>>"Look, I uh... I don' know 'ow to thank you... Bu' yeah. Thanks."--"Oh, and could you please come and ge' me in the morning, otherwise I'll sleep righ' through."

She nodded quickly, standing and moving back from the now shut door. She would come find him in the morning, er, well, later that day. Turning away from the cupboard, she finished cleaning up the broken glass and water, grabbed her snack and made her way out of the kitchen back up to her room.

~~

Later that day, after waking and feeling hungry yet again, Andrea figured it as good a time as any to slip back down into the kitchen and retrieve the stowaway lurking in the cupboards. First though, she got dressed and brushed her teeth and hair. No need to look scruffy twice in one day while helping someone get settled into the mansion. On went her sneakers and socks. On went her Cargo shorts and t-shirt. Last but not least, on went her customary read pea-coat. Once fully dressed, with her gloves and Glasses securely on and hr hair split into two thick braids on either side of her head, she made her way out of her shared room and back down into the kitchen, stopping only once along the way to stare out a window at the garden and sigh dreamily.

She entered the kitchen quietly, unsure what she would find waiting there for her. Would the boy be gone? Slipped back out into the night whence he came? or would she find him sleeping where she had left him, tucked uncomfortably into the tight confines of the storage space under the counter. While she figured he would have left, she convinced herself to have a little faith. He had told he wanted to stay, so she would believe him. Her sneakers shuffled across the kitchen floor none to quietly and she knelt before the door she had left him earlier that night. Her clothed knuckled rapped against the wood soundly, and she muttered a soft, "Are you there?"

At the first gentle knock on the cupboard door Tom was awake. He had been a very light sleeper for a while now, but he had to admit, that was the best he had slept since he had ditched the gang, even though it was in a cramped cupboard. Unfortunately there were disadvantages to being alert as soon as you woke up. There was a thump and a groan from inside the cupboard and then a moments silence before the door swung open, revealing Tank holding his hand tenderly over his forehead. He grunted a greeting and crawled awkwardly out of the cupboard, checking around to make sure there was no adult waiting to bash his head in. True cautiousness never really left you he supposed. He stood up and stretched, he rubbed his neck. The downside of turning his music off was having a thoroughly stiff neck in the morning.

Turning to the girl from the night before he smiled blearily. He owed a lot to her, he figured he needed to show her something equally life changing sometime. An idea popped into his head and he grinned. She said she hadn't played xbox before, when he actually got one, he decided he would teach her to play Halo. That was sure to be life changing. Tom turned again, a look of remembering something important crossing his face. He dipped into the cupboard and picked up his empty bag. With that tossed onto his shoulder he grabbed an apple from the bowl and tossed it up, catching it again and taking a solid bite.

"So you ready to go then?"
He asked and strolled off out of the kitchen. As he walked he turned and asked he a string of questions.
"I didn' really ge' the change las' night, so I'll ask now. Wha's your name? And the res' too, ya know, 'ow old, where you're from, the usual."
He added with a smile as they walked through the building. Suddenly Tom stopped.
"Why am I leading, I 'ave absolutely no idea where I'm goin'."
He said and laughed, letting the girl catch up so she could guide him to the right place.

A groan. he was till there. Triumphantly, her faith beat down her disbelief and she grinned... just a little bit. Then, a thump, and her grin turned into a wince. She had personally never crawled into such a small place, so she didn't know if the 'thump' had been from him hitting his head, or if he had thwacked and elbow or a knee. But still, Ouch. He emerged, clutching a bump on his head, and she smiled slightly, scooting out of the way as he stood. She joined him not to soon after- standing that is. "You slept alright I suppose?" A good question, in her mind. She stepped further aside as he retrieved his bag and an apple, and blinked at the tired smile he shot her.

>>"So you ready to go then?"-- "I didn' really ge' the change las' night, so I'll ask now. Wha's your name? And the res' too, ya know, 'ow old, where you're from, the usual."

