Raven wasn't joking when she said that there was still much of the mansion left to be explored she led the quartet of young mutants all through elaborate secret tunnels throughout the mansion and they all had a blast. The rooms didn't really led to anywhere special, there weren't any hidden rooms in between the walls of the mansion like one would expect but moving from room to room was done in about half the time thanks to the hidden tunnels.
"And here ends the tour." Raven said with a flourish throwing open the door to the last of the tunnels. 'Here' was the entertainment room they'd briefly glimpsed yesterday. That small peek seemed like it was intentional by Raven since she seemed extra excited to show it off.
On one side of room were a set of couches stationed around a television set, and behind them was a large bookcase. On the other side was a dart board on the wall, a bunch of games like checkers and chess on a shelf next to a four person table, and at the center of it all was a large pool table.
"Let's play," Raven announced bouncing over to the rack on the wall and grabbing a pool stick.
"Alright," Sean cheered following her over to the rack, "Should we do guys vs girls?" he asked with a smirk.
"I uh," Ivory spoke up nervously with her arms wrapped around herself, "I don't know how to play, I won't be much of a partner. You guys go ahead."
"No," Raven said almost pouting, "C'mon Ives you have to play with us," she begged and Ivory was about to make another excuse before the blonde suddenly perked up. "We can do teams, a guy and a girl. You can be with Alex." Raven said smiling brightly before all but shoving Ivory into Alex's arms.
Ivory caught herself before she slammed into him, still he put his hand on her back to help steady her. "Sorry," Ivory said as her face heated up stepping away from the blonde boy to put a few inches of space between them, "She stronger than she looks."
"I see that." Alex said hiding a small smile that would have given away the fact that he was watching their interaction, listening too, "So," he said offering her a pool stick, "Partner?"
She sighed but accepted the stick, "I really don't think I'm gonna be a great partner."
"Don't worry about it," Alex said easily shrugging off her concerns, "We'll just have fun."
And it was fun, turns out Sean was just as bad as Ivory was, and Raven and Alex were the pool sharks in the room. The two of them carried their respective teams to a tie. Sean missed his next shot and hung his head before cracking a self-depreciation joke and straightening up, as he had done after he had missed his previous shots. It was Ivory's turn and she was excited but scared at the same time, she hand missed a quarter of the shots she had taken and she didn't want to let Alex down, even though it was just a silly game.
Still she took a deep breath and moved closer to their side of the table, leaning over it and lining up her pool stick to the white que ball. She prayed silently that she'd sink this shot, before Alex cleared his throat behind her and she straightened glancing over her shoulder at him.
"Mind if I help?" he asked fidgeting a little but Ivory's nod assured him that it was okay and he leaned his stick against the wall behind him, "So, you gotta uh," he placed his hand on her back guiding her to lean over the edge of the table and he followed, his warm body laying out beside her, "Line up the shot," he said stretching out his arm until his big hand covered hers and his fingers rearranged hers around the pool stick.
"Hey," Sean squawked somewhere, but for some reason to the two of them he sounded distant. "That's not-" he was cut off by a smacking sound which must have come from Raven hitting him in the stomach if the rush of air that followed was any indication.
"Shush." Raven snapped.
Ivory had long since tuned them out, looking over her shoulder at Alex who was still leaning over her as he helpfully adjusted her body to sink what was hopefully the winning shot, he must've felt her eyes on him because he turned his head and his blue eyes locked onto her multicolored ones, his eyes danced back and forth between hers for a beat before he seemed to snap himself out of a daze and went back to instructing her on how to shot. His hand that had been resting on her hip squeezed once before moving to cover hers the bottom of the pool stick, "And follow through." He finished his instructions, his voice sounding deeper to her for some reason, and then they moved together, even though he did most of the work, pulling the stick back and pushing it followed quickly in one motion hitting the white ball dead center where it rushed into the black eight black pushing it into the corner pocket.
Ivory stood straight up with a wide smile and threw her arms around Alex's neck hugging him tightly, while Sean scoffed at losing and Raven squealed at something else while Alex hugged her back.
"We won." She cheered quietly pulling back slightly to look him in the eye again.
"Yeah," Alex said nodding voice still thick with his hands resting respectfully on her waist, "We did, I told you we had nothing to worry about."
Ivory tried to mimic his smirk from earlier but wasn't sure if she succeeded, "I guess you were right." Alex returned her smirk an suddenly his face was moving closer and she found herself leaning in as well, before they were interrupted by Sean.
"Rematch," he said loudly stomping around the table, causing them to spring apart, they'd forgotten they weren't alone, "I demand a rematch."
"Sean!" Raven snapped, " No rematches, at least not today," she sighed before looking at the clock on the wall, "Besides we all still need to go meet with Hank," she said before brightening up like she did at the start of the game right before she shoved Ivory into Alex's arms, "Ivory and I will go first." She announced before grabbing the dark haired girl by the arm to begin dragging her from the room.
"We will?" Ivory asked wearily not being a big fan of needles.
"Yes we will, now c'mon." Raven said effortlessly pulling Ivory to the door, the real one not the one that connected to the tunnel, and Ivory managed a weak 'See you later', to the boys over her shoulder before Raven yanked her completely from the room.
"Dibs man?" Sean questioned in the comfortable silence that followed once the girls left.
"What?" Alex responded not understanding what the ginger meant.
"You and Ivory?" Sean repeated nodding to the pool table clearly referring to their little moment, "Dibs?"
"That's gross man," Alex said scoffing, "She's a person, not the last toy on the playground."
"Point taken," Sean said shrugging, "But seriously man, man to man. You like her?"
Alex thought for a moment, even though the answer was obvious, "Yeah I do."
