Alexandra Kettler was officially pissed off. Yeah. And she would most likely kill her sister whenever she got a hold of her. Hmmm… did she honestly know how difficult it was for Alexandra to sneak out of the mansion to get to her? No, of course she didn’t. How could Ana know when she wasn’t aware that her sister was living with the X-Men. Alexandra had found last night perfect for sneaking out to see her younger sibling. Something in the meeting with Sam and Dom, of course, leaving out all the embarrassing parts of it, made her miss her sister more than normally. And when she finally goes to see her, Ana Kettler was nowhere to be found. She had tried the apartment but found no sign of her sister. Her mind had begun to wander off, fearing that something might have happened to her. She was just getting her phone out when she had seen the note.

“Alex, I’m at a place called the Sanctuary. I met up with another mutant and he took me there. Don’t be mad, please! ~~~ Love, Ana.”

Sanctuary??? Sanctuary!!! Why would Ana ever go to the Sanctuary? Did she know what the Sanctuary was? Was she aware that she was being in mutant evil nest of doom? Probably not. She was completely decided to go there and drag her out of there. By her hairs, if that was necessary. It was then when she noticed the ‘he’ in the sentence. Oh. Oh God. Oh dear God. She was taken at the Sanctuary by a HE? Heart stopped beating. Her sweet, innocent sister being taken to the Sanctuary by an evil mutant? For some odd reason, an image of a man with a curled up mustache, oily hair, fluffy eyebrows dressed in a Mexican costume dragging her sister away to a big spooky castle that had written ‘SANCTUARY’ in red, huge, neon letters appeared into her mind. Alexandra blinked. Nevermind dragging Ana out of there. She was going to kill her. Alexandra had specifically said: do not talk with other mutants! And there she was, speaking with a Sanctuary resident. And following him there as a matter of fact. However, she couldn’t go to the Sanctuary in the middle of the night. She would have to wait till the morning to manipulate some brain cells into her sister’s head.

Well, that didn’t mean that she could sleep that night. The images of the Mexican man with a mustache kept appearing into her mind. And the thought of her little, so innocent and so sweet sister snoo snoo-ing around was … terrifying. And now, thanks to her restless night, Alexandra barely dragged herself trough the mansion hallways into the kitchen. Occasionally, she could hear the world snoo-snoo trough the giggles of the students and at some point she thought she heard ‘sam kept you busy all night with the snoo snoo?’ question but decided to ignore it. Too tired to even care that she was gaining her self the ‘the girl that snoo snoo-ed Steel in the pool’ reputation. Insert shrug here. She would have to deal with this later. Right now, the only picture she had in her head was that of a large steaming cup of coffee. Mhmmm… coffee. Fortunately for her, when she had reached the kitchen, the smell of hot coffee greeted her. She helped herself with a cup, completely ignoring everything around her. Coffee. Good. She took a sip and a content smile appeared on her face. Yes, she was a coffee addict. So? Now Alexandra was debating on whether she should take a seat or not.

The chair looked nice. Appealing even. Alexandra eyed it carefully. She shook her head slightly. No. She was afraid she would fall asleep on it. And she had enough rumors going on. But it was sooo nice! It was calling out to her. Alexandra eyed the chair once more. Oh, screw it! She let herself slip into the chair. Comfy. She liked the Mansion for that part. After sipping from her coffee again, she placed the cup on the table, her elbow resting against the wood. Her eyes looked at the patterns on the wooden texture and began counting them. 1.2.3.4.5.6. Alexandra yawned and let her head rest on her hand. 7.8.9.10.11. The table looked nice. 12.13.14.15.16. Maybe if she… NO. 17.18.19.20.21. Just a little bit. 22.23.24.25.26. She eyed the smooth texture of the table and felt her head heavy. 27.28.29.30.31. Her eyes closed as she yawned again. 32.33.34.35.36. Oh, she’ll just stay there for a bit. 37.38.39.40. Her head rested against the table, sighing happily as it didn’t felt so heavy anymore. 41.42.43.44.45. Her eyelids closed again. 46.47.48.49. She was asleep.

