Right up until mentioning his uncle, he was bubbly and talkative. He shut up the minute he spoke of family in his memories.

“The tapping is fine. Actually Luke has been working with me, to locate objects by sound rather than using my eyes. It’s sort of like learning to ride a bike without holding onto the handle bars. Learning to get around. Only I can’t just reach out and grab the handle bars to regain my balance if I start to fall.”

Sara reached out where Koga had tapped out the location of her bottled tea. She lifted it off the table and unscrewed the cap. “Did you learn the trick of drinking from a bottle from your uncle as well? Luke also said he drank from them to avoid spills.” Sara hoped her prodding about Koga’s family was alright. What Sara knew about family was based on memorized definitions and observations from people watching in the park. Few people who talked to her, talked of family, but that didn’t mean Sara didn’t want to learn.

~~“You miss him.”

“Yeah and then no,”


“I guess it is just that my family isn’t very open minded, even when I wanted to do something simple like try electric guitar instead of just sticking with violin. I would have excelled at both, not just given up the one for the other. They were fervent about my not sullying our family name with such trivial and ungraceful instruments….so when my body decided it should be able to climb walls and change colors well, it was like their son and nephew and grandson cousin imply died and a monster took his place.”

He then shrugged to who he didn’t know. “I mean it isss their lossss right? and if they are willing to cassst me out then, I will not bother to focusss on it. Jussst move forward.”

Gah, when was he going to stop with all the motivational speaking?


~~“The tapping is fine. Actually Luke has been working with me, to locate objects by sound rather than using my eyes. It’s sort of like learning to ride a bike without holding onto the handle bars. Learning to get around. Only I can’t just reach out and grab the handle bars to regain my balance if I start to fall.”

“That’sss rough, though if you really dig in and adjussst to it, when you heal, if you hang on to the knowledge, I am sure it would come in handy some day. If you need any help getting on the bike, I will stop by more.” He nodded to himself dedicating himself to the task. “ We will get through it.”

Apparently not any time soon.

~~“Did you learn the trick of drinking from a bottle from your uncle as well? Luke also said he drank from them to avoid spills.”

“no, actually I am jussst fond of containersss that let you clossse them. It certainly doesssn’t take the lack of sssight to knock over a glassss after all. Alssso it cuts down on dissshesss for the house I think. We recycle though ssso its all good.”

After taking another bite of a pot sticker, he couldn’t help but “mmmmm.” After it. “Thessse are really good, I am going to have to find out who wasss cooking today.”

Sara sighed. “Well I guess you could learn electric guitar now.” She let Koga go on a short time while she chewed on a very tasty pot sticker.

“I mean it isss their lossss right? and if they are willing to cassst me out then, I will not bother to focusss on it. Jussst move forward.”

Sara’s chewing paused as she let Koga continue. It didn’t sound like he was really ready to face the fact that his family saw his mutation manifestation as a dead to their boy. Sara thought it was a tragedy. Had she known family like that, she wouldn’t know how to deal with it. Maybe that is how some mutants dealt with it. To pretend that it actually didn’t matter to them.

Sara let Koga finish what he had to say about his offer to help and about the wanting to have less work for the mansion, and she found the recycling the bottles as an odd analogy for the way Koga struck her on this first conversation. He wanted to make things easier. Easier for the loss of his parents and for Sara with the loss of her sight, that everyone kept telling her was temporary and to use this experience. While the thoughts were welcomed, they didn’t get rid of the actual problem. To clean a glass, it takes a dab of soap. Maybe 30 seconds to scrub it, if the person had rinsed it out after drinking from it. Recycling a bottle was easier in the dirty dishes department but after that, recycling required more work. You needed someone who actually would take the bottle to be recycled, then machines to count, bags to pack them, trucks to move the bags, gas to move the trucks, and employees to gas the trucks and drive them.

Recycling was a good thing, but washing a cup was so much more simpler.

“Koga. Stop the motivational stuff.” Sara said simply. “It’s ok to miss something or someone. Just avoiding saying that you miss something isn’t going to make what ever pain there is there, go away. No matter if it’s a person, and what they’ve done.” Sara wasn’t raising her voice. She had wanted to, but that’s whey she waited a moment. She liked Koga so far, even if he tried to take the easy way out. Typical kid. “I miss my sight, and there is a very good chance I won’t get it back. At the same time, you’re right. I do recognize an opportunity to learn a new skill, when I see it. After this, if I get my sight back, I’ll be a force to recon with, in the dark.” Sara’s face pulled into a smile. “only time will tell with that. Until then, don’t bottle things inside by belittling what you had. You’ll blow up.”

The tips of Sara’s chop sticks tapped together as she finished talking. She plucked another pot sticker off of the plate, then into her mouth. “These are good. I don’t know who made them but maybe if we found out we could get the recipe.”

~~ “Well I guess you could learn electric guitar now.”

“Nah, it ssseemsss moot now.” He lost interest before this, plus the other guy ( Glare! ) knew how to play, he didn’t want to come off as emulating. “ I actually would jussst like to find an electric violin…I sssaw one on thisss movie and it sssound pretty cool and I already know how to play it. That and I don’t want to damage my finger tipsss.”



~~“Koga. Stop the motivational stuff.”

Koga opened his mouth and then shut it as she obviously wasn’t done, that and he was going to say something encouraging.

~~“It’s ok to miss something or someone…. No matter if it’s a person, and what they’ve done.”

Koga played out the sequel to opening his mouth for no reason. Even if you were dead to them and they were supposed to care for you unconditionally….he would have to think about that.

