Of course she wasn't where he'd left her. Why should she be? It was a fight. If you didn't move you got your butt handed to you. So where was Lydia? He looked around but it was hard to tell with people running every which way.

"Lydia?" he called out.

Hrmm...Aha! There she was! Over by the bassist searching for her necklace he'd wager. Drew wandered over and dug the necklace he'd rescued out of his pocket. He could surprise her with it. But first he'd talk to the bassist. Drew walked over to the relieved and slightly confused looking bassist. He was staring at Lydia from time to time. Drew pulled him off to the side while Lydia rummaged.

"I think it'd be best if you got out of here. Unless you want to face the cops that is. Lord knows how many folks in that crowd are going to press theft charges whether you meant to do it or not."

That said, Drew left the man to his decision and walked up behind Lydia. He tossed the necklace over her head and fastened it while she was still searching.

"I think you were looking for this. I saw it fall earlier in the fight and grabbed it."

Drew glanced up at the swiftly approaching authority figures.

"Now unless you wanna be here all night talking to cops and medics and what not I think we'd better get out of here. My car's on the other side of the park. We can use that. It'll be a bit of a walk though."

Was it that? No that’s a ring. What about this one? No, that’s not a topaz. Ooh what about—? No! It’s just some wires.

She knew the chances of finding her prized possession amongst the heaps and heaps of possessions the bass guitarist had absorbed were next to none. The champagne topaz on her necklace was small and plain, not something easily distinguishable. Lydia felt a tingling in the corners of her eyes again.

Her vision blurred as she felt something surround her neck and fall on her chest, and a familiar voice say something that she didn’t really hear. She was too busy lashing out at whoever was touching her. Until she realized it was Andrew. Whoops.

“Ah God, sorry, I thought you were—.” But she stopped when she figured out what he had done. Lyd looked down at her returned necklace, and immediately threw her arms around him. “Thank you thank you thank you…” She repeated over and over. Tears spilled over and got on his shirt, but she didn’t let go until she heard footsteps and radios buzzing with police talk. “Um. You said you have a car? Let’s go.”

Lyd hastily wiped away her tears, a bit embarrassed, and let him lead the way.

Her reaction was about as close as you could get to mood whiplash without needing a neck brace. First she nearly hit him. Then when she realized that he'd gotten her necklace back he was treated to a slightly soggy hug. Then it was an embarrassed agreement with getting out of there. Drew just smiled at her and headed in the direction of his car.

"Why is it that we can never meet without something happening? Seriously, I'm beginning to think there's a conspiracy out there trying to keep us from being friends or something."

Drew chuckled a little and lead Lydia to the path that would eventually take them to the exit he'd parked near.

"So are you alright? I didn't expect you to join the fight too."

He really hadn't expected it at all. Last time he'd seen her she'd mostly stayed out of it and had done her level best to convince him he was useless for the task at hand. Drew preferred to forget that part. Mostly because he felt that way half the time anyway.

>> "Why is it that we can never meet without something happening? Seriously, I'm beginning to think there's a conspiracy out there trying to keep us from being friends or something."

Lydia was grateful Andrew wasn’t reacting strangely to her emotional outbursts, he was just smiling. She laughed. “You’re the trouble magnet” she replied playfully, “I don’t get into nearly as much trouble when I’m not around you.” She swore he had some mutant power that made him irresistible to danger.

“Maybe this is an opportunity to really become friends? I mean, no one’s bleeding out this time, and it’s too early to go home.” She raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

>> "So are you alright? I didn't expect you to join the fight too."

“I’d say I didn’t expect you to join the fight, but we both know how bad a lie that would be,” she said with a smirk, “I’m okay, I think. Just a little bruised. How about you?” Lyd looked him over, remembering how many people he had faced. She suspected he had ended up a lot better than they had. “So you picked up some new tricks, I saw. I almost feel bad for those guys you beat up.”

