Poor Kid...

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men. Those stupid Marvel people have rightfully stolen it away from me.

A.N. I always wondered why Mystique looked so happy in the second movie when Mort, a kid she practically raised, was either dead or horribly injured. So I decided to write about her thoughts on his accident. My first one-shot!

Logan walked into Ian's Bar- a popular mutant hang out- around eleven that night. He still couldn't figure out where Xavier hid his liquor. He grabbed a bar stool next to a blonde who looked like she'd had a few too many shots. Her head was resting on her arms, and her eyes were puffy from crying. "Gimme a Sam Adam's," he said.

"Logan?" said the woman next to him, "That you?"

"Do I know you?" he asked suspiciously. Her eyes went yellow. "Guess so. What've you been crying about? You look like shit."

"That weather bitch of yours killed Mort!" She started crying again.

"The green guy? C'mon. He was just another assassin."

She grabbed his throat, but obviously lacked the capacity to do any damage. "I practically raised that boy! He was eighteen you son of a bitch!" She fell back down to the bar. "I still remember the first day we picked him up. You think any of us had it rough? Damn he was fourteen and he could hardly stand up right."

"I had no idea." Logan had a feeling that Raven was a talkative drunk, and that he'd be hearing all about the little frog-boy. He made himself comfortable, and sipped on his beer, ready to get an earful.

"His parents were a couple of shits who couldn't love a green child, so they sent him to get beat within an inch of his life at an orphanage. The kid lived on the streets for two years with hardly anything to eat. Lying half-frozen in some godforsaken London gutter. He got beat by anti-mutant mobs all the time. I found him huddled against the radiator in a pub with three broke ribs, dislocated crap, nerve damage..." She trailed off for a second, then hugged herself as if he was there in her arms. "A fourteen year old kid in a terrorist group with a bunch of old people. Ha. You know that I had to teach him sex ed? I bought all the Sex and Your Teenager books. He just looked at me with this look of utter horror. Fourteen years old and the kid had never heard a word about it! It's not like I had a choice. Sabe tried to show him some porn. Mort was locked in his room for a whole fucking week! Wouldn't talk to anyone. Then he was doing laundry and found a condom in Sabe's pocket. He asked me what it was!"

Logan looked at her with complete amusement written on his face. "Poor kid..."

"Mort never got into that stuff though. I have a little black light, and when it's my turn to clean, I check over their rooms. Sabe's room..." She shuddered. "Eww. Pyro's computer chair..." Her tongue went out. "Gross. But Mort's room was clean as a whistle! He'd always been really squeamish." She chuckled, "I suppose Victor scarred him pretty bad. Every once in a while, some passing chick in the Brotherhood would try to hit on him and he just blushed and walked away. Of course, if Wanda ever tried it ... let's just say he had a little thing for her. He would get all nervous and tongue-tied (A.N. wow! You really could tie his tongue!) whenever she walked in the room. For a while, she had this thing goin' on with Remy who was across the hall from him. In the middle of the night this one time, she tried to go into Remy's room, and got Mort's by accident. Mort almost died when he woke up to her slipping into bed with him. He was all over the walls, the ceiling. Completely flipped!" She sighed sadly at the memory. "After that, I decided to play a little prank on him. Most people don't know this, but Mort was horribly farsighted. He could barely see a thing without his goggles- too proud to wear glasses, too lazy to get contacts. So I sneak into his room in the dark of night, and of course he hears me, but he can't see me. So he starts freaking out with his whole 'who goes there' routine. I move a little more and he sets off! Bounding around the room like a madman. It was priceless." She started crying again. "I'm gonna miss pulling pranks on him!"

Logan patted her shoulder. He never knew that she had been so attached to the little hopper. "It'll be okay, Raven."

"No, it won't!" Mystique pounded a feeble fist into his chest. "When he was younger, I would pull pranks on him all the time. He worked on an image inducer for a while- he was quite the mechanic! You know he built our helicopter entirely out of washing machines? And he built that damned machine. Where was I?"

"He was working on an image inducer."

"Oh ya. So he goes to try it out and I stick it onto female. He screamed so loud... Heehee. I did that about five times before he figured out that it wasn't a glitch." The shape-shifter gave a small smile through her tears. "He was so talented. An extraordinary mechanic, and an even better fighter. You saw how he took on three X-Men at once! He said he could handle it! No question! I never should have listened to him. I wanted to send Avalanche with him, but nooooo he said..." She sobbed into the bar. "I was so stupid!"

Logan searched for words of consolation. "He looked like a good fighter."

"He always did preen before a fight. He'd get out his super gel and extra green dye. His hair isn't that green normally, you know. He'd put on all of the matching battle gear. Hell, he must have double-checked himself in the mirror ten times before we left!"

They both looked up at the TV at the same time when they started reporting on Liberty Island. A familiar green face flashed across the screen. Raven wailed. "Here it comes! Found dead in the Hudson!" Standing up with great difficulty, she turned away. "I can't watch. Poor kid..."

Logan watched the woman wobble into the bathroom, face swollen red with crying. "That poor, poor kid..."

The TV went on without relent. "...This man, identified as Mortimer Toynbee, alias Toad, has been directly connected with the happenings at Liberty Island. He has been sighted numerous times, and has been reported as severely injured, but still dangerous. He was last sighted in northern New York, staying to the trees. Officials are searching for him now."

He stood quickly, and slapped his money on the bar. From the bathroom, he could hear Raven puking her guts out. She'd be no help. Logan rushed out of the bar to Scott's motorcycle. Raven'd love him for this...

See! I explained why Mystique was so obsessed with Wolverine in the second movie too! Please review 'cause it'll make me soooo happy!