• 1-Betrayal
• 2-Meeting one's match
• 3-Less Seems to be More
• 4-Unwilling Passions
• 5-Round Table Discussions- Mutant Style
• 6-Recreation
• 7-The Assignment

Avalon stood in the gym with her favorite weapon, a 3 foot katana. She stood in battle stance and did a basic lunge forward with her sward, finishing with a downward slash sending the tip into the mat on the floor. She thought about what Marley had asked her and scoffed. ‘* ‘Why don’t you sleep with him?’ Marley folded her arms under her breasts in her ‘give me your best excuse’ stance. ‘Because…’ Avalon started. She thought of a good reason, ‘Because he likes what he sees with the clothes on. But what about when he sees my scars?’ Marley waved her hand as if to erase Avalon’s comment, ‘Girl, men don’t care,’ she smiled, ‘Besides, scars are just tattoos with better stories.’ Avalon rolled her eyes, ‘getting chewed on by vamps doesn’t count as stories.’ *’ she looked over her shoulder at the scar that peeked out from under the tank top and almost poetically curled around on her tanned skin, ‘Almost’ she thought grimly. Dislodging the sword from the floor, she did a few more fancy moves ending a no hands cartwheel. Again, Marley’s voice came to her ‘*’ Your limber enough, I’m positive your scars won’t matter.’ *’ “Yeah right.” Her thoughts wondered to the kiss earlier. She was lucky that Pietro didn’t feel the mark that marred her skin. Avalon’s hand went to the back of her neck, feeling the slick skin where the scar split off from where it ends on her shoulder and disappears into her hair. Luck, and half Japanese genetics, helped her hide it well, but when she worked out, her low back length hair was tied up out of sword range. The feeling of some one watching her made Avalon’s skin tingle. She turned quickly and lightly laid the sharp blade against Pietro’s neck.

“So, not only do you do martial arts, you also are handy with a sword. You are making this very difficult.” He smirked. She threaded the sword into its scaboard and placed it on the rack.

“Making what difficult?” She leaned against the wall crossing her arms. Pietro stood in front of her and slid his hands from the tops of her shoulders to her waist.

“To resist. You made it clear that the possibility of ending up in bed together is slim,” His eyes went to the scar on her right shoulder, previously hidden by a blue three- quarter length shirt. Pietro bowed his head and traced the mark with the tip of his tongue, savoring the light taste of sweat on her skin.

“I- I have to go for a hunt tonight.” Avalon said stupidly.

Pietro looked at her confused, “Hunt?”

She swallowed and nodded, “Vampires. We have a hell of a problem here.”

“Why do you have to go?” He asked.

“Because Blade couldn’t make it.” She regained her composure.

“Sounds like fun. I’ll come too.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, “Have you ever fired a gun?”

“No”

“Have you ever wielded a blade?”

“Well… no”

“You’d just be fodder, its best if you stay behind. I’m going with Louis; he’s really good on hunts.”

“Why is that?”

“Well he’s … half vampire. Well… he had a mutation and when the vamps tried to turn him, the mutation protected him from the weaknesses of a normal vampire, you know, silver and sunlight.” She turned to start packing up weapons to go when Faith came in.

“I’m going hunting tonight.” She picked up one of the guns Avalon had yet to clean.

The younger sister looked at her for a moment, “Why?” She asked slowly.

“I have to kill something. Sabretooth has really got me pissed so… I’m going. You can stay here and go out tomorrow.” Faith finished the gun she was working on and took the one from Avalon.

“Do you want me to watch the girls?”

“Riley said he’d do it.” Faith started to holster the guns and sheath the knives. She looked at her sister, “I’ll be back later.” She looked past to Pietro, “Lovely to see you again.” Avalon had almost forgotten he was there. With that Faith, and all of Avalon’s favorite weapons, were gone, leaving a very upset Avie and happy Pietro.

“You any good at hand to hand?” She turned to the other speedster.

“Yeah, I’ve been known to kick an ass in my day. Why? You wanna fight?” He smirked.

“Spar,” She corrected.

“Fine,” With that, he rushed forward, intent on grabbing her. Avalon dropped to the mat and stuck her foot out in a prepared kick. Pietro ended up running into her and falling haphazardly to the floor as all the air rushed from his lungs. Avalon went to her back; pushed off hands and lunged to her feet, proof she’d been practicing marshal arts for a long time.

“What form do you do? I’ve never seen that technique.” She smiled. Relearning to breath, Pietro just looked at her. Avalon smiled wider. With a little chuckle, she sat next to him.

“So I guess Eric doesn’t require you guys to learn any kind of hand to hand.” She rubbed her finger on the floor where she’d cut the mat, almost hoping to fix it.

“He says our power should be weapon enough.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, that sounds like him. When I was with the brotherhood, Eric said he couldn’t understand why I would go to Karate and Judo classes.” Avalon shrugged in a delicate lift and fall of her shoulder, “Guess it doesn’t matter now.” Pietro moved so he sat in front of the older mutant. He scooted closer her, and Avalon moved back.

“What are you doing?” She moved again in a less then graceful crab walk. “Show me you’re other powers” He coaxed.

