Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/5230487.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      X-Men_-_All_Media_Types, X-Men_Evolution, X-Men_(Comicverse)
  Relationship:
      Toad_(X-Men)/Original_Female_Character(s)
  Character:
      Toad_(X-Men), Megan_Kinney
  Additional Tags:
      Elizabeth_Victoria_aka_Megan_Kinney
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-11-17 Updated: 2015-11-18 Chapters: 11/? Words: 24567
****** Earth 616000 ******
by SDLynn
Summary
     Toad aka Mortimer Todd Toynbee x Elizabeth Victoria Xavier aka Megan
     Kinney
     AU. A blend of my limited X-Men comicverse knowledge and X-Men
     Evolution memories.
     Backstory: Laura Kinney (Weapon X-23), her aunt, and cousin Megan
     Kinney were attacked by an undercover agent from the Weapon X program
     attempting to retrieve Weapon X-23. Laura's aunt was killed but Laura
     managed to escape with twelve-year-old Megan who was badly injured.
     Laura took Megan to Logan at the Institute and left her there to be
     protected under the false identity of Elizabeth Victoria Wilson,
     Charles Xavier's daughter.
***** Freshman Year *****
A girl with medium length blonde hair exited Salem High School’s library. Her
green eyes smiled at the janitor who was locking up the library behind her.
Elizabeth wore her green backpack over both shoulders as she ambled down the
empty halls. It was Friday, long after the final bell had rung and she’d spent
too long reading in the library. She’d finally been kicked out when it came
time to lock up. She didn’t mind the walk home back to the Institute. Elizabeth
was a little surprised to hear voices as she came close to passing by the art
classroom. The art teacher, Mrs. Kinsley, sounded upset and almost angry.
Elizabeth slowed down because she didn’t want to interrupt the conversation,
especially since it sounded like an argument.
“Your work is only average, Mr. Toynbee, and your work ethic is abysmal,” Mrs.
Kinsley sounded pompous to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth heard the sound of Mrs. Kinsley’s low heels snapping on the hard
floor as she walked away. Elizabeth cautiously peered around the corner of the
hallway, in time to see the skinny sophomore people called Toad toss a notebook
into a nearby trash bin. She recognized him by the layered long sleeve and
short sleeve tee-shirts she often saw him wearing and his messy brown hair.
Elizabeth waited until Toynbee had bounded out of sight before she came around
the hall corner.
Elizabeth pushed back the long fall of blonde hair as she reached in carefully
to pull out the notebook. It fell open as she did and she saw immediately that
Mrs. Kinsley was wrong about his work being average. After a cursory glance
through the book Elizabeth put it into her backpack, intending to give it back
to him when his temper had cooled down a few degrees. She was sure he would
regret throwing his work away.
At home, Elizabeth was used to the antics at the Institute. The loud noises of
practice and training sessions, the crashes and explosions, and the general
ruckus of students. Eventually, though, it could get to be too much for her. On
Saturday afternoon she left the girl’s dormitory, passed the basketball court
and the pool, strolled along Breakstone Lake and finally found some quiet among
the trees. It was about the only place she could be sure she could get some
peace. She had her backpack slung over her shoulder, intending to work on an
essay for her English class. She knew what she wanted to write but she couldn’t
think straight inside the Institute.
She sat underneath a tree with the light dappling the ground between the
shadows of leaves. Elizabeth’s hair was pulled into a half ponytail today, as
usual. When she opened her backpack, instead of pulling out one of her own
notebooks she instead pulled out the book full of elaborate sketches. Her green
eyes widened. She’d actually forgotten about the rescued notebook until she’d
pulled it out.
Elizabeth felt a little guilty looking at it but she was alone and couldn’t
resist. The artwork was really very good. She’d seen Toynbee around school and
she had figured out that he was a mutant like the other students who lived at
the Institute. He and his clique didn’t seem to be friendly with the mutants at
the Institute. She thought there was some kind of mutant-prep-school rivalry
going on between the Institute and the Brotherhood of Salem Center.
She turned the pages slowly, recognizing the girl she thought of as Scarlet on
many of the pages. Her real name was Wanda but Elizabeth wasn’t sure she’d ever
heard anyone other than her brother call her by her real name. Scarlet, her
brother, Toynbee, Tabitha, Lance, and Fred mostly kept to themselves and the
students from the Institute left them alone. Sometimes, Elizabeth would see
Tabitha and Kurt talking but that happened less and less often recently. There
were other things on the pages: rough, incomplete sketches of the human body,
eyes or noses or hands or feet, different hair types and styles, different
items of clothing, and roses. The sketches of Kurt’s unusual body shape made
Elizabeth’s eyebrows wing up.
Elizabeth chewed on her lower lip, considering. She was torn between trying to
return the notebook without anyone knowing that she’d had it and wanting to
tell Toynbee to keep working on his art. Finally, she pulled out her own
notebook for English and ripped a page out. She sighed at her own work: the
page had torn so that there was a triangle of blank lined paper still attached
to the metal ring. Elizabeth set to writing her note anyway. She figured that
if she didn’t sign it then he wouldn’t be able to figure out who had written
it. Elizabeth folded it into his notebook carefully and wrote a shorthand memo
in her planner to leave the notebook on top of his locker on Monday.
Elizabeth, nervous about trying to return the book without anyone noticing,
ended up not returning it until the lunch break. She left the cafeteria where
she’d eaten quickly at a table with Kitty, Kurt, Scott, Jean, and the others.
She had to stand up on her toes a bit to slide the notebook onto the top of the
locker. She left a corner of it sticking out, hoping he would notice it before
someone else did.
“What the hell are you doing?” his high voice sounded as he landed just behind
her. Elizabeth jumped and gasped, losing what must have been ten years of her
life. When she met his yellow brown eyes she thought he looked like he was
ready to brawl, though he was crouched in his usual stance. His eyes lit on the
notebook above her head and he leapt into the lockers to grab it.
“Where did you get this?” his tone was angry. Elizabeth forced herself to
speak, putting her hand to her chest protectively as she looked up at him.
“I was returning your notebook. I saw you throw it away. When I saw what was in
it I thought you’d want it back, after you’d had a chance to think about it,”
Elizabeth’s rapid heartrate was getting back down to normal as she spoke.
“You shouldn’t be looking through other people’s stuff,” he grumbled, “I
oughtta take something of yours and see how you like it.” The look he gave her
made her think that she was considering doing just that.
“I’m sorry,” she told him, “I just wanted to help. I’ll see you around, I
guess.” Elizabeth turned, spine rigidly straight, and walked slowly away from
him toward her next class. He didn’t follow her or say anything to her for the
rest of the day so she figured it was over and done with.
On Tuesday, he caught her eye as he passed her in the hall. Reflexively, she
lifted a hand in a mute half-wave. She rolled her eyes at herself the second he
was past her. At lunch, everything was normal. She sat so she could see him
over Kitty’s shoulder. His back was to her and he didn’t look over once.
So, when she sat down at lunch on Wednesday Kurt surprised her with an
observation.
“I saw Toad looking at you funny today,” Kurt was waving a chicken strip in her
direction as he spoke, “Are you okay? Has he bothered you?”
“No,” Elizabeth’s response was immediate, “I gave him back a notebook he’d
dropped. I don’t think he’d ever noticed me before so he’s probably just
wondering when I started going to this school.” Elizabeth said the last part as
a self-depreciating joke. She had been living at the Institute for a few years
and attending Salem High School since school started in September.
“You are awfully quiet,” Jean agreed, amused.
It didn’t take longer than sixty seconds for Kitty and Kurt to start on a
conversation that was fun to watch so Elizabeth lingered over lunch.
Elizabeth’s last period was study hall. She usually showed her work to the
instructor who led the study hall and asked permission to spend the rest of the
time in the library or reading under a tree outside. She was the sort of reader
that became so engrossed in a book that a stampede of X-Men usually couldn’t
rouse her attention. It was one of the few things she could do successfully at
home. She was sitting under the tree outside, engrossed in a book, when Toynbee
dropped down from the branches over her head.
“Hiya,” he said, hunched over his black high tops, with the green tinted skin
of his knee showing through a worn place in his baggy blue jeans.
“Hey,” she pulled the open book close to her chest, “Are you still angry with
me for rescuing your notebook?”
“Nah,” he said, “I wasn’t really cheesed off. It was just odd knowing you’d
looked at it.”
Elizabeth didn’t want to argue with him but she thought he’d seemed angry. Her
green eyes glanced back down at the book she was holding. Noting the page
number, she closed it and set it on top of the pile of books next to her.
“I’ve always wished I could draw,” Elizabeth offered wistfully, “I have
artistic urges but no artistic talent.”
He shrugged, “I had a butchers at the note you left.”
Instantly, Elizabeth felt her stomach drop. Luckily, she usually only blushed
when she was angry. Flushed cheeks were obvious on her pale skin,
unfortunately.
“What? Sorry,” she muttered, thinking her meant he’d cut the note up, “I didn’t
want you to stop drawing just because Mrs. Kinsley was being a jerk.”
“You’re a cracking bird,” he said, shaking his head with an amused expression,
“I’ll see you around.”
Elizabeth watched as he leapt away, her head tilted and her green eyes
confused. She thought he’d called her crazy but she wasn’t sure. She’d have to
google British slang when she got home. She glanced at her watch and realized
she’d just missed getting a ride from Scott. She put her books into her
backpack and made made her way home by herself. When she looked it up she found
out that calling her a cracking bird meant he found her attractive. From then
on, even if Toynbee seemed to be absent the rest of the day, he usually stopped
by the tree during her study hall period.
“What do they call you?” he asked her one Wednesday, “Other than Elizabeth.”
“Sometimes they call me Whisper,” she replied, not thinking anything of it,
“Scott came up with it. The other option was mouse but my hair isn’t brown.”
“Ace,” he said, twisting a piece of grass in his hands.
“What do they call you, other than Toad?” she asked, curious.
“But nobody calls me nothin’ but Toad anymore,” he made a disdainful noise, “My
fosters used to call me Morty.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth hesitated, “What’s your middle name?”
He shrugged, “Todd.”
“I like that,” she told him.
He grinned, “What’s your middle name?”
“Victoria,” she told him, reluctantly.
“Eh,” he looked at her for a moment, “You are more of a Lizzie. Lizzie the
Lizard.”
Elizabeth made a face, “Yeah, right.”
She mimed hitting him in the head with her book, complete with sound effects.
He pretended to be knocked flat on the grass, clutching his head, and it made
her laugh.
“Hey, can I sketch you?” he asked, abruptly.
Elizabeth was immediately self conscious and flattered. She debated for a split
second but she figured that it would help to encourage him to draw. She decided
it was something she’d do as his friend, to be supportive.
“Sure,” she shrugged. He grabbed his notebook and she tried not to squirm for
the next twenty or so minutes.
“Where’d you get the necklace?” he asked, eventually.
“Oh,” she looked down at the smiling sun with flames surrounding its face,
“I’ve had it forever. My mother gave it to me.”
“I didn’t mean to make you sad,” he told her, putting away his notebook.
“She died a few years ago. That’s why I came to stay with the Professor,”
Elizabeth told him a partial truth. Really, she’d come to stay with the
Professor after her mother had been murdered because her cousin, Laura, thought
the Professor would be able to hide her and keep her safe. The fake identity
Laura had given her said that Elizabeth Victoria Wilson was actually the
daughter of Charles Xavier.
Toynbee---Todd--- stood and Elizabeth put out a hand so he could pull her to
her feet. He hugged her, gingerly, and she squeezed him back. Todd didn’t say
much after that but he walked her home that day.
The next day, Elizabeth was surprised when her study hall instructor told her
he wouldn’t be able to let her study on her own any longer. He told her
Principal Darkholme had complained about students being unsupervised during
study hall periods. After she got out of class she went to where she usually
saw Todd but he wasn’t there.
***** Toad Gets a Girlfriend *****
Chapter Summary
     Kurt and Kitty try to talk Elizabeth out of spending time with Toad.
     Toad tells Elizabeth why.
On Friday, Elizabeth caught Todd’s arm in front of his locker after lunch. He
was wearing a jacket today, in a nod to the falling temperatures of early
autumn.
“I can’t spend my study hall period outside anymore,” she said immediately,
“Apparently, the principal is cracking down on students being unsupervised
during school hours.”
“Some twit must have brassed her off,” Todd said, looking surprised. He glanced
over at his mates, briefly, but they weren’t paying any attention. He looked
back at her and leaned back against his locker, casually sliding his hands into
his pockets.
“Do you still want to hang out?” she asked him, choosing blunt honesty over
being late to class.
He shrugged. She had noticed he shrugged a lot. She thought he was trying to
convince the world he didn’t care so much. She resisted the urge to roll her
eyes at him. Elizabeth passed him a note instead.
“My cell number,” she told him quickly, “Text me. We can hang out on Saturday
if you’re free. See you around.”
On Saturday, when she ambled out of the girl’s dormitory, past the basketball
court, the swimming pool and around the lake, she had someone waiting for her
in the woods behind the Institute.
“Hi, Todd,” she said, dropping down to the grass next to him.
“Hiya, Liz,” Todd responded, “How’ve you been?”
“Good,” she set down her backpack, “I’ve been using those headphones you gave
me. You were right, it helps me to get things done when there’s music to drown
out the noise of the Institute.”
“Yeah, music is the only way I can concentrate on anything,” he used a piece of
grass to make a whistling noise.
“Do you need them back?” Elizabeth was concerned, “I can probably get some for
my birthday from the Professor.”
“I’ve got others. When’s your birthday?” he asked nonchalantly.
“November 8th,” she told him, pulling out a sketch of a dozen roses he’d given
her and her color pencils, “You?”
“March 6th,” he watched her pull out a bottle of rubbing alcohol, “What’s that
for? You’re not going to drink it, right?”
“No,” she snorted a laugh, “It’s to blend the colors.”
She colored in the sketch he’d gifted her. They were both quiet for some time.
Elizabeth became so caught up in what she was doing that she didn’t notice when
he pulled out his notebook. He’d been sketching her for some time before she
noticed the extended silence and looked up at him. She glanced down at herself.
Elizabeth was lying on the grass perpendicular to him with her notebook and
color pencils out in front of her and she was wearing an oversized mint green
tunic sweater with a plunging neckline over a grey turtleneck blouse, grey
sweater leggings, and black boots. Her hair peaked out of the bottom of a mint
green beanie.
“I didn’t mean to be rude and not talk to you,” Elizabeth told him, but she was
smiling.
“Huh,” he looked up, distracted, “I don’t mind. You can chat me up if you like.
Or not.”
“I’m sorry about Thursday,” she offered, “I felt like I was sort of standing
you up when I couldn’t get out of study hall.”
“I’m easy,” he shrugged. It was his version of telling her he didn’t care.
Elizabeth held up the colored-in sketch, “What do you think?”
“I like how the roses each have two colors. Can roses really look like that?”
he asked, curious.
“Yes,” Elizabeth replied, “The dual colored roses are my favorite.”
Elizabeth slid the sketch back into her English notebook carefully and put the
notebook back into her backpack.
“What else do you like to do, other than sketching?” she asked, resting her
chin on her knees.
“I usually watch some telly with the Brotherhood blokes. Sometimes we go to the
five dollar cinema,” Todd laid down on his back next to her, “They went today
but I popped out without ‘em.”
