It was an hour past midnight; nothing made a sound but a cricket in the north side of the courtyard. Nothing stirred, nothing even blinked.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, there was a sound: The scraping of a boot on the east wall. As it continually scraped alone the bricks, pebbles showered down into the grass, then finally it stopped with a thud. A man sat, crouching, where the thud had landed, sniffing and examining his surroundings. He nodded with a grunt and stood slowly. He walked to the middle of the path and walked along it, the dull crunching of his feet on the gravel echoed around the huge courtyard. As he got closer to the steps of the mansion, a flashlight turned on, shining in his eyes.
"Hey now…" He said gruffly, raising his forearm to shadow his eyes.
"Who are ya?" An equally gruff voice asked.
"I'm Kaleb."
"Why're y' here?"
"Well this is the mutant place iddinit?"
"Yep. Now whaddaya want?"
"I wanna see the Professor."
"It's 1 o'clock in the bloody morning!" A female's voice cut in.
"'Ello darlin'." The short, stocky shape wrapped his arm around the woman's shoulders.
"Well, I din't plan on bein' here now, I meant to be here later t'day, so spare me a lecture and gimme either somethin' to sleep on, or a talk with Professor Xavier."
"Very well, you can sleep in the rec room on the couch."
"Thanks ma'am."
The man lowered the flashlight and beckoned him inside. Once in when he got a good look at Kaleb he stared up at him and blinked. Kaleb looked down at him, being about two and a half feet taller than the little stocky Canadian.
"How's the weather up there?" Wolverine's wife inquired up at him, her being almost a foot shorter than her already short husband.
"Just fine. Got any grub?"
"In the kitchen, but it closed at 8."
"Ah. S'pose I'll just wait till mornin' then."
"You'll have to." She replied cheekily.
"Hey, girl, what'd I ever do to you?"
"You breathed." She narrowed her yellow cat eyes at him, "And you woke me up."
"You two married?" Kaleb asked, pointing from one to the other.
"Yep."
"How do you deal with her?"
"Gotta do whatcha gotta do." Logan smiled and stroked his wife's black hair delicately, then added, "That and I don't wake her up at 1 unless it's in the afternoon."
The giant shook his head in disbelief, "God be afraid of how your children'll be like."
"You mean 'are like' and they're perfectly fine."
"Mum?" A younger girl's voice sounded from the top of the staircase.
"Yeah, Telia?"
"Why are you up?"
"Because this moron decided to wake your father, which woke me up."
The girl descended the stairs, holding onto the rail tightly and stopped directly in front of Kaleb. She reached a pale hand forward and placed it on his chest, expecting it to be his face, "Oh. You're very tall, Mr. Maximos."
He blinked at her, staring into her sightless eyes. He stepped back with a shudder.
"I'm sorry." She dropped her chin to her chest.
Kaleb reached a hand forward and placed a finger under her chin, lifting it until she seemed to be staring directly at his scarred face. "It's fine," He gently stroked her cheek with his rough hand before dropping his arm back to his side.
Logan glared at him, uttering the slightest growl.
"Daddy…calm down. You cannot see his thoughts. They are pure. Do not worry." She turned and walked back up the stairs. At the top of the stairs she whirled and said goodnight, then disappeared down the hallway.
"Okay then! The rec room is this way!" Rachle, being only able to reach his mid-back, shoved Kaleb into a room off the entry way, "I believe you'll have to use either the floor, or try to fit yourself onto a couch…James, go upstairs and get in bed, I'll be up in a couple minutes."
"Yeah…I think I will." He kissed her forehead and began toward the stairs, "Rachle…ah forget it. I'll tell ya when y' come upstairs."
"'Kay," Rachle replied distractedly, and continued digging through a basket of blankets till she came to a quilt and handed it to Kaleb.
"I have a small telepathic ability, but nothing near as strong as Telia's. If she says you're okay, I trust her, but she's only 17, so stay away from her."
"Wait, you have a 17 year old daughter? How old are you?"
"I'm thirty-five. I may not look it, but that is because of my abilities. What are your powers, anyway?"
"You most-definitely dun look only 35. I look older 'n you and I'm nearly 10 years younger…my powers are…confusing, at best. I dun understand them myself."
