Mmm, Bacon

[Anita Stern]

Today, it was ESU.

Two or three times a week, she made this trip, usually. Learning institutions around the state had requests for certain volumes the Cullen’s Institute’s vast reserve held, and Anita was the school’s workaholic librarian that got it done. Right from reviewing requests and replying with approval or denial, to delivering several books each time by herself. Sometimes it was a few books...other times a few boxes of books. It depended on supply and demand. And today, what she was supplying to other students was definitely smaller than what was demanded by the students at Cullen’s. It didn't help that her head was swimming in the tumultuous seas of the past year or two, either. The stack of mixed hardbound and softbound texts went nearly from the furthest her arms could stretch downward up to where her chin bookended the towering collection. Add on that her purse hung from the crook of her elbow, and keys dangled from one free finger - it was very much like tempting fate.

That is, if your fate included something relatively harmless like minor bruises and scrapes. And the sweet-looking librarian had yet to figure out just how she would transfer the stack from her arms to the trunk or backsear of her red Mini. At this point, such a feat seemed rather impossible since it would require a free hand to unlock either compartment and open the door.

Oh, sigh. Anita would shake her head in dismay if it were free. <o></o>

[Stern]

Night. Why did it have to happen? Sure the moon and the stars were pretty, but they were invisible. The back area of the library was always dark aside from the light near the loading ramp. Stern didn't like it at all.

Tonight his fight with his phobia was going rather poorly. He spent the last several hours in a dark room trying to develop film for an intro class. Dimming his ambient light was a pain in the neck. Luckily he found a wavelenght of light that allowed him to see without ruining his film. Unfortunately it meant spending hours in a room that was darker than he liked.

Now he stepped out of the building to be greeted by a dark sky with the soft glow of street lamps as his only aid and comfort. Feeling axiexty creeping up on him, he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked quickly towards his dorm just beyond the library.

Body compact, head low, eyes fixed on the ground, he walked by instinct. He didn't want to make any eye contact with anyone or get held up for any reason. All he wanted was to get to his dorm and turn the stinkin' lights on for a while.

WHAM!

Someone or something ran into him. Or he ran into it. There was a sound of books hitting the pavement and a different kind of thud all togther. A set of keys jingled as they hit the ground.

Stern's hands flew out of his pockets and he instinctively found a defensive stance. Looking around in a near panic, he noticed on the ground a petite and lovely woman.

The ESU student's face grew hotter and he flared slightly, brightening another foot or so in his glow.

"Um...Oh...Here."

Awakwardly he reached down and offered her a hand for her assistance while grabbing all the books he could with the other.

[Anita Stern]

So, this is what you get for not paying attention to where you're going. Minor scrapes, probably a little bruising later. Pavement - oh, nice and cool pavement - was not a kind mistress. Her keys, not to mention the books, were scattered around her, and there was a recollection of collision and a grunt caused by that just prior to her impromptu meeting with the ground. Books on the ground - this was something that most of the time rubbed her the wrong way. Pushing herself over to get her butt on the ground, Anita narrowed her eyes to refocus in the dark, and realised rather quickly that she didn't need to. And the source of this oddity was a...man? The petite librarian shook her head, and swept hair out of her face after doing so. It was then that he'd offered a hand.

"Um...Oh...Here."

And she just about did, but the confusion cleared, causing her to snap her hand back to herself, and proceed to get up from the pavement.

"Sorry...I..wasn't watching.." Anita began to collect up the scattered books, as well, coming across her keys before she had the chance to look for them. She stopped a moment, then, to move her purse up to shoulder, and looked to the younger man.

"Thanks for offering to help me up, but..." She half-smiled, a little sheepishly. "...probably not the best idea, in my case."

She always seemed to unintentionally make it sound more threatening than it was, but for the sake of her own sanity, Anita figured she was simply better off.

[Stern]

Stern brightened again. Apparently he was only making things more awkward. He made the attempt to play off the extra light as an intentional thing to help find all her books. She probably couldn't tell it was a result of his feelings.

He gathered the rest of her books.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

The books weren't such a big problem for him as it was for her. He balanced them easily in his left hand and made to hold out his right one in greeting. Then he remembered what she said.

"So how come you don't want people to touch you?"

[Anita Stern]

Anita shook her head.

"Not other people touching me. Me touching others. I'm assuming you'd rather keep your thoughts to yourself."

She looked down at her stack, rather small compared what her fresh acquaintance had gathered up, and cracked a small smile. Well, even though he'd been party to knocking her to the ground, this one appeared to have made himself useful. She started walking again toward her car.

"Well, come on. These books get lighter when you're not carrying them."

A moment passed, and she looked over her shoulder.

"That's a useful gift you have, by the way."

Then she paid attention to where she was going again before there was a chance for her to lose to the curb and get cozy up against the side of the red Mini, which was patiently waiting, by the way.

[Stern]

Stern followed her to her car. "It helps at night. Or at disco parties. During the day most people don't even know that I'm glowing."

