Disclaimer- "Oh, Al! Is that money in your pocket or are you just happy to
see me?" "Money, Peg. Just like before we got married."
Author's Note- I apologize in advance at any accent butchering I may do.
Chapter Sixteen- Dinner at Xavier's
"Well, I know one thing," Crystal told Johnny after they had taken a tour of the mansion, "This place is sure a hell a lot bigger than ours."
Johnny stared at Crystal, shocked. "Did you just swear?" Crystal rarely uttered curse words, so it was a surprise when she did so.
Crystal shrugged. "Someone has to once in a while."
"Hello," a cheerful voice said behind them, and the two of them turned. It was a young man, probably in his late teens, with brown hair and brown eyes. He gave both of them a very friendly smile.
"Hi," Johnny said, sticking out his hand to shake. "Johnny Storm."
"Jamie Madrox. Uh, so you guys like it here?" Jamie smiled. He and Crystal introduced themselves to each other.
"Yeah, it seems like a nice place," Johnny said with satisfaction, looking around the hallway and observing the vases on a few random tables and the few paintings on the walls.
"It is," said Jamie, resting his hands on his hips, "I couldn't have imagined a better place to live."
"How long have you been here?" Crystal asked. Jamie flashed a grin at her.
"Since I was twelve. Six years now," he told her proudly. "Nearly seven."
"So you're my age!" Crystal said in surprise. Jamie's smile widened.
"So I am. Well, I better be off, someone's gotta watch the youngsters," Jamie winked at her and walked off, humming to himself.
"I don't like him," Johnny said the instant Jamie turned the corner down the hallway.
Crystal rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, he was nice."
"Still don't like him," said Johnny stubbornly. Crystal began walking down the hall, latching her hand in Johnny's.
"You don't like any other male who so much as breathes funny around me," Crystal snorted.
They walked around the mansion, several times walking around in circles. They opened and closed doors to take a peak at some of the rooms, several of which turned out to be linen closets.
Finally, they heard a noise that indicated that there was some life nearby. They followed the laughter and the shouting, and ended up in front of a door to one room. They opened it cautiously, only to find that they had found the rec room.
Jamie was standing on the couch waving his arms in the air to try to restore the chaos. Children mutants were running around the room, playing what they had dubbed 'Mutant Tag' and efficiently trashing the room. A blonde woman in the corner that must have been older than Jamie was doing nothing to help. In fact, she was just making it worse. She kept rolling what looked like little glowing balls across the room, and seconds later they would explode like a cherry bomb.
"Whoo-wee!" She shouted, laughing loudly. "Come on, Multiple! Chill out! Let the kiddies have fun!"
"You're not helping the matter, Tabby!" shouted Jamie over all the noise. He looked around the room for help. He found what he hoped was salvation in the corner, reading a book.
"Rahne!" he called to the Scottish redhead. "Rahne, you gotta help me!"
Rahne's green eyes flickered up to look at Jamie. She yawned and seemed to seriously think about it. Then she grinned and shook her head. "Ye by yerself, Jamie!"
Jamie groaned. "Okay, that's it." He punched himself in the side of the head. Crystal gasped, about to go forward to make him stop, but then froze when she saw what happened. Three clones at a time seemingly came popping out of Jamie. The younger mutants immediately quieted.
"Listen up!" Jamie said, his clones saying everything he said except they all finished at different times. "There're guests here! We don't want to make this place look like an insane asylum, kay? Be impressionable! Show these guys that some of us may have some manners! Now start cleaning this pigsty up!" The children immediately scrambled around the room, haphazardly putting everything back where they had thought it had been. Jamie and his clones looked immensely satisfied, their arms crossed against their chest and the clones were nodding with satisfaction.
"Hey, Jamie, I think some of the guests already know what slobs we are!" Tabitha said loudly pointing to Johnny and Crystal near the doorway. She waved at them, "Howdy, newbodies! Welcome to our sty!"
Jamie whipped around, his clones copying his movements. He grinned at them, but it was more directed at Crystal than to Johnny.
"Hullo!" he greeted them. "Have you met these ones before?" He indicated to Rahne and Tabitha and the other children.
Johnny shook his head, looking at Jamie suspiciously. Tabitha sprung from her seat and rushed to Johnny with her hand sticking out.
