This another one of those 'im nervous' chapters. I like parts of it...but other parts im like...hmm, specifically the last two scenes. But here we go, I'll put the rest of my notes at the end.
SilverFox- Hmm, homework over the summer just depends on the school. Mine doesn't, but I know some ppl's that does. Anywho, yeah, counselors really wont do any good if the person doesnt trust them... I have a friend who really should see a counselor but went to a bad one so he's convinced that they don't help. (Long story...anyway...) I see what ur saying about Lance not telling Pietro he should have counseling...but I didnt see it that way (obviously lol) I think that if Lance had to go through it by himself, he would know how tough it is and how much Pietro *needs* the help ya know? It could go both ways really.
KS-Fan- Your wish is my command lol...although that's part of the reason I'm nervous about this chapter...but I'll explain that at the end. Thanks for mentioning the whole weird comment after Rahne suggested the mall...I blame it on the fact I posted with a fried brain...or maybe that's just my excuse. I'm trying to watch stuff like that. Also I like Tro the best to. I just don't think Pie or Piet makes much sense lol. I'm glad u think I have a knack for convos...cuz those are hard to make flow all nice and smoothly and still make it sound like a sixteen year old is saying it ya know? Yes, Wanda is coming back with the whole Magneto and Fred stuff. And oh yeah...this... "I like that Pietro has his own little select group of X Men that he thinks are 'Ok to talk to'. It's like, Lance gets along with anyone who will give him a chance, Pietro only *might* accept you, and poor Todd's just plain terrifide of you." I'm so glad you stated it like that cuz that's pretty much what I was going for so its nice to know that's how its coming across. One last thing...about surgery...Who is allowed with u for all that prep stuff? I'm assuming just like one other person...cuz I tell u one thing, if that was happening to me Id be begging for my mommy and daddy without shame lol. I'm just curious, cuz I obviously can't have the entire X-Men crew in there lol. Thanks
RogueFanKC- See, I'd probably butcher Freddy completely...I'd be worse at writing him than I am at Todd lol. But he'll be back...I need to get the other guys all emotionally prepared for it lol.
JKJ- I *hope* it's entertaining lol. I dunno...never written anything like that b4. Anyways, glad u liked the session...that was harder than I thought itd be to write. I like the new recruits too...but they're hard to incorporate because they are like so...bland lol so u gotta make em up how u want them. Let me know what u think of em...cuz they're in this chapter quite a bit
Nat- aww im jealous...I wish I could go to bed that late...*sulks at highschool life* (actually I like being a highschool kid, but it does have its drawbacks lol)
FroggyFan- I thought about throwing in some Todd/Wanda...but that's not gonna happen. I just can't see it lol. And don't worry...there will be butt kicking :)
Riye Link- I still haven't decided if I'm actually gonna hook him up or what...I'm still playing with the idea a bit...poor little Toddy needs to get back to his old self again first.
MiracleChick- THEEEERE YOU ARE! Lol, I was worried. :) But you came back so everythings alright. Yeah, I see Rogue as perceptive too...except in the latest episode the little creep! (Sorry, im currently mad at her lol) And I didn't bring up anything between Rogue and Pietro in this chapter...but that will come I promise. Ah...Lance and 'the hard way' See, I wasn't planning on going in depth with all that. It's basically that Lance has dealt with a lot of stuff in the past but he's moved on and dealt with it already, so he doesn't need to bring it up all the time. Sorry if I just completely bursted ur bubble...I may still go into it a little more later...we'll see. As for Evan...I really like him lol. I know I know, everyone hates him, but I don't, he's fun to write. I've got like an entire fic idea about him and his morlock experience and it keeps showing up in my other fics lol. Maybe one day ill actually write it... Yeah, Todd needs to let loose. I'm trying to pull him back to his old self, but im trying not to do it too suddenly. Lol, Lance and Kurt convos are fun to do...hard, but fun. Cuz I don't know what guys talk about one on one (heck, I'm not sure I want to know) lol but ya...I love Lance...I've decided he's really not tuff at all and just a big sweet heart...for crying out loud, I need to remember I'm writing about *cartoons*
Rena Lupin- Lol, a mini Hank? That'd be amusing. But no lol...Hank's just trying to find stuff for Pietro to do. The way I see it, if I could do things that fast I'd study like crazy and be a stinkin genius in a week lol...so I'm just making Pietro real smart cuz it makes sense to me I guess.
Thanks so much for all the reviews guys...I HAVE OVER A 100!!!! I was amazed...and flattered.
Chapter 12- Mall Trip
~Students, I'd like you all to meet in the dinning room for a moment please. And yes Evan, that means you have to get out of bed, it's nearly noon.~
"Chuck, are you sure this can't wait till Ororo gets back? I..."
"Logan, please. It won't be that bad. Amara, Jean, and Rahne are right, the boys need to get out of the house for awhile."
Logan scowled at the professor. He was not at all excited about the idea of playing babysitter for a bunch of teenagers on the loose at the mall. "Can't we just send them to a park? That's out of the house."
"Logan..."
Logan snarled softly and went back to his newspaper as the students slowly trickled into the dinning room. Evan, still clad in nothing but boxers and a tank top, promptly took a seat and put his head down. Amara and Jubilee were whispering excitedly about Alex, who had shown up with Scott the previous afternoon.
"Alright, I suppose today is as good as any to send you all on a shopping spree. Logan has completely accurate and specific lists with all of your account information and what it's designated for so don't even bother trying to fool him. *Ahem,* Bobby."
"What? My parents really wouldn't have minded if I only had two pairs of pants for the entire school year if it meant I could get my own X Box. It's kind of ridiculous that we don't have an *X* box don't you think?"
The girls all groaned and rolled their eyes at Bobby while the professor announced that they would be leaving in the next hour.
Pietro looked over at Lance and nudged him slightly. "He doesn't expect us to go does he?"
Lance shrugged. "I dunno. What does he expect us to do, walk around the mall with no money and a bad hair cuts? I don't think so."
"Man, I think mentioning the word mall is a bad idea in the presence of girls yo." Todd said, putting a finger in his ear. "Why do they gotta squeal?"
Evan sleepily lifted his head from the table and tried to look annoyed despite the fact he was completely out of it. "Man proff, why'd you have to choose today? Couldn't you have waited till our hair grew back? Tons of people from school will be there."
The professor waved him off. "If the eight of you stick together, it won't be such a problem will it?"
"Eight? So you *do* expect us to go?" Todd asked.
"Well of course. In fact you three are part of the reason you're going at all," the professor said.
"Yeah," Rahne said grinning, "We decided you guys need to have a little fun. Us girls are going to take good care of you, don't worry," she winked at the three of them. [1]
The boys' eyes got incredibly wide and Todd turned a new shade of green.
"You're...you're kidding...right?" Todd sputtered.
"Yeah, you girls aren't really..." Lance looked at the group of girls who were all batting their eyelashes innocently at the three boys. "You are. You really are. Rogue! Do something!"
Rogue put her hands up and shook her head. "Ah had nothing ta do with this. I merely suggested we find away to get you guys away from the mansion for awhile. Once they've got an idea in their head, there's no stoppin it."
"Haha, sucks for you three," Roberto smirked and pointed at the three boys sitting at the table. [2]
"What do you mean those three?" Jubilee asked, grinning slyly, "You don't think we would leave the rest of you boys out do you?" [3]
The guys gulped and a few began to protest. Evan snapped his head up again and looked at the girls in horror.
Kurt groaned. "You've got to be kidding me! Professor, don't let zem do zis! Do you have any idea how hard it is to match everything wiz blue?!"
"Seriously professor, there isn't any point in the three of us going. We're broke remember?" Lance said, looking hopeful.
"It's all taken care of Lance. Every student has money from the institute set aside for their needs...~And it really will do you three some good to do something normal for a change. Sitting at home dwelling on your problems isn't a healthy way to deal with them.~
Lance sighed, slouched in his chair, and nodded reluctantly in the professor's direction.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok Jubilee, you really don't have to grip so hard!"
"Well you'll try to run off if I let go!" Jubilee said, gripping Ray's arm even tighter. [4]
The hoard of teenagers trooping through the mall created quite a scene. The girls formed somewhat of a circle around the very agitated looking males in the group, ensuring that none of them could get away. Evan, Lance, and Ray had already tried, unsuccessfully, to escape three times and were now at the mercy of the girl's fingernails. Logan trailed behind them with a very bored look on his face.
