Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or Marvel. There's gonna be Marvel movies out the ass, and I'm so ready. Infinity Wars next week, then Deadpool 2 next month. My body is ready.

Chapter 24: Back To School

Therapy is hands down one of the most awkward experiences a human being might ever endure. Now please note, I never said it was the worst. That would be ignorant to say. Obviously, there are countless things that are realistically worse than something as mundane as going to therapy, but there's just something embarrassing about sitting in front of a stranger, and spilling all of your thoughts and misgivings in an effort to 'fix' you. It's as if you can't be trusted with yourself as a person.

Sitting on a damn chair in front of Dr. Sean Garrison was that awkward moment for me. I'm not sure what I looked like from his point of view. I hoped I was cool, calm, collected. Unflappable, even. In my heart though, I knew I wasn't special. I more than likely looked like the other countless fidgety, uncertain patients that had been stuck in front of him.

"Are you uncomfortable, Bellamy?"

Yeah, to receive that question, I definitely came off as a jumpy teenager.

Dr. Garrison was a man with thick blonde hair and immaculate taste in clothes. Seriously, that dapper fuck could rock a $3000 Versace suit. That much should be said. I wouldn't even know what to do with myself in threads like that. What kind of therapist could afford those kinds of clothes to go to work in?

I cleared my throat from where I chose to lay down and relax during my session, "I'm fine, doctor," I said, "Just... trying to adjust. I'm not really good at talking about myself, which is all this is going to be."

I did not feel like spilling my guts and divulging all of my insecurities and whatnot to some random-ass psychiatrist just because it was school-mandated. Bellamy Marcher did not get down like that.

Dr. Garrison didn't seem bothered by anything I'd said, "Well, it doesn't have to be. Not necessarily. I don't expect you to trust me just like that. If you find it strange to try and open up, we can ease into that. Do you know why you find it hard to talk about yourself?"

Okay, so we were going to jump right into the deep end of my being an asshole huh? Well, feet first we go, "Because in my personal experience, most of the time, the people who really care about your problems can't help you, and the people who can help you really don't care about your problems," I said honestly, "There's no point to talking about your feelings. It's like a placebo effect. It doesn't really solve anything."

Dr. Garrison took note of what I'd said. Yeah, he should have underlined it too, for emphasis. I believed every word, "Interesting. Your file says you lead a squad of fellow students. That's an odd way of thinking for a leader to have."

Maybe, but that was how things were. I was who I was, "I'm not an emotional problem-solver. I'm better when the issues are something I can touch and deal with in the real world, you know? Give me a solution I can get my hands on... think about. That's when I'm fine."

Dr. Garrison's eyebrows rose in interest, "Oh, could you tell me more about some of those situations? It sounds like you feel comfortable when you're presented with a problem."

I went to give him some examples of problems that I'd managed to work out, only to stop when I figured out that I couldn't.

I wasn't actually proud of any of the things I'd dealt with. Other people were. I never talked myself up about the enemies I'd fought. Other people did. My cocky bullshit usually never came from the events I had been a part of, because I openly recognized my own failure in those situations.

I couldn't save other people when it counted. My own teacher wound up lost in space trying to save the planet because I couldn't get the job done myself.

"Bellamy?"

I found myself too caught up in my own thoughts and went too long without answering his question, "I... I..." I struggled with keeping things to myself. Normally I wouldn't have said a thing, but the words just came out. "I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be," I said before gagging at the half-assed spiel that had just come out of my mouth, "No... actually, I suck."

I was catching him off-guard with what I was saying. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, "You don't agree with the decision to make you the team leader?"

Not really. I never said it after the choice had been made, but I'd thought about it a lot since then. I was the best option. That was all there was to it, "Out of everyone on the team, I'm the only one who could have done it. And it was the last thing Miss Pryde really asked me to do before she disappeared," I said, "I love my team, and I respect her too much to say she made a mistake. But... I don't know."

What did it matter if he knew what I was thinking? What exactly was he going to do with it? Tell Mister Summers and Miss Frost? What did that matter?

Dr. Garrison set his notes aside, lacing his hands together in his lap before he addressed what I had just told him, "Bellamy, I don't know enough about you to give you any advice yet. Right now, all I can do is hear you out and listen to what you have to say," "It seems like that's what you might need more than anything else right now."

