Maya said she’d spare her girlfriend the torture of retelling her some of the gooey romantic stories about the stars. She also agreed that time was too fast. It was weird to think about--Twyla was almost done with all of her high school requirements and then it’d be off to her first semester of college somewhere and Life After. In fact, it was so weird it was almost scary how fast lives changed, how much older you got in a short span--stop thinking about it. She commanded herself. It was surprisingly easy to do, once she focused on other things, like the stars or the nice companionable silence that she and the girl next to her were sharing. This was a time for peace and enjoying the moment, not worrying about the future.

After a long while Maya spoke again and just as Twyla was going to make a remark about the state of the boards the brunette swore and seemed to tense up. “What is it?” As soon as her girlfriend sat up the blond bit her lip in confusion. Um...see her shift? Um...what? After the question was asked Twyla instantly blushed and sat up quickly. There was nothing in any guidebook, rule book, or good book that had anything to do with what the decent thing was in this sort of situation and Twyla wished for a moment that there was. It comes with the territory--get used to it.

Henri had seen a shift--that was the first time she’d met the Morris kid, but beyond that Twyla wasn’t sure very many people had seen it at all. This was kinda a big deal, right? Maybe? It seemed kinda private...but at the same time...Twyla was curious, very curious...and she felt like a creeper for being curious. Perhaps a diplomatic answer was the best here? “Um...” More lip biting. “Whatever you’re most comfortable with is cool with me...?” Her response turned into a question at the end, fail.

>>“Um... Whatever you’re most comfortable with is cool with me...?”

Maya looked at her girlfriend for a few moments; she had a decision to make, and she was pondering what to do. She could leave, go down into the tree house and shift there; or she could stay, and let Twyla see. She ran her fingers through her hair. Why was it such a difficult decision? Because it somehow felt very private?...
Probably.

Another shiver ran down her spine; Maya blinked. The shift was minutes away.

"Um... maybe you should see this." she muttered, feeling her cheeks flush "I mean... I'd like you to see. It's part of who I am." she said, taking a deep breath. She turned around to sit facing her, and bit her lips "Don't worry, it... doesn't look disgusting, or anythin'."

At least, she really hoped it didn't.

As the clock struck midnight somewhere back in the Mansion, Maya felt the familiar feeling of the shift. It happened everywhere in her body at the same time; from the inside, it felt like a whole-body sneeze. From the outside, as Henri had desribed it, it looked like one of those movie tricks when they merge one picture into another. Maya's hair, that had grown out in the past year, grew shorter; her figure grew taller, and took on the shape of a male body. Her eyes were closed; her hands clenched in fists. Shifting awake was still not a pleasant experience.

It only lasted for a few minutes; when it was over, Gawain shuddered, and let out a long breath he'd been holding.

“Um, I think you’re right.” They were both blushing at this point.Getting to see the shift was secretly something Twyla had wanted to do but she was still nervous and a bit embarrassed that it was actually going to happen in front of her. It all comes with the territory. She reminded herself as she sat in apprehension and looked intently at Maya. There was a few minutes of silence that Twyla almost broke with useless babble, and then it started. Or she at least assumed it had.

Brown eyes grew wide as Maya’s hair began to shorten as her face changed as her body changed--it was all happening at once and the girl wasn’t totally sure where to watch. It wasn’t scary, or gross looking, just very intense and very fascinating. Twyla tried to take in as much of the shift as possible while all she could think in her head was Nature is a powerful thing. It was nature after all that caused Maya/Gawain’s x gene to manifest the way it had. It didn’t look very fun, based on the gender shifter’s body language, but it was...powerful and beautiful in a way that if asked, Twyla was sure she wouldn't be able to put into words.

And this happened every night!? Wow. It was amazing to think that it had happened all these years without trouble--his/her body just changed genders back and forth without a hitch. Wow.

The blond almost didn’t notice that it was over and that all of Gawain’s features had settled where Maya’s had once been. How much time had passed, the young woman couldn’t tell. She probably would have kept staring, her mind reeling in wonder, had Gawain not let out a breath that startled her into averting her eyes. For some reason Twyla felt suddenly shy. “Whoa.” Was all she managed to gasp out as she looked down at her own always-the-same hands and a soft blush danced across her cheeks. “Whoa...”

