After the first phase,

After passionate nights and intimate days,

Only then would he let me trace

The frozen river which ran through his face,

~M~

Chapter 2 – Story

Still tired, Maddie stretched and yawned, before rubbing her arms in an attempt to warm herself up. It was cold this morning, very cold, considering how warm it had been yesterday. Catching her off guard as she stared out into the mist that had settled on the lake over night, Wolfgang threw a leather jacket at her. She held it up in front of her and looked at it for a moment.

"Put that on" he instructed

Hesitating slightly, she pulled it on. It was obviously too big for her as she only just came up to his shoulders. She looked over to Wolfgang, there were dark circles beneath his eyes, they were faint, but there, she wondered if he'd slept at all last night. Dismissing the thought, she picked up her bag and stood so that their campsite was between her and the lake. Slowly, she raised her hands and closed her eyes, holding her hands out towards the water; she concentrated on the water. Her hands moved gracefully to and fro with the tide of the water, pulling it higher and higher up the bank, up over the remains of the campfire, until it was completely washed away.

Wolfgang watched Maddie wash away the remnants of the campfire. He wondered if she'd left home for the same reason he had, and weather she had somewhere to travel to. His thoughts were interrupted by a whisper.

"There... two of them – alone..."

Searching for the source of the voice, Wolfgang span round, but there was no one but Maddie, who had lifted her bag onto her back and was talking to him.

"So I'll see you round?" she said, smiling as she handed his jacket back to him

"Yeah" he managed to say, she gave a small wave and began to walk away from him, into the trees. Wolfgang looked at the jacket in his hands "Wait!" he called, prompted by the voice, and jogged over to her, pushing the jacket back at her "It's not safe for mutants to travel alone, we'll go together."

"Go where?" she asked, looking from the jacket to him.

To be honest, he wasn't sure; it was like the voice he could still hear had taken over his speech for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, the voice instructed him.

"Come, there is a place for mutants here, where you will both be safe. Professor Xavier's School for gifted youngsters."

His attention was snapped away by a sharp jab to the ribs, Maddie was staring at him, her eyebrows raised "Don't just stand there staring into space!" she snapped, although she was smiling. For a moment he just stared at her, trying to make sense of the voice that was now fading.

"Um, there's a school..." he said, gradually coming back to reality "-for mutants, I hear it's safe there."

Professor Xavier opened his eyes and calmly took off the headset, his wheelchair turned and wheeled out of Cerebro. Scott was waiting for him on the other side of the door. He looked at the Professor inquisitively through his deep red sunglasses. The professor smiled "I believe two more will be joining us in the near future, both with rather interesting abilities." He added

"Professor?" enquired Scott, as he walked alongside the professor and reached the lift. Again, the professor smiled knowingly, and, without answering Scott's question, entered the lift.

Maddie looked up at Wolfgang; he had the usual look on his face, steady and almost stoic, but with the constant crease between his eyebrows, which, as she'd worked out, indicated that he was in deep thought. She'd been travelling, without complaint, with Wolfgang for nearly a week now, and, being the observant person that she was, she knew that he didn't like to talk much, but he'd respond if she spoke to him, or he'd just let her talk continuously without saying anything, but he did listen. Maddie wasn't the extremely talkative type like her mother had been and was perfectly content with just humming to herself. He seemed to take all opportunity to avoid human interaction and didn't like staying anywhere more than one night.

Although she hadn't questioned him when he'd said he knew where they were going, sometimes she wondered if he really did. Once or twice, he'd stop at a turn in the road and observe it for a moment, as if he was wondering whether they should turn here, although he'd never looked confused about their destination. Right now they were walking on the edge of a fairly quiet road, rain was beginning to fall steadily, and the wind was beginning to blow. Suddenly, Wolfgang stopped walking, staring into space.

"What?" she asked, almost bumping into him, she'd been staring at her feet.

He stared persistently straight ahead of him for a moment, the cease between his eyebrows deepening, before speaking "Don't walk behind me." He said. Maddie thought this was an odd request, but obliged anyway. When he'd said that, he'd reminded her of a friend from before she'd become a mutant, this friend was very paranoid about people walking behind him. Wolfgang continued walking down the road, and Maddie fell into step next to him.

As the rain began to fall heavier, Maddie pulled the up the collar of the leather jacket Wolfgang had leant her. Despite the cold, Wolfgang seemed perfectly fine in his t-shirt and jeans. When she asked wasn't he cold, he gave a noncommittal shrug. Without warning thunder rumbled loudly and lightning flashed across the sky. Unflinchingly, Wolfgang looked up at the sky, the rain beating against his face.

"We'll have to find somewhere to stay tonight." He said, thinking out loud.

