To have a good friend is one of the highest delights of life; to be a good
friend is one of the noblest and most difficult undertakings.--Unkown
The truest help we can rend an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.--Phillips Brooks
The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.--Charles Caleb Colton
////
Scott slipped out of his room and into the hall as quietly as he could. It had been a few weeks since all the new mutants had come to the institute. He found it difficult to keep up with all the new people and sometimes with his duties as the leader. He was no longer the oldest student at the institute and it was sometimes hard to keep the older mutants in line. His job was only made harder as the fifteen mutants were a team with Kyran, Brody, and Cody and they were under Kyran's leadership.
Kyran and Scott had never got along. Their rivalry was worse than Scott and Lance's was and that was saying a lot. Kyran thought Scott was Xavier's little puppet, too uptight, and too much of an asshole. Scott thought Kyran was too cocky, too irresponsible, and definitely not fit to be the leader of a team. Neither had ever seen eye to eye and Scott wasn't exactly sure they ever would.
But, strangely, no one could make Scott think more than Kyran could. Every fight with the older boy seemed to end with Scott left contemplating the other boy's words. Even Jean never had the same affect on Scott that Kyran did. It was clear the older boy was a lot smarter than most people thought. Which was why he was losing sleep. Kyran's words would haunt him even as he tried to sleep.
So, Scott gave up trying to sleep and instead went to the kitchen for an early breakfast. No one else was up as it was a Saturday morning and everyone tended to sleep in. That gave him plenty of time to eat and think about his latest argument with Kyran the night before.
"You're not as good of a leader as you think you are." Kyran had snarled in front of a room full of the younger mutants. "You think failure is unacceptable. You can't fail. Well let me tell you something. The true sign of a leader is one that can accept failure, teach his people to accept failure, and together grow stronger."
Scott hadn't said anything in response. What could he say? He'd been furious and embarrassed. He was supposed to be an example to the younger mutants and there he was getting shot down in front of them. The urge to blast a hole through Kyran's head had been great, but Jean had mentally scolded him.
Hours later he was thinking about what his rival said to him. At the time he had been too angry and too embarrassed to think about it. But the more he did think about it the more he knew it was true. He'd never thought about it before, but he knew it was true. He wouldn't, couldn't accept failure of any kind. When they had failed for the first time against the Brotherhood after Kyran joined he'd lectured the team for hours. When they failed the second time everyone had extra Danger Room practice, but things never got any better. They never accepted failure and therefore never learned from it and never grew stronger.
"I hate that kid sometimes."
"Hate is a strong word Scott."
Scott looked around behind him to see Ororo there. He smiled sheepishly. "I hope I didn't wake you."
"No, this is about the time I usually wake up." Ororo replied. "You however, should still be asleep."
"I can't." Scott replied. "I haven't been able to sleep since Kyran moved in."
"His words bother you."
"I think he hates me, but at the same time he keeps telling me things that make me think. Like he's trying to help in some weird way." Scott said. "He's more infuriating than Lance and more confusing than Pietro when he's talking fast."
"Maybe he is trying to help you." Ororo said. "Would you listen to him if he told you in a different way?"
"I listen to Jean and she doesn't--."
"She often has a hard time getting her point across to you."
Scott frowned and looked down at the cereal he had fixed for himself while talking to Ororo. He hated to admit it, but she was right. He often didn't get the point of Jean's lectures or even her often-meaningful looks until something happened to pound them into his mind. Maybe that was why Kyran took a completely different approach to it, by totally bypassing the friendly advice and getting right to being upfront and insulting.
"I guess you're right." He sighed. "I just hate how he gets under my skin and into my head. Worst of all he's not the only one of them that does it."
"Yes, Adam is quite observant and intuitive." Ororo said.
Scott rolled his eyes. "He's a cynical guy that only sees the worst in people."
"Maybe that's because that is all he's ever seen."
"He still could be a little more respectful of others' feelings." Scott grumbled. "I just don't like it. I don't like how they get away with the things they do just because they were locked up in some kind of prison for half their lives."
Ororo frowned. "Scott, some of those kids are just seeing the rest of the world for the first time they can remember. Some of them don't know proper etiquette and manners."
"Then shouldn't someone be teaching them that?"
"Perhaps, but I think experience will be the best teacher."
"I'm not so sure they want to learn."
"I don't think it's your place to judge them like that."
Scott sighed. "No, I suppose it's not."
Scott started eating his cereal and continued thinking. Ororo went about starting a large breakfast for the rest of the house. Everything went silent...for all of six seconds. Then all hell broke loose as all eighteen of the new mutant team appeared out of nowhere. Scott watched in shocked awe as the four youngest turned on the TV for early morning cartoons. The six oldest mutants went straight for the kitchen and the coffee within. While the remaining six spilt up to do different things.
