Epilogue - Home

Disclaimer: They belong to Marvel, I'm just playing, but I promise to put them back when I'm done.

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Lance lay awake in bed, arms crossed behind his head, enjoying the complete lack of medical equipment in the room he was now sharing with Summers.

Someone with a tense martial stride passed his door and stopped in front of the room shared by Bobby and Sam, "Scott in a bad mood," Lance decided.

"Sorry to wake you Sam," Scott said tersely. "I need to have a word with the Popsicle."

"No problem, I've been up since dawn, just trying to keep quiet for all yah slug-a-beds," Sam replied in a friendly tone.

A small pause while Scott crossed the room, "Bobby, you wouldn't know anything about the hot water pipes being frozen would you?"

Lance smirked; it served Summers right for being the first person in the showers every single morning. He sensed new footsteps approaching from the girls' wing. "Robert Drake!" Rogue yelled and Lance decided the fireworks were gong to be worth getting up for afterall. As he walked to the door, Lance kept one hand on the top of the dresser, "Just in case," he told himself, moving to lean in the doorway.

Bobby was backed against the wall hands held out pleadingly. "I didn't mean to get you!" he protested as Rogue stalked toward him.

The confrontation across the hall drew Todd out of the room he and Fred shared. The sandy-haired teen stepped directly into a tub of green jell-o left in front of the door, slipped and ended up covered in the stuff. Lance heard Fred laughing as Sam cracked, "Turn about's fair play."

"Bobby you are so dead!" Jean yelled storming up the hall.

Sam and Fred exchanged a high-five, Todd grinned evilly at them, "There's still no substitute for the original!" he declared. They took off running as he spat a mouthful of slime at them.

"Toad!" Jean shrieked getting caught in the crossfire.

Bobby decided to use the distraction to slip away from the victims of his practical joke. "You're not getting off that easily," the redhead thundered using her telekinesis to hoist both Todd and Bobby into the air.

Scott joined Lance on the sidelines. "Jean is not a morning person," he confided.

"She's a red head," Lance pointed out. "I always knew she couldn't be Miss Perfect all the time."

Scott shook his head and sighed, rolling his eyes behind his shades.

Kitty stormed out of the kitchen, Kurt trailing after her triumphantly waving a camera. "I was going to finish the whole thing!" she insisted.

"A whole half-gallon of orange juice, tell me another one," Kurt cracked. "Hey everyone! Kitty drinks straight out of the carton! I have proof!"

"Will you shut up?" Kitty demanded, blushing as she phased her hand through the camera and yanked out the film.

"My camera!" Kurt exclaimed, snatching up a convenient handful of jell-o to throw at Kitty.

Jean had finished with relocating most of Todd's slime to his person so she released him to chase after Fred and Sam seeking his own retribution for the morning's pranks, while Jean turned her attention to Bobby. "What to do with you," she pondered.

"Dunking him in ice cold water won't work," Rogue said. "He'd like it too much."

"Is there a sauna handy" Jean wondered.

Drawn by the noise Amara and Rahne wandered over from the girls' wing and promptly slipped in the mess of jell-o that was rapidly spreading across the hall. "You're looking for Fred and Sam," Lance offered helpfully as the two girls scrambled to their feet, the gleam of vengeance alight in their eyes. "They were headed outside last I saw of them, better hurry or Todd'll get all the fun."

"You guys are a bad influence," Scott informed Lance surveying the chaos.

Lance grinned. "Better be careful, it might rub off on you too, we are roommates after all."

There was a shout from the boy's bathroom and Ray came storming down the hall, a towel around his waist, shivering, electricity sparkling around his hands.

"Right over there, join the line," Scott said pointing him toward Bobby.

As Ray joined Rogue and Jean in planning Bobby's fate a hoard of Jamies poured into the hall from all directions, each one with an armful of water balloons.

Before he could throw a single one a distinctive "snikt" froze all the combatants in their tracks. They looked up the stairs to the third floor where the instructors had their rooms. "Take it outside," Wolverine said in a low dangerous tone.

Bobby wriggled free as Jean's concentration faltered. He made a break for the outdoors Jean, Rogue and Ray hot on his heals.

