12. Reason

"CANNONBALL!" Kurt shouted as he teleported high in the air and landed in the pool, creating a large splash that engulphed everyone in a ten foot radius.

"Kurt! I'm tanning!" Kitty threw a towel at the fuzzy blue one as he swam to the side of the mansion's large water hole. She dried herself off with another towel then reapplied her tanning oil to her exposed tummy and legs.

"Yeah, Kurt," shouted Tabitha from beside the grill Scott and Logan were cooking at. "Milky needs all the sun she can get."

"Quit calling me milky!" Kitty yelled. "I'm off white."

With Summer in full swing, the mutants were finally able to enjoy themselves as they soaked up some rays. Those with college ranked classes were grateful for being rid of their workload as those finishing up high school enjoyed being free for a time.

The smell of brisket and burgers filled the air as the mutants engaged in games of volleyball, basketball, tennis, swimming in the pool, and pickup games of football. The trails around the mansion were used every day now that the bite of winter was gone and the beautiful foliage had retaken over the area. The lake was visited and swam in from time to time but the pool was the prime choice for the time being. It was pointless to stay inside as the outdoors called to everyone, that is all for one person, Miguel.

Coming down the stairs, the Hispanic mutant was just getting out of bed. Summer, as he found out, was the only time they didn't have to wake up early. Since his fight nights were a thing of the past, he was finding controlling his temper to be a bit of a challenge again. The Danger Room could only do so much as it was computer programmed. It may mimic an opponent's moves and powers, but it lacked the unpredictability of a real person, something he wished he could go up against.

Aside from not being able to work his aggressiveness out like he wanted, he also found his mind to be a jumbled mess. When he was angry, he got angry at being angry. When he wasn't angry, he was angry that he wasn't angry. He was angry at how some of the students annoyed him and angry that others didn't annoy him. And then there was Megan.

She was the exception in all of this. One day she would be nice and sweet to him. The next, she would shout how much she hates him to his face. Dreams of her occurred every now and then, which he found calming, but it was just plain ridiculous what would happen when they interacted.

Case in point was during a Danger Room mission with a jungle theme where he was paired up with her. Everything started off smoothly until he got struck by a swinging tree trunk and landed in quicksand. She tried to help him out by flying over him and lifting him up but another tree trunk knocked her into the sandy water next to him. She blamed him for that as they failed the mission. The next was when she was bound in metal coils during another Danger Room mission. She had triggered the trap to go off by accident and Miguel ran back to help her. Before he could get close enough, another trap went off and electrocuted him. He blamed her for that after it was over.

Some days, they would eat lunch together. Others, they would argue over why he was in the girl's wing of the mansion and sneaking into the locked room at the end of the hall even though she and everyone knew why he was doing so. She would call him 'Chupa' to get on his nerves when they argued, which he would call her 'Pix' in retaliation. Kitty didn't help matters much by referring to them as M&M and trolling them around the grounds of the mansion. She even referred to him as 'Pixie's stick', making both mutants glare at her in which she would return it with a smile.

In short, he was so incredibly close to calling it quits and leave the estate all together. He didn't know why he stayed and didn't know if there was a reason to. It was just a huge mess for him right now.

"Hey, Miguel," Remy called as he entered the living room. "Why ain't you outside wit de others?"

Miguel answered with a grunt as he headed for the kitchen.

"Oh, come on, you can't tell meh you'd rather be in here than by de pool, non?"

Miguel gave another grunt as he reached in and grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator.

"Okay, stay in here. But, uh, you don't know what you're missing. Il est trop mauvais, mon ami. All the girls be wearing next to nothin'."

Miguel turned to Remy. "Next to nothin'?"

"That's more like it." The Cajun flashed him a grin that oozed mischief.

Outside, several of the mutants began a game of water polo while others sat around the pool on coolers to grab a bite to eat. Marie wrapped a transparent green cover-up around her waist as she joined Jean who was sunbathing. She laughed to herself as she remembered the weird tan lines she got one year from her ridiculous fashion bikini. At least this year she had a normal blue two piece similar to Marie's green one. Tabitha had on a tie-dyed one-piece and Kitty wore an aqua one-piece with exposed stomach.

