X is for Marking Your Spot
Title: X is for Marking Your Spot
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Xmen Crossover/Fusion
Series: Part of the Mutant 'verse (Sequence #1)
Characters: Parrish, Lorne, Cadman, Porter
Pairing: Parrish/Lorne, if you squint
Rating: PG
Orientation: Gen (slash if you squint)
Word Count: 3,323
Notes: for camshaft22, for prompting me a little. This is a total AU for both this and the comic I ripped off. I'm an old school 80's & 90's comics reader, I have no idea what has happened in the last decade or so since I stopped collecting.
Prompts: for parrish_lorne Alphabet Soup Challenge
And for AU Bingo fill: “Students”
Putting his bag down beside him, Evan pressed the button beneath the speaker. It was helpfully labeled “Press to call for entry.”
“Yes, may I help you?”
He leaned towards the speaker and cleared his throat nervously. “Hi. My name is Evan, I was given this address, is this the school?”
“Evan… Lorne?” the disembodied feminine voice asked.
“Yes.” He breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn’t messed it up, if they knew his name, it must be the right place.
The gate beside him buzzed. “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you. Come in through the gate. Walk up the pathway to the right, stay on the walkway. That is very important, do not wander off the cement walk, Mister Lorne, it could be dangerous. You’ll see a sign for the door to the administration office.”
Her warning might have concerned him, if he hadn’t known he was walking into a school populated with other people like him. He knew all about dangerous. Clenching his hand tightly around the handle of his duffel bag, he went through the gate. It couldn’t be any worse in this new world than it had been on the streets, dangerous inhabitants or no dangerous inhabitants in the student body.
The gate closed behind him and he looked around at the park-like grounds as he started walking. It was quiet, except for the birdsong. He never heard a sound; the collision happened so quickly and silently, he was down before he had a chance to react. That in itself was good, since he might have reacted badly and hurt someone unintentionally. One moment he was walking, the next he was flat on his stomach, a weight pressing on his back. Something whooshed past over his head and he smelled something burning nearby. “Hey!” he protested when he got his breath back. “Lemmee up!”
“Come back here, you little bitch!” the whooshing sound came again.
The little brunette that had been on his back scrambled to her feet and bent to tug him up, urging him up, “Hurry up, she’s almost close enough to actually hit us!” As she wrapped slim hands around his arm, she smiled up at him. “Oh, wow, uhm. I wish I knew how to use that! No time to learn now.”
“Use what? Who are you?” Evan looked around and saw a girl with reddish blonde hair stomping towards them, a look of determination on her face.
“That power you’ve got there. I’m Allie, that’s my roommate Laura and she’s a little miffed right now.” Allie tugged his arm, trying to get him to move.
As she moved, Laura pulled back her arm, looking as if she were about to pitch a softball, and hurled a ball of fire towards them. “Oh, crap!” Evan shouted and dove aside, knocking Allie to the ground as he went; they rolled into the mulch beside the walkway.
“You swiped my assignment card! Your card sucks,” Laura shouted.
Allie leapt to her feet. “That’s one of the founder’s trees you just set on fire, you’re in for it now!”
Her step faltered and Laura dropped her hand to her side, and she muttered “Uh oh.”
“Yeah! Uh oh!” Allie mimicked.
“What was on the card?” a male voice asked from behind Evan as he climbed to his feet. Evan looked over his shoulder and saw a slim guy with spiky blondish-brown hair leaning against a tree.
“I had Danger Room,” Allie offered with a smile.
“Hell no, I don’t like pain. What’d you have, Cads?” he looked at his hands casually.
Laura stomped her foot as she pointed a garden hose she’d pulled from the landscape at the burning tree and squirted at the flames. “Don’t just stand there, Parrish! Do something about that!” Laura waved a hand at the charred surface of the tree.
“Card?”
Allie tugged a folder piece of cardboard from the pocket of her jeans and waved it. “Hand to Hand Training with Professor Summers. She has a crush on him.”
Parrish pushed away from the tree and snatched the card from Allie’s fingers as he walked past her. “Who doesn’t? Better than the Danger Room, or History of Mutant Relations with old blue nose. Cads can have my lecture card in exchange for me pulling her ass out of the fire. Again. C’mon Porter, you can help with this.” He held a hand out to her expectantly.
