Thanks for the feedback: UnknownSource, IceBlueRose, WormmonABC, Eboni, SkyDancerHawk, Pandora, signals x lost, raniatlw, Dusty, T. Riddle, Ice Princess, Personage
Bardic Feline, thanks for betaing
"Lance I think it's really sweet that you've been looking up the stuff you didn't know about engines to teach me." Kitty protested as she trailed after her mortified boyfriend. "I just thought studying together could be fun too. I mean we've only got one copy of the book, it could be cozy."
Lance paused. "It was just, I liked teaching you stuff." He said.
"It was fun and I'm like totally caught up with the rest of the auto shop class thanks to you. People don't yell at me in there half as much as they did in Home Ec." Kitty said.
"We all owe you for getting her to stop cooking." Kurt said and he and Scott walked. Kitty punched him in the arm.
"Lance, you know if you really want to teach Kitty something… She still needs to learn to drive," Scott said.
"I can too drive, I just need more practice." Kitty insisted.
"Besides," Scott continued, "everyone else who's over eighteen has already taken her at least once, it's your turn."
"Lance?" Kitty pled. "Everyone keeps finding excuses not to take me."
"Well the transmission in the jeep just went bad yesterday." Lance hedged.
"Then we'll fix it first." Kitty replied. She'd gotten used to the fact that mechanical problems seemed to plague every vehicle at the Mansion as soon as she cornered their owner for a lesson.
"Naw, that'll take all day." Lance replied. "It'll run we just have to stay in second gear. It'll be a little harder to get started and it won't go very fast, but I'm sure you can cope."
As he escorted Kitty out Lance shot a smug look over his shoulder at Scott.
"Ten to one he still ends up as rattled as Logan after her first lesson." Scott said to Kurt.
"You're on mein friend." Kurt replied. "I heard Mystique made Lance teach Quicksilver to drive when he first came to Bayville."
****** ****** ******
"Why are we stopping now?" Wanda demanded. She tried to sound furious and failed miserably.
"It's a surprise." Remy said with a grin. Wanda eagerly followed after him.
"Ice skating!" Wanda exclaimed excitedly at her first sight of the rink.
"I take it y' like dis?" Remy asked, his voice warm.
"I used to love this!" Wanda replied. "Sometime they let me watch TV and I'd see it while I was at the asylum. I missed being able to do it. It was like I could watch people having lives, but I didn't get to have one."
"Come on cherie. Lets get de skates strapped on. Den y' can try your hand at convincin' dis swamp rat dat dere's a purpose for ice being outside of a glass."
Wanda laughed.
The pair quickly rented their skates and wobbled out on to the ice.
Wanda quickly regained the knack of managing her skates. Remy's natural grace gave him an advantage over most beginners but he still had a tendency to glare suspiciously at the ice and move with a tentativeness that made everything more difficult.
After a few laps Wanda returned to Remy's side. She resisted the temptation to heckle him. Instead she slipped her hand into his and encouraged him to relax and trust himself and the skates.
"I t'ink I be getting de hang of dis." Remy said. A moment later a pair of obnoxious twelve year olds barreled through and knocked both of them off their feet.
Wanda pointed at them and a blue glow leapt from her hand. The ice beneath the kids melted. A moment later the puddle had across the entire rink.
"Oops," Wanda said, she was blushing. All around the rink confused skaters climbed to their feet and tried to wring out dripping clothes. "That didn't work out exactly like I planned." She whispered to Remy.
"Oh well, no one was hurt." He said with a shrug. "And de ice ain't de only t'ing melting 'round here."
****** ****** ******
Scott glanced up as Lance came in their room. "The driving lesson didn't go so well?" He asked hopefully.
"The lesson went fine." Lance said pulling off an oil-covered shirt. "The problems started once we got back and Kitty figured out I lied about the transmission being bad. I'm really going to have to bust it before I take her again. Either that or put some sort of governor on the engine… Maybe I could put a stop under the gas petal so she can't floor it."
Scott frowned at the sight of the dark bruises covering Lance's torso. "What happened?" He asked.
"As soon as we got back Kitty started checking out the jeep. She really does have a knack for mechanics, you know. When she didn't see anything wrong I couldn't let her think that she'd missed something. Unfortunately Logan was in the middle of changing the oil on his bike. Kitty dumped the pan on me." Lance replied.
