A/N: Okay, I know, it's short but I swear, it's, like, very important. Because yay more new people! I know, I know, but couldn't leave these two ladies out!
GaredBattlespike: Believe me, it's far from the end of it ;)
Chapter 4: A Girl By Any Other Name Would Be as Fierce
Suddenly Logan disappeared. No one had any idea where he was or even why he was away, but in the end they all just shrugged, saying how it was just his usual thing. Violette took advantage of that and the fact that their caretaker for the week was Scott while the rest of the adults were in Washington DC doing some mutant related PR and slept in Kurt's room, fully clothed, feeling safe and calm in his embrace. The fun time as always had to be cut short, because Logan came back just four days later, with a teenage girl at his side.
The same teenage girl that helped Violette get a hang of her powers by electrocuting the living shit out of her.
Violette might have been wary of the girl at first, but she just seemed lost and uncertain herself, like a wounded animal trapped in a cage, which kind of made sense to Violette. The Institute might be a golden, diamond studded cage, but a cage none the less.
Logan looked around the hall and seeing that Violette was the only one out, growled at her not to lose the girl before walking off in the direction of the Professor's office. Violette looked at her and noticed that she had grown a bit since their last meeting, but then again, she was Jamie's age, and Jamie has managed to grow five inches in the last year alone.
Violette wasn't really sure what she was exactly supposed to do, and calling for Kurt might not be the best idea. The girl looked as if she'd spent the last few months in the woods, her hair messy and full of dry leaves while her face was covered in dirt.
"Maybe you want to take a shower?" Violette cleared her throat, looking down at the girl's boots. The tips were torn apart and Violette was reminded of the fact that the girl could kill her with only her toes. "I could lend you some clothes."
Clothes that wouldn't fit her at all and were probably going to be too loose on the hips and bust but too tight on the sleeves and shoulders.
The girl nodded and Violette guided her upstairs. She opened the doors to her room, took the first pair of jeans she could find and a clean shirt and showed the girl the way to the bathroom. She still didn't say anything, only nodded in gratitude.
Violette was waiting outside the bathroom when Wolverine came back, handing her an armful of sheets and blankets.
"What's that?"
"She's rooming with you, Caspar."
"Wait, what?" Violette didn't have to share a room with anyone since she ran away from home. "I don't even know her name!"
"Well, neither does she" He growled, furrowing his brows. "You're going to take care of her, alright, bub?"
She swallowed audibly, nodding. For what it was worth, she was still scared of him.
"I'll get the boys to move another bed to your room" He walked off, leaving Violette to awkwardly shift the sheets in her arms.
Just a few minutes later the girl walked out of the bathroom, wordlessly taking some of the things in Violette's hands.
"I guess you heard that, huh" Violette chuckled as the girl followed her to her – now their – room. "I have to warn you, the room's a bit messy."
Violette opened the door and immediately cursed when she heard the familiar sound of Kurt's teleportation. The girl next to her dropped the sheets and the claws hidden underneath her skin shot out, making Kurt yelp and fall from Violette's desk down onto the floor.
"Don't worry" Violette slowly put down the sheets and made her way to the girl, feeling her courage leave her with every step. "That's just my boyfriend. A very handsome but idiotic boyfriend, to be exact. I'm shallow like that."
"Maybe I'll…" Kurt started to gesticulate at the door wildly. "You know."
"Nonsense!" She understood that the girl was maybe not used to other people, but she wasn't going to kick Kurt out just because she might not like him being there. Violette never insisted that she wasn't a bit bitchy. "It's okay, right?"
The girl nodded and retracted her claws. The silence started to slowly get on Violette's nerves.
'Patience, or Wolvie will kill you.'
"So…" Kurt scratched the back of his neck, chuckling nervously. "I'm Kurt. What's your name?"
Violette felt like she could free Logan of the burden of killing a teenage girl, by just jumping out of the window.
The girl looked down at her feet with a crestfallen expression.
"I don't really… Have one."
No, maybe she'll just kill Kurt.
"Oh."
'Yeah, definitely kill Kurt.'
"Well, you know, that can be easily resolved" She delicately put her hand on the girl's shoulder, smiling reassuringly. She channeled everything she had into the nicest tone she could muster. "You can just come up with one."
She nodded, but didn't seem convinced. Violette felt like she should have expected her almost unwavering silence. She recognized it in a way.
'I've read that one book' She looked at the bookshelf next to her desk, scanning it for the title. 'About a silent girl.'
It was overall a sad story, but she felt like it helped her. She had it since her Brotherhood years, back when she still struggled with her own demons. Violette walked over to the bookshelf and took the book out scanning it for the girl's name.
'There it is.'
She put down No Language But a Cry with a small smile, turning to the two.
"How about Laura?"
Just when Violette thought that that would be the last female joining them at the Institute for a while, Storm and the Professor came back with a green haired sophomore.
"Hi, I'm Lorna" She gave them all a friendly smile and a small wave and damn, did the introductions at the mansion always go like this? Violette remembered that in the Brotherhood they always kicked it off with a weird meeting.
"Went to the pool after bleaching?" Kitty gave her a sympathetic smile, offering her hand. "I'm Kitty."
"Oh, no, it just always was that way" Lorna reached out for a lock of her hair and somehow shrunk.
"Shit" Rahne mumbled under her breath and materialized next to the new girl. "Hey I'm Rahne, do you want to be my roommate?"
