Disclaimer: I own none of the characters within.
Author's Notes: Is there any way to apologize to you guys? I am SO bad about updating this story, and I'm genuinely ashamed for being such a lazy little writer. Bad, monkey, bad! No banana! Somebody slap my wrists already! Better yet, hit me with a wet noodle a couple of times.
Actually, my angst muse had gone a'wanderin', and he has taken some time to recover. I had to watch 'Edward Scissorhands' two nights in a row before I could find him again.
And yes, Calamari Rings, the last chapter was s-h-a-m-e-l-e-s-s-l-y idealistic. I have wild, crazy ideas about Rogue's stay with the BH, most of which involve happy slappy sibling type bonding. Canonically incorrect and how. Indulge me, mes enfants. And this story is set before Self-Possessed, because I wanted Pietro haunting Rogue still.
Yeah, actually, the last chapter was my least favorite ever. I didn't care for it at all, so no wonder nobody reviewed. Well! It gets better and better from here on in!
Mad props to ChaosTheory, who tracked me down in the LOTR section and ordered me to update this or suffer the consequences. Flogging. Ouchiewawa.
~
He scaled the fence with the same ease he did it with months ago.
That time, he'd been on a mission from Mystique. A paying job, nothing more, really just something to fill up some spare time with, with a hint of espionage on the side on dear father's behalf.
This time, however, his motivations were purely personal.
Wanda was in there.
He paused on the path up to the mansion's front door, listening, tense. If anyone could have seen him, they would have seen a frightened little boy terrified of the dark, or maybe a wild animal that knows there's a hunter around but just can't see it.
The air pulsed with something ominous, and Pietro shivered against it.
He let himself into the mansion, closing the door behind him quietly and then laughing bitterly because who the hell was going to hear it anyway? The hallways felt huge and echoing, like a mummy's tomb, and he walked on ginger steps to the kitchen.
The remains of the preparation for a huge lunch lay scattered about. Storm was at the sink, rinsing out her glass. Absently, he noticed his hunger and helped himself to what started out as a few bites, but ended up being the makings of at least four sandwiches. Sated for now, he continued his prowl into the dining room.
There were a few empty chairs here and there, as though people had suddenly vacated the area. The geek patrol was strangely absent, save for the professor, Wolverine, and Evan Daniels.
He saw his family sitting with them.
Fred, with a sandwich still en route to his mouth. Lance, just sitting down, returning from some conversation he'd been having in the hall. Todd, staring at his plate in what must have been the thickness of an uncomfortable silence.
And Wanda.
He rushed over to her, even started to call her name before biting down on his eager tongue.
//She can't hear you.// he scolded himself. //No one can hear you.//
Still, he knelt next to her, studying her face. She looked sad, very sad, sadder than he'd expected her to be. Sure, they'd patched some things up in the kitchen last night, but he hadn't expected his disappearance to affect her so deeply. It filled him with gratitude and his eyes stung with unshed tears.
//She cares.//
Standing up and coughing self-consciously, he felt suddenly embarrassed that Wolverine or Professor Xavier, or even worse, Daniels, had seen his little emotional scene. But all remained perfectly frozen, mannequins in store windows.
Yet the Professor's eyes seemed shockingly clear, after all the zombies he had seen in the city.
Unnerved by this, he crept out of the dining room to explore the rest of the silent house.
~
"Pietro is here."
Wanda glanced up so suddenly from her plate that her teeth clacked together. It was the Professor who had spoken, and his eyes were focused on some distant point just over her shoulder. She spun around joyfully, and felt her heart hit rock bottom when there was no one there.
"He was here." Xavier continued quietly. "But only for a moment. He is, however, still in the mansion."
"That's creepy, yo..." Todd muttered, half to himself.
"It is not 'creepy', Mr. Tolensky," the professor smiled. "It is my gift. I felt him. He has a very powerful presence, not unlike his father." Realizing a potential error, he hurriedly smoothed away the last remark. "Perhaps we will be finding signs of him around the place very soon."
"Really?" Todd lit up. "Like what?"
"I think I'm going mad..."
Everyone glanced up as Ororo entered from the kitchen, a hand pressed to her temple and her eyes full of confusion.
"What's a matter, 'Ro?" Logan wondered. "Ya look like you've seen ghost."
"Perhaps I have," she mused, seating herself. At the curious looks from the others, she explained. "I was in the kitchen rinsing out my glass to put in the dishwasher. Now, when I went in, I distinctly noticed that there were plenty of leftovers. But when I turned to look at them not five seconds later, at least three-quarters of the food was gone! I don't understand it!"
