Chapter 25

A/N: So I reread a couple chapters, and apparently Logan's been taking care of Scooter for a tad bit longer than I thought. (OK I completely forgot that I stuck 'em together for a whole year but heck, I have a busy life, I can't be expected to remember every single detail of my fanfiction! … Even if plenty of other writers on this site have no such problem whatsoever.)
So anyway, my apologies for any unnecessary confusion. Just being a dick, here.

"Absolutely not," Logan groans when he feels the weight of an eleven-year-old body on his chest, one hand pushing insistently on his shoulder.

"But Logan, you said you'd make me pancakes this morning!"

"Did I say at one o'clock?"

"It's ten-thirty."

"Did I say ten-thirty?"

"No."

"Then let me sleep, kid."

Scott sighs, but grins when an idea pops into his head. "I could make them myself, if you don't wanna'."

The burly man rolls over and captures the younger of the pair with a bulky arm, holding him down. "Yer blind," he points out, because apparently he needs to.

The boy's smile fades away so quickly it almost feels like a crushing weight has been placed on the man's heart.

"Ah, dang it. Kid, 'm sorry."

"It's okay, Logan."

He seriously doubts it is. But then the youth turns his head a little to smile up at him, and says five little words that, if put in any other order, wouldn't matter so much at all. If it were any other kid trapped underneath his arm right now, he wouldn't have cared so much. But he's grown quite fond of the little termite who wormed his way into his life one cold Winter night.

"I will see again soon."

Alex doesn't think he can handle the tension between him and Sean for much longer. Ever since Noah left, Abby had started following him all over the place, much the same as Jill did with Sean. The problem was that it left them little time to speak to one another and this only served to heighten the tension in the room any time they came across the other. Heck, even passing each other in the hall way was terribly awkward.

So he decides that instead of letting things remain the way they are, he will go do something about it, himself. And if Sean's face is the epitome of comical when he enters his room without knocking, then he'll be forgiven as it isn't every day that the person you used to call 'brother' has a crush on you. Well, had The early rejection kind of does away with smitten feelings.

The redhead's mouth opens and closes, but no sound comes out. Alex sighs and shuts the door behind himself before heading for the window sill, where he plunks down and crosses his arms with another huff. "So I got tired of us being too chicken to be in the same room for over five minutes," he states, looking straight at the younger Mutant. Sean looks like he wants to tear his gaze away but is afraid he might be hurting Alex' feelings if he did, and the blonde appreciates the fact that he would compromise his need to tuck himself away into a corner whenever things get uncomfortable in order to regain his loyalty.

Something passes in that short instant where blue eyes met turquoise, because Sean smiles up at him after a couple of seconds, replying, "Thank God. Didn't know how long I could put up with neon toenails."

"Raven?"

"Raven."

"So… Resident Evil?"

"I'll get the sodas."

"You bet your ginger ass you are."

"Shut up and set up the game."

"Dibs on the good headset."

"Only if I get the red controller."

"Done."

Lunch is a silent affair. Abigail keeps looking over at the vacant chair on her right, not in the least bit distracted by the animated conversation Charles is insistent on upholding to her left.

She picks at her sandwich, tearing off the crusts and chewing them slowly, drinking a gulp of water after every bite to wash away the thickness in the back of her throat that is in no part due to the texture of peanut butter.

"Eat up, Abigail," Erik orders, and she nods, but can't make herself move any faster than before. Alex shoves the jar of jam toward her, stating, "It tastes better with this."

She nods again, but decides not to use it, as it would surely frustrate Erik if she finished her meal at an even slower rate.

A warm hand touches the back of her head, but the soothing motion of Charles' thumb stroking tiny quarter-circles against her skull does nothing for her upset stomach. If anything, it just makes her realize how much she would have loved for that hand to be Noah's, and that makes her wonder if she'll ever see him again. Tears gather in her eyes, but she doesn't let them fall. Instead she shoves a huge mouthful of bread in her mouth, swallowing it away with another gulp of water.

The pit in her stomach remains.

Raven catches herself biting her nails to the quick. The ice cream cone in her other hand lost its appeal about five minutes back, and she only now feels the sticky treat running down her arm.

"Fuck," she mutters when she sees the green splotch it left on her sweater. Using the soiled paper napkin she tries futilely to clean it, but the battle was lost before it begun. Heaving a deep sigh, she throws the cone in the nearest trash can and makes her way back to the mansion.

"Why does everything have to suck so hard?" she complains to no one in particular. "Why can't things be more exciting? Why am I stuck here, being the sum of everything I don't want to be?"

A creepy-looking old man leers at her and she shudders, morphing into a man, instead. Even as a pretty blonde she doesn't feel quite right. Not that being a man is much of a step up.

It is right then, in that moment, that she decides to stop complaining. Not because she's ready to see the sun lurking behind the clouds, but because she realizes that nobody's listening anyway.

"No, you're doing it wrong," Abby says, moving Scott's arm down a little. "You're s'posed to make it into a hook, like this."

Scott pulls his arm loose. "I think I know what a hook looks like, thank you very much."

"Jeez, I was just trying to help."

"Well I don't need your stupid help! I was doing fine on my own!"

He's loud enough to attract the attention of Logan, who was keeping an eye on a duelling Alex and Sean.

"Is there a problem?" he demands over the noise of battling teenagers.

