Her eyes may have been better, but they still ran copiously and puffed up to the point where, if she had had bruising, she would have been called in for being in a fight.
As it was, Mr Kian called her away from music class to talk about the dangers of sexual relationships and some practices that could lead to nasty diseases in very strange places indeed(1).
Sara held tight to her personal honour and let people think what they'd think anyway. She couldn't really handle this. She couldn't fight it. Fighting only confirmed people's suspicions. Denial made them talk louder. Muteness... didn't really work.
And Sara refused to be worse than the rumours.
Let them talk their idle heads off. They had no idea what she'd been through or what she was actually going through. And better that they didn't know.
The prickling, itchy, irritating sensation under her skin was sharpening into near-agony.
She'd have to take an antihistamine just so she could sleep tonight.
Sara wiped her eyes and found a place to stand very still in near the gates. If anyone actually bothered to look at her, she'd have appeared very upset with the world indeed.
Not that many people bothered to look.
Just the ones that counted.

Aw geez, she was crying. "You okay, sugarcakes?"
"Believe it or not, I'm actually fine. My eyes just happen to leak a lot."
"Yo, you an' me, we goin' chat with the doc." Todd decided. "This eye thing is just too fucked up, yo."
Sara blushed.
"Oops," Todd managed a sick grin. As far as he remembered, Sara hadn't actually sworn about anything. "Sorry 'bout th' french."
"I should be used to it," she wiped her eyes again. "But I never am. I always blush. Silly girl."
"Naw yo' ain't," said Todd. "it's just a thang, y'know? People got thangs."
"So where is this infamous physician?"
"Online," Todd found Eileen and made himself comfortable on the seat. "C'mon. I show you my setup."
Sara went beet red, but she unlocked the chain and started on their way, regardless.
"Sure yo' okay to drive?"
"Yeah. Tears only blur vision temporarily. I've driven and cried before."
Ow.

Pietro came to a screeching halt when he heard someone unfamilliar in Todd's room.
Todd never had any visitors. Ever.
"No offense, dear, but I'm going to have to call in a hazmat team on your lounge," said the stranger. "And possibly hire a skip per room."
"Yeah, we kinda let things slide fo' a while. It's cool, yo. The room we're lendin' yo' is empty. Swear."
"Darling, I couldn't let this slide if I was comatose."
Darling? Pietro boggled and peeked in. There, sharing PC-junkpile space with Toad, was Adrian Essel.
"There. See? I run several small enterprises, some toons, and a rather small film company."
"Rather? Yo, I seen more crew on PBS." Some strange sounds played. "Funny as shit, though."
Essel grinned. "You know... there's no-one about and your doctor friend is offline..."
"Yeah?"
"Maybe we could continue our -er- lunchtime discussion?"
"You serious?"
"Are you... Yes. I must confess I rather quite liked it."
They kissed.
FUCK!
Pietro had to look five times. Toad "straighter than an arrow" Tolensky and Adrian "fucked in the head" Essel. The Toad and the guy with the silicone breasties(2) under his shirt.
EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuwwww...

(1) I have seen photos of genital herpes gone rife on some poor sod's face. Icko.
(2) You know, those "enhance your bust" bra-stuffers.

Todd couldn't breathe and he didn't care. So this is what they mean when they say drown in a kiss. Mmmm.
His hands reached around to hold her, slowly and tense - ready to pull away if she protested. There didn't seem to be any of that going on, so by the time both surfaced for air, Todd's arms were wrapped around her and he was looking up at her through half-lidded amber eyes. They only ever turned this golden when he was truly happy.
A frightened squeak from the doorway alerted him that they had an audience. Todd looked over his shoulder.
"Oh, hey, 'Tro." There was a second squeak, a blur and the slamming of a door down the hall. Sara raised an eyebrow.
"Ignore it. He'll either come around or avoid us. Honestly, yo, I'd rather he avoid us."
"So long as he leaves us alone, I'm happy."
"Yeah... so, uh," Todd said shyly. "Now that we seemed to have caught our breaths..."
Sara blushed, and leaned down again.

Sara was quite sure something had gone to her head. She felt dizzy and elated and almost as if she could fly. Her skin, now that she wasn't focussing on staying pink, took on Todd's pallor, but not its texture. The underlying roughness of her new-growing scales interrupted that particular function for the meantime. Her hair, past due for a cut and starting to fall into her eyes, also changed to match Todd's.
"Oh my," she said. She pulled a strand so she could stare myopically at it.
"Coo', yo," Todd smirked. "Instant makeover."
"I wonder..." Sara found a reflective surface and - focussed... Tan skin, red-red hair. Just like Jean Grey. If Jean Grey was almost six feet tall and freakishly thin with a bad case of the hives. She sighed and let herself relax. "I still couldn't make Mother happy..."
"You were tryin' to be someone?"
"I had to hope it was possible," she confessed. "Mother always wanted me to be like Jean Grey." She touched the mirror, and the reflective silver spread all over her. "I'm a pale, sad mimic, dear. A thin imitation of what others want."
"Hey... yo... Don' think like that, sugarlips," Todd was over beside her and holding her hand. "You don't gotta be like nobody else but yo'self, sweetie. I seen who you are, okay? An' I like that you. You don't gotta be nobody else wit' me."
Half of her was a mirror. Half of her was Todd's colouration. All of her was irritable and her eyes were leaking again.
"What a strange, twisted lady you've won a favour from(1)..." she whispered.
Todd snuggled up beside her. "Yo' perfect just the way you are, doll. Don't let nobody say nuthin' different."
Now she was crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I dunno what's happening... I'm not normally this - this - uncompanionable."
"Yo' changin', sug'," he soothed. "That's gotta do sumpin' to ya." He guided her to the chair least likely to collapse, and gave her some more water. "Just ride it out, it's coo'. You gonna be fine."
"I don't feel very fine... I'm sure - I'm sure part of me wants to hurt things... And I'm not like that."
"So ignore it. You know who you are... just stay that way."
The next thing she knew, she had him in a death grip and was babbling about not wanting to eat the innocent little birds. Todd had one hand free and was trying to send an IM.

