The street they had been on was empty, but as they walked on, more people appeared, as usual in New York. Anya watched Toad look down, hunch his shoulders, and draw into himself, looking somehow more surly and more afraid at the same time. She wanted to comfort him somehow, but figured she had already done about enough for the day.

They walked most of the remaining way to the dorm in silence, Toad a few paces ahead, occasionally looking back impatiently, as though to hurry her and make sure she didn't get lost on the somewhat crowded streets. Anya gingerly brushed the surface of his mind and felt relieved when she sensed that he wasn't as annoyed as he was trying to appear.

When they reached the dorm, they paused awkwardly in front of the steps.

"So," Toad said.

"So," Anya echoed. "Um, thanks for walking me home."

"No problem. Well, actually, kind of a problem, but I can recover."

"Heh. Great." Anya's courage had fled, leaving her usual anxious self to clean up the mess.

"See you around, yeah?"

"Um, yeah." Toad turned and started walking away. Anya's heart ached with the anticlimactic feeling of it all. See you around? she thought. Who knew when she would see him next? He knew where she lived, but that wasn't exactly a promise of return, or even a half-hearted "I'll call you."

Then he turned around.

"Why are you still standing there?"

"I don't know."

He took a step closer to her. "Sad to see me go?" he teased. She realized that he was hiding a wish behind the joke.

"You could stay a little."

"Out here? It's freezing. And there's a load of college kids. I hate college kids."

Anya rolled her eyes. "You could come in."

He looked at her skeptically.

"My roommate's at a party. She wouldn't be back yet." Anya only meant to reassure Toad that he wouldn't have to hang out with strangers, but she belatedly realized that her comment might have sounded like a different kind of request. Anya was beginning to feel like she was unwillingly becoming a desperate woman.

"I guess that would be OK. It's a long way to walk to just drop you off." He smiled a half-smile, and Anya's heart lifted.

"Gee, thanks," she replied sarcastically, unable to hide a slight smile in return.

Even though he had verbally agreed to come in, he didn't move closer to the door, so Anya didn't either. After a moment of just standing around, she decided that it would look more casual to lean against the railing next to them. However, she slightly overestimated the height of the railing and almost fell over it instead.

"Whoa!" she cried as she felt herself tipping backwards, her head falling in the direction of the concrete stairs. Before she hit it, Toad had grabbed her, one hand cradling her head and the other supporting her almost upside-down body.

"So, you really do need me to watch out for you, huh? You just almost killed yourself on a bloody stairwell." He chuckled rudely and teasingly held her in the awkward position for a minute before pulling her back toward him. She wrapped her arms around his neck as soon as she could reach it, shaken from her near-mishap, not to mention extreme embarrassment.

She was even more embarrassed when she realized that he was now basically holding her in his arms, bride-across-the-threshold style. Fortunately, he set her down quickly. She let go of him, but then felt dizzy and almost tripped again. He grabbed her waist, and she set her hands on his shoulders. She was one step above him, so her face was slightly higher than his.

"You OK?" he asked quietly. She could feel his breath on her neck when he spoke.

"Yeah, I think so." Her voice came out almost a whisper.

"Can I let go of you?"

"If you want to." A dare.

A moment passed.

And another.

"So," Toad said, his arms still in place.

"So," Anya echoed. She held her breath as he leaned infinitesimally closer. She felt his face barely touch her throat, and his eyelashes brushed her cheek. Both of their thoughts were hazy and dreamy, with no real intent, but they were somehow getting closer to each other every moment. His lips brushed her throat, and she let out a sigh, a sound of happiness almost like relief, when a shout broke the standoff.

"Anya!"

She and Toad jumped apart and turned to see Allyson climbing up the steps.

"What's up?" Allyson asked, her words innocent, but her eyes narrowing critically as she appraised the situation.

"Um, not much. I thought you were going to that party," Anya replied, automatically slipping into the correct "casual" tone of conversation.

"Yeah, I did, but the cops came. I was kind of tired anyway."

"Oh, yeah, OK." Toad was practically squirming, looking around to figure out an escape route, but Allyson's curiosity was too quick.

"So who's your friend?"

"Ah, this is…" Anya tried to think of a way to stall, but before she had to, Toad jumped in.

"Bob."

"Yeah, Bob," Anya echoed, feeling the urge to laugh at this pseudonym, but resisting.

"Hey, Bob, I'm Ally. Nice to meet you," Allyson said, her tone hesitant as she tried to catch a better look at Toad's face under the hood. She stuck her hand out to shake, but Toad fidgeted away instead.

"Yeah, you too, but I really gotta go. See you later, Anya." He was talking in a "casual" tone of his own, apparently trying to seem like an innocent college guy instead of an itinerant mutant. He bounded down the stairs, casting just one look over his shoulder as he walked off hastily.

"Is the light weird out here, or was that guy green?" Allyson burst out as soon as he was far away.

Anya winced. She had hoped that it was too dark for Allyson to tell, but apparently her roommate had sharp eyes. "What? No, I don't think so." She played innocent.

Ally saw through it. "Anya, come on."

Anya realized that Allyson was now thinking that she was a faker as well as a mutant-lover, so she shrugged and made a sort of noncommittal sound. "Eh."

"So, he's like, a mutant?"

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Isn't that kind of… weird?"

"Pretty much, yeah, but I just ran into him at the club and we were hanging out and stuff. He was pretty weird, but I didn't know how to get rid of him. And he walked me home so I wouldn't, like, get mugged or anything." Anya was amazed at how social damage control was her second nature.

