Xaviers!

Now Ainsley had to get out with the ball.

He popped the door to the custodial closet and peered out, trying to see if the hall was clear.

The teens from earlier are sitting at the foot of the stairs. The girl is leaning into the boy, crying about something.

"We can still do right by him Molls. Forget what that asshole said. We'll find another way to find out about Leo."

Ainsley stopped abruptly, and shifted his bag off his shoulder. He pulled out his sketch pad and scribbled down the phrase " I Know."

He reached out to tap the male teen on the shoulder, pantomiming a request for silence with his finger over his lips before revealing his message.

The boy regarded the gesture with confusion before looking at the note. His surprised eyes shot back up to Ainsley's face, studying the silent mutant.

Jerking head in a follow motion, he started walking out of the building and onto the street.

He had no reason to stop. If they didn't follow, their loss.

The pair only took a moment to decide and hurry after him.

Ainsley was practically writing a novel as he walked almost a block and a half without stopping.

Once he was sure he was far enough away from the building not to rouse the ire of Leo's relatives accidentally, Ainsley turned on his heel abruptly and held up the note.

"I know where Leo is, but I don't know if he wants to see you. Write down your contact info and let me text him a picture of you and we'll find out." He held out his pencil for them to take.

"That's probably the best we can hope for," the girl said regretfully as Edward took the pencil and started writing.

Edward handed back the pencil and notepad. "Tell him we don't expect forgiveness. We just want to talk."

The contact info gave the girl's name as Molly.

"Hold still please." He scribbled under their names, then took a quick photo and texted it to Leo with a message-

"You wanna talk to these blighters? Molly and Edward? Text me back or call, they are standing right here."

He stood awkwardly awaiting a response from Leo, looking the pair up and down.

Edward was a slim teen with short brown hair and round glasses over Intelligent green eyes. Molly was the taller of the two, with long, blond hair. Her eyes were an enchanting shade of blue. They both seem quite anxious for Leo's answer.

"So... How do you know Leo?" Molly asked hesitantly.

"We're mates.

You?" He scribbled out. He wasn't about to try to use the phone and risk them seeing Leo's contact info.

"We went to school together. He... was my boyfriend for a while," she admitted, though something about it was painful for her.

"He actually tried to bully me the first time we met," Edward chuckled, directing the conversation away from her regrets. "But he was going through some shite, so I forgave him eventually. We were pretty close after that."

"We need to tell him how sorry we are for how things went down before he ran off... and for not looking harder for him. We had long since given up when Molly saw his name in a list of victims of that mad scientist guy. If we had just tried harder, Leo wouldn't have gone through that," Edward explained with deep guilt in his eyes.

Ainsley's face was blank. As squishy and nice as he could be, he also had an incredibly good poker face. The lack of voice helped.

He nodded, and gave no reply.

He checked his phone to make sure he didn't miss a message.

The text screen showed Leo was typing. Then not. Then typing. Then not. Then the phone rang.

Ainsley answered, but unsurprisingly, no hello.

With a sigh, Leo said, "I don't know if I want to talk or just tell 'em to fuck off. But... I can listen."

Ainsley put the phone of speaker, and held it up, then looked at the duo like 'Well?'

Molly appeared to steel herself before asking, "Is... is it really you Leo?"

"Yeah. I sound different but it's me," Leo responded.

She opened her mouth to say something but Edward cut in to ask, "Tell us something only you would know."

"You once ate a beetle on a dare," Leo said.

Edward turned red. "It's him."

Molly rolled her eyes and smiled sadly. "It's good to hear your voice, no matter how it sounds."

"I don't know if I can say the same," Leo said gruffly, "Not after what you did."

"Leo... we're so, so sorry about how things went down. We both betrayed you and abandoned you when you needed us. And then we gave up on you. We don't expect you to ever forgive us. We just..." Edward said, obviously unsure of what to say next.

"So now you suddenly care?" Leo said defensively.

Molly looked at her feet, biting her lip so as not to cry. Edward said, "We forgot how much you meant to us. That much is true. But we still care. We just... went a bit mental when you caught us together and showed us you were a mutant, all at the same time. It overwhelmed us and we handled it in just about worst way. You deserve better than us."

Molly continued, "All we want is to know if you're doing alright and that you're somewhere you can find some happiness in spite of everything you've been through."

Leo was quiet for a long moment before he answered. "I'm... still workin' on figuring out who I am now. But... I'm alright. And I think I am somewhere I need to be. Somewhere good, where I can do good.

And maybe I can't forgive you two for hurtin' me like that... but I do hope you can make each other happy.

That's... all I wanted to say."

"I guess that's all we could have hoped for," Molly said with a sniff, "Thanks for hearing us out."

Being that he had absolutely no reference on how people ended verbal conversations, once it seemed to Ainsley like they were done talking he ended the call without confirming one way or another whether they were done.

The pair looked to Ainsley.

"Thank you. You helped him get a little closure with us. You're the kind of mate he deserves," Edward said.

Ainsley merely shrugged and turned to walk away.

Cool guys don't look at explosions.