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I had lost track of how much time I had spent wondering around the library, I could easily have spent more time there but I turned a corner and smacked into someone, sending their books cascading to the ground, stooping to help pick them up, I realized I had seen the guy around at school. Why would he be here though?
"Summer's right?" The brunette tilted his head as if trying to see if he knew me and adjusted his glasses. "Yeah, hey I know you from-"

"School, yeah…um if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?" The question wasn't something Scott was expecting, but what can I say, I was curious. I knew why /I/ was here, but that only left more questions for Scott to answer.

"Well, it's a library…I like to read…" I'm an idiot, of course, ok well that was weird, this was clearly normal to him…maybe he figured that I'd lived here the whole time, it was a pretty big place, I had gotten lost four times already…I'd only been here an hour.

"Ah, right…I meant what are you doing /here/ as in…this institute, you seem pretty normal to me, no extra appendages or blue skin."

Scott smiled and started walking, I followed and was led over to the exit to the library. "So you've met Kurt then? The Professor's fixing his watch, so he's not in the best shape right now." Pushing the door open I saw that there must have been more entrances and exits because this was not where I had first come to find this place. "But just because your power isn't visible doesn't mean it's not there. I mean look at you, normal average type of guy, but when you live here you know that's not true." Scott continued on. I nodded my head as we traveled down the corridor.

"So, are you avoiding the question?" Brushing against the bannister and heading up the stairs I saw a girl walk through a wall and noticed I knew her, she was in my Biology class last year. "Uh did you just see…" Scott smiled, I could only assume that ment yes. I guess there were stranger powers than mine. That was both a relief and a bit of a fright. "Well, I /would/ show you, but unless you'd like to explain to Prof. X exactly why the entire fifth wing was decimated, I think we should leave that for another time." I didn't know whether he was joking or for real on this. I decided to laugh along with him though, we walked a bit more and greeted several people, and they were all nice…for the most part.

"So Bobby, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is your power?" I smirked and held my hand out for him to shake, he looked at me questioningly but then clasped my hand and that's when I made the temp. drop, it got real chilly real fast, not enough to freeze anything of course, but enough to make you think you had just stuck your hand in snow. Scott grinned as I let go of his hand, "Pretty cool man. That must come in handy." I nodded.

"So, you know where your room is?" I shook my head no; so far I had found the kitchen, the pool, and the library but no room.

"Here I'll show you around a bit, but I'll need to see your room number." I nodded and took out the crumpled piece of paper from my back pocket that had my room and schedule on it.

Scott unfolded it and smirked. "Looks like you got Mr. McCoy for Chemistry." He read on, and then he reached the bottom of the paper and saw my room number. "Oh, you got room 218…sorry man, that's just bad luck right there." Shaking his head he handed the paper back to me nodding his head in the direction of the opposite corridor, I followed as he continued walking.

"What? What's wrong with it?" I asked as we stopped in front of a normal enough looking room with the numbers 218 placed on the door. "There's nothing wrong with the /room/. there's something wrong with the person. We all share rooms here."

"Ok, so what's up with the guy I'm rooming with?" Figures it was just my luck to get stuck with a psychopath. Scott just ignored my question and rapped on the door with his knuckles. "Hey John, could you open up?" He called, only to have a surly response thrown back at him from the other side of the door. "Piss off Summers." Scott looked over at me as if to say, 'that's what's wrong with him.' He knocked again, "C'mon John, you got a roommate, open the door."

There was no reply this time, instead a long haired brunette boy opened the door, "What." He said, looking from Scott to me and back again.

Scott just sighed, "The Prof.'s found another one, and he assigned him to be your roommate." John just looked at Scott with dead eyes. So Scott just turned to me. "It was nice meeting you Bobby, feel free to ask me to show you around; my rooms 220, just a couple doors down." I nodded and thanked him.

As soon as Scott walked away I turned back to look at John, he had a very displeased way about him. "Well? What are you doing just standing there?" He swung the door open wider and gestured with a swoosh of his hand for me to come in.

"Your beds there." I looked to the side of the room he had pointed to, it looked decent enough, and it was a nice sized room and a queen bed on both sides. John flopped down on the couch took out a lighter and flipped it open, playing with it as if it were a toy, opening and closing it, fixated with the flame that flickered to life, great a pyro.

