Xaviers!

After excessive haranguing, Colette 'convinced' Basil he needed to eat something, and he found himself with her in the cafeteria.

"I'm really not hungry." He protested again. He felt uncomfortable being so 'under dressed', wearing his only pair of jeans, one of his button up dress shirts, and the only pair of casual shoes he owned, a pair of checkered Vans slip ons he used to wear all the time in secondary school, but no longer actually liked. He didn't feel up for wearing much more. He reached out for a tray, not really considering how he was going to manage it with one injured arm.

"Of course not. Your body is too busy repairing itself to zink of such zings. But you still have to eat to keep your strengz up."

Colette wasn't taking no for an answer, and stayed close to Basil to keep an eye on him and make sure he did actually eat something. She also grabbed a tray as they waited in line.

"You do not have to eat much. Even just some toast would be fine. But you must eat somezing."

"Good, because even on my best days I don't eat much.

Except before the pub." He added. " Need something to soak up the alcohol."

He wasn't grabbing anything because nothing looked good to him.

"Well you will not be living off of crisps and nuts."

For her part, Colette was loading up her tray rather nicely. "Come on, zere must be somezing here you like."

"Yea.

Crisps and nuts." He joked, then randomly selected something just so she didn't correct him again.

A single slice of Shepherd's pie happened to be the closest thing to him.

"Better?"

Colette smiled softly. "Better. She was already starting to pick out her desserts, narrowing it down to just three on her tray this time.

Basil watched her pick out her desserts, noticing she had a lot of deliberation on the matter.

"Do you need a high glucose diet due to your condition?" He asked, curious. She'd become this obsessive somehow.

Colette nodded. "Cells run on sugar. Ozer zings like vitamins and minerals, zose help your organs function. I do not have zose."

"Which one would have been your fourth choice?"

Colette mulled it over for a moment.

"Ze coconut cream pie perhaps?"

Basil would set the slice of coconut cream pie on his tray without further comment. He would also grab a milk carton, a mug of hot water, and some sugar packets without her having to mention it, then would let her pick out where she wanted to sit.

"Zere, zat looks better. A proper meal and a little exercise, just what you need."

Colette led Basil to a table near one of the windows, where the boy could get a bit of sunshine... or what passed for sunshine in England anyway.

Once the two of them sat down, Basil gently and silently laid the plate with the slice of coconut cream pie at the top of Colette's tray, well out of his own reach. He did not offer an explanation about this.

He then pulled a bag of tea from his pocket and unceremoniously drown it in the mug of hot water, and played with his fork while he waited for it to steep.

Colette shook her head with a little smile.

"Basil, are you trying to fatten me up?"

"That's a loaded question if I have ever heard one." He chuckled as he ripped the edge of his sugar packets.

Colette was being a good girl at at least eating her mac & cheese and such before poking at her desserts, and drinking from one of the multiple glasses of water she'd gotten.

"You have to eat at least have of zat wiz me." She said, indicating the pie. "Or, you first razer."

"But I got it so you'd have an excuse to eat four desserts." He laughed. " Guess I should have finished my Shepherd's Pie first."

He'd pretty much finished preparing his tea now, and took himself a swig.

Colette carefully cut the slice of pie in two and pushed the two halves apart. "Zere, now zere is no risk of... you know." She returned to her own meal, saving her half of pie until later and focusing instead on some strawberry gelatin. Cannibalism.

Basil was playing with his fork, a habit he tended to engage in a lot while eating.

"No, what?" He stated, his shirt collar tilting with his head.

"Oh right, girl coodies, ew." He joked.

"Zat's one zing you could call it, yes."

Basil spun his fork a few times trying to decipher what she meant, and then it finally dawned on him what she was eluding.

He went to shrug to indicate the concept didn't bother him exactly, and then winced immediately regretting it.

Kayla had been sitting a few tables away quietly, reading a book.

Once he noticed Basil and that wierd jelly girl, she began listening a bit more intently.

"Do not worry Basil, zis is somezing I am used to. Were I made of fire, would it not be inconsiderate of me to at least offer you some oven mitts, just to be safe?"

"That's not about you love, that's my back." Basil was grimacing now, and it was somewhat apparent in his voice.

"I don't mind getting some of you in my mouth. Seems a bit hypocritical to mind, considering."

Colette's cheeks grew a little more pink before she burst into a giggling fit.

Basil realized how bad that sounded and replied in an amused tone.

