Chpt 2- Introductions and Friendships
"Ah! Kitty! We can't tell-"
"Rogue, we, like, have to!"
"Tell whom? And, about what?"
The girls were on their way, Kitty with Rogue in tow (She had put Katherine in her room to eat), to the dining hall to talk to the Prof. They had just entered when he noticed them. Kitty pulled Rogue fully into the room and stood before their wheelchair-bound teacher.
"Prof, we're totally sorry, we lost them, could you, like, please-"
Kitty was then interrupted by Kurt suddenly appearing in his usual chair, but this time with Mara and Mir. They all yelped with surprise as the chair- along with them- toppled backwards. They hit the floor with a thud.
PL looked at her nieces and smiled. The others pretty much just sat there, dumbfounded.
"Ja, I'm okay, no need to vorry..." Kurt laughed. He stood with a bounce to his step, fixed the chair, and helped the sisters up.
"Thank you, Kurt..." Mara said politely. She knew her sister would be say something right... about... now.
"What was that?" Mir asked. "What just happened?"
"I 'ported us to ze dining hall. Duh."
"Well then, why couldn't you just get us over there?" she pointed.
Kurt shrugged. "I didn't zink of zat."
"Oh, you DIDN'T?"
"Mir..." Mara put a hand on her sister's arm. "Come on, let's sit and eat. I don't know about you, but I'm famished!"
Mir glanced at Kurt, who was grinning stupidly. "I... I suppose so."
Mara laughed, for that was exactly what she had said before they left to explore.
"Amarantha, Miracle, glad to see you've come to know Kurt. If you please, sit down and enjoy the meal."
The girls followed the Prof's instructions. Mara sat next to Kurt, with her sister on the other side of her.
"Now, Kitty, Rogue, what was it you were going to tell me?"
Kitty and Rogue backed away, embarrassed. "Uhh... nevermind! It was, like... nothing important." The two girls took their places and began eating.
"Mmmm! I love ze smell of tuna in ze afternoon!" Kurt clapped his hand, breathed deeply, and gazed in wonder at the wide variety of food in front of him.
Everyone either groaned (Logan) or shook their head and smiled (Jean).
"Ohh, I can't wait until dinner, when he says that again with whatever meal we're having." Logan complained.
"Can somebody pass ze horse radish?" Kurt grinned. Logan gruffly handed him the bowl.
"Eeew... like, tuna with 'horse radish?'"
Kurt shrugged and took a huge bite of the colossal sandwich, plus pickles, mustard, sour cream, pepper, mushrooms, AND blue cheese dressing, with glee. Kitty looked like she was about to be sick.
"Vhy do you Americans call it 'horse radish' anyvay? It doesn't come from a horse, and it's not a radish..." He looked at Kitty's glare, surprised. "Vell... it's not!"
"Everyone, please welcome Amarantha and Miracle Meoskite," the Prof said, preventing Kitty from leaping from her seat to attack the blue fuzzy elf.
"Please, call us Mara and Mir. It's so much easier," Mara said.
"And, of course, their aunt, PL. She will be leaving this afternoon."PL nodded in acknowledgement.
"So, girls, please do tell us. What can you do? Or, if you rather- show us!"
"Umm.... okay..."
Mara closed her eyes and held out her hands. She held the moment, leaving Kurt hanging, with his sandwich inches away from his mouth. After a while she let it go.
"I can make anything last forever... as I like to say."
"I'm not sure if you want me to demonstrate... it'd be kinda hard..." Mir shifted in her seat.
"What do you mean?" Jean asked.
"Well, I can perform miracles.... maybe that's why my mother named me that." Mir blushed. "But, does anyone have a small miracle for me to perform? That's, um... medically related, maybe?"
"Make him shut up!" Logan jerked his thumb at Kurt, who was eating and singing contentedly to himself, "I don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles...." etc. "It's medical enough for me!" Logan said.
Miracle looked at Kurt, who then coughed. He moved his mouth, but no sound came out. Logan's eyes opened wide and he ran around and hugged Mir.
"You can sit by ME from now on, bub!"
"Now, of course, that was nothing compared to what I can really do." Mir looked at Kurt, who coughed again, as Logan sat down again.
