Meeting New People

[Jinahi Fletcher]

Jinahi took a deep breath of the fresh Vermont air. It was strange to finally be back in the States. Even though he’d had citizenship by default since his birth, it seemed more like visiting a foreign country rather than someplace to call home. Hell, he’d never had a home in the first place. There was just a long list of boarding schools that ended with this one: Hammel.

He’d seen the pond on his way to his room in the dorm and made a B-line for it after he’d unpacked his things. He wanted to be around water after the exhausting plane ride. The musty cabin filled with recycled and dry air made him nauseous and irritable. The humid Vermont air, especially around this little pond, was like heaven compared to that deathtrap.

He hadn’t met either of his roommates yet, but from the look of things when he unpacked, both of them would be girls about his age, if not a little younger. He pulled a slender Parliament from the pack in his right pocket and sparked his Zippo. The water in his throat cooled the smoke, so it didn’t burn as it went down. He smirked slightly, remembering how his friends in Kocher had called him a portable hookah.

He rolled the blue sleeves on his shirt just short of his elbows and ran his hand through his gelled hair. The tip of the cancer stick glowed orange as he inhaled and sat down with his back against the tree. He’d seen people wandering around in small clusters earlier, some of them decked out in Halloween costumes, but Jinahi didn’t want to extend himself into the social waters before learning how turbulent they were. He unclipped the carabineer that held his Nalgene bottle to his belt loop and took a long swig of the water and set it down next to him. It was going to be a pleasant evening, perfect for trick-or-treating. He wondered if he’d meet anybody interesting out here, or if he’d have to “nut-up” and go looking for people to talk to about life here at Hammel.

[Fifi Hart]

Fifi was not what could be referred to as a “chronic” smoker. Why should she have a nicotine addition when her own body was something way better? No. Fifi smoked to stay thin and watch the bluish haze surround her liner-lined eyes. In addition, it was a bit annoying to score a pack aged sixteen in Vermont. Too much work for the big-eyed brunette. However, that didn’t stop her from recognizing a cigarette when she saw one, no matter how far away.

Grinning, Fifi flounced towards the source of the column of smoke, approaching an older student she’d never seen in her life. That was rare for Fifi, who made a point to commit at least faces to memory. The more people she knew, the more people knew her. The more people knew her, the more people liked her (sorta), and with more people on her side, she was less likely to get into deep shit when trouble arose. She cleared her throat delicately from a few steps behind Jinahi. They were nearly the same height.

“Bum a smoke, newbie?” She asked, daring to use the nickname in order to fish information out of him. If he wasn’t new, he’d deny it, and Fifi could figure out why she’d never seen him before. If he was new…well then Fifi was just as good at remembering faces as she strove to be. Wouldn’t Gabe be proud?

She sauntered to his side, tilting her head and flashing a close-lipped smile. Fifi’s eyeliner made her blue-green eyes flash, her lashes glittering over the red and black. It was a little harsh for day wear, but hell! It was Halloween! Fifi’s smile broke into a Cheshire grin, revealing tiny fangs clipped to her teeth. Who could resist even a subtle costume at this time of year?

“Please?” She added with a slight air of playful sarcasm.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

Jinahi turned around, slightly startled by the human that seemed to appear out of nowhere from behind him. Scratch that—it wasn’t just a human, it was a girl, and a very attractive one at that. He stood up in one fluid motion, using his leg muscles to glide upright as if pulled by strings. While he did, he looked straight into her eyes with his. Yes he was showing off, but what was the harm? If she thought he was pretentious, well Hammel was a big school right? He didn’t have to see her again.