Evan stood back, careful to not step off the walkway, after all this could be some kind of test engineered to see if he could follow instructions. He’d been warned by the man that had found him after the last incident not to use his abilities again until he was in a safe environment, and until he had proper training.
He watched Laura curl the hose and drop it back where she had found it as Allie took Parrish’s hand and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Then she nodded and dropped it. Parrish went to the base of the damaged tree and put his hands gingerly on the wet surface. “Aw, poor baby, what did that mean fire starter do to you, huh? Wicked fire witch tried to burn you all up, didn’t she?” he cooed.
“Just make with the tree-hugging, Parrish, before someone comes along and I get slapped with another week’s detention.”
Peeking out from the far side of the tree, Allie replied cheerily, “Stop blowing stuff up and you won’t have to do detention all the time.”
“You go through my things again bitch and I will set your bed on fire, and I won’t make sure you’re out of it first.”
Apparently used to empty threats, Allie merely stuck her tongue out in response and disappeared in a swirl of dark hair. Laura moved to stand beside Evan, her arms crossed over her middle. “Hey, new kid.”
“Hi, Laura.”
She grinned. “What’s your name?”
“Evan. What are they going to do?”
“Fix the tree, I hope. It’s one of the old ones; the administrators frown on those getting torn up. Oh, sure, if you’re one of the X-men, you can pretty much wreck the place and get away with a slap on the wrist, but we students get in a lot of trouble. I’ll be doing bathroom detail for a month if the wonder twins there can’t fix it.”
Not understanding completely, Evan opted for silence and just nodded. He blinked in surprise as the bark of the tree began to change, starting at the area under Parrish’s hands and spreading from there. Soon, the damaged surface looked just like the rest of the tree, if a bit newer. He saw the same changes come around the tree from the other side, and assumed that Allie was doing the same as Parrish from there.
“They have the same abilities?” Evan asked Laura quietly.
She smirked. “For the moment. Allie Xeroxed David, it doesn’t last very long, but it’ll probably last long enough for them to finish, from the looks of it.”
“So her ability is to…”
“Copy other people’s. It takes her time to learn to use them, so she usually just sticks to people she knows. She and David have worked together on projects before.”
This was why he was here, to learn to use what he could do, to possibly make some use of it. At least, to learn to live with it. Evan smiled, more confident now that he had made the right choice in crossing the country to come here.
“I think that’s good enough,” Parrish declared as he patted the side of the tree. “Should be fine now.” He walked over towards Evan and Laura, giving Lorne an appraising up and down look. “So, new guy, eh? Where you staying?”
“I don’t know yet, I’m on my way up to the office to find out, I guess.”
Allie bounced over towards them, her long hair swinging. “I’ll come with you, make sure they stick you in one of the cruddy dorms. Least I can do for getting you all messy.”
Evan looked down, noticing that he was a bit mussed and dirt covered from their dives at the ground. “Sure, yeah, that would be cool.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, Evan noticed that Parrish was staring at him. David shook himself and started to follow. “I’ll come too.”
“I’m going to the library,” Laura turned away but stopped when Parrish waved a card at her.
“Don’t forget your new assignment. You’ll need to pick up a few books while you’re there for Professor McCoy’s class.”
Laura practically ripped the card from David’s hand with a sneer. “I hate you, Parrish.”
He smiled broadly and called after her, “No, you love me Cads. You want to marry me and make lots of little fire-spouting plant babies with me. Stop fighting it!”
She gestured rudely over her shoulder which only made David laugh.
“That’s the gym, down that way,” Allie had apparently appointed herself his impromptu personal tour guide. Evan nodded and looked, trying to memorize what he saw. He knew he needed to keep the exit route in his head. He always kept the exit route in his head.
“Keep clear of that area over there. You never know when the landing bay is going to open. The X-men come and go a lot.” She waved towards a wide open grassy area.
“Who?”
David snickered behind him. “Ah, good. Someone not enamored of our illustrious faculty! You’re a breath of fresh air, new guy.”
