A/N: Hi! Welcome to my (not so) slightly AU X-Men fic. I would say this is my first story so be gentle, but no one pays any attention to that so I won't. Just to warn you I have included a few OC's, and messed with Nightcrawler a bit (a lot). Reviews are welcomed and appreciated, just try to make any criticisms constructive, okay?

Also, many thanks to my beta T.A. pixiestix for her repeated bribery, blackmail, and general kicks to the behind to get me to write. Hate you always!

Oh yes, one more thing, I seem to be having a bit of a comma infestation, resulting in some rather long sentences. I have been trying to control the problem, but they just keeping popping up!

What If?

Chapter 1: Intro's, pixiestix, and a snake?

A young woman walked down the dimly lit hall in the Munich Circus building. Most knew her simply as Pixie, though a select few knew that her birth certificate said Rebecca Thrasher. She was looking for the girls' bathroom, but had yet to find it. Pixie had gone to the circus with some friends, but they had all decided to go home straight after the show, and Pixie wanted to stop in at the bathroom first, if she could just find it. She turned a corner and came across a door marked 'Girls'. Relieved, she pushed open the door, then started. There was a person standing with their back to her, muttering something in a different language. A male. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was the girl's bathroom," she said, confused. It had said 'Girls' on the door, hadn't it?

Without turning around, he replied "It is. Hardly anyone comes in here. I can leave if you want me to."

His voice was very soft and shy, Pixie thought, and generously laced with a very pleasant to listen to German accent. Well that was hardly unusual, she chided herself, she was in Germany after all. Speaking up, she said, "Oh no, it's okay. I was just going to use the mirror."

"Alright," he said, his back still to Pixie. Odd, she thought, not turning around. Maybe he was just shy. Quickly, she looked him over. From the sound of his voice, he was probably around fifteen, the same age as her. He was wearing a long black leather coat with the collar turned up, and had short curly black hair. He was taller than her, probably between five foot six and five foot ten, but she couldn't tell any more about him as he still had his back to her.

Walking up to the counter that spanned one wall of the bathroom, Pixie peered intently at the face in the mirror in front of her. Sparkling blue eyes stared back at her, looking over her shoulder length brown hair, checking for any stray hairs that had escaped from the two thin braids that started just above her ears and joined at the back of her head. She ran her hands lightly down the back of her head, making sure her hair was cooperating. Satisfied it was, she leaned closer to the mirror, searching her eyes to make sure she hadn't smudged her eyeliner. She didn't normally wear makeup, but tonight for some reason she had decided to go all out.

"Did you enjoy the show tonight?" the guy suddenly asked, still facing away from Pixie.

Enthusiasm lacing her voice, she replied "Oh yes, I thought it was great! They don't have circuses like that at home."

He was silent and Pixie thought maybe he wasn't going to say anything else, but after a minute he continued. "If you don't mind me asking, where is home? You don't sound like you are from around here."

Pixie thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "Well, home will always be Canada, but I live in New York. I go to a private school there, maybe you've heard of it. Xavier's School for the Gifted?"

"No, I have not heard of this school, but it sounds interesting," he replied.

"It is." More than you know, Pixie thought. "So, what did you think of the show?"

The as of yet nameless guy paused for a moment, then said "I don't know, I didn't see it. I am in part of the show, so I was backstage for the rest of it."

Turning her head to look at the bathrooms other occupant, Pixie exclaimed "Oh really, that's so cool!" Thinking for a moment, and unable to place him among the many clowns, acrobats and other circus performers, she asked "What part were you in?"

Moving to fully face the intriguing teenaged boy, Pixie moved her hand from where it was resting on the counter, and in doing so, knocked a tube of lip gloss that had being standing near the sink off the counter. Crouching down to pick it up, Pixie reached for the place where the small tube had rolled, only to encounter empty air. Looking up to see where it had gone, Pixie came face to face with the mysterious circus performer.

