"What's the deal with the blonde?" Scott asked, to make conversation. "She's pretty."
Peter blushed. "Gwen's just my friend."
"Really?" Scott asked doubtfully. "Cause' she came all the way from Queens to support you as you met your 'long-lost-brother'. Not many friends do that."
"Gwen does," Peter said with a smile. "Besides, she couldn't be interested in me. I'm just... me." Peter shrugged. He wasn't saddened by the statement, but treated it like it was a fact.
"What does that mean?" Scott said.
"I'm not really Mr. Popularity. I'm pretty much the class punching bag," Peter explained. "Gwen's the girl that all the guys are after, but will probably never get because she's too smart to date them."
"So, who are you going with?" Scott pressed.
"No one now... I sorta had a girlfriend once," Peter said while blushing again. He was referring to his fling with the Black Cat as Spider-Man.
"What happened?" Scott asked.
"Well, she found the real me to be... Dull," he said trying not to explain too much.
"What do you mean 'the real you'?" Scott asked confusedly.
"Sometimes people think I'm different than I really am." Peter tried to hide the deceit from his voice. "Any way this girl tried to change me. Make me someone I wasn't. I just... I didn't like the idea that she wasn't really interested in me."
"I think any guy would have done the same," Scott said, proud of his "little brother's" decision.
"I disagree," Peter said, taking out his wallet. He pulled out a picture of Felicia. Despite how much he disliked her, Felicia was a friend in Peter's mind, and he kept her picture around like he kept around pictures of all his friends. All three. There were five pictures if you counted the one of Aunt May and Uncle Ben on the second Honeymoon in Hawaii, and the one of his parents on their wedding day.
"I take that back, you are way over principled, she is totally hot," Scott said looking at the picture of Felicia. In typical Felicia Fashion, she'd given him a rather racy picture of herself. Needless to say, Aunt May didn't approve of his being friends with her.
"Watch it, don't you have a girlfriend?" Peter teased, snatching back his picture.
"Yeah..." Scott shrugged. "She's got nothing on Jean."
"Thank you," said a voice from the stairs.
Scott looked up and smiled. Peter turned around and saw a lovely redhead descending the stairs. Scott walked to her and said to Peter. "Pete, this is Jean, the girl I was talking about."
"Jean," Scott said and tapped the side of his head. Jean squinted her eyes as she looked at him. She then spread her eyes in shock.
"Your brother?!"
"How'd she..." Peter trailed off, a little worried.
"She's a telepath," Scott explained.
"Oh," Peter said, now very worried.
"Its nice to meet you," Jean offered her hand.
Peter shook her hand, but he felt his spider-sense going off. She was feeling the edges of his mind. Peter's eyes narrowed as he thought, 'Get out.'
Jean shook her head as she withdrew her hand. "Sorry... I was just trying to get to know you."
"Jean mind-peepin' withawt permission again?" asked a southern drawl from the stairs.
Peter looked up and nearly disengaged his jaw. She had lily-white skin, with dark eye shadow and dark purple lips. She wore a green see through shirt over her tank top. This combination allowed her to show the ample cleavage, without looking trashy. She had green leggings, a little ripped in places, and a black skirt. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. "Ah'm Rogue."
She offered her hand and Peter shook it. "You a new student?" she asked.
"No," Peter said. "I'm here to meet him." He gestured over his shoulder at Scott.
"Whah you wanna meet the world's biggest boy scout?" she asked taking a playful jab at Scott's stomach. She and Scott were on fairly good terms. He was one of the few rare genuinely decent guys in the world. She no longer carried a torch for him though, she just thought of him as a good friend… that didn't mean she had to like Jean, though. She knew Scott very well, having absorbed some of his mind. Scott was genuine and kind for no other reason than that was how he thought he was supposed to be. It wasn't an act with Scott, he really was that way. She'd also shared headspace with Jean. She was hiding something, and it was something that, to Rogue, felt cold. Scott blocked carefully, but with a smile and Rogue turned back to Peter.
