Xaviers!

Colette wrinkled her nose at that explanation.

"Zere must be more... open-minded temples out zere, yes?"

"I could choose Reform Judaism now if I wanted, but at the time all of this happened, I was a younger teen than I am now. Bubbe is very much not reform, and my options seemed limited. I've been like this for so long, I don't feel a particular reason to go back.

In any event, mother married gentile so my grandparents are probably expecting this anyways. I just haven't had the heart to tell them yet."

Basil thought of something, and used it as a way to get off the topic of his lost religion.

"How old are you?"

Colette didn't really understand all of this, but then again religion wasn't her strong suit.

"Twenty. Why do you ask?" Apparently she wasn't going to use the tired old line about never asking a lady her age.

"Because I never thought to until this instant when I brought up age and, if this offends you then forgive my saying so, it's hard to determine your age from looking at you Madame Rosenhof. You're not like other ladies, whom are subject to certain telltale signs of how much time has passed since their birth. You've the body of an adult, and you dress like one, but some of the peculiarities of your nature make it hard to pinpoint exactly how old you might be.

I have also learned there are a few students here who are mentally advanced beyond their physical years.

The concept that I might be chatting up a child prodigy only just hit me and I needed to know if that were the case that way I could go scrub off the shame and really see about getting myself back into Temple after all." He chuckled.

"Zat is a very meandering way of saying zat I look young and flawless, so I will take it as a compliment."

"You may." Basil commented. "I am still determining what is laying it on too thick. Wouldn't want you catching a case of the vapours on me."

"I only experience zat at temperatures exceeding eighty degrees celsius." Colette clarified.

"Well, that's convenient. I believe it if gets past forty, my brain might boil in my skull, so it should be easy to avoid that point." He laughed.

Kayla had had quite enough of this conversation, as she screamed in her own mind.

Basil, I don't know what happens with you, but I'm making sure you go back to how you were.

Determined, she activated her power, drawing on the entire mental potential of the nearly full cafeteria, and dove straight into Basil's clearly unprotected mind.

She did her work quickly and efficiently, pushing aside all the clutter and doubt and uncertainty, and dragged Basil's ego to the front, where it was rightfully supposed to be.

Kayla's meddling had a physical reaction, but it wasn't an overly obvious one.

Basil's left hand, which had been holding his fork and going for another mouthful of food merely to placate Colette abruptly stopped mid air, and didn't move. One might not think it odd, except for the fact that it was almost like he was staring at something very intently, but what that something might be wasn't readily apparent.

Basil then set his fork down and sighed.

Kayla smiled, then got up from her table, placed the tray at the reclamator, then walked out.

Colette tilted her head slightly after noticing the fork being held in place for some long. But she didn't speak until Basil had set it down.

"Is somezing wrong? You cannot possibly be full already."

"It's shit, isn't it?" He replied. "I'm not much for this cafeteria, truth be told."

Colette looked shocked. Basil was usually more polite than this, and certainly not so blunt.

"What? No! Well, it is not as good as zough it were made at home, but considering how many people zey have to feed I zink zey do a very lovely job."

Basil used his fork to poke at his meal like it was a science experiment come to life.

"I wouldn't have a frame of reference on the 'home cooked' aspect as I suspect you mean something specific. Like 'cozy' or 'quaint'. Things my family wasn't even remotely familiar with."

Basil's tone didn't have that usual rueful cue to it, meaning he wasn't making a self-deprecating joke, more like stating a fact.

"Well, perhaps in ze near future we could go to ze market, pick up a few ingredients, and we could make somezing togezer?"

"Oh,yes! That would be lovely. " He replied, sounding genuinely intrigued by the idea.

Without asking, Basil dug his fork into what Colette was eating to see if that was any better.

Colette couldn't help but laugh a bit at Basil's forwardness. She didn't mind sharing some of her rather substantial meal with Basil if it meant he might actually eat.

Well, the desserts were certainly better. The food itself was not bad, the soup especially was very nice, but that was a little difficult to sample with a fork.

"The sweets are better. I guess it's difficult to muck up dessert beyond enjoyment."

Basil licked his fork clean while Colette was laughing at him.

"I like your laugh." He replied, then went back to eating her food instead of his.

Colette squirmed a little bit at the compliment, looking a little bashful. "Zank you Basil. Zat is very nice of you to say." Not wanting to let his food go to waste she began to eat off of his plate in turn.

After a few more thefted bites, he left her food alone, remembering he had his own half slice of coconut cream pie to finish.

"Have you ever kissed a boy before?" Basil asked, because it was the first thing that came to mind.

Colette bit her bottom lip with those pink teeth of hers.

"... no. Not yet."

Basil's fork stopped moving again at his mouth, as he thought about Colette's answer for a moment. He seemed to be playing with it, but if he was making a face at her fuck knows what kind it was.

"Good things to know..." He replied, his tone sounding a bit mischievous.

"Well, to be fair, I was home-schooled." Colette offered as an explanation for her lack of experience.

"You don't need to feel embarrassed Madame Rosenhof. " He replied in a warm,charismatic tone, leaning into her to whisper to her.

"I'd be happy to help you practice that, among other things."

No one had ever been interested in her before. With the exception of her parents and a few mutant friends growing up, few reacted to her with anything kinder than how one acts when avoiding eye contact with a homeless person. So to suddenly have such well-spoken words of less-than-subtle flirtation spoken to her, it was more than she could really process. The girl's entire form shifted to a fruit punch red hue as she was unable to blush any more than that, and her only response was an unintelligible mixture of half-formed French mumbling and nervous twittering.

"Another time then." He laughed casually, dropping it.

"Well, I'm done. Thank you for pulling me out of my room, but I should probably do my best to shower, which I haven't bothered with since before the incident.

Also someone told me my hair looked like shit recently and I should probably follow up on that." He teased.

"You are welcome." Colette stammered softly, still atwitter from the flirting. It took her half of the slice of pie for her to eventually recompose herself.