Dahlia turned over on the makeshift sofa bed and clutched his pillow tightly.

She stretched out, the warm sunlight pouring in over her from old windows. In front of her the TV still on mute, the morning news playing. She turned the volume on low and stood on one foot to hop to the kitchen, her stomach growling its hunger.

In the back ground the news lady laughed at something her companion said before she went on to the next story.

"In other news, a chain of banks were broken into last night where next to one hundred thousand dollars was stolen. The power along with security system was disarmed by a peculiar type of device officials are looking into now. No word has been released on possible suspects but a guard beaten unconscious says to be on the lookout for a black haired male, about 5'11'' in height, and a mutant who appears to be able to create duplicates of himself. There is no word yet on how this will affect the progress of mutant affairs with Dr. Hank and his stance against mutant registration. Back to you, Robert."

Dahlia knocked on Toad's door quietly, turning the knob to peer in. Her heart melted a bit when she saw the bare room he slept in.

On his bundled up jacket he rested his head on the floor, Mittens curled up beside him purring contently, both sound asleep.

She closed the door softly with a small smile. Though she couldn't help but feel bad, if she would have known the sofa was the only place to sleep, she would have slept on the floor. As she hopped over to the kitchen for breakfast she thought that maybe that's why he didn't let her know in the first place.

Peering into the cabinets, balanced on one foot, she found a nearly empty box of cereal and what appeared to be a clean bowl. After peering into the fridge she determined the milk was expired and started opening a few drawers in search of a spoon.

She found one. Under the play boy magazine he'd obviously so smartly hid. A funny little smile crawled on her face that she tried to keep back. He hated when she picked at him for something, but she just had to for this.

She giggled quietly and closed the drawer after fetching a spoon before she plopped down to listen to the news. They'd moved onto a segment about some reality TV star who was pregnant with some celebrities baby.

Spooning a mouthful of cocoa crisps into her mouth she thought about the week at hand. She needed to get back to the tunnels so Betsy wouldn't worry; she'd already earned enough suspicion. Maybe Toad's place was just the cover up she needed. The second problem at hand would be not being able to go to work. She figured she could hop on one leg to a bus stop or something but didn't like being helpless like that. Suppose the extremist spotted her? She stopped chewing and her jaw tensed as she remembered them. With a shake of her head she pressed a button on the remote and put on some early morning cartoons.

She felt really kind of bummed out though, missing a week at work. Kurt was supposed to teach her some tricks soon and they had been talking about including her in a training session soon.

With a sigh she spooned another bite into her mouth and figured she would just have to wait a bit longer before she started down the official road of being an X-man.

Her ears angled themselves in the direction of his door behind her as he pushed it open. Mittens went to weave between his legs and escape but he caught her and put her back behind his closed door.

With a tilted of his head in an attempt to stretch the kink out of his neck from the floor he walked to the fridge for something to drink. Upon remembering all he had was beer he walked back to the sofa and took a seat beside her. Immediately, he noticed the spoon in her hand with dread. He groaned inwardly.

Dahlia sat in silence, eyes fixed onto the TV while she spooned another mouthful into her mouth. Emphasizing closing her mouth around the spoon, she paused to glance at him. Pulling the spoon from her mouth she chewed slowly, a self-satisfied smile turned up her lips as she watched his mouth open then close again. She swallowed and grinned.

"You know, I always thought your skin was more of a greenish color…" She squinted at his face. "Not red."

He leaned back into his seat carefully. With a sheepish smile held back on his face he ran a hand through his short hair and stared at the TV for a moment before he looked back at her. Her lips curled up.

"Okay, so, I know I probably shouldn't have helped myself to your food," In her opinion she was kind of entitled to it with the circumstances he'd placed them in, right? "And I know it's sometimes just a guy thing." She looked down and licked her lip thoughtfully before she looked back at him. "But what I'm concerned about is… why was it in the kitchen?"

By now Toad had leaned forward to place his elbows on his knees again and had both hands cupped over his nose and mouth in embarrassment. He pulled his hands down his face till his fingers were touching his chin. Looking back she just smiled at him like a child who'd just found where her mother hid all the Christmas presents.

