"There's no Love without Forgiveness" - Maeve

“You don’t?” Maeve automatically let out just as their eyes locked and he could see the initial surprise, revealing that she undoubtedly had had this clear image of anyone with supernatural abilities using them at any single time they got. The remaining child inside her, she thought, would surely want to do such a thing if she suddenly got granted some. “Is it because they aren’t all that useful? Or do you just not know how to probably control them? Actually, what can you do, if you don’t mind me asking? Except turning into a…” Leprechaun. The word had nearly slipped her tongue again. “..an animal.” She had wandered about what he was capable for the past time she had spent back in his company. In all honestly, it wasn’t only because of her curiosity.
A big part of it had also been for Cecilia. Lucas had already exposed how he’d been convinced that he was dangerous, something a person could be in many more ways than one, but it had been itching in the back of her mind how much it might be related to this new world. “Are you perhaps some kind of ticking human-bomb?” She knitted her brows closely together, looking at him with a sceptic sliver before banterly adding: “Should I be standing this close to you?” While this wasn’t even half of a serious question, she had come to know that, really, anything was possible. He had agreed on that as well.

At first the human’s mind didn’t probably catch on to what the shapeshifter was saying. At first all she led out was a faint ’huh?’ as the expression in her face matched the relaxed anticipation. At first not even the direct efforts still didn’t penetrate her thick, dense wall. However it didn’t take too long for that first crack to appear and the raised brows frowned once again, filling her face with sheer confusion. Much like the confusion he had brought forth in her only moments ago. Only this time the angered hostility wasn’t there as much. ..your alleged immunity. Your. “Wait… what?” she finally seemed to be able to says, looking very funny at him. Her undereyes tensed up enough for her eyes to squint a bit. Her lips parted as if to say something but she found it hard to find the words. “My alleged immunity. What does that mean?” It sounded like he was pointing at her being one of those, they had just talked about. One of those who could neutralise. She turned her gaze forward and tried a smile and pulled it off. Somewhat. He was joking, right? He hadn’t really been all that serious with her, not after they had managed to break the solid block of ice between them. So she chuckled. “I think you have it a bit backwards. Cecilia is the one with superpowers. I’m as default human as its going to get. I don’t have any supernatural abilities, especially not anything rare-sounding like immunity.” The chuckled grew her smile bigger and bigger on her face. “I would know, wouldn’t I?” She looked back at him for just a short moment before looking at the park in front of her again.
But the thing was; she probably wouldn’t know. She had so far been able to live a life completely untouched by anything supernatural - for the most part. She hadn’t been thrown a supernaturally manipulated fireball and then survived it without so much as a tiny burn. She hadn’t been cursed by a witch for then not to suffer any consequences. So how would she have known? Still, the silliness of just the thought alone kept her from looking at it that way. She wasn’t special. She was human. And an average one at that. “My cousin must have been talking about herself. Or maybe Zitora. Last I checked, she’s the demi-divine of the group. But…”
Suddenly her compact incredulity eased up and she sort of spaced out, slowing her walk as she thought back. And as soon as focus returned to her eyes she raised them towards Lucas. “Werewolves can transfer pain from others. But… I met one once and he wasn’t able do it to me. I had just gotten this gash." She instintively moved a hand around to the back of her neck, underneath her hair. "Wait… No. That can’t be. Can it?”

He shook his head at her. His hair had gotten a tad too long lately, making his blond waves dance around his face as he shook it. The feeling had him wrinkle his nose lightly; a little wrinkle that turned bigger and got followed by a pair of furrowed eyebrows before returning his eyes to hers. The contorted ‘v’ in his forehead softened up at the hesitant last part of her sentence that could have easily slipped off her tongue. It didn’t have to; he was well aware of the word she had had in mind and it made him purse his lips to hide a smile.
“That’s a little rude,” he pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her before looking straight forward, following the path they were walking on. His eyes glistened mischievously at the cheeky tone she’d put on. “I hope the principal at the academy is smart enough to not hire ticking bombs, Poe. Don’t know about you, but that would be a pretty lousy career move,” he pointed out, for once able to keep a rather monotone tone of voice without cracking up a smile or a chuckle. It only lasted a short while though, before he huffed to himself and tried biting his cheek to suppress a smile; to no luck. “I’ve got two that I know of,” he explained, much more enthusiastically than the dull monotonous tone he’d had a short while before. “Without going into too much detail, I can manipulate electricity.” He had grown rather fond of this one, even though it had scared the living hell out of him when he was younger. “Problem with elemental powers is that they rely so heavily on our emotions,” he said in somewhat of a mumble. This was the part he wasn’t so proud of after all. “It took me a long time but I think I’ve got it under control now. Only took a few minor house fires, that” he pointed out bitterly. He didn’t know, of course, if she remembered. Cecilia had blamed it on rogue wires or even mice biting through electrical work, but he knew that it had all been him and his explosive uncontrolled anger issues. “Thing is, it doesn’t always feel like a gift. It’s a little harder than learning to bike, y’know. You’ll often see people losing control when they stop paying attention.”

Luke raised an eyebrow at her before lowering it into a slight frown. She really didn’t know then? Maybe Cecilia had been overly enthusiastic about Maeve’s powers? He let her ramble, studying the confusion in her face with an apologetic smile. Had it been too soon? I would know, wouldn’t I? He tilted his head at her, considering the question. “I don’t know,” he replied in honesty. He didn’t have any immunities himself and sincerely didn’t know. There were too many types of immunity to keep count of and they most probably behaved very differently to one another. Lucas knitted his eyebrows a little worried about her. As her walk slowed down he had them come to a full stop, reaching out to gently put a hand on her shoulder. He looked down trying to catch her eyes. “Hey,” he muttered softly. “I didn’t mean to startle you like that.” He raised his eyebrows slightly, nodding his head to make sure she understood. “We don’t have to do this. Could just go grab a coffee and talk about your parents,” he assured her mildly. His hand itched to get to use his powers, at least to just try to fiddle through her nervous system just to see if he could; but in respect for her, his hand was merely placed to support her in any way he could. Not to snoop into something that really wasn’t his business at all.

