BRC: I do not own Marvel or X-men. This is somewhat of a work in progress so forgive my mistakes. I'm sorry i haven't updated in a while, school and work have kept me busy.

Chapter Thirteen: Lean on Me

Cole remembered his mother as being beautiful. Her hair had been long and jet black and her skin had been pale. He had gained his blond locks from his father but had gained his mother's blue eyes. He had loved his mother's eyes back then, remembering how they had lit up whenever he tried to please her which he did often. He would often drag her on walks outside and ask her to name the different plants and flowers they saw in the garden, which she did both in English and in French.

Her name was Evangeline Jeanne Reynard-Tiller, she was a young French woman who his father had once been in love with but was slowly losing interest in as time continued to pass. But back then he remembered his father had adored her. Everyone adored her in fact. No one ever hated Evangeline, she was nice to everyone even rude people and she didn't act like the typical wife of a successful businessman. While she did enjoy shopping, she preferred books over clothes and spent her time reading to her son and his best friend, the then young Tatyana.

Idelle Hawkins was her best friend and by default he was required to hang out with the woman's daughter. They met practically in the womb, having been born in the same hospital and been taken to visit each other just as babies. They were even given the same nanny, though Evangeline hated using a nanny and usually took Cole everywhere with her. Idelle and Evangeline were inseparable and soon Tatyana and Cole were as well.

Then Tatyana got "sick".

All he had then was his mother. His other friends were fake and only hung around him because they figured they could get something out of being his friend. Every day he went home and found his father locked in his study, either doing some important business call that he couldn't listen in on and his mother sitting in the library, her books stacked around her. Evangeline would take him into his arms and try to explain that his friend was having a tough time with her body at the moment and would be able to play with him again when she got better. She tried to explain that she had gone through the same thing and that it was a strange and confusing time for their kind but he didn't understand.

"She's just changing, darling. We all go through the changes in different ways and sometime it is very painful. Her mother had to go through it and I had to go through it so now it is her turn." She had whispered into his ears and back then he had thought she was talking about icky girl things that he had heard the other girls in his school discuss but now he knew the truth.

A few months later he walked into his house and ran to his parent's room only to find his mother crying and packing suitcases full of her clothes.

"Where are we going, mama?" Cole asks happily, even though he wondered why she was crying he loved going on trips with his mother and hoped that she would invite Idelle and Tatyana to travel with them.

"You are not going anywhere my son. I have to return to France to live with my mother and you will stay here with your father. Your father and I...are getting a divorce." Evangeline says and Cole frowns shaking his head widely.

"No you can't leave without me. You just can't. I don't want you to go!" He remembered his eleven year old self screaming and his mother hugs him to her.

"I must, mon fils. It's for the best. Please understand that I don't want to leave you alone but I have too. For the safety of both of us. Your father has fallen out of love with me anyway and loves another." Her mother growls a little, her blue eyes flashing.

Something happened then that Cole had pushed out of his mind from the trauma of his beloved mother leaving, wings, pure white bat wings extended from her shoulders and wrapped around him. She hummed a lullaby into his ears and rocked the crying boy until Byron came in and jerked her away from him. He remembered watching in horror as his father dragged his mother out of the house and threw her suitcases behind her.

"Stay away from my family you dirty mutant!", was the last thing he heard his father yell to his mother and he lay on the floor crying until his father's girlfriend walked in the room and hugged him.

"I'll be your new mommy now."

Cole snapped out of his dreams of the past and stared at the walls of his room, noticing that his geeky roommate had left the room. He sighs and sits up, popping his back slowly and wincing in the pain. His wings lay folded on his back and he still was not used to sleeping with them yet. His stomach growled a little and he frowns knowing that it wasn't food that his body wanted.

It seemed that his new form fed off of people's energy which he could take by touching their skin. The other energy would then power up his energy blasts which seemed to drain him rapidly. He had tried to feed it with normal food but it seemed like his body simply needed something else. He had used Fiorela when he had first gotten to the school and had drained so much energy from her that it left her in a coma like state according to his father's calls. He lied like he had nothing to do with it, telling his father about his trophy wife's addiction to drugs and he knew the man at least believed him somewhat.

The rest of the time, he got short bursts of energy from draining plants and animals and sometimes even humans by touching them briefly. But he knew his body craved more.

"Hmm...there's no way I could get to Ty though that brief taste of her I got did help a little...I wonder what the new girl tastes like..."

Cole smiles remembering the blond he had passed a few days ago and the tight shorts she had been wearing.

"Oh yes I really want to taste her..." Then another idea popped into his head and he smiles even wider.

"I wonder what Kayvan is doing..."

"I had just started getting my powers when I was around thirteen. I lived in Australia then with my mother and my younger brother. My father was there off and on, but usually he was busy with his work. Too busy to worry about us at least. I had always had an obsession with fire even back then and one day I found that if I concentrated really hard that I could make the fire do whatever I wanted." John said softly, flicking his lighter open and closed. Tatyana sat near him, her hand placed near his but not quite touching him yet.

"I was obsessed with this power. I felt like I was a god but I realized that this power wasn't fully in my control. I tried to practice it whenever I could and I used to show my younger brother the different shapes I made. He loved them, sometimes he was a bit like Bobby which is probably why the Popsicle became my best friend. He was loud and liked playing pranks and things like that...Well one day I was playing with my favorite lighter and showing Tatum and my mother this tiny horse I made when our father came in saw what I was doing."

"He didn't know I was a mutant. I hid it from him because mom told me to keep my powers hidden from him. 'He'll try to snuff out your fire, St. John. Don't let him or anyone take that spark from you' She would say to me at night, pressing the lighter into my hand. Well that day he saw and just started yelling at me. I sat there just playing with my lighter, trying to ignore him when he pushed me. Mom jumped in between us and tried to get him to stop pushing at me but he...hit her and I just snapped..."

John takes a shaky breath and slips his hand in to Tatyana's, "I lashed out at him with fire, Ty. It was so natural and almost reflexive that it scared me but it didn't hit just him. My mother was hit with the fire as well and I tried to stop the fire on her but she still ended up badly burned. She spent months in the hospital after that and now she and Tatum stay with her sister but I know my aunt doesn't want me near them. That's how I ended up at Xavier's, my aunt sent me here not only to get control over my powers but to get me as far away from them as possible. She doesn't want me to harm them again or worse...kill them like I killed my dad."

"Oh John...I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." Tatyana slowly pulls her friend into a hug, letting the boy she thought was so strong cry into her chest like she had done his.

"I don't want to lose you too, Ty. I'm trying to control my powers...it's why I went to Magneto and why I did all those bad things in my past. I wanted control. I wanted power. I didn't want to feel weak and know that I could get that angry again and hurt someone I cared about again. It didn't matter to me when I hurt strangers but knowing that someone close to me could be hurt like I hurt my mother I just..."

Tatyana just pets the man's hair, wiping away the tears she felt falling down her own cheeks for John's pain. She couldn't imagine feeling scared of her own powers, that fear of losing control like John felt. She had no idea how to comfort him but she knew that she couldn't and wouldn't leave him because of his past.

"I won't leave you, St. John. I love you too much to leave you."

*Mon Fils- my son

BRC: Please review!