Then
*
"Explain to me again why there's a total stranger in the BioSphere. At the same time, incidently, that the team has a schedualed training session."
Silence.
"In detail."
Sean sighed. "He's not a 'total stranger', woman. You know 'im better than I do."
Emma Frost, Headmistress, simply stared at the man she was rather sorry at the moment to call her collegue. "He's a stranger to the team, Sean. Which is what counts."
"Actually, I know him pretty good from when he was Pryde's boy--"
"*Hush up*, Jubilee."
"Keep quiet, Jubilee."
"Okay, yeesh. No need to shout."
Sean raked an uncomfortable hand through his fire-red hair, looking around at the students surrounding them. "Don't you think we should go to your office to discuss this, Em?"
"Not really." Emma's smile was the purification of the term ice queen, as well as several somewhat nastier words, and she folded her arms across her chest and held her head up just a tiny bit higher. "You didn't think my office was neccessary in the making of this decision, did you? I see no reason why it should be involved now."
"Emma!" Sean hissed, frowning at the kids.
"Actually, Mr. Cassidy, I am in agreement with Miss Frost," said a pure bell-like voice from behind him. Sean winced. "I would like to hear, myself, why you would choose to place Mr. Wisdom in a training session or, indeed, within the team. He has no connctions to us; his powers are insignificent in relation to many other X-Men we could have asked for assistance if need be; and..."
There was a delicate sniff. "His nicotine-induced stench is better than Angelo's."
"Monet," Sean said in a long-suffering voice full of infinite patience, "This discussion is between me and Miss Frost. The faculty," he added. She didn't seem to get the message.
"Actually," Said a slightly lower-scaled, pleasant voice on his other side. Sean jumped. "I'd have to go with Monet and Miz Frost on this one. Ah -- I'd get mighty pissed myself if I was team leader and somebody made decisions without askin' me."
"This is not open for--" he tried.
"I don't get this. What's up with you guys? It's just a training session."
Sean sighed once more, this time with much more feeling. He did appreciate the support, but, well, the last thing they needed right now was Jubilee speaking up her mind.
"And besides, what's wrong with a little help? Not like he can't pull his own weight or anything. I've seen him fight."
Monet raised a majestic eyebrow at her. "Had we ever not been been perfectly fine on our own, Jubilation?"
"Only, like, a hundred thousand times." She snapped her gum with a combat-like sound. "And besides, maybe he can *finally* get some people here to get a clue about battlespeak."
" *Battlespeak*. " M had no doubt in which way the jab was directed.
"Hell yeah. *Some* of us need to realize just because you have whole sentences that's been used by the Avengers doesn't mean you don't need to come up with new ones."
"Why--"
Ev's voice rang out before she could go on, making the quibbling girls fade to the background. "Jubilee does have a point. He has credit as a fighter; he *was* a member of Excaliber. And I for one am real interested to see what I can do with those hotknives."
"See?" Monet was quickly forgotten. "I have a point. You tell them, Ev."
*
Penance crouched on the ground a few feet away, hidden in the bushes. The voices were really loud, and Apple Boy was starting to glow in a way she didn't like at ALL. Carefully, she rose to her feet, circling the group. Getting out of cover was no danger, apparently; they were too busy to even notice her. Inching her way around the clearing, she ended up nearing a small tree she was planning to hide behind.
The man was so quiet she hadn't even noticed him until he spoke.
She nearly jumped out of her skin, tensing and ready to run, but he didn't seem to have noticed her himself. His voice was rough and worn out, but pleasant, as he murmured, "What a bloody blast."
She didn't understand the words, but the tone was amused, and a little annoyed. Reassuring. "Bet it's big fun to be talked about like you weren't even in the room, huh?"
Her head whipped to the side. Longlonglongshortlike boy was standing there, leaning against her tree with studied casualness. Penny backed away a few steps, maintaining a safe distance. As long as people were popping out of the ground like that, she wasn't abandoning the only shelter within three square feet.
Smokesmell gave a low, short chuckle. "Try a piece of meat, friend."
Longlonglong just shook his head, smiling a little himself. He hadn't noticed Penance yet, either. "They get like this sometimes. Don' take it personal."
Stinky chuckled again, this time a little longer. "Oh, don't worry about that."
***They both fell into silence, watching the fig... eh... heated discussion. Penny watched them in turn, noting the way the young one's pupils kept pulling sideways to watch the other out of the corners of his eyes. She didn't knew what that meant, but she didn't really figure it meant anything, so that was okay.***
The loud voices were beginning to wind down, finally, when the older unfamiliar one glanced at the other for the first time. White had stalked away some time before, and Redvoice was using some nasty tricks to quiet people down.
