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[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Of mutants and snowballs...
Saturday morning

Chortling in glee, Miles ran down the side of the mansion, slipping a few times in the snow but simply pushing himself up and running on, knowing Alison wasn't too far behind him from the snowballs occasionally falling around him or catching him in the legs. "Alison have lousy aim!" he called out over his shoulder, right before rounding the corner and slipping out of her sight for a moment. With a squawk of surprise he ran straight into a wall, or so it felt like as he bounced back, breath cut short for a moment as he fell on his behind, without any damage thanks to the snow.

Alison rounded the corner a heartbeat later, having discovered she had very good traction in the snow when Miles made that sort of sound, and skidded to a stop at the sight before her.

Cain paused, looking down at the snow-covered form at his feet. Behind multiple wrapped scarves, a pair of blue eyes blinked out at him. With a small snort of amusement, Cain hoisted the fallen tree he'd been dragging up over his shoulders with one arm and knelt down in the snow, extending his other hand to the fallen child.

A look of pure awe shone in the boy's eyes as he looked up and up, and then simply extended his hand out in response. The awe was not at the display of strength, as impressive as it was, but at the fact that it was happening while he was standing right next to the man.

Cain pulled Miles up to his feet, gently brushing snow off of the boy's coat with one finger. "Ought to watch where you're going, little man," he chided. As he looked up to see Alison skidding to a stop in the snow, he nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Afternoon, Miss Blai-- Alison."

"Hallo Cain," she answered a bit blankly, eyebrows rising at the same realization that Miles had come to, unable to repress a small smile at the sight of him brushing off the snow from a frankly gaping Miles. She closed the remaining distance at a more sedate pace, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "You ok, baby?" she asked the boy, gaze flickering from the tree on Cain's shoulder to Miles himself.

"Miles not understand!" was the almost plaintive reply, as Miles alternated between looking at the tree balanced on Cain's shoulder and the snow being brushed off. And then, with a sheepish look. "Miles have no manners either. Hello Mr. Cain," he said, because that was the name he'd heard used.

"Hello, Miles." Cain smiled, trying his best to look non-threatening despite being easily ten times the child's size. He glanced up at Alison. "Don't worry, I think he just had the wind knocked out of him a little. Kids are resilient at this age." With that, Cain took a step back, half-turned, and heaved the twelve-foot section of oak tree one-handed over the back porch to crash into a pile of similar logs near the old woodshed. Wiping the bark and dust off his hands, Cain cocked his head over to where the burned areas of the woodline were still visible. "Some's still good for firewood," he explained.

"Yeah, firewood," Alison agreed, blinking a few times at the way he lugged the timber about, one hand reaching down to pat the shoulder of a very bewildered little boy. "I can laser that down later if you'd like," she continued - pure reflex at this point. It was Miles that finally cracked, and asked the question on both their minds.

"How can Mr Cain do that if near Miles?" he piped up, reaching out to pat the air where Cain had been moments before, before turning to look at Alison. "Can Alison use powers? Is Miles power not working right?"

Cain raised an eyebrow. "What's he mean? I thought Chuck said something about most mutants not having their powers at his age."

"As far as we can tell, Miles was born with his," Alison explained, having already tried to light up, without results. "And they're always on," she added pensively, keeping her eyes on Cain's.

"Miles has to stay away so far," he trotted to a roughly five feet distance from Cain to demonstrate, turning around him a bit to leave Alison out of his range, "else Miles stop people's powers." As soon as he got out of range of Alison, she glimmered, light surrounding her gently.

"And if he goes near someone who is also a mutant, he nullifies their powers," she finished for Miles, then smiled a bit bemusedly at Cain. "You're not a mutant."

Cain's eyes narrowed as his jaw clenched. Slowly, he knelt down until he was sitting in the snow, arms wrapped around his denim-clad knees. Slowly, he answered. "Before I came here, the army figured that one out. Did some DNA scan bouncing a laser off my eyeball or something. Turns out that no, I ain't got that x-whatchamacallit that Charles wrote all those books about. So basically," Cain took a deep breath. "No, I'm not."

"Oh," was all Alison could find to say in response to that, figuring there had to be some other reason for Cain to be able to do what he did - and that if he wanted to tell her, he would, but she wasn't going to pry. "Ok then."

Miles was busily creeping up to Cain while he explained, a slow smile spreading over his face, half hidden by the scarf neatly wrapped around his neck. "Miles not need to worry about putting Mr Cain in danger," he breathed out in delight. "Yippeee!" He bounced in the snow, running around in tight circles around the large man, arms out as he laughed.

Cain exhaled, watching the puff of vapor fade away in the air. "Thing is, shi- shoot," he caught himself checking his language around Miles, something which seemed almost unlike him, "Can we kind of keep that between us? I mean, Charles knows, and I think Doc MacTaggart does, but it's one of those things I can't even explain myself, much less bother explaining to everyone else."

The catch was noticed, earning him a brief smile as Alison had also been doing just that since Miles had been found. "Sure, no prob," Alison waved her hand dismissively, because asking if the Professor knew had been her next question, and if he did, she certainly wasn't going to worry about it. "Miles sweetie, did you hear what Cain asked for?" she called out to the still running boy.

"Yes!" followed by a bounce in the snow. "Miles be careful anyway, so others don't notice?" he asked of Cain with a clear gaze.

"Man, he's a quick learner..." Cain remarked. "Thanks, kid." He nodded to Alison, "I appreciate this, really. With Charles' whole message of 'mutants united', I guess my situation could be pretty awkward."

