Fern liked to think she was interacting with the other women fairly well. She had maintained eye contact, offered smiles when expected, and even managed to keep from crawling up the walls when she caught sight of Hank in his little white lab coat in the doorway.

The young man raised his hand in greeting, a bit startled by how the lithe woman was perched on the back of the couch like a snake coiled to strike. With her shoulders drawn up and gloved fingers tense on the couch beside her feet. It was a rather impressive stance given that her sneakers probably didn't hold much traction and how delicately she seemed to rest with all her weight on the balls of her feet and toes. She didn't wave back; just stared at him with cold, expressionless eyes.

Looking over at the girls on the couch across from her, he greeted, "Evening, ladies. I just thought you should know we just got word from one of the others, they should be arriving within the hour."

"Really?" Raven beamed at him, her delight obvious and endearing. It also earned a faint blush from Hank, which prompted Angel and Fern to share an amused smirk, but they stayed quiet.

"Yes, hopefully," He replied, toeing the floor in a bashful manner. "I believe they took a cab."

"I can't believe we're finally going to meet them!" The blonde began to bounce excitedly in her seat, slapping Angel gently on the leg while she gushed, "All us mutants together in one place, it's amazing!"

Fern lifted an apathetic shoulder and reminded the blonde nonchalantly, "All the easier for the government to wipe us out in one fell swoop, too."

Raven rolled her eyes as Angel snickered. "Fern. Seriously. Do we have to go over this again?"

"I'm just saying, it seems a little odd." The grey girl sniffed, her gloves squeaking as she unlaced her fingers. Her tone was surprisingly mellow as she lifted a shoulder and raised a passive, gloved hand, "If ever there was a chance to wipe us out, it's now. They could do anything to us. We're miles from home, alone, and pretty much defenseless, Rav. Nothing's stopping them from going all Valentine's Day Massacre on us."

The blonde shook her head. Blue eyes rolling, she huffed at her new friend. "You're being paranoid."

"You're being naïve," The brunette shot back.

Raven scoffed. "Okay, Erik, I'll keep that in mind."

Fern glared at her, but kept her mouth shut. Eyes narrowed, she pointedly looked down at the couch cushions a few feet below her. Canines grinding together, the girl's skin flickered with irritation as she rocked on the balls of her feet.

"You said they're all coming together?" It was Angel who took over the conversation for Fern. In truth, she found the grey girl a little intimidating; a bit too stand offish and tight lipped, but she could admit, Fern had a valid point. Still, she didn't want to indulge in the taller brunette's paranoia. "In the same cab?"

Hank pushed his glasses up, his gaze slowly shifting from Fern's scowl to Angel's open, curious expression. "Yes, it seems one of them owns one and offered to pick the others up."

"Armando."

The young man blinked in surprise. He looked back to the grey girl. Her features were muted and for a moment he was unsure she had spoken at all. "Pardon?"

"His name is Armando," She told him without looking up.

Angel's eyes widened. "Are you psychic too?"

"What?" Fern blinked in surprise. Her body tense and shoulders drawn up, the young woman was visibly uncomfortable with all eyes on her. "No, Charles said so on the way up."

The shorter brunette's shoulders slumped. "Oh."

"Sorry to disappoint?" Fern offered with a chuckle.

Raven grinned at the sound, pleased the air had lightened once more. She looked to Hank, who was standing a bit stiffly beside them and gave the seat next to her a pat. "Come on, sit with us."

"I can't- I'm hoping to finish some semantics on the Blackbird before they get here."

"Oh." The blonde's face fell somewhat. After a second of pouting, she forced herself to brighten once more. "Okay. We'll see you soon, right?"

"Of course! I'm just as excited as you are, you know."

Fern watched the exchange curiously. She noted their tiny smiles; noted Hank's slightly flushed cheeks and Raven's somewhat dreamy gaze and wondered just what it was that drew such different people to one another. She didn't dwell on it, not really caring enough about either of them to speculate why that may be.

