Similis

"Thanks kid!" Wolverine accepted the dripping slice of pizza and ignoring the disbelieving looks that Lex was giving him, managed to cram almost half of it inside in one go.



"What?" He asked, once his mouth was empty again.



"Did you actually manage to taste any of that?" Lex looked faintly appalled, although whether it was the appearance of the pizza or the way it was disappearing was debatable.



"It's pizza," Wolverine grinned, gulping down the remaining section, including the crust, while making absolutely sure that none of the cheese bits got stuck in his facial hair. "You shouldn't be stopping to taste it."



Haze leant back against Clark and puffed with laughter. Clark took advantage of the distraction to sneak a long swig of Haze's shake.



Once he noticed that Clark wasn't looking his way Haze leant over and drained the level in Clark's cup by almost an inch.



"Hey!" Clark protested, noticing the theft.



As Haze turned soulful eyes on him, Clark stopped complaining and then grinned. "Enough! You're forgiven. Yours tastes better anyway."



"I thought you both had chocolate?" Lex wondered.



"We did." Clark acknowledged readily.



"Then, since they came from the same place at almost the same time, how can yours taste any different from the one Haze has, Clark?"



Clark merely sniggered in response, and took the opportunity to tickle Haze in the ribs and also snaffle another long draught of Haze's milkshake.







"Lex, you're a real smart guy, but you obviously don't understand about fast food." Wolverine decided to cut Lex a break and give the poor little rich kid a bit of advice. "Somebody else's stuff will always taste better than your own… It's a fact o' life."



"Ah." Lex definitely took a moment to think that over.



"But only if you sneak it from them." Clark put in, deftly pilfering one of the slices of apple from Lex's fruit salad selection.



"True." Wolverine nodded sagely. He popped out one set of claws and had cut and successfully thieved a section of Clark's pizza before Clark spotted him.



"Yeah, thanks, Kid. I nearly forgot about telling him that part." Logan shoved the whole of the pilfered slice into his mouth before Clark could think to lean past Haze and dispute ownership. "Good job you reminded me!" He mumbled, around a face full of pizza.



Distracted, Clark scarcely raised an eyebrow at the blatant theft. He was too busy staring at the massive house that had appeared outside the car. "This is where Bruce lives? Wow, Haze! You and Dad have really been staying here?"







Haze peered out of the window over Clark's shoulder and pointed up at one end of the building.



"Oh, right!" Clark was obviously listening to Haze's inner voice. He craned his neck at an almost impossible angle, before glancing round at his friend. "Lex, is this place bigger than the castle?"



"About the same, the way they're laid out makes it hard to tell." Lex supposed.



"Looks a bit like the Institute." Wolverine contributed. "That's Charlie Xavier's place," He explained, "Where me and the other mutants live and train."



"You all live in such big buildings. It makes our farm seem kinda tiny." Clark said softly.



Haze gently tweaked the end of Clark's nose in a teasing way, and something passed between them.



"Yeah." Clark nodded. "You're right."



"You mind interpretin' that for the rest of us? Those of us who ain't mind-readers, that is?" Wolverine was never very big on patience, he was tired after the long day, and the curious monologues which served as conversation between the two youths were beginning to wear on him.



"Haze said that he likes it here, he also likes the castle, but he thinks the farm's more homey." Clark dutifully relayed, sounding less buoyant than before. "And I'm not a mind reader."



Wolverine turned back to Lex, only to find that Clark was fixing him with a less than friendly look. "What?"



"I didn't like the way you spoke to me then." Clark said softly. "Haze didn't much like it either."



"Then maybe you both ought'a start letting the rest of us in on your conversations a bit quicker?"



"They're OUR conversations." Clark replied, a little less quietly.



"Listen kid," Logan started to say.



"I'm not a kid." Clark cut him off.



"You are to me." Wolverine disagreed.



"Neither of us is a kid, and you should try and remember that." Clark told him. "Haze agrees with me."



Wolverine decided that; however convenient for Clark, that last part of the claim was almost certainly true. There was a definite change to the quality of the silence from the 'twin' in the middle seat. Regardless, Wolverine was not deterred. His temper was beginning to fray noticeably now.



No way was Logan going to let two 'wet-behind-the-ears' teenagers get the better of him. "Haze would," He replied sharply, "But unless you want to start acquiring new holes, the two of you had better learn to play nicely around the big boys."



"Maybe we need to establish who's big and who isn't?" Clark's tone was suddenly not so amiable. "Do it." He looked at Haze.







Reaching out Haze caught hold of Wolverine's hand. Pulling lightly, but managing to convey the impression that he could be a lot rougher if he wanted to, he guided the mutant's fist until Logan's knuckles rested against Clark's open palm.



"Now." Clark answered.



Haze did something.



Wolverine didn't know exactly what happened, he realised that he might never be quite sure, however, as his knuckles touched the skin at the base of Clark's palm he suddenly lost control of his internal armaments. The claws in that arm triggered, shooting out with a deadly hiss.



