When she pulled away and asked him her question Gawain seemed confused. He's probably as scattered as I was. Was being the key word in that statement. The more...physical parts of the girl's mind were still totally aware of the closeness and were decidedly looking forward to more kissing like that, but these parts of her were also fighting for dominance with some concern and worry. Currently the concern was winning. Fine? I'm sure. Upon closer inspection the boy's shirt was discolored with something kind of dark. No big deal? Wait, is that--

"Blood? Is that blood?" Hesitant fingers flitted around the stains, trying to feel out the answer. "Are you bleeding?" With each question Twyla's voice got louder and filled with deeper emotion. That looked decidedly like blood. Blood was bad and did not 'fine' make. There was more hand flitting as the blond fought the urge to scrabble up Gawain's shirt sleeve and investigate more the extent of whatever damage it was. After a moment she pulled her hands together and held them against her chest so that she did cause anymore damage in her haste.

"Did you show--whatever it is to the Doc? Did he say it was fine?" That seemed off, but she was grasping for a reason as to why being hurt wasn't on top of Gawain's priorities. Thinking back on recent events she almost blushed--would she have wanted to worry about wounds when there was...other stuff on her mind? Probably not. Was it her fault? had she distracted him from his arm with her...excitement from earlier? Guilt mixed with teh worry in Twyla's stomach.

Her eyes danced between his arm and his eyes, trying to tell from his facial expression how bad his arm was.

>>"Blood? Is that blood? Are you bleeding?... Did you show--whatever it is to the Doc? Did he say it was fine?"

Gawain blinked at the growing panic in her voice. "Whoa whoa, Bubblegum, calm down." he said, holding up his hands "I'm fine. It's just some scratches."

Probably.

She didn't look convinced. Actually, she looked more like, well, freaked out.
Gawain sighed, rolled his eyes, and started to wiggle out of his shirt.

"Nah, Doc's better off takin' care of Em. Shee needs him. I'm used to stuff like this. Happens all the time when someone breaks a mirror on m... yeaow!"

Said shirt was, very unfortunately, stuck to the wounds by the blood that dried on it.
Okay, that friggin' hurt.
Gawain bit his lips in an attempt to look like he didn't had tears of pain swelling up in his eyes. Instead, he hissed (clearly a much more manly reaction), and looked at the borken-glass-shaped cuts that criss-crossed his right upper arm.

"Like I said" he muttered, breathing deeply "No big deal."

'Some scratches' turned out to be wonderfully nasty and criss-crossing cuts all up his arm that totally distracted the girl from any thoughts about his bare chest. Twyla wasn't sure Gawain's definition of scratches were, but she was pretty sure that you got scratches on your knees when you tripped on pavement and the type of wounds he was really describing had words with more intense connotations connected to them--like gash or laceration or gouge. The girl had a sharp intake of air when Gawain pulled his shirt free from the dried blood and she saw them there.

Yet he continued to remain adamant about how fine and dandy he was and how they were 'no big deal'. Riiiiiiiiight.

The lip biting was noted, as was the hiss and the deep breath. No big deal it decidedly was not and Twyla wished she was a nurse like her mother so she could be a better judge of the deal in question. All that the blond knew what that she didn't like the look of his arm. Not one bit.

"I think you need to go see Doc." There was no lip biting or hesitance in Twyla's face, her hands moved to her hips and she looked up at the boy, her eyes all business. "It's either that or you pick out any glass and douse your arm in antiseptic and the wrap it--and then you'll go see Doc tomorrow first thing. And I'm talking first as in you don't even get up to pee, you just go straight to the infirmary."

And then suddenly something that had occurred to the girl in the creeper house reoccurred with the boy's words about breaking mirrors. Her eyes became less hard and commanding and more worried. "What would have happened if you'd have been in a mirror when it broke?" The girl's arms moved from at her hips to in front of her chest in a crossed arm gesture that was half a self hug.

