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The Wanderer - 126
🕑 Added 2022-12-26 22:25:15 +0000 UTC[A/N: I noticed a small mistake with the timeline, so I went back to Chapter 124 and fixed it(Last few paragraphs of the chapter). It's nothing major and it won't have any effect on the story. It was just a logical flaw that I wanted to fix.
Still, I wanted to give you a notice in case some of you had picked up on that too and were wondering if I did that intentionally or not.
Anyway, Enjoy!]
Chapter 126 – Undecipherable
[2009 – September]
"Hey, Peter.", a soft and melodious voice called out as Peter was sitting in a rather lonely corner of the schoolyard.
Gritting his teeth and looking up from his meal while considering if he should just grab his backpack and leave as he simply could not listen to another stranger telling him how sorry they were for his loss.
Peter would much rather be stared at than listen to those hypocrites that thought that they understood what he had lost, or how he felt. Guilt and grief fought against each other in his heart, which already felt like an open, bleeding wound.
But as he looked up and saw who it was who had addressed him, Peter knew that this was different.
A soft light shining in bright green eyes, and facial features that would most likely make even an Angel jealous, her flaming locks were tied in a loose bun as Jean Grey appeared in his sight.
Peter had not had many interactions with the usually quiet yet kind-hearted redhead but he remembered clearly her help two weeks prior.
Still, more important than her beauty was the overwhelming sense of alarm he felt due to his newly-gained extraordinary perception.
He had not noticed this before, even though they had been schoolmates for a few years now, but ever since he had been bitten by the genetically-modified spider a week ago, Peter had sensed that Jean Grey was not just a normal teenager.
And it wasn't just her but all specially enrolled students who made him feel this way, their presence and the sense of danger he felt from each of them, many times what he felt from normal people.
And Jean Grey was the one that made him feel the most threatened. He couldn't pinpoint it well but every time he looked at her it felt as if he was looking at a humanoid natural hazard, as if a hurricane of pure destruction was contained in her slender form.
"I know that we aren't very close but I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry for your loss. I understand that just a few words aren't enough to ease the pain you are feeling. Still, you are not alone Peter and if there is anything we can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.", she stated, true empathy filling her eyes, a hint of sorrow and pain mixed within.
She seemed sincere and Peter's intuition told him that she was, though his gaze inevitably shifted to the black-haired teen standing behind Jean like a dark protector, his arm wrapped around the gorgeous redhead's waist.
Angular features, wild black locks, along with a muscular and athletic frame, his every movement reminding of a cheetah, his charm one of mystery and danger, this was Elijah Frost.
Vividly, Peter could recall the scene of Elijah subduing Flash as if he was just dealing with nothing but a bothersome toddler.
Every word he spoke was filled with calm confidence, the faint smile on his face unable to hide the sheer focus that was hidden in those deep green eyes.
Unlike Jean, Elijah's did not carry any kind of emotion in them, his eyes two serene lakes of vibrant greenery.
And yet, Peter felt as if shadows were moving behind this calm gaze, his heart palpitating as his instincts screamed at him in desperation, begging him to not anger the black-haired teen as if the consequences of such would be too horrifying to even imagine.
It was an incredibly contradictory feeling considering that in his perception he simply felt nothing from Elijah as if he didn't even exist. His presence was completely untraceable by his senses and only his eyes could assure him that the other party was really present.
This though, only caused the danger Peter felt coming from Elijah to skyrocket, simply being around him, making him feel pressured even though the other party never seemed to lose his calm.
Peter didn't know what made the specially enrolled student so different in his perception than other normal students but there was one thing he was sure of, Elijah Frost was the most dangerous person amongst them.
Still, it was neither indifference nor apathy that Peter sensed in the other party as he stood behind Jean, Elijah's emotions were simply indecipherable.
And despite the danger that Peter felt from Elijah, he knew that the black-haired teen held no malicious intent towards him at all. What he felt was simply his own heightened survival instincts warning him of something that his extraordinary perception could not make sense of.
Elijah Frost was an absolute mystery, and Peter had no confidence at all in guessing the other parties' intentions or thoughts.
He basically never interacted with everyone outside his small circle of friends, and even though Elijah carried himself with a calm and easy-going attitude on the surface, approaching him was akin to approaching a sleeping dragon or crouching tiger.