He stood by patiently for her to open the car. "Sorry I knocked you over. I was, uh, stressed."

He didn't want to tell her he was nearly panicking with fear of the dark. Keeping that thought to himself was something he didn't mind.

"So I reckon you're a telepath of sorts?"

[Anita Stern]

Opening the back hatch, Anita bent over a bit to tuck each book into crates she had packed into the space.

"Oh...Hmm, not exactly. My power is, well, psychometry...kind of. I can acquire..."

The young man started handing her the books he'd been carrying.

"Oh, thanks....so, I basically acquire information from anything I touch. Objects, people, computers. It doesn't seem to matter."

Anita didn't discuss her gift with people of whom she had no proof they were mutants as well. Miss Florence was not a registered mutant, and in the ten or so years since her gift manifested, she had easily been able to remain so. It was a relatively harmless power, and was easy to cover up. So far, because she had not gone any further in developing it, that would continue to be the case - though the fact that the limit of her ability was unknown could be a source for caution in further development. There was always the possibility that it could evolve into something else entirely.

Finished with packing away the rest of the books, she stood straight up again, and shut the back hatch. Out of her purse, she pulled a pair of gloves and proceeded to slip them on.

"Thanks for the help...Oh, I'm Anita Florence, by the way." She held out a now gloved hand to shake his.

[Stern]

He took the gloved hand, noting the material of the gloves. "Michael Stern. And it was the least I could do."

He adjusted the straps on his backpack, giving a moment to consider its contents. Chaucer, Plato, an NRSV Bible, his rental camera and the film he developed. The last thought caused him to reflexively shine red. His hair changed from the white-blonde of white light to a crimson color.

"So, what's with the books in the first place?" He asked. He still felt strange in his own skin, but at least the handshake was making things more normal.

[Anita Stern]

Anita leaned against the back end of her Mini and let out a long breath. The day was more or less officially over for her, and she could therefore relax.

"I'm from the Cullen's Institute. I would be the librarian as well as one of the institute's professors. I head out a few times a week to pick up and drop off books according to demands from students at educational institutions statewide, as well as the demands of some of our own students and professors."

The 'brainiac' as some students secretely called her in their own circles, eyed Michael Stern.

"Are you, uhm, hungry?" Anita brushed a strand of hair behind one ear. She looked as if she didn't eat a whole lot, but the truth was she ate more than a growing teenage boy, and even with that, she'd always had difficulty putting on weight. Her ulterior motive in asking him such a question was that she simply didn't want to just head right back to Cullen's. The past couple days, what with the strange appearance of Ginny Hayes and all, had plunged her mind back into places she thought she had long left behind.

"I haven't eaten since about three, and I'm positively starving."

[Stern]

Stern raised an eyebrow. "That's neat. I was at Cullen's a while back. It's too bad I missed you."

The college student looked around at the dark campus. Truthfully, he'd rather spend time with a stranger than be alone in the dark.

"Sure. There's a nice place a lot of ESU students go for hashbrowns about a block or two away from here. Do you like hashbrowns?"

His glow returned to white light and softened as much as he could manage. If she was driving, then she would need to see. Having a light in your eyes could make road travel dangerous.

[Anita Stern]

Hearing his suggestion of breakfast food seemed like a good idea to Anita. At this point, she'd probably eat almost anything. Her stomach grumbled a little, and she muttered silencings to it, the promise of feeding not long off.

"If there's bacon involved...." A hopeful thought. Anita loved bacon, the smell, the taste. It was on her list of favourite smells, sometime after cilantro. She unlocked the doors via a single button, and gestured for Stern to climb into the passenger seat. "I'll drive. Just tell me where."

Anita strapped herself in after shutting her own door, and proceeded to start up the car while Stern got himself situated.

[Stern]

Stern took his seat in the passenger's side. He buckled up and made an effort to reduce his ambient glow.

"Take a right when you get to the campus entrance. We'll just follow the road until we get to the place. It'll be on the left at a stoplight. Not hard to miss."

Stern also started to shift his wavelength. "I figure white light's going to hamper your ability to see the road. Let me know if red or blue or violet is better for you."

Those colors tended to be not as harsh and pure light, so he started idly cycling through the colors until he settled on violet.

[Anita Stern]

The violet light was something. Anita found the hue pretty, and it was simply a reminder that despite all the turmoil surrounding the life of the 'mutant world', there was still beauty amidst. Little things like this made her smile, genuinely - something that lately she had little reason to do. Pulling out of campus when it came to that point, she took the right as previously instructed.

"Did you enjoy your visit to Cullen's? I mean, when you were there. Around that time I was incredibly busy...research, lesson plans, tutoring - not to mention library duties and being a prof and all..."

The aforementioned stoplight was right in front of them at this point, waiting on yellow, shifting to red.

"..I wouldn't be at all surprised if you thought me a workaholic."

