Eye of the Beholder

Author’s notes: A few people have asked about a couple of the characters in here and I will tell you that Shade, Motherboard and Thorn are all my creations and I ask that you please don’t borrow them without my permission. Thanks to Jesi, blue_lioness, Capt_Davy_Jones_Lover, michael and brier for your reviews.

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“How is she?” he asks the exhausted looking young man that’s just come into his office.

“She’ll live,” Pyro answers as he drops down into one of the chairs in front of the desk. “She’s got some first and second degree burns, a concussion, a lot of lacerations from pieces of the computer that hit her and several stitches in her head, neck and shoulder. It’s a good thing she wasn’t facing the computer when it blew up or it would have been a lot worse. She’s going to have a punk haircut to go with the green hair now since they had to shave half of her head.”

“Were the police involved?” Magneto inquires.

“No, though the doctors are kind of wondering why a computer would blow up,” Pyro replies.

“I was wondering about that myself,” Magneto muses.

“I don’t know what happened and all I could get out of Mother is that there was someone else there,” Pyro tells him. “They had her pretty doped up so I couldn’t get anything more coherent out of her.”

“When will she be released?” Magneto questions.

“Tomorrow,” Pyro responds. “They want to keep her for observation because of the concussion.”

“As soon as she’s released, I want her back here,” Magneto instructs and Pyro nods his agreement. “I’m very curious as to who else was in the room since I know that she and I were only ones in there mere seconds before the computer exploded.”

“I’ll go back in the morning and bring her back as soon as I can,” Pyro assures him. “I’m going to go check on Shade now. Is there anything you need?”

“Thorn has seen to my needs, thank you,” Magneto replies. “I want you to get some food and rest as soon as you can. You won’t do the Brotherhood any good wearing yourself out like this.”

“Yes, sir,” Pyro replies as he wearily gets to his feet. “The Brotherhood is my family and I will always be here to serve any way I can.”

With that, Pyro leaves behind a man who couldn’t be prouder if the young man was his own flesh and blood.

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BANG!

“AUNT AMY!!!”

The sound of her door being flung open hard enough for it to slam into the wall and the twins yelling at the top of their lungs is enough to shock Amanda out of a sound sleep. It takes the woman a couple of seconds to figure out what’s going on and by the time she does a couple of bodies land on her. She lets out a grunt and a groan while she tries to pull her covers over her head and the girls laugh as they bounce up and down on her and the bed.

“Aunt Amy, it snowed last night!”
“You promised to take us out sledding!”
“And help us make a snow fort!”
“And help us make the perfect snowball!”
“And make a snowman!”
“And snow angels!”

Amanda just moans in response as the girls practically yelling over each other, all the time shaking the woman who wants nothing more than to go back to sleep. Amanda cracks an eye open and peeks out from under the covers to look at her clock. With a displeased growl, she pulls the covers more securely over her head and does her best to ignore the two hyper bouncing bodies on top of her.

“Bethany! Beverly!” Mike whisper yells at the girls from the doorway. “What the Devil are you two doing in here?”

“Aunt Amy promised to take us sledding the next time it snowed.”
“And she promised to help us make a snow fort and to make snowballs.”
“And snowmen and snow angels.”

The girls are still talking over each other and Amanda’s too tired to try to figure out who’s saying what.

“I don’t care if she promised to teach you how to make castles in the sky out of Twinkies,” Mike growls. “It’s not even six in the morning. Now go back to bed and go back to sleep.”

“But we’re not tired,” Beverly whines.

“Then go play with your dolls or read a book or something, but just do it quietly,” he snarls. “The rest of us are trying to sleep.”

“But…,” Bethany starts.

“One more word out of either of you and you won’t be going to midnight mass tonight,” he threatens. “Is that understood?”

Amanda can hear their little mouths snap shut and a second later she feels the girls climbing off of her and the bed.

“You ok, Amy?” he asks a few moments later.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she mumbles and she can hear her door quietly shut a moment later.

With a sigh, she gets more comfortable and gladly drifts off back to sleep, never realizing that even in the low light the girls were able to see that her bags were pulled out of the closet.

