Disclaimer: Haven't picked up the rights to XME in the last couple of days, so I'm still just a borrower.
Melt Me
By Kinomi
Chapter Two: Sunshine Yellow Eyes
***
Koko Crater Botanical Gardens, Oahu, 9:32 a.m.
"And this, Class, is the extremely rare Gardenia brighamii. Or 'na'u' in Hawaiian. Family Rubiaceae. This tree was formerly found on all dry slopes of the major Hawaiian Islands except Kauai, but sadly it is now nearly extinct. Such a shame to lose such beauty…"
Bobby stuck his hands in the pockets of his baggy cargo shorts and gazed half-heartedly at the flowering tree Hank McCoy was going on and on about. It looked like a pointy leaved bush to him, but who was he to question, botany bored him to tears. It was amazing to him that anyone could get so worked up over a bunch of plants.
"Remember, Class, that Rubiaceae are trees, shrubs, and less frequently herbs, the flowers are nearly always bisexual and actinomorphic, often heterostylous…" Without waiting to hear any more Bobby eased back from the group of slack jawed students. Their brains fried from the thought of having to remember any of this when they were on Oahu, one of the most beautiful places on earth. School hadn't even started for this term yet. Who cared about the sex life of flowers? Bobby sure didn't, he was more concerned with his own, or lack there of. Only Jamie and Roberto cared about getting good grades on Hank's little nature excursions. Bobby'd already done his time in Hank's classes…he didn't even need to be here really.
Pulling his baseball cap down to shade his eyes he wandered away from where Beast was giving his lecture. Professor Xavier had arranged with the Botanical gardens to let Hank's class have the run of the place for the entire morning. Since people pointing and staring whenever they saw Hank wasn't a positive learning environment. Bobby appreciated the solitude once he was out of earshot of Beast's bore-a-thon.
He stopped before some brightly colored flowers without even seeing them, far too taken with the glimpse of the turquoise sea he could see beyond the craters edge. It reminded him of the water girl the night before, and he couldn't stop wondering who she was, and what was she doing so far out to sea. Had she made it home safely? What was she doing right that moment? Thinking about it made him feel sort of agitated and restless and he didn't even know why.
"Hey, Frostbite, what are you doing hiding all the way over here?"
Bobby glanced over from where he leaned against the trail's rough wooden fence. His face nearly in the vivid plumeria flowers as he stared out at the slice of ocean he could see through the trees. He groaned inwardly when he saw Boom-Boom sauntering toward him.
It wasn't that he disliked Tabitha Smith; he used to hang around with her quite a bit when they'd both been new to the Institute and Bayville High back when they were sophomores. But later on when Bobby had made the mistake of dating some of the female residents of the Xavier Institute who were his friends, like Amara, then Cory, and lastly Jubilee, the girls had closed ranks against him. Even Boom-Boom and Kitty, and he hadn't even dated them. But they were all part of the estrogen brigade that judged him as a commitment-phobic player before having all the facts.
His relationship with Amara had only lasted two weeks before they had agreed they made better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend. Cory, another pyrokinetic mutant had only been at the Institute for five months before her parents decided they wanted her back home permanently. That relationship had been nipped in the bud before it could ever really get going. And Jubilee, he could write a book on what a mistake it had been to ever start up with Jubilation Lee.
"Trying to shake off the catatonia of boredom from looking at plants all morning," Bobby told her. Tabby gave him one of her coy smiles as she sidled up next to him at the railing. Without any regard for the rules, Tabby plucked one of the bright pink plumeria's and stuck it behind her ear.
"Is it me?" she asked him, putting one hand behind her head and posing. Bobby shrugged apathetically; he never could get into Tabby's audacious flirting with him, or ever take her seriously. It was just the way she was.
"Sure," he replied listlessly, turning back toward the sea and more pleasant trains of thought, like wondering what color eyes and hair the water mutant had normally, and if she might be as pretty solid as she'd looked in liquid. He rested his chin on his hand and sighed, totally forgetting Tabitha was still at his side.
"Ahhhh," Tabby chuckled, "who is she then?"
"Who's what? What are you talking about?" he stammered, flustered. Hoping the shade from the bill of his hat would hide the worst of his blush.
"You. You only sigh like that and get that moony look on your face when you're interested in a girl. Who is it this time? Kitty? Or has my number finally come up with Bayville High's biggest lothario?" she asked, resting one hand on her chest theatrically and batting her eyelashes at him.