“Don’t pay him any mind. He’s just mad because his skill will never get him on the first team.” Allie stuck her tongue out at David and he swatted her ass.
“While yours is a hot ticket to doomsville, brat. Don’t gloat. I’m perfectly content out of the spotlight. Not everyone longs to wear the giant target on their chest. X does not mark my spot.”
Allie ignored him. “What do you do, Evan?”
“I’m not sure. It all just started. Stuff kind moves when I get mad.”
Allie stopped and put a hand on Evan’s arm. “You mean your ability only just woke up? How old are you?”
“I’ll be eighteen in a few months.”
“Seriously, dude? Wow. You’re a late bloomer.” David tilted his head and looked at Evan oddly.
Agreeing with David, Allie nodded. “Most of us started at puberty.”
Lorne shrugged. The guy that had come to get him had told him this. He didn’t care. He wasn’t here to be an X-man, whatever that entailed. He was here to make the bad stuff stop happening.
They reached the building and Allie dragged the heavy oak door open, they scooted inside and Evan took a deep breath, smelling wood and furniture polish and books. It smelled old here, and that comforted Evan. Things that were old were sturdy and well built, hard to damage. This was a good place.
It did not take long to do his paperwork; they had been waiting for him. The lady at the desk looked over at Allie and David and smiled. “I see you’ve met some of our students, very good, Mister Lorne. Mister Parrish?” the lady called as she looked over at him expectantly.
“Yes’m?”
“There’s an open bed in your block, isn’t there, with Mister LeBeau’s departure?”
David was leaning on the wall beside the door. “Plenty of space, I’m all alone in a room meant for three.”
She smiled and made a notation on the paperwork in front of her. “Show Mister Lorne to the room, please. Your orientation will begin tomorrow, Evan. I’ve printed a schedule and put it in this folder with some other information you should read through tonight. All of your classes will be in the main building. We usually assign a student guide for the first few days...”
“I’ll show him around,” Allie volunteered.
The lady looked over her glasses at Allie. “It won’t get you out of your classes, Miss Porter.”
“I know. But I can show him; all my classes are over here too.”
“Very well. Show our new student to the cafeteria at some point. Welcome to Xavier’s, Mister Lorne.” The lady smiled at him and passed him a glossy black folder embossed with a giant letter X across the cover. It made him stupidly happy, to have a place he belonged, after being out on his own for so long. “Any questions?”
He shuffled his feet, a little ashamed, but everyone would know eventually so it didn’t matter if he spoke in front of his new acquaintances. “I’m a little behind on classes; they didn’t put me in with the seniors, did they?”
“No, you’ll be given some tests and you’ll be assigned to classes at your level. Don’t worry; many of our students have missed out on much of their schooling before coming here, due to their abilities isolating them. You shouldn’t have any problems catching up.” The lady’s smile was warm as she patted his hand where it rested on the counter.
He smiled back and bent to pick up his bag. “Thanks.” He followed David and Allie out into the hallway.
As they climbed the stairs and turned down a hallway, Allie waved. “I can’t go into the boy’s wing; I’ll meet you in the cafeteria.” She waved and bounded off.
Evan watched her go. “She seems nice.”
“She is. Laura gives her a hard time, but then she gives everyone a hard time; she can’t help it. Allie’s good people, she has a good heart. Room’s this way,” David tossed his head to the left.
The room Parrish led him to was huge, at least to Evan’s eyes. There were three beds, three desks and three dressers, in addition to a sofa and TV in one corner.
“There used to be a fourth bed in here at one time, but they decided a few years back that three was a better number, less fights and more room to spread out. You can have either of those beds, this one is mine.” David pointed and Evan smiled and went straight over to the bed beside the window. Easy exit, an escape route; he wouldn’t be trapped in this room.
He dropped his duffel on the plain blue comforter and unslung his backpack. His stomach rumbled as he glanced out the window at the campus.
“You a little hungry, dude? We should go meet Allie.”
Turning to see David staring again, Evan smiled and shrugged. “I could eat. You don’t have to go out of your way, if you’ve got someplace to be.”
