Room 330, Monday Afternoon

[genesishero]

Evan had arrived back on the island in the dead of night, wearing a scowl on his face that even a bouncy dog who was happy to see him home again couldn't entirely wipe away. He'd slept fitfully, shadows in the corners of his mind creeping up and threatening to blot out everything else in his head as he dreamed

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[pulseof_life]

Yeul was just passing by, really, when she realized that Evan’s door was open and that she could hear Ozzy playing inside.

She knocked softly on the door before peeking in.

“Evan?” she asked. “Hello! You’re back already?”

[genesishero]

"Yeah," Evan replied, though he didn't sound as excited as usual to hear a friend at his door. "Things got kind of weird back at the Jean Grey School, and I decided I really, really didn't want to be there after all."

He gave the pull-toy a tug, and Ozzy slid along the floor after it, with it clamped firmly in his teeth.

[pulseof_life]

Yeul tilted her head slightly, then stepped into the room.

“What happened, Evan?” she asked quietly, detouring around Ozzy to sit down next to Evan on the floor. “Did you want to talk?”

He wasn’t alright, so she didn’t ask.

[genesishero]

"It's... a lot of stuff, I guess," Evan sighed, letting go of the toy and watching Ozzy trot proudly across the room with it. "Mostly I guess I'm just tired of people making decisions about who I'll be based on where I came from. And... people who lie about what where I came from really means."

You could be better than where you came from? You weren't just what was in your blood? Logan had told him about the horrible, abusive man that had been his father. Dog had told him about how Logan was the one who had killed the man in cold blood.

Evan was starting to wonder if trusting people at all was a mistake.

[pulseof_life]

“What does it mean?” Yeul asked, drawing her knees up under her chin. “What do you think it means?”

She watched him with calm, gentle eyes and waited.

[genesishero]

"It means..." Evan pulled in a deep breath, shut his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders. "It's something I'm going to always have to live with. It'll always be hanging over me. If it's not the people who know who that person was, it'll be that anger I feel, that part of me that'll always be a monster, no matter what I do. Even if so much time passes that nobody else knows... I will."

[pulseof_life]

She nodded slowly, reaching out with one hand to touch his arm.

“You won’t forget,” Yeul agreed. “You’ll always know."

Which probably weren’t the most comforting things she could say.

“Will you let it define you?”

[genesishero]

"I don't know," Evan replied, leaning slightly into her touch. "Even if it's not what I become, so much of who I want to be is a direct result of who I don't."

He wanted so badly to not be Apocalypse that it hurt. So he pushed away everything about the mad god, hid himself away with his dog and his books, strove to be a hero, even if it was only to prove people wrong.

[pulseof_life]

Well, if he was going to lean into her touch, she was going to scoot over just a bit to wrap one arm around his shoulders.

“How much do you know about him?” she asked quietly. “Not the big, bad things that he’s done. But about the person who would do them? Not his history so much as… the little things.” Yeul looked thoughtful. “Like… what did he like to make for breakfast?”

[genesishero]

Evan sighed and shook his head.

"For all I know, he'd wash down his breakfast cereal with the blood of sacrificed virgins," he grumbled. "I have no way of knowing. I mean, there's a cult dedicated to him that's served him for thousands of years, but that's not really something I want to get mixed up in."

Ever. At all.

[pulseof_life]

“And I would not expect you to,” Yeul said quietly, though she wished he were a little more open to the idea of, perhaps, the man-god had eaten a normal breakfast.

Maybe he was too young, though, to realize that those who were evil, did things so ordinary.

Or maybe he was right. She didn't know.

“What will you do now?”

[genesishero]

In fairness, Apocalypse had demanded blood sacrifice any time somebody woke him up. Maybe he had liked strawberries cut up into his Corn Pops, but Evan's guess was probably slightly closer to the truth.

"I'm not going back there any time soon, I know that much," Evan decided. "I need to prove that I'm not like that. I'm not evil, I'm not a villain. I don't ever want to be."

[pulseof_life]

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Why don’t you come with us, then? Sholeh and Liara and I are going to my home for the rest of the week. Why not come with us? No one will think you’re a villain there.”

If Yeul were a more forceful person, she’d shove him over to Caius the moment they reach Pulse. Since she was not, she would settle for tilting her head at Evan when Caius was watching her.

It would be enough.

[genesishero]

"You... don't mind having me come along?" Evan chewed his lip, giving her a hopeful look. "Can Ozzy come, too?"

Ozzy was his security puppy. There were important therapy cuddles to have. Plus, finding a dogsitter during break on no notice wasn't terribly likely.

[pulseof_life]

Yeul smiled.

“Ozzy can come too,” she assured him. “Though I would recommend keeping him on his leash while we’re walking. It can be dangerous and he’s quite small.”

They probably didn’t want him eaten by a Pitterpatter or a Ugallu or… well, any kind of monster.

“And of course I would not mind if you came along.”

[genesishero]

"I can keep him on a leash," Evan nodded, smiling faintly. "That's easy enough to do."

Heck, Evan could be the leash, if anything happened to the one he had. Leashes were not an issue.

"And I guess you wouldn't have offered if you had minded, huh?"