Luke settled with trying to calm the boy with just his presence.
Nikki didn't stop crying for a long time. When he did eventually slow down to hiccups, he rubbed Luke's fur softly. "Sorry." He said, his voice slightly hoarse from crying.
Luke hesitantly licked Nikki's cheek, 'It's okay.'
Scott moved over to the two. "Are you okay Nikki?"
"I don't know" Nikki said. "There's something inside me... he said bad things Luke." He said to his friend. "I didn't want them to do that to me, I didn't. You believe me yea?"
Luke nodded, 'I believe you.'
"Was it that shadow kid?" Logan asked stepping away from the wall and letting his arms drop to his sides.
Nikki nodded, but hid in Luke again, swallowing hard like he was going to throw up at Logan's approach.
Logan stayed his distance; he knew that the kid still feared him and he didn't want to push it.
'What shadow?' Luke asked Nikki nuzzling him with the top of his head.
"There's a shadow in my head and it tells me bad things." He said to Luke quietly.
'What's it say?'
"It told me I deserved everything and that i was a bad boy. It told me that I was its fucking cage and that it wanted to get out of me, and then it kicked me."
Luke narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
"Want me ta kill it?" Logan spoke up suddenly.
Nikki looked up at Logan and made eye contact for the first time, although the fear was stark in his eyes, his fear of the thing in his head was even greater. "Yes." he said miserably, although he hugged Luke protectively.
Logan nodded and folded his arms back over his chest. Xavier came back into the room, and noticing the tension raise an eyebrow.
"What's going on?"
"You up ta goin' back inside the kid's head?" Logan asked and Xavier looked to Nikki.
"It's up to Nikki."
Nikki shook his head, leaning tiredly against Luke.
"Alright then," Xavier nodded, "Just let me know when you're ready." He smiled sadly at the boy before leaving.
After a moment Logan left as well leaving Scott alone in the room with Nikki and the wolf.
"So... what are you going to do now boys?" Scott asked.
Luke glanced at Scott, 'I'm not sure...'
Nikki sighed long and hard and shuddering.
"He looks like he could do with a rest." Scott said. Indeed, Nikki looked extremely drained.
Luke nodded, 'You can go to sleep Nikki,' he licked Nikki's cheek again, 'I won't leave.'
Nikki nodded and fell asleep almost scarily fast. Scott looked at Luke. "Want me to help carry him back to your room."
'Yea.' Luke carefully pulled himself out of Nikki's arms and jumped down onto the floor.
Scott scooped Nikki up and followed Luke up to their room, where he laid Nikki in the bed and took his shoes off, pulling the blanket up under his chin.
"Okay?" He asked Luke.
Luke nodded then jumped onto the bed and curled up; he stared warily at Scott then muttered a 'Thank you'.
"NO problem." Scott said, before leaving his room and going to curl back up with his boyfriend.
Luke sighed then closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep.
~*~*~
To any onlooker in their room that morning, it would seem as if Nikki was getting out of bed, carefully bypassing Luke's slumbering form. He walked out with a confidence that was strange from this boy, and stalked out into the hallway. He was making his way to the kitchen, and came across Todd on the way.
"Oi! Frogboy." He snarled.
Todd jumped, and looked back at Nikki, totally stunned.
"Wha...?"
"You heard me scum breath. What the fuck's your power?"
Todd looked hurt. "Nikki... what's wrong with you, yo?" He asked, not believing that this was the same boy he'd seen before.
"Nothing, warts for brains... for once, I'm perfectly fine."
The laugh that followed chilled Todd's already cold blood.
Kitty fazed through the wall, accidentally ran into Nikki and fell to the floor.
"Oh, hey. Sorry Nikki, I didn't mean to run into you like that." She said standing up as she straightened out her clothes and hair.
Todd watched, still hurt by Nikki's harsh words, but fascinated despite himself as Nikki's whole demeanor changed once Kitty entered. Something seemed to change about him, nothing that he could tell straight away, but the other boy drained totally off all color and started shaking like a leaf, not getting up from the floor where he'd been pushed, and apparently unable to say anything.
Todd watched him suspiciously.
Kitty winced mentally, "Right," She smiled weakly, "Um... I'll just be going," She glanced at Todd and paused, "What's wrong?"
Todd noticed Nikki was in a bad way being near Kitty. He'd never seen anyone look so terrified before, and he hoped he wouldn't ever again.
"I'll tell you yo, but first, can you get us out of here?" He asked.
Kitty furrowed her eyebrows and nodded, "Sure." She said grabbing a hold of Todd's hand and fazed them through the wall, back the way she had come.
Nikki, seeing Kitty disappear, looked around. He had no clue where he was. Whimpering quietly, he picked himself up and started unsteadily down the corridor, one hand tracing the wall.
Todd let go of Kitty and sat on a chair back.
"I dunno yo. He was so nice last time we met, but this time.. he was just mean." He frowned slightly, still hurt by the nasty comments, things he'd heard all his life.
"Nikki?" Kitty asked in disbelief, "That kid couldn't be mean to a fly... I think he'd probably be afraid of it..."
Todd hugged himself unconsciously. "He was pretty vicious Kit." He said. "But he changed back when you showed up."
"Luke said that I reminded Nikki of his mother... I wonder if that had something to do with it," She bit her bottom lip then shook her head, "But that doesn't answer why he was mean to you. Maybe we should talk to Luke?"
Todd gave Kitty a look. "Wow. If you remind him of his mother and he does that to you, I don't wanna know what his real mum's like." He paused and thought. "Yea, I think we should talk to Luke. He knows more about Nikki than anyone else."
Kitty nodded, "His room's upstairs, let's go see if he's up yet."
