Kay, I'm posting 2 chapters at once since the last one was a little on the short side...smile :) Please click the nice button at the bottom left corner when your done reading...thank you.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro looked at the professor with an icy glare. 'How dare he. How dare he stick his nose into my head like that. I'm amazed he can even get around in there, there's so much crap going on in it. Even I don't know what I'm thinking half the time. Still, he has no right to try and sort it out for me.'
"Pietro, *please.* You have to learn to keep your thoughts to yourself if you want me to stay out of them. You're practically screaming them at me."
A confused look crossed the boy's face and he opened his mouth to retort, then closed it again.
"I know," the professor said calmly, "It's odd. But you will learn, the others all have. Now, let's just skip the polite formalities, as I'm sure you really don't care to discuss the weather. Why are you here?" Xavier placed his hands in front of him on his desk and waited.
"So much for subtlety." Todd said. "I feel like I'm in the principle's office yo."
The three boys were all sitting in front of the professor's desk, waiting their turn to give their case. It did appear as though they were sitting before a principle, or a judge.
Lance took a deep breath and leaned toward the desk. "We're just gonna be up front with you," he flicked a nervous glance at Pietro, as though he expected him to say something, then looked back at the professor, "The stuff we are gonna say, it- it ain't gonna get passed along to the other X-Ge..um..Men, right?"
"Of course not. I'll tell them only what is necessary for them to adjust to you being here."
Lance nodded, and then realized that Todd and Pietro were looking at him expectantly. "Alright, so, about a year ago, ya know after mystique was officially gone, Magneto shows up and talks to Fred, like we told you. Basically he just said Fred was in charge and none of us ever saw metal head again. Fred talked to him a lot though; they were up to something and not telling the rest of us what it was. But then Fred let his new role as leader go to his head. He decided he could do whatever he wanted to with us." Lance stopped and tried to look indifferent. He leaned back in his chair and looked at Xavier, trying to give him the impression of a tough guy.
The professor wasn't convinced. Lance's eyes betrayed him. They were filled with fear and worry, and the professor knew he wanted to bolt from the office and run for all he was worth away from the whole mess. He vaguely wondered if Lance actually thought he was achieving the 'I don't care, it doesn't bother me at all' act.
"You told me that yesterday Lance. Why did you just let him hurt you?"
Lance had shifted his gaze to the window and was now very deep in thought. He was so tired of this. So tired of trying to keep himself in check; of worrying about whether or not Pietro was going to snap, and if he would be there for him when he did; of pretending he wasn't in pain when in reality his head sometimes caused him so much anguish he was sure he would die.
He forced himself to look back at Xavier and for the first time tried to figure out why he disliked him exactly. There wasn't a reason, he realized, only that mystique had told him Xavier was the enemy. Sure he was a bit naive, but he meant well; that much was clear. The old man was waiting for him to reply, but Lance hadn't heard the question.
"What?"
The professor patiently repeated himself, "Why did you let him hurt you?"
"Lotsa reasons. See, metal head only ever contacted Fred, so Fred had our only source for grocery money, bills, and all that stuff. If we got on his bad side, we didn't eat, simple as that."
Todd noticed the flatness in Lance's tone and decided he'd better take over the story from there. The last thing they needed was for Lance to get snappy with the professor, which would likely happen if he continued to press them for answers.
"Aside from all that, we didn't want to fight with each other." he started quietly. "Pietro and me, we don't like the screaming. Too many bad memories yo. Being in the Brotherhood was the closest thing we ever had to a family ya know? So we took a few beatings, it wasn't a big deal. So long as there wasn't all this mayhem, he'd just rough us up and then we'd go back to normal. It ended up getting worse obviously, else we'd still be there."
The professor raised an eyebrow. He clearly hadn't been expecting an answer like that.
