Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or anything Marvel-related. Man, the Punisher Netflix series was good. But it's kind of a case of what now? I can't see the second season being as good, but I can hope. Jon Bernthal kicked that role's ass. He is Frank Castle now to me. When I think Punisher, his voice is in my head.

Chapter 19: With Friends Like These

The end of the semester meant one thing to most of us as far as school was concerned: You didn't have to go home, but you had to get the hell out of here.

...Not really. Some kids didn't have a place to go. Some kids had parents that didn't want them home because they were mutants. Some kids just had more fun staying away from home and being free. Either way, there were plenty of students that remained behind at the Xavier Institute when a seasonal break from classes came up.

I was not one of them. I was getting the hell out of there while the getting was good and getting back to the west coast. Most of my team had family to get back to as well. And so, the mighty Paladins would go their separate ways for the summer, split to the four corners of the Earth from whence they came... temporarily.

Hisako had an earlier flight than any of us, seeing as how she had a long way to go to get back to Japan. The shuttle had taken her out of there in the morning. We'd all woken up to give her our goodbyes. It was the last time we would see her until the summer period was over and we all came back for the fall.

I could admit, I would miss my fine, Asian friend. We'd bonded through lukewarm sense of rivalry, mixed with shared near-death experiences. What more could you ask for to get closer to someone?

We had had our usual salty exchange before she had departed. It was the usual back-and-forth fare, consisting of me saying how much she would miss me when I was gone, her saying how she wouldn't be able to keep me from getting my butt kicked until we got back, me throwing out low-brow Asian jokes, her saying terrible shit about me in Japanese.

You know - the normal stuff.

Hisako brought it to an end by yanking my hat off of my head and frisbeeing it away into the fountain near the front gates. It was where everyone was leaving, so everybody saw it. I of course had to go after it, giving her time to get on the bus taking her to the airport before I could enact vengeance.

I fucking hate my friends.

If it had been my black hat, it wouldn't have been so bad. My damn fresh white hat got wet, and all the others were packed already, so I had to wear the one with clear to see water stains for hours before it got dry. She got the last laugh until fall.

No... I fucking love my friends.

I was mad for all of ten seconds until I nearly died laughing. It had been a great throw.

Also among those who had to leave early for the sake of international flights, Megan.

That's right. I had a brand new lady friend I had to see off, which sucked, because I had to hope she was still interested in me two months from then. I was certain I'd be a crappy boyfriend when she lived one dorm building over from mine. What was I going to do with long-distance?

After the party, things had been going well. Granted, it had only been really a week. But it had been a great week! Granted, I hadn't slept with her again, because Megan couldn't just kick Hope out of their room, and Saberwolf had implied violence if I tried to kick him out of mine again. But that was fine. As outstanding as it was, and as much as I wanted to do it again, I wasn't some horn-dog. I was patient.

Granted, two months was a long time, but hey! I'd gone a loooong time without before. I could suffer through the summer.

I would have to deal with the loss of facetime somehow. It wasn't as though I had much of a choice if I wanted to at least try to make this whole thing work. These thoughts were in mind, but I hoped it didn't show on my face when we were saying goodbye. Not that anyone would have seen it though, seeing as how it was comfortably buried in the crook of Megan's neck.

"Mmmm. God... this is so good," I mumbled into her skin, getting her to giggle from the rumble of my voice. My arms were wrapped around her waist, lifting her off of the ground.

Megan had the best hugs. Straight-up full body. I could feel every inch of her from the neck down to her waist. Outstanding. I'm pretty sure that one lasted for like two minutes straight. I didn't care. Nothing could ruin it for me.

"You know, you have to let go of her at some point, Bel. She's gonna miss the shuttle."

…Except for one of our teammates, as had become tradition since we'd made things official. This time it was one of Megan's.

I didn't even bother trying to dignify the person who spoke with any physical attention. No, Megan was going to get all of that instead, "Shut up, Nicky. We're doing a thing here," That thing lasted only for a few seconds longer before she finally let go, "Aww."

I wasn't trying to be cute. I was legit sad about it. I did not want to let go. I'm such a sucker for girls, it's ridiculous.

Megan pulled away and finally saw my sad look, "Aww, don't be so down," She smudged my cheeks like a large dog to try and fix a smile on my face, "It won't be so bad. It's not for that long."

It was two months. I literally just got her, and then I couldn't have her. What kind of shitty timing was that? I'll tell you. It was just the tried and true fortune of one Bellamy Marcher. Goddamn my luck. Way to be slow on the pitch in getting a girlfriend, champ.

What else could I do but suck it up and deal? It wasn't like either of us could teleport or anything to get back and forth. Time and distance were our barrier. I tried to be positive about things though, "Well, there's plenty of time to follow up on this when we all get back. I can come up with a bunch of things we can do by ourselves. If you're still up for it, that is."

