Location: The Mutant Underground: Max and Harry's Room
Skills: N/A
Concern furrowed James’ brow as Max slunked out. It was eerily disconcerting; Max wasn’t one to make a quiet exit. He supposed it was easy enough to figure out. Max and Sunshine went through an ordeal and on the surface, it seemed like everyone was clearly more concerned for her than they were for him. Anyone would be upset if they felt like the people they were supposed to trust and rely on didn’t care enough to even bother asking if they were okay. James thought the hug would be enough but maybe it wasn’t. Damn, he should have said something.
“Hey, I’m just going to make sure Max is doing okay.” James told Casper as a realization hit him. Of course he was upset. The kid still had m-pox! Fuck and double fuck!
“Oh fuck, he hasn’t gotten a cure! I got to get him back down to get him some.” James was off quickly, taking the stairs two at a time.
Max gave Harry a simple smile. Looking at the glamorous mutant and seeing the concern in his eyes.
"I'll be sure to rest up no worries. I'm getting some more practice in too and I learned quite a bit while we were...out. learning more still. If anything it appears like you need the rest." Harry placed a hand on the blonde mutants shoulder.
"You should probably go apologize to someone. Walking away from a hug like that is a bit rude." There was a long pause as he let the words sink into Max.
"I'm not your father or anything-" "Thank goodness for that" "But I do know how you feel and how things have been since I entered the MU. I'm here for you kid" There was a sudden knock on the door and both mutants turned to face it. Harry guessed who it was as he sat back down.
“Max, mind if I come in? The x-men dropped off the m-pox cure.” James called through the door.
Harry gave Max a knowing look as Max rolled his eyes, annoyed at how right he was. He knew deep inside he had to apologize for his behavior, but now it felt as though he wasn't the one who initiated it and that it wouldn't feel as...right.
"Come on in James, I was actually just about to head out to find you."James pushed the door open. He probably shouldn’t have been surprised to find Harry here, considering this was his room, but he was surprised to see he’d beaten James to the punch. The vial of m-pox pills sat in Max’s hand already. James shut the door gently behind him.
“Well, I guess you already have it. Good! No more bloody nights for any of us, thank God. Don’t know how much longer anyone would have survived. Hey, you mind if I sit?” James asked, doing so after Max nodded. He sat gingerly. He wasn’t sure how Max was feeling and he felt like he was intruding on whatever was going on between Harry and Max here.
“Sunshine mentioned some sort of haunted island. I don’t really understand any of this magic stuff but I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.” James spoke seriously. Sunshine
really didn’t like Max and James wasmore than a little concerned she may have done something to him given the opportunity away from prying eyes.
“You and her don’t… get along well and I just wanted to make sure you came back in one piece. Are you okay?”Max looked towards James, smiling at the show of concern. Granted James had always shown him kindness while others haven't but it was always such a refreshing pace to have someone care for you.
"We seemed to have ironed out some of our wrinkles while we were gone. Who knew shared trauma could help you bond with a person." He thought back to the 'haunted island' wondering how much was ok to share.
"The haunted island seemed to either be this paradise that the hellfire club spoke of, or an old home for Magneto. There was a massive statue to him, a room for Pietro and what I can only assume was one of Wanda's old spellbooks." Max slipped the old tome out of his bag to show Wanda's book.
"Its full of spells that can hopefully help us out in the future." Perhaps if he spoke enough about their adventure then maybe James and Harry wouldn't notice that he never answered if he was fine.
James nodded along as Max explained, chuckling darkly at his trauma comment. He wasn't wrong; trauma bonding was an effective, if not the healthiest, way to overcome issues. It's hard to hate someone who helped you live through a dark time. If it helped cut back on some of the tension though… Well, maybe James wouldn't poke it to that issue.
“Kinda weird you randomly teleported to a Magneto hideout right before he handed our asses to us on a platter." James sighed. They actually could have really used Max. His powers, magic, or whatever it was always seemed to handle eliminating problems well enough.
"But other than that, you're fine? We almost got killed by those exact people in the Princess' other world. I can't imagine they'd leave something behind like that without some guards at least."Max chuckled at the mention of guards. Thinking back to the traps laid about by Pietro, and then towards the wraith that seemed to attack them. It was weird, looking back, how the situation almost seemed fun.
"They certainly tried. Pietro had some old booby traps laying around, and we ran into a bloody ghost with an axe but we handled them both rather easily. Turns out some of my studies weren't for nothing. But more importantly, are you two ok? Magneto attacking here is no light matter. What happened?"Harry tensed as the conversation began to shift towards the new subject. The kid had only just come back but he supposed he had the right to know what went on while he was gone. He didn't want to be the first to speak on the matter, trying his best not to relive the moments that he was paralyzed and the fact that he would almost never walk again had it not been for Sapphire, Luna, and James.
