For the first time in several days, Arica stretched luxuriously as she woke up. Content and hopeful again, she snuggled deeper into the welcoming softness of the silk sheets and the warm comforter above them. Idly she wondered what Todd thought of sleeping on the whispering fabric.

A soft smile curving her face, she debated the merits of actually getting up and out of the bed. She liked it there, wrapped in one of Todd's T-shirts she'd found laying on the floor next to it. It had smelled faintly like lakewater before a rain, the scent of Todd's skin, so she'd stripped her own clothes and put it on. She'd had a brief morality issue with making herself so at home, but knew that Todd wouldn't mind. Hell, he'd even made it clear that he intended for her to have all this stuff anyway.

So she'd curled up in his bed and spent the night dreaming about him, about being free and at his side in Genosha. And now she was praying that life would be at least a little like her dreams. Making deals with Magneto was never the world's brightest idea, but she'd made her bed, so to speak. With green silk sheets, her favorite color no less.

One last stretch and she would get up, she promised herself. Her hand brushed idly along the vine carvings of the headboard as she indulged herself. One leaf shifted slightly, so slightly she nearly missed it but for the soft scraping sound of wood on wood.

"What?"

Curious, she sat up, wincing slightly as the morning chill hit her. The electricity of this place had been off for a long time while he was in jail, but she'd figured she'd be warm enough with all the blankets and the kerosene heater she found in the garage. Mornings always felt cold to her, even in the middle of July. And she figured the heater was doing it's job pretty well, she wasn't completely frozen. It was only a minute's work to find the moving leaf, and realize that there was a small hideaway in the wood. And a small box tucked inside.

She pulled the box out, staring at it. Was it for her? Was it something Todd had stuck in there, or was the bed antique, and it something he didn't even know was there? She debated with herself, the training ingrained in her at the Xavier institute to respect other's privacy warring with the curiosity propelling her hands to open the little box.

Curiosity won, and the box slid open in her hands, then fell into her lap when they dropped it to fly to her mouth. "Oh my god!"

Winking up at her was one of the sparkliest diamonds she'd ever seen, beautifully encased in the delicately twining white gold filigree wrought to look like her favorite flower, lily of the valley. The diamond had an unusual cutting, it had to be some kind of custom order, with more tiny facets than she could count. More facets, more sparkle. Just the way she liked things.

"Oh my god, Todd! Why didn't you ever tell me? Forget that, I know why. Why in hell didn't I ever tell you?" she whispered in the silent house, lifting the small box to her heart and holding it there for a long moment. Finally, she put the lid back on, tucking it safely away in it's hidden spot. She wouldn't tell him she found it, Magneto had said that he would have everything in the house moved to their new one, she would let him give it to her later if he still wanted to.

Curling her legs under her, she turned her gaze to the backyard, and the flowers still in bloom somehow this late in the year. She had no idea how he'd pulled that off, but wasn't going to question the fantasy today. All her doubts about her current course of action fell away in the glittery lights thrown off a diamond hidden away in a bed, a diamond he had no way of truly knowing if he'd ever really need. Just like the sheets, and the cookware, and the small feminine touches in the bathroom.

Todd had lived in hope, so could Arica. He would forgive her, and they would find a way to live happily ever after, no matter what she had to do. Even if it meant dealing with Magneto forever.

Springing out of bed, she pulled her pants on over the ends of the T-shirt, tossing the shirt she'd worn yesterday onto the bed. It wasn't as if anyone would really notice the change, she mused, closing the bedroom door behind her. One last walk through her fantasy made reality, she locked everything back up the way she'd found it and got in her car. It was a long ride back to the Institute, and she had a few more things to do before tomorrow.


Logan watched through the window in Xavier's study as Arica drove up the long drive to the mansion, his face tight with concern. "She's taking all of this a little too well, Chuck," he muttered, wondering what was going on in their gold team telepaths head.

