Fall was beginning to give way to winter, and they had yet to get the heat back on. They all took to wearing their warmest clothing in an attempt to keep out the ever-present nip of the cold. Skipping full days of school became less common for the five of them because at least school was warm, if very dull.

So she was a little surprised when Lance showed up at her locker just before second period and asked if she wanted to ditch for lunch. Jacelynn said yes, of course - she was never going to turn up a perfectly good opportunity to skip school.

But when the others weren't already at the jeep, and Lance made no sign of waiting for them, her surprise morphed into conclusion.

"Are the others not coming to Gut bomb?" she questioned.

"Nope," said Lance as he dropped into the driver's seat and turned on the ignition.

"It's not like them to say no," she mused as she got into shotgun.

"That's because I didn't ask them."

"Any reason?"

"Because I want to fucking kill them right now," he emphasized the statement by slamming his door closed.

She blinked. "Harsh."

"They deserve it," he grumbled as they pulled out of the school parking lot and started down the street.

"So...are you going to tell me what they did or do I need to start guessing?"

"Did you try to grab breakfast at all today?"

She paused for a moment. "Um, I don't think so."

"Then you didn't see the fact that the food you grabbed is essentially gone. In two days!"

"Oh,"

"I told them we needed to make this last, and instead of listening to me, they ate like they had never seen food before in their lives! But that's my own fault I guess, thinking they would ever listen to me. I swear, you people are fucking impossible to work with sometimes, let alone fucking live with." he vented.

"Hey!"

"Present company excluded," he amended.

"Thank you. But you shouldn't hold this over their heads. Pietro and Freddy can't do anything about having to eat more than the average person.

"Yeah, but it doesn't keep them from using their heads for once and not eat everything all at once. But it's not all their fault either. We would have had a box of cereal if someone had watched where their explosives were going."

Jacelynn got a glimpse of the Frosted Flakes covered counters just as she was heading out the door. "Yeah, that was shitty. But it was an accident, and she already said she'd get a replacement box."

"We'd have more food overall if she was gone."

"Lance," she chastised, "don't go there. We aren't going to kick her out, she has nowhere to go!"

"She could go back to the X-men," he grumbled.

"We don't know why she left; they might not take her back even if she wanted. We'd probably just be kicking her out onto the street."

"I know, I know. I wouldn't actually do it," he sighed as they pulled into the parking lot of the Gut Bomb, "I'm just frustrated."

Jacelynn put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I get it. Things are really tough right now. And it's better if you rant about your frustrations with me rather than go and take it out on the others."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Now come on, let's get some shit food. And don't worry, it's all on me," she winked.

One misuse of mutant power later, and the pair were sitting in one of the corner booths, chatting amicably. Lance's mood had improved considerably, and Jacelynn almost made a joke about him just being hangry if she didn't think the anger was still too fresh.

"When's your next date with Pietro?" Lance suddenly asked.

Jacelynn proceeded to nearly choke on the fries she had been eating. "I - we - There wasn't even a first one!"

The look of smug amusement on his face made it clear as day that her reaction had been exactly what he'd been hoping for. "The school fair thing was totally a date. You're just in denial."

"It was not! We were just hanging out as friends."

"Ok Jacelynn, sure. You two totally just hung out as friends," the sarcasm was palpable, "So, are you going to ask him on a real one?"

She glanced away, yet again relieved she could hide the blush she felt spreading on her face. "Maybe."

He raised an eyebrow. "Just maybe?"

"I don't know! I just- I know I...I like him. But I have no idea what I want, let alone what he wants. I don't even know if he's genuinely interested."

"Jace, trust me: he's into you. Why wouldn't he be? You're insanely pretty."

She couldn't help but smile at the compliment. "Aw, thank you. Of course, a good chunk of this is just an illusion, but thank you." she joked.

"It's not like he doesn't know that either. You're overthinking things."

"I know I am too! I couldn't even tell you why. It's certainly not like I haven't done this sort of thing before and -" she put her head in her hands,"And I can't believe I'm talking about this at a fucking Gut Bomb."

"What do you mean Jacelynn? This is a place of romance."

"Hey!" She looked up and jabbed a finger at him."Don't you dare start getting snarky with me again. I'm trying to be all open and shit."

"And I'm very proud of you, but this is me repaying you for the months of torment about Kitty."

She rolled her eyes, but he continued to talk. "But if you want my honest opinion I think you guys should go for it. You'd be cute together. You'd be each other's second favourite thing."

"Second favourite?"

"Of course. His first love in life is his appearance and yours is tormenting me."

She laughed at that. "Touche."

"But seriously, just ask him out. You have nothing to worry about."