>>"I think you need to go see Doc."

Gawain looked at her like a little kid who just had the candy taken out of his mouth. Quite literally.

>>"It's either that or you pick out any glass and douse your arm in antiseptic and the wrap it--and then you'll go see Doc tomorrow first thing. And I'm talking first as in you don't even get up to pee, you just go straight to the infirmary."

The grin returned "Aye aye ma'am." he nodded, saluting (which hurt like hell right now). Tomorrow first thing, that was good. Can do. There was a whole (or, rather, most of a) night before that.

>>"What would have happened if you'd have been in a mirror when it broke?"

Gawain answered the half hug with a half shrug. "I don't know, an' I really hope I'll never find out."
I'd probably be dead.
He pulled her closer with his uninjured arm, and kissed her on the forehead. "Ya're cute when ya're worried." he muttered with a smile "Soo... do you have a first aid kit?"

Twyla almost laughed when she saw the look on Gawain's face. He looked just like a little kid who'd lost his toy and was ready to pout about it. Thankfully, she managed to keep her austere posturing until after she was done bossing him around about the cuts on his arm. She let herself smile when he grinned after she realized that he wasn't going to argue this issue with anymore of his 'I'm fine.' business (not that Twyla didn't totally understand the mentality of being 'fine'--she did the same thing a lot as she felt better if she could convince other people not to be worried about her). The smile faded after a moment. "And I'm totally serious." Worry was back in her eyes as they surveyed the cuts once more.

He told her he had no idea what would happen if he were in a mirror and it broke. Comforting...I could have killed him. He probably would have died if this is what he looks like after a few break while he's moving through them. I am so stupid, why do I do these things? Everything that happened tonight with Emerald and Gawain was my fault--they wouldn't have been there if not for me and-- She cut herself off in time to give him a "Me too." that was only a moment late and a few notches too quiet.

Twyla brightened a bit when he used his healthy arm to scoop her closer. "That's good because I'm worried a lot." The smile she looked up to give him was a little more faded than the ones she'd given him before but it was there. When asked about a first aide kit she twirled out of his arm and walked towards the bathroom again. "Actually, I have several." A pause and then her voice echoed from the tiny room: "That's weird, isn't it?" There were some rummaging noises and then a resounding thunk as something was plopped on the counter.

Returning to her room the girl asked: "Um, how do you want to do this?" Twyla had never removed glass from a wound before, she'd watched her mother do it and she'd helped her younger brother remove bits of gravel from a bad scratch on his knee before but that wasn't quite the same. That, and she had no idea if that was something Gawain wanted to do himself in privacy or something--she just knew that she had the tools to work with on such an endeavour.

>>"Um, how do you want to do this?"

"Quick." Gawain answered promptly as he followed her back to the bathroom. The sooner they got over the gory part the sooner they would be back to kissing. Or something along those lines.

"I don' have glass in it" he added, sitting back down onto the edge of the bathtub "I was inside the mirrors when they broke."

Or, rather, were broken. Gawain shuddered at the memory. He raised his arm, and looked up at Twyla. "I could use some help though. I'm right-handed."

And we are all in love with Florence Nightingale.

"It keeps happenin' to me." he frowned, looking at the wounds "My first mornin' in New York, a woman broke a mirror on me. I had to raid a bathroom for a first aid kit."

Grin.

"He was not nearly as hot as you are. An' made me clean up the blood in the bathroom."

The girl walked back into the bathroom and looked at the open box next to the sink.

Quick made sense. Quick would be...Oh, no glass? Decidedly doable. Cleaning a cut was no problem. No glass was doable and would end things quicker and she'd feel less guilty about letting Doc wait until the morning. Sure, the blond had never cleaned this many cuts at one time but she had the experience that came with growing up on a farm and having a mother who was a nurse. She was pretty sure that the experience was why she had no real aversion to blood, it was just too prevalent in a lifestyle that required more blood and sweat than it was worth if you were small-time.

