Hey guys! Ysh's here. There's actually a storm raging in the place where I live so that means classes were suspended due to floods...thus I have been able to update really fast. ^^ Anyways, please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men.

Part TwentyFive: THE ADVENTURE

"Please be nice...or at least close to your definition of nice," I said pleadingly as I looked directly at Victor's blue-gray eyes. He only smirked at me. He wasn't taking me seriously at all. We were now standing in front of the door that led to my parents' house...the house where I grew up. I sighed, bracing myself. I couldn't explain the fear that gripped me so tightly as I debated whether it was the right choice to knock on this door and face my parents with Victor Creed in tow. My parents wouldn't be please to know that I brought along a perverted and rambunctious man with me.

"Are you going to knock on that door or will I have to do it myself?" Victor teased, leaning casually on the wall beside the door. He raised an eyebrow at me. He had his signature smirk on his face which I found oddly attractive.

I shook my head, snapping out of my thoughts. "I'll do it," I said. The words stumbled out my mouth so fast that it made Victor smile some more. I had a vague feeling that he knew what I was thinking. A blush crept to my cheeks.

Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand to knock on the door. Precisely, I knocked three times with a very funky beat. Victor chuckled and once again, I became slightly embarrassed. He could sense my excitement as well as my nervousness but he pretended to brush it off. He was observing my every move. I could feel his eyes on me although I tried hard not to dwell on it.

"Comin'," a voice from behind the door hollered.

It didn't take too long when a plump, elderly woman opened the door. She had an evenly tanned skin. Her eyes were like mine, dark brown that reminded everyone of melting chocolates. Her hair, which used to be brown, was grey at some parts. She had this angelic and sweet smile on her face as soon as she opened the door. Her eyes widened in recognition as soon as she saw my face. I couldn't help but mirror back that same smile.

"Elijah!" she exclaimed, her arms quickly wrapped around me. She pulled me close, crushing me.

"Mom!" I said, trying to match the enthusiasm in her voice. Unfortunately, I failed but it still sounded cheerful...and tired.

When I was a kid, I found it very amusing to hug my mom because she was a very plump woman, thus she was soft and huggable...like a teddy bear. She was so big back then that whenever I hide under her strong, gentle arms, I felt so safe and secured. But now, I was a head taller than her and as I hugged her, she felt very fragile to me. She was getting older.

"Why are you here? Aren't you studyin' in New York?" she asked as soon as she pulled away from the bone-breaking hug.

"Uh, about that..."

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Victor suddenly butted in, startling me in the process. He had a smile on his face and miraculously, it didn't look as scary as the smile he had while we were being lectured by the old man in the farm.

My mom looked at me with wide eyes. Typical reaction from a mother who wasn't expecting her daughter to be standing in front of the house with a man beside her. I could see the smile finding its way to my mother's face. "Oh, and who might you be?" she asked, wriggling an eyebrow at me.

"Mom, I can explain..."

Once again, Victor cut me off.

"Victor Creed," he answered, shaking her hand. He was acting like a normal guy...which he wasn't. "Nice to finally meet you."

My mom couldn't hide the smile any longer. She flashed her brilliant teeth at Victor, completely captivated by his polite and charming manner. I rolled my eyes. If only she knew... I glared at Victor, completely confused at his sudden change of attitude. So now he was acting like a gentleman...a respectful and noble man. Wait until my dad was here. I knew he wouldn't fall for that crap Victor was putting up.

"Oh, nice to meet you too. My name's Evelyn Halpern, Elijah's mother," she said, winking a bit at Victor as if she was implying something else. Another sigh escaped my lips. My mom was a complete scatter-brained person. She would always get so excited whenever I would introduce to her a boy...or even talk to one! She was obsessed with the thought of me going out with boys. This was the same argument we had years ago ever since I first step foot on high school.

"Mom, I can explain..."

I almost groan when another voice cut through me. Why couldn't I talk without someone interrupting me?

"Eve, who's there?" a gruff voice asked, coming front the other side of the door.

My mom giggled, sounding like a school girl. "Oh Elliot, you're not goin' to guess who's here," she yelled. She grasped my arm and Victor's and started pulling us inside the house and passed the living room. We entered the kitchen where a wooden table stood in the middle. A man was sitting down on one of the chairs with his feet propped on the table. His face was obscured with the newspaper in front his face but I instantly knew who it was behind the paper.

