Logan cracked his neck, going down the road at, what appeared to Dahlia, to be a shocking speed. Dahlia screamed at every sharp turn.

"Kid," he shouted over the wind and her scream. "Kid!"

"What?!" She shouted back.

"Easy on the claws, will you? That's a new jacket."

Dahlia realized with a small gasp that she'd dug her claws past his jacket and into his skin but she didn't have time to contemplate an apology.

"SLOW DOWN!"

"What's that?" He shouted back with a grin.

"I SAID: SLOW DOWN!" She shouted again.

"Sorry, I'm afraid I can't hear you over the wind."

"STOP THIS MOTORCYCLE RIGHT NOW!"

"What's that?"

"LOGAN!" She slapped his shoulder, already healed.

"Oh, slow down?" He asked, slowing down now that she'd probably lost three lives to heart attacks.

Dahlia sat trying to calm herself, slapping a hand over her mouth quickly when her body threatened to throw up.

Logan chuckled. "Why didn't you just say so?"

Dahlia growled and slapped his shoulder again.

"We're going to have to work on those arms," he told her. "You hit like a girl."

"Let me down right now!"

"Sorry, no can do."

"RIGHT. NOW." She shouted. "I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL JUMP OFF."

"Go for it, if you want to be road kill."

"You mean like the cat you ran over back there?!" She shrieked as he turned another corner even though it was at half the speed of before.

Logan snorted. "I didn't even hit it."

"You did too!"

Logan shrugged. "Tomatoes, tamatoes." He came to the bus stop not far from where Scott worked.

"Let me off here!" How he never got a speeding ticket was beyond her, maybe he did and professor had some sort of connections, she highly doubted Professor would cover for him though. How was he allowed to drive anything at the mansion?! Much less the jet?! Of course unlike regular vehicles she suspected that the jet didn't have a speed limit.

Logan, finally giving into her and deciding they were close enough to her drop off spot, came to a stop. Dahlia, very much in a hurry to get away, fell off the bike and got tangled up in her long skirt. Eventually she managed to stand up straight though, shoulders raised high with dignity.

"Thank you," she said with a deep breath, arms straight down at her sides with fists clutched. "The bus should be here any minute now."

Logan laughed and shook his head.

"Not your first time on a bike my ass."

"Ugh!" She stomped her foot furiously but her face dropped as he turned his bike around to leave. "Hey wait a minute, where are you going?"

"Back to the school, you said the bus gets here soon, so why not?"

Dahlia turned her head to look down the desolate street and a shiver ran up her spine. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"What, you scared? Weren't you the one going to walk to the bus stop in the first place?"

"Well, yeah, but not this bus stop."

"Somethin' wrong with this one?"

Dahlia's lip pulled back uncertainly. "Well no, I guess not."

"Alright then, later kid. Oh and," He paused to smile and revved up his bike. "You're welcome for the ride."

Dahlia gave him a dirty look as he sped off, leaving her to stand in wait for the bus. In the distance she could hear the faint sound of a car alarm going off and someone shouting, but she shifted her weight to stretch her ankle, the commotion must have been at least a couple blocks away. Exhaling deeply, watching her breath fog up in front of her, she rubbed her hands together. Soon the bus came to a stop in front of her with a hiss and she climbed aboard, slipping a few coins into the meter and taking a seat in the back.

She watched the scenery pass by quickly with her head rested against the cool glass. In all honesty all she wanted to do was go back to Toad's place and cuddle up on his sofa with his blanket and watch some old reruns with him and eat a bunch of food. She was starved, though not in the literal sense anymore.

The thought of facing Betsy again left her with dread. Of course Betsy would think she had been with Toad this whole time, it was the only solid cover up for her job that Dahlia could think of, it had seemed like the perfect cover up at the time. She groaned, not so much anymore though. She thought back to their argument and felt her cheeks burn with how immature she'd managed to come off as.

She sat up suddenly though with determination and glared at the back of the bus driver's head. She was a grown ass woman and she was going to be friends with whoever the hell she wanted! Forget Betsy's disappointment, it wasn't like she was her mother or anything.

