Kaz was thankful the cabbie didn't put up a fuss when a drakeling crawled into the back seat, with an obvious mutant in tow, not to mention when he stuck his scaled head through the little window separating the front and back of the cab. "Full Circle" He said before he rattled off the address. As the cab pull away from the curb and headed off Kaz grabbed Demi by the scruff of his neck, just above his shoulder blades, and sat him down on the back seat.

~~~~~~~~

Kaz paid the cabbie as they pulled up to the corner. Putting his white coat over his shoulder so it draped down his arm, he held his right hand out toward Demi. The little drake took quite a bit of care moving up the coat to perch on Kaz's shoulders. As he stepped into the store through the revolving doors, Kaz realized he had no real idea why he actually chose Full Circle. He could put it off as if he were just checking up on the place, but he could really go for something strong to drink, besides alcohol.

Letting out a soft sigh as he headed toward the counter. He waited for the person ahead of him to finish. "Whatever's good, hot, and strong I'll have. A water and muffin for the little red lizard please." Kaz finally noticed who was at the front desk, after receiving his drinks, and gave a quick, polite nod to Shin as he moved to sit in a corner chair where he could see most of the store. Demi sat curled on the table nibbling at his muffin while Kaz eased back into the chair, finding himself quite relaxed.

Lemon poppyseed. She smelled lemon poppy seed and opened her eyes to see that Aurum's fly was unzipped. Ghost sat bolt upright, a paper sticking to her cheek despite the sudden movement.

"There's an elf guy here. Shin said it might be important?" He edged a cup of tea onto her glass desk as Ghost batted the paper from her face. She suddenly realized that was an application she'd been reviewing last night and hastily grabbed back the paper and smoothed it along the surface of her desk. She was... discombobulated. And took a long moment looking at her tea before looking up at the fleeing Aurum. "Your fly..." She couldn't even seem to manage amusement. Maybe later. After the tea and muffin. She scratched her hair and smoothed the wrinkled remains of yesterday's clothes. Did she work today? She couldn't even remember...

After checking the schedule, Ghost clutched her tea in one hand and her muffin in the other looking quite possessive of them both when she made her way out into the cafe area. "Morning." Is what she said, even though it was quite clearly afternoon. She was tired and one part of her snowy locks were sticking up in a way that made it clear that she'd been sleeping on a hard surface. Maybe she should get a cot...

Kaz looked up at the shuffling of feet coming towards him. "Morning." She said looking as though she had just woken up. He raised his glass a bit and motioned to the empty chair at the table, before taking another sip of the burning, scorching drink. With his empty hand he made a slight move as if he were going to brush Vega's stray hair into place but went to 'smooth' his hair back, "Long day already'eh? A pillow might help be a bit more restful." He let out a little chuckle at his bad humor. Demi looked from Kaz to Vega, then back to Kaz before smirking as he were seeing the most silly sight imaginable.

Ghost sat in the chair as if there were a rod in her spine and seemed confused by the muffin in her hand. She'd had a recent bad fortune with a lemon poppyseed muffin that gave her a bad trip. She'd thought for two whole weeks that someone had stolen her body. She'd heard voices and bothered various people. It was all quite unfortunate. She sat the muffin down reluctantly. Lemon poppy seed muffins were her favorite. But they were quite possibly ruined for her now.

Kaz made a movement with his hand and Ghost's eyes moved sluggishly to see him pat at his own hair. With one hand now free, she pat her hair thinking he was signaling that something was funny about her own hair. Too bad she was smoothing down the wrong side. She sipped her tea and the warmth trickled outward from her tummy. "Mmmm. More like yesterday was so long it leaked all over today. Sometimes when it gets real late, that desk looks just as good as a pillow." And that was the truth. She could literally fall asleep anywhere. She'd been practicing this particular gift for most of her life as evidenced by the strange places people found her in the Mansion.

"Plus sometimes at night it's kind of scary out there." She shrugged. The Full Circle was her happy place. She seriously needed to get out more. Ghost sighed and sipped from her mug delicately. "To what do we owe the honor?" Ghost took her time inspecting the other occupant of the table.

