~Last time~

"I can't! What if my image inducer starts acting up? What if someone see's the real me?" I demanded, unable to be looked at with such scorn like my father had before shooting me.

"Aster, you must let the past go. And I had a friend, Forge, look over it. He's good with machines, and a genius. You will be safe." Professor Xavier tried to assure me. It didn't work.

I closed my locker, forgetting my laptop, and crossed my arms. "What about?"

"We won't lie. We want you to join the Brotherhood." The silvered haired boy said rather fast.

"Brotherhood? Uh, no thanks. No offense, but I'm not some naive girl to join something that I can clearly tell only has you four. No doubt I would be the only girl. So thanks, but no thanks." I said, and went to push past them. But the big guy had grabbed my arm, and I winced as he no doubt felt the fur. That, and the arm he grabbed was the one with my image inducer.

He let go, a surprised look covered his face. "You-"

"Leave me alone!" I snapped in fear, and left like I intended too, but at a rather fast pace.

"Way to go Blob!" I heard before I heard a smack.

"Well, how about we pair up in Science for that report on Micro-Organisms?" He offered.

I blinked. I hadn't noticed he had been in my class before, and wondered just how many he was in. "Or we could join up in History. We could do a project on Canada or Japan. Those are the only ones not taken yet." Definitely look in to how many classes we had.

"I'll get back to you on that." I told him and the bell went off. I sighed, no doubt the others wondering what happened to me.

"Great! Here's my cell number, you can reach me through that." And with that, he was gone and I had a slip of paper with a number left in my hand. With great reluctance I entered the school again and headed to meet with Rogue at my locker.

~Now~

I hadn't told the others about the confrontation, cause just as I was meeting up with them it looked like the group had just finished having a mini scrap. Long story short, Scott got his sunglasses back.

I flopped onto my bed with a groan, star-fished on it as I tried to get my thoughts reorganized. Right after we got back from school, Logan had us run a rescue simulation, and guess who was the one that was chosen. That's right, me. It so didn't help, that the simulation humans held guns, and they would act aggressive towards me. I had lost control when one had threatened me, and I was then lectured by Logan. But his lecture wasn't long, nor did he put me down. It was mostly how I could have blinded the humans and made them have even more hate towards mutants.

I had pointed out that I would rather that, then have another gun pointed towards me. That shut him up, along with the others as I had stared at my feet. And that was when I had excused myself and ran back to my room.

A loud knock at my door knocked me out of my thoughts, and memories. "Who is it?" As if I didn't know.

"Aster?" The door opened, admitting the blue furry dude. Once he saw that my roommate, Jubilation, wasn't there he stepped in. "Vant to talk about it?"

"No." I muttered with a sigh.

A silence fell over us as he sat onto the edge of my bed. A silence that went on till I couldn't take it. "Why did I freak out like that? I knew they weren't real! The bullets would have been condensed little lasers to make it seem like a bullet, and even then I knew they had none! Wolverine even said so!" I ranted, and sat up, my eyes narrowed in fury.

"And then he lectures me about how I could be the cause of humans hating on us! I don't care! I don't care if they do!" I had broke down then, my hands clenching my purple comforter. Little droplets of tears fell and stained it with darker spots. The days stress had finally caught up to me.

"Aster," I felt three-fingered hands on my shoulders. I looked up, tears blurring the figure that had become my friend, and comfort. He said nothing else, and just pulled me into a hug.

My grip moved from the blankets, finding a grip on his shirt. I shook us as the tears over took me, and I buried my face into his shoulder. At some point I think Jean came to get us for dinner, but Kurt had motioned to her to leave. I cried till I fell asleep, cause when I awoke I saw Jubilation sleeping and Kurt still clutched in my grip and asleep as well.

I sat up, and sighed. Everyone was already use to Kurt either calming me down, or just letting my feelings out on him. I owed him so much, and everyone for putting up with me. I got to my feet, er, paws, as Kurt always manages to take my image inducer as soon as I enter the mansion. My tail swayed behind me, as Hawk woke up and followed after me as well.

I hurriedly got ready for the day, and went off to the kitchen. I saw it was empty, and I quickly busied myself on making breakfast for everyone. I was glad that we had more then one stove, and oven. I cooked eggs, in every variation, bacon, ham, hash-browns, some even cooked in the bacon grease like I had always done at home. I then started on the pancakes and homemade waffles. I hadn't even noticed that the smells were attracting the others, since I was so focused on my task.