"How can you all be up already?" Scott asked Taylon as the younger kid settled in to a seat beside him. There was a bowl of Lucky Charms in front of him.
"The day always started early." Taylon replied simply. "Fights, training, experiments, it all started around seven in the morning."
"It's only five thirty."
Taylon shrugged. "Sleeping until the exact time the guards came and got you wasn't exactly a pleasant thing. Everyone woke up early."
The tone of Taylon's voice clearly told Scott not to ask anything about the Facility. It was a touchy subject with all of them. Only the oldest six were able to talk about it. After witnessing the conditions in which they had lived Scott couldn't blame them.
"What has you up so early Goggles?"
Scott mentally groaned at Kyran's nickname for him. The older boy knew how much it bugged Scott, knew that he hated it. Scott had told him over and over again not to call him that, but the only response he would get was a little smirk that told him Kyran wasn't going to stop any time soon. And it bugged Scott that there were few things he could do or say in response. It was hard to ruffle Kyran's feathers without insulting someone else.
"None of your business."
Kyran smirked but didn't press the matter. "So, when's Danger Room practice?"
"Two hours." Scott replied curtly.
"Just to let you know then, Brody won't be participating."
"And why is that? He needs to recover his strength."
"The Professor has decided he's curious about Brody's multiple personalities and Brody has agreed to a session or something like that." Kyran explained. "So that's one less Hellraiser to kick your asses."
"Overconfident much?" Scott grumbled.
"Nah, I just know we're good."
"No, you are an overconfident, cocky bastard, but we love you anyway." Taylon spoke up. He squealed as Kyran grabbed him in a headlock and ruffled his bright red hair.
"Speak for yourself bull boy." Adam said as he took a seat at the table as well.
Kyran rolled his eyes. "Yes Adam, we know you only love yourself."
Adam rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything in his defense. He didn't really care what the others thought about him. He let them have their assumptions about what he thought and what he was really like. Deep down he knew the truth and that's what really mattered.
BAMF!
"Morning Kurt." Was heard from the kitchen just seconds after the sound of the teleporter making his appearance.
"How can you all get up this early?"
Scott smiled to himself as he heard his younger friend ask the same question he had only moments earlier. He returned to eating his bowl of cereal and thinking about what he wanted to do for the rest of the day. There was of course the Danger Room session that was scheduled for all three teams, those three being the X-men, New Mutants, and Hellraisers. After that he didn't have anything else planned and didn't really feel like spending his whole day wondering around doing nothing.
"Hey, um...Scott?" The soft voice startled the teenager out of his thoughts.
"Yeah?" Scott asked, looking over at the speaker. He smiled when he saw it was one of the youngest Hellraisers, Jakob.
"Um, Matt and I were wondering if...you'd...um...teach us how to play basketball."
Scott regarded the younger boy with a slightly surprised expression. He hadn't exactly been expecting that kind of question from Jakob. Well, it looked like he found what he was going to be doing for the day.
"Sure, after the Danger Room today." Scott replied.
A grin broke out across the usually solemn little boy's face. With a whoop of joy Jakob turned and darted back to the living room to tell the rest of the younger mutants about the basketball lessons. Scott smiled as he heard the excited chattering of the boys.
"That's awful nice of you."
Scott looked up at Kyran. "Yeah, well, I'm just surprised he didn't ask you."
"Well, it's not like any of us really know how to play basketball any better than the kids." Kyran replied. "I know the basics, Erik can play a little, but there wasn't exactly a basketball court at the Facility."
"Oh."
"So," Kyran paused and looked as if what he was about to say was going to physically hurt. "I appreciate you teaching them."
"Oh, that had to hurt." Adam quipped.
SPLAT!
There was a moment of stunned silence as it took Adam a moment to realize what had happened. When he did, his temper flared.
"You did not just fling a spoon full of cereal at me." The illusionist snarled.
"And what if I did?" Kyran growled. Shadow appeared beside him in a heartbeat.
"Here we go again." Taylon groaned.
Scott rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and watched as Kyran tackled Adam and the two began wrestling in the middle of the dinning room. He turned his attention back to his cereal and sighed. I'm never going to get any peace around here anymore. He thought.
CRASH!
"Asshole!"
"Prick!"
"It's amazing you guys can even function as a team." Kurt commented as he joined the small group at the table. Brody soon joined him, both boys eating cereal like the rest of the group.
Taylon shrugged. "Adam knows when to shut up and take orders."
"Loser!"
"Jackass!"
CRASH!
"Boys!" Ororo shouted from the kitchen.
The wrestling match stopped. Kyran looked down at Adam while the slightly younger boy looked right back at him. There was a silent agreement and the two quickly got to their feet and took off with Kyran's shadow in close pursuit. Behind them was Ororo, who was trying to scold them. The boys in the dinning room laughed as they heard the sounds of a severe chewing out as Ororo cornered the two young men.
