A/N: This is my first try at an X-Men fanfic, so any ideas and/or criticism, feel free to let me know. The first chapter or two will be setting up Jess and Jimmy's characters.

Jessica Bowden tossed her keys onto the small table just inside the front door of her tiny apartment. Cozy. That was how the realtor who had shown it to her had described it. Jess knew right away what that meant, any idiot would. But, it was all she could afford. So, now she slept in the shoe box sized bedroom and her younger brother, Jimmy, slept on the pull-out sofa in the cramped living room. It had been that way for about a year now.

Things had been better. Jess and Jimmy had been living in a nice townhouse with Jess's husband, Nick. Jimmy even had his own room! But, after the death of their young daughter, Jess and Nick found it too hard to cope with both the stress of that great loss, married life, bills, and nosy in-laws poking their noses in where they didn't belong. And so, less than a year after little Brooke's death, the couple went their separate ways. Nick moved to Boston to run a small restaurant with his brother, and Jess had become a CNA and had moved to this minuscules apartment with her brother.

Jimmy and Jess had it tough the last few years. Brooke was not the only loss. Jimmy and Jessica's parents had died in a car accident about six months before Jess had lost her daughter. As if things could have gotten any worse by that time, Jimmy began to realize he was...different from the other kids his age. It's hard enough for a thirteen year old boy to feel as though he belongs, but when you start being able to set things on fire just by touching them, things become a whole lot more awkward. Most of his friends were told to stay away from Jimmy by their parents, others turned on him and called him things like 'freak' or 'weirdo', and not in a funny ha-ha, teasing kind of way. Only a few stood by Jimmy and continued to be friends with him. Jess was glad that her brother had friends like that, since when she found out that she was a mutant, none of her friends would have anything to do with her. Seeing Jessica be hit by a truck, and they all assumed killed, considering how she looked like roadkill, was shocking and upsetting enough to her friends. It was even worse, and really bizarre to see Jessica walk into school the following Monday as though nothing had ever happened.

"Jimmy!" Jess called as she leafed through the mail she had picked up on her way in. Bills. As usual. Joy! "Jimmy!" she called again as she set the bills down on the kitchen counter and opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of juice. "Are you going to answer me?" she asked as she took a drink. She sighed as she knocked on the closed bathroom door. "Jimmy."

"What?" her brother answered from the front door.

"Oh, there you are." Jess laughed. "I thought you were ignoring me." she explained.

"Nope." the sixteen year old mumbled, making sure to keep his baseball cap on and his head down as he walked past his sister.

"Jimmy." Jess said, grabbing his wrist as he went to move by. "Take off your hat."

"There." he said as he whipped the hat off, making sure still to not look at her.

"Okay, great." she replied. "Now look at me."

"Why?"

"Because you're hiding something." Jess said as she walked and stood in front of him and lifted his chin. "Another fight? Who with this time?"

"It doesn't matter." Jimmy grumbled, freeing his wrist from her small hand and flopped down onto the couch.

"Yeah, it does." she argued. "If you tell me who did it..."

"Then I can be not only a freak, but a loser who needs his sister to run to the rescue when things go bad!" he snapped.

"Well, it's not like you're going to have your twelve year old sister rescuing you." she laugh but stopped when she saw the look her brother gave her.

"These guys go around saying so much crap!" Jimmy continued, thankful his sister stopped trying to lighten the mood with a lame try at a joke. "If I said any of what they say to me to a black student, or an Asian one, or anyone, they'd kick me out so fast!"

"I know." Jess said as she sat down next to him and put her feet up on the coffee table.

"It's not like we asked to be different from everyone else." Jimmy went on, picking at a loose string on the throw blanket that was draped over the arm of the couch. "I mean, who would want to set things on fire with a touch?"

"A pyromaniac, or someone who has no matches or lighter." Jess offered. "Sorry." she said quickly. "Mouth running ahead of brain again."

"I could just not go to school anymore." Jimmy said hopefully. "That would solve the problem."

"How do you figure?" Jess asked as she looked at him. "You're still gonna have to deal with idiots, school or no school. And you need to graduate, so we're gonna have to figure out a way to deal with things now."

"C'mon, Jess." Jimmy groaned.

"Just bear with me, kiddo." Jess said. "I will figure out a way to help you without making you look like some sort of wimp. Okay?"

"Whatever." he replied, picking up the remote and turning on the TV.

"No more fights?" she asked.

"It's not like I go out and look for them you know." Jimmy answered.

"I know." Jess nodded "Just try to be careful." she stood up.

"Sure." he shrugged as he began to become totally absorbed in the bikini clad girls on the TV.

"Thanks." Jess rolled her eyes. "I'll grab a towel and stick it under your chin, try to keep the couch dry."

"Okay." Jimmy replied absently.

"Dinner?" Jess asked as she picked up the take-out menus from next to the phone.

"Yes." was the mumbled reply.

"Okay, I'll choose." Jess said as she selected the menu for the Chinese take-out down the street. "Please, don't get up, I'll take care of everything."

"Yeah."

Jess sighed and headed into her bedroom to make the call, away from the blaring music from the TV. She needed to do something about Jimmy. He was getting into more and more fights. Something had to be done before her brother decided to barbecue one of his classmates.