"I believe that answers your question, Todd," said the professor.
"What question?" Ororo asked.
"Pietro's in the mansion." Charles said. "He must have helped himself to some lunch."
"That's what I would do," reasoned Freddy.
Wanda stifled a sound behind her hand, half a sob of relief, half a peal of laughter at the idea of Pietro in one piece, standing right behind her only a second ago. She had felt him too, though she had assumed it was just wishful thinking. But no, he had definitely been there, looking right at her. She knew. Somewhere in her subconscious, she had even seen him, and this made her glad.
"I'm going to go see how Hank is doing," Xavier announced. "Logan?"
The man known as Wolverine nodded and followed the Professor, as the two departed the dining room and headed for the lower levels and the medical laboratories, where Hank McCoy was hard at work.
This left Ororo and Evan alone with the Brotherhood, who immediately began to talk amongst themselves as if they weren't there.
"This is great!" Todd was saying enthusiastically. "Pietro's here!"
"I wish we could at least see him," said Lance sadly. "It sucks knowing he needs us and we can't help."
"That does suck!" Fred frowned. "It really sucks! I never thought about it."
"I mean, yeah!" Lance went on. "Whenever someone's sick or hurt or something, they're usually right in front of you, and even if you can't actually help them, you can comfort them and talk to them and stuff."
"But he's here." Wanda pointed out quietly. "I think it was help enough for him to see us, to know we're looking for him."
"Of course we're looking for him!" Todd scolded. "Who wouldn't? He's our brother!"
"Yeah, he'd look for us!" Fred agreed.
At this point, Evan, who had been listening with a growing look of guilt and anger on his face, shoved his chair back from the table and bolted from the room.
"Evan!" Ororo called after him, but she got no response.
"What's eating him?" Lance wondered.
Because true to form, Pietro had never told them anything about once having a friendship with an X-Man.
~
Out in the hallway, Evan almost collided with a brooding Scott, who was leaning against the wall and looking very pissed.
"Sorry, man," The younger boy hastily apologized. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"And I didn't see you coming," Scott pointed out, struggling to return to his usual supportive role. "What's wrong? You look upset."
"No shit, Sherlock." Evan muttered.
On closer look, Scott noticed that he looked more than just upset. He looked guilty and frustrated and not a little bit jumpy. Evan, too, noticed that Scott looked more than pissed. He looked guilty and frustrated and not a little bit jumpy.
"So, what happened?" They asked simultaneously, and both drifted into the same nervous laughter.
"You go first." Evan blurted out, before the other teen could beat him to it.
"Ah, Jean and I had a fight." confessed Scott at last, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck.
"You and Jean?" He couldn't hide the surprise in his voice. "The perfect couple? A fight?"
"Not really a fight," The older teen corrected himself. "More of just a disagreement. Not seeing things eye to eye, that kind of thing."
"Dare I ask what the fight-- excuse me, disagreement-- was about?"
"The Brotherhood."
"Big shocker there, man."
"It's just... well, I guess it's... augh! I don't know."
Scott seemed genuinely furious with himself, and Evan thumped his shoulder reassuringly.
"Hey, it's okay, man. I'm pretty screwed up about this too."
"It's just, as long as I've known them, they've been the enemy, you know? Even when they were helping us fight Magneto back with the whole Sentinel thing, it turned out just to be a plot of Mystique's. I've never once known these guys to be trust-worthy! I mean, how do know this isn't just some kind of crazy plot to infiltrate the mansion? Where's the proof that Pietro's actually in trouble?"
"Well, if it's any help, the Prof said just a second ago that he felt Pietro in the room, and we couldn't see him. Then Auntie O said that some of the food in the kitchen had been snatched up in like, a second. We think that was Pietro, too."
For a moment, Scott just kind of stared at him, his mouth slightly ajar in mid-rant and curtailed by this new revelation. Then he just started laughing, laughing with relief, laughing just for the sheer emotional release of it all.
"That settles it, I guess," he managed to say at last. "Remind me to go apologize to Jean later, I owe her big time."
"Maybe you can make it up to her with a date."
"Shut up!"
Scott nudged his companion warmly, but felt a surge of leader's concern when he noticed that Evan still seemed weighted down by some sort of secret burden.
"You okay?" he probed.
"Yeah..." said Evan automatically, but with a sigh he admitted, "No."
"Spill." Scott said. "And I swear your secret's safe with me."
"That's really great, man," the younger boy said with real gratitude. "Okay, so it's this whole Pietro thing..."
~