~* Everything copyrighted to Marvel Comics. Plot, Kia, Aurora, and Willow copyrighted to me.*~

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Chapter 8-- Slow Healing & a New Arrival

The small group got downstairs quickly, Logan still lugging Kia around on his shoulders. Trudging into the recovery room, Logan gently lay Aurora down on one of the empty cots, while Xavier prepared an IV. By this time Kia had curled up into a ball on top of Logan's head, her claws kneading his scalp lightly as she looked around the room curiously. Previously too preoccupied to notice what Kia was doing, Logan suddenly felt her claws go a little deeper than she had anticipated as he made a sharp turn. He reached up, grabbing the collar of her shirt and dragging her off his head and in front of his face. The very tips of her claws were lightly tainted red, her feral eyes looking at him before mostly closing them to give a wide smile.

"Ummm....oops."

Logan growled softly, looking at her. She stopped smiling and looked back at him, and what seemed a staring contest had begun. Both were frozen, just staring at each other until Xavier had finished hooking Aurora up to the IV and heart monitor and cleared his throat. Logan snapped out of it, glaring at Kia.

"Get this kid outta my hair..."

He snarled at Kurt, waiting until the blue elf-like mutant had walked just within a few feet of him to release his grip on Kia's shirt and letting her plummet downwards. Kurt quickly shot forward, grabbing the middle back of Kia's shirt just inches above the ground. Hulling her up onto his own shoulders he glared at Logan. Wolverine smirked wickedly, mimicking Kia's higher pitched, childish voice as best he could.

"Oops."

Kia looked over at him, smiling broadly at his imitation of her. She looked over at the place where Aurora lay, watching the modern warrior's battle to regain control of her breathing. The area of white sheets around her hands grew steadily wetter, her palms still draining water. Xavier was watching her too, a worried look on his face. Logan noted it, walking swiftly over towards him and ignoring Kia when she tried to pounce onto his shoulders as a joke again.

Kurt caught her just in time, knowing that she had worked Logan's temper and pushed all the buttons she could possibly push in the tormented man. The look in Logan's eyes told him that the next time she pulled a stunt that night, she wouldn't be let off as easily, no matter how obnoxiously adorable she really was.

As Logan approached, Xavier turned to him, already knowing the information he was seeking.

"She will more than likely pull through this Logan, I wouldn't worry too much. And since I highly doubt that you'll be leaving her side anytime soon, if she so much as whispers 'water' in her sleep, get her a glass and let her drink in. She has temporarily lost control over her powers, though the fact that she lost control so easily tells me that she had limited control to begin with, and she will start to use the water out of her blood stream if she doesn't continue drinking water."

Logan gave a worried look over at Aurora as he listened to Xavier.

"She'll get over what ever that stuff was, right?"

Xavier nodded slowly.

"Yes, thanks to you we got her the antidote quickly."

Logan nodded, pulling a chair out from under a nearby desk and sitting beside the cot. Kia struggled to get free from Kurt's grip, her curiosity was screaming at her to find out who the girl was. Unfortunately Kurt had a strong grip and she couldn't pry herself free. Familiar gray fur began to cover her body, small cat ears and tail sprouted and soon she slid right through Kurt's arms, landing with usual cat grace on the ground. Morphing back quickly and racing over to Logan, she grabbing a hold of his chair leg before Kurt had a chance to grab her again.

"Kia..."

He said in a warning voice, looking cautiously from Logan to his adoptive daughter.

"I 'ink it is best to leave Logan alone right now..."

Kia was already talking in a high pitched tone to Logan, almost completely ignoring Kurt.

"Is she your girlfriend? What's her name? Why are her eyes such funny colors? Why..."

Logan suddenly clasped his hand over her mouth, his eyes flashing angrily. Kia tried to pull back realizing that she wasn't in the best place, but she was paralyzed by his angry gaze.

"Kid."

He snarled at the frightened youth, Kia seemed surprised that he hadn't suddenly sprouted vampire fangs and bat wings he looked so demonic.

"Will you shut up before you make me do something that I really don't want to do."

Kia nodded quickly, still trying to pull back away from him. Logan released her, watching her stumble backwards and away from him.

Racing back to Kurt, Kia took a flying leap and diving behind his floor length cloak to hide. She slowly peeked out from behind him, one arm wrapped around his leg so that she felt anchored to something, and the other hand wrapped around the end of his tail, just below the blade sided spike. Kurt shook his head at her, pulling his tail away.

"I tried to varn you."

He said when she looked up at him, trying to jump up and grab his tail again.

"But he looks different! What if she's a witch and has him under an evil spell? I need a weapon!"

She said in between desperate jumps to try and reach his tail. Kurt smirked.

'Vell sorry, but my tail is off limits."