Bobby frowned at her and folded his arms over his chest. He didn't much like the feeling that she was taunting him for information, only for she and the other girls to use it as ammo against him later. "Lothario? You don't even know what that word means, Tabby."
"Sure I do," she shot back, her hands fisted on her hips. "It's like a skirt chaser," Tabitha said with an expansive wave of her hand. "Am I right?"
Bobby grunted something unintelligible, not wanting to give her the satisfaction and stuffed his hands back in his pockets. Suddenly finding the nearby flora vastly engrossing. Tabby laughed at him then and stepped in front of him as he leaned against the railing. Her hands coming to rest on his shoulders and her blue eyes twinkled with mischief.
"I'm not as dumb as you all think I am," she flirted. Bobby remained impassive, wary of her true motivation as he waited her out. "So who is it?" she prodded.
"None of your business," he said and was immediately sorry.
"There is someone! I knew it! Tell me who."
"No."
"Is it Kitty?"
Silence.
"Is it me?"
Bobby gave her a chilly smile, "Aw, Tabbs, you know I'm saving you for never…"
Tabby was unfazed by the insult as the dimple in her cheek grew. She just loved yanking Bobby's chain – anyone's chain for that matter – it was so much fun. "Harsh," she chided. He shrugged and she let go of his shoulders. Bobby immediately took advantage to move away from her, angling more toward the exit of the gardens. Tabby was right on his heels.
"Tell me who," she demanded again, more tenacious than a terrier.
"Drop it already," Bobby tossed over his shoulder.
"I know! You're missing Jubilee, aren't you? You want her back."
Bobby came to an abrupt halt, causing Tabitha who was a half step behind him to barrel into his back. He looked over his shoulder at her, his brown eyes – normally warm and full of humor – as hard and cold as the ice he controlled.
"Is that what this is about? Getting ammunition for you guys to crucify me with again later on?"
Boom-Boom held up her hands in a placating gesture, and also to show she hadn't made any charges to stick down the back of his cargo shorts like she was thinking about doing. "Don't get your panties in a wad there, Chilly Willy, I was just having you on. I know you and Jubes are kaput. Sheesh! You need to seriously lighten up, Bobby. You're starting to act like Scott."
Bobby look struck. "Now that was uncalled for!" he complained. Tabby laughed at the outraged expression on the Iceman's face.
The tension broken, Tabby leaned back and rested her elbows on the fence top and crossed her ankles. "It's true, you are seriously no fun anymore. Since you've gone primo into the geek squad you've gotten just as bad as they are."
"No way!"
Tabitha slanted him a sly look. "Then prove it, let's take the van and go sightseeing."
Bobby looked uncertain, on the one hand she had a point, anything was better than hanging out here looking at a bunch of tropical flowers all day. Especially when beaches and babes beckoned. But on the other hand, if he took off and left Hank and the others stranded without a ride he could pretty much kiss off flying the X-jet home.
"We shouldn't leave the others stranded…" Bobby said lamely.
Tabby put her hand to her chest again, feigning shock. "Why, Bobby Drake, you aren't getting…responsible on me now are you?"
"I screw up, I don't get to fly," Bobby explained with a shrug, but her little dig at him about being responsible and being like Scott was needling at him.
Tabitha flapped a hand at him lazily over her shoulder as she started walking away, already dismissing him at his hesitation. "Fine! Stay with the geek squad then and look at a bunch of weeds. I'm gonna go cruise the North Shore, check out the Pipeline and all those hunky surfers…yum!"
Surfers. Waves. Bobby felt a strange exhilaration slam through his body. What better place to look for a wave controlling mutant than at Oahu's most popular surf spot? It made perfect sense and Bobby lurched into motion at the thought, trotting after Tabby to catch up.
"Boom-Boom! Wait up!" he called, but as he rounded the corner in the trail near the exit he saw that Tabby was already waiting for him, a smug look on her face. She lifted an eyebrow at him questioningly.
"What changed your mind?"
Bobby grinned, there was no way he was telling Tabby the truth. "Where there's surfers, there's bound to be surf babes in bikinis…" he told her, pulling the keys to the rental van out of his pocket.
"God, you are so predictably…male," Tabby said, rolling her eyes as she made a grab for the van's keys, but Bobby held them out of her reach easily since he was a good head taller. "Let me drive!" she demanded.