“Why?” Elizabeth asked, a bit horrified, “They’re your friends.”
“Lance and Fred are brilliant. But Tabitha keeps blowing up the loo when I try
to take a shower,” his voice changed slightly, “Wanda told me to stay the hell
away from her and Pietro’s been an arsehole ever since his sister got here.”
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth was sincere, she may not have thought very highly of the
Brotherhood clique but she was sorry that he was being treated badly by his
friends.
He shrugged.
Elizabeth didn’t think too much about it, only felt that she wanted to cheer
him up. She rolled halfway over and played her fingers none too gently along
his ribs. He let out a squeal that made her laugh out loud and tried to grab
for her hands. She was fast, sneaky, and agile so he wasn’t able to easily hold
her off. They rolled around on the ground for a minute or two but eventually he
immobilized her. By then they were tangled up together with him behind and
beneath her, with his arms wrapped tightly around her to keep her from tickling
him.
“Buggering hell,” he was breathless, “What was that?”
“That was fun,” she giggled madly.
“You’ve gone dotty,” he admonished, but she could hear the smile in his voice.
“I’m pretty weird,” she agreed, grinning, “You’re pretty weird, too. It’s no
wonder that we’re friends.”
Elizabeth waited for him to let her go, grinning slyly. He obviously expected
that once he let her go she’d go back to tickling him. The thought had occurred
to her.
“You don’t mind me, you know, my smell?” he sounded terribly vulnerable.
“No,” Elizabeth twisted out of his grip and he let her go, “I kind of like it
actually. Is that weird?”
“Yes,” he sounded happy, “But that’s why we’re mates.”
“Why do you smell the way you do?” she hesitated to ask but she was really
curious. He got a lot of flack for it from just about everyone and she had
wondered why he didn’t work on it.
“Bath soaps sting,” he admitted, reluctantly, “It hurts me to wash. Not that
anybody cares.”
“I care,” she told him, “I have skin like that, sort of. I’m allergic to willow
trees and most soaps use salicylates from willow trees as an astringent. Before
I figured it out I used to get awful blisters and rashes, especially on my
face.”
He looked uncomfortable, “It’s not like an allergy. I have porous skin like an
amphibian because of my mutation.”
“I wonder if they have a special kind of soaps for amphibians,” she mused
aloud, then pulled out her cell phone and looked it up online.
“You don’t care, though, right?” he asked, trying to appear unconcerned.
“I’m just curious about it,” Elizabeth replied, “Oh, it says you’re supposed to
use warm bottled water, not tap water, and just rub down with clean water.
Maybe you don’t even need soap. You should just take camping showers with
bottled water.”
“What’s a camping shower?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s what I call the way you shower when you’re camping,” she tried to
explain, “You just use a bowl of water and a cloth or sponge or baby wipes to
basically give yourself a sort of sponge bath.”
He shrugged, “I could do that if Tabitha would stop exploding the loo.”
“Hmm,” Elizabeth murmured. She wondered if she could get Tabitha to leave Todd
alone.
“Maybe she has a crush on you?’ Elizabeth proposed, “Next time she tries to
interrupt your privacy you could ask her outright. It reminds me of a little
boy on the playground tugging on a girl’s pigtails because he likes her.”
He snorted, “Yeah, right.”
“It’s getting dark, Liz,” he pointed out, somewhat reluctantly.
“Oh, it is!” Elizabeth hadn’t even noticed, “I’d better get home before someone
comes looking for me.” She gathered up her backpack and he grabbed his
notebook. Abruptly, he leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. She was
surprised, mostly because she often forgot that he was a couple of inches
taller than she was when he was actually standing up.
“See you next week,” he told her, and turned away.
“Bye!” she called out.
They continued to meet up on the far side of the lake on Saturdays. Sometimes
they would go to the five dollar theater. In November, he gave her a dual
colored rose and a sketch of twelve roses for her birthday. She used wax to
save the rose so it wouldn’t wilt. Over Christmas break they got to spend a
little less time together. She’d saved most of her allowance for Christmas
gifts and she gave him a wallet chain and a gift card to buy a new pair of
jeans. He gave her a chalkboard made from a platter and a snow globe made from
a mason jar. In January, they went to see the museum on a free day one Saturday
and in February she talked him into going to the science center. In March, for
his birthday, she gave him a sketchbook and art pencils from the bookstore. By
then his friends and hers were beginning to notice that something was going on
with each of them.
One Friday, at lunch, Todd walked along next to her on her way to lunch and put
an arm over her shoulder. It didn’t occur to Elizabeth that no one had really
seen them spend time together before then. Without really thinking about it
they both sat down together at an empty table together.
Fred sat down next to Todd automatically and blinked at Elizabeth, “Hey.”
“Hi,” Elizabeth said, suddenly feeling shy. She’d never really talked to him
before.
“I’m Fred,” he told her.
“Elizabeth,” she replied.
“You’re one of the nerds that lives at the Institute?” he asked. Todd put his
face in his hands in frustration or misery, Elizabeth wasn’t sure which.
Elizabeth smiled, amused, “Yes, I’m one of those nerds. I’m also an English
nerd.”
“What’s that?” he asked, between bites.
“I like to read novels and poetry and fanfiction,” she leaned in and whispered,
like she was telling him some terrible secret. Todd lifted his face from his
hands slowly.
Fred grimaced, “I don’t like books.”
“What do you like?” she asked.
“I like cars,” Fred told her, “And food.”
“I’m a Chevy girl,” she told him, “My mother had a ridiculous, little orange
Chevy when I was really young. It was the most awful shade of orange and it
looked a bit like Jar Jar Binks. It was so ugly it was cute.”
“Hey, Elizabeth,” Kitty said, standing next to the table, “What’s up?”
“Nothing much,” Elizabeth’s tone was dry, “Nothing new since I sat next to you
last period in class.”
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you around,” Kitty continued on to the table
where Scott, Jean, Kurt and the others were sitting. Elizabeth gave Todd a
look. He shrugged and played with his food.
“What about Ford?” Fred asked.
“I’ve always heard those cars called Fix Or Repair Daily,” Elizabeth grinned at
him, “But I like what’s been done in Africa with Ford cars.”
“What happened in Africa?” Todd asked.
“Well, there’s a huge issue in parts of Africa with infant mortality rates,”
Elizabeth told him, “A lot of babies die for lack of incubators. A group of
engineers worked on a solution and they found that most villages have one Ford
car. The villagers maintain the car themselves and Ford car parts are easy to
come by in those areas. So, they used Ford car parts to make incubators to save
babies from dying. The villagers can repair the incubators themselves, since
they already know how to fix a Ford car.”
“That’s cool,” Fred said, glancing at Todd, “You’re girlfriend’s really smart.”
Elizabeth and Todd both froze. She waited for him to say that they weren’t
dating. She wondered if he was waiting for her to say they weren’t dating.
After a long silence Elizabeth finally looked at him. He was staring hard at
his food. Fred was eating with the concentration that Elizabeth usually saved
for studying. So, Elizabeth ate her lunch quietly, too. Fred finished his lunch
first. Elizabeth was picking at her own food when he got up, said goodbye, and
left. Todd had hardly eaten. He looked up at her with yellow eyes, briefly.
“We should eat lunch together sometimes,” she told him, taking a sip of the
soda she’d almost forgotten was there.
“Well, I---” he paused, “Wait, what?”
“We should eat lunch together sometimes,” Elizabeth repeated, casually, “Not
all the time, of course.”
“That would be brill,” he was staring at her, “Are we going to talk about---”
The bell rang, interrupting what he’d been about to say.
“Tomorrow is Saturday,” Elizabeth told him, “See you at the usual place.”
“See you, treasure,” he said, watching as she got up with her tray and left.
As soon as Elizabeth walked out of her study hall at the end of the day Kurt
and Kitty joined her, one on each side.
“Hey, Elizabeth,” Kitty said, “Is everything okay?”
Elizabeth looked at Kitty like she’d grown a second head, “Everything is fine.
Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Well, you ate lunch with two guys from the Brotherhood of Evil, for starters,”
Kurt grumbled. Elizabeth felt remarkably uncomfortable. She hunched her
shoulders reflexively.
“You shouldn’t call it that,” Elizabeth reprimanded him, “It’s the Brotherhood
of Salem. Or the Brotherhood of Mutants.”
“Elizabeth,” Kurt said seriously, “Those guys are not good guys. They can be
dangerous.”
“You guys,” Elizabeth said on a sigh, “Todd’s my friend. He means a lot to me
and I would appreciate it if you didn’t make vague, insulting comments. If he’s
done a specific thing that I should know about, please let me know. Otherwise,
shush.”
“Okay,” Kitty said quickly, before Kurt could say anything, “So are you going
to get a ride home with us?”
“I think I’d rather walk,” Elizabeth said quietly, “Maybe next time.”
Kitty and Kurt exchanged a worried look and Elizabeth turned to go another way.
Elizabeth walked toward the tree where she’d spent so much time at the
beginning of the year. Before she got there a hand landed on her shoulder.
“Hiya, Lizzie,” Todd said softly, pulling her into a hug.
“Hi,” she said, holding on to him.
“I went to meet you at the end of your study hall but I heard you talking to
Kitty and Kurt,” he told her, “I stayed back and I heard what you said.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth drew back to look him in the face, “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that they’re right and you don’t know enough about me,” he told
her, “I fancy you but there are some things you should know.”
“Do you want to walk me home?” Elizabeth asked him, “We can talk along the
way.”
“I’ll leg it with you,” he said, and they started walking, “When Scott first
met me I was nicking pockets from under the stalls - er, bleachers, at one of
the games.”
“Really?” Elizabeth asked him, “You know how to pickpocket someone?”
Her excited tone and gleam in her eye encouraged him, so he pulled her close to
kiss her on the cheek. When he pulled back he held up her cell phone with a
smirk.
“Yes,” he said.
“After you tell me all your other faults, do you think you could teach me?”
Elizabeth asked, taking back her cell phone, “I don’t need to steal from people
but it seems like such a cool skill, like picking locks.”
“I can teach you both,” he agreed, stuffing his hands into his pockets, “This
is going better than I thought it would.”
Elizabeth smiled, “I don’t know everything you’ve gotten into or everything
you’ve done but I know you met Scott last year, when you were a freshman. You
told me he’s one of the only ones at the Institute other than me that you can
tolerate.”
“I forgot I told you about that,” he admitted.
“Mhmm,” she murmured, “Well, you neglected to mention the part about you
picking pockets.”
“Yeah,” he scuffed his sneakers on the sidewalk, “Anyroad, the guys and me, we
nick things or cash.”
“What? Why?” she asked, indignation warring with curiosity.
“So we can pay for utilities or food,” he told her, shrugging, “Mystique took
off awhile back and we’ve been on our own since then.”
“You could ask the Professor for help,” Elizabeth offered, “Maybe even try to
make a profit from your artwork somehow. I could help you set up a website and
a paypal account. I build personal websites for myself, for fun. It’s just food
for thought.”
“Seriously?” he asked, surprised, “You’re not pissed off out about this?”
“I’m not entirely oblivious. You’ve mentioned that you were in foster care.
I’ve heard a few things here and there about the Brotherhood. I take hearsay
with a grain of salt but it was a lot of hearsay. You were given some hard
circumstances and difficult situations. You’ve made some less than ideal
choices,” Elizabeth admitted, “On the other hand, I care about you and I don’t
believe you’re a truly bad person. If the Professor has taught me anything,
it’s that you don’t abandon the people you care about. Just because someone
stumbles and loses their way, it doesn’t mean they're lost forever. I’m not
going to just give up on you.”
Todd grabbed her hand and held it.
“If you want to date me though, there will be a couple of rules,” she said
offhandedly.
“Oh, yeah,” his voice was doing funny things so he cleared his throat, “Like
what?”
“First, it should go without saying: If you ever strike me I’ll ask Logan to
hunt you down and disembowel you,” Elizabeth pronounced with dignity, “I won’t
have to break up with you because you’ll be dead.”
“I wouldn’t ever hurt you. That’s not even, that’s just, gor,” he was
irritated, “I promise I’ll respect you. I promise I’ll try to be there to
support you when things turn to shite and celebrate with you when things go
well. I promise not to ask you to pretend to like something you don't, or give
up seeing your chums, or drop anything you love.”
She paused, impressed, “That’s an amazing start. I’ll promise to do the same.”
“I can promise you one more thing,” he still sounded grumpy, “I definitely
promise you that I will make a bloody mess of this eventually and probably more
than once.”
“I can promise that, too,” Elizabeth told him.
“Yeah, right,” he said dubiously.
“You go right on idolizing me,” Elizabeth smiled and swung their hands, “I like
it.”
***** First Row *****
Chapter Summary
     Elizabeth and Toad have a row about her lack of an advanced X-gene.
“What are you working on?” Pietro asked her. Elizabeth was studying at the
boarding house today so she could spend more time with Todd. She was sitting on
the floor with her notebook on the coffee table. Todd was sitting to one side
of her and Pietro to the other while they played a videogame.
“I have an Algebra test on Monday,” Elizabeth grumbled, giving him a look full
of misery.
“Sucks,” he agreed, “We don’t usually see you studying.”
“I usually don’t have to,” she confided, her pencil tapping on the page of her
notebook, “Most of my classes I can get a B without so much as cracking a
textbook. I don’t think I even opened my English textbook once last year.
Algebra isn’t as bad as Geometry was last year, though. I barely managed a C in
that class.”
“She’s smart, yo,” Todd added, with a smile.
“If she’s so smart why does she care about her grades?” Fred asked from the
kitchen.
“None of that shit is going to matter for the rest of our lives,” Pietro
agreed, amicably.
“She’s a good girl,” Jason, the illusionist, chimed in from his position lying
on the couch, “Good girls always go for the bad boys.” Elizabeth rolled her
eyes. Jason was new, a freshman, at the boarding house and he liked to tease
her and Todd.
“I want to go to college,” Elizabeth explained, filling in one of the answers
on the practice test, “I want to become a physical therapist. The programs for
PT degrees in college can be competitive.”
“Where do you want to go to university?” Todd asked, brow furrowed.
“I don’t know yet. I’ll probably start at the local community college for the
first two years, just to save money,” Elizabeth explained, “I can figure out
where I want to transfer to my senior year of high school or while I’m getting
my Associate of Science degree.”
“So, is your mutant ability healing?” Jason asked, “Is that why you want to be
a physical therapist?”
“No,” Elizabeth said slowly, confused, “I don’t have an X-gene. My only
mutations are lactose tolerance and having green eyes, as far as I know. I want
to be a physical therapist because I like helping people.”
The video game paused and there was a long silence.
“You don’t have an X-gene? You’re not a mutant?” Pietro asked, his eyes wide.
“You told me your mutant name was Whisper,” Todd said, visibly upset.
“No, I didn’t,” Elizabeth was confused, “Scott nicknamed me Whisper when I got
to the Institute because I’m so quiet. It’s not a mutant name.”
“Your last name is Xavier,” Todd said, “How can you be his daughter and not be
a mutant?”
“Mystique and Sabretooth have a son that doesn’t have an X-gene,” Elizabeth
pointed out, her shoulders tightening and her guard going up, “I have a cousin
with an X-gene. I did not win that particular genetic lottery.”
