Miles didn't know if his dog still liked to be pet. If anything, the animal was in different, so Kealey couldn't see the harm in the action. The blond could feel Miles' surprise at her labeling of the dog as beautiful, though, and Kealey took note. The animal really was spectacular, no matter the means of its creation. Perhaps in a dark alley, or with someone else in control of it, the dog would have been sinister or intimidating, but Miles seemed to have it well in check. Kealey wasn't anxious at all.

The story of how the dog had gotten its name was a long one, and the empath smiled at the boy across from her. His family dynamic had been good at the time. It made it even more sad that things had gone so far south. Time would tell how that would end up. Kealey couldn't imagine a mother who truly loved their child turning her back on him forever. It would be a long time, and the wounds would be incredibly difficult to heal, but hopefully one day things would smooth over.

At the end of the tale, Kealey laughed and shook her head. "That is a very impressive tale." she admitted. "Shin and I have a dog, a husky named Thor, and he was lived with Shin before we met. I think they were a packaged deal." Thor was...special as far as dogs were concerned, at least in Kealey's mind. He was so smart!

The conversation was going well, and Kealey didn't want to break the casual air of their speaking. She was curious though, and wanted to know more about the boy's powers. Even more than that, she wanted to know what he knew about his powers.

"And I still say he's beautiful Miles. He's so sleek and powerful, I daresay he's much admired at the Sanctuary? Do they let you bring him to classes here?"

The boy gave Kealey one of those 'M' shaped smiles, the kind you give when most of your mouth is twisting up while you're forcing the corners down trying to repress it. Then again, hiding feelings from Kealey was a pointless endeavour but he still found the 'beautiful' comment misplaced. She had never met the dogs when they were truly beautiful. When they greeted him home after coming back from school, when they fetched balls and frisbees at the park or when they played with him with the lawn sprinklers during summer, their furs with their true colors, their eyes black beads, their minds so dog like. Now they were just... obedient, for reasons that still escaped him.

Tinaker did look powerful, that was for sure but he didn't think this particular dog was that admired in Sanctuary.

"Nah" he replied "Tinaker is small potatoes compared to Astor, my boxer dog. That's the one that makes people stare. In fact, I bring Tinaker over because he looks the most normal. I usually leave him outside the classrooms but have him follow me around in the hallways"

There were reasons for that as well, which he hadn't told anyone. He had even tried to hide the dog's 'condition' when he enrolled in school, but DocProf had been thorough. Miles tried to tell him that the dogs were mere parts of his mutation and were overly obedient, so there was nothing to be afraid of, but DocProf still gave them a physical. A stethoscope to the dogs' chest later and Miles had to come clean. He didn't like people knowing they were pretty much undead and he asked DocProf to keep it to himself, but DocProf told him that even though he had no obligation to tell other students the details of a particular student's powers, he WAS obligated to report his findings to the school's staff. Kealey was staff and even if she was the librarian, Miles wouldn't be surprised if she knew Tinaker's true nature.

No point in hiding it then.

"My dogs are not... truly alive per se..." he admitted as he tried to pick his words carefully. "They're not just.... y'know... undead, but they're like... the Ferrari of the undead. They're not rotting, they're packed with muscles... they actually end up bigger than they were in life" he said as he touched Tinaker on the side, trying to show her the animal's musculature underneath the fur.

"That's.... that's really what my mutation is about. People see me and they think I mind control weird dogs and that's so shortsighted. It's much more than that. I ... I raise the dead. I wouldn't be surprised if I could bring anyone back from the grave and that's.... that's what really scares me".

Miles hands were clasped with each other now, his gaze was down, avoiding hers as he realized he was now opening up to her like he hadn't done with anyone else so far. She seemed nice and had been that way throughout their entire conversation, instead of the sort that would judge you or punish you for being the way you were, but he had given a lot of thought to the implications of his mutation and he pretty much thought they were very dangerous.

"The worst part is... I can't control it. It has happened twice already and I couldn't help it. Was it the dead body that made me do it? Was it the sadness? I don't really know. What happens then, Kealey? What happens the day I see a friend die? What happens the day I see a mutant friend die? Can you grasp the consequences? Imagine a powerful mutant dead... and then a fifteen year old bringing him back to 'life', bigger, stronger.... and totally under my control. Doesn't that make ME dangerous?"

