Jude did not bring flowers this time. He was tempted, but the fewer mutants he put himself in close proximity with, the better guaranteed he was that he could hold onto the perfect power for Muse to feel comfortable around the power copier.

He really hoped that he could still copy powers after this.

Today he sported his shoelace-less chucks, jeans and a light sweater pulled over an undershirt. The days weren't all that nippy, but the nights were getting downright cold. And the sun would start going down soon. For now, he shoved his sleeves up to his elbows and folded his arms behind his head, flopped straight out over the grass as he waited for Svetty.

She wouldn't wear a dress. He had given up on that hope when she had first kissed him. But he could still imagine several other things she could wear that would make him just as happy to see her.

Oh. He fished around in his pocket to send a message before flopping back onto the grass.

"Here. Nudge me if I fall asleep."

Was this a date?
It sounded like a date.
Then again, it was Jude we're talking about. Plus, the meeting had a very down-to-earth purpose. Power practice.

Sveta walked through the park, heading towards the place where they had met last time. She was wearing boots and jeans, and a long-sleeved blue bluse, with her coat folded over one arm. Her hair was pinned up in a neat bun as usual. It was getting too long to deal with. She needed to find someone who was 100% humant to cut it.

She saw Jude lying on the grass, and smiled. He was still grown up. Great. he wodnered if he was going to stay like this now. Or he was going to age at all. Weird thoughts.

"Hey" she smiles, sitting down next to him and nudging his side, even if he happened to be awake "Waiting for someone?"

He squinted up at her and a grin spread across his face. After letting the sunlight filter through his eyelids, everything looked a little blueish green.

"Waiting for you." Always. Someday she would come around. For now he would wait.

He pushed himself to sit up opposite of where Svetlana was sitting. He had to scrub his eyes a little to be sure he was all the way awake. "I found ze perfect power." He offered her his hand if she wanted to test him out, he was almost 99% sure it would safe. Even skin to skin.

>>"Waiting for you."

She smiled, and waited for him to rub the sun out of his eyes. It looked nice, falling asleep on the grass, even though she knew the evening is going to be chilly when the sun went down.

>> "I found ze perfect power."

She looked down at his hand curiously.

"What is it?..."

She reached out a hand. She was wearing blue silk gloves that went up past her elbows, covering every inch of skin the blouse did not, and then some. She touched her fingertips to his palm, carefully, waiting for something to happen.

He just grinned as absolutely nothing happened. No invisibility, no flock of seagulls, no explosions... nada.

"It sorta happened on accident. I copied a guy whose power is inactive." So that effectively made him... sort of, kind of human?

He would not be telling her that the guy was supposed to grow up to turn into lava. He just grinned instead and let her touch his palm. He tried to keep it steady. "Go ahead."

He could still feel the pull of his own power, that little tug that made him want to take on a new power, but he could wait to tell her that part.

>>"It sorta happened on accident. I copied a guy whose power is inactive."

She tilted her head and looked at him. Inactive?...

"That's... very clever" she said finally, smiling. That sounded safe. Also, kind of hard to experiment with... but at least it would not blow up downtown New York.

She put her hand into his; nothing happened. She lingered for a while before she pulled back. Nothing. Pulling off the glove from her right hand, she reached out again, tracing her fingertips up his arm. Damn, she had not touched anyone without gloves for a long time.

Inactive powers, huh. That was really smart.
Also, reminded her of the old Jude. The one she thought was human.

"So... that means you are safe, as long as I don't kiss you." she said with a small smile.

"Yeah..." Once she pulled her hand away he scratched the back of his neck.

"About zat... I don't sink a kiss is necessary. Not zat it wouldn't be nice." Just in case she was confused on the point, he was quick to clear that up. "My power, still wants to copy yours but I'm not sure it can. Don't really want to try..."

He wanted to be safe for her. Also... he would have to try to copy a power later to see if he could. Otherwise, she would have to give him a kiss, right? To reactivate his power... err... hopefully it would be his power...

"I haven't tried copying anysing else because I wanted to be safe. So... I hope I can." Now... how to go about testing her power? "What do you want to do?"

>>"Yeah... About zat... I don't sink a kiss is necessary. Not zat it wouldn't be nice... My power, still wants to copy yours but I'm not sure it can. Don't really want to try..."

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to follow his logic. It kind of made sense. But she was not sure she fully understood how his powers worked yet. At least, kissing was out of the picture for now.

>>"I haven't tried copying anysing else because I wanted to be safe. So... I hope I can. What do you want to do?"

"Well..." she thought about it for a moment "I can't really boost or not boost a power that is not active." she said finally "So that makes it hard to practice. But the last time you caught mine... well."

She was sure he remembered.

"Maybe we could go somewhere where there are not many people around? Like, out somewhere in the countryside? If you copy mine again, still no one would get... over-boosted." she shrugged "I don't know."

The countryside... alone? He tried not to look too happy about that. "I sink we could find a train out to somewhere." There were trains... to places... Jude stood and offered his hand to Svetlana. "Come on. Let's go out to the countryside." If he knew how to sail, he would have suggested they go out on the ocean. But since he didn't this was the next best thing really.

Of course, he had to be back in time for work tomorrow. He wasn't going to let that spoil his time or cut this short. He offered his hand to her in order to help her up. If she allowed him, he would pull it right into the crook of his arm as they walked.