“And Masaad alnor to you too misss…..?” He trailed off, with the classic “insert name here” introduction. “So tell me, are all Americans as direct as you? Or are you just a special case?” He leaned his shoulder against the tree and crossed his legs. His nearly all blue attire contrasted against the harsh black and red of the stranger’s clothes. His right hand placed the cigarette between his lips and drew it away. He exhaled towards her, but not in her face. He was playing coy, dodging her question and taunting her with something she obviously wanted. He wasn’t sure what it meant to be a smoker here at Hammel and just what happened to “newbies” here. Kocher had not be kind at 12… but then what school is kind when you’re a raging, gangly ball of hormones and angst? He couldn’t suppress a close-lipped smile at the needle-like fangs that gave her a slight lisp though. Halloween definitely brought out the interesting side of people.

Jinahi reached into his jean’s pocket and pulled out the fresh pack as she approached. He used this opportunity to covertly give her the up-down. It started at her beautifully intense eyes and moved down, taking in her figure from her flat chest to her lean waist and turned legs and ended where it started as he fished the pack out. She was built very similar to the ballerinas he used to date: lean figure and legs. He was used to women being taller than him. He extended his hand and flipped back the lid at her sarcastic “please”.

[Fifi Hart]

Fifi’s personality assessment of the new kid: Hot. Smoker. Kind of a dick.

She liked him.

And if he wanted to try and stare her down, she’d definitely stare back. She knew a challenge when she saw it. Quirking an eyebrow at him. “Miss?” She said with pointed disgust. Ew. Did she fucking look thirty? Huffing Fifi ruffled her hand through her short hair. “It’s Fifi. None of that Miss bull.” She said curtly, choosing to ignore his foreign greeting.

Hammel was full of foreigners. The last one Fifi had crossed she’d left high in the courtyard to stumble home. She figured this guy would prove to be more of a challenge.

“Special.” She snorted. “Everyone’s special around here. That’s why they call it a school for meta-humans.” Fifi shot back, chuckling a bit at her own stand-offishness. The throaty chuckle turned into a girlish giggle as the smoke floated her way. She swatted it like a cat would yarn and closed some of the distance between them. Putting her hands on her hips, she shook her head. “I can find some other foreign hot-shit tease to give me a cigarette. You’re not the only babe on campus.” She said smartly.

The lid flicked open.

Fifi daintily, but triumphantly extracted a cigarette. “Thanks.” She chirped. “Can I have your name and a light, too?” she ventured, wondering just how generous he would be.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

“Well aren’t you just catty today?” he retorted, poking fun at her disgust and the cutesy attempt to bat away the smoke. His assumption that she was younger than him proved correct by her reaction to being called miss. She was full of sass and personality, two things ballerina divas were notoriously lacking. He smiled again, all lip, “Would’ve taken you more for a bat there dollface,” as he she daintily picked a cigarette out. He was ignoring her comments about being hot-shit, though it did inflate his ego slightly. Jinahi literally didn’t know what to do with this hellcat who’d decided to plop her metaphorical derrière in his lap the only plan he had was to give her more shit than she gave.

Jinahi looked incredulous at her as she plied him for his name. “What do I look like to you? The salvation army and a baby name book?” he smiled as his hand returned up to her face with the Zippo already lit (yes, he did do the pant-leg trick to light it). While she was occupied with the first drag he quickly followed, “I’m Jinahi, tasharrafna,” to keep her from responding to the salvation army quip. “And to answer you’re unasked question, I just transferred here from Kocher.” He paused taking deep drag off the cigarette and flicking the ash behind him as he exhaled, “So then Fifi , tell me what makes you so special.”

[Fifi Hart]

“All day every day. Take it or leave it.” She said with a shrug, resting the cigarette absently on her knuckles before she placed it between her lips, the tip bobbing thoughtfully as she squinted at Jinahi. What the hell was that bat comment supposed to even mean? She let it go, figuring there was enough conversation buffer to let him have a cheap shot.

She snorted, thinking as she took her first drag that if he looked like the salvation army…well the SA certainly looked a lot better than it usually did. Then there was that language again. She let loose the drag, blowing the smoke over her shoulder and regarding him with one eye. It was a series of sounds she vaguely recognized phonetically, but couldn’t figure out for the life of her what he was actually saying. Fifi figured she’d heard one of the operatives around the compound spouting out whatever it was.