Kia stopped jumping, panting lightly. She half morphed into her cat form, ears and tail giving the transformation away as well as her newly adopted way of walking on her toes and the balls of her feet, letting her heels remain in the air as she walked on two legs. She crouched down, placing her fingertips and heel of her hands on the ground, feral eyes looking up at Kurt. She made another leap, flying much higher than she had anticipated. Frightened cat mix of a hiss and a meow emitted from her as she flew over Kurt.

Suddenly he was gone, and she had stopped in mid air, then she was down on the ground again in the doorway with Kurt beside her. She gaze an apologetic smile, morphing back to her full human form.

"Er...I really thought I was gonna make it..."

Kurt smirked, but let it fade quickly when he noticed Logan looking over at them.

"If you two are done playing cat-morph football..."

He growled.

"Then get out."

Kurt noticed what Kia had said was credible, and Logan did indeed look different. Of course not the possessed kind of different that the child of overactive imagination had suggested, but Logan did look more something…rather it be annoyed or worried or something entirely different Kurt couldn't tell. He looked around, noticing that Xavier had left and had more than likely been gone for a while. Kia leapt out the door, giving a wide grin.

"There, I'm out!"

She said, giving a look to Logan.

"And you can't tell me to do anything else because I did what you asked and got out."

She stuck her tongue out at him, but quickly bit it as she watched Logan stand up and stalk quickly towards the door, enraged and annoyed look on his face. Kurt stepped in front of him, even though he knew that he was physically no match for Logan, it was the guilt factor that Kia was now his responsibility that forced him to get in his way. Logan growled at Kurt, his own almost black eyes glaring and burning deep into the golden eyes of Kurt.

"Move it elf, I've had it with that kid..."

He reached out, putting his hand on Kurt's shoulder and shoving him out of the doorway. Kia let out a shrill scream as Logan stalked towards her, racing practically in a circle trying to remember what way she had come from.

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!"

She shrieked, but Logan grabbed her by the wrist and lifted her up so that she was at his eye level. Kia whimpered, watching his free hand slowly clench into a fist and begin to pull back. She began to whimper, pulling her other arm up over her face to protect herself from what she believed to be a reenactment of her struggle to survive from the other night.

She was suddenly grabbed from behind, around her waist, and shrouded in light blue mist then found herself in Kurt's arms at the base of the stairs. The docile golden yellow eyes were glazed over with a never before seen anger and rage of his own. Logan started to charge forward at Kurt, but his feet became cement like as a voice whispered out.

"...need...water..."

The voice was strained and dry sounding, and in no time Logan had turned on his heels and raced back over to the cot, grabbing one of the many bottles of water Xavier had put out and opening one. Lifting Aurora's head, Logan poured small amounts down her throat. Her mouth was chalk dry, she had already started loosing her own bodies water supply to her mutant powers. She drank the whole bottle, her eyes opening and looking over at Logan for a moment before the ice blue orbs closed again. His gaze was directed to the IV bag, which was dry already. He removed it, adding a bigger bag. Almost instantly the bag started rapidly draining. Logan gave a low growl, sensing that Kurt and his street roamer daughter were still there.

"I don't have time for you now, get lost."

He snarled at them, not turning around to see if they would leave or not.

Kurt's rage was slowly declining, now that Kia was safe again. He began to walk backwards, watching Logan cautiously. He was under too much stress to be trusted fully. Kia had pulled the two loose corners of his cloak up around her, hiding once again from Logan.

"I didn't do anything!"

She whined, slightly muffled by the cloak. Logan again gave a low snarl, turning around and acting like he might leap over his chair just to get to Kia and make her shut up.

"Kurt!"

He roared.

"Get that kid outta here!"

Kurt didn't want to risk simply walking up the stairs, so he teleported instead. By this time all the teleporting he had done in the past ten or more minutes was beginning to have an effect. He felt more tired than he had moments ago, closing rapidly in on his limit, especially with carrying a passenger. He tried to put Kia down, but she clung to him even more tightly.

"NO! What if he comes and gets me? He was gonna hit me!"

Kurt sighed."You've got to learn vhen not to say 'ings like 'dat to Logan. He's not used to little children like you being around all 'de time."

Kia pulled one handful of cloak over her head to hide her from Kurt as well.

"But he was going to hit me...I wasn't being that bad..."

She whimpered. Kurt pulled the cloak away from her face to see that she was about to cry.

"He didn't mean it Kia. Logan is very upset 'dat 'de girl vas 'urt, 'dats all. He vas 'de same vay vhen you vere 'urt just 'de other day too."

She looked up at him, inquisitive and mischievous as always.

"Was he really daddy?"

Kurt nodded, wiping a lone tear gently from her face.

"Of course he vas, Kia. He stayed up 'ave 'de night just to make sure 'dat no one vould try and 'urt you again."

Kia lowered her eyes, looking at the ground with a stumped expression on her face. When she looked back at Kurt, her eyes were dry.

"Then why does he act like he hates everyone if he's so worried about them."

Kurt sighed a little, wishing that he knew the correct answer to give her, but instead could only shrug.

