Title: Lovely Pointed Ears
Rating: PG (liberal, can be changed to PG-13 if deemed necessary)
Author's Name: Jimaine
Author's e-mail: TalesHeart@msn.com
Summary: Kurt's girlfriend Amanda must earn the X-Men's trust as a new threat rears it's ugly head. But how can the X-Men trust her when she has something of her own to hide from them?
Authors Note: I made a Dumb Spelling Mistake at the end of this story. 'Romani' is the language, and 'Romany' is the people. I use Romani for both, and I apologize.

~*~

When she first discovered exactly what she had caught a glimpse of that day a few months ago, Amanda backed away.

Then she saw his eyes, and his hunched, self-deprecating demeanor. Like someone screamed every time he turned his hologram off. The creature who looked at first glance to be a demon -- complete with pointed tail -- was nothing more or less than Kurt Wagner upon a second look.

And Amanda always looked twice.

‘Well?'

‘Did you know blue is my favorite color?' she replied, stepping back up to him and putting a hand on his cheek. Kurt's astonished expression said everything she could have possibly wanted. A three-fingered hand grasped her own, and stuttering, Kurt tried to overcome his shock and speak at the same time.

‘Ja -- um -- I know a shortcut to the ice cream shoppe. Care to join me?'

‘My treat!' Amanda laughed, smiling at Kurt. At the real Kurt. You know, he's really much cuter like this . . . Who'd have guessed the elf look was in? A giggle escaped as Amanda laughed at herself. She was very nearly giddy.

‘Ah! An offer you may regret!'

BAMF! BAMF! BAMF! BAMF!

‘Wh- why'd it take four, um-'

‘Teleports? There are limits. I have to have seen a place to teleport there, and can't 'port more than two miles,' he explained as he reset his image inducer. Seeing Amanda glaring at him, he flinched. ‘What?'

‘I liked you better before.'

‘Vhich before?'

‘When you were blue,' she clarified.

Kurt shook his head. ‘That's a change. If I go in there as the blue elf, I'll be mobbed faster than you can say 'mutie'. I -- I scare people.' Kurt hung his head. Amanda put hers on his shoulder.

‘Well, you don't scare this person,' she grinned -- she seemed to have lost her shyness since he had revealed his fuzzy self to her -- and gestured towards the Ben an' Jerry's. ‘After you!'

*

‘I cannot believe how much ice cream you ate!' Amanda twirled down the empty street, heedless of the darkness of the early morning or her formal dress.

Kurt, back to his adorable blue self, was walking on the building wall next to her. He was frankly astonished at how quickly she had gotten used to his rather unorthodox appearance. ‘Neither can I,' he remarked wryly, leaping from the edge of one building to another. ‘Although I think I feel a sugar high coming on . . .'

‘About time!' she told him, jogging backwards so she could see him while she talked. ‘I think mine hit about ten minutes ago.'

‘You're certainly not the retiring little thing who asked me to the dance,' Kurt teased, pushing himself off the wall and doing a neat flip before landing next to her.

‘Says the guy who turned out to be furry!' she accused him.

Kurt grinned. Ever since he'd met this girl, he couldn't seem to keep a smile off his face . . . ‘At least you had prior warning,' he pointed out.

‘True, true -- although it should have occurred to you that anyone would would knowingly date a fuzzy blue elf can't be entirely the shy little doe!' she explained, rather loudly. Kurt wondered for a moment if she was really sugar high, or if she was drunk.

‘Date?' he inquired.

‘Well, sure!' she replied cheekily, smiling. ‘I do really like you. And you're even cuter this way than with that hologram-thingy on.' she told him, shaking her finger at him like a mother scolding a naughty boy.

‘Somehow I'm not sure I trust you to drive me -- or yourself -- home while you're like that,' Kurt said slowly, eyeing her.

Amanda brown eyes sparkled. ‘Good, because Mom made me promise never to drive while sugar high again.'

‘You've driven in this state?' the mock-frightened expression on Kurt's face rivaled that of when she had told him she knew he was blue. ‘What happened?'

‘I kinda got a little arrested.'

‘She kinda got a little arrested,' Kurt threw up his hands, and was about to continue when she grabbed his hand.

‘Wanna see a movie?' she asked, dragging him towards a theater that was open late because of the dance. Bayville held most of it's important social functions at the same time, so places like this stayed open late for those who hadn't had enough fun yet.

‘It'd be safer than letting you drive,' he muttered, and then yelped as she started sprinting towards the theater -- still holding his arm in an iron grip. ‘Whoa!'

‘Sorry. I have a little more energy than I really need at the moment,' The silly smile on her face was endearing. Kurt rolled his eyes and followed her.

*

BAMF!

‘Whoa,' Amanda gripped her head in her hands, sitting abruptly on the hood of a hideous orange-and-purple car. ‘You were right. That last 'port took something out of me.'

Kurt joined her on the enormous hood, tail resting looped around his ankle. ‘I told you I have limits. I thought for sure that guy was going to catch us. I think a few of our classmates went a little too far tonight -- or this morning. I don't even know who that was -- probably one of the seniors.'

‘Yeah, well, it's just a good thing you got us out of there. I wouldn't have liked meeting some drunk alone, and you'd still have been fuzzy, considering that,' she pointed at his image inducer. Even the watch part had stopped working. He still had no idea what he'd spilled on it to make it malfunction like this; he might even need a new one. ‘So. Think it's safe for you to go back this late, or shall I just leave you here to make your way home all by yourself and put off the dreaded encounter. I'd do it, if I were you, but I'm the one with the car.'

‘Nein,' Kurt shrugged. ‘If I don't get into bed soon, I'm going to sleep where I fall.'

‘Long as it's not on top of me.'

‘'Manda!' Kurt protested. He wasn't sure at what point she had ceased being Amanda and had become 'Manda. ‘Besides, you're in fairly similar shape.'

‘It might be better if I had a little sugar before driving,' she sighed. Kurt gave her a look that personified terror. 'Manda giggled.

‘I think that if we don't find your car right now I'm never going to make it back to the Institute. Which one?'

‘This one,' Amanda answered, jabbing her finger at the car they sat on. Kurt's almost invisible eyebrows vanished into his hairline. The elf leaped lightly off and stepped back a few paces to get a better look at it.

The Oldsmobile must have been twenty feet long, nearly as wide as a bus, and a strange, shiny shade of orange. ‘I'm in the process of repainting it, but . . .' Amanda sighed as Kurt walked back to the rather awesome car. The hood was half painted over with what looked like it had begun as purple flames, but had changed its mind halfway through. The interior was faded midnight blue vinyl.

Kurt practically fell into shotgun, waiting to hear Amanda's reaction to the only bit of his mutant abilities he hadn't yet demonstrated. ‘Kurt? Kurt, you're --'

‘Kinda not there? I blend in with dark background and nearly vanish in low light. With this blue seats, my eyes are about all you'll probably be able to see of me.'

He turned towards her, and she stifled a yelp of surprise. His amber eyes glowed. ‘So I get to stare at glowing yellow eyes the whole trip?'

‘Yup.'

‘Great. My boyfriend has cat eyes.'

‘That seems to be the least of it,' Kurt pointed out as she pulled out of the parking lot. As Kurt's watch had stopped at 1:46, he wasn't sure what time it was, but the horizon was showing the first hints of light. The Professor is going to murder me. When Logan's done with me, that is. ‘It really doesn't bother you that I'm -- not entirely normal?'

‘It bothers me that you've asked me that four times tonight, that's what bothers me,' she told him, somehow watching the road and managing to give him a Look at the same time. ‘I'm not that shallow.'

‘I'm sorry. I've just had a few too many bad experiences with people seeing -- this,' he gestured toward himself.

‘Calm down, fuzz ball. I'm certainly not going to tell anyone, and I don't think you look demonic. You're far too cute to be demonic.'

‘Cute, am I?' Kurt 'hmm'-ed . Then his fanged grin flashed in the dark.

‘I've created a monster!'

When they finally got to the Institute, Kurt could barely summon the willpower to heave himself out of Amanda's hideous car. He was so tired he thought he might sleep on the pavement outside the mansion gates, wasn't looking forward to what was coming to him when he got back, and would rather have stayed with Amanda anyway. None of this helped.

‘Hmm. You asked me to the dance, paid for the ice cream and most of the movie tickets, and drove me home. My turn, next time,' yellow eyes glowed teasingly from outside the passenger door window.

‘Ah! An offer you may regret!' Amanda declared, repeating his statement from the beginning of their evening.

‘Let's see if I can steal Scott's convertible, shall we?' the devious look on Kurt face broadened.

‘Just don't do anything illegal, besides stealing the car. See you in school on Monday?'

‘Sort of,' Kurt tapped his hologram-producing watch that hid his adorable blue self from the world at large.

‘Ah. Right. See your hologram on Monday, then!' with that last sentiment, Amanda drove the car away from the gates and toward home, where she herself faced a blistering lecture. Kurt waved as he BAMFed into the entrance hall. Sighing, he turned to go up to his room --

And found Scott, Evan and Forge, looking for all the world as if they were waiting for him.

‘Um . . .'

‘Where have you been, Kurt?' Scott demanded, always the one to get right to business.

‘Yeah, man. We had to clean up after those monster-things you set loose! We spent, like three hours on it,' Evan glared at Kurt. As his date, Amanda, also had a rather frantic guardian, he was curious to know precisely what had happened that had kept Kurt from the mansion.

‘So I get lectured by you, zen by ze professor, zen by Logan, all before I get to go to sleep?'

*No, Kurt, you're going to bed right now. I prefer it that students be coherent when I chew them out. We are simply glad you're back safe. Although I would like to know what happened to your watch, and how you explained things to Miss Sefton, as it stopped at 1:47 and it is now 4:18.*

‘Um . . .'

*Yes?*

‘She kind of knows I'm furry.'

‘*She WHAT?!?!*' Screeched four voices at the same time, one mental and the others vocal. Kurt winced. The only good side effect was that Xavier's mental screech was probably going to keep him awake long enough to tell the about this particular aspect of his -- well, he had to admit it some time -- girlfriend.

‘She caught me teleporting one day after school. You know the image inducer I had at the moment got screwed up by teleportation; I had to turn it off a second before I 'ported, and she saw me.'

‘But she didn't tell anyone, and still asked you to the dance?' Forge's eyebrows rose. ‘I think I like her.'

*What happened with the creatures, Kurt? Where did you go?*

‘I 'ported us out of the gym to get away from one of them -- by this time she'd told me she knew -- and when we finally got away from all the ruckus, she asked to see me. Without the hologram on.'

‘And . . ?' Evan prompted.

Kurt grinned with what energy he had left, surprising his classmates. ‘And she likes me furry!'

BAMF!

*

Amanda really did have to concentrate as she drove the Oldsmobile toward what she now considered home. As she thought about the night she'd just spent, a smile hugged her lips. She'd missed him so . . . And he'd never seen her sugar high.

Still, I suppose I wasn't being quite fair. He did show me his secret, and did I revel the truth? Amanda glanced at her rearview mirrors as she turned a corner, but this block was as deserted as the last. She felt herself wishing for a moment for Kurt's teleportation, but squelched that wish when she thought about their last jump. I hadn't considered instantaneous travel might cause a headache!

Still, her smile widened. Pulling the orange monster into the communal driveway, she turned it off and spent a moment listening to the 16-year-old car cool down. Then she heaved herself up, shut the garage door, and climbed the stairs to her apartment. Knocking on the door, she heard someone call from within. ‘Back, Amanda?'

‘Morning, Cassie,' Amanda gurgled. ‘Why're you still awake?'

‘Because I took the opportunity to dig my boyfriend out of his studio and had him take me downtown,' Cassie grinned at her young charge. Amanda was something like a third or fourth cousin, sent from overseas to live with her for educational purposes. ‘We saw Les Miserables, and he actually liked it!'

‘A guy? Like Les Mis? Astounding,' Amanda yawned, and smiled again. ‘Well, I'm going to bed.'

‘If you haven't been there already . . .'

‘CASSIE!!' Amanda screeched indignantly, knowing her cousin was teasing.

‘I'm joking, I'm joking. Go to bed! I'm waking you at 11:00, remember; you have yoga,' Cassie reminded her.

Amanda made a face. ‘Blech. Fine.' the teenager groaned and stalked off to her room. Cassie shook her head. She wasn't much older than Amanda, about twenty one or so and putting herself through college. The only reason she had agreed to keep watch over her cousin was that her family was paying for the apartment, Amanda's schooling, and the computer Cassie would never have been able to afford on her own. Still, she liked having her younger cousin around. Amanda was more like the little sister she'd never known she'd had.

Of course, the letter from her family had surprised her, as she's only heard vague things about any family who didn't live in the U.S. Still, she wasn't going to turn this down.

Cassie shook herself. She'd been out all night herself; a trip to Manhattan with Steve didn't come often. She flicked off the lights and made her way to the other bedroom.

*

Kurt would have been quite happy to never see another ceiling ever again. After two blistering lectures, he had to admit that his punishment had been rather unique.

The mansion was huge. Rooms for everything, and the entire complex underneath the Institute was just as big, if not bigger due to the hanger, and the blackbird. The students and teachers alike shared the job of cleaning everything, but there was one surface that didn't get cleaned very often. And it was ideal for Kurt'spunishment.

‘Can I leave the hanger ceiling till tomorrow?' an exhausted Nightcrawler asked Xavier. ‘My arm is going to fall off.'

‘Yes, Kurt,' Xavier replied. It was, after all, nearly time for dinner, and the poor elf had been working all day. And all day before that. He did have homework yet to do; the teachers weren't about to let the dance get in the way of homework!

Kurt BAMFed up to his room to change. The grunge clothes Logan'd lent him were covered in dust and worse.

Rogue was grumbling when she sat down between two empty seats. Ritsy'd been pestering her all weekend about Forge. That and she was having severe trouble in her German class, and Kurt had been suspended on the ceiling for two days. She hoped he'd at least come down to dinner today.

BAMF.

‘Hey, Kurt. Done the hanger yet?' Jean asked, drawing a groan out of him.

‘Do I even want to know why you're asking me?' he inquired.

‘'cause I think Bobby and his cronies might have left some wreckage up there that never got cleaned up,' Jean shrugged. ‘I'm not sure. We work that hanger pretty hard.'

‘Great. I have sooo much to look forward to tomorrow,' Kurt rolled his eyes. ‘I'm hungry. Where's Kitty?'

‘Right here,' came an indignant voice from above. Kitty phased through the ceiling and dropped slowly into her seat next to Rogue. ‘And Bobby said to start without him.'

The group stared suspiciously at the food. ‘That's never a good sign. Jubes? Did the icicle tell ya anything 'bout him rigging this tonight?' Wolverine asked. Of all the adults, he'd been the only one to get past Jubilee's talkative wall. Even her partner-in-crime, Bobby Drake, hadn't managed what Logan had. Not that anyone was willing to admit it, the least willing being Logan and Jubilee.

‘No-o-o,' the Chinese-American orphan eyed the food with the same suspicion as the others. ‘Not that ice cube wouldn't pull something on me.'

Jean sighed, surrounded herself in a telekinetic armor, and reached for the chicken. When nothing happened, she let it down and everyone else dug in. Bobby walked in to find everyone stuffing themselves and yapping. ‘Drat,' he muttered. ‘Didn't work.'

Then Rogue reached for the single untouched mashed potato bowl, and managed to pull her hand back when she realized what was about to happen. The bowl, on a spring, flew across the room.

The expression on Bobby's face, when revealed from under the potato, was priceless.

*

Jean was sitting in a couch across from the tv, watching a random show with glazed eyes. ‘Um, Jean? You're, like, totally glazed. Jean?'

‘Wha- oh, sorry Kitty. I was thinking about Kurt's little adventure on Friday.'

‘And Saturday,' Kitty giggled. ‘I can't believe Kurt, like, did that.'

Jean nodded as Kitty phased through the back of the couch and sat down. ‘I know. Neither can I. That's just the point. I mean, Kurt may be a trickster who could give Bobby a run for his money, but he's never done anything like this.'

The younger girl nodded. ‘You think, like, Amanda had something to do with it, like, right?'

‘Yeah,' Jean sighed, and leaned against the back of the couch. ‘And I mean, we really don't know what happened. She knows Kurt's a mutant, and they stayed out for nearly six hours. It's just -- not like him.'

‘But Kurt isn't, like, even taking his punishment work that hard. I mean, he's, like, complaining about it, but he like, never argued that he deserved it. Wouldn't he be, like, fretting, if Amanda'd been bugging him? Kurt's so, like, a perfectionist.'

The telepath listened but didn't really seem to hear. Her own thoughts occupied her. ‘Maybe,' she murmured and Kitty rolled her eyes.

‘When you're, like, not watching 'The Price is Right', like, tell the rest of us,' Kitty stood and walked up air as if climbing stairs, and vanished into the second-floor hallway.

Jean was still muttering to herself when she turned the tv off with telekinesis and walked up to her room. ‘I don't like it.'

*

Evan would have been laughing hysterically if it had been one of the New Mutants. Or Scott. Or Forge . . . But then, what was the likelihood that that guy would pull himself out of his science long enough to notice the other sex existed? But Kurt was sitting next to him, and even his hologram was white. Evan sighed. ‘Kurt, wouldja cut it? Your tail keeps lashing out of your hologram.'

‘Oh. Erm. Ja,' Kurt's tail vanished as he curled it around his leg.

*

Amanda's friend Candy snuck up behind her. ‘Hey, girl.'

‘Yipe!! Candy!'

‘On edge this morning, Amanda?' Candy grinned.

‘Hey, bigshot Junior, just because you've got a super-rich boyfriend you only see on the weekends doesn't mean you can tease me 'cause I'm a little nervous.'

‘You said you had a great time,' Candy pointed out.

‘Yeah, but staying out till four in the morning probably earned Kurt more lectures than he needs.'

‘You didn't get anything from-'

‘Candy, Cassie's only five years older than us. She wasn't expecting anything else. Besides, Cassie actually dug her boyfriend Steve out of that art studio of his. They saw Les Mis on Broadway, and he liked it!'

‘Hmm. And you two saw . . ?'

‘Candy.'

‘Fine! I'll go away!'

‘Nonono come BACK here!' Amanda grabbed her friends arm and dragged her toward her. ‘I mean, I . . .'

‘She's gone, isn't she, Candy? Fallen for this dude,' came a laugh from behind them. Another of Amanda's friends, Lee, smiled. The girl was dazzlingly blond, hair down to her hip. Aleytis Forrester could have any boy she wanted in ten seconds flat, yet she chose a rather rugged lifestyle. She, Candy and Amanda had quite different backgrounds.

‘So what if I have?' Amanda asked.

Lee sighed. ‘Well, you've been sighing over him for weeks. We were hoping this dance would uncover some dirt or something, and we could go back to normal.'

‘Dirt? On Kurt? Not likely,' Amanda scoffed. Well, with the one tiny little exception . . .

‘You know, that rhymes,' Candy pointed out. Amanda, however, wasn't paying any attention. Scott's car had pulled up.

*

‘Dude, if you go any whiter people are going to think you swallowed laudanum or something.'

‘I had no idea you even knew that word, Evan,' Jean pointed out from the front. She was actually riding with Scott this morning. More convenient than having Duncan drive over and pick her up. Especially if he caught a glimpse of the New Mutants. Jamie was likely to be a dozen or so, and Jean was simply glad she didn't have to stay home with Bobby all day. How the New Mutants put up with him, she had no clue. ‘Although he is right, Kurt. And at this rate, you won't be able to speak, either.'