I dumped my bag on the queen bed that was stacked high with pillows. I looked over at John who had now gotten up and was looking at me, hands tucked into his back pockets. I walked over to him, deciding that now was a good time to get on the good side of my very odd roomie, "So, what's your name?" I asked, I was pretty sure he thought I was an idiot, sure felt like one too. But instead of being an asshole and just brushing me off he said. "John, John Allerdyce." But that was all.

"and um…what's your…-"

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." He smirked; I gapped at him, and then stepped closer, holding my hand out. As he took it I started to drop the temp, making it freezing cold, or so I thought, he didn't look phased at all…his face held a mask of shock, and he dropped my hand stepping back.

"What the hell, how did you cancel it out like that?" His voice was relatively calm, but with an edge.

"I was gonna ask the same thing…what /are/ you?" In response he walked over to where his lighter lay discarded on the coffee table. Picking it up and flicking it open he gazed at the fire, bite his lip and held out his palm, a miniature inferno swirled around and around the palm of his hand. "How did you do it?" his voice was filled with curiosity, his eyebrow raised. I smiled, it made sense now.

I stepped closer to him and held my hand out, palm facing upwards. Concentrating I thought of ice crystals forming and soon enough when I reopened my eyes I saw a swirling ring of ice crystals, it was a miniature flurry right over my palm. "I think you tried to increase the temperature, and I tried to decrease it, so…they just canceled out I guess." We both looked at eachother, and then instinctively we both stepped closer and brought our hands together again. The hot and the cold forming a neutral, it left a tingly feeling along the inside of my hand. We dropped our hands and laughed.

"So what's your name?" John asked as we plopped down on the couch, him throwing down his lighter again, it making a /clack-clack/ on the glass tabletop.

"Robert Drake, but I go by Bobby." He nodded his head and looked away, moments later he looked over at me again, "I…Did Scott tell you anything about me?" He asked, quieter this time.

"Nothing, just that you're crazy." I smiled, thank god he did have a sense of humor and knew I was just kidding, we both laughed. I knew that whatever people might have thought of John, there opinion was wrong about him; he was at the most just very misunderstood. I looked back at him, another question popping into my mind. "So what did you do to get landed here?"

He thought for a moment, and then got deadly quiet. "Well, one day I was walking along the hallway at my school, and a couple of punks slammed me against the lockers and," He flicked open his lighter, "Boom." He glanced up at me and saw what was most likely a look of horror on my face, and burst into hysterics, he nudged me in the ribs "Chill iceman, I'm just fucking with you." Iceman? I had never thought of it before but that was pretty badass. Then another thought crossed my mind, if I was iceman, then what did that make John?

"Riiiiight, ok then what really happened?" I asked in all seriousness.

A cold look passed through his eyes and he went rigid. "It's ok if you don't want to talk about it." He shook his head, "No, it's fine. it's just, you're gonna think I'm a monster." Placing my hand reassuringly on his shoulder I shook my head.

"I promise I won't, just maybe a little psycho." We laughed, "Well see, I had just gotten home…I was about thirteen…my mom was in the kitchen making dinner and my dad was leafing through the newspaper. I went upstairs and sat by the railing, they thought I couldn't hear them, but I did, I heard everything. My mom called me a freak and my dad said that 'it' was not his son, and before I knew it, the wooden banister I was gripping had caught fire…the fire truck and the ambulance came and they lived, I was put in a foster home and that's when Prof. X came to get me. I've been living here for about four years now." I could feel him burning up, I took his hand in mine and the icy coldness from me was somehow calming, as well as cooling, him down.

"Thanks." We sat there looking at each other, because really…what could I say? All I knew, was that I could see why he was the way he was. I just didn't understand why he had it in his head that I would think he was a monster after hearing his story, if anything it only made me want to help him more.

"So, what's your story?" I really didn't want to tell him, but it was only right after him telling me what had brought him here. In all honesty, my story wasn't quite as scaring as Johns.

"Well, I was a bit of an outcast at my old school, guys didn't really like me cause I was friends with and tutored most of their girlfriends, so one day a bunch of guys on the football team cornered me backed me up against a wall and pretty much were going to beat the shit outa me, but as the first guy swung, I blocked the punch but…I froze over his hand. Nothing bad really happened to him, just a nasty case of frostbite when it finally thawed, they were freaked as all hell, and the next day I got a letter to come and learn at this 'Institute for Gifted Children.' And now here I am." I smiled.