Without really being able to answer his first question, she followed behind, well, more of tagged along seeing as he seemed to be walking with a purpose. His second, third and fourth question however, she had time to answer. Awkwardly of course. "I- I'm Andrea. I can't believe i forgot to mention that last night..." It had slipped her mind. Being as late as it was, she had never really expected to reach the kitchen in the dark, let alone find a boy filling his knapsack with canned goods... The memory caused her to giggle softly. What a funny way the night had ended, and what an odd way for the next day to begin. "I'm from Greece, Rhodes to be exact." She paused, wondering what the last half of his question had been. Something about... er..oh! Her age! She trotted to catch up to him, having fallen behind while she was lost in thought, and came to an abrupt stop as he, well, stopped. >>"Why am I leading, I 'ave absolutely no idea where I'm goin'."

Another good question. She shrugged, her smile returning and moved onwards- this time with him at her side. Now, what had she been about to say?.. oh yeah! "So, where are you from? How did you wind up here, of all places Tom?" Tom. The name sounded funny when it came from her... and she couldn't figure out why. Andrea wrinkled her nose at the hint of her own accent, but let it pass without comment. Sooner or later her old accent would fade away completely, hopefully sooner rather than later. She didn't need people questioning her residency. Thank god her father had been American, or she wouldn't have been as greatly prepared to tackle the English language as she had been... nor would she have known what to do one getting into the states. That reminded her, Thank god for Google as well.

As they walked they talked, Tom found out her name was Andrea, and that she was from some place in Greece. He smiled, he had always liked the thought of Greece, it was kind of like the South of France, the beaches, the sun, the water, but it was better because it didn't have so many French people. Well, admittedly that was all guessing and facts based off movies, after all he hadn't been to either place, but never the less, that was the impression he got. He never did catch her age, but it wasn't a big deal, the basics were there anyway. Once Tom knew she had taken over the navigation he felt significantly happier looking around at the mansion as they walked through.

The place was a mansion alright. The dinning room was the first room they headed through and it was massive. Tom took another bite of apple as he stared around the room. The main table was huge too, lined with seats which looked hand made from expensive wood. As for the walls, they were covered in lavish paintings and exquisite tapestries. They approached the end of the room and Tom saw a trophy cabinet, war medals, peace prizes and all sorts resided there, adorning the cabinet and showing off the achievements of the school. He couldn't believe it as he looked around. He never would have dreamed in a million years that he could live in a place like this for free. He had certainly hit the jackpot.

She asked where he was from and how he had come to be here. He sighed and looked up at the roof. Well that was a long story. But best to start from the start he supposed.
"I'm from England. To be more specific I'm from a par' of London called New 'ampshire, bu' everyone jus' calls it Wes' 'am for short. Pre'ty rubbish foo'ball, but grea' firms there. There was always someone to join up with after a match and take some twa' from the other team down a peg or two."
He said with a laugh and a smile.
"It's more or less a lower class area I spose, bu' I miss it. I miss watching old Wes' 'am loosing matches."
He smiled reminiscently.

"As for 'ow I got 'ere. Well, tha's a long story, bu' for now I guess I'll cu' it down for ya. I 'ad some problems back there... Got into some bad stuff ya know, so I 'ad to leave, and to be safe I figured I'd move over 'ere. Problem is I didn' really 'ave the funds to afford a ticke' over ya know. I 'ad add to squeeze in with the pets and wha' not on the plane."
He said in an 'on the down low' tone.
"Technically, I'm no' really supposed to be in this country..."
he added as they cleared another doorway and found themselves in a large hall.

"Wha' about you. Why did you leave Greece?"
He enquired.

Ah. He was from her side of the world, so to speak. She listened curiously, all while leading them towards the office she had seen and been in only twice so far. Once to finalize her paper work, and once to see about a second key to her room. If they were lucky, someone would be there. Instead of thinking about that though, she listened to her companions story. Having to leave your home because of trouble... she identified with that in a way. Most likely not the extent that he had, given his attitude towards it and varying lifestyle, but all in all she understood. it still stung quite a bit when she thought of home; Of Chester and her mother and father.

>>"It's more or less a lower class area I spose, bu' I miss it. I miss watching old Wes' 'am loosing matches."

