Well, it's been a while. A lot has happened since I last posted a chapter. I made some new friends, lost touch with some people, almost had a mental breakdown, quit my job, moved to a different city, got a new job – flipped my entire life/sleep schedule – and I like to think I am much happier now. It's not perfect, but it's much better. All that to say – I never forgot about this story, but time sure has flown – it doesn't NOT feel like it has been as long as it has. Deepest apologies for taking so long to update.
Also, this story is over a decade old now. I can't believe that. I would like to think my writing style has changed and improved over the years. I want to thank everyone that has read this story – Reviewed/Favorited/Followed, you all mean so much to me, and the notification pop up always make my heart burst with joy at seeing that you enjoyed this. Hopefully you enjoy this extra long chapter. I think this is might be the longest chapter I've written for this?
Sorry for the multiple notifications, this would NOT keep my formatting. I'm finally calling it quits if it doesn't keep the formatting this time, I'm leaving it alone.
I am still slowly -very slowly- in the process of moving my stories over to AO3, which is where you can find me now. Much love!
Disclaimer: It may come as a shock to you, but I do not own X-men: Evolution.
The great thing about becoming a better person is sometimes you don't even realize it.
The cupboard door slammed shut. In another life the shelves would be barren, a derelict house barely held together – a reflection of the people in it. A house with a messed-up foundation, brickwork gone array. Though, in this lifetime the bricks aligned, and the spackle was smooth – it wasn't perfect, but it was still a home.
Lance opened the granola bar he had snatched from the cabinet. "Where's Rogue?"
"She's not feeling so hot," came Todd's voice as he bounced down the stairs.
Fred sat down his mug and looked over towards the smaller boy, "what?"
A breeze rushed past the inhabitants, rustling everything in the path from the fridge and up the stairs.
"Here," Fred said, pushing a bowl of cereal towards Todd.
The amphibious boy's face lit up, "thanks, man!"
"Now," Fred started as the other boy settled down at the table, "What's going on with Rogue?"
Todd mumbled something around the mouthful of cereal in response.
Lance walked behind him and smacked him in the back of the head, "try it without having your mouth stuffed."
A strangled hacking cough erupted from the younger boy. Lance rolled his eyes and smacked his back a few times. Fred took a sip of his drink ignoring the commotion.
"I said," Todd wheezed, "that she's sick."
At that Fred cocked his head to the side, "sick?"
He nodded profusely, "yeah, I heard an awful noise and went to investigate." At that both Lance and Fred rolled their eyes.
Todd continued as he took care between bites of breakfast and telling the others about their female roommate, "apparently she quote feels like death warmed over."
Lance glanced up at the ceiling and Fred stood from his seat, food forgotten. It was rare any of them ever came down with something, and for Rogue to be sick was concerning.
Pietro whooshed back into the kitchen a frown marring his face, "Rogue has a migraine."
The others shared a look, not quite relief, but their shoulders relaxed a little at the news. This wasn't the first time Rogue had come down with one.
Todd cleaned the table off, removing both his and Fred's dishes, and started to wash them in the sink.
"Nothing we can do, huh," Fred's timber called through the kitchen.
Pietro and Lance looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Probably best to leave her alone for as long as we can," Pietro offered up.
Fred nodded, "isn't the school carnival thing tonight?"
Todd perked up, "yeah, do you think Rogue would like a stuffed animal from the games prizes?"
Before Lance or Pietro could crack a joke Fred piped up with an agreement, "Yeah, we should try and win one."
"You got money to play the games?"
Todd's shoulders slumped a bit at that.
"Don't worry about it," Fred said, "least of the issues." His voice turned sly, "You have to be good at the games to win."
The boys laughed at the joke before Pietro chimed in, "or have an advantage."
Todd put the last of the cleaned and dried dishes up and nodded towards the door, "time to go?"
Lance chanced a glance towards the stairs before Pietro took a step-in front of him, "she'll be fine."
"I know, just sucks that there isn't anything we can do."
The door clicked shut as Fred and Todd headed out to the jeep.