He was right. It felt good to say these things. It felt good to let things out from someone that wasn't going to see me during my day-to-day ordeals. I didn't have to be strong, or seem like I knew what I was doing. All I had to do was what I was good at doing in the first place – run my mouth.

Perhaps this therapy crap wouldn't be so bad after all.

XxX

I needed some goddamn answers, and at last check there was only one place where I could start to get them. The only issue was who had had to get them from.

I had never directly interacted with the Cuckoos. I never had a need to. We weren't on a team, we didn't have the same classes, and normally if I had need of a telepath I had one nearby who actually liked me, even if she was hard to understand sometimes.

...Well, I didn't know if the Cuckoos necessarily disliked me. I just automatically assumed everyone did until proven otherwise. We'd never really had the pleasure of engaging in any kind of extended conversation. Sure, they had been at my party, but that didn't mean anything. There had been alcohol and a chance to get laid. Plenty of reason for anyone to show up, even if they hated me.

The easiest way to find anyone in school was normally to just ask around, but since the student body was down to mere low double digits until the summer break ended, I had to do it the hard way; by looking around and thinking really hard. That was my tried and true strategy to locate telepaths. Eventually they would hear you and tell you to shut up, or tell you where they were.

Eventually, I got a ping that led me to a common area with a piano where I found the three sisters sitting around. One was watching TV, another was reading, and the third was playing the aforementioned piano.

Three gorgeous blonde triplets, identical in every way appearance-wise. They didn't even try to make it easy on anyone trying to tell them apart by dressing differently. If I shut my eyes for ten seconds to let them switch places, I wouldn't have been able to tell who went where.

...And I probably thought that loud enough for them to pick up on it. Great. Oh well. The worse they could do was tell me to buzz off, and so I approached them as casually as I could. I had no reason to be nervous. I just wanted to ask a question.

"Hey, girls," I said, stepping into the room where I moved over to the piano. I was jealous that one of them could play an instrument well. I never did get around to starting guitar lessons while I'd been back home. Maybe a piano would be more my speed?

"It isn't so hard," The Cuckoo sister at the piano commented as though I had been speaking out loud, "If you can do something like fly a jet, I'm certain you can figure out how to play a piano with lessons."

"Oh," I said, a little taken aback at getting my mind passively read. The three of them all together were supposed to be stronger than Miss Frost, so it wasn't a surprise, "I'll try and look into that when classes start up again. There has to be someone around willing to teach me how."

From the nearby couch, another of the Cuckoos set her book aside with a roll of her eyes, "Mindee, stop humoring him. We know why you're here, Bellamy," She said, apparently not amused at my attempts to small talk, "You want to ask us a question."

She was right, but I was confused when she didn't either turn me down or go into more detail, "...Do you know what that question is?" I asked, mentally marking the Cuckoo at the piano as Mindee. One down, two left to detail.

She frowned at me and shook her head, "No. We can't tell that much. You have very good psychic shielding," She seemed annoyed by this.

That sounded like a contradiction to me. As far as I was aware, they read me walking into the room, "Didn't you guys just read my mind a minute ago?" I asked.

"Yes, but these were thoughts you had at the surface. They weren't very hard to see, and you weren't trying to resist. Anything deeper though, and things get muddled."

The third Cuckoo who had been more focused on the TV than anything else reached out to swat at her book-reading sister, "Oh, Celeste. Don't be grumpy just because you can't see past the surface in his head. He does spend a lot of time with Blindfold. I wouldn't be surprised if he allows her to practice her telepathy on him."

I did. A lot. I was the only one on the team with the balls to. My only rule with Ruth was not to do anything in my head that she couldn't put back to normal, or that would end up with Eddie or Hisako putting me on Youtube.

"How personal," Mindee purred from her place at the piano, "You must trust her a lot to allow her access to your mind like that. Who knows what she could have you do with that kind of access?"

I didn't like that smile. The last thing I needed was more people trying to stir up shit, "How else is she gonna get any better if she doesn't work with someone?" I said before waving the whole thing off, "Besides, I'm fine. And as a side-effect, apparently you can't read the depths of my brain. I'd say that means it's worked out so far."

