June pulled her large window open and sat sideways, watching the gang run around in the back yard. The yawn needed to be cut, bushes needed to be trimmed.. It was a big backyard, that backed onto a large field and forest, perfect location to train them.

Though that would have to wait til they didn't live in a garbage heep. She looked at her watch, they'd been at it for over 40 mins.

Meow

"You're right Brutus, at this rate nothing will get done." June sighed, picking up the kitty who turned into her weapon of choice and appear before them. "The only thing Pietro is hiding is who made him feel better. Now. Enough rough housing. Time to clean."

"uh oh" Lance mumbled as June interfered.

Toad slowly turned to look at her, "Stay outta this, yo" he told her.

"Todd, you were concerned for your friend and came up with cunning scheme to lure him from his room. It worked and Pietro is indeed feeling better... However, trying to force a friend to tell you something is not a true sign of friendship. Everyone has secrets. Should you not be happy Pietro is better now and move on from the matter?" She said, even though she knew little of friendship aside from that Tv show with the ponies which she'd never admit to watching.

Toad stood at his full height, stepping towards June as he spoke, "We ain't just friends, we're brothers. A brother knows when something's wrong. He notices when his brother's hidin' bruises, knows when he gets quiet around certain people. Knows that he reads Owlman when he's sad and cleans when he feels helpless." the short boy was apparently quite observant when he felt like it, "You think trading beat downs will make things better? All it does is dull the pain awhile, enough that you keep goin' back to it and it don't end, ever. All ya end up doing is hurtin' everybody around ya-so don't you DARE go teaching that sh*t to my brother.
He's better than that yo. Sure he's got problems but we all do and we all gotta learn to handle it the right way so maybe before you start dishin' out bad advice, you should work on yer own first.
So do us all a favour, yo, and stay the hell away from my brother."

As Toad spoke, ravens and crows began to nestle near by. June's face remained neutral but her hands turned to fists. Once he was done, she took a step forward and leaned over him, "You know nothing Todd Toad." She said just above a whisper, her eyes almost glowing with the feelings she truly felt. The birds that had gathered carwed and cooed once she was done speaking, making what she'd said even more looming.

She'd be taught to beat down anyone who talked back, show your dominance, don't back down. You didn't need friends only pawns. You were your own friend. It was taking every bit in her being to reframe from showing Toad who's boss through a beating.

She wasn't teaching PIetro to beat people. She'd wiped the slate clean. A fresh start. But she didn't have to explain herself to this lot. She wasn't here to make friends. She had a job.

Conceal, don't feel....

"House.Cleaning.NOW" She waved her scythe over top of Toad's head, cutting two loose hairs off his head. "Toad, 100 laps of the house." The birds cried louder and several of them flew down and started chasing Toad.

By now Freddy had let Pietro go as the three of them stood there in awkward horror while Toad and June snapped at each other. Upon June's response Pietro appeared between them-careful to mind the scythe, "woah-hey-guys, woah. No need for all this. Just chill okay?"

As the birds began to swoop at Toad, Freddy stepped in as well to shield him from them.

June didn't seem to flinch or back down. "The time to chill has long since past. I'll make men out of you if it's the last thing I do. NOW MOVE!" Her voice boomed, the birds hooped down to the ground and started pecking at Toad's ankles.

Freddy tried to swat them away, "You're hurting him!" he exclaimed.

"Like hell" Lance glared at June as the earth began to rumble and split beneath her feet. "I told you not to interfere"

Unlike June, Pietro did flinch at her voice as he hopped away from the splitting earth-Lance didn't always have the best aim.

"Fine..."
June looked at the lame attempt to attack her and teleported and slapped Lance across the face once she reappeared.

The birds stopped pecking and looked to June for orders, "We can do this the easy way... or the hard way." She said bluntly. The choice was theirs, do what she said or get their asses handed to them. Even if she was injured, she could take them... Just might need to be a little creative in exclusion.

"we get it, June" Pietro spoke up before the others could start the fight, "You're big, tough and scary and you can probably kick our butts. We're Magneto's runt group, I'm used to that and he wants us to shape up-okay. But there's a difference between getting this place in order and and just being an a**-trust me, we know that line and you're crossing it. But if that's how he wants things done then fine. Count me out."
Toad, of course, had been right. Pietro had been hiding something else: the fact that he was reevaluating his loyalties. He wanted to make his father proud but every day between June, Celeste and Ciara, Magneto seemed to be making it abundantly clear that there was no place for his own son and this... this just kicked it.

