A/N: I know this story is lacking in the way of action. Just hang tight for
another chapter and half (including this one) and we'll get to some real
fun stuff. Also, please R&R this story-those of you who have been R&Ring,
thank you very much, it's been real encouraging.
***********
DISCLAIMER: I've been begging and pleading with Marvel to give me the rights to X-men and all its characters, but since that has yet to be done, I don't own them (Except my O.C.s)
***********
Zydane sighed as he examined the carborator from Sean Wilcot's dirt bike. How could a person let their bike get into such decrepid condition. The carborator didn't just need to be cleaned, it needed to be replaced. That was going to be fun...and since it was an expensive bike, the parts were going to be difficult to obtain.
Across the room, Alexia was explaining to Kurt how to change the oil in an engine. Kurt didn't seem all that interested, but Alexia was having the time of her life. That was what she lived for, playing around with engines and machines, getting into the things that made a dirt bike run, getting her hands dirty...as well as her face. Throughout the day, Zydane had silently smiled at the fact that she kept absent-mindely touching her face and hair with her grease-and-oil-covered hands, making herself look like a "grundge-bucket", as her mother would say.
Glancing at the clock, Zydane put down the carborator and wiped his hands off on a rag. "Hey, guys, let's get going. It's five thirty. We can go back to my place and grab something to eat and then head on up the mountain and go trailing. Sound cool?"
Alexia shot up like a rocket. "Finally!" She exclaimed. "I thought you'd never be done with Wilcot's bike!"
"I'm not," Zydane answered. "He needs a new carbo. Fun fun fun for the mechanic."
Alexia grinned and wiped her own hands off on the rag Zydane threw her. "Well, that just means he has to pay more for labor, right?"
Zydane allowed a sly smile creep in across his face. "Good point, Alex..."
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"ZYDANE! LOOK AT THIS MESS!"
Zydane winced as he closed the door to his apartment, suddenly remembering the fallen stack of dirty dishes on his kitchen floor. Alexia's mouth was hanging open, an astonished and disgusted look spread across her face.
Zydane decided to play the innocent card, hoping Alexia wouldn't rail him too much for being a total slob. "What mess Alex?"
Alexia pointed first to the dishes on the floor, then about the entire apartment. "This mess! Since when did Cheryl not teach you how to clean up after yourself?"
Of course she would bring his mother into this. "I wouldn't talk, Alex," he said, smiling. "Look in a mirror."
Alexia picked up a pot off the floor and examined her face in it. Immeadiately she blushed, seeing how dirty her own face had gotten.
"I thought so," Zydane commented. "Why don't you take a shower? I promise that when you come out, there won't be any dirty dishes. I'll take care of them all."
"Alright." Alexia turned and when into the bathroom.
Zydane turned to Kurt. "Hey Kurt, wanna help me? There are some garbage bags under the sink. We need to take all these dirty dishes and put them in the bags and then hide them so that Alexia won't be able to find them."
"I HEARD THAT!" Alexia shouted through the bathroom door.
Zydane grinned sheepishly at Kurt. "Or we could just wash them."
Kurt nodded. "That vould probably be a vise thing to do."
As Zydane filled the sink, Kurt watched him, interested. "How old are you, Zydane?"
"Twenty. Why?" Zydane asked, though he had a feeling he knew where this question was leading.
"Vell, I vas just vondering. You seem to understand Alexia to a point of perfection. I have been her friend for five months, unt I still have no clue vhat she is thinking most of the time."
Zydane smiled a strange smile, partly proud, partly sad. "Alexia and I grew up next to each other. I was almost four when she was born, and I vaguely remember the first time I saw her. She was this little red thing, all wrinkly and smelly. My mom tells me I told the adults 'God really screwed up on this one.'
I was best friends with her older brother Luke, and she spent some time with us, but usually she tagged along with an even older brother, John. Then, when I was like fourteen, which made her like ten or eleven, John's girl friend got pregnant, and Alexia's parents got really mad. Shouting at him about how he had just become a member of the church, and then he went and had relations before he was married. So John just left, and Alex suddenly didn't have anyone to hang out with, so she started hanging around me and Luke. Then one day she showed up at my door, asking my mom if she could play with ME, when normally she played with my little sisters. I didn't mind, she was a cool little kid. We just kept getting to be better friends, and eventually she was my best friend instead of Luke."
Kurt nodded. "So you started as a substitute for her role model, unt then became more to her."
"Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way," Zydane agreed with a smile. "Hand me that dish soap would you?"
Working together, the boys had almost finished the dishes when Alexia reappeared, wearing different clothes then when she had gone in to take a shower. Zydane eyed her. "Why do you always raid my closet when you come over Alex? I need to wear clothes too, you know."