"Not that." Scott said.
Lance glanced down at the bruises. "Oh those, I'd forgotten about them. Matthews had a couple of his friends hold me to improve his chances in a fight. Don't freak I didn't use my powers. Evan gave me a hand finishing the fight."
"We're supposed to be avoiding trouble." Scott said.
"You go ahead and avoid fights. I'm going to remind them I can play by their rules and still win."
****** ****** ******
"You sure you don't want to play Rogue?" Kitty asked pulled one side of Rogue's headphones away from the Goth-girl's ear.
Rogue glanced over at the table where Pietro, Evan and Ray were counting out brightly colored stacks of play money. "No thanks, too slow paced. 'Sides you sure you want to play with those three? We all know how well Pietro and Evan get along and Ray isn't exactly known for his sweet disposition."
"Oh, I'm planning on taking them all to the cleaners. They'll be too busy loosing to fight with each other." Kitty said.
"And now you see why so few of us are playing." Lance said as he glanced up from his guitar. Kitty stuck her tongue out at him, he grinned.
"Right, Kitty the monopoly mogul, Ah forgot. Ah'm definitely not playing." Rogue said. She turned up her stereo and resettled the headphones.
Pietro frowned and darted across the room. "I thought you were practicing." he said as he fiddled with the speed control.
"Leave-that-alone." Rogue snapped. She batted his hand away. "Ah-need-a-break-from-practice."
"You're never going to learn like that." Pietro replied.
"Ah-just-talked-to-Kitty-and-she-followed-me. Ah-am-learning."
"You still can't go back to school. You couldn't get through an hour long lecture."
"Ah-can-home-school. Ah'll-just-keep-on-taping-Mr.-McCoy's-lectures-and-listening-on-fast-forward."
"You can do better. If you'd stop using crutches you'd learn faster." Pietro complained. "You're the one who wanted to doing things the hard way instead of just touching me, so learn already!"
"Even-when-Ah-do-learn-we-still-won't-be-able-to-touch." Rogue snapped.
"It's-no-wonder-you-can't-control-your-powers. Look-at-how-you-handle-mine. As-soon-as-you-can-get-by-you-call-it-good."
"Ah-can't-imagine-what-Ah-thought-Ah-liked-about-yah!" Rogue announced. She darted out of the room.
"I'm-not-going-to-apologize-I-didn't-say-anything-that-wasn't-true." Pietro said as he glared at everyone in the room.
****** ****** ******
"Lance could you pick Tabby and Forge up this morning?" Scott asked. He had to yell to be heard over the chaos in the dining room.
"Sure. You'll give Fred a ride?" Lance answered.
"Pass the rolls." Evan demanded. Amara picked one up and lobbed it down the length of the table.
"Amara used to have such lovely table manners." Ororo sighed.
"Fred, can you be ready in fifteen minutes?" Scott asked. "I've got to get set up for a presentation in Bio before class starts."
"Sure Scott." Fred said quickly loading his plate with fourths.
"Elf, how many times do I have to tell you: Don't eat with your tail." Logan barked. While he was looking toward Kurt Todd used his tongue to snag a banana from the fruit dish on the counter. "That goes double for you Frogger." Logan snarled.
"I'll ride with you too Scott." Evan said. "I forgot my homework in my locker, maybe I can get a few problems done before class."
Bobby stuck a fork in his orange juice then froze it so he could eat it like a popsicle.
"Why didn't you just have Kurt pop it home for you last night?" Jean asked Evan.
"Monopoly followed by Risk. He was busy." Kitty commented. "I totally rule by the way."
"We know!" Ray, Pietro and Evan chorused irritably.
Jamie wrinkled his nose at the limp bacon on his plate then nudged Ray. With a sigh the older boy zapped the offending meat and burned it to a nice crisp.
"Hey Lance, can I drive?" Kitty asked.
"Sure." Lance replied. He earned stunned looks from Xavier, Logan, Ororo and Jean. "What? She's getting a lot better. You guys just give up too easy. Besides, do you have any idea how many times Tabby swiped my jeep? I owe her."
