Dinner con leche

[Admin]

Lee closed her hazel eyes in bliss as the smell of spaghetti wafted up the stairs to her room. She'd finished the dishes not long ago, and taken a break from the noisy tv and kitchen with a good (well, good to her in any case) book that had at one point been Marie's mother's. It was called The Queen's Fool, and she'd picked it up because of the picture of the beautiful dress on the cover. It turned out to be interesting enough, and she could certainly identify with the main character - dead mother, running from home, hiding from the "bad guys", pretending she was someone else, and powers. The girl in the book saw visions of the future - it kinda reminded her of Christopher (they called him Coz), at the mansion, who'd been the first one to find out about her past, and then gone and told Rogue. Man, she missed Coz too. Coz and Ling and Clarice, and that big guy who was so shy and sweet and turned into a giant tin can when you pissed him off.

The smell was driving her mad, along with the thoughts of the friends she'd left behind at Xavier's. She couldn't keep her mind on the book, so she threw in a scrap paper to mark her page and brushed her hair quickly, then made her way downstairs. Lars should be there anytime anyways, and she didn't want to miss him either.

"Wow, smells good. I haven't had spaghetti in forever." Flashing a bright smile at James, she opened the fridge and got out the milk, pouring herself a glass. Milk always went with spaghetti.

[xavier]

"James" smiled to Lee, one of his kind if a little mischievous smiles. He felt much better after taking a shower and changing clothes. He was now wearing simple, thin suit trousers and a rather loose dress shirt, several buttons open from the top and with the sleeves rolled up. He was showing a good set of muscles on the arms and the chest, and the thin shirt falling on his shoulders framed broad shoulders. The man was clearly in a good condition, and Xavier was rather pleased with the youth of his new body. Obviously it wasn't young, around its forties, but it was a lot more vigorous than the body he had left behind.

The Professor could hardly stop chuckling in his mind as he prepared the spaghetti with delicious sauce. Had someone told him a year or two before that he'd be one day standing on his own two feet again and preparing a meal for a bunch of hungry kids in a refuge for "cured" mutants, he would probably have laughed out loud. Even now the thought was amusing, though he was enjoying himself to the fullest. He had never really got the chance to live just like normal people, doing everyday things. His life had always been written another way - being born to riches and finding his powers very early on, this kind of "normal" life had been completely unfamiliar to him.

"It's almost done," Xavier said happily. "You might try finding the rest of the hungry fold and tell them to make their way to the table."

[airlock]

As if his clock was somehow connected to the precise moment that dinner was ready to be served, Lars chose that moment to arrive. He had been delayed in coming over due to the fact that as soon as he had come off the phone to his boss, his mother had called him.

Lars had a strange relationship with his parents now he was in his late twenties. His mother had never really wanted to let go of her youngest son and it showed in her attitude towards him ('how have you been', 'have you been eating enough', 'do I need to buy a hat yet', etc., etc.) Whenever his mother rang him, he dutifully answered all her questions ('fine', 'yes', and 'what have I told you, Mom, I'm single', etc., etc.), hopefully made the right sort of 'I'm doing very well, thank you, love you, take care' noises, smiled down the phone to emphasise how happy he was and ended the conversation with a promise he'd be back in Boston soon.

Thus it was that his arrival back at Rogue's Place was a good fifteen minutes later than he had estimated.

He stood at the door and pressed the bell.

[Admin]

"Will do," Lee replied to the older man and set down her glass of milk. "Don't let anyone steal that - milk is as precious as gold around here!" she called back over her shoulder as she made to find all the rest of the kids. As she was yelling through the tv room, "DINNER!", the doorbell rang, and Lee squealed in delight because she knew who it would be.

Opening the door with a very large grin pasted on, Lee gave Lars a quick hug (she was a little overenthusiastic with her greetings sometimes) and then pulled him inside. "You are just in time for spaghetti. You're hungry right? Oh, let me get the bottle for you." She ran into the kitchen and returned, gingerly carrying the Factor IX. She handed it over, hoping he wouldn't whip out a needle right then and there and inject himself. God she couldn't stand needles - they creeped her out.

