feathers ↣ w. worthington iii

(18) Curly Hair Sticking Out of a Beanie is Just *chef's kiss*

"If you keep your mouth open like that, you'll catch flies," Warren said from beside Lilli. She gasped, elbowing him in the ribs. He jumped away, a smile briefly flashing across his features. "Hey!" He exclaimed indignantly.

"Be nice," Lilli scolded before turning around and finding a seat. Only when she sat down did she realize— did Warren just make a joke? She couldn't stop the grin that creeped onto her face at the thought of it. It was nice to see Warren acting less hostile towards her.

Lilli felt a nudge in her side and turned to see Ororo giving her a questioning look. "What was that all about?" She asked quietly, referring to the small exchange between Lilli and Warren.

Lilli just shook her head. "It seems Mr Worthington the Third is being nice to me again," she said back, watching Warren with her eyes as he sat down on the other side of the long conference table.

"Again? When was he ever nice to you?" Ororo asked, confusion written plainly across her features.

"Uh.. when we were a thing?" Lilli said, like it was obvious. Ororo's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"What?" She exclaimed, grabbing Lilli's arm in shock. "You were a thing?" She hissed quietly, staring at Lilli like she'd grown two heads.

"Oh, my Lord," Lilli breathed out. Ororo had never known about her and Warren! It had all happened in the weeks after Lilli had left. Ororo had never even seen Warren be nice to Lilli, ever. "Yeah, it all happened after we left. Dude, we were a thing thing."

If it were to be possible, Ororo's eyes widened even further. Her eyebrows had disappeared into her hairline by this point, and her mouth was wide open. She looked almost comical as she asked in a low whisper, "Did you guys.. you know... bang?"

Lilli's eyes widened. She opened her mouth to respond when Professor cleared his throat and interrupted her. Lilli looked up and saw that the meeting was about to go underway. "We'll talk later," she whispered quickly to Ororo before turning back up to Professor X. He was sat at the head of the table and looking around to make sure everyone was quieting down and ready to listen.

"You all wanted to know what this place is," Professor said. Everyone nodded in unison. "Well, that's easy. This is an underground bunker meant to be large and self sufficient enough to house as many mutants as needed in case the whole mutant species needed to hide. For example: a war against mutants, a mutant genocide, a mutant purge, or anything of the like. We specially put in sensors that don't let anyone teleport in or out of here to prevent anyone unwanted from teleporting in."

Lilli sat back in her chair. A war? A mutant genocide? A purge? She'd forgotten how much the world still disliked mutants. It was a scary thought to realize how many people hated her just for a simple gene. And it was even scarier now to be sitting in this bunker and know what it was for. Lilli prayed that the day would never come that the bunker would have be to used to actually hide mutants from a purge or something similarly frightening.

"I helped Charles design this place. It's meant to be labyrinthine, so that in case it's compromised, it'll be nearly impossible to navigate," Hank was saying. "It's a lot more expansive than just what you've seen."

"Wow," Peter said. "How is the mansion structurally sound if all of this is underneath it?"

Hank gave Peter a harsh look. "Because I'm an architectural genius," he said tightly in a don't question me tone. Peter put his hands up in surrender.

"Did you guys lock us in the room?" Lilli asked, changing the conversation. She wanted to speed up the Q&A so they could start planning how to take back the school.