"Tabitha Smith at your service," she purred, winking at him.
"Uh, Johnny Storm," Johnny said uncomfortably. Crystal stuck her hand out for Tabby to shake, and they did, introducing themselves.
"That one in the corner reading over there is Rahne Sinclair," Jamie told them, pointing to the redhead. She glanced up from her reading and gave them a sweet smile, waving her fingers at them.
"These little monsters are Illyana Rasputin, Theresa Cassidy, Dorian Leech, and Artie," Tabby told them, indicating to each child as she said their names. When they heard their names, each one froze in their spot and waved to the guests and then immediately went back to what they were doing.
"Who have ye already met?" Rahne asked, getting up from her spot and stretching her back.
"Uh, the Brotherhood, Scott, Rogue, the Professor, Magneto, Wanda, Ray and Kitty," Crystal told her. "I think that's it. And you guys."
"Well you have to meet more of the guys!" Tabby said, looping her arm around Johnny's. "There're just so many you have to meet! I can't believe you haven't even met Kurt yet!"
She dragged him out of the room, with Crystal and Rahne following closely behind. Crystal wasn't sure if she really liked Tabby. She seemed like a nice enough girl, a bit on the wild side, but then again she was flirting with Johnny. 'Well,' Crystal thought, 'I've already had three guys hit on me, according to Johnny, so I guess it's not so bad.'
"There's Kurt, he's a really great guy, and Dr. McCoy, and Ray and Sam, but he should be in Kentucky now, and Warren and" Tabby was rambling as they walked their way to the living room, "Ororo, and-SPEEDY!"
She had disentangled herself from Johnny's arm and ran at full speed towards Pietro when she spotted him standing behind the couch, talking to some of the others. He turned around quick as a flash and grinned, holding out his arms. She leapt into his embrace, wrapping her legs around his waist and gave him a gigantic kiss on the lips. Johnny shoulders sagged in relief. Good, he had a girlfriend.
"Ah, Tabby!" Pietro laughed, turning his head to the side to escape Tabby's friendly smooch. "You're choking me!" Tabitha loosened her grip around his neck slightly.
"We missed you here, buddy!" she said, "Some of the girls at the club were asking about you. They've been wondering where you've been all this time."
She climbed down and smiled at him, and then glanced slightly to her left. Her smile widened and she jumped over the couch and knocked herself into the figure that was sitting there, knocking them both on to the floor.
"Iceboy!" She began kissing all over Bobby's face. "Oh, oh! Where is Amara? And Jubilee? Did they make it out too?"
Johnny's shoulders sagged even lower in disappointment. No, Tabby was just a very open person.
Bobby laughed weakly and put his hand on her face and pushed it away. "Get off me, Boom Boom. Yeah, yeah they're fine. In the infirmary. Roberto too. And it's Iceman."
Tabitha squealed, jumped up and ran with a speed that could almost match Quicksilver's down to the med-bay.
Pietro smiled very weakly at the both of them. He gestured to each one of the mutants, introducing them to the Fantastic Four member and his girlfriend. "Bobby Drake, Sam Guthrie, and Kurt Wagner and his girlfriend Amanda Sefton."
Bobby was picking himself off of the floor, dusting himself off. Sam smiled and waved at them, his legs draped over the armchair he was laying across, and Amanda Sefton smiled at them.
"Fiancée," Amanda corrected.
"Oh," Pietro said dully, realizing again how much he had missed out on.
The smell of brimstone filled the room.
"Gutentag," Kurt said cheerfully, squatting on the back of the couch. Johnny and Crystal jumped back and gasped in surprise.
Kurt cocked his head to the side. "Now, are you gasping in surprise zat I appeared here quite unexpectantly or are you gasping at ze vay how I look?"
"Surprise, surprise," Johnny said immediately. Kurt grinned at them, showing fanged teeth.
"Vell, zat's good," he said, nodding. Then he bamfed again and took his spot back next to Amanda, wrapping an arm around her.
Pietro rubbed the back of his neck wearily. "Well, you can still wander around if you'd like, or I assume you can, I don't live here." He looked at Kurt, who nodded. "Well, I guess you can then. I'm-I'm going to find my sister and go-go to sleep, if anybody... needs me."
He rolled his shoulders one at a time and walked off, leaving Johnny and Crystal alone with the five strangers.
