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Apparently she had finally broken through Chris's walls. He stepped out from behind the trash cans, timidly, but he did it. Margo was surprised when he actually took her up on her offer.

"Really?" Aww, that disbelief in his voice was so sweet. Her heart was melting.

"In that case, I'd owe you one. It's parked not far from here." He sounded doubtful, but sure. Was the debt what he was worried about? Well, he had no reason to worry, and she told him so. "Lead the way. And, ah, don't worry about owing me anything."

Her boots splashed in the puddles as she followed him. "For the record, you shouldn't follow strangers to their vans either." He said. Was that another threat, or a joke? She took it as the latter, laughing quietly. It was her type of joke, even if it was delivered in a monotone voice, and lacked timing. "I agree, dear sir." She replied, teasing.

"Speaking of which." She said with a look that prompted honesty. It was wasted as he probably couldn't see her. "You haven't, uh, been gathering funds from other unsuspecting children have you?"

"...if you ask for help we'll get help. It is a place full of...strong folk, after all."

He explained about the call button; although it hadn't been quite the answer she was looking for, and was rather unsatisfactory, she supposed it would have to do. It was clear he knew nothing more about the security, and it would be pointless to ask. "I see." She said. He almost slipped for a second- she knew the word he was going to use, mutants- but caught himself, rather clumsily. Very clumsily, because who said 'strong folk' nowadays anyway? Those hasty words would pique the curiosity of any idle listeners, and at the moment, attention was the last thing they needed. 'Mutants' would have been better than that, if he'd said it in the right tone of voice. Hadn't he survived on the streets for years? Didn't he know all of this? She supposed it was different, having company to play off of, that he wasn't quite used to it yet. Neither was she, so they would have to make do.

Margo hated it, not being in control. That was life for you, huh? It was putting her on edge. She hated that feeling.

But other than that, Alex was doing well. He kept his tone calm, remarked on liking hot dogs, and was altogether cool- that was, until he looked back at their stalker again. Suddenly, he grabbed her hand tightly, body tensing up as if he was getting ready to make a run for it. Lowering her head toward Alex to hide just a little behind her chestnut locks (this for the benefits of any watchers) she said. "Try to minimize suspicious body language, would you?" As far as the bus full of people were concerned, she could have been saying anything. Making a love speech, telling a story, listing her favorite pizza toppings. "Something the matter? Just one more bus stop, if I'm correct. Think we can make it, acting normal as can be?" His panic set off panic of her own, which she promptly pushed down. Feel normal, act normal. Be normal.

"Ah, that'd take so long. Where in the world would I get a mammoth in the first place?" He chuckled, nudging her.

"I dunno!" The girl giggled, nudging back. Ah, light-hearted teasing felt so good. When he announced his affinity for birds, hawks in particular, she nodded. If he had spent all those years by himself, with only a hawk construct, it made sense that he would favor them. Or perhaps he had liked birds even before, and that had been the reason he had made one, anyway. Who knew? "Yeah, hawks are awesome. I've always wondered, what would it be like to fly."

"Alright, skipping your turn, because mine didn't really count... Um, favorite literature, including poetry?" Margo was quite the bookworm, reading everything from the milk carton to Charles Dickens. Books were so great; you could learn so much from reading. She thought poetry was beautiful, too. A person's favorite book, or author, could tell her a lot about that person. "Heh, maybe we should call this the 'favorite' game." She joked.

Alex's next comment worried her, though. "Yeah, he's been watching us for a while. Even if he follows us to the house I don't think he'll be much trouble. We can handle him."

She raised an eyebrow at his last sentence, pausing to gather her thoughts. Was he suggesting he wouldn't find it to be trouble if they got into a fight? Normally, she wouldn't have worried about this at all. Margo might have been fifteen, but she knew to most people she still looked like a girl- she was pretty safe with that, as most everybody would hesitate to stir up trouble with a mere kid like her, especially in public. Being her age had other benefits as well... She could play it a certain way with any authority... but that was a last resort.. Being a mutant put a spin on it as well; she'd not seen mutant hate for herself yet, but she had heard of it... Her defensive drive was already kicking in, but she forced it to a stop. "Yeah, I don't really care. As long as he doesn't make a scene out in public." She replied, much calmer than she felt.

"Sure, but I thought we were already playing." He said with a smile and a cute little nudge. "So how do we play?"

"Eh, make it up as we go." Margo replied, with a laugh. "Yes, we were. I'm simply rephrasing it to make it sound more appealing." She leaned back. Who cared about how long it took to get to their destination? Sure, it was still sort of awkward, after all, she was still trying to figure out Alex, how to act around him and what to say. She might say something wrong any second, might have said something wrong already- especially with her previous sharp comment that she hadn't really meant, and was now regretting deeply- yet there was something appealing with talking with this boy. It was nice to have a friendly conversation for once, one that was actually real.

