A/N: Well, sorry for the wait. Truth is, I had most of this chapter written before 1, but I got stuck towards the end and left it hanging for a while as I wrote other stuff... so... yeah. Good news about the long wait: I have this chapter, Chapter 3, and most of Chapter 4 written! Yay! But you won’t see them for a while because they need to get beta-ed and all that good stuff! :P
Oh yeah, and this features one of my patented Stupid Battle Scenes! God, I hate writing them... Well, okay, there’s not exactly a battle scene in this chapter, but there’s something kind of like one that I tried to make as short and abstract as possible because bleh to battle scenes and the writing of! Um, anywho, since this was originally chapter 1, there might be some events that were mentioned in Chapter 1 that are repeated in this one. Whatever. I don’t feel like rereading this thing anymore to find mistakes. It makes me ill to look at this chapter now. :D
Anyway, a special THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH! to my two beta-readers Naisumi and Lyra Doyle (yes, I change beta-readers every story, and yes I use two because I like to get more than one opinion :p) for... well, beta-reading this thing. And another thanks to everyone who wasn’t so sickened by the Kurt/Pietroness in Chap1 (and the severe rise on the Angst-o-Meter) that they’re actually still reading this! :D
Pietro impatiently tapped his pencil against his desk as he stared at the clock. He was in Physics, the last class of the day, and was far too excited to listen to his teacher’s lecture over the life of Sir Isaac Newton. Hell, he already knew that the guy discovered gravity, or whatever.
Something more important than Newton’s laws was awaiting him at home. Lance would finally be back after so many months of doing-- well, whatever the hell it was Magneto had sent him, St. John, and Freddy to do. Occasionally, he caught stories of terrorist acts by mutants on the news, and figured it was them and the newer members of the now somewhat expanded Brotherhood. Thank God they had that Mastermind guy, or they’d probably be the most wanted mutants in America.
Pietro sighed as the clock’s hand slowly and tediously shifted to another second. And another. And... ever so gradually... another.
Oh, come on. IWannaSeeLance! Hurry! Class, end now! Even after a year of attempting to hone them, his amazing mental powers of time control remained non-existent.
Pietro Maximoff was now a senior at Bayville High School. He was halfway through yet another action-packed, crazy year of fighting the X-Men, committing various anti-anti-mutant acts, and acting like a normal teenager. Well, as normal a teenager as a criminal mutant from some obscure little European country could be.
The best thing about being a “criminal” mutant was that he was able to commit crimes without those pesky morals getting in the way. In fact, the Brotherhood was finally able to execute their first attack against mankind a year and a half ago, nearly a month after Lance’s Senior Prom.
Around June, the Friends of Humanity (which was but a fairly new organization at the time) decided to have a rally in New York to get other citizens to join their cause. Magneto sent the Brotherhood to destroy the rally and send their not-so-nice intentions to the humans. No more waiting around in shadows, no more small-time fights with the X-Men; it was time for Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants to go public-- well the Brotherhood on behalf of Magneto, who felt that breaking up a stupid little assembly was beneath him but okay for the them.
It started off easily, as most missions did. They watched for a while in the audience as the leader of the rally spewed out a bunch of anti-mutant crap, then they jumped into action. Avalanche sent tremors their way, Pyro toasted the podium, Scarlet Witch threw hex-bolts here and there, and Quicksilver was supposed to catch the leader of the rally and bring him back to Magneto alive while one of the others (most likely Pyro, since he was the only one of them whose identity was really masked by his costume) were to seize a camera and make Magneto’s presence known to the United States of America. Easy enough, right?
Pyro first made the FoH members (as well as the audience) scatter by sending one of his fiery creatures their way, while Avalanche made their escape impossible by disrupting the ground beneath them.
Quicksilver wanted to watch the stupid bigots burn alive. It was people like them who had had his family destroyed all those years ago, and in his mind, they deserved no mercy. But, he had to get the leader of the rally, so he set off to do so with ease.
