Author's Note: Second chapter up! It's a bit of a short chapter, but at least it's up. Once again, story for fun, and flamers will be laughed at. Then left to by engulfed by Paesha's chest. Many, many thanks to the same people as last time for even more inspiration.

Chapter Two

Rachel surveyed her new room with a bit of a smile on her face. It was definitely bigger than her dorm room had been. Even with all of the boxes scattered across the hardwood floor. After the tour, they had gone to get their things, but by the time they were done and had brought everything back, it was really too late to start unpacking. Rachel had unpacked linens so she could make her bed, but other than that, she was planning on leaving everything for the morning. Zephyr and Anorra had done the same, but Samantha hadn't even bothered with the linens. Last Rachel saw, Samantha had been in lion form, curled up on the floor amongst her boxes. Cassandra, though, would probably be up for most of the night unpacking. Aside from never running out of energy, Cassandra had a bit of OCD that Rachel figured would make her go into an unpacking craze.

At least until Cassandra's brain died. Unlike her body, Cassandra's mind did indeed grow tired, so that the woman really did need to sleep. She just usually didn't notice it until all of her rational thought was gone. Of course, with Cassandra, that was pretty much most of the time.

Rachel grinned as that thought occurred to her, then continued on the search for her towel. Although sleep was sounding really good right now, especially with all of the chaos today, a shower seemed even better. A nice, long, hot one. And hopefully it would be late enough that no one else would be in there. Although Rachel now had her own room, she still had to share a bathroom with the rest of the women on the floor. Rachel's room was on the third floor of the mansion, in the left wing. The first floor was classrooms, and the second student rooms. Rachel had gotten a look at them on the tour, and was incredibly grateful that she got to be up on the third floor with the adults. Granted, the rooms downstairs were bigger, but each one was home to three students. Rachel had been going crazy with just one roommate, let alone two.

Then again, her roommate hadn't been the most tolerable of people. Rachel probably would have come here just so she wouldn't have to share a room with her anymore. So the fact that she still had to share the bathrooms was really no big deal to her. She really only cared about no more roommate. Besides, it wasn't like it really mattered. Although this floor was co-ed, the bathrooms and showers weren't. And she knew most of the women on this part of the floor, anyway. Anorra was in the room next to her, and Zephyr in the room after that. Samantha was across from her, then Rogue's room and finally Cassandra's. And with Bobby in the room next to Zephyr's, Rachel had at least met almost everyone in her part of the floor. The last room, the one on the other side of Cassandra's, was taken by someone named Piotr, who had already been asleep by the time they got back. Bobby and Rogue had assured them that they would meet him tomorrow.

Or, actually, later today. Realizing the time brought Rachel out of her thoughts long enough to locate her towel and various shower items. She really did want to get to sleep before the sun was actually up. So she quickly undressed, wrapping her towel around herself and gathering up her shampoo and such before heading out the door.

She had taken about three steps out of her room when Bobby rounded the corner, probably on his way back from the men's bathrooms. Fortunately, the two of them saw each other before they had collided, although it was pretty damn close. Close enough that Rachel had a very nice view of the fact that Bobby was only wearing a pair of boxers.

Rachel blushed darkly, the hand clutching her towel unconsciously tightened. "Um. Hi."

"Hey." Bobby greeted, sounding completely unfazed by the fact that both of them were slightly more than half-naked. "You're up late."

"Yeah." Rachel replied. "You, too."

He shrugged. "Not really. Just woke up, actually, to use the restroom."

"Oh." Rachel said, absently wondering if attempting to fly over him to the showers would make things worse. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep without taking a shower."

Bobby nodded. "You guys were fighting, right? The professor told me about that. He said there were two new mutants there."

"Well, they were new for me. But so are all of you guys." She said. "I don't really know any mutants besides my friends."

He smiled. "You know a lot now. It's actually a really nice feeling."

She shifted her weight slightly. "I think I'm still too busy trying to figure out exactly what's going on right now."

Bobby laughed. "I was the same way, at first. You'll get used to things. And if you need anything, just ask. I'm only a couple of doors down."

"Sure." Rachel agreed, shrugging slightly.

The movement of her shoulders brought Bobby's attention to them and he blinked for a moment, looking closer at them. "Is that a tattoo? Of a flaming tennis ball?"

