kairos : peter maximoff/quicksilver

4: avoid major news channels

The way that Peters Maximoff grins at her makes Roxanne want to do something reckless, just to impress him and keep that smile directed at her. Wow, she thinks. Was this what it's like to have friends your age?

Well maybe that was getting ahead of herself ; they'd only just met, of course, and -

Hank clears his throat. "We better get going," he says, pushing up his glasses that keep sliding down his nose.

"We going to need to borrow a car to get Roxanne back to North Salem, so-" Charles begins.

"Oh, no need for that!" Roxy waves him off. "It's much easier if I just come with you, like we planned."

Hank sighs. "That was not a part of the-"

"Roxy. A word," Charles interrupts through clenched teeth, and nods toward the adjacent room. Peter watches this all quizzically but stays quiet, rapidly solving and rescrambling a Rubik's Cube that had materialized in his hands.

Roxy frowns but follows the man in.

"What - " She starts to whine childishly.

"Why are you doing this, Roxy? Why won't you just go home?" Charles snaps, running a hand through his hair.

Ouch. The girl stares at him for a moment before recovering.

"Oh, c'mon Charles." Roxy waves him off. "You can't have a heist team without -"

"Can you try to take this seriously for once? This isn't a joke, Roxanne! This is about more than you! It isn't some little game you can play to try to ignore reality!"

Roxy takes a step back in shock, and the sting she feels is already hardening.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"You know exactly what I mean! Stop for a moment and think about what you're doing. Why do you feel like you need to do this, huh?"

Roxy's hands ball into fists. "Oh now you're gonna try to psychoanalyze me? Too bad you threw your powers away like a wimp or else maybe you'd actually be able to see into my head or have any chance at stopping me instead of trying to trick it out of me like some low-grade junkie has-been therapist! You wanna talk to me about ignoring reality? Take a look in the damn mirror, professor."

The two stare at each other glowering. Roxy's shaking hands glitch as they clench into fists, release, and clench again.

Charles Xavier takes a breath. "You've got to stop trying to push people away when they attempt to care about you, Roxanne. Or else one day, you're going to look around and realize you're alone."

Roxy opens her mouth like she's about to start yelling again, and the man holds up a hand, stopping her. "Come if you must. You're right that I can't stop you; no one can. But think about what I said. And remember that Hank and I still haven't given up on you."

Charles moves his hand like he's going to put it on Roxy's shoulder, but then decides against it. "And call your aunt. She deserves that at least."

He walks out of the room, leaving Roxy feeling angry but guilty (which only makes her more annoyed). Grumbling something about 'guilt tripping assholes', she grabs the phone off the wall and forcefully dials Aunt Min ji's home phone number, which she has had memorized since third grade.

Roxy held the phone to her ear, leaning back against the wall and twisting the cord as it rang. And rang. And rang. Shit, Roxy realized. She must have already left for her errands.

Min ji's melodic accented voice filled her ears as her voicemail played ending with a sharp BEEP.

"Hey auntie. It's Roxy. Sorry I couldn't catch you before you left, but just wanted to let you know that I probably won't be back for dinner tonight. I'm going to DC with Charles and Hank... and this other guy Peter. You don't know him, so I don't know why I'd mention that but anyways... Don't worry about me. I'll be safe. And uh... you should probably avoid major news channels. I'll see you later... Love you."

••••

"Good news, folks! I just got the go-ahead from the boss, so the train can leave the station!" Roxy proclaims, walking back into the main room with a forced grin, only to realize that only Logan was still there.

"They've gone to the car," the scruffy man grumbles. "Charles asked me to wait for you." Roxy notices that he won't meet her eyes.

Logan turns around to head toward the stairs, but she has to know if her suspicion is right.

"Do you know me?"

Logan freezes, his foot already on the first step and hand on the railing. "What?"

"Do you know me?" Roxy repeats, tugging anxiously at the watch hanging around her neck.

A pause. Then, "We just met, kid. I don't know what you mean." He moves to take another step up.

"From the future, Logan. Did you know me in the future?"

Roxy can see the muscles in his back tense. He still won't even face her, won't even spare her the decency. Frustration fills her again, and she lets it happen. When were people going to start treating her with respect? When were people going to stop lying to her?! She was almost an adult, for fuck's sake! First Charles trying to tell her what she can and can't do and trying to analyze and nitpick her every move, and now this guy who's done nothing but act weird around her-

"Kid," Logan says with the most condescending bullshit tone, still staring at the stairs. "We really don't have time for-"

"LOOK AT ME!" She screams, glitching a step closer to him.

Logan whirls around immediately, and Roxy freezes wide eyed her hand closed around her pocket watch. Because he's just given her all the answer she needed. She stumbles back a step
Logan's fist is raised in defense, bone claws extended from between his knuckles, and there's something wild in his eyes that looks like...

He snaps out of it in a second, quickly retracting his claws. "I... Sorry, kid, you just startled me."

Roxy stays silent, watching him with huge eyes.

"I didn't know you, Roxanne," he huffs. The teenage girl says nothing. "I swear I didn't... Come on. They're waiting for us." As if to prove his point, Logan faces her again, forcing his dark brown eyes to meet her silver ones. It seems almost painful for him, but he does it.

Roxy nods, and the two walk up the basement stairs together in silence. But it doesn't matter what Logan says now, doesn't even matter that he's clearly lying to her. Because Roxy saw his eyes when she screamed at him. And they were full of fear.

•••••••

A/N: hey guys! it's been awhile haha. a HUGE thanks to everyone who comments! y'all are the reason I keep working on these stories (: