Xmen is the trademarked property of Marvel, all Marvel Characters are copyrighted to Marvel, their characters are borrowed, for the purposes of the story.
This is a work of Gay fiction, containing adult situations between consenting males. If you are under the legal age in your country, DO NOT CONTINUE, otherwise, I hope you enjoy.
WEAVER X
Chapter 3
Alex walked away from the docks silently and resolutely, never looking back once. Six weeks of enforced silence, darkness and Saul's attentions made him extremely glad to get off the cargo ship to say the least. Heading for the shadows, Alex found a space where he could wait until the customs people had been and gone, without having to endure more of Saul's acid breath and equally acid nature.
Dawn quickly brightened behind the city of San Francisco as the customs agents went about their work. Alex had cleared up after himself, ensuring that no speck or hint of his presence remained before he'd slipped over the side, down a rope and onto the docks. He watched them depart with a sense of relief and, using his mutant ability, became invisible, slipping around the shift workers in the early morning light like a wraith and out of the shipping yards, into the famed city.
Mid-morning found Alex sitting in Golden Gate park, eating a sandwich, foresight had led to him changing all his currency before leaving for the USA, Alex had been surprised at the substantial amount, nearly ten thousand American dollars.
As he watched the scattered people, play, walk and run about the park, he considered what his next move should be. Taking a large bite of his sandwich, he decided that California would do for now, but eventually he had better head south, Louisiana had always appealed to his imagination, stories of the bayou and New Orleans had been a staple of his mental diet for a long time.
Sighing, he finished his sandwich and headed in towards the famous Market St, in search of a newspaper and somewhere to live.
The flatmate wanted section of the paper was long and filled with potential, at least that was what Alex had originally thought. As he trudged from one place to another, he began to think again. Many of the people were either addicts, kids just out of home, or else just plain weird. Finally he walked up to a beautiful townhouse, certain that the occupant wouldn't be interested in a foreign national flatmate, but he rang the doorbell anyway, it was getting dark and he'd have to find somewhere to sleep soon.
The door was opened by a sad looking man in his mid- forties. "Yes?" His brusque tone was full of repressed emotion.
"I'm Alex, I phoned earlier about the flatmate ad." Alex smiled uncertainly. "But if this is a bad time, I can come back tomorrow."
"No, it's alright." The man hesitated slightly, his sad brows drooping. "I'm Dimitri." He shuffled into the hall, leaving the door open in invitation.
Alex walked in to the dark hallway and stared. All the pictures hanging on the walls were covered by sheets of dark fabric. Alex had read about how traditional families behaved in certain circumstances, and this was certainly a house in deep traditional mourning. "Are you sure that it's alright?" Alex asked as he entered the lounge.
"It's alright." Dimitri sat on a couch heavily and gestured Alex to sit. "My partner of 10 years passed away some time ago, it's time to join the world again, besides, I've got a lot of space."
Alex nodded sympathetically. "I hate to push you, but if you could give me specifics?"
"It's $1200 a month, including utilities, no drugs, no pets and no parties without arrangement." Dimitri smiled bitterly. "I hope that's all ok."
Alex had little choice left given that he'd exhausted most of the other options available, but it all sounded good. "I'd like to make it a temporary arrangement, at least at first, you may not like me or we could clash personalities."
"We can give it a months trial." Dimitri nodded agreement, straightening in his chair. "What have you in the way of furniture and things?"
Alex shrugged, this was the part that had blown many of the other, seemingly promising opportunities all day. "I've just come to the country, I don't really have anything."
"That's alright, the house is fully furnished, you can use our.my stuff until you get your own or whatever." Dimitri waved a negligent hand. "One last thing."
Alex tensed, sure that whatever was coming would be the condition that would make things untenable.
"Several of my friends and clients are.unusual to say the least. I trust that it won't be a problem?" His eyes narrowed, the sad look devoured by a piercing gaze of intelligence and will.
Alex realised that finally he was seeing something of the man underneath the grief, enough, at least to know that he would be a formidable opponent. "Unusual in what way? I'm fairly open minded, but there are some things I draw the line at."
"I specialise in mutant medicine, many of my friends and clients are mutants, as was my late partner." Dimitri resumed his grief stricken countenance. "Is this going to be a problem?" His voice harsh with grief once more.
