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Kaz turned his body a bit when he heard Noel speak. In another place and time, Kaz might have found her words amusing. Instead Kaz felt a bit guilty and ashamed. With Noel's ability to detect lies, she knew that he had been completely honest with the threat. When he heard the water running and the light splash his mind treated him to an image of Noel standing in the mirror trying to calm herself, to wash away any evidence of fallen tears. He pushed that image away.

He could be wrong, but he couldn't really see Noel crying. Sure she was probably scared, but she hadn't cried since they had met. Those men in the park had meant to hurt her, kill her if they could have. Physically she might be just like any other human, but Kaz had a feeling she was stronger, tougher, more resilient than others. Even still, the image of Noel's tear streaked face in the mirror came back to him, and he kicked himself mentally.

”It's gone.”

'Gone?' His showed his confusion, he wasn't sure what she meant. A few moments past before he fully turned and pushed the door open more, ”What do-”

”Whatever I found... it's gone now. I'm sorry.”

He was in the room, not far enough in to see into the bathroom, not far enough to see Noel, but he was within range of the bed. Sitting down on the corner of the large bed, Kaz was obviously a little lost. 'How could it be gone? There's no one here but the two of us, she said she needed eye contact to do what she did.' Kaz looked to the bathroom, to where he knew Noel was. It didn't make sense to him. Ignoring the 'how', she had apparently erased whatever she had gotten from him. He didn't know the extend of that, only that she had went looking to see if he would hurt her, for psychics in his mind, and somehow found Nicki.

He kicked himself again. It was true he had, over the years, gotten much better at controlling his anger and not acting on it immediately, but these were situations that showed him that he had a long way to go. If he had thought about it, if he hadn't let his anger dictate his actions, he could have found out exactly what she known, what she had found. If he had done that and taken her up on her offer of deleting her own memories, which she had apparently just done, he would have known what to ask her about.

He doubted that though, he was no psychic so there was no way he would be able to know if she was telling him the truth. He could ask her something, all she'd have to do is say, 'I don't know' or 'I don't remember' and for all he knew, she would still remember everything.

Trust.

That is what this whole situation came down to, or the lack of it. She had a leg up on him, being able to taste lies. He was blind, his could be the greater leap, the greater risk.

Neither of them had said anything for a time. The air felt heavy to Kaz, felt a little oppressive. Kaz found himself leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped in front of his face, chin on his thumbs, when Noel spoke again. She wanted to know if he was going to kill her.

Kaz had calmed, had thought things through, looked at things from her side as best he could. There was no way he could kill her now and think it was okay. He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Not because he couldn't answer, but because a thought popped into his head. Kaz smirked. 'What was it she said? 'A God-awful taste when someone lies' '

”Yeah, I'm still going to kill you.” He would have liked to see her reaction, but he'd settle for listening.

He waited until Noel came out from the bathroom before he tilted his head to look at her and patted the bed near him indicating she should sit. Whether she did or not didn't really matter, in any big way, but Kaz felt like accepting would put them on equal terms, acknowledging there were differences, issues, but that they were willing, and wanted, to do something about it. That was what Noel had done earlier, and Kaz had been the one to screw that up.

”I have no way to know if it's gone or not.” He looked at her, looked her in the eyes through her glasses. ”Wouldn't have, even if you had told me everything you had..learned. I'd have to trust that you were telling the truth.” He paused and looked down at the floor. ”You know this doesn't fix it right?” There was no anger in his voice, no annoyance, no accusation.

”I..was...I should have listened, thought...” Frustrated at himself, ”I was only thinking of myself, my side of things. I didn't really consider your side, why you would do what you did, not until after you left. That you had your own reasons your own issues. Someone hurt you when you told them, when they found out what you could do.” It wasn't a question, he was sure of it.

He looked at her again. ”What happened?”

