#i always knew that storm would have been so much better off without xavier (not the x-men) she was his first Real recruit outside the usa

[cloudrides]

after a talk with my brother i've decided that storm's eyes will no longer be blue. so many mutants spend time fitting into xavier's 'perfect mold' of what humans should be like, talk like, look like, achieve, etc. & i think i want storm to denounce that in every way that she can, subconsciously.. of course i want to keep her visage origin the same. born with her beautiful frost white 4B-4C hair, deep complexion, & baby blue eyes (obviously marks of her ancestors) but... when she came into use her power, she developed the white... almost filmy, iris. it only showing up / changing when she decides to change / use the elements. even in her youth, she's always in touch with the earth, always been fine-tuned to her surroundings, so much so that it felt more comfortable allowing her eyes to film over. to show her power on the surface than to supress it. & only continued to because it made others uncomfortable & wasn't considered 'right' in the eyes of those who loathed what / who she was.

so in this headcannon change, as she grew older & grew more defiant with authority & confident in her relationship with her self-worth (& with the earth).. she stopped hiding what she was born to be. wearing it proudly with every single gaze. like she encourages so many of her mutant siblings to do, regardless of politic & societal notions. you should be proud to be who you are. you should show it. i think that's so beautiful.

[echoe-back-from-the-void]

Logan x M/Reader

Mutation: Necromancy

I brushed my short hair behind my ear as I listened avidly to the lady beside me as she talked animatedly about the garden as part of her ongoing tour to show me around. Today would be my first day starting classes since I arrived at Xavier's school for gifted children.

"My husband, bless his soul, planted these rose bushes. It was in the middle of June when the first owners had moved in. We were younger then." She said smiling brightly.

I laughed into my hand as I ducked my head. "Tell me more, please?" I said in a whisper.

"Tell us more! Tell us more!" A little girl said as she jumped to hang off the woman's arm.

"Jane don't pull on people, it's impolite." I scolded the child quietly.

The little girl turned to me and with as much sass as a seven year old could manage she said, "she's not a person, she's dead, like me!" The girl said bluntly and I snorted before patting her head.

"Manners are important—"

"—even for the dead. I know I know." The girl said bouncing her head as she finished my statement. She said the words like they had been said a thousand times before. They had because I've known Jane since I was a child, when my mutation first started. It has been many years since then.

"Well, have I told you about..." she said and soon we stopped to sit beside the fountain and listen to her tell us more stories.

*ring ring*

"That's the bell dear's, off to class with you." The old maid said sweetly.

"But I Wanna hear moreee." Jane whined, kicking her feet.

I put my hand on her head and she looked up at me. Then in a conspiratorial whisper I said, "you don't have to come to classes, miss rose might like your company. And you don't want to go to math class anyway, do you?" I teased.

Jane stuck her tongue out in disgust before turning to the lady. "Can I stay with you while big brother goes to classes."

I blushed. It's not the first time Jane has called me that but it's always embarrassing when she tells other dead people so proudly.

I went to class with some apprehension, it was strange to even be remotely removed from Jane, but I pushed on in favor of fitting in. At least I tried, until rumors began and then I was avoided by most the schools populace. The only ones not to actively avoid me would be children younger then myself that would sit and hear me tell stories. I'd tell them that they were not my stories but stories told to me.

"Can you tell us another story?" A young boy asked me with wide eyes. "They're much better then anything we learn in history, or English."

"But they are history, not big roles in history but they happened. Have I told you the story about the soldier and the captain?"

"There's a teacher coming." Jane said pulling on my sleeve.

I frowned before turning to the kids around me. "Sorry kiddos. I just remember l have a test tomorrow." I lied, out the corner of my eye the teacher was closer. I think it was miss storm, a kind woman with a gentle temperament. She was nice to me even after the rumors persisted. Some teachers would eye me behind my back but I knew because Jane would always tell me. She was angry with them for how I was treated.

The kids whined before dispersing back to other activities while I stood and dusted my pants. Jane held the corner of my sleeve as we approached the teacher.

"Good evening miss storm" I said softly making her smile.

"Hello Alexander, telling stories?" She asked.

"Always, I like telling their stories, otherwise they've died without anyone to remember them."

"That's thoughtful." She said in cheerful voice.

I smiled and pet Jane's hair, "everyone's story deserves to be told someday."

"Would you tell us yours?" She asked.

I flinched before covering it by smiling brightly, "not today miss storm, maybe soon." I shrugged my shoulders for emphasis.

"The Professor knows nothing about you, which means us teachers know even less. Some of us have a hard time letting you stay here, you don't make it easier. If you could just tell us why you were there then we can help you better." She persuaded.

Jane pulled on my sleeve making her turn to me. "We gotta tell her something. Or it will just get worse. They'll send us back. The man in glasses was very angry about us." She then hid her head in my side as she trembled. My arm moved from her head to her shoulder as I pulled her closer.

"Okay miss storm, your professor may ask three questions."

Her eyes turned white before she came back to herself. "What is your full name? Why were you in the Psychiatric hospital? Are you a harm to yourself or others?"

I chuffed a laugh and dipped my head. "Not goin easy on me? My full name is Alexander Monroe Grant. I stayed in the hospital," I paused to roll my tongue over my teeth, "for many years. I have never harmed another person or mutant intentionally. And as you've seen I can be pretty clumsy." I scratched my neck and ducked my head further with a smile.

"Thank you, Alexander. Dinner will be at five please come to eat this time."

"Yes ma'am." I said politely while turning to walk away.

"You lied." Jane accused but couldn't tamper her own smile. "That was impolite." She said cheekily.

"Which time?" I whispered picking her up to set on my shoulder.

"Both. But why?" She asked wrapping an arm around my neck.

"Freedom without limits. They'll know everything eventually. There is only so much time. We could run, they would never find us?" I offered.

"No. I think we'll like it here." Jane said hugging my neck. "Let's go, I wanna see miss rose!" Jane giggled.

"As you wish!" I said bowing to where she almost fell off my shoulders before running off to the garden.

~~

"Logan would you stop by the mansion on your next visit. There is a student I think would interest you."

"Alright Professor." A gruff voice responded. Cigar smoke rose from the man's lips as he spoke. He burned the cigar out on his hand and mounted his bike. Setting off for Xavier's school for gifted children.

Personally he didn't know why he agreed so quickly but something pushed him to drive faster.

~~

It had been another week at the school. For the last four days a man in leather has watched me in between classes. Anytime I left the building he was there a distance away to watch me.

"Are you sure he's not here to kill us?" Jane asked for the hundredth time causing me to giggle.

"Not today." I said leaning back to lay on the grass. Jane curled up beside me, head on my shoulder. To anyone else the grass would look flattened but they wouldn't see the sleepy child.

"Rock or Blues?" I asked her pulling out an old beaten handheld radio. I slipped the headphones around my neck so we could both hear.

"Rock!" She said enthusiastically.

Soon the soft sounds of early rock and roll began to play with intermittent commercials. I let myself dance between sleep and awareness as we listened to buddy holly. The sun that warmed us was blocked by a tall shadow and I opened my eyes to glance the leather clad man.

"Howlett." I greeted him with sleepy doe eyes.

"And how would you know that?" He asked curiously.

"People talk." I say in a run around way.

"Listen kid," he begins and I rise to a sitting position knowing this will be a good conversation.

"Big brother." Jane yawns, waking up from my movement.

"Go back to sleep Jane." I whisper and she nodded laying in my lap as she continued to snooze. "I'm sorry my sister is napping." I say quietly.

"Uh huh." Logan responds sarcastically but I can see his curiosity is piqued. "Listen kid, the Professor looked into it and the only Alexander Monroe at that hospital was administered in 53' so tell it to me straight, who are you?" He asked.

I leaned back on my hands. "So this is why the Professor summoned you. A lie detector test because he can't get inside my head." I said softly. I tapped Jane awake, "we're being interrogated." I told her and her dazed sleepy expression became hyper aware.

"Kid, I want answers."

"Imortalis, the immortal." I rolled my hand toward him before holding my hand to myself and repeating the words. His face dawned an understanding and I continued to speak. "I am Alexander Monroe Grant, I was born sometime before your professor, I don't look it do I?" I joked giving him a dopey smile. "My parents at the time were worried I was schizophrenic, I would talk to people that weren't there and know things I shouldn't. They were scared so they sent me away. My mutation allows me to see the dead, they talk to me and I interact with them. I was given meds, electroshock therapy with no change. Eventually my doctors forgot me and my treatments stopped. I was just a faceless patient and was easily ignored."

"And you didn't leave?"

"Would you leave a safe heaven for somewhere different." I sneered and showed my first sign of anger. "Here I'm called crazy around my peers when I'm no different then them. There I was part of community and was never belittled for my ability." I tilted my head mockingly. "Strange, how judgmental people with mutations can be toward their own." I nodded glad to make my point known before slipping into shadows and landing in the forest surrounding the school.

~flashback to Logan seeing Alexander the first time.

The Professor had given me the rundown on what they knew about the kid and his medical files from the hospital. I felt myself tense with phantom pain as I read the words Electroshock therapy on his records. The bell rang for lunch and I expected the kid to eat lunch but storm told me he usually sat outside so I stood against the building as I observed him.

He was talking to some unseen figure, most likely a child based on the way he treated it. The wind swept through his hair and carried his scent toward me. Smoke and something sweet. It was a pleasant smell that I have never smelled in combination before but strangely fit him.

I wanted to approach closer but decided to observe for now. The sound of his voice was pleasant too. (Logan low key feeling attracted to someone he hasn't even met.)

-the day Logan does talk to him.

Scott had been raving about Alexander again, calling him an unstable threat, I asked what his beef was and he said the kid was inherently evil. But from my observations there was nothing evil about him. He has a sunny disposition with a soft voice that drew me in no matter how distant I heard it.

A soft giggle drew my attention back to him, but what had me moving was the sounds of old rock he began to play. Soon I was standing above him...he blinked his doe eyes and I felt entranced.

We talked and I was surprised he was immortal. The way he spoke about his family gave me violent urges but I stowed them to listen further and not scare him off. Then he said something that surprised me.

"Strange, how judgmental people with mutations can be toward their own" he said referencing the constant belittlement he faced among children I now know are much younger than him. Then he slipped into shadows and disappeared from my sight.

"Professor, was that enough information to let him stay?"

"Yes Logan, please find him and bring him back." A voice answered back in Logan's head.

~~

A game of cat and mouse ensued, Logan would hunt Alexander in the woods and the second he found them, Alexander would slip into shadows again.

"Cmon, kid, gotta eat sometime." Logan bargained.

"I'm not a kid." Alexander then paused and held onto the side of the tree he hid behind. "I haven't needed to eat since I was a child." The male said bitterly.

"Then at least come back. Storm misses you." Logan persuaded.

"I know. But everyone else wants me gone. Just because I can see and interact with the dead doesn't mean I'm a killer or evil."

"I get that, but you can't keep camping out here."

"But don't you like this game, Jane said the man with glasses likes to be mean to you." I whispered knowing he heard perfectly.

"That's adult business and I'll deal with it eventually. So leave it be kid."

I felt blood rush to my face as I slipped into shadows before reappearing in front of him. "I'm not a kid." I pouted.

"Yeah, but your companion is." Logan said back. He grinned knowing he was right.

"It's Not like I send her to gather information, she just does it on her own. You try controlling a forever five year old." I bite back before crossing my arms and turning to walk away. A hand on my shoulder stopped me and my head dropped to my chest. "Your gonna make us go back?"

"One more week." Logan offered.

I turned to him in excitement and nodded. I couldn't stop myself from hopping foot to foot.

I love being outside but when I was locked up I was barely given recess time. Then with the school I couldn't be outside without being belittled by peers.

"Will you count to ten?" I ask tilting my head.

Logan smiled before spinning me around, "ten, nine..."

I bolted into the other direction. Slipping into shadows here or there to confuse him.

The next week we grew closer, I didn't mind how he'd pick me up when he found me or pet my hair when we talked. It was different then how I treated Jane. The way he treated me made my rib cage home to a dozen butterflies. It didn't help that I once walked in on him washing in a river. He was waded into the water with pants on as he washed his chest and hair. I bit my lip before turning away from the hormone inducing sight.

"Hey! Waters fine, no leeches or anything. We've been out here and you haven't showered." Logan yelled at my retreating back.

"I'm I'm good!" I stuttered. A short scream left my lips as I was picked up and thrown into the river.

I swam to the surface before staring wide eyed at Logan. "Uncool." I said brushing my hair back from falling in my eyes. "I'll catch my death in this water." I hissed unpleasantly as I dragged myself onto the shore when I took of my shirt and began to ring it out. "Jane stop poking me!" I whine as I shivered from the cold breeze.

Logan came up beside me with a wide grin, unfazed by the water dripping from his hair and down his torso.

"Not all of us have super heated bodies." I say spitefully as I ring my shirt out again. Logan chuckles and rubs his hands up and down my shoulders to warm me up while pulling me close to his chest.

"I can share." He teases and I blush before hiding my face in his chest. Soft hair like fur covers his chest and happy trail. His fingers dance along my back as he purrs. Do wolverines purr? He then nuzzles his face into my neck. The 5'o clock shadow scratches my neck and makes me laugh.

He backs up so I can see his face, softly he says. "Your real pretty when you laugh like that."

I chuff disbelieving that he even said that and he puts his knuckles under my chin, tilting my face toward him. "I mean it, your pretty. Was something about you the first time I saw you that had me entranced." He admits sheepishly and ducks his head so his nose bumps against mine. "I'm kinda glad you ran away, gave me a chance to chase ya." He says huskily, his fingers move from my back to my hips as he begins to stroke them softly. His hands radiate heat like two suns and I lean into him more. My hands going to rest on his chest making him smile. He shivers when my fingers begin to play with his chest hair.

His whole body shows impatience and he keeps glancing at my lips but instead he takes it slow. Leaving a gentle peck on my nose, check and then the corner of my lips. When he does kiss me it's not rushed or messy. It's soft and I savor the feeling of lips on mine. When we pull away it leaves me breathless and I lean even more against him as he become the only thing holding me up.

"That good huh?" He says teasingly and I blush.

"Not really, I think I need a another one."

Logan grins and dips me before kissing me again and again.

[mysterious-ocarina]

Paper Meadows

Peter Maximoff x reader (slight enemies to lovers)

Main Masterlist Requests

(2.2k words)

You've been at the mansion for a while now. your parents sent you away when your powers first showed up. You have Florakinesis which means you could grow and manipulate plants and flowers with just your mind. You thought your parents would be happy because your family owned a flower shop, but they considered it to be unnatural and sent you off to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

You met so many people who were mutants like you. You enjoyed meeting new people at the mansion because everyone was special in their own ways. You became a tour guide/mentor  and friendly face for when new students came in. The professor thought that your kind demeanor and your love for the school would make you perfect to help new kids navigate this new experience and home.

There was only one downside to living at the mansion. Peter Maximoff. The resident speedster of the house.

When you first moved to the mansion, he never bothered you. But soon you became friends with Jean and Jubilee and got into their friend group meeting Scott, Kurt, and eventually Peter. 

He seemed cool at first. You noticed you like the same music, he was very funny to be around, and he was charmingly cute. After a while, though, he seemed to take pleasure in your torment. 

It started slowly and snowballed. At first he would just speed past you, knocking your books out of your hands “accidently”. It then progressed to him teasing you all the time. Taking the last piece of food he doesn't even like just because it's your favorite at meal times. Talking to you in class when you're trying to pay attention. Stealing little things of yours until you found out and yelled at him to give it back. He always gave your stuff back once you asked for it.

He was never being particularly mean or rude. He was just very annoying and slightly inconveniencing you all the time. This didn't stop you from falling for him though, which only made everything even more annoying.

It was a beautiful day out so you were outside under a tree studying with Jean and Jubilee.

"What's happening over here?" a gust of wind said. You rolled your eyes as you lost the page you were reading.

"Attempting to study. Do you even know what that is?" you replied without looking up. Jean and Jubilee giggled at your remark. 

"I actually do. I study pretty frequently. I have to keep good grades to stay on the X-Men so I use my superspeed to get my studying done faster," Peter bragged rapidly.

Powers were a touchy subject because you hated yours. You felt like your powers weren’t useful like super-speed, telekinesis, or teleportation. There was a reason you weren’t a part of the X-Men.

You noticed Jean frown as she heard this thought. She stayed quiet though, because she knew of your insecurity in your mutant powers and how you didn’t like talking about it. You don't know if Peter knew about these insecurities but you hoped not because he would just use it against you. He already bragged about himself so much, you didn’t need him teasing you on top of that. 

"Well some of us can't use our powers to make our lives easier," you said before you got up and stormed off in the direction of the mansion.

You didn't mean to let that slip but it just bubbled out of you without thinking. Usually you kept your cool about that kind of stuff. Only Jean and Jubilee knew of these thoughts of yours. How could they not? They were your best friends and were always there to make you feel better when you were sad.

"Why is she mad? What did I say? She's never snapped at me like that," Peter asked the two girls, who were still sitting.

"She isn't the biggest fan of her powers," Jean supplied.

At the confused gaze of Peter, Jubilee clarified, "You can use your powers to do all kinds of stuff while she makes flowers. She doesn't think her powers are as useful as other's are. She’s very insecure about it."

"But I love her powers! They're so pretty," Peter replied. He had a lovesick look on his face that the girls often saw when Peter discussed you. "I'm going to go find her!"

At this, Jean jumped up, "That's not a good... and he's gone."

You made your way out back to the greenhouse. It never fails to help calm you down to be around the various plants and flowers there. There was a knock on the door and then it was pushed open. 

"I can hear your thoughts from the kitchen, y/n," the professor offered as a greeting, with a kind smile. He was always there when you felt bad about your powers. He always reminded you of how special each person at the mansion really is.

"Sorry Professor," you supplied kind of quietly. You didn't really feel like talking but you knew with the professor around, it wouldn't take long for you to open up. (ive always imagine charles as kind of fatherly and always giving the best advice)

"Do you know why I picked you to help new students?" he asked you.

You shrugged, " 'Cause I'm nice."

"When you came to the mansion, I always noticed how sweet you were to the little kids. Very motherly, if you ask me," he told you.

You never noticed that. You just knew that you often hung out with the little kids because you knew they didn't have much family and that kids deserve someone like that.

You would read to them, help them with their homework, or give them flowers when you saw them around the mansion. It made you happy to watch them brighten up. You smiled thinking about some of the kids you help.

"I picked you because you have no problem making everyone feel special. These new kids we bring in, they feel lost and alone. You help remind them that they are never alone at this mansion and that they deserved to be loved," he smiled at you.

You started to tear up at his kind words but you wiped them away, "Thanks professor, but what does that have to do with what I’m feeling right now?"

The professor smiled at your cluelessness, "If you think all those kids are special, then why don't you think you're special too?"

You simply stared, not knowing how to reply. He must have heard your thoughts, your gratitude, because he put his hand on your shoulder before wheeling out. 

You felt a bit better after that so you left the greenhouse and made your way to the kitchen. As you opened up a snack, a wind blew past you and stole your food out of your hands. Standing in front of you was a smiling Peter, eating your food.

"Leave me alone Peter. I'm not in the mood," you sighed, trying to reach for your snack. He just held it over your head and smiled.

"Why did you run off on me, doll?" he asked. The nickname made you blush but the question made you even more mad because there was no way you were going to discuss your insecurities with Peter. You weren't in the mood for his teasing. 

"Just leave me alone, Peter," you seethed, walking off towards your room.

Peter stood dumbfounded, not knowing how to get you to talk to him. He sulked all the way to the couch that all his friends were on.

"What's got you all sad?" Scott asked with a smile, thoroughly amused.

"Y/n refuses to talk to him," Jubilee teased. Peter only groaned.

"Just give her a little space today and try talking to her tomorrow," Jean offered, being able to hear Peter's inner turmoil.

"I need to do something to make her happy, get me on her good side," Peter exclaimed. He got on his knees in front of Jubilee, begging, "What's her favorite candy?"

