Perfect Synergy
"The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started." - Norman Cousins
Do you know how much fun it is to push someone off of something that's, relatively, 50 feet tall? I don't. But Erik sure did. In his defense, he did it for that someone's own benefit. Poor Sean. We were testing out Sean's flight abilities on a much larger scale. Thinking if he had more time to scream, he'd eventually get one out and he'd be able to soar off into the sunset. I shouldn't have been laughing it was just really funny watching him soar through the air making weird squawking sounds before he actually let out a good honest to God scream. He soared up and around before finally landing, more like crashing, in a tree. There we were, four mutants who had just witnessed our friend do something amazing, and we made no incentive to come to his aide. Typical. Erik and Charles gave each other a look, told us that they were going to go train Erik, bid us adieu, and climbed down off of the satellite. Oh, yeah, we were on a satellite. Forgot to mention that. That's the thing that's 50 some odd feet tall. I looked to Hank, who was clutching the railing next to me, and gave him a smile.
"Should we go help the dumb ass?" I asked, playfully of course. But Hank just shook his head. Why doesn't he want to go help Sean? "Really? I thought you'd be all for it, being the good guy and all."
Hank let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, I guess you would think that." He gave another shaky laugh before turning around, looking at the ground, and immediately turning back. "But I think I'm just going to stay up here for awhile. Fresh air and all." He said as his face turned whiter and whiter.
I was about to question him. That's when I recognized it, vertigo. He was getting dizzy from the height, or he was so afraid of heights that he was going to pass out. Either seemed highly plausible. I reached over and put my hand on his. "I can get you down." I whispered to him. He looked up with so much gratitude on his face it could bring a tear to a girl's eye. Not mine of course, I'm a bad ass, bad asses don't cry. Despite the fact that I've cried enough times since the beginning of my tail. I held out a hand to him. "Come on, let mommy hold your hand." I teased with pursed lips. The dejected look on Hank's face told me he didn't take my teasing well. I ignored it and gently grabbed his forearm.
"I can get down myself!" He argued with a pure face of determination. Ignoring the fact that his face was a light pink. He was just trying to put on a brave face for me, didn't want me babying him. And I didn't want that either. My hand slid down to clasp his; my fingers twined with his.
"You don't have to be brave for me. I like a guy who can admit his weaknesses." I informed him with a quick peck on the lips. He looked down at his feet and I fought back to urge to slap him. "Your feet are not a weakness, Hank. They're one of your greatest strengths, rivaled only by that Harvard sized brain of yours." I said, hoping he would take my compliment without complaint. He didn't look like he was going to object, that sure was a step in the right direction. "'Atta boy." Was all I had to say before I summoned a powerful electrical field around us and coaxed him towards the edge.
I heard him swallow past something, yeah, I actually heard it. "You sure I'll make it to the ground in one piece?" He asked while pointing a shaky finger at the ground.
I put on a mock face of shock. "Don't you trust me?" My hand that wasn't twined with his shot up to my chest in a fake expression of hurt.
"I... I trust you." He said with a quick nod of his head. Why did it sound like he was trying to convince himself more than me? I appreciated it all the same. I took two steps out into thin air as if I was walking on a solid surface. I pulled slightly on Hank and he just wrapped both arms around me, clinging to me for dear life. Aww, baby. Gently, I decreased the resistance in my electrical field and we found ourselves lowering at a slow speed to the ground. All the while Hank was quaking like Scott had when we convinced him to participate in the Dugen-Fuller sibling initiation. There was no sibling initiation we just wanted an excuse to shoot apples off the top of his noggin. What? We hit every single one dead on! With my mind being completely occupied I didn't hear Hank when he asked me something. Actually, I didn't hear him because he was mumbling into the crook of my neck. But I felt his mouth move so that's something.
"What was that?" I asked.
He lifted his head up so I could see, and hear, him. His eyes were squeezed shut. "Are we almost to the ground?" He asked in a shaky voice.
"'Bout half way there."
He didn't say anything, but he did nod before diving back into my throat. Wow, I haven't said that not meaning something sexual and, might I add, rather unpleasant on the receiving end. Glad that wasn't what Hank was doing. Finally after a minute or so, I felt my feet touch ground. As soon as I felt the ground I felt Hank loosen up. He stood upright and planted small kisses on my lips, cheeks, forehead, nose, chin, eyelids, and pretty much wherever he could that was above my neck, meanwhile my face was all scrunched up in response. After twenty seconds of that Hank pulled back looking completely flabbergasted. His mouth kept fluttering open and shut. "I-I'm so sorry."