"If I'm going to get busted for this, then I'm at least gonna have some fun doing it," Bobby said, unlocking the van and getting behind the wheel. Tabitha whooped in delight as Bobby fired up the engine.
"Let's go!"
***
Kahuna Café, Honolulu, 9:45 am.
While Bobby Drake was risking his piloting probation in the hopes of seeing his mysterious water mutant again, the mutant in question was following Alex nervously into the Kahuna Café to meet his brother, Scott Summers for breakfast.
"Do I look all right," Darcy whispered urgently to Alex as they approached the door of the café. Alex glanced down at her carefully chosen outfit of a blue and white Hawaiian print halter-top and white denim skirt. The blue matching her ocean water eyes, and the white making her look even more tan. Darcy's hand fluttered up to readjust the banana clip holding her long dark brown hair up when she caught sight of her reflection in the café's window. She smoothed the one long blue strand of hair that framed the left side of her face absently, looking up to him for reassurance.
Alex resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her. Where most girls he knew - his own girlfriend included – asked that question as a means to fish for compliments, Darcy didn't. She really seemed to need the validation from him that she was acceptable and worthwhile. He wished he knew why, she really was a very pretty girl.
"You look fine. Don't worry; we're not dining with royalty, just my brother. And Scott doesn't bite…that hard," Alex couldn't resist teasing her, enjoying just a bit the way her eyes widened nervously. She took him so literally all the time. He debated tugging on one of the locks of hair that sprouted from her banana clip like a bird of paradise, but messing with her hairdo would probably just send her screaming right out the door she was so wound up.
He saw Scott rise up out of the booth he was sitting in to wave them over, and a wide grin split Alex's face at the sight of his brother. Alex bounded across the café in three big bounds to catch the taller man in a bear hug. Pounding him on the back as he 'aloha'd' him heartily, Darcy trailing in his wake like a ghost.
Scott watched as the slender dark haired girl slid into the booth after Alex when they finished greeting each other and introductions had been made, trying not to be obvious as he studied her. Alex had told him about the strange girl he'd found shortly after she'd recovered months ago. Scott had wanted to come then to offer the girl the opportunity to come to the Xavier Institute, but Alex had warned him that she was very sensitive about the subject of her mutation. For that reason Scott had assumed that she must have been one of those mutants unable to hide their difference from the general public, like Hank or Kurt. But other than eyes that were startlingly light colored – even to his red lenses – for her tan complexion and dark hair, she looked like any other high school girl.
They made small talk after they ordered, Darcy not offering much to the conversation, and Scott waited until their breakfast was nearly done before broaching the subject of his visit. Alex having the whole time been repeatedly cutting his eyes to Darcy beside him in a not so subtle hint to his brother to get on with it.
"So, Darcy," Scott began in his most friendly tone, smiling reassuringly. "Where are you from?"
Darcy looked decidedly uncomfortable and looked to Alex before answering, but his brother just kept eating.
"Hawaii," she said simply. Scott sipped his coffee before continuing.
"Were you born here?" he rephrased. Darcy pressed her lips together, a small crease appearing briefly between her eyebrows. She shook her head.
"No, I was born in Iowa."
"Is that where your folks live?" Scott asked. Darcy's shoulders stiffened as she sat up very straight. Alex's eyes widening as he shook his head minutely. Danger, danger! Don't go there! Alex's eyes seem to plead.
"I don't care to discuss that," Darcy said politely, her fingers gripping her water glass. Scott wondered if anyone else noticed that the water in all of the glasses on the table had started to vibrate. Sending ripples across the surface like in that dinosaur movie. Scott tried a more direct approach.
"Alex has told me that you're having some difficulty learning to control your powers. The Xavier Institute can help you with that," Scott said quietly, even though there wasn't anyone else within earshot.
"I really don't want to discuss that, either," Darcy said in an equally soft, yet miserable voice. Alex chose that moment to jump into the discussion, pushing his plate away and turning sideways in the booth to face Darcy.
"Listen to what he has to say, Darce. The Institute isn't about hiding your powers, they teach you how to develop them. They can help you fulfill your true potential." Alex said. Scott looked at him in amazement, this from the same young man that had wanted no part of that developmental help himself, yet here he sounded like a brochure.
Darcy looked cornered under the attention of both brothers. "If it's so great why aren't you going there, Alex?" Darcy muttered. Alex leaned back against the wall and considered.
"When Scott asked me to go to the Institute and become one of the X-men, it wasn't the right time for me, it still isn't. My life is here. But I considered it," Alex said thoughtfully.
