Chapter 2: School day blues

Swirls of black and purples covered Leila's eyes, forcing her breathing to turn ragged. She couldn't see. She couldn't breath. Something was wrong. Her mouth stretched wide to talk, to cry out, to say anything but no sound was made. She felt like she was drowning, and no one was there to save her. Something was pulling her deeper and deeper, claw-like markings made of pure shadow began to cover her pale skin, restricting her movement. The marks brought a burn that wasn't anything like she ever experienced. Panic began to set in, she thrashed with all her might but couldn't move. Suddenly a scream ripped through the air. One that sent Leila straight up in her bed, gasping in a breath of air. She looked around her room wildly, not realizing she was awake yet.

The scream was her alarm clock, but when she realized that she was too distracted by the tall, looming shadowy figure standing over the foot of her bed. She gasped again, lifting a hand and closing it to a fist, the figure dispersed. "Crap..." Leila muttered, holding a hand up to her forehead. The dream was fresh in her mind, her heart still hammering.

Once it felt like her heart wasn't in her throat anymore, she pulled herself from under her blankets and shakily stood up. "That's the third time in the past few months I wasn't able to control a projection." She muttered to herself. Her hand moved to rub her sore neck, before raking through her hair. She blinked realizing how much of a mess it was, not even having to look at the small mirror she had in her room to know it was sticking up in all sorts of places.

Leila hesitated a moment, debating if she wanted to bring up the incident to the Professor. The last two times she had, she was forced to a mind training session that stretched on for hours, and she had been skipping out of some of her meditation lately... It was probably nothing. Plus she really, really wanted to help Kurt settle in at his first day of school.

With a stern nod to herself, she decided she wouldn't bother the Professor with it today. Picking her clothes she made a dash for the bathroom, thankfully being one of the first ones up to snag it for herself. With the amount of lengthy black hair, she needed a bit of extra time with it anyways!

Locking the door behind her she turned to the counter, placing her clothes for the day down. She glanced up into the mirror and jumped back with a gasp, seeing her eyes had turned purely black, without any whites. She blinked a few times, and her eyes went back to normal. She groaned, lifting a hand to her chest. "It's too early for all this..."

After a long shower, and a good amount of time brushing out her hair with the blow dryer she was finally done. Today she wore black – She always wore black – washed out jeans and a pair of converse. She chose a waist length hoodie, that of course was black and had a design of swirls and colors on the front over the chest.

When she opened the door she came face to face with a groggy looking Scott, "Took you long enough." He muttered.

Leila grinned and shrugged her shoulders, walking by him. "Hope you don't mind cold showers, I think I used up all the warm water~" She could hear him groan making her stifle a laugh, walking back to her room to grab her bag.

Normally Leila was also a very groggy morning person, however with the two scares she already had, she was more than wide awake. Still, she made her way down the stairs, skipping every second stair. The kitchen in the institute had just about everything you could ever want. But all she wanted was a good cup of coffee.

She was humming a song when she turned the corner into the kitchen, blinking slowly when she saw someone had already brewed some fresh coffee.

He looked up at her from the newspaper he was reading and grunted.

She blinked again.

A pen drop would be able to be heard before...

"LOGAN!" She tackled him in a hug. The Wolverine stumbled back, surprised, catching his step. The counter also caught his back and was digging against it uncomfortably but he let out a gruff chuckle and squeezed her back with one arm before she dislodged herself from the hug.

"When did you get back?" Leila asked him, not turning away. Logan glanced behind her to see her shadow tendrils grabbing a mug out of the cupboard and pouring herself a cup of coffee, two spoonfuls of sugar and maybe a bit too much milk.

He smirked behind his mug, taking a sip and looked back down to his paper, "Sometime last night. Found a stinky surprise waiting for me."

Leila rose an eyebrow before nodding when she remembered just what had happened the night before. "Ah, yeah. Toad? Heh. He's a strange one."

"Only thing strange I found about him was the singe of my nosehairs." Logan grunted.

Leila laughed.

