Maximillian Gray and James Kingston
Max sat silently against the wall of his room as he tossed a racquetball onto the floor causing it to hit the wall and bounce back. The sound was becoming monotonous as he stared at the same spot in the wall where the ball hit. Just watching it come and go with every toss. He knew he would have to talk to James at some point, hell he'd asked to speak to him, but his mind was still on what had happened, who he'd lost, and how fucked everything had become.
The constant thumping down the hall had James frowning as he came out from his room. He already did checks on most of the equipment today; there really wasn’t any reason why something should be making any sort of noise, much less a
thumping. James sighed and trudged down the hall. The coming cold threatened the pipes since they haven’t done much about the insulation yet so maybe this would be some sort of blessing in disguise. If it was a problem, at least they’d catch it early.
He paused when the noise came out of one of the rooms and the realization of exactly who was making the noise hit him. With Max’s recent return, some people were a bit on edge and Max was all too ready to avoid confrontation he couldn’t resolve with a snap of his fingers and a little fire. He was probably bored. Well, he did say he wanted to talk and he hadn’t had much time since helping pach the poor guy up. He knocked on the door.
“Everything alright in there?”Max caught the ball in his hand, the thumping stopping all together as he continued to stare straight at the wall before him. He stood up and made his way to the door fully expecting Sapphire, Waverly, Negasonic, or Veil to complain about the noise. To his surprise it was James waiting there. Max motioned for him to come inside before closing the door behind the pair.
"Could be better. Everyone here views me as a villain, like I'm some sort of Hellfire spy or something." He sighed loudly as all the air left his chest before beginning again.
"But...that’s not what's really bothering me. In WandaWorld, I had all this power. I could've saved Leighton. But here I am, just a useless mutant who makes bad decisions and can't even save his own friend…"James stepped into the room, nodding as Max spoke. Max did have a point. He made some shitty decisions that sadly resulted in having to crawl back here with a hole in his chest and his confidence right after coming back from the Wanda ordeal. There wasn’t really a way to put that in a good light.
“You’re right. It’s going to be a while before people can trust you.” James agreed.
“But if you want them to trust you and not view you as a monster, you have to put more effort into it than sulking in your room.” James pointed out. He wished he had something nicer to say but sugar coating it wouldn’t help.
“I never got the full story of what happened. One second you were out scouting the Cherry Bomb and the next you were hanging out with the Hellfire Club.”Max had moved back onto the floor, opting for the cold of the wall as James stood there and corrected him, stating he was a monster.
"It was complicated. We went there to scout the place, each breaking up into teams so we would look less suspicious. Leighton was able to get me and her down to the basement where we were ambushed by Nightcrawler. The Nightcrawler. He seemed to be full of some kind of drug, made him aggressive. After that the rest of the Underground piled in, don't really know how. We ended up going through some secret lab hidden down there, Sinisters lab. Everyone began to split off… I don't know why, but I tried to keep us together." Max took a breath, recalling the events and having to think of Leighton.
"Thats when Havok and I went to go find Leighton. What we found was her speaking to her aunt Emma Frost. She offered us a chance to try the Hellfire Club, show us their side and goals with the promise to leave any time we wished." Tears began to well up on the corner of his eyes as he looked forward at the wall.
"She said that Sinister and Shaw were doing things against the Hellfire Club’s will, that Shaw was pulling these strings and that he was dealt with. They want to build an island, a place for all Mutantkind to live in peace with their own government. We would all be free to choose if we wanted to go or stay here and be hunted by purifiers. So we went. We wanted to see this homeland come true. How did this all get so fucked?"“We saved Nightcrawler. I had to brink Luna back from the brink of death to do it. I think we both were there for a second” James tried to fight off the full body shudder at the memory of that emptiness but it always felt like it was there whenever he recalled it, just waiting to come back.
“Sinister locked mutants up in cages and was experimenting on them. It was pretty fucked up.” James sat down next to Max, throwing his arm over his shoulder. Max was right. Everything over the past few months had been fucked up horribly and Max basically had everyone against him.
“Because they’re liars and manipulators who take advantage of people who give a shit about everyone else. I know all about that.” James laughed hallowly.
“For what it’s worth, I never thought you were a villain. Honestly, joining them wasn’t the worst move you could have made. They did have the resources to help you develop your abilities. This is clearly not the place to learn that kind of stuff, you know? But this is what you got now and frankly, I think it’ll be better than what they would have done to you.” James stayed silent for a minute before continuing.