"Nope." Alex smiled lazily. "I thought for a moment you were going to tell me you were all members of a demonic cult or something. Mutants don't bother me in the slightest."
Dimitri smiled in wry appreciation as he rose. "Well, seeing as you don't seem to have a problem, I think we can come to an arrangement, you can move in once you provide the first month's rent."
Alex rose and dug around in his bag. He'd carefully unpicked the seam on the base of the bag to create a hidden pocket for his money, so if someone tried to take it, they wouldn't find it, at least not straight away. Opening the pocket, he took a wad of hundreds out of it and counted three months rent into Dimitri's hand. "I changed my savings before I arrived here." He replied to Dimitri's surprised and bemused face.
"I guess I should show you your room then, that is, assuming that you haven't got any luggage stored anywhere that you need?" Dimitri nodded thoughtfully when Alex shook his head in the negative.
"I was going to backpack across the country, but I thought it might be a good idea if I stayed in one place at first, just till I get the hang of things over here." Alex followed Dimitri up two flights of stairs to what was clearly a converted attic space. It was bright, airy and lovely, a large bedroom, ensuite bathroom and small living area complete with a small television.
"We converted it last summer." Dimitri commented, watching the surprise and pleasure bloom on Alex's face. "We intended to adopt a young mutant and wanted to give him some space to be on his own."
"You're sure that you want me to have it?" Alex asked caution forced him to ask, it really was the best possible deal that he could have found in a lifetime for the money and for the various opportunities he'd have to observe mutants unnoticed.
"Absolutely." Dimitri's tone was unequivocal. "Will you be looking for work while you're in the country?"
Alex slowly walked over to the couch and dropped his bag on it. "Yeah, I'll have to start looking first thing in the morning."
"If you wish, you can join me for dinner this evening, nothing fancy, but if you're hungry." Dimitri walked to the stairs.
"Thanks, but I'm probably just going to get some sleep, its been a long couple of days." Alex smiled ruefully. "Thankyou. For letting me stay, I mean."
Dimitri paused at the top of the stairs and looked over his shoulder, smiling. "Don't thank me, you're paying for the privilege." And continued down the stairs, a faint thud indicated he'd closed the door at the foot of the stairs behind him.
Alex heaved a sigh and dropped back onto the couch, then sprang back up and headed to the top of the stairs. Using his mutant ability, he wove an alarm, something he'd figured out on the ship, it was silent, but if it was triggered, a rainbow of colours only visible to his eyes would flash warning. That done, he sound-proofed the entire attic, ensuring that no noise would filter down to the house below and went in search of a shower.
Alex's eyes sprang open and took in the unfamiliar surroundings for a moment before remembering where he was. A glance at his watch revealed it was still early morning, and the sunlight pouring in the window proclaimed it was a beautiful day.
Rolling out of bed, Alex took a shower and shaved the sparse whiskers that covered his maturing face and wondered what to do next. First thing was to look for a job, second thing.Alex's mind was thrown off track when a flashing of rainbow lights filled the room, his alarm had been triggered. Seizing his mutant ability, he unravelled the alarm and walked into the bedroom in time to see Dimitri step off the stairs.
"Good morning, I was just coming to wake you." Dimitri smiled. "Breakfast is on the table."
"Thankyou, I'll be right down." Alex waited politely for Dimitri to go, then turned to his possessions. Regarding the bag that held everything he owned in the world for a moment, he drew on his ability and wrapped them in what he called a sight shield, effectively rendering it invisible, then stowed it deep under the bed, out of casual reach.
Breakfast surprised Alex. It was in a light, airy kitchen at the back of the house, looking over the small garden, the view wasn't what was surprising, rather the sheer amount of food was. Bacon, sausages, eggs, scrambled and fried, hash browns, cereal boxes of all sorts littered the table, oatmeal, stacks of toast all accompanied by two pots of coffee and assorted juices.
Dimitri met his surprised look with amusement. "I wasn't entirely sure what you ate, and you cannot start the day without a substantial meal. Sit, sit and eat." He gestured as he took his own advice, helping himself to a large plate of food.
