Hello! If you've been sticking with me so far….well I hope you're enjoying it! Honestly, I'm just so excited to continue this story! As a disclaimer, I have nor claim rights to anything Xmen. I own Zezelia and her journey only! Please know that I am dying for reviews and feedback on this story. I hope you enjoy this chapter and all the rest to come! Xoxo -NickyLynn
When Erik had finished showering and getting ready, he went straight to Zezelia's room, only to find her absent. Figuring she had made her way downstairs with the rest of the group, he then made his way in that direction. When he arrived in the kitchen, however, the group of individuals sitting around the large table talking and getting ready to eat was devoid of her presence as well.
Charles sensing Erik's thoughts set his mind at ease. "She's outside by the pond." His voice said to him alone. Erik's eyes snapped over to the window, eyebrows lacing together as he wondered what she was doing out there. "She wanted to be alone for a while. Though I do wonder if you would be able to convince her to join us. I'm sure she's hungry." Came Charles's voice again.
Erik looked over to Charles who was mid-conversation with Alex and Hank and then turned, heading outside to find his oldest friend. He found her sitting under a large tree, looking as if she were sleeping. He quietly made his way towards her, only for her to snap her head up at his arrival, despite his efforts at being quiet.
"Good morning." She greeted upon his approach.
"Morning." He responded, coming to a halt beside her. "How'd you sleep?" he asked, seeing the dark circles hanging under her eyes.
She flinched at the question, memories of last night's dream playing in her head. "Could have been better." She replied, honestly. She pushed herself off the ground, brushing the dirt from her borrowed sweatpants.
"So, did you happen to pick up sleepwalking along the way, too, or do you just like the view?" he asked her with a smile, as she reached high above her head in a stretch, trying to break her out of the melancholy she seemed to be emanating.
It did the trick as she cracked a smile in his direction. "No, it's just quiet out here." She said, bringing her arms back down. "Or at least it was."
His smiled broadened and he nodded his head back towards the mansion. "They've got breakfast waiting for us if you're hungry." He told her.
Zezelia's stomach rumbled with the thought of food, realizing she had not eaten at all yesterday and nodded her head. "Food sounds good." She agreed. As they made their way back across the lawn, she couldn't help but start to feel apprehensive. She stopped in her tracks. "Erik." She called, uncertainly.
At the sound of his name, he stopped and turned towards her. Her face was drawn together in deep concentration and she had her lip pulled in between her teeth. "These people….they're good aren't they?" she finally asked, looking up at him.
He was thrown off by the question and was about to give her an answer before she continued. "I mean, they're not like usare they?" she amended, hoping he understood what she had meant by it. And he did. While Charles and the others were caring, and open and hopeful, they were almost too much so. They have never endured suffering like he and her had. They have never known true pain yet. They had not taken any lives. They were all so innocent in so many ways. His eyes softened at her before he came to stand closer to her, bringing his hand up against her cheek. This time she didn't flinch away from his touch. "I don't want anyone else to get hurt because of me." She whispered, a tear rolling down her skin and onto Erik's finger as memories of her past rolled through her.
"We're not going to let anything happen to them." He told her, reassuringly. "We'll keep them safe and with their help we'll be able to take down Shaw and stop anyone else from hurting them or people like us ever again." He told her, staring into her grey eyes. "I promise."
Zezelia nodded, swallowing back down the emotions that had begun spilling over the edge. He had always known what to say to make her feel better and time hadn't changed that fact. "Okay." She said, putting her faith in his words.
He pulled her close, pressing his lips against her forehead before stepping back again. "Now, come on. The food is going to get cold."
A small laugh fell past her lips as she brushed the wetness from her cheek and continued to make her way with Erik back into the house and towards the dining area. Once she was back within the walls of the house, the voices filled her head again and she did her best to tune them out. Her ears could pick up the sounds of the same voices, louder and clearer, laughing and talking over breakfast. As they made their way over to them, they all fell silent as they noticed their arrival.
Zezelia felt suddenly self-conscious as she took in the five faces staring back at her. Charles cleared his throat from the end of the table, using a napkin to wipe his mouth. "Ah, everyone, I'd like to formally introduce you to our newest recruit. This is Zezelia." He said with a smile.
"Um," she said in a quiet voice. "Hello."
'Zezelia," he continued. "You remember Raven from last night," he said, motioning in the blonde's direction. "Beside her, we have Hank McCoy, Alex Summers, and Sean Cassidy." He finished introducing, pointing in the direction of each of them as he went. "Please, join us." He said, motioning to a couple of empty chairs next to him. She and Erik both took their seats, Zezelia, nervously running a hand down her hair as she did so.
"The clothes fit okay I see." Raven said from across the table, sending her a friendly smile. Finding it drastically easier to talk to the new woman now that she was clean and blood-free.
Zezelia looked over to the only other woman in the group and nervously smiled back. "Yes-thank you for lending them to me!" she said in gratitude.
"No problem! Charles wants me to go shopping today and pick you up some of your own stuff. If you'd like, you could come with me?" she said, sliding a piece of toast in her mouth.