Logan and Leila's relationship was an interesting one. The first time she met him was when he was with Charles to bring her here, and they didn't talk then. She just figured he was grumpy and needed a nap. However when she grew up with him around, she quickly realized no amount of naps would make the Wolverine any less grumpy. Little Leila didn't mind though, and often would try to hang around him anyway. It got to the point where Logan would just ignore her and let her hang around him. Eventually, she even managed to get him to play dolls with her. But he told her if she ever told anyone he did that he would 'come get her'. Leila remembered finding that a hoot and the first thing she did was tell Charles. Logan was not happy, especially at the somewhat taunting smile that Charles gave to him. Fast forward a few years, and Leila looked up to Logan like he was some sort of grumpy, hairy, claw-y Uncle. And while Logan wouldn't say, he was fond of the girl too.

They caught up a bit over coffee, before Jean called to Leila that they were leaving for school. Leila excused herself from the conversation and gave Logan one more hug, "It's good seeing you again, grump!" She called over her shoulder before racing after the other teens.

Logan lifted up his paper and gave the slightest grin.

"Oh man, I am so nervous!" Kurt cried over the stereo that was currently being flipped through by Scott. Since Scott and Jean were the only ones that could drive, they all usually car pooled together.

"You'll be fine, Kurt!" Jean said, looking over her shoulder. She had taken the front seat next to Scott, while Leila and Kurt were in the back. "I think Leila has most of the same classes with you, she can show you around right Leila?"

Leila wasn't so used to sitting right next to someone, so she looked up at her name being called, otherwise shrinking down into her seat, "O-Oh, yeah Kurt. Sure."

"Are you sure? I don't want to be any trouble," Kurt spoke, turning his head to Leila.

She waved him off with a small smile, "It's no worries. Jeans right, we do have a lot of the same classes so I don't mind."

"Awesome! Thanks!" Kurt held up two thumbs up and Leila grinned. She thought he was enjoying his image inducer a bit too much, but didn't really blame him. Not that she thought his actual looks were scary, she found the blue-furred mutant interesting to look at. But she imagined if she were in his place, she would feel very similar to looking 'normal'.

Finally reaching school they hopped out of the car and made their way inside. People looked on to Kurt and Leila who walked together to their lockers, which were luckily enough the opposite side of each others.

"Why are they staring?" Kurt whispered nervously, leaning over to Leila. He was a good few inches taller than her.

"'Cos you're new. That's all, relax." Leila replied with a smile. She lifted her bag higher over her shoulder. "Or it's because you're hanging out with me, a lot of people leave me alone because they think I'm a goth."

"Are you?" Kurt asked with a grin. Leila looked over to him, humming. She noticed she liked it better when she could see his two little fangs when he smiled without the inducer.

"I do wear a lot of black. I don't go outside way too much, I am a bit anti-social, uh, yeah. I guess I am." She teased with a wink when they arrived at her locker.

She pointed over to his when he seemed confused for a minuet, and chuckled at his flustered movements to get over there. She was sure it would only take him a little while to get comfortable with everyone at the Institute, and then to make friends at school.

"Yo, Crowfood!" The familiar greeting and smell entered the air and Leila finished packing up her books and selected the ones she would need. She closed her locker to see Toad standing beside it.

"Tolansky, I'd say it was a surprise. But it never is." She playfully said while turning to face him. The toad-mutant paused a moment, his cheeks turning a bit pink before he shrugged.

"Yo, I can't believe you live with those crazy fools!" His hands stuffed into his pockets and he kicked at a locker, the metal sound clanging through the halls that were quickly emptying. The first bell would ring soon.

"I'm also a crazy fool, did you not get the memo?" She asked, grinning challengingly.

"No way, dog. Not like them."

Leila simply shrugged, clicking her tongue. "Maaaybe you just haven't seen me in action yet then."

"Saw enough when she saved your butt!" Kurt said, coming over with a accusing pointing finger.

Toad eyes widened, "Not you again! Yer looking awfully normal, you blue-furred gecko."

Leila decided to intervene before a fight had a chance to start, stepping between them. "I need to show Kurt to our first class, so. I'll see you later, Toadude."

"Yeah yeah..." Toad grumbled when Leila grabbed onto Kurts hand to drag him away. Kurt looked over his shoulder and glared at Toad. "I don't get why you speak to him, he's a real jerk!"

Leila shrugged, "I dunno, he's okay sometimes. Plus I don't have too many friends here. Have a hard time getting along with..." She paused and whispered the last word "Humans."

Kurt grinned and threw his arm around her shoulder, "Then no more settling for half-pint toad friends! I'll be your friend, Leila!"