"Come on Jean, just let me go and I swear I'll take over dish duty for you. Really, I will!"
Jean laughed and shook her head. "No way Evan. You're going to go through this just like all the other guys."
"This is ridiculous," Lance said, trying once again to free his arm from Amara's grip without actually hurting her, "I'm eighteen years old and I'm being drug across the mall by a thirteen year old girl. In fact, it's more than ridiculous, it's downright humiliating." [5]
"*Excuse* me!" Amara shouted indignantly, "I'm *sixteen* thank you very much!"
"Whatever. It's still humiliating."
"So where are you taking us?" Sam asked. He didn't see what the big deal was. They were only clothes after all and all the attention from the girls wasn't such a bad thing as far as he was concerned. [6]
"Ahh, here we go," Jean announced, stopping in front of a store.
Pietro looked up at the sign and grinned. "You mean we can actually afford stuff from in there?"
Jean looked at him and shrugged. "Well, yeah."
Pietro's grin broadened. "There is a God! Do you know how difficult it was to dress with good taste on a budget as minuscule as ours? Ok ladies, I'm all yours!"
"Yeesh," Todd said under his breath, "I think he may enjoy this *way* too much yo."
Rahne giggled and Todd jumped slightly. He hadn't been aware that anyone was behind him.
"I take it Pietro likes preppy clothes then?" she asked.
Todd shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. Although he really didn't have too much of a problem with the girls dressing him up, he still didn't feel like being social. He figured he was probably going to have to get over it though. The girls hadn't stopped talking since they'd got in the van. He looked over at Rahne and shrugged.
Sam clapped a hand over Todd's shoulder and grinned. "This could be a lot worse as far as I'm concerned. At least they aren't trying to dress us in drag."
Todd cringed. "Yeah good point yo. Lance on the other hand doesn't seem to think so..."
Lance was gaping at the store and planted his feet firmly on the tile floor. "No. Absolutely not."
"Oh come on Rocky. It won't kill you to put some decent clothes on!" Amara said, dragging Lance to a rack of jeans.
"Decent? These don't even have rips in them!"
Amara rolled her eyes. "Imagine that! I swear, it wouldn't surprise me if you had a tan line on your knees! If you don's stop complaining I'm going to put Jubilee in charge of you and not only will she put you in these clothes, but she'll do it while chattering a mile a minute at you. Now what size?"
Lance instantly complied to her wishes. Amara was a talkative person, but Jubilee was downright hyper; he remembered that much from when he tried to join the X-Men. He glanced around the store to see what poor soul had been paired with her and winced sympathetically as he saw that it was Todd, Bobby, Evan, and Sam. Ray, Pietro, Roberto, and Kurt had been put under Jean's charge and Kitty and Rahne were going back and forth between all of them. Rogue was just watching and refusing to take part in the 'guy torture.' He got the feeling she didn't like this type of store anymore than he did. He made a mental note to pound Scott and Alex for weaseling out of the whole activity. He should have just acted like he was sick like Jamie. He could have pulled it off easily considering he really *didn't* feel too well. [7]
Rahne and Jubilee began holding different colored shirts up to Todd and trying to determine which one went with his skin tone the best.
"Nope. The yellow looks nice with his eyes but it makes his whole face look odd. What do you think Rahne?" Jubilee asked, holding up the shirt to Todd's face.
Rahne rolled her eyes. "I think that it'd be nice if you didn't talk about him like he's not standing right here."
"Oh, right. Sorry Toad."
Todd shrugged and smirked somewhat. "I'm actually kinda amused yo. I never knew color selection was so important."
Rahne rolled her eyes again. "Aren't you going to tell her your name is Todd not Toad?"
"Why bother? Everyone calls me Toad anyway," he said, slightly surprised.
"Yeah but, doesn't it bother you? I mean you don't call Pietro Quicksilver all the time."
"Uh, I never really thought about it."
Jubilee and Rahne shrugged and began to pick out some more shirts when Pietro showed up from behind them.
"Ladies, ladies! If you can't make the eyes work with skin tone, go with something that complements the hair. Here," he handed them a brown shirt and raised his eyebrows at them playfully.
"Uhg, Pietro it's *really* weird that you know stuff like that man," Todd said, disgusted.
"Well what can I say? Girls like a guy with good taste. Which is why, my friend, you have been single your whole life."
Pietro grinned. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. He hadn't been able to have fun without feeling guilty about it for a long time now. In the back of his mind, he knew the guilt would come later. 'You shouldn't be having fun. Not when your best friend is sick, your other best friend is emotionally disturbed, your father is psycho, your sis...uhg!' He willed the thoughts away and continued to grin at Todd. He was playing the game again, and he didn't care if he had to pay the price for it later on.
Todd lowered his head slightly. "Either that or the whole slimy, green, thing has something to do with it," he muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nuthin yo."
After about thirty minutes of 'there is no way I am wearing that,' 'this will match your eyes *so* nicely!' 'Come on, khaki is nice!' and 'Seriously Amara, there's no way in hell I'm putting that on,' the boys were all escorted (some more forcefully than others) to the fitting rooms with their arms full of clothes.
The girls made themselves comfortable on the various chairs and waited impatiently for each boy to emerge.
"So who do you think will look the best?" Amara asked.
Kitty frowned. "That's just a cheap way to find out who everyone thinks is the cutest."
"Exactly," Amara said grinning. "And actually I'm thinking more along the lines of hottest not cutest."
Jubilee sighed and sank back into her chair. "Well that's not fair because we already know who you think is the best looking."
"Oh really? Who then?"
"Please, it's obvious you like Bobby," Jean said rolling her eyes.
Amara grinned again and crossed her arms. "Just because I *may* like Bobby, doesn't mean I think he's the best looking guy in the mansion."
"Oh for goodness sakes just like, tell us if you're going to," Kitty said exasperated.
"Lance." Amara stated promptly.
Rahne arched an eyebrow. "Like that wasn't obvious. You practically pounced on him when he tried to get away earlier."
"That's odd. I figured it'd be Pietro. Now *he* is nice looking..." Jubilee mumbled to herself.
"You guys are so ridiculous. They're boys for goodness sakes not art museum displays," Rogue looked more than just slightly irritated. She was leaning against the door frame with a look as though she had a bad taste in her mouth.
"So, are you guys gonna pay any attention to us or can we leave?"
The girls brought they're attention back to Sam, who was standing with Todd and Evan in the small fitting room hall. Jubilee gasped quietly and pulled Amara closer to her.
"I think I changed my mind on which brotherhood boy is the cutest. So he's not hot or anything, but he's definitely adorable." she whispered.
"What? Toad? He...hmm...wow. Maybe if he bleached his teeth."
Todd stood between Sam and Evan, hands deep in the pockets of his khaki pants with a nice collared, brown, shirt. If you ignored the bald spot, most of his hair looked less scraggly now that it had been cut up and over all, he looked quite impressive.
"What? Stop looking at me funny yo. You're the ones who picked this out!"
The girls only beamed at him and began to circle around the three guys. Evan looked like he was ready spear the whole lot of them but Todd and Sam just let the girls inspect and critique.
"You know something yo?" Todd muttered to Sam as Jubilee and Rahne began to smooth the boys' collars and sleeve cuffs, "This ain't so bad."
Sam grinned and nodded in agreement, "Told ya."
"Ok," Kitty said, taking a step back from the three boys. "Todd, you are like, so keeping that outfit. Sam, I like it, but maybe try the beige pants instead of khaki. Evan, the shirt is like, so fabulous."
"And it is like, so totally going back on the rack!" Evan said, mockingly raising his voice a few octaves.
"Ok, you've got about three seconds, then I'm putting my own clothes back on," Lance announced as the other boys stepped back into their fitting rooms. He reluctantly stepped out of the small enclosure and purposely ruffled his hair as he did, trying to maintain some sense of his own style.
"Oh for goodness sakes Lance." Kitty said taking him in.
He was wearing pale blue jeans with a long sleeved, black, shirt. However, he had left the shirt untucked, the cuffs unbuttoned, and had left the collar flipped up with only a few buttons done up. He was smirking somewhat triumphantly.
"Oh you asked for it Rocky!" Amara growled.
Lance's smirk vanished as the girls advanced towards him.
