A World Forgotten

Chapter 6: Give and Take

~in the X-Mansion labs~

"I don't know what we can do about it Hank.  Is there any way to fix what's wrong with the girl?"  Xavier is currently resting his head on his fist, gazing at the multitude of experiments that Hank had been working on as of late.  He recognized a few from when he'd first found his friend and recruited him. 

"I've never seen something like this before.  Sure, viruses mutate.  But mutations?  They shouldn't be able to do that.  It's not possible."  Hank shakes his head, eyes focused on a stack of results from your test earlier in his hand.  "But it has happened.  However-"

"How much longer does she have?"

"I don't know."

~in the recreational room~

"Peter, what are you doing?" Jean walked up behind the silver-haired speedster who was staring off into space, not something that the hyper guy normally does.  He actually looked as if he were thinking slowly.  And that just wasn't right.

"I-I was just wondering where (Y/N) was..." he said, peering back at her.  Jean tilted her head before smiling.  So that's how it was.

"For thirty minutes?  That..." she placed a comforting hand on his arm.  "-Isn't normal for you.  Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah.  I'm fine.  I don't know what your talking about."  It was like he'd snapped out of it and words were once again flying out of his mouth at a mile a minute.  Okay, probably faster.  I don't know.  "Why aren't you hanging out with Mr. Cranky?"

"What do you mean?"

"He doesn't like (Y/N).  That's obvious.  I just wonder why..." the silver speedster distanced himself again.  Ah, perhaps that had something to do with it.

"I don't know why, but I think he might be a bit envious of her in some way.  He'd usually pretty easy going and fun loving with new recruits," she says, looking over to the laughing X-Man.

"But she's not a recruit.  She's just human."

"I know..."

And you wouldn't know just how much she knew.

~Your POV~

"I'm not a mutant," you blurt out, staring down at your hands.  The nails weren't chipped.  You'd long since dropped the habit of nail biting.  Sleeping for extra hours because of stress can do that.  That was your stress reliever now.

"Vat do you mean?  You have ze mutation," Kurt replies, confusion clear in his voice.

"I don't have an actual mutation," You say, looking up at Kurt, your eyes shining with tears.  You weren't one of them.  You'd never fully understand what it was like.  You'd never be able to truly connect to anyone.  Scott was proof of that.  He'd somehow internally picked up on it when you'd first met.  You'd prided yourself on being able to be empathetic to anyone, but you couldn't be to these people here.  You were still an outsider to people you'd hoped to call family.  "I just have a mutated sleeping disorder.  It mutated when I was young due to unknown reasons...and that's all it is.  However..." You look away again, having a sudden fascination with one of your pillows.

"Howefer..." Kurt ran his fingers over yours, threading his three between yours loosely.

"It's supposed to get worse.  It might get so bad...that all I ever do is sleep."  A sniffle starts and Kurt just looks at you.  The longer the moment lasts, the stronger your sniffles become.  And eventually turns to full blown sobs.  Warm arms encircle you and you rest your wet face on an even warmer chest.