Disclaimer: Premise and characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just borrowing them for a bit of non-profit fun.
Thanks for the feedback: Sliver Queen, MiracleChick, Eileen, descendent
Pietro flopped down on the couch beside Rogue. "Lance is going to kill me," he announced.
"Any reason why?" Rogue asked.
"Kelly was an ass," Pietro explained. "So-Todd-and-I-repainted-his-car."
"So what's new?" Rogue asked. "Yah go psychedelic or plain old obnoxious this time?"
"We decided to show school spirit," Pietro said. "And this time we disassembled the car before we painted it."
"That's going the extra mile," Rogue said. "Ah still don't see why Lance is gonna be upset."
"Kelly-cut-us-out-of-the-free-lunch-program," Pietro said. "Lance-has-been-keeping-him-from-following-through-on-that-threat-since-the-second-week-Kelly-got-here."
"You're right, Lance is going to kill you, unless…" Rogue trailed off.
Pietro looked up at her hopefully.
"Unless Freddy gets to you first," Rogue finished.
"You are sooo helpful," Pietro sighed.
Todd hopped into the room. "Lance is up and talking and everything!" he exclaimed.
Pietro jumped up and vanished in the direction of the med-lab.
"They've been here for more than twenty-four hours and the place is still standing?" Lance was asking Kitty, who'd hopped up onto the bed to curl up in his arms. Pietro noted they both looked more than slightly pleased by the seating arrangement.
Fred stood leaning against the wall grinning like an idiot.
Todd and Rogue arrived in the doorway behind Pietro.
Dr. MacTaggart and Professor Xavier hovered in the background, waiting for everyone to satisfy themselves that Lance was all right.
" 'bout time you woke up lazy bones," Pietro said.
"You know I wanted out of that history exam today," Lance replied.
"How you feeling Rocky? Rogue asked.
"Good actually," Lance said. "I can't remember the last time my head didn't hurt."
Impulsively Todd hugged Lance.
"Don't tell me you were worried," Lance said, half-grinning at the younger boy.
"Who me?" Todd asked pulling away quickly, his cheeks burning scarlet.
****** ****** ******
Kurt knocked on the door "Tabitha!" he called. When no one replied he bamfed into the room.
Tabby was halfway out the window, a duffle bag swung over her shoulder.
"Vhat are you doing?" Kurt asked, looking shocked.
"Kinda obvious, Blue," Tabby said.
"But vhy?" Kurt asked.
"You know I don't belong here," Tabby sighed. "We've been here before."
"The rest of the Brotherhood is trying," Kurt objected.
"For Lance's sake," Tabby said. "I just moved in with them because it was convenient. You know, I wasn't one of you so I must be one them, right? Now they're here and I don't belong anywhere."
"No Tabby," Kurt protested.
"I liked living with the boys, it was a blast," Tabby replied. "But Lance isn't enough of a reason for me to stay out of trouble. Tell him I'm glad he's okay, but this place gives me hives."
"But vhere vill you go?" Kurt asked.
"Bye Blue, don't be too good," Tabby said slipping out the window.
****** ****** ******
Lance stood up testing his balance while Dr. MacTaggart finished explaining what had happened to him. Except for the two of them the med-lab was empty.
"So how long till I can use my powers again?" Lance asked.
"For the next four months you shouldn't even attempt to use them," Moira said. "That will give you time to heal from the surgery. Then we can start working on preventing this from reoccurring. I have several very good leads…"
"But Avalanche might be out of commission forever," Lance finished unhappily.
"Whatever happens ye'll still have a life afterwards, next to that yer powers aren't that huge of a sacrifice," Moira replied. "Not that I really believe it'll come to that."
"What was I thinking," Lance said scarcastically.
****** ****** ******
"Pietro I'd appreciate it if you helped Rogue with the dishes tonight," Xavier said.
Pietro shrugged, grabbed a couple of plates and followed the Goth-girl into the kitchen.
"Normally I don't do group work," Pietro said as the door shut behind them. "It cramps my style too much, but I'll make an exception for you."
"Why thank ya kindly," Rogue replied rolling her eyes. "Ah've always wanted the honor of doing the dishes with ya."
"Yeah, but you get to do them my way," Pietro said darting around her and stealing a kiss. "Now lets get this over with."
For a moment that felt much longer than the clock's measure Rogue simply stood there, wide-eyed with shock, her fingertips pressed to her lips.
"Come on, don't just stand around," Pietro said impatiently.
"Ya kissed me," Rogue stammered.
"Don't act like that's never happened before," Pietro said.
"Well it hasn't, least not to me," Rogue exclaimed crossly.
Pietro was taken off guard for a moment then said. "I should do better for a first kiss." And before Rogue could protest he'd wrapped her in his arms and gently kissed her.
When he pulled away Rogue looked even more thunderstruck. "Mah powers didn't…" she began.
"We're both in my time frame," Pietro said shrugging. "To you and I it felt like a normal length kiss but it really wasn't long at all, your powers couldn't keep up. I noticed the time lag this morning when I loaned you my powers in the danger room."