Instead, she hopped off the back of the couch. On long legs, she strode over to the fridge behind the bar and got out a bottle of Coke. She held it up for the girls to see as Hank made his exit. "Anyone want one'a these while I'm here?"

"I do," Angel replied.

Raven only shook her head. As Fern made her way back, she spoke, "So, what'd you think the guys can do?"

"I thought you didn't want us talking about our mutations until everyone was here?" The brunette beside her asked, arching a thick brow as she took the Coke from Fern. Reaching for her purse, she nodded with a quick, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," The grey girl replied before she dropped into one of the chairs beside Angel. She pulled one of her gloves off with her teeth and kicked a foot up on the table in front of her (something she never would have done in the presence of her mother). "I thought Charles would've told you."

As the brunette beside her continued to search for a church key in her purse, Raven sighed. "He said he didn't want to ruin the surprise."

Fern hummed and popped the lid off with a sharp tipped fingernail. It clattered onto the table and she leaned over and did the same to Angel's before the girl could ask.

The shorter woman smiled. "I didn't know you could do that!"

The lithe girl shrugged, but only sipped her soda in reply.

Less than forty minutes later, Hank was done with his work. Agent Sullivan had poked his head in to inform him that the other mutants had arrived and the younger man couldn't have stripped out of his lab coat faster. A wide grin stretched over his lips as he fell in step with the Agent.

"When did they get here?" He asked, hoping he hadn't offended them by being late like he had Fern. "They haven't been waiting long, have they?"

"Only a minute or two," Agent Sullivan assured him. "Apparently they had trouble finding a parking space."

The chubby man held the door open for him and the two slipped out into the slowly dying light. Three young men stood outside. They were speaking in quiet tones and turned to face the men as they came toward them.

"Gentlemen." Agent Sullivan nodded with clear excitement. "So glad you could make it."

"Glad you'd have us," Armando replied with a grin of his own. He was the tallest of the three, with dark skin and a small afro. He offered his hand and was pleasantly surprised when the Agent shook it without hesitation. "I'm Darwin, this here's Sean and the convict in the leather jacket is Alex."

"Nice, man, real nice." Alex shook his head with a crooked smile of his own. He was the shortest, although not by much, with perfectly styled blond hair and a few moles dotting his skin. He returned Sean's playful shove with a bit more force than necessary, but the redhead didn't seem to mind.

Sean stepped up to Hank, extending his own hand as Alex shifted to shake the Agent's behind them. He was lanky and pale, his skin covered in freckles and the only one with any form of luggage, even if it was just a backpack. "You're Hank McCoy, right?"

"Yes, I am." The brunet inclined his head. "How was your drive?"

The redhead shrugged, the strap of his beat up backpack falling slightly. "Long, but good. You're a mutant, too, right?"

The scientist's smile seemed to tighten a touch, still a bit uncomfortable discussing his abilities with strangers. While Raven had jumped at the chance to show off her mutation, Hank wasn't quite so eager to show his malformities to the world. "Yes, I am."

"You're the guy with the feet," Alex cut in, eying Hank's shoes with morbid curiosity. "Can we see 'em?"

Hank frowned at that. "Maybe later."

"Come on, we're all freaks here, right?" The blond smiled at him in a way that wasn't quite friendly as Sean scoffed at his lack of tact.

Hank swallowed. His smile wavered slightly, but remained forced on his slowly flushing face.

Darwin rolled his eyes. "Lay off, Summers. Not everyone's so accepting of your attitude as we are."

"He really doesn't appreciate us," Sean said in a stage whisper to Armando.

The taller young man shook his head sagely. "He really doesn't."

Alex rolled his eyes at them.

Hank gestured behind him, toward the doors of the building. "Shall we go meet the girls?"

Sean immediately perked up. "Girls? There are girls here?"

"Charles didn't tell you?"

