Well, this has been sitting in My Documents, being transferred from the family computer to one laptop to another, since 2011 at the earliest, I honestly can't remember how long. But now, at long last, after being thoroughly ignored for at least 4 years, it's out!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men: Evolution or any of its characters. That's Marvel.

WORD COUNT: 1342

Saturday, July 15th, 2000

Ray watched as the other 'New Mutants', as they'd quickly been dubbed, played soccer out on the yard. They were okay people, he supposed, or at least not the kind that thought of him as a freak for his special powers. But he still wasn't going to talk to them much. They had all come from loving families, had a decent roof over their heads all their lives… they couldn't possibly understand where he'd come from, and what he'd seen.

Even while living in the tunnels with the Morlocks, Ray had been an outcast. Not because he had strange powers, and not because he lived in the sewers; for them, that was normal. He'd been separate from them because he could at least pass for the rest of the world's definition of 'normal', and they resented him for it. He was an outcast among outcasts.

And now, even though he was with a whole bunch of people who had secret powers and understood what it was like to be different, they still weren't like them. Or rather, he still wasn't like them. Take Roberto, for instance. He'd been a popular guy in school, with a hot girlfriend and a popular older sister who, when not driving him crazy, always stuck up for him. His parents, from what Ray had heard, were all caring and doting and spoiled him with their love.

Ray, on the other hand, had spent more than half his life knowing the opposite. His father was an absent alcoholic, his older brother was a sadistic, abusive junkie, and his baby brother… God, he didn't even know if Tyler was still alive. Ray had practically had to raise the kid all by himself for five years, with a little help from Ms. Cassidy next door, in the seediest part of town. Then, once his powers had surfaced, it was life on the streets and eventually in the sewers, with fellow outcasts who resented him because he wasn't different enough.

He was rudely jolted out of his musings when a Frisbee came out of the blue and landed roughly in his lap. A reddish-brown wolf loped up to him, stopping only a few feet away to morph into that smiling redhead from Scotland. What was her name again?

"Sorry 'bout that," she apologized, "Roberto's got a stronger throw than he said. I dinnae he could do that."

Ray only shrugged and handed the yellow disk back.

"You wanna join in?" she asked, "Ye cannah be havin' that much fun just sittin' there by yourself."

He shrugged again, and shook his head.

"Alright, suit yourself." She lightly tossed the Frisbee vertically into the air, changed back into a wolf, and caught it in her mouth. She gave him one last look, as if double-checking that he didn't want to go, then dashed off.

Ray just sat there and watched her play catch with Roberto. Those two had come from completely different countries, yet they'd just clicked the moment they'd met each other. He didn't have a whole lot of experience with dating relationships (his home wasn't the kind you bring a girl over to), but he was willing to wager they'd be together within a few months.

Again he was rudely interrupted, this time by a soft BAMF noise, and Kurt appearing next to him. "Hey, how's it going?" the German mutant greeted him cheerfully. He was currently using his hologram, the one that concealed his blue fur and yellow eyes.

Ray shrugged.

"Are you just going to sit here all day?"

Shrug.

Kurt cocked his head curiously. "You don't talk much, do you?

Shrug. "Nothin' to say."

"You know, I haven't seen you even trying to hang out or have a simple conversation vith anyvone else since you got here."

Shrug. "Didn't know that was a rule here."

"Vell, it's not, I suppose, but people have been talking about you. All zhe other new kids are curious about vhere you came from; zhe Professor and Logan won't even say anything to us older students." Ray gave him a narrow-eyed look, and the other mutant put his hands up defensively. "Hey, I'm not here to pry. I haven't told zhem even half of my story, and zhey're cool with it. Vell, mostly, I think. Either way, I get Vhy you'd vant to keep certain details to yourself, but I'm curious vhy you don't seem interested in hanging out with anyone else. I mean, ve've all gotten pretty close, since zhere's not too many people ve can share our powers vith. But here, ve're all different from zhe rest of the world, so ve stick close to those who can understand."

Ray huffed at that. "I'm no stranger to 'different', even before coming here. Logan is far from the first mutant I've met."

He regretted spilling even that much the instant the words left his lips, because Kurt leaned in, obviously eager to hear more. "Really? Vhat are zhe others like?"

Ray sighed. "They're a bit more like you. They don't just have different abilities, they, you know, look different. I was actually the only normal-looking one, something a few of them never let me forget."

Kurt nodded slowly. "Well, zhat explains why you barely reacted at all when you first saw vhat I really look like. All zhe others were surprised to some degree, but you didn't even blink."

Well, that was part of it, but Ray wasn't going to tell him that his first glimpse of the blue mutant had actually been through the grate of a storm drain.

"And sure, zhe others may have been startled at first, but they got over it. I'm zhe only one here who looks different, and vhen I first came here, I thought I'd be treated differently because of it. But aside from zhe initial reactions, zhey didn't, even vhen I'm not using my hologram. It's pretty amazing, especially considering I spent pretty much zhe entirety of my life before zhat hiding from anyone other zhan my parents."

"Kurt!" the brunette he recognised as Kitty Pryde called as she came running up to them, "Ku-urt! Didn't you remember?! We still have that history project to finish for tomorrow! Come on!" Without waiting for a response, she grabbed him by the arm and yanked him up to his feet.

Kurt stumbled, trying to catch his balance. "Alright, alright! I'm coming! Sorry, Ray, ve'll talk later, ja?" And he teleported out of there with Kitty in tow.

Ray went back to sitting sullenly and watching the other New Mutants fool around. It took him a few minutes to notice that the little one (what was his name, Jimmy?) was missing, and less to notice Tabitha Smith running over to him. "Hey! Jamie got busted for skipping out on being grounded for that whole Slinky thing, so we need another player to make the teams even and finish our game!" She attempted to drag him to his feet like Kitty had done earlier, but Ray was harder to catch than Kurt. He dodged her grabbing attempts and stood up on his own, backing away.

"Yeah, thanks but no thanks. I'm fine."

"C'mon, Ray, please?" Sam begged, "It's just one game!"

Ray just took a few more steps back. "Soccer's not my thing, alright?"

Roberto scoffed and crossed his arms. "Forget him. He'd probably drag his team down."

"What did you say?!" Ray snapped, clenching his fists.

"You're probably just afraid to show that you have no athletic talent. It's nothing to be ashamed of, I'm sure you have skills in other areas."

Ray stormed up to the Brazilian mutant and got right in his face. "I could wipe the field with you, any day!"

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you prove it?"

"I will!"

Hours later, Ray would wonder how the hell Roberto was able to use his ego to get him to join the game. Or when he stopped playing just to prove a point and started actually having fun.

THE END

Okay, so I hope you like it! I had 39 unfinished works on my to-do list, and now I can scratch this one off the list.