"I'm alright with James here telling the story."James peered at Max in disbelief, waiting for a laugh and then the real story. But when he continued on, James decided maybe the teleport did a little more than he thought or maybe Sunshine really did infect him with something, only to take it back before they returned. Traps, yeah that was reasonable. Bloody axe wielding ghost? Definitely nowhere near as plaus… Well, meeting Casper did open up his eyes to the whole living after death thing so maybe Max didn’t just hallucinate it. James decided just like with Casper, he wasn’t going to ask for details. Things were complicated enough with just keeping people alive. He didn’t need the headache that contemplating the afterlife would bring.
“Yeah so after you and your team headed out to confront Jack, Magneto showed up looking for his daughter. Harry and I went out there in some attempt to reason with him but his only demand was we released his daughter. Still don’t know why we didn’t but someone decided fighting was the way to go. So we met outside and if it wasn’t for the fact that Polaris woke up and walked out herself, I think a lot of people would have died here. But no lasting injuries thankfully.” James explained.
“Luna and I got Harry back on his feet with some advice from Sapphire after some metal got into his back. Then, Luna got whatever bug was in his head out and I patched up the little cuts and scrapes.” James put it in much safer terms than it was; the whole morning after the disappearing act the troublesome twosome pulled was a fucking disaster and James was happy to put it all behind them.
“After you guys vanished, Veil put some feelers out for you two. We got a tip about where you were, which was very wrong by the way, and we were going to head out when the x-men dropped off the cures and asked us to handle a situation with cures heading to the White House. Echo, Casper, Spark Plug, Waverly, the new girl Zari, and I all headed after your guys at a strip club. We were all pretty sure it was a trap but on the off chance, we had to check it out.” James skipped over the whole possibly running into an ex of Casper’s that he didn’t even remember cause it still brought on a wave of jealousy that James didn’t like. They were definitely cuddling for the whole afternoon now that Max and Sunshine were home and safe.
“And of course, it was indeed a trap. Casper got shot and I was pretty sure he was going to die. Some weird ass dude named X-Cutioner left us a message about a bomb for the X-Men and we can’t seem to get a hold of them so it looks like we’re back up.”Harry couldn't help but noticed the oversimplification of James's story. Whether he was purposefully hiding details, or simply downplaying his own role, was unknown. James always did seem like the modest type even if his boyfriend wasn't.
"A few scrapes and cuts? James here quite literally put me back together. If it wasn't for all their hard work and his healing I wouldn't be walking today. Magneto almost Xaviered me, but unlike Charles I was lucky enough to have James and the rest to patch me up before it became permanent."Max's eyes grew wide, pupils dilating slightly as his hands clenched at the sounds of what happened. Why wasn't he there to help? Why did his powers have to pull him away when they needed more people to fight or keep Magneto at bay? He began to feel unreliable to the group but decided to push those feelings away before he drowned in them.
"Sounds like quite the exciting morning. Glad to hear you're all alright from it, and I'm sorry I wasn't there to aid you in the fight. Ever since Magik passed away, I've felt this strange impulsive power. Something new that kicks in as an instinct. It tires me out, and those who follow with me, and it feels so draining at times. It’s hard to control right now but hopefully I can get a handle on it, evolve it, and make it my own."“Yeah, that took a lot out of me. And I couldn’t get Casper’s bullet wound to seal shut so we had to have Callie cauterize the wound first. It was a mess. I’ve been under the assumption I could just do this as much as I want but today proved I need to get a handle on this somehow.” James admitted tiredly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Well, I’m excited to see what you manage to get from that power. I remember how shit was in House of M. Your abilities were practically limitless.”"They felt limitless. I learned what I am capable of, saw what I could do. I tried to do some of that here, back while I was with Leighton. Its nice to see the light at the end, to see where you can go." Max had a far off look as he thought about what he could do, the room he had created, and the power he had weirded. He snapped back to look at James
"Maybe you just need more practice to stop feeling so drained? Heavens knows that I hurt myself enough, so I'm sure you'll get your powers worth."Max paused for a moment as he thought on whether or not he should tell them about his plans to learn about demons and how he wanted to bring back Magik. Deciding it was best for another day.
"I was thinking of trying to create a new room, one outside the building that we could use for training. You know...in the event someone's powers go haywire we don't lose the base."“Well, lets not get too hasty with helping me practice. Let’s keep the injuries to a minimum, zero even.” James interjected hastily.
“You’re more than welcome to try. I know with the generators you said you needed a better understanding to try anything with them so let me know if you need to talk about structure. I can talk you through a few―” James startled as he broke out into a yawn. Definitely time for that nap. Hopefully, Casper would be down for snuggling.