"Rahne!" Moira exclaimed in exasperation. Sam glanced down. His expression turned utterly mortified as he realized the dog he'd been sharing his sausage with was actually his teammate in wolf-form.
Rahne switched back to human-shape. Her cloths and cast melted out of her fur. "There wasn't any sausage left by the time I got to it and Sam can't resist feeding anything furry." she explained shamelessly.
"Charles have you ever considered instituting a few formal dining nights?" Hank asked.
"Some battles simply aren't worth fighting." Xavier sighed.
****** ****** ******
"When did you decide to start coming to school again anyway?" Jean asked Pietro as she stopped her SUV outside Amanda's house.
"Since Rogue doesn't want me to teach her anymore." Pietro sulked.
Amanda ran out the door then turned and waved goodbye to her parents. "Thanks for the ride Jean." She said.
"It's no problem." Jean replied as Amanda climbed in the back seat beside Kurt. He was slouched down, to avoid being seen by her parents without his image inducer.
"Come on Kurt, sit up and wave," Amanda encouraged. She wrapped an affectionate arm around his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. "You're going to have let them see the real you someday."
"Why don't you get a room?" Pietro snapped.
"Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed." Amanda laughed. Pietro curled his lip at her then pointedly turned to face the front window again.
"He and Rogue got in a fight last night." Kurt told Amanda. "And he brought up her powers."
"Ouch. When are you going to apologize?" Amanda asked.
"When she stops goofing around. It shouldn't take her this long to learn."
"Pietro, you could have been more patient, not to mention trying to show a little sensitivity." Jean said with a frown at him.
"Rogue's the one person I don't have to be patient with." Pietro complained. "She's just not trying hard enough."
****** ****** ******
"Whoo-hoo, that was some ride." Tabby laughed as she climbed out of the jeep. Lance scowled at her.
"I wonder if I could build something that would insure that Kitty can't un-phase while still in a solid object." Forge pondered.
"What are you complaining about?" Lance asked. "Kitty only had to use her powers three times this morning to avoid accidents."
"Everyone around here needs to be more considerate when they drive." Kitty complained.
Lance caught her around the waist before she could head off to class and stole a quick kiss. "See you fourth period." He said then they split up. Kitty and Forge headed for their math class while Lance escorted Tabby to her first period class.
Duncan Matthews and several of his friends confronted Lance just outside Tabby's classroom.
"Could you ask your friends to wait for me to prove, again, that you don't have a chance against me on your own before they jump in to help?" Lance asked Duncan then smirked when the football player waved his cronies back. Sometimes it really amazed him just how stupid Matthews could be, but he wasn't complaining. No matter how badly the fight ended, he'd still be able to make sure the blond jock got the worst of it.
With the ground rules established the other students circled around Lance and Duncan to cheer them on. Tabby discreetly kept herself at Lance's back. She cradled a small cherry bomb in her hand just in case.
"No powers." Evan hissed as he threaded through the crowd to join her.
"You're one to talk." Tabby replied. "Next you'll be yelling for Jean to help break things up."
"No thanks, I'm just waiting for the brawl to open up to all takers." Evan said. "I saw Kelly headed the other way. I think he's hoping we use our powers so he can kick us out."
"Look we don't need an audience." Duncan said as he stepped back away from the fight.
"Sounds fine to me." Lance replied. "At lunch?"
Duncan grabbed a sheet of paper from his bag and scribbled a quick note then shoved it at Lance before he collected his friends and walked away.
Disappointed, the crowd began to disperse.
"You're not really going to meet him?" Evan asked. "Duncan won't play it square. You know that."
Lance handed Evan the note. "Feel free to be in the area. I'll talk to Fred too. But if it's just Matthews stay the hell out of my fight."
****** ****** ******
Rogue stood in the hall outside the danger room waiting impatiently for Logan to finish his workout. The doors slid open and the short, stocky Canadian walked out. Behind him Rogue could see sliced and diced robot parts.