‘Jean!' Kurt protested. ‘Please don't look in on my head unless it's asked, fraulein.'

‘I couldn't help it, Kurt. You're projecting.'

‘Verdamnt,' he muttered.

‘And you're switching back to German,' Rogue added.

‘You're all helping sooooo much. I don't know how to thank you,' Kurt growled.

‘Well, it would help if y'all got out,' Rogue pointed out. ‘Ahnother school day. Fun.' Rogue sighed. At least she'd gotten help on her German from Kurt -- it was a blessing to have a native speaker in the mansion. Not that she could pronounce half of it. Her Southern Twang was no blessing in foreign languages.

Kurt took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked toward the school. Jean was right behind him. It was true, he'd been projecting -- projecting wild, circular thoughts that swam and blended and vanished only to appear again. And this girl, this human who knew about him, was at the center of it all. I still don't like it . . .

*

‘Kurt?' Amanda called, hoping her voice was steady. ‘Kurt!'

The normal-looking boy glanced up as she called him name and smiled. Most of the nerves that had been wearing them both thin vanished. He walked to her, and Amanda found herself wishing he could teleport right about now .. .

Just as he reached her the warning bell rang, and they both winced. ‘Escort you to your locker, my Lady?' he inquired, a gleam of mischief in his eyes that shone through the hologram. He offered her his elbow. Laughing, Amanda accepted it.

‘Charmer.'

‘No one ever claimed I wasn't!'

Both were to enthralled in each other to notice two sets of eyes following them as they made their way to Amanda's locker.

*

The argument would have happened sooner or later. Kurt, though, wished it had been later. He had no idea what they might do if they were against this -- he might even be barred from seeing Amanda altogether. And then he knew he would be breaking the rules more often -- that one in particular.

‘Kurt, what is your opinion on all of this?' the Professor asking in that calm, deadpan manner of his.

Kurt's tail twitched behind him with nerves. He'd rather not be having this conversation at all. ‘I don't really think I have a legitimate opinion. I mean, she already knew I was a mutant. Knows I am a mutant. It wasn't exactly my choice to tell her or not. I mean, I don't think she'll have much of a problem with everyone else. But whether or not anyone else wants to divulge their secret isn't my choice to make.'

Xavier nodded. ‘There's no chance that she's another mutant? That Cerebro missed her, somehow?' Scott inquired.

‘None. I've performed every possible test with the exception of DNA testing, and unless her powers are extremely latent, Amanda Sefton is entirely human,' Xavier shook his head. ‘I must admit, Kurt, it is rather astounding that she simply accepted you for what and who you are, very nearly right away, and understood that it has to be kept secret.'

‘If I may venture a comment? I don't think what ever occurred to her, herr Professor. Only who,' Kurt, who was hanging on the ceiling, sounded perfectly serious. ‘She is quite an astounding person.'

‘I for one,' Jean said, completely breaking what had been an intelligent conversation with her interruption. ‘Don't want anyone to know. I mean, I'm glad you can trust Amanda and all that, but there are too many dangers associated with showing what we are. Mankind fears what it doesn't understand and can't control. That's why we're here.'

‘I don't know about you, but I had a loving, entirely human family for my entire life, who willing took in and raised what looked to be a baby demon and never once was I prejudiced against for how I looked and what I could do. The one time it did happen, I ended up here instead of the freak show. For my protection when they couldn't any more. And I don't know about you, but I was becoming tired of hiding from those who liked me.'

‘But Kurt, we weren't all even half as lucky as you. You may have been willingly adopted, but I spent most of my childhood in an orphanage,' bitterness shone clearly through Scotts normally neutral voice. Kurts protests fell silent.

‘An' ye may look ta be a demon, Kurt, but if anything I'm a werewolf,' Rahne spoke up. ‘Somethin' right out o' mankinds worst fears. I, like you, was raised by a loving adoptive mother -- but I still donnae trust th' world at large.'

Professor Xavier nodded. ‘I believe, Kurt, that although you have every right to continue seeing Miss Sefton, the majority would prefer you not divulge the X-Men's secret.'

‘So as far as 'Manda's concerned, I'm the only mutant at the Institute,' Kurt sighed. ‘Yes, Professor.'

‘Not just at the Institute, Kurt.'

‘The Brotherhood aren't mutants either, I know, I know. Is this quasi-meeting adjourned?'

‘Yes.'

‘Good. I have homework.'

BAMF.

‘That sounded kinda final,' Logans gruff voice commented. ‘Although how he managed to make something as simple as an implosion of air sound final I'll never know.'

Xavier sighed as the other students dispersed. ‘I think Kurt was upset by that conversation.'

‘Well, sure, Chuck. I could smell him down the hall. He doesn't like that he's the only one who trusts his girlfriend. No guy would.'

‘Jean hasn't had any of this trouble with Duncan -'

‘'cause Jeannie never wanted Duncan to find out she's a mutant.'

Xavier shook his head and wheeled over to Logan. ‘I thought I was the resident telepath.'

‘Yeah, but ya don't use your powers without permission. Not that I'm protestin', but I can't help it. I've got a nose fer emotions, literally.'

‘I hope we can sort this whole thing out.'

‘We may have larger problems than Kurts love life, Charles,' came Ororo's lilting voice from the doorway.

‘Ororo?'

‘You have heard of the Friends of Humanity?'

‘Yeah. That anti-mutant group who wants every mutant in a concentration camp -- with a kinder name, o' course,' Wolverine answered.

‘Well, they have far more sinister intentions than just that. There have been several recorded cases of suspected mutants being mobbed and beaten. One -- Professor, there is no proof, but I believe they have even killed one young woman.'

The stunned expression on both the Professor and Logans faces reflected their absolute astonishment. ‘Killed -- Someone? Tell me they ain't got a group in this area,' Logan growled. ‘'cause if they do, we may have at move.'

‘I'm not moving anywhere if I can help it, Logan. Anything else?'

Ororo sat in one of the many couches. ‘Professor, there is a group in this area. It's fairly small, and I would not be worried, except --'

‘Except.'

‘Except that the local leaders son, Graydon, is trying to start a branch of this rather elite club at Bayville High.'

If Xavier hadn't been sitting down, he'd have fallen into a chair himself. Logan, usually unshaken by anything, did lower himself into a chair. Danger to the kids he had come to watch over was the one thing he'd never wanted to happen. And if it was actually at their school . . . ‘Chuck, the New Mutants are pretty safe in here. We can't even send them to public school for the risk of their mutant powers. Is there any way we can protect the kids at school?'

‘Without interfering with what in within the schools rights? No. We'll just have to warn them, and hope that if anything happens, they can take care of themselves. This is out of our league.'

*

‘It's kinda, creepy, y'know? I like, keep looking over my shoulder. I keep having to, like, remind myself to walk on the actual ground.'

The only Freshman of the group, Kitty was the most worried. She had enough to worry about without this added on top of it. ‘Yeah, well, they can't be as bad as their adult counterpart. I mean, that group who might've killed someone was across the country,' Scott pointed out.

‘Don't worry, Kitty. And if something happens -- to anyone -- give a shout. I'll get everyone together,' Jean reassured her. ‘And Kurt -- I know you don't like it, but keep an eye on Amanda. She could really be little more than pretty bait.'

Kurt growled.

‘Hey, who's talkin', miss can't-make-up-her-mind?' Rogue shot back in the defense of her foster-brother. ‘Y'all gonna be keeping' an eye on Duncan?'

‘I will be,' Scott muttered.

‘No, because Duncan doesn't know I'm a mutant,' Jean pointed out. ‘Just like I'm not asking you to keep an eye on Ritsy.'

Rogue shook her head. ‘Y'all can be as hypocritical as yah want; Ah'm keeping one eye on Ritsy. She's seen enough ta make her more than suspicious.'

‘Most of our school has, Rogue,' Jean pointed out sarcastically.

Scott pulled into a parking lot around the back. Kurt was the first to hop out and make his way into school, without so much as a backward glance for those still in the car.

Kurt . . . Calm. Down. You're only mad at Jean. Don't give everyone else the cold shoulder. And you know one of the reasons you're so mad at Jean is because she could be right. Now, you swashbuckling, heroic elf, go court your lady and pretend you don't have a mob out for your head, Kurt shuddered slightly. He'd had, as he'd said to Amanda, too many bad experiences with mobs and his unorthodox appearance. One of them, the last, had even involved a stake.

So don't pull a Winzeldorf, fuzz-brain, and flash your charming smile, 'cause here she comes!

*

‘There's something bothering Kurt.'

Those were the first words out of Amanda's mouth as she sat down at he lunch table with her usual group of friends. Their reactions varied.

Lee was annoyed, and something akin to anger sparked in her blue eyes. She'd never understood why Candy and Amanda had gone and gotten themselves boyfriends. Colleen, sensible brown hair and eyes, just rolled her eyes and put up with it. She'd had a crush on Scott for years, though as everyone but Jean and Teryn could see he was clearly taken, she kept it at the level of mild crush. Although she did happen to think he was stuffy. Candy pounded her head on the lunch table.

‘Amanda, you're making me think it's a good thing I only see Warren on weekends! You've been practically obsessing since you went to the dance with him. I'm going to hear you out, but only because I've done the same thing and I know it doesn't go away until you've talked to your friends about it.'

‘Was that what was with the incident last week where --' Candy put a hand over Colleens mouth before she could finish her sentence. Lee stifled giggle. This time it was Amanda's turn to roll her eyes.

‘I dunno. He was just a little -- jittery. More than usual, I mean.'

‘That guy must have the metabolism of a hyperactive squirrel. He should be on Ridilin or something,' Lee pointed out. ‘He kinda twitches.'

‘I love your opinion of my boyfriend,' Amanda stated sarcastically.

‘Yeah, well, tough.'

‘But he was so, like -- word, word, I need a word . . .'

‘Will distracted do?' Candy offered.

‘Yes!' Amanda very nearly physically tried to pounce on the word. ‘Why? How'd you know?'

‘Because Kurt's always walking around with some weird, I dunno, balance, like he's got some weird foot condition, but always manages to look really good and be really graceful. But he, uh, just ran into a table.'

Colleen and Lee stifled laughs, turning them into grunts, and Amanda stood a little to look over Candy's head. Yup. There was the hologram over the real Kurt Wagner, picking his tray off the offending table. Miraculously, it had managed to keep most of the food on it.

‘Case in point,' she gestured. ‘He's never like this.'

‘Says the girl who's known him for five days,' Colleen pointed out.

‘Yeah, but with some people you can just tell. And that's totally not like Kurt.'

‘Can we please change the subject?' Lee begged.

Colleen shrugged. ‘To what?'

‘Warren?' Candy suggested, sitting up straight.

Lee pushed her off her seat in disgust.

*

Kurt walked into the mansion, absently humming 'I'm Blue' under his breath. ‘Kurt. You have a one-on-one session with Logan today. Why're you so happy?'

‘Because, as a last-request sort of thing, I took Amanda to a movie,' Kurt explained, his tail bouncing jauntily in time with his humming.

‘Good movie?' Scott assumed.

‘Good company,' Kurt corrected. Then the alarm on his holowatch beeped, and he winced. ‘Well. I suppose I should change for my death, shouldn't I?'

BAMF!

Scott sensed Jean behind him, and wondered for a moment why Kurt hadn't greeted her as well. Then he realized, to his astonishment, that she hadn't wanted the elf to know she was there. ‘I've never seen him -- or anyone -- that giddy before a match with Logan,' he commented, hoping to get Jean to talk about whatever was bothering her. Because something was, or she'd have greeted Kurt same as he did.

‘He's been awful carefree, lately,' she replied, almost darkly.

‘Kurt's always been carefree,' Scott pointed out.

Jean shook her head. ‘Not like this. I mean, I don't know, but he's been not-Kurt-ish for a week now.'

‘You're referring to the dance, and who asked him, who now knows he's a mutant,' Scott clarified.

‘Okay, yeah. I guess I am. I just don't think it's possible for anyone to get used to Kurt that quickly. It took us a week or more to get used to him, and we're both mutants as well.'

‘Who were living with him at the time, and who had to put up with him BAMF-ing in and out of places constantly. I think it took him longer to learn his way around the mansion than anyone else, because he kept teleporting places.' Scott tried for a laugh. Jean's face remained stoic.

‘Jean, this is his choice.'

‘But he's putting the rest of us in danger as well! It's only a short hop from Kurt to the Institute to the rest of us. Even a stupid person could figure it out,' Jean argued.

‘Then maybe we should have told her, if she's going to find out about us anyway,' Scott snapped, face flushed with anger. ‘That would at least give her a chance to prove she isn't anti-mutant, and is really a good enough person to accept Kurt right away, even when we didn't.'

‘And if she sees the rest of us and freaks? I'm sure one mutant she can get her mind around, but a whole houseful?' contended Jean, throwing back her red hair.

As much as I love Jean, she can be as stubborn as an ox sometimes, Scott thought, annoyed. ‘And if she does, the professor can just mind-wipe her of the Institute. Kurt probably would prefer Amanda be able to accept us.'

‘You know the Professor doesn't like to mind-wipe people.'

‘That wouldn't stop him this one time, I think.'

Jean angrily tossed her hair behind her and rolled her eyes. ‘I just don't like this whole situation!' She declared before stalking off.

Letting out a breath, Scott slid down farther into his seat. When she's mad like that, I'm thinking it's a good thing she's not mad at me!

*

‘Kurt?'

‘Ja, 'Manda?'

‘You don't have to answer this, but does everyone at the Institute know you're a mutant?'

Kurt did his best to keep his face still. Although he had promised not to tell her about the X-Men and the Brotherhood, he wasn't sure how to answer this question. If he said no, she'd never believe him; after all, the first time she'd caught a glimpse of him, he's 'ported right in front of Rogue. So the answer was yes, but he'd have to be even more careful not to give everyone else away.

‘Yeah. I definitely scared them when they first did the same thing you did: caught me without my watch on,' he shrugged, and tried for a sheepish grin. She laughed. ‘I'm just lucky Professor Xavier and the rest knew me well enough by then to only take a week to get used to me.'

Amanda was about to venture another comment when a commotion down the hall interrupted them. Some girl was complaining down the hall loudly enough to interrupt anyone for a second. ‘Graydon's, like, so moronic. He doesn't want anyone in his stupid 'people first' club that doesn't hate some minority or another. I mean, it's not like it's on the club creed or something, but if they find out you don't hate someone, they'll find a way to kick you out. Y'know how Belladonna's been absent for nearly a week? Well, I heard that she's not sick. I heard Graydon and his group beat up on her. But thugs like him and that stupid Duncan Matthews are too big to get any accusation like that carried through.'

Kurt didn't recognize the voice, but Amanda did. ‘Hey, Colleen! What's this 'bout Belle and Graydon?' When Kurt gave her a questioning look, she explained. ‘Belladonna's a Junior, moved here from New Orleans a month ago. She's in Colleen and mine science class.'

Colleen and Candy looked up, and saw Kurt and Amanda talking at his locker. ‘Well, there's no proof or anything, I mean, it's just some weird rumor, but the club that senior, Graydon Brent, started, Friends of Humanity? It's supposedly got all these weird rules that make no sense, and for a group that's supposed to go out and help people they have some pretty strange members,' Colleen explained.

Candy broke in. ‘Colleen was saying that Graydon and his group were the ones that put Belladonna outta school for a four days.'

‘She's not sick?'

‘Well, sick's what her parents are claiming, but I don't believe it for a second. They just don't want a court case with the Brents,' Colleen shook her head.

‘Well, at least I've got nothing to worry about,' Candy grinned. ‘Graydon can try for me all he likes. He couldn't get a step past Warren's lawyers.'

Amanda shuddered. ‘Well, I'm staying with a fourth cousin and I'm not even an American citizen. I'm staying out of his way.'

‘You know, I heard Graydon's adopted. Anybody have any idea what his birth last name is?' Kurt asked unexpectedly.

‘No clue. But I'm sure it'll be in the school records or something. Why?' wondered Colleen.

‘I dunno. His name just sounded a little familiar,' Kurt shook his head. ‘I guess I'm imagining things. Amanda, I have to go -- I'll see you in school tomorrow, okay?'

‘Uh -- yeah, sure, Kurt. Why the sudden hurry?' she queried.

‘I just have -- a few things to do,' he replied, then threw his backpack over his back and headed unerringly for the Institute. Amanda raised an eyebrow.

‘Nice exit,' Candy commented. ‘Are you sure you like that guy?'

*

‘I know that there isn't any proof, Professor, but I think this deserves checking out. What if it's true?'

‘And what if it's only idle gossip, Kurt? What do we do then?' Xavier inquired. He knew his students had been unsuitably frightened by the threat FOH presented, but he hadn't thought that anyone would go as far as to believe that high school students would be capable of putting a girl in the hospital for a week . . .

Then again, Xavier, you lived in a different time. Maybe, when half of school shot-outs don't even make the evening news, Kurt's fear could simply be reasonable worry, Xavier sighed at the thought. Things had changed so much -- not that they'd been perfect -- but children had gone to high school and hadn't feared their classmates.

‘If it's only idle gossip, Professor, we praise the club for their humanitarian efforts and stop living in fear,' Kurt would normally have made a comic picture, hanging from the chandelier by his tail, but his completely serious attitude and the severity of what he spoke nixed even the idea of laughter.

Which wasn't like him.

‘I think we should make an effort to scope out at least the high school level of the Friends of Humanity. If all our paranoia has been for nothing, at least Kitty can stop looking over her shoulder when she walks down hallways, and I can stop checking my image inducer every ten seconds, afraid it's on the fritz again.'

‘Kid makes sense, Chuck,' Logan commented, leaning on the doorframe.

‘Do you ever knock, or do you assume a conversation requires your commentary?' Xavier asked, slightly annoyed.

Logan grinned. ‘Two-way conversation or no, Chuck, elf's got a point. What I'm trin' at figure out is how we get out o' there if he's right.'

The professor sighed. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. ‘Alright. We'll ask the X-Men, and if they think it's worth investigating, we'll have to come up with some way to infiltrate the organization.'

*

The X-Men clamored their agreement with Nightcrawler, and Xavier, Logan and Ororo spent the next week attempting to figure out a way to pull out should FOH be an essentially anti-mutant group. It would have to be infiltrated by one of the students, and that's what had them worried. The X-Men could be on call for an entire meeting, but it would be nerve-racking and each time the aforementioned student went, it became more and more likely that they would be discovered.

‘I am not entirely certain how we thought to accomplish this in the first place!' Ororo declared, frustrated. ‘What we have to come up with is a way to get to the bottom -- the true purpose -- of the high school level of what is, essentially, a mutant-hate group. All without risking the students in too high a fashion. Even assuming we could do this, choosing whom to go is nearly impossible. Kurt, Rogue and Scott are out of the question, Kitty is only a freshman and unlikely to discover anything at all because of it, Evan is slightly impetuous, and although Jean seems our best candidate, I must say that as of late, I am not certain I would trust her judgment to remain unaltered by her personal opinion. Which leaves us, of course, with no possible course of action.'

‘Why wouldn't Jeannie give a true report? She's in as much danger as anyone else,' Logan pointed out.

