Chapter Seven

No one can say that things have been getting better. The students of the Xavier Institute may just be teenagers, but they aren't stupid. Hank mentions one night that it reminds him of his parents before their divorce.

"My mother would just leave the room if my dad came in. It was like they couldn't stand to be in the same place with each other." He says, fiddling with his Monopoly piece (always the shoe) between his toes. Sean frowns from where he's lying on his stomach, head propped up on his arms.

"So, what, you think that Erik and the Professor are going to get divorced?"

Alex smacks him upside the head with a handful of brightly colored paper money. "No, dumbass, they aren't married."

"I meant metaphorically." Sean mutters and flushes the same color as his hair.

Raven's eyes flash, glinting yellow in the low light. "Don't joke about that. It's not funny."

"I don't know, two guys being married seems pretty funny to me."

"Shut up, Alex." She rolls the dice and moves the silver top hat past 'go', collecting her two hundred dollars from the cardboard game box.

"What, you actually want Erik here?" Sean raises his eyebrows. "After what happened?"

She stares at them. "Did you just forget everything he's done for us? He saved the world, for Christ's sake!"

"Yeah, by killing someone. That's not very heroic, Raven." Alex taps a hotel against the board. "And he did kind of shoot the Professor."

Glaring, Raven stands up. "I don't believe you guys."

They let out a collective groan. "Oh, come on, Raven! It's not as if we can trust him anymore, you said it yourself!"

She had, a few days before Charles' return from the hospital. She had heard the soft footsteps going past and suddenly blurted it out, raising a loud murmur of agreement from the others. Outside the door the footsteps had sped up, and Raven had half-expected a talking-to that never came. She felt bad about it now, seeing how miserable Erik looked, and the more she thought about things the worse the feeling got.

"Yeah, but it's not like he ever hurt any of us."

Alex raps a fist on his skull. "I'd like to return attention to exhibit A: Your brother, the cripple."

A burst of red-hot anger flares up in Raven's vision, sharp and violent. She lunges at Alex across the Monopoly board, scattering toy money everywhere and slamming him back, his head cracking against the floor.

She lets loose a hail of punches, beating on Alex's chest as Sean and Hank try to pull her off, one of them wrapped around each of her arms. Erik was right- she's much stronger when she isn't trying to maintain a false appearance. There's someone yelling and tugging her back but she's an angry teenage girl, and it takes a lot more than a skinny ginger and a half-hearted furry nerd to get her to stop fighting. Alex's hands are held up to protect his face and a red hoop of energy spins out past her head, hitting the ceiling with a smash and a hail of plaster. She breaks his nose with pound of her fist and he howls, letting loose another blast that flies wildly into a window.

"Don't call him that!" She screams, punching him again. "Don't you fucking call him that, Alex, don't you fucking DARE—"

"ENOUGH!"

There's a hand on the scruff of her neck, yanking her up by the collar of her sweater, up and off of Alex and she's just so angry she could SCREAM…

"What the Hell is going on here?" Erik stares at the picture in front of him, Hank and Sean standing on either side of the carpet, Alex struggling to sit up with blood dripping from his face and hair, Raven at arm's length, her chest heaving and her blue face flushed purple. "Alex, are you alright?"

He nods, wiping a sleeve across his face dazedly and muttering that he's had worse in prison. Sean's mouth is opening and closing like a beached fish.

Erik grabs Raven by the shoulders. "What do you think you're doing? You could have killed him, have you gone insane?"

Raven looks up at him, then down at her shaking hands. The knuckles are wet and red and her whole body is trembling with adrenaline.

And then her face is buried in Erik's shirt and she's sobbing and when he wraps his arms around her and holds her tightly it only makes her cry harder.

He looks just as bewildered and out to sea as the boys do, staring at him with the weeping girl like they've each grown three heads (Not that there's anything wrong with three-headed people- just last week Cerebro found a reclusive artist from Antigua hiding that particular mutant gift). He sighs.

"Sean, take Alex to the kitchen, I'll be there in a minute. Hank, get the first aid kit. I'm going to bring Raven to her room."

They nod awkwardly, eyes fixed on the floor as they help Alex to his feet. Erik manages to free himself from Raven's embrace, unwrapping her arms around his middle and turning her towards the door with a gentle push. Her sobs have subsided to soft, watery hiccups, and as she shuffles down the hall beside him in her knitted sweater and bunny slippers she morphs into the blonde-haired, pink-skinned version of herself.

"Don't tell Charles." She whispers, not meeting his eyes.

"Chances are he already knows, but I won't if you won't."

She sniffs. "Can I get a tissue?"

"Of course you can."

A few minutes later they sit on her bed as she blows her nose into a kleenex.

"I feel like such an idiot." She tries to tamp down on her tears, gulping. Erik pats her back nervously and tries to avoid another burst of waterworks.

"You were angry. It happens."

"I didn't mean to hurt him, I just- it just- I was just so mad, it just happened before I even knew what was going on!"

"Trust me when I say that I understand, Raven." He gets to his feet. "Go to sleep now. We can talk more about it in the morning."

Alex stands with his head bent over the kitchen sink, dripping blood into the silver basin. "Isn't there any way to make this stop faster?"

"Tip your head back." Sean suggests. Hank shakes his head rapidly.

"DON'T tip your head back. That's a bad idea."

"Uh huh." Alex lifts his face upwards and goes to sit on a wooden stool, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm going with Sean."

"Who's the doctor, here?"

"Oh come on, we all know you're not a medical doctor."

"You should probably listen to him anyway." They turn to see Erik standing in the doorway. "Hank, did you get the medical supplies?"

He nods, wringing a dishtowel in his hands. "I didn't know which first aid kit you wanted so I brought all three."

Erik glances at the bandages and ointments spread out on the formica counter. "I can see that. Alex, come here."

The blonde strides over and collapses onto an aluminum folding chair, scowling with his nose in the air. "I'm fine."

Erik raises an eyebrow. "Your nose is broken and you're going to have two black eyes." He glances at a cut above Alex's cheekbone. "You're lucky, I don't think this will need stitches."

Sean snickers under his breath and Alex glares at him. "What's so funny?"

"You got beat up by a girl."

"I'd like to see your take her." He snarls.

Hank frowns, still worrying away at the dishtowel. "You shouldn't have made her upset."

Throwing his hands up in the air exaggeratedly, Alex jostles Erik's arm and ends up with a band-aid stuck to his shoulder. "Well how was I supposed to know she'd react like that?"

"He's her brother, you can't just say stuff like that and expect her to be okay with it."

Erik's eyes narrow. "What exactly did you say to Raven, Alex?"

The teen's shoulders sag guiltily. "Nothing."

"He called the Professor a cripple." Hank's arms are crossed over his chest and it's clear he means business. Erik fixes Alex with a death glare, and when he talks his voice is even in a way that the kids know by now to associate with danger.

"I'm going to fix you up now, Alex, because it's late and you should all be in bed," he says, his teeth showing when he speaks, "But in the morning we are all going to have a very long, very unpleasant conversation. Do you understand?"

There's a chorus of mumbled 'yes'-s as Erik tapes the last bit of gauze to Alex's rapidly swelling black and blue face.