Terrified and new starts

Pietro stood at the door of the X-Mansions utterly terrified. He held his bag to his chest his knuckles turning white. He knew how he was standing. It was how he had stood outside of dozens of foster home. Except this time there was no turning back. He had burned the bridge to the brotherhood and he had no were else to go. He had never done that, he had always had somewhere to run to if he was rejected, now he had none.


Pietro knocked on the door half of him hoping no one would answer and half that someone would.

Kara heard the door, confused why someone was knocking. She looked at James who was playing with his teddy bear on his blanket. She picked him up, giving his teddy bear to play with. Kara walked to the door, opening it, stopping when she saw the man who saved Bruce when he was Brenna. She smiled at him, before she saw the bag, "May I help you?" She asked.

James stared at the man, not knowing what to think of him, only to look away and play with the teddy bear.

Pietro gulped when the door opened. He sort of recognized her from the first time he was at the house with Brenna who was now and had originally been Bruce.


"May..." Pietro gulped looking nervously around before looking at the ground. "May I come in?" Pietro could barley hear his own voice he was so quiet.

Kara looked at him, before moving out of the way, "Yes you may." She said, watching him walk in. She closed the door, before looking at him, "May I ask why your here?" Kara asked, walking with him to the couch, letting James sit on her lap.

Pietro looked up at the woman before him.


"I...I need to be..." Pietro struggled for a moment to find the right word "different." Pietro looked at her pleadingly, hopeing she understood what he was trying to say.

Kara looked at him, seeing how much he was struggling to talk, "Calm down, hun..And you say you want to be different, how come?" She asked, looking at him.

James snuggled against his mother.

"Well for one thing the I should never have been a villain to start with. I don't like hurting people, stealing or anything like that. Then there is the fact that I recently learned that I sabotage any chance I have at a real relationship in many different way. And..." Pietro gulped again. "I don't want to do that any more. And no one really cares were I was and I just... I was told that ...maybe someone would care here?"


Pietro stared at the woman as she held the child, hers probably, based on his coloring. Pietro often wondered what his life would have been if his mother had lived. Lorna would be the only thing he would miss if she had lived and the only good thing to come because of his mothers absence.

Kara listened to him.

"I don't want to do that any more. And no one really cares were I was and I just... I was told that ...maybe someone would care here?"

"People do care here, it's just the trust that comes with the care. Though, you already got my trust, since you seem to really want to change. But it's only little, gotta work for my full trust, especially my husband's." She said, before looking at James, "Huh, James? He is going to have to work hard to get daddy Wolverine's trust huh?" She said, but no where near a mocking tone. Kara turned to look at the boy, stopping to see his eyes wide, "Did I say something?"

Pietro's eyes widened, he stepped back and looked at her with a critical eye. "Wolverine? The Wolverine?" Pietro looked her up and down before smiling. "He did good for himself." Pietro nodded.

"Yeah, Wolverine. I'm guessing your from the same universe at him." She then put her hand to her face, "Thank you, but keep your eyes on my face." She said, laughing softly, looking down at James.

James was looking up at his mother, hearing his Dad's name.

She smiled at him, "I miss him too." She said, poking his nose.

James laughed, before looking back at the boy, his smile kind of fading.

Pietro held up on of his hand. "No worries about me. One of my big issues with sabotaging relationships is sex so I am completely cutting that out until I have a relationship with someone. And I never never messed with married woman, especially married woman with kids. Some lines even I wouldn't cross." Pietro frowned "Were is old Wolvei?" Pietro asked for a second he feared he had died, but she had said he would need to gain his trust so he wasn't dead. "He didn't strike me as the type to diaper on a kid that was his?"

"Glad to hear that, and your not going to get sex easily here. A lot of us are independent..or married, or a couple." She said, smiling at him, before she went a little serious, "He is on a mission." She said before looking down at James, "This is his son, but enough questions about our son. He is off limits until you gained my full trust. Then you can ask away." Kara nodded at him, "Now..your asking if people would care here..Is there something going on that you need to be cared for?" She asked, looking at him.

Pietro nodded in understanding about the kid. It made sense.

"My problem isn't really something that can be cared for in the most classic sense. Ok I was in a relationship with this incredible girl and I messed it up, as per usual. Then I screwed up any shot of getting her back by following my normal protocol of sleeping with random woman until I felt better about me. Luckily my brain finally started working and told me I was screwed up beyond belief. So I end up talking to the only Hero here I know that isn't my ex or my little sister and she helped me figure out that what I need to do is be a better person. Even with no chance of getting back with my ex I still need to change if I ever want..." Pietro stopped for a moment and looked at this beautiful woman holding her son. "what Wolverine has." He gestured to her and the baby and smiled sadly.

