Disclaimer: Still don't own the X-Men.
________________________________________________________________________
Tabby woke up to the sound of the garage door being pulled open. She looked toward the door and blinked furiously as the sunlight poured in. She groaned and pulled the blankets up over her head. "Ugh. It's way too early for the sun to be that bright. Close the door or something, will ya?"
Krystal laughed. "It's not that early! It's 9:30 and I come bearing the gift of coffee." She walked over to Tabby and offered her a styrofoam Dunkin' Donuts cup. "I also brought breakfast. I hope you like doughnuts. The breakfast of champions…and lazy cops."
Tabby sat up and accepted the cup. "Thanks. So what do you do about the bathing situation? Please tell me you don't bathe in that bowl over there."
Krystal laughed again. "Not unless I get desperate. I actually go to one of those truck stop stations. A lot of them have showers available for truckers who stop for the night. I just find an employee, tell him to let me into the showers, and voila! Free shower."
"That actually works, huh? What happens if a real trucker shows up to use the shower?"
"It happens, and it's embarrassing. Enough said."
Tabby smiled and grabbed a doughnut. "Do you think I could get in on this shower trick of yours?"
"Sure. There's a station a couple miles from here. When we're done with the chow we can head over there."
________________________________________________________________________
Twenty minutes later the two girls pulled into the truck station parking lot.
"Here we are. All we have to do is locate a clueless employee," The girls got out of the car and walked through the door. "And here's one now."
Krystal walked up to the counter and began to chat with the teen standing behind the counter. Tabby didn't think it would take much persuading to get this kid to let them into the shower room. Judging by his red eyes he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night and was probably too hung over to care about the 'Truckers Only' sign on bathroom door. Suddenly the boy's bloodshot eyes glazed over and he grabbed a key from behind the counter. As he walked toward the bathroom Krystal motioned for Tabby to follow him. The boy unlocked the doors and turned to Krystal, as if he expected her to say something. She did.
"Thanks kid. Just go on back to the counter and don't let anyone else in here until after we leave, alright?"
The boy gave no sign that he had heard her. He just walked back to the counter and continued to look tired and hung over.
________________________________________________________________________
After grabbing lunch from a gas station (which was an interesting experience, considering Krystal didn't pay for anything, instead just told the cashier to give her the food for free), the girls found themselves back at Krystal's storage garage.
"O.K., so you steal food and showers. What else do you do?"
Krystal grinned. "During the day my activities get a little bit more political. See, my gift allows me some great opportunities to help other mutants. You probably haven't heard much about it yet, but some people have begun to suggest a mutant registration bill. Basically, we'll all have to register ourselves on a master list that gives out all our information, including what our talents are. You can see how this will be a bad thing. We'd never be safe. I've managed to keep this registration bill fairly quiet for the past few months by 'convincing' certain people to keep their mouths shut. Unfortunately, there's this new guy I must have missed. Senator Kelly. I think he's going to become a real big problem real fast."
"Yeah, I've seen Kelly's speeches. He's the biggest asshole I've ever seen."
Krystal nodded. "Tell me about it. The problem with him is that he's really popular and well guarded. I can't get close enough to him to talk to him. It might be for the best anyway. If someone like him were to suddenly change his opinion on mutants, it would look awfully suspicious."
"Guess so. You got a lot of stuff going. What do you do for fun, I mean, you a partier?"
"Nah. To be honest, crowded places freak me out. I avoid them if I can. What about you?"
Tabby laughed. "You found me behind a club, remember?"
"Right. Guess I didn't need to ask."
The girls laughed. "I do enjoy a good time and I love a party. Is that going to be a problem if I'm staying here?" Tabby asked.
"Nah. I don't really care. Just don't bring people around here. The last thing I need is for someone to call the cops and get me evicted from here. I can't imagine people are really supposed to live in these things."
"Probably not. How are you getting away with this anyway? You telling the owner to let you stay here?"
"Don't have to. This place is real cheap. There's no night watchman or anything, and the owner never comes around. I'm probably not the only person living here."
The girls spent the rest of the afternoon talking and decided to take in a movie that evening. Another interesting experience: free tickets and free food.
________________________________________________________________________
Authors Note: I probably should have mentioned that this story will span from before the first X-Men movie until the end of X2. Also, the Brotherhood will finally make an appearance in the next chapter.