The rays of the sun peeked through the blinds of his window, prompting Peter to sit up from his bed. It wasn't the only foreign feeling he experienced since he chose to stay at the Professor's mansion after the whole Apocalypse fiasco, living in the basement of his mother's house for most of his life. He had a slightly smaller bed now — he had to admit he kinda missed his good ol' bunk bed — plus, he had a huge stack of boring books in his room instead of his arcade machines. What he'd give to have them transferred in his new room, but the professor would totally be against it. A huge, total bummer it was, but not a week had passed since he stayed anyway, so he figured he should still try to embrace this new, strange environment.

Dragging his body away from the bed, he placed his legs on the wooden floor, making it creak as he started stretching. He placed extra effort on his right leg, which stung a bit as he did but the pain was more tolerable than the past days. Much to his delight, he no longer wore the heavy cast; plus, his arm was feeling pretty normal again. He realized that this whole mutant thing had its perks — aside from his superhuman speed, Professor Beast guy explained to him that his body also healed faster than normal, so bandages as support would already suffice while waiting for it to completely heal. The big furry dude also said something about continuing bed rest or something, but the important thing was that he could totally walk again without those annoying crutches, right?!

Jumping off from bed, he donned his shoes and made his way out to the corridor — empty, as he expected, since the youngsters' classes start at around nine-o'-clock — which, he also realized, were the start of his classes too since he remembered that he was actually in a school and not some super rad vacation house. It also made him remember that he was supposedly amongst the "youngsters" despite probably being at least a decade older than most of them but he found himself not caring at all. The age difference was the least of his worries and most likely theirs too, being mutants and all. . . at least that was what he'd like to believe.

Within milliseconds, he was already out of the mansion and basked himself with the morning sun, only having the opportunity to admire the vast open fields of the Xavier estate. Man, his dad's friend sure was filthy rich, wasn't he?

After a dozen of rounds running around the estate — the familiar breeze he missed after his leg was confined in cement — he came to a stop in front of the lake and rested his back against a tree, feeling his leg more fatigued than usual. Eh, perhaps Professor McFurry was right, as much as he hated to admit it, bed rest and whatever would be for the best . . . but not after another round of running! His eyes made it way to the mansion again, but at the last second, he turned the other way and decided to explore the fields instead. Peter loved adventures after all. Maybe he'd even see more interesting stuff (and perhaps find out how fucking enormous the estate was).

As he evaded the nineteenth tree along his way, something out of the blue caught his eye — a series of floating twigs and rocks and flowers from the distance! Of course, it wasn't the strangest thing he saw in his life, ever, but it still piqued his interest. He took a closer look, hiding behind a tree, and discovered who was causing it. It was that redhead chick who kicked Apocalypse's ass and helped in rebuilding the mansion!

Watching her synchronize the floating objects around her body was actually quite therapeutic, he realized. He didn't know how long he had been observing her — the super speed stuff really messed with his time perception — until her voice brought him out from his musings.

"It's quite rude to stare, you know."

Oh, crap. He forgot the fact that she could actually read minds or something. So much for being super stealthy.

"Shouldn't you be resting too?" she continued with her back still facing him, "Your leg was in quite a poor state after the battle. . ."

"Nah, I'm fine," he dismissed, stepping out from his hiding spot. As she turned her head to him, the levitating objects dropped to the ground, so he took it as a cue to sit beside her, but with an appropriate distance, since he didn't want her to think he was some sort of weirdo or something. "You know, your powers are pretty awesome."

Her eyebrows furrowed as if she didn't believe him, but he made no motion whatsover that he wasn't telling the truth. "Thanks, but it's something I can't really control yet." The curves of her lips barely turned upwards. "You, on the other hand, have quite amazing feats. The other students look up to you as a hero."

Peter snorted, scratching the back of his neck. He learned of their fondness with the mass of teenagers visiting the clinic and taking turns in writing and doodling on his leg cast. "I just did what had to be done. I'm pretty sure any of you who had my powers would've done the same that time."

She simply showed a ghost of a smile, and when he did not say anything back, she brought her hand up, making the previously floating objects back in the air. "Why are you up so early in the morning? Classes don't start 'til nine."

His eyes were glued towards the twigs circling around above their heads. "I know. I guess my body's not really used to this place yet."

"I see. I understand the feeling," she admitted, as she continuously maneuvered the objects in a rotatory movement, "I . . actually caused some disarray on my first few nights here."

"It couldn't have been that bad," he retorted back, glancing at his companion, the sunrays illuminating her fiery red locks as if she were the sun to the revolving stuff of nature around her. The imagery was reminiscent of the things he saw on his own personal field trip to the town's planetarium — the tickets to the new museum were way too high but he got his ticket for free . . . but nobody knew that, of course. "I mean, what, it's not like you made the mansion float or something, right?"

She only looked at him quietly with widened eyes.

"Wait, no way, noooooo way — did you actually —?"

The look of embarrassment as she stooped her head low was enough of an answer for him. He couldn't hold back his laughter.

"Man, you are amazing, you know that?"

She had her hand on her shaking head, but he could see that he somehow made her laugh along with him. "That's really not something to be proud of, you know. The other students started fearing me because of that."

"Eh, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it eventually. I remember the time when I discovered my powers and caused everyone to panic since I was panicking because why the heck was everything so slow and I ended up giving quite a chaos since I was running around and pushing people and stuff. Yeah."

She looked at him incredulously, and he realized that the twigs and flowers and rocks weren't floating around them anymore.

"You'll get the hang of it," he continued, reaching out a hand to pat her firmly on the shoulder, "You'll be fine."

Hearing him say that somehow made her features soften.

"Thanks, Peter," she replied, finally, giving him an actual smile for the first time that morning.

He picked up a discarded twig and fiddled with it. Amazing how it was up in the air just seconds ago, in normal time and not in his otherwise slow-motion universe. "Uh-huh. So is that why you're here so early in the morning?"

"You catch on pretty quickly."

He smirked. "Perks of the powers, most probably."

Chuckling, she likewise took a twig and held it between her fingers. "I really wish to control it eventually. I don't want to end up hurting the people around me. . ."

He unceremoniously dropped the twig on the ground and brought a hand to his chin. "How's this, maybe before that happens, I could bring you to another place where you could wreak havoc without hurting anybody, how's that?"

She was silent again for a moment, seemingly thinking about his proposition as she stared at the stick on her hand. When she turned her head and her eyes met with his, he simply responded with a sheepish grin. Her lips curved upwards. "Alright, I would appreciate that, Peter."

Oh right, she had been calling him by his name, but he did not have a clue what was hers. Shit. Was it Jenny? Jane? Joana?

She chuckled again, reaching her hand towards him.

"It's Jean."

He held her hand and shook it back, laughing in embarrassment. These mind-readers. "Damn, this is awkward."

"Sorry, bits of my telepathic tendencies are still involuntary," she said, pushing her hair behind her ears, "I try not to, really."

He shrugged. "No worries, at least that saves time in conversations. I was planning to ask you, anyway."

Jean stood up and brushed away the grass and dirt from her hands. "Well, Peter, should we head off to the mansion now? We should start preparing for class."

"Sure. Don't tell the professor that I've been sneaking off this morning, though!"

Jean tried to hold off her laughter but failed, the two of them chuckling as the sun continued rising behind them.