Always

Chapter One
Homecoming

A car pulled into the large round-a-bout driveway, halting to a stop once it reached the entrance of the institute. Summer was now over, and Scott had found himself returning to the mansion once more. Shutting his car door behind him, he reached for his few duffel bags in the back seat of his beloved convertible, and climbed up the steps of the entrance's stoop.

Passing through the doors, he was greeted with the familiar sight of the building's foyer, several students walking from room to room with in bags in hand, looking for their designated rooms. The mansion was quite large, so he couldn't blame them if they're were experiencing some difficulties. He could remember when he first arrived to the institute, only at the ripe age of sixteen, with barely any idea of what to expect from Xavier School for the Gifted. It was strange; realizing that, that particular day was only two years ago.

Completely jumbled in his own rant of endless thoughts, Scott had found himself being bumped into, his being knocked out of his hands and lying on the ground beside him. Sighing, he knelt down, reaching for his bags when he just happened to notice Jamie Madrox, or "Multiple", as some liked to call him. "Sorry about that, I had no idea you were there." Scott said, helping the young boy stack up his large amount of textbooks, before paying attention to his own property.

Jamie rubbed his forehead, his other duplicates following in suit. Lately he had been having some difficulty controlling his powers, and whenever he to bumped into something, a clone always popped out of nowhere. "Nah, it was more my fault then anything," He replied, "I was the one who bumped into you." Grabbing the bottom book from the stack, he propped the books against his chest and stood, his face not even visible. "Well, I've got to get these books back to Kitty, I'll see you later Scott!"

The boy trekked through the passing students that came his way, bumping into a few of them, but still managing to keep a hold on his books. When he reached the long hallway intersection, he attempted in turning down another corridor, though ended up heading straight into a wall instead. Thus, leaving him on the ground, with two more clones and his textbooks scattered around them in disarray.

Scott shook his head and sighed, going upstairs towards his bedroom. It was less crowded up there, due to the fact that most of the students who were there were new, and most likely receiving an orientation by either Logan or Ororo before the upperclassmen had arrived later in the day. He himself had preferred to make an early entrance, avoiding the inevitable rush of congregated traffic that would overflow the hallways of the school building then to try and charge his way through the few hundred kids.

With the turn of the knob, he pushed open the door to his room, seeing that his roommate had already arrived before him. He wasn't quite sure who he would be rooming with, seeing as many of the students had wanted a change once and awhile and ended up rooming with someone else after a time. Though whoever it was, beat him to the punch of picking out the bed closest to the window.

Shrugging it off, he towards the untouched bed, opening up his bags and taking out several articles of clothing, stacking them on top of each other before he made his way to his dresser. He didn't have much to bring, seeing as much of his possessions were left back at the Institute while he went away for vacation, and staying over at his brothers' place didn't require much clothing, seeing as it was Hawaii, and warm 24/7.

Looking up from his things, Kurt had appeared before him in a poof of smoke, hanging upside down from the ceiling. Nearing having a heart attack, Scott stepped back, breathing heavily. "Kurt…" He trailed off, trying to catch his breath. "What did I tell you about that?"

Kurt chuckled and uncoiled his tail from the chandelier, flipping right side up before hitting the ground. "I'm sorry!" He held up his hands in protest, changing into his human form thanks to his Holographic Image Inducer. "You were just dying for a scare." He laughed once more, bringing his hands to his stomach.

Scott smiled faintly, and then grabbed his clothes, and went over to his dresser, placing the socks and boxers into the first shelf, followed by shirts in the second, and so forth. "So…how come you're here so early Kurt?" He asked, "You're usually one of the last people to get here."

Kurt sat on the other bed, crossing his legs. "Well…I'm not really sure," He looked up at the ceiling as if to find an answer to his friend's question. "Just wanted to get first pick of roommate I guess, since I didn't have the best experience with Evan last year." He shuddered, remembering the times where Evan would decide to decorate, furnishing the room with thousands of stakes about the walls, and the times where he would have nightmares, nearly stabbing Kurt to death with one of his spikes. Definitely not something to be proud of.