It was when Toad came crashing his way that he noticed the X-Men. He stopped in his tracks and watched, somewhat dumbfounded, as Cyclops’ stupid optic blasts hit Avalanche in the back, Blob took on Jean, Pyro went after Storm, that idiot Daniels shot spikes at his sister, and Shadowcat came running to do more damage to Toad. That left Rogue and Nightcrawler for Pietro. Piece of cake, as long as he didn’t touch Rogue and... uh... well, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with Nightcrawler.
Through the corner of his eye, he noticed that the cowardly FoH rally leader was attempting to crawl away to safety. Priorities first... he reminded himself, then ran over to the man and quickly hit him painfully on the head to keep him subdued. He swiftly hoisted the rather heavy man over his shoulder and began to make his escape (though slower than he would’ve preferred, since he wasn’t quite sure how his running would affect another person), when suddenly, a certain blue somebody’s foot caught him in the stomach and knocked him down.
Damn telepor-- ah, crap, were his last thoughts as an ungloved hand descended onto his face.
He woke up later in roughly the same spot, and the small battle was apparently over. Lance and Wanda were standing over him, making sure he was all right, while Todd and a drenched St. John attempted to pull Freddy out of a manhole he somehow (Pietro did not want to know how) got stuck in.
That was pretty much their first real battle together (as none of them really considered their previous little tiffs with the X-Geeks to be “real battles”) as a group, and, ironically, it was also their last. Almost immediately after that failed assignment, Lance and St. John-- being the two eldest and free from the obligations of high school-- were sent off to do missions abroad and expand Magneto’s budding little army. Shortly after, Freddy, who had just dropped out of high school, joined them, leaving Wanda, Todd, and Pietro behind in Bayville. With the extra space in the house and the fact that neither Mystique nor Magneto trusted Pietro and Todd alone with the home at their mercy, Wanda moved in right after Freddy moved out.
Since then, Lance and the others had been in and out of Bayville quite a few times, usually just there to rest with their “family” between missions. Today was going to be another one of their “ins”, as they were to be returning home for a few weeks. In fact...
Pietro looked at the clock again. Yup, Mystique would be leaving the airport with them by now...
Come on! I don’t give a damn about Sir Isaac Newton! I only want Lance Alvers right now!
School was not exactly Pietro’s favorite place to be, especially after Lance graduated. For the few weeks of school that had followed their “coming out”, Pietro was privileged enough to find himself being insulted, avoided, or threatened left and right. Luckily, Duncan-- who was usually the ringleader when it came to bullying misfits-- didn’t have much to say on the matter, probably because after Prom Night he was sporting quite a few bruises courtesy of-- well, Pietro wasn’t quite sure. From what he’d heard, though, John, Summers, and Duncan were kicked out of the dance shortly after he and Lance left. For Pietro, that was a nice little victory. Not only did he get to hit Duncan, but he also inadvertently ruined Summers’ Senior Prom.
As rocky as things used to be, he was more or less accepted now, save the occasional insult here and there. The only thing that really bothered him these days-- besides Lance’s absence-- was Rogue.
When she wasn’t glaring at him, she was sending him pitying looks. This would be because currently, she knew more about his own life than he did. He used to wish she would absorb his memories simply so he could ask her what had happened, but after she did touch him, he found that he couldn’t stand to ask her, of all people, about his past.
Dumb X-Men... Slowly, they, like the Brotherhood, were expanding (and other “superhero” groups were sprouting about the US as well, making groups like the Brotherhood horribly outnumbered). Okay, scratch “slowly”; they were moving at a slightly faster pace than the Brotherhood. Their first new recruit after they thwarted the Brotherhood’s plans for the FoH was some Cajun guy who Rogue seemed to be quite infatuated with, from the looks of things. Most recently, however, they had some kid Pietro’s age named Bobby Drake hanging out with them. Pietro had discovered Drake’s powers more or less by accident.
“Iceman”, he thought mockingly, I wonder what’s gonna happen when John meets up with this guy whose powers are the opposite of his...
Pietro could see it now: Pyro shoots a flame at Iceman, Iceman freezes it; Iceman shoots some... well, ice at Pyro, and Pyro melts it. What an irritating stalemate that would be.
‘Course, it wouldn’t be a stalemate for long, since the X-Freaks always gang up on us to beat us, which really isn’t fair! I mean, we’re expecting a one-on-one fight, and here they come bringing three people to fight one guy! That’s so biased!