“What happened with Leighton isn’t your fault. She made a decision, not you, that put her in that position. You have to remember that. Wanda’s world wasn't real. Beating yourself up for something that happened there will only drive you insane.” James said, as much to himself as to Max.
“But you have a chance to make sure you’re ready when something like that happens again. You know what you’re capable of, you just have to get there, and now you have plenty of time with a decent training room downstairs to practice in. You want to make sure you can help your friends next time? Then let’s fix the problem and make sure you’re ready. That’s all we can do, right?”Max wasn't sure what it was. The corny inspirational speech, the first time he's had solitude with a boy his age, the dimples on James cheeks, or the fact that James was the first person to treat him as a human being since Leighton. He wiped the tears that had been wavering in the corners of his eyes.
"When did you become so inspirational and wise?" he chuckled, hitting James gently on the arm.
"I did learn a few things. Some weaknesses of Magneto in combat, a dysfunction between members there, and how to replicate outer space within my own room. No sound, just vast stars backdrops against the dark."Max tilted his head onto James shoulder as his tension began to melt away.
"I also learned that apparently that homeless guy, you know Jacks brother?, is a mutant who can talk to ghosts. Here I always thought he was just crazy." The words trailed off slowly into silence as he recalled the events that lead to that revelation. His head buried deeper onto his shoulder.
"I killed Waves mom...how can i ever fix that? I offered a solution but her and the underground shut it down." Max tucked his legs up towards his chest.
Now, there was plenty to unpack there and James even had a few witty things to say as he let Max finish but that all went out the window as soon as Max brought up Casper. James stared at Max for a few moments, processing. Did this boy have eyes? They met Casper at the same time and everyone knew Max flirted shamelessly with Jack so how could he just write Casper off as a crazy homeless guy?
“First of all, his name is Casper. Second of all, that’s my boyfriend.” James tried not to snap, he really did,but it did come out sharper than he intended.
“So while I get it that you probably didn’t know because you weren’t around for it, I’d appreciate it if you maybe got to know him before judging the shit out of him.” “Anyways, I had something funny to say and now I forgot what it was.” James complained. He hadn't moved his arm so he patted Max’s shoulder.
“There isn’t really fixing someone’s death. How do you fix all the pain someone went through? The only thing you can do is do your best to move forward from it with a better mind set. Someone died because of an accident. So you do everything you can to make sure it doesn’t happen again. You train until you don’t make pillows of people’s faces by accident.” James poked fun at Max.
Maxs tension rose all at once. His nerves coming back as he was scolded by James and informed of their relationship. He didn't dare move, or even lift his head.
"Sorry. I had no idea, and I just ever saw him speaking to himself, which I guess was a ghost but how was I to know? Anyways, I'll endeavor to get to know him...that is if he doesn't run away from me scared again." The last time he saw Casper was after the death of Waverlys mom, Casper couldn't even look him in the eye. He knew James was right, he couldn't take back the pain, that feeling. No one could take away how Max felt the day he heard Leightons last words.
He would train, work on his powers and how best to control them. He would have to help the Underground as best he could and prove that he meant them no harm. Max’s face went red at the mention of the pillow.
"If I could avoid that pillow I would at any chance. Trust me. But of course, I'd rather avoid the bigger accidents. I have gotten better. Turns out wailing on Magneto is a good stress reliever and a good way to train.""Perfect! Look at you, already one step ahead." James beamed at Max.
"And I'm glad your fight with Magneto went better than ours. Dead Polaris, traumatized Sapphire, bleeding out Jack.. wasn't fucking pretty." "Well I'm not the one with a boyfriend." Max said jokingly as he shoved his weight into James's. He tried hard to smile, but it sounded as if they had a rougher time that he did defeating Wanda.
"Well I appreciate the pep talk and sense of normality. I really appreciate it James, that and healing a giant hole in my chest." Max gave the boy a peck on the cheek before standing up and stretching.
"Now get outta here before people think you're two timing James with a monster.""Hey, hey. Hugs good, that not." James swatted at Max as he stood. This was not something he was going to like sharing but he wasn't about to not tell Casper.
"Yeah, yeah. Anytime, Max. You know where to find me." James headed out with a wave.
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