She smiled back encouragingly. It was a hard choice to make, leaving everything you know and love behind. And all for a not to bright future in the states... She had thought- and still thought- about leaving. Giving up and heading home, on numerous occasions. Yet she was still here. She had her friends to blame for that... friends that bother opened her eyes to the cheerier side of the world, and her heart.

>>"... Problem is I didn' really 'ave the funds to afford a ticke' over ya know. I 'ad add to squeeze in with the pets and wha' not on the plane."--"Technically, I'm no' really supposed to be in this country..."

Ouch. Pets seemed like a way worse ride over than her's. In fact, she felt blessed that even been able to secure her own passage over from Greece. Tom had drawn a short straw it seemed, but desperate times did call for desperate measures. If she hadn't managed to snag a ride on a cruise ship, acting as potato peeler and fish gutter, she might have had to resort to more desperate measures as well. Tom seems to like cramped spaces... She thought, recalling the cupboard he had just crawled out of. She nodded to him, to show she was still listening, and eyeballed the way they were heading to make sure it was the right direction. It was. He is... Illegal, like me? the thought amused her, and frightened her. For if either of them were caught, they would be kicked out of the country. She didn't think he would like that at all, just as she wouldn't. It was about then, with all of her inner dialogue clogging up her mind, that he switched tactics on her and asked to here her story. A story she was rather reluctant to share.

"I have always been the way I am now, anything but normal if you will; but I lacked powers. No eye contact and..." She briefly recalled his immunity to her touch, and passed over her second ability, "...and such." Turning down a hall on their left, she tucked a hand away in her pockets while the other casually moved about before her, explaining in its own way her story. "I came into these power later on in life, and it cause things at home to change. I lack control over it; so I can be fairly dangerous if left without help." She motioned with her hand vaguely as she spoke, "I have only been here a few months at the most, so I am still fairly new myself." She paused again, unsure if that was a good enough explanation to state his curiosity. Surely she wasn't about to tell him everything when she hardly even told herself everything these days. The office she was looking for came into view, and after a few more strides she was at the door. It was locked however, and the lights were off inside. No one was home. Andrea scrunched her nose, thinking, before her eyes caught sight of the small stack of papers located near the door; the applications. "Here we are!" She scooped one up, filing though which papers he wold need, before holding them out to him. "These are what you will need to fill out. Though, no ones here at the moment, so i suppose you have the day to walk around and check everything out...." She glanced at him for a moment, before peeking back into the office for any sign of a clock. Surely they had only been about for what... fifteen minutes? Yeesh... more than half they day, he had a lot of time to waste. "Is there anything you need right away? Food? clothing? A bed? "

Tom listened as they walked, to her tale. He figured it would be a lot like his own, he figured the same could probably be said of most of the students here. She came to the point where she told him why she had left and he frowned. That must have been rough. When you came into a new power which knocked out all who you looked at, that would be scary. You would scare yourself, so to have your parents fear you too... He didn't blame her for leaving, they all had their reasons. He felt sorry for her, at least he had left because he hadn't liked his father, in fact he had hated him in the end. As he left, he had been mostly relieved, there was only a small part that would miss his dad. But for her, she probably still cared for her parents, and that would have made it heart-wrenchingly difficult for her.

Wanting to change the subject, the boy picked something a bit more friendly and enjoyable.
"So, do you 'ave any 'obbies Andrea? Sports, arts, wha'ever. Ya know, what do you do in your spare time?"
He inquired, sounding genuine.

A short while later they rounded a corner and a little sign hanging from the ceiling indicating that they had finally arrived at the office. The building had been far larger than Tom had expected, the kitchen to office trip would have taken near enough to ten minutes. The place was huge, but then he guessed it had to be if they were anticipating a lot of students. After all, there were a lot of displaced mutants out there. He just wished there was a better way to get the message out there. He had had to find out the hard way himself! He considered a few other ideas which could help, but he dismissed them for another day.