"I am a grown butt woman," She repeated her thoughts aloud. "And I will be friends with whoever the heck want!"

The bus driver looked up at her in his rear view mirror and shook his head slightly, pulling the bus to a stop to let another person on. Dahlia, too wrapped up in repeating her new found motto of confidence, paid no mind to him as he slid into a seat in the back.

When the bus came to another stop Dahlia hopped up and waved to the driver happily as she hopped down the stairs.

"Have a nice day!" She called back to him, even though it was night time.

The driver rolled his eyes, closing the bus doors and shifting it into drive.

"Crazy bitch…" He muttered.

The wind blew violently against Dahlia's face and she held her head band in place as a result. So what if Betsy didn't think Toad was a good guy? She probably just didn't think he was good enough for her was all, but it wasn't her place to decide or even worry about those things! Dahlia had a job now and friends and was well on her way to becoming an X-man for godsake! Before she knew it she would be able to kick some serious butt!

Crunch.

Dahlia whipped around, eyes wide, searching the vacant street behind her. Nothing moved aside from an empty soda can that shook slightly, as if someone had just stepped on it. Her stomach filled itself to the brim with nervousness and she wrapped her jacket around her tighter, much more aware of the quiet darkness that surrounded her now. She ducked her head and hurried back to the tunnels quickly.

Once inside she pushed back the curtain to her room and fell into her bed with a deep exhale, exhausted. So much going on lately, she turned over to look at Jinx's things to find that they were gone, all of them. Dahlia sat up with a blink, then pouted.

I guess she really was moving out. She thought.

Toad's fingers tapped nervously on the armrest of his sofa. He glanced at the clock above the TV. She was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago. Outside the window the sky was bright in a gloomy way that seemed to dominate the winter season with a thick layer of clouds that had hid the sun for a majority of the week. Thankfully though, things appeared to be warming up.

His knee shook and he wrung his hands together. What if something had happened to her? He was starting to regret having her come to his apartment on this side of town; he should have had her meet him somewhere. Even though she had been going over for a few weeks now it still left him nervous when she didn't show up when she said she would. She was normally always on time.

He was about to go look for her himself when someone knocked at his door and he moved quickly to pull it open. A very bright Dahlia twirled in, holding a small box of chocolates.

"Happppyyyy Valentines dayyyy~!" She chimed, coming to a stop in her twirl and holding it out to him. Professor had given her the day off but she had still stopped by earlier in the morning to give chocolates to her friends. Scott, Jean, Professor, Kurt, Kitty and Rogue, etc, she did want them to know she was thankful for all they did after all. Toad was no different.

A smile spread across his face as he took the gift; she got him something. He'd never gotten much from anyone before expect for maybe some soap as a cruel kind of joke from his teammates. The joke had been starting to get old.

"Y' got me somethin'."

"Yup!" She said, walking in pulling her head band and of course, kicking her shoes off. "It's the least I could do since I've been eating all your food here." She shook out her hair and turned to smile at him. "I heard The Princess Bride comes on tonight, if you want to watch that?"

"Was thinkin' maybe we could do somethin' else." He said, setting her gift on the kitchen counter. She tilted her head with ears pricked in curiosity.

"Something else? What you mean?" She watched him duck into his bedroom, closing the door before Mittens could get out. The cat meowed an angry protest when he pushed her back coming out again with her gifts.

Her face lit up, only Kurt had given her something so far, a handmade card with the poem he'd been helping Pixie read. Sketched out around the card had been a poorly done scenery of a meadow he had obviously worked very hard on, while one side of the card held the poem in German and the other side was the English version. It'd really made her day, she was so glad she'd found such wonderful friends in these last few months.

"Oooh! You didn't have to do that!" She exclaimed when he handed the teddy bear and chocolates to her, but judging by the wide grin that revealed sharp eyeteeth, he knew he'd made the right choice.

