DISCLAIMER!!! X-Men belongs to Marvel and X-Men Evolution to the WB. I own only Dan and Fiona, and I ask you kindly not to steal them. x_X;;; A warning. This fic is RATED R for a reason. Contained within (in no particular order) are language, violence, and drugs. You shouldn't be reading this if you're under 13. You probably shouldn't be reading this if you /are/ 13. Let's just say you've been dually warned.
i'll be here a while
ain't going nowhere
—311, I'll Be Here a While
"This is my room?" Dan asked, eyeing it suspiciously. It was little more than a closer, a bed shoved into the corner, a dresser, and a small desk and chair. The floor was dark wooden slats, spotted with gum. Apparently the previous owner hadn't been too concerned with cleanliness. The walls were painted a dark gray, giving the room a shadowed look.
"Yep," said Todd. "There was a HUGE room that used to belong to the boss lady, but that fucking bitch Tabitha took it. She takes /everything/."
"Tabitha?"
"New recruit. 'Boom Boom.' Don't see why we'd want 'er.... Bloody annoying, she is."
"She seems pretty quiet," Dan said.
"Yeah, that's 'cos she ain't here right now!" Todd sniggered, "Oh, and you'll need to go to school an' all that shit."
Dan made a face. "I haven't gone to school in months."
"I don't like it either, yo, but we ain't got no choice."
"That sucks."
"You'll get used to it," Todd said, then wrinkled his nose. "Take a bath, dude, you stink," he said, leaving.
Lance Alvers, passing by, snorted in disbelief. "Todd Tolensky, calling someone else smelly? The world's ending. The four horsemen should be arriving any minute now!"
Todd called him a nasty word, and /hopped/ down the hall.
Dan shook his head and shut the door.
X
"I have to wear a uniform, too?" Fiona asked, horrified.
"It's not that bad," Kitty said, "It's a rule."
"Do I get choices?"
"Yes. There are designs that you can choose from."
"Can I see?"
Ororo led them into a small alcove room with costumed mannequins behind thick glass plates. "Here you are, Fiona. Take a look."
One costume, with a free chest protector, Kitty pointed out as Rogue's. Fiona had the sneaking suspicion that the Southern girl wouldn't like having her style imitated. Next were two nearly identical outfits, Kitty and Jean's. And then there were the prototypes, some strange, some interesting.... One caught Fiona's eye. It was a black body suit with green lines running the sides, and two green stripes along the ribcage. Green epaulets rested lightly on the shoulders. It came with knee high black boots. "Oooh," said Fiona, "I like this one."
"Good choice!" Kitty said, glancing at Ororo. "Right?"
"Indeed," Ororo said quietly, "It will suit her mutation nicely."
Fiona said nothing, reached out and touched the glass. Comprehension hit her, hard.
She was really a part of the X-Men.
It was a sobering experience.
X
Sheryl Brown walked out of the supermarket, carrying a bag of last-minute items. Dave hadn't wanted her going out so late at night, but she absolutely had to have a jar of pickles – she'd been pregnant for three months, and already she was having cravings.
As she turned the corner, a man in a suit and sunglasses was leaning casually against the door of her car. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand, holding a cigarette that burned a tracer into the night sky. "I think, Mrs. Brown, that you should come with me. We have much to discuss." She would have screamed, but someone clapped a hand over her mouth.
"This way, please," the first man said pleasantly, "We represent a client, whose interests happen to coincide with those of your son."
X
Fiona was too nervous to eat most of the dinner, and instead rearranged it silently on her plate. Across the table sat Bobby Drake, who was shoveling the food down his throat with the enthusiasm that only a fifteen-year-old boy could manage. Glancing up, he swallowed, glanced at Scott Summers, and put his hands together.
She almost gasped when he opened them again, it was a tiny, perfect model in ice of Scott on his knees in a pleading pose, hands reaching upwards towards Jean, who looked the other way. Bobby dropped the statuette hastily when Scott looked suspiciously at him.
