Disclaimer: I don't own x-men...but if for some reason some one who had the power to give me even a small fraction of the franchise were to read this and find my writing adequate enough, I would more than graciously accept even a tiny piece. ;]

Eyes Open

"Oh my gawd!" Rogue's raised voice was the first thing to greet the four teens as they walked in from the garage. She seemed to be reacting to a combination of the media coverage and seeing Kitty being carried in by Pete.

"I'm fine." Kitty quickly assured her friend.

"Good," Storm said as she came around the corner with her hands on her hips and a stern look on her face, "because the Professor, Mr. Summers, and I would like to have a word with all of you. Pete, take Kitty to see Dr. Grey. John, Noah, come with me."

The three walked in silence. The two boys exchanged worried looks as they approached the door. Inside the Professor was at his desk while Scott stood next to him with his hands folded gently behind him as if he'd been ordered 'at ease' by his superior officer.

"Now I understand that the media has a wonderful way of twisting the truth." Despite the obvious tension and atmosphere of impending discipline, Xavier's voice was smooth and calm. "Tell us your side of the story. One at a time, please."

John was the first to explain the event, the seemingly suicidal man, the reaction of his peers as he saw it, and their running in case of anti-mutant riot. Noah followed by confirming most of what John had said as well as noting that the young child in the media sample seemed to be the man's son rather than a victim of their supposed attack.

The three adults seemed to be sitting in silence for a moment, when in fact the Professor was communicating with them telepathically. The teens' nerves were reaching a breaking point when Scott began to speak.

"We believe that in light of the situation you all reacted well and undoubtedly saved that man's life." Both of them let out a sigh of relief only to be met with Scott raising his voice as he continued. "However, from now on the four of you will not be allowed to go off grounds without an adult escort."

Both boys nodded, the punishment seemed to fit the crime.

"Also," Storm began by looking directly at Noah, "we'd like to run a few more tests on you Noah."

"More tests?" Noah sounded worried. The idea of becoming a science experiment had always frightened him.

"We are not going to harm you, Noah," assured the professor, "during your next Danger Room session, which will be with Logan, you'll wear a special bodysuit that will transmit data to some computers. Also, if you're willing to allow me access to your mind, I'll help you trigger your stronger powers. This will allow us to better understand how your mind processes the use of your abilities so that we can better help you to achieve your true potential."

Noah had to think for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"In the mean time," Storm chimed in, "it's late and you two need to go straight to your room. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am," both boys said at the same time. They turned and headed out of the room, passing Pitor, who was headed in to see three adults next. He caught Noah's eyes for a moment before, turning back to face his punishment.

The two stayed in total silence until they reached their room. As soon as he crossed the threshold Noah let out an immense sigh and threw himself onto his bed face down.

"Honestly, that wasn't that bad," John closed their door. "Pete's probably going to be in more trouble since he's older and took us to there in the first place."

Noah groaned something into his mattress.

"You alright there guy?" John asked from the other side of the room as he began changing into his night clothes.

John couldn't be totally sure as Noah was still speaking into his mattress but he thought he heard an "I don't know," in a whining tone.

"OK? Want to talk about it?" John offered cautiously.

Noah slowly rolled over on his side and looked into John's eyes. For a moment John was paralyzed by the emerald eyes that looked up at him. He snapped out of it at the sound of Noah's voice.

"I don't think that you'll want to hear about it."

"Hey you listened to my problems. Let me return the favor." John let a genuine smile cross his lips, something that was becoming more and more common since his new roommate moved in.

"Well," the boy sat up and began tracing the patterns on the comforter of his bed as he spoke, "right before everything went down at the mall Pete and I sort of had a moment."

"What kind of moment?" John wanted it to be what it sounded like, but he wasn't going to read too much into it.

"Maybe I should have started out like this…Well, I'm gay."

"Why didn't you say anything when-" because he doesn't like you that's why. He likes guys like Pitor and Logan.

"Because you had enough on your plate already. It's hard enough figuring out your feelings with one guy, but when you add another that you don't know that well then you have a mess. Besides, I didn't want to cause any problems between you and Bobby when I first found out about you two."

"Oh," John blushed, "I guess that makes sense. Thanks."

Noah snorted, "I wasn't really trying to hide it either."

"I was starting to suspect during the movie, but it's good to know for sure."

"Anyway, at the mall," Noah started again, "Pete and I...kissed."

"You kissed Bobby's roommate? He moves out, away from me and moves in with- And you kissed-"

"Yes!" Noah cut him off. "Are you having a mental breakdown?"

"No, I just never thought...Pitor Rasputin...wow..."

"I think it was his first kiss with another guy."

"Actually now that I think about it…he does like to hang around with Logan whenever he can and few people can stand just being around Logan, let alone hang-" John paused remembering Noah was one of those few people. "Do you like-"

"No!" Noah laughed, "Logan's way too intense for me."