"I really," He paused, seeming to think better of what he was about to say. "There's an explanation."

Dahlia cocked an eyebrow at him.

"When I…...When you…" He put his hands out in front of him like he was going to explain something, but found himself speechless. Oh, she was having fun with this. She spooned another mouthful into her mouth. "It's ended up there, and…" He looked back to her with her wicked little smile and he took a deep breath, thankful she'd made a game out of this instead of being disgusted by him. It left him feeling embarrassed yes, but not so mortified. Maybe she wouldn't have him for it after all. "You're enjoyin' this."

"I like watching you squirm," Dahlia swayed side to side in her seat, happily eating her cereal. "What other dirty, embarrassing secrets do you have?"

"I'm not tellin' you. You'd bring 'em up every chance you had."

"Oh, I'd milk it for everything its worth."

He gaped at her for a moment, "You are unbelievably evil under all that innocence."

Dahlia wiggled her eyebrows at him playfully. "The evilest."

He shook his head and looked back at the TV. As embarrassed as he was about her finding that he was relieved with the manner that she talked to him in. Like nothing had happened at all…No dirty magazine...no walking out. Maybe that was just the way it should go. He really hoped so.

From the kitchen counter his disposable cell phone started beeping out a tune and he jumped up to answer it.

James. He thought, damn it.

He flipped the phone open.

" 'Ello?"

"Toad! Man! Where the hell'd you go last night? I thought you were going to meet me back by the car, you had the fucking keys. I had to hotwire the damn thing myself.

Toad put his hand over the ear piece quickly and closed the door to his room behind him. He didn't want to risk Dahlia over hearing.

"Somethin' came up," Toad replied shortly.

"Like fuck it did. What's so important you skipped out on twenty grand?"

"Something. Came. Up." He lowered his voice even more, venom dripping off every word.

"Find man, whatever. When are you coming to get your share?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

"Yeh," Toad took a deep breath and held it. "I'll come when I can."

Jamie snorted on the other end. "Don't wait too long, it might be gone."

"Yeah, whatever." He flipped the phone shut and walked back out into the room.

Dahlia looked up from trying to pick the last bits of cereal from the bowl.

"Everything okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, nothing t'worry 'bout."

A Few Days Later

Okay, I know what you're thinking; the whole running into Dahlia was a huge coincidence, right? Well, Toad thought so too, something didn't sit right with him about it.

After all, what are the chances of running into someone you've been looking for in the middle of the night and it just so happens they're helpless and need you to sweep them off their feet (literally) and take them back to your apartment? Yeah, the chances are slim.

Of course Toad knew Dahlia was just the person that might happen to, who knew what kind of thing she would get herself into next. The thought worried him. Plus he didn't want to fire up his already paranoid nature and cause himself to do something stupid. Again.

He stood in line at the little junkie store down the road from him. It was a rundown place with the windows and door barred up and the floor looking like it was in need of a good replacement. They didn't have much to offer, basics. Junk food, eggs, milk, some canned foods and ramen, a cheap section of Valentine's Day things across from the toilet paper, soap and shampoo.

He shifted his body weight uneasily while the cashier lady spent too long counting the lady with the screaming toddler's change. Staring down at the dirty tile he noting the old gum stuck to the floor in the shape of a smilie face.

He thought about glaring at the child to make it shut up but then thought it would probably make the child cry louder. He played with the idea of spitting slime over the kid's mouth just to make it shut up but he knew it wasn't a serious thought, he wasn't that cruel, specially not to a kid, not after what he went through. The poor kid probably just wanted some attention anyway, he could understand that.

Bloody cunt, he thought, watching the way the mother ignored her toddler with angry expression on her face, talking on the phone. The toddler was reaching out to her babbling incoherently. It obviously just wanted to be held or you know, at least acknowledged for that matter.

He found himself glaring at the woman with hatred, he'd watched her ignore the kid the whole damn time she walked the store rather she talked on the phone or not.

