When Alex left to join Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr to go to a school for people like themselves, you could feel your heart shrivel up and turn to dust. It was one of the last times you had heard from him in person. When they found him, he demanded that they take him to you before he went with them so he knew that he could trust them to keep their ends of deals. It was the beginning of summer when he showed up for the first time since leaving to go to solitary confinement.

     When the doorbell rung you weren't sure if your eyes were playing tricks on you. In front of you, Alex stood breathing heavily like he and just ran halfway around the world to end up outside your front door. Your body slowed down and you tilted your head in confusion, your eyebrows knitted together as you opened your mouth to ask him what he was doing there, or at least how he managed to get there without owning a car or having his parents sign him out, when you knew that he made them promise to tell you if he was ever going to come back home.

     "Alex? Are you—?"

     He pushed forward immediately after hearing you say his name. His arms wrapped around you tightly, almost crushing your body like a boa constrictor—which was an accurate description considering they generally lived on their own and don't necessarily interact, which was an apt description of Alex on a good day. His hands gripped your shirt tightly, his body was bent down to meet yours as his head was shoved in the crook of your neck. He wasn't acting like his usual self.

     "Alex? Is everything alright? What are you doing here? Not like I'm complaining or anything but I was expecting a phone call from your parents at least."

     Alex let go of you and stepped back, not letting you have enough time to hug him back. He made sure that he stepped far enough to be outside of your house before he opened his mouth to speak.

     "I'm going away, probably for a long time—"

     "Alex, you told me this speech when you left to solitary confinement—"

     He shook his head. "Not this one."

     "Okay," you dragged, "so, what's this one about? You're not dying, are you? Oh god, Alex, you're too young to be dying!"

     "No," he shook his head, scrunching his face up. "I'm not...dying. But somethings wrong with me."

     "Well, why don't I make you some soup? That always used to work." You stepped forward to place the back of your hand on his forehead. "You're burning up, Alex! Okay, why don't you come inside—" You continued to ramble, trying to usher him inside.

     "No. Stop." He gently pushed your hands away.

     "You're sick, Al, let me help."

     "You can't help me, goddamnit. Would you just stop!" His voice rose as he got annoyed. You froze and stared at him. "The only people who can help me are in the car behind me."

     "Are you wearing a wire? Are they making you say this?" You tilted your head. "That's not okay." You brushed passed him and made your way to the car he was talking about, loudly hitting the window until one of the men rolled the window down.

     "What do you—"

     "Get out of the car." You interrupted.

     The man in the long brown leather coat chuckled, glancing at the other man. "Excuse me?" He asked.

     "I said get out, we need to talk."

     "We don't need to talk about anything, kid—"

     You opened the door and leaned in, unbuckling his belt before grabbing his arm to yank him out of the car. "I said get out of the car, old man, I'm sure you're hearing isn't that bad." You growled.

     Alex snorted a laugh before the man shoved you back. "Don't touch me!"

     Alex stood in between the two of you. "Leave it, Erik. I'll deal with it," you could hear him mumble. The man nodded, telling him to hurry up as Alex turned to look at you. "Why do you have to be so difficult?" He spoke quietly to himself as he turned you around to face your house again, ushering you up the pathway and back into the house. "Can you please just let me talk? Without trying to fight someone?"

     "Fine."

     "Great, thank you." He rolled his eyes. "They're trying to help me and no I am not wearing a wire. They're like me and no I can't explain that any further than they are the only ones who understand what I'm going through. I have to go with them, to try and control my issues—"

     "That's called anger management."

     Alex raised an eyebrow at you. "Says the one who dragged a guy out of a car!"

     "That's in the past." You waved him off.

     "It happened ten seconds ago!"

     "Will I be able to visit you?" Alex shook his head. "Call you?" Again, he shook his head. "Write to you?" Another shake. "Well—"

     "No." Alex shook his head one last time. "I have to go. But I'll miss you." He stepped forward, kissing your forehead.

     "I miss you too," you mumbled quietly as he stepped away and got into the car. You watched them drive off, to wherever the hell they were taking him. You just wished that he told you where he was going, or that you could at least get updates about him every now and again. But if he didn't want to, then you had to respect that.