Leila blinked, confused before grinning and ducking from under his arm. "I don't settle, thank you. But yes, I would love for us to be friends. But if we are late to first class –" She said right as the first bell went off, "The teacher will not be our friend, get it?"

Kurt smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

First few classes were simple, since it was still early into the year there wasn't way too much work other than a few stickler teachers. Kurt and Leila were able to sit together through most of their classes and chat here and there.

She found herself liking his accent, thinking it was pretty cute that all the w's came out as v's. Maybe she just liked accents. There were a few times that she would zone out, thinking about her dream. She didn't think it was much of an issue, until the lights flickered. Thankfully the lunch bell rang shortly after and Leila jumped up, grabbing Kurt's hand and rushed out of the classroom.

"Whoa! You are in a hurry, are you that hungry?" Kurt teased.

Leila gave a shaky laugh, clearing her head of the dream the best she could, "Always!"

"So wheres the lunchroom?" Kurt asked, looking around. Leila hesitated a moment. She felt like she needed some fresh air, and she wasn't sure she could stomach the schools food right now.

"Leila?" He asked, waving a hand in front of her face when she didn't reply.

She reached up and grabbed the hand, turning her gaze up to meet his. She noticed they were a dark-blue tint with the inducer on. She grinned when he nearly jumped, "Wanna bounce? We could grab lunch some place else and be back before anyone notices."

Kurt seemed unsure, "Is that against the rules?"

Leila shrugged, "Well. Typically we aren't supposed to leave school grounds for lunch, but I mean.. With a certain blue dudes power, who would know? You aren't a scardy cat, are you~?"

"Scandalous!" Kurt said, flashing a grin. Leila still had hold of his hand, "And no way, I'm no scardy cat! But I can only go so far with my teleports. Someone might see us."

Leila squeezed his hand, and her shadow rapidly wrapped around her, blending her into the darkness to hide her from sight. "Whoa!" Kurt breathed. "I can still feel you, freaky!"

"Super freaky. Look down." Leila whispered. And when Kurt did, Leila had to hold tighter onto his hand when he jumped, realizing he too was invisible. "Cool!" He gasped.

"No kidding. There's this burger joint down the road, think you can manage?"

"I got this!"

Leila and Kurt grinned, though no one could see it. The only sign they had been there at all was the faint smell of brimstone.

….

Leila had paid for their meals, which were two of the most greasiest looking burgers ever. A guilty pleasure of hers, and soon to be Kurt's. They sat together outside of the school, having come back after getting the food. Other teens were scattered about, but mostly they were on their own.

"Good huh?" Leila asked with a wide grin, seeing Kurt's mouth stuffed with huge bites of his burger.

He tried to speak, but it came out in intangible words muffled by the food. Leila giggled and wiped her mouth after each bite, the grease on these burgers were horrible in the long run, but boy, did they ever make it worth it.

"Nothing's better than junk food during a school day." Leila winked when he finally swallowed his mouthful.

"Totally! Is that your power, to go invisible?" He asked. Leila glanced around. They were secluded enough they could speak about it.

"That's part of it. I control shadows, there are some fancy words for it but in short it's just easier to call it shadow magic." She said, picking at her burger.

"Cool! Like when you crushed that wall that was gonna flatten Toad." Kurt snickered.

Leila smiled and nodded, "Yeah. I can do things like that, being able to control shadows to manipulate other objects... or people." She mumbled the last bit. "But to control people it's harder, I have to be close enough and link myself with them, and only if both of our shadows are clear. It takes a lot of concentration too."

"You could totally turn someone into a puppet!" Kurt said, after swallowing another mouthful.

"Yeah, heh. Pretty much. I can do like, beams of darkness. And orbs. Like elemental attacks."

Kurt looked at her expectantly so she continued, "Some of the things I can do, I haven't tried on actual people. Like I know I can send my shadows in a.. 'patch' around someone, blinding them and taking away their senses. But the Professor said that could be too dangerous for someone so I need to be careful about it."

Kurt stared at her still, mouth agape, "I have some defense capabilities as well, such as being able to project a wave of sorts to block out attacks. I can manipulate this also to build up a wall if I needed to protect someone else."

She looked down, "There's other stuff too, I just don't know about it yet. But I can feel it, y'know?"