John opened his mouth to say something else, but that's when someone knocked on the door.

Chapter Text

Glancing at the door John shook his head, not moving an inch. "I swear on the river Styx, if that's Summers knocking, I'm burning a hole through the door." I chuckled and got up, crossing to the other side of the room, "He's not that bad." John made a sound like a cross between a laugh and a snort. "It's not him, it's his girlfriend." I opened the door and saw two guys standing side by side, one looked like he would rather be living in a comic book, with glasses and a batman shirt on, next to him stood a blond boy who looked strikingly similar to Scott.

"Uh, hey, can I help you?"

The geeky one smiled. "Yeah, well we just wanted to welcome you to Xavier's Institute for gifted children." The blond next to him mumbled something like 'That what they callin it now? 'gifted' yeah, that's /perfect/.'

The other guy just ignored him, continuing on. "Anyways, my name is Hank McCoy, and this-" he pointed to the blond next to him. "Is Alex Summers." So he /was/ Scott's brother.
"Yeah, that's ok babe, I recently got into an accident where I can't speak for myself." Alex said to Hank, who just nudged him in the ribs which made Alex flinch. "Ah, sorry Alex, guess I forget sometimes…"

"Mhm, sure."

Turning their attention back to me, Hank spoke up once more. "Yeah…well we just wanted to introduce ourselves we're two of the teachers here." Smiling he held out his hand, as I shook it, I wondered…/they/ were teachers here? They were only about six years older than me. After shaking Alex' hand, we all talked some more and they were actually pretty cool guys. When you got over the fact that they could fail me.

"So, what's your guys' deal?" I asked them, I was getting curious.

They both answered at the same time, "Hank." And "Superhuman strength."

Of course the first response was by Alex and the second was Hank. I laughed a bit and shook my head, "Um Alex I ment like powers wise, but you know, I kinda figured the whole you and Hank thing." Alex blushed and Hank just reached over and took Alex's hand in his, entwining their fingers. They glanced at eachother and smiled.

As I heard John shuffle over to the bathroom I turned to look at him, "I'm gonna take a shower, you can go with Hank and Alex though, I'll see you later." He called over his shoulder as he disappeared into the bathroom, the door closed with an eerie creaking sound...note to self, fix that later, followed by the sound of the shower being turned on.

We talked on our way over to the kitchen, "So Alex, what's your ability?" Maybe it was like Scott's; it could be dangerous and destructive. Alex looked at me with a cheeky grin plastered on his face.

"Dude, have you met my brother?" I nodded, "Well we have almost the same ability, except his is much more destructive." Alex continued on, "I can 'absorb ambient cosmic energy' or whatever, the Doc' said something 'bout it but I sorta just tuned it out." With a shrug of his shoulder's he glanced over to Hank who sighed and spoke up, "I explained this to you just yesterday when you asked why Scott's death ray didn't kill you."

"Yeah, well after you explained it, I kinda tuned you out…you know it used to be all hot when you would geek out, but…now that we've-" Alex was cut off by Hank. "NO. Ahem, well Bobby what he means is that he can absorb certain energy and store it in his chest, and he can use it as a plasma beam of sorts, he can even concentrate it pretty well, not like in the beginning, that was pretty…interesting."

Chuckling he waved his hand in a dismissive manner and took his glasses off, using his shirt to clean them up a bit. "Why do you always think it's so funny? It was horrible, I killed so many mannequins." Hank just shook his head, "Yeah but it was funny," He turned to me and whispered, "I'll have to show you the video sometime." I tried to suppress the laughter that was rising up, "Hey, why'd you call Scott's power a 'death ray'."

"Cause Alex is an idiot."

"Cause it is."

I was really gonna have to get used to them acting like this. "Really? When I talked to him he did say something about his ability being really destructive."

"You could say that again, I remember when I thought he was gonna kill me cause we were chasing eachother and I kinda tripped him after hiding from him behind a tree and then his glasses fell off, thought I was a goner for sure when he opened his eyes and looked right at me, thank god I was able to absorb that shit." Hank shook his head and made a /tsk tsk/ sound.

"Um, but I thought you said you had just recently found out he couldn't hurt you with his power…? And how come he can't shut off his power?"