*****

Rogue heard Lee's announcement, as well as the doorbell, and bounded downstairs quickly, said a brief "Hi" to Lars, and then made her way into the kitchen, where she also greeted James cheerily and started to get the dishes and silverwear ready. They'd probably just eat anywhere, so there was no point in setting the table (it could never fit so many), so she piled them all up on the counter next to the pots of spaghetti, and then got out of the way quickly as the first of the hungry faces arrived.

[airlock]

Everything happened so fast, Lars was amazed his head didn't fall off.

First of all, Lee rushed up to him, hugged him exuberantly (not that he had any problem with hugs from a pretty girl, of course, but it did take him rather by surprise, not to mention knocking him slightly off balance). Then he was invited to dinner, then his bottle of Factor IX appeared, then Rogue came down the stairs, said 'Hi' and disappeared before he could get a word out...

He blinked slightly.

"Good evening?" he hazarded, good-naturedly. The grin came back. "Listen - you guys eat, OK? I just needed this bottle of stuff - I don't want to intrude on your private time or anything..." He pocketed the Factor IX. "I saw how far you have to stretch things to start with and it's not like I need feeding up or anything."

[Admin]

"Are you kidding?" Lee said with a laugh, "our whole purpose of existing right now is to feed those who come through the door. Its spaghetti, there's tons of it, and you aren't leaving until you've had some. Sheesh," she grabbed his elbow and started pulling him towards the line that had formed, muttering about people not accepting their good will and good food.

"And we never get private time here. So no worries right?" She smiled up at him, but kept a hand firmly on his elbow so he wouldn't be able to get away. "Of course, if you need to shoot up first, I think I could let go of you long enough to do that. So long as I don't have to watch."

[xavier]

To be quite honest with himself, Charles had to admit that he had missed being around young people. He took the food off the stove and placed it on a spot where everyone could get their own portion easily. It was not hard to guess that around here folk generally didn't sit together to a table - kids were like that. Xavier watched with a pleased smile as many hungry hands came over to fetch their portions. He stood by watching the stampede, a little surprised that the kids really bothered to form up a line to get their food. When he saw Lars and Lee approaching at the end of the line, his eyes widened for just a short instant. This was the first moment he really saw Lars, and it raised an eerie sense of recollection. He had met this man once, a long time ago. Ten years? Perhaps so, it had been a long time. He had considered Lars to be one of his failures; after all, he had not been able to convince the man - hardly more than a boy back then - to join his "school". Xavier had, in fact, ever since kept an eye on Lars whenever he could, checking up on him to make sure he was doing all right. Even though Lars had not done any great harm with his powers, or in fact become very dangerous, the Professor had never quite forgiven himself for losing him all those years ago.

Now, why was he here? Had he taken the cure? It seemed likely to Xavier, but it also worried him a little. There were some powers which were best that their owner was aware of them, and if what Xavier suspected to be true and all the cured would eventually regain their powers, Lars' was one which could cause a lot of problems should it return without Lars realising it.

Still, now was not the time to worry. Xavier managed to keep his expression close to normal as he smiled to Lee and Lars after all the kids had ran off with their food.

[airlock]

"Of course, if you need to shoot up first, I think I could let go of you long enough to do that. So long as I don't have to watch."

"'Fraid so," said Lars, almost apologetically. "Regular dose, three times a day, more if I cut myself. But don't worry, I'll slip into the rest room and do it there, you don't have to watch. And thank you very much for the invitation to dinner, that's more than kind of you."

He touched her shoulder gently in thanks.

"I spoke to my boss," he said, conversationally. "And he's happy to give you a couple of trial days at the office in town. If it works out, he'll be glad to take you on as Project Adminstrator until we're done with the design for the new mall." What he didn't tell Lee was that his boss had further added that it looked like the mall would be the last project Lars and his design team would be working on - the company was going into liquidation.

But that was his problem.

He disappeared to administer his medication and returned to Lee's side. There was an older guy in the house - maybe the father of one of the kids? Lars didn't know, but couldn't help narrowing his eyes slightly suspiciously - an expression which Xavier would no doubt have recalled from their meeting nearly ten years before.

"Good evening," he said, maintaining his air of politeness. "I take it that this repast is all your own work? It smells delicious, I must say."

As ever, he avoided direct eye contact with the man.