[Stern]

"Cullen's was really something else. The students there treat school about like any other teen treats school. Naturally most of them were excited about the development classes and learning more about their gifts."

Stern took a pause as he considered Anita's lifestyle.


"I reckon you're no busier than most people on campus. Next year I'll be maxing out my course load, holding down a part-time job, and extra-curriculars asides...so it's nothing I would scoff at."

They came to a stoplight and Stern pointed across her. "See there? The Bacon Barn. The first, last, and only. Set up by four Southern gals, or so the legend goes. They uprooted themselves when their children moved up here to attend at ESU. Said they would do all they could to make sure their young men got all the bacon, eggs, and grits each and every day. You can still get grits there if you want. The cheese grits are actually really popular. We'll use my student ID for a discount as well. There's a long standing tradition that ESU students get a 20 percent discount."

Stern laughed. "No matter what your budget, you can get a great meal."

[Anita Stern]

"Sounds nice." She said, waiting for the light to change while tapping on the wheel. She noted a vacant spot just ahead of the Bacon Barn, and glanced up at the light box just in time to see it shift over to green. Wasting no time, she made her move and set the attractive little car into motion again, swinging the turn and swooping into the empty space with ease. Anita parallel parked (she never got why it frustrated so many people, the thing was simple for her), and made sure everything was in good order, then shut it all down.

"Looks like a nice, comforting place." Anita commented, eyeing the Bacon Barn. "Well, we're here. Let's head in, hm?"

She pushed the driver door open, and stepped out of the car, locking and shutting it afterward. While Michael Stern was removing himself from the Mini, Anita headed around its front, and reached the sidewalk just as he shut the now-locked passenger door, then headed for the door to the joint.

"I swear, two minutes later and I may have died from lack of food." Stern caught up as she said this, and in they went.

[Stern]

Stern quickly got out of the car and caught up to Anita.

"This place is great."

He held the door open for her.

They entered the restaraunt together. The Bacon Barn was pretty standard in its decor. Tables with chairs lined the windows: perfect for two people. Along the sides there were booths. A corner booth stood in the back left. There was a counter where people could eat, a register where people paid, and behind the counter was the kitchen.

"I'll let you choose the place to sit. I believe Francine is on duty tonight for waiting tables. Sambo is probably in the kitchen."

Stern saw the restaraunt was mostly empty so he barked out a shout. A similar reply came from the kitchen area.

"Yeah, Sambo's cooking."

[Anita Stern]

Anita picked a table that looked out onto the cross-street from where she had parked. It had been a while since she had truly socialized herself with someone other than a Cullen's student or faculty - probably since her visit with her mother the previous summer, before joining the faculty roster at the Institute. Another bit of the past that was nagging her lately. The brilliant mutant sighed to herself, watching Stern be social. She had her hands on the back of a chair as she watched, her purse dangling from one shoulder.

There's something in my life that just doesn't feel sincere. She thought, biting her lip. Maybe she'd email her mother soon. Come to think of it, it had been a while since her mother had done the same. That was strange.

[Stern]

A bald head appeared in the window where the waitresses took the order from the kitchen.

"Michael Stern! You here for your usual?"

Stern nodded. "Yes, but I got someone with me, so let Francine take her order before you get started.

"Yes sir! You enjoy yesself."

Stern took a seat with Anita.

"Yeah, sorry. Francine and Sambo are the usual night crowd. They see me coming a mile away. They're kind of understanding about...us."

The old woman Stern mentioned was a thin woman with facial features like a hawk. But her eyes and smile was pleasant. "Now dear, you order anything you like on that menu. My name is Miss Francine and I'll take care of you just right."

She gave Stern a pat on the shoulder. "I already know what you want to drink."

If Stern could have blushed, he would have. "Yes, ma'am. I'll be having what I always have."

He looked over at Anita. "Perhaps we should give her a minute, Miss Francine."

The old lady nodded and started to wipe off tables.

"They saw me walk in the first night. I kind of freaked them out at first. Then when I stepped inside they were wondering if they had really seen me glow. I'm still not sure they've made up their minds about it. But they figure that even mutants are someone's babies, and true to their motto, they take care of us with a good meal so parents won't have to worry."

[Anita Stern]

When Stern sat down, she slid out of her unhappy reverie, and looked at him blankly as he talked, seating herself as well. Anita laced her fingers under the soft curve of her chin, and canted her head a light degree to the side; listening, but not conciously accumulating his words in her head. The elder mutant didn't seem to be quite all there, occasionally glancing at him, acknowledging with a soft 'uh-huh' or 'okay', before staring absently off again into nothing...or something. There wasn't really any telling what. When Francine came by again, asking for her drink order, Anita seemed to pay a little more attention.

"I...uhm...Oh, I'll have an iced tea, thank you." She managed a smile.

[Stern]

Stern raised an eyebrow at her. "And here I figured you would enjoy history."

He copied her posture--fingers knit together like hers and mimicking the angle of her head.

