Disclaimer: I still don't own the X-men, go figure. I also don't own the title of this chapter, it's the title of a Smith's song called "Going Back to the Old Home"

Reading Girl: Thanks so much, why haven't you updated Songs of Power lately though?

Pyro Lady: thanks for the review, yeah I've never seen as Scott as this really bad person, he's just a little more rules oriented then most and it can rub some people the wrong way.

Beany: here's the newest update, thanks for your reviewing. By the way she's got a New Recruits website for those of you interested

Lin: Dude where are you at? I was getting used to the weekly updates and now here I am waiting for the next and best in Secrets I Keep From You, its been almost a month, don't be me! Nah its all good, thanks for the review man.

He and Amara's time had been nice after the initial embarrassment and awkwardness of their new relationship. They'd talked, nothing special, but he missed her already. The closer he came to his house though, the more he began to think about the last few days. Tabby had helped him with a makeover, a change in his appearance. Maybe it hadn't just been a change in his appearance. He had begun to feel differently about himself. He wanted to be something, somebody worth Amara's time. He looked at the Brotherhood house and saw that the change he wanted so badly was going to start with his house.

He walked inside, trying to avoid as many people as possible. Wanda barely glanced at him as he entered, but he never noticed as he trudged up the stairs, went to his room, and closed the door. He surveyed the mess of a room that lay before him. Most of it he was sure could be thrown away. He didn't have a lot of money so he couldn't buy much; therefore the bulk of his room was most likely junk that served no real purpose. This place would be his starting point tomorrow. He wiped some clothing off of his bed and went to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

The sun pried his eyes open the next morning. He eased up and looked around, trying to blink the bleariness out of his eyes. Wordlessly he got up, ignoring the grumbling of his stomach, and began to pick bits of trash off of his floor. An hour later he had cleared enough space for him to stand in and still see the carpet. It was an ugly, moldy, frayed green underneath it all and it made him wonder why he'd want to see it anyways. He continued to work on though, piling up trash bag after trash bag near the door. When he was done he had fifteen trash bags bursting at the seams, a bed, a dresser that was missing two drawers, a broken TV, and his clothes. He still had yet to go to the closet. He didn't really need to though as his closet was one of the few places he had actually kept clean.

Walking into it one would only see three items, two empty hangers and a large toolbox. The hangers had been left behind by the house's previous owners. The toolbox and its contents had been given to Todd by his father, a carpenter, shortly before his father had died and Todd had been left by his mother. He had Freddy bring the toolbox to the house because he could just barely lift it, let alone carry it. The toolbox was a thing of beauty to Todd though, gun metal gray, a bit chipped around the edges, his name engraved on the lid of the box, it was one of the few things that reminded him of his life before the Brotherhood.

He quickly walked over to it and opened the drawers and after finding what he needed, closed the drawers and left just as quickly. No one, but he and Freddy knew about the toolbox and he preferred to keep it that way. He loved his friends, but at the same time he knew one of them might get desperate and try to sell it for cash, and that was something he refused to allow.

His plan as of right now was to fix the little things in his room that he could fix without having to buy more materials than what he had. Would Amara appreciate this dump? Probably not, but once he was done with it…it would at least be something worth walking into, maybe even giving a glance. He just started in silence the way he had when he worked with his dad renovating old houses. He focused on the work at hand, just let his body take over like his dad had taught him.

Two hours later he looked up to see what he had done and was pleasantly surprised to see that his door knob was now tightened, his bed didn't tilt anymore, and he had plastered a hole with some plaster the house's former owners had also left behind. He was sure the noise would have woken up his roommates or at least made them curious at some point, but nobody seemed to care. 'Just like always,' he thought. A knock at his door told him otherwise.

"Yeah," he said, not quite sure how he was going to get fifteen bags of trash away from his door without ripping them.

"Hey Todd there's some girl on the phone for ya," Freddie answered.

"Are you sure it's for Todd and not me," Todd heard Pietro asking.

"Uh hold on a sec Freddy," he said. He could still hear Pietro trying to get the phone from Freddy, which made him move all the faster as he began to move the trash bags away from his door, pushing them rather than pulling so as not to tear the bags.

"Freddy let me see the phone," Pietro said, obviously getting more and more hyper with each minute. Todd could hear Freddy denying Pietro's request and laughing about it each time he said 'Nuh uh.' When Todd got the last bag moved he heard something totally different from outside his door.

"Blob did you just break the phone?"

"Sshhh I don't think Todd can hear us."

"You did! You broke the phone moron!"