“Okay,” Pietro said, slowly, “But Mystique and Sabretooth’s non-mutant son is a
member of an anti-mutant hate group.”
“I didn’t know that,” Elizabeth said it quietly, “That’s sad---and horrible.”
“So, what’s to stop you from becoming an anti-mutant asshole?” Jason accused.
“I’m not an asshole,” Elizabeth shot back, “If you knew me at all you’d know
that nearly all of the most important people in my life are mutants.”
“You’re the only one that calls him Todd,” Pietro pointed out, “You don’t call
him by his mutant name. Are you really okay with him being a mutant?”
Elizabeth shut her notebook, angry, “I love my family, the Institute, and
Todd.” She stood up, so furious she didn’t know what to do with herself. Todd
wasn’t saying anything. The controller for the game hung limply in his hand.
“But you live at the Institute,” Fred said, as he ate, “I thought the Institute
was only for mutants.”
“Her mum died,” Todd finally spoke, sounding hollow and shocky, “She lives at
the Institute because there’s no place else for her to go.”
“Todd?” Elizabeth asked, concerned, “Are you okay?”
“No,” he said. He stood up and went upstairs to his room. Elizabeth started to
follow him but Pietro, incredibly fast, moved and grabbed her arm.
“I think you’d better go,” his tone was firm, “The Brotherhood is for mutants
only. You don’t belong here.” Elizabeth was shocked and hurt. Her eyes burned
but she wouldn’t cry in front of them. In a flash that was faster that she
could see Pietro---Quicksilver---had her backpack in his hand and was holding
it out to her.
“Fine,” she ground out. She grabbed her backpack and stormed out the front
door.
Elizabeth walked home, miserable. She’d rarely felt out of place at the
Institute, for all that she was the only non-mutant there. Occasionally, she’d
felt not special enough, not magical enough, because she wasn’t gifted the way
the others were. Laura had finally come to visit the school near the end of the
last school year. That was when Elizabeth had learned that Logan was sort of
her Uncle, or at least close enough that Elizabeth had started calling him
uncle. But Laura had been stiff, uncomfortable, when Elizabeth had gone to hug
her. When she’d confided her insecurities to the Professor he’d reassured her
that Laura’s upbringing meant that familial affection was unusual for her.
Sometimes adjusting to new things, even when they are good, can be difficult,
he’d said.
By the time she reached the gate on Graymalkin Lane she had had a good cry. She
wiped her tears away, unwilling to let anyone know how she was feeling. She
walked through the entrance courtyard and the Atrium, giving students who waved
at her with a shadow of her usual smile. She passed where she could have turned
off to the Professor’s office and she hesitated. Elizabeth decided not to talk
to him yet. She continued to the back of the school to her room in the girl’s
dormitory.
She threw her backpack into a corner and fell onto the bed. Elizabeth buried
her face in her pillow and curled up, ready to keep crying. Instead, her busy
mind wouldn’t turn off and she kept thinking about what had happened and what
Todd had done---or not done. She couldn’t believe how he hadn’t taken her side,
Elizabeth thought, growing furious all over again. That jerk!
Elizabeth spent the entire day in her room, claiming to not feel well when Kurt
and Kitty each came to knock on her door. She skipped breakfast, missed lunch,
and finally went to scrounge for leftovers around two in the afternoon. She
skipped dinner and woke up early in the morning, hungry. Elizabeth decided that
one day of moping, raging, and crying in her room was enough. She refused to be
the sort of girl who lost her mind over a guy who was too stupid to know a
great relationship when one came up and grabbed him by the throat.
She packed her own lunch and ate an early and large breakfast on Monday
morning. Elizabeth squeaked by the Algebra test, managing a C by the skin of
her teeth. She thought it was completely unfair. Still, her own misery and
scoring so low on a test she knew she should have done well on spurred her to
bury herself in her schoolwork. Elizabeth was mostly able to avoid Todd in the
school hallways. When she did see him she specifically did not look at him. She
didn’t tell anyone what had happened but it was obvious that something had
happened. No one who lived at the boarding house was speaking to her and
everyone noticed. Elizabeth started packing her own lunch early in the morning
and going out to the bleachers to eat alone. She didn’t want to see Todd in the
cafeteria so she didn’t eat with the students from the Institute.
By Saturday, unnoticed by Elizabeth, the students at the Institute had nearly
all figured out that Todd and Elizabeth weren’t speaking to each other.
Especially, when she didn’t leave for her usual walk in the woods. Elizabeth
spent some time with the other students in the common rooms but she left before
too long. She just didn’t feel like being around a lot of people yet. She was
unaware that conflicting rumors were going around as to who had broken up with
whom. Kurt had confronted Todd and they’d nearly come to blows when Todd had
refused to tell him anything. Kitty had asked Lance but Lance had only shrugged
and told he hadn’t been there for the fight. Lance had been at work on Saturday
and he’d missed the drama so he didn’t know how serious the fight was or what
they had fought over.
“They seemed great on Friday. He came over to pick her up for that movie that
just came out and they were really sweet together,” Kitty fretted to Kurt.
“It’s probably for the best,” Kurt grumbled, “She’s way out of his league. Toad
smells bad and he’s with the Brotherhood.”
“You’re just jealous,” Kitty accused him, but without much heat, “She’s
obviously upset. I haven’t seen her do anything but study and work on her
homework for over a week. She didn’t even leave her room on Sunday.”
“She was sick,” Kurt protested weakly. Kitty looked at him like he’d said the
stupidest thing she’d ever heard.
“According to Lance, they broke up on Saturday last week,” Kitty threw up her
hands, “Like, I don’t know how you can be so oblivious. She, totally, didn’t
have a cold. She has a broken heart.”
“She deserves better,” Kurt argued stubbornly, “Toad’s just a thug with body
odor.”
“Don’t be like that. He’s been better since he started dating her,” Kitty
pointed out, trying to be reasonable, “Like, Toad started going to class more
regularly. She said he even started selling his sketches online instead of
stealing. Remember how Elizabeth was so totally proud of him and couldn’t stop
talking about it? Over the summer Toad even picked up a job washing dishes at
the diner. Lance says he’s been brushing his teeth.” The last wouldn’t have
meant much to Kitty, except that Lance seemed to think that it was a big deal.
“He probably did something terrible that Elizabeth doesn’t want us to know
about,” Kurt’s distaste was implacable, “Maybe he broke up with her because he
was only using her to get information about the Institute and she wasn’t giving
them anything.”
“I wish we knew what really happened,” Kitty was frustrated, “I don’t know what
we should do to help her.”
“We should help her get over him,” Kurt told her, “We just need to cheer her up
and she’ll realize that she’s better off without him.”
Kitty shrugged, “Unless they still love each other and it’s just a fight. Did
Todd say that they’d broken up? I know Lance says they broke up, but Pietro is
the one who said it. I tried asking Elizabeth about it but it was like prying
teeth and she told me she didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Todd didn’t tell me anything,” Kurt growled, “Sniveling little jerk said it
wasn’t any of my business.”
“She’s so private about her life,” Kitty murmured, “But I’m worried about her.”
“She’ll be fine,” Kurt insisted, dismissing Kitty’s concern.
Elizabeth got through the weekdays one at a time. Saturday was going to be
harder. She hadn’t realized how much time she’d been spending on the weekends
at the boarding house or just out with Todd. That morning she went to talk to
the Professor about something to do with her time. She started looking into
volunteer opportunities at the hospital and the pet shelter. She thought she
might try to spend four hours on Saturday at the pet shelter and four hours on
Sunday in the hospital’s physical therapy department, if she could.
Toad was so busy sulking and feeling sorry for himself he forgot to check what
day he was supposed to work at the diner during the week. He missed one shift,
was late for for another shift, and his boss had threatened to fire him.
Frustrated and out of sorts, Toad almost called and told his boss that he was
quitting. His sleep suffered and on Friday he didn’t even bother going to his
classes. Toad’s suffering translated well onto paper through his art. His anger
and sadness were working out for him, artistically, and he drew more that week
than he had in the past month. Toad spent his free time playing video games and
hanging out with Jason, Pietro, Fred, Lance, and the others.
On Saturday he was laying on his bed, an arm over his eyes. He knew his clock
said it was one in the afternoon. Normally, he’d be rushing out the door to
meet Elizabeth in the woods at their usual spot near the lake. He hadn’t cried
when he’d heard her leave but he felt his eyes start to burn now.
If I don’t go see her then it will really be over, he told himself. She
wouldn’t even look at me this whole week, he thought.
He couldn’t decide if he should apologize. He figured that was probably what
she wanted but he didn’t know what he’d done that needed an apology. He still
felt like she’d tricked him into believing that she was a mutant. He wasn’t
sure what it meant to him that she wasn’t a mutant. Pietro kept telling him
that the Brotherhood didn’t believe in serious relationships with sapiens.
“Where was it going to go with her, Toad?” Jason had asked him that day, “She
hid what she was from you, that’s called lying by omission. She’s just not like
us. She’s an evolutionary dead end. You need to get over her.”
The more Toad thought about it the more he wondered if she had intentionally
hidden her lack of a mutation from him. They’d never talked about it. If he’d
thought about it at all he would have assumed that she didn’t want to be an X-
man or that her abilities weren’t useful for fighting or that she could do
something that was embarrassing. He’d never wondered about her abilities. If
he’d never asked her, did that count as an omission?
He wondered if she was put off by his mutation.
There was a sketch on his desk where he’d drawn her flying on fairy wings, with
a large toad in the background. It was meant to be part of her birthday present
this year. He remembered her climbing on his back a few times so he could jump
with her. She’d clung so tight to him the first time. When he’d asked her if
she was okay and she’d been breathless when she’d told him to do it again. He
had, grinning like a loon, and she’d laughed. Eventually, she’d gotten brave
enough to put her arms out, taking him by surprise. She’d told him it was like
flying.
He thought about the times he’d snogged her and fooled around with her over the
summer. She hadn’t seemed upset about his mutation. He had to wonder, though,
if he’d have gotten all the way to third base if he’d been just another non-
mutant guy. He couldn’t ask the guys about that because he didn’t want them to
know that he hadn’t gotten to third base.
He rolled over, wiping at his eyes, and had to adjust the wallet chain. He was
thinking he should probably take it off since lying on it was uncomfortable.
Then he remembered that Elizabeth had given him the wallet chain last year for
Christmas. Toad swore, fluently and fervently. He rolled out of bed and rose to
his feet. He wasn’t going to get answers from her by laying around, he decided,
in a rare moment of action. He was up and out the door in no time. Toad ignored
it when someone shouted, calling after him.
He got to their place in the woods and felt his heart break all over again when
she wasn’t there. He stood there for a minute, debating. He could go the
Institute or he could wait until he saw her on Monday.
If she doesn’t change schools, he thought with bitterness, she still won’t ever
look at me again.
He was angry, hurt, and upset. He had a moment of despair when he couldn’t
decide what to do and he considered just going back to the boarding house.
Elizabeth had changed into something professional looking and she was walking
through the atrium toward the door. She had talked to someone on the phone at
the pet shelter who sounded thrilled about having a volunteer to help with the
animals. She didn’t have an appointment but she’d mentioned she might stop by.
She didn’t have anything else to keep her busy.
Todd walked through the door in front of her and she froze, heart in her
throat. He walked up to her, anger showing in every line of his skinny frame.
“You’re not even going to tell me that you’re breaking up with me?” he nearly
shouted at her, “You’re just going to stop talking to me!”
Elizabeth went from frozen to flaming temper in a split second.
“Don’t you dare shout at me in my own home,” she snarled at him, “You’re the
one who walked out on me.”
“You left!” his accusation quieter but he was no less furious.
“You left,” she argued, nearly hissing, “Pietro kicked me out.” That revelation
took the wind out of his sails. He rocked back on his heels, considering.
“Bugger it all, he had no right to do that,” Todd said, considering that he had
secretly hoped she would come up after him so they could talk.
“The Brotherhood is no place for a non-mutant,” Elizabeth repeated, tone
sharper than a shard of glass, “He told me I didn’t belong there. I asked Uncle
Logan about it. He said racism comes in a lot of forms, from a lot of sides.
He’s not happy with you.” She glared at him.
Todd swallowed hard, and Elizabeth watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed with
perhaps more pleasure than she should have felt.
“I didn’t know you weren’t a mutant,” Todd said, trying to regain ground.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, “I never hid it from you. You never asked. I assumed
you knew because it felt like everyone knew. All of the students here know it.”
“I’m not a student here,” Todd grumbled, but he was having trouble remembering
why he was angry with her.
“If an X-gene or a lack of one is a dealbreaker for you then maybe we shouldn’t
be together,” Elizabeth spoke the words she felt she needed to say, even as
they hurt her heart.
“I don’t know,” Todd said, miserable, “I haven’t thought about how I feel about
it.”
Elizabeth wondered for a moment what he’d do if she throttled him. Her hand was
clenched so hard on the strap of her purse that she purposefully loosened and
flexed her fingers. She debated hitting him with her purse. It was that moment
of reflection that caused her to notice that they had attracted the attention
of a few students. She knew it would only get worse and the gossip spread like
wildfire in the Institute. She grabbed his arm and pulled him with her out the
door.
“What are you doing?” he asked, but he didn’t resist. He even got the door for
her.
“I don’t want to do this with a crowd,” she muttered, hoping only he could
hear.
“Aren’t you worried about being alone with a member of the Brotherhood of
Evil?” he asked, bitterly.
“Should I be?” Elizabeth asked, incredulous.
“No,” he kicked the ground with his black high tops as they walked around the
Institute. Automatically, they both headed toward the Lake.
“Why are you pissed off at me?” he finally asked as they walked along the edge
of the water.
“You’re kidding, right?” she asked, almost amused but still unhappy, “Your
friends found out I wasn’t a mutant and started getting on my case for it. You
just sat there and let them. You didn’t take my side or stand up for me at all.
When you got up and left I was worried that you felt the same way they did.”
“I didn’t have time to figure out how I felt about it,” he muttered, but he
thought of the mutants they’d passed on their way around to the back of the
Institute. Elizabeth was known to the students and the ones who’d seen them had
waved to her. He remembered how angry demented blue elf had been about
Elizabeth getting hurt.
“I am sorry that I buggered it up,” Todd finally ground out, so quietly
Elizabeth almost missed it, “I should have talked to you alone instead of just
leaving.”
“I’m sorry that I assumed you knew,” Elizabeth said reluctantly, “And I should
have tried to talk to you about it later.”
“Me, too,” Todd told her, “I made assumptions, too, and I didn’t try right hard
to talk to you about it later.”
“Well, we did promise each other when we started this that we’d fuck up
eventually,” Elizabeth reminded him.
“Yeah,” he said slowly, considering, “Hey, do you want to just say screw ‘em
all and keep at this with me?”
“Depends,” Elizabeth said, just as slowly, “Is there anything about my genetics
that bothers you?”
“I don’t think so,” he told her, stuffing his hands in his pockets, “Is there
anything about my mutation that bothers you? I mean, we’ve only ever gotten to
second base.”
The look Elizabeth gave him should have scalded him.
“One has nothing to do with the other,” she growled at him.
“You sure about that?” he asked, “I mean…” When he trailed off Elizabeth looked
perplexed.
