"Ow," Valeryia repeated for what seemed like the millionth time. "Seriously!" Her eyes narrowed and hardened to the side at the person who was deciding to try and check if her shoulder was alright. Raven sat beside her, they had both come to a pause in the tour; they now sat in a large room which was being used as a medical bay of some sort. Raven had hunted out some man, Valeryia briefly recalled that his name was Robert. Robert had come in wearing a long white lab coat, she instantly scrunched her nose up. She didn't exactly like the look, Robert had looked awkwardly at her with a smile. He was trying to reassure with words, and smiles, and talking step through step of what he was doing, but it actually did very little to stop her from frowning and glaring at him.

As yet, Valeryia was unaware to what exactly his mutation was. Everyone so far that she had passed were a mutant, didn't even need to state the obvious there, like hell would Erik house a human here. The mere thought was enough to make her scoff. Regardless, Robert continued on taking off whatever flimsy dressings she had on injuries, he tutted a now and again. She didn't get it, though he did say that she was lucky a few times. Lucky for what? Valeryia didn't have a clue, and she didn't exactly think to ask, she was feeling tired and achy. Sleep sounded good around about now.

Robert also asked how she got the majority of her wounds. He gave up asking when he realised the common answer was: "In a fight." He could see where this was going and just gave up. He did glance at Raven though, she just sighed heavily and shook her head.

"How am I meant to check you haven't broken anything, if you won't sit still?" Robert asked, he had tried to see to her shoulder again once minor cuts and scrapes were checked over. The bruise on it worried him, the majority of her shoulder and arm were a disgusting blackened blue colour. He was a doctor, was being the word; having been caught out using his powers in practise. He sighed, Valeryia looked at him pointedly, and even confusedly when he lifted up his hand and splayed it in the air in front of her face. She didn't get it, though she could see the air slightly pulsing from his palm, her head felt suddenly heavy and her eyes glossed over. Robert lifted his other hand back up, he placed it against her skin before it started to pass through. It was rather gross to watch really, even Raven pulled a face whereas Valeryia stayed seemingly hypnotised. Robert hummed lowly and continued his odd exploration.

"So?" Raven asked quietly, not really wanting to disrupt him and his work.

"Nothing seems broken, or even chipped. She's lucky...a dislocation which has been crudely fixed, but fixed nonetheless." He removed his hand and lowered his other one. He sat back and watched as Valeryia inhaled sharply, she blinked and looked around before setting her eyes on him. "You can't use your arm," that caused her to frown again. "It needs to heal. The more you continue to use it, the worse it'll be."

Valeryia scrunched her nose, "Sling bound?"

"Sling bound," Robert conceded and stood up from his stool and took to finding a piece of long gauze to act as a sling. Once he had he stood in front of her and lifted her arm up and placed it against the material before wrapping and tying it off behind her neck.

Valeryia looked scornfully downwards, "I don't like this."

"Well, you should have dodged," Raven said with an air of certainty before smiling and getting a playful glare from Valeryia. "They must've been real tough, huh?" She asked, so far she hadn't actually asked her about her journey. She didn't want to pressure her to relay information. She knew why she was going, what it could possibly entail. The fact that she had returned looking like she did, Raven was pitching a guess and saying that all did not go to plan. She had been gone long enough, so who only knew what proceeded. She sighed and slid from the bed, Valeryia did the same. There was a small row of beds in this large room, looking more like an improvised hospital ward than anything else.

They walked out of the room, Raven sent Robert an apologetic look and hoped the message got across: new people and Valeryia weren't exactly good. She knew eventually the brightly haired teen would become friendly with him and the others, it just took her time. Valeryia stepped out of the way of a small cluster of people and looked at them as they passed, why children were here...she didn't know. She looked questionably to Raven, she just smiled sadly, "A lot bigger than me, and stronger." Valeryia said, at last answering the earlier question. Raven sighed, she found that surprising, when in the zone, Valeryia was fast, and she was strong. The thought of someone outwitting her in a fight made her a little uncertain. She disliked the thought of Valeryia being hurt even less than being in the situation where she got beaten.

"How'd it happen?"

"Fighting."