Kitty and Kurt each scooped up armfuls of Jell-o and headed for the stairs and the door.

Logan shook his head at the mess in the hall and the trail of Jell-O leading down the main staircase and out the door. "I hope they all get a kick out of scrubbing floors," he grumbled heading for the kitchen.

"You need a hand?" Scott asked Lance.

"I'm fine," Lance said irritably. Scott watched him take the first couple of steps then decided that Lance wasn't over estimating his recovery and hurried outside, intending to referee. A Jamie ambushed Scott as he walked out the front door then ran off laughing.

By the time Lance joined the others outside a full scale war was occurring on the front lawn: The Jamies were water bombing all comers. Rahne had switched to wolf-form and was biting the back of Sam's shirt, holding him down so Todd could slime him. Amara was using her powers to herd Fred back toward the pool. Bobby had built a snow fort and was holding off his attackers, he'd iced himself to the ground to keep Jean from grabbing him with her Telekinesis but couldn't over come her shielding ability and slowly but surely she was pressing forward while Ray and Rogue split Bobby's fire. Kitty and Kurt were chasing other around the lawn, having run out of Jell-o they had resorted to mud from the flowerbeds, not that they were having much luck in getting each other, between Kitty's phasing and Kurt's teleporting, but they were wracking up a considerable amount of collateral damage. Scott was using his optic blasts to pop the Jamies' water balloons before they could throw them.

Lance spotted a water spigot and grinned; keeping one hand on the wall of the house he made his way toward his goal. Whistling a cheerful tune he hooked up the hose and a spray head, turned on the water then sprayed an unsuspecting Kurt down, melting the mud ball the blue furred mutant had been about to throw at Kitty.

"My hero!" Kitty laughed running to join Lance.

"Who's next?" Lance asked smiling at her.

Evan walked out the front door. "What's going on?" he asked yawning.

"Everyone else has been got," Kitty said pointing to Evan.

"Sounds good to me," Lance said dousing the surprised skateboarder.

"Evan isn't the only one missing out all aspects of the fun," Scott said blasting the spigot so that Lance and Kitty were sprayed by water shooting out of the broken tap.

"Why you!" Kitty exclaimed starting after Scott.

"Kitty, a hand here," Lance called. Together they used their hands to redirect the stream of water at Scott.

Lance squeezed Kitty's hand happily, looking around at the insanity running rampant across the Xavier Institutes grounds and laughed, feeling one hundred percent at home.

The sun crested the hill above the Xavier Institute illuminating two figures standing there. The slender silver-haired teen barely noticed it his eyes were locked hungrily on the scene below. His companion scowled at the light, stepping back into the shadows as he dug sunglasses out of his trenchcoat to protect his uniquely night adapted eyes.

Gambit noted the way the rays of the sun were caught and reflected back by the pale tousled strands of Pietro's hair, making it look like the boy had caught fire for a moment, he wondered if it were an omen and if it were how should he interpret it.

Omens were never so considerate as to be unambiguous. He'd read the cards for Pietro a dozen times since they'd fled Magneto, and he still didn't know if the Queen of Hearts represented salvation or the path to the destiny foretold by the Ace of Spades, but the status quo couldn't remain and he was ready to start taking chances.

"Will yo' go back today?" Gambit asked.

Pietro pulled back a look of unspoken terror in his eyes. He shook his head vehemently.

"Do yo' like purgatory s'well den?" Gambit asked. "Yo' begged me to bring yo' back here, I t'ought yo' wanted more dan to look t'rough de glass."

"Tomorrow, okay?" Pietro promised.

"Yo' said de same t'ing yesterday, not mentionin' a few 'fore dat."

"I'll do it tomorrow."

Okay, putting a cliffhanger in the epilogue wasn't nice, I am working on a sequel though: "Flashpoint". Once I realized I was getting swarmed with plot bunnies that wouldn't fit into this story I started looking for a good break point. Originally I intended to pick a more stable stopping point for Pietro but every other subplot definitely belonged with "Flashpoint"… Also I've pretty much run out of editing room , so this appealed as a breather for me (It'll probably be a month or so until I start posting again).

See you soon - Kizmet