Naomi sat in the living room with her family, trying to focus on Hamlet but the conversations going around her were distracting. Isaac, Mr. Parker and Michael were discussing St. Mary's inability to win any games while Mrs. Parker and Anna tried to engage Naomi in conversation.
"I'm just saying, Sweetheart, if you put yourself out there maybe you would find someone to make you happy."
"I already am happy," Naomi replied.
"You're certainly not acting like it," Anna replied.
"That's more to do with the fact I need to get this reading done and people keep distracting me than me not having a boyfriend."
Before Mrs. Parker could reply, there was a knock on the door,
"Could you get that, Isaac?" Mrs. Parker asked her son, who nodded assent and got up.
"As we were saying; look how happy I am, you just need someone like me," Anna said "You know, Jonathon's little brother isn't seeing anyone and-."
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Anna, I want nothing to do with-."
Naomi stopped as she heard Isaac laughing boisterously.
Then Isaac and Joseph entered the room, Joseph being held up by Isaac.
"What happened?" Mr. Parker demanded as Isaac let go of Joseph.
"From what I can gather is that the seniors went drinking," Isaac replied, still giggling "They were held in holding cells and Officer Smith dropped him off."
"What were you thinking?!" Mr. Parker yelled at his son, who stumbled and pointed at Naomi.
"Sh-she told me to have more fun."
"I meant you should go to the movies or something, not go out, get hammered, and get caught," Naomi retorted.
"Oh, shut up." Joseph then picked up a glass and chucked it with startling accuracy at Naomi's head. Naomi reacted without thinking, catching it midair.
There was a moment of silence throughout the house.
"What the hell?" Mr. Parker said, dangerously quiet.
Naomi turned invisible and went to run out the door, but not before she heard Joseph speak.
"She's one of the freaks."
.
Magda went and answered the door, finding a crying Naomi behind it.
"What's wrong?" Magda asked, grabbing Naomi and bringing her inside.
"Um, Joseph came home drunk, and when my whole family was lecturing him he threw a glass at me and I reacted without thinking." Naomi shuddered out a sob as Magda pulled her into a hug.
"Hey, it's alright. PIETRO!" Peter appeared and took Naomi out of Magda's arms, the woman frowning in worry.
"Baby, baby, it's gonna be ok;" Peter said as he pushed pieces of her hair out of her face, then he turned to his mother "We're going downstairs."
Magda nodded and they were gone. Magda frowned, deciding to make Naomi tea so she could feel like she was doing something.
She knew that, right now, the only person that could make Naomi feel better was Peter. But Magda had grown close to her son's girlfriend, and she hated how Peter had to keep who he was a secret from the rest of the world, but whenever she felt especially bad about it she reminded herself that Naomi had no one except them to talk to about her powers. Magda couldn't imagine what Naomi's childhood must've been like; keeping something like that a secret.
"Mama?" Lorna asked, standing behind her mother in her pajamas.
"Yes, dear?" Magda asked as she made tea.
"Is Naomi and her family gonna be ok?"
"I don't know."
"What's gonna happen if they're not?" Lorna asked, Magda sighed before she went and crouched down in front of her daughter.
"No matter what, I promise you nothing bad is going to happen to Naomi." When Lorna looked doubtful, Magda continued "You know Peter, even though he's a troublemaker and a smart-aleck, he's going to everything possible to make sure Naomi is happy and safe. And, if Naomi's parents kicked her out, she'd just have to stay with us."
"She's going to live with us?" Lorna asked excitedly.
"If her parents don't let her stay and she wants to, I'd love to have her here. But, Lorna, you have to understand she isn't going to want to play with you at first; she's going to be very unhappy for a while. You're going to have to be patient with her."
"I promise," Lorna said solemnly.
.
"You knew and you never told any of us?!" Mr. Parker yelled.
"It wasn't my place to tell," Michael replied, his head in his hands as he sat on the sofa.
"You didn't think that telling me that my daughter is some kind of freak was important?" Mr. Parker asked as Mrs. Parker broke into a fresh bout of sobs.
"Naomi is not a freak!" Michael said, jumping up.
"Naomi is totally a freak, just not for the reason you're all thinking of," Isaac said from his reclining position on the couch.
"Why are you unworried by this?" Mr. Parker demanded.
