Maybe We're Not So Different

Warren slumped against the wall of the cell he was trapped in, regretting every decision he had made throughout the past couple of days. He shouldn't have gone after the villain alone, but he just wanted a chance to prove himself. How was he supposed to know it was a trap, and that the seemingly harmless thug was a mutant? He had wings, not telepathy. He sighed, thinking of his team. It had been two days, his team should have rescued him by now. Maybe after another day or two, Bobby, or Hank, or Scott, or even Jean would think to look for him.

He found it funny that whenever someone was left behind or ignored, it was almost always him, sometimes Scott, but mostly him. It was like he was a background character in the saga that was the original X-Men. Maybe he could start a love triangle or betray the team, then he'd finally leave a mark on their stories. It wasn't this hard in their own time. They were all heroes, each known for their powers and great deeds, making up an unstoppable team.

Now they were feared for the abilities that made them heroes. Plus, now that Jean had discovered her new powers, none of them were really sure if they were in control of their own minds. Leaving the team initially had been a welcome change in his life, and when Jean tried to control him and make him stay, she was revealed to everyone as the Jean he had grown to fear. Of course, he had missed the others and he wasn't sure if they would ever fully trust him again, but he made his choice. He was just lucky they let him back onto the team, no questions asked.

They had even gone on their first mission in this time period, although only four of them returned back to their base. While the others were presumably celebrating their victory, Warren had gotten captured by Sabertooth, some hyped up Wolverine wannabe. His wings were fine for once, but he was chained to one of the cell bars by his feet. A howl rang out through the halls of the block and he shuddered, remembering he wasn't the only prisoner on the ship. He wasn't fully conscious when Sabertooth dragged him into the cell but he still caught glimpses of the other occupants. There were a couple of young mutants, some weird lizard thing, an exotic looking bird, and possibly a demon. Needless to say, he wasn't the strangest one in there.

Suddenly, he heard a distant fizzling sound. He jumped to his feet, realizing it was Scott's eye-beams. A few voices echoed down the hallway. Listening intently, Angel could make out some of what they were saying.

A voice that must have been Scott's remarked, "You take the top floor, I'll take the bottom. We need to release everyone and everything this brute captured."

He perked up as he heard Bobby complain, "Why can't we all take one ship at a time, splitting up is always a bad idea in the movies."

Scott snarked back, "Look, Jean and Hank are on the other ship, probably fighting with Sabertooth as we speak. If I could be anywhere else but here right now I would."

Realizing this was his chance for rescue, Warren called out for help. "Scott? Bobby? It's me, Warren. Please help me!"

Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately he heard an echoing, "What?" from Bobby.

He had hoped that Scott would be the one to rescue him, because how was Bobby going to break through the bars of his cell? He could really use some laser eyes, or optic blasts as Scott insisted on calling them, right now.

Sure enough, he saw Bobby's face as he came around the corner.

"Warren? What are you doing here?"

Great, they hadn't even realized he was gone.

He crossed his arms and glared out at the ice manipulator.

"I've been stuck here ever since Sabertooth grabbed me when Magik teleported us off the other boat."

"Really?"

"You seriously didn't realize I was gone?"

"Uhhhhhhhh....." Bobby at least had the decency to look sorry.

"Are you kidding me?!? I've been missing for over a day!"

"I'm really sorry, we just assumed you were out flying around. You don't usually carry your communicator with you anyways."

He had a point. "Okay, well can you at least get me out of here?"

Bobby paused and then started to back up, ice forming between his fingers. He inhaled and then shot an icicle towards the cell bars. Warren had only a brief moment to dive out of the way before it pierced through first the lock on the cell door, and then into the wall behind him.

"Bobby!!!! What the heck? I could have died!"

He sheepishly grinned at the enraged, shaking Angel. "It opened the cell, didn't it?"

"Ugh, just help me up please."

He leaned down and helped Warren stumble to his feet. The two boys struggled out the door, walking until Warren was jerked abruptly from Bobby's hold.