"You're certainly full of a lot of advice for someone who's spent weeks making no progress in your quest to woo Kitty."

"Hey, I've made a lot of progress actually. We sit next to each other in chem, we're talking on the phone occasionally. This is a major improvement! I'm going to be off the market in like a week, max." Lance sighed, almost dreamily. She suppressed a smile; what an absolute dork, she couldn't help but think. Hopefully things go well for him.

"Yeah? Well, how much of those phone calls are just her trying to help you not fail that class?" she teased.

"Most of it," he admitted, " But I've waited weeks to get her to acknowledge me, I can wait a couple more to get to the point where we don't just have to talk about class. Speaking of which," he said as he stood up, "We need to get going or I'm going to be late for next period."

"Ugh, are you sure? I don't want to sit through another three hours of school."

"Yeah, well, I'm going back. You can either come with me or walk home."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she grumbled, "Since when did you turn into a punctual student?"

"Since I started trying to date an overachiever. Now come on, let's go."

"I can't believe you don't know how to do this. I started when I was seven," Tabby commented as she craned her neck down. But, for someone as reckless as Tabitha Smith, Jacelynn couldn't help but note that she certainly applied nail polish with painstaking precision.

Later that same day, the two of them were in "Tabby's" room. Somehow, it was the only place in the house that seemed unaffected by the current lack of heating. While baffling at first, Jacelynn quickly realized that going above and beyond with the amenities of her room and only her room was not, in fact, something she would put past the woman. Her mentor was known to be self-absorbed like that.

The room itself was still mostly intact, despite Tabby's presence. Clothes and garbage were strewn across every possible surface, yes, but nothing was broken. The blonde had pulled a small table over to the bed, and it was currently cluttered with nail polish.

"It's never something that really crossed my mind," Jacelynn admitted, "When I can look however I want just by thinking about it, a lot of things can feel unnecessary," she paused, admiring her finished hand, "But maybe I should start learning. It's real pretty."

"I'm alright to keep doing it for ya. I've got this whole collection of colours and only ten fingers," Tabby gestured to the dozens of bottles haphazardly resting on her makeshift work table.

"Did you do the other girls? When you were with the Xmen." Tabby immediately snickered at her phrasing, and Jacelynn exaggeratedly rolled her eyes, "Oh, you know what I mean," she chastised.

"All the time: Amara, Jubilee, Kitty. Sometimes Rahne, but I mostly painted Amara," Tabby replied, putting Jacelynn's hand under the nail dryer.

"She's the short one yes? With the dark brown hair?"

"That' my girl! She's awesome. I only have one class with her so I don't get to see her much anymore," Tabby sighed, screwing the lid of the nail polish shut. "I miss her."

"I think the institute is like twenty minutes away. You could always go visit her."

"I wish I could but… there is someone I'm kind of avoiding."

Jacelynn raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Well, multiple. But I could probably deal with most of them 'cept this one guy...It's a long story."

"Something you wanna talk about?"

"I think I would rather die!" Tabby chirped brightly, and Jacelynn laughed.

"Fair enough," she replied, smiling gently.

"Oooh hey," the blonde said, "Do you want to hear about this bitch I dealt with this morning?"

And just like that, the prior topic was dropped.

The coldest part of the boarding house was her room, she was sure of it. There had to be a crack in the wall somewhere or something because she froze just about every night. It didn't matter how many blankets she tossed over herself; it took forever to get to sleep because she shivered so much.

Shortly before one in the morning she got out of bed with a groan and shuffled out of her room to try and find another blanket. They were at a premium at the moment - considering everyone was using at least two - but maybe if she scrounged around enough she could find a table cloth or a throw or something to use. A spare thought had her raise her illusion just before she opened her door, and she set out on her quest.

She rifled through the hall closet, keeping her movements slow so she didn't knock anything over that would clatter and wake the whole house up. Aside from her own breathing and the low rumbling of Fred's snores, the entire house was silent. If she wasn't so intent on her task, she might have marvelled at the rare occurrence.

Jacelynn sighed and ran a hand through her hair. The closet had nothing that could even remotely be passed off as a blanket. She would just have to suffer for the night, and then try to illegally acquire enough money to buy another one. Making sure to pull the closet doors shut with only gentle force, she headed back to her room…. Only to step on the creakiest floorboard in the hallway.

She immediately winced at the sound and stopped moving. After a long moment where she confirmed that she probably hadn't woke anyone up, she slowly started making her way back to her room when -

"Lynn? What are you doing up?" came a familiar voice, groggy with sleep.

Caught! Mystique would be so disappointed. Jacelynn turned to smile sheepishly at Pietro, who was leaning in the doorframe of his room, "Oh, sorry 'Tro. I didn't mean to wake you. I was just looking for a blanket."

