A/N: Well, just read and review.
Thanks for reviewing: Phoenyx and Ima Super Mute Ant.
:two:
Their friendship grew. It grew a whole lot. More than John wanted it to or expected it to. He didn't even think there was going to be a friendship. But Bobby was much more determined than he looked. And they formed a friendship. It was hard to be friends with John Allerdyce. You need patience and tolerance. And Bobby was doing a good job with that. Bobby was different than most people John had dealt with. Bobby never left as anyone else would.
John appreciated that. Never had anyone in his whole life made an effort to try to see past that cold appearance. Never. But he did. He was the first. After getting a load of John's attitude and what he would normally say, they gave up and decided that he was useless and wouldn't make a good friend or anything like that. Just like what his foster families did to him. He wasn't a good son and he was a mutant. They kicked him out before he had a chance to call this new place 'home.' At his various old schools, he would do what he wanted to. He may have been the new kid, but he acted like he owned the school. No one else there was a mutant. They had nothing on him.
In classes, he would make his trademark clicking noises with his lighter. He was constantly getting kicked out of class for talking back to the teacher or being disruptive. No one wanted to be friends with him after he had said one sentence. They instantly figured that he was some asshole and wasn't worth anything. He didn't care. He didn't care at all. He didn't even want to be there. He felt he was better than all of those people.
Sometimes, he would flirt with girls just to get a rise from their boyfriends. They would threaten to beat him up and try to kick his ass. But he would always have the upper hand. He was a mutant and they were not. Sure, they could be big football jocks that were about a foot taller than him and much stronger. He could suffer from as much as a bruise. But he was just playing with them. As soon as a flame appeared from his lighter, he was in control.
He remembered the first time he revealed that he was a mutant. He burned some kid's arm severely. At school, he was thought of as a freak and suffered massive hatred. Then, he was suspended. When his foster family found out, they got rid of him. He didn't even need to get expelled from school. He was being moved. It was hard to place a mutant in a foster home. They usually placed him in the crappy ones. But if anyone thought they had control over him, he would show them.
He was constantly expelled and constantly kicked out of his homes. And he didn't give a fuck. He could careless.
Bobby was the first to make an effort to be John's friend. And although John didn't want 'friends', he found himself hanging around with his roommate and talking with him. It was not long before he realized that they were actual friends. John never had friends. Bobby was basically the first. He never bothered with those who he believed were lower than him. Maybe he allowed Bobby to be his friend because he was a mutant. Or perhaps it was the innocence. John didn't know. All he knew is that they were now friends. Best friends, even. It was weird how mutants so opposite such as them, could become such close friends.
John stood up from his bed and headed towards the door, with his lighter at hand. He looked back at Bobby, who was doing his homework.
"Hey, I'm grabbing a bite to eat," John said to him. "You wanna come?"
Bobby looked up from his homework and over at the brunette mutant. He smiled.
"Sure," He said, as he put his books aside. He hopped out of his bed and followed John out of their room. Bobby walked beside him. At first, they were silent. John started making the clicking noises with his lighter. It use to annoy Bobby like hell, but now he was pretty much use to it. He didn't mind it. It was something you had to get use to when John was your roommate. John did it constantly. It was a habit that he couldn't give up, kind of like smoking.
"So, John," Bobby said, trying to start a conversation. John looked over at his friend. "Did you do your essay for L.A. yet?"
"Yeah," John replied, going back to flicking his lighter cap on and off. "It was a piece of cake."
"You always say that," Bobby muttered. "You like to write, don't you?"
"It passes the time," John said, with a shrug.
"You're pretty good at it, you know," Bobby said. John shrugged and shook his head.
"Yeah, right," He muttered.
"No really," Bobby assured his friend. "You are. I'm jealous."
John shrugged, secretly smiling. The fact that Bobby Drake was jealous of him for something made him quite satisfied. Not that he would ever let Bobby or anyone know that. As far as anyone was concerned, the only things that satisfied John were being insulted and probably a good time with a pretty girl. They didn't care to know anything else.
