Kurt Wagner looked around Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, They are all so happy. He felt so out of place. Even after living at this school for almost six months now he never really felt "settled" and he had been teaching, only after Xavier encouragement, but he never felt at home. He squirmed self-consciously. What am I doing here? A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth when he saw her exit her classroom, she was the reason he stayed. Ororo Monroe, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever set his eyes on and the woman who had found her way into his heart. He subconsciously ran his fingers over his rosary. With a quick prayer he realised that he had been standing there for quite some time. He nervously looked around to see if anyone had noticed before disappearing in a cloud of sulphurous blue smoke.

When Kurt reappeared in the hallway in front of the gym a firm hand caught a hold of his shoulder. He spun around and reflexes kicked in. he knocked the hand off his shoulder and was about to floor the person when he realised who it was.

"You alright there, Kurt?" he asked seeing his angry face. He had managed to catch Kurt's fist and he still held on to it, as if he let go Kurt would deck him.

"I'm fine."

"There's a meetin' in the Prof's room, alright?"

"Alright."

He replied quickly and withdrew his fist. Why am I so jumpy lately? Kurt asked himself, it's not like people don't sneak up me all the time, but he had been so busy thinking about Ororo that he wasn't prepared for it. Ororo had been on his mind an awful lot recently, ja, I wonder why, he asked himself.

Lost in thought, Kurt did not even slow down even when the white-haired weather witch appeared right in front of him. He managed to catch her before they collided and it took Kurt several minutes to register what had happened.

"Fräulein Sturm, are you alright?" he asked, eying her dubiously.

"Well...yes..." she managed to sputter. "But how did you...?" then she must have smelt the whiff of sulphur laced with brimstone and then quickly said, "Oh, right, never mind." She turned away blushing badly.

Kurt looked at Ororo for a minute and then flashed her a toothy grin. "Well," he said, "I was told there is some kind of treffen sich in Herr Professor's office, shall we see what it is about?" he smiled again, hopeful. He managed to sneak a look at Ororo, she muttered some thing along the line of agreeing with him and eyes cast downwards as the entered the office. He sighed and followed her. As they entered the office the Professor smiled at them. Kurt looked around the room, he saw Scott sitting in the corner of the room. He looked very much like he would rather be in his room curled up in bed right this minute, Kurt had to look away. Every time he looked upon the man he could sense how much he was hurting. When the Professor gestured for them to find a seat he decided not to bother and just climbed up the wall and perched on it in the other corner of the room. As the professor began to speak he gave him his full attention.

"As you all know this year has been off to a...unpleasant start."

As the Professor said this Cyclops looked away, he could not even bear the reference to Jean. The Professor continued, not taking notice of Scott.

"Everyone has suffered a great deal and with the Christmas holidays coming I thought that we could find a way to celebrate, do something fun, for the children."

He paused thoughtfully, looking at every person individually.

"Does anyone have any ideas?"

There was silence in the room, no one spoke or moved. It seemed like an eternity to Kurt before Logan said, "How 'bout a party, or something." Kurt thought that might be a fun way to get the children's minds off such depressing issues and nodded vigorously. Ororo finally spoke and as she did so Kurt felt his heart flutter in his chest.

"A party sounds like a good idea but what will we do?" she asked.

Kurt thought for a moment then offered, "What about singing and dancing? Something to help them relax, if only for the night." Nobody said anything, they all looked at Kurt. He could feel color creep into his cheeks and he realised he must be a dark shade of purple right about now.

The Professor finally broke the silence "Well that sounds like a good idea but we are going to need a few people to watch over the children, chaperone this event. Any volunteers?" he asked a smile lit up his face.

Logan took his, now illuminated, cigar out of his mouth and gave a short bark-like laugh and said "Charles, you tryin' to rope us into babysittin' a bunch of teenagers?" He looked at the Professor and tried to make the straightest face he could while saying "I would love to babysit 'em but I might be to busy partin'."

At this everyone laughed at this and the tension in the room was broken. The thought of Logan partying with a bunch of adolescents was the funniest thing Kurt had ever heard. Suddenly the Professor's voice broke through his thoughts and he turned his attention to him.

"Well, this party sounds like it could become interesting," he smiled and continued, "As long as things don't get too out of hand then this will be a fun break for the night."

The Professor went on about the date and time but Kurt had stopped listening. Maybe he would be able to work up the courage to ask Ororo for a dance....

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Three days after the meeting the news had spread throughout the school that the teacher's were trying to pull a "cheer-up-the-students" bit. Rogue thought it was stupid. Did they honestly think that they could make the students forget losing a teacher in one night of fun? She heard Kitty, her best friend, talking to her. It took her a while to register what her friend had just said.

"Rogue, you there? I'm trying to talk to you."

Kitty had one hand on her hip and waved the other in front of Rogue's face. The look in Kitty's eyes told Rogue that she missed something "important". She was starting to get sick of all this lovesick crap Kitty had the miraculous ability of attracting.

"Well," she demanded, "what do you think Rogue? Should I ask Piotr to the dance?"

She stopped waiting for her friend's reply. Rogue was too caught up in her own thoughts to even have the slightest clue as to what Kitty said.

"Uhhh...yeah, sure. Why d'you need my opinion?"

Rogue kept walking. She knew Kitty was still standing there glaring at her but Rogue wanted to find someone. She wound her way around the school but she could not find the blue-skinned, yellow-eyed man she was looking for. She wanted to talk to Nightcrawler. He was become her friend ever since his heroic rescue in the Blackbird, but now that she needed to talk to him he had vanished.

While searching out on the grounds a rumbling Russian accent broke into her thoughts.

"Rogue, I am...in needing of your assistance."

She turned around to see Piotr looking down at her, his gaze was timid.

"Whatssup?" she replied in her drawling Southern accent.

He averted her gaze and said quietly "I was...I was thinking about asking Kitty to the dance..." he continued on but Rogue decided to stop listening. Stupid lovesick crap...