xXx
We were currently in Spiderman's small apartment, readying to settle in for the night. By the time we got away from Kingpin's building, it was too late to set out for the mountain base in Utah Alaban's bloody map led to. I tried to convince the others to set out anyway, but I was out numbered. While I was prepared to spend another night in the Hummer, again the others had a different idea. Spiderman offered to help find us a cheap hotel, but somehow the discussion led to us spending the night at his apartment. He was against the idea at first but when Rogue said, "For God's sake, Ah've been in yah'r head! Ah know who yah really are! Can we stop pretending to keep up this game and just go back to yah'r place, Peter?". Then he just sort of gave up. He made us swear blood oaths that we wouldn't tell anyone, and we assured him we'd never tell his secret. Superhero code, right?
I sat at the window seat, gazing at the still busy city below. Kitty was pasted out on the small second hand couch a few feet away from me while Rogue was falling asleep on the floor, watching the ceiling fan turn slowly above her.
"Hey, you want some hot chocolate?" Spiderman, I mean, Peter asked, holding out a chipped coffee cup with a kitten chasing a puppy on it. I noticed that while he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, he still had on his mask.
"Yeah, thanks." I said gratefully, accepting the cup. "You know you don't have to keep the mask on, right? Rogue knows what you look like anyway, and we meant our promise. We're not going to tell anyone who Spiderman really is."
Embarrassed, he removed his mask to reveal his face, and I guesed his age to maybe twenty three or four. He had a pointed chin, free of hair, and a longish nose. He had a pleasant face, one made on boyish good looks. He nervously ran his fingers through his thick brown hair.
"So what are you thinking about?"
"Just…something Alaban said." I answered truthfully, looking down.
"What did he say?" Peter asked, taking a seat beside me. When I didn't answer, he said. "Before you spend more time worrying about whatever he said, remember that he takes pleasure in seeing others afraid and hurting."
"So he can't see the future?" I asked hopefully, meeting my blue eyes to his brown ones.
"Well, he can," Peter said cautiously, but added quickly when my distress showed "But he can make things up as well."
I sighed and looked out the window. "Do you think we have any chance of saving them, Peter?"
"I think we have a girl who can walk through walls, another who can steal memories and powers with a touch, a guy that has been playing superhero for eight years, and a very sneaky, determined girl that has a plan for everything." Peter answered.
"Very nice way to avoid the question."
"Thanks, I try." He joked. Taking on a more serious tone he added. "I think we have an okay chance, but not great. We're up against a bunch of pros with guns and other weapons. We have a fight ahead of us. I think we'd have a better chance if we included the Avengers and the X-men."
"We will." I said honestly. "I want to give my parents their best chance and I know having two teams of experienced superheroes will give them that. But I'm not contacting them until we're closer. I don't want them to come in and send us away."
"Why are you so determined to go, Leah?" Peter asked. "I mean, you've done your part of finding them. What does it matter who goes to save them, why does it have to be you?"
I took a sip of the too sweet hot chocolate to buy myself some time. "I just do. Its complicated, but there's been this huge divider shoved between me and my parents. I have to prove to everyone that I'm…not useless I guess. I don't know, I just feel like this is something I have to do."
"Well, that makes a lot of sense." Peter joked, but didn't press any further.
We went over the plan for tomorrow quietly. We'd ditch the hummer, knowing it wouldn't get us to Utah fast enough. Instead we'd combine our resources to rent a small plane. I had my piolet's licence (Dad got me lessons for my sweet sixteen) so I could fly us there. Peter insisted that if we contacted the Avengers now, we could save the money and take one of their jets, but I dismissed the idea. The Avengers wouldn't have changed their minds about letting us go with them.
"Okay, so that's the plan." Peter rose, stretching. "I don't know about you, but I'm bushed. I'm heading off to bed-"
A knock at the door interrupted. Frowning slightly, Peter went to answer it.
My heart dropped when he opened the door to reveal the visitor's frowning face.
It was Eric.
xXx
"Seriously, in the past eight years maybe four people knew about my secret identity. One day mixed up with you kids and its doubles!" Peter complained as we sat around his small table.
"Eric won't tell anyone." I swore.
