Author's Note: All the spaces are actually 'tab' spaces. Because Fanfiction edit Document doesn't allow me to use the tab button, you must suffer through the odd spacing of sentences.
Shift and Teleport
Three books rested beneath a weeping willow tree, their hides gently placed carefully against the bark of the tall giant. Their bindings caressed by the long soft kisses of the green grass growing within the small world known as the Xavier institute.
A woman stands amongst a sea of green, her hands at her side and her eyes closed. A smirk rested on her pale peach lips. The woman inhaled, and then exhaled and slowly opened her eyes.
"When ever you're ready Kurt…" she told him silently, his name echoing within her mind.
She smiled gently to her small thought of him. He reminded her so much of him. Of her guardian, her teacher. The two were so similar it thrilled and confused her heart.
Though for a moment her heart blinded her focus, the smell of brimstone caught her senses and swirled around her as if a lover caressed her cheek. Deirdre smirked and elegantly swayed to the right away from the incoming arms with a goal to wrap around her. Her hands came to entangle together behind her back as she danced on her toes, laughing. She watched as the blue demon tumbled forward after his failed teleported assault.
The woman laughed.
"Gotta do better then that, Kurt." She jested taking another step back as she watched Nightcrawler catch himself.
He turned his yellow gaze upon her and blinked to her unexpected agility.
All she did was smirk and raise her hand horizontally from her waist and waved him toward her. Taunting him, baiting him to regain his balance and come after her again. She watched him amusingly.
He stood back up, smirked, and then vanished into a cloud of shadows.
The woman shook her head and stood perfectly still. She knew this game as if she knew the back of her hand. It was the same game he played with her. It was all familiar.
First she would dance to the right, dodging his first attempt, then…
The scent of brimstone came to her.
She pushed forward, twisting her body to face the teleporter as he reentered the realm behind her. She smirked and he gazed at her with bewilderment.
"I'm not just an empath," She repeated dancing elegantly back away from him.
She knew he would try again, teleport behind her, or to her left or right. It was so similar, familiar, the way he traveled, the way he thought to capture her it was just as he would. Her lips pursed gentle together as she concentrated.
"See if you can catch me, Kurt." She taunted as her body slowly began to be cloaked in a gold dusty mist.
Kurt watched, amazed and startled, as the woman before him shifted.
The dust around her lifted and expanded, and rose into the sky lifting the woman from the ground. The woman morphed, body swiftly changing and stretching until light brown wings reached up to catch the wind.
The hawk burst forth from the golden mist, trails of the strange dust like substance followed behind the red tailed hawk's tail feathers as it lifted into the sky. The hawk gave a taunting squawk, but the teleporter watched in complete shock up at the bird circling above his head.
She felt his unwillingness to accept her challenge, felt the uncertainty in which the demon stood beneath her as she soar the sky. The hawk screeched her frustration in the teleporter who would not play the game. She squawked and dove for the earth beneath her wings. She dove, body curving slightly up as she fought the air currents.
Again the mist begun to cloak her form, however, instead of the gold dust that devoured the woman and gave birth to the hawk. A silver dust begun to dance around the diving hawk as it aimed for the ground. In moments the hawk vanished within the silver mist, and the mist started to dance and stretch out for the earth. The silver fog danced out across the ground, sinking from the sky.
Out from the mist of silver dust landed a wolf, four paws catching its lithe body on the ground. The wolf landed effortlessly like a cat as it leaped from the mist and made a stand before the blue demon. The gray timber wolf took a step forward and lowered its head between her shoulder blades. The wolf watched the demon before her, watched as his yellow eyes stared down on her in wonder and excitement, but only a hint of excitement rose up to meet her.
The wolf crouched in front of Nightcrawler and then pushed its agile body forward leaping for the teleporter. He gasped and teleported, reappearing only a foot behind the beast.
The creature swung around, gray orbs staring intently on her prey. The wolf's jaws opened in a fanged and silent laugh as her eyes twinkled to the delight of the training. Her body moved to swirl around and face the demon before her. He gazed at her, yellow burning into her mind. She sprung forward pushing the teleporter to teleport again.