Alexia sighed as she began to organize Zydane's coffee table--which turned out to be just a piece of ply wood over a few cinder blocks. "You just have better taste in clothes, is all Zy," she siad, but without humor in her voice.
Zydane decided to ignore the hint that Alex was still unhappy about him not being at the Institute. He knew she was, but he didn't want to go, and no matter how much begging or hinting she did, it wouldn't change anything.
Once the dishes were done, Zydane went into his room and hurriedly stuffed some clothes into a backpack. "I was thinking we would spend the night up at the Bungalow," he called into the other room. "Everyone's dying to see you, Alex."
"Sure," Alexia agreed. "Sounds good. I assume that the bikes are up there, or do we have to stop by my mom's house?"
"No, everything's there," Zydane answered. He zipped up his back pack and grabbed his helmet off the dresser. After a moment's thought, he took another helmet out of his closet.
On their way out to the car, Zydane handed Kurt the helmet. "Here, you're gonna need this. The Bungalow's way out in the middle of no where. If you fall off a bike, we don't want to have to drive you for an hour to get to a hospital."
Kurt nodded and took the helmet.
The drive up to the Bungalow was a long one, going through a few small villas as they traveled up the side of the mountain. Gradually, the nice paved roads were replaced by rut-filled dirt roads as they left civilization further behind them.
Kurt noticed with a slight twinge of fear that not only were the roads getting worse, by Zydane was steadily going faster.
"Shouldn't you slow down?" he asked, once the spedometer passed 60 miles per hour. "Vhat if you see a deer in the road? Or another CAR!" Kurt cried, pointing in front of them at a black luxury car that had just pulled out in front of them from another road.
"CRAP!" Zydane shouted, as he slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel violently.
Their car stopped just in time to miss the other. The driver of the black car didn't even stop--instead, he floored his own accelerator and zoomed off.
"Jeez, that was close!" Alexia breathed.
"Heck yeah," Zydane agreed. "I've seen that car around a lot lately, like up by the Bungalow."
"How close to the Bungalow?" Alexia asked, slightly fearful.
"With in a couple miles of it...not that close, really, but it's weird anyway."
"Vhy vould seeing a car be vierd?" Kurt asked as Zydane started his car back up again and continued to drive.
"Well, it wouldn't be wierd normally, but no one lives up here--there aren't any houses except the Bungalow. People normally don't come up here. No phone lines, and no electric lines either, we have a generator to give us power," Alexia explained.
"Oh," Kurt said quietly.
The rest of the ride was silent. Zydane obviously hadn't learned anything from the near crash, for he was soon zipping along the road at a pretty high clip. Kurt noticed that for the most part he drove with one hand on the wheel, the other either hanging out the window, or tapping out the beat to some imaginary song when it wasn't shifting gears.
After a while, Zydane pulled onto a narrow road and after about a hundred feet a house came into view. It was a two-story house, not all that large. Parked next to the house, there were a few four wheelers and dirt bikes. Zydane pulled off the driveway and before he had even parked completely, Alexia had jumped out of the car and was running towards one of the dirt bikes.
Without thinking, Kurt *bamf*ed his way out of the car and ran to catch up with her, leaving Zydane sitting in his car, staring at the place Kurt had just been sitting in shock.
There was a boy standing near the target dirt bike, and when he looked up and saw Alexia, he looked like he was staring into the Apocolyps.
"JOSH!" Alexia shouted, causeing the boy to flinch. "GET AWAY FROM MY BIKE! YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED ON MY BIKE, YOU DWEEB!"
Josh backed away from the dirt bike, taking off the helmet he'd been wearing and revealing a head full of curly brown hair. He held the helmet out to Alexia who snatched it from him and started to speak to him in a low voice that Kurt couldn't hear.
"I'm sorry Alexia," Josh said after a few moments of Alexia's talking.
"You're forgiven, but don't let me hear about you riding my bike again."
Josh nodded, then headed inside the house. Alexia sighed and turned the helmet over in her hands. Kurt noticed that her hair looked like it had been attacked by a balloon covered in static electricity, telling him she was slightly annoyed.
"Hey, Zy!" she called out, suddenly whirling to face Kurt and Zydane, who was approaching from the car, still slightly shocked by Kurt's teleport. "Let's ride!" She yanked on her helmet and swung onto her dirt bike.
"I'll go get Luke, he's inside," Zydane said with a nod. "He can take the four wheeler so Kurt can come along."
"Whatever," Alexia said with a shrug as she started her bike. "I'll meet you all up in McKinley's field. And hurry up."
With that, she revved her engine and suddenly zoomed off down the driveway and out of sight.
Zydane rolled his eyes and grinned at Kurt. "Put on your helmet and get on the back of that fourwheeler." He handed Kurt Alexia's video camera. "Put that in your back pack. Alex is gonna want it."