Darcy continued to stare at the tabletop, the water in the glasses still shaking and swirling, reflecting the turmoil within her. Whirling like her mind. "My life is here too," Darcy argued. "Besides, my…family…is no longer financially responsible for me, I can't afford private school. And I won't ask your parents for something like that, Alex, they've already been too kind." Darcy finished, looking somewhat pleased at the out she'd found.
Scott tapped his fingertip against the table, leaning toward Darcy. "You don't have to worry about that. Professor Xavier is offering to sponsor you. All expenses paid."
"That's very generous of him, but he doesn't even know me," Darcy said, her hands twisting and shredding the paper napkins in her lap under the table. Paper snowflakes that floated down over her knees and rested on the tops of her feet in drifts.
"It doesn't matter, he wants to help you," Scott told her.
Darcy's brow furrowed. It didn't seem possible, why would a stranger be so eager to help her – a mutant – when her own family couldn't care less about her? What did this Professor hope to gain by teaching her to control her powers? She was useless unless she was near a large body of water, and then all she could do was move it around. What good was that? What did he want from her?
"But…why?" Unconsciously, Darcy's left hand reached out for her water glass, needing the contact with the contents within to soothe her agitation. Even the condensation on the outside of the glass helped, but Darcy was too stressed and the moment her fingers closed around the glass the contents of all three shot up into the air and then down. All over Scott.
"Oh my god!" Darcy squeaked, horrified, covering her open mouth with her hands. "I am so sorry!" Alex started laughing like a lunatic as Scott dripped, smiling gamely as he mopped his shirt with paper napkins.
"No harm done, its just water," Scott reassured her. "I'll dry."
Darcy wrung her fingers. "But I didn't…I mean, I don't think that I…" she stammered, looking from Alex to Scott and back. "I didn't know I could do that!" she whispered intensely. Scott paused, as did Alex.
"Wait," Alex said, looking at her closely, "You mean to say, that you can make a tidal wave, but you didn't know you could make a glass of water dump on Scott's head?"
"Three glasses, I'd like to remind you," Scott added dryly.
Darcy bit her lower lip. "I don't know, I never tried. Making waves is easy when I'm in the sea, there's so much water around me I feel…powerful, I don't have to try that hard, it's just very tiring. I never tried moving water that I wasn't in."
"That's where the Institute can help you, especially if you don't yet know the full extent of your powers. You need to learn to control them. What if you had a nightmare and flooded half the Islands with a tsunami?" Scott asked. Darcy paled at the prospect, her mind filled with images of destruction, all caused by her. "I don't want to frighten you, but it's a real possibility. You wouldn't mean to do it, like I wouldn't mean for the destruction taking off my glasses would cause. But we have special abilities, so that means we have a responsibility to control those abilities so that others don't get hurt."
Tears, big and fat filled Darcy's blue eyes, their color changing from pale ice blue to gray-green, the color of stormy seas. "I don't want them!" she whispered raggedly, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand. "I never wanted them! I wish I'd never left Iowa…I wish…" she trailed off with a sniffle, not wanting to follow that train of thought. Embarrassed to be crying in front of Alex's brother, she hopped up from the booth and left the café, rounding the corner of the building to the alley before crying in earnest.
A wad of napkins appeared in her tear filled vision a few minutes later and she looked up to see Alex standing before her, his expression concerned, just like it was when she woke up in his house. It seemed Alex Masters had been concerned for and about her since minute one. Was she really so hopeless?
"Thanks," she croaked, taking the napkins and blowing her nose.
"Someone really hurt you with regards to your powers, didn't they?" Alex asked gently. Darcy didn't respond. "Someone in Iowa?" he continued, the question sounding more like a statement. Darcy folded her arms over her chest and studied her shoes, reluctant to even think about what happened, much less discuss it. Even with the person she trusted more than any other. Alex sighed. "Will you do something for me?" he asked.
She nodded, not trusting her voice to not sound like a rusty chain.
"I've invited Scott and some of the people from the Institute over tonight for a bonfire/beach party thing, will you at least talk to them? Hear what they have to say about the Institute." Alex said. Darcy's heart beat faster. Aside from Alex and now his brother, Darcy had never met another mutant before. What could she possibly have to say to strangers whose only similarity to her was that they shared a gene that made them hated and persecuted by those who didn't?