Kaz didn't miss the way Vega sat down or the confused look she gave the muffin. Even though he chalked it up to just waking up, he couldn't help looking down at the muffin Demi was munching on and wondering if he should take it from the drakeling. <Serves him right.> He said to himself thinking of the recent days.

He listened patiently while Vega spoke, smiling lightly as she patted down the opposite side of her hair. Kaz wondered if it was possible get a desk top material that would double as a pillow. Raising an eyebrow as she shrugged. "No exact reason really. Needed a break I suppose, figured I'd stop by." He sipped on his coffee before leaning forward and extending his arm a bit, "One moment," He said softly as he went to lightly brush/pat Vega's unruly bed-head hair into place.

As he settled back into his chair, he fixed Vega with a somewhat concerned face. "What did you mean by scary," He said motioning outside, "Anyone causing you problems?"

He just wanted to stop by? "Oh. Well that was nice of you. Glad to see the place hasn't gone up in flames?" She smiled tiredly at him and accepted the hair patting as if she were basking in the sun. She allowed him the moment and followed up by feeling the weird way her hair was laying now. Well, it was always sort of rumpled. It was sort of the style, but people always tried to rumple things evenly.

A soft tap at her calf let her know that Caylee, the bookstore cat wanted up. Ghost moved her hands out of her lap and a cat that looked eerily like one of Calley's forms, white fur with a black spot, hopped up and rubbed her cheek against Ghost's chin.

Ghost shook her head at the idea that people were causing her trouble and pet Caylee down into her lap rather than getting whiskers in her mouth when she was trying to drink her tea. "No one here, Kaz, and it wasn't anything that I didn't unwittingly invite upon myself." She shrugged evasively and offered her muffin to Demi as well. It was better than the little dragon being tempted to eat the bookstore cat.

"Besides, you sound like you'd run off to go bash their faces in and I wouldn't want that."

Kaz gave Vega a quizzical look for a moment while he decided if it was sarcastic or not. With a short lived 'heh', "Quite, now that you've put the thought in my head. Though with Sam helping out, I somehow doubt fires would be much of a problem. Or at least I hope not." He gave the woman a slight smile. A smile that faded a breath after a cat made it's presence known.

Without meaning to, Kaz's back straightened involuntarily as he narrowed his eyes just slightly at the cat. He didn't remember the cat from anywhere specifically but it didn't stop him from giving it a suspicious or wary look. Demi didn't miss the change in Kaz as he stopped picking at his muffin to look at the cat. Kaz glanced at Demi, a moment before his tail began to swish back and forth slowly, then back to Vega when she spoke again.

Kaz raised an eyebrow curiously. He opened his mouth, slightly, to speak but stopped suddenly when she mentioned bashing faces. His mouth hung agape for a moment then shut with an audible 'click' from his teeth. "Well, umm... Rather blunt with that, heh. While it can be one of the quickest ways to take care of things, I was actually thinking something more along the lines of body/security guards or some such."

Figuring the two mutants and cat were quite distracted, Demi raised his wings and fixed his tail as he prepared to leap apon the cat, which had taken and held his attention ever since Kaz looked at it. Just before he 'took flight', "Demi...." Kaz said softly but heavily. Heavy to Demi's mind at least, as he folded his wings against his back, tail twitched agitatedly when he looked at Kaz. *Clickclickclickclickclick, Clickclickclickclickclick* Went the claws on his 'hand'. The look Kaz gave the drakeling was one he knew quite well, he'd be receiving a flick for the head soon if he didn't stop. With a glance to the cat and back to Kaz, he grabbed the poppyseed muffin, sat upright at the edge of the table, tail swishing back and forth, held the muffin in one clawed hand and picked at it with the other.

"Sorry 'bout him. Mind if I ask what has happened?"

