Author's Note

This chapter will be strictly Brotherhood centered with a sprinkle of imagination. It will also feature the start of a romantic pairing. Apologies for a late update and hope you'll enjoy! :D

There were murmurs all around her and goosebumps on her neck. She could feel their piercing gazes burning into her skin and their murmurs growing louder. An oversized navy blue t-shirt and black sweatpants provided no defense against the menace that threatened her slumber. She was still asleep but her mind slowly coming to, trying to slowly wake herself from slumber as delicately as she could. She didn't want to wake up too quickly because she knew her mind wouldn't handle such a shock. She knew from experience to take her time waking up, letting her senses slowly activate before she opened her eyes. If she kept to her routine, there would be no accidental violet flares going off.

She could smell sewage and cheap cologne as well as greasy food and hair gel. She could feel warm plush beneath her so she knew she was most likely laying in bed still. She knew someone was watching her because it was something she could pick up on easily, even in her sleep. Her brows furrowed as her body curled up more beneath the blanket, trying to focus on the murmurs. It took a few seconds before she could distinguish words that became voices. Voices that spoke too much but not fast enough that she would miss a beat.

"Yo, think she's waking up!"

"Shut up, Toad! Move aside! You'll scare her if she wakes up to your face hovering over her!"

"Blob! Watch it! Stop shoving!"

"Fellas, get outta my room already!"

"And leave her here with you alone? Ain't happening."

"Yeah! You might have sticky fingers, yo!"

"You're one to talk, Toad!"

"Shut up! Give her some space!"

Gabrielle grumbled softly as she started to stir, slowly stretching her legs out. Her small hands curled into fists then slowly opened up. She rolled over on to her other side, readjusting herself until she was comfortable again. She inhaled a deep breath and slowly exhaled before her lashes started to flutter. She opened her emerald eyes slowly, taking a while to adjust to the light. Her vision slowly came into focus and she realized that Todd's face was inches from hers. She released a startle screech and pushed herself back, rolling off the bed and hitting the floor with a hard "thump!" She groaned softly and rubbed her head as she looked towards the bed, seeing that her legs were over the bed and only her upper torso was on the floor. She exhaled a huff of air, internally cursing that she hadn't stuck a landing. She leaned up on her elbows just in time to see Pietro smack the back of Todd's head.

"I told you that you were gonna scare her! Now look what you've done!" He exclaimed and smacked the back of Todd's head again. He then came over to Gabrielle and extended his hand to her.

"Oh... Thank you." She whispered as she took his hand, surprised at how easily he pulled her up... or at least it started that way.

The motion was too sudden for her so she stumbled forward, bumping her nose against his chest as she was falling. His arms wrapped around her waist immediately as he stumbled a step back, quickly gaining his balance before they could fall down. She was pressed tightly against his body so she felt how easily her slender and petite frame had effortlessly nestled into his lean upper body. She wouldn't have imagined him to have this type of body. Perhaps he was an athlete of some sort, she thought. She heard a chuckle and slowly tilted her head up, emerald meeting sapphire.

"Charmed you so much you can't resist me?" Pietro asked as he cocked an eyebrow and a proud smirk spread across his lips.

"What? No, that's not it. You know I lost my balance." Gabrielle immediately replied and placed her hands on his chest, slowly pushing herself out of his embrace.

"Awww man, there goes Pietro taking my girl." Todd whined from behind them somewhere.

"Your girl? I don't think you ever had a chance, Toad." Lance stated in a matter-of-fact tone and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Specially cause you scared her outta bed." Fred stated and broke into laughter along with Lance.

The comments were unexpected for Gabrielle and she wasn't sure how to respond. Sure, Todd never even had a chance with her but it wasn't necessarily his personality that veered her away from him. His hygiene was too much for her to handle. If he maybe cleaned up and completely changed, maybe, just maybe she'd look at him as a man. She crossed her arms over her chest after she finally pried herself out of Pietro's embrace. She glanced at the boys, finally taking in their appearances this morning, though some of what she saw came as a complete shock.

Fred was wearing a blue one piece footed pajamas with little ducks on them and a matching nightcap. He looked like a very large toddler and the sight warmed Gabrielle's heart, making her think of him as a big teddybear now. Lance was wearing a maroon t-shirt with brown sweatpants, his hair disheveled and sticking up to the right. It looked like he'd been slapped incredibly hard by how his hair was perfectly aligned to a single side. Todd was wearing a long sleeved yellow and green striped shirt with very short... green sweatpants? It was hard to tell because they stopped a few inches below his knees. He looked greener than usual wearing that. That was probably the second reason he'd scared her out of bed. Then there was Pietro, his silver hair slightly sleeked back and wearing a blue t-shirt with white lining on the sleeves and neckline. His sweatpants were the same shade of blue with the words The Speed Demon written on the left leg in white. After reading those words, Gabrielle broke into laughter before pointing at him.