“What language is that you keep speaking?” Fifi asked after pulling the cigarette from her lips. “Jinahi.” she added, parroting the name to commit it to memory. She shook her head and gestured vaguely with her cigarette. “Uh-uh. We’re talking about you, transfer-boy.” Fifi instructed, taking another drag and continued to speak, the smoke leaking out around her words. “Kocher is in Switzerland. You’re not speaking Swiss and you don’t look like a Swede.” Smarter than she acted? Hell yes. “So spill. I wanna know where you’re really from.” She shrugged off-handedly, the sleeve of her red baby-doll t-shirt slipping down her thin shoulder slightly. “Besides. If I figure you’re not lying I might be nice and let you know why I’m special.” Fifi tempted, hoping curiosity would at least get the cat to talk…if not kill him.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

Jinahi lit up as the vampire-bat joke went straight over Fifi’s head. \Note to self, me 1, bad bitch 0.\ The perplexed squint made him blush slightly, it was the first sign of true emotion and thought he’d seen on her face.

Hooked? Definitely.
Stupefied with a cat catching his tongue? Never.

“It’s Arabic, bat-girl,” he smirked, the right lip curling up in a rakish grin and showing a little tooth to see if she’d catch the hint this time. “Me? Why would we be talking about me? I’m just a poor ignorant transfer-boy who doesn’t even know what classes he’s taking tomorrow. Shouldn’t we be talking about Hammel and yourself?” He paused again and took a drag from the cigarette as he bent over and picked up the nalgene bottle and consciously took a normal drink from it.

He clipped the bottle to his beltloop and wiped the water off his mouth, “you are right though, I’m not a Swede,” he conceded. “But, detta ar svensk” he replied. Silently thanking Dr. Lebiedowski for the endless hours of perfecting his accent as he switched to Swedish, disturbing Gavin in the back corners of his mind. /What the hell do you want?/ he snapped at Jinahi. \Just shut up and make sure I speak in the right accent\ Jinahi said shutting him out.

“I’m actually half Egyptian and half American if you can wrap you’re pretty little head around that,” he said resettling himself on the tree. Jinahi almost started to feel like he had the upper hand. “Now it’s your turn to spill,” he said, pointedly using her diction.

So far things were going good here in America. He wasn’t even in town 24 hours and he was already moved in and met a local girl. The only bad part of this situation? Gavin had a fetish for bad bitches with sass and strut, Jinahi just hadn’t known one ‘til today. / Well well. What do we hav here?/ he said to Jinahi, accessing his short term memories of the conversation.

[Fifi Hart]

Fifi had nearly forgotten her fangs, and when she finally did get the bat joke, she felt incredibly stupid. That was something she did not like. Enough people thought she was dumb simply due to the way she acted. Frankly, she liked keeping people in the dark about her conniving mind, but when people actually duped her?...not a fun day. A tic of obvious annoyance twitched in her face and her stance leaned sulkily. What a dick.

She was impressed by his convincing Swiss accent. “Hey, I’m telling you right now that you could read your driver’s license backwards and it would sound Swedish to me.” Fifi admitted, having never heard the language as far as she knew. Who knows what kind of shit they shouted around the compound. “Did you just pick it up at Kocher, or did they teach you?” Gabe didn’t seem nearly as interesting in other meta human schools as he was in the downfall of Hammel, but that didn’t keep Fifi from snooping…just in case.

Her eyebrows knit together as she scrutinized his face, making sense of his admitted Egyptian-American roots. “I can see that.” She bent forward a bit, peering curiously into his eyes. “Deep eyes.” Fifi commented. They weren’t brown, but they looked Middle-Eastern to her. “I’m surprised you got the blue gene.” She added, straightening out and flicking the ash from her cigarette near his feet. “Mom or Dad? Or both?” she asked, curious where his Egyptian genes came from.