"You can start if you want. Ask any question: favorite color, biggest fear, whatever." She said. "Make up more rules if you want. Just be sure to keep it boring for any bystanders, you know?" She warned, looking out of the corner of her eye at the previous eavesdropper, glad to see that he was no longer paying that much attention to them.

"Oh, and replies are limited to ten minutes or less. Anything below that is fine." She added with a wink. "Follow up questions are awesome."

"Hmm, I kinda have been wanting to ask about your...ya know situation, with your parents and all. You said you'd have to call your dad earlier, does that mean that they don't know yet? I mean, most folks that I've run into cut all ties with their families to avoid being found or having to deal with...consequences."

She'd said ask her anything, anytime, but she hadn't meant this.

"Is that what you did, cut all ties?" She reversed the question, words sharp but tone gently curious. It was a habit from too many years of protecting herself, and she quickly took it back. "Sorry, don't answer that." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man watching them with a frown on his face. Had he heard their conversation, and put the pieces together? God. But if he did was frown at them, she wouldn't mind a bit. Who cared who knew anyway out here where she meant nothing to anybody? Maybe Alex cared, though, so she kept her voice down as well, sweeping her eyes across the bus with a deliberately bored but innocent attitude. There; she would see who had the nerve to call out a girl- just a girl- like her, or the boy sitting with her.

"Perfect place to hold this conversation." Margo said sarcastically, then dropping the attitude with a deep sigh, answered. "No, I didn't cut all my ties. See, when I originally left, the idea was that I might go back someday, after I had figured the whole thing out. It's always better to leave the side door open, in case you get locked out, if you get my meaning. Parents? My dad doesn't know anything about anything at all. I left a note, and sorta planned not to be in contact, but.. If I ever decide to go back.. Not that it has much to do with that.. Actually nothing to do with it.." She got tangled up in her words. Or rather, in her ideas. It was just that somewhere in the back of her mind she still expected something from her father, still thought of him as a father and herself as his responsibility, despite everything. Just that she still cared, even if he didn't. Parents, Alex had said. Rather, a parent, and a poor one at that. (Not literally. A bad parent is what she meant.)

"Heh, just a brain freeze there." She said, sliding a laugh for his benefit, continuing. "Anyway, thought I better run it through with my dad before signing anything, you know."

That was all she said for the moment. She fully expected him to ask more questions, and she would answer, but she was rather tired of talking nonstop by now. Besides, she wasn't sure which direction he wanted to go anyway.

"Heh, okay, so what about you. You can manipulate emotions right? So can you have that emotion directed at someone or something or is it just an emotion that you put inside people?"

She mentally groaned at his inquiry. Of all things, this question? Really? She supposed it was only fair, since she had she'd already asked about him, but still.. "Um. Yes, but no." She said. How to explain this? Collaborating, she and Lucy had pretty much gotten it down to the point that both understood it quite clearly, but it was still rather hard to explain, especially if you were trying to do it quickly.

"I don't exactly 'manipulate' emotions, that is, no ghost fingers inside your head or anything. I can't exactly direct them either. It's hard to describe.. Well, think of it like this: I tune a wave to the frequency that matches the emotion, and send it out over a certain area. Everyone is affected, some more than others, it depends. You know those days when you're just really down, for no reason? When that happens you gotta check for me." She hoped that had gotten the very basic idea across. If he was still wondering more, she could always answer more questions, or maybe even give a little demonstration later, when there weren't so many people around. Preferably, nothing big, as she never enjoyed the "echo effect".

The elderly lady with that adorable handbag left. That was weird; who rode the bus for just one stop anyway? Apparently some people did. When Margo was 90 years old, maybe she would do that too.

Checking around to make sure nobody else was in desperate need of the seat, and discovering no one, she took it. "Anything else?"

They got into the soon-to-be crowded bus. Alex managed to grab a couple seats for them, but he said nothing despite her invitation. He had probably interpreted her sighs as unwillingness to talk about the subject at hand, and if so, he hadn't been wrong. She wasn't against talking about it but would rather not at the moment.

"Ah, the constant enigma of bus seats." Margo said laughingly to herself; it was somewhat of a bad habit. "Window seats- such a nice view, but not so nice if you don't like crowding. Aisle seats are so much better for the claustrophobic, though not by much. Then, there are the people who don't get to sit at all." So speaking, she was about to take her seat until she saw the old lady with the cutest handbag she had ever seen, apparently falling into her last category. With a little smile, the noble girl conceded. (It had nothing to do with the cuteness of the handbag) "I personally don't mind, sitting, standing, whatever."

Margo leaned against a seat back to keep her balance as the bus started moving. His answer managed to hook her curiosity yet again. "You said earlier that the nerve centers are connected. So, does that refer to everything? Construct hungry, you hungry; construct tired, you tired?" She asked, keeping her voice on the quieter side so she wouldn't be overheard by the nearby passengers.