AN: Confession time, this was originally supposed to be a one shot and I just forgot to put it under complete. Which is why I was so surprised when I received an alert that someone had signed up to get alerts for story updates. Honestly I thought the person was confused, then I felt guilty, then someone else did the same thing and I knew I saying that I made a mistake wouldn't work. So because of my mistake and because of eager readers that I am constantly amazed I have I'm putting this up. There'll probably only be one or two more chapters to this but I already have an idea about another fun exchange. Quick warning though that I already have little plot bunny babies about two other stories for two different topics but we'll see how it goes. So thank you, sorry for the mistake, and all reviews and favorites are highly appreciated as always. =)


Alex Masters knew his manners; his mother had made sure of that. He always said please and thank you, was quick to apologize and was just as quick to accept an apology. When he was seven he had been the only boy not to tug on the ponytail of the girl he liked, instead he had started surfing to try and impress her. In the end he didn't get the girl because he had been too busy surfing to pay attention to her, he didn't mind though, he barely even noticed. He knew that there were guidelines to being a good guest, something else that his mother made sure he knew, and he was quite sure that he was following those guidelines. Alex engaged in the activities going on in the mansion but didn't force his company upon anyone, ate whatever was given to him, except for anything touched by Kitty for safety reasons, and helped out wherever he could. His mother had taught him how to be a good person and how to act in certain situations; she had never taught him how to act when one of your hosts' started sleeping outside because of you.

Laura was sleeping outside, in a tree, because of him.

What made the situation odder still, because apparently it could in fact get odder, was that no one else seemed to be surprised or worried about her new sleeping arrangement. Apparently it was normal for her to do this whenever someone new came into the house. Alex was still trying to understand just how this could be normal, maybe it was a mainlander thing, or a mutant thing, or more likely just an X-Men thing. After deciding that it was some odd X-Men thing, he tried to decide which part made less sense; the fact that Laura was sleeping outside, or the fact that no one else seemed to be bothered by it.

"Look man, you're cool and all but you're more stuck on this than a tongue to a pole. At least when some guy gets stuck to a pole it's funny."

Bobby had been quick to fill him in on everything around the house; which actors to avoid saying were lacking in talent around some of the students, what seats not to take because they had already been claimed by others like Logan and of course the best video games and those you wouldn't want to play against. He had even been the one to explain during breakfast that Laura was in fact coming from the woods and he wasn't just imagining it, after another bite of his waffle Bobby casually mentioned that it was normal. After that bit of information about Laura however, Bobby's well of information appeared to run dry.

"Sorry, it's just not exactly normal, you were probably confused when you first came and she started sleeping outside."

Alex apologized out of habit but Bobby barely seemed to notice, as long as Alex was focusing enough on the racing game he was happy.

"Huh? Nah, I was here before her. When she first came here it took a month or something before she was comfortable enough to sleep in the house, not sure if she actually slept in the beginning though."

Finally, a day after first learning about her sleeping habit he had some new information about Laura. If he hadn't been busy trying to think it all out he might have noticed that this small bit of information about Laura was getting a bigger reaction out of him than most things had.

"Do you know why?"

Now Alex was making sure that he was showing more effort in the racing game, it made Bobby happier which made him more likely to remember something about Laura.

"No clue. Logan and the Professor helped her out I guess. Might have something to do with her being a clone, probably because they got the genes from Logan, no clue why someone would want to clone him though. Personally I think that if there is cloning it should be of supermodels, not angsty, hairy men."

Bobby didn't appear distracted or as if he even cared much about what he had said till a few moments later while Alex was still trying to decide if Bobby was telling the truth.

"Oh damn. I don't think we're supposed to say that to others. Oh well, you're cool and you're one of us so it's not a big deal I guess. Just don't tell anyone I told you."

Bobby actually glanced away from the game to look at Alex and that was how Alex knew that it wasn't some odd joke.

"You don't have to worry about me."

Alex reassured him but Bobby's attention was already back on the game.

"Yes! I win! Want to play again?"

The next time Alex tried to talk to Bobby about Laura he had promptly been told that if he wanted to talk he should ask one of the girls and give his game controller to someone else. After that Alex decided not to bother Bobby with more questions unless they had something to do with video games, it was safer.

