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Eventually, the chase wore down. Rahne—giving into her canine instincts—buried Althea's bathing suit somewhere in the sand forcing Althea to wrap a towel around her waist—to Amira's great disappointment.
"Well that was interesting." Wanda commented as Althea sat down next to her on the beach.
"I can't believe I was naked and my Toddles didn't see it! What a waste!" Althea grumbled.
"You are a very weird person..." Wanda sighed.(&) "Who would've guessed that we'd rub off on Rahne that much?"
"I guess it's a sign the exchange program is working," Althea noted. Rahne had turned back into a human and dashed into the water after burying Althea's suit. Althea thought about making a wave strong enough to knock Rahne's clothes off, but thought better of it.
"Dare I ask how you'll get Rahne back for this?" Wanda asked her.
"You'll see." Althea smiled.
"I really hate it when you say that." Wanda groaned.
In the ocean, Rahne was swimming with Lina as they made sure the younger girls didn't get into trouble.
"So how do you like living here at the Institute?" Rahne asked Lina as Trinity pretended to be mermaids and swam with Naomi.
"It's nice here. Although…it could be my imagination but it seems like the boys have taken a bit of a shine to me." Lina mumbled in embarrassment.
"No! Say it isn't so!" Rahne protested in mock horror. "Not you! How dare they find you as attractive, nice, and smart as you actually are?!" Lina blushed.
"You—you really think so?" She asked.
"I've only been saying it for as long as you've been here." Amira agreed as she joined them. "In a totally platonic way, in case you're wondering."
"I'm not. I know you're a one woman girl." Lina blinked as the strangeness of what she said hit her. Rahne and Lina looked at each other. Both knew that Amira was helplessly head over heels for Althea, as she had told them both. However, practically everyone else in both the X-Men and the Misfits had figured it out on their own, except ironically, Althea.
"By the way Rahne, thanks. I owe you." Amira smiled.
"Uh, sure." Rahne looked at her askance. "That wasn't what I had in mind when I—"
"Well I'm not complaining anyway." Amira grinned dopily. "But why did you—?" Rahne sighed.
"Might as well tell you." She blushed as she started to explain what happened with the Coyote. "—So there I was stark naked, liberally covered with food on a table in the Mess Hall. I have never been so embarrassed in my life." She moaned, beet red as she finished. Amira laughed but not in a mean or teasing way.
"That's almost as bad as what happened to poor Lina here." Amira said. "Or should I say, the near-Mrs. Monarch?"
"What?" Rahne asked in confusion. It was Lina's turn to blush as she explained how the Monarch kidnapped her to be his 'queen' and the skimpy outfit the guys saw her in. "—And that's when the guys broke down the door and saw me in an outfit Paris Hilton would've thought was slutty." Lina covered her face in mortification.
Amira snickered, partly in amusement partly in sympathy. "Some luck you girls have been having. Isn't the exchange program grand?"
"Oh shut up." Rahne grumbled as she splashed Amira. Amira splashed her back, accidentally getting Lina. From there a huge splash war started between the three of them, one that was abruptly ended when a playful Naomi leapt out of the water and splashed all three of them with her tail.
"Should've known that was going to happen." Amira said as she idly spat seawater out of her mouth and brushed her hair out of her face.
"I think I got seaweed in my hair." Lina said as she shook her head.
"Among other places." Rahne groaned as she pulled some out of her bathing suit.
"Okay girls." Ororo called from the Danger Room's Control Center. "Pack it in. It's getting late." There was some groaning but the girls got out of the water and off the beaches and into the locker room to shower and change.
"Like, I never been to the beach at ten o'clock!" Kitty said. "Or changed from a bathing suit to pajamas!"
"This was a great idea Althea." Rogue said as they went into the shower. A few of them cast a few glances at Amira. She hung back, knowing full well that her presence with them in the showers would disturb most of the girls there.
"I'll wait until you girls are done." She mumbled as she looked at the floor.
