************************************************************************ (6) Meanwhile at Xavier Mansion-

Charles Xavier sat at his desk, telephone in hand, making his tenth call in the last hour.

"Of course...you will contact me if.............yes...thank you, good-bye."

Just as he set down the phone, when his students (Rogue, Evan, Scott, Jean, Kurt, and Kitty) entered his office followed by Storm.

"Any word, Charles?" Storm asked quietly, crossing the room to him.

"No. Not yet. But where could she have gone?" The Professor rested his tired head in his hands as his students stood quietly in front of his desk.

Kitty was the one who broke the silence. "Um Professor, we could, like, go out and look for her again. We don't mind."

The others nodded in silent agreement.

The Professor smiled at his students. All of them had become very important to him, he thought of them as his own.

"I'm sorry Kitty, but I don't know if that would do any good. We have no idea where she would go and all this worry could be over nothing."

"She would have contacted us if nothing was wrong." Scott's ever Mr. in Charge voice sounded his annoyance.

"Scott how would you know if she couldn't? Maybe she didn't have any money for the pay phones." Jean tried to soothe.

"Jean is vight." Kurt agreed. "How do we know she's not valking home vight now?"

"Kurt is right. We have to stop this worrying, and hope she comes home soon." the Professor said, turning to look out the window.

The others, being ushered by Storm, exited to give him time to himself to think. ************************************************************************ Back to Dixion-

Dixion stood in the spacious kitchen of Pietro's 'bachelor pad' as he called it. And it wasn't all that bad. High ceilings, no loud colors or grotesque furniture. Not bad at all. There was only one problem.

The people who lived there. Namely Pietro.

He dropped her in the kitchen after almost breaking the front door down by running through it, still holding her, and had walked off saying something about taking a shower and waiting for him.

'Fine and dandy for him, she thought, but I'm the one standing her, dripping wet and freezing. '

Dixion had lost interest in waiting for Pietro from the second he left, so she decided she better check in with her uncle. She was at least two hours late. She picked up the phone and dialed.

One ring. Two. Three.

Finally, someone at the other end picked up.

"Hello?"

"Kurt?"

"Dixion? Vhere are you? Ve've been vorried sick about you."

"Blame my stupid music teacher." she muttered

"Vhat?"

"Nothing. Listen Kurt. Tell everyone I'm ok and I'm at a friend's and will be back later, ok?"

"Ok Dixion. Vhatever you say."

"Thanks Kurt, you cutie. You're so good to me."

Coughing on the other end. Or was it choking.

"Kurt? Kurt? Are you ok?"

"Yah, sure. (Cough) I'll tell everyone vhere you are."

"Ok, thanks. Bye."

She hung up the phone and shook her head. 'Geez those guys are up tight. I'm a few hours late and they freak out. 'She shrugged and looked around. Deciding it would be best to stay in the kitchen, as to get nothing else wet, she began to wring out her hair over the sink. ************************************************************************ Todd, Lance and Freddy got the shock of a lifetime, when they came into the kitchen to find Dixion, wet clothes plastered to her body, bending over their sink, wringing out her hair.

Dixion turned around, saw them, and yelled. So did the guys. In seconds, Pietro was down stairs, only in his jeans (A/N: grins) and staring at all of them from the living room.

"What? What's wrong Dixion? Guys?"

"Pietro, you ass-"

"Why didn't you tell us-"

"Um hey, Dixion. Remember me? Lance?-"

Before any more questions could be asked by the guys, Dixion strode toward Pietro, jumped him and started to beat him senseless with a pillow she had picked up off the couch nearby. Pietro kept getting away until Dixion sat on top of him.

"Ass, twit, prick, I'm gonna beat you to a pulp." She whacked him over the head again.

Pietro wincing tried to push her away. "Guys? A little help?"

When Freddy approached, Dixion turned to glare at him, and he backed off, fearful.

Dixion turned back, fully ready to hit Pietro, when a thought struck her. Slowly she lowered the pillow, and gave Pietro an evil grin.

He did look really cute now. His hair was all tousled where she had hit him, lying down on the floor under her, arms flung around his face trying to protect himself.

Dixion leaned down close to Pietro's face and waited for him to put down his arms. When he did, he was shocked to see how close Dixion was. And felt his stomach jump into his throat. The other guys stood in the kitchen, unsure of what to do.

"Um, Dixion, I'm really sorry I forgot to tell you about the guys being here." Pietro croaked.

Dixion yawned and stretched. "Yeah, well I guess I kinda over reacted."

The guys sighed gratefully, including Pietro, as Dixion got to her feet. She held out an arm to help Pietro to his feet, and yanked hard when he finally took it. He was up in a flash, Dixion smiling sweetly at him.

"Come' on." she commanded, pulling Pietro over to the stairs. Pietro shot a fearful glance at his friends, but they turned and headed back into the kitchen.

"Traders." he yelled, still being dragged, now up the stairs. He then looked back at Dixion. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Well, since you were so nice to leave me downstairs and freeze," her grip on his arm got slowly harder as she spoke, "I believe it's fair that I get to raid your closet for something to wear until my clothes dry."

When they reached the top of the stairs, she pushed the now terrified speedster in front of her.

"Lead the way Pietro."

He gulped and slowly walked down the hallway to his room. ***************************************************************** Same as before.