"John Allerdyce was a horrible man Katie."
"Screw you Melanie, he was an honorable man who made his own choices in life."
"He joined the Brotherhood!"
"But he returned to the good side just on time! Haven't you heard the stories?"
"I heard the story where his ass got kicked by Robert Drake."
"That's the gossip version," Katie rolled her eyes and leaned back on the bed, "I heard he came back to the institute and redeemed himself. And then sold Magneto out for the scum he is."
"Actually I heard that they all fought together to defeat the sentinels..."
"Different story Alexandra," Melanie sighed, "you're on that second mutant war, we're busy about the first one. Pay attention will you?"
"Oh."
The girls giggled and shook their head at the younger girl before they scooped closer together. They had all heard different versions about the participation of the various X-Men in the several mutant wars. But none of them were as interesting as the myth of what John Allerdyce had done. Did he burn everyone that opposed him? Or did he protect the ones he loved by raising walls of fire between them and the mutant haters. Giving the others the time to escape?
Nobody knew for sure. And the ones that did know didn't want to talk about him. The only person that the young girls could get information from was Marie D'Acanto. As she was the only one still in contact with the mysterious John Allerdyce. But even she had disappeared from the mansion years before the girls had even entered it. And nobody really knew where she was.
Sighing and laying down on her bed, Katie placed her arms behind her neck and looked up at her ceiling, wondering which version could be true. She hoped it was her version, in her mind, John Allerdyce sounded like such a hero, such a remarkable man that she was desperate to meet. One that could do no wrong some would say. Others would say that she had developed a small crush on the mythical man. The only thing the many stories had in comparison was how he looked. A stoic glare, the power to control fire (some stories even said he could conjure it) and light brown shoulder length hair. His grey eyes could pierce right through you, but once they were filled with emotions, you couldn't stop staring at them.
"I wonder if he's even real."
"He has to be real, Robert Drake is real," Melanie nodded.
"Yeah, he gives Physics, how boring is that? I like the mythical Robert Drake more thank you. Maybe they're just relatives and don't even know each other."
"It's rather strange to think that our Physics teacher fought in two or three mutant wars. He doesn't look older than 25."
"That's because he's only 23 you doofus," Melanie rolled her eyes, "maybe he knows where our mysterious John Allerdyce is."
"Haven't you heard the rumors? Nobody knows Melanie," Katie sighed.
"Well weren't they supposed to be friends when they were younger? If I was him, I wouldn't let my friend and ex-girlfriend just disappear into nothing."
"Ex-girlfriend?"
"Yeah, but that's not in your version," Katie rolled her eyes, "in the version I believe, John disappears right after the war and Marie and Robert can't handle the strain on their relationship so Marie disappears too, only leaving a note saying 'I'm following my heart.'."
"No, but my version does have a version where Robert and Marie clearly find their way through the difficulties in their relationship and then just go on without your little hero. Who is in fact dead because of the mutant war. Robert defeated him remember?"
Katie growled at Melanie's smirk and then just looked away from her friend. They were the best of friends really, but they just couldn't be shut up when they got on the discussion of who's version of the myth was right. And the teachers never really interfered and talked about this famous John Allerdyce. This only made the myth a bigger mystery. Who was right and who was wrong, nobody really knew. And every first year student was just dying to find out the truth, if only it was to meet the mysterious John Allerdyce or just to get good grades because they finally solved the big mystery.
"I tell you, I'm going to solve this mystery."
"Sure you are Katie, and I'll go and climb up on the Eiffel tower without using my powers."
"Like you'll ever succeed in doing that. You love cheating."
"Yes, and I do intend on cheating to go on this bet with you. Whoever finds out which story is true by the end of the week, will become the other's master."
"That's just a lame bet Melanie," Katie grumbled, turning around on the bed so she was resting on her stomach, "why not, whoever wins can kiss the mysterious John Allerdyce?"
"Because he's older than us and he has a girlfriend according to your version."
"Fine, whoever wins can spend an entire day with him then."
"Fine."
Katie sighed, she already started imagining the whole day she would spend with John Allerdyce, what she would do and how she would react to his voice, his eyes and just the way he acted around her. She even started thinking up the whole plan of the day. First they would go for a spin in the danger room, to get him riled up, and then they could just go for some ice cream. It sounded all so perfect in her head.
"My god, you're already dreaming about meeting him aren't you?"
"I will meet him Melanie, and then my version of the story will come to light."
"Yeah, sure, anyway, goodnight," Melanie turned her back to Katie who let out one more dreamy sigh before falling asleep herself.
"Hey Professor Drake? Could I talk to you about John Allerdyce?"
"Katie, listen, forget about John Allerdyce alright?"
