Disclaimer – Still don't own the x-men…
Shouts out to 'The Girl' and Risika-dragon.
Come on people! Review please!
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Nothing remarkable happened in the next few days of Kitty's time in the mansion, she was left mainly to herself to explore and adjust to how different the place was to her old basement existence.
She had been shown the danger room properly, with Logan as possibly the meanest, nastiest and most temperamental teacher the world had ever seen and had found that she wasn't that badly behind everyone else in the various simulations that where run.
It seemed being able to go through walls was a great advantage.
And she had Kurt next to her, whispering little shortcuts and tricks she could use, urging her on and, at worst, practically dragging and pushing and prodding her into finishing whatever was causing her problems.
The entire place ran on some unknown routine, everyone seeming just to know when to come or go, what to bring and leave behind and, after a few days, even she began to fall into the routine.
Except it was always interrupted by something or another happening – pranks, parties, homework, games, movies, snacks, arguments, fights, impromptu training sessions, good weather, bad weather, dancing, singing, cooking, projects, life.
It seemed to drown her and yet lift her up, although she was thankful for when everyone left to go to school and she could knit quietly or read, the routine slowing for the moment. Then it would start again.
But this morning, she was to join another part of the routine, school.
The thought seemed to horrify and excite her, the word full of so many expectations and promises, threats and problems.
She could hardly wait.
Sitting in the car, squeezed between Kurt and Rogue, she listened to the pair bicker playfully, trading insults with grins and twinkling eyes.
"Panda eyes."
"Fur ball."
"Scary personality."
Raising her eyebrows, Rogue grinned. "Play boy."
Kurt seemed scandalised. "I am not a play boy."
"And so the reason you had enough chocolates on Valentines Day to give a whale indigestion was…?"
"The girls hound me." Kurt sniffed theatrically. "They make my life a misery."
Kitty felt her stomach tighten. Kurt was really popular? Perhaps he wouldn't even speak with her during school at all then – no one talked to the new kid, she'd be a complete loner.
The blue mutant suddenly had his arm over her shoulders. "Protect me!"
Turning to see the gothic girl playfully drawing a finger over her throat, the hairless mutant laughed. "You two get on really well."
"We're family." Kurt replied.
Kitty was beginning to tire of that saying of Kurt's, wondering if it was a mantra of sorts that he used, hoping if he used it often enough it would become true. If they were supposed to be a family, they were a dysfunctional one with more skeletons in the closet than a cemetery, a divorce on the way and more children going off the rails than trains were on.
Laughing, Rogue punched Kurt's arm. "We're not really related." She told Kitty. "His mother adopted me, so we're sort of brother and sister but not through blood." The pride in the girl's eyes showed that it didn't bother her if they were or weren't related, as far as she was concerned, they were.
The blue mutant stuck his tongue out. "You're a mean big sister."
"And you're an annoying little brother."
In the front of the car, Kitty noticed Scot and Jean exchange smiles; obviously they had heard this so often it was a familiar token of affection shared between them all. She suddenly felt isolated.
Jean turned round to look at her. "You don't mind being a year behind, do you Kitty? You'll be in a lot of Kurt's classes."
"I don't mind – it's probably best since this is my first time in a school."
"Don't worry, Kitty." Scott said as he watched the road. "Kurt will take good care of you – if he isn't playing a prank that is." The teenager sighed as the blue mutant stuck his tongue out at him.
Then they were there.
The school was large, and seemed to be hunched over them like some foul monster, its jaws open in the hope that some unsuspecting innocent would wander in and be eaten. Everyone in the car got out and, with barely a glance at the building, entered.
Kitty followed reluctantly behind.
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Standing at the sink, Ororo deftly peeled her way through a small mountain of potatoes; Kitty standing next to her was chopping carrots as they shared dinner duty for that night. The weather witch had her hair tied back and had brushed herself twice before even starting the preparations to reduce the risk of stray hairs getting into dinner.
"How was your first day at school?"
"It went really well." Kitty grinned. "I was pretty shy at first but then I made friends with this girl and, well, it was good."
The woman smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."
"Kurt was really nice as well – he took me to all my classes and introduced me to a few people, and I didn't know everyone sat together at lunch either!" She smiled at the memory of Kurt and Evan having a food fight.
"Did you meet The Brotherhood?"
"I smelt them first." Kitty replied bluntly. "Are they really as bad as Scot made out?" She watched the woman laugh.
Ororo calmed herself after a moment. "They're not going to bring about the next apocalypse, despites Scots worries, he does mean well but he takes things a little too serious at times." Her smiled grew slightly. "Unlike Kurt whose embracing the last days of his childhood with open arms."
The hairless mutant hesitated slightly. "I've noticed when I'm around Kurt that he keeps mentioning family."
"He was abandoned as a child." Ororo explained after a moment. "You'll have to wait for him to open up more before you'll know all the details – even I only know what the professor has told me." She thought for a moment. "To him family is one of the most important things in the world; to all of us it's important."