"What was that?" Scott asked, as the falling ice tinkled on the floor.
"Um, nothing," Bobby said, winking at Fiona.
She hastily looked down at her plate again.
Kitty, sitting in between Fiona and Kurt, nudged the new X-Man – X-Girl? – in the side. "Don't mind him. He's a /flirt/."
To Fiona's horror, Bobby heard. He snickered, and returned to eating. She sighed – no one said that being part of the X-Men was going to be /easy/.
X
Dan stared at the ceiling, pupils dilated despite the gloom. It was too hot in the bedroom. Too suffocating....
He pushed the covers away and sat up in bed, resting his chin on his knees. He'd opened the windows and turned on the loud creaking fan, but it was still infernally warm inside. He twisted idly at the edge of the blanket, needing the—not needing. Wanting the drug.
He didn't /need/ anything.
Dan hadn't felt like eating dinner, so he'd taken a shower instead, sloughing off the layers and layers of grime that had accumulated on him during his period of vagrancy. Now his skin looked too pink, scrubbed clean.
The lighted numbers of the alarm clock read 3:49. School would start in less than four hours. School. Restless, uncomfortable, and feeling sick, Dan got out of bed and got dressed. On went the Rancid logo shirt, all the necklaces, the red Converse high tops. He opened the door carefully and went downstairs, out to the front of the house.
He tapped his foot restlessly on the ground, shifting with instinctive nervousness. His body felt coiled tightly like a spring, waiting to explode. The tension was unbearable, building steadily, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. "Fuck!" he yelled, whirling. Reflexively a vine went from his hand, curling around the intruder's neck.
"Gack," someone said. It was a blond girl with a bizarre hairstyle, attempting to smile at him while she was being strangled. "Wstfgl."
"Sorry," he said in a monotone, releasing her. The vine shriveled and died on the porch.
The girl rubbed her neck for a moment, circling it with both hands and a grimace. Then she smiled at him again, slyly. "You're cute when you're mad."
He rolled his eyes at her – he /hated/ being called 'cute.' It brought back memories of a cooing Sheryl shoving him into horrible clothes and simpering. "What are you doing out this early?" he asked instead, ignoring her comment.
"I could ask you the same thing," she said, still grinning at him. "You don't know me, do you?"
"Nope."
"I'm Tabitha Smith." She seemed to expect him to say something, and looked a little annoyed as she continued. "What's your name?"
"Dan Brown."
He looked off onto the horizon silently, willing the girl to go away. She didn't. "Rancid is /such/ a good band," she gushed, "I /love/ Lars! He's so hot!"
Dan rolled his eyes. "And I bet you like Blink 182?"
"How did you know?"
He snorted. "Lucky guess."
Tabitha frowned darkly at him. "You're weird."
"Guess so."
"Why don't you like me?"
"Did I say I didn't like you?" Dan asked placidly.
"You're implying it!" she said, "You're so fucking /cold/."
"No," Dan said, and started laughing. He knew what she meant, of course, but it had a double meaning as well: he was out here in the first place because his room was an oven. Dan was both tired and hyperactive, and the combination made him slightly hysterical. It took him several minutes to calm down, and when he was able to look up without laughing so hard that it made him cry, he saw Tabitha looking at him strangely. "Uh," Dan muttered. "Yeah."
"I'm going to, like, go upstairs now," Tabitha said, backing away from him. "See ya tomorrow, greeny."
"See you," he said.
And waited for morning.
X
Fred frowned at Lance. "Hey, don't eat all of that. Save some for me."
"Dude," Todd said, as he entered the kitchen, "The new kid's fucking weird, yo. He ain't even interested in breakfast."
"Todd, just because you eat every goddamn thing in sight doesn't mean everyone else has to," Lance said, as he ate handfuls of cereal out of the box. He almost bit accidentally into a plastic wrapped toy, but Todd snagged it first.
"Cool!" he exclaimed, "Look, it's a Spiderman sticker!"