"Yeah, your secret is safe with me." Eric said sincerely.
Peter just threw up his hands and stormed into his bedroom.
"How did you find me?"
Eric turned to me, frowning. "I took out your dad's bike. I figured you'd go to the city and when I got here, I turned into a scenthound and followed you here. What are you doing in Spiderman's apartment?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you and the others are completely insane! What are you playing at, leaving the school to go on some mission?" Eric demanded in a harsh voice.
"Since my parents went missing, none of the X-men or the others have gotten as close to finding them as I have in one day." I replied in a cold tone.
"Well, that's great, really. So now you can tell them where they're located and come back to the school with me." Eric said, grasping my arm.
I yanked my arm away from him. "No way! I'm not stopping when I'm this close to saving them. I'll call the others in when they're needed, not before when they can stop me."
"Leah, do you realize how crazy this sounds? You're going to get yourself killed!"
"No I'm not."
"How do you expect to save them, huh? You're just a human!" Eric said harshly.
I felt like I'd been slapped. Eric immediately looked guilty and hurriedly said "That's not what I meant."
"Yes, it was." I said coldly, standing up from the table. "You think I'm useless and incapable because I don't have any mutant powers. That I'm only going to get in the way of the real heroes."
"I never said that-"
"In between the lines you did. But I don't care. I'm going to save them, even if I am 'just a human'." I stated. "Oh and by the way, thanks for sticking by me when I was outed. Really, I appreciated the cold shoulder. I guess a mutant couldn't be seen fraternizing with the human."
I stalked back to the window and curled up, looking down on the city.
"I'm coming with you then." Eric said softly. He had come to stand behind me but I refused to look at him.
"No you're not."
"I have to protect-" Eric put a hand on my shoulder, which I pulled away from.
"I don't need you to protect me, Eric," I spat harshly, still looking out the window. "and I never did."
Eric stood behind me for a few moments before walking away. Unfortunately, he didn't leave the apartment but instead took one of the blankets Kitty wasn't using and set himself up in the ragged cushioned chair beside the couch.
Still fuming, I slowly drifted off to sleep.
xXx
It was four in the morning when Eric crept to Leah's side at the window. She was breathing softly, and curled into a ball. She shivered in her sleep, having not taken a blanket before bed. Eric took the one he'd been using and wrapped it around her. He smiled when her shivering ended. He knelt beside her, watching her sleep. In all the time that he'd known Leah Logan, she never looked this peaceful when awake.
He hadn't meant to upset her before. He just lost his temper, something he usually was able to keep in check. But Leah always had the ability to make him lose his cool. The girl drove him crazy in every sense.
Why couldn't she see how worried he was about her? How concerned he was that she'd be hurt or even killed? The idea of her no longer being in his life scared him in a way that nothing else could.
When he learned that Leah, his Leah, wasn't a mutant like him, he felt his heart break. There was no way anything could be between them now. It just wasn't possible. There was no way a normal girl would want to be with a freak, and even if she did, what kind of life would they have? He was going to be an X-men one day. That would mean her having to live at the mansion with him, a place she would never belong. And she'd be in constant danger, something he couldn't allow. He couldn't condemn the girl he loved to a lonely, dangerous life.
No matter how much he desperately wanted her.
Reaching out, he ran his lightly tanned fingers through her soft black and white hair. He resisted the urge to kiss her full red lips, knowing it would wake her and cause more problems.
It was killing him being this close to her but knowing he couldn't really be with her.
"But you'll always be mine Leah," He said in a barely audible voice, pushing her hair back from her face. "Even when you go off and marry some nice normal guy and live a safe, normal life. Remember, you promised. That winter when I found that ring in school yard? I asked you to marry me and you said yes. We had that ceremony under the large oak tree in your yard. Afterwards we split a cookie for our wedding cake. The next day we learned that our teacher had lost her ring in the yard and we returned it, but you were still my 'wife'. I don't even know if you remember that, it was such a long time ago."
Leah murmured slightly in sleep.
Figuring that Leah might wake up soon, Eric stood up.
"I love you Leah, and even if you don't want it, you'll always have me to protect you." Eric whispered.
xXx