It
Chapter Six: ‘It’
The sun shone through the curtains and woke up Morph from their deep, dreamless sleep on top of Logan’s warm chest. They turned to see the alarm clock read ‘10:37’. They shook Logan’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s late, boss’s gonna be mad.”
He groggily opened his eyes, “Already is, tried to wake us up hours ago.”
“And?”
“I told him where he can stick that shiny metal bucket of his.” Logan sat up and stretched.
“How did I miss that?” they asked, following his lead.
“Ya’ didn’t, almost. You woke up for a second, made y’r ears disappear and went back t’ sleep.” He laughed, “Erik saw that you were back and decided it was best for you t’ rest anyway. And the only way you were doing that was with me.”
They grabbed his face and kissed him. “Ugh, I need to shower, I feel gross.”
“Want help?” Logan asked his partner.
“Dude, really? Not now. I’m still too tired.” They rolled their eyes at the proposition.
“What? Morph I wasn’t meaning sex, I meant because you seem like you might actually need help.” He furrowed his brow at them.
“Oh, nah I should be fine. If you wanna hang out here, though, I’d appreciate the backup if I need it. But let me grab some real clothes first.” They headed out the door and to their own room. Inside, they grabbed a loose t-shirt and a pair of sweats and a fresh pair of underwear. They turned and saw their jacket folded and on the bed. Rogue had retrieved it and left a note on it and a book of some sort next to it.
The note read:
“I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough, sugar. I hope this helps you feel better. The book has all of Sinister’s notes on you, I didn’t read much, just saw what I needed to know it was yours. You can do whatever with it, throw it away if you want, but it ain’t his no more.
-Rogue”
They grabbed the jacket in their left arm with the rest of the clothes and ran their right hand across the leather cover of the book. A small ‘N.E.’ was engraved in gold on the spine. They flipped it open to the first page and saw:
Subject 7723 a.k.a. Kevin Sydney
Other alias include MORPH, CHANGELING, XAVIER MURPHY
Mutation: Shapeshifter
Gender: N/A, presents male attributes
Hair: N/A., Brown
Eyes: N.A., Brown
Height: 5’9
Notes: Subject has a base form of pure white skin and eyes, no hair on head or body, no nose, no gendered organs. This form also seems to behave in a liquid like manner when agitated.
They flipped the page.
Subject is part of a group called “The X-Men”
This group presumes the subject is deceased after being shot by an anti-mutant weapon.
It could be useful to me. A shapeshifter already close to subjects in wait; Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Its mind already seems fractured after undergoing such distress. Breaking it until it bends to my will should not prove difficult. Fully utilizing its liquid state could prove useful for other biological tests.
Their breath grew shaky. All of Mister Sinister’s plans, laid out in front of them, what he wanted and expected from them, all the ways that he knew how to break them, just a few pages away. They folded the book shut and walked briskly back to Logan’s room, slamming the door shut behind them.
Logan’s arm was across his eyes and he was laying on the bed. He quickly sat up at the noise, “Hey what’re you-”
“Will you read this with me? I can’t do it by myself but I need to know the important parts.” They handed the book to Logan.
“What? Yeah sure.” He flipped it open to the first page and realized what he was reading. “Where’d you get this?” His face became serious and he stared them down.
“Rogue took it, from the lab I guess. I don’t know. It was on my bed with a note apologizing for something I didn’t even think to be mad at her about.” Their voice was shaky.
“What are the important parts?” He asked.
“I don’t know,” They hugged themself, “Just anything I should know. I don’t know. About my body I guess. I've always wanted to know how it worked, but there’s a lot of terrible stuff in there. And-” they had to stop to take a breath.
Logan stood up and guided them to sit on the bed next to him. He put an arm around them and opened the book again. “I don’t like being called it” they whispered, staring at the page.
He kissed their cheek. “How about I look through the book, run certain parts by Hank so he can dumb it down for us, then I rewrite it for you?”
They squeezed their fingernails into the palms of their hands. They could feel their flesh turn to putty under the pressure. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess that works.”
He set the book aside and grabbed their hands, to prevent them from hurting themself. “Why don’t ya’ shower? You’ll feel better.”
They nodded and grabbed the clothes and walked into the shared bathroom. Morph liked scalding hot showers, it felt like they were melting the filth away. They scrubbed their body thoroughly, in case they picked up any foreign pieces spending their week as a milkshake. It felt good to get all the dirt and oil off of their skin. They finished, dried their body and wrapped the towel around their waist. They realized that there were more scars than the last time they had looked at their chest and sighed. They wiped off the fogged mirror with their hand and brushed their teeth. They dressed and stepped out to see their boyfriend leaning on their dolphin plushie, reading the notebook with a very concerned look on his face. “Learn anything?”
“Just that I love you.” He smiled at them, he wanted to tell them something else but was worried how they would react, and his face showed it.
“Ok, love you too, anything else to share with the class, Mr. Pokerface?”
“Uh” he contemplated his thought, but Morph wanted to know about their body, and this was their body. “You might’ve survived the sentinel blast without his help.”
“Oh? You learned that in just the fifteen minutes I was in the shower?” Morph kinda laughed but they wanted to know what he meant.
“Yeah, uh, it says that the wound was closing by ‘tself, before he even got there. He just helped speed up the process.” He looked at their hand as it grabbed their chest.
“I remember that,” they whispered. Their eyes grew wide with recognition “I remember trying to shift the wound shut. I didn’t think it was working” They met his eyes as their voice picked up. “All the time he spent convincing me that I owed him my life because he saved it, and-and I could’ve done it myself.” They began to laugh. “I don’t owe him anything.”
“You never did, Kevin.” Logan looked concerned.
“I know, I know. But now-now I’m actually convinced. I’m not his, I was never his.” Their laughter picked up and they ran and jumped on the bed to hug their boyfriend, landing in his lap. “Logan, I don’t owe him anything.” They turned to look at him and smiled so wide that the creases of their eyes made the cutest wrinkles.
He leaned down and kissed them on the forehead, “I know sweetheart, you ain’t his.”
They grabbed his face and pulled him down to kiss him on the lips. “I’m yours.” they laughed again, this time much softer.
“Yer mine, love.” Logan laughed back, staring into those big, milky white eyes.