Author's Note:

One review, yay! Sorry for the confusion, her eyes turn gold when her powers are in use, and ever since the mall incident, they've stayed golden and haven't turned brown again.

Anyways, I'm going to put my foot down-- 2 reviews, and I'll get out the next chapter.

Next chapter will show part of Rogue's side-story and where she's been, and it'll also develop the love interest of the story, so review, even if it's one sentence, I'm easily pleased ^_^

Thanks to Elsa, you rock!

"That Green Gentlemen (Things Have Changed)"

Things are shaping up to be pretty odd.

Bayville High School

Ray lasted until fourth period.

Lunch had been fun; it seemed that even if mutants were allowed in school, most students had an aversion to them, so we had an entire corner of the cafeteria to ourselves. Kitty had given me the social run-down of the seniors while Kurt had spent the whole period debating which band was better with Bobby and Sam. Ray, on the other hand, was quiet for the better part of the half-hour, so it was no surprise to me when he ambushed me the moment we were out of earshot.

"So, what'd Quicksilver want?"

Despite the seriousness of his tone, my mind could only register one word in his sentence at that precise moment. "Quicksilver?" I repeated, barely suppressing the giggles. "Are you serious?"

"It's his codename, a mutant thing," he explained impatiently. I covered my mouth to suppress my laughter and nodded, showing that I understood. "So, what did he want?"

"I don't know," I admitted, shrugging. "He just wanted to talk about what happened yesterday."

"Why?"

"How should I know? You guys are the experts on the Brotherhood."

I followed him to our next class, Physics, all the while considering just how much to let him in on. Maybe he would know why Pietro gave me a lighter? The class was boring, as was to be expected, and even if the professor didn't pay much attention to what the students were doing (we'd need to call Flight Control soon with the amount of paper airplanes in the air), I didn't try to talk any more with Ray. He sat next to me and on more than one occasion I caught him looking at me out of the corner of his eye, but I ignored him and stared out the window.

A lighter...?

I didn't smoke, and I could tell at a glance that he didn't, either—at least, not frequently enough to want to spend money on a sleek, fancy lighter like the one he'd given me. A memory fought to resurface, but surrounded by as many teenagers as I was, I couldn't focus—the hormones, adolescent anxiety and excitement made it almost impossible to focus on anything, much less on a memory that I was better off forget—

I stopped breathing.

Lighter, fire, burns...

"May I be excused?"

The professor barely looked away from the board but I took the wave of his hand as permission enough to leave. I gathered my books and, ignoring the stares of the other students, moved as quickly as humanly possible towards the door. I didn't stop in the hallway and continued to the restroom, scanning the halls for any teachers.

Scanning?

Since when did I know how to scan?

I dismissed this thought and ducked behind a row of lockers when a security guard rounded a corner. Yeah, this high school had security guards, too. He continued to walk in the opposite direction, his boredom the emotional beacon I had caught on to. The moment he moved into another hallway, I made my way towards the gymnasium.

A class was playing basketball when I went in, but I didn't recognize anybody and continued to the exit. As I'd hoped, the football field was in view, so I jogged towards the bleachers, feeling free to stop being inconspicuous. Nobody was out here this period, so I settled in the shade underneath the benches and got comfortable.

I threw my backpack on the floor against a metal beam and leaned up against it, using it like a cushion. With some slight apprehension, I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and clicked it open. A simple flame came to life, artificial and quaint. I closed it and opened it again, gazing at the tamed fire. I repeated this several times until I felt something warm in my chest, a bubble threatening to burst, and then I just knew. I took a deep breath, opened the lighter, and exhaled.

The flame turned out.

To say the least, it was quite anticlimactic.

Setting my jaw, I opened the lighter again and focused on a single word: grow. Words weren't the key; The flame flicked side-to-side, innocently mocking me and my incompetence. I growled: this was worse than those guys that poked you and then ran out of your reach like children… wait, no, the fire was exactly like that.

In a second, the bubble in my chest burst, and a pleasant warmth spread through my body. I gasped and my eyes widened as I made the connection with the flame: it was a living, breathing element, and once I recognized that, it became an extension of myself. I breathed into the flame and without any effort whatsoever made it grow. It burst to life and lifted away from its base on the lighter and onto my hand. I laughed and held it like a ball above my skin, enjoying the energy it emitted.

This had to be the coolest thing I'd ever done in my life.

"Danny!"

I froze and the flame disappeared from existence; in all honesty, it made me feel pretty sad. I turned and saw Ray running in my direction, an anxious look on his face that didn't fully go away even when he came closer. I got to my feet just as he came under the bleachers, and it was just in time because he nearly collapsed on me from exhaustion. "Ray!" I exclaimed, gripping his shoulders. He grabbed my hands and pulled them off of himself, then looked at them with confusion. "Ray, what's--?"