"Truth be told, Sam isn't around all that much. I just had him here for the opening because I'd gotten ahead of myself and uh-- hadn't hired all that many employees yet." Sam was quite busy pulling the Xmen together as a team, which was also part of the problem. Ghost was a member of the team, promoted to a team leader, as well as being full time here at the store. Add attempting school on top of that and it made for some really late nights. "I don't know if I'm gonna be able to take any classes this semester with things are busy as they are. The Xmen are pulled pretty thin. That and I think I'll be changing my major anyway." Absently, Ghost scritched the soft cat behind the ear as she spoke and he cat responded in turn by angling its head to best take advantage of her affections.

Ghost ran her free hand through her hair and laughed a short sarcastic laugh at the thought of body guards following her around. "Body guards would be in the way for living a normal life, don't you think? And so far people are playing nice about the in-store ceasefire." Ghost watched Demi curiously. Kaz's relationship with the creat-- with him was always interesting. She found herself smiling past bleary eyes despite herself and keeping a hand on the now quite alert feline in her lap.

The smile wilted around the edges when Kaz asked what happened. Was it that obvious that something had happened? Probably. If she was avoiding walking home when it was late and afraid to be alone with strangers... She shook her head. "Like I said it was my fault. I underestimated someone and overestimated my own meager ability." She watched him to make sure he really actually wanted to know before she continued. "H-- I was strangled and stabbed a little, threatened with a knife and finally eviscerated." Her jaw clenched tight and she watched Kaz with eyes of bland amber. She was almost daring him to pity her or perhaps be ashamed that she was such a naive weakling to have fallen prey to another.

Mutant to mutant basis, Kaz could deal and even (probably) like them, but the group itself, he'd been none to impressed by it, over and over again. But this was not the place or the time to say anything, so Kaz replaced his repressed sneer with a slight 'hrmm'. Kaz looked around the building looking for smoke detectors. "That's unfortunate, Sam I mean. If he has other things to do then I suppose it can't really be helped. If you need to take time from the store, I'm sure we could find someone or a couple of someones to manage the store so you can go to classes."

Kaz shrugged and scratched his head a bit helplessly. "Yeah, you're right. They'd probably be in the way, but if it helped keep away some unwanted attention and let you get some easier sleep at night, I'd have no problem paying for it. But I'm glad to hear there haven't been any more incidents like at the opening."

Vega's tone grabbed Kaz's attention completely when she started to answer his question. He picked up three things (if he heard her correctly): The person in was male, most likely a mutant, and an extremely viscous person.. The corner of his eye twitched slightly as he listened. Though Kaz did have the urge to give Vega a hug, whether it would help or not he didn't now. Demi on the other hand had no such reservations as he moved across the table and held up the poppyseed muffin for her.

She was an Xmen, if the attacker was human, maybe she didn't want to use her power on him? Maybe she hasn't learned how to use them in certain situations? "What caused it? Was he a mutant?" He didn't want to jump to conclusions. His face didn't twitch at all now, as he wore his poker face, though his gaze was steely and sharp.

"If I wanted to take time from the store," she countered his offer quite readily, "I would. But this actually feels like something worthwhile to me. I've hired a few, fired a few, but I think I've got it down. This is a place I want to be. It's just that I can't have my cake and eat it too." She offered him a watered down version of her usual smile.

"And honestly. I couldn't get into the routine of having guards and having them risk themselves for me. It's not like it was a target attack. Also, I don't think I could live with myself if I had to be protected all the time. I just have to learn from my mistakes assuming I can continue to live after them." And that was the really scary part. Had a unicorn not been in the neighborhood, she really might have bit the dust. She shoved the bubbling fear back down and packed it tight so that it wouldn't spill out today in front of Kaz. She was a big girl, all on her own. She needed to be some kind of self-reliant. "Dominic has even been working here, though I usually keep him in back." Dominic being the kid that threw the first punch. His punishment had been purposefully tedious especially since he had run away from her the first time.