Kaz stood before the gates to X-Mansion. "This place hasn't changed." For some reason he had expected it to, he wasn't sure why he thought it would have. The Sanctuary hadn't changed, neither had much of the city. Maybe he was just hoping, it was the last place he had called 'home' before is absence, though in his head he had never really considered it his Home. Kaz did, and probably always would, considered his Warehouse his Home, where he belonged. When he had spoke to Sam about joining with the X's and acting as a teacher, a gym teacher if he remembered correctly, much of his reasons for doing it had been a lack of direction, not knowing who he was at the time or what his place in life was. The Mansion was where Nicki had lived, it was where Kat lived as well. He had cared for both of them, and they had both been good, in a way he hadn't been, that he still wasn't.

He hadn't been with them long, and while he was there he had never felt quite...right around the rest of them. Kaz didn't think he was a good fit for the X's, he was too ready and willing to kill, to end things quickly and with brutal finality, not to mention his lack of 'team skills'.

Kaz let out a small laugh as he hopped over the gate and walls with lazy grace. He remembered when he had been paired up with Jewel and Circe in the Danger Room for some sort of 'Team Building Tryout' or whatever they had called it. The two girls had been green, neon green, and he had spent most of the time being a massive ass, treating it like it had been beneath him. He still did. It hadn't helped him, or the girls work together. But he could see, at least he could years later, what they had wanted to do. It just wasn't something that worked for him.

Kaz had started walking towards the Mansion as soon as his feet hit the ground. He had been putting this off for too long. He'd been back in the city for months, had visited just about everywhere else he use to haunt, except here. Even asking himself, he couldn't put a reason to why he had avoided the Mansion for so long. Once he finally decided to stop by, he made sure there would be no way he wouldn't be recognized by anyone who knew him.

His hair was short and spiked up exposing his extremely Elf-like ears, with his short hair his facial scars were very noticeable, though they had begun to heal and fade a bit over the years, softening the raged edges. The gray skin-tight sleeveless shirt made his pale skin seem more pale than normal, the many scars on his arms weren't as large or angry as the one on his face, but they stood out on his heavily muscled and toned arms. A black leather belt with a genuine silver buckle sat in the loops of his rather normal blue jeans, though on closer inspection a person would be able to see the silver thread within the cotton threads, making an intricate pattern in the material, a subtle touch that set them apart from the norm. Finishing off the outfit was a pair of heavy black leather boots with thin, decorative silver plates running along the sides of the rubber that clicked against the ground if he stepped just right, which meant only if he wanted to make noise.

He didn't move to the front doors fast, but he didn't linger on the path either. He did linger at the door though, a little unsure of what to do. Every other time he had gone to the Mansion, except that once when he dropped Maya off, he had just walked in as if he belonged, mostly because he always had a reason. Not this time though, he had no specific reason to be there, at least not one he was going to dwell on. If Maya was around, he was going to try and find out what had happened to the book store, but that was just an 'If'. After a minute or three just standing at the door, he took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped through.

Once through the door and in the entry way, Kaz felt a silly urge to say something stupid like, 'I'm home'. After a moment of short contemplation, he smirked and thought, 'Why the hell not?'

He took a breath and let it out along with a strong, somewhat loud voice that wasn't quite a yell yet wasn't a typical inside voice. ”Rejoice! The Elf is back!” And then he started laughing.

If someone asked his opinion, he'd answer honestly that he liked women with long hair, found it more appealing, more feminine, more attractive than short hair, but he also had to admit most women didn't have as long of hair as Noel. It was sort of the extreme end of the short-long hair range. When she mentioned cutting it, he tried to imagine her hair at different lengths, until he figured that waist length or to the middle of her lower back would look quite nice on her. Still long, but manageable and it wouldn't be all over the place. For a few moments he debated offering to cut it for her, right then as she sat on the ottoman, but he decided against it.

