The weather was finally nice enough to sit outside. The only downfall? Everyone else wanted to do it to. When a girl wanted to sit and think somewhere quiet, she didn't want to be sharing her sunny spot with a gaggle of gossiping girls or a bunch of boasting boys. She just wanted a space all her own where no one would bother her.

She looked around, but there wasn't enough room to swing a Calley-cat without hitting someone. She threw her head back and sighed up at the sunshine. Then, she saw it. The perfect spot. Now she just had to get to it.

Inside, she found a chair. She used the chair to reach the cord that pulled down the staircase to the attic. In the attic, she scaled a small mountain of boxes to reach the dormer window. A little elbow grease later, and the window was open. Here, the window opened up onto part of the roof gently sloped. The little illusionist wriggled out and carefully climbed out, and then up around the dormer. There was a flat part of the roof up there, and best of all, no one would be up there. It was perfect.

It. Was. Occupied.

Katrina blinked, unbelievingly at the dozing pile of golden brown feathers. Carrick. He had not been there before, had he? She could have sworn the spot was empty when she first saw it. Katrina sat on the edge of the flat section, crossed her arms, and pouted. It just wasn't fair.

He was flying like most of his dreams, he was unmatched, and lord of the skies, golden eagles moved out of the way for their king, as he led an onslaught against a small army of pigeons the lord of the skies hungered as he opened his mouth and started swallowing flying rodent after flying rodent who dared to challenge him. Once he had his fill he turned to his subjects of the sky and let out a fierce cry. One by one they all echoed in turn.

A busy tail twitched happily as Carrick rolled slightly his hand reaching his stomach, which was no growling no doubt from his dream where his other from ate it’s fill. When he rotated his wings no longer blocked out the sun, which was a problem for Carrick’s sleep.

Turning over again he opened up one eye lazily and eyed the clear sky, what was today? Saturday? Monday? Either way it was a weekend for him, he hadn’t been to school in a few days and didn’t plan on going any time soon, he only went enough to pass nothing more nothing less. His angelic wings opened and craned back behind his back slowly as he sat upright, letting out a loud yawn and a head shift around Carrick realized where he was, ”Oh yeah the roof!”

Carrick’s eyes trailed over towards the exit from the roof that lead into the exit a way he wouldn’t take, mainly because it required him to go into an enclosed space. His multi colored eyes spotted Kat sitting on the roof not to far from him. He fell backward, ”What are you doing up here!?!” he said completely surprised someone other than himself was on the roof no less the Damsel Katrina, who always seemed to have some form or trouble about her.

Her blonde hair lit up under the sunlight giving her the look of an angel with a halo, he was however wiser to the girl, she was from what he could tell anything but an angel, a true friend maybe but defiantly not a angel, not hat she gave him a ton or reasons to think like this something didn’t feel right when Katrina was around, it was most likely because of the first time they had met, not the best way to make friends.

For someone sleeping on a roof, Carrick wasn't being very careful. Then again, he had no reason to worry about falling; those wings certainly looked functional enough, and considering he hadn't come in through the window, she had to assume he could fly every bit as well in his human form as he could in his griffin one.

It was always interesting to watch someone wake up. The eyes woke up first, shifting behind the eyelids. Then came the lungs, a big breath to bring oxygen to get all the other body parts flowing. Next, the back, arching into a stretch that awoke the arms, legs, and in this case wings. The brain was one of the last things to wake up.

>>>”Oh yeah the roof!”

Katrina couldn't help but smirk at that. It took another few seconds of the bird boy blinking sleepy eyes at her for him to notice that she was sitting there.

“I'm sitting and admiring the view,” Katrina answered his question simply. Then afterwards realized that when she'd said 'view' she hadn't actually been looking at the view of the grounds. She corrected this by turning her gaze immediately downwards, toward the swimming pool where someone was daring to test the waters in these early spring temperatures.

She would have asked him what he was doing up here in return, but it had been rather obvious.

“So, I haven't seen much of you lately,” Katrina noted. This may have been due to the fact that he had been skipping classes, or that after classes were out she had been doing a lot of preparatory work for a certain tournament that was coming up. Life never really quieted down. Not even for a few minutes on a roof.

Katrina swung her feet up and pointed her toes away and then towards each other. Maybe it still was peaceful, even though Carrick was here. Maybe he wouldn't even mind if she did some of her thinking out loud.