"Exactly how bad did he beat up on you guys? And how often?" He had hoped it wasn't too extreme. His extensive understanding of the human mind was telling him more than the boys realized. Several deeply rooted issues were making themselves very plain to him, but he knew better than to mention them. He sometimes wished he didn't know all the psychological workings of the brain.
Todd wrinkled his nose and gave the professor a confused look. "It happened a lot, and it was pretty bad sometimes, but I don't see why that matters."
"How bad is pretty bad?" Xavier pressed.
Pietro rolled his eyes and stood up. He glared at the professor as he pulled off his shirt. It took all of Xavier's will power not to gasp. Not only could he see every rib in Pietro's body, he was also covered with deep purple bruises and an occasional welt. "That," he spat irritably, and pointed to a particularly bad bruise along his rib cage, "Is from when the fat oaf dropped me over the side of the stairway banister. The table broke my fall, and my rib. This," he pointed to a scar on the back of his shoulder, "is from the time he threw me across the room a week later and I landed on a piece of the broken table. And my personal favorite," he said sarcastically as he rolled up his pant leg to reveal a fading burn mark, "is from him dragging me up the stairs so often that it wore out at least two pairs of my jeans and eventually the first layer of my skin when I wasn't wearing long pants. Oh, stop trying to pretend you're not shocked," he said in an annoyed tone, "I've got pale skin, I bruise a lot worse than most people. Todd and Lance don't look nearly as bad as I do. This was just mild fighting to us." He turned and pointed to another bruise along his hip, "That one is from your X-Men. Are you satisfied now?"
The professor tried to keep his expression neutral as he tried to think of a response to Pietro's outburst. Why they had stayed in that house for as long as they did was beyond him. He had a feeling that the reasons were locked deep in their minds, and it wasn't a telepath that needed to bring them to the surface, but a trained psychologist.
He didn't dare suggest it however. It would no doubt insult the boys if he told them he thought they needed serious therapy, but the fact was they *did* need therapy. Even from barely scanning their minds he could make neither head nor tail of what was going on inside. Todd's was this odd sort of blank. He seemed to have blocked a lot of things out. Xavier was particularly worried about Pietro, his thoughts were everywhere and mixed with despair and anger. Lance, it seemed, was relatively stable, but the brunette was so worried about his companions that Xavier feared he was forgetting to look out for himself. He decided to let the subject of Fred's beatings go for now; he didn't want the boys to shut down.
"What about the other members of the Brotherhood? Tabitha?"
Lance snorted slightly at that. "You honestly think she stuck around? She was gone even before Fred half lost his mind. She's in Texas somewhere. Last she told us, she was gonna come back one day and visit you; maybe stay as a student, but for now she just needed to get a grip on who she was. She still calls fuzz face sometimes, you should ask him about her."
"I see, what about Wanda?" The professor flinched and pressed a finger to his temple. "Pietro! Not so loud. You have got to learn to keep your thoughts in your head."
Pietro looked at the professor rather surprised. He had been screaming at him in his head, and he'd heard it? He had way too much to think about already and now he had to learn to do it quieter? He decided not to dwell on that and instead started to answer the professor.
"Magneto took her. I don't know where really, just took her. If I ever find out where though, I'm going after her."
Xavier didn't press the issue farther. Pietro's mental outburst had made it clear that the subject was not up for discussion. "How about Magneto? You say you think he's up to something?"
"We *know* he's up to something yo. Probably has something to do with you guys. Don't bother asking us what though, we ain't got a clue." Todd lazily caught a fly with his tongue and waited for the professor to respond.
Xavier sighed and sat back in his chair. Lance was again staring out the window, no doubt not even listening to the conversation anymore. Pietro was still quietly stewing in his own thoughts. His shirt was still on the ground and the professor again noticed how skinny he was.
"One last question boys...Lance?" Lance tore his eyes from the window and brought his attention back to Xavier, "Why did you go with Mystique and Magneto's team?"
The professor furrowed his brow as Pietro began to laugh whole-heartedly at the question.