"Ah… Ah… Ah don't know what to say," Rogue said. "Ah didn't think anybody'd ever kiss me without passing out in the middle and ending up hating me forever.
Rogue grinned and stole another quick kiss. "Thank you," she whispered.
Pietro, to his immense shock, found himself without a smooth reply.
The dish took almost ten minutes to get done as both Rogue and Pietro found themselves repeatedly distracted by stolen kisses.
****** ****** ******
Lance waited for the mansion's inhabitant to settle in for the night. Then he got out of bed, got dressed and unwrapped the bandages around his head, shaking his longish hair forward to cover the shaved patch and stitches.
Moving silently he crept upstairs and toward the garage. He paused at the door, softly he said. "Sorry guys. You're all probably going to be furious with me, but for once I'm going to do the leaving."
Lance glanced over the Institute's collection of vehicles, his eyes settling on Scott's convertible. "I'd rather have the jeep," he said to himself picking up the keys from a rack by the door. "But I don't really feel up to walking into town to get it back and I'm sure Summers is feeling guilty about our little fight the other day anyway, I'll let this be his apology."
By the time the sun rose Lance had left the Institute and Bayville far behind.
****** ****** ******
"He stole my car!" Scott reported. "I can't believe he stole my car."
"What was he supposed to do? Walk?" Todd said sarcastically as Kitty snarled. "No one gives a damn about your stupid car."
"Why'd Lance leave?" Fred asked. "He didn't say nothing about leaving."
"Because we would have stopped him, stupid," Pietro snapped. "Lance is nuts and he's gonna get hurt so we have to drag him back here. We can have the cops look for the car or something."
"We can do better," Kitty said.
"Yes," Xavier said. "I can locate Lance with Cerebro. Then we can talk to him, but if he truly doesn't want to be here we can't force him to return."
"We can make him give my car back," Scott said.
"Screw that," Pietro exclaimed. "Lance-is-sick, he-needs-help. If-he-doesn't-realize-that-I-have-no-problem-making-him-let-us-fix-him."
"Me either," Kitty said as the members of the Brotherhood nodded their agreement.
"We will talk to him," Xavier said firmly.
****** ****** ******
When Lance saw the X-Jet descending on to the road in front of him he pulled the convertible to the side of the road and set his expression. Mentally he'd worked out several versions of this conversation depending on who came after him. Upon seeing Xavier and Logan were the only ones getting off the plane Lance sighed with relief; he hadn't been looking forward to confronting any of his friends or Kitty.
Lance forced himself to sit and watch them approach without expression. Once they were within speaking range he asked, "Are you here to keep up appearances or have you actually deluded yourselves into thinking I can still be useful to you?"
"I don't know why you would feel that way," Xavier said. "We are simply concerned about you."
Lance snorted in disbelief. "Come on, everybody knows you pick and choose your students based on how useful they are your little dream."
"I most certainly do not," Xavier said frowning.
Lance laughed. "Yeah right, and you put exactly the same amount of effort into recruiting Toad as you put into recruiting Rogue. I mean, it's not like I don't get it, or anything, Rogue could be really dangerous if she wanted to be, I wouldn't want her running around giving mutants a bad name if I were in your shoes and Todd's powers are pretty crappy really. Hell, I bet you wouldn't have cared about Spyke if it weren't for his Aunt, you know he isn't that powerful and he really has too many attitude problems for your bunch. The way I figure it, you're getting a wish come true by my leaving. No more bad influence hanging around Kitty and it's not like I'm dangerous anymore, but you have to try to look good in front of your students. So okay, you tried, now you can fuck off and leave me alone."
"If that is how you feel," Xavier said stiffly. "I won't force you to accept help."
Logan frowned as Xavier started back toward the jet then he turned back to Lance. "Drop the attitude kid, I can smell that you're scared half out of your mind. Don't blame ya really, must feel like your own body's turned against you. Course you weren't ever the trusting, faith in humanity type were ya. I figure this isn't helping any, now can't even trust yourself. But believe me, running away isn't going to make things better. You aren't solving anything and you're hurting the people that care about you. 'Sides, what have ya got to loose? Even if your powers can't be fixed, at least ya tried. You won't be any worse off."
"Yes I will," Lance said quietly. "I can't take anymore pipedreams; someday my parents will come back. Someday we won't be loosers who have to hide our mutant abilities. Someday Mystique'll come back. Someday my powers won't hurt me… so many somedays, they don't ever get here and I'm tried of letting them slowly kill me. As for my friends, they think they want me back right now, but how long will that last?"
"Because ya ain't got your powers?" Logan asked. "I think you're selling your friends short and I know Kitty ain't that shallow. Hell if this teaches you to stay out of trouble, it'll probably do your relationship a world of good, because I won't have to kill ya for hurting her."
"Doubt it," Lance replied.
"Kid, I hope you wise up while you've still got friends." Logan said. "When you get tired of being pig-headed, call. We'll come get you."
"Ain't gonna happen," Lance said.
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