Startled, she fell back onto her butt, staring at the person crouched in front of her. Golden eyes stared at her from a face that was unlike any other. Graceful shapes danced across a forehead and cheeks that were tinged a dark shade of blue. Blue pointed ears peeked through his black hair. In fact, all of his body that was visible around his clothes was tinted blue.

Standing up, he held out a three-fingered hand to help her up, saying "I am the 'Incredible Nightcrawler'."

Still a little dazed, Pixie took the offered hand and let him help her up off the bathroom floor. Shaking her head a little to clear it, her voice laced with interest, she said "Wow, and here I thought it was just a costume."

Nightcrawler, as she had decided to call him, looked taken-aback at her statement. "You are not afraid of me?" he asked, his voice incredulous.

Looking at the surprised look on his face, then looking at his face, Pixie realized that he was used to people taking one look at him and running very fast in the other direction. Hell, if she wasn't used to being around people who weren't exactly what society defined as normal, she might have done the same thing.

Feeling the need to reassure him, with a casual shrug of her shoulders she said "Nope. I mean, you haven't really done anything to make me afraid of you, except startle me. In fact, you helped me up, and if you were some evil scary person out to get me, I think you would have left me on the floor to get up by myself."

"Oh," he said, still looking surprised that she hadn't run away screaming yet.

"So . . . " Pixie said, curiosity getting the better of her, "are you a mutant? I mean, if it's all just some birth defect thingy, I'm really sorry, but it just seems to me that it's all just a little much to be a birth defect, so the next possible conclusion is that you're a mutant. And if you are, don't worry, your secret is definitely safe with me."She then paused with a mischievous smile. "Besides, I have a few secrets of my own." A wink preceded this cryptic statement.

"You do?" Nightcrawler asked, sounding slightly surprised.

"Of course I do, doesn't everyone?" Pixie said, skimming over the question. "So, are you a mutant?" she asked, not about to let the interesting blue-skinned teenager change the subject on her.

He looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight slightly from one foot to the other. "Um, ja," he said, flinching slightly as the words slipped past his pointed teeth, like he expected to be hit.

Pixie realized with a start that he was probably expecting her to scream, call him a freak, then run like hell. Well to heck with that, she thought. Plus, she thought with an inner giggle, with these boots on she'd probably trip and break her ankle, the stupid things. "Sweet! Is there anything you can do?" she said, smiling at the look of utter shock on the blue-skinned mutant's face. Too bad she didn't have her camera with her, the look on his face was priceless. Then again, it was kinda sad, seeing as it was obvious that he was used to people looking at him, seeing some sort of demon or something, then running away. It must hurt.

Pixie was startled out of her thoughts by a strange sound, a cloud of blue smoke surrounding him, then the same strange 'bamf' sound coming from behind her. She turned around to find Nightcrawler surrounded by the same fast-dissipating, foul-smelling blue smoke that had congregated in the place where he had once been standing, smiling at her look of shock. "I can teleport."

Trying to regain her composure while fanning away the brimstone-scented smoke, Pixie replied "I can see that." Grinning broadly now, she added, "You would like it at my school. To the public it's known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but to us kids that go there it's just called Mutant High." There, that one threw him off-balance Pixie thought.

"You are a mutant?" Nightcrawler asked, yellow eyes boring into her own.

"Uh huh!" she replied, nodding her head. She grinned at him as he processed this new information.

Quickly he looked her over."You don't look like a mutant," he declared. That much was true, she looked like a normal teenager, or as close to normal as a teenager can get.

Casually shrugging her shoulders Pixie stated "Most of us don't. Most mutants look like normal, everyday people unless they are actually using their mutation."

Nightcrawler nodded his head in agreement. "I suppose." Unable to resist any longer he asked, "What is your mutation?"

"Well for starters . . . " Pixie answered, trailing off as she stretched, moving her arms as if she was trying to touch her elbows together behind her back while keeping her hands by her shoulders. For a half-second nothing happened, then all at once wings sprouted from her back. Each wing had three pieces, much like a dragonfly or butterfly, and they grew in size, overlapping slightly until the upmost tips of the upper set reached to a point above her head and the lowest part of the bottom set was level with her hips. The top set of her fairylike wings was coloured a rich blue, which blended into a deep periwinkle in the centre set, then to a royal purple in the last. They were semi-translucent, and rather large, as from tip to tip they were almost as wide as she was tall.

