OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY!
I am sorry this is late! I am sorry I had such bad writer's block! I am sorry I didn't put the time on the last chapter (which I have re-uploaded)! And most importantly... I AM SO SORRY THAT I DIDN'T MENTION THAT THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE LATEST MOVIE! I AM SO SORRY!
I'm so sorry this is late, but it was originally supposed to be Sean's point of view... and I couldn't do it. At all. No inspiration - it's like there's a block in my head when I try to imagine what Sean's thinking. So I just did a chapter from an outsider's perspective... and will have to do Sean later. I actually like this chapter though, because though it's not Charles/family feels as much, you can definitely see how Anya is becoming HIS daughter (the end scene look familiar in any way?). So I hope you like it.
As a sorry for the very late update I am uploading the next chapter (which is complete) this Friday! I have a midterm coming up so I really need to focus on that anyway.
Thank you to all the people who keep reviewing and favoriting and following, you guys make my world each time! Love you all, and this for everyone who has stuck with me through lack of updates!
Chapter Four: To Love (September 1964)
The first time I see Anya Lehnsherr, I think she looks like a pretty little boy.
To be fair, she doesn't dress like a girl. She's in old-looking overalls, a grey T-Shirt with the Captain America shield on it, and scuffed up Chucks. And her hair is in a tight little bun at the base of her skull so all I can see is she has dark red hair. She's dirty too; there's black stuff on one of her pale cheeks, and a smudge of it on her nose. Girls don't like to get dirty, especially on the first day of school. They like to play with dresses and be annoying, like my little sister. I think she's lying when our eighth grade teacher says that Anya is a girl, but whatever.
Anya has this look on her face the entire time like she'd like to be anywhere else. She keeps wringing her fingers together and looking at the clock, a frown on her big lips. She huffs a lot too, glaring at the board and then her fingers, getting crosser by the minute. I don't get why. Maybe it's a girl thing?
Eventually the bell rings and she sprints out the door like someone lit a fire under her. I raise an eyebrow and keep walking. At thirteen, with my fourteenth birthday soon to come, I don't have time for stupid girls. I see her while I wait for my dad to pick me up in the truck that is barely holding onto the few bolts it has left. She's hanging half out of a car window while two older boys, one with red hair like her and one with blonde, laugh at her. It's weird to see that; shouldn't they be telling her to stop goofing and get the hell into the car yet? My dad would. My mom too come to think of it. But even though everyone stares the three weirdos couldn't care less about us.
Must be nice to not care.
XXX-XXX
I see her again on the second day of school, only now she's migrated to the back of the class and is pouting so hard I have to laugh. Someone made her clean up and brush out her dark hair so it gleams even in the low lighting, and she's in a pretty black and white dress - a fact she seems disgusted with as she keeps trying to yank it down to her ankles and seems cross when it won't go beyond her knees.
She looks like a very pretty girl now, and I know I'm not the only one looking at her.
Some of the other boys point and whisper about her (not that they talk to me either), commenting on her legs - which are muscled and shapely - and her hair, and how much she changed over the summer. Anya doesn't seem to notice. She never talks to anyone, and she doesn't go to lunch either. Which is weird because you'd think everyone would want to go to lunch. Even at my old school that was a big thing.
But she doesn't. She's as foreign to them as she is to me, and they don't have my excuse of being from the wrong-side of the tracks. And new. That's important too. I guess.
I see her with the blonde and the redhead after school again. She's chucking her shoes - nice girl shoes that my sister would kill for - at the woods and yelling in a different language. The londe simply tosses her over his shoulder in a flutter of skirts and shrieks while the redhead groans and goes after her shoes. The blonde dumps her into the car, waits for the redhead, and then they leave with her yelling the entire way.
I don't know whether to laugh or call the police. Can I do both?
The next day she's back in overalls, dirt, is missing part of an eyebrow, and is radiating smugness.
XXX-XXX
The fourth day she actually talks to me.
But kind of by accident.
"Well well well. Who let the farmer into the school?"
The taunt is out of nowhere, and before I can shut my locker, I'm being sent right into it. I wince when my cheek connects with the cool metal and try not to let it show how much the soon-to-be bruise pains me.I keep quiet like my dad told me to be if I got into this situation and stubbornly refuse to look away from the numbers on the dial.
There's laughter, and then I'm being turned around and snapped back into the lockers again. There's a boy, about my age but bigger, glaring a grin down at me. There are about three other boys with him, all big and muscular and way too much for me to fight, He grabs my shoulders and slams me back so hard I groan a little. "I said, who let you into the school you dirty -"
He doesn't see the book coming until it is whacking the side of his head with concussion-causing force.
"KURT GRANGE YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU HEAR ME?!" It's Anya Lehnsherr, and she's already fumbling into the old backpack on her hip for the next projectile. It happens to be a pair of scissors, which she hurls at the nearest boy, who dives with a startled scream. Next comes a large chemistry textbook. The other two boys are sprinting down the hallway and she wastes no time in hurtling it after them, screaming obscenities in both English and that language from two days ago.
Kurt's actually whimpering when he scampers around the hallway and out of sight.
Panting, her eyes rolling with her anger, Anya turns to me with a frown. Suddenly her whole demeanor changes. "You okay?" she asks sweetly, kindly, a hand already reaching up to my face where I know the red mark is turning purple. I feel myself nod and swallow hard, startled and wary but forever grateful to this tiny little girl who dresses like a boy and throws heavy objects like one too.
"ANYA LEHNSHERR!" The voice startles both of us, and we look down the hall to where the principal is striding towards us with the air of a bull about to charge.
"Whoops! Gotta go!" She's gone in a whirl of curls. The principal races past me but I know he won't catch her.
You can't catch angels no matter how fast you run.
XXX-XXX
I don't know how, but she doesn't get expelled. Maybe because her dad has a lot more influence than Granger's dad does, or maybe because the principal heard the truth of WHY she attacked those boys, or whatever. Anya is only suspended for a week for "excessive force."
Impressive since it was the fourth day of school.
I see her the week she comes back. She seems happy, not like she was punished at all. My dad would have had my ass for a stunt like that. Anya sees me sitting against the back wall and skips over to me with an expectant look on her face. "Why do you sit so far back?" she asks me curiously. A few curls have escaped her bun and her elfish face is sweet and guileless. I flush and stare at my desk.
"Why do you?"
"Because I dislike rich bullies." So honest. It's weird.
"Um… thanks for that… I guess." She waves a hand like it's no big deal and sits next to me, those big green eyes curious and open like a book.
"Hey they didn't have a right to pick on you because you're different." She sniffs and rolls her eyes. "I wish they were different. It's like cloning around here. Baa!" Her imitation of sheep is so close to the mark that I actually snort a laugh. She grins like she just accomplished the most amazing thing in the world.
"I'm Jesse Winters," I finally say. She shakes my hand.
"I'm the Lehnsherr freak."
I frown. "You're not a freak."
"And you're more than a farmer. Farm boys are actually kind of hot." I splutter and she laughs. "Seriously, I know I'm not, but it doesn't hurt if it's part of who you are, you know?" She shakes her head. "Whatever. Don't let Kurt bother you. He's going to be the Quarterback who peaks in high school and never amounts to anything - beside a beer belly." I laugh again. She seems exceptionally pleased by the noise, eyes sparkling and a slow cat-like grin overtaking her face. "Hey if you don't have too many chores tomorrow do you wanna hang out?"
My mouth can't keep up with how fast I want to agree.
XXX-XXX
By week three I can't imagine having a better friend.
"Did you blow up the toaster again?"
"Nah, Sean's bong." I snort and she cackles before we're not-so-quietly shushed by the librarian on duty. Anya sighs and twirls the burnt edges of her curl around her finger. At least her eyebrows have started to grow back relatively quickly.
I've met two of her three brothers, and seen her father through a window - or who I think is her dad - but I've never been to her house. I've never seen the lab where she manages to make things defy nature and combust. And I've never felt like there wasn't something she was holding back. But that's okay. I'll take it as she's willing to tell me.
"How's your sister doing? You said she was at the hospital again…"
Because I'm not being honest either.
Immediately I'm uncomfortable. Twitchy. "She's good. Getting better." Anya's eyes narrow but she just nods and accepts it like it's no big deal. Sometimes I forget that's she's twelve - she doesn't act like it. Granted, she's almost thirteen, but still. The way she talks, and moves, and listens… she seems way older than she actually is. It's one of those things I really like about her.
As is her inquisitiveness… and her ability to make connections.
XXX-XXX
She takes me home with her at six weeks, two weeks before she turns thirteen.
I don't know what to expect but the mansion is sure as hell not it.
"Holy crap!"
"Yeah, I know," she chuckles wryly. "Scared the bejeezus out of me two years ago too." I give her a look and she shrugs. "Adopted you goof."
"That's right now!" the redhead boy, Sean, exclaims, ruffling Anya's hair and dislodging her ponytail. She scowls and bats at his hands. "Wormed her way right in, didn't you kid?"
