A/N: Small change of pace...

This Will Be The Day

Noriko Ashida did not expect her reunion with one Joshua Foley would be quite so abrupt. She honestly expected something dramatic—like hauling his ass off from the abandoned island of No One Knows Where during another apocalypse-Tuesday.

The electric mutant felt cheated out an experience when the healer suddenly appeared in the dead of night.

"I need help, Nori." The gold-skinned mutant told his former squad leader, his eyes shifty in his inability to meet her own. He wore a long trench-coat that obscured everything below his neck.

"Where have you been?" Noriko asked expectantly.

"It goes without saying that I trust you." Josh continued and finally mustered the courage to meet her chocolate gaze. There was a blush on his face, and Noriko resisted the urge to reprimand the teenage boy that, no, he was not allowed to stare at her breasts. "I trust that what I'm about to reveal remains confidential."

"Where have you been?" Noriko repeated, forehead knitting at his wannabe-spy opening. He was probably watching those Bond movies again.

Or Kingsman.

"I wouldn't go to you if I could help it." Josh explained. "I mean—if I could, I nobody would know. But that's not the case after…" He shuddered.

Noriko rolled her eyes. "Josh, you disappeared without telling us and snuck into my room a year later." She pointed out, sparks of electricity lighting up on her skin reflecting her displeasure. "Be grateful I'm not going all-Pikachu on you. Now, before you start demanding crap from me, I want you to tell me where you've been."

Josh undid his coat and Noriko was greeted with yet another thing she didn't expect.

"…" The gobsmacked girl gaped. She poked Josh's chest to be sure, and cringed when her finger sank. "Are those real breasts?"

Josh's blush deepened. "Yes."

The answer knocked the wind from her chest and she fell back onto her bed.

Noriko stared upwards at… him?

"Once again, Josh…" She spoke slowly, her confusion bleeding into quiet outrage, "Where the hell have you been?"

Josh palmed his face with both his hands and finally began his embarrassing tale.

"After reburying the bodies in Genosha, well, I started experimenting with my powers…"

Noriko resisted the urge to slap her forehead as Josh continued his tale. While not an otaku herself, she knew enough anime to predict where this was going.

"…and to do so, I needed to concentrate." Josh continued as he reached the tail-end of his story. "Again, I was experimenting so I thought, y'know, I should go big, right? And, well… ah, breasts were the only thing I could vividly imagine."

Noriko felt her temper surge, but she fought down the urge to pummel him and his stupidity. The mutant came to her for help, after all… "Well, what did you come here for?"

"I need your help." He said. "After this one, I'm kinda afraid of what will happen next. I—I need you to be there in case something goes wrong."

"You do realize that the only thing I can do is bring you to a hospital." There was the school, she supposed, but like hell was she going back there after they made their great escape. They were no longer children; such a place no longer felt like home.

Indeed, not even the end of the world would make her go back there willingly.

"Yeah, but better to have someone watching, right?"

"…how did you get here, anyway?"

"Chance. I was at the end of my wits, you know? I was making my way to the school since I had no other option, but I overheard a bunch of guys talking about a woman that sounded like you." He explained. "So, I asked them for directions, found your workplace, and trailed you home."

Noriko squinted at him. "That's creepy, you know."

"I couldn't speak with you where there are a lot of people." He raised both his hands apprehensively. "I mean, I had no idea how you'd take…well, this." He gestured to his breasts. "So…yeah."

"Just to be sure… you were traveling around with those things, right?"

"Yes…"

"Were they jiggling about?"

"…yes…"

"Were people staring at you because of it?"

"…"

"Were they, Josh?"

"…yes." Josh gritted out through his mortification.

"Good." Noriko smiled, satisfied with vindictive glee. "Alright, I'm your girl. Do your whatever and let's get this over with."

"I'm starting to regret going to you now…"

"Tough." Noriko shrugged carelessly. "Now, do it."

Light shimmered around Elixir as he activated his mutant powers. When the light faded, Noriko pouted.

"Well, that was anticlimactic."

Josh inspected himself quickly before turning to her. "How do I look?"

Noriko shrugged again. "You're still ugly so I guess no power can fix that."

Josh saluted the young woman with the finger.

-0-0-0-

"Hey, Nori." Josh greeted the following morning when the Japanese mutant stumbled out of her bedroom door. He blinked at her; bed-hair must have been a pain if one absorbed all forms of electricity, he supposed.

He'd crack wise about it being genetic, but he was feeling guilty enough as it was…

"Sh." Noriko glared at the now fully-male Elixir seated on the old couch. "No talking until I've had some coffee."

Josh winced. 'Well, that escalated quickly…'

"Er, about that…"

Noriko's glare hardened at the troublemaker's hesitant tone. "What did you do?"

"I- well, I have been out of the loop for a year, and…" He trailed, scratching the back of his head in his embarrassment. When Noriko actually growled at him, Josh quickly decided to come clean. "I don't know how to work your coffee machine. I mean, where do you put the beans?"

"Ugh." Noriko once more resisted the urge to fry her friend with a kilowatt bolt. "It doesn't use beans." She gritted out before angrily pointing at the jar on the small kitchen counter. "It uses those cartridges."

Josh frowned. "Well, how was I supposed to know that?"

"You could have just waited." Noriko answered. "Unlike some of us, I don't intend to laze around all-year long."

"I didn't laze around for a year!" Josh declared. "I was going through a lot of stuff, and-"

"Like we weren't going through stuff as well?" Noriko cut him off and folded her arms indignantly.

Josh wisely chose not to reply to her rhetoric. The topic did eat at him—how he was so engrossed in his own pain that he failed to be there for the family he had built.

He sighed and broke their harsh staring. "…I was trying to make you coffee."

Noriko blinked, her gaze softening after his confession. Feeling guilty for blowing what should have been a minor altercation out of proportion, she sighed as well and relaxed her stance.

"It's fine. It's just… well, I got a good deal on it, you know?" She forgave him and approached the coffee maker. "I don't know how much it'll cost to get this thing fixed…" Noriko murmured before quickly shaking her head. "No. I'll just have to get used to having no morning coffee, I guess."

"Ahem." Josh cleared his throat, making Noriko spin around. She was surprised to find that he was already behind her. "I may not know a thing about coffee makers, but…" Before she could react, he tapped her forehead. "I do know a thing about caffeine's effects."

Instantly, Noriko felt the cobwebs of sleep and fatigue clear. In fact, she felt more than awake; she felt alive.

'Of course.' The electric mutant thought, feeling giddy and brimming with energy. 'How could I forget?'

"You know what, Josh?" Noriko smirked and patted the taller mutant's shoulder. "I'll forget this incident. In exchange, I want you to stay here until I've saved enough to get it fixed."

"And I'm assuming I'll be your energizer in the meantime?" He cheekily added.

Noriko rolled her eyes and stepped away from him. "I know there's an innuendo there, but I'll let it slide because I've given you a hard time already, you pervert." Still, she extended her gauntlet-covered hand. "Anyway, do we have a deal?"

Josh nodded and shook her hand. "Deal."

-0-0-0-

It was during the slow hours in the coffee shop when the manager approached her.

"You okay there, Noriko?" He asked with a tap on the weary-looking teen's shoulder.

"Hai—yeah, I'm alright." She answered with a shake of her head and a practiced smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He pointed at her head. "Your hair. It's all… frizzy."

Noriko quickly glanced at the wall-mirror and frowned at what she saw. Self-consciously, she tried to tame her unruly blue hair. "I'm fine." She gruffly stated.

She was as fine as one could be when one walked home to find Joshua Foley mucking around with his genes again.

"Lemme guess," the manager ignored her denial and squinted at her. "Old boyfriend?"

"No." She spat. The idea of her and Foley—the guy who was like a kid brother to her… she'd rather kiss Hellion all over again! "But yes, it's a boy." Noriko finally admitted when the manager remained expectant. The Asian mutant thought about her statement before contemplatively adding, "I think."

"You think?" The manager tilted his head before realization dawned on him. "Is he a mutant, too?"

"Yeah." Noriko nodded. "We were in the same class back in the school."

The manager straightened and his eyes glinted with interest. "So someone from the past?" He confirmed.

"Yeah." She nodded again. "He's crashing at my place until he decides what to do next. I just hope he'd actually do something than stay in, though."

"He's welcome to work here, you know." The manager offered with a kind smile. "I mean, I'm always open to a helping hand."

Noriko squinted up at him. "You don't even know him."

He carelessly shrugged and scratched his stubbly chin. "I only really know maybe thirty people in this city. All the rest? Nope."

Noriko found his logic sound. "But he's a mutant just like me."

"The next customer that walks in could have a gun." He wryly replied. "Only difference is, you guys were born with one." He told her sympathetically.

A small smile blossomed on Noriko's lips. She was grateful to this man, truly; he had taken her in after she escaped from the school and all the misery it contained. He offered her a job paying the minimum wage, telling her that she could work her way up if she ever felt so inclined.

Kindness like that… understanding like that was difficult to come by.

And yet, she could not help but caution him, "It's not that simple."

"I know." He smiled, his years of experience reflecting in his eyes. "Nothing ever is. But. Far as I know, you guys tried to use what you were born with to actually help the world instead of, well, 'avenging' it, and suddenly the government capes come in to make things worse again." The manager recounted with a small frown; he honestly wondered what happened there. "It's frightening, you know, because all they seem to do is just fight even when we're all caught in the crossfire. Looking back, I wonder why we used to look up to them…" He trailed before finally giving up that trail of thought with a sigh. He turned to his newest barista. "You guys, though? No matter how little respect you're given, I see now you're all just trying to do good with what you got."

Noriko blushed. She never did expect such a personal account from him. "…Thanks."

"Look, Noriko, I've seen you work. You're a good girl. If you've got a friend that wants to or needs help, I'll see what I can do." He patted the Asian mutant on the shoulder before making his way back to the kitchen. "There's good and bad people everywhere."

A/N: Had more sketches planned for this but I couldn't be bothered to type any more. It'll appear some-when down the line.

Basic idea:

Big Sister-Annoying Kid Brother adventures between Surge and Elixir. Elixir experiments with his powers under Surge's watchful eyes. Elixir wants be more than he is while Surge finally puts old ghosts to rest.

Ideas are welcome- either join the discussion in my Just In Space FFNet forum or PM me, I suppose.