Permanent Joyride

Summary: An unexpected conversation causes Lance Alvers to make a different decision. What if the Joyride became permanent? AU.

Disclaimer: If I owned Evo, why would I be writing fanfiction?

Prologue: For Want of a Push

"Good thing I only brought a few things. This would be a lot more annoying to pack otherwise." Lance muttered to himself.

As he threw clothes into the lone duffel bag he had brought to the institute, the troubled mutant allowed the events of the past few days to flicker through his mind.

It had all started fairly simply, he had tried to join the X-Men because he wanted to get closer to Kitty Pryde. Since then, it had just been one huge mess. Other than Kitty, none of the X-Men really trusted him, and really made their suspicion known. It hadn't helped when Lance blew off his training duties in order to impress Kitty and continued to act like a jerk to most of them.

Really, it wasn't too surprising then, in fact it was pretty understandable given his record, that when the Institute's vehicles started showing up damaged from late night adventures, Lance was suspect number one. Lance had protested that it was not him that did it, but that did not really help. You could not just sweep months of being enemies under the rug like nothing, and so he was kept under watch.

By pure luck, Lance had stumbled across the true culprits behind the late night joyrides. It turned out that the New Mutants had been looking for fun and had been stealing the vehicles one by one. Lance had just happened to find them just before they tried their most ambitious escapade: a joyride in the X-Jet. Lance had turned around and woken up Kitty and together they had snuck on board to stop the New Mutants.

They were too late, but thanks to Kitty's quick thinking and powers, they had survived a near crash and managed to get back to the Institute in one piece. Xavier and Summers had been there to meet them and apologized to Lance for mistakenly accusing him. He had brushed off their apologies and decided that it was time for him to leave back to the Brotherhood. And then…

And then Kitty had kissed him.

Unconsciously, his gloved hand reached up to touch the spot and a soft smile lit up his face as he remembered. Sure, it had only been a kiss on the cheek, but it was something that proved maybe she was still interested in him. The thought was a comforting one, until another one hit him.

Now that he was going back to the "other side" of this little war, it was unlikely anything would come of that connection. He had gone to all this effort for nothing. For a moment, Lance's mind idly wondered if maybe he could go back and take Xavier up on that offer to stay but he quickly brushed that thought away.

"I don't really fit in here anyway." He muttered to himself, turning back to packing.

"You think you're the only one?"

The unexpected intrusion of the gravelly voice nearly made Lance jump out of his skin. Whirling around, Avalanche found himself staring into the amused face of the man only known as Logan or Wolverine.

"Relax, Shakedown," the gruff man said, "I'm just here to talk."

Lance eyed the older man warily. "About what?"

Wolverine walked right past him and sat on the bed, nonchalantly pulling out a cigar and lighter. Seconds later, he took a long drag from the cigar before holding it out to the younger mutant.

"Want some?" He asked. Lance shook his head, waiting for the man to speak. After taking another puff of smoke, the man spoke.

"I heard about last night. Looks like I was wrong about you."

Lance wasn't sure how to respond to that. The whole situation just seemed a little surreal. This was Wolverine. This was Wolverine talking to him casually and almost friendly. Since when did he have conversations that didn't end with claws coming out and violence? He settled on the most familiar response for such a situation: sarcasm.

"Looks like you were. Now what are you doing here talking to me? You had to have heard about me leaving."

Wolverine just exhaled another puff of smoke, unaffected by the whole situation.

"I heard." He admitted. "I just wanted to ask you a question before you left."

Lance stared at the man. "What were you going to ask?" He said, curious.

"Why?"

The silence that followed was thick with disbelief.

"What the hell do you mean why?" Lance demanded.

"You heard me just fine, bub. I asked why you think you have to leave."

Lance immediately went for the most obvious answer. "I don't belong here. I'm not some hero-wannabe like Xavier wants. I don't care about mutant-human peace or any of that crap."

"I agree."

That brought Lance up short. "What?" he replied intelligently.

Wolverine sighed and stood up from the bed, looking the younger man straight in the eyes.

"You think someone like me, with all the violence and war I've seen, just accepts a dream like Xavier's?" He snorted. "We both know the world doesn't work like that kid. When our secret's uncovered, we're not just going to be welcomed with open arms so we can sit around a campfire and sing Kumbayah. There'll be a lot of fighting."