"Cold?"

"Freezing," she admitted, "It hasn't been so bad this past little while, but I can't even get to sleep tonight I'm shivering so bad."

"Do you want to sleep with me?"

Her eyebrows shot up. "Are you propositioning me, Maximoff?"

"Only if you want me to be babe," he laughed and shot her a wink," But I meant you can take one side of my bed for the night. Or the whole thing if you don't want me around. It's probably warmer than your room."

"I don't mind sharing if it means I'm not getting hypothermia. Thanks, Pietro."

"Don't mention it," he replied, pushing the door to his room further open and making it over to the bed in the span of a single second.

Jacelynn followed in after him and took a moment to glance around. She hadn't been in his room before - it was different than she expected. It was impeccably clean: nothing on the floor, the books on his shelf looked to be organized by colour. There was also a lack of personal mementos or touches. Jacelynn caught a glance at a picture frame on his nightstand, but she didn't see what the photo was of before Pietro tucked it into a drawer. Odd, she noted, but she wasn't about to pry.

"Damn," she joked, "You were not the person I was going to peg as having the cleanest room in the house."

" I can just do about anything in five minutes. Cleaning is a breeze.."

"Then how come you don't do the dishes?"

"Me? Clean up for other people? Lynn have you even met me?"

"Touche," she laughed as she sat down on the edge of the bed, "I still hate you for it, but touche."

Pietro gasped and overdramatically whipped his hand over his heart. "How could you! I graciously offered you space in my room to keep you from freezing to death, and this is how you repay me?"

"It's better repayment than a knife in the back and an empty wallet. Frankly, I think you're getting off easy." she sassed back, brushing hair off of her shoulder.

"If you're insinuating you want to kill me, you're going to have to stand in is a long string of women ahead of you."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Jilted ex-lovers?"

"Some of them," He said, his eyes flickering to the drawer on his side of the bed for the briefest moment and his expression faltered. But he recovered swiftly, sliding his gaze back to her as he smirked coyly, "Why do you ask? I don't suppose you're jealous, are you?"

"I thought you said this wasn't a proposition."

"Technically I said it was only one if you wanted it to be," he replied," And I don't know about you 'Lynn, but it's starting to sound like you want it to be."

Some traitorous part of her mind agreed with him, but she shoved the thought away. "I think," she said instead, "that you're so lost in your haze of lust that you've started hearing things."

"Haze of lust?" he echoed.

"For me," she replied as she lay down and made herself comfortable, "Don't worry darling, I understand. I am incredibly attractive."

"Don't forget incredibly self-absorbed." he shot back with a laugh.

"That's something we can bond over then, being hot and egotistical," she replied as she slid under the blankets.

"Oh? Did my ears deceive me, or did you finally admit to finding me wildly attractive?" he was lying next to her in the time it took her to blink, his head propped up by his arm as he grinned at her.

"It's your monthly compliment from me," she replied, closing her eyes, "consider it a gift."

"How generous of you."

"I know," she answered and held back a yawn. Pietro's room was much warmer than her's. It wasn't fair. It was so much easier to fall asleep when you weren't violently shivering.

There was a few minutes of silence. Jacelynn was vaguely aware of the fact Pietro was looking at her, but she was too tired to think of any good flirty jokes.

"Jacelynn," he said quietly, "I have a question."

She hummed in recognition.

"You can't keep your illusion up when you sleep, right?"

Her eyes shot open. That was certainly a topic guaranteed to wake her up. "Uh, no. No I can't," she said.

" So what are we going to do about that? Last time you weren't using an illusion you freaked out at me."

Jacelynn winced. She'd tried to forget about that. Everytime it crossed her mind she was flooded with this awful combination of guilt and shame. "Yeah, I kind of did. I'm still sorry about that," she said.

Pietro did the best impression of a shrug that he could do lying on his side. " You're fine, it was months ago. I just don't want you to freak out again is all."

"I don't know. I think I'll be okay. It's just…" Jacelynn put her hands on her face, momentarily debating what the fuck was going on in her head. Because for the first time ever, she wanted to talk about this. About her parents and the clusterfuck of feelings she had surrounding them. Did she think Pietro would understand? She wasn't sure. But those thoughts had pushed their way out from the back of her mind and were pressing against her skull, threatening to spill out of her, "It's not about you seeing. It'd about me being me and the fact I was taken by surprise. I was panicking and the last thing I wanted to do was try and explain that the fact I can't look at my real self anymore because I look like my mom."

"And that's a bad thing?"

