To say that Drew was excited would be an understatement. He hadn't been this thrilled in ages. Well, there was that time with Tasean but beyond that nothing compared. He wasn't going mad after all! No, in fact something was happening to his mutation. He didn't know precisely what but his mutation was changing. It was reacting to the promises other people made like it did his own. Drew was thrilled. So thrilled that he didn't even mind going outside in 100 degree weather just to spare the rest of the mansion inhabitants having to endure his enthusiasm. He'd been beyond happy ever since he'd finally figured out what the connected feeling he'd been enduring was.

It was still annoying and somewhat maddening at times. However Drew was learning to cope with it now that he knew what caused it. It had been the unknown cause that had scared him so much. Drew strolled along the edge of the building, taking advantage of it's shade. It was too hot for sane people to be outside but Drew was far too happy to care. He'd just unbuttoned the short sleeve button down he was wearing and continued on. That and the jean shorts kept him from getting too hot.

Drew rounded a corner and noticed the pool area. Maybe a quick dip in the pool was in order? It would certainly cool him off. As he approached however he noticed someone lounging poolside that he certainly didn't want to have anything to do with. Kate, in a bikini no less, was laying there. Drew frowned, his good mood dampened considerably. Last time they'd talked she'd informed him in no uncertain terms that they hadn't been 'all that close' were her words. Drew snorted. It had hurt at the time, finding out that someone he'd considered a friend didn't care. Now he just wanted to avoid her. Drew swerved from his path to the pool, trying to walk past Kate without being noticed. The people inside the mansion wouldn't have to worry about his good mood for a little while.

Kate took a deep breath and sighed happily as she felt the warmth on her face. She had been back for a week and had spent most of that outside in the backyard of the mansion. Who would have thought that it would ever be warm enough for her to be outside in such a small amount of clothing? Thank god for overly warm weather. All she was wearing was a bikini and other then being a little chilly she was pretty comfortable. This really was a first.

She was actually starting to fall asleep when she heard a noise from the direction of the mansion. She knew it had to be someone coming out to enjoy the pool. Most of the residence had opted to stay inside saying that it was too hot to even go in the pool, since the mansion was nice and air conditioned and all.

Kate sat up and turned around to see a rather angry looking man now walking away from the pool, “Oi! Andrew! What are you doing outside? I’m comfortable so I am assuming that it is terribly hot for everyone else.”

Drew was just about to escape when a familiar voice called out to him. He took a breath and rearranged his expression into something more neutral before he turned to greet Kate.

"Hi Kate. I was bugging a few people in the mansion so they asked me to come outside. That's all."

No need to point out that he'd been bugging them by being too happy. That would cause questions as to why he wasn't happy now and he certainly didn't want Kate asking that. He might be tempted to tell her and somehow, despite the bikini that was very Old Kate, he doubted New Kate would take it well.

"I won't disturb your sunbathing any longer. I know how seldom it is you get to come outside wearing so little."

And then Drew turned and made to leave once more. He didn't want much to do with her right now and his being around would ruin her obviously good mood.

>>Hi Kate. I was bugging a few people in the mansion so they asked me to come outside. That's all. I won't disturb your sunbathing any longer. I know how seldom it is you get to come outside wearing so little.

Kate watched as Andrew quickly turned talked to her and then quickly turned back again. Why was he in such a hurry.

“To tell you the truth I have been out here for over an hour by myself. I could use the company.” Kate smiled nicely at him. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk in Sam’s office, since he had seemed so mad at her and they had both kind of shut down, “You could even tell me why you are bothering people. I mean you are usually quite unobtrusive. Though I suppose a lot could have changed while I was gone.”

Kate watched and waited for a response.

Drew stopped again. She was determined to talk it seemed. Heck, she didn't even seem to notice that he wanted nothing to do with her! Was she this blind before she left? Still, he swallowed his annoyance and walked over to a seat placed near hers. He sat down quietly.

"Alright then."

He snorted at her saying that a lot could have changed while she was gone.

"A lot did change while you were gone. I've got loads of new scars that I acquired after you left for one. For two..."

At this point he held up his left arm to show the four promise bands around it. He'd only had one when they'd met and he hadn't gotten any of the others until after she'd up and disappeared.

"I'll just say a lot has changed for me. I'm not the same guy you knew. Not by a long shot."