"It's going to take a lot more than stolen candy to make her like you, Peter," Jean sighed. This wasn't the first time Peter has tried this. "You should do something creative and specific for her."

“Well what the hell do I do?” Peter asked. He’s never tried to really impress a girl so he was pretty clueless. “Something flower based would be romantic.”

“I hafe an idea, I can help you,” Kurt offered. So the group of friends got to work, helping Peter get in your good graces. (i have no clue how to write Kurt's accent lmaoo)

You woke up feeling better than the day before. Your insecurities about your powers weren't anything new, just some days including yesterday, felt worse than others. You just wanted to avoid Peter as much as possible today.

Jubilee found you in the hallway and you guys hung out for most of the day. Surprisingly, you didn't see Peter all day. You had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, he wasn't pissing you off. But on the other hand, you missed his contagious smile.

"Let's go watch a movie in your room, I rented a new VHS we can watch," Jubilee said. You were suspicious of her because she wasn't really the type to watch a lot of movies, but you thought nothing of it. Once you guys made it to your room, she stopped, "It's in my room I'll go get it, just make sure to set up your tv."

Once you opened the door to your room, a certain speedster was standing there.

"What are you doing here?" you questioned. You had a feeling that Jubilee wasn't going to be coming back and that there was no new VHS.

"Well I had help from our friends. Jean let me in while Jubilee distracted you so I could set up," he blushed.

"Set up what?" you asked him suspiciously. You were quite alarmed to have him in your room.

"Well, after I hurt your feelings, I wanted to make it up to you. It was Kurt’s idea to do this because I’m not creative at all. I’ve never tried to impress a pretty girl before. Did you know that Kurt is really good at origami? Also it turns out that I'm not good at it, at all. I spent all night trying to make them perfect," Peter rambled on.

"Peter," you cut him off, blushing when he called you pretty. "What are you talking about?"

He couldn't seem to speak so he simply moved out of the way and pointed to your bed.

On top of your dark green bed set, was an array of cute origami flowers. They ranged in size, color, and type. Some were more messy looking than others, but you could tell all of them were still made very carefully. There were even a couple of folded butterflies added to the mix. Your bed looked like a beautiful meadow. You could feel yourself starting to tear up at the kind gesture.

"You spent all night making these?" you questioned. You got closer so that you could look at all of them. There had to be at least 40 pieces.

“Yeah, I have the papercuts to prove it as well as a trash can filled with the ones that looked the worst,” he tried to joke. You could tell he was nervous of your reaction. “The girls explained that I made you feel bad about your powers so I wanted to show you how beautiful I actually think it is.”

“You think my powers are beautiful?” you questioned with a teary- eyed smile, looking back at him.

At this he stepped closer to you, nervously brushing a tear away, “Almost as beautiful as I think you are.”

Your face heated up so hot, you were sure Peter could feel it. You didn’t know how to thank him so you simply leaned close to his face. You heard Peter’s breath hitch so you leaned all the way in.

This was probably the best kiss you’ve ever had. It had fireworks bursting in you, butterflies scurrying around, but most importantly, it had flowers blooming all over the both of you and your room.

When you separated from the kiss, you guys just stared at each other smiling. “Thank you, Peter”

“Anything for you, ma fleur,” you blushed at the nickname, but giggled at his poorly done French accent. He smiled so bright at hearing you laugh, proud of himself.

You looked at your room, only just now noticing the mess of flowers and vines that you created, “Oh wow, I didn’t realize I did that.”

“I’m glad to have that effect on you,” Peter exclaimed, quite smug. You just laughed and punched his shoulder sofly. 

“You know, Speedy, you owe me so much for all the times you pissed me off to get my attention,” you smirked at him.

He just smiled with a lovestruck face and replied, “I can’t wait to make it up to you, forever.”

[dem-obscure-imagines]

Try

Warren Worthington III x Reader

Fandom: Marvel/X-Men

Summary: Warren has been through hell and then some, but will meeting his soulmate turn that around?

Note: That’s right, it’s ya girl, back on my BS. I watched Apocalypse again and BIG SURPRISE, I’m in love with Warren and Kurt all over again. Still hyperfixating on Pietro also, so…expect more fics for him as well. Anyway, I’m a ho for soulmate aus and I haven’t written one for birb boi in literal years, so here ya go.

Reader is: Gender Neutral

Warnings: swears, mentions of alcohol

Word Count: 2.8k

Warren knew one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt: he didn’t deserve a soulmate. He didn’t. There was no question in his mind. Anyone who was destined to end up with his winged, alcoholic ass had been fucked over by the universe. No one deserved to be stuck with him for the rest of their lives. And yet, these thoughts didn’t seem to erase the words written on his forearm:

Hey, um, you’re Warren, right? The Professor wanted me to talk to you.

Professor. He scoffed. He was never going to college. If his parents had gotten their way, their son “cured” of his wings, he would have ended up at Harvard or Yale or somewhere similar. But it was far too late for that. Sitting in a cage in the back room of an illegal underground mutant fighting club in Berlin…it was far too late for that. He’d probably die before he met his soulmate anyway, rendering the prophecy on his wrist—and theirs, for that matter—useless. A waste of space.

That was all he was anyway.

He spiraled. His dependence on vodka got worse. The fights got harder. He wasn’t making it out unscathed anymore, winding up with burns and scrapes and cuts, depending on what kind of mutant he was up against. One night, one of his cuts had gotten dangerously close to the writing on his wrist. He stared at it for a long time, tears burning his eyeballs until they escaped and dripped down his cheeks, angry and hot.

He hated it, but even after everything, he still had hope. He still had hope that things would get better; that he could be better, even if it seemed impossible.

And then it got…worse.

Apocalypse had come, turned his wings to metal, tuned into his anger, his rage at the world, turned him into a monster, complete with knives for feathers and winding tattoos framing his face. He wished he could blame it on mind control or something, but Apocalypse hadn’t brainwashed him, only used his anger against him. Turned him into a weapon.

And then everything went black.

When he woke up after the battle, he was in an unfamiliar room, large and white and sterile; it smelled like hand sanitizer. He heard the steady beeping of a heart monitor and when he sat up, he noticed how sore he was. His whole body hurt. His head spun. But he was alive. And when he looked down at his tattoo, the words were still there. Wherever his soulmate was, they were fine. His stupidity in joining Apocalypse hadn’t caused anything to happen to them.

For the first time in what felt like years, he breathed.

“You’re awake.” A voice said as a tall man with brown hair entered his room. “I’ll let the Professor know.”

“Where…” his deep voice rasped and the man pointed to a glass of water sitting on the table adjacent to the cot he was situated in. He picked it up and took a few long, greedy sips, not realizing just how thirsty he was until the cool drink hit his tongue. “Where am I? What is this place?”

“This is the infirmary at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.” The man told him, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. “You’re safe here.”

Warren nodded hesitantly, but didn’t say anything else. Safe. The word was almost a myth to him at this point. But at least he felt like he could rest for a little while.

***

It had been a few weeks since Apocalypse and his horsemen had almost ended the world. Erik had decided to stick around, and two of the younger horsemen, Storm and “the Angel of Death,” respectively, had been absorbed into the school’s student body. You didn’t know the Angel’s name. No one really talked to him, not even Ororo, Storm, who had been quickly adopted by your friend group.

Supposedly, Peter had tried to talk to the Angel guy, but he didn’t say anything to him. Ororo theorized he probably felt guilty about the whole thing. She did. But you all knew she didn’t know what Apocalypse was really trying to do. He probably hadn’t either, but that didn’t seem to keep the grim expression off of his face.

It was on a nice, sunny day that Xavier called you into his office, and you went down without complaint, knocking on the door a few times before he called you inside. You sat in the chair across from his desk.

“Hi, Professor. What’s going on?” You asked.

“Ah, yes. Just the empath and healer I wanted to see.” He smiled brightly. “(Y/N), if you don’t mind it too terribly, I have a small job for you.”

“Of course! What do you need?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen our newest pupil, Warren, around.”

You thought for a moment. “The, uh, guy with the wings? The big metal ones?”

“Precisely.” He nodded. “Warren…he’s been having quite a hard time adjusting.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“He came to me yesterday discussing…well, quite simply, he was wondering if any of our mutants here would be capable of…reverting him to his previous state. His wings, before Apocalypse, were made of feathers. They’ve been serving as quite a reminder to him and it’s been weighing pretty heavily on him, both literally and emotionally.”

“Yeah, I’ve, uh, caught his vibes from across campus.” You nodded. “It’s like there’s always a rain cloud hanging over his head.”

“Yes,” Xavier agreed. “It doesn’t have to be right away, but at your nearest convenience, if you see him around, would you talk to him? Tell him I sent you?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll see what I can do.” You promised him.

As an empath and a healer, your first priority was helping others. And even if he was known to be a bit intimidating, you wanted to help him if you could.

So, you walked out of Xavier’s office, attended your final class of the day, and when it was over, you wandered out into the courtyard where, because of the nice weather, students were everywhere. And luckily for you, just as you suspected he might be, Warren was sitting under a tree, still sporting his leather jacket despite the warm weather.

You shielded your eyes from the sun and walked over towards him, your heart racing as you built up the courage to talk to him. So, you took a breath and said, “Hey, um, you’re Warren, right? The Professor wanted me to talk to you.”

He stared up at you for a long moment, his green eyes wide in shock. He took a breath, blinked a few times, glanced down at his wrist, and then back up at you. You could have sworn you saw tears beginning to form along his waterline, and you didn’t realize why until he said, “You’re my…No…Oh my God…I’m…I’m so sorry.”

You froze, your knees going weak. You glanced down at your bare forearm and read over the words he’d just said, exactly the way he’d just said them.

You’re my…No…Oh my God…I’m…I’m so sorry.

“Why are you sorry?” You whispered, lowering yourself onto the grass beside him, not trusting your legs to support your weight for much longer. Now you were the one with tears in your eyes. “Don’t be sorry.”

“You deserve so much more than me.” He insisted, his eyes locked on his boots, unwilling and unable to meet your gaze. “I can’t drag you into…this. Me.”

His emotions were heavy, a bleak blue and gray haze and you felt it radiate off of him in waves. His pain, his everything. And you felt it, deep within his chest. He thought you wouldn’t want him anyway.

“Warren…” You shook your head. “Why…Why would you think I don’t want you?”

He was shocked into silence for a few seconds, thinking over his words carefully, his jaw tense and hands shaking. “You’re a telepath?”

“Empath.” You corrected quietly. “And…a healer. Which is why Xavier sent me.”

“Oh. Right.” He swallowed thickly, nodding. “Did he…tell you why?”

“He did.” You smiled softly. “And I’m willing to try if you are.”

Finally, his eyes met yours and he could tell that you meant more than just the healing when you said it. The weak little voice in the back of his head was screaming for him to push you away like he pushed away everyone else, but looking into your eyes, a genuine and warm smile on your face, he just…couldn’t lose you.

He couldn’t lose anyone else.

***

Today was the day. Warren was sitting on a stool in the infirmary. Hank had run his vitals and the two of them were in the room waiting for you to come down after your class was over.

“(Y/N) is the one who saved you, you know.” Hank told Warren while he jotted down some notes.

“What?” Warren asked, snapping out of whatever daydream he had been caught up in. “What do you mean?”

“(Y/N) found you in the rubble. We didn’t think you would make it, but…they healed you. They insisted we bring you back here. Give you a chance.”

Warren was quiet for a long time, thinking about what that meant. Part of him wondered if (Y/N) had known back then that he was their soulmate, but he decided that would have been impossible with just their tattoos alone. Especially without context. They hadn’t known and yet, they’d still wanted the best for him.

“Didn’t know that.” Warren said, his voice soft and deep. He stared at the words on his wrist for a little longer, a hint of warmth swirling around in his stomach. Was this happiness? Was that what happiness felt like? He barely remembered anymore. But he knew there must have been a reason that when you walked through the door, his heart started beating a little bit faster.

“Sorry I’m so late. Professor Leaf kept us a little later than she was supposed to. Are you ready?” You asked taking off your backpack and setting it against the wall. As soon as you looked up at Warren, you felt the way his heart rate was increased and you didn’t miss the warmth swirled with the anxiousness. The anxiousness, you had expected. Even you didn’t know if you could pull off what you were going to attempt to do, but the warmth…it was a pleasant surprise.

“Don’t worry about it.” He told you, shaking his head. Was he…was he smiling? It was a small smile, sure, but you didn’t think you had ever seen him smile before. It looked good on him. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Alright.” You nodded, walking over towards him. Underneath where he was situated on a stool, Hank had laid out some pads from the training room, you assumed, to catch his metal feathers if they fell out rather than transforming back to his normal…feather feathers. None of you really knew how this would unfold. “Again, I’m not sure this will work. I don’t want to get your hopes up in case it doesn’t.”

“I’m not expecting it to.” Warren assured you, but it wasn’t in a rude way. “If it does, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Cross my heart.” What he didn’t say was: You could never disappoint me. Not even if you tried.

“Okay.” You nodded, taking a few steps closer until you were standing right in front of him. He looked up at you and for the first time, you didn’t feel any negative emotions from him. Only anticipation and that lingering warmth. “Here goes nothing.”

You focused on the warmth in your own chest, the tingling yellow healing power that constantly swirled around your heart, and you forced it into your palms. You reached forward for his hands and he took the hint, his larger hands wrapping around yours.

Immediately, he gasped at the sensation, warm tingles running up his arms, down his spine. It stopped in the center of his back, right where his wings intersected with his body. At first, he didn’t feel anything. And then, he felt everything. The pleasant warmth flooded his metal wings, and one by one, the knife-like feathers fell out, each one landing with a thud against the mat situated underneath him.

Hank’s pencil jotted against his notebook as he took notes. He knew you were powerful, but he’d had no idea you were capable of something like this.

Neither had you.

Once the metal wings were gone, Warren felt a new sensation: another pair of wings, this one soft and familiar, slowly emerging from him. Part of him expected the process to be painful, like the one Apocalypse had forced upon him was, but it wasn’t. Warren chuckled to himself. Of course you would never hurt him. Not even unintentionally.

After a few minutes, the feathery wings had fully emerged, stretched out to his full former wingspan and he stared up at you in awe. You stopped your flow of power to him, but he held onto your hands, squeezing them to keep them in his grasp.

He looked back at his new wings, flexed them and moved them. They felt familiar, like they had always belonged to him.

“Thank you.” He said, giving your hands another squeeze, the warmth in his chest brighter and bolder than it had been before. “Thank you so much.”

“Of course.” You told him, squeezing his hands right back in a way that caused his heart to lurch. “I’m glad I could help.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but do you mind if I keep some of these for research?” Hank asked.

“Keep all of them, if you want. I don’t want them.” Warren told him, standing up from his stool, his hands still in yours. “So, um…do you want to go grab dinner or something?”

“Sure.” You nodded, smiling up at him. “See you later, Hank.”

“Bye, guys, have a nice night.” Hank said as you and Warren walked out of his lab. He couldn’t help but notice the way one of your hands remained in one of his as the two of you left.

***

Later that night, after dinner and after you and Warren had split for the evening, you were walking back to your room from Jean and Jubilee’s and you found Warren, lingering in his doorway, his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. His eyes widened when he spotted you and he held up a finger, indicating you should wait for him, so you did while he went into his bathroom and rinsed out his mouth, returning a few moments later.

“Hey.” He said, the word casual as it fell from his pink lips.

“Hey yourself.” You chuckled, feeling ridiculously underdressed in your pajamas. But then again, he was wearing his pajamas, too, a large black Metallica shirt and a pair of plaid pants.

“How…how are you? Feeling?” He stumbled over his words, chuckling as he rubbed the back of his neck. You felt a wave of nervousness rush through him. “Hank said sometimes you get tired after, uh, bigger healing jobs?”

“I’m fine.” You nodded. “For whatever reason, I never get tired when I’m healing you.” You chuckled, your cheeks heating up the slightest bit. “Well…I think I know why…”

“Heh, yeah.” He nodded, mulling over his next words very carefully. “Did you, um…I don’t know how to ask this. Did you mean what you said about…trying? About us trying…this. Trying us.”

“Of course I did.” You nodded and took a few steps closer to him. “You’re my soulmate.” You reached for his hand and he gave it to you, letting you play with his fingers. You felt the way his heart fluttered when you did. “Of course I want to try.”

“I’m broken.” He told you. “I’ve never done this before. I’m…I’m a lot, and I know that.”

“Well it’s a good thing I’m a healer, huh?” You tilted your head. “And if we’re being honest, I’ve never done this before either. So how about we teach each other? Learn together?”

He smiled softly, nodding. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.”

You let go of his hand and instead took the last few steps between the two of you, wrapping your arms around his torso. He froze for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. It had been…a long time since anyone had hugged him. But after a few moments, his arms got the hint and wrapped around you, pulling you to his chest. He rested his head atop yours and exhaled a long, long breath. And for the first time since you’d met him, you felt a wave of peace wash over him, encasing him entirely as his wings gently cocooned you in their warmth.

You felt his lips brush against your temple, pressing a soft kiss there. You looked up at him and his eyes met yours before fluttering shut as he leaned in to press his lips to yours.

[captain039]

PART 3

Say it first, please

Charles Xavier x reader

Set: Mansion, with his many adopted children lol. still has his legs though, and is obviously young Charles.

Warnings: light little reader, anxiety & depression, light swearing, intimate, age gap, ABO, light angst, daddy/soft dom

Previous Chapter <-

As morning came you did your daily routine before heading to help Storm. She gave you a soft greeting as you walked in and you smiled waving. You sat down at her desk looking through the days lesson.

“More weather” you said grinning.

“I’m best at it” she said writing something up on the board.

“That you are” you chuckled softly thinking back to last night.

“Ah there you are” you raised an eyebrow as Charles came in.

“Morning darling” he said to you and you flushed nodding.

“Storm” he said starting his conversation with her.

After he left you tried to centre yourself.

“You look like a tomato” Ororo teased.

“I am not, it’s just hot in here” you defended standing up as kids came in. She gave you a cheeky grin before greeting everyone who came.

You pretty much just followed along with her book she had on the table. You wrote a few notes, typed a few things before the lesson was over.

You stood up as the students left and frowned seeing Charles waiting by the door.

“Professor?” Storm called.

“I’m here for Y/n sorry” Charles smiled and you nodded grabbing your things and saying a quick goodbye.

“Is it that girl again?” You asked concerned.

“No” he chuckled shaking his head.

“I’m here to ask you to lunch” he said as you walked downstairs. You froze on the steps slightly before continuing.

“Lunch?” You said and he nodded.

“Where?” You asked.

“That’s a surprise” he grinned.

“Thats not fair” you grumbled softly.

“Let me pack up and I’ll be ready” you said agreeing.

“I’ll come find you in about half hour ok?” He said and you nodded. He smiled pressing a kiss to your cheek again before disappearing.

You blinked a few times before rushing to your office. You packed up and got ready, nerves running through you.

He found you like he said and you both went out leaving the school in the others hands.

He took you just outside the city, a more quiet place thankfully as he pulled up to the cafe looking place.

“I’m curious as to how you found this place” you said in the car as it stopped.

“This has been here since I was a boy” he said looking to it fondly.

“The woman in there is a great friend of my family’s, she bakes the best bread” he smiled. You nodded as he got out the car. You looked at the place he must have good memories. You went to open the door but it had already opened.

“Oh, thank you” you said stepping out as Charles smiled.

You walked in, it was like a cute cottage place, pastel cottage.

“Charles?” You heard an elderly voice.

“Hello Aunt Alya” and old woman came towards you both, short and plump with a big smile as she held her arms open. Charles embraced the woman as she sighed and let go.

“I haven’t seen you in years dear boy!” She said hitting him with her tea towel. You laughed as he winced slightly.

“Oh? Who is this lovely woman?” She looked to you and you smiled slightly.

“This is Y/n, Y/n Aunt Alya” Charles introduced you both.

“Oh you’re absolutely beautiful my dear” she cooed giving you a hug. You chuckled embarrassed but hugged her.

“Oh you two must be hungry, sit, sit!” She said walking to the register.

Charles smiled and you smiled back as he gestured to the small booth. You sat down as Aunt Alya came back over a waddle in her step.

