It is a particular busy day in the bar. Victoria is sitting in her usual corner and watches the crowd drinking and cheering while sipping at her own drink. A very drunk man sees her sitting all by herself so he approaches her. When she notices him she gives him an annoyed glance. Nonetheless the man still proceeds to come nearer and finally sits in the chair opposite her.
"What is such a beautiful young girl doing all by herself in this dark corner?" he gives her an insincere smile.
"Please leave me alone."
"But why? Are you a little shy? Don´t be, I won´t bite!" he winks, smile going broader.
"I asked you nicely to please leave me alone, Sir."
"Oh! Come on, now!" he stands up and walks around the table to slide next to Victoria on the bench. "You don´t really want that."
Victoria feels a hand going up her leg, she closes her eyes sighing. The next second the man jumps up from the bench nearly knocking over the table. His left hand clutches his right wrist, he stares down on his right hand in shock. It´s scarlet.
"You fucking witch!" he yells out in pain. "What did you do to me?!"
"I asked you nicely. Twice if I remember correctly." She answers him calmly, lazily taking another sip of her drink.
"Fuck you!" he spits out and practically runs back to his friends. They all laugh at him for being rejected. The last words Victoria catches before the group is too far away are "crazy bitch.", she smiles and nods, "Kind of true." she whispers to herself.
All thoughts of the previous incident are wiped away when the door opens. Victoria raises her eyes to see who is entering the bar. It is a man she knows very well, although he probably never heard of her. She is watching him for quite some time now, twice a week in his usual bar. She sits in a dark corner and he does what he always does: Drinking, talking, laughing, and picking up women. Completely oblivious to the fact that he´s being watched.
The man of Victoria´s interest is called Charles Xavier. He works at Columbia University and is well known for his works in genetics and mutations. And Victoria has a lot of questions when it comes to mutations.
When she was 8 years old she first discovered that she was different. Victoria was playing with her favourite doll, it had long blonde hair and a beautiful pink dress with sunflowers on it. While she was combing the doll´s hair Victoria´s sister Elaine became jealous. She went over to her sister and tried to snatch the doll from Victoria´s hands. But Victoria held on tight and the doll´s head snapped off the body. She was furious, jumped up and grabbed her sister´s hand. Elaine started screaming and the girl´s parents came running to see what was going on.
When Victoria finally let go of her sister´s hand, Elaine collapsed to the ground. The doll´s head rolled out from under the crying girl, Victoria took it and tried to reattach it to the body. Meanwhile her parents were trying to find out what made Elaine scream and cry. When she finally showed her hand to them their eyes went wide, the mother let out a small gasp. Elaine´s hand looked as though she stuck it in boiling water, all swollen and bloody with loose, burned skin hanging from some of the fingers. Elaine was taken to the hospital and Victoria was taken to a school for troubled children. She lived there throughout the year and spend only the summer with her family that was obviously afraid of her.
"McDougall´s Christian Institution for Special Boys and Girls" taught her that she is abnormal, a freak. It taught her that there is no place for girls like her, that she has to learn how to be normal and how to fit into society. The institution taught her that her special abilities are in fact disabilities. They were given to her by the devil himself and she has to get rid of them or she will rot in hell forever. Her home taught her that even in a school full of mentally ill and violent students she was the outsider, pointed at, laughed at.
On her 14th birthday Victoria decided she learned enough. She waited until the house went dark and everybody was asleep, then she grabbed her pre-packed bag and climbed out the window. Her room was on the second floor but she had no trouble cushioning the rough landing. She knelt in the grass checking the windows behind her for anyone who might have noticed something. When all windows stayed dark she ran across the lawn and vanished into the woods.
Victoria is sitting on her bench, eyes closed and remembers the time after she left school. After living on the streets for a couple of months she was lucky enough to find kind people that took her in but they couldn´t tell her anything about her abilities either. They encouraged her, though, to make good use of her powers and not to hide or fight them. She was able to go back to school, a normal school. And when she enrolled at Columbia she heard of Charles Xavier for the first time. She opens her eyes again.
There he is. The man that possibly holds all the answers she is seeking. When she first saw him - in the very same bar from the very same spot – she was surprised by how young he was, and how handsome. She wasn´t sure whether to trust him, he seems to pick up woman after woman without even caring who they are. Would he help her or would he try to make her one of his affairs? So there she is now, stalking him for weeks, still not sure how to approach him, still not sure if he´s trustworthy enough. And maybe a little scared that he isn´t able to help her, too.
Out of the corner of her eyes she sees another man coming over to her. This one sits down next to her right from the beginning.
"Do you mind?"
"Yes."
"I´m Marcus."
"I don´t care."
Men come over to her quite often. They offer drinks and compliments and she used to let them off really easy. But after time she got rather annoyed by their persistence and incapability to just leave her alone if she asks them to.
"Why are you all alone?"
"Please leave." She sounds exhausted.