"Nobody f***s with my friends. Not even Magneto, so go ahead and tell him to shove it." Pietro snapped before going over to offer Toad a hand up.

Lance stared at Pietro like he had just grown a second head. He'd never heard the speed demon to outright defy his father in... well, anything. And now he was threatening to leave the brotherhood altogether? The notion of it was unheard of.

June lowered her arm and Brutus morphed onto her shoulder, "...Just get it done." The birds lost interest and flew away and so did June in a glowy orbs.

(( CANCEL LAST FEW POSTS. REDO. ))

Lance nodded and gave a bit of a sigh of relief before heading back to the living room. "Alright boys, where do we stand?"

"At the ready, sir" Freddy replied, handing Lance the remote with Homeward Bound all cued up and ready to go.

"Positions, yo!" Toad ordered as he hopped into the comfy chair while Lance took the other and Freddy sat on the couch. "Engage!"

Lance turned up the volume and pressed play.

Pietro stopped mid-pet of Brutus as he heard the intro play. A small grin crossed his face, this was possibly his favourite movie ever, he knew it by heart. In a flash he was downstairs and plopped on the couch next to Freddy, "Hey guys-sshh, movie"

The other three boys glanced at each other, then Freddy grabbed at the speedster.

"Hey! What gives!?" Pietro demanded, just slipping from his grasp at super speed. The others rose to surround him.

"Pietro, it's for your own good" Lance spoke carefully.

"We're just worried" Freddy agreed.

"oh no you don't-not this-no way no how." Pietro shook his head, eyeing them carefully for an exit, "I'm feeling better guys. Really."

Toad looked him over with a calculating eye, "You eat?"

"Yes, in fact. Loads" Pietro assured

"He does look a bit better" Lance agreed.

But Toad was not one to miss a beat-at least in this situation, "He's still hiding something. Get him yo!" They lunged but Pietro was, of course, faster and dodged out of the way. The pursuit continued for some time, spilling out into the back yard.

Finally, while the other two chased him, Lance summoned an earthquake bad enough to make the speedster trip. Then Toad grabbed Pietro's wrist with his tongue to hold him in place while Freddy sat on him.

"There!" Toad exclaimed, his tongue retracting back to his mouth, "Keep him down Fredster!"

"Can't... breathe" Pietro gasped, only his shoulders up and his ankles down could be seen beneath the Blob.

"Easy up a little there" Lance cautioned and Freddy shifted, grabbing hold of Pietro and hoisting him up in one of his inescapable bear hugs.

"Slightly better" Pietro breathed heavily still, "But seriously guys, we can stop this now."

"Not until you tell us what happened yo" Toad demanded.

"To what are you referring?" Pietro rolled his eyes.

"Rocky" Toad nodded to him, "Read out the charges"

Lance pulled out a piece of paper, "Pietro Maximoff, you are accused of not eating,excessive sleeping, failure to prank for an obscene amount of time and all around lack of being yourself. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty, LEMME GO!" Pietro snapped.

"Call the first witness!" Toad proclaimed.

"Gah, you're going all the way with this aren't you?" Pietro groaned, "fine fine, I plead guilty-but I've reformed I swear! It's all good now"

"Is it?" Toad leered at him, Freddy had to hold him down a bit lower for that, "Then tell the court how exactly this came to be"

There wasn't another way out of this, so with a sigh Pietro basically told them everything he'd told June, and that basically she'd let him beat on her so now they were square.

"What else yo?" Toad demanded.

"... that's it" Pietro looked a little confused.

"No it ain't" Toad crossed his arms over his chest, "cuz you said that after all that, you read comics and cleaned up a bit. What'd you read?"

"Owlman-what does that have to do with any of this?" Pietro shook his head.

"Cuz you might'a squared things with her, but she ain't the one yer mad at" Toad told him, "And it don't matter who you hit, if it ain't the one yer mad at, yer gonna stay mad."

Pietro rolled his eyes, "then who am I mad at Toad. Please, enlighten me"

"Magneto" Toad shrugged, matter-of-factly.

"And how the hell am I supposed to beat him up?" demanded the speedster.

"Yer not" replied the frog-boy as he crouched down. He was always more comfortable like that, "but he's yer dad and if yer gonna stick around then you gotta come to terms with that. Ya gotta know that you ain't always gonna come first for him-and you gotta know that that's still way better than a lot of other stuff."

