Isolation | E LEHNSHERR

CHAPTER SEVEN

"And how can they say I'll never change, they're the ones that stay the same. I'm the one now, cause I'm still here."-I'm Still Here, John Rzeznik

The next morning, Rory woke up at seven, which was weird for her. She had a feeling she was going to start to get used to waking up and being active during the day.

The first thing she thought of was what had happened last night. When she had gone down to Erik's room, she hadn't expected it to play out how she did. She'd only gone down to ask Erik about why he cared so much about Shaw. It hadn't been planned for her to tell him that she feared humans, nor had she expected him to say that they only feared them because they were better. And the last thing she had expected to happen was for them to kiss.

She didn't regret it though. Not when it had been one of the best things to happen to her since she'd found out she was a mutant, since she'd been thrown in a basement and all but forgotten by her parents.

There was a soft knock coming from the door that lead to Scarlett's room, and so Rory called out for Scarlett to answer. The brown-haired girl came in, and smiled when she saw Rory was already awake, and getting dressed for the day. Their clothes had been left at the base, but Raven had given the girls some of her old clothes again. They weren't the worst things ever, so Rory happily put them on.

"You ready?" Scarlett asked.

Rory grinned. "Yeah." At breakfast...Erik was going to be there. She found herself blushing at that, as she realized how happy that made her. How she hadn't noticed these feelings for Erik before her was beyond her, but she was happy now that she was aware they were there.

"You're blushing!" Scarlett exclaimed. "I think this is the first time I've seen you blush since I met you! What's got you blushing?"

"Nothing," Rory murmured. She had a bad feeling that Scarlett would only act negatively. She'd made it clear multiple times that she didn't like Erik, and Rory was afraid of how she would react once she realized Rory really liked the man.

"Whatever, I'll get it from you eventually," Scarlett told her. "C'mon, let's go down to breakfast."

Rory nodded her head, and the two girls walked out, and headed down to the kitchen. They were silent, and Rory actually preferred the silence at this point. However, the silence was broken when Rory, who was really distracted as she was thinking of the day she'd be able to kiss Erik again, ran into someone. She looked up, and instantly blushed when she saw it had been Erik.

"Hello, girls," he told the two, acting a lot cooler about the whole thing than Rory. Then, he winked at Rory, causing the girl to giggle. "You heading down to breakfast?"

"Yup," Rory replied. "Would you like to join us?" She managed to keep her voice leveled.

"Of course," Erik answered, grinning. "Are you ready for your training session with Charles this morning, Rory?"

"One hundred percent," Rory told him.

Scarlett looked between the two of them, as if she was confused, for a couple of seconds. Then, she must've seen something in Erik's mind, because she then exclaimed, very loudly, "Oh my god! You two kissed?"

Rory found the feeling to want to bash her head against the wall several times. Instead, she let out a sigh. "Yes. Now why don't you shout a little louder? I don't think the people in Russia heard you."

And then she walked further ahead of the two, and found her way to the kitchen. She was aware of the fact that the two followed her the entire way, and she watched as Erik went over to the coffee pot. Focusing instead, on the task ahead, Rory went to the fridge and looked for something to eat.