Title: You've Got To Go There To Come Back
Author: Iris,"sleepall-day" at Livejournal
Rating: PG-13.
Timeline: Directly after Alcatraz events of X3.
Summary: After the fight at Alcatraz, Pyro is found and brought back to Xavier's mansion. For his criminal actions he has been given house arrest at Xavier's School and he must learn to adjust.
Author's Note: This is my all-time first fic, and lovethiscity at Livejournal was only recently created purely to post it. As I'm a new writer, I'd appreciate any comments, feedback, suggestions, or Aaron Stanfords that you would care to throw at me.

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men or any Marvel characters. This is just for fun. Any resemblances you find to actual people, living or dead, shows that you have strange friends.

Chapter 12: "Shall I compare thee...?"

Scott Summers had never been a mentor of mine, because I never had a mentor. He had only been a teacher who used to be nice to me because I was practically as much of an orphan as he was. I appreciated having him there, though, especially when we took out his car. Even so, I never thought the two of us were particularly close, so that didn't make me feel any better about the fact that I now had to comfort him through his tears.

I considered my options. "Your girlfriend and father-figure died. Get over it," didn't seem quite right. Neither did, "Hey, if Dr. Grey could see you right now, she'd be pretty embarrassed." I ended up not having to say much, though, because Cyclops, who was full-on dragging Niagara Falls already, had leaned in for a sticky, gross… hug-like… thing.

I cringed, and gave him a couple of weak pats on the back. "Hey…" I started to say, but by then, Storm and Wolverine had turned their attention this way. Their eyes were widened as much as they had been when they first saw Cyclops earlier that day. Apparently he hadn't had his daily cry yet.

Storm and Wolverine didn't even have to say anything for me to understand. Cyclops hadn't shed a tear since his return, and now he was doing it on my shoulder. Don't worry. I was even more surprised than they were.

"Oh, Scott…" Storm said after collecting herself from the shock. She came over and put a hand on his back too. She said, "It's going to be all right," but he just kept crying anyway.

I finally broke him off of me and said, "It's a good thing you weren't wearing your visor. Then you'd have salt deposits stuck to the inside of it, and your face, too." Cyclops finally managed a weak, choked-out laugh at that, and started wiping away some of the tears. He allowed Storm to give him a hug, too.

Kitty was just standing there, shaking her head at me. "How do you do that, John?"

"Huh?"

"Make people laugh when they were just mad at you," she answered. Then I realized that she was talking about herself, too. Yeah, I guess I had a tendency to make her mad.

I chuckled without humor. "I never mean to."

Kitty absolutely had to say her own words of comfort to Cyclops too, so when the sob-fest was over, the two of us left Storm's office. I wanted to ask him why he hadn't come back sooner, but he was still a bit of a wreck. It would have to wait until later. Kitty was returning to her room, and I followed. I don't know if I was even aware that I was doing it, but I followed her all the way back to her room.

Fortunately, Kitty didn't seem to think it was as weird as I did. She just opened the door for me, instead of phasing through first, and there I went. I must have looked like an idiot, because I'd already stepped into her room when I asked, "Can I come in?" Kitty shrugged her shoulders in an expression of "Why not?" and told me I could sit on either the bed or the beanbag chair.

I chose to just stand, and inspected her bookcase while Kitty sat at her desk and turned on the computer. It was single room, so it was a little bit cramped with all of the things she managed to stuff in there. Kitty had a lot of books that I recognized from class, and a few others that I thought must have come from other classes that I didn't take. Heuristics in Information Retrieval was one. It was with a bunch of other books on computers, like one called Advances in Computational Management. There were some novels, a few comic books, and then one title caught my eye. It was William Shakespeare: The Complete Works.

Kitty's keyboard was clacking away. I wondered if she really trusted that I wouldn't cause any trouble, or if she was just going about her business while I was right there because I'd be put in prison if I tried anything faster than you can say "I told you so."

"Hey, you like Shakespeare?" I asked her.

She stopped typing and turned to look at the book I was pointing at. "Oh, that," she said, almost exasperated. "He's okay, I guess. I had to get that for English last year."

No wonder I didn't actually recognize that it was from class. I was probably off terrorizing some poor bystander, doing Magneto's dirty work, by then.

"Oh," I just said. "Well, I haven't been doing much reading these days. Although I'd like to. Mind if I borrow this?" I pulled it off the shelf.

"Sure, go ahead," Kitty replied, going back to her computer.

"I've been meaning to read Othello forever," I told her.

"Really? That's the one I had to buy that book for. Ugh," she said, wrinkling her nose. "I'm not about to complain about Shakespeare, since so many people think he's the greatest writer who ever lived, but that was not exactly the most fun I had in English."

