Back To The Garden (1/?)
Title: Back To The Garden
Author: thereweare
Rating: PG-ish (for now…)
Pairing: Alex/Hank
Summary: Hank finds homeless!Alex and takes him in to live with the rest of his fellow mutants.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, blah blah blah.
AN: Couldn't shake this idea so we'll see how this goes. No beta. Let me know if you see mistakes.
Hank was terrified.
Terrified that someone would notice the way his arms hung too low, terrified that someone would notice his large bare feet, terrified that someone would notice the blue fur that haloed his face. So he hunched over and stuffed his hands in his pockets, walked just a tad bit faster, made sure to pull the hood tight over his head.
The park wasn't lit very well, and his large mass of dark clothing blended with the surrounding bushes and trees. But if someone took a moment to really look at him, to notice the bulky man huddled in his coat, walking at a strangely brisk pace, they would probably know what Hank was. A wreck. An accident. A freak.
A mutant.
So Hank looked around, saw the familiar arch that made way into a hedged garden, and sped up. His heart slowed as did his feet when he passed under the rusted metal archway and into the garden, darkened but still just as lovely as he remembered it looked in the daylight. So he lowered the hood of his sweater, pulled the coat from his arms and rolled his shoulders, stood tall surrounded by the dark green and subdued hues of the garden.
He rounded the corner of a hedge as he reached the middle of the maze, and the main point of the garden came into view, a small but flourishing flower bed of green vines and deep pinks and oranges and reds and yellows. There was a single lamppost in the middle of a cobbled path that illuminated the bare minimum, just enough to see a shadow of brilliance the garden would be under the sun. Hank moved towards the copper bench by the back corner.
The hedges were taller than even himself and he had no fear of someone else finding him here, in the tangled bushes of a maze not many knew of, in the late, late hour of night when the people of Westchester were fast asleep in their homes.
Hank never thought he'd find himself living in a mansion. A mansion of mutants. The Professor had encountered him working at the CIA, and he came bright eyed with the possibility of Hank's mutation and his readiness to draft up just about anything he asked. It was surreal. The acceptance in an actual home, other people just like him that couldn't believe they had a kitchen and a living room and a room.
A home for the hopeless. But Charles Xavier didn't like it when Hank called it that.
Then Hank had met Raven, a girl who hated her own mutation's lesser qualities as much as Hank hated his. And then he ruined it- their relationship and all it ever could have been, when he called her unsightly and pressed a needle into the arch of his foot. He always wondered if his transformation had been a further cause for her to leave with Erik, Magneto, whatever he was now. Someone who had pushed Hank to accept his qualities and abilities.
Hank froze as he heard a rustling in the bushes. Normally, his quick reflexes would have kicked in and he could have left the premises within sixty seconds. But in the peaceful lull of his thoughts, Hank could not move even when a blond boy stumbled through a hedge and into the garden.
Boy was slightly inappropriate, seeing as he was most likely Hank's ripe, adult age. His arms were toned and his skin appeared rough (for a human's), but his eyes shined beneath the light of the dull lamp.
They stared at each other for just a minute, until Hank got a hold of himself, suddenly sprinted from the bench and jumped over the hedges, running full-speed from the garden while the boy stared at the space that Hank had just occupied. Then the boy sat upon the heated bench and contemplated the garden.