Familiar
It could have been a very romantic early morning… If they weren’t startled awake by a heavy brown curtain falling on top of them: the tape finally gave out. They laughed as they wrestled the fabric away, which should’ve been an easy task if the curtain did not weight a thousand pounds and had they not been drunk in sleepiness. They never realised Peter had spent most of the night with his arm draped over her.
After breakfast, Charles and Hank had whisked Summer away.
As they did with every new arrival, they had to run a couple of tests to know what she was capable of and how much control she had over her powers. They were pleased to learn that, not only did she know the capacity of her abilities, but she was also able to control it easily. Again, the only good thing that came out of her years in the white room.
Summer wasn’t nearly as happy as Charles and Hank seemed to be. There was this feeling, in the pit of her stomach, telling her that something was off. She wasn’t comfortable, not even for a second, not even as they praised her. The easiness she felt with Peter – like she could jump off a cliff and he would catch her – she couldn’t feel it now. Maybe it was because Peter wasn’t around.
He had vanished after breakfast, to God knows where.
Maybe it was just too much to ask. Truth is, Summer never trusted anyone as blindingly as she trusted Peter. She needed to admit that to herself, and give those two the benefit of the doubt at least.
She was also grieving. The death of a beloved one wasn’t something you could just sleep-off. She knew she would have to deal with Alex’s absence – a literal ache in her core – for the rest of her life.
She pushed her feelings aside as well as she could, and followed Charles and Hank from a place to another, from demonstration to demonstration. Test, to test. Finally, they took her to the danger room, where Ororo met them. They told Summer she would be doing a fight demonstration.
“We just need to know if you’re able to defend yourself.” Hank had said.
“I am.” She had self-defence training, that then evolved to full on combat training, in the white room. She had told them that already.
“Good. Then let’s see it.” Hank prompted.
Somewhere inside of her, the last little piece of duct tape that was holding on to a heavy brown curtain for dear life, gave out. Whatever she was feeling, it became too much. Too much for her to brush aside. Too much for her to ignore. She didn’t want to do it. And they really couldn’t force her to.
“No.”
It was one of her favourite words. It sounded so freeing. Maybe it was because she never got to say it often before. In the white room, she had to do as told. But she wasn’t in the white room anymore. Though it certainly looked a lot like it.
Summer knew now why everything felt strangely off. It was because it felt familiar, in an uncomfortable way. White room familiar. Years and years of abuse familiar. It’s like she was stuck in this sick and vicious cycle that she desperately needed to break free from. She needed to get out of that place just like she got out of the white room.
Summer wasn’t about to enter that same scenario again, not if she could help it.
“It’s just a little demonstration-” Hank pressed
“No!” She repeated more sternly, visibly annoyed “You had me running around all morning doing those ‘little demonstrations’ of yours. Tell me, how’s this any different from where I was before?”
It wasn’t. Fighting, tests, demonstrations, it was all she knew. All day, every day, for years. She had walked right into that trap. Willingly. Her mind replayed Tracker’s words: People never come willingly. But she just had. She was that dumb, apparently.
Hank couldn’t find an answer, Charles seemed pensive and Ororo barely knew what was going on. The biggest difference between the X Mansion and the white room so far, was that no one tried to physically stop her when she stormed out. Summer may have been dumb enough to get there, but she wasn’t dumb enough not to leave.
As she made her way through corridors that where just starting to feel familiar, she felt her eyes getting teary, her vision blurring out.
When Summer opened the door to her room, the first thing she saw was Peter and, despite it all, it somehow washed her in relief.
There was a lot to take in: Peter was standing on top of her plastic covered bed, painting the ceiling black. A good half of the ceiling was already black, the furniture was covered in plastic and the floor was covered in newspaper. There were some paint cans scattered around, some open and empty and some still sealed, as well as paint supplies and different kinds of paint brushes and rolls.
One could assume Peter was a professional painter from how well he had set everything up. But one close look revealed that there was just as much paint in his clothes as there was in the ceiling.
“Ah you ruined the surprise” Peter said, in mock disappointment “I know it doesn’t look that good yet, but once it’s dry I’m gonna add those glow in the dark sticker stars I got. It’s going to look sick.” He said getting down from the bed. “I was going to paint the walls too, but I thought it would be better to let you pick the colour. Actually, now thinking about it, I probably should have let you pick the colour of the ceiling too” He finally took a good look at her and her expression stopped him dead in his tracks. “Shit! You didn’t like it!” He said, completely misreading the situation in classic Peter fashion “I can paint over it! I can-” Summer walked up to him and threw herself at him, hugging his middle tightly “Hey, I’m covered in-” He stopped once he realised she was sobbing into his shirt, his arms immediately wrapping around her “Hey” he said, more tenderly this time “Did something happen?”
“Let’s leave” She said into his shirt. “I don’t wanna be here anymore. Let’s leave.” Her head shot up and she looked him in the eye, waiting for his answer. There was a smidge of black paint in her left cheek that Peter thought about brushing off, but his fingers weren’t clean either.
It never occurred to her teary fogged mind that Peter was under no obligation to follow her around. He had his own life, his friends, he had a family. He had no reason to follow a girl he barely knew to God Knows where. She could leave and he could choose to stay, no big deal.
“Okay…” He started uncertain, before continuing with more determination “Okay. Let’s leave.”