"Are you kidding? I love reading his stuff!" I exclaimed. "This'll definitely keep me busy for awhile."

Kitty paused, and then said, "I was about to say that I never would have figured you to be much of a reader, but you always did pretty well in English, didn't you?"

"Eh," I said casually. "It doesn't come so hard to me. I used to read a lot when I was a kid. And I like writing. I did win a poetry contest, remember?"

"That's right," Kitty answered.

I flipped through the book. "Hey, this has sonnets in it, too."

Kitty turned around, and leaned on her chair so that she was looking at me. "We had to read those, too. Otherwise I could've just bought Othello by itself and saved myself five bucks." This girl obviously harbored some harsh feelings towards her English class.

"What's wrong with sonnets?" I teased.

"When you've read them a dozen times already, and the teacher insists you read them again, and you spend entire periods deciphering the meaning of a single couplet, then there's something wrong with sonnets," she snapped back.

I stared at her disapprovingly. "Hey. You're starting to talk like me. Bad move, Kitty-cat."

That made her smile with her teeth. It was – I hate to admit it – kind of cute. I told her, "Come on. There's got to be one in here that you liked reading. Which one?" and handed her the book, open to the sonnets section.

She took the book from me and glanced at the pages, frowning at each one. I noticed Kitty liked to sort of mumble to herself as she read.

"When forty winters shall besiege thy brow.. As fast as thou shalt wane… no, fell asleep during that one…" She looked up at me and said, "How about this one? Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate… even though that is kind of a cop-out choice, since everyone knows that one."

I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny!" she demanded.

"Nothing…" I said, sitting on her bed. "Just memories." I shook my head to show I wasn't too serious.

"Okay, now I'm intrigued," Kitty said. "You have to tell me."

"Mystique," I told her simply. "One time she was in some other form – I don't even remember anymore what it was – and then she changed back to herself, and asked, 'Am I too blue?' It was just like she was asking if her pants made her butt look big, or something. And then Magneto recited that poem."

Kitty looked confused. "Shall I compare thee…?" And then a look of recognition dawned on her, and she said with a smile, "Blue skies. Summer skies. That's… cute," she started to say, and then stopped herself.

"What, don't want to call Magneto 'cute'?" I asked.

"He's not exactly what I'd call the cute old grandfatherly type," she replied.

I paused a little bit before telling her, "Don't worry. I know. I just thought… you know. I miss them sometimes," careful not to say too much. I never said that I regretted everything about being in the Brotherhood.

"So," I said, changing the mood. I snatched the book out of Kitty's hand said, "So it's okay if I borrow this, then?"

Kitty said, "I didn't really want it to begin with. You know, John, you can just have it."

"You're serious?" I asked her. She sounded disdainful. She must've really wanted to get rid of it.

"Really. Go ahead, you wanted something to read. You said so yourself. I want you to have something to do," Kitty encouraged. Then again, maybe she actually wanted to give it to me rather than just wanting to get rid of it? Whatever. I had no idea.

"Thanks," I said, a little flippantly. "That's cool. Makes me kind of want to start writing again. You know, after that article I wrote for the paper, I kind of missed it. Maybe I'll start."

Kitty was nodding, but I wanted to avoid her asking me what I write about, so I said, "So what's the deal with you and Tinhead these days?" I asked casually.

Kitty groaned, and then instead of answering my question, said, "You know, I really don't appreciate you calling him that. And I bet he doesn't either. He's just too nice of a guy to say so."

"Aw, that guy's got a hide like an elephant even without the metal," I told her. "You probably shouldn't worry so much about hurting his poor feelings."

"John, I'm warning you, quit being so horrible to people who never did anything to you," Kitty said, but she sounded more exasperated than angry.

"Wow, something must have happened between you two if it gets you that upset," I laughed.

"Look, nothing happened, all right? That's what the deal is. We were pretty close, yeah. We're still friends. But before anything could happen, I…" Kitty stopped talking.

I didn't say anything, because people will talk if they want to talk, and no amount of, "Then what happened?" will make them tell you if they don't want to.

Sure enough, Kitty heaved a sigh, and then said, "I thought Bobby might've been… well, interested in me, but he was just… I don't even know what he was doing. It seemed like he was trying to get close to me but nothing ever came out of it and I guess I got my hopes up for nothing. You were right about Rogue getting the cure, you know. As soon as she got it, they were all over each other." She spoke bitterly.

I was right? Well, Bobby must've been the one who told her about what I'd said to him at the clinic.

"Well, Kitty-cat… you're the one that's good at the sympathy talks, here," I said finally.