"Hold on," she told her phone and pulled it away from her ear, grabbing the child's arm roughly and yanked him closer to her. "Shut. Up. Shut. Up before I slap you. You think anyone wants to hear your whining? They don't. So shut up before I beat you. You hear me? Do you hear me?"

The toddler shrunk back in his seat and tried in a failed attempt of desperation to stifle his cries. Toad glared at the snot that ran down the poor boy's face and watched him look out into the store with his quietly stifled sobs and teary, red eyes; he didn't reach out to his mom anymore. Hatred welled up in Toad's chest, watching her walk out.

Toad set his carry basket in front of the cashier and watched as she pulled things out and scanned them boredly. Her eyes were the usual stoner high red and she reeked of weed and cigarettes.

With a sniffle she raised an eyebrow at the pink teddy bear and box of chocolates she pulled out and glanced up at him. Toad glared at her, daring her to say. He honestly hated the holiday but he wanted to be prepared incase Dahlia was still around by then. Plus, he kind of figured he should at least get her something that wasn't stolen.

His face burned though when she rang up the soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. Even if he wasn't going to use them, she might, right?

The rest of the things were just various foods. Coke instead of beer; he had originally picked up beer but didn't want her to think he was some sort of alcoholic and ended up putting it back. More Oreos, she seemed to like those. The normal: chips, ramen, eggs, some Rolos. He thought he remembered her saying she liked those when they were in the tunnels, the Rolos, he couldn't remember.

"37.98." The lady told him and waited for the cash. He fished it out his pocket and put it on the counter for her, lifting his head a bit from under his hood.

She stared blankly at him and he felt his mouth twitch. She could sort of see the fact he had greenish yellow skin and black eyes different from normal humans but she was either too stoned to realize or too stoned to care.

"Have a nice day," she droned as he got his bags.

"Thanks,"

When he got outside he saw the same woman and her child, still chattering on to her friend. She sat on the bench at the bus stop while her child sat on the cement playing with what appeared to be somebody's long since dirty, discarded pair of sunglasses with a forlorn expression on his face.

Before he really knew what he was doing his tongue snatched the phone from her ear and she screamed grabbing her child protectively. He smashed it underfoot with one stomp.

"Take care of y'fuckin' kid, sod." He spat viciously, walking on by.

Back at his apartment he set his groceries on the kitchen counter and looked out into the relatively clean living room. He'd given into Dahlia's pleads of going back to the tunnels the next day when she spent a good bit of effort trying to convince him they would only love him for saving her again.

She'd been wrong, of course. He got the bloody cold shoulder from everyone there. It didn't help that she shared the damn room with Jinx who threw bitch comments at him the whole time and he couldn't do anything in case it ruined his chances with Dahlia.

It looked like Dahlia would heal relatively soon, it'd almost been a week since she gotten the twist but Betsy was taking good care of her.

He had stopped in everyday just to show them he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon like last time and planned on going again tomorrow night.

He picked up his cell and flipped it open to dial Jamie's number. First of course, he didn't want to lose his obviously very hard earned money.

Later That Night.

The first thing that always hit Toad when he walked into the dimly lit tunnels was the smell: the musky, bold smell of wet, molding cement. After having been gone for so long the smell always left him feeling disgusted, almost like he might even bathe when he got home, but it also left him hopeful that if Dahlia could live with this then maybe she could take him not bathing.

That, of course, hadn't stopped him from showering before he headed over. He scratched at the already irritated skin on his back with a growl of frustration, he hadn't even used soap and it was already messing with him.

Leaning against the cement wall he moved his body side to side in attempt to get a better scratch before he went find Dahlia. Betsy rounded a corner and cleared her throat. He flinched and froze, staring at the old women, always somewhat scared of what she might try to do to him. Not that it was like he couldn't take her if she tried anything, he just, well, you know, had a reputation to keep up.

"Mortimer." She sent an icy glare his way. "Come to see Dahlia?"

He tensed at the use of his name; he knew she only did it out of spite now.

"I 'ave,"

She nodded her head. "Follow me,"

Following after her he scowled at the back of her head. She insisted on guiding him around the tunnels ever since he'd come back, obviously all trust of him she once had, lost. It irritated him, and to top things off she always sat around with him and Dahlia till she was called away with something else. He hated it, like they were children that had to be watched.