"Rogue, it turns out this guy is my brother," Scott said, moving around behind Peter.
"Ya'll kiddin!" she said. "I thaught it was bad enough with just the two a ya Summers boys."
"Actually, I'm a Parker, Peter Parker to be exact."
"Ah know that name from som'eres," she said. "You work for th' Bugle don't ya?"
"Technically no, but they're the only ones I've ever sold pictures to," Peter explained. "Technically I'm a freelance photographer."
"But you are the one who takes those pictures a' Spider-Man raht?" she pressed.
"Yeah, that's me," Peter said, blushing only a little.
"Those'r some good shots. Spider-Man's a hero in mah opinion," she said. "Course not everyone is as level headed as me," she said casting a sarcastic look at Scott.
Scott shrugged. "I think he's doing a job best left to the police," he defended himself, with Jean nodding in agreement. It was obviously an old discussion that had downgraded from argument. Peter came across that sometimes, Spider-Man was almost as divisive a topic as politics
Peter looked over at his bag and thought for a moment. "Just a sec!" he said suddenly. He rushed over to his bag and pulled out his camera. He also fished around and found an extra roll of film (he was halfway through the one in the camera). "You guys mind?" he asked.
They looked amongst each other and all said, "Sure why not."
Jean and Scott stood on the steps, Scott behind her with his arms around her, and Jean leaning back into him. Peter took the shot from the side, so the railing was in the picture. "That looks great!" Peter said. He snapped a couple pictures of them like that. He looked around and frowned. "Rogue, this place just isn't conducive to an image containing one of your demeanor."
"What?" she asked in confusion.
Peter mentally slapped himself. He had a habit of using big words when he was excited. "I mean to say that this place doesn't look right for a picture of you."
Rogue looked around. "Got that right," she sighed. She loved the institute, but the fact was the Goth clothing was indicative of her preferred style. She would have loved to live in a Cathedral or castle, some place with truly classic architecture. "C'mon, my room's this way."
Peter, who hadn't ever been invited to a girl's bedroom before (unless you count the Black Cat offering a motel room), followed in a stupor.
He looked around. "This is nice," he said. It was dark with veils over lamps, and dark walls. The windows were heavily shrouded, which is when Peter was thankful his camera had a flash on it. He looked around and grabbed a book and handed it to Rogue. "Here, sit on the bed, back against the head board," she did so, and Peter smiled. "Perfect." He snapped a few pictures.
Peter wound his camera, happy with the shots he was getting. Rogue laughed a little with a sardonic look. She was looking at his chest. Peter looked down and screamed, unfortunately for Peter he screamed like a girl. You see when he looked down, he saw a brunette girl's head sticking. "Like, why does Rogue get a, like, fashion shoot?"
Peter leapt back, luckily the girl didn't go with him.
The brunette looked at him with a confused expression, then realization poured over her face. "Sorry, I, like, totally forget that that, like, freaks people out."
"I'm Kitty by the way. Scott already told me who you were," she held her hand out, and Peter shook it, not quite sure if he would get a long with this girl. Just then Peter's spider-sense kicked in and he jumped back as a puff of smoke and sound like compressing air. There was the boy who had answered the door.
"I heard a scream," explained Kurt. "Vas zat you Keetty?"
"Uh, actually that was me," Peter said raising his hand embarrassedly.
Kurt snickered a little, but then yelped in pain. He turned around and grabbed, to Peter's surprise, a blue spaded tail. "Sister!" he said accusatorily as Rogue strode past.
"Now who's screamin' lahke a girl?" she laughed. Rogue gave a slight nod to Peter. She'd had to deal with Kitty's head appearing in her torso, or her reaching through every now and then. It was only slightly less annoying than actually conversing with Kitty. Rogue smiled at that wicked thought. She cared about Kitty, like anyone would care about a little sister. That didn't mean she had to like the girl.
