The Nightingale

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, and I'm not making any money off this. I do, however accept payment in the form of cookies and miscellaneous chocolate-coated items. On with the story...

1

Lilliputian Stick Figure

"Can you see them?"

"Yeah"

"What are they doing?"

"I dunno. Seems like talking."

"Wait here."

My jaunty sidekick obeyed. I couldn't see his face; it was very dark in there. In there. Where were we again? I stepped into the house as quietly as I could, my hand reaching instinctively for the light switch. How did I find it so easily? My fingers walked through the plastic and pushed, but the lighting didn't change; it remained pitch black. Damn. I walked confidently up the stairs, but I didn't know exactly what I was doing.

It seemed to be the right thing for the situation. But what was the situation? God, I keep forgetting these things.

I knew it was my job to investigate. If things went awry, my faithful sidekick would take over, which basically meant that he would call headquarters announcing the impending doom of his mentor.

A sticky tune began playing, featuring a high-pitched female singer.

I instantly ducked, my fist clenched and my eyes fixed on the source of the music: a lonely door at the end of the staircase, made of mahogany with many intricate designs carved on its surface, and light filtering through its borders. I could hear their voices mixing with the odd melody. They were, indeed, talking.

I took a deep breath and stepped in front of the door. I could feel it already filling me, but I was nervous. Finally, with my knuckles white from the clenching, I opened it.

"Get him!"

But it was too late. I smiled as my hands were spread open in the direction of the first two, arcs of electricity cracking from my fingertips and rendering them useless. I could feel the power.

A hideously screeching sound reached my ears.

Damn, an alarm was triggered. I cursed as brilliant spheres of plasma began forming in my hands, only to be hurled at the bastard who triggered it. I felt a scratch on the back and turned, laughing. To my attacker's misfortune, I was also invulnerable to physical pain, oh and super-strong. An effortless jab was enough to send him flying across the room. I ducked as the lights began flickering; it really set me off-balance. I could hear the steps of hundreds climbing up the stairs, but the cursed lights didn't stop flickering. They drew closer…

Shit!

And then I woke up, finding the alarm clock ringing wildly and Gwen Stefani singing annoyingly to one of her songs on the radio on the other side of the room. I moaned something senseless and rolled to one side, moaning some more while building a stronghold of blankets around me. I hoped it to be sound-proof but, much to my distaste, it wasn't.

"'Eter zuhn'em off" I managed to say from the depths of my blanket fort.

From the other side of the room came the voice of my roommate. "What?"

He sounded very clear, probably woke up long ago. I, unfortunately, had never been a morning person and articulation didn't come easily when it was still dark outside. I slid the blankets from my head a little and opened my eyes a crack, groaning again and wishing I had just left them closed. The white lights of the room nearly blinded me; and I had no choice but to go back inside my blanket cocoon.

"Zurn da' goddamn thing off" I repeated in muffled frustration, unable to ignore the sonic attacks from the radio and the alarm clock.

He laughed. "Cm'on" he said with that weirdly accented voice of his "You gonna be late for Slim's class"

God I hated Slim.

"Damn Peter, just put them off, I'll get up in five" I said angrily. I was pretty much awake now, but I didn't want to leave the bed yet.

I finally heard him mutter something and then it stopped. Ah, peace. I smiled and curled even more, letting the warmth of my bed embrace me once again. Soon my eyelids grew heavier and my body felt numb… It was good to be ba--

"Aaah!" I gasped in terror as an extreme and sudden chill filled my body, quickly springing out of the bed. And, while I shook uncontrollably, the enormous guy I shared the dorm with stood on the doorway accompanied by a much smaller teenager of short blond hair and blue eyes. They were both laughing their eyes off, and I couldn't help but laugh too. Or maybe it was an involuntary shiver from the cold.

"You're a dead man Drake!"

I then proceeded to chase Bobby Drake through the mansion, but the giggle wave that grew once we reached the girls' wing made me notice I was wearing nothing but boxer shorts. And so began a new fascinating day in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin, or Peter as most knew him, had been my roommate since I first came to the Institute; shared interests and convenience quickly turned us into close friends. Almost three years had passed from that and I still couldn't get over the feminine attention he received while walking through the school's hallways, so moving beside him was extremely annoying. His mutation made him look bigger, older and stronger- well, he was stronger- than most guys of the same age, and I griped to myself about how much of a lilliputian stick figure I must have looked next to him, even being a year older.

Still, I didn't really have anything more interesting to do after class, so I agreed when he challenged me to a game of pickup basketball.

"So how did it go with Slim?" he asked while we walked down the stairs, his hands hidden under the bags of his sweater. His ever present Russian accent wasn't missing.

"Terrible" I responded, sulking. "I don't think I'll make it if I keep failing Math."

Peter shrugged, and said "Well you need to catch up unless you want to spend the summer with him."

"A summer with Summers," I added grudgingly. "Anyhow, I saw in the morning news they found another criminal gang trapped in giant webbing last night."

Peter arched a brow, "Spider-man?"

I nodded triumphantly. "No doubt about it! I mean, do they need more evidence?"

"I wonder if it's a mutant" said Peter lost in thought for a moment.

"Definitely," I said. "I saw those drawings you made of him; they're pretty cool, and accurate."

"How do you know?" he asked after waving jadedly to a pack of girls standing by the lounge doorway. They received his response with an excited giggle, although Peter didn't notice.

