I do not own X-Men: Days of Future Past.
I do not own Beast, Hank, or Nicholas Hoult.
In Between
Chapter 3: Dreams and Visions
He sat alone in the quiet laboratory, syringe in one hand. His furry, blue claw was shaking slightly. He watched slightly opaque fluid undulate in the glass vial, gathering his courage.
You don't have to, something inside him whispered.
Yes, I do. I really do.
And he did.
To look normal again. To not feel like a freak. He needed that.
No one was left but him and Charles. And the delivery guy. Of course, the delivery guy could be instructed by phone to just leave the supplies and go on his way. Then Hank could emerge and gather everything up after he was gone.
But then he would still see himself. From the corners of his eyes. Hear his own slightly distorted voice. Run his tongue over the sharpened points of his creature teeth.
Weird as it sounded, beastly blue furry monsters still had to take showers, brush their teeth, groom their . . . fur.
He wasn't a feral animal out in the woods, was he? He was still . . . civilized.
Except sometimes he wasn't.
For example, the other day when the serum had failed, again, and he had destroyed his workstation in a rage. Overturned the table, smashed the vials and beakers. Roared his frustration at the hopelessness of the entire situation.
Even though intellectually he knew that it wasn't hopeless. Just another stepping stone to success.
And so, for all those reasons and many more, he must.
Taking a long, deep breath, Hank McCoy steadied himself. And sank the needle deep into his arm, ignoring the stab of pain as it punctured his furry flesh.
She floated through his thoughts now as she always did during these times.
And, Beast, never forget. Mutant and proud.
He closed his orange eyes against the memory.
If only, Raven.
Then he pushed the plunger and injected the burning serum into his waiting veins.
Moments passed as he felt it spread through his body. He waited.
And fell to the floor with an anguished snarl as the pain overwhelmed him.
She was in the kitchen, in a simple blue dress, hair twisted in a ponytail, making breakfast. Music turned up, dancing, singing to herself. Something fun and light. Something full of hopes and dreams and visions.
She turned and saw him. Gave him a sweet grin.
"Morning, Sexy."
Hank walked up behind, put his arms around her, and kissed her neck right behind her ear. And she shivered. After ten years, she still shivered. He loved that.
"How did you sleep?" he asked conversationally, letting go and turning to the fridge to grab the milk.
She stirred the aromatic substance in the small pot and responded.
"Pretty well. Jenny got up once to go potty but I took her 'cause you were out like a light."
He set the table with plates, glasses, and silverware.
"Thanks. My turn tonight. Just nudge me."
She turned, placing one hand on her hip, flashing her blue eyes cheekily yellow at him.
"A punch is more like it. You sleep like the dead."
They exchanged a grin and she rippled her pure blue form slowly from toes to head. He watched with hungry eyes. She was beautiful in either form. Her blue scaled form just revealed so much more of her curves.
He loved it when she teased.
"Of course, after last night, you must be a little . . . tired," she quipped suggestively.
Their intimate gaze and the insinuations that came with it was broken by two little voices.
"Oooh, something smells good!"
"Yes! Best breakfast ever!"
She zapped herself back to human form with a wink to him and turned to the children.
"Good morning, my sweeties!"
It wasn't time to tell the kids yet. They were still too young to keep the secret. They'd probably think they were superheroes and tell the whole world. Not really the plan. Yet.
He took biscuits out of the oven, placing a steaming one on each plate.
"Hey, his biscuit's bigger than mine!"
He kissed his four year old daughter's tangled dark hair, then ruffled his son's blond towhead affectionately.
"Well, he's two years older. So he's got a six year old-sized biscuit."
Snatching sizzling sausage links off the griddle, he placed one on each child's plate, two for his wife, and two for himself while his daughter mused about twenty year old biscuit sizes.
"Wonder how big they'd be."
"As big as your head," he replied.
"No way!"
As they were intellectually discussing biscuit sizes, Raven subtly popped him on the rear to move and she doled out a scrambled egg onto each plate. While she was doing so, he picked up the small pot and with a dramatic ta-DA, poured small amounts of chocolate gravy on each biscuit.
"Yay! Chocolate for breakfast!" his son yelled. "Thank you, Daddy!"
He tipped his head to the woman next to him.
"Thank her. She made them."
"Thank you, Mommy!" the children enthusiastically chorused.
She grinned and kissed her pajama-clad rug rats on their cheeks and her husband lightly on the mouth.
"Ewwwww!" the children squealed together.
As they sat down to eat breakfast together, he looked at the food on his plate. Thank goodness he had a naturally high metabolism, otherwise all this rich, yummy food might pack on the pounds.
As he took a big bite of chocolate gravied biscuits (leave it to his Raven to make everything sweet), he looked at his family with contentment in his blue eyes.
Raven worked as a teacher in an elementary school with several children Charles had identified to be mutants. As their abilities were subtle and the children seemed to blend in well with society, she was keeping a covert eye on them in case they needed help.
Hank's scientific research at the university was drawing closer every day to curing cancer and paralysis. He was very excited about today's project and hoped that today would be the day they had been working toward for so very long.
And if not, well, maybe tomorrow.
"Daddy, can I have some more milk?" his daughter asked through a mouthful of egg.
He smiled adoringly at her.
"Sure."
As he reached for her cup, sharp claws suddenly emerged from his fingertips, scratching the glass and knocking it into his daughter's lap. She gasped.
"Daddy, that's cold! Oh, your hands!"
Raven's voice cut through his growing shock.
"Hank, did you remember to take your serum?"
His muscles rippled, his clothes tore. He let loose a feral roar. His little children screamed.
Hank jerked up out of sleep, his heart pounding. Gasping for breath. Pulling at the covers, at his clothes.
He was in his bed but he had no idea how he had gotten there.
Leaning forward, he put his arms on his knees and let his head hang. Forced himself to slow his breathing and his racing heartbeat.
Stupid dream. All just a stupid dream. Normal life, normal features. Who (especially a girl like Raven) would really want a guy like him? Even in the real world. Even in the mutant world of Alex Summers and Erik Lenshers?
He got up from the bed and went into the bathroom, turning on the light. Drew a drink of water from the cold tap. Drank it. Set the glass down. Looked in the mirror.
I mean, look at me. Skinny, thick glasses, pale skin. . .
He looked down in shock. Pale, thin arms. Not a spot of blue fur. He looked in the mirror, dumbfounded. Regular, human, blue eyes.
He looked down at his bare feet. Not a monkey toe in sight.
I look . . . human.
Pretty obvious I was making breakfast when part of this chapter came to me, huh? I swear I don't always write about food. *winks
I just realized that Nicholas Hoult is one of the few characters for whom I naturally write inner dialogue. I did it with Warm Bodies and now again with this story and 'Blue to Blue'. Why do I make him talk to himself? Why do I know exactly what his character will say when no one is listening? Or maybe I'm totally wrong and sound like a pretentious jerk right now.
Hmmm, well, anyway . . .
So thanks again to MoonlitShadowsoftheHumanSoul (Havok of course sweetie), guest reviewer lol, Brigid1318, and theFGnat for another round of loyal reviews and insightful comments. I agree with you completely.
Thanks to LightningRivera for your review and joining the Hoult fan club. We've got t-shirts and blue teddy bears! Yay!
Thanks as well to Jas- El, Kyre, 3, Team Rosalie, Carolinefdq, mgaudry, mpathy and leapingwarrior97 for adding your support to this lil fic.
Hey Brigid1318 (seriously, get an account, they're free, sweetie!), you want some more Beast feels? Read my "Blue to Blue" fic.