Caffeine and boiling beans cut through the senses, grabbing the morning to shake it by the collar and scream “Wake up!” Number One Dad reflected off the inner pane of glass on the kitchen shelf as a hand darted in to snag a clay mug. It clinked down on the counter top as the final drop escaped the filter with a resounding PLOP. Toast shot up out of the toaster like a NASA shuttle, and a butter knife whipped over the spread. Like a conductor directs a masterpiece, Shin’s hands danced through the air creating breakfast. Sizzling eggs slid onto a plate, and the plate slid in front of Alexandra.

“Morning.” Shin sang, smile warped through the glass of orange juice standing in front of her sunken head. “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey. Or, as a brave young maestro once muttered, ‘Get up, Beethoven. Your eggs are ready!’” He mimicked a gruff German voice, spatula hanging from a hand poised at his side. Barbecuing lobsters clacked their claws on his apron, and an overly-sunny smile shone on his face. He turned to pour the pot into the mug, setting the steaming number one dad on her other side. Bacon scooped off the pan on the stove and onto paper towels on a plate as he dished himself up a fried egg.

Mornings were always great like this, up at the crack of dawn for training. Eat a big breakfast and run a few miles. Plopping down across the table from her, Shin dug into his meal waiting for her to attack her eggs.

The sky was painted in a dark crimson color, orange lightings occasionally lighting up the path. Alexandra found herself in a forest with tall trees, huge beans hanging from them. Crouching, she ducked one of them. She could still see the man in front of her, dressed in his black and silver mariachi suit, a large silver glowing hat on his head. The maiden he was keeping over his shoulder was unconscious, her white dress flowing behind. Alexandra forced herself to run harder, a smile appearing on her face as she was closing on him. The man looked back at her, an evil snicker on his face. He stopped and turned around as he raised his hand. “Ayayayayay!” he yelled and mariachi hats were conjured from out of nowhere flowing Alexandra’s way. The Mexican snickered again as he turned around and took off again. Alexandra ducked the hats, only one being able to hit her in the shoulder. She winced in pain as she realized now that those were metal mariachi hats.

Pushing the pain away, she continued to run, until she managed to get past the mariachi hat rain. “STOP!” she yelled at him. The evil mariachi turned around, annoyed that the heroine had escaped his hat rain. He raised his hand again. “Ketchup Rain!” he yelled again. Ketchup drops began to fall out of the sky, in huge blobs. Alexandra stared at the sky as a huge ketchup drop was closing on her. And it fell, hitting her shoulder. On her shirt. On her white shirt. Her brand new white shirt. “Arghh!” she yelled as she began to sprint, carefully avoiding the drops that were falling. She got out of the ketchup rain, only two more stains on her clothes.

Alexandra sighted the castle. It was huge and dark and it seemed like the thunders were concentrating on that area. A red neon sign was the only light that seemed to be in the castle. It said in huge letters ‘Sanctuary’. No. The Mexican had to be stopped before he would reach his safe place, or else Alexandra won’t be able to save the young unconscious maiden he was kidnapping. “Stop!” she said again. The man turned around again, annoyed. His hand slipped inside his pocket and retrieved a castanet. As he began to clap it, enchiladas and tortillas were flying around, spinning as they came toward her. “You won’t escape this.” he said with an evil laugh. He ran away as Alexandra was left to face the tortilla and enchiladas storm.

Alexandra summoned her magic silver wand, a glowing white star at its end. As she pointed the wand at one of the tortillas, a silver beam of glowing small stars erupted from it, making it vanish. Alexandra continued to aim at the flying enchiladas and tortillas. He aimed her wand at one of the enchiladas, making it disappear. It was then when she saw the flying tortilla. She never had the time to stop it and took a full frontal hit in her stomach. She took a step back from the force of the hit and put her hand on her belly. As she looked at it, it was full of a red liquid texture. “Noooo!” she said as she saw the new spot of ketchup on her shirt. She hadn’t seen this one before and it had hit the ‘hello kitty’ logo right in the head.