"Hey now, what are you...Woah!"
"You couldn't even take the gloves off? Honestly..."
"Hold still, I need to button these..."
"Hey! It's not *my* fault...you didn't give me a belt so how was I supposed to know it was a 'necessary accessory!?'"
"Alright, Jean where's your hairbrush..."
"Woah! Watch where you're putting your hands Amara, I can tuck my own shirt in thank you! Ow! Rahne last I checked you aren't supposed to rip brushes through hair that hard!"
"Well if you used conditioner..."
"I think the flared jeans look nice don't you..."
"I thought flares were a girly thing!"
"Oh pipe down, they're the *guy* version of flares you dingbat. There..."
The girls all backed away from Lance, smiling so broadly Lance thought he may go blind from the reflective glares off of their white teeth. He turned slowly to the mirror and his jaw dropped. The shirt had been buttoned and tucked in. Jubilee had added a black belt to the ensemble and Rahne had brushed his hair, making it look significantly tamer.
"I LOOK LIKE SUMMERS!!!"
The girls erupted into giggles and even Rogue snickered from her position at the entryway.
"No, you look hot," Amara informed him.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Jean asked.
"Well if you girl's are quite finished making a fool out of me," Lance cut in, "I'm going to change. Gloves please Kitty," he stuck his hand out and Kitty handed him his gloves.
"You still have several more outfits to go Lance, and those gloves don't go with any of them," Rahne told him through the fitting room door.
"Vell don't worry. You girl's are going to be too distracted by *us* to care about Lance's gloves."
The girls spun around to see Kurt, Pietro, Ray, Bobby, and Roberto all striking various poses. The five of them had decided there was no point in trying to fight the girls so they went for the 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' routine. They began to strut dramatically down the hall and Pietro in particular took every opportunity to flirt with the five girls.
Rogue glowered at him for a few minutes, then crept over to Lance's changing room. "Psst, Lance. Get your own clothes on, Hurry up."
Lance emerged seconds later and Rogue grabbed his wrist and headed out of the dressing rooms while the girls were still too distracted by Kurt and Ray's flexing to notice.
Rogue drug Lance out into the open mall and spotted Logan at a bench.
"Logan, Ah'm rescuing Lance for awhile ok? We'll catch up with ya guys later?
Logan looked up at the two of them, the bored look on his face even more evident than before. "Better hurry before they notice you're missing."
Rogue smiled and took off again, Lance at her heels.
"Rogue you're a lifesaver!"
She shook her head. "Nah, Ah didn't want to stay there either. Watching Pietro show off ain't exactly high up on my list of things Ah enjoy," she said bitterly.
Lance smiled slyly, "Pietro showing off, or Pietro flirting?"
"There's a difference?" Rogue asked seriously.
"Why do I get the feeling you wouldn't have minded so much if you were participating in the dress up as well?"
Rogue narrowed her eyes. "Why do *Ah* get the feeling it's time for you ta shut up now?"
They walked in silence for a few minutes until Lance came to a grinding halt in front of a music store.
"Woah," he breathed, "Think there's any way I can convince Logan that a guitar is a need?"
Rogue laughed and shook her head. "Nope. You play?"
"I used to when I actually had a guitar," Lance said, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Uh, do Ah wanna ask what happened to it?"
Lance shrugged, "Combination of a wind funnel and a badly misplaced cherry bomb."
"Tabby and Pietro?"
"Yeah. He was runnin' around so when Tabby tried to blow something up– don't ask me what she was aiming at, she tends to just fire those things off at random– it ended up getting lost in Pietro's whirlwind and ended up blowing my guitar to bits. Closest I've ever come to shaking the house down. Well...I shook the house a lot, but you know what I mean."
"Yeesh. That bites. What kind was it?"
Lance smirked and shook his head. "You really don't want me to bore you with my guitar knowledge. It could take weeks."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You coming Todd?" Pietro called over his shoulder.
Having completely exhausted the 'prep' clothes, and completely exasperated Evan, the girls were now on a quest to transform the five compliant guys in the group into punks, goths, and surfers.
Pietro had slipped completely into his 'ladies man' ego and had seemed to temporarily forget that he was in the presence of 'X-Geeks.' He had his arms across both Amara and Jubilee's shoulders and spun all three of them around to face Todd.
"Todd?" he repeated.
Todd looked away from Sam and Rahne and waved Pietro on. "Nah, I think I've had enough of dress up yo. I'm gonna go with them alright?"
Pietro furrowed his brow at Todd and nodded slowly. 'Odd. Really odd. Since when is Todd willing to be around anyone but me and Lance? Then again, since when do I walk through the mall with X-Chicks on my arms?'
"What about you Evan?" Jubilee asked.
Evan frowned and took a deep breath. "I'll go with you guys, but only because I don't want to miss seeing Bobby look like a goth."
Bobby normally would have made some joke about it, but he was too busy glaring at Pietro, icing his fists occasionally.
Rahne shook her head at the larger group of students now headed for a new store. "Bobby is going to loose his cool any minute now," she giggled, "Wow how cheesy was that?"
Sam rolled his eyes at her then looked over at Todd. "So is he always so...like that?"
"Who, Pietro? Always like what?"
"All over the girls. Mr. Self Confidence, et cetera, et cetera."
Todd frowned and shook his head. "Nah, it's just a front. Sure he's good with girls and everything but he's really...I don't know why I'm telling *you* this."
"Hey sorry. I was just curious," Sam defended.
"What about you? How come you're so quiet all the time?" Rahne asked, changing the subject.
Todd shrugged. "I'm not really. I don't trust too many people anymore I guess."
"Really? How come?"
Todd turned to Sam and raised an eyebrow. "She always this nosey man?"
Sam nodded. "All the time. She'll find out your life story by the end of the day."
Rahne grinned. "Yep. I can tell you Sam's..."
"But you won't." Sam cut her off quickly.
"Well duh. Why do you think people actually *tell* me their life story? It's cuz they know I'll keep it to myself."
"Yeah, well you'll have one heck of a time trying to figure mine out seeing as *I* don't even know what it is anymore," Todd spat.
"Huh?"
"Uh, forget it."
He wasn't trying to sound rude to Rahne or anything, but the fact that he didn't know his own life story suddenly dawned on him. He was kind of surprised he was even talking to Rahne and Sam at all, but he figured it would be better than watching Pietro and the other guys parade around like fools and listen to the girls squealing. Squealing was something he was definitely beginning to hate. Unfortunately, he soon found out that Rahne squealed too.
"Aww! Look it's a pet store! Oh please can we go in? Please!"
Sam and Todd simultaneously jammed their fingers into their ears and winced. Rahne didn't seem to notice and began to pull on Sam's arm towards the pet shop.
"Rahne," Sam groaned, "Last time we went into a pet store you tried to set all the puppies loose."
"Yo that's alright. When I was thirteen or something, I tried setting all the frogs and lizards in a pet store loose. That was just after I first got my powers and I was a little fanatical. Only problem was... I actually succeeded."
Rahne stifled yet another giggle. "Are you serious?"
"Yep. It was all downhill from there. I was your average teenage delinquent from then on."
"Hmm, you don't strike me as the delinquent type," Rahne said thoughtfully.
"Well, I am," Todd thrusts his hands in his pockets again and looked away from the red head. [8]
"Nope. You aren't," she replied simply, "You're a victim of your environment."
Todd opened his mouth slightly and raised hi eyebrow again. "Where does she get this stuff?" he asked Sam.
Sam threw his hands in the air. "Don't ask me man. At least she's not all giggly like Amara and Jubes. Those two make me nervous. You never know what they're whispering about."
"Alright, well you're a strange one," Todd told Rahne.
She shrugged. "Come on, I want to scare the kittens."
Todd gave Sam a bewildered look. "What kind of girl scares kittens?"
"One that can turn into a wolf?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Evan collapsed onto the couch next to Pietro and let out a long, low, whistle. "I never want to see a mall again."
"Ah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Pietro said shrugging.
"Well obviously. I swear Bobby was ready murder you half the time. You know he's into Amara right?"
"Nope. Didn't know that," Pietro said lazily. He wasn't really paying attention to a word Evan was saying.
"Uh, hello? Pietro?"
"Do you remember Racheal?" Pietro asked absently.
Evan shrugged and thought for a moment, "Uh yeah I think so. You liked her a lot didn't you?"