"Are you serious? You try telling Magneto thanks but no thanks. I didn't really have a choice in the matter. He's my father, remember?" He stopped laughing by the time he came to the last sentence.
Todd just shrugged. "Mystique woulda killed me if I'd turned her down. A house with no strict rules seemed a lot nicer than a place where rules were enforced by a guy with adamantium running through his skeleton yo."
"So, you basically chose them out of fear?"
Pietro's head snapped to the professor's. "If you really think it was out of fear then you are completely clueless. Sure we don't really believe in 'fighting for the superior race' and all that crap my fa...Magneto tries to feed us, but it was a lot more appealing than living with people who thought we were evil."
"Yeah listen baldy, if you think for a minute that we are brainless evil doers then we might as well just leave now. We may be delinquents; nobodies; hoods; but that doesn't mean we're vile or something. Personally, I like the your idea of coexistence or whatever it is but wake up; it isn't that simple." Lance spat.
"It's like I told ya yesterday yo. We got some bad information and made some bad choices, but we aren't like Magneto or nothing; that man is insane. We just got a raw deal. It's not like we chose to have screwed up lives. We had to be the bad guys to survive man."
Xavier looked at the three young men in front of him wearily. It hadn't been the first time that the realization dawned on him that both his recruits and Magneto's were only children. They needed to do normal teen things and work through normal teen issues; not worry about whether they were powerful enough to fight off threats to the world as they knew it. He could vaguely recall a time not too long ago where Kurt had thrown a rather uncharacteristic temper tantrum.
"Not only do I have to vrite an essay in a foreign language; yes professor, English *is* foreign to me; study for a geometry test, and figure out a vay to attend za next school dance vithout touching anyvon, you're now telling me I have to cancel my plans for zis afternoon so I can attend yet anozer danger room session vith Wolverine? No vay. I'm going to drive Keety and Evan to za mall like I promised so zat the three of us can remember vaht it feels like to be even remotely normal for a few hours!" The German acrobat had then ported out of the room and left the professor to think about his words.
The brotherhood had gone to Magneto for the simple reason they needed a home. More than that, they needed a family, and hadn't found one. He paused in his thoughts. 'Or had they?'
"Alright then. I would like to welcome you to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."
The brotherhood gave the professor confused looks.
"Um, come again?" Lance asked.
"If you're going to stay here you will be treated just as the others are. The same rules will apply to you. I will not be expecting you to attend training for awhile obviously, but when you have your strength back..."
"Whoa, hold on a sec." Pietro put his hands in the air and gave the professor a look of intense bewilderment. "So you're letting us in? Easy as that?"
"Of course. What did you expect me to do? You don't have to become X-Men of course but you are more than welcome to be students here. The goal of the institute is to train mutants to control their powers, you don't have to be on a fighting team to do that."
The three boys continued to stare at Xavier. "I thought for sure you were gonna call child services or something." Todd laughed nervously.
"Of course not. Now, everything we discussed today will probably be put on the back burner for awhile; we have more pressing matters than Fred and Magneto's plans at the moment. For one, I want Hank to give you a complete examination Pietro. Don't take this personally, but you look extremely malnourished.
Pietro rolled his eyes as Todd spoke up. "That's from an accident about a month ago."
The professor raised an eyebrow at the speedster.
"Let's just say I over taxed my powers," he explained, sort of.
"I see, well all the same, I'll have Hank take a look at you. Now, about rooms..."
"I like the one we've got." Lance said quickly. "Look, I'm not rooming with anyone but these two and I doubt you're going to give us all our own rooms."
"You can have your own rooms if you want them. The place is big enough, but if you'd rather..."
"We would." Todd answered for the others.
"Alright. Now, about the X-Men. You're welcome on the team, however I am aware of the difficulties it will undoubtedly cause for both you and the others."
"We'll let you know that one later."