Kurt nodded to her, hands clutching his greasy burger. His cheeks were puffy again with another bite.

Leila hesitated a moment before leaning back and shrugging, "So I guess that's it." There was much more she could tell him, but she didn't want to scare him away so soon. She found herself enjoying his presence.

Kurt suddenly held up a finger and waved it, "Nu-uh, you still need to tell me why they call you Crowfeather!"

Leila grinned, breathing out a sigh of relief and nodded. "I certainly do. But that would be easier to show you."

Kurt looked at her excitedly, "Now?"

Leila laughed, shaking her head. "No, I can't here. Soon though, when we are back at the institute."

The rest of the school day went off without a hitch. In Gym they played basketball, but Leila wasn't much of a sporty person. So whenever she got unlucky enough to get the ball, she would throw it to Jean. Jean was amazing at sports, Basketball, Soccer, whatever. She could do it.

No, Leila wasn't jealous.

The ride home was much more comfortable for Leila, she didn't find herself ducking down into her seat, and joined in talking with Jean, Scott and Kurt.

Leila slipped off of the group when they got back to the institute, there would be training but it would be later on.

Walking into her room she sat down on her bed with a deep sigh. The day was otherwise smooth, but she felt unnerved, as if someone was watching her or listening in on her. She knew it wasn't the case, but sometimes it could be overwhelming.

Flopping down to her back, she used a tendril to flip on her stereo. Soft rock music filled the room and relaxed her, coaxing her to close her eyes for a moment.

She groaned inwardly when the darkness in her eyes danced around with her eyes closed. She brought a hand up to her forehead and pushed against it, opening her eyes. It hadn't been this bad in awhile, and it made her heart race. Something was off, and she wasn't sure what it was.

The Corruption was picking at her far too often lately, and the concentration it took for her to be able to push it away was building up.

"I need to tell the Professor." She mumbled to herself, looking up at her ceiling.

Her heart squeezed nervously. She didn't want to. When it was just her and the Professor, with him poking in her mind, entering it to help her ease the problem. It scared her, she worried for the both of them. She knew that it unnerved the professor sometimes too, even if he acted like it didn't. She could feel it when he was in her mind.

A knock on the door had her jumping out of her skin, she sat up, tapping her forehead in annoyance. "Come in!"

Kurt opened the door, his image inducer still turned on. "Oh, hey Kurt." Leila greeted, sitting up fully to tuck her legs beneath her.

"Guten Tag, Leila." Kurt greeted. Leila couldn't help but smile when he spoke German, even if she didn't know a word of it.

"What's up?" She asked, waving him to come inside. She then patted the spot next to her on her bed when he stood awkwardly at the doorway.

He grinned sheepishly and walked over to sit down next to her, she noticed she still had his school bag. "I like your room, it's very cozy." He said.

Leila glanced around. Her room wasn't much. When she had first come here she had the same room, only then it was decorated much more childishly. The furniture had upgraded from cutesy things to deep colored wooden dresser and a desk near the two windows. The walls were painted a soft lilac, and the floor was the same wood in most of the rooms, which felt nice underneath ones feet. However she did have a decently sized black rug that stretched from the foot of her bed, nearly to the door. She eyed her teddy bare on her dresser a moment, her cheeks flushing. She hoped he didn't think her childish for having it, but he didn't seem to care or notice.

"Thank you, Kurt. But I don't think you came in here just to compliment my room, hm?" Leila questioned with a warm smile.

"Uh, no. I was wondering," He began, bringing a hand to rub the back of his neck while the other lifted up his bag "If you would like to do homework together?"

Leila hadn't ever really done homework with anyone else. It was usually her time to get some quiet to herself, but the hopeful smile that Kurt gave her was just too much so she simply nodded, "Sure!"

Leila slipped further up her bed to give them both space to bring out their homework and spread it out on her bed. They basically had the same homework from the classes they shared, and the ones they didn't they could simply help each other out. Though it seemed as if Kurt was having a hard time understanding all of the things in English, so Leila did her best to help out but she wasn't much of a tutor.

It wasn't long though before homework was abandoned, (mostly) finished and they had started to talk about other things while listening to the stereo.

"So how do you say 'Thank you' in German?" Leila asked Kurt, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"danke." Kurt responded, looking at her with a grin.

