In All This Chaos We Found Safety

Shutting the last of the dresser drawers, Louis sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. Unpacking was absolutely the worst thing to him, especially considering that he was packing for nine to ten months, but it was so much nicer to be in a lived-in room than a cold, empty one.

A knock at his door startled him, and he turned to find his two best friends, Jess and Zayn, smirking over at him.

“You’ve just arrived and you decide to unpack instead of coming to see us?” Jess asked, giving him a horrified look.

“We see how much we mean to you now, mate. Real nice.” Zayn joked. Louis narrowed his eyes at the both of them, but he ran over and hugged them all the same.

“The two of you are a couple of wankers, you realize that right?” He asked, pulling Jess into a headlock as he released them from the group hug. She groaned and threw her weight forward, easily knocking them both to the floor where she pinned him quickly.

“Pretty sure you’re the wanker for unpacking instead of saying hello, and then trying to pull one over on me! You know you can’t get me, darling.” She retorted, patting his cheek before getting up and throwing herself down onto his bed.

Zayn snickered and stole Louis’ desk chair, rolling his eyes at the two. “I literally do not understand how the two of you function. This is why everyone thinks you’re together.”

“I really wish you’d quit saying that, they do not.” Louis answered as he picked himself up off the floor, shoving Jess over and sitting up against his headboard. “Class couple is obviously Bobby and Rogue, though I’m still not sure how they-”

“Really Louis, I don’t think that’s necessary.” Jess interjected, stopping him before he got ridiculous.

“These are hard-hitting questions!” He insisted. “The aesthetics of that relationship do not make sense!”

Both Zayn and Jess groaned, hoping Louis wouldn’t go into another discussion about the practicality and uses of Rogue’s powers, when the sound of gravel crunching reached their ears. Hurrying to the window, Zayn peered down and looked out to find who was coming down the drive, then jumped up and ran towards the door.

“Mac and Ramona are here!” He announced before running out, leaving the other two behind without another thought. Louis chuckled and elbowed Jess, who rolled over away from him and buried her face in his pillow.

“Aren’t you gonna go down there and be excited?”

“She’s my cousin, not the love of my life. I’ll get excited when she brings me food.” She grumbled back, but sat up and sighed anyway. “Yeah we should go.”

“Oh right, because anti-relationship, man hater Jess would never be in love with anyone.” He teased, ducking and rolling off the bed as she reached out to smack him.

“I’m not a man hater, and it’s not my fault the love of my life is so much older than me and totally gay.”

“Alex Summers is a professor, and you don’t know that he’s gay. You’re just being silly.”

“He and Beast are totally banging, shut up.” She retorted.

“Weird, the semantics of that don’t make sense either.” Louis laughed and ran out of the room as she started to chase him, yelling why do you even care!? as they made their way through the mansion and down the stairs to where four girls were dragging their bags inside. Kitty, Lorna, Mac and Ramona all lived in the same area in North England, so they generally came in together, but every year Ramona complained about something Kitty said about Liam on the flight, and this year was looking no different. Ramona’s hair was swept up in a messy ponytail, and her eyes were shooting daggers at the ground as she tried to ignore everything around her. Zayn had already stopped Mac and pulled her into a hug, which Louis and Jess were going to be sure to tease him about later.

“Why don’t they just hook up?” Louis whispered to Jess as they approached the group, and Jess snorted.

“Because they’re idiots. It’s like Ramona and Liam, only worse, which is pathetic considering Mac’s powers. Honestly, our friends are just stupid.” Sure enough, Zayn picked up one of Mac’s suitcases for her and led her towards the stairs where they’d probably be going to her room... to just unpack.

“No, I don’t want any help, thanks Zayn!” Ramona called after them, letting out a huff as she glared at their retreating figures. Jess laughed and took pity on her cousin, pulling her into a tight hug.

“Calm down, darling, it’ll be better once Liam gets here.”

“Crushing... lungs...” Ramona coughed out, and Jess let go of her and jumped back quickly.

“Sorry. I’ll help though, and Louis will too, won’t you boobear?”

“Christ woman, you know I hate when you call me that.” He complained, but he picked up the bag all the same and took off to Ramona’s room, leaving them behind as well.

“What a tool, why is he our friend again?” The younger girl asked, making Jess laugh again.

“He can move things for us fast and he’s funny. And not too bad on the eyes. You literally need nothing else.” Jess shrugged.

“Seems legit.”

[&]

“So how many times do you think Jess will hit on Professor Summers this year?” Zayn joked as they all sat around in Liam’s room, soaking in the feeling of the six of them being together once again. Ramona snorted from Liam’s side and Jess rolled her eyes at all of them.

“About the same amount of times you’ll try to set Siryn’s things on fire before you realize Bobby will stop you every time.” She retorted.

“I can’t help it!” He insisted, “She’s just so goddamn annoying!”

“The girl has sonic scream, mate. Of course she’s going to be goddamn annoying.” Louis pointed out, causing Zayn to throw a glare at him.

“It’s also probably the same amount of times Kitty and Lorna will hit on Louis and Liam.” Ramona pointed out, a touch of disdain in her voice as she spat out Lorna’s name. Louis looked disgusted, and Liam seemed confused as he nudged Ramona’s arm with his elbow.

“That girl is like, half my age. I wish she’d bugger off.” Louis complained.

Mac laughed and shook her head. “Yeah, too bad she’s got a giant crush on you after you saved her from the falling plane during exercise.”

“It was for class, jesus. Kids these days and their hero worship.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a bit of hero worship, Louis.” All of them turned towards the door to see Professor Xavier come in, giving them all a small smile. “In fact, I could really use your help with something.’

Louis’ expression sobered quickly, and he sat up straighter in his chair. “What for, sir?”

“I have a feeling we’re going to get a couple new students this year, and I’d like you to come with me to get one of them. I will warn you, it probably won’t be easy.” He explained.

Despite the fact that it might be difficult, no one really said no to Professor Xavier, and the thrill of the unknown kind of excited him. “Of course!”

“Good, I thought you might say yes. I would like for you to meet me at nine tomorrow morning, we have a bit of a travel. I hope you all had a good summer.” After giving them all a kind grin, he left the room, leaving them stunned.

“That was... incredibly weird.” Mac muttered, breaking the silence. Ramona snorted, shaking her head.

“I’m trying to decide if he wants to recruit this new kid or scare him away.”

“Louis and Jess have been here the longest of everyone, it’s only fair that he chose one of them to take.” Liam pointed out, nudging Ramona and giving her a serious look.

She rolled her eyes and elbowed him back. “Just because they’re a year away from being professors themselves doesn’t mean squat.”

“Please never use the ideas of Louis and Jess and becoming professors in the same sentence ever again. It’s frightening.” Zayn interjected, earning a shout of protest from the both of them.

“How about we stop speculating against my badassery? It’s there, you can’t fight it.” Everyone in the room scoffed at this, making Louis pout. “Anyway,” he turned to Jess, giving her wide eyes and sticking his lower lip out, “you’re staying over, right?There’s no way I’ll wake up that early if you don’t.”

“Am I your mother or something?” Jess retorted, even though they all knew she’d do it.

“II would hope he doesn’t ask his mother to sleep with him.”

“Zayn’s done talking for the rest of the night!” Lois cried out. “He keeps hurting my feelings!”