(Volume: 2 Arc: "Cause and Effect" 6 Issue: 1/2 )

Chapter 54: anti-gravity

"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!"

The door opened with a blam, and Julian stood, his cheeks bright red. He was huffing. Laura looked up from her homework, surprised; she'd heard him
coming, and he'd sounded angry, but to see him was quite different than to merely hear or smell him. And he was quite spectacularly angry.

"Practice didn't go so well?" she asked, raising her eyebrow. She almost smiled, he was kind of cute when he was mad.

"If you ever mention the words 'Danger Room' or 'Dr. McCoy to me…" Julian pointed at her, his finger shaking.

"Easy, tiger," Laura said. "Looks to me like you need to relax…"

"Hrm?" Julian sat down on the bed. "Laura…I don't understand…where'd it go? I had such good control before…I could undo the buttons on a girl's shirt
with my mind then…and now…I so much as lift a fucking paper clip and I blow a crater in a steel floor."

Laura did smile.

"Fuck you," he said, pulling off his t-shirt. "I've never been so afraid of a little piece of metal in my life. Do you know what it's like to suddenly be terrified of your own brain?"

"Yes," she said thoughtfully, chewing on the eraser end of her pencil. "I was really, really baked…this one time with Megan. I took acid, meth, and smoked two joints by myself…"

Julian blinked. "Are you sure your healing covers brain damage?"

Laura grinned. "Sure. It takes a lot to put me out of it. I reserve those festivities for especially strong whims. Ohhhh which reminds me…did you hear about the new one, Kick? I hear—"

"No. Laura." Julian turned pale.

"Relax," she teased. "You twitch so easy."

"Pffft." He threw his shirt at her; she screeched and dove off her chair to avoid it.

"KELLER! So gross…who knows what little bacteria you have crawling around in your armpits? Kindly keep your juice off me, thanks."

"I showered this morning," he sneered.

"Not from the smell of it," she said, pinching her nose and nudging his shirt with a slippered foot. "I smell wet boy. Ewww!"

Julian rolled his eyes. "You're a pregnant woman who already had enhanced senses to begin with…it's like living with someone that has microscopic vision."

"GO SHOWER!" Laura shouted, her voice nasally. "TAKE IT WITH YOU!"

"Oh, fuck, fine, alright, JE-EZ," he said, more than a little annoyed as the shirt floated to his fingertips. "I had quite a workout today, I think it's more than reasonable
that I had a bit of adrenaline going…that's the smell of manhood, you know. You should appreciate it."

Laura topped his comeback by actually vomiting quite violently into her trashcan.

He blinked, then turned and walked to the bathroom, closing the door meekly.

…

"I'm still not hungry," Laura mumbled.

"Just shhh," Julian said, his face a bit red. He'd already been embarrassed enough that day, without Laura starting on him too. He'd cleaned up, then removed the shirt
(going as far as to hand-wash it and spray some fresh scent crap where it had touched to please Laura—he'd drawn the line at sponge-scrubbing the floor, however).
He'd then spent half an hour convincing Laura she needed dinner, which was being served in the cafeteria.

They entered the cafeteria, Laura automatically shaking his hand off, only this time she did it a second after they'd walked through the doors (so just about everyone
in the room noticed them, and it looked like he'd just hit on her and gotten turned down). There were whispers, and laughing.

"Fuck, Laura, can you leave me with a thread of dignity, please?" he hissed.

"Not my fault if you don't have any, Keller," Laura said.

Julian's eyes involuntarily wandered over to the New Mutants table; Sofia was grinning in his direction. Yeah, they must all be curious…this was the first time he and Laura
had been in the cafeteria since the attack…and none of them were in his classes, so they wouldn't have known that he was back.

"Julian," a very girlish, frilly voice said, down near his elbow. He looked down—it was Sophie Cuckoo. "Are the rumors true? Were you shot in the head?"

"You tell me," he said, suddenly realizing how this could work to his advantage. He tilted his head at her and did his old trick with his eyes. Sophie flushed; her sisters laughed
at her…Esme waved at him. A little thought of that one time was baited in front of him; he hadn't lied about that.

