>>"Here, sorry, I'm not much of a purse girl, I always leave them places," she said, dabbing at his hand.

"My savior," Aurum thanked her. He grabbed a napkin when she offered, and dabbed at the spot of ice cream on his pants. "There. Much better." Ice cream didn't stain, did it? Probably not on blue jeans.

His eyes hopped back to Jenny, and noted the exorbitant amount of absorbent paper napkins. He laughed a little. "Are all those for me?" Thoughtful of her, if hasty. "I wonder what we'll do with all those napkins, now that we have them? Hmm..." He grabbed another napkin and held it in his free hand, up to the sky. It flopped over. The napkin didn't want to stand straight. "Darn," He set it down on the bench beside him with a shake of his head. "Would have made a good paper airplane, if only it had been a bit more rigid..."

He snapped his attention back to the cone, just in time to rescue a drip from dropping meltily to his hand. "At least we have back-ups for the obvious dangers of frozen treats."

Back on topic. Aurum glanced Jenny's way. "Is the Statue of Liberty really that worth it?"

She watched as Aurum debated whether the material was strong enough to make a paper airplane. Past experiences told the red head napkins were only good at flying short distances when crumpled up into small napkin balls. She laughed when he decided they could not make all of their extra napkins into paper airplanes. ”Well, they could be used if you ever went on a boat to the Statue of Liberty, you could use the napkin to wave goodbye to everyone on land,” she smiled, the scene playing over in her mind. Perhaps only children or the elderly would actually take the time to wave back, but it was always fun to pretend. She redirected her attention back to her company as he saved another stain from happening. Fade began to laugh again, becoming all too confident that her new ice cream cone would not drip on it.

Then it hit her cold and wet, a big wet drip of ice cream landed on her knee and she jumped a little from the shock. Quickly, she grabbed a napkin and wiped it off, trying to lick her ice cream down to the same level as the cone so it had a lesser chance of leaking onto her clothes again. ”Well, it’s certainly something. I wouldn’t justify it as ‘that worth it’, but it’s one of those thing New Yorkers over look and it’s nice just to go there and relax. Well, relax if you can get away from all of the tourists with cameras glued to their faces,” she shrugged. It was never hard for her to dodge the crowds of tourists, then again, it was her mutation. She was still unsure on how Aurum felt about mutants, so she would not feel comfortable sharing those secrets with him. Should she slip in a question that caused him to spill the beans on his view on her ‘species’? No, those were never subjects to be rushed, she just needed to keep her focus away from all of that political nonsense.

If they ever went, if they ever went... he repeated that thought in his mind as he listened to Jenny speak. She said it wasn't 'worth it', but... it was a good way to relax.

"Hmm," Aurum thought out loud. "I could go for some relaxing. Not that this isn't. Want to go?" The way he said it was so casual. It came off as no big deal. Just, out of the blue, 'wanna go to the statue of liberty?' Nothing funny about that. Maybe, he could get a picture of him in front of it... or on a boat, away from it, if too close was too close. Something for his phone's background, or to wave in front of Ami? She was always changing his ringtones and backgrounds without asking. Maybe if it was something impressive, she'd leave it alone?

Fade was enjoying her ice cream when he asked if she wanted to go. Now? She took a few moments to blink as she flipped through the non-chalant question. Well, sure, who wouldn't want to go to the Statue of Liberty with a very good looking, ice cream loving New Yorker? Who cares if she had just met him. He did not really seem like the 'wrong type' and it would be nice to go back. Was it a date? She quickly shook her mind from that topic, no, they were just going to the Statue of Liberty.

"Well yeah, sure, I'd love to," but she was unsure if he meant today or a different day. She did not have anything to do that day, the Mansion was relatively settled down, as much as a school full of learning and growing mutants could be settled down, that is. "Today? Now? Or do you have somewhere to be?" she asked, looking back at his golden sweats. Maybe he was just jogging before heading off to a meeting or work or a date. Fade bit a piece of her ice cream cone off and mentally growled at the crunching noise in her mouth.

