Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed.

When Alex awoke the next morning, the rain had stopped and there were a few streaks of sunlight coming through the clouds, but the electricity was still out and neither Erik nor Charles put in an appearance for the morning run. He was half-tempted to turn around and go back to bed until breakfast as Sean was threatening to do, but Hank was already stretching out, and while if it was geek-type stuff, Alex would have been perfectly fine with the geek overshadowing him, he did have something of a reputation to maintain when it came to the physical stuff. Of course, if he could convince Hank to quit being such a goody two-shoes for once….

"Good morning," Hank said abruptly, brightening as he straightened.

Alex frowned, twisting to find Raven hurrying up to them. "Hey."

"Hey," she returned, her smile of greeting obviously for Hank even if her words were directed at him. "I'm glad you're still here; I was afraid you'd all left without me."

"Where's the professor?" Sean asked.

"He and Erik left to get some fuel for the generator. Something about wanting to get there early, just in case the power outage lasts through more than just today. Which, it might, out here." She shook her head. "His note said Moira went with them. Apparently she wanted to check in with her superiors from somewhere that wasn't here."

"Want to bet that either Erik or Moira doesn't make it back in one piece?" Sean asked.

Alex snorted. "I'd take that bet, except that neither of us has any money. Charles is with them, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah. Good point."

"We should get going if we want to make sure we get a few miles in," Hank said, before Alex could suggest a bet of his own. "Some of those clouds still look kind of ugly."

Alex bit back a comment about the absurdity of bigfoot being allergic to water—Hank might not have a spine worth mentioning, but Raven could get damn vicious in his defense—and shrugged. "So let's get going, then."

They took the same path that they had every morning since they'd arrived, up through the hills and around the grounds, and Alex was pleased to note that he was barely winded when they finally reached the front door again. The others might not think much of it, and he sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to point it out, but he'd been in prison. It wasn't really a place where you got to put in a lot of time running cross-country.

There was still no sign of Charles or the others as they munched their way through fire-toasted bread and peanut butter for breakfast, and when Hank retired to his lab with barely a mutter and Sean got permission to use Raven's weight set, Alex decided that he might as well do some more exploring.

There wasn't much to see, though…the sun might be up, but without electricity, the halls were still dark, and he'd already poked his nose into most of the open rooms. Old statues and art just didn't hold his attention very well.

He did have a moment of temporary insanity passing by Erik's room during which he thought that it might be interesting to poke around in the ridiculously few belongings the man seemed to possess just to see what was there, but self-preservation beat that ridiculous idea to death before he'd even lifted his hand from his side. He was pretty sure that Erik had been annoyed enough at him for his nosiness last night; no point in giving the guy an actual reason to murder him.

He was debating going outside and roaming the grounds for a while, mud or no mud, when he ran into Sean in search of lunch. Lunch turned out to be ice cream, on the grounds that the freezer was starting to warm and if they didn't eat it it would just melt anyway, and Alex kicked Hank's chair as he turned towards the window for about the tenth time in as many minutes. "Relax, mother, I'm sure they'll be back soon."

Hank ignored the jibe. "I was hoping to borrow the car and go into town to pick up some supplies today, but at this rate it'll be afternoon by the time I can go. I'll lose almost a day of work."

Heaven forbid. Alex shook his head. "Well, there is more than one in the garage." At least two more, if the glimpse he'd gotten the other day was anything to go by. "Do you want me to hotwire one for you?"

"I don't—I mean, that's not—"

Alex snorted at the look of shock on Hank's face. If he could hotwire, surely Hank was at least aware of the technique. Then again….

"It can wait," Hank said after a minute. "I don't really need to borrow a car that much."

"If you needed a car, why didn't you just say so?" Raven asked, joining them in the kitchen. "This is my home too, remember?"

"Oh. Yes, of course. But Charles doesn't have the keys?"

"Please, he'd be forever losing them. We keep them in a basket by the garage. Come on, I'll go with you. And we'll take the new one. Charles insists the clutch sticks, but he's just being ridiculous."

"Uh, would you mind if I borrow your weights while you're gone?" Alex asked as Hank hurried to stand and nearly knocked his chair over in the process. If she'd okayed Sean, he assumed she'd be okay with him using them too, but…

"That's fine; Sean can show you where they are," she said. "But you'd better put them back exactly how I set them up, and if there is one drop of sweat left on my weight set after you finish I will hunt you down. Got it?"