When they got to Dahlia's room she was laid back in her bed with the book The Republic by Plato held over her face. She glanced up as they ended the room, pulling herself up into a sitting position with bright eyes.

"Mortimer!" She beamed,

"Hello, love." He shifted uncomfortably beside Betsy and Dahlia looked to her displeased face with what might have been embarrassment, he couldn't tell.

"Hi, Betsy."

Betsy looked to Dahlia like an unhappy mother. "Artie needs me," She turned her nose and walked out with folded arms. Dahlia frowned and watched her friend go. Toad took a seat on Jinx's bed uneasily, noting that some of her things appeared to have gone missing.

"Jinx's been gone a lot," Dahlia said, seeing him look around her bed. "I think she's met someone."

"Why'd you think somethin' like that?" He asked, turning his attention back to her.

Dahlia just shrugged. "She's in a good mood, her stuff's been disappearing…I think she's moving out."

He had to fake a frown, thrilled at the news. The woman had done something to him before he left a few nights ago, he'd been on his way out when the world swayed slightly and he caught sight of her down the tunnel from him, a smirk on her face.

You normally hear about not being able to get it up, but after that for the whole night, he couldn't get it down.

"That's too bad,"

Dahlia sent a slight glare at him, his tone giving him away. He nodded at her ankle to divert her attention, not that was hard to do.

"How's it doin'?"

She moved her ankle with a slight wince. "It's getting better. Betsy said I should be able to walk in a few days, the swellings gone down a lot."

"Ah, see, it's those regenerative hormones. Aren't I smart?" He tapped a finger to his temple and she smiled.

"Very, thank you."

"Thank you? Tha's all?" He asked, leaning forward with elbows on his knees. "Let's have it, 'You were right, Morty.' "

She cocked her head to the side, looking at him funny.

"Morty?" She asked.

"Wot? Y'don't like it?" His lips pulled up into a smirk. "Thought it had a nice ring to it,"

She laughed, leaning back on her elbows, book face down on her stomach.

"What a change, you didn't even like people to call you Mortimer."

"Yeh, still don't like it." He slid down to the floor to sit beside her, thankful Betsy was gone. "You can call me it, no one else."

Dahlia watched him for a moment with a smile.

"I like it," She said after a pause, "it's a good name."

"Ah, is that so?"

She nodded. "Maybe I'll even name my son that one day."

He looked up at her sideways from pulling at a frayed end of her blanket.

"You'd name your son, after a scary, green man?"

"Well, I don't think you're so scary," She said matter-of-factly, turning her nose up.

"Is that so?" He asked like he didn't believe her. He had the thought to try and scare her, but deciding not to step on shaky ground.

"Tsk," She glowered at him, "Don't humor me like that. Stop being so British!"

He laughed at this.

"Terribly sorry, I'll try to be more American for you next visit."

She only rolled her eyes.

"What you readin'?" He asked, pulling the book from her stomach.

"Hey! Don't lose my place!" She protested, "It's The Republic by Plato."

"What's it 'bout?"

Dahlia shrugged, her tail visibly twitching side to side from under the blanket. "Justice an' stuff,"

"An' stuff?" He raised an eyebrow.

She closed her eyes and nodded, lying back down. "Lots of stuff."

"Whot kind of stuff?"

"People in caves, lines of reasoning and thought, the 'Form of Good'." She rolled over onto her side and held her arms out for the book like a child.

"Ah," He said, handing her the book back. "Brilliant description."

"Isn't it?" She asked, dog-earing her place in the book with a yawn.

He left not long after, seeing she was getting tired even though she protested when he stood up. Betsy took the chance to pop in before she fell asleep. Dahlia opened her eyes at Betsy with dread when she came in. Watching her click the lantern on, Dahlia sat up uneasily.

"Why is he still coming around here?" She hissed, looking at her coldly. Dahlia shrunk back from her expression; with her heart pounding her cheeks flushed red at Betsy's anger.