It might seem like the best thing to just let her go on, let her minds take whatever time it needed to be able to wrap itself around it. But in reality, it only had Maeve spiral more and more the less she was interrupted. Of course, she didn’t give many opportunities to break in and stop her rambling. She nearly answered all her question herself before letting anyone else step in and do it for her. And even then, most of the questions were more rhetorical. Or they never actually left her mouth.. She hadn’t even noticed that they have stopped completely, she had just instinctively done it the moment he had, having already walked at such a pace that it almost didn’t make any different in speed anyway. It was then his hand, that grounded her and she automatically looked to her shoulder were it laid, firstly frowning a bit over it. A frown that smoothed out as she looked up to his face. At first. It didn’t take long before it returned, this time a bit deeper than before. Pulling with it the confusion with it again. It was written all over her face. He wasn’t the ticking bomb. But she was. What? ”Don’t have to do what?” she simply through right back at him. Talk about the possibility that she wasn’t as ordinary that she had thought? That she probably had prized herself about after the initial disappointment staled? But what she didn’t understood was his way of presenting it.
Coffee. Coffee sounded good. Not coffee specifically, though, rather.. Her eyes escaped the shapeshifter for just a moment, scanning the surroundings a little behind him instead. And bingo. “You know what? Hold that thought,” she suddenly said before he even had the chance for probably giving her a reply on her prior interrogation. Her eyes only swiftly grazed him before she held up a indicating finger and gently removed his hand from her shoulder with her other hand and then walked past him. The first few steps toward the cart vendor were normal, yet determent but the last distance she closed by lightly jogging. Only one other person before her, and the transaction was as quick as one would expect from the street vendors, so she wasn’t allowed much time to wallow before she was next.

It was then after the order, that it hit her and the frown and unfocused expression reappeared. Pff. It really didn’t make much sense. For some reason it made less sense than the fact that fairies existed. That her best friend was the son of a bloody arch angel. That her cousin’s ex-boyfriend was a walking generator. Partially unintended she looked down at her hand as if she’d be able to see this supposed ability. No. Nothing. “Something wrong?” By the sound of the vendor’s puzzled voice, she hastily looked up again, quickly removing the tale-telling folds. She found him with both coffee and pretzel bread in hand as if he had stood like that for a while, waiting only for her. “Ah, no.. sorry. Thanks!” She managed a smile as she grabbed her order and walked again to not show more of her flustered self.

“Here.” Back with Lucas, she held out the cardboard cup of coffee and waited until he had either taken it or declined till she could look him in the eye again. She was feeling a bit strange, she had to admit.
Lastly a sigh to collect herself seeped out of her. “So. I think I understand it now. This is the reason you came to talk to me, huh?” It had to be. Right? Why else would he have said it like that. “I, however, don’t know why you’d ever want to talk about my parents. I’m positive there aren’t any anomalies to find anywhere in my family tree unless you go way, way back.”
She broke of the first piece of the pretzel, the warm smell of it reminding her just how little she had eaten all day. This venturing out of the skyscraper apparently wasn’t only in favour of Lucas. She had needed a small break, it seemed.

Lucas blinked. Maeve fluttered around like a lost butterfly. He had not really meant it that literally. The urge to slap his hand onto his face was very hard to suppress right about now. Was he really that bad of a communicator?
He regarded her curiously as she waltzed across the park to a little coffee stand. He knew he shouldn’t laugh; but it was somehow a little comical and his face twisted into a smile before he shook his head. He let his eyes wander from the little brunette, finally landing on a small wooden bench between the point he was standing a little awkwardly and where Maeve had gone to get coffee. He kicked a pebble off the road before heading for the bench, waving his hand at her as she turned around to walk back to him. Looking at his watch he knew he didn’t have long before he would have to excuse himself to go pick up Cecilia from work.

Lucas had attempted small talk. He smiled politely as she handed him the warm drink. The offer to talk about her parents had been more of a way of catching up and letting the conversation drift away from all this talk of supernatural powers - her family was after all one of the most ordinary, non-supernatural topics he could think of.
He licked his lips, trying to keep up with her whirlwind mind, before pushing his eyebrows up a little regarding her warmly. “Poe,” he interrupted, letting his raised eyebrows fall back into place again. “I did not come to wreck havoc in your life. I can assure you I came to try to smooth things over and puppy-eye my way out of you potentially screaming your head off at me in front of Cecilia.”
And that was the truth. It had been a spontaneous urge to hopefully put things right in his life for once. He felt flustered that she’d think otherwise; it was after all not at all his place to talk to her about this. He had gotten the impression that she knew about her powers. Hell, he didn’t even know about her powers, it had just been a fleeting comment in one of last night’s conversations; so casual that he could only imagine it to be the truth.
He shifted on the seat, dragging a hand through his hair before taking a sip of the coffee, letting the hot liquid warm him from the inside. He picked up where he had left, genuinely not wanting to push Maeve into a world she wasn’t ready to face. “Listen, we can go back to shouting at me if you prefer, was what I meant. I didn’t come to drop a bomb on you. The way Cecilia presented it made me think, the two of you had already had this talk,” he said, shifting his gaze down onto the cup in his hands, cupping them to warm his fingers as the afternoon had started to fade into a winter evening. He dragged his eyes away to look back up on her with lightly furrowed eyebrows. “I’m sorry if I overstepped,” he said, flashing an apologetic smile.

