A/N: Thank you all so much for the great reviews! Ya'll are AWESOME! Everyone pretty much guess right on the cliffhanger. (I had originally written it with the intend that the last chapter would be longer and it was Otto paying a visit but decided to not go that way.)
Chapter 2:
Pryo smirked at me.
I slammed the door shut in his face and locked it with trembling hands. I leaned against, like he might try to break the door down, and wondered what I should do. The best I could come up with between the 'OhmyGOD!'s' that kept running through my head like a broken record player was to call the school for help.
He knocked again. "That was rude."
I could just see the smirk on his face.
"Yea, well so…so is whatever you're here to do." Because no way was he here just to say hi. I would bet anything that Magneto had some involvement.
"I'm not here to do anything." He said through the door.
"Says the guy that dragged me out of my apartment last time he paid me a visit." Stockholm crush or not, I knew letting him in wasn't a good idea.
There was a silence, and then an angry "Fine", before I heard receding footfalls.
Not really a response I had expected. I frowned. He was leaving? Why had he come at all? This had to be some sort of trick. I opened the door up lighting fast and stuck my head out to see him walking toward the elevator.
"What do you want?" I asked. Nope, survival instincts are not my strong point.
He stopped and turned to look at me, the anger on his face turning to arrgonce, liked he'd won. "Nothing."
"So you show up out of nowhere just to scare the holy hell out of me?" I asked annoyed, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't step out into the hall, but opened my door a little wider with my hip.
He smirked. "You're not scared of me."
"I'm scared of everything." I said just to be augmentative.
"I wouldn't be here if you where."
I frowned, not sure what he was getting at. "Why are you here?"
He shrugged, all causal like. "I was in the area, decided to drop in."
I narrowed my eyes on him. "I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Oh, c'mon." He walked back over to me. "Just let me."
"No. You might set my couch on fire or something." Plus, I was alittle too glad to see him and that just wasn't right so he needed to go.
He held out his lighter. "You can hold on to it."
Really? He had to have another one on him. He wouldn't just hand over something so important to his powers, something I'd never seen him without.
"Well?" He asked with impatience.
I opened my mouth to tell him to forget it, but was inturrupted by the older man across the hall. I reckon we were talking too loudly because the grumpy old man poked his head out his door and told us to shut up. Rude, no?
Pyro spun on the old man. Terrified, I snatched the lighter out of his hand, not trusting him to not to hurt the old man, and pulled him backwards into my apartment. Not that I trusted him with me either, but I figured I had a better chance than the old man. I knew what I was dealing with.
"I wasn't going to hurt him." He was laughing at me when I closed the door. I didn't bother locking it, just in case I needed to make a run for it. I flipped the lights on just so he could see me glare at him.
"I'm holding on to this." I clutched his lighter in my fist. I resisted the urge to tell him to empty his pockets, incase he was hiding another one.
"Please tell me you aren't wearing My Little Pony." He looked disgustedly at my comfortable pajama bottoms.
"So." I said, wishing I'd had put on something not so childish, but it wasn't like I'd planned on having a guy over. Especially not this one.
"That's hot." His mocking expression matched his mocking tone.
I rolled my eyes, hoping he didn't notice how red my face was turning, and other wise ignored the remark. "Pyro. Seriously. Why are you here?"
He shrugged. "I was bored. Things are slow right now."
I raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "You mean the Brotherhood is going through a down time?"
"Sure."
"So you thought you'd come pay me a late night visit?"
"Stop complaining." The look he shot me was annoyed.
I sighed, as I watched him glance around my small apartment. "You got anything to eat?"
"You're kidding right?"
"I'm hungry." He moved to the refrigerator.
"Pyro." I said slowly. "You really need to tell me why you're here. If this is about Otto or Magneto sent you, don't think-"
He shut my fridge door a little too hard and glared at me. "Magneto and your brother have nothing to do with anything."
Both my eyebrows shot up in surprise. I'd made him angry, although I wasn't sure why. What else was I supposed to think with him just showing up out of the blue? I thought over my options, as he continued to glare at me. I could make him leave. I could call the school and get help if he wouldn't go. Those would be the smart things to do.
"There's left over Chinese in there from earlier tonight, or you can make yourself a sandwich. I've got spaghetti o's in the cabinet." I don't know why I didn't just send him packing.
"Thanks." He muttered, grabbing the bread off the counter.
A couple of minutes ticked past as he made his sandwich and I sat down at the table. He put everything back where he had gotten it when he finished and took a seat across from me.
"So you're still a librarian?" He asked before taking a bite.
"Yea. You still a terrorist?" Did he really think he could just come here and…I don't know… act like old friends?
The look he shot me said he didn't appreciate the question. "Yep." Then he jerked his head toward the fridge. "You're going to start college?"
I glanced over at the acceptance letter on the fridge. I'd forgotten all about it thanks to him. "Yea, the Professor talked me into it."
"What? Not Shadow?" He asked with a mix of sincerity and sarcasm.
I frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
He shrugged. "He was the one always reading. You don't look like the type to like school, and your file shows it."
"My file? What file?"
"Mystique had one on you. School records, doctor records, anything you ever did, she has it in there."
"What? Why would she have that? You read it!?!" I liked the idea of him reading it even less than I liked Mystique having it.
His smirk came back. "She made it before we got you. And I read it after you left, Annabella."
"Don't call me that." I said.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't go by that John." I shot back at him.
"Touché." He pushed his empty plate away, having eaten the sandwich quickly.
"What did it have in it?" Curiosity got the best of me.
Pyro shrugged. "The basics."
"I don't know what the basics are." Duh.