"So what do you do withs yourself all day?" Last time they chatted she didn't have a job. Actually, it sounded like she didn't really go out much at all.

>>"Come on. Let's go out to the countryside."

Sveta smiled and took his hand; she only pulled away to put her glove back on, for safety reasons, and then she moved back to link her arm into his. And they walked. She wondered if her touching him affected his powers... but he seemed to be doing ok so far.

>>"So what do you do withs yourself all day?"

"Not much" she shugged "I am trying to figure out what to do. I started looking for a job, but it is not easy... right now, I mostly wait for news about Maya and Sebastian, so I can move out from Aurum's place..." she chuckled

Coffee, coffee, coffee who needed coffee when Svetlana was around. He could have jumped and whooped and hollered, but instead he walked. And he let her hold his arm. And he sincerely hoped that his power was still active... or that if he required a kiss that he would go all lava on her. That would be embarrassing. Sorry, Svetty. I didn't mean to melt your lips off of your face.

"I sink a job would be good. It's good to get out every now and again."

He wished a million times over that he could offer her one. Then she would be as up to date on Sebastian's doings as he was. Which, was pretty slim at the moment.

"Still no word, I guess."

It was a couple blocks to the subway. And a couple stops to the train station after that.

"So you are wanting to hear from zem so you could move back in? So you wouldn't have to live alone? I mean, you're worried for zere safety too." Obviously. But living alone was a bit scary too, especially after a home invasion in the place that was home invaded. But it made Jude want to move away from Future Sight. He wouldn't be able to stay away forever. Obligations and all that. But Ghost wasn't there and Sebastian wasn't there. He could live at the Iris Apartments.

From the map, and a few helpful brochures, it looked like the best route was North. There were several parks big enough to put Central to shame and the lack of roads out there usually meant less of a population. So he got them two tickets to Pomona with the intention of hiding away in Tuxedo Park.

>>"I sink a job would be good. It's good to get out every now and again."

She nodded. Yeah, a job would be good. But her options were... limited, by a variety of annoying circumstances, like her mutation, lack of education, visa... meh.

>>"Still no word, I guess. So you are wanting to hear from zem so you could move back in? So you wouldn't have to live alone? I mean, you're worried for zere safety too."

"I am worried about them" she agreed "And also I don't want to move back to the clinic until I know it is safe there. I don't want to live alone either if someone's after mutants or something... so I guess I'll stay with Aurum a little longer."

It wasn't so bad, really.

They left the city behind. The sunset was pretty, and Sveta watched with a smile from the train. This could have been just a nice trip to the countryside... in a way, it was.

"I have never been out here before." she confessed

Svetlana seemed content to look out the window. Jude looked out the window too but letting Svetlana sit in a window seat meant that the Frenchman had the satisfaction of seeing Svetty and the scenery at the same time. The setting sun tinted her skin with fire.

He insisted they stop for food at the station and he even had the foresight to pick up a flashlight before they wandered into a lonely forest as night approached. They joked and walked, paused to check for human life and continued on their merry way. By the time they made it to the park and had walked a safe distance within, it was the violet hour and Jude was wishing he had packed a four course picnic dinner and a lantern instead of the incredibly non-romantic station food and flashlight.

"You okay?" They had been walking a while and the sun was lost behind the trees, but there was enough light that he didn't bother switching the flashlight on just yet. He had, however, tugged his sleeves down so that they covered his arms. "You sink zis is far enough?" Short of taking a plane, Jude figured this had to be it.

They got food. And a flashlight. This trarining session was quickly developing into an all-nighter, even though it was fairly early (fall season means it gets dark earlier... Sveta kind of liked that, in a way). She felt the tingling sensation of being on an adventure. And she was glad she was not out here alone.

>>"You okay? You sink zis is far enough?"

She stopped and looked around.

"Yes, I think it looks good" she nodded. It was really the nice time between sunset and complete darkness. "I don't think there would be many people out there that we could bother. We're fine."

Alone in the woods at night. As fine as it could get.

"So..." she looked at him and chuckled "I am not sure what I am supposed to do. But let's try." she decided, pulling off one of her gloves "Ready?..."

The gloves came off. Jude grinned and held out his hand half way between them, palm facing Svetlana. Her hand met his like they were comparing sizes— his was larger, for the record. There were no fireworks. Maybe a little speed up in the heart beating side of things, but no double coffee buzz. Just Svetlana's.

Jude took his hand back, closed his eyes and gathered his eyebrows as he felt for his own power. It was hard to try to find his power. It usually just sort of sprang up like an excited puppy when there was a viable mutation around for copying like an itch in a place he couldn't scratch. The powers that he felt most readily were the ones he was currently copying. In this case… nothing.

"Copying an inactive power was an accident. I don't sink my power wanted it, but I touched him without holding back." He frowned and opened his eyes. Was it darker already? "I didn't sink inactive powers could be copied." In other words, he had thought that the other guy was safe.

And he reeeeeally didn't want to see this particular power get activated. Lava was always a bad idea.

"Turns out, zis isn't ze best power to help you practice…" He shrugged apologetically. Well, at least he was "safe" for her for now. Jude held out his hand again. He would need to get activated again before he would be useful to Future Sight, but if Svetty wanted a moment of safe interaction first, he wouldn't begrudge her that.

"Before I get un-safe, is zere anysing you want to do? Dancing perhaps?" He gave her a twirl. There was nothing like dancing in the dark.