Night Angel

[Flux]

Flux stalked the night streets in freshly-laundred gray-and-black clothes. He'd jokingly called them tactical as he'd taken them and stormed off, but he hoped they would afford him some stealth as he made his way to the apartment where his old flame Banner Laverick was making her home these days. Tron had been reluctant to help, but had caved with enough pestering. The computer-master mutant had been able to tell him not only the building, but the room number, and even what floor and side he could expect to find her bedroom window. And now he stood on the sidewalk outside it with a cell phone that Tron promised wouldn't link her to the Brotherhood. He sighed heavily and dialed her cell phone, hoping the number hadn't changed.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner had been living her new life for almost a year now. She'd moved from Cullens to Los Angeles, ending up in a small apartment (http://www.swelgroup.com/img/langham_single.gif) in Korea Town. Life has been relatively normal - no crime fighting, no mutant schooling, nothing - with the exception of Felix, no Fluxs' trial and imprisonment...


A lot of time had passed since her visit with him, leaving her to stew in her own thoughts and feelings while keeping up appearances with everyone she knew here. Work helped. Anything that kept her busy was good.


Sleep was also a good way to not think about things, but that was being rudely interrupted by her cell phone vibrating loudly on her night stand. A hand reached up from under the covers, pulling the phone underneath them. An unlisted number. Great.

"Hello? Who is this?"

[Flux]

Well, that's lucky. What to say now? He sighed heavily, stared up at the window, and settled on something half-heartedly silly and cheesy.

"The Master of Magnet," he said, his free hand coming up part way out of embarrassment before he let it slap back down against his hip. "I'm outside in your alleyway like a stalker. Can I come in?"

[Banner Laverick]

"What?"

She sat up in bed, running a hand through the unruly red mop of hair that peeked up from under the sheets. She moved over to the window, squinting out at the street. A familiar figure in dark clothes gave a little wave up at her. She gave one back.

"Yeah. Did you want me to buzz you in or something? I didn't know you were coming, I would have cleaned up..." Banner paused and yawned into the phone. What she was saying made no sense - why would he care about the apartment being cleaned, he had just gotten out of jail. Anything was nicer than his plain plastic cell.

She wasn't exactly sure HOW he had gotten out, but the sleepiness in her mind kept that kind of thinking to a minimum. They would talk about it when they talked about everything else.

"I can come down, if you want. I don't know."

[Flux]

"Nah, would rather come up." He hung up the phone and leapt to the window with the aid of his powers, clinging to the building's metal support structure through the walls. He smiled at her through the window glass and gave a tiny wave.

"Sorry, your door man was intimidating."

[Banner Laverick]

She couldn't help but giggle as she pulled open the window for him, moving to sit on the edge of the bed so he'd have room to climb in. As much as she loved her apartment, it was pretty small. She didn't really know what to say to the young man climbing into her bedroom - what do you say to someone who you last saw in prison? She could make a joke, but it didn't seem right. Banner looked at her feet.

"I missed you."

[Flux]

He pressed her to the bed, pulling her hair gently to tip her face up and met her lips with a deep, lustful kiss.

"Me, too," he whispered, nuzzling into her neck and holding her close. He squeezed her tightly and shut his eyes, breathing in the scent of her skin and hair. He wanted to just lie there and hold her, he wanted to talk to her, he wanted to sate his year of sexual need in her hips until they collapsed of exhaustion. He didn't know which he wanted more. "I have missed, missed, missed you, every day. I have thought of you, dreamed, fantasized...God, I need you right now."

[Banner Laverick]

"Mmmmm Flux!"

She returned the kiss, gently running her fingers through his hair and down his back. Her hips pressed against his, her legs wrapping around his as he nuzzled into her neck, whispering into her ear. She kissed his face, his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. It felt so good to just be near him again, to touch, smell and taste him. Banner sighed into the skin on the nape of his neck.

"Please just be with me, I need you to just stay with me and not go away again..."

[Flux]

"Hey hey hey hey, I'm not going anywhere," he reassured her, making himself sit up so he could look her in the eye. He looked everywhere else first. "Self control is hard," he blurted. He mashed his palms on his eyes. "Look, I just, I want to do this one thing, but we need to talk about us, and the talking should probably happen ahead of the doing. I busted out earlier today, and went back to...base, I guess is what we can call it, and I got held up super long there before I got to come out. I had to see you right away. Just hadda do it, y'know?" His hands fell to her thighs and rubbed them automatically as he tried to think past his frustrations. "So, uh, what do you think?"

