That Friday morning, Lance surprised everyone- most of all himself- by rising even before Mystique's alarm had woken her up. His eyes opened just as the first rays of sun were beginning to break through the heavy darkness of night, and try as he might he was unable to force himself back into sleep.

Eventually giving up, Lance dragged himself out of bed, still in his pajamas, and descended the stairs to the kitchen. In his half-asleep mind, it didn't even occur to him that he should maybe be alarmed by the thin, white-haired boy who was standing in front of the kitchen window when he got there, completely shirtless. Instead, Lance simply turned on the coffeemaker and in a zombielike haze poured himself a bowl of cereal and placed it down at the kitchen table before almost falling over.

Looking up at the boy, who was silently observing his actions with sharp icy blue eyes, Lance inquired, "Milk?"

"Got it," the boy replied casually, opening the fridge and withdrawing the carton of milk before handing it to Lance.

"Thanks," Lance sighed, sitting down at the table and pouring a healthy dose of milk into his cereal. It was only after he'd taken his first bite and his mind was somewhat more awake that he fully realized the fact that there was a random shirtless boy with white hair standing in the kitchen. "Uhh..."

"Nice bedhead," commented the boy with a wry smirk. "Did you stick your head in a blender?"

"It just comes like this," Lance replied automatically, frowning confusedly at the stranger. "Who are you?"

"The name's Pietro Maximoff," replied the boy, not bothering to stick his hand out to shake. "I just got here last night, and the reason I'm presently shirtless is because none of my stuff's arrived yet and I didn't exactly treasure the idea of going the whole day in the shirt I wore breaking out of prison."

"Prison? Huh," Lance blinked, not ashamed to admit that he was minorly impressed. "What'd you do to get there?"

"Property damage," proclaimed Pietro proudly. "About thirty thousand dollars of property damage."

"You think that's impressive? I destroyed my entire school once." The boy gave Lance another small, thin smirk, and Lance couldn't help the slight rush of pride that he felt. Even though he knew that tearing down his old school- and nearly killing that stupid X-girl in the process- wasn't quite something to be proud of, it felt nice to have someone else look at him like he wasn't some sort of maniac when they heard about it. "What sort of mutation do you have?"

"Oh, I don't know-" replied Pietro, shrugging casually. Suddenly, with a rush of air, Lance realized that he was now standing on the other side of the room. "I'm just sort of the-" Another zoom, and Pietro's voice was now coming from the front hallway. "fastest person alive. It's pretty-" His voice cut off abruptly, and Lance was bewildered for half a second before he heard a tapping on the kitchen window and looked up to see Pietro standing there with his arms crossed and that same cool smirk on his face. "Cool, I guess." He took off again, and the next thing Lance knew Pietro was once again standing in the kitchen. "Like it?" Lance nodded- he had to admit that the other boy's power was pretty impressive. Pietro leaned against the wall casually, and raised his eyebrows. "What can you do?"

Lance shrugged. "I'd show you, but Mystique said that if I tear down this house she'll have my head on a pike. I can control seismic shifts in the earth." He wished that he could show off his powers to Pietro as the other boy had been doing, but he didn't doubt that Mystique would literally kill him if he ended up wrecking this house. It was the only house she had been able to find, and he knew that he would be kicked out at least- not that he really cared, but there was no way he was going back to his old foster home and while he could probably manage on his own, he didn't exactly relish the thought of being left with no shelter, no food, no money, and not even a car to drive- so he figured it was best for him to stick with the Brotherhood for now.

"Not bad. Not as good as mine, though." This time, Pietro did extend his hand. "Quicksilver."

"Avalance- but you can call me Lance." After shaking hands, Lance gestured to the still brewing pot of caffeine on the counter. "Coffee?" he offered, but Pietro shook his head.

"I'm not allowed to have caffeine. Something about 'bouncing off walls' and 'minor symptoms of demonic possession'. Tea's more my style anyway."

"Whatever," Lance shrugged, and ate another spoonful of cereal. Looking up again, he was suddenly very aware of he fact that Pietro was entirely shirtless- and didn't seem at all shy about it. "Uhh," he murmured, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, "so... when are your clothes gonna get here?"

"Whenever Magneto brings them." Pietro smirked again, and straightened his shoulders a bit. "Why? Am I making you uncomfortable?"

Lance rolled his eyes at the other boy. "Shut up."