Fifi rolled her eyes, taking another drag before she finally bothered to form a response to his questions. She supposed he was right. Talking about Hammel was probably more convenient for him, and there was nothing Fifi liked more than herself. “My family is from Vermont. Born and raised here.” She pulled her shirt slightly, resituating it idly back on her shoulder. “There are enough metas in my line they decided to just move here rather than ship every kid cross country.” She chuckled. “And I only speak English.” She lied.

There was no way to be around MSAD and only speak one language. She’d been learning Chinese from Penny and Levi, and tried to pick up Portuguese whenever the twins opened their mouths (AKA never). Maybe Anastasia would teach her Russian.

Maybe Jinahi would teach her Arabic.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

/ Oh. I like her!/ Gavin spurted in response to her annoyed glance. / This one is definitely not afraid to let you know what’s on her mind. And right now lover-boy, that’s you./ This was unexpected. Gavin hated any woman Jinahi found interesting. The fact that they both agreed about this one boded ill for him. “Driver’s license? I’ve just got a passport. Never even touched a steering wheel before,” he said. Thinking jealously back to all of the rich snotty kids at Kocher with their Ferraris and the collection of Benz’s that his dad had.

Jinahi felt bad that she was annoyed now. He had that problem, always pushing a joke just too far, so that it wasn’t funny anymore. “I picked up the Swedish and a host of other languages from Kocher and various private schools. Some of it’s slang and some of it’s legitimate language. But the accent’s real.” He took another drag and looked at the pond. “Deep, eh?” He snickered slightly at the left-field innuendo and remained motionless looking back into her green orbs just as intently.

After she broke the silence with the genetics comment, he flashed back to Cairo streets and days when it felt good to lay in the sun on the roof of his house. He had so few of those, and even fewer still of his…his mother. His facial expression slide to a somber downcast look as he said, “They’re actually a side-effect. Both my parents are peasant stock, my father ” he said the word with blatant disdain, “is American.” The one constant memory he had was his mother’s dark brown eyes, lit up by laughter as she swung him around in the living room…He paused a bit longer as she talked about her family.

Slightly sad at the loss of visible skin as Fifi readjusted her clothes, he readjusted his own shirtsleeves as they started to fall down his forearms. / Tell her that you miss the view! Gavin snickered. \ That’d just feed her ego…\ he responded. He thought he detected a slight hint of pride and a “pure blood” attitude from her history. “That’s interesting, so you got any siblings then? Or is it just sweet li’l ol’ you?”

/ She’s lying about the English. Baby knows at least Chinese, if not something else Latin based. She’s been practicing recently and it’s still affecting the way she forms R’s. / Jinahi accepted Gavin’s assessment of that without a thought. That side of him knew language. He just picked up on phonetics and pronunciation like Jinahi could glide across a dance floor. He thought about all the other languages he knew, maybe that was his in for a date?

[Fifi Hart]

Fifi sucked a breath through her teeth, making a judgmental hissing noise. “Ew. No driving? That sucks.” She sniffed and picked at her nails. “I got a car for my sixteenth, but Hammel doesn’t usually let students drive around.” Fifi grunted, and made a fist, shaking it slightly. “Fuckin’ assholes.” Speaking of rich snotty kids…Jinahi was speaking with their queen.

Despite her annoyance, Fifi was starting to see something useful in Jinahi (aside from the fabulous body Fifi was positive he was hiding under his clothes). If he knew as many languages as he claimed to, Fifi could convince him to pass on his knowledge. It’d make her much more useful if she could eventually venture outside of Hammel to run errands for Gabe. She snorted when he repeated her assessment of his eyes. “As it should be.” She remarked sharply, a cheeky grin on her face.