“You're a boy.” Katrina pointed out the obvious. “Could you enlighten me on how boys work? I can't figure them out.” She turned back and put her elbows on the flat part of the roof, turning to her face to look Carrick sideways in the eyes. Her eyebrows formed cute question marks above her own cloudy eyes.

His eyelids covered the multi colored eyes for a moment as he blinked slightly surprised at the comment that she was enjoying the view, but she was looking at him… he blinked again before tilting his head, ”How is the view?” he asked looking away from Katrina hoping she would make it clear that she wasn’t watching him sleep, something he found a little odd, but would have believed it if it was an American tradition. She turned her head and looked to the pool, which cemented his thoughts that she wasn’t talking about him.

Placing his hands behind his head and leaning forward on his but he opened his wings and stretched them along with his arms letting out another loud yawn. Then resting his hands on his head and falling back onto his back his eyes closed as he soaked in the warmth of the sun. He would have enjoyed the silence but Kat wasn’t always bad company even on occasion Carrick would admit she was fun to be around.

”Been a little busy lately,” Carrick lied as he scratched his nose enjoying the warmth of the sunlight. His wings felt warmer and his tail flicked by his legs to and fro in utter contentment. His definition of busy was sleeping or flying, not much else kept him busy long enough to keep him out of school, though that didn’t stop him from not showing up at all.

Her question confused him slightly wondering if she was indeed asking him if he was a boy, she has seen him naked before so she would already know right? Maybe not he never did show her the fro… he turned over on his side away from Katrina his face slightly red from the thought, ”Last I checked…” he said his eyes still closed and his face no longer red from blood rushing to his face.

She was confusing, plain and simple he didn’t really know how to respond to her… there was a moment of silence till Carrick rolled back over to eye the curious little Kat, ”Do you have a screw loose somewhere?” he smirked slightly then looked up at the sky, ”Think you might need to be a little descriptive… your confusing the hell out of me.”

“The view is nice,” the little illusionist answered, eyes firmly trained on the swimming pool. Then, in case he hadn't firmly gotten the idea that she meant the other view, she added. “It's cool to be this high up, to be able to see everything. Though, I suppose you get this kind of view all the time without having to climb out windows and scramble up shingles.”

Katrina sighed, “It must be nice.” She wouldn't want to trade her mutation, but if she had to give a second choice about what power she'd want, she would have picked something that let her fly.

He rolled over to avoid her gaze, either that, or was still sleepy. After a moment he rolled back again. Maybe it was just uncomfortable to lay on the roof. Finally he settled on staring at the sky. Katrina laid back to see what he was seeing. It was a nice sky today. The clouds were so picture perfect, it was almost as though someone had cut them each out with a cookie cutter.

He was confused, which meant she had to give more information, even if it was kind of private. Oh well, that's what she got for starting with really vague questions. “Sorry, I don't mean to be confusing. I just am a bit confused myself, I guess. I don't know why boys do what they do sometimes. Like, one day a boy says he likes you, and the next he's either ignoring you like you're just friends... or getting married to some other girl or something. Why do they do things like that?” Were boys really that fickle, that they could change their minds that quickly?

Katrina waited a moment then added, “Sorry, that's not even a very good description either.” She just wasn't sure how much more detail she should add. “Okay, how about this: if you like someone, how do you know? And how do you know when to tell them? And how do you know, if someone tells you that they like you, that they really mean it?”

”It is nice, I’m free up here, no one can tell me what to do…” Carrick said agreeing with Kat’s sentiment about the greatness of flying. He knew she had tasted the thrill of the sky before he after all took her up there, different time and different place though so he couldn’t blame her if she didn’t have a fantastic time, though he was sure she loved it compared to the alternative.

The clouds were taunting him, as he saw a cloud that looked like a rabbit fly across the sky his stomach rumbled. He placed his hand on it and then yawned, his better half’s taste was a little different than his own but for some reason they still had the same temptations.

His attention was brought back to her when she was talking about boy issues, ”Koga’s getting married?” Carrick asked his head turning towards Kat for conformation, ”Well he’s a bit young but if he found someone, good for him…” Carrick said as a smile stretched out across his face, it was after all the only boy he knew about that had the hots for and her he. ”You Jealous?” Carrick asked curiously feeling interested and not interested at the same time.

