Disclaimer: X-Men:First Class © Marvel
Warnings: AU, alt canon, humor, and family of choice.
Notes: Written for the_fic_trader's Gen in January challenge. The prompt was X-Men Movieverse, Any Xavier's School teachers/students, mutant powers vs. household chores.

Given that I like alternate universes and outcomes, this takes place in a world where the beach divorce didn't even become a beach trial separation, hence the Brotherhood works at the school and all the kids are students.


There was much to be said about having talents that normal humans didn't. Some of what was said could be considered good, and just as much could be considered bad.

But never let it be said that mutant talents got one out of household chores.

"Oh, come on!" Alex griped, glaring death at the trees that had been oh so kind as to drop their leaves all over the drive and lawn around the mansion. "We should be out trying to make the world a better place for us and everyone like us, and here we're stuck doing the goddamn yard work! Can't Charles hire someone to do this crap?"

Raven rolled her eyes and muttered something about teenagers. She added louder, "And just how, exactly, would that fit in with keeping hidden away from the military, hmm? Or are you hoping that everyone has forgotten about Cuba by now?"

From the other side of the drive, Sean and Angel exchanged a look that clearly said here we go again and turned back to their own raking. The argument had been ongoing for the past half hour by now, and neither Raven nor Alex was getting any closer to conceding defeat. That had a lot to do with how close Erik, Raven, and Angel had come to jumping ship totally and taking command of the Brotherhood, but at the last second the three along with Azazel and Janos had opted to ally themselves with Charles and the school.

Still, Angel would rather listen to arguments about chores than to fight against this group again; they were her family now, and she felt worlds of guilt for turning her back to them once already.

"Hey, Angel, check this out!"

Angel shook herself out of her thoughts and turned around just in time for Sean to let out a whoop with his powers and send the leaves still scattered around them flying. She couldn't bite back the giggle that escaped her at seeing her friend (and, really, Raven was awesome but Sean was so much closer to her own age that she considered him her best friend) playing and pushed off the ground. She darted through the leafstorm and shredded a few of them with her wings before turning around to alight next to Sean again.

"You will never get finished if you keep playing, children," came a soft voice from right behind them, causing both teens to jump and whirl around, much to Janos' amusement. "You have already been working for almost an hour on this."

Sean's eyes lit with mischief, and Angel nearly groaned when the boy said, "Think you can do it any faster?"

Janos smirked at him before turning to face the leaves now flung even further across the lawn. It was still very weird to watch the man whip up a tornado out of nowhere, but both Angel and Sean kept their mouths shut as he sent the wind towards the leaf litter. The winds picked up the fallen leaves almost carefully and deposited them into a neat pile before Janos canceled the miniature storm.

"And that is what a little control can do, children," the older mutant said smugly.

"It also gets us out of doing it," Angel pointed out, taking flight the instant realization began to dawn in Janos' eyes. She grabbed hold of Sean and took off to the roof, laughing as the man shouted after her in Spanish. Chances were good that she and Sean would both pay for that in training later, but it was so worth it!

Back inside the house, Charles was just barely managing to keep from laughing himself even as he held out one hand to Erik. The metal manipulator grumbled even as he handed over the five dollars he'd just lost. Next time, he wouldn't bet against any of the kids conning the adults into doing their chores for them.