A/N: Yes, I know. I failed to update yesterday. Blame my ever growing laziness. :( *Please don't kill me*

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Chapter Fourteen: Touch

On purpose, as they drived into the garage, Alyce pressed hard on the break. It was just too funny to see a bunch of boys get rudely awakened. Everyone slinked out of the car with a groan, their stiff joints aching and protesting to be laid into bed. The two hour drive had Alyce already seeing double and it took her more than just a head shake to get rid of the effect.

"What time is it?" Logan asked, looking as if he hated the world. Alyce couldn't blame him, everyone liked to get their sleep. She felt a bit bad of waking them up how she did.....wait...no she didn't.

Logan growled when no one answered him and everyone quickly scrambled to find a watch. Remy grabbed at Alyce's hand, bringing her wrist up to his face. He squinted at the bracelet with a confused face. "What kind of time is this?" He asked, letting go of Alyce's hand.

"It's a bracelet. Not a watch." Alyce answered, getting back in the car to find a suitable parking space. She knew she would hear it from Scott if she didn't put the thing in the spot that it was supposed to be. Anything to not hear that guy's mouth, Alyce was determined to find the best spot she could find.

"It's---" Julian looked at his watch, his eyes bulging. "----four in the morning."

Everyone, including Claire, let out a groan. Their sleeping schedules were going to so off for the next couple of days. Claire made her way over to Julian and rested her head on his chest. Remy could barely keep his eyes open, neither could Logan. The only people who seemed to be the most awake were Piotr and Alyce.

"Piotr, seeing as how you're not a zombie, could you bring Julian to one of the spare rooms." Logan said this more as a command than a question. Piotr nodded and Logan thanked him. "Alyce will take the little one to her room."

"Remy thinks later on in the day we can become more acquainted. For now, Remy is off to beddie bye time." Remy patted Claire on her shoulder before he wobbled out of the garage and up the stairs. Logan said his good nights to the two new comers and disappeared up the stairs as well.

"So, looks like I'm the tour guide." Alyce spoke as she walked up toward Claire.

Claire smiled and gave Julian a quick kiss on the cheek. She watched as Piotr guided him through the garage and up the stairs. She turned to Alyce and gave her a high five."I'm sure you're a good tour guide."

Alyce was the first to walk toward the stairs, Claire following close. "Aren't you supposed to be sleepy?" She asked as the they walked up and entered the main hall of the Mansion. A small chuckle escaped her lips as Claire let out a surprised gasp.

"Wow....this is.....beautiful. You guys live here?" Not believing how amazing this place was, Claire walked up to a small stone statue, running her fingers over it gently. This whole place was other worldly, almost like a dream.

"I was the same way when I first got here. You get used to it pretty quick." That good old feeling of nostalgia entered Alyce's mind and she found herself getting excited just as much as Claire. "You know you're pretty lucky that you're going to be set up in one of the spare rooms."

Claire, noticing that Alyce had continued walking down the hall, jogged to catch up to her. "What do you mean? I'm sure all the rooms are lovely here."

"They are lovely, indeed. It's just that the dorms are a bit rough." That was something Alyce knew all to well. She'd rather die than go back to sleeping in the dorms.

The pair walked up the grand staircase, Claire often stopping to admire the random paintings from high up. The few times they had stopped, Alyce found herself becoming more and more of a tour guide. It was actually pretty funny. It also made her feel old. When you can properly tell the history of one of Kurt's statues, you were old. After a few more stops and a few more tour guide notes, the two finally reached the West Wing. Also known as the Girl's Sector.

"Hey, before we go inside can I ask you something?" Claire asked with a low voice, tapping Alyce on the shoulder as she did.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Do you think I could sleep in Kitty's Room? She won't mind me snuggling in her bed." Claire looked up at Alyce with a pleading eye. How could she say no to that? It's not like she could say no, Alyce did have Bella sharing the same room as her and they were cousins. So why not sisters? Alyce opened the doors to the dorm and motioned for Claire to walk in first.

"Your wish is my command. It make take a while to get there though, I don't really know where her dorm is." Alyce began to think as they walked down the hall, skipping the large dorms and over to the Private Rooms. Kitty's room wasn't that hard to find once they got there. With a huge pink sign saying; 'Kitty & Rogue', it wasn't a no brainer who slept behind those doors.

"Well, this is it." Alyce stepped to the side and watched as Claire looked at the sign. She laughed and poked the sign as if it would move.

