The Way We Are

06

Charles was used to not being alone when it came to early mornings. Many a time he'd be able to see Hank working on something, through the small opening of the door. Or he'd be in the kitchen, clearly fuelling up on coffee. Alex, not so much. When he was here, Charles never really saw him until mid-morning, and even then the blonde still looked very much asleep.

But, considering there was now a new resident present, Charles presumed after the dramatic experience of Lola even coming to be here – and Hank had explained briefly after she went to her room, – that she would jump at the chance to have a decent night's sleep, and a lengthy lay in. Yet no, here she was sitting at the kitchen table.

"Well, good morning," Charles smiled, it was a surprise. She smiled and sent him a wave before swallowing whatever it was she was eating. "How long have you been up for?" He asked curiously, she looked very alert, which made him think she'd been awake for a while.

"An hour or so." Lola said with a small shrug, "I'm not entirely used to actually having a decent room to sleep in. I struggled to get to sleep, and when I did it wasn't very good. Got to the point where I was just staring up at the ceiling, and getting very bored with that and thought, you know what would be good around about now? Breakfast! So here I am. Hank sort of showed me where the kitchen was last night, but everything obviously looks so different in the daylight as opposed to the night. I might've stumbled into a few rooms before finding this one." Lola explained rather chirpily. She rocked in her chair slightly and smiled over at Charles.

He took a moment to recollect and think, "How did that moment come to happen, hm?" He found himself asking curiously with a smile.

"Oh! I have no clothes," Lola said without a care in the world. Charles on the other hand looked a little wide eyed, she just grinned and waved her hands in the air. "So! I needed to use your laundry room, and on the way it was noted I was hungry, so yeah...food." She slid out of her seat, thinking of laundry she should go check and tumble dry. She didn't want to be slumming around in this tracksuit all day. She'd much rather have her own clothes back.

"Well," Charles finally sought to fixing himself something. "Seems you are up and about, and seem fine, maybe an actual tour could happen today. Most rooms are the same, but somehow I don't think that'll deter you." Even from the get go, the word tour made Lola's eyes light up. "How are you feeling?" Charles asked quietly, from the last time he saw her, he honestly wasn't expecting to see her for hours. For dramatic purposes, perhaps even a day or two. She really did look in bad shape. Which made him wonder, really, perhaps a heightened recovery time was a part of her skill set too. One way to find out, and that was to ask. Charles narrowed his eyes, he had flippantly put off powers until tomorrow, today, only because one person in particular was shifting uncomfortably in the room at the time. Charles could say he knew next to nothing about Lola, other than what he had been told from Hank, but even he could spot the easily excitable nature within her. And honestly, excitable and Hank...it made Charles wince slightly, when in his other form, he wasn't exactly the friendliest of people. Not saying he turned into a horrible person, just, aggression, and the inability to see encouragement was something. Although, when Charles thought about it, Erik did sound slightly sarcastic when it came to trying to encouraging Hank. Did he deserve to get basically throttled though as a reaction?

"Earth to Charles, hello?"

A hand was waved in his face, blinking quickly a few times he looked to Lola as she looked worriedly at him. "Sorry, totally got lost in thought there for a moment. What were you saying?"

"Nothing," she smiled and shook her head. "Nothing of great importance."

Charles frowned lightly and smiled, "I doubt that hugely, now come along, seems Hank never properly showed you around, I suppose I will have to do so."