"That's not right." Althea said with a furrowed brow and whirled on the X-Girls. "That's no way to treat a teammate!"
"Please, don't cause a scene." Amira said. "Not for me."
"Yes for you! It isn't right!" Althea insisted before turning back to argue with the others, not seeing the grateful look Amira gave her, which read far more into Althea's kindness than was actually there.
"Look, why don't we just take showers in shifts? There aren't enough for all of us to go at once anyway." Jean suggested. Not seeing any way out of the situation, the girls agreed. The X-Girls went first and Sooraya, Rahne, Tabby, Rogue, Amira and the Misfit girls went second. Ororo and Cover Girl had already taken the younger girls—Trinity, Spyder, Paige, and Naomi—into one of the bathrooms to make sure that they did in fact take a shower instead of tamper with the pipes (Trinity having once done this and flooded the X-Mansion for the fun of it).
"Thank you for standing up for me." Amira said to Althea as the second group showered. Althea shrugged.
"It isn't right for people to automatically ostracize someone who doesn't share their sexuality. I mean really, what do they think you're going to do? Jump their bones?" Althea snorted.
"What do you think about my being bi?" Amira asked.
"I have no problem with it." Althea shrugged and turned away, leaving Amira to draw her own meaning from Althea's answer. "I'm going to get dressed and help set up for what's next."
Amira sighed happily, lost in daydreams as the others finished showering, changed and headed out.
Wanda meanwhile stopped Althea outside the door of the locker room. "So this is your revenge scheme?" She asked as Althea took a bundle of clothes out with her after she got dressed.
"Steal Rahne's pajamas? Yeah," Althea smirked. "Turnabout's fair play."
"Not like we ever really cared about fair play before." Wadna shrugged. "Just don't come crying to me if this ends up biting you on the rear…and knowing Rahne's wolf form it just might."
"And I'm a ninja. Pretty even odds I'd say." Althea shrugged as she carried the bundle down stairs where the others were waiting.
"So what's next for tonight?" Betsy asked as the girls sat around
"Just a few special movies. " Althea grinned. "If you ladies are up for it."
"Please," Kitty snorted. "I don't think there's anything we can't han—OH MY GOD!" She shrieked. The others turned to stare at the source of Kitty's shriek. It was Amira, her hair still dripping from the shower and completely naked.
"I think someone has something of mine." Amira said archly as she tapped her foot impatiently in the doorway, not put off in the slightest by her own state of undress.
"Why the hell are you naked?" "What's wrong with you?" "My eyes!" Several girls shouted.
"What's going on—hoo boy!" Rahne exclaimed as she headed downstairs. "You go to your room to get your pillow for one minute and see what you miss."
"Um…are those your pajamas Rahne?" Althea asked Rahne.
"Yes…"
"Heh heh, oops." Althea winced as she held out what she now realized where Amira's pajamas. "Sorry." She said as she gave Amira's night clothes back.
"I might have guessed." Amira said with a bemused smile as she climbed into her clothes.
Jubilee scratched her head in confusion. "Sooraya covers herself up entirely and you don't cover yourself at all! Why are you so different? I mean I know all people aren't the same just because they have the same religion," she added hastily. "But still!" Amira shrugged again.
"With no disrespect to Sooraya or any of my coreligionists," She said nodding to Sooraya. "My exposure to Vladimir and other radical thinkers led me to examine my faith in a new way.
"I fervently believe that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet…but though Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Unto Him, was a prophet from Allah, he was still only a man. He was not a God nor a son of God or any such nonsense. His views were those of a Seventh Century man in a very backwards, traditionalist society. This is a Twenty-First Century world. What is appropriate then may not be appropriate now.
"Just as Christianity and Judaism changed during Industrialization and the Enlightenment, I feel that Islam can do so as well without losing the fundamental principles upon which it is based. This realization, coupled with my experiences back home with anti-woman, anti-gay, and anti-mutant sentiments wrapped up in 'fundamentalist' Islam, has encouraged me to explore myself and my sexuality with more freedom than I previously enjoyed." Amira concluded.
