1962

Location: Matsuhima, Japan

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Mari Akiayama was a simple woman who was living a very simple life, as simple as it could get, what was a woman supposed to do to blend in? Especially when she had powers when no one else did. Centuries had passed since she realized how unlucky she was to be born, after she lost her children and killed her husband along with his men, she ran, she ran as far as she could to get away from it all. She moved from place to place, never wanting to stay too long where one would realize that she never aged. She never got close to anyone, kept her distance and was modest to the people she would pass, but she never would go out of her way to make any friends, much less fall in love. What would the point of that be if at the end of the day she knows that she would outlive them.

Mari had decided to move to a small town within the Miyagi Prefecture known as Matsushima. She owned the local flower shop in town, perfect for her to blend in and practice her abilities. She had a popular shop, as women often stopped by just to chat and men would ask for her advice in giving flowers to their loved ones. Whatever it was, the woman was happy to help, though at the end of her shifts she would always go home without a word, avoiding anyone who would ask her to have dinner or a drink. She felt it was for the best, as she would enter her small apartment, make herself dinner, and go straight to bed, only to wake up in the morning to restart the cycle.

It was her life, whether she was happy with it or not, it was her life and she had to be happy with it. Just as any other day she had entered her small flower shop, filled to the brim with flowers from all over, lilies, orchids, forget me nots, roses, spider lilies, etc. She placed her purse behind the counter as she took a deep breath, enjoying the many scents the flowers had provided for her, each plant greeting her as she greeted them back, she flattened down her knee length dark blue pleated skirt and tied her white apron around her waist, she then rolled up the sleeves of her white flower printed long shirt and tied up her long hair, that seemed to have a red tint to it. A small smile graced her features as she flipped on the open sign to her shop, with her hands on her hips she took another deep breath as if preparing herself for the day before she turned on her heels to tend to the many flowers.

Crouched down she had begun to trim at the leaves while watering the flowers when she heard the bell ring as the door opened. She did not get up as she continued her task, but she did speak as she wanted to let the customer know that she would be with them in just a moment.

"Yōkoso! Sugu ni ikimasu!" She had called out as she continued her trimming process

"I'm afraid we're not here for flower shopping, Miss Akiyama." A British voice filled the room.

Mari straightened up as she stood up, clutching her trimmers in her gloved hands, she turned to face the source of the voice and came face to face with two men. One dressed in a white button up with a brown vest over and a lighter brown dress jacket over that, paired with brown dress pants. He seemed to have longer hair than the man beside him, as it was also a bit wavy and pushed back, but he also had these striking blue pair of eyes. The other man besides him wore a simple high neck black top with a brown leather jacket paired with black jeans. He had what she saw as red hair that was slicked back as well as his own pair of blue eyes. Mari eyed them as she took a deep breath and placed her trimmers on the counter.

"We don't get foreigners out here often." She smiled.

"You speak English?" The man with red hair asked.

"You sound surprised." She mused as she walked past them, her guard up, especially since they knew her name.

"Forgive us for interrupting, but my name is Charles Xavier." The British man introduced himself, "This is Erik Lehnsherr." he pointed to the other man.

"I would introduce myself, but you already seem to know my name." Mari untied her apron and set it down, "So the question is, who do you work for?"

"No one." Charles quickly spoke, "we need your help."

"With what? I'm sorry, gentlemen but I'm just a simple woman who runs a small flower shop." She opened the door for them, "so I am going to have to ask you to leave now."

"We could really use someone like you, Mari."

Mari looked around frantically, "How did you do that? Your lips didn't move." She was nervous now, she felt like she was losing her mind.

"We are just like you, you're not the only one." Charles spoke once more before gesturing to Erik, who lifted his hand, as he did, the pair of trimmer she had set down began to float into the air and flew into his hand, "You're not alone, there are others just like us."

Others just like her? The idea sounded ridiculous to her, over 100 years she spent thinking she was the only one. And standing before her were two men who proved otherwise, and now they are saying that there are more.

"Why are you hiding?" Erik spoke up, "All this time, hiding who you are, and for what?" He took a step forward, "We could use all the help we could get."

"For what?" Mari asked.

"Something is coming, something big for our kind, this could be our chance to show the world who we are." Charles spoke, "And since we showed off our mutations, I feel as if it's only right for you to do the same."

"Mutation? Is that what this is called?" She frowned.

"The scientific term for our gifts, yes that is correct." Charles answered

"More like a curse." She frowned before lifting her hands, as she did the many flowers seemed to follow her movements, the vines detached from the ceiling and came behind her, lifting her off the ground ever so slightly. Erik and Charles could only watch in complete awe.

"Wow, you are incredible, chlorokinesis is such a unique gift." Charles was in complete awe of her mutation.

With a wave of her hand all of the plants went back to normal, "I can control plants with my mind, that includes speaking with them as well as creating entirely new species."

"Incredible, just incredible." Charles spoke.

"Is that all you can do?" Erik asked, "On our way here, I heard whispers, whispers about a woman who seemingly doesn't seem to age, but they called it a myth."

"Then that would be correct, I don't age, I can't die, the plants heal me, they give me my life force. Take them away then I'm as good as dead." She simply shrugged.

"You are an incredible woman, Mari. Would you please join us?" Charles asked.

'How could you even be sure that anyone would ever except us?"

"Because they'll all see, they'll see the good we can achieve together."

With a sigh the Japanese woman grabbed her purse, " I expect good food in America, and good hospitality." she stated before walking past them.

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On the way to the CIA base, where Charles had said the others were gathered, he had explained to her the situation. Shaw, a man who was a mutant like them, along with his own team of mutants, were going to start a war, launch missiles between Russia and America, so in terms, they would end themselves. When she arrived at the base he had directed her to where the others were, but not before introducing her to Moira MacTaggert, a woman from the CIA, who had been aiding them throughout this mission as she called it. Erik, Charles and Moira then left for Russia, as they had gotten a lead on Shaw.

When she entered the room she was met with the faces of young adults, they all sat down awkwardly, conversing about what she picked up on to be Shaw. How there could be a possibility that they are being used and will be experimented on. Mari only took a deep breath and smiled as all their eyes fell onto her.

"Ah! Look! They found another one of us!" A boy with shoulder length curly brown hair stood up

"Shut up, Sean." The girl with long wavy blonde hair rolled her eyes before she scooted over and patted down next to her.

Mari took the gesture kindly as she walked over and sat besides the young woman

"It's good to have another girl, right Angel?" The blonde asked the woman across from them, she was what Mari assumed as a Latina woman with long black hair, she was beautiful, both of them were.

"Yeah." Angel agreed

"My name is Raven." The blonde finally introduced herself.

"Mari." The Japanese woman smiled simply.

The rest then introduced themselves as well, she got Sean Cassidy, Armando Munoz, Alex Summers and Hank McCoy. Mari doesn't remember the rest as she had tuned out, but she tuned back in when Raven suggested that they all had code names, her claiming that she wanted to be called Mystique.

"Damn! I wanted to be called Mystique!" Sean dramatically stated.

"Well, tough. I called it." She spoke before her skin turned into blue scales as she now looked exactly like Sean, "And I'm way more mysterious than you." Raven smirked before turning back as the others exclaimed loudly at her mutation.

"Darwin, what about you?"

Armando walked over to the fish tank, "Well "Darwin" is already a nickname, and, you know, it sort of fits. Adapt to survive and all." He was now beside the fish tank, "Check this out." He stuck his face into the tank, and as he did, fish gills appeared in the sides of his face, assuring that he could breath under the water. The others were amazed as they shouted.

"That was incredible." Angel stated.

"Thank you."

"What about you?" They turned to Sean.

"Banshee." He confidently spoke.

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" Hank asked.

"You might want to cover your ears." Sean smirked as he got down and aligned the glass cups on the table before them. He took a deep breath and opened his lips, a sharp shriek escaped his lips, completely destroying the glass cups, but also destroying the class window before them. He got up sheepishly before turning to Angel, "Your turn."

"Well, my stage name is Angel." She turned around and pulled her jacket off, the tattoos that looked like wings on her back and shoulder lifted off her skin, "It kind of fits."

