DISCLAIMER: I do not claim ownership of the X-Men Films, comics or other sectors of the franchise.

Chapter 1

"Laundry day! Everyone bring their hampers to the main hall!"

Morgan Tanner woke with a scowl on her face. Once again, she had been rudely awoken just as she had been having a good dream, a blessing in the past few weeks while she had been suffering an onslaught of nightmares. She silently cursed the PA system waking her with the announcement that it was time for her to take care of her housekeeping.

She eventually dragged herself out of bed, rubbing at her eyes. She picked a pair of jeans up off the floor and threw them onto her bed, and began searching for a shirt to wear in the sea of dirty laundry that covered nearly every inch of the carpet. Eventually she found a white tank top and one of her flannel jackets, and threw those on top of the jeans. Then, reminded by another call reminding everyone that it was, in fact, laundry day, she quickly scooped up everything else and threw it into the hamper that was sitting dejectedly in the corner farthest from the door.

She then peeled off her pyjamas, throwing them into the hamper as well, and changed into the clothing she had picked out previously. Stepping in front of the mirror hanging slightly crooked opposite the door, she decided her outfit would suffice for the day, and then left her room, dragging the hamper behind her.

The halls were ringing with the sounds of chatter and laundry hampers bumping into walls and people, and the call of "laundry day!" being heard loud and clear over the PA system. Morgan sighed, hating the commotion. She wished she could return to bed, but with the current volume of the teen floor, she probably couldn't have if she had tried.

She joined the crowd of teens pushing their way down the stairs, bumping elbows every so often, but too tired to apologise. Mechanically she followed the herd, the teenagers being joined by the younger kids, and heading down another flight of stairs before ending up in the main hall, where she set her hamper in the line up with everyone else's. She grabbed a tag from the basket sitting in the centre of the hall, and using the provided marker scrawled her name onto it, before clipping it onto the hamper and bidding adieu 'til that evening when she would be reunited with her clothing.

She decided it was high time to find Lacy.

Morgan found the trek down to the main office of the foster home extremely easy, as everyone else had headed off to the dining hall for breakfast (or brunch, she supposed, as it was ten-thirty-six), or were outside in the courtyard playing in the freshly fallen snow. She hummed to herself absent-mindedly as she ran her fingers against the off-white plaster walls, only lifting her hand to rap her knuckles against the oak door, just under the worn name plate that read "Lacy D. Parsson: head care giver".

From inside the room there was a cheerful call of "come in!" and Morgan opened the door without hesitation or grace.

"Ah, Morgan. What a surprise."

Lacy stood behind her desk, a cheerful look on her face as always. On top of the desk sat one of the younger children, whose hair Lacy was braiding with her nimble fingers. Morgan fell into one of the chairs in front of the ancient looking desk. "Mornin'."

Lacy gave Morgan a sideways glance, the smile never leaving her face. "Have you had breakfast yet, Morgan?" she asked, tying off the girl's braid and then helping her off the desk. The child murmured her thanks before running off.

"Nope. Mind if I use that brush?"

The older woman passed the hairbrush to Morgan, who began to viciously tear through the knotted mane of hair that framed her face.

Lacy stepped out from behind the desk, picking up a phone and dialling a number. "You know, if you didn't rip through your hair like that every morning, it wouldn't be nearly as frizzy. And then

you could stop complaining to me about it."

"Oh, spare me, you love it when I come to bother you for beauty tips."

Lacy laughed before punching in another set of numbers into the phone. "Travis asked for you. I was going to page you down if you didn't come to visit this morning."

Morgan's heart leapt into her throat. "Travis? Asked for me?"

"Yes, he called in and said that he wanted you to find him at the park as soon as possible."

Morgan's mind began to spin, imagining all the possible reasons Travis Able could want to meet with her, before Lacy ruined it by saying "he reported that he saw a strange looking fellow wandering around not two hours ago. You should go to see him and get the details."

Morgan sighed. Of course. She should have known better. Aside from the fact that Travis was a shameless flirt, he was an extreme busybody, always taking his work almost too seriously. Not that his job was unimportant, but Morgan still pined for more of his attention.

"Well, seeing as I have no prior engagements at the moment, I suppose I'll go and meet with him now." Morgan said, standing from the chair at the same time Lacy sat down in hers behind the desk.

"Make sure you grab something to eat before you leave, Morg."

"Yeah, I will." Morgan said, leaving the room as if it were on fire. She jogged down the corridor, smiling to herself like an idiot. But she didn't care. Travis Able, the head scout, had asked for her.
Not Fiona Richards, not Bailey Hanson.

But her, Morgan Tanner.

"Maybe today will be good after all," she thought aloud, grabbing her coat from the cubby it was tucked away in and bounding out into the cold winter morning.