“It’s Sunday, no place to be. All my homework is done. And I’m getting hungry, let’s go.” Parrish beckoned with one hand as he went to the door. He looked both ways up and down the hall before exiting the room. “We’ve got runners on this floor, a bunch of wild eight year old quads, got to watch out, they’ll trample you.”
“Okay.” Evan looked before walking out. He was relieved to have someone to tell him these things; he would have felt pretty stupid figuring that out on his own, trampled by a bunch of little kids. “Identical quads?”
“Yeah, it’s freaky. And they have a staring problem.”
Evan bit his lip to keep from remarking ‘like someone else I know.’
The path to the cafeteria was a little twisty. Occasionally, David would point something out that was interesting. He paused in front of a painting and said quietly, with a reverence he had not previously demonstrated, “That’s the founder, Professor Xavier. He went missing a few years ago. Things have been different since then. Not bad, just different.”
The bald man looked serious and stern. Evan nodded without comment and they moved on. They found Allie easily in the nearly deserted cafeteria and joined her after getting trays of food. It was the most food Evan had ever had on a plate in front of him in the last ten years. It smelled wonderful. He didn’t even mind that a large percentage of it was vegetables. His stomach growled again as he sat down on the chair beside Allie. They had real chairs here, not benches. Comfortable fabric covered seats on wooden chairs, not cheap industrial plastic. It reminded him of home, back before all the stuff happened.
“Where are you from, Evan?” Allie was chewing noisily on a carrot stick.
“Here and there, originally the Bay area, suburbs of San Francisco. You?”
She smiled. “California too, down near San Diego.”
“Vancouver.”
“You’re Canadian?”
David leaned across the table and whispered, “Yup, they’ll take anyone in here, eh?” Then he laughed and sat back. “There’s mutants from all over the world here.”
“Tell me about your classes.” Evan was more comfortable with everyone else doing the talking. He sat back and ate slowly, listening to Allie and David banter back and forth about their teachers and fellow students and classwork. It all seemed so normal, for such an abnormal school.
“Most of the X-men are on the faculty, at least part time,” Allie said.
“Allie wants to grow up to be…”
“Shut it, Parrish.”
David gave her a lopsided smile then turned to Evan. “X-men have short life expectancies. It’s a dangerous line of work, fighting the good fight on the front line against evil.”
“You are such a pessimist,” Allie accused, jabbing a finger at him.
“Realist, sweetie, I’m a realist.”
Sensing this was a hot topic between them, Evan interrupted, “I just want to be able to control myself.”
With a really odd look at Evan’s face, David licked his lips as he said, “Don’t we all?”
“Leave him alone, David. Don’t start with him, it’s only his first day,” Allie tossed a carrot stick at David’s nose; drawing his attention and making him break the stare.
“Just looking, I’m just looking. Not touching.” David held his hands up after crossing his fingers over his heart. “Cross my heart… unless he wants touching.” He gave Evan a wink.
Staring at David, Evan figured out what was going on. He’d had to put up with a lot of crap while he was living on the streets. He understood the staring now. It didn’t bother him, David seemed fairly harmless. Heck, someday, he might welcome the attention; just not now, while he was trying to get his life under control. He picked up a carrot stick, bit it and said casually, “Not today.” From the look David gave him, he knew his point had been made; it was a temporary brush off. He wasn’t shutting Parrish down completely now.
“Do not encourage him!” Allie hissed, bumping Evan’s shoulder. Evan was now staring across the table at David, seeing him in a slightly different light. “He will not stop if he thinks…”
“I can behave, Alison. There’s a movie tonight in the rec hall, you guys want to go?”
Allie nodded, “I’m sitting between you.”
With a bark of laughter, David shook his head, “She’s such a tiger when she gets all protective. Rar!” He made a claw with his hand and swiped the air towards Allie.
Evan smiled, warmed to the core. It had been so long since anyone had cared anything about what happened to him; even Allie’s small gesture was huge to him. He reached over and patted her hand. “Down girl. I think I’ll be safe. But I would be very happy to have you sit with me.”
As he walked back to his room to unpack and settle in, Evan had no way of knowing that he had just met the three best friends he would ever have, or that the young man walking beside him would hold a permanent and primary place in his life.