"danke." Leila repeated. Kurt laughed.

"What?"

"You pronounced it wrong, but good enough."

Leila giggled and stuck out her tongue, "Suppose you'll have to teach me more sometime then."

Kurt looked at her keeping his grin and nodded, "I'd like that."

"Don't think I have anything to teach you, fur ball." Leila said, reaching forward. She tapped the image inducer and Kurt shimmered back to his normal looks.

He looked down, and she could see his elf-like ears tip down. "I look so...Erschreckend like this."

Leila lifted her brow, "I'm not going to even attempt to say that word. I would butcher it, and you wouldn't ever want to hear me say another German word." She joked.

"Frightening." Kurt muttered. He looked ashamed. Leila frowned and reached forward, placing her hand on his forearm.

"I don't think you look frightening, Kurt. I think you look pretty awesome, I mean, I would kill to have a tail!"

Kurt looked up at her, his yellow eyes wide with surprise. "Really?"

Leila nodded, bringing her hand back with a grin. "Really really. I mean, I get the whole image inducer thing, going to school and all. Not everyone would be ready to see that."

He looked unsure again and Leila quickly added, "But what do you think they would say if they saw the Goth-Girl use shadow magic? They would probably like, think I was a witch or something."

Kurt chuckled at that, bringing his eyes back up to meet hers. Leila felt her heart skip a beat and she swallowed, breaking the eye contact and looking back down at their school work, "Should probably finish this before it gets too late. Training wont be too long off."

Kurt kept her gaze on her, his lips turning to a smile. "Natürlich, Leila."

Leila giggled and poked at him with a finger, "And no German unless you plan on telling me what it means!"

"Of course."

"So what did it mean?"

"It meant of course!"

The room was filled with both Kurt and Leila's laughter.

Training was usually held in the Danger room. And it usually started with a quick warm up, stretches, lifting objects with ones mind, in Jeans case, and other such things.

Leila busied herself with a training dummy, punching and kicking, as strong as her mutant ability could be, her melee could always use some work.

Her lengthy black hair was tied up into a tight pony tail, and then wrapped into a bun, held together by two pins. Her X-Man suit was much like everyone else, black latex up her legs and covering her arms coming to her hands in finger-less gloves. A leotard was worn over it, dark purple with another X down the middle of her front.

The door to the danger room opened and in walked both Wolverine and Storm. Wolverine walked over to the three others, while Storm came to Leila. "Good evening, Leila."

"Hi Storm," Leila greeted, wiping sweat from her forehead. She stopped her punches and turned to face the white haired elementalist.

"We will be training together tonight. The Professor wants to see how your defenses have been coming along."

The breath caught in Leila's throat. She was excited to be able to train with Storm, but she wondered if she would be able to impress.

Leila nodded and followed Storm to the middle of the room, where Wolverine had instructed the others to wait. Scott cheered Leila on, and Jean looked on with a smile. "She so has this. She's been practicing for months."

Kurt looked at the two and then to Leila with an excited smile stretching over his lips.

"We will start off easy, if I feel like you can take more, we will continue. Understand?" Storm asked Leila, lifting her hands into the air. Her eyes began to glow white.

Leila swallowed nervously and nodded, "Understood."

Just as the word left her lips Storm lifted into the air, spreading her arms. Lightning was tossed in Leila's direction. The crackling sound sent shivers down her spine, and she barely jumped out of the way, unable to conjure her shield. She skitted back on her feet, looking over to the ones watching. The teens were still cheering her on and Wolverine looked on with a careful eye, just in case.

"Concentrate, Crowfeather!" Storm called out over her raging wind around her. Her voice was booming, but it gave Leila confidence. Another lightning bolt sent straight towards her. She closed her eyes, focusing and drawing her shadows. Her arms lifted up and a pillar of darkness erupted from the floor, sending the colliding with the bolt.

She wasn't given much more time before two others came following. She gasped and stretched out her arms. The pillar dispersed and instead came back to her in an instant, turning into a wave that sizzled out with a whistle, blocking the bolts and sending them back in all directions. Thankfully not towards the onlookers, however.

