October 16th, 1962

Over the past week, they had made a lot of progress so Charles decided to give them a break. Well, all of them but Sean, who needed to test his wings, and Erik, who had been working one on one with Charles.

Sean sat in the window above the bushes with Hank and Charles on either side.

Erik, Raven, Alex, and Vi leaned out the other window to get a good view of the disaster that was about to ensue.

"Raven, Vi, you sure neither of you want to give me a good luck kiss? I might die," Sean asked, his voice breaking at the last bit. Raven shook her head and Vi rolled her eyes.

"Now, remember. Scream as hard as you can," Charles interjected before Sean could say anything.

"You need the sound waves to be supersonic. Catch them at the right angle and they should carry you," Hank added.

"They should carry me. That's reassuring," Sean chuckled nervously

Charles patted him on the back "Good luck. And don't forget to scream."

Sean did the sign of the cross and took a deep breath before he lifted his arms and pushed himself out of the window. All the other mutants heard was a weak yelp before a Sean-shaped hole was created in the shrubbery. They couldn't help but laugh, even Erik and Alex.

"You alive, Banshee?!" shouted Vi.

Sean groaned and glared at her as he sat up and picked leaves from his clothes and hair.

"I should have known this day off was too good to be true," Vi called out as she emerged from the trees to find Charles and Erik waiting for her on the edge of the small spring.

"It's been a week and we still haven't worked on your abilities. I thought you would be happy about this," Charles raised an eyebrow.

Vi huffed and moved to stand next to the telepath "Let's just get this over with." She raised her hands and slowly turned the some of the water into a ball in the air.

"I want you to try using all of the water," Charles told her.

"I'll give it my best shot". She took a deep breath and pulled up more of the water. After about a minute it was all spinning in the air.

"Hold it."

Blood began to trickle from Vi's nose. "Not sure I can."

"Yes you can. Focus."

"You know...if I lose control of this...we're all getting soaked," Vi strained to inform them.

"I'm sure you could dry us off. That should be easy enough for you in your...weakened state."

Vi turned to look at Erik, "What did you just say?"

"You heard me. You're weak," Erik said, his face blank.

The ground began to shake violently. Charles' eyes widened and he touched his temple to talk her down before realizing what Erik was doing.

"How dare you?" The wind whipped about wildly as Vi replied in a deadly quiet tone, "You don't know anything about me, you bastard!" Fire erupted around her hands, causing Charles to panic.

STOP!

She turned Charles and blinked. After another look at Erik, she returned the water to the spring and extinguished the fire in her hands.

"I hate you, I hope you know that," Vi mumbled to Erik as she turned away to walk back to the mansion.

Charles looked at Erik disapprovingly.

Erik smirked, "What? It worked."

Vi wandered down the pitch black hallway. She hadn't had the best of luck getting to sleep after training and the weather wasn't too great for going outside. Usually, she would go sit with Dr. McCoy in the lab but she still wasn't sure how this version of him would respond to that after their conversation a few days ago. So she decided to head to the living room in hope that there was at least something on TV. That was until she heard music streaming out of Sean's cracked door. She thought over it a moment then knocked lightly.

A few seconds later, the redhead opened it the rest of the way and ran a hand over his hair, "Vi? What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep and I'm super bored."

"And you came to me because I'm so awesome and entertaining," Sean grinned.

"Nah, you're just the only one awake," Vi smirked.

"Hurtful," He feigned offense before stepping back and letting her in.

Vi rolled her eyes and looked around the room. She wasn't a neat nick by any means, but it made hers seem spotless in comparison. He had clothes strewn over the floor and candy wrappers and dirty dishes on the bedside table. It reminded her of how Bobby, John, and Piotr had kept their shared room in the old days, much to Piotr's dismay.

"It's a bit messy in here," Sean rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I noticed." A new song started, making Vi turn to the record player in the corner. She moved towards it and touched the empty cover on the table, "The Everly Brothers?"

Sean appeared next to her, "Yeah. Have you heard of them?"

Vi looked up at him, "They're pretty popular in my time...with older people." She mumbled the last bit under her breath as she flipped through the small collection of records he had on the table, "Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Johnny Cash…of course you're a Johnny Cash fan."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Vi chuckled. "I like a few of his songs, but I'm more into classic rock because of my dad,"

"Wanna listen to it?" He asked, taking the record from the stack.

"Sure," Vi leaned against the wall and watched as he changed out the record.

"I have a lot more at my place, and even more than that at home, but I couldn't exactly bring the all of them," Sean lamented as he placed the needle on the new record.

"You've got your own place?" Vi asked as she moved to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Well it's a dorm room so it's not technically mine but it's close enough," Sean clarified.

"Wait, dorm room? You're a college student?"

"Yeah. I go to school in Boston," he sat down next to her on the bed.

"What for?"

"Music".

Vi looked at him for a moment then began to laugh.

Sean frowned, "Why is that funny?"

"You don't...sing, do you?"

"I do."

"And you don't deafen everyone within earshot?" Vi teased, though she was actually curious as to how that worked.

Sean chuckled, "No."

Vi thought for a moment, "Wait, won't you get kicked out of school for missing so much?"

The redhead considered this then shrugged, "I never wanted to go to school anyway. My parents made me. I'll find some other way to stay in America."

"Ah. Well, in that case, screw school." Something in the back of her mind wondered what exactly he meant about staying in America, but she let it go.

Sean laughed, "Yeah, I'd rather save the world from annihilation than go to class."

"You and me both, Cassidy," Vi smirked.

(A/N: I totally forgot about updating this even though I have like 85% of it finished already. I'm trying to deal with the numerous time skips to get it to the point of Erik getting arrested in 1963)