Chris seemed happy about the mansion. It seemed like a genuine happiness, which made her smile spread even further. She was glad to hear that he felt safe. Henri knew that was important to the boy. She couldn’t imagine him staying anywhere long if he felt threatened or insecure. The girl couldn’t see anyone willingly staying somewhere that made them nervous, but people did. Though, Chris was the type that would just take off running.

Henrietta was thrilled to see that Chris was interested in meeting her other friends. “That’s great! I’m sure they’ll like you, though a few of them may come on a little strong.” She pictured Mirror’s bluntness and peppiness. It made her smirk slightly. “They’re all really cool and have awesome powers.” She made a pouty face. “Everyone’s powers seem more interesting than moving hair.” The brunette laughed and winked to let him know she was kind of kidding, even though she really did envy other mutants powers.

The girl grinned. “I’ll have to set up a time for you to meet them. I don’t know where they all are right now, but I can tell you a little about them. Twyla’s my best friend and she blends in to her surrounds, but has quite a few limitations. Mirror changes genders every day and is either Gawain or Maya, depending on the day of course. They can also travel through mirrors, hence the codename.” She paused when she remembered something that might be good to know. “Twyla and Mirror are going out. My friend Emerald controls water and can turn into a wolf. It’s pretty much amazing.” Another pause. This time she was thinking about Van. “And Van is…was…I don’t know, but he can stretch. You probably noticed. We went on a kind of date and he told me that he does that with all types of girls. I threw fries at him and ran home.” She didn’t mention all the crying she had done.

When Henri said that her friends were really cool and had awesome powers she almost sounded a bit jealous, as if being abe to move your hair like a Medusa and scare away muggers in the park were something to sneer upon. But she said it lightly and even ended with a wink, so Chris decided to reply with a joke.
"Well, at least you have hair."
Maybe he should have laughed or smiled or something to show that he was joking.
"...That was a joke," he added quickly. Chris was awful at jokes, but he knew enough about them to know when you had to explain that what you just had said was a joke something hadn't gone right.

Chris listened to Henri explain about her friends and their powers with increasing confusion. Wait. One of them was her best friend and could change genders...? No, the best friend could blend in to her surroundings depending on the day, and the both of them were dating. And then there was one who could turn into a wolf with contol over... water? As Henri said, that sounded pretty much amazing. But he knew that there lived some really talented mutants here.
But when she told about Van he snapped to attention. It was hard imagining someone actually say something like that, but with Van... yeah, he kind of could see that happen.
"He... he said that? Oh."
Chris opened his mouth intending to say something like That's so awful, not that it's any of my business but he seems a little douchebaggy but instead his mouth betrayed him by saying:
"But he doesn't seem like a total jerk. He helped me hail a cab and get back here... after scaring me into an alley and making me miss my bus."

Chris attempted a joke and she laughed. “Hey, that was pretty good. I figured you were kidding with me.” Henrietta wanted to tell him not to be so nervous around her, but that wouldn’t necessarily do anything. It just made her sound bossy and rude, so she kept quiet, though she really did wish he’d lighten up a little because he really was a nice guy. If he grinned, she was sure it would make it easier to smile back at him. After all, smiling makes other people smile back, at least she had found that to be true.

Henri ran her hands through her long, brown hair as she watched Chris’s reaction. She felt a bit bad for even mentioning it, because he might’ve liked Van and she could’ve affected that. The girl sighed and let her hands fall loosely to her sides. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything about him. He was pretty cool for a while and I wish..” She felt a lump in her throat as if she was going to cry, so she cleared her throat. “I wish we could be friends or something, but he just seems nervous now.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

The fish-boy explained to Henrietta how they met and she smirked. “Yeah, I could see him doing that. We met when he ran up and stuck a camera in my face to take a picture. And for some reason, though that seemed a bit creeper-ish, we went to get coffee. He ended up slipping a picture we had taken together in my pocket with his number on it.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “We then later went on a date, well I thought it was a date, to a movie and then to McDonald’s afterwards. Things went downhill at McDonald’s.” The brunette laughed at things going downhill at McDonald’s. “I bet tons of stuff goes bad at McDonald’s, including some of their food.”