Now that the struggle was over and the adrenalin was fading, the teenager’s body began to ache, in particular her back, and she thought she might never want to get into a fight ever again. And she’d only faced the same people during it all, spending most of her time sprawled on a pile of drum bits and knelt down on the ground. Imagine the pain she'd be in if she’d done more.

He put on a stricken look.

"Moi? A trouble magnet? Never." Drew broke up laughing and fixed Lydia with a sheepish smile, "I swear I don't go looking for it. It just keeps following me like an ill mannered puppy with bladder control problems."

Her following comment made him smile.

"I'd like that."

Drew liked any opportunity he got to make a new friend so the chance to actually make friends with Lydia was something he wouldn't pass up. She was fine apparently, just bruised. That was good. He would have hated to hear that she got hurt.

"I'm fine. Just a few bruises for me too." he laughed at her comment, "Yeah well when you run into trouble as much as I do you learn or you get badly hurt. Besides, no need to feel sorry for guys like them. They needed to learn a lesson and we were the ones to teach them. Simple as that. They'd just better be glad they didn't pick on someone with a more dangerous mutation."

No he didn't feel a lick of sympathy for the beating those guys had received tonight. They had deserved it and he had warned them. His conscience was clear.

Their banter went back and forth, and she giggled in a way that she hadn’t giggled for a while. She didn’t remember Andrew being this impish, and thought something was different about him. Or maybe it was just that the circumstances were sort of different. After all, the very recent events they’d just partaken in had been relatively mild compared to the other ones.

Lydia’s grin grew wider when her companion agreed to extend their evening, and she sort-of-subtly walked closer to him.

She was surprised to feel so relieved when he mentioned he too only had some bruises. She tried to shrug it off. He went on to speak about how the people had deserved it, and she only had the same opinion.

>> “They'd just better be glad they didn't pick on someone with a more dangerous mutation."

“I kind of wish they had,” she muttered, a little more darkly than she’d intended. “Ah. And it was mostly you and the bass guitar guy, I didn’t do much but get knocked over on my ass. I’ll admit I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing,” she joked, trying to defuse her earlier statement.

He didn't really notice Lydia walking closer to him. No he was a little surprised at the vehemence in her tone when she mentioned wishing that they had picked on someone more dangerous. Drew understood completely but he hadn't thought that Lydia would agree with him so completely on the issue.

"Yes well. It's a good thing and a bad thing that they didn't pick on someone more dangerous. Good because they and people like them don't have more ammunition for saying that mutants are horrible and all the crap they say. Bad because I like to think they'd think twice about hassling another mutant if they got laid up in the hospital over it."

He let her guide the conversation away from that topic however and just smiled at her.

"Well I could always work with you if you want. Really the best thing for it is practice. Learn by doing."

Drew would be glad to help Lydia out by showing her the ropes so far as fighting was concerned.

"I'm still learning too but we can learn together."

Lydia simply nodded in response, wanting to stray from the topic. She was glad someone felt similarly, but thought the topic too heavy and complicated for the present moment. She wanted to go back to lighthearted banter and fun. Perhaps they would resume the talk another day…at least, she hoped there would be another day. The girl didn't want to go on a Drew hiatus for six months again, especially since he was turning out to be a very charming guy. She felt she’d been missing out on a good friendship.

But she was getting way ahead of herself.

>> "Well I could always work with you if you want. Really the best thing for it is practice. Learn by doing. I'm still learning too but we can learn together."

"I'd like that," she said, echoing Andrew. Lyd grinned and wrapped her arm around his, not caring if she was being too bold. Friends could have a little skin contact. “So what else do you do in your free time, Mr. Drew? Assuming that boss of yours gives you any time off.”

If Drew noticed the arm contact beyond knowing that it was there he didn't give any indication of it. At least outwardly. Inwardly was a slightly different story since he was pretty sure friends didn't do that unless they were pretty close. However he shrugged it off. One linking of arms did not interest make. Apparently she liked the idea of training with him. Drew smiled at the use of his phrasing.

"I read, watch tv, or bake. When I'm not working or training that is."