"Probably because he was striking out at the aquarium," Alex explained, elbowing the redhead in the ribs.

"Hey!"

"There's three of them," Agent Sullivan explained. "All very nice young ladies."

"Although I doubt one of them will be to your, uh, liking," Hank told them with a cryptic little smirk.

The man in black frowned at him. "Hank."

Darwin eyed the two of them curiously. "Why not?"

"You'll see," Hank told them with a cryptic little simper. Nodding, he turned toward the building. "I'll show you to your room first, then we can meet them."

The three newcomers shared a curious glance, but shrugged off his odd words easily enough. It was Darwin who spoke as they were led toward the door, "Any chance of us stopping by the washrooms first? Getting cleaned up before we meet them?"

"I don't see why that would be a problem," Agent Sullivan told him with a shrug. The man in the black suit glanced at the younger scientist. "Why don't you show them the way, while I check in on Moira and the others?"

Hank nodded and held the door open for them.

Darwin went in first, followed closely by Sean, with Alex trailing behind. The blond looked down at Hank's feet curiously before he shot the taller brunet an unimpressed smirk. "They don't look that big to me."

"Alex!" Darwin snapped, reaching around Sean to grab the shorter man by the collar. He yanked him firmly inside. "Quit bein' rude!"

Inside, Angel and Fern were sitting in awkward silence. Well, Angel was, Fern was completely comfortable with the lack of conversation between them. The grey girl had put her hat back on, slung around backwards on her head, and seemed quite content to merely sip her Coke, while Angel struggled to fill the silence Raven had left behind when she went to powder her nose.

"So…" Angel faltered as Fern's inhuman eyes flickered toward her; at least, she thought they did. It was kind of hard to gauge where the young women was looking, given her lack of pupils. "What can you do?"

A crooked smile flashed very sharp teeth. "I thought we were supposed to wait?"

The shorter woman made a show of looking around, first to the right then to the left, before looking over the back of the couch. "I don't see anyone around to tell on us."

"You've held out this long, Salvadore," Fern teased with a grin. She noticed the way Angel's gaze dropped to her sharp canines and even sharper bicuspids, but didn't cover her teeth. "Don't ruin the surprise now."

The shorter brunette sighed. "I guess."

Silence fell over them once more. Fern shifted, pulling her foot off the table to join it's twin on the seat of her chair. "How long have you been at the base?"

Before Angel could answer, Raven's voice broke between them. "Guys, look who's here!"

Angel spun in her seat as Fern quirked upwards onto her toes to look over the other girl's head.

The blonde led the young men inside, with Darwin leading and Hank trailing at the rear. While Angel was rather unimpressed, Fern was quick to beam at them. One hand shot out to point in their direction as she cheered, "See?! I told you there'd be more like us!"

Hank's face went very red and his gaze fell to Darwin as Raven gaped at the brunette. "Fern!"

"What?"

"That's not part of his mutation, he's black," The blonde whispered fiercely at her. She turned to apologize to a stunned Darwin, but Fern's silvery voice interrupted her before she could start.

"Not him!" The grey girl shook her head with a hint of frustration. Her finger shifted an inch to the left to fall on Sean. "Him!"

The redhead pointed to himself with a hint of surprise. He had been a bit thrown by the young woman's attention, almost more so than he was her appearance. Carefully, he moved a bit closer to where she was sitting. Any attention from a woman was good attention, in his opinion. "Me?"

She nodded, still smiling. "Yeah."

Raven sighed and covered her face with her hands a moment before turning to the young men. "I am so sorry. She's…" The blonde stumbled for the right word a moment before settling on, "sheltered."

"I am not," Fern snapped, bristling slightly as Angel laughed. After a second, she tilted her head from side to side and admitted, "Okay, maybe a little, but I still know what black people are."

"Fern!" Raven growled through clenched teeth.