Poe. For some reason that was enough to mute her completely in an instance and automatically had her turn her full attention to him with a pending standby look in her eyes. He hadn’t really interrupted her mid-sentence but he had managed to keep her from just keep going. Halt her thoughts too. She also finally realized how she was still standing, looking more or less down at Lucas, as he had already taken a seat and she simply had placed herself right in front of him. The befuddled way her own brows had lifted to make her eyes seem bigger calmed again rather quickly as her gaze escaped him to instead lower in a slight moment of embarrassment. However it didn’t take long for her to look back up at him more collected. “No. Of course not,” she admittedly commented as she curled her brows to look more apologetic. She then moved over and sat down next to him, instinctively laying one leg over the other as she did and finishing off with a quick chuckle. “You sure did puppy-eye you way out of... something, huh. Were you already this skilled in doing that in the past?”
The first bite of the bread pretzel - the breadzle - got stuffed into her mouth, utilizing his answering time so to not risk talking with her mouth full. It was less successful than she would’ve thought, since bread was bread and it swelled in her mouth, having her chew for a moment longer. Smaller bites..

Maeve shallowed with vigorous strain, doing what she could not to look too obvious, however impossible such a task actually was. “You almost make it sound like I’m screaming and shouting all the time.” Okay. She had shouted at him. That was true. And had she wanted to keep shouting at him? Yes. But was it the case now? No. Whatever fuse he had lit by simply appearing in front of her out of seemingly nowhere had either been cut from the explosives or led to a dud of a bomb because now the thought of ripping the head of him made her feel bad. Like when she scolded her brothers and was met with their hurtful, regretful expressions. She gently shook her head.
“A lot happened at once and I think we concerned us more about her abilities and what they brought with them. Or maybe she did talk to me about it and it just went out the other ear.” She shrugged, trying to think far enough back to conversations she’d have had with her cousin, not finding any leads. Casually she held out the pretzel towards him to offer him a piece if he was feeling peckish. “I won’t exactly call it overstepping. Maybe a little bit.” She turned her head towards him, jocosely squinting her eyes at him. “Appearing suddenly and be like: I’m here to help and by the way; I know everything. It’s a bit much. But…” She breath in deeply and repositioned herself better on the bench, moving her gaze away from him again. “..so is everything, honestly.” Her face abruptly frowned and after staring at the horizon for a couple of seconds her eyes returned right back at him. “Do you think that I’m actually immune? That I have some kind of ‘power to neutralize’ other kinds of supernatural powers?” she asked as she really wasn’t entirely convinced. And then if she really was; what did it entail? Was it anything supernatural itself or what? Wouldn’t she be neutralizing her own ability if it was?

Lucas considered the question with a straight face, narrowing his eyes slightly as he did so. In the end he clicked his tongue and shrugged theatrically. "You offend me," he replied dramatically and squinted his eyes at her. "It's my very best feature."
He politely let her comment about shouting slide, smiling widely at her instead while she struggled chewing her too-large bite of the pretzel. It had obviously not been the truth; she was usually quite laid back if he remembered correctly. He sipped the lukewarm coffee before turning his attention back to her, widening his eyes a little as she spoke.
I think we concerned us more about her abilities and what they brought with them.
That made sense really. Cecilia's abilities sounded awfully agressive and like they were spiralling out of control and she genuinely had to start fixing that and closing herself off a little. Summoning archangels were bad business even if they were helpful creatures; it opened up to a world of very powerful beings and being a human stuck in the middle of all that was a dangerous thing to be.
Lucas relaxed his jaw that had tensed at the thought and he nodded in agreement with her. "She has to be careful, yes," he muttered, raising his eyes to the sky above them. He didn't like it one bit. He han known people with powers like hers; seeing the future was another very dangerous power that could easily consume you. He shook his head gently, to remove the immediate worry he felt for Cecilia. There would be time to talk about all that with her, hopefully.

Maeve's movement had him look back down from the sky. He lit up in a smile, breaking a small piece off the pretzel she had offered him, nodding as a silent 'thank you'. He only had time to stuff it in his mouth before her words made him splutter out a chuckle, hastily covering his mouth to not accidentally spit pretzel all over her. He swallowed the piece before having chewed it properly and pulled a face at her. "Alright, putting it like that," he huffed, drying his mouth with the back of his hand. His laughter faded to an apologetic smile. He could only imagine how tough it must all be.
He sucked his bottom lip in, whilst thinking it over. Truth be told he had no idea. He had no invasive powers and since there were about a million types of neutralising powers countering about a million types of other powers. He furrowed his eyebrows lightly, regarding her small frown. "Mh, immunities are tricky," he tried to explain her, flashing a surrendering smile at her. He rather wanted to give her a straight answer, but didn't want to lie. "It would take time to find exactly what kind you possess, if you do, of course." He tilted his head at her, hesitating before speaking again. "I would happily help you find out, but you might want to think it over and if you're not ready it's no big deal." If he hadn't been overstepping before, he thought to himself, he definitely was now. He squinted his eyes as soon as the words had come out of his mouth, surprising himself a little at the offer. It really wasn't easy when he was so fascinated by immunity that she sat right there. His hand itched to touch her and try his powers on her to see if she would counter them in any way, but he politely folded them in his lap to not even give himself the chance of temptation.

