I don't own Marvel or any of the characters within this story and claim no rights to them, nor am I suggesting anything about the characters that are mentioned in this story or their sexual orientation within the Marvel comics.
If you're under age to be viewing this kind of material, don't read this 18+ only, or whatever the legal age in your area is. If male/male relationships offend you, don't read this. Other than that, feel free to enjoy(hopefully).
Just wanna say thank you to everyone who sent me messages for the first chapter, the support was really great, so thank you so much. I know its been millennia since I've written, sorry about that, but lots of free time now so more to come :)
I opened my eyes to complete darkness. It was oppressive and suffocating, it consumed me, but it wasn't empty like normal darkness: it was alive. I tried to make a noise, call for help or scream, but the darkness swallowed the sound. After a few moments, a deep red light glowed all around me, from no particular source. It illuminated the darkness enough that I could see a huge shadow in front of me, moving and shifting as though cast by a great fire. Dark tendrils wrapped around me, crushing me, tearing at me, ripping my skin off in chunks and piercing my stomach.
I screamed through the darkness and sat bolt-upright in bed as I heard frantic knocking on my door. Before I could bring my thoughts around to answering the door, it flew inward off its hinges. I yelled in surprise and brought dark tendrils up around the bed. As light flooded in the room, it glinted off the metallic body standing in the doorway, and I realised it was Pete that had just, rather unceremoniously, broken my door down. He rushed into my room, looking around frantically "What's wrong?! I heard you screaming" he asked slightly breathless.
"Nothing! Nothing, I'm okay, it was a bad dream. Sorry, I didn't realise I'd been screaming" I said, raising a hand to rub at the back of my head, embarrassed as all hell that I had screamed out loud. Pete relaxed at this and moved, somewhat hesitantly, towards me. I dropped the defensive tendrils and Pete sat down next to me on the bed. He reached out towards me and I recoiled instinctively, still jumpy from the dream. He kept moving his hand towards me, and I stayed still this time as he wiped the tears off my cheeks. I blushed, embarrassed that he had seen my crying and turned my head away, wiping furiously at my face and rubbing my eyes. "Wanna talk about it?" he asked quietly. I shook my head and added "I'm gonna get dressed" I waited a little before adding "I'm kinda in a state of undress under here so uh"
"Oh right, yeah, I'll wait outside" he said awkwardly before getting up and walking out. He turned "Um sorry about the door, I'll just look the other way"
"Its okay" I said, raising my hand to bring up a wall of shadow in the doorway, plunging the room into darkness again. Safe, empty, lifeless darkness.
After splashing my face with cold water and pulling on the same clothes from yesterday; I had nothing else to wear, I lowered the darkness and walked out into the hall. Pete straightened himself up from leaning against the huge window, and I couldn't help but think how nice a hug from his muscular frame would be right now. "You okay?" he asked, showing genuine concern
"Yeah I'm fine" I forced a smile that I doubt convinced him
"Sorry about the door, I'll let the professor know" he said guiltily, making me smile.
"Don't worry about it. Thanks for ya know, making sure I wasn't being murdered or anything" I said, wrapping my arms around myself as we walked down the corridor towards breakfast. "That's okay, wouldn't wanna lose you" I smiled before he added "you're too cute to lose" and that made me beam, so I looked away to hide it. We made our way to breakfast in silence after that. When we got there, I sat next to Jean, with Pete on the other side of me. I turned to Jean to see her smiling broadly "well very good morning to you two" I raised an eyebrow at her, but she just smiled and turned back to her toast. I grabbed some juice and cereal from the middle of the table and sat eating in silence. When everyone had finished and left, Professor Xavier called me over "Alex, here's your timetable starting next week. You'll have the rest of this week to get comfortable and make some friends. You'll be fitted for your uniform today and should have it by the weekend. I understand Jean is also taking you shopping today?"
"Yeah she is" I looked over my shoulder to see Jean waiting for me.
"Wonderful, well you'll be fitted for your uniform when you get back. Also, your powers and capabilities will be tested on Sunday by the senior members of the team in the Danger Room downstairs. Now off you go. You two have fun." He smiled kindly
"Thank you, professor." I replied. He nodded, and I turned to follow Jean out of the dining room and down some corridors into a huge garage full of cars and motorbikes. "Holy shit" I gasped, staring around the garage. "Haha I know right" Jean grinned at my astounded look "come on" and she led me to a beautiful blue Mazda "this is Scott's car"
"Wow, this is frigging amazing" I said, getting in the passenger side
"Well now you know the extent of the Xavier budget. You know, I think the professor sees a lot of potential in you" she said as she started up the car
"Oh great, high expectations and I've only been here a day"
"Don't worry, he's not gonna expect anything major from you, but you have already got pretty good control over your powers." She finished. I made a non-committal noise and she pulled the car out of the garage.