"Kurt said that his mother adopted Rogue – why do that if she abandoned her own son?"
"His mother works in mysterious ways, no one understands her reasons." The woman replied briskly. "My thoughts on the matter is that they're both better off without her."
Kitty decided not to press the issue further although, as she watched the semi-siblings bicker and playfully throw food at one another, she wondered what had happened to the pair of them. Would she ever know or was it a chapter of their lives that she had missed and would never know?
It seemed that everyone here held darker secrets and more tormented pasts than herself. Perhaps she was lucky, in a way, to be sheltered and never face persecution.
Was it worse to be hated for looking like a monster?
Or when you looked and appeared normal?
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She'd run out of reading material. For the first time in her life, Kitty couldn't find a book that interested her – the house she lived in was more exciting than any novel could be! But she had seen Rogue with a fashion magazine, and curios as to why someone who so obviously went against the trends would have such an item, decided to go and have a look.
Going into the Goths room, she was stunned to see a whole shelf full of such magazines, although the dates on the spines of them were sporadic, and Rogue obviously didn't mind what ones she got, several different names standing out. And there was even a few more serious magazines sitting there.
Selecting one that had 'modern life' on the side, Kitty nearly screamed at the cover on it. Printed there, adorned with a studded dog collar and chains with little else, was Kurt, hair tussled with a smouldering look in those eyes. Beside the image, squished to the edge so as not to defile it, was printed writing asking 'Are you a modern slave to your work?' and in smaller font, 'Read more to find out what you should do to gain social freedom'.
"Ya know, you shouldn't be looking through peoples stuff."
Spinning round to see the goth, Kitty blushed. "I was going to ask if I could borrow a magazine and-"
"You picked one that's nearly a year old?"
"Kurt's only sixteen in this! That can't be legal."
Rogue was laughing. "I told you he was a playboy; he sells that body of his for these magazines." She sat on her bed, indicating for the girl to sit beside her.
Stunned as this was the first real conversation with the goth, Kitty sat down and smiled weakly. "So…he's a model?"
"Jeans a model, Kurt just does this when he needs the money."
"And no ones bothered about his fur colour?"
"Not really, adds to the mystique of him." Rogue laughed, putting the magazine back before removing another. "Here's the one he did with Jean."
Looking at pictures of Jean, sprawled over a bed of silk sheets, with Kurt pinning her down, his delicate fangs grazing her neck with only one eye looking at the camera, Kitty wanted to start screaming again. "Why are they doing that?"
"It's a perfume add, Jeans got tons of it, they keep giving her bottles; 'Predator' it's called. Kurt's got the matching afterfur."
"What did Scott say about it?"
Laughing wickedly, Rogue tapped her nose. "He doesn't know! It cracks me up every time he comments on Jeans perfume!" Moving to her dressing table, she picked up a small bottle. "Here, it's the only one I've got, like I said, you'll have to ask Jean if you want some."
Finding the smell very warm and oddly rich, Kitty smiled. "I like more fruity perfumes." She handed it back and was stunned as another magazine was passed to her. "Do all of these have Kurt and Jean in them?"
"I only have the ones Kurt's in, and Jean by default occasionally." The goth smiled proudly, flicking through the magazine. "This is my favourite shoot he did."
It was very…gothic. Deep, dark tones filled the page as Kurt, adorned in black lace and velvets, lounged in the light of a full moon, its light catching every contour on his sculpted chest. There was a little stream that his fingers were trailing in before Kitty noticed that he had large, black and blue fairy wings upon his back. 'Black Magic' was stamped on the opposite page, and the article discussed growing numbers of Wicca practitioners.
"Kurt quite likes working for that magazine; he says he doesn't feel like he's selling himself for those kinds of shoots." Picking up a random fashion magazine, the goth smiled and indicated a picture of Kurt reclining against a wall with a few other men in the picture. "Its funny, he says he feels like an idiot when he does this kind of stuff but this," she picked up the 'black magic' article, "isn't silly at all!"
Kitty was laughing. "Can I have a look through the other ones?"
Elbowing the girl playfully, Rogue winked. "But why, when the real things walking about without his shirt on because he's moulting?"
"You're wicked!" Laughing, Kitty shook her head and stood. "Do you think I could go with him on his next photo shoot? I've always wondered how they make the models look so…unreal."
The goth simply shrugged. "Ask him, just about everyone else has attended either one of his or Jeans shoots." She lowered her voice. "But personally, Kurt's are much better – he doesn't just work the camera – he works the poor photographer, makeup staff and those random people you always have hanging around fetching coffee."
"Is he demanding?"
"No, they just keep fainting."
Kitty choked before realising the goth was grinning at her. "No, really?"
"They have one idea in mind; Kurt simply adds another, and another, and another…" Rogue laughed. "He goes for a shoot asking for thirty shots and ends up having fifty taken!"
"Is he really that good a model?"
Thinking for a moment, the goth shook her head. "He's no different to any other model, its just that he inspires people."
"Yeah, I guess your right, he does."