She raised an eyebrow and made a note: Jinahi didn’t like his family. Likewise with Oliver, Jinahi’s past was something to be exploited, should the occasion ever arise. She cooed and clicked her tongue against her teeth. “Not a fan of dear ol’ Dad I guess.” She muttered, purposefully using the affectionate term, if only to get a bit of a rise out of him. “…Side effect of what?” She questioned. Fifi wasn’t sure that phenotype could be affected by powers, but she could be wrong. It wasn’t like she went around caring a rat’s ass about science. She took a drag of her cigarette and looked down at it thoughtfully. “So what? They recruited you at Kocher and…your dad decided to ship you here?” She looked confused. Frankly, Jinahi had no reason to be at Hammel if he’d been trained in Switzerland. She wasn’t aware that she was treading on fragile nerves…if she had been she would have stomped a lot harder.

Fifi giggled girlishly at his use of the adjective ‘sweet.’ “Nothing’s sweet about me Jinahi.” She corrected, rolling her eyes. “Except maybe my powers.” Fifi sighed. “I’m too spoiled to have siblings. Plus my parents got it perfect when they made me…why try again?”

Humble: No. Confident:…that’s a word. Bitchy works too.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

“Nope. I prefer to walk anyways. The air-conditioning isn’t healthy for me.” Jinahi was starting to put the pieces together here: rich, confident, sassy, spoiled out of creation (more than likely), egotistic. She was a bad boy’s wet dream. Lucky for Jinahi, he wasn’t really a bad boy. Unlucky for Jinahi, Gavin was.

“So, when was your birthday anyways?” he probed, trying to get a definitive bead on her age. He looked down at the cig smoldering away in his hands. They were 100s and his one was almost out. He figured that they’d been talking for a good ten minutes by this time, since they weren’t really smoking.

Gavin popped back just then, /you really ought to make a move of some sort before she gets bored, or we die of old age. \Alright alright. Untwist your knickers. Though, I am tempted just to walk away from her to spite you.\ Gavin’s voice boomed in his head, /DON”T YOU FUCKING DARE!/

Jinahi smiled just as Fifi did, but for a different reason than she thought. It wasn’t often that he got the better of Gavin in a battle of wits. Once he got past fanning his tail over that bit, he returned focus to the girl in front of him. “No, I’m not a fan of dear ol’ Dad. He doesn’t even acknowledge I exist aside from tuition and a monthly check in the mail.” He left that statement hanging, so she wouldn’t know he was technically a rich snobby kid too, just after he got done bashing them.

“It’s a side effect of my powers,” he lied, flicking the butt of the cigarette to the base of the tree and mashing it with his tennis shoe. “They’re stained this way.” His eyes had originally been darker blue as a child, but when Gavin appeared they’d changed to a whiter hue and hadn’t gotten back. He only knew this from a baby picture he’d seen in his dad’s office on the last Christmas he’d been home.

Jinahi wasn’t exactly comfortable revealing why he was at Hammel, mainly because of the proximity of New York. Fifi looked like someone who got around the upper echelons of society. But, something (Gavin) prompted him subconsciously to say, “I’m just looking for people who think like I do.” The statement perplexed him, but it was already in her ears so there was nothing left to do but roll with it. “I’m of age, so can go where I want, and it’s not like….I need money.” He tried to catch the slip but it was again too late. Jinahi tried to change the subject slightly, “I mean the Swiss are always neutral. They’re like atheists without balls, waiting for the apocalypse to happen before jumping on a lifeboat of prayers.”

Jinahi practically bent over laughing at the slutry, sweet comment. “Oh? So what flavor are you then?” He asked the double entendre in reference to her so proudly claimed meta-abilities and how she’d describe herself.

He fished another cigarette and walked the ten-yards to the edge of the pond then proceeded to gracefully sit down with his back to Fifi. He stared down at the water for a second as he lit it. He ran his hands through his hair and then looked back over his shoulder blowing smoke, “Coming?”

Yes. Bitchy was definitely a word.

[Fifi Hart]

She scoffed. “Convertible. Problem solved. Nature can be your air conditioning.” It seemed to simple to her. Like everyone and their mom could afford a convertible or two to cruise around in Pilot ridge with. “I don’t like my Dad’s…but hey. If that’s your only beef with cars…why not splurge?”