“Now you tell Aunt Alya what you want and I’ll make it personally” she smiled handing you both menus.

“Trust me my grandsons cooking is horrible” she whispered loudly.

“Nan” you heard a man sigh. You looked to the kitchen entrance a smile on your lips.

“I didn’t say anything!” She said quickly and walked off. You laughed as the young man came over.

“What would you like to drink?” He asked smiling and you looked to Charles.

“I’ll have a tea please” he said and the man nodded.

“Just water thank you” you said and he nodded.

“I’ll be right back” the young man left, you could see the resemblance in generations by their noses.

“That’s Leo” Charles said and you nodded. There were only a few people here thankfully, mainly elderly having coffee or tea and cake.

“She seems lovely” you chuckled softly and he smiled.

“She is” he said a sadness on his eyes.

“What do you want to eat?” He asked quickly and you looked to the menu.

“Oh gosh” you muttered looking through. You picked one of your favourites and Charles picked his before he went up and ordered. You smiled a bit to yourself at your seat, you felt adored almost. Your drinks came back as did Charles and you took a small sip.

You drank silently looking at the vintage table, a few scratches from the tears but well kept.

“Something bothers you my dear, what is it?” You hummed at Charles words in answer in surprise and looked to him.

“Nothings wrong or bothering-“ you said confused and he raised an eyebrow.

“Was it wise to leave your students?” You muttered.

“They can live without me for half a day” he chuckled and you nodded uncertain.

“They can handle it ok?” He said softly making you sigh.

“Ok” you said as your meals came out.

You both ate in comfortable silence, though the nag of him being gone always tugged in your mind. You knew Jean, Scott, Ororo could handle it, but he was the professor. You thought a bit your mind always going to the bad things. How were you supposed to compare to a professor? Were you expected to join him in professering? Or what if he wanted a family of his own? His own kids? You didn’t want kids.

“Y/n” you looked up to Charles giving him your attention. He smiled slightly shaking his head as he laid his fork down.

“You’re over thinking again” he said and you wondered if he just read all your thoughts.

“Did you read my thoughts?” You whispered.

“No, of course not I would never without your permission” he said and you nodded.

“You get this look on your face and stare off like you’re on another planet” he chuckled and you flushed.

“It’s cute” he grinned but it didn’t help the embarrassment.

“I didn’t mean to go off on another planet” you muttered finishing your meal.

“It doesn’t bother me darling” he laughed.

“It’s just something you do when you’re deep in thought” he smiled gently.

“All done?” Aunt Alya spoke before you could, you both nodded and she smiled taking your dishes away.

“That was a good meal” you said satisfied and full.

“That it was” Charles agreed.

“I got a little gift for you both” you frowned as Aunt Alya laid down a large piece of cake between you two. Charles frowned neither of you ordered it.

“Couples gift” she winked and left. You blushed looking away.

“Couples gift?” You muttered looking at the one fork and one big piece of cake. Charles grinned at you and you frowned as he grabbed the fork and took a bit. He held it up for you and you froze.

“No- you really don’t have to feed me cake” you said rushed as he laughed and ate it instead. He moaned at the taste his eyes teasing as he looked to you.

“It’s delicious” he said taking another piece and holding it up. You cursed softly taking a bite, you closed your eyes at the delicious flavour filling your mouth. You hummed in satisfaction and sighed.

“It really is” you confirmed.

He fed you cake till it was gone, having some bites for himself before you were both full. You sighed finishing your water as well and leaning back.

“I’m full” you mumbled.

“I am too” Charles chuckled as he stood up. You stood too as he took the few items to Aunt Alya who was walking this way.

“I knew you’d like it” she grinned.

“Thank you” Charles gave her a side hug and kissed her on the head, she was so much shorter than him.

“Thank you Aunt Ayla” you smiled as she gave you a side hug also.

“You treat this one right” you frowned thinking she was talking to you.

“I will ma’am” Charles chuckled.

“Mmmm, she’s a gooden I can tell” she grinned at you and you blushed slightly.

“You both better come back other wise I’ll hunt you down son!” She called as she waved and left for the kitchen. You laughed at the threat as Charles sighed and shook his head.

“Shall we?” He asked holding out his elbow for you. You smiled taking it and heading back to the car.

He opened the door for you and closed it before getting into the drivers seat and heading back to the school.

As you went underground and Charles parked you sat a little bit.

“Thank you for today” you said softly as you both got out.

“It’s my pleasure” he smiled and you sighed softly a small smile on your face as you walked to the elevator.

“I really hope it isn’t chaos up there” you said glancing up.

“Everything’s fine” he said.

“Trust me” he added seeing your sceptical face. You nodded as he leant closer and pressed a kiss to your forehead. Your eyes closed again and you smiled as you both went into the elevator.

On the school ground everything was in fact alright, nothing on fire, or wild mutants running around.

“I have to go to my office and sought something out, I’ll see you later tonight” you turned to Charles as he spoke and you nodded.

“Ok” you said unsure of what to do. You wanted to give him a kiss. You grabbed his hand when he tried to leave and he frowned. You came closer and leant up pressing a kiss to his cheek. He was stunned and you flushed and laughed as you walked off back to your office.

Your tummy felt warm with butterfly’s and your heart raced excited. You couldn’t wipe the smile off your face as you went to your office and sat down.

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1981

The X-Men, those back-to-the-future mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(Uncanny X-Men 141 - 152) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Brent Anderson, Dave Cockrum, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod and Josef Rubinstein

While I also committed various fashion atrocities at the age of 14 (tye-die and fauxhawks, oh my), even Liberace would find Kitty’s outfits too much. (Uncanny X-Men 149; Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘81)

We dial back from the v. epic scope of the last few arcs. Instead, 1981 is just a lot of fun! We get:

Storm and Emma doing a Freaky Friday!

the X-Men vs. Magneto (again!)

A surprisingly effective Alien rip-off

An dystopian future! (OoOoOoOo)

Last year was the year of the Dark Phoenix, this is the year of Kitty Pryde. That’s not to say Jean’s death is swept under the rug: all throughout, we see her friends mourning her loss or remembering her fondly. (Scott even gets to have a demonic adventure about it.) But in general, Claremont puts Kitty in the forefront, fleshing out his YA-addition to the team. And what would a YA heroine be without a grim dystopia? Roll out the iconic Days of Future Past!

To be fair, 2013 was a dark time for all of us: What Does the Fox Say somehow got to the top of the charts and I was still watching Glee. (Uncanny X-Men 141)

How cool would it have been to see a name like Jonothon Starsmore or Eva Bell on those tombstones?

Anyway, that’s Kate. Kate’s had it rough. Mutants are at the bottom of the foodchain, most X-Men are dead and only a small cadre of resistance fighters remain, Sentinels dominate, and while she is married to Piotr, her children have been murdered. Bleak. Luckily, the rebellion has concocted the plan to shunt Kate’s spirit back in time to prevent this awful future from happening. (You’ve seen Days of Future Past, the last passably good X-Men film, you know what’s up.)

Let’s do the time warp again! 1981!Kitty’s mind gets taken over by 2013!Kitty, who promptly tries to convince the X-Men that a new Brotherhood of v. Evil Mutants will try to kill Senator Kelly, a presidential candidate who tries to put the mutant menace on the agenda. (Mutants tend to blow stuff up when he’s around.) Since the X-Men recently took a literal trip to Dante’s Infero and also befriended a cosmic world-ending entity, they basically shrug and go: “Yeah, this checks out.”

Off to Washington they go (zoommm) and there, they happen upon the Baddest Bitches in Herstory:

“How dare you hate mutants, senator Kelly! We’ll fix that by killing you!” (Uncanny X-Men 141)

This All-New, All-Different Brotherhood consists out of:

Destiny, a blind woman who can see the future. Definitely the eeriest member of this group. Badass lesbian, though that won´t be canon for years.

Avalanche. Greek who makes things shake. Is a long-standing member of the X-Men Rogue’s gallery, but rarely features in the spotlight. I think he got more characterization in four years of X-Men Evolution than he ever did in the comics.

Mystique. Shapeshifter. Ruthless and unhinged, the Cersei Lannister of the X-Men universe. Absolute legend, secretly the wife of Destiny, currently not as unhinged as she’ll be later. Immediately implied to be related to Nightcrawler: it’s the yellow-eyes-blue-skin-combo.

Pyro. Can manipulate fire, not create it. Absolute pillock, in all the best ways of the word. Originally intended as gay, but they decided to make him Australian instead. (?!)

Blob. Big, strong, immovable. We’ve seen him before.

One of the details in this fight I enjoy is that Storm is still struggling with her leadership, although she has a better grip on things than Cyclops:

Wolverine then proceeds to use those iconic but deadly claws about twice per issue for the next, oh, forty years. (Uncanny X-Men 142)

While the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in the present, we cut back and forth to the future. There, the X-Men consist out of some familiar faces - Storm, Colossus, Wolverine - and some surprises: Magneto (in a wheelchair), Franklin Richards (son of) and an unfamiliar ginger girl called Rachel. (She’ll be important later.) We even learn (one of) Magneto’s names: this is the first time he’s canonically called Magnus.

One of the strengths of Days of Future Past lies in its brevity, the way it tantalizingly taunts us with a brutal but familiar future without giving away too much. It’s single-handedly responsible for all those dark future timelines the X-lines are so fond of which will eventually culminate in time-displaced grandsons from alternative dimensions and the impossibility of a succinct answer to the question: “Who’s Cable?” Too much of a good thing and all that.

Still, what Days of Future Past does so successfully is:

Put the idea of the mutant menace back at the forefront, hammering home the metaphor of mutants being a minority. Mutants being put in camps and being forbidden to breed should - regretfully - make us think of all too many real life equivalents. (Specifically, all of the imagery harkens back to the Holocaust.)

It starkly shows what happens should the X-Men lose, reminding everyone of the stakes. The X-Men are here for a reason: bridging the gap between mutants and humankind. If they fuck up, we end up with mutant concentration camps.

It helps that the X-Men in the future almost all die horribly: Franklin is incinerated, Storm is impaled… It's brutal stuff. The only one to survive is Rachel, who wonders if their plan actually changed the future or if they created an alternative timeline. (It did the latter, sorry ‘bout it, Rachel.)

In the present, Kate chases after Destiny, who trains a gun on senator Kelly. I always wondered how this works: if Destiny saw the future, she knew that killing Kelly would trigger a terrifying future. What in the current Marvel timeline made her decide that the Days of Future Past was better? Did she see her own death? Did she see the Onslaught-crossover coming? The Chuck Austen run? What was it?

In any case, time-anomalous Kate stops Destiny from killing Kelly and the future is safe! For now. Kate disappears, Kitty returns to her body and some of the Brotherhood are apprehended. All is well, for now.

After being a key figure in DoFP, Kitty is also the main character in the Christmas special, which is basically a straight up horror and a pastiche of the Alien-movie.

Seriously, John Byrne still isn’t sure why he wasn’t sued by Ridley Scott for this. (Uncanny X-Men 143)

If you love Kitty Pryde? Read this issue. If you’re not convinced you like 80’s Kitty? Read this issue. It’s not continuity relevant and it’s basically Kitty playing the part of a Final Girl in a horror where she’s being chased by a demon, but it’s so good. It showcases all her strengths and her foibles. Kitty’s intelligent, cute (sometimes preciously so) and brave, but she’s also young, self-conscious and hot-headed. And it's not as if the other X-Men automatically adore her: Storm berates her all the time, she’s afraid of Kurt because of the way he looks (though she grows out of that) and she fights with Professor Xavier a lot. Moreover, she has a clever power-set for a young superhero who faces menaces on a daily basis: a thirteen year old who can go intangible is far less likely to have reality ensue on her and be dramatically offed because she's better at protecting herself.

I’m sure there are people who thought Sprite was hogging the spotlight, but I, for one, say she brings more to the table than, say, Angel. She’s not the Dawn Summers of this franchise.

Scott also gets a side quest. Poor guy can’t catch a break: first the love of his life dies, so he quits the X-Men, then he realizes he can’t do much else than be a superhero. He becomes a sailor on the ship of spunky captain Lee Forrester, is drawn into the sadistic plans of a demon unironically named D’Spayre and then shipwrecks in Bermuda with Lee.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are tormented by a team-up of Doom (who’s currently Latverialess and working on a comeback) and Arcade, that annoying crony. Locke, Arcade’s dom, has kidnapped the loved ones of the X-Men (Moira MacTaggart, Jean Grey’s parents, Illyana Rasputin and Amanda Sefton) in order to blackmail them into getting Doom to free Arcade. Apparently, Arcade accidentally insulted Doom and DOOM DOES NOT FORGIVE THAT FOLLY.

While the B-Squad (Polaris, Havok, Banshee and Iceman) goes to save Arcade’s hostages, the X-Men sneak into Doom’s castle. Well, except for Storm, who doesn’t give a single fuck and simply flies up to Doom, demanding an audience. Doom likes the cut of her jib and invites her to have dinner. (This is pre-Tinder, so this is a legit way of scoring a date.)

If Storm has a flaw (I said if!), it’s got to be her atrocious taste in men. (Uncanny X-Men 145)

The X-Men find Arcade’s cell empty, while Arcade casually saunters up to Storm and says hi. Storm realizes too late that this is a trap: while the X-Men are all trapped in Saw-like traps, Storm is encased in ‘living chrome’.

If you remember she’s claustrophobic, you know why this is a bad move.

While the X-Men free themselves from their traps - Polaris hilariously has to deal with a murderous merry-go-round - Storm is slowly driven mad in her prison, triggering a worldwide tempest. (She causes Lee and Scott to shipwreck.) Under the threat of Wolverine’s claws, Doom releases Storm - or rather, unleashes her.

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!” (Uncanny X-Men 147)

The memory of Jean brings Ororo back to herself and she starts undoing the superstorm she created. (If only climate change were reversed that easily.) Their confrontation ends by Storm easily forgiving Doom, because she apparently trespassed on his grounds without adequate cause.

Mkay.

All of Arcade’s hostages return to their homesteads, except for Illyana Rasputin, Piotr’s sister: she’s staying at the mansion for a while. Angel, who’s sort of been a part of the team since the Phoenix thing, has had it with Wolverine and his ‘tude, and decides to quit the X-Men : he doesn’t want to be a part of an outfit that has a killer like Wolverine on it. (Or maybe he’s just mad Claremont didn’t give him any storylines: his presence has been mostly pointless.) It’s too bad he left before Kitty started experimenting with her outfits: I bet he would have loved her ugly-ass costumes.

Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a brand new character, who then proceeds to disappear from the narrative for the rest of the year:

Black Tom has tried to kill you at least twice, but him sending you a long-lost daughter doesn’t give you pause? Ugh, Sean, you deserve Moira. (Uncanny X-Men 148)

Intrigued by Theresa? TOO BAD, WON’T SEE HER AGAIN ANYTIME SOON.

Another new character is the lonely, decidedly mutant looking Caliban, who can sense “people like him” and is on the lookout for companions. Like many lonely people who try and grasp at friendship, he decides to overshoot his shot and ruin the night of Storm, Kitty and Jessica Drew at a Dazzler concert. Because he tries to kidnap Kitty, the girls react a trifle aggressively. When they realize their mistake - the eerily pale Caliban is a simpleton rather than a menace - he’s already fled. No mention is made of the Morlocks yet!

There’s also another dull annual where the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four to save Arkon’s dimension from the Badoon and yaaaaawn. Far more interesting is the landmark issue #150. Slowly, through the adventures of Scott and Lee Forrester, Claremont has been setting things up for the return of a favorite villain. While the X-Men investigate Magneto’s old base in Antarctica on a hunch of Professor X and tangle with Garruk, Scott and Lee survive Storm’s tempest, only to wake up next to a strange island that seems to have been raised from the ocean.

It’s apparently some ancient citadel from a long forgotten civilization with a fondness for squid statues. (I don’t know man, I’ve never been to the Bermuda Triangle, maybe this is just super-accurate.)The tentacles make Lee Forrester feel very amorous, but before Scott can tell her he is way too repressed to just have sex with an attractive someone he’s known intimately for a month or two, Magneto saves his ass by revealing he, in fact, raised this island from the seafloor.

Oh, Magneto. So extra.

My ambitious little mutant demagogue then proceeds to take the entire world hostage, showing how much he’s grown from the pompous, raving madman from the sixties. (Sure, Magneto is still a bit of a madman, but increasingly, he starts being on the right side of history.)

“I’m trying to make Magneto more sympathetic.”

“Just put him on a page with some bigger villains who are less noble, like the Vanisher, Count Nefaria, or…”

“Reagan, Thatcher and Brezhnov?”

“Er.” (Uncanny X-Men 150)

It’s obvious Magneto is being pivoted as a more noble villain, codified into the well-intentioned extremist we know and love today. Not only do we get the first hints at his past, fleshing out his motivations, he’s also not wrong. Humans are historically not great at taking care of the planet or each other.

When the Russians call his bluff and launch nukes at Magneto’s new island, he quickly disarms them. His retribution is swift and ferocious: the entire citadel is a machine that massively amplifies his powers. He sinks the submarine that launched the missiles, condemning the entire crew to death, and he casually erects a vulcano in a Russian city in Siberia.

Damn. Not messing around this time.

Despite his good intentions, Magneto is still definitely in the wrong: not only because of his methods, but as Scott points out: if Magneto unifies the world under his kind of benevolent dictatorship, all of that will simply fall apart as soon as Magnus dies.

In a way, Magneto is just as big a dreamer as Charles is: Charles believes in peace and integration, whereas Magneto believes his iron fist will be enough to make a perfect world happen. Both of them ignore the reality that acceptance is difficult and messy, because you’re trying to change essential human nature: the fear of the other. Magneto believes in big, sweeping gestures that will fix the world in move, while changing the world is also boring, hard work. One step forward, two steps back. Magneto just wants to leapfrog to his ultimate goal.

The X-Men fly over the citadel, returning from Antarctica, and their plane crashes into the ocean. (Magneto does not brook planes over his territory, humans!) The Professor is also nearby, looking for Scott with Moira, Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers. The X-Men sneak onto the island, but to their horror, their powers are nullified by some machine of Magneto. They reunite with Scott, who formulates a plan to thwart the would-be ruler of the world.

While the rest of the X-Men go to trash the machine, Storm, Kitty and Lee infiltrate the control chamber where Storm finds a sleeping, shirtless Magneto. Once again showing her terrible taste in men, she is not weak in the knees at the sight of a sleeping Magnus: instead, she contemplates killing him.

Storm knows how dangerous he is, but she also knows that he’s a great man who’s fighting for ideals, no matter how misguided. She hesitates too long: Magneto stirs, suspects an attack and tosses her out of the window, to her death.

Magneto quickly undoes the sabotage the other X-Men have wrought to his machine. A fight erupts. Storm, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a ledge. She crawls back up and smashes an important-looking computer, restoring everyone’s powers.

The battle turns grim, but Scott sends Kitty away to wreck Magneto’s machinery. She sneaks off, following Scott’s orders and destroying both Magneto's power-up device and all of his plans by phasing though the computer circuitry. Magneto senses this and furiously gives chase. Overcome by rage, he attacks Kitty and disrupts her phasing power with a magnetic bolt, seemingly killing her?

Everything about this story beat is great: mama bear!Ororo, mournful Magnus and even the fact that Kitty’s godawful outfit serves a narrative function: highlighting to us (and Magneto) just how young she is. The fact that Kitty’s Jewish is just icing on the cake. (Uncanny X-Men 150)

And thus, the softening of Magneto commences. 1981 might be a year with wildly varying narratives, but it has given us at least three enduring legacies to the X-Mythos: a new kind of Magneto, a fondness for dystopian futures and the character of Kitty Pryde, who's really come into her own this year.

Ugliest Costume: Kitty! Purposefully, but still. Best costume, by the way, goes to Destiny, with her creepy, creepy golden mask. Just imagine this lady casually strolling across a battlefield, eerily calm and collected, dodging everything you throw at her. Awesome design.