The only thing that he could say with certainty about the black-haired teen after meeting him, was the fact that he absolutely adored the redhead currently in his arms, his love for Jean the only emotion that Elijah seemed to display without holding back.
So, faced with Jean's sincere kindness while remembering the pairs' help from before, Peter nodded as he thanked her with a few words, though he had no plans to talk about his uncle's passing with her.
Thankfully, Jean Grey was a very tactful person and seemed to pick up on that, as she gave him one last smile before leaving him to his meal, Elijah having not said a single word during the entire exchange.
…
Leaving behind a grieving Peter, Jean and I made our way back to the table where Laura and the others sat, the fingers of her left hand entangled with mine while her right hand held onto my forearm.
She leaned onto me as she, her gaze a bit unfocused, a sad light shining faintly in her eyes.
I knew that she could feel Peter's pain and sorrow, even though my shield protected her mind. After all, a single glance of her was enough to glimpse at another's surface thoughts, not to mention that strong emotions, even from normal people, often affected the ambient psionic energy.
Considering Jean's sensitivity when it came to psionic energy, she couldn't not notice Peter's emotional state.
Even I could easily pick up on Peter's sorrow with my Extrasensory Perception and my sensitivity wasn't even worth mentioning compared to hers, so I could only guess how obvious other people's emotions were for Jean.
Naturally, this was also one of the reasons why it was so hard for Jean to ignore another's plight.
I could shield her mind from being flooded by foreign thoughts that did not belong to her, and she wasn't far off from doing the same without my help, but Jean's ability to sense the psionic energy around her was like another sensory organ of hers.
For her, sensing the ambient psionic energy was akin to other's peoples hearing or vision, so shutting off this 'sense' was like crippling herself. She naturally did not want to do this.
I understood this, and I knew that this also meant that there would most likely never come a time when she stopped caring about others. Her heart simply would not allow her to just ignore it when others suffered.
Being a hero or not being a hero, Jean would always strive to help others.
Still, I could guess that there was another reason besides this for her current state.
“Are you thinking about your mother, my love?”, I asked quietly, knowing that Peter's loss must have reminded her of her own.
Looking up at me with a vulnerable look in her eyes, Jean nodded softly, her beautiful eyes glimmering with unshed tears.
Sighing quietly, I stopped and turned toward her, raising my hand as I gently brushed over her cheek before leaning forward to leave a kiss on her soft lips, wrapping my arms around her waist, Jean just melted into my embrace.
“Let's go somewhere else.”, I whispered quietly before breaking up our embrace and pulling her along by her small hand, my thumb caressing the back of her hand.
It didn't take more than a few short minutes before we reached
a quiet place near the track field with a few sparse trees around.
Sitting down in the grass, my back leaning against one of the trees, Jean didn't hesitate to place herself between my legs and snuggle close as I wrapped my arms around her, her head resting against my chest.
“Do you want to tell me about her?”, I asked quietly, my hands brushing over her stomach and her sides.
Turning around halfway, Jean's hand came to rest on my cheek as she drew me in for a deep kiss, her small tongue dancing around mine slowly. It wasn't a passionate kiss but one filled with gentle desire and immeasurable affection.
Breaking the kiss, our lips still touching, her eyes locked onto mine as she looked at me tenderly, her fingers brushing away a few stray locks of my dark hair. Her warm breath caressing my lips, Jean's taste still remained on my tongue, sweet and addictive like the rest of her.
“Yes.”, she whispered softly, two small tears escaping her beautiful eyes as she buried her head in the crook of my neck, her slender form melting into my embrace “I want to tell you about her.”
We stayed like this for a long time even after the bell rang, skipping class as Jean told me about her mother.
She had talked to me about her past before but rarely mentioned her parents, which wasn't that surprising considering what had happened. This time though, she told me all that she remembered about her mother, tearfully recalling her happiest moments with the gentle woman that had almost faded from her memory.
Midway through, I brought us to the small forest near the Hellion Mansion so that we wouldn't be disturbed, knowing that this was much more important than any class could ever be.
Comments
I hear ya.
Willskys
Thanks!
Alkole
Need to find me a girl like jean