"Huh?" Rachel looked over at her left shoulder and blushed even darker. "Oh. Um, yeah. Sam and I were really random one day and ended up with tattoos."

He smiled, amused. "Well, it looks really cool. Especially on you."

"Thanks," She said, shifting her weight again and looking slightly uncomfortable.

He frowned, looking a little concerned. "Are you okay? We just met and everything, but, you know, you can tell me if something's wrong."

"Um." She said. "It's just, it's kinda cold out here, and…" Rachel trailed off. Bobby had leaned towards her slightly, probably in an attempt to be comforting, but it really only succeeding in distracting her. "Shower." She finished lamely, in some vague attempt to convey what she meant.

"Oh!" Bobby's eyes widened slightly, then flicked over her as if he was just now realizing that she wasn't wearing anything besides a towel. "Right. Sorry about that. I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

Rachel nodded, then moved past him as quickly as she could without losing her grip on her towel. Bobby made his way to his room equally as quickly, trying to hide the fact that a slight blush had spread over his face. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be sleeping safely in their rooms, as he managed to dart into his own without anyone the wiser.

Either Anorra was the first one up that morning, or her friends had decided to start unpacking without banging on her door first. And, knowing her friends, it was the former. Sure enough, when she went to go take a shower, the hall was silent. When she had finished showering and gotten dressed with no sign of her friends, Anorra decided it was time to go wake them up. Once out in the hall, though, she found a sign of life in the form of a really tall, really buff, really hot young man.

He spotted her as well and gave her a friendly smile. "Good morning. You are one of the new members to our team, da?"

Anorra's mouth opened, but nothing came out. She closed it again for a moment, then managed to stammer out, "Um, yeah."

"Welcome, then." He said. "My name is Piotr. Most people call me Peter, or Pete. Sorry that I could not make your acquaintance last night. But it is nice to meet you now."

It was probably a combination of the fact that Anorra was too busy deliberately not staring to really hear the second part and that she could actually pronounce his actual name that had her replying, "You, uh, you too, Piotr. Anorra. I'm Anorra."

"You have a lovely name." Piotr told her. "And I am thinking we are a bit alike."

When Anorra looked at him in confusion, he transformed, growing about a foot in height and acquiring a silver metal shield.

"Hey!" Samantha yelled from behind her. "You have the power of shinyness!"

A door flung open and Cassandra called, "There's actually a power of…There is!"

The two women were by Anorra's side almost instantly, staring. Both of their hands started reaching out, but fortunately, Anorra was able to notice in time to snatch them by the wrists.

"Come on, we have to go. Unpack, and, and stuff." Anorra said, her eyes not meeting Piotr's.

She turned and dragged the complaining Cassandra and Samantha away, leaving behind a very confused Piotr.

Cassandra was in a surprisingly good mood. Well, maybe not surprisingly, since yesterday had been a great day, and waking up in a mansion to a really attractive shiny guy hadn't exactly changed that. Still, though, that would account for only a mildly good mood, and she was in a really good mood. It might have had something to do with the fact that she was on her way to see Logan. Cassandra didn't mind admitting that she found him attractive. Because, well, he was. Really attractive. And there was just something about him, the way he acted, maybe, that drew her to him.

But, anyway, none of that was actually why she was going to see him. It was just why she was happy about going to see him. Cassandra wanted to talk to Logan about the whole teaching track thing. She wasn't entirely sure how that would work, especially since she had never taught a class before. So she was a little nervous, seeing as most of her students would probably have powers that were much more active than hers. It would be really difficult to try and intimidate someone who could lift her over his head or something.

It was Saturday morning, so Cassandra figured Logan would probably be in his room. Or maybe in the gym working out or something. He seemed like the kind of guy that would wake up early and go fight something. When she knocked on his door, though, a slightly gruff voice told her to come on in, so she opened the door and walked inside.

Logan was pulling on a tank top, and the flash of bare skin she received distracted her until the shirt was completely on.

"You need something?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, actually." Cassandra said. "I wanted to talk to you about the teaching thing. Since, uh, I've never actually done it before."

He shrugged. "Me, neither. Not before I came here. Nothing to it, really."

"That's easy for you to say. You can scare them into doing what you say." She said. "I've got nothing."

Logan frowned. "Nothing? What are your powers?"