"Hey!" Kurt smiled. "That's neat! Can you do it to Logan?"
"Who?" Mara asked, confused, while Logan glared at Kurt, who laughed.
"Oh, that's right, we haven't introduced ourselves! How impolite." Jean went around the table, introducing everyone. "I'm Jean Grey." Mir and Mara looked at each other and smiled.
*Grey!* Mara thought. She was thinking of a friend of theirs, Grey Murphy.
*Oh, how I wish I was home,* thought Mir.
"Of course, I hope you know Kurt," Kurt waved, "Rogue" Rogue glanced up, an unreadable expression on her face, "and Kitty." Kitty smiled weakly. "And of course, the Professor and Ororo." The Prof smiled, as well as Storm. "The man next to Kurt is Logan." Logan waved impatiently and went back to his food. "This here is Scott," Scott nodded in acknowledgement, "and the young man next to him is Ororo's nephew, Evan." Evan... well, Evan was Evan. Not hard to imagine what he'd do.
"What can you all do?" Mara politely inquired.
There was an awkward silence. "Well..."
"I can do zis!" Kurt BAMFed from his chair to the lighting fixture and reached for the croissants. Logan snatched them away and revealed his claws. He was in such a hurry that he sliced his hands, but they quickly healed.
"How many times do we have to go through this? You sit, you ask, and you get, bub. One day that chandelier is gonna break!"
"But I..."
"I know, I know... you didn't want to interrupt the conversation. Here." Kurt BAMFed back to his seat with a grin on his face while Logan slammed down the basket in front of him, withdrawing his claws.
"Ohhh.... I dread dinner already," Logan complained.
Mir and Mara giggled. "Does this happen every time?"
Logan rolled his eyes. "EVERY!"
Storm coughed politely. "Well, that takes care of two of us..."
"Oh yes, the others."
"This is mine." Evan showed off his spikes.
"You've seen mine, Mara, Mir." Kitty phazed her arm through the table momentarily.
"I hope you never see mine, girls." Scott pointed at his sunglasses.
"Me also, girls. I hope you never find out why they call me Storm," Ororo smiled.
"Mine is almost like the Professor's," Jean explained. She levitated Kurt's fork out of his hand. She then returned it to him after he let out a yelp. "I, also, can sort of read people's thoughts, to a degree. And the Professor..."
"Can read minds. And change what people are thinking, sometimes erasing memories altogether." The Prof finished Jean's thought.
"But of course, my ability is nothing compared to what he can do." Jean smiled.
"What about you, Rogue? You mentioned something before about not being able to..."
"I withdraw the life energy from regular people, and powers from mutants. At the same time taking their memories. If I hold on long enough, I will take enough energy to kill them," Rogue said bluntly, her tone of voice hinting that she'd said all this before. "You've got it made, Amarantha. Everyone here does." And with a glare evident on her face, Rogue got up and left. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly.
"So... that went well," Evan said sarcastically.
"Umm, please, if you'll excuse me..." Amarantha pushed her plate away and followed Rogue. Mir looked at her sister, sighed, and did the same.
After a while of deafening silence, "Well, that REALLY went well," Evan said. Ororo glared at him.
"Wow." Kurt said, only, with his accent, it sounded like "Vow." Cute, ain't it? ^_^
Kitty looked around the table, got up, and walked through the wall to join the sisters and her friend.
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"Rogue, wait!" Mara rushed down the hall to where she could hear Rogue's quick footsteps echo against the giant walls.
"Mara! What are you doing?" Mir quickly caught up to her sister.
"I need to talk to Rogue. We need to settle this."
"Mir! Mara! Wait up!" Kitty phazed through the wall nearby and ran up to the duo. "I agree with Mara. We totally need to get this settled before lights out."
"Or at least dinner."
Kitty smiled. "Come on, I know where she's going." She grabbed Mara's hand and then Mir's, and phazed through the walls.
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Rogue couldn't believe it. The day was going terribly! She sat back in the top tower and looked out over the city of New York, the tears coursing down her cheeks. She longed to be out there, free... She didn't ask for this, her powers, her mutation... She hated it.