"Eliot! Elijah's here. And guess what!" my mom went on, finally letting go of my arm and Victor's. She strode across the room and snatched the paper my father was reading. She rolled the newspaper and put it down on top of the table. "Look!" she ordered.

My dad looked at me with his wise, blue eyes. His silvery blond hair was now thinning and getting grey like mom's. His eyes were wide. His thin lips were opened, as if he couldn't believe his own eyes. I grinned sheepishly at him. "Hey, dad," I said, unsure. I was bracing myself for my dad's reaction once he saw Victor. I hoped he wouldn't throw a fit.

"Victor, this is Elliot Halpern, the father of Elijah," my mom said, giggling once again. I glowered at my mom. She should have at least give my dad a warning before suddenly introducing Victor Creed to him. People needed to get some time to get use to Victor. Just as I had to take a painfully long period of time before I started to warm up to Victor. He was scary with his broad and huge stature. The sharp fangs that showed whenever he showed off his signature smirk wasn't a welcoming sight. His facial hair that gave him a rough, bad boy look. Not to mention the way he dressed. He always wore a dark long coat. Now that I thought of it, those dark, forlorn clothes were the only things he wore.

My dad looked at Victor from head to toe. He didn't even seem so happy to see her only daughter back from New York. It made me slightly disappointed. Well, that was fathers were for. They were very protective towards their children...especially to their daughters.

"Who are you?" my dad asked, curtly.

My mom was about to open her mouth to start yapping but my dad quickly shushed her up. "I'm not talkin' to you, woman. I was talkin' to him," he snapped. That instantly stopped my mom from saying something stupid. I rolled my eyes. I missed their bickering. Once, I was so afraid whenever they would start snapping at each other, but as I grew up, I just got used to it and knew that they wouldn't go far from yelling at each other. They never hurt each other physically.

"Victor Creed."

"Yeah, I know your name. I'm asking who are you," my dad said, grumpily.

I cocked my head to one side, not getting the difference between his first question to his second. "Dad, Victor's a friend of mine in class," I said, trying to sound cheerful. I wasn't really expecting to tell them that he was a friend from class but that was the first thing that came from my mind.

"Is he your professor?" my dad asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

I shook my head. "No. Him? Victor? Nah. He's not my professor...nor is he anybody's professor. Um, he's a classmate..." I said, trying to cover up the lies. I stank of lies but I tried not think about it. I was never good at lying. I sneaked a peek at Victor. He had amusement playing behind his eyes. I nudged him discreetly, trying to get his attention. I needed his help. I couldn't come up with a better excuse to why he was there.

"Don't you think he looks a bit too old for college?" dad asked, dubiously.

"He only looks old but he's not," I said, trying hard not to look away from his demanding eyes. He wanted anwers. I could see it. But I wasn't going to give him anything or else I might not stop talking.

Victor chuckled. That earned him another glare coming from me. "What?" he asked, innocently.

My dad wasn't convinced. He was about to fire another question when my mom spoke up.

"Oh c'mon, darlin'. Victor doesn't look that old. You're just sayin' it because you're lil' girl's all grown up," she said, pinching my cheeks at the process. I slapped her hand away and threw her a dirty look. I hated it whenever someone touched me.

"Why didn't ya call us first?" my mom asked, changing the topic all of a sudden.

"Um, I, uh..." I looked at Victor, needing some help.

"I asked her if I can come and visit you. After all, you are her parents and Christmas is on its way in a month," Victor said, smoothly.

I stared at him, admiring at his ability to come up with a lie so swiftly.

My mom squealed with delight. "Oh, Eliot, did you here that? Not a lot of folks do that nowadays!" she exclaimed. "Oh, excuse me, I have to fix up Elijah's room for the two of you..."

My eyes widened. "W-wait! Aren't we going to get separate rooms? I mean..."

"That will be wonderful, Mrs. Halpern," Victor stated, cutting me off once again. He gave me a sly glance which no one else saw except for me.

Dad abruptly stood up. He had a dark look on his face. "Who said that the two of you are going to sleep in the same room?" He faced my mom. "Fix the couch. He's going to sleep on it tonight." Gravely, he turned around and walked out of the room.