Pietro glanced at the clock one more time, wondering how many more minutes could possibly be left. To his surprise-- and joy-- the seconds hand was inching closer and closer to his freedom.
Come on, come on, comeOnComeOnComeOn!
With the final *brrrring* to satisfy his impatient yearning, Pietro was up and running home.
“Lance? Are you still mad?”
No reply. Just an angry huff and a scowling face.
“Um... I’ll take that as a ‘yes’?”
“I’m tired,” Lance grumbled sullenly. “Thanks to you. Why’d you want to do it at two in the morning?! Kept me up so long, I barely slept!”
“Because that’s when I do it best! Sorry it was so late, but I just felt kind of... inspired all of a sudden. You know what that’s like, right?”
“Uh huh.” A dry, irritated reply. “You could have just as easily done it while I was sleeping.”
“Well, what the hell is the point of that?! It’s more fun when you’re awake, Lance.”
Freddy stared at the two, suspicion etched on his face as he thought for a moment. “Are you two sure you’re not sleeping together?”
“Yes!” was the dual, insistent response. Lance then added: “What do you think we’re talking about, Freddy?”
“Sounds a little bit like sex.”
“I was talkin’ about my newest story, you big dolt!” John snapped in defense of his sexuality.
“Huh?”
Lance sighed and decided to explain the conversation that Freddy apparently considered to be quite cryptic. “Writer Boy here just had some crazy spurt of inspiration last night, so he decided to type it up, wake me up, and yak about his newest novel to me at two in the MORNING!”
“I’m sorry! It’s just, well, I’ve had writers’ block for so long and the new ideas kinda came to me and I had to do somethin’ about it!”
“So you wake me up by leaping onto my bed and telling me all about your new ideas?”
“Well, yeah. It’s usually Wanda’s job to listen to me, but she’s not exactly here, is she?”
“Could’ve called her.”
“Oh, come on, mate. You should be honored that I chose to let you in on my new story.”
“I might’ve been more honored if you chose to wait ‘till the sun rose, instead of coming at two in--”
“Okay, okay, Lance, I get it. Sorry.”
“Yeah, you’d best--”
“Oh, will you two shut up?” Mystique suddenly cut in. She glared irritably at the road as she continued to their house in style with some ratty old Dodge van. One big problem about being a member of the Brotherhood: most of their cash went to Magneto’s little secret projects. Still, the van was convenient, as it was probably the only vehicle that could squeeze in Freddy, who had only gotten larger over time, and the other two, along with their luggage.
Nevertheless, she would’ve rather escorted the boys home in a sportier, much more stylish car. That, or at least make either Lance or John (or, better yet, both of them) ride on the roof of the van so she wouldn’t have to listen to any juvenile bickering. Being around the boys made her feel way too much like a mother. That was not a very good feeling, as they were now entering their twenties, resulting in her feeling much older than she wanted to.
“Hey, Mystique... do you think Magneto already knows that we--” Lance started, but was abruptly cut off with a “Yes.”
“That’s not good,” Freddy commented, stating what was pretty obvious to the other two.
“Ya think?” A sarcastic reply from Lance.
“Great, he’s gonna skin us alive,” St. John muttered, slumping back against the seat. He then shook his head and attempted a perkier outlook. “Oh well! At least we almost succeeded, which is better than failing miserably! So, I, for one, will remain optimistic about the situation! See? Big smiles!”
“Almost succeeding is the same as failing, idiot! Magneto’s gonna kill us!” Lance retorted.
The smile was replaced with a slight pout and a roll of the other boy’s eyes. “Hey, I tried, didn’t I? He won’t kill us; the worst he’ll do is dock our pay, which I don’t think is much of a problem, since we don’t get paid.” John paused, then broke into another smile. “Well, I get paid because I published a bo-o-ok,” he added in a singsong voice.
“Yeah, we’re all very happy for ya,” Lance murmured under his breath.
“We coulda done the job if those damn X-Men didn’t show up last minute. How is it they always know when there’s somethin’ going on?!” Freddy suddenly said, throwing in his input.
“Hm, I guess since half of them are out of school now, they got nothin’ better to do than follow us around,” John shrugged.