"You're in the Obvious Body Posture for Having Something On Your Mind. Care to let me in?"

Stern studied her for a moment. "You're much too pretty to be so worried looking. Take a load off. Psychologists say it's good for you."

[Anita Stern]

She really did snap out of it this time, and turned her attention to Michael.

"Oh, I'm sorry. My head finally gets around to relaxing at the end of the day, and lately, it gets right back up and goes out wandering."

Recalling his 'much too pretty' comment, Anita blushed. It had honestly been a good while since someone other than a child or a creepy, cracked out man with ulterior motives had said anything of the sort to her. She unlaced her fingers, and folded them in her lap...then decided to take her gloves off and put them in her purse before placing her hands on the table. As soon as she did that, she smiled a little.

"Oh, how nice." She said, more like a secret to herself than a statement to her evenings' companion.

[Stern]

"Something interesting from the table?" Stern asked.

He watched her with curiosity. The corners of her mouth had begun to curl only slightly. The college student knew better than to credit himself for that. Nothing was going on and the conversation had been surface stuff. Clearly the amusement came from the table.

"You said your power let you read things like books, right? What's the table's story?"

[Anita Stern]

She looked right at him.

"Yes. I'm able to pick up transferance, as well. Whoever last sat at this table..."

Anita smiled again. It was a beautiful thing on one hand, encountering these secretive little snippets of people she didn't know...on the other hand, it made her feel slightly like she was getting away with something she shouldn't. Kind of like a guilty pleasure - like a woman on a diet pounding back a pint or two of ice cream after a break-up, except without the effect it would have on such a woman's stomach afterwards.

"It's just so pleasant. And I can see why the boy was so nervous." The thought made her blush, having such a view into the confession.

[Stern]

Stern nodded. "She must have been a real cutie. Can you read me through the table as well?"

Stern had to ask. He wasn't afraid of her picking up surface thoughts, though he did worry what she might do if she picked up on the notion that he severely enjoyed her eyes.

Mostly Stern was flipping through Liebnitz, King Lear, and the dual natures of Christ. Silly papers.

Stern was kind of nervous himself. It wasn't every day a perfect stranger found it worth their while to go places with him. It was a nice change of pace.

"Anything else about the people?"

[Anita Stern]

"Well, the girl really likes peanut butter. Probably a little too much. And the bo-..."

Too late. She had. Such a thing, and knowing where it came from, and that it was directed at her, caused the librarian to move her hands back, gripping the edge of the table in front of her...but not letting go. Anita had slowly been realizing lately, at an increasing rate, that she could no longer hide from direct (yet accidental) confrontations such as these. As uncomfortable as it was, for the first time in a long time, she would force herself to deal with it. To try and defeat this impasse. Then she blushed a deeper hue, and swallowed.

"...the boy...just keeps staring."

[Stern]

Stern raised an eyebrow. "Staring?"

He chuckled. "I think I'd stare too if I found out my date was very obssessed with peanut butter."

Why was she blushing? It was cute, but still. Did he do something? Then he realized what might have happened and leaned back, removing his contact with the table.

"Sorry if I caused you discomfort."

[Anita Stern]

Anita finally released her hands from the table, folding them in her lap. She knew it really was unavoidable now. She was just going to have to learn to trust people again in a way she hadn't since...Well, since a while.

"It was uncomfortable, yes. I can't deny that. But really...I've been hiding for long enough." She sighed. It was hard to admit to cowardice for most people, but she knew it had to be done. The librarian open her mouth, hesitated, then proceeded to speak. Some questions were hard, especially the one she was going to be asking. Men are usually quite uncomfortable with admitting to most any form of weakness, but Anita's curiousity sometimes got the better of her.

"Is there anything you're afraid of?"

[Stern]

Stern's answer was immediate. "The dark."

He tapped the restaraunt's window. "That out there scares the pieces out of me. I hate being in it. I have a hard time sleeping at night. Due to my mutation my eyes can't stand much light at all, so if I want to wash my face, I have to shower in the dark. I can see fine, but it still scares me.

My powers illuminate the area around me. My vision makes night day. But as long as I know it's dark somewhere, I have a hard time getting the courage to go.

He laughed. "I was made to counter darkness, and I can't stand to go near it."


"It does make me feel rather useless."

"And you're afraid of being close to people? May I ask why?"

[Anita Stern]

Anita had started rubbing her thumb over the palm of the opposite hand. What he was asking touched on a subject she had kept silent about, but was only half the reason why physical contact and closeness with other people made her uneasy.

"Uhm..." She paused, not sure how to explain, or why she was saying it to a stranger. One supposes it would be much easier to speak with someone with whom she had no history. As odd as it seemed to let unknowns in on her personal life, it was easier than bringing it to the forefront with people she saw daily.

"...ever since my gift manifested at 16, I've been slowly learning that a lot of people's thoughts aren't anything nice, pleasant or at all comforting. I've stumbled across some disturbing things over the years, and often those things were contradictory to whatever face the people the thoughts came from put forward. It's hard to trust people that you know for a fact are two-faced."