He continued working as she worked the topical onto and into her pains, smirking when she admitted to snooping a bit. Not that he cared. He didn't expect her not to do it. He couldn't help thinking of what she would have done if she hadn't snooped and found the pants. He was sure she wouldn't have walked out in nothing but a shirt and underwear, but as he watched her work the topical in, he had to admit he would not have minded if she had walked out like that. She did have nice legs after all, and she was in good shape, not to mention it was obvious she was no stranger to pain and danger, as evident by her scars. Kaz didn't find scars attractive as such, but they did give her..not character...something, something he couldn't put words to.

Kaz tried to push those thoughts away, he wasn't the type of guy to jump and try to hook up with just any attractive woman just because they were attractive. She was attractive he admitted to himself, but he knew most his thinking at that moment was due to lack of any sort of intimacy for almost a year, hadn't so much as held a woman, and carrying one to a rooftop and then to his place didn't count, it wasn't the same.

Kaz pried his thoughts off that train and focused his attention on Noel's 'Google-fu'. At first as he watched he was awed by what she found and pulled up in such a short time. As he watched, it became apparent that she already knew a lot more than what she had told him on the rooftop. That was the only way she could find what she did so quickly. Of course, what she found and pulled up didn't actually give them any really important information, likely that would come from doing more in depth work and searching.

When she turned down his offer of getting her fixed up and healed he found he was both glad and disappointed. He felt both emotions for the same reason, by not accepting, for him, it was an admission of guilt.

Mulling it the day's events over in his head, he had worked out that, in addition to being able to tell when someone lied as she had told him, she was able to alter someone's memories through eye contact. The extent of what she altered and what she did exactly, he didn't know, but he knew she had done it to Baldy and No-Fingers, and himself on the rooftop. It was that last bit that really got to him.

They both seemed to realize what was coming next, as if that was what he had meant earlier by 'we can talk'. It hadn't been, at least not when he had said it. He had intended to leave it, and the question of her abilities alone until she came out and said something about it. He had intended to talk about the 'Bird Hunters', but he had be left to himself for too long, long enough for him to piece things together, to think about it. Kaz wasn't the smartest person, and there were a lot of things that went right over his head completely incomprehensible to him, but given time he was able to figure a lot out. It helped that he had met, known, and watched a lot of mutants, tried to figure them out and what they could do. If he tried to reason out why that was, he would chalk it up to fighting them and having to analyze the situation and their abilities quickly.

He asked the question. There was a silent pause. She turned to face him. He refused to look her in the eyes, something he disliked doing. Not looking someone in the eyes while talking to them was, to him at least, rude, and he felt, dishonest, but he couldn't risk it. Instead he kept his eyes on her lips. Kaz did his best to keep his face neutral as she spoke. He had decided he'd listen, that he'd try to be adult about the situation and not just react, that he'd give her the benefit of the doubt. She was a fellow mutant, and he knew that there were a great many of their kind that got the short end of the stick when it came to abilities.

”Just... hear me out. Okay?” Kaz raised one eyebrow fractionally, gave her a very small nod, lips pressing together very slightly.

Kaz listened to Noel explain intently, replaying everything she said in his mind over and over, adding pieces of information into the whole picture as she gave them. Right off the bat he had to control the urge to do something violent. He had seen her put his phone to her mouth, had felt sympathy and concern, had wanted to help her while she was knowingly, willingly rifling through his memories, invading his privacy. On the roof he had moved when he felt he was invading her personal space too much, had tried to minimize that intrusion while he did what he could to help her. The only thing he couldn't stop was a tightening of his face as the muscles tensed a tiny bit and the single muscle tick from the corner of his eye.

Noel continued her explanation...her excuses. She had excuses for what she did, justifying her action to herself. Kaz's face twitched into a scowl for the space of a heartbeat before returning to normal except his brow had furrowed, but he continued to listen intently, keeping his silence, hands in his lap.