"Well, no, you don't say?" Raven replied sarcastically while they continued down the corridor before turning into another large room. With the tables and people buzzing about with food, it was clear this was where eating happened. "Hungry?" Raven caught the look Valeryia was sending in the way of a chocolate bar some person was eating. She just nodded and they walked over to allow Valeryia to get something to eat before sitting down. Raven stared with wide yellow eyes, "Have you not eaten at all in the time you've been gone?" With the way she was eating, Raven wanted to say no. To be honest, Valeryia did seem slightly skinnier than the last time she saw her.

Valeryia paused in eating and looked awkward, "Food is hard to come by...when there is no money."

Raven frowned, "You fought for money?!"

"What else was I meant to do?" Valeryia asked sadly, she looked around and then back at Raven. "I take it most came from such things? Such places as to where they're kept hostage...and forced to fight for entertainment?"

"Yeah, or rallies, used as examples...since you've been gone, things have got bad here. It's like a witch hunt, Val."

She paused eating and looked at Raven simply, "It always was going to be..."

"And so the wanderer returns." Both girls looked away from each other to look towards the new voice. Raven leaned her chin against her palm while Valeryia just frowned. Raven mentally prepared for the most awkward exchange of words ever, whereas Valeryia was just waiting for it to start. Emma looked as pretty as ever, blonde hair tied off her neck, instead of her usual way of wearing it down. Pristine white shirt and trousers seemed as intact and perfect as ever, her blue eyes sharply stared down at Valeryia. Her ochre eyes just dully looked at Emma, sort of envying the fact that she did look so perfect, and simply glamorous. She looked rough, she felt rough, and Emma just looked...like Emma.

"Get the feeling you'd rather I didn't?" They didn't see eye to eye, she wasn't expecting to be welcomed back with open arms by everyone. Valeryia picked up her cup and sipped from it, "But yeah, hello again."

"Get what you wanted?" Emma feigned interest, Valeryia could tell that her tone was that of nonchalant caring, or rather lack there of caring.

Valeryia was silent, even Raven looked at her curiously. "No," she said sadly and lowly. Emma's lips twitched, clearly trying to suppress a smile, and Raven looked at her with a new found sympathy. To think she had been gone so long and not got anything for it was a bit depressing. She could only imagine that Valeryia felt slightly crushed. The thought of defeat, or deflating whatever ego Valeryia had, amused Emma evidently.

She sighed, she looked at her nails and shook her head. "That is a shame. There's really nothing like a wasted journey."

Valeryia slammed her one good hand down on the table and stood up sharply. "No journey in life is wasted. Even if the destination doesn't end up being much cop. You learn from journeys, mostly stuff about yourself than other people."

Emma's eyes widened, "What revelations have you had about yourself then?"

Valeryia smirked, "Ah, that would be telling." She walked past the blonde and shoved her hand in her pocket. Raven's pattering footsteps could be heard catching her up. Valeryia looked at her with a smile, "I learned I can really take a beating, but I think if she found out all I truly discovered was that I can withstand having my ass kicked, that would amuse her to no end." She laughed, Raven grinned and joined in laughing too. She shook her head and looked around at everyone just minding their own business and missed the saddened look which appeared on Valeryia's face. She sighed and stopped, "I'm feeling really tired...where's the bedrooms at?" Raven turned to a set of stairs and led her upwards.

"I think the question you should be asking is: where did Erik put your things?" Raven looked over her shoulder while Valeryia frowned in confusion. Raven smirked, "I've got one guess," she nodded to the side and led the way. Valeryia followed silently, she eventually stopped by a door. Raven turned the handle after knocking and getting nothing, pushing it open she gestured a hand inwards, with a smug look.

"What?" Valeryia looked and sounded very bemused.

Raven just shook her head, yet couldn't keep the grin and amused expression off her face. "It's his room."

Valeryia's eyes widened at that, now that she paid attention to it...certain items, especially clothes, like jackets, she had seen Erik wear on occasion. Her mouth opened and shut, she pointed to her bags and walked over, picking one up and plonking it down on the bed, before doing the same with the other. "Presumptuous much?"

Raven held her hands up, "He wants you close...so..." She dragged it out while walking into the room with her arms crossed suddenly behind her back. A smirk was on her face as she sat on the bed, Valeryia looked down at her with a blank face. "What happened there then, huh?" Raven tilted her head, a strand of red hair falling out of place and corrected with a sweep of her hand.

Valeryia shook her head and looked away, "Nothing."

"You're such a bad liar!" Raven burst out laughing.

