Kitty bit her lip as she sat cross-legged on her bed; her eyes darted nervously from one pamphlet to another, her entire bed was littered with the small pieces of paper advertising various attractions around the Bayville area.
"Rogue?"
Rogue lifted her head sleepily at the sound of her name, glancing at the clock on her bedside table she groaned and then glared at Kitty.
"It's 2.30 in the morning, what the hell are ya doing waking me up?"
"What do you think Kurt would prefer, the circus or the funfair or the giant maze?"
Rogue blinked her eyes blearily and furrowed her brow in confusion.
"I thought ya already got him a birthday present, didn't ya?"
"Yeah," Kitty rolled her eyes as if Rogue were being deliberately stupid. "But I spoilt his birthday; because of me he, like, spent the whole of his birthday in the bathroom."
"So?"
"So I want to get him something to make up for it, and if I take him somewhere we can pretend it's his birthday again."
Rogue grunted once in acknowledgement and lay down again.
"Rogue!" Kitty's voice was shrill with annoyance. "You didn't tell me which you thought he would prefer."
Without opening her eyes Rogue reached a hand across to Kitty's bed and pointed to a pamphlet at random.
"Thanks Rogue."
Smiling, Kitty swept the remaining leaflets and other paraphernalia onto the floor and placed the one in her hand carefully on the nightstand.
Look out Kurt; she thought the circus is coming to town.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Todd hopped slowly into the main living room of the Brotherhood's boarding house; for the last few days he had felt unaccountably lethargic, even getting up on a morning took twice the effort it used to.
Sitting on the couches already were Lance, who was playing solitaire with half a pack of cards, and Fred who was steadily munching his way through a foot long sandwich filled with something foul-smelling.
"Does anyone else feel tired today, yo?"
Lance gave a non-committal shrug and Fred completely ignored him; Todd settled on his haunches and closed his eyes, hearing footsteps he opened his eyes to see Pietro strolling slowly into the room.
"That is not natural, yo. Since when has he ever walked anywhere?"
"Shut up, Toad!" Lance said, looking up from his game.
"Yeah, go bug someone else." Pietro scowled down at the green-skinned boy and flopped onto a beanbag in the corner.
Sighing, Todd heaved himself to his feet and hopped away into the kitchen; opening the cupboards he found more of the pre-packaged ready meals that Mystique had started to provide since she had arrived back at the house a week ago.
Using his long tongue to flick the switch for the kettle he plucked a pot noodle from the shelf and peeled back the lid; once the water had boiled he devoured the small meal hungrily and yawned.
"I'm going to bed." Todd muttered to himself.
He barely managed to reach his room before he fell into a deep sleep, no longer caring about the unnatural lethargy that lay over the whole house.
(Meanwhile)
Wolverine stood in the empty car parking lot enjoying the sharp wind on his face; dawn was just breaking behind him but much of the world was still in darkness.
He raised his face to the sky and inhaled deeply allowing the tang of the early morning air to sting the back of his nose and throat, shaking himself slightly to force concentration he inhaled again, more slowly this time, catching the scents on the air and searching through them for a familiar one – he found none.
He growled softly, the person he was meeting was late and he hadn't long before he had to back at the mansion so nobody knew he'd been out.
"You came."
The voice behind him was soft and low, it made him jump visibly which he was annoyed about; he hadn't caught or recognized her scent; spinning quickly he came face to face with the beautiful brown haired woman he had met several times in situations like this.
"Of course I came; we're in this together."
The woman's upper lip curled in distaste at the thought of being allied with the tall, muscular mutant in front of her.
"It's imperative we get him away from Xavier, the longer he stays there the more danger he's in."
Wolverine nodded slowly, he had known this day was coming but that didn't make it any easier.
"It won't be easy."
"If you want, I can do it."
Logan shook his head and snorted with derisive laughter.
"As if you could get close enough to take him; better leave this to me, bub."
"Don't call me 'bub'; you know my name well enough."
Scowling darkly Logan swung his leg over his motorcycle and gunned the engine; spinning the machine so that a shower of dirt scattered over the surprised woman he smirked and rode away.
After watching Wolverine ride away in the light of the dawn the chestnut-haired beauty span on her heel and strode away, her features seemed to shimmer and change until all that was left was a pile of clothes as a raven flew away.
Mystique laughed internally as she flew swiftly over the sleeping town, her plans were proceeding nicely.