"Rogue?" Kitty quietly asked as she appeared with the sisters nearby. Rogue turned away and wiped her tears.
"Rogue... We, like, totally need to talk..." The three girls sat in a circle, with Rogue as the north point, sitting across from Kitty.
"I don't know what ya'll are talkin' about..."
"Yes.. you do, Rogue. We need to at least stop being hostile to each other." Mara glanced at her sister. "We're going to be living with each other, after all."
"Don't remind me!"
"You know what?!" Mir glared angrily. "I can't believe the Professor promised that he would pair me up with someone nice. Some promise."
"You don't know what really happened so I would suggest you shut up!"
"Rogue!" Kitty warned.
"Miracle!" Mara pleaded.
"Stop it, guys!" Kitty took a deep breath. "Miracle, we used to be, like, roommates, Rogue and I. We shared a pretty small room... really small, compared to what we have now." She paused to think. "Hey, like, why didn't we get one of those rooms in the first place? That's totally not fair!"
"This whole thing isn't fair!"
"Rogue, you've gotta try."
Rogue sighed.
"As you can see..." Kitty continued, "we, like, don't even have the room anymore. We need to totally readjust all over again. So we're, like, dealing with it our own way, I guess. We totally don't have any reason to hold anything against you both..." She looked at the floor. "We just have to, like, trust the Prof."
"Who?"
"The Professor."
Miracle looked at Rogue. "This hasn't been easy on us either. We had to just leave everything behind, including the person who pratically raised us, and come to a place where we don't know anybody, and then we find out we can't bunk together... Rogue, we've always shared a room."
"Just like me and Kitty."
"Yeah... I guess so. My little sister means everything to me! You have no idea... what we've been through..."
Amarantha looked at her sister sympatheticllay. "Mir... all that's behind us now. Home is where the heart is, Miracle. Where is your heart?"
Miracle glanced at her sister, her life-long best friend, the person she loved with all her heart, along with Aunt PL. This was where her heart was, where it belonged. Miracle calmed down a bit.
"You know, Amarantha. You know where."
"Then you know as well for me." Amarantha looked at Rogue and Kitty. "Where are your hearts?"
Kitty looked down. "I... I don't... My heart is in two..."
Rogue looked at Kitty, "Mah heart is here, Kitty. So is yours. That little piece of heart out there with your parents is here as well. Hey, I see you typin' away all the time. Remember when Kurt kept everyone out of the dinin' hall so that you could finish the e-mail to your parents in peace?"
Kitty smiled sadly. "I miss them so much."
"We all miss our parents, Kitty. I miss Irene as well!"
"Who?" Mir asked.
"My adoptive mother."
Amarantha looked at Rogue. "You were adopted?"
"Pratically half of us were. Kurt was, and Scott... Why?"
"I was too... I barely remember my adoptive mother. Miracle's mother. She sent us off to Aunt PL when we moved to Florida. I can barely remember how old we were... Maybe six, seven? We haven't seen her since. Mir reminds me of her, a bit."
"She's still out there. I know it... somehow. She's out there..." Mir looked out the window into the New York landscape.
"Mir..."
"Do you guys, like, want to know anything else about any of us?"
"Yeah. Why is the Prof doing this for us?"
"Because he wants to, like, help. On the good side. There is another 'group' led by Magneto, and he, like, has his 'people,' I guess... Avalanche and Quicksilver, Toad and.... eeeeew." Kitty made a face. "Kurt's real mother, Mystique, is over there too. And there's Sabretooth... he totally has a grudge against Logan."
"Do you guys... ever... fight? Them, I mean."
Rogue took a deep breath. "Yeah. Ya'll start trainin' on Monday. We all train here.We all help each other out. To control our powers."
"Like, Cyclops could never totally fry Quicksilver if, like, Jean didn't, like, telepathically hold him in place." Kitty said in a rush.
"Who? What?"
"Oh, Cyclops is Scott... he shoots laser beams out of his eyes. That's why he has those special sunglasses. Quicksilver's powers sepcialize in speed." Rogue explained.
"Does everyone have special names?"