"You're such a fucking kid, Todd," Pietro snickered.
"Yep," Todd said cheerfully. "That's me."
X
Dan stretched himself across the seat so that no one would sit next to him. It was a trick that'd always worked in his old school, and the bright green hair and forbidding expression didn't do much to attract the stray freshmen looking for a spare seat.
He rode in silence, flipping through Nietzche, but he was unable to concentrate for long. In the end, he settled for staring out the window in silence, watching Bayville zip by. Time was relative, of course, and it seemed shorter on the school bus, every minute seemed to be compressed into a half. In what seemed like an unearthly short time, they were outside the venerated halls of good ol' Bayville High.
"I can't wait," he muttered to himself, garnering odd looks from some of the other kids walking down the bus' aisle.
Lance pointed him out to Principal Kelly's office, where he was supposed to check in. A girl with a long braid was waiting there, also, round face closed and apprehensive. He nodded absently to her and shoved his hands into his pockets, scowling at the floor.
"Daniel? Fiona? The Principal will see you now," the elderly secretary beamed.
"Okay," Fiona said. Dan eyed her again. She was short and rather stocky for a girl, dressed in beat up blue jeans and a loose white shirt. Entirely unremarkable, she walked ahead of him into the office, holding the door courteously.
"Mr. Brown. Ms. Crowley. Welcome to Bayville," the Principal said. "You, Fiona, are staying at Xavier's Institute?"
"Yes, sir," she said respectfully. Dan stared at the girl with new respect and apprehension: Pietro, Lance, and Todd had told him about the Institute and the X-Geeks. This Fiona Crowley must be a mutant, too. He wondered what her powers could be. She certainly looked normal enough.
"And you, Mr. Brown.... You are not living with your legal guardians, but you have their permission to attend this school?"
Dan blinked at him. How could Sheryl and Dave know where he was, let alone approve of his staying there? Still, if Kelly wasn't going to mention the runaway, Dan wasn't going to bring it up. It'd be a damned stupid thing to do. "Yes," he hazarded.
"Good, good," Kelly said absently, shuffling paper, "Jean Grey, of our welcoming committee, has volunteered to show both of you around the school."
Oh, great, Dan thought. He'd seen the exalted Jean before school, and disliked her already.
X
Oh, great, Fiona thought; someone she actually knew would be showing her around. Jean, cheerful and slim in her usual khakis and smooth red hair, greeted them at the door. "Hi! Welcome to Bayville!" Jean smiled. Fiona, amused, noticed that the punk boy rolled his eyes and snorted softly at the enthusiastic greeting.
"I'm Jean Grey! You'd be Daniel Brown," she asked, smiling again at the boy, "And Fiona, I already know you." Jean winked. The boy shuffled his feet.
"Look, can we dispense with the cute and get on with business?" he asked quietly.
Jean frowned at him. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm going to ask you to stop."
Daniel subsided and followed behind them, dragging his feet in a shuffle as Jean chattered on about Chemistry hallways and cafeterias. Fiona examined him quietly. He wasn't conventionally handsome, like Bobby, but there was a certain attractiveness to the smirking, pallid features. A green eye swiveled sideways and caught her looking. "What are /you/ looking at, mutie?" he whispered.
Fiona's stomach twisted sickly. "What are you talking about?" she asked quietly.
"I know /all/ about your school," he replied.
She couldn't say anything.
The boy grinned and slapped her hard on the back. "Don't worry. /I'm/ a mutie too. Just not one of those snobby preps at your school. Thought I'd tell you, you know, give you something to think about."
"Shut up, you idiot," Fiona hissed, "Someone could hear."
"And so what if they do?" the boy whispered.
"Jean told me what happened the last time someone tried to do that. The Professor had to wipe a whole stadium's minds."
"Awww, poor Charlie," Daniel said.
Jean turned around, and glared at Daniel. "I'm going to ask you to shut up."
"Or what?"
"Or I will very surreptitiously slam you into that locker."
