Author´s note:
Okay, a very quick update for you guys. I´m feeling quite in a writing mood right now, so enjoy it as long as this lasts, hehe .
2wingo: Yup. Thanks. When i watched the movie I half expected Mystique to show up in that particular scene... I hoped she would, so... this is my version of how things should´ve turned out.
Meow: Nice to hear :-) I hoped the dialog between the two of them would work. I wasn´t sure about it, so I´m glad you liked it.
PsychoSpiff: Glad you still like the story. Oooh, sorry for the grammar and spelling mistakes. I am German so, trying my best to enhance my command over the English language, I hope my mistakes aren´t too bothersome.
Okay, here you go. And, as you might have noticed...yes, I admit it: I´m a review addict, so keep ´em comin´ :-)
Chapter 11
Company
He so well remembered this day. This day, about 17 or 18 years ago when the brotherhood had not been as tightly wrought as it would be in the years before its recent decline. This very day in early August when he had met this intriguing woman...and learned about the truly amazing abilities of the girl that had been living at his place for more than a year now.
She had been sulky when he had prepared to leave, looking at him with her yellow eyes bearing a more than clear hint of reproach. They had not found time to spend the evenings together for quite some days as they had often done before, and Erik was almost having a bad conscious for having to delay her again. The girl, Mystique, as she had called herself after some time, abandoning her human name completely, had become dear to him. She was like a daughter or rather, like a good friend. Although there was quite an age difference between the two of them they got along really well and would often spend the evenings together, both of them reading or talking. Whatever he told her, she always listened intently, taking in his every word like a sponge. He thought this might be a result of a fact that her family had driven her away and somehow appreciated her admirance.
Besides training her in the martial arts – in which she had by now succeeded his skills by far – he would also teach her other things. Much to Mystique´s annoyance he would frequently make her read what he referred to as "the classics" and she preferred calling "boring stuff." He did not want to send her to Charles´ school for some reason...maybe because he did not want to encounter his old friend again once having begun to concretely work on his plans of a global network of mutants who were just as determined and desperate for better treatment as he was. So he had found it necessary to teach her himself although he was not sure he was that much of a good teacher he still found knowledge important, even if Mystique might have disagreed.
When he left this evening however, she was sulking. She had obviously been looking forward for another of their long chats that often lasted till after midnight and he felt sorry he had to say no to her request. He had been working hard for the last few weeks and, as much as he liked Mystique´s company, he was also longing for a night out. He had not had a night out for a long time, as he realized.
"I promise I´ll keep my evening free tomorrow." he said with a slight smile, reaching for a light, black jacket. She was sitting on the floor, pretending to be too sulky to look at him, her knees pulled to her body. "We could play some chess if you like, hm?"
She gave him a short look, intent on not letting her liking the idea slip through her gaze, but he saw it and smiled. "I won´t be gone long, Mystique." he said.
He had wandered around the city for a while, enjoying the soft summer breeze that had fortunately cooled down during the evening. The day had been quite hot, a typical early August´s day when the leaves were already beginning to look dry and drousy.
After the sun had begun to set, he had finally found a place that had appealed to him. A small, cozy street café in some side street that had a number of white tables and chairs outside in the fresh air. He had taken a seat and enjoyed some moments in silence, thinking of trivial things.
When he finally looked around, investigating the few people around him – mostly youngsters in their mid or late teens and twenties – his eyes met the eyes of a slender woman who was sitting at a table only a few metres away from his. She, too, was alone, and when she caught his eye she smiled at him. Without much thinking, he returned the smile. He had to admit she was quite attractive – she was slender and must have been in her early thirties, her brown, thick hair was open and falling down over her shoulders. Her green eyes were lively and friendly, yet there was something in them that he could not place. Something that seemed familiar. He did not continue thinking what this might be.
She did not brake the gaze, although his eyes strayed away from hers again and after two or so minutes she took her drink, got up and walked over to him.
"Hello." she said. "Are you waiting for someone or may I sit down."
He looked at her in surprise, giving her a little smile.
"Sit down." he said, motioning to another chair.
They soon began to talk and easily enough, both of them enjoyed themselves so that after some minutes they were talking like they had known each other for quite a while and not just met. He asked himself whether maybe she was a mutant and if so, whether she might be sharing his beliefs, but as he could not detect any signs of a mutation, he did not hit on the topic. When the waiter came over to ask whether they would like something else to drink, he invited her to order something and she smiled widely, ordering a coke, asking the waiter whether it came in a can. Erik scowled slightly, smiling as it occurred to him this would just have been what Mystique would have asked for.
"What´s so funny?" she asked him, still smiling.
"Oh...nothing." he gave back. "It only seems there are a lot of people who prefer their cokes in cans."
She gave a laugh.
"So, why are you here?" he asked her to change the topic. "Business?"
"No." she said, playfully pushing a strand of hair out of her face. "I was just...visiting a friend." Again she smiled.