When I turned around to head out to the dinning area, I stopped in my tracks at seeing everyone wanting to see what else I had made, since the food I had done earlier was covered in tinfoil and in the oven's to keep them warm. "Hey..." I said with a small squeak.

"Wow Aster, like when did you learn to cook!" Kitty asked, practically drooling.

"I thought I smelled bacon?" Bobby asked, confused.

I shook my head with a smile. "Kurt, can you help me get the food to the table? And I'm sorry Logan, I shouldn't have had the outburst." I said, seeing that the Canadian was about to say something.

"Vhat food? All dere is are the pancakes and Waffles." Kurt pointed out, licking his lips and looking like an excited child.

I smiled sheepishly, putting the plates down on the little island, and opened the ovens to show that I had been busy. "Tada..."

I looked up as I felt another wad of paper hit the back of my head. I turned my head, and saw Pietro smile at me innocently. "What?" I mouthed, aggravated that he was in this class as well. Which confused me, as this was Home Ec, and we were sewing and designing.

"Read." He mouthed back, pointing to the five pieces of paper that lay around my feet, all thrown from him, before going back to sewing a dress.

I gave a silent aggravated sigh, before bending down and picking up the paper. The teach had stepped out, so I didn't have to worry about them being seen. They each said a word, and once I sorted them to make a sentence, and went like this.

"Meet. Up. At. Library. ? " Was what it spelled out, and I looked at him, my eyebrow raised.

"When?" I mouthed, tilting my head.

"Lunch?"

"Sure."

"So, why did you want to meet up here?" I whispered into his ear when I had seen him turned away from the door.

I giggled when he jumped a foot in the air, and turned to face me. He then gave me a funny look, and I tilted my head.

"What? Do I have something on my face? Is my image inducer down!?" I asked, the last part coming out slightly panicked, putting my hand to my face in assurance.

"Nothing, you ah... You have.. You have a partner for science yet?" He asked, and I narrowed my eyes in confusion before I answered.

"Not yet..."

"Good! Then we can be partners! I was thinking we-"

"Whoa, there." I said, making my hands in the universal sign of 'Time out.' He stopped, and blinked at me. "I hadn't even agreed! And I know that this is a plot to get me to join the Brotherhood." I had my hands on my hips, and leaning on my left leg more then my right.

"No it's not! We respect your decision Aster! Everyone has a right to choose. You choose not to come, so I won't push it!" He held his hands in front of him as unneeded protection.

"Really now? I've heard the stories Pietro. And I ain't completely biased, just hear me out." I said, when it looked like he was going to argue his points.

"The time you kept stealing from Spike, and then framed him before you even became part of the Brotherhood."

"I was trying to show him that I was better then him!"

"You all lied to Rogue, making her believe that you were saints."

"Mystique told us! She's scary if she isn't listened to, alright."

"What about the Summer Camp incident?"

"Hey, Toad was the one to start that one."

"The time all the mutants had to fight you and the Brotherhood to live in some Floating 'human' free paradise death trap?"

"Hey! You would have liked to have gone, so you-"

"While turning Scott against the others, and wanting to wipe out the rest of humanity?"

"...That was my fathers fault."

I stared at him, glaring and daring him to come up with any more excuses. "I may be against getting all 'buddy-buddy' with humans, but I don't condone violence against them Pietro."

He looked lost for a moment, as he no doubt tried to think of something else. "What if I promise that I won't fight the X-Men, but I won't leave the Brotherhood."

"Then how would you fit in with the other guys?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'll... I'll get out of things by saying that my father ordered me to do something else!" He said, smiling at his plan.

"They'll get suspicious if that happens all the time."

"Is there no way to let you know that we don't care that you hadn't join us!?" He asked, exasperated, rather loudly.

"Quiet! This is a Library young man." The Librarian scolded as she walked by us.

Pietro glared, and I huffed and crossed my arms. "Look, I'll be your Science partner, ONLY if you promise that this isn't some ploy to get me to join the Brotherhood."

"Deal! Now I was thinking that for the project we could..."

Luna: Yay, chapter 4 done and put up!

Dragoncat: That's true, as I too have seen way stranger things. Plus, Pietro doesn't seem to get enough loving like the Furry-dude does.

MoonStarIsle:Any colored wolves are my favorite~:D

AngeliqueRox: Thank-you^^ And I sure hope she never comes across as being a Mary-sue. I think that if she did, or ever does, tell me and I shall burn her to ashes and remake her!

Anyways, R&R people! I love reviews~