"So, we've all got tickets to the Trapt concert in a few weeks with enough for everyone to take someone," Jean informed the girls nearby. "That's me and Scott, Kitty and Lance, Tabitha and whoever she wants to bring, Marie and Remy, and finally Megan and whoever you want to bring."

"You could probably give my second ticket to Amara. I'm not asking anyone." Megan took a swig from her can of orange soda and looked on as the others played their game in the pool.

"Oh come on, Megan," Tabitha said. "It won't be as fun going alone. You have to ask someone. How about Jamie?"

"I don't think so. The crowd will be big enough as it is."

"Point taken. How about Bobby?

"No way."

"How about Mi-"

"Tabitha, if you say his name, I swear I'll have you seeing sounds again."

Tabitha laughed at the threat. "That was so cool. Maybe you could use that dust of yours on the audience and we could really party."

"That's not a good idea," Scott interrupted as he handed Jean a burger. "The Professor says to not use our powers in public unless there's an emergency. They already hate us enough as it is. We don't need to give them a reason of calling SHIELD on us."

"Party pooper," Marie quietly grumbled. The girls shared a laugh at Scott's expense of always being the boy scout of the team. "Little Boy-Scott always doin' what the rule book says to a 'T'."

"Hey girls," Remy called as he and Miguel came out of the house. "It looks like I found our missing friend here. What say we show him a good time, hmm?"

"I'm going in the pool," Pixie said as she sat her drink down and left. She hoped no one saw her stare at Miguel's exposed arms and tightly wrapped torso.

Miguel watched her as she walked away, admiring her slender form and long legs in a modest pink one piece swimsuit. Her hair was tied back in a braid and flipped up when she jumped into the water.

"Nice to see you not wearing a wrestling shirt for once," Jean commented. "The pants and boots are a little much for the pool but props on going with the tank top and aviator sunglasses."

"If you need any trunks, we got some in the pool house," Scott informed him. "Take your pick from the shelf."

"That's fine. I'm okay." Miguel looked at the others as they enjoyed the water. Their game was picking up and was becoming noisy from all the laughing and celebratory boasts.

"You're not gonna get in the pool?" Kitty asked. "Megan's in there."

"O…kay."

Tabitha tossed her the bottle of suntan lotion. "Here, you missed a spot."

"Where? I thought I covered everything." Kitty searched herself over, mentally thinking to herself what spot may need coverage.

"Your mouth, now zip it. And don't worry, Miguel. Not everyone can look as good as the Bayville Sirens in swimsuits."

Following Tabitha's lead, Jean, Marie, and Kitty got up and laughed at they struck a Charlie's Angels pose in front of Scott, Remy, and Miguel.

"And you wanted to stay inside," Remy whispered to Miguel with an arm slung around his shoulders. "How could you say no to hot sexy women in bikinis?"

"Well if you're not jumping in, we got burgers, brisket, and plenty of drinks. Help yourself." Scott sat next to Jean and put an arm around her.

"Don't mind if Ah do." Remy rushed over to Marie and scooped her up in his arms. She let out a laugh as he carried his southern belle to the pool.

"I'll just take a Coke." Miguel took the canned drink from Scott and headed over to where the sun was hitting.

The rays of the yellow star felt good on his tanned skin. It wasn't the same heat as Texas or Mexico but it sufficed. To him, and all southerners, it just wasn't Summer unless the temperature broke one hundred and five degrees. Here, it hovered around the ninety five degree mark, which was nothing to him.

He took a seat on one of the red and white coolers as he watched the others play water polo. It looked like fun but he wasn't anywhere inclined to join them. Just out of sight, Bobby and Jamie pulled Kurt to the side of the pool and whispered to him. The three mutants developed smiles on their faces that didn't fade when they broke apart. But what had his attention was the pink haired Megan.

A large smile was plastered on her face as she enjoyed the game. He had seen her move while flying and she was just as graceful in the water. The slits on her back were barely noticeable and flexed with her every movement. He wished he could see her rainbow wings.