"Yeah, I know, but she said that the voices are just being extra difficult right now. She just needs some rest."
"And you're sure that it's just a migraine?"
The silver haired boy shrugged, "that's what she said."
Lance's mouth twisted into a grimace. Pietro put a hand on the brunet's shoulder, "you know if it was anything more serious, Irene would call."
"Things going better between them?"
"Sorta," Pietro shrugged, "it's not perfect, but I think between the phone calls and Irene offering to come visit things are getting better."
"I still can't believe that she's been the one that's been taking care of the bills for this place."
"Hey," Pietro's elbow dug into Lance's stomach, "not all of us have shitty parents."
The look that Lance shot the other boy caused Pietro to start laughing. "You sure you want to go there?"
"If I can't laugh about it, what use is the trauma?"
The boy had a silver tongue when he wanted, and Lance smirked at the joke. Was it healthy? Probably not, but none of them ever claimed to be.
"Come one, let's get out of here," Lance said instead as he opened the door.
The pair of them headed out of the house, hoping that some alone time would help Rogue's voices calm down. Each of the boys knew that there was nothing that they could do to help her. There was no one they could beat up, nothing that they could do to fix it, and it hurt each of them that they were useless in this regard. All silently blaming themselves, knowing that they had their own voices in the mix and only hoping that they weren't causing more problems internally.
Lance groaned, he'd only grabbed the granola bar this morning, and now needed something else to tide him over for the time being. He's pushed the coins into the vending machine only for it to rumble and not give him anything in return. He hit the machine once, twice, and a swift kick hoping for it to start working. Nothing. He glared. He was getting his drink. He paid for it; the machine owed him.
He knew that most kids just went to the office and let them know, but he wasn't particularly liked there, and figured that nothing would come of that anyways. The chance of him getting either his money back or a drink there was basically zero, and he was getting his drink. Most others would have tried shaking that machine themselves, and that would always be a 50/50, but he had an advantage that would guarantee him his drink.
He felt the pull of his powers; it felt like flexing a muscle.
The vending machine rumbled with the force of his powers coursing through it. It was simple – easy really, to focus his powers like this. The training they had been doing had been working wonders for all of them.
He grinned as he picked up the can, cracked it open, and took a sip.
"Hey, nice technique," a voice called from his left. He glanced over at the voice, vaguely recognizing her as someone from the institute.
"What do you think of mine?" she asked as she slotted a glowing orb into the money slot.
He ducked and covered his head as the machine exploded. Soda cans busting out and rolling across the floor.
He laughed, always good to see another mutant know how to use their powers. To see them as the advantage that they were.
"Breaking rules and appliances, you'd fit right in at our place," he joked.
She took a sip of her drink and chuckled, "yeah? As if you could hang with me."
He shrugged, "you're at the mansion, right?"
"Yeah, what of it?" she rolled her eyes.
Although her tone just sounded annoyed, he could tell by the tensing of her shoulders that she was feeling defensive.
"Nothing, just saying if you need a break-"
She laughed and started to walk away calling over her shoulder, "what, so you can rock my world? Nah, I'm good."
Lance thought he had grabbed his folder, but when he went to pull it out of his bag, he realized he'd left it in his locker. He was late and he knew it, but that wasn't anything new. Sure, he'd been trying since he started studying with Kitty, but there was only so much he could take, and bad habits don't just magically disappear.
He had just turned the corner when he saw the man grab the arm of the girl that he had ran into at the vending machine.
"Hey!"
His voice must have surprised the guy because the girl was able to jerk her arm out of his hold.
"Keep walking, kid," the man turned slightly to look back at Lance.
Lance went to brace himself for a fight, but the girl shook her head.
"Dad, I can't do this. I'm late to class." She walked backwards away from him, always keeping him in her line of sight.
The older guy glared at Lance. He wasn't one to normally run from a fight, but he wasn't about to get into it with some random guy in the school hallway. Lance turned away and started back towards his class, it wasn't like he couldn't get by without his folder this once.
"Have fun," Pietro called to the group, "I've got a hot date."
