Henri watched as Kai closed his eyes. She assumed he was trying to concentrate and so she stayed very quiet. Now that she had the time, she wondered what plant voices sounded like. Hmm. Maybe Morgan Freeman? His voice is AMAZING. If that’s what they sound like, I’d love to talk to them and I bet they could get lots of contracts for commercials and stuff. The girl smirked at the thought of Morgan Freeman-plants and waited patiently for Kai to tell her how to get out of the maze.

His eyes were still closed, but he pointed the way towards freedom. “Awesome! Thank you Morgan-plants!” Yes, she did just say that out loud. Whoops. Too late now. She walked over to Kai and gave him a quick hug. “You did it! We can leave now! Haha! Your mutation is really helpful for hedge mazes.” She laughed and released him.

He was triumphant! His face lit up into a wide toothy grin and he opened his eyes just as Henrietta reached him. She threw her arms around him, praising his efforts, and laughing.

Kai immediately flushed a bright red and froze. She was hugging him! He held very still, almost not breathing, hoping against hope that his powers would stay under control. In his experience, this was very likely the kind of thing that could turn into a very embarrassing display of escaping powers very quickly. Which also betrayed his teenage boy thoughts.

She let go and for once, he was out of the woods. So to speak. The plants around him only rustled their normal amounts.

He also laughed, partially in relief. “Thanks to your idea. My powers weren’t helping me very much before you came along. Now what do you say we get out of here?” He offered his arm and inclined his head, ever the gentleman.

Henri backed up and noticed Kai's face had turned a bit red. She wondered if it was from the hug she had given him. The brunette smiled slightly and realized he might be a little shy or something. She felt a little bad for startling him, but thought it was odd that he was the embarrassed one. Usually, Henrietta became embarrassed around teenage boys and could barely look at them, let alone touch them in any way.

Kai said that his powers hadn't been much help before Henri had came along, but she guessed he would've figured out if given the seconds it had taken her to spout the idea. He seemed smart and he knew his power well enough. "I think you're just being modest, but thank you." She smiled again, this time bigger, and looked at his arm. He was being friendly and polite, but something in her stomach told her it was like flirting. She didn't want to lead him on but at the same time didn't want to be rude. The brunette glanced back up at his face and wrapped her arm lightly around his. She put a little bit of space between them, just so he didn't get the wrong idea.

"So, I'm ready to go inside where I can find where I'm going." She laughed. "What about you?"

Kai was extremely excited that they were free and that he got a hug out of the deal. Even though she backed away quickly, as though one of them had done something wrong. Or shocked the other one, but normally people only built up that kind of charge in the winter time. Then she took his arm, so maybe it was all in my head?

“Well, I’m not that great at finding my way around inside yet, either. I just moved in and I still get lost if I try to go some place I haven’t been before…. Did that make sense?” He chatted amicably as they navigated the last turn and spotted freedom with their own eyes for the first time since entering the cursed maze.

He let his arm fall away from Henrietta and jumped into the air, both hands raised in triumphant fists. “We’re free!”

“Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It’s hard adjusting to a new place and remembering where everything is. I just happen to know the inside of the Mansion better than the outside, garden-y part of it.” Kai dropped Henri’s arm and she smiled at him. He was a pretty nice guy and his positive attitude made her smile. Not to mention his manners were pretty good and Henrietta liked it when people were polite and made you feel welcome.

The plant-boy’s fists flew into the air. He seemed really happy and Henri giggled. She was excited to be free as well, but she wasn’t going to jump. “Well, I’m glad that you were stuck in there too. We made a pretty good team.” Henrietta tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled. “We’ll have to hang out sometimes. I love making friends around here. There are quite a few teenagers, so it’s nice. I wasn’t too social back in Springfield.”

Kai thought back to his days, weeks, and years in Illinois. “Yeah,” he smiled, suddenly remembering his quiet nature. “I can’t say that I was really all that social before I left home either.” He blushed a little bit, hoping that he hadn’t embarrassed himself too much by acting so enthusiastic.