The image turned blurry as someone’s voice could be heard in the background. Alexandra couldn’t make it out what the voice was saying or who it was.

The tortillas and enchiladas kept hitting her as her savior’s voice sounded to be right behind her. Alexandra turned around as she saw her masked knight in shining armor, complete with bacon pieces hanging from his helmet and a giant fried egg as a shield. In his other hand he held a water gun that no longer shot water but a magical substance. It was orange juice.”

“ NO! BE CAREFUL WITH THE FLYING TORTILLAS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs and jumped forward. Her eyes opened, as Alexandra had pushed the chair away while taking her leap to save the knight in shining armor and hit herself in the table. As she looked at her hands, she found them full of eggs and bacon. She glanced curiously at the plate in front of her which held bacon, eggs and toast. Oh and hands. Aware that she is being watched, she looked around the kitchen only to see the few students that were inside looking at her with their mouths hanging wide open. Her head turned back to the previous position, this time her eyes focusing on the familiar figure of Shin. “Shin?” she asked confused. Did she do something wrong?

"Eep!" Shin jerked back out of his chair as the pretty girl flew at him like a witch. A stream of orange slid across the table drawing dangerously close to Alexandra’s face. He looked down at the overturned glass wobbling on the table and blinked. “Oh no, not the orange juice… and the eggs. And the bacon, and your shirt, and… wait, what? Flying tortillas? Tortilla fly now? Should I… should I run from them?” He looked around, confused.

She was confused too. That made two of them. She gripped the bacon tenuously in her hands. “More importantly, are you alright? I know I was thinking you’d attack your eggs, but I didn’t mean literally… can you help me clean this mess up?” He rushed to the kitchen sink and snagged the roll of paper towels. They’d probably need it all… and the people around them staring didn’t help matters.

“Move along, folks. Nothing to see here unless you’re helping.”

Alexandra looked at Shin confused. Flying tortillas? Attacking eggs? Orange juice? Clean up? Her eyes went down again, to see the mess on the table. Indeed, there were eggs, there was bacon, toast and orange juice. All spilled across the table, one of her hands resting in the now half full plate another next to a broken glass that she was sure that only seconds earlier had orange juice in it. She tried to spot the tortillas that Shin was talking about but there was none on the table. But Shin had also mentioned flying tortillas so her eyes rose up and checked the ceiling trying to spot this amazing kind of tortillas.

Of course, seconds later, after her brain actually registered what was happening she wanted so bad to smack herself on the head. Alexandra blinked, her cheeks now having a nice red shade. She didn’t dare to look to the other residents in the kitchen. Surely, she wasn’t able to push away the fact that she was still observing that they were starring with their mouths wide open at her.

Instead, her eyes focused back on Shin and she cleared her throat before speaking, or else she wouldn’t have managed to get a single word out of her mouth. “Uhmmm, sure.” she said as she removed both of her hands from the table. She grabbed one plate in one hand and headed for the recycle bin, emptying the contents inside. It was doubtfully that someone could actually eat after her little show. She waited for Shin to come near her in order to put her whispered question. “How bad did I do?"

The paper towel circled the spot of moisture in a measured sweeping motion that got all of it methodically. Orange vanished into it, leaving a pleasingly blank-table behind. Shin’s eyes widened with wonder as he held up the one little towel that had absorbed so much. Amazing… He tossed it into the trash can, and went to tear another one off the roll. A boy with blue hair and a nose ring walked his leather-studded jacket-wearing body over to the table, and helpfully started scooping up some of the mess. He gave a wink to his friends mulling near the entrance.

“Tough break,” He stacked the yellowed plates in the sink. “But at least it wasn’t grape juice.”

“I suppose so,” Shin replied, tight-lipped. He walked over to Alex, handing her a dry towel for herself. She whispered something in his ear. He blinked.

