24. Coming Home

Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters – Nine Months Later

"JAMIE! GIVE ME THOSE BRUSHES BACK!" Running through the upstairs walls of the mansion, Kitty hunted down the replicating mutant who had swiped her items on a whim. Although, she did have a feeling a certain fuzzy blue elf was also behind the theft as well.

"I didn't take them!" Jamie yelled as Kitty phased into his room. A look at the boy told her otherwise as he had a guilty look on his face.

"Give me the brushes or I'll, like, phase your brain out of your skull."

"I told you, I don't have them!"

"But I do."

Turning around, Kitty saw another Jamie standing in the doorway with a set of brushes tied together with a bow. "Catch me if you can."

"Jamie!" Kitty ran off after the clone of the boy as the first version of himself laughed his head off.

Downstairs in the foyer, another Jamie clone waited for the upstairs version of himself to toss the package down to him. He had heard Kitty yell and deliver a threat to the original Jamie and tried to stifle a laugh himself. Hearing a whistle from above, he looked up and caught the brushes then took off for another part of the house. Seeing what just happened, Kitty abandoned the second Jamie and phased through the banister to chase down the third one. He quickly passed the bundle off to another clone, then another, and another, as multiple Jamie clones appeared to confuse the chase giving Kitty.

"For the last time, give me the brushes back!" Grabbing the closest Jamie, Kitty checked his hands and found them empty. "Who has them?"

"Not me, said the cute one," the clone said as he was absorbed into the nearest copy.

"Or I said the sweet one." Another of the copies was then absorbed into yet another clone.

"For the last time," Kitty said angrily as she stomped up to the group of clones. "Give me the brushes or I'll-"

Before the Jewish X-Woman could finish, the group of Jamies stood up straight at the same time and melded together rather quickly. It was a sight to see as around fifteen versions of the same person became one then disappeared. Looking at the area of the missing mutants, Kitty saw the still wrapped brush set on the floor and quickly made her way over to them when Marie entered the foyer and looked her over.

"Thanks Rogue," Kitty said as she picked up the small bundle.

"Just do meh a favor and keep it down. I'm sick and tired of all the freakin' noise." Before she walked off, another copy of Marie appeared next to her.

"Great, now we got two emo-Goth chicks in the mansion," Kitty pointed out.

Both Maries looked at each other with a mischievous smile spreading on their lips. They then looked upstairs as their smile got brighter. "Oh, Remy," they said at the same time in a sing song voice then headed up stairs. "Remy."

Watching her teammate and her copy head upstairs to her boyfriend's room, Kitty could only shake her head and roll her eyes as she headed for the kitchen. "I swear, those two are like rabbits. Kinky rabbits, but still rabbits."

Entering the dining room, she ran into the one person she was looking for, the large Russian known as Colossus. Sitting at the table, he was busy reading a brochure on the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Arts about their new Van Gogh exhibit with a bowl of cereal in front of him. A smile spread on her face as she snuck up behind him with the brushes behind her back.

"Oh, Piotr," she sweetly said to him. "Gotcha something."

Turning in his seat, the muscular man put down his brochure and returned the girl's smile. "Morning, Kitty. How are you?"

"Good, but I was hoping you remembered what today was."

Sitting back in his seat, he thought quietly to himself. "January nineteenth. Six months after we started…dating."

"Well you don't have to be embarrassed about it."

"Sorry, I'm still a little-"

"Flustered when it comes to girls?" Kitty said with a giggle.

"I wouldn't put it that way."

"Well, anyway, like I said, I got you something." Bringing her arms around before her, she showed him the small bundle of brushes with the bow wrapped around them. Each had a lightly stained wooden handle with the bristles coming in a variety of shapes, sizes, thickness, fibers, and angles.

"Oh, Kitty. These are great." Piotr took the brushes and looked them over carefully. He flicked a few with his thumb lightly to feel the stiffness of each brush.

"Some are natural and others are synthetic. I just thought paint brushes were all the same."

"Kitty, thank you. This means a lot." He reached over and pulled her into a hug and kiss. "I was thinking, maybe we could go out for dinner at Dovetail around eight after visiting the museum."

"Dovetail? That's, like…fancy isn't it? And don't you need reservations?"

"Remy helped me with that. He's pretty good at hacking computers."

She smiled then kissed him deeply. "I'll be ready. Oh, this'll be so much fun!"

"Hey, break it up you two," came Logan's rough voice as he entered the dining room. "I need you out front, now."

"What's the problem?" Kitty asked.

"We got a van that doesn't belong to us attempting to open the main gate. It could be someone looking for trouble or one of the Executioners vehicles."

"You don't think they would attack us again, do you?"

"Don't know, half pint. Just come out front with metal head in case there's trouble. And where's Rogue and Gumbo?"

"She absorbed Jamie's powers and went upstairs with Remy." Kitty informed him as she and Piotr hurried past him.

