Chapter Four
"Good morning Lar! You're up bright and early today." Sean sang overly cheerfully as a groggy looking Lara plodded into the kitchen the next morning.
"What." She grumbled, "Don't call me that." She shot him a glare but he continued to smile over-exaggeratedly. "And you can thank yourself and Alex for that. You woke me up."
"Sorry, my dear."
"Don't call me that either." She dragged herself away and sat opposite Lily at the kitchen table, giving her a tired smile and a half-hearted good morning. Beside Lara sat Hank, who gave her a welcoming grin and then returned his attention back to the book he was reading - the same one Lily had finished just the day before.
"You look nice this morning Lara." Alex laughed, his mouth full and overflowing. He was leant against the kitchen worktop, eating a slice of toast.
"I swear to God, Alex. I don't do mornings." She grunted, rubbing her tired eyes.
He laughed even harder at this. "What are you gonna' do, freeze me?" He scoffed, earning a giggle from Sean.
"Like you did to me yesterday?" Sean teased, joining Alex and leaning beside him.
Lara looked up from behind her hands, her eyes were red from the rubbing and they were glaring piercingly at the two boys like daggers. "I will make gigantic ice cubes and throw them at your heads." She snarled through gritted teeth.
"I can help with that if they're too heavy for you to throw." Lily chuckled.
"Toast is ready!" Raven announced to Lily before asking Lara if she wanted any. Lily took the warm slices, brought them back to the table and spread them with butter and jam. Minutes later Lara was doing the same; she was a bit more awake now.
"Give me a bit Lara." Sean begged, appearing beside her; he was almost sitting on Hank.
"No, go away." The dark haired girl replied, her mouth full. Lily giggled causing Sean to glance at her and then at her food. She shook her head profusely, knowing the same request was about to be aimed at her.
"Dammit." She heard him mutter quietly to himself.
Raven sat down beside Lily, deciding Sean could make his own toast this time; she had already made him 4 slices. He removed himself from the small space between Hank and Lara, grumbling to himself about how hungry he was and how no one would feed him. Lara rolled her eyes at the boy but a small smile graced her lips, not going unnoticed by the two girl's opposite her.
"Lily!" Charles called, startling them all. His head was poking around the door frame. "Remember to meet me outside in 20 minutes to start your training." Without even waiting for her reply, he dashed off down the corridor.
Lily raised her eyebrow at his rushed visit, turning to the surrounding mutants and realising they all had similar expressions.
"What are you doing for training today?" Lara asked.
"I have no idea..." Lily murmured, nervousness painted on her face.
"Oh wait, this is your first session isn't it?" Lara asked rhetorically, looking almost dumbfounded. Lily just nodded.
"Are you nervous?" Alex smirked.
"Don't ask her that, Alex." Raven snapped at him; she turned back to Lily. "You don't even need to be nervous, you should be excited!" She grinned.
"It's really fun!" Sean enthused, jumping on the table to sit between Lily and Lara.
"Ew Sean, move, I'm eating here." Lara grumbled, attempting to shove him off.
He ignored her, continuing to question the apprehensive blonde. "Aren't you excited about being able to use your powers better? And being able to do more things with them?"
"Well yeah..." Lily breathed, "I want them to get better but it's attempting to do more things with them that I'm nervous about." She admitted.
"Why?"
She sighed, fiddling with her fingers uncomfortably. "I don't know... what if I can't control it or something?" She trailed off. "What if I hurt someone?" Her voice cracked slightly as she whispered the last part but she cleared her throat to try and cover it up, hoping it would go unnoticed.
"As I said when we first met - you couldn't hurt a fly." Alex spoke up, sounding almost comforting? There was no snigger or hint of snide in his voice. It was almost as though he was trying to be nice to her.
"Lily!" Charles smiled as he saw her approaching. She was tugging at the sleeves of her cardigan; he could tell she was nervous just by looking at her. "Ready to start your training?"
She nodded silently, a forced smile stretching across her face.
"Well I've got you a volunteer." He informed her. He cracked a grin, his serious demeanor turning into much more relaxed one as he spoke, "and I want you to blow them away."
"What?"
Sean came waddling towards them, clad in a very padded body suit and headwear. He looked like he could hardly move.
"What are you wearing?!"
"It's a safety procedure - so he doesn't get hurt when he gets blown away." Charles informed her.
Sean nodded, his head barely moving in his padded head gear. He mumbled something incoherently.