Anita fidgeted with her hands more, finding it difficult to gather thoughts on something she'd avoided thinking on for so long.

"Daniel was the last one I trusted. After he disappeared..."

She trailed off.

"...after he disappeared, I couldn't stand the thought of touching, trusting or knowing anyone else that deeply." She whispered, and looked down at her hands, trying to hide the shaking in her eyes. Then she spoke up again. Her voice was a little uneasy too. "I couldn't help but feel betrayed and abandoned. Oh, hell...I don't know why I'm even telling you all this."

Anita buried her face in her hands. She didn't think that when the time came to stop hiding herself that it would be so hard.

[Stern]

Stern nodded. "Yeah. That sucks."

The drinks came at last.

Francine chose not to bother Anita and slipped Stern her notepad.

Stern orderd two rounds of hashbrowns and a side of bacon. The old woman smiled. "That's my good boy."

Stern handed the notepad back and considered Anita carefully.

"I'm sorry it's been hard on you."

Stern leaned on the table with his elbows and took a moment to consider what ought to be done next. He didn't want to upset her more, but he really wanted to do something to comfort her.

At the last he took a breath, reached out, and gently took her hands from her face. Then he grabbed a napkin and gently dried her eyes.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

[Anita Stern]

Anita just let her hands flop to rest on her lap. She was slouching, her shoulders sagged, and she couldn't look at Stern, even though he could already see her wet face. Whe he had removed her hands from her face, she could find no motive other than a genuine want to comfort. She let out a heavy breath, then sniffled a little.

"I'm sorry you have to see me like this." Anita mumbled, her voice still a little shaky. "I barely know you."

[Stern]

Stern shrugged. "It's ok. It seems like you've been holding that back for a while. At least you got it out there."

Stern looked out the window at the darkness.

"You know, my fears are pretty easily avoided. If I keep even a little bit of light with me, I'm ok. My fears are eased. But to not trust people or have even one person close enough to you to confide in and find companionship with? That's got to be nearly impossible."

Stern sighed and handed her another napkin. "You shouldn't have to feel like you have to do that."

[Anita Stern]

Anita accepted the napkin, and dabbed at her eyes a little more, and blew her nose. She could see where he made sense, that she didn't have to do what she was doing, but it wasn't like she was doing it on purpose. It was habitual, and after what happened with Daniel, it was an excuse, as well. Miss Florence picked up her iced tea and sipped at it through a straw.

"I don't suppose you've ever lost anyone, have you?"

A cold tingle went up her spine. She shivered.

[Stern]

Stern sat back and folded his arms. "Not like you have. And I really can't begin to imagine what that pain is like. It was probably wrong of me to say what I just said, but even so I just--"

He paused and fumbled for the words. "I just can't imagine any amount of pain being worth living alone."

Stern shifted in the seat so his back was against the panel window. "I can't exactly say that I wouldn't follow your example if it happened to me, but after a while I think I would want that companionship again. I think eventually I would be motivated to take whatever steps I could to let people in again, you know?"

The food arrived steaming hot. Not sure of what to put on Anita's hashbrown's, Stern went with a more normal type of hashbrowns with nothing really fancy for them.

Stern's however had everything the restaurant dared to put on them. He chuckled myrthfully at his plate and rubbed his hands together like a mastermind on the verge of completing a diabolical plan.

Fancine placed a gentle hand on Anita's shoulder. "If you want any extra with those, dearie, you just let me know and we'll make up another plate on the house."

[Anita Stern]

"Thanks. I'll let you know if I do." She said in response to Francine.

Immediately, Anita reached for some bacon and started munching. The taste of it had a rather calming effect on her. Her mother often made maple smoked bacon to go with the pancake breakfast they had every Sunday morning, and there was always a wide range of topics to broaden her horizons while growing up on those mornings. It made Anita feel a smidge better, that nostalgia.

"I guess you're right. It's probably high time I joined the rest of the human race in being relatively normal again, huh?"

She cracked a small smile.

"Time to move on. Honour the memories and make new ones."

[Stern]

Stern nodded and took a huge forkful of his hashbrowns. potatoes, cheese, ham, green peppers, jalapenos, and onions greeted him like an excited friend eager to see him.

"Man, that is good. I'll regret it by morning, but for now it's bliss."

Stern swallowed the morsel and smiled. "Something like that."

Stern ate with his left hand and held out his right. "Here, hold my hand. You say you get resonance from things. I can't help but consider it like reading a book. You get the cover, a table of contents, and then you peruse and find things of interest."

Stern sipped his drink. "So here's what we'll do. Take my hand and flip through my pages. Take note of things and pass them over. People are constantly bombarded wtih information, but we screen out what's not important."

He looked at her. "It's going to take some trust on both of us. But I figure at least being able to choose not to be overwhelmed with information is better than wearing those gloves all the time."

