[2009 – October]
Walking through the school gate the next morning with Jean and Laura by my side, and Arya hidden in my jacket, I felt somewhat relieved, the normalcy of the situation washing away the stress that had accumulated over this rather eventful weekend.
The first class was Language Arts with Mr. Stanley like it was every Monday morning. It went by fast, as did most of the day.
The only thing that was out of the ordinary on this schoolday was the fact that when we met up with Ellie, Yukio, and Pietro, I could sense faint tension inside of them when they looked interacted with me, even though they didn't change the way that they spoke, or treated me differently.
As such, it was rather obvious to me that they knew about my actions, through whatever information channel.
They didn't mention it though, even when the rest of the school talked about the 'phoenix'-mark that had appeared near the Canadian border, right at the supposed origin point of last night's earthquake, which was an exact copy of the mark that had been left on the surface of the moon, even if smaller in comparison.
I had expected the government to try and cover up what I had done but it seemed as if they had either not done so or they had been unsuccessful.
Thankfully, the trio seemed to get more comfortable the longer that we chatted and spent some time together during the breaks.
I was still a bit curious about how they knew what I had done as my identity certainly wasn't something that had been disclosed to the public in any way.
…
She didn't know if it was her mutant power or just a fluke, but Yukio had always been somewhat of a tech nerd. She was basically interested in all things that functioned through electricity, which was especially true when it came to highly complex and ingenious devices like computers and such.
Luckily, Ellie found that nerdy side of her rather sexy while being a veritable genius herself, so they often worked together on some small projects in their free time when she wasn't busy feeding her inner SNS-junkie or they were occupied with their training as X-Men trainees.
Being also a sneaky daredevil, as Ellie liked to call her, she had always been testing her hacking skills at the security system that Mr. McCoy had set up around the school server at Xavier's.
She had been grinding away at the firewall for months while staying undetected, and while she had yet to succeed in completely breaching the security, Yukio managed to intercept and duplicate a few data packages every now and then.
What she had not expected though, was to intercept a video file of a certain black-haired teen turning into a nightmarish demon made up of shadows and darkness and transforming his surroundings into an apocalyptic wasteland after ripping a hidden base from deep underground.
From denial and shock to uncertainty and horror, to disbelief and realization, Yukio wasn't sure how long she and Ellie had sat in silence in front of the screen and had tried to make sense of what they had seen.
And when they had finally arrived back in the then and there, figuratively speaking, they still hadn't been sure what to think.
Even though they both had known that Elijah certainly wasn't a normal young man or someone that shied away from using violence when necessary, as evidenced by Mr. Cassidy's and the others' rather severe injuries from a few weeks back, neither of them had been able to quite connect him to the living terror in the recordings.
Seeing the mild smile gracing his lips and the lively green in his deep eyes as he stood behind Jean, his arms lovingly wrapped around her shoulders and waist while she leaned into his chest as they greeted each other after a rather long weekend, Yukio couldn't help but sigh inwardly in relief.
She didn't really care about what Elijah had done as her own past was bloody enough, instead, she had been worried that he wasn't the same anymore, that he wasn't their friend anymore.
Thankfully, Elijah was still Elijah. Calm, collected, and absolutely in love with Jean.
Yukio noticed that slowly but surely her inner tension was fading while around the black-haired teen and gorgeous lover, the memories of the recording being pushed to the back of her mind.
She was still curious about the backstory of the incident that had led to Elijah doing what he had done, but she was no longer plagued by fearful anticipation.
…
Looking at the young man his own age that was quite possibly stronger than his father, Pietro was intrigued and guarded at the same time.
He had seen the recording and knew what Elijah could do but it was somewhat strange to connect this 'demonic' image of the black-haired teen with the young man that dutifully visited highschool at the side of his lover.
At the same time, Pietro also understood that it shouldn't be such an outlandish thought considering his own identity and the fact that he was also visiting school like a regular teen.
Still, in the end, he couldn't be bothered to think too deeply about these things as there wasn't really a way to casually ask someone why they had killed several hundred people and flattened a mountain range.
Or at least, Pietro didn't know of a way to ask such a 'sensitive' question in a casual manner, not to mention that he didn't want to blow his cover.
…
Wearing a new pair of sweatpants, which on the inside were still nice and cozy, as well as a shirt made out of some fluffy cotton mix and a somewhat-oversized fuzzy sweater, Celeste's skin felt heavenly with all the soft fabric brushing over it.
She couldn't quite remember if she had ever felt such comfort from a few simple pieces of fabric.
Looking at her mother that sat opposite her at the kitchen table and was clad in a dark blue business suit that accentuated her curves perfectly, Celeste was quite eager to find something to eat so that her own curves would fill out a bit more.
"Celeste, are you listening?", Emma interrupted her wandering thoughts, her tone a bit stern.
Quickly recalling what her mother had just said to her while she had been distracted, Celeste nodded with a small blush on her cheeks as she replied: "Yes, you want me to learn how to fight from Elijah."
"I do.", Emma acknowledged, her voice a bit softer as she continued, "I know that you might need some time to get accustomed to your new living situation and that it will take a while before we should consider sending you to school, but I want you to know how to protect yourself even without your mutant powers no matter what."
"I will also make some time so that I can teach you how to properly use your telepathic powers but I think Elijah should be the one to teach you how to fight hand-to-hand.", she ended.