A/N Hello Everybody! We're back to Gideon and Lily again =D

Gideon finally found Lily at dinner that night.

"There you are." He said as he sat down next to her, "I was looking all over for you today, where were you?"

"Oh, I got out of training a little late and then I went to see Tessa, about fixing my hair," she motioned to the fading pink streak, "but she was busy. Then I went and met Luther. We were going to come find you but…" Lily trailed off as she looked over at Luther, who was staring down at his food and picking at it with shaking hands.

"Is he okay?" Gideon asked, already knowing the answer.

"He had it really rough in there. He told me…well he…" she bit her lip as if she didn't want to repeat whatever Luther had told her, "he just got really scared."

Luther didn't seem to notice they were talking about him at all. His face was completely blank. Gideon wish he could do something to help the poor guy, but he wasn't really sure how.

"What kind of scared are we talking? Like, cry for an hour scared, or like pee your pants scared?" He asked.

"A literal mixture of the two."

"Yikes." Gideon's simulation had been rough but he couldn't imagine what Luther had seen.

"And he was in for almost an hour." Lily added.

"That's awful."

Xavier had sat next to Luther, his casual smile fading immediately upon looking at him.

"Luther, are you okay?" Xavier asked.

No response. Luther tried to lift his fork but his hands were shaking too much. Xavier reached out and took Luther's hands in his own, keeping them steady. Luther blinked and his eyes returned from whatever distant horrors they had been seeing. He looked up at Xavier, surprised, as if he hadn't realized he was there until that moment. He smiled softly, Gideon got the feeling that he would be okay.

"What about you?" He asked Lily, "How are you feeling after…you know."

"Huh? Oh, the simulation." Lily seemed distracted, Gideon wondered if she was lost in her own simulation, like Luther was. "It was really no big deal, just a big spider, not exactly traumatic. I got out pretty quick." Lily shrugged and reached for another bread roll, but the way her eyes avoided Gideon, it seemed strange. She only did this when she was mad at him; and he didn't think that he'd done anything this time.

"Are you sure, because you can talk to me about it."

"Yes, Gideon, I'm sure." She had a smile plastered to her face, but her tone was sharp.

"Did I do something, are you mad at me? You're acting strange." Gideon asked.

"No, I'm not mad at you. I'm fine. I just don't feel like talking about the damn simulations!"

Now Gideon knew something was wrong, Lily never swore, ever; and she rarely raised her voice. But he knew pushing her at this point would only upset her more.

"Okay, I'm sorry." Gideon tried to hide the hurt in his voice. He looked over at Xavier and Luther, Xavier had and arm wrapped around Luther and was playfully feeding him off his plate; acting over-excited to cheer Luther up, but staring at him with concern whenever the other boy wasn't looking.

Gideon found himself wishing that he and Lily were like that now; it was how they had always been. He couldn't fathom what had happened in that one simulation to make her so hostile, or what was so bad that she couldn't tell him about it.

"You know, you can tell me about yours. If you want to." Lily said with a soft tone. She looked up at him and she didn't need to speak for him to understand what she was saying, "I'm sorry, let's not fight."

"Um, it was rats." He said, grateful that she was speaking kindly to him again, "I was in a basement and there were hundreds of rats between me and the door."

"How'd you get out?"

"I lit a broom on fire."

Lily smiled and leaned up to kiss his cheek, "You're so smart. I probably wouldn't have thought of that."

"Yeah, I mean, it's kind of hard to get your bearings isn't it? You wake up in some weird place with no idea how you got there, then all of a sudden you just have to fight your way out? But, like, you get it." He was blushing a little, he had just realized that he and Lily had never actually discussed their fears. He knew she was afraid of spiders because of the many times she had made him kill them for her, but he had never told her any of his.

"Did you know that rats will swarm people or animals and burrow through their eyes and mouths to get to the softest meats on their bodies?" Jackson threw out. Gideon felt like he was about to be sick, thinking of the image Jackson had put in his head.

"Thanks for that, man." He said, pushing his food away.

"Sorry, bro," Jackson did look legitimately ashamed, "third-wheel syndrome. Or, I guess, fifth-wheel."

"Then why don't you invite one of your many, many, many lady friends to join us?" Luther asked. It made Gideon happy to see him joking again, and he could tell Xavier was relieved too.

"You are exaggerating," Jackson said, "it's not like I have women stock-piled or anything. I am simply a very eligible bachelor who is happy to share all of myself with any interested parties."

"And who is the most interested party today?" Xavier asked.

"Belle, from Amity. So, no question as to why she can't sit with us."

"What happened to Shae?" Xavier asked.

"And Marie." Luther added.

"And Jane." Gideon threw out.

"Wait, back up, Belle?" Lily said, "I remember her, she's the one that was always reading. We all thought she would transfer to Erudite."

"Well she didn't. And she was my doctor-in-training today."

"And she wasn't put off by the fact you were in the infirmary from shock after being chased by imaginary puppies?" Gideon raised an eyebrow.

"They were not puppies! They were big and vicious and had fully grown canines!"

While the rest of the group continued to laugh and joke at Jackson's expense, Gideon saw Lily's eyes start to glaze over, and her face scrunch up in worry. She retreated back into her thoughts, and this time, he didn't try to stop her.

A/N Just a moment of Self-advertising here. If you want to learn more about Belle, she has her own story. I won't be posting it until this story ends, but it'll be called The Art Of Blending, so like, check it out, if you want….or not *hides*