Best new character: I usually pick one character - what good is having a shared award when declaring the best of anything? - but this year, it’s going to one of my favorite couples: Mystique and Destiny. Can’t wait to see more of them.

Most audacious retcon: Blob somehow retroactively becomes a member of the original Brotherhood, which is not what happened. Ever weirder is Xavier pondering that he never met Magneto before his attack in X-Men #1, while their cordially adversarial relationship rooted in a youthful friendship would soon become a cornerstone of the X-Men.

What to read: Uncanny X-Men 141 - 143 and 150 - 152

[9layerdevilfoodcake]

HelloGoodbye/Part 1:It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

Summary: it’s the last day of life as you know it at Camp Redwood when the apocalypse comes calling, but what does that mean for the souls shackled to this particular hellmouth?

Word count: 3.3k

Warnings: mentions of death, implied-ish smut, the end of the world?

//

The day the world ended started out the same as any other.

You woke up to the sunrise, wrapped in a jumble of blankets, limbs and bleached hair.

Sleep wasn’t really necessary for the undead, but it just came naturally, like muscle memory. Plus it was a nice way to pass the time.

But it was what came after a good night’s sleep that was your favorite part of the day, more specifically it was waking up next to him.

There are few things better in life (past or present) than waking up in his arms.

Your lover? Boyfriend? Mutual sufferer in eternal purgatory?

You’re not really sure what you would call him. You and Xavier both agreed the afterlife was no place for labels.

But if you asked any of the other souls shackled to this hellmouth with you, they would all call you two the same thing; inseparable.

It had been that way for decades, you spent almost every reawoken moment together. He was the one thing that made your afterlife feel as though it’s axis tipped more towards heaven than hell.

He was the light at the end of the tunnel. And looking at him now, eyes closed, lips parted, and sleeping soundly without a care in the world. You might go as far as to say you are thankful you didn’t listen to your gut, and made the (what at the time you thought regrettable) decision to take your friend's extra ticket and step foot on the haunted site for a music festival, one that never even happened mind you.

You got stabbed in the face and she didn’t get to blow Billy Idol, you guess you would call the weekend a bust for the both of you.

You’re comfortably laying back and reminiscing, when you feel Xavier stir.

The long hum that leaves his lips, followed by their soft touch on your shoulder lets you know he’s awake and it’s followed by a mumbled “Good morning”.

“Good morning” you answer back. Leaning down to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. A little too chaste for his liking, so before you can pull away he grabs hold of the back of your neck and pulls you back down for more.

One perk of being dead, no morning breath. There’s no need to break the mood with a trip to the bathroom to brush your teeth. Not that that would stop him anyways, through your time with Xavier you have come to realize that there are very few things he won’t try, and even less he would determine “too gross” to kill his mood.

So much like countless mornings before this, it’s a good couple of hours before you two make it out of bed and decide to properly “get up”.

“What should we do today?” He asks as he’s rummaging through the luggage some ghost adventurer left behind in their haste to “get the fuck out of this place”. It had been years since anyone around here had partaken in any blood sport. But that didn’t mean there was still no fun in scaring the tourists. (And maybe occasional bets were taken to see who could get a camper to wet themselves first).

He pauses and holds up a pair of dark blue wranglers, waiting for your opinion.

You just shake your head in dismissal.

“We haven’t been in the lake in a while. We could take a dip...then maybe you could take a dip…” you say wiggling your eyebrows to insinuate your innuendo, while you make your way over to the stash, taking over the search for yourself.

“No”

“Why not?” You know the reason for his rejection, but can’t help giving him a little pout anyways.

“After what happened last time? Not happening.” His voice is stern but with the underlying playfulness that’s always present between the two of you.

“Oh come on...I won’t let that happen again.”

“Believe it or not, drowning is not fun, dead or alive. And you know what’s worse than drowning once? Coming back to and drowning again because the person with their legs wrapped around your head hasn’t even noticed!” He emphasizes his “anger” by snatching the green umbro shorts you’d found from your hands and proceeding to dramatically stomp his legs through the holes before pulling them up around his hips.

“You only have yourself to blame for that, if you weren’t always such a tease I would have known something was wrong. I just thought you were trying to work me up and build my anticipation, not give me some signal your foot was stuck in the mud” You argue back tossing him a cut off Duran Duran t-shirt, that despite its tag saying 2018 has been given holes and bleached to give it a “vintage” look. The irony of donning such items always makes you laugh.

As he finishes getting dressed you simply look at him with that same pout back on your face, although it slowly morphs into a smile as you see his resolve slipping away.

Who is he kidding, he could never say no to you. He would do anything you ever asked. He would drown every hour, on the hour, if it kept you looking at him the way you are now.

“Fine, but if I start slapping your thighs it is not to keep you in line, it’s me begging for oxygen.”

“Ok” you agree with a chuckle as you grab his hand and head to the door, but he holds his place, making you turn and raise a brow at him.

“And the next time those birdwatchers are in camp, you have to blow me in front of that Condor’s nest they all jizz their jeans for.”

“Sure” you answer, shrugging your shoulders, not a bad trade...

“While they’re taking pictures of it.”

You pause for barely a moment to think that over, who were you kidding, you’re just as whipped as he is.

“Deal”

You weren’t in the water very long before you heard it, a siren sounding in the distance.

Xavier had only just removed your bottoms before you were pulling him up by his hair.

“What?” He asks, as he emerges, shaking droplets out his face with a look of confusion mixed with some underlying self doubt. “What’s wrong?”

“Do you hear that?”

As you both listen the sirens start to get louder and new ones join in the cacophony of sounding alarms.

“Yea, they’re probably just testing the storm sirens?”

“All of them?”

Before Xavier can talk you out of worrying and let him “get back to work” you’re interrupted by Chet yelling at you from the dock.

“Hey! You guys should see this”

Once you both redress you make your way to the cabin which once upon a time was assigned to the male counselors, but now it serves as more of a clubhouse for the lingering spirits. Upon entry you see almost every soul in the camp crowded around the TV.

There have only been two occasions when you have all collectively been in the same place at the same time; when you got revenge on Margaret, and when you made plans for what to do about the “Ramirez problem”.

Something big must be happening.

“What’s going on?” Xavier inquires as you join the group.

“The end of the world” Answers Montana, in a voice so calm she almost sounds bored, it’s like that happens every week.

“Oh no did Belinda Carlyle die?!”

“No...not yet anyway”

Your attention is brought back to the flat screen television Jingle’s son Bobby had gifted you. After his visit, he had been kind enough to set up wifi around the camp, as well as pay for a cable package, with the help of Brooke and Rita (or whatever her real name was). After hours of trying to explain how a touch screen works, as well as the grappling concept of Bluetooth; he deemed the pursuit pretty much a wash. But you did all know how to work a television, so most days were spent watching reruns of Knight Rider or Press Your Luck, and checking in with the nightly news.

So now you found yourself surrounded by your fellow ghosts, watching the man on the tv announce the incoming missiles and saying a teary goodbye to his family.

“What does this mean? I mean for us?” The question came from one of the victims of the first massacre in the 70s, whose name you were now feeling a little guilty for never bothering to learn.

It was a good question nonetheless, your souls kept coming back after just about any obstacle thrown at you, staying attached to the camp, but would they stay attached to a camp that wasn’t even there?

Unfortunately this was also a question nobody knew the answer to.

“Should we go to a basement or something?” Chet chimed in

“I doubt a basement will win the fight against a nuclear bomb, at least this close to the blast radius.” Trevor now spoke up, making his way over to the television to check another news channel, before addressing the group. “Besides does that even matter for us?”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough”

As everyone is switching back and forth between intently checking the news and murmuring confusion between each other, you pull Xavier aside.

“Xavier, just in case we don’t make it. I just want you to know” you start, averting your gaze as you feel the tears begin to pool in your eyes. “...I just...I’m really...you’ve been…” you’re trying to find a way to tell him how much he’s meant to you, and the amount of gratitude you have for his patience and understanding, how he’s made every day a memorable one for you, how he’s the best person you’ve ever known, dead or alive. How you don’t believe you’ve actually been stuck wandering the earth together all these years, because when you’re with him you think you must have done something right in your life, because there is no doubt in your mind this is what heaven feels like. But you can’t, you can’t get a single word out if you want to keep any semblance of calm and keep the flood gates from opening.

Thankfully Xavier stops you before your nonsensical blubbering can go any further.

“I know, you have too.” He says this as he clasps your hands in his, before moving one hand up to wipe a stray tear from your cheek and bringing your attention back to him. As you look at him you see glassy blue orbs filled with tears that match your own, holding behind them eons of love and unsaid devotion. But he is much better at holding himself together so he marches on.

“If something happens and we don’t make it through this. Or we end up in some new shittier purgatory, I promise you I’ll come find you there! There is nothing in this life or any other that can keep me from you, okay? We’re gonna be alright though, I promise”

All you can do is nod your head, and muster up enough strength to get out a quiet “I love you”

“I love you too”

You and Xavier sit on the bunk that was once designated as his, all those years ago when he came here with the hope of a fun summer away from his troubles. Back then he was always running; running to something, running from something. There was never any certainty in his life, not even in his after life, not until you.

Now he’s starting to feel like that scared boy he once was. The one once found on the edge of death in MacArthur Park, trying so desperately to feel anything, and trying even more in vain to make that feeling last. He had nothing to loose back then in his desperate pursuit for euphoria. But he learned real fast that when things sounded too good to be true they most certainly were.

And that’s why he holds you closer now. Because you were the greatest good he has ever known, and there is certainly no way someone as wretched and cursed as him could ever keep someone as exceptional and pure as you.

He’d tasted bliss for too long now, and it must be time for the collector to come calling. But that didn’t mean he would let you go without a fight, because here in your arms is the only place that has ever felt like home, and he would protect his fortress come hell or high water (or the literal end of the world).

But that fight may or may not come and right now was about settling your nerves and keeping you calm. So he puts his resolve on the back burner and moves to pull you into his lap to whisper words of love and encouragement while you wait for the missiles to strike.

You feel them before you hear them, the impact on the earth, who knows how many miles away, before it broke the sound barrier. You didn’t even have enough time to process the incoming force before you were knocked out and everything and everyone you had known for decades was wiped away.

/

There is no way to tell how much time has passed when you wake in a pile of rubble and ash, with no discernable clue as to where you were in relation to the miles of identical rubble and ash that surrounded you. You weren’t sure where in the camp you were. The only thing keeping you believing this was even still Redwood were the semblance of remaining trees around you. Other than that there was nothing else insight but dirt and debri, and no sign of any other soul.

After you got your bearings you go in search of Xavier, or anyone else for that matter.

After a few minutes you come across a spot of land that seems vaguely familiar. Although there are no more cabins and no more dock, you’re pretty sure the crater that sits before you used to be the lake.

The lake where you died.

The lake you had no escape from for the past 30 years.

The lake you were swimming in only a few minutes ago.

The lake where you and Xavier spoke your first words to each other.

The lake where you sat on the dock dipping your toes in the water as you told one another that you loved each other for the first time.

The lake that you used to think if you never saw again, would be too soon.

The lake that you would now give anything to see full again.

After a couple minutes lost in your reverie, you hear a voice in the distance. One you’d recognize anywhere.

Without a moments hesitation you take off towards its source.

After tripping over countless branches and what you can only assume used to be one of the cabins you make it to a clearing and see Xavier bounding your way with Chet in tow.

“Oh my god! Thank god you're okay!” He breathes out as he pulls you into his embrace. You feel him exhale in relief as he holds you, before he lets you go in order to inspect you, searching for any signs of distress.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“No I’m fine, are you ok?”

After looking him over in return to make sure everything’s alright and he gives you a nod, you look over to Chet, who you had quite honestly forgotten was there.

“You too?”

“Yea we’re fine, it’ll take more than one measly nuclear bomb to take down all this” he accentuates by raising his shirt and slapping his abs.

“I’m glad to see your modesty survived the blast as well” you answer giving him a wink and a nudge before you continue.

“we should find the others.”

/

It took a couple hours to track down the rest of your group. At least what felt like it, with the clocks gone there was no telling what time it was.

And the haze the bombs left kept it constantly looking like dusk.

After regrouping you all agreed you should look for any pieces of camp left behind, any signs of life, or just any signs of anything at all.

/

And that’s how it went for the next couple of days. You would walk around looking for signs of life, and finding very few momentos left behind by the camp. Then every once in a while you would all regroup in the middle of the crater that was once the lake, and switch between theories of what was happening out in the rest of the world and reminiscing about times when this place was still standing.

/

Almost everyone in your group of confidants, aside from Ray, was sitting at your usual meeting spot when he came barreling towards you all.

“You guys come here I have to show you something.” His voice was full of excitement.

“What?” Montana asked back, thoroughly unimpressed with his optimism. You had never met two people more different. To Montana, Ray was like a pesky mosquito, who she would often shoo away, that is when she wasn’t bossing him around and telling him to “make himself useful”.

“Just trust me it’s important.”

After a few minutes of grumbling and feet dragging. You and Xavier, Montana, Trevor, and Chet made your way to the empty piece of land Ray was pointing at. Picking up Bertie and the real nurse Rita along the way.

“What? What are we supposed to be looking at?” Bertie questioned, taking it upon herself to ask what you were all wondering.

“Right here.” He points to a spot on the ground, that aside from the line he had made with his shoe, looked the exact same as the rest of your surroundings.

“This is the entrance to Camp Redwood.”

“How do you know? There’s nothing here.” Xavier pointed out motioning around to the surrounding emptiness.

“I have measured the number of steps to the entrance, from just about every place in this camp.”

“God somebody needs to get laid. You have way too much time on your hands.” Xavier regards. And you can’t help but let a laugh slip out.

Narrowing his eyes at that comment, Ray attempts to defend himself. “We’ve been here for decades. Chet wouldn’t even talk to me for years, and before you met y/n, you and Montana only acknowledged me when I was cleaning up your messes, and I….you know what I don’t have to explain myself. What I’m about to show you will have you praising me for the way I chose to pass the time. You should all be kissing my loafers for this.”

Ray was really getting sick of still being the butt of the other counselors jokes and jabs. Even now at the end of the world, when he has made such a monumental discovery.

Deciding not to waste more time getting upset he proceeds.

“So as you know most of the camp has been destroyed and there aren’t really any notable places left behind? Well there is one. The tree we all signed our names on, well most of it anyways. But lucky for us I could still make out both Trevor and Xavier’s names. And exactly 644 steps straight ahead of those signatures is the entrance to the camp.

“You’re point being?” Montana snips, tired of waiting for him to get to the climax of his story.

“My point being. Right now I am in Camp Redwood.”

He says, before he slowly and dramatically takes one long stride over the line he had drawn.

“...now I’m not...”

“and I feel fine”

Notes: i wasn’t really planning on uploading any of my writing here, but I feel like there is more of an interest in Xavier content than on ao3 so why not? Basically the jist of this comes from speculating what would happen to the spirits stuck at the hellmouth’s after the apocalypse (which I know many people have wondered and we’ve never been given a definitive answer). So I wondered what would happen if the whole world became one large hellmouth and the spirits could roam free. This series follows you an Xavier as you eventually make your way to rumored Sanctuary. It will involve Michael Langdon, and as of right now might get kind of dark, so fair warning. Anyways, thank you for reading!

Tagging this supporting queen: @guiltyfiend

[panic-at-the-fiction]

Let’s Talk About Cuba

Sumary: (y/n) and Alex has a rocky relationship to begin with but after the events in Cuba they have a lot to talk about. But Alex seems to be avoiding (y/n).

Warnings: Smut, totally could have used some protection. Bad smut writing

A/N: So I wrote this in like May before I had even started posting and I had a friend help me write the smut part but she quit on me so I had to write the uncomfortable last bit by myself. And for my first smut piece ever I did okay with it but I was so uncomfortable writing it I never got around to posting it. So here I am 5 months later finally posting it. And may I say Alex Summers needs more smut written for him. Just not by me.

Things had been complicated for the past couple of months. Shaw was finally dead. Then we lost Erik and Raven to the human killing dark side just like we had lost angel. Then Xavier told us that Moria wasn’t going to be coming back to the mansion either. She had left without even saying goodbye too. At least Shawn had the decency to tell he was returning home to see his parents.

Our ragged tag team of mutants was gone and with Xavier and Hank all so busy with their big plans to make this place into a mutant school, with their bright new students arriving any day now. There was really no point in me and Alex staying here.

I mean we were too old to be students. Neither of us were qualified to be teachers either, but where else would we go? Charles and Erik had found Alex in a high security prison and me living out of an illegal gambling ring hustling sleazy rich guys at poker each night. We didn’t have a warm fuzzy home to go back too like Shawn did.

I had been wondering the halls for the past hour trying to find Alex. We hadn’t had a chance to talk in private about what happened In Cuba.

He had saved me from one of angels acid spit blast only to end up on top of me. Both of our faces barely inches apart. I swear we stayed like that for an eternity. Both of us staring at the other like we were contimplating the existence of the universe.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I had always felt a tension between us. At first it seemed like it was burning hatred but over training our sarcasitc comments to each other became less mean and more flirtatious. Only now we barely even say anything. Just a few glances between us followed by awkward eye contact.

Ever since Cuba I haven’t been able to think much about anything other than his lips on mine. Neither of us have been willing to bring it up yet and Ive started to think maybe he didn’t want to talk to me. That he’s been avoiding me and that what ever happened with us on that beach was in my head; that he doesn’t feel the same way. The idea of it all was stressing me out. I had never felt like this before. I had never gotten this worked up over a guy.

I knocked on his bedroom door, but no answers. I could hear his record player playing in his room. He had to be in there. “Alex open up Its me, we really need to talk.” Still no answer. I was beginning to get pissed off. If he didn’t want to talk about Cuba because he doesn’t feel the same way he can tell me like a man. “Alex! Just open the damn door and talk to me like a man or I’ll have to break it down!”

That’s when I heard the hallway bathroom door open. He was just strolling out of the bathroom, post shower in sweat pants and no shirt. This man really had no idea the effect he could have on me. I stormed over to him pointing my finger at his chest ready to unleash my weeks worth of built up anger and insecurities. “Where the hell have you been Summers?! I haven’t seen you around in a week! How come you’ve been ignoring me? To afraid to talk to me like a man now summers?”

He just stared at me startled like a deer I headlights. He seemed to get ahold of himself and process what I had yelled at him.“I haven’t been avoiding you (y/n). I’ve just been busy with you know stuff.”

“Oh you’ve just been busy with ‘stuff’ that’s why I’ve been wondering the halls alone the past couple of weeks. We’re they only ones here and there hasn’t been anything to do since we got here. How the hell have you been busy? I mean I’ve gone out of my mind just trying to occupy the time. You haven’t talked to me in days and UGH I’m trying to be mad at you for ignoring me but it’s hard to focus when your not wearing a goddamn shirt!” In that moment I couldn’t stop myself. I grabbed his face and pulled him down to my hight crashing my lips onto his. I realized what I had done to late and I quickly pulled away, trying to act cool about what I had just done.

The awkward silience was deadly. Alex only laughed and shook his head. “You really have no idea how insane you drive me.” He closed the distance between us, pushing me up against the wall grabbing my hips and kissing me.

I threw my arms around his shoulders completely melting at the feeling of his lips on mine. The kiss was picking up quickly. His hand slid down to the back of my thighs and he easily lifted me off the ground. I quickly wrapped my legs around him.

He fumbled with the door handle to his room. Barely getting open and getting us inside. He kicked the door shut with his foot before laying us down on the bed. His lips begin to work their way down my neck stopping and leaving marks every so often. His fingers tracing up my shirt, slowly pushing it up. I couldn’t stand his slow teasing so I broke the kiss, quickly taking off my own shirt.

We easily fell back into the same rhythm. Each kissing the other like we couldn’t get enough.

Alex unhooked my bra and began kissing down my stomach, moving towards my hips. He slowly slipped my pants off. “Is this ok?” he asked.

“Of course it is.” His hand drifted to my inner thighs and then to my already wet heat.

“You're this sensitive, baby?”

“Don't act like it's not your fau-“ He pressed his lips onto mine before I could finish my sentence. The hand that was hovering over me started taking off my underwear. I shimmied my legs to get them off and he broke away.

