Disclaimer: I own nothing of the X-Men, just my OC!
Chapter Twelve
Morgana stuck around to finish washing and drying her laundry before hauling it back up the stairs. She didn't encounter any of the teachers though she was fairly certain she saw Gambit disappearing down a hall at one point but she rushed past the hallway quickly so as to avoid any conversation. She was pretty decent at talking to kids and gaining their trust and appreciation but those teachers were a different subject. That just felt awkward and something about them having full control of their powers definitely worried her. She may be a Mutant but she was low on the "mutant food chain".
She managed to get back to her room without incident or getting lost in the winding hallways and quickly put her clothes up. Afterwards, she disappeared into the bathroom to refreshen her hair and the little make up she was wearing. As she fixed herself up, she lost herself in thought a little bit.
Morgana hadn't had much schooling. It wasn't like she was stupid or couldn't handle it but her parents…well, school wasn't exactly top of their priority list. And then other events happened in her life that prevented her from "hitting the books", not to mention being on the run for the past few years. She always kept up with learning as much as she could whenever she could. But she grew up too fast on the road. She was physically 19 but after being surrounded by adults, perverts, and quite possibly criminals most of the time, she was anything but a teenager.
But Morgana had still managed to capture Rogue's heart and charmed Jubilee and Bobby. The only problem was…what the hell was she doing? She wasn't a true teenager, had no clue how social circles amongst peers her own age or in school with her worked, and she had no idea what mutant school was going to end up being like. And yet she had somehow managed to get them to form a group – with two people she hadn't even met yet but was going to meet soon apparently – to eat lunch together. And she got along really well with them, too.
It was easy to figure out what that meant. She could practically smell it now. That was going to be her school group…it was going to be just like those high school movies she had watched. People she'd eat lunch with, hang out with, talk to…dare she say? She had the possibility for friends now. And that was terrifying.
Don't get too attached, idiot. They're going to die decades before you, remember?
Morgana turned away from the mirror abruptly. She hadn't forgotten that and she wouldn't. She couldn't get too fond of anyone other than MAYBE Wolverine and even he was not something she really wanted to form an attachment to, not really. She didn't want to get attached to anyone but at least Wolverine was somewhat safer considering they had the same power.
She definitely didn't want to think of anything like that now. Nope, she was too entertained by how well things were going. Well, beside the evaluation she didn't want to go to Sunday and the doctor's appointment she definitely didn't want to go to after lunch…what was tomorrow? Oh yeah, she had some kind of shopping spree with Rogue but that probably wasn't going to be as bad. Everything else sucked, as far as things she had to do went. But at least she was making friends and getting to annoy Cyclops, those were such pluses.
Morgana had just gone back into her room when a knock sounded on the door.
"Morgana, its lunch time, sugah." That was most definitely Rogue's soothing southern tone and Morgana headed for the door. She threw the door open with a smile, determined to be in the best mood ever today.
"Hey Rogue! Did you hear the news?"
"Umm, what news?" Before Morgana could explain, voices interrupted from down the hall. Good lord, she forgotten how loud a bunch of teenagers could be in one place…it was kinda interesting. It brought back memories and the memories weren't even all that bad.
"Hey guys!" Jubilee waved with Bobby by her side. Following them was two more boys…one was a typical blonde looking dude, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt and jean jacket that somehow managed to look cool. The other was…definitely different. He was all blue…not furry like that Beast dude but literally all blue as though he was painted and he had a long, forked tail that flickered back and forth behind him, almost like a cat. Yep, she was definitely being reminded that they were all mutants.
"Morgana, this is John and Kurt." Bobby introduced, pointing the blonde one out as John and the blue looking monkey as Kurt. Morgana smiled and waved awkwardly at them, definitely not comfortable with meeting multiple people at once. She was already feeling slightly stressed out by all the people but they all were smiling…well, except for John. He was frowning at her but then again, they had called him a dick.