Taylon snickered. "Some things will never change."
The truest help we can rend an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden.--Phillips Brooks
The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.--Charles Caleb Colton
////
Scott slipped out of his room and into the hall as quietly as he could. It had been a few weeks since all the new mutants had come to the institute. He found it difficult to keep up with all the new people and sometimes with his duties as the leader. He was no longer the oldest student at the institute and it was sometimes hard to keep the older mutants in line. His job was only made harder as the fifteen mutants were a team with Kyran, Brody, and Cody and they were under Kyran's leadership.
Kyran and Scott had never got along. Their rivalry was worse than Scott and Lance's was and that was saying a lot. Kyran thought Scott was Xavier's little puppet, too uptight, and too much of an asshole. Scott thought Kyran was too cocky, too irresponsible, and definitely not fit to be the leader of a team. Neither had ever seen eye to eye and Scott wasn't exactly sure they ever would.
But, strangely, no one could make Scott think more than Kyran could. Every fight with the older boy seemed to end with Scott left contemplating the other boy's words. Even Jean never had the same affect on Scott that Kyran did. It was clear the older boy was a lot smarter than most people thought. Which was why he was losing sleep. Kyran's words would haunt him even as he tried to sleep.
So, Scott gave up trying to sleep and instead went to the kitchen for an early breakfast. No one else was up as it was a Saturday morning and everyone tended to sleep in. That gave him plenty of time to eat and think about his latest argument with Kyran the night before.
"You're not as good of a leader as you think you are." Kyran had snarled in front of a room full of the younger mutants. "You think failure is unacceptable. You can't fail. Well let me tell you something. The true sign of a leader is one that can accept failure, teach his people to accept failure, and together grow stronger."
Scott hadn't said anything in response. What could he say? He'd been furious and embarrassed. He was supposed to be an example to the younger mutants and there he was getting shot down in front of them. The urge to blast a hole through Kyran's head had been great, but Jean had mentally scolded him.
Hours later he was thinking about what his rival said to him. At the time he had been too angry and too embarrassed to think about it. But the more he did think about it the more he knew it was true. He'd never thought about it before, but he knew it was true. He wouldn't, couldn't accept failure of any kind. When they had failed for the first time against the Brotherhood after Kyran joined he'd lectured the team for hours. When they failed the second time everyone had extra Danger Room practice, but things never got any better. They never accepted failure and therefore never learned from it and never grew stronger.
"I hate that kid sometimes."
"Hate is a strong word Scott."
Scott looked around behind him to see Ororo there. He smiled sheepishly. "I hope I didn't wake you."
"No, this is about the time I usually wake up." Ororo replied. "You however, should still be asleep."
"I can't." Scott replied. "I haven't been able to sleep since Kyran moved in."
"His words bother you."
"I think he hates me, but at the same time he keeps telling me things that make me think. Like he's trying to help in some weird way." Scott said. "He's more infuriating than Lance and more confusing than Pietro when he's talking fast."
"Maybe he is trying to help you." Ororo said. "Would you listen to him if he told you in a different way?"
"I listen to Jean and she doesn't--."
"She often has a hard time getting her point across to you."
Scott frowned and looked down at the cereal he had fixed for himself while talking to Ororo. He hated to admit it, but she was right. He often didn't get the point of Jean's lectures or even her often-meaningful looks until something happened to pound them into his mind. Maybe that was why Kyran took a completely different approach to it, by totally bypassing the friendly advice and getting right to being upfront and insulting.
"I guess you're right." He sighed. "I just hate how he gets under my skin and into my head. Worst of all he's not the only one of them that does it."
"Yes, Adam is quite observant and intuitive." Ororo said.
Scott rolled his eyes. "He's a cynical guy that only sees the worst in people."
"Maybe that's because that is all he's ever seen."
"He still could be a little more respectful of others' feelings." Scott grumbled. "I just don't like it. I don't like how they get away with the things they do just because they were locked up in some kind of prison for half their lives."
Ororo frowned. "Scott, some of those kids are just seeing the rest of the world for the first time they can remember. Some of them don't know proper etiquette and manners."
"Then shouldn't someone be teaching them that?"
"Perhaps, but I think experience will be the best teacher."
"I'm not so sure they want to learn."
"I don't think it's your place to judge them like that."
Scott sighed. "No, I suppose it's not."
Scott started eating his cereal and continued thinking. Ororo went about starting a large breakfast for the rest of the house. Everything went silent...for all of six seconds. Then all hell broke loose as all eighteen of the new mutant team appeared out of nowhere. Scott watched in shocked awe as the four youngest turned on the TV for early morning cartoons. The six oldest mutants went straight for the kitchen and the coffee within. While the remaining six spilt up to do different things.
"How can you all be up already?" Scott asked Taylon as the younger kid settled in to a seat beside him. There was a bowl of Lucky Charms in front of him.