Xavier sighed inwardly. He didn't like how cold and impersonal the conversation was. He didn't blame them for being that way with him, but it would surely help their adjusting to the mansion if they warmed up a little and dropped the rebel act.
"Take a few days, longer if you need it, to get your strength back. You're coming up on your final exams at school so I'll have the other students pick up your homework for you."
At this, Pietro let out a small laugh. "That won't be necessary for me."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Hyper speed, remember? I'll just read the book the night before the exam and I'll pass."
"So *that's* how you get straight "A's." Todd said crossing his arms in front of him. "Man, that's just not fair."
"Oh yeah, it's wonderful. Being bored out of your mind most of the time because you finish leisurely activities in 30 seconds is just fabulous." Pietro said sarcastically.
"Well that explains all the books," Lance stated, "Have you read all of them?"
Pietro nodded. "I've read just about every book in the library."
"Amazing," the professor said, looking at Pietro with wonder.
Pietro just shrugged. It was no picnic being that bored all the time. Everything just went by so slowly for him, for obvious reasons. He tried to live an entire day without using his powers once, and he had become so frustrated with his own sluggishness that he abandoned the idea by second period.
"Well, anyway," the professor began again, "I believe that's all we really need to discuss. Unless you have any questions."
"Yeah, I got one." Todd said, "How do you plan on getting your X-Nerds to let us stay here? You may not want to throw us out, but I guarantee you they will yo."
"The term is 'X-*Men*' Mr. Tolensky, and I will deal with them. It's going to take time, and I will expect cooperation from both sides. You will need to learn to trust each other."
Todd, Lance, and Pietro each gave the professor their own look of amused annoyance. It was not going to be as easy as he made it sound.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You're kidding," Scott said flatly. "There is absolutely no way in..."
"Scott, that will be quite enough. They are staying; it's not up for discussion," Xavier said calmly.
"Professor, Vaht's wrong wiz zem? Zey look like a complete mess," Kurt asked curiously.
The professor sighed and sat back in his chair. This was not going to be as easy as he had hoped.
"They are malnourished for one. They've had it really rough at that house, and I really can't tell you anything more on the subject. I really need for you students to view them as your peers and not your enemy."
"Newsflash proff," Evan cut in, "They've tried to kill us. More than once."
"Not kill, Evan. Keep in mind that you've also tried to do them damage as well. They are no longer the enemies, and in fact I doubt they ever really were. They never actually believed in what they were fighting for."
"Then like, why would they fight? That totally doesn't make any sense."
"Because that was what their bosses told them to do Kitty. If they didn't obey, Mystique wouldn't have hesitated to send them back out on the streets. They each have their own reasons for doing what they did and it's up to them to share their stories when they choose to. Look, they desperately need some support, and I do not want you kids to be so narrow minded that they feel they must leave us. They aren't evil, just confused. I trust them, and I hope that's reason enough for you all to trust them too."
There were a few mumbled agreements and a couple of silent nods as the team filed out the door towards the kitchen. The brotherhood was already there, waiting for dinner to be served. The X-Men filled the seats as far from the three as possible, leaving the two chairs next to them empty.
Logan looked at the seating arrangements and smirked. "Slim, you and Speedy trade seats."
Conversation came to a stand still as all eyes followed Scott's silent walk to where the silver haired boy was now standing. Without a word, they traded seats so that Scott was now between Lance and Todd and Pietro was between Rogue and Jean.
"Now Toad, you switch with Kurt."
They did as they were told so that Todd was now between Kitty and Evan.
"What's the problem?" Logan asked, his smirk becoming more evident, "Talk."
Silence.
"Hmm." A subtle clang of metal filled the room as Logan reached across the table and speared a piece of chicken.
There was conversation almost instantly. When Xavier appeared in the doorway a few minutes later, he was astounded.