“Yes!” Maeve abruptly burst out at him. “Exactly! I get that she’s still learning what she’s capable of but I can’t help but think that she forgetting to probably think of her limits in the process.” She thinks she can save the world.. The words didn’t leave her mouth and Lucas hadn’t said anything along those lines either, but for some reason, she was convinced that the words had passed his mind just as much as it has passed her. At least if her impression of him was correct, which she sure as hell was hoping or her current approval - not forgiveness! - of him was wasted. “Would it be too much for me to ask that you make sure she doesn’t end up doing something stupid? Like summoning a house full of demons or.. I don’t even know; ancient artifacts from museums halfway across the world and then end up wanted for high-stake theft?” The look she gave him wasn’t exactly pleading. Not in the same way that a little girl near them was pleading to her father about staying to play in the park just a little longer. No. Her facial features was instead presenting a desperation and exhaustion. And frustration. She couldn’t get through to her cousin. Maybe Lucas had a better chance, specifically in this honey moon phase… that was if the two of them became an item again. The small human was still not totally sure how she felt about that outcome yet… But at least he’d be useful in some way!

As soon as he began nearly choking on his bite of bread, she instinctively moved a millimeter or two away to avoid getting into the danger zone of his spitting radius, however a smile dominated her face rather than a cringe of disgust. Although she was grateful that he had been quick to cover his mouth so only to spoil himself with chewed up wheat gluten.
She was deliberately holding back a laugh by keeping her lips pressed firmly together, still her stomach jumped a few times to the rhythm of a silent giggle as she went to get something from her pockets. “Hold on a bit,” she softly said as she expected to pull out either a napkin or a wet wipe for him to wipe his face probably but… Bafflement stood clear in her face until she finally understood what was going on and she turned to the shapeshifter with a shrugging straight smile. “Oh yea, this isn’t my personal jacket. Sorry, I thought I had something for you towel yourself with.” Luckily, it turned out he made due with his own hand.
Ah yes! If was a good key word. Whether she actually had anything like immunity was only a theory, she had to remind herself. Looking back at occasions where it could’ve come to play had made it seem very plausibly but there had been no actual testing done as of yet. She couldn’t be sure and neither could Lucas. Nor Cecilia. So she nodded an agreeing ‘aha’, shortly lowering her gaze and then looked back up at him. “You’d help me?” she repeated, questioning what he had just said. Surprisingly enough, this wasn’t overstepping. It wasn’t the words she’s use for it. Her brown eyes ran quickly up and down the sculptured man beside her. It really wasn’t to be biased, especially since he at the moment actually was the one she felt knew the most about superpowers and their use. “How would you do that? Are you going to zap me and see if it’s affect me?” Her attention then fell on their surroundings. Believing that he could control his ability and thereby no send too large an electrical current through her, then it would be a start. But.. she was more concern about them being in public.

Lucas couldn’t help a little, startled chuckle at the eagerness of which Maeve had spluttered out her words, defending his worry for Cecilia; clearly very, very worried herself. He smiled meekly at her and hummed in agreement. “Well, it doesn’t sound like she’s had a lot of time to get to know her powers,” he commented, the words tasting a little bitterly. It wasn’t exactly an excuse and possibly even made it more dangerous. He wrinkled his nose. “You know what she’s like,” he mumbled under his breath, looking away from her again, down at the paper-cup in his hands. She thinks she can take on the world all on her own.
At least that had been the Cecilia he had known those years ago and judging by last nights long talks, she hadn’t changed much altogether. At least not her core.
Luke raised his eyes back to Maeve’s face, regarding her brown doe eyes with lightly raised eyebrows. He nodded. He knew that they had yet to figure out the roles they would and should play in each other’s lives but one thing was for sure; Lucas would help Cecilia however much he could. He knew that in his heart. He couldn’t leave her this time around, and even if it meant simply staying as a friend, he would help her if she needed help. Maeve had voiced yet another worry of his, and he flashed her a small smile. “I’ll try, Poe,” he replied. “I’ll try.”

Lucas’s eyebrows furrowed in his forehead. Are you going to zap me?
“What? No!” He hastily assured her. A confused expression fell on his face and he shook it lightly, both as a statement and to shake the confusion off. “No, no. I wouldn’t zap you,” he told her as the confusion slowly turned to humor at the thought of him zapping her in public. He could probably do it without anyone noticing, that he was sure of, but if she wasn’t immune ,that would hurt. His slight smile faded. “Uh, I have another, uh, ability,” he confessed, as his gaze flickered between her and their surroundings to make sure the people around them, wouldn’t hear his next words. “I don’t know how else to explain it; but I can access your nervous system. It would be easy because I don’t actually have to touch your nerves or, uhm, do anything to them, to know if it works or not. I can feel the pulses but if I can’t feel yours that would speak for itself,” he said, studying her face to understand whether or not he was pushing it. Nerves were after all fiddly little things and all bodies relied heavily on them to work so it was understandable if Maeve wasn’t comfortable with his proposal.
“Cecilia doesn’t know,” he added under his breath. Maybe that wasn’t exactly a brilliant start to him amending his past mistakes, but he had only really flashed the electricity ability last night, thinking that one ability was overwhelming enough. He could always ease into this one, he had thought. The scary one. It scared him because he had no idea of the limits and it wasn’t exactly an ability he had been able to practice with. Nerve-manipulation was rather dangerous business. It was also the reason he had started his PhD, desperately wanting to know everything about the nervous system before feeling comfortable exploring it any further. For now he was content knowing that he could paralyze nerves for a short amount of time. It was scary enough, just that. “We focused mainly on her abilities,” he explained quickly, feeling the need to justify that he hadn’t told her; especially when Maeve had somewhat accepted his presence.