"Got it," Alex agreed quickly.

Raven's weight room was actually set up next to her bedroom, fortunately for Alex since Sean's ability to give directions was almost as poor as his sense or them. He was surprised to find that the free weights weren't that much below his preferred setting. Either Sean had ignored Raven's order to put them back, which was unlikely—Sean might be a little scatterbrained sometimes, but he wasn't insane—or Raven was stronger than she looked. Something to keep in mind, he supposed. They might be training more-or-less individually now, but that was bound to change eventually.

Another five-pounder on each side brought it up to where he wanted it, and and then he put his towel down on the bench and lay back. Weights were something that he'd made use of frequently in prison, and the lack of a spotter didn't worry him.

He was halfway through his third rep when the weights slipped out of his hands—upwards, which, definitely better than the alternative—and he tilted his head back to see Erik leaning against the doorframe. "Hey," he greeted.

Erik nodded slightly.

"Did you guys get fuel for the generator?"

Another nod.

Not going to be a day for conversation on Erik's part, clearly. Not that it ever really was. "Were you looking for Raven?"

Headshake.

Alex glanced upwards, making sure that the weights were still hovering before pushing himself into a sitting position. "Uh, do you want to use the set when I'm done? I've only got one rep left." And he was running out of guesses for why Erik was here.

Erik seemed to consider for a moment and then shook his head again slightly. "Do you want to spar again today?"

Well, that explained why Erik was already in a sweat suit, anyway. Although Alex hadn't exactly expected the invitation, even if he hadn't thought that that one training session would be the last, either. "Sure." He couldn't read much of anything in Erik's expression, but at least there wasn't any obvious annoyance there. Of course, if he was going to do something unpleasant in return for Alex's question last night, he might have decided to get him out of the mansion first….

A flick of Erik's fingers drew his attention back to the present, and then Erik gestured to the weight hovering above him. Right. That. Alex lay back and reached for it as Erik lowered it into his hands again.

Erik remained in the doorway while he finished the rep and swapped the weights back to Raven's preferred setting, wiping the bench down last. He wasn't dumb enough not to take Raven's threat seriously. There was no point in changing into another sweat suit if he was just going to end up a muddy mess—and another sparring match with Erik all but guaranteed that he would—so they headed from Raven's room directly outside. Down yet another staircase that Alex would swear he'd never seen before. This place was still insane.

"You saw the numbers on my arm the other day?" Erik asked as they turned out onto the lawn.

Alex nearly gave himself whiplash as he jerked his head around. Given how little talking Erik had seemed in the mood to do, Alex had figured that he'd be lucky if Erik warned him before the sparring started. He sure as hell hadn't expected that.

Erik pulled his sleeve up and held out his arm, giving, Alex a clear view of the string of numbers, but he hadn't needed to. It wasn't something that Alex was likely to forget.

"I saw them," he admitted.

"Do you know what they mean?"

Alex nodded.

Erik tilted his head, and he shrugged awkwardly.

"It means that you were in one of the concentrations camps in Germany during the war." And probably that he was Jewish too, but Alex didn't think that that was really relevant to the conversation.

"I was in Poland, actually, but close enough. The first time that I used my powers was when I was separated from my parents."

"Oh." No wonder he'd walked out last night. "Sorry." Alex wasn't quite sure if he was apologizing for asking or for what had happened or what, but it felt like he had to say something.

Erik made a dismissive gesture. "What's done is done. But I have no interest in discussing it."

That was a pretty clear order not to ask any anything else, but Alex wouldn't have anyway, so he just nodded. Silence returned until they reached a relatively flat area, and Alex looked up when Erik stopped.

"Do you remember the last throw I showed you?" Erik asked.

"Yeah."

"Prove it."

Alex took a couple steps away. "Um…knife?"

Erik tilted his head, and then a flicker of amusement crossed his face and he used his mutation to pull his knife out of his leg sheath and into his hand. "You do know that it makes very little difference whether it's on me or not?"

He shrugged slightly. The fact that Erik wasn't wearing it would make him feel a little better, anyway, total illusion or not.

After a moment, Erik mimicked his shrug and tossed the blade aside, embedding it neatly in the dirt ten feet away. "Turn."

Alex did as he ordered, reaching up to grip Erik's arm as it came across his chest.

"Ready?"