Alex stared for a moment, then joined him, taking a bowl of inoffensive looking cereal and a cup of coffee. "Where do I go to find out about job vacancies here? I mean is it just in the paper or are there job clubs people go to?"
"Job clubs? Usually people just use the want ads in the paper, failing that, the welfare office posts a few job notices regularly, there are a few placement agencies around, as well." Dimitri took a large bite of his eggs, considering carefully while he chewed. "What line of work were you in before you came here?"
Alex stiffened slightly. "I suppose you could call it a sales position, ideally it's not something that I'd like to go back into."
"Ah." Dimitri nodded sagely. "It can be a vicious line of work. Commission based work is always very competitive."
Alex felt his face flushing slightly. "It can be." He studied his bowl for a moment. "You're a Doctor?"
"Yes, originally I was just your run of the mill G.P., but then word got around that I wouldn't discriminate between normal and mutant humanity, events have since turned me into a xeno-physician."
"What is a xeno-physician?" Alex knew what the term meant, having virtually swallowed every book that came within his reach, but long habit had taught him misdirection.
Dimitri gave him that considering look again. "It used to be totally in the realms of the theoretical, science- fiction. A xeno-physician is a doctor that works with non-human biology, alien life forms and all that. There are some mutants that have significantly altered physiology." He glanced over at Alex. "Different body structure, different systems inside, many mutants need someone trained in tracking and tracing new or different systems inside, so I got what training there was and have been helping out as often as I can."
"That would have caused some difficulties." Alex reached for a piece of toast, glad to have diverted Dimitri from his line of questioning and into something else.
"Yes, it did." He considered for a moment, and reached for the coffee pot. "Eventually all my normal human clients left my practise and for the safety of my patients, not to mention myself, I had to close it down, there were a few dangerous incidents with mutant haters that made it to risky to continue practising in plain sight, so I quietly let my mutant clients know that I would continue my practise from my home."
"How is it any better here? I mean you said that you're trained in dealing with the unusual types of mutant biology, right? That has to mean that at least some of them don't even look remotely human, so hasn't that just transferred the problems to your own doorstep?" Alex's brow wrinkled in thought as he took a piece of toast and chewed it thoughtfully.
Dimitri looked at him guardedly. "There would be problems with them coming openly, as you say, but we've managed to come to an arrangement."
Alex glanced up at Dimitri's carefully guarded expression. "If things aren't as different here as back home, then I'm guessing that either you know a mutant who can make whole groups of people invisible to come and see you, or they're using the underground network of tunnels to move unseen." He smiled cautiously at Dimitri's slightly panicked expression. "I spent some time down in the tunnels back home, doesn't take a genius to figure it all out."
Dimitri let out a large sigh. "I take it that you won't be letting anyone know what you know about this place?"
"Why should I?" Alex asked rhetorically. "It's none of my business what you do, and I've never had a mutant try and hurt me, so I've got nothing against them." He shrugged. "But if I can figure it out, then some smart ass mutant hater will hear about you, figure things out and sooner or later, find out where you live and try to start something."
Dimitri stared at him in horror, his jaw dropping open. "I never thought.I don't want to leave my home!"
"Then don't." Alex met Dimitri's panicked eyes. "Ask one of your clients to see if they can alter your electronic information, then open a post office box for all your regular mail." Alex shrugged. "You have to figure that mutants who live underground know how to work the systems to stay undiscovered."
Dimitri licked his lips nervously and pushed his plate away from him. "You, you are right. I must see to this right away."
"Get them to see if anyone else has been doing some snooping around, you know, trying to find you and maybe ask for a guard to be posted or something. It's gotta be low key, but effective.you know what I mean." Alex nodded meaningfully at the alarmed man.
"I do, and thankyou." Dimitri called out, dashing out of the room.
Alex grinned. He'd helped the man out, and diverted him successfully from looking at Alex's past too closely, it was already turning out to be a good day.
Alright, so maybe it wasn't such a good day after all. Alex thought as he tiredly trudged his way back to his new home. An entire day of going to interviews and filling out applications had been a complete and utter waste. No-one wanted to hire a young, unqualified, foreigner for anything, except maybe sweeping the floors in a hair salon for what equated to six dollars a day.