Valeryia sat by her side, she soon fidgeted and pulled her legs up and sat cross legged. "We've been drawing closer, I suppose. But I never wanted to bring the topic up, especially seeing as how he has annoyed you in past experiences. I said he wouldn't get in the way of our friendship...and he won't. But...I like him."

"Uh-huh," Rave drawled with a slow nod, she crossed her arms and just looked at her knowingly. Valeryia smiled awkwardly and looked around the room. The unasked and unanswered question and answer lingered, but neither seemed to want to voice it. Valeryia stood and pulled open one of her bags, if she was to stay, she supposed she better unpack. "Not moving out then?"

"Shut up!" She laughed and threw Raven the most serious expression she could muster at the moment. Raven just laughed again, it was clear that changing rooms would end up annoying the man this room belonged to. He put her things in his room for a reason, and neither needed to state the obvious as to what the reason was.

Sighing, Raven patted her knees and stood. "I'm going to leave you to it, get some rest. If I don't appear later to wake you for dinner, I'm sure Erik will." Raven smiled, she reached forwards and loosely gave Valeryia a hug. She didn't hold her too tightly because of her shoulder and sling. "It is good to see you, and to have you back. I have missed having you around, Val. You're staying now though, right?" Raven looked at her patiently while her eyes stared into Valeryia's. The hidden question and meaning to her words were there, she didn't want Valeryia to go, for any reason.

"I'm here to stay." She said quietly while patting Raven's shoulder gently. "I've missed you too, something else I learned while away from this place is that...is that I don't like being alone. When Erik appeared, I was worried at first thinking something bad had happened, but then I felt relieved. I missed the company, I missed you all."

"Apart from Emma."

"It is impossible to miss Emma." Valeryia laughed, Raven shook her head sadly. "But I'm happy to be back. Even if I hurt like hell and feel like I'm going to hibernate for several years."

"She's not all bad, you know? She's been really useful with finding compounds where the people have rounded mutants up and kept them locked away like prisoners." Raven explained, Valeryia just nodded. She wasn't going to dispute Raven's defence of Emma. If the girl had grown close to the telepath, so be it. "I'll leave you to get some sleep," Raven smiled, sensing that Valeryia didn't actually have anything else to say. She turned and left, shutting the door behind herself.

Valeryia was on her own, again. Different place though, a lot sturdier and warmer. She couldn't help but quietly laugh at that, it was a hell of a lot warmer. Picking clothes out of her bags, she took to sorting them out. The small pile which needed washing was left to one side on the floor, she didn't know where else to put it. Inhaling and exhaling she relented and winced while picking her arm out of the sling, she opened what little furniture was present and pulled out a shirt, she mentally apologised to Erik. She had no clean clothes, she had to improvise here. Noticing another door in the room, she pushed it open, walking into the bathroom she happily set to basking in the added warmth of a shower, with hot water which might not get suddenly cut off.

Eventually when she was all clean and changed, what dressings survived the shower had been patted back down, those which didn't were thrown in a bin. She felt bad for Robert wasting his supplies on her. But what else was she expected to do? Sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, in the borrowed t-shirt, she just glanced about herself. Honestly, this was the first time in a while where she had literally nothing to do. She stretched out on the bed, her eyes slid shut while she slowed her breathing. It was strange how one minute she felt close to sleeping, and the next she was wide awake.

Curling onto her side, she fidgeted about uncomfortably before burying her face against the pillow and inhaling the scent. There was something comforting about it, Valeryia would even go to the extent of homely. Her eyes slowly opened when she heard the door open and close quietly, she didn't move though, even as the bed dipped from sudden weight being pushed against it.

Feeling a damp lock of hair being moved and pushed behind her ear, Valeryia lifted her head from the pillow and looked over her shoulder. Erik leaned against his other hand, head tilted slightly as he looked down at her. "Made yourself at home then." He commented quietly, Valeryia smiled and turned onto her back. Only the action caused her to frown and mumble out in pain. He helped prop the pillows up so she could lay a little more upright for the sake of her back, ribs and shoulder.

"You're the one who put my things in your room." Valeryia stated, Erik just smirked and sat upright, he leaned back against the headboard and turned his face to look down at her. She rolled her eyes, she just leaned further back into the pillows and found herself suddenly really comfortable.

"Where else would I put your bags?" Erik asked at length, earning a sigh from her. "I didn't think you'd want to share with someone. Maybe Raven," he said, in hindsight, Raven was probably the only person Valeryia would willingly share a room with.