Gawain finally opened her eyes and looked up; he just caught Twyla turning her head away and looking down at her hands. Her cheeks were pink; that made Gawain smile. This was... awkward, for both of them. But it kinda felt like the good kind of awkward.

"Well..." he started to say; his newly formed vocal chords failed, and he needed to clear his throat. "... um. Show's over." he said with a small smile; he stretched, his back popping as he did so, growing a few inches in a few minutes was really hard on his bones. Reaching out, he took one of Twyla's hands gently, and tilted his head to look at her.

"That's all, really." he muttered with a shy smile "It's the same every night. I figured, you'd see it anyway sooner or..."

Ouch.

"... that didn't come out right, did it."

It was his turn to avert his eyes and blush deep red. Very. Deep. Red.

They were quiet for a moment and then there was some throat clearing and Gawain said that the ‘show’ was over. This got a small giggle out of the bashful young woman. The boy took her hand and peered down at her face, she looked at him and let herself smile as the blush began to recede.

It came back a moment later with a vengeance.

...you’d see it anyway!? Twyla’s entire body flushed an intense red--not only because of what her boyfriend said, but because she’d instantly been thinking along the same lines before he admitted that it didn’t sound quite right. She was embarrassed about where her mind went and as soon as she stopped to think about it, the blush deepened into something that was all the colors of the dark woods behind her. The girl’s heart was pounding and her palms began to sweat a bit--she pulled her own from his to clutch both of her hands nervously in front of her. Quickly, she averted her eyes (not that he could probably see that, considering her powers and the fact that his were already averted) and looked down at the boards of the tree house, willing herself to sink into them.

In a quiet voice Twyla replied after a few seconds. “Um, not really, no--er, sex and...” She was going to say that you could interpret it in a way that didn’t involve things like sex at all since they hung out a decent amount after hours and all that. Instead she got things jumbled, said the s-e-x word, and wanted crawl into a hole and hibernate until she was old enough to handle these things in polite conversation.

Gawain wanted to just curl up and die right there. It would not have been a polite thing to do on a first date, leaving your date to dispose of your body and all that... but it really felt tempting right now.

Twyla's first reaction was to flush deep red, and pull back her hand. Gawain glanced up; she could see her turning all crimson from embarrassment, and the fact that the blush went way past her face did not exactly help him think straight.

>> “Um, not really, no--er, sex and...”

Damage control.

"I'm sorry." Gawain muttered in a hurry as Twyla faded into the background "Sh*t, Twyla, I'm sorry, that was... way out of line. I didn't... I didn't mean it like that." he sighed, falling back onto the pile of blankets and covering his face with his hands.

"I keep screwin' up, don' I." he muttered in a muffled voice "This can' be happenin'."

After a few deep breaths he finally felt himself ready to face the outside world again. Looking up, he tried to find Twyla in the dark.

"Bubblegum?" he said almost timidly "I'm sorry. Can you... um. Could I see you? Please?"

It seemed like Gawain was as freaked out as Twyla was--or he was just instantly guilty because of her reaction. It was hard to tell which.He said a whole bunch of things rather quickly and plopped back onto a pile of blankets, covering his own face with something other than a mutation. For a moment there was silence and the blond used that time to slow her breathing way down and think things through.

She felt a bit ridiculous. Chock it up to hormones. The entire situation had gotten rather out of hand rather quickly. They seemed to get into these situations rather often. For some reason that was funny. Twyla smirked beneath her camouflage as a giddiness grew in the pit of her stomach.

The boy seemed to regain some of his composure after a moment as well because he sorta quietly called her (nick)name and then asked her if he could see her. Her powers were still on. It was a bit freeing to be basically invisible and that feeling combines with the night air and the caffeine from the coffee made Twyla a bit...what’s a good work for it? Random? Hyper? Crazy?

Her reply to the question was a grin that he couldn’t see unless he knew exactly where her face was and a difficult “No.” As quietly as she could on the boards, the girl crept to where her blanket lay, intent on picking it up and throwing it on Gawain, if he failed to notice or if he would let her...

Because it was either that or dance in circles on the roof. Dancing felt just a bit precarious, but it would still suffice for plan B.

>>“No.”