[Banner Laverick]

Banner sat up with him, pulling her arms away from him as he explained what had happened. They did need to talk, but there was so much to talk about - too much. Him being here was too much to process right now; she couldn't imagine them sitting down and having a discussion about their future when these feelings were hanging over them like a dark cloud. It was something they both needed, both wanted. Talking could wait.

She placed her hands on his, leaning forward to plant a soft kiss on his lips. "I think we need to take care of this first. We can talk about everything else in the morning. Okay?"

[Flux]

That small invitation was all he needed. He shoved her back onto the bed. It was a rough move on any other girl, but he'd learned from experience that the only way to play aggressively with an invincible, immovable Banner was to over-do it and cue her in on what he wanted. Her scant pajamas were gone in an instant as youthful lust overrode caution and reason. He let her tear his clothes to pieces, and pressed himself to her, moaning with joy as he knew her intimately again. He braced himself on the bed and watched her, studied her, committed every passionate moment to his memory to have forever, and swore that he'd never be kept from her for so long ever, ever again.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner grinned as he pushed her to the bed, her fingers wrapping themselves around the collar of his shirt. The seams popped, the tattered remains of his clothing ending up god knows where on the floor. With him there was no need for restraint - he knew her, knew what she was capable of doing with her mutant abilities. Any thoughts of being gentle were the furthest thing from both their minds. Her body pressed hotly against his, her lips whispering how much she wanted him, needed him until all she could do was gasp and moan into his ear. Her fingertips left small bruises across his back as she held him to her, not wanting to let him go now that she had him.




The morning came quickly, the sun streaming in through the window and across the exhausted pair laying breathless in bed. Banner let out a tiny sigh as she stirred, vainly attempting to detangle herself from the mess of bed clothes they were both wrapped in. Before they finally fell asleep, Flux had pulled the covers up around them; now they were mostly on his side along with the only pillow. His arms were wrapped tightly around it, his face smushed into the dark coloured fabric. She slipped her hand underneath his arm, tickling his side softly, her voice a tired little whimper.

"Stop cuddling the pillow and cuddle me, you goober."

[Flux]

"You took mine away," he mumbled, breathing deep and stretching. He repositioned their bodies to give her the pillow and lay his head on her chest. The mutant man sighed deeply, basking in the moment--when his mind snapped to the last thing they really discussed. Which was that they would soon have to discuss their situation.

Instantly he was alert and his good mood was mostly soured. He heaved another sigh and kissed the smooth skin of her breast, holding her a little closer. "So, slept well?" His voice was a dead giveaway of what his scumbag brain had done; deadpan, kinda flat, the voice he used to ask obvious rhetorical questions.

[Banner Laverick]

"As well as could be expected."

She put her arms lightly around his shoulders, brushing a few stray strands of hair away from his face. Banner frowned at the tone of his voice. It seemed like discussing their relationship was the last thing Flux wanted to do.

"We can't just not talk about things. I mean, it would be great if we just , I don't know, stay how we were. But we can't. Things are too different."

She didn't know how to start, or what she would say. It was like her feelings were tightly bottled up - no matter how hard she shook the bottle, the right words wouldn't come out.

"You're different. Maybe you won't want to be with me, or want to be part of the life I want. I don't even know what you want to do, besides make mutants the master race..." Her voice trailed off and she went back to stroking his hair. "You know how I feel about you, and about that kind of thing. This is really up to you, Flux."

[Flux]

"Well, I dunno about master race, so much," he grumbled, sitting up onto his knees and looking at her. "They didn't like what I did at the bridge. They--Geryon, most specifically--said I didn't 'get' what the goal was, or what were supposed to do, or something. So what I thought I was doing right, I did wrong, and I don't get where I went wrong, and it pisses me off pretty bad." He rubbed his eyes and shifted to sit on his butt, legs folded, bunching her blanket up around his cold feet. "So now I'm gonna try and figure out what to do right, 'cause I still believe the Brotherhood is the way to go. I just need to figure out how to do it right."

[Banner Laverick]

Banner looked up at him from her place on the pillow. She didn't really get WHY the Brotherhood would say what he did was wrong - wasn't the whole point of their movement to make "mundanes" see that mutants were superior? Wouldn't violence be a great way to do that?

"Okay. I kinda have to agree with them; I mean, look what happened. You ended up in prison, and..." She paused, a sad look coming over her features. She inhaled sharply, pulling the blankets closer to her face. It seemed like he had made up his mind, but she still didn't factor into any of it.