The shapeshifter’s abrupt outburst, clearly not having expected her to come to that conclusion only really startled her to the point of bafflement that had her pull her head ever so slightly back and looked at him with big, blinking eyes for the time until an amused laugh coloured her expression with a smile and curled brows as well as jumping shoulders. She couldn’t really blame him too much for reacting like that, but she couldn’t help finding it quite entertaining either. Had she really come across offended enough for him to revert into some apologetic boy who suddenly was afraid of having disrespecting his mother. She thought they had gotten past that, at least a little bit. “Well, I guess I should be happy about that then,” she chuckled and gently shook her head at him, still very much smiling broadly enough for white teeth to show, which only dimmed to a closed one when she returned her eyes to him and he opened even more up to her.
“Oh?” Another ability? Had she had this conversation only half a year ago, she would not have been as neutral about the mentioning of a second superpower. It seemed more normal that people touched by the supernatural had more than just one ability, than if they had only one. Actually she had slowly come to the realisation that it probably was more normal for people to have some supernatural in them than not.
She vaguely tilted her head has she more or less let him explain. Let him find his way to the words which he had admitted not knowing to use to do so. Although, it went pretty well. The smile had faded but not retracted. Her face had simply relaxed in conjunction to her amusement having been pushed back by genuine curiosity and interest. And as he came closer and closer to his conclusion her eyes widened and her brows rose. By the end of it she unhurriedly lowered her eyes to look down at the palm of her hand. “I mean, it makes perfect sense. Kind of.” She scrunched her brows in a spike of confusion before smoothing out again as she looked back up at him. “At least, I’d take something like that over the possibility of getting any electrical burns. Not that I don’t trust that you have enough control over it that it wouldn’t have come to that. Like you said before yourself, I doubt the academy would allowed something who couldn’t be a teacher,” she admitted and letting the previous smile make a comeback on her lips - still carrying the lipstick as she had been very meticulous about not biting directly into the pretzel.

Sadly it wasn’t enough for Lucas to hide his confession under his breath for Maeve to not both hear it and instantly change her smile to a displeased frown. And surely he would’ve expected it since it hadn’t sounded like something he was much willing to say out loud. Slowly and as controlled as she could do it, she breathed in and like blowing up a jumping castle, her torso turned and straightened out before she let out a heavy sigh, emptying her lungs completely. “There’s probably no harm in not telling her yet. But if I know her well enough I’m sure she’d find it as gripping as I do. So don’t be so nervous.” She send him a sided smile together with the words. She had, luckily, gotten the most of her anger towards him out by then. And she had remembered to remind herself that they had just met. It was another thing, if her cousin had asked and he kept it to himself. Like had happened to her. Then she’d find it less forgiving for sure.

“But, what was it you said? You only need to see if you can sense some kind of.. movement in my nerves? A pulse?” She reverted back to the main topic of conversation again, positioning herself to have her front turned as much towards him as she would without having to lift a leg up on the bench. She was in public, in a dress. This wasn’t a place to be overly casual. “Then let’s try it,” she firmly proclaimed and then held a hand out towards him, offering it. Thinking that it would be all he’d need; a bit of skin contact. She knew very little about the biology of nerves so she had none of the concerns which he had. What could go wrong? It was just to feel if there was anything. That he might be able to make her lame for the rest of her life never occurred to her.

Lucas' eyebrows followed Maeve's in their scrunched up furrow and they softened up just like hers did a second or so later. The slight smile that had found its way to his lips, contorted as he pulled a face at the notion that the Academy didn't allow teachers who were't qualified. Had you asked him 24 hours earlier he would have most definitely agreed - quickly and determined - but after his conversation with Cecilia last night, he truly didn't know what to think. Joseph was a teacher and had been ever since Luke had joined some 4-years ago; he'd even played a large role in keeping the Academy safe under the big attack from the Muertos and although he hadn't exactly been a friend, the shapeshifter had somewhat admired the Siphoner and his confidence. It felt like a betrayal to know that he had so thoroughly misjudged a person.  Just because Joseph was well liked amongst students and teachers and was charming and confident clearly hadn't meant he was a decent person. Not at all in fact.
He muttered a quiet, "Mh," in a half hearted agreement before wrinkling his nose and finally looking back up at her. "Actually, the reason why Cecilia came to me yesterday is because he, uh, works with me," he admitted, keeping his eyes locked with her in a small frown. He hadn't entirely digested the fact. "You know. The guy who did all of this. So I personally think they could do a better job at vetting the teachers." He sounded every ounce as bitter as he was about that fact, still shocked at how incapable one would have to be to allow such a guy on the premises. As a teacher even. It really diminished the entire profession into rubble.
His annoyed glare softened up as he came to the realisation that his words weren't exactly comforting and that her comment had been meant to to the opposite of what he had just provoked. He shot her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. It's still a bit sore, I probably shouldn't have said that."  

There’s probably no harm in not telling her yet.
An immediate wave of relief washed over him and he took a deep breath before nodding slowly at her words, genuinely content she didn't think he'd been ill-willed in him not simply spilling out everything he hadn't told her back then. There was a whole lot of things to go through and he hadn't wanted to overwhelm Cecilia more than she already was.

