"Yes, I´m fine. It´s just…" Victoria hesitates.
"I´m starting to worry here, Victoria."
"You are right, Charles."
"I am what?"
"You are right."
"About what?"
"About my abilities."
There is a moment of silence. Charles processes what Victoria just told him.
"You tried it with Raven." He sounds a little hurt.
"Yes, I am sorry. She kind of persuaded me."
"Could you get her on the phone again?"
"Of course." She passes the phone back to Raven, a little confused by his weird reaction to what was rather big news to her.
"Yes." Raven answered on the phone. And again, "Yes."
When she finally hangs up she smiles broadly at Victoria.
"What is it? What did he say?"
"Pack some stuff, we are going back."
"Why?"
"You are a mutant, Victoria. And, as you just proved, a very powerful one. Charles wants you to come back home and stay for at least a couple of days."
"Couldn´t he just ask me himself?" Victoria is getting a little angry now.
"You know how he is…"
"No. I fucking don´t. I met him yesterday. I know nothing about him."
"Vic… please. Don´t you want to come back with me? You said it yourself, you don´t want to lose us again so soon."
"Oh, so you did listen."
"Of course I did."
Victoria calms down a little. She realises that Raven is the wrong person to take her anger out on.
"I´m sorry. I didn´t want to snap at you like that."
"It´s okay. But will you please come back home with me?"
"This is my home."
"Please. Charles can help you, and we can all help each other. Mi casa es su casa. Or do you really want to keep on living here?"
"I know it´s not much. But I´ve been living here for a long time now."
"You don´t have to move in with us, if you don´t want to. Please just come and stay for a few days first. See how you feel and let us work out something together."
"Well, I am the one who came to find Charles. It would be stupid not to go now. Now that I may need him more than ever. And I kind of need you, too."
"I already told you, you are like a missing family member that finally found her way back home."
The two hug for a moment then Victoria grabs a back and throws in some clothes and other stuff she may need.
When they step outside it stopped raining. They take a bus back and walk up the street to the Xavier mansion.
"Well, I haven´t been gone long." Victoria says to herself, when they stand in front of the iron gate. Raven heard her and smiles.
They walk up to the front door and enter the house, only to find Charles sitting on the staircase in the hall. He impatiently waited for them. When they enter he stands up and looks at Victoria, noticing her angry look.
"I´ll go take a shower." Raven runs up the stairs before anyone can say something.
Charles steps closer to Victoria and takes her back from her, carrying it over to the staircase and putting it on one of the steps. Victoria says nothing.
"Why are you so angry?" Charles asks.
"I basically told you that I just discovered a whole new side of my powers and all you could do was blaming me for not trying it on you."
She feels the invisible hands on her head again, indicating his attempt to enter her mind again.
"You have very functioning vocal cords. Use them."
He stares at her for a second, amused, a smile playing around the corner of his mouth.
"All right. I´ll use them. I am sorry for my reaction, I was a little surprised and wanted to talk to Raven if she would be okay with you staying with us for a while."
"And you never thought of asking me, if I´d be okay with it?"
"You are right. I didn´t." He seems to only realise that now. "Wow. I actually didn´t even think of asking you. I am sorry."
"And?"
"And? ...Oh! And would you like to stay a while with us? To figure out how far your powers go and how you can use them. Maybe answer as many of your questions as we possibly can?"
"Sounds like a good idea." She finally smiles.
Raven, ,who sits upstairs out of view but within earshot, lets out a sigh and gets up to actually take a shower. Victoria walks over to her bag, picks it up and looks at Charles.
"Same room I stayed in last night?"
"If you like."
She nods and Charles takes the bag from her to carry it up to her room. She walks besides him, unsure what will happen to her next. Will she find more hidden powers? Will Charles and Raven still trust her, although she is able to manipulate their feelings? Will they cast her out in the end, too?
When they enter her room he places the bag on the bed. When he notices Victoria´s worried look he stops and looks at her. She looks back at him, finally closing her eyes and letting him into her head. She wants him to see her worries, she wants him to say that everything will be fine.
He steps closer and takes her in his arms, whispering in a soft voice:
"We will never cast you out, Victoria. You are one of us. As long as you want us to be your family, we are happy to have you. You are safe now. You can make this place your home whenever you want."
His words take a lot of weight of her mind and when he finally lets go of her she manages a smile.
"Thank you."
"You are very welcome. Ah, and by the way: Thanks for the compliment."
He turns to leave.
"What compliment?" she asks confused.