"That's all well and good but like, why didn't you grab a towel or something when you came down?" Kitty groaned. Amira shrugged.
"Because it felt nice. Besides it's just my body. All anyone here could do is to look anyway."
"What do you think Sooraya?" Betsy asked.
"Amira's faithfulness to Islam is not in doubt, even if I find some of her actions, ah, extravagant. Nevertheless, I do not seek to cast judgment on others and ask in turn that others do not judge me."
"Fair enough." Althea shrugged. "Who's up for a movie?"
"What sort of movies?" Jean asked. Althea nodded to Trinity.
"You know how there's that magical device, the Pevensie? It's used to collect and watch memories from an outside perspective? Well we thought we'd invent a device to do that so we could watch and show others our own memories—and others—as a movie!" Brittany explained.
"And we've used it to extrapolate memories and experiences from the Misfits and the X-Men!" Quinn added. "Think of it as an episode of 'This Is Your Life!' We can even adjust it to watch from a third-person view or from the perspective of the person whose memories we're viewing!"
"We call it the Telepathic Projector 1000!" Daria eagerly piped up.
"As fun as this sounds; this sounds a lot like you just went around stealing peoples' memories without permission." Jean noted.
"I don't see how the one contradicts the other." Brittany blinked.
"Come on, it's just a harmless look at stuff we've already done. Besides it's not like we don't go around videotaping everything anyway." Althea rationalized. "Think of it as an orientation showing for the newbies! With snacks!"
"Go ahead." Jean sighed. "Just keep it clean."
"Hey look! Those are some of the Brotherhood's pranks on Kelly!" Rogue pointed as a very angry—and gum covered—Edward Kelly appeared on the TV screen.
"And that's from us in Mojoworld!" Wanda moaned as another scene came up.
"Oh man and that's from the Snark invasion last Christmas!" Jean winced.
"What's with the robot Santas?" Amira wondered.
"Don't ask." Dead Girl shook her head. "Just don't ask. Anyone want Doritos?"
"Oh my god and there's the guys mooning Donald Trump from the Christmas before THAT!" Kitty yelped.
"I don't know about you, but I am SO glad I'm a Muslim right now!" Amira said to Sooraya as they watched more Christmas mayhem. Sooraya nodded as she watched a Santa being blasted out of the sky by the Institute's lasers.
"This sort of thing never happens during Ramadan." Sooraya blinked.
"I like Christmas!" Rina said. "Christmas is good…"
"Oh hey here's us fighting the wolves! Oh, sorry Rahne." Althea winced.
"It's okay." Rahne sighed. "I can't believe those mutts almost got me to leave the Institute!"
"Hey it's no worse than that blond bimbo bitch Frost tricking me into attacking the Misfits." Amira comforted her. "Hey, here it is now!"
"The Telepathic Projector reads thoughts, well, telepathically so if you think of something happening strongly enough, it'll show up." Brittany explained.
"But don't worry, if you don't want something to be shown then it won't. We don't need to see anyone in the shower or whatever."
"Speak for yourself." Althea practically purred.
"Oh man I almost forgot how annoying those guys were!" Wanda said as she watched the Omega Hellions—drunk on B.A.s' Coffee—trash the Pit.
"Yeah…I miss those guys." Amira sniffed sadly. Naomi gave her a hug.
"Don't be sad…"
"Thanks sweety." Amira said thankfully as she rubbed her head. Naomi closed her eyes in concentration. Amira laughed as an appearance of several dolphins swimming in a tank. "Hey, this is the time you went to Aquarium and swam with the other dolphins!"
"Hey is that Emma Frost in the front row?" Jean asked.
"The one that got soaking wet when the dolphins dove back in the water? Oh yeah." Amira smirked.