Lance nodded in agreement, occupying his mind with other things. Apart from his worries about how Magneto would react to their characteristic failures, he was also preoccupied with other bothersome musings. He watched Freddy and John go on with their conversation with pensive eyes.
Yes, very important things currently occupied the vast space in Lance’s mind...
Wow, Freddy’s big. This van smells funny. Is this part of our punishment for failing to assassinate-- uh... I forgot his name now. Hmm... Whatever. Man, I want sleep. Stupid Johnny. Had to go and wake me up just to tell me about his story. Okay, it was pretty interesting, but still, I’m tired now. That damn airplane, I’m never gonna get used to those things! I wonder if Todd stole any of my CD’s while I was gone...
Lance frowned at the thought of the possible thieveries. Then, pure, unadulterated tedium set in. His eyes bored past St. John and into Fred’s massive gut, though he wasn’t focused on the bloated sight before him.
Sleeeeep...
Lance shook away the drowsiness and settled his gaze on the blonde pyrokinetic.
I wanna fuck him, was basically the cleanest of his lazy thoughts. I wonder what Pietro would say if I told him-- would he offer to join? That’d be interesting, except that I don’t think he would... and neither would Johnny. Mmm, he’s so cute... not as cute as Pietro, but he’s still cute-- And it was about here when Lance fully realized what he was thinking and jerked back with a startled expression. Ah crap! No! These thoughts are induced by sleepiness and nothing more! I do NOT want to screw my best friend! It’d be like doing my brother-- except that I don’t have one, but if I did, it’d be the same thing! Damn, I need to get to my nice bed right now.
“Lance? What’s wrong, ma--”
“Nothing! I just miss sex-- yup, that’s it! Nothing more!” he suddenly exploded, slightly panicky. He reddened with embarrassment, cleared his throat, then attempted to act casually calm. “You know what that’s like, right? I mean, I’ll bet your looking forward to seeing Wanda and engaging in perfectly heterosexual sex, right? Right?”
“I don’t think there’s any other way I can--”
“Good! Very good!” See, Lance? Nothing to worry about! Even if I do have stupid lust, that’s all it is: LUST. Screaming, crazy lust, but that’s just because I’ve been alone with Johnny and haven’t seen Pietro at all these last couple of months, so it’s perfectly natural! And he obviously wouldn’t return my feelings, anyway, because he’s looking forward to heterosexual sex with his girlfriend! Plus, I love Pietro.
Lance smiled dumbly to himself and felt stupid warm fuzzies grow inside. Well, at least growing warm fuzzies was better than having something else growing. He felt proud of himself, for some reason-- proud that no matter how lascivious he was feeling about random girls or boys, he could always say that he loved Pietro and mean it.
Of course, the downside to saying (or mentally declaring) “I love Pietro” was that in doing so, it always spawned the warm fuzzies in his insides, and it was a fairly well-proven fact that warm fuzzies happen to induce stupidity on seismically-inclined mutants named Lance Alvers.
“Avalanche, please remove yourself from this van and get your luggage,” came the order from the rather relieved Mystique (who had stopped calling him “Mr. Alvers” since his graduation), snapping Lance out of Fuzzy Land. She seemed glad that they were finally home and the car ride from Hell was officially over.
“Huh?” He looked around and saw that John and Freddy were already out of the van and lugging their bags inside the house. “Oh, sure,” he affirmed, snatching his two duffel bags and hopping out of the vehicle. “When do we report to Magneto?”
“I thought I already told you earlier.”
“I-- uh-- forgot,” was his cover-up for not listening.
Mystique rolled her eyes and replied with: “Half-past nine tomorrow night, my place.” She seemed rather peeved about the latter detail, even though they had been meeting there more since Lance, Freddy, and John had left Bayville High. “It’s only for you three in regard to your latest failure, as well as some of your future tasks, so don’t bother telling the others.”
Lance nodded and shut the van door. He walked through the already open front door and set his bags down in the living room. “Home, sweet home.”
“Just as shitty as when we left it,” John said with a grin.
“I don’t know. I sense a woman’s touch here,” Freddy commented.