That got me an eye roll."No known allergies. You broke your arm when you were ten. Lots of D's and C's in school and was suspended in junior high for fighting, but that didn't stop you from being Homecoming Queen later. You're from Georgia and you've lived your entire life in the same house in a small town called Resaca. Well, until recently that is."
All the information was stuff just about anyone could find out if they looked, but I still didn't like him knowing things about me. Especially when I didn't know anything personal about him.
"How much of that did Otto tell you?" I asked. I couldn't hide how unhappy I was to know he knew anything about me other than what I'd told him.
He thought for a second. "None of it. He didn't talk about his past much."
"So he didn't talk about me?" Good.
"I didn't say that." He looked amused at my annoyance. "He didn't talk about any of his family to anyone, except you and only when it was just the two of us. That's how I knew how to get his attention after he had left the Brotherhood and you'd made it so much easier by letting us know where to find you by using Xavier's help. After he betrayed us, we didn't even have to look for you."
"Are you gloating?" I glared hard at him, wondering if I could get away with slapping him because I really wanted to knock the aroggance off his face.
"A little." He said it with a smile, but then turned serious. "But you don't know anything about surviving in this world. You make yourself too easy of a target."
"I don't want to hear it from you." I snapped, and leaned back in my seat with my arms crossed.
"You know most people would have moved after being kidnapped from their home." He raised an eyebrow.
"Well if I would have done that how would you have found me?" I asked sarcastically.
"I would have found you anyway."
"My point exactly." There wasn't anywhere I could hind that the Brotherhood couldn't find. The safest place was at the school, but I wasn't giving up my independence. Not that I thought the Professor or others would try to run my life, but I didn't want to be totally dependent on them.
"Why'd you let me go?" I asked suddenly, hoping I'd catch him off guard and he'd answer.
He blinked, obviously surprised, but he chose his words carefully. "Magneto would have ended up killing you or Shadow, and I owed Shadow."
"Oh." I wanted to know why he had kissed me. But I didn't have the courage for all that. "What do you mean you owed Otto?"
Unsparingly he ignored my question. "Did you tell anyone?" His face was serious.
"The Professor. It's not like I could lie to him." I reasoned.
He opened his mouth to say something but stopped and pulled out a vibrating cell phone. A soft curse escaped him, but he didn't answer it.
"I've got to go." He looked up at me, his expression almost apologetic.
"Can't they track you on that?" I asked, a little worried.
"Nah, I fixed that." He shoved it back in his pocket, then, almost bitterly, said. "Don't worry, I don't want the Brotherhood anymore than you do."
I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were all about the Brotherhood?"
He snorted as he stood up. "Even Magneto needs a break."
"Is that why you came here? You wanted a break?" I asked, because I just couldn't understand why he was here.
Pyro didn't say anything, as he quickly washed his plate and put it in the drain, then turned back around. "You going to tell anyone I was here?"
I shook my head no, knowing I wouldn't, but not understanding what was stopping me. "Are you?" If I wasn't going to tell, then I didn't want it getting around that he'd been here. That could look really bad.
"No." He snorted. "But I won't be back." He clarified for me.
"Fine by me." I told him, not wanting him to think over wise as I gave him an indifferent look.
He grinned and I resisted the urge to return it as he headed toward the door. Without a goodbye he left. After the door closed softly behind him, I waited a minute then ran to the door. I checked out in the hall to make sure he was gone and he was. It was minutes later that I realized I was still clutching his lighter in my left fist.
Random was the word that kept popping up in my head. I didn't know what to think about any of it.
To state the obvious, I didn't get any sleep that night. I was wired; every small sound had me checking for someone in my apartment, and my thoughts went in a big circle. I argued that it wasn't being paranoid after you'd been abducted from your home to keep checking the locks, it was cautiousness. And I wasn't checking to see if Pyro was back because I wanted him to, I was just being paranoid.
I made it to work early the next day, and the day dragged on and on. I'd never been one who could pull on all nighter. I needed sleep to perform. I avoided the Professor, not wanting him to find out about Pyro's visit, and with it so fresh in my mind there was no way I wouldn't give it away if I got near him. It was all I could think about. I was distracted all day thanks to it, and I was exhausted. I thought about asking Logan if we could skip the session, but doubted he'd let me get out of it.
I should have asked anyway I decided half way through, when I landed on my backside for the hundredth time with the wind knocked out of me.
"What's wrong with you today?" Logan frowned at me.
"Didn't...get …any sleep." I wheezed. My insides felt like they were on fire. Having the air knocked out of you just flat out hurts.
"Why not?" He raised an eyebrow.
I shrugged, figuring the less talking I did, the less it would feel like lieing.
Logan rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at the clock on the wall. "Fine. We'll meet up again tomorrow, but don't think that lets you off the hook for the day after."
I nodded, thankful. Then accepted the hand he offered and he pulled me to my feet.
"Go home and rest up." He ordered me as we started to leave the training area.
"Thanks." I told him as I headed in the opposite direction as him to go change.
I changed quickly, and went out to my car. Sitting in the driver's seat I pulled out my keys from my purse, Pyro's lighter came with them. I looked at it like I had done several times that day when no one had been around. It was a reminder that I could be in serious trouble, and I was being stupid for not telling anyone. I let my head hit the steering wheel with a thump, knowing I was probably making a fatal mistake by not telling someone what had happened last night, for having any amount of trust in Pyro was lethal for my health. And yes, though, I didn't want to admit it, I had a small amount of trust in him not to outright hurt me…not that I'd ever admit that to him.
I forced thoughts of Pyro away in case the Professor was around to pick up on them, and put the lighter back in my purse then started up my car and went home.
A/N: I've never been to Resaca and know nothing about it except that it's a real place. I just needed a name of a small town. Don't forget to leave a review, I love getting feedback from all of you.
