A/N: Another big thanks to Michaela for sparking more ideas in my head! And…let's see how this chapter goes. I realize now that in the last chapter I was really stressed, cause of the stupid SATs. Haha…anyways, I have a deadline for this story, so I'd better write fast…not too fast of course. (It's taking me longer than I thought for I had a sudden unexpected infatuation with Angel and got sidetracked .)
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It was a little over a week since Mary had been at the mansion and things were looking promising. She hadn't had another 'death' episode, as Jubes so frequently asked "Are you planning to die again soon?" but she rarely used her powers.
During a second meeting with Xavier, he'd warned her against overtaxing herself. He said that there were more elements to her power than she yet had mastered and with patience and training she could evolve. Mary wondered what he was hinting at. She'd never thought about there being more possibilities for her. She wondered how far she'd have to push herself to reach her next level.
But despite all the cryptic messages and worries in the back of her head, Mary was having fun with her new friends, Jubilee and Kitty. Her relationship with Pyro was still uncertain. She knew they were at least friends, and she really liked him, but some days they rarely spoke.
Today she'd caught a glimpse of him, over breakfast, but he'd gotten away before she could even say, hello. Luckily, Kitty and Jubes had found her and kept her amused throughout the day.
"So Rogue…I meant to ask, what inspired your hair?" asked Mary. She, Jubilee, Kitty and Rogue, who'd joined them not too long ago, were sitting outside on the lawn of the mansion. It was just after lunch and the girls had decided to soak up the sun outside. One couldn't stay in the mansion all the time.
Normally, Rogue would've been somewhere in the mansion with Bobby, doing whatever they did without touching each other. It seemed like they spent every waking moment together, but apparently he and John were working on an overdue class assignment and were being watched by Cyclops till they got the job done. Mary remembered John looking a bit upset earlier, so this explained it.
"My hair…" Rogue touched the white streak in her hair. "It wasn't intentional, but it's a long story." True, she'd almost died.
"Oh." Mary nodded. She guessed that Rogue didn't really want to talk about.
"And what about yours, Mary?" asked Jubes, eyeing Mary's soft blue hair.
"Oh. I suppose it was a mistake." A mistake. "It wasn't always like this. It used to be black; jet black."
"Really?" responded the others, curiously.
Mary nodded. "It was the day when I overused my powers. I didn't know fully how to control them and…it drained me; knocked me out for a few days." Mary smiled weakly. "When I woke up…I had blue hair."
"No ways!" said Jubes. She started to wonder if a giant lightening bolt would affect her hair colour.
"And you never thought of dying it back to black?" asked Rogue, thinking that'd be the most obvious solution for one in that predicament.
Mary looked surprised. "You know…that idea never occurred to me." She laughed. "Besides, I like being unique!"
'"Unique or a freak…" joked Jubes.
As the conversation drifted to the pros and cons of being a mutant, Rogue stayed quiet. She often wondered why she'd been given the mutant powers she had. Some days she even wished there was a solution for it. A cure?
Meanwhile, Bobby and Pyro were stuck in a classroom, with Scott actually guarding the door. Apparently, they couldn't be trusted.
"We could've finished this project ages ago, you know, like the rest of the class!" said Bobby angrily. They'd already been trapped in the classroom for most of the day.
Pyro was less amused. "I tried, didn't I? But you were too caught up with Rogue!"
They were trying to do a research project on the Bermuda Triangle, and were meant to have presented it ages ago. It seemed like every day their friendship grew more strained and Pyro liked to blame Rogue on that. Bobby had always retorted by claiming Pyro was jealous. It was probably true, but John would never admit it.
"Leave Rogue out of this!" said Bobby. "You can't blame her for your lack of organizational skills." John had lost the notes they had. He might've burned them one day when he was bored, but he couldn't remember.
John decided to ignore Bobby, which was hard to do, but if he got in a fight, Scott would find out and then he'd probably have to see Xavier again- which was no fun. John sat down in a chair and began playing with his lighter.
Bobby sighed. "That's not getting anything done, either." John continued clicking, ignoring Bobby.
There was something Bobby was itching to ask John. It'd been bothering him for a while, and even though now probably wasn't an ideal time to ask, he did.
"So…John," Maybe a change of topic was in order. Truthfully, Bobby could care less about the project. His motivation for it was long gone. "How's it going with Mary?"
The clicking stopped. 'Where the hell did he get that from?' thought Pyro. Mary…
Surprisingly, John hadn't really attempted to get any closer to her. He didn't know what he was waiting for. He noticed Peter had sort of backed off, but then again, maybe he'd never been interested anyways. Kitty and Jubilee always surrounded Mary now, and he wasn't able to speak his feelings with them around.
Pyro hadn't been aware of his long silence after Bobby's question. He was too deep in thought. Bobby smirked. "It's obvious you're crazy about her."
Pyro shrugged. But it had been rather obvious to some. Jean certainly had picked it up, but you didn't have to be a psychic to figure it out. It was partly the way John looked at Mary. To everyone else, he seemed to constantly leer at them, but to Mary, a strange far away look came into his eyes and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"It's not a crime to show your feelings," said Bobby.
Pyro glared at Bobby. So now he was judging him. "Bobby, you know…I never asked for your opinion on this matter so if you could just the shut the f-"
"Boys!" came a sharp voice. Scott was sticking his head in the classroom. "This isn't a joke. Get to work." The boys didn't make a move. Scott looked annoyed growled something about kids today, while stepping into the room.
