Regenerate | X-Men/Avengers - Pt. 1

Ch. 12

Automatically my guard goes back up, and it takes a minute for me to calm my nerves enough to let him in again. Yes. I was adopted. Sort of.

Vince looks at me thoughtfully. "What were they like?"

"Orderly and religious."

He scoffs. "I had a foster family who were religious nuts. They stopped trying to take me to church eventually, thank god."

"Mine had a different spiritual reason for all my problems. They thought my nightmares were caused by an evil entity who was trying to turn me on myself." I return to our abandoned drawing game.

"Have you ever tried to find your parents?" The pen starts tapping again.

"No." Taking the graph paper, I begin folding it.

"Are you curious---?"

"No." Folding and folding until there's a dense square of paper in the palm of my hand. Taking two corners from inside the square, I pull, and the whole piece gradually unfolds again.

Logan, harried and cranky as schooldays usually make him, surprised me this morning by ruffling my hair as we passed in the hall. Vince managed to sleep through breakfast which avoided me having to introduce him to Matt right away. However, Matt spent most of his morning rehashing with other friends while I sat alone.

The same goes for lunch, where I sit by myself on the patio until Vince finally shows up, sits in Matt's seat, and raises an eyebrow. "Why're you sitting out here, it's horrible." The humidity has frazzled the ends of his hair.

"Someone got a haircut," I observe.

"Eh, yeah." He brushes a hand over it self-consciously.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Matt heading our way. No need to hear his thoughts to know what he thinks of this. Vince can hear though.

"Don't worry, I'll get out of your chair, but first, why do they call you 'sauna'?"

Matt sets his books down on the table. "I don't know, why do they call you---"

"Knock it off, Matt."

Vince glowers. "Up yours, trust fund."

Matt sits down with an attitude, sliding his food over to his side of the table and making sure to knock it against Vince's. The remaining lunch hour is fraught with barbed comments and double-talk until the bell finally separates the contenders. My next class is with Vince, so he walks with me, thoughts tumbling around with wrathful undertones.

Please don't fight with him. I ask.

He shoots me a suspicious look. Are you still telling me what to do?

I'm asking, please.

Swearing under his breath, Vince rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, okay."

First team session in Danger went as delightfully as could be expected. I hunch my shoulders as Logan approaches.

"You don't need to yell at her," Scott says, heading him off, "it went fine. There was a mishap, but she and Terry pulled through it."

"Then I'm not here about that am I?" Logan snaps. "She knows what I'm here about."

Scott looks between us, and I more or less indicate that I do. Once he's gone, Logan continues to glower at me.

During the simulation I let myself get in too deep just to see if I could, attracting adversaries and taking hard blows. Terry, misreading the situation, blew my aggressors away with one of her magnificent screams, but since no one told her about my sensitive hearing I went down before my opponents did. Scott had to prop me up as I regained consciousness, my eardrums taking their delicate time to heal. I ended up missing most of the class.

"I didn't do anything." I shrug.

Logan grits his teeth and, taking me by the shoulder, leads me down the hall to the hangar. Before the door has sealed behind us, he starts lecturing me.

"I know you've decided not to care what happens to you, but you scared your teammates. First day in and you've already done something hotheaded and selfish. You put Terry in danger, you made Scott babysit you---"

"Hey, it would've been fine if somebody had told her not to-"

"Don't interrupt me. There will always be someone who doesn't know and she's still getting used to her powers so she gets that excuse, but you? You knew better. When you're on a team you do not make yourself a problem so that everyone else has to carry your weight-"

"Crap, Logan, I know how to work on a team, alright? I've done teamwork, and I'm done looking out for people who can't look out for themselves."

He grabs my arm as I storm for the door, wrenching me back. "Hold on, you're tired of looking out for people smaller than you? Are you? I've got news for you, bub, everyone is smaller than you, and the day you realize you've been given something they haven't-"

I roll my eyes and groan. "Yes, I know, we're all so special." I jerk my arm out of his grasp. "If I should know better than some kid not to let my powers get away from me then let me run my own life."

"Like you were going to run it when I met you at the lake? Were you going to take good care of yourself then?"

My face grows hot. "What do you care? You've got a whole school full of kids here, why worry about me? They need you more than I do, go bother them."

He leans down to look me in the eye. "Ace. I know you've been alone for a long time now, but that's not the case anymore. Everyone here is invested in you, and no one on that team is going to up and die any time soon unless you let them."

I shudder and press my arms to my sides. "Who do you think I am? I can't protect them. If a bomb hit the school right now who'd be left standing?"

Logan's face turns to granite. "It wouldn't have to be just us."

I clench my fists and he starts searching for a cigar.

"You don't have to be in the damn class, alright? Just...don't back away from something just because your past tells you to. You're not living there anymore."

Easy to say when you can't remember yours.

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