"Oh! You don't have to do that!" Zezelia said in alarm, looking over at Charles.
"Nonsense. I insist! Seeing as you're going to be staying with us for the foreseeable future it would be only logical for you to have access to a full wardrobe." He said, lifting up his glass of orange juice and taking a drink of it.
"Well, then sure. I guess, yeah." Zezelia said, turning her attention back to Raven. "If you don't mind, that is."
"Are you kidding me? It'll be nice to be able to finally hang out with another girl for once! The amount of testosterone in this house is stifling." She joked.
Zezelia couldn't help but smile at the blonde's bubbly personality. "I'd like that very much then, thank you." She told her warmly. Raven beamed down at her and continued eating.
Zezelia looked about the table of food and was overwhelmed with how much of it there was. Food had never been much of a luxury to her and the amount of choices before her were baffling. She finally settled on pulling some of the fresh fruit onto her plate along with a piece of toast. She popped a grape into her mouth and began chewing when Hank spoke up from his spot next to Raven.
"So Zezelia, where are you from?" he asked, looking down at her curiously.
Zezelia coughed as a small piece of the grape stuck to the back of her throat as she was thrown off guard by the question. She took a gulp of water to wash it down and cleared her throat. "Uh, I was born in Fussen." She told him.
"I thought your name sounded German." He told her, smiling.
She nodded her head at him. "Yeah, it's a small town close to the border of Austria." She explained. Though, in all honesty, Fussen had never really felt like a home to her. She really didn't have a home.
"Ah. A foreign chick." Sean said, drawing her attention down to him. "That's hot."
For a second time in a matter of seconds, a piece of food lodged into her throat as she took in his words. She coughed violently for a moment before clearing her airway and giving Sean a perplexed look. "I feel obliged to tell you that I was born in 1928." She said, feeling strange that someone so much her younger would be hitting on her. Beside her Charles started sputtering on his own food.
"No way." Said Sean in disbelief.
"It's true. She's technically the oldest person here." Erik said from his place next to her.
On her other side Charles had cleared his airway enough to speak. "Are you really?" he asked in astonishment. She nodded.
"Well you're looking pretty good for a thirty-four year old." Alex said, speaking up for the first time since she joined the table. "What's your secret? Beauty cream? Diet? Calisthenics?" he asked jokingly.
"Mutation." She answered instead. She picked up her knife, pressing the tip against the flesh of her hand and pulling back until a red line appeared. She heard a small gasp from Raven before she dropped the knife and used the napkin to wipe up the blood. She held her hand up next to her face for the others to get a good look at. Where there had been a deep gash not a moment prior, was now nothing but perfect skin. "I picked up a mutation a few years back." She explained, wiggling her fingers. "Not only can I heal, but I don't seem to age either….and I can't seem to die. I'm forever frozen as this." She said, waving her hand over her face before dropping it in her lap.
The atmosphere around the table was tense after her confession. She glanced around at the surprised faces, no one knowing what to say. Her eyes landed on Erik who's stare was cutting into her core.
"Well don't worry, I dig older chicks." Sean finally said from the other end of the table, breaking the awkwardness around the table with a round of laugher from everyone.
"Well now, Hank and I are going to be down in the bunker working with Alex today." Charles said after the laughter subsided. "Erik, would you be up for some one-on-one coaching with Sean today while the girls are out shopping?"
Erik flashed a devious smile down at Sean, thoroughly enjoying the idea of getting a little physical with the younger man, especially after his last comment. "What do you say Sean, up for a little sparing?" he asked.
Sean looked from Charles to Erik with wide eyes, not enjoying the idea of getting a little physical with the metal bender. "Sure." His voice squeaked before he cleared his throat and said it again in a deeper octave.
"Wonderful!" Charles said far too cheerfully.
Later that day after Zezelia had changed into a pair of slacks and sweater that Raven had, once again, loaned her, the two women found themselves in a local department store browsing through the hanging fabric.
Raven had a short red dress pulled up against her body, looking in a mirror, twisting this way and that. "What do you think?" she asked Zezelia, turning around to show her the item.
Zezelia raised a brow at her. "I think your brother might have a heart attack if he seen you wearing that in a house full of men." she told her honestly. While it was a beautiful, she somehow sensed that Charles would not approve of the revealing cut.
Raven rolled her eyes, putting the dress back onto a rack with a scoff. "I'm pretty sure Charles would be happy if I were to become a nun." She said, shaking her head and continuing down the aisle looking for more items.
Zezelia followed behind her smiling. "He just cares about you. Aren't big brothers suppose to be overly protective and fret over their little sisters?"
Raven turned her head back to Zezelia. "Charles isn't my real brother you know." She confessed.
Zezelia's brows went up in surprise. "He's not? I figured-I mean you two seem so close."
Raven stopped to pull out another article, holding it this way and that in the light. "He took me in when I was a child." She explained. "I love him like a brother but sometimes I just don't think he really sees me for me, ya know?" she said before placing the shirt back. "I mean, he goes on and on about mutations and how amazing they are, but he never really accepts me for mine. I think he'd just rather I pretend to be something I'm not then truly accept me for who I am." she continued with a sad look.
