Thanks to kristelalugo, aimingtomisbehave95, Melissa hearts fiction, and syed for reviewing! I promise that by the end of the story, you will have answers about Raven.

That Friday brought an uncommonly warm, dry day, like the rain and wet and cold had been canceled because sometimes kids just need to play. Alex came in through the garage, but he saw Ororo, Doug, Hank, and Ruth kicking around a soccer ball on the lawn. Laurie, never one for sports or joining in, sat to the side, enjoying the sunshine.

Alex pulled into the garage, parked his car, and sighed. His school things lay on the seat beside him: math textbook, notebook, graph paper notebook. He found that he did not so much mind school. As a teenager, he had been a terrible student, but these days things made more sense. Or at least, he no longer cared that he was never likely to need algebra.

Ever.

The past week, he liked school and work more than ever, because things were getting weirder and weirder at Charles's place. Alex had always felt welcome there—Charles never seemed to mind and crashing with one's friends feels different when the friend in question owns a mansion. Besides, he knew Raven, so having her here was less strange than having his older-younger brother.

But he sensed tensions. He felt them, like he had as a kid. Made him sleep badly, made him itch in places he couldn't scratch.

In public, Alex thought, which wasn't at all what he meant but made him laugh.

He scooped his school stuff into his backpack (respectably tattered) and climbed out of the car. With almost everyone outside, the mansion felt quiet, not tense—at least until Alex turned a corner and saw Sean.

"Hey."

Sean had no business there, not loitering. He was waiting for Alex.

"Hey," he echoed, then jerked his head.

Alex raised his eyebrows. He didn't go down that hallway just about ever.

He had little to do with the school. He wasn't exactly qualified to tutor his little brother or the others and he saw no reason to sit in on their classes. He did join them for krav maga, but that was either outdoors or in the bomb shelter.

Sean nodded—yeah, I mean it—and shrugged.

Alex dropped his backpack, because whatever this was, he didn't need to haul his algebra book to it. Then again, he could have guessed.

He suppressed a sigh when he found Scott sitting at one of the desks in Ruth's classroom. Yeah, that would be about right. All the other kids were outside enjoying the sunshine. Scott would be the one to sit inside working on an essay.

Alex made his way into the room. The words on the page came into focus, identical lines—ouch.

Alex dropped into the seat next to him. "'Cha up to, twerp?"

Scott didn't look up. "I'm busy."

Alex nodded. He leaned closer, obnoxiously close. I will not solve problems using violence.

"Wow. Using violence? You the same Scotty Summers I knew this morning?"

Scott didn't reply.

Alex reached over, grabbed a curl of hair at the back of Scott's head, and yanked.

"Ow!"

Well, Alex wanted a response and he got one. Scott glowered at him.

"What do you want, jerk?"

"What happened?" Alex asked, indicating the paper.

"Nothing. I was bad. Don't worry about it, okay?"

Scott went back to writing his standards. …blems using violence. I will not solve my problems using violence. I will not—

Alex grabbed the page.

"Hey!"

Scott tried to hang on to his paper and Alex kept tugging, ripping it in two. To Alex it was nothing, but Scott looked utterly stricken. He stared for a moment, then slammed his pen down and went to retrieve another sheet of paper.

He sat down again and started over.

"Stop it," Alex said. This was not what he wanted to deal with on a Friday afternoon. He was finished—until his shift tomorrow, anyway—and wanted to light up and find something decent on the radio. Dylan was perfect. The lyrics made sense for once. He liked the Beatles well enough when he was sober, but stoned he needed something slower. Lucky Sean caught him when he did. Alex really couldn't handle Scott buzzed.

"Alex—"

"Hey," Alex interrupted, "that's healing up okay." He had noticed the scabs on Scott's face, the ones he brought home along with a twisted ankle that everyone was apparently supposed to ignore. "How's the leg?"

"It's fine!"

Ooh, Alex hadn't been the first to ask about that, had he?

"I'm working a half-shift tomorrow, how about a ride to the library?" Alex offered.

Scott's hand froze halfway through 'violence'.

"Scott. What the hell happened?"

He sighed. "Look, it was my decision, okay? But things are… things aren't the same, and sometimes when Laurie gets upset—"

"Then it's Laurie's fault," Alex said. "What's Charles punishing you for?"