"But I'm curious professor, and the others won't talk about him. According to the myths, you were his best friend."
"Yes, and we slept in the same room, the one you and Melanie are sharing right now to be more precise. Now that's all I'm going to tell you about him. Seriously, put it out of your mind."
Katie sighed and nodded, hugging her books more closely to her chest and then walking out of the room. The hallways were empty as all the other students had already moved to the lunch room to enjoy a good lunch. Katie on the other hand wasn't all that hungry, she just wanted the answers to the many questions about John Allerdyce racing through her mind. She wanted to get to know the man behind the myth. To even just talk to him seemed like a far away dream to her.
"Seriously," a woman's giggles reached her ears. Katie perked up and quickly sped behind a corner, looking every few seconds for a sight of the woman.
"Ah, come on, knock it off, we're supposed to be meeting up with Ororo in a few minutes, we won't be able to do that if you keep tickling me."
"But I like tickling you," a man's voice said quickly. His voice didn't seem that much more distant than the woman's. Katie frowned, she wondered who these two people were and what they had to do with professor Munroe.
"No, and stop it," the woman giggled again, "we got to meet up with Ororo."
"Mm, come on Annemarie, don't spoil my fun here," the man chuckled and then the couple fell silent for a few seconds. Katie sighed in relief and slid down with her back against the wall until she reached the floor. She threw her head back against the wall and closed her eyes, thanking god that she wasn't caught. Hearing the footsteps come closer to her just made her body freeze up.
Her eyes widened as she just went limp on the floor, hoping that they wouldn't come past the corner and find her. It was one of the rules that no student was allowed to roam free through the halls during lunch break when dinner was still on the table and Katie had just broken that one rule.
"Stop. Poking. Me."
"Never!" the man quickly ran away from the woman by the sound of his footsteps hurrying up. Holding her breath, Katie listened to the footsteps coming even closer to her, the giggles of the woman reaching her ear louder and louder every few seconds.
"Please don't let them catch me," Katie whispered to herself, now forcing her eyes shut and biting her bottom lip, almost near tears. She had never broken the rules before, and now she was about to b e caught by two people she didn't even know and all she had wanted was some time alone with her thoughts.
"Hey, I found a girl, can we take her home? Can we?"
"No."
Katie opened her eyes and then backed up more against the wall than she was already. Her eyes were wide open as saucers as she looked at the man in front of her. Her mouth opened and closed several times, trying to form words but failing.
"Please?" the man looked up at the woman standing behind him with big eyes. The woman rolled her eyes and then pulled her partner back.
"No."
"Spoil brat."
"Live with it."
Katie started to tremble, looking from left to right to find a way to escape from a possible punishment but then figured that she would only get in more trouble. She accepted the hand that the woman gave her to help her up and dusted her clothes off, not making eye contact with the two people in front of her.
"What's your name sweetheart?"
"Katie," she muttered softly, still not looking the two persons in the eye.
"Hey, I like that name!"
"You like my name too."
"Duh."
The woman rolled her eyes again and then stroke Katie's hair softly, placing some of her locks behind her ear and smiling up at the young girl as to make her feel more comfortable in the situation. Katie grimaced and edged away from the woman, not really trusting her yet even though the man kept joking around.
"Hey kid, we won't rat you out okay so could you stop trembling?" the man asked, sounding rather scared of all her trembling. Katie looked at him shocked and then hugged herself, nodding before trying to calm herself down.
"Good girl," the man nodded before patting her on the head and then poking the woman on the shoulder, "you're scaring her, back off."
"You back off, asshole."
"Hey. I said I was sorry!"
The woman rolled her eyes and pulled Katie closer, making the girl gasp at the sudden hug she was pulled in before she was pushed away from the man by the woman.
"Marie D'Ancanto! Stop raping that student right now!"
"Shut up Allerdyce," the woman spun around, pulling Katie with her while glaring at the man in front of them now. It was only now that Katie finally took a good look at the man. His icy eyes, his smirk, his shoulder length brown hair, his stature, the surname. It was him.
"Oh my god."
"Honey, don't fill his head with more shit please."
"He's John Allerdyce."
"Yeah, but I prefer if you could just call me John honey bun," John smirked at the girl, walking closer and putting a finger under her chin.
"...I love you."
"A lot of girls do, but I'm taken sadly."
"I know that just, I admire you so much, you have no idea," Katie blurted out before she covered her mouth with her hands and blushed. John chuckled and looked up at Rogue, smirking.
"It appears I have a fan."
"Shut up 'dyce."
"I've heard so much about you from the teachers and the myths and, wow, I can't believe I'm even talking to you!"
"Yeah, you can stop stroking his big ego now honey, it won't do me any good tonight."
"You must be Marie then! His lover from the tales."