"Christ! What're you doing! I'll skewer him!" Logan was horrified. He fought frantically to pull his arm back, to at least limit the damage, but Haze held him in place as effortlessly as thistledown.



Clark examined the three stubby points pressed up to his skin and grinned. "Tickles." He said, moving his hand back a little, creating enough space for another inch or so of metal to extend from the housings in Wolverine's forearm, then he pressed back.



Wolverine felt the change in pressure as the claws were forced to retract back into their embedded tubes. He managed not to fight it, to simply allow the blades to sink back into their housings. "Jesus! You're … They won't go through your skin!" As the locks finally re-engaged Wolverine allowed himself to breathe again and feeling faintly nauseous, not only at what had happened but also at what might have happened.



"Yes, Wolverine's definitely got the idea now, Haze." Clark turned to Haze and smiled beatifically. "So maybe he'll start being a bit more polite to us?" He looked over at his 'twin'. "'Course we could always give him the island treatment if he goes on being unpleasant to us?"



"The island treatment?" It was Lex's turn to look distinctly unsettled.



"I was being awful to Haze so he showed me that despite my gifts he can still hold his own against me. That raw strength isn’t enough, it needs to be combined with skill." Clark said carefully. "That was when I started to learn what Haze can really do when he wants to."



Haze blew him a sarcastic kiss and Clark blushed deeply.







It was Lex that finally broke the silence. "But what did you do, Haze?" He wondered.



Affectionately tousling Clark's hair, Haze made his 'brother' giggle and squirm. 'Up. Down.' He gestured.



"You picked Clark up and down?" Lex was finding that hard to fathom. "How did that do anything? Apart from give you back strain?"



"It's not the how but the where." Clark blushed. "I couldn't fly at that time but the ability was emerging, and Haze guessed that was what was making me moody. He took me up to cloud level and wiped the sky with me. I threw up twice… We just happened to end up on a tropical island at the end of it all."



"Sounds like 'tough love'…" Wolverine suggested.



"More like 'tough luck'…" Lex grinned. He flashed a wicked grin at Haze, "So fly-boy, do you do rides?"



Haze cracked a broad grin and blew him a flamboyant kiss too. Evidently Lex remained firmly in favour.



* * * * *





"So, Haze, mind explaining why so many people seem to think you're an angel?" Wolverine chewed on the end of an unlit cigar and stared out over the sprawling city. "You're a nice kid an' all, but even so…"



Summer had arrived early in Gotham this year. A humid breeze kept the temperature just above what Wolverine thought of as pleasant and he was feeling itchy and hot after eating a huge dinner.



Wolverine would be the first to hand it to Bruce Wayne; the guy knew how to treat guests, it was just a shame that Wolverine's stomach seemed to have forgotten to tell him when it would be a good idea to have stopped filling his face.



The recent increase in the frequency of Wolverine's ongoing nightmares had left him fatigued from interrupted sleep, and that, coupled with the discomfort from overeating just now, was making him more moody than usual. He was almost glad to be among these relative strangers, rather than at home where he would have had to remain indefinitely in close quarters with everyone he insulted. And where all of his house-mates had mutant abilities…



Mind you, having the popsicle-kid along would be handy right now!



Smiling pleasantly, Haze leaned on the balustrade, toed off his new sneakers and yanked off the socks, and turning round he sat up onto the broad stone. He tugged his t-shirt up and over his head and dropped it on the floor, and then, lifting his feet, moved easily from a sitting position to a crouch until he was standing on the parapet.



"Mind yourself." Wolverine said automatically. "Don't want you in any more accidents. Even Mr Moneybags Wayne ain't got enough cash to scrape you off those rocks down there and get the bits put back together in working order." He leant forward and chanced another quick look at the yawning drop to the waves pounding however many yards below. Why anyone would choose such a stupid place to put a decorative wall was beyond him. It practically invited trouble…



Unconcerned, Haze wandered along the broad ledge, stepping lightly over the raised square tabs that capped the squat pillars and sauntering along the parapet until he was roughly thirty feet away from Wolverine, occasionally stopping on one foot and waving the other recklessly out over the drop.



"Really kid! Have a little care, huh?" Wolverine was not the panicking type but this was making him distinctly uncomfortable: that was to say, more uncomfortable than he was already.



These stones had been baking in full sun all day long and even the breeze was not doing any more than shifting warm air from one point to another. Logan would have pulled off his own shirt if he had still been wearing one. This was one of the times that being naturally hairy was not such a blessing, plus right now a lot of that hair was starting to stand on end.



Look at that damn fool kid; he's dancing on the brink without a care in the world!







Haze continued to be utterly oblivious to either the heat or the potential danger. Jumping neatly up onto one of the smaller blocks, he stared down at the distant surf. Evidently heights did not bother him in the least.



"Haze?" Lex called from the doorway beyond the pool.



Lifting his head, Haze looked over at Lex.



"Where's Clark gone?" the older youth asked.



Pointing at the house, Haze signed that Clark was upstairs watching TV.