She noticed him looking at her from the corner of her eye. Part of her wanted to slap him but another part wanted to join him. She settled for something in between and gave him a smile before returning to her game. Mixed signals again. He sighed and returned to his drink when Kurt appeared behind him.

"Looks like someone's going for a dip!" Kurt yelled as he grabbed Miguel.

"No, wai-" He and Kurt disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, leaving his coke landing on the concrete.

Appearing over the deep end of the pool, Kurt dropped Miguel then teleported back to the shallow end. The panicking Mexican flailed his arms and legs as the fell through the air and hit the water with a splash. Those around him laughed at what Kurt did, he always found an unsuspecting person to do that to. Jean let out a hearty laugh as she saw Miguel attempt to fly and failed when her head ached in a flash of pain.

"Jean?" Scott reached out for her as she clutched her hands to her head and grunted. "Jean, you okay?"

Images of a man bearing down on her flashed through her head. Large hands grabbed her neck and hoisted her into the air. An evil expression looked back at her as the man brought her down and water flooded around her. Small infantile hands reached up to grab at anything they could until they went limp and fell under the water.

"Get him out!" the psychic yelled as she rushed to the pool.

"Jean, what happened?" Scott asked as he got up to follow his fiancé. "What did you see?"

"Kurt! Get him out of the water! He can't swim!"

"Oh, jeez!" Teleporting underwater to the deep end, Kurt grabbed a panicking Miguel and teleported poolside.

Placing the drowning mutant on his side, Kurt slapped his back and tuned him over as he struggled to catch his breath. Jean, Scott, and the others gathered around to see if Miguel needed to be taken to the medical room. They all took several steps back as he threw up the chlorinated water he had swallowed and took in lungful of fresh air.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked. "I didn't know you couldn't swim, we do that to everybody around here."

"Just get away from meh," Miguel said hoarsely. He continued to cough up water and got to a knee.

"I'm sorry. It was just a joke."

He wasn't angry or remotely irritated as evident of his shaking hands. Instead of yelling at Kurt for what he did, he got to his feet and muttered, "F#$k you."

The group of mutants stared at him as he walked off. He ripped his tank top off and threw the soaked garment behind him as headed away from the pool, not saying a word. That alone was enough to scare them more than a fully prepared meal made by Kitty.

"It's okay, Kurt. You didn't know," Scott told him. "No one knew."

"Jean, how did you know he couldn't swim?" Kitty asked.

The telepath rubbed her temples and groaned slightly. "He…he sent out a mental bombardment of memories. Scott, he was an infant when he died the first time. His father drowned him. That's why his mind is full of watery images. It's, it's nothing but hate."

They all looked in the direction Miguel left and didn't say anything else.

Breathing heavily, Miguel stomped across the mansion grounds, getting as far away from the pool and the others as he could. Low hanging branches were batted down with a few being ripped off the trees and broken outright. Trails were cut across as he ignored the twisting running paths until arriving in an area that looked to be pretty much isolated. Sitting at the base of a tree, Miguel hugged his knees tightly to his chest as he shook, not from being cold, but from being afraid.

He hated being under water. It always brought back his worst memories and made him feel vulnerable, which was completely unlike him. A faraway look was in his eyes as he stared straight ahead with his body still shaking. A warm feeling trailed down the side of his face with more following after. No matter how many times he wiped them off, fresh tears took their place and he was soon unable to control their flow.

"F#$k." He cleaned his face again and his voice was shaky. He lost all track of time he spent there and eventually the bright blue sky turned yellow and orange before he unwillingly made his way back.

When he arrived back at the mansion, everyone was eating dinner. He paid them no mind as he walked past them and headed to his room. Someone else entered through the kitchen door after him but he was already halfway up the stairs to care who it was. He slammed his door shut and took a long scalding hot shower to try and burn away the day's events from him. It was Friday, which meant he would once again be alone in his private TV room in the girl's wing. He more than needed to be alone right now with something to get his mind off of things.