Title: Gym Class Anti-Heroes
Characters: Saint-John Allerdyce (Pyro) and Wanda Maximoff, featuring Rogue, Remy, and Wade.
Genre: Romance, Angst, Humor
Rating: T (close to M but not quite) as there are frank discussions about sex, mild language, and sensuality. No gratuitous nudity, sex or violence.

Summary: No Powers AU where John and Wanda are students at the Xavier Institute. When John gets the courage to ask Wanda out, the two embark on a relationship that couldn't be more romantic, or tragic, than if John wrote it himself. Companion piece to Chellerbelle's Gym Class Heroes.

Cover Image original art work by monachus-satraps on deviantArt

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are coming here from Chellerbelle's wonderful Gym Class Heroes then you can skip this note and go straight to the prologue. If you just found this story, there is something you should know…

Chellerbelle is evil, sure, she looks all sweet and huggable, but really, the girl has 'evil genius' written into her genetic code. She goes and writes Gym Class Heroes which she sends to me for beta'ing and it just sucks me in. Then she goes and tells me all these ideas she had that didn't make it into the story and I just can't help myself…

One NaNoWriMo later and I've written a companion piece to Gym Class Heroes which centers on John and Wanda. Chellerbelle gave it her stamp of approval and even agreed that we could post the stories in tandem (okay, so threats/bribes may or may not have been involved…). At the end of each chapter we will have a cue telling you which chapter you want to read next as they do not necessarily weave exactly one after another (you'll see the same cue at the end of her chapters).

If you are reading this as it is posted then you'll practically get an update every day from one of us. If you are reading this after it's been finished then I recommend opening up both stories in separate windows and flipping back and forth. Gym Class Anti-Hero starts after Gym Class Heroes chapter 22.

Don't worry, I wrote this to be stand alone so you won't be 'missing' anything if you decide not to read her story. But really, go read Gym Class Heroes, it's awesome! I'll wait!

Chellerbelle's Gym Class Heroes
fanfiction DOT net/s/8733003/1/Gym-Class-Heroes

…

Welcome back!

If you got caught up on Gym Class Heroes then skip to the Prologue, if you decided you're just in the mood for some Jonda (cause Jonda is just so awesome), then here's a download on what happened over in Chellerbelle's story. You don't necessarily have to know this stuff but here is it is all the same.

Previously… in Gym Class Heroes

Anna Marie Howlett is the daughter of the divorced Raven and Logan. Raven skips out to visit her son by another man, previously unknown to Marie, and leaves Marie in care of her father. Logan has a job as a coach at the Xavier Institute along with his half-brother Victor. The gym class is split into two teams to foster competition, the X-Men and the Brotherhood.

Marie is not happy about any of this (dyes a white streak into her hair as rebellion) as she has to break up with her boyfriend Cody because of the move. Upon reaching the school she soon makes friends with Wanda Maximoff. She also draws the attention of Remy (who has a genetic mutation which means he still has his red-on-black eyes). Remy has a strict 'no girlfriends' policy because, and it's a secret, but he's engaged to be married a week after his 18th birthday which is after he graduates. He's told no one this but Marie who continues to 'not date' date him but will also not let Remy past second base.

Through all of this, Wanda and John are hopelessly crushing on each other but do nothing to rectify the situation. Eventually, John gets the courage up to ask Wanda out on a date. Everything was then going great when the two boys snuck out to visit Marie and Wanda who are doing a sleepover at the Howlett's on-campus housing. After a late night swim, John inadvertently reveals a very big secret about himself which will color the rest of his relationship with Wanda…

Gym Class Anti-Hero

Prologue

She liked Saint-John, she really did, but to be honest, he was horribly awkward. They both were, really. Wanda liked to put up the façade of being the tough and self-reliant feminist hero, but John was just so much fun and so darn cute. She'd never be the girly girl that the X-Men women where, like Jean or Kitty, but now and again she liked the idea of being someone's girl, specifically John's girl.

When she and her brother had been made to come to Xavier's school where her father was the History teacher, she found most of the others to be intelligent but vapid. They had very little in common and were entirely too conformist. Even the Brotherhood, which was the gym team that tended to contain the more troubled or rebellious types, were sadly lacking in any true individuality.

Except there were two who were decidedly different.

The first, and most obvious one, was Remy LeBeau. His pranks were stuff of legends and his sexual prowess was apparently not exaggerated. According to every girl he went out with he pushed the limits, though remained respectful. He never failed to take an opportunity to carve himself out of the perfect picture everyone wanted to paint him into. She didn't find him attractive in the least but she could appreciate him for what he was.