Todd bounced next to the other two, "man, how's he manage that?"
Fred shrugged and started towards the games, "we gonna get Rogue a get well gift or not?"
"Sure, big guy," Lance patted the larger boy's shoulder, as he caught up to Fred.
Todd hopped to catch up to them once he realized he'd been left behind," hey! Wait for -"
"OOF," his sentence cut off as he slammed into something.
Fred and Lance turned towards the smaller boy at the sound of impact.
"Yo, what gives?" Todd asked as he righted himself. He glanced up at the blonde man that he'd ran into.
Fred took a few steps closer to the pair. Lance soured; it was the blonde guy for earlier in the day.
The man glared at the smaller boy, "you should watch were you're going."
Todd glared back at the guy, "you're the one that-"
"Yo, let's go," Lance called, interrupting them.
The man's eye flickered towards Lance, his brow furrowed before recollection lit up on his face.
Lance turned away from the guy, ignoring him completely, and continued, hoping that the other two boys would follow along with him.
Todd quickly caught up to the taller boy, "you know him or something?"
"Or something," Lance grumbled. He proceeded to catch the other two up on what had happened earlier in the day as they finally made it towards the games section.
Lance caught sight of the younger blonde. She looked uncomfortable talking to that guy again, her dad. He started making his way over towards the pair, but before he could call out to them the guy walked away. It wasn't an angry walk, he looked smug, victorious. That couldn't be a good sign. Lance's eyes moved over to the blonde, she looked slumped and defeated, her arms were wrapped around her middle and she was looking down towards the ground. Definitely not a good sign.
"Hey," he called out to her.
She slowly glanced up, slow to put on her haughty mask.
"You good?"
She scoffed, "what's it matter to you?"
He shook his head, "look we don't have to do this, I can recognize a shitty situation when I see it."
The girl bit her lip and looked away from him.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay, fine, but, can I give you some advice?"
She rolled her eyes as she turned to look at him again, "you're going to even if I say no, right?"
He shrugged, "yeah, probably."
"Whatever," she waved her hand for him to continue, "what is it?"
"Parents can be shitty-"
Her laugh cut him off.
"Understatement."
"Yeah, well, my point is…" he paused, "my point is, you can say no."
"uh-huh."
"No, listen. You can say no. It might be hard, but you can, and it will be okay. You can go along with whatever, but you can say no at any time. That's okay. You can decide and you can change you mind."
Her brows furrowed, but she stayed quiet.
"You can change your mind. If you go along with whatever your dad wants, you can decide to stop. That's your choice, and yeah he might be shitty about it, but you can walk away. You've got the professor-"
At that she rolled her eyes.
"no seriously, I know it sounds dumb, but he's a good guy, and he'll be in your corner."
She cocked her hip to the side placing her hand on it, "then why aren't you at the mansion."
"Because I've already made my choice. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."
"But you just said you can change your mind."
"Yeah, I can. Anyone at the boarding house can."
"What's your point?"
"My point is, you don't have to throw away your life for you old man."
"You don't know what's going on," her voice turned defensive.
"You're right, I don't, but I know shitty people when I see them. I've said that. I also stand by what I said earlier, you'd be welcome at the boarding house. If you ever feel the need to get a way for a little bit."
Her shoulders slumped slightly, her stance loosening just a little bit, "the others at the mansion are so different, they didn't grow up the way I did."
He smiled, "yeah, I'm not surprised. You ever need a break from them? Stop by, I promise we won't be mad, just to get a moment away from prissy boy."
She laughed, "you mean Scott?"
"You know it," he smirked in return.
The tension between the two was softening. It felt easier now.
"Yo! Lance?!" a voice called.
The brunette looked behind him. Todd was bounding next to Fred as he waved his arm in the air.
"Any luck with the games?" he called back.
"Not yet, but we're gonna try some more, you coming?"
"Be there in a minute!"
He turned back to the girl, "you-"
"I gotta go," she said in a hurry, as she turned and walked away.
He brought his hands up to his mouth and shouted after her, "I'm serious, just find me if you need to get away!"