"Sorry, sorry, your highness."
Fiona breathed a sigh of relief – it was going to be difficult enough fitting into a new school without psychotic green-haired boys making it harder.
i'll be here a while
ain't going nowhere
—311, I'll Be Here a While
"This is my room?" Dan asked, eyeing it suspiciously. It was little more than a closer, a bed shoved into the corner, a dresser, and a small desk and chair. The floor was dark wooden slats, spotted with gum. Apparently the previous owner hadn't been too concerned with cleanliness. The walls were painted a dark gray, giving the room a shadowed look.
"Yep," said Todd. "There was a HUGE room that used to belong to the boss lady, but that fucking bitch Tabitha took it. She takes /everything/."
"Tabitha?"
"New recruit. 'Boom Boom.' Don't see why we'd want 'er.... Bloody annoying, she is."
"She seems pretty quiet," Dan said.
"Yeah, that's 'cos she ain't here right now!" Todd sniggered, "Oh, and you'll need to go to school an' all that shit."
Dan made a face. "I haven't gone to school in months."
"I don't like it either, yo, but we ain't got no choice."
"That sucks."
"You'll get used to it," Todd said, then wrinkled his nose. "Take a bath, dude, you stink," he said, leaving.
Lance Alvers, passing by, snorted in disbelief. "Todd Tolensky, calling someone else smelly? The world's ending. The four horsemen should be arriving any minute now!"
Todd called him a nasty word, and /hopped/ down the hall.
Dan shook his head and shut the door.
X
"I have to wear a uniform, too?" Fiona asked, horrified.
"It's not that bad," Kitty said, "It's a rule."
"Do I get choices?"
"Yes. There are designs that you can choose from."
"Can I see?"
Ororo led them into a small alcove room with costumed mannequins behind thick glass plates. "Here you are, Fiona. Take a look."
One costume, with a free chest protector, Kitty pointed out as Rogue's. Fiona had the sneaking suspicion that the Southern girl wouldn't like having her style imitated. Next were two nearly identical outfits, Kitty and Jean's. And then there were the prototypes, some strange, some interesting.... One caught Fiona's eye. It was a black body suit with green lines running the sides, and two green stripes along the ribcage. Green epaulets rested lightly on the shoulders. It came with knee high black boots. "Oooh," said Fiona, "I like this one."
"Good choice!" Kitty said, glancing at Ororo. "Right?"
"Indeed," Ororo said quietly, "It will suit her mutation nicely."
Fiona said nothing, reached out and touched the glass. Comprehension hit her, hard.
She was really a part of the X-Men.
It was a sobering experience.
X
Sheryl Brown walked out of the supermarket, carrying a bag of last-minute items. Dave hadn't wanted her going out so late at night, but she absolutely had to have a jar of pickles – she'd been pregnant for three months, and already she was having cravings.
As she turned the corner, a man in a suit and sunglasses was leaning casually against the door of her car. She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand, holding a cigarette that burned a tracer into the night sky. "I think, Mrs. Brown, that you should come with me. We have much to discuss." She would have screamed, but someone clapped a hand over her mouth.
"This way, please," the first man said pleasantly, "We represent a client, whose interests happen to coincide with those of your son."
X
Fiona was too nervous to eat most of the dinner, and instead rearranged it silently on her plate. Across the table sat Bobby Drake, who was shoveling the food down his throat with the enthusiasm that only a fifteen-year-old boy could manage. Glancing up, he swallowed, glanced at Scott Summers, and put his hands together.
She almost gasped when he opened them again, it was a tiny, perfect model in ice of Scott on his knees in a pleading pose, hands reaching upwards towards Jean, who looked the other way. Bobby dropped the statuette hastily when Scott looked suspiciously at him.
"What was that?" Scott asked, as the falling ice tinkled on the floor.
"Um, nothing," Bobby said, winking at Fiona.
She hastily looked down at her plate again.