"I wanted too," He told her, watching her pull the teddy bear to her chest happily then she threw her arms around him, causing him to stumble slightly before he hugged her back. His smile grew.

"You're the best friend ever!" She said, then peered into the box of chocolates. "These are my favorite kind! I haven't had these since I left home! Dad used to always get them for me. He'd get me and mom something every year. Oh! What was it that you wanted to do today?" She asked, plopping herself down on the sofa and sticking a raspberry dark chocolate truffle into her mouth to suck on.

"Was thinkin' we could maybe get somethin' to eat," He said hesitantly, opening what she'd given him to try one since she was. She looked at him quizzically, still sucking on her truffle. "Like pick up somethin' to eat, y'know?" He added quickly, seeing her confusion. She knew he didn't like to go out in public often. He searched her face for approval, delighted to see her nod her head eagerly.

"That sounds like a good idea, won't most places be super busy though?"

He shrugged and chewed a piece of chocolate slowly and swallowed before he answered, he was trying to get in the habit of that.

"I know a place, kind of a hole in the wall, but it's good." He told her, "But I thought we could pick it up. I wanted to take y'somewhere."

She laid back against the armrest of the sofa and put her feet in his lap, pulling another chocolate to suck on.

"Take me where?"

"Well now, you'll find out, won't you love?"

She smiled brightly, pushing the fact it sounded like a date out of her mind. "I guess I will."

Toad shifted from foot to foot outside the back of Ooishi's sushi, a tiny sushi shop a few blocks from his home, the sky already darkening overhead. He tried to remind himself as he checked his watch that Dahlia looked perfectly happy to sit up on a crate beside him and that nobody was bothering them but they had been waiting next to an hour now and it was starting to get to him. He didn't want to be late for what he'd planned; if they were late it could ruin it and he wanted so badly for everything to be perfect for her. He was determined to show her his worth.

"You okay?" Dahlia asked, realizing he hadn't been listening to what she was telling him, though she looked more concerned than anything. He seemed restless. "I can go in and check on it?"

"No," He said with a firmness that made Dahlia's ears prick in slight alarm. He regretted it immediately, watching her check that her headband hadn't come off from the movement; she seemed to do that a lot lately since those men chased her.

"No," He softened his voice this time, "I'll do it."

Dahlia's eyes followed him as he went in through the back door and blinked. Weren't customers not allowed in the back? She shrugged and looked back down at her freshly painted nails. He must know the people. Her head jerked up at the sound of a short shriek though and slipped off the crate, about to go in when Toad pushed his way out past her quickly, carrying a bag with their food

"What was that?" She asked curiously, trying to keep up with his pace. What was his hurry?

"One a the employees," He said, not looking back to her. "She saw a rat."

"Oh," She said absent-mindedly, wondering if she wanted to eat from a place that had rats but then reminded herself of all the times she'd eaten out of dumpsters and shrugged the thought off.

She followed after him quietly through a series of alleys and side roads, lost in thought. He'd gotten their food so quickly wondered; it must have just been done. He came to a sudden stop in front of a fire escape and with his tongue, pulled the ladder down. It left her thinking how many things he used his tongue for. He must have been able to do a lot of things with it…Her mind started to trail off into places she wasn't sure she wanted to be, head tilting far to one side and eyes squinting a bit. A lot of things…"Huh." She mused.

She jumped at the sound of his voice and blush spread across her face.

"Y'comin?" He asked, looking down at her. He was already half way up and she wondered briefly why he didn't just scale the wall if he wanted to get to the top, but then remembered she was in a skirt and thought maybe that had something to do with it. Damn these skirts, she really needed to wear them less, they made climbing difficult. He squinted at her face in the light coming from over the door beside her. "What's wrong with your face? S'all red."

"Nothing!" She said defensively and started climbing up after him, leaving him to stare at her quizzically, wondering if he insulted her.

"Well okay then, come on."

"I really need to stop wearing these skirts…" She complained as he helped pull her up onto the roof. "It always gets in the way." She watched him smirk and pursed her lips. "What?" She asked.