Pietro smiled slightly. "Yeah, I don't have a clue why I liked her now."
Evan shrugged, "She was hot for one thing. And she hated your guts. Even then you liked challenges," Evan frowned. "I used to be all for that, you know, getting the most challenging girl with a decent rack. Kinda ticks me off that I was that dumb."
Pietro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we were young and naive."
Evan laughed, "Oh yeah, 16 is so old. We're so much wiser now," he said sarcastically, "I completely freaked out when Kitty came to me in tears once, but I know all about the female brain, let me tell you," he rolled his eyes dramatically.
Pietro grinned bitterly. "I was worse than you wasn't I?"
"Worse at what? Basketball? Of course."
Pietro elbowed him and shook his head. "About girls I mean. I always had a 'girlfriend,' or a potential one. You were content to just be you for a while."
Evan shrugged. "Yeah, why not? We were in like 8th grade man. There really isn't much point in dating, if you can call it that, back then. It was just a contest."
"I wasn't content with just me. And I don't think it was a contest for me either."
Evan raised his eyebrows. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. "Uh, what do you mean?"
Pietro shrugged and fidgeted slightly. "I dunno man. It was like... I just had to have someone, anyone."
"I'm not getting it." Evan said honestly.
"Uhg, never mind. I acted like a jerk today didn't I?"
Evan sank back into the couch. "Are you aware that you're incredibly random?"
Pietro nodded. "Yep. Mutation side effect. It's not random in my head, but no one can really keep up with my thought process. But seriously, I acted like a pompous jerk."
"I wouldn't say that exactly, but I could tell you were in major defense mode. That's only because I know you though. It was kinda cool that you were acting more like yourself. You could just drop the cocky attitude and it'd be like before our lives got all screwed up."
Pietro laughed despite himself and kicked his feet up on the table. He wasn't at all proud of himself. The day had been fun while it lasted, but he got the feeling that he had hurt a few people in the process. Rogue for one, hadn't said much to him since they'd met up with her and Lance again later on. Bobby was also pretty ticked at him, and rightly so. Sad thing was, he didn't even really know Bobby and he'd managed to make the iceman dislike him.
"So is Rogue really mad?"
Evan looked over at Pietro and shrugged. "I dunno. She seemed pretty tweaked, but I don't know if it was at you or not. She tends to get kinda moody. That's just Rogue for ya."
The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes, Pietro lost in thought.
"Ya know," he said, breaking the silence, "Going back to my whole 'not content with just me' thing, I think it was one of those messed up cries for love, or acceptance or whatever."
He got the words out without breaking into hyper speech but it took a lot of self control to do so. He hated admitting anything emotional, and the fact that he was saying it to another guy made it all the more difficult. For some reason he felt the need to say it out loud. To his intense relief however, Evan seemed to understand what he meant and nodded.
"Yeah that makes sense; considering what you had to put up with at home. Maybe run that theory by Hank?"
Pietro nodded. Hank had told him that Xavier had agreed to him counseling Pietro, and that they could start right away. Pietro still hated the idea in general, but Hank wouldn't be so bad.
It was actually Evan that had suggested talking to Hank in the first place.
"So why is it that we are just suddenly friends again?" Pietro asked, veering away from the subject of counseling.
Evan rolled his eyes. "Were we ever really rivals? I mean, sure we faked it real well, but did you honestly hate me that much?"
Pietro thought about it for a minute then shook his head. "Nah."
"Yeah, we're dumb." Evan said laughing.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Freddy? Fred what're you doin yo? Hey! What the hell man! Put him down!" Todd screamed from the stair banister in the boarding house.
Fred had Lance's arms pinned to his sides and was lifting him up off the ground. The house immediately began to shake as Lance's eyes disappeared into his skull.
"Put him down Fred!" Todd shrieked, gripping the railing to keep himself from tumbling down the stairs. The ceiling began to creak dangerously. "Cool it Lance!"
The trembling slowly came to a halt and Fred smirked at Lance who's feet were still dangling in midair.
"I could make a pancake out of you if I wanted."
"Yo what'd he do? Put him down Fred yeesh."
But Fred didn't put Lance down right away. He just stood there, holding Lance above his head, with a sickening grin on his face. Todd took a step back and tilted his head at his friends. Something about this whole scene wasn't normal. Fred never actually hurt anyone when he was angry. He had a temper, and fights among the four boys were almost a daily occurrence, but never like this. No one ever got hurt for real. However, Todd watched with wide eyes as a very shocked looking Lance went sailing across the room and landed with a disgusting crack against the wall. The brunette crumpled on the floor, cradling his left hand and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him. Both he and Todd looked over at Freddy in shock, waiting for him to snap out of whatever odd daze had made him turn against Lance and rush over to help him, but he never did. Instead he smirked triumphantly and walked out of the room, leaving Todd to help Lance bandage his broken fingers....
...............................
Todd bolted up in his bed and clamped his clammy hands around his head. 'That was the first time Fred did something like that. I blocked it out...but I remembered. I remembered it on my own. What was he thinking? Why the hell did he just suddenly start that crap?'
Unlike his previous nightmares, this one didn't terrify him. He didn't know what it was exactly. Perhaps because he could pinpoint what he had dreamt made it easier to not be afraid of. A few nights ago he had a dream where he couldn't remember anything by the time he woke up, but he was still shaken to the core by it. This one was different though.
His attention shifted as he vaguely made out voices from outside his room. Craning his neck to look at the clock by Lance's bed, he noticed that it wasn't that late. Deciding that he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep even if he wanted to, he hopped quietly to the ground and set out to find the source of the noise.
He traced the laughter to the common room to find Alex, Kurt, Ray, and Sam all crowded around the TV. Alex and Kurt were furiously attacking two gamecube remotes while Ray and Sam cheered them on from opposite ends of the couch. Ray caught sight of Todd standing numbly in the doorway and motioned for him to come in.
"Are you any good at this? Because *somebody* has to beat Kurt before he decides he's some sort of king."
Just then Kurt threw his arms and controller in the air victoriously. "Vaht do you mean? I *am* the gamecube king!"
"Aw Alex! We had such high hopes for you man!" Sam whined.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see how cool you are on a surf board. *Then* we'll see who's king. Come on Todd, think you can take him?"
Todd looked skeptically at the controller Ray was dangling in front of him. He couldn't comprehend why they were being so– well so nice. He realized suddenly, that he didn't much care *why.* The point was they were making an effort, which was more than he had done in the past week. Sure, he had his reasons for not wanting to be around people, and there was no way he was going to trust these guys so easily, but since when had Todd Tolenskey given a rip about anything but having a good time? Resigning to the fact that he had to start somewhere, Todd broke into a smirk and took the controller from Ray.
"Alright move over your royal fuzz buttness because I'm about to dethrone you."
~*~*~*~*~
[1] Rahne is Wolfsbane
[2] Roberto is SunSpot...or something like that lol. I think he talks in like one episode
[3] Jubilee is...well she's Jubilation but she's Jubilee all the time...so uhh, yeah lol She shoots sparks and fireworks, that help?
[4] Ray is Berserker (Blue electrical energy stuff...strange hair with the orange bangs in the front)
[5] Amara is Magma
[6] Sam is CannonBall (long hair...spins around and stuff...hmm, u get who I'm talking about, right?)
[7] Jamie is MultipleMan...cept he's like 13, so I guess he's MultipleBoy then huh?
[8] Um, I think she's a red head lol.
AN: Ok...here's why I'm nervous about this chapter...first of all I'm thinking my last two scenes just weren't very smooth. Second of all...it may seem like the brotherhood have taken a magical turn for the better...but they havent really. It's kind of a one step forward two steps back kinda thing. See, life doesn't just stop cuz ur not happy. So basically the guys just had put on their happy faces, no matter how fake, and go out into the world and live cuz that's just what u have to do when ur not happy sometimes. Big emotional points in people's lives are usually up and down up and down and not consistent. So yeah, there we go...that's why im nervous so please tell me ur thoughts.
Oh yeah, on a completely random note...I kinda sorta maybe (ok so I really haven't decided yet...) Wanna hook Evan up? I *like* Evan...I seem to be one of the few ppl that does lol But anyway...if uve got any suggestions let me know..and I wont be making a big huge deal out of it and making that the whole focus or anything...more like background stuff like Bobby and Amara.
