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Chapter Twenty-Two: Enter Magneto

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It was difficult to pay attention to the teacher, no matter how hard he tried to make physics sound interesting. Nat sat in her seat at the farthest lab station from the front, drawing little pictures on the corners of her workbooks and, when the fancy struck her, occasionally writing her last name as "Wagner" like a sixth-grader with a crush, then blushing and scribbling it out with heavy black ink to keep herself from looking too silly.

The past week had been a deliciously satisfying one. Once the elation of her first real, romantic kiss had finally worn off (or simply become less novel, perhaps, as other kisses followed) she and Kurt had been closer than ever. They never spoke of the incident at the amusement park, which was only for Nat's benefit. She was beginning to believe that she, for the first time in her life, had an actual boyfriend. Not only that, her social standing among the other students had improved somewhat since her first day at Bayville High. She was still just another of those "Institute Freaks", but she was at least starting to make a few casual acquaintances outside of the mansion. Her closest friends were, of course, the X-Men, most notably Kurt, but she was no longer being stared at whenever she mentioned where she lived, and she had even been invited to a few events outside of school. She was still several light years shy of what one might consider popular, but true popularity had never been something that she particularly coveted in the first place.

The only restraint that kept Nat from feeling absolutely euphoric about the events of the week was the fact that Pietro still hadn't apparently gotten the message. He never spoke to her, or even approached her, but she got the constant irritating feeling that he was watching her in the commons, the library, or the hallways. She was able to ignore it for the most part, until one day when she got a rude wake-up call.

Nat was, as usual, ignoring the lecture from the nervous little teacher who spoke about Newton and Galileo for hours at a time, blue and green overhead ink smearing his bottom lip and his comb-over flapping excitedly. Faintly, she heard the door swing open and the footfalls of someone entering, but she was too engrossed in a drawing on the cover of her history book to respond when she saw movement approaching her lab station. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shape hover just a few inches away from her desktop, and felt a warm body slide into the seat beside her.

"Hey there, Fairbanks."

Nat glanced up, wearing an expression of surprise that quickly turned to contempt. "What now, Maximoff?"

Several nearby students turned and frowned at her loudness. He smiled, looking innocent, and lowered his voice to a sub-whisper. "I need a seat."

Nat stuck her nose as far in the air as she could without looking stupid, and turned away from him with a sniff, pulling her papers against her chest before he could notice the words "Natalie Elizabeth Wagner" scrawled across the top. "Sit on the floor, then."

"What kind of greeting is that for someone who's just trying to be nice to you?"

Nat glared at him, shooting daggers from her eyes. "When were you 'nice' to me, exactly? When you were insulting my friends and flatmates? Or when you were stalking me? And since when are you in this class?"

He looked away, his forehead creased, and ignored her questions. "Look, I just wanted to...you know..."

"No. I don't."

"Well...to apologize."

Nat almost choked on her own tongue. Her eyes went wide, and she forgot to be quiet. "What?"

The same students as before turned and hissed at her, looking fierce, and she blushed under Pietro's steady gaze. He smirked. "I wanted to apologize, genius. For..." here he paused, forcing down a heavy swallow, "...trying to kiss you. That day at the book store."

She shook her head. "Think nothing of it." Her voice dripped with a thick coating of sarcasm, the only way she could think to cover her words to make them sound like she wasn't grateful for the apology. Damn him and his ratty little ways of undermining her attempts to hate him. Nat narrowed her eyes, turning back to her papers. Before she could think to cover them again, he leaned over her shoulder, glancing down at the desktop in front of her.

"'Natalie Wagner', huh? Should I be shopping for a wedding gift?"

She snatched up the papers and shoved them into her binder. "Shut up. It's none of your business, anyway."

He held up his palms, shaking his head slightly, defensively. "Hey, hey, hey! I was just kidding. Seriously, though...you and that little German guy are...an item?"

Nat rolled her eyes and stared at her hands, picking at her nail polish. "Kurt and I are...good friends, yes."

He pressed in so his shoulder touched hers, and she shivered at the brief pressure. Her head was spinning with guilt at not pulling away immediately, and she tried to ignore him. She inched backward as he continued. "How good of friends?"

She whirled around and snapped, "Very good friends, Pietro."

"Have you kissed him? Have you screwed?"

She stared at him for a long moment, still taken aback by his bluntness and the rapid pace of words flitting through his lips. "Well, even though you have absolutely no good reason to have any interest into what's going on in my personal life, yes. We've kissed." Nat took a brief, almost terrible pleasure at the sight of Pietro's averted eyes. "A lot."

There was a short pause. "Congratulations, then. I'm sure that the two of you make an adorable couple." He smiled slightly. "After all, a flame-thrower and a demon are a perfect match."

