Hungry

There was a banging on the front door later that night. Lance’s head jerked up, fear washing over him. This fear, however, was different then that which he’d been drowning in over the last two days. This was almost a panic. A panic that the police were here to drag him and Todd off to jail for the murders of the paperboy and Scott Summers. For a second, this fear overwhelmed him and he couldn’t understand the million of thoughts rushing through his brain. Should he wake Todd and run? The backdoor led into the woods. There was a chance they’d be able to escape. Should he stay where he was and let this nightmare end properly? Todd was a pretty hard sleeper. There was little chance he’d wake up and attack the police. Or worse, kill Lance for betraying him.

Before he could pick which fate was better, though, there was a loud crash and shattering of glass. Someone had just broken in through the kitchen window. That definitely wasn’t something the police would do. They would’ve broken the door down. Not the window.

Snatching up his bat, Lance left his bedroom, casting a glance back at where his mate was soundly sleeping on his bed. Swallowing, he quietly crept down the stairs, raising his weapon over his head. He could hear swearing and it didn’t sound like English. Although slightly curious to see who had dared to break into a well known mutant household, he slammed the bat down anyways. It connected with solid air and then he was smacked across the face.

“ DON’T YOU FUCKING TRY TO HIT ME, ALVERS!!” screamed Pietro, who glared venomously at the stunned rock tumbler, “ Why the hell was the front door locked! I had to break the Goddamned window!”

“ Pietro?” Lance exclaimed, dropping the bat. The blond arched an eyebrow, before repeating his initial question, “ Does it matter why the door was locked? Why’d you break the window? Don’t you have a fucking key? I mean, you actually live here,”

“ You’re the only one with a key. That’s why we agreed not to lock the front door,” he reminded him, pushing his ungelled hair out of his face, “ For crying out loud, even the back door was locked. Why?”

Silence fell over the room. Lance wasn’t sure he ought to tell his teammate about that afternoon. Pietro had been traumatized enough by the paperboy’s death. There was no doubt in the older mutant’s mind as to how he’d react if he found out the doors were all locked because Todd had gotten loose and eaten one of the X-Men. Yet, he knew Pietro would hear about the hero’s death by morning. All he had to do was turn on the TV. It’d been all over the evening news. It’d be all over the morning news too. And he’d really get suspicious if Lance decided watching TV was against the few rules the house did instate. Thus, he closed his eyes and just barely muttered what he figured would be the shortest version of the story.

“ Todd got out and killed Summers,” as soon as he said it, the world ended.

Everything got deathly quiet. Those blue eyes widened to the point of being too wide for that pale face. Pietro actually didn’t move. He didn’t breathe. He merely stared with a horrified look distorting his beautiful features, as though waiting to be told it was all a mistake and it couldn’t have been the boy they’d been living with for the past year. All Lance could do was glance down at the floor, unable to face such an accusing look. He heard footsteps and looked back up to find the blond collapsing into a chair, his body shaking uncontrollably.

“ Summers? Toad killed Summers? How?” the younger looked up with an expression of hopelessness. What was going on just beyond those eyes, the rock tumbler knew not. He shrugged, as he hadn’t seen the body, “ HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!!”

“ I didn’t let this happen! He was sick and sleeping in the fucking hallway! I went to the bathroom! It’s not a crime!”

“ MURDER IS MOST DEFINITELY A CRIME!!”

“ I didn’t kill anyone!”

“ YES YOU DID!! BECAUSE YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE HERE TO STOP HIM!! YOU DID THIS!!” Pietro was on his feet and directly in front of Lance. The few inches difference in their height melted away to nothing. As with all the Maximoff’s, when the blond was furious, he appeared to fill the room, “ YOU NEVER SHOULD OF LEFT HIM!! YOU SHOULD OF TIED HIM UP!!”

“ Lance?” a slang voice echoed from the upstairs hallway. Lance grabbed Pietro’s face, covering his mouth and holding his still. Both stared as a shadow came down the stairs and Todd leaned around the railing. His gold eyes looked faded and his body was cast in darkness. The effect made the blond’s legs give out and he fell into the other’s arms completely.

“ Feeling any better?” the rock tumbler questioned, his voice surprisingly even. Todd shook his head, walking over shyly. The sheer calmness of the situation appeared to make Pietro more terrified then before, as he shuddered violently, “ Look! Quicksilver’s come home!”

“ Yo,” Todd waved in his direction, then looked up at Lance. His eyes were fading fast, darkening around the edges, “ Is there any reason why chu down here?”

“ Um... just talking to Pietro,”

“ Come upstairs now, Lance,” the voice that came out of Todd’s mouth was that of another. His eyes dimmed to a violet gold, that wicked color. Lance felt his body freeze when two webbed hands touched his arms and this creature in front of him hopped up onto tippytoe to give him a kiss on the cheek. Then, with a wave, the youngest mutant left the room, slightly swaying as if under the influence of some drug. His footsteps echoed into the night, followed by the closing of a door.

Pietro ripped himself out of Lance’s arms. In a second, he was across the room, up against the counter. The terror in his face was that of disgust and he pointed at his teammate, mouth moving but unable to form words.

“ Shut up, Pietro,” the other mutant snapped, touching the spot that monster had kissed him and shivering, “ You don’t understand. Todd’s other side... he mated with me... both sides think they love me... there’s nothing I can do... they can only mate once...”

