Chapter 20

The Brotherhood House

Ellie took a seat on the couch next to Lance after entering the house without Pietro. Her arms were folded over her chest and her face was scrunched up as she stared at the fuzzy picture on the television across the room. Lance glanced at her awkwardly from the corner of his eye a few times.

"So…,"he stammered, "Uh…what was up with all of the yelling out there?"

"Yelling?" Ellie asked with anger in her voice. "Why, you probably just heard Pietro's big mouth. He's pretty obnoxious you know."

"Yeah, this sounds like a good time for me to go to the kitchen." Lance left his seat and exited the room. Ellie rolled her eyes at his inability to handle awkward moments.

The front door creaked open and a loud slam followed. Ellie narrowed her eyes and looked to the archway of the living room as Pietro walked past. He made sure to give her an eye roll before making his way into the kitchen. Lance turned when he walked into the room and sighed.

"You know, the neighbors already hate us," Lance mentioned. "Now they probably think we are the trashiest people ever thanks to that little couple fight in the street."

"We have neighbors?" Pietro replied as he opened the refrigerator door. Lance quickly slammed it shut.

"Seriously, what did you do?"

"Who knows with that girl. Be careful you don't look at her the wrong way or she'll bite your head off."

"It looks like you're the only one she ever has a problem with."

"Are you implying something Alvers?"

"Maybe you should just leave her alone for a while. Let her calm down."

"Whatever. I'm going to bed anyway."

"Wait, seriously?" Lance gave Pietro a confused look.

"Yeah, why?"

"You do realize it is only 10:30 on a Friday night right?"

Pietro looked to the clock on the wall. Sure enough it was still early. Normally the Brotherhood would be out causing mayhem and then dealing with the X-Men. After his dispute with Ellie, Pietro didn't feel like getting beaten up by Cyclops or Spyke tonight.

"So it's early, big deal," Pietro said. "There's nothing else to do around here."

"Well figure something out then. I'm going to watch some T.V.," Lance said as he started to walk out of the kitchen.

"Sounds good." Pietro went to follow him when Lance stopped.

"You do realize that Ellie is in there, right?"

"So?"

"Did you even hear what I just said? Give her some space."

"Not gonna happen. This is my house and I'm not going to tiptoe over some squatter." Pietro pushed past Lance and walked into the hallway. Both boys stopped in the archway when they noticed Toad sitting next to Ellie.

"Are your eyes blue, or are they gray?" Toad asked as he pushed his face close to Ellie's. She pushed his face away with her hand.

"You know there's this thing called personal space Toad, ever heard of it?" she asked.

"'Course I have. I just wanna get personal with you."

"Gross," Lance said as he walked into the room. He took a seat on the recliner chair, leaving the only open seat next to Ellie.

"Hey, Pietro! Get in here so she can push you around for a while," Toad yelled. Pietro glared at him and Ellie tensed up.

The two avoided eye contact as Pietro flopped down on the couch next to Ellie. Pietro scooted as close to the arm of the couch as he could to avoid accidentally touching her. The four sat quietly watching cartoons on the T.V. until Ellie noticed a missing presence. She looked around the room before frowning to herself. She left the couch and made her way up the stairs.

"Fred?" she called as she stepped onto the second floor. "Fred, you up here?" He poked his head out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, what do you need?" he asked. Ellie smiled at him.

"Are you feeling antisocial or something? We're all watching T.V. downstairs if you wanna join us."

"No, I'm okay up here. Have fun." Ellie gave him a sad look before making her way over to the bathroom doorway.

"Fred, you and I, we're friends right?"

"Yeah, I suppose so. Why?"

"Well, I'm still pretty new to the whole friend thing, but we're supposed to be able to talk about things together, right?"

"Well, yeah I guess."

"Then start talking. What's the matter with you?"

"It's nothin' really. Just, the guys are jerks. They always make fun of me and stuff. It just makes me so mad sometimes."

"So they made fun of you for something today then?"

"Well…yeah." Fred's face turned red as he started pressing his fingers together. Ellie tried to keep herself calm after recalling what Pietro told her earlier.

"The guys are jerks, okay? Ignore them. Just remember that I always have your back, okay Fred?" Ellie gave him a genuine smile and he returned the same.

"Thanks Ellie."

"No problem. Now let's go watch some cartoons!" Ellie made her way back down the stairs with Fred behind her.

The two walked into the living room and the only open seat was between Toad and Pietro on the couch. Fred offered it to Ellie, but she quickly declined. Fred plopped down, both Pietro and Toad bouncing in their seats as he did so. Ellie looked around the room nervously for a moment.

"Well, I've been using my powers a lot lately and nobody from HYDRA has found me yet," she thought. "Oh what the heck." With that Ellie hovered into the air behind Fred. She crossed her legs and sat in the air so she could watch T.V. with the boys.

The X-Mansion

Eli took a stroll around the mansion after his brief talk with the Professor. On his way down the stairs he noticed Scott and Bobby walking in the front door together. He thought about flagging them down to chat but decided against it considering the foul mood he was in. Unfortunately, Bobby saw him as well and decided to call him over. Eli put on his best fake smile and made his way over to the boys.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he said.

"Just getting in from a night time snack run," Bobby answered. Eli nodded.

"I thought you guys had a curfew around here?"

"The Professor's pretty lenient on the weekends," Scott explained. "But let's not tell him about this, okay?" Eli chuckled.

"No worries, you're secret is safe with me."

"Thanks. Say, have you heard from your sister today? I thought maybe she would call considering what happened."

"No," Eli's voice was stern. "Ellie left her communicator here when she left. Besides, she doesn't know about what happened today as far as I know."

"I'm sure she's fine man," Bobby said as he placed a hand on Eli's shoulder. "Ellie's pretty tough. There's no situation she can't handle."

"You don't need to tell me that Bobby. I dunno, I just have a bad feeling about that Pietro kid. I know he was talking about Ellie at school, I just hope she's not with the Brotherhood."

"Well why don't you go over there and see if she is or not?"

"What?"

"Well you know, not right now. Tomorrow."

"I dunno about that," Scott added. "The Brotherhood doesn't really like any X-Men just showing up at their house. I mean, the feelings mutual. Maybe you should stay home tomorrow."

"Wait, so you guys are saying I can just go to their house?" Eli asked.

"Well yeah, assuming you just ignored everything I just told you," Scott replied.

"I'm definitely going over there tomorrow. Granted, I may need someone to show me the way to their house."

"I take it you are going to ignore everything I just said then."

"I'll go with you. It beats hanging out around here all day," Bobby said. Eli nodded and gave him a real smile.

"Then it's settled. We leave at dawn!" There was a moment of silence between the three.

"Can we leave after dawn instead?" Bobby asked.

"Dude, yeah. I'm not getting up at dawn," Eli answered. "It's called "dramatic effect". Way to ruin it by the way."

"You two are hopeless," Scott muttered before making his way up the stairs.

Eli was beaming with excitement now. As much as he hoped Ellie was not staying with the Brotherhood, a portion of him hoped that he would find her there tomorrow just so he could see her again. If things went well enough, he could maybe even convince her to return to the New Recruit team with him. Eli gave himself a reassuring nod before running up to his room to find Ellie's communicator that she had left behind.