"Vell," Kurt said, "Are you staying for dinner, zen?"
Crystal nodded, lacing her fingers once again in Johnny's.
Amanda laughed. "Well, you better show up early then! Kurt here has an appetite, as does Freddy. And if I've heard anything from the Brotherhood, Pietro could eat a whole truckload of food if he wanted to."
Both Johnny and Crystal looked at her in surprise. Freddy certainly looked like he could eat just about his weight, but Kurt and Pietro was surprising.
"Don't look surprised," Sam drawled. "Ah think it has somethin' ta do with their mutations."
Bobby snorted, looking up as he flipped through the TV guide. "You think? You just heard that from Beast when you first got here and was so surprised that Kurt ate half of the food off of the table." He gave Kurt a glare.
"Hey, Sam," Kurt said, changing the subject abruptly, "Aren't you suppose to be in Kentucky?"
Sam sighed. "Flight's been cancelled till tomorrow. An' here I pack fer nothin'."
Kurt pressed on. "Vell, shouldn't you be spending the time vith Paige? I mean, she just came home a few days ago, you'd think you'd want to see her."
Sam jumped up; looking horrified, and knocked over the end table next to the chair in the process. He fumbled setting it right and then bolted out of the room.
Rahne sighed. "Kurt, way to go makin' him feel guilty. Dinnae know ye had it in ye." She went much more calmly after Sam.
Kurt shrugged looking innocent. Meanwhile, Crystal and Johnny invited themselves to sit on the couch. Nobody seemed to mind, or notice. Somewhere in the house, someone was singing loudly, shaking a box of something. He burst into the room.
"Pietro!" Pyro called, then whistled as if he were calling a dog. "Pietro! Lookie! I got sugar cubes!" He shook the yellow box in his hand, making a rattling noise. He looked around the room and sighed.
"Where the hell has Pietro gone?" He asked sounding disappointed.
"Sleeping," Amanda answered him.
Pyro exhaled angrily, throwing the box on the floor. "Dammit! We have to finish our ping-pong tournament! We're on our eighty-eighth game and we have to get to five hundred! Dammit, dammit!" He kicked the sugar cubes across the floor.
"He's sleeping," snapped Bobby irritably, "Finish your damn tournament later. Y'know what? Sleep sounds like a good idea. After all those tests Beast did on me, I'd like to rest a bit. Wake me if I'm not down before dinner." He stretched and exited the room, giving Pyro a glare on his way out.
"Why did you have the sugar cubes?" Crystal asked. Pyro grinned at her, sauntered his way over and plopped down on the couch, too close to Crystal for Johnny's liking.
"Well, y'see," Pyro began, "Pietro's attracted to sugar like a fly on poop. When he was living with us in the old days, that is, before he got arrested and then taken by Trask, we had to be careful of what food we bought." He sighed blissfully at the memories. "Course, we didn't do that as much when I started living with them. I think he drove Lance insane. But I did live with him for a little while then, when he betrayed them and lived with us Acolytes."
Johnny and Crystal stared at him, digesting all of the information. Kurt rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Vay to be subtle, John," he snorted. "Vhy don't you just tell them every personal thing you know about Pietro zat's not anybody's business?"
"I'm not sure Pietro would like that," Pyro said, rolling his eyes.
They sat there for an hour, listening to Pyro talk about the more silly antics of the Brotherhood. When he finished, and it was time to eat, Johnny concluded that the whole Brotherhood, Pietro included, were lunatics.
There was an enormous dining table they sat at. Johnny and Crystal sat next to each other, across from Wanda and Pietro. On Pietro's left side was Tabby and next to her was someone they did not know. Crystal sat next to Ben, while on Johnny's other side was a girl with purple hair. The Professor sat at the head of the table and close to him was a man that reminded them of Pietro. They sat nearer to the end of the table.
"Pietro," Tabby was saying as Pietro cut up his steak, "the girls at the club really missed you. I'll take you there tonight, how does that sound?"
Pietro lifted his fork and shoved the food in his mouth, staring at a spot on the table. He chewed, and swallowed. "Which girls in particular?"
"Jeannie," Tabby said to him, "She's been asking about you for awhile. But anyways, me and Pyro were going to take some of the guys out. Wanna come?"
