Flare (xmen)

Chapter 7: "Nice place"

Ali was shivering. She wasn't the best at math, but her brain was fixated on looking at the clock and figuring out how many hours and minutes it had been since Darwin died. She wasn't even sure why that was happening. Darwin and her hadn't even been close. Sure, he reassured her that her mutation didn't make her a freak. Nine hours and seventeen minutes.

Maybe it was the way that Darwin just tried to save Angel, a person he just met. That guy was a better person than she could ever be. Nine hours and nineteen hours.

She could feel some draping something over her. She didn't pay attention to who, just weakly whispering a thank you before hugging the jacket over herself.

"Raven. Raven!" An English accent rang through the air. Raven got up and ran over, hugging Charles. "Thank god you're alright." Ali smiled at the bittersweet reunion. Charles turned to face everyone else. "We've made arrangements to take you all home."

"We're not going home." Sean stood up.

"What?" Charles asked.

"I don't have a home." Ali scoffed.

"He's not going back to prison." Sean pointed to Alex, who was missing his jacket.

"He killed Darwin." Alex spat.

"Darwin is dead, Charles." Raven wiped her eyes. "And we can't even bury him."

"We can avenge him." Erik announced. Everyone looked up at him. Ali admitted that the idea of being able to confront her tormentors sounded nice, but that was in theory. In reality, it ended up with the person being disemboweled or exploded. Charles seemed to know it too.

"Erik, a word please." Charles pulled him aside.

Raven nudged her gently. When she turned to see her, she smiled softly. "Are you doing okay?"

"Nothing I haven't seen before." Ali replied.

"Someone being exploded?" Raven asked.

"No. Dying." Ali leaned back. "Yet, this seems to bother me more."

"Anyone gets upset about death." Raven assured.

"Yeah, but here's the thing. I-" Charles and Erik came back, interrupting the conversation.

"We'll have to train. All of us. Yes?" Charles asked.

"Yeah," Alex replied.

"But where?" Hank, ever the realist. "We can't stay here. Even if they reopened the department, it's not safe. We've got nowhere to go."

"Yes, we do." Charles left abruptly with Erik.

"Nine hours and thirty two minutes." Ali thought, looking at the clock.

"Nine hours and thirty two minutes of what?" Alex asked, making her realize that she said it out loud.

"Since Darwin died." Ali shifted the jacket over her. "I'm pretty stupid when it comes to math, but Darwin's death is etched in my brain."

"Darwin dying fucked all of us up." Sean replied. "You can tell us."

"My family were Shaw casualties." Ali shrugged. "It hurt to see someone else get hurt by him, I guess." Ali paused. "Charles and Erik didn't even look for me on purpose. I just happened to be in the same place at the right time and laughed when the other guy said something obscene."

"This is kind of a bad time," Sean began. "But, what did he say?"

"Sean!" Raven hissed. Ali laughed.

"It was hilarious." Ali snickered. "They introduced themselves and the bastard said to go fuck yourself."

Everyone paused and then started laughing while Hank looked affronted. "That was rude."

"Lighten up, Bozo." Alex smirked.

"Best thing I heard all day." Sean laughed.

"Get in the truck." Charles and Erik pulled up near the building in a black van.

"We're going to a place that I know will be safe." Charles informed as they shuffled to the van. "They won't find us there."

Ali realized with a start that the jacket around her was Alex's. She was embarrassed, and took the jacket off and handed it back to Alex. She stiffly sat next to Raven, who began bothering her. "Ooohhh, he likes-" Ali shoved her gently.

"Just like Hank does, huh?" It was Ali's turn to smile as Raven and Hank began trying to deny that they didn't like each other like that.

The three hour long drive was very quiet. Nobody spoke, and instead tried to avoid talking to anyone. Raven was chewing her nail, Hank was mumbling science nonsense to himself, Alex sat quietly, bowed down and Sean played with his fingers. Ali was just reading her beat copy of The Great Gatsby. It's importance was less on the plot and characters, but the memories of her mom and the life she had before it went to hell.

The truck stopped abruptly, throwing everyone forward. Everyone grabbed their items and walked out. Ali was expecting one of those family homes or a small building. She did not expect a mansion that would make her mom's house look like a shack.

"Nice place." Ali looked up.

"This is yours?" Alex asked.

"It's ours." Charles corrected.

"Honestly Charles.' Erik sarcastically pitied. "I don't know how you survived living in such hardship."

"Well, it was a hardship softened by me." Raven hugged Charles as he pressed a kiss into her hair. Ali smiled at the display of affection. She wasn't that jealous of Raven having someone.

A/N: This was a filler chapter, now that I look back on it. Well, everything can't be about the plot. Some English teacher told me that. 

-Lonelyhuman out