"He's visiting me," She said quietly, looking down at her blanket. "He's just worried."

"Dahlia," Betsy took a seat across from her, "You need to be more careful. You don't know who this man is, or what he wants or where he's come from. In the tunnels, when he woke up, that was one thing. We were here to protect you, out there, we won't be."

Dahlia pouted and glared at her blanket a bit. "You've let me out with him before. You trusted him."

"Yes, and that was my mistake. We're lucky he didn't do anything to you,"

"He wouldn't do anything to me!" She protested, turning a challenaging look to Betsy. Heartache hit her though when she saw the look Betsy gave her, like she felt sorry for her.

"I want you to tell him not to come back,"

"No!" Dahlia straightened up, taken back. "He's done nothing!"

"How can you say that?"

"He saved me!"

"Dahlia, how did he know to find you on that roof?"

Dahlia fell silent…Was she implying Toad arranged for her to get hurt?

"He's not a bad person. He doesn't do bad things like you think he does. He doesn't hurt people, he wouldn't hurt me. He's just MISUNDERSTOOD!" She shouted, turning redder with realization of how young she sounded.

Betsy just observed her intently, shaking her head slightly.

"You're naïve, Dahlia, you are so naïve."

And with that, she left the room, leaving Dahlia with clenched fist and even more determination to prove her wrong.

Back To Work

Dahlia skipped happily through the foyer towards the room where professor taught Physics, happy to have her ankle back and cherishing every moment of it and perhaps, that she had visited Toad early that morning.

"Good afternoon, professor!" She chimed as she whisked past him and scooped up the book she used to tutor. She never brought them back with her for obvious reasons.

The professor smiled warmly at her.

"Dahlia, hello. I trust you've had a full recovery?"

"Mhm," Dahlia nodded her head and leaned side to side. She stuck her foot out to move her ankle in a circle.

"Good! I'm very glad to hear it."

She tilted her head to the side with ears pricked and waited for him to question her about the men she'd told him about over the phone, but he didn't. Instead he just smiled at her warmly and they gazed at each other for a few moments too long till Dahlia's eyes darted away awkwardly and she moved her ankle around again. Professor looked away slowly and wheeled himself around to his desk.

"Please, enjoy your lessons today. You might want to focus on dynamical equations particularly hard with John today…he seems to be struggling with it." He said with his fatherly tone, though something about the encounter left Dahlia feeling strange. She brushed the feeling off with a happy bob of her head.

"Will do! Thank you, professor!" She smiled and ducked out of the room a bit too quickly. Walking down the hall she gave herself a quick shake and the reminder not to drink so much coffee before work. Since she had money she'd taken to abusing Starbucks.

John furrowed his eyebrows at his book with some frustration. Beside him Dahlia sat writing something on a sheet of paper, the scribbling sound only irritating him more.

"Do you have to write so loudly?" He snapped and she sat up straighter, face turning red.

"Sorry, I'll try to write quieter." She said, writing slower this time while he went back to his book. The end of her pencil tapped her lips thoughtfully and she looked to John with sympathy. "John…finding underlying dynamical equations in any bit of data is hard…professor understands that."

John only glared at his book harder and flipped the page. He'd been doing poorly this whole semester but this chapter was taking the cake, he didn't doubt he would fail his next test, he just really didn't want to retake the whole damn class.

"You're doing well enough…" She tried to encourage him. Pressing her lips together, she tried to hide the sadness she felt for him; he played the tough guy repeatedly but she had the feeling he hid his insecurities under that, so many people did.

She lifted her gaze to Kurt and his student, Pixie, who sat a table away from them studying from a book of German poems he always seemed to be teaching out of. Angling her ears so she could hear better, she listened to Pixie slowly try to form the word she saw.

"Sh….sh..schöne…mi.." She looked up at Kurt quizzically.

"Mädchen," He said softly, glancing up at Dahlia as if he felt her watchful gaze. He smiled softly and she smiled back briefly before looking back to her paper.

"What does it mean?" She heard Pixie ask and looked back up to them, listening closely.