My eyebrow arched and I laughed. "Why?"
"I-I've never acted so- so rashly before!" He explained as he wiped off his mouth with a handkerchief. Without even thinking I smacked the hankie out of his hands and pressed my lips against his rather forcefully. At first, Hank was adamant in not participating in the kiss at all but his lips eventually relaxed and he kissed me back. It was, in a word, fantastic. Hank's hand reached up nervously to cradle my neck and to pull me closer to him. He was practically going wild, well, wild for him, and I loved it. That's when I decided to try something really bold, I opened my mouth and touched my tongue to his. I could practically feel his shock, but he didn't stop, which was a great leap in our relationship. We continued like that for a short while before our eardrums felt like they were going to explode. I broke away and pressed my palms into my ears.
"LISTEN. IT'S GREAT THAT YOU TWO ARE HAVING A MOMENT AND ALL, BUT WILL YOU STOP SUCKING EACH OTHERS FACE OFF AND GET ME DOWN?"
I looked up and saw Sean in the tree I hadn't realized that we were underneath, dangling, with his foot the only thing keeping him up, and might I add that I don't think that ankles were supposed to bend that way. "Shit." I muttered. Without really thinking I leapt up and started weaving my way up through the branches towards my friend. I think he purposely crashed into the tallest tree on the lot. It seriously felt like he was thirty feet up. After a minute or so I finally made my way up to him. But how exactly am I going to do this? If I remove his ankle he'll fall several feet and probably break his neck. So how am I supposed to get him down? Oh well, I'll wing it. I climbed up a few more branches so Sean's arms were dangling near my ankles. "Kay, Sean, you're going to
He didn't even hesitate he wrapped my legs in a vice grip. Probably scared for his life. What an obedient guy. So this is what I was going to do. I was going to unhinge Sean's ankle and then I was going to wrap an arm around his legs and try to flatten him out before I set him upright. Smart plan, right? Stop judging me. I'm not Einstein. I don't do details very well. But here's how it all played out, I managed to get Sean's ankle out from between the branches it was stuck in, that's when it all went to shit. I didn't account for how heavy Sean was so we just dropped like a rock. I managed to wrap an arm around the closest branch before we fell too far. Sure, it killed my elbow to have done that but the damaged tissue quickly healed itself or replaced itself, whatever damaged tissue did, all I know is it stopped hurting pretty quickly after it started. I hefted myself up so the branch was underneath my arm and so I was more stable to assess the situation we were in. If Sean grabbed that one branch a couple inches below him I could edge my way down with his feet. That was my plan and I was sticking to it.
"Hey, see that branch below you?" I called to him, struggling to hold onto his foot in the crook of the elbow that wasn't keeping us up.
I could practically feel Sean trembling but he looked anyway. "Mhmmm." He barely audited up to me.
Without really realizing it, I grunted. "Good, I'm going to lower you to it, grab hold and I'll bring your feet down." I instructed.
Sean's head whipped up to look at me. "Are you nuts? That's like two whole feet away!" Really? Looks like less than one from where I'm dangling, guess that's a perspective issue.
"You rather we stay up here until my body exhausts all the energy I got and then we both fall to our deaths?" He didn't respond. "Yeah! I didn't think so! Now, I have about 18 inches I can lower you, safely. I'm going to hang onto the branch with my elbow and I'm going to hold onto your foot. Got it?" I yelled at him, he nodded uneasily. Whatever. Time to see if I have any brains in my skull.
Slowly I shifted to hang into the branch with my elbow instead of under my arm which successfully lowered him eight inches or so. And even more slowly I grabbed onto Sean's foot and uncurled my arm, my bicep was straining underneath Sean's gargantuan weight. Practically screaming at me. I looked down to see red hair and grey sleeved arms flailing towards the branch. "Can't reach!" Sean struggled to say. Oh fuck.
I groaned. "Why can't you weigh less?"
"Hey! I only weigh 200 lbs!" He spat back.
"Jesus Christ! You're one scrawny kid, where the fuck you get that weight from?" I asked through my teeth, as my jaw was clenched shut from the strain.