Megan's eyes lit up in excitement, "Oh my God, yes! I'd love to!" She said, taking off from the ground, her hands clasped close to her face, "I mean, I wanted to after the first one that got messed up, but it just didn't seem right after everything that happened, and nobody'll mess with us next time, and there's so much we can do that'd be so much fun, and-," She stopped and realized that she had been going on for quite some time, "-I'm talking too much again."

I gently grabbed her hands and lowered her back down onto her feet, "Hey, other people talking means I don't have to. Besides, it's the last time I'm gonna see you in person for a little while."

Megan threw her arms around my neck and gave me a peck on the lips, "Call me when you get home?" She asked, pressing her nose against mine.

"Will do," I said, savoring the last of the contact I was going to have with Pixie for the summer, "Take care of yourself, Megan."

Megan flew backwards, her hands behind her with a large grin on her face, "I'm not the one who's been fighting robots and aliens all semester!" She said, stopping just short of the bus to spare me one more glance before getting on, "Bye, Bel."

I felt a sense of longing as I watched her go. For a moment, I really didn't want to go home, and contemplated the idea of following her like a puppy.

Goddamn it. Was it too late to call my parents and get my ticket changed for a flight to Wales instead? Just for a week or so?

...No, that would have been creepy. Thankfully, this was one of those kinds of things I couldn't just do. Otherwise, talk/act without thinking everything out Bellamy would have been screwed.

As I started walking away, sulking, Eddie came out of nowhere and threw an arm around my neck, a big grin on his face as he rubbed my hat down on my head, "Ooh, gonna send Pixie some pictures from back home? Better make sure your parents don't catch you," He said.

It took a moment to catch on to what he was getting at, "Why would my parents care if I sent pictu-?" Things finally snapped into place like a set of Legos. I slipped his arm off of me and put him into a wristlock, "Fuck off, Eddie, I'm not sending any dick pics."

He laughed until I let him go, mostly because I didn't put an ounce of pressure into the hold. He got the point though, "I'm just messing with you. Pixie isn't even the type," He said, before taking on a thoughtful expression, "...Though if she sends you any nudes..."

Moron. The worst part about it was that I wasn't even mad. We fed off of each other normally, and if my head hadn't been on straight, who knows what I would have said, "Does your thirsty ass need a dollar for the vending machine? It's a long ride to the airport," In this instance, I gave him a good punch to the shoulder and shut it down, "I'll see you next semester, fucker."

Eddie seemed surprised, like he had expected me to be getting on one of the shuttles like him, "You're staying here for summer break?" He realized I didn't have a backpack with me, and he hadn't seen me load any luggage into the shuttle, "If I were you, I wouldn't be able to wait to get back out to California."

I waved it off. I was heading home, I just wasn't leaving right then, "No, I'm going. I just can't fly out until later," I told him. Like hell I was going to be stuck at a ghost school all summer, "Don't worry about me. I'm not gonna rot away on campus."

Eddie looked at me with the utmost seriousness, pointing right into my face, "You'd better not. Dude, our leader can't be stuck at school all year-round. The Paladins have a boat-load of cred now compared to January. Let's try to hold onto that. I want some primo summer break stories when we get back."

I swatted his hand out of my face and turned him around to push him in the direction of his shuttle, "Whatever. Worry about filling your own quota on that. You'd better get on the bus before you miss your flight and have to fly yourself home."

"You say that like I couldn't!" He said as a parting shot, holding up the 'too sweet' from a distance, "Get some rest and have some fun, asshole!"

I held up my own 'too sweet', but didn't let Eddie get away with just that, "Hey, who's the leader here! Don't tell me what to do! I'm Morris Day; you're Jerome, bitch!"

He turned back just before stepping onto his bus, "I don't know that means!" He shouted back.

I expected nothing less, but at least he knew it was a reference, of which I made many. I left him with my cultural homework suggestion for the summer, "Listen to Morris Day and the Times, or watch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! You'll get it!"

"Yeah, I won't do either of those things!" And with that, he disappeared onto his transport.

Ingrate. That was the thanks I got for trying to expand Eddie's mind with some fine entertainment. He couldn't spare two hours out of his entire summer? I saw how much weight my opinion on movies and other media held to my friends. I was good enough to shoot our enemies in the face, but not good enough to throw them a movie suggestion.

I almost flipped him off, but stopped, realizing that I was about to shoot the bird to an entire bus full of kids with superpowers. That, and I caught sight of another of my teammates coming up to me. She was my favorite, an honest-to-goodness good girl, and I would not allow her to be corrupted by my bad and at times vulgar habits.

Her timing was impeccable, as she nailed me with a hug right as I turned around to face her all the way, "Hey, Ruthie!" She barely budged me and I wrapped my arms around her, "So I guess you're getting ready to roll out?"