Celeste seemed to take this as a personal challenge, "Oh, we could still get to the bottom of your mind if we all tried at once. I'm not sure your psyche would survive the attempt though," She was absolutely a protégé of Miss Frost.

I slumped my shoulders in defeat. Getting turned into a vegetable just so the girls could prove a point wasn't my idea of fun, "Please don't. I've still got stuff to do today."

The third Cuckoo giggled at my powerless expense, "Oh, don't worry. Miss Frost wouldn't like it if we broke you."

Mindee reached over to pat me on the head. People always touched my head because of the hat, "Yes, yes, Phoebe is right... you're the new project. There are high hopes for you, you know."

No, I didn't know. Seriously, "You're kidding, right?" I asked, plopping down on a couch near two of the sisters. I wanted to hear more of this, "The last time I checked, Frost hates me, and Summers... I don't know, he 'nothings' me."

All of the Cuckoos turned to look at me, their eyes glowing a ghastly blue as they spoke in unison, "Are you telling psychics that they don't know what they've seen in others' heads?"

All of a sudden, I regretted sitting down. Goddamn Three-In-One. They were some seriously scary chicks when they wanted to be, "No, but the two people we're talking about are a psychic that could fight you off, and a guy that exclusively plows telepaths."

Their hive mind psychic intimidation thing faded away just like that. The wonders that having a solid point could do for you, "Well it's your right to be skeptical," Celeste said, "But we wouldn't lie to you. There's no point."

"I never said you would. I didn't think it either," I said with a cheeky grin, tapping at my own dome for emphasis. Hey, one of them laughed, "So, about that help I came for. I've prepared a payment in exchange for your help. I think you guys'll-."

"-You don't have to bribe us to ask a question, Bellamy," All three girls said as one, cutting me off.

I had to take a moment to rationalize that with my expectations. People who weren't close to me normally didn't help me just because they could, "Oh. Okay. Cool. Um... I'll be honest, I expected this to be a lot harder," As I rambled, all of the Cuckoos just sat, waiting for me to cut to the chase, "Ahem, well... I'm just looking for some information. Before I got here, there was some kind of riot," I would have been a fool to notice their faces fall, "If it's something you don't want to talk about..."

"No," Phoebe said, "It's... good that people don't forget about what happened that day."

This was a sensitive topic for them. Obviously. From what I'd heard, one of their sisters died during the riot, I tried to treat lightly, "Was there a telepath involved? Not you guys, I mean. I'm talking about a dude."

All of their faces twisted up in complete revulsion, "Quentin Quire," They all said with a disgusted shudder.

They didn't hesitate to give me a name. I'd hit a nerve. One that would give me what I wanted to know, "Who?"

All of the Cuckoos looked at each other before letting their feelings spill forth.

"A psychic. A telepath."

"A vile boy."

"His thoughts were disturbing, and so loud."

"The way he looked at us. At Sophie."

All three girls looked at each other before concluding their description of him, "Ew," They said in unison. I tried not to laugh. It wasn't a time for humor, even if that had been hilarious.

"Okay," I said, trying to wipe the smile off of my face and be serious, "So what happened to this guy?"

"He was on drugs. Very powerful drugs. They sent his powers into overdrive."

Okay, yeah. It didn't seem like a good idea to take mind-altering substances when your power revolved around your brain. That wasn't an intelligent move at all, "I'm guessing that didn't end well for him."

The Cuckoos all shook their heads as one before Celeste spoke, "His body couldn't handle it. None of the teachers or X-Men could stop it. His body was destroyed."

Phoebe picked up from there, "No one ever saw it. No one ever told the school what really happened to him. They say he died, but we can still hear him."

Aha! So it wasn't just me! That was a fine bit of info to have, "Where?"

"Down in Dr. McCoy's laboratory," Phoebe said.

A dead kid was still capable of thinking out loud enough for people like me and them to hear, "How? Do we have ghosts, or something?" In the grand scheme of things, that wouldn't have been so far-fetched, "...I mean, with everything else that happens around here, that wouldn't really surprise me, but in this case-."

Mindee cut me off before I could finish verbalizing my thought, "-We don't know. That area is in the sub-levels, off-limits to everyone except top staff," She said before tilting her head curiously, "But you have been inside of there before, haven't you?"

