Family 10.3

 Since the attic was reserved for things that weren't wholesale soul sucking and the library didn't have enough table space, so the dinning room table had become the go-to spot for all things homework. Even though dinner wasn't on the table, everyone filled their usual seats. Kurt and Evan were next to each other on Anna's right, and to her left sat Kitty at the head of the table.

Evan, pencil in one hand and another poised over a Ti-83 calculator, was hard at work doing two sets of algebra homework while Kurt watched him through sleepy eyes on a head propped up by a single curled fist.

Kitty was doing some sort of long-answer homework that involved writing a paragraph of text after each question. She had made it about half way though question one before completely emercing herself in some phone game that made loud chimes ever other second.

As for Anna, it was biology. The anatomy of the frog specifically. The grossest classic staple of any class. Thankfully, the schools in the area have at least evolved enough to swap out the formerly living frog cadavers for synthetic, reusable ones. Still, they were horrifically similar to their formerly living cousins and strangely just as slimy. Her homework page and notes from the dissection were still dotted with stains from the 'operation'. The image of tubes of pink and purple silly-string filled giblets stuffed inside a fleshy frog sock will haunt her till the next nightmare fueling image lurking in her biology text book.

There was a creak from somewhere nearby then Kurt lifted his head. "Oh, hey Scott."

Anna pulled her sweaty palm off her forehead and spotted her galngly mechanic buddy standing in the archway to the dining room with a single strap of his backpack looped over his shoulder. He waved his hand like it was full of stuffing and his forarms was just a stick someone was moving back and forth. "Hey, guys!"

Kurt rubbed his nose. "What's up? Something wrong?" He managed to say halfway through a yawn.

"Wrong? No. No, nothing's wrong." Scott scratched the point where the top of his shirt met his collarbone. "I was just wondering… if you guys wouldn't mind if I joined you."

It was Evan's turn to poke his nose up from his and Kurt's work. "Join us? Join us for what?"

"For, you know-" Scott waved his hand in the direction of the table. "Study group!" He cleared his throat. "If thats okay, I mean."

Evan's lips started to move with what Anna was sure was some other biting comment, but she beat him to the pass. "Of course you can, Scott." She fired a side-eye at Evan, then nodded at Scott's usual spot. "Pull up a seat. Study group was just starting to get good."

"Thanks! I mean, um, thank you, Anna." Scott carefully lowered his bag on the table, and when he made to grab his chair, she could see his hand was trembling.

She flashed him her best disarming smile. "Whatchya got today, Scotty?"

"Calculus," he mumbled and pulled a laptop out of his bag. "Shouldn't take too long, though."

"Calculus? Not take long? You sure about that?"

"Yeah. I've always been alright at math. I kind of like it." Scott pointed a chin in Evan's direction. "Algebra One was my favorite. I can help you guys out if you get stuck if you want."

Evan held up his hand with the flick of a wrist. "Yeah, think I got it, Scott. Thanks so much."

Scott eased his bag onto the floor at his side and scratched the back of his head. He lifted the computer screen open and keyed in a password.

"How are you with biology?" Anna felt her throat force a little laugh through her cotton mouth. "This stuff isn't exactly 'the hip bone is connected to the leg bone,' you know?"

"It's been a little while," Scott gently bobbed his head back and forth in an odd way, "but I think I could help you out! I-If that's what you want."

"Hey," Kurt rubbed his eyes with the heals of his hands, "weren't you two working on some project together?"

"We were, but not for school. It's the car I brought back from when Logan saved me from Mississippi. Shes a GMC Gremlin named Banana and he kicks ass."

"You never did explain to me," Scott peared over his computer screen and arched an eyebrow. "Why did you name the burnt-siena colored car, Banana? You mentioned you named it after some cat, but last I checked, they don't come in yellow. Also, wasn't Banana a she?"

"I got the lore wrong. There was this stray orange tabby cat in my neighborhood when I was a kid named Banana. We named him that because we were six or some shit and I guess we thought bananas were a pretty badass fruit. Funny enough, that cat probably never knew what a banana looked like because when he would make the rounds between all our houses, all us kids would feed him french fries and scraps of tuna fillays we got from the McDonald's down the street."

"That can't be a good diet for a cat."