Kitty laughed. "I'm Shadowcat. Kurt is Nightcrawler, Ms. Ororo is Storm, Mr. Logan is Wolverine, and Evan is Spyke. That's pretty much it. Jean is just... Jean, I guess."
Mara giggled. "What are our names going to be?"
"Oh.. we didn't think of that!"
Miracle looked at her sister. "You could be... Everlast."
"Everlast." Mara said, trying it out. "I like it!"
"Isn't 'Everlast' some sports brand name? Like... boxing gloves?"
"Oh, you hush." Mir glared at Rogue.
Rogue smirked. "Now, what about you, Miracle?" Rogue asked.
"Hmm... Why can't I just retain my name? Jean does it."
"I guess you could, like, do that. It totally fits anyway." Kitty smiled.
The smile was soon contageous. One by one, everyone smiled in return.
"Are we, like, friends now? All of us?" Kitty asked.
Amarantha nodded and reached for Mir's hand. She then grabbed Kitty's hand. And so the process continued until everyone's hands were held by the person next to them.
"I, Amarantha Owen Meoskite, aka Everlast, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute."
"I, Miracle Meoskite, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute."
"I, Katherine Pryde, or Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute." (AN: Kinda hard for her not to say "like" after each word.)
"I, Marie Miller, aka Rogue, pledge mah friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute." (AN: Hey, does anyone know Rogue's REAL last name?!!)
The girls hugged, with Rogue being cautious, and Mara making sure she touched everyone.
"Oh!" Mir's head snapped up. "I just realized! We never unpacked! In fact... I don't think our luggage ever left the car!"
Everyone laughed. "Come on. We'll, like, help you unpack." Kitty held Mara and Mir's hands, while Rogue clasped her friend's shoulder.
"Going... down?" Kitty said in a weird voice.
Then, they dropped.
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"Does anyone know vhere ze girls are? Kitty left Katherine in her room, and..." Kurt asked the group collected in the common room with Katherine in his arms.
"No... I still haven't seen them. They'll probably come down when they're ready." Scott said. "I'm sure Kitty wouldn't be seperated from Katherine for more than a second if it wasn't that important."
Suddenly, they all heard screams, and Kitty, Rogue, Mir and Mara dropped from the ceiling. Their eyes were wide with fright, and they were shaking as they crashed to the ground, then eventually helped each other up. Rogue turned to Kitty.
"Okay... I was wrong... You DO have a sense of adventure!"
"Ohh... that was like, so TOTALLY scary! Why did I do that? Can somebody tell me? Like, oh my gawd, like, oh my gawd, like, oooooh my gawd, like, oh my gawd, like, oh my gawd..."
"That was so COOL! Let's do it again! Oh, that was FUN! Hah HAAAAH!"
"Mir, you should get along quite well with Rogue, from what I've seen, if you think that dropping from the top of the highest tower, falling VERY RAPIDLY... THROUGH several floor levels, and then coming to an abrupt halt was FUN!" Mara gasped.
"You guys dropped from the tower? Kitty, I'm surprised you would do that!" Scott said. It was then that the foursome realized there were others in the room. They laughed nervously.
"Well, neither did we, until just now."
"Zat must be an awesome ride! To have everyzing fly past you like zat..."
"YOU, Kurt, are, like, totally crazy!" Kitty said. Then she noticed Katherine in his arms. "Oh, Katherine!" She rushed over to Kurt and took her from his arms. "Oh, hello my baby, how's my precious little darling?" She continued to talk baby talk as she cradled her kitten lovingly. She carried her over to the couch and sat down, and of course Mir and Mara crowded around her to adore the adorable kitten, even Rogue (AN: Why does the estranged woman hate cats?!), before they unpacked Mir and Mara's things. Kurt smiled as he watched.
"Hey Kurt! Does this mean I'm getting a Cyclops doll for Christmas?" Scott teased.
Kurt looked at him and smiled. "Oh, ja! Sure! Vhatever you vant..." He then returned his gaze to Kitty.
"Oh?" Scott inquired. He then noticed that he didn't have the youth's attention. He locked this information up in his mind and put it away for further reference later, then returned to the book he was reading.
