Ruth was squished between the two Summers brothers on the small couch. It was quite unpleasant.

"Help. Me," she mouthed at Hank who shrugged. She was on her own.

She sighed, trying to drown out the sound of arguing brothers. Alex had asked why Scott wasn't dating anyone and Scott had countered with his own question, stating that Alex was older, so he should be hitched by now.

"I can date whoever I want!" Alex shouted, glaring.

"Well, why don't you?" Scott countered, equally loud. Ruth jumped whenever he yelled, he always seemed so soft-spoken.

"Because maybe he doesn't like me! Maybe he thinks I'm still that dumb asshole from twenty fucking years ago! You think about that?" Alex was breathing heavily and he obviously wasn't aware of what he was saying anymore; Ruth knew that feeling well.

"He?" Scott asked, tilting his head. He wasn't angry anymore, now he was curious. Ruth's stomach dropped, afraid of what that meant.

Alex was too. He looked visibly shaken, looking at his younger brother with fear. "Yeah. He."

Scott glanced at Ruth for a brief moment, probably trying to say something. "Ohh...okay. Ruth, walk with me for a minute, I want to go find Kurt."

She nodded, jumping up from her seat, sparing Hank a glance. The man had been cleaning up Charles' office—where the group was—because Charles had overworked himself and Hank forced him to get some sleep, a bit hypocritical, but nonetheless helpful. He had stilled, glancing a little behind him where Alex was still sitting on the couch.

Scott took her arm and pulled her out of the room, shutting it behind them. He grabbed a nearby table—why did they have tables in the hallway?—and propped it in front of the door.

He sighed, turning to look at her. "I had no idea he liked Hank."

Ruth blinked. "You're joking, right." He stared back at her. She groaned, running a hand over her face. "You are—oh my God, you had no idea. Wow, how do you survive?"

He crossed his arms, glaring. "Well, jeez, excuse me for not paying attention to my brother's love life."

She raised an eyebrow, pointing to the blocked door. "'You're 38, Alex, and you're still single. You're gross and old and no one's going to love you anymore.' You're a really lovely person, you know that, Scott?"

He threw his hands up in the air. "But he's never brought anyone home. Mom and dad said the last steady girlfriend he had was when he was in high school. Before I was born. I don't know, it just seems weird. He's liked Hank for over twenty years."

Ruth slowly grinned, awestruck. "Wow. I wish someone would like me for over twenty years."

"Of course someone will," Scott said immediately. "I mean, your spouse will."

She shrugged. "I know, but I mean in an unrequited love kind of sense. Like, pining, you know? That's dedication, that's love, that's...really, really heartbreaking."

Scott stuck his hands in his pockets. "I think someone would, though, I think you'd be worth it. Maybe."

Ruth was so shocked she didn't have time to register the 'maybe'. She smiled mockingly, rocking back and forth on her heels. "You think I'm worth it?"

He ducked his head, reaching up to rub his neck, cheeks pink. "Uh...yeah. Hey, look, it's Ororo! Hey, Ro!" He waved frantically towards the girl who was looking down at them from the other end of the hallway. She kept moving.

Ruth bit her lip, shoulders shaking, a laugh caught in her throat. She bit her hand, nearly giving in, looking at the utterly rejected look on Scott's face. She giggled and he snapped his head to look at her.

That was how she ended up running halfway around the manor screaming.

º º º º º

Charles had called the team, Ruth, Hank, and Alex to meet him in the kitchen. He said it was urgent, but they needn't worry too much. He had saved Ruth from running around the mansion an extra two hours.

"You okay, Ruth?" Jubilee asked, a nail file in her hands. Ruth wasn't sure if it was for lethal or recreational use.

"Yeah," Ruth wheezed, leaning against the counter, "I'm dandy. Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym."

Jubilee laughed. "You skipped gym at school?"

Ruth nodded. "Of course! Lionel and I would listen to music in the art room. I think people just gave up trying to get us back after the third month."

Jubilee smiled, turning her attention to Kurt who had just bamfed into the room. The two were obviously close and chatted easily, Jubilee keeping up even while Kurt occasionally slipped into his native German.

"Hey," Jean greeted, sliding up to Ruth, "I heard you and Scott got into a little chase around the mansion."

Ruth nodded, sighing. "I think I lost fifty pounds." Jean laughed, shaking her head. Ruth smiled. "Do you know why we're here?"

Jean shrugged. "I think it has something to do with Erik."

Peter scoffed, zipping into the room. "Isn't it always with Charles? They're like," he held up his fingers, crossing them. "I'm pretty sure he still counted him as his friend when he punched him in the face in that elevator." Ruth raised an eyebrow and Peter shook his head. "Don't ask, long story."

Erik pushed Charles into the room, looking back to talk to Alex who was dragging along a half-sleeping Hank. Raven came in through the other door, looking at everyone in the room with mild interest.