Not that she'd actually known him at all but he wasn't going to say that. Of course by latching onto that topic he'd hoped that he'd neatly sidestepped talking about why he'd been annoying the people inside. It was better all around if they just left each other well enough alone.

>> A lot did change while you were gone. I've got loads of new scars that I acquired after you left for one. For two...

Kate could hear the annoyance in Andrew’s voice. It may not have been much but it was there. After the shut down a few days ago and this now. Kate could tell he was not happy with her, but was not sure as to what she had done outside of leaving.

She looked at the bands and wondered what they were for and who they were from.

>>I'll just say a lot has changed for me. I'm not the same guy you knew. Not by a long shot.

“Do you not want to talk to me?” It came out far more annoyed then Kate had wanted it to but sadly her emotions were one of the things that she lately didn’t always come out correctly, “I mean, I know you might be mad at me for leaving even though you say you’re not, but you could at least talk to me.”

She had the guts to sound annoyed at him for what he'd said or how he'd said it. Kate had the effrontery to pin this on him for being mad about her leaving. His temper wasn't exactly on a short leash anymore. The carefully crafted neutral expression was wiped away in a matter of seconds. When he found his voice to speak it was low, bitter, and angry.

"Mad? Why should I be mad? After all we weren't all that close right? It shouldn't make any difference that someone I considered a friend should just up and disappear and leave everyone who cares about her to worry endlessly right? Nor should it matter at all when she finally comes back and informs me that all the effort I put into trying to befriend her back when I was still scared of my own shadow was @#&^ing pointless."

It took him several moment to be able to speak again after that without resorting to a string of profanity. When he finally had his temper reined in enough to manage it he spoke again.

"So you wanna talk? Fine, lets talk. How was your day?"

It wasn't remotely kind. There wasn't a hint of the shy, fearful guy that Kate had first met. He'd been replaced by someone with a lot of anger and precious little control.

>>Mad? Why should I be mad? After all we weren't all that close right? It shouldn't make any difference that someone I considered a friend should just up and disappear and leave everyone who cares about her to worry endlessly right? Nor should it matter at all when she finally comes back and informs me that all the effort I put into trying to befriend her back when I was still scared of my own shadow was @#&^ing pointless.

Kate completely taken aback. She could hear the sarcasm and anger dripping from every word. What did he mean pointless? All she did was say there were not that close. Not that they weren’t friends.

>>So you wanna talk? Fine, lets talk. How was your day?

“Honestly,” Kate’s words came out as annoyed and dripping with just as much sarcasm and anger as Andrew’s. The only difference from earlier was that she meant every world this time, “Bloody fantastic. I’m sitting outside in a bathing suit and nothing else. Before I left I would have been terrified to do this so frankly I don’t regret my decision in the slightest. So, I’m sorry if you are upset because I chose to be selfish for once in my bloody &#@%ing life.” Kate’s voice rose as she talked until she was yelling. Thankfully she caught herself before it escalated more. Every time she had gotten this upset lately things had seemed to light on fire around her and she was bound and determined to keep that from happening. So, after a deep breath she spoke again, her voice back at a normal level of sound, “I’m sorry you misunderstood what I said to you yesterday and it upset you so. But I honestly did think we were friends. All I meant was that we weren’t the closest of them.”

Oh no she didn't. Kate wasn't going to get to pull the 'pity me life's been so horrible to me' card. Not on him. His face was set into something akin to a snarl and as her voice rose to a yell so did his.

"Don't you dare try that on me! Oh whoa is me, my life has been so difficult, I lived in mansion with a mommy that loved me no matter what and tried her best to protect and cherish me, poor pitiable me! There are kids here that never even had that so don't pull that crap! I don't give a darn that you were selfish! People are selfish it's freaking natural! What pissed me off was that you left without warning and never bothered to even once check in! Even a freaking letter would have done!'

'Like it or not you're part of a family here. And family worries *&%@ it. I worried! While you were gallivanting off around who knows where you could have been kidnapped, hurt, even killed and there would have been nothing we could do but go to the funeral! That's if we were even informed of it! I don't care if you want to run off to Milan for a shoe shopping spree right now! I just want to be able to help you if you need it! I can't bloody well do that if I don't know where you are or if you're alright!"

