A/N: These are rushed authors’ notes. Dunno what to say! Whee! Okay, this fic is mainly about Wanda and Todd, but the secondary plot is Lance and Pietro and they may or may not get together in this, I dunno O.o It all depends on if I feel like slashing them or not when I get to a specific point! I dunno, you tell me. Of course, whether I listen or not is... yeah. Seeing as how this is merely the first chapter, don’t expect a crapload of plot development. This is just... the foundations FOR plot development!

Crap. I just realized I left out the Magneto scene I wanted to put in this... Oh well! This isn’t proofread, so.. I’m warning you now. I have no idea if this is a totally stupid idea or not... So... read on! (yeah, that REALLY wants to make you read, doesn’t it? :P).

Oh, and this is kinda short. Sorrrrrry.

Todd had to admit, after his initial meeting with Pietro’s-- and this he still couldn’t believe-- sister, he was pretty wary of her presence in the Brotherhood’s home.

No, scratch that... He was pretty fuckin’ freaked. It didn’t help that Mystique just had to bring that creepy old witch along with her, too. Hell, ever since her return to the house, things had been a little... strained. Mystique was back to her rigid frost-bitch self, acting as if she had never abandoned them for months; Wanda had serious anger management problems that generally resulted in the breaking of things; and the old lady was just plain unnerving.

Oh yeah. He had a feeling things would be going downhill for the Brotherhood. There were certain things you just couldn’t do in the presence of ladies. Sure, they weren’t strangers to having chicks in the house, but seeing as how Tabitha was hardly a lady, they didn’t use too much discretion around her. Mystique, however, was all class (despite her new biker chick look). There was no way she’d tolerate them making crude jokes and acting like-- well-- guys around her.

Well, that was what he thought, anyway. Sure enough, things were true to his predictions at first. Mystique-- ever the vigilant leader-- drilled them harder than ever as the creepy old lady (Agatha, he later learned, or Ms. Harkness) taught Wanda how to control her powers so that she wouldn’t go into a psychotic rage every time Pietro stepped into the room. By the end of the first few days, Todd was about ready to commit suicide in various creative ways (such as jumping between a ravenous Freddy and his food)-- that is, until something marvelous happened.

They had fought the X-Geeks and-- get this-- they won! Oh, sure, he hadn’t even been conscious to see half of it, and sure Wanda really did most of the work, but that was beside the point! They sent the X-Men running! And it was a team effort (well, kinda)!

After that, things drastically improved for the Brotherhood. They’d gotten used to Mystique’s ever watchful presence again, Wanda was a helluva lot more calmer now, and Agatha was actually a nice-- albeit eccentric as hell-- lady with a knack for Biology and foreign languages (which seriously helped to improve his grades). After a long day of busting their asses, the house was once again clean, and Mystique seemed to have lightened up on the verbal abuse a bit. Todd had to admit, for a bitch who had a tendency to treat him like the team’s whipping boy, he actually preferred her living with them to Boom Boom. It was good to be able to set foot in the bathroom again without some psychotic blonde barging in and totally invading his privacy. It was good to be able to actually listen to his CDs without having to worry about them being stolen. And it was damn good not to have to deal with Tabby and her stupid boom-balls blowing up and destroying their already barely functioning utilities.

He definitely wouldn’t miss the smell of noxious perfume that seemed to pervade through the house whenever she was around, either. Sure, there were now more women around than before, but damn, at least they knew where the line between “fragrant” and “Oh, God, it’s filling up my lungs! I think I’m choking! Hack hack wheeze!” was.

It had been about a week or so after their victory in the mall, and for the Brotherhood, it felt like a sort of return to normalcy...

Todd couldn’t help but roll his eyes-- not that Lance would notice. He was too preoccupied with his social life to really care about his teammates anymore. It was just “Oh, Kitty!” this and “Gee, Kitty!” that.

“God damn it!” the rock tumbler seethed, slamming the phone down on the receiver abusively.