“ Todd raped you?!”

“ No. He didn’t... he... he... he...” here was where Lance’s voice failed him. His hands motioned to his stomach, his mouth, but he couldn’t say what had actually happened out loud. There was a wind and then Pietro was standing next to him, watching closely. A time pasted when nothing was said, then the blond took the other’s hands in his and squeezed hard.

“ It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re FUCKING A MURDERER!!” a hand shot across Lance’s face once more, “ I don’t fucking care WHAT happened! You can’t seriously think whatever the hell’s going on is okay, can you!! Todd’s eaten two people! And obviously done something to you!! We have to call the police!! We have to!! Lance, we’ll get caught!! I’m telling you we will! Now, let’s g-”

Lance practically threw Pietro into the wall, he spun him around so hard. One hand locked over that screaming mouth, one holding those hands together. He flattened his friend against the wall, something close to fire making his eyes look frightening. At once, the blond quieted, choking on the same form of fear he felt whenever he saw Todd nowadays. There was just something not quite right in the rock tumbler’s eyes that made part of his soul freeze over. A panic of death washed over him, his eyes slightly rolled back, and he realized Lance was suffocating him where he stood. His body began to go numb, sinking down slowly.

“ We’re not going to the police, okay? Todd is perfectly harmless. We have to protect him from this monster, okay? There’s a trigger. A point he changes. We just have to figure out what it is and we’ll be okay, okay?” Lance whispered into Pietro’s ear, “ He’s scared. We can’t leave him like this,”

He released the other mutant and Pietro fell to the ground, gasping for breath.


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Day broke and the entire Boarding House was bathed in the blood red light of morning. Pietro was sitting on the last step of the stairs, looking at the red wooden floor and desperately trying not to picture the paperboy. Upstairs, he could hear Lance walking around, getting ready to greet the day. Hopefully, Todd was still asleep and would stay that way for the rest of his days. The blond gave a shudder and a flash of the green eye staring up from half a face jumped across his mind. He moaned, sinking down and covering his face with his hands, which he was slightly surprised to find were shaking.

He wasn’t sure why he’d stayed after Lance had nearly killed him. Probably for the same reason he’d come home in the first place. Although he knew he should turn Todd in, he knew just as well that he’d go down for the crime too. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison. He’d come home to make sure Lance hadn’t chickened out and told the police. When he’d found out about Scott, though, he’d wanted to tell the police anyways. After a near death experience, he wasn’t sure what he wanted. On one hand, he was trapped in a house with a monster who ate people and having sex with Lance, who seemed to be under the impression that they could still save Todd. On the other, he would be in jail, guilty for turning in the only people he’d even remotely considered friends. Maybe, he thought, he was staying for the same reason Lance was. They truly believed, deep down inside, that Todd could be saved and they, somehow, could get rid of the beast inside him.

Whatever the reason, though, he’d stayed through the night and had helped Lance board up the window. Neither of them wanted Todd to get out, even if they felt he could be helped. He’d slept down on the couch, for whatever little time he could sleep. Now he was sitting there, waiting to be told how they were going to go about life as if nothing had happened, as if everything was normal.

Footsteps came down behind him and his entire being went viciously tense. Then Lance dropped down next to him, sighing. The blond relaxed a little, looking at him, knowing he was going to say something.

“ I really thought you’d be gone by now,” was what he said, running a hand through his brown hair. Pietro was quiet for a moment, turning his eyes up to the ceiling. Then he gave a shrug.

“ I was thinking...” he paused, eyes sliding over to the rock tumbler, “ We should name that other side of Todd’s,” the look he got was sheer confusion, “ You know... so we know it’s not Toady doing all this. Because we know he couldn’t. He’s.. uh... well, he’s no murderer. So... I was thinking Travis,”

“ That’s what you were thinking about? After everything’s that’s happened?” Lance demanded, voice sounding downright angry. Pietro only shrugged, not about to admit what thoughts had truly been consuming his mind. Those haunting memories and disconnected moral values were his burden to bear and his alone.

“ So... is Travis good?”

Before Lance could answer, however, the phone began to ring. They both jumped and stared into the living room where the noise was coming. Niether made a move to answer it. In fact, they crept up the stairs slightly. Lance had the fleeting feeling that it was one of the X-Men, calling to see if they knew anything about Summers’ death whereas Pietro was under the strongest impression that the police where calling to question them about the disappearance of the paperboy. The world went hazy around the edges, neither were daring to breathe. The answering machine roared to life, their own voices, along with Fred and Todd’s, whirled up, announcing that the Brotherhood wasn’t home and to leave a message. There was a deafening beep and a voice, deep and shaking, echoed out into the blood red morning at the Boarding House.

“ Hey, guys... it’s Freddy...” he began, stopping for a moment. He knew there was no time limit on the machine, “ Uh... I don’t think I’ll be comin’ home... er... I... I... need... some more uh time... but I won’t rat ya’ll out... uh...” there was another pause, “ Tell Toad I’m sorry. See ya later,”

There was a click and the world was quiet once more. A door opened and closed upstairs and the mutants looked up to see Todd stumble into the bathroom, yawning. The door closed and both found themselves looking at the other. Pietro’s scared eyes willed Lance to speak. But words of comfort he could not find. Somehow, he found that comfort wouldn’t help them now. So, he said the only thing that came to mind.

“ Looks like it’s just you, me, Todd, and Travis now,”