Logan sat on the left of Aurora, listening to her breath in and out, keenly in wait for the softest plea for more water to come from between her lips. The black eye she had received in battle had stopped swelling, but it was still too puffy to open. Her left eye was slightly open, darting around the room in her dazzled state. She had yet to realize that she was anywhere different, probably thanks to the sounds of the beginning of a battle courtesy of Logan and Kia. She had looked at Logan a few times, slowly blinking as if trying to remember why he was there. They had only been in the recovery room for two, maybe three hours, and Logan had already replaced the IV bag six times. The small jet streams coming from her palms were slowly loosing their force as she recovered control over her powers. But both hands were held in strange fists, just to that her fingertips reached down and touched the heels of her hands. Every time the jet streams cascaded from her palms more forcefully she winced, opening her doubled over hands and pressing her palms together, forcing the water to go into the opposite hand. Logan watched her, shaking his head and speaking to her for the first time.

"Your just gonna make it hurt worse if you do that."

He muttered softly.

Aurora's left eye opened wider, his voice pulling her from some other world. She looked over at him, then around at the room, her ice blue gaze suddenly cautious and angry. She glared back over at Logan.

"Where am I?"

The question itself was innocent enough, but the growling tone of voice in which it was presented made it seem lethal.

"Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters."

Logan remarked dryly back to her. Aurora sat up, getting a better look around.

"Who the hell told you to bring me here?"

"I did."

Aurora glared at him, even though it didn't get the full affect with just one eye willing to open.

"I'm not a damn 'youngster'."

She growled again, trying to get up but finding her leg unwilling to bend. She pulled the thin white sheet off her legs, finding a thick brace over her cargo pant leg.

"That guy pounded you pretty good. Gave you that attractive black eye and almost broke your leg."

Logan stated, pointing out the obvious. Aurora pushed herself onto the floor, ripping all the monitor hook ups off her skin, and hobbling across the floor towards the door.

"Well, thank you anyway for the unwanted hospitality, I'm leaving."

"Yeah, probably better you go back to the bar...you made a heck of a lot a friends down there with that water show."

Aurora stopped, his words seeming to force the earlier events back into her mind. Leaning against the nearest wall, she slid down it with her fractured leg still held straight, staring at the ground as her memory flooded back to her.

"No...no dammit..."

She lip-synced a long string of vulgar phrases before pounding her fists on the floor and recoiling them so that she cradled her temples in her damp palms. She shook her head softly, seeming like the world had just come to a crashing halt. Logan walked over to her, sitting with his back to the wall opposite her. Her good eye flickered up to him, still with the unpredictable look of a wild animal in a cage. His eyes were no less lethal looking. She looked back at the floor as he began to speak, showing that she wasn't going to talk about it. He didn't bother to finish the first word, seeing no point. He slowly stood back up, pacing in front of her impatiently before bending down and picking her up, one arm around her stomach, the other under her knees.

"Since you seem to have no place else to go, might as well suggest that you stay here a while."

He carried her back over to the cot and set her down. She glared at him, but couldn't argue...he was right of course, now she was stranded and this cursed school was the only haven she had.

Soft footsteps tiptoed down the stairs, blue-green cat eyes flashing in the nearly non-existent light of the downstairs hall, only the light from the recovery room shed a soft glow that cast dim shadows on the walls. Slowly, Kia peeked around the corner. Aurora was sitting up with a pile of pillows holding her up, she was only half asleep, Kia could tell by the way she would drum her fingers against her arm every so often. Logan was sitting near the door, the chair only on its back two legs, Logan's own legs providing the font support. His arms were folded across his chest, head bent forward slightly. His shoulders rose slowly, making Kia guess that he was either meditating or sleeping. She slunk forward, slowly closing in on the door in her half-cat morph form because it provided her with a softer walk and quicker reflexes. She was walking on all fours again, in the alien looking manor that left her heel acting almost as a reverse knee.

Aurora's good eye flashed open, her lip raising in a snarl as her mouth began to open to say something. Kia lifted one hand from the floor, holding a finger up to her lips as she violently shook her head. She then maneuvered to a sitting position, more so sitting on her heels than the floor, still making the shushing gesture, then pointed to Logan, her eyes wide. She then pointed to herself, and pulled a clawed finger across her throat in a desperate attempt to get Aurora to be quiet. She wasn't supposed to be down here anyway, but she had left Kurt alone, sleeping soundly on the spiral stairs to come see how the new person was doing. But should Logan find her, and without her sergeant father as her back up, she was as good as dead. Aurora slowly closed her mouth as Kia crept slowly into the light and realizing that it was only a little cat girl. Slinking past Logan's post beside the doorway, Kia made her way over to Aurora.

"Hi."

She whispered.

"I'm Kia."

Aurora watched the child with no interest in talking, but the persistent look in the feral eyes made her give a dreading sigh.

"Aurora."

Her answer was hardly in a whisper. Kia shook her head violently again, looking back at the still sleeping Logan.