She threw a hand up without turning around. That was the best he was going to get. He sighed, before turning and starting back to the others. His arms going around their shoulders as he reached them and started to steer them back towards the games.
"Alright, lets get this stuffed animal, yeah?"
The night hadn't gone as he was expecting. After being accused of trying to steal the carnival money, he was rightly angry at that. Sure, they weren't rolling in dough, but they weren't hurting for money either. They were doing okay, the bills for the house were taken care of and some of them did odd jobs around town to make up for any extra money. The fact that they took one look at them and immediately wanted to blame them for trying to steal money was beyond infuriating, but they were able to prove that he and the others had been playing games and eating carnival food during that time. He caught sight of Tabitha next to the professor. That sad look on her face. The disappointed look on the professors. Scott was not too far away from them, the way he was standing and looking at Tabitha was in a way that Lance didn't like. His mouth flattened as he had to hold in his words.
"Hey guys, I'm going to head back."
"Alright man, we're gonna keep trying to a prize! Be home later," Todd's boisterous voice called back, no matter how much he continued to suck at the games he was determined to get Rogue a prize. Fred nodded along mouth full of chili dogs.
The duo turned away and went back towards the games. Todd animatedly motioned with his hands as Fred nodded next to him, making grumbling agreement noises.
Lance softly chuckled at the guys as they went their own ways.
"Hey, you wanna get out of here?" he asked as he walked up to them.
"Mr. Avlers," the professor started, but was cut off by the younger man.
"Sorry Prof, but I think this would be better for-"
"Move along, Avlers," Scott sneered.
Hackles raised, "don't think I will-"
"Gentlemen, please," the Professor's calming voice stared, "now is not the time."
Tabitha fidgeted with her fingers, "Professor?"
Her voice was meek, nothing like the strong assertive girl from earlier. Lance hated it.
"Tabitha," he smiled and glanced over at Scott, "maybe it would be for the best, tonight. But we will be having a very long talk tomorrow, young lady."
Scott sputtered at that shaking his head with disbelief, "Professor?!"
"Of course, Professor," Tabitha capitulated knowing there was no way to get out of that talk, preparing herself for the fall out of what had just transpired.
Lance tilted his head towards the parking lot in question, slowly the younger girl moved away from the wheelchair bound man's side.
"This isn't what I was expecting," she said as she walked through the living room. Taking a glance inside the kitchen. It wasn't immaculately kept like the mansion was, but it wasn't the pigsty she thought it would be. She had expected rotten food, piles of dirty dishes, broken cabinets, maybe even overflowing trash. No, what she found when she walked through the front door was a normal house. It wasn't perfectly clean, nor was it a disgusting biohazard waste. It was simply lived in. She could see bits and pieces of the inhabitants all around the house.
Her brows furrowed for a moment. This was nothing like what she'd expected. The way that Scott talked about the Brotherhood you'd think they'd be living in their own filth. They weren't. It didn't even smell like a disgusting teenage boy. It was a shock to the system. She had thought Lance was being serious the first time when he made the comment at the vending machine, but now she was second guessing that.
"Let me guess? Filth? Disgust? A barely inhabitable building?" He scoffed.
"Actually," she started up the stairs, "yeah."
She thought the damage from her powers wouldn't even be noticed here.
Doors lined the hallway. Lance knew what lay behind each door, but it was weird to see someone else follow along the path he walked daily – someone that could have been one of them before. She would always be welcome here, but he could see it in the way she carried herself, the way she moved, the tension and how it flowed through her. Once, at another time, she could have lived here – belonged, but this wasn't the life she was meant for. It wasn't that she deserved better than what they had – had to offer. No, she could have a chance, she didn't believe the same as the rest of the Brotherhood, and what happened earlier that night was proof of it. She wanted to believe in the Professor's dream, and that was something that none of them ever could.