Ruth looked up at me. Well, she turned her face up to me. Her eyes were covered so she couldn't technically 'look' at me. She had an ear-to-ear smile though, which made me smile, "Bellamy! Yes, her aunt has arrived, so she is going home now."

"I guess your aunt does live close enough to drive you back," I let out a sigh and turned away, tapping into my inner ham as I covered my eyes with my hand, "I guess, if you must. Go on. Leave me behind too, just like all of the others!" I snuck a quick peek to see her standing and waiting patiently to finish my dramatics, "Nothing?"

"She will see you next semester, thank you," Ruth said, reaching out to pat me on the head... again, like a large dog.

"Yeah-yeah-yeah," I said, rolling my eyes and readjusting my hat. What was it with my friends messing with it before they left? Was it that much of a target today because I went with bright white? Either way, I pulled Ruth back in for another hug. She didn't complain, "If you need me, call me. Even if it's only to talk. Just remember, if you call early, I'm three hours behind you so I might still be asleep."

She tensed up for a moment when I touched upon the talks we tried to have whenever her visions of terrible things grew to be too much for her. Thankfully, she relaxed against me just as quickly, "Thank you. She will, yes," She mumbled into my chest, "She is glad you are coming back."

I didn't have any siblings, but if I had a little sister, I could do much worse than having one like Ruth, "Of course I'm coming back. We'll be together again before you know it."

"Yes, we will all need you."

"The Paladins need you too, Ruthie."

"No. All of us will need you."

She didn't say anything else after that, she just held onto me. If she didn't want to talk about it, she didn't have to. Anytime we did something, what she saw changed. Lord knows she'd had to filter enough horrible shit through her head without having to tell me about every little detail that came up. Not like I would remember them all anyway.

I let her stay like that for as long as she wanted to. She'd be able to take a break while she was with her aunt. From what I knew, she'd always been treated well when she stayed there. And the woman probably missed her too, so she'd spoil her all summer. Good. She deserved it.

"You don't have to deal with any of this insane crap for a while," I told her, giving her a kiss on top of her head, "Don't worry about a thing."

I could say that all I wanted to, but Ruth probably knew that I only meant it to a certain degree. I didn't know what I didn't know. She did. She had seen basically everything. Most of the things that had happened, and most of the things that would.

All I could do was try and be ready. But that was for later. For the time being, I walked Ruth to her aunt's car to see her off, as was my duty as team leader of the Paladins. And with that, I was alone.

Well, not entirely alone. There was still one member of my team left around the Institute, though we hadn't been talking much lately. Not that Laura was particularly social to begin with, but I could tell what the cold shoulder was like, even from her. She hadn't been malicious or anything, but for the time being, her favorite person I was not.

I had a guess as to why, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to her about it. She was really good at not being around to say anything to when she wanted to be. I wanted to smooth things out before I left for the summer, but it looked like I wasn't going to get the chance. On the bright side, in two months things might be cool again.

There were still a few hours until I needed to get onto a shuttle to head to the airport, and all of my stuff was packed, so I had nothing to occupy my time until I had to leave. I still had to try and figure out if I could somehow get Saberwolf through an airport so he could go home with me. Then I had to convince him to go.

I rounded a corner inside and bumped into the short, metal-filled wall that was Mister Logan. He didn't budge. I guess I wasn't strong enough without my powers active to push him around yet.

Mister Logan just gave me a look and brushed off his shirt where we collided, "Hey, Glowstick. Glad you haven't left yet. Been looking for you."

"I'm not going anywhere for a while. My flight isn't until this evening, "I told him with a shrug, "Why? What's up?"

A big, victorious grin took form on his face. One that didn't particularly fill me with a sense of good confidence. Before I could turn to try and run, Mister Logan's hairy forearm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me in. The man had an iron grip.

"Kid, I've got a proposition for you."

XxX

With three large bags that weren't my own in hand, I walked through the mansion looking for someone. There weren't many kids left populating the halls, so I didn't come across many others in my search. At this point, finding who I was looking for wasn't the problem. It was getting her to pay attention that was the issue.

I found Laura sitting by herself on a balcony, watching the activity down below at the front of the school with all of the other students leaving. The sound of me dropping her bags near her got her to turn around with a start.

When I usually approached her, she would know I was coming from a mile away. She also wouldn't say anything and would just go back to what she was doing. Not so much this time. Maybe because I had three bags full of her stuff to make my own scent more subtle.

"Yo," I greeted while her eyes were still wide with bewilderment, "Ass up. We've gotta go."

She did not get up from where she sat on the banister, "I am staying here for the summer. I have no home or anywhere else to go to," She looked down at the bags full of her things and then turned her sharp green eyes up to me, "Please return my things to my room."

That was not so much a request, as it was a veiled threat. On any other day, I might have taken the time to heed it. This was not one of those days.

"Nope. Apparently, you're coming home with me," I told her and watched her mouth fall open, "I already called my parents and cleared it with them. If it makes you feel any better, Saberwolf is coming too!"

Laura recovered and shook her head, "Saberwolf will never be able to get past airport security. He is a walking weapon. Even I will have difficulty being cleared to board an airplane."

Was she making excuses as to why she couldn't go? Silly girl. Did she not think that these things would be covered? "It's a good thing we're not flying commercial then, isn't it?"

Her brow furrowed. She was temporarily at a loss, "I... do not understand."

Explanation came in the form of her DNA source, walking out onto the balcony with news, "Glowstick, I got it cleared with the upper brass. I can take the Blackbird and drop all three of you off in San Fran. We all ready to go?" I pointed to Logan as the solution to my/our problem.

Laura got up from her seat and walked over sternly to her... father? Brother? Whatever relationship the two of them represented, "Logan? What is going on?"

He had the good grace to look sheepish, seeing as how he had made a decision involving her, "Well, I figured, we're trying to get you to have a more normal time of things. So why not give you the chance to have a real summer vacation too?"

The word vacation seemed like a foreign word to her, at least regarding her getting to have one, "I... you... what?"

Logan sighed and rubbed his knuckles where his claws came out from, "Long story short: you trust him. So he's taking you to hang out with him for a while. If you like it, you can stay there longer. If you don't, I'll bring you back," He stopped and put on a heartfelt look, "I just want you to give it a try, darlin'."

Laura seemed to shrink in on herself, "I do not wish to do this? Why can I not just stay here?"

"Because no one's gonna be here," Mister Logan rebutted, "Just some of the staff and other X-Men, and a handful of kids that I know you won't try and do anything with."

"You will also be here," Laura tried to point out, only to be rebuked with a thumbs-down, "No?"

"No I won't," Mister Logan explained, "I got business to take care of. Business that'll be taking me far and wide."

"I will go with you."

Mister Logan gave her a look, "This isn't exactly nice business I plan on getting up to," Laura continued to just stare at him as though that mattered to her, "...Right. You're still not going."

Laura looked over at me, and then back to Mister Logan, "I do not want to go with Bellamy," She said resolutely. It came as a bit of a surprise to the both of us. I knew she wasn't happy with me, but that was a bit far.

Mister Logan and I looked at each other before he pointed over at the obstinate girl before us, "What did you do to her?"

A perfectly reasonable question. Better that it didn't sound threatening, so I guess I'd earned some kind of benefit of the doubt, "Nothing directly. I mean, I think I know what the problem is though, and I'd like to handle it, but she hasn't been making it easy."

"You sorry for whatever you did?"

"I've apologized like three times. I'd have brought a peace offering by now, but I don't know what she likes."

For some reason, that managed to get a few chuckles out of Mister Logan, "Well this should do nicely then. Take her around, show her a good time. A good, peaceful time," He made sure to specify, looking between the two of us before focusing in on me, "Do whatever the fuck it is you brats are supposed to do with time off."

Laura got as close to pouting as I had ever seen from her, "I am still standing right here," She remarked in return for Logan and I talking about her between ourselves.

I smiled apologetically. It was pretty condescending to do something like that, "We know. But he told me to do this, and I don't have any problems with it. I already got the money back for my ticket, and my folks are expecting you, me, and a big metal wolf at the front door in the next three hours."

Laura glared my way, and I took a step back, only for Mister Logan to step between us, scowling down at his clone, "Oh, no. Don't you blame him. This ain't him. If it was, I'd have thrown this whole thing right at his feet from the start," He told her, pointing a thumb at himself, "This is me. I'm the one making you do this. If you wanna get pissed at somebody, get pissed at me, but you're going."

I got out of the way and tried to slip over to the door just in case I needed to make a quick getaway. Two very tough, very intense people with claws, potentially about to go at it on an open balcony? I didn't want to be anywhere near that one. I mean... if it happened, I was going to watch it, but I would have preferred to be at a safer distance.

Laura growled at Mister Logan, who didn't blink. Eventually, she turned, stomped over to grab her bags, then stomped off inside. She made sure to stop and cut her eyes at me, if only to make sure that I knew she was not happy with this.

She didn't need to worry. That point had been made abundantly clear.

I waited until I figured she was out of earshot (which was quite a distance) before I went to Mister Logan again, "She's gonna be miserable the whole time we're in San Francisco. You know that, right?"

I mistakenly believed that he felt this would be his problem. He rolled his eyes at me, "Tough shit. She made a promise that she would actually try to be normal this time," Clearly, he intended on making her try to stick out school life, "And it's not like I'm sending her somewhere she's never been with someone she doesn't know. She knows you. She knows that city. So it shouldn't be weird."

And yet, it was going to be. There was no way it wouldn't be, "It's gonna be weird. This whole thing's gonna be weird and uncomfortable. Why am I doing this again?"

