DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters in this story for they all belong in their respective owners. I only own my original character and the situation I put all of my characters in.

Chapter 10

That Gut-Wrenching Feeling

It was already morning, John noted, yet Jeremy still wasn't back. Where could he be? Where did he stay? The look he sent John last night totally implied that it was urgent, or was Jeremy feigning it? Just to make John feel like the telepath was really in a hurry to leave. Surely grabbing the files from the mutant prison wasn't that crucial, was it? The telepath could always get them this morning. Either way, grabbing those files wouldn't or shouldn't suppose to take long too, right? But…then again, Kitty did mention once that their permission to enter Alcatraz also took months. Maybe the government did like to slack that much.

But still, so much for Jeremy's lies.

He'd already figure out sometime during the period he was awake that the files had nothing to do with Jeremy leaving. He knew it was for something else. That something, he still didn't know. But if it weren't for the phone call he gladly and thankfully eavesdropped on last night, John had a faint clue on what was at least going on.

Jeremy was probably working for someone, someone outside the mansion, John established. But whoever that was, he still didn't have a clue. And damn, how much he had wished these times for him to have at least supersensitive hearing, if not telepathy that he always wished for.

Releasing a very exasperated sigh, John thought of not making so much deal with it for now and at least grab something to eat, his stomach was now starting sound like a huge polar bear from one of the poles.

Standing up, John thought he heard some faint knocking on his door. Pausing slightly to make sure he just wasn't hearing things, John again heard the knocks, this time they were louder. Maybe it was Jeremy, John guessed. Almost bounding over to the door with slight anxiety, John opened the door expecting the telepath who was missing in action the whole night through.

It wasn't Jeremy.

"Worthington?" John couldn't help but suddenly ask, wondering what in Magneto's evil trousers was the aerial mutant doing.

Slightly perplexed at the fire mutant's reaction, Warren let it pass and smirked. "Hello to you too, Pyro," he sarcastically said.

Just realizing how rude he probably sounded, John made the slight effort of giving the other mutant a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I just—I was expecting someone else."

"Bobby, perhaps?"

Literally chocking on air at the response of the Worthington's heir, not expecting the reply, John scowled, crossing his arms in front of him. "No. Why would I look for the frozen prat?"

"Nothing," Warren shrugged, smirking slightly on the inside, noting the defensive stance the fire mutant put up. "So…uh…where's Jer?"

"He's not here," John answered, glad for the change of topic. "He went out last night. He hasn't showed up since."

"Looks like it's gonna be you and I then," Warren said. "C'mon, let's have breakfast. The others were waiting for both of you to show up."

John nodded, but didn't miss the smirk that pulled on the aerial mutant's face when he turned his back against him. What was that all about? John made to ask himself just that.

o-o-o-o-o

Yawning widely, Bobby opened the large oak door that lead to the dining room, muttering small greetings of good morning's to his co-faculty members. Damn, he should really need to stop procrastinating. If only he had worked on those kids' tests a little earlier, Bobby thought complainingly.

"Long night, Bobby?" Kitty asked, grinning at him.

"Yeah," Bobby said, another yawn escaping his lips as he sat down across them mutant.

"You really need a social life, Bobby," Kitty suggested, smirking at the yawn the ice mutant yet again released.

"Doesn't having a girlfriend count as social life?" Bobby looked at the girl with an eyebrow.

"Having?" Kitty repeated, utter disbelief in her voice. "More like shagging actually."

"Hey!" Bobby countered. "Marie's my girlfriend! And honestly, we don't shag that much!"

Kitty rolled her eyes at Bobby's offended look. "Please Bobby, Marie used to complain to me about how much you usually ignore her when you're facing the children's papers. And she always had to use seduction just for you to notice her."

Logan suddenly cleared his throat, as if reminding the chatty mutant that he, Hank, Storm, and Pete were there. "Not really the best mental images there, kid," he commented as Bobby failed to reply at the phasing mutant's previous remark.

Kitty giggled. "Sorry," she muttered, then innocently continuing her food, as if she hadn't said anything wrong at all.

Bobby just scowled at the girl and continued eating, silently noting to himself that Jeremy, Pyro, nor Warren was on the table. Where ever the three were, he really didn't care. Except for the latter two at least. The image of the two holding hands in Warren's favorite balcony was something weird to say at least. Bobby made a mental note to ask his teammate about it later.

