Pietro Maximoff grumbled and glared at Toad, who had just been thrown through the door of his bedroom, waking him up with the noise.

"Would-you-mind-not-harassing-my-sister-so-early-on-Saturday-mornings?" He asked in irritation.

"Sorry, yo. I wasn't harassing her though. I just asked what kind of cereal she wanted for breakfast. I said we had Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Frosted Flakes. Then she hexed me here." The disgusting teenage boy shrugged.

Pietro snickered. "The way to her heart through her breakfast cereal is Cocoa Puffs, Toad." He yawned. "Now-get-out-so-I-can-get-changed."

Toad shook his head. "Thanks yo. I'll have Freddy pick some Cocoa Puffs up when he goes grocery shopping later." With that the boy hopped out of the room.

Pietro used his super-speed to get his shower out of the way before carefully styling his perfect white hair. He smirked at the reflection in the mirror. Perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect face, perfect body, and perfect carefully chosen and stylish outfit.

He was definitely satisfied with his appearance. Well, he better be after spending two hours perfecting the look each morning. His sister, Wanda, frequently joked that he spent more time in the bathroom than she did, and that was saying something as she took forever applying layer after layer of what he dubbed "Creepy Gothic Junk" on her pale face.

With one last check-over glance, he exited the bathroom. He pondered what to do with his time. He had no plans today at all. The day was his to do whatever he wanted.

He passed his once best friend's bedroom door. It was slightly ajar so he peeked in. He wasn't surprised to see Lance sitting on the edge of his bed gazing at a framed picture of himself and the girl he was helplessly in love with. It was a nice picture, both were cuddly and smiling and it had been taken at the Sadie Hawkins dance that seemed a life-time ago so both the teens were dressed nicely.

Lance seemed sad and confused and wistful. He sighed in misery and Pietro rolled his eyes and took the opportunity to enter the bedroom.

"Get-over-her-Lance. Its-over." Pietro said in an irritated voice. "She's-just-a-girl, and-she-isn't-worth-being-so-depressed. You're-starting-to-scare-me-because-you're- reminding-me-of-Rogue-and-my-sister. You-hardly-leave-your-room-anymore."

Lance glanced over at Pietro with eyes brimmed with sorrow and pain. "Yeah. I know its over. I blew it. I blew my chances with the most perfect, adorable, smart, beautiful, and fun girl I ever met. And there's no chance of repairing it."

"Well, Just-get-over-it. People-like-her-aren't-and-can't-be part-of-our-world."

"Yeah. Cuz she's so much better. And she deserves...she deserves to be treated that way. She deserves somebody perfect. I...I...just want her to be happy." Lance said in a haunting voice.

"Well, while-you're-pining-over-her, may-I-remind-you-she-treated-you-like-garbage?"

"Its not like I'm not." Lance said miserably. "And...I am an idiot and I threw away everything with her because I hate Summers."

"Oh please!" Pietro rolled his eyes. "Like-it-would-have-ever-worked. She's-a- geeky-little-X-man-or-X-girl-or-whatever. Just-forget-about-her! Ok-that's-it-tonight-you-and-me-are-heading-out-and-finding-you-somebody-to-make-you-get-over Pryde."

"Still I can't believe its over. And I just found out she's with Colossus." Lance sighed ignoring Pietro completely.

"Well believe it. She-Wait What? Colossus? My-father's-lackey? When-the-heck-did-that-happen-and-how?"

"After Apocalypse. He left Magneto and became an X-man." Lance sighed. "And Gambit's trying to do it too. But he's having problems with his family."

"How-do-you-know-this-but-I-don't?" Pietro demanded.

"Saw them myself. The other day when I had to take Wanda to the mall to get a new pair of boots." Lance said miserably. "He was carrying her bags. That used to be me..."

"Ok-so-let-me-get-this-straight. Pryde-is-dating-the-giant-Russian-tin-can-man, or-at-least-using-him-as-a-bag-boy. And-Gambit-of-all-people-is-trying-to-become-an-X-Man?" Pietro laughed at the irony. "The-self-proclaimed- "Prince-of-Thieves" wants-to-be-on-Xavier's-goody-two-shoes-team?"

"Yep." Lance nodded. "Rogue was at the mall too. Wanda ran into her at Hot Topic. Apparently Rogue was threatening Gambits life with the spike heel of a pair of boots.