"I don't remember Jeannie," Pietro said, taking another stab at his food.
"Speedy, you banged this one twice," Tabby told him in a quieter tone. "You don't normally do that." When he gave her a blank stare she sighed in irritation. "She's shorter, brown hair, brown eyes. A little paler. Oh, come on Pie! You gotta know whom I'm talking about!"
Pietro was now scooping the corn on his plate. His eyebrow was slightly raised. "Maybe if I see her I'll recognize her."
"Well duh, we're taking you with us, so yeah, you'll see her," Tabby rolled her eyes. "But we're taking Betsy and Ray and hey, we even let Jamie tag along." She looked across the table at Johnny and Crystal. She gave them a slightly evil grin, "Hey! You two look young and innocent, wanna come too?"
Both of them looked startled, "What kind of club is this?" asked Johnny suspiciously.
"A gay strip club," Tabitha said sarcastically and rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. "What do you think it is? It's a regular club where you dance and drink and just have fun, coming or not?"
Johnny looked at his girlfriend hesitantly. Crystal shrugged. "Sure, it might be fun," she said.
Tabby clapped her hands together enthusiastically, "Goody!"
"Nobody else is coming?" Pietro asked around a mouthful of food.
"Well, not with us," she said, "But I think we've convinced Lance he has to stop brooding and start dating again. So he's driving his jeep there. He wants to go alone."
"He's still sulking over Kitty?" Pietro asked in disbelief. "She's not worth it!"
Tabby shrugged. "She might have been worth it to him. I think he was actually in love with her. I think he still is."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Next chapter's going to be at the club, and the next one after that is at the Guthrie's. I'm trying to focus on other characters now.
Some of you might be confused about this, but then again, you might not have noticed. Tabby was at the fight with the sentinels, it's been what, a few days since? You'd think she'd have seen the others. But my excuse for that is that they were in the Med-bay getting better over injuries and weren't allowed to have visitors. So there.
Eboni- Bad boys trying not to cry is very entertaining. I feel even worse for Johnny. Now they're THREE of them after his woman. He's threatened by JAMIE! Thanks for reading this and thanks for reviewing it too!
Crazyspaceystracey- Hey, who says Pyro has Legacy? He's important in the next story! And he could be coughing because he's smoking so darn much. He did start when he was 14. Baaad Pyro! But then again, I know what's going to happen and stuff. So you'll just have to wait and see! Thanks for reviewing!
SperryDee- Thanks! I really appreciate your review!
DemonRogue13- Yes, Poor Pyro. But then, why are we feeling sorry for him? We don't know what's happening yet! Well, I do, but I digress. Thanks for reviewing!
Morlock- Is Crystal going to dump Johnny for Pietro? Surely not! I would never do such a think to poor Johnny! ;-) Thanks for reviewing!
Kyuushi- Pimp!Magneto=Bad. Having Lorna as a daughter would NOT make some readers (and writers) happy. Only Anya, Pietro, and Wanda should exist as his flesh and blood children. Thank you so much for reviewing!
Okay, here's a little list thingy for the approximate ages of the characters! Be proud of me, I worked really hard on this! Okay, not really hard, but hard enough. If there's a second number, it means they're off by that second age by a few months. So let's say, Scott's 24 right now. If he has a 25 after his name, that means he's between 24 and 25. Oh, never mind that.
Lance: c. 24 Pyro: c. 25 Scott: c. 24-25 Piotr: c. 25-26 Jean: c. 24 Angel: c. 26 Pietro: c. 23 Storm: c. 35-36 Wanda: c. 23 Beast: c. 36 Fred: c. 23-24 Xavier: c. 61 (he doesn't look it!) Rogue: c. 23 Magneto: c. 70 (he doesn't look it!) Kurt: c. 23 Crystal: c. 18 Todd: c. 21-22 Jamie: c. 18 Kitty: c. 22 Amanda: c. 23 Roberto: c. 21-22 Johnny: c. 20 Sam: c. 21 Ben Grimm: c. 30 Tabby: c. 21 Betsy: c. 24 Ray: c. 21 Gambit: c. 28 Bobby: c. 21 Rahne: c. 20 Evan: c. 21 Jubilee: c. 20 Amara: c. 20 Paige: c. 17
Wow. You didn't need to know all that did you? Oh well, too bad.