“Kitty’s still not talkin’ to ya, huh?” Todd asked casually, though in truth he could care less. As far as he was concerned, the sooner the bubblegum pink twit was out of their lives, the better. Maybe then Lance would go back to his old self. Sure, Pietro and Freddy were great guys and all, but to tell the truth, Todd missed being able to go to Lance for help. Lance was the first guy he’d met in the Brotherhood; the guy who used to protect him from Duncan and Co.; the guy who, after Mystique ran off on Asteroid M, declared that he was going to work his way up in the world and help the Brotherhood get by.

The guy who fuckin’ dumped us for his pseudo-girlfriend, Todd reminded himself with residual bitterness.

“No,” Lance answered shortly. He didn’t say anything more, only stalked over to the fridge and rummaged around for some food. Finally, after some tense silence, he grabbed a bottle of water and kicked the refrigerator door closed. “You know, I don’t get her.”

Here we go... Todd braced himself for a rant.

“We’ve lost to them-- how many times now?” the elder boy went on.

“Lots.”

“Exactly! And we got over it! They lose once-- just once-- and what do they do?! They refuse to talk to me!”

“’They’?” Todd snorted scornfully and corrected him with: “You mean ‘she’.”

“Yeah, so...” He shrugged, trying to be casually dismissive. “I didn’t think she’d start to treat me like I’m nothin’ just because they lost and can’t handle it.”

So what? So you lost your little friendship with our enemies? Big deal. Maybe now you’ll stop ignoring the only family you got.

“You know, she was all over that blue freak today. I mean, not kissing him or anything, just clinging to his arm and giggling. She made a big show of it when I walked by.”

“Gee, that sucks,” the gangly teen said flatly, voice indicating that he lost any and all interest he had in the topic. “I guess you’re stuck with us now.”

Lance gave him a funny look, tilting his head to the side and saying, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothin’.” Todd shook his head and stood up, closing his English book as he did so. He wasn’t really in the mood to do his homework, anyway. Sure, their TV was broken (courtesy of Wanda), but that didn’t mean there was nothing to do around the house, right? He turned to leave, only to let out a surprised yelp as he faced the doorway.

“Jesus, Wanda! You scared the shit outta me, yo,” he declared, dramatically placing a webbed hand to his heart. “How long have you been standin’ there?”

He thought he saw a ghost of a smile flicker across her normally sullen face, but it was gone as soon as he caught it. “I just wanted some lunch,” she said in that soft, harsh voice of hers, and slinked past the quasi-amphibian without another word.

Lance, meanwhile, protectively grabbed the neck of his water bottle, holding it with a guarded expression. He had been so used to Tabby’s casual kleptomania by now that he had a newfound tendency to protect his possessions with his life. “Hey, Wanda,” he greeted in a slightly forced voice.

The ebony haired girl opened the pantry, ignoring Lance, then grabbed a bag of chips and walked back out again just as quickly as she had arrived. Okay, so she wasn’t the most talkative chick in the world.

“Man, she gives me the creeps,” Lance muttered, and just as soon as the words had left his mouth, the water bottle exploded, spraying its contents on the two boys, who stood there blinking for a second.

“Uh...”

“What just happened?”

“I think you offended her, yo.”

“....Girls,” the brunette grumbled as he grabbed a towel to clean up the mess.

That was a question his bedroom wall couldn’t answer. Lance Alvers groaned, shifting so that he was lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling. It’d been nagging at him for a while, the things Todd said. What did he mean by “I guess you’re stuck with us now”, anyway?! Of course he was stuck with them; he freakin’ lived with them!

Unless... Todd meant it in that metaphorical way!

Lance mulled over that possibility for a moment, then scoffed. Yeah, ‘cause he’s such a metaphorical guy.

He frowned, sending an evil eye up to the hapless ceiling. If he has something to tell me, why doesn’t he just say it?! Ohhh, no, what am I thinking? That’d make things way too easy on Lance, and we can’t have that now!

Er. End sarcasm.

It wasn’t that Lance was a totally clueless guy or anything. He knew there was something bugging his little friend, but he couldn’t really tell what it was, other than that simple “Nyeh nyeh, you’ve got a girrrlfriend” thing that little brothers tended to do.