‘Duncan Matthews is one of the upper-level members of the Friends of Humanity. She is already too close to the situation,' Ororo informed him.

Logan felt like growling. ‘Great. I never liked that kid.'

‘Yes, well, Scott heartily shares your opinion, and Kitty as well, though not nearly as fiercely. She doesn't like him because he looks down his nose at freshmen,' Xaiver sighed (again). ‘There is an option we haven't considered, though obviously because it doesn't apply, at the moment.'

‘Okay. Lemme guess: you've been holdin' out on us about this fer a week 'cause it didn't seem 'plausible' to ya. So tell.'

Xavier took a breath (wow! Inhale instead of exhale! Yes, yes, shuttingupnow). ‘We could have a human acquaintance of the X-Men do reconnaissance for us.'

‘Charles, the X-Men don't have . . .' Ororo began, then trailed off as a thought occurred to her. ‘Amanda.'

Logan was rarely surprised by the Professor. He'd known the man too long. But this . . . ‘Um, Chuck? We already had this discussion. Nearly a month ago. The kids all voted not to let Amanda in on their secret.'

‘Besides, Charles, it would be cruel to the child for us to trust her simply because we have no one else to trust. We would not even be telling her because we think enough of her, but only because we need to place her in a position we would not put our own students in,' the windrider pointed out. ‘Not only cruel, but against the policies of the Institute.'

‘Back to the drawing board.'

*

The drawing board, however, revealed no better ideas. When Xavier brought the idea up to the students -- all of them, New Mutants and X-Men alike -- the vote was out for two days on how to handle it.

Then something made up their minds for them.

*

Candy arrived at school Monday distracted and unwilling to discuss what was making her so jumpy. She kept glancing over her shoulder and was starting to remind Amanda of a bad movie. Finally, during lunch, she dragged her friend out onto the lawn/forest/band of scrawny trees where no one really went.

‘Tell,' she demanded. ‘You've been acting weird all day, and it's got Colleen, Lee and I worried. There's something wrong, Candy, don't even try to pretend there isn't.'

Candy broke down into tears.

‘Candy, I- I'm sorry, what's wrong?' Amanda crouched down next to her friend as she sunk to the ground.

'I can't tell you I can't tell I can't!' Candy whispered almost mindlessly. 'I can't I can't I can't!'

'Candy, you know you can tell me anything. Please, this is making you go nuts! You have to tell someone, if it's doing this to you. What's wrong?!'

'Warren,' she whispered. 'He's - not normal, Amanda. And the - people, people tried to hurt him for it. He's been hospitalized, and he made me promise not to tell anyone what really happened, because they could come after him again . . .'

Amanda went out on a limb, praying she was right. 'Candy, is Warren a mutant?'

Mutely, Candy nodded. 'I - oh, God, don't tell anyone, Amanda! He's already gotten mobbed, hospitalized, for what he can't help. He's - ' Candy smiled dreamily. 'He has wings. I call him 'Angel', and they're beautiful, Amanda. He took me flying, once. Just up there without a care in the world, shooting over downtown Manhattan.' Candy smiled at the memory, right after Warren had told her he was a mutant, unstrapping his wings from the harness that gave him his normal public appearance. 'I don't see why people want to kill him for it,' she finished in a whisper.

'Who, Candy? Who attacked him?'

Candy stared up at her friend in dazed astonishment. 'You mean you're not going to go get a white jacket for me? Send me to the place with padded walls? Go after Warren with pitchforks and torches?'

Amanda smiled. 'Not a chance, Candy. I'm in the same boat. I have a few friends who are mutants. Who was it, Candy? Who went after your Angel?'

Candy sighed. 'You have no idea how nice it is to finally tell someone. You really do have to meet Warren - the real Warren, not the stiff-faced billionares son.'

'Without wings.'

'Yeah. He's much nicer when his wings aren't all cramped up under some stupid suit,' then Candy's eyes glazed a moment before returning. 'It was the Friends of Humanity, Amanda. The adult branch, but it was them, with their FOH hats and shirts and torches,' she muttered, adding the last part darkly. 'If you know any - are friends with any - warn them, Amanda. This group means business.'

'And most everyone ignores mutants. There are too few of them, most in hiding because they know what'll happen if they're seen,' Amanda commented. 'It's a statement that we can't accept them for who instead of what.'

'Amen to that, sister!' Candy said, making Amanda burst out laughing.

'You over this?'

'Over it. Though I'm still gonna be watching for Graydon over my shoulder,' Candy told her, letting Amanda pull her to her feet. 'Oh, by the way. Kurt wanted to know Graydon's birth last name? It's Creed. Graydon Creed.'

*

'Kurt! Kurt, get over here!' Amanda yelled, gesturing wildly. Kurt's holographic eyebrows rose into his hairline, mimicking his real ones.

'You are in a mood today,' he commented. 'What?'

For the second time that day, Amanda dragged one of her friends back into the forest. Neither of them noticed someone following, far behind. 'Your fuzzy blue hide is in real trouble, mister.'

'What'd I do?!'

'You were born,' she muttered darkly. 'Shut up and listen. One of my friend's boyfriend got attacked over the weekend, and it put him in the hospital.'

'Attacked . . ?'

'By the Friends of Humanity. Kurt, he has wings. Whatever that group says it is, it isn't. Colleen and Candy were more than right; it's some sort of mutant-hate group,' Amanda leaned against a tree as she watched Kurt absorb this. 'Oh, weird side note. Candy found out Graydon's birth last name. Creed.'

'MEIN GOTT IN HIMMEL!!' Kurt screeched, and vanished with a BAMF.

*

'PROFESSOR!!!!' Kurt screeched after the three 'ports it took him to get back to the mansion.

*Kurt, what's going on? Why aren't you in school?*

Because I just found out that Angel was attacked this weekend. One of Amanda's friends is dating him, and it has her scared stiff.

*Attacked by whom?*

Supposedly? The Friends of Humanity. And tell Logan that an old friend may have dropped some baggage in this town.

'What's Chuck sayin' 'bout an old friend o' mine? I got too many to keep 'em straight, elf, so out with it.'

Kurt's yellow eyes were slightly wild throughout the conversation. 'Graydon Brent, the guy who started the high school branch, and his father started the regular one? He's adopted. His real name is Graydon Creed.'

Logan's claws smoothly entered and exited out through the other side of a wall as he roared. The New Mutants, Amara included, quickly found hiding places. 'He has a kid he has a flamin' kid . . . Of all the lousy people on this planet to have children, does it really have to be him?!'

'Sabretooth with a son . . . I do not find this prospect a good sign. But then, why is the son of a mutant so determined to wipe them out?' Xavier asked as he wheeled into the room.

'Any number of reasons . . . foremost being that he doesn't know his own father was a mutant, and the man he does call father raised him to hate us!' Kurt ended in a screech. Across the hall, Rahne winced.

'Kurt, calm down. For one, get back to school. You'll be missed. Act as if nothing has happened, or Graydon may connect you with the Angel incident. That could very easily bring down what we've tried to build here. Who told you? Or was it gossip?'

'Amanda,' Kurt took several deep breaths, then 'ported out without so much as a by-your-leave.

'Amanda. She knows about Angel. Another mutant, and we didn't even know,' Logan commented.

'I believe, Charles, Logan, that we have just had our minds made up for us on whether or not to allow Amanda to knows about the Institute,' Ororo commented from Logans usual spot in the doorway. 'We need a plant, and the girl has just volunteered herself.'

*

'Amanda?'

'Kurt! I didn't see you after you BAMFed yesterday. Is everything alright? Where did you go?' she asked, worried.

Kurt was flicking his tail back and fourth with nerves. The tiny forest-like setting outside the school but still on grounds. Kurt had perched in the branches of a tree, and much to his surprise, Amanda had followed him up. He had also ditched his image inducer.

'Back to the Institute. I've kind of been not exactly telling the truth.'

'*Gasp*! You're not really a mutant, are you? You lied to me!'

Kurt had to hang onto the tree to keep from falling out. 'You are a bad person,' he shook his finger at her. 'I was actually attempting to be serious for once.'

'Oh, dear. Kurt's being serious. Shall I run for the hills?'

''Manda!'

'Sorry. The opportunity was simply too good to miss. Now: What?'

'Everyone at the Institute? They don't just know I'm a mutant. Scott, Jean, Rogue, Evan, Kitty . . . They're all mutants. Everyone at the Institute is a mutant - Professor Xavier is the worlds most powerful telepath, Logan has these huge adamantium claws, Ms. Munroe controls the weather, and Mr. McCoy, who used to teach Chemistry here, has long blue fur and an apelike appearance. He's more touchy about it than I am.'

'Everyone . . .' Amanda shook her head. 'Not precisely a shock, but this will take some getting used to. What - what type of mutations do the students have, if one of your teachers can control the weather?'

'Scott fires beams of force from his eyes - '

'His ever-present glasses!'

'Ja. Jean is a telepath/telekinetic, Evan shoots his bones from his body and instantly regrows them, Kitty can become intangible, and Rogue . . . if anyone ever touches Rogue's skin, she drains their life force, putting them into a coma and allowing her to gain whatever special abilities that person has. With mutants, she gains mutations.'

Amanda looked rather overwhelmed.

'There's more.'

'Oh, boy.'

'The New Mutants are mostly in junior high, or would be if they could control their powers. Sam Guthrie can fly, Rahne Sinclair is a . . . well, she's a werewolf, Roberto DeCosta can take energy from the sun and turn black, giving him strength and flight, Bobby Drake can lower the temperature around him enough to freeze water molecules, Jubilation Lee creates a chemical reaction that allows her to shoot firework-like things out of her hands, Amara Aquilla controls flame and magma, Danielle Moonstar has the ability to manifest images from other peoples minds as illusions, and Jamie Madrox, who clones himself every time his body impacts something hard enough.'

There was a Pause.

'Um . . . oh, dear. That's . . . quite a lot of mutants.'

'And we all live under one roof.'

Amanda glanced at Kurt, who was dangling in front of her. 'So . . . do I ever get to meet these people, or do they become the stuff of legends?'

*

When the couple walked in, the first thing that Rogue thought - well, perhaps the second thing she thought. The first was that if this girl hurt Kurt, who was close enough to almost be a brother, she would pay for it. So Rogue's second thought was that they made a colorful picture.

Kurt wasn't gaudy by any means, but he had blue fur, yellow eyes, and red and black on his uniform. Standing next to him at about the same height, Amanda seemed rather plain. Medium brown skin, brown hair streaked with different shades, and brown eyes so dark they were almost black. Even her clothes were conservative; certainly not up to Rogue's rather showy standard. There was a single tense moment; this was the first time anyone who wasn't a mutant had been brought into the fold.

Then Bobby ruined the moment by sliding down the stairs on an ice ramp, right past Amanda, and out the front door. Following close on his heels was Jubilee, hair dyed an obnoxious shade of pink and paffing him for all she was worth whenever he came within range. Neither of the New Mutants seemed to notice Amanda.

Kurt blinked once, then sighed. 'That was Bobby Drake, and the firecracker on his tail is Jubilee.'

Amanda stifled a giggle. 'I take it her hair wasn't supposed to look like that?'

'Oh, it was. She just didn't know it,' at this the poor girl burst out laughing, and the tension ceased.

Where ever Kurt and Amanda went that day, they seemed to be followed by the various members of the Xavier Institute, who were almost always using their powers. Jean was studying in the yard while holding her history book up with TK, Kitty fell through the kitchen ceiling (and the kitchen table), Sam whacked Jamie on the head, producing a dozen copies of him, Beast in his lab wandering around on the ceiling ('What is it with you blue people and walls?') and Amanda discovered what she thought was a pet to be Rahne Sinclair, Wolfsbane.

Amanda also met Logan at his most nonchalant, popping off the top of a beer with one of his claws. Ororo rolled her eyes at him, but did nothing more. 'Oh, good morning. You must be Amanda?'

'Somehow I doubt that I would be anyone else. This is definitely an - interesting - place,' she replied. 'Do you teach here?'

'Yes, both Logan and I assist, although in very different areas. Tell me, where do you come from, Miss Sefton?'

Oh, bad . . . loaded question alert! Amanda thought of half a dozen different answers and decided to go with a half-truth. 'Germany. I'm here as an exchange student with my cousin, Cassie.'

‘Germany?' Ororo asked, one eyebrow raised. ‘You are aware that's where Kurt is from, correct?'

‘Of course!' Amanda stuttered. Kurt raised his eyebrows. He'd forgotten about her usual shyness, especially after they had fallen into the habit of teasing each other. She wasn't shy with her friends, either -- he'd seen her get into what looked like some pretty heated arguments with them. But she never raised her hand in class, or ever talked to anyone else -- and Kurt felt like slapping himself on the forehead. At least Logan's shut up! ‘It's the accent.'

‘Well, most of us around here have some accent or another,' Ororo pointed out. Amanda nodded. ‘That's almost as weird to listen to as --'

‘ROBERT DRAKE, IF THIS IS PERMANENT YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO STAND FOR A WEEK!!!' Jubilee screeched from somewhere nearby.

‘Well, that,' Amanda gestured to the ice slide that had appeared across the kitchen door, with Iceman riding it for all he was worth. Kurt snickered.

‘He's worse than me,' he commented, smirking. ‘Nice not to constantly be the one whose blood they're after.'

*

‘So . . .'

Amanda and Kurt ended up perched on one of the peaks of the roof, Kurt with his toes curled around the edge and Amanda dangling her legs over the three-story drop. Amanda had been introduced to the entirety of the Institute, and been greeted differently by each person. Rahne and Beast, who'd been the most worried about her reaction to their appearance, only grinned when they heard her getting into another argument with Kurt over his image inducer.

Of course, it startled Amanda when Kurt gave a wolf a long-suffering look, and the wolf turned into Rahne.

‘Well, this is probably some of our favorite spot to be alone. It doesn't help when two or three people come up here, all at once.'

‘How many times have those who can fly had to catch people?'

‘Several.'

Amanda studied his face. It was drawn beneath indigo fur, and his amber eyes were distracted. ‘Hey. Elf. There's something you're not telling me, and after all this, I'm not sure I'd even be surprised.'

Kurt sighed. ‘You have yet to meet the Professor, and he'll tell you. I think he just wanted to gauge your reaction to this,' Kurt gestured, encompassing the grounds and all that implied. ‘beforehand.'

Amanda stared ahead, almost not noticing that Bobby and Jubilee (who were still at it), were coming rather close. ‘I'm not going to say that this doesn't bother me, Kurt. One of you was okay, but it'll take me a little longer to adjust to this.'

‘But you're not afraid of us?'

Amanda raised an eyebrow, and turned her attention back to Kurt. ‘I'm afraid that Bobby's going to run someone over, but other than that -- no. This place is a good idea. I mean, despite the fact that I know you group have used your powers at school more than once, the worst reaction being those 'blue demon' stories, and I think they're a little off,' she teased.

‘Of course! No one's looked long enough to see my roguish good looks,' he grinned.

‘I'm not sure roguish is the right term, oh fuzzy elf. By the way . . . That girl is over-protective of you. What's with her?'

Kurt rolled his eyes. ‘You remember Principal Darkholme?'

‘Yes.'

‘She's a mutant, too. A shape shifter. That wasn't her real form. She's -- blue. With yellow eyes.'

‘Mein . . .'

‘Ja. I'm adopted. She's my birth mother. And Rogue's foster mother. She's kind of like a sister.'

‘Oh, good. For a moment I thought I had competition.'

‘Not likely,' Kurt muttered. When he was around Amanda he usually forgot that he was a monster to the rest of the world. He'd been moody all day, and Amanda rolled her eyes.

‘Fuzzy, if any decent girl saw you I would have competition. It's almost enough to make me grateful for that watch,' Amanda said the word with loathing, and Kurt laughed.

‘Come on. It's a bad thing to keep a telepath waiting.'

*

You have the most amusing expression on your face, Chuck. Something wrong?

*I don't know. It could be a problem. Some people are naturally guarded against telepathy. Amanda is one of them.*

Amanda was sitting across from Xavier, while Kurt sat calmly on the ceiling. Logan leaned against the door, ignoring the dozen or so ears pressed against it. ‘Professor, I mean -- I'm -- I mean, I happy that you trusted me enough to tell me about this place, but I get the idea that it wasn't any proof of my sterling character that made you tell me.'

Xavier sighed. ‘I'm afraid not, Miss Sefton. We have a rather large problem, and no way of dealing with it ourselves. You warned Kurt about an attack made on a mutant named Angel two days ago -- not one of us, but an acquaintance of ours. You said that you believed it was carried out by the Friends of Humanity.'

Amanda shook her head. ‘Candy. My friend, Candy, was there, with W-- Angel. It was them.'

‘Then we need your help.'

*

Brown eyes ringed in yellow watched the spectacle at the Institute from afar. There was a hill the clever psychic leader of the Freaks hadn't counted on. A small, nondescript building had seemingly miraculously appeared there overnight. The building, much like the one it had been built to watch over, wasn't everything it appeared to be.

Graydon Creed watched the mutie activity with little interest -- although the antics of the ice-freak were entertaining at times. Hmm. Sis'd look entertaining if she had pink hair . . .

He had watched the muties who infected his school for weeks on end, noting everything about them and their powers. Many -- too many -- were altogether too dangerous to ever be allowed to live, even though their destructive powers might be helpful -- say, in construction projects. Two were scheduled for caged confinement, as they were more animal than human anyway. He wondered briefly if the nearly-extinct gene for fur in humans was coded as blue, or if it was another aspect of their inhumanity. None of the other adults would live, their mutations were too powerful -- telepathy, weather, and those astonishing claws . . . His skeleton could be scientifically useful.

Once removed from his body, of course.

He'd figured all this out weeks ago. His companions had abandoned the lookout post, using instead the other useful aspects of the base of the core Friends of Humanity. But Graydon had a hunch about these. He was sure they held the key to getting to most of -- if not all of -- the active mutants in Bayville.

That they'd been foolish enough to allow a human into their midst had been a surprise.

Ever since finding out about his parents, Graydon had loathed mutants. How dare his mother do this to him, drop him off and leave! Giving him only a description and a name to go with his father, a man he'd never met. Leaving behind only a harsh memory of realizing his mother was a mutant as she left him. Traded around until adopted, Graydon had harbored a grudge against both his parents as well as to mutants in general, his young mind making the connection parents bad-parents mutants-mutants bad.

When he had been adopted, he was delighted to discover his new parents, who gave him a brand-new last name, Brent, and more fuel to add to his childhood aversion to mutants. Mutants could control people. Mutants could hurt people. They were like wolves, hunting to bring down other, innocent, normal people. His new parents first taught him to fear mutants -- then they coaxed his antipathy into hatred.

‘Anything interesting on your 'watch', Graydon?' his father asked, highly amused that his son had been staring out the window at the same old scene for so long.

Graydon paused before answering. ‘Actually, this time, yes. They've admitted a human into their sanctuary.'

‘A -- human? Are you sure?'

Graydon smirked. ‘Yes.'

‘You'd better be, because the last time when Harold thought they'd admitted a human it was that ghastly Rogue --'

‘She's human. Foreign exchange student, and she's been to the nurses office to ask for a bandage for a paper cut. We got blood, tested it, and there is an X-factor gene, but only one instead of the required two, and recessive to boot. Like me.'

‘She's more human than you, Graydon, genetically speaking, but not all humans are angels. And that one has stepped in far deeper than she could ever have imagined.

