A/N: With this chapter I commit to the pairings of Betsy/Nate, Bobby/Tabitha, Kitty/Piotr and Kurt/Wanda. :-P

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Romance in the Danger Room

"Ok, everyone, there's been a change in our agenda for today," Logan looked over the group assembled in the Danger Room with him. "This will be another survival of the fittest session. The purpose of which is to decide who among you will be on the advance teams on our next mission. That mission will be to get Rogue back. To complete it, we have to face Apocalypse again. A lot of you have not yet had contact with that mutant. Today you fight to show me you're strong enough for an introduction to him in battle."

With that, the Wolverine turned on his heel and left the room.

"This is not going to end well," Bobby said as he iced up in preparation of the simulation about to begin.

"Don't worry, babe, I got your back," Tabitha said with a wink as she brought a hand to her lips, blow into it then laughingly blew the tiny charge she'd created in the Iceman's direction.

"Is that anyway to treat your boyfriend?" Bobby asked as he dodged the charge and leapt forward to wrap his icy arms around the blonde who squealed at the cold then moaned a little as he thawed his lips to press them against hers.

"If you all are ready?" Logan's voice growled impatiently over the intercom, letting them all know he'd made it up to the observation deck.

"Um … I don't think I'm ready, yo," Toad said only half joking.

After the previous day's survival of the fittest exercise many of the mutants selected for today's session were weary of what the Wolverine had in store for them, but still most of the gathering turned to roll their eyes at the boy.

He shrugged under the weight of their stares before giving them an 'oh, come on' look and saying, "Like I was the only one thinking it!"

Everyone's attention was quickly diverted from him as the Danger Room began coming to life with whatever simulation Logan was calling up from the vast database of battle scenarios stored in the computers that operated the room.

Amara, Betsy, Bobby, Brian, Callisto, Evan, Fred, Jean, John, Kitty, Kurt, Lance, Nate, Pietro, Piotr, Ray, Remy, Sam, Scaleface, Scott, Tabitha, Wanda and Warren were all instantly prepared to face whatever was about to be thrown their way.

As drones began popping out of every shifting surface in the room more than one person in the room wished they'd been tagged out of this exercise like Amanda, Caliban, Cybelle, Healer, Jamie, Lucid, Margali, Plague, Roberto and Stall.

Left with no other option they all readied their mutations and sank into fighting stances to prepare for the onslaught.

~*~*~

Wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, Betsy calmly kicked the now disabled drone that had been foolish enough to smack into her before cartwheeling across the room to catch Nate around the waist and knock him out of the firing range of a laser gun.

They rolled twice on the hard simulated stone ground until coming to a stop with him on top.

"I had that under control," the young man said with a frown at having been 'saved' by his new girlfriend.

"I know, luv," she gave him a wink and quick kiss on those frowning lips. "Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get my hands on you."

"Stay alert!" Brian and Scott both ordered as they took out the two drones that had been preparing to tag the couple as they flirted on the ground.

Jumping to their feet like children caught playing doctor by their parents, the pair exchanged a quick smile before rushing back into the training session they'd quickly come to see as a game.

Thirty minutes in and only Warren had been tagged out.

Everyone else had paired off and was quite successfully avoiding the paint firing drones that were looking to take them out of the simulation.

Betsy watched as Bobby encased two disc throwers in ice for his partner Tabitha to litter with charges and blow up.

Her katana blade lashed out to disable the laser gun that sprang from the wall to her left and she saw Kitty phase herself and Piotr through a similar weapon. The phasing caused the machine to short out and slump useless to the floor.

Kurt, Pietro and Todd were basically going with the whole 'keep away' strategy that was working rather well for them all while Wanda's hex bolts crumpled most of the weapons they were avoiding.

Amara was all fired up and casting handfuls of molten lava at machines as Avalanche shook the ground around them to throw the drones off balance.

Evan's spikes were flying with precision into the vulnerable underside of drones, piercing and knocking out the computer systems in a few.

Ray was electrocuting drones up high while Sam slammed into ones down low.

With a grimace, Betsy saw Scaleface turn to the left when she should have gone right and become the second taken out of the exercise.

Fred, who had been smashing into weapons much like the large reptilian mutant he'd paired off with, quickly slammed his meaty fists into the paint gun that had taken her out.

Jean thrust out a hand to aim a laser gun that was firing at her up toward the ceiling while Callisto and Remy leapt forward to disable the weapon.

As the Morlock leader exchanged a satisfied smile with the Cajun a drone popped out behind her and coated her back with yellow paint while Remy did a series of backflips out of the paint's path.

Not liking how close together those two eliminations had been, Betsy raced in that direction to slice her psionic blade through the paint gun.

