Me and the X-Men

I opened my eyes to complete darkness. It was oppressive and suffocating, it consumed me, but it wasn’t empty like normal darkness, it was alive. I tried to make a noise, call for help or scream, but the darkness suffocated the sound. Then I could see, as a red-tinged light glowed, from no particular source. It illuminated the darkness enough that I could see a huge shadow in front of me, moving and shifting like shadows cast by a candle. Dark tendrils wrapped around me, crushing me, tearing at me, ripping my skin off in chunks and piercing my stomach. I screamed through the darkness and sat bolt-upright in bed as I heard frantic knocking on my door. Before I could bring my thoughts around to answering the door, it flew inward off its hinges. I yelled in surprise and brought dark tendrils up around the bed. As light flooded in the room, it glinted off the metallic body standing in the doorway, and I realised it was Pete that had just, rather unceremoniously, broken my door down. He rushed into my room, looking around frantically “What’s wrong?! I heard you screaming” he asked slightly breathless

“Nothing! Nothing, I’m okay, it was a bad dream. Sorry, I didn’t realise I’d been screaming” I said, raising a hand to rub at the back of my head, embarrassed as all hell that I had actually been screaming. Pete relaxed at this and came to sit on the bed next to me. He reached out towards me and I recoiled instinctively. He kept moving his hand towards me and I stayed still this time as he wiped the tears off my cheeks. I blushed, embarrassed that he had seen my crying and turned my head away, wiping furiously at my face and rubbing my eyes. “Wanna talk about it?” he asked quietly. I shook my head and added “I’m gonna get dressed” I waited a little before adding “I’m kinda in a state of undress under here so uh”
“Oh right, yeah, I’ll uh wait outside” he said awkwardly before getting up and walking out. He turned “Um sorry about the door, I’ll just look the other way”
“Its okay” I said, raising my hand to bring up a wall of darkness in the doorway, plunging the room into shadow again. Safe, empty, lifeless shadow. After splashing my face with cold water and pulling on the same clothes from yesterday, I lowered the darkness and walked out into the hall. Pete straightened himself up from leaning against the huge window, and I couldn’t help but think how nice a hug from his muscular frame would be right now. “You okay?” he asked, showing genuine concern
“Yeah I’m fine” I forced a smile that I doubt convinced him
“Sorry about the door, I’ll let the professor know” he said guiltily, making me smile.
“Don’t worry about it. Thanks for ya know, making sure I wasn’t being murdered or anything” I said, wrapping my arms around myself as we walked down the corridor towards breakfast. “That’s okay, wouldn’t wanna lose you” I smiled before he added “you’re too cute to lose” and that made me beam, so I looked away to hide it. We made our way to breakfast in silence after that. When we got there, I sat next to Jean, with Pete on the other side of me. I turned to Jean to see her smiling broadly “well very good morning to you two” I glared at her, thinking ‘shut up, you’ which just made her laugh and turn back to her toast. I grabbed some juice and cereal from the middle of the table and sat eating in silence. When everyone had finished and left, professor Xavier called me over “Alex, here’s your timetable starting next week. You’ll have the rest of this week to get comfortable and make some friends. You’ll be fitted for your uniform today and should have it by the weekend. I understand Jean is also taking you shopping today?”
“Yeah she is” I looked over my shoulder to see Jean waiting for me
“Wonderful, well you’ll be fitted for your uniform when you get back. Also, your powers and capabilities will be tested on Sunday by the senior members of the team in the Danger Room downstairs. Now off you go. You two have fun.” He smiled kindly
“Thank you, professor.”
“Oh, please, call me Charles” I raised my eyebrows but smiled, pretty sure that most people called him “professor” to his face. I turned and followed Jean out of the dining room and down some corridors into a huge garage full of cars and some motorbikes. “Holy shit” I gasped, staring around the garage. “Hah I know right” Jean grinned at my astounded look “come on” and she led me to a beautiful blue Mazda “this is Scott’s car”
“Wow, this is amazing” I said, getting in the passenger side
“Well now you know the extent of the Xavier budget. I heard him telling you to call him Charles by the way, that’s a rare thing, I think he sees potential in you” she said as she started up the car “oh great, high expectations and I’ve only been here a day”
“Hah don’t worry, the professor knows what he’s talking about.” We spent the day at the mall, buying me a shit tonne of clothes, some posters, a cactus ‘cause I love them, some sheets and various other stuff to personalise my room with. At some point, Jean left me in a store while she went to “run and errand” and she returned with a black bag and a big grin on her face. When we got back, Jean and I unpacked all the stuff we had bought, Jean filling my wardrobe with all my clothes and me putting up posters and other decorative stuff. Then we came across the black bag “I thought you might want this, though with the way things are going with you and Pete, you might not need it” she laughed. I narrowed my eyes at her, hoping that it wasn’t what I thought it was. “If this is… If you…” I narrowed my eyes again and took a box out of the bag. Sure enough, there was a male vibrator, specialised for prostate stimulation, three speed settings, in hot pink. I gave Jean a dead-pan look. “I swear to god, if anyone finds out about this. Oh holy shit, the professor’s telepathic isn’t he, what if he – oh god you are just the worst kind of person…” I stopped at Jean’s expression. She was looking over my shoulder towards the door with a mingled look of horror and unadulterated glee. I turned to see Bobby standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face “Well then, I guess I was right; you are gay. I was just coming to tell you the professor wants to see you in his office. Nice colour choice by the way” and with a wink he was gone
“Wait Bobby I didn’t – it was Jean!” I stared in horror at the spot where Bobby had disappeared before turning to Jean who was in hysterics on my bed. “I’m going to brutally murder you. Hide this somewhere” and I threw the box onto the bed next to her before walking briskly to the professor’s office.