*

The extensive complex beneath the unkept house above would have impressed -- and frightened -- Xavier. Community centers, meeting rooms, day care, lounges, target ranges, training centers, a huge network of computers and every type of scientific lab created by man, all underneath the small house that was merely a disguise for an observation deck and heart of the original Friends of Humanity. All lavishly decorated with the finest of materials and the best and most high-tech equipment money could buy, much of it illegal.

Within steel walls and sitting around a table were four men planning an enticement, an abduction, a hostage, a ransom, and eventually --

The beginning of a Great Purge.

*

Kurt had offered to drive Amanda home -- Charles only hoped he'd at least ask Scott to borrow the car, or he'd have to give the elf more punishment work when he really didn't need it. ‘Ororo, Logan -- Did we do the right thing? Enlisting a child when none of us can do the job?'

Neither answered.

*

‘You don't have to do this if you don't want to.'

Kurt was leaning casually against a locker near Amanda's after school two days later. His demeanor was nonchalant and his face calm but inside he seethed with worry, even his hypersensitive tail knotted with tension. And he wasn't worried about himself.

Amanda flippantly tossed a strand of hair behind her shoulder, then looked up at Kurt with dark brown eyes. ‘I saw Angel yesterday,' she told him. ‘The only parts of him that weren't black and blue were his wings and his bandages, and whatever's under them is worse than bruises. He didn't even dare go to a hospital for fear that it might happen all over again. It just --' she clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms, face flushed. ‘It infuriates me. If I can stop that from happening again, especially to people I'm close to, I will.'

Kurt shook his head, amazed. He had never thought that he would meet anyone who became so angry because someone she didn't even know got hurt. He reached out a hand and pulled her to him. ‘Did anyone ever tell you you're an amazing person?'

‘Flatterer,' she accused. She was shaking slightly, so that Kurt only noticed when he wrapped his tail around her waist. Amanda leaned her back against his chest, sighing.

‘Nien,' he denied. ‘Truth only. You are going into danger -- less for you, because you're human -- for a group of people you were unaware existed a month ago. And you are frightened. Yet you're going anyway.'

Amanda let out a breath. ‘Alright. I am scared. But I'm the only one who can do this safely -- I can tell I'm the first human to find out about the Institute. So it's my responsibility.'

Kurt leaned forward and gave her a confused look. ‘How is this in any remote way your responsibility?'

‘I'm -- not sure how to say it. I suppose it's the duty of humans to look after human nature, and make sure it doesn't destroy us. Hatred of anything leads only to evil. And besides,' her tone grew lighter, and twisting around, she poked him in the shoulder. ‘I like ya. What would I do without a fuzzy blue elf in my life?'

‘Have Saturday nights free?' he suggested cheerfully.

‘Kurt!'

‘Yes?' he inquired, face innocent.

She glared mockingly at him. ‘I will see you later,' she told him, pointing a finger at him.

‘Auf wiedershen.'

*

Graydon nearly had a heart attack when the girl he'd seen in the Institute showed up at a meeting.

They don't . . . know?! But the description of a woman hanging around our Seattle branch described the weather-witch perfectly . . .

Graydon, however, wasn't going to ignore his incredible luck. The Friends of Humanity had just gotten a gift dropped into their laps, and he was going to ensure that it didn't become the story of the one who got away.

He went on with the mock-meeting, announcing a field trip in two weeks, and reminded the senior members of the extended meeting later on. He and the almost non-existent teacher supervisor discussed the upcoming field trip, their past successes (for new members), and read a letter (forged) from a little girl they'd helped. Duncan Matthews provided the 'coolness' factor that excluded FOH from the ranks of geek-clubs, simply by standing in the back of the room, glaze-eyed, and waiting for the mock-meeting to end so the real meeting could start. The meeting, like many of the others, ended quickly with permission slips for the field trip. Graydon caught the sophomore, Amanda Sefton, on the way out.

‘Amanda Sefton, right? You're new.'

‘My first meeting,' she replied, almost too softly for him to hear. Amanda was playing up her reputation for shyness -- not that Graydon needed to know. ‘The field trip sounded interesting.'

‘Thinking of coming? I mean, handing out food isn't all we do, especially when we go downtown like this,' Graydon coaxed. He analyzed her in a flash. If she was always this shy, he could probably coax her into coming downtown, and convince her of FOH's sincerity. He'd invite her to an 'inner circle' meeting afterward, and bully her into it if he had to. Then they'd kidnap her, alert the telepath -- someone else would have to think of how -- and then FOH would have them!

Amanda smiled through a lock of hair that had fallen across her face, though she was grinding her teeth so hard she was certain he could hear her. ‘I hope so. I really like this. Um, I'd, love to stay and talk, but I'm getting picked up. See you next week!' she tried to be cheerful, but knew it sounded forced. There was something rotten about Graydon Brent -- or, she should say, Graydon Creed. From what Wolverine had said about his father, she was beginning to suspect the slime was a genetic trait.

*

After having Xavier look over every memory of the meeting, Amanda was mentally and physically exhausted. Leading a telepath around her brain was hard work -- because he couldn't get in naturally, she'd had to lead him though the meeting step by step so that he could look over her memories of it in case she'd forgotten something. It had been a trial for both of them.

Amanda leaned against a window sill, looking out at a night filled with stars. It had frayed her nerves to the breaking point having him in her head like that, knowing what he could discover any minute.

At least mutants had a scientific explanation for themselves. She didn't.

Sighing, the girl eyed a pad of simple lined paper left out after doing her math homework with Kurt. If she could only write home and tell Mother, she could tell her daughter what to do. But if Mother found out where she was, she'd get dragged back home, and away from Kurt. Away from doing something that might save him -- and his friends, who were fast becoming hers -- from what had happened to Warren, or worse, what had happened to that young woman. Twenty-two, Ms. Munroe had said. Blond, rather pretty. Had a younger brother and a genius boyfriend. Several people had claimed to see her 'vanish' before their eyes.

She was dead.

Or, according to police records, 'missing'. And she would stay on that missing persons file until enough time went by to officially declare her dead. That could be me. Besides the age and the fact that her brother was older, not younger, the woman matched her description. Only it was the young woman who might have been a mutant, whereas this time, it was Kurt. Knowing him put her in a mild amount of danger. Knowing what he was put in a decent amount of danger. Knowing the others put her in good amount of danger. Helping them and accepting them threw her in over her head and was almost suicidal.

She'd do it anyway, but she wished she could talk to her mother. She could help, she could tell her how to protect herself and Kurt.

This time, through her own decision, Amanda was on her own. But by the same token, Kurt wasn't.

‘Yah look like a possum who just became road kill,' Rogue's southern twang commented from behind her. ‘And wasn't happy about it either.'

‘So now I'm being compared to a dead rodent?'

‘Actually, what yah look like is a dead marsupial, but it wasn't supposed to be analyzed. I was just commenting that yah look like shit.'

‘Thank you,' Amanda replied sarcastically, turning to face Rogue.

‘What had yah and the professor in there so long? Couldn't he just drag the memories out of yah? I know he's done that for me a few times. When he's had the courage to come in, anyway,' she muttered the last part.

Amanda sent the other girl a weird look. ‘And why should a telepath fear someone's mind? I mean, unless they're some kind of psycho-killer.'

‘Yah know what my powers do. Well, everyone I touch, I retain some of their memories an' personality subconsciously. Sometimes -- when it's the worst -- I can hardly hear myself think.'

Amanda shuddered.

‘So what had yah in there so long?'

Sighing, she flopped down onto one of the Institutes many fluffy couches. ‘Apparently, some people are naturally resistant to telepathy. I, unfortunately, am one of them.'

‘So did he have to tell him the whole thing, or what?'

‘No. I had to lead him, image by image, through my memories.'

‘Yikes,' Rogue sympathized. ‘How did the meeting go?'

‘Well, if they're really what they say they are, they are not in any kind of shape to take on even the smallest amount of human suffering until they get organized. The teacher was superfluous, no one did anything, and Graydon and his cronies yapped the whole time. And Duncan Matthews was standing in the back, bored. Personally, I can't see him attending this thing if they were really what they're masquerading as.'

‘Duncan Matthews? You're sure?' Rogue asked insistently.

‘Yeah. Big-time jock, blond, the brains of the dodo bird . . .' Amanda trailed off. She and Rogue exchanged a look before bursting into laughter.

‘All the smarts of the dodo bird and the morals to go with it!' Rogue declared, still laughing. It wasn't something she did often.

When the laughter finally died down, Amanda and Rogue set about becoming old friends. Ten minutes later, Kurt walking in the room set them off again, and after staring at the two of them for a few moments he backed slowly out of the room, eliciting more giggles.

‘Suppose he would mind us talking about him behind his tail?'

‘Oh, but it's so much fun!'

Kurt shuddered. Okay, so Rogue was close enough to be the weirdly-related sort-of sister that she was. And he was close enough to Amanda to have practically put his life in her hands, and the lives of all his closest friends. Mein Gott. Those two together is baaad news for this certain fuzzy elf . . .

*

‘Let me get this straight. You've just joined a club called the Friends of Humanity, and they're a charity organization in your high school, and they're having a field trip to downtown New York in two weeks, and you want to go. The club president himself -- a cute senior boy, I might add -- asked you to come. Do I have everything?'

‘Graydon is a moron. And I'm dating Kurt. But other than that, yeah, that sounds about right,' Amanda replied. Cassie was in a foul mood, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. So, instead of doing the usual teenage thing and putting up a fuss about it, Amanda did something entirely unexpected. She asked. ‘Why are you so jumpy about this, Cassie? It's not like I'm going alone downtown.'

Cassie sighed. ‘I've heard some things about that group, about the Friends of Humanity. Some of it sounds to good to be true, and others of it . . . You know about mutants, right? Human-borns who have whacked-out DNA, and it gives them freaky powers when it doesn't kill them?'

‘Sure. Although I've never actually heard anything interesting about them,' Amanda lied through her teeth.

‘Well, I don't know how things went in Germany, but there seems to be an overabundance of mutants in the US -- maybe it's all the cultures and genes from all over the world we have mixed here. I don't know. Even though there are a growing number of them, they're still out numbered by regular humans millions to one. But some people, who've heard every classic bigotry of all time, have decided to squelch this mutant thing in the bud. That's what I've heard about the Friends of Humanity. That their title really means friends only to pure humans.'

Amanda shook her head, trying to look as though she was amused. ‘Cassie, as far as I can tell, they're not anything like that. I'm just going to go help some homeless people, okay?'

Cassie gave her charge a long look before signing the permission slip.

*

‘The good news is: Cassie signed the permission slip. The bad news is: Cassie signed the permission slip,' Amanda announced to Kurt as she dropped her lunch tray next to his. None of the other X-Men had arrived yet.

‘Guten tag, Amanda, but don't you usually eat with your friends?' Kurt asked.

‘Candy's not talking to me because I joined the Friends of Humanity, Colleen is staying with an aunt for a week and Lee is out sick. So I'm eating over here.'

Kurt started. ‘Candy's not --'

‘Talking to me. No. She knows very well it was FOH who hurt Warren, and now she's ignoring me because she told me and I went and joined them,' Amanda sighed. ‘I wish I could tell her the truth, but . . . She broke a promise to tell me in the first place. Is it really right to -- We're just in a bad situation, Kurt, caught between two worlds. Both of us, Candy and I, aren't anti-human or anti-mutant, and it leaves us without a strong handle on things.'

‘If I'd known --'

‘Yo, look! The blue boy's girlfriend is actually sitting with him, yo!'

Kurt froze as an expression of absolute horror dawned on his face.

Amanda blinked a few times, and turned a questioning look on Kurt.

‘'Blue Boy'?'

Kurt buried his face in his hands as they suddenly became the center of the Brotherhood's attention. ‘Erm -- ja.'

‘So--what?Shecouldn'tfindajockdumbenoughanddecidedtogowithyouinstead?'Pietro zipped over, rushing back and fourth around the two of them while Amanda got dizzy trying to follow his movement and Kurt buried his face in his hands.

After having to hold onto the table because she was trying to follow Quicksilver, Amanda turned towards Kurt, expression amused. ‘Lemme guess--'

‘You know this'll never work, fuzzy,' Tabitha pointed out as she and the rest of the brotherhood caught up to Pietro. ‘You can't tell her anything.'

‘Um, 'Manda?' Kurt squeaked, groaning. ‘Meet the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.'

‘Hey, we're not evil!'

‘Yeah, Mystique gave us that name!'

‘Um, why are you introducing us to the straight-gene?'

Amanda sighed. ‘Because this 'straight-gene' has known about fuzzy here for months.'

That stilled even Quicksilver.

‘You've -- known about Kurt -- for months?!' Tabitha ended with a shriek, although she was the only one who wasn't speechless. Pietro quickly shook his head, giving Toad, who was looking at him at the time, a headache. ‘And you didn't run for a straight jacket or a gun?'

‘No . . . I decided I liked him,' she replied with a smile, looping an arm around Kurt's.

‘Anddoessheknowabouteveryoneelse?' Pietro demanded.

Amanda stared a moment, then turned to Kurt. ‘Um -- translation, please?'

‘Yes, she knows about everyone else. Everyone but you, but as you decided to walk up and present yourself, I didn't think it would be a problem,' Kurt rolled his eyes, annoyed.

‘Wellit'snothtthatit'saproblemforus--'

‘Aw, an X-geek wanna-be to tease, yo!' Toad declared.

‘Say -- WhatdoeshehavethatIdon'thave?' Pietro actually stood still for a moment, leaning against the table and posing, using every bit of his wit and charm. In other words, just being Pietro.

Kurt felt something twinge.

Amanda studied Pietro critically. He really was probably the cutest guy at Bayville High . . . ‘Well, on the purely physical level, Kurt has fur. And a tail,' Amanda grinned as the mutants simultaneously turned toward her, wide-eyed. ‘And those lovely pointed ears.'

Kurt turned red, which was easier to see on his hologram than on his blue fur.

‘Um, besides that she's talking 'bout blue boy, she just said the word 'lovely', yo,' Toad stammered. Pietro looked miffed.

‘Besides, he hasn't dragged me on any crazy adventures, which from what I hear from Kitty, I should be grateful.'

Lance turned red, while Tabitha snickered.

‘Man, she's another goody-good. They's multiplyin'!' Toad complained.

Kurt ignored him. ‘Ja, it's usually you dragging me, miss 'I kinda got a little arrested'!' he teased.

‘That only happened once!' Amanda huffed. ‘And you weren't even there!'

Pietro and Tabitha exchanged a confused look.

‘Ja, but too much ice cream makes you hyper, and that I was there for!' Kurt accused as the Brotherhood watched with astonished expressions.

‘Hey, I only dragged you around for six hours. You haven't seen me at my worst!'

‘You threatened me! I was not going to get into that car with you sugar high!'

The Brotherhood's eyebrows vanished.

‘Says the guy who introduced me to Bobby and Jubilee!'

Kurt paused. ‘Alright, that wins. But you frightened away the Brotherhood.'

When Amanda turned to look, all that remained of the fast-retreating Brotherhood was a trail of slime.

‘What just happened, Kurt?' Scott asked, giving Amanda a short look because she didn't usually sit with them. ‘I just saw the Brotherhood hightailing it in the opposite direction. They obviously came from here,' Scott looked pointedly at Toad's slime trail.

‘I think I scared them,' Amanda grinned to rival Nightcrawler.

‘You -- what?' Scott repeated.

‘Well, I started talking about how I knew he was fuzzy--'

‘Then I mentioned a certain little sugar high episode --'

‘And we kind of got into a debate --'

‘And a normal human arguing about this must have really confused them, because the next thing I knew, they vanished.'

‘Well, that and I outright told Pietro that I prefer fuzzy and adorable here to him,' Amanda finished.

Once Scott managed to sort through all this, what with one picking up where the other left off, he just shook his head and sat down. ‘You know, sometimes you two are a little much for the rest of us too.'

Kurt grinned as he started in on his second burger (he wouldn't be eating the cafeteria food at all if it weren't for his hyper metabolism), and Evan just shook his head as he sat down. ‘I'm not even going to ask why the Toad was actually catching up to Pietro when they left here.'

Kurt nearly spit out a piece of burger. ‘He was catching up?! 'Manda, I think you've become our new secret weapon!'

‘Do Ah dare ask what y'all are talkin' about?' interrupted Rogue's southern twang.

‘Apparently, my attitude towards mutants had an adverse effect on the Brotherhood,' Amanda replied, shooting Rogue a look. The southern girl slapped her hand over her mouth to restrain laughter, something Evan at least had never seen before. Amanda shot her a superior look before joining her. The three guys exchanged a look that clearly said 'it must be a girl thing' before returning to their lunches.

While Kurt and Amanda worked to bring out a side of Rogue few saw, Jean watched while assuming a Loganlike pose against the doors that lead from the cafeteria into the spring air. Every one of her telepathic hackles was up and working overtime. She could swear she sensed something about that girl, teasing her telepathy until it drove her nearly mad. Like a mild itch at that place between and under your shoulder blades that you can never quite reach. She was so concentrated on Amanda that she didn't notice the other thing her telepathic scans were picking up: another person watching the X-Men and Amanda with an almost identical hostile, hawk like glare. Graydon Creed -- that's how he thought of himself, really. He had never gotten used to the last name Brent. After leaping around foster care since his mother left him, he'd been surprised when adoption changed his last name.

He would change it back, eventually, as a sign of defiance. His father would notice, and would know why. At least his father, the one person whom he would truly relish destroying, understood him.

Graydon, he reminded himself. You have other work to do. The girl's coming on the field trip, be content to wait until then -- you have another prey in your midst.

Candy Southern sat alone and glowering at the lunch table she usually shared with Colleen, Lee and Amanda. He could hardly believe it had taken him this long to realize why the girl hated FOH so much. She had been there the night they had attacked the devil in the guise of an angel. She must not have told Amanda, or the girl wouldn't have come near us. She knows very well those Institute kids are mutants, and their teachers along with them. It's really too bad no one wants to get close enough to the mutants to get in the way she did, the teenager mused as he watched the curly-haired Junior. She really is very pretty. But then again, so is Jean Gray. And she's a mutant, which just goes to show you that no matter what you look like on the outside, you could easily be a devil within.

Graydon smiled slowly, a smile lit with unholy light.

And the devils within must fall as their master fell.

*

‘I strongly disapprove of the idea of sending one of the New Mutants on this mission,' Charles Xavier was in the middle of a half-discussion half-argument with his instructors, all three of them instead of just Logan and Ororo. Though Logan and Ororo knew the X-Men well, Beast knew more about the New Mutants than either of them.

‘Look, to people here she won't look like anything but a big feral dog, especially with her brown coloring, and she's proven she can track,' Logan leaped in. They'd had this argument before.

Beast sighed and shook his head. ‘I believe I am, Professor, on their side. Rahne has proven her remarkable tracking abilities, in both natural environments and when Logan and I have done our best to make the scent difficult for her to follow. As Amanda can't teleport, she should be easy enough for Rahne to follow, even within the confines of a city.'

Ororo nodded her assent. ‘You have the results of her training sessions, Charles, and I for one was impressed with them. Logan can do better, but he has the tutelage of years behind him. And people would pick up on a single person following them around, but no one will notice a stray or feral dog.'

The professor put a hand to his head, as if thinking, then started to refute his teachers.

