Ch 13-Journey Home

The moon was full that night and the crickets sang softly into the warm summer air as James watched the couple sway gently by the lake where their platoon had camped for the night. Harry looked tiny pressed against Victor's chest, barely reaching the middle of the large feral's chest and yet looking completely at peace when wrapped in the usually aggressive man's arms.

It was dangerous for them to be together, not just because of their genders,but also having to deal with the stigma that Harry's Southern heritage brought into the camp, that coupled with his fragile appearance and soft voice led to ridicule and cruelty that followed the young mutant wherever he went. It was a miracle that Harry hadn't left a long time ago. But Sherman had taken the boy under his wing, making him his aide, keeping him close and treating him like one of his men.

It was at this time that the relationship between Victor and Harry started to bloom, both were feline in nature, though Victor lacked the grace and agility that was innate in Harry, it didn't stop the pair from disappearing for hours on end to play in the forests or tall grasses surrounding their current camp. James didn't stop them, how could he when he hadn't seen this side of his brother since before they had left Canada: no it was good for Victor to relax and find someone playful and so full of life to expend the pent up energy that would leave their companions suspicious. It didn't stop James from feeling that twinge of jealousy when Harry looked up through long inky black lashes at Victor, his green eyes darkening a primal need for closeness, releasing a pheromone to lure Victor even further into the lull of mating.

They would be gone til the next day, no else made note of their absence, but James felt the ache of loneliness reverberate in his chest as he waited for them to return. Only to turn away when they did, the apparent closeness of the couple too much for him to handle.

Which led to the scene playing out before him; the couple under the moonlight, saying their goodbyes for however long they were going to be seperated. Victor had been chosen for a mission by Sherman, sending him far from the platoon and Harry, into the enemies camp as he tried to get close to their General.

"I don' want ya ta go." It was a the first time that Harry had spoken since discovering the news of his lover's departure, preferring to cling to the older man in desperation and sadness than speak anything aloud.

Victor chuckled softly and in a rare display of tenderness, bent down to kiss the top of his mate's riotous midnight curls, his arms wrapping about the slender shoulders pulling the youth impossibly closer. "I won't be gone long." He said gruffly, burying his face into the apple scented hair, looking to where he knew Logan hid in the underbrush. "Besides, Jimmy will watch over you."

The youth sighed softly, feeling the warmth of the large body as Victor breathed deeply, filling his chest with air before releasing it and pulling away from the small form. "You have ta go." Said Harry, looking into the brush where Jimmy tried, failing miserably, to hide.

Victor nodded, pressing a weighted kiss to his mate's lips before slipping away into the night, leaving Harry to curl in on himself, his legs giving out, as soon as his scent drifted away. He wasn't crying, per se, but the smell of tears lay heavily in the air as Jimmy crept forward, careful to avoid startling the seemingly fragile boy.

"Ya don' have ta sneak around, I know you're there." James wasn't surprised that the small feral had known of his presence, he was a well honed feline with a lot of natural instincts of a small predator, so he was nearly hyper aware of his surroundings.

The larger, more solidly built mutant sat next to the General's aide, pressing againt his side in an effort to offer comfort, as he used to do with Victor, smiling soft as the warm body pressed back in response, resting his head on the large shoulder. "I miss 'im already."

James nodded, wrapping his arm around the youth in security, "I know." He said softly, looking down at the youth who somehow had become so dear to James.

"Sherman is trying ta punish me for sneakin' around with Victor, I just know it. Says he no good for me, that he's dangerous. Like I don' already know." Harry ranted, pouting at the father figure that always tried so hard to seperate the couple, fearing that Victor's known history of violence would somehow impact Harry.