Leila looked up at Storm and could see Storm preparing to send another one her way. She took the chance to lift both of her hands, a purple shadow surrounding her hands. It shot out in a beam, that Storm moved to the side to avoid. The beam transformed into two orbs that followed after her. Leila's eyes widened when the orbs suddenly stopped following her hands, turning from two orbs to four, and then six, and then eight. She took a deep breath, straining to regain control. "Leila! Stop!" She could hear Jean cry from the other side of the room.

With a shout, she sent the orbs into a wall. She panted, seeing the mess of the wall she had made and groaned inwardly. Her heart was racing, and her head hurt with the stress it took to gather herself.

"Leila! This was meant only to be a defense test!" Storm said frowning while flying back down to the ground. "S-Sorry." Leila muttered, looking down at the ground ashamed. "I-I guess I got carried away."

Storm looked at her with a stern gaze, one that wasn't cruel or judging but they both knew something there went wrong. Leila felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment. "Go, we will speak about this later." Storm pointed towards the others and Leila nodded, mumbling another apology before jogging over to the others. She didn't meet anyone's gaze, though she could feel their eyes on her.

It really was an accident, wasn't it?

"Leila. I don't know what happened back there, but do I need to bring it up to the Professor?" Storm had asked her once training was over, catching her just after she changed from her suit.

"Please don't!" Leila blurted out. "I-It was an accident, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry, please, don't tell the Professor."

Storm looked at her surprised, she wasn't expecting such a reluctant answer. "Is everything alright, Leila?"

Leila breathed in a deep sigh, releasing it through her nose. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just been stressed out with school and stuff and uh..." She hesitated, searching her mind for an excuse. "I really don't wanna be grounded, I'm already having a hard time with homework." Leila's heart raced, hoping the older woman would buy it. It wasn't a complete lie, though it was far too early in the year to cause any real damage.

"Very well." Storm finally said, crossing her arms over her chest. Leila nearly jumped around, 'I can't believe that worked!'

"However," Leila's shoulders dropped and she deflated.

"We will be having more training sessions, to help you learn control over your... excitement." Storm settled on the word.

Leila sighed and gave a nod, "Okay. Thank you Storm." She cursed in her mind, she had enough to deal with. She didn't want the extra training... At least it was better than someone going into her mind.

Storm dismissed her and Leila trudged her way to her room, feeling guilty and ashamed and embarrassed all at once.

"Hey, Leila!" Kurt called to her before she opened her door. She closed her eyes and mentally sighed, wanting to be alone for awhile. Still, she found herself turning to face him.

"Are you okay?" He asked her and she bit at her bottom lip, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" He asked, tilting his head. Leila couldn't help but smile slightly, he was too cute for his own good. She paused, feeling her face heat slightly when she thought that.

"I'm positive." She said, smiling this time.

"Well that's too bad, I was thinking of taking you to that burger joint again to get some late dinner." Kurt wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and reached down, flipping his image inducer on.

Leila smirked, "I dunno Kurt, I don't think your stomach could handle two gut-busters in one day. Besides, we aren't really supposed to leave the institute late at night." She leaned against her door, her arms crossing.

Kurt laughed, "Suddenly you follow the rules?" He asked her and reached out his hand.

Leila looked down at his hand, and then up to him. She would get so much shit if they got caught, especially after what had just happened but... maybe it was worth it. "Fine, but don't whine to me if you get a stomach ache." Her hand closed around his, and again, all that was left was the faint smell of brimstone.

….

A few teleports and dollars later, they were back at the institute. But instead of going to either of their rooms they decided to eat their stuff out in the back courtyard.

The courtyard was a sight to see in the day time, but somehow it looked even better bathed in the moonlight. Together they sat, eating their food in peace, at times talking and others enjoying the night.

Leila took a deep breath in, smelling the nature around them. "This place is wonderful. Back where I used to live, we didn't have any trees near us. All city."

"Where did you used to live?" Kurt asked, setting down the last bit of his burger.

"Virginia. It's a nice place, in some areas. And the house I was at was really nice, but I dunno. Didn't compare to this. No wonder the Prof turned it into a school. I wouldn't be able to live here on my own either, way too big a place."

"It does feel like it would get lonely." Kurt said softly, looking over the pool. Their was little wind, so the water was still, rippling the image of the moon.

"Yeah... I guess that can count if you are surrounded by people too though." Leila muttered, sitting back against the wall they were against.