Her reaction somewhat surprised him. Perhaps it was exactly because she was a human, that she simply had no idea of the damage he could do with such a power, that she had decided to trust him in it. Anyone who knew about abilities like this, would probably hesitate with allowing someone access to their entire body like that, but the excitable human in front of him, simply reached out her arm with a firm determination.
"Yeah?" He asked, his voice pitching slightly at the surprise. He quickly collected himself and pushed away the nagging nerves that had surrounded him since Cecilia had come to the Academy the night before. No reason to be nervous about this, he told himself, he would after all not do anything; simply check that her nerves were functioning well as they should.
"Nerve impulses are much like electric impulses," he explained her, "it's basically all your neurons trying to communicate with each other by small electrical signals and I can tap into them."
As he spoke, his voice calm, factual and professional, he gently reached out, allowing his fingers to graze her delicately wintery-pale skin. He closed his eyes. "The signals transmits information to your brain and informs it of things like 'is this too hot or too cold to touch',." he continued in a low mutter, before taking another breath, and activating his power.
At this point, he would usually be able to feel a million little buzzes from electrical currents, telling her brain that she should feel that something was grabbing onto her wrist, and he would be able to follow them in bright, golden streaks through her body to the brain, creating an inner image of her entire nerve system. Except, well, all he felt was her pulse, as his fingers pressed down on her wrist.
Lucas' brows furrowed in concentration. It didn't even feel like hitting a wall; a sensation he had gotten when trying his ability on an immune student a few years back. It simply felt like a normal touch.
Still nothing.
The small frown turned to a surprised chuckle.
"Poe, I don't think you understand how amazing this is," he whispered before opening his eyes, locking onto hers with a warm huff. "Shit. I get nothing."

Maeve nodded before adding a “Yeah” to confirm that she was entirely on board with this little experiment of his. “It won’t do much harm in at least trying.” She didn’t understand his very obvious surprise to this, however. It had been his idea and he had been thoughtful enough to choose this over what she originally had believed he’d do; and honestly she hadn’t been opposed getting zapped either, if that had been the case. Yea, Lucas Hamilton wasn’t the one people in the world whom she trusted the most. Heck, he barely reached above any other stranger she could’ve met and had a short round of small talk with on the exact bench which they sat on. But he wasn’t untrustworthy either. He always sounded so genuine when he spoke, especially the serious concern he expressed when his abilities were on the table of discussion, so how could she ever think that he would purposely suggest something that would harm her? And with his almost hyper-attentiveness towards what he was capable off, it painted a pretty clear picture of just how much knowledge he had even before he opened his mouth to explain further.

It was actually quite interesting to hear about, now that her brain was catching on the more he talked about it - and probably dumbing it down a little since she suspected that she hadn’t been able to hide her over-workings gears were turning the first time around. She appreciated this. How he didn’t seemed mind at all. “Ah! Wouldn’t that mean that both your superpowers are sort of the same? If the pulses are electrical - only on a much smaller, macroscopic scale - being able to manipulate electricity is actually what gives you the ability to also control or at least feel the nerves as well?” she wondered as her eyes for a moment left him and her face shifted between more than one pondering expression, from slightly furrowed brows of confusion till wide-eyed realization by the time she looked back at him. “I mean, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? At least if it was only that. You can probably do a lot more than just sensing these pulses.”
She took a deeper breath and sighed out a vaguely apologetic smile, which had her lips only slightly parted and the corners of her mouth softly lifted. The smile appeared the strongest in her eyes which she then lowered to her hand just as he had taken it in his. He held it very lightly, she noticed. In the beginning that was. But it tightened ever so discreetly after he had closed his eyes to concentrate. Albeit it still wasn’t anything of discomfort.
She watched in growing anticipation. Watching his hand at first to see if there would happen anything there; small sparks, lit-up threads under the skin on either her or him, but when nothing happened her brown eyes looked to his face as if she’d find anything new there as well. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to feel or if she was supposed to feel anything at all. A part of her wanted something to happen. A pretty big part of her. She had seen these superpower being used, so she couldn’t really deny its existence but… she had never felt any. And she didn’t this time either.

He let go of her and she instantly frowned in fully conscious confusion. “Huh?” she blurted out a little too loudly. “Wait, what? Hold on. No I don’t understand.” Her face pulled slightly back and she looked at him with a weird look for a while, then down at her hand. Then back up at him. “How in the world can ‘nothing’ be considered ‘amazing’?” She didn’t get it. He felt nothing. Like she had felt nothing out of the ordinary. Her gaze fell to her hand again, where she this time opened the palm upwards and she clenched. She was immune? Really? It gave a weird taste on her tongue.
“Wait wait wait! Maybe you should try it again. Maybe I just don’t have any nerve-pulses.” Shaking her head and looking right back up at him, she held out her hand out to him again. She didn’t even hear herself and just how much more farfetched that explanation was compared to the fact that yeah.. His little superpower had no effect on her. Her mind was too blown to realise it.

“No, no, it truly is!” He replied quickly, nodding at her as though it would convince her that he was right. “There’s - It's - most people aren’t actually immune, they’re highly resistant, and it feels like being redirected or hitting a wall or, I don’t know, getting some sort of static noise, but I don’t get that with you!” Luke lowered his eyes, watching her hand as she opened and closed it.
Maybe you should try it again. Maybe I just don’t have any nerve-pulses.
He chuckled lightly and shook his head at her. “That would make you, uh, chronically paralyzed, Maeve,” he softly pointed out, sending her yet another apologetic smile. Her stretched out hand reached him and although he hesitated to take it, he did so in the end. He was so aware of the possibility of immunities and constantly had to remind himself that whereas Maeve was somewhat aware of abilities - what she kindly called superpowers - but not of their extent. He found her eyes again, wondering if he should tell her that it was of no use. It was not an easy ability to show off, as it was internal and simply not possible to push through her skin. He shook his head gently at her, signalling that he still wasn't getting anything - no little gnisters of electricity shooting through her nerves.