"Don't do that!"

She hissed in low tones.

"He's not to happy with me right now..."

"Wonder why."

Aurora remarked sarcastically, looking over at the now empty chair as Logan quietly shut the door, angry eyes watching Aurora. Kia noticed her gaze shift, her cat-like ears lay back against her skull as her eyes widened fearfully. She didn't even need to turn around to know that he was charging at her, and she dove beneath the bed skirt, her thin form just fitting under the cot snuggly.

Logan skidded to a halt before he crashed into the cot, growling.

"Kia! What the hell are you doing?"

He snapped. Aurora smirked, looking over at a mobile medicine tray that was just level with the cot, and slowly slid herself onto it, giving Logan the pleasure of tipping the cot to one side and making a grab at Kia. But the child had felt the weight shift and knew that it wasn't good, and as the cot got lifted off of her she darted behind the cart Aurora sat on and made a beeline for the door. She fumbled around with the lock too long, however, and was soon in Logan's binding grip. Both of his hands were on the sides of her shoulders, but to his surprise his fingertips touched. Either she was just that small or her was literally crushing her. But he let in pass without a second thought, shaking her.

"Well! What are you doin' bothering her?"

Kia waited until he wasn't shaking her so hard to speak so that she wouldn't end up biting her tongue.

"Just checking to see if she was better! Honest!"

She said, her hands wrapped halfway around his wrists as her claws dug into his flesh.

"Let me go!"

She protested, kicking out at him, even though the length of his arms prevented any foot to stomach connections.

"Oh, down? Fine with me..."

He threw her to the ground, watching her less than gracefully feline landing. Kia ran back to the door, having already unlocked it before Logan grabbed her, opened it, and looked back inside at the two as Logan waited impatiently for her to leave.

"I knew you two were gonna like each other ...you tag-team cheaters."

With that she stuck out her tongue at them, locked the door, slammed it shut and raced up the stairs as quickly as she could possibly before Logan could run after her.

Aurora was silent and grim, watching the antics that for a moment brought memories of her past flooding back into her mind. Soon she noticed that Logan was talking to her with a concerned look on his face and she pushed the memories back.

"Cute kid."

She stated, then her expression became even more grim as she regarded him.

"She yours?"

Logan furrowed a brow at the last question, trying not to laugh.

"Who, Kia? Hell no, she's some cling-on orphan Kurt found a night or two ago."

"Found?"

Aurora asked him with a still quizzical voice. He only briefly nodded.

"But orphans roam the streets constantly, most don't search for homes for fear of ending up in a gang."

She retorted, forcing Logan to sigh and explain.

"That new mutant hater gang got her, smashed the kid up pretty good and left her in the alley. Kurt found her after that...so now she thinks he's her dad or somethin', I don't know. Xavier knows all that mental case stuff."

Aurora simply gave a sigh and a nod.

"And who is this 'Kurt' you keep talking about? I want to meet him if I have to stay here."

Her good eye flashed a little, like she would kill Kurt if he was anything like Logan to the child.

"Sure, you can meet him...Kia will probably drag him down here to play body guard after she raids the kitchen."

"Why did you react to her that way?"

Aurora snapped, the subject shift seemed strange to Logan.

"The kid is too cute for her own good, she started gettin' on my nerves being down here while you were still out of it and askin' me all these questions about you that I didn't know the answers to."

Her could-be lethal gaze cooled a little and she smirked.

"Low temper, eh?"

Logan smirked and nodded. Aurora suddenly realized that she didn't know the answer to one crucial question.

"I never got the name of the man I guess I owe my life too."

She said, looking over at him.

"Logan. And I never got the name of the femme fatal I played savior too."

"Aurora."

Kia made it easily to the top of the stairs, pausing to see if Logan had followed her. When there were no heavy footsteps in pursuit or his angry voice yelling her name, she morphed back to her human form and took a detour through the kitchen. There were no boxes of anything laying out yet much to her dismay. Looking around she finally came across the digital oven clock. 12:18 a.m., but of course she had difficulty interperating what the numbers and dots and colons meant. She clambered up onto the counter, opening the cabinet doors to find the doors only hide near emptiness behind them. She sighed, trying cabinet after cabinet, getting the same results as far as easily eaten items went. Sure, there were boxes and boxes of things to eat, but it all had to be cooked, and to Kia the oven looked like a creature jut laying in wait for some innocent, hungry child to get close enough for it to eat them. But her eye was caught by a light metallic golden brown sheen from the very top. It was too high up for her to reach on her own, so she looked around for something to use. She started opening draws and searching through them, nearly screaming when she almost stuck her hand into a draw of cutting knives. Finally she opened one drawer of very strange looking metal tools. She picked up quit a few, not knowing which she would need, and turned back to the shiny paper. Just before she got a chance to use them, there was a drowsy voice behind her.

"Kia? What are you doing?"