It wasn’t a good enough description? He shrugged mentally and let her continue, ”If I know I like someone?” he asked his eyes closed wondering how in fact you figured that out. He thought for a moment his tail flicking below his legs as his golden wings continued to absorb the sunlight. Her questions continued which in turn made him think more,

”Your just ripe full of questions aren’t you?” Carrick asked as he put his hands behind his head, ”I am assuming you mean more than a friend like right?” Carrick asked as he continued, ”Not exactly sure, people and mutants are too hard to read, but have you ever watched a pair of birds?” it was a simple question but when he opened his eyes he sat up looking out across the sky to see if he could find a pair of birds flying, finding none he continued to look out as he continued, ”When birds find someone they just know, and they spend the rest of their short lives together…”

Realizing how bad that sounded and he changed up his thoughts a bit, ”I think you know when you like someone you can just be with them and not need to do anything, you could do anything but you’d be content with just having them in your company…” the more he thought about it the more he realized he hadn’t had anyone he liked like that, he had friends that were girls but none as of now where he could honestly say he would be content with.

Carrick’s hand reached up to his nose and scratched it for a moment in an attempt to distract him self, ”Telling them is the easy part goes something like this,” leaning up and letting out a small grunt as he pushed himself up he walked over to Kat and reached out to her hand, ”Katrina…” Carrick said as he tried held back and endless stream of laughter, ”I… I like you…” letting go of her hand and taking a few steps away from Katrina and falling backward onto the roof Carrick said, ”Something like that, and as far as knowing if someone really likes you… well unless you can read minds there is no way of knowing, I guess acts of affection could be used but, I tend not to read into them much anymore anyways.” Carrick said as he let out another yawn.

”Trouble in paradise?” Carrick asked as his a smile returning to his face as he started to laugh about his confession to Katrina, ”It’s easy to tell people how you feel, the question is do you want to tell them.”

(OOC: Hope it’s alright I grabbed you hand, if not I can edit it)

Katrina watched the rabbit cloud float across the sky, except to her, it looked more like a duck. It was funny how someone could see the exact same thing and get a completely different interpretation of it.

Katrina had to blink twice or thrice to figure out how Carrick had interpreted her comments to get Koga as the one getting married. “Oh, no. It's Fausto that was getting married, not Koga. He's still really young, though.”

The question about jealousy caught her off guard, but she was still able to answer truthfully, and when she said it out loud it was really the first time she had admitted it to anyone, even herself. Yet, somehow, she had no trouble telling Carrick. The longer they talked, the more at ease she felt about it, “I always thought of Fausto like a brother, and then a year ago or so he said that he loved me. Then everything got really confusing, because he was like a brother and I had never thought about that kind of thing before. I wasn't ready for anyone to love me yet.”

Once the story started rolling, it just all wanted to come out all at once. “And then things got even more confusing, because of Koga. That's when Fausto decided to get married. I was really jealous at first, but now I think that it was because of the brotherly thing. I didn't want him to get married, because she seemed like the wrong girl for him, and I didn't want her to take away my kind-of brother. Not because I wanted to marry him instead of her.” Katrina turned her head towards Carrick to make sure she hadn't lost him in that big long explanation.

A pair of chickadees fluttered by, as if to illustrate Carrick's point. “It would be nice to just know, like that,” she admitted. It would take out all the guessing games. The winged boy's definition of 'like' didn't help to eliminate the guessing, though. According to him, if she could be content just being with the person, she liked both Fausto and Koga... and possibly even Carrick, for that matter. She was content in his company right now, and they weren't doing anything in particular. She mulled it over for a long moment, but it didn't get any clearer.

As if that wasn't confusing enough, he came over to her side for a demonstration. She propped herself up on an elbow, confused about what he was doing at first. He took her hand, looked her right in the eyes, and with the world's biggest smile on his face, said he liked her. Katrina's heart fluttered for the briefest of moments, but the rest of her froze completely still. Not a third one. Then, with the ease of an actor, the Irish boy collapsed back into his relaxed position. Katrina's heartbeat went back to normal once again. Almost.

>>>”Something like that, and as far as knowing if someone really likes you… well unless you can read minds there is no way of knowing.”