~Logan, How on earth did you...~
~Just a little convincing Chuck.~
The professor smiled as he took in the scene before him. True, his students were talking more or less *around* the new comers, but it was a start.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Pietro looked at the professor with an icy glare. 'How dare he. How dare he stick his nose into my head like that. I'm amazed he can even get around in there, there's so much crap going on in it. Even I don't know what I'm thinking half the time. Still, he has no right to try and sort it out for me.'
"Pietro, *please.* You have to learn to keep your thoughts to yourself if you want me to stay out of them. You're practically screaming them at me."
A confused look crossed the boy's face and he opened his mouth to retort, then closed it again.
"I know," the professor said calmly, "It's odd. But you will learn, the others all have. Now, let's just skip the polite formalities, as I'm sure you really don't care to discuss the weather. Why are you here?" Xavier placed his hands in front of him on his desk and waited.
"So much for subtlety." Todd said. "I feel like I'm in the principle's office yo."
The three boys were all sitting in front of the professor's desk, waiting their turn to give their case. It did appear as though they were sitting before a principle, or a judge.
Lance took a deep breath and leaned toward the desk. "We're just gonna be up front with you," he flicked a nervous glance at Pietro, as though he expected him to say something, then looked back at the professor, "The stuff we are gonna say, it- it ain't gonna get passed along to the other X-Ge..um..Men, right?"
"Of course not. I'll tell them only what is necessary for them to adjust to you being here."
Lance nodded, and then realized that Todd and Pietro were looking at him expectantly. "Alright, so, about a year ago, ya know after mystique was officially gone, Magneto shows up and talks to Fred, like we told you. Basically he just said Fred was in charge and none of us ever saw metal head again. Fred talked to him a lot though; they were up to something and not telling the rest of us what it was. But then Fred let his new role as leader go to his head. He decided he could do whatever he wanted to with us." Lance stopped and tried to look indifferent. He leaned back in his chair and looked at Xavier, trying to give him the impression of a tough guy.
The professor wasn't convinced. Lance's eyes betrayed him. They were filled with fear and worry, and the professor knew he wanted to bolt from the office and run for all he was worth away from the whole mess. He vaguely wondered if Lance actually thought he was achieving the 'I don't care, it doesn't bother me at all' act.
"You told me that yesterday Lance. Why did you just let him hurt you?"
Lance had shifted his gaze to the window and was now very deep in thought. He was so tired of this. So tired of trying to keep himself in check; of worrying about whether or not Pietro was going to snap, and if he would be there for him when he did; of pretending he wasn't in pain when in reality his head sometimes caused him so much anguish he was sure he would die.
He forced himself to look back at Xavier and for the first time tried to figure out why he disliked him exactly. There wasn't a reason, he realized, only that mystique had told him Xavier was the enemy. Sure he was a bit naive, but he meant well; that much was clear. The old man was waiting for him to reply, but Lance hadn't heard the question.
"What?"
The professor patiently repeated himself, "Why did you let him hurt you?"
"Lotsa reasons. See, metal head only ever contacted Fred, so Fred had our only source for grocery money, bills, and all that stuff. If we got on his bad side, we didn't eat, simple as that."
Todd noticed the flatness in Lance's tone and decided he'd better take over the story from there. The last thing they needed was for Lance to get snappy with the professor, which would likely happen if he continued to press them for answers.
"Aside from all that, we didn't want to fight with each other." he started quietly. "Pietro and me, we don't like the screaming. Too many bad memories yo. Being in the Brotherhood was the closest thing we ever had to a family ya know? So we took a few beatings, it wasn't a big deal. So long as there wasn't all this mayhem, he'd just rough us up and then we'd go back to normal. It ended up getting worse obviously, else we'd still be there."
The professor raised an eyebrow. He clearly hadn't been expecting an answer like that.
"Exactly how bad did he beat up on you guys? And how often?" He had hoped it wasn't too extreme. His extensive understanding of the human mind was telling him more than the boys realized. Several deeply rooted issues were making themselves very plain to him, but he knew better than to mention them. He sometimes wished he didn't know all the psychological workings of the brain.
