She had never thought of it in such a way before. Confiding in another mutant, purely out of kinship. She thought back to Saphirus... how very little she had told him about herself. How distant she had stayed. She had never been one to open up to others. In a way, she guessed that that quality of hers had made it all the more easy to cut ties and run.

...but now that her loved ones were safe and she was getting used to life at the Sanctuary, his words were actually of some use to her. Who, if not her own kind, would understand her? Other afflicted, who already had practice and patience with their own powers... they would. Pursing her lips, black hair flopping over one shoulder as she turned her chin to watch a car pass by, she came to a decision... She would take his words to heart, and when that familiar darkness tried to swallow her again, she would think back on the time she had spent with him. With a relaxed smile on her lips, her cheeks flushed lightly and she patted the big snakes bony head.

"I am still getting used to having them. Eh, I mean him." She corrected herself, the smile dropping from her face momentarily. She did not want to bring such things up, not when the conversation had turned in such a positive way. Stifling resentment at her own big, stupid mouth, she quieted as filled her in on the box, and more...

The way he explained it, his warning and his plan, it frightened her. She found herself staring down at the package for a while, while he spoke. Wondering what was hidden away beneath the paper and cardboard. Every word he bounced off of her made the situation sound more dire. She gulped, and wrapped her arms around her middle tightly. Unfortunately, she was no closer to being freed from Sloths grip on the box... so she was more or less forced to play along. Nodding her head gently, she fixed her shielded gaze on the man, and frowned.

"Can you promise me that?"

"I promise, Jirou.... I will keep as quiet as possible... I do not wish to get you into any more trouble than I already have."

The thought of running and leaving him behind to face uncertain dangers on his own... and the fact that he expected such a thing to happen in the first place, worried her. But instead of dwelling on it, she pushed the thoughts from her head. They were best to be ignored until breathing down her neck. Fixing a small, nervous smile back on her face, she continued on.

"...You are far too nice for a job such as this.... I think it is un-befitting of you."

>"You are far too nice for a job such as this... I think it's un-befitting of you."

Those words, which had been spoken with such kindness and heartfelt goodwill, struck the young mercenary deep down inside his soul. They reverberated through out his entire person, sending wave upon wave of regret crashing against the seemingly impenetrable walls which for so long had sheltered his fragile inner being. It was a sad truth, a hard truth, and yet it was still a truth none the less. This life really was beneath him, and while he had always accepted it, it was obvious to others that he was better than what he had become. His stoic and unflinching facade faltered as his past decisions came flooding back to him.

He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, his hands still clasped behind his head. His eyes closed as he momentarily lost himself in the thoughts that so relentlessly forced their way into his mind. How had a single lone and innocent mutant suddenly cracked his mental barriers when countless assassinations and near death experiences had failed to break him?

It wasn't like this was a lifestyle he had dreamed of having. When he was younger he wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer. He never intended to be a sell sword/gun for hire, but then again he never anticipated that a sudden explosion and raging fire would take the only family he had left.

"Strong will can stir the heart, but a will too strong can cut off the hearts visibility. The sorrow of a man bereaved of his family turns into hate, which eventually metamorphosises into the intent to kill. The man's finger reaches for the trigger. Sin changes people. Sin begets sin, but I... I still want to believe... I still want to believe in the heart... The heart that feels the sin."

The words were spoken in a low soft tone, which were almost lost against the buzzing of the city though Andrea would no doubt still hear them. He turned towards Andrea, his eyes were turning red from forcing back the tears which so desperately wanted to escape.

"Some people will say 'that they had to... to survive.' what they really mean is that they were too confused... too scared to do anything else. I was seventeen, just a stupid kid, when everything I knew suddenly went up in smoke. I didn't know what to do, and all I had left was my mutation. I know this is all beneath me, but I've been doing this for so long now I'm not sure if I know how to do anything else. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to stop..."

She froze behind him in mid step, managing not to run straight into his back. Suddenly fearful that she had said something wrong, that she had upset him somehow, she focused all of her attention onto him.

His words touched her. The emotion held within them. She listened, lips parted slightly with concentration. He spoke as if he were a shell of a person... someone lost within himself. She could relate. Her eyes dropped from him to her feet, and she lapsed into thought as he continued on. Sin... her oldest friend. The basis of her theory on why she had been cursed. Sin begets sin. That line echoed within her. She had blamed her mutation on such a thing for so long, that it was almost part of her now. He turned to her, and she glanced up at him again. The pain was clear in his eyes. It tugged violently at her heart strings.