"Why aren't you burned?" he demanded, looking at the perfectly unharmed skin on my hands. I gulped; how was I going to explain this? "Danny, what happened?!" When I didn't respond, he sighed and shook his head. I realized he still held my hands in his, but he lowered them now and looked me directly in the golden eyes.

"Danny, you're an X-Man now." The words caught me by surprise, but I didn't say anything because despite how paranoid he had been of me less than an hour earlier, all of those feelings had seemingly vanished into thin air. "Being an X-Man means being part of a team. You don't have to trust me yet, but you can tell me what's going on."

All I could do was stare at him. "Ray…" His eyes were so blue, so clear, so… concerned. For a single self-conscious moment, I wondered if my mutated golden eyes would ever be as enticing as his were by nature. His aura wrapped me in a secure cocoon, letting me know I was safe. I squeezed his hands and took a deep breath. "I don't know what's going on."

"What happened just now, with the fire?" I bit my lip and looked down.

"In Physics, I was trying to figure out why Pietro gave me the lighter," I began, "and I remembered how I'd made that girl's lighter on the beach explode in the PR. I thought maybe the lighter was Pietro's way of showing that he knew how I made it happen, and I decided to test my theory before he spoke to me again."

"And?"

"It worked. I can control fire, somehow. But Pietro said something about 'giving' me his power, and I don't know how I deflected Lance's attack yesterday." I shook my head. "It's just… so weird, Ray." Something in him spiked when I said his name, but when I looked up at him again, nothing had changed in his expression.

After a short silence, he said, "I think you should talk to Rogue."

That had definitely not been what I expected him to say. "Rogue? Why?"

"Because your power sounds like hers," he said. When I still looked confused, he explained. "When Rogue touches somebody, she absorbs their memories and, with mutants, their powers."

"Absorbs?" I repeated. He nodded. "How does it affect the other person?"

"Depends how long she touches them. Most of the time they're out cold for a couple of minutes, though."

I thought about this for a moment. That would explain her dark aura, at least: anyone with so many persona's in their head would have to have a dark feel to them. But if physical contact knocked out whoever touched her, then why hadn't I felt anything when I touched her hand last night? Although I was pretty sure that touching wasn't the key to my power, it was actually starting to seem like a pretty good idea to talk to my roommate, so I nodded in agreement.

"She's at the Institute right now, but…"

"We'll talk to her after school, if you want."

I smiled despite myself. "We?" As I said it, I became aware of the fact that we were still holding hands; he seemed to notice, too, because we both pulled back at the same time. I crossed my arms awkwardly and bit my lip.

"If you want," he said, shrugging as if it were no big deal. Judging by the hope in his mind's voice, it actually was a bigger deal than he wanted to let on. I smiled again and nodded.

"I would really like that." He looked up in surprise and our eyes met. It wasn't one of those moments where time seems to stop or where you can't breathe; no, at the moment, we reached a silent understanding, and somewhere deep down, I knew that we'd just become friends. For a moment I swore I saw sparks fly in the air, but it had to be my imagination reflecting the butterflies rising in my stomach… I gulped. These weren't the thoughts I needed less than a week after breaking up with my cheating boyfriend.

"I knew you couldn't stay away for long."

I jumped at Pietro's voice in my ear. My hair blew into my face as he whizzed by, and when I cleared it away, Ray was tied to one of the beams holding up the bleachers with an American flag. In any other situation it would have been comical, but in this situation, it was anything but. "Ray?!" I instinctively rushed forward, but then Pietro ran in front of me, a smirk on his face and an envelope in his hand.

"Hey Danny," he said cheerfully. "Think we could talk for a sec?"

He lifted me up faster than I could fight him off and shot out running. When he finally stopped, we were on the roof of the radio controls room where the school broadcast football games. He put me down and I attempted to shove him; to my surprise, he didn't move out of the way, and allowed me to push him by his shoulders.

"What the hell, Pietro?" I exclaimed angrily. "Why'd you do that?"

He put on a mask of innocence. "Why'd I do what?"

I exasperatedly gestured towards where Ray was tied up on the other side of the football field. "Why'd you do that to Ray?!"

"He would've interrupted us," he said simply, shrugging. "And anyways, I wanted to be able to show you these in private."

He opened the large manila envelope and pulled out a photograph for me to see. Even if I wanted to throw him off the side of this small building (he wouldn't get that hurt, right?), my curiosity got the better of me and I gave the photograph a glance. It showed a man with orange-red hair sleked back, dressed in a brown suit with a large, semi-maniacal smile; after a couple seconds' thought, I recognized him. "That's Mr. Pyre," I stated slowly. "He was a substitute for music class a week or two ago. What does he have to do with anything?"