He was doing pretty well, great in fact, not interrupting, listening politely, trying, trying very hard, to not judge her, too harshly at least, to keep an open mind. And then she fucked it all up with one word, a name actually: Nicki. Kaz's face contorted in anger, lips peeled back from his teeth, teeth that had become very inhuman, the muscles of his face were spazzing as his face changed slightly, taking on the look of something like a stunted muzzle. The skin of his arms writhed as the muscles beneath writhed and bulged. He clenched his fists so hard his knuckles popped with explosive sound, his nails elongated and pierced his skin blood trickled from his fists.

Kaz could have, will a little difficulty, dealt with everything up to that point. He could even sympathize with her situation, even though he still thought her reasons were excuses and justifications, he could understand wanting to fill in blanks. Especially if she wasn't always in control of her mutation. Kaz knew about that, he'd dealt with it a couple times, but he had seen others struggle with it, seen a little boy kill his parents because he was young, upset and lost control, causing his parents to age and rot away in moments. He could believe that when she had done it to him it had been accidental, and that's why she had ordered the sunglasses, to keep it from happening again. But she willingly went beyond what was understandable, beyond what was necessary to fill in her own blanks. Nicki was years ago, half a decade ago. Yes he still thought of her, still had people looking for any sign of her, but any interaction with her, any actual, relevant memories of her he had were too far in the past. That intrusion was inexcusable.

Kaz was too angry to keep his eyes on her lips, they moved to hers as he unclenched his fists, the blood stopped flowing almost instantly. When he stood up slowly, the twitching, writhing, spazzing muscles had calmed. He took a step away from her, then another, his body still facing her. His hand reached toward her face, his nails had changed to become very talon-like. Kaz felt the urge to sink his talons into her pretty, deceitful, backstabbing, untrustworthy face. Instead, the tips of the talons stopped a hair's breadth from her skin, if she puffed out her cheeks, she'd impale them on his claws.

Dropping his arm he turned from her and walked to the lift, which was at a lower floor. Opening the safety gate, he looked down the shaft as he strongly considered dropping down it to the third floor and beat on the most heavy duty heavy bag he had. In his current state he doubted it would be able to last even one hit. Gripping the steel beam beside him, leaned out into the open shaft for quite some time. When he leaned back and closed the gate his features and hands had returned to normal.

When he spoke, Kaz's voice was very deep and rough sounding, but only loud enough to carry over to Noel. ”I want to kill you right now. Want to rip your head off your neck. You had no right to do that, none. I don't like what you did, but I can......understand..” The word was heavily stressed, ”..wanting to know what happened. I can forgive you erasing my memories. I had that all figured out before you got out of the shower, well, I had a good idea what happened at least, but not why. Now I do, and I get it.” His voice became more normal after a few deep breaths, ”Did it ever once cross your mind to ask? Ask what happened? Ask for permission?” He kept his back to her as he ran his hand over his head. When he did look at her, he turned his body only slightly so his side was facing her. ”Why didn't you stop when you had enough? Why'd you keep going, keep digging?” Their was pain in his voice, a tightness that only came from emotional pain. ”I was helping you! I had no reason to, but I did, and you....you.... This is exactly why I HATE psychics.”

He turned to face her fully and spread his hands, ”You want us to be square...that's not going to happen. You can't fix this Noel. What will you erasing your own memories do? I'll still remember what you did and you'll be left with a hole again that you need filled. Erasing mine won't work either, too much has happened. If you erase both of ours we'll loose that,” He pointed to the tv with everything Noel had pulled up about the 'Bird Hunters', ”I won't loose that. I need that, and I need what you know.”

Kaz dropped his arms, breathed deeply. ”Why did you mention Nicki? What did you get out of finding her in my memories? Why would you want to do that?”

”One and a half of these pizzas are for you. I’d fully intended to bribe you with your own food to be nice to me.”