>>"Some people will say 'that they had to... to survive.' what they really mean is that they were too confused... too scared to do anything else. I was seventeen, just a stupid kid, when everything I knew suddenly went up in smoke. I didn't know what to do, and all I had left was my mutation. I know this is all beneath me, but I've been doing this for so long now I'm not sure if I know how to do anything else. I'm not sure if I will ever be able to stop..."

Without a word, she tossed Sloth over her shoulder, an action the big snake didn't take kindly too, and enveloped the man in a hug. Tears of her own had sprung to her eyes, but she fought them back. He didn't need her crying on him on top of everything else she had done. "Oh.. Jirou. You must be so strong..." All of the things she had been through in her life, and she had been sobbing mess for most of it. She withdrew from people, cut ties, and wallowed in self pity. Yet the very man who has just such determination in her a moment ago, was standing before her, slipping her a glimpse of his pain, and he stood tall and strong. He reminded her so much of Saph... so strong, yet so complex. Squeezing tighter for a moment, she finally let go and stepped back, a little flushed in the face because of her actions.

"..sorry.. I- I couldn't help myself." She straightened her sweater, smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress, and tried to pull herself together. People getting emotional around her always sent her into fits.

"We... we have all told ourselves that at some point or another... I know I have... It sounds as though you have had a very hard life... much harder than anything I would ever be able to relate too... But there is always hope. There is always a silver lining." She looked down at her hands, small hands and fingers that rarely saw the light of day... always hidden away beneath her gloves. Turning her chin a little, she caught sight of a little flower box set in front of a shop window. Filled to the brim with red, yellow and white spring daisies. Sniffling slightly, she stepped over, peeling one glove off, and wrapped her bare hand around the head of the flower. It only took her a moment to turn it completely and once the stem was hard and brittle, she snapped the flower from its base and turned back to him.

"We must learn to take the burdens that life gives us, and turn them into something beautiful."

With her gloved hand, she held the flower out to him, smiling as brightly as she could with tears still stinging her eyes. "We do not know each other very well, this is the truth.... but I have faith in you. You will find your path in time, just as I will. We must simply believe... if not in yourself, then in those who care for you."

Slipping her glove back on, she resumed her spot before him, her mind drifting slightly. It felt almost...wrong, to try and help someone else, when she could hardly even help herself. The words of the mutant at the Sanctuary were always there, just under her skin. Festering and burning her when she let them drift to the surface. 'You are the most pathetic and cruel kind of monster. The kind that lies about it.' Her smile faltered for a second, a brief moment where she found herself analyzing what she was doing. Was she really just lying to him? Covering her tracks to make herself feel better?

"I am sorry, I am probably rambling now.... I used to know someone like you. He hadn't believed that he could be anything different either." She muttered, shaking herself before darker thoughts could invade her mind. "He found a path, though... So can you."

The Roach was wrong, she decided. She'd prove it. "If you ever have time you should look into the Xavier Sister School... The people there really helped me out when I first came here."

The sudden embrace from Andrea was obviously not something Jirou had anticipated, nor was it something he was used to experiencing. Over the years he had kept his ties to others strictly professional. He never dared let anything become too formal, because within his line of work having friends meant you had liabilities. Liabilities meant your competition had weaknesses that they could exploit. He'd grown comfortable with only having to look out for himself that he had convinced himself he didn't need anyone but himself.

And yet... and yet that hug was the first true expression of compassion that he had experienced in years. How could he have been so conceited? How could he have not seen how badly his mental barriers had degraded and destroyed who he truly was inside?

Jirou graciously returned the hug to Andrea and while the embrace was over quicker than Jirou had expected, it was still more than enough to put his troubling thoughts to rest.

Was this what it was like to have a friend?

As Andrea pulled herself away and fixed her outfit, Jirou reached up and wiped the moisture from his eyes. He hadn't expected a day of revelations such as this, but like it or not he knew deep within his heart of hearts that he needed it.

He marveled for a moment at her other unique ability, and graciously accepted the flower, though he wasn't quite sure where to put it. He wondered if he really could find a better path. One which was more fulling and less beneath him than the one he currently followed.

"Thank you, Andrea. Your friend sounds like an interesting person. I'll have to meet him someday." Jirou clasped his hands behind his head once again, a renewed sense of self worth and purpose now resonated through his being. "Well we'd best get going and finish this, shouldn't we? Maybe later we hang out later and chat some more, who knows."

With that, Jirou and Andrea set off towards their destination once more.