“Do we really have time for all this teasing?” I asked sitting up on my hands.

“Hey I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time now. I’m gonna do it right.” He repositioned himself so he could comfortably rest his head between my thighs. He moved closer, grazing his tongue against my clit slowly. I ran my hand through his hair.

“Fuck.” I moaned as the knot in my stomach unraveled.

“You better quite down or you might wake up the whole mansion.” He laughed.

“Shut up you jerk” I said playfully smacking his shoulder.

“Now lay on you back.”

“A bit demanding there aren’t we?” he said refusing to move.

“Just do it.” I said pushing him over so that he laid beside me.

“Alright then.”

I flipped over to straddle him. I quickly took off his sweat pants. I line him up with my entrance and in to him. I lean down connect our lips again. I moved my hips as fast as I could. I couldn’t get enough of him. Alex seemed to not even able to get enough either as he flipped me back over leaving him once more on top.

His pace was rough and fast but I could still feel the tenderness with every thrust. I dragged my hands down his back. I must have scratched him because he took both my hands and pinned them down with his own away from both of us. Between not being able to touch him and his uncontrollable thrust the knot in my stomach built up once more and was quickly undone. Alex continued thrust as he reached his own high.

With both of us hot and out of breaths he slowly pulled out and layed beside me. We layed there still catching our breaths before I trned my head to look over at him. “So you’ve been waiting to do that with me for a while?” I asked smiling thinking about what he had said earlier. “How long have you’ve wanted to do that?”

He flipped over to face me and set up on his elbow. “To be honest since the first day they brought us together and you stood up to me all sassy like.” I was doing my best not to laugh. To think after all that worrying about him not feeling the same way about me he had liked me since before I knew I like him.

Alex smiled at me and slipped his arm around me pulling me closer so that I was laying on his chest. “You think we woke up the professor dorks down the hall?”

I had totally forgot they were still in the mansion. I let out a soft laughed and burred my face in his chest. “Oh God I hope not.”

[luverofralts]

Post Arkhelios

Just as Abe and Roman were about to head for the bus station, Abe got an urgent text from Lucy that he needed to come back to the house immediately. Roman had insisted that he leave it and stick to the plan, but Abe couldn’t bring himself to leave without knowing if something important was happening. Maybe Lucy had decided to send them off with a hug or money for bus tickets. He would miss out on so many family moments when he and Roman left. Who knows when he’d see her next? It just made sense to see her again before he left.

However, it wasn’t Lucy who was waiting for him. Elaine had left work to come home when she received Oriana’s worried phone call after her own call from Jolanda. The Rivales were spreading this story relentlessly around Arkhelios, and Elaine needed to be home to do damage control. Was she so bad at mothering that she had been completely blindsided by this? How had she not seen the signs? She thought of the worn teddy bear long abandoned in her former home. How had history repeated itself without her knowing?

“Abraham Helios-Chun you have a lot of explaining to do!” she shouted as she saw her son approach.

Abe nearly died on the spot. Whether it was out of shame, or fear he couldn’t tell. He was dead either way. Thank the watcher that Roman was waiting for him at the station and hadn’t come. They decided that saying goodbye to Lucy would probably go better if Roman wasn’t around to rile her up.

“Hi Mom,” he managed to squeak. “You’re home early from work.”

Elaine’s resolve crumbled when she saw the fear in her son’s eyes. It transported her right back to when she was his own age. She pulled her son into a tight hug and closed her eyes. She wouldn’t be her father. She would take care of this.

“How did this happen, and how long has it been going on?”

Wanda stopped to once again pick up the garbage can outside of her brother’s home. It had been a stressful day at work, as no one could stop talking about the love life of two teenagers they barely knew. Roman was her nephew now, and it bothered her to hear the entire town bad mouth him. So one kid ran away from school and knocked up his boyfriend. What did that matter to the entire town? Shouldn’t they be focused on increasing immigration to Arkhelios and solving three murders? The Bellamys were beside themselves looking for Roman, and Wanda wanted no part in that drama. She had her own brother to worry about.

Melvin was playing with the twins when she arrived, and she scooped up Dorian happily. She was rooting for Roman and Abe, but they were kids and the adults in Arkhelios couldn’t stop working to make Arkhelios a better place for those kids to live.

She loved visiting her nephews, especially now that her mother wasn’t around to ruin the experience. Hunter desparately wanted to start a family now that they were married, but Wanda wasn’t quite ready. She wanted to enjoy her marriage for a while without juggling her work and family even more so. Plus there was a nagging feeling in the back of her brain that felt like this desire for kids was being influenced by Hunter’s father. Salem had made no secret about his hopes for Adam and Omar to start families immediately after he made his move on city council, and the last thing Wanda wanted was to make Salem happy. Even Roman was producing little Bellamys now; she wanted to hold out until she had a better idea of what kind of family she had married into.

Sheldon had cleaned up most of her mother’s room, but there was one survivor of her mother’s animal hoarding remaining. She fed the little animal while Melvin was busy, trying not to look at too many of her mother’s belongings. Peggy had been a hard woman to love, but Wanda had still loved her in her own way. Losing Zane on top of everything hurt more than she could even admit. He had been so young. His girlfriend Ulyssa was off taking the world by storm, and he was dead. None of it made any sense.

Moving on from that loss was turning into one of the hardest things Wanda could imagine. It was only her and Melvin now, and Melvin had been acting strangely lately. Maybe the pressure she was putting him under to solve those murders was unfair. She knew just a bit of magic, and the crime scene photos from their house set off all kinds of magical red flags to her. She would have to do more research on weird occult phenomenons just in case it became relevant to the case. Melvin wouldn’t know how to approach any of that, and her spectral assistant could only do much without her direction.

When the twins were asleep, Wanda sat her brother down for tea and a sisterly chat.

“You seem really tired lately,” she remarked. She took a long sip of her drink. “I’m sorry if I’ve been too hard on you lately. It’s just hard not understanding what happened here, why it happened, or if it could happen again. It really messes with your head, and it’s a lot to put on you. Especially when you still live here with your family.”

Melvin sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair.

“It is hard,” he admitted. He swirled the tea in his cup absentmindedly. “I hope to find a break in the case every day, but I’ve still got nothing.” He placed the cup back on the table and cleared his throat.

“I found out who my father is. Who he was,” Melvin announced. Wanda gasped. She had never really expected to ever know the missing half of her family tree.

“How?”

“Mom had a letter among her things that Sheldon found. You, me and Zane are all half-siblings. I guess I owe you $20 on that bet.”

“No wonder you’ve been so distracted lately. I didn’t think we’d ever find out.” She tried to gauge where he was emotionally with this revelation, but his face was unreadable. For the first time in her life, Wanda had no idea what her brother was feeling. “Who was it?”

“Xavier Chun.”

“Huh.” That was a surprise. He’d seemed so happy with his wife. Her mother always did have a way with married men though. “I would never have guessed. Him and Mom? Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“I guess that makes you Abe’s uncle. Your nephew is rather infamous at the moment. Ian too.” She trailed off as the implications of this began to form before her. “You have a half-brother. You and I aren’t all we have left as family; you have a brother that I don’t. That Zane didn’t have either. This is so messed up.”

Melvin nodded.

“Just think, you don’t know who your father is, and you married someone who never knew his birth parents until fairly recently. What if you’re related? Arkhelios is a small place.”

Wanda’s eyes widened in horror as she thought about just how little she knew about her own family tree. If Melvin had a half-brother that they had grown up not realizing was related to him, she could have any number of siblings of her own hiding in plain sight. What had kept Melvin from accidentally dating Ian all this time? Would her mom have intervened if he had?

“It looks like I’m getting a DNA test tomorrow,” she groaned. “Thanks Mom, even when you’re dead you’re still making life difficult.”

[rebelwrites]

Chapter Eighteen: Code Red

Summary // Chapter List / Masterlist

Warnings: gun fire, degrading talk, blood, shooting

Join the TagList Here 💜

Xavier couldn’t help but smile as Brooke slept peacefully on his chest. He didn’t plan on waking her up as it was the first night she didn’t have a nightmare and pretty much got a full nights sleep without using the sleeping tablets. So he just laid there letting the sounds of her breathing soothe his soul.

That was until his phone started ringing. Rolling his eyes as he reached for it, couldn’t people leave them alone for twenty four hours.

“Seriously this better be important” Xavier said to whoever was calling.

“Well good morning to you to son” He dad laughed

“What do you want, old man?” Xavier half laughed. Know his dad wasn’t calling for a chat.

“Just calling to check in seen as you didn’t come home last night, I guess things went well” Alex said, the smile was evident in his voice

“Better than I could have imagined” Xavier smiled looking down at his girl in his arms.

“Okay so you know I didn’t just call for a chat” Alex sighed “everything is under control but all hell broke out last night after one of the prospects was spotted outside of Tom’s compound. James has everything under control but you needed to know”

“Thanks pops” Xavier sighed, as Brooke started to stir in his arms. “I’ve got to go but we will be home soon”

As he ended the call he tossed his phone on the end table, running his hand over his face. Nothing ever went smooth.

Brooke sleepily rubbed her eyes before looking up at Xavier smiling.

“Morning sleepy” he whispered brushing her hair off her face. “How are you feeling this morning?”

“I’m a little sore but other than that amazing” she smiled running her hand along Xavier’s chest. “Last night was perfect”

“As long as I wasn’t too rough” he chuckled.

“Maybe I like it rough” Brooke giggled.

“Bumble don’t we need to head back soon” Xavier nodded “even though I’d love to stay in our little bubble here”

“I mean I am kinda of hungry” she giggled rolling over to head to the bathroom, out of habit she wrapped the duvet around her naked body.

“Baby you don’t need to cover yourself around me” Xavier whispered running his hand down her spin.

“I know but I still have scars that aren’t covered yet” She mumbled.

“Hey” Xavier said softly as he wrapped his arms around her. “They don’t bother me baby, I know you hate them but it’s a reminder of just how strong you are. Don’t be ashamed of them”

Once Brooke had finished in the bathroom the two of them laid in bed, in a comfortable silence. Until the sound of gunshots echoed around the building followed by the sound of the metal doors falling onto the ground.

“Babe get dress” Xavier breathed rolling out of bed, pulling his clothes on in record time before kissing the top of her head “grab your gun and please just stay here. I will be back in a minute”

Xavier made sure his gun was fully loaded before he dialled his father.

“CODE FUCKING RED” he yelled, before his father said another word the sound of alarms filled the background signalling the emergency button had been activated.

“How many son?” Alex asked

“Not a clue all I know is we are under attack and need back up” Xavier breathed trying to stay calm as he took the safety off his gun due to hearing voices in the next room. “Just get here ASAP dad” before the line went dead.

“How do we know the slut is here?” A voice asked.

“I was watching them last night, no one left and Dickhead's bike is still outside” another voice laughed.

“Tom will be so happy to have his toy back and not going to lie. I'm looking forward to having my way with her” the first voice laughed.

Xavier felt sick at the thought, but he pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He needed to figure out how many there were and keep his girl safe. That was until an ear piercing scream could be heard around the range.

“XAVIER” Brooke screamed

“Fuck” Xavier mumbled as he sprinted back the bedroom to find one of Tom’s guys had his arm wrapped around Brooke’s neck and a gun pointed at her head.

The tears were rolling down her face as she shook in the guy's arms. Taking one step forward Xavier fired his gun, shooting the guy right between his eyes, causing the body to fall to the floor with a thud. As soon as Brooke realised she was free she ran into Xavier’s arms grabbing her gun in the process.

“Remember what I told you” Xavier nodded “point, shoot, think later”

Squeezing his eyes closed he composed himself. Where the hell was his dad and the club?

Looking around the room, it was now filled with around twenty men, all of which were armed.

“Come on Brooke, come home we miss you” one guy smirked

“Rot in hell you piece of shit” Brooke spat aiming the gun at him as he took a step forward. “Take one more fucking step and I will shoot”

“You don’t have it in you” he laughed taking a couple more steps “you were always a weak piece of shit”

The only sound that filled the room was the sound of gunshot followed by the screams of the guy, making Xavier smirked.

“Do I look like I’m ducking playing?” Brooke growled “that was a warning shot, one more step and you are dead”

Douchebag didn’t listen, Brooke squeezed the trigger two more times, putting two holes in his chest, causing him to drop to the floor, grunting, gasping for air as he clutched his chest.

“Anyone else fucking moves and you end up like asshole over here” Brooke screamed as the adrenaline kicked in. She was in survival mode.

Xavier could see the adrenaline kick in but he knew once this was all over it would affect her.

Two more guys stepped forward as Brooke scanned the room, so Xavier fired putting a bullet in both of their faces. Everything was happening so fast as the club stormed in. The only sound was the gunshots.

Until Xavier heard a scream over the chaos.

Spinning around his eyes landed on Brooke as she clutched her side, dropping her gun to the ground as the colour faded from her face. Without thinking he ran over to her, catching her before she dropped to the floor. He reached for her gun tucking it into the waistband of his jeans. Before he pressed against the bullet wound trying to keep pressure on it to stop her from bleeding out.

“Come on bumble bee” he sobbed as her eyes flickered “please stay with me”

“Son we need to get you out of here,” Alex said, placing his hand on Xavier’s shoulder. “Pass me her gun, i've got you covered”

“Come on Brooke, keep them eyes open for me” Xavier sobbed as he carried her through the chaos. “I am not fucking losing you again”

[plus-size-reader]

Obvious

Xavier Plympton x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1965 words

Warnings: none 

Summary: Chet flirting with you the whole time you’re at aerobics only for you to be introduced to him by Montana as Xavier’s ex. 

——————————————————————————————————

Everyone had been watching Chet flirt with you for weeks. 

It was kind of pathetic, in all honesty, but no one wanted to tell him that. In fact, everyone was really just trying to see how it would end up. 

Montana and Ray had made a joke about it. They were talking about it, constantly. It became some kind of silly thing that they kept to themselves, betting on what he would do and when. 

...But the biggest bet of all was when Xavier would notice. 

When you two broke up, you decided to be friends and not in that dumb way that most people did where they said that but never actually did. You were real friends, not bothered by the history between you. 

You cared about each other and you had so many shared friends and social circles, it wasn’t worth giving up. 

However, there was no telling if having one of his closest friends flirting with his ex would change Xavier’s opinion. 

It had never happened before.

Still, the blonde was bound to notice at some point. Chet was practically drooling over you, and even X couldn’t have been that dumb. Right? 

It was starting to boggle their minds, but something about today felt different. From the moment Chet walked into class, there was some odd attention about you. 

Montana noticed it right away, and she wasn’t the only one.

Even Xavier couldn’t help but pay mind to what was going on. 

Without missing a beat, Chet strolled right over to you, striking up some conversation about something neither of them could hear. Whatever it was though, it had to be funny because you were giggling up a storm.

“I had no idea they were so cozy” Montana hummed, bumping Ray teasingly, making sure to keep eye contact with Xavier in the front of the room. 

She was baiting him to get upset but he was better than that. 

...You both were. 

“Knock it off ‘Tana,” Xavier grumbled, stretching as best he could with his eyes still locked on you across the room. 

Of course he didn’t like the idea of you two hooking up, but he didn’t get to tell you what to do anymore, not that it did him any good when you two were together. 

You could do what you wanted, even if the thing you wanted to do was Chet. 

No amount of him telling you it was a bad idea would change anything. 

“But it’s so much fun!” she grinned, closing the small amount of space between the two of them, her eyes never leaving you and Chet in the center of the room.

“Does it bother you? To think about her moving on?” she wondered, only half kidding. 

After all this time she’d been waiting, there was no way she wasn’t going to torment him a little bit. Maybe if he’d put the pieces together quicker, it would have been better. 

Maybe she would have been nicer, but probably not. 

“Shut up Montana” he hummed, his warning nothing more than a few words from under his breath. He hated to admit it, but she had a point. He wanted to be over you, to be an adult like he told himself he was.

...But he could only lie to himself for so long. 

You two had a lot of good times together and Xavier loved you, he always would love you. Nothing was ever going to change that, even if he wanted it to. In fact, if X got his way, he would never think about you in a romantic sense ever again but he just couldn’t help himself. 

On the other side of the room though, you were completely oblivious to what was going on. 

You didn’t even really realize that Chet was putting the moves on you, you just thought that he was being friendly. After all, what would a guy like him want with a girl like you anyway? 

“That’s not true” you tutted, a laugh escaping you as Chet grinned at you, doing his best to convince you that half the women’s rhythmic gymnastics team had hit on him during his first week. 

You knew it was an exaggeration, but it was still hilarious to see what lengths he would go to in an effort to get you to believe it. 

“For sure, and you know those swimmers pack their shorts right?” he hummed, shrugging as if it was common knowledge that you should have been privy to before now. 

“You’re a liar” you snickered, batting at his shoulder lightly with your hand. You had no idea where he came up with all this stuff.

All Chet did was cross his heart, like that would convince you of anything. 

However, before he could come up with anything more dramatic for you to believe, Xavier interrupted by clearing his throat. “We’re gonna start, if that’s okay with everyone” 

You missed the obvious bite in his words, but Montana and Ray got it clear as day, trying to keep their laughter to a minimum. 

They didn’t get it, they didn’t understand the depth of what Xavier was feeling. They had no idea what he was dealing with, thinking about all those feelings he’d convinced himself that he’d buried. 

He didn’t want to feel it, but that was just the way it was. 

...He would be lying to himself if he tried to convince himself that it wasn’t. 

 ~

Tonight’s class would have gone well, if Xavier hadn’t missed a few of the steps in his routine. 

It didn’t make any sense.

Besides, this was the 80s and you could get a slushie at any hour of the day...who was he to pass that up? 

“So, what’s the deal?” you wondered, your slushy straw at your lips as you waited for Xavier to spill the beans. You two had parked, and you had nothing to do now but talk.

After all, you weren’t going to just let this go now that you knew there was something up. 

It wasn’t in your nature. 

However, explaining himself wasn’t going to be all that simple for Xavier. Mostly because he had no idea how you’d react to what he was proposing. When the two of you had broken up, that was supposed to be it, but now he was messing it up. 

...But it wasn’t like he’d done it on purpose.

“How do you feel about Chet?” he asked, thinking it was fair enough to start with. He just had no idea how to approach this because it upset him heavily to watch you two flirt but he also didn’t want you to know that. 

This was something he could get over, if he gave it enough time. Xavier was sure how long it would be, but he just had to get over it, right?

You couldn’t help but be taken aback by his question. How did you feel about Chet? You had no idea why that mattered. You were worried about what was upsetting him but he wanted to talk about Chet. 

He never missed a step in his perfectly practiced, intricate routines but he was off his game tonight. He couldn’t hope to focus on what he was doing while having to also watch Chet offer to deepen your stretch. 

It was killing him. 

In all honesty, Xavier wanted nothing more than to tell him to step off, and to tell him that you belonged to him but that wasn’t true anymore. You weren’t his and that was just something X would have to come to terms with. 

There was no other way. 

Or so he thought. 

See, Xavier had noticed the slight faults in his footing, and the mistakes but he wasn’t the only one. You knew Xavier better than anyone else, and the odd way he was acting tonight didn’t miss you. 

Something was up and you were determined to find out what it was. 

Usually you would have gone right home after class, especially with everything that had happened recently but today, you stopped at his van and waited instead. 

You waited until you saw your favorite blonde walking down the pavement and then you moved. 

“What’s up with you tonight? You seem like something is bothering you” you wondered, fully understanding that he may not want to talk to you about it and that was fine. If Xavier wanted you to leave him alone, he was free to tell you that. 

...But you had to be sure.

Xavier didn’t speak for a second, just trying to wrap his mind around the fact that you had actually stuck around to wait for him. He assumed that you would have left with Chet by now. 

“Just got a lot on my mind right now” 

It was a blatant lie, but you didn’t call him on it at first. You had learned a long time ago that it was best to let Xavier open up on his own. “Okay, well, do you wanna get a slushie and talk about it?” you offered, unsure if you were overstepping. 

You two were friends, and friends did things like that sometimes, right? You had no idea at this point. 