"Uh, well, OK." Allyson looked thoughtful for a moment, then suddenly said, "You should have come to the party with me! It was so fun before it got busted!"

"Oh, yeah? Who all was there?" Anya hoped that if she could get Allyson babbling about the night, she would forget about the strange Toad occurrence.

"Well, I saw that guy from history, and his girlfriend, you know the really short one? And Todd, and…" Allyson began a soliloquy of the night's social interactions, and Anya relaxed. She had thought that someone knowing that she was a mutant would change everything, but apparently, it was all too easy to slip back into her pose, and back into hiding again.

Toad rolled over on his bed and buried his face in his pillow. He was trying to sleep, despite the fact that it was still early evening. He had nothing better to do.

Nothing better except, apparently, think about Anya. Nearly a week had passed since he saw her (saw her, talked to her, touched her…), but he still thought about her several times a day, details of her popping into his mind at the slightest provocation. He had so many more details to draw upon after their latest encounter—how she felt in his arms, how she hid her face when she was embarrassed, how she laughed.

The detail that came up the most, however, was not even a real detail. It was just a sentence, spoken in her voice—"I want you."

It reminded him of those annoying cell phone ringtones that always played at awkward times. At any moment during the day, his mind would replay Anya's voice saying those words, and he would get an overwhelming flurry of feelings—happiness, worry, confusion, and most of all, regret.

Who was he kidding? He hadn't been voluntarily touched by another human being for years, unless you count getting punched, which he didn't. And here he had met this girl who was cute and sweet (and OK, basically a traitor to mutant-kind and a nervous wreck from hiding her identity), and she had held his hand and let him put his arms around her and flat-out said "I WANT YOU" and asked him up to her room… and he had frozen up, then run away. He did have a reason for running, since that friend of hers seemed way too curious, but he could have done something. He could have gotten her number. He could have gone back and scouted around until he saw her again. Technically, he could have taken her invitation and gone upstairs with her, or, even better, he could have just grabbed her and kissed her. (But surely, even if she supposedly wanted him, she wouldn't want to touch his tongue?)

These possibilities and mistakes spun around in his head, and Toad spun around on the bed, changing positions to try to find one that would allow him to think of something else. But really, he knew he didn't want to think about anything else. Pathetic as his life was, this was the best part of it. That tiny bit of chance, this piece of hope.

After a few more minutes of tossing, turning, and angsting, a loud knock came at his front door. He jumped, immediately in fight position. Who would come to his apartment? He didn't have friends. He hoped he didn't have enemies anymore. What if it was Mystique, trying to get him back into the Brotherhood? What if it was the police, arresting him for the whole Liberty Island thing?

He slunk over to the door and put his eye to the peephole. What he saw was even more surprising than what he had feared—Deacon, the DJ.

"Hey, man! Wassup?" Deacon said happily, waving, his face distorted through the tiny viewer.

Toad sighed and pulled the door open. "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," Deacon said in a voice of cheerful sarcasm, inviting himself into the tiny living room immediately. "I have three things to tell you about."

"How did you find me?" Toad asked, then shook his head. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"OK, first thing—a job."

"A job?"

"For you. A good job."

Toad envisioned himself kidnapping or assassinating someone and mentally shuddered. "Go on," he said cautiously.

"Remember the mutant club?"

"Well, yeah."

"They need a new bouncer. Well, bouncer, furniture mover, maybe occasional bartender, or floor sweeper, or troubleshooter… a jack of all trades. The pay's not much, but more than you're getting now for laying around your apartment."

"You think I look like a bouncer?" Toad was flattered. People often saw his shortness and hunched posture and ignored his broad shoulders and quick moves.

"No, but I think you can handle yourself and you know how to fight."

"Damn straight," Toad said toughly.

Deacon chuckled, undaunted. "So you're interested?"

Toad hesitated. "Maybe. What are the other two things?"

"The second thing is a bit more tricky."

Toad rolled his eyes. "Great."

"My roommate is moving to San Francisco." Deacon stopped.

"And?" Toad asked rudely.

"And I need a new roommate. The rent's too much without it, but I don't want to move. It's seriously a sweet setup."

Toad gaped. "You want to live with me?"

"Well, more like I want you to move in with me, but yeah. I need a roommate. You need somewhere to live that doesn't suck. It would be the same rent, maybe even less, since we'd be splitting it. I'm not trying to be your best pal or anything, but I think it might be a decent arrangement."

"Humph," Toad said. The idea of living with Deacon was kind of annoying, but his apartment was pretty disgusting. And though he'd never admit it, he was tired of living alone. He felt like his world was shrinking around him, slowly becoming nothing but his own thoughts and fears.

"Just think about it. I could have been more tactful and tricky about all this, but I can tell that you're the kind of guy who likes to hear the straight deal. Plus, I need to know by the end of this week."

"Yeah, well," Toad grumbled, still thinking it over. "What's the last thing?"

"The last thing isn't a big deal. I just wanted to know if you wanted to come over and check out the place before you decide anything. You could come tomorrow night after six. I get off my day job then, and I'm not working nights until Friday."

"Uh, I guess that would be OK." What was with this guy? Was there any possibility that he was gay and trying to make Toad his life partner?

"Great. Here's directions." Deacon yanked a printed page from Google Maps out of the roomy pockets of his baggy pants and shoved it toward Toad.

"OK. Six?"

"Yeah. I'll see you then, man. Peace!" Deacon left as quickly as he had come and Toad was left alone in his bubble of silence again.

A/N: Will Toad and Anya ever meet again? Will Toad and Deacon become roomies? Keep reading to find out—and… REVIEW!