Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men.
10
Kiara stood in the doorway of the library, frozen, with Kurt at her side. She stared at the short brown-haired boy who sat at the table a few feet away from her. He looked normal. He had his books spread out in front of him like he was studying.
Kiara didn't know him. She had never seen him before in her life. But the fire flared defensively within her and some part of her body screamed at her to retreat. To run away. This boy could hurt her.
"Kiara?"
Kiara looked up at Kurt. "Who is that boy?" she asked, pointing to the brown-haired boy.
"That's Bobby Drake," Kurt said, looking at the boy. "Why, do you know him?"
"No," Kiara said, scowling at the boy. "He's dangerous, though."
"Bobby?" Kurt said, laughing. "He's not dangerous. He's still in junior high."
"What are his powers?" Kiara asked.
"He can create and control ice," Kurt said, frowning.
He watched as Kiara continued to scowl at Bobby. Then he understood. Ice was a form of water and Kiara could be hurt by water. She was afraid of him because of what had happened in the field behind her house.
"Don't worry, Kiara," Kurt said. "You're safe. He would never hurt you."
Kiara looked at Kurt uncertainly. Then she nodded and the fire died down. She trusted his judgment. She walked over to a nearby bookshelf, trying her best to stay as far away from Bobby as possible as she did so.
Kurt smiled and followed her to the bookshelf. "What kind of books are you looking for?" he asked her.
Kiara shrugged. "Maybe a horror novel," she said. "Not Stephen King, though."
"Not Stephen King, huh?" Kurt said as he walked through the aisles. He stopped and pulled a book down from one of the taller shelves. "Here. Try this. I think you'll like it."
Kiara took the book from him and flipped through it. She nodded and continued down the aisle. Then she paused and looked at Kurt. "What's the date today?" she asked him.
"August twenty-seventh," Kurt told her. "School starts next week. Why?"
"And I'll be going to school with you?" Kiara asked. "At the high school, I mean?"
"Well," Kurt said, frowning, "you're fourteen, right?"
Kiara nodded.
"Then yes," Kurt said, smiling. "You'll be starting your freshman year at Bayville High School. We probably won't have a lot of classes together, though. Kitty and I are both starting our sophomore years."
Kiara frowned and his smile faded when he saw how disappointed she looked. She turned away from him.
"We'll be able to spend lots of time together here, though," Kurt said quickly as he followed her down the aisle. "If you want to, that is."
Kiara paused at the end of the aisle and pulled a thick, hard-cover book off the shelf. She smiled at him. "Do they teach foreign languages at Bayville?" she asked him.
"Don't all high schools?" Kurt said. "Why?"
"Just wondering," Kiara said, shrugging.
"Right," Kurt said. "Did you find what were you looking for?"
Kiara hugged the books to chest, protectively almost. "Yeah," she said. "We can go now."
Kurt smiled as an idea occurred to him. "Good. I'll teleport us back to your room."
He grabbed Kiara by her arm before she could respond. Then the two of them disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, Kiara was lying on the floor of her bedroom and Kurt was staring down at her. "Are you alright?" he said as bent down to help her pick up her books. "The first time is usually a bit overwhelming."
He picked up the hard-cover book Kiara had taken out of the library and began to examine it, but she snatched it out of his hand before he had a chance to read the title. He frowned at her.
"You aren't allowed to look at this book," Kiara told him.
"And just why not?" Kurt said as he reached out to take the book from her.
Kiara jumped to her feet and hid the book behind her back. "Because you don't need it," she said, smiling.
"And you do?" Kurt said, smiling.
"Yeah, I do," Kiara said, walking over to her bed and putting the book under her pillow.
"Alright then," Kurt said. "How about you tell me why you need it."
"I can't tell you," Kiara said, laughing. "It's a secret."
"You know," Kurt said, sitting down next to her on the bed, "it isn't nice to keep secrets from friends."
They both fell silent, and Kiara continued to smile at him. "You aren't guilt trip me into showing you the book," she told him after a moment.
"Ah, why not?" Kurt moaned. "What's the big deal -- it's just a book."
Kiara opened her mouth to speak, but someone else spoke before she had the chance to respond.
"Hey, you two lovebirds. How's it going?"
Kiara looked up to see a gothy, pale-skinned girl with brown hair that was shot through with streaks of white standing in the doorway.