Alex sighed in disappointment as he walked up the hill towards the house. The one bright point of his day, was that he'd dug into his savings to buy himself some new clothing. He'd bought two new outfits, including shoes. One semi-formal outfit was for interviews, the set he'd been wearing all day, the other was just t-shirt and shorts, what he had brought to America with him was looking a little worse for wear.
Alex slipped the key into the lock and entered the large house. Pausing for a moment, he heard no sounds of life and climbed the stairs to his room. Wearily dumping his bag on the sofa, he headed straight for the shower, unravelling his sound wards as he went. As he'd walked around the streets of San Francisco, that day, it had occurred to him, that if he wished to keep his status as a mutant to himself in a house that would be full of them, all with unknown powers and abilities, that anything out of the ordinary would be noticed and remarked upon. So his sound wards were out, along with any non-emergency use of his powers.
As he showered and washed the grime of the day away, Alex became aware of a loud thumping sound. Ducking his head under the shower to rinse the last of the soap away, he cautiously turned the water off and listened.
It was a heavy, rhythmic sound, like a bass beat. Alex slowly exited the shower and peered around the corner, checking his room. Nothing. Quickly he dressed and, silently as a cat, walked down the stairs and opened the connecting door. The sound was louder and accompanied by muffled voices. Alex crept down the stairs, straining his ears to hear what the voices were saying.
At the ground floor, it took Alex a moment to realise that the voices, were in the kitchen, along with the incredibly loud hammering sound, which made it extremely difficult to hear what they were saying. Senses straining, Alex seized his mutant power and wove a personal shield, along with a couple of other potentially nasty weaves and opened the door a crack.
"We need to get this done before the good doctor gets back." Alex couldn't see the speaker, but it sounded like they were near the pantry door on the opposite side of the kitchen.
".if you'd just shut up, I'll get this done faster and we'll be outta here in no time." A second voice called, the voice sounded.harsh, almost mangled.
Alex started to form a fireball with his talent as a female voice spoke. "If you two don't stop fighting we're never going to get anything done. Dimitri said if you could hide the entrance so well that he'd miss it after living here for more years than your combined IQ, then he'd be safe, so stop your bitching and get on with it."
Alex reeled back in surprise, and extinguished the fireball. Thinking fiercely for a moment, he dropped a silence ward over himself and sprinted back up the stairs, slamming the door behind him. As fast as he could, he got undressed and leapt back in the shower, dropping the silence ward as he turned on the water. The silence ward would have covered the noises he made running up the stairs, but not the door slamming. With luck anyone coming to investigate would think he hadn't heard anything, that he'd just gotten home and went straight up to the shower.
Almost panting with tension, Alex washed the terrified sweat off his body. Only minutes after making the resolution not to use his powers, he'd almost blown it with people Dimitri had gotten to help him. Slowly, he regained control of his breathing, and his emotions, the water seeming to almost bring him back into balance, as it always had.
Reluctantly, Alex shut off the water and towelled off. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and got dressed.
"Hi, you must be Alex." A woman sat perched on the arm of the couch by the stairs. "Name's Eloise, Dimitri asked me and a couple of friends to come by today and do some maintenance for him." She looked him up and down appraisingly.
Alex noted that she was the woman who'd spoken downstairs. "Oh, right. Nice to meet you." He smiled vaguely. "How's it going?"
Eloise smiled, it was reminiscent of a predator baring her teeth. "We're almost done. You really lit a fire under him this morning, didn't you?"
"Better he knows sooner than later about things that could be dangerous I guess." Alex shrugged, walking over and sitting down on the bed. "I'm surprised he didn't think of it before."
"Well, Dimitri's a nice guy, but sometimes, things like this don't occur to him." Her smile widened. "Which leads me to ask why these things occur to you?"
Alex tilted his head to one side. "My past isn't up for discussion, now or ever." His voice became glacial. "Suffice to say that I felt I owed Dimitri for renting me the room and I don't want to see him get hurt."
Eloise stared at him in disbelief. "You.Dimitri told me that you know about us being mutants and you're still not scared of us, are you?"
"Us? All he said was most of his friends and clients were mutants, and I don't see why I should be scared of anyone. No matter what any of you can do, you're all still just as human as the rest of us, regardless of what anyone else has to say on the matter." Alex smiled sardonically.