I had been. But I didn't remember seeing anything. To be fair, there had been a lot going on, "Uh, I was kind of busy trying not to get killed by the Danger Room and an alien at the time. And it was Dr. McCoy's lab. I had no idea of 90% of what I was looking at."

Besides, there had been plenty of psychic fuckery to go around that day. It would have been hard to pin it down to one source or another. More pressing things were afoot, and my attention was quickly turned to keeping the Earth from getting destroyed by Breakworld.

Celeste shrugged at my answer, "If what's happening with you is really such an issue, whatever is left of Quentin Quire is there."

Great. More stuff that I shouldn't have known about and couldn't get myself to without getting in trouble.

XxX

A week or so later, students started filtering back onto campus for the start of the fall semester. Normally, school starting back up was a major buzzkill, but for me it meant that I would get to hang out with all of my closest friends again – Ruth, Hisako, even Laura found her way back. And of course, there was my goddamn hype man, Eddie.

"Dude!"

"Dude!"

All of the students were inside of the main auditorium for the opening address from the faculty. When I saw that red-haired son of a bitch walk in, I was ecstatic. I'm pretty sure when I got up to run over and greet him, I crawled over every other kid in my row, including Ruth and Laura, and shoved two or three people out of the way in the aisle.

No, I didn't think of how much of an asshole that made me look like. I was more concerned with 'too sweeting' the last straggler of my crew. It had been too long.

"That was fucking magical," I remarked when we sat back down. Eddie sat on the other side of Hisako, who was on my other side.

"You two are way too happy to see each other," Hisako replied. Even as she said that, she was leaning over to give Eddie a gigantic hug. She'd missed him too, "Good to see you, Wing."

"Why wouldn't I be happy to see Eddie?" I said, sounding offended that she would try to downplay my joy at having all five members of my squad around me again, "This is, like, the last all-important piece of my entire crew getting back together. I feel so warm and insulated right now."

My enthusiasm for our long-awaited reunion was shared by Eddie. Of course it was. I could always count on that guy to have my back, "It's time to fucking form Voltron up in this bitch. The Paladins are back!" He exclaimed before the grin fell from his face and he settled back into his seat, "Well, most of us are."

It was a nasty reminder that we were missing one person; our teacher. She was still hurtling through space somewhere in a giant, planet-shattering bullet.

Hisako reached behind Ruth and nudged me to get my attention, "Hey, you and Laura were here before any of us. Did anyone tell you what they were going to do with our team?"

It was a good question, and not one I had been able to get an answer to, the few opportunities I'd had to try, "Afraid not. I'm pretty sure they've been working it out all summer trying to... get us a new advisor."

There was no way they would let me run the whole thing myself again like I had to at the end of the last semester. I couldn't. I didn't know anything about the administrative crap that squad advisors had to do. I did the bare minimum. And I didn't know how to train us either. We wouldn't get any better without real supervision, and I didn't have nearly enough experience to serve in any kind of advisory capacity. I was greener than grass.

The whole in-house staff was on the stage, from the headmaster and headmistress on down. Several of them gave us speeches and whatnot. This was mostly for the new students, because listening to it, I tuned out in about five minutes. I was glad I came in after the start of the term so I didn't have to sit through this before.

They reintroduced all of the teachers, associating them with the student training squads they worked with if they had them. Nothing had really changed from the last year, only a few advisors had been added for new squads being formed. None of it caught my attention until one introduction in particular.

"Piotr Rasputin," Mister Summers said, gesturing to the large Russian man we had been acquainted with, "He'll be teaching art courses this coming year. He will also be the interim advisor for the Paladins."

The five of us all just looked at each other, likely with similar thoughts. Miss Pryde's boyfriend was going to be our advisor for the foreseeable future. None of us expected anything less than a completely awkward experience.

XxX

We got together after the assembly with Mister Rasputin in the room that would serve as his studio/classroom when classes started back up on Monday. It wasn't an easy matter trying to break the ice between us, even though we had already been previously acquainted. We hadn't interacted in any meaningful way since Miss Pryde went missing.

Obviously, he'd had his own things to work through in the aftermath of that whole mess. We all did. Fortunately for us, we had each other and lots of other things going on. Also, we hadn't known her for as long as he did. And the two of them had been romantically involved. It was hard to imagine what was going on inside of Mister Rasputin's head. I mean, I could have asked Ruth, but that would have been in bad form.