[Admin]

Lee's face made an amazing transformation at the news of a possible job, from happy and excited, to REALLY happy and excited. She squealed again (she squeals alot when she's excited) and squeezed his hand in thanks. "Oh my gosh, you really are a saviour! I love you!" She let go of him long enough for Lars to go to the restroom and take his injection.

By the time he returned it was their turn to grab their food, and Lee made short order of scooping her own plate full of noodles and sauce. She grabbed her milk, which had suffered no harm at any hands during her short reprieve of its company, and went into the dinning room where only a few kids ever ate. Most of them sat in front of the tv, or out on the porch, or wherever else they could find room - they never thought to look in the empty dinning room.

After Lars sat she started chattering animately, asking more about the job, and when she needed to be there, where the office was, and other important facts and opinions.

[airlock]

Lars was grateful for Lee's enthusiasm. It helped perk him up a little and he cheerfully told her all about the work; filing drawings, answering the phone, taking messages, writing letters. "It's nothing mind blowingly exciting, I'm afraid," he said, apologetically, "but the guys in the design team are a pretty good bunch. Most of us are out and about at design meetings and legal meetings a lot of the time, but we have a sort of...rota system to see who gets to stay in the office and do some real work."

He launched into his food with great gusto.

"This is excellent," he said. This, from Lars, who when he didn't eat out subsisted purely on potato chips and salsa dip. He turned his attention back to Lee, perhaps a little too quickly, because he caught her eye for a few seconds unintentionally.

This time even he felt a definite shift and a cold chill ran down his spine. No. Don't be stupid, Lars, it's just your imagination. TOTALLY impossible. You took the Cure..

He broke off from eating to massage his temples for a second. "Headache," he lied, smoothly.

[Admin]

Lee coughed suddenly, appearantly choking on something although she hadn't just been eating. Stray noodle? The feeling was gone just as suddenly as it came up, and she nodded, still coughing, as Lars explained he had a headache. "No problem," she gasped, giving a final good cough to dislodge whatever might have been blocking her air. "Sorry, I think I tried to swallow and breath and talk all at the same time. Wouldn't be a first," she added with a smile, wholy unconcerned at the incident.

"Take your medicine too late?" she asked in referance to his headache. She spun her fork through another bite of noodles and chewed carefully, making sure not to swallow or talk until she had fully swallowed.

*****

Rogue was second to last to eat, as per usual, and waited until James had gotten himself a plate before walking into the dinning room, just as Lee started her coughing fit. "You ok?" she asked, and Lee nodded, her mouth full of spaghetti again. Sitting down next to her and digging in herself, she complimented the chef after her first taste with a smile, and asked about the happy squealy-ness earlier in the kitchen.

"Lars got me a job," Lee said with a bright smile, after making sure she had swallowed fully and washed any remaining spaghetti down with milk. It would do to go choking herself in front of him at dinner - he'd probably take the job offer back if she couldn't even feed herself without drama.

"That's excellent," Rogue smiled and looked at him for the first time since his return, still a little weary of what had happened earlier. "If we can get a job nearby for anyone else you can all carpool. It will be perfect. Where is the job?" Her mind had already began running over the opportunities in town, matching kids with possible possitions and the amount of extra money that would be coming in.

[airlock]

"Take your medicine too late?"

"What?" He blinked, as though breaking from some sort of daydream and then he laughed. "Yeah, something like that, plus I didn't eat a lot today. This will soon sort that out."

When she had started gasping for breath, the ice-cold shudder that had run down his spine had become an all-over chill. This wasn't physically possible. They'd told him, at the clinic when he'd gone for his injection, that the change was permanent. That the change was irreversible. That once his mutant 'x' gene was suppressed, that would be it.

For good.

So the feeling that he had just somehow caused something to happen was not a nice one. "I get a lot of headaches," he said, blithely. "It's part of the reason why I wear my sunglasses indoors." As if to emphasise the point, he took his shades out of his top pocket and slid them on. Let him try to catch someone's direct gaze now.

* * *

When Rogue started asking questions about the job, he was all too happy to answer them. The design team had set up temporary home in a small industrial unit on the edges of town, a good, well-known place where there was never any trouble. Hours would be 8 to 4, he said, but Lee might be expected to work a little later occasionally.

"If that happens, I'll always make sure she gets home safely," he added, in case either of the girls was concerned by this news.