Todd wrinkled his nose and gave the professor a confused look. "It happened a lot, and it was pretty bad sometimes, but I don't see why that matters."
"How bad is pretty bad?" Xavier pressed.
Pietro rolled his eyes and stood up. He glared at the professor as he pulled off his shirt. It took all of Xavier's will power not to gasp. Not only could he see every rib in Pietro's body, he was also covered with deep purple bruises and an occasional welt. "That," he spat irritably, and pointed to a particularly bad bruise along his rib cage, "Is from when the fat oaf dropped me over the side of the stairway banister. The table broke my fall, and my rib. This," he pointed to a scar on the back of his shoulder, "is from the time he threw me across the room a week later and I landed on a piece of the broken table. And my personal favorite," he said sarcastically as he rolled up his pant leg to reveal a fading burn mark, "is from him dragging me up the stairs so often that it wore out at least two pairs of my jeans and eventually the first layer of my skin when I wasn't wearing long pants. Oh, stop trying to pretend you're not shocked," he said in an annoyed tone, "I've got pale skin, I bruise a lot worse than most people. Todd and Lance don't look nearly as bad as I do. This was just mild fighting to us." He turned and pointed to another bruise along his hip, "That one is from your X-Men. Are you satisfied now?"
The professor tried to keep his expression neutral as he tried to think of a response to Pietro's outburst. Why they had stayed in that house for as long as they did was beyond him. He had a feeling that the reasons were locked deep in their minds, and it wasn't a telepath that needed to bring them to the surface, but a trained psychologist.
He didn't dare suggest it however. It would no doubt insult the boys if he told them he thought they needed serious therapy, but the fact was they *did* need therapy. Even from barely scanning their minds he could make neither head nor tail of what was going on inside. Todd's was this odd sort of blank. He seemed to have blocked a lot of things out. Xavier was particularly worried about Pietro, his thoughts were everywhere and mixed with despair and anger. Lance, it seemed, was relatively stable, but the brunette was so worried about his companions that Xavier feared he was forgetting to look out for himself. He decided to let the subject of Fred's beatings go for now; he didn't want the boys to shut down.
"What about the other members of the Brotherhood? Tabitha?"
Lance snorted slightly at that. "You honestly think she stuck around? She was gone even before Fred half lost his mind. She's in Texas somewhere. Last she told us, she was gonna come back one day and visit you; maybe stay as a student, but for now she just needed to get a grip on who she was. She still calls fuzz face sometimes, you should ask him about her."
"I see, what about Wanda?" The professor flinched and pressed a finger to his temple. "Pietro! Not so loud. You have got to learn to keep your thoughts in your head."
Pietro looked at the professor rather surprised. He had been screaming at him in his head, and he'd heard it? He had way too much to think about already and now he had to learn to do it quieter? He decided not to dwell on that and instead started to answer the professor.
"Magneto took her. I don't know where really, just took her. If I ever find out where though, I'm going after her."
Xavier didn't press the issue farther. Pietro's mental outburst had made it clear that the subject was not up for discussion. "How about Magneto? You say you think he's up to something?"
"We *know* he's up to something yo. Probably has something to do with you guys. Don't bother asking us what though, we ain't got a clue." Todd lazily caught a fly with his tongue and waited for the professor to respond.
Xavier sighed and sat back in his chair. Lance was again staring out the window, no doubt not even listening to the conversation anymore. Pietro was still quietly stewing in his own thoughts. His shirt was still on the ground and the professor again noticed how skinny he was.
"One last question boys...Lance?" Lance tore his eyes from the window and brought his attention back to Xavier, "Why did you go with Mystique and Magneto's team?"
The professor furrowed his brow as Pietro began to laugh whole-heartedly at the question.