Looking around the room for her next target, Psylocke grimaced in sympathy as Toad hopped up on to a drone that instantly tossed him to the ground and tagged him before he'd recovered his breath to move.

Pyro quickly engulfed the weapon in flames until its internal controls were incinerated and useless.

~~ Falling faster now. ~~

Nate came to a stop at Betsy's back to catch a breath while sending her the telepathic statement regarding the speed with which three mutants in a row had now been taken out.

~~ Let's have the same be said about these bloody drones, luv. ~~

With that and a fierce smile Psylocke once against leapt forward with blades swinging and slicing through weapons in her path.

Following closely behind Betsy wearing a 'what a woman' expression on his face, Nate used his telekinesis to mangle anything her blades missed.

~*~*~

"Zhis is not looking good," Kurt said as he and Wanda were slowly but surely being pinned down by a quartet of laser guns.

"I can take out two but you'll have to port us away before the others fire," she replied hands blazing blue as they shot out to freeze two of the approaching drones.

Nightcrawler wrapped his furry blue arms around her waist and quickly teleported them to safety.

Still holding her in his arms he turned to watch Betsy, Brian, Nate and Scott destroy the drones they'd just gotten away from.

"Zhat vas close," he sighed while turning to look at the girl he held.

She was twisted around in his arms so she could see his face and a slight smile curled her red colored lips.

"You're cute when you look all relieved like that," Wanda remarked as she raised a hand to brush back a lock of navy blue hair that had fallen over his yellow eyes.

"This is no place to be making googly eyes at each other," Remy said as his leaping from a drone's path landed him next to the pair.

They parted to glare at Gambit who was concentrating on hurling a rapid succession of pyrokinetically charged playing cards at the drone he'd escaped. Within seconds the cards fully ignited and blew up around the base of the weapon, taking it out of commission.

Giving them a playful salute with two fingers to his forehead, the Cajun winked one red eye at Wanda then moved toward the quartet of fighters – Betsy, Brian, Nate and Scott - doing the most damage in the room.

"Show off," the Scarlet Witch muttered after the man before giving Kurt a smile then moving away from him to join Jean in her battle against a laser gun.

Feeling safe where he was, Kurt allowed his yellow eyes to search the room for anyone needing help out of a sticky situation.

They were nearly two hours into the session and ten, counting himself, remained in this.

Make zhat nine, he amended as Kitty failed to phase in time to avoid a blast of paint.

Colossus quickly pummeled the drone that tagged her, but the damage had been done and with a rather relieved shrug the Shadowcat left the room.

Jean and Wanda were struggling with a pair of paint guns now aimed at them and Kurt eagerly ported to get them out of the crossfire.

With a smile of gratitude at the rescue, Jean took a deep breath them raced back in to continue matching wits against the weapons.

Wanda took a moment to rest again in Kurt's arms.

"Is it normal to get dizzy from your teleporting?"

He looked down at her a little concerned at the question and frowned when he saw her head resting rather weakly against his shoulder.

"Have you been hurt?" he demanded while pulling away to run his yellow eyes over her in search of injury.

"No, I'm fine silly," she assured him as she straightened. "I just always feel a little funny when you teleport me somewhere and was wondering if it's normal."

"Not vreally. A little disorientation, ja, but actual dizziness," he placed a furry blue hand gently against her forehead, "I don't like zhe sound of zhat."

Wishing she'd not even brought it up, Wanda rolled her blue eyes at him and removed the hand.

"I'm fine," a thought occurred to her and she smiled rather wickedly. "Maybe it's not the teleporting, maybe it's just being in your arms."

To test the theory, she placed her arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his.

The fur on his cheeks felt rather unusual at first, but quickly became a pleasant tickle against her skin as his surprise faded and he kissed her back.

"I warned you two about the googly eyes," Remy shouted just as the impact of paint capsules splattering open against their sides broke the kiss up.

Blushing, Wanda moved away from Kurt and wiped at the paint coating her scarlet red shirt as Brian's sword took out the drone that had tagged the couple.

With a weak smile at the others, Nightcrawler took the Scarlet Witches hand and teleported them both from the room.

"Now that is a nifty trick," Gambit said as he stared at the puff of sulfuric smoke left in Kurt's wake.

Suddenly he, Betsy, Brian, Jean, Nate, Piotr and Scott all froze as everything in the room stilled and the simulated earth environment faded back into the metal of the Danger Room.

"Excellent job, team," Logan said over the intercom. "Take a break to clean up if you wish then meet us all in the conference room."

"Does that mean we won?" Piotr asked with a bit of confusion.

"I have no idea," Jean and Scott replied.

Curious about what they were in for next and why the session was ended before they all got tagged, the remaining fighters relaxed their battle ready bodies and walked through the large steel doors that were already standing open for them.