Unlikely

Chapter Nineteen: Happy Denial

Mia didn't get a chance to thank Pietro. At first she was too absorbed in her concern over her sister's safety to really notice him, and by the time Mia realized that he had been the one to save her self, he was nowhere to be found.

The next day, during lunch, Mia sat between Rogue and Kitty, being interrogated by the entire X-crew, all of which had heard about her getting up and walking out of sixth period yesterday. Only she and the telepaths knew that Pietro had helped her escape previously, and had also rescued her, and that he had been on her mind constantly ever since she had realized this.

"You've got detention!" Ray exclaimed happily upon hearing Mia mumble this fact. "Me too!"

Mia nodded absentmindedly, not really paying attention to what he had said, and was instead looking around her. Finally her gaze centered on who she wanted to talk to most.

Pietro sat leaned against a tree far off but still on the Highschool campus, wearing a blue sweater with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and darker blue jeans, his eyes closed and his arms folded behind his head in a relaxed pose. Todd and Fred were standing near him, conversing loudly, while Lance was lying on the ground still in the shade of the tree, but was spaced a ways apart from the seated speed demon. All in all, the four boys looked like the loners of Bayville Highschool, and pretty much were.

"Earth to Mia!" Said Kurt, waving his hand in front of her face.

"Um…" Mia said distractedly, standing as she looked away from the four and grabbed her dark blue backpack. "I've… got a project to work on. See you guys later." And with that blatant-faced lie, she walked quickly away from the X-crew and headed for the four Brotherhood members.

Every single member of the X-crew doubted her words instantly, and at the same time guessed where she was really going.

"Yeah, what project?" Mumbled Rogue as Mia walked out of hearing range. "I'm in all but two of her classes, and I ain't got no project."

"And, like, I'm in one of the classes you don't have with her." Said Kitty in an undertone. "And the only project we have in that class, is, like, baking a cake. Plus, we, like, can't work on that at school. The teacher said we have to work on it at home. Like, that's the whole meaning of homework."

Scott's red-tinted sunglasses watched Mia go tensely.

"What does she think she's doing, going to talk to him? Does she not remember how they met?" He grumbled.

"Relax, Scott." Said Jean softly. "I think it's kind of cute."

"Yeah, and like, who knows?" Kitty added, almost always the one to look on the brighter side of things… if given enough time to consider all the options. "Mia might be the one to, like, bring Maximoff over to our side."

"Let's hope not," growled Rogue and Kurt together.

Meanwhile, Mia had reached the group of four loners. Only Fred and Todd had taken notice of her arrival, and smirked as they exchanged glances.

"Hey, sweet meat." Todd greeted her with a sneer, hopping closer to Mia.

Mia's small nose wrinkled in disgust as his stench hit her.

"Mm. Meat." Mumbled Fred, walking over to her, which only took him two steps, which would have taken anyone else four steps.

Pietro opened his eyes lazily to see whom his peers were talking to, and then his eyes narrowed to a glare on the girl he had been thinking about the past few weeks, especially since yesterday. It was like he was stuck in some horrible cliché. Why did she always show up when he least wanted her to?

His eyes wandered over her fit body minutely, as she was distracted. She wore baggy black fabric pants today, and her electric-blue fishnet long-sleeve shirt had been exchanged for a black fishnet one. A solid hot pink short-sleeve shirt was over the fishnet one, and the middle of the shirt had been folded up to only some inches past her small round breasts, leaving most of her firm-flat stomach exposed. It was a warm spring day out, so he could understand why she had folded up the mid-section of the shirt during the outdoor lunch-hour. Her usual black boots were back, along with her long black dress-gloves. Her eyes were outlined thinly with black, and pink eye shadow he could guess she had borrowed from Pride had been applied to the upper eyelids, while a simple gloss finished her small but plump pale pink lips.

"Ugh. You both need long showers," Mia murmured, taking a step away from the Toad and the Blob.

Todd hopped behind her and made to take her backpack, probably to search it for her lunch, but Pietro was there in a blink, squeezing the Toad's skinny wrist while glaring at him with a sharp glint to his sapphire eyes.

"Ow! Leggo! That hurts, yo!"

Without a word, Pietro released him, and then grabbed Mia's right black-gloved hand and led her away from his three sort-of-friends quickly, before any of them could question his doing. When he was out of their hearing range, he slowed to a leisure walk and released her hand.

"What do you want?" He grumbled, slipping his hands into his pockets.

Mia took his left hand out of his pocket, and held it in a tender grasp. Startled, Pietro looked down at her, but didn't attempt to take his hand back, even while knowing that Todd, Fred, and Lance were probably watching from the place by the tree and snickering. A light blush had filled Mia's smooth tan cheeks as she avoided his eye.

"I wanted to say thanks, for yesterday, and apologize for kinda forgetting about you then, too. I was just really worried about my sister. I don't think I would've gotten to her in time, if it hadn't been for you. And…" She looked at him a bit hesitantly, but Pietro had already looked away from her, and was now watching where they walked ahead of them, also slightly blushing. "And…" she mumbled something that was too quiet to understand.

"What?" He snapped, looking back to her, and was a little unnerved to find she was still watching him and that she looked quite nervous.

"I-…" she mumbled something again.

Pietro rolled his eyes. "If you're not gonna say it so I can actually understand you, then go away."

Her blush deepened, but Pietro knew it was for a different reason this time, as her pale violet eyes narrowed to a glare on his cerulean eyes. He waited for the kick. "I said, and I really like you," she growled. "But if you're going to go back to being an ass, then forget it."

She turned to walk away, but not wanting to let this chance slip through his fingers also, Pietro caught her small hand just as it released his, and pulled her back to him. She turned and watched him with a slightly irritated glare, but the glare soon faded from her eyes as she noticed Pietro had that look in his half-open eyes again, just like he had yesterday, as his head came closer to hers, as his lips lowered gradually to hers. Her eyes drifted shut as their lips met.

Author's note: Aww! How cutely clichéd! Anyway, thanks a bunch to everyone who read this! And to the reviewers, you people rock! So, rock on! I hope everyone enjoyed this. Now onto Review Responses, just to give those reviewers some extra credit.

Disclaimer: I don't own any copyrights to X-Men: Evolution. I only own my original characters and this plotline.