Abby is silent, but Scott can bet she's pointing at him and mouthing all kinds of nasty things. His face feels flushed and he can tell by the sudden silence that everyone's attention is on him, now, and evidently even Alex' quiet, ''Scottie?'' is enough to tip him over the edge right now because he explodes before he can feel it happening and it's like raw, hot emotion comes spilling out of him when he tears the restricting band off his eyelids and opens his eyes and lets it all come gushing out. And from the corners of his eyes he can see them, their faces, and he wants to take it all in and collect personal quirks and traits and store them up in his brain for safekeeping but he is far too concerned with what he is momentarily focused on, which is a huge hole in the wall which stretches about two metres in diameter and he thinks that's a tree he's melting over there but what if it's a person or something out there in distance? And it's all so far ahead, he can see so far ahead, he can tell the ground from the walls with his sight instead of his hands and he can tell the birds are there without hearing them and suddenly he's not restricted to just the room, anymore. Not restricted to the four remaining senses he has.

And then something hits him on the back of his head and he sees no more. He should have known it couldn't have lasted.

Burt and Grace are fine, upstanding citizens, and you will never hear him naysay it. But there is an evilness in their simplicity that haunts you when you share the dinner table with them, chewing plain, standard morsels in complete and utter silence.

Hank must have noticed their lack of complexity or exclusivity by now, but he has yet to comment on it or make his discomfort noticeable. Instead, he sits quietly and sips the homemade iced tea as though he has all the time in the world to sit here, listening to Grace go on and ever on about her efforts to fulfil Noah's wishes. He nods along when she speaks of her attempts to get him to put more effort into his studies and listen to his father when he tried to convince him to try out for the football team.

And it is only when her well of words seems to have dried up that Burt himself speaks up, running a hand through his short-cropped hair and speaking directly to Hank without even sparing a glance for his foster son.

"So what is the deal here, son? What are our options?"

Noah hopes he has managed to cover his flinch by rubbing his arm repeatedly, as if merely stung by a mosquito. Hank presses his knee closer anyway, and leans forwards, poring over the files on the table. He picks one up and turns it around before shoving it toward Grace and Burt.

"Well, since you have both agreed that you would be happier if Noah himself was happy, and we have confirmed that he will be allowed to study at the Xavier institute, I will need you both to sign these forms. It will allow us to have full custody over mr. Barrows for as long as he goes to the institute."

Grace looks over at Burt with worry clouding her eyes. "I dunno'…" she mutters, "you think that's a good idea, hon?" She's looking over at Noah, now, and he in turn fixes his gaze firmly on the ground.

"I assure you it's in Noah's best interests –" but Hank is interrupted by the woman as she leans over and squeezes her foster son's knee. "If this is what you want, you should go for it. With all you've got, ya hear?"

"Yes ma'am," the raven-haired boy replies, nodding his head like a proper son. She smiles before looking over at Hank and holding her hand out for the documents. "Let's do this, then."

Raven returns in time to see the giant hole gaping wide in one of the mansion's walls and wonders if she should risk entering just yet. Deciding that it would be the most interesting thing to have happened all week, she walks inside, only to get pushed aside by Alex, who's desperately tailing their gruff combat instructor who currently happens to have his kid brother tucked firmly under his arm as he makes his way up the stairs. Scott, for his part, doesn't squirm much, instead choosing to use his words to articulate that he can walk just fine, with or without a possible concussion.

"Concussion?" she whispers to Sean who's shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other.

"Wolverine knocked him out," Sean replies, "to get him to stop shooting laser beams from his eyeballs." Because that's regular jargon to them now.

"Right," she says simply, wincing when a door slams shut and a moment later Alex starts shouting about 'opening the fucking door' and where on Earth are Erik and Charles?

Abby walks up to her and leans into her side, pressing her face into Raven's stomach. "I didn't mean to make him upset," she whispers through her tears, "I didn't think he'd get angry enough to- to—" But the girl doesn't get much farther than that and instead starts bawling her eyes out.

"I want Noah!" she manages to get out through her incessant sobbing, and Raven acts on instinct, morphing into said brother before her body has caught up fully and somehow it seems to calm the younger Mutant down so that's good, right? Even if it's totally wrong on an ethical level.

"I, uh, I'm gonna' go get Alex to calm his shit," Sean offers, and Raven is glad for his absence when she pulls Abby into her arms and heads for the garden where they can sit in silence and ignore everything else.

A/N: Okay, let's do this. I'm really sorry for the long wait. I know I've been extremely slow to upload but a lot of shit has gone down in these last few months. One of them is finals. On Monday I'm going to find out if I passed the year or failed, and I have to say it's been an extremely stressful exam period. And the exams in Belgium are nowhere near as tough as finals in America, so yeah. What can I say? I'm a ball of anxiety. So I just wanted to apologize for the delay.

On another note: is anyone else watching Orange Is The New Black and loving it? 'Cause I'm totally hooked. Like, seriously.

Oh! Another important thing! I'm going to do volunteer work in Africa in a few days so it'll probably be another long wait. But I'll probably write some chapters while I'm there and if I'm lucky and we have internet I may be able to post some but I'll be very busy so now you all know what to expect.

Also, thank you so much for the kind reviews! They're really a pleasure to read! Even if I feel like punching myself in the mouth for not uploading sooner. 3