Really his days were usually pretty full so days like today when he could get away for a few hours and do something were rare. He enjoyed them when he could. Like now, walking through Central Park just before dark with an attractive young woman on his arm and a change to his mutation looming. Times like this were something that Drew really enjoyed. Of course the girl was probably just a friend, they'd probably get mugged before they could get to the car, and the change to his mutation would probably prove to be just as much of a pain as the old version of it was. Still, he tried to remain optimistic because hey, not everything could be against him right?

>> "I read, watch tv, or bake. When I'm not working or training that is."

Boring, normal, and...baking? “You bake?” She asked, cocking her head to the side. She had never met a guy who baked in her life. It was actually kind of…cute. Or adorable. Atypical, to say the least. “I don’t think I’ve baked since…” Since her mother passed away. “…I was ten.”

Boy was that depressing. Lydia did not want depressing.

“Uh, I have cooked though, kind of. My friends and I used to ‘borrow’ from their parent’s liquor cabinets and use every which alcohol in with random recipes. Like how chefs do it, you know? Except we wouldn’t be so set on our measurements. And sometimes our food turned out really crappy.” She giggled as she recalled the memories. They were effective in cancelling out the sadness, anyway.

"S'been a while since I've done that too, I guess." Especially since the Sanctuary's kitchen staff was so defensive of their area. Lydia could never go in there to grab something from the fridge without getting a few glares, much less actually make something.

Lydia seemed confused that a guy would bake. Drew simply smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, my mom taught me when I was little. She likes to bake and I guess she wanted to pass that on. It's stuck with me ever since."

Depression seemed to settle about Lydia for a moment or two but she pulled herself out of it with a story about cooking with her friends. Drew chuckled at it, just imagining what they must have come up with. Unfortunately the sad returned when she mentioned that it had been a while since she'd done that either.

"Well consider yourself invited back to the mansion. I'll bake anything you like. Well...within reason anyway. I'm not doing any spur of the moment wedding cakes or anything. N-not that we'd need one!"

He'd really managed to put his foot in his mouth there. Drew coughed and turned to stare at the scenery around them. Central Park was, as usual, very pretty.

Okay. Lydia couldn’t resist. What else could she do? How else was she supposed to react to that sort of information? His mother taught him how to bake when he was little. And now it was his thing. “Awww! That’s so cute.” Right afterwards, however, she remembered how most males did not enjoy being aww-ed at, and watched Andrew’s reaction carefully. She wasn’t trying to be demeaning, unless he thought cuteness was demeaning, in which case she had indeed made an error.

>> "Well consider yourself invited back to the mansion. I'll bake anything you like. Well...within reason anyway. I'm not doing any spur of the moment wedding cakes or anything. N-not that we'd need one!"

She gave a semi-unattractive snort when Andrew stuttered, and couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “No…I don’t think we do,” she said with a grin, “You said anything? I do love red velvet…Hm, what are your specialties?” She looked up at him, but he was staring at the scenery, so she took a moment to admire the park as well.

A stretch of cars drew closer, and Lydia guessed Andrew’s was somewhere among them.

Ouch, the c word. Cute would hard for any normal guy to hear but Drew wasn't exactly normal in most senses of the word. So as much as it hurt his manly pride, yeah even he snorted a little there, Drew took it with laughter. As much as he could laugh after that fight anyway.

"Yeah I guess it is."

Lydia apparently favored red velvet cake and for that Drew grinned. Red velvet was a recipe he was very familiar with. Granny Ila had taught him that one. So had mom too but he used Granny Ila's recipe for the most part. When she asked what his specialties were he grinned.

"Well I can do a little bit of anything. German Chocolate Cake, any number of cookies, and yes even a family recipe for red velvet."

Finally they came up on the street and the row of cars. Drew turned and within a few more steps they came to his car. The black car stood under a street lamp. Honestly he'd been very lucky to get this spot. Probably someone throwing him a bone in advance of the fight. He went over to the passenger side, unlocked the door, and held it open for Lydia.

"Your chariot m'lady."

Hey, he didn't have to be a total bust at charm all the time right?