"Is now good for you?" He mirrored her question."I don't have anywhere to be. Though, the thought crossed my mind I'm dressed a bit like a slob..." He added the last part with a self-conscious laugh. One didn't simply walk into a casual date in golden sweatpants.

He watched her for her answer. Now was as good a time as any, current outfits notwithstanding. If she really wanted, he could change. They could make more of a date out of it.

Or, they could just hang around the statue, in their everyday wear, with ice cream splotches leftover on clothing, and sticky hands.

Apparently he was ready to go at that moment. A little shocked, Fade raised an eyebrow, but quickly pasted a smile on her face. Well, her agenda did not include the Statue of Liberty on it, but then again, it did not really have anything planned for the day. Today was meant to be a day to relax and go where the wind took her, and it seemed like Aurum was the wind. "Uhhh, yeah, yeah, I'd love to now," she said, lowering her eyebrow to its average position above her eye. At the mention of his clothes, she took another look, though the sight of the gold sweat had never exactly left her peripheral vision.

"I don't mind if you don't," she shrugged. It was one of the positives to being a mutant, not fitting in seemed to be more normal, so 'slobby' sweats to the Statue of Liberty, though most others would chose other options for their wardrobe, it did not bother Fade at all. She crunched through to the end of her ice cream and exhaled the cold taste from her lips in a nice sigh. "That was very good ice cream, thank you again for replacing mine."

"I guess it's fine," Aurum agreed. He finished off his cone as Jenny finished hers. "and no problem." Replacing it had been easy. What would have been easier was looking where he'd been going, to prevent it from being lost in the first place. But oh well.

She was ready to go to the statue, it seemed. Now, came the part where they found a ride there, didn't it? He glanced over his shoulder, towards where he'd come from. He spoke hesitantly. "I took the bus to get here. Guess it's the bus to the statue..." A drawback of not bringing his car. Would she think he didn't have one? Would that be bad? Nah. Buses were fine. "Shall we?" He gestured towards the distant bus stop. If they wanted to get there, they'd have to start walking. And soon! The bus in the distance was starting to pull away. His eyes hopped to Jenny, met hers. "Dash?"

Run!

The count was at a close call: losing her first ice cream cone was a minor inconvience, but having it replaced by a very attractive New Yorker who now gave her something to do for the day, much better. Truth be told, she had never gone to the Statue of Liberty with anyone, she would just go by herself to clear her mind. Before she mastered her phasing, she would pick the locks to go higher, now she just climbed the giant statue.

He mentioned the bus, apparently he did not take his car out today. Fade on the other hand, did not have a car, much less knew how to drive it. Raph had tried teaching her, but he disappeared before she could really get it down. She lived her life on the streets, there was no need for a car unless she wanted traffic. Buses were much faster in the city. She looked over to see the bus starting to pull away and Aurum turned to her to ask if they should run. It was more of a 'we should run, but I'm being polite so I'll ask'. She smiled and started moving her feet. Oh yes, this is what those Danger Room sessions gave her, quick feet. "Race ya!" she said before moving quicker towards the bus. When she made it, the bus driver looked annoyed. He opened the door, which sort of swung out so quickly it bumped her shoulder. Without even realizing she did it, she phased the rest of her shoulder through the door, glaring at the bus driver for sort of pushing her with the door. It was a small show of her power, but not enough to make anyone really notice, not unless they were glaring at her as hard as the bus driver. He did not seem to mind much about it, a New York bus driver had seen far worse. She looked behind her to make sure Aurum was there and smiled a "phew."

She could run fast! By comparison, Aurum was much slower. Too many Italian subs, perhaps. Or maybe he just hadn't been playing enough soccer recently. Either way, they'd made it to the bus, and he was getting on the bus with a pretty girl. Underdressed, yet still on a date. It wasn't bad for a regular old day. Or maybe not. Had that door just passed through her? Strange.