When Kate spoke next it was in a normal tone of voice so Andrew wrestled his anger back. It wasn't exactly easy but when he responded he was speaking a normal tone of voice as well.

"That doesn't mean I don't care Kate. When I came to the mansion I hadn't had a real friend in four years. So you'll pardon me if I'm a little sensitive about the friends I made then."

>>That doesn't mean I don't care Kate. When I came to the mansion I hadn't had a real friend in four years. So you'll pardon me if I'm a little sensitive about the friends I made then.

Even with the seemingly sad words Kate was still seeing red, “Pity me… PITY ME.” As she stood up and yelled straight at Andrew a lounge chair on the other side of the pool began to smoke, “I want people would stop pitying me. I may be dainty and lady like but that does not mean I am a cracked porcelain doll. I left because I got tired of people avoiding me because they thought they were going to break me.” A small flame formed on the chair, “I went to Italy and for the first time in forever I was looked at as a person. Granted they didn’t know what happened to me at first, but even after I told Hanna she treated me exactly the same. And I told her everything. The rain, my mum, everything and she didn’t even look at me different. If anything she was a better friend.” Kate took a deep breath again before continuing, “I’m sorry I didn’t send a &%@#ing letter but I really didn’t want you guys to come looking for me,” The fire grew at Kate’s failed attempt to calm down, “I was happy Andrew… If I didn’t have to I never would have come back to this Bloody &%#@ing PLACE.”

As Kate’s voice rose the fire grew until it just exploded and engulfed the entire chair in flames, “&$#@,” Kate fell back into the chair with her head in her hands.

He let her yell. Drew let Kate have her say. He paid no attention to the flaming chair. It wasn't important. Once she'd finished and sat down he started in, trying to keep his voice just under a yell.

"Well maybe if you'd given some of us more time to get to know you that would have changed. But if you don't wanna be here the just ^*($ing go. Nothing's keeping you here. After all we're so horrible to you why would you want to spend any more time here? Why'd you even bother coming back if that was the case hmm? Just wanted to ogle Sam some more? Or do you need us?"

Drew stared at her and the then the chair. He snorted.

"That's the only reason you came back isn't it? You don't give a damn about any of us here. We could all rot in heck for all you care. You just want to use us to get control of your mutation so you can go back to playing around Italy like the spoiled little heiress you are! And to think I actually worried about you. I'm sure Sam will do his best to help you and then you can go, your highness. You won't have to tolerate the presence of the horrible peasants who can't possibly understand what you're going through despite the fact that you never even bothered to let them try."

He turned to walk away. Drew had nothing left to say to a girl that was acting that bloody spoiled and selfish. He had nothing left to say to a girl that didn't appreciate everything the mansion tried to do for her.

Her ears were old and, pardon the language, a piece of crap. Same went for her legs. And her joints. And almost everything else as well. Luckily her brains showed no hints of deterioration. Not that she would know much if they did. But they did not, and Granny was quite glad about that. She had a boatload of Kids to take care of now. One little brat more insolent then the other. The smallest ones, as she had promised when she met the woman that had gotten her this employment, got cookies and stern admonitions for class. If they took her class.
She was now a teacher without qualifying diploma. Not that she needed one for that class: Mutation Control. Given is sessions to no more than five kids at a time. If they qualified. Given by her because she was the most experienced mutant around. Some fifty-odd years of using a mutation did that to you. You could think up exercises in your sleep and maybe just prevent the kids from doing stupid things.

Stupid things like making her stop from a walk by shouting in the pool area. She had been exploring the multitude of passages the Mansions architect had envisioned. People got lost here semi-regularly, and she intended to have this not encumber her any more than her old legs. So walking through every corridor she could reach was a solution to both her joint problems – you had to walk yourself warm to avoid pain if you were old like her – and her inadequate knowledge of the layout of her new residency. A layout that presently afforded her a good look at said pool area. An area in which was shouted.

A wooden chair was on fire also.

She tsked to herself. This would not do. The chairs were good and expensive. They would not be ruined by some teenagers playing relationship crisis. And a relationship crisis it was. She knew this much not by the words that were said but by the stances of him and her. She did not know either of them. This situation would be rectified later on. But what she did know was that she would not have issues like that burn her pool area. Also she would not have the young man ruin a perfectly good day for a woman.