"You could just take it off," He told her and she slapped his arm with a grin.

"No!"

"Why not? S'not that cold. You'd manage."

"Because I'm not—" She fumbled over her words, face turning redder than earlier. He stopped to look at her curiously.

"Not what?" He tilted his head with his smirk.

"Because…I am not…" She looked away. "Into not wearing skirts." She said finally.

"Y' don't have any knickers on, do you?" He started laughing when her jaw dropped open and she slapped his arm again and her voice rose three octaves too high.

"I do!"

"Alright then, prove it."

"NO!" She slapped his arm again. "What did you want to show me!?"

He chuckled and led her over to the opposite edge of the building, throwing his legs over the edge when he took a seat. He watched her hair be blown to the side gently by the wind as she walked over and looked down into the basketball court where various chairs were set up and a projector was pointed at a large white square painted on the wall.

She eased down next to him, studying the scene curiously.

"What is this?" She asked.

A soft smile tugged at the corner of his lips as her pupils expanded in interest, lately they appeared more and more cat like; he loved it. He gave a short shrug, keeping his smile.

"Found it a bit ago, before m'accident." He thought back to the night he first found it. It had been on one particularly awful night when nobody had been in a good mood and any attempt he made to socialize with Mystique or Sabertooth had been mercilessly thwarted. After wandering around the city aimlessly he found this and decided to kill time.

He didn't realize how much he would like the event. The movies they played were always these old foreign romance movies in black and white. And, as much as he hated to admit it, he really enjoyed them, even if they didn't always have subtitles. "They show movies e'ery Friday."

"I see…" She said softly, thoughtfully. Below them people were starting to show up and take their seats. "Mortimer?" She asked, and he looked up from pulling their to-go boxes from the bag, waiting for her to keep talking.

"What happened?" She asked, looking at him with a tilt of her head. "I mean, with your accident that is."

He stopped to think about it moment, turning to look down at the people below him. He could feel her eyes fixed on him expectantly. Innocently.

"Got mixed up in somethin' I probably shouldn't 'ave," He said it before he could stop the words from leaving his mouth. Dahlia just tilted her head a tad to the opposite side and he watched her hair fall with the tilt, swaying slightly with the soft breeze. He waited for her to pry farther, but she didn't.

"I see," She told him, as if it were the simplest thing in the world, like she understood completely. Maybe she did, but he couldn't ever imagine her getting into anything less that prime.

She wasn't like him, he thought with some bitterness. She had a normal childhood, and had gone to a normal school, and had lived with a normal family in a normal apartment on a normal street preparing for her successful, normal life.

How she had turned out so well after all that happened to her was beyond him. So bright and naïve, still believing there was still good in the world, somehow managing to care about what seemed to be everyone…They were so different, he wished he could bridge that gap. How could he hide and pretend he was better than her?

Thinking back over his life and namely his choices, what was he doing? Going in circles? Mutants needed to be fought for, but why did it seem like that never got him anywhere? He'd been in many "groups" before, always fighting for the "greater good" of mutants, and where did that get him? Alone, electrocuted, and tossed into the bay where nobody but her had cared enough about his life to save him. Did he even ever make a difference?

Was he ever happy there? With Magneto? Doing things he wasn't proud of to accomplish what Magneto thought was best and trying desperately hard to earn Magneto's approval and fake-fatherly affection? Something that had never happened? He was always chastised more than praised, if he was ever really praised to begin with. Every praise Magneto handed him followed by a comment strategically stitched to wear him down all over again. He wondered if that had been the man's goal all a long.

Was he happy here? He took the moment to look Dahlia over with her tiny frame and large brown eyes watching the movies played below them. Opening her mouth wide in a determined attempt to get a piece of sushi in. He felt himself smile, watching her fail terribly with bits of rice and tempura shrimp fall into her lap. She put a hand over her mouth and looked to him with a giggle, eyes shining. Yeah...he was happy here.