SilverFox- Hmm, homework over the summer just depends on the school. Mine doesn't, but I know some ppl's that does. Anywho, yeah, counselors really wont do any good if the person doesnt trust them... I have a friend who really should see a counselor but went to a bad one so he's convinced that they don't help. (Long story...anyway...) I see what ur saying about Lance not telling Pietro he should have counseling...but I didnt see it that way (obviously lol) I think that if Lance had to go through it by himself, he would know how tough it is and how much Pietro *needs* the help ya know? It could go both ways really.
KS-Fan- Your wish is my command lol...although that's part of the reason I'm nervous about this chapter...but I'll explain that at the end. Thanks for mentioning the whole weird comment after Rahne suggested the mall...I blame it on the fact I posted with a fried brain...or maybe that's just my excuse. I'm trying to watch stuff like that. Also I like Tro the best to. I just don't think Pie or Piet makes much sense lol. I'm glad u think I have a knack for convos...cuz those are hard to make flow all nice and smoothly and still make it sound like a sixteen year old is saying it ya know? Yes, Wanda is coming back with the whole Magneto and Fred stuff. And oh yeah...this... "I like that Pietro has his own little select group of X Men that he thinks are 'Ok to talk to'. It's like, Lance gets along with anyone who will give him a chance, Pietro only *might* accept you, and poor Todd's just plain terrifide of you." I'm so glad you stated it like that cuz that's pretty much what I was going for so its nice to know that's how its coming across. One last thing...about surgery...Who is allowed with u for all that prep stuff? I'm assuming just like one other person...cuz I tell u one thing, if that was happening to me Id be begging for my mommy and daddy without shame lol. I'm just curious, cuz I obviously can't have the entire X-Men crew in there lol. Thanks
RogueFanKC- See, I'd probably butcher Freddy completely...I'd be worse at writing him than I am at Todd lol. But he'll be back...I need to get the other guys all emotionally prepared for it lol.
JKJ- I *hope* it's entertaining lol. I dunno...never written anything like that b4. Anyways, glad u liked the session...that was harder than I thought itd be to write. I like the new recruits too...but they're hard to incorporate because they are like so...bland lol so u gotta make em up how u want them. Let me know what u think of em...cuz they're in this chapter quite a bit
Nat- aww im jealous...I wish I could go to bed that late...*sulks at highschool life* (actually I like being a highschool kid, but it does have its drawbacks lol)
FroggyFan- I thought about throwing in some Todd/Wanda...but that's not gonna happen. I just can't see it lol. And don't worry...there will be butt kicking :)
Riye Link- I still haven't decided if I'm actually gonna hook him up or what...I'm still playing with the idea a bit...poor little Toddy needs to get back to his old self again first.
MiracleChick- THEEEERE YOU ARE! Lol, I was worried. :) But you came back so everythings alright. Yeah, I see Rogue as perceptive too...except in the latest episode the little creep! (Sorry, im currently mad at her lol) And I didn't bring up anything between Rogue and Pietro in this chapter...but that will come I promise. Ah...Lance and 'the hard way' See, I wasn't planning on going in depth with all that. It's basically that Lance has dealt with a lot of stuff in the past but he's moved on and dealt with it already, so he doesn't need to bring it up all the time. Sorry if I just completely bursted ur bubble...I may still go into it a little more later...we'll see. As for Evan...I really like him lol. I know I know, everyone hates him, but I don't, he's fun to write. I've got like an entire fic idea about him and his morlock experience and it keeps showing up in my other fics lol. Maybe one day ill actually write it... Yeah, Todd needs to let loose. I'm trying to pull him back to his old self, but im trying not to do it too suddenly. Lol, Lance and Kurt convos are fun to do...hard, but fun. Cuz I don't know what guys talk about one on one (heck, I'm not sure I want to know) lol but ya...I love Lance...I've decided he's really not tuff at all and just a big sweet heart...for crying out loud, I need to remember I'm writing about *cartoons*
Rena Lupin- Lol, a mini Hank? That'd be amusing. But no lol...Hank's just trying to find stuff for Pietro to do. The way I see it, if I could do things that fast I'd study like crazy and be a stinkin genius in a week lol...so I'm just making Pietro real smart cuz it makes sense to me I guess.
Thanks so much for all the reviews guys...I HAVE OVER A 100!!!! I was amazed...and flattered.
Chapter 12- Mall Trip
~Students, I'd like you all to meet in the dinning room for a moment please. And yes Evan, that means you have to get out of bed, it's nearly noon.~
"Chuck, are you sure this can't wait till Ororo gets back? I..."
"Logan, please. It won't be that bad. Amara, Jean, and Rahne are right, the boys need to get out of the house for awhile."
Logan scowled at the professor. He was not at all excited about the idea of playing babysitter for a bunch of teenagers on the loose at the mall. "Can't we just send them to a park? That's out of the house."
"Logan..."
Logan snarled softly and went back to his newspaper as the students slowly trickled into the dinning room. Evan, still clad in nothing but boxers and a tank top, promptly took a seat and put his head down. Amara and Jubilee were whispering excitedly about Alex, who had shown up with Scott the previous afternoon.
"Alright, I suppose today is as good as any to send you all on a shopping spree. Logan has completely accurate and specific lists with all of your account information and what it's designated for so don't even bother trying to fool him. *Ahem,* Bobby."
"What? My parents really wouldn't have minded if I only had two pairs of pants for the entire school year if it meant I could get my own X Box. It's kind of ridiculous that we don't have an *X* box don't you think?"
The girls all groaned and rolled their eyes at Bobby while the professor announced that they would be leaving in the next hour.
Pietro looked over at Lance and nudged him slightly. "He doesn't expect us to go does he?"
Lance shrugged. "I dunno. What does he expect us to do, walk around the mall with no money and a bad hair cuts? I don't think so."
"Man, I think mentioning the word mall is a bad idea in the presence of girls yo." Todd said, putting a finger in his ear. "Why do they gotta squeal?"
Evan sleepily lifted his head from the table and tried to look annoyed despite the fact he was completely out of it. "Man proff, why'd you have to choose today? Couldn't you have waited till our hair grew back? Tons of people from school will be there."
The professor waved him off. "If the eight of you stick together, it won't be such a problem will it?"
"Eight? So you *do* expect us to go?" Todd asked.
"Well of course. In fact you three are part of the reason you're going at all," the professor said.
"Yeah," Rahne said grinning, "We decided you guys need to have a little fun. Us girls are going to take good care of you, don't worry," she winked at the three of them. [1]
The boys' eyes got incredibly wide and Todd turned a new shade of green.
"You're...you're kidding...right?" Todd sputtered.
"Yeah, you girls aren't really..." Lance looked at the group of girls who were all batting their eyelashes innocently at the three boys. "You are. You really are. Rogue! Do something!"
Rogue put her hands up and shook her head. "Ah had nothing ta do with this. I merely suggested we find away to get you guys away from the mansion for awhile. Once they've got an idea in their head, there's no stoppin it."
"Haha, sucks for you three," Roberto smirked and pointed at the three boys sitting at the table. [2]
"What do you mean those three?" Jubilee asked, grinning slyly, "You don't think we would leave the rest of you boys out do you?" [3]
The guys gulped and a few began to protest. Evan snapped his head up again and looked at the girls in horror.
Kurt groaned. "You've got to be kidding me! Professor, don't let zem do zis! Do you have any idea how hard it is to match everything wiz blue?!"
"Seriously professor, there isn't any point in the three of us going. We're broke remember?" Lance said, looking hopeful.
"It's all taken care of Lance. Every student has money from the institute set aside for their needs...~And it really will do you three some good to do something normal for a change. Sitting at home dwelling on your problems isn't a healthy way to deal with them.~
Lance sighed, slouched in his chair, and nodded reluctantly in the professor's direction.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ok Jubilee, you really don't have to grip so hard!"
"Well you'll try to run off if I let go!" Jubilee said, gripping Ray's arm even tighter. [4]
The hoard of teenagers trooping through the mall created quite a scene. The girls formed somewhat of a circle around the very agitated looking males in the group, ensuring that none of them could get away. Evan, Lance, and Ray had already tried, unsuccessfully, to escape three times and were now at the mercy of the girl's fingernails. Logan trailed behind them with a very bored look on his face.