Alex saw the panicked look in Darcy's eyes and he pulled her into a brotherly hug. "They're nice people, you'll like them," Alex promised. "Will you at least think about the Institute?"
Darcy stayed tense, at war with wanting to deny what she was, what made her different, and Scott's words about responsibility. But wasn't admitting she was a mutant akin to painting a big target on her back?
"Kaikuahine…" Alex murmured, rubbing her back lightly. Sister… And in so many ways too, since they were both mutants. "For me?" What could she say to that?
"I'll think about it."
***
Xavier Institute for Gifted Children, Bayville, NY, 6:30 pm.
The sun slanted through the tall windows of the library, still high enough in the sky, but the days were getting shorter as fall crept closer. The warm wind rustled leaves just getting ready to turn, and it was a perfect day.
The Institute was quiet for a change, the about-to-be seniors off on the study vacation to Hawaii with Beast and Scott, and most of the underclassmen hadn't yet returned from a basic survival training session with Logan.
Basking in the solitude, Jean Grey was curled up with a cup of tea and a mystery novel she'd been dying to find time to read when the phone rang. Jean considered ignoring it, she couldn't remember the last time she had any down time to herself, but knew it was Scott calling so she had to answer.
Marking her place in the book, she cheated, using her telekinesis to bring the phone to her, rather than move from her comfy spot. "Hi Scott," she said, putting the receiver to her ear.
"You know, one of these days you're going to do that and it might actually not be me." Scott's rich voice said into her ear. Jean smiled to hear her boyfriend's voice, personal time or not, she missed him when he was gone.
"Never say that to a telepath, you know better…" she teased him in a throaty chuckle. "How's Alex?" she asked, once the pleasantries were out of the way.
"Taller, tanner, and blonder than the last time I saw him, but other than that he's the same old Alex. Finally going to turn pro next year with his surfing," Scott said. Jean could see him in her mind, whether it was actually him or her memories of him she could picture him in a hotel room, kicked back on the bed with the phone.
"How did the recruitment go?" Jean asked.
"Well," Scott sighed, "As recruitments go, we've had better. But then again we've had worse."
"What happened?"
Scott told Jean about Darcy's reluctance to join the Institute, about her evasiveness about her background. He even told her about getting soaked. Jean was concerned when Scott relayed that Darcy had said she wasn't aware she could manipulate water without physically touching it.
"Alex had a good idea however, that it might be good for her to meet with some of the students and talk to others like her, it might sway her to come back east with us." Scott said.
"Are her powers that strong?" Jean asked, picking up on the concern in Scott's voice.
"I don't know. I'm not even sure she knows. She could be powerful, or her mutation could be very limited. Alex and I spent a couple of hours with her after breakfast in a kind of informal training session. If she wasn't aware she could move water without contact before she's picking up the skill very quickly. We had her forming basic shapes out of a bucket of water in two hours." Scott told her.
"Do you think she lied about her abilities?" Jean asked.
"No, I don't think so. Her surprise was genuine. If she'd tell us more about her background then I could make a better call," Scott sighed. "I just hope we can convince her that coming to the Institute is the best thing for her."
"Don't push too hard, Scott," Jean gently suggested. Scott chuckled.
"No, I'm not going to bag and gag her or anything. But I think we should do everything we can to convince her to come. I think that mutants with these kinds of abilities, like Storm, like Darcy, need the training and discipline more than others."
"So they stay on the right side?" Jean asked lightly, keeping the tone teasing. But Scott knew what Jean was alluding to.
"Jean, the girl can make a tidal wave with her toes in the water, and yet it took her over an hour to be able to make a sphere out of water in a bucket. What do you think?"
Jean twisted the cord around her finger. "Control the power before it controls you…" she murmured.
"Exactly," Scott agreed.
"I'll let the Professor know his concerns were founded, but do what you think is best to convince her in the meantime." Jean told him. "So…how was the flight over? Bobby pull any stunts this time?" Jean asked, changing the subject.
"Nope."
"You think he's finally given up on all the hotdogging?" Jean asked, knowing Scott's dislike of the Iceman's "balls to the wall" flying style. She found it rather amusing herself. Scott gave a derisive snort.
"Not a chance."
***
AN: Thanks to: Tyriel, RavenPhoenixFire, Camille, Maxine-chan, and my usual crew of faithful *cough*threatenedintoit*cough* readers; Ashley, Brandon B, Namek Kaia, djfusion, and my sister Rei.
Keep that feedback coming! ^_^