"Hey."
She glanced at the man who spoke in surprise. So did the other one.
"Yeah?"
The weight being passed from one leg to the other, once, in the direction opposite from his companion, seemed unnatural on the man, like he was unused to such gestures altogether.
"So, how come I din't get t'ear your voice? You don't strike me as a guy that doesn't give out his opinions."
The other man's shrug looked no less awkward, if far more practiced. "Dunno."
There was a half-smile on Oldersmelly's face. His eyes were... all twinkly. "What, you don' 'ave an opinion?" he sounded decidedly amused.
"Whatever."
"Oh, c'mon." There was a thin undercurrent of nastiness in the teasing tone, but it was small enough she didn't feel the need to walk away from it. "How you feelin' about the new addition t'the family?"
The boy sighed, shrugged again, looked cautiously at the man beside him. Even though she had no idea what it all meant, such a short reaction did seem not to warrant all that expensed energy. "I don' have no problem with you, hombre."
"Right, then." The man grinned again, a bit more fully, and his voice now lacked the undercurrent almost completely. Almost. "You'll stay out of my fags, and I'll stay away from yours, eh?"
"Brit slang," Longlonglong said, and shook his head. "I don' care what Jono says, you're all nuts."
~*~
Now
Pete stared at the floor some more, until Ange finally spoke up. "Hey! Come on! Let's go out and have some fun. Do something exciting. Stop staring at things to avoid lookin' at me... what do you say, hombre?"
Pete looked up, a little angrily. "I'm not trying to avoid looking at you--"
"--Quit playing around, Pete."
It was the first time Angelo had used Pete's real name, and it made him pause, to savor the way he said it. Somehow, he made it sound so much more important than it was. It was Angelo's tone, maybe, that did it, or maybe it was just the ease in which he dropped it off his tongue.
Pete said sullenly, "I'm not playing around."
Angelo answered quietly, "Then stop acting up. It's been a hell of a long time, so..."
Pete chuckled, and said, " 'So shut up and kiss me?' That's a little cliche, even from you."
Angelo shuffled his feet, leaning even more against the table. "You've been watching too many classic films, Wisdom. Heros don't talk like that anymore."
"Guess it's a good thing neither of us are heros then, isn't it?"
The pause they both left to think about the weight of that, it settled down onto their shoulders. Heros don't talk like that anymore--
"So?"
Pete looked up at him, confused. "So what?"
"Are you gonna?"
"Gonna what--"
Pete was cut off by Angelo's sudden movement towards him. He was further silenced by lips, that magically appeared pressing against his own. After a moment, Pete moved back, gaping for breath. He hadn't been watching those old films for nothing...
Angelo went back to sitting on the couch, and produced another cigarette from somewhere. Pete said, "You sneaky bastard. You had a pack."
"Course I did. Just like the way yours tastes better."
Pete looked smug. "You always did say that."
Angelo looked sad for a minute. "Yeah, guess I did."
Pete tried desperately to stop from staring at that wistful face. It didn't work at all, and he finally allowed himself a glimpse of Ange's expression.
It broke him right away.
Pete moved to sit beside Ange, and put a hand on his back lightly. He watched the burning tip of the cigarette move from hand to mouth and back again, without speaking. Finally, he murmured, "S'been a long time, Ange. Why'd you find me?"
He shrugged casually. "Dunno."
Ange shrugged out from under his hand, and Pete slouched a little more. He didn't really care, though. He finally said, "Pete, you 'member the last time I saw you?" Pete froze, and a wash of guilt went through his system. "Jubilee would have been so angry with us, eh?"
Pete smiled sadly, despite himself. "Girl would have beat us senseless. Course."
He didn't mention the rest of the day -- waking up having to tell Kitty that they were over, that he'd cheated on her and he couldn't do it anymore. Ange finished another smoke, and this time put it out carefully in the ash tray on the table. He said quietly, "And the day you left?"
It was bound to come up. Pete held his breath.
"The only thing I was thinking all day is, 'Why didn't he ask me to go?' I didn't care what they thought of you, or the year we tried to keep it from them, or all of that."
Pete slouched down further. "Yeah. I know, Ange."
Angelo shrugged. "The first lesson you told me was to leave the past in the past."
He stood up, with a small smile. He held out his hand, and added, "Deal?"
Pete stood up too, and nodded. "Deal."