"He had a few extra pounds, yeah. It certainly didn't help him get out of the way of that truck that turned him into a pancake."

Kurt's eyes went wide for the first time that day. "Jesus!"

"Yeah… Banana's insides weren't any more yellow than his outside."

Kurt grabbed his mouth. "Anna, please stop talking."

"Anyway, all us kids held a little funeral for him and buried him in his favorite place, under the dead bush behind the McDonolds."

"Anna"

"What is it, Scott?"

"I'm really glad you left Mississippi."

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Yeah… me too."

There was another creak, and a moment later, Ororo appeared framed by the archway. She stood tall, her slender neck and hollow cheeks highlighted by the natural light leaking in from the wide window behind Kitty. A hush fell over the students, powerful enough for Kitty to finally look up from her phone.

"Oh, hey, Ororo!" She looked down. "Scott, when did you get here?"

"Afternoon everyone." Ororo's gem like eyes slowly bounced from face to face. "I heard the sound of little voices and I wanted to see how you all were."

"We're good!" Kurt announced with new-found energy. Whether he was alert now due to Ororo's arival or Anna's horror story, it was difficult to tell.

"I'm glad to hear it." Ororo's formidable gaze finally landed on Anna. "Do you still have much work to do, Anna?"

"Work to do?" Anna porred over her goo stained notes and homework. "No… not really, no. Got most of my homework done already, and this stuff isn't due till next week."

"Excellent. Would you mind assisting me in the greenhouse?"

"The greenhouse? Assist? No, that's fin-"

"Wonderful. I'll see you there." With that she seemed to glide more then walk out of the archway and dissappear.

To Kitty and Kurt's credit, they waited a near minute before they started to jeer Anna about 'getting called to the principal's office.'

"I bet it's not even like that," Anna said while stuffing her computer in her backpack.

"I don't know," Kitty leaned over the table. "That skirt you wore with your leggings the other day didn't look like it reached past your fingers…"

"Kitty, do you smell that?" Kurt wafted the air with his hand. "Do you smell weed?"

"You know Kurt, now that you mention it -"

"Go to hell. Both of you."

Anna had just slung her backpack over her shoulder when she heard Evan mumble, "Maybe she's going to tell you why she betrayed us."

The same cold air that blew though the room when Ororo arrived, seemed to gain a second wind then. Anna threaded her arm though the second strap of her pack and secured it on her shoulders. She only gave Scott a passing nod as she left the room for the elevator down the hall.

*

Stepping inside the greenhouse atop the mansion was like entering an alien world. Beyond the glass doors were vivid colors beyond imagination. Flowers bloomed in wild shades of fiery oranges that looked like a rising sun. A plant that looked as if it were grinning like a chesire cat had long blue lips, and its flesh was dotted pink and purple. At the greenhouse's center, surrounded by vines of forest green budding with pink and white flowers, was the 'Mother' plant. Anna had never seen what the actual thing looked like. She only saw its many coiling vines branch out from an elaborate mound of twisted colorful bark, all painted the same as the pink and white flowers. Looking at the strange thing made her feel nothing but contradictions. Its alien form made her feel afraid, but it was like she somehow knew instinctually it was friendly. Its many stretching tendrels made her uneasy, like they were going to rise suddenly and grab her, yet they somehow reminded her of being held by her parents when she was a little kid.

Ororo rounded from the other side of the Mother plant. She ran her hand along its branches as she passed. When Anna got closer, she could see Ororo's palm ever so slightly glowing.

"This thing," Anna shook her head, "It never makes any more sense no matter how many times I see it."

Even when Ororo smiled, "A reminder of home."

"They got a lot of these where you come from?"

"No." Ororo ran her hand up the Mother plant's many tendrils. "She was a gift. A little bulb from what looked like a tulip. I planted her, tended to her, and she sprouted into what you see now." Ororo made a grand gesture to the rest of the room, "Many of the plants you see in here are cross species of her."

"Who gave her to you?"

She flashes a conspiratorial smile. "A story for another time." Ororo dropped her hand from the Mother plant, and it stopped glowing. She walked past a little bench laid heavy with gardening tools next to a little fern with pink tipped leaves. "Why don't you drop your bag at the door and join me?"

Anna dropped her bag and joined Ororo's side where the smallest pair of hand clippers were placed in her hands. "I've, uh, never gardened before."

