Chapter Twelve Sentenced Death
Mortimer walked outside aimlessly. Snow had fallen- covering the property in a white blanket, pure and white. Some of the students were taking part in a snowball fight. As he came near, the cries stopped, as did the delivery of snowballs.
Most of these children were still in Primary school, and they were all frightened of him. The only one to speak up wasn't really part of the group.
"Hey, Mort. Wanna join us?" Rogue hadn't been too keen on supervising a children's snow-ball fight, but now… she didn't seem to mind it much. Mortimer paused for a moment, stunned.
"…sure." He said, ducking behind the snow-fort Marie had made for her group of children. The other side was over-seen by Kurt, who already had quite a bit of snow ground in to his fur. Marie handed him a snowball, the ice chilling the tips of his fingers that his gloves didn't shield. Despite the numbing cold, he suddenly felt…he felt that tacky 'warm fuzzy feeling' that Xavier no doubt always preached on about. He hurled the snowball at Nightcrawler, nailing him in the face. Kurt glared at the amphibious mutant, and grabbed an armful of snow- and disappeared with his usual cloud of brimstone.
"Oh sh-" he managed to mutter as a payload of snow was delivered upon his emerald hair. "C'mere, blue-boy." He muttered, gathering up another ball of snow, and throwing it at the nape of his neck, to assure an unpleasant dripping down his jacket.
Once realizing the green man wasn't a threat, the children resumed their play. Nightcrawler 'bamfed' back to his base, and gathered all of his children in a group, whispering in an undertone. The children nodded, grabbed mittens full of snow, and they all bellowed in soprano voices…"CHARGE!!" They all bombarded him at once- but he managed to jump high enough to avoid the slushy ammunition.
"Whoa…you can jump high." Said a 10 year old girl dressed in mostly pink.
"Yeah." He said. "Catch!" he threw a ball at her- but she squinted her eyes and it seemed to pass right through her.
"HEY! No POWERS, KITTY!!" bellowed a young, but large boy, stomping his foot.
"Oh quiet, Guido." She snapped, whilst retreating back to her side, trying to avoid the rain of snow delivered upon her by Marie and Mortimer.
"CHARGE!" from behind him, another group- Marie's group, ambushed him, pushing him to the ground.
"Mutiny!" he shouted. "I will have my revenge!" he laughed, and started to hoist himself up. He looked at Marie for a minute, her gloved hand offering its assistance. He took it, but she pulled too hard, and they slipped backwards on the slippery battlefield, landing right next to each other.
His eyes met hers for a long moment. They both spoke volumes in that moment- but Toad was afraid. Afraid of knowing. He jumped up, held his hand out for Marie, and she joined him. She didn't let go of his hand, and he didn't have the heart to release it, so they stood there, just for a moment, surveying the battle between the children. A happy moment that Mortimer wished could last forever, but knew could not.
Kurt appeared behind them with a shovel-full of snow, dumping it on their heads. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he shouted, and the two ran after him, picking up handfuls of snow along the way.
Marie bounded alongside Toad for the longest time, happy to have finally broken the scabbard of ice that surrounded his heart- and laughed at the thought that it was a snowball fight that had finally melted this metaphorical ice. She was alarmed, however, when the man stopped dead, dropping the snow from his hands, golden eyes darting to the edge of the woods.
"Somebody's here."
