Evan lazily drug himself down the long staircase towards the kitchen. Whoever had decided that danger room sessions should start early Saturday mornings was definitely not on his good list at the moment. He knew he would be the last one to breakfast, and probably the last one to be ready for the morning's training hour. He groaned as he shoved the kitchen door open, knowing that Logan was sure to punish him for tardiness later on.
He entered the crowded kitchen only to find everyone sitting quietly at the table. Too tired to note the oddity of the silence, Evan headed for the fridge.
"Morning Evan."
Evan waved a hand over his shoulder. "Morning Pietro." he mumbled.
He sat down at the table and took a deep gulp of his milk. Suddenly, his sleep filled mind clicked into gear and he began to choke on the white liquid. "Pietro?"
Evan looked across the table and met eyes with the silver haired boy. His pale face was gaunt and it looked like the poor guy was more than a little tired. His eyes, usually very full of energy, ready to taunt anyone within earshot, were dull and lifeless. His trademark sneer didn't look nearly as menacing as usual at the moment.
Evan took in the faces of Todd and Lance. Each had a similar expression as Pietro. Todd had a black eye and Lance was rubbing his forehead as he popped a small pill into his mouth.
"What's going on?" Evan asked.
"Surprise, surprise." Pietro mumbled. The teasing tone that usually accompanied his voice was obviously forced. The edge of sarcasm was absent as well, making the teen sound somewhat pathetic, rather than obnoxious.
"Um, Evan," Scott whispered, "Just don't ask for now alright?"
Confused, Evan looked at the other members of the X-Men. All of them were bent over their breakfast, avoiding eye contact with the unwelcome guests. All except Kurt, who was twitching his tail in agitation and glancing from Kitty to Lance with a look of disgust.
"I do not like zis," he whispered to Evan.
Evan just gave him a blank expression and watched the brotherhood. Lance, he noticed, was slightly green. He clutched his head and a muffled moan escaped his lips.
The other teens glanced up for a minute, but immediately returned to their breakfast when Pietro and Todd shot them warning glances.
Hank stood up and nodded toward the professor. "Lance, come with me."
The tall boy looked over at the beast and seemed to be contemplating how to respond. He was obviously too out of it to protest because he finally stood and followed Hank out the door. Pietro and Todd started to stand, but the professor stopped them.
"He's going to give him something for that headache, just stay here."
The two boys looked uncertainly at the professor, but they too did not bother to argue.
Evan watched in amazement. Since when did the brotherhood listen to the professor? He couldn't stand it anymore. "Professor, what in the heck is going on here?"
"Not now Evan."
"Oh for pete's sake. I am not about to just eat my breakfast like there is nothing odd going on, man!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Ok spyke boy, here's the thing. We were living in a shi..umm," he glanced at the professor who was giving him a warning look, "Uh, crap hole. It got to the point where we couldn't stay there anymore and that's all you really need to know, not that it's any of your business. Believe me, this wasn't my idea, but there aren't exactly many friendly places that three homeless, mutant, teens can go now is there?"
Evan scowled but kept his mouth shut. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to argue with his rival. He looked way to sick and tired at the moment to even be a challenge.
"I think you all should head to your training session," the professor said quietly.
Grimly, Scott rose and put his breakfast dishes in the sink. The others followed suit, still avoiding Todd's and Pietro's eyes. Once they had all filed out, the professor and Logan turned to face the two remaining boys.
"So," Logan started, "Lemme see if I've got this straight. Blob beat on you guys on a regular basis after Magneto talked to him, about what: you don't know. And you guys just took it? Now, forgive me for not being Mr. Sympathetic, but why didn't ya just take him out. For goodness sakes Quicksilver our kids can't even touch you and they've been trained. Fred's a lumbering idiot."
"Look yo, It wasn't a matter of whether or not we could stop him. Maybe we coulda and maybe we couldn't but it don't really matter. We just, didn't want to, just, aw man, it's complicated alright? There was more to it than that."
Logan looked at Todd in surprise. He had not been aware that the teen had the courage to even lift his eyes to a more powerful person, let alone snap at one.
Pietro looked at the two men and let out a sigh. "It's cuz we didn't want to fight all the time, Ok? Why should we have to tell you all this stuff? It's- it's personal."
The professor massaged his temple and sighed, obviously trying to sort out all of what was going on. It simply didn't make sense for three tough guys to let themselves get beat to a pulp on a regular basis. He knew the problem must go a lot deeper than Pietro and Todd were revealing, but he knew that now was not the time to press the issue.