We spent the day at the mall, buying me a shit tonne of clothes, some posters, a cactus, some bed sheets, and various other stuff to personalise my room with. At some point, Jean left me in a store while she went to "run and errand" and she returned with a black bag and a big grin on her face. I thought nothing of it and continued my money-spending spree. When we got back, Jean and I unpacked all the stuff we had bought, Jean filling my wardrobe with all my clothes and me putting up posters and other decorative stuff. Then we came across the black bag "I thought you might want this, though with the way things are going with you and Pete, you might not need it" she laughed. I narrowed my eyes at her, hoping that it wasn't what I thought it was. "If this is... If you..." I narrowed my eyes again and took a box out of the bag. Sure enough, it was a male vibrator, specialised for prostate stimulation, three speed settings, in hot pink. I gave Jean a dead-pan look. "I swear to god, if anyone finds out about this. Oh shit, the professor's telepathic. You are just the worst kind of person..." I stopped at Jean's expression. She was looking over my shoulder towards the door with a mingled look of horror and delight. I turned to see Bobby standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face, his eyebrows raised "You are gay then. I was just coming to tell you the professor wants to see you in his office. Nice colour choice by the way" and with a wink he was gone.
"Wait Bobby I didn't – it was Jean!" I stared in horror at the spot where Bobby had disappeared before turning to Jean who was in mild hysterics. "I'm going to brutally murder you. Hide this somewhere" and I threw the box onto the bed next to her before walking to the professor's office.
"Hello, Alex. I just called you here to get you fitted for your uniform. Before we start, based on your powers, Ororo has drawn up some ideas that we would like you to take a look at and decide which you prefer" the professor gestured to a set of drawings on the desk in front of him, so I sat at the desk and started looking over them. I finally settled on one that was skin-tight black trousers and t-shirt with grey panels down the back of the t-shirt and down the inside of the trouser legs. Also in the design were black military boots, dark grey arm bands and fingerless gloves with black tendrils detailed on them. All the seams were in a silver colour and there was a silver X on the left side of the front of the t-shirt. The mask was a simple light grey, with black tendrils spread across it, that covered the area around my eyes. After choosing my outfit, Ororo started taking my measurements for it "would you like to choose your codename now?" professor Xavier asked
"Um I would have no idea what to call myself" I said, looking over my shoulder at the professor while holding my arms out.
"Well, most base it on their powers: Storm for example." Ororo smiled at me as the Professor indicated her with a wave of his hand
"Yeah I was thinking that, but The Shadow sounds kinda stupid"
"Yes, I suppose it does" Xavier smiled "well you don't have to decide right now, give it some time, ask your friends"
"I will do, thanks professor"
Charles smiled "I also wanted to talk to you about the circumstances surrounding your arrival here. Please, have a seat" he indicated the chair in front of his desk. Ororo, having finished taking my measurements, was writing them down and so I sat down. "Alex, you were found in the lab of Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister. Can you tell me why you were there?" he asked, rather gently
"Um not really, sorry. All I can remember is that I was walking home one minute, then next thing I know I'm strapped to a table attached to a load of cables."
"Alright. Did Sinister mention anything about why he was keeping you there?"
"Um I don't really remember, my head felt pretty fuzzy, I was mostly focused on getting out" I said apologetically
"Naturally. Don't worry. Would you mind if I take a look inside your mind, just to see if I can clear some of those memories?"
"Yeah, sure" I said, slightly hesitantly. The Professor wheeled around the desk and I turned my chair to face him. He lifted his hands slowly and placed them on the sides of my head
"If you would just relax and close your eyes, Alex" I did as he asked and almost immediately began reliving the night that Sinister kidnapped me.
It was bizarre: like I wasn't in control of my mind anymore, and all these thoughts were resurfacing and I couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I saw the room with the table and the cables running from my chest to nearby machines, and I could hear Sinister talking
"I've been studying you for a while, mutant. Your power is odd. You certainly have the mutant gene, yet your power seems to draw its source from... elsewhere. This source, from what I have been able to discover, seems extraordinarily lacking in limit. I must harness it. But first I must understand how you control it." Sinister then moved from out of the shadows. He wore a purple bodysuit with red accents, his face was pale and he had a red diamond on his forehead. I felt a sharp pain as a needle was inserted into my forearm: sinister was drawing my blood into tubes, setting four of them into a rack on a table nearby. "You'll be feeling a little lightheaded, I wouldn't recommend over-exerting yourself for a few hours" he smiled. I was starting to panic, straining at my bonds and looking around trying to devise an exit strategy. "I'm afraid you won't be escaping, Alex. I know you can't use your powers without, quite frankly excessive, arm movement."