"I think so," Laura said, peering over his shoulder. "I think the hole's still there, too. What does that say for you…you got shot in the head and walked away?"

"That I'm a God?" he grinned.

"Or there was nothing there to begin with," Laura said.

He raised his eyebrow; interesting, Laura reacted right on cue to his baiting. "Oh, there's something there…ask the Cuckoos," he said, patting Sophie's shoulder.

She smiled, forming dimples…the Cuckoos were hard to keep track of, by turns hating him and telling him to go do rather rude things to himself; and next, as a pack, hunting him.
Before, he'd leaned more towards Sofia, who at least picked a steady method of disdain. Instability in females was disturbing. Then he'd picked Laura, completely destroying the theory...

"You know, I need help with some of my Chemistry," Sophie suggested. "Would you be interested…Julian?"

"Oh, my god…study group!" Laura said, in fake excitement. "Okay, okay, you bring the brownies…I'll bring the—"

Julian took her firmly by the shoulder and steered her away. "I was going to say milk!" she called back. The Cuckoos stared…they'd probably just figured out what was going on.
They were smart and telepathic…but Laura had somehow managed to conceal the relationship anyways. It didn't help that she wasn't on psionic radar at the moment, and Julian
therefore had nothing to prove his thoughts about her were more than fantasies.

"What the fuck was that?" Julian asked her when they were at their table. The others weren't there, being otherwise occupied on a Friday night.

"Yes…what the fuck was that?" Laura responded evenly. "Just being friendly," Julian said. "I'm going to go get the trays. You don't bother moving or anything."

He stood up. Laura watched him go, internally conflicted. She knew that he wanted her to acknowledge him publicly; in a way she agreed with him…it was confusing. She still meant
everything, what they'd told each other only a week ago still held…but it was hard to change behavior. She was used to casting him off in public, even though a few select people
knew they were close (mainly, their squad, and a few of the New Mutants, such as Josh and Sofia). Just not how close. It occurred to her now, the knowledge that he might change
his mind if she was too difficult. Would he? He did care about appearances. She fretted, very unlike herself to do so.

"Oh my god, they had orange jello. I am such a happy man right now!" Julian slid into the seat across from her, the trays lowering in front of them carefully. At last moment…bam, they
smacked down on the counter and the gravy splattered everywhere.

"I hope it tastes as good as it feels," Laura said flatly, wiping the liquid out of her eyelashes. "Thanks a lot, asshole."

"Sorry," Julian mumbled. "Here." He leaned over and began to dab at her face with his thumb. Laura grabbed his wrist to stop him, in reflex; he pulled away, hurt.

"Okay, okay, I get it."

They finished the meal in silence—or would have—if the next incident had not occurred, when Julian forgot about his recent telekinetic problems and summoned the salt and pepper;
suddenly, he found himself levitating all the peas on his plate. "Ummm…" he said, staring up at them as they hovered above the couple's heads.

"Let me guess…you can't put them down," Laura said, watching them. "Can you hold them there until I finish in peace, please? I don't really feel like visiting the infirmary to have peas
removed from my skin."

Julian watched the peas too, considering making a run for the door; only, he would be followed by the trail of levitating peas. He decided to act like he'd meant for it to happen, and
twirled them around, in complex patterns. "Oooh, ahh…look," he grinned, forming a heart with them in front of Laura.

"I changed my mind…let them go." She covered her face.

"It could start a food fight," Julian said grimly. "And a possible explosion." The grip he had on the peas had that funny, reactive feeling that had happened when he'd been holding the
vase a bit earlier; wrong, somehow. Laura's eyes widened between her fingers. Normally, a food fight would mean fun and joy to her…but they were on such a short tether at the school
already…a little more destruction would (probably) result in their expulsion from classes. They'd both had enough detention in the last term to completely mess up about a year of education.

"Umm…what if you float them down to me and I catch them?" she asked, realizing this was actually a serious situation, and she would more than likely be dragged along with her—husband—
to Summer's office, if something happened. Julian leaned his cheek against his hand.