Like it? Hate it? Either way, review!
Author's Note- I apologize in advance at any accent butchering I may do.
Chapter Sixteen- Dinner at Xavier's
"Well, I know one thing," Crystal told Johnny after they had taken a tour of the mansion, "This place is sure a hell a lot bigger than ours."
Johnny stared at Crystal, shocked. "Did you just swear?" Crystal rarely uttered curse words, so it was a surprise when she did so.
Crystal shrugged. "Someone has to once in a while."
"Hello," a cheerful voice said behind them, and the two of them turned. It was a young man, probably in his late teens, with brown hair and brown eyes. He gave both of them a very friendly smile.
"Hi," Johnny said, sticking out his hand to shake. "Johnny Storm."
"Jamie Madrox. Uh, so you guys like it here?" Jamie smiled. He and Crystal introduced themselves to each other.
"Yeah, it seems like a nice place," Johnny said with satisfaction, looking around the hallway and observing the vases on a few random tables and the few paintings on the walls.
"It is," said Jamie, resting his hands on his hips, "I couldn't have imagined a better place to live."
"How long have you been here?" Crystal asked. Jamie flashed a grin at her.
"Since I was twelve. Six years now," he told her proudly. "Nearly seven."
"So you're my age!" Crystal said in surprise. Jamie's smile widened.
"So I am. Well, I better be off, someone's gotta watch the youngsters," Jamie winked at her and walked off, humming to himself.
"I don't like him," Johnny said the instant Jamie turned the corner down the hallway.
Crystal rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, he was nice."
"Still don't like him," said Johnny stubbornly. Crystal began walking down the hall, latching her hand in Johnny's.
"You don't like any other male who so much as breathes funny around me," Crystal snorted.
They walked around the mansion, several times walking around in circles. They opened and closed doors to take a peak at some of the rooms, several of which turned out to be linen closets.
Finally, they heard a noise that indicated that there was some life nearby. They followed the laughter and the shouting, and ended up in front of a door to one room. They opened it cautiously, only to find that they had found the rec room.
Jamie was standing on the couch waving his arms in the air to try to restore the chaos. Children mutants were running around the room, playing what they had dubbed 'Mutant Tag' and efficiently trashing the room. A blonde woman in the corner that must have been older than Jamie was doing nothing to help. In fact, she was just making it worse. She kept rolling what looked like little glowing balls across the room, and seconds later they would explode like a cherry bomb.
"Whoo-wee!" She shouted, laughing loudly. "Come on, Multiple! Chill out! Let the kiddies have fun!"
"You're not helping the matter, Tabby!" shouted Jamie over all the noise. He looked around the room for help. He found what he hoped was salvation in the corner, reading a book.
"Rahne!" he called to the Scottish redhead. "Rahne, you gotta help me!"
Rahne's green eyes flickered up to look at Jamie. She yawned and seemed to seriously think about it. Then she grinned and shook her head. "Ye by yerself, Jamie!"
Jamie groaned. "Okay, that's it." He punched himself in the side of the head. Crystal gasped, about to go forward to make him stop, but then froze when she saw what happened. Three clones at a time seemingly came popping out of Jamie. The younger mutants immediately quieted.
"Listen up!" Jamie said, his clones saying everything he said except they all finished at different times. "There're guests here! We don't want to make this place look like an insane asylum, kay? Be impressionable! Show these guys that some of us may have some manners! Now start cleaning this pigsty up!" The children immediately scrambled around the room, haphazardly putting everything back where they had thought it had been. Jamie and his clones looked immensely satisfied, their arms crossed against their chest and the clones were nodding with satisfaction.
"Hey, Jamie, I think some of the guests already know what slobs we are!" Tabitha said loudly pointing to Johnny and Crystal near the doorway. She waved at them, "Howdy, newbodies! Welcome to our sty!"
Jamie whipped around, his clones copying his movements. He grinned at them, but it was more directed at Crystal than to Johnny.
"Hullo!" he greeted them. "Have you met these ones before?" He indicated to Rahne and Tabitha and the other children.
Johnny shook his head, looking at Jamie suspiciously. Tabitha sprung from her seat and rushed to Johnny with her hand sticking out.
"Tabitha Smith at your service," she purred, winking at him.