She dropped the spatula as she whirled around, nearly falling off the counter herself. When she regained her balance, she saw Bobby standing in the doorway, giving a curious glance at the many opened cabinets and draws and the arsenal of items Kia had drug up on the counter with her. She looked around her and gave a mischievous smile.

"Well...I'm hungry."

Bobby glanced over at the clock, it was now just a little after one in the morning. His gaze slugged back over to Kia.

"So your destroying the kitchen at 1a.m.?"

"Not destroying exactly...more like trying to get that."

She pointed up to the metallic paper. Bobby followed to where she was pointing, recognizing it as the corner of a twix wrapper from part of Rogue's stash. He smirked.

"Rogue's gonna hate me...but if it will get you to go to bed so that I can have some ice cream in peace..."

He stood on tiptoe, grabbing the loose corner and letting the candy bar fall down into Kia's waiting hands.

"There...now go to bed."

Kia sighed, now quite curious as to what ice cream tasted like, but jumped off the counter and walked out of the kitchen while peeling the wrapped back from the candy bar.

Kurt woke up suddenly, now noticing that he was without the extra 80 pounds laying cradled in his left arm and nestled up against him. He sat up, confirming his worst fear...Kia was gone. His golden yellow eyes flashed nervously as he realized where she must have went. He got up, leaping down to the bottom of the stairs and starting to round a corner only to find Kia in his way. She shrieked, ducking and clutching her candy bar so that he wouldn't hit her. Kurt teleported to a standing position behind her, giving her a strange, frightened look.

"Vhere vere you!"

He asked, watching her as she swallowed the rest of the twix bar in an effort to destroy the evidence.

"I went down to see Aurora, but Logan caught me and then I ran away into the kitchen. There wasn't anything good so I got a whole bunch of weird metal things to try and reach this paper, then Bobby came in and...He didn't give me anything, honest!"

The twix wrapped floated gently to the ground, gleaming in the dim light. Kia looked at it, moving her foot over it and dragging it behind her in hopes that Kurt hadn't seen it.

"I told you not to go see 'de girl until tomorrow. And you've got chocolate on your chin."

Kia reached up, wiping the small amount of chocolate off her chin that had gotten there by her means of engulfing food. She grinned broadly.

"But I'm ok."

She reassured him. Kurt sighed and shook his head, amazed by how she could worry him.

"'Dat's good, but it's not 'de point."

He knelt down beside her.

"If I don't know vhere you are, 'den I can not protect you or 'elp you if you are 'urt, understand?"

Kia nodded, walking over and hugging Kurt.

Morning had come, and sure enough, Kurt awoken to find a box and a half of donuts empty and a very full Kia napping under the counter. He chuckled a little to himself, scooping her up and cradling her in one arm while making his way downstairs to not only see how the new girl was doing, but to apologize to Logan for Kia. He trotted down the stairs, and stopped at the recovery room door. It was slightly ajar, so he looked in. Logan was no where to be seen, but Aurora was wide awake, sitting on the side of her cot and cracking her knuckles. Her black eye had stopped swelling, and she could open it most of the way. Kurt pushed the door open a little more, making sure that it squeaked so that he wouldn't scare her. Aurora didn't even look up, instead started speaking.

"About time you got back. I'm starving..."

Kurt smirked, she obviously thought that he was Logan.

"You 'ave got 'de vrong person."

He said in his usual heavily accented voice. Aurora shot a look up at him, the expression on her face when she saw the fangs, strange hands, and tail accompanied with carrying an unconscious looking Kia suggested that she might scream. Kurt held up his free hand, shaking his head.

"It's alright, she just 'ad six too many donuts."

He said, gesturing to Kia, but seeing that the explanation didn't work he tried again though he wished Kia was awake to do the talking.

"I'm Kurt, 'er caretaker."

Aurora's face returned to normal upon hearing his name, though she was no less shaken by his appearance. Sitting in the vacant chair so that he could give his arm a break from holding Kia, Kurt smiled kindly, trying to hide his fangs as best he could.

"I'm very sorry for startling you."

Aurora forced herself to give a half smile back.

"That's ok...for a minute you seriously looked like a serial killer though, especially carrying her like that. I'm Aurora, Logan told me some about you...but he didn't mention your...er..."

She paused, not really knowing how to describe him in a non-offensive way since Logan had told her about his extreme faith. Kurt tilted his head down and raised a hand as if pardoning the word he knew that she was going to use.

"I understand, lots of people call me 'dat, so you vill be far from 'de first."

Aurora gaze a weak smile, but instead of saying the word that was on the tip of her tongue she chose to change the subject.

"Cat girl there paid me a visit last night, as I'm sure you've heard."

She furrowed a brow at Kia, noting that she now had no tail or ears. Kurt sighed.

"Yes. You must tether yourself to 'er to keep 'er from roaming...'dat or put a bell around 'er neck."

Aurora laughed a little, the dark look of death that she had held at the mention of his name the night before was gone. He was most certainly more patient...no need to worry...