"Are you serious? You try telling Magneto thanks but no thanks. I didn't really have a choice in the matter. He's my father, remember?" He stopped laughing by the time he came to the last sentence.
Todd just shrugged. "Mystique woulda killed me if I'd turned her down. A house with no strict rules seemed a lot nicer than a place where rules were enforced by a guy with adamantium running through his skeleton yo."
"So, you basically chose them out of fear?"
Pietro's head snapped to the professor's. "If you really think it was out of fear then you are completely clueless. Sure we don't really believe in 'fighting for the superior race' and all that crap my fa...Magneto tries to feed us, but it was a lot more appealing than living with people who thought we were evil."
"Yeah listen baldy, if you think for a minute that we are brainless evil doers then we might as well just leave now. We may be delinquents; nobodies; hoods; but that doesn't mean we're vile or something. Personally, I like the your idea of coexistence or whatever it is but wake up; it isn't that simple." Lance spat.
"It's like I told ya yesterday yo. We got some bad information and made some bad choices, but we aren't like Magneto or nothing; that man is insane. We just got a raw deal. It's not like we chose to have screwed up lives. We had to be the bad guys to survive man."
Xavier looked at the three young men in front of him wearily. It hadn't been the first time that the realization dawned on him that both his recruits and Magneto's were only children. They needed to do normal teen things and work through normal teen issues; not worry about whether they were powerful enough to fight off threats to the world as they knew it. He could vaguely recall a time not too long ago where Kurt had thrown a rather uncharacteristic temper tantrum.
"Not only do I have to vrite an essay in a foreign language; yes professor, English *is* foreign to me; study for a geometry test, and figure out a vay to attend za next school dance vithout touching anyvon, you're now telling me I have to cancel my plans for zis afternoon so I can attend yet anozer danger room session vith Wolverine? No vay. I'm going to drive Keety and Evan to za mall like I promised so zat the three of us can remember vaht it feels like to be even remotely normal for a few hours!" The German acrobat had then ported out of the room and left the professor to think about his words.
The brotherhood had gone to Magneto for the simple reason they needed a home. More than that, they needed a family, and hadn't found one. He paused in his thoughts. 'Or had they?'
"Alright then. I would like to welcome you to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."
The brotherhood gave the professor confused looks.
"Um, come again?" Lance asked.
"If you're going to stay here you will be treated just as the others are. The same rules will apply to you. I will not be expecting you to attend training for awhile obviously, but when you have your strength back..."
"Whoa, hold on a sec." Pietro put his hands in the air and gave the professor a look of intense bewilderment. "So you're letting us in? Easy as that?"
"Of course. What did you expect me to do? You don't have to become X-Men of course but you are more than welcome to be students here. The goal of the institute is to train mutants to control their powers, you don't have to be on a fighting team to do that."
The three boys continued to stare at Xavier. "I thought for sure you were gonna call child services or something." Todd laughed nervously.
"Of course not. Now, everything we discussed today will probably be put on the back burner for awhile; we have more pressing matters than Fred and Magneto's plans at the moment. For one, I want Hank to give you a complete examination Pietro. Don't take this personally, but you look extremely malnourished.
Pietro rolled his eyes as Todd spoke up. "That's from an accident about a month ago."
The professor raised an eyebrow at the speedster.
"Let's just say I over taxed my powers," he explained, sort of.
"I see, well all the same, I'll have Hank take a look at you. Now, about rooms..."
"I like the one we've got." Lance said quickly. "Look, I'm not rooming with anyone but these two and I doubt you're going to give us all our own rooms."
"You can have your own rooms if you want them. The place is big enough, but if you'd rather..."
"We would." Todd answered for the others.
"Alright. Now, about the X-Men. You're welcome on the team, however I am aware of the difficulties it will undoubtedly cause for both you and the others."
"We'll let you know that one later."
