This is something that cr8zymommy and I thought out together while we were sitting together late one night. This is completely AU, outside of both the CM and X-Men world, and we freely use any characters from both worlds. But it's total AU, folks!

There was nothing more annoying than a mall on a Saturday afternoon. If that mall happened to be in Los Angeles, well, that just made it all the worse. Teenagers spending their time free from school shopping with one another, weekend shoppers looking to try and get the sales they couldn't get on the weekdays, people just hanging out in the food court because they had nothing better to do. The mall was packed full of all sorts of people. To someone like Spencer, who hated to be in such large crowds, it was like his own personal version of hell. It was also one of the best ways to make a bit of extra cash. All those business men, or rich teenagers, their wallets full to bursting with cash and none of them any the wiser to the discreet hand that slipped into their pockets.

The eighteen year old didn't often do this. Pickpocketing had always left him with a sick feeling down inside. Worse than anything else that he did to earn money. His friends never seemed to quite understand that. "How can you be more bothered by picking someone's pocket than you are by blowing someone for a quick buck?" Elle had demanded of him once. She lived in the apartment across the hall from him and she seemed to have taken it upon herself to try and keep an eye out for him ever since he'd moved in a year ago. "It's more honest." Spencer told her. "That other stuff, it's a job. The money I get there, I earn, even if it's not in an exactly legal way. Nicking wallets is stealing from people. I only do that when I have to." He only resorted to this if it was an emergency.

Well, this classified as an emergency and not even Elle could deny that. Spencer needed a quick way to earn a few hundred dollars and he didn't have the time to waste to go out and earn it. There was a three o'clock deadline he had to meet. That meant he had to take what he could get, now. If he didn't get together the money for his rent before three, he was going to be out of a home once more and he'd worked too damn hard to get into this place to begin with. He didn't want to end up on the streets again. Dammit, he'd done his time there! He'd lived on the streets off and on since he was fifteen years old. Ever since his father had cut him off from all financial help and left him stranded here in Los Angeles. Spencer had been attending Caltech at the time, the youngest student ever to go there. For a while his scholarships had held him together. He'd had his schooling and his dorm room. But then his father had revoked all permission for Spencer to attend there, something that was required for a minor who was so far from home, and he'd completely closed out the account that Spencer's mom had set up for him. Then he'd demanded that Spencer come home.

That was the last thing Spencer was going to do. He knew what would be waiting for him if he ever went back home and there was no way in hell he was going to do it. Not ever again. His mother had fought hard to get him out of that house and to help him get into Caltech. Spencer wasn't ever planning on going back.

Living on the streets had been a harsh reality change for Spencer. Life there was so different than the life he knew. If it hadn't been for a few people that he met here and there, he wasn't sure he would've ever survived even the first six months. But he had. He'd learned how to live out there. How to find himself safe places to sleep, how to defend himself, how to avoid the cops and CPS (who would just send him back home), and most importantly, how to make money.

He'd made it through it all, holding on to the promise that, once he was eighteen, there was nothing his father could do to force him back home. Any of the money that his mother had left him couldn't be accessed until he was twenty one, true, but at least by eighteen he was free from being under his father's thumb. He could reapply for his scholarships, try to go back to school and finish his degrees. There was so much he could do. At least, that was what he'd told himself. Reality had proved to be a little different than that. He was eighteen now, had been for two months, and he still found himself in the same shoes as always. He was still living in the little shithole apartment, paying way more than it was worth, still doing things for money that he wished he'd never have to do again.

This was his life. Dressed up in his best clothes in an effort to blend into the mall crowd, picking pockets here and there in hopes of gaining enough money for his rent, waiting for night to roll around so he could do a different kind of work entirely and hopefully get enough to be able to pay the electricity and still have enough left over for some food this week.

CXCX

Spencer almost fell as he darted through the door of the apartment building and into the main lobby. He had to do a little half skip to manage to dart around the few people who were on their way out and he still managed to bump one of them. Mr. Anders, from down the hall, it looked. "Sorry, Mr. Anders!" Spencer called out, though he didn't stop. He had five minutes until deadline.