"Nice jammies, Pietro. Write that yourself?" She asked through her fit of giggles now.

Pietro's eyes narrowed a bit and he defensively crossed his arms over his chest. "I did. So what? It's true. Can't handle the truth, get outta my room."

"Hahaha, yeah, sure. Way to— Wait, what?" She asked as she cut herself off and blinked a few times. She stared dumbly at him now, earning an eye roll from Mister Fancy Pants.

"Yeah, MY room. The room YOU stole from me. You slept on MY bed." He complained and exhaled a heavy breath to blow the strand of hair that had flopped down from its place.

Lance took a step closer to the pair and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, Gabrielle, you kinda took his bed and room last night. I mean, it's no big deal cause we all passed out downstairs but when he woke up and came here, he hollered about some girl in his bed. We all freaked out cause we forget 'bout you coming here last night."

Gabrielle gaped at Pietro then at the other three delinquents in turn before she became flustered, bringing her hands up to hide her face. "Oh god..." She mumbled behind her hands. Not only had she totally taken someone else's space but also been forgotten. As if either one alone wasn't bad enough. She had at least certainly made an impression on them now.

Todd tilted his head to the side slightly, mistaking her being flustered for crying. "Awww, man, don't cry. You'll make us all cry."

"Nice going, Lance." Fred stated and shoved Lance to the side using his large gut.

"Hey-! Wait!" Lance shouted as he stumbled into the wall then clenched his hand into a fist before pointing an accusing finger at Todd. "You scared the crap outta her! And you-!" He pointed at Pietro. "You whined about her sleeping here for a good minute and brought us all over her to smother her! You two should be apologizing! I explained what happened to her!"

"Everyone! Hush!" Gabrielle exclaimed and threw her arms up in the air, stepping between the heated teens who were already grabbing on to each other, ready to throw down mutant style. "Guys, come on, it's fine. I'm not crying. See?" She gestured to her face, clearly free of waterworks before she exhaled a deep breath. "Yes, I was scared because Todd was in my face soon as I woke up. Yeah, I might've taken Pietro's room and bed for the night but none of you explained the rooming thing to me. I was too tired and you guys were busy so I kind of..." She trailed off and nervously laughed as she rubbed her index finger over her cheek. "Eh..." She finished as she shrugged her shoulders, flashing an apologetic smile.

Todd stared up at Gabrielle, entranced by the smile she was giving them. It looked too heavenly to him that he couldn't tear his eyes away, even if Pietro's foot was crushing his spleen. Lance blinked a few times as he clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to control his temper. Fred stared at everyone in turn before he released Lance and Pietro. He walked away, muttering about his appetite. Pietro was scowling at Lance, his blue eyes glinting with fury at being yelled at and jealousy over not being the one to get the last word in. The air between them was suffocating so Gabrielle did one of the few things she did best: provide a distraction. With a quick flick of the wrist, she was gesturing at an alarm clock by Pietro's bed, her emerald eyes wide before she frantically pointed at the time.

"Guys! It says it's seven thirty! Is this clock right?!" She squeaked on purpose to make her distraction that more distracting.

"Seven thirty?! Oh crap! We gotta bounce! Blob!" Lance shouted before he ran out the room and into his own. He muttered curses after he slammed his door shut.

"Lance...?" She called out before Todd hopped away. "Wait, Todd, you too?"

"Sorry, gumdrop, we gots ta bounce! We gotta go ta one of 'em field trips for school! Some shmucky survival training camp thing." Todd explained before he began to bounce off the walls to go to his... whatever it was he slept, though a trashcan was probably it.

"Survival training camp...?" She muttered as she tried to process Todd's response. Her brows furrowed as she tried to figure out if it was anything like she'd been through back in Russia.

"That's right, Little Miss I-Steal-People's-Beds-And-Stuff!" Pietro declared in a mocking tone and stuck his tongue out at her.

"I apologized for that." She stated and crossed her arms over her chest.

"No you didn't! You just smiled and everyone ate it all up!" He declared and threw his arms up in the air dramatically.

"I did no such thing." She defended, though he was speaking the truth.

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Uhuh!"

"Nah uh!"

"Yea—! Yeoooooowch!" Pietro hollered before doubling over on to the floor.