We all sat around the studio, huddled together in our various ways. Eddie and Hisako stuck together closer than the others. Laura hovered just outside of our little circle. I was sitting on a desk with Ruthie on my back.

"Well, I guess we should reintroduce ourselves. You know me and Hisako better than the others," I said, trying to jump-start the conversation, "This is Laura. She has claws and shit," I pointed over to the dour young lady in question before gesturing to our red-haired mobility specialist, "This is Eddie. He flies," I then jerked my thumb to the blindfolded girl resting piggyback on me, "This is Ruth. She has brain powers," Ruth waved at our soon-to-be advisor.

"So... this is happening," Eddie said with a sigh, "Well, at least they aren't breaking us up, which is good, considering at least two of us probably have an open invitation to the X-Men."

He had been referring to me, Hisako, and maybe Laura. This normally would have been a badge of honor, but I sneered at the thought. I couldn't imagine the level of bitch-fit I would throw if the Paladins were broken up. It wasn't just that I thought we were a good team. They were my closest friends.

Mister Rasputin held up a hand, as though to keep those kinds of ideas at bay, "Scott believes that breaking you up would be a waste of what you are all capable of, and insulting to what you've been through. He spoke with me through the summer about working with you, and I accepted last week," He told us, "I am not trying to replace Katya. I could not. I just feel like I need to do something, and helping you all, teaching you what I can… I believe it is the best way to do that."

He'd been making a heartfelt speech, but he didn't really need to. It was going to be an adjustment period for all of us, but that also meant we were all in it together.

"Mr. Rasputin, it's cool. You don't have to come in here and give us the whole stepdad speech," I said, trying to mellow things out a bit. The atmosphere was too tense for my tastes, "This whole thing is messed up, and there's nothing any of us can do about it but deal with it."

Hisako shrugged her shoulders and chimed in, "Yeah. And if that's the way it is, well, why should you have to do it by yourself?"

Mister Rasputin stood up from where he'd been sitting, making me realize, not for the first time, just how gigantic the guy was, "You were all with Katya while I was dead. You are the closest thing I have to her. I will do right by you as her students, and now as mine."

All any of us could say was one thing, and Eddie beat the rest of us to it, "Welcome to the Paladins," He said, which put a smile on all of our faces, "…First order of business, you have to learn how to 'too sweet'."

There were few facial expressions more obvious than ones related to complete and utter confusion, "...What is that?" Mister Rasputin asked, staring at the 'too sweet' sign in question.

Before our new teacher could be educated on the finer points of the Paladins' social nuances, Hisako jumped in to be a wet blanket, "No, you don't. Don't listen to them, Peter. It's just a dumb handshake thing they made up."

"Hey, we didn't make it up," I made sure to specify. It was very important that she got this right, "You're giving us too much credit. We stole it and re-appropriated it," I pointed over to Mister Rasputin who was trying to mimic Eddie's own hand gesture, "Hah! See? He's doing it!"

Small victories, people. Take them where you can get them. Life isn't much for handing us extensive winning streaks, so hoard every single one you can get.

XxX

God, I missed hanging out with my team. We didn't even have to train or anything, but sometimes it was good to try and get some important work done when we were together. And there was something very important that we needed to see to before the next term got well underway.

Laura needed an f'ing codename. The rest of us had one, even if we didn't want it (I still hated being called Solaris). It was a requirement to have another title to go by in the field... which made sense back when mutants were a secret. It didn't make as much sense now. Tradition, perhaps?

Either way, we were all gathered at an arcade to just hang out for a while. The lot of us were gathered in a balcony dining area outside. Inside was full of annoying noises for Laura, which she didn't need when Eddie and I were doing well enough at annoying her on our own.

"So come on. What do you think?" I insisted, crumpling up straw wrappers to throw at her one-by-one. I was just trying to get some kind of reaction out of her, "You've got to give us some input here. It's about you."

Laura sat impassively. Her arms were crossed and she hardly blinked as harmless little paper balls bounced off of her head. To be fair, all she had to do was wait out five of them, "I don't care about any of this. I don't want to come up with something new to call myself. I don't want any of you to do it either."

