So, I actually had this story up a while ago except Fanfic deleted it and then my computer got a virus. Sooo... I rewrote it.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or fandoms that seem familar - just this particular plot.

Chapter One

I Wanna Be Known As Hell Because That's Got, Like, Fire In It

It's quite a unique mutation, one that Charles hasn't seen the likes of before. So, when he finds a ten-year-old Anthony Stark huddled at his front door in the middle of the wind and snow looking absolutely terrified, he's not sure whether to believe the boy or not. But he feels compelled to, seeing as the first thing out of the boy's mouth is; "Help me, Professor." And he sounds so helpless and truly lost that Charles melts completely and invites him inside.

"Hello, Mister Stark." Says Charles as they, well, Anthony walks.

"Hello, Professor Xavier." Says Anthony, gaze sweeping up the length of Charles' wheelchair with interest.

"Call me Charles." Says Charles, smiling.

"Then don't call me Mister Stark." Says Anthony who, contrary to the Professor, is frowning.

Charles decides that the boy looks better when he smiles.

They walk along the vast halls of 'The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning' in silence. Anthony doesn't frown, though he has an expression of deep thought on his young face which is enough to make Charles frown. It is as they walk that Charles decides to explore Anthony's mind and see whatever the matter is. Even though he finds himself feeling terribly, terribly guilty about doing so.

Anthony's walking briskly down a long corridor, eyes adjusting slowly to the faint candlelight. It's because he's scared of the dark and Howard has no wish to leave lights on in the nighttime. He may be rich, but he's not willing to splurge that money on a babied little boy who freaks out when the lights go out.

"Young Master Anthony?" There's a smooth British voice emitting from behind him and he finds himself spinning around. His eyes lock on an aged man with thinning grey hair and frown lines upon his worried forehead. Almost as soon as his gaze locks, he averts it quickly.

"Hello, Mister Jarvis." He says.

"What's the matter?" Says Jarvis, rather worriedly indeed.

"You know," Anthony says in an accusatory tone, folding his arms across his small chest and looking down at his feet. He shifts in his stance and runs his tongue across his bottom lip which is now quivering in terror.

"I do." Agrees Jarvis, rather firmly. "But you need to realize that you'll never hurt me."

"How do you know?" The boy is shouting now, eyes raised to look at his tutor and then averting to a candle, watching the light as it flickers merrily above the wax.

Jarvis opens his mouth to speak, but the flame licks upwards towards the ceiling and transforms into a myriad of different shapes and forms, before going out completely. Anthony stumbles back in horror, eyes still fixated on the candle.

It is then that the whole candle disappears in an explosion of fire and there is nothing left to show for it – not even a single ash.

Charles escapes the memory instantly, recoiling in shock but trying to brush it off as though it was nothing. It would not do for the young boy to know he'd been probing around in his head. So, Charles seems to have deduced by now that he seems to be a pyro of some sort… but it's the other ability that has really shaken Charles up. It seems as though Anthony can make things explode with no more than a mere glance, like he can destroy something so thoroughly and intimately that there will be no residue, no evidence, that anything ever happened at all.

And that is the most frightening prospect of the whole thing.

"What can you do, Anthony?" Charles asks, even though he already knows. He must keep up the pretense that he really wasn't looking in Anthony's memoirs mere moments ago.

"You know already." Says Anthony, softly. "I can see in the way that you look at me. That you're not disgusted, but completely amazed. Intrigued, even." It amazes the professor how grown up the young boy's words seem to be and it makes him almost sad that the boy has had to grow up so fast.

My, my, Howard. What have you done?

Charles doesn't know what to say, so he says the only thing he can because saying sorry seems a little too artificial for the current moment. "Are you sure you're not an empath?"

"Quite sure." Says Anthony and there's a slight smile that tugs at the corners of his mouth as he speaks. Charles decides that he quite likes that smile.

It's real.

Howard let's Anthony go to school there, completely under the impression that it is just what it seems – a regular school. Only Jarvis knows better, which fills Anthony with a sense of excitement and adrenaline whenever he's on his way down there. When he goes to the school, he feels like a normal, rebellious child again. Which, thinking about it, it's kind of sad.

He knocks on the door on his first day, cocking his head to one side nervously as he awaits for someone to answer the door. However, it's not Charles who opens the door, it's some guy with an odd looking visor over his eyes and shaggy brown hair with a royal blue cap perched on it. Suddenly, Anthony feels nervous.

"Where's Charles?" The young billionaire asks in a hoarse tone.

Visor-Dude shrugs. "Somewhere." He doesn't look like he cares all that much, though maybe that's because Anthony can't see his eyes. "What's your name?"

Anthony smiles toothily. "Tony Stark. And you?"

"Scott Summers."

They shake hands, and Scott invites Antho… Tony inside.

Tony meets a pretty red-haired girl named Jean next. He thinks, though he reckons she's rather pretty everywhere, that her eyes are the best part about her. Piercing green and filled with so much life that Tony doesn't really know what to think (goodness, have his eyes ever looked like that?).

"Hello." She says timidly when Scott introduces them. Then she frowns slightly; "Are you really a mutant? What can you do?"

"Spontaneous combustion with my eyes," says Tony with a troubled frown. "And I'm a pyro."

"Huh," says Jean with interest and her eyes sparkle slightly when she says them, like she couldn't really be any prouder of her abilities. "I'm a telepath – only slightly though. My main power is telekinesis."

"Do you guys have mutant names?" This time, Tony can't stop himself from uttering the words that build up at the back of his throat. This… this is exciting.

"I'm still thinking," says Jean, running a hand through her hair. "But Scott here is Cyclops. He has to wear that visor thingy, otherwise the power that comes from his eyes will probably take down the building."

