Flare (xmen)

Chapter 5 "No Lasers"

"Let's do something fun. Don't you guys have anything remotely resembling music?" Ali chugged the beer and dropped the bottle.

"Yeah." Sean found a boombox and turned it on to a random station. Some band that Ali didn't know started blasting out, but no one seemed to care. Everyone was up, dancing and letting loose.

Ali hated dancing. It always made her feel awkward with herself.

"Come on." Raven pulled her in.

"Fuck it." Ali chugged her bottle and started dancing along with Raven. Angel ended up flying in the air and Hank took off his shoes and hung from the chandelier. The place turned to hell and no one, not even the oh so serious CIA agents cared. Maybe they were just freaked out about Alex's badass hula hoops.

"Haven't done this in a while, huh?" Alex walked up to her.

"It's hard to party and relax when you're on the run." Ali smirked. "From the looks of it, you haven't either."

"What can I say? Aren't a lot of parties in prison." Alex shot back.

"Prison? Didn't expect you to take the bad-boy that far." Ali retorted. "You kinda give off softie vibes."

"I do not!" Alex scoffed.

"That right there is kinda proving my point." Ali pointed her bottle toward him.

"Whatever." Alex smiled, and turned to see Darwin.

"Try to hit me." Darwin turned to rock.

"Okay." Ali reached out and made another plasma beam.

"No lasers!"

"That takes all the fun out of it!" Ali complained, but grabbed a half of the chair and began beating Darwin with it.

"Use those noodle arms, princess!"

"You're on!" Ali began beating him with the table and Alex helped. She was laughing like crazy and it looked like the table would get broken until a shrill voice cut through the air.

"What the hell is going on?!" A woman in a long coat demanded. Everyone stopped immediately: Ali dropped the table, Hank dropped down and Angel stopped flying.

"Who destroyed the statue?" Charles asked, defeated. "And the table?"

"It was Alex." Hank admitted. Alex glared at him. "And Ali."

"Dude!"

"No, no Havok. We call him Havok. And Flare!" Raven dragged her over and put her arm over her shoulders. "We're calling you Flare."

"And I was thinking." Raven stepped forward. "You should be Professor X. She pointed to Charles. "And you should be Magneto." She pointed to Erik.

"Exceptional." Erik remarked dryly before leaving with the woman.

Charles looked somewhat upset that we embarrassed him in front of his friends. "I expect more from you." And left.

Raven turned back, trying to hide the sad expression on her face. Ali winced. Charles really turned the "I'm not mad, just disappointed" card on her. 

"Look Raven, I'm sure that Charles wasn't disappointed in you. He was just embarrassed about us screwing around. Anything we do is kinda on him." Raven hugged her, catching her off guard.

"Thanks."

"Uh sure." Raven got up, sensing her awkwardness. Ali got up, but stumbled. She would have fallen if Alex hadn't grabbed her and put her on the couch.

"Maybe you should stop." Raven suggested.

"I'll be fine. I've drunk far more and still had no buzz." Ali assured.

Alex reached over and grabbed the bottle from her hands. "Take a break, Nichols. Do something else."

"Yes or no, Alex is this your fifth bottle?" Ali plucked his bottle out of his hand.

"We'll both take a break, okay?" Alex set his bottle down and walked up to the pinball machine.

"I'm gonna be honest. I have not played this in like ten years." Ali leaned on the wall.

"It's fine, I'll show you." Alex started to explain how to play pinball and she sort of understood. It was hard to figure out what it was about, but that could probably be either the drink or the fact she was staring at Alex the whole time.

"Can I join?" Darwin asked behind them.

"Sure whatever." Alex shrugged. Ali stepped aside.

"Please, he's been kicking my ass. How the hell are you so good?" Ali grumbled.

"Too much free time." Alex smirked.

"Doing what?" Ali grumbled. "Prison kinda keeps you on your toes."

"Sitting by myself." Alex snapped and began playing. Ali shrugged and left to go join Raven and Angel.

"What's your story?" Angel asked suddenly.

"My what?" Ali asked.

"You know. What were you doing before this?"

Ali crossed her legs. "Well, I was on the run for half a year from the mafia."

"The mafia?!" Angel and Raven sat up straight.

Ali smirked. "Yeah, I worked as a drug dealer. Stopped when I saved a chick from killing herself. Mob cut her off."

"I take it they didn't like that." Raven replied.

"No, they did not." Ali swayed slightly. "My girlfriend and I broke up and I-'

"Wait, your girlfriend? Like, friend or-"

"I dated her." Ali confirmed. Sean's face drained into white. Everyone stared at her. "Oh come on. The people in this room can fly, break glass, grow gills, turn into other people and shoot energy hoops. A girl liking both guys and chicks shouldn't be that strange."

"Isn't that illegal?" Sean sat down.

"I was selling crack, you idiot. Do you really think that I was concerned about what was legal or not?" Ali retorted.

"It's cool. I was just surprised." Raven assured her.

"Yeah, it's cool." Alex agreed half-heartedly. Ali took it. More than most people ever gave her when they heard. Alex and Darwin went back to the pinball machine.

"Hey, didn't know the circus was in town." Two agents walked up to the window. "Hey can we see those wings, baby?" He flapped his hands.

"No? Come on, let's see the foot. There it is. Come on, bigfoot, let's go.." The second added. Ali merely flipped them off

"Hey, hey. Come on. Hey." Hank drew the curtains.

"Sorry." Ali apologized.

"Why would you apologize? It's those assholes who did that." Angel spat bitterly.

"They're just guys being stupid." Raven tried to comfort her.

"Guy being stupid I can handle okay? I've done it my whole life." Angel spat. "But I would rather have a bunch of guys stare at me with my clothes off than the way these ones stare at me."

"At us." Raven corrected. 

A/N: Ali is bi 100%. I do know that in the 60's being queer was illegal (wtf, man?!!!) , so I had a small reveal. Ali grew up in a very liberal environment; she's super open about things like her sexuality as a result. This will be brought up in later chapters.