A/N~ So Here's The Next Chapter! This One's A Bit Longer Than The Last One, Though Most Of The Chapters Wont Be This Long, Most Shorter, Some Longer, But Not Many... Probably. I Want To Thank Everyone Who Reviewed, They Make Me So Happy! & All The Followers & Favorites I Got? Literally Made Me Squeal In Delight! X3 I Really Hope You Guys Like This Chapter I Worked Really Hard On It. XD

Also To The Guest That Reviewed Ch.3, I Just Wanted To Tell You That That Part Wont Be Coming Until Kinda Way Later In The Story. There May Be A Few Parts Through Out The Story Where It Happens, But It's Explained & Not The Part In The Summary. Thanx For The Review! X3

Disclaimer~ I Don't Own Anything In This. No Seriously I Don't, Nada, Zero, Zip!

Warning~ Mention Of Sad Tony, & There's Cussing Courtesy Of Logan. XD ENJOY! XD

Ch.4

Meeting Real Friends & Family.

~2,861~

"All right, pack what ever you think you'll need, clothes, tools, any of your projects you may want to bring." Charles said and Tony nodded.

Jean, in the driver's seat, started the car and pulled out onto the road and headed towards Tony's apartment. They sat in silence as they drove.

When Tony arrived at the school, even he was impressed at its size. It was slightly bigger than the Stark mansion, and there was a large 4 car garage off to one side. The lawn was cut perfectly and there wasn't a stone out of place in the gravel roundabout drive way. There was a large back yard and garden, there were even some vegetables and fruits growing along with the flowers and trees. It was a multi-level garden, and Tony thought it was, without a doubt, more beautiful that the small garden back at the Stark mansion his mother had tended to.

When Tony entered the house, lugging his bags behind him, he felt like he was visiting one of his father's rich friends houses, like he had done a few times before. The inside seemed bigger than the outside, which Tony knew wasn't logical, but he couldn't help think it, as the inside was enormous. There were elegant, expensive paintings on every wall, small tables with gorgeous flowers in every corner of every room, and lush clean carpets or beautiful shiny hardwood floors in every room. Tony was impressed that this was a school and not the manor of some millionaire and his family.

Xavier had met Tony's conditions: no one besides Prof. Xavier and Jean knew he was Tony Stark, everyone else knew him as Tony Daniels. Tony was given a room near the garage, it had been a small class room that no one had used in a while, so it was bigger than normal rooms, which was fine with Tony. Unfortunately, his room was on the second floor, just above the garage, but Tony could work with that, the roof to the garage was just beneath his window, a little ingenuity(and a make-shift window latter) and it would work perfectly.

Tony was led to his room by a young man, only a few years older than himself, named Scott. He had short dirty blond hair, and was much taller than Tony himself, though he wore glasses inside. It probably had to do with his mutation. Tony thought. After he took his stuff up to his room and settled in, Tony met Prof. Xavier and Jean down in the kitchen to be introduced to the rest of the students and teachers. There weren't many students; only about 10, and there were even less teachers; only about 5.

There was Xavier, he was the dean, or headmaster of sorts, and Jean, of course, was a teacher, then there was a person with pure white hair and dark brown skin named Ororo Munroe, Scott, his last name was Summers, was a teacher too; much to Tony's surprise, a scruffy man with long sideburns and a bottle of beer in his hand named Logan; no last name, and really? A beer? It was like 10 in the morning. And there was one other man, who intrigued Tony the most. While he knew Xavier and Jean's powers already, everyone else had the right to keep their power to themselves if they wanted to; however, the last man's powers were quite obvious. He introduced himself as Dr. Hank McCoy, and by the intelligence the man emitted, Tony didn't doubt his Dr. title. Though what caught Tony's attention was that he was covered in fur and... blue. While Tony didn't actively track reports on mutants, he would have thought the newspapers would have caught a furry, blue man running around.

"Whoa..." Tony muttered when he came down the stairs to stare at the group of mutants.

He heard the man named Logan snort into his beer. And seriously it was way to early in the morning for beer, and was it even legal to have beer in a school? Logan spotted Tony's raised eyebrow and actually laughed at him. Tony being Tony, he didn't mind being laughed at, as long as he was aiming for that reaction; this was not something he was aiming for at the moment.

Tony, in retaliation, held the liquid at the bottom of the bottle as Logan tried to take a drink. Getting none of the desired liquid, Logan tried again.

"The hell?" Logan said, and getting the same result, Logan tilted the bottle up so the bottom was in the air and peered inside.

At that exact moment, Tony let the liquid go. With gravity on its side, the beer quickly flowed to the opening and out, straight onto Logan's face. Logan sputtered and coughed as the beer went up his nose. Nearly everyone burst out laughing, and even Xavier had an amused smiled on his face.