"She'll be fine," Charles' replied, his voice clearly distracted. "She'll mourn the loss of her friend, certainly. We all do, what happened to Todd Tolensky was unfortunate. However, she's hardly going to throw away a lifetime's work for a childhood acquaintance."

Logan frowned slightly, not as sure as the founder of the Institute. He suddenly doubted Charles even knew how much time she'd spent at the Brotherhood home, back then things had been more relaxed. Leaving the mansion hadn't meant risking being lynched, and the kids didn't have to register every move they made as long as they carried their beepers and made it home by curfew.

"I don't think she is going to be all right, they were pretty close," he argued.

"And she hasn't seen him in what, three years? These things fade, Logan. We have a larger problem, Magneto is in the country."
Logan sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with infamous mutant's presence. He wondered if that was connected to the Tolensky kid too.


Arica carefully rearranged her room to cover up the missing things she'd moved to Todd's. To her eyes the room looked empty, forlorn. But to most of the others, it would merely look like she'd redecorated, again. Something she was prone to do ever since realizing this room was probably going to be her home for life, considering the state of world these days.

But it wasn't going to be now, was it?

"Arica?" the soft voice nearly startled her out of her wits. She looked up to see Kitty phasing through the wall, a worried expression on her normally optimistic face. "I um...came to see how I could...pay the bet. I lost, and I mean to live up to it."

Arica sat up, mildly surprised. Kitty had put her faith in the justice system, and when Arica had insisted that it was misplaced, they'd made a bet. If Kitty was right, Arica owed her an apology and would do her chores around here for a month. She would have been glad to do double duty around here for a month to be wrong. For a year, even a decade.

But she'd been right, and Kitty had promised to help her if things went bad. Kitty had known that Arica wouldn't just let it go, and she'd promised anyway. Arica threw her arms around her old friend and just hugged her. "What I need you to do is simple," she told her. "I packed up a bunch of my camping gear, like I'm going for a weekend of aloneness. Tomorrow, I leave. When people start asking, tell him I was so angry over it all, and not being allowed to see Todd again, that after my visit with him I'm going to Florida for a bit to camp out, get away from it, deal with things. That I can't watch him die."

Kitty stared at Arica for a long time, knowing what leaving meant. Arica wasn't coming back, she would be gone. Like Tabby, like Lance. Like so many mutants she'd known in high school. How she wished for the days of the Bayville Sirens when all the girls were out there having fun, saving the town, and together. Or the shy, sweet dates she'd had with Lance, trying to figure out if he really liked her, or if he was just trying to get to the X-men through her. And the day she realized it was all about her.

She missed him. It was as simple as that. She'd been glad that Todd had stayed behind when the mutants started their exodus for Genosha for Arica's sake. She understood why Lance had gone, he couldn't stay. He didn't have the X-men connection to protect him, his powers to destructive to realistically sign on to serve America anyway. She hoped he was happy, she hoped Arica would be happy. And Todd, and just everyone. God, why did it have to hurt so much?

"I can do that," she answered, the tears starting to fall out of her blue eyes. "Can I ask you a favor? Can you tell Lance...if you run into him...just tell him that I never forgot him, not even for a minute, okay?"

Arica nodded, and the two girls wrapped around each other, holding on as if it would change fate itself if they never let go. Knowing in their hearts it wouldn't, that tomorrow would come, and that it didn't care about what they thought. "I'll tell him," Arica promised. She had a fleeting wish that they were all going, that humanity would let them all go and forget about them, letting them live their own lives. Not ripping apart friends and family.

That right there was the realization that dispelled that private hope. Moving all the mutants to Genosha would still rip apart families and friends. How many families desperately tried to shield their mutant children from detection and a life of servitude? How many runaways found homes hiding out with friends and lovers across the country? There was no real answer to any of this, she knew, other than hoping that people overcame their need to fear, to hate.

And right then, she felt like she would be better off wishing for the moon to fall out of the sky and into her hands. Or to be able to turn back time, and stop the mutant murders. And tell Todd she loved him while she was at it.

Why couldn't there just be peace?