“You want to see what else I can do?” Avalon stood realizing that crawling on the floor was going to get her nowhere. Pietro followed her lead, standing to face her. Avalon smiled the barest upturn of her mouth and reached her hand out as her eyes shifted from yellow to blue. ‘Are they sky blue or water blue?’ Pietro asked himself. Before he could answer, a ball of water was floating above her hands. ‘Oh, water blue’. The water continued to float as it lifted higher in the air and then, with her eyes going from blue to dark jade green, the ball fell to the ground and a small rose bush grew where it landed, a dozen little black rose buds (yes black roses do exist. They are dark dark red) grew before Pietro’s eyes. He looked up at Avalon, whose eyes had changed back to normal. She gave him an utterly superior look. One he knew he must have had on his face hundreds of times.

“Wow… it’s so much easier then hiring a landscaper.”

Avalon sighed, “Yeah, and cheaper” With that the bush turned back into water and returned itself to the water bottle on the far table. Pietro took a step forward, sliding his hands around her waist.

“Pietro… I don’t think this is a good idea”

He drew his eyebrows together in a questioning gaze, “What isn’t”

“You and me. It’s a bad idea.”

“Is it?” He leaned forward and kissed her neck, starting behind her ear and going down. Avalon let a moan escape before she could stop it. Pietro chuckled against her skin and lightly scraped his teeth along the soft flesh.

“Won’t Eric be mad if you do end up…?” She let her sentence end itself, the impactions clear.

“He doesn’t care. I am nineteen after all.” He said against her neck.

“Right.” She answered simply. ‘What is the matter with me?’ She scolded herself, ‘The minute he touches my skin, I lose all rational thought? Well, that’s not entirely true, I’m rational now, I just can’t will myself to make him stop.’ Another moan escaped her. Pietro moved them both back so Avalon’s back was against the wall. She ran her hand through his hair and gripped, pulling his mouth away from her skin. Avalon looked at him briefly. Pietro’s lips where slightly swollen and his eyes midnight blue, almost black from lust. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she leaned forward and kissed him with all the pent up frustration and passion she carried for the past few years. It was wrong and she knew it. It was unethical and she knew it. She also knew she didn’t care. Pietro showed interest in her that no one had in a while. Then she remembered his words, “Who said anything about a date? I was talking about sex. ” That’s right, she didn’t do causal sex. Not even if she was very attracted to the one offering. Avalon moved her head back and bumped it on the wall. She winced and it only slightly had to do with the pain.

“We have to stop.” She heard herself say, dropping her legs to the ground. Pietro looked confused. “Why?” her body screamed at her to finish what she had started. Avalon did her best to ignore the throbbing centered between her legs, or the fact that Pietro looked more desirable with his hair ruffled.

She lightly pushed him away, “I should take a shower and get to bed, it’s late.” With that Avalon left to go to her room. Pietro just starred. What just happened? He was so sure he had her this time. His body ached for her. Pietro sighed. He was going to have to finish himself this time. ‘Oh, well’ he thought to himself, ‘this is just going to be more difficult then I previously imagined. I guess I have to figure my next move.” He briefly wondered if Avalon was good at chess then realized it didn’t matter and he headed to one of the guest rooms.

Avalon all but kicked herself from what happened it the gym. Goddamn self imposed rules! She dried her hair and went to bed to dream of fruits the she had denied herself.

In another room of the house, a certain silver hair boy was just finishing up. Thinking of the yellow eyed vixen, it hadn’t taken long to complete himself. Washing his hands, Pietro went to bed with a satisfied sigh, having no trouble falling asleep in the comfortable guest room.

Almost all of the other little mice were tucked away in there beds, Kitty, who’d finally come out of her post sex stupor and gotten out of the pool awhile latter, Lay wake thinking the earthmover. She smiled as the old cliché ‘You rock my world’ went through her head. And Lance was no better, feeling a little guilty for taking her in the pool of all places. ‘I should have had a bed with roses… or… something.’ But his mind kept returning to the softness of her skin, the warmth of her body wrapped around his, the shy kiss she’d given him before sliding out of the water and retrieving her clothes. One thing kept running through his head, ‘I must love her.’

Wanda and Donovan arrived to a dark house with one or two lamps on in some of the rooms. It was pretty much decided that most everyone had gone off to bed. Donovan, being the gentleman he was, walked Wanda to her room. They stopped in front of the dark wood door and stood in silence for a good five minutes. Finally Donovan broke it.

“Would it be alright for me to give you a good night kiss?” He asked almost cautiously. Wanda starred at him in disbelief. A kiss? She hadn’t ever been kissed before. Wanda thought about it for a moment then looked him right in the eye.

“Okay, Less, but it’s just a kiss, got it?” She said in a no nonsense tone. Inwardly she was giddy with anticipation. Donovan leaned forward and lightly brushed his lips against hers. From the almost stiff way she held herself, he could tell it was her first kiss. Well, might as wall make it memorable. He lightly ran his hands around her waist and slowly deepened the kiss, letting her get used to the new sensation.

After she moaned, Donovan pulled back and smiled, “Good night, Wanda.” He kissed her hand before turning to go to his room. Donovan passed Eric and knew that he had seen them. The look he gave him could have frozen a polar bear.

“You stay away from my daughter, you got me?” He said in a very fatherly tone.

“She’s a big girl. She can make her own decisions.” He said with his back to Magneto.

“Boy, I’m warning you…” He rattled the pentagram necklace around Donovan’s neck.

“Careful, I know you’re the master of magnetism, but I have a personal in with the mistress of metal and if I wake her up right now, she’ll be pissed.” With that he retreated to his room realizing that Avalon would be pissed if she found out he was hiding behind her power.