“You didn’t do too badly, actually. Ten points on the delivery, but I’ll have to give you an eight on the landing…”

The blue-haired bloke laughed, popping open the dishwasher and filling it. He fished under the sink for a box of soap. “What were you doing anyways? Flying tortillas, what the crap?”

“That’s some dream,” Shin replied with a consoling smile, then shot the blue-haired boy a reproachful look. “Are you alright?” He added, turning to Alexandra. He could see the red on her face as it replaced the ‘disoriented’ she’d worn seconds earlier.

The washer door was kicked shut. It started swishing through the first cycle. “Later,” the blue-haired boy shrugged, walking out of the kitchen. His other friends followed, leaving only Shin and Alex.

Alexandra wished she could laugh at Shin’s comment but unfortunately she was further embarrassed. The fact that one of the guys standing in the kitchen came to help and popped up the question didn’t help either. Well, flying tortillas, enchiladas and mariachi hats. As Shin has put it, quite some dream. She didn’t answer the boy; instead she let her head to lower, wishing she could actually make it disappear. Well, scratch that, she wished she could have all her body disappear from every embarrassing situation. Taking the dry paper towel from Shin, she used it to clean up her hands. She didn’t feel clean enough but she postponed washing her hands for a bit.

“Later and thanks.” Alexandra said to the blue-haired boy looking for just a second then turning back to Shin. She sighed as she was left only with the Asian and one of her hands rested on the sink edge. “I’m fine, I think.” she replied to Shin. “I’m just tired and that’s clearly shown in my behavior.” she added shooting a glance to the now clean table. “I think I owe you a breakfast now.” she said with a chuckle glad that now she was feeling better. Well, the fact that her sister has chosen the Sanctuary was constantly sticking to her mind but at least no Mexicans were chasing her with flying mariachi hats.

“You, make me breakfast?” Shin’s eyebrow perked. “I think pancakes sound good right about now. If you’re serious, I’ll finish up the cleanup. You can start with the preparation.” He bent over to pick the chair up off the floor as he said it, then pushed it back in.

Cleaning was nearly done now. He made a beeline past the sink, opened the storage closet, and snagged the mop. Leaning it against the side of the oven, he retreated to the closet for the bucket and soap. The handle on the sink turned. He slipped the bucket under the stream, let it fill with hot water, and added soap. Halfway full, he sat that bucket back down on the floor and retrieved his weapon of mass destruction to agent orange.

The scent of citrus mixed with the Napalm odor of oranges as he mopped, and suddenly the whole room smelled like a Citric Explosion. Mop mop, dab dab. The tendrils of fabric turned as he wrung the mop out. It dunked back in for a second round. “So you said you were tired?” Shin added conversationally as he pushed forward on the mop. His sneakers wailed like rodents as he moonwalked a half-step back, leading the trail. “Have you been doing something that’s been keeping you up late, or something? I know when I lose sleep, there’s usually something on my mind…”

His eyes narrowed for a split-second as he thought about the things that kept his mind preoccupied with racing itself into corners in the middle of the night. Darkness, for a moment seemed to grip his mop. But then he turned his face up like a tulip to tilt his head and gave her a weak smile. “Of course, you could have just stayed up late watching Star Trek or something… pardon me if I’m assuming too much.”

Alexandra nodded with a sigh. Well, she was hungry and she had ruined Shin’s breakfast so yeah, she needed to cook now. She put her hands on the counter trying to remember the recipe for pancakes, as Romanian and American pancakes were different. As soon as she was certain she had gotten the right recipe, she began to retrieve the ingredients from various cabinets. Aware of the molecular composition of flour, baking powder and salt she mixed the three in a bowl using her powers while in another she was combining the egg and the milk in the traditional way.