He took another few forkfulls and kept his hand out, palm up.

[Anita Stern]

Without a doubt, it was obvious she would hesitate. Any woman was bound to think in some remotely similar circumstances to these that it was too much, too soon, but here? And to what point would that resistance be for? She already knew that Stern wasn't full of malicious intent, and he was genuinely nice and - one would suppose - unconditional in his caring. Good quailities to have in a friend, for sure. And there was that small thought.

He would be good to have for a friend, wouldn't he?

Yes, that was true. It'd barely been an hour since she met Michael Stern, and she already had it figured that he wouldn't be such a bad thing to keep about. So it was decided then. Anita took a deep breath, and her eyes swept up to set on him.

"Ok, then..." She said between bites, reached out the mirroring hand, pausing just above his, not quite touching. "...I'm not aware of my having any ability to filter anything out, just to warn you. My powers will just take and take - but I think I can try to focus on choosing what I want."

Her hand still hovered above his.

"Are you sure you want to offer me such insight into your soul? The street of my power only goes one way, so you will get nothing from me."

[Stern]

"Yeah, I'm sure."

Stern wiped the corners of his mouth. "Try to find something simple. A fact about me, say. I'm Catholic, so find my patron saint. And on the related topic: since you are a librarian, find the two patron saints of libraries and librarians."

He made no attempt to focus on any of the facts. He just let his mind wander free-form as he ate. He was perfectly content to wait on Anita.

His patron saint was Michael the Archangel, and the patron saints of libraries and librarians were St. Jerome and St. Catherine of Alexandria.

The thought of his patron saint sparked several memories of his high school years, some of his recent college adventures, and class assignment. He picked at his hashbrowns as he worked them over.

[Anita Stern]

With some sort of finality, Anita breathed in, then out, then dropped her hand on his and grasped it. As the first thought hit her, she gripped his hand tighter. Fighting against the waves of thought, she tried to concentrate. The petite woman closed her eyes and attempted to visualize each thought as if it were a file, indexed and searchable. As she did this, the thoughts seemed to pile up, and pile up, and just as she would have crushed his hand if she were stronger, it stopped, each thought tumbling like building blocks to a stop, threatening to avalance again. Then, like a pre-programmed system, everything started to be set in certain order and funneled into where it seemed to belong.

Anita breathed in, and out. In and out.

Ok. It stopped! She would almost have been giddy at such an accomplishment, but too much excitement would likely have broken her fragile and intense concentration. Someday, with enough practice, this ordering act would be like second nature, like breathing. Well, she hoped so. Inwardly, she 'watched' as everything categorized and the mountain dwindled down, compartmentalized. The interface warbled, and Anita's face cringed warily. Gritting her teeth, she willed it to stand strong, and it snapped straight to attention, the associated wave of conformity rippling out to the boxes. Anita let it sit and got used to the idea of calm and order in her mental world. It was unusual, but, it felt good. There was a certain lack of torment in having control.

When she thought herself capable, after many, many minutes had passed, Anita cracked an eye open a slice.

"This...this is simply astonishing. I wish..I wish you could see it." She whispered.

Again, her eyes shut completely. The interface warbled again, but this time, she remained calm when bending the system to her will.

"Now...where is...it..." A few moments passed, as she rifled through the files. "OH!" A box tumbled, spilling the contents. An avalance was starting. Her time here was running out.

Anita's eyes snapped open, and she broke physical contact with Stern.

"I...I got it. I GOT IT!" She shouted. A couple that had slipped in and been seated during the little exercise shot her a wierd look. Anita looked back sheepishly, and blushed. She then looked again at her companion.

"I got it." She whispered, leaning forward over the table. The librarian was grinning.

[Stern]

Stern looked up from his food when Anita shouted, but didn't seem to mind the tiny scene she had caused. She was making some kind of progress, and that was good.

"Cool," he said with a smile. Then he leaned in and whispered back, "So you have the information you were after?" he asked.

It was good to see her excited about her gift.

[Anita Stern]

Anita slinked back into the comfort of her seat, checking to make sure that she didn't get and ketchup or anything on her shirt. Thankful that she was still clean, Anita sipped at her iced tea.

"Mmhmm. I did. And I managed to assert some control over the whole process. It was a different experience. I'm usually flooded with the content of whatever I come into contact with until I break that contact. I guess...I guess knowing I can trust someone helps bolster my confidence in doing things like that. Oh, and to answer your little quest, it was Michael the Archangel, St. Jerome and St. Catherine of Alexandria."

She put down the tall glass (now half-empty) of iced tea, and crossed her arms, smiling a little.

"So...how did I do?"

[Stern]

"You did very well."

Stern stifled a belch caused no doubt by the jalapenos in his hashbrowns. He gulped down a little water and wiped his mouth again.

"For a long time I had an icon of St. Raphael over my bed during my mutation. My parents knew my eyes were mutating, but they thought it was an eye disease."

