Yet another re-write... I didn't like how the other one turned out and I decided to do it through Todd and Candy's perspective... its not all sugar and gumdrops..

Lust and Love

Chapter 1

A Not So Typical Day At the Mall

Todd sulked as Pietro ran off to chase a new face around the mall. Pietro had told the others he was taking him out for some air, which really meant Pietro needed someone to keep tabs to make sure his fourth date for the evening didn't get overbooked with his third. He could have done the same at home, where not so many people looked at him so often. As the sixth person stirred their child away from his booth area and glared at him, he opened his bag, glad he'd taken it with him last minute. He began to doodle on a few sheets of paper, wondering how long until someone kicked him out of here.

"Excuse me," Todd sighed, and here it came.

"I'm waitin' for a friend," responded Todd, preparing to close the pages if the female voice told him to leave.

"Todd, right?" Todd froze and looked up in confusion, he rarely heard his name.

"Uh, yeah..." Todd blinked, baffled.

He'd expected to see the deli owner. With her graying brown hair held in a net, with wrinkled dead eyes, in a stained stripped uniform, and her sulky angry expression. Instead his eyes fell on a girl much younger than the ancient Deli women, a girl around his age. She wore no uniform, just simple clothes that looked like she'd raided Claire's, her hair had no gray in and was a vibrant orange like red, she had no wrinkles around her hazel eyes, only slight freckles, and her expression read one of curiosity. Of coarse Todd didn't see this, he saw a girl his own age, period.

"Oh good, here I was like, thinking I'd made an idiot of myself," she chuckled, this confused Todd even more.

"Was there a reason that you needed to know if it was me, yo?" asked Todd, if she was here to harass him, he wasn't going to sit here.

"Ohm.. no... I guess you don't know who I am..." she looked nervous now.

"Uh, sorry, yo... should I?" asked Todd, as she sat down.

"We went to Bayville High together," said the girl with a slight smile, "We had a gym class together."

"Ohm," Todd couldn't remember this girl in his gym class, he wasn't a sleaze but he had been an hormonal teenager and gym class was a great time to exercise his visual ranges.

"I look a little different, I guess... I used to have braces... always was around the three cheerleaders," said the girl, trying to paint a mental image, in which Todd did in fact have a vague memory of the three cheerleaders.

"Oh, yeah... Pietro went out with them, yo..." said Todd, closing his sketch book.

"Yeah, my sister said he dated nearly half if not all the girls in the Junior and Senior class," said the girl with a small chuckle.

"There was a couple Sophomore's in there, maybe two or three Freshman," said Todd calmly, this was normal chatter that he was comfortable with, "So who are you then?"

"Candice or Candy, sister of Carmella Kayne," said the girl.

"Oh yeah, yo... she was that brunette cheerleader, friends with Matthews cousin or somethin' like that," said Todd. (A/N: Cannon)

"That'd be the one," smiled Candy, pulling her hair behind her ear.

"Wait... so your names..." Todd's brow raised.

"Candy Kayne, yeah... its a great joke for anyone around the Holidays," she rolled her eyes.

"Your parents must have a sinistral sense of humor, yo," laughed Todd, as Candy stood up quickly.

"I gotta go, bye," said Candy, quickly heading off.

Todd's brow furrowed, that had been odd. He shoved his stuff in his bag bitterly, what had been her problem? He blew it off as he heard Pietro's voice coming closer, followed by a female's. He slouched a little as he saw them, he always felt so awkward. Pietro and the girl, a blonde this time, parted ways, her nose turned up at the sight of Todd.

"I'm bored, let's go home," said Pietro with a sigh.

"Didn't look boring to me," said Todd standing up and grabbing his bag, "Hey Pie, is it normal for a chic to randomly start talking for no reason?"

"Girls do tend to prat on about unimportant things, but most of the time there's a point to it... depends on the scenario," said Pietro as they headed towards the exit.

"Walk up to a guy they barely know and sit down to talk," said Todd, with a shrug.

"That happens to me often," smirked Pietro, but he didn't continue his side of the conversation as he seemed to be musing over something in his head.