It didn't take them long to find a cheap motel to stay in. It seemed to Maddie that Wolfgang knew where everything was even though he'd admitted to her that he'd never been anywhere outside of Washington. She'd wondered briefly if that was his power, finding things, or knowing where things were, but that didn't seem to suit the creature that he was when she'd first seen him.

~WPOV~

They looked cautiously round the shabby reception area, it looked as if it had been half-heartedly decorated in the sixties and then never redone. There was a balding, plump man in a stained t-shirt behind the desk, he was smoking a cheap cigarette and listening to a basketball game on a worn out old radio. Wolfgang went straight up to the man behind the desk; the man looked up at him groggily.

"How much for a room?" he asked sharply

"For one night? Twelve dollars" said the man; his eyes kept flicking from Wolfgang to Maddie. Wordlessly, Wolfgang handed the man the money and the man gave him a key. Not unaware of the man's wondering eyes, Wolfgang pushed Maddie in front of him and half steered her towards the door. "Hey girly!" the man called, Maddie turned to him, having to look round Wolfgang's arm as he wouldn't move. The man had a curious, slightly concerned look on his face. "How old are you?" he asked.

Maddie raised her eyebrows "Sixteen" she said indignantly

The man slumped back in his chair, watching them suspiciously "If you say so..." he muttered.

Wolfgang steered Maddie out the door, throwing the man a disgusted look. He glanced at the number attached to the room key and on pure instinct, turned left down the corridor.

Maddie lay on her side, watching Wolfgang supposedly sleep, he'd insisted that she had the bed and he slept on the none-too-comfortable looking sofa. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed and one arm behind his head. She was completely shattered, but she couldn't sleep. When he wasn't scowling, he was actually quite handsome, in a rather lazy way, although it wasn't like she didn't like the scowl sometimes, it made him look very 'bad ass'. His jet-black hair was long enough to hang down into his eyes and he never seemed to care that it did, he had easily good-looking features.

"Stop watching me sleep" he said suddenly, breaking Maddie's train of thought

"If you were actually asleep you wouldn't notice" she muttered

"Wouldn't I?" he asked, which prompted a question that Maddie had been thinking about earlier.

"Um... Wolfgang? Can I ask you something?"

"You just did, but you can ask something else."

She hesitated slightly "What's your power – I mean to say, like your mutation or whatever? 'Cause at the lake... well, I'm not sure what I saw but..."

This question seemed to inspire some kind of life into the usually stoic man. He turned and looked Maddie in the eye "I turn into a werewolf," he said calmly "In some respects anyway. I look like one, but the full moon isn't necessary."

"Oh... and how did you...?"

"Find out?" he finished her question for her "It's a long story" she didn't respond, so he continued "My younger sister was a mutant as well, her name was Sarah, she was a telekinetic, she could move things with her mind, anyway, she had a short temper sometimes and it was hard for her to control her power. She got really pissed once and things just kind of started to hover and explode randomly, of course people were freaked and it got round pretty fast, the next week she was snatched by two guys and beaten to death." He hesitated, though not a single ounce of emotion entered his voice "Of course it was only a half-assed job by the police, and they put it round that she'd taken a bad fall, but I was quite close to her, and I did everything in my power to hunt down the guys who did it, when I found them and asked them about it, they laughed and told me that she deserved what she got. I just lost it, I couldn't control myself. I transformed and attacked them. Sometimes I regret that I didn't kill them, when I see today's view on mutants."

Maddie just continued to watch the stoic look on his face, not even his eyes (which Maddie believed were the windows to someone's heart if you looked deep enough) gave away what he was really feeling.

"Does it scare you?" he asked abruptly

"What?"

"Does it scare you, my other form?"

The way he asked the question gave Maddie the impression that her answer was important to him, so she decided the whole truth would be better. "You did, at first, but I wasn't sure what you were, and its survival instinct to fear what we don't know isn't it? But now I know you, so you don't scare me anymore." She smiled slightly, even through the blank, unresponsive look on his face, she guessed that he'd never had that answer before and hadn't been expecting it. "Why'd you ask?" she said, stifling a yawn.

"Most people fear my other form and run from me when they see me, you didn't run, you came towards me." He said, hearing her suppress another yawn

"Well... you have my word that I'll never run from you" she said drowsily and then, a moment later, jumping back in their conversation "Is that why you hate the world?" she asked, sounding as if she was ready to drop off to sleep any moment now.

"What do you mean?"

"Because of what those men did to your sister? Is that why you hate the world?" she muttered sleepily, closing her eyes

Wolfgang thought for a moment, lying on his back again with his arms behind his head, watching a small spider on the ceiling, not quite sure what inspired him to say what he said next "I don't hate you." He whispered, but she was already fast asleep.