Twyla turned around from her kit in time to see an arm raised in her direction. Se he wanted some help? Help she could do, for all the reasons stated in the above paragraph and beyond. "I used to want to be a nurse..." The girl mumbled as she walked over to the boy, antiseptic, another warm washrag, and a roll of bandages. Now Twyla didn't know what she wanted to do with her life--she knew what she wanted out of it but not how she was going to go about the day-to-day that didn't revolve around a family. The wounds were carefully washed out with the rag as Gawain continued to talk.

"Really? Did you walk in on her in the shower or something?" Not that Twyla wouldn't have freaked and broken a mirror if she'd sen someone else's reflection in it...lucky thing she hadn't--or had she? Something occurred to the girl, but she kept it on the back burner for a moment.

"Well that's comforting, at least I know I don't have any unknown competition." Twyla laughed a bit, but she was more concentrated on applying some antiseptic. "This is probably going to sting a little bit...So he caught you using his first aid in his bathroom but he didn't send you to the cops or anything?" Curious, very curious.

>>"I used to want to be a nurse..."

Gawain smiled. He could see that, Twyla as a nurse. Even though, after the events in the haunted house, nurses were not on the list of his favorite people right now.
He tried to remember what he used to want to be. He couldn't really find one thing that stood out. Most of his childhood he mainly wanted to be a boy or a girl, depending on what day it was. Maya usually wanted to be a boy. And the other way around.
Right now, he was really glad to be a guy.

>>"Really? Did you walk in on her in the shower or something? Well that's comforting, at least I know I don't have any unknown competition."

"Nah, she was a maid in some fancy hotel I crashed." Gawain smirked "And she was kinda old and fully dr... OW!"

Antiseptic. Wounds. Not good.
It stung a bit.

>>"...So he caught you using his first aid in his bathroom but he didn't send you to the cops or anything?"

The grin returned as soon as Gawain took a break from biting his lips.

"He was the cops. Kinda. He had a gun pointed to my head. And then he made me breakfast." he chuckled "He's even more messed up than I am, and he's not even a mutant. I kinda like h... ow ow ow..."

Cleaning the wounds felt like a much longer process than it actually was. Gawain finally took a deep breath when the antiseptic had been put away.

"Wha', finished torturin' me already?..."

He'd crashed in a fancy hotel? Despite the illegality of it Twyla mentally gave the boy props, she'd never thought of doing that when she'd been sleeping outside during her...travels. She's warned him and he still exclaimed an 'ow' in pain. The girl rolled her eyes and continued to dab--antiseptic was the price to pay for a delayed visit to Doc.

"Wait, wait, wait. You ended up in a cop's apartment and he held a gun to your head and made you breakfast and you think you like him!?" There was enough over emphasis in the girl's voice to make up for the fact that she wasn't looking at the boy's face as she spoke. Dab dab here and a dab dab there. "Shhhh..." She crooned to the stream of 'ow's. "You're just fine." The dabbing didn't cease, but she tried to be a bit gentler with it.

The bottle of antiseptic was put down on the floor and a jar of ointment was opened. This stuff was much milder and had some things in it that would help soothe some of the irritated parts of the cuts that were scabbing over already but had been disrupted by the ripping off of the boy's shirt. "You're welcome for trying to be gentle." Twyla muttered only half angrily as she methodically applied the ointment.

"You get into a mess of trouble, don't you?" The girl's tone had gone into a strange, far-away, comforting voice as she capped the ointment and pulled a strip of bandage from her roll. There was some blood on her hands and she didn't even flinch, just kept carefully bandaging her...boyfriend's creeper house wounds.

>>"Wait, wait, wait. You ended up in a cop's apartment and he held a gun to your head and made you breakfast and you think you like him!?"

"Now that you put it like that... yeah." Gawain grinned "I visit him once in a while. He always threatens to kill me, but he never does. And he knows 'bout Maya too."