James worried about the same thing, because even then there was a darkness in Victor, that had nothing to do with his feral nature, but his human side, something that sought to destroy everything in its path. It scared Jimmy sometimes, to see the man he called brother act out so violently toward another human being, though on the battle field it was seen as bravery, off it merely cruelty. That to imagine this small, delicate being leant against him so trustingly to maybe suffer under such derangement was unfathomable to James, but again there was nothing he could do. Harry wasn't being harmed and Victor was strangely gentle with the petite Southerner, for all intents and purposes there was nothing wrong.

"He is dangerous, but not to you, I think." Whispered James, standing when the smell of rain came in on the wind, he had to get Harry back to his tent before it started to pour. "Come on it's going-"

"Ta rain. I know." Harry stood from the grass, his hair now being tugged in all directions from the wind, clouds rolling in, the smell of rain heavy in the air. Logan followed the small mutant back through the uncut brush back to the camp, where the fires burned low and all was quiet.

Harry's tent was next to Sherman's at the center of camp, which he entered and tied the flap closed before James could follow. "Good night." He snapped from inside before blowing out the candle.

"Good night." James said, sighing as he turned and made his way back to his own tent.

Logan's eyes snapped open as the dream receded back into his mind as he laid in bed, the sound of birds outside of the window coupled with the light from the sun streaming into the room managed to wake Logan fully from his sleep. He sighed, thinking back over the past few days as Hayden, Harry, had settled into life at the mansion, Bobby and a reluctant Marie, his constant companions as he explored the huge house and its occupants, even going so far as to sitting in on one of Scott's English Lit class, his legs swinging like a child's from his perch on a bookcase.

It was a strange experience to say the least, Logan's memories coming back slowly, bit by bit, as he continued to observe the diminutive mutant stalk about, ever the curious cat. It was like watching something familiar, a home video, like the things Harry was doing was just so familiar, the way he basked in a sunny spot on one of the plush couches, or charmed Scott into having tea and they would talk for hours about who knows what. It was all familiar in some way, though the circumstances would change, the image remained.

"So your memory is returning? That is good news." Said the professor, one afternoon in his office, the curtains pulled back from the window to watch as some of the students lingered out of doors on the lawn, soaking in the last bit of heat from the sun before retreating back into the mansion for the evening. Scott and Harry sitting quietly under a tree, travel mugs and a stack of books beside them as they talked.

"I think it's because of Harry. He's there more often than not." Stated Logan as way of acknowledgement, his eyes tracing over the pair under the tree as Xavier did the same, though the telepath spent more time on Scott than his previous obsession.

Charles smiled as both men laughed, Harry lifting a hand to wave at Bobby as the ice mutant trekked toward the tree, his step confident and sure, such a difference from a week ago. "Isn't it amazing the difference that one person can make in the lives of many? I cannot help but be surprised at the changes that can be invoked by the right kind of stimuli."

Logan nodded as he watched Bobby reach Hayden's side, leaning down to press a chaste kiss to his paramour's cheek, before sitting down beside the two men. "The kid's really stepped up lately, in everything looks like." He said, eyes scanning the lawn until they landed on Marie a few yards off with Jubilee and Kitty, the darkly clad girl starring off into the direction of her boyfriend. "Well, almost everything."

Bobby had...grown in some unfathomable way. It was almost as if a switch had been flipped and Bobby's balls had dropped. He was manly, confident and humorous where before he had been bland and unimpressive though he was tall, his demeanor left much to be desired. The change was almost unexplainable, other than it had all begun once Hayden had entered the mansion. He had taken Bobby under his wing, subtly teaching him about being a man, the youth flourishing under the attention the other mutant gave him until he was on his way to becoming the well-rounded "All American" man.

It was a beautiful, if strange sight to see the change in Bobby. He had been such a shy, quiet boy, reminiscent of Scott at that age, but with so much potential for leadership, the way the boy held himself when no one else was supposed to be watching, full of unformed strength and confidence. But now, the ice mutant was coming into his own, with a little help, he was becoming the man that Xavier saw as maybe one day leading the X-Men.