"I saw some pictures in UFO Lookout, you wouldn't believe how genui-"

"Oh, please."

My keen answer was interrupted by the mocking voice of a short, skinny brunette with small hazel eyes. Beside her, a beautiful girl with clear Asian features and deep blue eyes laughed loudly at her friend's sarcastic remark. Normally I wouldn't notice a girl's clothing, but the latter was wearing a scandalous yellow duster that would have caught anyone's attention. Just when did they start following us?

"Everyone knows Spider-man doesn't exist" said the brunette giggling. "Like, it's an urban legend or something."

Kitty Pride's comments never ceased to amaze me; I decided not to argue with her this time. "Hello Kitty, Jubilee," I greeted with an improvised smile. Peter just waved and mumbled something that sounded like 'hey'.

Jubilee wiggled the fingers of her raised left hand in a silly form of waving and Kitty's stare, which had been placed on Peter the whole time, turned to acknowledge me.

"Oh, hello Alex!" she said. "Everyone's talking about your underwear, who would've guessed you had a taste for fashion?"

I laughed nervously while my face burned from embarrassment and panic, and quickly uttered "What kind of sane person sees fashion in underwear? I always thought it was supposed to go under."

Jubilee laughed, but Kitty only rolled her eyes. "Anyways, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment, Peter," she said merrily staring at him, and she quickly added "Umm… alone."

The squared teenager turned to stare at me gravely. "I, uhh…" he muttered scratching the back of his head.

I froze for a moment. It was one thing to be regarded as invisible when I walked next to Peter, but it was the first time that someone actually hinted me to leave the scene altogether. "Oh- I umm…" I looked at Peter, then Kitty and finally Jubilee, but it was clear that she wasn't going anywhere. Awestruck and angry at the same time, I managed to speak, "It's okay I'll just go…" my eyes quickly scanned the area for an excuse of a less humiliating runaway. "The restroom" I said half-smiling, and walked away.

I stared at myself for several minutes in the mirror. I mean, seriously, what was wrong with me? A very slim, short teenager with olive eyes, light brown nose-length hair and slightly bronzed skin stared back at me. Maybe my nose was too big; that's what they say about Italians anyway. I inclined my face to watch my own profile. I might have been wrong, but my nose seemed quite normal… probably a bit broad. Perhaps my lack of an intriguing foreign accent? Even when I grew up in a full Italian home with a full Italian family, my spoken English was pretty average.

Still annoyed, I scowled at my own reflection and hopped on the sinks, pulling out a smoke and lighting it. I heard the flushing of a toilet after I took the first drag, but I didn't actually care to hide it. Junior accusations mattered little to me at the moment.

The toilet door opened and I looked away, careless. I didn't like to smoke in front of people, always thought it to be rude and inconsiderate, but I didn't know he was in there to begin with; nor did I care.

"I'll burn the shit off you if you tell anyone tha-"

What I saw standing at the toilet door made my heart fall to my feet. An overly hairy, brooding character carrying a mossy brown jacket over his shoulder and a roll of newspaper on the other stared at me with a thick arched eyebrow.

"Oh, really?" he asked mordantly as he moved to the sink.

I seriously considered eating the lit cigarette to swiftly eliminate the critical evidence; but it would've been too obvious… I needed to stay calm. What was I thinking? I couldn't stay calm after threatening one of the adults! And not just any adult!

I had just threatened the one adult I was advised not to mess with.

"Mister Logan, I'm terribly sorry" I said stepping down on the floor again. I thought he was heading in my direction but he turned at the last second to wash his hands on the sink. "I didn't know- I thought it was- I couldn't-"

"What's your name?" he asked harshly without turning to look at me.

"I uhh…" I thought of the possibility of making a name up, but my mind was blank, I had no choice but to answer the truth. "Alex."

"Your full name," he demanded, this time turning to glare at me as he did.

This was it. I was toast. Logan was going to report me to Slim, Ms. Munroe or maybe even the Professor himself… What kind of inhuman punishment was waiting? I looked away, at the urinals, at myself in the reflection and at the door, wishing to be swallowed into the floor.

Giving up, I responded. "Alessandro Bianco."

"I'm Logan, without the mister" he said indifferently offering a hand.

I flinched away and dropped the cigarette on the floor. What sorcery was this? I shook his hand while looking at him warily.

"You know, smoking, bad stuff. Kills you in the head" he said poking the side of his head with his left index finger while reaching into the pocket of his jacket with the other hand.

I wanted to make a witty remark of how I thought smoking killed you in the lungs, not the head, but something inside me reminded me who I was talking to. I was playing with fire.

"See that?" he said pointing at a white plastic circle resting on the wall above the mirrors. Pulling out a cigar and a box of matches, he added "Next time you might want to check if there are any smoke detectors in the room."

I nodded slowly as he turned away to the door. Once Logan was out of sight, I leaned on the sink and took a deep breath. It felt like I just lowered my shoulders from some kind of eternal shrug. I looked at myself in the mirror and grinned.

"Oh, and Alex" said Logan opening the door again. "Look for me tomorrow after class for detention."

Sigh.

Next chapter: A glimpse at Alex's past.

Comments: Notice that the first few lines were just Alex's wild imagination, his mutation is not yet revealed. Reviews are always welcome!