Molotov Heart {Alex Summers | X-Men}

19. exulansis.

and i l o v e the way you h u r t me
its i r r e s i s t i b l e

"Hey Hank, do you think you can fly this thing?" The group had been unusually silent since the clone had stopped screaming, but it seemed that Raven’s spirit wasn’t dampened, perhaps it was that her resolve had even intensified, but whatever the case may be, she lead with a searing determination. They found themselves in a hangar as it lit up around them to reveal a warplane, sleek, black and incredibly intimating.

“Yeah, I can figure it out.” With only the barest hint of nerves he agrees. There’s a commotion behind them as Scott reveals flight suits displayed in pods of light sitting idly to their right and their little ragtag team prepares to go to war.

Peeling off layers of burnt clothes, Aoibheal finds her flight suit doesn’t fit her the way it should, it’s too big, bunching up at her hips, her hands swallowed by the sleeves. However, its not as if she’s noticed, as she’s retreated into her own mind, her own bitterness, her old self-loathing; she had made a vow to protect these kids, to make the school a home in a way it had always been for her, but here they were, fighting for their lives, watching their teacher murder humans who dared harm her students. It was so unlike herself that most of the others gave her a wide berth as she fiddled inattentively with her sleeve, scowling and in pain. But then there’s Hank by her side, in a flight suit that looks like it was made for him, rolling up her sleeves with efficiency and not even flinching under the intensity of her glower. Jean briefly catches him remembering that even Magneto had stood down in the face of Aoibheal’s anger, and she finds herself wondering for about the hundredth time in the past hour, how little she knows about her teachers. When Aoibheal looks up at Hank, it’s as if she knows what he’s thinking, and in that moment, she feels powerful like hasn’t since Washington. Despite the guilt in the back of her mind, she lets herself bask in that feeling.

Aoibheal straps herself into the plane tight enough that she can barely breathe, but if she can’t sit by Hank, its the least she can do to feel secure. Takeoff was smooth with Moira as co-pilot and Jean calling out their destination to Hank, who input the coordinates. In the seat beside Aoibheal, Peter’s chewing a stick of gum that he found in the pocket of his flight suit, knee bouncing with the speed and consistency of a hummingbird’s wing.

“You okay?” His voice is low as he asks around a rather impressive bubble that he had managed to blow. It took a few moments before Aoibheal realised she had been talking to him, his expression unnaturally concerned, albeit now splattered with bubblegum. She waits, watches him pick the gum from his cheeks and off his nose before she makes a noise in the back of her throat, a low, world weary sigh. The way Peter nods his head is jerky and too fast, jaw chewing gum at record speed before he stops, gaze shallow as he looks past her to the end of the plane, avoiding her eye contact. “I mean... about what happened at the school.” He’s not asking about her, about her home being blown apart with the man he’s pretty sure she loved; his heart aches just to think about it, he can’t begin to imagine what she was going through. Apparently, however, he had only managed to remind her of the horrors she had witnessed, and he watched as her expression crumpled momentarily before she simply shut down, expression blank and shoulders slumped. Out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw Jean flinch.

Its a long time before anyone else speaks, aside from Hank’s updates on their position every half an hour. Raven’s gaze drifts from the horizon to Hank, her mind a minefield of nostalgia, and before she knows it, her eyes are on Aoibheal, who’s looking at the floor and gripping the metal safety bars by her side for dear life. All of a sudden Raven’s mind is alight with memories from Washington, watching as Aoibheal destroyed a Sentinel on her own, watching her weakened almost to the point of breaking, stand up to Magneto and refuse to back down-