"Can I have a mutant name?" Tony asks quickly. "I wanna be known as Hell. Because that's got fire in it."

Jean snorts with laughter then tells him he can be whatever he wants.

Tony decides he rather likes Jean.

Whatever he may think about Jean, she's not as cool as Ororo.

In Tony's opinion, anyone who can cause a storm is simply the coolest person ever. Sure, Jean can lift stuff up with her mind and probe around in other people's minds. Sure, Scott's eyes are possibly more deadly than a lecture at school. Sure, Tony can control fire and make stuff blow up (but it's scary). And, yeah, sure, Tony's heard of a girl who can transform into other people and… and the guy who can control metal? And Charles is, like, the most powerful mutant Tony's ever met.

Not the point, anyway.

Ororo is just cool.

She gets cooler when she calls herself Storm.

And then she's even got white hair to match and… crap, now Tony's being a mutant-fanboy.

Then she gets epically cooler when she becomes Tony's best friend.

"Hi," is the first thing she says.

"Is it true you make storms and… and lightning and stuff?" It's actually kind of sad how Tony's so excited that he can't even say a simple 'hi' back. But, that's irrelevant. Tony is so, so jealous of her but… you know. He'll probably pretend otherwise.

"Not very well, yet. Plus, my eyes look creepy when I do."

Tony waves a hand. "That's so cool, though!" He gushes.

"What can you do?"

Tony tells her and then has an internal fanboy moment when she looks impressed.

"Have you met them, yet?" Charles asks one morning when he and Tony are practicing Tony's pyrokinetic abilities. Tony's pretty much got the hang of his spontaneous combustion (as it turns out, he gets really tired when he does it with his eyes, but if he merely touches the thing he wants to explode… really, he can go on for ages like that.

"Yeah," says Tony as he sends a blast of fire spiraling up to the roof, then brings it back down as a fierce dragon, roaring and spitting embers before vanishing in a quick flash of light. He's pretty good with fire now too, but he's also fourteen now, so he's had four years of practice with Charles. It's cool, 'cause he can even surf fire and everything.

He lets out a yell and flashes across the room as a single blast of flames, licking from his original position and towards the door, then around the room and back. Speed is good, so is fire. Once he's stabilized, he turns his gaze towards the door and makes it explode in a flash of fire.

It's a mark of how used to his powers he is, that Charles doesn't even flinch. Instead he sighs heavily. "Next time, I'd much prefer it if you exploded the vase I left out for you, rather than the door."

"Ah," Tony looks at the ugly floral vase for a fleeting moment. "I see."

Its six years later when Logan walks in. Tony is twenty and decides instantly that this dude is possibly the most irritating guy he's ever met. Although, "Wolverine" isn't the only mutant who has pissed Tony off enough to make him thoroughly dislike them.

Two words.

Scott Summers.

Officially the most irritating person ever.

But, that's actually beside the point. Logan walks in to Tony's bedroom when the man is trying to actually sleep for once in his life, and says; "Hey, bub." Then walks out like nothing happened. That is why Tony instantly hated him.

I mean, hell-o. Sleep is precious – even Tony knows that. He just thinks it's a waste of time.

"Holy shit." Says Tony, sitting up quickly and looking kind of like he's just seen a ghost. "Hey! Who the hell are you?" Which, in his tired state, he probably kind of thinks he had.

Logan pokes his head past the door. "Logan." He says shortly, in a voice that carries with it a deep accent. "You that playboy billionaire who always seems to piss me off on the news?"

Uh, yeah. Except, he doesn't say that.

Tony raises his eyebrows. "Didn't know you had enough to afford a T.V. You don't look like you could afford a hotdog."

"Watch it, bub." Says Logan shortly and weird metal claws slide out of his knuckles. "You don't know who you're talking to."

Tony's eyes blaze and he stands up, one hand on the headboard of his bed just to steady himself because he may or may not have been up for three days straight and man, does he need sleep. "Hell, I do." The billionaire snaps coldly. "Well, not really." He adds sheepishly as a second thought.

Logan merely looks unimpressed.

So, the two got off on the wrong foot.

Whatever.

Soon, they become tight enough to be considered almost besties. Which is probably mostly Scott's fault for being annoying. Once they realize they both have a common enemy, they find themselves allying themselves together for prank wars – things like that.

Logan seems to hate the Cyclops because Jean has feelings for him (in Tony's opinion, feelings are overrated). Tony hates him (not really, he's just annoying) because he's… well, alive.

So Hell and the Wolverine become buddies. Who knew?

Most people tended to steer clear when they were together because, Chaos, with a capital 'C'.

Jean finds out about Logan's little crush because one morning, when she's trying to make a smoothie in peace, Tony rounds the corner, pulling Logan with him. "Hey!" Tony exclaims, eyes lighting up (and Jean doesn't miss the way Logan's face gets an almost panicked look to it). "Pup, it's your girlfriend! Jean, he likes you. Bye."

The billionaire disappears around the corner and away from Logan as fast as possible.

When Charles gives Tony the X-Men uniform, Tony looks at it sadly, tucks it in his backpack and tells him that he cannot stay any longer.

"I'm sorry," he says, afterward, when Charles looks kind of helpless. "I really am, but I have a company to run now." Charles understands, because the young man's parents have just passed away and, though he wasn't really their biggest fan, Tony is still devastated.

Then he leaves and never comes back.

And nobody knows really what to think.

Every time there's an update, Charles sends him a new uniform so that he may always be a sort-of-unofficial member of the X-Men.

In return, Tony becomes the school's primary sponsor. The money comes in anonymously, but the X-Men all know who it comes from. Everyone else just thinks its all Charles' inheritance.

It's not.