“What about you would be a turn-off?” she asked, genuinely baffled. Roughly, he
shoved both hands through his hair. He’d started growing it out since he’d
found out that Elizabeth liked the idea of guys with long hair.
“My skin is green. I have superhuman strength in my legs. I don’t smell like
soaps or perfumes or deodorant because I’m allergic,” he blew out a frustrated
breath and gulped down air, “My eyes are more like a toad’s yellow eyes than a
homo sapiens hazel eyes. I spit sticky slime and secrete pungent bodily fluids.
My fingers and toes are webbed. I have an twenty-five foot long prehensile
tongue.”
When he finished the last part of his tirade he stuck his tongue out at her,
though not the entire length. Elizabeth nearly missed it because as soon as she
felt him pause she went to hug him. She held him close and his arms came up
around her.
“You’re too good to be true,” he said, his tone sharp and biting. She could
almost feel his self-destructive tendencies kicking in to pick apart whatever
good came to him in life.
“No,” she said, shaking him briefly, “I’m just not an asshole. I’m a decent
person. I’m not perfect. Sometimes I want to smack people, even you. I can be
petty and vindictive. I’m surrounded by people like you who are miracles
wrapped in magic and sometimes I feel like there’s nothing special about me.
I’m also a weird person. I like the way you smell. I’m not usually bothered by
people’s body odor. Yours is straight up sexy to me.”
She felt him jerk with surprise and she loosened her hold on him. She pulled
back and looked him in the face. He stuffed his hands into his pockets while a
flush spread over his face.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“I love going with you when you leap as high as you can; it’s fun,” she told
him, “I love your eyes. I don’t give a fuck about the color of your skin. I
adore your sexy British accent.”
She took a deep breath.
“I’ve never heard you swear before,” he said while he grinned at her, flashing
white teeth.
“Well, you made me angry,” she said, meekly, looking at him with big innocent
green eyes.
“That look only works on people who don’t know you,” he drawled, smirking.
“I’ll have you know that my innocent face works on everybody but you and
Laura,” she corrected him, grumpy.
“Anything else you need to get off your chest?” he asked, amused.
“Well, I don’t wanting you spitting at me,” she said, casually, “I have no idea
when you having a twenty-five foot tongue would even come up, much less when it
would be a problem.”
She started tugging on his arm. Elizabeth held up his hand kissed the webbing
between his fingers. He had a few ideas about what he could do to her with his
tongue but he just stuffed his hands back in his pockets and kept his mouth
shut.
“Bloody hell,” he muttered again, “What in the hell am I going to do with you?”
“You’re going to kiss me,” she was firm on that point, “Unless you’re a
complete idjit.”
***** Let's Talk About Sex *****
Chapter Summary
     Elizabeth is horny but Toad says no to sex.
Elizabeth didn’t spend as much time as she had with the Brotherhood anymore.
She rarely spent time in the boarding house. She would go shopping with Tabitha
and Scarlet from time to time. She and Todd would eat lunch with Lance and Fred
when those two elected to join them instead of eating with Jason and Pietro.
They’d gone on a couple of double dates with Lance and Kitty when those two had
dated for a while. She spent absolutely no time with Jason or Pietro. Todd
wasn’t on speaking terms with Jason and Elizabeth wasn’t entirely sure why.
Pietro and Todd’s relationship was still somewhat strained but Elizabeth had
hope that Pietro would come around.
Although Todd was Junior, a year ahead of her in school, she was taking English
Honors courses and he was taking a remedial English geared toward students with
learning disabilities. When they studied together Todd would visit her at the
Institute on weeknights. He didn’t talk much to most of the students but he got
along with Scott, Kitty, and the Professor. He and Kurt still harboured a
rivalry that Elizabeth didn’t entirely understand. If anything, she’d have
thought that the two of them sharing mutations that were written all over their
skin would have helped them to bond.
It was July 4th in Salem Center, New York and the boarding house was empty.
Fred had gotten his grades up high enough to try out for football this year so
he was playing. Both the fireworks and the chance to support their friend had
lured the Brotherhood out of the house. Elizabeth had mentioned that she wasn’t
interested in the football game. She’d told Todd that she had more fun watching
the cheerleaders during intermission. Todd had laughed and told her it was
called halftime. After the last cheer they’d lit out. They would be able to
watch the high school’s fireworks from the boarding house. Elizabeth was
nothing if not a planner. They had some time before the game would be over and
the fireworks show would start.
Todd made as if to turn on the television but Elizabeth demurred.
“Hey, can I see what sketches you’re working on now?” she asked him.
“Sure,” he said, and took the stairs two at a time. She followed at a more
sedate pace behind him.
“Um,” he said, when she followed him into his room, “There’s only the one thing
that’s been commissioned but I have a couple of originals in progress.”
“Cool,” she murmured as she checked out his desk. It was a small workspace,
dedicated to his art rather than his schoolwork. The desk was covered in
pencils, in containers and out of them. There were piles of empty art pads to
one side and full ones to the other. Elizabeth picked up one of his practice
sketches, drawn on lined school paper rather than the professional white paper.
It was a sketch of her, laying across the page in an oversized sweater.
“That’s not,” he stumbled over his words, “I mean, that’s… That’s not for
sale.”
His yellow eyes were wide and he took the sheet from her. Smiling at him, she
let him take it back so he could hide it in a drawer. When he turned around
again she hugged him, burying her face in his shoulder.
“You know,” she whispered, “I used to be upset that I was so short. But not
quite five foot one is the perfect height for a boyfriend who’s five foot
three.”
“I love you,” he told her, gently stroking a hand over her hair, “We weren’t
made for each other though. You’re so damn lush and people call me frog face.
We’re not exactly a matching set.”
“They wrote a fairy tale about a pair like us once,” she countered in a teasing
tone, “My toad prince.”
“The story was the Frog Prince,” he corrected, gently, “In the original Grimm
version he turned back into a man when the princess threw him up against a
wall. Once upon a time I thought love worked that way.”
“Well, I’m glad you know better now,” Elizabeth tilted her face up to his,
expectantly.
“You want me to kiss you,” he murmured, and asked as he often did before they
kissed, “Is this really my life?”
“Yes,” she whispered back, “and yes again.”
The delicate meeting of his lips on hers wasn’t their first kiss or their last.
For Todd’s part, part of his feelings toward her was something like reverence.
He held her delicately, a thousand times more gentle with her than he was with
anyone or anything else in his life. He slid one hand into her hair and his
other arm around her waist. She was so damn tiny. Muscles all over Todd’s body
tensed when she slid her hand up beneath the back of his shirt. He pulled his
mouth away from hers.
“I’m not going to break,” she pulled back to murmur against his mouth, “I
promise.”
“I know,” his eyes closed as her fingers danced lightly over his skin.
“Are you okay?” she asked, eyeing him speculatively.
“This is brilliant,” he told her, resting his forehead against hers.
“You know,” she said, “This would be easier if you’d lose the shirt.”
He was so used to doing what she asked, he’d pulled his shirt up a good few
inches before he really thought about what he was doing and paused.
“Is this a good idea?” he asked her, his shirt still lifted.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” she asked. Her eyes were big, green, and innocent as they
stared up at him. He let his shirt fall back down. He knew her “I’m so
innocent” face when he saw it. He also knew it meant she had plans. This woman
could plan a guy into a rock and a hard place.
“We’re alone, in my room, because you followed me in here,” he said, thinking
aloud, “The entire house is empty because everyone else is at the game. We have
time before the fireworks… Because we rushed out as the halftime was finishing
up. That was your idea. Most likely, no one will be home until after the
fireworks show and they’ll get stuck in the ridiculous traffic of everyone
leaving at the same time.”
He gave her an assessing look, “Just how much of this evening have you had
planned out? What are you up to?”
Elizabeth sighed and sat down on the edge of his bed, “I planned most of it.
I’m trying to seduce you.”
“Oh,” he stuffed his hands in his pockets, “Well.”
“Is that okay?” Elizabeth asked, “I didn’t want to tell you because I wasn’t
sure that I wouldn’t chicken out, you know, at the last minute.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he mumbled, “You can change your mind whenever you want to
stop. I just, I’m not prepared.”
“Oh,” she waved a hand at him dismissively, “I’ve been on birth control for
years. Since I was about thirteen.”
“What?” he asked, baffled, “Why?”
She shrugged, “Birth control regulates my periods and helps me with my acne.”
“You’ve never had acne, not really,” Todd commented.
“You didn’t know me back then,” she reminded him.
“I still think we should wait,” he stumbled over his words but he managed to
get them out.
Elizabeth blinked at him, “I brought a condom. Dr. McCoy has given me a lecture
or three about sex since we started dating and he stressed using more than one
form of contraceptive.”
“Birth control pills don’t protect you from disease,” Todd added, “That’s
probably why he wanted you to have condoms.”
Todd rubbed the back of his neck. It was embarrassing to know that the X-men
knew so much about his love life. He wanted his relationship with Elizabeth to
be more or less a private thing. He was afraid anyone else would try to mess
them up.
“Yeah,” Elizabeth said slowly, “Is that something we need to worry about? I’ve
never been with anyone like we’ve been together. I guess I just assumed you
hadn’t been with anyone else either.”
He rubbed his hands over his face roughly. There was more than one reason why
he wanted his relationship and the things she knew about him to remain just
between the two of them. He’d been trying to deflect her with details but he
should have known that wouldn’t work on her.
“There’s never been anyone closer to me or as intimate with me as you’ve been,”
he said, raggedly, “But my mother was a prostitute and a drug addict. That’s
why I was put into state foster care.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” Elizabeth resisted the urge to start wringing
her hands together, “Does that have something to do with us, with this?”
“Certain STDs can be spread during labor and delivery,” he said, his tone flat,
“Especially when the woman either doesn’t know or doesn’t say she has an
infection.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” Elizabeth was upset but she knew Todd had to be even
more upset.
He shrugged, “It doesn’t matter, duck. I figured we’d break up eventually.”
“We’re not breaking up,” Elizabeth’s eyebrows winged upward, “I don’t know why
you would even think that we would.”
“We’re not going to shag,” he pronounced, determined.
Elizabeth reassured him, “We don’t have to have sex if it scares you that much.
However, just because we’re not having sex doesn’t mean we’re breaking up.”
“If this is the part where you tell me we’ll always be friends, just skip it,”
his voice had turned acidic. He collapsed into the chair at his desk, his
yellow eyes narrowed at her.
“Oh, hell, no,” she laughed, “Not in a million years. I’ve never figured out
how people who have been together can be friends afterward. The good doctor
says that it takes maturity and time, and sometimes even then it doesn’t work
out.”
He shifted in his chair and Elizabeth looked at him for a moment, really looked
at him. He was still skinny and she thought he probably always would be lanky,
like a swimmer. He was curled up in the chair almost the same way he crouched
on the floor, with his sharply angled knees already wearing holes in his new
jeans. He was all lean lines, sharp angles, and bravado. He was brilliantly,
beautifully, completely himself. She just wanted to gather him close and
squeeze him.
The leather bracelet on his left wrist she’d given him for his birthday last
month and he hadn’t taken it off since then. Behind various sketches, templates
and inspiration, were pinned to the wall in a collage of paper and pencil.
Usually the money he made from his art was mostly put back into more artwork
but she could see his passion and his potential so for Christmas she was
planning to give him more art supplies. She was written all over him, all over
his life. Elizabeth liked to think she was a good influence on him.
“We need to work out our boundaries,” she told him, all practicality, “But I’m
not giving you up.”
“What boundaries?” he asked.
“We need to tell each other what we are comfortable doing and what we are not
comfortable doing,” she explained, “I’m not comfortable having sex without
protection.”
“I’m not comfortable, even with protection,” he told her, immediately.
“So, we can rule out vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse,” she translated, “Is
that right?”
“Yeah,” he rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans, “How do you know this stuff?”
“I read faster than any of the X-men, except for Dr. McCoy,” she told him,
smiling, “I read more than most of them, too. There’s also some educational
videos on sex available online. We can watch them together. That might be fun.”
“That sounds,” he trailed off, “Less like fun and more like dying of
embarrassment.”
She raised her hands, palms skyward, and shrugged.
“To each their own. We don’t have to watch them together. I’d like to try it
sometime,” she flashed up eyebrows at him, “But more importantly there are
probably some things you should know about boundaries and consent, with or
without me.”
“Okay,” he agreed, knowing that some guys he knew would laugh whenever someone
talked about consent. Toad had veered hard to the opposite end of the spectrum,
whatever his reputation. There were plenty of people that figured he and
Elizabeth had been sleeping together the whole time they’d been dating. A few
others from the Institute figured she held him off with the threat of the X-men
when they were alone together. He hated all of it but he ignored it. It wasn’t
their business and he didn’t owe any of them an explanation. He had wondered
how Elizabeth handled it but he suspected no one made comments like that to her
face.
“In the meantime, if you want to,” Elizabeth continued, “We could just lie down
and cuddle together. We can still fool around and make out until the fireworks
start.”
“Yes,” he said, enthusiastically, “I’m up for snogging and messing about.”
“Just to be clear,” she told him, “I do still want to have sex with you
someday. I understand that you’re freaked out about having sex ever. I’m
willing to wait until we have a solution that makes both of us comfortable. I
want you to feel safe and certain if or when we take that step together.”
“But in the meantime,” he sounded sly, “You want to put your hands all over my
fit body.” His eyes were crinkled in the corner.
“I also,” she whispered, sliding up against him, “want you to put your hands
all over my hot, sexy body.”
“Oh man, oh man,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her.
***** Interlude *****
Chapter Summary
     Just some ideas rattling around in my head, begging to be let out.
The Professor smiled at Elizabeth while she stared at him, agape.
“What?” Elizabeth asked. She was certain she’d heard him wrong. She might have
hallucinated. That was possible, right?
“I said,” he was still smiling, “Laura phoned us to ask if you are taking any
self-defense courses. She’s aware that many of the other students train in hand
to hand, among other things. She insisted to Logan that you should be working
with him to improve your abilities in that area.”
“But,” she was aghast, “I’m not a fighter. I’m never going to be an X-man; I’m
not a mutant.”
“Still,” he said, “Laura and Logan have convinced me that it may be in your
best interests to work with the new, younger X-men for a portion of their
training. If that doesn’t suit you then Logan may be able to spend time with
you and teach you independently.”
“But,” she stumbled, “But---But---” and then she started to wail, “I’m lazy.”
Logan, to the Professor’s left, snorted. Scott, on his right, tried to hide a
smile or a laugh with a cough.
“I lack discipline,” she added, emphatically.
“I might be able to do something about that,” Logan drawled. There was
something in his eyes that made Elizabeth wary and suspicious.
“I’m not going to like it,” she muttered, then something occurred to her and
she brightened, “Can I bring Todd? Everyone always says he doesn’t know
anything about hand to hand combat.”
The Professor’s eyes flicked in Logan’s direction briefly. There was a pause,
during which Elizabeth was sure Logan and the Professor were having a silent
conversation.
“That would be acceptable, if he is willing,” the Professor finally said.
“Great!” Elizabeth stood up, then paused, “Did you have any other terrible news
for me, Daddy dearest?”
Scott choked at the daddy dearest.
“No, Elizabeth,” he sighed, “This is the only terrible news for today.”
“Sweet,” Elizabeth bounced out, already on her phone texting Todd.