Logan trudged back down the stairs, weaving past the smaller children in the kitchen and mumbling about not being paid to be an 'errand boy'. Like a waiter, he carried a tray slightly to the side of him, on the plate were two pieces of lightly buttered toast and a serving of 'sunny-side up' eggs, accompanied by a medium glass of orange juice. His continual grumbling began to consist of the queenly treatment Aurora was getting for not even wanting to be there, but he was silenced when he heard muffled voices coming from the recovery room. Without even listening for the source of the second voice, he assumed it to belong to Kia. 'Doesn't that kid ever quit?' He growled to himself, quickening his pace a little. As he approached the door, he caught a glimpse of a blue spear tipped tail flickering slightly in the doorway. He sighed, now noticing the German accent that went along with the voice.

"Move your tail elf...unless you want it stomped on."

He grumbled, standing in the doorway. Kurt slowly curled his tail around the chair leg, glancing over his shoulder and offering Logan a warm smile.

"It is nice to see you 'dis morning too Logan."

Aurora looked over at her room service, and grinned.

"Do I need to leave a tip?"

Logan smirked.

"I'll take a rain check instead."

The smell of food lifted Kia from her sleep. Groggily, she looked around the room, wincing when she saw Logan. Her gaze drifted to Aurora's food, but she stuck her tongue out to the corner of her mouth, still to stuffed from the donuts to even want to think about food. She suddenly felt a hair on top of her head that gently ruffled her unruly mane, pushing her bangs down in her eyes. She brushed them back, leaning back and looking up at Kurt.

"Well, the cat girl awakens from hibernation."

She heard Aurora's unusually rough feminine voice call out to her. She looked straight ahead again, getting a smirk from Aurora.

"What happened to the ears and tail...Kia was it?"

Kia nodded in response to her name, then yawned a little, allowing herself to half morph again.

"You mean these?"

She said, pulling gently on her gray tabby cat ears. Aurora nodded, looking quite amused.

"She's an animal shifter."

Kurt said at last. Kia hadn't taken her eyes from Aurora.

"What are you?"

Aurora furrowed a brow at her.

"What am I? Human last time I checked..."

Kia trifled a laugh, shaking her head.

"No! What can you do? What kind of mutant are you?"

Aurora's smile faded a little.

"A water creator/controller. I have limited healing abilities too...but only for others. It doesn't work when I try and use it on myself."

"Really? Wow! Can you show me a trick?"

Aurora winced at the request, for it hurt to create the jet streams. She looked around, finding a half empty bottle of water. She concentrated on it, making the water slowly spiral out of the open top and spin around Kia. Aurora's eyes became a deep sapphire color as she took firm control over the waters every motion. As it wove around the child, Kia slowly floated up into the air as if suddenly in zero gravity. Her long copper brown hair floated above her, just as Aurora's bangs began too. The water formed bands around Kia's wrists and a choker around her neck before slowly hardening into a watery crystal. Kia tumbled back to earth, landing on all fours on the floor. Luckily enough she had still been in half cat morph form. Aurora's eyes returned to the icy blue as she watched the remaining water still spiral in the air where Kia had been, condensing into a medium water orb. Holding her hands together as if praying, she slowly separated her hands and the orb did the same, separating into two smaller orbs. Both orbs flew to her hands, and Aurora tossed one to Kia.

"There, something to keep you occupied with. It will stay like that...unless I loose control of my powers and then it'll explode. The jewelry will stay the same though, that crystal stuff protects it from exploding."

Kia caught the orb, it moved in her hand just like a full water balloon. She smirked widely.

"That's so cool!"

She squealed. Aurora smiled a little, tossing the other orb to Logan.

"And if I must stay here, don't expect me to get a room. Just incase I loose control while outside or where ever...I'll need some help..."

Logan looked at the orb in his hand, curious as to her sudden change of heart towards him, she had been like a cobra ready to strike while talking to him last night, now she was as docile as a deer.

Aurora dismissed Logan's confused look without so much as a smirk. She had been loosing control of her powers a lot lately. She had done this before she learned to make to water orbs and before that it had been learning to use the jet streams from her palms. She wondered what she was in store to learn next. Kia was bouncing the orb on the ground like a bouncy ball, her face shone with amazement that it really wouldn't break unless Aurora made it or she lost control. Aurora smirked at the child, noticing Kurt watching her patiently. She glanced up at him, her eyes hardening as she did.

"What?"

"'Dat 'urt you, did it not?"

Aurora gave him a surprised look, trying to dismiss it as quickly as she had Logan. But Kurt reached out, took her hands and turned them palm up. Her palms were bruised black from where the jet streams had been coming out, and had traces of blood red spots from where she had added a bit of her own water supply to keep the orbs solid unless commanded. Aurora pulled her wrists free, rubbing them uncontrollably. His short fur had felt so strange against her arms, it was creepy. Kurt recoiled his hand quickly, almost in a shameful way. Kia was as close to immediate as a person could be to pick up her foster fathers uneasiness. She picked up her orb before it rolled to close to Logan and crawled back up onto Kurt's knee, smiling at him with sad eyes. He smiled back, his thoughts interrupted by Aurora's voice.

