Disclaimer: This is my first Sikudhani story, I want to thank Darqstar for letting me borrow her.
Thanks, you're the greatest : ) Sikudhani McCoy belongs to Darqstar, the X-Men belong to Marvel, and I'm just a broke college student who's making no money out of this. Please send any feedback to me, Lestat, at al764830@academ03.mty.itesm.mx
X-S (Or Growing Up X)
Sleepless in Westchester
By Lestat
It was past midnight in the X-Mansion. 9-year-old Siku McCoy had been tossing and turning in her bed for the last few hours, had tried counting sheep, had even tried remembering one of Uncle Bishop's stories (the best way to fall asleep). All for nothing.
She wasn't the kind to just go taking mindnight walk, but she wasn't sure what else to do. Besides, she figured, most X-Men were on a mission somewhere, so she probably wouldn't wake anybody.
As she got up she passed her father's room and peeked inside. Hank McCoy was fast asleep, he had been conducting come weird experiments for the better part of the last week. Professor Xaviar had arranged for their rooms to be next to each other, at Hank's insistence, so she quietly closed the door and went to the kitchen.
On her way there, she saw the bright, full moon through one of the floor to roof windows. IT was shiny, and lightened the woods so nicely. She regarded it for a few seconds, and moved downstairs to the kitchen.
Perhaps some cookies would help her sleep? of course, it had to be the sugarless brand her father had designed for her, but after a while, she'd gotten used to the flavor.
The house seemed so strange, so quiet. She could picture Uncle Bobby and Aunt Kelsey watching TV in the lounge room she went by, or Aunt Ororo watering that plant in the corner. But now they were all gone, had been gone for over a week (perhaps that had something to do with Daddy working non stop?), and she missed them so much.
When she reached the kitchen, she heard some strange whirring noises behind her back. Startled, she turned to see Professor X entering the room in his hoverchair, wearing a straight black pijama. She wondered why was that, Siku herself favored her blue silk pijama with the great "X" in the middle.
"Uncle Charles?", she called out. Just finding a name for him had been hard enough, so long ago.
Everyone called him Professor, but "Uncle Professor" sounded so strange? and he didn't like Bobby's suggestion to call him "Uncle Prof", or Logan's, "Uncle Chuck". She had settled after a while on Charles.
"I see you are also suffering from insomnia tonight, Siku", he replied. He looked tired also, as if he had hardly gotten any sleep lately.
"Insomm? what?"
"Insommnia", he repeated, calmly. "Lack of sleep at night."
"Uncle Charles, you worded me! " Wording her was her favorite game. She frowned, trying to think of another use to the word, but she found none right away. "You have insommnia too?"
"Yes, Siku, I do. I've been somewhat worried about your aunts and uncles, we haven't knwn much from them since a few days ago."
"But they're OK, aren't they? They have to be"
"We all hope so. But tell me, why are you awake this late at night?"
"I couldn't sleep? I was thinking about something a mean boy said at school today?" she trailed off, and looked sad. Charles noticed it, and got himself closer.
"What was that?"
"When I was younger, Daddy told me there were angels watching out for me, no matter where I was, or how I was behaving. He made it sound as though I could always be with someone, never be alone?"
Charles wasn't sure he believed the usually logical and highly scientifical Hank had said that, but he supposed he had had good reason. "And?"
"And ? and I was telling Cierra about it, thinking whether there were one or two angels with us right then, and Billy Kincaid heard us, and he laughed at me, said there were no angels, much less for freaks!
And?" Siku sounded on the verge of crying, she breathed deeply and continued, almost nonstop. "And he laughed, and pretty much all the kids heardhim, and laughed at it, and they were all telling Cierra and me things, and for once it wasn't that I was blue, but that I was a kid for believing these things?"
Charles hugged her, and let her cry. After a while, he asked "Are you all right?"
There was no answer. Then, Siku raised her head and asked, with tears still in her eyes: "Uncle Charles, do you believe in angels?"
He sighed, and gave her a glass of milk, and some of the cookies she had been looking for. It was easy to know that, they were her favorite's. She gulped the milk down, and then he started
"Once, when I was about your age, I was living with my mother and my foster father. He was strict with us at times, he used to hit us sometimes. "
"So, once, as I was saying, I was with her? she had been crying all night long, and was hurting.
He'd been... strange the night before, and had hit us again. " -he didn't want to say that he was drunk.
"Anyway, I was there with my mother, in her bed, holding her hand through the night, and I was praying for an angel to help us. I did believe in them back then, I thought if we were really in trouble one would come flying down and deliver us from evil."
"We spent the night huddling together, sometimes crying, sometimes just lying there. She took a long time falling asleep, but I prayed all night, to be saved."
"The next morning, a friend of my stepfather came to talk to him, and he noticed my mother's and my bruises. He went outside with him for the better part of the morning, and I'm not sure what he said, but when my mother's husband came back, he had been crying, and asked for my mom's forgiveness."
"So, yes, Siku, I do believe in angels. Maybe they don't come down flying from the heavens, but they do appear when you really need them the most. "
"Are? are you sure?" Siku said, whispering. It was evident that sleep had begun to claim her.
"Of course I am. Just ask your father, he'll tell you the same thing: you are an angel to this house"
THE END
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