"Hey don't call me a m- don't call me that idiot!"

"Well I wouldn't if you weren't such a moron!"

Todd could tell a fight was about to break out between the two of them, plus the phone was crushed so he couldn't call…probably Amara, which just made him all the more pissed about the situation. He slammed the door open, furiously looking at the two boys before him. "What're you guys doin? Yo that call was for me Pietro why you messin' with Freddy," Todd asked as he started to stare Pietro down.

This didn't faze Pietro though. "Oh come on Todd. Who would call for you when I'm here to talk to?" Todd was about to answer him when he heard Lance coming up the stairs.

"What are you guys doing? Who broke the phone?"

"Freddy," Pietro answered.

"You made me," Freddy hollered angrily at the boy. Todd wanted to leave, but knew he should back his best friend up to. "Yo Pietro kept grabbin' for the phone when it was for me and Freddy was just tryin' to keep it away from him. He forgets his own strength ya know?"

Lance just stood there for a minute and then spoke again. "Are you guys idiots? Seriously, grow up Pietro. Freddy be more careful. You guys need to go buy a new phone," he finished with a light trembling in the ground. Todd knew that Lance just wanted a phone so he could talk to Kitty, but he wasn't gonna say anything and thankfully neither were the other boys.

So now he had a decision to make. He could just walk over to the X-mansion or whatever it was they called it or he could just… There wasn't really another option now that he thought about it. He had done what he set out to do, clean his room. Now it was time to enjoy himself. He'd go and see Amara, but first he might need to shower. He found that soap still didn't feel great on his skin, but rinsing off never hurt, right?

He made his way downstairs fifteen minutes later, wondering exactly when showering had become important to him. He saw Lance sitting on the couch watching TV, Pietro and Freddy were nowhere in sight, probably trying to stay away from Lance. Wanda was sitting nearby. She looked up at him briefly. "Don't even think about it," she mumbled.

Todd just shrugged it off. Right now he didn't really care what was going through Wanda's head or what she said to him. "Yo Lance I'm goin' over to the x-geeks," he said as he made his way to the door.

"Hey give me a few minutes, Kitty invited me too," Lance said as he stood up to stretch.

"What?"

"She invited me to lunch too."

"Lunch?"

"Yeah lunch; you know eating with the rest of the X-geeks. Amara was supposed to… oh that's right the phone's broke. Anyways I gotta change for Pretty Kitty so just wait a few minutes."

"Alright," Todd said as he sat down on the couch, noticing a small cloud of dust coming up from the couch. Dinner with the x-geeks didn't sound like the greatest time in the world. They'd all be staring at him and Amara, mostly him though. What if he screwed up? She'd definitely dump him on the spot. Still, she'd stuck with him this long and a day was very long to Todd. He simply rested his head on the couch and watched TV, unconsciously ignoring Wanda's presence, a fact that didn't sit well with the girl at all, though she wasn't sure why. It didn't really matter anyways, Todd was content and she supposed that was what mattered most.

"Hey Todd," Scott shouted from across the room with the biggest smile on his face.

"What up Scott," Todd said as he entered the mansion, waving at the older boy.

"Todd's here everyone," Jean said as ran to the door to give the boy a hug. As soon as she said it the other X-men all came running out, each of them offering him a hug or a handshake, all of them glad that Todd was here. They all hushed quickly though, as if on cue, and looked to the staircase. Todd followed their line of sight and saw Amara in a floor length red dress, slowly making her way down the stairs, eyes on his. He gulped at the sight, sure that he could die happily now.

She made her way to him and slowly Todd saw the world around them fade away to the most beautiful meadow he'd ever been in. She ran her hand along the side of his face and smiled up at him, not an easy task considering she was taller than him. Her eyes met his and she slowly leaned in to- "Todd." "Toddles, Loverboy, wake up!" Todd's eyes opened to see Tabitha looking down at him and Wanda smirking at the other end of the couch. He grumpily sat up, wishing Tabitha dead.

"Lance is waiting for you outside."

Todd nodded his head, still sleepy and unable to process what Tabitha had just said. Unfortunately for him Tabitha dropped a bomb near him, one that only had a one second delay before blasting him off of the couch and towards the front door.

"Get a move on Todd, 'Mara's waiting on ya," Tabitha said as she ran up the stairs to avoid any retaliation from Todd. Todd for his part simply remembered why he had been nervous to begin with, but still made his way to Lance's jeep. 'Let the laughter begin,' he briefly thought to himself as the jeep pulled out of the driveway and made its way to the mansion.