"Come on Jean, just let me go and I swear I'll take over dish duty for you. Really, I will!"
Jean laughed and shook her head. "No way Evan. You're going to go through this just like all the other guys."
"This is ridiculous," Lance said, trying once again to free his arm from Amara's grip without actually hurting her, "I'm eighteen years old and I'm being drug across the mall by a thirteen year old girl. In fact, it's more than ridiculous, it's downright humiliating." [5]
"*Excuse* me!" Amara shouted indignantly, "I'm *sixteen* thank you very much!"
"Whatever. It's still humiliating."
"So where are you taking us?" Sam asked. He didn't see what the big deal was. They were only clothes after all and all the attention from the girls wasn't such a bad thing as far as he was concerned. [6]
"Ahh, here we go," Jean announced, stopping in front of a store.
Pietro looked up at the sign and grinned. "You mean we can actually afford stuff from in there?"
Jean looked at him and shrugged. "Well, yeah."
Pietro's grin broadened. "There is a God! Do you know how difficult it was to dress with good taste on a budget as minuscule as ours? Ok ladies, I'm all yours!"
"Yeesh," Todd said under his breath, "I think he may enjoy this *way* too much yo."
Rahne giggled and Todd jumped slightly. He hadn't been aware that anyone was behind him.
"I take it Pietro likes preppy clothes then?" she asked.
Todd shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. Although he really didn't have too much of a problem with the girls dressing him up, he still didn't feel like being social. He figured he was probably going to have to get over it though. The girls hadn't stopped talking since they'd got in the van. He looked over at Rahne and shrugged.
Sam clapped a hand over Todd's shoulder and grinned. "This could be a lot worse as far as I'm concerned. At least they aren't trying to dress us in drag."
Todd cringed. "Yeah good point yo. Lance on the other hand doesn't seem to think so..."
Lance was gaping at the store and planted his feet firmly on the tile floor. "No. Absolutely not."
"Oh come on Rocky. It won't kill you to put some decent clothes on!" Amara said, dragging Lance to a rack of jeans.
"Decent? These don't even have rips in them!"
Amara rolled her eyes. "Imagine that! I swear, it wouldn't surprise me if you had a tan line on your knees! If you don's stop complaining I'm going to put Jubilee in charge of you and not only will she put you in these clothes, but she'll do it while chattering a mile a minute at you. Now what size?"
Lance instantly complied to her wishes. Amara was a talkative person, but Jubilee was downright hyper; he remembered that much from when he tried to join the X-Men. He glanced around the store to see what poor soul had been paired with her and winced sympathetically as he saw that it was Todd, Bobby, Evan, and Sam. Ray, Pietro, Roberto, and Kurt had been put under Jean's charge and Kitty and Rahne were going back and forth between all of them. Rogue was just watching and refusing to take part in the 'guy torture.' He got the feeling she didn't like this type of store anymore than he did. He made a mental note to pound Scott and Alex for weaseling out of the whole activity. He should have just acted like he was sick like Jamie. He could have pulled it off easily considering he really *didn't* feel too well. [7]
Rahne and Jubilee began holding different colored shirts up to Todd and trying to determine which one went with his skin tone the best.
"Nope. The yellow looks nice with his eyes but it makes his whole face look odd. What do you think Rahne?" Jubilee asked, holding up the shirt to Todd's face.
Rahne rolled her eyes. "I think that it'd be nice if you didn't talk about him like he's not standing right here."
"Oh, right. Sorry Toad."
Todd shrugged and smirked somewhat. "I'm actually kinda amused yo. I never knew color selection was so important."
Rahne rolled her eyes again. "Aren't you going to tell her your name is Todd not Toad?"
"Why bother? Everyone calls me Toad anyway," he said, slightly surprised.
"Yeah but, doesn't it bother you? I mean you don't call Pietro Quicksilver all the time."
"Uh, I never really thought about it."
Jubilee and Rahne shrugged and began to pick out some more shirts when Pietro showed up from behind them.
"Ladies, ladies! If you can't make the eyes work with skin tone, go with something that complements the hair. Here," he handed them a brown shirt and raised his eyebrows at them playfully.
"Uhg, Pietro it's *really* weird that you know stuff like that man," Todd said, disgusted.
"Well what can I say? Girls like a guy with good taste. Which is why, my friend, you have been single your whole life."
Pietro grinned. He was thoroughly enjoying himself. He hadn't been able to have fun without feeling guilty about it for a long time now. In the back of his mind, he knew the guilt would come later. 'You shouldn't be having fun. Not when your best friend is sick, your other best friend is emotionally disturbed, your father is psycho, your sis...uhg!' He willed the thoughts away and continued to grin at Todd. He was playing the game again, and he didn't care if he had to pay the price for it later on.
Todd lowered his head slightly. "Either that or the whole slimy, green, thing has something to do with it," he muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nuthin yo."
After about thirty minutes of 'there is no way I am wearing that,' 'this will match your eyes *so* nicely!' 'Come on, khaki is nice!' and 'Seriously Amara, there's no way in hell I'm putting that on,' the boys were all escorted (some more forcefully than others) to the fitting rooms with their arms full of clothes.
The girls made themselves comfortable on the various chairs and waited impatiently for each boy to emerge.
"So who do you think will look the best?" Amara asked.
Kitty frowned. "That's just a cheap way to find out who everyone thinks is the cutest."
"Exactly," Amara said grinning. "And actually I'm thinking more along the lines of hottest not cutest."
Jubilee sighed and sank back into her chair. "Well that's not fair because we already know who you think is the best looking."
"Oh really? Who then?"
"Please, it's obvious you like Bobby," Jean said rolling her eyes.
Amara grinned again and crossed her arms. "Just because I *may* like Bobby, doesn't mean I think he's the best looking guy in the mansion."
"Oh for goodness sakes just like, tell us if you're going to," Kitty said exasperated.
"Lance." Amara stated promptly.
Rahne arched an eyebrow. "Like that wasn't obvious. You practically pounced on him when he tried to get away earlier."
"That's odd. I figured it'd be Pietro. Now *he* is nice looking..." Jubilee mumbled to herself.
"You guys are so ridiculous. They're boys for goodness sakes not art museum displays," Rogue looked more than just slightly irritated. She was leaning against the door frame with a look as though she had a bad taste in her mouth.
"So, are you guys gonna pay any attention to us or can we leave?"
The girls brought they're attention back to Sam, who was standing with Todd and Evan in the small fitting room hall. Jubilee gasped quietly and pulled Amara closer to her.
"I think I changed my mind on which brotherhood boy is the cutest. So he's not hot or anything, but he's definitely adorable." she whispered.
"What? Toad? He...hmm...wow. Maybe if he bleached his teeth."
Todd stood between Sam and Evan, hands deep in the pockets of his khaki pants with a nice collared, brown, shirt. If you ignored the bald spot, most of his hair looked less scraggly now that it had been cut up and over all, he looked quite impressive.
"What? Stop looking at me funny yo. You're the ones who picked this out!"
The girls only beamed at him and began to circle around the three guys. Evan looked like he was ready spear the whole lot of them but Todd and Sam just let the girls inspect and critique.
"You know something yo?" Todd muttered to Sam as Jubilee and Rahne began to smooth the boys' collars and sleeve cuffs, "This ain't so bad."
Sam grinned and nodded in agreement, "Told ya."
"Ok," Kitty said, taking a step back from the three boys. "Todd, you are like, so keeping that outfit. Sam, I like it, but maybe try the beige pants instead of khaki. Evan, the shirt is like, so fabulous."
"And it is like, so totally going back on the rack!" Evan said, mockingly raising his voice a few octaves.
"Ok, you've got about three seconds, then I'm putting my own clothes back on," Lance announced as the other boys stepped back into their fitting rooms. He reluctantly stepped out of the small enclosure and purposely ruffled his hair as he did, trying to maintain some sense of his own style.
"Oh for goodness sakes Lance." Kitty said taking him in.
He was wearing pale blue jeans with a long sleeved, black, shirt. However, he had left the shirt untucked, the cuffs unbuttoned, and had left the collar flipped up with only a few buttons done up. He was smirking somewhat triumphantly.
"Oh you asked for it Rocky!" Amara growled.
Lance's smirk vanished as the girls advanced towards him.
"Hey now, what are you...Woah!"
"You couldn't even take the gloves off? Honestly..."