"You-know, I'm-starting-to-think-the-only-reason-the-X-Men-have-any-guys-on-thier-team-at-all-is-for-the-girls." Pietro smirked and gave Lance a knowing glance.

Lance smiled despite himself. "Have you ever thought about joining them?" He asked distantly.

Pietro snorted. "Lance, the house can burn down, after being shaken down by earthquake, after the roof is blown off by a tornado, and then wild, rabid, radioactive dogs can use the remains as a toilet and I still wouldn't go to the x-geeks for help. I'd honestly live in a cardboard box first."

Lance laughed. "The problem is that you are too stubborn."

"No-the-problem-is-that-you-regret-coming-back-home-after-your-brief-stint-as-an-X-Man. And-I'm-beginning-to-wonder-if-you-should-have. If-you-hadn't-left-you-would-still-be-joined-at-the-hip-or-should-I-say-lips-with-Pryde-and-nobody
-would-be-whining." Pietro said in a tone that would tell Lance he was just joking.

Lance sighed. "I'm never going to be able to get over Kitty, Pietro." He frowned at the picture on his bedside table. "She was the best thing to ever happen to me. Sometimes I wonder...if Xavier had come after me too...maybe things would be different. Or maybe I should have stayed at the institute. But I had my chance and I screwed up because of a stupid grudge with Summers."

Pietro rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "I'm-getting-out-of-here-before-we-can-figure-out-if-this-melancholy-mood-of-yours-is-contagious. Just-remember-that-there-are-plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea."

He quickly left the room feeling wierd. He felt a bit disoriented and then shook his head. Lance's heart belonging so strongly to one girl shook Pietro up badly. He couldn't even really remember one girl he'd ever liked. Sure he flirted with anything female; he could even get twelve year old girls giggling. And he dated and went through girls like he went through sneakers (which was a considerably high number since his speed frequently burned out the rubber on his soles.) but he never really liked a girl, let alone loved one to the point of pain. He had never spent an hour pining over a girl let alone months as Lance had for Kitty.

Pietro never lost sleep over a breakup mostly because he was the one who broke it off. And yet, Lance hadn't gotten a proper sleep in the period of time since Kitty had broken up with him.

Lance was just two years older than Pietro and it scared him to death that he would someday act like a puppy sitting in the pound and hopefully awaiting the return of the loved one who abandoned him. He shook his head. He hoped he would never act so hopeless.

He walked down the hall as he pondered how Lance could have fallen so patheticly for Kitty Pryde.

"Pietro?" Wanda's voice called up the stairs.

"What?" He called back, irritated at his twin for dragging him out of his thoughts.

"What's your problem Pietro? I just wanted to ask if you something!" Wanda called.

"I was thinking!" Pietro hollered back. "And what do you want?"

There was no response for a few seconds. Then Wanda chuckled and called up in an amused voice. "Well, there's a first time for everything I guess. Could you grab my coat from Toad's room while you're up there? He abducted it and I think he's worshipping it or something equally gross and I need to go out."

Pietro rolled his eyes, knowing his sister's scarlet trench coat was probably centered in the shrine to Wanda in the younger boy's closet. "Can't you just go without it?" He asked hopefully. Entering the pigstye that Todd Tolansky slept in was not high in the priority list.

"Please, Pie?" She begged. "You're closer. And its snowing out! Maybe you can go coatless in December but I can't!"

Pietro grumbled. He carefully entered the slime coated door with a look of revulsion. He headed purposefully to the closet and swung the door open. He rolled his eyes at the statue of his sister made from clay and the various things he knew were hers and things dedicated to her. There were pictures of her plastering the walls of the closet and black candles littered the whole floor. He grabbed the trench coat off of the lifesized statue and turned to leave. He felt vaguely guilty but decided it was better to remove the coat before Toad started praying to it and giving burnt offerings. He didn't much care for the obsession the young boy had on his sister, and it was starting to creep him out how far the guy would go to look good for her.

He felt slightly nauseas but attributed it to the stink of the room and the black licorice candles in the closet. He exited the room and shook his head a little to clear it.

"Got it!" He called down to his sister who stood irritably at the foot of the stairs. He slowly started heading down the stairs, as he felt a little bit dizzy. Halfway down, his head started swimming and everything whirled around as he began to black out.

He saw Wanda panic and run up the stairs to catch him as he slipped and fell. Her worried face was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.