"Well that came out wrong but I'm not taking it back as it's not untrue." He commented. " I am going to put this food in my mouth before it says anything else stupid." He adds, then digs into his 'meal'.

Kayla made a face and felt a little less of an appetite.

"Do not worry, you have plenty of time to say somezing stupid."

"You say that like you're wanting it." He observed.

At this point he had noticed Kayla there, he just didn't give a toss. Maybe seeing him flirting with someone else would deter what seemed like it might be a crush on her part.

Kayla did her best to hide it, but she was starting to seethe.

She turned away, but continued to listen.

"Well, it is somewhat flattering when a young man is so enamoured with a lady zat he trips over his words...." Colette was onto her second dessert now, savouring every little morsel.

"Well then. You'll be as pleased as Punch to know while I was quite adept at speaking to older girls back in secondary, being around you has cemented the idea that I don't seem to have continued to evolve the talent into speaking to young women in the interim time I was busy becoming an invisible shut in. " He was joking in his derisive fashion, but something else was going on too.

Basil had set himself next to her, not across from, and beneath the table, Colette would feel his legs shift slightly. The right one was brushing against hers lightly, (just enough to make it obvious, but not so much as to make it incredibly intrusive), in an attempt to be closer to her in a way that wasn't too much for her sensibilities.

"I think I'll probably say all kinds of foolish things during the adjustment period, but it could be quite the fun game for you finding out just how far I can fit my foot in my mouth."

Colette's face flushed further; thanks to her unique physiology her entire face was a deeper shape of crimson, not just her cheeks. Her fork slipped from her fingers and clattered lightly against her plate. She didn't appear upset or insulted, just... a little overwhelmed? But they had been hugging and leaning into each other when they were hiding in the Danger Room with the other students, why was this so different?

As the fork hit the plate something launched itself onto Basil's face, landing on his cheek and painting to the shape of it in a way one wouldn't really think about if he hadn't been invisible.

The unbuttoned cuff of his shirt moving towards it and the smearing of the foodstuff suggested he'd used his hand to wipe it free.

"Huh. Pork gravy." He commented after putting it in his mouth to test what he'd been splattered with. His tone suggested he was relaxed enough about the mishap.

Colette watched basil (or Basil's clothes or whatever) for a moment before she broke out in a little fit of laughter.

"I am sorry, Baseel." She struggled to say without regressing to giggling again. "I was a little surprised, zat is all."

"As you should be. I just broke kashrut, bubbe would be so very disappointed." He was obviously teasing her again by his tone. With all of the other shit that had happened to him in his life, Basil hadn't practiced his religion in ages, only pretending to on holidays and the occasional visit from his grandparents for his grandmother's sake.

"But I suppose just throwing the food into my face is one way to ensure I eat it."

Colette looked a little surprised, but was still smiling.

"I do not zink you mentioned your religion before Basil. I had no idea you were Jewish." Colette gently patted the last few remnants of gravy with her napkin, sparing him from a licked thumb cleaning.

"Was." Basil corrected. "Not anymore." Basil thought about it for a moment, then began confession again, lowering his voice a bit.

"I was a very good boy religiously until this happened. Bar Mitzvah and all. But after this happened..." He paused, trying to find the words. "My DNA bars me from so many other things now. I am weak." Was the explanation he came up with.

Trying to bring some levity, he continued - " And bacon is delicious and Christmas always seemed like fun and as it turns out, it is."

"Oh Basil, you are not weak." Colette said in a sympathetic tone. "If zey cannot accept how God made you, zen zey are weak.

"But I do agree zat bacon can be worz sinning for."

"It wasn't the religion that didn't want me." He explained. " I didn't want it anymore.

It's... There's so many things you can't do when you're Jewish. In my case, the Temple would take it as far as to dictate I have to marry a woman of ethnic Jewish descent as well, otherwise I'd be defying Halakha, Jewish law."

Basil sighed. " When the condition set in, I began to realize between it and my religion, I wasn't capable of conducting what one would think of as a healthy mindset. One part of me put restrictions on me that I couldn't help but adhere to, but the other I could choose whether or not to keep those restrictions. I may have been 'born Jewish' as far as the Temple is concerned, but I didn't have to stay that way if I didn't want to. Loads of young men born Jewish aren't anymore, because the moment we attach ourselves to gentile women the Temple sees us as betrayers who didn't uphold their duty, and therefore no longer part of the community. "