Heads needed to be cooled. A chair needed to be put out. The solution to both problems: The big amount of water present at the center of said pool area. And the fact that a powerful telepathic was standing not 20 meters from where the two were having their fight might have had a calming influence as well. She certainly hoped so as she dumped both the chair and the man into the pool with a thought. For good measure she took off the mans shirt. Seeing that it ripped into a hundred pieces she tsked again. Now she should have done that a bit more gently. But when a fight happened, she was not gentle. Especially if one fighting was a man. And the opposition was female.

This relationship would be fixed. Today. She would see to that. It would probably take both of them dumped into the pool for that. And for the afterthought it was, she did indeed add the girl to the floating chair in the pool with a sigh. Her she eased down a bit more gently, too.

But she had never promised to be gentle with the older ones.

Kate listened to Andrew as he spoke and was horrified at what he said. Once again she had said things she most certainly didn’t mean. She really did miss her friends, but she didn’t want to come back to them as anything but a full person. They had deserved better than that, and right now they deserved better than her. All she was was anger and destruction these days. Half the time she spent snapping at people for no reason or accidently lighting thing on fire and the other half was spent cleaning up the pieces.

Kate watched Andrew walk away without any effort to stop him. Maybe he was right and she should just go back after she figured out how to fix herself.

Kate turned to make an attempt at putting out the fire by maybe pushing it into the pool. Not the best idea but all she had at the moment.

Her eyes widened however as she saw both the chair and Andrew go plummeting into the water.

What the…

Next thing Kate knew she was feeling her body engulfed in cold water. At first it didn’t feel like much, that was until the initial shock wore off.

Kate surfaced out of the water with a gasp and immediately started sinking again. In all her years she had never bothered to learn how to swim because pools were always too cold for her to go into, which was the other problem at the moment.

She tried to get herself to the surface again and panicked as she found she couldn’t.

In a matter of second she could no longer hold her breath and water began to flood her lungs. It was cold and cut her insides like the daggers of the rain she had ran in to so many months ago. In moments everything started going black once again and her body went limp.

He been about to leave the spoiled princess to her lonesome when things went down. Now this was a school for mutants so there being a telekinetic around was not at all surprising. But having his shirt stripped off, no matter that it was already unbuttoned and open, via telekinesis was a little much. Drew began to look around for whoever the culprit was when suddenly there wasn't any ground beneath his feet.

Oh, hello pool water.

He hit the water with a splash and was soon sputtering and wiping the water off of his face as he struggled to figure out what the heck had happened. One of the mansion's mutants was involved. He knew that much. Whichever of the little brats it was was in big trouble. As soon as he figured out who they were. His eyes scanned the pool, noting that the burning lounge chair had been dumped into the pool too. Well at least they'd had sense enough to do that. Drew swam over to haul it out of the pool when his eyes caught something else that was drastically more important.

Kate was sinking and about half way to the bottom of the pool, unconscious. Oh crap.

The burnt lounge chair was abruptly forgotten as he hastened to collect the sodden fire elemental and drag her out of the pool. Craaap. He'd never had to do this before!

"Kate? Kate?!"

Drew shook her in an effort to wake her. He was certain it wouldn't work. What did you do in situations where someone was unconscious and not breathing? That's right kids, mouth to mouth! And so, full of nervousness because darn it he'd never had to save a life like this before, Drew set about reviving the girl he'd just spent several minutes shouting at.

‘Why do you keep doing this?!’

Kate heard the angry voice echo through her unconscious mind, “Doing what?”

’Thankfully you’re not actually going to die from this one.’

“What are you talking about,” Kate tried to look around the empty space of her dreaming mind and found nothing. She was sure it had to be the elemental but it had never sounded like this before. Was that anger, “Hello…”

Suddenly, Kate was pulled as if by some unknown force to the surface of her mind. She shot up with a gasp for air and immediately started coughing up the water that was in her lungs. It took her a moment before she could stop and figure out what had happened. She for some reason couldn’t remember past being thrust into the pool and then waking up here. Very interesting.

Kate looked over at Andrew and knew immediately he had to have saved her. Even though he was so mad he hadn’t left her in the water to freeze to death or drown, since she most defiantly had never learned to swim. She grabbed him, pulling him into a hug, “Thank you.” She said through chattering teeth. She was now not just a little chilly when the wind blew but full on cold. The water was beading on her skin and cooling it greatly to a point where she was shivering.