You'll Never Catch Me

ooc: written in response to this

After leaving Mike on Genosha - was it really over a year ago now? - Pietro had returned to Manhattan and kept a low profile in his cover of Peter Frank. He just wanted the whole House of M stuff to pass. Maybe once it was forgotten, he could come back out of hiding.

He had gotten word from a messenger in Attila that the Inhumans had denounced him from the royal family, and that his actions were grounds for an annulment from Crystal. That didn't hurt so much anymore, since his wife never had been what he considered faithful.

But Luna... he was banned from ever seeing his own daughter again. That was the knife to the heart that nearly did him in. And of course with his sister having disappeared off the map...

The last month however, had reminded him just how much he missed his friends. Except for his sisters and daughter, family had never been something he turned to. It tended to disappoint him. But working in the newspaper had allowed him to keep track of Lorna's high profile life, and he had just found a way to at least be in touch with his sister, if not the relationship that he missed so much at times.

( . . . )

Pietro left Paris after seeing his sisters, and made his away across the ocean back to the Xavier Institute. It had been a few months now since he had been on the grounds - he had left soon after his father had blown up the place in Brussels - but as always it looked the same.

Making his way into the place, he avoided the groups of mutants (students and teachers alike) and instead went directly to Emma's office.

He stopped to look at his reflection. His hair was a bit longer, shaggy from not having been kept in careful cutting and styling. He was out of uniform, and his clothing seemed to just be hanging off him. He had lost weight, probably from not really eating in the last week, or was it too now... and the lack of sleep has his face pale with bags under his eyes.

Since seeing his sister, he had been able to see through the blind anger that had kept him going. But now, his head hurt and he wasn't able to know what was real and what wasn't. He also still couldn't feel his sister for some reason, and that needed to be fixed.

He needed help. And Emma Frost was, ironically, the only psychic he trusted to help him.

"Emma, it's Pietro. Are you here?" he called out, knocking rapidly on her door.

To: Frost, Emma (efrost@xavierinstitute.edu)
Bcc: Summers, Scott (ssummers@efrost@xavierinstitute.edu)

Subject: Requesting of Leave


Emma & Scott;

I need to request some time off before the Spring semester gets into full swing.

Pietro Maximoff