They became silent again. Soon after, Bobby started a conversation about the girls in the school. John noticed it was always Bobby starting the conversations. Well, John never had anything interesting he cared to talk about.
"Do you think anyone here is pretty?" Bobby asked. John shrugged.
"Not really," He said. "I don't really care for any of the girls here."
"Why not?"
"I just don't."
That conversation ended quickly. John liked girls as much as the next guy, but the girls here were so different than anyone he cared to date. And he probably doubted that any of the girls would want to date him after they've talked to him for five minutes. There has yet to be a girl that he has connected with yet. It just hadn't happened yet. Bobby probably had loads of girlfriends in his time. John didn't care about that and didn't bother to find out.
They arrived downstairs and went into the kitchen. Bobby grabbed himself a cold slice of pizza and John heated up his. Bobby liked his food cold. He liked anything cold. While John on the other hand, preferred the warmth. He liked heat. It was probably due to their mutations that they had these certain preferences.
Bobby finished quickly with his pizza and moved onto ice cream. He liked eating ice cream, as John noticed. He did it constantly. It did make sense to be eating ice cream since he was indeed Iceman, but there seemed to be no reason. John never questioned it. John never questioned anything. He kept any thoughts that weren't nasty or sarcastic to himself. Unlike normal people who would do just the reverse. He was different than most people. He had an excuse.
John sat there and stared at Bobby as he ate. Bobby took a whole carton of ice cream, grabbed a spoon, and started eating it. While it was weird that someone would be eating the whole thing of ice cream, John figured it was an Iceman thing. He finished his pizza and became bored. He sat there, contemplating whether to stay and watch Bobby eat or go back to their room and be bored there.
He decided to stay. He took out his lighter and started flicking the cap, igniting the flame, and then closing it, as he usually did. He continued the pattern as Bobby ate his ice cream. John took his gaze away from Bobby and the ice cream and looked over at the large, glass doors behind him. Ugly, pink curtains covered them. John felt that they would look better red, or even black. Anything was better than pink. He unconsciously lit the curtains on fire. He fell out of his daze when Bobby started yelling. The smell of smoke started to grow. Bobby turned around and stuck his hand out. He put out the fire that was started to spread and made it look as if there was no trace of the fire. It was only frozen curtains.
A few seconds later, Cyclops came running in. He immediately turned his attention to John. If there was trouble, then John was probably behind it. He looked at the curtains and back at John.
"What did you do?" Scott Summers asked him, coldly. John looked indifferent to the whole situation. He remained silent for a second and looked up at Scott. He opened his mouth to speak. Bobby beat him to it.
"Sorry, Scott," Bobby said, cutting off anything John was about to say. "It was my fault. He didn't do anything."
Scott looked, surprised. He wasn't the only one. John's eyes widened for a second, with surprise. Was Bobby taking the blame and possibly getting in trouble?
"Oh, well," Scott said, not knowing how to scold Bobby. Bobby never did anything wrong. "Don't cause trouble again. Now, how about the two of you get to bed?"
The two boys nodded and scrammed out of the kitchen. John stared at Bobby as he walked.
"Thanks," John muttered, not knowing whether to be angry or glad.
"No problem," Bobby said, sincerely. He didn't seem angry that he could have gotten in trouble for something that John was doing. Bobby walked a few inches in front of John, not knowing that John was staring. He didn't know whether to ask 'why' or not. Of course, he wanted to know why. His curiosity got the best of him.
"Why did you do that back there?" John asked. Bobby shrugged.
"Ah, it was nothing, you know. You already get yourself into enough trouble. I don't think you would want to end up having to wash Cyclops's cars. All of thousands of them."
John nodded. That seemed like a reasonable enough answer. It was the next part that surprised him.
"It's what friends do," Bobby added, casually. John stared, almost taken aback. He felt a feeling rising within him. He didn't know if it was satisfaction or the feeling of being accepted. Whatever it was, he liked it.