With Friends Like These (Part One)

The end of the semester meant one thing to most of us as far as school was concerned: You didn't have to go home, but you had to get the hell out of here.

...Not really. Some kids didn't have a place to go. Some kids had parents that didn't want them home because they were mutants. Some kids just had more fun staying away from home and being free. Either way, there were plenty of students that remained behind at the Xavier Institute when a seasonal break from classes came up.

I was not one of them. I was getting the hell out of there while the getting was good and getting back to the west coast. Most of my team had family to get back to as well. And so, the mighty Paladins would go their separate ways for the summer, split to the four corners of the Earth from whence they came... temporarily.

Hisako had an earlier flight than any of us, seeing as how she had a long way to go to get back to Japan. The shuttle had taken her out of there in the morning. We'd all woken up to give her our goodbyes. It was the last time we would see her until the summer period was over and we all came back for the fall.

I could admit, I would miss my fine, Asian friend. We'd bonded through lukewarm sense of rivalry, mixed with shared near-death experiences. What more could you ask for to get closer to someone?

We had had our usual salty exchange before she had departed. It was the usual back-and-forth fare, consisting of me saying how much she would miss me when I was gone, her saying how she wouldn't be able to keep me from getting my butt kicked until we got back, me throwing out low-brow Asian jokes, her saying terrible shit about me in Japanese.

You know - the normal stuff.

Hisako brought it to an end by yanking my hat off of my head and frisbeeing it away into the fountain near the front gates. It was where everyone was leaving, so everybody saw it. I of course had to go after it, giving her time to get on the bus taking her to the airport before I could enact vengeance.

I fucking hate my friends.

If it had been my black hat, it wouldn't have been so bad. My damn fresh white hat got wet, and all the others were packed already, so I had to wear the one with clear to see water stains for hours before it got dry. She got the last laugh until fall.

No... I fucking love my friends.

I was mad for all of ten seconds until I nearly died laughing. It had been a great throw.

Also among those who had to leave early for the sake of international flights, Megan.

That's right. I had a brand new lady friend I had to see off, which sucked, because I had to hope she was still interested in me two months from then. I was certain I'd be a crappy boyfriend when she lived one dorm building over from mine. What was I going to do with long-distance?

After the party, things had been going well. Granted, it had only been really a week. But it had been a great week! Granted, I hadn't slept with her again, because Megan couldn't just kick Hope out of their room, and Saberwolf had implied violence if I tried to kick him out of mine again. But that was fine. As outstanding as it was, and as much as I wanted to do it again, I wasn't some horn-dog. I was patient.

Granted, two months was a long time, but hey! I'd gone a loooong time without before. I could suffer through the summer.

I would have to deal with the loss of facetime somehow. It wasn't as though I had much of a choice if I wanted to at least try to make this whole thing work. These thoughts were in mind, but I hoped it didn't show on my face when we were saying goodbye. Not that anyone would have seen it though, seeing as how it was comfortably buried in the crook of Megan's neck.

"Mmmm. God... this is so good," I mumbled into her skin, getting her to giggle from the rumble of my voice. My arms were wrapped around her waist, lifting her off of the ground.

Megan had the best hugs. Straight-up full body. I could feel every inch of her from the neck down to her waist. Outstanding. I'm pretty sure that one lasted for like two minutes straight. I didn't care. Nothing could ruin it for me.

"You know, you have to let go of her at some point, Bel. She's gonna miss the shuttle."

…Except for one of our teammates, as had become tradition since we'd made things official. This time it was one of Megan's.

I didn't even bother trying to dignify the person who spoke with any physical attention. No, Megan was going to get all of that instead, "Shut up, Nicky. We're doing a thing here," That thing lasted only for a few seconds longer before she finally let go, "Aww."

I wasn't trying to be cute. I was legit sad about it. I did not want to let go. I'm such a sucker for girls, it's ridiculous.

Megan pulled away and finally saw my sad look, "Aww, don't be so down," She smudged my cheeks like a large dog to try and fix a smile on my face, "It won't be so bad. It's not for that long."

It was two months. I literally just got her, and then I couldn't have her. What kind of shitty timing was that? I'll tell you. It was just the tried and true fortune of one Bellamy Marcher. Goddamn my luck. Way to be slow on the pitch in getting a girlfriend, champ.