He scraped together some loose bits of hashbrowns onto his fork. "St. Raphael is an angel, and the patron saint of eye diseases. He helps cure Tobit's cataracts in the book by the same name. Poor Tobit. He got his cataracts from bird poop."

Stern laughed.

"I didn't have cataracts, but my eyes got more and more sensitive to light. After a while I had to keep the lights off, which triggered my achluophobia."

Stern held his hand out again. "Well, it's hard to describe. It might be better if you saw for yourself."

[Anita Stern]

Anita nibbled at her food some more, and took another small sip of her drink. Then she dabbed at one corner of her mouth with a napkin where some ketchup had decided to rebel before looking to Stern again, and yet another instance of offered hand.

"Well...hmm, ok. Try thinking about it a bit, focus on the thing. It will help me get a better picture if you do, and should reduce unrelated details."

She took a calm breath in and out, relaxed herself as best she could, then reached out her hand once again. Closing her eyes, she grasped his hand and held on.

[Stern]

Stern felt her small, soft hand touch his and he paused in his eating to focus on the event.

Suddenly it flashed in his mind.

A younger version of himself, hair brown at the tips, but clear at the roots panicking in his dark room. The lights were off, the door was closed, the shades were drawn. His bed was entirely turned over. The mattress stood against one of the windows in his room, blocking out the sun. The other window was half covered over by a large sheet of plywood.

The teen Stern took a nail out of his mouth that he had been chewing on in his angst and kept the plywood straight with his shoulder. He held the nail in one hand and the hammer in the other. In three strokes the nail held the plywood in place, blocking out all the light.

Total darkness covered the room for a moment before he was already tearing the plywood down from its spot. As soon as the nail came out the plywood slipped. Light flooded the room and Stern recoiled in pain as the sunlight assaulted his rapidly dilating eyes. He flung his arm up to cover his eyes and set the plywood back up.

He was crying from pain and crying from panic. There was no rest, no solution. That is, until his mother unlocked the door and held him down. Cradling her son in her arms, she helped to calm him while his father placed the tinted goggles over his eyes.

"We had these special made by the optometrist," his mother explained. "Is that better?"

Stern opened his eyes and cringed--half out of fear of pain and the other half out of fear of darkness. The world was good. The light was light, but the tint kept it very easy on his eyes. Mostly things were shades of grey, but there were colors where it was bright enough.

The boy gasped and breath and blew his nose on a tissue his dad gave him.

"Yeah, that's good."

Stern's dad gave him a pat on the shoulder. "I can't begin to imagine what it's like for you to have to go through this. I'm proud of you."

Stern didn't feel brave, but he still managed to smile. "Yeah. Thanks."

Suddenly the image changed from that to hashbrowns as the college student took an idle mouthful of his food.

[Anita Stern]

Seeing the scene moment for moment really helped put things into perspective. It gave her a solid understanding of how a grown man could be afraid of something as silly as the dark. Anita herself had never been afraid of the dark, so without seeing that memory, she might not have understood in entirety. When it switched from the memory to the image of hashbrowns, she giggled a little and released his hand. While he ate the hashbrowns, she took another bite or two of bacon.

"It's good that your parents cared enough to help you like that."

Her father (well, adopted. Her mother's second husband) - as she found out when her gift was just starting to develop - was a total letch and the way he thought of her even when she was just barely sixteen (and graduating from high school early) made her shudder. Her mother...well, her mother was distant. Ever since his death. Anita looked up from her food.

"I wish I could share with you in the same way that I'm able to take from you. I'm positive that it may be possible for my gift to work as a two-way street, but I don't think it would be as easy as what I've attempted tonight."

[Stern]

Stern shrugged. The plate was nearly empty. "Well, if you care to try tonight, we can. Or if you would like to later, we can manage that too."

Francine brought the bill to the table. "Take your time."

The old woman went back to busing tables.

"What she said."

He chuckled. "Well, I got to say, I had a good set of parents. Not much else went well after that. I was home-schooled, didn't go to prom, never had any dates. Lost a track and field scholarship because I was a mutant."

He chuckled. "There's no social networking for mutants. People would only use it to hunt us down or invade it to leave hate messages or set up events that would end up in violence or something."

He paused and looked out at Anita's car. "This is a nice change of pace for me."

[Anita Stern]

Anita was pretty well finished with her plate as well, and only had one-third of a glass of iced tea remaining. She felt much better having eaten something, and even better than that having made a new acquaintance. And a nice one at that. How exactly she felt that she could trust this man she barely knew with her vulnerabilities was beyond her. He had an honesty about him that set her at ease. Anita sipped quietly at her iced tea as she thought.

"I dated one boy in high school, in my graduation year, and that ended shortly after my powers developed and I discovered by touch just how much of a - oh, there really isn't a better word - jerk he was. It was eight years before I dated anyone else again, and in the end, he just disappeared. I suppose you're lucky in a way to have not experienced that."

She paused a moment, then continued on, sipping at the iced tea amongst her words until it was done.