"Hold still, I need to button these..."
"Hey! It's not *my* fault...you didn't give me a belt so how was I supposed to know it was a 'necessary accessory!?'"
"Alright, Jean where's your hairbrush..."
"Woah! Watch where you're putting your hands Amara, I can tuck my own shirt in thank you! Ow! Rahne last I checked you aren't supposed to rip brushes through hair that hard!"
"Well if you used conditioner..."
"I think the flared jeans look nice don't you..."
"I thought flares were a girly thing!"
"Oh pipe down, they're the *guy* version of flares you dingbat. There..."
The girls all backed away from Lance, smiling so broadly Lance thought he may go blind from the reflective glares off of their white teeth. He turned slowly to the mirror and his jaw dropped. The shirt had been buttoned and tucked in. Jubilee had added a black belt to the ensemble and Rahne had brushed his hair, making it look significantly tamer.
"I LOOK LIKE SUMMERS!!!"
The girls erupted into giggles and even Rogue snickered from her position at the entryway.
"No, you look hot," Amara informed him.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Jean asked.
"Well if you girl's are quite finished making a fool out of me," Lance cut in, "I'm going to change. Gloves please Kitty," he stuck his hand out and Kitty handed him his gloves.
"You still have several more outfits to go Lance, and those gloves don't go with any of them," Rahne told him through the fitting room door.
"Vell don't worry. You girl's are going to be too distracted by *us* to care about Lance's gloves."
The girls spun around to see Kurt, Pietro, Ray, Bobby, and Roberto all striking various poses. The five of them had decided there was no point in trying to fight the girls so they went for the 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' routine. They began to strut dramatically down the hall and Pietro in particular took every opportunity to flirt with the five girls.
Rogue glowered at him for a few minutes, then crept over to Lance's changing room. "Psst, Lance. Get your own clothes on, Hurry up."
Lance emerged seconds later and Rogue grabbed his wrist and headed out of the dressing rooms while the girls were still too distracted by Kurt and Ray's flexing to notice.
Rogue drug Lance out into the open mall and spotted Logan at a bench.
"Logan, Ah'm rescuing Lance for awhile ok? We'll catch up with ya guys later?
Logan looked up at the two of them, the bored look on his face even more evident than before. "Better hurry before they notice you're missing."
Rogue smiled and took off again, Lance at her heels.
"Rogue you're a lifesaver!"
She shook her head. "Nah, Ah didn't want to stay there either. Watching Pietro show off ain't exactly high up on my list of things Ah enjoy," she said bitterly.
Lance smiled slyly, "Pietro showing off, or Pietro flirting?"
"There's a difference?" Rogue asked seriously.
"Why do I get the feeling you wouldn't have minded so much if you were participating in the dress up as well?"
Rogue narrowed her eyes. "Why do *Ah* get the feeling it's time for you ta shut up now?"
They walked in silence for a few minutes until Lance came to a grinding halt in front of a music store.
"Woah," he breathed, "Think there's any way I can convince Logan that a guitar is a need?"
Rogue laughed and shook her head. "Nope. You play?"
"I used to when I actually had a guitar," Lance said, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Uh, do Ah wanna ask what happened to it?"
Lance shrugged, "Combination of a wind funnel and a badly misplaced cherry bomb."
"Tabby and Pietro?"
"Yeah. He was runnin' around so when Tabby tried to blow something up– don't ask me what she was aiming at, she tends to just fire those things off at random– it ended up getting lost in Pietro's whirlwind and ended up blowing my guitar to bits. Closest I've ever come to shaking the house down. Well...I shook the house a lot, but you know what I mean."
"Yeesh. That bites. What kind was it?"
Lance smirked and shook his head. "You really don't want me to bore you with my guitar knowledge. It could take weeks."
~*~*~*~*~*~
"You coming Todd?" Pietro called over his shoulder.
Having completely exhausted the 'prep' clothes, and completely exasperated Evan, the girls were now on a quest to transform the five compliant guys in the group into punks, goths, and surfers.
Pietro had slipped completely into his 'ladies man' ego and had seemed to temporarily forget that he was in the presence of 'X-Geeks.' He had his arms across both Amara and Jubilee's shoulders and spun all three of them around to face Todd.
"Todd?" he repeated.
Todd looked away from Sam and Rahne and waved Pietro on. "Nah, I think I've had enough of dress up yo. I'm gonna go with them alright?"
Pietro furrowed his brow at Todd and nodded slowly. 'Odd. Really odd. Since when is Todd willing to be around anyone but me and Lance? Then again, since when do I walk through the mall with X-Chicks on my arms?'
"What about you Evan?" Jubilee asked.
Evan frowned and took a deep breath. "I'll go with you guys, but only because I don't want to miss seeing Bobby look like a goth."
Bobby normally would have made some joke about it, but he was too busy glaring at Pietro, icing his fists occasionally.
Rahne shook her head at the larger group of students now headed for a new store. "Bobby is going to loose his cool any minute now," she giggled, "Wow how cheesy was that?"
Sam rolled his eyes at her then looked over at Todd. "So is he always so...like that?"
"Who, Pietro? Always like what?"
"All over the girls. Mr. Self Confidence, et cetera, et cetera."
Todd frowned and shook his head. "Nah, it's just a front. Sure he's good with girls and everything but he's really...I don't know why I'm telling *you* this."
"Hey sorry. I was just curious," Sam defended.
"What about you? How come you're so quiet all the time?" Rahne asked, changing the subject.
Todd shrugged. "I'm not really. I don't trust too many people anymore I guess."
"Really? How come?"
Todd turned to Sam and raised an eyebrow. "She always this nosey man?"
Sam nodded. "All the time. She'll find out your life story by the end of the day."
Rahne grinned. "Yep. I can tell you Sam's..."
"But you won't." Sam cut her off quickly.
"Well duh. Why do you think people actually *tell* me their life story? It's cuz they know I'll keep it to myself."
"Yeah, well you'll have one heck of a time trying to figure mine out seeing as *I* don't even know what it is anymore," Todd spat.
"Huh?"
"Uh, forget it."
He wasn't trying to sound rude to Rahne or anything, but the fact that he didn't know his own life story suddenly dawned on him. He was kind of surprised he was even talking to Rahne and Sam at all, but he figured it would be better than watching Pietro and the other guys parade around like fools and listen to the girls squealing. Squealing was something he was definitely beginning to hate. Unfortunately, he soon found out that Rahne squealed too.
"Aww! Look it's a pet store! Oh please can we go in? Please!"
Sam and Todd simultaneously jammed their fingers into their ears and winced. Rahne didn't seem to notice and began to pull on Sam's arm towards the pet shop.
"Rahne," Sam groaned, "Last time we went into a pet store you tried to set all the puppies loose."
"Yo that's alright. When I was thirteen or something, I tried setting all the frogs and lizards in a pet store loose. That was just after I first got my powers and I was a little fanatical. Only problem was... I actually succeeded."
Rahne stifled yet another giggle. "Are you serious?"
"Yep. It was all downhill from there. I was your average teenage delinquent from then on."
"Hmm, you don't strike me as the delinquent type," Rahne said thoughtfully.
"Well, I am," Todd thrusts his hands in his pockets again and looked away from the red head. [8]
"Nope. You aren't," she replied simply, "You're a victim of your environment."
Todd opened his mouth slightly and raised hi eyebrow again. "Where does she get this stuff?" he asked Sam.
Sam threw his hands in the air. "Don't ask me man. At least she's not all giggly like Amara and Jubes. Those two make me nervous. You never know what they're whispering about."
"Alright, well you're a strange one," Todd told Rahne.
She shrugged. "Come on, I want to scare the kittens."
Todd gave Sam a bewildered look. "What kind of girl scares kittens?"
"One that can turn into a wolf?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
Evan collapsed onto the couch next to Pietro and let out a long, low, whistle. "I never want to see a mall again."
"Ah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Pietro said shrugging.
"Well obviously. I swear Bobby was ready murder you half the time. You know he's into Amara right?"
"Nope. Didn't know that," Pietro said lazily. He wasn't really paying attention to a word Evan was saying.
"Uh, hello? Pietro?"
"Do you remember Racheal?" Pietro asked absently.
Evan shrugged and thought for a moment, "Uh yeah I think so. You liked her a lot didn't you?"