"I did say that, it happened a few days ago, what? Don't look at me like that, we were out running around, sometimes you have to get some good exercise. Now about your question regarding why Scott can't turn it off, well when we were younger he got into a serious accident and was hit in the head and suffered from brain damage, he can't control his powers. Which has a huge effect on his life, he can't take those glasses off or he'll end up killing someone or destroying something." It was then that we entered into the kitchen area, it had about ten or fifteen kids walking around and talking while they made their dinner.

"Who's the new guy?" Several kids whispered as we walked by.

Hank stopped and turned to look at me, "Ok, so now's your chance to introduce yourself, or I could, but there most likely going to want a demonstration of your ability, they like to know what they're up against…and I mean when we have training. If it's not-" He looked pointedly over at Alex, "Too destructive." I could introduce myself, but giving a demonstration of my power was something I was not used to, although now I didn't have to hide who I was from anyone.

As Hank got the other kids attention, I told them a bit about myself, my name, where I used to live, my interests, and then let them ask me some questions of their own, until a younger girl in the front spoke up "Are you going to show us? Your ability I mean…" All the others grew quiet waiting for my response.

Taking a deep breath and holding out my hand I exhaled, making bits of frost form sprinkling down to rest in the palm of my hand, where I made a miniature flurry of ice crystals, it looked like when you watch the slushy machine at the mall spinning around and around.

"Wicked."

"So cool."

"Dude, that's hella tight."

My smile only widened as I heard all the responses from my little audience. After things settled down and the kids all grabbed their dinner separating in their own ways, I saw john saunter over and plop himself down on the barstool next to mine.

"Whatcha doin?" He asked me, he didn't seem at all like how Scott made him out to be, he seemed more like a dog, with some sort of friendly disposition. Except that only showed with certain people, one of which I guess, was me…weird.

"Nothing really, just about to go and have a look around, maybe." Shrugging I picked up my dishes and started washing them.

"If you want, I dunno, maybe I could show you around a bit." He smiled.

"Yeah, that'd be great, just let me finish washin these up real quick." The smile only widened, John was a pretty nice guy.

John's POV-

Bobby was cute…ok, so yeah maybe that's not the greatest thing to have always popping into your mind, but he is. Damn adorable, and he has a nice ass too…argh. Every time I look at Bobby or he says something there are so many things I see that make him so…cute. I waited patiently while he washed the dishes, and soon he was done and drying of his hands on the lime green towel by the sink.

"You got any particular places that are a 'must see'?" I found his smile to be contagious, but figured that Bobby's smile was a bit cuter and well placed, unlike the goofy grin I had plastered on my face.

"You know, not really, but I could show you how to get around the place." Bobby nodded his head in an excited manner, and that's when Scott walked into the room.

"Hey Bobby, if you're free I could show you around a bit." Scott hadn't noticed me, but at least when he did he smiled and acknowledged my presence with a tilt of his head, yeah, I could have seen us being friends, but his girlfriend was a psycho bitch from hell. For a moment I expected Bobby would just go with Scott, and forget about me, I couldn't really blame him though, "You know, thanks but John and I are gonna go and take a look around the place." An overwhelming sense of happiness swelled through me.

"You know, it's ok if you want Scott to show you around, I'm not really that great with the history of this place." I just needed to play it cool, if I got too excited than Scott would definitely know and I did not want that to happen, ever. Bobby just shook his head, "I'm sure we can find something to talk about." I could sense the way Scott gravitated towards the door, "Well, you guys have fun with that, just remember to check with the Prof. tomorrow." The last bit was directed at Bobby.

"Oh, and don't stay up too late, remember we have practice in the Danger Room tomorrow." I groaned, tomorrow was going to be the /worst/, the teacher was going to be Alex, Scott's brother, there was a good reason they called him Havok.

Scott chuckled, "I know, my brothers not the greatest teacher, a bit of a hothead if you ask me, but I think it'll be a nice balance since Lance and Hank are gonna be supervising."

Great, that did nothing to calm me, in fact it only helped to make me feel worse, Lance was fucking batshit insane, people thought I had anger issues and then they were trapped in a room with him for a couple minutes and suddenly I looked like a cuddly panda bear, and if Hank was also gonna be there, that ment that him and Alex were gonna have one of their infamous make out sessions, while the rest of us were getting slaughtered. That's why whenever they teach together in the Danger Room, there has to be another person present. After saying goodbye, Scott left Bobby and I to our own devices.