"If you think this Brotherhood is the way you want to go, I can't really stop you. But I don't see where "we" fit into that. Are you going to go out and do brotherhood stuff, then come home and play house with me? I don't want that kind of life - I want to just be who we are, and not have to have these double lives of heroes or mutants or whatever."

[Flux]

"Y'know, that's kinda funny because our whole relationship started over living double lives as mutant heroes." He shook his head and drummed his knee with his fingers, trying to think.

"Look, I want us to be able to have a relationship that doesn't get steamrolled by the laws they're using to make us all criminals. I mean, my own actual criminal record aside, I don't think having powers oughtta put us in the random drawing for prison cells. That's what I wanna try and stop with the Brotherhood. I don't want you arrested because you have the most badass power set of any mutant I know." He sighed and rubbed his hands through his hair. "I understand that you want us to live a 'normal' life, but I don't see how it can happen. Why the sudden change of heart? You used to love your powers."

[Banner Laverick]

"Yeah, and look where it got us."

She sat up, pulling her knees up towards her chin to rest her head on them. She kept her eyes on her feet as she spoke.

"It got me sent away to Cullens, so we never saw each other...Then you got arrested, sent away. I can't love something that takes away things that are important to me. I just want to be with my boyfriend, but I can't because of a stupid gene. We can't be ourselves if everyone is out there hating us, and we can't have a life like everyone else because of it. So why would I love my powers, when all it does is make things worse."

[Flux]

"YOUR powers did not make anything worse," Flux told her with a look of genuine worry. "I did those things. Not you. You can't hold any blame for this." He scooted over next to her and hugged her shoulders. "The Brotherhood and I can make it so we can have a life without the hate of mundanes getting in the way. Please, just trust me that we're doing a good thing. You can do it, too."

[Banner Laverick]

"Okay."


Banner leaned into him, keeping her arms around her knees. She turned her face towards him, forcing a smile. She wasn't overly sure about this, but she would try her best to make it work.

"So, did you want to do something today? I actually have time off of work, so we could do something in the city or just stay home. We could stay in bed all day, if you wanted to."

[Flux]

"Y'know, for a man fresh out of the clink, I don't really want to go out, unless you want to go with me back to base and actually meet my Brothers. Which, I don't know how well they'd take that, so it probably should wait. I want you to meet them eventually. I want you to get to know them. I don't care if you don't like them, just understand who they are and why they feel like I do about mutants." He scooted on the bed so he could plop over backward and have his head hit the pillow. "It would mean a lot to me if this could happen. Maybe we could even get you in on some of it. You'd be a great help."

[Banner Laverick]

"Oh yeah. Plus I kind of destroyed your clothes...Oops."

Banner planted a small kiss on his lips before laying back down, resting her head on his chest. It would be hard to get used to it all - him being a criminal, calling him Flux instead of Felix, trying to fit in with his Brothers - but she would try her best. For him, for them.

"I guess I can meet them. I don't know how much of a help I would be, though."

[Flux]

Flux checked for his clothes and found his pants ripped into fifths and his shirt torn in half. Only his socks and shoes had been saved from annihilation.

"Guess I can always go streaking. We'll worry about it later." He ran his hands up into her hair and cradled her head, sighing a bit as she went on. She seemed different in some way he couldn't place. Maybe less confident.

"You're invincible to harm and strong enough to punch a hole in a bunker designed to withstand heavy bombing, and you don't know how you'd be a help?" He managed to tease, but didn't like the anger that sparked quietly inside as he said the words. "You're serious?" He grinned, looking down at her.

[Banner Laverick]

She couldn't help but smile back at his grinning face, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible. Talking about the Brotherhood made her feel uneasy; she didn't want Flux to see that in her face or hear that in her voice, not when they were finally able to spend time together...

"We'll just see what happens. Maybe they won't like me, or maybe they won't need someone with my abilities. I don't know. I'm just a bit worried about making a good impression on your friends."


Banners' smile faded. "I'm sorry that I'm not all "yay mutants", but right now I'd really like to just enjoy having my wonderful boyfriend back."

[Flux]

"That's fine," he said distantly. It really wasn't, but he didn't want to press the issue. He just couldn't understand why a mutant wouldn't be excited about it. Nevermind his initial trepidation regarding his powers. "I know they will. I've said nothing but good things about you to them." He bent his left leg to scratch his knee, then reached to her bedside table for her TV remote. "Let's see what TV I missed out on while I was in the hoosegow."