---
“I can make a bad guy good for a weekend,” Elizabeth sang a line from a song.
“We’ve been dating a hell of lot longer than a weekend,” Todd returned.
“Damn straight,” she told him, and fell so hard against him he thought he might
have a bruise later.
“We’ve established that you,” he said brightly, “are a lightweight.”
“Are you calling me a cheap date?” she asked, horrified. She was so tipsy he
wasn’t certain it was true horror or a mocking joke.
“That was only a half bottle of two buck chuck, so, yes,” he told her.
“I love you,” she told him.
“I can’t wait to see what happens when you try pot,” he laughed.
“Remember our deal,” she told him sternly, or what she thought was sternly. He
grinned at her.
“You win,” he told her, “I’ll put together a portfolio and apply to be a tattoo
apprentice.”
“The trick to being an adult is to find work you love,” she confided in him,
“So you can be happy. I want you to be happy.”
“I love you, too,” he told her and felt it painfully in his chest.
“I know,” she whispered loudly, “But you should still say it. I like to hear
it.”
***** Graduation Grows Near *****
Chapter Summary
     Toad and Elizabeth discuss plans for Toad's graduation and
     Elizabeth's senior year.
Elizabeth had two library books in her arms and a backpack full of textbooks,
notebooks, and binders as she walked down the sidewalk toward the high school.
Her gloves were the kind that became mittens when she wore them a certain way,
like she was doing now. She was wearing a heavy coat and rain boots because New
York’s chill winter had begun. Her hair was braided up and covered with a
beanie. She wasn’t paying attention, her head in her daydreams, so she didn’t
hear the sound of wheels approaching from behind her. She definitely noticed
when the teenage boy on a skateboard pulled up quickly next to her and abruptly
jumped from his board.
“Crap,” she said, startled.
“Yo. Sorry,” he said, but that grin from beneath his cap and mop of disheveled
hair was her favorite, “I guess that’s what you get for having a skater
boyfriend.”
“Lucky, lucky me,” she murmured, grabbing onto the front of his jacket as he
leaned in to her. His lips were chapped from the cold, dry air but that didn’t
bother her. His arms wrapped around her waist. After he pulled away from the
kiss she buried her face in his neck and kept him close.
“The tattoo guy told me I have to wait until I’m eighteen before I can even
apply to be an apprentice,” Todd told her.
“You turn eighteen in March,” she reminded him.
“It costs money for the safety classes I’d have to take to get a license,” he
continued.
“You can save up money from your job at the diner or from selling your art
online,” Elizabeth told him, but her brow was furrowed.
“I have to have a diploma or my GED,” he added.
“You’ll graduate in June,” she dismissed.
“No,” he told her, feeling like a man in a guillotine, “I won’t.”
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth was horrified.
“I failed a few classes here and there,” he told her, trying to be casual but
he knew how upset she would be with him.
“Why didn’t you take classes over the summer to make those grades up?” she
asked him, feeling a little panicky.
“School didn’t matter to me. I wasn’t going to give up my summers just to get a
grade. I wanted to spend my summers in bed or with you,” Todd was frustrated,
“The only reason I didn’t fail anything last year was because I was going in
every day to see you. Passing my classes was basically an accident. The only
reason I passed English this past year was because it gave me an excuse to do
something with you on weeknights.”
“So, it’s just because you didn’t show up?” she asked, feeling a headache
coming on, “It wasn’t a matter of you trying and failing?”
“Well,” he scuffed his high tops against the cement but stopped because she’d
gotten him this pair for his birthday last year, “I’m not great at English but
you’ve helped me with that.”
“Did you fail an English class?” she asked, her green eyes wide and unhappy.
“I failed freshman English and Science, then failed Science again my sophomore
year,” he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.
“So,” Elizabeth started to think about it, then heard the bell in the distance,
“Oh, damn it. Let’s talk about it over lunch.”
“Okay,” he said, slowly, “Hey, are you angry with me?”
“I’m upset, of course I’m upset,” she huffed at him and gave him a dark look,
“But we’re going to figure this out. There are solutions. You’re not the first
person to spend five years taking high school classes.”
“Okay,” he said and walked with her into the school, “Thank you for not---” He
trailed off.
“Yelling at you?” she asked knowingly, “Treating you like dirt? It wouldn’t
solve anything or change what’s already done. And you know how I feel about
apologies.”
“Don’t apologize unless you intend to do better,” he quipped, giving her one
last kiss goodbye and disappearing down the hall with his skateboard in hand.
Over lunch they worked out that he could after hours take classes offered
through the high school. During the day he could work, either at the diner or
somewhere else, and save up the money for the licensure courses. He could take
the safety courses he needed to through the local community college.
“I’ll be busy,” Todd said, examining a mock up of his schedule Elizabeth had
written out.
“We’ll have a date night once a week,” she assured him, “We’ll get through it.”
“I’ve never taken a college course before,” he told her nervously, “What if
they don’t accept me?”
“It’s a community college. They’ll make you sign a paper saying that you know
you might not pass the class and you can’t get your money back if you don’t,”
she spoke from experience.
“Why?” he asked, suspicious.
“Because you won’t have a GED or a diploma yet,” she told him, “I’ve taken a
class through the college before. The administration there gave me grief. The
lady there assumes that if you don’t have a high school diploma then you can’t
read, write, or calculate basic math. Remember last summer? We met at the
college a few times. I signed one just to get her off my back.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “So, I’m in high school for an extra year, basically, and
that’ll give me extra time to work and save money. But I don’t particularly
want to stay at the boarding house anymore. I don’t feel like I believe what
Magneto and Mystique believe anymore.”
They looked at each other for a moment. They both knew Elizabeth was one reason
he wanted to break with the Brotherhood. She didn’t think she was the only
reason. The way things had been lately in the news she was relieved and
grateful that he wanted to leave the Brotherhood. She wouldn’t have asked him
but it was becoming difficult to justify to herself how a man who loved her so
much and treated her so well could belong to a group that was actively working
to make her a second-class citizen, at best.
“What do you want to do?” she spoke quickly, dropping her other line of
thought, “I know the tattoo artist thing was my idea originally. Is this what
you really want?”
“I didn’t let myself think about it,” he answered her honestly, “I’m afraid to
want things too much. It feels worse when you get your hopes up and something
doesn’t work out. But I do really want to do something that helps me to get
paid for my art. Besides, tattoos are the dog’s bollocks.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, “You get a gold star for self-reflection. Okay. So,
you can talk to the Professor about your options. He might know about some low
income housing, better paying jobs, or scholarships.”
“You don’t think I could be an X-man?” he asked, a little hurt. As he spoke to
bell rang to signal the end of the lunch period.
Elizabeth sighed, “I’ll explain later. I think you could be an X-man if you
really wanted it. I just don’t think you really want it.”
“See you later,” Todd told her, irritated.
“See you,” she replied quickly, “I love you.”
"I love you, too," he said, but she was already gone.
When Todd and Elizabeth next spoke it was on the way from the school to the
Institute. He had taken to walking her home and then walking himself home
after. Once in awhile Scott would volunteer to give Todd a ride back to the
boarding house, especially if it was late.
“What did you mean about me not wanting to be an X-man?” he asked her, still
kind of grumpy.
“I love you, but I know more about hand to hand than you do at this point,”
Elizabeth spoke as they walked, “You’re just not motivated in that area, as far
as I’ve seen. If you really wanted to work toward that goal then I would
support you.”
“Babe, you’ve never seen me in action,” his tone reminded Elizabeth of the new
students before the try-outs, “I’ve got superhuman strength in my legs, slime
spit better than glue, and a tongue that could literally rip a somebody’s head
off.”
She gave him a horrified look and he rushed to reassure her that he hadn’t
actually ever taken any heads off with his tongue.
“A lot of students think they want to be X-men until they start the tough,
relentless, and often tedious training,” Elizabeth proceeded with honesty, “I
think all other plans involve less of you bleeding. If it’s human rights that
motivates you then there are other professions or careers that aren’t so
physical. Dr. McCoy does a lot of talks and writes a lot of persuasive material
for the cause.”
“You mean mutant rights,” he tried to correct her.
“No,” she looked at him curiously, “I meant human rights. Mutants are human.
You and I are both human. I know that discrimination based on mutation is
different than discrimination based on gender identity or sex or skin color.
But I also know that saying that mutant rights are not a human rights issue is
just as ridiculous as saying that gender identity rights are not a human rights
issue or saying that black rights are not a human rights issue.”
“Okay, okay,” he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, but he was
grinning, “That’s already a better defense of mutant rights than mine.”
“Dr. McCoy told me once that one of the best things I can do as a non-mutant is
to support the voices of people who are the ones facing discrimination,”
Elizabeth confided in him, “I try to keep my mouth shut but keeping it bottled
up makes me want to stab those awful people. What does your defense of mutants
sound like?”
He shrugged, “I don’t want to be treated like shit and I’m a mutant.”
“What if you woke up tomorrow and you didn’t have a mutation?” she asked him,
curious.
“Would you prefer that?” he asked, his face solemn.
“No,” her response was so automatic she surprised herself, “I don’t know. I
fell in love with you for the person you are. I guess, if you weren’t a mutant
then you might be another person and I might love with that person, too, but I
don’t know, because being a mutant is a part of you. You wouldn’t be the same
without your experiences as a mutant, although I guess that might have more to
do with your being born a mutant and not whether or not you woke up tomorrow
without a mutation…” She trailed off, realizing that she was rambling.
“I guess I’ve never thought about it. I wouldn’t change you but if you did
change then I would probably adjust,” she told him, more slowly this time, “If
you woke up tomorrow without an x-gene then you would still be you. If you had
never had an x-gene to begin with then I don’t know who you would be or how I
would feel about that person. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. I know that I’m pretty selfish,” he admitted with surprising honesty, “I
don’t think I would care about how mutants are treated if it didn’t affect me
directly. I’m not affected by all the other issues you mentioned and I don’t
worry about how those people are treated. No one treats me like shit because
I’m a guy. Hell, I’ve never even heard of gender identity.”
“You and I are called cisgendered,” Elizabeth informed him, automatically going
into lecture mode, “In this case, we are both members of the majority. People
get assigned a gender at birth based on what sex organs they are born with but
for some people their assigned gender just isn’t right for them. They aren't
cisgendered, they are misgendered at first or outside the gender binary
entirely.”
“Oh,” he nodded, “Like those men who have surgery to become women.”
“Eh. Not everyone person who feels a different gender on the inside has the
need to make their physical body match with surgery. It’s complicated,”
Elizabeth struggled to explain, “You wouldn’t compare all mutants to Kitty by
saying that all mutations and all experiences of having a mutation are like her
mutation and her experience with it. For starters, Kurt’s mutation and his
experience being a mutant are very different when you compare him to Kitty.
Discrimination against women who are mutants is sexuallized; it’s a two-for-one
for being an asshat.”
“Kitty can pass for a sapien. No one looks at her and immediately knows she’s a
mutant like they do with me or that ratty blue plush doll,” Todd didn’t sound
bitter, which Elizabeth thought was pretty mature of him, “Even when an
arsehole knows what she is they might treat Kitty differently compared to me or
Kurt. She’s a girl, she has one of those faces that makes anyone want to
protect her, and her mutation is defensive instead of aggressive.”
“Talking about the technical or physical details of someone’s gender is like
talking about the way an x-gene works genetically; it doesn’t speak to the
human experience so it misses the point and it can be kind of dehumanizing. At
least, that's what I understand. Being a mutant is complicated and different
for everyone, right?” she paused and he nodded, “Gender is a lot like that,
too. People’s expressions and feelings about their own gender are about as
varied as all the different manifestations of an x-gene. But there’s one thing
that is simple.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“People should be treated with basic respect and dignity,” Elizabeth was
emphatic on this point, “No one should use any excuse to do otherwise.”
“You’re face is going all red,” he pointed out, enjoying her.
“I turn red when I get angry,” she muttered, “I can’t help it.”
They arrived in the atrium of the Institute and Elizabeth looked thoughtful.
“You should talk to the Professor about your living situation,” Elizabeth’s
eyes were intense, “I really think he’d like to help you if you would only ask
for help.”
“Sure,” Todd shrugged nonchalantly, a sure sign he was trying not to care too
much.
“Afterwards,” she added, “I’ll help you with your English.”
“Sweet,” he responded, much more excited about spending time with her than
asking the Professor for anything.
***** Toad Attends the Institute *****
Chapter Summary
     Toad attends the Institute with Elizabeth.
The Professor, ostensibly unconcerned with Todd’s age or his relationship with
Elizabeth, invited Todd to come live at the Institute as a new student if he
wished. Professor X didn’t seem terribly concerned with accepting a new student
at the Institute in the middle of the year. Todd was welcome at the Institute.
"Are you going to switch?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes wide.
Todd seemed a little nervous. He rubbed his palms on his jeans and didn't look
Elizabeth in the eye.
"I don't know," he finally said.
"You don't have to be a student here," Elizabeth assured him, she knew how big
a deal it was to him.
"It's not that I don't want to leave the Brotherhood," he said quietly, "I just
don't want to betray my mates. I know they'll hold it against me. I just don't
share the same goals with them like I did before."
Elizabeth tried to be sympathetic but she was still holding a grudge against
Pietro and Jason. She sighed.
"A good friend will accept your differences and be supportive of your best
interests even if they disagree with your choices or your politics," Elizabeth
reasoned, "You aren't joining the Friends Against Humanity. At the end of the
day, the Professor wants all mutants to be treated fairly, including Eric
Magnus, Raven Darkholme, and members of the Brotherhood. We all want a better
world for mutants, we just have different methods for getting there."
"Somehow I don't think the Brotherhood is going to see it that way," Todd's
glum face was downcast.
"I hope you do whatever is right for you," Elizabeth rubbed his arm to comfort
him, "I also hope that your friends adjust and understand, eventually."
"You wouldn't blame me if I didn't attend here?" Todd asked her.
"Not a chance. We'll get through this next year and a half either way,"
Elizabeth's smile was grim, "I was raised by X-Men; I'm not afraid of a
challenge."
Todd did not score well when he tried out to be an X-man. He was fairly bitter
about it so Elizabeth offhandedly mentioned to Logan that Todd's area was more
computers, art, and design. When he didn't seem to be taking the hint,
Elizabeth asked if Todd could be helpful programming and designing Danger Room
challenges and training sessions.
"You're not supposed to know about the Danger Room," Logan grunted as he lifted
the engine out of a car.
"Yeah, right," she couldn't help but laugh, "Not only do I live here - I mean
hello! - but you already must have figured out that I have been in the Danger
Room before. You'd have smelled me."
He gave her a look out of the corner of his eye, "Maybe."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Kurt likes to use the Danger Room to play pirates.
You probably already know that. Kitty got tired of being the damsel in distress
so I got to be the kidnapped Princess a couple of times. But that was ages
ago."
Logan contemplated that for a moment, or pretended, "I know you started
spending a lot less time with Kurt and Kitty during your sophomore year.
Doesn't seem to me the two of them ever stopped playing pirates."
It took a minute for that to sink in for Elizabeth.
"Are you upset with me for being with Todd? Or for spending a lot of time with
him?" Elizabeth asked, considering the thought.
"It's your life and you make your own choices," Logan told her calmly.