"And who did you choose to room with this year?" Scott turned towards his friend, seeing the messy arrangement on the other side of the room. Then, seeing the look on Kurt's face realized that there was no point in asking, since it was already obvious that they would be rooming for the year. "…Forget I asked." Scott said, a faint grin on his face, followed by a dismissive chuckle.

"So how was it staying over at Hawaii for the summer? Have fun with your brother?" Kurt asked, scratching his messy blue locks and yawning from the lack of sleep. "You see any hot chicks there?"

Scott sat on his bed, facing Kurt with his hands on his knees. "Yeah, it was nice to hang out with my brother for once." He answered, blinking. "It definitely made up for all of those years that we were kept from each other, not knowing if the other one had survived from the plane crash when we were kids." Scott hadn't even bothered to answer the last question, seeing as it was none of Kurt's business if he had happened to spend some time with any girls during his vacation, and the fact that there was only room for one girl in his heart. "What about you? How was your vacation back in Germany?"

Kurt laid back on his bed, placing his hands behind his head. "Well…seeing my parents was fun, though it was a lot colder over there than it is over here…" He trailed off, looking at the ceiling above him looking at the ceiling above him. There were a couple cobwebs dangling here and there, including the occasional spider. "Now that I think about it, I would have rather gone off to Hawaii, too bad I don't have a long-lost brother who lived there…" He went silent, waiting for Scott's reply, and instead received nothing in return.

Kurt sat up from his position on the bed, and noticed Scott had moved from his seat and moved towards the window. "Scott?" Kurt teleported over to his friend, standing on the tiptoes of his feet, trying to get a peek at what Scott was looking at. Seeing that, that idea didn't work, he resulted in turning into his original self, and climbing up to the ceiling for a better look. "What're you looking…"

When realizing that Scott was watching a familiar redheaded friend of theirs, he simply decided to leave Scott in solitude. "Uh, I'll catch up with you later, Scott." Teleporting out of the room and out into the hallway, finding someone else to torture for the time being.

Scott had longer paid any attention to what Kurt had said, let alone his existence. It wasn't like he was ignoring his friend on purpose, but was more concentrated on the fact that it was Duncan Matthews, both Scott's long-time rival and Jean's idiotic boyfriend, who had to bring Jean from her parents' house back to the mansion.

He watched as Jean exited the car and closed the door behind her, heading towards the car's trunk for her things. Duncan had followed in suit, meeting her at the rear of the luxurious automobile to open up the trunk by inserting his key into the locking mechanism. When they were finished unloading Jean's luggage, Duncan closed the trunk and swept Jean into an embrace, followed by a quick peck on the lips.

Scott gritted his teeth. If it weren't for the fact that Jean was wrapped up in Duncan's arms at the moment, he would have definitely blasted that lunkhead to kingdom come. 'Why would Jean be interested in a guy like Duncan anyway? He's a completely asshole and no smarter that the average ape you'd find at the local zoo.' Scott wondered.

Then after lingering on the subject after awhile, soon realized the solution to his dilemma: Popularity. Duncan was Bayville High's star quarterback, and Jean, the girls' best soccer player. Overall a match made in heaven. Sure, Scott was pretty high on the food chain when it came to social status, but when compared to Duncan, he was nothing but a fly on the wall.

"Scott?" The innocent Kitty Pryde knocked on the side of the doorframe, trying to get the attention of her agitated friend. "Logan has been looking for you." She tilted her head, taking a few steps into the bedroom. "Hello!" She raised her voice slightly. "Are you even listening to me?"

Scott shook his head, coming out of his daze. Turning on his heel to face her, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes." Sorry about that, Kitty," He apologized, placing his red-tinted shades back on his eyes. "Where is he?"

"Downstairs in the foyer," she answered, tying up her brown locks into a loose ponytail. "He's a bit tied up with the new arrivals, and couldn't find the time to come up here himself to talk to you." She placed her hands behind her back, swaying back and forth. "…So he sent me up here to get you. You aren't busy, are you?"