"Hey-Mr.-Logan," Rogue began. She twisted her hands nervously behind her back as she talked. "Sorry, Mr. Logan. Yah do meditation right? To help keep you're feral side controlled. Ah saw a show on television where they were saying people could use meditation to slow their hearts down so much that a body'd think they were dead. Ah been noticing that when Pietro and Ah were dancing, when he switches over to your speed, even his heart rate slows down. Ah can will mahself go slower, for a little bit, but it drives me crazy. Ah think Pietro must be slowing his brain down somehow too. Pietro say Ah'm just not trying hard enough, but Ah think he ain't doing such a great job of teaching me."
"You planning on making a point?" Logan asked.
"Would you teach me how to meditate?" Rogue asked.
"I'll try, if ya think it would help." Wolverine said. "But it ain't something you learn over night. It takes time and right now you're a little short on patience ain't ya?"
"Oh-that-won't-be-a-problem," Rogue said. She grabbed Logan's arm with her bare hand.
She held on for just a few seconds, just long enough to knock him out, then tugged Wolverine's unconscious body into a closet. She took a few seconds to arrange him in what she hoped was a somewhat comfortable position. After that she went off practice the skills she'd borrowed from him. She hoped to make them her own before the effect of her power wore off.
****** ****** ******
"Hey Lance! Wait up!" Kitty yelled.
Lance turned to his girlfriend with a grin then rolled his eyes as he saw Scott standing beside her. Scott was glowering.
"Half the school is talking about you and Matthews setting up an off campus fight at lunch." Scott accused.
"Yeah, but I'm not stupid enough to go." Lance replied. "It obvious that it's a set up. I'll just jump him after school."
"Shake-down!" Scott began angrily.
"Lighten up Cyke, I was kidding." Lance said.
"This isn't about…" Kitty began, ducking her head. She'd stopped pulling her hair back. When it was loose it hid some of the garish yellowing bruises. "I told you I took care of it."
Lance reached out to gently brush her hair back behind her ear. "That was Matthews too? I should have guessed."
"Lance, starting fights doesn't help anything." Scott started.
"Okay." Lance said. He shook his head with disgust. "I swear I won't start a fight with Duncan Matthews… I'll just finish the next one he starts with me. It's not like I'll have to wait more than a day or two for that to happen. Look, I've gotta run if I'm going to walk Kurt and Amanda to class. I'll see you in Chem. Kitty."
Scott and Kitty watched as Lance hurried away. "Do you believe him?" Scott asked.
"Not for a minute." Kitty said.
"You're riding home with him, right? Just be sure to catch him the instant seventh period ends and keep him away from Matthews." Scott said.
****** ****** ******
Lance looked around the deserted lot. "I'm impressed," He said to Duncan, "you didn't bring friends. Evan, Fred, get lost."
"I still think Matthews is planning something." Evan complained quietly as he and Fred walked away. "This set up stinks and Lance really can't use his powers, not with the police still hunting for him."
"Lance can take care of himself." Fred said glancing back warily. "We could probably wait here and all walk back to school together."
"Yeah." Evan said.
"What are your powers anyway?" Duncan asked. "I think I should know what to expect when you get desperate."
"There's no way it'll come to that. Don't worry about bridges your never going to reach." Lance said as he cracked his knuckles. "Are we going to do this or stand around and talk?"
"Whatever you want." Duncan said with a smirk then lunged at Lance. A moment before he connected Lance saw the glint of a knife in the other teen's hand and leapt backwards to evade the attack.
Warily they circled each other. Duncan looked for signs of Lance's powers. Lance just looked for an opening.
Duncan lunged. Lance blocked the knife with his forearm. He swept the blade to the side. His move opened Duncan to a hard punch to the gut. Duncan wheezed and dropped to his knees as the air was forced out of his lungs. Lance grabbed Duncan's wrist and twisted his palm toward the sky to force him to drop the knife. Duncan pulled away in the process he hyper-extended his arm. Lance brought his knee up forcefully into the joint. Duncan's howl of pain almost covered the popping, cracking sound as the joint bent the wrong way and snapped.
Lance stepped back leaving Duncan cradling his broken arm to his chest as he gasped helplessly at the pain every movement cost him. Lance noticed crimson speckles sprinkled across the ground and pulled off his vest and wrapped it around the bone-deep cut he'd taken to block Duncan's knife. "I told you I wouldn't need my powers." Lance said then walked away.
Fred and Evan met him at the end of the block. "Oh man, what happened?" Evan asked.