Kitty, sitting in between Fiona and Kurt, nudged the new X-Man – X-Girl? – in the side. "Don't mind him. He's a /flirt/."
To Fiona's horror, Bobby heard. He snickered, and returned to eating. She sighed – no one said that being part of the X-Men was going to be /easy/.
X
Dan stared at the ceiling, pupils dilated despite the gloom. It was too hot in the bedroom. Too suffocating....
He pushed the covers away and sat up in bed, resting his chin on his knees. He'd opened the windows and turned on the loud creaking fan, but it was still infernally warm inside. He twisted idly at the edge of the blanket, needing the—not needing. Wanting the drug.
He didn't /need/ anything.
Dan hadn't felt like eating dinner, so he'd taken a shower instead, sloughing off the layers and layers of grime that had accumulated on him during his period of vagrancy. Now his skin looked too pink, scrubbed clean.
The lighted numbers of the alarm clock read 3:49. School would start in less than four hours. School. Restless, uncomfortable, and feeling sick, Dan got out of bed and got dressed. On went the Rancid logo shirt, all the necklaces, the red Converse high tops. He opened the door carefully and went downstairs, out to the front of the house.
He tapped his foot restlessly on the ground, shifting with instinctive nervousness. His body felt coiled tightly like a spring, waiting to explode. The tension was unbearable, building steadily, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. "Fuck!" he yelled, whirling. Reflexively a vine went from his hand, curling around the intruder's neck.
"Gack," someone said. It was a blond girl with a bizarre hairstyle, attempting to smile at him while she was being strangled. "Wstfgl."
"Sorry," he said in a monotone, releasing her. The vine shriveled and died on the porch.
The girl rubbed her neck for a moment, circling it with both hands and a grimace. Then she smiled at him again, slyly. "You're cute when you're mad."
He rolled his eyes at her – he /hated/ being called 'cute.' It brought back memories of a cooing Sheryl shoving him into horrible clothes and simpering. "What are you doing out this early?" he asked instead, ignoring her comment.
"I could ask you the same thing," she said, still grinning at him. "You don't know me, do you?"
"Nope."
"I'm Tabitha Smith." She seemed to expect him to say something, and looked a little annoyed as she continued. "What's your name?"
"Dan Brown."
He looked off onto the horizon silently, willing the girl to go away. She didn't. "Rancid is /such/ a good band," she gushed, "I /love/ Lars! He's so hot!"
Dan rolled his eyes. "And I bet you like Blink 182?"
"How did you know?"
He snorted. "Lucky guess."
Tabitha frowned darkly at him. "You're weird."
"Guess so."
"Why don't you like me?"
"Did I say I didn't like you?" Dan asked placidly.
"You're implying it!" she said, "You're so fucking /cold/."
"No," Dan said, and started laughing. He knew what she meant, of course, but it had a double meaning as well: he was out here in the first place because his room was an oven. Dan was both tired and hyperactive, and the combination made him slightly hysterical. It took him several minutes to calm down, and when he was able to look up without laughing so hard that it made him cry, he saw Tabitha looking at him strangely. "Uh," Dan muttered. "Yeah."
"I'm going to, like, go upstairs now," Tabitha said, backing away from him. "See ya tomorrow, greeny."
"See you," he said.
And waited for morning.
X
Fred frowned at Lance. "Hey, don't eat all of that. Save some for me."
"Dude," Todd said, as he entered the kitchen, "The new kid's fucking weird, yo. He ain't even interested in breakfast."
"Todd, just because you eat every goddamn thing in sight doesn't mean everyone else has to," Lance said, as he ate handfuls of cereal out of the box. He almost bit accidentally into a plastic wrapped toy, but Todd snagged it first.
"Cool!" he exclaimed, "Look, it's a Spiderman sticker!"
"You're such a fucking kid, Todd," Pietro snickered.
"Yep," Todd said cheerfully. "That's me."