Lance and John looked at each other. Sometimes, Fred was just a little too easy to get.
“I doubt you know what a woman’s touch feels like,” Lance joked.
“Hey, I have a girlfriend, too, ya know! Er, except that you have a boyfriend, but I guess that’s the same thing, right? I mean, not that I’m calling Pietro a girl, but...” Freddy, having already stuck his foot in his mouth, decided it was probably best to just trail off and leave it at that.
At the mention of Freddy’s girlfriend, St. John’s expression soured slightly. Fred was still dating that quiet little Amy Greene girl, who John very adamantly insisted was the daughter of Satan. Nobody believed him, though. She seemed civil enough. In fact, their only real qualm with her was the little fact that she knew they were mutants, thanks to Freddy’s big mouth. However, they didn’t have to worry about having to arrange a sudden “disappearance”, as she swore she wouldn’t tell anybody about their secret, and had, so far (to their knowledge, anyway), kept her promise.
Still, as nice as she was to all of them, John despised the girl. He claimed that she only showed her true face when they weren’t around, which resulted in him being teased for his paranoia by Lance and threatened by Freddy.
“I wouldn’t call that block of ice a girlfriend, pal,” muttered the Australian under his breath, then went on in a slightly louder voice. “I wonder when Wanda’s gonna get home.”
“Who knows,” Lance shrugged. “All I know is--”
“Lance!”
“Aaaah!!” And with that, Lance went skidding across the ground, tackled from behind by his catapulted boyfriend.
“LanceLanceLance!! I’m so glad you’re back! You don’t know how much I’ve missed you!! ButNowYou’reFinallyHomeSoWeCanCatchUpOnLostTimeAndKissAndYou’reHome!! IMissedYouSoMuch! Let’sHaveSex!”
After months of being away, Lance was a little rusty at deciphering the language of Pietro, so he simply answered to the parts of the little exclamation that he actually understood. “I missed you, too.” He rolled over onto his back and stared up at his hyperactive boyfriend, not really caring that he was practically being straddled by the other boy in front of Freddy and John (with the front door open, to boot). “Give us a kiss?”
“Since when did you start speaking in first-person plural?” Despite his questioning, Pietro leaned forward and nibbled on Lance’s lower lip before going on with more talking. “Let’s go out tonight. There’s this new restaurant in town, and it’s pretty good; Wanda and I ate there once. The only problem is that it takes too long for them to make the food. Hmm... We could go to Starbucks instead, since you’re looking pretty tired and all. Or, we could catch a movie. There’s that new one with--”
“Pietro, sorry, but I don’t think I can. I’m so exhausted right now, and I’ve got to catch up on sleep because someone--”
“I said I was sorry, damn it!”
Pietro blinked a few times and glanced at John. “Sorry for what?”
“He’s just bein’ a little whiner ‘cause I woke him up at two AM.”
Arching an eyebrow, he prompted suspiciously, “Why?”
“Um... because I felt inspired?” John tried.
“Huh?” asked Pietro with confusion. “Okay, nevermind. I don’t want to know.” He turned his attention back to Lance. “So, you really don’t want to do anything tonight?”
“Well, maybe after I’m rested up, we can...”
Pietro shushed him by placing his finger against Lance’s lips and giving him a crooked grin. “Way ahead of you. You sure you can keep up with me this time?”
“Keep up with you?” Lance quirked an eyebrow. “Oooh. Sounds like a challenge.”
“Hey, don’t steal my catch-phrase.”
“Sorry,” Lance said with feigned guilt. He struggled to sit up, resulting in a rather awkward and somewhat sexual position. “Uh...”
“Gah! Not yet,” Pietro said suddenly, climbing off of Lance. He stood up, brushed himself off rather primly, then helped the other boy up. “Go get your sleep.”
“With pleasure-- hey, is that a new shirt?” Lance motioned a hand at Pietro’s somewhat oversized sweater, which was the same gaudy shade of orange as those “Construction Ahead” traffic signs.
“Yeah. Why?”
“It’s tacky.” Lance suddenly found himself being shoved by a scowling Pietro.