Chris felt relived that his attempt at a joked had passed. The worst thing he knew was when he occasionally tried to be funny and it didn't pan out and he was met with blank, polite stares, that was why he never tried to kid around so much. Oh, wait, when he thought about it he could think about several things that were a great deal worse - like the look in Henri's eyes when she spoke about Van. She looked sad.
Even Chris, who mostly had the social awareness of your average rhino, could see that she liked Van. Like, liked Van? Chris hoped she didn't. She really deserved better than some stretchy guy who humiliated her at McDonalds and then ran away at the mere sight of her. If it had been Chris, he'd have treated her way better. He'd have...
Immediatly all the mental stop signs and red warning lights in his mind fired of at once. No, don't even go there. It wouldn't work, not in a hundred years. You're so nervous that you have trouble even being friends with her, why make it more complicated?
Chris managed to push the thoughts into the back of his mind, lock the door after them and toss away the key. This wasn't the right moment for thoughts and feelings that would just complicate and destroy everything. He smiled vaguely at Henri, hoping that his inner turmoil didn't show up on his face - and once again he was genuinely relieved at the opportunity to talk about something safe, like McDonald's horrid food.
"Yeah, no kidding. I've only been there once so I can't be completely sure, but I don't think there's any actual fish in their fish burgers."
He was impressed with himself - another joke so soon, while he was struggling with those weird feelings that threatened to break loose? He was certainly improving.

Henrietta watched Chris for a moment. He seemed to be internally struggling with something. The brunette’s eyebrow rose slightly. She wondered what he was thinking about. Maybe it was about Van or maybe he was trying to decide if he agreed with Henri or not. She wasn’t trying to make him turn on Van or anything, but he seemed to be genuinely interested in what she was upset about, so she had told him.

After he was done doing whatever he had been doing, he made a joke back at Henrietta. She laughed again, but this time a little louder and harder. The brunette knew he had a hard time joking, so she was very glad he was coming up with them so fast. It appeared that he was becoming a little more comfortable with their talking, but she couldn’t be completely sure. At least he felt like he could joke with her. That was a good thing. It would be nice if they could hang out more.

“I definitely agree about the no actual fish thing. I don’t think there’s any real meat in any of their food.” She smiled and it made her blue eyes crinkle slightly. “They even claim to make some healthy food, but I’m not sure it’s true. Their salad might actually be deep-fried as far as we know. Though, I do love their french fries and chocolate shakes. Anything chocolate is cool with me.” Henrietta chuckled and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

Chris couldn't come up with a good reply to that, since he neither ate salad nor french fries nor chocolate, so he just smiled, trying hard to keep all traces of wistfulness out.
"...Yeah."
It was extra hard to forget all about those confusing feelings when she smiled. It actually hurt. Why was this happening to him? Wasn't his life hard enough like it was? He realized that he had to get out of there. Like, now.

Chris didn't run away like Van had done, altough it suddenly didn't seem lika a bad idea.
"I should probably get going, I need to, uh, go to work..."
Chris hesitated. Should he dare to add the last part or not? In the last second he decided to do so. A leap of fate.
"...but it was nice chatting with you, we should do it again sometime?"

Chris suddenly announced that he had to go to work. The girl frowned slightly when she heard this. “Oh, um, okay. I hope work goes good. Working hard or hardly working, right?” Henrietta mentally gave herself a face-palm. What was that about? It didn’t even have to do with the situation really. Wooow, you’re a doofus, Henri. She smiled with a blush beginning to creep onto her cheeks. “Uh, I apologize. That was really awkward. I guess I’m just a little out of it right now. There’s a lot of stuff going on and-“ She stopped herself.

When he asked if they could talk again sometime, the girl beamed. “Of course we can! I would like that a lot. I’m usually in my room or doing something,” she gestured at the Mansion, “or just around here in general.” The brunette waved at him quickly and looked much happier. “Have a good day at work!”

Her comment about working hard or hardly working was a bit confusing, and Chris was uncertain what to say. He did his best to work hard, of course, he didn't want to lose this job. But business wasn't exactly blooming and there was a limit to how many times you could clean out the fish tanks a day, so he spent a lot of time just sitting behind the desk and reading magazines and stuff.
But then Henri apologized, apparently feeling a bit awkward about it and actually started to blush a bit. In a weird way, that actually cheered him up a bit - apparently, other people didn't always know exactly what to say even though it often seemed like that.
"It's okay," he said chivalrously, "I think I know what you mean."

Actually, when she said that she would like to talk more again sometime, he almost regretted his decision to go off to work earlier. But only almost. Hopefully, the walk to the fish shop and feeding cichlids would cleanse his mind from all unwelcome confusing thoughts. Even though a part of him didn't want those thoughts to disappear, he realized that he had to stay rational when it came to this. Henri was a friend and he didn't have enough of those to loose because of irrational thinking. Even though it hurt.
"Yeah," he said with a smile, struggling to keep the sadness out of his eyes and voice. "I will. See you around."
Then he turned around and started to walk away from there, his plastic bag still swinging next to him. He hadn't had the opportunity to leave it at the mansion, but it didn't matter right then.

((Wow. This took exceptionally long time for me to answer to. Just... wow. Anyway, I had really fun and I hoped I haven't scared you two from threading with me again in the future? ))

((It was very fun, we’ll have to do it again sometime, so no worries about being late. I understand how things get busy at times.))

((Ok, neat!^^ In that case, see you later!))