Silence fell inside the house. I heard the slam of the front door as my dad went out to who knew where. I sighed. He always did that whenever he was upset. At least he took this situation better than I thought he would. No more threats this time. Most especially...no more guns unlike the last time a boy visited them.

The first to recover was my mom. She smiled at Victor. "Don't worry. He likes you already," she said, euphemistically. "So, where are your bags?"

Victor and I looked at each other, sheepishly. Victor didn't have any belongings. I, on the other hand, only had a backpack which only held not enough clothes to last for who knew how long.

"I see. I guess the two of you are very excited to get in here," my mom said. The smile on her face widened some more. I could say that she was very thrilled to have me back home with a man I brought home from New York. I sighed.

I just hoped that we would survive a month without killing each other.

:

I wasn't so sure what woke me up. It was either the loud creaking sound that my bed kept on making or was the warm breath washing over my face. It didn't matter anyway because both of them were annoying me. Groaning in frustration, I rolled on to my stomach and placed a pillow on top of my head, trying to block out the irritating sound of the bed. It seldom creaked when I was younger. It seemed like I had gotten heavier.

"Wakey wakey," a low voice cooed to my ears.

At first, I thought that it was a persistent fly buzzing along my ear. My hand instinctively reached for my ear and scratched it hoping that this fly which I thought existed would go away and stop bugging me.

"That's funny, Eli, I never thought that you were a heavy sleeper," the voice went on.

This time I knew that it wasn't a fly. The voice was so familiar that I instantly knew who kept on pestering me. Immediately, I rolled on my back and cracked my eyes open. I was looking at Victor, face to face. His was so close to mine that I could smell his breath. It smelled like our dinner...corn soup and potatoes. Surprisingly, I wasn't pressured to push him off me. I knew that it would be futile since Victor was such a huge man. And I was feeling a bit groggy. It was still dark outside and I could see the moon visibly out from my windows.

"Victor," I said, yawning a bit. I covered my mouth with my hand. "What are you doing here in the middle of the night? This is my room and my dad specifically told you that you cannot go here."

He chuckled and I could feel his throat vibrate because of the minimal distance between us. His facial hair was tickling me a bit on the lower jaw. "As if I'll listen to that man," he said, rolling his eyes. "Move over. I'm going to sleep here tonight...and probably every single night as we stay here."

I was still too sleepy to argue. It seemed like retching for an hour would sap all the energy out of you. "Do whatever you want," I whispered. My eyes were closing themselves involuntarily. "Just don't do anything stupid."

"Is that a warning or an invitation? Victor mused, his arm winding around my waist and pulling me closer to him. It was then that I realized that he was wearing a very lose white shirt and boxers. I wondered where he got the change of attire but my mind wasn't functioning properly this time around.

"I mean it." But the words just stumbled out of my mouth. It didn't sound convincing.

Victor's lips brushed my ear but I didn't mind. "Okay," he muttered under his breath as he started nibbling at my ear. That felt delightful. Of course, under normal circumstances I would probably push him away and started scolding him but I decided to let him continue whatever he was doing. He wasn't doing anything wrong but I was sure that if things would get a bit out of hand, I would stop him.

He abruptly stopped the nibbling and I felt a bit disappointed. His grasp on me tightened and he pulled me closer. I buried my face on his chest and breathe in his scent. Just like always, he smelled like a man. Sweat. Sun. Food. Just the typical Victor.

"This is interesting," he mumbled.

"What's interesting?" I asked as the sleepiness was starting to go away.

"You're not fighting," he mused. I felt him chuckled again.

"Do you want me to?" I asked, looking up at him and smirking.

He looked thoughtful for a moment but then broke into his signature smirk. "Nah, I liked this better," he said.

"Too bad," I said, and pushed him roughly away from me. "Now get your hands off me and go back to your couch!"

Catching him off guard, Victor crashed down on the floor, not expecting that I would shove him out my bed. He landed with a very loud noise that could wake the whole town up. My back stiffened. Oh damn. Dad was not going to like this.

"Get out!" I hissed at him, rolling out of my bed.

"And if I don't wanna?" he asked, darkly. I had pissed him off. Big time.

"Just get out," I snapped, pushing him to his feet. "How did you even get here?"

"By the window."

My eyes widened. I forgot to close that window before I went to bed. There was a just outside it. A thick branch was reaching out towards the window to my room. I groaned in defeat. "Please, just go."