No. Yes. Maybe? "It's complicated," she finally decided, "My parents died really suddenly. To this day, I still don't know really know the details about what happened. It… It kinda fucked me up."

He was quiet for a moment. For a second, she was worried she had overshared and was about to stammer apologies and run before he replied. "My mom died too when I was really young. She was sick for a long time, so it's not quite the same, but… I understand where you're coming from."

"Your mom?" she repeated.

"Yeah. What, did you think Magneto made me himself out of some metal and pure willpower?"

"Maybe," she admitted, and he let out a short laugh.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but he didn't perform a small miracle. Actually, that's not true. My mom was actually a good parent, from what I remember, so it is a small miracle he never got dumped."

"What was she like?" she asked.

"She was kind. She cared a lot about other people, and I think that's why she and my dad initially connected. At the end of the day, he wants to help mutantkind. And she loved music. When she was still healthy, she was constantly humming to herself and dancing," a ghost of a wistful smile broke out across Pietro's lips.

"She sounds lovely."

"She was. She was strong, too. Even right at the end, she always put on a brave face for us," he paused for a moment, thinking, "It's been nearly ten years since she died, now."

"Does it ever get easier?" her voice was barely above a whisper.

"It does. It doesn't hurt to think about her anymore. I'll always miss her, though. And I won't lie and say seeing happy families together on the street doesn't hit hard, sometimes."

"A pang of jealousy," Jacelynn added, "A want for something that you used to have."

"Yeah," he agreed, "That's exactly it."

"I suppose it's something we can add to the list of things we can bond over.

He smiled. "Being hot, vain, and having dead parents is a bit of an interesting list."

"We're interesting people."

"Agreed."

Jacelynn yawned. "It's late. We should probably try to get some sleep."

"Probably, considering there are only a couple of hours before we have to get up for school."

"I'm sorry if that got depressing there. I didn't mean to bring the mood down."

"You've got nothing to worry about. I always enjoy talking to you." She pointedly decided to ignore the little flip her heart did as he said that.

"Night, Pietro."

"Night 'Lynn."

When she woke up in the morning, she was feeling far more refreshed than someone who only got a little over five hours of sleep had any right to be. She was up before Pietro, and she took care to move as quietly as possible.

He looked different when he was asleep, she couldn't help but note. When his lips weren't curled into a scowl or a smirk it was almost like he was an entirely different person. With strands of his silver hair falling into his face, he looked almost angelic.

Oh god, she was starting to sound like a grocery store romance novel.

She shook her head as if attempting to physically expel those thoughts from her head, throwing on her illusion in the process. She had to have some dignity.

Jacelynn moved methodically across his room, slipping through the door before shutting it softly behind her. For a moment, she dares to think she is in the clear. But then -

"Holy shit, Jacelynn what have you been up to tonight?!" she wheeled around to face Lance, who was grinning at her like he'd just won the lottery.

"This is NOT what it looks like." she got out.

"Oh? Because it looks like someone followed through on my advice a lot sooner then I expected."

"Lance I swear to god -

The look in his eyes was purely mischievous, and Jacelynn had never regretted the months of her (admittedly hilarious) tormenting before now. "So tell me Jace, is he as fast a-

"Lance shut the fuck up!" she knew it was obvious how badly she was flushing but she could not spare the concentration to cover it up right now.

Another door opened, and Tabby stuck her head out. "What's with all the ruckus around here?"

"Oh Tabby!" her good friend sounded positively delighted, "you aren't going to believe this."

Alarm sirens started singing in her mind. Lance's teasing she could withstand, but Lance AND Tabby's? That just might kill her. So she made a desperate, half-baked, split-second decision.

Lance barely gets the first syllable of his next sentence out when Jacelynn lunges for him. Between the force she put behind her move and him not expecting it at all, he stumbles backwards, and the two of them go careening down the staircase.

They land in a heap on the bottom of the stairs. Between the thud of them hitting the floor and Tabby's howling laughter, the others would be up in a matter of minutes.

"Ow," said Lance.

"You deserved it."

"Did I?" he looked at her incredulously, " Did I really?"

"Yes. Also if you dare breathe a word of this to anyone else I will charmspeak you into being unable to talk for the rest of the day."

"Y'know Jacelynn this is not helping your case in the slightest."

"I will explain myself only if I manage to not kill you first."

Hey friends! Long time no see. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I've started work on chapter 16, but my edits for chapter 5 need to come out first before 16 can. I'm reworking a scene that 16 is going to call back too! I'm aiming for both to be out before the end of the year, but knowing me we'll see if that actually happens.

As always feel free to leave a review - whether its just your thoughts or a grammar mistake you caught or a key smash. I respond to everyone with an account via PM!