"Ah! Kitty! We can't tell-"
"Rogue, we, like, have to!"
"Tell whom? And, about what?"
The girls were on their way, Kitty with Rogue in tow (She had put Katherine in her room to eat), to the dining hall to talk to the Prof. They had just entered when he noticed them. Kitty pulled Rogue fully into the room and stood before their wheelchair-bound teacher.
"Prof, we're totally sorry, we lost them, could you, like, please-"
Kitty was then interrupted by Kurt suddenly appearing in his usual chair, but this time with Mara and Mir. They all yelped with surprise as the chair- along with them- toppled backwards. They hit the floor with a thud.
PL looked at her nieces and smiled. The others pretty much just sat there, dumbfounded.
"Ja, I'm okay, no need to vorry..." Kurt laughed. He stood with a bounce to his step, fixed the chair, and helped the sisters up.
"Thank you, Kurt..." Mara said politely. She knew her sister would be say something right... about... now.
"What was that?" Mir asked. "What just happened?"
"I 'ported us to ze dining hall. Duh."
"Well then, why couldn't you just get us over there?" she pointed.
Kurt shrugged. "I didn't zink of zat."
"Oh, you DIDN'T?"
"Mir..." Mara put a hand on her sister's arm. "Come on, let's sit and eat. I don't know about you, but I'm famished!"
Mir glanced at Kurt, who was grinning stupidly. "I... I suppose so."
Mara laughed, for that was exactly what she had said before they left to explore.
"Amarantha, Miracle, glad to see you've come to know Kurt. If you please, sit down and enjoy the meal."
The girls followed the Prof's instructions. Mara sat next to Kurt, with her sister on the other side of her.
"Now, Kitty, Rogue, what was it you were going to tell me?"
Kitty and Rogue backed away, embarrassed. "Uhh... nevermind! It was, like... nothing important." The two girls took their places and began eating.
"Mmmm! I love ze smell of tuna in ze afternoon!" Kurt clapped his hand, breathed deeply, and gazed in wonder at the wide variety of food in front of him.
Everyone either groaned (Logan) or shook their head and smiled (Jean).
"Ohh, I can't wait until dinner, when he says that again with whatever meal we're having." Logan complained.
"Can somebody pass ze horse radish?" Kurt grinned. Logan gruffly handed him the bowl.
"Eeew... like, tuna with 'horse radish?'"
Kurt shrugged and took a huge bite of the colossal sandwich, plus pickles, mustard, sour cream, pepper, mushrooms, AND blue cheese dressing, with glee. Kitty looked like she was about to be sick.
"Vhy do you Americans call it 'horse radish' anyvay? It doesn't come from a horse, and it's not a radish..." He looked at Kitty's glare, surprised. "Vell... it's not!"
"Everyone, please welcome Amarantha and Miracle Meoskite," the Prof said, preventing Kitty from leaping from her seat to attack the blue fuzzy elf.
"Please, call us Mara and Mir. It's so much easier," Mara said.
"And, of course, their aunt, PL. She will be leaving this afternoon."PL nodded in acknowledgement.
"So, girls, please do tell us. What can you do? Or, if you rather- show us!"
"Umm.... okay..."
Mara closed her eyes and held out her hands. She held the moment, leaving Kurt hanging, with his sandwich inches away from his mouth. After a while she let it go.
"I can make anything last forever... as I like to say."
"I'm not sure if you want me to demonstrate... it'd be kinda hard..." Mir shifted in her seat.
"What do you mean?" Jean asked.
"Well, I can perform miracles.... maybe that's why my mother named me that." Mir blushed. "But, does anyone have a small miracle for me to perform? That's, um... medically related, maybe?"
"Make him shut up!" Logan jerked his thumb at Kurt, who was eating and singing contentedly to himself, "I don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles...." etc. "It's medical enough for me!" Logan said.
Miracle looked at Kurt, who then coughed. He moved his mouth, but no sound came out. Logan's eyes opened wide and he ran around and hugged Mir.
"You can sit by ME from now on, bub!"
"Now, of course, that was nothing compared to what I can really do." Mir looked at Kurt, who coughed again, as Logan sat down again.