"Where is your boyfriend, sweetie?"
There is that hand on her thigh again. Seconds before she can singe him someone sits down on her other side taking the man´s hand off of her leg.
"Her boyfriend is here. Thank you for keeping her company. You may leave now."
While the man leaves Victoria turns around to look at her rescuer, preparing to send him on his way, too. But bright blue eyes and a warm and broad smile are telling her that Charles Xavier finally noticed his stalker.
"Thanks." She stumbles after several seconds of awkward, mouth-hanging-open staring.
"You´re welcome. Would you like another drink?" he indicates her empty glass.
"Yes, please."
He puts his finger to his temple and his smile slowly fades away.
"Ehm… what would you like?"
"Gin and tonic, please." She smiles because she knows exactly what just happened.
"Coming up! I´m Charles Xavier, by the way." He tells her while standing up, his wide smile back in place.
"Victoria. Nice to meet you, Mr. Xavier."
"Charles, please."
"Charles." She nods and he leaves for the bar. Over time she noticed Charles little trick. He would always guess a girls favourite drink correctly after touching his temple. Victoria assumes he has a special ability just like her. And it has something to do with mind reading. He just tried to read her mind and search for her drink of choice. She could feel it but also shield her mind from him. That´s a new discovery, but then it was the first time someone tried to read her mind.
Charles returns with their drinks and sits back down next to her. Victoria notices a curious look on his face. She caught his interest, now she just has to find a way to somehow change the topic to mutations and the possible effects on humans. She reaches for the drink, Charles brought her, with her left hand when Charles sees what he has been looking for. He takes her hand and strokes his thumb over a mole at the base of her little finger.
"Moles. A simple mutation of skin cells. They make you unique. The most beautiful women in the world are often famous for their moles. Ever heard of Marilyn Monroe?"
"Of course. Couldn´t find anything better?"
"Excuse me?"
Charles can´t know that Victoria knows a lot of his lines. And the mutation thing seemed to be his favourite and – Victoria noticed – his most successful flirting technique. She is a little disappointed that Charles takes her for one of her usual acquaintances.
"I´m sorry. It´s just, I´ve been here before and heard you using your mutant-line." She laughs and tries to smooth things over.
"Oh! That´s embarrassing."
"No, no. It´s, ehm, kind of flattering, I guess. I´ll play along: Mutant and proud. How´s that?"
"You just made it ten times worse." He laughs, too, now.
"I know, I´m not good at this. You better take the lead."
"Since you already ruined my line I guess you could just tell me a little bit about yourself?"
She proceeds to tell him about her life leaving out bits and pieces here and there to not give away too much. Although she reckons this is the moment to tell him about her powers she just can´t find the right words. She also doesn´t want to drive him away because he is really nice and she is quite enjoying her time with him.
After she finished without telling him anything too revealing he tells her his story. They sit and talk for a while. He finds more moles on her arm, neck and face and seems to be honestly interested in them.
"You really are a mutant." He absently states while stroking a group of little black dots on her arm. She just smiles and mutters "I know."
After a while he gets up again to get new drinks for them. She leans back in her seat and takes a deep breath. While watching him making his way through the crowd her gaze wanders down and finally stays on his backside. After a few seconds she realises what she is staring at and looks at the ceiling instead. But she can´t stop thinking about how good-looking he is. That is not what she came for. However, it might be what she will stay for.
When Charles comes back she avoids any thought that might has to do with his bottom. Although he obviously can´t read her mind she doesn´t want to risk it.
"I´m so sorry. They´re out of ice!" he says and hands her one of the glasses.
This is the moment. Now is the perfect moment to show him what really makes her a mutant. She is scared but she knows she has to do it sooner or later and there might not be a better opportunity.
"No problem. I can fix that." She hesitantly whispers.
"You can what?" he looks at her in surprise, eyes wide.
She just nods and reaches for his glass. She puts her flat hand on the glass´ bottom with him still holding it. When frost spreads on the outside of the glass and Charles feels the cold he first looks down to his hand and his now perfectly chilled drink and then back into Victoria´s expecting brown eyes. When he says nothing she takes her own glass and does the same to it.
"You…" he begins.
"I´m sorry I wasn´t completely honest with you."
"That´s why I can´t read your mind."
"I felt you doing it and was able to block it. I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to ask you for help but I didn´t know how to approach you."
"That´s why you were sitting here all alone for weeks?"
"You noticed me?"
"Of course I did! A beautiful young woman sitting in a dark corner of a bar, rejecting guy after guy."
"I´m sorry."
"For what?"
"Stalking you." She avoids his eyes, too embarrassed to look at him.
"It´s fine. I´m glad you´re here!"
"You are?"
"Of course I am! It´s exciting to meet others."
"Are there many?"
"I don´t know. I only know one other. And now you. Come with me."
He stands up and holds out his hand to her.
"Where are we going?"
She takes his hand and they leave the bar.