***********
DISCLAIMER: I've been begging and pleading with Marvel to give me the rights to X-men and all its characters, but since that has yet to be done, I don't own them (Except my O.C.s)
***********
Zydane sighed as he examined the carborator from Sean Wilcot's dirt bike. How could a person let their bike get into such decrepid condition. The carborator didn't just need to be cleaned, it needed to be replaced. That was going to be fun...and since it was an expensive bike, the parts were going to be difficult to obtain.
Across the room, Alexia was explaining to Kurt how to change the oil in an engine. Kurt didn't seem all that interested, but Alexia was having the time of her life. That was what she lived for, playing around with engines and machines, getting into the things that made a dirt bike run, getting her hands dirty...as well as her face. Throughout the day, Zydane had silently smiled at the fact that she kept absent-mindely touching her face and hair with her grease-and-oil-covered hands, making herself look like a "grundge-bucket", as her mother would say.
Glancing at the clock, Zydane put down the carborator and wiped his hands off on a rag. "Hey, guys, let's get going. It's five thirty. We can go back to my place and grab something to eat and then head on up the mountain and go trailing. Sound cool?"
Alexia shot up like a rocket. "Finally!" She exclaimed. "I thought you'd never be done with Wilcot's bike!"
"I'm not," Zydane answered. "He needs a new carbo. Fun fun fun for the mechanic."
Alexia grinned and wiped her own hands off on the rag Zydane threw her. "Well, that just means he has to pay more for labor, right?"
Zydane allowed a sly smile creep in across his face. "Good point, Alex..."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------
"ZYDANE! LOOK AT THIS MESS!"
Zydane winced as he closed the door to his apartment, suddenly remembering the fallen stack of dirty dishes on his kitchen floor. Alexia's mouth was hanging open, an astonished and disgusted look spread across her face.
Zydane decided to play the innocent card, hoping Alexia wouldn't rail him too much for being a total slob. "What mess Alex?"
Alexia pointed first to the dishes on the floor, then about the entire apartment. "This mess! Since when did Cheryl not teach you how to clean up after yourself?"
Of course she would bring his mother into this. "I wouldn't talk, Alex," he said, smiling. "Look in a mirror."
Alexia picked up a pot off the floor and examined her face in it. Immeadiately she blushed, seeing how dirty her own face had gotten.
"I thought so," Zydane commented. "Why don't you take a shower? I promise that when you come out, there won't be any dirty dishes. I'll take care of them all."
"Alright." Alexia turned and when into the bathroom.
Zydane turned to Kurt. "Hey Kurt, wanna help me? There are some garbage bags under the sink. We need to take all these dirty dishes and put them in the bags and then hide them so that Alexia won't be able to find them."
"I HEARD THAT!" Alexia shouted through the bathroom door.
Zydane grinned sheepishly at Kurt. "Or we could just wash them."
Kurt nodded. "That vould probably be a vise thing to do."
As Zydane filled the sink, Kurt watched him, interested. "How old are you, Zydane?"
"Twenty. Why?" Zydane asked, though he had a feeling he knew where this question was leading.
"Vell, I vas just vondering. You seem to understand Alexia to a point of perfection. I have been her friend for five months, unt I still have no clue vhat she is thinking most of the time."
Zydane smiled a strange smile, partly proud, partly sad. "Alexia and I grew up next to each other. I was almost four when she was born, and I vaguely remember the first time I saw her. She was this little red thing, all wrinkly and smelly. My mom tells me I told the adults 'God really screwed up on this one.'
I was best friends with her older brother Luke, and she spent some time with us, but usually she tagged along with an even older brother, John. Then, when I was like fourteen, which made her like ten or eleven, John's girl friend got pregnant, and Alexia's parents got really mad. Shouting at him about how he had just become a member of the church, and then he went and had relations before he was married. So John just left, and Alex suddenly didn't have anyone to hang out with, so she started hanging around me and Luke. Then one day she showed up at my door, asking my mom if she could play with ME, when normally she played with my little sisters. I didn't mind, she was a cool little kid. We just kept getting to be better friends, and eventually she was my best friend instead of Luke."
Kurt nodded. "So you started as a substitute for her role model, unt then became more to her."
"Yeah, I guess you could look at it that way," Zydane agreed with a smile. "Hand me that dish soap would you?"
Working together, the boys had almost finished the dishes when Alexia reappeared, wearing different clothes then when she had gone in to take a shower. Zydane eyed her. "Why do you always raid my closet when you come over Alex? I need to wear clothes too, you know."
Alexia sighed as she began to organize Zydane's coffee table--which turned out to be just a piece of ply wood over a few cinder blocks. "You just have better taste in clothes, is all Zy," she siad, but without humor in her voice.
