Noel relied a lot on her ability to observe people. Without context things would often go over her head, missed because of some absent memory. Zephyr's posture was loose and seemed to indicate that he was taking the news of his mind's censoring casually. His long pause, however, made her guess that he had to think it over carefully in order to come to his casual conclusion. Either way, she had to wait for him to choose what to do with her.

She'd been in this situation before.

That was how she had come to be the owner of a facial scar.

Her hand went up to the raised skin on her cheek.

Would he hurt her with the same amount of apathy? Her note had made it sound as if they had been friendly. He had done nothing to make her think he might even be violent beyond her getting pinned on the couch. Anger could make people do things they might not usually.

It all boiled down to the usual question: did she trust him?

Not while she was pinned.

"You'll remember anything I made you forget. It's temporary for most people. Especially the ones who realize something's missing."

As she related this information to him, their eyes met.

Forget why you're mad at me.
Forget why you came back.
Forget why you want to be here.
Forget that Noel is a mutant.
Forget anything bad you ever thought to do to me.

That last would hopefully protect her other cheek.

Releasing the bridge of his nose Zephyr lowered his hand and returned his gaze to the recalcitrant brunette before him. He was generally a rather reticent individual, yet the soubrettes words had come perilously close to breaking his composure. As it was though the elemental was able to project a calm, if somewhat icy demeanor, while the girl before him stumbled through her words, clearly uncomfortable.

The hessian cared little for the gamines unease though, he was however rather annoyed that she seemed to be deliberately avoiding his questions. Granted the ingénue likely felt that talking about the ephemeral nature of power would be more comforting but in doing so she was blatantly trying to glaze over the fact that she'd likely wiped the elementals memories without his permission.

Still, he let her talk. She wasn't going anywhere after all and though the hessian did have rough plans for the coming morning he was quite capable of changing his schedule. Sooner or later Ms. Gage would tell him what he wanted to know, she simply didn't have the patience to outlast him

The thought that she'd simply wipe him again hadn't even merited consideration in his thoughts. After all it clearly hadn't worked properly the first time and if she'd had any intention of doing it again why would she wait until now?

As it turned out, the assumption cost him.

A puzzled expression settled across Zephyr features as he blinked and then shook his head slightly at finding himself at an abrupt loss, losing his grasp on the air at the same time. What had he been doing? He raised his eyes back to Noel and found himself fighting the urge to scowl for some reason. They'd been talking about something hadn't they? He felt as though it had been important but his memory was proving utterly silent.

In the absence of actual facts then the elementals mind rapidly attempted to construct something which made sense. He was sitting across from Noel in her rather cluttered apartment. The brunette herself was lying on the couch dressed in somewhat unflattering sleeping clothes while he was still dressed in his usual attire. His wristwatch indicated that it was sometime past midnight.


Had they?- No. Although he wasn't certain of much at the moment the elemental was confident he'd recall any amorous activities. If for no other reason than the still unexplained animosity he felt towards the soubrette, strangely though the more he tried to focus on the emotion the quicker it seemed to fade.

With nothing else apparently forthcoming Zephyr forced himself adopt a neutral tone as he sought answers from the only other person in the room.

"...what were we doing?"

She noticed his blue eyes first. And the scar under her fingers next. This man was not the man that hurt her. Noel felt very comfortable around him, like he wouldn't hurt her. In fact, she couldn't think of a single reason to be mad at him.

But she had just come back from... something... whatever she had been trying to think of slipped away.

>"...what were we doing?"

Well, Noel was sort of pointed at the TV. She sat herself up on the heap of clothes (Didn't she prefer to not allow strangers to see this sort of thing?) and looked for the most obvious thing... which wasn't forthcoming.

"Did you find the remote?" Noel flopped back onto the pile of clothes and used her different vantage point to check under the crap on the coffee table and under the coffee table itself. She yawned into her hand and moved some papers and a note pad around. No remote under there. She nudged an unclean plate aside and something scampered away causing her to drop the plate and loose interest in mining the depths of the under table.

Maybe she should clean some of this up?

She sat up and shrugged before taking the few steps to turn the television on manually. It looked like some kind of sci-fi show.

Remote? They'd actually been intending to watch tv? That couldn't be right, he couldn't stand America television; far too many commercials and far too little worth watching, especially at this hour. And, not to put too fine a point on it, the living room resembled a tip more than it did its namesake. A cursory exploration down the side of his seat revealed a handful of leaflets and a wadded ball of coupons.

In short the room did not lend itself to guests.

This apparently meant little to Ms. Gage however; the brunette quickly seemed to realize the futility of searching for one item amongst the clutter and had gone where few Americans had dared to tread by going to operate the television directly. Static burst across the screen for a moment before footage from some poor and clearly B rated movie burst into life. Were they actually going to watch this garbage?

Come to that what time was it? Indulging a pretty woman was all well and good but he had a deadline to meet tomorrow. A swift glance at his watch caused him blink before double checking, and then triple checking by verifying the time on his phone. That couldn't be right.

How the hell had it got to 2:34am?

Rising from his seat on one fluid motion the hessian made a brief show of checking his watch again as he tried to subtly clear a path in the litter for his feet. Despite his brief misgivings a moment ago he didn't want to offend the gamine with his exit, she was harmless really, clueless too, but mostly harmless.

"I'm sorry I'm afraid I have to go; it's later than I thought it was. Thank you for having me."

Without another word the elemental picked his way across the living room and then out the apartment door. The cool night air caused him to pause briefly as he stepped outside, a whisper of deja vu dancing at the edge of his recollection before it faded away and he shook his before making his way down the street with one question on his mind.

What the hell had he been doing?