That started Alex off on his hunt for information, something he couldn't just forget. Tabitha was extremely unhelpful, she hadn't looked too pleased about having Laura mentioned and the energy balls she "accidentally" tossed in his direction said as much. Amara had tried to help but didn't exactly have anything too interesting to say unless he started to take attention in her style, or according to Amara, her lack of it. Rahne could only really say that Laura was quiet but nice in her odd, and sometimes scary, way. Kitty, honestly he wished he hadn't asked the girl because once she started answering him she managed to get sidetracked so many times he was left with a headache. In desperation he had turned to Jean, he had wanted to avoid asking her in case she mentioned something to Scott and he blew it out of proportion, but he was becoming desperate. Besides, not only was Jean the easiest to have a serious conversation with, but her telepathic ways could be useful to him; she probably knew the most about Laura.

He was wrong.

"Alex, what you are proposing is morally wrong. I do not use my powers unless I have to; otherwise it's an invasion of privacy."

He had been expecting answers, not a scolding.

"Sorry Jean, I guess I was just hoping you knew something about her."

Jean sighed as she closed her book, clearly taking pity on him.

"There is someone is this house that knows just about everything about Laura."

He instantly perked up at her words and stood a bit straighter, leaning in slightly as if he could use telepathy and get the answer from her even faster.

"If you want to know about Laura, just ask Laura."

Jean grinned as Alex simply blinked at her in confusion. She was one of the most logical and resourceful residents and this was the best she could come up with? Alex guessed that this was better than her suggesting that he ask Logan, he had heard enough and seen enough that he knew he didn't want to ask Logan anything.

"If you're too scared then that just means that you're not as interested as you thought you were."

She looked quite proud of herself for promptly shutting him up and for helping him put on that look of determination that was eerily identical to the one Scott commonly wore during missions.

"I am not scared of talking to Laura."

Alex seemed to have switched on the Summers mission outlook that had previously been hidden by his usually easy going attitude.

"Then do it."

Jean was practically daring him to do it and that was enough. Age barely mattered, being a mutant or a human made no difference; boys would always be boys and if you made it seem like a dare, they would do it.

"I will. See you later Jean."

She was quite proud of herself as he walked away, so much so that she wouldn't even tell Scott about her more than likely quite accurate suspicions, Alex deserved a head start and she deserved time to prepare herself for dealing with a confused and worried Scott.

Alex knew he had to hurry, he was feeling confident now but he wasn't foolish enough to believe that it would last for long. Now if only he could find Laura before he started to doubt himself, which could prove to be difficult. Unfortunately he didn't have her sense of smell or hearing and asking others for help would most likely prove to be unhelpful and embarrassing. He just had to figure out where she was, in a large mansion on a very large plot of land, that is if she was even there. Alex was starting to lose some of his confidence already. No, that wouldn't do, he had to think more positively if he wanted to stand a chance of finding her and finally figuring out why she was sleeping outside.

Outside.

Damn he was clueless. Most of the residents were in the living room and he guessed that the noise they were making was too strong for her liking, it probably had something to do with the cranked up volume on the television and the cheering for the two people competing on what sounded like DDR. It was surprising how intense they could be for that dance game, the rivalry between Kitty and Kurt was apparently legendary and always drew a crowd.

First step, go outside; check. Now he had to decide where to go which wasn't the easiest thing. There was the forest, which as expected, was quite large; she might have headed to the garden or one of the fields, she might not even be outside but be in the danger room or even in town. Maybe he could ask Jean; no, that would feel like cheating and Jean would be too amused. Instead he picked a direction at random and started to head toward it, it was a good as a guess as any.

Alex made sure to keep his eyes open and his attention high, till he became distracted by a cloud that looked like a killer wave. Maybe he could find one that looked like a surfboard. A movement from the corner of his eye distracted him from his cloud gazing and led his gaze toward the roof of the mansion. He could only think of one person that would rather be hanging off of a roof than watching a DDR battle.

Now he had found her, or at least was quite sure that he had, he just had to find a way to get up to her. It was at this moment that he decided that shooting plasma thingies wasn't very useful in real life. Sure, if he joined the X-Men and was battling against whoever it was that they battled against it would be useful, but in real life he couldn't even roast marshmallows. Since he couldn't spot a ladder of sorts or even a tree he didn't bother trying to climb up from the outside, he didn't want to give her time to run off and instead ran back inside. With the amount of attention around the video game battle anyone could have ran inside and bolted up the stairs without them bothering to pay attention. It would really suck, he decided, if he managed to get up on the roof and she wasn't there, that and if he became stuck or someone else was there instead it would be quite embarrassing. Alex didn't dwell too much on the possibility though; he was too busy with one leg already out of the window and one hand blindly searching for a hand hold.

