Scott woke up in a sweat. It had been the same nightmare, the same memory that had been plaguing him for two years.

He put his hands to his face; his sleeping glasses were still in place. He closed his eyes, took of his sleeping pair and grabbed his ruby sunglasses on the nightstand beside him.

He got out of bed and headed toward the kitchen for a drink.

Todd was already in the kitchen when Scott arrived. He was finishing off a carton of ice cream he had found toward the back of the freezer, his dark green skin blending in with the darkness. "Doesn't anybody sleep around here?" He asked.

"I guess not." Scott answered grabbing a cup from the cupboard and filling it with water. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't fall asleep. After years of sleeping with a run down mattress on the floor, you can't get use to a regular bed."

"Was it really that bad for you?"

"At least my uncle was kind enough to give me a mattress. It's about all he ever gave me."

"How long have you.." Scott began.

"Birth. You?"

"Two years." Scott sat across from Todd. "I was living with my parents in Northern Virginia. I had been getting headaches for weeks. Then during a school soccer match I got hit with the biggest ever. I thought I was having a stroke or something. I stumbled and fell on my back. My eyes shot open and this energy beam shot out. It hurt like hell. I was screaming, the crowd was screaming. My parents ran from there seats to me. My dad told me to close my eyes. When I did the beam went away. I didn't dare open them again.

They took me from hospital to hospital trying to figure out what was wrong. The best advice they got was to wrap a bandage around my head to keep my eyes from opening.

Finally my mother told my dad to take me to her brother…the professor. After studying me, talking to me, and reading my mind he finally came up with these." Scott pointed to his glasses. They keep the beam enclosed and allow me to see.

After the accident my parents moved up here with my uncle so they could start over. The locals in Virginia didn't take well to mutants. That's about it."

"Wow. A lot better then my story. Maybe I should start telling people I'm a government experiment gone wrong." Todd tried to smile at his little joke but nothing came.

Scott smiled at the quip out of politeness. "Good night Todd." He got up and started walking back to his room.

"You know Scott." Todd spoke. Scott stopped in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Yeah?"

"Those mutant suppressants I have. They could help with your eyes."

Scott turned back around. "And what would that accomplish."

"You could see normally again."

"And what is normal Todd?" Todd didn't answer. Scott continued, "Normal is in the eye of the beholder Todd. I'll stick with the way I am. Besides…" He smiled again. "Chicks dig the glasses." He laughed slightly and walked back to his room.

Todd sat there looking into the half empty carton. "Who am I kidding?" He asked himself. "I'm the least normal person here. Everyone one else can pass as normal people. I have to walk in the shadows. I don't belong here… I don't belong anywhere."

He made up his mind then and there. He would steal his few remaining suppressants back from Xavier. Sneak out during the next afternoon. And get on with his life.