"I'd try to tell you one of them, but it wouldn't work and I'd just end up mouthing words and looking like I was trying to do an impression of a fish." She said, shrugging. "And I also never run out of energy."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on the first part. Instead, he asked, "Never?"

"Nope. Not physically, anyway. I do need to sleep, though." Cassandra said.

Logan nodded. "We got a kid here that doesn't."

"That would suck. I love sleep way too much to want to go without it." She commented.

He shrugged. "Seems to work for him."

There was a moment of silence as Cassandra looked around his room. She spotted a small framed pictured of a red-headed woman on his dresser and moved towards it.

"Who's this? I haven't seen her around here." She asked.

Logan glanced at it, then turned the picture away. "An old friend."

"Oh." She opened her mouth to say something, then her eyes widened. "Oh!"

"What?" He asked, moving towards her.

"Is her name Jean?" Cassandra asked, her eyes not really looking at him and her voice almost absent.

Logan's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?" There was a schink sound by his hands, but Cassandra's eyes were now locked onto his so she couldn't see what it was.

Cassandra started talking, trying to explain, but nothing came out. There were times when she really, really hated her power. Like right now. When there was something she wanted to tell him, something that would make that deep sadness in his eyes disappear. But she couldn't. And in that moment, with the way he was looking at her, she would have done almost anything to change that.

Finally, she just shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't."

His eyes searched hers for a long moment, almost long enough to make her want to look away. Whatever he saw in there must have been enough to convince him not to kill her, since he just shook his head.

"You shouldn't be spouting comments like that when you can't back them up, kid." Logan told her.

Cassandra frowned. "I'm not a kid. I'm twenty-three. There's no way you could be that much older than me." She paused. "Unless you have that weird thing like Anorra and age one year for every three that passes. Or something. Oh my God, you have shiny! Does everyone in this place have shiny?"

He stared at her and she pointed to his metal claws. Logan glanced downwards, then retracted them.

"Do you have some obsession with shiny things?" He asked.

Cassandra nodded. "Actually, I do. Although it's kind of impossible not to. Really, who couldn't like the shiny?" She shook her head. "But, anyway, I came in here to ask you for advice."

"Advice?" Logan repeated. That was a new one.

"On teaching." She clarified. "And to see how you wanted to work the whole me teaching track thing."

"Can't really offer you much by way of advice. Everyone has their own teaching style, I'm sure you'll figure yours out." Logan shrugged. "Do whatever you want with track. I'll give you one day a week with the kids, you teach 'em what you see fit."

"Well, that wasn't very helpful." Cassandra muttered. "What do you usually teach them?"

"Self defense. How to not get killed in a battle." Logan told her.

Cassandra considered that for a moment. "Do you think you could teach me?"

"Teach you how not to get killed in a battle?" He asked. "You didn't do so bad yesterday."

"Yeah, because I had other people with me. My powers aren't exactly the most useful for fighting, though." She said.

Logan shrugged. "Fine. Meet me tomorrow outside of the Danger Room tomorrow at eight."

"PM or AM?" She asked.

"Eight in the morning, kid." He answered.

Cassandra stared at him. "There's an eight in the morning now?"

Logan snorted. "Cute. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You have a death wish, don't you?" Cassandra muttered, then shook her head and headed out of the room.

"Do you have a death wish?" Bobby asked.

"Me?" Cassandra asked. "He's the one who wants me to wake up at eight in the morning."

"You want to do a one-on-one Danger Room session with Logan? You have a death wish." Bobby said.

"It's not that bad, Bobby." Rogue told them.

"Yeah, because he likes you." Bobby said.

Cassandra had run into them on the way back to her room, and somehow her training with Logan had come up. Bobby thought she was crazy for volunteering to train with him. Apparently one-on-one sessions with Logan were used as a sort of punishment here. Cassandra completely didn't understand that.

"So where are you guys headed?" Cassandra asked. The two of them were dressed up slightly, at least beyond normal Saturday morning clothes.

Rogue smiled, and her gloved hand found Bobby's. "We're gonna go have lunch at this Chinese place."

Cassandra eyed them. "Are you two dating?"

Bobby nodded. "For awhile, now."

Cassandra tilted her head. "How exactly does that work?"

Rogue blushed. "We're, um, working on it."

"Ahhh." Cassandra said. "Good luck with that. I won't keep you, then, have fun on your date."

She waved them off, then went to Rachel's room to break the unfortunate news that Bobby was taken.