"This is really good," She said muffled through a mouthful with her hand still over her mouth. "I know they're really generic next to the California roll," She paused to swallow. "But I love crunchy rolls."

He nodded, picking up the last of the California roll to leave the rest of the crunchy roll to her. "They are good," He agreed.

On the "screen" below them a man wearing a tuxedo brushed a strand of hair back from a woman's face and murmured sweetly to her in French. As much as he had been lost in his thoughts he hadn't been paying attention to the movie but it looked as if it were coming to a close. Dahlia pointed down at the ground to a woman with dark, wavy hair that fell to her waist.

"I've always wanted hair like that," She mused. "Mom would never let me dye my hair."

"I like your hair," He told her, closing up one of the empty to-go boxes and slipping it into the bag. Dahlia dropped her chopsticks in when he held it open for her. "It suits you."

She sent him a sour expression and it took him a moment to reason why.

"Whot? I didn't mean it cause you're blond."

She paused and then gave him a sourer look. "And what is the correlation between me and being blond that I might consider a bad thing?"

He gaped stupidly for a moment then she smiled.

"Careful," she told him, "It's a trap."

He closed his mouth and stared at her.

"Two things I've learned 'bout you," He said helping her up off the ground. "One, you're stubborn. Two, you're evil."

"I am not stubborn."

"Would you look at that, bein' stubborn again."

Dahlia scoffed.

"Well…" She pressed her lips together trying to think of a comeback. "You're sticky!"

"Whot?" He looked at her with a smile that one might give a little girl. "Like rubber an' glue? I stick to walls, s'what I'm s'posed to do."

"No! Like a lollypop! That's-that's been," she fumbled for words again. "sucked on!" She slapped her hands over her mouth immediately, mortified.

He got a funny smirk on his face and cocked his head to the side.

"Sucked on, that so?" He chuckled. "Tha's a new one. Funny, can't say that's ever 'appened to me, love." Pausing at the ladder to help her down he grinned. "I think somethin's wrong with y'face, s'all red again."

"Ugh!" She slapped his arm again before moving to climb down the fire escape.

"You sure you don't want me to go down first?" He asked with a humorous gleam in his eyes. "Make sure you don't fall or anythin'."

She glowered up at him. "No!"

"Why? Since y'got your knickers on and what not, s'pose it wouldn't be a problem?"

"Mortimeerrr!" She warned and he chuckled, sticking to the wall and crawled down half way before jumping the rest of the way.

"Jump!" He told her.

"What?! No!"

"Come on, I'll catch you!"

"Nooooo!" She whined. Her eyes went wide when he jumped onto the wall beside her and pulled her to him with an arm around her waist. "MORTIMER!" She shouted, then shrieked when he jumped down.

"You just can't do something like that!" Dahlia said angrily, pacing in front of the sofa Toad sat on. "What were you thinking?! They could of called the police on you!"

He held his head down, leaned forward with knee shaking nervously wringing his hands together, back to the way the night had started. He didn't think when he'd done it, it just sort of happened. He cursed himself and wished desperately he could fix this. She was so angry, he'd never seen her like this. It worried him.

Some bloody bloke with his hammered, underage friends sat outside of his bloody apartment complex on their way in. Looking back he didn't even suspect they were any real harm, but he'd learned from his time in the orphanage and being homeless not to take shit from people by reflex. They spotted Dahlia first of course, and called her over for a drink, then…they spotted him.

"Girl! Ditch that guy, c-*hic*-coommmme ooonn," The apparent teenaged leader staggered up to them despite their obvious attempt to hurry past. The boy laughed loudly. "Heyyy, freakk."

Toad tensed, feeling a hand slap down on his shoulder, weak and unsteady. Before he knew what he was doing he practically broke the boy's arm. Twisting it around and slamming him face first into the wall, no doubt breaking his nose. He couldn't see Dahlia at the time, but hearing that small gasp from her, he got the notion it scared her.

It was true she saw him like this with someone before. But that particular someone had been trying to hurt her and had not, in fact, been a boy barely out of his teens faced against a much larger man with the benefit of mutant abilities. Not that Toad used any of his abilities against the boy, force was enough.