Before you could apologize for being too forward though, X nodded. As much as he hated himself for being confused, maybe you could help him work through it. 

After all, you were the only person he could actually talk to about all of this. 

“I don’t know. He’s a nice guy, why?” you hummed, shocked that that was what he wanted to talk about. You didn’t see how it was relevant, though you were glad he was actually talking to you. 

It was better than complete silence. 

“He’s flirting with you, you know that don’t you?” he clarified, slurping on his own cup. It was much more harsh than he’d meant for it to be but Xavier couldn’t help himself. The more he thought about it, the more it broke down at his resolve. 

Xavier had been in love with you for as long as he could remember and the idea that a friend of his could also have feelings for you was overwhelming.

It was forcing him to deal with things he thought he’d ignored. 

“Flirting with me? He is not?” you sighed, not believing it for a second. There was no way that someone like Chet was actually into you. Xavier had to be out of his mind if he believed that. 

However, X didn’t laugh like you had been expecting him to. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all. He just waited for you to come to terms, just like he was trying to do. 

“Yes he is, I saw it with my own two eyes” he grumbled, wishing you would just understand where he was coming from. This was hard for him, and he just had no idea how to express that. Being in love with his ex wasn’t something Xavier was practiced in. 

“And why do you care?” you wondered, matching the tone that X was using with you. If Chet was flirting with you, so be it. 

There was no reason for him to be acting like this. 

However, instead of answering you with words, Xavier just leaned forward and pressed his lips to your own. Neither of you had been expecting it but that didn’t change the fact that it was happening. 

By the time you pulled away from each other, neither of you had words.

...There were no words. 

“I care because I love you” he whispered, his hand still resting on your cheek. It wasn’t what X had in mind, but it might have been better. There was one thing that he knew for sure, he wasn’t oblivious anymore. 

[helpinghanikan]

Stay outside the Line

X-men x Reader

Sum:  Just because a mutation is a gift, doesn’t mean it’s not a curse.

an: the mutation is anyone within certain distance of the reader will start to die. Could not think of an eloquent way to say that. 

Charles Xavier:

           Sitting just within the shadow of one of the massive trees you lean back into the sun. The breeze is comfortable, and the grass is soft. If it weren’t for you company it’d be too easy to lean back and nap right there and then.

           Although you’d never know the touch of his hand you were still connected to your man. A long stretch of twine, twenty-one feet exactly, is tied around your wrist. The other end was connected to Charles. Tied in the same fashion around your wrist but holding the string between his fingers. Without even meaning to he was caressing it; thumb rubbing up and down the length while the other hand held his book.

           Closest you would get as physical contact from Charles was mirroring his movements. Running your own thumb over your other hand, not looking down lest your break the illusion.

                                                 ---------------------

Erik Lehnsherr:

           At first he was just another face staring at you behind bullet proof glass. Both he and the other guy were talking to your host, mouths moving but nothing coming through on your end. Had it been a year or even a few months early you would have sat on your bed with knees to the chest. Wait for them to leave before being comfortable again.

           Now you just keep reading, barely glancing without interest to the glass.

           “What have you done to be locked in here?” The tall man’s voice could be mistaken for God’s by how it comes down from above. The speakers placed so you’d never be able to pretend like you didn’t hear anything.

           ‘Accidentally killed a bus load of people.’ Was the answer but you wouldn’t say it.

           “It’s safer for everyone. They’ll make sure I won’t hurt anyone while I’m in here.” You say instead, nodding to your host.

           “Did they tell you that after they locked the door?” He asks.

           Supposedly you weren’t in a prison. The incident on the bus was labeled a ‘possible gas leak of unknown substances’. You being the only survivor was sent to this facility to help with the trauma, and to find out how the same incident happened in the hospital.

           You had yet to stare at him right on. His gentle knocking “You don’t belong here, you will never belong here. We can help you, We’ll make sure you’re safe.”

           There was nothing else to do with your life but to agree. You wouldn’t be able to leave on your own. But the moment you’re out, how could they ever get you back in?

                                                ---------------------

Raven/ Mystique:

         Over time you’ve learned how to push the poison deeper inside of you. Spending most days imaging it as a physical type of sand that covered you head to toe. Pressing and forcing that down into your shoes. Walking on it and keeping from spreading any further then a foot from your own body.

           Even with that amount of work there was still times that it slipped. When Pressure in your head and behind your eyes starts to push out, and a migraine seems preferable, you have to make a quick exit.

           Most people understand and don’t look twice when you run from the room. Others will give each other looks but only verbally ask what’s up in a whisper later on in the night. Then there was the few that understood but still followed. How do you tell the woman that you love to fuck off for a night? Probably in much nicer words, but for now you make an exit from the mansion, Raven keeping her distance but following anyway.

           “Get to the trees, little faster!” She almost yells the encouragement.

           “Please, Raven, Please stay back!” You yelled, both hands holding your head.

           It’d be romantic to think that you made it thanks to Raven’s encouragement. Whatever length of your nails, they dug into your scalp. The pressure was the definition of insanity at this point, stepping into the tree line and screaming without a sound.

           Thank whoever was up there that Raven knew better then to comfort you. Staying far enough away that the released poison never touched her. The poison obeyed it’s own laws and stayed within the twenty feet. In the dark of the night green grass turns brown and trees creak instead of scream as they die. Only one of said trees was small enough to be completely overtaken by it.

           You’re still drawing blood from your own head when that tree falls.

                                                  ---------------------

Peter Maximoff:

         The best way to describe Peter is like a kitten who just learned it could climb things. Try as you might to explain that it’s not a good idea to climb the drapes it will never listen. It will keep trying to climb no matter how many times you pull it away and tell it “no”.

           It’s not until there’s crashing in the middle of the night and few meows of pain that the little idiot will learn. This it the same situation you were in with Peter. No matter how many times you tell him to not get too close he always breaks the rule. Thinking that he is faster then the poison to run close enough to give a peck or a little slap on the backside before making it into the safe zone.

           Little kisses and touches were always nice, but it was playing with fire. Eventually he got too cocky, assuming he was faster than poison that tries too hard to protect you. He started to slow down to make the kisses longer and touches more frequent. When that didn’t come with real repercussions, he started going even slower. When his hand lingers too long on your back the repercussions hits him full force.

           It was hard enough to see the symptoms when you were younger. But as an adult, watching your man clutch his throat and fall to his knees was so much worse. With his head bowed you wouldn’t see the blood until he’d completely fall on his side, something that no one wanted to happen. Without thinking to you reached down to him, both hands open trying to do anything you can.

           You name is yelled from across the lawn. An overly harsh shout from your mentor who had never honestly yelled at you before. “Back away!”

           Charles could see the fear and shock in your eyes. But he also had the rest of his students to think about. ‘You have to go, now.’ The whisper in your mind is a world away from the panicked shouts, but it might have been better if he had just yelled at you.

                                                ---------------------

Hank McCoy:

           You had to be used to secluded rooms by now; at least this one was less like a cell and more like a square fish bowl. The stool in the center and the little slot on the side were the only things giving off prison vibes.

           For most of the afternoon Hank has been focused on either his desk or a microscope or a computer. Every time he moves from one to another you look from your book, wait a few seconds to see whether he was looking at you, then return to the paragraph that you now had to restart.

           There was no one to blame but yourself for this problem. Hank had told you it was going to be boring, when he would have results he’d get you himself. Instead you went with him. “Not like I’m doing anything anyway,” You had said, telling him to wait a few minutes to step into your little security fish box.

           “It’s good enough for a trial run.” He says, probably to himself.

           The liquid he holds up is the same shade of blue as his fur. Over the past few weeks it has changed from several different colors. At one point it looked like blood, like the same color as the blood you had given him. The he had held within a smaller containment field. Even the smallest part of you gave off at least a little poison.

           “That’ll fix it? Or least tone it down?” You ask.

           “Supposedly, I used my original idea and added some new things. Last time it didn’t go as well.” He says, slightly looking down at himself. He had meant it to come off as a joke, instead he says it with some sadness underlining it.

           “Well with new stuff it must have improved, hand it over.” You move next to the little slot by the door.

           “Considering last time, I’m gonna test it on something else, first. Make sure it doesn’t do the same thing again.” Hank says.

           “What else are you going to test it on?”

           “Not you,” He says shutting it in the desk. “If I make you any worse that box probably won’t hold it.”

           It’s hard to pout and leave the room when you can’t leave the room. Instead just crossing your arms and pouting.

                                                ---------------------

Jean Gray:

           Over a mile separates you and your woman. Hours spent in your little cabin in the corner of the estate, mostly sleeping, mostly hiding. This time it was pretending to sleep. Acting like the monstrous thunder and lightning outside wasn’t a window away from being in your room.

           The rest of the students were in the school itself. Having their thicker walls and each other to protect against the storm. The professor had offered you to stay inside the mansion during storms like this. But that safety would be in the basement, two floors below another living thing. Without any windows and set up with a less comfortable bed and none of your decorations. At least in the cabin you’d die around your things and the outside if the storm got in.

           ‘Hey’ Jean always had a way to find you. Mostly in your mind. ‘How are you doing?’

           “If I die do you think my mutation will leave with me?” You ask the darkness.

           ‘Don’t say that. It’s just a storm, nothing we don’t live with.’ Her soft laugh travels with her words. It warms the cabin and keeps away the lightening for the briefest of moments. ‘Do you want to come inside?”

           “No, I’m all snuggled up. I don’t think I’d make it to the mansion anyway.”

           Although the darkness gives nothing there’s a soft weight on your shoulder. A matching feel covering the extension of your back. Knees without a body pressed into the back of yours, arms and no being lay over your body. Their fingers in your hair. You were alone, but Jean make sure to be with you.

                                                  ---------------------

Logan/ Wolverine:

         Being around Logan was like being in another world. One where you were born without the poison smell and didn’t have to struggle to remember what another person felt like. First time you felt his hand on your shoulder it was like being slapped.

           “It’s like swallowing pennies. I can taste it, but nothing is coming out.” Logan had described it to you. His healing faster than the damage your poison could give.

           On the off chance that Logan is injured in your company, it’s very likely the poison would take advantage of that moment. But that didn’t stop you either of you. It was a possibility that was best not thought about.

           Instead you stay your course. Turning the school girl crush into a relationship through raw stubbornness and the ability to get drunk on someone into a two party affair.

                                                ---------------------

Kurt Wagner:

         You were two people with the same want of seclusion but for different reasons. Just happening to catch a glance of each other when having the same idea of a hiding spot.

           Back then you were still new to the estate, being allowed to read and work away from others. Catching a glance of anyone and your scrambling to gather your books, coming off as more then just rude when you yell at them to stay back.

           Kurt was the one you didn’t have time to yell at to get away. A flash of blue, books in your arms, and he’s gone. Only a few times did he stay long enough for you to catch a better look at him. A face, blue skin and a tail that hung down from the branch he had been sitting on. That time he was far enough away to not be in danger, had you waved at him he would be. But only if he misread and took it as an invitation to come closer.

           It took weeks but you finally had the courage to wave. Just a small one that he returned. A small relationship made through small gestures.

[msjr0119]

Cordonian Wags

Part 24

In a world full of Professional footballers and their demanding wives- can their football team nicknamed the ‘Cordonian Apples’ succeed? An American female physiotherapist joins the club. Will this cause issues with the footballers wives?

Book: The Royal Romance (A/U plot switch)

*Majority of the characters belong to Pixelberry*

Please do not read if under the age of 18. If you do, you are consenting that you are over this age. If any of the trigger warnings below affect you, please do not continuing reading the chapter! 😊

Warnings: Swearing, mention of cancer, mention of sex, mention of domestic abuse (past tense).

A/N: I feel like this is a filler chapter, and some of you may hate Riley in this 🤷‍♀️. As always there’s drama 🤦🏻‍♀️

Word Count: 2100ish

Tags: @pedudley @kacie-0156 @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bascmve01 @texaskitten30 @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @axwalker @yukinagato2012 @indiacater @seriouslybadchoices @rainbowsinthestorm @cordonianroyalty @desireepow-1986 @choices97

*****

Fuck.

Running out of the bathroom, Riley knew exactly who it was- and she wasn’t going to stop until she confronted the woman.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, Riley. I do feel for you. Honestly I do. But I hope that you don’t fight this.”

“Take that back Kiara! What are you doing here anyway?” Drake snapped towards his ex.

“I’m paying my respect to my lover, who was murdered if you’ve forgotten. Both myself and Madeleine are here. Then I saw you run off Drake- I wanted to make sure that you was okay.” Moving closer towards him, she reached her arm out towards him- hoping to comfort him. However he dodged it, instead wrapping his arms around Riley’s waist.

“No, I’m not okay- but that is none of your concern. Don’t tell anyone what you overheard...”

“Drake.. I know how much Riley means to you. But I’m here still. I can heal you.” Fuck she said something similar in my dream.

“I’m still here you know! You never deserved someone like Drake!”

“Maybe not, but people change. As I said, I hope that you don’t fight this. I’m still here- and I’ll always be here. Along with your ex husbands money.. we can have a great future, Drake. Don’t worry I’ll keep your little secret, won’t be long until the press find out though...” Walking away with a smirk, Riley didn’t trust her one bit- Kiara would do anything and everything to ruin their relationship.

And that’s it- full time! Well done to the Apples, what a fantastic match.

“Shall we head up upstairs? I’ll quickly change before they all go to the changing room. I’ll meet you up there.” Riley just nodded, knowing that going upstairs was about to be like entering a battlefield.

*****

Arriving upstairs, there were the usual familiar faces- the other WAGS. Then there was Kiara and Madeleine smirking, as if neither had done anything wrong in the past. They shouldn’t be there. They had no right to be there. They were ex partners. Not part of the ‘team’ anymore. Joining Olivia at the bar, Riley ordered a double whiskey. Ever since her cancer diagnosis she had avoided alcohol- but due to her run in with Kiara prior she needed it for Dutch courage.

“Woah, slow down.. what’s the matter with you?” Olivia asked, looking at her concerned. Ordering another, she really didn’t care what anyone thought anymore.

“Kiara and Madeleine are here. Kiara knows something about me. She’s not going to stop.”

“What does she know? Just ignore them. They’ll soon be booted out of here.”

“It doesn’t matter....”

“I killed your husband for you, if there’s something on your mind you can talk to me...”

“Kiara wants Drake back. That’s all.” Partially lying, she didn’t want to disclose the other reasoning as to why she was upset with Kiara’s presence in the room.

“Well Kiara can go and fuck herself with a baguette. He’s yours, he’s smitten with you. Don’t ever allow that French talking moron to steal him from you.” But one day I’m not going to be here, Riley thought to herself. Feeling familiar arms go around her waist, she was going to cherish every moment with Drake from now on.

*****

Bertrand provided a short speech regarding the deaths of Constantine and Xavier. Even though deep down he didn’t want to as he was aware of their true personalities he felt the need to. To prove to the press that the club were fully ‘heartbroken’ about the news. Clearing his throat he quickly changed the subject, the club had some positive news to share.

“Before the chairman passed away, he was in the process of signing two new players to join our club. Since his passing, I completed these contracts with the support of; the head of recruitment, head of performance and analysis as well as the chief scout. I am pleased to announce that the two men who will be joining us will be arriving tomorrow. You may all know one of them, Neville Vancouver....”

“Who’s neville Vancouver?” Riley whispered in Leo’s ear.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. He thinks he’s better than the rest of us. We played against his team last year, he has some beef with Drake. We don’t know why. He is always determined to break Drakes leg. I think it’s because Drake doesn’t have family who played professional football prior to him.”

“He sounds a snobby arsehole...” Leo high fived her. If his father wasn’t already dead, he potentially would be now. This news would never go down well with the team.

“The second player hasn’t played for Cordonian team before, so it’s a big change for him. I hope that you all make him feel welcome. Riley, you may know him....” Riley’s eyes widened, panic started running through he veins- wondering why she would know him.

“His name is Olivier Berger...”

“Fuck!” Not knowing how loudly that word slipped out, she soon had an audience as Bertrand continued talking about the mans career.

“Fuck?” Drake and Leo questioned her.

“Olivier played alongside Xavier in Manchester....”

“So why is that bad?”

“He’s the reason Xavier ....” Feeling like she couldn’t breathe, flashbacks from her past soon entered her mind.

“He’s one of the reasons that arsehole hurt my sister! Riley helped him recover from an injury and Olivier was forever grateful for her saving his career. That was all. Nothing more but Xavier became jealous.” Without fully elaborating, the gentlemen knew exactly what Lindsey was referring to. The abuse that Riley had received due to Xavier’s jealousy.

“Well it’ll be nice for him to have a friendly face when he arrives.” Drake said in a positive manner. Encouraging her not to worry about it.

“To end this speech, I’d just like to thank you all for putting in so much effort in today’s match. Even with the little disturbance from you Walker. Carry on putting one hundred per cent.....” Bertrand paused his speech as his phone began ringing along with a few notifications. Declining the call he read the notifications- his eyes widened before locking eyes with Riley. Suddenly an echo of gasps surrounded the room.

“Riley?” Bertrand managed to croak out, leading all eyes to land in her direction. Drake could feel Riley’s grip become tighter. Liam and Leo pulled her in for a tight hug, now she knew what was happening. Drake left her side. Not that he wanted to. Storming towards Kiara and Madeleine, they both fluttered their eyelashes towards him.

“Drake I’m so sorry to read about this...” Madeleine expressed in a fake sorrowful tone of voice before smirking.

“How could you do this Kiara?” Kiara pulled him to the side.

“I didn’t. I may have in a way threatened to do it but I would never do that. She’s dying anyway, so I just needed to be patient to win you back.”

“You and I were the only people who knew. So do explain to me how the press know the minute you found out?” Focusing her gaze towards her friend, Madeleine raised her drink into the air whilst winking. This was all the proof Drake needed. Somehow the witch knew. And exposed it. Still not trusting Kiara’s words, he decided to turn his anger towards the blonde. Kiara grabbed his arm, forcing him to face her. Caressing his cheek, she provided him with a soft smile as he tried to force his body away from her. Pulling him closer to her, she placed her lips on to his- keeping a tight grip on him.

“I love you, Drake. I’m always going to be here. I wouldn’t hurt you again.” Drake stood still, in shock that she would pull a stunt like this.

“Riley! Wait!” Pushing Kiara off of him, he saw all of his team mates run after Riley as the door slammed shut.

“Get the fuck out of my life, Kiara!”

*****

Drake kept calling and texting Riley but there was no answer. From his point of view he knew that she was in shock as the Rhys held her tight. Wishing it was him instead. Wishing that he had stayed comforting her rather than demanding the truth from his ex. Instead Kiara forced a kiss up on his lips, and Madeleine was back with her cunning plans. Causing trouble as she always did.

Arriving home, he hoped that she was there. That hope soon disappeared. Heading straight to her apartment, he had the press following his every move. No luck there either. Trying each of his team mates houses, no one had seen or heard from her.

Riley Brooks the Apples physio, loses her ‘ex’ husband. Now according to an anonymous source there is talk of a cancer scare? Is there trouble in paradise, as Drake Walker has been spotted driving around Cordonia- we assume searching for his girlfriend? More news to follow....

Entering the cabin alone, he was worried for her welfare and state of mind. He kept trying to contract her, losing his mind. He hoped that she would return on her own accord.

Please let me know that you are okay. Please come home. I love you so much x

*****

“He’s gone. You can come out now.”

“Thank you for covering for me.”

“He’s going to be losing his mind! Explain to us everything. Now!”

“Yes, I have cancer. I’m having an operation in a couple of weeks time. I didn’t want to worry anyone...so I didn’t want it to become public knowledge until after the op. Kiara overheard us discuss it. She’s the one that went to the press....” Breaking down in tears, her two friends comforted her as best as they could.

“And then he kissed her...” Barely speaking the words out- she felt as if her world had come crashing down in an instant.

“He wouldn’t kiss her on his own accord. It seemed like it was forced.”

“He’s a man, why couldn’t he push her away? If he loved me, he would have stayed with me. Stayed away from her.”

