11Author's Note at the end, because, who really reads those before the story, right? (Well, who really reads those to begin with, but just humor me will you?)
Disclaimer: Not mine. This applies to all chapters, because I hate writing these things, it ruins the "flow" of things (i.e. I'm a very lazy person).
Sean hadn't really been sure about what to expect from this whole set-up. Yeah, Erik and Charles had explained his role in the CIA and its newly-formed mutant division; and, once away from prying eyes and sensitive ears, they had talked about the whole saving the world thing. It had been a little unnerving to watch Charles explain it all so calmly while driving the sleek black car, with Erik interjecting occasionally from the passenger's side.
Really, after being told you were going to help save the world, what were you supposed to expect? The two men in the front seats looked so calm about it all that he almost felt it was a joke. Apparently, though, he was the last to join this super-hero team or whatever it was, so at least, if it was a joke, he wouldn't be the only one to have been duped.
But of all the things he was expecting- a bullet-riddled car chase through congested traffic, or perhaps being told that they would all assemble when the beacon called them (he read Batman comics, and that's how the heroes were always called in to help)- he wasn't expecting a mostly quiet car ride to his house, so that he could pack for his super-secret CIA job. The world was in danger, and it sounded like time was of the essence; couldn't the government afford to buy him a couple spare outfits?
He didn't even know what he'd say to his parents, 'oh hey, yeah, so apparently I'm needed for something hush-hush that you can't know about. Might die, no big deal. Maybe I'll see you guys around Christmas?' Hell, his mom didn't even know he had this weird ability, what was it Charles had called it? A mutation? That sounded kind of cool, and a little derogatory.
His dad had been pretty laid-back about it all, really, which hadn't surprised him. His dad took everything, everybody as they were, no questions asked; as long as they were good people he didn't seem to care. Which Sean always thought funny, since his dad was a raving lunatic when it came to politics- always yelling about who was right and who was wrong and how the country was going to fall apart.
His mom though. He hadn't told her, and his dad hadn't questioned him as to why, never pushed him to do so. He was worried about what she might do, what she might think of him. And anyway, how do you tell someone something like that? He hadn't told his dad, it had just sort of happened, and afterwards his dad had handed him a beer and told him to be careful 'out there in the real world' as he'd put it.
They were about five miles away from his house, and Sean still didn't know what he'd say, to either of his parents really- and, oh hell, what about his little sister? He'd been so focused on the possible scorn his mother would give him that he hadn't even thought about how much it would hurt to say goodbye to his sister, possibly forever. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, agreeing to go with two older men to a covert CIA base to potentially save the world and quite probably leave behind everything he had ever cared about.
When put like that it sounded crazy. What could he do, really? He could break glass, wow. Charles hadn't gone into detail about what exactly this team of his would be fighting against, but he doubted it would have anything to do with an evil army of glass men.
The car swerved dramatically left, away from his house, and Sean felt momentarily relieved before panic started to settle in. He was in a car, alone, with two strange men who had abilities like him, oh God he was going to be murdered.
Charles smiled over his shoulder at him, but quickly returned his attention to the road, "Sean, sorry about this, it's a bit of an unexpected side-trip. Apparently, there's another mutant just down the road from where you live," he seemed almost giddy as he said this, and both Sean and Erik eyed him like he was insane.
"I thought we already had everyone we needed for the team, Charles?" Erik asked, giving his friend a meaningful look. Sean was sure there was some sort of brain-communication-thing going on between the two, and he felt almost insulted that he was being left out of the loop.
"Yes. Well. Didn't really notice them until we got this close, something's a bit off, I think; sounds interesting, doesn't it?" He said with a smile, to which Sean rolled his eyes and made himself comfortable in the back seat.
It only took about five minutes before they pulled up in front of a small diner, and Sean was quite content to sit in the car and wait for the two older mutants to do their recruiting thing or whatever they were planning on, but Erik opened the back door and gave him a hard look. Well, so much for sitting this one out and trying to further brain-storm ideas on how to break the whole 'mutant' thing to his mother.