"I wrestled in High School!" He countered, that sort of half explained it. I had no choice, I had to use my entire arm span to lower him the rest of the way. With a speed, or lack of it, rivalling paint drying, I used all of my strength not to drop Sean and to hang onto the branch with nothing but my fingers. My arms were screaming in pain and this time it wasn't going away. The constant strain wasn't allowing my body to heal itself. Sean yelling, "I got it!" distracted me from my excruciating pain. I looked down and saw a branch barely skimming my foot. I lowered Sean's ankle onto it and carefully dropped down. I wobbled a bit on the landing. To my left was another branch in my reach, I was just about to grab onto it when I heard, "I can get down on my own now!"
Just to be sure I looked down, all the branches from there on down were nice and tightly packed. Guess that was how I made it up there with relative ease. I let out a sigh of relief and went to wipe the sweat from my brow when I realized that I couldn't move my arms. What the hell! How long have we been up here?
"You comin'?" Sean asked, now standing upright a few feet below me.
Sluggishly, I nodded. "Just give a minute." At that he shrugged and continued his descent in a style very similar to a primate's. I knew he was a monkey. Or an orangutan with that orange hair of his.
I forgot how long I was stuck up there, but my arms weren't getting any better. Wonder if I was going to spend my entire birthday up a tree. Yeah, I didn't mention it earlier, it was my 17th birthday. Pleasant way to spend it right? It couldn't have been twenty minutes before I started going insane. There isn't anything to do in a tree by yourself! I'd know! I've had to climb up enough of them in my short lifetime!
"Max? Are you still up there?" Someone called from down on the ground.
"Yeeeeeeeeees!" I whined. "I can't use my arms!"
In a flash, whoever was on the ground practically jumped from where they were to where I was. I know that was just the exhaustion playing tricks with my mind, but let's not think about that. What I said sounded cooler. I felt a hand sneak under my legs and another wrap around my back. And before I knew it, I was on the ground. Thanks you mind games! I looked up at my saviour and it was none other than Hank McCoy. Awwww! He braved his fear of heights to rescue me! His blue eyes were full of sincere kindness as he examined my arms and shoulders. "Looks like they're dislocated." He said conclusively. Oh joy!
"You know how to put it back in?" I asked, watching the kindness in his eyes turn to fear and worry.
I saw his Adam apple bob up and down. "Y-Yes." He stammered.
I didn't really want to put him through that but we were too far away from the house to call upon anyone else. Sorry Hank. "Do you mind? The longer they're dislocated the more it'll hurt to put them back in."
He didn't answer me as his hands found their way to my shoulder and wrist. His entire body was shaking but I couldn't do this without him. I was sending waves of apologies at him when I felt my shoulders resetting themselves. I can't believe it, what can't my body do! I looked at them and could practically feel my muscles reaching out to my bones and pulling them back in. It would be an understatement to say that the feeling was absolutely disgusting. Felt like something was crawling around underneath my skin. Then I remembered Hank. Shit.
"Actually, my shoulders are feeling much better! I don't think they need any relocation!" I tried to convince him with a shaky smile. Deep down inside I knew he wasn't going to take my word for it.
His eyes shot up to look into mine. "They are clearly dislocated, no need to suffer on my account." He said in that sweet tone he always used when he spoke to me. But I could definitely tell when he noticed that my shoulders were clearly not dislocated. Inwardly, I swore like a sailor, outwardly, I cringed as if his hands were suddenly white hot. He looked back up at me with worry in his eyes. "But... I... I could've sworn...?" He stuttered.
"I have this weird healing factor. Guess I forgot to mention it. Wounds heal in seconds, breaks heal in hours. I guess I'm your everyday Wonder Woman." I said with such a flippant attitude that I didn't even believe myself. Did I even dare to look into his eyes? Of course I did. Remember I didn't have the best track record for doing the smart or the right thing, and looking into Hank's eyes took the cake for the dumbest thing I'd ever done. I practically turned into a puddle. I opened my mouth to speak, ready to divulge and comfort him as best I could. "Hank, I-"
"YO, LOVE BIRDS, THE PRESIDENT'S GONNA TALK SOON!" Someone screamed, guessing since we could hear it from the house it was Sean. I turned to Hank who was ready standing and adjusting his blazer. At first I thought he was going to leave without me. That's when he reached down and pulled me up from the ground. He gave me a faint smile but I could still see the worry in his eyes. I tried to push that from my mind as we walked up to the house. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that keeping my secret from Hank was going to just keep getting harder and harder as my expiration date approached. I prayed that I was strong enough to keep it all tucked away.