feathers ↣ w. worthington iii

(20) Does ANYONE Like Footloose???

"Welcome to the final show.. hope you're wearing your best clothes." Sign of the Times by Harry Styles

The next week passed by in a blur.

The X-Men focused all of their efforts on rescuing the kids as discretely as possible. They worked so hard that Lilli almost forgot about Warren and Kurt. Almost.

The X-Men had a system of stealing— no, rescuing— the kids. It included a lot of sneakiness, singing, planning, and huge bouts of invisibility that left Lilli drained for hours. It was hard to take the kids without anyone noticing— they'd at first had to take the poor ones with no friends who wouldn't be missed. But the X-Men had quickly ran out of those kinds of kids and now were frantically trying to find ways to bring more kids down to safety without anyone noticing their absence.

It was getting hard.

Lilli was standing in the bedroom that she'd claimed that was located near a kitchen and an arcade. She'd called dibs on it as soon as she'd seen it, and was glad that she had. It was one of those 5 star resort master suite type of bedrooms— it was gigantic. There was a four postered California King sized bed in the middle of the room that was covered in a deep red down comforter that was just so comfortable. There was a dresser, a couch, a TV, an armoire, a table, chairs, a desk, and a giant dark red area rug in the center of the room. The floors were a dark hardwood and the walls a deep golden hue that coordinated well with the floors and the rug. There was a bathroom attached that was the same aesthetic and style as the bedroom and included a walk in shower. It was a room fit for a queen, and Lilli loved it.

But what she didn't love was the deep worry that was settling in her stomach at that very moment. She was standing in front of a giant gilded mirror and watching herself bite her lip nervously. She was heading up to the Institute to get a few more kids in five minutes, but that wasn't what she was worried about.

No, she was worried about Warren. And Kurt, too, of course, even though he'd never been that nice to her. But she was mostly worried about Warren. The two boys hadn't sent a message on their device that Hank had made them for three days. Three whole days. And to make matters worse, their last message from Kurt had been eerily haunting— "We believe we have been discovered. We feel like we are being watched. We have not seen Kezing but we fear he has seen us."

That was it. Lilli had been repeating those words in her head nonstop the last three days. Those three short sentences sent her into a tizzy of worry every time she thought about them. And currently, they were all that she could think about.

Lilli looked at her eyes in the mirror. They seemed darker, stormier— they reflected her mood. She now knew how wives felt when their husband went off to sea. She felt like the room where the second device was stationed— the one that received Kurt and Warren's messages— was her own widow's walk. She'd spent so much of her free time in there, pulling at her hair in vain as she waited and watched for something, anything to show that they were still alive. But nothing ever came.

Lilli was hoping that by the time she got back with the students, Kurt and Warren would have returned from Kezing and be safe and sound and say that no, she hadn't needed to worry, their device had just broken down and everything was fine. It had been a week since they'd left, after all. They were supposed to come back today.

And they will, Lilli thought to herself. She was trying as hard as she could to keep her hopes up, but it was hard. The only thing keeping her anxiety from swallowing her whole was the thought of saving the students. She loved those kids and it was her responsibility to keep them safe. It was this feeling of protectiveness that was causing Lilli to throw all of her focus into saving as many kids as she could.