Flare (xmen)

Chapter 9: "It's no picnic"

As far as sleep went, Ali had a good time so far at the mansion. No one had burst in her room and woken her up for sending pulses into their brain. She showered and dressed and probably would have been in a less grumpy mood that day. She opened the door humming, and ran directly into Raven.

"Oww, shit!" Ali cursed. "You okay?" She held her hand out. Raven hesitantly grasped it and Ali pulled her up.

"I'm okay." Raven mumbled, looking at their hands. Ali looked down and pulled her hand out quickly.

"Umm Raven, I-" Ali stuttered. "I-"

Raven put her hand over her mouth. "I don't want to talk about it." Raven turned and walked away. Seeing as she had not a clue where anything was or what she should do, she followed the one person who probably did not want to see her face. After like four turns, Raven stopped in front of a door and opened it. Ali followed in, hoping she didn't follow her to like a private place or something.

"Ah, nice of you to join us." Charles called out. Ali relaxed. Kitchen. She waved awkwardly. "There is some toast. I haven't had a chance to go shopping."

"That's fine." Ali grabbed a piece and sat next to Sean. "I learned a long time ago not to be a picky eater."

"On that somewhat morbid note, please finish in a few minutes. We will be doing this in shifts. I will work with all of you for two and a half hours and you practice on your own for a couple of hours after that." Charles informed. "I will work with Hank first. Hank?" Hank straightened up and mumbled something before walking outside.

"Well, I'm going to go bench press. Please don't follow me." Raven got up from the table and walked away. Erik walked away, mumbling something about being allergic to children, leaving Sean, Alex and Ali sitting awkwardly. Sean kept shooting her glances.

"You guys want to practice on each other?" Sean asked,

"No!" Alex and Ali snapped at the same time.

"Okay!" Sean held his hands up. "Well, what the hell are we supposed to do for an entire two and a half hours?"

"Figure out a way to make you shut up?" Ali mumbled.

"Rude." Sean scoffed. "Well, I'm going back to sleep. If Charles needs me, let him know."

"Not sure exactly why he would need you," Ali mumbled. "But if he calls you then I'll let you know!" She yelled.

Alex rubbed his ears. "Did you have to yell, Nichols?'

"Yes. Yes, I did." Ali smirked.

"Well, do you have anything to do for two hours?" Alex asked. "I really need something to do. And reading is not going to cut it."

"Honestly? Sean was right about practicing." Ali grumbled. "Maybe you can-"

"No!" Alex took two steps toward her and looked her in the eye. "I'm not putting anyone in danger."

"Calm down, Summers." Ali backed away. "I was thinking that you could throw cutlery at me and I could practice making shields." Ali held her hands up. "No need to go all hero guy on my ass."

"I'm not a hero." Alex rolled his eyes, but opened a drawer with spoons in it.

"Two of the most cliche lines in history for a hero." Ali retorted.

"Good point." Alex conceded. "Think fast!" He threw the spoon. Ali immediately formed a shield and the spoon bounced off.

"Not bad!" Alex kept throwing things at her and she managed to deflect all of them. Alex started to get bolder and threw things closer to her face and more erratically.

"Woah, was that a knife?" Ali picked up a utensil that clattered to the floor. "You could've killed me!"

Alex's eyes widened in shock. "Oh god, shit, shit, SHIT!!" He ran over to her and checked her face. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Ah fuck it's like-"

"Alex." Alex kept rambling and it looked like he was going to explode. "ALEX!!' She grabbed his shoulders and turned to face him. "I am perfectly fine. Nothing happened. Don't freak out."

Alex slumped. "I'm fine." He picked up some of the utensils and shoved them into a sink. "Thought you were hurt or something."

"Aww, you care if I get hurt, Summers?" Ali smiled. "That's so sweet!"

"Shut up. I was wondering if I had to hide a body." Alex retorted, earning a snicker from Ali.

"What is this nonsense?" Erik sifted through the spoons near the door. "Why are all the spoons laying out?"

"We were practicing." Ali replied. "Isn't that what we were supposed to do?'

Erik grumbled. "Why did I convince Charles to allow these children to fight?"

"Yeah, It's no picnic for us either." Alex snapped. "We know you don't care, but most of us have to learn to deal with this shit in a week. You had fifteen years." Alex went on. "You say be proud of your mutation, but you never think what it's like to be afraid of your mutation. To be afraid to get close to people. I blew up a building." Alex's voice cracked. "And a good person died because of my gift. So FUCK OFF!!!"

Erik looked kind of taken aback by this speech. He opened his mouth to say something, but chose to leave the room. Alex was breathing heavily and wiping his eyes. "Alex, you-" Alex looked up at the sound of her voice.

Yeah, I'm okay." Alex had a fake smile on his face. She knew the type. It was the same one on hers when she looked in a mirror.

"Well, okay." Ali shrugged. "What's with the whole speech?"

"He doesn't know what it likes." Alex snarled. "To be so afraid and hate yourself so much. I was in fucking solitary confinement just so that I didn't hurt someone."

Ali's immediate response was to crack a joke, but she knew her limits. "I'm not going to pretend I know what you're going through. Because people say that and-"

"They never do." Alex finished. They both grew quiet. "Well, I'm going to go outside. You?"

"I don't have anything else to do." Ali shrugged. "Probably just go around the house."

"Okay." They both left the room and walked in silence. Ali shrugged and began absentmindedly bending light and weaving it through her fingers. When they both reached outside, Charles was coaching Hank.

"Well done, my friend. Robert Louis Stevenson would be proud." Charles complimented.

"Impressive, Hank. Feet like those, all you need is a red nose. Right Bozo?" Alex put his hand on Hank's shoulder.

"I think I'm done here." Hank left.

"Thank you Alex." Charles replied sarcastically. "I suppose we could start working in a few minutes. Alex, are you ready?"

"What? Why?" Alex looked shocked.

"You seem to have some difficulties with controlling your abilities. I thought maybe you would like to work on controlling it first."

"When you put it that way, sure." Alex nodded his head. When Charles started walking, they both followed.

"You don't have to keep making fun of the guy, you know." Ali spoke first.

"Hank?" Alex replied. "I'm just messing with him."

"I have a feeling he doesn't think that's what's happening." Ali prompted.

"So what, he can't take a joke?" Alex scoffed.

"Forget it." Ali left.

A/N: With proper writing and more screen time, Alex could easily be a very deep character. I figured that he could have had a blow up in the movie, so I decided to write one. Please try to comment and vote if you like it!

-Lonelyhuman out