"Ok, hello? A whole minute went by; you can say something now. Do you have any idea how long a minute feels to someone like me? I could tell you exactly how long; along with all the other personal stuff in my life since that obviously seems to be what you want to hear."
"Listen bub, You do realize that YOU came to US. Obviously, we are gonna expect some explaining. I really don't think your attitude is working in your favor right now."
Pietro mumbled something into the tablecloth then remained very quiet. Todd looked up at the professor, meeting his eyes.
"Look professor, we ain't slept in who knows how long, we're in a place where no one trusts us and probably wouldn't mind slitting our throats if they had the chance. Can you really blame us for being a little edgy? We aren't as bad as you seem to think, yo. We're just confused kids from the wrong side of the tracks, who were given some bad information. And don't think for a minute that we like admitting to that, but we don't got any other choice here."
The professor sat back in his chair and eyed Todd with interest. He didn't know when Todd had developed the nerve to speak up like that, nor had he been aware of the desperate situation the brotherhood boys were in. He looked over at Pietro who was glaring at Todd but not arguing.
"Tell you what, get some sleep, and then we'll talk some more. And Pietro, I'm afraid I will have to ask questions that you won't want to answer, but you must understand our situation. I believe you boys wholeheartedly, but that does not mean that you have earned our trust. We'll bunk the three of you in the same room for now. Logan, take them upstairs."
The two boys trudged silently behind Logan, both watching their feet. He led them to a large room with two sets of bunk beds.
"Make yourselves at home," he said roughly, and left the two young men to themselves.
Pietro walked to one of the beds and collapsed, not bothering to untuck the sheets or blanket. "Leave Lance a bottom bunk," He mumbled.
Todd hoisted himself to the mattress above Pietro and settled himself in. "Tro?"
"Mmm?"
"I think maybe we gotta just be straight with baldy, yo."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Still isn't any of his business though."
"Yeah, yeah, but we kinda made it his business by comin here."
"Mmhmm."
"So..."
"Todd, shut up."
"Sorry."
Todd and Pietro were both asleep in minutes, too exhausted to think anymore about their unpleasant situation.
~*~*~*~
"So where does it hurt?" Mr. McCoy asked.
Lance looked at him as though he had three heads or something. "Everywhere."
Mr. McCoy smiled sympathetically. "I meant where does it hurt the most? Where does the pain start?"
Lance shrugged. "I can't even tell anymore. It used to start right at the back of my head, but for the longest time my whole head has just hurt, up through my neck as well."
Hank looked at Lance, as though sizing him up. "How's the pain on a scale of one to ten?"
Lance looked annoyed. "Eleven."
"Alvers, you're going to have to bear with me. I can help you but I need to know what the problem is before I can do that, alright?"
"The problem is my head hurts. What else do you need to know?"
"Your pain isn't just a normal headache though. If I can more accurately figure out the cause, I can more accurately treat it," He paused for a moment and a worried expression crossed his face, "Are you going to be sick?"
Lance was bent over with his head to his knees, massaging his temples. He looked significantly greener than before.
"No...maybe."
"Ok, try and put up with me for ten more minutes so I can give you a cat scan, then I'll give you something to help you sleep," He handed Lance a small basin and asked if he could stand.
He did, but it was a bad idea. He lost whatever breakfast he had eaten that morning as the pain in his head intensified.
Humiliated, Lance tried to stand up straighter.
"I've seen worse, believe me. Follow me," Hank said, taking the basin back from Lance. He was accustomed to teen's being embarrassed by stupid things like throwing up.
Thirty minutes later, Hank was half carrying Lance to his room. He had miscalculated the time it would take for the sleeping pill he'd given Lance to go into effect. He had forgotten to take into account that the boy had hardly been able to sleep more than a few hours a night for the past month because of the pain; and therefore he was completely exhausted. He opened the door and quietly led Lance to the bottom bunk of the empty bed.
Pietro stirred and opened an eyelid. He had never been a heavy sleeper. No matter how tired he was, he was always on edge, ready to bolt up at the first sign of a threat.
"What'dyoudotohim?" Pietro said menacingly. "If you hurt him, so help me..."
"Whoa, calm down. I just gave him something to help him sleep."
"Sorry," Pietro mumbled.
He closed his eyes again and waited for the sleep to come. He hated that the slightest thing set him off. Within another few minutes however, he was out again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The professor raised an eyebrow as yet another one of his students was caught off guard by one of the holograms in the simulation and was sent sprawling across the floor. Realizing that they were getting nowhere, he stopped the sim and wheeled to the microphone.
"What on earth is going on down there? This simulation is not that hard and your all running around like you've never had a day of training."