When they got to the office, they noticed it was all dark. Apparently they were out for coffee... All of them... at once... He guessed his formal enrollment would have to wait until another day and he wondered if they would let him stay here until he put his application through. He sure hoped so, this place was not only big, but lavish, comfortable and homely. He was excited to stay here and couldn't wait to get settled in. Suddenly Andrea seemed to discover something and held up some papers for Tom to see, saying that he needed to fill them out and drop them off some other time. He nodded and took the papers, gently filing them away in his backpack. He grabbed a pen from just beside the stack of forms and tossed that into his bag too, just in case there wasn't a pen available wherever he happened to be at the time.

She noted that he would have some time to look around, and asked if he needed anything right away. He shrugged, he had been living off of stuff all food for a while now, so he wasn't too hungry, as for clothes and a bed, he was fine until this evening. He considered going for a shower, as he hadn't had one in a few days, but he figured it would be better not to loose Andrea right now, her being his only friend here and all.
"Nah, I'll be fine for the moment. Wha' abou' a tour of the school?"
He asked enthusiastically.
"Doesn' need to be comprehensive, jus' so I know generally where I'm going mos' of the time."
He said and threw in a smile for good measure.

After he had accepted the papers, she tucked her hands back into her pockets and waited quietly for his to organize himself. One could never be too organized. When he proposed a tour, she winced inwardly, having been silently hoping that he would rather be lazy and want to sit... and read. Like she did. Sigh... But, always look for teh silver lining. She had another soul to chat with, and- he didn't seem to want, nor expect an elaborate, Shintastic tour thought the mansion. She felt oddly calm... like she could actually handle it for a change. "I'd be happy to show you around. Can't let you wander and get lost like I did." And still do... With a smile, she turned and padded over towards a window, pushing the curtains aside that were shielding the room from everything out side. Where to start the tour...? She felt inclined to avoid the library for a little while, more from embarrassment than anything else, and the kitchen has already been established- quite solidly she felt. her mind turned back to the question he had asked previously, about her interests. Hobbies, he had said. Perhaps she could show him the music room? And seeing as he had a healthy interest in Games, she could take him to the room full of X boxes and Wii's... such an odd name for a gaming platform. She shook her head and turned back, tilting her head casually.

"A tour it is, I promise nothing though. Lets start with the Music room." She turned on her heel, marching slowly towards their new destination. "I play the violin." She stated, in belated response to his question. "It's one of my hobbies, as well as play writing and reading." She glanced over her shoulder, eyeballing him from behind her glasses. What a marvelous thing, sun glasses were, giving their wearer both protection from outside elements, and privacy to send quizzical looks at whomever she pleased. When she had need of them no longer, she would really have to work on hiding her own expressions. "What about you, Tom? What do you do in your spare time?" Besides breaking into kitchens, and sleeping in cupboards... She stiffed a giggle before it even reached her lips. What interesting people she stumbled across....

Andrea agreed to give Tank a quick show around the place and the boy found himself quite relieved. He really needed it now for two reasons. Firstly, he hadn't realized the real size of the place, so some reference points and locations he knew would be a major blessing. The second reason was that on his way around he might meet some more people, not that there was anything wrong with Andrea, but in a place like this, he figured the more friends the better, everyone had their own thing going on, their own troubles so not many would judge he guessed. Plus, if he ever was lost, it would be better to know someone you could ask.

She turned and pushed aside some curtains, and with the drawing of the curtains came the drawing of Tom's eyebrows. His brow lifted in a show of surprise as he saw the garden for the first time at day. He had recalled tripping over a couple of bushes in his little adventure early that morning, but again he hadn't realized the scale of it all. The garden was a huge well-tended flourish of flowers and hedges, all neatly trimmed, while still seeming wild through just the amount of plants jammed in alone. Andrea brought him back from his wonderment, telling Tom that he wasn't getting a money back guarantee deal here. He laughed,
"It's fine, jus' the basics will do."
He added cheerily.

