Ruse •X-men•

Chapter 2

Dannie,
Happy birthday! I still can't believe that you're sixteen! I'm sorry I haven't been there for the last couple years, but times are tough over here.

They've begun sending troops home. Hopefully I'll be back in the next few months and then I can take you to lunch or dinner one time, maybe even to that restaurant you loved so much when you were younger.

Promise me you'll try and get out a bit more, staying cooped up in that mansion all the time isn't good for you. try and get Charles to join you if you can.

Miss you heaps Dannie, give Hank and Charles my regards.

Love Alex.

Dannielle read the letter over and over with a small smile. It was the first letter she had received in almost half a year, but she couldn't blame him. War was hectic and unpredictable, as was the mail service. She folded the letter back up and put it in the envelope before tucking it away on the pocket of her jeans.

Dannielle was sitting on the stair case in the main hall area near the front entrance with a large sketchbook with only five or so blank pages. Those pages had remained unused for the passed three or four months, Dannielle had no idea what to draw. She had been stuck inside the mansion for so long that the days had begun to blur together.

You may say 'why don't you just go outside?' Or 'look out a window' but looking out a window was all she'd done in that time. Why? Charles refused to let her go anywhere. He'd become so protective of her in his drunk, depressed state that she couldn't do anything, not even Hank could reason with him.

A knock on the door pulled the brunette out of her thoughts, drawing her attention to the main entrance. Hank walked out from Charles's study, giving her a small smile before going to answer the door.
Dannielle couldn't hear much but soon enough she saw a man enter the mansion with Hank not too far Beine him in protest. Dannielle stood, placing the large book by her discarded shoes.

"Hey! I said the schools closed, you have to leave." The stranger didn't stop walking, only continuing down the small set of stairs before Hank roughly grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face him.

"There's no professor here, I told you that." Hank persisted.

"Look kid, you and I are going to be good friends." The man proceeded to punch Hank in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. Dannielle let out a snort, attempting to hide it by covering her mouth with the sleeve of her red sweater.

"You just don't know it yet." The man turned and left Hank, walking around the table until he was at the stair case. He stopped at the first step when he saw Dannielle, Logan had heard her short giggle, he wouldn't even have to look at her to know who was laughing.

"Dannielle Spencer." He said, shocked at how much younger she actually looked compared to when he last saw her fifty years ago. In all honesty, there was not much change, only that her hair was still long, down to her hips while she didn't look as matured physically.

"Stranger." Dannielle greeted, with a nod, not bothering to stop him.

"Up the stairs to your left is where you'll find him." With a nod, Logan left in search of the drunken man. When Dannielle turned back to Hank, she watched as he changed blue, his anger taking ahold. She didn't care. She only sat back down and waited for everything to unfold.

You see, in the time that she'd grown up in the mansion, she'd began to grow careless, bored. And it irked Charles more than she knew, even Hank didn't know what to do at some times. So she kept to herself a lot, either locked in her room or in the kitchen or gym if she wasn't sitting on the stair case.