"Did those just come out of your back?" he asked, gaping at the pretty wings attached to her shoulder blades and upper back.

"No," Pixie said with a shake of her head. "I just expanded them. They normally are about this big" she gestured with her fingers, holding them a few inches apart "and they look like tattoos on my shoulder blades."

"Can you fly?" Nightcrawler inquired.

"Yep!" Pixie replied. She began to beat her wings slowly, then more rapidly, the disturbance in the air causing her hair to be blown around her face and Nightcrawler's long black coat to be buffeted back away from him. Slowly her feet lifted from the floor, and she rose a few inches in the air then hovered effortlessly. Spreading her arms, she said "See?"

"Yeah, wow," he said. Realisation dawning on him, he added "Wait a second. Before you said "for starters . . . ". Does that mean that you have more than one mutation?"

Pixie stopped flapping her wings and fell the few inches back down to earth. Quickly shrinking her wings she replied "Yep, I have two. I can show you, but you won't be able to really see it unless we go around other people or something that's moving. What's the quickest way outside?"

The teenaged mutant held out his hand, a subtle blush darkening the colour of his cheeks to indigo. With a shy smile, he said "I am."

Pixie paused for a moment, not understanding what the young acrobat had said. How could he be the quickest way out? A slight frown creased her brow as she tried to comprehend his puzzling words.

Nightcrawler noticed her frown and the puzzled expression on her face and decided to make his meaning clearer. "It would be much quicker for me to teleport you outside than for us to walk."

Understanding flashed on her face and she moved toward his still-outstretched hand, sliding her palm against his. Gripping her hand, he moved so he was face to face with her, and slipped his other arm around her waist, drawing her up against him. Pixie stiffened slightly, startled by the rather intimate contact. After all, she had just met the guy!

Ignoring (or just not noticing) her shocked stiffness, he looked down into her eyes. "Ready?" he asked, his voice no more than a soft whisper.

Pixie looked up, nodding her answer. Quickly she shifted her free hand onto his leather-covered arm, her fingers holding the material of his long black coat. She squeezed her eyes shut, the movement betraying her nervousness.

She heard the same strange 'bamf' noise, then felt as if she was being turned inside out. Her insides roiled, protesting the strange new sensation. An eye-blink later it stopped, and Pixie felt solid ground underneath her feet once more. Her stomach however, continued threatening to send her dinner back the way it came and a wave of dizziness washed over her. She swayed, and Nightcrawler's arms instinctively tightened around her, keeping her upright.

When she felt she could stand unassisted, she slowly backed out of his embrace. Opening her eyes, she noticed that they were in the deep shadows outside the circus, and that other than his golden eyes Nightcrawler blended into the darkness, invisible unless he moved.

Thankfully their abrupt entrance hadn't attracted any undo attention from passerby, and Pixie was pretty sure Nightcrawler wanted to keep it that way. "I can show you my other mutation, but you will have to be touching me for it to work for you," she said, keeping her voice to a whisper.

Slowly he moved away from the building, the shadows clinging to him like a cloak. In the growing twilight, it was hard to make out anything more than his profile as he stretched out his hand and lightly placed it on Pixie's forearm.

Pixie turned her head, checking to make sure Nightcrawler was ready. Satisfied he was, she looked toward the street, double-checking that no one was looking their way. Assured they weren't being watched, she squeezed her eyes shut, calling on her secondary mutation.

Opening her eyes, she looked toward the street and noted with satisfaction that the cars had all stopped moving and the people walking down the sidewalks had frozen in their places. She looked toward Nightcrawler and saw him staring at the frozen street. "You don't spend much time with other mutants, do you?"

"No," he admitted. "I've never met another mutant before."