Rogue looked utterly shocked at seeing everyone there.
"Umm…so…what's going on?" She asked hesitantly, not quite grasping why the teacher's quarters were suddenly full of the only remaining students who were there during the summer. Apparently, this was definitely not normal.
"I ran into Bobby and Jubilee trying to find the laundry room and we figured out that if all of us come together for lunch, the teachers won't eat with us. It seems John and authority don't get along very well…hello, fellow asshole. It's delightful to meet you." Morgana smirked at John and was rewarded with a brief smile. He pushed past Bobby and Rogue and walked right up to her, looking her up and down.
"So, you're a mutie too, huh? What's your name?"
"Someone already said it…Morgana."
"I mean you're mutant name, your true name. Not the name those human assholes gave you."
"Ah, you mean my super-secret decoder ring name? Don't have one yet. I'll let you know when I do. What's yours? Is it surfer dude?"
"Pyro."
"Lemme guess, you're a flame brain?"
"Oh something like that. What can you do?"
"I'm Wolverine without the claws and better personality. I can't die and heal instantly." That definitely got John's attention. His eyes lit up in surprise and glee, the same kind of look she had seen in several people's eyes when they had realized her unique ability. Bobby, Jubilee, and Rogue never got that look in their eyes but that's because they seemed to be good hearted people. John wasn't necessarily bad but he definitely wasn't a sweetheart of a guy.
"I know what you want to do. You do it, we cool? At least for the weekend until I can prove I'm a badass bitch enough for you to hang around with during the week." Morgana asked coolly, quirking an eyebrow up at him with a look of something close to challenge. John's eyes widened and it was apparent he didn't think she was going to take him up on that.
"What are ya'll talking about? It's like you two are in on something we're not!" Jubilee complained and Morgana glanced around her. It was obvious John was the bad boy and therefore, a little bit of an outsider in the group. On top of that, Rogue absolutely adored her for whatever reason…so them sticking around and watching what was about to take place was definitely not going to be a good thing. Time to get them a little bit of privacy.
"We're in an alpha male/female pissing match. As the two with bad/snarky attitudes who are directly opposed to the authority of Cyclops, we must have a mini battle of words and will to see if we can coexist peacefully to cause mutually agreed upon chaos. As such, we will require two minutes of privacy to settle our differences. If ya'll would be so good as to meet us at the bottom of the stairs, we'll be along post haste." Morgana explained this all with an easy smile and it was light enough that everyone fond it amusing.
"Oh, nice to meet you, Kurt! Your skin really goes well with your eyes." Morgana called, winking at him. Somehow, she figured people probably either teased him meanly or was too afraid to make mention of his skin. But yeah, she wasn't afraid to say anything to anyone…censoring herself was something she had tried to do but never quite managed. Kurt stared at her in shock before grinning shyly and ducking his head, trailing after everyone as they headed down the stairs.
After they were gone, Morgana turned back to John and gave him a cool smile.
"So, we doing this or didya get cold feet, flame brain?" She taunted and John grinned, all teeth and challenge now. He held out his hand and indicated she was supposed to do the same. Inwardly sighing, Morgana rolled up her sleeve all the way – she quite liked that Falling in Reverse band tee she had stolen from Hot Topic that one time in Boston and was not about to have it singed – and offered her pale, white hand to John to do whatever he wanted.
"This is going to hurt." He informed her calmly and laid his hand underneath hers.
"No way! Burning my hand for your entertainment is going to hurt? Next thing you know, you'll tell me water is wet." Morgana rolled her eyes, determined not to look away or show any weakness. Pyro was the sort who wanted to test her power, see if she could handle the pain and see how "neat" it would be for her skin to heal up. A lot of guys were like that, whether they wanted to admit it or not.