So, he hadn't meant it. Right? As he had said, it was impossible to know without reading minds. Katrina hadn't had a third choice on the list of mutations she wished she had until just then. Trouble in paradise, indeed.

“It's not so much the telling how I feel that's the hard part. I have to figure out how I feel for myself before I can tell anybody. I just want to be sure.” Katrina held her finger up in the air above her face and traced the outline of another cloud that was floating overhead. It was shaped like a heart, but she was trying really hard to see something else in it.

Carrick smirked slightly as he looked at the cloud over head seeing her hand poke out from the corner of his eye, thoughts and memories fluttered back into his vision momentarily as he remembered asking his parents about love and marriage both had completely different views on it and while his father simply said, ‘Don’t’ until his mother gave his father a good whack with a rolling pin. Eventually they both ended up saying, ”You need to be able to live with yourself before you can live with anyone else.” Carrick said before he realized he said it out loud.

The sudden recollection of his parents made him homesick, his eyes welled up for a second till he rubbed them shut, ”What me Ma used to say,” Carrick looked away from the heart shaped cloud and to the two birds that flew over head intertwined with each other. His tail twitched under him and he felt like he needed to go back to his place in the sky. His own quite paradise was being interrupted by Kat and her girl problems and he doubted they would go away soon.

Even though he felt like leaving his body wouldn’t move as if a force was telling him to stay, he listened and thought about Kat’s dilemma, ”So you have two guys you like that were chasing after you? Those the only two or you have more?” Carrick asked curiously as he knew he would regret continuing on the conversation, ”It’s obvious your jealous but you should think about how Koga and this Fausto kid feel. I know why the caged bird sings…” Carrick said remembering another saying his mother used to say.

”Sounds like you have an idea what you need to do but just think of it this way, would you rather have them in your lives as more than friends or not at all?” he yawned and started to hum the lyrics to Break you Heart. It wasn’t the best song in the world but he had it stuck in his head for a bit and this situation reminded him of the song.

>>>”You need to be able to live with yourself before you can live with anyone else.”

Good. Advice.

Katrina was doing much better at living with herself these days. Mentally, she was healing from her run-in with the green eyed man a year ago. She felt much more at home with herself when she had goals to work towards, hopes for the future, and an adventurous spirit that got her into minor scrapes every once in awhile, minor, being the key word there.

Maybe that meant she was ready to be more-than-friends. With someone.

She chuckled at Carrick's question about whether she had more than two chasing after her, “I certainly hope not. It sorta seems like two is two too many.” And the winged boy definitely had a point about considering how Koga and Fausto felt. They were probably both jealous of each other, even though there was nothing to be jealous of yet or possibly ever.

“Do I have to choose between more than friends and not at all? Isn't regular being friends an option?” She hoped so, because she didn't want to lose either Koga or Fausto. If she picked one of them, hypothetically, she didn't want to drive the other one away. Though it seemed that by not picking either, she had kind of driven both of them a little further away as it was. The uncertainty wasn't helping anyone.

At least with Carrick, she didn't have to worry about all the uncertainty. They could be just friends and that would be just fine with her. Though, maybe it would be better for their friendship if she stopped talking about her relationship, or lack thereof, problems and they could just hang out.

“Anyway...” Katrina let the silence finish her statement for her and listened as Carrick hummed his song. She didn't recognize it, but conducted along, since her finger was already tracing patterns in the air.

“Carrick? Where did you live before you came to the mansion? Also, if you could fly anywhere in the world for a day, where would you go?”

Carrick laughed briefly realizing he misquoted what he once heard to Katrina, ”It’s actually supposed to be would you rather have them in your lives as friends or not at all, why pick either?” Carrick asked as his humming continued only in his head. ”Doubt they’d vanish from your life altogether and if they did they aren’t the type of friends you want around anyways.” it was harsh to say but it was true. Carrick doubted though that Koga would walk out on Kat, he was the knight in shining armor after all and no Damsel was complete without her knight.

The thief’s eyes shifted to Katrina then back to the sky surprised she changed the subject so quickly. He blinked once and thought little on the change of subject if she was done talking about her problems he would be happy to change the subject. ”All over I stayed with a circus for a year or so, best year of my life hands down!” Carrick closed his eyes as he felt the spotlight of the sun on him.