"Not really, I was just…" He paused, looking over his shoulder towards the window, seeing that Jean was nowhere to be seen, most likely already within the building heading towards her room. Sighing, Scott shook his head and turned back to Kitty. "Forget about it, let's go before Logan starts to get impatient."

Scott and Kitty made their way downstairs to see Logan, who was at the moment, completely surrounded by chattering students. His face held a form of annoyance, his jaw clenching every now and then. It was obvious that he was upset, especially when he balled his fists together, almost to the breaking point of revealing his razor-sharp claws. Seeing that Scott had arrived, he loosened up a bit. "Scott, there will be a danger room session this weekend," He said, "I'll need you to tell everyone so we don't have any late arrivals like last year." He looked at Kitty, who was known to make late entrances consistently, but could never top Kurt's record.

Kitty shrugged and giggled awkwardly, and then dashed off in the other direction, obviously not wanting to discuss more on the subject. She was then met up with Kurt, who in turn had them disappear in a bamf, most likely to find someone to prey on with their devilish deeds.

"Alright, I'll tell everyone, though I haven't seen all of them yet," Scott replied. It was only noon, and so far, all he had spoken to was Kitty and Kurt. He had also seen a glimpse of Jean through his bedroom window, though she could be anywhere within the building. "Though, what sort of session will be this time? An hour long, or the whole day?"

Logan scratched his head, almost losing his balance when a student ran into him. "Depends on how well you all participate," He answered, grunting after the student apologized and dashed off, only to bump into someone else. "The more you guys slack, the longer its going to be."

"Well let's hope that it isn't too long," Jean announced her presence, coming down the flight of stairs, "I was hoping to go shopping at the mall this weekend." She stepped beside Scott and entwined her fingers together. Glancing over at Logan, she opened her mouth to speak. "The professor wanted to talk to you. Something about a malfunction in the X-Jet?"

Logan nodded, seeming to understand what Jean was speaking of. "Yeah, I'll go see him now." He grunted lightly, trudging his way through the oncoming students in the foyer, finding his way towards the hallway and towards Professor Xavier's office.

Jean then turned to Scott, a smile on her face. "How have you been Scott?" she asked, tucking a few strands of her crimson hair behind her ear. "Did you have a good summer?"

Scott swallowed hard, a loss at words. Just being around Jean again was…intoxicating. "Yeah, it was nice. Too hot for my taste, but it was good to spend time with my brother." He answered, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "What about you?"

Jean nodded and tilted her head, a smile still wrapped on her lips. "I can see, seeing as you've got a sun tan now." She motioned towards his face and arms, which were a few shades darker from his natural skin tone. "Though my summer was good, I spent a lot of time with my parents and some of my friends." She glanced away out into the distance, slowly trailing her gaze back to Scott. "It was fun, though I would have rather stayed here. It feels…more homely here than anywhere else."

Scott nodded. He understood what she had meant, agreeing with her completely. "I know what you mean." He said, looking at his feet. The institute was the closest Scott could get to how life was before his parents died in the plane crash ten years ago. Here, he was accepted for who he was, and loved by all of his friends. Sure, it was nice to see Alex, but if he were asked to choose between living in Hawaii of the Institute, he would choose the school without even thinking, no matter how much he loved his younger brother. "Jean…" Scott had begun to say something, though was interrupted by an important announcement from their beloved Professor.

'Scott, Jean, Kitty, Evan, Rogue and Kurt… meet me in my office. I wish to speak to you all.'

Holographic Image Inducer: A device that allows Kurt to change from his original to human form.

A/N:

This basically my take on the X-Men Evolution series, a mixture of what had happened in the TV-show and some ideas of my own. I'm not entirely sure how far I'm going to go about this story, (Jean's Transformation into the Phoenix, for example.) but if you like it, please let me know. I'm entirely open to feedback, whether it be criticism or compliments.

Disclaimer ( Will be applied to all Chapters in Always ): I do not own any rights to X-Men or any characters associated with the Comic Books, Movies, etc. Those rights belong to Marvel. Though I do thank Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for creating such a wonderful series.

-Kara.