The two of them looked concerned at each other, Drake was a man who couldn’t defend himself against Kiara’s abuse for years. If a stranger looked at her, she looked innocent and sweet- possibly gave the impression of being the doting girlfriend. But she wasn’t.

“You need to talk to him. Let him know that you’re safe at least.”

“I will do. At some point. I promise. I won’t be a burden for you both.”

*****

Two weeks later, Riley was at hospital preparing for her operation. She had stayed at her friends house, but refused to see Drake. Speaking to him on the phone, the conversations hit a dead end- he had insisted on coming to see her just to make sure that she was okay. However, she refused. Just saying that she will see him after her operation. In those two weeks, he kept himself to himself- whilst trying to hunt Madeleine down. To question her about her actions, to ask what benefitted her from doing this.

Arriving at the hospital, he demanded to know where Riley was- Lindsey had text him confirming that she was having the operation today.

“Mr Walker, you can’t see her just yet. I’ll let her know that you are here when she comes out of recovery.”

“That’s not good enough! Please... I just need to see her. Even if it’s for a minute.” Unlike Leo, he didn’t like to use his money for bribery- but in this situation, anything was worth a try.

“Right this way, Mr Walker.” Following the receptionist, she introduced him to the theatre nurse in charge. Knowing that they were going against hospital policies and procedures- the nurse led Drake into the room.

“What are you doing here?” Wondering why the staff would allow him to enter the room, whilst she laid down having her cannula inserted.

“I told you that I was going to be here every step...I’m going to hold your hand until you fall asleep, and I’m going to be here when you wake up.”

“Ki... Kia.. Kiara...” Seeing the anaesthetic quickly work its magic, he knew he had to be quick with his words.

“She forced that kiss upon me... I love you, Riley. We are going to get through this together- we are soulmates, you came in to my life for a reason. We are going to have a baby once this is over. I’m going to continue to play, to provide for the two of us...Madeleine was the one that went to the press, I assume anyway. Please don’t shut me out. I know that you’re upset, we didn’t plan for it to come out the way it did. But I’m here, always.”

“Dr.. Drake...” Forcing his hand off of hers, she may be half asleep but her brain was still fully functioning for the moment. Forcing her hand back into his, he kissed it softly. Letting it linger there.

“Marry me Riley...”

[random-imagines-blog]

Issues {Charles Xavier x Reader Oneshot}

Requested by: Anonymous Wordcount: 3868 Summary: After a long-term abusive relationship, it’s hard to feel comfortable in a safe space. You are tempted to leave, but Charles wants you to stay. Notes: Descriptions of abuse. May be triggering.

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngster’s was your sanctuary against the darkest times in your life. “Please, make yourself at home,” Charles had said when he had brought you to the school after finding you beat up in your old apartment. “I can assure you, no one will hurt you here.” So you had - you had a bedroom all on your own that you didn’t have to share with anyone, for the first time in your adult life. You could stretch out, cuddle the pillows, hog the blankets, and not have to worry about any repercussions. You had a dresser with clothes - not many, mind you, only what you had managed to salvage - that you could wear without criticism. You didn’t have to worry about being called frumpy, ugly, too sexy, too cute, you could wear a dress without your ex-boyfriend screaming, asking who you were dressing up for. You had your own bathroom where you only kept a bit of make up - absolutely no concealer since you had no need for covering up bruises anymore. You could take a long bath without your ex storming in and asking who you want to be so clean for. His insults never echoed off of these walls - it was a fresh start. A new beginning.

Charles had even set you up with a job to keep you busy throughout the day. You acted as a mentor to the few students that you had, giving them guidance on how to make it in the world outside of this school when they were ready to graduate. You only had to hope that they wouldn’t get themselves into the unfortunate circumstances that you had out there.

“I think that you have a really bright future out there, Sean,” You smiled at the red haired boy. His smile was beaming bright. “You just have to work on your confidence, but I’m sure that you’ll manage that just fine.”

“Excuse me,” Hank’s head popped into your small office, glasses slightly askew. You nodded to Sean, who got up to leave the room, his appointment being over anyhow.

“What is it, Hank?” You asked with a smile.

“You have a phone call,” He said, pointing to the phone that was on your desk. Indeed, as you took a look at it, there was a redlight blinking, meaning that someone had been put on hold.

Something about it felt wrong though, and you stared at that light, even as Hank left to go about his business. You never had a call before, no one knew that you were here. Your ex had severed your relationship with your parents, and they had moved on without you. It just didn’t make sense, so in order to solve the mystery, you lifted up the phone and pressed the button.

“Y/n,” A heavily panting voice came through the receiver. Your heart was already starting to pound when you heard that you had a call, but hearing your ex’s voice was enough to make it go into overdrive.

“Why are you calling me?” Firstly, your voice came out far more confident than you felt, and secondly, you sat frozen in your chair, every part of your body stiff and rigid. “I thought that you were told to never talk to me again.”

You knew the story, as far as Charles had gently told it to you over a cup of tea the night you arrived here. When he and Erik had tracked you down using Cerberus, they had knocked on your door just as your ex was opening it to leave you bruised and broken once more. Erik had gone after him while Charles had gone to your side to help you up to your feet and help you pack your few belongings to take you out of there. Even if he hadn’t shown you his powers, even if he hadn’t spoken into your mind about how you were going somewhere safe, you would have gone with him simply because he was better than staying where you were. And according to him, Erik had 'told your ex to leave you alone’ but you had the feeling it was not that simple. It’s never simple when Erik was around, especially when he was in a temper.

“Why, didn’t you miss me?” You could hear something in the tone of his voice, but you weren’t sure what it was. “Those men that separated us - they blocked my number, I had to drive to a restaurant across town before I finally got through.”

“It’s for a good reason,” You said, shakily, feeling the need to explain yourself, and your friends, through habit.

“Y/N, they’re trying to turn you against me baby, I know that you miss me and that you still love me - please, just come home.” Oh, how that made your heart go into overdrive, because despite the bruises, despite the yelling, he did always find a way to rebuild your fragile state. “Nothing can keep us apart, you know that baby, come on, tell me where you are and I’ll pick you up - I only know it’s a New York area code.”

A throat clearing sound came from the door, which made you nearly jump out of your skin. Charles stood, leaning against the doorframe of your office, looking at you with grave concern. Your ex continued to talk on the phone, taking your silence for disobedience.

“Really, I’ll come and pick you up now if you tell me where you are and the punishment for leaving me will be very minor. If you tell me right now, you may be able to leave the house in days instead of weeks.”

A chill went up your spine as his tone changed from something friendly into coaxing an animal out of hiding with intent to kill. You stared at Charles, not sure what to do, frozen in place.

When Charles looked into your eyes, he saw the pleading look behind them -  he didn’t have to read your mind in order to get that. During the beginning of the phone call, he had heard the echoing of your ex’s voice in your head as he had been strolling by, and he knew that he had to see if you were okay.

“You can put down the phone, y/n, he won’t hurt you,” Charles said, slowly. You knew he wasn’t in your head, he wasn’t commanding you to do something, but nonetheless, you brought the phone down and returned it to the cradle, cutting off your ex in mid-word.

Within a moment, Charles was next to you as the tears started to flow down your face and you curled into your chair like you were a small child. You’d never act this way in front of anyone, especially someone like Charles who was both your employer and your dear friend, but your ex always managed to bring it out of you. “I don’t think he’s ever going to stop calling me, Charles, I should just give up.”

He ran his fingers through your hair, removing the strands that stuck to the moistness of your cheeks, and offered the handkerchief that was in his pocket. “I don’t think you should do that, love, you’re stronger away from him. If you go back, things will only be bad, I don’t need to see into his mind to tell you that much.”

You took the handkerchief and wiped your eyes, a bit of mascara coming off onto it, and you made a note to wash it for him. “I don’t want you to get involved in this Charles, he might try to hurt you too.”

The handsome young man backed away from you after you had said that. “I’ve been involved since the moment that I found you,” He told you. “As long as you’re here, you’ll be safe, but if you are back with him, I cannot make any guarantees.” He left you on your own, handkerchief in hand, and closed the door so that you would not be interrupted. However, he did linger by it, his hand on the knob, wondering if he was doing the right thing by leaving you alone to decide what to do. He had to talk to someone about this, and immediately set out to find Raven in hopes that she may be able to help.

-

You managed to recover, and did an appointment with Alex before you went to the laundry room and hand washed the beautiful handkerchief that Charles had loaned you. As you scrubbed at the mascara stain with a small bristle brush, you saw the small details, such as his initials embroidered in the corner in blue thread. Leave it to Charles to have such expensive things.

You hung it to dry for a little bit in the sunshine, and as you laid out on a chair to watch as the breeze blew it dry, you did some thinking. Oh, you knew that Charles had a point, that your safety wasn’t guaranteed if you left the school, but his would be. He didn’t know what your ex was capable of. And besides, at best, if you went back to him, you would only have to put up with it for another couple of years until he finally killed you. You would go, you decided. Tonight. You knew that there were enough problems with Erik and his obsession over Shaw, and the training of the students - and what exactly they were training for.

You took the handkerchief off the clothes line once it was dry. You could smell the faint sent of flowers that the breeze had carried over, and embedded within the fabric. Charles hopefully wouldn’t mind that, and you returned to the interior of the school to return it to him.

He was busy, though his office door wasn’t entire closed. You peeked in and saw that he was sitting with Raven, his arm around her shoulders in a very brotherly way, and they were talking in low tones to one another. You were always jealous of the way that Raven got on with others, even though like you, she wasn’t the most confident person in the world.

“You were right, y/n has to make their own decision,” Raven was saying, which made you step back behind the door so they wouldn’t see you eavesdropping. “I know how you feel about them but... you can’t control the people that you care about. It’s not right.”

It was more of a shock hearing this than it was when your ex managed to call the school.

“There’s no way that y/n would go back, right?” Charles asked, sounding insecure. It wasn’t very often that he didn’t know the answer to something. Raven leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

“Probably wouldn’t if you told them how you feel,” She suggested to him.

You took a couple of steps back, then ran towards your room, having heard enough. Charles had some sort of feelings and that cemented everything for you - you were going to go back to your ex. Nobody else would think that way, you knew that, because anyone would be lucky to have Charles care about them. He was handsome, kind, had an adorable accent, very intelligent. He could have anybody that he wanted - and he deserved better than you. You started to pack as quickly as you could, throwing everything into your bag. As you did so, you started to think - you would walk to the city, or even hitch-hike if the weather took a bad turn, catch the first bus home. As soon as you made it back to your city, you would call Charles and apologize for leaving so quickly, but it was something that you had to do to protect him. To protect everyone in the school, because their powers would only go so far against your ex’s anger. Perhaps he was a mutant too, and his power was rage, you didn’t know.

You ran a brush through your hair before tossing it into your bag. It wasn’t a necessary item but it was the first gift that you got after arriving here - it had been Raven’s and she gave it to you on the first day of your job. You made your bed, so as not to inconvenience anyone, then snuck out through the door while you assumed that everyone was at dinner.

But not everyone was. And it was the person that you wanted to see least - not Charles, but Erik. He stood by the door with an eyebrow raised, arms crossed in front of him as if he had been waiting for you.

“You being here has been good for everyone, what possible reason could you have for leaving?” He asked you, looking taller than ever in the way that he looked down upon you. He waited for an answer, but you had none, you just stood there, holding onto your bag, your eyes pleading with him to please move. “I’m not a mind-reader like Charles, but I can tell you that your ex-partner means you harm.”

So news had gotten around that he had called you. The only person who knew who it was on the other end of the line was Charles, so he must have told. He shouldn’t have.

“You’re not Charles,” You agreed with Erik, “so you can’t understand my reason for leaving - please, let me go. You two told me that I was free to leave at anytime.”

“I didn’t think you would go back to that situation when I said that,” Charles’s voice joined the conversation, coming down the hallway as if he had been listening the whole time. He never could help himself from eavesdropping, you had noticed. In his hands, he had a clear container of food - whatever had been for dinner, it looked like. You could see potatoes, and carrots, and who knew what else. “Of course we can’t stop you, darling, as much as we both want to.”

“Do you really?” You asked, looking at him. You couldn’t voice the reason you wanted to leave - to protect him, because it sounded so incredibly weak when it was put into words, but you thought it loud enough for him to catch onto it. He blinked, then wiped a tear out of his eye that you had not been expecting.

“You know that everyone here would stop him, even using our powers if necessary, if he found out where you were.” He said, moving in between you and Erik, who duly stepped away to let the two of you talk. The air felt cooler now that he was gone, because the tensions began to grew. There was something about being alone with Charles - it made the hair on your arms stand up, it made your heart beat fast, it made you have to lick your lips because they were constantly tingling in his presence. “It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to be scared of him anymore, you’re more powerful than he is. If you only knew-” “I’m not afraid of what he can do to me, I haven’t been afraid of that in a long time.” Charles’s mouth closed as you started to finally speak. Of course, once you started, it was hard to stop. You had been holding things in for a long time now. “Everything that he did to me, I - I could take it. You don’t understand, if he hit me ... he was paying attention to me and ... and I needed that. You’re perfect Charles, and you’ll never understand that feeling of loneliness. And when he isolated me from my family, when he made me turn all of my friends against me ... he made sure that I only had him. It’s going to happen again, whether I go back or not. Leaving now - at least I’ll have some control over it. He can’t take the control of this decision away from me. You’ll either hate me because I leave, hate me for some reason I can’t control, or hate me because he’s going to come and try to hurt you and I - I’d rather just rip off the bandaid now, Charles, because if I spent anymore time around any of you, I’ll never be able to leave.”

Charles stayed quiet, both hands on the tupperware container full of food, squeezing it until you saw that his knuckles were white. “Because of some reason you can’t control?” He asked, looking at you with confusion. Your words were echoing in his mind, but those in particular. “Why don’t we go into my office, y/n, and we can have a talk about this in a more private setting.”

You looked outside the windows and saw that the sky was steadily darkening. It was getting later, which meant that dinner was about to be over and the students would be walking around, trying to burn their energy before bed. Weakly, you nodded and followed Charles towards the office that you had been outside of just a short time before. Confusion was still evident on his face as he took a seat, not behind the desk, but on the comfortable looking couch, and he patted next to him. You set your bag down by the door before joining him, but after everything that you had just said, it was hard to look him in the eye.

Charles lightly rested his hand on your knee which made you breathe in quickly. “Even if you were to go against us, there is no way that I would hate you,” He started off by saying. His eyes, far bluer than any eyes should be, were heavy on you until you looked right back at them, and saw the honesty, the emotion behind them. Charles is a mind reader, but he is not a deceiver. “If that is one of your fears, then we can work on it together. That’s the only way that we can prove to you that we’re not going to hate you. Even if you leave, even if he comes here, there’s nothing that can happen that would make me turn my heart on you.”

You noticed that he had switched from 'we’ to 'my’ for the last bit there. His heart. That was enough to get yours going. And once more, but in an entirely different way than before - you broke down. Instead of blabbering on and releasing the thoughts, you released your emotions. Your head came down on your shoulder as you began to cry, and he gently patted your back. You noticed after a few moments that your whole body was now pressed against his because he had pulled you into a hug. His face was remarkably close to yours, and you could hear him whispering into your ear.

“It’s all going to be alright, whatever you choose, it’ll be alright, I’ll always be with you.”

It was the first time that you heard something like that. Nice, kind, comforting words without there being some sort of threat behind them. A few more minutes passed until you felt exhausted from the emotional release, both emotionally and physically. It was hard to tear yourself away from Charles, in more ways than one. The tears had made his shirt stick to your face, and you had to peel yourself off slowly. Once you were away, you held your head in hands, realizing that you probably looked a mess, with the tears running down your face, the snot, the messed up make up.

“My bathroom is right through there, you can go clean yourself up and I’ll get your dinner ready,” Charles said, softly. He was so courteous, though you realized he probably read your thoughts about how you looked. You nodded slowly, and got up, going into the bathroom to wash your face, blow your nose, and generally try to make yourself look less puffy.  Before you left the small room, you paused in front of the mirror and forced yourself to smile. Charles had given you all the confirmation that you needed. This, now and forever, was your home. Perhaps you wouldn’t be hated after all. Perhaps - perhaps, you might find the opposite of hate.

You left the bathroom feeling much better than you had when you went in. Set out on Charles’s desk was dinner, still in the tupperware, but it was open and he had folded up some tissues to use as a napkin, and rested a fork and a knife on it. He wasn’t in the room, but he was just walking back in with two glasses of water. “You look better,” He said with a smile, setting the waters onto the desk. He pulled out the chair behind it, offering it to you.

You stepped towards him rather than towards the chair and pressed your hand to his chest tentatively. You could still feel the wet spot that you had made. “I will stay and wash that for you,” You told him, feeling bad for ruining his shirt.

He rested his fingers on your wrist, then rubbed your arm down to your elbow and back up. “Just stay - please. I want you to stay.” He said, his face completely serious. It was the same expression that he had when he pleaded with you to come with him in the first place.

“Believe me, I want to stay too,” You said, closing your eyes, focusing on his touch. Charles had slightly rough fingers - perhaps from years of holding a pencil and writing all of those notes that helped his advanced education.

You felt it before you sensed it. How his breath was against your lips now, your whole arm was against his chest rather than just your hand because he had moved in forward. A second passed before there was contact, his soft pink lips brushing against your own. Quickly, you moved into it, giving him the kiss that the both of you seemed to desire more than anything else. It wasn’t a long kiss, but just enough for you to feel like your entire body was filled with electricity. It must be how Havok felt when he was about to use his powers. You smiled and moved your hand up to Charles’s shoulder.

“Where was I going again?” You asked with a small smile. He looked at you with those amazingly blue eyes, the corner of his lips turning upwards in a crooked smile.

“To my desk, to eat your dinner, then off to bed. You have some unpacking to do in the morning.”

[bigskydreaming]

Ok so everyone and their mama is being resurrected on Krakoa and so many people in marvel have gone through the revolving door that is death. So please tell me just one little thing. Where is Irene Adler? Is she still dead? If not, then why is she only just now being brought back? Why is one of the most iconic imo queer couples still suffering? #GiveMystiqueHerWife #LetMyWLWBeHappy #BringDestinyBack

She is still dead, but she hasn’t been forgotten - this is actually a long-running subplot Marvel laid down, though I’m with you in wanting them to Get To It already. My guess is we’ll start to see more building towards this particular plotline once X of Swords is done, though it won’t actually be the NEXT major storyline. Just a hunch, but my bet is the next focal storyline the X-books concentrate on after X of Swords wraps up is the conflict brewing with the Children of the Vault, after Darwin, Laura and Synch got taken prisoner by them in one of the earlier issues of the core X-Men title. 

Alternatively, the next major focus is going to be on what’s brewing under the surface with Vulcan (though its also possible these are going to be one and the same. Gabe’s stories have always been linked with Darwin’s more than anyone else, and given that he’s front and central to whatever’s front and central with whatever’s coming with the CotV, it wouldn’t surprise me if our next face to face with Gabe’s ‘dark side’ ties into that same story. Ugh, Gabe going all Emperor Vulcan again and teaming up with the Children of the Vault....now there’s a scary thought. But dammit, just let Gabe be good, I’m so tired of this ‘there’s something just innately dark and evil inside of him’ crap, bleh. BUT I DIGRESS).

But anyway, the thing with Destiny is actually an ongoing subplot. Back in Powers of X, it was explicitly ‘decided’ by Moira, Xavier and Magneto that they were actively going to try and keep any precogs from being resurrected on Krakoa, including - and ESPECIALLY Irene - because basically, they’re afraid of the precogs, and the fact that there’s no hiding from them Xavier’s big secret.....for all his big talk, he doesn’t actually know what the HELL he’s doing. The thing they’re hiding from everyone else is that they actually already TRIED the Great Krakoa experiment at least once before, or at least to some degree, though we do know they’ve done at least some things differently this time around. 

But that was the future shown in Powers of X, where Moira ended up living 1000 years into the future before dying and resetting the timeline....and coupled with the fact that the three of them believe that they’re now on the LAST of Moira’s predicted eleven lifetimes, this is their last chance to ‘get it right’ so to speak, and to find a way forward that allows the mutant race to survive and flourish past any of the endpoints Moira’s previous lives and foreknowledge have shown....