"S#$t, just what we need, mini swamp and river rats." With a roll of his eyes, Logan went to join the others out front.

Standing before the mansion, Bobby, Kitty, Piotr, and Kurt waited for Logan to join them. Ororo flew down from the sky as she was out back leading a training exercise with some of the other flyers. Each took a position as they kept an eye on the white van as it sat at the front gate.

"Any idea whose in it?" Ororo asked.

"No," Logan answered, "windows are tinted too much."

"Um, we may have a problem," Kurt said.

The group looked over at the van as the gates opened, allowing it entry to the grounds. The vehicle accelerated forward and slowly made its way around the curved path while making sure it kept a casual pace. Each of the X-Men spread out to cover enough ground around it should they be attacked and took ready stances when it came to a stop directly in front of the steps.

"Be ready," Logan said. His claws slightly poked out from between his knuckles.

"Ease back, Logan," Ororo told him, even though her eyes were turning white from her power. It then grew slightly colder as Bobby's skin began to frost over.

The engine cut off and the passenger door clicked open. All eyes were on the person behind the tinted glass as the door swung in an arc. All were surprised when a pair of slender legs stepped out, carrying a very attractive woman with dreadlocked blonde hair. She was dressed in a pair of white slip-on shoes and a pair of khaki capris with an olive green wrap hanging from her waist. The wrap stretched from the first belt loop on her right and wrapped around behind her to the first belt loop on the left. Her tank top matched in color with her wrap and was tied high on her toned stomach with each arm covered in long, tope colored sleeves from the bottom of her shoulders to her wrists.

She didn't say a word as she looked the mutants over; however, she did catch one or two of the males giving her a long look over. She then turned back to the van and pulled on a handle to open the sliding door on the side of the vehicle. Once fully opened, a young girl stepped out with long black hair reaching down to her waist. Her black slip-on shoes and orange monk-like pants left her ankles without coverage as a black fabric belt was tied around her waist. The white tank top she wore looked brand new and a small Ying-Yang charm necklace hung around her neck.

"Are you the X-Men?" the woman asked as the young girl shied away from the group.

"Yes, I am Ororo Munro, acting headmistress for the time being." Ororo stepped forward but made sure to keep her distance should something happen.

"Name's Justine Maloi and this is Noi Chang. We were told to come here by a friend of yours."

"By who?" asked Logan. He stepped slightly pass Ororo but didn't retract his claws, not that the two newcomers could see them anyway.

"By meh." Coming around the front of the van, Miguel stood by the vehicle wearing a simple pair of jeans, boots, and a black t-shirt with an 'M' and 'H' on the front. The back had the words 'I Will Not Die' in large red letters, Those at the front of the mansion had to do a double take as he still sported a thick beard and his hair was long once again.

"Miguel?" Kitty asked as he took his sunglasses off. "Holy crap, we, like, thought you were dead!" She ran right up to him and gave him a tight hug, to which he was surprised.

"Ah told you, Ah can't die." He returned her hug and even flashed a smile.

"Wait a second," Kurt said as Kitty stepped back. "You…you hugged her. And you smiled."

"Miguel doesn't hug or smile," Bobby exclaimed. "Miguel threatens to kill us and cusses us out."

At that point Noi looked up at the one they were talking about and he looked down at her. "What? They really pis…ticked meh off." Getting a glare from the girl, Miguel rolled his eyes.

"What happened to you?" Ororo asked. "We lost contact with you months ago and Cerebro stopped picking up on your mutant signature."

"Long story."

"One we need to hear," Logan told him.

"And you will. Right after Ah see someone first." Miguel took a few steps forward when he felt Noi grab his pant leg. "Noi, stay with Justine for a minute. Ah'll be back." With a nod, she let him go and watched as he hastily made his way past the group of Mutants.

"Miguel, wait," Kitty said in a bit of a panic.

"Kitty, Ah'll explain later."

"No, I-" Before she could finish, he disappeared inside the mansion. "Like, oh snap."

Inside the manor, Miguel looked over several students who he had never seen before and figured they were from the new batch arriving when he left. The foyer was somewhat noisy with the new mutants playing board games, computer games, or gossiping. A few of the girls noticed him enter and began to talk about him, but none were who he was looking for.

"Pix?" he called as he looked the room over before stopping one of the young men as he walked past. "Hey, have you seen a woman named Megan Gwynn? Pink and blue hair, black and pink eyes? People call her-"

"Pixie?" the red headed man asked as he flicked the top of an oil lighter absentmindedly. "Yeah, she's in the den, mate."

"Thanks."

Leaving the, what sounded like an Australian behind, Miguel hurried to the den where he heard Megan's all too familiar laughter. He ran a hand through his somewhat messy hair to get it out of his face before rounding the corner with a grin.

"Pix?" What he saw next made it disappear and all feeling leave his body as he saw Megan kissing a young man as they sat side by side on the couch.