[Admin]

"I pity anyone who'd try to hurt Lee. Not only would they be put in their place quite quickly, but she'd talk their ear off while she was doing it." Rogue laughed at Lee's bashful grin before explaining, "we were trained well at the Academy. Self-defense, different forms of fighting... you can't always rely on your powers to help you out, so they trained us to fight as regular humans too."

"And good thing," Lee broke in, "since we are regular humans."

"It's very nice of you to offer though," Rogue smiled, "it would probably ease my mind to know she wasn't being attacked by stray alligators and rednecks."

Lee stabbed her fork into some spaghetti and lifted the limp strands up, sauce plopping down from them onto the plate. "Take that, rednecks." She then shoved it in her mouth, chewing behind a smile and sucking up the stray strands like she was in a scene of Lady and the Tramp.

"James," she said as she finished her mouthful, leaning over the table to better look at him, "this is excellent spaghetti. Thank you so much."

[xavier]

Meeting Lars' suspicious eyes had brought all kinds of recollections to Xavier's mind. He still had to wonder if there would have been anything he might have done. Guilt kept him quiet as he only nodded his greetings to Lars and waited for him and Lee to take their portions before grabbing some food for himself. He was happy that these three decided to take to the dining room, since he really preferred tables. Tables were so much more civilised, and then, he wanted to sit down with these three.

Feeling very antsy over the fact that he in fact knew the trio from times past, he sat down with them, listening to their conversation keenly though not obviously so. He kept most of his attention on the food, smiling now and then to the bantering and such. But he also kept his senses, both regular and extra-regular, tuned, and he could almost feel the chill in Lars when Lee choked. This served to make the Professor all the more suspicious. Was the cure wearing off from Lars? If so, it was doing it faster than obviously anyone else. This made him worry as his scientific brain worked in scanning possible explanations.

The only one he could come up with was the special type of his power. Was it possible that the cure might wear off sooner through the oxygen manipulation? And if that was so, would it work on others, too - would it make the cure wear off sooner in those who became targets for his power? This worried Xavier, though he kept his worry to himself well. He couldn't speak of the suspicion without drawing suspicion on himself, and giving cause to many questions he wasn't willing to answer yet.

Lee's thanks for the meal made him smile, though, as did the mention of the fighting training the two had been given at his school. He inclined his head to Lee in polite acknowledgement of the thanks.

"Quite welcome," he assured them, only with willpower managing not to add the words "my young friend" to the sentence. When had he become so much older than everyone else, to want to call them young? "I was a little worried about my cooking skills perhaps being a little rusty, but I'm happy the meal meets everyone's expectations." His eyes twinkled with amusement; he knew well it quite exceeded most of the expectations of the young folk that had been living with such food as cheese and mac for a long time.

He looked at the three of them with a curios look in his eyes. There was a part to play, and then, he was hoping to lead the conversation closer to mutant matters and farther from everyday things.

"You two have been in... Xavier's school, then?" he said, only just barely in time remembering to call it "Xavier's" instead of "my" school. His eyes turned to Lars. "But you haven't?"

He was actually hoping to lead the conversation to the question of the ultimate reason why Lars had refused the place in his school. He still couldn't help but think it was somehow his fault every time he lost a promising young mutant, and he didn't often get the chance to ask them for their reasons later on.

[Admin]

"Yep," Rogue answered his question before swallowing fully and continuing. "Oralee arrived at the mansion shortly after I did. Just after Liberty Island right?"

"Right."

"We were roommates for a little while after she blew up her own room."

"I didn't blow it up," Lee said with a frown that threatened to break into a smile. "My roommate blew it up. I was just caught in the explosion." She blushed and smiled at Lars across the table, "whatever she tells you about me is probably not true. Unless it's that I talk to much - that's most certainly the case."

Marie had taken the short reprieve to eat some more spaghetti, but when Lee was finished she continued. "We were there for about two years, maybe a little longer in my case, I guess." She shrugged, not particularily concerned if she had the amount of time right. The important thing was that she had been there when she needed to be, and had left when she was ready. Although had she really been ready? They were struggling to get by in Mississippi, but at least she felt a little more at home here.

[airlock]

"No, I didn't go to Xavier's," said Lars, surprised by the turn of the conversation. "I met with the guy once. He was good people, that's for sure. But...well, my life was going down a different direction."

