Settling In

Adjusting. It was almost second nature to Sophia by now, she had done it so many times. And this time was no different than the others, save for one thing – Logan. Logan the loner, Logan of few words, Logan full of silent anger, Logan the smartass, Logan who was neither fully human nor fully animal, and Logan who irritated her beyond belief. She had tried to put her finger on exactly what it was about it that drove her absolutely mad, but every time she came up empty handed. In the end she decided it was EVERYTHING about him.

Here she was, back at home, feeling as though she had to justify her very existence to some stranger who, as far as she was concerned, had just wandered in off the street. She, who had known the Professor longer than anyone, even called him "uncle", found Logan's condescending attitude insulting, to say the least. This was HER home, she knew it, the Professor knew it, Orora, Scott, and Jean knew it, and even some of the older students knew it. So who was he to treat her like some outsider who didn't belong.

Pacing the length of her room in disgust, Sophia decided it was time to finally get herself unpacked. It was already her fifth day back at Xavier's and her bedroom was still full of boxes, some opened and half empty and others still untouched. Surveying the room from a standstill, she sighed heavily and shrugged her shoulders.

"You always were such a procrastinator," a voice spoke from behind her, causing Sophia to turn with a start.

Standing in the doorway, one shoulder leaning against the frame, Jean laughed at her friend.

"Well you might lend a hand instead of sitting there and smirking over it," Sophia shot back before turning her attention back to the mess in front of her.

"I wouldn't have thought you needed any help seeing as how you have everything rigged up for easy moving," Jean replied, picking up a hairbrush from a nearby box and turning it over to reveal a thin strip of metal along the handle. "Honestly Sophia, you are so lazy."

"You call it lazy, I call it resourceful," was her response as she held up a hand and the brush flew from Jean's grip. "You know, I'm kinda surprised to be in my old room again, I figured you and Scott would have snatched it up right away."

"And we would have too if we had been allowed."
At Jean's answer, Sophie turned around and shot her a questioning look.

"Oh, don't give me that look," Jean laughed throwing a small lamp across the room at her friend. Before it got far, Sophia had it in her grip and landed it gracefully on her desk. "You know as well as I that the Professor would never allow anyone to move in here, not in his precious Sophia's room," Jean continued with an eye-roll. "Scott and I didn't even bother to ask, although Logan did once," she added with a smirk.

At this Sophia scowled, "He would! Arrogant son-of-a-bitch," she added under her breath.

"Oh, come on, he's not that bad," Jean made a half-hearted defense.

"That's easy for you to say, the man's practically falling to pieces over you. As far as I'm concerned he's a condescending jerk who needs to learn his place or get out of my house."

"Your house? Awfully possessive aren't we, seeing as you haven't been here in how many years."

"Oh here we go with the guilt trip again. Whose side are you on anyway?"

"No one's, I just think you should give Logan a chance before you completely write him off. You do tend to be awfully judgmental sometimes."

"Maybe you need some time away from here. You're starting to sound awfully like Charles. I'm half expecting you to start reciting proverbs to me."

"Well just remember, most often the things we dislike in others are the very things we dislike in ourselves," Jean smarted with a grin.

"Oooooh shut up will you," Sophia yelled back. "If you can't keep your words of wisdom to yourself, I'm going to have to ask you to step out of my room," she added, trying to sound as serious as possible.

"What's going on in here?" A third voice added itself to their conversation as Scott poked his head into the open door to Sophia's room.

"Sophia doesn't like Logan," Jean answered matter-of-factly.

"Oh great!" Scott's face lit up. "You can join my club. I'll even let you be vice president."

"Why do I think that we're the only two members," Sophia asked with raised eyebrows.

"Because you are," Jean retorted.

"Ahh. Well how much are dues."

"Well, since you're the first official member, I'd say…"

"Oh, you two are worse than children," Jean cut him off standing up. "Just give him a chance will you," she went on, turning back to Sophia. "He's really not that bad once you get used to him."
Over her shoulder Scott cast Sophia a look that showed he cleared disagreed, but quickly smiled cheekily when Jean turned around and caught him. "Come on," she ordered grabbing him by the arm. "Hurry up and finish, we'll see you at dinner," she called back to Sophia as she pulled Scott from the room.

"Yeah yeah," Sophia answered. "And don't worry, I'll give him a chance," she muttered to herself turning back to the full boxes still cluttering up the room. "And then I'll crush that adamantium skeleton of his right into a ball."


Author's Note: Just wanted to say thanks to those of you who reviewed. It gave me just the push I needed to decide to keep on with this story. Hope you enjoyed.