For now, he was content to have a roof over his head, and the promise of guidance in learning to use his troublesome abilities.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Xmen Crossover/Fusion
Series: Part of the Mutant 'verse (Sequence #1)
Characters: Parrish, Lorne, Cadman, Porter
Pairing: Parrish/Lorne, if you squint
Rating: PG
Orientation: Gen (slash if you squint)
Word Count: 3,323
Notes: for camshaft22, for prompting me a little. This is a total AU for both this and the comic I ripped off. I'm an old school 80's & 90's comics reader, I have no idea what has happened in the last decade or so since I stopped collecting.
Prompts: for parrish_lorne Alphabet Soup Challenge
And for AU Bingo fill: “Students”
Putting his bag down beside him, Evan pressed the button beneath the speaker. It was helpfully labeled “Press to call for entry.”
“Yes, may I help you?”
He leaned towards the speaker and cleared his throat nervously. “Hi. My name is Evan, I was given this address, is this the school?”
“Evan… Lorne?” the disembodied feminine voice asked.
“Yes.” He breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn’t messed it up, if they knew his name, it must be the right place.
The gate beside him buzzed. “Welcome, we’ve been expecting you. Come in through the gate. Walk up the pathway to the right, stay on the walkway. That is very important, do not wander off the cement walk, Mister Lorne, it could be dangerous. You’ll see a sign for the door to the administration office.”
Her warning might have concerned him, if he hadn’t known he was walking into a school populated with other people like him. He knew all about dangerous. Clenching his hand tightly around the handle of his duffel bag, he went through the gate. It couldn’t be any worse in this new world than it had been on the streets, dangerous inhabitants or no dangerous inhabitants in the student body.
The gate closed behind him and he looked around at the park-like grounds as he started walking. It was quiet, except for the birdsong. He never heard a sound; the collision happened so quickly and silently, he was down before he had a chance to react. That in itself was good, since he might have reacted badly and hurt someone unintentionally. One moment he was walking, the next he was flat on his stomach, a weight pressing on his back. Something whooshed past over his head and he smelled something burning nearby. “Hey!” he protested when he got his breath back. “Lemmee up!”
“Come back here, you little bitch!” the whooshing sound came again.
The little brunette that had been on his back scrambled to her feet and bent to tug him up, urging him up, “Hurry up, she’s almost close enough to actually hit us!” As she wrapped slim hands around his arm, she smiled up at him. “Oh, wow, uhm. I wish I knew how to use that! No time to learn now.”
“Use what? Who are you?” Evan looked around and saw a girl with reddish blonde hair stomping towards them, a look of determination on her face.
“That power you’ve got there. I’m Allie, that’s my roommate Laura and she’s a little miffed right now.” Allie tugged his arm, trying to get him to move.
As she moved, Laura pulled back her arm, looking as if she were about to pitch a softball, and hurled a ball of fire towards them. “Oh, crap!” Evan shouted and dove aside, knocking Allie to the ground as he went; they rolled into the mulch beside the walkway.
“You swiped my assignment card! Your card sucks,” Laura shouted.
Allie leapt to her feet. “That’s one of the founder’s trees you just set on fire, you’re in for it now!”
Her step faltered and Laura dropped her hand to her side, and she muttered “Uh oh.”
“Yeah! Uh oh!” Allie mimicked.
“What was on the card?” a male voice asked from behind Evan as he climbed to his feet. Evan looked over his shoulder and saw a slim guy with spiky blondish-brown hair leaning against a tree.
“I had Danger Room,” Allie offered with a smile.
“Hell no, I don’t like pain. What’d you have, Cads?” he looked at his hands casually.
Laura stomped her foot as she pointed a garden hose she’d pulled from the landscape at the burning tree and squirted at the flames. “Don’t just stand there, Parrish! Do something about that!” Laura waved a hand at the charred surface of the tree.
“Card?”
Allie tugged a folder piece of cardboard from the pocket of her jeans and waved it. “Hand to Hand Training with Professor Summers. She has a crush on him.”
Parrish pushed away from the tree and snatched the card from Allie’s fingers as he walked past her. “Who doesn’t? Better than the Danger Room, or History of Mutant Relations with old blue nose. Cads can have my lecture card in exchange for me pulling her ass out of the fire. Again. C’mon Porter, you can help with this.” He held a hand out to her expectantly.