Sean smiled and it was genuine as he reached out to place a hand on Alex's shoulder, "Well my friend," then his smile turned mischievous, "You've got dibs." Sean said before turning and dashing out of the room, with Alex hot on his heels shouting playful insults at him.
Ivory sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth when the needle pierced her skin of her forearm, Hank whispered apologies as the vial began to fill with blood and Raven squeezed her other hand in comfort.
"You're doing great Ives." Raven said encouragingly.
"I guess I should have told you, I'm not the best with needles." Ivory responded glancing at the vial that seemed to be taking forever to fill with her blood before looking back at the beige wall she had been focusing on, "Or blood."
"It's alright Ivory," Hank said reassuringly, "Sorry," he added after Ivory winced when he pulled the needle out. "You're all set."
"Thanks. Hank." Ivory said as he placed a small bandaid on her inner forearm.
"Thank you." Hank connected, "Your mutation is very interesting, especially in how it might affect your eyes."
"My eyes?"
"Yeah," Hank said nodding looking excited, "Charles and I have a theory, that the color of your eyes could be a result of your mutation. Similar to how Raven's mutation affects her outward appearance."
"Cool." Ivory said nodding. As Hank started packing up and sanitizing things. "Don't you need to give blood?" She questioned gesturing to Raven and the table that Hank was cleaning off.
"No," Raven said shaking her head, "Hank already has my blood samples." She said suddenly sounding bashful, and a glance at Hank showed that he was getting flushed as well.
"Alright then." Ivory said nodding and getting down off the stool she was perched. "Lunch?"
"Sure." Raven chirped.
"Hank?" she offered to the shy scientist.
"No thank you." Hank said kindly rejecting the offer, "I'm gonna get to work on the blood samples. But if you guys see Alex and Sean please remind them that they need to come here too."
"No problem."
Raven one again led Ivory from the room and they started towards the kitchens, but as soon as they were out of earshot of the lab Ivory all but pounced on Raven.
"You like Hank." She whispered stressed to the blonde who just turned a bright shade of red, but didn't deny, "Oh my gosh that's adorable. You guys are such a cute couple."
"Woah calm down there Ives, we're not together like that." Raven said dismissively as they entered the kitchens and started grabbing items to make sandwiches.
"Well, why not?"
"He's just so shy," The blonde explained with a sigh, "Sometimes it's hard to figure out what he's feeling."
"Why don't you just ask him?" Ivory questioned innocently.
"Ask him?" Raven scoffed, "Ives do you know anything about how guys work."
"No."
"You can't just ask a guy if you like them, then they'll know that you like them."
"And that's bad?"
"Yes, as girls it's our job to play hard to get. And they guys job is to try to get us." Raven said like it was that simple, but she may as well have been speaking German to Ivory, "You understand."
"Not really." Ivory answered honestly and Raven sighed but smiled
"You have so much to learn hun," she said patting her shoulder, "Especially if you want to get with Alex." She added casually and Ivory choked on the bite her sandwich she had just taken her eyes widening, Raven laughed and reached over to pat her back.
"I – What? Alex?" Ivory stammered wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"Yes Alex. As in Alex Summers. You like him."
Ivory's face went up in flames, "I mean he's a really sweet guy, little bit of a hothead, he cam be a jerk, but he's so nice to me. Since the day we met. And he's really cute." Ivory gushed trailing off but snapped back when she noticed Raven staring at her with her head rested on her hands her eyes twinkling.
"Ivory's got a crush." She sang happily.
Ivory slumped in her chair and huffed out a noise similar to that of the air being let out of a balloon, "Alright maybe I do like him, but I'm not gonna do anything about it." She quickly added.
"Why not?" Raven asked curiously, funny how the tables turned like that, Ivory thought as she bit her lip and looked away from Raven's prying eyes, "Ivory, have you never had a boyfriend?"
"Before Charles and Erik, the only boys I talked to were, 12." She admitted dryly, "I've never even kissed a guy. Pathetic right?" she said shaking her head in embarrassment.
"No," Raven was quick to assure reaching out to place her hand on top of her friends, "I think it's cute. And if it helps, I think he likes you too."
"Why would he like me?"
"Why wouldn't he?" Raven gasped, "Ives, you're smart, nice, and if you don't mind me saying, a total babe. He'd be a fool not to."
"Thanks Raven."
"No problem." She said smiling brightly, "That's what friends are for."
Ivory smiled back, "Okay then as a friend, can I tell you something?"
"Of course."
"Next time you want to basically sell me off to Alex, don't." she said flatly and both girls giggled, "I'm serious, you're not nearly as subtle as you think."
"I thought I was being helpful." Raven argued playfully.
"You are, honest." Ivory said softly, "Truthfully, I have no idea what I'm doing."
"Well don't worry, I'll help you."
Both girls shared a soft smile and they stayed in the kitchen gossiping well into the night, ending up laying on top of the dining room table when dinner time room around, Charles scolded them but couldn't stop the small smile dancing on the edge of his lips.
After that everyone settled in for dinner, and somehow Ivory and Alex ended up next to each other, peeking across the table Ivory saw Raven hiding a mischievous smile, and next to her Alex was doing the same only he was glaring at Sean. Throughout dinner the two of them talked in hushed voices, only blushing a handful of times on Ivory's part and stammering twice on Alex's.
All in all, it was a great day. The next day, the same couldn't be said.
Ivana Bocanegra: Lol, thanks for the support hun. I'll look into the video when we get to that part of the story.
Cassie-011: Thank you! And there will be more of that to come in the near future.
Sorry for the long wait and short chapter folks, been a crazy last few weeks. But Ivory and Alex finally admitted their growing feeling, but not to each other. What do you think is going to happen next?
What would you like to see happen during the training montage? Both Alex's and Ivory's?
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.