Chapter Text

Bobby's POV-

As Scott left, I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand; it was a nervous tick of sorts. "Training? With powers…doesn't that get a little dangerous?"

He laughed shaking his head and jumping of the barstool, "Naw, we have these suits that we wear, pretty badass, and each one is adaptive to whatever the wearers' ability is. Mines fireproof, and the belt has a little compartment where I keep my lighter." He looked somewhat pleased.

Maybe the training let you get your anger out. "So, you always carry that lighter with you, what's the deal with that?" John instinctively stuck his hand into his pocket locating his lighter that was a permanent resident there, and took it out; rubbing the side like it was a Jeanie lamp. Looking at me while we walked, "You're lucky Bobby, you can create your own ice, and you don't need the aid of anything. I need my lighter, without it, no fire."

Turning a corner we quickly made our way around the whole of the mansion, he showed me everything, the many library's, the girls wing and the guys, the pool, the hanger where they kept the jet, several other interesting tunnels and at least four different viewing rooms, three game rooms, and a gym in the basement.

While we walked we ran into several people, interesting characters really, one of them was the Kurt kid I had seen earlier on, he was teleporting around and smacking his watch against the wall muttering 'sheisse' whatever the hell that ment. Then we rounded a corner and smacked right into this red headed chick. She took one look at John and they just stood there giving eachother death glares, it was starting to scare me when I finally grabbed John's arm and yanked him away, although he was reluctant and walked backwards for a bit just to continue their little match, he soon stopped once we got to another entrance to the library.

"Who was that and why do you hate her?" I asked as he leaned up against the wall.

"That's Scott's girlfriend, Jean Grey, psycho bitch. Really though, she likes to read my mind, claim it's an 'acident' and then tell everyone!" He was practically fuming, I had no clue what to do, clearly a 'there there' and a pat on the shoulder would only work with a child…but really, the way John was acting, it was hard to tell the difference.

"What did she see while snooping around in that crazy little mind of yours?" I nudged him playfully but e instantly dropped the subject and instead diverted my question by exclaiming in a rather excited manner. "C'mon, I'll show you my favorite place." He grabbed onto my wrist and practically dragged me outside; we stumbled around in the dark stepping in numerous potholes and tripping over sprinkler heads and surveillance cameras.

John led me over to a pond where he gingerly sat down by the edge, he waited for me to take the spot next to him before he glanced over at me, "I know it's not much, but it's away from everyone else, so I guess it's calming, and in case I catch anything on fire there's a bunch of water." I smiled, "You like being alone a lot don't you?"

"Well, it's not that I /like/ it, so much as I've grown used to it when you're an asshole to everyone, they usually don't want to talk to or be associated with you." Even though John smiled as he said it, there was a sad look in his beautiful sharp eyes.

"Then why don't you try and be nicer to people, and then maybe they'll want to hang out with you more." Just a friendly suggestion, but of course, I'm not the greatest giver of advice.

John shook his head, "I have a few friends, but they all have girlfriends…so they kinda just forget about me sometimes." Sounded a lot like me and my past friends.

"So why is it though, that you talked to me from the beginning? Like, sure you were a bit strange but…you don't treat me like the others." I thought to myself…or did I…did I just say that out loud? Judging by the look on John's face I would say yes…yes I did. Bad thoughts, why must you always be heard by others? I mentally slapped myself.

"Hey, you wanna see something cool?" John said, clearly not eager to answer my idiotic question. I nodded, "Sure."

John took out his lighter, flicking it open. The breeze making the flame flicker and sway. John stared at it and soon the flame shifted and started taking shape, "You got any preference when it comes to animals?" I had always loved rabbits, "Um, yeah I like rabbits a bit…a lot." Smiling John turned to look back at the flame, he held out his hand so it was level with the lighter and the flame jumped into the palm of his awaiting hand, the flame began to expand and take shape, and suddenly a little rabbit sprung forth, hopping around the pond in circles.

"Damn, that's cute, kinda like Luna's patronus in Harry Potter." I exclaimed, John raised his eyebrows, "Very manly Bobby, nice." I smacked him on his shoulder and he feigned being hurt. Chuckling I held my hand out, ice crystals forming at the tips of my fingers. Spreading and forming a non-descript figure, slowly the flurry blob turned into a furry one, taking the form of a rabbit it started prancing about, wrinkling up its tiny nose and wiggling its tail, it began to chase John's fiery inferno of a rabbit.