Kitty rubbed her arm where one of the 'bad guys' had smashed the end of his rifle into it. "Well we are like, a little distracted," she shouted at the control room irritably.
"Yeah really professor. How're we supposed to be concentrating when three of our enemies are upstairs taking a nap in our own home?" Evan said, just as annoyed.
Sighing the professor knew the training session was as good as over. "Alright, get yourselves showered and meet in the common room. I'll try and do some explaining."
He watched as the students mumbled to themselves. All he could do was hope that the students would just give the Brotherhood some space for a while and not cause any problems. He was particularly worried about Evan and Pietro.
As the students filed into the common room, the professor could sense the apprehension and a few of them were downright angry. Putting his fingers together in his trademark position, the professor sighed.
"Well I suppose I should have expected you to be upset, but I must be honest, I cannot give you all the details you undoubtedly want to know."
"Vell vaht do expect us to do? Treat zem like zey haven't been trying to get rid of us for as long as ve can remember?" Kurt was once again flicking his tail in agitation, eyeing the professor with curiosity.
"I understand that Kurt," the professor began again, "But you must trust my judgment in the situation. What Pietro told you is completely accurate; they had nowhere else to go. It seems as thought they are not as dedicated to Magneto or Mystique as we thought, they just need somewhere to stay, somewhere to survive. In time I'm sure they will reveal everything to us, but for now, I want you to give them space and treat them as though they were just usual students here."
"And if Maximoff tries to kill me?" Evan spat, still not at all convinced that the speed king wouldn't try to start something.
"Pietro will not bother with you, Evan. He has a lot of other things to think about, just stay out of his way. The same goes for you and Lance." Xaivier looked directly at Kurt.
"Vas? Vhy vould I waste my time with Avalanche?"
"Please Kurt," the professor glanced pointedly at Kitty, "It insults me that you think I'm that out of date. I'm a telepath remember?"
Kurt ran his hand over his hair nervously and nodded at the professor. He glanced at Kitty who had thankfully not noticed the professor's glance.
"So basically, you want us to just leave them alone until they come to us? How do you know they don't have some ulterior motive to coming here?" Scott was obviously frustrated and he was having trouble keeping it hidden.
Jean shoved him a little and cast him an annoyed glare. "Use your head Scott. I'm pretty sure he'd know if they had plans to attack us or get secret information."
Scott looked at the floor, embarrassed.
"Listen, I know this is not pleasant, but you're going to have to deal with it. I will decide when you need to know anything more, understood?"
The group nodded grimly and began to file out the door.
He entered the crowded kitchen only to find everyone sitting quietly at the table. Too tired to note the oddity of the silence, Evan headed for the fridge.
"Morning Evan."
Evan waved a hand over his shoulder. "Morning Pietro." he mumbled.
He sat down at the table and took a deep gulp of his milk. Suddenly, his sleep filled mind clicked into gear and he began to choke on the white liquid. "Pietro?"
Evan looked across the table and met eyes with the silver haired boy. His pale face was gaunt and it looked like the poor guy was more than a little tired. His eyes, usually very full of energy, ready to taunt anyone within earshot, were dull and lifeless. His trademark sneer didn't look nearly as menacing as usual at the moment.
Evan took in the faces of Todd and Lance. Each had a similar expression as Pietro. Todd had a black eye and Lance was rubbing his forehead as he popped a small pill into his mouth.
"What's going on?" Evan asked.
"Surprise, surprise." Pietro mumbled. The teasing tone that usually accompanied his voice was obviously forced. The edge of sarcasm was absent as well, making the teen sound somewhat pathetic, rather than obnoxious.
"Um, Evan," Scott whispered, "Just don't ask for now alright?"
Confused, Evan looked at the other members of the X-Men. All of them were bent over their breakfast, avoiding eye contact with the unwelcome guests. All except Kurt, who was twitching his tail in agitation and glancing from Kitty to Lance with a look of disgust.
"I do not like zis," he whispered to Evan.
Evan just gave him a blank expression and watched the brotherhood. Lance, he noticed, was slightly green. He clutched his head and a muffled moan escaped his lips.
The other teens glanced up for a minute, but immediately returned to their breakfast when Pietro and Todd shot them warning glances.
Hank stood up and nodded toward the professor. "Lance, come with me."
The tall boy looked over at the beast and seemed to be contemplating how to respond. He was obviously too out of it to protest because he finally stood and followed Hank out the door. Pietro and Todd started to stand, but the professor stopped them.
"He's going to give him something for that headache, just stay here."
The two boys looked uncertainly at the professor, but they too did not bother to argue.
Evan watched in amazement. Since when did the brotherhood listen to the professor? He couldn't stand it anymore. "Professor, what in the heck is going on here?"
