~Angels of Mayhem~ Warren Worthington

-4-

'What made her strong was despite the millions of things that hurt her, she spoke of nothing but happiness.'

+^+

For the first time since he got here, Warren came down from his 'nest' and walked around the bottom floor. It was around lunch time and Asura had managed to coax him down for some food, saying that he couldn't live off leftovers and beer forever. Despite what he may say.

The male mutant sat on a ragged couch that had slashes and tearing in it that were sown back together and others were patched with different colored fabrics. He had a box of Chinese food that he was eating with a fork, because he can't for the life of him use chopsticks.

Warren felt weight on the other side of the couch and turned his head. Sitting next to him but keeping her distance was the African-American woman, Salem. There was silence for a second before the woman sighed and started, "Look, I know that you aren't fond of us but all three us us have gone through some bad stuff too. We aren't as dense as you might think."

He raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "Like what?"

"Well before meeting Asura, Quinn was a paid terrorist, which means bad people would pay her to blow up buildings. I was a pickpocket in my old home town." Salem seemed to not be saying anything about Asura and it was obvious but he let her continue. "Quinn releases nitroglycerin like sweat so she can make explosions out of her hands and I can release a perfume like smoke when I sing that puts people to sleep. We have all been through, excuse me language, shit in the past."

Warren processed this before asking, "What about her?" He gestured over to the white haired woman that sat across the room with Quinn, laughing at something she had said. Salem looked over to her friends nervously and answered, "She...She was a mutant assassin. When she was younger, some people came up to her family and said that they could 'fix her.' So they took her and forced her to train and go out to kill whoever they wanted."

His eyes widened. 'An assassin? Her? But she's so nice...' Warrens thoughts were cut off by Salem saying, "You may not believe this but that woman over there probably understands a lot about what you have gone through. She has more kindness in her pinky finger than most people in their entire bodies. Just...consider talking with her about this kind of stuff." She didn't touch him but just got up and went to join the other to woman.

'Huh...well how about that...'

***

Soft whimpering filled the warehouse, affectively waking up Warren. Having lived in a cage fight club, he had grown up as a light sleeper. He looked around and saw that Asura was making the sounds. She was having a nightmare. Warren had had plenty of experience with having nightmares himself but he usually fixed them alcohol.

He easily got up, took the blanket Asura had given him off and used his wings to flutter down to her level. Warren looked at her and saw that her normally pale complexion was now even more white as a sheet. A thin layer of sweat seemed to cover her exposed skins as she tossed and turned in her bed, which seemed like more of a nest with the blankets surrounding her petite body. Her nose was scrunched up in displeasure as she whimpered at whatever was happening in her nightmare.

Warren placed a hand on each shoulder and shook in hopes of waking her up. "Asura. Asura, wake up. Asura!" His voice has hushed and whispered as he leaned over her slightly. Her head shot up and she clinged on Warren like he was going to disappear.

"Hey, it's ok. Everything's fine. It's ok." He continued to whisper this mantra to her as he gently rubbed her back with the palm of his hands and his white wings enclosing around her as if to protect her from the outside world. Asuras face was dug into his chest as she let out silent tears down her flushed cheeks.

When she felt a little better, she pulled way and looked at Warrens concerned face with his brows pulled together. "You alright?" He asked as his wings started to pull back to him.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." She sniffled a little and wiped a few extra tears off her face. When a woman says she fine, she's not fine. She is everything but fine and Warren knew this. But he was awkward and had never to done this kind of thing before for anyone else so he took a leap of faith and asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

She was regaining her breath as she started to tell him. "My childhood, to put to simply, was terrible. Everyone in my family had black hair and brown eyes but I was born with white hair and red pupiless eyes. To my family, I was the ugly duckling of the family. They home schooled me so that no one of would see my hideous mutation. But when I was 10, people started to get suspicious that no one had ever seen to youngest May child, so my parents decided to put me in public school. My mother dyed my hair black and put a red cloth over my eyes, saying that I was blind and shouldn't damage my eyes from the sun. It worked until a group of people came up to my family and said that they could 'fix' me." She said as she relived her childhood, sitting next to Warren on the edge of her platform while he watched her with his full attention.

"The whole 'program' wasn't a program to fix mutants, to was a trial to see who they could turn into mutant assassins for their own use. They experimented on us, tortured us, and at the end, I was the only one left." Asura turned to Warren who's eyes where wide and said as her tears started to gather on her water line, "I have killed so many people in my past that my ledger is gushing red and I can remember every single moment of it and I hate it."

She didn't look him in the eyes so she turned back to her front and continued, "When I was 17, I escaped and found this place. It was run down and broken but it was more of a home then I had ever had. I found Quinn in the rain with hypothermia but she wouldn't let me help so I showed her my appearance to get her to come with me. Once she did, I took her home and we became friends and roommates. After a year, we found Salem after she tried to steal my wallet but since she was also what we called, lost mutants, like us, we took her home and gave her a family. It's small and broken, we fight a lot but it's more of a family then I ever had and I love it." She smiled at the happy memories of meeting her girl friends. It was were her best memories came from, not having to hide herself from the two people she would do anything for.

Warren pulled her into his bare chest and said, "I'm sorry that happened to you. If it's any consolation, I like your mutant is really cool." She turned her head up at him and said, "Really?" White hair and all?"

"White hair and all." He said. Soon Asura had fallen asleep on his shoulder and his wing curled around her acting like a blanket to keep her warm.

'Maybe it's not so bad here...I'm starting to really enjoy this.' Warren thought to himself as looked down at a sleeping Asura before resting his head on hers and falling asleep himself.