Once I was out of ammunition, she kicked me in the shin under the table – hard. The girl knew how to kick. I knew this already, but she was wearing boots too. I dropped my head onto the table to grab my leg and let out a silent yell. Ruth rubbed my back to soothe my pain like the sweetheart she was. I'm pretty sure Hisako tried to high-five Laura.

Eddie was all business though. Focused on the matter at hand, he rejected Laura's rejection, "You need a codename, and you're not even trying. So that leaves it to us to help you out and come up with one," Laura just gave Eddie the blankest deadpan stare she could muster, which was pretty impressive, "I'm not kidding. Why doesn't she believe us?"

Hisako, big stick in the mud that she was, didn't miss a beat in responding, "Because it's you two saying it, and all of the codenames you've come up with so far are stupid."

I rested with my cheek in my hand, bored with being shot down. Every name we tried had been denied, "If you have such a problem with our ideas for names, which in my unbiased opinion are amazing, by the way-," I felt the need to add, "-You could always help us brainstorm. We are a team."

Despite my offer, there was no response from the peanut gallery. Hisako and Laura both either couldn't or wouldn't bother humoring us with helping us name our most recent addition to the Paladins. It wasn't any skin off of Eddie's nose or mine. It just meant that when we inevitably came up with a surefire, can't miss name for Laura, there would be no objections allowed from anyone. After all, I didn't get to pick my codename. Why should she?

Eddie huffed at the lack of help from our two female teammates, "Fine. Guess we're doing this the cheap way," He said before turning to Ruth, "Blindfold, what do we end up calling her? You've got to know."

Ruth was basically a cheat sheet to the future. The problem with that was, changing one thing changed a bunch of other things. If she told you anything, something she may have called out a year down the line might never happen, or might get moved up a few months. Working with her, you had to pick and choose, because stopping one bad thing might open up the door to something worse that you couldn't stop.

Ruth bid Eddie an apologetic smile, "Yes. No. Sorry. Bellamy says she should not tell him everything," She said, passing the buck of blame to me. Fair enough. I had told her to do that, "He says she should use her judgment and only tell him what's important."

Eddie could not wrap his head around this line of reasoning. Being who he was, of course, that meant he then gave out about his displeasure over this, "What? Bel, why would you do that? Come to think of it, why haven't we hit the lottery yet?" He asked, "...Other than the fact that we can't legally buy tickets?"

I reached over and flicked Eddie in the forehead to get him to sit down properly, "Because Ruthie can't choose what she sees. She just gets visions," I explained. We were working on having her hone in on more particular things, but despite her improvements, the chaos of life oftentimes made this difficult, "Besides, who wants to know everything? That's boring."

Hisako wasn't always against me for the sake of being a contrarian. This was made clear when she actually backed me up, doubling up on my point to Eddie, "Didn't you have a problem with her talking about everything she found out when you first met her? You thought she was creepy until Bel showed up and dropped that mandate on her."

"Stop. Bringing up. Old stuff," Eddie said, "I already apologized for that."

Hisako raised an eyebrow in interest, "Oh really? I don't remember an apology ever coming out of your mouth."

Ruth nodded, demurely raising her hand, "Yes. Pardon, you did not apologize to her," She said, speaking of herself.

"Yeah, you definitely didn't," I piled on in agreement, "But then again, I'm of the mindset that you shouldn't have to apologize just for how you feel about stuff."

Red-faced, Eddie finally put an end to the team ganging up on him, good-natured as it was in spirit, "We-we-we are getting sidetracked here. We need to come up with a codename for Laura before sessions start up again, otherwise we're gonna catch crap. If she goes too long without one, they'll probably dock us points."

That dog wouldn't hunt, as far as I was concerned, "The fuck they are," I knew they absolutely would though. I wouldn't put it past Mister Summers or Miss Frost for an instant. I slapped my hands on the table and pointed across at Laura, "You're getting a name by the end of the first week of classes, goddamn it. Eddie, go through the list again and see if anything works for her."

Eddie pulled up his phone that we'd been recording codenames onto and began reading them off, "Alright, try these on for size. Talon, Wolverette, Scratchy, Shredder, Super Shredder-."

Hisako could only take so much before interrupting, "Those are terrible. You should both feel bad," She turned to Laura and gestured her head toward Eddie and I, "If I were you, and I got one of those names, I would stab one of them," Laura seriously seemed as though she were considering it.