"Well, you have now." Pixie stated simply. Turning to step out of the alleyway and onto the lamplit street, she said, "So, what do you think?"

"What did you do?"

"I paused time. It comes in really handy sometimes, 'specially when there's a test I haven't studied for or something," she said, sitting on the hood of one of the frozen cars and drawing her knees up to her chest.

The teenaged circus performer walked over to Pixie, sitting beside her after she patted the section of hood to her right in invitation. In a casual tone he added, "Or when you don't want to be seen."

She nodded in agreement, resting her chin on her knees.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he said, holding out a tube of lipgloss to Pixie.

"What? Oh . . ." She stared down at her lap, slightly fascinated by the sight of her strawberry lipgloss resting in the middle of a wide spade-shape attached at the end of a sinuous tail. "Thanks," she said, finding her voice as she took her lipgloss from the outstretched limb.

"What's your name?" he asked suddenly.

She turned her head to look at him, her cheek coming to rest on her knees. "Do you want my real name or my mutant name?" she replied, answering with a question.

He was silent for a moment, looking down at his hands as if contemplating which of her names he would rather have. Looking back at her face, he favoured her with a cheeky fang-toothed grin that hinted a sense of humour in his otherwise shy demeanour before replying with an equally cheeky "Both."

"My real name is Becky, well Rebecca really, but most people just call me Pixie on account of my wings," she said, gesturing vaguely toward her tattooed back. "How 'bout you; what's your name?" she added.

"Kurt Wagner," he said, his accent making it come out as 'Vag-ner'. "And I guess my mutant name is Nightcrawler."

"Well it's very nice to meet you Kurt." She stretched out her legs, then shifted her arms behind her to support her weight as she leaned back "Hey, if you're not doing anything, do you want to hang out with me and my friends? We're in the hotel down the street and we don't have anything planned. It'll give you a chance to meet some other mutants," she finished, trying to sound casual.

Kurt looked down at his hands, which were twisting in his lap. "I don't know," he said. At Pixie's cocked head and what's-the-matter look, he added "Most people are afraid of me when they first see me. I don't want to scare your friends."

She smiled. "I don't think you have to worry about scaring them. Believe me, when you walk into a room to find your friend deep in conversation with a garter snake, and when your teachers can control the weather and shoot laser beams out of their eyes, it kinda desensitizes you to that kind of stuff."

"Oh." Favouring Pixie with another view of his pointed teeth bared in a grin he joked "Well if you're sure I won't send them running for their lives, I guess it would be fun to meet some other mutants."

"I'm sure." Pixie stated. "They're way too sensible for that. So, do you want to go and meet them?"

"Sure," he said, sliding off of the frozen car's hood and strolling over to the sidewalk.

Pixie quickly joined him, unfurling her wings as she closed the distance between them. Drawing level with Kurt, she flapped her wings, raising herself several inches above the ground before flitting in front of him, backpedalling like a hummingbird to keep him from running into her. At a slow walking pace she began flying toward the hotel, still facing her new acquaintance. Heaving a mock long-suffering sigh she stated "The only drawback to pausing time is that you have to fly everywhere. Or, in the case of you poor mortals, walk."

He laughed. "Are you going to do that all the way to the hotel?" Kurt inquired, arching an eyebrow at the girl flying backwards a few feet in front of him.

Pixie shrugged carelessly. "Why not? It's the same thing as walking backwards, plus it's easier to talk this way." She glanced behind her every so often to make sure she wouldn't run into one of the pedestrians she'd frozen.

They moved like this for a few minutes, her flying backward a few inches off the ground, him walking as they fell into a companionable silence.

"How long have you been in the circus?" Pixie asked, blurting out the first thought that popped into her head.

Kurt shrugged his shoulders. "As long as I can remember."

"Wow! So, did like your mother work there or something?" Pixie asked, unable to quell her curiosity.

Kurt's expression changed, turned shuttered and closed off, but not before Pixie saw a faint glimmer of pain in his eyes. "No, she didn't. I'd rather not talk about it." "Okay, sorry." Pixie said, instantly feeling horrible for bringing up an apparently sensitive subject. She filed away a little note in her head, reminding her not to bring up that topic anymore.