Todd sat against the wall letting out an annoyed sigh. He wasn't exactly sure how or what had just went down, but it had resulted in a decent sized hex down a flight of stairs. He'd only been aiming to ask her something this time, but that hadn't gone over well. He'd ask Tabitha, but she was god knows where this week. As she wasn't an actual member of a team she came and went as she pleased, which no one really minded save Mystique.

"What you do this time?" asked Fred leaning from inside the living room.

"I was in her sight range," said Todd with a shrug as he stood up and hopped into the living room.

Todd sat in the mall, again, this time he'd gone with Lance for the purpose of once again getting away from the Brotherhood house, though their hang time hadn't lasted long. Turned out Kitty and Rogue had done the same thing and when they'd walked passed Hot Topic, Kitty had been standing outside waiting... needless to say, Kitty and Lance had run off and Rogue had decided to go home, leaving Todd once again brewding on a bench. He'd come to the decision that maybe he should actually get a job, he shuttered and gave a groan, who would hire him anyways? He got up to go for a walk, maybe he'd get Lance to take him home if he ran into him. As he headed towards DEB'S, as that's where Kitty had dragged him, he saw a Now Hiring sign outside of China Den, as well as a flash of orange.

"Why not... it can't hurt, yo," said Todd with a shrug as he walked into the crimson and gold colored eatery.

He attempted to look presentable, but shrugged it off and walked up to counter, where he could see someone crouched down to get something. He let out a slight cough and bit his lip to fight back laughter as the figure obviously hit their head on the counter, he stopped when he recognized the person. It was the girl from the other day, her vibrant hair held up in a bun and chopsticks, and wearing a sort of purple oriental uniform.

"Ohm, hi," she smiled, her now red face failing to hide her embarrassment at her previous attempt to stand up quickly, her head still throbbing, "Can I uh, help you?"

"Well.. I came here to ask for an application, yo... but," Todd leaned against the counter in an attempt to look cool, "Mind answerin' a question?"

"Maybe," she gave a wary smile.

"What was with the dash the other day... let me guess, a bet to see how long you'd last without getting grossed out," said Todd, it was an actual common scenario.

"What?" her eyebrows furrowed, "No."

"Then why were you talking to me then? Thought it'd be fun to brag to all your friends you 'talked to a mutie and didn't get infected' or somethin' yo?" asked Todd with a frown.

"Ever think, maybe I wanted to just talk to you," she glared, "Excuse me for doing so... and for your information, I was late for work!"

"Candy, is everything okay?" said a man wearing a black and gold uniform leaning out of the kitchen, his hazel eyes glaring at Todd.

"Nothings wrong, just an applicant," Candy smiled at the man before giving a paper to Todd as the man went back into the kitchen, "I have customers.."

Todd walked out, replaying what had just happened in the overview of a few seconds. She'd wanted to talk to him?... well then he'd reached a conclusion... she was mentally unstable. As he managed five step towards the bench he heard a familiar valley girl's voice headed his way.

"Like, there he is," he looked up to see Kitty arm and arm with Lance, indicating towards him.

"Toad, were heading out!" called Lance, as they stopped near Todd.

"It's 'bout time, yo," said Todd as they headed towards the parking lot.

The ride home was a nightmare to Todd, the constant flirty jabber of the couple in front at one point made him want to leap into traffic. So when the traffic light turned red and they were stopped close to a cafe where there were more traffic jumping worthy couples he considered just taking the bus. He watched a guy using his laptop as a girl sat next to him and began to talk. He watched it for a few minutes and it clicked... a little, until.

"I wish I was like, more forward like that," chuckled Kitty, looking at the couple.

"I like you being more shy, it makes it twice as hard for me," laughed Lance.

"What?" asked Todd.

"Don't you get it, she's like totally interested in him... she's not just sitting there to talk, like you know?" said Kitty with an eye roll.

"..." Todd fell into silence, a rarity, as they drove to drop Kitty off at the mansion.

TBC

If you don't like OC's, then don't read this story... but you might miss a lot if you don't... you know how most of all of my stories are connected.