And of course, as everyone used to say, "Speak of the devil, and they'll surely come."

Only this time around, the quote could be applied literally, since one of the people who just entered the door could be classified as the devil incarnate in Bobby's life.

"Morning, guys!" came the loud greeting from Warren as he entered the dining room, with him side by side, was the devil incarnate Bobby referred earlier.

St. John Allerdyce.

His name was totally the opposite of his personality, Bobby made a joke inside his head. Everyone else in the table greeted Warren. Only Hank, Pete, and Storm made the effort to greet the fire mutant who came with him.

Both of them took a seat in the dining table, and, Bobby noticed, was that Warren sat extra-close to John in the table. And as if feeling eyes on both of them, Warren turned to Bobby from across the table, smiling innocently.

But even a blind man could see it was faked.

The smile was totally for mocking purposes.

Or was Bobby only imagining things?

Something didn't sit well inside his stomach when he saw Warren and John's shoulders touching, that weird gut-wrenching feeling in his tummy as he saw the aerial mutant smiling at John, as if he was the long-lost bestfriend of the devil incarnate.

But he wasn't.

It was him. Bobby. He was the devil-incarnate's bestfriend.

Warren again turned to Bobby, as if looking at his reaction. This time, his glance was barely noticeable, his eyeballs only moving a fraction. But it was enough for Bobby. There was a definite twinkle in the aerial mutant's eye, something that definitely didn't bode well in him. He didn't know or understand what the look was exactly for, but he sure did know it had something to do with him.

A sudden clearing of throat broke him from his reverie.

"Bobby." It was Pete.

He turned at tin-man, also noticing that he gave Warren a warning look, then turned to Bobby, giving him a small smile.

"You still hadn't touched your food," Pete said.

"Again," Kitty added. "Marie won't be pleased when she finds out you're starting to get thin Bobby."

"I'm fine," Bobby said, rolling his eyes, the pair of blue orbs instantly felt like seeking John's reaction. And when he did look at the fire mutant, he wish he hadn't.

The pair of John's brown orbs stared at his own pair of blue. John's eyes were tensed, his body looked like it was preventing to show a seizure, and that his whole body was literally shaking. His grip on the fork was tight, and it was gripping the utensil tighter. Bobby was surprised why the fork hadn't bend for John's mercilessness at properly holding such items.

Their eyes held far longer than necessary. And then suddenly, John broke it, looking away from him. His sudden hatred on the fork lowered drastically. John looked like he knew that Bobby was still looking at him, and yet he was ignoring it, persistently looking at the whole room instead of meeting his eyes.

"Jeremy told me that he wouldn't be able to teach today. He had something to attend on," Ororo tried to start the conversation.

Bobby saw that John was quickly back on attention, looking at Storm with focused attention. And now that Bobby realized this, he seemed to wonder…

Why the hell would John be in here without Jeremy?

"Son," Hank looked at John. "Do you know where he is?" He asked the question Bobby just formed in his head.

A small recognition entered John's eyes, but before Bobby could react to it, it was gone.

"Nope," John denied. "I was hoping you guys would know where."

Storm and Hank looked at each other for a moment before went back at eating. "Well…" Storm began. "…since Jeremy isn't here, Bobby do you mind covering up for his Chemistry class?"

The sudden request made Bobby revert back into attention. "Uh…sure—"

A chortle.

Everyone on the table looked at John with surprise. "What's your problem?" Bobby asked, rudely.

More snickers fell down John's lips before he could answer. "Sorry, Storm—" More snickers. "—but are you sure that Drake can handle a Chemistry class?"

"Of course, I can!" Bobby blurted out, offended.

John looked at him with amusement and mockery, as if his and Bobby's earlier tensed eye contact didn't happen. "Seriously?" he asked, his voice dripping with incredulity. "You know, the last time I checked, you had a grade of F in three of our exams in Chemistry, Bobby. Three."

It was Pete's turn to release a snicker. "True," he laughed out. "I remember you asking me during the exam what the atomic number of Hydrogen was."

Bobby felt his face flush with embarrassment as he recalled the memory. "Shut up, Pete," he muttered, but it was obviously useless, as the others were giggling, snickering, or holding a laugh, even Logan's mouth twitched upwards. Looking over to John, Bobby smirked challengingly. "Rude for you to say, Allerdyce. How did you score in those exams?"

"All of them…" John paused for effect, smirking. "…were all C's."

