DISCLAIMER: Don't own the X-Men. You know the drill.
Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she sighed. "Ah'm startin' t' get gray hairs."
"Starting? You've had gray hair your whole life."
"No… you know what Ah mean, Anna. Like, gray where it ain't already white."
"I know, I know. If it helps at all, so am I."
"No, you ain't."
"Yeah. I just dyed it." She waved her hand dismissively and turned the page in her magazine as Rogue paced.
"Where is she?"
"She's fine, don't worry."
"Where's Remy?"
"Still out."
"He's gonna be pissed."
"He'll get over it. If he asks, Just tell him about Josh. He'll forget all about Billy and this whole date right away. Nothing's going to happen anyways. And he won't find out. Believe me."
"You sure?"
She turned the page again. "Of course I'm sure. I was there. Ooh! Horoscopes!"
Rogue plopped down in the nearby chair. "What's mine?"
Straightening herself out, Anna put on her best character voice. "You will meet a handsome man…"
"Ooh. Ah'm intrigued. Go on."
"…and manage to turn him away."
"Yeah, that's about right."
"Do not worry, though, for better things will soon follow."
"That's nice. What's yours say?"
"Evil is stirring in Mordor…the ring has awoken."
Anna barely dodged a pillow that came flying towards her head.
"Ah can't believe that mah daughter is such a dork."
"Well, hello to you, too."
Both Anna and Rogue spun. There, standing in the door, was Marie. She took off her jacket and sat down on the couch.
"You're home late, sugar. What happened?"
"Traffic. Is papa home yet?"
"Nope. You really cut it close though. Ah was getting real worried there."
"I told her not to get so upset about it. You'll probably never go out with him again."
"What makes you so sure, Aunt Anna?"
Anna leaned in and whispered in Marie's ear so that Rogue couldn't hear. "You're going to get back together with Josh."
Marie's face showed just how shocked she was. "I'm… how'd you know about that?"
Anna smiled and leaned back in the chair. "You can't keep anything from me."
Marie just blinked, unable to think of anything else to say, and Anna took that as her cue to leave. She stretched and headed towards the door. "I'm going to turn in for the night. I'll see you two psychos tomorrow."
"Sometimes Ah wonder where that girl's manners are..." Rogue turned to her daughter once Anna had left. "So what did she whisper t' ya about?"
"Like I'm gonna tell you." Marie picked up the magazine that Anna had dropped. "Ooh! Horoscopes! Let see. Hm... Evil is stirring in Mordor..."
Rogue grabbed the magazine. "It don't really say that, does it?" She read the horoscope out loud. "It's time to move on. Don't let old issues rehash themselves." Throwing the magazine onto the couch, she fell back into the easy chair. "You're as bad as Anna."
"Must run in the family."
"How come you're leaving?"
"I can't really tell you that, Marie... I just am."
Anna threw another pile of clothes into her suitcase. She had decided that the time had come to leave the mansion. It was getting too close to the time of the "incident" for her to be entirely comfortable. As she remembered it, her aunt Anna had left shortly after her graduation from High School. Something about a job in Pennsylvania. But she had always been incredibly vague and slightly cryptic about the whole thing.
"You'll understand in about five years."
"Fine. Be that way." Marie crossed her arms and sat down in the chair in the corner of Anna's room. Anna ignored her "niece's" actions. She knew them all too well. Not only had she herself used those same actions numerous times to get her way, but she had learned them from her mother, the master of getting her way.
"Not gonna work." She turned and opened her closet, pulling out her uniform. She sighed slightly as she folded the battle suit and tucked it into a hidden compartment in another of her suitcases. She soon added two more of the suits and two pair of boots. Closing the compartment, she compressed it, and the unstable molecules in the suit shifted, the top panel of the compartment sinking towards the bottom of the case, blending in neatly with the bottom. She looked up briefly, and Marie was still sitting there angrily. Sighing, she moved to her bedroom door and closed it. She turned back to Marie and cleared her throat.
