X-Men "THEIF": Part Four, Choosing Sides

At lunch, I sat at my usual spot, and Kurt came to sit across from me.

"So," He said brightly. "Tell me what's up."

"Okay. This started on the Tuesday that Principal Kelly came. You remember. I went up to the top of the stands and bumped into this red haired girl. I think you hang out with her."

"Jean?" He asked, pointing to her at his usual spot.

"Yeah. So, after a few minutes I started to… hear things in my head. Like… voices, I guess. My nose started to bleed, and… what?" His eyes had been getting wider and wider and were now the size of saucers.

"You didn't… um… you didn't get anything from me, did you?" He asked nervously, looking really worried.

"I think I might've gotten a dream. Everyone in my dream last night were speaking German. You're German, right?"

Kurt seemed to get pale. "So… you know?" His voice cracked severely at the end of his sentence, causing me to wince.

"Know what?"

He seemed to relax and he closed his eyes. "Whew. Okay, so, back to your problem."

I blinked at him in confusion, then went on with my story. "Okay, so I left the auditorium."

"Before or after the scoreboard incident?"

"Um, before. So later on, I bump into her again, this time on my way to the bathroom. So I look in the mirror, and this had happened to my hair." I pointed out the silver streak to emphasize. "And all evening I couldn't figure out if I was me… or Jean."

He stared at me for a minute or so, seeming to be trying to take it all in. He put a hand to the top of his head and started, "Well…"

Then Lance showed up, coming out of nowhere and shoving Kurt into the next chair over. "Move it, Blue Boy," he growled as he sat down. "Go sit with your own friends."

I glared at Lance and folded my arms. "I'm talking to him, Lance. You can see this event taking place."

"No, it's okay," said Kurt quietly. "See you later, Alaya. We can talk after school."

"Yeah. Um, no! I can't." I shook my head, suddenly remembering. "I'm grounded. I have to go strait home after school."

"Then I'll walk you." He walked toward his usual table, waving as he went. Lance looked dumbfounded.

"You hanging with those freaks now?" Lance said harshly. "They're no good, Lai. I told you that."

"They're perfectly fine!" I shouted back. "At least, Kurt is."

"So you can talk to him, but you can't talk to me, is that it?" Now he looked a bit hurt. "You can tell him what's wrong, but not your best friend. I see." He started to get up. "You know what? Fine. He can be your friend, and I can go back to hanging out with the guys. That's cool with me."

"You're one to talk!" I said. "Hanging around with that Kitty Pryde!"

"I don't 'hang around' with Kitty Pryde!" Lance sat back down, ready to argue for the lunch hour. "She's cute and all, but I hate her, just like the rest of them!"

"You hate her?" I snarled. "Tell her that. See how far you get in getting her to ask you to the Sadie Hawkins dance."

He looked shocked. Mouth hanging open, he slowly began to ask a question. "How… how did you…?"

"Best friends forever, Lance," I said softly. "I can see right through you. I keep wondering why you can't understand that."

He gawked at me as I continued eating calmly, trying to shake him. I was really mad at him now, more than I had ever been, even more upset than I had been the day he told me he hated me and my stupid pigtails when we were eight years old. I cried for months and never wore pigtails again. I just wanted him to figure out what was wrong with me the way I always seemed to know what was wrong with him.

"Oh my god," Lance said.

I brightened. Had he figured it out?

"Do… do you love me or something?"

I stared at him for what seemed like a full minute. I was completely dumbfounded. Could he really not understand me at all? Couldn't he just get what my problem was, like I could?

Then I started to laugh loudly. I laughed so hard my sides started to hurt. I doubled over in my seat, squinting at Lance's confused face through tearful eyes. Of course he didn't know what was wrong with me! How could he? No one could. I, the freak, expected a completely normal guy to understand?

"Um…" He began. "Was I wrong?"

I nodded, unable to speak through my laughs.

