Hey, everybody, I took a break from my busy schedule to talk to you! (Yes, that was sarcasm.) To my new favorite reviewer, CrisTocK, no, that doesn't make Wolverine 5000 years old, Lynx just has a healing factor that's way more extreme, which is why she appears really young when she's actually pretty frickin old, waaaaay older than Wolverine. That's all I'm going to say on that, though. Well, not a lot to say, so…
Oh, and I only own Lynx and any characters I may make up later on. X-Men is the sole property of Marvel comics and the writers (I think. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)
Okay, I sent this to my friend to read (multiple times), but she never did. Depending on what kind of feedback I get, I may rewrite the chapter. So, review if you want me to keep going this way or try something else.
Yawn, attempt to take notes, try not to look like I'm really asleep, repeat. My new class schedule. When it was time for lunch, I didn't go. I felt like being a hermit. When I didn't show up, Wolverine knocked on my door. I looked at the door, then just stayed at my desk. He hit the door a little harder.
"Open up, Lynx," he called quietly through the door. I had a private room, but it wasn't a private hallway, and other kids might be hanging out in their rooms. "Let me in. I know you're in there and you haven't left all day." I cursed under my breath.
"Damn super-senses. The ability to smell if I've left or not is not hot." I stomped over to the door and opened it enough to stick my head out. "What is it, Wolverine? I'm sort of avoiding human contact today. See, if I don't get pissed off, I can't go nuts."
"You can't just isolate yourself from everyone." He opened the door all the way and pulled on my arm a little. "If you don't confront your anger, you won't be able to deal with it, and you'll blow up over something little. I know what I'm talking about, so listen to me."
"The Professor told me to stay in my room as much as possible." I tried to shut the door, but Wolverine stuck the toe of his boot in the crack.
"Well, it's not possible for you to stay in your room, because I say so." He opened the door the rest of the way and grabbed me by the wrist.
"Where are we going?" I reluctantly let him pull me into the hallway. I could have stopped us if I really had to, but Wolverine was just as strong as me, and I would have had to literally dig my heels into the floor. I doubted Professor Xavier would have appreciated having to replace the nice woodwork under the carpets.
"You are going down to lunch, and you are going to interact with kids your own age, and you are going to like it." I yanked my hand out of his, and jumped backwards to my door.
"You know, technically, I can't interact with kids my own age." He sighed and started marching me back down the stairs.
"You know what I mean, Lynx." I rolled my eyes.
"If I have to go downstairs, can I at least change?" I crossed my arms and turned back to my room. "Appearances are very important to teenagers." Wolverine snorted through his nose and leaned against a wall.
"But technically, you're not a teenager."
I hissed at him and shut myself in my room to get dressed. I heard him chuckle through the door, but ignored it. I wiggled into a pair of jeans and a tank top, then threw a plaid-pattern shirt over it. Checking myself in the mirror, I braided my hair behind my back really quick. Hey, it was the shirt that Wolverine had let me borrow on the ride here. I wondered if he would want it back.
"Okay, I'm ready, if I still have to go down…" I looked around for Wolverine. Maybe he decided to leave me alone for now. But wait, what was that noise? I turned around and looked into the corner of the wall where it met the ceiling. He had himself wedged in the space, trying not to move. "Found you, I win."
"Eh, took you longer than it should have, so I win." He jumped down and shrugged his shoulders. I struck a pose.
"Well, I'm fricking sexy, so I win." He didn't say anything, just looked. "What, no witty comeback?" He shook his head slowly, his arms crossed over his chest, a half-smile on his face.
"Nope." I half-smiled back at him and hit him lightly on the arm.
"Come on, thought you were going to make me go downstairs for lunch." He ushered me down the steps in front of him. "So, when do our extra lessons start?" I turned around and looked over my shoulder at him.
"After last class. Danger room." He was cutting down on the talking again. He did that whenever someone might be listening, such as on the way to the dining hall. It kind of pissed me off, but I made myself smile.