“Hey, don’t insult my fashion sense! Well... nevermind, I guess you could insult it, since Wanda was the one who picked it out...” Pietro looked down at his ensemble for a moment, then shrugged and lifted up Lance’s bags and started up the stairs. “Come on. Your room’s pretty much the same as when you left it.”
“Okay-- wait, ‘pretty much’? What’s different?” Lance asked as he followed.
Pietro turned his head and smirked at Lance. “Your CDs live in Todd’s room now.”
“What?!”
As the two went upstairs, Freddy and John stared after them.
“No ‘hello’?”
“No ‘welcome back’?”
“Well, I, for one, am hurt,” John said sarcastically. Just as soon as he uttered the words, a flash of bright orange and white sped back down the stairs, and he was quickly pulled into a hug by the speedster before he could protest. “Aah! Hey!”
“Whoa, I’m glad he didn’t-- aah!! Get offa me, Pietro!” cried a distressed Freddy.
“Hello! Welcome back!” And with a frightening laugh and another flash of garish colors, the hyper boy was back upstairs with Lance.
“I shouldn’t’ve said anything,” St. John muttered with a small smile, making his way into the living room and throwing himself down onto the couch. He was a little afraid of going into what was once his room, as it was now Wanda’s and he didn’t want to know what she did to it with her “woman’s touch”. Last time he saw it... He shuddered. Don’t wanna think about it. Mmm... this is a nice, comfy couch. I could just fall aslee--
“Yo! You guys are back!”
“Todd!” an obviously excited Freddy exclaimed, greeting his younger friend.
Or not. Lazily, John reached his arm up and waved at the boy, not bothering to get up from the comfortable, sleep-inducing sofa. Not bothering, that is, until he heard a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad voice.
“Fred!”
Her. Hiss. John sat up threw a scalding glare at the tiny girl as she threw her arms around Fred’s massive form adoringly. Am I the only one who sees her for her true, abhorrently malevolent self?! he wondered as Freddy took his girlfriend’s hand and delicately led her into the house. They went straight for the kitchen. Todd, meanwhile, shut the door and hopped into the living room, stopping right in front of John.
“Hey, man. You gonna spend your first day back on the couch?”
“She’s evil.”
“Aw, not this again...”
“I’m serious! Why doesn’t anyone believe me?!”
“Look, man, I don’t know what you’re smokin’; she ain’t evil. Hell, she treats me decently. Me, the toad-boy. I think that’s sayin’ something.”
“That says-- well-- she-- you’re stupid, shut up!” Great, now I’m sounding like Lance.
“You’re calling me-- oh, never mind. Hey, I finally got around to readin’ that book you wrote.”
John sat up, interested, and looked at Todd expectantly. “And...?”
“You sure you’re not gay?”
“Shut up!”
Todd chuckled and then turned his attention back to Freddy and the kitchen. “Yo, Fred, come on, let’s get the unpacking out of the way now.” He turned back to John and explained in a low voice: “I figure it’d be best to keep him busy ‘til Pietro does the grocery shopping, you know?”
“Yeah. Hey, where’s Wanda? Shouldn’t she have come back with you?”
Todd glanced around uncomfortably for a moment, then said, “Ahh... well, she’s, uh, at cheerleading practice, I think.” Freddy emerged from the kitchen at that moment, and Todd practically bolted upstairs before he could be questioned further. Freddy followed, oblivious to his small friend’s somewhat panicky behavior.
“Trouble in paradise?”
John frowned tightly and looked over at Amy as she entered the living room and made herself comfortable on the other end of the couch. Evil. Evil, evil, evil. Why doesn’t anybody believe me?! He shook his head, both to dismiss his thoughts and to answer her question.
The girl smiled thinly at his response, then replied in an airy tone, “I’ll bet you didn’t even know she’s a cheerleader now.”
“Well, even if I didn’t, that doesn’t mean anything!”
“Maybe,” she shrugged casually, then stared at him almost analytically with piercing brown eyes. “You know, I read that piece of literary garbage you call a novel. Freddy insisted that I did. He said it was probably a great book ‘cause you used a lot of big words he didn’t know, or something... I don’t understand how trash like that could’ve gotten published.”