‘I can do it, Professor.'

The three teachers whipped around to see Rahne, halfway transformed from wolf to girl (or from girl to wolf) in the doorway. Her padded feet and wolf's grace allowed her to enter without even Logan noticing her, as she had spoken before her scent reached him. ‘I know I can.' She was entirely human again, a well-brought up Scottish girl whose short-cropped reddish brown hair was nearly the same color as her fur. Clear eyes met Xavier's and challenged him as a wolf.

Wolves are amazingly intelligent, in their own way. They always know when to back down. And Rahne carried the wolf inside of her, eons of instinct balanced by human reason. Both Rahne and the wolf were more than confidant that they could handle this, tracking anywhere, anytime. Except for teleporting, Rahne thought, and the dormant wolf nodded ruefully.

In any staring contest, this included, Rahne won. ‘Are you so confidant of your abilities that you would trust your life to them?'

‘Yes.'

‘What about Amanda's?'

If Rahne hadn't considered her answer for a moment, the Professor would never have let her go. It would have been a sign of overconfidence. But Rahne did think her answer over, and conferred with the wolf. ‘Yes.'

‘Without question.'

‘There is question in everything, Professor. I know I can do this, as long as I have visual backup so I don't stray too far behind.'

Xavier sighed. ‘Kurt insisted on coming in any case. He's tracking her visually, Scott is doing the human following, checking up on the places they go and keeping track of certain members. You will have to be able to find her at all times, no matter how far away.'

‘Aye. How do I keep in touch with the other members? Wolves can't talk, Professor,' Rahne pointed out.

‘I would suggest, Rahne, that you transform just your mouth and vocal chords should you think you are falling behind. We can strap a walkie-talkie onto your collar,' Beast suggested.

Red flashed around a corner, away from the door, as they began to discuss the finer points of lupine surveillance. Jean, trailing emotional discord behind her, stalked off to her room without even noticing when Scott leaped out of her way. Slamming the door shut with a forceful telekinetic blast, the BOOM! echoed throughout the house. Kurt, eating a frozen drumstick with his tail while perched on the back of a chair in the room below her, flinched.

Scott, much as he loved her, had been abused by Jean's 'moods' for long enough.

As final as the echoing BOOM had sounded, Scott dared to throw her door open, livid. It surprised Jean so much she was silent for a moment. ‘It's been weeks, Jean, and Amanda hasn't shown any hints of ill will whatsoever! She even took the mansion and that we only introduced ourselves because we need her help, well enough. What is with you? She's a perfectly nice person -- we wouldn't have FOH to worry about if more people were like her!!'

‘Rahne's going with you, did you know that?! She's one of the New Mutants, and they've barely got a handle on their powers! They can hardly stay alive in the Danger Room, how can she expect to do better in a city?!' Jean shouted.

‘Every mutant here knows their limits. Even the New Mutants, Jean, this isn't about Rahne. Why are you so against Amanda?' he demanded.

‘She's hiding something, Scott! Something about her provokes every telepathic sense I've got!!' shrieked Jean.

‘YOU don't like her because you can't read her mind!' Scott flung back.

‘The Professor can claim all he wants that it's because I can't read her mind, but I'll NEVER believe that!! There's something wrong with Amanda Sefton, AND I FOR ONE INTEND TO FIND OUT WHAT!!!!' Jean screamed.

‘FINE!! Do what you want. I WILL HAVE NO PART IN IT.'

And Scott Summers turned his back on Jean Gray, leaving only the sound of the door closing behind him.

*

Every time Jean entered a room besides the dining room at dinner, Scott would take one look at her and leave. Every time he brushed roughly past her on his way out she would catch a flash of his thoughts. At first, it was anger that she was being 'unreasonable' as he thought it. Then it was disgust, and finally merely a wish to drive home a point.

Even if Jean didn't get it, or was too stubborn to admit it, the others noticed.

‘Man,' Evan whispered to Kurt as Scott left the basement (the first one, the one that was really a basement for the mansion and not any of the sub-basements or 'secret' levels) two days later. ‘What is with Scott? After years of drooling over Jean he just gets up and leaves whenever he sees her coming!'

Kurt shook his head. ‘They got into a huge fight Monday after school. I was in the kitchen, right underneath her bedroom, and I heard incoherent screaming.'

Kitty leaned over from the other side of the couch so she could see Kurt. ‘Is that, like, what was hanging in the air Monday? I could totally feel the, like, astonished fury all the way from, like, down here!'

Jean let out an exasperated noise when she caught what they were whispering about, whirling around with a bright red flash and stomping up the stairs again. The trio left in the rec room could feel the irritation saturating the air. ‘Like, yuck,' Kitty complained. ‘So much for like, the movie.'

‘Yeah. I'm outta here!' Evan darted for the stairs, Kurt and Kitty close on his heels to escape the mental stench Jean left behind.

*

‘Got his scent, Rahne?'

The half lupine scent Scott a Look and nodded. ‘Aye. Off then!' Rahne sprang and was instantly on all fours, running through the mansion. She soon slowed to the wolfs trademark loping gait, smelling as she went. Two hours ago, Kurt had walked through the mansion and left a trail for her to follow. The X-Men and New Mutants had been asked to walk around the mansion as much as they could, to cover up his scent. Rahne would have to lock onto that particular scent, because there were 'phantom' Kurt scents all over the place. This was the hardest training exercise she'd ever done.

The wolf grinned, showing canines minted white. She lifted her nose to the breeze, sorting and identifying scents as she went. The trail was easy for now; not many people had walked it yet. As luck would have it, as soon as the wolf sorted, identified and catalogued every scent, she ran across a barrage of others. Ahh. At last, a challenge!

Rahne paused to take in the explosion of scent. Then she followed the fur/running/having fun scent that was uniquely Kurt. Then she reached an intersection of hallways, and his scent went two ways. The wolf paused to examine the situation, while Rahne thought What did he do -- multiply the way Jamie does?!

She caught a whiff of foolish pup from the wolf. He backtracked somewhere down the left-hand path. As Rahne went over the wolfs reasoning she fully agreed and continued down the hallway. As she was following the scent through the air still, she didn't notice when it wandered up the walls until she abruptly lost it.

Now the wolf was puzzled. Kurt didn't teleport, he wasn't allowed to. So what had happened?

The wolf offered no answers. Right. I'll do it myself, then! Rahne stuck her tongue out at the wolf, who gave an eloquent lupine shrug. She had no answers for the girl. Rahne backtracked a bit, actually putting her nose to the ground to follow the scent and discovering, to her surprise, that the smell wasn't on the ground! Examining the area around her, she reared up and ran her nose over the spot on the wall where he'd stood. By keeping track of his exact path, she discovered he'd gone through a doorway while still on the wall, turning around down the hallway. Clever elf!

The wolf cocked her head as Rahne made her way through the halls, careful to keep track of Kurt's precise path so she didn't loose him again. From there on out it was fairly easy, even through the confusing array of familiar scents and Kurt's attempts to break his trail. He was good, very good, but so was she. And she had the instincts of a predator who had been hunting by scent for longer than humans had been evolving.

Ten minutes later, fifteen into her pseudo hunt, the wolf froze just before she turned a corner. Rahne, annoyed, demanded What?! at the wolf. The wolf only gave her a look that said figure it out, pup. Rahne, knowing she wouldn't get another answer and would probably blunder if she didn't follow the wolfs instructions, took in everything around her.

And realized her quarry was close.

Very close.

Around that corner she had been about to turn.

Good pup, wolf grinned at girl, who grinned back. Time to give the wolf an outlet for her screaming need to stalk, and the girl a chance to scare the person who usually did the scaring.

Not even Logan could have heard her coming around the corner. Pointed ears flicked back and forth, keeping track of every movement, and finely honed muscles placed each padded paw soundlessly.

Kurt never had a chance.

*

The elf (who had been forced to brush out his fur because it was sticking straight out after he turned and saw Rahne standing there, mane up and grinning as only a wolf can) was lying contentedly on a couch in the rec room. Amanda was lying neatly in front of him on the couch, both stretched out to watch the movie. Kurt hardly remembered the movie at all; it seemed he had spent most of the time watching her. The light from the tv flickered across her hair, creating and banishing shadows. His tail was trapped beneath his leg because it had a mind of it's own, one much more devious than his own.

As for her, Amanda had spent a good part of the movie watching Kurt's tail, almost disappointed when he caught it beneath one of his legs. They took up almost the entire couch, considering that she was lying on her stomach, braiding and unbraiding a strand of hair with nerves. They were perfectly comfortable while the movie was on, but when it ended (as movies were wont to do) they would be left with an interesting situation. Curse Kurt's parents for bringing him up right! Curse hers, too, for that matter. And of course, every time things started to get interesting, one of their friends had interrupted them.

Amanda shifted and glared at the door, as if forbidding Bobby and Jubilee to enter.

‘Hmm?' Kurt cocked his head at her, wondering why she'd moved.

‘Nothing. Just making sure no one was walking down here, as seems to happen every other time we've been alone yet,' Amanda rolled her eyes up at Kurt, smiling wryly.

He locked his legs to keep his tail from escaping.

‘So says she who dragged me around for six hours.'

Amanda laughed, mock-swiping at him. Kurt ducked. ‘Will you stop bringing that up! You're kicking a dead horse!'

Kurt's face contorted as he looked at her. ‘Vas?!'

‘Oh. Sorry. It's an expression -- it means you've exhausted a subject and kept going. Kicking a dead horse.' She couldn't believe this. They were lying on a couch, in a cozy basement, doing their best to attempt to watch a movie, alone, and she was talking about beating horses to death.

Kurt shuddered. ‘I think I've decided to pass on the English and American expressions. Some of them are downright revolting.'

And now he was saying revolting.

Romantic conversation is dead.

As the credits rolled up the screen, and the triumphant music played, Kurt got a devious look on his face for about half a second. Amanda, of course, caught it. ‘So!' he announced cheerfully before she could ask. Then in one fluid movement he pushed himself up, off the couch, and held Amanda in his arms as she screeched in surprise. Wrapping her arms quickly around his neck so she wouldn't fall off, she started laughing hysterically. Kurt couldn't resist twirling around a few times before stopping to let her down.

‘What do you wish of me Lady 'Manda?' he asked, bowing gracefully and grinning. He flourished an imaginary billowing cape.

'Manda, for her part, could hardly stop laughing long enough to answer. ‘How about a kiss from my knight in shining armor?' Laughter died, and for a moment neither moved.

Neither would ever be quite sure who kissed who, but they both nearly melted. Amanda leaned against the back of the couch, a little dizzy. ‘Another?' came Kurt's soft voice.

This time he knew Amanda kissed him, her slender arms sliding around his neck while his crossed over her back. When he drew back, he found Amanda grinning at him from under a curtain of brown hair. ‘What? Not thinking of stopping, were you?' she teased.

‘The thought never crossed my mind,' he promised, eliciting a giggle which he took the liberty of cutting off. She buried her fingers in his hair.

Kurt let his tail have it's way.

*

Ororo saw Scott and Rahne off after Amanda, just as she had seen Kurt off earlier. Then she retreated to her attic. Calming the storm gathering over her plants, the weather-witch moved toward her window. She didn't like --

‘Worried?'

-- What she didn't like was Logan randomly popping through her doorway, no matter how long she'd known him.

‘Charles is correct. You enjoy walking in on private conversations and introspections.'

Logan only grinned. ‘Am I right?'

‘You know you are,' she replied, still not turning from the window that neatly framed Scott's car as it sped after the bus holding the Friends of Humanity. ‘I've never been able to keep anything from you. Hardly anyone can, considering your sense of smell.'

‘Yeah, well, Ro, you've returned the favor more than once,' he told her, walking over to stand next to her. ‘You go all regal, and get this look in your eyes. Nothing sentient would think of lying to you then, goddess.'

Ororo finally turned towards Logan, white hair held back by a simple colored band before cascading down her shoulders. ‘Not even you, who has known me longer than I sometimes care to remember?'

‘Chuck couldn't lie to you when you turn goddess, Ro. And look who's talking -- that's a two-edged blade,' he pointed out. ‘You've known me just as long. And we're both more worried about those kids than we'd like to admit.'

She sighed, and leaned against the edge of the window. ‘Yes. Scott in many ways reminds me of you when we were younger -- you're both the jumpy leader-type. Although he's far more uptight than you ever were,' she teased, smiling. Then she turned serious again. ‘Do you ever wonder whether or not we're doing the right thing? Whether we made the right choice in staying and teaching the next generation, the way Charles taught us?'

Logan just gave her a look. ‘Yeah. Every time I leave and go 'globetrotting', as the elf puts it. Or gallivanting around Canada, as you're more likely to say.'

‘But you always come back.'

‘I always come back. Maybe after so long it's just habit, and there are days when I believe that. Usually, though, even when Bobby decides to dye someone elses hair a new color, or the elf is shedding again, or Jean having temper tantrums and there are never less than three Jamies, I'd rather be here.'

Ororo smiled. ‘Slugging through regardless.'

There was an ear-piercing scream from somewhere downstairs. Both flinched.

‘I suppose we should make sure the Institute is still here when they come home.'

‘Why else would we be here?' Logan threw up his hands and followed Ororo out.

*

Amanda smiled slightly as she sat staring out the bus window. She knew Kurt was out there, watching over her as if he really was a knight in shining armor. Scott and Rahne were tailing the bus into downtown Bayville, while Kurt teleported in ahead of them. It took him three jumps, as his current maximum range was about two miles.

Her smile broadened when she got off the bus and caught a pair of glowing eyes staring at her.

*

Sitting in a car waiting to go tracking is not the best way to spend a morning, Rahne decided as she stretched. The wolf was eager to go, to explore this new place with new smells and hundreds of new things . . . And, of course, to stalk elf's mate. Rahne growled at the wolf, who shrugged. Wolves mated once and for life. This business of going through many suitable males had only confused her. And no matter how many times Rahne tried to convince the wolf, she was stubborn. Mates, she insisted.

Rahne gave up.

‘What . . ?'

‘Arguing,' Rahne answered curtly, and before she realized that would prompt more questions. She answered them before Scott asked. ‘The wolf part of me insisted on classifying Amanda as 'elf's mate'.'

‘'Elf's mate'?' Scott repeated.

‘Kurt is elf to the wolf because no human has fur, but giving him another classification solves that nicely. You, by the way, are also classified in a similar manner.'

‘Oh?' Scott raised his eyebrows. He'd had no idea that Rahne had any real wolf in her; he'd just thought she could shape-change. ‘And . . ?'

Rahne sighed. ‘Red's mate fire-eyes.'

‘Let me guess. I would be fire-eyes, and Jean is red. I'm still her 'mate', even though we've been arguing?'

The Scottish girl shrugged. ‘I suppose. Although your argument hasn't changed your scent, and you might be stuck this way. She's rather single-minded about some things,' Rahne noted absently.

Scott just shook his head. Jean hadn't even acknowledged his existence this morning. At least he let her know he still knew she existed -- but was still furious with her. He hoped this mission would be the last straw. ‘Ready to go?'

Rahne walked calmly onto an empty side street and shape-changed. When she trotted back out, Scott almost missed her. Then she had to run to get her radio herself, because Scott forgot it in his car. Fire-eyes preoccupied was the wolfs assessment. Much as Rahne looked for something else, she agreed. Very preoccupied.

*

Someone else who was excessively preoccupied was perched on the side of a building, watching FOH unload the bus. Amanda chatted with Graydon and Duncan, who'd flanked her and didn't look like they'd be letting her alone. A preppy girl with a jock on her arm dragged him after them, and Kurt couldn't help but chuckle silently. The cheerleader looked as if she would rather be almost anywhere else, and although there were a few sincere kids getting off the bus, even the teacher looked bored. The building looked like any other building in the city, with nothing to distinguish it from the other areas.

Fidgeting, Kurt watched Scott (walking next to Rahne) enter the building, while Rahne waited outside. After about ten seconds she began exploring the area around the building, her nose twitching for all it was worth. Kurt waited for news from Scott.

Krresht! as if on cue, the radio clipped haphazardly on his uniform crackled and came to life. ‘Nightcrawler, Wolfsbane -- this place doesn't have anything. Nothing that might indicate that it's anything that it isn't supposed to be. Unless it's hidden better than the mansions lower levels, the building in and of itself is a dead end.'

‘Got it, Cyclops. Keep up with them -- we don't want to loose Daytripper,' the Professor, Logan, Ororo nd Beast had agreed that they didn't want to put Amanda in any more danger by using her real name while on the radio, in case someone overheard them or caught them. How she pulled something like Daytripper out of a hat, Kurt had no idea.

‘Right, Nightcrawler. It looks as if they're preparing to leave, so keep an eye out. Wolfsbane, meet me at the front door.'

Nightcrawler heard an affirmative growl, mostly masked by the static but definitely there. Still perched on the side of the next-door building, just as bland as it's neighbor, Kurt had an excellent view of the front door. As promised, Scott walked out and started away from the building. Wolfsbane, after a reminder from a nervous Kurt, leaped after him. ‘You're more lucky than you deserve to be brown, you know,' he informed her through the radio. ‘If you were anything else, a dozen stupid city people would be running from the wolf by now. A brown wolf just isn't as frightening as a black or gray wolf.'

He heard Rahne growl at him and grinned.

‘Hey Nightcrawler, would you stop provoking the wolf? You're not the one standing next to her, and I can tell you, a brown wolf is scary enough, thank you!'

‘What, Cyclops, is --' Kurt's retort was cut off as FOH members began to leave the nondescript building. As Amanda left with Graydon close behind her, Kurt realized that it was going to be practically impossible to get Amanda easily out of there without becoming the X-Men. He was sticking to her like a bug to a windshield at 65 mph.

‘Cyke, something just occurred to me. Are you sending the info back to the mansion so they know where we are and can send backup?'

Kurt heard a startled sound from the radio, and frantic dialing as Scott transferred everything to the Institute, from the address to where he left his car. Rahne growled at him, and raced ahead towards the groups. Then Kurt lost sight of them as he climbed up and over the top of a building, hoping for a better vantage point when they crossed the street. He spotted Wolfsbane first.

‘Wolfsbane, where --'

‘Don't worry, Kurt, she's just skipped a bit ahead of them for now. If she can keep this up, they might not notice her at all,' Scott reassured him. Kurt refused to be comforted until he saw FOH round the next corner. Amanda was playing her part to a 'T', and Kurt kept having to remind himself that Graydon was not competition. At least, not for Amanda. Maybe for the right to live, but not for Amanda.

*

The city had more smells than she had ever dreamed! A utopia, a carnival of smells in every form! She couldn't seem to sniff fast enough. The reason why she was in the city seemed to elude her the more she smelled. Without the wolf holding onto Amanda's scent as the 'prey', she would have lost her in an instant. As it was, Rahne was paying just enough attention to the scent so she knew where they were.

‘Wolfsbane, where --'

‘Don't worry, Kurt, she's just skipped a bit ahead of them for now. If she can keep this up, they might not notice her at all,' Kurt's voice over the radio in her collar brought Rahne out of her heaven of scents. If the wolf could have spoken to her, she would have delivered a blistering lecture while on the run. NEVER turn away from the prey, pup! she snarled. Never.

All right, all right! Rahne placated the wolf before darting into a nearby alleyway.