Ah. They'd reached the crux of the matter.

Miles spoke, and spoke, and spoke, and Kealey simply listened. A lot of times it helped, just having someone who would sit and listen to you without judging you for anything you said. That's what Kealey was doing. She knew the details about the boy's mutation, and she knew that he had hesitated to share the details of his mutation.

He was scared of himself, and she was scared of his powers. Control was an issue, and it was something that he worried would be an issue.

Honestly, the idea that something like Miles said was scary. A teenager with the kind of power that Miles was describing was scary as well.

"I know what it is to not be able to control what you do." Kealey said truthfully.

"And I know how it is to think that what you can do is wrong in some way."

The blond paused, studying Miles and turning things over in her head.

"The only thing you can do is practice, and find out what your limits are, and how you trigger them. That's the only way you can start leaning to control what it is you do."

"You have a powerful gift. I'll wax cliche...but that doesn't make you dangerous. It just lays a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. More than someone as young as you should have to deal with."

Having opened up to someone else brought a sense of relief to the youngster, specially to someone so patient as Kealey who never once pushed him or pressured him to speed things up and gave him his own time. He thought it was even selfish of him in a way since most of the conversation had been me! ME! MEEE! and the few times she had mentioned things regarding her personal life he had not said much about it, specially after the blunder with her dead parents. He didn't feel like overstepping any of her boundaries but dumping the whole load of his issues on her didn't seem right either.

She was now being very understanding to his situation and very empathic. She knew what it was like not to be in control or to feel like your abilities automatically made you evil and Miles didn't doubt it. Picking up on other people's emotions could be used in so many ways, good or bad, and avoiding those foreign emotions from somehow entering your mind must be difficult for someone with a gene specifically evolved to detect them.

Then she mentioned practice and that little word he had already heard a few times. Syn had said it before her and so had Amber. It was written on the school's name as well. Miles met brown eyes with blue and mumbled:

"It's not a gift, it's a curse."

He DID have a lot of responsibility trying to keep it in check, perhaps too much, specially when he didn't even know how to do that. The boy sighed as his mind compared mutations and for a moment he even wished he could trade his 'gift' with someone else. He then spoke in a normal voice.

"Yours is a gift. I mean, sure it must be difficult to keep it in check, but look at you. You're helping me. You can use it for good and take off people's masks, tell who's being sincere and who's not. I raise the dead. I make slaves. How do I practice that, or better yet, how do I stop myself from ever practicing that? How do we trigger it and study it? Do we get to kill some innocent creature and see if that works?" he said in disbelief, pretty sure he wouldn't bother to go down that route. "I was really sad both of the times it happened, so maybe it's emotional instead of death based, but I'm not sure I can get that level of sad out of the blue."

”Oh Miles.” Kealey said softly, shaking her head. ”I understand how you could think that. I really do.” “Curse” was a word they heard a lot with new students and in regards to mutations.

”I stayed closed in a room with no people from the time I was fourteen, until I was about twenty.” She said softly, eyes slightly vague as she remembered.

”It was a blessing though. I’d have lost my mind if not for that.” she said honestly, and it was true. ”Being around people was physically painful for a long time. I had to work my way into it.” she said. Shared experiences were a balm sometimes.

”Then I came here, my world views changed. I had a whole new set of problems.” she smiled now, broad and full. ”Tell me Miles. When you automatically feel what others around you feel…how do you know if you’re reciprocating love, or simply mirroring someone else’s feelings for you?”

She let the thought hang for a moment, hoping that the boy would realize that none of this was meant to be scolding. ”We all have our curses Miles. God gave you this ability because you were the only one equipped to handle it.”

She paused again, blue eyes steady as she looked at him.

”As to how we study it. There are ways that we could work on it, with no fear of actually causing harm to a living thing.” She was thinking of the Danger Room. Surely nobody would have a problem with her using it to test the limits of such a dynamic and volatile mutation. Besides, it was just what the boy needed.

”It would be hard though, both mentally and physically.”

The teenager listened and in his mind he tried to picture himself spending seven years of his life in... a closed room with no people? It was prison. Even worse, it was solitary confinement, the kind they use to break hardcore criminals and she had to do it because the other option was even worse. Maybe he had underestimated the consequences of being an empath but she seemed to be so in control of her mutation now that it was difficult to imagine her any different or suffering because of it.