"Uh, Johnny Storm," Johnny said uncomfortably. Crystal stuck her hand out for Tabby to shake, and they did, introducing themselves.
"That one in the corner reading over there is Rahne Sinclair," Jamie told them, pointing to the redhead. She glanced up from her reading and gave them a sweet smile, waving her fingers at them.
"These little monsters are Illyana Rasputin, Theresa Cassidy, Dorian Leech, and Artie," Tabby told them, indicating to each child as she said their names. When they heard their names, each one froze in their spot and waved to the guests and then immediately went back to what they were doing.
"Who have ye already met?" Rahne asked, getting up from her spot and stretching her back.
"Uh, the Brotherhood, Scott, Rogue, the Professor, Magneto, Wanda, Ray and Kitty," Crystal told her. "I think that's it. And you guys."
"Well you have to meet more of the guys!" Tabby said, looping her arm around Johnny's. "There're just so many you have to meet! I can't believe you haven't even met Kurt yet!"
She dragged him out of the room, with Crystal and Rahne following closely behind. Crystal wasn't sure if she really liked Tabby. She seemed like a nice enough girl, a bit on the wild side, but then again she was flirting with Johnny. 'Well,' Crystal thought, 'I've already had three guys hit on me, according to Johnny, so I guess it's not so bad.'
"There's Kurt, he's a really great guy, and Dr. McCoy, and Ray and Sam, but he should be in Kentucky now, and Warren and" Tabby was rambling as they walked their way to the living room, "Ororo, and-SPEEDY!"
She had disentangled herself from Johnny's arm and ran at full speed towards Pietro when she spotted him standing behind the couch, talking to some of the others. He turned around quick as a flash and grinned, holding out his arms. She leapt into his embrace, wrapping her legs around his waist and gave him a gigantic kiss on the lips. Johnny shoulders sagged in relief. Good, he had a girlfriend.
"Ah, Tabby!" Pietro laughed, turning his head to the side to escape Tabby's friendly smooch. "You're choking me!" Tabitha loosened her grip around his neck slightly.
"We missed you here, buddy!" she said, "Some of the girls at the club were asking about you. They've been wondering where you've been all this time."
She climbed down and smiled at him, and then glanced slightly to her left. Her smile widened and she jumped over the couch and knocked herself into the figure that was sitting there, knocking them both on to the floor.
"Iceboy!" She began kissing all over Bobby's face. "Oh, oh! Where is Amara? And Jubilee? Did they make it out too?"
Johnny's shoulders sagged even lower in disappointment. No, Tabby was just a very open person.
Bobby laughed weakly and put his hand on her face and pushed it away. "Get off me, Boom Boom. Yeah, yeah they're fine. In the infirmary. Roberto too. And it's Iceman."
Tabitha squealed, jumped up and ran with a speed that could almost match Quicksilver's down to the med-bay.
Pietro smiled very weakly at the both of them. He gestured to each one of the mutants, introducing them to the Fantastic Four member and his girlfriend. "Bobby Drake, Sam Guthrie, and Kurt Wagner and his girlfriend Amanda Sefton."
Bobby was picking himself off of the floor, dusting himself off. Sam smiled and waved at them, his legs draped over the armchair he was laying across, and Amanda Sefton smiled at them.
"Fiancée," Amanda corrected.
"Oh," Pietro said dully, realizing again how much he had missed out on.
The smell of brimstone filled the room.
"Gutentag," Kurt said cheerfully, squatting on the back of the couch. Johnny and Crystal jumped back and gasped in surprise.
Kurt cocked his head to the side. "Now, are you gasping in surprise zat I appeared here quite unexpectantly or are you gasping at ze vay how I look?"
"Surprise, surprise," Johnny said immediately. Kurt grinned at them, showing fanged teeth.
"Vell, zat's good," he said, nodding. Then he bamfed again and took his spot back next to Amanda, wrapping an arm around her.
Pietro rubbed the back of his neck wearily. "Well, you can still wander around if you'd like, or I assume you can, I don't live here." He looked at Kurt, who nodded. "Well, I guess you can then. I'm-I'm going to find my sister and go-go to sleep, if anybody... needs me."
He rolled his shoulders one at a time and walked off, leaving Johnny and Crystal alone with the five strangers.
"Vell," Kurt said, "Are you staying for dinner, zen?"