Pietro stared at him, "WHAT THE HELL IS WORSE THAN THAT?!" he yelled angrily.

Freddy piped up, "cuz he could be dead" Freddy's parents had died some time ago.

"Or a drunk who hates you" Lance commented. His father was a non-mutant, abusive, drunk that he had to run away from.

"Or he could'a abandoned you completely" Toad added, for he had been left outside an orphanage, only a month old. Little things that Pietro had completely forgotten.

"Look Pietro" Lance sighed, "we've got your back, you know that. But you've got to decide what you're going to do. You can stick around and deal or you can leave and find your own way. We'll follow but keep in mind that at least your dad is trying to do something. He's trying to make it so that people don't abandon their children at birth, that mutants are treated with respect, not hate. So of course he's not gonna be father of the year-but at least he's trying to make a world that we can all live in. That includes you to dumba**" he flicked Pietro's nose. "That's how we ended up here in the first place. So you in, or you out? Cuz if you're in then we've got some chores to do before June comes out here and kicks all our a**es. Or, y'know, we could run off and let her deal with it herself."

"Yeah... I don't wanna make her mad..." Freddy agreed, "maybe we should do the chores either way..."

Toad just stared up at Pietro quietly, waiting for his answer. Pietro glanced between them, "... okay. I guess I've... been slightly less than awesome lately." he grinned a little, "I'll work on it-but I'll be damned if I'm gonna do all your cleaning for you"

"Awwwwww" Toad whined, "but it's so much faassstteerr"

"Yeah well" Pietro stuck his tongue out at him, "Freddy, you wanna lemme go now?"

"huh? Oh" Freddy blinked, he had completely forgotten he was still holding Pietro so he set him down again.

June sat in her window sill and casually watched all this unfold. She was too far away to hear them but she could still see their lips moving...

She smiled a little, "Must be nice to have friends."

Meow

"Human friends" June corrected herself rubbing Brutus' back as he hopped up and took the envelope from his mouth. She glanced inside, just about the right amount left. "We'll have to make another trip to the bank..." She mumbled before closing her eyes, enjoying the soft evening air against her face.

The brotherhood steadily returned to the house to tackle June's list of things to do and finally, finally Pietro seemed focused.

The boys sat around the newly cleaned dinning room eating a well deserved meal which June had provided. It was from a place called Greek Town, from somewhere in Canada.

There was a whole roasted chicken, pork and chicken souvlaki, Baby back ribs, XL Greek style Pizza, XL Greek Salad, Rice, Greek style potatoes, Mix vegetables and buns. There was so much food that'd they'd have enough for tomorrow night's meal.

"Well done, you completed everything on the list of chores... So, who has homework tonight?" She asked near the end of dinner.

((Freddy should mention his cooking assignment.))

"Nope" they chimed in, one after another, "none" "Nothing" "uh-uh"

June picked up her steak knife and rammed it into a piece of Chicken on the wooden cutting board. She paused and looked at them, waiting to see if they'd be honest or continue to lie to her.

"Math" Lance admitted.

"Biology" Toad winced.

"I wasn't at school today" Pietro reminded her.

"I've got a cooking project" Freddy pointed his fingers at each other and looked at the floor.

"Good boys." She said releasing the piece of chicken from her pointed blade. "Lance and Todd you will clear the table and put the food away before doing your homework here. If you need help I'm sure I can help. Freddy and Pietro will wash the dishes..." June turned to Freddy and spoke in a much less scary and ordering tone, "What do you have to do for this project, Freddy?"

Freddy paused and glanced at Pietro before looking back at June uncertainly, "um... it's... just some... food stuff" he replied while Toad and Lance started on clearing the table.

"Oh?" June's eyes moved in the same direction as Freddy's, "Is this something you can do alone?" She asked.

"Um... yeah" Freddy tried to lie again.

Pietro got up to leave.

June arose, hand on her hip,"Mind telling me what this is about Pietro?" Clearly something was going on.

Pietro winced a little and slowly turned back around to face her, "aahhhh.... I'd rather not?" he replied.

"It's okay" Freddy tried to defend him, "maybe I could just... go to my partner's place instead of here..." he seemed more than anxious at the thought.

Pietro made a face, "uhg. Can't you just skip the project? I don't think anything's worth that"

"... well, it's only worth ten percent" Freddy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"No, he can't skip the project... What is your partner one of the lot from the X-man dream home?" June said crossing her arms, not impressed by Pietro's attitude.