"I don't know why…I can pick up things just fine…but when I try to manipulate them…or put them down…" he left the sentence unfinished.

"What if you—"

Julian sat back, alarmed. The salt and pepper shakers had now joined the cloud of peas. He looked nervous. People were starting to look over the backs of their seats. Sofia approached the
table cautiously. "What are you doing, Julian?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" he said, watching the growing collection of floating objects. Three iPods had joined the mix, and then a hat flew off someone's head.

"I am not sure," Sofia said, craning her neck. "It looks like a face to me…the shakers kind of look like eyes…and the mouth there…"

A few peas suddenly popped, squirting juice inside the telekinetic field. Julian jumped back, and his plate flew up.

"Okay, okay, I admit, I can't put them down! I need help!" he said, sounding panicked. "Someone get a teacher or something! I might pull the whole room in!"

Sofia turned and ran for the doors.

"Calm down," Laura said, leaning over the table and touching his hand. "You're going to make it worse, idiot."

"But…" A chair dumped a student off and was sucked into the cloud. "Oh, shit."

By now, the area around them was clearing; he shook Laura's fingers off. "You'd better go with them," he said, sounding a bit calmer. The ceiling made an odd noise, then a pipe suddenly
burst out. "I don't want you in that mess, too."

…

By the time a few senior X-men had arrived, Julian's involuntary black hole had expanded massively to include shards of glass from the cafeteria windows, bricks from the walls, and pipes
from the ceiling—as well as objects from the floor above. Jean and Emma finally entered the cafeteria just as some of the chemicals in some of the objects were beginning to react.

"Hi," Julian said, still sitting at the table. "Anyone want to join me?"

"Hmm," Jean said, perching on the opposite bench and gazing up at the field. "This is quite unusual…telekinetics don't usually cause gravity ruptures, just channeled energy. Does the
connection feel strange to you?"

Julian nodded. The objects shook a bit in response. "Can you make me put them down, please? I'm not comfortable with this."

Jean frowned. "This goes a little beyond just putting them down. You've created a black hole, of sorts…I can stop you from feeding it, though."

She leaned over, touched Julian's forehead; his eyes cleared.

"Wow…" he rubbed his head, suddenly experiencing a tension migraine.

"Laura…it's okay, you can come over here," Jean said. "Why don't you help your husband to your room? He isn't feeling too good at the moment. No wonder…there's so much energy. We'll try
to take care of this mess. Yes, I know you want your iPod back, Pixie…this is going to take a while, though. Don't worry, I won't allow anything to be destroyed, Victor…"

Jean seemed to be responding to some of the thoughts of the students around her. Laura tried to ignore the other students' stares as she moved over to Julian and put her fingers on his
shoulders. So it was out. "Come on," she said stiffly.

…

"We can only hide in here so long," Julian grumbled into his pillow. "Believe me…I'm just as embarrassed as you are…probably more. I just proved to the entire school that I haven't learned
anything in the three years I've been here…I won't live this down."

Laura looked up. She'd been resting her head in her arms, on the desk. "Keller…Jean just acknowledged that I married you. To everyone. Nothing could compare."

She looked like she wanted to cry.

"You regret it?" he asked sharply.

"…" Laura looked down. "No."

"C'mere," he said, making a finger gesture.

"KELLER!" she yelped as she sailed through the air and was deposited on the bed beside him. "Can you just not use your mind for a while? Literally?"

"Sorry," he said. He laid on his back and pulled her up to straddle him, then reached up and touched her chin with his thumb. "I think my brain's excited. Maybe if you distract it…you know,
excite something else."

Laura sat back with a frustrated expression, her arms folded; he grinned, and his eyes slid half shut. "Yeah, perfect…fuck, I love that you started wearing those tights…"

"I thought you had a migraine," Laura said, her eyes narrowing.

"Best thing for a headache," he said, mock-seriously. "If you don't believe me, look it up…later of course…some scientists…or something…someone…they did…uh…research…thing…huh…"

Eventually he stopped trying to talk.