"Look! Here's a scene from when we fought Apocalypse!" Tabby said as she munched on some popcorn.
"Still want to know what you're getting into?" Angelica asked Amira and Sooraya.
"And here's Jean and Scott going all out on Mr. Sinister! Ooh man it looks like that hurts!" Amara commented.
"Good!" Jean said.
"Here's something from the Pit." Dani noted as she took a drink of soda when the scenes switched again. "Isn't that a cup of B.A.s coffee?"
"Oh no…" Wanda winced as she knew what's coming next.
"Wow!" Amira said her eyes wide as she saw the effect the coffee had on the Misfits. "I've got to get some of that in the morning!"
The girls spent the next hour and a half watching these 'home movies' until Ororo and Cover Girl came in.
"Girls, time for bed!"
"Awww…" The girls groaned.
"I guess we might as well get into our sleeping bags and—hey! Where are our sleeping bags?" Jean wondered.
"Um, during one of the home movies we got bored and decided to try and see if we could sew them together in order to make a giant trampoline." Quinn said.
"But it kind of got rolled into a ball and was launched out of a catapult and—" Brittany started. Jean just held up a hand to stop her.
"Forget I asked. Now what do we do?"
"Well since we knew you'd be mad, we thought we'd make it up to you and built this!" Daria said as she held up a small cube.
"What's that?" Althea asked.
"Just stand back and watch." Quinn said.
"That's generally good advice whenever you three and involved." Wanda noted as the girls got out of the way. Daria tossed the cube in the middle of floor and it unfolded and expanded into a gigantic fold out bed.
"Ta da!" Brittany said. "The Instant Giant Porta Bed!"
"You expect us to all sleep in a giant bed?" Kitty asked in disbelief.
"The boys used to do it over at the Brotherhood House." Tabby shrugged. "Besides, our sleeping bags are probably rolling down some street in Bayville by now."
"Fine," Kitty sighed. The girls got their blankets and climbed onto the giant bed. They took climbed onto whatever spot they wanted. Penny crawled onto the corner of the bed and curled up like a giant cat. Trinity huddled together under one blanket not far from the center of the bed, probably in order to prank someone later.
Amira stretched languidly and said her evening prayers with Sooraya before climbing into bed.
"'Night Sooraya." Amira said.
"Goodnight Amira."
Goodnight girls." Cover Girl said as she and Ororo went upstairs.
"Goodnight." The girls called back. As Amira put her head down on the pillow she spied Althea lying down not far away from her. Slowly, Amira shifted her way closer and closer to her. Finally, when Amira was just half a foot away from the object of her desire—Naomi leaped on her.
"OOF!" Amira grunted as Naomi sat on her chest. "You've got to cut back on the fishes kiddo."
"Can I sleep with you?" Naomi asked as she hugged Amira. "Pleeeease?"
"Sounds like you have company." Althea said as she turned over, seeing Amira and Naomi. Amira shrugged.
"She gets lonely sometimes." Althea smiled.
"The triplets used to do the same thing with me after my mother left." She explained. Looking at Naomi she asked, "Do you want a snuggle?" The eight-year old girl nodded and crawled in between the two older girls.
"I used to do this with my mommy and daddy before—" Naomi sniffed when she thought about the parents who kicked her out when they discovered she was a mutant.
"Awww, you're a sweet kid." Althea said as she gave her a hug.
"Yes," Amira said as she also hugged Naomi…and Althea in the bargain. "I owe the kid big time for this…" Amira thought. "Tomorrow, do you want pancakes?" Naomi nodded eagerly. "You got it!"
"Let's just go to bed." Althea yawned as she closed her eyes.
"Yeah." Amira smiled happily as she laid down next to her adopted kid sister…and next to girl of her infatuations. A delighted smile crossed her eyes as she went to sleep; her last waking thought was, "YES!"
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(&) Taken from Red Witch's last review because it sums up what I was going to have Althea say better than I ever could.