The bell rang, as if to enunciate his insult. Nat shoved him backward a bit so she could rise from her seat, and began loading her backpack haphazardly. "Agh! You're so infuriating!"

Pietro shrugged, shouldering his own bag and putting his thumbs through his belt loops, looking gallingly proud and sure of himself. "I try."

Nat left him standing there, her cheeks bright red as he watched her stomp angrily away. At the last minute, he whipped around the desks and grabbed her elbow, faster than anyone else could have taken a step. She tried to wrench it away, but to no avail. Nat was really getting tired of this.

"Let go of my arm, Pietro!"

"Hear me out first."

She glared at him, her words coming out in a little angry sputter. "Fine. Say what you have to say, then leave me the hell alone for a while!"

"It's a deal."

"Fine then. Say it."

He let go of her arm and stared fixedly at her. She averted his gaze, but couldn't keep it up for long. "How'd you end up with the X-Men?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not this again...It's getting old, Maximoff."

"No, no, no. Let me finish. Why are you here, with Xavier's happy little boys and girls, rather than back at home? I'm sure there were places for you to stay in England. It's not a small place, really."

"What's your point?"

He shrugged, clasping his hands together. He knit his brow in thought, sarcasm virtually radiating off of him. "Well, I'm sure you know what drove you here. But I'm just not so positive."

Nat felt her stomach tighten, her feet go leaden and cold. She didn't like his self-assured tone in the slightest. "Do you..."

"Do I know your secret? Yeah."

A thick knot of fear rose in her throat, threatening to drive her to tears. "H-how'd you find out?"

"Research, Nat, research. It wasn't too hard to figure out, after all, and the X-Men aren't the only ones with resources, or with friends in high places." He shook his head sadly, looking downtrodden. "I'm kind of surprised that they don't know, though, considering how very close you and Kurt have gotten over these past few weeks. Then again, what you did was pretty bad..."

She pushed down a wail, her words coming out in a rush almost comparable to Pietro's. "Professor Xavier does know, so if you're threatening to try to drive me away from—"

"But do the rest of them know?"

She stared at him, eyes wide. Her very soul felt as if it were quivering to get out, but her body was slow, heavy, made of stone. "Are you actually saying that you're going to tell them?"

"Not really. Just trying to show you that we aren't judgmental like that. The fact that you're afraid that I could tell them shows me a lot. You know as well as I do that they might never look at you the same way again if they knew what I know. You didn't just do something terrible, Fairbanks. You ran from it." He sneered. "Not quite what an X-Man would do, now is it?"

Fury flared up inside Nat's chest, almost smothering the fear. "How can you really expect me to join you if I were to do so only through coercion? Wouldn't that create a few hard feelings that you don't need between 'team members'?"

"I'm not too worried about that. I think you could be pretty comfortable with us."

"What makes you assume that? If I'm not cut out to be an X-Man, who says I can make it as a mutant vigilante, or whatever the hell you think you are?"

She spun on her heel and stormed away, angry tears filling her eyes. Pietro grinned to himself and watched her retreating form for a moment before he went out into the hall, turning away from Nat's path and heading toward the cafeteria. He caught sight of Todd Tolensky and Freddy Dukes sitting together in the corner, flicking peas at one another across the tabletop. Pietro rolled his eyes and stifled a grimace.

Once he'd reached the table, he took the nearest chair and straddled it. He crossed his arms across the top and glared at his teammates, who were actively ignoring him. "Do you think we can have a single moment when the two of you aren't acting like complete morons?"

Fred glanced up, pretending to be surprised that Pietro was there. A glob of mashed potatoes whizzed past his head, and he caught it in midair, sending it sailing back to splatter across Todd's greasy T-shirt. "Hey there, Maxi."

"Don't call me that."

"Whatever." He raised a heaping spoonful of something green and steaming to his thick lips and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing loudly in great, sloppy smacks. Pietro, who was as slim as Fred was wide, stared at the sight of the massive arm hovering above the bowl and broad, blubbery wrists from which a spoon handle poked.

As Pietro stared at Fred, Todd was doing the same to Pietro. The younger boy pointed a banana at him, waving it slowly, accusingly. "Yo, Quicky." He grinned, as if he knew a secret. "I saw you there a few minutes ago, talkin' with that Fairbanks chick. Is Mystique sendin' you on spy missions an' leavin' us behind? Or are you just havin' fun lookin' at the pretty little girly-girl?"

Pietro's fair-skinned face went pink, and he snatched the banana out of the air, only to drop it on the table with a disgusted groan when he realized that it was covered in Todd's saliva. Todd grunted and his tongue shot out, snapping back into his mouth and allowing him to swallow the fruit, whole and unpeeled. He sucked air in through his teeth, and watched Pietro closely, waiting for a response.