“No, you don’t und-“
His eyes left her to wander the park in search of a - there! A long-legged blonde woman in a professional short sleeved black dress and a pair of heels, walked towards them with her face buried into the phone-screen in her hands as she made her way along the path. A mischievous gleam flashed in his eyes as he returned them to Maeve. “Wait, look, this is what’s supposed to happen,” he explained her, the childish excitement making him a little out of breath.
He got up and casually jogged a few steps towards the blonde girl, turning his side to her as he looked back at Maeve, purposefully bumping into her. She uttered a loud whine in surprise at the tall, young man, and Lucas immediately turned to her, apologizing loudly.
“Oh, I’m sorry miss!” He gently put a hand on her bare shoulder to stabilize her.  She looked up at him with a befuddled smile. “Oh, no, that’s all me! I wasn’t looking whe- whoops!”
The woman’s hand cramped without a warning, with Luke’s hand still softly placed on her arm, and the phone she had held got thrown rather violently upwards. Lucas grabbed it swiftly mid-air, saving it from a certain death at the prospect of landing on the hard ground.
The girl blushed immediately, as he handed her the phone with a warm smile. With an apologetic mutter saying that she ‘certainly didn’t know what had come over her just then', she giggled in embarrassment. He replied with a soft laughter, assuring her that it was probably just the shock still in her body, before spinning around on his heel and heading back to Maeve.

Lucas dragged a hand through his hair and opened his arms in front of her to underline that that was what he could do to people. Not just feel the electrical currents in their nerves, but gently redirect them or interfere with them to provoke other movements. He couldn't help but feel a little surge of proudness that he had come far enough in his understanding of neurons to be able to do what he had just done; although it also scared him a little. It was a door he hadn't opened and wasn't sure he wanted to.

It wasn’t that it sounded completely out there but she just couldn’t actually believe it and there was no doubt about how she felt from the way she sat there with eyes as big as tea cups. It was as if it was too good to be true. That she was immune to whatever supernatural powers that raged in this unveiled world. That she was immune. That she was immune. She’d understand if some god walked around with it, being untouchable and almighty. But her?! She was so small in the vast universe. Human, plain as one could be - at least until now. Even Lukas being what he was; shapeshifter felt more special than she.
She watched him even more expectantly the second time around, looked back and forth between him and her hand multiple times as more tension had built up in her body and the energy urged to get out. Not nervousness. Or maybe it was, but not in the negative sense of the word. Excitement. And yet again; nothing. She was quite for a moment but then, rather abruptly, a huff of a laugh jumped from her throat, forcing out a smile that not long after developed into a self-directed laugh. A strange mixture of realizing just how stupid she must have sounded, proclaiming that she didn’t have a working nerve system but also that disbelieving joy of finding out that there actually was something about her. She hadn’t been left out. And how stupid of her to ever having sulked about something like that! If only Lukas knew. “I mean.. I guess?” She couldn’t quite find the right words, so she just ended up looking up at him with that same laugh still visible in her face and shortly pulled a little squint of her eyes.

It caught her off guard when the shapeshifter suddenly stood up, and Maeve had, due to the automatic response of a woman in business, been about to stand as well. Wait. She quickly sent him a confused look but despite not following along entirely, she ended up slowly descending her behind back in its seat on the bench and she trailed him as he went off. What was he doing? And what did he mean by this being what was supposed to happen? Was he going to use his superpowers on someone else? But wasn’t he just being skeptical about that?! Whatever happy excitement that had filled out the lines of her expression had disappeared, leaving only perplexity.
The perplexed look grew even deeper into the wrinkle between her brows the moment where he seemingly walked straight into a stranger - but not before glancing her way, of course! Because she shouldn’t miss this. A shame he didn’t keep his attention towards her long enough to see her gesture a vague head shake as if to question what the bloody hell was going on.. And then the phone flew up in the air. By the help up a pulled reflex in the arm holding it. Astonishment immediately took over the brunette human left on the bench and the widened eyes returned. A little jump of her heart with phone on its way to its destruction on the ground; which to a matching relief didn’t happen. It had been like when the doctor hammered that little rubber hammer onto your knee and the leg jolted unwillingly. Maeve even too baffled by the thought of that having been meant to happen the times he had touched her hand, to so much as to think of the blushing blonde and how the shapeshifter should be happy about that. The warning signs might not be flashing anymore but he was walking a thin line still.

As soon as she noticed him turning back to her, she got up from the bench, left the partially eaten pretzel on it for now as she with hurrying steps met him halfway, the amazement more or less back in her eyes. “What was that?” she blurted out, although she already knew; he had already explained it, after all. “If something like that was supposed to happen… I didn’t feel anything when you tried it on me. How is that... And you promise me you actually tried, right? Then that would mean that…” She stopped herself, though her painted lips stayed apart as they grow into a bit of a smile. “This is a pretty convenient thing to possess, huh. Immune. A bit boring, considering, but… convenient. And!” In an instant the focus she had on him increased and the smile she displayed turned more cheeky as she added: “To think you’d be the genius to figure this out. You’ve met others like me you, you said. Then do you have any idea how far this … reaches? And I don't recall doing anything myself. At all.” Right then and there, Lucas Hamilton was the expect.

As much as the excitement over Maeve's newfound ability, the little theatrical performance had thrown him slightly off track. Very unlike him, actually, to flash his powers like that; and especially the power he was least comfortable with. It sent a nagging dullness through his legs as it dawned on him what he had just done. Even though entirely harmless, he had actually entered somebody's system and played a prank on her - much like he had done as a cheeky teenager when he hadn't been too scared of his powers. His eyebrows furrowed at the thought and he shook his head at himself.
What was that?
Luke turned his eyes back on the brunette and her painted lips, feeling the doubt sieve out of his body and the nagging guilt disappearing at the human running towards him.