"You can't be serious? I can't concentrate with him looking like that!"
"Well you have to; we don't have much time."
Lily sighed, eyeing Charles gingerly. Her gaze grazed over Sean again and bit her lip, stifling a giggle.
"Concentrate Lily." Charles raised his voice, sternly. "Now - I want you to blow Sean over."
She looked between the two of them, waiting for one of them to change their minds but neither did.
She met Sean's reassuring stare and without being given the go ahead from Charles, she shot a blast of cool air at his stomach. He instantly crashed to the floor with a thud.
Lily laughed loudly, doubling over and clutching her stomach. Sean let out a muffled laugh too earning them both a strange look from Charles.
Sean wriggled around on the floor and eventually rolled onto his front, cursing to himself at the effort. He finally managed to push himself onto his knees and then his unsteady feet after slipping several times. He spun around to face the blonde - who was still laughing - with a proud beam.
Lily's laughing seized and after being upright for mere seconds, Sean plopped to the floor again as a second blast collided with his chest.
She smirked triumphantly, looking to Charles for his opinion.
"Very good." He praised. "And now, I want you to lift him into the air."
His words took Lily by surprise and her whole demeanor instantly changed as her previous nerves found their way back. "Erm... I'm not so sure I can do that." She admitted, apprehension flooding her speech.
"I know you can." He encouraged with a bright smile. "All you have to do is get the air current beneath him and then direct it upwards."
The young girl still looked nervous. She drummed her fingers against her slacked jaw; her eyes glossed with what looked to Charles like fear.
"There's nothing to worry about Lily." He tried to reassure her. Her hand fell from her face as she met his eyes, hardly acknowledging his words. "You won't hurt him."
She just nodded, unconvinced.
"Are you sure I won't?"
"Positive."
She exhaled loudly and straightened up. "Ok. I'll give it a go."
"Lily!" Hank called as she walked past his lab where he was sat.
She backtracked and peered around the door frame, looking around the room in it's entirety before her eyes landed on him. "Oh, hi Hank." She smiled.
He waved his hand, gesturing for her to come over.
She strolled in at his request, looking in awe at the different equipment littered along the tables. "I've never been in here before."
"This is my laboratory." He announced pridefully, settling down a large pile of paper he had previously been looking through.
"I gathered." She smirked, "I like it - it's interesting."
His eyes lit up. "Thank you."
She sat down opposite him, glancing over the various sheets of paper and the expensive looking equipment. She never seen anything like half of it; she daren't touch them.
Her hands fell limply in her lap, clearly unsure of where else to lay them. Hank's lips twitched upwards at this making her cheeks turn rosy.
"So how was training?" He finally asked, shoving some of his things aside for her - a stark contrast to how she would have handled them.
"It was surprisingly good actually." She told him. "I was nervous for nothing."
He looked relieved. "That's great."
"What about yours?"
"Oh, erm, it was ok." He paused, his gaze dropping. "I guess."
He shrugged with a sigh and looked back up, meeting Lily's silvery stare as she waited for him to elaborate. His eyebrows sunk into a frown. "I'm not really fond of my mutation if I'm honest. So that includes the training." She nodded in understanding and his face softened. "But yours on the hand - yours is-"
"Hi!" Interrupted a cheerful sounding Lara. "What are you guys doing?"
The two young mutants' heads shot up and looked in her direction simultaneously.
"Oh, er, nothing." Hank stumbled, palming the back of his hair, embarrassed. "Just talking."
Lara was taken aback by his weird reaction.
"Come sit with us." He said, regaining some of his composure.
She looked between the two of them curiously but neither of their expressions gave anything away - Lily, in fact, looked just as confused as she did. "Alright..." she trailed off, making her way towards an empty seat.
She halted suddenly, her breath catching in her throat with a gasp. Her eyes were pinned on an object on the far end of the table.
Hank and Lily looked between each other and the frozen girl, who's breathing was now speeding up increasingly.
"Lara?" Lily eased off of her chair. "Lara, are you ok?" She reached for her shoulder but Lara shook her off immediately.
"I'm sorry. I, er, I have to go." She choked, still fixated on the object.
Hank followed her line of sight, landing on a small black case with an empty injection laying inside.
He quickly closed it and Lara hurried out of the room instantly without another word.
The two stayed silent, staring at the space she had just fled from.
Lily turned to him, "I should go after her."
He nodded and just like that she left almost as fast as Lara had, leaving him alone again.