Evan stood back, careful to not step off the walkway, after all this could be some kind of test engineered to see if he could follow instructions. He’d been warned by the man that had found him after the last incident not to use his abilities again until he was in a safe environment, and until he had proper training.
He watched Laura curl the hose and drop it back where she had found it as Allie took Parrish’s hand and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Then she nodded and dropped it. Parrish went to the base of the damaged tree and put his hands gingerly on the wet surface. “Aw, poor baby, what did that mean fire starter do to you, huh? Wicked fire witch tried to burn you all up, didn’t she?” he cooed.
“Just make with the tree-hugging, Parrish, before someone comes along and I get slapped with another week’s detention.”
Peeking out from the far side of the tree, Allie replied cheerily, “Stop blowing stuff up and you won’t have to do detention all the time.”
“You go through my things again bitch and I will set your bed on fire, and I won’t make sure you’re out of it first.”
Apparently used to empty threats, Allie merely stuck her tongue out in response and disappeared in a swirl of dark hair. Laura moved to stand beside Evan, her arms crossed over her middle. “Hey, new kid.”
“Hi, Laura.”
She grinned. “What’s your name?”
“Evan. What are they going to do?”
“Fix the tree, I hope. It’s one of the old ones; the administrators frown on those getting torn up. Oh, sure, if you’re one of the X-men, you can pretty much wreck the place and get away with a slap on the wrist, but we students get in a lot of trouble. I’ll be doing bathroom detail for a month if the wonder twins there can’t fix it.”
Not understanding completely, Evan opted for silence and just nodded. He blinked in surprise as the bark of the tree began to change, starting at the area under Parrish’s hands and spreading from there. Soon, the damaged surface looked just like the rest of the tree, if a bit newer. He saw the same changes come around the tree from the other side, and assumed that Allie was doing the same as Parrish from there.
“They have the same abilities?” Evan asked Laura quietly.
She smirked. “For the moment. Allie Xeroxed David, it doesn’t last very long, but it’ll probably last long enough for them to finish, from the looks of it.”
“So her ability is to…”
“Copy other people’s. It takes her time to learn to use them, so she usually just sticks to people she knows. She and David have worked together on projects before.”
This was why he was here, to learn to use what he could do, to possibly make some use of it. At least, to learn to live with it. Evan smiled, more confident now that he had made the right choice in crossing the country to come here.
“I think that’s good enough,” Parrish declared as he patted the side of the tree. “Should be fine now.” He walked over towards Evan and Laura, giving Lorne an appraising up and down look. “So, new guy, eh? Where you staying?”
“I don’t know yet, I’m on my way up to the office to find out, I guess.”
Allie bounced over towards them, her long hair swinging. “I’ll come with you, make sure they stick you in one of the cruddy dorms. Least I can do for getting you all messy.”
Evan looked down, noticing that he was a bit mussed and dirt covered from their dives at the ground. “Sure, yeah, that would be cool.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, Evan noticed that Parrish was staring at him. David shook himself and started to follow. “I’ll come too.”
“I’m going to the library,” Laura turned away but stopped when Parrish waved a card at her.
“Don’t forget your new assignment. You’ll need to pick up a few books while you’re there for Professor McCoy’s class.”
Laura practically ripped the card from David’s hand with a sneer. “I hate you, Parrish.”
He smiled broadly and called after her, “No, you love me Cads. You want to marry me and make lots of little fire-spouting plant babies with me. Stop fighting it!”
She gestured rudely over her shoulder which only made David laugh.
“That’s the gym, down that way,” Allie had apparently appointed herself his impromptu personal tour guide. Evan nodded and looked, trying to memorize what he saw. He knew he needed to keep the exit route in his head. He always kept the exit route in his head.
“Keep clear of that area over there. You never know when the landing bay is going to open. The X-men come and go a lot.” She waved towards a wide open grassy area.
“Who?”
David snickered behind him. “Ah, good. Someone not enamored of our illustrious faculty! You’re a breath of fresh air, new guy.”