“Anyway, if you don’t have any pressing business elsewhere, I would be honored if you would show me where the kitchen was again. That one always seems to be in a different spot every time I look for it, and…” he looked down at his stomach as it grumbled loudly in agreement with what he was about to say, “and I missed lunch being stuck in that stupid maze.”

A little late for good manners, he added, “You could join me, too, if you wanted. I can make a mean turkey sandwich.”

The young man sounded as if he wasn’t a big talked back home. It would be hard to tell if he hadn’t confessed it. Of course, it might’ve been hard to tell that Henrietta used to be shier as well. She was still someone that blushed easily, which might be a giveaway. The brunette tried not to worry about what the other kids thought of her, especially since she actually had some really good friends that liked her even when she was silly and a bit odd.

Kai’s stomach growled and Henri laughed a little. “Yeah, I can show you where the kitchen is. It’s no big problem. I’m sure you’ll remember where everything is after a few more days here.” The girl smiled and began to lead Kai to the kitchen. “And yes, I’d love a sandwich, thanks for asking. I’m kind of hungry too.”

Kai followed Henrietta to the kitchen, excited to eat and to hang out with her just a little bit longer in equal parts. When they arrived he expertly piled jars, tubs, and bags of ingredients on the counter. He clapped his hands together, a master at work.

Almost without conscious thought, he began concocting his own. Slowly, it took form. It was a conglomeration complete with ham, mustard, cheese, and spinach. He considered tossing onions in on top, but decided against it."What's your preference? Ham, Turkey, or Salami? Or are you a veggie kinda person?"

Kai stopped and asked Henrietta her preference. The girl was willing to eat whatever he made, but she appreciated the thought. “I’m pretty big into veggies, but I can eat whatever. I’m not too picky when it comes to these things.” She smiled and plopped onto one of the stools. Henri swiveled back and forth, looking around as she did so.

The brunette realized she might’ve seemed rude. She quickly turned the stool toward Kai once again. “Thank you very much for making me lunch. That’s very nice of you.”

Kai piled a few choice veggies on top two perfectly shaped pieces of bread. Then he added his super secret ingredient. A little bit of fresh ground pepper. He had to be careful, because too much would be over powering, but he found that the pepper just added life to an otherwise kind of dull sandwich. For himself, he had created a masterpiece of turkey, tomato, hummus, cucumbers and pepper.

"Here ya go! Try this." He turned his attention towards his own sandwich, gazing at it lovingly for a moment before sinking his teeth into it. It was divin e! Within a matter of seconds all he was left with was crumbs.

Kai leaned back, his appetite sated for the moment, and remembered that he wasn't alone. "So... how is your's, Henrietta? Do you like it?"

Kai assembled a sandwich and handed it over to the brunette. She smiled at him. “Thank you very much.” The girl took a bite and glanced out the window. When she looked back, Kai’s was gone. Henrietta laughed and looked at the boy. “You must’ve been hungry.”

When the young man returned his attention to the other girl, he asked how her sandwich was. She took another bite. After swallowing, she grinned. “It’s very good. Maybe you should open up a sandwich shop when you get older. I bet you’d get tons of customers.”

Kai stretched. “Not my best time polishing off a sandwich, but not bad.”

Henrietta agreed that the sandwich was good. Which was good. Because Kai liked it when his sandwich-mastery was properly appreciated. And properly enjoyed.

He gave a soft laugh when she mentioned opening his own sandwich shop. “One business is about all I can handle right now. My, uh, business partner left recently- I own a flower shop, and it gets to be a lot on its own. But I suppose if I did sandwiches, too, I'd never have to go anywhere else for food...” Food.... Kai grabbed an apple off the counter and bit directly into it.

“But I could gif you the secret ingreedient and you could open a sandvich shop.” He swallowed.