Wolverine took advantage of the temporary distraction to close some of the distance between him and the dark-haired youth.



"Come on down, kid, you're making me dizzy." He grumbled as the heat from the sun-baked flagstones seeped up through the thin soles of his shoes. He felt his heart practically jump into his throat as Haze's heels hung out over the beckoning void, the boy's bare toes pattering on the smooth grey stone.



"Look, seriously Haze, stop messing around up there! You're gonna',"



Haze did.



Logan could see it happening, but was too far away to stop it. "Fuck!"







One second Haze was standing upright, the next the youth was falling outwards away from the balustrade.



Throwing himself at the railing, Wolverine continued to curse profanely at the empty air. Empty? He looked down, scanning the hungry surf for signs. There should be signs, even with that drop. But there weren't… Instead there was a flitting shadow and the swish of …



"Wings?" Air swirled around Wolverine as Haze back-beat and hovered expertly beside his discarded t-shirt. Grabbing it up with his toes, he smiled at Wolverine and darted up again, transferring the fabric to his hand in mid-air. Not only wings but semi-prehensile toes as well!



"You little shit!" Wolverine was suddenly furious. He had really thought…



Well, anyone would have…



"I ought'a gut you for that!" Logan yelled loudly, popping his claws. "Ya scared the beejeezus outta me!"



Haze lifted higher and vanished into the sun. The shirt fluttered down onto the grass as the breeze came again, and licked around Wolverine. To a trained fighter the signs were obvious.



I don't believe it! The kid's actually going to dive bomb me! Well, he's gonna get more than he bargained for!



Wolverine grinned. Showtime. Calming himself so as to maximise his enhanced senses, he sheathed his claws again and waited, eyes closed against the bright light. The kid was fast, but not as fast as his 'twin' and Wolverine was betting that his own experience would more than level the playing field, and once it did he was going to spank some sense into Wing boy.







The faintest change in air pressure told Logan that his quarry was approaching. Reaching out on instinct, his fingers locked around smooth skin. Logan immediately tightened his grip. The pull against him was intense, far stronger than anything he had expected.



Bracing himself, Logan dug in his heels, counting on his additional adamantium-derived weight to help anchor him. However, instead of stopping the kid in mid-flight as he had intended, the stocky mutant found himself going along for the ride. His feet slipped and skidded over the too-smooth flagstones. Suddenly he was airborne!



"Yeeoow!!!" The ground flashed away. He chanced a peek.



Too far to drop. The mansion garden was already way behind them. Shutting his eyes again, Wolverine held on tight, wondering exactly what part of Haze it was that his hand was currently latched onto?



Arm maybe? Ankle? Whatever it was it was firm and roughly about the same proportion as Logan's wrist. He peeked through slitted eyelids.



Ankle. Shame it wasn't his neck! Cocky little sod!. By now Wolverine was starting to feel distinctly queasy. He really did not want to be up here, he liked it just fine on the ground, where he could run and walk at his leisure, and stick his claws into things, or people, whenever they started to bother him.



Kid's gotta start getting tired soon, towing me around? Logan looked up hopefully, but Haze did not seem to be in the least bit inconvenienced by having a passenger, even one with metal-reinforced bones.







Wolverine assessed his situation with growing dismay, they were at least a quarter of the way out across the bay by now, and more than fifty feet in the air by his reckoning, and still Haze powered on effortlessly, as if Wolverine's metal skeleton were a mere nothing.



The weight was beginning to tell on Wolverine though, and his wrist began to ache from supporting his entire bodyweight. He twisted it experimentally, trying to relieve the cramp that was steadily coming on. He would be damned if he was going to resort to clamping himself bodily around the kids leg like some humping dog. Particularly as that would mean leaving his rear entirely unprotected and he was not about to take an aerial trip around Gotham Bay being towed arse-end first!



"Take me back right now, fly-boy! Otherwise I start thinking about cutting more than your circulation off!" He shouted furiously, feeling his dinner on the point of openly rebelling.



Haze glanced back along the line of his body and grinned, his easy gestures conveying something falling from a great height and hitting the water.



"You'll still be losing a foot!" Wolverine snarled, getting unhappier by the second. "Or maybe something more important to your future plans, if ya get my drift?" He popped the set of the claws on his free hand and raised it meaningfully toward Haze's groin. "Clark may be claw-proof, but I'm bettin' you ain't!"







On reflection, Wolverine decided that direct confrontation was possibly not the most sensible approach he could have taken. With a turn of speed that sucked the breath from his passenger's lungs, Haze beat upwards, and then completed a perfect parabola, supple body flexing effortlessly.



What the fuck? The cramp in Wolverine's hand suddenly increased, as the blood diverted to his feet from the effects of the intense centrifugal force.



Oh, shit!!! Wolverine finally lost control of his numbed fingers, and lost his grip, although he did manage to retain his lunch - just.



As he plummeted toward the waiting water Logan briefly contemplated the disadvantages of being naturally flightless, while forced to deal with flying weirdo's.