Crazy on You

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution, any of the characters or Crazy On You by Heart.

Summary: Roberto's crazy about Amara. Amara pretty sure he's just crazy.

A/N: The title of this fic, as well as the chapter titles, are all taken from Heart songs which do not belong to me.

Chapter One

"Psst."

Amara rolled her eyes at the sound, forcing herself to stay focused on the textbook in front of her. She was at school to learn, not gossip.

"Psst."

Unfortunately Jubilee did not share her studious sentiments. Her attempts to distract Amara from her work were getting louder and would eventually attract Dr. McCoy's attention.

When the second psst went unanswered, the younger girl decided to resort to drastic, paper airplane-throwing measures, prompting the royal seated in front of her to whip around with a glare. "What is so all-fired important?" she hissed, tone a bit more venomous than she intended.

Thankfully Jubilee was not so easily offended and simply beamed back in response. "He's staring again," she sang quietly, as if that one statement was an explanation in itself.

Brown eyes darted to the far side of the room before returning to the quirky mall-rat behind her. "So..."

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "So this is huge," she whispered loudly. "He's hot, rich, officially in college this year and totally head-over-heels for you." She paused to look around. "Go. For. It."

Amara's eyes narrowed further, this time in confusion. "Go for what?"

"The gold in Olympic skiing," Tabitha suddenly hissed from their right. "Go for him."

"Why?"

The unmistakable sound of skin hitting skin could be heard and both girls turned to see Boom Boom with her palm pressed to her forehead. "What's wrong with you? He's gorgeous!"

"And he wouldn't go for you," Rahne cut in from behind the blonde time bomb. "You're too easy," she snickered boldly, prompting an answering giggle from the Asian beside her.

Tabitha scoffed and folded her arms. "As if. He's so not my type."

"Right. Tall, dark and handsome is never anyone's type," Jubes mumbled sarcastically.

"Quite frankly, I think you are all losing sight of what is important," Amara interjected smartly. Blank stares greeted her and she huffed before adding: "Learning. It is why we are here after all."

The three girls around her laughed outright at not only her sentiments but her seriousness.

Dr. McCoy turned to the quartet with raised brows, instantly setting his sights on the girl closest to him. "Do you have anything to add, Miss. Aquilla?" he inquired, peering at her over his glasses.

Amara sat up in her seat, back ramrod straight as all eyes turned toward her. "No, sir," she answered clearly, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.

He simply nodded and returned to his lecture and, eventually, the attention of the class followed him.

Jubilee leaned forward and poked her in the side. "He's still staring," she teased. "Why are you avoiding him?"

The princess huffed but didn't turn around. "Why are you avoiding Ray?" she threw back snidely. A surge of satisfaction went through her when she received no answer. "Now I will thank you to leave me be to take my notes. We have a test coming up."

Jubilee sat back and slunk low in her seat, mumbling quietly to herself. "How did I let you talk me into taking this class anyway?"

"Because political science is a necessary course given my future position and you love me and support me," she reminded sweetly, craning her neck to see her friend out of her peripheral. "And unless my memory escapes me, talking you into this course was not too taxing once you were informed that a certain electricity wielding mutant was enrolled as well," she added with a smile, turning her back on her gaping friend.

000

"Stop staring," Ray demanded, leaning over and giving Roberto a swift smack to the back of the head. "You look desperate and she's jail bait."

Instead of being angry, the energy absorbing mutant laughed quietly and shook his head. "The only reason you're taking McCoy's lecture is because a seventeen year old girl - who barely knows you exist, by the way - got bamboozled into joining her friend in learning the joys of politics and I'm the desperate one?" he challenged, a silly grin on his face.

Ray settled for grumbling as opposed to responding and Roberto happily took that as a small personal victory.

"Do you think she'd go to the prom with me?" he whispered after a moment.

Ray chuckled and, once again, reached over to smack his friend in the back of the head. This time the hit had a little more force behind it. "You're not in high school anymore, genius. I think the prom-ship might have sailed on without you, buddy." At the lovesick expression on his friend's face, added: "Besides, she's royalty. Do you really think her parents are gonna want her to spend time with a commoner?"

Roberto's eyes narrowed and he shot Ray an unamused glare. "The Da Costa's are one of the richest, most powerful families in Rio. I'm not just some commoner," he reminded scornfully.

Ray raised his hands in a surrendering gesutre and shot a cautious look at McCoy before saying: "And she's Roman royalty; I'm sure her parents still see you as a commoner. They see everyone as commoners." He paused for a moment. "Let it go. She's probably already betrothed or some shit like that anyway."

Brown eyes widened before turning to stare at the girl in question. "You don't think...?"

"Why else would she avoid you and your advances like the plague? Since when has a girl ever said no to the Da Costa charm? Or the Da Costa money and the gifts it can buy?"

Ray's tone was snide but that just barely covered up not only his seriousness but his concern. For the better part of a year his best friend had been enamored with the young princess and, while he'd been effectively shut down at every turn, he was eternally optimistic. He'd hate to see the fallout that would ensue when Roberto finally had to come to terms with the fact that Amara Aquilla was, in fact, out of his league and his reach.

