iphignia939

Picfic again! This time we go into the future, and learn that teenagers who can control the weather are not really the kind you want having dating-related crankiness.

MINASFS picfic: A Break in the Weather
by gale

SUMMARY: The first sign Charles had that Ororo had returned from Wakanda was the weather.





The first sign Charles had that Ororo had returned from Wakanda was the weather.

"It's supposed to be a nice day!" one of the children--Vincent, some offshoot of pyrokinetic that generates intense heat instead of flame--says, scowling up at the sky.

"Change of plans, kids," Scott says, herding them away from the windows. He shoots Charles a look and mouths "Ororo?", but keeps moving them down the hall. It's more of a rhetorical question anyway; some mutations are commonplace (inasmuch as such things can be), but not the ability to control the weather.

Charles scans the grounds for a moment, then turns and wheels himself out to the lake.

*

"You're going to drown your garden, you know," he says, stopping a few feet away.

"I don't care," Ororo says, perfectly understandably despite the increasingly loud thunder. She's got her arms crossed over her chest and she's hovering in mid-air, eyes gone all-white and mouth pressed into a thin line. Charles isn't sure, but he'd be willing to bet this sudden storm reaches all the way into Westchester proper.

He sighs. "Ororo--"

"He just--he--that's not even--" Ororo makes a frustrated noise and glares out at the lake; in response, waves start trying to break.

"T'Challa is the ruler of Wakanda," Charles says patiently. "You cannot be terribly surprised at what happened--"

"I never said I was surprised! I said--" She flails one hand. "He's a jerk."

"He undoubtedly is." Charles has never had reason to meet T'Challa, but anyone who can upset Ororo quite this much isn't someone who's going to get his well-wishes straight out of the gate. "That said, I don't really understand how taking it out on us is going to make you feel better about anything."

Ororo looks at him for a long moment, then lands on the ground and immediately slumps into a long-legged heap. The thunder dies down, but the rain doesn't stop.

"You don't understand," she mutters. "You--" What follows is a jumble of ideas and images, some remarkably incorrect, that boil down to: You've been happy for years, you have no idea what I'm going through, adults are idiots.

"I was young once, too," Charles says. "I'm not so old I don't remember how miserable it can be when you love someone and she--or he--doesn't love you back." He isn't one to talk about experiences being better or worse; they're all just different. It is a special level of hell to know before you actually see someone that you're going to get The Talk, but he's not about to tell Ororo that. Or any teenager, actually.

"All he cares about is his duty," Ororo says after a minute. "I don't care that he has responsibilities. I have responsibilities! Everyone does eventually. But he doesn't--it's like his path is set, and if he strays from it he'll die."

"I can't speak to the last part," Charles says, "but if his path is set, then that's that."

"Yeah, well, it sucks."

"Of course it sucks. Who told you otherwise?" He looks at her, one eyebrow raised. "It sucks, and it hurts, and one day you'll wake up and it'll hurt a little less. But you won't forget. You don't forget the first time you break your heart, Ororo."

"Stupid," she mutters again, and tucks her head against her chest, swipes at her eyes.

"Nothing is ever stupid." Charles offers her a hand; after a moment, Ororo takes it. "Especially not love. Occasionally it's misguided, but that's hardly the same thing."

"Yeah, well." She swipes at her eyes again, and the rain starts to ease up. It doesn't stop, but at least it's not in danger of stray lightning strikes destroying a window somewhere.

That doesn't mean it'll be clear skies for the next little while, though. Charles isn't so far removed from Ororo's age that he doesn't remember every little thing being like a tornado: here in two minutes, gone in three.

"Come," he says, and turns his chair back around. "I believe Jean's irritated with Scott about something. You can commiserate about how idiotic men are."

After a minute, Ororo catches up to him. "'kay."







fun fact: Ororo Munroe is the calmest person you've ever seen because when she's not, shit like this happens. there's a reason she's an omega-level mutant, you guys.

fun fact #2: Ororo's first love was, in fact, Prince T'Challa of Wakanda, otherwise known as the Black Panther. (They're married now! You want to start a fight in a comic book store, ask two people whether that's hurt or helped Ororo's characterization. I have no opinion, as I haven't read any of Reginald Hudlin's run.)

yes, Charles is in a wheelchair. no, Erik was not involved. no, neither was Moira. yes, I'm pretty sure Cain was, or at least was present. Vincent is an actual comics character, not original; his mutant name is Skybolt.

also, when I do these in the future, I like to separate students into Mommy's (Charles) or Daddy's (Erik). Ororo is a Charles kid, definitely; so is Scott. Jean...has turned out to be an Erik, which is strangely fitting. UGH MOVIES WHY DID YOU NOT GO THERE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZEBALLS.