It Sounded Much Cooler in My Head

Summary Elizabeth Brooks' favorite color is green,he is green,surly they're meant to be.Too bad he's an insecure,unstable madman of a mutant who wants to end humanity and she's a human with an attitude problem.

Warnings: This story is going to contain coarse language, gore, violence, mentions of drug and alcohol abuse, and maybe sexually explicit content some day.

Memo: I'm now making an Evolution comic so... updates may slow a tiny bit.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of X-Men, just my originals and this story.

Exalted Fans: Itsallaboutme11 // animebaby6 // Jinx of the 2nd Law // foxfire222 // Angeldustedthatfreak // Italia12 //Shostakovich // st.elmo-lover // GothikStrawberry // darkraya

Chapter Twelve: Toad Hath No Fury…WHAT?!

Needless to say, Toad came straight back to earth with a look that would have made the devil piss himself. "Which… one?"

Eric and Elizabeth just gaped at him, eyes wide.

"Which one of you hit me with a bloody spatula?" he spat, slamming his fist down on the table and standing up quick enough to send his chair to the floor behind him.

"It was her," Eric said, pointing at Elizabeth, "I tried to stop her, but no."

"B-B-But… he ducked!" she said, pointing accusingly at Eric.

"Well you threw it!"

"Maybe so, but you-"

"Your water's burning!" he said quickly, making her turn and look while he got away unscathed. It was all good-natured, if he'd honestly thought Toad would hurt her he wouldn't have left her of coarse, but he figured she'd fair better than he would have ever hoped to.

Toad's grand retaliation was to half-heartedly toss the spatula at her and correct the chair he'd overturned, all done with that horribly angry look.

The expression of anger Elizabeth had put on for Eric fell away to one of utter confusion.

"Wot now?"

"U-U-Uh…" She stiffly bent over and picked up the fallen spatula off the floor, turning it over in her hands trying to avoid answering for as long as possible, "It's just…" she looked up at him and knew in an instant she wasn't getting off without an explanation, "That's it? Your not gonna… throttle me?" Her voice was small, her words cautious.

He inwardly flinched at those words, a bitter expression crossing his face. So she even thought as little of him as all the others. "I've got to go work on the jet," he said plainly.

Even with all his trying to convince himself otherwise he'd stupidly gotten his hopes up.

Elizabeth gave him a wounded look, "Are you sure? The food won't take too long."

"I'm very sure," he said firmly, a sharp edge coming to his voice as he headed out the door.

Elizabeth glanced at the water that was just beginning to boil and sighed as she turned the heat on the stove down, lunch could wait. She followed after him, silent as a shadow…a loud clumsy shadow anyway. He was distracted enough not to notice her, it was not as if she posed a threat to him. He bypassed the hangar and went straight to the training room, shedding his vest, but none of his other layers of clothes. She frowned, the giddy girly part of her wanting to see more of him. He tossed his vest aside and immediately started dealing one hit after another to the punching bag; she had to wonder why it wasn't her he was hitting.

What had changed about him in so little time? Her plans didn't seem to work and yet his anger wasn't being taken out the slightest bit on her. No threats, no punches, was it possible that… No, he couldn't possibly like her, this was Toad for god's sake, he didn't care about anyone, least of all her. He was just some girlish fantasy of hers, he'd never actually like her. But that would be perfect, wouldn't it? Exactly what she wanted?

Why did he have to be so damn hard to figure out?

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She's just like everyone else. She's just like everyone else. She's just like everyone else. He'd just keep saying it until she was, until she stopped talking to him so casually, until she stopped doing thing for him for no reason, until she stopped being so damned nice. She confounded him, seeming to change the was she acted every moment she was around him.

She's just like everyone else.

'I was…worried about you.'

Just like everyone else.

'I-I know you were supposed to, your chore and all, but… well… you seemed busy.'

Just like everyone else.

'Not everyone is out to get you, you know.'

She was just like every-fucking-one else. She had to be.

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Eric was back-tracking back to the kitchen to ensure that Elizabeth was unharmed when he saw her in the hall, peeking into the training room. "Still alive I see," he said, grinning.

She literally jumped a good foot or so, managing a fluid spin to face him while still in the air, "E-Eric… what are you doing?"

"Better question, what are you doing?" he asked, looking past her into the training room to see Toad's attack on the punching bag still going on. "Oh, your spying on him again." He knew she'd been spying on Toad, she's talked about him quite frequently. "I'll never understand you Lizzy, I mean, Toad's a nice enough guy deep down… and I mean really deep down, but still." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. "You up for a game or something?"

"I need to finish up with lunch. Maybe later?" she replied absently.

"Uh…sure," he agreed slowly, feeling a bit rejected, " You need any help in the kitchen?" he asked almost hopefully.

She shook her head, "No, I think I got it."

"Okay, but after we eat you are so playing a round or two of Mario Carts, got it?" he added in a sort of forced joking way.

She smiled an nodded, lifting his spirit a bit. "Got it."

Elizabeth finished up the food with flourish, it wasn't exactly extravagant; garlic bread, spaghetti, and a rich sauce with really big meatballs, but it was one of the thing that she could quickly find the ingredients for.

Eric walked in about the time she was setting down the last bit of silverware.

"Attractive, intelligent, a good cook, even if you're a bit absent minded sometimes, you're a gift from the gods if ever I came across one." he said, taking her in a one-armed hug, and smiling at the blush quickly reddening her face, it was almost upsetting to think she wasn't used to complements, "Not to mention your good at video games."

She laughed, a sound he found he quite enjoyed. "You always beat me though."

"Hey, I said you were good, I didn't say you could defeat the master."

"Well oh great master of video games, you go ahead and eat and I'll tell toad that the foods done."

He let her go, "Oh, okay."

Elizabeth noted something odd in his tone and instantly frowned, worried, "Something wrong?"

"Nah," the odd tone she was sure she'd heard was gone, "Just don't expect there to be any food left when you two get back."

He sounded as Eric-y as ever. She shrugged it off, she must have imagined it.

Toad was rarely hard to find as he was nearly always in one of three places; the training room, the hangar, or his room which she was still to scared to enter.

At some point he'd gone to the hangar, and was making short work of what remained to be fixed on the jet.

"Um… Toad?" she ventured, not really wanting to bother him. Honestly, that name he went by left a bitter taste in her mouth, she didn't like calling him that.

"Wot?" his voice was flat, lacking its usual venom.

"Foods ready, Eric's already eating."

He was quiet for a moment, "I'll be there in a minute."

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HONESTLY, what is up with these two and doubting the other's feelings? They're both so…GAH, it's frustrating. O.o But that's how they are.