"...Yes, it does hurt."

No shame for her action was held in her voice, only a sort of bitter anger that stemmed much deeper than Kurt hoped to know.

"'De professor could teach you to control your abilities better."

"I don't need any help."

Aurora snarled, feeling like she was on a short chain with her fractured leg. She knew she didn't look like a threat, sitting here with one leg held straight in a plastic cast and a black eye, but just they wait until she was healed….

The rest of the day drained on like sand through an hourglass, slowly and smoothly with no major disruptions. Kurt had spent most of the day in Xavier's office with Kia filling out adoption papers and explaining to Kia why she had to sign a few of the lines herself. He also received the key to his room, which was in the attic do to the fact that Kurt found comfort being up in the rafters. It had taken the staff and a few of the students nearly a month to transfer the attic into a room, but Kurt was glad that they were finally done. As he went up the abandoned stairwell to reach his new living quarters, Kia marched after him while wringing the bottom of his cloak nervously in her hands and looking around the dark area. The door unlocked with a small 'click' and Kurt felt a tug on his cloak as Kia jumped. He smiled back at her before going inside. The room was big, much bigger than he had expected, newer walls had been put up to create rooms. New, deep blue carpet was over the once bare wooden floors, and a golden/navy blue chair and couch as well as cherry table and TV stand dotted the sea of carpet of what was now the living room. Off to the right, where the attic corner would have once been was a smaller room, with purple and ivy green decorations especially for Kia. The child sized bed had a cat print comforter as well as a giant stuffed cat with a small tag around its neck that read "Welcome to the family." It was signed by the entire staff, even Logan. Kia ran in to inspect her room, and Kurt left her to snoop while he inspected the rest of his apartment like home. Right beside Kia's room was Kurt's. The room had a bookshelf full of World Religion books and a Catholic Bible. A small golden crucifix was on the opposite wall of his bed, and the bed itself was covered by a pattern less deep green and navy blue comforter. This was the only room which was connected to a bathroom, a smaller scale bathroom had been added rather quickly after Kia was found specifically for her. Kurt's bedroom was the only room where they had not put up a ceiling so that he could recline in the rafters. Suddenly his closet door rattled, drawing his attention away from the room. Kia tumbled out of the sliding door finally, smirking widely.

"They added a little door! See!"

She pushed away the few longer cloaks that hung in the closet to reveal a small opening that had been cut out of the wall. Kurt smirked, shaking his head and making a mental note to get a lock for the closet.

Aurora hobbled through the hallways on crutches during the classes, looking for anything interesting to do while Logan taught the second half of the Self-Defense class. She went to round the corner and almost knocked over another girl who was looking around. The other girl's long topaz hair flowed into her face as she stumbled backwards, small jade highlights sparkled in the well lit halls. She regained her balance, brushing her hair out of her face and regarding Aurora worriedly with bright emerald eyes. Her skin was very tan, making her look from across the boarder. Aurora hobbled backwards as well, just watching the new girl curiously. She was wearing black flares, with a tan/hunter green/black low cut leopard print tank top. And resting on her collar bone delicately was a band of painted ivy, outlined in gold. The girl fumbled around for words for a minute.

"Oh...I-I'm so sorry. Can you please tell me where Professor Xavier's office is? I-I'm a little lost..."

Her voice was timid and barely above a whisper, Aurora found it amazing that she could even hear her. She shrugged.

"I'm about as new here as you. Just go bang n one of those doors and ask a teacher."

The girls eyes widened, as if such a though would never dare cross her mind. Aurora sighed, seeing that this was going no where fast. She turned to the nearest door, lifting both feet off the floor while balancing on her crutches, swinging backwards then forward, kicking the door open with a ringing sound like a gun shot. A few of the girls screamed, followed by a gust of wind. An angry looking woman with white hair and blue eyes strode forward, arms folded just below her chest.

"Can I help you?"

She asked in highly annoyed tones. Aurora smirked.

"Yeah, sorry about that. This girl needs to know where to find some guy...Xavier."

Storm looked over at the new girl and smiled.

"Why, Willow! I wasn't expecting you to arrive for another few hours!"

Willow smiled sheepishly, just twitching her fingers enough to qualify as a weak wave. Storm looked back at Aurora.

"How much do you know about Business Management?"

"Say what?"

"Nevermind. Just keep my class under control for a few minutes, understood?"

"Sure, I'll baby-sit..."

Aurora grumbled. Storm smiled.

"Good, good. Come on then Willow, I'll show you to the Professors office and we'll see if we can't find Kurt."

"Yes Ma'mam."