"Warren?"

The winged boy was lying on the ground, clutching at his ankle which was still held by the chain they had both overlooked.

"I think it's broken," he cursed.

"How? You didn't fall that far.."

Angel pulled himself up to a sitting position and glared at him, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"I have hollow bones, remember? That's how my wings support my weight. Because they're hollow, they're also extremely fragile, especially when I'm weak and malnourished."

Bobby winced, remembering how long his friend had been chained up. It was only a couple of days, but it appeared that while Sabertooth was preoccupied with fighting the X-Men, he hadn't thought to feed his captives.

He created another icicle in his hands and shot it towards the chain, farther away from Warren this time.

"Thank you," the injured boy groaned, "Can you help me up again?"

He helped Warren up to his feet, grimacing as he saw his foot was pretty much just hanging on by his skin. If Bobby was a lesser mutant, or you know, not completely encased in ice, he would have thrown up. Feeling even worse for his friend's predicament, he scooped him up into a bridal carry. Warren was, just as he had said, surprisingly light. Sadly, even though he was light, Bobby was struggling to hold him as he thrashed back and forth, trying to get out of his arms.

"Warren! What are you doing!?! You can't just hop on one foot or something." He tried to soothe the older boy, speaking in a calm manner, which he didn't even realize he was capable of. Thankfully, Warren's movements slowed as he slumped back into Bobby's grasp.

"This is humiliating," he complained, "I'm supposed to be the knight in shining armor, carrying people to safety. It's pretty much the only reason I'm on the team."

While Bobby was flattered to be indirectly called a knight in shining armor, he didn't appreciate Warren's complaints or his unusually self-deprecating attitude. "Look, I won't tell anyone about this if you don't want me to."

"Really?" The blonde peered up at him, surprised.

"Yes. I can be mature, just like you can be vulnerable once in a while. I'm not just comedic relief."

Warren blinked, gazing at Bobby in a new light.

Suddenly, they heard a third voice call out, "Bobby? I freed all the captives on my floor, are you done as well?"

Hearing Scott's voice, Bobby swore and dropped Warren, who hissed in pain as both of them swiftly moved away from each other when Scott came around the corner.

"Warren? What are you doing in here?"

A sour look appeared on the boy's face and his mood took a sharp turn for the worse.

Sensing that not all was well, Bobby took the liberty of explaining their situation to the perpetually confused Scott Summers.

"So wait, you've been here for days?" He asked.

His teammates nodded, Warren looking a little more defeated.

"I'm so sorry Warren, we thought you were at one of your family's vacation homes, trying to calm down."

Now Bobby was confused. "Trying to calm down from what?"

Scott glanced at Warren, who shook his head. "I'm not really the person to tell you. Sorry."

Bobby made a couple of confused gestures as Scott knelt and helped Warren to his feet, keeping the angel's weight off his injured ankle. When had Scott and Warren gotten so close? He grumbled to himself as Warren leaned into Scott, who whispered to him as they walked out onto the deck of the ship. A thud rang out as the unconscious body of Sabertooth was dumped at their feet. They looked up to see a grinning Jean Grey and Hank McCoy. Those two worked surprisingly well together, almost like they were mentally in sync with each other. The two high fived and then made their way down to the deck. They both had their turn of shock that Warren was there. Bobby looked at him wincing in sympathy as the boy lost all the pleasant mood he was in before.

"So, Illyana is helping Emma right now, so we don't have a ride back to the base," Jean informed everyone, "I can carry maybe two people, if you want to take someone, Warren?" He nodded as Scott carefully sat him on the rail of the deck. Jean lifted Hank and Scott and started to hover in the air. Bobby made his way to Warren as the others started flying back to the facility.

"Are you okay? You've been through a lot lately."

The older boy looked up at him with a grateful expression on his face. "Yeah, I'm fine, just probably need some medical attention for my ankle." Of course he was lying through his teeth, but Bobby didn't need to know that.

"Hey, I can ice your ankle if you want?"

"Yes please, that would be really helpful."

Bobby immobilized his friend's ankle in a frozen makeshift cast as he moved to sit next to him. Warren awkwardly tried to pick him up and leaned backwards off the ledge. Bobby screamed as they plunged towards the sea.

"Pull up Warren! Pull up!"

After a few unstable flaps of his wings, he slowly rose into the air. Bobby was still cursing as he clutched his arms around Warren's neck.

The angel soared into the air, looking every bit like a work of art except for the boy clinging to him, screaming profanities into the air. Their positions continued to get more awkward as Warren had wrapped his arms around Bobby's waist so he wouldn't fall and Bobby had ceased screaming and was just clutching at Warren and had his face buried in his neck. They were both glad the others weren't there to see it.

"So, do you know where we're headed?" He had forgotten to ask for directions.

Bobby peered at him and then turned green and stuck his face back into Warren's shoulder, clenching his eyes shut. "No. I thought you did." His voice was muffled by the fabric of Warren's shirt.

"So we're lost?"

"What?!? We're gonna die!"

Bobby started panicking.

"Okay calm down, the sun sets soon and Hank went on that Astrology tangent and taught us how to use the stars as a map, right? I can follow that until we get to land. I think my family has a resort on one of the islands here."

Bobby snorted. "You actually paid attention to his lessons? That's kind of cute."

Warren stuttered. "What, and you didn't?"

"None of us did, we just pretended to listen because we felt bad."

"Okay, well guess who's going to save us from dying in the middle of the ocean?"

"Don't remind me, I never thought I would die so young."

After a few more hours of flying and bickering, Warren found the island he was looking for. He descended towards it and tried to wake up his passenger. "Bobby, wake up, we're here." The sleeping mutant groaned and mumbled into Warren's neck. He flushed, realizing how they must look to any passerby. His feet touched the ground and he crumpled into the sand, his ankle still not supporting him.

Bobby tumbled after him, shakily jumping to his feet as he realized what happened.

"Crap, Warren, you've been flying for hours after you were locked up for a week, you must be so weak right now. That's it. I'm not leaving you alone until your ankle heals."

"Ugh," Warren groaned, "Just pick me up."

Bobby complied and lifted him into his arms. He would probably never get over how light Angel was. This time, the blonde didn't even fight back, just closed his eyes and leaned into him. Not expecting his reaction, Bobby ended up half frozen. Warren didn't seem to care though, he just curled into him even more, pushing his broken ankle towards Bobby's icy armor.

Now thoroughly embarrassed, Bobby intently focused on unfreezing himself, cursing under his breath. He was supposed to be working on not immediately freezing to hide his emotions.

"No... stay like that," Warren quietly protested, "It feels really nice, especially for my ankle."

"You're gonna get sick from the cold though," he explained.

"I can stand a little cold. It's not like you're fully ice right now."

Bobby reluctantly gave in, keeping his arms and chest frozen. Warren directed him to the entrance of his vacation home. Surprisingly, it was just a house. No castle, no mansion, just a small bungalow, with probably just a few rooms.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Bobby questioned.

"Yeah? What were you expecting?"

"I don't know, maybe a giant mansion or something?"

Warren looked up at him, taken aback. "How rich do you think my family is? We just have a couple homes and safe houses. Yeah we're rich, but we would have to have way more money to have what you're thinking of."

"Sorry, we all just kind of assumed-"

"Yeah, assumed. That's all you ever do. None of you ever tried to get to know me. It's taken me years to reconnect with my family, and in this time, most of them are dead." He pulled away from him and put in the key code for the door. Bobby let go as he stumbled inside and sat down on a couch.

"Well, it's not like you told anyone about yourself, you always pushed us away. You have no idea how hard we all tried to befriend you and make you feel welcome." Bobby retorted, looking down at him.

Warren shifted and turned away from him. "Just give me a couple minutes, I'm not in a good place right now." He mumbled.