Lance looked confused as he absorbed this. "But…if you think that, why would you fight for Xavier?"

A smirk spread across Logan's face. "Someone's got to be around to keep Chuck grounded in reality. He's gone out of his way to help me, and it's not often you find a person that genuinely good in this world. He needs someone more…realistic to balance him out."

"I'm still not understanding what this has to do with me." Lance cut in.

Logan rolled his eyes. "Just think about it, kid. You think you're the only one that's a little out of place here? I'm not exactly the most peaceful guy around, and I'm staying here. Hell, Stripes and Spikes aren't exactly your naïve model citizens either, and they stay here. Do you know why?"

Lance shook his head. Wolverine leaned in.

"Because we all want to believe in Xavier's dream. Even though some part of us may not believe it's possible, it's a hell of a lot more comforting than the alternative. You've seen what Mystique and Magneto are like, willing to sacrifice the whole lot of you guys for their own plans. Do you really want to leave here to go back to that?"

Lance had no reply. Logan moved in for the finishing touch.

"You're right, you may not be a hero, but I can tell you ain't a villain either. Sometimes these guys need people like us to keep them in reality, so we stick around even if we don't fit in."

Wolverine moved past the silent youth, pausing to pat him on the shoulder.

"Just think about it, kid."

And with that, he left the room, closing the door behind him. He then turned and walked away.

'This plan of yours better work, Chuck.' He thought, 'I hate these sentimental speeches.'

The response was immediate.

'Trust me, Logan.' The wise man replied, 'Lance just needed a little push, but he wouldn't have taken it from me. To hear it coming from you put him off-guard and will make him think.'

Logan just shook his head and stalked off towards the garage, grumbling to himself.

Mornings at the Xavier Institute For Gifted Youngsters could be summed up in one convenient word: Chaos. Teenagers swarmed the small kitchen to get to the good food before anyone else, which naturally led to conflicts. And, being mutants, those conflicts quickly escalated to using powers.

One perfect example of this would be the ongoing duel between the resident blue fuzzy elf and valley girl over the most prized of treasures: the last jelly donut.

"Kurt! Give me that donut!" The young girl screamed.

"No way, Kitty! I got here first!" Kurt taunted.

With a feral growl of a barely awake teenager, a truly horrifying sound, the slight girl lunged across the table, but the German mutant quickly teleported away, leaving only the stench of brimstone in his wake. He reappeared halfway across the room, making faces at his irate friend.

"Kurt!" Once more she leapt at him, phasing through the table and any other obstacles. And, once more, Kurt teleported away and was now hanging from the ceiling.

"Ha! You're too slow, Kitty!" With an air of complete smugness, he raised his hand to his face and…

Found nothing in his hand.

"Vas?!" Yellow eyes shot back and forth, until they finally spotted the thief and widened in surprise. Across the room, Kitty was also staring as the surrounding noise died down and the other residents turned to see what the commotion was about.

Lance looked down at the stolen donut in his hand, smirking. "Hey, Pretty Kitty. You wanted this?"

A grin lit up the girl's face. "Lance?! You're still here?"

The other mutant didn't have time to react as she shot across the room, giving him a quick but fierce hug.

From the other side of the room, Scott approached. "Alvers. Thought you were leaving." He said coolly.

Lance stood his ground. "I decided I'd stick around. No way I was going to let you of all people run me off."

The two stared at each other for a moment, before Scott's lips quirked upwards. "We'll see how long it takes you to screw up, Alvers."

Lance allowed himself a smirk as well. "Don't hold your breath, Summers."

Despite the seemingly hostile talk, there was a tentative understanding between the two young men now. They weren't going to be friends all of a sudden, but neither was going to go out of their way to make the other an enemy either.

From the other side of the table, Professor Xavier looked on with an approving smile on his face. Beside him, Logan gave an unnoticed nod.

The X-Men had gained a permanent new member.

END

A/N: I'm honestly shocked there's none of this premise on the site. It just seems so obvious, especially for Lancitty fans out there and yet I can't find a single story like it. So, here's my attempt. Lance is on the X-Men. How will this change the events in the coming season? How does it change the X-Men? The Brotherhood?

Well, that would be telling.