A/N - Just to let you know the updates for this will probably be a little stilted and odd as I'm still at college :s Anyway, please r&r and enjoy any feedback is always heartily welcome

Prologue

Denday huffed a sigh, watching the glass frost softly with her breath. The world outside was a winter wonderland of sparkling snow and flourishes of icicles that winked and glittered at her enticingly as she sped past in the yellow bus. The natural beauty was for once lost on the scientist as she tried to quell the nervous flutter that had settled and was roiling into something a lot more than a flutter in the pit of her belly. She felt sick. An anticipatory kind of sick. Something that was growing as she sped closer to her destination…

Flashback

RING RING…RING RING…

One of Dendays eyes cracked open, looking at the red numbers that flashed at her on her alarm clock…it took her sleep fogged mind a few moments to realise that the noise wasn't coming from the clock. She sat up with a disgusted sigh, groping for the phone on the bedside table,

"If this isn't someone offering me a lot of money and a private island in the Bahamas I'm hanging up," She said grouchily,

"Well who rolled out of someone's bed the wrong side this morning?" The Doctors eyes widened and she stared at the phone in surprise, she'd recognise that voice anywhere,

"Kurt Wagner! I thought you were dead!" She practically shrieked, half giggling as she attempted to swing her legs out of the bed, only to get tangled in the sheets,

"I am" Came the dry reply. Denday paused, remembering the Nightcrawlers slightly strange sense of humour, before continuing to untangle herself,

"Not funny, Kurt" She said sternly but grinning as she heard him laugh, that rich, bass sound…she hadn't realised how much she'd missed him until that very moment,

"Yes it was" He replied and she could see, in her minds eye, that cheeky grin of his, "listen, are you working at the moment?" She paused, pouring herself a cup of coffee before replying,

"That's not the kind of question you ask a girl, Wagner" Another snigger from his end,

"No, Denday, I'm serious, in fact for once, I'm more than serious…I've got a major favour to ask…"

"So what else is new?" She'd sighed, leaning back against the fridge, coffee cup in hand, "what do you need?"

"Have you ever heard of Dr Hank McCoy?"

End flashback

Denday reached up an elegant finger and drew patterns on the glass where her breath had frosted. Jet lag could do that to a person, she mused absently, make them do things that they wouldn't usually think of. She watched as the swirls evaporated and –

"Last stop! Mutie High!" The bus driver called back to the german doctor with an irritable scowl. Denday wasn't alone as she stood up, three others – a girl with fire red hair, a boy that was barely above knee height and a dashing looking man with a mass of sandy blonde hair – filed off with her. The four of them stood at a set of grand looking gates, Dendays eye was caught by the brass plaque screwed to the wall –

CHARLES XAVIERS INSTITUTE FOR GIFTED CHILDREN

"Hmm, is that the politically correct term for what we are? Gifted children?" The man with the sandy blond hair mused in a clipped English accent, a twist of humour lurking in the corner of his mouth as he looked at the others with sparkling blue eyes, " Dorian Forney, at your service" He smiled,

"Tom Brink" The short boy smiled back, offering his hand up. The girl with the red hair blushed brightly, tucking a strand of hair back behind her ear as she all but whispered,

"Odelette Klein"

"Dr Acacia Denday, just Denday vill do" Denday smiled back absently, shouldering her bag and secretly glad that she wouldn't be the only foreigner in the walls of Xavier's as she looked at the man who had introduced himself as Dorian,

"I wish their drive wasn't so long" Tom, the little man, huffed, picking up his bag, "little legs have twice as long to walk you know" He smiled up at Acacia before setting off,

"Isn't someone supposed to m-meet us?" Odelette said in her soft little voice, "I th-thought-"

BAMPF!!

"Sorry! Sorry! I vas supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Denday coughed, caught between laughing and choking as she waved away the pungent brimstone scent and dark blue smoke, "ve vere just re-programming zer danger room and I got carried avay" Kurt Wagner smiled apologetically, bowing courteously, "My name is Kurt Wagner but in zer Munich circus I vas known as-"

"Zer incredible Nightcrawler, honestly Kurt, haven't you got tired of saying that yet?" Denday cut in with a grin. Kurt whipped round to face her and practically pounced. Sweeping her up in a boisterous hug and spinning her round,

"Denday! You came! You actually came!" He laughed, putting her down and holding her steady as she regained her balance,

"You say that as if I've let you down before" She giggled in reply, resetting the Japanese hair sticks to a more firm position,,

"I'll take it your old acquaintances?" The man called Dorian smiled. Denday playfully punched Kurt's arm, receiving a payback almost instantly as his tail smacked her backside,

"Ow- you could say that" She bit away a grin, her eyes still sparkling as she mock glared at Kurt,

"It's a long story, mein freund" The blue man smiled at Dorian, flinging a welcoming arm around the shoulders of Odelette and Dorian, turning them to face the mansion that loomed in an oddly welcoming way in the distance, "come von, come all to zer Institute for zer gifted!"