"He's growing into himself, with Mr. Potter's guidance, of course, but you can't say you didn't see it coming. Especially when Marie is sometimes distant from him and the loss of John hurt them both deeply." Said Xavier, his eyes clouded with memories of that time at Alkali Lake, worrying about the children and his X-Men, of Scott and what Strykker did to him in their time in that lab. The leader refusing to talk about it, saying it was nothing and Charles abstaining from burrowing into the younger mutant's mind, refusing to cause Scott anymore harm.

But there was no doubt that the experience hadn't affected Scott in some way. He still had not returned to the field, preferring to stay at the manor and handle the minute details of each mission, staying in contact with the dispatched teams through any trouble, ready to guide from the safety of his strategy room in the basement. Sometimes, his hands shook from anxiety and he lost all confidence himself, walking the mansion at odd hours of the night, reading books and writing articles, a novel even. His chosen profession became his escape from the terrors of his undisclosed mind.

While it was heartbreaking to see, because Scott had never been very confident to begin with, but Charles couldn't help but feel relieved. He could keep Scott safe at the mansion, soothe the hurts of his past, recent or otherwise, and selfishly talk with the younger mutant as long as he wanted. And Xavier loved it. It was almost like tasting the notes of a fine wine, layer by layer his pupil's mind was unwrapped before his eyes and set before him, a feast for any intellectual. There was so much that the professor had missed when he had made the decision to, essentially, remove Scott from his intimate life after their one night affair. So many thoughts and ideas, dreams and revelations, all so intricately woven into each other that all the dilemmas of mankind seemed solvable, inspiring a shift in Xavier's own work in the government.

The professor smiled, though it was tinged with sadness at trio under the tree, he had begun making changes in the infrastructure both in legislature regarding mutants and with the use of the X-Men, repurposing both into things that would protect mutants not only from humans but from other mutants as well. Jean, of course, wasn't happy, but then again since Scott had moved out of their shared bedroom and back into the attic of his teen years, nothing could make her happy. No matter, it wasn't her place to question his decisions and reasons, or his relationships as she had been lately in regards to Scott.

"Everything seems too...easy right now. My memories are comin' back, Bobby's steppin' up, Slim finally left Jean and you changing the way X-Men work. It all seems a little too convenient." Said Logan, his eyes hard as he looked down on the remaining few people on the lawn, brown eyes locking with green as Harry followed the rest of his group back into the mansion as the wind started to pick up.

Xavier nodded in agreement, it was all falling into place a little too perfectly, especially after what had happened at Alkali Lake, but there really was no way he could stop it, no way he was willing to stop it, because that would mean Hayden would leave and there was still a part a him, a selfish childish part, that refused to let the petite mutant go so soon. "I see what you mean, but there really is nothing we can do at the moment."

Logan saw the dismissal immediately and got up to leave, dinner was being served in the dining hall and he had promised Marie he would eat with her. The professor had a private dinner with Scott most nights and so didn't make it down to the dining hall often. "Good night, Professor."

"Good night, Logan. Do keep me aprised of your memories?"

"I will."

Logan ran into Scott on his way out to the elevator, wearing a crisp white oxford and pressed slacks, an almost militant quality about the styling of his hair. He looked nice, clean cut and smooth, the burden of leadership no longer such a heavy weight on his shoulders and now a tentative spring in his step, almost as though he was afraid of what it meant, that coincided with the arrival of Hayden.

So Logan had to stop and ponder his dilemma, on one hand of all the good the small mutant was doing for the inhabitants of the manor, bringing life and security after such a dark time, but there was something going on. A darkness in Harry's eyes when he thought no one was watching, a haggard appearance crossing his face when he turned into the shadows. It could have been from lack of feeding, because no one had shown signs of the feral's more deviant behavior, or it could have been something external, something sinister that was bothering the mutant. There was really no way to tell though and Logan really didn't care to know until Harry's position in his past was clear, or something came to the mansion.

But, until either of those happened, it really wasn't any of his business.