"As for social networking for mutants...well, I'm not a registered mutant. So far, the overall harmlessness of my power has allowed me to slip under the radar. I saw no need to declare myself if I wasn't dangerous at all. Though really, no one, not even myself, has any clue what the full extent of my powers would be."

Her eyes followed the line of his gaze to her car. Suddenly getting a thought, she dug into her shoulder bag and pulled out a pen and a small pad of paper - after a minute or two. Women's bags are notoriously bottomless.

"I was thinking..." She started, placing the pad on the tabletop, and starting to scribble out something with the pen "...that I would like to remain in contact with you, so..."

She slid the small pad of paper - with her email and name on it - and the pen towards Stern.

"...here's my email. Least I can do for someone who's helped me figure that I still have a courageous bone in my body."

She smiled.

[Stern]

Stern returned the smile warmly.

"I think that would be wonderful."

He took the pad and pen. He glanced over the e-mail address before removing the sheet from the pad and placing it in his pocket.

"And my information is here." He gave her the one for school, and his second one. "I check at least one of these with regular frequency. You should be able to get a hold of me no matter what."

Then as an after thought he gave her his cell number. "There's that in case you have an emergency or just plain need to hear a human voice."

He slid the pad and pen back to her. "Now for the food bill."

He stood up and went to the counter to pay, giving Anita a gentle squeeze on his shoulder as he passed by her.

He paid Francine, waved to his favorite short-order cook, and returned to the table. "Come on, let's go."

He smiled at her again and held out his hand to help her out of her seat.

[Anita Stern]

When he gave the pad and pen back, she looked over what he had written, then put the items back in her bag. When he passed her on the way to paying the bill and squeezed her shoulder, she froze at the gesture...not at it being uncomfortable - no, that wasn't it- but at the fact that the way it felt was hard to place, like a faint memory. Or the assumed memory of what was merely a vivid dream. It was strange.

"Come on, let's go."

Again, for the last time that night, Anita snapped out of whatever little world she'd situated herself in, and looked at Stern, seeing the offered hand. The discomfort threatened to curdle in her gut - the times over their meal, touch had been for the purpose of an exercise. This, however, was not that. She could appreciate the gesture for what it was, and (swallowing the discomfort of a situation she'd avoided for so long), she hung her bag on her shoulder, and turning to get out of her seat, took his hand, smiling again.

"Yes, let's."

[Stern]

Stern smiled at her soft touch and easily lifted her out of the seat.

"Thanks for letting me in."

He released her hand and walked with her out of the restaurant, holding the doors for her as they stepped out into the late night air.

"You're really an incredible person, Anita. Thanks for letting me take you for food."

He paused a moment outside the car and watched her walk to the driver's side to unlock it.

[Anita Stern]

At that, she blushed.

"Thank you. I could say the same."

And she pulled the door open, and climbed in, shutting the door behind her and pulling the seatbelt across herself, then leaning over the passenger seat to look at Michael through the window, opening it with the main power controls she had at her disposal.

"Are you getting in, or am I just leaving you alone in the dark?" Anita asked, with a slight bit of amusement. She laughed.

[Stern]

"Sorry. Please don't leave me. I don't quite like the dark."

Stern climbed in and buckled up real fast.

He was glowing again, and the light increased a watt or two. "But it's not so bad when I have someone close by."

The drive back to campus was kind of quiet. Stern was mostly in his own head, replaying the events from dinner in his head and every so often looking over to take a quick glance at the beautiful woman he met by happenstance.

Once they entered the campus itself, Stern directed her to his dormitory.

The car came to a stop by the sidewalk just outside the entrance.

Stern sighed. "This is it." He turned and looked Anita full in the eyes. "If you need me for anything at all, get in touch with me."

He reached over and squeezed her hand. "You're going to be great. I think you;ll get a handle on all this quicker than you think. And if things start to get out of hand, call me. I'll come running as fast as I can. I promise."

[Anita Stern]

"I'll be sure to do that."

Her response to his 'if you need me for anything'. A typical response that most people would give. Somehow that wasn't quite right here. Then he squeezed her hand, speaking again, and there was nothing but a dose of warmth and care that hit her when he did. She tried not to show any reaction to any thoughts he might have. When he let go, he easily exited the car. Anita watched after him a moment, hesitated, then called out.

"Michael?" That was the first time she'd called him by name all night. He paused and turned, looking at her again, only a few feet from the Mini.

"The same to you. I'm here at least once or twice a week dealing with the library, so don't hesitate to run into me."

She smiled at the words she chose, then based on that, spoke a few more.

"Just try not to spill my books all over the place next time, okay?"

[Stern]

Stern nodded. "You bet. I'll see you later, Anita."

Stern walked over to the door to his building, sliding his student ID through the card reader. It beeped to let him in and in he went, thinking over his offer. He'd have to send her an e-mail soon and see how she was.

She was a nice person. He'd definitely be trying to run into her again.