A/N : Long time between updates can be entirely blamed on me having just got back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so excuse the delay, been having too much fun clearly! Thanks to reader and reviewer anonymouscsifan for the inspiration behind this chapter, and to all readers and reviewers as always.
4
Practicing her breathing exercises in the studio, Felicity did her utmost to concentrate. Over the three months that she had been in residence at the Academy she had already made unbelievable progress. Meditating with the Professor four times a week, practicing alone every day, spending hours at a time training with Peter in T'ai Chi, which she had at first found frustrating but now had grown to like, concentrating on the feeling of energy flowing under her control through her body, the strength and precision of the movements. Waiting for Peter to arrive, she had settled down into a Full Lotus and was attempting the tricky alternate-nostril breathing technique the Professor had taught her, springing to her feet as she heard someone push open the studio door.
Her smile fell a little, however, when she saw Raven standing there rather than her Mentor. She'd gotten a little used to the blue woman by now, but she couldn't say they were particularly friendly. Raven could be cold, seeming uncaring and distant at times, though she warmed up if you spent enough time with her. Felicity supposed she had been used to being discriminated against and still felt a little untrusting at first, even with her fellow Mutants. Raven padded softly across the sprung floor to her, gave her a small smile.
"Miss Darkholme! HaveIgotthetime….." She stopped, bit her lip and closed her eyes. Found her focus and tried again. "Have I got the time wrong for my class? Are you using the room now?"
"No, Felicity – and please, it's just Raven. Peter sent me in his place today. I hope you don't mind? I'm proficient in Yang Style, I can continue with you"
"Oh…" Felicity looked and sounded disappointed, "Why isn't Peter coming? Is he sick?"
"Thankfully, no – he's away from the Academy for the morning. It's just this once, I promise" Raven said, trying to sound reassuring, "If it would help, I can look like Peter for you?"
Her skin rippled and spiked, became difficult to look at. When it settled, Peter was standing there in her stead, perfectly replicated. Felicity swallowed hard, held tight to her nerve. She'd never seen Raven do that up close before now. Raven-Peter smiled, her Mentor's charmingly lopsided grin to a tee, and said
"Will this be easier for you, Felicity?"
It was Peter's voice exactly, right down to his gentle intonation and accent. The girl shook her head harder than she'd intended to, took a couple of steps back
"Can you just be you?" she asked, wide-eyed, "That's a little creepy. Also Peter never uses my full name"
Raven spiked and rippled again, put her own appearance back on, shrugged
"Suit yourself. Shall we begin?"
Raven wasn't all that pleased that Peter had forgotten to tell Felicity that she'd have a substitute teacher for the morning. It was unlike him, and he wondered if the scatty girl had simply not listened, or if he genuinely hadn't said. Put her irritation to the back of her mind as she put Felicity through her Form, corrected her little postural errors, encouraged her as gently as she could manage.
Just at the moment Felicity had been settling into her class, Peter had been coming to a halt in a dilapidated-looking residential street. Parked up, wondered if he should have driven after all, or should park the car somewhere else, but he hadn't wanted to announce his gift too clearly just yet. Checked the address he'd got from Xavier's files one last time, and made a displeased face as he got out to knock on the door of a particularly scummy dwelling. He hadn't waited long before the door was pulled open by a tall, scrawny man with a nose that looked like it had been broken a few times and not reset properly. He regarded Peter through narrowed eyes
"Whatcha want?" he demanded, "You sellin' something?"
"No, I –"
"Bible-Thumper? One of them Jee-Hoovers Witnesses?"
"No, I'm not selling anything and I'm not a Missionary. I'm from Felicity's school – this *is* the Noonan household, isn't it?"
The scrawny man laughed. It sounded phlegmy and unpleasant, devolving into a cough
"Well don't you speak nice" he sneered, "They all like you, up at that big old house? Nice boys with pretty mouths?"
Peter shoved his hands into his pockets to hide the fists he could not help making. After minutes in his company, he was already growing to really dislike this man. He forced himself to smile pleasantly.
"May I come in, please?" he asked, "I'd like to have a word about Felicity. I won't take up much of your time"
"What's the lil' runt done now?" The man laughed again, "We ain't paying for breakages"
"She's doing very well, I assure you. I'd just like to talk to you. It's normal to speak to the parents and family of our students"
At last, the man stood aside, eyeballed Peter unpleasantly as he came in, made a point of wiping his feet, determined to be a model of politeness since he was there on Academy business. It was hard not to grimace at the dirty, run-down interior, the smell of cat urine pungent and sharp as he followed the man down a hallway lit with one bare bulb.