Kurt looked at her and she continued, "I was with my parents and my older brother for most of my childhood, pretty normal family other than me. They didn't find out I was a mutant until Professor X came along, and after that they got scared of me. Said things around the house breaking, missing things, and the problems with the lights made a lot more sense. Gabriel, my brother, he knew about it way long before they did though. At least, that's what he says." She shrugs her shoulders, leaning her head back against the wall when she looked up at the moon.

"I don't mind it too much, I was never close with Gabriel, or my parents. They said it was hard to get close to me because I didn't talk to them. I guess it happens. And the shock of having a mutant kid, heh. Their perfect reputation couldn't be muddied, so they had the Professor and Logan bring me here. I haven't seen them since."

Kurt reached over and placed his hand on my shoulder, he was still using his image inducer but Leila didn't want to bring it up then. "I understand what that can be like. I don't know my real parents, they didn't want me. The ones who adopted me in Germany were very kind to me though. They sent me here for a better chance at living. With those like me." Leila nodded slowly, bringing her hand up to rest over his.

"The Professor is good to us anyway, where else would you be able to be in a place like this where people accept you?" She asked.

"I don't know. We're still hiding though, aren't we?" Kurt said, Leila could feel his real fingers hidden behind the inducer rub slowly along hers. She felt a soft blush but tried to ignore it.

"For now. I don't think the humans could trust us the way we are. They wouldn't understand, but Professor really believes that one day we will all live together in peace." Leila spoke, turning her head to look at him.

"Do you believe that?" Kurt asked softly.

Leila hesitated to answer. She wasn't sure herself. She could barely trust herself sometimes with her powers, she was sure if others knew what she could do they would be frightened of her. How was she supposed to believe that they would live together one day?

Instead she stood up, brushing the dust from her pants. "You wanted to know why they call me Crowfeather, right?"

Kurt stood up after her and nodded, wide eyed. Leila looked over her shoulder and grinned while walking over to the pool, "Watch."

She faced forward, feeling Kurt's eyes on her back. Her eyes closed and she focused, bringing her hands up and then back as if pulling on a jacket. She took a deep breath, summoning up the darkness, and then with a release of breath she swung her arms out to the sides. Following her hands, large night-black wings erupted from her back. She stretched them out when she turned around, feathers cascading down to the ground.

Kurt stood, mouth agape. He stared intently and Leila giggled. She moved her shoulders, causing the feathered wings to ripple and flap twice. Feathers were blown in his direction, one ironically landing on his nose. He lifted his hand up and took the feather between two fingers, looking at it amazed.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Leila questioned after the silence went on for a bit too long.

"You can fly!?" Kurt asked, bounding over to her with an excited grin. She nodded, "I can, but it usually takes a lot out of me so... I don't often."

Leila closed her eyes just as Kurt reached out to touch one of the wings, and very suddenly they dispersed into nothingness, even the feather that was in Kurt's hand rippled away.

"Erstaunlich!" Kurt spoke in his language making Leila laugh, but she didn't question what it meant.

Leila's mouth stretched in a yawn, which she hid behind her hand. "We should get back inside and get to bed before it gets too late. If I oversleep my alarm clock, I'm coming after you, Blue-boy."

Kurt laughed, "As if you could catch me!" Leila smirked, placing a hand on her hip. "Maybe we'll have to find out sometime."

She began to walk past him to return to her room but she felt him grab her wrist, making her jump and spin around. He only smirked. Suddenly they weren't in the courtyard anymore, but in her bedroom.

She blinked a few times and gave a soft laugh, "That has to come in handy."

"Certainly," Kurt grinned and began walking to her door. Leila watched from her spot next to her bed and when Kurt turned to her with a smile that she found most charming, murmuring a soft "Gute Nacht mein Freund." She could feel her heart beat just a tad quicker.

Once he was gone, and her door shut she fell onto her bed bringing her hands to her face. She could feel how hot it was. She bit her bottom lip and turned to her side. There was no way she had a crush on him already. No way. She refused to believe it.

The blush on her face did it's best to prove her wrong.

A/N: Hello! Thank you for reading. I've noticed a lot of stories under X-Men Evolution haven't been completed (at least with OC's) and I find that pretty disappointing. So I will do my best to keep this one up if people enjoy reading it! Please, let me know what you think~