I own absolutely positively nothing. So yea, hope you enjoy. :)

She was running (much to her distaste) scared. They outnumbered here, outclassed her, and well... were frighteningly imposing. All thoughts of taking them on were gone from her mind a flood of instinctive panic. Well, at least she had been running. Until she had ran into a certain blue, fuzzy elf in a very dark, slightly ominous, and very badly lit alleyway.

"Hello. Vhy are you running?" She responded by pointing behind her where her chasers appeared quickly. He was taller than her, and she was skinnier than him so she ducked behind the strange boy while he half pushed her behind him as well.

"Give us the girl and nobody gets hurt." There were about five grown, burly, muscly men massed now in the only entrance and exit of the dead-end alleyway. The man who appeared to be the leader gripped a metal baseball bat in one hand and gently smacked his other hand with it, trying, and for the large part succeeding, to be threatening.

"Does she get hurt?" Was Kurt's only response. The girl's eyes widened as she felt his tail flick back and forth, so this man was different just like her. The man seemed taken aback.

"Tha.. That is none of your concern. Just give me the girl! She is mine. I own her." He grinned menacingly.

"People are no longer owned here." Kurt's eyes narrowed. "Verlassen!" There was a moment of silence as the men tried to understand what it was Kurt had just said in German. After half a minute, they simply gave up.

"Get out of the way you stupid kid!" She had had enough. Nobody was going to fight her battles for her. Especially not a bunch of half-wits that could be very easily scared off. She remembered her power when her righteous indignation flared up.

"Vat are you doing?" She called upon all her ferocity and anger. She felt herself change, her teeth lengthening and sharpening. She fell onto her hands which grew into paws, pure white fur covered her new tail. Her eyes were the only thing that remained the same. Still green and gold, which didn't look quite as strange and frightening on a white tiger as they did on the girl. All jaws of those who watched were soon on the dirty alley floor. The normal thing a tiger would do was roar, but then again this was by no means a normal tiger. All she had to do was pull her lips back over her gleaming, sharp, white teeth with the fur on the back of her neck raised. The men needed no further prompting. They were gone before you could say X-Men. Slowly she turned to the blue man, and looked up at him. She expected to see revulsion and fear, but instead she was met with kindness, a fair amount of surprise, and happiness. With confusion she cocked her head.

"Do you have a home?" Still a tigeress she shook her massive head. This wasn't at all what she had been expecting. She'd meant to make her way back to Rhonda's when those men had kidnapped her. Quick thinking had allowed her to escape, but they were smarter than she had accounted for. It had only taken them an hour before she was found again. Standing in an alleyway as a tiger, facing a blue man wasn't really something that happened a lot to the shape-shifter, but just about anything would be better than Rhonda's.

"Vould you like von?" Reluctently she nodded. Her grinned at her to reveal his own gleaming, sharp, white fangs.

"Come on then." With that he walked out of the alley. She stayed frozen to the spot, disbelieving her own eyes.

"Vell? Are you coming?" Quickly she bounded after him, changing into a human girl as she went.

oOo

When they had entered the mansion the pair attracted some strange looks. They weren't really looking at Kurt whom they were used to, but more at the strange new girl wearing ripped clothes following him, looking back at them with wide eyes. Only a few noticed that her strange outfit seemed to not include shoes.

"Vhat is your name little one?" She only blinked up at him. She didn't particularly like talking and saying something as trivial as her name was definitely not going to make the list of things she found OK to say aloud. She looked around and found a boy, who looked to be about her age with brown hair and eyes with a notebook and pen. Grabbing the paper, ignoring his protests, she wrote down her name.

"Hey Kurt." A brown-haired girl had approached the boy and he looked at her with shining eyes. Impatient, the younger mutant thrust the notebook into his hands, demanding attention. Looking down, the boy's fake dark blue eyes took in the open notebook.

"Catalina. I'll call you Cat. Kitty?" Cat blinked at the boy's German accent while he pronounced the other girl's name. "Stay here vith her, okay? I have to tell ze Professor."

"Like sure, Kurt." And with that the German boy, her 'rescuer,' was gone, leaving the two girls alone. Cat gave the notebook back to the mildly amused boy and turned to the older, taller girl before her. "So, my name's Kitty Pryde, but most people just call me Kitty. You've got some wicked hair there. Did you like dye it or something? I totally love it. My parents would never let me like dye mine or anything crazy like that." Cat simply shook her head at the girl, denying dying her hair. "What? So is it like part of your mutation then? Wow, cool. I don't know how I'd handle being born with a physical mutation like you or Kurt. Being able to phase through solid objects is like hard enough to deal with." This girl talked a LOT, but before she could say much more, Kurt poofed back into existence next to the two girls.

"Come on. Ze Professor vants to see you." The short girl merely began to walk towards him, and then past him. Stopping and looking over her shoulder at him when she didn't see him in front of her leading the way. Kitty covered her laugh with her hand and followed the unusual pair at a distance, stopping outside the door and pressing her ear against the thick wood, hoping to hear something being said inside.

After a short speech from Xavier about the institute, and everything they offered he only had one question for the young mutant.

"Do you wish to stay here?" She looked up at Kurt who nodded with a grin. He was the only person she really knew. He had tried to rescue her, which was annoying but nice. She didn't really have any other home anymore she supposed, so she looked back and nodded. The Professor smiled, and called through the door. "You can come in now Kitty." She phased through the door with a slight blush on her face.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Well, would if be alright if little Cat here roomed with you and Rogue for the night? It's a bit late to make other arrangements."

"Totally Professor! C'mon Cat, you can totally sleep in my bed." Kitty reached forward and grabbed the other girl's hand. Catalina looked once more at Kurt to be sure, but he wasn't paying attention to the smaller girl with ebony and ivory hair. He was too busy watching the other girl who was pointedly trying not to look at him too much. Any thoughts she might be having about the two were interrupted when suddenly she found herself through the door. It was going to be a long night she could tell.

"She seems to like you Kurt." Xavier said when the two girls had left.

"Vell, I did save her from some thugs, like I told you. Sort of."

"Hmmm, well go get some sleep Kurt. You'll have to show her around tomorrow. You seem to be the only one she trusts, or at least, the closest one to being one she trusts."

~Meanwhile in Kitty and Rogue's room~

"She's stayin with us?" Rogue replied in her silky southern drawl after Kitty had explained the situation with about one hundred more words than she needed to.

"Well, for like the night. The Professor needed somewhere for her to sleep."

"Well, alright, just don't touch me, k? That's mah mutantany goodness. Sucking the life out of everyone I touch." Cat blinked in surprise at the girl in front of her. She craved human touch, but didn't allow herself it. Finally, someone who wouldn't constantly berate her with questions and sounds. Without a moment more to think, Cat shifted into the form of a small, black house cat, leapt onto the older girl's covers and curling in on herself. The southern girl looked down at her new guest with surprise. Kitty only laughed and then went back out into the mansion to find her boyfriend, leaving the two introverts to lay on Rogue's bed. One already asleep and one reading her latest book interest.