Kaz wasn't sure how to respond to that, but he had already ordered so there was nothing he could do about it now. He had had doubts that Noel could eat both pizzas by herself, figuring she wanted two different types so she could eat however much of either of them she wanted. Apparently that had been wrong. Chuckling a little, ”Well, thanks anyway. I'm cool with being bribed with stuff for things, but I'll admit that I'm at a loss as to why you think you'd have to bribe me to be nice to you.”

He accepted the Triple Meat pizza and set it and the other pizza on the table, after Noel took a slice for herself. Taking a slice from the triple meat pizza he raised it mirroring her. ”Have to admit, I approve of the shower first. Less mess to clean up later.” He honestly wouldn't have cared if either of them sat on his furniture being bloody like they were, they could always be cleaned, or replaced, but not having to deal with that was always a better option.

Kaz watched Noel as she left until she moved out of his sight. A slight, soft sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head slightly before looking down at himself. 'Yeah, I could use one too.' Kaz went back to the roof, looked to the edge and picked up his delivery. ”God I love this service.” He brought his three pizzas into the kitchen and put them into the pizza oven for later.

Kaz went to his own room, threw his clothes into the hamper and took his own shower. As he looked himself over as the water fell on him, he realized he had so many scratches and small cuts that he imagined he looked like a pack of wild cats had mauled him. He cleaned up as well as he could, being gentle, but there was nothing he could do about the bruising he could feel all over his body. It was things like that that made Kaz wish he was able to rapidly heal or have some sort of regeneration.

When he was done, he dressed in a pair of loose, light gray cotton pants and a sleeveless, form-fitting black shirt. He didn't bother with socks, he'd rather never wear socks if he could help it. After mostly drying his hair, he pulled it back and bound it at the base of his skull. It wasn't the best job he'd ever done, it was slightly loose and there were strands that he missed hanging down in front of his face.

When he reached the living room he realized that Noel was still in the shower. It had taken him 20minutes or so, and he had gone in at least 10minutes after she had. ”Women take forever.” He muttered to himself. Grabbing the triple meat pizza box he set it and the tablet on the side table next to the couch before he went to grab his first aid kit. Kaz's version of a first aid kit was more like a miniature hospital kit, if someone knew how to use what was in it, it would be possible to perform minor surgery with everything he had in it. All Kaz needed were the pain killers, topical and pills, and the wraps. He set those off to the side with a bottle of water before sitting down on the couch.

Using the tablet he turned on the giant tv and began to do a few searches. He'd pull up anything he could find concerning the 'Bird Hunters'.

By the time Noel had come back into the living room area Kaz had finished the triple meat pizza and had eaten half of a double peperoni and sausage pizza, finished a bottle of liquor and had started on another and had saved a few sites and articles that might have something to do with the people that had jumped them.

He looked at her when she spoke, eyes going a little wide at the sight of her. Well, her hair at least, since that's where his eyes looked. Kaz was sure he had never seen anyone with that long of hair. ”Holy crap your hair is long.” Kaz leaned forward, moved the table out of the way and dragged the ottoman towards him. Patting it, he indicated that she should sit on it. When she came over with her stuff, paper and pencil and pizza, he took the brush and waited until she sat down, adjusted the ottoman's position so he could work easier.

Kaz took care when brushing her hair, knowing full well what a pain long hair could be. It was only then that he realized she was wearing sunglasses. ”I can turn the lights down if they're too bright. There's some pain killers over there with the wraps and topical anesthetics if you want'em” Kaz stopped brushing, waiting to see if she'd go to take them. When she was ready he'd start again. ”To answer your question, yes I can braid. Learned from a woman in...Japan I think...did her hair each morning. She didn't have hair as long as yours though.” Kaz laughed.

”I see you found pants to wear. Went snoopin a bit huh.” Kaz's tone made it obvious he was messing with her, that he was a bit amused. ”Enjoy the shower?” He asked as he held the tablet out for her to take. ”Since you seem to know something about these guys, see what you can find, I already did a little searching, but I didn't find all that much. I'm not all that good at looking for information on the internet.”