Peter raised his hand. "Is it just me or does he have a tail?" he asked.
Kurt looked embarrassed and pressed a button on his watch. The abnormally normal image fizzled out, to be replaced with the furry elfish features of the Nightcrawler.
Peter, to Kurt's amazement, hit his head. "I was wondering why you were wearing a Stark Tech. Image inducer!"
"You know Stark Tech?" asked Kurt.
"I like to keep up with current technology," Peter said, glad for once to tell the truth. He hadn't been too shocked with Kurt's appearance. He'd seen farm more terrifying and far more bizarre appearances from his time as a super-hero.
"Like, back to my question!" Kitty interrupted. "Why were you, like, taking pictures of Rogue?"
"I'm a photographer," Peter explained. "I like to have Pictures of people I know. I've found it helps me remember names and stuff. Did you want your picture taken?" he offered, holding up the camera."
Kitty squealed so loud that the three others in the room had to take a second to regain their hearing. "That would be so cool!"
Peter looked at Kurt, who played with his tail and looked pensive. "They're just for me and my Aunt... and she doesn't hate mutants. I can even get you some prints." Peter hesitated to suggest sending them home to family, not knowing what kind of family situations the various mutants had to deal with. "I do the developing myself, so no one will see anything you don't want."
Kurt nodded. "Vhy not," Kurt finally relented.
Peter took a picture of Kurt hanging from a chandelier in the main foyer. He was pulling a face and sticking out his tongue. Peter had a feeling he was going to like Kurt. Kitty had her picture taken in the dining room. Her pose was looking up from reading a book. Her picture seemed to say that she was smarter than she let on, something Peter had learned to look for.
After about an hour of hanging around with Scott again, they were ready to leave. Gwen had seen the whole mansion, while Peter had been taking tons of Pictures. In the end he had even gotten a shot with Prof. Xavier smiling his eerily wise smile.
Peter developed the pictures that evening. He realized that some of his Spider-man shots had been on the first roll of film, so he decided to swing over to the Bugle on his way home from school. In the morning he swept all the prints he'd developed into an envelope and took off.
He entered the office of J. Jonah Jameson, and set the envelope down on Jameson's desk. When J.J. realized Peter was there, he snatched the pictures up and looked over them. "Did it, did it," he repeated as he sorted threw the pictures. Then suddenly he changed expressions. "What the hell is this crap?" he said. Peter realized he had gotten to his Pictures from the institute. "What the HELL!" he said, dropping the rest of the photos. Peter knew J. J. was staring at a picture of a fuzzy blue elf pulling a face at the camera.
"Those are pictures of the Bayville mutants sir," Peter explained picking up the dropped photos. "I didn't mean to turn those in, if I can just have them back I'll..."
"Wait... wait a damn minute. These of these girls and that boy and that... whatever the hell it is are those mutants in Bayville? Why, the look almost normal!"
"Well they are for the most part normal," Peter said, offended on his new friends behalf.
"This could make an interesting story," Jonah said, not even listening to Peter. "URICH!" Jonah bellowed. Jonah always bellowed. Peter was beginning to think that Jameson didn't believe in intercoms.
Ben Urich popped his head in the door. "Yeah boss?" he asked. Ben Urich was a handsome man, in his late thirties with glasses. He looked fit and trained, and had red hair that was just beginning to recede. "hey, kid," Ben said when he saw Peter.
"Whaddo we got on these mutants in Bayville?" Jameson demanded.
"Nothin', we've never bothered to head down there or check them out."
"What does anyone else have on these mutants?" Jameson seemed to be having an interesting train of thought.
"Everyone else pretty much agrees that they're evil... even thought they did save most of us from that Apocalypse guy."
"So we might be the first cover them from a positive angle? Surprise people, sell a few extra copies." Jameson took out a cigar from his desk and lit it up. "This could work..."