Now that I come to think of it, more and more people know about Maya...
Gawain hissed at the antiseptic.

"... I think he's pretty lonely. I mean, the guy lives with a poodle." he shrugged with his good shoulder "I dunno, he feels like family. Y'know, in a... very weird way."

Not like I have any other kind of family right now.
The ointment felt nice. Gawain relaxed as Twyla kept working on his arm and soothed the pain.

>>"You get into a mess of trouble, don't you?"

"Yeah I do." he smiled, tilting his head to be closer to her "But so far I managed to get out of everythin' pretty well."

Minus the scars.

"He threatens to kill you?" Twyla murmured, but she wasn't really looking for an answer as she was entirely focus on his wounds. They really weren't that bad, nothing too life threatening as long as they were being treated promptly. He'd survive till the morning and going to see Doc. Twyla felt a little less guilty about letting him wait (there was a selfish tint to the second option she'd given him, she hadn't really wanted him to leave her alone to get his arm looked at).

Family, huh? There was no way the girl was going to make any more judgemental comments about the cop guy thing then, family wasn't something you could rag on when you didn't get much of it. Twyla just murmured a soft 'Oh'.

There were a lot less 'ow's and a lot more relaxing in the arm region when the antiseptic was replaced by the ointment--the girl had assumed she'd get a similar reaction. "I guess that's what matters, huh?" Twyla pressed her forehead to the back of Gawain's head as she carefully wrapped the bandage around his arm. A moment later she fastened the ends and her attempt at first aide was complete.

Standing up, the girl took her tools back to the box on the counter and she said: "There, all better...or something. I hope I didn't do anything that'll mess you up later..." For a moment worry crossed the girl's face in the mirror as she washed her hands and then she turned back to the boy with a smile on her face. With the bandages covering the cuts Twyla was suddenly very conscious of the fact that Gawain didn't have his shirt on. Now, she'd seen bare chest before--this anatomy was nothing new. However, she'd never seen Gawain's bare chest and her cheeks flushed as her eyes subconsciously traveled across him and then she quickly looked away and walked towards the bathroom door, her eyes staying in front of her the whole time. Oh my god he is so... The girl bit her lip.

"Do you think your shirt is ruined?" Twyla asked as a way to keep her mind distracted and to gauge how much longer she was going to have to avert her eyes.

>>"There, all better...or something. I hope I didn't do anything that'll mess you up later..."

Gawain chuckled "I don't think so." He moved his arm around carefully, making sure the bandage fit well. It didn't hurt that bad, now that the wounds were clean and didn't have shirt stuck in them.
"I think you'd make a good nurse."

He also noted the blush and the way Twyla looked at him, and it made the mischievous grin return to his face. Was she checking him out, or what? She must have noticed he was looking at her too, because she suddenly went all shy Twy again.

>>"Do you think your shirt is ruined?"

Standing up he walked after her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. There was no way she would get away from him that easily.

"Yeah, I think it is." he murmured, nuzzling her neck "I don't need it anyway."

"Thanks." Twyla murmured to the compliment. She could still be a nurse, right? Just because she was a mutant and she wanted to be part of the X-men didn't mean she couldn't go to college an get the proper training and get a job as a nurse, right? Blood didn't freak her out and she didn't think she'd be too bad under the kind of pressure her mother had dealt with when she worked in a hospital.

She'd made it out of the door when she heard padded footsteps and felt the warm arms around her waist. The girl shivered when she felt the breath from Gawain's words behind her ear. She shivered again when he rubbed against her neck and her blush increased. I must be red all over. She thought before she took a deep, shaky breath. "Actually you might..." Twyla lost track of her words.