‘You okay? You're moving like you're having a conversation with someone no one else can see,' Kurt whispered. He was hanging in the shadow behind her, his tail wrapped around a fire escape staircase. Rahne looked up at him and winked, nodding that she was fine. ‘Good. You'd better catch up with them, then,' Kurt gestured to the entrance of the alley, where the last straggler of the FOH group was passing. She yipped in surprise and ran after them, putting her nose to Amanda's scent.

*

Night was falling, and FOH looked to be stopping and turning back towards the original nondescript building. It seemed to Kurt, though, that they had spent more of the day sightseeing than helping the needy. After all, you never know when one of the needy may be a mutant. Amanda was jumping more often, and looked more nervous around Graydon and Duncan than she had at the beginning of the evening.

‘Cyclops, are you close enough to hear what Graydon and Duncan are saying to her? Daytripper looks spooked,' Kurt asked quietly through the radio.

‘I can't hear them. Wolfsbane probably can, but she can't tell us at the moment.'

‘Actually, I can,' came a hoarse voice. ‘I'm just below Nightcrawler, half and half. I'm not very good at just transforming my voice box yet, but this will do if 'Crawler keeps a lookout for me.'

‘Got it. What're they saying?'

Wolfsbane's voice hardly sounded like her at all. ‘They're 'inviting' her to a meeting of upper-class Friends of Humanity members. It's tonight, but they haven't said where.'

‘Why did you say inviting like that?'

‘Because I don't think they're going to give her much of a choice.'

‘--! Of course! Cyke, get as close as you can, I know you've been hanging back! Wolfsbane, change, and get closer! They're going to force her with them, and we have got to keep on their tail or we'll likely never see her again!'

‘Nightcrawler, you're panicking. I'm going to find my car so I can follow them on the road; you two keep as close as possible.'

‘Cyclops!' Nightcrawler protested, but Scott was already making his way back towards his car. ‘Wolfsbane, am I being paranoid?'

Wofsbane had just trotted out from between the alley walls, and was surveying the coming group. Seeing Graydon and Duncan, each with one arm hooked firmly in Amanda's, going the other way, she looked up and shook her head. Kurt crawled out to the edge of the wall, saw what she saw, and leaped after her.

Graydon and Duncan had just managed to get Amanda into the front seat when Kurt slithered under to the car. He ad only as long as it took Duncan to walk around to the other side and get in before he became the worlds first blue road kill.

‘Cyke! Blast the lock on the truck!'

Finally seeing that he probably wasn't going to catch up with them, Scott aimed a concentrated, thin beam of force at the lock on the trunk of Graydon's car. Kurt scrambled in just as the car started. As the car an over it's first bump, Kurt barely kept the trunk open. ‘Ow!' he muttered as something whacked him in the side.

Why does a senior in high school carry golf clubs in his trunk?

Kurt stuffed one of the clubs between the lid and the car, keeping it open, and bungied it closed so no one behind them would know they had a stowaway in their trunk.

‘Cyclops, are you following them?' shrillckt!! ‘Cyclops?' buuzzzshrilckt! ‘Cyke!'

He had passed out of radio range.

*

Amanda's mind was racing as the two larger guys maneuvered her into Duncan's car. Graydon reminded her of Mordred; although not deformed as the legendary Mordred, Graydon had the same smooth, conniving temperament, and the same intelligence. The significantly slower football player was silent most of the ride, aside from reassuring toothpaste-commercial smiles. Graydon acted as though she hadn't protested to getting in the car; as if this whole thing was in fact her idea. Cramped in the back seat, she irritably flicked a strand of dark brown hair over her shoulder. Kurt had better be following me, she thought, glancing back to see if she could catch a glimpse of anything blue trailing her, following the idea of 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't know'.

Duncan pulled into a driveway just as Amanda was getting the idea that they were nearer the Institute. The garage opened, and Amanda's jaw dropped at the amount of space in the garage. It looked like a simple two-car garage, but it really must have taken up a good deal of the first floor of the house. Ten different cars were parked in there, with space to spare. There was also evidence strewn about of people who'd walked in, such as shoes left outside the door, and half a dozen bikes leaning against a wall. ‘Where -- where are we? Wasn't this someone's house?'

Duncan grinned. ‘It sure looks that way, doesn't it?'

Graydon favored him with a look that clearly said you don't know the half of it. ‘This is the main headquarters of the Interior Department of the Friends of Humanity. You did say you were looking to move up in this organization, right?'

The chocolate-skinned girl looked up at Graydon uncertainly. ‘Um . . . Sure,' she agreed cautiously, stalling for time. Come on, guys, what's taking you so long? Did Scott get lost or something!?

‘Well then, follow me,' Graydon opened the car door for her (which reminded Amanda of Kurt and his unending gallantry), and proceeded to lead her into the pseudo-house, Duncan a step behind and to the left.

When the senior opened the door that lead to the rest of the house, Amanda prepared herself for something much more interesting than what she saw. There was carpet. Several large, fluffy couches, a tv, a large shelf of movies, and walls painted that strange shade of off white that's in every hotel room in the world.

In other, slightly simpler words, it was a regular house.

Amanda giggled shyly. ‘After the impressive garage, I was expecting something more.'

‘You were?' Graydon's eyebrows rose, and he satisfied himself with a slightly knowing grin. ‘Well . . .' he walked down the hallway, Duncan and Amanda behind him, and stood in front of a simple wooden door, which he then opened to reveal an elevator door. Gesturing in, he preceded Amanda and Duncan. Pushing a seemingly random one of the unlabeled buttons, the three waited only a moment before the quick descent of the elevator halted. As the doors opened, Graydon grinned at the astonished expression on Amanda's face. ‘We live but to serve.'

*

Kurt muttered a dozen curses in a mix of German, English, Romany and half-forgotten Latin as he waited for Duncan to turn the car off. Apparently, Duncan was having trouble finding parking.

When the car finally stopped rumbling, Nightcrawler waited until he heard Graydon, Amanda and Duncan get out and walk away, into -- wherever they were. He hadn't been able to see anything from his spot in the trunk, he had been too busy trying to keep the lid from closing and locking him in. And wishing this was Amanda's Oldsmobile -- it had a trunk big enough to fit Beast into!

When he was finally sure the three were gone, he carefully un-bungied the trunk and removed the golf club, holding the lid down with his tail. Lifting his tail slowly, he watched the widening gap between trunk and lid.

Leaping out when he was sure he'd fit through, Nightcrawler scurried under the car and slammed the trunk shut with his tail. The loud, metallic clang echoed through what he now realized was a large garage.

Then the footsteps started.

Verdammt . . . Nightcrawler shut his eyes, hoping desperately that that his indigo fur had melded his shape with the shadows.

A pair of distinctly feminine black boots paused next to the car. Nightcrawler held his breathing, willing her to move away.

No such luck. The boots bent, and the young mutant prepared for a blind 'port.

Then a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared, eyes that his own mimicked to a 'T'.

‘Mother,' he spat the title at Mystique like an insult. ‘What are you doing here?'

He slid out from under the car, noting absently that it was a bright red 2000 Camero, and stood before the woman who birthed him with an enigmatic expression written across his already enigmatic face. A very altered Mystique stared calmly back, her blood-red hair swept behind her head and a form-fitting black two-piece complementing her blue skin, a shade lighter than his fur. Slit pupils narrowed at his question.

‘I'd have thought that the first thing out of your mouth would be 'where are we', but Xavier apparently has you trained that enough that where you are really doesn't matter. And as to what I'm doing here, I followed you.'

‘You -- what? Why?' he didn't even question how. Mystique could be anyone she wanted; the ability tended to result in being able to get anywhere.

The blue woman rolled her eyes. ‘Because I have been tailing this 'Amanda' since I discovered she was both human and in on our little secret. I noticed that none of you were watching to make certain she wasn't some kind of enemy plant,' she scoffed.

Kurt scowled. ‘Jean was. Which still doesn't lend itself to why we're having this conversation, instead of you letting me go in there to get her out.'

‘If you take one step in the place, you will be blown to bits. Not even with your image inducer could you sneak into that place.'

‘And how else do you propose I get in?'

Mystique smiled a conniving smile, one that made Kurt want to back up a step. ‘Evil human masterminds never learn. You can't make the ventilation systems big enough for people to fit in. I can't, not unless I shift into something smaller and therefore heavier than myself, which would make me clumsy and far more likely to be caught. You, however, my dear slim boy . . .'

‘How do you know this?!' Nightcrawler demanded, incredulous.

Mystique shrugged. ‘I shifted into Graydon and photocopied the blueprints for the ventilation, electrical, and piping systems.'

He shook his head as she produced the aforementioned blueprints from a pocket and handed them to him. Then something occurred to him. ‘How do you know Graydon?'

She stalled. ‘I --'

‘You'll need a better answer than that.'

‘Why are you even asking me?! I'm helping you, aren't I?' she demanded.

Folding his arms in a gesture of defiance, Nightcrawler answered. ‘Because he's Sabretooth's son.'

‘I know. How could I not?' Mystique paused, then continued as if she'd rather not be having this conversation. ‘You're not an only child, Kurt. The only legitimate child, yes, but you're not an only child.'

Nightcrawler thought about this for a moment.

‘Mother!' he shrieked. ‘Graydon -- you and Sabretooth -- oh, I do not need to think about that!!'

The blue woman smirked a little at her sons reaction, and made to leave.

‘Wait!' Nightcrawler implored. ‘Why are you helping me?'

‘As much as I don't like humans, the one in there is pro-mutant and put her life on the line for you, Rogue, and mutants in general. Besides, as long as you get her out before they kill her, the X-Calvery will arrive and terminate this little operation, ensuring the safety of the Brotherhood and myself,' she flashed a satisfied grin. ‘Call it enlightened self-interest.'

With that, she shifted into Graydon and was gone.

*

She made this sound soooo much easier than it really is, Nightcrawler thought to himself as he squirmed through yet another small duct. His fur muffled the sound he made traveling through the vents, but he still felt he was making too much noise. Pausing at an intersection, Nightcrawler pulled the blueprints up in front of him, wincing as they made a rasping sound against the metal.

Left, right, then -- he nearly groaned aloud. To get into the bowels of the place he was going to have to go straight down for nearly three stories. Not that I couldn't, he amended to himself as he set off again. I just don't particularly want to.

Glowing yellow eyes stared down into the darkness that loomed up from the air shaft, and out of curiosity Kurt put his hand in front of him. Even with his increased night vision, he couldn't see it. This is going to be difficult . . .

Bracing his two-fingered hands against the far side, Nightcrawler curled his body into a rather pretzelesque shape, thanking God that he hadn't dropped doing the exercises the contortionists had set him, as well as for his unique flexibility. With his hands firmly stuck to the side, he slowly stretched out and lowed first his legs, then the rest of him down into the pitch black shaft. Using his tail to 'see' below him, Nightcrawler painstakingly made his way silently down the duct.

He arrived breathless, arms shaking slightly from exertion. Falling into a crouch with the shaft over his head, Nightcrawler took a quick respite.

‘. . . do you mean? I -- I'm afraid I don't understand . . .' Kurt's head darted up as pointed ears located where Amanda's voice was coming from. Scurrying over to a vent, still careful not to make any noise, Kurt watched as Amanda came into view from around a corner. ‘Graydon, what's going on?!'

Unfortunately, the vent was at the top of a staircase, and Kurt was unable to follow them as their voices faded away. Nightcrawler slowly sat back to plan his next move. He couldn't count on help from the X-Men; the others had no idea where he was. And Graydon was obviously about to make his grab for Amanda. Alright, Nightcrawler. Think logically about this. They obviously have to hold her somewhere, and they have to get air in the room somehow, so go over the plans and locate the places where FOH might keep a hostage.

His eyes bugged out when he realized that they had at least three places to keep a hostage, on each of four sublevels. Twelve places to check. So. Plan: shadow Amanda as best as I can, and when I loose her search the rooms in order of whichever is closest to where I last saw her.

With his idea firmly in mind, Nightcrawler made his way deeper into the ducts, trying to locate how to get down to the floor Graydon had led Amanda to.

*

Graydon was watching the girl out of the corner of his eyes, allowing himself a self-satisfied grin at her reaction to the underground complex that housed the main headquarters of the Friends of Humanity. The pristine white walls made the tile flooring shine and although the place looked rather simple at first glance, Amanda would soon be treated to the full tour: everything FOH had to offer. And if she still decided not to cooperate on her own when it was over . . .

He could, after all, channel air into that room.

‘Welcome to the real headquarters of the Friends of Humanity. This is our epicenter, where groups from all over the country report in. It's this way to the auditorium,' Graydon gestured, and Amanda followed silently.

Lamb, he decided, studying her. She just doesn't have the backbone to really be an upper-class.

‘Graydon, what is this place? Really? Why is it hidden under some house in the suburbs?'

Maybe I ought to amend that.

‘This, Amanda, is the real Friends of Humanity. The club you joined? The one that's so dreadfully under-represented in the community? That's nothing. You see, the human race is being overrun. And we're here to stop that.' Graydon declared.

‘Overrun?! What do you mean? I -- I'm afraid I don't understand . . .Graydon, what's going on?!' she demanded as the three of them made their way down their second staircase. ‘And would you let go of me?'

The Senior whirled on Amanda, who took a step backward in fear. She hit Duncan, whose arms were crossed over his chest. ‘Dammit, what do you want?!'

Graydon shrugged, smiling. ‘Your boyfriend.'

Amanda sent him a confused look. ‘Kurt? What do you want with Kurt?'

Graydon snarled. ‘I care little or nothing for ‘Kurt'. I want the Nightcrawler.'

‘You -- verdammt. You know what he his? How? And what do you want with him?!' she was edging away from Duncan, who was watching as if she played football for the rival high school.

‘Well, when you look as demonic as that one does, it becomes harder to hide after a while. It's in part because of you -- he was less careful to stay in the shadows after you discovered him. And if some girl could figure it out, a group devoted to discovering and eliminating mutants ought to be able to as well, don't you think?'

Amanda just stared. ‘Eliminating -- Why?' she whispered.

Graydon laughed. So, the little mutie-lover wanted the full explanation? Why not? ‘Humans have ruled this planet since we evolved. We're being replaced, like an old rug, as if we're not good enough. The only way to keep humanity around is to destroy those who threaten it -- namely, your boyfriend.'

Then Graydon got the shock of his life.

‘Oh, good. I was beginning to think this was some sort of hunters organization, who hunted mutants because they're challenging prey. Hunting's never been my style; I'm a vegetarian.'

Shit. What?! Graydon did a double-take.

The shy little thing he'd become used to working on had vanished. Amanda's bad posture vanished, her brown eyes flashing and her omega demeanor becoming rather alpha. ‘At least you have the same reasons I do, although I'd be willing to guess there's more to it than that. Where'd you get the funding to make this place? And do you have what it takes to take out the X-Men?'

By now Duncan was completely lost, and Graydon was just barely following. ‘Wait just one minute. I was under the impression you liked the furred freak.'

Amanda dismissed Graydon with a gesture. ‘I'll talk more when we get rid of dumb and blond here.' she jerked a thumb at Duncan.

‘Duncan, alert my father we may have a bogie on level two,' Graydon ordered, his eyes never leaving the brown-haired enigma who stood almost imperiously in front of him. Physically she may have been shorter than him, but the presence she gave off was that of someone much more powerful than himself. As if she were a mutant -- But she can't be! We did tests on her DNA, for God's sake, and she showed normal across the board!

As Duncan calmly left Graydon, full of confidence that the youngest High Officer in FOH could handle a sophomore girl, Amanda rolled her eyes at Graydon. ‘No, I'm not a mutant. You did tests on my DNA, you ought to know.'

‘How did you know that?!'

‘What, you didn't think I was smart enough to realize what happened to that kleenx that 'mysteriously' vanished from an empty trashcan?'

‘You've been pretending,' light dawned on Graydon. ‘You actually got into the Xavier Institute by pretending to accept the worst of them as he was.'

‘So clever of you.'

‘Well, now it's my turn to ask. Why? I mean, you said you don't want mutants to eradicate humans, but to actually dive into their stronghold . . .'

‘A mutant killed my brother. And had I known there was someplace like this, I might not have had to work alone for two years,' she pointed out. ‘You people need some publicity.'

Graydon shook his head. ‘Not everyone is ready to take up arms against those who might be family. Not even for the Greater Good. What were you going to do, anyway? You challenged us as to whether we could take out the X-Men -- which I assure you, we can -- and you're just one person.'

Amanda shrugged. ‘To tell the truth, I really didn't have a plan at the beginning past trying to get into their confidence. But mutants aren't very well known -- imagine the panic caused if people suddenly discovered their children were going to school with a demon? Or that Xavier were harboring the insane chemistry teacher, whose twice attacked the school and Principal Kelly? And there is, of course, the werewolf, which is a primal fear of most people. Rightly so, may I add.'

‘For one person, that's rather ingenious. Would the X-Men realize it was you?'

‘And give up my position in their hierarchy? Never. Not that their professor wouldn't be able to tell, eventually, but that much longer in their circle could save someone elses brother.'

Graydon nodded. ‘Well, Amanda, welcome to the Friends of Humanity. Care for the ten cent tour?'

‘Sure.'

*

‘Impressive.'

‘Thank you,' Mr. Brent smiled at the girl as he and his son finished the tour. ‘Although what's more impressive was your ability to spy on Xavier's mutie cadre for so long, without him finding you out.'

Amanda shrugged. ‘Once I accepted Nightcrawler, he didn't really want to see what was in my head. He just figured if I was able to take Nightcrawlers appearance without shouting ‘Demon!' they'd be fine. Although how stupid would you be not to tread on eggshells when confronted with someone who looked like that?'

Graydon and his father brought Amanda to the FOH cafeteria, to sit and talk. ‘We thought the X-Men for sure had pegged FOH as anti-mutant -- how did you manage to join without them causing a fuss?'

‘Well, I made friends with Candy, Angel's girlfriend, and that's how I originally found out about you. No kudos for that one -- Angel's on the lookout for you now, and you didn't even cripple him. Anyway, it wasn't that hard. It showed I knew about another mutant when I warned Kurt, finally let me in, and then Xavier practically handed me to you on a silver platter. He asked me to play spy for him.'

‘When he wouldn't risk one of his own students, who were the ones in real danger,' Mr. Brent snorted in disgust. ‘He instead risked the life of someone who didn't even have a stake in our soon-to-be little war.'

‘He is a mutie,' Amanda pointed out over a cup of hot chocolate. ‘No morals. Anyway, that's how I got here. Never figured it would be this easy to double-cross a telepath.'

‘How did you manage to get in there without Xavier discovering you? He is powerful, as he's shown by his many mind-wipes.'

‘You can feel them too? The little fuzzy blank spots where there ought to be a memory?' Amanda asked, leaning over her drink.

‘Yes. Some people can, some can't. Duncan, for example, can't. I can, and I tell you it's annoying to know they've been out in the open more than once, but I have no proof because I can't remember!'

Amanda smiled. ‘I thought it was just me. Every once in a while you run into someone who's immune to telepathy. Not to mind wipes, but no telepath of any ability can go snooping around in their heads. I'm one of them. That's why I didn't die when a telepath killed my brother. She meant to get me, too, and thought she did, but I'm still here, aren't I?'

Mr. Brent and Graydon stared. ‘That's possible? Xavier can't read your mind?'

‘No. He said so himself -- I was a little worried. I knew Jean couldn't, but Xavier's more powerful than any telepath I've ever run into. I've seen more than my share.'