"Okay," Elizabeth said slowly, "While I consider your perspective, will you
consider how Todd could be helpful? He really wants a place where he can feel
he belongs and be respected."
Logan stared at her thoughtfully, "I suppose I could consider it."
"Thank you," Elizabeth hugged him impetuously, heedless of the grease. Then she
went to talk to Kitty. She would make plans to spend time with Kurt and Kitty,
maybe even play pirates together.
---
Todd spent Elizabeth’s senior year working, studying, and creating new art for
his portfolio. They still spent time together and she was usually helping him
study when they spent time together. She reflected once that helping him to
study was teaching her better habits; being able to skate through her courses
without cracking a textbook fed her own inclination toward laziness. For Todd’s
sake she attacked helping him study with the fervor of a office supply fanatic.
She helped him take his notes, color code them, and created flashcards that a
scrapbook enthusiast would have envied. She suspected her own English scores
were improving as a result.
Elizabeth elected, against much protest from her teachers, not to take AP
English her senior year. She selected the basic English course so she could
have more time for other priorities, primarily courses she taking outside of
high school aimed at preparing her for a job as an emergency medical
technician. Elizabeth and Todd could often be found working on separate
subjects or levels of the same subject, but still together. Elizabeth found
that it comforted both of them to sit together even while they didn’t speak to
each other.
Todd had Christmas Eve off of work while Elizabeth was on the school’s winter
break. They had relative privacy because many of the Institute’s students were
home with their parents. They were cozied up in front of the fireplace
together, sharing the same blanket. Elizabeth held her mug full of hot
chocolate with both hands while she watched the flames. She’d sent out all of
her college applications. Dr. McCoy had convinced her to apply to all of the
places she wanted to go, even if she didn’t think she would be accepted or
could afford to attend. Todd had an arm wrapped around her waist under the
blanket and he watched her.
“I can get a pretty cheap studio or one bedroom in Peekskill, where I’ll be
going to college for the first few years,” she was telling him, “Once I
complete my EMT training and pass my test I can get work. There are EMT jobs
available in White Plains, across the Hudson.”
“That’s a toll bridge,” Todd told her, “That’ll cost a bomb.”
“I know it’ll be expensive,” she said, “But I need to go to school and I need
to work. If I’m lucky maybe something will open up near Cortlandt or
something.”
“You’ll need to pay for a car,” he pointed out, then began to rattle off a list
of things he figured she wasn’t thinking about yet, “A flat, utilities, mobile,
groceries, petrol, car insurance, renter’s insurance, internet, and tuition.”
She sipped her chocolate and tried not to have a panic attack.
“You lived on your own, sort of, for a while,” she pointed out, “While Mystique
was gone for so long you boys were on your own.”
“Yes,” Todd nodded, rubbing his cheek against her hair, “Taxes make a dent in
your paycheck; you won’t be taking home what you make hourly. I was gobsmacked
when I got my first check. Groceries will work out to be around a hundred
dollars or two hundred a month if you’re careful and you can cook without
burning the food or poisoning yourself. Take away will be out of the picture.
You’ll basically want to spend five dollars a day on food. You’ll want to look
for a place that’s less than a grand each month, probably a flat that’s five
hundred square feet or smaller. You won’t be able to afford anything more than
a few hundred a month for transpo. A new car is out.”
“Driving a junker, living in a closet, eating only the cheapest food that I can
make myself,” Elizabeth mused, “I think I can get a job making twenty-five
thousand annually. Do you think I’ll be able to make it?”
He shrugged, “You can always come back here, if you crash and burn.”
Elizabeth actually winced, “Coming back here means dropping out of college. I
really don’t want to do that.”
“Potatoes are a good buy,” he told her, thoughtfully, “They last forever on the
floor or in a cabinet. You won’t go hungry with them, even if you get
mindlessly bored. You’ll have to give up your obsession with hormone-free,
antibiotic-free, cage-free everything and force yourself to eat your leftovers
before you make anything new.”
“Those breakfast burritos I like are only a dollar each,” she told him.
He smiled, “Sure. You could eat one of those three times a day and your grocery
budget would be okay. But you’d probably develop some kind of nutrient
deficiency.”
“Cup noodles, the instant ramen, are really cheap, too,” she murmured, “I think
their less than a dollar.”
“Yep,” he agreed, “Sometimes you can get family packs of frozen chicken for
around a dollar fifty a piece. Five pounds of potatoes is a little over two
quid - er, dollars, and that’s about fifteen potatoes.”
“If I eat a burrito for breakfast, noodles for lunch, and I alternate a baked
potato or a piece of chicken for dinner that’s,” she trailed off, trying and
failing to do the math in her head. He thought the furrow between her brows was
adorable.
“Every two weeks you can spend about five for potatoes, about ten on chicken,
about fifteen on burritos, and ten on instant noodles,” he supplied, “If you
have any extra you should spend it on butter.”
“No money for sodas,” she said mournfully.
“Yep,” he nodded, “You’ll lose a kilogram, probably, not that you should be
losing weight.”
She shrugged, “I have trouble keeping weight on, actually. Remember that time I
was sick for three days straight? Dr. McCoy almost put me on an IV because I
wasn’t keeping down liquids for a while. I lost thirty pounds and two shoe
sizes.”
“Your feet shrank?” he asked, incredulous.
“Yeah, I had wide feet,” she told him, “Apparently, they were chubby.”
“Ain’t a damn thing on you that is or ever was chubby,” he grumbled. Elizabeth
considered him for a moment. He’d always been skinny but over the last few
months he’d started to fill out. He wasn’t fat but he had added some muscle.
He’d always been a soft kind of skinny. Now he was leaner, more toned. He’d
probably never bulk up like Logan or Scott but she preferred it that way,
honestly.
“Why are you so grumpy?” she finally asked, “You’re skinny, too.”
“I didn’t used to know where my next meal was coming from,” he told her, “I’m
not naturally skinny. That’s how I know what life’s like without money for
food.”
Elizabeth set her chocolate aside and squeezed him, “It gets better.”
“Sometimes it does,” he nodded, but he was grim, “I know it could have gone
differently for me. I might have chosen to stay with the Brotherhood and my
life would’ve been utterly different. I was going to give up my art when we
met. I wouldn’t have had anything else.”
“Well, you didn’t,” Elizabeth rested against him.
“I never thanked you for what you did that day,” he said, slowly, “So, thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” she told him, “But you don’t need to thank me. When it
counted you had the talent and you made your own choices, it was all you.”
He shook his head ruefully. She didn’t get it. He figured that was okay.
Sometimes he wondered where he’d have ended up if she’d just left a few minutes
earlier that day. Nowhere he wanted to be now, he decided. He gave her a
considering look. The ripples of her messy blonde hair were cut short,
highlighting prominent cheekbones in a heart-shaped face. Her finely delicate
body was stronger than it looked, a byproduct of living and sometimes training
with the X-Men. Her green eyes were beautiful because they were kind, usually.
“So, you’re moving away to attend uni next year,” he redirected the
conversation back to her future plans, “Sounds like having a flatmate might
help you out, financially.”
“Yeah, but then I’d have to find one,” Elizabeth answered, oblivious.
“Maybe, or maybe you’ve already got a candidate,” he told her, starting to
smile, “I haven’t got plans that I can’t change.”
“You?” she asked, “Really?”
He nodded, “I could submit my portfolio to a few parlors out near the
university and see about apprenticing near Peekskill. I can work someplace, or
a couple of places, part-time. It would split the rent on a flat in half. On
your budget, that opens up another six hundred. Plus, I can take public transit
or we can split using and paying for an old banger. ”
“I’d have to put that extra into savings,” she considered it, biting her lower
lip anxiously, “Just in case we hit a rough patch.” She worried a little about
him being a less than reliable roommate but she didn’t bring it up. He knew how
to make a little stretch a long way and she knew how to save her pennies. She
realized she hadn’t ever told him about her money in savings. She was prepared
to spend it if she needed to spend it, but she was hoping she could get by
without losing all of it.
“It would be there for you, in any case,” he told her.
“Do you want to live in Peekskill?” she asked, “What about the X-Men?”
“I didn’t qualify, again,” he sighed, “After thinking about it, you might have
been right. I don’t like training so hard physically. I just want to kick some
arse.”
“You can’t do that without training,” she prodding and tickling him with quick,
merciless fingers.
“I care more about my art,” he told her, gasping and trying not to squeal. He
tried to keep her hands away from him. It was a fairly quick wrestling bout,
which he lost.
“I win,” she declared, triumphant. She’d wrangled him onto his face on the
floor, with one arm professionally twisted behind his back.
“Only because I don’t want to hurt you,” he groused into the carpet, irritated.
“Uh huh,” he could hear her grinning, “Couldn’t have anything to do with me
having more than a year of training on you.”
He rolled his eyes, “Uncle. Now let me up.”
***** Elizabeth's First Purse *****
Chapter Summary
     Elizabeth starts carrying a purse instead of a backpack. Toad gets
     nervous.
Todd eyed the new bag Elizabeth had started carrying. Elizabeth had carried
nothing but a rucksack everywhere for the past three years, the entire time
he’d known her. He wasn’t sure what this change said about her. For all he knew
she was becoming one of those women that wouldn’t look twice at him or speak to
him like he was a person. Why did things have to change, he wondered.
“What’s in that thing anyway?” he asked her, grumpy. Elizabeth was amused at
the way he eyed the purse like it was a living, biting animal instead of a
large black bag on a crossbody gold chain.
“You want to look inside?” she asked him, smiling and tapping her pencil on her
open notebook.
“What could you possibly need to carry in this stupid thing? Why do you need a
handbag?” he grumbled, grabbing the bag. He pulled out her wallet. It was a
wallet, just like his, that was clearly from the men’s section. He rolled his
eyes up to look up at her, his face still directed down toward the bag, giving
her a look.
“I don’t like women’s wallets,” Elizabeth told him. He tossed it onto the bed
and went back to the purse.
“Keys,” she told him as he pulled out a multicolored pink and orange keychain
bracelet.
“Hand sanitizer,” he replied as he continued pulling out items, “Four safety
pins. Enough hair ties to make a braid out of them. Tylenol? Why not aspirin?”
“I’m allergic to willow trees. Aspirin comes from willow trees,” she reminded
him gently. She felt like she’d told him that before. She felt a little odd as
Todd rummaged through her purse. It felt a bit like he was brushing his fingers
through her internal organs. It wasn’t painful at all, maybe even a bit
pleasurable, but it felt more intimate than it probably should have felt.
Elizabeth figured she was weird.
“A tiny notebook?” he looked up at her, curious, “Can I read this?”
“Uh,” Elizabeth looked flustered, “I guess. It’s just poetry scraps and writing
ideas.”
“Huh,” he opened it, “Hardly seems fair that I’ve never read any of your poetry
but you stick your cute little nose in all of my sketches.”
“You probably have read some of my stuff,” Elizabeth fidgeted, “I submit work
to the Salem Center High School’s Illustrious Gazette.”
“That magazine that gets passed around?” he asked her, vaguely remembering,
thinking he’d have to dig up a few old copies, “So, you’re a real published
writer.”
“Ah,” she nearly stuttered as she spoke, “Well, only my poetry. I’m not very
good.”
He flipped through the book and started reading at random.
“Skin white as apple flesh, spirit strong as red rose thorn,
Lips red as mother’s blood, temper as yellow sweet corn,
Eyes green as apple skin, with summer flowers adorn,
Hair black as ebony blade. Magic, I cast a child yet born,
From this spell my daughter is born.”
“It was supposed to be the spell for a my retelling of Snow White,” Elizabeth
hid her face in her hands and peeked out from between her fingers, “But I never
wrote the story.”
“What was going to be your take on it?” he asked.
“I was going to make Snow White the incarnation of the spirit of darkness,
shadow itself,” Elizabeth rubbed her face, “Her prince was going to be the
incarnation of death. I thought I would write about the love story between
darkness and death through different lives, across many reincarnations, and
different eras.”
“You didn’t write it?” he asked, surprised.
“Ah, no,” she shrugged, uncomfortable, “Your talent is amazing. Mine is
mediocre at best. Besides, I start writing something and then I sort of stop? I
get distracted, doing too much research and end up not writing what I want to
write because everything gets too complicated.”
“Hmm,” Todd put the notebook aside with a thoughtful look, “What else is in
here?”
Todd continued pulling things out of her purse: a lighter, cash, a granola bar,
a pack of tissues, band-aids, a compact mirror, perfume, headphones and an mp3
player. He stuck an earbud into his ear and started scrolling through her
playlist.
“We need to have a serious conversation about your taste in music,” he finally
commented.
“Why?” she asked, curious.
“There’s country, some girl power pop, and like two rap songs,” he sighed, “You
need some serious rock music therapy to cure you. It may take years. You need
some quality time with the Ramones and Dead Kennedys.”
“I’ll get right on that,” she laughed.
“Gor, girly stuff,” he was surprised when he opened the small zip lock bag of
her sanitary supplies.
“They’re clean,” Elizabeth commented dryly, “But don’t touch them anyway.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” he told her, zipping it back up and returning it to her
purse. He’d gone through the entire bag, including the pile of receipts that
she had racked up.
“Why do you save all these?” he asked her, watching as she dumped the whole lot
into the little trash bin under her desk.
“I don’t know,” she fretted, “I just know you’re supposed to save them but I
don’t know why. I read in some date advice article in a magazine that it’s a
good sign if a guy saves his receipts when you’re out on a date with him
because it shows that he’s financially responsible or something.”
Todd snorted in amusement, “It’s financially responsible to check your receipts
against your cheque book or bank account so you can see if your charges match.
It’s also a good way to track your spending to see where you’re throwing your
money away. But it only works if you do something productive with them when you
get home.”
“I throw them away when I get home,” Elizabeth looked at the small pile in the
trash with some remorse.
He shook his head, “If they’re destined for the dustbin you may as well not
carry around the extra rubbish.”
“Why does my purse worry you?” she asked him. Todd shifted his weight. It was
his turn to be uncomfortable.
“You’re starting to look different,” he muttered, not looking at her, “You
know, with a handbag and all the female rot in it. Next thing I know you’re
going to buy a pair of court shoes and start wearing your knickers in a twist
like some pretentious prig trying to be posh.”
Elizabeth tried not to smile and she forced herself not to glance at her
closet. In it, a shoebox lay on the floor with a new pair of high heeled boots
inside. She’d gotten the black thigh high boots for her senior prom and
graduation. She knew he was stressed out because his British colloquialisms
became more prevalent when he was upset.
“Court shoes. You mean high heels!” she widened facetious eyes at him, “How
terrible!”
“Gor,” he shook his head, exasperated.
Elizabeth stood up and he turned to face her. She slid a hand into his hair and
tipped her face up to kiss him. She pulled back in time to catch a stunned,
spellbound expression on his face.
“I keep expecting to wake up,” Todd told her, burying his face in the layers of
her blonde hair. She smelled of vanilla and passion flower. So soft, he thought
as he absently ran his fingers gently up and down her arms.
“I am going to grow and change as a person,” Elizabeth told him, “You should,
too. Love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a choice. As long as you keep choosing me,
I’ll keep choosing you.”
I’ll choose you, he thought to himself, for the rest of my life.
***** Elizabeth's Adventure *****
Chapter Summary
     Elizabeth has a run in with the softball team.