Pyro looked her in the eyes as he activated his mutant ability. Suddenly, his hand erupted into flames and they sparked up wild and high, burning through her hand in instant and jumping up to blaze between them. The pain was excruciating, one of the worst sensations she had felt in a very, very long time. Perhaps even ever…she hadn't been burnt yet. But despite the sheer agony, she kept her hand still, face as relaxed as possible, and she didn't make a noise. After a few agonizingly long seconds, the flames sunk back into John's hand and disappeared.
"Well fucking hell, that hurt." Morgana commented mildly, wishing she could reach up and swipe away the sweat that was no doubt streaming down her face. But she knew the whole point of that was to see if she could endure the pain and to examine her hand afterwards. Really, she had no idea why people were so fascinated with her power…it really was quite useless in her eyes.
John reached his hand out and gingerly touched hers, poking it and turning it, looking at it this way and that. He was being so gentle with it, as though afraid of hurting her. It almost made her laugh because hadn't he just tried to burn her hand off? What happens if she had been lying and she hadn't been able to heal instantly?
His eyes widened as her blackened skin slowly but surely knitted back together and turned back to a light, pink color. After a second, she flexed her fingers and felt immense relief that there didn't seem to be a scar or any lasting effect. Thank GOD. She had been stabbed and shot before but never burnt and she would have definitely murdered him if somehow he managed to leave a scar.
"Wow…it's absolutely unchanged. Impressive." John breathed, looking over her hand one more time before releasing it. Morgana yanked her sleeve down and tried to discreetly wipe the sweat out of her eyes and face. Yep, she looked totally smooth and subtle.
"Yeah, ya'll people are way too impressed with that. I can't die, woot."
"It's impressive. You'd make a valuable ally…you can't die and you could just slowly kill everyone, even without powers. Most mutants can't survive a bullet to the brain."
"Well, speaking of allies…are we good now? Dick waving contest over? You scare the other kids cause you're a total badass, you can torch anything and everyone, and you're pretty intimidating. But I can't die and I have an extremely high pain tolerance so anything you try won't work on me. Even if you can bring down the entire school – which, hey, you know, maybe you could – you can't bring down me. So instead of us spending the school year fighting and showing off, I propose we ally ourselves together. Save ourselves a little trouble and I think this school needs to be shaken up. We can take on Cyclops together…what do you say?"
Of course, causing chaos and trouble for authority figures and screwing with Cyclops sounded amazing. But in reality, Morgana acknowledged that John was a bit unstable and that little display hadn't just been a pissing contest won between them…she wanted to see his power as well. And it was a heck of a power, already fairly well controlled and fire was pretty damn hard to beat. He was strong, unstable, and with a bad attitude…she needed to win his respect, earn his trust, and have him on her side.
The X-Men she had met seemed nice but how far did that go? Besides that, were they all trust worthy? And there was always the possibility of the government showing up and screwing with them. Or just plain John going crazy and trying to kill them all. These were all dangers she had to consider. Best to have one of the strongest mutants there on her side when the shit hits the fan.
Judging by John's smile and that glow in his eyes, she figured she had him won over already. Score one for the socially inept girl who had no idea what she was doing.
"Alright. Allies for now…just don't try to betray me or rat me out to the teachers."
"Same goes for me. Most of them seem cool but Cyclops? Nah, fuck him, we gotta screw with him. He's asking for it." The two of them laughed and John stuck out his hand for her to shake. She did so, feeling like they were making some kind of awesome, private deal between the two of them. None of the others would understand exactly what they had done there and she wasn't going to bother trying to explain.
All they needed to know was somehow, her and John were cool and they were going to watch the school burn together…hopefully metaphorically.
"Let's go!"
A/N
I'm surviving the chicken pox guys and I managed another chapter! WOOT! Sorry this is short. Next chapter, I'll try to make super long. Just been a busy, off week for me. Uploading it a bit early to make up for it! Thank you everyone for the kind reviews and well wishes. I'm almost fully mended and there's plenty more to come! Happy Wolverine Wednesday and have a great night/day!