Bobby nodded and walked into the hallway, exploring the house. He made it into the garden in the backyard before realizing he shouldn't have left Warren alone.

He ran into the entryway again, panicking when he didn't see the older boy anywhere. Listening intently, he heard sobbing from the bathroom. He threw open the door and knelt down by Warren's side. Thankfully he was unharmed.

I want to die," Warren moaned. "I'm such a terrible person, I never see what's right in front of me, because I only care about myself."

Bobby's eyes widened. He knew Warren's breakdown was his fault, so it was his responsibility to help him.

"That's not true, Warren. You weren't wrong about being forgotten and I'm sorry. I'm not always remembered either, especially with Scott and Jean and Hank and their elder counterparts overshadowing everyone else. I of all people should have noticed when you started to doubt yourself and it's my fault that you're in this situation."

Warren looked up at him and pulled him into a hug. "It's not your fault. I promise you."

"I just wish we could be more than just the comedic relief and the pretty-boy. Maybe if we were in some sort of weird love triangle with Jean like Hank and Scott are, we'd get some attention."

"Haha, that's so true." Warren laughed hollowly, "They really need to get their love lives under control." He paused, furrowing his brow. "Did you just say I'm pretty?"

Bobby flushed, looking anywhere but at him. "Well I mean, everybody knows that. You're the most attractive person on the team. It's like, common knowledge."

Warren stared at him. "But you think I'm hot."

"Uhhhhhh, maybe?"

"Hmm....," Warren paused, looking Bobby up and down, "You know, you're not so bad yourself."

Bobby stared at him, his cheeks fire engine red. Ice started creeping up his skin.

"Oh no you don't." Warren put his hands on Bobby's face, stopping him from freezing. "We are talking about this, here and now." He looked around, realizing for the first time that they were in a bathroom. "Okay, so maybe not here, per se, but definitely now."

He grabbed Bobby's hand and limped towards the couch. Sitting down, he propped his head up between his hands and grinned at his friend, looking exactly like a pre-teen girl at a sleepover.

"Dish." He said, in a valley girl voice that Bobby must have imagined. "So you think I'm hot. What else?"

Bobby curled up on the other end of the couch, still struggling to meet his eyes. "What do you mean?

"I mean, am I strong? Intelligent? You have to give me something, you know how much birds like me love compliments."

"Um..... do I have to?"

Warren nodded, his grin growing even wider.

"You're um.... charismatic-"

Warren snorted. Bobby glared at him, retreating further into himself.

"Sorry, sorry. You can continue."

"You're charismatic, you can befriend anyone, you would make a great leader, you have great eyes, I mean ideas, you're the voice of logic on the team, even when compared to Hank, you're really cute when you smile, especially when you fly....." He cut off, realizing he was rambling.

Warren's face was an adorable shade of pink. It was unusual for him to be caught off guard like this. His grin faded into a soft smile. Bobby regained some of his regular confidence when he saw it.

"So, what about me?"

"What?" Warren stared at him, his blush even more intense.

"Well, you just had me say all these things about you, and I distinctly remember you saying I wasn't so bad myself. It's only fair, Warren."

"Okay.....you're really funny and sweet and you can also be serious when something's wrong and you're really thoughtful and selfless and..... I really just want to kiss you right now."

Warren broke off, his eyes wide. He hadn't meant to let that slip. Bobby didn't seem like he was freaked out at all, instead, he looked entranced. The two boys sat and stared at each other, both blushing, both grinning, both really needing to feel someone right now. Finally, Bobby leaned in and pulled Warren towards him by his shirt. Warren's surprisingly soft lips met his and he fell back onto the couch with Warren on top of him. They stayed like that for a while, until Bobby had the stupid idea of interrupting their comfortable silence when he turned away to catch his breath.

"So, do you think we should let the others know we're okay?"

"They probably haven't even noticed yet."

Bobby stared at Warren for a couple of seconds before he snorted. They both started laughing, grateful for the events that led to this moment. Where two lonely, forgotten souls didn't feel quite so alone.