"Look. I know it's strange now, but I promise you. In five years, you will understand why I'm going."
"Pfft. Yeah right."
"Now you're just acting like a baby."
"I'm the baby? You're a bigger baby!"
"Not possible."
"Don't give me any of that –"
"That 'I'm twice your age, I know everything shit?'"
Marie creased her eyebrows. How had her aunt possibly known that was what she was going to say? She'd never used that phrase before, her aunt was not a telepath...
"Believe me, Marie. That is not what this is about. Besides I'm not twice your age. I'm not that old."
"But why are you just up and leaving now? No warning?"
"If you had paid attention at team meetings instead of ogling Josh, you'd know that I was offered this job two months ago."
"I wasn't ogling..."
"You were ogling."
"Yeah... well, what would you know?"
"More than you could begin to imagine."
"You're leaving right away?"
"I have to. The Professor found me an apartment, the super is leaving for vacation and wants to make sure I'm settled in before he goes."
"Can't Chucky pull a few strings? This is such short notice."
"You can come with me if you want. Until I'm settled in."
"Really?"
"Yeah, if mother dearest lets you."
They pulled up in front of a redbrick building on the south side of Pittsburgh. Marie read off of a piece of paper. "5302 Carson Street... There's the store."
"Groovy."
"Yeah, that's what the paper says."
They found a parking space and walked back towards the store. Marie peeked in the window. "Wow... we're going to have to stop in there later on." Anna looked at the posters and toys that covered the walls.
"Oh yeah." She walked towards the door wedged in between the pop culture store and a Starbucks. She pressed the buzzer. After a moment, a heavily accented voice crackled on the other end. "Yes?"
"Um, hello, It's Anna Darkhölme... the new tenant."
"Oh, yes. Come up please." The door clicked and she opened it.
Holding the door open with one of her feet, she picked up three of her bags, motioning for Marie to grab the other bag, as well as her own. They walked up the stairs and were greeted by a short dark haired man.
"Hello. I am sorry I cannot stay long. My wife will be angry if I am not ready to leave tonight. Here are your keys. The man, Xavier, has assured me that you will be good. He has paid your rent for a year already. Very good. My number and more information is by the phone. Goodbye."
The two women stood quietly as the small but energetic man grabbed his coat and bustled out and down the stairs.
"Well... that was odd."
Marie shrugged. "He said he had to go."
"Yeah, but he just... left."
"Good, more room for us."
"Alright. Lets do this then."
She looked around the apartment, the bare walls cold and unwelcoming.
"No place like home, huh Aunt Anna?"
"Heh. Yeah. Well, Remy and Rogue are going to show up tomorrow with the truck."
"I still can't believe that you let the two of them go furniture shopping for you."
"I can't really believe it either. But if I hadn't, they'd have tagged along for the drive. And no one wants that."
"True... so what do we do now?"
"I guess we go get the rest of the crap out of the car and set up camp."
They quickly unloaded a series of boxes from the trunk of the SUV and piled them in the living room.
"I was thinking... you gonna keep those handicapper plates on the Blazer?"
"Nah. Scooter already got me a new set. Should be in the mail."
"Cool."
"Cool enough."
"Did you bring a TV?"
"Yep. Try the box labeled 'TV'."
"Shut up."
Anna set a box on the counter in the kitchen and laughed. "I didn't say anything."
Within two hours, they had unpacked all of the boxes. Anna didn't have many personal items, since she had never had to have a kitchen of her own or anything, so she had "borowed" a few sets of dishes and cutlery from the mansion.
"Chucky's gonna notice all of this is missing." Marie hadn't expected to see her aunt steal anything from the mansion. Her dad, yeah. She herself...maybe. But not Anna.
"No he won't. There's a whole storage room full of new dishes and silverware and stuff. In a mansion full of mutants, shit breaks, you know?"
Marie laughed.
A/N: Two updates on the same story in one day! "Is she crazy?" You ask yourself. "Yes. Now review." -)