Kia strode through the rest of her new room, savaging through the drawers of her dressers and the new clothes that Rogue and Storm had gotten her. Picking out a new outfit, she ran into her own little bathroom to try them on. Kurt sat in the living room, testing out the chair. It was soft and he easily sank into it, nearly falling asleep before hearing Kia's cheerful voice.

"How do I look?"

He sat up as best he could, looking over that back of the chair. Kia now had a pair of wide boot cut flares on with occasional sky blue stripes, and her shirt was a long necked tank top, the black and blue stripes that gave it a tiger effect were interrupted by two large golden eyes that matched her own eyes. Around her neck was a necklace that had a small silver moon hanging from the fragile looking chain. She beamed, looking to Kurt for his approval. He smiled, nodded.

"You look very nice Kia."

Kia smirked, rushing back into her room to see what else she could find. Kurt watched her prance off, inwardly smiling as she discovered a toy chest filled with smaller stuffed animals and books and began jumping up and down exstatically.

Aurora stood in front of the class, rocking back and forth idly on her crutches as the students watched her in complete silence.

"So, Business Managment class, eh? Any of you worms know how to use your powers?"

The students remained frozen in silence. She glared at a young boy close to her.

"Well?"

She snapped. The boy winced as he watched Aurora rock a little closer to him.

"Yes Mamam."

She glanced to a girl in the back of the room as she hid behind her text book.

"You- name your power."

Aurora instructed. The text book was slowly lowered, and the girl pointed to herself.

"M-M-Me?"

Aurora's upper lip tugged into a silent snarl as she nodded her agrivated yes.

"Transformation"

"Into what?"

"Inamimate objects."

"Demonstrate."

The girl sighed, slowly shifting into an alarm clock, the two buns her hair was pulled back in became the old fashion ringers. She morphed back, giving a weak smile of accomplisment. Aurora looked, for the most part, pretty unimpressed.

"Anyone have water powers?"

The boy who had earlier shown her the text book slowly raised his hand. Aurora sneered at him.

"Show me what you've got kid."

The boys eyes widened a little.

"But your on..."

"Doesn't matter, just show me what you've got."

He reluctantly accepted what seemed to be a challenge, looking to the classrooms only sink and concentrating on the small drips of water until a water orb was in formulated. He sent it flying at Aurora, who only raised her hand and absorbed the water orb. It was replaced in her hand by six smaller orbs, and she hurled them at the boy. He winced, but managed to stop them in mid-air and send them back at her. She simply absorbed them into her black and blue palms again while giving him a testing glance.

"You can only manipulate water?"

He nodded, his eyes fixed on her palms. She turned her hands so that the bruised area faced behind her.

"I can create, absorb, and control."

She retorted to his stunned look.

"But your hand..."

"Will be fine."

Aurora growled in her own finishing statement to his sentence, wondering where their teacher had gone.

Storm waited in Xavier's empty office with Willow, sighing as she paced by the door.

"Where could Kurt be?"

Willow watched her nervously. Storm abruptly stopped when Xavier's voice invaded her mind.

~On his way. Warn Willow about his teleportation.~

Storm turned to inform the new student of the entrance the devil himself must envy, but an explosion of blue mist erupted between them. At first, only bright yellow eyes were able to penetrate the mist, slowly followed by Kurt himself. Kia hung around his neck, her eyes wide. This was the first time she had actually been paying attention to the median dimension that Kurt traveled through.

"Lets...do...that...AGAIN!"

She voice crackled out in simple words, her excitement as well as astonishment left her brain dead as to how to form complete sentences. Kurt smirked, but was quickly returned to reality by Willow's scream. He turned towards her, which only seemed to complicate the problem. Storm ran up beside him, placing a gently hand on his shoulder and watching Willow calmly.

"Willow, this is Kurt."

Willow calmed down a little as she watched Kia jump to the ground and run over to her.

"Hi! I'm Kia!"

She stated cheerfully, beaming up at the new mutant as if she had known her all her life.

"What's your name?"

Willow was silent and still in shock. Kia crept a little closer.

"Whatsa matter?"

She transformed into her feline state, retaining her ability to speak.

"Cat got your tongue?"

Willow couldn't help but chuckle, sounding a little nervous at first, then mostly normal. Kia transformed back into human form and smiled as the new mutant whispered.

"Willow."

Turning to her foster father, Kia tilted her head a little.

"If you have to show her around, does that make her kinda like your kid? Cause that would mean she'd be my sister!"

Kia announced happily, surprising Willow by jumping up onto her lap and sitting down with her back facing the older mutants.

"You wanna be my big sister...right?"

Kia gave a fang filled grin of complete innocents. Willow gave a weak smile.

"Well....I"

Kia wrapped her arms around Willows neck before she even finished her sentence.

"I knew you did!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Authors Note: Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! I hope that you all like my portrail o f the characters...this is after all my first X-men fic. Chapter 9 might take a while to get here since I'm going on a vacation and volunteering at the Red Cross a lot this summer, but have no fear...it'll get her a.s.a.p!

~Dragonmistriss