Disclaimer- "Carl, your partner is-Lenny." "Aw nuts. I mean...aw nuts."

Chapter Ten- Fixing Up the Boarding House

It wasn't until Magneto himself saw the state of the Boarding House that he himself paid for all the repairs and new furnishings. He ordered the whole house's residents, plus his Acolyte Pyro (he probably wanted the Aussie out of the base for awhile) to clean up the mess, scrubbing from the floor to the ceiling, or ceiling to floor, whichever you prefer. Xavier even ordered some of his senior members of the X-team to help, much to their protest. Kitty did, however, manage to convince them that it would set a good example for the younger students and show them how to be responsible and generous. But everyone knew she just wanted the bunch of them to come so she wasn't alone with the maniacs. So together, the three teams started fixing the house.

That was what Crystal had seen when she pulled up onto the rocky driveway. Pietro had invited her to come any time she wanted, but she was wondering if maybe she could have waited for a better time to visit. But she did not drive for a half hour for nothing. She got out of her car, slammed it shut while slinging her purse over her shoulder and walked determinedly to the front door. A young man walked from the side of the house, grumbling about something while something flashed behind his ruby shades. More hesitantly, Crystal knocked on the front door, which was opened immediately that it made her gasp and jump a foot in the air.

"Hello, hello!" Pietro said cheerfully, pulling her over to him and dipping her down, giving her his arrogant smirk. She gave him a look, and he made a face, setting her right again.

They were much more comfortable around each other now since they had been going out for almost a month. People wondered if they were ever uncomfortable with each other.

"Fine," he huffed, brushing off his shoulders. He walked further into the house, and Crystal took that as an invitation to come in. She quietly shut the door closed behind her.

"What are you doing around here?" She asked, walking a little faster so she would be next to him.

"Cleaning up this dump. If you think it's a mess now, you should have seen it when we were teenagers. It wasn't until Wanda moved in that it got cleaner, if only a little bit." He told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the living room.

They collapsed together on the couch and Pietro immediately put his arms around her and pulled her up against him, making a flirtatious growl. She laughed, pushing him away a bit, but he buried his face into her neck, and started kissing it.

"Aren't there people here?" she whispered, but made no move to stop them. He grunted, raising his head to look at her and gave her an incredulous look.

"You're not rejecting me are you?" he asked. Crystal rolled her eyes and patted the side of his face, rolled away from him and idly flipping through the magazine that had been lying nearby. He sighed and snatched the magazine from her hands, and started reading it himself. She gave him an irritated look, but then laid back at the edge of the couch and kicking off her shoes, she rested her feet on his lap.

"Aren't you suppose to be cleaning?" she asked.

He shrugged, already on the last page of the magazine.

"Why don't you go and clean?" she asked sweetly, leaning forward and plucking the magazine away. His expression was impassive.

"Should you be telling me what to do?" he asked, his voice emotionless also.

"No kissing until you start cleaning," she said, promising to herself not to give in, no matter what he did.

"Oh, that's alright," he said lightly, tugging off one of her socks lazily. He gripped her ankle firmly, and then started stroking his fingertips lightly at the sole of her foot, making her jerk back her leg as he did so, but he held on tightly. He started tickling it again, much to her dismay.

"Ah, what are you doing?" she cried, trying to tug her foot away from him.

"Me?" he said innocently, "I'm not doing anything." He deliberately ran his fingertips even slower down the sole, making the torture even longer. She tried jerking away from him, trying to muffle her laughter in the couch as she did so.

"My, you're awful jumpy today. Whassamatter?" he asked in concern, still mercilessly tickling her feet.

She was about to answer when she smelled something. "Is something burning?" she asked, sniffing the air, trying to calm down.

Pietro stopped immediately, his eyes narrowed towards the kitchen. With an irate growl, he roughly pushed Crystal's feet off him and stormed into the kitchen, at super speed.

"Pyro! God dammit what the HELL is the matter with you!" Pietro bellowed, rushing back into the living room to grab the fire extinguisher on the wall next to the doorway and rushed back into the kitchen, where a blonde man came out of it, cackling and crying at the same time.

"But jus' lookit the fire!" he said excitedly, letting out another laugh that would have people questioning his sanity without even knowing him. "You should've seen it, mate, it was gorgeous!"

Pietro came out of the kitchen, clutching the extinguisher and breathing rather heavily, fury written all over his face. "Dammit, John, I may have let it slipped the first dozen times, and it was Lance who usually got pissed, but this is ridiculous! Sonovabitch, there's PAINT in here! There's varnish in here! Do you know how God damn flammable that is? Huh? You could have set the whole fuckin' house on fire and kill everyone inside, you idiot! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I could have put it out," John said quietly, his eyes narrowed to slits. All signs of laughter left his face. Crystal watched frightfully from her spot on the couch.

"Just get out," Pietro breathed, pointing towards the open front door, "Work on something outside."

Turning on his heel sharply towards the direction of the door, Pyro marched off indignantly.

Pietro, remembering something, zipped right up to him, took the lighter from this pocket, and pocketed it in his own.

"I'm confiscating this. For now."

Pyro's teeth were bared. No one had ever seen him this angry, and it was a little scary. He left.

Pietro went back to the couch and collapsed next to Crystal.

"He's always like that, always thinks fire is the most important thing in the world. Damn pyromaniac nearly set the house and the base on fire twelve times." He sighed.

Crystal's eyebrows knitted in concern. "He's a pyromaniac? Pietro, I'd be worried about him! People with that much severe of pyromania are truly not right in the head. Something's wrong with them, and they should be looked at!"

Pietro shrugged.

"Pietro, where does this go?" Fred asked from behind a La-Z-Boy chair. Perched in it, sitting cross-legged was Toad. He looked almost bored.

"Yeah, where does this go?" he repeated Fred's question.

Pietro pointed to a random spot on the floor.

After Fred set the recliner down, he dusted his hands off and went back outside helping carry the heavier things. Todd stayed in his spot.

"Who's the babe?" he asked, eyeing Crystal. Her lip curled at him in disgust.

"Todd, I've actually been serious with this one. Don't go annoying or insulting her," Pietro snapped, wrapping his arm tightly around Crystal's shoulders.

Todd shrugged, "Okay, okay geez. Now, where's my cuddlebumps?" And he hopped off.

"Cuddlebumps?" Crystal raised an eyebrow questionably.

"My sister," Pietro answered, "She hates him."

"TOAD!"

Toad hopped frantically out of the house whimpering. "I said I was sorry Poopsie!"

Wanda stormed in, her hands surrounded by the blue hex. "Where's the insect?" Her brother pointed towards the wide open door.

Wanda controlled her heavy breathing, and then looked back at him furiously. "Why the hell are you just sitting there? This isn't make-out time, this is FIX THE FRICKEN HOUSE TIME!"

He cowered a little into the couch, and then saw that she turned abruptly, yanked the closet door open and pulled a disheveled Kitty and Lance out.

"And that goes for you too!"

Okay, here it is! Sorry it's short, but it will have to do. I'm trying to post the next chapters for my other two stories as fast as I can, but I had to post this one first. Sorry, no shout-outs this time. But thanks for all who reviewed, you guys rock my socks!

And as you see, Quicksilver is quickly falling in love. Yay!

Won't post next chapter until I get...Oh, let's say 80 reviews. Not that many.

Like it? Hate it? Either way, review!