One could not criticize a method of approach if better solutions weren't being presented. Otherwise, it was just bellyaching, and nothing productive came of that.

"Girls..." I said calmly and smoothly, "The last time I checked, my hearing worked. And English is the language that we're all speaking right now, so I can understand what you say," I gave a wide sweeping gesture to the table we were sitting around, "By all means, please, contribute."

Eddie, not wanting to be stabbed, defended himself with words, "This is how we did it for Bellamy. Hell, he didn't even get a choice, remember? We picked for him."

Hisako could admit that much, "Right. It was funny when it was him. Now that it's happening to her? Not so much."

No respect for me, ever. No matter what. I hate my friends sometimes.

"I can still go by X-23 during missions," Laura finally chimed in, "I do not see why I need a new designation. This one still identifies me, and distinguishes me individually."

She was being so stubborn about this. The truth was, she did need a name. The fact that half the names Eddie and I had been coming up had been jokes wasn't the point. We weren't trying to legitimately name her ourselves. We were just trying to jog a decent one out of her brain while shooting the breeze.

She could not go by that name. It just wasn't going to happen. There was so much wrong with it, especially given everything I knew.

I let out an exasperated sigh, "It's a letter and a number. We can't call you that. It makes it seem like you're not a person, Laura. Like you're a project," I said, focusing all of my attention directly on her, "Why do you want to go by your clone ID? That's the name shitty people called you when shitty things were happening to you. Come on! Fresh start, woman! You can be what you want to be, not what you were made to be!"

After hearing that, Laura did seem like she was honestly considering going by something other than X-23. That was great. Finally, we were making some progress around here!

Even Hisako, my harshest critic on the team, seemed impressed by my stirring words, "I've gotta admit, that was almost inspiring."

As backhanded as it was, it still counted as a compliment, and I took it as one, "It's part of my job description to at least try to motivate you jerks. I may be a half-assed leader, but hey, that just means half the time I actually get it right."

Eddie gave us all a nugget of wisdom, "Dude, in some countries, 50% is a passing grade."

Truer words had rarely been spoken. And they were also equally inspiring in their own way. You just had to look a little beyond the surface to find the wise message hidden within.

Speaking of things being hidden, with my back to the balcony we were seated on, I didn't notice a flying figure approach until it had come to a rest, arms wrapping around me from behind and stealing my hat. Yet, I couldn't feel mad for a moment as it was obvious to me who it was, "Bellamy! Did you miss me? Ooh, did you get bigger while you were gone?"

I laughed to myself at the energetic greeting from my girlfriend, "How you been, Pix?" I ask, turning my head to give her a big kiss on the cheek, "You should have told me when you were flying in! You know I've been here for a while already. I would have done some lame shit like wait for you at the airport with a sign."

Megan looked at me, stunned that I had come up with such an idea and that she hadn't told me so I could actually do it, "Oh my God! That would have been so romantic! I would have loved that!"

Well, we could just call that a missed opportunity, "You say that, until you get a look at my grumpy mug posted up for you outside of security," I remarked, "I don't think emotional reunions are my thing."

Megan waited for me to scoot back and give her some space to sit down on my lap. She still had my hat on, "Don't be that way. You've got a soft spot in there somewhere," She said, poking me directly in the chest, "...Not here though. You are solid."

What could I say? When you never slept and had lots of empty time to fill, working out was a great way to do it. It stood to reason that there were some benefits that came with it.

"Boo," Eddie openly jeered, "Quit showing off. You big, glowing dickhead."

Before I could unleash a scathing rebuttal, Megan spoke up, "Can you really do that?" She asked me audaciously, her unique eyes shining mischievously, "I might like to see it if you could."

"Do what?" It took me a moment to realize what she was alluding to – which was Eddie's aforementioned remark, taking it literally, "Oh! Uh... I... don't know. I've never even thought to try."

I tried it later that night. I can make my dick glow and shoot light blasts out of it. It's awesome. Don't ask what kind of use I would actually have for that aspect of my powers. Just know that it exists, that yes, some girls do like it, and be jealous that you can't do it.

"So what brings you over here?" Hisako pleasantly asked Megan, "I really hope you didn't come all the way to Salem Center just to look for this guy."