"It's okay," he replied, then changed the subject.

They entered the hotel, telling stories about pranks they'd done and trouble they got into using their mutations. At the door to the room she shared with one of her best friends Pixie paused, squeezing her eyes shut. Kurt, noticing this, asked if she was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You know how I paused time before?" Kurt nodded. "Well I was just unpausing it, putting it back to normal. It really freaks out my friends when I just appear in the room." She reached for the doorknob, then hesitated. "Oh yeah, I should probably mention that one of my friends is a total pyromaniac and will probably make all kinds of innuendoes about how flammable your hair looks and that sort of thing. But don't worry, she usually doesn't follow through with it."

"Usually?" Kurt parroted. Pixie noticed he looked a little worried.

"Well there was this one time . . . but I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that it was an

accident." Pixie said, looking a little uncertain in spite of herself. She opened the door to her small but cozy hotel room and stepped just inside the threshold, leaning against the doorjamb.

The girl on one of the beds looked up from her book as Pixie entered. Her shoulder-

length brown hair was so dark it looked black most of the time and she had warm brown eyes which she now had turned in her roommate's direction. "Hey Pix."

"Hey Kerr; what's up?"

"Not too much, just reading. You?"

"Yes actually. Do you remember 'The Incredible Nightcrawler'?"

"From the circus? Yes." Kerrie answered, sounding puzzled.

Pixie looked out into the hall where Kurt still stood, nervously out of sight. She gestured for him to come in the room, and when he complied, eyes to the floor, she said "Kerrie, this is Kurt Wagner. I met him after you went home and invited him to hang out with us. He's never met any other mutants before so I thought I'd show him how utterly strange we all are. That all right with you?"

"Yeah, of course it's all right." Kerrie got up, unfolding herself to her full height of five feet eight inches and walked over to Kurt. "Nice to meet you, Kurt. Do you have a mutant name?"

"Um, ja, I guess so. It's Nightcrawler."

"Mines' Willow."As she spoke, she outstretched her hand in a friendly handshake. Kurt

clasped the offered hand, then let out a small gasp of surprise. Pixie was able to see why when tiny curling vines pushed out from between their hands and began to twine themselves between his fingers and around his hand, quickly growing up his wrist and forearm. They stopped growing when they reached Kurt's elbow, but they began to sprout miniature leaves and small, intricate white flowers that filled the room with a heady fragrance.

He pulled his hand back only to turn it over, staring at the new decoration gracing his skin. When he finally looked back up to Kerrie's face, his expression was one of awe.

She shrugged, grinning. "I'm a plant person," she said by way of explanation.

Kurt cleared his throat. "I can see that."

The two girls sat down across from each other on the beds and Kerrie asked "So Kurt, what's your mutation?"

Kurt grinned and disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, only to reappear in the same instant on the bed next to the one Kerrie was on. Both girls jumped slightly, Pixie because he had appeared right beside her and Kerrie simply because she had never seen his mutation before.

"Oh yeah, I was wondering how you did that," Kerrie said, "Neat mutation."

"Whose mutation is neat?" asked a voice from the other side of the room.

Pixie looked up to see two of her friends coming through a door that connected this room to the one beside it. "His," she answered, and was about to introduce Kurt but he beat her to it, his shyness seemingly lessened by Kerrie's positive reaction to him.

"My name is Kurt Wagner, but in the circus I am known as the Incredible Nightcrawler." He walked over to the girls and offered his hand in a handshake.

The shorter of the two girls turned to the other, pointing her finger. "Ha! Told you he was a mutant!" She then turned back to Kurt. "Hey. My name's Sarah and this is Elizabeth," She was not a tall person by any stretch of the imagination, though she did top Pixie by about an inch when they were both barefoot. Her heritage was Vietnamese, and it showed in the onyx locks that barely brushed her shoulders."My mutant name's Inferno."