"Ah, Rogue," Kurt said, repositioning himself on the bed. It was then that Kiara realized they had been leaning towards each other, sitting much closer together than she had thought. "There you are. This is Kiara."
"I know who she is," Rogue said in a thick Southern drawl as she walked over to the bookshelf and pulled down a thick volume. "Y'all had better cool it, though, 'cause people can see you through that there window."
"What are they going to see?" Kurt said, scowling. "We weren't doing anything. We aren't even dating."
"We barely know each other," Kiara added.
"Well, I wouldn't say that," Kurt said, frowning at her. "But we definitely aren't dating."
"Whatever," Rogue said, smirking. "There's no reason to bite my head off. I was just warning you." She looked up at Kiara. "Jean, dropped some stuff off for you. Your things is the wardrobe and mine are in the closet."
Kiara stood up and went over to the wardrobe, and pulled the doors open. It was filled with brand new clothing that still had the tags on it. There were two boxes on the floor of the wardrobe. One was large, white, and rectangular. The other was small and see-through and held what seemed to be a bright red sports watch.
Kiara bent down and picked up the boxes.
"What is it?" Kurt asked, standing up so Kiara could set the boxes on the bed.
"Well," Kiara said, picking up the box that held the watch. "This is a watch."
"No, it isn't," Kurt said, taking it from her. "It's your image inducer. It looks just like mine. See?" He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and showed her his image inducer.
He was right. If hadn't been for fact that his was black and Kiara's was red, she never would have been to tell them apart.
"Do you think it works?" Kiara asked, looking at him.
"Try it," Kurt commanded, shoving the box into her hands.
Kiara took the thing out of the box and strapped it to her wrist. She stared at it for a moment. There were four buttons on the side of it. "What button do I press?" she asked Kurt.
"Try this one," Kurt said, pointing to one of the buttons.
Kiara pressed the button and turned to the full-body-sized mirror that hung on the front of the closet door. She stared at her reflection in disbelief. Her blood-red eyes were now a deep shade of dark brown and her skin was now pale, ivory-toned. Her scales had disappeared completely. The only thing that hadn't changed was her hair, but that was okay. The blood-red and bright yellow streaks could easily be mistaken as hair dye.
"I look normal," Kiara said, unable to look away from her reflection.
"I know," Kurt said, smiling. "It's incredible, isn't it?"
Kiara turned to face him and saw that he had turned on his own image inducer. With his now pale skin and brown eyes, he looked as normal as anyone else in the mansion. If Kiara hadn't seen him in his true form, she never would have thought that Kurt was a mutant.
"Yeah, it's incredible," Rogue said, "but it's not real. It's all an illusion. You need to remember that."
"An illusion?" Kiara asked, looking at her.
"She means it's a hologram," Kurt said, turning his image inducer off.
"Exactly," Rogue said. "And you need to remember what Ororo said about that harness, Kiara. You have to wear it outside of the Institute or else your wings will breach the hologram and everyone'll be able to see them."
Kiara scowled at the mention of the word "wings". She was still trying to pretend that her own did not exist. She had been doing so well up until a moment ago.
"C'mon," Kurt said quickly when he saw her expression. "Let's see what else Jean brought for you." He dragged her back to the bed.
Kiara turned off her image inducer and opened the second box. There was some sort of outfit and a note inside. She picked up the note and read aloud, "Be sure to think of a codename before tomorrow and read tonight's evening newspaper, page three." She looked up at Kurt. "What do I need a codename for?" she asked him.
"For when we go on missions," Kurt said. "We all have one. This must your uniform." He took the outfit out of the box.
Kiara's uniform turned out to be what looked like a blood-red full-body jumpsuit with two X's on it. There was a bright yellow one on the front and a black one on the back. It came with a pair of thick, heavily-padded black gloves and black boots.
"That is the dorkiest-looking outfit I have ever seen," Kiara said, taking the outfit from Kurt and she could tell by the feel of the fabric that it was waterproof. For obvious reasons.
She thought back to the incident in the field behind her house and quickly cringed away from the memory.
"Well, you have to wear it during training and when we go on missions," Kurt said, laughing.
"I guess," Kiara said. Then she smiled. "Well, at least I know what my codename is."
"You thought of one already?" Kurt asked her, surprised.
"Yeah," Kiara said, laughing at the look on his face. "I pretty much came equipped with one."
"Okay," Rogue said simply. "Would you mind telling us what it is?"
Kiara smiled at her. "Blaze," she said simply.