Victor grinned. "Whatever you say, Eli." And he jumped out of the window. I fought the urge to check out on him but I was sure that he was still in one piece. That guy could never die.

Quickly, I scampered towards my bed and was about to put the blanket over me when the door opened. My dad's head poked inside my room. "You alright?" he asked, looking around my room with keen eyes.

"Uh, yeah. I just fell out of my bed," I lied, laughing a bit.

"Oh. Um, okay. Good night," he said, walking away.

I let out a sigh of relief. That was a close one.

Suddenly, the door burst open once more. This time, it was my mother who had intruded my private quarters. I narrowed my eyes on her. "Good evening, mother. What are you doing here?" I asked, suspiciously.

My mom was grinning ear to ear. "So?" she asked, eagerly.

That made me confused. "Huh?"

"Victor went up here, didn't he?" she said, guessing correctly.

My mom. She was indeed a very rare specimen. She was always thrilled with the thought of me having a boyfriend and some romance in my life and yet she would fill my mind with the hideous personalities and characteristics some men possessed. But I guess her excuse of being slightly eccentric was because she was a mother who cared for her daughter very deeply.

"N-nope," I lied, hoping that I didn't sound too obvious. Even though I loved my parents very much, I didn't want them to be bothered with my complicated relationship with Victor. I knew that my dad was going to disapprove of it while my mom would start squealing with delight if ever she learned about our relationship.

My mom looked slightly disappointed. She walked over to my bed and sat down on top of it. Her hand ran along my back. "Elijah, we've talked about this thousands of time. You can tell me everything, most especially if it's about boys."

I only smiled back at my mom, wishing that my face didn't betray me. Sorry mom, but this was not your usual boy problem. This was my problem and she need not be involved. But now that I thought of it, she was already involved. At least the others wouldn't be able to find this place immediately. We were practically in the middle of nowhere. The city was too far from our house.

Even though the house was quite isolated, having a few neighbors which were a miles away from us, that didn't mean we had a poorly constructed house. Nope. It was the exact opposite. Our house was quite huge with lots of windows. In fact, our living room consisted mostly of glass walls so we could always look at the beautiful scenery outside our house. At our backyard, we had a huge piece of land where grapes grew. Rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of grapes.

My parents ran a winery and we had a total of 73 men working in it. Some picked the grapes while some made the wine. When I was younger, I used to ran around the vineyard, barefoot. And as I grew older, I started helping out in picking of grapes or maybe in making the wine. Did I ever mention to you that I just loved stepping on the grapes. But as the years went by, I became too obsessed with my studies.

Yup. I was a nerd.

"Are you and Victor having sex?" my mom suddenly popped the question which almost made me choke.

"WHAT?"

"I said..."

I raised my hand to stop my mom from repeating the obscene question. "I heard you mom and I can't believe that you don't have faith in me. Of course we're not doing such...perverted thing. Sure, we kissed a couple of times but..."

This time, it was my mom's turn to interrupt. "Oh really? Is he a good kisser?"

Heat rose to my cheeks. We fell silent for a moment. I didn't know whether to answer the question or not. I glanced up at my mom who had a smile on her face. I sighed. It wouldn't hurt to tell her one simple truth, right? "Y-yeah," I admitted, not helping myself when I started to turn red as a tomato. My mom chuckled and patted my cheek.

"You never told us what's the relationship between the two of you," my mom said, looking at me with concerned eyes. I knew that look. My mom didn't want me to get hurt.

I sighed. "It's complicated," I stated. "And I don't want to talk about it so can I have some sleep?"

My mom still had that look on her face. "Okay. But one piece of advise, don't let fear stop you from being happy," my mom said, kissing me on the forehead and leaving. She gave me one last smile before closing the door behind her.

"Thanks mom," I whispered as soon as the door closed. Her advise was helpful...that was if we were talking about a normal guy who just wanted to have a normal life with me. But this was Victor we were talking about. I wasn't so sure if I would be happy if I would give myself to him. Wherever he went, trouble was sure to follow. I didn't want to live life running all the time. I just wanted to settle down in the future. Victor wouldn't be able to give me that so I was bound to get hurt. I was so sure of it.

His life was an adventure. I just wasn't so sure if I wanted to take part of it...

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