He followed in after them, barely managing to avoid being hit by the door that someone didn't feel the need to hold open for him. He glared at Erik's back and directed very loud, angry thoughts towards him; he knew Erik wouldn't be able hear them like Charles could, but he certainly hoped that he would at least be able to feel them.
Charles smirked in his direction, shaking his head a little, before looking around the diner and carefully selecting a booth, Erik scooting in next to him. Awesome, so now not only did he feel like the awkward tagger-on, he looked the part, too.
He was still embroiled in his angry thoughts, trying to rearrange his legs under the table so he didn't feel quite so awkward, when a very frail looking girl walked up to their table with a small smile.
"Hello, welcome to the Mercury Grill, what can I get started for you?" She asked, leaning over the table to hand them each a menu, her heavy necklace making a thump sound as it hit the table. Sean eyed her from his corner of the booth and received a raised eyebrow from Charles for his efforts. Opening his hands in the universal what? gesture, he reached for the menu while still looking over at their waitress.
Her light yellow dress seemed like it had fit, once upon a time, but now it hung loose around her waist, and one of the straps kept falling down her shoulder, much to her obvious annoyance.
Her skin was almost an unhealthy pale color, and he could clearly see the light smattering of freckles she had dotted across her cheeks and over her bare arms- something he was positive would be barely noticeable if she had a healthier color to her. The brown hair she kept in a high pony tail looked as if it was desperately clinging on to its once long-ago luster, and the few pieces that fell around her face curled in a way that seemed almost like they were stubbornly clinging onto their formerly healthy selves.
All in all, Sean thought, she looked a couple months away from needing a stay in a hospital, and the only thing about her that looked well-cared for was her necklace: what appeared to be a thin, golden pocket watch attached to a matching thick chain. He raised his eyebrows at Charles, who was smiling warmly at her, and then looked towards Erik, who seemed to have the same reservations about the girl as he did.
"Yes, my friends and I were actually wondering-" Charles began, but was cut off smoothly by Erik.
"If you serve pie here?" Charles glanced at him in mild annoyance, but kept quiet, obviously recognizing that there were going to have to be words exchanged before they went about the actual recruiting process.
With a bob of her head, the waitress smiled at them and answered, "yes, we have several kinds- our most popular being apple- but we also have cherry, peach, and several others. Is that all you'll be wanting, or should I come back in a couple of minutes?" She asked, looking mostly at Erik.
"I think we'd like to start off with coffee, please, and we'll look over the menu to see which kind of pie we'd like, thanks," Charles was the one to answer, and Sean felt a little left out of this talking circle that seemed to be going on.
"Actually, could you make my coffee a coke, please?" He interjected, just to say something, and found himself at the center of attention of their waitress, of whom he still didn't know her name. It felt a little awkward to just be thinking of her as 'the waitress' when they were trying to recruit her for a possibly deadly mission to save the world. At least, he thought they were, it seemed that Erik wasn't really too hot on the idea, and he couldn't really blame him. She looked like a strong wind wouldn't just knock her down, but kill her.
She nodded slightly at him, smiled a little awkwardly around the table at them all, and then rushed off to the kitchen, glancing over her shoulder at them as if she suspected they weren't exactly on the straight and narrow.
"Charles, really?" Erik asked lazily, reaching across the table to grab a sugar packet. The confused look on Charles' face was not what Erik or Sean had been expecting.
"I don't see why not. She clearly needs our help, Erik, isn't that part of what we're doing here?" Charles gave Erik a hard look, daring him to refute his statement.
"Charles, we're trying to find people who will help us, do you even know what she can do?" He paused to shift his sugar packet closer to his cutlery, and looked back up at his friend, "what sort of help are you thinking of? I don't think we'll exactly be in the best position to give it, not at the present moment," he shifted his attention to Sean momentarily, and Sean knew he was debating exactly how much he wanted to say with him sitting there, "maybe- after we've gotten our current issue out of the way- we'll be in a better position to do some real, actual help here."
"No, I don't think you understand-" Charles cut himself off as they all noticed the waitress walking towards their table, cups in hand and uneasy smile in place.