"Oh, good," He said, smiling. "Because… that would've been weird."

I nodded again, wiping my eyes and struggling to breathe.

"Were you laughing at me?"

"No," I said. "No, I was laughing at myself. I'm so sorry, Lance. I was being dumb."

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong now?"

I took a deep breath. "Ooookay. Here we go. Bear with me, this is gonna sound really, really weird."

He nodded and waved his hand, encouraging me to go on. The words seemed to be caught in my throat, and I closed my eyes and swallowed. "There is something wrong with me," I began. "Like really wrong. I can hear other people's thoughts sometimes, but only when I get near certain people." I glanced at Jean, laughing at something Kurt was saying with enthusiastic hand gestures. "When I was near Kurt, I… I think I took his nightmares. My eyes changed color when this started, and this streak in my hair showed up, but the changing eyes went away and the streak didn't. I just don't know what's going on anymore."

I finally opened my eyes to look at him, frightened as to what expression was going to be on his face.

He was smiling.

"Wha—Lance, you have to believe me! I'm telling the truth!"

He began to shake his head, and he was still smiling.

"Don't… don't you believe me?" I whispered. My voice shook. "Don't you understand?"

He reached across the table and took my hand. "I understand you, Alaya." He said. "I believe you."

It was my turn to gawk. "W-what?" I expected him to laugh, or scream and run, anything but hold my hand and smile like he knew what I was talking about, like everything was okay, completely normal. I yanked my hand away, flinching. "You can't be serious! I'm a freak, Lance! I'm a monster! How can you just sit there and… and…"

He just sat there and smiled.

"Oh," I said quietly. "You're… you're a freak, too… aren't you?"

He nodded, still smiling.

"And Kurt?"

"Yup."

"Scott? Jean?"

"Yeah, them too."

A horrible thought hit me and I froze up again. "W-what about Pietro?"

"A super monster," He said, grinning.

"Oh…" I sighed. "So, can you all do… what I do?"

"No." He shook his head. "No, not what you can do. Every one of us is different. I cause earthquakes, Pete's annoyingly fast, and Fred's really strong and pretty much unmovable. To tell you the truth, your powers sound like Rogue's. Did you touch Jean or Kurt?"

"No," I said. "Not really. I was just close to them."

"Alright, so your powers work at a distance. Pretty sweet."

"Pretty SWEET?" I glowered menacingly. "This is a NIGHTMARE. I officially hate my life. Is there an official term for the kind of freak that I am so that I can officially hate it?"

"Well, 'officially', you are a Mutant."

"A what?"

"A mutant is someone, a human, who is born… not human. They have this extra X gene running around in their bodies that causes mutant powers to form. So, you aren't human exactly." Lance smiled. "You're better. You are the next top of the food chain, just like me and Pietro and Toad. And someday, we're going to rule the world."

"Rule the world?" I asked incredulously. "Rule the world? What if I don't want to RULE the world? What if I just want to live in it like a normal person who doesn't have to worry about humans and mutants and whether or not my hair is the right frikkin' color? What if I just want to be ME?" As I ended my rant, a I slammed my head down onto the table for extra emphasis.

"Hey, hey, you're still you, Lai," He said softly, patting my head. "You are just… also a mutant."

……………

Kurt, as promised, walked me home and we didn't say anything for a while. Finally I looked at him. "So, I'm a mutant. What does that actually mean for my life?"

"Well…" He started. "You either lay low or pick a side."

"Pick a side? What, is there a war going on that I'm not aware of?" I looked at my feet and sighed. "There are sides now?"

"Yes. There's my side, the X-Men. All of the kids you see me eat lunch with are members of that team. Jean, Scott, Rogue, Kitty, Evan and me. We live in the institute with Professor Xavier, who sort of helps mutant kids for a living or something. He's a mutant, too, along with our other teachers, Mr. Logan and Storm."

"So, are you the good side or the bad side?"