"It's not so hard." Ororo picked up a pair of clippers, pulled out a stringy growth near the bottom of the trunk, and clipped it. "The plant is trying to take shape. Simply aid the process and get rid of the excess."

"Okay." Anna looked around the fragile-looking fern, found something similar to what Ororo clipped, and followed her example.

"Well done."

"Want me to get all the stuff getting wild around the top?"

"Not yet."

"Oh. When do we do that?"

Ororo looked around the plant and ran her fingers along its upward growth. "We probably should now, then continue from there, but I've never felt right trying to correct nature simply because we want it to look correct according to our standards."

"Didn't you say it helps the plant?"

"Dealing with groths, funguses, and what might otherwise unnecarily stunt its groath, yes." Ororo put down her shears. "Pruning for pruning's sake, well, I've never been a big fan."

Anna too put her clippers down. "I'm gonna guess you didn't ask me up here to give me a lesson about plants." The way she said it came out more curt then she meant to and she immediently regretted saying anything at all.

Her and Ororo's eyes met, and Anna found herself looking into two nebulas before Ororo averted her gaze. She turned. "There's something I wanted to tell you. What I told you about my past when we first met wasn't entirely truthful." Ororo paused and slowly wrung her hands together. She likely didn't even realize she was doing it. She drew a long breath and continued, "Before I moved to the United States, I had a family. I had a man I loved, and we had a child together."

Ororo's long white hair bobbed as she drew another breath. "There was an accident. He was driving with our son in the car when another car hit them, crumpling the car. I was out of the country at the time, helping family. By the time I heard, I was too far away to do anything or even see them in their final moments at the hospital. In one day… I lost my whole world."

Anna felt the breath leave her lungs. "My god…"

"When I came over, met Charles, and met The Brotherhood, I had a family again. People who cared for one another, who would bleed for the other, a group who loved one another. Leaving was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. But I left for more than just Charles or even his ideals."

Ororo raised her head and looked up at the sky. "I knew I had an American cousin. We never met, not in person, at least. When I found she lived in New York, I sought her out. We met and developed a friendship. I met her husband, a strong and kind-hearted marine, and I met her young son, who followed his daddy everywhere he went. Seeing this little boy, this child… it felt like I had…"

"You had your son back?"

"It's difficult to describe exactly what I felt. The best I can describe it as is pure joy that this member of my blood found such happiness in life." Even with Ororo's back still facing her, Anna could feel the other woman's muscles tighten. "Then her husband was deployed. It wasn't supposed to be dangerous. That's at least what they told us. He still came back to us in a coffin."

Anna lowered her head.

"My cousin was devastated, and her son was never the same. Soon after, we discovered his mutant abilities."

Anna whispered, "Evan…"

"My cousin couldn't handle the added pressure of a budding tenage son with mutant abilities, so I became his unofficial gardian while she took some time." Ororo's shoulders fell. "I loved my Brotherhood family, but like Charles, and like your mothers, I saw nothing but conflict in their future. There was so much anger there. So much hate. It was understandable. Justified even. Still, I couldn't bring him into that. I learned of Xavier's plan for the X-Men and…"

It was almost as if every wall of Anna's had dropped at once as she rushed over and hugged Ororo from behind. There was no thought, nothing to process it, it was just something she felt an overwhelming need to do. The older woman turned and hugged Anna right back. She could feel the little trickles of tears fall on her head.

After a while, Ororo broke off the hug and squeezed Anna's shoulders. "I… was devastated when I lost my partner and my boy. I thought I would never have a family again." She brushed Anna's hair with her fingers. "Then I met Evan, I met The Brotherhood, I met you all. I… lost so much, but I never thought I would gain so much either."

She knelt. "You all are a family. Sometimes, families fight, and sometimes they don't get along, but they also love each other, protect each other, and support one another. It may not be what any of us thought, but what is here is just as grand as anything any of us could have ever imagined." She lowered her eyes. "I hope I can perhaps one day regain that trust after what I did."

Anna dropped down to her level. "It was an impossible choice. You were put against two groups you love so much." Anna gently shook her head, her eyes got misty. "There's nothing to forgive." Then wrapped her arms around Ororo's neck in another hug.

Ororo embraced her tight, "Thank you, Anna… thank you."