Introduction to the School

[notsogroovy]

1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, Westchester County, NY. Also known as Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters.

It was the site of hope for dozens of students built upon the bones of a lonely childhood. Two times the school had been opened. The first attempt had been destroyed by the war and by the patriotism (or recruitment) of students and teachers who felt they were doing what was right. The second attempt would prove to be more successful, run by a headmaster who had regained his own hope.

The school, the home, was no longer a place of loneliness. Instead, there were children almost always on the move, fluttering down from the top floor, walking through walls, or just appearing with a loud Bamf. There were darker things at the school, of course. Nightmares that could boil the walls of a room if left unchecked and homesickness, sometimes for homes that had rejected them. But there were also adults who mentored these children. Pain and heartache may have still been in the house, but so too were companionship and support.

It was an air that the teachers deliberately tried to invoke since many of them hadn’t had it in their own childhoods. They’d had to hide or were hidden or were even persecuted just for being who they were. It was the teachers who had all decided that they would try to make the lives of the children easier than their own.

But that didn’t come without a cost. There were layers beneath the school, layers where some of the students were trained to protect themselves and others and to fight. The world might have seen mutants in a different light after Mystique’s rescue ten years ago, but they’d also seen what Magneto could do. Mutants might have finally been in the light, but they still weren’t always safe and that was where the X-Men came in. Hoping for a better future, but also preparing for a worse one.

And that was really what Xavier’s was: a refuge and a place to forge the next generation of mutants, ones who wouldn’t have to live in the darkness their forefathers had. And it was up to their teachers to make sure they were ready for that future.

Comments

[notsogroovy]

Raven closed her eyes for a moment. She'd never been made to be a parent. Now Charles, here he was practically raising an entire school full of children. She was the one who was turning them into soldiers. But how could she sit by and watch a child - this child - be worried about his safety.

"Let's see if I've got this right," she said quietly, opening her eyes and fixing him with a steady gaze. "You can't sleep or you're not sleeping because you have nightmares. You say this place isn't stressful, but you're also not saying very loudly that whatever the nightmares are have something to do with worrying about something. Something here."

Not that she could really blame him. She'd brought him here and one of the first things that had happened was the entire thing had blown up. If that wasn't something to set young minds to have nightmares, she wasn't sure what was. But if that was the only thing on his mind, half of the school would be down here with him.

"What else am I missing?"

She doubted anyone would be able to say she had a maternal bone in her body, but this was as close as she was able to get.

[shadowblends]

It's close enough to maternal instincts, apparently.

Kurt holds his breath, turns away then shuts his eyes and wilts, shoulders slumping beneath the weight of what he's been hoping hasn't been obvious. Regardless, though, he figures he's got no reason to continue acting as if he's completely unconcerned by what could happen, even with the removal of Apocalypse.

"The fight club," he admits abruptly, thunking the bottom of his cup down onto the counter a bit harder than he intends. "It's ... it's the fight club that I keep having nightmares about."

And for once, the boy suddenly feels far younger than he ever has, slumping over the counter onto his elbows, face clutched in his hands. "What if there are more of them? We can't just let other mutants be treated that way." He raises his head and meets Raven's gaze with a bleary stare, fingers curling against his mouth. "... nobody deserves to suffer like that."

Case in point, little Blue here, but he'd never say his own name; he's nowhere near that vain and there might be the tiniest part of him that believes he deserved it for allowing himself to be caught.

[notsogroovy]

Raven walked over to him and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "They don't and that's why I was there in the first place." Her voice didn't tremble although her fingers tightened just a touch. She'd been there because of him. She'd planned on placing him in hands that she trusted, someone who could get him somewhere he'd be taken care of. Maybe here. Plans had changed, but the destination hadn't. He was somewhere safe. Even if she was planning on teaching him to do dangerous things.

"That's why we're creating the X-Men. To serve as a force to protect those people who can't protect themselves. And as for how we know who needs the help, well, I have my information sources and Charles has Cerebro. Put the two together and we can progress from a needle in a haystack to a book in a library, categorized with its location known. He can determine whether the lead is a good one or just rumors. Saves us a lot of the legwork."

There was a question she wasn't asking. How he'd gotten there in the first place. Some things she wasn't sure she was ready to here, yet, and that story was one of them.