"You can fly." Raven was amazed at the simple fact.

"Oh and..." She walked forward before spitting out a ball of fire out of her mouth, landing on the head of the statue before them and slightly melting it. She turned and bowed as they all clapped, "And...what's your name?" She turned to Hank.

"How about bigfoot?" Alex smirked as he attempted to make fun of Hank.

"You know what they say about guys with big feet." Raven spoke up as she looked down at Alex, "And yours are kind of small."

The room erupted in laughs

"Okay, now." Alex huffed

"Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?" Darwin asked.

"It's not...I just can't do it. I can't do it in here..." The blonde boy sighed.

"Can you do it out there?" They pointed outside.

"Why don't you just do it out there?"

Alex let out a reluctant sigh as he shrugged off his jacket and stepped outside and over the broken glass.

"Come on!"

"Alex! Alex! Alex!"

"That's the spirit!"

They all began to cheer as they waited for Alex to show them his gift.

"Get down when I tell you to." He instructed.

"'Get down when I tell you to.'" Sean mimicked.

"Get back." Alex frowned as they all went back behind the wall before simultaneously all peaking out again, "I said get back!" He let out a frustrated sigh when he realized that they weren't going to listen to him, "Whatever." A large red energy ring surrounded him as he twisted his body from side to side, as if winding them up, then they shot forward and completely destroyed the statue before them. It was silent after that, and that only seemed to make Alex even more nervous than before, but that changed when they all erupted into cheers and surrounded Alex.

Mari seemed to be ignoring the entire situation as she sat inside reading a book on the couch, she wanted to let the kids be kids. It must feel so good to them knowing that they're not alone. So she let them be, even if they were acting a bit reckless and destroyed CIA property. Someone sat besides her, she looked up from her book and saw Hank.

"So um...what about you?" He asked.

Mari found Hank to be extremely adorable, she could've just died right then and there because of him.

"Yeah! What's your gift?" Raven jumped.

"You've been sitting in here reading like a grandma." Sean teased.

"I was just letting you kids have your fun is all." She shrugged as she continued to read her book.

"Kids? You're like the same age as us." Alex scoffed.

"I'm not actually, but that makes me feel better about myself." Mari teased as she shut her book and set it back down on the table, "The old saying that it is rude to ask a woman her age still stands, but I enjoy all of you so I suppose I don't mind sharing."

"She even talks like a grandma." Sean whispered, only to be hit by Darwin.

"I'm over a hundred years old." She stated as they all broke out into incredulous noises, "And my gift..." She lifted her hand as the plant besides Sean began to grow bigger before it wrapped around the boy who began to freak out.

"That is so cool!" Raven shouted.

"Amazing!"

"Okay! It can let go of me now!" Sean shouted as Mari chuckled and had the plant retreat back to normal size.

"So what do you want to be called?" Angel asked.

"Well..." Mari began to ponder, "In my culture there is a goddess named, Kaya-no-Hime, she is known to be the goddess of vegetation, grass, and fields. She is considered a protector of fields as well as the ancestor of-."

"So...you want to be called Kaya-no-hime?" Hank asked.

''No, I feel as if that is a mouthful." She sighed.

"Thank god, because I wasn't going to say all that." Sean said only to be hit by Angel.

"So then what do you want to be called then, does this goddess have any other names?" Alex asked.

"She has many names." Mari began to ponder.

"Oh! Then which one?" Raven grew more excited.

It finally came to Mari, it was the perfect name, it was simple and truly captured her gift while paying homage to her homeland.

"How about..."

Translation: Welcome in! I'll be with you in just a moment!

Word Count: 2657

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Authors Note

All right guys that ends the first chapter of tangled love! How are we liking the rewrite so far? I hope you guys like it! Anyways I'm going to be following the movies in chronological order rather than the order they came out in, which means we won't be seeing Logan during this first act. However, due to them being in chronological order, technically the next act would be Days of Future Past, meaning Logan will be in it! But that also means that Mari hasn't officially met him yet as I have her meet him during the first X-Men movie. So I hope that isn't confusing for you guys, but with updates, I'm going to try my best, especially since I just started school, so again please bear with me!

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