It was a gentle smile that pried his lips as Maeve Poe turned her excitable brown eyes back to him. Gentle and soft and with eyes gleaming with some sort of pride. Perhaps it was her ecstatic smile and amazed eyes that made him feel proud of her somehow; even if she hadn't actually physically done anything in terms of her powers. Pride, perhaps, of the way she took it and of being part of something so special as this. Pride over having - To think you’d be the genius to figure this out.
It faded as quickly as it had shown up and turned into a raised eyebrow at her sassy little remark. Snarky little human. His eyes widened with his smile and he gently shook his head at her. Unbelievable. “Boring?” He scoffed. “There’s nothing boring about you Maeve. You might just be one of the most interesting humans I’ve ever met.” The large statement was put ever-so casually with a near-shrug, to underline just how she genuinely and absolutely was not boring in any way. Man, did he love immunities! So fascinating. The whirlwind thoughts settled as the excitement returned to him.
"Mh. No, I have not," he added, pinching his lips together as he regarded her. "I have not met anyone like you. I have met highly resistant people. And one or two immune people but with quite specific immunities. Like being immune to supernatural persuasion or to disseases but nothing that has affected any of my own abilities." It was a whole new light that shone on Maeve. A whole new world. Lucas loved new things; he thrived off newness, and this most definitely counted as new and surprising. He pushed out his bottom lip as his mind ran off with him, before zoning back onto her and shaking his head lightly at her question of how far her abilities might reach. "It's a tricky one," he admitted, letting his eyes wander the park in hopes of finding some sort of inspiration. "I've never heard of anyone with a full immunity. It might be based on control-manipulation. That your body just doesn't let anyone alter with it."
His eyes returned to her, lifting his eyebrows in a silent question before nodding to himself. Yeah. That could work. "I could of course zap you," he offered, allowing a little playful notch in his voice. He drew in a large portion of air and blew it out slowly, not wanting to get ahead of himself. "I've got a lab. I could easily run some tests one of these days. I, uh, not as, you know, of course - eh - only if you would want to know more?"
Luke narrowed his eyes at his own inability to form a proper sentence, scared that she would take it the wrong way. And God, were there many wrong ways a proposal like that could be taken.

Maeve’s brows knitted into a not so convinced expression together with the  excusable smile. Now he was just lying. Exaggerating, more like it. Possibly affected by the overall excitement she could guess he felt alongside her. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked partially as a rhetorical question so to not come across as completely lacking of any confidence in herself. But still, saying that there was nothing boring about her? That she was the most interesting human he had met. Of course, she had some doubts about that, being a very content average person. Well. Maybe she could be inclined to admit to be slightly above average at times. Also it being him who stood and claimed all that while ultimately reminding her more of her brothers childish and unfiltered excitement over a new remote-control car, she had to still take it with a gram of salt. Honestly, it was quite darling..

Oh? For just a moment baffled unexpectance brushed over her face, dominating the before present smile. It had surprised her to be corrected like that, getting it revealed to her that he in fact hadn’t come across anyone like her just similarities. To some degree, it seemed. Some more comprehensible degree. She couldn’t put a finger on it with certainty but the whole thing with her immunity, her superpower - if one could call it that since she didn’t recall it being anything she should activate consciously to work - had felt just a little bit easier to grasp before when she had believed her to not be his first. If anything it left her in a steep contrast to the shapeshifters own joyous characters, which she was sure must be rather comical to witness. “O-.. Oh. I thought that was what you meant before,” she acknowledged before he went on to explain properly in a way she couldn’t misunderstand again. Resilience, that was what he had come across. And it made sense. Even with the little canonical knowledge she had about the supernatural, it would be a given that there’s be someone building such a thing. If she remembered correctly, werewolves in a whole were genetically resilient to cold. “I’m not going to lie, but this is very confusing. It feels like the kind of thing where the best way is to say ‘that’s just how it is’. Which makes it so worse.” She let out a chuckled, almost as a sign of surrendering, a sign of giving up trying to understand it. For now.

When he started to look around, so did she, plainly out of curiosity to what he might be looking for, so she followed his directional gaze only to return to his eyes shortly after he returned to hers. Blue. They were blue now and had been the whole time. And yet she had somehow expected to see them be golden every single time she had locked eyes with the man. “Aha, so now you want to zap me. Not back when I would’ve given you the option to it,” she teasingly commented right back at his revolution. Had that been what he had been looking around for? Something else to prove to her that she was in fact ‘not boring’. The smile had automatically grown larger. And more cheeky as her head had gotten a little tilt to it. “I can’t believe you, Luke.” Overly dramatically, she clicked her tongue and shook her head, much like he had done at himself a little earlier. She had noticed the moment of repent in him former to her getting up and had run to him. And then.. “Wait. What?” The words fell out of her mouth.
“A lab? I thought you were a teacher? I mean…” Instead of folding her brows she raised them up in her forehead, looking quite astonished. “Huh? Tests? You sound more like an actual scientist. What are they teaching the students at the academy.” Another light chuckle before she stopped her small hands into her jacket pockets and pushed her shoulder up to her ears for a few seconds while also pressing her lips together before them falling down again as she spoke: ”You know what? It could be interesting. And if I actually have some kind of ability it might be best to know about it? Just so I don’t accidently do stuff.” Like Cecilia.. “But I can’t just go to your..” Oh, it was still a very strange thing. “…lab right now. What I should be doing now is to get back to work if I want to get home in well enough time. So.. ehm..”
She should’ve known that there was nothing anywhere on her person that she could use to write down on or with - the jacket wasn’t even anyone’s personal jacket so there was nada. And still she took a moment to search and pat for something before realizing it and glanced right back up at the boyish tower in front of her. So tall… “Email me. I think that’s the easiest way since I won’t already be accessible through the phone,” she then ended on. If he had gotten his hands on her phone number or even figured out where she worked - address and all - it shouldn’t be too tough for him to also dig out her work email as well.