Zydane decided to ignore the hint that Alex was still unhappy about him not being at the Institute. He knew she was, but he didn't want to go, and no matter how much begging or hinting she did, it wouldn't change anything.
Once the dishes were done, Zydane went into his room and hurriedly stuffed some clothes into a backpack. "I was thinking we would spend the night up at the Bungalow," he called into the other room. "Everyone's dying to see you, Alex."
"Sure," Alexia agreed. "Sounds good. I assume that the bikes are up there, or do we have to stop by my mom's house?"
"No, everything's there," Zydane answered. He zipped up his back pack and grabbed his helmet off the dresser. After a moment's thought, he took another helmet out of his closet.
On their way out to the car, Zydane handed Kurt the helmet. "Here, you're gonna need this. The Bungalow's way out in the middle of no where. If you fall off a bike, we don't want to have to drive you for an hour to get to a hospital."
Kurt nodded and took the helmet.
The drive up to the Bungalow was a long one, going through a few small villas as they traveled up the side of the mountain. Gradually, the nice paved roads were replaced by rut-filled dirt roads as they left civilization further behind them.
Kurt noticed with a slight twinge of fear that not only were the roads getting worse, by Zydane was steadily going faster.
"Shouldn't you slow down?" he asked, once the spedometer passed 60 miles per hour. "Vhat if you see a deer in the road? Or another CAR!" Kurt cried, pointing in front of them at a black luxury car that had just pulled out in front of them from another road.
"CRAP!" Zydane shouted, as he slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel violently.
Their car stopped just in time to miss the other. The driver of the black car didn't even stop--instead, he floored his own accelerator and zoomed off.
"Jeez, that was close!" Alexia breathed.
"Heck yeah," Zydane agreed. "I've seen that car around a lot lately, like up by the Bungalow."
"How close to the Bungalow?" Alexia asked, slightly fearful.
"With in a couple miles of it...not that close, really, but it's weird anyway."
"Vhy vould seeing a car be vierd?" Kurt asked as Zydane started his car back up again and continued to drive.
"Well, it wouldn't be wierd normally, but no one lives up here--there aren't any houses except the Bungalow. People normally don't come up here. No phone lines, and no electric lines either, we have a generator to give us power," Alexia explained.
"Oh," Kurt said quietly.
The rest of the ride was silent. Zydane obviously hadn't learned anything from the near crash, for he was soon zipping along the road at a pretty high clip. Kurt noticed that for the most part he drove with one hand on the wheel, the other either hanging out the window, or tapping out the beat to some imaginary song when it wasn't shifting gears.
After a while, Zydane pulled onto a narrow road and after about a hundred feet a house came into view. It was a two-story house, not all that large. Parked next to the house, there were a few four wheelers and dirt bikes. Zydane pulled off the driveway and before he had even parked completely, Alexia had jumped out of the car and was running towards one of the dirt bikes.
Without thinking, Kurt *bamf*ed his way out of the car and ran to catch up with her, leaving Zydane sitting in his car, staring at the place Kurt had just been sitting in shock.
There was a boy standing near the target dirt bike, and when he looked up and saw Alexia, he looked like he was staring into the Apocolyps.
"JOSH!" Alexia shouted, causeing the boy to flinch. "GET AWAY FROM MY BIKE! YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED ON MY BIKE, YOU DWEEB!"
Josh backed away from the dirt bike, taking off the helmet he'd been wearing and revealing a head full of curly brown hair. He held the helmet out to Alexia who snatched it from him and started to speak to him in a low voice that Kurt couldn't hear.
"I'm sorry Alexia," Josh said after a few moments of Alexia's talking.
"You're forgiven, but don't let me hear about you riding my bike again."
Josh nodded, then headed inside the house. Alexia sighed and turned the helmet over in her hands. Kurt noticed that her hair looked like it had been attacked by a balloon covered in static electricity, telling him she was slightly annoyed.
"Hey, Zy!" she called out, suddenly whirling to face Kurt and Zydane, who was approaching from the car, still slightly shocked by Kurt's teleport. "Let's ride!" She yanked on her helmet and swung onto her dirt bike.
"I'll go get Luke, he's inside," Zydane said with a nod. "He can take the four wheeler so Kurt can come along."
"Whatever," Alexia said with a shrug as she started her bike. "I'll meet you all up in McKinley's field. And hurry up."
With that, she revved her engine and suddenly zoomed off down the driveway and out of sight.
Zydane rolled his eyes and grinned at Kurt. "Put on your helmet and get on the back of that fourwheeler." He handed Kurt Alexia's video camera. "Put that in your back pack. Alex is gonna want it."