Every time he teleported she was there to move him on. It was a strange dance, a strange sight of a wolf leaping into a cloud of shadows only to land through it and leap into another one.
The wolf followed Nightcrawler's path, fallowed and chased until the teleporter no longer leaped into the shadows to get away from the beast.
The wolf stood before a panting man, his yellow gaze lingering on her.
The wolf smirked and crept forward, circling around her prey.
The beast stood before Nightcrawler, his body slouched ever so slightly as he stared down the creature before him. Never before had he met someone so different. He gazed down on the beast and watched as the wolf snarled at him and then leapt.
Her body pushed off from the ground and tackled Nightcrawler to the earth with all her force. The wolf landed on the man's chest, two front paws resting heavily above his rushing heart.
He gazed up at the growling beast whose form was dissipating at the edges.
The silver mist returned and quickly ate away at the wolf's form, returning a woman sitting nicely on Nightcrawler's legs.
Kurt looked up at the woman with gray eyes and gapped at her.
She smiled down at his bewilderment and slowly pulled her hands away from his chest to gently place them on her hips.
"Unexpected?" She asked with a smirk.
Kurt simply nodded, "How?" he mumbled.
Deirdre smiled, "I told you." She began, "I'm not just an empath."
"That doesn't answer my question," he said his German roots echoing with his speech.
His voice and accent sent shivers down the woman's spine, as she found herself blushing from the questioning gaze of the teleporter.
Deirdre swallowed softly, and gently shook her head.
"It's part of my ability," she began forcing herself to meet Kurt's intense but gently gaze. "I can only shift into those animals I have made an empathic connection to."
The teleporter blinked, his arrow pointed tail twitched at his side.
Deirdre inhaled deeply and then exhaled taking a moment to point toward the three books leaning to the side. "I have to know a great deal about a certain animal before the empathic connection will even allow me to shift."
"I…"
"It's hard to explain…" She said lifting her right hand and rubbing her face into her palm. "Let's just say, I told you I wasn't just a empath."
Silence befell the two as they sat amongst the greening yard of the institute.
Deirdre sat on Kurt's legs. One hand resting on his chest while the other messaged her temples. She sighed, and then blinked as she looked down at Kurt. She blushed noticing that Nightcrawler was now concentrating on their current situation.
"Oh…" She exclaimed leaping off from his legs and falling to the ground with a thud.
She looked over Nightcrawler as he lifted himself up and propped himself up with his hands.
He gazed shyly in her direction, his blue cheeks lighting softly with a blush.
"It's okay Deirdre," He said softly, diverting his gaze.
Deirdre blushed and looked down at her fingers sinking into the soft earth. She sighed and slowly lifted her gaze back to Kurt. She watched as he inhaled and exhaled nervously, read his body language as he struggled to solve what just had happened.
She exhaled a held breath, "Kurt, I…"
"That was exciting," a southern accent announced from the side.
The pair glanced up to see a small group watching the two from a short distance.
The shifter and the teleporter stared bewildered at the small group before slowly turning to face one another, blushing, and then quickly diverting each other's gazes.
XXX
"That was quite the show," Gambit said as Deirdre and Kurt joined the small group of four.
Gambit stood not to far from in front of Kurt, his arm nicely wrapped around Rogue's side.
"How long have you been watching us?" Deirdre asked sheepishly.
"Since you shifted," announced the Professor from his chair.
Deirdre softly gazed down on him, her eyes speaking curiosity.
"Really?" She asked.
Professor Xavier smiled, "I knew I sensed more to you."
Deirdre smirked, "you can't judge a book from its cover."
Gambit laughed, "No, no you can't."
"Professor?" came Storm's voice from the Professor's side.
The older man looked up to the white haired woman.
"Yes Storm?" He asked sweetly.
Storm did not reply, but she did smile.
"Ah, yes." Began the Professor as he returned his gaze to Kurt and Deirdre.
The two stood side-by-side, slightly uneasy.
The Professor studied the two for a little before swiftly turning his gaze to the lightly pale skinned woman, "Deirdre?" He began, "I would like to speak to you in private."