Morgan found Travis' usual spot in the park, under the old maple tree. It was the tallest tree in the park, standing next to the playground, which currently was buried under ice ad snow, the swings creaking as their chains fought against the freezing temperatures. Travis was nowhere to be seen, so Morgan peered up into the tree branches. The cold had come early this year, freezing over the maple's leaves before they could fall off. She figured that hiding in the branches would be the ideal place to watch passer-by's without being seen yourself.

"Hey, Travis!" she called up into the branches, "you up there?"

There was a moment of silence before Travis jumped down from the tree, landing behind Morgan and startling her. "Hey, Morg. Glad you could make it."

Morgan rolled her eyes but grinned anyways. She couldn't help finding him charming, what with his messy brown hair, and the dimples he had when he smiled. "You wanna tell me about this guy you saw or not? If we want to catch up with him before he gets bored of our humble little town, I better get going," she said, gazing at him in the most flirtatious way she could muster.

Travis smiled cockily. "Right, right, miss Nancy Tanner, off to save the town from yet another threat." he crossed his arms, leaning against the tree trunk. "Okay, so this guy was around about two hours ago. I saw him from pretty far away, but I got a pretty good look at him. He looked pretty normal; heavy trench coat for the winter, but, uh, I could have sworn he was blue. So that would be what tipped me off that he was, in fact, not normal."

Morgan frowned, confused. "Blue?"

Travis nodded. "Yeah." Travis gave a wry laugh, shaking his head as if it was all strangely amusing. Morgan wouldn't have been surprised if it had been for him. "The things the world throws at us."

Morgan shrugged. "All right then, I guess I have to go catch this blue guy. See you later Travis."

She turned to leave, and just as she hoped, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Wait Morgan, do you want to go out for coffee later? You're not busy are you?"

Morgan smiled almost too widely, barely suppressing a disgustingly girlish giggle as she asked, "Like a date?"

Travis smiled, making her heart skip a beat, and said, "just like a date."

Morgan found it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand after having been asked on a date by Travis. The only reason she even bothered searching for the man Travis had described was because she wanted so badly to impress him, a well as the fact that Lacy would be seriously pissed if she didn't find him.

The streets were very quiet, probably because of the snowfall. Morgan didn't blame the pures for keeping indoors; it was bitter cold out and the landscape was blindly white, forcing Morgan to squint just to see ten feet ahead. The storefronts on main-street were all dark; some closed for the winter break, while those that were usually open were currently snowed in.

Morgan lazily peered down alleyways as she passed, half-heartedly searching for the stranger. She had no luck so far, although she did find a stray cat rummaging through a garbage pail.

Eventually she stopped looking down the alleys. She figured that she'd be able to hear anyone else if they were near by, and began to turn her attention to her freezing fingers. She regretted not grabbing a pair of mittens before rushing out to meet Travis. She also regretted not wearing a hat, or a scarf. All in all, she was not properly dressed for the weather.

She sat down on top of an icy snow bank, nearly slipping off. She tried to down the street, to see if she could make out any figures in the blinding landscape, though it proved futile as her eyes bean to ache and she returned to squinting.

She breathed into her hands, pondering her next move, when she heard sombre murmuring coming from behind her. Turning around, she found that she was seated infront of the town's only church, although no one was in sight. She assumed that the murmuring was coming from the church grounds, beyond the gate, which was stuck wide open, frozen in the same snow bank she had sat on. She figured that it was worth giving the courtyard a look-see, and jumped up, moving quickly and quietly into the churchyard.

The yard also served as the town's only graveyard, and Morgan stepped carefully over and around the iced-over slabs of stone that marked the resting places of the dead. She ducked behind a large statue of a guardian angel, its stone face twisted in an expression of both mourning and peace. Morgan looked at it sceptically, knowing for a fact that people don't look at peace when they are mourning a loved one's passing. She was brought back to the matter at hand by the sounds of someone praying rather loudly, and peered around the angel's outstretched wing.

Before the statue of the Virgin Mary knelt a man who fit Travis' description, wearing a heavy trench coat. She couldn't get a very good view of him from her vantage point, and tried leaning a bit further, but lost her balance. She took a heavy step to keep her from falling face-first into the snow, causing the man to turn to stare at her for barely a second, his bright yellow eyes wide with shock, or maybe fear. Before Morgan could flinch, he disappeared.

A/N: Hello all :] Thank you for reading the first chapter of Don't Make Me Like YOu! I hope you enjoyed it.

First matter I would like to address: there will be quite a bit of cussing throughout this story (mostly on Morgan's part), so if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, exercise caution if you choose to read the next chapters!

The second matter at hand is that I'd like you all to know that this is the first time writing a "serious" ocxcanon story. I'd be extremely appreciative if you could tell me if I'm writing something extremely Mary-sue-y. Actually, I'd be more than extremely appreciative, I'd be over the moon. I'd like to avoid writing a sue-fic [:

That's all for now! Thank you very much for reading once again!