‘Is that another reason why you chose to go after the X-Men? A vendetta against telepaths?' Mr. Brent inquired.

‘He's the biggest one there is. If I can take him out, mutants haven't a prayer,' Amanda pointed out.

‘We, miss Sefton. You're part of a team now. The X-Men don't stand a chance.'

Amanda grinned.

*

‘What's this one do? Besides the obvious, I mean,' Amanda was peering through a barred window into a cage that would disgust the staff of any zoo.

The creature in the cell looked up as a shadow crossed his window, blocking out a little of the only light he ever got. Not that he had been a being of the light before, but at least the sewers were bigger. Mottled, bumpy green skin, blank pink eyes and one too little fingers marked the boy as a mutant.

‘Calls himself 'Leech'. Sucks the powers right out of any mutie nearby.'

Amanda shot a shocked look at Graydon, and whistled. ‘Nice.'

‘You bet. That's why he's in the middle of this place, near the computers. If the X-Men ever discovered this place, they couldn't get into the main control room with their powers,' Graydon was actually having fun. This girl was smart, and although she'd been working on her own for the two years since her brother had been killed, she'd readily joined the Friends of Humanity once she'd been assured they would allow her to continue as a plant in the Xavier mansion. So she was two years younger than him -- she was also anti-mutant, intelligent, pretty, and the only real downside to the girl was that she was black. Oh, well. Can't have everything, I suppose.

‘Hmm. So, any ideas on what I'm supposed to tell the X-Men on why I spent the last two hours with the Friends of Humanity? Telling Xavier that I've decided Nightcrawler really is a demon and deserves to be destroyed won't go over well, I don't think.'

Graydon laughed aloud. ‘No, plus, that would burst FOH's cover. We're still a peaceful, help-out-your-neighbors group on the surface, remember?'

‘And I'm still a shy little thing. So. What, you and Duncan dragged me to some sort of party and I kept getting waylaid on my way out? Ended up spending half an hour convincing you to drive me home?'

‘That might work. So, you'll be back with the freaks tomorrow?'

‘I'll have to be, won't I? Yeach. After the hospitality of real humans, going back in there is going to be irritating.'

‘You can handle it,' Graydon's voice purred from behind her. He ran a hand through her hair, and Amanda stiffened when she felt him kiss her jaw. She whirled. ‘Graydon!'

He held his hands out and shrugged innocently. ‘I figured you'd want something to balance the time spent with the mutie cur.'

‘Kurt's not--'

‘So it's back to Kurt again?' Graydon's eyes narrowed. He was beginning to suspect they'd been tricked. At the sudden fear in Amanda's eyes, he knew. ‘You really are a good actress, aren't you? And to think, I almost let you walk out of here,' Graydon pushed a call button installed next to Leech's cage, in case he escaped. ‘Bogie on level four, emergency containment needed.'

As FOH members started coming out of the woodworks, Graydon turned back to Amanda, who was neatly trapped. ‘Mutie whore!' he spat.

‘Even a whore won't be had by a rat!'

Her statement of defiance was the last thing she got out before someone behind her knocked her out.

*

It was too light and too dark, blinding and blind. A column of white encased in darkness. And she was trapped within the light.

The line between black and while solidified as Amanda whispered a word in a forgotten tongue, an ancient combination of Latin and Egyptian. She came fully awake. Taking in her surroundings, she cleverly deduced that she was tied to a chair. She grinned. Stupid of them to use something made of natural fibers. Not even that plastic rope synthetic, but actual real rope. Which means that they're is going to get the surprise of their lives!'

Or rather, they was. She had just begun to work herself free when a rectangle opened in the wall -- a door. She halted her whisper, knowing she didn't want to work this while someone was in the room. Precisely how she had managed to get herself into this position was still fuzzy, due both to her former state of unconsciousness and her quick wake-up. Forgot about that particular aftereffect . . .

Graydon smirked. ‘Thought that was the best move, didn't you? I understand why, logically. They do seem to have more power. What I can't understand is how you stomached it.'

Amanda dragged her head up, glaring at him and trying to think of a witty response. Then she gave up. ‘Stomached what? And how the hell did I get here?!'

‘Drugs not worn off yet? Maybe I shouldn't tell you. Tell you what you ought to have figured out by now -- that you've been kidnapped and ransomed by enemies of your mutie friends!'

‘Verdammt,' she muttered. ‘So, since you're obviously the evil mastermind, would you answer my first question?'

‘Betrayal.'

Amanda just stared at the Friends of Humanity member. ‘Betrayal of what?'

‘Your species, bitch! Of your very self to those freaks!' he hissed.

So that's how I managed to get myself into this rather indignant situation, Amanda thought. He insulted Kurt one time too many, and I broke my cover. Here's hoping I bought some time for Kurt to assemble the cavalry!

*

Several hours crawling through enemy ventilation was taking it's toll on Nightcrawler -- especially his fur. It was tangled on the elbows and knees from the tight squeeze, and matted everywhere from sweat. His tail was the only part of him not starting to cramp because of the close fit, as it could still move comfortably.

It hadn't helped that he had caught up with Amanda just as a FOH member snuck up behind Amanda and pressed a few key pressure points, knocking her out cold. The only reason he'd been able to find the cell they were holding her in was because Graydon had gone in when she woke up. He heard Graydon in there, snarling at her, and grimaced. He had to get her out of there.

*

*Scott, Rahne! What's going on? Where's Kurt?*

‘Elf hitched a ride on Duncan's car when they kidnapped her, Professor. We have to find them!' Rahne burst into the lounge. Xavier, Logan, Ororo, and Jean were inside, all with nearly identical expressions of shock on their face.

‘Call to arms, Xavier. Let's move,' Logan growled.

*X-Men, to Cerebro, ready to move!* Xavier shouted, and the mansion came alive.

‘I'm coming, Professor.'

Xavier studied the werewolf, whose hands-on-hips attitude left no room for doubt. ‘Alright, Rahne. Better hurry then.'

Rahne was the first into Cerebro, Rogue a step behind her and Scott after that. ‘Right. Professor, you have everything?'

‘I'll explain it all, yes,' Xavier looked over the group of mutants, making sure they were all there. And of course, the obligatory eavesdropping New Mutants. ‘Now, Amanda's been kidnapped by Graydon Brent --'

‘Creed.' Logan growled from the back of the room, and Ororo put a calming hand on his shoulder.

‘-- Graydon Creed and Duncan Matthews.' Rogue and Evan shot Jean looks that could kill surer that Cyclops. ‘Kurt managed to stow away in Duncan's trunk, but we have no idea where they are or what's going on. However, I should be able to use Cerebro to find Kurt, and locate Amanda from his directions.'

‘Why can't you just find Amanda?' Kitty asked.

Xavier sighed. ‘I can't read her mind, let alone communicate telepathically with her.' with that, Xavier turned back to the computer powerful enough to be granted it's own room, and searched mentally for his wayward student.

Nothing.

*

Why isn't this working?! Nightcrawler was more than frustrated; he was scared. His whole plan hinged on being able to teleport in and untie Amanda, and he couldn't teleport. For the first time since getting his power, he was frightened that he might not have it.

He had moved so he could hear everything Graydon said to Amanda, and her rebuttals, of course.

‘. . . for your mutie friends to come rescue you? Even if they find this place, they won't be able to get you.'

Amanda swore under her breath as she realized what Graydon was saying. ‘You put me next to Leech, didn't you? So Xavier can't find me, and Kurt can't teleport in.'

‘We know his power works on line-of-sight, and anywhere that he's close enough to see you, he's too close to Leech,' Graydon smirked.

*

The students, who'd been exiled to wait outside Cerebro while the Professor was working, were doing various things to keep them busy. Xavier had never had this much trouble finding one of his students before, especially with Cerebro's help. Rogue was pacing in front of the doors, hardly able to think coherently, Even was sharpening one bone with another, Kitty and Rahne were discussing how best to get revenge on Bobby for his latest prank, Scott was doing what he did best (brooding), and Jean was playing solitaire.

Rogue finally screeched. ‘WHY ARE YOU JUST SITTING THERE?!'

Jean jumped, scattering cards everywhere, one of which was run though by a sharpened bone when Evan jerked in surprise.

‘I can't use Cerebro, Rogue! I'm not powerful enough to harness it. I'd be overwhelmed. You think I wouldn't rather be in there, helping find him?!'

‘Ah'm beginning to think so! Ya were so busy watchin' Amanda that ya didn't even notice when yer boyfriend turned anti-mutant!! An' now he's got Amanda an' Kurt!' the southern accent thickened with each word as Rogue vented her fury.

‘Rogue! Calm down,' Cyclops ordered. ‘No matter the mistakes Jean made, she can't help now, and you're probably disturbing the Professor.'

Rogue shot a last baleful glance at Jean before going back to pacing.

Scott's words stung, although she knew they were true. She hadn't trusted the girl from the beginning, feeling like it was her fault she couldn't read her mind. She'd become so used to skimming people's surface thoughts that it disturbed her when she didn't sense any in Amanda. The accusation was worse, coming from Scott. Scott . . . Jean had never thought that he would turn away from her. Over anything, let alone something so small as someone elses girlfriend. He was her Scott, and she knew it. That's why she could go out with Duncan, wallow in being popular, live up to everyone expectations.

Or what she thought was everyones' expectations. The X-Men had showed a whole new side since Amanda had come into their lives, apparently growing in their dislike of her. Even Kitty and Amara, who she thought she'd been on good terms with, had started shying away. All because of what? Because she didn't trust one person? Couldn't she be given a little slack?

It wasn't just over Amanda, however, and Jean knew it. Was denying it, but knew it. Scott loved her -- loved in every way possible, as his only really close friend, as a teenage guy with waaaayyyy to many hormones, and something more. There was something in Jean that drew Scott to her and made him ignore everyone else, and there was something in him that evoked the same reaction in her. Sure, Duncan was hot, and could be led around by the nose, but she didn't really care about him. Hadn't cared about another guy since she first met Scott. She was friends with Kurt, Evan, Bobby, and everyone else, but her heart belonged to Scott. Always had. She'd come to depend on that, knowing that he would love her and agree with her regardless. Regardless of who she was dating, what the X-Men were doing, and of any other competition. Competition Scott had never in reality had, because she loved him as much as he loved her. They were soul mates, for lack of a better term.

She just wasn't about to admit it.

The X-Men knew it. Saw it in both of them, that they'd rather be with each other than anyone else who ever lived, and that Scott accepted it. But I didn't and it irked them because as jumped-up as Scott can be, he was always kind. They teased him, called him 'General One-Eye', but liked him a heck of a lot more than they liked her. Now that Scott wasn't speaking to her, she'd lost whatever shaky footing she'd had.

Dammit, I didn't mean for this to happen! she wanted to shriek, if only to get a reply.

Evan beat her to it. ‘Hey guys, look. What're the chances?' He held up the card his bone had skewered.

King of hearts. Just like Kurt.

Rogue looked about ready the shred something into pieces small enough to fit through a cheese grater when the Professor's surprised voice came from inside Cerebro.

‘Amanda?!'

*

‘I suppose your mutie friends told you everything? Or at least, you'd think they told you everything. One would have to wonder why we're going through the bother to capture a full human, mutie whore or no.'

Amanda watched Graydon warily. She had a feeling this was important. ‘Are you going to tell me something, or are you going to sit there pacing like a caged animal? Oh, that's right, I forgot. I'm the caged one. Kinda wondering what would happen, though, if you became--' the door slammed shut a moment before creaking open again, making Graydon jump. ‘Caged too?'

Her interrogators eyes narrowed. ‘You're good.' he then slid over and stuck his face in front of hers. ‘I'm better.' Graydon resumed his circling. ‘Think of me as a vulture circling dying prey. As I was saying . . . You're not here because you're dating the mutie cur.'

‘Do you have a list of insults for Kurt in your pocket that you keep referring to? Because I'm sure I've heard that one before.'

Graydon ignored her, much to her frustration. Go away, damn you! I haven't finished it yet! ‘You're here because the mutie cur you're so found of is the son of the leader of mutant rebels. We've discovered her only soft spot is her son.'

‘Then why not ransom yourself, mein bruder?! GET AWAY FROM HER!!' Nightcrawler screeched and shot out from the vent on the back wall, barreled into Graydon, and tumbled in a mass of skin and fur through the open door. Gunfire sounded.

No, Kurt! Why couldn't you just stay away? This way they win! she resumed work to untie herself, muttering in a little-known tongue. Where are the X-Men? I don't think me trying to rescue him by myself is the greatest idea!

*Amanda?!*

Professor Xavier! Kurt's here, by himself, trying to get me out!

*The Cavalry's on it's way. Amanda, how is this --*

Possible? That will take some explaining. Y'see, I made the barriers you ran up against. It's a long story, one Kurt deserves to hear. However, the X-Men had better hurry, or FOH will apparently have a hostage for every major mutant in Bayville! Mystique and Kurt --

*Of course . . . We played right into their hands.* Xavier sounded disgusted with himself.

Not if I can help it!

*What?* Xavier was cut off as Amanda freed herself.

‘Nightcrawler!' she called, standing. One of the FOH members turned a gun on her. She raised her hand and halted the chemical reaction that caused the gun to fire. Blue flame ringed her eyes as slowly backed towards Nightcrawler, concentrating on keeping them from getting shot. The air slowly began to answer her summons, forming a wind tunnel that diverted anything in it's path around Amanda and Kurt.

‘. . . 'Manda, what's going on?' Kurt called as the maelstrom surrounded them.

‘It's called a windshield, and it's a complicated bugger of a spell. I'm going have to drop my usual magic and focus on this! Nightcrawler -- you may not like what you see.'

‘'Manda, what--?!'

The form she had been wearing dropped away, revealing an olive-skinned, blond-haired girl with the same dark brown eyes. Blue light shimmered across her skin as 'Amanda' vanished, dissolving into the vortex of the windshield.

The now-transformed novice sorceress stood shock-still, sweat pouring off her skin and blue fire -- her magic -- spinning from her hands. Her dark blond hair was all the moved as it whipped about in the wind.

Kurt knew her.

‘Jimaine?' he whispered, slowly covering the distance to the figure whose eyes glowed blindly with blue fire. She did not hear him. ‘Mein Gott in Hummel -- Jimaine! Oh, no you don't. That's how Stefan got hurt, engulfed in his magic -- Jimaine!!'

*Nightcrawler, where are you?*

Just head for the center, you can't miss us! And hurry -- she's going to kill herself if she keeps this up!

*Kill -- Kurt, what's going on?!*

I haven't time to explain, but if we don't get some backup now, she's going to die!

SNIKT!

*Ahh. There's your backup.*

The hastily-armed FOH were cleared out of the hallway as the X-Men came barreling through. Jean and Storm kept them out. ‘Hurry up back there!' Storm called with forced calmness. ‘We can't hold this forever!'

‘Um -- Love to, darlin', but I'm not sure how to get them out of there.'

Amanda -- or rather, Jimaine -- was still holding the windshield.

Inside the whirlwind, Kurt was attempting to muster enough courage to touch the lost sorceress. ‘Jimaine! Jimaine, help's come! Drop it, Jimaine! Drop the spell or you'll burn out! Jimaine!!'

She was as blue as he was when she stared at him, fiery eyes inhuman and uncomprehending. ‘{Help?}' she inquired in German. ‘{No help. All on my own . . .}'

‘{Not anymore, Jimaine. You have family in this foreign place. And when I tell you that you can let down your guard, would you trust me?}'

A moment of hesitation shone in bright blue before fiery eyes gained humanity enough to smile. ‘{Trust you . . .}' The blue slowly faded as the windshield was reduced to miniature whirlwinds, and she collapsed.

The X-Men rushed forward.

‘What th' heck's goin' on?!' Rogue demanded. ‘An' who's that?'

‘It's Amanda -- trust me, it's her, although this will take some explaining. We have to get out of here!'

‘Kid smells the same, Rogue, so it's her. Let's move, people! Storm, clear the row ahead o' Jeannie's wall!'

Storm's eyes lit, and the hall was cleared by concentrated wind. ‘We have ten seconds before they recover enough to fire,' she stated calmly.

The X-Men were long gone by then, doors jammed behind them by bone spikes and halls in front empty because of Cyclops' low-power blasts. Once they were near the exit, Shadowcat did reconnaissance. ‘Door's like, fifty feet ahead, and I'm totally dragging Spyke back out with me. FOH out front, people!' she yelled as she and Spyke ran ahead, phasing through doors and the few remaining FOH members.

Logan loaded Amanda into the middle row of seats on the Blackbird, on top of Nightcrawler and Rogue, while Jean, Storm and Scott covered for them. Jean managed one last telekinetic blast before swaying, then finally fainting. Scott, of course, caught her and strapped her in before taking the copilot's seat, which was usually occupied by Kurt.

‘Alright, we're gone!!'

If it weren't below his dignity, Scott would have whooped.

*

The form of a teenage girl lay motionless on a bed in the hospital wing, incredibly long blond hair ringing a distinctly Romani face, complete with dark, almost olive skin. Although you couldn't tell at the moment, the eyes hidden under closed lids were also distinctly Romani, a warm brown so dark they neared black. The girl herself was as enigmatic as her recent masquerade.

‘So -- what's her name?'

‘Jimaine. Jimaine Szardos. What I can't figure out is what she's doing on this side of the Atlantic!' Kurt shook his head. ‘I grew up with her. She's Romani --'

‘What?' Rogue asked. The two had pulled third watch that night, since they didn't know when -- or whether -- she was going to wake up. If she started falling, someone had to be there to wake Beast up and get him downstairs.

Kurt sighed, then sat down on the bed next to the unconscious girl. ‘She's a gypsy. Her mother was the Seer for the circus I worked in, and still was when I left. Jimaine was still training under her mother, and -- verdammt, what is she doing here?!'

‘Whoa, Kurt calm down. Now, if the girl's not a mutant, what was that wind tunnel thing she was making? And how'd she do it?'

‘She's a sorceress. Well, a novice sorceress, under her mother's training. I had no idea she could do anything so powerful.'

Rogue stared a minute to see if Kurt was kidding. When it was obvious he wasn't she shook her head. ‘Whoa. Kurt. Magic? Yah're not tellin' me that she called that wind with magic.'

Kurt smiled wryly at his foster-sister. ‘You're forgetting my upbringing. I did not grow up in young America. I grew up in Germany, among the Romani. We were taught a little differently.'

Rogue just shook her head. ‘Ah guess. But still -- magic? It's a little far-fetched.'

Kurt glared. Rogue shrugged. ‘Fine. Then where's Amanda?'

The elfin mutant leaped, flipped, landed on the ceiling, and began pacing. ‘I don't know. Jimaine was impersonating Amanda, she got kidnapped by FOH instead of the real Amanda, the question is, How long has she been impersonating Amanda? Why? And where's the real Amanda?'

‘That's more than one question, Kurt,' Rogue pointed out, sitting lightly on the bed he had vacated. Kurt growled, annoyed, in her direction, showing upside down fangs. ‘Alright! Yikes, Kurt. You're a little touchy tonight.'

‘It's five in the morning, I have no idea where Amanda is, I suddenly discover a girl I grew up with has been masquerading as my girlfriend, and now she's lying unconscious on the bed, probably from power-drain. Today has not been a good day.'

Rogue just nodded slowly, and Kurt returned to pacing.