Megan smiled brightly, "I was out with Hope and Jessie and we just came across you guys. I told them I was just going to fly up and say hey. So, hey!"

Going shopping with a group of other ladies sounded good to Hisako, "Our teams really need to hang out more. I need to expand my circle," She said, gesturing to Eddie and myself. To be fair, we weren't exactly good for girly things, "I love those two idiots, but spending so much time with them has to kill brain cells. I felt like a fog had lifted when I went home for the summer."

I'd been taking a sip of my drink the entire time Hisako had been talking and only stopped to respond, "All I heard out of that sentence was that you love me. I knew you did," I said smugly.

"See? Idiot."

Megan was completely enraptured by the idea of both her team and mine being tight, "We should do that! We can do that! I'll talk to the others about it," She promised Hisako. As she did, she bounced excitedly on my lap. It was a fantastic experience for me, "I'm already thinking of stuff. I'm talking group activities," She finished determinedly.

Eddie slapped his hand down on the table. Uh-oh. I felt a tirade coming and braced myself, "Right. That sounds like a good, sensible plan. OR, Bel can stop being an asshole and throw me a bone. Get me a date with Hope or Jessica!"

And there it was. To be fair, it took him a lot longer to work that angle with me than I thought it would, "How am I supposed to get you a date with one of them? Man up and ask."

Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes, "You didn't."

That one hurt my ego, because he had a point. Then again, I didn't really have the opportunity before Megan asked me out of the blue, "To be fair, I operate on the assumption that everyone hates me until proven otherwise," I made it a point to give Megan a squeeze when I looked her way, "For the record, I would have totally asked you out first if I knew you liked me."

Megan hummed in wordless agreement, "Mmm. You kind of didn't figure it out until I hit you over the head with it, did you?" Another sharp jab to the ego, lack of intent aside, "I just wanted to stop in and say hi. I shouldn't leave the girls for too long."

"That's fine. I'll call you tonight," I said, allowing her to stand up, "Bye, Pix," Before she could depart, I remembered something and gave a quick tug around her waist, "Ah-ah. Hat."

With a big grin, Megan took my hat off of her head and put it back on mine, leaning down to give me a kiss when she did, "Bye, Bel," She whispered before flying off with her wings.

Eddie made sure to provide one last parting shout before she got too far away, "I was serious about that date by the way! Make it happen!" He looked at the rest of us and shook his head, "She's not gonna make it happen."

Laura had been quiet the entire time Megan had been there, which admittedly wasn't much different from how she usually was. Only after Megan left did she say anything again. Her arms crossed, she stared at me impassively, "Bellamy, I am upset with you again," She directed my way.

"I am too," Eddie said before I could get exasperated and ask Laura why, "Bellamy, you fucking clown. You have a girlfriend who has cute friends. Share the wealth."

Hisako scowled in Eddie's direction, and I slowly pushed away from the table, feeling tensions rise, "Share the wealth. Implying that girls are like booty or something," She said.

Eddie wasn't fazed by possibly upsetting the member of our team with impenetrable psionic armor, "Hmm. That's an interesting turn of phrase, given the topic at hand. Booty," He made the unfortunate mistake of lingering within Hisako's arm's reach. He got a cup of slowly melting ice poured on his head. The shit-eating grin never left his face.

I rolled my eyes and got up from the table, chewing on the ice from my own empty cup.

"Where are you going?" Eddie asked, whipping his wet hair around like a dog drying itself.

I waved the entire situation off, "I'm checking out of playing peacekeeper for the rest of the day. Instead, I'm gonna go downstairs and play some crappy arcade games," Ruth was quick to leave her seat to accompany me, "Come on, Ruthie. Let's go win some tickets for a lame prize."

It was the tail end of summer. The last dregs of the holiday. School was starting up in a matter of days. If at the time I had any delusions that it would be a more chill time than the year that came before it, I was out of my mind.

Back to school. We've got the first few conflicts and upcoming plot elements set and ready to go. Strap yourselves in and imagine how things can get totally screwed up at Xavier's and beyond this year.

There's a lot in-store coming up, so kick back, relax, and allow me to spin you a yarn using characters that I don't have any rights to. I hope you all enjoyed. As quiet as things have been for the last two chapters, that's all going to change very soon.

Kenchi out.