"Man, I'm not even that surprised. Naomi's always kept secrets; I guessed it was mostly to do with her boyfriend but, I mean-."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa; boyfriend?" Michael snapped to attention.
"Yeah, you don't know about him? I thought she would've told you, but in hindsight I see why she wouldn't."
"Who is this guy? And why wouldn't she?" Michael demanded.
"That's why, man, you're really overprotective," Isaac said, Michael rolling his eyes.
"I have to be; she's immature and she's has powers, I don't want anyone taking advantage of her."
"You need to start trusting her a bit more, I mean this whole Big Brother Complex is getting-."
"Boyfriend; who is he?" Michael interrupted.
"I don't know; I've only met him once and that was on accident. His name's Peter or something."
"And?" Michael added as Isaac hesitated.
"He kind of… freaks me out," Isaac admitted.
"What do you mean?" Mr. Parker asked.
"I don't know; something about him just puts me off. He seems, like, weirdly cold. Now I'm wondering if maybe he has powers too."
"Is he hurting Naomi?" Michael demanded.
"What? No. Not that kind of cold," Isaac said.
"I'm sorry, are we just off the topic of Naomi having MUTANT POWERS?" Anna asked.
"What do you want me to do? Go back in time and tell you? We don't know where she went and we really can't do anything until she gets back," Michael pointed out.
"I have a hunch," Isaac interjected.
.
"Everything is going to be okay, I promise," Peter said as he stroked Naomi's hair; her crying had gone from all-out sobs and had become sniffles.
"How can you possibly promise that?" Naomi asked, Peter smiling as she gained some of her sarcasm back.
"Because, I'll make everything okay."
"No amount of running is going to make my parents accept me," Naomi replied.
"As far as you know," Peter said, smiling when Naomi gave a watery smile "You wanna borrow some of my clothes? As amazing as you look in that outfit, I can't imagine it's very comfortable."
"If you don't mind," Naomi murmured, not even commenting on Peter's remark. Suddenly Peter was holding some clothes in front of her, which she took. After a second of waiting, Naomi spoke.
"Are you going to leave or do you plan on watching me change?"
"I mean, I wouldn't mind." Naomi sent him a look and then he was gone. Naomi rolled her eyes as she pulled on the clothes (which consisted of sweatpants and Peter's Pink Floyd shirt) before pulling her hair out of the messy braid it was in.
"Am I allowed back down?" Peter called from the top of the stairs.
"Yep." Peter appeared and held out a mug for her.
"Mom sent this down." Naomi murmured thanks before sitting back down "You wanna sleep down here?"
"If that's okay," Naomi replied.
"… You want me to sleep on the couch?" Peter asked slyly, making Naomi smile slightly.
"You can sleep with me if you want."
"Are you kidding? I always want too." Naomi aimed a kick at Peter's shin, which he easily outmaneuvered.
"Speaking of bed, I feel pretty tired," Naomi said, standing up. Peter smiling and running over to his bed and patting the spot next to him, making Naomi roll her eyes and join him.
.
"Are you sure his name's Maximoff?" Michael asked, looking at the exterior of the house disdainfully.
"Mike, when someone has a last name as ridiculous as Maximoff, I will remember," Isaac replied.
"And this was the only Maximoff in the book," Michael nodded, before shrugging. The brothers exited the car and knocked on the door.
"Can I help you?" A middle aged blonde woman asked.
"Yes, is Naomi Parker here?" Michael asked.
"Who's asking?" The woman asked suspiciously.
"We're her brothers, Isaac and Michael."
"Well, seeing as she showed up here sobbing I'm not sure how I feel about letting you two into my house."
"We're… we're not mad, we just want to talk," Michael said.
"You called her a freak." So they knew.
"In our defense, that was the other brother, and he was drunk as hell," Isaac interjected.
"If I let you in and you harass her, I will call the police." More for your protection than hers. Magda then let them in "She's in the basement with Peter."
The men went downstairs to find a boy with dark silver hair sitting at a Pong machine with his back to them. Michael and Isaac were taken aback by the amount of stuff the kid had down here; a wall of Hostess treats, a bin full of bowling balls, the only thing he didn't have down there was Naomi.
"Um, Peter?" Isaac said after some prompting from the Michael. Peter spun around in the chair, and, oh man, he looked pissed. The coldness that Isaac had seen before was now in the forefront.
"Yeah?"