The silence was comforting and the sound of Shin’s voice almost made her to spill the contents of the second bowl down instead of adding them to the first. She mentally slapped herself for being so jumpy and her head slightly turned to Shin as she was stirring together the ingredients. “I guess you can say there is something on my mind.” she said with a sigh as she moved to retrieve the melted butter. My sister is at the Sanctuary with a man. She blended in the last ingredient and paused for a second. “A friend of mine is choosing the wrong path to go on.” she admitted then turned to cook them. “But I do wish that the only trouble in my mind was to see Star Trek.” Alexandra let out a laugh. “Although I’m a bit more of an Andromeda and Stargate fan.” she added smirking.

It didn’t take long until four pancakes were gracing the now cleaned table. Hopefully, they would be good, there was some time since she had spent the time cooking. As she was setting the table, she turned to Shin completely. “So, what kind of syrup do you like?”

"Ah, I see. The wrong path... that's too bad. I can understand how that would make you lose sleep..." The mop sloshed back down. Nearly all wiped away now, he ran it across the floor to get the last of the juice. "Just curious," he slipped it back into the bucket and wheeled it across the floor to a closet, stashed it away. "What path is the 'wrong path' here? Is she... joining the army, or going to the wrong college, or letting her potential waste away on the wrong person in the wrong place?"

The closet door closed. He ran a few hand towels over the damp floor, then put them in the sink as well. The floor shined. He went to the drawers and grabbed a few plates and silverware, set the table as she worked. "I know I'd be worried if one of my friends from back home tried joining the army... always thinking about where he was in the back of my mind. If he was getting pancakes overseas, if they were treating him well..."

Tugging up a chair to the table, he took his seat.

"Anyways, that's just me. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. It's probably none of my business. Food smells great, by the way." He smiled at her, holding up a fork and a knife. "As long as we have butter, any syrup's good."

“Mhmmm, thanks.” she said absentmindedly as she opened the fridge to search the butter. “Hopefully they will taste good too.” she added as brown eyes scanned across the different compartments of the fridge. At spotting the butter, a hand reached to grab it then closed the door with a soft thud. Heading over to a kitchen cabinet, she opened it and a various selection of syrups greeted her. She picked up one of them without paying attention to what she was choosing and then closed the cabinet door.

Turning around she leaned against the counter with a thoughtful expression on her face, butter in one hand, syrup in the other. “Shin, she’d gone with a man and she had barely reached adulthood. I don’t know anything about him, just the plain suspicion that he might be bad.” she finally said, her expression changing to a worried one. Her eyes shifted to the syrup bottle. ‘Sonic Watermelon Syrup’. Hmmm…

Alexandra pushed herself of the counter and walked over to the table where she placed the butter and the syrup in the middle. After scanning the contents to see if there was something she missed, she let herself drop on the chair and let out a sigh. “What am I supposed to do?” she asked, her eyes focused on the Asian’s face now.

He looked back at her with big round serious eyes that read the lines of worry on her face. His lips curled downwards like the slope of a barrel, parted as he looked down at his plate a moment to think. All the experiences of living back home drifted back to the top of his mind as he dove for parenting advice. He looked back up at her, eyebrows furrowed, voice taciturn. Just like his father's... and his grandfather before him. A long line of hasty decisions condensed into words.

"We drag her back." The knife slipped back under the edge of the plate. He gripped the fork tighter, shaking his head. "The way you say it, she doesn't sound old enough to make major life decisions like that at the drop of a hat. If there's anything my parents taught me, it's that you don't let your teenagers run off by themselves thinking they know the world. It's darker than they could ever imagine..." A sigh escaped his lips and he cast his eyes towards the kitchen stove. The burners still burned red like a halo amid the white metal surface. Voice low, more for him than her, he muttered 'You are likely to be eaten by a grue...'

And then he looked back at her, locking eyes again like the click of handcuffs. "But that's just my father speaking through me. God knows he pulled me out of one too many fights I couldn't win when I was younger. And you know what? It took time, but eventually I thanked him... might have been angry at first, but... I suppose family can be angry at family and that's fine, so long as they're still safe... at least talk to her about her choice, though. That's the least you can do."