"Well, yes I guess…"
"That's awesome" Rahne motioned for Sam to come over before turning back to Lorna. "So, except for the fact that you have this incredible hair colour, could you tell us a bit about yourself?"
And they were back on the wrong track.
While apart from the first awkward encounter Lorna seemed to do great, Laura spent the first week of her new life in the mansion slowly trying to get familiar with living with other people. There were accidents which ended with her claws out, most of them thanks to either Bobby suddenly crashing onto furniture in a fit of tears or Pyro jumping from around the corner surrounded by tiny fireballs.
While the Professor wanted Violette to help Laura slowly get the hang of things, Laura herself was frustrated over how little she knew about stuff.
"I want to go to school" She said softly one morning, watching Violette pack her backpack. She turned around to face Laura, her eyes wide. "What?"
"No one ever wants to go to school" Violette rolled her eyes. "Especially not high school. It's boring, people are awful and you're not even allowed to go to the bathroom whenever you want."
That answer didn't seem to satisfy Laura, though. She started to pester Logan about letting her out.
Violette thought that it would be the worst idea ever, since Laura almost sliced her up when Violette accidentally rolled off the bed in her sleep. The Prof seemed to think that it was great that Laura wanted to adjust on her own accord and deemed Jamie her caretaker, since they were the same age.
Violette wasn't keen on leaving her brother alone for extended amounts of time with a psychotic teenage girl made out of the hardest metal on Earth, but no one asked about her opinion on the matter.
So, she took to quietly brooding while stuffing her things into her backpack.
"You're overreacting" Tabby chuckled, tossing Violette's notebook at her head. "She won't freak out in the middle of the hallway."
"Yeah, but she might freak out when it's just the two of them" Violette picked the notebook up from the ground and put it down on her desk. "I don't want Jamie to have stab wounds in his stomach, you know?"
"You let him near the Brotherhood. He survived Apocalypse" Tabitha walked over to her and put her hand on Violette's shoulder. "He's going to be fine."
Violette sighed, putting her face in her hands.
"I hope so."
Jamie usually kept his distance when it came to girls his age. He mostly hung out with the girls from the Institute and had to live with the questions his classmates had when it came to them – and God, that one time a guy asked him if he was going out with Violette would never leave his mind, ever.
It wasn't just that he stayed glued to their sides, they liked to come over and talk for a while. They were all mutants, they had to stick together.
But this- this was something else. He had a long conversation with the Professor in the morning and the only thing he got out of it was 'stick to her' and 'make sure she's alright'. And hell, if that didn't boost his ego. He, a scrawny, barely over five feet Jamie, had to take care of a master assassin.
A pretty, female master assassin, but Jamie seemed to be the only one to take it into account.
So he smiled at her as charmingly as he could, opened the doors for her and made sure to be within a three feet radius of her. Which seemed to annoy her a bit and make his friends fall out of their desks in laughter.
When they came back home, Laura threw her backpack at Logan and ran to her room, growling at everyone.
"What happened, bub?" Logan turned to Jamie, raising his brow.
"I don't know, I made sure everything was going great" He shrugged, taking the backpack from Logan. "I'll take it back to her room."
He passed Mr. McCoy on his way up and gave him a thumbs up.
"We shouldn't have let him get close to her" Logan crossed his arms over his chest, furrowing his brows.
"It's usual for fathers to not want any boys around their daughters" Hank put his hand on his shoulder, smiling. "Don't worry, Jamie means well."
"Oh, I know that" Logan chuckled, shaking his head. "If he keeps it up, Laura's going to tear him apart."
"And, what do you think you're doing?"
Alex jumped away fro his hide out – a bush? Really? – and started to laugh nervously.
"Uhm, nothing?"
Ray rolled his eyes, smiling. It wasn't coincidental that he started to spot Alex whenever the New Mutants were having their training sessions since Lorna's arrival.
"You're not subtle at all, dude" He pulled Alex up, clapping him on the back. "You should just go talk to her."
"You really think so?"
"What's the worst that can happen?"
That. That was the worst that could happen.
Alex took Ray's advice to the heart. The next day, he sat down next to Lorna at the breakfast table.
"Hi."
"Oh, hi" She gave him a small wave and reached over for a jug of orange juice.
Alex decided that the best first impression would be to take care of her most basic needs, so his hand shot out for that same jug, flipping it over and spilling it all over the table and Lorna's dress.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" He wanted to scoot away from the table to go get paper towels, but instead fell out of his chair.
He desperately reached for the edge of the table, but his hand closed around the table cloth instead and tugged it off. The silverware and plates fell down on him, the small pile of food and china hiding him from the eyes of his crush. He could hear everyone's laughter and Scott's questions about his well being and it was officially the worst first impression he could have left on Lorna. There was really no reason for her to immediately know that he was a walking human disaster.
"At least you tried, buddy" He heard Ray whisper to him as he tried to get out of the tangled table cloth. "At least you tried."
Hank was checking over the power signatures picked up by Cerebro in the last couple of weeks and frowned, noticing a rather large gathering of mutants all in one place. He printed the maps and stood up, ready to go and tell Charles to focus on it during a session, but the thought altogether left his head, the only thing he could focus on being going to the kitchen to have a snack.
He walked by the printer, the papers laying there, long forgotten.