000

Amara rushed out of McCoy's class as soon as he assigned their reading and dismissed them. She was sick of the Roberto situation, as she liked to call it, and couldn't bear to hear Tabitha and Jubilee carry on anymore. Not to mention that the man himself had a terrible habit of approaching her after their shared extra curricular, at home elective or any other activity they might share.

He was a nice guy, he really was but she wasn't entirely sure what to do with him.

Back home men did not actively court women in the way Roberto was showering her with his attention. Matches were not made for attraction or love, they were made for business and politics. Men did not woo women or flirt or genuinely compliment them and once a woman was caught, she was ignored and left to wilt in favor of ambition and money. To put it lightly, Roberto was of a different sort than she was used to. It was not necessarily a bad thing, it was simply foreign and she was unsure of how to act in situations with him so she chose not to.

It was her theory that if she ignored him, he would go away. In her experience men did not pursue women who were not receptive for long. He would eventually get bored and she would be left with her studies once again and so she saw no reason to clutter her life up in between by losing her senses, paying him unnecessary attention and taking the risk of falling for him.

Heartbreak and pain were not her strong suit.

Her escape attempt was apparently detected as she heard insistent footsteps following her as she turned toward the dormitories when all other footfalls went in directions such as the kitchen, the rec room and the danger room. She marginally quickened her pace and did not dare turn around to see who was behind her.

She knew it was him. It was always him.

Given her hasty departure from class, hall traffic and the time it probably took him to escape Ray she estimated that she was far enough ahead of him to disappear into her room without an encounter, provided he didn't use his powers of course.

The figure behind her entered her peripheral and she mentally cursed his energy absorption talents.

He was cheating. There were rules of engagement and, though she wasn't entirely sure what they were, she knew he had to be breaking them. He just had to.

She knew he was not so bold as to grab her in order to stop her but at the same time she would not let him know how he affected her by noticeably running from him. That would give him the power and up to this point she had held and maintained the power.

She would not lose the power. It was not in her nature.

Squaring her shoulders and stopping abruptly, she turned to him. He overshot her a bit before realizing she'd stopped and she laughed quietly as he walked backwards toward her, a winning grin on his face.

"Fancy meeting you here," he drawled, rocking back on his heels like a nervous child.

He never ceased to amaze her. He had the face of a model, the body of a god and the voice of a phone-sex operator but was forever a child in her presence; an anxious, bumbling school boy who did everything in his power to impress her. She thanked the gods every day that he was unaware he needn't work so hard. She was already impressed and she would move heaven and earth to keep that a secret.

"I was about to say the same thing," she began regally. "You are standing in the middle of the girls dormitory."

An adorable tint of red spread high on his cheeks and she noticed his ears turning a faint pink as well as he cautiously took in their surroundings. Wolverine would skewer him if he was caught.

"So I am." He chuckled nervously. "You're a hard woman to catch, Miss. Aquilla," he commented lowly.

It was not lost on her that he was shamelessly flirting and it took everything in her not to smile. She couldn't. If she smiled she would encourage him and she didn't want to encourage him, she wanted him to get bored and move on so that she would no longer be tempted to accept his advances.

She was at Xavier's to learn in a safe environment not socialize.

"I am a busy woman," she stated tonelessly as she, once again, began walking toward her room. She didn't like the twinkle in his eye, the dangerous gleam there. It spelled trouble for her and put her on edge. "Is there something I can help you with?" With any luck he would sense her discomfort and let her slip into her room once they reached it.

She spared him a glance when he cleared his throat and found him looking at his shoes. "I was wondering if..." he trailed off before cutting his statement short and starting again. "I was wondering if you would tutor me for the test in McCoy's class next week," he finished unsurely.

It was not what he was originally going to say, of that she was sure, and she was dually thankful and disappointed that he had rethought his words. On the one hand she was insanely interested in what was going on in his head, far more than she should be if she was being completely honest, but at the same time the subject of school work was, no doubt, infinitely safer than his original thought.

She sighed and stopped in front of her door. "You are probably the most intelligent person in that course, Roberto," she began, turning to find him still staring at his heinously overpriced sneakers. "Why would you need help studying? And from me, no less?"

He lifted his head but his eyes were focused on a point just beyond her shoulder and, when he spoke, his voice wavered slightly, a sure sign of his deception. "You just seem to have a really good handle on all of this political stuff and I've never been overly good at government policy..."

It was a lie. She knew it. They had attended Bayville together for three years and lived together at the institue for almost four and she'd heard people sing his praises enough at assemblies and breakfast to know just how smart he was. In three years he'd excelled in everything from English and History to fine arts and sports.

She was ready to call him on it. Prepared to give him what for, ask him how simple he thought she was but something stopped her. She wasn't sure if it was his hunched posture or the absence of the arrogant confidence he never seemed to be without but whatever it was, it gave her pause and she rethought subjecting him to her infamous, fiery temper.

"I am free during the week after school between the hours of four and six," she informed brusquely. "I can be found in Xavier's library studying for all of my classes during that time. If you wish to join me, you may."

And with that she entered her room, shut the door and left him standing in the hall.

She pretended not to hear his boisterous shout of victory.

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