"Fuck you" I spat at him, not being able to think up anything more witty. Sinister just laughed. Breathing hard, I decided to try and focus on controlling the shadow around me. Sinister was right, I generally couldn't use my powers without making some sort of arm movement. Generally. Without arm movement, I was less dextrous with my powers, but I could still use them. Sinister turned his back and I took my chance. I brought shadows up to slash at the leather strap around my right wrist. It cut clean through, and I felt a searing pain as the shadows also cut my hand. But I couldn't worry about that. Using my now free hand, I threw a blast of darkness at Sinister. It caught him on the shoulder, knocking him over the table and out of sight, letting me cut myself free without cutting myself in the process. I ripped the cables off my chest, got up and ran, blasting open a nearby door and bolting through it. I felt something catch me in the shoulder, hard. Pain shot through my shoulder and everything went dark
I opened my eyes and it took me a moment to realise where I was. My heart was pounding hard and my shoulder seemed tender as I looked around, taking in the Professor's office and the Professor himself. "Thank you Alex, this will greatly help me understand why Sinister was so interested in studying you."
"That's okay" I replied quietly, rubbing my temple
"Yes, I'm afraid you may feel some adverse effects, the ghost of an injury or slight headache. Sorry about that. As you have the rest of the day to yourself, I do suggest you get some rest. I believe Piotr was in the lounge; he also has a free day today" the look he gave me was a little too knowledgeable for my liking, but I smiled and left the office, heading for the lounge.
I found Pete watching Charmed on the huge 60" TV, and sat next to him on the couch "love this show, what's happened so far?"
"It just started, so nothing really" Pete said, draping his arm over the back of the couch behind me "didn't think anybody else liked this, its kinda cheesey"
"Heh yeah it is, but I don't mind, its still cool. Love anything sci-fi" I said, slightly inching closer to him
"I can tell we're gonna get along, we'll have to have some movie nights" He said. I liked this idea. When Charmed finished we decided to get some lunch then we went for a walk in the grounds of the mansion. "So wanna talk about your dream earlier?" this caught me by surprise "Um why?" I asked, not really sure why he would care enough to ask
"Well it just seemed like it bothered you a lot, just wanna make sure you're okay. So talk"
"You don't have to-"
"Talk" Pete said, somewhat forcefully, turning to look at me with quite a serious look on his face
I frowned but began to explain my dream "well it's a dream I have quite a lot. I'm in the dark but then it sort of lights up and I can see a big mass of darkness and it starts to uh tear me apart and its pretty excruciating and then I wake up" I hadn't intended to tell him but the relief of doing so was palpable. "Ugh, sorry, shouldn't have said anything". Pete didn't say anything, but closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around me. It only took me a moment to relax into him. He moved back slightly and I looked up at him. He just looked at me for a moment before leaning in towards me. His kiss was firm but his lips were soft. His hands dropped my hips and pulled me close to him. I brought my hands up to rest on his chest as I almost had to stand on tiptoe: he was stupidly tall. His hands moved to rest on the small of my back, rubbing slightly but still pressing me close to him. We finished the kiss and I rested my forehead on his chest, his chin resting on top of my head. "Shit," I said, slightly breathlessly "you're a good kisser." Pete laughed
"You're better" he said, sounding pretty much unaffected by the kiss
"Well thanks," I said, absentmindedly rubbing my fingers on his chest "and thanks for listening."
"No problem, thanks for talking" he said, his voice deep and soothing
"I'm gonna fall asleep standing up in a second" I say quietly, pushing at his chest. He let go of me, but took my hand and we started walking back towards the mansion as dinner was starting soon. "So uh what does that make us now?"
"Well I suppose it makes us more than friends" Pete smiled
"Hah yeah I should say so"
"Well what do you want it to make us?" Pete asked, a hint of trepidation in his voice
"Well maybe it makes us whatever and see if that whatever becomes something?" I said, cringing in anticipation of Pete's response. He just laughed, gripping my hand tighter and said "Well that was very vague, but sounds good."
Dinner was pretty uneventful, though Pete held my hand under the table for most of it. By the end of dinner I could've sworn Jean's head was going to blow off from wanting to mention it. Apparently Pete noticed this too as he pulled our joined hands to rest on the table, drawing most people's attention. Several smiled, and Kitty grinned, while Bobby looked a little sulky. After dinner, most of us went to the lounge to watch a film, and by the end of it I was practically in Pete's lap with my legs up on the couch across his. I yawned widely and Pete looked at me "Wanna go to sleep?" he asked quietly
"No, I'm fine." I said, though I immediately yawned again and Pete shifted me to stand up
"Come on, you're going to bed, you didn't get enough sleep anyway"
"Ugh okay. Night guys" the group bid us goodnight and we walked slowly back to my room. Pete pulled me in for a kiss goodnight which, had I not been so tired, probably would've become a lot more than that. I turned and opened my new door to my room, Pete smacking my arse, playfully, as I did so. I yelped and he laughed "sweet dreams" he called as he walked away. I grinned like an idiot and shut my door.