"Go get Kurt. I think I'm going to need a ride home." Lance said.
Evan nodded. He ran ahead while Fred hovered worriedly over Lance. Lance just kept walking determinedly toward the school.
"I hate school. None of us ever should've come back here." Fred said. "Let Magneto and his bunch kill all the humans. Why should we care anyway? It ain't like they ever did anything for us."
"I don't exactly want to live under Magneto's rule either." Lance said. "Not after what he did to Wanda and Pietro. I mean if he'd experiment on his own daughter just for the hell of it… And do you think he would have been happy just brainwashing the X-Men with that do-hickey of his on Asteroid M?"
"I don't know Fred." Lance sighed. He leaned back against a building and tried to clamp down harder on his bleeding arm.
Fred made Lance let him look at the injury. Then he quickly ripped up the vest so that he could make a bandage that would put more pressure on the wound.
"I'm trying to play it the X-Men's way." Lance said. "But I'm not going to let him get away with stuff like what happened to Todd, Rahne and Kitty."
"You heard that was him huh?"
"Yeah. I don't think he's going to be making any more trouble for a long time… Of course half the people at school are bigoted assholes who think we should all be taken out and shot. I don't know what to do Fred. I don't want anything to do with Magneto or Mystique; they'll just use us. And Xavier's wrong; humans are never going to accept us. I don't want to be anyone's martyr."
"I think you're doing okay." Fred said. "I mean they still harass us but a lot of 'em are too afraid to even do that to our faces now that they know some of us will fight back… The X-Men fought, too I guess, but they won't hurt anyone."
Lance glanced down at his arm. "Maybe I scared some of them off, but all I did with Matthews was scare him into bringing a knife. That's a real improvement there Freddy."
Kurt and Evan bamfed in a block away. Kurt waved then teleported to their side. "Vhat happened?" he asked.
Lance nodded toward his arm. "Think Moira's in the mood for doing stitches?"
****** ****** ******
When neither Lance nor Duncan returned to their classes after lunch the school's rumor mill went nuts.
"Where are they?" Scott asked Jean, his voice angry.
"Kurt says he took Lance back to the Institute." Jean replied.
"And Matthews?"
"I can't tell his mind's too foggy. All he's thinking about is that his arm hurts and how much he hates Lance." Jean said.
"Damn." Scott exclaimed. "Does anyone know where they fought? If Matthews is that hurt I assume he didn't get far."
Fred and Evan both glanced away from Scott.
Jean waited expectantly for them to speak up. When they didn't say anything she frowned then said. "Don't you two have something to say?"
"I ain't doing nothing to help Matthews." Fred stated.
"Evan?" Scott asked.
"He got what was coming to him. I mean what was he planning on doing getting Lance away from school and attacking him with a knife?"
"Lance told you about the fight?" Pietro asked Evan, he sounded outraged and hurt.
"Did Kurt say how badly hurt Lance was?" Kitty asked Jean.
"Just stitches, he'll be fine." Jean assured her. "Scott, Kurt says the fight was in that empty lot three blocks east of the campus."
"Okay, I'll go find Matthews and make sure he's not in too bad of shape." Scott sighed. "Jean, if things starts getting too ugly here get everyone home."
****** ****** *******
"Chuck give me one good reason not to take that girl apart!" Wolverine snarled as he burst into Xavier's office fresh from his involuntary nap, courtesy of Rogue.
"Please Logan, I'm on the phone." Xavier said.
"That ass Kelly again?" Logan asked.
"No, I'm afraid this incident has already moved into the legal arena. Now if you'll excuse me," Xavier turned his attention back to the phone call. "I'm sorry Matthew, you were saying."
"I talked to the hospital. Duncan Matthews was treated for a severely fractured elbow. He is likely to suffer some permanent impairment. The doctors suspect that he was injured in a fight, but Duncan denies it." Matt paused for a moment to allow that to sink in. "From what you've told me this boy has absolutely no interest in protecting your student. Charles, I'd be worrying if I were you. He's going to try to seek retribution himself. How badly injured did you your student was?"
Xavier sighed. "It took forty stitches to close Lance's wound. Several layers of muscle had to be sew back together as well as his skin."
"Trust me Charles, the next time is only going to be worse." Matt said.