"You do what?!" the other teens shouted all at once.

"Yup, my... uhm... Magneto brought me here."

"Oh great!" groaned Rogue, while Todd and Fred exchanged curious glances and Lance glared deadly at their new housemate.

His glare grew even more deadly, when Pietro picked up the second can of beer and drowned this one also.

"First rule when you live with us: Do not drink my beer!" he grounded out between teeth, his anger barely controlled. "How old are you anyway?"

Again he was startled when Pietro suddenly was behind him, patting him on the shoulder. "Come on shakedown, don´t be a hypocrite! Don´t tell me you are old enough to drink! So why care about my age?"

"And besides", the speedster continued, "it´s not really alcohol in my book. My metabolism is way too fast for it, you know. Has no effect on me at all."

Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh you are so very cool, aren´t you? And no, we do not have anything stronger!"

"Want something?" Pietro´s eyes glittered mischievously and before Lance could even open his mouth to form a response the boy was gone.

Lance looked at his team. "This fellow will be fun," he said sarcastically.

"You can say that one loud" agreed Rogue. Also Freddy nodded and complained. "He ate all my popcorn."

Just Todd´s opinion was a bit more favourable. "But he is fast, yo! Could be handy!"

That was the moment Pietro ran back in and held out two bottles of vodka proudly. "There you go! You wanna pass the bottle around? Oh no, we have a lady in our mid. I´ll get glasses." He shot his words of so rapidly, that the other teens ears started to ring.

Suddenly they all held glasses filled to the brim with vodka in their hands and Pietro opened the second bottle. "Cheers!" he called out and drank most of it in his fast way. He was drunk almost immediately and slurred laughingly "Drink up guys!"

Lance shot his younger mates a look that lingered longest on Todd and said: "Don´t you dare!"

He put down his glass and watched as Pietro unsteadily made his way over to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. "What´s your name anyway, buddy?" he asked, his speech nearly incomprehensible by now.

Lance sighted heavily. "It´s Lance. Come now, let´s find a place for you."

Five minutes later Pietro was fast asleep in one of the spare rooms and the Brotherhood looked down at him.

"Maybe we should turn him on his side or something," advised Rogue. "We don´t want him to die, should he vomit."

"If he hurls I am not the one cleaning it up", growled Lance, while shifting Pietro into a safer position. "Nor me, yo!" announced Todd.

"Me neither! He ate all my popcorn!" was Fred´s comment.

"Well, then let´s hope he doesn´t get sick," said Rogue and left the room, followed quickly by the boys.

"What about dinner?" asked Fred.

"Fred! We just talked about vomiting!" spoke Lance exasperated.

"I know! But I am hungry! He ate..."

"All your popcorn! We know!" cried the others.

"So?"

"What so?" grumbled Lance.

"What do we eat?" Fred wanted to know.

"I wanna eat Pizza, yo!" called out Todd.

"Good idea! I´ll order some!" And with that Fred walked off happily to the phone.

Two hours had passed and the boys were sitting lazily and stuffed with Pizza in the living room watching their favourite show on TV. Rogue had eaten in her room, as she did most times and was listening to music.

They all expected to see their newest member not again before morning, so it was a rather well... unexpected sight to see him walking into the living room when they were 20 minutes into their show. Of course they did not know the speedster very well yet. He had not lied or exaggerated when he had spoken of his very fast metabolism. He looked a bit hungover still, but was walking straight again. "What´s for dinner?" he asked, smelling the room. "Is that Pizza?"

The guys stared at him. "Uh..."

"Are you deaf or dumb?" Pietro smirked at them.

"Are you really feeling up to eating, yo?" Todd wanted to know.

Pietro smiled. "Of course! Never been better!"

"There is left-over Pizza in the kitchen." Lance pointed straight ahead and ignored Fred´s mumbling, that he had wanted these Pizza for a snack later on.

With a woosh-sound Pietro was gone and back again with two big slices of cold cheese Pizza in his hands. He gobbled them up faster than the boys could see and asked: "What are you watching? Is it something cool? Oh that´s boring! Gimme the remote, little guy!"

"My name is Todd, yo! And you cannot have the remote!" said the youngest Brotherhood member, holding it out of the new boy´s reach.

"Can´t I?" the speedster smiled dangerously, than swiped the remote out of Todd´s hand with ease, shoved his butt down on the sofa between the startled boy and Lance and started channel surfing at superspeed.

Lance took this chance and grabbed the task-absorbed boy by his shirt. "We were watching this!" he snarled and reclaimed the remote to zap back to the right channel. He let go off Pietro and the mutant sat still for about 5 seconds, before he got bored.

"Someone wants to play cards?" He sprinted off and returned holding a deck of cards, looking at his "new friends" hopefully.

They however just spared him a short glance and continued watching TV.

"What about you, Fatty?" Pietro addressed Fred.

Todd´s and Lance´s eyes grew big, while Fred turned an unhealthy shade of red. "How´d you call me?!" he shouted.

Pietro glanced to the other boys. "RUN!" Todd mouthed at him. Pietro felt the adrenalin rush though his veins (a feeling he loved!) and took off, Fred behind him.

"Heh, heh, you can´t catch me!" he hollered, enraging the big mutant even more.

Lance, unbelievingly, shook his head. "He doesn´t know what´s good for him."

Todd looked a little worried. "Should we have warned him not to call Fred fat, yo?"

"Nah... let him find out himself what an angry Fred is like." Lance chuckled and turned back to the TV.

Just in that moment the front door opened and Mystique entered the house. She watched puzzled, when she saw Fred sprinting up the stairs, which was a very unusual sight indeed.

"What is the matter with Fred?" she asked the remaining boys, when she came into the living room.

"He is just playing with the new recruit," Lance answered nonchalantly.

Mystique blanched and turned around immediately, running up the stairs. "Fred!" she called.

Lance and Todd listened from their positions to the chaos erupting upstairs. Things crashed to the floor. Doors banged. Pietro laughed and teased. Fred stomped around and roared. One time they heard Rogue shout, they should stay out of her room or the gloves would come off. And when Mystique had reached her destination her shouts mixed into the racket as well.

"Just glad my guitar is safe," said Lance and looking with a loving eye to his treasure that he had taken down with him, after they had put Pietro to bed.

"Yo, but not my bug collection!" Todd responded worriedly.

"Fred! Stop that! Fred! Stop now!" Mystique could be heard clearly now, while the other sounds died down a little.

"Go downstairs!"

"But he called me fat!"

"You ARE fat!" laughed Pietro.

"Quicksilver! Stop that nonsense!" the form changing mutant bellowed.

"Do I know you, blue?"

"You will get to know me smart mouthed brat!" growled Mystique and the speedster grinned at her.

"Not when you can´t catch me! And you caahaant!" he sang.

Back downstairs Todd looked at Lance. "Should we have warned him not to piss of Mystique, yo?" he wanted to know of the older boy.

Lance smirked and waved his hand casually. "Nah. Learning by doing, my friend. That is the best way to learn."

The End