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Several hours later the girls are working on their snow fort with their aunt’s help while Paul and his father work on another one and Hank, in a sudden fit of nostalgia, is off to the side making a little town out of snow. Stuart quietly sits on one of the chairs on the covered porch watching them as he sips his coffee while Annie and Cathy are furiously baking away in the kitchen. He and the rest of the family learned long ago that the best thing to do when those two get into the baking mood is just to stay clear of the area and so the snow is a blessing despite how cold it is since the kids actually want to be outside for a while.

He watches his family as they prepare for an all out snowball fight and he has to laugh to himself since he’s more than once experienced being on the wrong end of one of Amy’s snowballs. The girl’s got wickedly good aim and seems to have a way of hitting her victim in such a way that the melted water always ends up dripping down the collar. He then turns his attention to the lone man off to the side quietly humming to himself as he builds what appears to be a church steeple.

Why doesn’t it surprise him that when his daughter finally finds someone that she’s willing to admit that she’s dating it would be Hank McCoy? He knows she’s never done anything half way and the more shocking, the better it seems. He looks back at his daughter, her hair mussed up by the wind, her cheeks a bright pink from the cold and her eyes bright with laughter as she teaches her nieces how to make the perfect snowball.

It suddenly hits him that she’s no longer a little girl, but a woman grown with a life of her own. He feels very old all of a sudden and he looks down into his cup, the weight of the years heavy upon his shoulders. With a sigh he realizes that his cup is empty and he goes inside to get a refill, trying not to think about the things his grown daughter may be doing with a certain ambassador when they’re up in New York.

Amanda watches her father out of the corner of her eye and notes when he goes back inside probably for more coffee. She shares conspiratorial whispers with her nieces as she shows them how to make the perfect snowball. But what good is a perfect snowball if you don’t know how to throw it? She carefully takes aim and lets the white sphere fly.

POOFT!!!

Bull’s-eye! The girls start giggling hysterically while their aunt heads for the hills. Literally.

Hank blinks several times as his brain tries to come to terms with what’s just happened. Someone threw a snowball at him and hit him right in the back of the head none the less. He turns around and sees Mike, Paul and the twins all laughing. He raises an eyebrow at them and they all point towards the woods. He can see the footprints in the fresh snow and a moment later he hears her laughter ringing from the trees.

With a playful growl, The Beast gives chase to his attacker and mate while Paul and Mike cheer him on and the girls call warnings to their aunt. With his heart racing and his senses soaring, he has a feral grin on his face as he passes the first trees and easily follows her footprints. The snow isn’t very deep here because of the branches of the trees, but he’s still able to follow them until they suddenly stop.

He wildly looks around as he tries to find why her footprints have disappeared though there’s enough of snow on the ground. He takes a deep breath to try and catch her scent, but quickly realizes that wind is blowing in the wrong direction. He knows she can’t fly so he looks to the trees and sure enough, there’s a fairly low branch over where the footprints end and he smiles at her cunning.

After checking the tree attached to the branch and determining that the branches overlap enough for her to move from one tree to the next, he carefully scans the trees for any sign of her, his ears straining to catch the slightest whisper of movement. What was that? He quickly turns his head to look at the slight movement he caught out of the corner of his eye and only sees some melting snow falling off of a branch.

POOFT!!!

She catches him again with a snowball to the back of his head, but this time he easily locates her as he hears her laughing and he follows it to the source. She’s laughing so hard she has to hang onto the tree and once she sees him below her, she already knows it’s too late, but she tries to make a break for it anyways. With one mighty leap he’s up in the tree with her and she lets out a startled squeak as he pins her to the trunk with a possessive growl.

She lets out a small whimper as her body starts to respond to that sound and she can feel her body beginning to tingle in all the right places. He can smell her becoming aroused and the Beast in him wants nothing more than to claim its mate even if it’s just above freezing outside. He grinds his growing need against her and she lets out a moan just before his lips claim hers.

He kisses her as if he hasn’t touched her in weeks, not hours and her arms circle his neck as she holds onto him for dear life. A need for air finally forces them apart and her head lolls to the side as he kisses his way to her ear so that he can drive her mad with need by nuzzling that sensitive part of her body. Moaning his name is the most coherent thing she can do as one of her legs wraps around his waist of its own accord.