Then again, Todd was quite a bit past that age... So what could it be? Jealousy?

Pffth. Why the hell would he be jealous of Kitty?! Would he actually want me thinkin’ about him the way I think about her? Ah, geez, I hope not. I don’t have nothin’ against that, but Pietro’s fruit enough for this place.

Okay, so jealousy was ruled out for the time being. Jeez, what did that leave? Lance was far from stupid, but that didn’t mean he was the sharpest crayon in the pencil box, or however that phrase went. He was a blunt kinda guy. If you had something to say, you said it. He never liked it when people danced around an issue, dropping all sorts of veiled hints when they could just say “Hey, asshole, I’m mad at you!”

Maybe he’s bummed because Mystique’s back.

There was a reasonable answer to the Todd problem! Mystique back = Todd abuse = cranky barbed comments towards Lance! It all made sense now! Well, it all made sense unless he was... totally wrong about the entire situation... but what were the chances of that?!

“Don’t answer that question,” he ordered to... well, no one in particular.

“What question?”

Lance’s eye twitched. In this house, people had a way of jumping in outta nowhere. The fact that Pietro had super speed just made the “jumping in” all the worse.

“Nothing,” he answered. “What’s up?”

“Mystique wants us all to meet in the backyard for training. Well, not really training, more like ‘we run around while Wanda kicks our asses’.”

“Fun.” Lance sat up and stared at the lithe boy in the doorway. “How’re you dealing?”

“With Wanda?”

“Yeah.”

Pietro shrugged casually, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the doorway. “Great. She’s not trying to impale me anymore, at least. We’re like this,” he said, crossing two fingers together. “’Tight’ and all that.”

“Yeah. About as ‘tight’ as you and Summers are,” Lance retorted, rolling his eyes. The fact that Pietro had just said ‘tight’ should’ve been enough to unnerve him, but, of course, he just had to press the matter. “Seriously.”

“Seriously?” Pietro thought for a moment, then looked at Lance with sober blue eyes. “She told me that I look exactly like him the other day. That should show you how much she loves me.”

The elder boy nodded slightly. Sure, he didn’t really know the whole basis for the Magneto/Pietro/Wanda melodrama that was going on, but the slender boy had told him enough during their “Late Night Talks” (which came as a result of a sleepness night on Pietro’s part. When Wanda moved in, she got Pietro’s old room, so he was exiled to live with Lance until they cleaned and repaired one of the older ones). He had to admit, thanks to Mystique’s return, he and Pietro were closer friends than ever. It was funny how much he’d missed the ivory-haired boy and didn’t even realize it during that short, explosive time Tabby was living with them and he was seeking refuge everywhere but at home.

I missed out on a lot with the guys...

Pietro stood up straight, bringing his hands to his sides, a solemn expression on his normally mischievous face. “C’mon, let’s go.” He grinned pretty convincingly, though Lance could tell it was a little act. “Don’t want Mystique bitching at us, do ya?”

“You know I live for that,” Lance joked, standing up from the bed. He walked over to Pietro and clapped a hand on the smaller boy’s shoulder. “Don’t let it get you down, man. She’ll come around.”

“Yeah...” He shrugged Lance’s hand away and looked up at him with a playful smirk. “Let’s go before this turns really sappy.”

A/N: Whoo! You made it to the bottom or scrolled down here! Either way, uhh... I’m outta things to say at the moment because I REALLY need to do some homework before my test tomorrow *hissssss* Wait. Tests... Damn it! In any case, here’s a quick status thingie for my fics:

“Tumbling Down” - Dear God I’m so very very VERY stuck
“Pietro Maximoff Blah Blah Labyrinth” - I need to watch the movie again before I can continue >.<
“Empty Pages” - On hold ‘till I feel the need to write angst. It’s my angst fix and right now I’m in the same “Lalaaalaaaa FLUFF!!” mood that I’m ALWAYS in around this time of year (hence “Slushies” last year O.o)

Okay, that’s all for now! *passes out*