FrogPrince: Yo! Doc! SOS!

(1) Paraphrased and turned around from The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMasters Bujold.

Dammit, he wasn't on yet. Todd hit the capslock.

Frog Prince: LOOK AT THE SCREEN

Sometimes that actually worked, most times it didn't. But it would leave an impact on the seriousness of the situation; Todd rarely wrote in all caps.
Sara was trembling violently and issuing thin little cries between babbled apologies. Each sound of misery tore at him like the beak of some carrion bird. Todd turned from the computer to wrap both arms around her and hold her close. She buried her face in his arms and after a moment, though she barely moved, Todd was sure she was sobbing.
It hurt to see how well she'd taught herself to be subtle about it. Todd kissed her hair. "I'm scared too, yo," he whispered. Great, now his own eyes were stinging. He couldn't fall apart, not when she needed him.
He was scared. What if Sara was like one of those unlucky ones Magneto had talked about? The ones who didn't survive their powers manifesting? Not for the first time, he sorely missed having an adult around.
Ding!
Todd turned back hurriedly to the screen.

Big Blue: What's the trouble?
Frog Prince: Saras in a lot of pain. Scales coming out and all that plus her eyes are burning no matter how much she cries. I thought tears were supposed to help
Big Blue: Sometimes there are negative reactions
Frog Prince: But this is fucked up. I wanna help her. All I can do is hold her and be useless. She's so scared
Big Blue: Actually, holding her is probably helping more than you know

Sara hiccuped. Todd's hand left the keyboard and offered her more water. She downed the rest of the bottle in one sitting.
"I must look wretched."
"Impossible," Todd stated. "Yo ain't lookin' like no wretch. You're my Sara."

Big Blue: You said her eyes are itching and weeping?
Frog Prince: She 'splained to me that she was sheddin' skin off her eyeballs
Big Blue: Stay with her. I'm going to look up a few things

Todd's eyes were already back on Sara. Gently he stroked her scalp with his fingers, trailing them softly across her poor inflamed skin. She closed her eyes and curled closer againt him. Unsure of himself, Todd pulled his hand away intent upon wrapping it safely around her shoulders. She took it and pressed it to her cheek again.
"That felt good. Please?"
They stayed like that for a while, wrapped around each other in the armchair as both the world outside and the room they were in grew steadily dark.

All Lance wanted to do when he got home from work was collapse on his bed. No extra baggage, no phonecalls, no homework until six in the morning. No crying teenaged girls in Todd's room either.
Waitafuckinminute.
Lance walked backward and stared into Todd's room. He could dimly make out two figures nestled together, one much taller than the other. Though the features were barely highlighted by the computer screen, it wasn't hard to determine who Todd's guest was.
"Todd?" Lance asked in his 'I promise not to hurt you very much so long as you tell me exactly what's going on' voice. "Why is he here and why is he crying?"
A pair of amber eyes opened and peered angrily at him from within the huddle. "Her name's Sara Essel. She's a mutant and she's stayin' until she sorts some things out. She's my guest. We'll stay outta your way if you don't bother us."
Lance gawked. Todd was using a no-nonsense tone with him. Up until now, Lance didn't even know Todd had a no-nonsense tone. "Okay," he muttered after a brief staring contest. "We'll talk in the morning. You and... Sara... sleep tight..."
Lance started to stagger off to bed. "Wait?" came Todd's voice. "Lance? Could you please... nevermind, yo."
The older boy's head appeared in the doorway. "Yeah?"
"Get us some water?" Todd finished sheepishly. "She needs it more than I. Goin' through her first shedding."
Lance immediately winced. "Oh hell. That's gotta be rough. She's like you?"
Todd was too exhausted and worried to take offense at the way that had sounded. "Yeah, I guess you can say we're from the same family, or branch or whatever."
"Yeah. I'll go downstairs and get a couple of glasses."
"Nah, don't bother with downstairs. Fill this up." Todd handed over the undertow mug. Lance boggled at it.
"She drank how many of these already?"
"I'm not sure, but not enough. You know how I get."
Sara was trying to form a sentence. "Pleased to m-meet..." She struggled to think of what came after. Her mind was clearly muddled. Todd put a cool hand against her flushed skin.
"Don't worry, Lance's cool without a formal intro. Yo can talk in the morning. Just relax, sugarlips." His words probably fell on deaf ears, but it felt good to reassure her.
Lance took one look at Sara, then at Todd's tired but wary features and knew sleep wasn't coming for the younger boy tonight. "You skipping tomorrow?"
"Probly. Don't got nothin' of importance to do." He yawned and muffled himself with a free elbow. Idly he looked over at the screen. Big Blue was still online but he'd been quiet. Maybe some other emergency had come up.
Lance returned with a brimming mug of water. Todd made Sara drink at least five inches before stealing a few gulps for himself. Lending body heat was dehydrating work. "Thanks," he breathed, noticing Lance was still watching them. "Yo a lifesaver."