His hand reached around the back of my neck as he pushed me inside, "Same reason she's doing it. Because I told you to. Now get your pet robot and get your ass to the hangar," He ordered.

I stumbled forward a few steps, taken by surprise and knocked off-balance. Fucker. I was going to get him for that, "You know, one of these days, I'm gonna whoop your ass," I warned him. He didn't really heed it.

Patronizing wasn't a strong enough term to describe the way he responded, "Is one of these days today? Because if not, I don't care. Ass on the plane, Glowstick."

He was so lucky I knew I couldn't beat him by myself yet. Maybe if Laura had been in the mood, we could have made up over teaming up to stomp a mudhole in her DNA source? Ah, missed opportunities.

XxX

The Blackbird flight to San Francisco was a lot quicker than heading through an airport and taking a commercial flight would have been. It was a lot cooler too. It was almost hard to believe that Mister Logan had actually gotten permission to use it just to take me, Laura, and Saberwolf around somewhere. I guess his position and the time he'd put in as one of the X-Men gave him some clout.

The downside with it was that I had to deal with Laura staring a hole through me for most of the flight. She didn't say anything or respond to anything I said to her. And Saberwolf was no help. He just slept on the floor the whole time.

By the time Mister Logan dropped us in a park about a mile away from my house, I was glad to get farther than claws' distance away from Laura, just in case.

"Have fun. Be good," Were the last words Mister Logan left us with before taking off in the Blackbird, leaving us in the heart of my neighborhood. Laura looked like she wanted to walk off and leave, but she had somehow been cowed by Logan.

I have no idea how. I have no idea why. But she hung back and followed me through the streets to my home. It was a pretty neat thing to see every person turn their head, either on foot or in their car, to see me walk around next to a giant metal wolf.

"You are just the best conversation-starter," I commented to Saberwolf after a few minutes of walking, "You're not put out by all of this, are you? Coming to California?"

Wolf's hydraulics gently whirred as he kept pace beside me on the sidewalk, playing pack mule as he carried most of my stuff, "I am intrigued to see more of the world. Perhaps visiting this place will give me a better idea of where I would like to go, or what I would like to do."

I grinned at my A.I. friend, "I like that. That's a positive attitude to have," I told him before looking back at the girl trailing us, "Laura, you hear that? Be more like Wolf. He's got a glass half-full attitude here."

She growled at me. Honest-to-goodness growled. Okay, so trying to lighten the mood with her wasn't going to work anytime soon. That being said, I focused on speaking with Wolf.

"Well this is definitely the place to be if you want a good mix of stuff to see and do," I said to him, before beginning to brainstorm ideas, "Ooh! We can probably go to a game or something. You like football or basketball? I'll tell you right now though, I'm not going to Oakland for a fucking Golden State game. Laura, do you like sports?"

"..." No response whatsoever.

"...Riiiight..." I said, kicking myself for trying to integrate her into the conversation again. This was going to be like getting blood from a stone. I just turned forward, shifted my bags on my shoulders, and kept going, "Anyway, we're just about there."

My family had the kind of rowhouse that you thought about when you thought of people living on one of the hills in San Francisco. A pretty big one. There was enough space for two guests to stay at comfortably, even one the size of Wolf. After all, it wasn't like he actually slept in a bed.

I had the key, so I opened up the door and invited the other two inside, "Welcome. Make yourselves at home. Blah-blah-blah," I said as Laura and Wolf walked past to the living room, "Hey, mom, dad, anyone home?" I asked, heading farther down the foyer.

I heard my mom first before I saw her, "Bellamy?" She came out of the office and gave me a gigantic hug the moment she saw me, "Oh, my goodness, look at you! You look so much bigger!"

I pulled back and raised an eyebrow, "It's been six months, mom," I mean, I felt bigger when it came to my muscles, but I also saw myself every day. It wasn't like I could tell the difference looking in a mirror, "I can't look that different."

"Six months is a long time for a teenager. Trust me, you really do," She heard movement in the foyer and saw the back half of Saberwolf walk into the living room. Her breath hitched, "Whoa. You weren't kidding about the wolf thing."

I laughed and got a good swat on the shoulder for my troubles, "I haven't been kidding about anything I've told you about the school so far," I said before walking with her to the living room to make introductions. Both Wolf and Laura stopped looking around to take note of the two of us, "Right. So, the big metal wolf is Saberwolf."

"That's easy enough," My mom said, walking past me to stand in front of him, "...He's not dangerous, is he?"

Yes, he was dangerous, but you didn't just say something like that up front, "He's a big, old softie," I said, waving off mom's concerns, "I mean, not literally because he's made of metal and stuff, but he's been with me for a few months. All he's done is be a friend."

Saberwolf sat on the floor, his thin tail calmly waving around in the air, "I have no aim to bring harm to your home or anything else. I do not want to harm anything. I simply wish to enjoy San Francisco peacefully," He said, calmly pleading his own case.

