Chapter Eleven

She only found Logan talking to Rogue quietly in the bedroom; Scott had gone for a walk. Rogue was a little frazzled but not too distressed, Storm guessed that she was used to all the odd occurrences that had been happening lately. Deciding that Logan and Kurt could keep things under control, Strom turned to change in her room. As she passed one of the broken windows, she made a mental note to remind the professor, yet as she passed it, she could hear someone talking quietly. She looked out and saw Scott looking up at the sky.

The warm breeze was a kind of comfort to him, Scott supposed. The night blooming jasmine bushes were just opening and filled the air with their delicate scent. A few black ravens flew across dark blue-gray sky and let out a piercing cry. "I wish you were here Jean," He said silently. "I don't think I can do this without you" Tears filled and burned his eyes.

A dark raven landed on a low branch by Scott and cocked its head as if it were listening to him. Its intelligent eyes burned into his and he smiled sadly. "It must suck y'know" He said addressing the bird. "To love someone, I mean really love them, to be willing to do anything in the world for them, and then they sacrifice themselves. It's not fair, it should have been me" The bird squawked, as if it were confirming or denying Scott's statement. "Jean was totally incredible, beautiful and classy and funny and smart, you can't find anyone else in the world like her" The bird took flight and flew past his cheek, the warm breath of its wings felt like a gentle kiss.

He went inside and saw Jillian, Clay and Kelly talking at the table. As he passed, he could hear Kelly trying to convince Clay to stay and not to be angry at Storm. "This place is fucked up Kelly" Clay hissed viciously. "None of us should stay here" Kelly nodded just for the sake of nodding and bit into a cooling bread stick. "I know it's a little weird, and maybe you're right and we should all leave," She saw the light of victory fill Clay's eyes. "But," She said slowly and the light was instantly extinguished. "Now that the world knows what you are, how do you think they're going to treat you? Now that Magneto knows that the both of you are here at this school, do you honestly think you're going to be safe out there?"

Scott smiled. 'The kid as moxie'. Jillian shifted nervously in her seat, "I think she's right Clay," She said quietly. Clay's angry eyes whipped to hers and she gulped. "The blue chick.." "Mystique" Kelly filled in. "Right, Mystique. She knows that we're with Professor Xavier, it's going to get to Magneto, and then we'll really be screwed" Clay raised an eyebrow. "How do you know this?" Jillian smiled embarrassedly. "I had a talk with Professor Xavier, he filled me in on the situation" He swore through clenched teeth. "Do you think he would tell you the truth? He just wants you to stay here" Kelly spoke up at this. "Shut up Clay." She said in a way that reminded Scott of her father.

"I know I haven't known the professor for very long, but he's a straight forward guy. I wouldn't be here if he weren't and you won't even given him a chance. I don't know what happened to you before you ended up here, but you need to trust people or you're just going to be going through life wondering if people are looking to screw you over or do experiments on you. It's not like that here, Do you honestly thing that Storm and Scott would still be here if the professor was so horrible?" But Kelly was on a roll; Clay couldn't get a word in if he tried. "No, they wouldn't. Leave if you want, just walk out right now and see what happens to you. You're a mutant Clay whether you like it or not you have to accept that fact and nothing is going to change it. I've come to accept what I am a long time ago, I didn't want to but I did. You have to do the same or you're going to be screwed for the rest of your life.

"The people that are here are probably the people who are going to save your ass one day. I asked you to stay for dinner and to give them a chance, you did stayed for dinner but when something went amok, you immediately got defensive about it, you didn't give them a chance. What happened to you that made you so paranoid? Who hurt you?" Clay had never met anyone who could get his temper up so quickly. "This isn't about me, this is about them" He said. Kelly wanted to strangle him. "NO!" She screamed which caused Scott to jump. "This isn't about Storm or Logan or Kurt or Scott or Charles. This is about YOU. You're afraid" She added quietly as she watched the fire burn in his eyes, turning them into a molten blue. His arm shot out and gripped Kelly. Scott started forwards, but he realized that Kelly could hold her ground. She was, after all, Logan's daughter.

"Maybe I am," He hissed viciously. "You have no idea what I've gone through, you haven't seen the scars, felt the sting of the needle as they stab it into you, the way they look at you. I know exactly what I am Kelly, and I hate it. All my life I wanted to be like everyone else, to have my parents look at me as if I were just normal. But no, I had to be this sort of FREAK. So don't give me any shit about not trusting people. If you knew a fraction of what I've been through, you'd understand" Kelly wrenched away from him. Once her temper was up, it burned like wildfire and no one knew when it would subside. Through the fight, they didn't notice that Jillian had quietly sneaked away.

"Ah, but I can't understand Clay because you haven't talked to anyone here about it, you just assume that they are going to turn you over to the government so they can test you and all that, but they're not Clay, why can't you understand that?" Kelly's eyes were near black with the anger boiling inside her. Clay was almost nose-to-nose with her now, like two junkyard dogs facing off. "I don't know," He said bitterly. "Why don't you explain it to me?" When she opened her mouth to respond, Clay grabbed her and crushed her mouth with his.

He expected her to slice him into ribbons with her long nails, but she met fire with fire and that affected him more then it should have. God she tasted good, he thought as his tongue explored her mouth, like incredibly intoxicating red wine. She molded against him and his hands came around her to the back of her neck and held her there. Her hands raced through his hair and moaned into his mouth. When they broke apart, they looked at each hotly. "We should fight more often" Kelly said as she gently touched her lips that were swollen from the ferrous kiss. "Yeah" Clay agreed. He gently kissed her temple, tasting the warm honey flavor of her skin and smiled. "Next we should fight in the bedroom"