“Hello, Alex, I just called you here to get you fitted for your uniform. Before we start, based on your powers, Ororo has drawn up some ideas that we would like you to take a look at and decide which you prefer” the professor gestured to a set of drawings on the desk in front of him, so I sat at the desk and started looking over them. I finally settled on one that was skin-tight black trousers and t-shirt with grey panels down the back of the t-shirt and down the inside of the trouser legs. Also in the design were black military boots, dark grey arm bands and fingerless gloves with black tendrils detailed on them. All the seams were in a silver colour and there was a silver X on the left side of the front of the t-shirt. The mask was a simple light grey, with black tendrils spread across it, that covered the area around my eyes. After choosing my outfit, Ororo took my measurements for it “would you like to choose your codename now?” professor Xavier asked
“Um I would have no idea what to call myself” I said, feeling at a loss for a name
“Well, most base it on their powers: Storm for example.” Ororo smiled at me
“Yeah I was thinking that, but The Shadow sounds kinda stupid”
“Yes I suppose it does” Xavier smiled “well you don’t have to decide right now, give it some time, ask your friends”
“I will do, thanks professor”
“I told you, Alex, please call me Charles” the professor said kindly
“Sorry, Charles. Just seems a bit disrespectful maybe. I’ll get used to it.”
Charles smiled “well, you have the rest of the day to yourself. I believe Piotr was in the lounge, he also has a free day today” the look he gave me was a little too knowledgeable for my liking, but I smiled and left the office, heading for the lounge. I found Pete watching Charmed on the huge 60” TV, and sat next to him on the couch “love this show, what’s happened so far?”
“It just started, so nothing really” Pete said, draping his arm over the back of the couch behind me “didn’t think anybody else liked this, its kinda cheesey”
“Heh yeah it is, but I don’t mind, its still cool. Love anything sci-fi” I said, slightly inching closer to him
“I can tell we’re gonna get along, we’ll have to have some movie nights” I liked this idea. When Charmed finished we decided to get some lunch then we went for a walk in the grounds of the mansion. “So wanna talk about your dream earlier?” this caught me by surprise “Um why?” I asked, not really sure why he would care enough to ask
“Well it just seemed like it bothered you a lot, just wanna make sure you’re okay. So talk”
“You don’t have to-“
“Talk” Pete said forcefully, turning to look at me with quite a serious look on his face
I frowned but began to explain my dream “well it’s a dream I have quite a lot. I’m in the dark but then it lights up and I can see a big mass of darkness and it starts to tear me apart and its agonising and then I wake up” I shock myself with this outburst as I go to wipe tears off my cheeks “wow, sorry I probably sound like a freak, I’ve never told anyone that, can’t believe I’m crying again, such an id-“ my self-deprecating rant was cut short by his lips on mine. His kiss was firm but his lips were soft. His hands came up to hold my hips and pull me close to him. I brought my hands up to rest on his pecs as I almost had to stand on tiptoe. His hands rested on the small of my back, rubbing slightly but pressing me close to him. we finished the kiss and I rested my forehead on his chest, his chin resting on top of my head. “Shit,” I said, breathlessly “you’re a good kisser.” Pete chuckled
“You’re better” he said, sounding pretty much unaffected by the kiss
“Well thanks,” I said, absentmindedly drawing shapes on his chest with my fingers “and thanks for listening.”
“No problem, thanks for talking” he said, his voice deep and soothing
“I’m gonna fall asleep in a second” I laugh pushing at his chest. He let go of me, but took my hand and we started walking back towards the mansion as dinner was starting soon. “So uh what does that make us now?”
“Well I suppose it makes us more than friends” Pete smiled
“Hah yeah I should say so”
“Well what do you want it to make us?” Pete asked, a hint of trepidation in his voice
“Well maybe it makes us whatever and maybe eventually makes us boyfriends?” I said, cringing in anticipation of Pete’s response. He just smiled, gripping my hand tighter and said “Cool.”
Dinner was pretty uneventful, though Pete held my hand under the table for a bit. By the end of dinner I swear Jean’s head was going to blow off from wanting to mention it. Apparently Pete noticed this too as he pulled our joined hands to rest on the table, drawing most people’s attention. Several smiled, and Kitty grinned, while Bobby looked a little mutinous. After dinner, most of us went to the lounge to watch a film, and by the end of it I was practically in Pete’s lap with his arms around me and my legs up on the couch across his. I yawned widely and Pete kissed me on the forehead “want me to carry you to your room?” he asked quietly
“Ummmmm no that’s okay, I’m fine.” I yawned again and Pete shifted me to stand up
“Come on, you’re going to bed, you didn’t get enough sleep anyway”
“Mmmkay. Night guys” the group bid us goodnight and we walked back to my room. Pete pulled me in for a kiss goodnight which, had I not been so tired, probably would’ve become a lot more than that. I turned and opened my new door to my room, Pete smacking my arse as I did so. I yelped and he chuckled “sweet dreams sexy” Pete called as he walked away. I raised my eyebrow, grinning like an idiot, and shut the door.