When they finally left the café it was late already, midnight had past when Erik looked at his watch and he at once felt bad about Mystique again. Although he could not help a smile thinking about the fact that she was surely going to give him the silent treatment and that quite as sure she´d be awake when he´d return, his conscious was nagging on him.
Nevertheless he was too much of a gentleman to leave the woman he had just met and talked to all evening ... without even knowing her name, as he suddenly realized ... alone in the dark. When he had offered her to walk her back to the place where she was staying, she had been reluctant for a moment as if she had to think again what her hotel was called, before she had given him the name of one only a street away from the café where they had met.
The night air was cool, yet not cold and they had not talked much while walking. She had given him occasional glances, something in her gaze he could not interpret. When they had arrived before the hotel, he briefly asked himself whether she would ask him in and he also asked himself whether he would have agreed. He surely would have, he thought. He had not have a love life for quite a time.
They were standing a little away from the main entrance when she was about to say goodbye, yet for some reason she seemed reluctant to move away and enter the hotel.
"I had a very nice evening" she said, giving him a wide smile which made her even more attractive to him. "It was really very nice having met you." She did not even ask for his name.
"Me too." he returned the compliment. "I hope you´ll find your friend." he added, referring to the reason she had given him earlier for being in the city. She scowled shortly, then smiled again. "Oh, I´m pretty sure I will." she said. For a moment there was a strange kind of silence between them when once again she raised her slender hand to push away a strand of hair. Their eyes locked and from an impuls, Erik drew closer to kiss her lightly on the cheek. "Good night" he said. She had turned her face in time, whether accidentally or with purpose he couldn´t tell later, but the result was that his lips met hers, not her cheek. For a moment she remained motionless and her not drawing back, Erik didn´t draw back either. He kissed her tenderly, not meaning to appear too rude or straight forward and feeling her seemingly not bothering he slowly deepened the kiss. Then, suddenly, she began chuckling.
He withdrew at once, giving her a bewildered look. "I´m sorry. I did not mean to offend." he said.
"No." Now the giggle broke out of her and she shook with laughter.
"No?" he asked.
"No." She repeated. "I am sorry."
"What for?" He had no idea what she was playing at.
She stepped back.
"For tricking you, Erik." she said with an open smile, still tears of laughter in her eyes, while he scowled. He had not even told her his name.
In the next second he thought there must be something wrong with his eyes. The street around them was deserted and the street lamp close to them was the only light, so he was the only one who saw what happened. He was the only one who saw the brunette woman change into someone else...someone he knew pretty well.
"Mystique!" He did not know whether he was supposed to be angry or baffled. Maybe he was both. She just grinned, her yellow eyes flashing in the light of the street lamp, when she turned back into the woman he had just kissed. "Yes", she said. "It´s me. I just found out something about my mutation and wanted to show you. But you wanted to go out."
Knowing Mystique was around made it even harder for Erik to keep the memories at bay. Since he knew it had been her, not an ordinary human child, he had met at the park the other day, too self-absorbed in his own pity to guess who he was talking to, it had become harder to shut away memories of better times. He had tried hard for things not to affect him, but the truth was that he wished for things to be normal again. Now he realized that the recovery of his powers was not all that was required to bring back the old days. Knowing Mystique was around, having read the hurt in her eyes was enough to make him know that much had changed...some things that might never become the same again.
He did not know what she was thinking and although he was pretty sure she would stay at the lair, he had no idea what her true intentions were. She had told him she had had plans of killing him, but was quite sure she had given up on these plans. Had she still been keen of them, he would already have been dead. She would have killed him in the instant she had revealed her identity to him. She would have knocked him to the ground when he had released her from his iron chain. He had been weak then, she could have killed him with ease, letting him die in the knowledge that in the end it had not been his enemies who had destroyed him, but the person that had once trusted him most. The person he had trusted most.
When the night drove on, he decided to call it a day and returned to his bedroom. He undressed quickly and lay down, but could find no sleep, only a light slumber. Nevertheless he remained lying in his bed, trying to force sleep to come to him, although it never did.
At some time during the night, late after midnight he guessed, he could hear someone open the door to his room. He didn´t even stir, pretending to be asleep as he knew who was standing in the doorframe. There was only little light on the corridor outside, but what was left was enough to create a shadow of her slender shape against the wall of his room. He went on breathing normally. Pretended to be asleep. Wondered why she had come, what she would do. After a moment of her standing there without moving, he heard the door being closed again and first he thought she had left. Then, however he found she hadn´t. Erik could hear the smallest hint of a footfall when she crossed the room with the silence of a cat, walking over to the window on the other end of the room. He did not know what he was doing, but when he later pretended to toss himself around in his sleep and carefully opened his eyes he saw her. She was sitting on the window sill staring out into the night.
Finally Erik fell asleep and when he woke the other morning, Mystique was gone.