Xavier sighed inwardly. He didn't like how cold and impersonal the conversation was. He didn't blame them for being that way with him, but it would surely help their adjusting to the mansion if they warmed up a little and dropped the rebel act.
"Take a few days, longer if you need it, to get your strength back. You're coming up on your final exams at school so I'll have the other students pick up your homework for you."
At this, Pietro let out a small laugh. "That won't be necessary for me."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Hyper speed, remember? I'll just read the book the night before the exam and I'll pass."
"So *that's* how you get straight "A's." Todd said crossing his arms in front of him. "Man, that's just not fair."
"Oh yeah, it's wonderful. Being bored out of your mind most of the time because you finish leisurely activities in 30 seconds is just fabulous." Pietro said sarcastically.
"Well that explains all the books," Lance stated, "Have you read all of them?"
Pietro nodded. "I've read just about every book in the library."
"Amazing," the professor said, looking at Pietro with wonder.
Pietro just shrugged. It was no picnic being that bored all the time. Everything just went by so slowly for him, for obvious reasons. He tried to live an entire day without using his powers once, and he had become so frustrated with his own sluggishness that he abandoned the idea by second period.
"Well, anyway," the professor began again, "I believe that's all we really need to discuss. Unless you have any questions."
"Yeah, I got one." Todd said, "How do you plan on getting your X-Nerds to let us stay here? You may not want to throw us out, but I guarantee you they will yo."
"The term is 'X-*Men*' Mr. Tolensky, and I will deal with them. It's going to take time, and I will expect cooperation from both sides. You will need to learn to trust each other."
Todd, Lance, and Pietro each gave the professor their own look of amused annoyance. It was not going to be as easy as he made it sound.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You're kidding," Scott said flatly. "There is absolutely no way in..."
"Scott, that will be quite enough. They are staying; it's not up for discussion," Xavier said calmly.
"Professor, Vaht's wrong wiz zem? Zey look like a complete mess," Kurt asked curiously.
The professor sighed and sat back in his chair. This was not going to be as easy as he had hoped.
"They are malnourished for one. They've had it really rough at that house, and I really can't tell you anything more on the subject. I really need for you students to view them as your peers and not your enemy."
"Newsflash proff," Evan cut in, "They've tried to kill us. More than once."
"Not kill, Evan. Keep in mind that you've also tried to do them damage as well. They are no longer the enemies, and in fact I doubt they ever really were. They never actually believed in what they were fighting for."
"Then like, why would they fight? That totally doesn't make any sense."
"Because that was what their bosses told them to do Kitty. If they didn't obey, Mystique wouldn't have hesitated to send them back out on the streets. They each have their own reasons for doing what they did and it's up to them to share their stories when they choose to. Look, they desperately need some support, and I do not want you kids to be so narrow minded that they feel they must leave us. They aren't evil, just confused. I trust them, and I hope that's reason enough for you all to trust them too."
There were a few mumbled agreements and a couple of silent nods as the team filed out the door towards the kitchen. The brotherhood was already there, waiting for dinner to be served. The X-Men filled the seats as far from the three as possible, leaving the two chairs next to them empty.
Logan looked at the seating arrangements and smirked. "Slim, you and Speedy trade seats."
Conversation came to a stand still as all eyes followed Scott's silent walk to where the silver haired boy was now standing. Without a word, they traded seats so that Scott was now between Lance and Todd and Pietro was between Rogue and Jean.
"Now Toad, you switch with Kurt."
They did as they were told so that Todd was now between Kitty and Evan.
"What's the problem?" Logan asked, his smirk becoming more evident, "Talk."
Silence.
"Hmm." A subtle clang of metal filled the room as Logan reached across the table and speared a piece of chicken.
There was conversation almost instantly. When Xavier appeared in the doorway a few minutes later, he was astounded.
~Logan, How on earth did you...~
~Just a little convincing Chuck.~
The professor smiled as he took in the scene before him. True, his students were talking more or less *around* the new comers, but it was a start.