In a mock tone of the ringmaster he cleared his throat, ”Ladies and gentlemen…. I am proud to announce the fact that we have caught the last one of it’s kind, myths are real my friends and let me tell you that this is no hoax, which is why I have to ask those with weak constitutions to leave for the beast can smell fear… I am proud to present the lord of the skies and king of the beasts, the GRYPHON!” he smirked as he felt the cheers upon him and his heart rate took off again just like it used to when ever he would go on stage.

Everything else paled in comparison, to his time performing, he could be a terrifying beast or a noble king the mood was whatever he felt like at the time, all he had to do was give Edgar the strong man a heads up. He sighed feeling homesick for them, glad he could with time go to visit them when he wanted to he did have some frequent flier miles after all. It was also a good thing he memorized the schedule to bad they would be just out of flying distance this time of year, right now they were in Ohio readying to make their way back to New York in a few months. He knew if he went back it would be hard to get him to come back here and even if he didn’t go to school it was what his parents wanted him to do.

”Before the Circus I was back home getting jumping from school to school.” that was something about him he didn’t care to remember kids his age were cruel they picked on him almost all the time and even went as to far as shoving him in a locker breaking one of his wings in the process, it wasn’t a place to be in especially when he was claustrophobic, needless to say his Da set those kids straight but the damage was done he already lost interest in school.

He frowned slightly having a bad taste in his mouth from the locker incident, ”Don’t know never really thought of it, usually if I want to go somewhere I just go, no sense of spending only a day there right?” Carrick asked as he decided to turn the question back on her, ”What about you? What did the Damsel do before getting rescued here? And where would you go?”

Carrick followed along with her change of subject quite well. It had been enough on that particular subject for Katrina and probably more than enough for Carrick. At least she had some things to think about later. For now, she was just going to enjoy the rest of the afternoon without worrying about it any more.

Katrina grinned at Carrick's ring master interpretation. The winged boy had it down perfectly, all he needed now was a cheesy mustache and a top hat to make it complete.

“Your life before the mansion was much more exciting than mine. Actually, it only really got exciting once I got here. Before I found out I was a mutant, I was pretty normal. I lived with my parents; my dad was a senator, my mom works here now, in the kitchen. She's a mutant, too. We had a butler and a horse, too, that part was kind of exciting, I guess. I used to ride all the time.” Katrina turned away from the clouds towards the winged boy to check that her story wasn't putting him to sleep. She smiled to see that she wasn't, at least not yet.

“My mom signed me up for the mansion, but when I got here the place got attacked. It was right during Registration. I ended up sheltering with the Resistance that helped break out the New York camp inmates. And ever since then, it's been school work, fighting elder gods, twitter revolutions, and more school work. You know, the usual routine.” Katrina shifted positions where the rough texture of the roof was digging into her shoulder blades. It brought her just a hair closer to Carrick's side, but she didn't really notice the proximity.

“If I was going to go somewhere for a day...” That was a tough question. She could go someplace where she could help someone, or possibly to a location that she was imply curious to see, or perhaps to a nostalgic location special only to her. She wouldn't want to be gone too long, because she would miss all the people back home.

Back home. She'd originally been mentally referring to the mansion as 'back home', but she realized that there was another 'back home' and more people there that she hadn't seen in two and a half years. Her father was there. He hadn't exactly been happy to find out she was a mutant over the phone, but he'd had a lot of time to get used to the idea now...

“...I'd go back home to Virginia for a day,” she finally finished her thought. “Or if I couldn't do that, to Niagara Falls. I've never seen it.” The latter she added because the first one had sounded awfully boring for a hypothetical situation type of answer once she'd said it out loud. Also, it was more likely to be a pleasant trip. One never could tell with Virginia what might transpire.

When she recounted the time before the mansion he listened as she described her old house and her horse and her butler. Both of which Carrick was curious about, the horse more than the butler, he had been around horse but never really had ridden one. He wondered for a moment what it would be like to have a saddle on his back when he was in his shifted form. That was the reason he hadn’t ever ridden a horse before. He knew that the saddle would have been uncomfortable and it was the reason why he had never ridden one, he didn’t want to be associated with that discomfort.