[shadowblends]

Her sudden approach and the hand at his shoulder earned a surprised noise, his eyebrows knitting together as he raised himself up from the countertop. He stared for a long moment, trying to comprehend exactly what she was telling him, although it took longer than he'd expected for it to click. "You ... knew of the club or knew that I was there?" Because he's not sure which one she'd meant.

Kurt averted his gaze to his nearby cup, lips pursing together before parting in a sigh. Perhaps he had been overthinking a lot of this; they were being taught to work together, to one day go places where they were needed and help those in trouble. Fight clubs were included in this, though? "So, together, you and Charles should be able to know exactly where we need to be and how fast we should get there."

There was something else lingering - something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but the notion that Raven has other questions continued to niggle away at the back of his mind.

[notsogroovy]

"Better put that I found out about the club." Because she'd found out he was there. She was never sure where Caliban got his information from although she supposed it was no secret that she had an interest in Erik. Kurt, though, she'd never told him about the boy. And yet he'd seemed to know that she'd seek him out if told he'd been kidnapped and dragged into an underground fight club.

"You're not the only one who needs our help. And I can only be in one place. But you and the rest of the students? You can be everywhere you need to be." And maybe that was an exaggeration, but they could certainly be in more places than she could alone.

"Although I don't think an entire team needs to go and rescue one person from one fight club," she said, picking up on his confusion. "Maybe two." She'd managed to free Kurt, but she hadn't been able to get to the other one, the one with wings. And hadn't that come back to bite her.

But maybe his confusion wasn't about logistics. "Are you sure you want to be a part of the team? Are you having second thoughts?"

[shadowblends]

"The man we visited," he concluded, remembering the underground hideout like it was yesterday. He could also vaguely recall asking her where they were going before they'd headed down the steps and into something he'd never knew existed. Which, in turn, reminds him that he hadn't gotten the chance to ask about why she'd changed her mind and directed them here instead. One day, he'll gather courage enough to ask.

"If I continue to practice, the distance of my teleportation might be able to take multiple groups to different areas." Possibly faster than that jet they had taken to Egypt. Overexerting himself a couple of times to further his training wasn't seeming like the worst plan.

Kurt had played a part in that, too. His eventual submission to the 'fight' decision ended with Warren's wing being burnt up and that'd been part of the reason the other fight club member joined with Apocalypse. "Two seems like enough." One for distraction and another for extraction.

Whereas most individuals might have reacted with instant denial, he withdrew into himself, sparing Raven a glance then turning away once more. "I'm not exactly having second thoughts. I want to be part of the team, but what if I'm not what the team needs?"

[notsogroovy]

"He's been known to give me information about mutants in trouble," she said. Not a lie, but not the entire truth, either. He hadn't been just a mutant in trouble. He'd been hers. She thought that if Peter ever told Erik that he was Erik's son, she'd ask about the experience. In case she ever had a similar urge to explain herself to Kurt.

"It's as much about who you are as what you can do," she said softly. She wanted to reach out and touch him. She had a disturbing temptation to run her hand over his hair. It seemed like a mothering thing to do and she was anything but that so she stifled it.

Being around him was hard. She was most definitely not his mother, not in any real sense, but it did make her wonder what might have been if things had been different. If his father had lived. If there'd been no Trask.

"And from where I'm standing, your heart is definitely in the right place."

[shadowblends]

"Convenient, if you have the money." Which she'd had at the time. Kurt's still not sure how he'll be able to thank her enough for whisking him away from the horrific situation in Berlin. In all honesty, part of him feels like he won't ever do enough to repay her, but as long as she stayed, he would be sure to continue making his gratitude known.

He allowed his earlier comment to linger far too long for his liking, scrutinizing the metamorph in front of him. Something felt ... off, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it-- like there had been words left unvoiced between them.

Perhaps in Raven's favor, Kurt reconsidered asking about it, which left him floundering for something to say in response to his mentor's compliment. (Was that what it was?)

After taking a moment to clear his throat, "I'm happy to hear that." There's also a bit of apprehension, but he's got better things to think about. She'd said his heart was in the right place! "Not to mention, I really like the school and being able to freely do things with my fellow mutants is fantastic."