-

     It had been a few years since you last saw Alex, or had any contact with him. You could still feel the warmth of his lips against your forehead. Even now as you sat in the back of one of the planes, clad in uniform, buckled in as your leader told your group about what was going to happen once you landed on the ground. Your parents had a letter go through their mailbox one evening, telling them that all of those from a certain age were to be drafted out to the army, it was very vague, your mum wasn't willing, but your father and yourself told her that you had to—which your father was thrown off by, he didn't expect you to agree with him.

     You kept your gaze ahead of you on the empty wall of the plane. A few of your teammates tried to engage in a conversation with you, but you brushed them off. You weren't there to make friends or get to know them. You could all end up dying in a matter of minutes, so, it would be pointless. All you could think about was Alex. Had he been okay, wherever he was? Was he getting better at controlling his 'issues'? Was he happy? You quickly shook those thoughts away when your leader began yelling commands. Each of your teammates grabbed the gear and began to make their way down the ramp of the plane.

     Wherever you were, it was warm. The sun was beating down on the dirt roads, dust was flying everywhere, with the blades of the chopper still spinning. You were carrying one of the weapon boxes with one of your teammates into one of the large makeshift buildings that you would be sharing with another group. Your leader was hesitant with telling you and your group who it was that you would be bunking with. But at this moment, you didn't care. You placed the box down and opened it, beginning to put the weapons together, placing them on the table in front of you. You had changed quite a bit over the years, you had learned a lot more and became more distant with people. The others on your team noted that when you refused to talk to them as you put the weapons together.

     "What are you doing here?" You heard a familiar voice behind you. You turned around and saw Alex standing there with his eyebrows furrowed.

     "Drafted." You turned back around to continue your job.

     "What the hell do you mean you were drafted?"

     "Drafted. As in I was called to fight." You shrugged, loading the gun with rounds.

     "You shouldn't be here." He stepped beside you, his features softening.

     You didn't look at him. "No one should be here, Summers, but it's what we have to do. So, suck it up, and do your damn job." Your voice was quiet and low as you placed the gun down and looked at him.

     "What happened to you?" He shook his head, confused.

     "War happened, Summers." You went to walk around him, leaving the building when he caught your arm.

     "Can you please call me Alex? I miss hearing you say my name."

     "We all miss things, but we just have to build a bridge and get over it, it's in the past now."

     You pulled your hand away, getting ready to leave the building when your leader stepped in. "There you are, soldier. Getting acquainted with your bunk mate?"

     "What?"

     "Yeah." He nodded with a grin. "We looked at your records and saw that you two had known each other, so we thought, why not pair them together?"

     "What?"

     "Sir—" Alex started, stepping closer.

     "No, no." He waved his hand. "No need to thank me."

     "Why are we paired together?" You asked, ignoring what he said.

     "Well, the reason why I didn't tell your team who you were going to be paired with, is because they're mutants, some people are still a bit sensitive to them, but seeing as you are friends I assumed that you didn't care that much."

     "Mutants? Hold up, what do you mean? You didn't answer my question."

     "Well, we are pairing up non-mutants and mutants together to go out in the field." He nodded, still smiling. "So, good luck out there, soldiers." He saluted before walking out, not giving you or Alex time to salute back.

     You turned back around to Alex. "Mutant?"

     He nodded. "It's why I left with Charles and Erik."

     "They're mutants as well?"

     "Yeah," he spoke quietly. "You're not disgusted by me, are you?"

     "Alex, I could never be disgusted by you." He looked at you. "Okay, maybe when you did gross things when we were younger, like eating a clump full of sand that one time, but other than that, no."

     Alex let out a sigh before stepping closer. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

     You shook your head. "Well, I know now. So, that's all that matters." You wrapped your arms around his middle, his arms gently wrapped themselves around you. "You're still freakishly warm, though." You pulled back and patted his arms. "Ready to win this war?" Alex's lips tugged up into a smirk, his head nodding faintly.

-

     Alex and yourself were in the middle of the battlefield, bullets were flying everywhere, and you could see mutants use their abilities all over the place. You and Alex hid behind one of the fallen vehicles, reloading your weapons. Alex looked over at you expectantly, you raised an eyebrow before peering around the side of the vehicle to shoot. You turned back, your back pressed against the side of the vehicle. Alex let out a deep breath.

     "You okay? You're not chickening out on me are you there, Alex?"