“Hey, Elizabeth,” Charlotte Branson called out as Elizabeth approached the high
school. Charlotte was half Caucasian, half Vietnamese American. Her dark, grey-
blue eyes didn’t have the webbing of skin, the characteristic asian folds, at
the corners of her almond shaped eyes. Her painfully straight, glossy brown-
black hair just brushed her pale shoulders in a blunt cut that looked fresh.
“Hey, Char,” Elizabeth altered her path just a bit to walk with Charlotte. They
rarely had classes together but they’d met in the library over a vampire
romance series in the fiction section when they were both freshman. Elizabeth
was spending her lunch break sitting with Charlotte on the days when she didn’t
sit with Kitty and Kurt now that Toad had left school.
“Hey, you don’t have a sixth period, right?” Charlotte asked, strangely
nervous. She wasn’t fidgeting with her dark blue, collared shirt or shifting
back and forth in her plain, black oxfords. Charlotte usually dressed like she
would be attending a junior board meeting after class.
“Yeah,” Elizabeth responded slowly, “Why?”
“Can you join me when you get out of your fifth period class?” Charlotte asked,
with eyes that seemed to be a reflection of the sky, “I was hoping you would go
with me for class. I go around the athletic fields and collect the attendance
sheets from the football, baseball, and other sports teams.”
Maybe it was the way Charlotte asked, her tone of voice, or her body language
but Elizabeth was highly suspicious. She smelled trouble, as Logan would have
said.
“If I remember,” she told Charlotte honestly, “I’m usually on autopilot. I
might just automatically head to the library.”
“I could stop by and pick you up,” Charlotte volunteered. Elizabeth definitely
felt like something was off now.
“Sure,” Elizabeth told her, “My fifth period class is in the E building. I’ll
try to remember. See you sixth period.”
“Thanks, see you fifth period,” Charlotte took off, having done what she needed
to do.
“That was weird,” Elizabeth murmured to herself.
Elizabeth went through the day with the interaction on the backburner of her
mind. Charlotte was the editor of the Illustrious Gazette and had been talking
to the local newspaper about working for them after graduation. She was
independent, organized, efficient and one of the top students at the school.
After the SATs had come back Elizabeth’s scores had been among the top ten
percent of students in New York state but Charlotte had tested into the top
five percent. Elizabeth wondered what could possibly have Charlotte acting so
odd.
“So, why do you have this particular chore?” Elizabeth asked Charlotte as they
walked toward the sports fields.
“Technically, this is my student aide period. I’m the teacher’s assistant to
Mrs. Red,” Charlotte explained, “She is the director of the physical education
teachers and coaches. She sends me to collect the attendance sheets so she can
teach her sixth period P.E. students.”
Charlotte was so straightforward and lighthearted that Elizabeth relaxed.
Perhaps Elizabeth had misjudged the feeling she was getting off of Charlotte.
They’d been friends since freshman year though. Elizabeth was willing to wait
and see. She decided to pretend she thought everything was fine, the way
Charlotte seemed to be trying to pretend everything was fine.
Charlotte and Elizabeth collected attendance sheets from the football coach,
tennis coach, soccer coach, volleyball coach, track coach, as well as the swim
and water polo coaches. They had done so much walking around the school’s
extensive fields that Elizabeth’s feet started to hurt.
“How many more sheets do you need to collect?” Elizabeth asked, hoping
Charlotte would take pity on her and let her go home early.
“There’s only one more stop,” Charlotte was almost laughing. She paused.
“We only need to pick up the attendance sheet from the baseball and softball
coaches,” Charlotte told her, and now she sounded grim.
Elizabeth felt reassured by the sudden change in tone and mood. She walked in
step with Charlotte toward the baseball diamond. Finally, Elizabeth thought, I
get to find out what is going on. The ache in her feet was forgotten as
Elizabeth’s pace quickened.
“We don’t have to hurry,” Charlotte told her.
“Right,” Elizabeth smiled. Charlotte was reluctant to get where they were going
but Elizabeth prepared herself for a showdown. Anyone that put that nervous
look in Charlotte’s eyes was going to get a piece of her mind. As they
approached the baseball diamond and its dugouts Elizabeth noticed something
odd.
“Why are a bunch of them in their underwear?” Elizabeth asked, puzzled while
they were still out of earshot.
“They think they’re too good to change next to the regular P.E. students in the
common locker room,” Charlotte responded, sounding weary.
“That’s ridiculous,” Elizabeth whispered the last because they were close
enough to be overheard now. Charlotte started to approach the coach but he
waved to indicate he wanted her to wait. Charlotte stood, with tension in every
line of her body. Elizabeth didn’t have to wait long to find out why she was so
tense. Some of the varsity baseball team approached, or at least Elizabeth
assumed they were varsity because they were taller and looked like seniors.
The teasing started and Elizabeth, not focusing on any one thing yet, began to
process that they were attempting to embarrass and shame Charlotte while she
remained a captive audience. It occurred to Elizabeth that they were probably
picking on Charlotte because she was female and of asian descent. The
neanderthal attitude about asian women was that they were weak and prudish,
ready to be made victims of at a moment’s notice. It started to sink in that
senior year was half done and this had probably been going on every single day
for months.
“Don’t you see we’re in our underwear? You must have a thing for us, otherwise
you wouldn’t keep coming back while we’re nearly naked. What kind of girl are
you?” the one Elizabeth figured for the varsity captain accused Charlotte,
“Aren’t you embarrassed to be seeing us in our underwear?”
Elizabeth’s temper snapped and stepped up to him. Elizabeth was a hundred
fifteen pounds soaking wet and barely five foot three inches.
“Maybe she would be embarrassed,” Elizabeth looked the baseball player up and
down the way only a derisive woman could, “If you had any equipment for her to
worry about. Since you don’t, I don’t want to hear about you talking to
Charlotte again.”
Collectively, every baseball player in earshot, seemed to inhale at once. The
baseball player simply stared at her, shocked.
The baseball coach came over while the players were still trying to decide how
to react. Charlotte snatched the attendance sheets from the coach, grabbed
Elizabeth’s arm, and tore out of there like she was being chased. Elizabeth
took a quick, angry, glance over her shoulder half expecting that they were
being followed. They weren’t.
Charlotte was caught trying to hyperventilate and laugh at the same time. It
was an odd sound and it made Elizabeth glance sideways at her warily.
“Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked.
“They might kill you,” Charlotte nearly shouted at her.
Elizabeth snorted and replied sarcastically, “Yeah, right.”
To herself, Elizabeth thought that if they decided to jump her later she could
handle herself. She was just happy to have been able to defend Charlotte.
Elizabeth shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans contentedly, grinning
at Charlotte’s irritation as the near-panic faded. Elizabeth’s walk might have
been closer to her boyfriend’s usual swagger. She felt a bit like Todd’s
attitude was rubbing off on her and she was pleased about it.
***** Senior Prom *****
Chapter Summary
     Elizabeth and Toad attend Elizabeth's senior prom. Laura (Weapon X23)
     makes an appearance.
Elizabeth walked into her senior prom with Todd. Elizabeth‘s green eyes were
lined with black and painted with purple powder. She’d left her lips plain but
her cheeks were slightly pinker than usual and Todd could almost taste the
brush of her makeup. Todd’s hand was low on her back, on the green corset
bodice that trailed off into green leaves over a skirt that looked like it had
been made from giant, purple flower petals. Todd worn a light green suit with a
purple waistcoat. He’d gotten the night off so he could be her date.
Elizabeth’s short, wavy blonde hair was casually styled but there wasn’t
anything casual about the small tiara accessory. Todd thought she looked like a
tiny, fairy queen.
“No one’s on the dance floor,” she leaned into him to whisper.
“It’s early yet,” he told her, eyes scanning for the Brotherhood, “We’ll have
our knees up soon enough, love.”
“Is something wrong?” she asked, head tilting to the side, “Your British is up
and you look like you’re expecting trouble.”
“What are you on about? My British is up?” he was distracted by her comment.
“You told me you left the UK when you were thirteen,” she sounded amused, “When
you’re upset, stressed, or nervous your accent gets thicker and you use more
British slang. You said we’ll ‘have our knees up’ and you asked me ‘what are
you on about’ just now, in succession.”
“My British is up,” he repeated what she’d said, amused, and pulled her close
to nuzzle her throat, “You’ll know when my British is up, cheeky monkey.”
“Will I now?” she murmured.
“Eighteen inches, Mr. Toynbee. Miss Xavier,” one of the chaperone’s spoke
sourly.
“Yes, sir,” Elizabeth responded demurely, her face sliding seamlessly into an
innocent expression. Todd rolled his eyes, but the chaperone was behind him.
“It’s scary watching you diddle some dimwit with those wide eyes of yours,”
Todd whispered quietly, clearly amused.
“Did you know, in a self defense class I took before I moved to Salem Center
the instructor kept saying that it was important not to look vulnerable or
weak,” Elizabeth was irritated as she told her story, “Every time he said it
he’d look at me.”
“I believe it,” Todd replied.
“I wanted to tell him,” Elizabeth waved her arms up and down, indicating her
face and her build, “this is what God gave me. Without tattooing and piercing
every inch of me, there isn’t much else I can do but look like the girl next
door.”
“I’ll help you with the tattoos,” he teased her, “We can put my name across
your lower back.”
“No way,” she told him, “I know what tattoo I want if I ever get one.”
“I’ll do it for you when I can,” he told her, interested, “What do you think
you want?”
“I want a red X inside a circle,” she told him.
“Is that all?” he sounded disappointed.
“We’ll see. Maybe I’ll like it,” she shrugged, “Some people like the process so
much they keep going back for the experience.”
“Well, if that turns out to be you, you’re going to be well connected,” he told
her.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Elizabeth glanced around, then pulled Todd’s arm to
guide him away from the crowd.
“Liz?” he said her name as a question.
“I’m a rule breaker,” she told him, pulling him close, “Screw the eighteen
inches.”
There was food being served, appetizers on one table, entrees on another, and
so on. As soon as the dessert table came out Elizabeth and Todd were on it.
They wandered outside to a small courtyard. Todd hopped onto the short wall,
using it as a seat, and Elizabeth leaned back against him, standing between his
knees. He rested leaned forward to rest his chin on her shoulder. His hand
rubbed up and down her bare arms.
“You chilled, treasure?” he asked, absently.
“Not yet,” she replied, then added honestly, “I will be soon though.”
He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders preemptively.
“You’ll get cold,” she protested mildly.
“I’m okay,” he kissed her neck lightly.
After a few minutes the two of them went back inside to join the dancing.
Elizabeth couldn’t dance to a beat to save her life but Todd was fun and
quirky. A circle of people formed and soon the talented dancers were showing
off for the crowd. Elizabeth hung back, content to watch but not as interested
as Todd in the show. Elizabeth felt a touch at her shoulder and turned, her
automatic smile already in place. The smile turned to a look of shock.
“Shh,” Laura told her quietly, “Follow me. I need to talk to you.”
Laura took Elizabeth’s hand and led her through a staff entrance used by the
caterers and out toward the parking lot. Elizabeth was still wearing Todd’s
jacket and for that she was grateful.
“What’s wrong?” Elizabeth asked. She doubted Laura would be at the senior prom
without a good reason.
“I’ve been trying to catch you alone for a week,” Laura told her evenly,
“Whenever you leave the school you’re with Toad.”
“He’s my boyfriend,” Elizabeth said simply.
“Logan told me you’re planning to leave to school to go to college,” Laura
explained, “I need to warn you that it might not be safe for you.”
“Why not?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’ve been attacking Hydra bases and agents for the past four years,” Laura
explained, “They’ve figured out that I’m not dead. They might realize that you
could also be alive.”
“Unlikely,” Elizabeth countered, “I don’t have a healing factor, military
training, and adamantium claws. It’s hard to believe you could die by any
means. Easier to believe that a typical girl died at the hands of a Hydra
mercenary. Bastard.”
If Laura was surprised by the ferocity in Elizabeth’s voice her face didn’t
show it.
“I’m going to give you this,” Laura handed her a locket hanging from a silver
chain, “If you get into trouble open it. It’ll send a silent alarm to me and to
the Institute.”
“If it sends a signal to the institute why didn’t the Professor give it to me?”
Elizabeth asked.
“I discussed it with them,” Laura told her, “They didn’t think it was
necessary. I disagree.”
Elizabeth nodded, “I understand. I don’t want to die and I know I’m not a
soldier. I’ll wear it.”
“Good,” Laura said, but not like she intended to give Elizabeth a say in the
matter.
“Anything else?” Elizabeth asked.
“No,” Laura shook her head once, “Goodbye.”
“Wait,” Elizabeth grabbed Laura’s arm and Laura looked almost surprised, “One
dance.”
“What?”
“It’s my senior prom and you’re my favorite relative,” Elizabeth cajoled,
“Dance with me, for one song.”
“People will see me,” Laura grumbled, but she didn’t resist when Elizabeth
tugged on her arm.
“You’re already here, someone’s bound to have seen you already,” Elizabeth gave
her cousin large, green eyes.
“One dance, Elizabeth,” Laura gave in reluctantly.
Laura had dressed a black pants and a white dress shirt, a stolen staff
uniform, and she’d pulled back her long hair. She’d been masquerading as a male
employee. Immediately after the one dance Laura disappeared. Todd came up to
Elizabeth with an odd look on his face.
“Who was he?” he asked her.
“He? Oh,” Elizabeth debated correcting him, then let it go, “Someone I used to
know.”
Todd shrugged it off but Elizabeth knew he wouldn’t forget.
***** Moving Day *****
Chapter Summary
     Todd and Elizabeth move into an apartment together.
They’d been moving boxes into the apartment that afternoon. It was June.
Elizabeth had found a part-time job and an apartment. She wasn’t making as much
as she would have liked to have been making but Todd was doing well. They’d
both been saving up and they had both signed onto the lease. The one bedroom
was inexpensive and small enough to have prompted Kitty to name it Dollhouse.
The young couple didn’t have much furniture yet so they were sitting on a
blanket on the floor of the living room. Todd had pulled out a cheap bottle of
white wine as a surprise.
“That’s enough,” she cautioned him as he poured, “A glass of wine is only about
four ounces.”
“Says the lightweight,” Todd teased her, but he kept the first glass and poured
her another, smaller glass.
“It’s true,” she protested, amused, “I looked it up.”
He shook his head, smiling broadly.
“A toast,” she told him, holding up her glass, “To new beginnings and the start
of our adult lives.”
He clinked his glass with hers obediently. She was very happy with their new
place even if it was small and empty. Todd placed a white gift box in front of
her. She thought he seemed like he was holding his breath. She wasn’t sure he’d
ever given her a gift in a box before. Usually his gifts to her were sort of
shoved at her. Although, in the last year or so he’d been wrapping them in
newspaper.
“Ooh, a present,” she said, already happy with whatever it was, “You should
have told me and I’d have gotten you something.”
Elizabeth opened the box and inside it there was another box. A red, velvet
heart shaped box. Jewelry, she figured. She was touched. He hadn’t gotten her
jewelry before and she figured it was a piercing of some kind. She’d playfully
asked him the other day what he’d think if she came home with a belly button
ring.
She took out the small, red box and it clicked open.
“Holy shit,” were her first words.