Most people ignored him as he hurried down the long hall. In a place like this it was safer to just mind your own business and keep on moving. Most of them were pretty good at that. Spencer ignored them all in return as he turned the corner and hurried down towards the apartment at the end of the hall where the landlord lived. Mitch was just enough of a dick that he'd probably refuse Spencer's rent if he was even one minute late in delivering it. But when he got close, he saw that he was in luck. There was no way Mitch was going to notice just how close Spencer was cutting it here. He already had someone in there with him, judging by the voices Spencer could hear and the small figure curled up in the hall outside the door.

When Spencer got close, he saw who it was curled up there and it helped him place the pleading voice coming from the apartment. That was Jubilation sitting there with her knees to her chest and her arms folded on top of them. Curled the way she was, he hadn't really recognized her at first, especially without that trademark yellow jacket she usually had on. It was only the spiky black hair that gave away the young teen's identity. And if it was her out here, that meant that it was her adoptive mother, Janet, in the office with Mitch. Absently he wondered where her other sisters were at. Janet had two other girls, one of which wasn't even a year old while the other was five and Jubilee was thirteen. Her husband had kicked her and the kids out just over a year ago. They'd moved in here about a month before Spencer had. He'd met them within his first week here and had often tried to help the little family out since then. He'd even babysat for Janet plenty of times.

Now that he knew he didn't have to rush, Spencer slowed his run down to a walk. Still, the sound of his footsteps had Jubilee's head jerking up. One look at her worried face and Spencer was hurrying forward again. She looked up at him and, to his horror, her eyes filled with tears. "Spencer!"

"What is it?" He dropped down to his knees beside her, ignoring the little jolt there. All of his attention was focused on the young girl. "What's wrong, Jubilee? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's horrible. The child support check didn't come in."

Spencer fought back a wince. He lifted his eyes towards the apartment where Mitch was still arguing with Janet. Spencer couldn't hear their words but it wasn't hard to figure out what it was they were arguing about. He knew that Janet relied on those child support checks to make ends meet. They were her only source of income right now. His eyes drifted back to Jubilee and he had to fight again not to wince when he saw the worry in her eyes. It wasn't right. No thirteen year old should know enough to stress when checks didn't come in. She shouldn't be worrying about something like this. She should be worrying about clothes and hair and boys, or whatever else it was that young teenage girls worried about. Not about child support and making rent or figuring out how to pay for groceries. She shouldn't have those kinds of worries on her shoulders. She shouldn't have that slumped, weighted look to her, or the stress lines around her eyes.

"Please!" Janet's pleading voice suddenly echoed out to them. "Just a day, that's all I'm asking for. Just give me a day!"

Something heavy sank low in Spencer's stomach. He knew what Mitch's answer would be to that. He didn't have to hear the man.

Looking at Jubilee, at the devastated look on her face, Spencer had to close his eyes against the wave of pain that hit him. His hands were moving before he could take too much time to think about it. For one brief second he indulged in a moment of self-pity, his inner voice screaming out 'No, it's not fair!' Then he pushed that voice far down and did the only thing that he could do. He pulled the money out of his hidden pocket and he reached out, catching hold of Jubilee's wrist and pressing the money down into her hand.

He met her shocked eyes and the stunned hope that he saw sparking there helped him to straighten himself up and breathe just a little easier. This was the right thing to do. "Take that in to your Mom." He told her, giving her wrist a small squeeze before letting go.

"Spencer…"

"It's okay." Spencer smiled softly at her. "Take it. I won't see you and your sisters out on the streets. It's no place for girls like you. Go on now, take that in to your Mom before Mitch blows. You've got about a minute before deadline."

That last line got her moving. In a flash of movement, the girl launched up and flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly, and then she was off of him and hurrying over to the door. Spencer watched her go with a sad smile on his lips. He blew out a breath before pushing himself up off the ground. Time to go upstairs and pack. There was no point in standing here waiting around for Mitch to tell him what he knew would be coming. The time could be better spent gathering up his meager possessions and sorting through what he wanted to take and what he wanted to leave, and he needed to figure out just where he was going to go tonight.

He lifted his chin as he made his way to the rickety elevator that would take him up to his floor. He wasn't going to feel bad about this. Better that his money keep Janet and her girls in their home. They wouldn't survive out on the streets. Those girls didn't deserve to live that way. If keeping them in their home meant that he lost his, well, it was worth the trade to him.

Life wasn't always going to be like this. One day, he'd make it out of here. One day, he'd have himself a home and a job. He'd pull himself up out of this life. One day.

I may write more on this one day, if people are interested. Let me know what you think!