For Wolverine the rest of the week passed in a boring blur of school, afternoons stuck in the garage with Cyke, library torture with Rogue, Lanche, and anyone else stubborn enough to try to tutor him, and the occasional game of grab-ass with his girlfriend. But they couldn’t get very far without Angel swooping down on them at unexpected moments. The only decent breaks in the tedium were the occasional hissy-fits he managed to provoke in the quarterback while bossing him around the garage.
The jock had wrongly assumed being one-handed, due to his shoulder injury, that he would sit on his ass and do nothing while Wolverine worked on the truck. The smaller teen designated the one-armed boy as the “garage bitch” and got an insane amount of amusement making Cyke get up over and over and over to walk across the space and bring him a tool, only to have to turn right back around and get another tool, then one in a different size, then some screws, an attachment, more sockets, etc.
Cyke did a passable job of keeping his frustration in check but snapped when Wolverine informed him he wanted the red-handled Phillip’s head screwdriver and not the yellow one. After looking them over and realizing they were the exact same in every way except color Cyke cursed the feet sticking out from under the truck and kicked the trolley, shoving Wolverine further under the chassis until his head bashed the heat shield.
Wolverine let that one slide momentarily, at least until the other boy turned his back, then kicked over a container of ball bearings, feigning a groan of annoyance. Cyke spent the next hour crawling around the garage locating the tiny metal spheres, cursing under his breath while Wolverine whistled a happy tune as he installed a new water pump. Cyke got him back pretty good later on when he smeared axle grease on the trolley. Wolverine was temporarily gummed to the contraption and had to do an awkward dance to scrape himself free, all while the jock stood there and laughed, then ducked a wrench thrown at him.
Despite constantly getting under each other’s feet and skin, they managed to make good headway on fixing up the gardener’s banged up heap and were looking over the other cars to see what they should tackle next. The handyman’s wussy golf cart didn’t merit their attention, but hiding under some tarps were an intriguing couple of rust buckets the auto repair class had abandoned that looked like they needed some attention.
Friday after school Wolverine was free from his homework torture until later in the weekend and went to the court behind the Institute cafeteria to meet up with his favorite jerks. Being on double-probation now, he couldn’t get permission for his Brotherhood House pals to visit but Avalanche did, so Pyro and Silver hopped on the Xavier shuttle after school to shoot hoops for a few hours until the BH van came to drag them back home.
Full-court shirts vs. skins would normally have delighted Rogue, except Wolverine was on the shirts team and she was taking her house arrest more and more badly each day. She blew off the guys’ offer to join the game and instead plopped down on the picnic table next to the court, jammed her MP3 player ear buds in, and nodded her head in time to the metal pounding in her head. Smacking her gum irritably, she watched her boyfriend play with his pals rather than sit next to her and join her bad mood.
Avalanche dunked on Wolverine and laughed a little too loudly at the disgruntled look on the other boy's face while he shouted “You got posterized!” and cackled. A couple of the footballers were sitting at a table a few feet away, including Bobby and Colossus and Cyke, playing cards and talking shit. Well, Cyke and Bobby were, Piotr just nodded good naturedly and ignored their more immature jokes.
Bobby shouted a taunt at Pyro, which the firebug ignored as he was trying to catch a ball before it went out of bounds. He managed to knock the ball behind him before he landed over the line, but his foot came down on a patch of ice that unexpectedly appeared. The HB boy slipped wildly then crashed down on his side with a shout of pain.
Iceman grinned at the two boys with him and slapped down another card. Piotr frowned at the blonde while Cyke looked over his shoulder at the guys on the court gathered around Pyro, who was massaging his ankle.
“That little fucker isn’t getting on my team,” Iceman said snidely. He was point guard and captain of Bayville’s varsity basketball team and he didn’t want any BH delinquents on his squad.
“Hey!” Avalanche shouted as he stalked over to the card game, angry purpose in his stride. “You almost broke his leg!” he thundered as slapped his hand down on the pile of cards in the middle of the table and leaned into Bobby’s face.