[Banner Laverick]

The TV flickered to life, the sounds of an extremely perky morning show filling the room. Banner scooted out from under the covers, getting out of bed. She grabbed a random t-shirt off the floor, pulling it on before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry? I could make us something to eat while you reacquaint yourself with pop culture."

[Flux]

"Can you make anything besides cookies, cakes, and brownies?" he called, half absorbed by the television already. He flipped the channels, pausing only to get the barest idea of what was happening. So many commercials. He tried to recall something Banner had made him that wasn't a dessert and couldn't come up with anything. "Yeah, cook whatever you like," he added absently as he found the news.

"Police are still investigating the break-out at the Jericho Federal Mutant Prison. Brotherhood terrorists Geryon and Flux remain at large, but no other mutant criminals have escaped. The status of director Klaus Heidegger is also unknown."

"I know what happened to him," Flux said to himself with a hint of malicious glee, but not quiet enough to keep Banner from hearing, "I'd be happy to share."

[Banner Laverick]

She peeked at him from around the door frame.

"I know how to cook more than just desserts. Just because *you* have a sweet tooth..." Flux was staring blankly at the screen. She rolled her eyes. "I actually got a job here at a bakery because of my kitchen skills, so nyah."

Banner moved back into the kitchen, gathering the things she needed make scrambled eggs from the fridge when she heard him mumble something to himself. She called over to him from in front of the stove.

"Oh really? Then share Mr Most Wanted."

[Flux]

"Hope to God I killed him," he said, lounging back and flipping the channel. "Didn't have time to verify it, sadly, but I hope hope hope I did." He spread the sheets and blankets over himself, staring blankly at an infomercial for food processors. "Has TV always sucked this bad, or just since I was jailed?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Mmmhmm. It's early, people are supposed to be at work, not watching TV."

Banner busied herself with cooking - bread went into the toaster, eggs into the pan. A few moments later, she returned to the bed, handing him a warm plate of food and a fork. Taking a spot beside him, she took the remote and changed it back to the news. They were continuing the story about the escape from the prison, two talking heads analyzing the situation with the host of the show while footage of the bridge incident played in the corner of the screen.

"Don't wish death on anyone. Even if they're a mutant hating asshole. You're better than that."

[Flux]

"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "But he's done things that deserve death. He keeps his 'patients' in a state of constant fear of themselves, and barely treats his prisoners humanely. He's tortured, and I'm sure he's killed. Even if I didn't kill him, and he doesn't deserve to die for all that, you have to admit that the world won't suffer for the loss of Klaus Heidegger."

[Banner Laverick]

"No, it probably won't. But that doesn't give you or anyone else the right to kill him. If anything, a mutant killing him just makes more idiots believe in his cause."

Banner paused, pushing around the food on her plate. "I don't think of you as Flux, the mutant terrorist. It's hard for me to imagine what those people see you as. What they see any of us as. I don't know."

[Flux]

"Then how do you see me?" He sat up, suddenly serious. "I really want to know what you think of me. If you can't answer now, that's fine, but sometime I'd like to know what the bridge and prison have done to your perception of me."

He'd deliberately skipped her idea that his killing of Heidegger would rally more humans to the anti-mutant cause. Those ones were of the same kind that wanted to make homosexuality a crime, carried down through generations of discriminatory, narrow-minded, deluded idiots who decided it'd be fun to persecute other people because their skin tone was different. Flux was entirely prepared to let those humans die. He didn't see that that resolve made him more than a little like them.

[Banner Laverick]

"You're always going to be the guy I love, I don't think of you as some heartless murderer or brutal convict or mutant terrorist. I think of you as Felix, my boyfriend who I've missed very much."

She met his gaze and held it. "I think everything that happened with the bridge, the trial, prison has made you harder, colder. But there's still little glimpses of Felix there, underneath all of that. It doesn't matter what you do, even if I don't understand why you do it. Or if I don't agree with it. It doesn't change how I feel about you, or the fact that I love you and want a life with you. You being here makes me think that you want me in your life too, no matter what happens. Am I wrong?"

[Flux]

Was she? He wasn't sure. She was definitely right about him feeling colder...harder. And not in what most people would define as a good or fun way. What bits of him were like before? His motormouth had calmed to a slow idle, and he didn't feel much humor in it anymore. Once he'd cracked himself up so badly he'd almost lost a safe cracker's getaway car. He couldn't recall the last quip he made that he found genuinely funny. Bitter, angry, snide...not funny. Not since Below.

"I guess not," he said finally, his face dark. "Let's not waste this first day back on introspection, huh? Let's do stupid shit. Needs new clothes and TV watching."