He realised right there and then that he didn’t have to know any more than she was willing to tell him. He needed no further explanation, though he would love to get some in the future. If she wanted to go, he’d go with her. No questions asked, no nothing. It was enough for him, that she wanted him to go with her. If something had happened, and it was reason enough to make her cry and want to leave, then it was all he needed to know.
He would gladly punch someone too, she just had to say the name (and maybe point to him who the person was, he did not know many people there).
She gave him a small smile, and immediately let go of him, to lead the way out of there. She came there with nothing, so there wasn’t anything to pack. They could stop by Peter’s room and grab his stuff.
But they didn’t make it very far, Charles and Hank were waiting just outside her room.
“Summer…” Hank started.
Summer inhaled sharply and took a step back into the room. Peter, just behind her, still had no idea what happened or what this was about, but he could sense that something was off. He saw fear in her face, like those two were the last people she wanted to see right now. Instinctively, he took a step and positioned himself between Summer and the two, shielding her, in a way. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to fight those two – they would probably crush him easily – but He would if he had to. He would for her.
“Summer, we’re sorry” Hank continued “You’re right. Our behaviour was inappropriate and we were very inconsiderate of you. We’re not going to lock you here. We promise.” That’s exactly what someone that wanted to lock you up would say.
“We just thought you’d be a great addition to the X-men” Charles added “Someone with such an ability and that much control could really change the world” Of course they thought that. All that training in the white room made her look like an appealing asset to any army. Except for the fact that she refused to fight.
“But we understand if you don’t want to fight. We can find something else for you to do. Or not!” Hank helped.
“You can stay here, and we’ll protect you from those that are after you. Just like we said we would. Even if you’re not ready to fight” Charles finished.
Summer considered their words for a moment. It sounded sincere. It also sounded just like what she would want to hear. Charles, as she had learned, read minds. And she had no reason to trust him or his nerdy friend. But there was someone else there that she actually trusted.
“Give me a second” She stepped from behind Peter and closed the door, leaving Charles and Hank out. She liked that. She felt way more at ease when it was just her and Peter. Just the two of them, in their weird little bubble of comfort. She immediately turned to Peter “Do you think I should stay?” He still had no clue what that was all about, but he pondered for a second before answering with what his gut was telling him.
“I brought you here because I thought those two could protect you. I still do.”
“You brought me here…” she repeated, voice low, some engines on her brain starting to turn, an alarm ringing on her head. A warning. There was something there, in those words. “As soon as you saw my powers you brought me here…” Either she was the biggest conspiracy-theorist in the world right now, or she was right about this. Her gut told her it was the later
“Summer-” Peter thought she was suddenly growing taller, but then he realised that her feet weren’t touching the ground anymore. She was floating. Her expression darkened.
“You’re using me” She accused. “You’re using me, just like them” The words were painfully ripped out of her.
“What!? Summer-” Peter did a double take behind him and yep, several small objects were floating behind him.
“You want me to fight!” when she realised what Charles and Hank wanted from her, she felt disappointed. Finding out Peter was involved made her feel betrayed and heartbroken. It hurt. She never wanted to be wrong so badly before.
“Summer, no!” He felt himself getting lighter, his own grip on the floor growing precarious. There was nothing scary about floating around in a low gravity space, what Peter found scary was the fact that she was doing that to the room out of pure rage. “I wouldn’t. I- Summer, you gotta believe me.” She had no reason to. He managed to reach one of her hands, and he held it tightly. “Just give us a chance. I- I just wanted you to be safe.”
Safe.
As much as she hated to admit it now, safe was what she felt when she first kissed him in that record store. Safe was what she felt when he took her home to meet his mother. She felt safe when he singlehanded defeated nine men who were after her. She felt safe just two minutes ago, when she ran to his arms.
There was no logical reason to trust him who, effectively, was a stranger to her. There’s nothing he could say or do to prove she wasn’t right. Every single thing pointed towards the theory that he’d brought her there to fight, to be a part of Xavier’s army.
But then there was her heart. Her heart, that had no reason to lie to her. Her heart that, though it was much too soon to admit aloud, longed for Peter. Her heart trusted Peter blindingly, since the beginning and it was yet to stop.
She looked at both their hands together and slowly blinked the anger out of her eyes.
“If I stay…” She started unsure, testing the waters. “Would you stay too?”
“I’ll stay if you want me to.” It felt sincere. “But if you want me to leave-” Her grip on his hand went from non-existent to strong, like if she was trying to physically prevent him from leaving even before he even thought about stepping away. It did so instinctively, thoughtlessly. Just like she had done the night before.
Her body had betrayed her, made her look weak and vulnerable. Her body needed Peter just as much as any other part of her. She couldn’t phantom to be apart from him. Everything inside of her begged her to believe him, to trust him. It defeated all reason.
She stared into his eyes. She was placing her precious freedom on the hands of this handsome stranger and silently begging him to not betray her. She wouldn’t know what to do if he did.
Slowly, her feet returned to the ground, Peter got his normal weight back and the objects that were floating before were slowly lowered into the nearest surface. She took a deep breath and went to open the door. All that without letting go of Peter’s hand.
“We’re staying.” She said. “I mean, I’m staying.”
“Oh, I’m staying too” Peter said with a smile, waving with his free hand.
“But I’m not fighting.” Summer clarified. Charles nodded, hiding a small smile.
“What about you Peter?” Hank asked. “Are you going to fight?” Summer looked at Peter surprised. That was another side of the coin that she had not considered. He looked at her embarrassed, scratching his neck.
“Well…”