Starting with the music room. Tom sighed in delight. Ahhh music, where would he be without it. We actually he knew exactly where he'd be without it. He'd be buried six feet under back in New Hampshire, shot up just like his friends. That took a moment of his happiness, he had long since put it behind him, but he couldn't help but be sad for those who didn't make it. Anyway, back on topic, he smiled as they entered the music room. You guessed it, it was massive. Actually by the looks of things it was a central room with a few sound proof booths around the outside for individual practicing. There was anything you could ever hope to play here, from electric guitars to an elaborate stand all just for a triangle. He laughed upon seeing that before he continued his analysis. There was all sorts of equipment too, not just amplifiers, but recording instruments and sound desks too. Where did this place get its funding, Tom needed a slice.

The girl with the gorgeous eyes turned to him and told him that she played the violin, he nodded, that seemed about right. After all he hadn't exactly expected her to be a rock goddess too. She said her other hobbies were reading and writing and Tank smiled. How different could they be, for him, violin was fine for a girl, but he would never play it. As for reading and writing, they were school subjects not hobbies. They weren't any fun. As for him, his hobbies were far more dangerous and exciting. Which made them better of course, well in his mind anyway.

She asked him about himself and he left a moment before he responded.
"I used to play the drums, bu' I 'aven't in probably a year or two so I think I would be a li'tle rusty."
He said and laughed as he pulled up a seat.
"As for my 'obbies, well, I wouldn' say I 'ave tha' many solid 'obbies really. I kind of jus' do wha'ever I feel like at the time. I do like to draw a bit, mos'ly in class. I like football, and compu'er games... I love cars, especially drifting, tha's the bes' sport around I reckon. After tha' the lis' gets a li'tle dangerous..."
He laughed at the end of that.
"I remember one time back in the UK I used a gian' arty scupture as a slide. Now tha' may not sound very exciting, bu' it is when you jump off a four story buildin' to land on a two story 'igh sculpture and then use it like a ramp, getting a good ten feet 'igh when you fly off the end. Tha' was great, quality mate. Quality."
He retold, a bright smile adorning his face.

"So, where to nex' then aye?"

Ah... When the sight of a piano reached her eyes, she relaxed on a whole new level. All she needed was a bow in her hands, some sheet music before her, and the familiar feeling of her violin in her hands. Ah... her violin. She sighed quietly, listening as he filled her in on his drum knowledge. Andrea had never even touches a set of drums, to be honest.... nor did she really understand the method behind them. There was too much violence in the instrument, to much banging and flailing. She felt quite a pit more comfortable with the strings of a bow in her fingers.

>>"As for my 'obbies, well, I wouldn' say I 'ave tha' many solid 'obbies really. I kind of jus' do wha'ever I feel like at the time. I do like to draw a bit, mos'ly in class. I like football, and compu'er games... I love cars, especially drifting, tha's the bes' sport around I reckon. After tha' the lis' gets a li'tle dangerous..."

Ah... drawing, a talent she didn't posses. She had tried once, a long time ago, to draw a family portrait. Many things had gone wrong. First, her green marker had run out of ink, so her miniature squiggle clone was left half colored and splotchy. Then, the arms of her mother had become to long, and her father gained quite a significant amount of weight. It's safe to assume that picture never made it to the fridge door... She would have to ask him later to show her his drawings, but at the moment, she was puzzling over what exactly 'Drifting' was.

>>-"... Tha' was great, quality mate. Quality."--"So, where to nex' then aye?"

Andrea turned upraised eyebrows and surprised filled eyes his way. Ten feet?.... Up in the air?! With nothing and no one under you to muffle the fall? It sounded.... terrifying. "You.... are quite the adrenalin junkie, I'd assume?" Blinking a few times seemed to clear away her confusion over the topic. "Well... um, next i suppose we could go ..." she paused, and thought about it for a moment. "The garden perhaps? or maybe the dorm rooms... i could show you where your room would be located..." Her feet were already leading her away from the instruments ans chairs that clogged up the room, back out the door they had entered in. She had personally not been in the garden as of yet, nor had she walked the halls of the boys rooms. She wondered slightly, if it would feel like entering the wrong bathroom. awkward and tense....

"Is there anywhere you would like to go specifically?"

