Xaviers!

Dressed in a plus-size red and black XU hoodie and custom jeans provided by X-Corp, Leo walked from the parking area where he had been dropped off. All of his meager possessions were in the large duffel bag held in his right hand. X-Corp was still working on proving his identity to his aunt and uncle so he could get what things they hadn't gotten rid of. But that was his old life and the possibility of reversing his condition was a slim hope. Even if he was cured, there was no going back.

He paused to get a better grip on his bag and let his animal senses get a good survey of his surroundings. The small forested area in the distance drew a pang of wild longing that he quickly stuffed down. Being outside at all was joy enough for both his instincts and his mind. He wondered what a strange rumbling noise he could hear was, not realizing he was purring.

(open)

Sam isn't far behind him, stretching her arms out as she walks onto the grounds.

"God it feels good to be out again."

"I know what you mean and then some," he said, looking back, "It feels like forever ago that I was actually free."

"You get cooped up, aye?"

She reverses her hands in front of her and cracks her knuckles.

"And now you can just do... everything."

"It's all I can do not to go running off... well, anywhere."

"What's the harm in that?"

"Because it's what the animal wants," he answered with self-reproach.

"It's what you want. You've been crammed in a cell for too long."

"I don't frolic," he insisted.

"Oh, I see. Too serious. No fun to be had."

The truth was that he hated to draw attention to his beastness that way.

"I don't have a problem with fun," he replied defensively, "I'm just not a child."

"Suit yourself," she shrugs, heading for the woods.

"You're not going to the dorms?" he asked, realizing as he said that that he wasn't ready to be cooped up indoors again.

"Damnit... Hold up!" he called after her with a sigh as he jogged to catch up.

"Don't feel like it right now."

"Why? You said you didn't want to do this."

"I realized I'm not actually ready to be indoors. Still not frolicking though."

"You sure? I'm not trying to force anything on you. I'm just going where I feel like being."

"You're not forcing anything. I just decided to take a walk around. And I might as well do it with some company," he answered. The anticipation Sam could sense starting to build in the wild part of his brain proved his statement not entirely honest.

"...then you'd best keep up," Sam says with a toothy grin before taking off at a dash.

"I have luggage you know!" he complained before grumbling and slinging his bag over his shoulder as he started to run after her.

"Sounds like a personal problem!" She calls over her shoulder, bobbing and weaving through the trees.

He moved the bag's strap around his neck as well to secure it to his back and begins a real effort to catch up. The increased size that he wasn't used to, however, had him crashing through vegetation like a bull in a china shop. And as the thrill of the hunt chase began to take him, he dropped to all fours without thinking about it. With an effortless repositioning of his joints, he began to move more like a cat.

"I think you're getting it but you're still..."

She jumps to grab a tree branch.

"Too..."

She swings up in the air, such that Leo's sight of her is obscured by the sun's glare.

"Slow!"

Leo isn't quite sure where she's gotten to until the redhead comes crashing down to try to land on his back.

She succeeds and his instinct made him automatically try to buck her off, but the bag on his broad back gave her something to hold onto besides his mane of red fur.

"Hey! Get offa me!" he cried out with what sounded a little like a roar.

"Oh, am I bothering you?" She says, hanging on as she tries to keep him distracted from the tree ahead of him.

"I'm not a goddamn horse!" he growls, bucking harder. In that moment, he realized how animal he was being and skidded to a halt. Or rather he tried to. The tree got to him first, striking his shoulder and sending him tumbling into some bushes with a yowl of pain.

Sam goes tumbling from his back too, thudding to a stop against another tree trunk.

She is, however, laughing about it.

Leo realigned his joints and climbed out of the bushes, glaring daggers at Sam as he tried in vain to brush off the leaves he had gathered. His mane was all wild and had a twig stuck in it.

"That wasn't funny," he growled irritably, not quite concealing a hint of the amusement he wasn't going to admit to.

"No, it was just fun," she grins as she sits up, a few dead leaves falling from her hair.

"Maybe for you," he grumbled.

All it did for me was make me a stupid animal.

"What, you want me to chase you, next time?"

"No, I..," he started to say hesitantly, before hardening and saying, "Look, I don't know what I want okay?"

His mind boiled with a mix of anger, confusion, self-loathing, and lingering exhilaration. It was hard for a telepath to miss that he didn't know how to reconcile his human and animal emotions.

"Hey, I can let it rest," she says as she stands up.

As absurd as it might be for one that much bigger than her, she offers him a hand up.

He fought his pride and accepted the assistance. Unfortunately, he failed to properly gauge his strength and ended up pulling her down instead.

"Whoah, hey there- oop!"

She's still laughing as she goes down.

"Shit! Sorry!" he exclaimed, before finally getting infected by her laughter. "Damn. You got me laughing now," he managed through his deep, rumble of a laugh.

"That a bad thing?" She asks as she gets back up.

"No, I guess not," he admitted, laugh subsiding as he stood. His emotional turmoil had quieted as well, no longer bleeding out where a telepath couldn't help but notice.

"I think I forgot what laughing even feels like."

"University students do a lot of bloody stupid things on a lark. You're allowed a few."

"Being even remotely happy like this just... feels weird."

"But good all the same," he added.

"It's no different from finding out you're a mutant. Your life didn't end then. It didn't now either."