"Not now Evan."
"Oh for pete's sake. I am not about to just eat my breakfast like there is nothing odd going on, man!"
Pietro rolled his eyes. "Ok spyke boy, here's the thing. We were living in a shi..umm," he glanced at the professor who was giving him a warning look, "Uh, crap hole. It got to the point where we couldn't stay there anymore and that's all you really need to know, not that it's any of your business. Believe me, this wasn't my idea, but there aren't exactly many friendly places that three homeless, mutant, teens can go now is there?"
Evan scowled but kept his mouth shut. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to argue with his rival. He looked way to sick and tired at the moment to even be a challenge.
"I think you all should head to your training session," the professor said quietly.
Grimly, Scott rose and put his breakfast dishes in the sink. The others followed suit, still avoiding Todd's and Pietro's eyes. Once they had all filed out, the professor and Logan turned to face the two remaining boys.
"So," Logan started, "Lemme see if I've got this straight. Blob beat on you guys on a regular basis after Magneto talked to him, about what: you don't know. And you guys just took it? Now, forgive me for not being Mr. Sympathetic, but why didn't ya just take him out. For goodness sakes Quicksilver our kids can't even touch you and they've been trained. Fred's a lumbering idiot."
"Look yo, It wasn't a matter of whether or not we could stop him. Maybe we coulda and maybe we couldn't but it don't really matter. We just, didn't want to, just, aw man, it's complicated alright? There was more to it than that."
Logan looked at Todd in surprise. He had not been aware that the teen had the courage to even lift his eyes to a more powerful person, let alone snap at one.
Pietro looked at the two men and let out a sigh. "It's cuz we didn't want to fight all the time, Ok? Why should we have to tell you all this stuff? It's- it's personal."
The professor massaged his temple and sighed, obviously trying to sort out all of what was going on. It simply didn't make sense for three tough guys to let themselves get beat to a pulp on a regular basis. He knew the problem must go a lot deeper than Pietro and Todd were revealing, but he knew that now was not the time to press the issue.
"Ok, hello? A whole minute went by; you can say something now. Do you have any idea how long a minute feels to someone like me? I could tell you exactly how long; along with all the other personal stuff in my life since that obviously seems to be what you want to hear."
"Listen bub, You do realize that YOU came to US. Obviously, we are gonna expect some explaining. I really don't think your attitude is working in your favor right now."
Pietro mumbled something into the tablecloth then remained very quiet. Todd looked up at the professor, meeting his eyes.
"Look professor, we ain't slept in who knows how long, we're in a place where no one trusts us and probably wouldn't mind slitting our throats if they had the chance. Can you really blame us for being a little edgy? We aren't as bad as you seem to think, yo. We're just confused kids from the wrong side of the tracks, who were given some bad information. And don't think for a minute that we like admitting to that, but we don't got any other choice here."
The professor sat back in his chair and eyed Todd with interest. He didn't know when Todd had developed the nerve to speak up like that, nor had he been aware of the desperate situation the brotherhood boys were in. He looked over at Pietro who was glaring at Todd but not arguing.
"Tell you what, get some sleep, and then we'll talk some more. And Pietro, I'm afraid I will have to ask questions that you won't want to answer, but you must understand our situation. I believe you boys wholeheartedly, but that does not mean that you have earned our trust. We'll bunk the three of you in the same room for now. Logan, take them upstairs."
The two boys trudged silently behind Logan, both watching their feet. He led them to a large room with two sets of bunk beds.
"Make yourselves at home," he said roughly, and left the two young men to themselves.
Pietro walked to one of the beds and collapsed, not bothering to untuck the sheets or blanket. "Leave Lance a bottom bunk," He mumbled.
Todd hoisted himself to the mattress above Pietro and settled himself in. "Tro?"
"Mmm?"
"I think maybe we gotta just be straight with baldy, yo."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Still isn't any of his business though."
"Yeah, yeah, but we kinda made it his business by comin here."
"Mmhmm."
"So..."
"Todd, shut up."
"Sorry."
Todd and Pietro were both asleep in minutes, too exhausted to think anymore about their unpleasant situation.
~*~*~*~
"So where does it hurt?" Mr. McCoy asked.
Lance looked at him as though he had three heads or something. "Everywhere."
Mr. McCoy smiled sympathetically. "I meant where does it hurt the most? Where does the pain start?"
Lance shrugged. "I can't even tell anymore. It used to start right at the back of my head, but for the longest time my whole head has just hurt, up through my neck as well."
Hank looked at Lance, as though sizing him up. "How's the pain on a scale of one to ten?"