"I saw your thoughts about my bum." He leaves the room with a cheeky grin.
She immediately covers her face with her hands and slumps onto the bed. She doesn´t know if she wants do die right then and there. Death by embarrassment.
"Grrrr ... get a grip, stupid!" she says out loud.
After a while she manages to maintain a normal colour of her face again and gets up to start unpacking. When she opens the door of the wardrobe a huge spider comes running out, obviously startled by Victoria. It vanishes under the bed, leaving behind thick cobwebs in the wardrobe. Victoria takes out one of the hangers to put her jacket on it. When she blows on it a thick cloud of dust fills the air, Victoria coughs. She then sees that all the other hangers and shelfs are covered in heavy dust, too. She wonders for how long this room was unoccupied.
A knock on the door puts a sudden end to her thoughts. Turning around she sees Raven popping her wet haired head into the room.
"May I come in?" she laughs and enters, seating herself on the bed.
"Raven? Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. What is it?"
"How long… I mean, when was the last time someone visited you, you and Charles?"
"We rarely get visitors." Raven answers in a hollow voice.
"You two were alone all this time?"
"Yep." She seems to be on the verge of crying, so Victoria wants to cheer her up.
"About time you finally got me, eh?" She nudges her with her shoulder and grins.
Raven looks up, a single tear runs down her cheek but she is smiling, too.
"I couldn´t be happier. I had Charles, now I have you, too. It´s perfect."
The girls hug again. Raven then takes Victoria by her hand and pulls her off the bed.
"Come on, lazy! I show you the house."
The girls run around the house like 10 year olds. Giggling, whispering, hiding behind curtains. Raven shows Victoria the countless bedrooms of the huge mansion. There are at least two ballrooms and a huge kitchen as well as a dining room big enough to hold 100 people.
"Who the hell built this?" Victoria asks in awe while standing under s the crystal chandeliers in one of the ballrooms.
"Some of the Xavier's ancestors."
"It belongs to Charles now?"
"Yes."
"Where is the rest of his family?"
"Dead." A male voice says.
Victoria spins around to see Charles standing in the doorframe.
"I´m sorry."
"Don´t be. My parents died a while ago and left me this beautiful house." He starts walking towards Victoria and only stops when he stands in front of her, right under the chandelier.
"I´m hungry," Raven says, "someone up for some take-out?"
"Yeah, lets order some." Charles answers.
The three of them go to sit in the kitchen. After they ordered their food they sit down at a little wooden table and wait.
"Maybe there are more like you?"
"What do you mean, Charles?" Raven asks.
"Maybe there are more people like Victoria. People, who are different and are looking for answers."
"I´m sure they are." Victoria answers.
"We are stronger together."
"What is your point, Charles?" The girls are confused.
"If there are more people out there, mutants I mean, who are wondering where their place in the world is… maybe we should offer them one here."
"You mean let them move in?" Raven´s mouth is hanging open.
"Let them live here. Work together to find answers to our questions and use to our powers."
Charles is interrupted by the door bell and after their food arrived all ideas of a place to live and work for mutants are wiped off their minds. They eat together, open a bottle of wine and continue to talk about stuff that will neither change the world nor even matter in the morning.
"It´s getting late. I´ll go to bed." Raven stands up yawning.
"Good night."
Charles gets up to get another bottle of wine, while Victoria grabs a blanket and snuggles up in it.
"Are you cold?" Charles asks when he comes back and sits next to her.
"I was. But the blanket is nice and warm."
He nods and pours them two more glasses of wine.
"Thanks for letting me stay, Charles." Victoria whispers.
"I am pretty sure you already thanked me, but again: You are very welcome."
Victoria looks at him for a while. He takes a sip of his drink before noticing her staring.
The light of the fireplace reflects in his bright blue eyes. He smiles softly. Victoria then rests her head on his shoulder. He is surprised at first but puts his arm around her. With the other hand he pulls at the blanket to cover him, too. Victoria doesn´t know if it is because of the wine or because of Charles that she feels warm and safe.
They sit for a while like that, no one saying anything.
"I´m sorry for staring at your butt." She finally whispers.
"Excuse me?" Charles laughs looking down at her in surprise.
She looks up to him grinning.
"You said you saw it in my head. It was an accident."
"I see."
"Won´t happen again."
"You staring or me finding out about it?" Now he is grinning, too.
"Definitely you finding out about it." She winks at him.
They´re both laughing loudly now while he holds her a little tighter and she snuggles up to him a bit more.