Fifi cleared her throat and threw the almost totally-smoked cigarette into the grass, watching it smoke for a few seconds before she stomped it out with her heel. “June.” She replied, grinning up at him from under her bangs. “I’m sixteen. Since you’re wondering.” Fifi pointed out. Just as she guessed: He was probably older than eighteen.

She quirked her eyebrow. Smiling? Not the reaction she’d been expecting. Something else was going on in this guy’s head. Maybe he was a compulsive liar and just got off on it. Fifi could care less. She narrowed her eyes and peered into his blue one’s again. “Huh.” She said with absent-minded interest. “So you…what? Facial mimicry or something?” She asked, trying to figure out things that could change the color of his eyes. Nothing exciting, that was for sure.

Fifi tucked her hands into her back pockets, settling onto one leg and shaking her hair out of her eyes. “And how do you think?” She snorted softly, giggling at his characterization of the Swiss. Feeling a bit triumphant at a correct assessment of his age, Fifi didn’t even bother to tease him for being hypocritical. His father obviously loved his money more than he loved Jinahi, or Jinahi wouldn’t dislike him so much. It wasn’t any of her business, and for now she’d keep it that way. She’d tease him later if she got bored.

He’d already started to wander off when she started to describe herself. She stuck her tongue between her teeth and wandered up behind him. “I wouldn’t call it a flavor so much as a…feeling.” She explained, punctuating the last word by running the inside of her thumbs under Jinahi’s jaw. It wasn’t much of a touch, but he would feel it. Standing behind him, she coiled the thin, elegant fingers of her right hand around his throat, the cool pads of her fingers tickling his adam’s apple. “and don’t be sassy.” She huffed, looking straight down at him before she let go, figuring he’d feel the warm buzz of her power in a few moments. “That’s my job.”

[Jinahi Fletcher]

/ Why not get a crotch rocket. If you’re going to buy half a car, you might as go all the way and only get two wheels./ The sarcastic voice said in his mind. /Baby’s got back/ Gavin added as Fifi crushed the cigarette butt, showing her leg definition. “16? That’s all? I figured you’d be older than that with all your swagger and personality,” he said with sincerity. 16 wasn’t a bad age, still time to mature but he figured there wasn’t a lot left for Fifi to learn about handling people, or herself for that matter.

He smiled, “Strike one. Keep guessing.” Jinahi knew that telling someone your power could be dangerous and he wasn’t going to give her another card to play.

As she walked up behind Jinahi, Gavin’s fight or flight complex kicked in, but he shut it down. He wanted to see just what Fifi could do. Who knew he might get to come out and….play. It wasn’t that often that he could come out in the daylight, even though he preferred darkness because it was colder and less work to keep his body temperature down.

As the first brush of her thumb hit his neck, Jinahi felt the immediate emboldening and numbness that was alcohol. As her hand encircled his neck the rush got heady. It was a feeling JInahi knew well. He spent 2 years drinking heavily trying to block out Gavin at Kocher, part of the reason he was 19 and still hadn’t graduated. Drinking had only worked when he was blackout drunk and his body shut down otherwise Gavin could take control of things easier.

But, there was a reason drinking was worse than having another person in his head. Water passed through his system even faster. Whatever metabolic system he had, it operated more on water than glucose so the antidiuretic of alcohol kicked him in the face. It left him massively fatigued and hungover unless he drank even more obscene amounts of water than he normally did.

He looked back at her as the euphoria hit, a smirk highlighted his face. “I’m not sassy, just being a foreign hot-shit tease.” He arched his back and shivered slightly as his nervous system adjusted to the added stimulation. The cigarette tasted better and his limbs were tingling and felt airy and heavier simultaneously. “Well,” he started, “ you, are definitely good, at your job,” and stood up spinning, a little less gracefully though he thought it was damn good. He was eye level with her now thanks to the fact that he was standing on the crest of a slight rise before it sloped down to the pond.