Andrea looked shocked by his little tale and Tom just laughed. She noted that he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie and continued to smile. That was him down to a tee. But really, it was a consequence of his power, not something that he could help or could have done differently. Once you knew that you weren't made of glass, once you knew that you could take a hit like no other person on earth, it was hard not to. Once he knew he was completely invulnerable, nothing was scary anymore, thus they didn't give him any excitement when did them. From then on, he had had to find things that were exciting by themselves, not because of the fear involved. That was why he loved skydiving without a parachute. It wasn't the fear of the dive that made him enjoy it, it was the view from up there, and the peace and the tricks you could do up there. Plus it was awesome hitting the ground at meteoric speeds. He couldn't deny that bit.

Andrea started to leave and remarked that they could go check out some other areas, she suggested the dorms, and the gardens. Tom had seen the gardens out the window and they had looked very nice, but a brief look was enough for him. The dorms sounded much more interesting, the idea of finding out about and seeing his lodgings was quite exciting. She asked him if there was anyway in particular that he wanted to go as well. He thought for a second as he followed her out of the door to the music room. Well, the problem was he didn't know what was here to be looked at, if he had known about the gaming room it would have been a definite stop, but he hardly knew any of what was in the mansion and thus he didn't know what he wanted to look at.

He spoke up as they left,
"The dorms sounds good aye."
He said positively and Tom closed the door behind them before they headed off in that direction. He took a few hurried steps and caught up to his new friend in order to chat as they walked.
"So, you said you thought I was a bi' of an adrenaline junkie aye? Well see the thing is, it's my power. I don' think I told you, bu' my power is invincibili'y. I can' get 'urt, so I do fun stuff like tha' all the time."
He said.
"So I was thinking, do you know wha' other places we should check out? Cos I don' really know wha's 'ere to look at."
He added.

>>"So, you said you thought I was a bi' of an adrenaline junkie aye? Well see the thing is, it's my power. I don' think I told you, bu' my power is invincibili'y. I can' get 'urt, so I do fun stuff like tha' all the time."

Dorms it was! She set her path for the stairs, full speed ahead. "I see... that must be why i am able to touch you..." It made some sense, she supposed. Invulnerability was a great way to explain why she hadn't stonified him the night before.... and oddly, it made her feel a bit safer in his presence. She would have to squash that feeling later. Safety led to carelessness, and carelessness led to her wandering around in her jammies in ungodly hours of the night with no shoes and no gloves on. "My second, erm, Mutation... is- well, you saw it last night. When i touched that apple." A sheepish grin curled her lips. "Sorry about that by the way... um... freezing you and all. I was under the impression that i was...well, dreaming for a few moments back then." With a soft sigh, she scratched at an itch on the bridge of her nose with her finger, shoved her glasses up a bit on her face and dropped her hand to her side again.

>>"So I was thinking, do you know wha' other places we should check out? Cos I don' really know wha's 'ere to look at."

The green 22 year old blinked, and brought a gloved finger to her lips in thought. His comment earlier about Xbox and games brought up the possibility of the gaming/entertainment room. How she dreaded that place... " Well, you would probably want to go see the entertainment room... Big tv's and gaming technology galore. We shall stop by there after the dorms, no?" Why has she not thought of that before?... Probably because before going to sleep the previous night she had been up far too late after returning to her room, because she just had to find out what happened to Edward and Bella. Would he give up his world to be with her?! would she choose to join him instead?! And what did the werewolves have to do with anything?!
The stairs unfolded before them as the emerged from the hallway, and without a pause Andrea started up them. "As I have been told, there are three sets of dorms. One for boys, one for Adults, and one for girls This one is where you will find you room, once you have one assigned to you." She pointed over the railing as she reached the top of the stairs. She stopped and turned on the landing, to let him take as much of it in as he needed.

The mention of exactly what his powers did seemed to throw Andrea into a moment of reverie, and he raised his eyebrows in a question of exactly why. Maybe she was just thinking he was crazy, it happened a lot when people found out that he did things like three hundred foot bridge jumping. She emerged from her thoughts and stammered that she had a second power, whatever it was that she had done to that apple. She seemed to think that it would have happened to him if he hadn't been way hardcore invincible. He thought back to the night before and tried to think of exactly what happened with regards to that. He had touched the apple, burned it or whatever it was she did, and then shook his hand. That was right! She had reacted oddly to his touch, she must have been wondering what had been different. Tom nodded, that was fair enough he supposed.