"Mr. Pyre, talented music teacher," Pietro said, making air-quotes around the word "talented", "is better known around these parts as Pyro." He pulled out a second picture of a man in a red-and-orange body suit. Two tanks were attached to his back, hoses leading out of them to his wrists. His hair spiked up like a porcupine's out of a red band wrapped around his head, but the most impressive thing was what was going on with his hands:

Fire was shooting out of his hands and onto the palm trees around him. Tourists ran away with terrified looks on their faces and pillars of smoke rose from several surrounding buildings: chaos. The whole scene seemed strangely familiar, and it only took a moment for it to click. "He's the mutant who set the plaza on fire in San Juan!" I exclaimed. "I saw that on the news the other day! That's Mr. Pyre?!"

"Yup," Pietro confirmed, nodding. "He spent just two days as your substitute, and you were able to imprint on his powers."

"Imprint?"

"Your genetic code reads his and if everything works out right, you can have his powers," he explained, albeit with a hint of boredom in his voice. "That's why he was so touchy-feely: physical contact helps. It's a lot of science-y mumbo jumbo, but this is why you need to join us."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow and stepped back; I'd gotten caught up in the shock of finding out a teacher of mine was an arsonist mutant, but now I was coming back to reality. He wouldn't provide this information without a price, and I had a feeling it was a price I wouldn't be able to pay. "How do you know all of this, and why should I agree to join you?" I asked cautiously. Here, without any means of defense or escape, he had the upper hand, and I had to be careful.

"To your first question, my father, Magneto, sent him to see if you would imprint his powers," he answered, ticking off one finger. "He's been watching you for a while, and wanted to see if you were strong enough to join him yet. As for your second question, we understand your powers better than the X-Geeks ever could. You could stay with them and get no where, or come with us and go straight to the top. Your choice."

It took a couple of seconds for this to sink in: the whole point of coming to Bayville had been to understand my powers, hadn't it? There wasn't any harm in getting some help from someone who seemed to completely understand the whole issue, right?

Then why did I have such a bad feeling about it?

"Look, I just don't--"

Like he'd done only a couple of minutes before, he picked me up like a newlywed bride and ran. I clenched my eyes shut and opened them once we'd stopped. We were once again under the bleachers, but I didn't see Ray, so I assumed he'd purposefully left me farther from my teammate. He put me down and I straightened my clothes, giving him a wary look.

"Could you please not do that so much?" I muttered, pulling off the hair tie I'd held my ponytail up with.

"Sorry, force of habit," he said, not apologetic at all. I rolled my eyes. His words came out faster than normal, most likely because he'd just run. I shook my hair loose and was about to pull it back up when he grabbed my wrists to stop me. "Wait," he said urgently. Confused, I lowered my arms.

"What is--?"

The words were barely out of my mouth when he suddenly leaned forward and kissed me right next to my mouth. I gasped and pulled back, but he had already run off, so it was useless. I stood frozen for a moment, and then felt my face start to heat up.

That had been unexpected.

I groaned and wiped my cheek with the sleeve of my shirt, but of course, it did no good; the kiss had been almost on my lips, so it was hard to push it out of my head so quickly. In the PR, we always greeted with brief kisses on the cheeks; this was completely different. I continued to rub the spot where he'd touched me until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I screamed involuntarily and whorled around with my fist pulled back, but it was only Ray. I let out a sigh of relief, but then I saw the look on his face. Had he seen? Then again, why did I care?

Who the hell was I kidding?

"Ray, how'd you get out?" I asked, and then saw the flag in his hand. It was singed and smelled like burnt fabric. "Somebody's feeling anti-patriotic. Are you okay?"

"Fine," he answered, and threw the flag into a trash can. "It was the only way to get out."

I didn't really get the point he was trying to make, but shrugged it off. I didn't know what his power was yet, so the comment most likely had something to do with that. "I'm sorry I couldn't help, he just grabbed me--"

"Yeah, I saw. Is he gone?"

I tried to scan for the mutant, but realized it was hard to focus on his constantly shifting personality. I shook my head and gave him an apologetic look. "Can't tell for sure."

"Alright, let's head back to class, then."

We walked back to class in silence, and the whole way, despite all of the information (and unwanted attention) I had just gotten from Pietro, my mind kept going back to the way Ray had said, "We can talk to her after school, if you want."

"We..."

I ignored a familiar ringing in my ears and, for a moment, simply enjoyed how it felt to hear the word said with me included.

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