Bobby almost made a move to either freeze John on his seat, throw the pack of cold water on his face, or butt-head John again when he suddenly realized something…

He didn't have any of those urges.

Bobby grasped, just now, that John's insult and tone were completely light-hearted. No harsh bite in it, nor was there any edge on it; the edge meaning that he would rather burn him off instead of talking to him.

But there wasn't anything. Just the smug tone of John as if saying he was better than the ice mutant. Just like the old times…

Old times…

An image flashed in his head, a face of John, smirking, beside Magneto.

Bobby stood back, muttering, "I have to get to class," before making his great escape to the door.

This was all too much. He'd rather not remember those things.

It was all too painful.

o-o-o-o-o

"Did I say something wrong?" John asked when Bobby closed the door behind him.

"You didn't," Storm reassured him. "He's probably just in the middle of the process of you in here. Give him time."

"Doesn't make it any less funny though," Warren commented. "Honestly it was the best laugh I've ever had since facing Multiple Man."

"Since Alcatraz, you mean," Kitty corrected, but her eyes quickly widened at the realization of what she just said, briefly glancing at John before muttering, "Sorry, that was sort of insensitive."

John glanced down at his food. So it was his entire fault again, he thought.

"I think I'll just cover Jer's class today," Pete contributed after the silence, smiling genuinely.

"Are you sure, Pete?" Storm pressed. "Don't you have anything else to do?"

Pete shook his head to say no. "I don't think I recall you asking Bobby if he had anything else to do, Storm," he suddenly said, but his voice presented neither maliciousness nor accusation, just curiosity.

Storm let out a small laugh. "I didn't," she confirmed. "I just knew Bobby needed the definite distraction since Marie's gone."

And then John felt that gut-wrenching feeling again. His body went tensed at the mention of Marie's name. Not to mention that it was literally implied that she and Bobby were still in a relationship. His stomach felt twisted, pinched, and turned, like it was doing splits and tumbling inside his abdomen. The same feeling he'd felt earlier knowing that Bobby and Marie already had sex.

And to think that it wasn't just once.

Damn it, he was god damn jea—

NO. No, he was not jealous.

John tried to calm himself down, especially since he felt that Warren's eyes were boring into him. His jaws were locked pretty tight and the feeling inside his stomach was starting to get discomforting. He had a feeling that Warren had his suspicions about him, and John wanted to stop giving the aerial mutant several clues that he needed to solve the mystery case inside the aerial mutant's head.

So much for that one now…

"I think it's the other way around, Storm," Kitty laughed. "It's Marie who's the distraction, not the work."

"Is Bobby that much of a work-aholic?" John blurted out before he could stop himself, partly curious, partly to distract himself from the very unnerving feeling in his stomach, and partly to block out Warren's inquisitive eyes altogether.

But a small thought settled inside John's head: Bobby was ditching his girlfriend for work?

Very Bobby-like, John's train of thought continued, remembering the time where he, too, was ditched by his bestfriend altogether just to finish a school project that was due the day after.

"Yep," Kitty answered, her voice indicating that she, too, was surprised that she and John were having a proper discussion, not one that was filled with John's sarcastic remarks. "Honestly, that guy never stops working," she added. "Work here, work there. Heck! I'm surprised Marie's got the power to distract him for so long. I guess that was the power of sex appeal," she shrugged in the end.

Power of sex appeal…

If possible, John went more tensed when he had heard the phrase. Back then, when he was still here and had witnessed the temper-flaring lovey-dovey…coupleness of the two, John had always remembered that Marie demanded attention. That girl had always craved for Bobby, John recalled. And there weren't any single moment wherein those two were separate. If Bobby was there, then so was Marie and vice versa.

But now that Kitty had mentioned that Bobby's priorities were now about school work, and that Marie had been shoved to the side… what had changed?

Not to mention that Marie always used seduction as a way to intercept Bobby's school-head thoughts. And if he could remember correctly Marie's demand of attention then…

CHEESES! John thought. Those two are probably humping like rabbits back in Bobby's room every minute of every damn day!

"Are you—"

The loud shrill of the bell stopped Warren's words before it even began. John quickly stood up, mentioning a small expression of gratitude for the food and then left faster than Storm's lightning bolts.

Damn it, the gut-wrenching feeling was back.

And John would never dare call it jealousy.

Even if it was the last thing he had to do.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! =)

It's a real miracle I managed to update!