“Don’t pay him any mind. He’s just mad because his skill will never get him on the first team.” Allie stuck her tongue out at David and he swatted her ass.
“While yours is a hot ticket to doomsville, brat. Don’t gloat. I’m perfectly content out of the spotlight. Not everyone longs to wear the giant target on their chest. X does not mark my spot.”
Allie ignored him. “What do you do, Evan?”
“I’m not sure. It all just started. Stuff kind moves when I get mad.”
Allie stopped and put a hand on Evan’s arm. “You mean your ability only just woke up? How old are you?”
“I’ll be eighteen in a few months.”
“Seriously, dude? Wow. You’re a late bloomer.” David tilted his head and looked at Evan oddly.
Agreeing with David, Allie nodded. “Most of us started at puberty.”
Lorne shrugged. The guy that had come to get him had told him this. He didn’t care. He wasn’t here to be an X-man, whatever that entailed. He was here to make the bad stuff stop happening.
They reached the building and Allie dragged the heavy oak door open, they scooted inside and Evan took a deep breath, smelling wood and furniture polish and books. It smelled old here, and that comforted Evan. Things that were old were sturdy and well built, hard to damage. This was a good place.
It did not take long to do his paperwork; they had been waiting for him. The lady at the desk looked over at Allie and David and smiled. “I see you’ve met some of our students, very good, Mister Lorne. Mister Parrish?” the lady called as she looked over at him expectantly.
“Yes’m?”
“There’s an open bed in your block, isn’t there, with Mister LeBeau’s departure?”
David was leaning on the wall beside the door. “Plenty of space, I’m all alone in a room meant for three.”
She smiled and made a notation on the paperwork in front of her. “Show Mister Lorne to the room, please. Your orientation will begin tomorrow, Evan. I’ve printed a schedule and put it in this folder with some other information you should read through tonight. All of your classes will be in the main building. We usually assign a student guide for the first few days...”
“I’ll show him around,” Allie volunteered.
The lady looked over her glasses at Allie. “It won’t get you out of your classes, Miss Porter.”
“I know. But I can show him; all my classes are over here too.”
“Very well. Show our new student to the cafeteria at some point. Welcome to Xavier’s, Mister Lorne.” The lady smiled at him and passed him a glossy black folder embossed with a giant letter X across the cover. It made him stupidly happy, to have a place he belonged, after being out on his own for so long. “Any questions?”
He shuffled his feet, a little ashamed, but everyone would know eventually so it didn’t matter if he spoke in front of his new acquaintances. “I’m a little behind on classes; they didn’t put me in with the seniors, did they?”
“No, you’ll be given some tests and you’ll be assigned to classes at your level. Don’t worry; many of our students have missed out on much of their schooling before coming here, due to their abilities isolating them. You shouldn’t have any problems catching up.” The lady’s smile was warm as she patted his hand where it rested on the counter.
He smiled back and bent to pick up his bag. “Thanks.” He followed David and Allie out into the hallway.
As they climbed the stairs and turned down a hallway, Allie waved. “I can’t go into the boy’s wing; I’ll meet you in the cafeteria.” She waved and bounded off.
Evan watched her go. “She seems nice.”
“She is. Laura gives her a hard time, but then she gives everyone a hard time; she can’t help it. Allie’s good people, she has a good heart. Room’s this way,” David tossed his head to the left.
The room Parrish led him to was huge, at least to Evan’s eyes. There were three beds, three desks and three dressers, in addition to a sofa and TV in one corner.
“There used to be a fourth bed in here at one time, but they decided a few years back that three was a better number, less fights and more room to spread out. You can have either of those beds, this one is mine.” David pointed and Evan smiled and went straight over to the bed beside the window. Easy exit, an escape route; he wouldn’t be trapped in this room.
He dropped his duffel on the plain blue comforter and unslung his backpack. His stomach rumbled as he glanced out the window at the campus.
“You a little hungry, dude? We should go meet Allie.”
Turning to see David staring again, Evan smiled and shrugged. “I could eat. You don’t have to go out of your way, if you’ve got someplace to be.”
“It’s Sunday, no place to be. All my homework is done. And I’m getting hungry, let’s go.” Parrish beckoned with one hand as he went to the door. He looked both ways up and down the hall before exiting the room. “We’ve got runners on this floor, a bunch of wild eight year old quads, got to watch out, they’ll trample you.”