It was really hard to form a coherent thought when he was so close and there was less cloth to separate their bodies and the heat there. Part of her wanted to let go of everything and give in to her instincts but there was a larger part that was suddenly nervous. As the house got farther and farther away and they got deeper and deeper into the mood in her room Twyla started to get more nervous. The desperation she'd been feeling earlier was fading and in its place was a girl who was inexperienced, shy, and blushing like crazy.

The girl put her hands on Gawain's arms and loosened them just enough so she could turn and look up at him. Her breath was slower as she tried to find the words to articulate her nervousness. All that happened was an even more intense blush (or what she thought was a blush) and a soft "Um, Gawain..." What felt like a blush was actually her powers manifesting in her cheeks. Twyla had never blushed this deeply before, so she'd never known that her powers could mask just her cheeks like they were, not that she could see them.

As Twyla turned around is his arms, Gawain leaned in by instinct, pressing his lips to her skin somewhere between her neck and jaw, breathing deeply. He was beggining to loose himself in the feeling again.

>>"Um, Gawain..."

"Yes?" he murmured, before pulling back to look at her. His eyes widened in surprise, and one hand came up to touch her cheek. "Twyla, what's happened to..."

Blush. Powers. Twyla. Kissing.
Good morning, Sir Knight.

"Oh my god, Bubblegum, ya're freakin' out, aren't you."

Gawain laughed. It was a good-natured, happy laugh, and he wrapped his arms around her again, this time in a less passionate and more gentle hug.

"Calm down, girl" he grinned, pressing a kiss on the top of her head, swaying a little with her as he kept chuckling "Listen, today has been one of the worst and one of the best in my life, so. I dunno 'bout you, but I don' really feel like bein' alone tonight." he confessed with a smile "I just wanna hold you. If you let me, that is."

Wishful thinking much?

"... or I could, y'know, sleep on the floor." now it was his turn to blush "Or, you can kick me out. That's okay too."

Please don't kick me out.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to need to choke anything else out because after a moment in which he started to ask her something he realized that she was having some issues. Twyla wondered why he'd looked so surprised a moment ago but that was put from her mind when he started to laugh. It wasn't the mean kind of laughing either, which made the blond feel a million times better about being nervous. It was just a happy, familiar, and comforting sound. "Maybe I am, just a little bit."

The girl looked up at the boy again when he hugged her and told her to calm down. He kissed her on top of her head and she let her cheek press against his (still bare) chest as he moved them side to side in a motion that made her blush recede to that of normal, human range. The comforting sounds continued between words and the beating of his heart that she could hear at such a close distance. His next words sounded like something out of a book or a movie--a variation of 'I don't want to be alone tonight.' Twyla just hoped that what he meant by that was not what the male protagonist usually meant. S-e-x was not on the girl's list of top priorities and she was worried that her night had been heading rapidly in that direction.

Not that Twyla really didn't want to be left alone after everything. That would be...brutal.

Holding? That wasn't sexual, right? Comforting, yes, physical, technically but not sexual, right? Maybe. She'd have to make her point clear as it was apparently her turn in the conversation department. When she looked back up at the boy he was blushing too, although not nearly as much as she assumed she must have been a few minutes earlier. She took a deep breath and a step back and out of his arms so she could talk without being...distracted and to make her point. Another deep breath and the blush was intensifying once again to unnatural wall colors.

"I'm sorry, I just...I've never..." She rolled her eyes at herself and sighed. "I've never done anything like this," An arm motion around her room. "before and I'm worried about going farther than we're ready for, than I'm ready for. I guess I don't want to do something stupid with you that seems totally awesome at the time and then bites us in the ass" (swear word because she was tired and on a roll) "later. I don't want to be left alone tonight either but that doesn't mean that I want to..." Cue most of Twyla's body being covered in the surrounding colors. "have sex or anything like that." Oh god, did I really just say that? I am such a spazz... "That's awkward to say but I just want to be clear on...everything. I don't want to rush anything in this, okay?" As the girl got out what she was really trying to say she began to relax into her convictions and the camouflage slowly began to fade.