I gestured to him as if to say 'I told you so'. Mom rolled her eyes and walked over to Wolf, stooping down to get at eye level, "Well, your dad already agreed. But I didn't expect him to be so big. Where are we going to put him?"

"Mom, he's a machine. He sleeps on the floor," I deadpanned, "Put him in any room. Put him in my room. It really doesn't matter."

It wasn't like comfort or discomfort was a thing for him. Wolf didn't object, so I figured that course of action was just fine with him. With that matter settled, my mom moved on to the quieter of the guests I had brought home with me.

Laura noticed that eyes were now on her, and she wasn't fond of the attention. I half expected her to run out of the back door when my mom went up to her, smiling as she looked her over, "And this is the girl you called about this morning? Your little last-minute addition," She leaned in toward me to whisper, "Is she the girlfriend?"

Oh God. Mom didn't know, but Laura could hear her, clearly. Even if she whispered, she might as well have been saying it right in Laura's ear instead of mine. Thankfully, Laura didn't seem to care about the case of mistaken identity.

I got between them and started making introductions, "This is my teammate, Laura Kinney," I said, gesturing to Laura, "She's... related... to one of my teachers," And that was all I was going to say about that.

Mom let my questionable explanation slide in lieu of focusing on making Laura feel welcome, "Well, you're free to make yourself at home for as long as you're here. I hope Bellamy doesn't bother you too much at school."

Laura looked at me with a momentary glare, still upset with me for whatever reason, "He... has his moments," She said, before softening her glance on my mother, "Thank you for allowing me to stay here."

Mom clearly liked that Laura was way more polite than most people my age that she'd come across, "If you go to his school, you must be a mutant too. What are your powers?" Laura silently held up a fist and popped her claws. My mom cringed at the sound of metal tearing flesh, "...That looks painful."

Suddenly self-conscious, Laura put her claws away and took a step away from my mother, "It is," She mumbled, rubbing the healed spot between her knuckles. It was a habit she seemed to share with Mister Logan, whether the two of them knew it or not.

My mom looked at me as if I had the answers to this mystery of a girl. I didn't, and my body language let her know as much. Mom eventually went to usher her upstairs to the rooms, "Let me show you where you can put your things."

I watched them go before I looked down at Saberwolf, who had been an audience to the whole interaction, "What was that?"

"Your mother felt fear at the moment Laura revealed her claws," Wolf said, "I could hear her heart rate quicken. It is likely that Laura could as well. I would also venture to guess she could smell her fear as well."

I looked at the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh. This was going to be a long vacation.

XxX

It never occurred to me how weird it would be for my family to realize that because of my powers, I was now an insomniac. I had left pretty quickly after my powers manifested, so they didn't have to ever deal directly with their son's mutant growing pains. It had never come up in all of my weekly briefings when I called home, or when they called me. Even when I went home, I didn't tell them about it. I just stayed up way later than everyone else as if it were normal.

There wasn't anything I could do but sit up and watch TV and movies, so I sat back and binged shows on Netflix until I got bored enough to do something else. I relaxed with a little notepad and pen in my hands, jotting something down whenever the moment took me. There was no reason not to do something productive while I was doing nothing.

I never heard Laura coming, but at least she had the courtesy to enter the room from the other side where I could see her, clad in the tasteful nightwear of a t-shirt and little black shorts. She forewent coming in by way that would have put her behind me. It wasn't as scary the way she actually chose to do it, and it was late, so her being deathly quiet could be forgiven.

I raised my head at her in acknowledgment, not wanting to start a conversation just to get glared at the whole time. To my surprise, she spoke to me first, "What are you doing?" She asked.

It caught me off-guard, but it wasn't unwelcome. I held up the notepad with things I'd scribbled on it in the meantime, "Coming up with a list of stuff for all of us to do before the end of the break," I told her before taking a look at the clock, "Why are you even still up? It's like three in the morning."

She didn't answer. She just stood at the entrance, looking around at anything other than me. This was starting to get old.

"Are you still not talking to me?" I asked rhetorically, knowing that if she wasn't I wouldn't get an answer anyway, "Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I should have said something before I left the party in the middle of it. I left you dangling in the wind, almost by yourself. I apologize."

Laura looked at me strangely, shaking her head, "That is not why I am upset with you."

Really? Because it had been the reason I'd been banking on since I realized there was a problem. It had started after the party, so I figured it was something I had done during the party, "Why are you mad at me then?" She clammed up and went silent again, "...Laura, I can't fix the problem if I don't know what the problem is."

"I do not wish to discuss this with you."

As if I had expected any other answer. I swung my legs over to sit up properly and free a spot for her, "Come here, sit down," I asked, patting a spot next to me on the couch. She walked over hesitantly and sat down, "I don't know what I can do to actually get you to trust me."

Instead of looking down at the floor like she had been, she looked up at my face without glaring for the first time in days, "I do trust you."