Gabrielle stood over Pietro with a cheerful smile upon her lips and her emerald eyes glowing with joy. She had always hated arguments and would resolve them as quickly as time permitted and through any means that would prove effective and efficient. She wasn't above using cheap and dirty tricks to get her way for any argument but that didn't affect the fact she was a lady. She also knew that being a lady sometimes made a woman be at the mercy of a man and she wasn't too keen on that. She'd seen her argument with Pietro as that situation so she'd proceeded to deliver a swift and powerful kick to his left shin. She was barefoot but her kick still had enough force on its own that Pietro was on the floor, clutching his leg to his chest and whining. This sight brought happiness to Gabrielle because she still had powerful legs even after all this time. After a minute, she knelt down to stare at him, poking his shoulder.

"Get up, Mister Fancy Pants. You have to get ready too." She tried to pry his arms off his leg but to no avail.

"You kicked me! You kicked my shin!" He whined and rolled about on the floor to try and get away from her.

"Oh come on. Don't be such a baby." She teased and tried to keep him from rolling.

"First you steal my room. Then you steal my bed. Then you kick me! What kind of foreign exchange student are you?!" He swatted at her hands with his free hand.

"The mutant kind." She stated and pinned his free hand to his chest as she tried to pry his other hand away from his leg.

"Oh, yeah, that's your excuse." He rolled his eyes before he managed to spring on to his feet. He eyed her from head to toe, taking in her morning appearance and finding no flaws with it. He'd have to fix that before he left. "You know... You'd look so much better if..."

The glint of mischief in his eyes was all Gabrielle needed to take a step back and raise her arms up in surrender. "Now Pietro... You don't have to do this. I'll say you won. No worries. Just don't you dare—"

There was a powerful gust of wind that shoved her back a few steps. She crossed her arms before her upper body to protect against any possible frontal attacks. Her hair was whipped back with force and she closed her eyes. She knew he was running around her at full speed doing something but he was too fast to perceive. She faintly heard the hiss of a spray but couldn't pinpoint from where. The wind had suddenly stopped and Gabrielle slowly relaxed, glancing around the room. Pietro was gone and the room was as it had been. Nothing seemed different so what could he have done?

She placed a hand over her stomach and released a deep breath of relief before the stickiness settled in. She slowly glanced down and noticed there were words written all over her pajamas. Her mouth dropped open and she dashed towards the full body mirror in the corner of the room. Her lower lip quivered as she tried to think of anything to say in regards to the message Pietro had sprayed on her with white paint. It was simple but the words themselves enraged her at the possible suggestion they posed: Pietro was here! And here! And here!

She turned on her heel and sprinted down the hallway then down the stairs, just in time to see Todd close the door and hop away. She threw herself at the door and swung it open. She saw the Brotherhood seated on a green Jeep with Lance on the driver's seat. Pietro was riding shotgun and smirking before he made a remark to his teammates. They stared at Gabrielle then at Pietro, afraid to show any emotion towards Pietro's little prank on Gabrielle. She'd just moved in so they didn't know if perhaps her temper was as explosive as Mystique's or worse. They knew Pietro quite well by now but they weren't going to support him this time or at least not in front of a very angry looking Gabrielle. Pietro punched Lance's arm and pointed forward, obviously telling him to drive away while Todd slumped down in his seat. Fred looked everywhere except in her direction. Lance turned around and floored the gas to speed away but that didn't stop Gabrielle. She ran a few feet behind them, shaking her fist in anger and calling out to her victim.

"YOU ARE SO DEAD PIETRO! I'M GOING TO GET YOU WHEN YOU COME BACK!"

She continued shouting death threats to Pietro and chasing them by foot for about a minute before she came to a slow stop. She kicked the dirt and walked back to the house, grumbling under her breath in Russian. She stopped at the doorstep and glanced up, seeing the terrible conditions the house was in. She had the money to fix it up but she figured it would be a loss not an investment. If she was going to live her, she was going to fix this place up but not all of it. The kitchen she definitely intended to fix up. That was the heart of any home. Perhaps if she fixed it and made it what it's meant to be, the Brotherhood home would have some positive vibe. She gave herself a tour of the home and afterwards found herself crying on the foot of the steps. The place was a disaster. The conditions they lived in were beyond those of poverty. She didn't know if she, a woman who had grown up amongst riches, would be able to make a living in such conditions. There was no way she could handle this place as it was. She was going to change things here, no doubt about it. It was a great thing too that the boys were going to be gone for bit. There was going to be no one around to stop Gabrielle from turning their world upside down.