"It means…" He trailed off hesitantly. " 'beautiful girl'…" He said quietly, turning his eyes back up to Dahlia slowly with a small smile, delighted at the way Dahlia's smile grew.

John flipped his lighter open and closed again, him and Pixie looking from Dahlia to Kurt with a cocked eyebrow. John cleared his throat and Dahlia jumped, seeming to snap out of whatever world she'd gotten lost in.

"Sorry," She flushed red, "Let's start with Dynamicism."

Dahlia stepped out of the steaming shower of the Xavier mansion and wiped a hand over the mirror to clear it of fog. Her tail swayed side to side happily as thoughts of Toad and Kurt filled her mind. Her life honestly couldn't be going any better at this point. She had some great friends all around, even if she wasn't completely sure where Toad stood on the friend scale at the moment.

She grinned at herself in the mirror. Reaching up she touched her sharp eye teeth and frowned a bit. Turning her face side to side she took in how much thinner her face looked compared to normal. She backed up to look at the rest of her body, thinning.

It wasn't like she hadn't been eating lately, if anything her appetite was larger than normal. She thought back to earlier that evening.

She sat with Rogue, Kitty, and Jean watching the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy on TV. A plate of three corn dogs, some mustard, a hot pocket and donut sat in her lap. Scott walked in to join them, taking one look at her plate he said: "Aren't you worried you'll get-". He stopped suddenly, immediately earning glares from all three of the women. "Never mind," He'd said quickly, making a fast escape.

Wasn't she scared she would get fat though? She ran a thumb over the hip bone that was slowly becoming more visible. No, if anything she was worried with how thin she was becoming and she should take advantage of food while she could. What if she had tapeworms or something though?

"I don't have tapeworms." She told herself with a shake of her head, she couldn't believe of ridiculous she was sometimes. Pulling on her clothes shequickly dried her hair and made her way to Kitty and Rogue's room. Pushing the door open quietly to find Kitty typing away on her computer and Rogue fast asleep, kitty looked up in surprise.

"Dahlia! I thought you left like, forever ago." She ran a hand through her hair. "It's almost midnight. I think Scott already went to bed."

Dahlia only shrugged, stuffing some of her things in the bag she kept in the empty closet that had unspokenly become hers.

"It's okay, the bus stop isn't so far from here."

"I don't know, Dahlia..." Kitty looked at her uncertainly from her computer. "Why not just stay the night? The bus stop is like, a thirty minute walk from where and it's creepy this time of night."

"Don't worry about me! I gotta go now if I'm going to catch it." She slung her bag over her shoulder with a smileand rushed out the room. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

Kitty's lips pulled down in a small frown. "Okay...if you say so, see you."

Dahlia pushed the front door open, keys jingling in hand to lock the doors when she spotted Logan leaning against his motorcycle, trying to light a cigar.

"Bout time," He inhaled deeply and blew the smoke out into the cold air. "let's go."

Dahlia blinked at the man in confusion. "You didn't have to wait up for me, I'm okay, I can walk."

Logan flicked the end of his cigar to the ground before putting it back in his mouth and straddled his bike.

"Look kid, chuck wanted me to take you to your part of town so that's what I'm doing, okay? Let's go."

Dahlia observed him carefully for a moment and he tossed a helmet at her. Snatching it out the air and she looked at it cautiously; she'd never been on a motorcycle before. Taking a deep breath and bracing herself, she climbed onto his bike and secured her tail tightly around her leg from under her skirt.

"Ever been on a bike before?" He asked.

Dahlia felt her stomach turn uneasily, she didn't like the way his voice sounded. She decided to lie just in case he was going to try and mess with her for it.

"Yes," She piped, face turning red, her voice a few pitches too high.

"Good…Then you won't mind if I speed a bit," He revved the bike and took off. Dahlia shrieked, clinging to him for dear life.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you have a wonderful time and thank you so much for reading! ^_^ I hope to hear back from you! It's a huge encouragement.
Much love :)

P.S. I think I'm going to be taking a short break on this fic and focus on my Naruto one a bit because I need to do some more character/plot development with this one and have some big things planned out that I need to iron all the kinks out of.