She gave a half-hearted laugh and said, "It's fine. I didn't expect any from you. I don't even know why I told you all of that."

"What? So, you thought someone had it for you so you didn't take a chance with someone who maybe had it for you – it's okay!" I assured her like it wasn't a big deal, even waving a hand. "Who the hell can count the amount of times people do stupid things like that?"

I thought what I'd just said wasn't the nicest thing to say, but Kitty seemed to take it all right. She said, "Thanks," weakly, and right then it didn't matter to me anymore if she was only letting me into her room because she knew I couldn't do anything to hurt her. I liked being there.

"Nah. I should be thanking you for letting me hang out," I said, trying my best to sound casual.

"It's not a problem! And… yeah, you're right. What you said earlier, I mean. I'm just trying to forget the whole thing now, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't really say anything about it. And if you'd be a little nicer to Peter." Kitty said the last part sternly.

"All right, all right. I'll quit calling him Tinhead," I resolved.

"You mean it?" Kitty asked. "I don't know yet whether or not I should believe you about your truth-telling," she added, narrowing her eyes playfully at me.

"Yeah, of course," I said brightly. I intended to keep my word. "I promise," I even articulated.

I didn't call Colossus "Tinhead" anymore. True to form, I began referring to him as "The Shirtless Wonder" instead. The next time I passed by him in the hallway, he was, as usual, bare-chested and I said to him, "Hey, Shirtless Wonder."

Peter smiled back at me and said, "Hello yourself, John," with a wave.

It must have been the fact that the hallway had been fairly crowded that morning. The name spread as though it were something I set on fire. People continued to call him "Colossus," but with the exception of some of his friends and the staff members, the name "Peter" began slowly being replaced by the moniker "Shirtless Wonder."

I knew there was a problem when Morph, who didn't even know any of the younger students, approached me in the kitchen a few days later as Kitty and I were having lunch and said, "Hey, Pyro! Wish me luck tonight."

"Huh?" I asked. "Oh, yeah! The book talk's tonight!"

"Sure is," he affirmed, and then turned into a tall, lanky boy with brown hair, and perfect, white teeth. He was wearing a white track jersey with red letters. It said "WEAVER" on the back. He spun around, and said "What do you think?" sounding significantly younger.

"Exactly what I pictured in my head when I was writing the article," I approved.

"Really?" Morph asked.

"No," I snorted. "But close enough. You look good. You'll do great." I gave him a slap on the shoulder. "Good luck. Don't get killed out there and blow my chances for staying alive too, yeah?"

Morph changed back into himself and let out a high-pitched laugh. "We've got it all under control! And nobody's going to blame you if something goes wrong there. Heck, you're not even going to be there! Don't worry though, we've got lots of backup, like Wolverine and your friend the Shirtless Wonder."

The only person who found absolutely no humor in this new situation was Kitty Pryde. I wondered if she really was mad at me, or if she was just stubbornly refusing to be amused by me.

"You know that's not what I meant by asking you to stop calling him 'Tinhead'!" she grumbled over lunch after Morph left.

"Oh, come on," I said, playing with my shark Zippo. "It's not exactly derogatory. And besides, he likes it."

Kitty had no response except to roll her eyes.

I paused between bites and asked apprehensively, "Are you going?"

"Yeah. Almost everyone is," she answered.

Damn. I was hoping I wouldn't be feeling too left out tonight.

"There has to be a lot of fans for Adam Weaver, right?" Kitty continued. "I mean… we wish you could go, too, since it was your idea."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," I said. "Don't you get killed out there, too."

Kitty laughed. I was starting to hate admitting it was cute a little bit less now, but then she had to ruin it by saying, "You? Worry about me? You'd be better off tending to the kitchen."

I threw my lighter down on the countertop, just to show I could take her without it, and let out a frustrated growl, but she had already phased to the other side of the kitchen island, teasing me.

I sent her and a bunch of other kids off that night, and wished everyone luck, mostly out of fear that I'd get the boot if this didn't work. They all looked excited, like they were actually going to a book talk, not a trap set for the Friends of Humanity. I felt a twinge of jealousy as I stood at the front of the garage door, watching people pile into the cars and drive away. Even Cyclops had agreed to go. As he put it, the Friends of Humanity had destroyed the home he'd been safe in, and he was going so he could make sure that "none of them left his one-eyed sight." I genuinely wondered if he was being sarcastic, self-deprecating, or if he'd somehow gotten hold of a sense of humor.

"Bye, have fun," I called out sarcastically as the last car pulled out. But I was a wimp. I waited until they were out of earshot. Then, I went back inside and waited for them to come back.