Basically, the fear seems to be that if everyone else on Krakoa knew this background for how they came up with all of this and the futures they’re trying to avoid, as well as the fact that quite simply, they do not know if the course they’ve charted this time is going to be any more capable of circumventing the doom they keep butting up against lifetime after lifetime....this would undermine all faith in them and what they’re doing, and fracture the tenuous alliances that so far have everyone from the X-Men to Apocalypse and Sinister and Selene all working side by side. 

They ‘built’ modern Krakoa according to blueprints gleaned from actual knowledge of the future.....but they’re afraid of competing blueprints getting in the way of the road they’ve taken everyone down and derailing their own plan of action. Especially if everyone else were to find out that for all their confidence, they can’t say with certainty the road this time around is going to actually lead where they’re trying to go....and that in fact, they actually have a track record of a good half a dozen previous attempts where they got it disastrously wrong.

So even though Xavier explicitly promised Raven that he would resurrect Irene in exchange for her cooperation and her place on the Quiet Council.....he, Magnus and Moira have been shown meeting in secret to say that they are actually deadset against that happening. But Raven is no fool of course, and she’s suspected from the start that Xavier’s just playing her, and he has no intention of ever resurrecting Irene. (I mean, she was married to the man once, after all, as blergh as that Bendis-bite was. I may think it made for a spectacularly shitty and pointless story, but just saying, few people know how much shit Xavier is full of better than Mystique does). 

So we’ve been treated to scenes of Raven brooding deep in her underground Krakoan lair over a glance of wine and an angsty look at Irene’s old mask, vowing “I’ll get you yet, Xavier, and your little dog too,” because idk, why pass up a good Wicked Witch of the West allusion when its right there. Mystique works hard for her Brand, let her enjoy it.

She definitely knows the game that’s afoot, and she has no intention of letting Xavier get away with it. So she’s very clearly scheming on how to circumvent him and get the Five to resurrect Irene without Xavier’s help....but that’s easier said than done. She either needs leverage to force his hand, while still probably not knowing for sure WHY he’s stalling or trying to avoid bringing back Irene, and thus having no way to judge exactly HOW deadset against it he is, and thus how great of leverage she’d actually need to pull that off...or else, she needs a telepath she can trust (or y’know, trust that she has them securely in her pocket) but who also is strong enough to take Xavier’s place in the resurrection/brain download process....as well as needing access to the Cerebro archives where the back-ups of everyone’s consciousnesses are stored. 

(Incidentally, part of how Xavier’s been stalling here is he’s claimed once or twice that he only has back-ups stored of mutant consciousnesses from the point when he started actually preserving them, and Irene died BEFORE he started doing this so he just doesn’t have her in Cerebro, but this is pretty blatantly a lie. He brought back Petra and Sway, after all, and they very definitively died LONG before David killed Irene on Muir Island back in the day).

But yeah, I’m as impatient as anyone to see Irene back in action in all her chaotic cryptic glory, and for Raven/Irene to finally fucking rise the way they deserve. And oh holy hell is Raven’s wrath going to be an absofuckinglutely beautiful thing once she finally has her proof that Xavier - her ex-husband, lol, oh X-Men soap opera tangles - has been lying and scheming to keep her wife dead all this time. Like she’s literally said the words “I will burn Krakoa to the ground,” and I mean, its Raven. When she talks about razing Rome to ashes, she’s not joking. The woman does not bluff. She lies, she deceives, she steals, but she never ever fucking bluffs. There’s a big storm coming here and this particular one’s name is Hurricane Raven, not Ororo Munroe. I want it, and I want it nooooooooooow, lol, but I can’t actually claim that this has been overlooked by Marvel rather than just allotted a time table that isn’t to my liking because - 

OH I DON’T KNOW ITS NOT LIKE WE HAVEN’T ALREADY BEEN WAITING FOR THE RETURN OF IRENE ADLER FOR 84 BAJILLION FUCKING YEARS ALREADY, LIKE LOGAN HAS LITERALLY GONE TO HELL AND BACK A DOZEN TIMES SINCE IRENE FIRST EXITED PURSUED BY BEAR AND JEAN’S ASCENDED AND DE-PHOENIXED SO MANY TIMES DEATH HAS BASICALLY HANDED HER A PUNCH CARD THAT’S REDEEMABLE FOR ONE FREE RESURRECTION AFTER ITS ALL FULL AND C’MOOOOOOON. 

I mean.

WILDSIDE is back. After dying in Neverland in Tieri’s Weapon X run, RICHARD FREAKING GILL was brought back to life before IRENE FUCKING ADLER, I would simply like to express my undying HOOOOOOWWWWW??? to that. 

BUT.

I.

DIGRESS.

Ahem. Sorry, I just have very strong opinions on the subject of Irene, lololol. And well, everything. I probably have strong opinions on kumquats and I can’t actually recall at the moment if I’ve ever even eaten one or if I’m just particularly fond of that word and the saying of it. Look, you get what I mean.

Anyway, yeah. We’re getting Irene back eventually. There’s absolutely no way we’re not at this point. Even my cynicism can’t pretend otherwise. They haven’t just left Chekhov’s gun locked and loaded sitting on the mantlepiece here, they commissioned an entire arsenal of Chekhov’s guns and renamed them Irene Adler’s guns in her honor and left them all gift-wrapped on the front porch. Its coming. Its just not. Here YET. (Cut to me being a five year old on a long car ride are we there yet are we there yet are we there yet how bout now - )

So yeah. That’s the scoop, the skinny, the shit(ake mushroom) on this particular subject.

Incidentally, on a related note, I am still of the opinion that pretty much all of Powers of X was one giant red herring, and the real direction all of this is building towards, with Moira, with the Five and the resurrection protocols.......ultimately, I think its all really been about IRENE’S machinations from the start, and Moira and Charles have actually been marching to the beat of HER drum ever since the very first time Irene and Moira encountered each other way back in Moira’s fourth lifetime.

Basically, I think it allllllllll really comes back to the fact that....

Irene Adler is a beautiful fucking liar who lies as only Raven Darkholme’s One True Love possibly can, and she played Moira like a fiddle from Day Fucking ONE.

Full theory on that can be found here:

https://bigskydreaming.tumblr.com/post/188290623176/so-house-of-x-2plot-hole-or-lie-when-destiny

[megalony]

Unless I say

This is a Warren Worthington imagine that I came up with which I hope you all will like. Feedback is always appreciated.

Taglist: @lunaticspoem @butlegendsneverdie @langdonzvoid @jennyggggrrr @rogmeddows @radiob-l-a-hblah @rogertaylorsbitontheside @chlobo6 @rogertaylors-lipgloss @sj-thefan @omgitsearly @luckytrashgooprebel @scarsout @deaky-with-a-c @killer-queen-ofrhye @bluutac @vousmemanqueez @rogahs-drowse @jonesyaddiction

Main masterlist

Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Who's that?" Warren found himself speaking for what was the first time since he had been pulled into Storm's friendship group at the school.

He rather wanted to be on his own and see things for himself without the risk of having to interact with others. But he knew Storm a little at least and he was offered to join them when they went to lunch or when they went outside in their free periods. He knew it was better to at least try and integrate into a friendship group than to distance himself. It was more for the company than anything else, and to keep professor Xavier happy who had stopped keeping a close eye on Warren since he noticed him hanging around with people.

But Warren hardly spoke to them.

When asked questions in class he simply ignored what he had been asked and when people tried to talk to him he either clenched his fist or walked away so that they got the message. He felt rather messed up in his head and interactions were not what he wanted. And Storm, Jean and Scott never tried to push him or ask. They seemed to think of him as a shadow more than anything else.

Turning her head in utter surprise, Jean tried to compose herself enough to try and work out who Warren was talking about. After almost a month of Warren following them around and being a silent friend, it was a great shock to finally hear his voice and not just the loud thoughts that got through to her own.

"That's (Y/n), she's relatively new here too." Jean responded, trying her best not to sound shocked or be overly happy that Warren had finally said something. She didn't want to overwhelm him or annoy him to the point he simply wandered away.

"What's her mutation?" Warren directed his question more to Jean than the other two sitting at the lunch table with them because if she didn't know she could easily find out. Jean said she didn't snoop in people's minds but he knew she couldn't help it if some things just wandered into her head and he was interested.

Sometimes it was easy to know what people's mutations were. When he first saw Jean it was clear it was something to do with her mind or other people because she would watch people with such intensity and get lost in her- or rather their minds. She would try not to laugh at their thoughts or not to get upset if they thought unpleasant things about her. She tried not to eavesdrop and that was very clear to Warren.

With other kids if they ran really quickly or if they disappeared then reappeared it was kind of a giveaway. Others there were small tell-tale signs, but with (Y/n) he couldn't guess.

She seemed like an outcast like he was, she didn't seem to talk to others and she kept her distance. Much the same as everyone seemed to avoid her or look at her funny. For being a school for mutants, Warren did find it odd that even between mutants, people could be discriminating or rude. They could act like they were ordinary humans in the ways that they avoided mutants or made fun of those with odd or harmful or powerful mutations.

"I think the term is a siren... she gives someone an order and they do it. Like telling someone to steal something or hit someone and they are under her control so they do it." Storm was the one to give Warren the answer that he was searching for.

She had heard the rumours but had never witnessed it herself. There were many kids at the school that avoided (Y/n) in case she gave them a command because her voice was her mutation. She told people what she wanted them to do and they had no choice but to do it, it was as if they were under a trance or a spell. It didn't seem like much but (Y/n) had everyone's will in her hand, they gave her their will and their control without wanting or meaning to.

"Kinda... boring, isn't it?" Scott questioned with a shrug of his shoulders, seeing that he had said the wrong thing when all three of them stared at him like he had grown a second head.

It was a disguised mutation because it had no signs such as Raven's hair and skin colours. (Y/n)'s mutation didn't cause her to have carvings and tattoos like Kurt's did, it didn't give her a tail or ears or different coloured eyes or the need for glasses like Scott. It was a mutation that could let her pass for a normal human with no special mutation like the professors.

But it wasn't boring.

"Think about it Scott, she could make people confess to murder." Jean commented, waving her fork in front of him to try and get him to think about it properly. (Y/n) could cut crimes in half and save a lot of time and pain by getting people to confess to crimes and she could stop people from committing them too.

"She could make people commit the murders." Warren spoke up as he looked down at his plate before stuffing a carrot into his mouth. He knew his words would cause controversy, especially with Jean. She seemed to be the straight-A student, the one who didn't want to do anything wrong and he was suggesting using their gifts for murder.

"What?"

"Put it this way, if Scott went around killing people and I had her mutation, I wouldn't be telling him to confess. I could tell him to shove the barrel of a gun into his mouth and pull the trigger. She could tell me to grab a knife and kill someone and if her mutation is how you say it is, do you think I'd be able to stop myself?" Warren spoke with such ease that all of them felt slightly unnerved as it had taken a rather dark turn for him to perk up and speak like he hadn't just been mute for a month.

But he was right.

If (Y/n) told someone to kill themself or to kill someone else, they would have to have a counter mutation or a bloody strong will to be able to stop themselves from doing that and go against her command. She could cut down murders by killing the murderers or she could increase the number by killing people and getting others to do her dirty work.

Warren wouldn't mind having that mutation. It would have made fighting in the ring a lot easier, he could have just whispered to his opponent to throw the fight or suddenly tell them to play dead or faint. He won every fight, but her mutation would have made that a lot easier on him.

When Warren drifted his eyes to catch a glimpse of the girl who had caught his attention, he knew she was the person he wanted to know more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Y/n) subconsciously tightened her hand around Warren's when they entered the kitchen. Warren seemed to be the only person in the school that (Y/n) could feel comfortable around and was the first person she actually talked to who didn't seem afraid of her mutation or who didn't make fun of her for it.

Since the day he approached her in the canteen, they had talked almost every day since. Warren wasn't like everybody else, he understood her. They both didn't really like to talk or hang around with others which allowed them to get to know one another better and be around each other in peace. And they shared a few of the same classes which was much better for them both.

But there were still people at the school that (Y/n) couldn't stand.

It had been much easier in the beginning to make people afraid of her rather than let them try to get to know her or let them stare at her or try to be nice but still cower in fear. If they were afraid they stayed away and they didn't bother to try and be nice or be around her which was how she liked it. Warren seemed to have much the same idea.

This trick didn't work on everyone, and it didn't work on Lewis. He was one of the students who thought he was bigger and better and thought that he held the right to bully other students. But he was still smart enough to know that bullying (Y/n) wouldn't be the best idea with her mutation.

So he taunted her.

Since they didn't share any classes together, whenever they were on a free period or any other time during the day when she was around, Lewis would wear earplugs. He found that if he couldn't hear her voice or see her lips moving, her mutation was defective on him. So he put them in and then started slurring insults and taunts at her which was risky because the moment he took them out (Y/n) could make him pay, but she never did. He wasn't worth it.

One kid in (Y/n)'s history class tried to put earplugs in because he was sat next to her and it was either because he was so annoyingly afraid of her or because he wanted to mess with her. Either way, (Y/n) spoke before he could put the earplugs in and told him to stick them up his nose.

(Y/n) got into trouble for that with the professor but she simply told him she could have made the kid put them somewhere far worse or made him swallow them. He had gotten off lightly.

(Y/n) quickly turned to look at Warren when he let go of her hand, but her sudden flutter of worry disappeared when he wrapped his arm around her waist instead. Warren knew that she wanted to get back at Lewis for the torment he caused both her and almost every other kid in the school but he was in two minds about it.

"Kick his ass or walk away, sweetheart." Warren stated with a shrug, already reading her mind and knowing she was debating it. She had two choices, she could either walk away with Warren and take the high ground, or she could get Lewis back for what he had done yesterday. Warren wouldn't stop her if she wanted to use her mutation on Lewis, in fact he would encourage that because it was only fair since Lewis got away with almost everything. But if she didn't want to get in trouble then Warren also understood that.

Yesterday Lewis had pushed a younger student into the pond who couldn't swim and had simply stood and laughed at them. Even (Y/n) would admit that was going too far, especially when the student had done nothing wrong. (Y/n) wanted to get Lewis for that because the student wasn't a friend of hers but he had never done anything wrong to her and he never glared at her or cowered in fear.

"Let's just go out." (Y/n) mumbled quietly in response, leaning her head on Warren's chest as he nodded. A small smile pulled at her lips when she felt a few of his feathers tickling against the small of her back as they walked through the kitchen.

They almost made it to the parlour doors that led out into the extensive garden, but Lewis simply had to say something.

"Bird brain and the freak. Did you brainwash him into going out with you, or is he just desperate?" The comment wasn't really that insulting because it seemed rather weak. It wasn't something that hit too hard or struck a nerve with either of them, it was just infuriating to have him always want to say something.

(Y/n) had had enough people sneer rude comments and rumours behind her back that she was controlling Warren to go out with her. Those kinds of thoughts came with the mutation and it was normal but it did get annoying and slightly hurtful. Warren just found it angering that Lewis thought he could pick on anyone, and the fact he was picking on (Y/n) right now didn't make it easier because Warren felt protective.

There hadn't been many people in his life that he felt protective of or close to but (Y/n) was one of them. He didn't take lightly to people making fun of her when they had no cause to do so.

"Where are your earplugs, Lewis?" (Y/n) lifted her chin up as she had a placid yet cunning look on her face which turned smug when he seemed to realise his defence against her was not in his ears nor in his pockets.

Warren slowly removed his arm from (Y/n)'s waist so he could fold his arms and rest them on the island in the kitchen, arching his back as he wondered what (Y/n) would make Lewis do. He had only seen her work her mutation a few times and once he had asked her to use it on him just so he knew what it felt like. It was like a compulsion to do something, or a loss of will and when she gave an order it was as if it was a thought and Warren just went along with it. He knew though that sometimes (Y/n) made people forget what she had done or what she had made them do and sometimes it seemed to people like it was just a dream.

Either way, he found it entertaining and enamouring to watch.

"Lewis, stay where you are. You want to listen to me, don't you?" (Y/n) spoke slowly and clearly as a trace of a smile pulled at her lips when Lewis stood completely still. His face going from angry to plain as he nodded.

In the beginning, it had been hard for (Y/n) to get used to controlling her mutation. When she was a child and got angry and demanded something, she realised her mutation would take over and she got what she asked for. But it was easier when doing this to tell people what to do and make it seem like it was what they wanted. Wording her demands in the right way helped to control her mutation.

Warren danced his eyes around, seeing there were about four students in the adjoining living room and in the kitchen that were now crowding round to see what was happening.

(Y/n) looked around the rather large kitchen to see if there was something that she could use to her advantage. She didn't want to make Lewis simply hit his head against the wall or pull his trousers down. She didn't want to humiliate him, she wanted to hurt him. But (Y/n) knew asking him to cut or hurt himself with any of the utensils available might be stretching it a little bit too far.

When her eyes landed on the sink, she knew what she wanted to do.

Her chest tightened when she heard the unmissable sound of footsteps and noise that resembled the professor's wheelchair. But she couldn't miss this opportunity to hurt Lewis.

"You want to hold your breath and put your face in the water. You won't pull up for air unless I say you can." (Y/n) watched as Lewis looked so calm he could have been smiling as he turned to his right and leaned over the sink.

Warren raised a brow when he watched Lewis simply press his face into the tub in the sink that was full of water waiting to be used to clean the dishes. Lewis held his face just under the surface considering the tub wasn't that big and the water wasn't too deep. His hands held the sides of the sink as he didn't struggle after a few seconds, nor did he make any kind of sound or movement at all.

Warren guessed (Y/n) had chosen this because he had pushed that student into the pond yesterday.

"What's going on?"

All eyes darted to professor Xavier in a look of panic, but no one said anything or attempted to move or scuttle away or explain the situation. Not that they had to, he simply had to peek into one of their minds to realise what was happening and when he knew, he didn't look best pleased.

He pressed his hand to his temple as he tried to tell Lewis to stand up and breathe, but his powers weren't going to work.

"He has to hear me tell him, not you." (Y/n) spoke as if it was no big deal or as if she was doing nothing wrong. She was simply giving Lewis a taste of his own medicine and putting her mutation to what she deemed as good use. Over half the students at the school weren't going to go against her on this one, they would all agree and think that she was doing the right thing.

"Then tell him." Charles looked rather angry when (Y/n) stayed where she was, her lips pressed together as she didn't move or speak. "(Y/n), this is not a game. Tell him to stop or he will drown himself."

If (Y/n) didn't give Lewis the okay to pull back and breathe, he would stay like that and choke himself because he couldn't go against her and his mind was under her influence. He would choke and not think to go against her command because that was how her mutation worked. She was like his conscience telling him what to do so Lewis wasn't going to contradict her.

When a rather startling sound started to leave Lewis' submerged lips, and bubbles started to become visible and hearable everyone started to panic. He didn't have any air left to hold in his lungs which were now intaking the water instead.

"(Y/n) tell him to stop! Tell him!" Charles rose his voice in a tone no one had heard him use in the school before but he started to use the tone and repeat his words in (Y/n)'s head. She had to stop.

"Lewis, you can stop and breathe now." (Y/n)'s calm tone set everyone's nerves on edge yet calmed them down at the same time. All eyes watched as Lewis calmly straightened up whilst pulling his head from the water. But as soon as he spluttered the water and started to try and breathe through the chokes of water, his eyes widened as he realised what he had done.

Water dripped down from his short brown locks of hair and droplets fell from his black lashes that were batting like mad over his widened eyes.

"My office, now." Charles spoke through gritted teeth before he disappeared from the kitchen, already feeling a headache forming behind his eyes.

(Y/n) attempted to follow after him, but stopped when Warren placed his hands on her shoulders to stop her for a moment. He pressed his chest against her back and leaned down so his lips were hovering over her ear. They both knew she was going to be in a lot of trouble for this, but he for one thought she had done the right thing. Lewis was hardly going to torment her or anyone else now he had gone through that.

"Well done, sweetheart."