X-men: The Zen Chronicles (Redheadstemper)

[redheadstemper]

While Faye an Piotr were walking to the front door to meet Jean and Scott, Kel grabbed Logan and went to the kitchen. "C'mon, I wanna eat before everyone crowds the place. Then we can find a good place to watch the kids speculate."

As he watched Kel heat up some food for them both, Logan grabbed a couple of their beers each, and said, "what, Chuck wants us to babysit?"

"Nah, it'll just be funny. Here, just some spag bol, but as much asyou eat, you can carry your own plate." Kel traded the plate for her beer, and they sat down to eat.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye grumbled to Piotr about having a chaperon for the date. She didn't like the fact that Jean and her . . . wife. . . were going to be joining them on their special date. But Piotr had reassured her that it was necessary in case something happened he couldn't control like someone bumped into her or bad mutants attacked. The more he talked and gave reasons why they were here the more Faye seemed to get used to the idea and resolved to accept that they were going to be there too. "Table for two." Piotr said to the man at the front desk, he smiled at them both and lead them to a table near the window looking out at a lake, he handed them two menus and told them a waiter would be coming back to take their order shortly. "Wow everything is so expensive here." Faye said moving her lip from side to side.

"It's okay." Piotr said. "Order whatever you want." He left out that the Professor's had all given him money for the date. He figured as long as she thought he was paying for all of this it would be romantic.


All the students had gathered in the dining hall to place bets and to talk about other random things. But mainly the date between Piotr and Felicity. "I heard that the mutants on Genosha heard about this date too and were planning on crashing it." One kid whispered.

"They're totally the new it couple." Another group gushed. Pyro had grabbed his tray and left the dining hall. He couldn't take it any more. All this talk about Faye and Piotr was making his heart hurt he just wanted to cry. But he couldn't do it around people. Or they'd call him a skirt.  

[redheadstemper]

Kel and Logan had dragged two chairs into the corner of the hall and were finishing off their second bottles, and watching the rampant spculation. "Seriously? They actually think the Brotherhood cares about a date? I reckon the first Ag class after the hols will have to be on the proper sourcing of manure. I hadn't heard that they changed the island's name to Genosha, though."

Logan snorted. "Yeah, not supposed to get it from their own mouths."


Later, when everyone decided that the two couples had to be on their way home, Kel leaned over to talk to Logan. "So, did Hank mention that spare couples room to you, too?"

Neither noticed the hush fall over the hall as Logan answered, "yeah, why?"

"Well, I was thinking of asking you if you wanted to move in therewith me, in front of Scott, right when he takes a sip of something."

This time they did notice the reaction, since it was almost the entire school squealing.

Logan glared at all of them, before saying, "yeah, sounds good."  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye slowly ate her lobster dipping it in Garlic butter and then eating it. Like a princess. God had anything tasted so good? At one point she noticed Piotr watching her and blushed. "What?" She asked growing concerned. "What's wrong?" His expression was soft, tender, gentle. And full of an emotion she couldn't place just yet.

"Felicity." Piotr began with a smile. He reached his hand out to take hold of hers. His expression turned serious.

"You're scaring me." Faye whimpered trying to take her hand away. "What's wrong?"

"Felicity, I love you." Piotr said seriously. "Will you be my Girlfriend?"

Faye's heart flew into her throat. She opened her mouth to reply when a waitress brushed her forearm against Faye's upper arm as she walked past. Faye's face paled as a flash of thoughts and memories passed over her mind. She suddenly felt sick. That woman. . . Such a horrible person. "Faye?" Piotr's voice called to her several times.
"I'm fine." She said putting a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't vomit. "I'm okay." She said again after a moment. She turned her eyes to Scott and Jean who had made motions to stand and offer assistance but Felicity made sure they stayed put. Faye managed to finish her meal when she realized that Piotr was still waiting for an answer. Faye smiled and reached for his hand. "Yes." She said to him with a smile. "I love you too." She was still pale and her eyes were slight glazed but she was lucid and coherent. So the touch wasn't that bad.  

[redheadstemper]

Seeing the teens finish eating, Jean carefully prompted them telepathically. "It's almost curfew, so you will need to pay up and then we will leave"

Meanwhile, Scott was getting up to pay their bill. His glasses had drawn some odd looks, but luckily no one had commented, and she hadn't had any of the more and more common episodes of uncontrollable telepathy, so there hadn't been any issues on the mutant front. That was one of their worries, that something would occur and an anti-mutant riot would start, but it hadn't occurred.

Once they'd paid up, Jean and Scott leaned against Scott's beloved car while they waited for the teens discussing the turnout of the betting pool.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Faye nodded and finished up as much as her stomach would let her. She left the table and kissed his cheek. "Shall we go?" She asked. "We'll grab a bowl of ice cream at home. Jean looks antsy." She whispered on his cheek.

Piotr nodded quickly and stood up looking her over. "I think it will be straight to bed for you actually." He said simply. "You still look pale." He put his coat over her shoulders and lead her to the counter paying for their meal. "So impatient." He said shaking his head at Jean and Scott. Jean was deliberately avoiding eye contact with Faye and only talked to Piotr when he talked to her first. She was still scared of Faye and her arm was only just starting to heal. She didn't want matching holes in her right arm.  

[redheadstemper]

All the students had gathered around the windows at thenfront of the mansion, the teachers having given up getting them to bed. As the saw the car come up the driveway, everyone was quiet.

Kel grinned at Logan. "Ant the pools start paying out in three ... two ... one ..."

"Alright, those who had that they'd get back just before curfew, actually, let's wait and pay out in the morning," the boy who ran most of the betting pools in the mansion said, trying and failing to stifle a yawn.