Todd waited, nervously, and started to sweat.
“Holy shit,” she said again. The box was a ring box. Inside, a simple gold band
with three small, inset diamonds rested.
“Will you marry me?” he asked, his throat trying to close on the words.
“Yes,” she said, automatically, then paused, “I mean, I think I will.”
“You think?” he stared at her, “What?”
“I didn’t know you were going to propose,” Elizabeth gave him her surprised
face, “I want to marry you but there are some things we need to talk about
before we get married.”
“Like what?” he asked, struggling for patience.
“What about religion? Do we want a church wedding or a justice of the peace? Do
we want to have children?” she asked immediately, “If we do, how many and when?
Do we want to adopt? How are we going to raise children if we have any? How are
we going to handle family finances? Do we need a joint account? That’s just off
the top of my head.”
“You’re such a romantic. We can talk about all that,” Todd told her, rubbing
his sweaty palms on his pants. For his part, he was willing to go all in
whatever the results of those conversations. He figured he didn’t care what
happened along the way as long as she was happy and they were together. On the
other hand, he knew Elizabeth. She was a planner, a worry-wort, and painfully
organized so he prepared himself for hashing out all of the details.
“Can we be engaged first?” she asked him, “That way we can talk about it before
we set a date.”
“Yes,” he sounded relieved. He took the ring out to slide it on her finger.
“There is something you didn’t mention that I need to talk to you about,” Todd
said, trying to sound casual.
“What’s that?” she asked, eyeing the ring on her finger in the way of women.
“Something happened the second time I tried out to be a X-man,” he told her, “I
was injured pretty badly by mistake. My own mistake.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, concerned, “You seemed fine.”
“I didn’t tell you because I was fine,” he informed her, pointedly.
“I don’t understand,” she murmured, touching his hair.
“Dr. McCoy used a vial of Warren’s blood to heal me,” he waited for her to put
it together.
“Okay,” she said slowly, “So, why do we need to talk about it now?”
“Warren’s blood healed all of me, Liz,” he said finally, “I asked Dr. McCoy to
retest me, to be certain.”
It finally dawned on Elizabeth what he meant.
“We can have sex without a condom,” she whispered, as if someone might hear
her. Living in the Institute had given her a few habits that would probably
stick around for some time.
“Yes,” he stroked a hand down her face, gently, “If you want to, we can have
sex, even without a condom. We still need to use birth control, though, at
least as long as we don’t want to have children.”
“I’m already on hormonal birth control,” Elizabeth reminded him, rising to her
feet with her glass forgotten on the floor.
She led him to their shared bedroom. She’d seen Todd naked before, she’d used
her hands on him even while he used his fingers on and inside her. They still
hadn’t had intercourse before and they’d always remembered to be careful.
“Would you have changed your mind about intercourse if you hadn’t been healed?”
Elizabeth asked him quietly.
“I don’t know,” was his honest reply.
“It doesn’t matter,” she decided.
They didn’t have much furniture but one thing Elizabeth had insisted on was a
decent mattress to sleep on and a memory foam topper. She’d purchased
discounted sheets on a street corner in the city so they had very smooth, high
thread count cotton on the bed. Elizabeth perched on the blue and green
patterned quilt with Todd standing in front of her. She helped him to get his
shirt over his head but when he moved to his belt she distracted herself
tracing the lines of his ribcage. She kissed his stomach, hands on his hips as
he pushed his jeans down.
“It makes me so randy when you do that,” he admitted, bending to get his
trousers off.
“Randy?” she murmured, “Is that like me saying that having you fondle my
breasts makes me horny?”
He made a noise in his throat of agreement or enthusiasm, maybe both. Todd
pushed down the top of her shirt until it caught below her bra. He traced his
fingers over the top curve of one breast before he dipped his fingers into the
cup to cradle the soft, full mound. Elizabeth reached behind her own back,
unhooked her bra, and started working to get it off. Then she stopped.
“Wait,” she said, “There’s something… Just let me…”
Elizabeth ran to the living room, leaving Todd staring after her in
bewilderment. He dropped onto the edge of the bed closest to the door, wearing
only his underpants, to wait for her. He rubbed his temple absently. The woman
could drive anyone mad, he thought to himself. But it made perfect sense to him
later, when she came back to stand in the doorway.
“Do you like it?” she asked, running a nervous hand down her own side.
Elizabeth stood in the doorway, directly in front of him. Her short blonde hair
was a messy tumble of almost curls, framing green eyes filled with uncertainty.
She had changed out of her jeans and tee. She wore a pale pink satin nighty
with black ribbon woven in at the edges. He reached out, sliding a hand over
the cool, smooth fabric.
“I want you so much,” his voice was hoarse. Todd was not even sure what
question she’d asked him. If his response was unclear, it was only because she
was still looking into his yellow eyes. Her gaze dropped to his briefs where
his obvious arousal was straining against the cotton.
“I want you, too,” her voice was lower than usual when she responded. Elizabeth
took the hand he’d used to sample to the satin. She slid his hand between her
legs and up.
He stood abruptly, “Can I try something?”
“Yes,” her green eyes were wide, but he knew this time it wasn’t her putting on
a show.
He closed the door behind her. There wasn’t much room between the bed and the
door in the small flat but that worked for him at the moment. Todd knelt in
front of her, pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, and used his elongated tongue
to stroke up her thigh. When his tongue stroked the lips of her sex she leaned
back against the door and gasped. She grew wet while he tasted, stroked, and
explored.
He had an idea about how he could use his mutation. He’d been thinking about it
for years. He stood up, hands playing gently with her breasts. He was still
busy with his tongue, using it to stroke against the inside of her while he
simultaneously rubbed and stroked her clitoris with it. Under his hands, her
nipples stiffened until they pressed visibly against the satin of her lingerie.
Elizabeth’s breathing was shallow and fast, her head thrown back, and her knees
looked like they might start to buckle. She was gripping his upper arms,
squeezing and releasing rhythmically. If only she kept her rhythm this well on
the dance floor, he thought absently. Her mouth was parted unconsciously. He
wrapped his arm around her so he could grip her ass and hold her up if she
started to slide down the door. She started making those quick, small moans; he
recognized from those sounds experience. She was close. He withdrew his tongue
so he could talk to her.
“Intercourse this time?” he asked her, hardly recognizing his own voice. Her
eyes were a hazy, liquid green when she opened them to look at him.
“Yes,” she murmured, straining to push more firmly against him. She couldn’t
get any closer while he was still wearing boxers, though she was trying. He
dropped his briefs quickly, heard the elastic crack, and reminded himself to be
gentle. Without any effort on his part he was still stronger than most weight
lifters, especially his lower body.
Todd used his fingers to spread her wet lips apart and was surprised when her
right hand came down to touch him. She was guiding him into her. Her firm grip
on him didn’t exactly hurt, or maybe it did but he was too close for it to be
anything but pleasurable.
“Gor,” he exclaimed. He was close without her touch. It was always this way
with him. She barely had to touch him and he was done with foreplay.
He braced his arms against the door as he moved inside her, nearly going blind
with the feel of her surrounding him. He soon regretted that he was spent
inside her so quickly but he kept moving, not losing his rhythm. He waited
until he felt her entire body go tight in his arms, around him, before he
allowed himself to slow and stop. She blinked at him, as if coming back to her
right mind.
“Did you…” she trailed off, “Was it good for you?”
“Yes,” the harshness of his own voice surprised him, “Before you did.”
When they pulled apart he realized she was shaking. They collapsed onto the bed
like a couple of drunks. A moment later, Elizabeth swore.
“Are you okay?” he asked, concerned that he might have hurt her somehow.
“Yes,” her voice was different, raspy, “I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing.
I’ve heard so many horror stories.”
“I did my research,” he told her, “The term ‘popping her cherry’ is a load of
crap. Did my tongue bother you?”
She shuddered, “That was amazing.”
“I’m leaking,” she complained.
“I’ll grab a towel,” he told her, and went to get a paper towel from the
kitchenette. They had only two bath towels between the two of them. If he
hadn’t been nearly comatose from happiness and long awaited sex he’d have been
irritated, thinking about all the things they needed to buy. They couldn’t
afford to get it all at once.
When he came back into the bedroom he found her lying on her back. She was
still wearing the satin nighty, but it was rucked up around her hips. Her lack
of panties was obvious and the sight of her still slick, wet thighs was
titillating. His body might be done with sex for the next fifteen minutes or so
but he thought his mind was still perfectly willing. He tried to burn the
picture she made onto his brain.
“Here,” he handed her the towel.
“Thanks,” she murmured, “I always heard that if sex isn’t messy, you aren’t
doing it right but I didn’t understand it until now.”
“Clean up was easier before, with the condoms,” he said quietly, running his
hand over her arm absently.
“Was that why you insisted on using them, even when we weren’t having sex?” she
asked, her head tilted to the side.
“Condoms contained the mess, helped to protect you from my infection, and they
dulled the sensations,” he told her, too relaxed to filter himself.
“Why would you want the sensations to be dulled?” she asked, curious. Her mind
never stopped working for long, apparently.
“You’re so bloody fucking hot,” he told her, and his own easy relaxation
reminded him of being high, “Do you remember the first time you touched my
todger? You were sitting behind me on my bed at the boarding house. You reached
for me from behind me and wrapped those fine fingers of yours around my shaft.
I almost lost it, just feeling your fingers on me.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, though she was smiling in a way that made him
think she was enjoying this trip down memory lane.
“It was the first time I’d had any hands but my own stroking me,” he admitted,
“Just the feeling, and the knowing it was you nearly sent me over the edge. I
used the condoms partly to make it last longer.”
“It doesn’t have to last long, though,” Elizabeth’s green eyes were on him, “We
just have to wait a few minutes and then I can do it all over again.”
He felt his breathing change. She was looking at him the way he’d seen her eye
tiramisu or New York cheesecake. It was a look of anticipation, lust, and a
little greed.
“Can I try something?” she asked him, patting the empty space on the bed beside
her.
“Yes,” he laid down next to her. She sat up, twisted until she was lying along
his leg. She rested her face on his hip. Her hand came up to stroke his soft,
supple shaft.
“I can’t give you another good shag this soon,” he warned her, his tone soft.
“I know,” she murmured, “Getting you off isn’t the point, yet.”
He was staring at the ceiling when he felt soft lips wrap around the sensitive
tip. He felt his eyes lose focus. It still felt good, he realized, even if his
body’s response to the sensation was slower than usual. She played with him,
kissing, stroking, and gently suckling the loose skin while her hands gently
massaged his balls.
“Does it still feel good?” she asked him, just to be sure.
“Yes,” his response was quiet. Elizabeth looked up the length of Todd’s slender
body. He was clenching his fists in the quilt and releasing sporadically. She
wasn’t sure if he knew he was doing it. Her ministrations were beginning to
affect him and he was erect sooner than he expected.
“Stop,” he whispered, “Stop.”
“I want to touch you,” he continued, after Elizabeth had pulled back from him
in concern, “Please. I want to fuck you. Let me.”
“Yes,” she murmured. He whispered where and how he wanted her. They moved
around until she was face down on the bed. From behind her, he slid his hands
around her, fingers seeking until he found her pleasure point. He pushed into
her and felt the way she pushed back, driving him deeper. This second erection
would last longer, he knew, but not that much longer. He kept one hand around
her front, one long finger over the bud of her clitoris and another two
spreading her open.
“Tell me if I hurt you,” his voice was rough.
“More,” he heard her say.
With his free hand he gripped one of her hips. He moved inside her, catching a
rhythm with her gasps and short moans. When he pulled his hips back he was
automatically stroking his fingers over the lips and bud of her sex. He
realized she was saying his name, over and over again, each time he thrust
forward. He finished first but he kept moving, while her breath came shorter
and faster. She jerked, hands fisted in the quilt, and her cries became
wordless. Every muscle in her body constricted. The already tight muscles
inside her tightened around him, up to the edge of being pain, when the climax
ripped through her.
“I’m so thirsty,” she said, when her body had relaxed and he lay beside her
again.
“Give me thirty seconds and I’ll go get you a drink,” he told her, resisting
the urge to sleep.
“Mmkay,” she murmured. He thought she might fall asleep before he got her that
drink so he got up and went to the kitchen for it. In the kitchen, he glanced
at the oven. He remembered they’d had dinner around six that evening. He’d
pulled out the wine around seven, he guessed. The clock on the oven told him it
was after eleven. He felt a little smug.
She was asleep when he came back.
When Todd woke on Saturday morning he smelled fresh brewed coffee. He preferred
tea on the whole but Elizabeth was a bear in the morning before she finished
her first cup. His body felt relaxed and pleasantly used, the feeling he got on
those rare occasions when he worked out. He stretched, yawned, and relaxed
again. He vaguely considered going back to sleep. He didn't have work until the
late afternoon.
His usual morning wood didn't bother him but it did cause the image he'd tried
to burn into his mind last night floated to the surface. He went to pull one of
his sketchbooks out of a box. Luckily, Elizabeth had done most of the packing
for both of them so it was clearly labeled. He sketched out her body, from the
perspective he’d had looking down and across her. He was buried in his
sketchbook when Elizabeth crawled onto him.
“Hello, handsome,” she greeted him.
She was naked beneath the pale pink satin robe. She'd made an attempt to tie it
but it still hung open. He could see the swell of her breasts.
“You can't possibly think I'm handsome, treasure,” he told her while he watched
her.
“But I do,” she murmured. She leaned in, on her hands and knees over him, to
kiss him on the mouth. He kissed her back. She laid down next to him, snuggled
close into his side.
“There is something I need to tell you,” she told him quietly. She sounded sad
and serious so he set aside the sketchbook and wrapped an arm around her.
“Tell me, duck,” Todd said.
“This is my deep, dark secret. The X-Men wouldn’t want me to tell you this but
I know I need to,” she began, “I was born Megan Kinney. Charles Xavier isn’t my
biological father.”
Todd’s brow furrowed, “Okay. So, you aren’t related to someone with an X-gene?”
“I am,” she said quietly, “Logan is sort of my Uncle. He’s my cousin’s
biological father. My cousin is Laura Kinney, Weapon X-23. When I was twelve my
aunt and Laura escaped from the Weapon X but program my aunt was killed. The
program sent someone to pose as my mother’s boyfriend, to seduce her. He was
supposed to take Laura back to the program. He killed my mother and tried to
kill me. He nearly succeeded. Laura killed him and saved me. She took me to
Logan, at the Institute. Dr. McCoy put me back together physically. The
Professor helped me cope with what had happened, helped me grieve. He made me
his daughter on all of the new paperwork, the birth certificate, passport, and
social security card. The X-Men hid me and kept me safe.”
Todd was quiet for a while, digesting the information.
“I wouldn’t believe you,” he finally told her slowly, “Except you live with the
X-Men and that’s not even the strangest thing that’s ever happened with them.
What’s the Weapon X program?”
“The Weapon X program experimented on mutants and people with specialized
abilities to turn them into weapons,” Elizabeth explained.
“Where’s your cousin?” Todd asked.
“I don’t even know that,” Elizabeth told him honestly, “The last time I saw her
was at prom.”
“That guy?” he asked, amused.
She smiled, “I let you be jealous.”
“I wasn’t that jealous,” he grumbled.
“You were green with it,” she teased him.
“That’s just my face,” he told her.
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