What else could I do but suck it up and deal? It wasn't like either of us could teleport or anything to get back and forth. Time and distance were our barrier. I tried to be positive about things though, "Well, there's plenty of time to follow up on this when we all get back. I can come up with a bunch of things we can do by ourselves. If you're still up for it, that is."

Megan's eyes lit up in excitement, "Oh my God, yes! I'd love to!" She said, taking off from the ground, her hands clasped close to her face, "I mean, I wanted to after the first one that got messed up, but it just didn't seem right after everything that happened, and nobody'll mess with us next time, and there's so much we can do that'd be so much fun, and-," She stopped and realized that she had been going on for quite some time, "-I'm talking too much again."

I gently grabbed her hands and lowered her back down onto her feet, "Hey, other people talking means I don't have to. Besides, it's the last time I'm gonna see you in person for a little while."

Megan threw her arms around my neck and gave me a peck on the lips, "Call me when you get home?" She asked, pressing her nose against mine.

"Will do," I said, savoring the last of the contact I was going to have with Pixie for the summer, "Take care of yourself, Megan."

Megan flew backwards, her hands behind her with a large grin on her face, "I'm not the one who's been fighting robots and aliens all semester!" She said, stopping just short of the bus to spare me one more glance before getting on, "Bye, Bel."

I felt a sense of longing as I watched her go. For a moment, I really didn't want to go home, and contemplated the idea of following her like a puppy.

Goddamn it. Was it too late to call my parents and get my ticket changed for a flight to Wales instead? Just for a week or so?

...No, that would have been creepy. Thankfully, this was one of those kinds of things I couldn't just do. Otherwise, talk/act without thinking everything out Bellamy would have been screwed.

As I started walking away, sulking, Eddie came out of nowhere and threw an arm around my neck, a big grin on his face as he rubbed my hat down on my head, "Ooh, gonna send Pixie some pictures from back home? Better make sure your parents don't catch you," He said.

It took a moment to catch on to what he was getting at, "Why would my parents care if I sent pictu-?" Things finally snapped into place like a set of Legos. I slipped his arm off of me and put him into a wristlock, "Fuck off, Eddie, I'm not sending any dick pics."

He laughed until I let him go, mostly because I didn't put an ounce of pressure into the hold. He got the point though, "I'm just messing with you. Pixie isn't even the type," He said, before taking on a thoughtful expression, "...Though if she sends you any nudes..."

Moron. The worst part about it was that I wasn't even mad. We fed off of each other normally, and if my head hadn't been on straight, who knows what I would have said, "Does your thirsty ass need a dollar for the vending machine? It's a long ride to the airport," In this instance, I gave him a good punch to the shoulder and shut it down, "I'll see you next semester, fucker."

Eddie seemed surprised, like he had expected me to be getting on one of the shuttles like him, "You're staying here for summer break?" He realized I didn't have a backpack with me, and he hadn't seen me load any luggage into the shuttle, "If I were you, I wouldn't be able to wait to get back out to California."

I waved it off. I was heading home, I just wasn't leaving right then, "No, I'm going. I just can't fly out until later," I told him. Like hell I was going to be stuck at a ghost school all summer, "Don't worry about me. I'm not gonna rot away on campus."

Eddie looked at me with the utmost seriousness, pointing right into my face, "You'd better not. Dude, our leader can't be stuck at school all year-round. The Paladins have a boat-load of cred now compared to January. Let's try to hold onto that. I want some primo summer break stories when we get back."

I swatted his hand out of my face and turned him around to push him in the direction of his shuttle, "Whatever. Worry about filling your own quota on that. You'd better get on the bus before you miss your flight and have to fly yourself home."

"You say that like I couldn't!" He said as a parting shot, holding up the 'too sweet' from a distance, "Get some rest and have some fun, asshole!"

I held up my own 'too sweet', but didn't let Eddie get away with just that, "Hey, who's the leader here! Don't tell me what to do! I'm Morris Day; you're Jerome, bitch!"

He turned back just before stepping onto his bus, "I don't know that means!" He shouted back.

I expected nothing less, but at least he knew it was a reference, of which I made many. I left him with my cultural homework suggestion for the summer, "Listen to Morris Day and the Times, or watch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back! You'll get it!"

"Yeah, I won't do either of those things!" And with that, he disappeared onto his transport.

Ingrate. That was the thanks I got for trying to expand Eddie's mind with some fine entertainment. He couldn't spare two hours out of his entire summer? I saw how much weight my opinion on movies and other media held to my friends. I was good enough to shoot our enemies in the face, but not good enough to throw them a movie suggestion.