Lance looked annoyed. "Eleven."
"Alvers, you're going to have to bear with me. I can help you but I need to know what the problem is before I can do that, alright?"
"The problem is my head hurts. What else do you need to know?"
"Your pain isn't just a normal headache though. If I can more accurately figure out the cause, I can more accurately treat it," He paused for a moment and a worried expression crossed his face, "Are you going to be sick?"
Lance was bent over with his head to his knees, massaging his temples. He looked significantly greener than before.
"No...maybe."
"Ok, try and put up with me for ten more minutes so I can give you a cat scan, then I'll give you something to help you sleep," He handed Lance a small basin and asked if he could stand.
He did, but it was a bad idea. He lost whatever breakfast he had eaten that morning as the pain in his head intensified.
Humiliated, Lance tried to stand up straighter.
"I've seen worse, believe me. Follow me," Hank said, taking the basin back from Lance. He was accustomed to teen's being embarrassed by stupid things like throwing up.
Thirty minutes later, Hank was half carrying Lance to his room. He had miscalculated the time it would take for the sleeping pill he'd given Lance to go into effect. He had forgotten to take into account that the boy had hardly been able to sleep more than a few hours a night for the past month because of the pain; and therefore he was completely exhausted. He opened the door and quietly led Lance to the bottom bunk of the empty bed.
Pietro stirred and opened an eyelid. He had never been a heavy sleeper. No matter how tired he was, he was always on edge, ready to bolt up at the first sign of a threat.
"What'dyoudotohim?" Pietro said menacingly. "If you hurt him, so help me..."
"Whoa, calm down. I just gave him something to help him sleep."
"Sorry," Pietro mumbled.
He closed his eyes again and waited for the sleep to come. He hated that the slightest thing set him off. Within another few minutes however, he was out again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The professor raised an eyebrow as yet another one of his students was caught off guard by one of the holograms in the simulation and was sent sprawling across the floor. Realizing that they were getting nowhere, he stopped the sim and wheeled to the microphone.
"What on earth is going on down there? This simulation is not that hard and your all running around like you've never had a day of training."
Kitty rubbed her arm where one of the 'bad guys' had smashed the end of his rifle into it. "Well we are like, a little distracted," she shouted at the control room irritably.
"Yeah really professor. How're we supposed to be concentrating when three of our enemies are upstairs taking a nap in our own home?" Evan said, just as annoyed.
Sighing the professor knew the training session was as good as over. "Alright, get yourselves showered and meet in the common room. I'll try and do some explaining."
He watched as the students mumbled to themselves. All he could do was hope that the students would just give the Brotherhood some space for a while and not cause any problems. He was particularly worried about Evan and Pietro.
As the students filed into the common room, the professor could sense the apprehension and a few of them were downright angry. Putting his fingers together in his trademark position, the professor sighed.
"Well I suppose I should have expected you to be upset, but I must be honest, I cannot give you all the details you undoubtedly want to know."
"Vell vaht do expect us to do? Treat zem like zey haven't been trying to get rid of us for as long as ve can remember?" Kurt was once again flicking his tail in agitation, eyeing the professor with curiosity.
"I understand that Kurt," the professor began again, "But you must trust my judgment in the situation. What Pietro told you is completely accurate; they had nowhere else to go. It seems as thought they are not as dedicated to Magneto or Mystique as we thought, they just need somewhere to stay, somewhere to survive. In time I'm sure they will reveal everything to us, but for now, I want you to give them space and treat them as though they were just usual students here."
"And if Maximoff tries to kill me?" Evan spat, still not at all convinced that the speed king wouldn't try to start something.
"Pietro will not bother with you, Evan. He has a lot of other things to think about, just stay out of his way. The same goes for you and Lance." Xaivier looked directly at Kurt.
"Vas? Vhy vould I waste my time with Avalanche?"
"Please Kurt," the professor glanced pointedly at Kitty, "It insults me that you think I'm that out of date. I'm a telepath remember?"
Kurt ran his hand over his hair nervously and nodded at the professor. He glanced at Kitty who had thankfully not noticed the professor's glance.
"So basically, you want us to just leave them alone until they come to us? How do you know they don't have some ulterior motive to coming here?" Scott was obviously frustrated and he was having trouble keeping it hidden.
Jean shoved him a little and cast him an annoyed glare. "Use your head Scott. I'm pretty sure he'd know if they had plans to attack us or get secret information."
Scott looked at the floor, embarrassed.
"Listen, I know this is not pleasant, but you're going to have to deal with it. I will decide when you need to know anything more, understood?"
The group nodded grimly and began to file out the door.