He took a sip from the glass of water that he'd got for himself and considered carefully before continuing. "I frequently regret that decision, of course. I went off to college, struggled my way through a building and architectural design degree and barely made it out the other side in one piece." He grinned. "But I did OK for myself, and when the Cure was announced, I was straight down there."

He set down the glass of water.

"Not long after that, I watched all the X-Men footage at Alcatraz, y'know, fighting against Magneto and his lackies...and I couldn't help but wonder what could have been. Never a good thing."

[xavier]

Xavier had to smile when Lee and Marie reminisced on the blown up room. He remembered the event exceedingly well, and despite the destructive nature of what had happened, it was all in all a fond memory. Just like the thousands of other memories of reckless kids running around the mansion. There had never been a dull moment back then. And now? He had led a quiet life after his rebirth.

It came to him, suddenly, that he'd need to give Moira a call soon. He hadn't contacted her for a long time, and he found himself missing her suddenly. He wondered why - they had not been exactly tight during the time he had been in the mansion, why was it now different?

Perhaps because, now, he thought he might be able to have a life with her after all, now that to the rest of the world, he was dead?

These were not good thoughts at the moment, and the Professor attempted to steer his mind clear of them as he concentrated on Lars' answer. It didn't give him the soothing he had hoped for. It had, obviously, been Lars' own decision not to come to the mansion, but he did admit to second-guessing it. This meant, in Xavier's mind, that there would have been a way to convince him, surely, if he would have been sharper then...

Now, of course, it didn't matter anymore. He tried to tell himself that as he forced up a smile when the others spoke of the Cure. He still detested the very word.

"Not long after that, I watched all the X-Men footage at Alcatraz, y'know, fighting against Magneto and his lackies...and I couldn't help but wonder what could have been. Never a good thing."

Xavier picked up his own glass and took a sip, glancing at Lars.

"The past is a good place to visit, but a bad place to live in," he said, repeating the words that had become a mantra to him these days. He smiled wistfully.

[Admin]

"Amen to that," Lee said quietly, raising her glass of milk and draining it off. She had finished her plate of spaghetti, and was more than ready to leave off talking about the past; as much fun as parts of it had been, it always lead to the parts she'd rather not remember.

Marie had been discretely studying Lars as he spoke, but she couldn't read him as well as most people (probably because of the glasses he insisted on wearing, even in the house) and couldn't tell if he had been lying about being cured. He certainly sounded sincere enough, but mutants had a tendancy to become really good liars, really quickly.

"If you could go back to being a mutant, would you?" she asked him pointedly. It was a bit of a taboo subject around the house, most people prefering to ignore their former mutancy, but she thought she might be able to glean some information out of his answer.

[airlock]

"If you could go back to being a mutant, would you?"

The question took Lars by surprise and he considered his response carefully before he spoke. This in itself said a lot about the man. For all his Adonis-like good looks, he wasn't some empty-headed male bimbo. He rubbed his nose and set down his eating utensils.

"I don't know, is the honest answer," he said, slowly. "I learned to deal with the adverse effects of them in much the same way I learned to deal with my medical condition. I thought they were connected, but was wrong. Part of me...yeah, part of me would go back. The daring, dangerous part of me."

He grinned.

"That part doesn't come out to play much these days. I'm a manager now, you know. No rest for the wicked."

Yeah, he thought, almost bitterly. Until this job's finished and I'm down the unemployment office looking for work as a road sweeper.

[Admin]

There was something lacking in conviction behind his words, Marie thought, but she ignored it as Lee kicked her under the table. Marie shrugged slightly at her - what harm had she done with a simple question? "I guess that's the answer - the daring and dangerous part of each of us would undoubtably enjoy another romp through mutantdom."

"The daring and dangerous part of me could care less about powers right now, but it would like some ice cream," Lee put in helpfully. "I wish I had some ice cream!" she declared, holding her breath for a moment just in case as Marie shot a warning glance to her. It made her uncomfortable when anyone joked about their former powers.

"What do you know, I've still got it!" Lee said and stood up from the table, practically skipping into the other room before returning with a half-gallon of ice cream and four bowls. "Now the real power would be turning boring old vanilla into chocolate."