“I’m sure a frigid little chick like you wouldn’t appreciate the beauty of love and romance,” John murmured indifferently, throwing his gaze up at the ceiling. Currently, the bland plaster was holding his attention more than the girl who seemed to have multiple personality disorder (which only showed when he was around, apparently). Well, that was the impression he was trying to give, anyway. Truthfully, he wanted her head to spontaneously combust. Yeah, that’d be nice... “I hope the sex scenes weren’t too hard for you to stomach. After all, you’ve never been laid in your life, so it was probably uncomfortable for you to read about it.” He took his eyes away from the ceiling and smirked at Amy as her pallid skin blushed to a blotchy red.
“How would you know if Freddy and I had sex or--”
“Aahh!! You deserve to die for that mental image!” John cried, covering his ears in hopes that the action would somehow filter away terrible “naked Fred having sex with the spawn of Satan” thoughts.
“Oh, please,” she scoffed, throwing him a condescending sneer. “Why anyone would want your skinny ass is beyond me, so don’t even start on Freddy just because he has a little meat on him.”
A little meat?! That girl needs new glasses... “Well, Wanda wants my ‘skinny ass’, so that’s good enough for me,” he retorted with an annoyingly cheerful grin.
“Are you sure?” There was a hint of triumph on her face as he stopped grinning and gave her a questioning scowl.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I absolutely, positively loved your book!”
“Huh?” Well, that was a confusing statement if he ever heard one. John wondered briefly if Amy was simply bi-polar or something, but then all of his baffled questions were answered as Pietro and Todd came down the stairs. Ah, she’s throwing on her act again just to make me look like a psychotic ass. “Oh, yeah. The book.”
“Hello, Pietro, it’s good to see you again!” she continued in her sickeningly sweet voice. “That new sweater’s just adorable!”
“This?” Pietro looked down at his clothes again and shrugged. “Huh. Okay.” He turned his attention to John suddenly, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him from the couch. “C’mon, let’s go.”
“Hey!” John cried out as he was yanked from his comfy position. “Where and why?”
“The grocery store. Because I can’t drive.”
“Still?”
“Cars are too slow. I never felt the need for a license,” Pietro explained hastily.
“I can drive! I got my license, remember?” Todd piped up with visible excitement.
“Yeah, and you almost got me killed last time I rode with you,” Pietro snapped in return. “C’mon, Allerdyce. Pleeeeease? We’re going to pick up Wanda from cheerleading practice afterwards.”
John looked back at the couch warily, then at Pietro. Hm, it was a choice between being stuck in the house with Freddy’s demented girlfriend, or going to the grocery store and later seeing Wanda. Such a hard decision... “Okay! Count me in! Let’s go!” he quickly responded, snatching his coat and running for the door.
Pietro started after him, but was stopped as Todd grabbed his arm firmly.
“You gonna tell him about--?” Todd began in an undertone.
“No. I’m going to leave it up to her.”
“But--”
“Don’t worry about it, Todd,” Pietro hissed quietly, then shook the smaller boy off and headed for the door.
A/N: Well, this chapter was either a disappointing piece of crap, or it’s good, or it’s simply mediocre... Personally, I have no idea anymore. :D Anyway, don’t get your hopes up about Gambit. Poor fella probably won’t be in this fic all that much. The only reason why I even added more X-Men was because I had to. It wouldn’t make any sense for the Brotherhood to expand and not the X-Men. Anyway, Gambit’s going to be a cameo character (if things go the way I plan), but Iceman will actually have a role in this (which I had not originally planned, but my muses went insane and one of the people that’s Madame Moonbeamshinystardust gave me some ideas that won’t go away >.<), and some other guys might make brief appearances later. Wow!
There was something else I was gonna say, but I don’t remember anymore. I’m so damn tired right now (yes, even though it’s 3:30 in the afternoon)... my sense of humor seems to have died as a result. Wah. Oh well, when I’m more awake, I’ll annoy the crap out of my beta-readers and then post Chapter 3!
(Oh, wait, now I remember what I was gonna say! Yes, Fata Morgana, you are very much right. That's exactly why I chose Kurt [ick] instead of the other X-Men! Now you people know why I did what I did, so please don't think I actually enjoy the thought of Pietro and Kurt together :P)