The brunette smiled slightly when he said it wasn’t his best time. She appreciated that he was himself in front of her. Some people pretended to be something they’re not, like she used to do. Fortunately, meeting the people she had, she learned that she was fine just the way she was. A little spastic and random at times, but fine. Most people found Henrietta Braun to be a kind, generous person.

Kai shared that he had a flower business. “Wow, you have your own shop?” Henri laughed. “I bet you’re excellent at it, considering your mutation. Plants do seem to like you quite a bit.” The girl tilted her head slightly when she caught the ‘uh’ in business partner. She wanted to ask, but was a tad worried that something bad had happened to that person. I’ll just go for it. “May I ask where your partner went?”

He offered his secret ingredient to her. Henrietta shook her head and smiled. “Thank you very much, but I couldn’t do that. It’s your secret. Let’s say someday you’ll decide to make sandwiches and then I open one. We’d be rivals, right? That’d be bad.” She laughed. “You keep it, Kai. Maybe you’ll decide to open a shop when you grow up. You never know.”

He raised his hands in defeat when she clung to the sandwich shop idea. “Then I guess we would have to be rivals. But!” he snapped his fingers, “Let's see you try to match my lettuce or tomatoes for freshness!”

Kai loooved talking about his business. He could go on all day about plants and trees and how to shape and grow them so they were more attractive to people who just wanted a decoration. He would tell her in detail, if she let him, how he tried to coach plants to retain water longer or not drink too much at one time in case their new owner's really didn't know how to care for them properly. He could even gush about his very own miniature tree, Sprout and how smart he was. But talking about Cam... was he ready?

He shrugged. It had been a few months already and Cam hadn't returned. Kai had gotten used to being on his own by now, so what could it hurt to tell Henrietta? He took a breath, “I have a twin brother who, well actually made me come to New York with him to start a flower shop. He's more into the frills and the delicate flowers, so I probably would have opened a nursery if it had been up to me. Anyway, a couple of months back he decided to go back home. I guess you can take the boy out of Illinois, but you can't take Illinois out of the boy. Cam- my brother, is back home now working on the family farm.” Kai's smile may have had a sad undertone, but it was a smile nonetheless. “It's good work and helps my family out a lot. Especially because of Cam's ability.”

There. He'd managed to share at least par t of his story! Maybe it was because she was also from Iowa, but Henrietta was easier to talk to than most other girls his age. Or guys for that matter. Which was how he was able to ask his next question with total sincerity. “Do you ever... miss it? Home, I mean. For some reason... I just don't. I came here kicking and screaming, but now I can't imagine leaving again. Do you think I'm totally weird?”

((You mean Illinois, right? lol ))

Kai began to tell Henrietta about his twin brother, who had left to go back home. She thought it was kind of ridiculous that Cam had practically dragged Kai here, and then decided he was the one who wanted to go back home. He forced someone to move to New York because he wanted to, but then decided to leave that person here. Henri saw the smile, though she could sense the pain in it. Henrietta always used to smile, even when she was sad. That way, none of her old ‘friends’ could make fun of her more than they did.”

“I miss parts of my home.” The brunette glanced down at her hands and picked at a cuticle around her finger nail. “I wasn’t much for making friends and my mom didn’t want me there anymore after my mutation showed up. There were some girls that used to invite me over if other people were there, but only because I never spoke up. I was just kind of there.” She looked up at the boy and gave him a faint smile. “I don’t know anything at all about my dad, so my options were a bit limited when it came to shipping me off. Mom learned about the Mansion and decided it was perfect because I needed to ‘be with my own kind’. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

Henrietta shook her head at the boy’s question. “I don’t think you’re weird at all. I kind of feel the same way. I really didn’t want to come here either, since it was just because my mom was embarrassed, but I love it here. It’s so much easier to be me and make friends. People compliment me and tell me I’m pretty and nice and that my mutation is cool.” A grin spread across her face. “I was never this happy back home.”