"There are no good or bad sides, only different points of view," Kurt smiled. "I like to think of our side as the good side, but that's not really the case. The side Lance is on fights for a sort of takeover, because mutants are the next stage in evolution and we should inherit the earth right away. My side fights for peace between mutants and humans, so that even if we ARE supposed to inherit the earth, it can happen naturally." He looked around. "Just look at this world and tell me we're supposed to destroy everything that's here!"

"So, Lance's side just wants to help the humans on their way out?"

"Well, it's not Lance's side, it's Magneto's side. And yes, that's exactly what they want to do."

"Kill everybody?"

"I sure like to think that they don't want everyone dead, but… well, yes."

"So who's Magneto, then?"

"Sort of Lance's side's Professor Xavier. He's the leader of that cause. I don't really think he's bad, but maybe he's been… hurt, like really badly, and he can't help but hate humans." Kurt stopped walking and turned to look at me. "I think I would have turned out that way if the Professor hadn't taken me in."

"What do you mean? You look normal, I mean, I wouldn't even know you were a mutant." I flipped the white portion of my hair out of my eyes. "With me, there's a sign. But you and Lance and, well, a lot of you don't even look…"

"Come here for a second," He said in a pained voice, slipping into an alley. I followed, a bit nervously, hoping I wasn't about to be jumped. He looked out to see if anyone was passing by, then he started fiddling with his watch.

"What are you… doing?" I asked slowly as he looked at the floor and wrung his hands for a minute. "Are you okay?"

"Okay. You have to promise three things," He said. "One, don't scream. Two, don't run. And three… well, try your best not to hate me." He pressed a small button and I tried my hardest not to shriek as I took a few steps back. He was certainly not normal-looking. As a matter of fact, he was downright scary, but he looked up with yellow eyes and I knew he was good. I could just feel the sadness of him, and the joy, all rolled into a big blue furry mess. It was like he was an emotional projector. For some reason I suddenly wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

"Well." I said quietly. "You certainly look… different."

"Yeah…"

"Oh! Oh my God, THAT'S why they call you Blue Boy!" I held up my head and smiled brightly, seeming to put him at ease. At least he stopped slouching so much. "I could never figure out… oh, gosh. Oh, I'm sorry."

"What?"

"Those… those nightmares, you… I'm sorry."

"Why, that is comforting." He glowered at his hand. "Thank you for your sudden insight on the insides of my head. Like THAT doesn't happen often enough…"

"Sorry, I can't really help what I see," I said softly, putting a hand on his face. "But I'll tell you right now, I think you are a wonderful person and I don't care what you look like. Um… wow."

"Now what?"

"You are really, really soft. Like, really soft. Wow, you're like a shirt that's been softened with snuggles in the dryer of softness." I giggled. "Wow."

Kurt let out a sarcastic sounding laugh and took my wrist. "That's quite enough petting for now, thank you very much. I'd better get you home."

………………

Lying in my room and thinking about the day's events, I suddenly started to question which side I should choose. I began to go over the options. I could join Kurt's side, the seemingly good side of goodness and peace, but, I could join Lance's side, with my best friend and Pietro. Maybe choosing a side based on who my friends are wasn't a very moral thing to do, but… God, was it hard not to. If I joined the X-Men, and Lance found out, he would totally hate me forever. And forget ever dating Pietro. But Kurt was so convincing, BUT SO WAS LANCE. I buried my head into my pillow and wanted to cry, but I couldn't.

I woke up at two in the morning to my cell phone ringing. I answered it. "Hello?" I said, already wide awake.

"Hi, Alaya, it's Kurt."

"What are you calling me at two in the morning for?" I asked. "How did you even get my number?"

"You gave this number to Kitty last year because you worked with her on a science lab assignment."

"Oh."

He suddenly laughed. "Besides, I want payback for YOU calling ME at three in the morning. Did I wake you up?"

"No... well, yeah, but it's okay. Oh, and Kurt?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I've chosen a side."