"Hey!" Kurt smiled. "That's neat! Can you do it to Logan?"
"Who?" Mara asked, confused, while Logan glared at Kurt, who laughed.
"Oh, that's right, we haven't introduced ourselves! How impolite." Jean went around the table, introducing everyone. "I'm Jean Grey." Mir and Mara looked at each other and smiled.
*Grey!* Mara thought. She was thinking of a friend of theirs, Grey Murphy.
*Oh, how I wish I was home,* thought Mir.
"Of course, I hope you know Kurt," Kurt waved, "Rogue" Rogue glanced up, an unreadable expression on her face, "and Kitty." Kitty smiled weakly. "And of course, the Professor and Ororo." The Prof smiled, as well as Storm. "The man next to Kurt is Logan." Logan waved impatiently and went back to his food. "This here is Scott," Scott nodded in acknowledgement, "and the young man next to him is Ororo's nephew, Evan." Evan... well, Evan was Evan. Not hard to imagine what he'd do.
"What can you all do?" Mara politely inquired.
There was an awkward silence. "Well..."
"I can do zis!" Kurt BAMFed from his chair to the lighting fixture and reached for the croissants. Logan snatched them away and revealed his claws. He was in such a hurry that he sliced his hands, but they quickly healed.
"How many times do we have to go through this? You sit, you ask, and you get, bub. One day that chandelier is gonna break!"
"But I..."
"I know, I know... you didn't want to interrupt the conversation. Here." Kurt BAMFed back to his seat with a grin on his face while Logan slammed down the basket in front of him, withdrawing his claws.
"Ohhh.... I dread dinner already," Logan complained.
Mir and Mara giggled. "Does this happen every time?"
Logan rolled his eyes. "EVERY!"
Storm coughed politely. "Well, that takes care of two of us..."
"Oh yes, the others."
"This is mine." Evan showed off his spikes.
"You've seen mine, Mara, Mir." Kitty phazed her arm through the table momentarily.
"I hope you never see mine, girls." Scott pointed at his sunglasses.
"Me also, girls. I hope you never find out why they call me Storm," Ororo smiled.
"Mine is almost like the Professor's," Jean explained. She levitated Kurt's fork out of his hand. She then returned it to him after he let out a yelp. "I, also, can sort of read people's thoughts, to a degree. And the Professor..."
"Can read minds. And change what people are thinking, sometimes erasing memories altogether." The Prof finished Jean's thought.
"But of course, my ability is nothing compared to what he can do." Jean smiled.
"What about you, Rogue? You mentioned something before about not being able to..."
"I withdraw the life energy from regular people, and powers from mutants. At the same time taking their memories. If I hold on long enough, I will take enough energy to kill them," Rogue said bluntly, her tone of voice hinting that she'd said all this before. "You've got it made, Amarantha. Everyone here does." And with a glare evident on her face, Rogue got up and left. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly.
"So... that went well," Evan said sarcastically.
"Umm, please, if you'll excuse me..." Amarantha pushed her plate away and followed Rogue. Mir looked at her sister, sighed, and did the same.
After a while of deafening silence, "Well, that REALLY went well," Evan said. Ororo glared at him.
"Wow." Kurt said, only, with his accent, it sounded like "Vow." Cute, ain't it? ^_^
Kitty looked around the table, got up, and walked through the wall to join the sisters and her friend.
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"Rogue, wait!" Mara rushed down the hall to where she could hear Rogue's quick footsteps echo against the giant walls.
"Mara! What are you doing?" Mir quickly caught up to her sister.
"I need to talk to Rogue. We need to settle this."
"Mir! Mara! Wait up!" Kitty phazed through the wall nearby and ran up to the duo. "I agree with Mara. We totally need to get this settled before lights out."
"Or at least dinner."
Kitty smiled. "Come on, I know where she's going." She grabbed Mara's hand and then Mir's, and phazed through the walls.
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Rogue couldn't believe it. The day was going terribly! She sat back in the top tower and looked out over the city of New York, the tears coursing down her cheeks. She longed to be out there, free... She didn't ask for this, her powers, her mutation... She hated it.