"Hey Mom?" the man yelled through a half-opened door through which Peter could hear a television, "Some long-hair from the Home for Freaks is here, wants to talk about Felicity"
Waved through dismissively, Peter fought down a gag as he went in. The smell of cat was even stronger in here, no surprise since he could already see four of the animals milling around. They looked healthy at least – he really would have lost his temper if he'd seen neglected animals on top of everything else. A black tom with piercingly yellow eyes twined itself around his legs, immediately began purring. Peter carefully stepped around the cat, came a little further into the room. Coughed and waved away a fog of acrid cigarette smoke.
In a sagging armchair, a woman in a housecoat with hair dyed a brassier shade of blonde than Felicity's sat with a glass in her hand, gazing in rapt attention at The Days of Our Lives playing on the screen. Raised the glass to her lips and drank deeply, didn't look at him as she spoke
"Girl break somethin'?" she grunted, "She's your problem now, we won't pay for her damages"
"Yeah, that's already been made clear, don't worry" Peter fetched a fresh if slightly strained smile, held out a hand politely. The woman didn't move, "I'm Peter Maximoff, one of Felicity's teachers. I wanted to come see you – I don't think any of the faculty have been able to talk to you yet"
"Faculty" he repeated, scathing sarcasm in her voice, "Kid, whaddya want? I ain't got all day. Say your piece and get out of my hair"
Peter tried so hard it almost hurt to hold his temper. Could feel himself starting to grind his teeth. Finally couldn't bear her ignoring him any longer and zipped across to turn off the TV. Mrs Noonan immediately gave him her full attention
"Hey, what's the big idea?! I was - "
"Watching it, I know. You were also ignoring me. I'm here to talk about your daughter" he said, keeping his smile in place, "Doesn't that interest you?"
"Nope. Put my show back on" Mrs Noonan grunted. Peter took a deep breath. He would not hurt her, he didn't do things that way, but god he wished he did right now. The lump of woman only sat in her chair, took another drink. With a movement faster than she could perceive, he snatched the glass out of her hand, drank the contents and set it down on a table.
"Bathtub gin, great choice for a morning pick-me up" he grinned, watched her gape at him
"You're one a'them, arentcha?" she hissed, "A Freak, like Felicity"
"A Mutant, yeah. And I happen to share her gift. Super-speed can be a pain in the ass, Mrs N, but that's no cause to ignore your kid and dump her on a boarding school"
Mrs Noonan sneered at him, showing yellow teeth. Blew the smoke from her cigarette straight at him deliberately
"What's the runt been tellin' you?" she asked, "she always was a little liar. Kid deserves to be put across someone's knee"
"Yeah she told me about that" Peter said deceptively quietly, "Did you know that Child Services would be pretty interested to hear about the slaps she got?"
"Lies!" Mrs Noonan yelled, reached for the bottle. Before she moved an inch Peter had grabbed it and placed it beside the glass, out of her reach. Felt his temper starting to fray a little round the edges at the insolent, dumb fury of the woman
"The only liar around here is you" he hissed. Flashed across the room, leaning down with his hands planted over hers on the arms of the chair. Rightfully, she looked terrified. Let her, he thought – she wasn't to know he wouldn't hurt her "You want me to make that call, Mrs Noonan? You want me to tell someone how you treated that girl? How you bullied her and neglected her, and treated her like a demon when she's just more highly evolved than you? How about I do that, hmm?"
"You're a piece of work, aintcha?" Mrs Noonan growled at him, though her voice shook, "That what you're here for? To threaten me?"
"No." he said gently, moved to allow her free, out of her reach before she tried to swing for him, "I'm here to tell you how well your daughter's doing. She's a very bright kid, very kind, and she's gonna be a great woman some day. None of that is thanks to you or your rotten sons, that's all Flick's own work. *That's* why I'm here. So how does that feel?"
Mrs Noonan glared at him, but wisely said nothing.
"I'll be going now. Thank you for your time. But just you remember, for all you tried to keep that girl down she's already better than the lot of you together. Stay out of her life, sure that'll be no hassle for you. And if any of you ever try to harm her again –" he flashed over, very gently flicked the tip of her nose. She squeaked in shock – "You'll have me to answer to. And believe me, you think Flick's fast you ain't seen nothing yet"
Mrs Noonan blinked, and when she opened her eyes again the boy was gone, already back behind the wheel of his car. Gripping the steering wheel hard in both shaking hands, breathing deeply, pushing down the resentment and anger. Steady enough to drive after a minute, he started the car, turned it not back to the Academy but to the much better part of town where his father now lived.