"Yeah, but I prefer Rogue darling, now, we have a meeting with Storm but uhm, if you wait here, we'll be back in less than half an hour and we can give you all the details you want," Rogue winked before letting go of Katie and pulling John along by his sleeve, ignoring his yelling of 'but I want to talk to the fangirl!'.
Katie giggled and sat down on the ground again before letting out a dreamy sigh. She had just talked to John Allerdyce. The John Allerdyce, and he had been nice to her. Nice for his standards that is. She grinned broadly and then just closed her eyes, revisiting the moment she had just shared with her hero.
"Oh come on, I totally kicked Bobby's ass!"
"You didn't, he kicked your ass John, Bobby told me."
"Pft, lies," John rolled his eyes and leaned back on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.
"So you did fight on the other side," Katie sighed sadly, looking at her hands and not believing what John had just told her about his time with the Brotherhood.
"You have to understand Katie, we make our own choices in life, but they don't always define the people that we turn out to be in the end. I turned to the Brotherhood because they gave me the opportunity to grow as a mutant, something that Xavier had never really done for me. I only sought to grow further with my powers."
"And you killed innocent people."
"Only 2 or 3 to be honest, but they usually deserved it in the end," John nodded, looking distant.
Katie pouted and glared slightly at the ground like it had done something wrong to her. She was supposed to be in class right now but for some reason John and Rogue had managed to talk Storm into letting Katie stay with them for an afternoon so they could talk about what Katie had exactly heard about them and answering her questions.
"Did you really take the cure Rogue?"
"I didn't, I just managed to control them before I returned. With some help from old friends that I never thought that would help me. But I got a good technique now to suppress them; I did let everyone believe I took it for a few days."
"You pulled a good prank on Bobby with that one," John chuckled, "the guy didn't know what to expect all of the sudden."
Rogue giggled, it was a sound that could even make Katie feel better about the whole situation. She smiled up at the couple sitting on Melanie's bed and then sighed, looking sad again. Rogue showed her another bright smile before shifting from under John's grip and moving so she could sit on Katie's bed next to the young girl.
"Listen, it doesn't matter what your friends think, they don't know the real John, you do, at least, you have met him. Trust me, he's worse outside of the school. But you can always call us, or visit us, we actually don't live that far from here."
"You mean, you've always been so close and I didn't know?" Katie asked affronted, almost looking hurt at the thought that John had been so close to her yet she hadn't known.
"We didn't want anybody except our friends to know sweetheart, you couldn't have found out."
"It's sort of funny that I'm a myth in this school now and you're not," John smirked, sticking out his tongue at Rogue who sighed and brought her hand up to her forehead, shaking her head and closing her eyes to just not see John do that childish act.
"Suck it up Allerdyce."
"Never."
Katie giggled for the first time that afternoon and leaned in closer to Rogue, enjoying the company of her and John in her room. She just hoped that Melanie wouldn't end up asking where she was that afternoon, if she did, well she would just have to lie. Meeting John and Marie would be their little secret.
"So you got our number squirt. Call us if you want to get cussed at or yelled at, or pranked, or whatever you know."
"John."
"What? She can call us for all of that! I'll provide it all!"
Rogue rolled her eyes again and then kissed Katie on the head, "you're a good kid Katie, just don't turn out like him and you'll attract boys in no time."
"Phst, lies," John spat out, "she should totally act like me. I'm hot, fuck look at me damn it!"
"Oh John," Katie sighed before she hugged him, "I'll act like both of you alright?"
"Mm, I like that compromise," John nodded, "dangerous and still evil and cunning. You could totally be our daughter rman. If we ever would have a daughter."
"St. John Allerdyce, stop thinking about your possible offspring, you'll have to wait a few more years."
"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am."
"Good boy," Rogue nodded before saying her own goodbyes to Katie and then pulling John along with her by his sleeve again. Katie giggled at his protests and the yells at her saying 'honestly, I mean it, call us! Visit us even! We don't mind! Just don't interrupt our shagging time!'. Before John could continue however, Katie heard Rogue yell a loud 'John!' making the man shut up almost immediately.
Katie fell down on her bed and giggled to herself, hugging her stomach. She had no idea that meeting her two heroes and actually talking to them could get her in such a good mood. She couldn't wait until one of the next weekends so she could go and visit them at their apartment in the city.
Disclaimer : I only own the idea, so don't sue me.
A/N : I'm going to write a sequel to this one where Katie meets up with Rogue and John in their appartment but I'll have to see when I get to start writing on that one. I won't take that long to write it, the whole idea is pretty much in my head already, I just got to figure out how to get it on paper. In the mean time, you can be so nice to leave me some reviews for this one and tell me how I did.