After brushing her hair as best he could he began to braid it the way he had been taught. It was a little fancier than a basic braid, but it also bound up her hair more than a typical braid would so it wouldn't be nearly as long as it had been when they had first met. ”If you'd like, I think we could get your bruises and whatnot fixed up....” He said this softly and a little apprehensively. Not so much because it would be dangerous or anything like that. Kaz himself wasn't sure if he was willing to help her much more.

While Noel had been showering and he had been searching the web, Kaz's mind had been going over the day in his mind, mostly the encounter with Baldy and his friends. He had had time to put things together more coherently, to think them through. There were pieces to a puzzle that he had put together, and he was hoping he was wrong. He didn't think he was, but he hoped. His tone neutral and soft, ”Is there something I should know that you haven't told me? About what you can do?”

”I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest it was gun-related.”

Kaz blinked at her answer, blinked a couple times, in an exaggeratedly slow manner. He couldn't be sure, but he thought she might be being sarcastic. Her tone didn't suggest it and neither did her body language, as far as he could tell, but the words... Those words, if he had been in her position, he could see himself saying those exact words sarcastically. 'Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable talking about it. Maybe that's her way of telling me it's none of my business.' If that was the case, it was true. At the moment, there was no reason for him to know, it didn't involve him.

Instead of pushing and trying to get more of an answer, he instead asked something else, and he got an interesting answer. He was going to ask her what she meant when she continued speaking and confused him a little. Being able to tell if someone is lying, however its done, which was what he was going to ask, seemed pretty straightforward. Kaz wasn't sure how that could be messed up or hard to explain.

”Before Baldy hit me with the bat, I asked if you were a mutant, you said something like, 'I'm not a good one.' Is that what you meant? The lies thing I mean. May not be flashy, but that could be really useful” 'Especially when I find one of these 'Hunters'. It would make it so much easier to get the truth from them if someone could straight up call them out on their bullshit lies.' Kaz liked that idea, liked it a lot, and his grin showed it.

On their short trip to his Warehouse, Kaz did his best to make the ride smooth and any jarring motions to a minimum so he didn't hurt Noel or make her injuries feel any worse. He didn't know if he was successful or not. There were a few times he looked down at her to, what?, see how she was doing he supposed. When he did look at her, his attention was drawn to his phone resting against her lips.

If Kaz knew what she was doing, what she was using his phone for, it would be well within his character to have dropped her right then and there. His dislike of psychics was strongly rooted in him, but permission goes a long way with him in that area. Even then, he still wasn't what you'd call comfortable with it, but he tolerated, accepted, and allowed it, at least he did for the reason and time the permission was granted. Over time he could overcome his feelings, but only with certain individuals, because of trust, which was hard earned.

Because he didn't know, what she was doing was an odd image for him, made him wonder what she was thinking and feeling. He knew some people put a hand to their mouth, or objects in their mouths, things like pens, when they were uncomfortable, anxious, or scared, or when they were trying to hold something back, making whatever they put to their mouth a barrier of sorts. Was that what she was doing?

Kaz couldn't blame her if that was the case. She was being carried and taken somewhere by someone she didn't really know and as far as he could tell, she had no way to back out or stop it now. She had essentially put herself in his hands. He could understand her feeling some apprehension at the situation, even if she did put herself in it. Even if she knew that Kaz wasn't lying, that their goals lined up, that he had backed her up in the park, that didn't make the situation any different. Kaz wanted to say something to set her at ease, but he imagined that saying anything about their situation would be counterproductive. So he kept his mouth shut until they got to the rooftop.

”Uhm. Sorry but I lost one of your escrima sticks.”