"W-what the Fuck! Jean!" Logan cursed, shaking his head like a wet dog.

"Wasn't me." Jean said simply, a small amused smirk dancing on her lips.

"What? Then who-" Logan stopped and looked at Tony. Like the rest of them, Tony had the right to keep his powers to himself, though now it was obvious what it was. "Why you little-"

Logan cut himself off as he leaped at Tony in anger. Tony simply smiled and moved his right hand across his chest as if being polite and moving out of the way to let Logan go by. Though instead of Logan just missing him and running by, his legs swept out from beneath him and he flew into the air in a back flip. And instead of landing on his stomach or back, Tony kept him floating in mid air. Tony may have only been able to lift things under a hundred pound when he was little, but he could easily lift something a quarter ton (500 pounds). Though Logan was pushing that and Tony was curious as to why.

All the students were laughing, Jean was shaking her head with an amused grin, Dr. Hank was grinning, as were Scott and Ororo. Xavier was simply smiling at Tony's use of powers, he really did have them under control.

Though everyone was laughing and there weren't many students, Tony felt like this school was serious business, so he decided to give it his best. And those who know Tony, know that when he decides to give something his all, he excels at it past any and all conceived levels.

Tony let Logan down after he promised Jean that he would not attack Tony again, though Tony was keeping an eye on the scruffy man just incase. Tony introduced himself to everyone as Tony Daniels and was given a tour of the mansion and grounds. They had lunch and Tony talked with the professor about classes or whatever he had at this school for mutants.

Xavier explained that each student had both one on one classes with all the teachers, and then each teacher had a class where everyone would be together in a group. Tony thought this was pretty fair. They discussed what Tony needed to work on: energy manipulation and healing. Tony's telekinesis was already better than Jeans at that point and he was allowed to use the Danger Room to strengthen them if he wanted. Tony had commented on that if the 'Danger Room' wasn't dangerous enough, he reserved the right to either rename it into something like 'The Fluffy Kitten Room', make it more dangerous by building better weapons and fighting scenarios, or do both.

Xavier also explained the X-Men to him, and told him about the bad mutants who want to take over the world. He said that if Tony wanted, he could join the X-Men. Tony didn't really think he was the super hero type, but he told Charles he'd think about it. It wasn't brought up again, and Tony was glad that he wasn't being forced into joining some mutant superhero squad in funny leather suits. Though, in the future, the X-Men were called upon, every so often, to battle the bad guys, and that left Tony, who was the oldest non-X-man mutant, in charge until they came back.

After dinner that night, Tony sat in his bed thinking about everything. He was here, in a school for mutants, a place where it was safe to be who he was. Tony realized, with quite a bit of surprise, that he felt safe. He hand't felt safe since he was with his mom, which had almost been nearly 6 months ago. Before she had died. Tony relished that feeling, and smiled at the thought that his mother would be proud of him for joining this school. She would have been so happy and so, so proud of him. Tears began to prick at his eyes and Tony tried to hold them back. But the thought of his mother and the feeling of safety was too much and they flowed silently down his cheeks. That was the first time since the night of his parents funeral, that Tony cried himself to sleep.

The next morning Tony went to classes, learned a bit about everyone and made some friends; real ones, not people who just wanted his money or family reputation. It felt nice and Tony basked in it. It felt very pleasant to just, fit in with everyone without anything being expected of you.

The students were of varying ages: there were some children; 6-12 year olds, there were young teens; 13-16, and there were older teens like Tony; 17-19. Sometimes even the other teachers would be students, Jean and Scott, both of whom had control over their powers, but definitely could use work, often worked with Ororo, Hank, and Charles to better control and manipulate their powers.

Slowly, Tony grew accustom to everyone, learning everyone's powers and their X-Men names. Ororo was Storm, and she could control the weather, Scott was Cyclops, and he could shoot energy beams out of his eyes. Logan was Wolverine, and he had super regenerative abilities, as well as having Adamantium fused with his bones and could protract long knife-like blades out of his knuckles. Hank was Beast, and he was like a fuzzy, blue Sasquatch; he had increased stamina, agility, senses, healing, strength, and speed. Beast was essentially super human, he also had sharp claws and teeth and was a genius. Charles, to Tony's amusement, was named Professor X, and everyone knew he was a telepath, as was Jean, who was plain Jean, no nick name, but she also had telekinesis like Tony. Tony didn't have a mutant name either, since at the moment he wasn't an X-man, or even using his real name: Tony Daniels was a bit plain, and there were probably dozens, maybe even hundreds of Tony Daniels' out there, but that's what you need when trying to hide who you are; a name that doesn't stick out and that no one would suspect is false.