Dark brown eyes brimming with what Pixie recognised as mischief she looked down at her hands, which held small globes of fire the colour of the sky on a summer's day. "I'd shake hands, but . . ."

"That's quite alright." Kurt quickly replied, looking a little startled.

Elizabeth laughed as she came forward to introduce herself. She was smaller than Kurt by a few inches and had her light reddish-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, although several strands had escaped and were now tucked behind her ears. "Ignore her, she does that to everyone," she said as she shook his hand.

"So everyone keeps telling me . . ." He trailed behind the two girls as they walked over and made themselves comfortable on the two twin beds. Kurt looked unsure for a moment if he was invited to join them or not but then Pixie patted the bed between her and Kerrie and he hopped up and squatted between them, giving Pixie a quick grin.

Pixie looked sideways at Kurt. Instead of stretching out like the rest of them he was sitting on his haunches, his arms resting on his thighs. Before she could stop herself, a question blurted out. "Why are you sitting like that?"

Wrenching his gaze from Sarah's fireballs, which he had been watching apprehensively, he looked down, then at Pixie. "It's more comfortable for mein tail," he said, waving it in front of her playfully.

She grinned and swatted the appendage away before adding "You must have good leg muscles. I would get so sore doing that for even just five minutes."

"Ja, I suppose."

"Duh Pix, he is an acrobat." Kerrie rolled her eyes at the winged mutant, then ducked, laughing as a pillow went hurtling toward her head.

Sarah looked up from her fireball, which she had just been making zoom crazily around the room. She looked as if she had just remembered something, which it was evident she had when she asked Kurt "What's your mutation?"

Kurt grinned from his spot beside Pixie, then vanished in his trademark (to Pixie at least) cloud of blue smoke accompanied by the snap of imploding air. He reappeared in front of a very startled Sarah, who almost dropped her fireball and set the bed on fire. Still grinning he answered her question. "I can teleport."

"Wow." With a mischievous smile she added, "Your hair looks very flammable, did you know that?" She split her fireball in three with no more than a thought, and sent them spinning around Kurt's head in a vaguely threatening manner. In spite of Pixie and Elizabeth's warning that she did this all the time Kurt began to look a little worried and quickly teleported back to his spot on the bed, watching the small balls of blue fire continue their orbit around empty air.

"So . . ." Pixie said, "what were you guys talking about before we came in?"

Kerrie smiled. "We were discussing how to solve world hunger . . ."

" . . . how the purple gnomes will take over the world . . ." Elizabeth added.

"Honestly Elizabeth, I'm the one taking over the world." Sarah interjected.

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Sure you were. You were probably talking about how hot the guy at the front desk is."

Elizabeth had a look of mock shock on her face. "How did you know?" she asked disbelievingly.

Pixie laughed. "It's because I'm psycho . . . I mean psychic," she said, crossing her eyes for extra effect.

Kurt laughed. The others had heard the joke enough times that it didn't make them laugh, but apparently he hadn't.

"I have a craving for pixiestix. Do we have any left?" she asked Sarah, who was sitting the closest to the small night table between the two twin beds and therefore closest to the candy.

Sarah opened the drawer and pulled out a handful of the thin plastic tubes. "We've got tons left. What colour do you want?"

"Orange."

As Sarah handed her the tube of sugary powder, Pixie turned to Kurt. "You want one?"

"Yes, please," he said politely, picking a brightly coloured tube from the array presented to him.

Sarah, noticing Kurt's choice of colours, wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Notice how he goes for the pink one first. I think it says volumes about his," she coughed, "preferences."

Kerrie laughed and threw a pillow at her. "Sarah! That is so rude!"

Kurt seemed to have chosen to ignore that remark, as he was staring quite intently at his tube of candy. Pixie wondered why, but he then turned to her with a puzzled look on his face. "How do you open these?"

"Oh, it's easy. You just pinch the sides, like this." She held up her own tube and pinched the sides together just under the top seam, which sprang open. She poured a small amount of orange powder into her mouth then added, "See?" He nodded, and after opening his preceded to dig in.