He makes a sound between a growl and purr that sends a shiver down her spine and she pushes her hips against him. His lips find hers again and one of his hands starts to work its way past the several layers of clothing she’s wearing to finally find its way to the warm skin of her torso. She gasps as the cold air hits her skin, but any protests quickly die on her lips as he caresses the underside of a satin covered breast making her nipples stand to attention and she lets out groan while he continues to attack her senses with his kisses.

“Hank? Amy?” Stuart voice calls from not too far away and she barely manages to bite back a yelp of surprise. “You two alright?”

Hank quickly withdrawals his hand from her torso and she bites her lip to keep from moaning at the loss of his touch. He brushes a few stray strands of hair out of her face and then gently cups her face in his hand. She turns her face towards his caress and he softly kisses her temple.

“This isn’t over yet, my love,” he whispers in her ear, causing goose bumps to cover her body and her nipples to get harder.

He wraps one arm firmly around her waist while the other hand slides under bottom and she instinctually holds him closer as her other leg circles around his waist, crossing her ankles to lock them in place. Before she can so much as squeak, he leaps out of the tree with her in his arms and by the time she draws a breath to say anything, they’re on the ground once more. She glares at him, but the effect is lost because of the laughter she’s trying to keep in makes her lips twitch and he gives her a devilish grin before setting her on her feet.

“Hank? Amy?” Stuart’s voice echoes again among the trees.

Hank’s grin widens and she gives him a quizzical look as he steps away from her. Before she can ask what he’s up to, he bends over, wraps a powerful arm around her thighs and flips her onto his shoulder. She’s so shocked she can’t even utter a squeak of protest about being carried like a sack of potatoes.

“Where are you two?” Stuart asks, the worry and a bit of anger evident in his voice.

“Right here,” Hank jovially answers as he comes marching out from behind the tree that they had been in.

“Put me down!” Amanda yells as she pushes off of his back so she can breathe easier.

“What’s this all about?” Stuart demands with a frown while Hank heads back towards the house.

“Did you know you’re daughter has very good aim?” Hank pleasantly asks as he passes the older man.

“Known it for years,” Stuart chuckles as he turns to follow the couple and notes the snow still stuck in Hank’s mane. “She probably could have played for the Yankees if she hadn’t been a girl.”

“A clear case of sexual discrimination,” Amanda grumbles just before smacking Hank on the shoulder. “Now put me down.”

“All in good time, my dear,” Hank tells her, laughter evident in his voice as they come out of the trees.

“Put me down!” she demands starting to struggle which only makes him tighten his grip. “Blast it all, Hank, put me DOWN!”

“As my lady wishes,” he chuckles evilly.

He slightly bends at the waist and then with a shrug, he unceremoniously dumps her into a deep drift. She lets out an undignified shriek as she goes down and a few choice words come out of the hole she’s just made as she immediately starts to struggle out of the snow. He chuckles in a self satisfied manner and starts to head back towards his little snow village.

“You’re gonna pay for that, McCoy,” a voice snarls from behind him.

He looks back over his shoulder but even his lightening fast reflexes aren’t fast enough to avoid the snowball that smacks him right in the kisser. He quickly wipes his face free of snow and reaches down to grab a handful, but another snowball finds the top of his head this time. With a growl he leaps after her just as she makes it back to the snow fort she and the girls constructed and the girls let loose with their stockpile of snowballs, not that they’re aim is anywhere near as good as their aunt’s, but a few still manage to hit Hank.

Hank’s enhanced reflexes allow him to create and throw snowballs at an alarming rate, so the snowball battle is almost even, but then Paul and Mike decide to join in the fray. Snowballs start flying every which way and shrieks and laughter fill the air while Stuart hangs back by the trees staying well out of everybody’s range. He watches Hank and Amanda carefully, not the least bit happy that it took them so long to answer him when he called for them and the fact that Hank was carrying her doesn’t improve the overprotective parent’s mood. He’s sure they were up to something he wouldn’t approve of and as he takes another sip of his coffee, he decides that he needs to be keeping a better eye on them.