Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.

To Firewhisperer: Stuff, stuff is what's going to happen :p

To HP: (Whoever you maybe) Thanks, I liked the last chapter too. ^-^

Chapter 14

There wasn't much to see of the city, there were lots of stores and lots of people walking around them. Storm had refused to let her go alone into the city, the only person available at the time was Rune. It was to his dismay that he didn't have the excuse of a class at the time.

He exhaled on his hands and rubbed them together trying to get them warmer, "Is there a reason you wanted to go on this little walk or just to get out of the house?" He tugged his coat collar closer to his neck, "Cause I've never liked the cold and would prefer to be at the school."

Naomi looked over her shoulder at him, "Its not that bad." She walked past a few stores before pausing in front of one. She gazed at the chocolate and other sweets in the window. "That looks really good..."

Rune watched her silently for a moment before something close to realization struck him, "You... you haven't experienced a lot of things in life have you." When Naomi's eyes dipped down toward the floor he took that as a yes. "Wow, I've finally met someone who had a life worse than mine." He took her hand and pulled her into the confectioners establishment.

He bought a chocolate covered caramel apple, chocolate covered strawberries in white, milk and dark chocolate and finished off with purchasing a pair of large chocolate peanut butter cups. Rune then took her to a seat and placed the items before her. "I didn't know what you like, do you?"

She looked at the items, "I've never had any of them." She admitted. "What did you mean worse than yours?"

He sighed, "How about this. I'll tell you something about my parents, but you have to tell me about yours too."

Naomi could agree to that, "What do you want to know first then?"

He took one of the peanut butter cups and took a bite, "What's with wanting windows?"

"I was locked in a bedroom where my dad had painted out the windows so no light could come in and I was left alone in that dark room nearly all the time I was alone." She replied, "your tattoos?"

He sighed, "Very complicated." Naomi ate one of the white chocolate strawberries, she blinked in surprise, she made a few different sounds of enjoyment as she ate the rest of it, Rune grinned. "Alright, the girl likes strawberries." She smiled a bit then repeated her question. "First off about them, my parents were highly set in their religion. I don't remember what religion they said they were, or even if it was one, but they were very... attentive to every thing about what they believed. I...ah... wasn't born in a hospital, so when I started showing my powers almost immediately... I had a temper tantrum and things started falling and floating around me, they thought I was possessed by a demon or was a changeling instead of their baby."

"What does that have to do with the tattoos?" Naomi asked, he was saying a lot more than what she expected with her first question.

He waved a hand and ate one of the other strawberries. "I'm getting there. So they tried a few things first, exorcism, touching iron to my skin," Naomi raised an eyebrow, "Changelings will burn at the touch of iron." He stated, then chuckled. "Useless facts I learned from my parents..." he shook his head, "So when none of that worked they resorted to these." He put one hand on the table with his wrist up, there were six runes across it, the other was the same, "It was suppose to either bind the demon in me, or protect me from outside forces. Each year more tattoos were applied. I'd show you the last one I got but I'm sure I'd get arrested for indecent exposure." Naomi blushed, "Yeah... the one that took the longest is on my back, big thing, suppose to hold lots of power..." His voice trailed off, "So I take it that was more than you expected... my turn?" She nodded while sampling the other peanut butter cup. He looked around, glad no one else seemed to be paying attention to their semi-hushed conversation. He leaned across the table. "What's with you not wanting to be touched?"

Naomi put the chocolate treat down and pressed her hands against the table, he noticed a slight bubbling in her shadow. "Well that would be my dad."

"...To touchy a subject?" He asked quietly, "I'll ask something else if you don't-"

"No," she cut him off, "Well, yes it is hard to talk about, but... Storm told me it would be good to tell other people, other than her."

"You told Storm?"

She nodded, "She said it would get easier to talk about the more people I told," she smirked looking at her hands, "Not easy yet... My mom wouldn't touch me cause she thought I was sick. That's what my dad told her anyway." She cleared her throat and looked up at him, "Dad said it was his fault that I was sick so he would fix it. His method to fix it was... rather... painful, and never did anything but hurt me."

Rune nodded, "Sounds like my mom. No matter how much I said the tattoos hurt she said it would fix me and make me better."

All that was left was the apple. Rune cut it into fragments and handed her a piece, "Question?"

"How did you get to the school from all that?" She took a bite, "Mmmmmmm..." She sank into her chair slightly, "This is good stuff."

He chuckled, "My parents dropped me off at the front gate, said it was a special school for kids like me, and if I was good then they'd see me after school." She opened her mouth to ask when he continued, "I was about ten, after that first day of classes I walked home and found the house completely empty. They'd up and moved while I was at the school, but they'd left everything in my room just how I'd left it." He ate some of the apple too, "I stayed in that empty building for a few more days, then Wolverine came and dragged me back to the school."

"And you've been there ever since."

"Well, no." He said with a shrug, "I left for about a year when I was fifteen. I joined another group of... mutants..." He was looking out the window, Naomi followed his gaze, there was a group of five standing across the street, watching them. "Could you just... stay here for a minute Naomi." He got up and left the building. She watched as he went across the street to them. They spoke for a while, then one of them shoved Rune. She watched as he continued to talk to them, slowly she walked to the door and opened it.

A stream of fire flew from one of them and broke through the store window, one of them smirked and looked toward her standing there, he flicked a hand, flames leaped from his hand and flew toward her. Her shadow came up from the ground and swallowed the flames, then returned to the ground when they ceased.

They were gone, only Rune remained. He walked over toward her and apologized, "Pyro..." he began, "Is a bigger hot head than Dragon."

"Who's he?"

He scratched his neck. "Its really complicated, but I left them. They don't take abandonment too well." They heard sirens. "Come on, we should get back to the school." Rune started walking, slowly Naomi turned to follow.