I suddenly felt a need to glance over at John, and when I did, it made my heart melt, the look on his face was what had to be the most innocent expression I had seen in a long time, he was gazing in wonder as our rabbits chased eachother around the pond, the reflection of the fire making his eyes seem like they were aglow. His features were only made more Faye like by the pale moon; his hair was being leafed through by the wind. As I continued to gaze upon the joyous look on Johns face, I began to smile, it also produced butterflies in my stomach, I didn't know I could feel this way, but John…did something to me, something I could never admit. Not even to myself, not yet at least.

Chapter Text

                                                                                          ~*~ Four Years Later ~*~

"Bobby!" John shouted from the bathroom, "Where's the damn shaving cream?" he had to suppress a chuckle at his roommates expense as he called back, "Second drawer from your right."It had been four years since moving into the Xavier Institute, and now it was John asking where shit was. Bobby waited a couple moments until he heard the almost inaudible 'thanks' come from the bathroom.

Smiling to himself he continued to read the book Jean had suggested to him. Now it wasn't under the best circumstances that she had recommended it, but he found it helped a lot. Although, he still questioned why she had given him a book that was titled "How to read your partner" he liked to think that the title just ment really good friend, but some of the chapters he had yet to read were about things that John probably never thought about; yes he said that John would never think about, he on the other hand thought about 'things' daily.

"Come on we're gonna be late!" John shouted as he grabbed his keys and wallet off the table, waiting by the door, hands on his hips looking at Bobby like he was the one who was holding them up.

"Dude, I've been ready for the past 30 minutes. Would have already been there too, but I had to wait for your lazy ass to get up and shower." He threw back as he folded the corner of the page and placed the book on the counter. John did not look amused, but his 'you asshole' look was way cute.

People figured that they would never last long as far as rooming together went, but Bobby found out really quickly that John wanted someone who spoke to him for real, like no nonsense cut the shit real. He wanted to be treated like anyone else, not to be feared. He had realized that within the first few days of meeting John, and he'd like to think he was doing a pretty good job of handling him, throwing back witty responses for every dick comment John made, of which had lessened through the years. Of course others didn't get it, but they did so that's all that really mattered when it came to the overall outcome on things.

"C'mon, Bobby!" and with that last huff John was out in the hallway. Locking the door on his way out he turned to his friend, "You know you've never liked this stuff before so why so eager now?" he asked as they walked off towards the car.

John just shrugged, "You know, maybe it's ok to try something new. Even though it is stupid." He mumbled under his breath as he slid into the passenger seat. Movie night was usually something Bobby looked forward to, but this was the first time that John would be joining them and seeing as Lance always brought booze, he wasn't too excited to see what a hammered John could be like, and seeing as Logan was always their designated driver when everyone else was majorly canned which maybe wasn't the greatest idea, but it had worked well all the other times.

After they had met the others {the others being Lorna, Alex, Hank, Lance, Kurt, Kitty, Piotr, and Logan} at the theatre and taken their seats, that's when the talking began. Well, not talking really so much as the following actions, Piotr was slowly snaking his arm around kitty's shoulder receiving no protest. Alex and Hank were…well they really weren't thinking of watching the movie they were a bit preoccupied. Lorna was glaring a hole into the back of Alex head, John was throwing popcorn at the people in front of them, the only people that seemed to be interested in what was playing out on the screen, were Kurt and Lance. Logan…hey, where the hell was Logan? Oh wait, there he is, emptying a flask into his soda bottle. So the getting-drunk-of-his-ass started now then.

He kept hearing the disgruntled sigh of the poor saps sitting in front of him and John, as John was getting ready to throw some more popcorn Bobby gently nudged him in the ribs. So instead John threw it at him, friends, you gotta love 'em.

Bobby had to admit that he could see John improving; I mean it had been a really long time since he had done anything really bad. The others had even started to talk to him and at least he could now say that he had other friends. At least that's how Bobby felt at times; at others he missed it when it was just he and john. The two of them in their own little world by the pond like so many years ago. But things change, and seeing the smile that was almost always gracing his friends' lips, he realized it was all worth it in the end, even though maybe this wasn't the end.