"Sounds great. See you then, Professor." Whenever he cut down on the talking, I started calling him professor (laden with sarcasm, of course) because it pissed him off. It was a viscous cycle. He knew how to press my buttons, and I knew his, so we just kept going round and round with it. He growled at me, way in the back of his throat, but I just smiled, growled louder, and walked off.
~x X-Men x~
Everyone stopped talking when I walked into the cafeteria. I got my lunch, then looked around for a place to sit. I glanced frantically at the door, ready to run back to my room, but Wolverine was the teacher on watch duty. He raised one eyebrow, and I chose a table. At the table was Iceman, Rogue, and Pyro. I ignored Pyro and looked at Rogue and Iceman.
"Can I sit with you guys? Wolverine's making me eat lunch today." I spoke quietly, trying to seem unthreatening. After what happened the other day on the lawn, I didn't want to spook anyone. Rogue visibly shook herself and smiled. She was making the effort, and that really meant a lot to me.
"Sure. Have a seat." I pulled a chair out and sat down. The food looked great; the school experimented with different styles of cooking, and that week they were doing Asian cuisine. I love sushi, and that's what was being served. I picked up my chopsticks and looked at the other three warily. They were using forks.
"Why aren't you guys using chopsticks?" I clicked the ends of mine together. "They're not that hard to use…" I shrugged as they just looked at me blankly. "Hell, I even can't remember where I learned to use them," I muttered to myself.
"Why can't you remember where you learned to use them?" I closed my eyes as Pyro talked for the first time since I walked in. If he said something stupid, I would have to leave. He went to open his mouth again, but I held my hand up.
"Do you really want to say something dumb, John? Because I really don't feel like blowing up today." I gave him my serious eyes and he shut up. I smiled inwardly; sometimes, being intimidating rocked. Rogue shifted in her seat and turned to me, obviously uncomfortable with this conversation.
"So, I haven't seen you in class today, Lynx." I nodded.
"Yeah, Professor Xavier had it set up so I could watch the classes from my room so I don't go nuts. I'm not supposed to be down for lunch, but Wolverine made me." I shrugged. "After what happened the other day, the Professor realized that I could be a threat even when I'm not trying to be." I shot a glance at Wolverine. "But some people are pigheadedly, blatantly going against the Professor."
Wolverine scowled at me, but I just smiled crookedly. Rogue and Iceman looked at me like I had grown a second head, and Pyro was ignoring my presence in an ostentatious way. I looked at him and tilted my head, assessing him. His hands smelled like… Oh my God. I could smell that he'd been… ahem, amusing himself. I felt my face get red, and I looked down at my plate and shoveled all of my food into my mouth. I wanted to get out of there soon.
"Well, I'll see you all later," I said quickly and almost sprinted for the door. Wolverine tried to stop me, but I barreled past him and stopped around the corner to my room. Wolverine was almost right behind me. My face was still on fire, and I was frantically trying to tamp down on that. Wolverine raised his hand like he was going to put it on my arm, then lowered it like he thought better of it.
"What happened at lunch?" I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. I tried to play the whole thing off.
"Nothing? Why do you think something happened?" My bluff would have been better if I hadn't sounded like a squeaky toy in a blender. He raised his eyebrow.
"Because you ran out of there like there was a fire." I closed my eyes and let out a breath. My blush was coming back.
"There are certain things that I really didn't need to know about Pyro. But I could smell it." I shook my head. "He didn't wash his hands! There are certain activities that you need to wash your hands after, and he didn't." I shivered. "I'm really glad he wasn't making the food today." Wolverine thought I had lost my mind.
"Okay, I'm confused. Mostly because you're talking like a psycho. What exactly was Pyro doing that was so disgusting?" I felt my face go red again.
"Well, before lunch, he was… ahem… keeping himself busy. And it's not so much what he was doing, it was he didn't wash his hands! That's just nasty! And he's eating!"
I almost felt sick. I looked at my arm. There was a needle in it. I looked at Wolverine. It wasn't really him; as I watched him, his skin turned indigo and scaly, and his hair turned red. The woman I had thought was Wolverine smiled and pulled the needle from my skin.