I almost flipped him off, but stopped, realizing that I was about to shoot the bird to an entire bus full of kids with superpowers. That, and I caught sight of another of my teammates coming up to me. She was my favorite, an honest-to-goodness good girl, and I would not allow her to be corrupted by my bad and at times vulgar habits.

Her timing was impeccable, as she nailed me with a hug right as I turned around to face her all the way, "Hey, Ruthie!" She barely budged me and I wrapped my arms around her, "So I guess you're getting ready to roll out?"

Ruth looked up at me. Well, she turned her face up to me. Her eyes were covered so she couldn't technically 'look' at me. She had an ear-to-ear smile though, which made me smile, "Bellamy! Yes, her aunt has arrived, so she is going home now."

"I guess your aunt does live close enough to drive you back," I let out a sigh and turned away, tapping into my inner ham as I covered my eyes with my hand, "I guess, if you must. Go on. Leave me behind too, just like all of the others!" I snuck a quick peek to see her standing and waiting patiently to finish my dramatics, "Nothing?"

"She will see you next semester, thank you," Ruth said, reaching out to pat me on the head... again, like a large dog.

"Yeah-yeah-yeah," I said, rolling my eyes and readjusting my hat. What was it with my friends messing with it before they left? Was it that much of a target today because I went with bright white? Either way, I pulled Ruth back in for another hug. She didn't complain, "If you need me, call me. Even if it's only to talk. Just remember, if you call early, I'm three hours behind you so I might still be asleep."

She tensed up for a moment when I touched upon the talks we tried to have whenever her visions of terrible things grew to be too much for her. Thankfully, she relaxed against me just as quickly, "Thank you. She will, yes," She mumbled into my chest, "She is glad you are coming back."

I didn't have any siblings, but if I had a little sister, I could do much worse than having one like Ruth, "Of course I'm coming back. We'll be together again before you know it."

"Yes, we will all need you."

"The Paladins need you too, Ruthie."

"No. All of us will need you."

She didn't say anything else after that, she just held onto me. If she didn't want to talk about it, she didn't have to. Anytime we did something, what she saw changed. Lord knows she'd had to filter enough horrible shit through her head without having to tell me about every little detail that came up. Not like I would remember them all anyway.

I let her stay like that for as long as she wanted to. She'd be able to take a break while she was with her aunt. From what I knew, she'd always been treated well when she stayed there. And the woman probably missed her too, so she'd spoil her all summer. Good. She deserved it.

"You don't have to deal with any of this insane crap for a while," I told her, giving her a kiss on top of her head, "Don't worry about a thing."

I could say that all I wanted to, but Ruth probably knew that I only meant it to a certain degree. I didn't know what I didn't know. She did. She had seen basically everything. Most of the things that had happened, and most of the things that would.

All I could do was try and be ready. But that was for later. For the time being, I walked Ruth to her aunt's car to see her off, as was my duty as team leader of the Paladins. And with that, I was alone.

Well, not entirely alone. There was still one member of my team left around the Institute, though we hadn't been talking much lately. Not that Laura was particularly social to begin with, but I could tell what the cold shoulder was like, even from her. She hadn't been malicious or anything, but for the time being, her favorite person I was not.

I had a guess as to why, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to her about it. She was really good at not being around to say anything to when she wanted to be. I wanted to smooth things out before I left for the summer, but it looked like I wasn't going to get the chance. On the bright side, in two months things might be cool again.

There were still a few hours until I needed to get onto a shuttle to head to the airport, and all of my stuff was packed, so I had nothing to occupy my time until I had to leave. I still had to try and figure out if I could somehow get Saberwolf through an airport so he could go home with me. Then I had to convince him to go.

I rounded a corner inside and bumped into the short, metal-filled wall that was Mister Logan. He didn't budge. I guess I wasn't strong enough without my powers active to push him around yet.

Mister Logan just gave me a look and brushed off his shirt where we collided, "Hey, Glowstick. Glad you haven't left yet. Been looking for you."

"I'm not going anywhere for a while. My flight isn't until this evening, "I told him with a shrug, "Why? What's up?"

A big, victorious grin took form on his face. One that didn't particularly fill me with a sense of good confidence. Before I could turn to try and run, Mister Logan's hairy forearm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me in. The man had an iron grip.

"Kid, I've got a proposition for you."