"Damn, they're a lot more tired than I thought." Kel said, then started pulling Logan away. "Lets go down to the foyer, so we can run interference for them."

"You mean find out what happened."

"That too."  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Piotr got out of the car first. He went to Faye's side and lifted her up into his arms keeping her close. He had to get her straight to bed. "Bathroom." Faye whimpered up at him. Piotr nodded and took her to the nearest bathroom holding back her hair as she threw up. "Jean. Go let Kel and Logan know we are here." Piotr commanded her watching as she rushed off to find Kel and Logan. "Everything's fine, she's just not feeling well, who knew she couldn't eat Lobster."  

[redheadstemper]

In the morning, Kel and Logan hung around the kitchen, waiting for Scott to get his morning coffee. Once he arrived, looking a little worse for wear, Kel started talking.

"So, Logan, I've been thinking that we shouldn't bother keeping two rooms. There's the spare couples room at the end of the hall, wanna move in there with me?"  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Scott had just lifted the coffee to his lips when he heard Kel talking. He spat out his mouthful but his hand kept tipping, and tipped the whole cup of coffee on himself. "Ah~!" He roared dropping the cup into the sink and splashing cold water on himself before he got too scolded.

Logan grinned. "Sure." He replied taking smug satisfaction out of Scott having a hard time accepting that Logan wasn't going to be a problem any more.


Faye woke up from her strange dream in a haze. Her hair was still sort of in it's place but the bits that weren't were sticking all over the place. She felt like she had the biggest hang over of her life. Piotr hadn't awoken yet so she slipped out of the room to go for a shower spending twenty minutes alone removing the pins and hair ties in her hair. She was still feeling dizzy and a little sick from that girl. But she supposed she could deal with it later.  

[redheadstemper]

Kel and Logan were laughing hysterically as they moved their belongings to their new room. All four bags of stuff. Just as their sniggers died down, Jean came up and leaned on the doorframe.

"Did you really have to do that? You know that Scott takes his coffee as hot as it gets. It was not funny, Kel. That coffee landed in a very painful place!"

"Yeah, it was, actually. He's been acting the jealous arsehole, and he's still acting mad at Faye."

"Yeah, no man deserves that, but we didn't pour it, he did."

Logan and Kel looked at each other, and bursting out laughing again.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Piotr wandered down the hall watching the four adults. His eyes confused. "What's going on?" He asked tilting his head.

"We're moving in together." Logan explained. "Scott doesn't like the idea."

Piotr nodded. "Well I have to get back to Felicity. She's not feeling well and I don't want her to be alone to long in case she falls down." He smiled at the four of them and returned to the room.

Faye had dried and dressed herself. She still felt dizzy but it was manageable if she moved slowly. She was hungry now. Not surprising since she dumped ninety dollars worth of food into Scott's secret bathroom. Urgh. She had to get out of the sick smelling room. She could still feel that waitress in her head. She wanted to cry. How can Uncle Charlie deal with all the voices? She wondered. She heard whispers in her mind. More than the ones in her mind and followed them to her uncle's private office.

"Sit Felicity." He said smiling kindly. He always smiled like that to her. She gave an obedient nod and sat on the day bed. He put his hands on her temples. "Breathe slowly in and out." He instructed. "Picture yourself letting that waitress and her thoughts go." His voice was always kind, always happy, always gentle. Little did they know Piotr had people freaking out because Faye was no longer in their room.  

[redheadstemper]

Logan and Kel were putting the last of their few belongings in their places, while explaining to Jean just why their 'prank' on Scott was funny, when Piotr burst back into their new room.

"I can't find her!"

All three teachers teachers immediately became serious. "Could that waitress who brushed against her last night be affecting her? We still don't know what touching non-mutants does, to her or them. I'll contact Charles, I don't think it would be a good idea for me to look for her at the moment." Jean offered, before sending a thought to Professor Xavier.

She didn't have to wait long for a reply. "Charles Xavier is not available for contact at the moment, please leave a message after the tone and he will get back to you as soon as possible. Beeeep"

"Charles, what's going on. That is completely unlike you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm linked to Faye at the moment, so I have been influenced by her sense of humour. She's focused on getting rid of the influence of the woman who brushed against her last night, but she should be feeling much better once she has. We need to find that teacher soon, Jean."

Jean relayed the relevant information to the others, who were relieved to know where she was and that she would be okay.  

[Hikari_Mamo]

Poitr sighed with relief. He'd helped her during the night with her episodes of vomiting and crying from it. His poor vulnerable girlfriend was so unprotected sometimes. He just hoped he was okay.

In everyone's head all at once in Faye's voice the song, I'm a Barbie girl was projected around.

No matter how much Jean tried to block it out she couldn't. It just played over and over in her mind. Scott seemed to be feeling it the worst. He was screaming crying out "So annoying~!"  

[redheadstemper]

Logan growled a little at the extremely annoying song that was being mentally projected, and deliberately sunk into a more feral mindset. He didn't do it often, but he knew that it blocked telepathy, since it was the major reason Wheels couldn't help him with his memories - they were surrounded in that mindset. He then groaned as his woman started singing along, while dancing. Once he paid attention to how she was dancing, he saw that she was making exaggerated impressions of teen girls - the type that smelled of so many chemicals he wondered how they could smell anything.

The, she burst out laughing. "God, that brings back memories. I used to do that in front of those idiots with caked on makeup, once I came here for school, and they didn't even realise I was mocking them 'til I started laughing!"

"That's great, but we'd best go get her to stop. Jeannie and One-Eye can't do anything, and as funny as it is to see Scott like that, I don't want to be the one babysitting, if we're the only ones able to think."

Kel considered that, and then set off towards the elevator to get them to Charles' office.