There was a moment of awkward silence, apart from a click, click, click…
Scott snapped. "You know what? Give me that!" Before John realized what was happening, Scott had grabbed his lighter away from him. John was not happy, but wasn't given a chance to comment as Scott said. "Play time's over. You've had more than enough time to work on this, now DO it!"
Reluctantly, the two boys got to work, however, John might've been focusing more on ways to get back at Scott.
It was later that same day, around eleven at night. Mary was hunched over Kitty's laptop, checking emails, typing replies and chatting on MSN messenger.
A while ago, Storm had come in to wish Mary good night, and also probably to check up on whether Mary was getting enough to drink. It seemed that Mary was never seen around the mansion without a Dasani water bottle in hand. Why Dasani? Cause Mary liked the shape of the bottle.
Mary took a sip of her water as she read what was being typed to her in the message window. She was chatting to Razor. It was sometime in the early morning, on his side, which meant he was probably sneaking on his computer again.
(MSN messenger conversation)
Razor: We're so bored, Mary
Psyche: uhuh
Razor: I'll bet you're having fun
Psyche: yeah
Razor: met any cool mutants?
Mary paused.
Psyche: they're all pretty wicked
Razor: what are they like?
Psyche: different, but really nice people
Mary would have gone into more detail, but she was feeling too lazy to type.
Razor: sure
There was a knock at Mary's bedroom door. Mary looked up from the computer and focused on the aura coming from the other side of the door. A smile lit up her face. "Come in!" she said.
The door opened slowly and in walked Pyro. Mary jumped off her bed, but then stopped. She didn't know how to greet him. Pyro waved at her awkwardly and sat down on her bed. Mary joined him.
"I missed you today…" she said after awhile. Pyro nodded. Those were words he hadn't heard often…or ever. "So…Rogue told me you and Bobby were working on some sort of project?"
John nodded again. "Unfortunately. That bastard, Cyclops, took my lighter." Even though he'd eventually gotten it back, after long, miserable hours of working with Bobby, Pyro wanted to hear Mary's reaction. He liked the fact that she seemed to care about him.
"Really? Oh dear, but you got it back, right?" she asked.
"Yeh". He noticed she was in her pajamas. He wondered if she'd been sleeping and he'd woken her up. He, himself, had actually been getting to bed, but something made him want to see Mary, so he'd snuck over.
"Were you sleeping?" he asked plainly.
"No…" Mary shook her head. "Oh!" she remembered suddenly that she'd abandoned her friend on chat. Picking up the laptop, she started typing an apology then goodbye.
As Mary was signing off, John was thinking of his next move. Why was he in her room? Would she ask why? He hadn't been in her room since that last time Jean 'caught' him. "So…John." Mary was sitting further up the bed than he, so he turned around, sitting on her bed cross-legged. Once again, she was smiling at him. He wondered what made her smile that much. Mary was actually wondering the same thing.
"Yeah…" he asked.
"Come over here. You're so far away." She patted the part of the bed, next to her, moving the laptop away. John slowly moved towards her and sat down. Here he was, in her room, on her bed…alone. What an opportunity! But he didn't want to mess this up. He still hadn't told her his feelings, plus he didn't know how she felt about him.
"What's wrong?" asked Mary, resting a hand on his arm.
John shrugged. "Nothing." He normally brushed off questions like that, but the look in her eyes told him that there was feeling behind that question. "I mean…well, there's a lot on my mind."
Mary nodded. "I could tell." She grinned. John smiled. Maybe the reason she was so nice was that she could sense how people felt, therefore always knew the best response for a situation.
"Um…Mary," he said. She looked up at him, with her dark eyes expectant. Why could words never come easily to him when moments got like this? Not that he'd ever been in a moment like this.
John leant over towards Mary and before either of them probably knew what was happening, John had planted a kiss on her lips.
They both were a little surprised. John felt relieved yet anxious as to how she would react. Mary was happy and then just generally surprised.
The couple stared at each other for a moment, before John pulled her into another kiss. John had his arms wrapped around Mary and had moved her closer to him. Then slowly and reluctantly, Mary pulled back.
John threw himself back on the bed, to catch his breath and calm down. He knew he had smile on his face and wished it would go away. He probably looked like a dork.
John felt Mary's hands pushing him on the side. She was trying to get him off the bed. For a moment he was confused and a bit hurt, but then he realized she was trying to pull the covers down off her bed.
She said nothing as she pushed back the covers them climbed back into bed. Pyro stood on the other side of the bed, staring at her. He wished he could know what she was thinking; what she thought of him!
"John…I'm about to fall asleep…I can feel it coming. Are you staying or what?"
John's eyes went round for a moment when he realized she was offering him to stay over. There was no use heading back to him room now anyways. He didn't really feel like it.
John quickly slipped back into her bed. Mary turned around for a moment to smile at him then fell asleep. John moved closer to her in the bed, until he was right up next to her. She was sleeping on her side with her back towards him, so he turned on his side and placed an arm around her waist.
He could feel her breathing and her body felt warm against him. His last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were: 'I'll bet Bobby and Rogue have never done this.'
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A/N: I had a bit of writer's block so I feel that this chapter wasn't written so well. My mind keeps wandering off…Thank you obiwanfan for being lots of fun on MSN. I could perve over Pyro any day!