Not a trace of humor in what would once have been a silly phrase.

[Banner Laverick]

She couldn't keep the sadness off her face. It was a quip that would have been silly before, but now it just felt forced. She gathered up their dirty dishes and stacked them on the bedside table.

"Okay. I might have a shirt and some shorts you could wear..." She let her voice trail off as she got up, making her way to a nearby closet. "Later on we could go up to the pool. Maybe. It's kinda neat, having a swimming pool on the roof."

[Flux]

"Are they adorned with Hello Kitty? 'Cause if not, I'm not wearing them," he answered, making a more concentrated effort. "And let's not go if there's going to be people. I'm...very recognizable, now." He walked up behind her and held her around the waist, his eyes wandering the closet. "What've you got in here that's fun? Any new hero costumes I should know about?"

[Banner Laverick]

"I'm sure I have something pink and girly that you can wear, if that's your new thing." She pressed back against him, placing her hands on his arms. "We can go later tonight, maybe, unless you have other things you need to do. And I got some new lingerie - I guess if I wanted to go the Emma Frost route, it would work as a costume."

She pulled a pair of rather plain looking shorts and a t-shirt out of the stack of clothes that lined the closet floor, tossing them over on the bed before taking out something that was distinctly more frilly and sheer. "I'd probably get arrested for wearing it before I stopped any crime though."

[Flux]

"Don't wear that in public, that should be just for me," he said earnestly, his interest showing in his eyes and posture. "Put it on, or I'll arrest you for indecent non-exposure."

[Banner Laverick]

"It is just for you, silly boy."

It was Banners' turn to push him onto the bed, albeit a bit more gently. On the first day they met, she'd accidentally misjudged her own strength and sent him flying across a food court. Thinking about it made her grin as she pulled her shirt off, shimming into the outfit while he laid on the bed looking up at her. She struck a pose; it was short, sheer and left nothing to the imagination.

"What do you think? Do you like it?"

[Flux]

He pulled her to him, pressing his hips up into her as she straddled him. He gave her an enticing grin, petting her cheek as she blushed, then drew her in close. They kissed deeply, Flux slowly grinding his hips to hers, pulling the sheer garment up to touch her bare hips, and had only just begun to press himself inside her when...

"Fuckin' MAGNETS!" screamed Tron's cell phone. "How do they work!?"

Flux's head sagged back against the bed with an aggravated sigh as Banner shimmied against him, competing for his attention. He recalled his dilemma before his incarceration, of feeling his allegiance torn between the Brotherhood and Banner. He'd considered the matter settled, with Banner's devotion to him growing to embrace his involvement in the Brotherhood movement...but not so. He grabbed the phone and looked at the screen: one text message.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner pressed against him, a tiny pout on her lips. It was hard to not laugh at his ring-tone, but she found it a little rude that he'd decided now was the time to check his phone.

"Check your messages. It's obviously important. I'll even give you some privacy."

She couldn't keep an annoyed tone out of her voice. Getting up off his lap, she stomped off into the washroom, shutting the door behind her.


Banner couldn't believe he would do THAT, in the middle of them doing IT. All of the resentment she had for his "brothers" came bubbling back up; would he always chose them over her? Maybe. She hoped that wasn't the case, but now she wasn't so sure. Going back into the bedroom would only lead to another argument about it.

[Flux]

Flux sighed and rubbed his face one hand as he lifted the phone to see what the ring was about. One text message. Well, with Banner in the bathroom, why not check it? It's not like he could get into more trouble with her.

Yo, get back here. Got business (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=22468) to discuss.

He rose and looked at his naked self with a sigh, then went to the bathroom door, knocking and leaning on the door frame.

"Babe? I, uh...gotta go work. Very urgent. So, I'm gonna borrow those blue pajama pants I got you with the clouds on 'em. Bring 'em back cleaned and folded, promise." Silence rallied back to him through the door. "Okay, well, I love you. See you later."

He went to the closet and found the pants easily--he'd noticed them while he was snuggling on her earlier. The first gift he'd ever gotten her was a teddy bear and these pants, the better to help her sleep at Cullen's. He put them on, wishing the nostalgia was enough to wash out the cold feeling of dread at having to come back here later in the week and what, precisely, it was that the Brotherhood needed from it. He hoped it was violent. Fighting was thrilling and he needed to unwind. He dragged his shoes and bands on and crouched in the window, checking for people who might witness him. Finding none, he leapt out to the next rooftop and crawled down the wall on the other side, making his way back in the sweltering Los Santos heat.