"It isn't—because Laurie made us all feel upset. Ororo can't deal with it as well as we can. She's young and she's still having a hard time. Laurie's frustration builds on what's already there. She can't help it, Alex."

Alex nodded. "You don't have to convince me," he agreed. He might not have known much about Ororo's emotions—he liked her well enough, but he was a guy!—but he agreed with Scott on principle.

Scott shrugged. By now his pen had bled a spot onto the page. He crumpled it, went the hurl it in the bin, and grabbed a third sheet of paper.

"Scott, what happened?" Alex prodded.

"I hit Laurie in the face, okay?" Scott snapped.

Well, that was… unexpected. When did this story jump from Ororo's anger to Scott's?

Scott sighed and the words came out in a rush: "I saw what was happening and both the girls would be in trouble, or I would, and it's not Laurie's fault or Ororo's, they can't help what's going on. So I stopped it. I couldn't see a better way. I know it's not okay to hit girls and I'm sorry I hit her. It just seemed, well. I get punished. It's better."

"Laurie okay?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, she's okay."

"Good. I'll take care of this," indicating the torn page of standards, "just go play with your friends."

"No—I knew what I was doing. You don't have to look after me."

"Do you want to come to my room and smoke?"

"What! No!"

Alex had a deal with Charles that he did as he liked in his own room. It didn't affect his school or work performance; he kept sober during missions. He wasn't hurting anyone. But Charles did not actually approve and so Alex agreed not to "use substances", as Charles phrased it, elsewhere in the house.

He never made any promises about who he would bring to his room.

"Look, Alex, I knew what I was doing, okay? I knew it was wrong, I just couldn't think of a better solution. I accept responsibility for that."

"Let me make sure I'm understanding—Laurie was making everyone around her frustrated."

"Yes."

"Including you."

"Well—I felt it, but—"

"And Ororo was losing her temper, so you hit Laurie."

"I could've done something else—taken Ororo out of the room," Scott reasoned, like Ororo would have allowed that, "or helped Laurie control it. I didn't have to hit her. I'm responsible for my actions, Alex, no one else."

Alex thought about that for a moment. He could hear Charles's voice through the words, Charles on about good choices and responsibility.

"What was Laurie frustrated about, anyway?"

Scott sighed.

"Oh."

Of course. All the tension had one common source: Raven. Or Charles, anyway. Even Alex could see that Raven was manipulating him, presumably out of insecurity, and Charles was not coping overly well. Alex wasn't one to judge. He just noticed.

"Scotty—"

"Don't call me Scotty."

"Scotty, anyone ever tell you that life isn't fair?"

"Yes, but—"

Alex grabbed Scott's pen. It was a pointless gesture since he knew Scott had a whole pack of them in his room, but more an active metaphor. "Today it's unfair in your favor. Go play outside."

"I don't want to—"

"Then go read in your room," Alex retorted. "But no standards. You know me, twerp, you're not doin' this if I say you're not."

Scott thought about that for a moment, then asked, "Why do you and Ruth both act like I need protecting?" As an afterthought, "Jerk."

"I dunno," Alex lied. He knew perfectly well. "Why do you put yourself in situations where you do?"

Alex suspected Scott had rolled his eyes. "It's just doing standards."

"It's not the standards. You know it's not, Scott. You know this is Charles coming down on you because he's pissed and guilty and Ruth's giving him blue balls." Alex only tossed the last one in because he knew it would make Scott uncomfortable. "So he makes an example out of you. 'Everyone else will enjoy the afternoon while Scott sits inside, alone.' I've been the bad kid, little brother, and trust me, it doesn't pay off."

Scott shook his head. "It's not like that. I just wanted to… they don't know what I'm doing. They think I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo."

Right. That was something Scott would do voluntarily. Alex looked for a long time at Scott, like he might see something to explain this. He had known for a long time that Scott was damaged. The kid used to wake everyone else screaming from nightmares and Alex had seen the scars on his body. This was a new kind of wrong.

Alex's conclusions had been wrong. This wasn't Charles punishing Scott, this was Scott punishing himself.

This place was getting too weird.

"I love you, jackass."