Crystal nodded, lacing her fingers once again in Johnny's.
Amanda laughed. "Well, you better show up early then! Kurt here has an appetite, as does Freddy. And if I've heard anything from the Brotherhood, Pietro could eat a whole truckload of food if he wanted to."
Both Johnny and Crystal looked at her in surprise. Freddy certainly looked like he could eat just about his weight, but Kurt and Pietro was surprising.
"Don't look surprised," Sam drawled. "Ah think it has somethin' ta do with their mutations."
Bobby snorted, looking up as he flipped through the TV guide. "You think? You just heard that from Beast when you first got here and was so surprised that Kurt ate half of the food off of the table." He gave Kurt a glare.
"Hey, Sam," Kurt said, changing the subject abruptly, "Aren't you suppose to be in Kentucky?"
Sam sighed. "Flight's been cancelled till tomorrow. An' here I pack fer nothin'."
Kurt pressed on. "Vell, shouldn't you be spending the time vith Paige? I mean, she just came home a few days ago, you'd think you'd want to see her."
Sam jumped up; looking horrified, and knocked over the end table next to the chair in the process. He fumbled setting it right and then bolted out of the room.
Rahne sighed. "Kurt, way to go makin' him feel guilty. Dinnae know ye had it in ye." She went much more calmly after Sam.
Kurt shrugged looking innocent. Meanwhile, Crystal and Johnny invited themselves to sit on the couch. Nobody seemed to mind, or notice. Somewhere in the house, someone was singing loudly, shaking a box of something. He burst into the room.
"Pietro!" Pyro called, then whistled as if he were calling a dog. "Pietro! Lookie! I got sugar cubes!" He shook the yellow box in his hand, making a rattling noise. He looked around the room and sighed.
"Where the hell has Pietro gone?" He asked sounding disappointed.
"Sleeping," Amanda answered him.
Pyro exhaled angrily, throwing the box on the floor. "Dammit! We have to finish our ping-pong tournament! We're on our eighty-eighth game and we have to get to five hundred! Dammit, dammit!" He kicked the sugar cubes across the floor.
"He's sleeping," snapped Bobby irritably, "Finish your damn tournament later. Y'know what? Sleep sounds like a good idea. After all those tests Beast did on me, I'd like to rest a bit. Wake me if I'm not down before dinner." He stretched and exited the room, giving Pyro a glare on his way out.
"Why did you have the sugar cubes?" Crystal asked. Pyro grinned at her, sauntered his way over and plopped down on the couch, too close to Crystal for Johnny's liking.
"Well, y'see," Pyro began, "Pietro's attracted to sugar like a fly on poop. When he was living with us in the old days, that is, before he got arrested and then taken by Trask, we had to be careful of what food we bought." He sighed blissfully at the memories. "Course, we didn't do that as much when I started living with them. I think he drove Lance insane. But I did live with him for a little while then, when he betrayed them and lived with us Acolytes."
Johnny and Crystal stared at him, digesting all of the information. Kurt rolled his eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Vay to be subtle, John," he snorted. "Vhy don't you just tell them every personal thing you know about Pietro zat's not anybody's business?"
"I'm not sure Pietro would like that," Pyro said, rolling his eyes.
They sat there for an hour, listening to Pyro talk about the more silly antics of the Brotherhood. When he finished, and it was time to eat, Johnny concluded that the whole Brotherhood, Pietro included, were lunatics.
There was an enormous dining table they sat at. Johnny and Crystal sat next to each other, across from Wanda and Pietro. On Pietro's left side was Tabby and next to her was someone they did not know. Crystal sat next to Ben, while on Johnny's other side was a girl with purple hair. The Professor sat at the head of the table and close to him was a man that reminded them of Pietro. They sat nearer to the end of the table.
"Pietro," Tabby was saying as Pietro cut up his steak, "the girls at the club really missed you. I'll take you there tonight, how does that sound?"
Pietro lifted his fork and shoved the food in his mouth, staring at a spot on the table. He chewed, and swallowed. "Which girls in particular?"
"Jeannie," Tabby said to him, "She's been asking about you for awhile. But anyways, me and Pyro were going to take some of the guys out. Wanna come?"
"I don't remember Jeannie," Pietro said, taking another stab at his food.