"You and Dimitri." Eloise shook her head. "Two of a kind. I suppose this means that you wouldn't mind if Claw and Scales came up to meet you then?" Her mocking tone would have been enough to set a saint's teeth on edge.
"No problem, I can't guarantee that I won't be a little shocked if their appearance is really different, but sure, I'd love to meet them." Alex stood, looking at her expectantly.
Eloise scowled at him. "They're busy downstairs." She said shortly, clearly disappointed in his reaction, and just as clearly used to normal humans reacting in a very predictable fashion. "You sure you're not related to Dimitri or something?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Not in anyway I know of." Alex laughed, sitting back down. "I guess I just have a lot in common with certain parts of mutant life."
"Yeah? Like what?" Eloise snapped, her body tensing just like a cat before pouncing on its prey.
"You know of any other reason a guy would travel halfway around the world to live in the gay capital of the world?" Alex grinned. "Gays and mutants have a hell of a lot more in common than most would like to admit."
Eloise stared at him in disbelief once more, all the predatory tension gone from her stance. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Nope." Alex shifted slightly on the bed. "Gays have to hide who and what they are from their family, society and if they are exposed or choose to let people know who and what they really are, they face persecution, often from their closest loved ones. Parents kick gay kids out of their homes and never think about them again, except to curse their names. If it gets known in the larger community, they are automatic targets for bashing, abuse and quite often murder. If a gay person wishes to walk down a street in any given place in the world, freely advertising who and what they are, then they may as well just draw a dotted line on their throat with the instruction 'cut here' written underneath it, unless they are in certain places. Only in those certain places is a gay person free to be themselves. To seek out their own kind and try to live a happy life. Sounds a lot like being a mutant to me, only without the powers."
"So that's why you don't have a problem with mutants." Dimitri's voice startled Alex slightly. Dimitri walked over from the stairs where he'd been listening. "You're gay and you understand what life can be like for mutants."
Eloise nodded at Dimitri. "The boys should have finished by now, I'll go and check on them." She glared at Alex for a moment, before giving him a look of reluctant understanding. "You might have a point." And walked down the stairs without another word.
"I was wondering when you'd get around to explaining why you didn't have a problem with mutants." Dimitri said softly, ignoring Eloise's departure. "Not that you needed a reason, but there is sufficient grounds for caution, all things considered."
Alex shrugged ruefully. He would have gotten around explaining things to Dimitri eventually, he just would have preferred not to have to do it the day after meeting him. "Well, no offence, but we are complete strangers and."
"Yes, yes, there was no point telling me anything while you were still settling in and all that nonsense." Dimitri waved a hand absently. "Still, it is good to know where you are coming from and why you are here." He smiled triumphantly.
"Alright." Alex spoke slowly, cautiously. "Does this change anything?"
"What? No!" Dimitri spoke with scorn. "As you said, why live in the gay capital of the world if you don't have a little tolerance, at the least, share a preference at the most." Dimitri smiled sadly. "My partner's name was Angelo.he and I were.well, he at least was a true angel." He dropped down beside Alex on the bed and sighed. "He and you would have gotten along, I think, but that is enough of all this, things can wait until we get to know each other better, then I will bore you with all my old stories."
Alex couldn't help smiling at Dimitri. "That might be an idea. How did you go finding people to help you cover your tracks?"
"Oh, good, good." Dimitri nodded enthusiastically. "And thankyou for alerting me to the potential for trouble, I must admit that I'd overlooked those aspects of things." He paused and took a long look at Alex's tired face. "I take it that you had no luck though."
"No, no luck." Alex grimaced through a tired smile. "I'll just have to keep on trying till I get there."
"Well, I'm going to go down and start dinner." Dimitri stood and looked over Alex with pursed lips. "Are you going to join me this evening or continue as you started?"
Alex laughed involuntarily. "I believe I can struggle through fatigue to join you this evening."
"Good. I've eaten alone too many times." A knowing look entered Dimitri's eyes. "And so have you. Time to break that habit, for the both of us."
AUTHORS NOTE.
This is my first flirt with submitting anything I've written, so please be nice and give me lots of feedback! And a big thanks again to everyone who wrote in, it's hugely appreciated!