"But what are they...and you're how old?"
"Twenty-two," He sat down on a very comfortable-looking couch, "My powers…I'll tell you some other time, okay? I want to sleep."
She raised a brow at him and muttered, "Alright. G'night."
He smiled a rough smile, his scarred features bending into something that could pull off being a fantasy writer's sketch of his menace for the story, but it was obvious that he was thankful in his eyes; pure, beautiful, deep green pools of emotion. She smiled back and walked out, shutting the door on her way. He settled himself with his back leaning on the back of the couch and his legs bent up against his chest and fell into a deep sleep.
- - -
The next morning he woke up, looking directly into the eyes of someone else. He gasped and jerked back, knocking the couch on its side. He stood and cracked his shoulder.
Jubilee looked up at him, "Holy crap, you are a giant!"
"Some would say that," He replied with a yawn, reaching up as far as he could in a mighty stretch.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"Kaleb," He yawned again, straightening out his shirt.
"Well, hello, Kaleb, I'm Jubilee." She smiled widely.
"'Lo," He ran his fingers through his brown hair, leaving a chunk or two sticking straight up, "When's breakfast?"
"Breakfast?! HAH! It's 2pm!"
"Oh…then when's lunch?"
"It was almost two hours ago."
"…Dinner?"
"Is at six."
"Damn."
"You can go make yourself a sandwich if you want to, though."
"Why the hell didn't you mention that five minutes ago?"
"You weren't awake five minutes ago."
"Oh, shut up and take me to the kitchen."
"Fine, fine…but I'm not showing you where anything is."
"Wonderful."
"Mhm." She giggled, amused.
"Lead away," He gestured toward the door and added under his breath, "You little twit…"
- - -
When they got to the kitchen, Nightcrawler was sitting on the counter edge talking with Logan while they waited for the coffee pot to get done.
"—I swear he's Rachle's age, or older, Kurt, and he was looking at her like she was an angel…or a stripper for that matter…like he was hungry."
Kurt cleared his throat and nodded toward the door, where Kaleb has just entered with a small frown on his face.
"I'm not a wolf, 'Logan,' I'm a man. And I'm twenty-two," Logan turned a little red and turned his back to Kaleb, who went toward the refrigerator and opened the door, "Okay, Jubiwhatever, all I need to know is what I can eat and what I can't."
"Jubes. And basically anything in the kitchen besides whatever Twinkies you might find."
He glanced down at her as if to ask if she were insane and grabbed a plate with half a roasted chicken on it, mayonnaise, half a tomato, and lettuce.
"Utensils?" He asked.
"In a drawer." She replied.
"Which one?"
"Not telling."
He clenched his jaw and opened the middle drawer. No luck. The next…No luck. His next guess was right, but there were no more butter knives in it, so he had to talk Jubes into washing one for him. He made his sandwich and left the room. Kurt looked over his reading glasses at Logan and said, "Maybe you should talk a little quieter next time, mein fruend."
"Yeah mebbe I ought 'a." He poured himself a mug of coffee and added a couple sugar cubes and then exited the room.
- - -
Jubes followed Kaleb around for a couple hours until she got bored of asking him questions. She wandered up the stairs and toward the student's quarters, where she was followed by Kaleb. He saw Telia on the way and stopped to stare for a moment as Jubilee walked ahead of him. She has to be an angel.
She must be. My angel...my angel...
Just as he looked away, Telia's voice met his ears, "I'm no more an angel than you are a saint, Maximos."
He turned back around to face her blind eyes, that seemed to see through anything, yet nothing and replied under his breath, "Oh, but you are, nothin' could be more perfect."
She came nearer to him and reached her hand toward his face, but he pushed it away.
"You don't wanna see or feel that."
"Why not? It can't be that bad."
"It is."
"Let me see you, Kaleb," She reached up again and touched his face. He closed his eyes and kneeled so that he was more her size.
"He forgives you," She whispered.
He opened his eyes in alarm, "Who?"
"Your father…"
He rose quickly, "How do you know that? I find it almost impossible for him to forgive me," He walked away.
"But he does…" Telia whispered after him, "It was not your fault."