Zezelia's brows knit together more. "What exactually is your mutation Raven? If you don't mind me asking."
Raven glanced back at her, biting her lip before a grin spread across her face and she reached out and took hold of Zezelia's gloved hand. "Come on." She said eagerly.
Raven pulled the other woman across the store to the dressing rooms. She quickly checked the area to make sure no one was watching before she opened one of the stalls and pulled both of them in. Zezelia's eyes grew, curious what they were doing in the small space. "What-" she began to ask before the words died on her lips as she watched Raven's body shift and change with a wave of mesmerizing blue patterns until Zezelia was staring at an identical replica of herself. A strange sense of déjà vu overtook her as she was reminded of the dream she had had of herself before Raven shifted again. This time Zezelia was staring into the face of Charles. Zezelia's mouth fell open in astonishment.
"I can take the form of anyone I want really." Raven said in Charles's voice before she shifted once again into Erik's form. "But my true form." She said now in Erik's much deeper tone. "Is this." She finished before shifting once again, but this time, her body shifted into a blue-skinned woman with what looked like patches of scales around her body, fiery red hair and startling yellow eyes.
Zezelia's mouth was beginning to go dry with how long she had kept it open. Never before had she seen something so wonderfully unique. She was left speechless, and in her silence, Raven began to wonder if she had made a mistake in showing her. Hearing her doubt-filled thoughts, Zezelia snapped her mouth shut and it instead spread into a wide grin. "Raven that's the most astonishing thing I have even seen!" she told the blue woman.
Raven perked up at the compliment. "Really? You don't think I'm ugly like this?" she asked timidly.
Zezelia shook her head fervently. "Of course not Raven. You look incredible!" she said reaching forward to take one of Raven's blue hands in hers. "You are spectacularly unique and absolutely beautiful." She told the younger girl honestly. Raven smiled brightly, relieved at her words. "In fact, I think you should stay in this form more often. It's nice to see the real you."
Raven slipped her hand out of Zezelia's and shifted her form again, reverting back to her blonde self. "Charles doesn't agree. He thinks I should stay like this. I think it bothers him…the way I look." She said, casting her eyes down.
Zezelia's heart clenched as she watched a crestfallen look wash over Raven's face. "Well Charles is an idiot." She told her.
Raven snorted. "I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks so."
They opened the dressing room door and were about to step back out when then came face to face with a tall woman who stared down at the two of them suspiciously. "What were you two doing in there?" she asked, looking them over with an arched brow.
"Uh," Raven began, exchanging a glance with Zezelia. Two women coming out of the same dressing room, without a single piece of clothing to try one between the two of them? Yeah, there was no explainable reason Raven could muster on the spot.
Luckily for her, Zezelia came to the rescue with a witty response. "Well, we very well can't snog each other out here. People would stare." She said as if it was the most normal thing. Raven shot wide eyes over to her in surprise as the older woman turned beat red and started fumbling over her words.
"Get out, the both of you! You can't be doing that kind of stuff in here! Get out!" she said, waving her hands around.
Zezelia leaned closer to Raven as she said "Come on Doll, let's take this somewhere a little more private." Before reaching behind Raven and giving her a firm smack on the ass.
Raven squeaked in response and was pulled away from the now blubbering mess of a woman by Zezelia linking an arm through hers and pulling her away while laughing. The two girls took off running through the store, giggling uncontrollably. They slowed their pace as the made it out of the store, but kept their arms linked together.
After having to find another store to shop at, they found a decent amount of clothes and had made their way back to the mansion a little after noon. They dropped off the newly acquired clothes in Zezelia's room before heading down to the kitchen to make themselves lunch. Raven was halfway through making the two of them sandwiches when Charles walked into the kitchen. His hair was tousled badly and what looked like ash and scorch marks marred his clothes.
"What happened to you?" Raven asked giving him an amused look.
"Progress." Is all he said, reaching into a cupboard to retrieve a glass before turning to the sink and filling it with water.
"Looks like you girls enjoyed yourselves." He said, noticing their cheery attitudes.
"I'd say Zezelia enjoyed herself a little too much." Raven said slyly, sending the images of what happened earlier in the store into his mind.
Charles began choking on the water he was in the process of drinking and began coughing violently, slamming the cup back down on the counter. Raven's grin grew as she exchanged looks with an amused Zezelia. "Raven!" he admonished. "That's hardly appropriate behavior."
"Oh come on! I didn't even do anything!" she exclaimed.
"Relax. That prude deserved to have her day shaken up a bit." Zezelia said, reaching over and taking the sandwich that Raven was holding out to her. "Besides, I think she actually liked it a little if you know what I mean." She said, tapping the side of her head.
"She did not!" Raven gasped out, another round of laugher taking hold of her.
Charles let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head as he made it way out of the kitchen and away from the two women. "What have I gotten myself into." He muttered to himself, rubbing his temples and the growing headache beneath them.