Kara listened to him, listening and understanding his problem. She looked at him.

"My problem isn't really something that can be cared for in the most classic sense. Ok I was in a relationship with this incredible girl and I messed it up, as per usual. Then I screwed up any shot of getting her back by following my normal protocol of sleeping with random woman until I felt better about me."

Kara kept listening, waiting until he was fully done to speak, but the first four sentences stayed in her mind. She then nodded at his last sentence, "Well..that's a problem." She leaned back, letting James lay on her chest, "Well..I'm going to tell you, since the first four sentences you said, you said you said you screwed up with sleeping with random woman."

She saw him nod, making her look down, before looking up, "I'm going to give you a task on that..I want you to not sleep with any girls in here, or outside of here..Though you won't get lucky inside here..no offense." She said, "Cause if you ever want what Wolverine has..your going to have to recreate yourself, and I'm guessing the biggest problem is because of.." She looked down at her son, "Sleeping with people." Kara said, looking back to him, "And I'll help you out, that means if you ever have the urge..come talk to me or anyone else who is also going to help you."

Pietro nodded. What she was saying was almost exactly what he and Rogue had been saying he needed to do.


"Thank you, and I have other help too. Rogue the girl I told you about that I talked to. She's going to help me learn how to talk to woman without worrying about..." Pietro looked for the right words that weren't crude, finally he rolled his eye finding the best words he could. He did little finger quotes. "closing the deal. See she can't touch people skin to skin so she's going on a mock date with me tonight so she can point out things I do that might be construed as precursors to sex. So I can learn to focus on the woman themselves. Oh. I just realized I didn't introduce myself, I'm Pietro Maximoff." Pietro stepped forward and stretched out his hand to shake hers.

Kara nodded, "I know Rogue." She nodded, "That sounds like a good plan, a very good plan." She smiled, grabbing his hand, "Kara Zor-El Howlett." Kara said, smiling as she shook his hand.

Pietro nodded. "Thanks the date was Rogue's idea, I think this is a kill two birds with one stone sort of thing. She helps me and detracts herself from her worry about Gambit." Pietro smiled. "Howlett huh? That's actually a pretty awesome last name. It's nice to meet you Kara. And thank you again for giving me the opportunity to come to you if I start to have problems. It's really a good idea that I have someone other then Rogue to go to. Rogue's great to talk to and she doesn't pull punches but I had a crush on her in high school and with my problems it will be good to have someone, there is no chance of a relationship beyond friends to talk to."

Kara nodded, "Thank you, and your welcome." She then laughed a little, "I couldn't agree more with that last sentence." She said, smiling, before there was a teddy bear thrown in her face. Kara laughed, "Yes, may I help you?" She said, playfully as she looked at James, nuzzling her noses against his nose.

Pietro smiled as Kara nuzzled her son. "What's his name?" Pietro indicated the boy.

Kara looked at him, giving him a look, "James." She said, looking back to him, "And I love him so much." She said smiling, "And I love the man who helped me create him." Kara laughed, lifting him into the air, receiving laughter from him. She then brought him down to her, hugging him.

Pietro smiled at the hug. He could tell how much she loved her son and Logan.


"I wish I could have had what he has and what he's going to have." Pietro grinned at the child and mother.

"You will." She said, looking at him, "Just got to fix yourself up." She said, smiling.

Pietro smiled sadly. "I wasn't talking about Logan this time. I was talking about him." Pietro pointed to James in Kara's arms.

Kara looked at him, before looking to James, "Why is that?" She asked.

Pietro sighed. He set his bag down and sat on the couch.


"My mother died giving birth to me and my twin sister Wanda. My father after her death sort of lost it. He decided that humans were to blame for all his troubles. He proclaimed himself leader of the mutant race. When I was six he had Sabertooth start training me, Logan may have told you about him, anyway I was trained like that till I was eight. Then my father puts my twin in a mental institution. I was trained for another year until my father dropped me in foster care. When I was 16 my father came and busted me out of jail for stealing. I was then put in the original Brotherhood. Not like the one here the all the psychos, but the original that was really just a gang of high school boys and sometime random girls would hang with us. I was just saying James is a lucky kid. He has a mom that obviously loves him, a dad that is doing everything he can to get back to him, and even if you do train him it won't be the kind of training I had. The only time my father ever protected me at that time was when he told Sabertooth that he didn't want me making my first kill in training at age nine. Looking back on it my issues could be a lot worse than my sex issues and my narcissistic tendencies. All things considered really."