It was a nice thought to consider. Too bad it wasn't true, "No, you don't. Not really," I said with a stiff smile, "It's okay though. It's not like I've given you a lot of reasons to."

It was understandable. With everyone else on the Paladins, we had all been through some kind of mess and got closer that way. Laura hadn't had the team mandated brush with death the rest of us had, even if she'd had plenty by herself.

She could be told by Mister Logan to rely on me until he went blue in the face. For someone like her, who had been through the things she'd been through, she needed an actual reason to put herself out there like that.

Laura, pulled her knees up to her chest, feet on the couch, "I am sorry."

We didn't need all of that. Giving me mean looks and whatnot was no reason to apologize to me. Better to save it for real stuff to be sorry about, so then it would mean more, "Don't be sorry. You're supposed to be mad at me, remember?" I reminded her.

"I do not know what is upsetting me," She said, getting back to the main point I'd been trying to speak to her about, "I cannot think of anything you could have done to originally offend me."

So she was mad for the sake of being mad? That didn't sound right. I couldn't tell if she was lying or not, but the way her brow furrowed in thought at the situation, it seemed she didn't have much a better idea as to what had been eating her as I did, "Are you mad right now?"

"…No."

True enough, she seemed much mellower than she had been at school, or on the Blackbird. And if that was the case, I might as well have tried to get a little more out of our talk, "Well, next time you are, could you tell me? That way I have a fighting chance at figuring out why."

It sounded like an agreeable enough request to Laura, "I can do that," She said before she seemed to sink further into the couch, "...Your mother is afraid of me. I do not think she likes me."

Just like Wolf said about my mom earlier. I felt bad, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with time. I was sure of it, "Popping your claws might have just spooked her. We can handle that. And you still haven't met my dad yet. Don't worry about it so much. It's just the first day."

XxX

When your family owns a theater, summer is awesome, because when all of the blockbusters come out, you can watch them all for free. Better yet, this year I didn't have to work part-time at the theater because I was entertaining company.

I took Laura and Wolf to see a movie as our first real activity because it was simple. Sit down, watch the damn film, and before and after, make conversation. We sat at the back so Wolf could sit down in the space between our seats and the back wall. On the way, no one had picked anything to watch, so I chose an action flick. I had no idea if anyone particularly enjoyed it, even if I did. Seeing as how Wolf didn't bitch while we were watching it, I guess he liked it.

Movies were supposed to make it easy to branch into other topics. Namely in my case, finding out what the fuck Laura liked. My miscalculation was in trying to engage in small talk with Laura Kinney. Nevertheless, I gave it my best shot.

We walked out of the theater and the building once the movie let out. After being in the dark for hours, the afternoon sun didn't hurt my eyes, seeing as how light was my thing, "We're probably gonna be coming back here a lot, so we should figure out what's worth seeing," I told them, taking a moment to stop and point at a marquee on the wall, "I wanna see that."

The trailer for it that had run before our movie that day had been good enough to get my attention. It was supposed to be funny, and it got a few legit laughs out of me. Why not? Comedies were usually hit and miss, but it wasn't like we would have to pay for a ticket.

Laura didn't seem very interested in watching that one, "I do not think comedy is for me," She said, "I may lack the social experience to find it entertaining."

She made a pretty good point. Also a very self-aware one that made me think, "What do you guys even think is funny, anyway?" I asked, "Do you guys think anything is funny?"

Seriously, they had to be the two most joyless individuals I had ever been around. Wolf was an A.I., so it wasn't really his fault. Come to think of it, it probably wasn't Laura's fault either.

Wolf answered first, at my expense, as usual, "It is funny watching you fail at something you boast about," Sometimes a guy had to stop and think about why they were friends with someone.

Why did my friends enjoy seeing me suffer? I didn't understand, "You sadistic, metal fuck," I told him before trying to get someone else's answer, "What about you, Laura? Got anything?"

I half expected her to share Wolf's answer, but she actually took the time to give me a real one, "I appreciate irony. I am afraid I have a dark sense of humor, though."

If that was her only hang-up, we had no problems on that front, and I let her know as much, "There are movies for that. I wonder what you laughing sounds like. Hell, I barely know what you smiling looks like."

"I have smiled around you," Laura argued in return.

She may have been offended, but she didn't have much of a leg to stand on, "Yeah, barely, like I said," I remarked as I hit the button to stop traffic for us to pass through the crosswalk, "And when you do, it's like if someone catches you, you'll get in trouble."

"I would get in trouble."

I had to focus to realize I'd made out what she said. I just didn't believe/understand it, "What?"

Laura kept her eyes on the passing cars instead of looking at me, "The people who made me, the Facility, they employed a woman, my handler. Her name is Kimura," She said, no emotion in her voice, "If I did anything wrong, I would be punished."