Her elbows found the table and she let her head rest on her hands, watching the patterns of the wooden texture, lost in thought. She knew she could talk with Ana but if she wasn't able to be there for her, how would her sister listen to what she had to say? Would Ana understand that if she wanted to pull her out of the Sanctuary it was for her own good and Alexandra did it because she was the last of her family. The last one that she loved anyway.

Hands combed trough brown hair as her head raised slightly to watch Shin. Poor boy, he was now listening to her complaints and she wasn't even saying the truth. "Maybe I can pull her away from him but I can't be there for her, I can't watch her all the time." Hell, she could only see her sister once a week, twice if she was lucky. "Who knows how much time will pass until someone drags her away again?" A man. Her sister with a man at the Sanctuary. Oh, dear god. "I'm not a good si-" She froze in mid word, eyes widened as she watched Shin hoping he didn't catch the last word. "friend.".

Shin looked at her. He hadn't missed the 'sis' she'd tried to conceal. Turning thoughts over and over in his head, he thought about the situation. It was just that... "You don't always have to be there for her watching all the time, you know. And if you were, that might be more of a problem than leaving her alone. There's a balance you have to strike with kids, with family, with friends... can't loom over them like a lurker in watch. You have to give them freedom to make mistakes, and choose on their own..."

He frowned. He'd just got done telling her to drag her sister back. This was complicated... he took in a deep breath. "I mean, there's always the possibility she'll find someone. You can't be there to moderate her life like a webmaster. All you can do is be there for her when she needs you, and speak up if you see something she doesn't, but needs to know." Rising, he went to the breadbox and grabbed a few slices from the loaf. Then he slid back into his chair and reached out a knife for the butter in a swipe. "Friendships, I suppose, are a lot like butter." Purposefully, he applied yellow to the bread slice's surface, hard and thick. "Act too heavy, you'll overwhem them. They'll crumble under the weight of it like a knife pressing on wheat..." He picked up the other slice, setting the first back down. "But if you spread too thin, they don't even know you're there. That's why you have to strive for a happy medium. Being there when they need you, but giving them freedom to show off the taste of the bread... and I guess that's why parenting's so hard."

He set the knife down, dropping his eyes in deep thought. Hard to make sense.

"You have to find the balance. ...But even when you fail, there's merit. I guess that's why even lousy parents can make a difference if they really care."

A sigh escaped her lips and she fell into the contemplation of the wooden texture on the table after Shin had spoken. Her hand reached out for the glass of apple juice. Ten fingers circled the delicate glass and took it to her mouth. Absentmindedly, she took a sip then still keeping the glass in her hand she drifted into her own thoughts.

To put it the way Shin had said it, she was spreading the butter too thin with her sister. It was impossible to be overwhelming or even find the damn balance when she was hiding the fact that she even had a sister.

But how else could she deal with it? She was a Kabal, residing at the Mansion undercover. If she brought her sister here and then left, would her sister follow her? After all, Ana wasn’t her puppy to command around whenever she wanted… and if Ana decided to stay at the sister school, it would be just like losing her.

Or… she could have Ana join the Kabal? But then again, Ana didn’t look like Kabal material, nor she could see her innocent sister being corrupted. Her eyes shifted now to the almost empty glass.

Innocent, my ass.

The reply her consciousness had given came hard and bitter. If Ana was so innocent then why the heck she left with the first male that came across her path? Especially when she had mentioned not to talk with any other mutant. Following them, she thought, was included into this warning she had given before leaving her sister to her own merry way. Why was she accepting help from someone she didn’t even know when Alexandra said she could provide it?

She didn’t realize just how hard she has been gripping the glass in her hand, not until the sound of broken glass snapped her into attention. Surprised, she watched shards of glass falling on the table and on the floor followed by a muffled sound. Half of the glass was still resting in her hand, the upper side cut into uneven zigzags. Brown eyes shot up to Shin. “I’m sorry Shin. I’m not the best company today.” she said in a calm and distracted voice, one that didn’t fit the situation at all.