Nobody else had seemed to notice the door passing through the redheaded New Yorker. As he aimed a quick glance around, they kept on with their humdrum day-to-day. It was just him. He hadn't been glaring, but... hey, pretty girls were pretty. He had a right to enjoy beauty, wherever it appeared.

Jenny exhaled. She didn't act like any deep dark secrets had been revealed. There weren't any deep dark secrets to be worried about, anyways. She was a mutant. He took note. Then, he moved on with his life. "You're fast," Aurum said, following her onto the bus. "You must go running a lot."

Aurum was following, a little bit slower, which was suprising that a girl in street clothes was moving a bit faster than a man in jogging clothes. A little funny actually. Was she really in good shape though? She did not expect to run that fast, maybe it was all those sessions in the Danger Room. "I am? Hmmm, it must be all the trips to the gym," she said, careful not to say Danger Room instead of gym. Fade moved through the middle of the bus, looking for two seats together. That was the problem with bus rides, people spread out enough to make sure they weren't too close to anyone else while taking up enough seats to make it hard to find two together.

Though she expected the bus driver would wait for everyone to sit down, she forgot that only yellow school buses did that. The bus jerked forward, which made her suddenly lean forward a bit in an unbalanced moment. To catch herself, she placed one hand on the edge of the seat and the other on Aurum's arm. When she had balanced herself, she let go, slightly blushing. "Sorry, lost my balance." She found two seats together and sat down, taking up the window seat simply to speed up their seating time. She used to love the window seat when she was younger, she would draw on it with her breath as the canvas.

He was a gentleman, through and through. Aurum handled bus fare. Jenny found them seats. Or, at least she tried.

She lost her balance, and suddenly, she got close.

>>"Sorry, lost my balance." She made excuses.

"It happens," Aurum replied understandingly. "You're lucky there were no banana peels." He joked.

Jenny took the window seat. He slid in next to her, eyes on her face. He donned a curious, well-meaning look. "Not the change the subject away from produce, but back there... did the door pass through you?"

Now that there weren't a billion eyes on her, they could talk about it... quietly. Hopefully, she didn't think that was a problem.

For a split second, she glanced around the ground to see if she could see any banana peels before recognizing it as a joke and laughing, slightly embarassed at her moment of dumb. Ever since she was a little girl, if she rode in a car, she pasted her face against the window to stare at everything that passed by, curiously watching every passing pedestrian, every yellow cab, every jogging dog and owner. Though this time, she tried not to focus on it too devotedly, she was with a very attractive man after all. She turned her attention back to Aurum, his focus on her.

He seemed to have a question, he had the facial expression of a child in class ready to raise their hand only a little second-guessing if he should raise his hand or just remain silent. Of course, he was no child in class and he posed the question, to which Fade blinked for a second, her eyes shifting high as she tried to remember if she really had passed through the door. She could feel her cheeks begin to fluster and she tried her hardest to keep it well hidden. "Ummmm, the door passed through me?" she said, debating whether she would leave him feeling crazy or admit that the door had passed through her. It would make her feel more relaxed, in case she did it again, but the sudden spotlight on her made her want to blink invisible. She with held the urge and decided not to make him feel crazy.

"Yeah, I might have. It's part of who I am," she said, refraining from using the word 'mutant'. Amongst other mutants, it was not much of a big deal, she could say it without feeling like it was a derogatory term, but when she spoke with anyone she was unsure of their gene line, she felt mutant was almost insulting.

She blinked. She tried to recall. Got that look of focusing on something, but... having difficulties. Then, she blushed a little at herself.

Aurum felt like he'd had a blond moment for a second. Her answer didn't answer a thing. "Uh..." He just sat there, watching her, waiting. Was she going to admit something, or was he getting crazy in his old age?

She did. She might have. "Okay." He said. He didn't say much else, but his face, at least, told her she didn't have to worry just yet.