"Tell Charles that Magneto says hello, and that he should guard his treasures more carefully." And then I passed out.
~x X-Men x~
I opened my eyes. Nausea rolled over me. I tried to keep my lunch down, but it bubbled back up. I sat up and held my hands out.
"Bucket please." I leaned over the edge of the bed and filled the waste basket someone handed me with vomit. "Whoever came up with the idea of raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed was evil. It tastes way worse the second time." I groaned and rolled back over onto my back. "That was some nasty shit in that needle. Oops, sorry, Professor."
I opened my eyes timidly. I was overly sensitive to begin with, but now my nerves felt raw. I winced as the light hit my eyes. Can we dim those, Professor? They're kinda killing my eyes. I heard wheels moving to the wall and the room got darker.
"It's amazing to see you awake so soon, Lynx." The Professor's tone was as neutral as always. I never knew what he was thinking, but he knew what I was thinking. I sat up and rested my elbows on my knees. "There are few people, mutant or otherwise, who could have survived that toxin."
"What exactly was it? I feel like I've been hit by a semi. Not even that; semis aren't that bad." I rubbed my calves with my palms. They felt like the blood wasn't pumping like it should.
"That was the venom of Oxyuranus microlepidotus, commonly known as the Inland Taipan. It's the most venomous land snake in the world. If the needle we found near you was the needle used, and assuming it was completely filled, there was enough venom to kill a dozen bull African Elephants." He placed a hand on my foot closest to him. "So you have a reason to feel like you've been hit by a truck." I rubbed my face with my hand.
I rubbed my hands over my face. Sore was a new feeling for me, but that's what I was experiencing. All over my body, my muscles felt like they were being stretched way past their limit. Even my face hurt. I took a deep breath; the Professor's scent was different. He smelled… Guilty.
"What are you hiding, Professor?" I looked at him warily. "What aren't you telling me?" I pulled my foot out of his grasp and stared at him hard. "What's wrong? Why aren't you talking?" Professor X took a deep breath like he was steeling himself for what he was going to say.
"You weren't the only one to encounter Mystique yesterday. Logan was the one to follow you from the cafeteria, but along the way Mystique used the same toxin on him as on you, albeit an extremely lower dose." He paused. "He still hasn't woken up."
I launched myself out of the bed before he had even finished his sentence. I loped out of the door and down the hallway, frantically searching the air for Wolverine's scent. Wolverine couldn't die. I had to find him. What I was going to do when I was there, I had no idea, but I would be there, God dammit. I found the smell of home and followed it to an identical room as the one I had been in.
"Wolverine!" I pushed open the door and practically flew across the room to him. He looked dead; his skin was pale and clammy, and his chest was barely moving with his breath. I fell to my knees, strange words that I instinctively knew were a prayer fell from my mouth. I was begging the gods to save him. "Please, Anguta, leave him here with me. I need him." These last words I whispered in English.
"Hmm, that's interesting." Wolverine pulled me from the crouch I'd fallen into. "You need me?" He drew me onto the bed with him. "That's funny, because I need you, too." I sent a quick prayer to the gods for their speedy answer, then snuggled into Wolverine's chest. I yawned, a great, jaw-cracking yawn.
"I'm tired. Do you mind if I stay here with you?" I looked at him through my lashes. He chuckled.
"I wouldn't want anything else." He wrapped an arm around me and kissed the top of my head. I tucked his free hand between mine and under my head. My eyes almost closed, I breathed three little words. I don't know if he heard me, but I knew they were out there, and I meant them with all of my heart.
A little shorter than my first two chapters, I know. I may go in a different direction with this, but I really like this way right now. I'll try to update more often, but no promises.
I love you all! (Just kidding.)
Oh, and I drew Lynx! She's dressed like a hippy, yeah. She was feeling groovy. I might even work that into the next chapter. You'll probably want the link now, right? http:/life-is-colorful (dot) deviant art (dot) com/d3iv0a6
Review, k? Muffins for everyone who does. (They won't be real muffins. I'll draw you one. BUT A MUFFIN IT SHALL BE.)