Pietro smiled slightly. "Yeah, I don't have a clue why I liked her now."
Evan shrugged, "She was hot for one thing. And she hated your guts. Even then you liked challenges," Evan frowned. "I used to be all for that, you know, getting the most challenging girl with a decent rack. Kinda ticks me off that I was that dumb."
Pietro nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we were young and naive."
Evan laughed, "Oh yeah, 16 is so old. We're so much wiser now," he said sarcastically, "I completely freaked out when Kitty came to me in tears once, but I know all about the female brain, let me tell you," he rolled his eyes dramatically.
Pietro grinned bitterly. "I was worse than you wasn't I?"
"Worse at what? Basketball? Of course."
Pietro elbowed him and shook his head. "About girls I mean. I always had a 'girlfriend,' or a potential one. You were content to just be you for a while."
Evan shrugged. "Yeah, why not? We were in like 8th grade man. There really isn't much point in dating, if you can call it that, back then. It was just a contest."
"I wasn't content with just me. And I don't think it was a contest for me either."
Evan raised his eyebrows. He didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. "Uh, what do you mean?"
Pietro shrugged and fidgeted slightly. "I dunno man. It was like... I just had to have someone, anyone."
"I'm not getting it." Evan said honestly.
"Uhg, never mind. I acted like a jerk today didn't I?"
Evan sank back into the couch. "Are you aware that you're incredibly random?"
Pietro nodded. "Yep. Mutation side effect. It's not random in my head, but no one can really keep up with my thought process. But seriously, I acted like a pompous jerk."
"I wouldn't say that exactly, but I could tell you were in major defense mode. That's only because I know you though. It was kinda cool that you were acting more like yourself. You could just drop the cocky attitude and it'd be like before our lives got all screwed up."
Pietro laughed despite himself and kicked his feet up on the table. He wasn't at all proud of himself. The day had been fun while it lasted, but he got the feeling that he had hurt a few people in the process. Rogue for one, hadn't said much to him since they'd met up with her and Lance again later on. Bobby was also pretty ticked at him, and rightly so. Sad thing was, he didn't even really know Bobby and he'd managed to make the iceman dislike him.
"So is Rogue really mad?"
Evan looked over at Pietro and shrugged. "I dunno. She seemed pretty tweaked, but I don't know if it was at you or not. She tends to get kinda moody. That's just Rogue for ya."
The two boys sat in silence for a few minutes, Pietro lost in thought.
"Ya know," he said, breaking the silence, "Going back to my whole 'not content with just me' thing, I think it was one of those messed up cries for love, or acceptance or whatever."
He got the words out without breaking into hyper speech but it took a lot of self control to do so. He hated admitting anything emotional, and the fact that he was saying it to another guy made it all the more difficult. For some reason he felt the need to say it out loud. To his intense relief however, Evan seemed to understand what he meant and nodded.
"Yeah that makes sense; considering what you had to put up with at home. Maybe run that theory by Hank?"
Pietro nodded. Hank had told him that Xavier had agreed to him counseling Pietro, and that they could start right away. Pietro still hated the idea in general, but Hank wouldn't be so bad.
It was actually Evan that had suggested talking to Hank in the first place.
"So why is it that we are just suddenly friends again?" Pietro asked, veering away from the subject of counseling.
Evan rolled his eyes. "Were we ever really rivals? I mean, sure we faked it real well, but did you honestly hate me that much?"
Pietro thought about it for a minute then shook his head. "Nah."
"Yeah, we're dumb." Evan said laughing.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Freddy? Fred what're you doin yo? Hey! What the hell man! Put him down!" Todd screamed from the stair banister in the boarding house.
Fred had Lance's arms pinned to his sides and was lifting him up off the ground. The house immediately began to shake as Lance's eyes disappeared into his skull.
"Put him down Fred!" Todd shrieked, gripping the railing to keep himself from tumbling down the stairs. The ceiling began to creak dangerously. "Cool it Lance!"
The trembling slowly came to a halt and Fred smirked at Lance who's feet were still dangling in midair.
"I could make a pancake out of you if I wanted."
"Yo what'd he do? Put him down Fred yeesh."
But Fred didn't put Lance down right away. He just stood there, holding Lance above his head, with a sickening grin on his face. Todd took a step back and tilted his head at his friends. Something about this whole scene wasn't normal. Fred never actually hurt anyone when he was angry. He had a temper, and fights among the four boys were almost a daily occurrence, but never like this. No one ever got hurt for real. However, Todd watched with wide eyes as a very shocked looking Lance went sailing across the room and landed with a disgusting crack against the wall. The brunette crumpled on the floor, cradling his left hand and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him. Both he and Todd looked over at Freddy in shock, waiting for him to snap out of whatever odd daze had made him turn against Lance and rush over to help him, but he never did. Instead he smirked triumphantly and walked out of the room, leaving Todd to help Lance bandage his broken fingers....
...............................
Todd bolted up in his bed and clamped his clammy hands around his head. 'That was the first time Fred did something like that. I blocked it out...but I remembered. I remembered it on my own. What was he thinking? Why the hell did he just suddenly start that crap?'
Unlike his previous nightmares, this one didn't terrify him. He didn't know what it was exactly. Perhaps because he could pinpoint what he had dreamt made it easier to not be afraid of. A few nights ago he had a dream where he couldn't remember anything by the time he woke up, but he was still shaken to the core by it. This one was different though.
His attention shifted as he vaguely made out voices from outside his room. Craning his neck to look at the clock by Lance's bed, he noticed that it wasn't that late. Deciding that he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep even if he wanted to, he hopped quietly to the ground and set out to find the source of the noise.
He traced the laughter to the common room to find Alex, Kurt, Ray, and Sam all crowded around the TV. Alex and Kurt were furiously attacking two gamecube remotes while Ray and Sam cheered them on from opposite ends of the couch. Ray caught sight of Todd standing numbly in the doorway and motioned for him to come in.
"Are you any good at this? Because *somebody* has to beat Kurt before he decides he's some sort of king."
Just then Kurt threw his arms and controller in the air victoriously. "Vaht do you mean? I *am* the gamecube king!"
"Aw Alex! We had such high hopes for you man!" Sam whined.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see how cool you are on a surf board. *Then* we'll see who's king. Come on Todd, think you can take him?"
Todd looked skeptically at the controller Ray was dangling in front of him. He couldn't comprehend why they were being so– well so nice. He realized suddenly, that he didn't much care *why.* The point was they were making an effort, which was more than he had done in the past week. Sure, he had his reasons for not wanting to be around people, and there was no way he was going to trust these guys so easily, but since when had Todd Tolenskey given a rip about anything but having a good time? Resigning to the fact that he had to start somewhere, Todd broke into a smirk and took the controller from Ray.
"Alright move over your royal fuzz buttness because I'm about to dethrone you."
~*~*~*~*~
[1] Rahne is Wolfsbane
[2] Roberto is SunSpot...or something like that lol. I think he talks in like one episode
[3] Jubilee is...well she's Jubilation but she's Jubilee all the time...so uhh, yeah lol She shoots sparks and fireworks, that help?
[4] Ray is Berserker (Blue electrical energy stuff...strange hair with the orange bangs in the front)
[5] Amara is Magma
[6] Sam is CannonBall (long hair...spins around and stuff...hmm, u get who I'm talking about, right?)
[7] Jamie is MultipleMan...cept he's like 13, so I guess he's MultipleBoy then huh?
[8] Um, I think she's a red head lol.
AN: Ok...here's why I'm nervous about this chapter...first of all I'm thinking my last two scenes just weren't very smooth. Second of all...it may seem like the brotherhood have taken a magical turn for the better...but they havent really. It's kind of a one step forward two steps back kinda thing. See, life doesn't just stop cuz ur not happy. So basically the guys just had put on their happy faces, no matter how fake, and go out into the world and live cuz that's just what u have to do when ur not happy sometimes. Big emotional points in people's lives are usually up and down up and down and not consistent. So yeah, there we go...that's why im nervous so please tell me ur thoughts.
Oh yeah, on a completely random note...I kinda sorta maybe (ok so I really haven't decided yet...) Wanna hook Evan up? I *like* Evan...I seem to be one of the few ppl that does lol But anyway...if uve got any suggestions let me know..and I wont be making a big huge deal out of it and making that the whole focus or anything...more like background stuff like Bobby and Amara.