"Speedy, you banged this one twice," Tabby told him in a quieter tone. "You don't normally do that." When he gave her a blank stare she sighed in irritation. "She's shorter, brown hair, brown eyes. A little paler. Oh, come on Pie! You gotta know whom I'm talking about!"
Pietro was now scooping the corn on his plate. His eyebrow was slightly raised. "Maybe if I see her I'll recognize her."
"Well duh, we're taking you with us, so yeah, you'll see her," Tabby rolled her eyes. "But we're taking Betsy and Ray and hey, we even let Jamie tag along." She looked across the table at Johnny and Crystal. She gave them a slightly evil grin, "Hey! You two look young and innocent, wanna come too?"
Both of them looked startled, "What kind of club is this?" asked Johnny suspiciously.
"A gay strip club," Tabitha said sarcastically and rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. "What do you think it is? It's a regular club where you dance and drink and just have fun, coming or not?"
Johnny looked at his girlfriend hesitantly. Crystal shrugged. "Sure, it might be fun," she said.
Tabby clapped her hands together enthusiastically, "Goody!"
"Nobody else is coming?" Pietro asked around a mouthful of food.
"Well, not with us," she said, "But I think we've convinced Lance he has to stop brooding and start dating again. So he's driving his jeep there. He wants to go alone."
"He's still sulking over Kitty?" Pietro asked in disbelief. "She's not worth it!"
Tabby shrugged. "She might have been worth it to him. I think he was actually in love with her. I think he still is."
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Next chapter's going to be at the club, and the next one after that is at the Guthrie's. I'm trying to focus on other characters now.
Some of you might be confused about this, but then again, you might not have noticed. Tabby was at the fight with the sentinels, it's been what, a few days since? You'd think she'd have seen the others. But my excuse for that is that they were in the Med-bay getting better over injuries and weren't allowed to have visitors. So there.
Eboni- Bad boys trying not to cry is very entertaining. I feel even worse for Johnny. Now they're THREE of them after his woman. He's threatened by JAMIE! Thanks for reading this and thanks for reviewing it too!
Crazyspaceystracey- Hey, who says Pyro has Legacy? He's important in the next story! And he could be coughing because he's smoking so darn much. He did start when he was 14. Baaad Pyro! But then again, I know what's going to happen and stuff. So you'll just have to wait and see! Thanks for reviewing!
SperryDee- Thanks! I really appreciate your review!
DemonRogue13- Yes, Poor Pyro. But then, why are we feeling sorry for him? We don't know what's happening yet! Well, I do, but I digress. Thanks for reviewing!
Morlock- Is Crystal going to dump Johnny for Pietro? Surely not! I would never do such a think to poor Johnny! ;-) Thanks for reviewing!
Kyuushi- Pimp!Magneto=Bad. Having Lorna as a daughter would NOT make some readers (and writers) happy. Only Anya, Pietro, and Wanda should exist as his flesh and blood children. Thank you so much for reviewing!
Okay, here's a little list thingy for the approximate ages of the characters! Be proud of me, I worked really hard on this! Okay, not really hard, but hard enough. If there's a second number, it means they're off by that second age by a few months. So let's say, Scott's 24 right now. If he has a 25 after his name, that means he's between 24 and 25. Oh, never mind that.
Lance: c. 24 Pyro: c. 25 Scott: c. 24-25 Piotr: c. 25-26 Jean: c. 24 Angel: c. 26 Pietro: c. 23 Storm: c. 35-36 Wanda: c. 23 Beast: c. 36 Fred: c. 23-24 Xavier: c. 61 (he doesn't look it!) Rogue: c. 23 Magneto: c. 70 (he doesn't look it!) Kurt: c. 23 Crystal: c. 18 Todd: c. 21-22 Jamie: c. 18 Kitty: c. 22 Amanda: c. 23 Roberto: c. 21-22 Johnny: c. 20 Sam: c. 21 Ben Grimm: c. 30 Tabby: c. 21 Betsy: c. 24 Ray: c. 21 Gambit: c. 28 Bobby: c. 21 Rahne: c. 20 Evan: c. 21 Jubilee: c. 20 Amara: c. 20 Paige: c. 17
Wow. You didn't need to know all that did you? Oh well, too bad.
Like it? Hate it? Either way, review!