Caylee lay her ears back a bit when Demi approached, but made no move other than to dig her claws into Ghost's lap. She trusted Ghost. That much was obvious. "Thank you." Ghost retrieved the muffin from Demi's claws and set it on Kaz's plate. "I don't have an appetite for muffins, but it was very kind of you." She was grateful to have a slight distraction, a reason to lower her eyes and steel herself before Kaz inevitably asked more questions.

That didn't keep her from sighing, however, when the questions did come. "I didn't file a police report because there wasn't any evidence at the end. Some of the bookstore's employees had come to help me. And Sebastian." She couldn't forget the unicorn. She'd never seen him on four legs before that day.

"What caused it was..." She actually had to think. Where had she been at the beginning of all that mess? "There was a wreck, no, an accident of some kind. A bus looked like it'd been firebombed." And maybe it had. "There was a lot of commotion and the fire fighters weren't there. Fire and I don't really get along, but from a distance I helped deplete it of fuel. People were burned and... there was a fire hydrant broken and electrical wires. I dropped my communicator. I didn't own a cell phone at that time so that is mistake one. Don't send your communicator for a swim and make sure you call backup no matter the circumstances." She was practically quoting Sam there. She'd gotten a lovely talking to when she got home and a present: a shiny new cell phone. She broke that one, but the one she had now seemed relatively indestructible. So far.

And backup was good. It was the basis for the Xmen teams and it was honestly the only reason she'd made it out. "I'm sure he was a mutant, but he was very tricky. Helped me carry a burn victim and got me to trust him first..." She paused to collect herself because her throat was getting tight just thinking about it. She wouldn't panic. She just wouldn't. "I don't know what his power was. He kept coming up with things. And when I was insubstantial, he took a swipe... and... my stomach..." She stared very hard at an knot in the wooden table and remained completely still. Sensing the awkwardness, Caylee wisely made her escape Ghost's hands dropped into her lap after the cat was gone. She was stubbornly not going to cry. She was stubbornly not going to touch the smooth stomach skin either.

Though he didn't quite understand her meaning of the cake and eating it. Maybe it was due to his situation and life, but he'd always been able to have what he wanted, even if he had to take it by force. Kaz could tell by Vega's tone and words she felt relatively strongly in what she said, countering his suggestions with finality. Even so he could tell there was a 'tightness' of sorts below the surface. With her words and body language he came to guess it had to do with her feeling unsafe outside of the store. "Heh, yeah, Dominic did seem to have a wee bit of a short fuse."

Kaz sipped his coffee as he listened to Vega's story a bit more. A new name, Sebastian, a friendly apparently. <Whoever the guy is, he's not dumb, and a decent actor it seems...> 'when I was insubstantial...' Perhaps Kaz didn't understand the full meaning of the word, but from what he did understand, he was rather surprised that someone would be able to affect her in such a state. <Energy or an element of some sort? Hidden weapons of some sort?> He had quite a few questions and speculations roll through his mind, though they all became fleeting when the cat moved from Vega.

Seeing her with her hands in her lap, obviously not doing well, he nearly moved from his seat. <Is it appropriate? She's trying not to break down...> He had no idea if he would make things worse or better for her. He felt a small spark of concern crawl up his spine, (thanks to Demi, though Kaz didn't realize it), and got up from his seat, covered the distance between Vega and himself, sat on the edge of the table. He placed his hands gently on her shoulders. Speaking softly, near whispering, "Hey....come'ere..Don't hold it in.." If she did come toward him, he would embrace her until she was done.

The knot in the wood was a safe place to look. It was neither threatening nor was it a person who would judge her for her mistakes. Kaz moved in front of that knot in the wood, slipping between what was safe and inviting her to let go of her careful restraint. Her eyes flicked to the side, not really looking at anything but it was better than seeing what might be on Kaz's face.

"I saw him again." Her voice was small and a little colder now. But Kaz would hear. If not Kaz then Demi. "And I shot him. With a gun." It was her blackest hour by her own reckoning. In that moment, she hated herself for what she had done. He hadn't been trying to hurt her that time (to her knowledge, though she was far too willing to believe that of him) but it was more than that.