She went on to apologize again for knocking him out cold with her power gaze attack and he laughed. In fact he was kind of glad she did, after all if she hadn't he would have escaped with the food and never returned for fear of being recognized. Let a man steal food and you give him food for a day, KO a man and make him join your sweet school and you give him food for life... Or something like that anyway.
"Look, don' worry abou' it. It all worked out for the bes' anyway, so I think we should just be 'appy with the ou'come no ma'ter wha' way we got 'ere."
He reassured.

She did have some good ideas for where to go and what to see in this place, she said there was an entertainment room, full of gaming consoles and tv's, Tom grinned, now that was his kind of room, he was excited to see it, but he also really wanted to have a good look through his room first. But the mention of the entertainment room reminded him of his iPod, and filled with a moment's fear he whipped it out of his pocket and jammed one earbud in to be greeted by a blaring rendition of All Along the Watchtower- Jimi Hendrix. Andrea was pointing to where his dorm would be and he took the stairs two at a time to catch her, also looking down to adjust his music volume, he just wanted it running quietly in the background for now, after all there wasn't much danger here.

Looking down, and running up the stairs gave Tank no time to react when Andrea stopped dead in front of him, and began to spin around. Tank tried to dig in his heels, he tried to stop, but he just wasn't fast enough. He hit straight into Andrea's spinning arm and due to the fact the he was leaning back in an attempt to stop himself, he was sent of balance immediately. The one up side was that his hand was still on the volume adjust for his iPod, and the collision bumped it, sending the volume up well into the total invulnerability range. So Tom tumbled down the stairs, steep stairs, picking up a lot of speed as he careened down towards the bottom. To him it was all just minor bumps and inconveniences, but to the guy he saw walking up towards the stairs, for him it was probably going to be far more painful...

Mettaliar had been in the kitchen fixing up some lunch. Some hot pockets would be on the days menu as he didn't have much time or cooking abilities to prepare much else. Plus, it was the Italian meatball and mozzarella kind; his personal favorite of all the hot pockets. Using his jacket as a heat-stopping pad, he carried the recently microwaved plate of goodness to the stairs to go back up to his lair. His dorm was almost all of what he saw when he stayed at the mansion. That, the danger room and the kitchen were really the only places he went to. Being a guy who didn't socialize much led to that kind of lifestyle; you sleep and eat and play in your room, you get all your meals from the kitchen, and you went to one other room just so you don't go insane after some time. Keep that routine and you're set for life. Fun stuff. I could live like this.

While approaching the stairwell to the dorms, he had only a slight knowledge of people going up the stairs ahead of him. Trying to give them privacy, he held back his walk to a slow shuffle to allow them up the stairs first. He was usually nervous when another group was slightly ahead or behind him, for fear of giving the impression of either evesdropping or purely annoying them. Figuring they'd be up the stairs and toward their destination by the time he snuck a few bites of his lunch anyway, Mettaliar slowed down a little more and grabbed the first hot pocket and took a small chuck out of it, chewing away at the hot but well-tasting food. mmm... so good.

The thoughts of the good tasting lunch satisfying his hunger was only interrupted by a series of bumps and thuds coming directly ahead of him on the stairwell. He had unknowingly began climbing the stairs, mostly on second-nature of following that routine for so long, and realized that a young man had been bowling towards him at a great amount of speed. He paused in pure shock before realizing he would be hit if he didn't act. He tried to back pedal down the stairs in hopes of barely making it out of the line of fire. The plan would have worked if a specific bump on the stairs didn't give the man lift... straight into the chest of Mettaliar.

OHSHI-

The thudding against a wall behind him cut of his particularly exclamatory thoughts as his head bounced nicely off the wall, almost knocking him out cold as he landed on the floor in quite a bit of pain. The pain only slightly grew as the kid who bumped into him rolled and landed nicely on top of him. That specific point forced him to almost swear out of pure instinct.