So, while she wouldn't belong here in the sense of the rest of them, she would always be welcome. Because, as much as she wanted to, she had already broken from the mold that had bound them for so long. Lance knew that he wouldn't let her limit herself, the rest of the Brotherhood wouldn't allow it. Tabitha could make her own choices, but none of them would let her throw her life away. She needed to get out of the mansion and away from them for a while? That was fine, she would be welcomed, but this wasn't where she was meant to stay. He could see it, she thought she was getting away from them, and this wasn't what she was expecting. It was kind of disheartening that she'd believe that they would be living in squaller, but he shouldn't have expected anything less.
Tabitha tried the handle of the door at the end of the hallway. He knew what she would find, a locked door. The only door in that hallway that didn't have some type of marker on it. It had been Mystique's room – from what felt like forever ago. They'd managed to get the door open a long time ago, but it felt unnerving to go in there, even if it had been someone else's room – someone that no longer lived there. They'd unanimously agreed to lock the room back up and not to go in there again.
The doorknob rattled, as Tabitha tried to open the door.
"Hey, this one is locked."
He'd been so lost in his thoughts that it was jarring sound of her voice that brought him back to the moment, but before he could say anything to her about the locked room the house slightly shook as she blew the door open with one of her bombs.
Almost simultaneously one of the other doors flew open, and a gust of air blew by him.
"What's going on?"
Rogue looked rough, but better than she had that morning. She was still more pale than usual, a slight flush on her cheeks, she looked utterly exhausted. Her breathing was rapid, she'd obviously jumped out of bed at the sound. He felt worse now, that they had bothered her. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to bring Tabitha here, but he believed he knew what was waiting for her back at the institute. No good would come of it, not the way the younger girl was trying to protect herself, she'd get defensive, and wouldn't listen to reason. She'd act out and there would be another mutant lost to the masses. It was a mockery of what could have been for them, before. Before they were a unit. He didn't know the younger girl, but he didn't want that to happen to her. Mutants and humans would never be able to coincide the way the professor wanted, nor the way Magneto had wanted, but he knew that Tabitha would be able to flourish at the institute.
"Ah, shit, sorry Rogue," he spoke softly, as he stepped closer to his ill friend. He glanced back at the end of the hallway, where Tabitha had been – and she was gone. He groaned. On one hand he wanted to help Rogue get back to bed, but on the other he knew he needed to get Tabitha out of that room.
"Go back to bed, I'll deal with it. I was showing Tabitha around the house."
"What?" her face puckered in dazed confusion.
"Just," he started, before shaking his head and began walking towards the blown open door, "I'll explain later, let me deal with this really quick."
He turned away from her but heard her groan. He wanted to help her, and make sure she made it back to bed, but he really needed to deal with Tabitha – especially since she had blown open one of the doors in his house. The irony of how many times he had damaged everyplace he had ever lived didn't miss him. The only difference being that this was a house he wanted to take care of. He heard the click of her door as he crossed the border from the room they had sealed away. At least she had made it back to her room. He'd make sure to check in on her after he took care of this.
"Hey," he called towards the younger girl.
Tabitha looked up from messing around with the knickknacks on the dresser.
"I don't know what you think this is, but if a door is shut, we knock, and if it's locked, we don't open it."
She scoffed, "wow," her voice dripped with sarcasm, "didn't realize the Brotherhood was full of fuddy duddies."
His shoulders tensed as he held his body back from full on bristling at her words. "Listen, I didn't have to invite you over to the house."
"Yeah, so why did you?"
He sighed, shoulders slumping down. He didn't really want to have this conversation in this room, but he was sure if he stopped this train of thought, she wouldn't listen to him. He knew what it was like to be easily distracted, and even more so when you start to build a wall between you and the person trying to help you. He'd been a lost cause for so long, and he could see another on the same path – he just knew that she had a better safety net then he had at her age – although he didn't agree with the Professor, he knew that the man could help her more than anyone had tried to help himself – that is before his broken family fell together and somehow worked.
She had moved on from messing with the knickknacks and had started to open the drawers. He pushed the drawer closed and stood in front of the dresser.
"Could you not?"
She huffed as she stepped away and flopped back on the bed, "you're not as fun as I thought you'd be."