Kaz snorted out a short laugh. ”Don't worry about it, doesn't bother me. Besides,” He grinned a sideways grin, ”It wasn't mine anymore, and I've got more, I can give you a replacement.” He took the phone back as she passed him. Catching a whiff of her pizza, he took a deep breath and felt his stomach rumble. ”I should have had you order a few for me, heh. Oh well.” He dialed, waited for it to connect and then ordered his usual pizza order without giving a time frame. He knew when it would arrive.

He followed Noel in and passed by her as he moved to the kitchen. ”If you want to shower and change first, you can plug the hotbox in here, or put it in the pizza oven to keep it hot.” Moving out of the kitchen he pointed out where the bathrooms were. ”There's a bathroom over there, and over there. Or you could use one of the guest rooms' bathrooms. You'll know which those are because they're unlocked. Othe” Kaz was cut off from saying anything else when a large cat padded out from behind the kitchen wall, probably from her room, and ran into his legs, pressing her full weight against him.

Grinning he bent over and picked her up. Once he stood up, Kalli moved so that she draped herself across his shoulders and nuzzled his head. ”I haven't been gone that long, it's only been,” He looked at the clock, ”Most of the day...” Scratching the Savannah under her chin he looked at her food bowl. ”Guess it's dinner time for you too huh? Did you really eat all that already? You're gonna get fat cat.” Kaz moved to the cupboard and got canned food out for Kalli, who promptly scrambled off his shoulders onto the counter. Her interest in the can was singular, swatting at Kaz's hand when she thought he was going too slow. When he moved to put the canned food in her dish, she hopped down and began chowing down before he had finished. ”Piggy” All he got in return was a contented growling purr. Ruffling her head a little before getting back up.

”Or you can chow down now and shower later,” Shrugging a little, ”Whatever you feel like. Plates and glasses and whatnot are here, drinks in the fridge, unless you'd prefer alcohol, that's over there.” He pointed to the large liquor cabinet, ”Make yourself at home. After food and getting clean, we can talk.” He moved to the side table besides one of the couches and picked up his tablet and used it to put some music on. Nothing loud or intrusive, but low in volume and though it was mostly electronic in genre, it was perfect for background noise.

”Don't... Not the big scars.”

Apparently Kaz had gone and done what he had tried to avoid, he went and tripped over the line, barreling into the 'too personal' zone. His initial reaction to the words was to say something like, 'Just the little ones then?' His mouth was already open to say the words when he realized Noel wasn't alright. Her voice sounded tight to him and she had broken out in a light sheen of sweat. So instead of being an insensitive jerk, he made a light cough before speaking, ”Sorry. I didn't..I shou...sorry.” Instead of poking more or digging himself a hole with that subject, he asked something else while he worked. ”So you were fired for not being willing to participate in legally questionable activities? Your boss...ex boss I suppose, sounds like an ass.” After a moment, ”Gotta admit though, I'm curious what you wouldn't do.”

After he was done and had moved to sit down away from her, he watched as she pulled out a phone. He nearly formed a full thought questioning why she was getting her phone, but stopped himself midway with a mental 'duh', 'Smart-phones, where else would she keep that info.'

'Dunno...maybe her head. Might be safer if it wasn't on her cell.'

Kaz acknowledged the point to himself. Instead of saying what he thought, Kaz paid attention to what was on the phone that was being held out towards him. Reading it over he saw there wasn't a lot of information written down, hardly anything really. If it weren't for two of the names on the list, Kaz could have dismissed it easily, but Isabel Duskmoor and Ambrose Jaager were names he couldn't ignore. Of course he couldn't ignore his own name on the list. ”I think a starting point is finding out who these 'Bird Hunters' are.'