"Fffffffffffffffffffffffffff...." was all he got out before simply sighing and trying to fight through the pain. He was able to shove the mysterious boy off his back and get to his knees before the pain in the back of his head shot through him and caused him to stop and grab hold. He lowered his head into the ground and let out some choice words under his breath before turning to look at who had thrown him around.

Something solid connected with her. Her arm, to be exact. She was startled at first, then horrified when what greeted her eyes was the sight of tom rolling haphazardly down the stairs. Not. Good. Then, before her eyes, Tom the rolling ball of destruction took out a man she had not noticed behind them... And both body's crashed to the floor below. Andrea simply stood, gaping, in shock. She was half torn between running to see if they were alright... and high tailing it as quickly as she could back to her room and locking the door behind her.... She could survive in her room for a few weeks, send Verdy out for food and read book to entertain herself until everyone forgot she existed... right?..... right? A stern NO. was all that came floating back to her. With a sharp, shaky intake of breath, she twitched and leaped into action.

OhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgodOhgod...

She clambered quickly down the steps, careful not to trip and add herself to the pile below, and once her feet met the floor below, she spent a good few minutes dancing back and forth on her toes while the men untangled themselves. "Oh geez! I-...I'm so So Sorry!!" Her dance continued for a moment longer, then she stilled herself and metaphorically shoved her own foot in her mouth. Her rambling wouldn't help the situation if it was indecipherable... nor would crying... which was an action that she really, really felt like lapsing into.

Ow. The pain faded quickly and Tom ran through the events of the action packed last few seconds, trying to piece it all together. It had all happened in a whirl but he could gather most of the important details. He was behind Andrea, she spun, he fell, down the stairs, a minor inconvenience in the over all scheme of things. Then... Then what? That was right, the guy at the bottom of the stairs. He bounced up and fair walloped the poor fella, they had both hit the ground hard, so that was the squishy thing he was lying on... As for this mess on Tom's jacket, he had no idea what it was. Wait, was that half of a meat ball? The boy scooped it up with his finger and satisfied that it was indeed a meat ball he flicked it away in disgust, looking angrily down at the meat ball mess all over his favorite apparel.

Tom rolled slightly and tried to put his hands down on the smooth wooden floor to push himself up. His weight lifted slightly off of the unfortunate male underneath and suddenly two hands rested against Tank's chest. Less rested, more shoved violently. The English teen tumbled sideways before rolling to his feet. He kicked out his legs lightly, as though stretching and gave his neck a click or two.
"Well tha' was a bit of a nuisance wasn' it?"
He said as he glanced around and looked down at the other boy. He seemed to be in quite some pain as he rolled around swearing, well at least he knew what to do when you got hurt. Tried and true the best way.

Tom squatted down, resting his elbows on his knees as he sat beside his fellow mutant.
"Mate, you going to be righ'? Anything we can do for you?"
He asked sincerely. Just because Tom couldn't take physical damage didn't mean he was immune to pain, he still knew what it felt like. He guessed this would be somewhere in the region of what it was like for Tom to be shot in the head. That had happened once. Not fun, not fun at all. Plus, Tank's pain was gone after a few seconds, this guy was going to have a spitting headache for hours now.
"Le' me 'elp you up aye."
The Englishman suggested and helped to prop the pained teen up.

At that point Andrea came charging down the stairs in a proper flap. She apologized loudly and Tom cringed slightly. Yeah, it was true, it was predominantly her fault, admittedly he had had a hand in this poor guy's decimation but he felt Andrea was mostly to blame. Not that he was going to say that of course.
"It's alrigh' I wasn' looking and I bumped into ya."
He added to reassure her. He was stuck with baby sitting two people, the mansion's newest paraplegic, and now Mrs Helicopter, waving around her arms like rotor blades. Great.

Tom turned back to the boy on the ground, gently lent up against the wall.
"Like I said mate, anything we can do for ya? Wan' us to take you to see the nurse or summat?"
He asked, temporarily ignoring Andrea's little mental breakdown in the background.