John got lost in thought, forgetting himself briefly he thought aloud. "I wonder how much of Pete's body that bio-armor of his covers."

When the other boy didn't comment, John looked up at him, seeing a hint of jealousy on the normally happy teen's face.

"Why don't you ask him?" Noah snapped. "I certainly have no intention of finding out!"

"Really?" John forgot himself, excited to hear that.

The Texan shrugged, "Yeah. I don't like to be the first guy someone is with. I've been through all the identity questions and the self hate before. It's not something I want to re-visit again."

"But if you're not interested, why did you kiss him?"

"Now don't get me wrong," he focused on the comforter, obviously feeling a little uncomfortable talking about this with John, "he makes my spine tingle, but what do we have in common? I like my men with more," he looked directly into John's eyes and smirked, "depth."

"Um, alright," John smiled awkwardly as he got up and walked over to his desk. He sat down on the desk itself so he could face Noah as he smoked a cigarette. "So, is that all that happened between you two? A kiss?"

"Yeah, but it was kind of an intense kiss."

"How do you mean?" John asked.

Noah stood up and slowly walked over. He pulled out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth, leaning forward so he could light his with John's already lit one. John's attention jumped back and forth between Noah's eyes and his lips.

"Well," Noah smirked, blowing his smoke away from the other boy out the window, "we were close like this." He wrapped one arm around John's waist and pulled him in close. John's legs were on either side of Noah's waist and their torsos were pressed up against one another. "And then he leaned in like this," As Noah began to kiss him, he could feel John relaxing. He slowly pulled back and with a smile moved his mouth to the nape of the fire mutant's neck. He could feel John's pulse quicken against his lips as he let out a small moan. Instinctively, Noah slid his hand up John's thigh. As soon as he felt the edge of John's shorts glide over the top of his hand he realized what he was doing. Noah hesitated before pulling back, breaking their contact entirely.

"I'm sorry." Noah said, "I shouldn't have- You and Bobby-"

"No," John said as he took a deep drag of his half burned but still lit cigarette, "don't be. I asked remember?" He cleared his throat and blinked his eyes trying to focus again, "I would say that if that happened between you and Pete then you need two need to talk. Even if he's-"

"What?"

John really wanted to say 'not me' but he couldn't, "You know, new to liking guys."

Noah chuckled a bit nervously before taking a drag of his own cigarette. "He's not my type anyway," he laughed, "and he probably has a crush on Professor Logan, not me."

John nodded, "Then as far as Pete goes, just don't bring it up. You know it happened. He knows is happened. Kitty probably knows it happened, but she won't say anything. If he wants to talk about it then you can cross that bridge when you come to it."

"Well looks like both of us give good advice. We just don't know how to take our own." Noah smirked.

The two finished their cigarettes in silence before turning to each other.

"It's been a long day," Noah smiled before turning to change and get under the covers. "I'm just gonna head to bed."

"Yeah, me too," John said as he flicked his cigarette, burned it, and closed the window.

The two settled into their beds, turned off their lights, and wished each other pleasant dreams. Both fell asleep with a little difficulty that night as each had thoughts of the other swimming through their heads.

– – –

The next day was a busy one for both of them. Although they had the same classes, they didn't have them at the same time. It wasn't until after the day's classes were over that they were able to see one another.

"Hey," John said as he walked up to Noah in the kitchen. He was sipping on a cup of tea and doing math homework that John didn't recognize. "How was your fist day of class?"

"Awesome." Noah said while writing down an answer.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah..." Noah was working on another math problem.

John looked over his shoulder and looked puzzled. "What level of math are you in?"

"Um, well Dr Grey noticed that my math and science skills are about three levels above where I was so she gave me this placement test."

"Aren't you allowed to use a calculator?"

"Yeah but I can do them in my head faster, I have to show my work anyway."

"Oh well I'll leave you to it."

"No don't go," Noah quickly put down his pencil. "I need a break."

"Noah," Storm was in the doorway, "is this a bad time?"

"I guess not," he said as he picked up his test and pencil and shoved them both into his bag. He took a final swig of his tea before rinsing out the cup and placing it in the dishwasher. "I need a good training session to take my mind off a few things. I'll see you later." He said to John with a smile.

John let out a sigh as soon as Noah was out of sight and turned to look out the window. There was a lot going through his mind. Thoughts of Bobby and of Noah were fighting for dominance in his mind. Both boys were attractive to him. Noah seemed more caring than Bobby and more tuned in to emotions and the possibility of hurting him, although he'd known Bobby for so much longer, for all he knew Noah was exactly like Bobby and was only putting on a show for now.

"Hey, there you are!" Bobby said as he walked into the kitchen. "I've been looking for you all day. I heard about what happened last night, are you alright?"

