A/N: Just caught Stuff of Villains. I wonder what it's going to be like for the Brotherhood with Pie filling the position of Fearless Leader. I was, however, glad to see Remy interact with Rogue.

Kurt approached the table where most of his friends were sitting, heads bent close, then thought better of it. Even though they had banded together to stop the Brotherhood from wreaking chaos the night before, he a pretty good idea that they were still angry about yesterday. He knew the way things worked: when they were in battle, personal quarrels had to be put aside, or else.

So he sat alone. Kids gave him uneasy looks as they walked by, wondering if his dissociation from the freaks meant that he measured up himself.

It wasn't fair, he knew. The others had been forced out of their shells by the news broadcast, and he should by rights stick by them. But the others hadn't been treated as freaks since their earliest memories. "Not all the world is like us," his foster mother had warned him. He hadn't needed to be told how lucky he was to have been found by them instead of people who would drive a stake through his heart as soon as they saw what he really looked like.

Still, when Professor Xavier had presented him with his holo-watch, Kurt had been forced to pinch himself.

As he scanned the quad, his eye fell on the beautiful dark-skinned girl who was walking toward his table, bearing a tray that held a gut-bomb hamburger with the works. He stood up and waved her over, realizing that he had been lucky in another way.

Almost too lucky.

"I didn't see you at the meeting last night," he said.

"I couldn't get out of baby-sitting," Amanda explained. She had done everything short of groveling, including trying to bribe her father, Jennifer, and both of her own closest friends. If someone would just take her half sister off her hands for this one evening, she would be eternally in their debt. Or something. But since she couldn't tell them exactly why it was so important for her to be there, she hadn't been able to make a strong enough case. "But I'm glad they decided to let you guys back in."

"Me, too."

"So why aren't you sitting with your friends?" she asked, cutting to the chase.

"Because I vould rather sit with you," he answered instantly, giving her a pretty weak imitation of his old charming grin.

Despite herself, she smiled back. "Kurt?"

He stared at his own half-eaten sandwich. "I guess zere is no fooling you. Scott and ze others are still angry at me for avoiding them."

"Guilt by association?"

"Or something."

She frowned. "So you're choosing popularity over your friends."

"No!" he said sharply. "I mean, yes! I mean, I don't know." He sighed. "I vanted to eat lunch together, Amanda."

"So did I."

"Vat I mean is, I don't vant to be interrogated like zis."

"I'm sorry, Kurt. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."

"Good."

"But I still don't think that you're doing the right thing."

"You don't know anything."

"So tell me."

"Okay." He lowered his voice. "I couldn't teleport until a few years ago, but I've always looked funny."

She nodded, still looking skeptical, but motioning for him to go on.

"I never knew my parents." He thought about mentioning Mystique, but decided not to go down that particular road. "The people who raised me zey vere afraid I vould be found out, so they kept a very close watch on me. I was never allowed to mix vith other people my own age. Venever I vent out into the world" He winced. "It vasn't pretty. Zat's part of the reason I was so glad for a way out."

She nodded again. "I'm sorry," she said awkwardly.

"Ven ze professor found me, ven he gave me a vay of looking like everyone else, I couldn't believe it. I had a place to go when I wanted to be myself, but I could make friends vith other people, normal people. I had never had that before. And I'm not ready to give it up."

"Like Flowers for Algernon?" Amanda suggested.

"Flowers for who?"

"It's a book about a mentally retarded man who goes through an experiment to make him smarter. It works for a while, but no matter how hard he tries, eventually he goes back to the way he used to be. Is that how you feel?"

"Sort of." He pointed to the table where the others were sitting. "They didn't have a choice. But I vonder vat would happen if they did. I bet Jean would want to keep things the vay they used to be. At least."

"Me, too. You know what? I bet all of them do, a little bit. But they chose to stick together, anyway. Kurt?"

"Vat?"

"I'm sorry about all the things that happened to you," she said firmly. "And I know how important it is to be accepted. But you're not going to have that if you keep hiding from them. I mean, you are, but is that what you really want?"

Kurt shook his head. "Zis is really confusing," he said sadly.

"I know. Want to know something?"

"Please!"

She leaned closer still, her long hair falling over her shoulder. "No matter what — and I mean this — there'll always be one human who accepts the real you."

This time, the smile was genuine. "Danke, Amanda."

"You're welcome."

"I have a question for you."

"Anything," she assured him.

"Vat made you decide to ask me to the dance? Vhy didn't you run screaming ven you saw me zat day in the hall? Or, I don't know, tell the authorities or something? Because that's what Scott and Evan thought you were going to do."

"You're kidding," she said flatly.

"No."

"I thought about it," she confessed. "I even wondered how much money the Weekly World News would pay me for the story. And I was scared, I mean, I've never seen anything like you before. But I knew that the reason you walk around in disguise is so nobody did do that. And besides" Now she was the one to avert her eyes.

"Besides?" he prompted.

"I liked you even before that." The words came out in a rush. "Just as much as you likedme. We talked sometimes, remember? And I saw you in class, I saw you hanging out with your friends, and I thought you were smart and hilarious and I don't know, kind of sweet. And you know what?"

"What?"

"You're still all those things. Yeah, I was scared when I saw what you really looked like, but when I asked you out, it was in spite of that, not because of it. And I wasn't nearly as scared then as I was when when I saw you on TV."

"Aren't you scared of vat people think of you if you hang around with freaks?"

"Terrified," she said.

"Zen vhy"

"Because it isn't about freaks. It's only about you."

"I'm not saying you should start walking around without your hologram on," she continued. "You'll do that when you're ready. And I think you will be. Someday. But stick with your friends. They need you." She kissed his cheek, feeling the fur underneath the smooth exterior. "Just like I do. Now go talk to them."

"Okay. Wish me luck." He stood up and, once again, walked over to the table where his friends sat. Amanda watched him point over at her, then back at them. When he was finished talking, he stood there hopefully for what seemed like an eternity, then beamed as Evan pulled aside a chair for him to sit down.

She paused to wave at her friend Lee, who was passing on the way to her locker. Lee waved back. Amanda turned back to her own lunch, unable to hide the grin on her own face. Not that it mattered.

She had a nagging feeling that the trouble was just beginning for Kurt and his friends. And by staying with him, she was automatically making herself part of it. It might mean goodbye to a normal life for her, too, and hello to a future as uncertain as the ones he and his friends would have to confront.

But wasn't that true for all humans, now? They had to adjust to this new world, too.

She hoped fervently for what she was already almost sure of: that he was worth the risk, and whatever happened to them next, she hoped and prayed that she — that they — would have the strength to face it.