Scott walked over to Jean and Ruth, a glass of water in his hands. "Jean, can you look into my brother's head and see if he and Hank," he set his glass down and started making motions with his hands.

Jean rolled her eyes and slowly pushed his hands down. "I will check if you promise to never do that again. Ever." She paused for a moment. "No, they didn't."

"Damn it," Scott hissed. "I gave them the opportunity and everything."

Ruth sighed. "Maybe they didn't want to do it in Charles' office. That, or they didn't talk about feelings at all. Or they did and they just didn't have sex. There's, like, a million ways that conversation could have went."

Alex patted Scott on the back, Hank in tow. He leaned down and whispered something that made Scott wrap his arms around Alex's waist, pulling him close. Alex rubbed his younger brother's back, petting his hair.

Ruth thought back to what Alex first said to her. 'We lived in an emotionally constipated suburban family, we don't know how to handle emotions and feelings well.'

If Jean heard her thoughts, she didn't make it clear. She was focused on Charles and Erik who stood in the middle of the kitchen.

"I brought you all here because my office is...incapacitated," Charles started, glancing up at Erik. He cleared his throat. "Either way, Erik and I have talked over what we all discussed—well, all sans Hank, Ruth, and our two Summers—and we have come to a conclusion. We are going to put our full focus and attention on finding and rescuing Angel."

Raven sighed as Kurt and Jubilee cheered, Ororo and Jean smiling. Ruth grinned, though she wondered why they had to talk it over again.

"Do we know his name?" Raven asked, turning to Hank.

Hank nodded. "Yes. I managed to find out who his parents were. It took a good deal of digging as they wanted to keep their personal lives very secret, but I still have some connections from the old lab I used to work at and they were able to help me out.

"His name is Warren Worthington III. Yes, the third. He is, or maybe rather was, the son to Warren Worthington Jr., owner and CEO of Worthington Industries which has been in the family for generations. 

"Warren had been moved around from boarding school to boarding school, his parents being wealthy enough to afford them. The reason is still unknown to me, though I have a feeling it was due to his mutation. I'm uncertain as to how he ended up in the cage fight where Kurt was found, but I can tell you it he probably didn't go there willingly."

Scott sighed. "So we're saving a rich boy?"

Jean smacked his shoulder. "It doesn't matter what his background is, Scott, he's a person, he's one of us, so we're going to go help him."

Scott nodded. "I know, I'm just saying that his parents should've taken better care of him. He's, what, nineteen? He's an adult, sure, but maybe he's been there awhile or something, I don't know."

Ruth shrugged, crossing her arms. "Maybe his parents sucked. With all those boarding schools, I'm going to say they did. Probably didn't want word of his mutation getting out, it'd be bad reputation. Parents are shit like that sometimes."

She saw Peter look at Erik who looked incredibly guilty, though he wasn't acknowledging Peter at all. Something seemed off about them, it was as if Peter knew something about Erik that no one, not even Erik himself, did.

"What do we do first?" Ororo asked. "Do we know where he is?"

Charles shook his head. "We're working on that, we're trying to sort something out. In the meantime, Erik is going to help all of you try to control your powers a bit more. Fine tune you not only individually, but also as a group."

Charles was about to go on, so Ruth started to slowly edge away from the group, moving in front of Jean who was focused on Charles and Erik both. Ruth was just about to pass Scott, but the boy stuck out his arm. 

"Stay," he whispered, "Like it or not, you're part of this now. After all, you were in the room when we were deciding."

"You're an ass," she hissed, crossing her arms, standing next to him. He nudged her, smiling to himself.

"Ruth, Scott," Charles said, calling their attention. "I want you to go with Erik."

Ruth looked at the man in the turtleneck. He smiled and she immediately thought of a shark. A shark with nice eyes. "Why?"

Erik still smiled, a little strained. "I am going to help you control your powers."

She looked at Alex who was biting his nails and Hank who kept fidgeting with his glasses. "Fuck, are you going to throw me off a satellite? That was a thing that you did right? Please don't hurt me."

Erik rolled his eyes, pulling on her arm ."You'll be fine. You're supposed to have wings, right? Wings help people fly."

She nodded. "Yeah. And gravity makes people fall."

Erik rolled his eyes again, grabbing her arm. "Let's go. Storm, make sure it doesn't rain."

a/n This chapter is so gross, literally nothing happened and it's so short, but this is all I had for this chapter. It'll get better, I swear, more things are going to happen next chapter because Erik is in it and it's Erik. So please bear with me.

Alex Summers is (if I did my math right) 47 (or 48). Fucking. Years. Old. While his younger brother is 17. Yeah, I did my math wrong, I totally forgot an entire decade. I'm so glad I found it during the initial argument about how Alex needs to get married, but, like, I refuse to let him be that old. What the fuck.

I hope you enjoyed it!