“Almost? What a shame,” Iceman drawled sarcastically. Piotr looked away with a pained expression while Cyke elbowed his teammate roughly in the ribs, and nodded over his shoulder. Popsicle looked behind him to see the players lined up in an aggressive posture and all glaring at him. Wolverine eyed Cyke with a hard, appraising look.
“Bobby, apologize,” Cyke said quietly.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Iceman said incredulously. “I ain’t apologizing to that BH trash! None of them should even be here!”
Lanche’s fist clenched and the ground rocked slightly under the table as Cyke elbowed Iceman again, “Do it,” he said through gritted teeth.
Iceman stared at his QB quizzically then at the growing fracture in the ground between his parked feet. “Whatever…alright.” He looked over his shoulder and met Pyro’s furious glare. “Sorry,” he called half-heartedly, then stood up and jammed his fists in his jeans’ pockets. “What is with you?” he shot at Cyke before stomping away.
Wolverine gave a tiny nod to Cyke, who returned it with a shrug and turned back to Piotr. Rogue watched the whole thing irritably and tapped her foot on the bench in time with the music.
“Dat vaz good of you,” the huge Russian rumbled softly.
“Whatever. I don’t need Bobby getting busted up. Hard to find good players in this dump,” Cyke muttered and gathered up the cards to re-deal them. Colossus nodded sagely but allowed himself a slight smile as he studied his hand.
Half an hour later Cannonball and couple of other guys stepped out of the game to take a break and Wolverine walked over to the card table. He leaned over Piotr’s back, examining his hand. Cyke huffed in irritation and held his closer to his chest. The dark teen plucked a single card from the pile on the table and slid it into the giant linebacker’s hand.
“Ah ha! I vin!” Colossus crowed as he slapped his cards down hard enough to crack the table. He grinned in embarrassment at the damage then at Wolverine. “Thank you, my vriend. You vish to play with us?”
“Not unless you’re playing for money,” Wolverine said airily as Cyke threw his cards down in annoyance. “Then again, the way Scooter plays I might have a go,” he laughed as he saw the bunk hand the QB had been holding.
“What do you want, hairy?” Cyke shot at the shorter teen.
“We’re short a couple of guys, wanna jump in?” He gestured to the court behind them where the other boys were arguing over the rules of Horse.
Cyke’s eyebrows crawled several inches above his shades in surprise. Before he could answer Piotr’s huge hand crushed his shoulder as he answered for both of them, “Da, ve vill join you.”
Rogue pulled out her notebook and began to doodle grumpily as another game started and her boyfriend appeared to have forgotten all about her.
The game was going fast and furious for a while, with no one bothering to call fouls since Piotr joined the game. So the elbows started coming a little harder, hands wound up in faces, and a few people ate asphalt only to jump back up and charge down the court again, Silver helped by some speed. Sunspot turned black and launched himself into the air to block a shot, while Colossus turned to living metal and became a charging foul magnet when he planted himself firmly under the basket and players slammed into his immovable bulk with painful results.
Kids began to line the edges of the court to check out the spectable, laughing and shouting encouragement as the players’ powers resulted in some crazy plays, some even more nutty blocks, and occasional slams to the ground. The game devolved into something less resembling basketball and more like war when Cyke tried to block a shot and got a hard ball to the gut from Zerker as a thank you. The jock lobbed the ball into the air then lowered his sunglasses and aimed a short optic blast at it that sent the ball barreling right back at the electric mutant who dodged it, only to let it slam into Wolverine’s back and send him stumbling forward. Wolverine grinned evilly as he dribbled it between his legs, then fired it at Lanche’s blind-side with some serious juice on it. Silver flashed by in a blur to catch it before Avalanche got concussed, and the speedster wound up like a major league pitcher to blast it in a blazing flash at Colossus. The metal teen shot out one hand and caught it in one huge mitt, but the incredible force spun him around to crash into the pole holding up the basket.
With a groan the column split in half and the whole thing crashed to the ground, the backboard splintering. The crowd fell silent with a gasp and stepped back. Piotr looked down at the smashed hoop and reverted back to flesh in embarassment.
“Ah-“ he looked around at the wide-eyed kids looking at him. “I believe the vight word is oops.”
