"Kurt, cut it out! I mean it!"

"Vhat? I'm not annoying you, am I, Keetty?"

"Yes!"

There was never any mistaking when the younger X-Men returned from school. One by one, Kitty, Kurt (chased by Kitty), and Rogue filed inside. In his hand, Kurt held a sheet of paper. Grinning ear from ear, he held it above her head, laughing at every attempt to snatch it she made.

"Kurt, you are so immature," Rogue said to him, her eyes following Kitty's every jump, though she didn't attempt to help at all.

"Lighten up, Rogue."

"Whatever." With folded arms and a look of disinterest, she watched the exchange. At least until Kurt lost his balance due to laughing so hard, and bumped into her. Then she became involved. "Hey, watch it!"

"Oops! Sorry Rogue!" For a moment, Kurt was too distracted by her raised fist to notice Scott and Jean approaching them. In an instant, Scott had snatched the paper from him and handed it back to Kitty, who smoothed the wrinkles and held it against her chest protectively, looking positively livid.

"Thanks, Scott," she murmured, and picked up her book bag. She quickly ascended the stairs as everyone watched.

Rogue scoffed. "Good going."

Kurt tilted his head, confused. "Keetty, vait! Is she really mad at me?"

Jean shrugged. "I would be, if I worked really hard on something and thought it would get ruined."

A look of concern was in his eyes as he insisted, "I vasn't going to ruin it, I vas just playing!"

Scott glanced up and nodded his head at the stairs. "Better go tell her that, if you ever want her to talk to you again."

Rogue rolled her eyes and, unfolding her arms, dismissed herself from the conversation. She walked irately up to her room and slammed the door.

So much for being mature, Kurt thought. Instead, he said, "she's mad at me, too, ja?"

"Well, you do have that effect on people," Scott chimed in.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Jean assured him. She tussled his hair, watching amusedly as he struggled to pull away. "She's been in a bad mood all day."

"I guess I better go apologize…to both of zem." Kurt made his lips thin and blew air out either side, blowing his hair out of his face as Jean giggled. He groaned and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Thanks to the thoughtfulness of the Professor, he had had most of the day to wander around the institute and familiarize himself with everything. He had had the chance to meet Storm, as well, and although he knew Logan existed, he hadn't seen even so much as a shadow to indicate he was around. Now, however, he was about to meet two of Xavier's top students, the two he had heard most about during the time he and the Professor had chatted.

Jean was a beauty, with long, shiny red hair and sharp green eyes. She had a strong nose and small pink lips, and looked as though she could throw a football (or a punch) without a moment's hesitation. She looked nice enough.

Scott, on the other hand, was hard for him to read, mainly due to the sunglasses. The Professor seemed to sense his difficulty understanding Scott, and offered an explanation. "Scott has the ability of energy manipulation. In short, he can absorb certain types of energy and release it in a concentrated beam from his eyes."

"The sunglasses help me so I don't fry everyone I look at," Scott added, somewhat cynically. There was a small sad smile in the corner of his mouth.

"What if someone knocks them off?" Arkin asked. "What happens then?"

"I close my eyes and hope for the best."

"I see…"

"And I'm Jean. Telepath." She took his hand and squeezed it softly. "The Professor has told us all about you."

"Yeah, he's told me about you guys, too."

"You're going to like Bayville," she said confidently.

"Yeah?"

"At least until The Brotherhood find out you're new, and one of us," Scott commented dryly.

Jean rolled her eyes and took Scott's arm, saying something to him that looked like 'don't start,' but he couldn't be sure. It was then that, for the first time, Arkin considered that Jean and Scott were a couple. The more he watched them interact, the more he was sure of it.

"The Brotherhood?" Arkin cocked a brow and glanced uncertainly at the Professor.

"Ah, yes. The Brotherhood…" The Professor waved his hand dismissively. "I'm sure the other students will fill you in."

"How many more are there?"

All of a sudden, Arkin felt a chill across his back. He turned, and found himself face to face with something dark, deep blue, and two strikingly yellow eyes. Instinctively, he took a step back, bumping into Scott and Jean. At that very moment, Kitty, who had been watching the group chat for several minutes, decided she might as well come and introduce herself.

"Oh! Is he ze new student?" Kurt asked, either completely oblivious, or pretending to ignore Arkin's distress.

"Yes. This is Arkin."

Arkin glanced behind him, feeling a hand on his shoulder. It was Scott. "This is Kurt."

Kurt was smiling, looking quite friendly, despite his appearance. "Hello!"

"Uh, Hey. I'm Arkin."

"Ja, nice to meet you. Ze Professor has told us all about you. How do you like it here zo far?"

There was a moment of silence in which Arkin felt his face grow warm, and his heart leap into his throat. Very few of these situations had ever occurred, but every time one did, it was just as humiliating as the last. He had no clue what Kurt had said to him. He could not pull a single bit of sense out of what was said, and part of him felt horribly embarrassed for himself, but another part of him felt embarrassed for Kurt. Ordinarily, he understood 60-70% of what was said to him; he longer he was around someone, the better he did, but with Kurt, the only word he understood was "you," and that wasn't doing him any favors.

Finally, he confessed. "I…can't understand a single thing you said. I'm sorry." A flicker of hurt flashed across Kurt's face, and Arkin felt as though he would love to spend the rest of his life under a rock. "Even with hearing aids, my lip reading isn't 100% accurate…but don't worry, I'm sure the more we hang out, the better I'll get."

Kurt nodded, smiling politely, but the damage was already done, and boy, was it evident. Maybe it was all the fur, but Arkin felt like he had just kicked a puppy. "I forgot about...ja, sorry."

"It's cool."

"Maybe ve can sit togeser at lunch?" Kurt offered.

Processing, processing…lunch? "Yeah, that would be cool. I'm not going to know anyone, and sitting alone is always…"

"Awkward," they both said at the same time, and then grinned.

Arkin, Kurt, Jean and Scott talked a bit more, mostly about school. It was difficult keeping up, having to watch three sets of lips, but everyone was patient and didn't seem to mind repeating themselves. As it turned out, he and Kurt had quite a bit in common, and actually, Kurt reminded Arkin of his little brother back home. It made being away from home feel a little more welcoming.

After a while, Jean said she had homework to get to. "See you later."

"Are those two dating?" Arkin murmured to Kurt, who nodded. He was slightly disappointed, but tried not to show it.

A short, thin brunette girl with pretty blue eyes tapped him on the shoulder. "Wow, he's cute."

He wasn't sure, but out of the corner of his eyes, Kurt did not look at all pleased that Kitty was being so friendly toward him.

"Hi," he said.

"I'm Kitty. You're the new guy, right? Marcus or something like that, right?"

She sure was friendly, but he got the feeling she wasn't the smart one in the group. Cute, though.

"His name is Arkin," The Professor told her.

"That's a weird name," she said rather bluntly. He actually laughed. He liked this girl already.

"Thanks."

"Oh, hey, you're signing!"

"Yep," he said.

"I totally forgot about that."

Then finger spelled O-K. "It's okay."

"Hey, I learned some sign language in school once. Wanna see?" What followed really made his day. It was commonplace for people to come up to him and awkwardly try to sign to him, but this took the cake. This was the funniest thing anyone had ever signed to him, except for when his little brother was learning his ABCs in sign and kept mixing up his D's and F's, and continuously called the "dog" a "fog," and a "fork" a "dork." It was hilarious, and he couldn't help but laugh.

He knew what she was trying to sign, but "hello, my name is Kitty" wound up being "hello, my eggs are Pitty."

"Well, I didn't say I was very good!" Kitty said, looking mildly angry and a little embarrassed. "It's been a while."

He actually had tears in his eyes. "Oh, no, look…I'm sorry, it's just…"

"Was I really that off?"

"You said your eggs' name was Pitty. I knew what you were trying to say. The mistakes you made are common, see, K is like this, and P is like this. Similar, right? And with name, you tap twice. With eggs, you tap once and break away."

"Maybe I am a little rusty," she admitted, mimicking the letters. "I learned that back in third grade, I think."

"It was pretty bad," he agreed, his laughter finally dying down to a contained chuckle. "But you get an A for effort."

"Well, you'll just have to teach me, then," she told him, and something about the way she said it made it seem like a challenge.

"I think that's a good idea," Scott chimed in. "We should all learn to sign a little. It might help, especially if you're having trouble reading our lips."

The Professor nodded. "I'm sure it gets very tiring."

"It does."

"Well, then, if anyone is interested in learning, perhaps I could bring in a tutor."

Arkin's hand shot up. "Or I could teach them. It would probably be easier. My younger brother learned a lot better at home, instead of the private tutoring my parents signed him up for."

"Sounds great! Except…how is Kurt going to do it?"

Kurt had three fingers. That was a shock. In the beginning, he was so freaked out by the dark, deep blue of his face, and then enjoying getting to know him so much that he hadn't paid attention to his hands.

Again, Kurt looked bashful, the spotlight now focused on him. He laughed weakly, putting his hands behind his back.

"There's no reason you can't learn. You can just modify."

"Really? You sink I can?"

After several moments, he finally said: "sure. Some people only have one hand, so they do one-handed sign. I'm sure we can adapt a three-fingered version."

"If you all like, we can discuss this in further detail later. However, some of you have homework. Kurt and Kitty, you two have dinner tonight."

Kitty sighed. "Okay..."

"Oh, and good work today in class, Kitty."

"Thanks, Professor. I studied like crazy."

"It shows."

Content with finally being recognized for all her hard work, Kitty smiled and headed off. "See you later."

Arkin gave a tiny wave. "Bye."

"Kurt?" The Professor was looking at him. "Don't you have homework, as well?"

"Yes, Professor…" and he was gone.

Scott was next to take off. "See you later, Arkin, and welcome to the group."

The mansion was as big and empty as it had appeared when he had first arrived. All that remained were he and Professor Xavier. The openness felt strange, and the air felt thick and suffocating. To fill it, Arkin commented that the students seemed nice.

"There are others; Rogue, Jamie, and Bobby, two of our youngest here…but you'll meet them later. I suggest you finish unpacking now. There will be plenty of time to get to know everyone."

Arkin nodded, and Professor Xavier wheeled away. Alone at last, he took the stairs two at a time, and, wondering whose room was whose, locked himself away in order to mentally prepare himself for Monday. The schools always provided a translator, and it was always humiliating.