“It must have been really confusing for you” he said as he tried to grasp her burden. Tricked by your own feelings. Not sure of what you, yourself, are feeling, a victim of other people’s emotions and yet... this gave him hope, for if she managed to turn her curse into a gift, then maybe something could be done about his.

He squirmed at the thought of God giving him this talent and him being able to handle it. His mother was religious and he had his beliefs as well, but sometimes, when he looked deep into the glowing red eyes of his thralls, he wondered if it was not God, but the other guy, who had given him his talents, for who else would be so wicked to bestow such a gift?

“I hope you’re right, Kealey” he said, slowly shaking his head “and if you managed to pull through with your own issues, then... I’m willing to try as well.”

She said they had ways to studying his mutation without hurting anyone but the mere thought of him intentionally provoking an episode gave him a chill that ran all the way down his spine, yet he really saw no other way. He had to know what made him tick in order to suppress it or control it and if that meant melting his mind and body, then so be it.

“Let’s do it, then” he said, trying to give himself some courage “It freaks me out to think I’m agreeing to this... but it has to be done.”

Kealey could feel the sympathy, and she appreciated it. Those times had been long ago, but they were still fresh in her mind. ”I wasn’t completely alone. The nuns who ran the orphanage I lived at visited often, and I saw people. It was just very difficult for me to be around more than a few people at a time.” she explained.

Miles took the rest of her explanation as much in stride as the empath could have expected, and he seemed open to the idea of testing his powers out. Hopefully, once she’d ran the Danger Room idea past the others, she’d be able to explain even more and put the boy at ease.

He agreed, and Kealey smiled broadly at him.

”Excellent. Progress already. I do, however, have one condition.” she said seriously.

”I know you don’t believe me when I try to convince you that none of this makes you bad Miles. I understand, I really do, but I don’t want you to feel that way.”

She let the words hang for a moment.

”So I’ll work with you all you want, and you can talk to me all you want. If it’s emotions that trigger your mutation, we’ll get to the bottom of it, but I want you to set up a few times a week to talk with our counselor. She goes by Mama T, and she’s incredible. You’ve had a rough go of it lately, and the more people you can talk to about it, the better.” Kealey smiled.

”Don’t feel weird because of it either please…a lot of times we have new students meet with her. She really is a nice lady.”

Kealey hoped this wasn’t a misstep, sincerely hoped.

”Also. You’ll have to come to dinner with Shin and I at some point. I think you’d like Thor, and I know he’d like a younger friend.”

Kealey had a condition for their experiment to find the source that triggered his mutation and it was obvious she wasn't kidding. For a second, Miles imagination flew, from filling waivers exempting Xaviers in case of death to writing recommendations for future students at the school (treatment worked for me. Would experiment again!) but her condition turned out to be far more sensible.

She just didn't want him to feel like he did and it was no wonder. She felt other people's emotions. Throughout their entire conversation, not once did Miles try to hold any of his feelings back and he wasn't aware how good she was at blocking the barrage. That made her the best person to understand everything he'd gone through and the worst person to detach herself from other people's problems. She was really, truly concerned with how he felt about himself and to see someone else who wasn't even family, caring for him that way really touched him.

"Thanks" was all he managed to say, lest he break down right then and there. He blinked quickly a few times and latched to the rest of her words in order to keep his mind thinking of something else. She offered her help and support regarding the emotions angle and suggested a counselor, which she recommended highly and Miles found no objections to it, so he nodded in agreement. He really did have some issues to sort out and though he had a tendency to talk them out in private with his dogs, the animals never replied. It would be a welcome change if someone with credentials lent him an ear for a change, even if talking about himself was not something he looked forward to doing on an average day.

The next phrase out of her mouth caught him by surprise. He beamed and actually felt flattered at her invitation. After all he had said, the potential dangers from his mutation and the darkness of it, she was inviting him to dinner, like a friend does to another friend. Miles lowered his legs form the chair, stood up while smiling and bowed as he moved his hand with excessive flair.

"My lady, I would be honored and delighted. It will be a privilege to meet Thor as I like dogs dearly and I'm sure we will become the best of friends" he said with exaggerated pomp in a playful manner.

He then sat back down as a part of his brain gave him the distinct impression he had forgotten something vital. What was it?

...

...

His eyes opened wide as plates.

"And Shin as well, of course!" he added, laughing.