Trellises, Alex learned, were stronger than they looked, unfortunately not strong enough as he found out. Although he could have attempted to pull himself up just from the window ledge he was standing on it would be better if he could climb just a bit higher, which was the reason why half of his body was tentatively pushing itself up with help from the trellis that was starting to protest. At least no one was around to spot him in what he expected looked like a foolish and hilarious position. One hand gripped the edge of the roof firmly and he steadied himself before quickly shifting the majority of his weight on the trellis before quickly pulling himself up. The snap he heard bellow him would have made him grimace if he wasn't already preoccupied trying to pull his lower half to safety.

He fell, thankfully on the correct side but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. Letting out a sigh of relief as he sat up and rubbed his arm which had helped break his short fall, he glanced up only to be surprised again by staring eyes.

"Why didn't you help me?"

Alex questioned before he could think of anything else or even wonder as to why he was surprised, he had climbed up here to see her. Laura simply blinked in a way he found similar to the stray cat that hung around his house, slow and lazy but with all of the answers in the world.

"You did not appear to need help. If you had required assistance it would have been provided but I have learned that some do not wish to receive assistance unless absolutely mandatory and even then they are not grateful. I have yet to learn why this is though."

She spoke in her usual level tone that was like her very own accent, considering that she acted as if she were from her own little world it made sense that she would have her own accent.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still surprised that I did that. Oh and it's pride, that's why some people don't want help."

"Pride, I think I understand, thank you for your assistance with my question."

She nodded as he finally sat up only to slowly sit down on the edge of the roof.

"I have a question for you Laura. Why are you sleeping in the woods because of me?"

His question seemed to catch her off guard slightly, if one were to catch the way her eye flickered faster than normal of course. Instead of answering she watched him carefully, almost as if she were sizing him up like she had the first time she had seen him.

"I answered your question; you could at least answer mine."

He surprised her again but she seemed to accept it this time and nodded again.

"I do not wish to frighten you. My answer may frighten you to the point that you will no longer wish to visit your brother which would in turn make him unhappy as well. I do not wish to do that."

Alex knew that a normal person would have taken her advice into account and perhaps backed off or even left, he was slowly starting to discover that he didn't want to be the normal person in regards to Laura.

"You can't scare me away that easily."

He grinned widely to reassure her but her face barely flickered in acknowledgement.

"Whenever a new person is introduced to the household my nightmares become stronger. Although they are a regular enough occurrence when they are stronger I sometimes act out physically without being aware of my actions. For the safety of all of those around and in particular the new person I sleep in the woods. That way I am less likely to act out and if I do the worst that will happen will happen to the trees and to myself."

"I'm sorry."

This time even he noticed her surprise at his words as she shifted slightly.

"Why is it that you are apologizing to me?"

Now it was his turn to be confused.

"Because I'm apparently making your nightmares worse and I'm the reason why you're sleeping in the woods."

Laura took a moment to process the information while he watched her carefully, wondering how someone like her could come from Logans DNA.

"It is, ok. You do not wish any discomfort or harm upon me therefore I should not hold these precautions against you."

Although she paused slightly, still trying to adjust to speaking like someone her age, she seemed quite confident in her words which did reassure him slightly, not that they took the guilt off of him.

"How long does it take? For you to adjust to someone new that is."

His series of questions toward her was quite unfamiliar to her. Normally the other students only spoke to her about training or homework and even then it was quite brief, the only questions she had received that could be connected to her well-being had come from the staff. She had yet to decide how she felt about this.

"On average it takes one week for my nightmares to return to normal and for the possibility of causing harm to others to subside. I am trying to lessen my time however."