The second, and the more subtle, was Saint-John Allerdyce, otherwise known as Pyro because he, well, liked fire. But this wasn't what made him stand out, many males of the teenage/young adult variety had a love of fire and seeing things go boom. It was quite common to see Mythbuster's playing on the rec room television in one of the boy's two dorms. No, with John, there was a sense of beauty, of understanding, and he loved fire like one would love a woman, never mistreating it.

It was this fact that drew her to him at first, mostly as a curiosity. He wasn't overly rebellious like Remy, nor was he attempting to be rebellious while actually desperately wanting to belong like Lance. He was who he was, him and his fire, and if anyone had a problem with that, okay. Literally, okay.

She'd never met a person so comfortable in who they were, at least not at this age. But as she got to know him she could see that things were not quite as simple, there was something much more complex going on in the mind of the pyromaniac. A question that begged to be answered.

This wasn't what made her begin to crush on him though, no, that was a result of how he had a way of making her laugh no matter what mood she was in or what was going on. He had the most beautiful smile. Sure, all the girls looked at Remy LeBeau and his impossibly good 'sculpted by a classical Greek artist' looks… but John, John was real.

At first she tried to deny her attraction, that she would ever suffer the same dopey eyed love sickness as the other girls was absolutely out of the question.

Then Marie came to the school, finally a girl who had her head screwed on right, someone Wanda could relate to and talk to without dreading any insipid rambling. It was obvious from the get-go that Marie and Remy would either be the hottest couple on campus or destroy each other in some overly-romantic way. But Marie was smart, balanced the wheel of strong woman and love interest perfectly and somehow tamed that wild thing known as Remy LeBeau, mostly.

And in their talks, she made Wanda realize that there is nothing wrong with liking John, with wanting to date John, or of occasionally looking at the cell phone picture she managed to snap of him right when he was giving that full blown dazzling smile…

Yeah, she had it bad, but no, no way was she going to make the first move. Part of her chided and said 'it's a new age, women can ask men out' but then another part dreamed of just that little touch of romance… a little bit isn't so bad… almost anything can be good in small doses…

And thus she was stuck in a quandary which thankfully took care of itself.

John asked her out, and he was so cute when it did it, the normally self-assured man almost at a complete loss. He looked to be also suffering from the same butterflies that suddenly attacked her when she realized what he was doing. So surprised that she had eagerly agreed to his request he ran off to Remy because he didn't know what to do next.

But then that was John, even when he was stumbling he did it his way, without shame, because he knew who he was.

Two dates and one first kiss later, she found out why.

"Fine. My dad used to beat me. Happy now?"

Wanda always knew John had a foster father, it partially explained why an Australian was going to school in Westchester, but there was a million and one reasons why this was so. That same relaxed air about himself lulled everyone into not questioning exactly why he was in the situation he was in.

That's when Wanda learned he wasn't as completely put together as she thought. He was perfectly fine with who he was now because it was the only way to live with what he had used to be. He pushed that part of himself, that scared and scarred little boy, so far down so he wouldn't have to look at him or acknowledge him.

That wasn't healthy, it didn't take someone with a PhD to figure that out, but now Wanda was at a loss. This confident, bright, and shining young man was so very damaged, though she found that she cared for him no more nor no less than before. If anything, it only defined what she felt.

"Saint-John," she used his full given name and internally winced, it's what you do when you have bad news, "about last night…"

She left the sentence opened ended, as much as she wanted to pry, to try to fix what she now discovered was broken, she wasn't going to be that girl.

He stopped flicking his lighter and his eyes slowly came up to meet hers. There was pain in them, a pleading, but for what she wasn't exactly sure, "I don't want to talk about it."

It took some control but she refused to push him, to tell him he had to, that it was important to, because she knew it wouldn't be right of her to do so. Not yet anyway.

"Okay," though she couldn't help resist adding, "but if you ever do, you know I like hearing you talk," she smiled warmly, "you have such a wonderful way with words."

He blushed, just a touch, and that helped sooth over the moment.

And thus the subject of John's past life as a victim of parental abuse was tabled, the elephant was let out of the room. But it was still there, waiting outside, and would poke its nose in from time to time.

Saint-John Allerdyce was a man who knew what he was… a person who chose to ignore a vital and defining point in his life. He understood that he did this, he accepted that he did it, and that it was his secret.

Sometime later, all Wanda would able to think is that she knew this going in, that she accepted this wouldn't be easy… but easy was boring.

Continue to Chellerbelle's Gym Class Heroes – Chapter 23