"The day always started early." Taylon replied simply. "Fights, training, experiments, it all started around seven in the morning."
"It's only five thirty."
Taylon shrugged. "Sleeping until the exact time the guards came and got you wasn't exactly a pleasant thing. Everyone woke up early."
The tone of Taylon's voice clearly told Scott not to ask anything about the Facility. It was a touchy subject with all of them. Only the oldest six were able to talk about it. After witnessing the conditions in which they had lived Scott couldn't blame them.
"What has you up so early Goggles?"
Scott mentally groaned at Kyran's nickname for him. The older boy knew how much it bugged Scott, knew that he hated it. Scott had told him over and over again not to call him that, but the only response he would get was a little smirk that told him Kyran wasn't going to stop any time soon. And it bugged Scott that there were few things he could do or say in response. It was hard to ruffle Kyran's feathers without insulting someone else.
"None of your business."
Kyran smirked but didn't press the matter. "So, when's Danger Room practice?"
"Two hours." Scott replied curtly.
"Just to let you know then, Brody won't be participating."
"And why is that? He needs to recover his strength."
"The Professor has decided he's curious about Brody's multiple personalities and Brody has agreed to a session or something like that." Kyran explained. "So that's one less Hellraiser to kick your asses."
"Overconfident much?" Scott grumbled.
"Nah, I just know we're good."
"No, you are an overconfident, cocky bastard, but we love you anyway." Taylon spoke up. He squealed as Kyran grabbed him in a headlock and ruffled his bright red hair.
"Speak for yourself bull boy." Adam said as he took a seat at the table as well.
Kyran rolled his eyes. "Yes Adam, we know you only love yourself."
Adam rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything in his defense. He didn't really care what the others thought about him. He let them have their assumptions about what he thought and what he was really like. Deep down he knew the truth and that's what really mattered.
BAMF!
"Morning Kurt." Was heard from the kitchen just seconds after the sound of the teleporter making his appearance.
"How can you all get up this early?"
Scott smiled to himself as he heard his younger friend ask the same question he had only moments earlier. He returned to eating his bowl of cereal and thinking about what he wanted to do for the rest of the day. There was of course the Danger Room session that was scheduled for all three teams, those three being the X-men, New Mutants, and Hellraisers. After that he didn't have anything else planned and didn't really feel like spending his whole day wondering around doing nothing.
"Hey, um...Scott?" The soft voice startled the teenager out of his thoughts.
"Yeah?" Scott asked, looking over at the speaker. He smiled when he saw it was one of the youngest Hellraisers, Jakob.
"Um, Matt and I were wondering if...you'd...um...teach us how to play basketball."
Scott regarded the younger boy with a slightly surprised expression. He hadn't exactly been expecting that kind of question from Jakob. Well, it looked like he found what he was going to be doing for the day.
"Sure, after the Danger Room today." Scott replied.
A grin broke out across the usually solemn little boy's face. With a whoop of joy Jakob turned and darted back to the living room to tell the rest of the younger mutants about the basketball lessons. Scott smiled as he heard the excited chattering of the boys.
"That's awful nice of you."
Scott looked up at Kyran. "Yeah, well, I'm just surprised he didn't ask you."
"Well, it's not like any of us really know how to play basketball any better than the kids." Kyran replied. "I know the basics, Erik can play a little, but there wasn't exactly a basketball court at the Facility."
"Oh."
"So," Kyran paused and looked as if what he was about to say was going to physically hurt. "I appreciate you teaching them."
"Oh, that had to hurt." Adam quipped.
SPLAT!
There was a moment of stunned silence as it took Adam a moment to realize what had happened. When he did, his temper flared.
"You did not just fling a spoon full of cereal at me." The illusionist snarled.
"And what if I did?" Kyran growled. Shadow appeared beside him in a heartbeat.
"Here we go again." Taylon groaned.
Scott rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and watched as Kyran tackled Adam and the two began wrestling in the middle of the dinning room. He turned his attention back to his cereal and sighed. I'm never going to get any peace around here anymore. He thought.
CRASH!
"Asshole!"
"Prick!"
"It's amazing you guys can even function as a team." Kurt commented as he joined the small group at the table. Brody soon joined him, both boys eating cereal like the rest of the group.
Taylon shrugged. "Adam knows when to shut up and take orders."
"Loser!"
"Jackass!"
CRASH!
"Boys!" Ororo shouted from the kitchen.
The wrestling match stopped. Kyran looked down at Adam while the slightly younger boy looked right back at him. There was a silent agreement and the two quickly got to their feet and took off with Kyran's shadow in close pursuit. Behind them was Ororo, who was trying to scold them. The boys in the dinning room laughed as they heard the sounds of a severe chewing out as Ororo cornered the two young men.
Taylon snickered. "Some things will never change."