03.01 Ayala

'Why me?' Noah asked. Wondering exactly why he had been summoned to the office of the Institute’s head of Pastoral Care
'Because it’s our job to help mutants,' Emma Frost told him.
'No, that’s your job, I am only a student here.'
'No, you are an X-Man, and you have done first contact training. Noah the girl has been here a week now, she turned up on the island out of nowhere and we have no clue how she got here. We have squat. Her language has no recognisable base. And as near as Dr MacTaggart can tell there is nothing modern about her.'
'She looks modern enough to me. Like that poster on the cell wall in Shawshank. Rachel something or other.'
Emma Frost sighed. She was exceptionally good at reading people - so good she was frequently accused of being telepathic - but she could not read the girl, her body language was all wrong.
'Haven’t you got a spare telepath you could use on her?'
'The only telepath we have is as much use as a cat-flap in a giraffe house.'
'Jamie will love hearing that.'
'He knows, I told him.'
'Of course you did,’ Noad said. Frost had never been known for sugar coating things, except maybe a hammer she wanted to smash your feet with. ‘Again, why me?’
‘You look a little like her, tall and blond, you are about her age, if she decides to go on the offensive the chances of her hitting you are zero.’ She paused. ‘And you are subliminally… neutral.’
Noah frowned. ‘What the fu… hell does that mean?’
‘You’re gay. So you pose no sexual threat.’
Noah sighed and wished they had found a hunky teen cave-guy instead of a girl.

* * *
The conservatory was attached to the main house, it was full of greenery and as it was chucking it down with rain outside this seemed to be a good place to meet. They had got her out of those stinking fur things she wore, but even in standard issue X sweats he was impressive.
'Hello,' he said. As well as speaking he was using SASL, South African Sign Language, he had learned it when he was younger as his best friend had been deaf. ‘My name is Noah.’ He tapped his chest with a couple of fingers as he sat in a chair, he figured sitting was a ‘subliminally neutral’ thing to do. ‘Noah.’