"Here's your drinks, coffees for you two and a coke for you," she said, no hint in her voice of the discomfort she seemed to be feeling in their presence. Sean wondered briefly if it was just them, or if it was her job in general; that is, until she slid his coke in front of him and he instantly felt like he had been partitioned off to the kiddy table. Why had he decided to order a coke again?
"Have you decided, or should I give you three a couple more minutes?" Oh yeah, it was because she wasn't even looking at them when she was at their table, not really, not until one of them talked. And he'd felt left out, wanted to be noticed as part of the group too, wanted to pretend like he was actually a participant in the whole fiasco that recruiting her had somehow become. And all they'd done thus far was order drinks.
"I think we'll just have a slice of apple pie each," Erik said, and was immediately caught up in her attention, her light brown eyes watching him with something that felt uncannily like an assessment of his threat level; it was unnerving, to be sized up by such a waif of a girl.
"Umm... could you substitute cherry for mine instead?" Sean interrupted the moment, face scrunched in distaste. It was now him on the receiving end of her judgmental stare, and whatever she was seeing seemed to make her feel, not scared- at least he didn't think that was the emotion that she seemed to be giving off- but more, cautious. That was the only way to describe the shaky nod she gave to him before scurrying off to another table whose patrons had just arrived.
"I wasn't able to see her on Cerebro," Charles smoothly finished his sentence as if there hadn't been an interruption, grabbing his own sugar packet to add to his coffee. "In fact, I wouldn't have ever known she was here if I hadn't heard her specifically thinking about 'how that was the third doctor unable to tell her what was wrong,' and some grumblings about needing to buy another alarm clock, they just don't seem to work for her. That's a pretty strong thought, for me to get it several miles away."
"Yes. Fascinating. And this all makes her a mutant how?" Erik asked in a low voice, sipping his coffee and flicking his unused sugar packet to Charles, who gratefully added it to his own coffee.
Charles looked at them both for a measuring moment, before responding in a subdued voice, that Sean was guessing was the closest they'd ever get to hearing Charles Xavier actually being abashed, "well, we don't really know. I wanted to have a conversation with her, just long enough to see if a few key words kick up any interesting thoughts. She keeps rushing off though," Charles sighed into his cup and glanced at Erik. Sean didn't need to be a mind-reader to know that Erik had jumped from doubt, right over annoyance, and directly onto amusement.
"All of this because you think you've found a puzzle," he replied, shaking his head at his friend.
Three slices of pie slid in front of them, and when Sean lazily rolled his head up to look at her, her smile seemed a little less forced. He was already eating his cherry pie with relish when she spoke to them.
"Can I get you anything else?"
"No, I think that will be all for now," Charles began, and was once again cut off, this time by the waitress. She was pretty good, Sean reasoned, to be able to cut off someone that obviously wanted to continue talking, without seeming rude.
"Okay then, no rush, but here's the check for the pie, and whenever you're done you can pay at the front counter," she said, not looking at Charles while she did so, under the guise of picking up the menus. It really was a smooth way to end a conversation before it even began, and Sean almost felt like laughing at the slightly crestfallen look on Charles' face.
The two older mutants watched her weave her way back into the kitchen, ignoring a man from the group that had recently arrived.
"She's avoiding us," Charles said, brow furrowed.
"Well yeah, she's been skirting around us since we sat down and asked for pie," Sean said, not looking up from his food. Charles frowned over at him, before touching his fingers to his temple and staring vaguely in the direction she had taken. Sean glanced up from his pie, and with his mouth still full, asked, "whah 'r eww 'oing?" Which, obviously, was a highly condensed version of his thoughts, of which were this: Is he really trying to read her mind right now? What's he even gonna get? A complaint about how Jack or whatever his name is from the table over there keeps trying to flag her down? The recipe for this delicious pie? And is he really touching his temple while he tries to read her mind? That's got to be the most obvious give away I've ever seen. Anyone who knows he can read minds will know right away when he's doing it. But, then again, how many people really believe in others being able to read their minds?