He twitched at that. He didn't know when he went from not caring and being recklessly fun to having someone say he wasn't fun. When did he become this? Instead of getting closer to the explosive girl, he stayed leaning against the dresser.
"Yeah, well, you're not as cool as I thought you'd be." He crossed his arms defensively.
She jerked up at that, "what the hell-"
"It's not cool to fuck with someone else's shit," he interrupted.
Her glare was hot, and if he wasn't careful, she could very easily cause a lot of damage – but wasn't that what everyone else had looked at him like. He knew what it was like to be destructive, and only destructive. He knew what it was like to be the defensive one, the one that others looked at like he realized he was starting to look at her life. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, face towards the ceiling. How in the world had he ended up here?
"You're cool kid-"
"I'm not a kid," she bit out.
"You're one of those, what did Kitty call you, the new mutants," he paused, realizing he was getting sidetracked, "Whatever, not the point." He shook his head.
"Well then, what is?"
"Point being, you aren't just your powers."
"Yeah, yeah," she waved her hand dismissively, "great power, great responsibility – heard it all from the Professor before."
He chuckled, "that's not where I was going, but sure, whatever."
Her head quirked to the side inquisitively, "then what do you mean?"
"I mean," he uncrossed his arms, "that even though you think your power is just destructive, it isn't. And even if it was only destructive," he paused here and pointed at her, "which it isn't-" he ran his hand through his hair as he became more flustered.
He started again, "just because that's how you see it, and how others might see it, doesn't mean that's all there is to you. All of us here, in our own ways, know what it's like to be looked at like all we are is destructive, but we realized we are all more than that. We aren't just destructive, we aren't just problems, life is too boring to be a one-dimensional stereotype. We are more than just our powers."
"How so?"
He looked around the room, the tomb that was the memory of a woman who had brought them all together but hadn't meant for it to be favorable. She didn't bring them together to make them better, she had only brought them together so they could be fodder. Lance was pretty sure that the only person that had deliberately been brought on was Rogue. Hell, even Pietro wasn't even a piece that had been cared for regardless of who his family was.
His thoughts were starting to derail again. He shook his head to try and physically clear his mind. This felt like a pivotal moment, and he didn't want to mess this up, but was even the best person for this conversation? He wasn't a role model, far from it, in fact, but there was something about being able to be there for people. There was something about being the reliable one. He wanted to take care of people, no. That wasn't right. He wanted to take care of people that reminded him of him. Those that others looked at like they were worthless, problems, waste of space. Those that were only good for one thing, and that was being fodder, being used for something – and those people always took to it as a saving grace. They wanted to feel useful, they would degrade themselves, tear themselves apart to have someone look at them like they weren't nothing. They'd give up everything that made them who they were if that were the case.
No, Lance hated it when people didn't have choices, and those people were stuck. He wanted to make sure they knew there were more than just the choices they'd been given. There were always more choices, whether they were better or not wasn't the point – the point was that there were options. There were ways out of the hole, whether the person took them or not was up to them, but he wanted to make sure they knew there were more ways out that didn't require them losing even more of themselves down there.
He shook his head a final time, a quick glance at the door, at the hallway the lead to their rooms, a reminder for himself, and clarity.
He smiled, remembering time spent with the others, they were cogs – all part of the machine, all helping to build each other up, finally opening his mouth to answer her, wanting more than anything for her to know she doesn't have to be used. Hoping that she would understand that even if she blew things up, she could always build a foundation that could support her.
So, ironically enough, I wasn't going to do this episode. I'm not a huge fan of it, and I wasn't sure how to incorporate Tabitha into the Brotherhood with Rogue staying. But apparently at some point, I had started a draft of it, and past me had written some notes on the matter that I do not remember ever writing. So, yay, thanks past me? Again, not everything in this quasi-slice of life retailing, is going to go by the episodes (I took some artistic liberties with timings of things in this too). Obviously, things have changed, and whether for the better or not, that does come in to play on the characters, especially characters that may never have been mentioned/mentioned again – and that also means that since this is my sandbox I can sandcannon my own things for this.
