Chapter 132 – Sudden Change

[2009 – September]

Her back leaning against the lockers behind her, Elijah stood in front of her, one of his hands placed on the locker next to her while his other hand rested on her left hip, his thumb drawing soft circles that she felt even through the layers of clothing.

It was an intimate, almost reflexive, gesture of his but this didn't make it any less noticeable or memorable.

In fact, it was these little things, along with the soft glow in Elijah's eyes whenever he looked at her, which made her feel loved so deeply that she sometimes found it hard to breathe, her heart skipping beats and pounding violently due to the strong emotions welling up inside it.

One of her hands rested on Elijah's chest, softly holding onto the dark-green fabric of his hoodie, while she reached out with her other hand and caressed his cheek, brushing back a stray lock of his black hair.

It was currently lunchtime and they had just placed both of their books in her locker, so they weren't in a rush to not be late for the period.

"Have you thought about it yet? Gwen seems rather impatient for an answer.", Jean asked, smiling lightly as she looked up into his warm green eyes, their dark glow full of desire and affection.

Gwen had invited Elijah to join the school orchestra a few days ago and seemed rather determined to have her love agree, though Jean knew that this was unlikely.

Elijah seldom played the piano for others, he only did so for himself or her. He loved the instrument but didn't enjoy being told what to play, which was naturally what would happen in case he joined the school orchestra.

Lightly shaking his head while her hand still rested on the side of his neck, caressing his warm skin affectionately, he replied: "I won't join them."

Suddenly leaning down, Elijah stole himself a soft kiss before adding in a low and playful tone, eyes glittering with mischief and deep affection: "Besides, you are my muse, why would I need anybody else to give me a reason to play?"

Her face lit up at his words without any suspense, a beautiful smile akin to a flower in full bloom drawing up her lips as she looked up at him.

"Well, if you put it like that, I guess you are right.", she replied while taking half a step forward, pressing herself into his embrace while her arms rose and wrapped themselves around his neck.

Jean had asked Elijah before if wouldn't rather attend some kind of school where they focused on teaching music.

Naturally, she loved going to the same school as Elijah, spending so much time with him all day while enjoying a normal school life. But she wasn't selfish nor was she blind to his talent as a pianist.

She knew very well that Elijah had a rare gift for the piano and she didn't want to see it wasted just because she would rather have him by her side.

Still, Elijah had just laughed carefreely in response, having wrapped his arms around her tightly while telling her that he was exactly where he wanted to be.

Pressing her soft lips against his in a tender fashion as she kissed him, ignoring all the other students walking by. Jean moved back a bit a few moments later, her hands once again moving down to her love's chest, his strong heart beating fiercely beneath her palm.

"We should probably get going, we promised the others to have lunch together, after all.", she voiced out lightly, though she didn't move away further, a bit unwilling to leave Elijah's embrace completely just yet.

This wasn't a strange or unfamiliar thought to her as she always felt like this in her love's presence.

Smiling faintly, she saw that Elijah was about to reply when suddenly his expression changed sharply, something dark and dangerous awakening in his eyes as he turned to face another direction.

She didn't know what caused this sudden change, so she couldn't help but ask quietly: "What happened?"

"Someone's causing trouble.", Elijah stated in a low voice, and not a moment later the fire alarm went off, a shrill and loud ringing sound echoing through the whole school.

Hearing this she saw the other students reacting quickly as they all turned around to hurriedly leave the school building like they were supposed to. Elijah though didn't move for the moment and so she decided to spread her telepathic senses into the direction he was looking, hearing some sort of commotion coming from there.

As soon as she did so though, a sharp malicious presence appeared in her mind and she knew that the fire alarm hadn't been triggered because of a fire, or at least that was not the entire reason as some seemed to have come to attack the school.

At this point though, Elijah suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her along as he turned to leave the school building.

"Wait, someone might need our help!", Jean protested lightly as she stopped in her tracks.

Turning towards her, her love sighed even though a soft look appeared in his eyes.

"Nobody has been hurt and I am still keeping an eye on what's going on. If the situation gets out of control or someone's life is threatened, I will act. I promise.", Elijah conceded as he shook his head lightly, "Exposing yourself is unnecessary in this situation, Firefly. Trust me."

Struggling internally for a bit, Jean nodded as she no longer resisted while Elijah pulled her along. The impulse to help those in danger just naturally sprang up in her mind and it wasn't easy to ignore it after having been trained as a future member of the X-Men.

Still, Jean also understood that Elijah was right and she trusted that he would protect those in danger, even though she wasn't sure what was going on. The malicious presence also didn't seem to be very strong, so she was not too worried.

"Can you tell me what's going on?", she asked while they moved, knowing that Elijah's Farsight granted him a far more accurate ability to judge the situation than she had through the ambient psionic energy.

"You heard about some kind of lizardman attacking people a few days ago, did you not? Now, that thing is here and it is fighting against Peter.", he answered calmly though his words shocked Jean.

Jean had sensed that Peter had become far stronger a few weeks ago but she hadn't connected that with the attack of the mutated creature that she had seen in the news a few days ago, so she did not understand the situation even with Elijah's explanation.

"Peter is fighting?", she voiced out in surprise before her senses confirmed Elijah's words as she felt her classmate's presence near the one she suspected to be the attacker, "Shouldn't we help him?"

"Well, considering that Peter is 'Spiderman' and seemed to be able to hold his own, there is no need for us to interfere.", Elijah sighed as he spoke.

"He is who?!", Jean called out, once again shocked by the sudden development.

It was one thing for Peter to have become stronger than a normal human but to realize that her lanky classmate was a vigilante that roamed the streets of New York was a different matter.