"Rogue?" Kitty quietly asked as she appeared with the sisters nearby. Rogue turned away and wiped her tears.
"Rogue... We, like, totally need to talk..." The three girls sat in a circle, with Rogue as the north point, sitting across from Kitty.
"I don't know what ya'll are talkin' about..."
"Yes.. you do, Rogue. We need to at least stop being hostile to each other." Mara glanced at her sister. "We're going to be living with each other, after all."
"Don't remind me!"
"You know what?!" Mir glared angrily. "I can't believe the Professor promised that he would pair me up with someone nice. Some promise."
"You don't know what really happened so I would suggest you shut up!"
"Rogue!" Kitty warned.
"Miracle!" Mara pleaded.
"Stop it, guys!" Kitty took a deep breath. "Miracle, we used to be, like, roommates, Rogue and I. We shared a pretty small room... really small, compared to what we have now." She paused to think. "Hey, like, why didn't we get one of those rooms in the first place? That's totally not fair!"
"This whole thing isn't fair!"
"Rogue, you've gotta try."
Rogue sighed.
"As you can see..." Kitty continued, "we, like, don't even have the room anymore. We need to totally readjust all over again. So we're, like, dealing with it our own way, I guess. We totally don't have any reason to hold anything against you both..." She looked at the floor. "We just have to, like, trust the Prof."
"Who?"
"The Professor."
Miracle looked at Rogue. "This hasn't been easy on us either. We had to just leave everything behind, including the person who pratically raised us, and come to a place where we don't know anybody, and then we find out we can't bunk together... Rogue, we've always shared a room."
"Just like me and Kitty."
"Yeah... I guess so. My little sister means everything to me! You have no idea... what we've been through..."
Amarantha looked at her sister sympatheticllay. "Mir... all that's behind us now. Home is where the heart is, Miracle. Where is your heart?"
Miracle glanced at her sister, her life-long best friend, the person she loved with all her heart, along with Aunt PL. This was where her heart was, where it belonged. Miracle calmed down a bit.
"You know, Amarantha. You know where."
"Then you know as well for me." Amarantha looked at Rogue and Kitty. "Where are your hearts?"
Kitty looked down. "I... I don't... My heart is in two..."
Rogue looked at Kitty, "Mah heart is here, Kitty. So is yours. That little piece of heart out there with your parents is here as well. Hey, I see you typin' away all the time. Remember when Kurt kept everyone out of the dinin' hall so that you could finish the e-mail to your parents in peace?"
Kitty smiled sadly. "I miss them so much."
"We all miss our parents, Kitty. I miss Irene as well!"
"Who?" Mir asked.
"My adoptive mother."
Amarantha looked at Rogue. "You were adopted?"
"Pratically half of us were. Kurt was, and Scott... Why?"
"I was too... I barely remember my adoptive mother. Miracle's mother. She sent us off to Aunt PL when we moved to Florida. I can barely remember how old we were... Maybe six, seven? We haven't seen her since. Mir reminds me of her, a bit."
"She's still out there. I know it... somehow. She's out there..." Mir looked out the window into the New York landscape.
"Mir..."
"Do you guys, like, want to know anything else about any of us?"
"Yeah. Why is the Prof doing this for us?"
"Because he wants to, like, help. On the good side. There is another 'group' led by Magneto, and he, like, has his 'people,' I guess... Avalanche and Quicksilver, Toad and.... eeeeew." Kitty made a face. "Kurt's real mother, Mystique, is over there too. And there's Sabretooth... he totally has a grudge against Logan."
"Do you guys... ever... fight? Them, I mean."
Rogue took a deep breath. "Yeah. Ya'll start trainin' on Monday. We all train here.We all help each other out. To control our powers."
"Like, Cyclops could never totally fry Quicksilver if, like, Jean didn't, like, telepathically hold him in place." Kitty said in a rush.
"Who? What?"
"Oh, Cyclops is Scott... he shoots laser beams out of his eyes. That's why he has those special sunglasses. Quicksilver's powers sepcialize in speed." Rogue explained.
"Does everyone have special names?"