As Pixie had another mouthful of the sweet candy she looked over at her two friends on the other bed and noticed a small lump under Elizabeth's sweatshirt moving up her arm toward her shoulder. As it reached the neck of the garment the shape resolved itself into a small olive green snake with a thin yellow stripe running down its back, which promptly wound itself around her neck. Elizabeth reached up and petted the small reptile, saying a soft hello.

"Have a good nap?" Pixie asked.

Elizabeth looked up, paused a moment, then answered "Yeah. He says thanks for asking."

Pixie smiled. "Anytime." Noticing Kurt looking at the two of them like they had gone off the deep end she embellished, "I was asking Elizabeth's snake if he'd had a nice nap."

"I can talk to animals," Elizabeth added, "and he's not my snake, he's my friend."

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Same difference."

Elizabeth looked over at Kurt. "You aren't afraid of snakes are you?" He shook his head. "Good." She reached up and the snake slithered onto her hand. "This is Echion; it means viper in Greek. Echion, this is Kurt." She held out the hand Echion was curling around to Kurt. "You can hold him if you want. He won't bite unless you squish him, and he really likes crawling all over people. And, contrary to popular belief, he isn't wet and slimy. He's more dry and cool."

"Okay." Kurt held out his hand, palm up to the little snake who slithered noiselessly onto it and began winding himself through Kurt's fingers. "What kind of snake is he?"

"He's a garter snake," Elizabeth answered. "They're pretty common where we live."

Getting tired of twisting through Kurt's fingers, Echion made one loop around his wrist then disappeared under the sleeve of his coat, making his way up towards his shoulder. "That feels very strange." Kurt commented.

"You'll get used to it." Elizabeth said, then giggled suddenly. "Echion says you are nice and warm. He thinks we should keep you."

"Keep me?"

She giggled again. "Yes."

"Oh."

At that moment Echion decided to reappear at the collar of Kurt's coat. He wound around his neck like he did with Elizabeth and stayed there, looking like a living necklace, before disappearing down Kurt's other sleeve.

Kurt suddenly looked up. "What time is it?" he asked, sounding a bit worried.

Kerrie checked her watch. "It's about nine fifteen. You out past curfew or something?"

"I have to get back. Thank you for having me." Kurt said, trying to reach into his sleeve to remove Echion, who it seemed didn't like the idea and was moving out of the range of his hand.

"Echion," Elizabeth warned, then added "It was nice meeting you, Kurt."

The slippery serpent finally came out Kurt's collar and Pixie grabbed him before he could dive back into his clothing. "Yeah, it was nice to meet you. You should come back sometime. We're usually here in the evenings, feel free to drop in whenever you want."

"I'll do that. Gute nacht!"

"Night!"

"See ya!"

And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

Fanning away the brimstone-scented cloud Pixie turned to the other three girls. "So, what do you think of him?"

"He liked Echion." Elizabeth declared simply. "That's enough for me."

"He's afraid of Sarah, shows he's a normal human being." said Kerrie, who then had to duck a fireball and one of Sarah's hands as she laughed. Sarah got a pillow in the face in return.

"He seemed nice. A little shy though," said Sarah as she chucked the pillow back at Kerrie.

"Yeah," said Pixie. "You guys don't mind that I invited him back, right?" She hoped they hadn't just sounded excited to have him back so they wouldn't hurt his feelings. He looked like a fun guy.

"No, course not. He's cool." Kerrie stated, and the others made various noises of agreement.

Pixie relaxed. Elizabeth noticed this and slyly added, "He's sorta cute, once you get past the blue skin and the tail and everything. As you said, probably got a good set of muscles too."

"Yeah, I suppose. He is an acrobat after all." Pixie grudgingly agreed before changing the subject. "Come on, let's get something to eat; I'm starved."

A/N: So there, my first chapter. Now, I know you have an opinion on it. Liked it, didn't like it, bored out of your mind, whatever, just tell me! . . . Wow, I sounded really desperate there. Oh well. Review!