Though Tony kept his real identity a secret, he didn't pretend to be someone else. Everyone called him Tony; it would have been to hard to remember a new first name, and he didn't try to hide his smarts; that also would have been to hard to hide, though he did dumb it down a bit, he couldn't be too smart, or they might suspect he had had more schooling than he let on. Tony acted the same as he would at home; silent during meals, and went to bet without a word, and he took his punishments silent as well. It wasn't how a normal 17 year-old handled things, but after years of having to silently take things from his father, it stuck. Though it was odd, Tony eventually grew out of it; being surrounded by kids his age was a huge help. He started talking more during dinner, though it took awhile before he stopped being so damn polite, and he complained when he was sent to his room straight after dinner as punishment for his latest prank.

As time went on, Tony helped out around the mansion, though he wasn't very good at anything besides cooking. He had always had Jarvis to take care of everything, though Jarvis had died in Tony's second year at college, but Tony helped with meals; his mother had taught him how to cook. Whenever Tony would go to Howard's (he had never thought of that man as a father) friends houses' for dinner, or off to other countries for business meeting, Tony would always try everything, so he could make it for his mother since she never got to go. Tony had a very broad palate and he helped Jean, Ororo and a few of the students cook for everyone. He quickly became the designated cook, the 'head chef' for the entire mansion, with Ororo and Jean as his main assistants.

"No, that's not right Jean," Tony said, watching Jean mix the cheese sauce. "If you dump all the cheese in at once, it'll clump up and it wont spread evenly. Here."

Tony used his telekinesis to grade more cheese as they started another pot of the cheese sauce for their chicken Alfredo they were making, while also throwing away the ruined sauce Jean had just attempted. Tony quickly made another batch, but when it came to putting the cheese in, he slowed down. Ororo had gotten it down after messing it up once, lets just say burnt cheese sauce wasn't something he never wanted to smell again.

"Here, watch me," Tony said, floating over some graded cheese and sprinkling it in lightly. "You gotta go slow, if it feels like it's getting to lumpy, turn up the heat for a second and stir slowly until it evens out. Then turn the heat back down and continue to add the cheese slowly. Got it?"

Tony turned to Jean, who was smiling at him. Tony seemed so natural in the kitchen, not just kitchen though, he seemed natural doing anything with his hands. Jean knew Tony had graduated MIT with an engineering degree, among others, and that he loved working on engines, it was no wonder, he could make anything with his hand.

"Yeah, I think I got it." Jean smiled. "Thanks Tony."

"All right, well, I'm going to check on the chicken to see if it's done," Tony said, turning to hide the small blush on his cheeks.

Tony taught Jean and Ororo nearly every recipe he knew, only keeping a few of his mother's more secret recipe's to himself; like her made from scratch, homemade peanut-butter cookie cakes. That was one recipe he would never give up, even if he was under torture. Not even Jean could get the recipe from him, though she had tried.

"Please Tony." Jean practically begged. "Just tell me, I wont tell anyone else!"

"No Jean, this one stays with me." Tony said with a sad smile, though he found the situation hilarious, baking those cakes made him think of his mother.

"PLEASE!" Jean begged, then added, only slightly serious. "Don't make me read your mind."

"You even try it and I'll tell Scott." Tony said with an aloof tone as he washed the dishes. "I know you like him."

Tony turned around just in time to see Jean's eyes widen is shock. Tony smirked, he hadn't actually know for sure that she liked Scott. They were always hanging around, and it was obvious that Scott really liked Jean, but she was oblivious, even with the telepathy. But now? Tony knew for sure that she liked him back.

"Y-you... How..." Jean stuttered in shock.

"I have my ways." Tony said cryptically.

"You w-wouldn't dare." Jean said in a false bravado.

"Oh, I would." Tony said with a teasing tone before turning serious. "This secret stays with me Jean."

Noting how serious Tony was, she realized the recipe must be special to him and decided to let it go. She nodded and exited the kitchen, leaving Tony to wash the dishes in solitude.

Though there were a few incidents like that, everyone soon realized when Tony needed his space and when he needed a friend. Every year that he was there, there was one day that Tony would disappear, skipping classes, ignoring Jean's worried telepathic messages she sent out looking for him. He ignored all questions from Ororo and Scott the next day when he'd return without a word and acted as if nothing was wrong. He ignored Jean's worried glances and Charles knowing ones. He was just glad that Logan was always there sitting on the step at 6am with two bottles of beer, he knew the look in Tony's eyes, the look of longing and misery. That bottle of beer really helped with dealing with his feelings, now he knew why Howard always turned to the bottle, though Tony promised himself he would never be that dependent on alcohol. He only used it to calm his nerves, because after facing the day his mother died by himself, his nerves were more frayed than they were after being hit by Scott's lasers.

But, despite it all, he knew he could come back to the mansion, back to his new family, the old one never forgotten.

E/N~ So What'd You Think? Like It Love It? Please Review & Tell Me What You Think! PLEASE! XD

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