"He's had to be," Alison answered with a briefly pained look after Miles nodded cheerfully at Cain and dove back into the snow, the occasional giggle escaping him as he slid about. "It's your life, it'd be silly of me to go talking about something if you ask me not-" she paused for a moment. "How could that make your situation awkward?" she asked, puzzled.

"Some of these kids," Cain waved a hand to the mansion, "they've got good heads on their shoulders. They'll turn out okay. Others - I've seen too many times how people who get picked on for being different tend to turn it around later in life. And when some of those folks are walking around being basically a human nuke?" Cain pointed to the blasted-out area of the woodline. "After everything that happened this summer, with Bill Stryker and whatnot, I wonder how many of these kids have it in their heads that it's an 'us-versus-them' world. And to some of them," Cain tapped his chest, "I'd be one of 'them'."

Alison sighed at his words - undeniably true, as sad as the implications were, and thinking that if anyone would have a reason to hate people that weren't mutants right now, Miles would be one of them. The troubled look she was giving him was noticed, and it took Miles all of five seconds to scramble his way to her, arms wrapping around her legs as he stared up at her.

"Yeah, I hear what you're saying," she patted Miles shoulder, giving him a crooked grin before looking at Cain, still sitting in the snow. "I guess that's part of what we're trying to make sure doesn't happen, at least with out kids, here." She shook her head slightly. "Not sure we can ensure that with all of 'em, but we gotta try."

Cain snorted. "That's Chuck's big dream. One big happy mutant-human family. Singing around the campfire, trading baseball cards," he reached out to tickle Miles' ribs through his coat, "throwing snowballs..."

"Ooh, I don't know about one big happy mutant-human family," Alison chuckled as Miles squeaked and danced away, and then grabbed a fistful of snow, carefully crafting it into a snowball with a cheerful gleam in his eyes. "I just happen to think that sure I'm a mutant, but it's not all I am, either. Kinda like Kitty isn't just Jewish, and Shiro isn't just Japanese... and Miles isn't just green," she grinned fondly at the little boy as he prepared to throw the snowball.

Cain nodded, pretending not to see Miles sneak around with the snowball. "In a perfect world, they'd all see it that way, wouldn't they? And believe me, I've seen all of them try. But Chuck - he's got something that none of them ever did, and I'm not just talking about his..." Cain wiggled his fingers over his head in an attempt to mime telepathy. "He's just--" his next words were cut off by a ball of snow striking him square in the mouth, followed by a series of giggles.

"Seeing something bigger than the rest of us are?" Alison murmured, shoulders shaking slightly in laughter as the snow covered most of Cain's face, small clumps of snow falling to down to the ground after a moment. Miles scrambled a bit further off, giggling to himself furiously, liking snow despite the cold, having never seen it before and thinking it the best thing next to a warm place to live in and food - and people who cared for him.

Cain wiped his face, spluttering with genuine surprise. "Why you little!" he growled, playfully lunging after Miles, who sprinted away with an ecstatic shriek. Hauling himself out of the snowbank, Cain stood up and looked down at Alison. "You know, there's an old sledding run on the other side of the lake, nice gentle slope. If you want to use Chuck's old sled," Cain pointed to the equipment shed, "I don't think he'd mind. It's the one with 'Rosebud' painted on the wood."

Alison grinned at the name, remembering the Orson Welles movie on the spot. "Rosebud, huh?" Miles danced nearby, cheerfully packing another snowball, giggling so hard he had to start it over twice before getting a result that was anywhere near big enough to throw, and aimed at Alison this time instead. "Up 'till we got here, he'd never even seen snow before," she grinned as a snowball tagged her on the shoulder, turning to give Miles an impish look. "I think sledding might be something of a hit, all things considered."

Cain nodded, pointing to a barely-visible cobblestone path shielded by overhanging branches. "Follow that around the lake, you can't miss the sled run. I'd join you but," Cain swept his arms wide "I'm a bit out of scale for that particular sled. Besides, I've got to finish this cleanup before one of those trees falls on someone." He cocked his head towards Miles, "Make sure he doesn't play around there until it's cleared out, okay?"

"He's real good at listening to that sort of stuff, so far," Alison nodded, tilting her head to the side slightly towards the playing boy, who had yet to actually wander out of sight. "I'll just let him know and show him the general area on the way over to the sled run, but he's not likely to want to go out alone anyway - still won't leave me out of his sight unless we're in the house and it's bedtime," she shook her head a bit, a faint glow appearing around her for a moment as she let the light linger, radiating heat to warm herself up. She paused, then smiled up at him. "I'll let you know how he took to it."

"Thanks." Cain nodded, "and, well... thanks. For understanding." He jerked a thumb in Miles' general direction. "He's gonna turn out okay, you know. Kid's going to have dozens of folks spoiling him rotten."

"Yeah," she looked down after a moment, then up again, the smile still present. "Though I think it'll have a lot to do with him, and how he is," she sighed, knowing there was still so much they were unaware of what had happened to Miles during his years in Mexico. "If he can still be the way he is, after everything he's been through already... well." She nodded once, firmly, the light fading from around her.

"Why not?" Cain replied. "After all, his mom went through a hell of a lot herself. Kid couldn't ask to have a better role model." Cain paused, letting the awkward silence hang for a moment, then cleared his throat. "The, er, trees. Better get to 'em."

A slow, luminous smile greeted his words, and although Alison wasn't going anywhere near comparing her own life with Miles', the implications of what Cain had just said warmed her a way her powers never could. "Thank you, Cain," she murmured as he turned to head back to what he was doing previously... expression only changing to one of blank astonishment as one key word finally registered. Mom?