"Actually, no, Tolensky. I was just doing my part. Something you might look into."

"I don't pull my weight around here, huh? Listen up: just 'cause you're the boss-man's little lapdog don't mean you're better 'an me, you know."

Pietro stood quickly, bracing himself against the table, fuming. Todd shrank back slightly, realizing that he may have gone just a bit too far. Students at nearby tables looked up, but pretty much ignored them. Pietro pressed his face in close to Todd's, his voice low. "Are you implying that I'm doing this for Magneto in particular? If you are, you're dead wrong. I just know how to get the job done better than anybody else at this table. Darkholme and Magneto know it as well as you do."

Fred gulped down his milk and crushed the cardboard carton in his palm, wiping his mouth on the back of his enormous hand. Beside him, Todd chewed on his tongue, but huffed out a little puff of air as if he were unconcerned. "Big Mag an' Mystique have really been interested in Xavier's newest recruit lately, an' you seem pretty damn eager to take her on as a project. That's all I meant."

Pietro flopped back into his chair, eyeing Todd ferociously. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Sure it is."

Fred laughed suddenly, loudly. He clapped Pietro on the back, almost sending the smaller mutant tumbling across the tabletop. "Ain't nothin' in it, Pietro. Toad's just havin' fun." He grinned viciously, and Pietro scowled up at the glistening bits of spinach lodged between Freddy's piano-key teeth. "An' if you are just doin' it to get in good with the Fairbanks girl, I don't blame you. Not...at...all."

He roared with laughter and smashed his fist against the table, and Todd joined in, snorting joyously. Pietro just sat there, smoldering.

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As she made her way to the far end of the courtyard, Nat was pretty much absorbed in her own thoughts, reviewing the events of that morning's class period and the eventful passing time that followed, and she didn't notice when Kurt appeared beside her. He stared at her profile in amusement, watching her tense jaw, her creased forehead. Her eyes flashed with deep thought and her lips were a thin pink line.

"Hallo, Nat."

She didn't respond.

"Naaatalie..."

She whirled around to face him, looking almost angry, but her anger melted into surprise and she smiled sheepishly. He put his arm casually around her waist and started leading her toward a bench, pecking her quickly on the cheek and smiling generously at the sight of a slight blush creeping around her ears. He sat down and pulled his feet up under himself, but Nat went limp beside him, letting her body fall onto the seat as if she didn't have the energy to hold herself up any longer. Her dark hair tumbled around her face and created a chocolate-colored fan that brushed the ground. Trying his hardest to be discreet and gentlemanly about it, he briefly ogled the smooth expanse of creamy skin between her low collar and her chin. She released a long, woeful sigh, which jerked him back into reality.

He gave a little half-grin, eyebrows raised. "Bad morning?"

Nat glanced up at him. Her eyes were nebulous, a mass of conflicting emotions in their broken green depths. He noticed arbitrarily how much her eyes looked like a pool of water, sunlight playing speckled patterns of light across a mossy bottom. She sighed again, this one tempered with a smile. "Not great, but nothing I can't handle, I'm sure."

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Raven Darkholme sat back in her chair, watching the pens spin unheeded in the cup at the edge of her desk. She folded her hands lightly on the desktop, easing out a shaky breath and feeling eerily like a child squirming in her seat. Across the office, Eric Lensherr had settled himself in a chair and had his oddly shaped helmet propped on his knee. He ran his hands through his shock of white hair and his face looked momentarily haggard, the jaw line square but somewhat craggy. When he spoke, his voice displayed none of this wariness.

"What have you been able to discern about our friend's latest conquest, Mystique?"

"Not as much as I would have hoped, but she does look promising. Quicksilver has been able to get a brief demonstration of her abilities, and both of us think that she may be just the mutant we are looking for."

"Outstanding. Now, just how close are we to her?"

She sighed and rose to her feet, pacing back and forth in front of the window. The sunlight gleamed on her cerulean skin, glinting in her fiery hair. "That's the only source of trouble at the moment..."

"The 'only source'? Meaning 'not very close at all', I would imagine." She nodded, and Magneto's eyes flashed. He came forward in his chair, gripping the armrests. "This isn't good, Raven, not good at all. I know Xavier, and he won't give her up easily, even if he doesn't know how valuable she is."

Mystique's translucent blue eyes shimmered and went wide. She leaned slowly against the edge of the desk, holding herself up. "You think he doesn't know? How could that machine of his have missed it?"

"I'm quite sure he is unaware. Her powers are being wasted, withering away as she learns to control them rather than to develop them to their full potential, so it might have been easy for the professor and Cerebro to miss them. If he knew just how important she is to us, he would never have risked sending her into your arms so austerely. No, Raven, there is a great deal more at work here than even Charles Xavier knows, and that child is at the very center of it."