*

‘Professa?' Rogue put a gloved finger to her lips, gesturing to the sleeping Nightcrawler with her other hand. He'd finally curled up on one of the other hospital beds to wait -- and had fallen asleep. ‘He fell asleep 'bout an hour ago. Didn't want to wake him up.'

‘That's alright, Rogue. I did a quick mindscan when I woke up, and it seems Jimaine is coming around herself.'

As if the Professor's comment was a cue, Rogue heard a soft rustle behind her. When she turned around Jimaine was sitting up in bed, pressed against the headboard and frozen. The only things that moved were her eyes, darting around the room. ‘{Where am I?}' she demanded in German. When the only conscious occupants of the room just looked confused she rolled her eyes, which shone blue for a moment before returning to dark brown. ‘Where am I? This doesn't look much like any American hospital I've seen!'

‘You're in the bowels of the Institute, Miss Szardos. And, if what Kurt says is true, on the wrong side of an entire ocean. How did you manage that?'

Jimaine's mind raced. Then she opted for stalling. ‘I took a plane. Although a long cruise would have been nice.'

‘And how did you get on that plane?' a soft voice asked. ‘Why did you leave Germany, and then impersonate Amanda? Mein swester, I am glad to see you. I'm just -- not sure why you're here. As I last heard it, Margali had you neatly secure as an apprentice.'

The girl stared at Kurt a few moments. ‘Kurt -- maybe I was wrong in coming here. Maybe I should never have interfered with that status quo. And maybe I owe you an apology that you shouldn't accept.'

*And maybe there was never an 'Amanda' in the first place?*

Jimaine cringed, even though she knew she was the only one who'd heard what Xavier had said.

‘I just want to know what's going on,' Kurt stated firmly. Rogue walked over and sat down next to him on the other bed, staring daggers at Jimaine. She already didn't like where the Romani's story was going, and the girl had hardly started.

Jimaine took a deep breath, and began.

*

‘First of all, although your parents told the troupe you were going to America, to a school where mutants were welcome, they did not tell us how to contact you, and refused when asked. I think they wanted you to start over, in a new country, without the gypsy trash circus prejudice to go along with your unorthodox appearance. Everyone protested, but we couldn't really do anything about it. Mother said you were fine, that you were in no danger. So the troupe settled down, but things were a lot different without you, Kurt. No exuberant sense of humor, no laughing yellow eyes, no tail to grab that one extra rope, and even the brimstone smell was fading. To tell the truth, you were an integral part that we no longer realized we had.

Anyway. I -- I really missed you. I was mad that I couldn't even talk to you, and couldn't adjust to not seeing a flash of smoke and blue. So I used a little illicit scrying magic to find you. When I did, I got the troupe together, told them I was planning to go to America to find you, and asked them for help. Especially to keep things from reaching Mothers ears.'

‘They agreed, obviously, or you wouldn't be here,' Rogue broke in. Jimaine nodded.

‘The thing was, I couldn't just come over here and find you. Mother would have discovered me in a cold second, shimmered over here, and dragged me back. So I spent the next week or so devising a shield spell that would keep me, Jimaine, hidden from Mothers Sight. I also figured that if anyone, including you, discovered I wasn't supposed to be here, they'd send me back. The spell required an illusion, anyway, as a last defense so that if Mother did get past everything else, she'd see someone else. I used the illusion as a tie to hold everything else in, an anchor for the other spells.'

Kurts eyes were wide in disbelief as he put all the clues together.

Jimaine refused to look at him. Head bowed, staring at her lap, she slowly twisted a lock of her long blond hair around one finger. Her confession was almost painful.

‘There is no Amanda Sefton.'

*

It was Jimaine all along. There was never an Amanda, never someone who discovered me, saw me as I was for the first time and could accept me. Maybe I really am a demon.

He knew they would come looking for him in the basements; it was a good place for any of them to hide when they wanted to be alone, since the roof had become so crowded. However, even now, his friends never thought to look up. Just not a human instinct -- nothing has been able to hunt us from the air since we became larger than rabbits.

Kurt sighed, curled up on the ceiling with his feet pressed against it so he wouldn't fall. It wasn't that he wasn't ecstatic to see Jimaine again -- it was just that he missed . . .

‘(You miss Amanda, don't you?}' came a familiar voice from below him. No wonder he hadn't recognized her -- her voice sounded entirely different when she spoke German! She looked just a she always had from above, a shock of blond hair, olive skin and dark eyes. ‘{Kurt -- I know it doesn't do any good to apologize. I didn't know, when I came here, when I planned this, that you were keeping yourself hidden. Didn't know you could. I thought -- thought for sure you'd know people, regular humans, who accepted you, accepted your school, for who you were. I had no idea you were living in fear.}' she sighed, leaned against the metal wall and slid down until she sat. She really wasn't ready to be out of bed yet. ‘{I didn't think that a single human, seeing who you were and accepting it, was so important. I suppose I disillusioned the whole team; after all, they thought they could finally trust a human and it turns out she's grown up with Nightcrawler, of course she'd accept him! Gods, I've caused more damage than I ever imagined I could.}'

The silence stretched in the basement until Jimaine felt a furred hand on her shoulder. ‘{When --}' Kurt's voice choked a bit from above her. ‘{When you were Amanda, did you -- is that how you really -- really feel, about me? Or was it just another part of your plan?} he said the last bit harshly, and felt Jimaine flinch below him.

‘{No, Kurt. I . . .}' she turned those bottomless dark brown eyes up on him. ‘{I know we were best friends, before, which is why I could never quite work up the nerve tell you I liked you -- What if friendship were all you wanted? I didn't -- didn't want to lose that,}' she chuckled a little, sadly. ‘{I guess that's ended, too.}'

Yellow eyes became brighter in shock. ‘{No, Jimaine,}' he crawled down the wall to sit next to her, noticing that this weird movement didn't even remotely phase her. ‘{Nothing you could do would turn me away from you. I just -- It's so hard to know that I have to rethink everything I decided to encompass the fact that 'Amanda' grew up knowing me. Ideals are getting smacked down left and right.}'

‘{Oh, Kurt, no! Amanda Sefton may not exist, but the idea of Amanda Sefton does. Much as Graydon seems to indicate otherwise. The day will come when the X-Men discover that. In the meantime, you do have a reasonable facsimile. If you're willing to forgive me.}'

Kurt spent a moment studying the tired girl sitting next to him, from her blond hair to her heart. ‘{I think, as long as you're sure that there is an 'Amanda Sefton', somewhere, I don't have any choice.}'

His tail wrapped possessively around her waist as they kissed.

*

‘Why would the freak claim relation to any human?! They hate us!' the voice came from an upper-level FOH member, on the opposite side of a debate with Mr. Brent.

When the Friends of Humanity had recovered from the rescue attempt they thought they could fight off, they found Graydon sitting in shock in the chair that had held Amanda against her will a mere ten minutes earlier. Only he had heard what Nightcrawler had shouted before leaping out at him, and when asked why he was just sitting there, he replied, again and again, ‘Mein bruder. Mein bruder. Mein bruder. Mein bruder.'

He'd had to be sedated, but not before earning the nickname 'broken record' from some of the youngest.

Now FOH was unsure of itself, especially as the rock for the younger generation had succumbed to shock. Other top member had cornered Graydon's adoptive father, demanding an explanation for Graydon's behavior. That was, until someone realized just what Graydon had been babbling, and translated it.

Brent was desperately trying to keep his hold on his fellows, hoping to salvage the situation. ‘Listen!' he cut through the air with his hands, trying to silence everyone. Even though their latest plan had been torn to shambles, they listened. One does not abandon an effective leader because they made one mistake. ‘Graydon was adopted. You all know it. Anyone -- or anything -- could have been his parents. He's human, and proves it by being here, by supporting us and becoming the key in what might have been the downfall of the X-Men. The filthy creature was just messing with his head -- and it worked, too. Are we going to let some deception though up by a mutie to distract us reach it's goal?!' he had raised his voice to speech-level, and his audience, roused by his rally and forgetting their grievence with him, cheered. Then FOH set about clearing up the ruins of their plans, certain that next time Brent would have another answer. Certain in the parentage of their leader's son, who was looking to one day tak his place.

In the hospital ward of the Friends of Humanity headquarters, brown eyes ringed in yellow snapped open. I can't believe I didn't realize it before! he snarled to himself. We know Mystique is a shape-shifter, we know the Nightcrawler is her spawn -- and there can't be that many mutant with the same abilities, the X-gene is more arbitrary than that. So -- he's my brother. Half-brother, through a relation I hate. Which makes the little absorber my foster-sister.

This was turning into Family Feud!

Graydon Creed growled under his breath as he sat up. Damn, that was a strong sedative. What was I doing? Singing ‘I Feel Pretty' and dancing the macerana?

Swinginng his legs over the edge of the bed, Graydon stifled a groan as his back popped. Apparently, it was not happy that it had been dragged hither and thither around the base. When he did manage to stand, fighting off the lingering effects of the sedatives he had been given, the first thing he did was go to the bathroom in the hospital wing and swish a cup of water around in his mouth.

Dammit, the sedative did more damage that Nightcrawler did! I can hardly think! he eyed the cabinet above the sink, then firmly turned away from it. No way to know how painkillers would interact with whatever he'd been given.

Sitting down at the desk where a monitor should be, Graydon snagged a piece of paper and began writing. After he tossed away a dozen alternatives, he finally fund one that suited him, typed it up, and let it print. There! his satisfied smile was a little shaky, but he convinced himself it was due to the sedatives. No matter that the other effects had already cleared up.

He folded the genaric printer paper into an envelope, glued on a stamp and a sticker with the Institute's address printed on it. He would feel much better, he was certain, when it was in the mail.

Round one to you.

*

Jimaine had finally managed to convince Kurt to go back upstairs (mostly because she needed to get into a bed, which was one of the few things in short supply in the basement) when Kurt heard Rogue shriek from the medilab. BAMFing in and leaving Jimaine to physically make her way there, Kurt discovered why Rogue was so surprised.

A ten-foot woman with ram's horns and pupil-less eyes will do that, even to an X-Man.

Jimaine struggled in after Kurt, who was staring speechless at the woman. After a moment of surprise, she glared up at the figure while she fell back into the bed. ‘Verdammt, what are you doing here?'

‘Temper temper daughter,' the figure shook an admonishing finger at Jimaine, while Rogue stood paralyzed near the doorway. Wolverine was just behind her, with his head in the door, just as astonished as she was. ‘You gave me quite a chase, Jimaine, but I did find you.' she shook her head. ‘Why I bothered I'm not quite clear on. You forfeited your apprenticeship with me when you left, and have been gone these past few months.'

‘Maybe you bothered because I'm your daughter, and the only child left to you to pass your Craft onto!' Jimaine shot back. The novice may have been confined to a bed but her tongue was sharp as ever. ‘After what happened to Stefan, I wouldn't be surprised if that was your only reason!'

‘You knew well enough, Jimaine, that I did not want you to see this demonic little creature,' she gestured to Kurt with a dismissive hand.

Her insult, however, broke the others in the room out of their paralysis. ‘Kurt's not a demon, you witch! Who are you? What do you want with Am -- Jimaine?!' Rogue demanded.

‘Explain yourself quick, frail,' Wolverine threatened as he snapped out of his freeze and walked into the room, clearly standing where he could protect the other three.

The woman rolled her eyes, almost amused. ‘I am Margali of the Winding Road, and Jimaine is my daughter. No matter how far she has strayed,' at this Margali glared at the blond. ‘From the proper education of a Romani and a sorceress.'

‘Well, Mrs --'

‘My name, telepath, is Margali. I am 'Mrs' to no one.'

Xavier was framed by the doorway, wheelchair and all, after catching sight of the oversize woman who had decided to grace their medilab. ‘Yes. Well. Margali, this does give you the right to be here, and to collect your daughter, but I would like to know why, after allowing your children to grow up with Kurt, you now call him 'demon'.'

‘That is unimportant. I am here for my apprentice, although she has relinquished the right to any such honored position.'

‘What, did you forget you're my mother? Or it that negligible against my being your apprentice?' Jimaine challenged. Margali sighed.

‘Jimaine,' she shook her head. ‘Your being my daughter makes you Romani --'

‘Does it, Mother? Are Stefan and I Romani? After all, we don't know our father, do we?'

Margali glared at he daughter, while the other X-Men gathered outside the medilab door. ‘What's going on?' Jubilee whispered to Bobby.

‘There's some woman taller than Storm in there, who claims she's Am- Jimaine's mom. And they're talking about Germany, or Romania, or something. I can't hear that --'

Bobby, who had his ear pressed against the wall because he couldn't get close to the door, suddenly slipped, fell, and found himself staring at blue feet. Following them up to the face that eventually followed, Bobby gulped. ‘I believe, Robert, that this most unique situation should be handled by the Professor, Kurt, Jimaine and Wolverine. Come on, back upstairs.'

‘Aww, Hank!' Bobby protested along with the other New Mutants, who reluctantly followed him up the stairs and into the main part of the mansion. The X-Men exchanged glances from behind the closed medilab door.

‘Um, what if Hank's right? But . . . Rogue's in there, right?' Evan glanced around, as if trying to keep his grip on a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of anyone's control but Margalis. None of them had any idea what to do; this wasn't an enemy, this was a malignant figure from Kurts past. What were they supposed to do about that?

‘I say we listen at the door, and Jean can scan their surface thoughts,' Scott said quickly. Kitty nodded quickly, and Jean closed her eyes.

‘. . . precisely did you get here, Margali?' Xavier asked as Jean tuned into the conversation.

‘I shimmered. You would call it teleportation.'

Xavier's mouth fell open. ‘You can teleport?'

‘I admit it's an upper-level skill, but nothing a sorceress with any ability can't do,' Margali grinned a little at the expression on Xavier, Wolverine and Rogue's faces. ‘In fact, this is what Jimaine should have been learning during her little outing.'

‘Um, Margali?' Kurt spoke up. He had moved next to Jimaines bed while Xavier and Wolverine attempted to figure out what and who Margali was, and why she had decided to show up in their medilab. Kurt was perched on Jimaine's headboard, his tail wrapped around one of her wrists. ‘We have an idea.'

Epilogue

Straight brown hair fell over her shoulders, restrained only by a headband to keep it out of her eyes.

Amanda held up her hand again, just to make sure that the illusion was working again.

‘Liebling!' Kurt called from the door. He was dressed medieval rogue, feathered hat and all. ‘Art thou in distress?'

She stifled a giggle. ‘I will be if I don't eat something soon. And don't you get near the stove, fuzz ball -- I refuse to make Cassie sweep burnt blue fur!'

‘Ah'm cooking, Amanda!' came a distinctly southern voice from the kitchen. ‘I don't intend to let Kurt anywhere near the stove. 'Specially in that getup.'

‘It's not the clothes I'm worried about!'

Rogue and Kurt were in the apartment Amanda and Cassie shared, spending the day helping Amanda recover from her bout with the 'flu'. Cassie was out for the day, so Kurt wasn't bothering with his hologram.

‘Aww, lieblings!' he protested, pouting.

Amanda heard Rogue call from the kitchen, ‘Don't let 'im charm yah! The next thing yah know we'll be picking blue fur out of this and that's not part of the recipe.'

‘Can I come in if I promise not to shed on anything?' Kurt asked hopefully.

‘No! Yah can't promise not to shed on anything, yah just shed!' Rogue called back.

Amanda grinned as Kurt pouted his way into sitting on her headboard. ‘That's what you get for having a reputation, fuzzy,' she pointed out. ‘You might have burned your feather.'

Kurt grinned, leaned down and kissed her. Then he tickled her nose with the feather on his hat.

‘Alright, alright, enough!' Rogue rolled her eyes as she came in with a tray. Putting it out in front of Amanda, she set down a bowl. ‘Mah finest bowl of Cambells chicken noodle soup. That's as close as I get to cooking without poisoning someone.'

The invalid giggled. ‘I guess it's safer than anything with blue --' she made a face, and held up her first spoonful. Kurt shrunk. ‘fur in my soup.'

‘I'm sorry!' he protested. ‘It just fell in!'

‘Than don't sit above her, yah mangy furball,' Rogue suggested.

Feather flopping about, Kurt stuck his nose up. ‘Fine! If you do not wish to be gracdeth by my presence, all thee need do is sayeth so!'

‘Howeth abouteth thee stop the phonyeth accenteth?' Amanda suggested around a mouthful of (furless) soup. ‘Stay right where you are. And if you move your tail one more time, I will yank it off!'

‘You wouldn't yank my tail off, you like it right where it is. Besides, it has a mind of it's own and you know it,' Kurt retorted, settling onto his perch. ‘It's part of my charm.'

‘Yah have too much charm for your own good, fuzz ball,' commented Rogue.

Kurt shrugged, and Rogue noticed he couldn't seem to stop grinning. ‘I think of it as a good thing.'

‘Uh-uh, we're not getting into an argument like that,' Amanda protested. ‘Rogue, you mentioned when you first got here that you wanted to know how I managed to fanangle my way into staying in this country?'

‘Yeah.'

‘Well, about what happened is this: Mother -- Margali -- and Xavier nearly got into a shouting match, I brought up that I was pretty sure the only reason she wanted me back was to continue my apprenticeship, and Kurt and I came up with the idea that I could stay over here as long as I kept up my studies.'

‘Ah take it yah don't mean geography.'

Amanda shook her head. ‘Nope. As soon as I get out of this verdammt bed, I'm to practice teleporting.'

‘Great. Now we'll have to put up with both of yah doing it!' Rogue sighed in mock aggravation. ‘Well, that explains this. How did you get out of being punished by Cassie?'

‘That's actually thanks to Mother. She caught me because of the surge of power I used up in the Windshield but when she figured out what I was doing, she shape-changed into Amanda and took my place. Cassie never even knew I was out later than I was supposed to be.'

‘Margali can shape-shift?'

Kurt sighed. ‘No one but Margali herself knows exactly what she can do. She's -- extremely powerful, that much is for sure. As little as she made of it, shimmering across an ocean and then shape-shifting without blinking an eye indicates some amount of ability.'

Rogue blinked, and kept blinking.

‘Oh, forget about Mother. She'll come and go as she pleases, and it's not worth worrying about,' Amanda shrugged.

Rogue shrugged. She could understand wanting to forget about mothers -- hers hadn't exactly done wonders for her. ‘Alright. So, are you actually related to Cassie?'

‘Ja, but much farther back than she thinks. Far enough back that neither she nor her mother know they're part Romani,' Amanda shrugged. ‘She's actually a descent of the Romani woman who cursed the Kennedy family.'

Rogue just raised her eyebrows. Before she or Kurt could comment on this something beeped imperiously fro the kitchen. ‘That would be Kurt's food,' she glared at her foster-brother. ‘For a ball of fur you eat as much as an ox.' she muttered as she went in the kitchen to get it.

‘I though she said she couldn't cook anything without poisoning someone?' Amanda cocked her head at Kurt.

‘Mein schwester, although she is an interesting person and, if you know what to look for, kind, loyal, and she even has a sense of humor. She cannot, however, cook anything but the simplest microwave food. She once severely burned macaroni and cheese.'

Amanda giggled. ‘So I could end up in bed longer because of this?'

‘Ah heard that!'

The couple wore matching grins. ‘Would confinement to bed be so bad, liebe?' Kurt wondered before kissing her.

‘Not if you keep this up.'

‘My pleasure.'