She had used her mutation but for the actual harm... she'd fallen back on human methods. The thought of killing someone was somehow more palatable if she had kept her mutation out of it. But the very fact that she had determined to keep her hands clean, her mutation clean... there was something very wrong with her. She'd seen too much violence lately. She didn't like thinking this way.

Ghost swallowed and leaned forward until her head bumped against Kaz's middle, her eyes still open wide. How? How could she go back to the halcyon days? The only thing she could think of was to keep like-minded or safe people around herself. She couldn't trust herself not to get violent anymore. Not when even her ghost-form wasn't safe.

A lot of times she thought that she wasn't cut out for this business. But Neena had told her that was exactly why she was needed. She didn't have to understand it. Just believe it.

Though her voice was soft, it was as if she were speaking normally especially being so close to her. It seemed like it was eating her up inside, what she had done. Kaz had no idea what to say to her to comfort her. When she first told him what had happened, he felt anger well up inside of him, not just that she had been hurt, but by the whole thing.

As she leaned her head against his chest, he put his arms around her and held her lightly so he wouldn't make her feel confined. His anger had melted away, leaving sadness and pity. He began to rub her back gently, one of the only ways he knew how to comfort someone. He did want to help the woman, though he knew not how. Kaz had never been in her situation. The man might be dead for all he knew, though he highly doubted it. Kaz didn't see Vega as someone who would or could kill another. Unlike her, he had never felt regret for the things he'd done in his life. Except for once: Not being able to find Nicki after waking up from his short coma. His guilt, pain and anger at himself and the world had ate him up inside for months.

Time slipped by silently as he listened to Vega's breathing and heartbeat. His voice low and soft, "Vega, I can't and won't tell you what happened was right or wrong. Only you can make that decision. But, if you dwell on it, it will just eat you up inside." He wanted to help her and it was evident in his voice. He wasn't going to show her pity, as with most people he'd met throughout his life, it just made them feel worse about themselves or the situation.

Ghost nodded against the material of Kaz's shirt. It didn't have to eat her up inside, but it would if she let it. She could use it as a learning experience. Just like she'd learned things from the attack on Full Circle. She could make lemonade out of the situation somehow. She just had to figure out how.

The moment stretched longer and longer without a word. Ghost's breathing settled into something slower and calmer. She was safe here. She was among friends. There was someone ready and willing to watch her back. All those elements combined meant that she could close her eyes and let that extra moisture dribble down her cheek as she was welcomed into the loving arms of sleep.

Aurum tossed his tea towel over his shoulder and tapped on Kaz's arm. Despite the fact that he knew his boss was a pretty heavy sleeper, he used his inside voice. "She doesn't work again until almost closing time." He actually looked a bit uncomfortable asking, but since he was senior staff right now, Aurum couldn't leave without a responsible replacement. "You think you could get her home? Tuck her in until it's time to come back? Could get you a coffee to go if you wanted." Not that coffee was worth the service he'd be preforming.

A small smile crept onto his face as Vega slid into sleep-land. He didn't know if what he said had or would help her, but she had calmed down, enough to sleep, which he was glad for. For a while Kaz sat, contend with listening and letting the woman sleep, undisturbed, for as long as she could.

That time apparently hadn't been extremely long as Aurum tapped his arm and seemed a bit unsure of himself as he asked his question. Kaz looked at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow. He had no problem with taking her home and such, but where home was that could be the issue. Kaz nodded to Aurum and gave his affirmative before giving the man a number to call for Kaz.

<Of all the days to decide not to drive,> He mussed to himself. If Aurum called the number a personal limo should be pulling up to the store shortly. He'd give the driver her name, hopefully that'd let them past the gates without any unwanted and unneeded attention and trouble. From there, as long as he had directions to her room, he knew the driver would be willing to deal with the doors (it's part of the service that he paid for). Getting in the gates and getting to her room were the only obstacles. Kaz attempted to get Aurum's attention, and throw is voice as best he could, "You wouldn't happen to know which room is her's would you?"