"We've met before; I'm Isaac and this is our older brother Michael."
"I'd assumed as much."
"We'd like to speak to Naomi and your mother said she was down here," Michael interjected.
"She was, but when you and my mom were talking I moved her into the guest bedroom."
"How did you-."
WHAT. THE. HELL.
Peter was now reclining on the sofa to their right.
"And then, since I had some spare time, I looked in your car. Do you know you're dad has three parking tickets?" Peter asked.
"How do you do that?" Isaac asked, really more in awe than they Michael.
"Do what?" Peter said, standing behind them "I'm not doing anything; at least, I'm not doing anything anyone would believe if you told them." Then he was at the couch again, eating the last half of a Twinkie.
"Could you stop going so fast for a moment?" Michael asked.
"I'm not fast, you're just underdeveloped." Peter then was playing ping pong against himself "Anyway, what do you guys want?"
"We want to see Nao-."
"Yeah, yeah, I got that bit, but what do you guys want?" Peter stood in front of them again.
"We're not here to hurt her in anyway," Isaac said.
"Good, 'cause then I'd have to make you leave, and, trust me; I wouldn't be as gentle as I was with Naomi." He was at the Pong machine again.
"I'd like to see you try."
Peter turned around on his chair slowly, his face now a mask as he looked at Michael with even colder brown eyes.
"Yeah, no, bad idea, let's not threaten the guy with super speed," was all Isaac could say before they were all outside near the car.
They stumbled, Isaac being close enough to the car to grab it while the Michael fell to the ground.
"Care to make another snide comment?" Peter asked from his spot leaning against the front of the car.
"You bastard," Michael mumbled, fairly certain he had whiplash.
"What was that?" Peter mocked.
"Where's Naomi?" Isaac interrupted before Michael could say something stupid.
"Told you; she's sleeping in the guest room. I can go see if she wants to talk to you."
"How do you know you'd be telling the truth?" Michael challenged.
"I'm not keeping her captive," Peter replied, taking a few steps towards Michael.
"I'm just trying to understand why she'd willingly be with someone like you."
"This isn't going to end well," Isaac muttered.
"Naomi is her own person; she can make her own decisions."
"You screening who sees her is making her own decisions?" Michael asked sarcastically.
"She was bawling when she showed up; me making sure that the people who made her cry aren't going to try to hurt her any more than they already have is way better than, say, telling your impressionable younger sister that she has to repress part of who she is," Peter fired back, Michael recoiling.
"I'd say that her older brother is more likely to have Naomi's best interests than the guy who's been trying to get her into bed," Michael said, taking another step towards Peter.
Peter chuckled.
"I really didn't have to try."
Michael flinched and balled his fists.
"If I find out you've taken advantage of my sister I'll-."
"What? Hit me? Good luck with that," Peter rolled his eyes "Besides, I didn't take advantage of her; she was begging for it."
Michael took a threatening step towards Peter.
"Go ahead, take a shot and see how that ends for you," Peter mocked, him and Michael standing across from each other.
"Both of you, that's enough." Both looked over to see Naomi leaving the house "Peter, go inside."
"Was it mom or Lorna?" Peter asked, deadpanned.
"Go inside."
"So, mom."
Then he was gone.
"What do you want?" Naomi asked tiredly.
"We just wanted to talk to you," Isaac said "Things got a bit… out of hand."
"That bastard showed up, you mean," Michael rumbled.
"Don't call my boyfriend a bastard," Naomi warned.
"Why are you hanging around that guy?" Michael demanded.
"Wow, I didn't realize it was any of your business," Naomi shot back before turning to Isaac "What do you want to say?"
"We don't mind about the powers stuff; we just want you to come home," Isaac said.
"Do mom and dad share that feeling?" Naomi asked.
"Honestly; fuck mom and dad. They can shove their prejudices up their asses and if they try anything, me and Michael will shut them up," Isaac promised "I-We want you home."
It was quiet as Naomi thought.
"I will in a day or two; I just need some time to deal with this."
"You're not staying here," Michael protested.
"Yes I am, stop being such a dick," Naomi retorted.
"When you stop being ridiculous! I'm not going to let you sleep over at this guy's house."
"His mom and little sister are here!"
"So? He made it very clear what his intentions are."