Valeryia smiled, "Thanks." Erik just nodded, "It seems good here." Valeryia pulled her knees to her chest, taking to pulling at the hem of the white cotton as it rid up. "Where is here?"

"Another hideout which Emma decided to relay." Erik replied and looked at her, she pressed her lips into a thin line and seemed more concentrated on the problematic shifting of the shirt than him. He sighed and shook his head, his eyes flickered upwards towards the ceiling, "We're off the radar, yet close to the city in case anything happens."

"Rallies?"

"Something of the sort." Erik replied, his voice low and dangerous sounding.

She pushed herself up, reaching up she placed her hand against his chin and turned his face. "What does that mean?" She asked lowly, there was something extremely unnerving about his words and tone. "Erik...what exactly are you keeping silent on?"

Erik removed her hand from his face, he loosely held onto it and felt her fingers curl up in his palm. "There is nothing to the extent that you were involved in, not really. Underground stuff, but not on the larger scale. But people are being taken," Erik said seriously, Valeryia tilted her head in confusion. That was nothing new to her. Erik saw her expression and frowned, "We broke in somewhere, Val, and it was like walking into a mad scientists laboratory." He felt the hand in his tense, he looked at her as her expression turned to one of worry.

"They're testing on them?" She whispered out in a hurt tone, she frowned sadly and her eyes dulled a little. Erik merely nodded, she looked away from him and flicked her eyes around the room. Taking to look at anything that would distract her from that horrible truth. "Those poor people." Valeryia whispered distantly, she blinked and looked slowly back up at Erik. "Were there some still there?"

"We got them out."

"What do humans expect to find from experimenting on us?"

Erik scoffed, he could list many reasons probably if given enough time. "I don't think they're looking for anything. For all we know they're just doing it as a way to torture and eventually eradicate." He spoke somewhat from experience. He'd been on the end of a manhunt before, and he didn't like finding himself almost on the receiving end again; but this time he planned to fight back, unlike when he was a child. He wasn't having this, any of it, they were not hunting them out, they were not killing them, he would give people a reason to stop trying to hunt out mutants. Hearing a low whine of discontent, he looked to Valeryia. Her face scrunched up in discomfort, "You're safe here." He said, earning a quick look before her eyes lowered back to the bed. Erik tilted her chin up, "You are." He implored seriously, Valeryia just smiled slowly.

"You can't protect everyone, Erik." She said sadly, Erik's eyes narrowed slowly. Placing her hands against his cheeks, she pulled him close enough to lean her forehead against his. "But you can if everyone looks out for each other. Don't take all the responsibility, Erik. We are all stronger together, than apart." She smiled thinly while shutting her eyes. There was enough room to put one of her hands suddenly against her mouth as she yawned.

Erik's serious expression faded to one of endearment, in way. "Come here," Valeryia looked confused before he settled in a way and stretched his arm out and around her shoulders, pulling her slowly against himself. She nestled close and shut her eyes, she laid against his chest and sighed. She buried her face against his top and enjoyed the warmth coming from him.

"Thank you." Valeryia whispered, she got a kiss to the top of the head for that and then all was silent.

Erik stroked a hand through his hair, now dry and curling in odd ways. He looked up at the ceiling before leaning his head on top of hers. There was something somewhat on his mind, and it had been since returning back. "Val, are you here to stay?"

"Raven asked me more or less the same thing." She admitted, she lifted her head up from his chest. This meant he had to move his head from hers and lean a little to look at her face. "Why would I leave?"

"Didn't know if you had any other intentions." Erik said simply, he watched as she winced a little to prop herself up against him.

"No," Valeryia frowned. "There is nothing left in the outside world for me now. No alternative places to be. No estranged family to hunt down...is this about that?" Valeryia looked at him dubiously. Erik remained motionless and expressionless. Her eyes widened, "It is, isn't it? You think because I can go so easily back on words to myself, that I can do the same to you? No...no, Erik, no. I want nothing more than to stay here, with everyone, and with you." Valeryia said, looking at him sadly, she didn't blame him for double guessing, but he should know she would want to stay with him. He just nodded, he combed a hand through her hair and pushed her gently back down to lay. Valeryia did so, her hand tightening on his top, one of his hands even came to rest over it, if only to uncurl her fingers so he could hold onto her hand loosely.

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(A/N: No one really reads this anymore, but my friend wanted to read an update. So I thought while I e-mailed her a copy, I'd whack it up.)