And I could only imagine what a punishment entailed for someone as tough as Laura, "But you're, like, a top of the line assassin, right? She never went far enough that you just decided to kill her?"

Not that I was a proponent for murder or anything, but… we weren't normal people. Some of us had to deal with circumstances others couldn't comprehend.

I had only been told a few thing about Laura. Not even the cliffnotes. Past the fact that she was extremely well-trained, had similar powers to Mister Logan, and had been cloned from some of Mister Logan's DNA, I didn't know anything about her.

"I cannot harm Kimura. Her skin is invulnerable," Laura told us, "She was made to counter me."

"So you tried," I said, leading the conversation further.

At my question, Laura shivered for a moment. It was 80 degrees out, "Kimura enjoyed it when I tried. It gave her a justification for harming me."

It might have been wrong of me to bait her to say more when it made her uncomfortable, but she was interesting! And she never talked about herself unless you made her! I was curious! That curiosity turned to anger though. Laura hadn't been afraid of anything so far since I met her. What kind of monster was this woman to get that kind of response out of her?

I wasn't the only one thinking this way, either, "What are the exact specifications of this Kimura person's powers?" Wolf asked ominously as the light changed to let us cross the street, "I could devise a method for you to kill her."

That reminded me why I was friends with him. Good old metal furball. He might have been an asshole of an A.I., but he was our asshole of an A.I., for sure. A Paladin through and through, even if he couldn't be enrolled as a student.

Laura was determined to deal with the whole thing solo. It seemed to be how she handled most problems, "No one else should get involved with the Facility. If they come for me, it is my fight. These are dangerous people."

"Are you serious?" I asked sternly. I didn't take the bad things that happened to my friends lightly, whether it was in the past or not, "For someone with a bad sense of humor, that was a pretty good joke."

"I was not joking."

I gave a completely facetious smile and laugh, "Oh, so you're just stubborn then?" She growled, but she could do that all she wanted to. I had a point to make, "Laura, you're one of us. If something goes down, I'm gonna fight for you."

We had been over this already. We sat down, just the two of us, and talked the whole thing out. I thought we'd come to an understanding. Laura really did need more than lip service assurances to believe in something, even if she wanted to.

"Not against them. They are different," Laura said, "Organized. Well-hidden, well-funded. Intelligent. Ruthless."

There's something to be said for trauma. Even if you know in your heart that you're in a position to move past it, that it shouldn't matter anymore, it still does. There's nothing you can do. It rents space in your head, and you can never get it out.

Even if she knew what to do, knew she wasn't under their control, knew that she could fight back, it was ingrained in her that she couldn't. Oh, she would try. Absolutely she would. There was no way she would let them have their way without going kicking and screaming. But the way she was, I didn't like her chances to come out on top. Not because she was alone, but because her entire life she was conditioned that she couldn't win. Not against them.

Me, on the other hand? "In the last six months, I've fought an alien army, a racist cyborg, a goddamn room…" I was afraid during all of these things, and would continue to be afraid during whatever future encounters awaited me. But that didn't matter, "To you, these Facility guys might be the boogeyman, but to me, they're just another bunch of creeps to add to the list. In short: fuck 'em."

No matter how shaken by something I was, the idea of losing, of failing, and all of the consequences that came with it scared me more than anything else.

Wolf nudged Laura with his head to get her attention, "Yes. As Bellamy says: fuck them."

I could have sworn my eyes almost popped out of my head at hearing that. Wolf hadn't been much for the casual swearing up to that point, "That was priceless. I need to get you to curse more."

She seemed to give up trying to make me back off of my own statement. Good. Because that wasn't going to happen, "You do not understand."

Maybe. But I wasn't trying to say that I could beat them. I was saying that if it came down to it, I would approach taking them on just like anyone else, "I get that they're dangerous. I mean, they made you. But we've got the same options with them that we have with everything that comes at us – fight or run."

I would approach them differently, but I wouldn't treat them differently. An enemy was an enemy. Don't revere an enemy. Give them enough respect to find a way to win.

Man... what a buzzkill that conversation turned out to be. I just wanted to take my friends to the freaking movies. I didn't want everything to get all serious. It was summer.

But that was the normal kid way of looking at things. We were not normal kids. I made light in various forms, Laura had claws and assassin training, and we were both hanging out with a fucking metal wolf. Just because we weren't at the most dangerous school in the world, the Xavier Institute, that didn't mean we were safe. This summer was not going to be what I was used to.

Well, the school year is over, and we've got some time at Bellamy's home, and with guests too! There's no possible way any of this could ever go wrong. And if you're thinking there is, stop it. You're just being a pessimist.

As we all know, nothing bad ever happens to the X-Men.

…

Okay, let me change that one up a bit. Nothing bad ever happens to X-Men-in-trainin-.

…

Damn it.

Either way, that's it for me. I hope you guys enjoyed.

Kenchi out.