A weary, soft laugh escaped Kaz at Noel's pizza question. ”Right, pizza, that was the plan wasn't it. I doubt we can get any delivered up here, we'll have to go to it.” Kaz pointedly looked at himself and then at Noel, ”Not like this though, I think we'd have the cops called on us.” Kaz bent his knees, put his hands atop them, and pushed himself to his feet. ”Getting cleaned and changed should come before snagging food. Going back to the car probably isn't the best idea. I'm pretty sure I'm good enough now that I can take us wherever in the city....” Kaz offered his hand to help her up, ”If you're up for leave that is.” Kaz would rather head to his place than hers, or anywhere else at that moment. Though he could use a change of clothes, and a replacement shirt, Noel's situation was a little more urgent. If she wanted to head home, he'd drop her off and let that be that, if not... He shrugged as if it didn't matter.

Despite Panu's obvious dislike for being in the pool and swimming, Kaz didn't let the boy out of it. Learning to swim was a good thing, you never knew when you'd suddenly be dropped into a body of water. To Kaz, swimming was something everyone should know how to do, to him it was as basic skill, like riding a bike, tying your shoes, or dressing yourself. If he was completely honest with himself, he kept the boy in the pool partially because he disliked it so much. A little sadistic fun oh his part, he got to punish the boy a bit what what he had done without doing any real punishing.

When Panu began to tire form all the work Kaz was having him do, he figured it would the right time to let the boy out. He hoped that Panu would be able to go to sleep right away and not stay up, get bored and start getting into stuff or make trouble. Kaz was going to need to get at least a little rest before the next day came. He had a feeling the 'Responsible Adult' the boy had mentioned was going to be every bit as frustrating as Panu was, but for different reasons.

After putting the pool stuffs away, Kaz followed Panu back inside, smirking as he saw the boy walked. He quirked an eyebrow at the boy when he spoke and asked a question. ”Why? Because you should know how to swim, everyone should. And it kept you from sitting in the room, doing nothing except being bored. So hopefully when you go in this time, you'll just got to sleep like a good little kid.” He was teasing the boy a little, smirking the entire while.

While Panu went off to shower and then, eventually, to bed, Kaz reheated what food he hadn't eaten while he went about the kitchen making some more food, snacks really. As he munched on his reheated pizza he grumbled to himself that having to eat so much all the time really was quite annoying.

The individual rooms in the warehouse may have been soundproof, and the separate floors were nearly so, he could still hear the water going through the pipes. By the time Panu finished with his shower, Kaz was sitting in a chair staring into the fire in the fireplace. He could feel the heat from the fire, though it wasn't nearly as hot as it would be if the insulated glass door was open. He paused, glass halfway to his mouth when the bathroom door opened. Cocking his head to the side he listened to find out what Panu would do, he was half sure the boy would come out and say something, but when he moved to the room and shut the door, Kaz returned his gaze to the fire and sipped at his drink.

The place in front of the fire had become something of a brooding chair for Kaz, it was the only place he smoked, a habit he had picked up at some point. Setting the glass down he lit the cigar before refilling his glass. Unlike alcohol which he could only really appreciate the initial burn and taste, he could feel the smoke as it filled his lungs with each inhalation, felt the minute lightheadedness from it and the nicotine. He smoked rarely and never more than one cigar, he had no desire to ruin his lungs, but it combined with the drink was something he found peaceful. The flickering flames dancing in the hearth added to the calming atmosphere, allowing him to brood without him descending into a black mood.

At some point in the night, the food eaten, cigar put out, and bottle of liquor empty, Kaz put his feet up on the ottoman and feel asleep for a few hours.

He awoke hours before Panu and went about a short morning workout routine. After showering and changing into fresh clothes he set about making breakfast. A couple pounds of bacon, hash browns, pancakes, both scrambled and over-easy eggs, and breakfast sausage. If he had guessed and timed it right, by the time the food was nearly ready, Panu would be awake or waking up.

Kaz set a place for both himself and Panu at the large table and began eating. When he heard Panu approaching, ”Come and get it kiddo, plenty here so eat up.” After a little time had passed and he had piled more food onto his plate, ”We'll go see your 'responsible adult', whatever their name is, when we're done.”