     "No." He shook his head. "But I have to—"

     "Do it, Alex, wreak havoc." Alex smirked at you, handing his weapon to you before stepping out. "Alex, what—?"

     You watched with wide eyes as red rings began to appear around his body. They spun quickly before the mass collected around his chest, shooting out in a powerful burst. Your mouth hung open slightly as you watched, the air around him picked up as the plasma energy that left his body grew. You were too busy to notice someone sneak up behind you, they managed to shoot you in the leg before you dropped to the ground, groaning in pain, grabbing the two guns to shoot back at them. You watched their body drop to the ground before Alex placed his arms underneath you.

     "You okay?"

     "My leg." You managed to grit out of your teeth before he picked you up, running off to one of the empty buildings. It was abandoned, by the looks of things and looked safe enough to camp out in for a little while. "You go, I'll be okay." You nodded, holding his gun out to him.

     He took it from you and shook his head. "No. We don't leave anyone behind."

     "That's a bit overdone, don't you think?"

     "Shut up and let me help you." He rolled his eyes, ripping some of the material of your shirt to wrap around your leg, stopping the blood from flowing out as much.

     "It's just a scrape."

     "That went through your leg in the shape of a bullet." He looked at you with a blank face. "You can't say anything that will make me leave you."

     "On your six, dumbass," you muttered. He quickly turned around, holding his fist up, a burst of plasma energy shot out and knocked the enemy out, through a wall and back down onto the ground outside.

     "Help will be here soon," he reassured you, looking at you, cupping your face in his hands with a gentle smile.

     "Not soon enough." You looked down at your shirt, a pool of blood began to seep through.

     "When did that happen?" He asked loudly.

     "Outside, when you did that thing—" You pointed to his body weakly. "I couldn't feel it before, but I can now." You laughed weakly. "I don't feel so good, Alex."

     "Well, you can't die on me."

     "I don't really think I have a choice."

     Alex took his jacket off, placing it against your stomach. "I don't care. You're not dying." Without looking, he shot his gun at one of the enemy soldiers that ran in. "You're going to be okay."

-

     It had been a long time, although neither of you knew how much time since you both took shelter in the building. You managed to hear yelling outside, but not clear words. Everything sounded so far away and muffled. A green puff of smoke appeared in the room before one of the mutants placed his hand on both Alex's shoulder and your own. He said something to Alex, but you couldn't hear it. Alex nodded before looking back at you. His lips moved, but that was all you could note. There was another green puff of smoke before a white clean room came to view.

     All around you, there were doctors and nurses. Some pushed the mutant and Alex out of the room while one placed a mask over your face. You could faintly hear beeping and murmuring before your eyes began to close, then there was nothing. It was complete darkness. You had no thoughts. You heard no sounds. You felt nothing. You weren't even sure if you were alive or awake by the time your eyes slowly began to open. Your body was heavy, your eyes watered slightly as you blinked, your throat felt sore.

     You struggled to lift your head up, seeing a medium sized room with curtains, machines, a small TV, Alex sleeping, your parents laying on the sofa, a tray table, the two men; Erik and Charles, and a nurse huddled together in the corner. A small grunt came from the back of your throat. Charles looked over and smiled lightly, moving aside to let the nurse check you over before he and Erik stood around you, letting Alex and your parents sleep.

     "You had them worried for a moment." Charles smiled lightly.

     "Am I in a hospital?"

     "Yeah, you're back home now." He nodded.

     "Did we win?"

     Erik chuckled. "You could say that."

     "Nice one," you mumbled to yourself.

     "The nurse says you're doing fine, he just thinks you should stay for a few more days of observations. You've been out for a couple of days." Charles placed his hand on your shoulder.

     "Could explain why I'm so hungry, but how I also don't want to eat anything." You rubbed your throat weakly.

     "Breathing tube can do that." He grinned. "We'll leave you to get better." Both Erik and Charles nodded to one another before leaving.

     You looked over at your parents, your mother was resting her head on your father's shoulder, their hands entwined together as they laid back on the small sofa. Alex was sitting on one of the most uncomfortable looking chairs, his body scrunched up, his arms underneath his head on the armrest. You smiled at him, thankful that you were able to see him again, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. Who knows, maybe he wouldn't have to go away for a while, maybe he could stay with you.