"Don't call me kid!"
"Anya darling?" a voice calls from the nearby doorway. I look up and see a dark-haired man with bright blue eyes leaning out of a window, arms crossed over the sill and a slight smile on his lips. He's good-looking I guess, very relaxed, and very open. Actually come to think of it, that's the expression I associate most with Anya. Anya promptly skips over to him, bouncing in place like an overexcited kid on Christmas. Sean and I exchange a look and start laughing a little.
"Hi Charles! I didn't get into trouble today!" Charles laughs with us.
"Apparently not." He looks amused, but also like he's waiting for something. He presses two fingers to his temple and rubs. Curious about the gesture, I look to Anya, but she's got her face scrunched up like when she's trying to figure out a hard question in geometry.
Finally she smiles and lurches out to grab my hand. "Come on!"
"Where are we -"
"I'm going to introduce you to my brother!"
"You mean Hank?" I'd heard about him but I'd never seen him before. Anya might be nodding but she has this tendency to bound when she sprints, so I can't tell if that's her running or her trying to say yes. Honestly she's so excitable - back to the kid on Christmas analogy. I grin and let her tug me through the front door and down the hallway, passing doors right and left.
We skid to a halt in front of a steel door. She pauses and looks at me then with a soft smile, unlike anything I've seen on her face before. "Just… keep an open mind, yeah?"
With that she shoves open the door and drags me inside.
He's tall, about six feet, with blue fur. Blue. Fur. And glasses. And a snout. I feel my mouth drop open, but not to scream. Never to scream. The man looks up at me in shock, seconds before horror spills across his face and he makes a choking noise. The vial he's holding slips through his fingers and red fluid splashes across the floor, stark against the white tiles. He's trying to block his face but Anya has grabbed one of his arms and buried her face in his fur, clinging almost desperately. They tussle as he tries to hide but she won't let go. A few times he picks her right up off the floor… but he never hurts her. Not even accidentally.
"No no no, Hank, it's okay -"
"Sweetie how could -"
"How did you know?" I ask through numb lips. They stop and look at me, Hank with confusion and Anya with that gentle smile.
"Easy." But that's all she says.
All she'll ever say.
XXX-XXX
The next day I take her home with me. But not into my house. I coax Anya around to the barn and gesture for her to go in ahead of me. She does, staring wide-eyed around like she's waiting for… something. Which she is. But it's more than that.
It's like she can't wait to see what I want to show her.
"Max? Maxine? C'mon out sweetie," I call to my little sister. I can feel eyes on me even though I can't see her. No surprise that. "It's okay. Ahn is a friend, she won't hurt you. I promise. She won't take you away, or anything. She lives with somebody like you -"
"A bunch of somebodies like you!" Anya chips in, peering behind a bunch of hay bales. I gesture for her to be quiet.
"She's a good person I promise. She may seem loud, and obnoxious, and rude -"
"Oi!"
"But she has a good heart. Maxie? Can you please come out?" I beg. Anya sucks in a breath and I whirl to see her sitting back on her heels, green eyes wide. She smiles brightly and beckons a seeming shadow closer.
"Hey there pretty girl," she says gently. "You… are… so beautiful."
My little sister steps shyly out of the shadows and I hold my breath, still expecting for Anya, even with who she live with, to scream and shout freak. But she doesn't. She holds out her arms and smiles widely, eager eyes raking over Maxine like she's a precious treasure.
It steals my breath and makes my heart pound.
Max has big liquid eyes of pure black, not covering the irises but pretty close. Her hair is the same colour, and moves like she's trapped underwater most of the time. Twin horns, still baby horns even though they will curl into long dark spikes later, peek out of her long black hair. Her skin is pale as a diamond and just as clear, showing a network of black veins beneath the translucent surface. Blue lips that she tries to cover with lipstick, even at ten years old, curve a little at the corners as Anya simply holds out her arms like she wants to hug her. Cautiously Maxine steps out from the shadows, revealing bat-like wings stretching a good four feet behind her. Leathery and thick, they unfold just enough that clawed tips are visible. A bushy tail curls around her feet, twitching anxiously as she waits for approval. For acceptance.
"Hello beautiful." Anya has the most radiant smile on her face. And Maxine honestly begins to cry as she lurches forward into Anya's arms to be swept up into the biggest and warmest embrace from anyone who isn't part of the immediate family since she became like this when she was nine.
I can't tell now, but I think… I think this is when I fall in love with Anya Lehnsherr.
Cute... But if you guys know my other works... then you know it will NOT be that simple! Like, don't like? Let me know! And I am so sorry again!