He brought the cigarette between the small gap between their faces taking a deep, slow drag. The tip lit up to a violent orange as he lowered it and slowly exhaled, letting the tendrils wrapped around their faces. He didn’t want her to touch him again. Another quadruple shot like that would definitely make Gavin sound reasonable and innocent. But, at the same time he wanted to make sure he did something to make a lasting impression on this girl. The danger excited him as much as it made him want to run screaming.

[Fifi Hart]

Fifi balked at him. “You’re seriously not going to tell me your power?” Fifi huffed a laugh, scoffing at him. “Do you know how easy it is to find out?” She snorted. Really, it wasn’t that easy, but if Jinahi was as new as he said he was, he had no way of knowing that. Besides, all she had to do was ask around. She was bound to know someone in his training sessions.

She couldn’t help but grin when he tilted his head back, tucking her hands back into her back pockets. Her own pupils had dialated a bit, but otherwise the effect seemed lost on her. Three years with a power like that and one could build up a tolerance, just as Fifi had. She pursed her lips and covered her mouth, hiding a blatant laugh at his euphoric actions. “Foreign hot-shit tease lightweight.” She teased. She figured a touch like that wouldn’t be too bad. Apparently she was wrong. Whoops? (Not.)

“Not as good as you might think.” She murmured, curling a lock of hair around her finger. “I still can’t quite control it all the time.” She lied. Control she had, she just chose not to exercise it. The only thing Fifi lacked about her power was the ability to stop it from going both ways…like she wanted to.

Fifi bit her lip coquettishly as Jinahi blew smoke between them. She was tempted, very tempted to just kiss him and leave him passed out on the lawn. But that wouldn’t be very nice that would leave her not knowing his power, his last name, or his real age. She usually tried to get at least two of those three before laying a kiss on someone.

She tapped his lips quickly, not enough to do anything but shock his system momentarily. “You’re a lot less sexy when you’re trying.” Fifi purred, giggling slightly.

[Jinahi Fletcher]

“It’s more fun to make you guess,” he smiled. “And no you can’t get someone else to tell you. I haven’t even been in the States more than 14 hours. So nobody knows what I can do yet. Hell you’re the first person I’ve met,” he headed off the logical train of thought to circumvent his little guessing game.

As he stood there, Jinahi adjusted to the sensation she conjured in his body. Okay, so it was more like a double shot than a quadruple. The surprise added more to that initial burst than the actual touch. He looked across at her dilated pupils and realized that she was a reflective. Whatever she did to other people, she did to herself on some level. /Note to self, you are a lightweight/ Gavin laughed at Fifi’s half-mistaken assessment. Jinahi groaned inward, \ You, are supposed to be on my side. Hell you are me. Why am I getting sass from my own head?\

/Because she has tits…kinda/ Gavin continued. /Now, are you going to tame the hell-cat or do I get to play?/ \I’ve got this. Now shuddup and let me think.\ /So you don’t got this./ Gavin incited, catching one last dig before Jinahi mentally boxed him up. Just has Fifi bit her lip an idea hit him (probably from Gavin, and/or said intoxication). He’d pay for it later, but he could do it. He had enough control, and there was enough moisture in the air to pull it off.

\ZOMG!\ he brain-gasmed! It couldn’t have worked out any better! She tapped his lips, jolting his nerves again just before he’d done it, so she wouldn’t know that anything had changed. Gavin felt their meta-center activate, /What are y…Oh. Clever little Jinahi,/ Gavin purred as he untangled the mental coils restraining him.

Jinahi channeled. He condensed the water around his body into a almost invisible thin layer of water. It was magnetized to his skin for lack of a better term, much like the initial use of his power. Except this time it was done in a more sophisticated way: not a millimeter of his skin on his arms was left exposed.

"I'm bringing sexy back," he smirked, "think you can handle it?" He asked with mischievous intent.