Dahlia had flung her arms around his neck from behind before he could shove the boy's face into the wall again.

"Stop!"

He let the boy go immediately and watched him with hatred as Dahlia ran to the boy's side and made sure he would be okay before she snatched Toad's hand and quickly started pulling him inside away from the situation.

"What were you thinking?!"

He recalled her voice with a pang of remorse, an easy thing to do considering she kept saying it. He hadn't been thinking. But you couldn't always afford to think. He didn't expect her to really grasp that concept though, not the way she grew up.

He ran a hand through his hair and tried to take a deep breath to slow his heartbeat. Shame burned his face, he could feel it. He didn't know what to do with this. He could hear her still talking. Still Angry. Angry at Him. His rushing mind and sense of dread stopped him from seeing the reason behind the anger, however.

She had been scared but, she had been scared for him, not of him. Scared for the boy too, of course, but mostly for him. She didn't want something to happen and those boys to call the police then the police would try to take Toad away and Toad was a mutant so it didn't take a genius to know they would be brutal with him.

He glanced up at her briefly then averted his eyes with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Staring out the window at the darkened sky he hoped desperately that the boy would get what he deserved for putting him in this situation. Though deep down he knew this whole thing was honestly his fault, it didn't keep him from hating the kid.

His knee kept shaking. And she kept going.

"You know what they would of done with you if the police got to you?!" She said, eyebrows turned up in concern, too lost in her rant to catch the nervous look on his face. "I don't even know what they do to mutant criminals but it can't be good! You see hear the police stories don't you?! They beat that poor mutant girl half to death a few months ago! And that poor boy! You broke his nose! What were you thinking? I just can't—"

"I'm sorry," He said faintly, weakly, with eyes on the floor and a look that suggested he were a child scolded. Had she not had the hearing abilities she did, she might not have heard him.

Dahlia's heart melted and her look softened. All the anger she had deflated and she moved to sit beside him quickly.

"Noo, it's okay." She cooed and threw her arms around his neck in a hug. "I'm sorry. I just don't want you hurt."

He tensed momentarily at the sudden movement, then tears stung his eyes. Moving his arms hesitantly to return the hug, she kissed his cheek quickly then pulled back to look at him. Her face softened farther.

"Are you okay?" She asked gently, arms still around his neck. She reached up to brush a tear off his cheek. "You're crying…"

"Yeh, I'm fine." He rubbed his eyes quickly. "Got somethin' in m'eyes." He mumbled and Dahlia smiled at him, sinking into the sofa under his arm in hope to give some comfort.

"Can I stay?" She asked quietly, taking his hand and pressing her finger tips to his, studying the way their hands fit together. "It's too cold to go home tonight."

"Yeh, that's fine." He told her…trying to recompose himself. He watched closely as she studied their hands. Relief washed over him and he breathed out slowly the fear that had been building up in him. The warmth of her care beside him threatened to seep into all the cold abandonment his life left him with and heal it.

It might have been true that Dahlia couldn't understand the world from the perspective that he did, that they were very different and had come from opposite sides of life. It might have been true that Dahlia couldn't understand the extent of resentment he had for the people who hurt him. And, it might have been true that she was too naïve to understand the things he'd done and still did.

But, despite all that, if anything was true that she did understand, it was this: She understood what he needed. She cared about him enough to offer up the affection he desperately needed and she offered it freely. First she'd given to him the chance to live and had taken care of him for months. And now, even though he'd taken from her and run off, she was giving to him again. Forgiving him again. Even though it was the last thing she should have been doing.

She shouldn't have been with him, but here she was anyway.

Looking back at chapter 11 I realize not much happened at all, from now on I'm going to practice on having chapters that really drive the plot forward. ^_^ I'm also really trying to capture more of Toad's personality than just the cocky, sarcastic side. Thank you so much to everyone who read and to everyone that reviewed, it's a huge encouragement!
Happy New Years! ^_^