"Sean, stop thinking so loud," and then Charles was quiet for several minutes. Several uncomfortable minutes. All Sean had to occupy himself was the metal-bender across from him, and he really didn't think Erik would find it as amusing as he would if he asked the other man to bend a spoon. And just how, exactly, does someone change the volume of their thoughts?
"Well, this has been interesting, and the pie was delicious, really it was, but I think it's time we left, Charles," Erik muttered when the man he was seated next to was quiet longer than Erik's attention span seemed to allow for.
"No, no, I think I've got it," Charles replied, voice low to match Erik's, "she... Well I'm not really certain here, but she senses people, I think. She knows we want something from her, which is why she's been avoiding us, it's there in her thoughts. Though she's not fully aware of it, I think; she's muttering about how we felt off to her, and she hopes we leave soon because she just knows we want something from her," Charles flicked his eyes over to the table with the man she'd been ignoring, and his eyes twinkled slightly before he continued, "and, apparently, she thinks he's skeevy, even though he hasn't tried anything on her. Rightfully so, his thoughts are simply rude."
Sean smirked over at the other table, glad to know that he'd been right about at least a portion of her thoughts, before gulping down his coke in one go and looking towards Erik. Clearly, he was just here because Erik didn't trust him in that swank car alone, so he might as well stop pretending with himself that he would be of any use in this recruitment. If there even would be, it was all very confusing.
"How fascinating. Congratulations Charles, you've found a mutant. However, my initial statement still applies: we don't know what she can do, if she could be of any use, and we most certainly aren't properly equipped to help her. Not at this time, at least."
Charles suddenly frowned, fingers still to his temple, and didn't appear to have heard Erik at all. Both Sean and Erik shifted in their seats when they heard yelling from the kitchen, and Charles dropped his hand to the table. His fingers played with the edge of the table while the yelling continued, and finally he met Erik's gaze.
"I think her abilities, whatever they may be, are killing her." There was a pause, that to Sean wasn't long at all, but he was experienced enough in Charles' creepy head-talking to know that a short time was all that was really needed to have an intense conversation, before both mutants broke eye contact and stood from their booth.
Erik was out the door first, waiting by the car that was parked at the far corner of the parking lot before Sean even knew they were leaving. Charles didn't bother to pay the bill up front, he simply dropped some cash to the table, glanced at Sean, and left the diner as well. Well, guess we're leaving.
Ok, so two things:
1) I'm going to have the second chapter pick up where this one left off (obviously), but be from my OC, the waitress', perspective. Expect it some time tomorrow. (I was going to continue this and have it be all one large chapter, but it's midnight now and I've got work early in the morning.)
2) I love Banshee, even in the comics where his story line kind of sucks, (person opinion, I understand if you want to fight with me on this, but please don't because I won't really say anything other than 'sweet, you love his story line.') but I really felt that there needed to be more of him in the X-Men: First Class category. There needs to be more of him in general, but I think he's the right combination of sweet and lame in the movie, so I'm sticking to it. I am planing on throwing in a couple of small things here and there to reference his comic story line, hopefully it works!
YOU GUYS. There's a whole ton of awesome slash for him. I loves me some slash. But most of it's one-shots, and I am a sucker for a good OC. There's so little out there that I decided to write my own.
I apologize to everyone for this.
Don't expect super-amazing-romance-time right off the bat. I'm someone who loves to make my characters wait forever before they realize they even like each other, and then agonize over it for a bit. I'm not certain if they'll even be a kind-of thing by the end of the movie arc (I've got vague ideas for the end of the movie. Luckily by the time the movie bit ends I should have it all ironed out). So I apologize for that also.
3) {I lied there are now three} I AM A BETA. There, I said it, I'm whoring myself out. One of the people I Beta for recently bowed out, and I've got an open slot. If anyone's thinking of writing a Banshee fic and they're looking for a Beta, I would LOVE to do so. I'm mostly talking about stories that are going to be long-term here, (as in I will be your best-Beta-friend-for-lyfe and all that) but I also beta one-shots. So please, please, please, please, write Banshee fic. I will Beta for you.
Pimping done.
Did anyone even read this? Because if you did you're awesome and I don't know why you read past 1). None of it's important at all.