I own nothing! Also, the part where I mention physics, fill in the blank with whatever you want him to explain. I'm still in Biology, so I have no idea what Physics is about.

During this time, Mr. Williams, our science teacher, began to act oddly. He watched me constantly, worriedly. Even more odd, he paid closer attention when my Voice was speaking. But he obviously didn't know about it, right?

Chapter 9: Mornings and Missions

Danny wasn't properly aware when, at 6:00 in the morning, his wrist watch's alarm went off. His wrist watch, like other people's watches, had a quiet beep for an alarm. Unlike most people, though, this slight beep was enough to wake him up, due to years of hyper-vigilance as a teen, and into his early twenties. Not to mention, he found it useful to always remain alert to even the smallest of sounds.

He was staying at the X-Mansion temporarily, because he had come to visit with every intention of not staying long, while explaining an important scientific concept, but he had become sidetracked by the delicious smell of cooking. Too bad for him it was Kitty's cooking. At least he also had experience in the fine art of offering a poker face. He finished the muffin, despite the disbelieving stares he received from Kurt, who appeared to be in a state of shock. Sure, the muffin was really hard, but it was edible.

On the bright side, dinner, a better one, was finished being prepared soon afterwards. He ate there, before he began his teachings in the area of physics. It was a late dinner, and he stayed there for a bit longer than necessary, just for the sake of observing Jean and holding conversations. Unfortunately, it was in mid conversation that a week of almost no sleep caught up with him. It started with a couple blinks, and trouble keeping his eyes open, and progressed from there.

He started to leave before he could fall asleep on the couch, but the Professor, whom Danny had been conversing with caught the minute stumble when he got up, and the sleepy blinks. Danny was offered an invitation to sleep there, and he tried to refuse, out of politeness, but was thankful when he was pressed to accept, because he wasn't certain he could have stayed awake during the drive. Eventually, he accepted, a little sheepishly, and apologizing the entire time for intruding.

From there, it took only a few minutes for his eyes to close. He remained sitting, but his head drooped onto his chest, and he fell fast asleep, exhausted, and resolving that he was going to avoid staying up for as long as he had recently, even though he knew he would do it again, as well as he knew his name was Daniel Fenton Williams. He didn't dream, an aspect he liked of his sleep avoidance, a fact that seemed to arrange itself around how much he slept, because his nightmares, if they came, rarely let him return to sleep. He slept for several hours.

Then his wrist watch's alarm went off at the time he'd set it for, 6:00am. His instinctive reaction to the alarm, what most people would consider a minor noise, was a bit overreactive. He shot awake inside a millisecond, head whipping up, and barely stopping an involuntary jump to his feet, because he had gotten a new watch recently, and he still wasn't used to the alarm's sound. His hand came down hard on the top of his watch, and he was extremely glad that it didn't break. It took a few moments for him to regain his orientation.

A few blinks, and he realized where he was, on a couch, draped slightly over one arm, with a blanket on top that he didn't remember putting there. Someone probably had put it on him when he was still sleeping too deeply to waken, even for something physically touching him. His heart rate was up a little, and he made a mental note to play his alarm more often, so he wouldn't one day crush it if he was startled by it.

Logan and several other teachers and students were wondering around, and Daniel was getting a funny look from several of the super-hearing-empowered ones, especially Logan, who was eating next to him on the couch, chewing on what appeared to be a large, only half-cooked steak. How he was capable of eating so much at such an early hour could only be because of his metabolism, because everyone else except Hank was eating more reasonable foods, such as pop tarts and toast.

Logan was staring at him, as if trying to figure out why Daniel woke so abruptly and violently from a simple beep. Danny offered a sheepish smile, a bit annoyed at his stupid reflexes. He needed to work on it, preferably until they weren't obvious. He was tempted to continue sleeping, just a few more hours, but the fact that it was Friday meant that he had school lessons to prepare. Time to get up, he told himself as he stumbled off the couch, nearly tripping over his blanket, before folding it up as neatly as he could, and asking where he should put it.

He was told that they would put it up, but he insisted, and wound up putting it in the public blanket cabinet. Actually, it was more like a giant box, ugly, but serving the purpose. Danny stuffed it in with a lot of effort. The blanket box was filled to the top with blankets of different patterns, clothes, and colors.

When he got back, he borrowed some food (permanently) due to their insistence. A muffin, of Kitty's making, who was glad that someone appreciated her baking talents, which Danny managed to force down, filled him, along with a glass of water. That was quite enough for a halfa who only ate half of what most people needed to eat. In fact, it would easily serve for lunch, as well. Her muffins were incredibly lumpy, and disgusting, but edible. He only told her that her cooking skills might need a little work, and asked her what recipe she had been using. Apparently, she was cooking blueberry muffins.

Danny, who wound up being asked what went wrong, told her that she had probably cooked them for too long and added too many heavy ingredients. When asked how he knew, his simple excuse was that he'd been cooking for a very long time. He was glad that he was capable of offering advice, but he was pretty sure that saving Kitty's cooking skills would take either an entirely different set of skills he didn't have, or life alone after college in an apartment.

He was glad when he managed to leave, forcing his way into his truck, already certain that he really would clean out his truck one day, but uncertain as to when that day would occur. He had a few new books to read, which he hoped contained the answers to his dilemma about Jean, because they were the last books he hadn't read on the shelves after a summer straight of reading. If they didn't contain the answers, he might just break the bad news to the council, and then they would argue for the extermination of one Jean Grey. He predicted that it would take a week to finish the books, and he really wished that the Ancients had a phonebook. Or that he could scream at someone, instead of having to maintain a façade, one of complete seriousness and dignity. Too bad he was always being watched.

It was late at night, deep in the dark hours, that the X-men awoke with a start as their minds were prodded into awareness by the Professor, who needed them in the main room, immediately. It was a sudden mission, need brought about by the government, which had lost control of a missile launching system from the 1980s, primitive, malfunctioning, but hurling towards earth at a tremendous rate, with enough missile power to decimate the earth's population by a twentieth if it hit the ocean, which it was headed straight towards. The X-men were desperately needed, because they were the best equipped to intervene in an outer space mission.

The X-men were debriefed quickly, and the team started out as soon as possible, with a team that consisted of Scott, Jean, Kitty, Hank, Kurt, Logan, and a disgruntled Rogue, who still wished she were sleeping. They travelled in an altered Blackbird Velocity. Forge had had a field day turning it into a jet capable of outer space travel, and the design of the plane showed it.

Like it? Hate it? I only started this last night, so it may not be particularly good…Got any ideas for the story? By all means, share them!

-MiaulinK