I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.
Chapter 46
Midas looked at all those seated at the table then pointed to Rune, "Mind if I borrow a pair of those studs?" He remarked and turned his hand palm up.
Rune raised an eyebrow but took a pair of stainless steel studs from his ears and put them in Midas' palm. He closed his hand then opened it again a moment later. Resting in his hand were a pair of gold studs.
The girls all leaned in closer to look at the earrings. "It's somethin' like the story of Midas, king wishes everythin' he touches turns to gold and it does." Midas explained offering the earrings back to Rune. "Just with a more interestin' twist."
Prod put his hands up behind his head and cut in, "Midas can change the molecular structure of things, long as they already have the parts necessary to be wha'ever it is he wants it to be." He yawned, "Try as I may he didn' want to go by somethin' more like Alchemist or the like."
"So not just gold." Siren clarified.
"Na," Midas said a bit humbly, "I've been known to turn the odd lump of coal into a diamond too."
That brought everyone leaning closer on the table, "Diamonds?" Circuit whispered hoarsely.
"Nothin' pretty, they're all flawed up and not worth much to anyone," The young man under their scrutinizing eyes said timidly. "Pa's in the jewelry business."
Naomi had taken the earring from Rune and was turning them around in her fingers. She was more interested in the story Midas had spoken of at the moment than the idea of diamonds. She handed them back to Rune, "Are there lots of fables and stuff about people who do things that most people don't consider normal?"
"Yeah, tons of fables, fairy tales, folk tales, myths, why?" Rune asked.
She shook her head, "Nothing really... but what if they're real?" He raised an eyebrow at her while putting the now gold earrings back into his ears, "I mean, what if they were true, what if they were about mutants? And its just been so long since they were real that they've become just stories."
Rune smiled and put an arm around her, "Would be nice if it were true, but I don't think it is. Mutations like ours... well they're just more advanced because of everything that's going on in the world."
Naomi nodded knowing what he meant, they'd been talking about it in a intro physics class taught by the twins. The nuclear era could of jumped up the evolutionary chain making mutations present themselves. But she smiled up at him and gave a quick kiss on the cheek, "So, now that we have that settled and everyone's eaten shall we resume our mall wandering or go back to the school?"
There was an even vote for both of options, Midas laughed, "Why don't the ones who want to stay, stay and the others go as they want?" This statement sent Prod, Midas, Circuit, Curse, and to everyone's surprise Sparky, on their way to the school. Rune, Naomi, Siren, Hart and Rael stayed to wander deeper into the mall.
"When's your birthday?" Rune asked while they were flipping through games at a used game shop.
Naomi smiled, mostly to herself, "Summer solstice."
"That's a moving holiday, you know that right?"
She nodded. "Mom only ever said it was the solstice when I was born. So I don't know a day." She looked up from the back of the game she was looking at, "It may shock you to know that I just think of a birthday as another day. I've never had a party or anything like that for my birthday."
Rune chuckled, "Another item for the list then."
It was getting late, but the street lights hadn't turned on yet when they parked in the garage at the school again. They were greeted by the sight of Mrs. Hollins sitting at the kitchen table sipping at tea while staring intently out the window.
"Think she's mad?" Naomi asked walking toward the door to the house.
The boy shrugged as he parked the motorcycle. "I was never given a time you had to be back to the house, don't know why she'd be mad at you." He leaned over and kissed her softly. "You were gonna go dance or something, right?"
Naomi nodded, "Then going to see Emily." She smiled and kissed his cheek, "See you." She went off into the house.
Hollins' attention went to her when she walked in, "Quite the school you attend Naomi, quite the school." she finished her tea and put the dishes in the sink.
"I like it." she stated, she then walked out of the room and to her own room. She picked up her music player, and her ballet shoes before heading back down to one of the smaller gyms that was empty. She tied on the shoes, stretched then turned on the music and began to move across the floor smoothly. She let her skin fall to blackness as she danced, giving complete concentration to the feeling of the movements. She stumbled once and sighed then began the series of positions and steps again, "Rusty Naomi." She'd left the dance class a few weeks ago in exchange for a gymnastics with Cat, because she'd needed someone to go with her to the classes.
No one at the school had much experience in gymnastics and the only classes available were in the town, given as private classes, Cat had been taking the classes with another of the students, but he'd recently left the school, and Storm wouldn't let Cat go on her own so Naomi agreed to go with her. It definitely was different from dancing, and it stretched and used other muscles but Naomi was enjoying herself, and Cat was over joyed to have her be there with her.
After another stumble through more steps she sighed and went into a handstand, her hair frolicking into her face. She heard the door open and looked over to see Cat coming toward her, she smiled when she cartwheeled across the floor and landed next to her. "Wolverine's looking for you, said something about paying the piper."