Kitty laughed. "I'm Shadowcat. Kurt is Nightcrawler, Ms. Ororo is Storm, Mr. Logan is Wolverine, and Evan is Spyke. That's pretty much it. Jean is just... Jean, I guess."
Mara giggled. "What are our names going to be?"
"Oh.. we didn't think of that!"
Miracle looked at her sister. "You could be... Everlast."
"Everlast." Mara said, trying it out. "I like it!"
"Isn't 'Everlast' some sports brand name? Like... boxing gloves?"
"Oh, you hush." Mir glared at Rogue.
Rogue smirked. "Now, what about you, Miracle?" Rogue asked.
"Hmm... Why can't I just retain my name? Jean does it."
"I guess you could, like, do that. It totally fits anyway." Kitty smiled.
The smile was soon contageous. One by one, everyone smiled in return.
"Are we, like, friends now? All of us?" Kitty asked.
Amarantha nodded and reached for Mir's hand. She then grabbed Kitty's hand. And so the process continued until everyone's hands were held by the person next to them.
"I, Amarantha Owen Meoskite, aka Everlast, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute."
"I, Miracle Meoskite, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute."
"I, Katherine Pryde, or Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, pledge my friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute." (AN: Kinda hard for her not to say "like" after each word.)
"I, Marie Miller, aka Rogue, pledge mah friendship and loyalty to everyone in this institute." (AN: Hey, does anyone know Rogue's REAL last name?!!)
The girls hugged, with Rogue being cautious, and Mara making sure she touched everyone.
"Oh!" Mir's head snapped up. "I just realized! We never unpacked! In fact... I don't think our luggage ever left the car!"
Everyone laughed. "Come on. We'll, like, help you unpack." Kitty held Mara and Mir's hands, while Rogue clasped her friend's shoulder.
"Going... down?" Kitty said in a weird voice.
Then, they dropped.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Does anyone know vhere ze girls are? Kitty left Katherine in her room, and..." Kurt asked the group collected in the common room with Katherine in his arms.
"No... I still haven't seen them. They'll probably come down when they're ready." Scott said. "I'm sure Kitty wouldn't be seperated from Katherine for more than a second if it wasn't that important."
Suddenly, they all heard screams, and Kitty, Rogue, Mir and Mara dropped from the ceiling. Their eyes were wide with fright, and they were shaking as they crashed to the ground, then eventually helped each other up. Rogue turned to Kitty.
"Okay... I was wrong... You DO have a sense of adventure!"
"Ohh... that was like, so TOTALLY scary! Why did I do that? Can somebody tell me? Like, oh my gawd, like, oh my gawd, like, oooooh my gawd, like, oh my gawd, like, oh my gawd..."
"That was so COOL! Let's do it again! Oh, that was FUN! Hah HAAAAH!"
"Mir, you should get along quite well with Rogue, from what I've seen, if you think that dropping from the top of the highest tower, falling VERY RAPIDLY... THROUGH several floor levels, and then coming to an abrupt halt was FUN!" Mara gasped.
"You guys dropped from the tower? Kitty, I'm surprised you would do that!" Scott said. It was then that the foursome realized there were others in the room. They laughed nervously.
"Well, neither did we, until just now."
"Zat must be an awesome ride! To have everyzing fly past you like zat..."
"YOU, Kurt, are, like, totally crazy!" Kitty said. Then she noticed Katherine in his arms. "Oh, Katherine!" She rushed over to Kurt and took her from his arms. "Oh, hello my baby, how's my precious little darling?" She continued to talk baby talk as she cradled her kitten lovingly. She carried her over to the couch and sat down, and of course Mir and Mara crowded around her to adore the adorable kitten, even Rogue (AN: Why does the estranged woman hate cats?!), before they unpacked Mir and Mara's things. Kurt smiled as he watched.
"Hey Kurt! Does this mean I'm getting a Cyclops doll for Christmas?" Scott teased.
Kurt looked at him and smiled. "Oh, ja! Sure! Vhatever you vant..." He then returned his gaze to Kitty.
"Oh?" Scott inquired. He then noticed that he didn't have the youth's attention. He locked this information up in his mind and put it away for further reference later, then returned to the book he was reading.