When the slender brunette merely blinked at her with confusion, Darwin chuckled. "It's cool. I don't think she means any harm." The young man arched a brow as he breezed over to the couch beside her. "Do you?"

Still unsure what everyone was so tense about, Fern merely blinked at him. "No?"

"See?" Armando smiled and took a seat next to Angel. "We're all good here. No harm no foul."

Raven sighed and took Hank by the hand. She led him over to the couch and Fern was quick to give up her seat in favor of sitting beside the blonde. She patted the grey girl's leg in a manner that reeked of condescension. "Don't mind her. She's still learning to play nice with the other kids."

Fern shoved her hand away as Sean fell into her old seat. Pulling her legs tightly to her chest, she pursed her lips. "I am not. Well, I am but…shut up, Raven."

"Alex!" Darwin called with a grin, his gaze shifting to the blond over the others' heads. "Will you get in here and stop lurking around the door?!"

Alex, who had been standing just inside the doorway since Fern had crowed so gleefully at them, found his voice. "Man, what the hell is wrong with your face?!"

Fern's eyes widened slightly, but didn't give the young man the satisfaction of a reaction. A few of the others did, with Angel letting out a shocked laugh and Raven turning to glare at her, but no one said anything. Darwin frowned at the blond and Sean and Hank shared a surprised glance, but no one said anything. So neither did she. Instead she looked to Sean. "What can you do?"

Raven gave her a light slap on the chest and the young brunette repressed a wince as the touch jarred a bit of her unseen tensor bandage. "It's not a mutation, he's just a redhead."

"Hey, I am more than just anything," Sean teased with a wide smile.

"Actually, she's technically correct." Hank leaned forward slightly so that Fern could see him. She wasn't paying him any attention, too busy trying to shift further away from Alex (who was now gaping at her from the seat only a foot or two away). The scientist went on regardless. "Being a redhead results from a mutated mc1r protein."

"See?" Fern elbowed Raven lightly in the arm as she stood. Walking around to the small table behind the couch, she hopped onto it with an easy grace. "Told ya so."

The blonde rolled her eyes at her.

"It's fairly rare, less than one percent of the population are redheads," the bespectacled man continued, pushing up his glasses as he spoke. "But it's really not much rarer than say, having blue eyes."

Sean beamed at them. Snapping his fingers dramatically, he crowed, "And I've got both!" He shifted in his seat, snickering along with the others. "I guess that makes me the alpha mutant."

"No, I'd say she's got that one covered," Alex replied with a jerk toward Fern.

The grey girl glared at him, but stayed silent.

"We haven't done introductions yet!" Raven hopped up from the couch. Her hands fell to the brunet's shoulders and she nodded, "Everyone, this is Hank, he's a genius."

The young man blushed, but merely lifted a hand.

"And this is Fern," Raven came around to the side of the table. "Fern, say hi."

The young woman just stared at her with blank blue orbs.

"Or don't, be antisocial, see if I care." She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder dramatically before planting her hand on her hip.

"I'm not being antisocial." Fern bounced slightly on her toes. "You're being patronizing and I'm ignoring you."

The blonde gave her a light shove in an attempt to throw her off balance, but Fern didn't so much as sway. Raven turned to the young man in the leather jacket and said, "This is Alex. Alex, you'll say hi, won't you?"

Alex just stared at her.

"I'll say hi," Sean replied, sitting up straighter. "I'm Sean and I'm just glad to be here and not where I was."

"A sentiment I'm sure Alex shares," Darwin teased, earning puzzled glances from the women that he waved off. "I'm Armando, but most people call me Darwin."

When his brown eyes fell on her, the petite brunette beside him rolled her eyes. "I'm Angel."

Raven beamed. "Awesome. This is so cool, I can't believe we're all here! Can I get anyone anything? We have Coke."

Darwin and Alex agreed and she grabbed a few from the fridge before she came back to the couch.

A/N: Can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I put a pic up on my profile of the snake I modeled Fern's skin after.