Gawain bit his lips. Sure. Twyla was too shy to show herself. Once again, he namaged to ruin something by being an idiot. Damn hormones, making a guy/gal's life so difficult.

He heard the board creak, and wondered what she was doing; he couldn't make out her camouflaged form in the moonlight. She was good. She was probably moving back to the trap door to climb down and walk away. He wouldn't have blamed her for it.

And then a blanket came out of nowhere, and attacked him.

"Argh!" Gawain yelled in a very knightly manner, and almost rolled off the roof; he managed to catch himself before he did, and pushing the blanket off himself, he tossed it back in the general direction where it came from. I was caught on something invisible; Gawain's face lit up in a very visible grin. "There you are."

He pulled her, instead of pushing; he didn't want to accidentally trip her, or both of them, over the edge of the roof. He still couldn't see her one bit; he had to use his other senses as he was looking for a sufficiently ticklish spot on her sides to teach her a lesson about tossing blankets at innocent people.

In the meantime, he laughed. The awkward moment was over.

Twyla started giggling like mad when the blanket landed on it’s target...or had she been giggling before that in anticipation? She wasn’t totally sure, and it’s an unimportant detail anyway--moving on. After Gawain almost fell off the tree house (for a second the blond had been in a panic, but he’d saved himself so no harm no foul) he seemed to think that he needed to get even...and he did.

First there was pulling and then there was tripping of camouflaged girls and then there was tickling. At first in response to the tickling there was more giggling and then it turned into shrieks. “Noooo! Stop it!” Twyla panted. “I’m...r...r..really” Giggles. “Ticklish! St..stop it!” Soon the girl was wildly struggling against the boy who could probably barely make out her form in the darkness--lucky for him you don’t have to see something to feel where it is.

“This tickle-torture is too much for me! Alas, I am slain.” Twyla managed to get out in an overly dramatic voice. And then suddenly the blond stopped moving, hoping that playing dead would work. When she stopped moving, her powers dropped, revealing a disheveled and very red in the face girl with her eyes shut and mouth twitching like crazy as she tried not to laugh.

>> “Noooo! Stop it! I’m...r...r..really... Ticklish! St..stop it!”

"I know." Gawain grinned, pinning hed arms down so she couldn't escape. He still couldn't see her, and he still didn't need to; he just needed to make sure that when he tripped her, she'd fall onto the blankets, and not off the tree. That would have been a mood killer.
Twyla finally gave up.

>>“This tickle-torture is too much for me! Alas, I am slain.”

She stopped moving; he didn't let go just yet, fearing she would come back to life and pounce him to take revenge. Then, she dropped the camouflage. "Wow." he sighed, looking down at her. "See, that's much better."

Propping himself up on one elbow, he smoothed her hair out of her face.

"So, here is, the question, Bubblegum." he mused, leaning in close enough to look into her eyes "If this is an official first date, with the tickling an all, do I have to wait till the end to get a kiss?"

He was really, really not one to blame. He was just asking.

Twyla was pinned. She was trapped. She was stuck. Gawain held her down by the arms even after she ‘died’. She remained dead for a few moments, trying to keep her breathing as shallow as possible. She didn’t even open an eye until she felt the boy move and a hand on her face, smoothing her hair away from it. She contemplated flinging herself over so that she could get even with her boyfriend for the tickling. It was kinda nice to just lie there though...One eye opened, her mouth twitched into a smile, and then Gawain asked her a very valid question.

A pause, it was hard to keep a straight face and her thoughts in line. Twyla managed to keep general control over herself and her hormones. Enough to ponder out loud instead of giving a hasty answer. “Hmm.... I don’t know...” She quirked her lips and her eyes became thoughtful. “On the one hand, it’s a social tradition that good first dates end in a kiss, with minimal kissing during said date...” The girl looked up at the boy, trying to gauge his reaction and hold back her smirk.

“But...on the other hand, I’m pretty sure that our particular relationship has gone past that of first date awkwardness and getting-to-know-you and all that. I suppose there’s an argument for both sides...” Twyla smiled and tried not to stare at his lips for too long, making sure that her brown eyes flickered often enough back to his hazel ones.

“I also think it’s a situational rule and it depends on the people on the date...”

>>“On the one hand, it’s a social tradition that good first dates end in a kiss, with minimal kissing during said date..."