For a reason that she could not understand he seemed quite pleased with her words and patted the spot next to him. She had seen others do that to invite another to sit beside them or to call a dog over, she judged that he was using the action in the first situation rather than in the later. None of this meant however that she wasn't slightly cautious when she slowly moved to sit beside him. Alex didn't mind too much though, it allowed him to observe her movements which were usually too quick for him to pick up on when they were in the danger room. She was fluid like a wave and walked as if she were on one as well, he wouldn't have been surprised if she told him that her power included walking on air and commanding it, honestly little could surprise him about her. When she sat down she left a polite gap between them but was close, most likely to catch him if his balance decided to fail. Upon sitting she turned to look at him, clearly wondering what was supposed to happen next.

"What can I do to make your nightmares die down faster?"

Laura still eyed him carefully as she considered her previous experiences with newcomers and her nightmares.

"I am not sure. Previous guests and newcomers did little to differentiate themselves from the others, yet my adjustment period has gone down, generally through my own will and with initial help from the Professor and Logan."

"Would it help if you knew more about me?"

Once more she considered his question carefully while comparing him to an eager puppy in her mind.

"I do not believe so, I have read files upon most of the previous guests and newcomers and even though I knew more about them than most it did little to help."

Alex decided not to ask where she had gotten the files from, or if she had read his, or if he even had one.

"What about spending time together. Maybe if you got used to me it would help."

He really hoped that she didn't shoot down this suggestion as she had with the other.

"I do not know if that will help but it will not do any harm."

Laura finally decided and Alex took her answer as a yes, mainly because she was still sitting beside him and hadn't left.

"Great!"

He blushed at his enthusiasm but Laura barely appeared to notice except for the slight change in his body including his flushed cheeks and barely raised heartbeat. She simply considered this as something that was most likely a normal occurrence for a male teenager.

"So um, do you want to ask anything. Since I've been asking you everything and stuff."

Interesting, questions were apparently expected to be directed from either side, this was new to her. Not wanting to appear rude she asked one of the first questions that came up to mind.

"What were you searching for in regards to the sky? Were you perhaps reading the weather based off of the cloud formation because I will inform you now that with Ororos' presence nature does not always behave in the expected manner."

Alex blinked a bit at her question, it hadn't exactly been what he expected but it made sense coming from her for some reason.

"I was just looking for different shapes; I found one that looked like a wave."

His words felt quite childish on his tongue and to his ears, especially in contrast to the way Laura spoke. Laura on the other hand was now busy looking at the clouds herself, trying to spot the one that he had deemed looked like a wave, maybe if he had informed her of what type of wave her search would be easier.

"I am not able to find this wave cloud that you speak of."

She glanced at him for assistance before looking back up. Now he was trying as well but could no longer spot it.

"I can't find it now either. Oh well, we can always find others. That one over there looks like a duck head."

Laura followed his finger to the cloud but no matter how much she squinted or moved her head all she saw was the cloud, she could have informed him of the type and other scientific information but she now found this all lacking since she couldn't spot the duck head in it.

"I do not see what it is that you are seeing. I am not sure if I am able to engage in this activity properly."

She actually felt slightly saddened by it for some reason, most likely her desire to be able to reclaim her life fully and act like a teenager might, maybe without the charged up hormones however, that didn't look too pleasant to her.

"It's not hard; it's like looking at those ink stains and saying what they remind you of."

"Then do you mean to say that you impose a familiar object to a generally random shape and then analyze yourself?"

He blinked again before shaking his head only to stop in confusion, wondering how to explain it to her.

"It's just for fun, the shapes you spot are usually the ones you're looking for or expect to see. There's no self-analyzing in cloud watching."

Although she still couldn't spot any images in the clouds, except for upcoming rain unless Ororo changed it, it didn't bother her as much.

"I have another question if you do not mind."

Her voice snapped him out of his search for a cloud that she could see something in and back to her.

"Fire away."

His wording confused her for a moment before she recognized it as another way of giving his consent to her asking her question.

"Why did you climb through a window to reach the roof when there is a staircase that leads to it?"

His eyes widened and out of all of the things she had said to him this surprised him the most. When she pointed out the door on the roof that was still open he promptly whacked himself on the forehead with his hand, momentarily forgetting that she was there.

"Did you perhaps not know that it existed?"

Laura didn't consider it a new question; it was simply an extension of her earlier one.

"Judging by your surprise and failure to respond I will consider myself correct and will also dare to say that you do not wish to speak about this because of the earlier mentioned pride. Am I correct?"

Instead of speaking he simply nodded slowly, at least he didn't have to worry about getting back down.