X
Dan stretched himself across the seat so that no one would sit next to him. It was a trick that'd always worked in his old school, and the bright green hair and forbidding expression didn't do much to attract the stray freshmen looking for a spare seat.
He rode in silence, flipping through Nietzche, but he was unable to concentrate for long. In the end, he settled for staring out the window in silence, watching Bayville zip by. Time was relative, of course, and it seemed shorter on the school bus, every minute seemed to be compressed into a half. In what seemed like an unearthly short time, they were outside the venerated halls of good ol' Bayville High.
"I can't wait," he muttered to himself, garnering odd looks from some of the other kids walking down the bus' aisle.
Lance pointed him out to Principal Kelly's office, where he was supposed to check in. A girl with a long braid was waiting there, also, round face closed and apprehensive. He nodded absently to her and shoved his hands into his pockets, scowling at the floor.
"Daniel? Fiona? The Principal will see you now," the elderly secretary beamed.
"Okay," Fiona said. Dan eyed her again. She was short and rather stocky for a girl, dressed in beat up blue jeans and a loose white shirt. Entirely unremarkable, she walked ahead of him into the office, holding the door courteously.
"Mr. Brown. Ms. Crowley. Welcome to Bayville," the Principal said. "You, Fiona, are staying at Xavier's Institute?"
"Yes, sir," she said respectfully. Dan stared at the girl with new respect and apprehension: Pietro, Lance, and Todd had told him about the Institute and the X-Geeks. This Fiona Crowley must be a mutant, too. He wondered what her powers could be. She certainly looked normal enough.
"And you, Mr. Brown.... You are not living with your legal guardians, but you have their permission to attend this school?"
Dan blinked at him. How could Sheryl and Dave know where he was, let alone approve of his staying there? Still, if Kelly wasn't going to mention the runaway, Dan wasn't going to bring it up. It'd be a damned stupid thing to do. "Yes," he hazarded.
"Good, good," Kelly said absently, shuffling paper, "Jean Grey, of our welcoming committee, has volunteered to show both of you around the school."
Oh, great, Dan thought. He'd seen the exalted Jean before school, and disliked her already.
X
Oh, great, Fiona thought; someone she actually knew would be showing her around. Jean, cheerful and slim in her usual khakis and smooth red hair, greeted them at the door. "Hi! Welcome to Bayville!" Jean smiled. Fiona, amused, noticed that the punk boy rolled his eyes and snorted softly at the enthusiastic greeting.
"I'm Jean Grey! You'd be Daniel Brown," she asked, smiling again at the boy, "And Fiona, I already know you." Jean winked. The boy shuffled his feet.
"Look, can we dispense with the cute and get on with business?" he asked quietly.
Jean frowned at him. "I don't know what your problem is, but I'm going to ask you to stop."
Daniel subsided and followed behind them, dragging his feet in a shuffle as Jean chattered on about Chemistry hallways and cafeterias. Fiona examined him quietly. He wasn't conventionally handsome, like Bobby, but there was a certain attractiveness to the smirking, pallid features. A green eye swiveled sideways and caught her looking. "What are /you/ looking at, mutie?" he whispered.
Fiona's stomach twisted sickly. "What are you talking about?" she asked quietly.
"I know /all/ about your school," he replied.
She couldn't say anything.
The boy grinned and slapped her hard on the back. "Don't worry. /I'm/ a mutie too. Just not one of those snobby preps at your school. Thought I'd tell you, you know, give you something to think about."
"Shut up, you idiot," Fiona hissed, "Someone could hear."
"And so what if they do?" the boy whispered.
"Jean told me what happened the last time someone tried to do that. The Professor had to wipe a whole stadium's minds."
"Awww, poor Charlie," Daniel said.
Jean turned around, and glared at Daniel. "I'm going to ask you to shut up."
"Or what?"
"Or I will very surreptitiously slam you into that locker."
"Sorry, sorry, your highness."
Fiona breathed a sigh of relief – it was going to be difficult enough fitting into a new school without psychotic green-haired boys making it harder.