Darn, thought Gawain, and the look in his eyes took on a somewhat puppy dog-ish expression; he was well aware that with the question he'd given plenty of things to Twyla to taunt him with, and apparently she was using the chance to take revenge for the tickling.

>>"But...on the other hand, I’m pretty sure that our particular relationship has gone past that of first date awkwardness and getting-to-know-you and all that."

Oh yeah. They were not awkward at all. Never. Especially not, like, five mintues ago. Gawain smiled softly; he liked the direction her monologue was going.

>>"I suppose there’s an argument for both sides... I also think it’s a situational rule and it depends on the people on the date...”

"I have to agree with you on that." he said, and he meant it too. One always agrees with one's girlfriend, that's a basic rule in Dating 101, but this time, he did so quite willingly. Leaning closer, he could feel her breath against his lips "So, should I wait till I walk you home, or do you expect me to break the social tradition quite thoroughly?"

He was biting back a laugh. He hoped she was not in the mood for torture.

Gawain leaned forward even more after agreeing with his girlfriend. Without her consent, Twyla’s breath hitched. This was more than slightly embarrassing and the girl blushed for the millionth time that night; if one looked at where her feet should have been they’d be hard pressed to see them. She tried her best to focus on his question, she really did, but it was super hard when she couldn’t even focus her eyes and she felt a little bit dizzy.

It simply wouldn’t do to lose her slightly intellectual train of thought all at once, not at all.

“Um...” Twyla swallowed and tried to retain as much cool as possible. “Technically we’re already home...” The girl twisted a bit so her eyes could actually see what was above her. She noted that Gawain looked like he was about to either smirk or start laughing. Instantly the ‘spell’ if it could be called that, was broken and the fluster was quickly replaced by some mild indignation.

“Jerk!” A hand came up to shove at the boy’s shoulder, pushing him away and then wrapping around the back of his neck to pull him closer. Twyla kissed him roughly on the mouth and then pushed and squirmed in an attempt to sit up.

>>“Um... Technically we’re already home...”

"Uh-huh" Gawain agreed once again, trailing off with his eyes half closed. The whole thing was getting more than a bit annoying, and it felt like a real waste of time. Time that could have been spent with... more pleasant things than taunting each other.

>>“Jerk!”

Uh-oh indeed. Gawain was pushed away and he got ready to pout; the expression froze on his face once he was pulled back into a kiss. What the heck was up with that girl, he couldn't even begin to wonder; he didn't mind either.

He kissed her back; it was a damn good start. But what was up with all the squirming?
"Damn, Bubblegum, cant'ya just stay put?" he muttered, smiling against her lips before he finally let go. "What is it?" he asked, sitting up too; he didn't like it one bit, and in his opinion, since she'd spent so much time away from him, they both deserved a healthy make-out session, or maybe it was just the hormones talking again.

"I'm sorry, I didn' wanna make you uncomfortable." he sighed, eyes still on her lips, as much as he could see in the dark.

Victory! She sat up after a few moments of wiggling and caught her breath, the blush seeping back to wherever it had come from. Twyla had just needed to be in more control of things, at least for the moment. The girl, of course, hadn’t said this as she’d tried to get up. She was about to explain herself when her boyfriend apologized, sounding a bit like he didn’t mean it at all. She smirked and made a point of fixing her messy hairdo just a bit--too much of it had fallen down when...she had.

“No, it’s no thing...” Twyla paused, unsure of how to word her sudden need to be sitting up. Maybe it had some ties to their intensely awkward and camo blush-inducing conversation of before? It was hard to say and she wasn’t really sure herself. This made it extremely difficult to put her explanation into words. “I just...I don’t know.” She laughed a bit. “It wasn’t you.” A quick kiss on the cheek was given before darting away. “I just needed to sit up.”

Or was it? For some reason Twyla was suddenly nervous and she plucked at the sleeves of her sweatshirt in an absentmindedly agitated motion. They hadn’t really talked about s-e-x before, maybe that was it? Come to think of it, there were a lot of things they hadn’t talked about recently, things that were more important [almost] than kissing and sex and all that [much more fun] stuff.

Without meaning to, the simmering pot inside of her head bubbled over and the young mutant suddenly found herself asking: “Is there something you need to tell me?”

Ugh, mood killer.