“Okay.” Evan looked before walking out. He was relieved to have someone to tell him these things; he would have felt pretty stupid figuring that out on his own, trampled by a bunch of little kids. “Identical quads?”
“Yeah, it’s freaky. And they have a staring problem.”
Evan bit his lip to keep from remarking ‘like someone else I know.’
The path to the cafeteria was a little twisty. Occasionally, David would point something out that was interesting. He paused in front of a painting and said quietly, with a reverence he had not previously demonstrated, “That’s the founder, Professor Xavier. He went missing a few years ago. Things have been different since then. Not bad, just different.”
The bald man looked serious and stern. Evan nodded without comment and they moved on. They found Allie easily in the nearly deserted cafeteria and joined her after getting trays of food. It was the most food Evan had ever had on a plate in front of him in the last ten years. It smelled wonderful. He didn’t even mind that a large percentage of it was vegetables. His stomach growled again as he sat down on the chair beside Allie. They had real chairs here, not benches. Comfortable fabric covered seats on wooden chairs, not cheap industrial plastic. It reminded him of home, back before all the stuff happened.
“Where are you from, Evan?” Allie was chewing noisily on a carrot stick.
“Here and there, originally the Bay area, suburbs of San Francisco. You?”
She smiled. “California too, down near San Diego.”
“Vancouver.”
“You’re Canadian?”
David leaned across the table and whispered, “Yup, they’ll take anyone in here, eh?” Then he laughed and sat back. “There’s mutants from all over the world here.”
“Tell me about your classes.” Evan was more comfortable with everyone else doing the talking. He sat back and ate slowly, listening to Allie and David banter back and forth about their teachers and fellow students and classwork. It all seemed so normal, for such an abnormal school.
“Most of the X-men are on the faculty, at least part time,” Allie said.
“Allie wants to grow up to be…”
“Shut it, Parrish.”
David gave her a lopsided smile then turned to Evan. “X-men have short life expectancies. It’s a dangerous line of work, fighting the good fight on the front line against evil.”
“You are such a pessimist,” Allie accused, jabbing a finger at him.
“Realist, sweetie, I’m a realist.”
Sensing this was a hot topic between them, Evan interrupted, “I just want to be able to control myself.”
With a really odd look at Evan’s face, David licked his lips as he said, “Don’t we all?”
“Leave him alone, David. Don’t start with him, it’s only his first day,” Allie tossed a carrot stick at David’s nose; drawing his attention and making him break the stare.
“Just looking, I’m just looking. Not touching.” David held his hands up after crossing his fingers over his heart. “Cross my heart… unless he wants touching.” He gave Evan a wink.
Staring at David, Evan figured out what was going on. He’d had to put up with a lot of crap while he was living on the streets. He understood the staring now. It didn’t bother him, David seemed fairly harmless. Heck, someday, he might welcome the attention; just not now, while he was trying to get his life under control. He picked up a carrot stick, bit it and said casually, “Not today.” From the look David gave him, he knew his point had been made; it was a temporary brush off. He wasn’t shutting Parrish down completely now.
“Do not encourage him!” Allie hissed, bumping Evan’s shoulder. Evan was now staring across the table at David, seeing him in a slightly different light. “He will not stop if he thinks…”
“I can behave, Alison. There’s a movie tonight in the rec hall, you guys want to go?”
Allie nodded, “I’m sitting between you.”
With a bark of laughter, David shook his head, “She’s such a tiger when she gets all protective. Rar!” He made a claw with his hand and swiped the air towards Allie.
Evan smiled, warmed to the core. It had been so long since anyone had cared anything about what happened to him; even Allie’s small gesture was huge to him. He reached over and patted her hand. “Down girl. I think I’ll be safe. But I would be very happy to have you sit with me.”
As he walked back to his room to unpack and settle in, Evan had no way of knowing that he had just met the three best friends he would ever have, or that the young man walking beside him would hold a permanent and primary place in his life.
For now, he was content to have a roof over his head, and the promise of guidance in learning to use his troublesome abilities.