"And what would those be? He wants to fuck me?" Naomi asked, laughing sarcastically when Michael gave her a look and shifted uneasily "Let's just say this Michael; If you're trying to protect my 'virtue' then you're fighting a battle you've already lost."
"You let him…" Michael said, trailing off in shock mixed with rage.
"You make it sound like he coerced me when in actuality it was my idea to have sex."
"I'm disappointed in you; I've raised you better than to act like a whore, you should've thought…" Michael shook his head.
"Newsflash Michael; the only person who have a say in my sex life is me. Being in charge of whether or not I have sex does not make me a whore. Same goes for who I'm dating or where I'm staying tonight."
"You're acting like a child," Michael said scornfully.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that making my own decisions made me a child and doing whatever you tell me makes me an adult."
"I didn't mean it like that," Michael said.
"YES YOU DID! You meant that Naomi can't be trusted to make her own decisions so I'd better make them for her."
"Is this because of him?" Michael asked, Naomi laughing sarcastically.
"Why do you act like anything I say or do is completely influenced by someone else?"
It became quiet for a long moment before Michael said in a deceptively soft tone.
"Where did you even meet him?"
It was quiet for a second.
"That's what I thought," Michael chuckled "You've had this weird little guilty look in your eyes ever since I got back and at first I thought it had to do with you having a secret boyfriend, but you still have it."
Naomi shifted uncomfortably as she avoided Michael's gaze.
"It must've been pretty bad to make you clam up like this," Michael continued "Rob a liquor store? Mutant extremist rally? What?"
"You're a bastard."
As Naomi went to walk back inside, Michael grabbed her arm and whirled her back around.
"You see what happens when I leave you to your own devices? You do something you regret. You don't have to tell me what happened; just get in the car so it doesn't happen again."
Suddenly, Michael got pushed away from Naomi.
"Get off your high fucking horse, Michael," Isaac said from his spot next to his sister "Yeah, Naomi did something she regrets, big whoop, we all make mistakes. That's the point of life."
"Isaac, stay out of th-."
"No Michael, I'm not going to stay out of this. She's my sister too and, at the moment, I think I have her best interest in heart more than you do."
"Were you listening to anything that she just said? She and Peter-."
"Yeah, she had sex, which is a slightly gross concept to me, but I'm sure an awesome one for her. It's her own choice if she wants too, not any of ours," Isaac shrugged "And I see no reason to treat her like a tramp for making a choice."
It was quiet for a long moment.
"I hope you have fun walking home."
Michael then hopped in the car and sped off.
"What a jackass," Isaac rolled his eyes before turning to Naomi "You alright?"
"Yeah, I think so," She said, taking a deep breath "… Thanks for that."
"No problem, Sis, Michael was being an asshole."
"Hey, you don't have to walk home; Peter could give you a lift," Naomi offered.
"A lift as in drive me home or…?"
"It's pretty sweet and if you leave soon you can be home before Michael."
.
"That was awful," Isaac muttered, grabbing onto the fence.
"Sorry, man," Peter chuckled.
"Naomi does that all the time?" Isaac asked incredulously.
"The sickness goes away if you do it enough," Peter replied as Isaac straightened up "Listen, thanks for sticking up for Naomi; I heard what Michael said and I wanted to go back out there but I thought I might make things worse."
"She's my little sister; of course I was gonna stick up for her."
"Still, thanks, also; sorry for being a dick the first time we met," Peter said, Isaac noticing all the coldness he'd observed was gone from Peter's eyes.
"I probably would've been a dick too if I'd been in your shoes, so." Isaac held his hand out, which Peter took with a slight smile "Make sure my sister is okay; she and Michael were pretty close."
"Of course."
As Peter went to leave, Isaac stopped him.
"One more thing. That day when we first met; once I left, did you two, um…"
Peter laughed.
"Nah, not that day."
Then he was gone.
Isaac rolled his eyes but smiled slightly.
"Of course she'd pick a prick like that."
.
.
A/N
I realize I've never mentioned which people I imagine as my characters.
Naomi looks a bit like Freya Mavor.
Michael looks a bit like Hunter Parrish
And Isaac looks a bit like Matt Mcgorry.
Quick shout outs:
Nandita21unexplained: Thanks! and Erik will be around in a little while.
BookWorm2the2ndPower: And I love to give them! Thanks for the support!
hellraiserphoenix: I'm fairly certain you've commented on every single chapter of this thing, so thank you!