"That's Kitty for you." She added, still looking at the sign with a mock interest. It was nice to know her sister really didn't change in the months they had been apart. It was going to be awesome waking up and surprising her. She would wake her up now, she knew Kitty wouldn't mind it, but she was dead tired. "I guess I'll see you in the morning?" Claire now looked over to Alyce, hopeful that she would say yes. It was a pretty big Mansion and she didn't want to lose sight of the people who had helped her. She would officially think of them as her first friends.

"It's already the morning." Alyce chuckled. "You must mean late afternoon, because I'm going to be crashing." Awkwardly, Alyce gave the small girl a hug. She watched as Claire entered the room and before closing the door, waved her goodbye. Alyce did the same, but quickly motioned for Claire to come back out.

"I'm going to bet with you on something. Is that alright?"

"Sure?" Claire questioned with a weird look on her face. It must've been something funny, she could tell by Alyce's snarky smile. Claire knew Kitty was often the center of jokes only because she startled so easily, which led her to phase. Claire had to admit, that even she had scared Kitty a number of times just to see the girl stumble through a solid object. It was actually pretty funny and she had the videos to prove it. "Wait, let me guess first. It has something to do with Kitty phasing, doesn't it?"

Promptly, Alyce placed her hands on her hips. "Are you sure you aren't a mutant?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm not, I swear. But I'll let you know if Kitty phases in the morning."

The two girls high fived and that was that. Deal was done. Alyce would get to know the funnies when she got up and Claire would have fun telling the story. It would be an afternoon well spent. Alyce turned on her heel as soon as Claire closed the door, making her way down the hall to her dorm. She unzippered her jacket and took it off, letting down her hair so she could just kick off her shoes and crash. It was when she turned the corner that she stopped in her tracks.

There was a certain John boy sitting outside of her door.

Why was he even awake at this un-godly hour? With a mock curiosity, Alyce made her way over to her door. She walked slowly as she got closer, looking at John as if he might spring up and try to scare her. But he was actually awake. Weird.

"Why are you still up?" Alyce asked, a bit of laughter accompanying her question. John looked up to her and rolled his eyes.

"I was sleeping until your brat of a cousin woke up and kicked me out. I thought I would be a nice guy and wait for you. I can see why now I never liked being the nice guy." John scowled as he said this, looking at the door as if it were Bella. His hair was bed tossed and his eyes were a bit blood shot. Alyce knew he would be crashing until late afternoon as well. Great minds did think a like. At times....

"Sorry we took so long. But we're back, with two in tow." Alyce let out a yawn and slinked her body into John's arm. She leaned on him lazily and draped her hands around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist and the leaned against the wall.

"Two knew brats to the school, huh. One being Kitty's sister....she isn't as annoying, is she?" John rested his chin on Alyce's head, holding onto her as he slid down the wall and back to sitting on the floor.

Alyce got herself comfy, using John as a form of a human pillow she leaned on his chest and curled up. "Claire is actually ok. Her boyfriend came with us, he's a mutant." She opened up her jacket and tried her best to cover her and John. It kept falling off of their shoulders and eventually stood on the floor. It crossed her mind to tell him of the riots down in New York, but she knew he would only want to go and see it first hand, not to hear about it. No doubt to make trouble.

"You know you missed the best part of the conference when you left."

"And what was that?" She could already feel her eyes droop as she talked and she was sure her voice was coming out in slurs. Hopefully, John wouldn't mind...seeing as how he too had the case of the sleepies.

John let out a yawn before he spoke. "Metal head interrupted the conference with his own broadcast. 'This is now a war!'"

Alyce bursted out laughing. She continued to laugh as John did his impersonation of everyone's favourite mutant. Magneto. He continued to mock his speech, complete with a raised fist until he broke out into a small laugh.

"You get the idea." John finished. "But you know, he had a pretty good point. He was saying that it was our time to fight back, to show everyone else what we can really do. That if they want to fear us, we should give them a reason too. It's better than hearing what the Professor had to say. Stuff about waiting it out and being patient. Why should we have to wait for them to accept us. We've accepted them, right?"

John looked down at Alyce, who had already fallen asleep. John never knew he was such an awesome late night story teller. He was sure Alyce had heard some of what he said, if she didn't he could always tell her later on. He placed a small kiss on top of her head and let out a sigh. Sure he was the big bad ass Pyro, he knew that. His days were numbered here at the Mansion. There was only so much of the goodie two shoes facade he could keep up. Sooner or later, he knew for a fact that he would be dishing out his own thoughts on what was going on. And it wouldn't be pretty.

Trying not to think of the outcome, John tried to get up. He now had a new problem. Getting Alyce into her room. There was no way he could move her to her room, which was right in front of them, without her waking up. Well, the floor was comfy.....

Looks like the hallway would be the bedroom today.