~~“I miss my sight, and there is a very good chance I won’t get it back…. You’ll blow up.”

If she left at either of the first or second part, he might have been upset but she didn’t and she equated it to her eye sight, that he assumed she would regain…people said she was a healer… He began with a deep breath.

“I will try to ssstop the over the top motivation…but I am naturally an optimissst ssso no promises on the plain ole motivation,I honestly can’t help it….go team! Ssssee?” He laughed lightly at his slight babbling and then addressed the actual subject at hand. “I guessss you are sssuggesssting I actually deal with my problemssss?”


~~“These are good. I don’t know who made them but maybe if we found out we could get the recipe.”

“I think I might make it a missssion to find out. And then ssshake them down for the information if necessssary.”

Koga folded his legs in his chair and sat Indian style. He then kept his mouth shut for a few and munched on some more of the pot stickers. Chopsticks were first nature to him, so while he appreciated a fork from time to time, Chopsticks were awesome whenever he could actually find a good reason to use them.

“ I actually would jussst like to find an electric violin…I sssaw one on thisss movie and it sssound pretty cool and I already know how to play it. That and I don’t want to damage my finger tipsss.”

I never really played an instrument. Other than rubber bands I had put around a pan. Rubber bands around a pan is the extent of my musical abilities.” Sara replied making a mental note to see what she could do about an electric violin. She’d never seen one, but maybe she could still hunt one down. “I sing, but it’s just for me.” Sara’s lips sucked in and pulled up, sheepishly.

“I will try to ssstop the over the top motivation…but I am naturally an optimissst ssso no promises on the plain ole motivation,I honestly can’t help it….go team! Ssssee?”

“Right.” Sara found her bottled ice tea, popped the seal on the cap, and took a drink.

“I guessss you are sssuggesssting I actually deal with my problemssss?”

“Yes and no. I’m not all that good with family stuff. I can’t say I know what you’re going through, but I can make suggestions. Just don’t lie to your self. You’ll deal with things somehow, when you are ready.” Sara had seen things like that happen. Where the person telling the lies lost track of what was real and what wasn’t. There for loosing themselves.. .. ..

Sara’s head bowed and she crossed one leg, under the knee of the other dangling leg as she chewed and they fell into silence.

“I think I might make it a missssion to find out. And then ssshake them down for the information if necessssary.”

“I might have to help you.” Sara said with a full mouth. Forgetting her table manners for a moment. “After all. I bet the long cane can make me even scarier in a shake down.”

~~“I never really played an instrument…I sing, but it’s just for me.”

“Ah, well itsss not too late to ssstart learning. I think I might have to sssee If I can talk you into doing sssome sssinging. You have a nice voice.” He grinned at her, she couldn’t see it but she deserved the smile anyhow.


~~“Yes and no. …when you are ready.”

“Hmmm, I will give it sssome thought later then.”


~~“I might have to help you.” “After all. I bet the long cane can make me even scarier in a shake down.”

He chuckled at the thought of them jumping someone for cooking well. “ I’ll hold them you can do the ressst….though they could give usss a bad recipe for the trouble. And if it isss a family sssecret you can jussst about bet that we would be missssing an ingredient.”

He popped the last of his pot stickers into his mouth and sighed, he could eat more but he was thankful that he didn’t have any more or he might have to go take a nap.

”.. I think I might have to sssee If I can talk you into doing sssome sssinging. You have a nice voice.”

“You’re a brave one then.” Sara said with a grin. Seriously, she never sang for anyone more than children, and Aye. She was sure if she stood up and sang in front of a group, she’d completely choke.

- ….though they could give usss a bad recipe for the trouble.-

“No problem there.” Sara popped the last of her pot stickers in her mouth and tapped her ears. “I am practically a living lie detector.” At least if she was paying attention and the person didn’t know how to lie. “Respiration and heart beat changes, and a conventional lie detector can’t smell when someone starts to sweat.”

“.. I think I might have to sssee If I can talk you into doing sssome sssinging. You have a nice voice.”

~~“You’re a brave one then.”

“ I try. though I am not quite sssure what you mean.”Totally missing the fact that she wasn’t sure of her singing or maybe it was more about him tryng to talk her into it.

“No problem there.” “I am practically a living lie detector.” “Respiration and heart beat changes, and a conventional lie detector can’t smell when someone starts to sweat.”

He laughed again. “well, I guessss I’ll just be glad I am the honest type. I wish other people around here had the skill to know when you are being honest.” And oh lord why did he bring that up. He sat and hoped that she didn’t ask why he was saying that particularly after what she had just told him about knowing when someone told the truth. He didn’t want to explain about Katrina. No no no..sigh change the subject “ Wouldn’t someone being interrogated already be doing all of those things though? Particularly if you were interrogating them with the long cane?”

well, I guessss I’ll just be glad I am the honest type. I wish other people around here had the skill to know when you are being honest.”

That was an interesting statement. Sara couldn’t help but smirk for some reason. “Someone accuse you of lying?”

“ Wouldn’t someone being interrogated already be doing all of those things though? Particularly if you were interrogating them with the long cane?”

Ding ding ding. Yeah. He might as well of answered her question. Yes someone had. Hmmmm…

“Yes. But it’s all about patterns. The beat of a heart, or the way someone is breathing changes slightly. I can’t quite describe it but it’s like when you see a pattern of lines Every line is perfectly straight except for one so you notice that one. Then again. Like a real lie detector, I’m not perfect.” Sara shoved her plate onto the tray, Koga had used to carry things in on. “So why ask? Did you get caught at something and looking for a way out, or just plane in the wrong place at the wrong time?”