The distance between them closed when she moved, even if he wasn’t focusing on his surroundings too well he saw the movement enough to know the gap between them became smaller. ”Back home?” Carrick asked when she mentioned Virginia she never said it was where her home was but the way she said made him think that was the situation. He knew the full affects of homesickness, and there was a time when he would have given almost anything to go back home, but his parents said sticking around stateside was the best thing for him. In time he knew they were right.

He smirked next when she mentioned Niagara Falls, had she actually never been there? It wasn’t anything to impressive just a large waterfall, and the boat ride didn’t even go that close to see anything up close. She wanted to see it though, which meant that stuff like that interested her.

He thought for a moment about how far Niagara Falls was from the mansion, to far for now at lest even in his shifted form he couldn’t fly there in a half hour even if he went high altitude. He blinked once surprised he was even contemplating this gesture for Katrina. He smirked slightly at the idea of even offering her the chance to ride his shifted self all the way there. It was way to out of character for him to give much thought about.

Deciding to get back in his normal state of mind he closed his eyes and let the sun heat his body, ”And my life before the mansion is exciting only because I wanted it to be that way, like right now for example, I could leave this place go anywhere I wanted, granted it take me a while to get there but when I did, I’d be hell a sure I’d have a blast when I got there.”

He sighed and continued, ”But this is a nice change of pace, yeah it’s a bit slower but I’ve met a few people around here to keep me entertained till I feel like taking off again.” to be honest he was a little surprised he hadn’t had real thoughts of taking off yet. He thought of reasons but couldn’t find any real reason for him to stay, it cold have been the city that housed so many interesting people in it, it could have been the air space, the scenery or maybe even the mansion that had some friends his age.

Katrina nodded to affirm her 'back home', but didn't elaborate any further on the details. Carrick didn't seem to be as sentimental about his home, or any place really. From the sound of it, he simply went wherever the wind might blow him.

“Are you already planning to leave?” Katrina's voice betrayed her surprise. Sure, mutants were wanderers, but he'd just moved in here, not too long ago. She found herself hoping that he answered that question in the negative. She had rather been hoping to get to know him better. Maybe she just had to get used to the fact that mutant friends disappeared from time to time and then came back again. It was a hard thing to get used to.

She sounded surprised to say the least, he shrugged and nodded his head, ”Birds don’t like to be caged,” he said simply and placed his hands behind his head, ”Sides I’m not one to stick around one place for two long, I start to get into more trouble than usual, skipping classes is usually the start and as to where it ends….” he shrugged slightly.

”I never have plans to leave anywhere, I just go…” Carrick said as he sat up and stretched his arms. ”You gonna miss me or something?” his eyes turning towards the horizon with a toothy grin, his voice was a mocking tone one that he had used several times before around Kat one that he often used when he was making a joke or a sarcastic comment.

”It seems you have enough guys to worry about anyways, doubt one leaving would be that noticeable.” continued Carrick his tail still flicking off to the side and by his legs the bushy bristles swishing up and down the warm roofing shingles. Leaning forward and raising his arms to rest on his knees he closed his eyes again still feeling a bit tired from his nap from before.

Hey there, that last comment was a bit below the belt. Her own response bristled with sarcasm. For some reason, Carrick seemed to bring out that side of her. “Miss you, nah. I know you'll come right back because you can't stand being away from me for too long.” Take that sarcasmmancer.

She watched him flick his tail back and forth for a moment, then added in a more sincere tone, “just make sure you leave me a note or something if you're going to be gone longer than a week. I have a responsibility to make sure my harem boys don't get into too much trouble, you know?” She hoped he got it, that she really meant it about the note. She hated when people disappeared on her and she had no idea if they were off catting or birding around... or buried in the graveyard of a prison camp in some far flung country.

Anyway... “You know, before you up and leave, there's a couple of New-Yorky things you have to do first. Have to. It's required,” Katrina nodded. She was using the most sincere voice of all now. “For example, you have to see the Statue of Liberty. Up close.” The little blonde held up her fingers a mere inch apart to demonstrate exactly how close she meant.

“First time I went to see her... she flew.” It would certainly be fitting if it was the other way around the second time, though hopefully it wouldn't be Katrina's turn to be thrown into the ocean. She lightly rapped her knuckles against the roof, just in case, to banish the thought.

“You wanna go? If you can get us there, I can make us invisible so we don't set off any mutant terrorist alarms or anything.” They had probably installed some by now, after what had happened last time.