John was startled by Bobby and his overly concerned tone of voice. "I'm fine no need to freak out dude."

"Oh alright." Bobby turned away and got a root beer out of the cupboard and turned it cold with one hand. "So is now a good time to talk some more?"

John sat silently in his own world as the words caught up to him. "What? Oh yeah, I guess now's a good a time as any."

The look of concern on Bobby's face only grew as his friend was acting stranger than normal. "Okay well," He began. "I've thought about it and I want you to know that I really like you, as more than a friend, but I've been cheating on Rogue. I need to focus on her and let her know my feelings. You and I…we can't do anything else until she and I can work something out or break-up. I'm sorry."

John sat in silence and let the words soak in while he formed the exact response he would need. "First of all, thanks, for telling me how you really feel. It means a lot Bobby. Second, I think that it's the right thing to do even if I don't really like it."

Bobby nodded, half smiling because he didn't like it either.

"I also have something to tell you," John blushed, "This Rogue thing could take a while and I'm…I'm probably not going to wait around for you. There are other guys in this school who like me, and I think I might try things out with one of them." John started to drift off again, Noah having won the battle in his mind.

"Like who?" Bobby asked, with an amused tone.

John frowned, "You don't think someone else could like me?"

"If someone else around here liked you, I would have noticed," Bobby sounded so sure of himself that the other teen knew that the ice mutant thought he was making it up.

"Oh really? Well then I guess you have nothing to worry about, do you, Iceman?" The pilot light on the stove flared a bit as he said the teen's code name. John got to his feet, brushing past Bobby and started to make his way back to his room.

– – –

"Here," Dr Jean Grey handed him a spandex bodysuit and a swimming camp with nodules all over them. "You can wear these under your clothes and it will help us read your neuro-electric activity so we can correlate it with the Professor's experiences and create a profile for your abilities and limitations."

"Okay," Noah smirked as he pretended to understand what she was saying, "I'm going to go now."

Noah smirked and walked into the changing room, he stripped down and slid into the ridiculous looking bodysuit and slipped on the swimmers cap before putting his clothes back on and entering the Danger Room.

"Now this is supposed to be a friendly spar you two." Dr Grey's voice came over the speaker. He knew she and the Professor were watching them even though he couldn't see them through the holographic alleyway he now found himself in.

"Remind me what you can do again." Noah asked Logan.

Logan responded by letting his claws come out of his fists he used one of them to make a long, deep scratch on his arm and made sure Noah could see it heal.

"Alright," Noah said with a tone of forced enthusiasm, "let's get this party started."

Logan let out a bestial growl as he began to close the distance between them. Noah focused in and let his fighting stance take over. Logan made a few punching motions as he retracted his claws and swung his first hit, which Noah quickly blocked and rolled his way away from. Noah stretched out a hand in front of him and began to focus on something that wasn't happening so he quickly sent out a few burst of stopping energy to try to see if the adamantium could be stopped by his power. No such luck, but there was a ding before Dr Grey's disembodied voice came over the inter com again.

"That was great; I have enough readings on that ability to say that it's a static kinetic energy field for certain. That means you're creating a bubble in which you negate the kinetic energies. I believe that with focus and training you'll be able to stop people on command as well."

"Interesting." Logan mocked.

Noah made a face as if he was not amused. "Go on."

"Okay next I want you to focus on trying to recreate that thing you did to Storm near the end of your session."

"Not sure how but I'll try."

"May I help you Noah?" The professor's voice came through on the intercom.

"Uh, sure?" Noah hesitated.

Noah let out a light moan of pain as he felt the professor enter his mind.

"Oh excuse me," Xavier thought, "I forgot you have an already established psychic link." A second later the pain eased enough to where it only felt like a paper cut, "Is that better?"

"It's alright," Noah responded, "shall we?"

"I am going to stimulate part of your mind where your more powerful dormant mutation resides. It might bring up some unpleasant memories in the process. I'll do my best to keep those at a minimum so you can concentrate. Let me know when you're ready."

"I understand. Do it."

Suddenly flashes of his mother and the pain he felt over her death came rushing over him. He could feel himself become unnaturally angry and a ripple of energy could be seen all around him.

"Now Noah, focus on controlling it, keeping it stable and moving it away from your body."

At the Professor's request he began to slowly move what appeared to be a sphere of fluxing energy away from his body and hold in front of him, with both hands stretched out toward it, keeping it stable.

"Okay!" called Dr. Grey's voice over the intercom again and Noah let out a breath as he let the energy sphere fall apart, keeping control of it enough to make sure Logan, Dr. Grey and The Professor couldn't be affected by it. "That's enough for now. End the session and come meet me in my lab tomorrow after your classes. Get some rest Noah."

– – –

Author's Notes: Trust me guys Spiras Stargate's Beta reading took this chapter from a 5 to a 10 lol it was A LOT sloppier before she took a crack at it.