The crowd cracked up laughing as a kid about 13 years old with blue skin darted over to the Russian and shouted excitedly, “Can I play?!” Piotr shrugged and handed the ball to the kid, who levitated it over one hand then turned the ball into an orb of pulsing blue light.
“Mutant dodgeball!” the boy screamed and all the kids on the sidelines poured onto the court as the electric blue ball streaked in a zigzag over their heads to zip towards the other end of the court. Hands reached for it, laughter screaming through the afternoon, powers flashing into view as bodies jumped higher, moved faster, changed colors as the crowd broke into sides one each side of the half-court line and the ball blasted back and forth.
Even Rogue cracked a smile at the chaotic mass of laughing kids, which she quickly tried to stifle when she remembered that she was in a bad mood. She concentrated on whatever the heck it was she was pissed about and, failing to recall, she looked around for something to get mad at since the madcap game in front of her wasn’t working. It was then she saw Bobby peeking around the corner of the building closest to the court.
What was that sneaky bastard up to?
Rogue pushed her stuff to the side and slid off the picnic table, circling around back of the devious looking blonde jock, using his attention on the game to her advantage.
He was muttering to himself, “Fucking delinquent firestarter...my team…little bastard.” Rogue’s eyes narrowed as she watched the muscles in Ice Cream’s neck and shoulder’s bunch in anger as he raised one hand and directed it straight at Pyro. The BH boy stood in front of two smaller kids with his arms spread to shield them from the basketball as it flashed back and forth, laughing as he shouted instructions at his charges.
Bobby’s hand turned blue with frost as air condensed and solidified in the air above his palm, forming a huge ice ball as he prepared to attack the unsuspecting Pyro. Rogue pulled off one glove. The projectile was the size of a melon and would probably smash the two little kids in addition to her friend.
Rogue hissed in anger at the sneak attack.
Bobby jerked in surprise and spun around just as Rogue lashed out with here bare hand to slap the tar out of the insolent jock. The teen froze in her grip for a moment as her hand connected with his cheek then clutched briefly to give him a painful zap for good measure. He dropped at her feet face first, and his nose smacked satisfyingly into the dirt as the ice ball dropped with a dull thud next to him.
Rogue grinned in grim satisfaction then stalked towards the game as she tugged her glove back on. She stood on the sidelines for a moment until Wolverine dashed past her with a small girl on his shoulder who was weaving golden spirals from her hands and giggling madly.
The dark teen braked on a dime and backtracked. “Ready to play, darlin’?” He grinned toothily at her, and she couldn’t help but laugh as the girl perched on his shoulder grabbed his hair and pulled hard, shouting, “Go! Go!”
“Sugar, you got no idea,” Rogue drawled as she clenched one hand behind her and focused then threw a snowball right in his face.
By the time Dr. McCoy and Angel came outside to usher the kids to dinner the playground was nothing but trampled slush and scorched grass, and students were lying everywhere in exhaustion. The two adults shook their heads at the sight of over a hundred kids sprawled on the dirty ground in piles of gangly arms and legs, covered in mud, and laughing hysterically.
Iceman’s unconscious form went unnoticed in the mess, at least until Piotr stumbled across him on his way to dinner. The big teen sighed as he bent down to heft his annoying teammate over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Piotr might not be the brightest guy, but he knew where Rogue had gotten her snowballs from and probably why Bobby had been taken down. The guy was an excellent tight end but a big jerk with a mean streak. Piotr carried the slowly stirring boy up the back stairs to avoid questions and hip checked open the door he shared with Bobby.
A muffled voice floated up from behind him, “Imma kill that bitch.”
Colossus sighed and dumped Bobby roughly onto his bed, not even wincing when his roommate’s head clonked noisily against the post, knocking him out again.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I know where I want this story to go and there will be at least two major fight scene plus somethings sexy and/or romantic, but I'm having trouble GETTING the story to go there, so I thought I'd spent the next chapter or two on some fun stuff exploring life around a mansion full of mutant kids.
Chapter End Notes:
Next chapter...what to do when you're locked down in your room during open hours, but your honey is still just down the hall from you?