Chapter Four
"Are you sure you are all right, Anorra?" Piotr asked as they stood outside of the Danger Room. The others were standing a bit away, waiting for Piotr and Anorra to finish talking.
Anorra nodded, her eyes not meeting his. "I'm okay." She was pretty sure she had said that a few times already, but it wasn't her fault he kept asking questions that would have the same answer.
"That is good. I would not want to be the cause of your pain." Piotr told her. "And it would be a shame to damage such scales. They are pretty, like you."
She blushed darkly, glancing back at her friends. "Thank you. I should, um, go. My friends…"
Piotr nodded. "Da. Next session, maybe I will repay the favor of saving you." He smiled brilliantly at her before walking off down the hall.
Anorra smiled after him, then turned and headed towards her friends, walking as if she were on clouds and humming softly.
"What's up with Anorra?" Cassandra asked.
"She spent five minutes pinned on top of Piotr." Rachel said.
Zephyr blinked, peering closer at Anorra. "Wait, are you humming? Why are you humming 'I Feel Pretty'?"
"Piotr told her she was pretty." Samantha said smugly.
"What? How do you know?" Anorra demanded.
Samantha grinned and pointed to one of her ears. "I hear all."
Cassandra stared at her. "You know, that's a little frightening."
"Yeah, for me. There are some things I don't need to hear." Samantha muttered.
"Um, Anorra?" Rachel said. "You have a hole in your butt."
"Most people do, Rach." Samantha said.
"Ew." Zephyr commented. "That wasn't really necessary, was it?"
"It's in my pants, guys, and it was for my tail." Anorra said.
"You didn't have a tail when you were on top of Piotr." Cassandra pointed out.
"This is true. So what was the hole for?" Zephyr said. "What were you guys doing down there?"
"Isn't it sort of in the wrong place for that?" Rachel said.
Cassandra grinned. "Not necessarily."
"You guys are really gross." Anorra muttered.
"Are you wearing Nightcrawler's pants?" Samantha asked suddenly.
Anorra stared at her. "Did it take you this long to figure that out?"
"Shut up." Samantha said. "And I want those pants." There was a pause while she got stared at. "What? They touched the pretty! Get out of Kurt's pants!"
"Yes, because I'm wearing something under here that I'm willing to walk around in." Anorra said.
"Samantha's the only one allowed in Kurt's pants, Anorra, didn't you know that?" Cassandra told her.
"Exactly!" Samantha agreed. "So give me the pants!"
There was another pause.
"Um, sweetie, you wanna think about what you just said?" Anorra asked.
Samantha paused, considering that. "Oh, hey! Not like that."
"Yeah, there's really no getting out of that one." Cassandra said.
"No, there really isn't. Sam wants to be in Kurt's pants." Rachel agreed.
"Awww. Look! Sam's blushing!" Zephyr said, pointing.
"I am not!" Samantha insisted, despite the fact that she obviously was. "I just think he's pretty. It's not like I really know him or anything."
"Right." Cassandra said. "That's why you want to get in his pants, instead of marry him."
"You guys suck." Samantha muttered. "I'm going to my room."
"Your room or Kurt's room?" Cassandra asked.
Samantha stuck her tongue out at them. "I don't even know where his room is. And I wouldn't go there if I did!"
"Yes you would." Rachel said.
Samantha frowned. "Well, maybe. But not for that reason."
"Okay, Sam. We believe you." Anorra said in another one of those 'she's crazy, let's agree with her' tones.
"Why am I the only one getting those tones here?" Samantha asked.
"Uh, because you're the only one who's demanding people's pants?" Zephyr suggested.
"It wasn't a demand." Samantha said. "It was a request."
"Yelling at me to give you my pants is not a request." Anorra said.
"They're not your pants." Samantha clarified. "They're Kurt's."
"Really, guys, we just need to find Kurt's room and shove her in there. Maybe then she'll shut up about the pants." Cassandra said.
"No, then she'll talk even more about how she got to be in 'the pretty's' room." Rachel countered.
"Okay, now I'm really going to my room." Samantha said.
And this time, she actually did. Of course, that may have been because they had been walking back to their rooms during the conversation and had only now reached them. Whatever the case, she disappeared into her room and shut the door behind her, leaving them to move their teasing back to Anorra and then on to Rachel.
Zephyr leaned over and turned off the shower, stopping the spray of hot water. Her friends were all hanging out in their rooms, finishing the last bit of unpacking or moving onto decorating stage of moving in. She hadn't taken a shower yet that day, though, and she wanted get one in before dinner. They had regular mealtimes here, when huge meals were served and everyone gathered in the huge cafeteria-like dining room. Zephyr and the rest of her friends had slept through breakfast that morning, and then had been unpacking during lunch, but they were all going to make it to dinner.
Which meant Zephyr was going to shower. Because meeting a bunch of new people, some of whom were bound to be cute guys, required showering. She was in the process of toweling off when the curtain to her shower stall was suddenly yanked open. Startled, she stood there with a towel in one hand and stared blankly at the person standing before her.
Despite the fact that this was the women's showers, the one who had pulled open the curtain was very obviously male. He was tall, muscular, and had short reddish brown hair that fell into his red and black eyes. A blue towel was wrapped around his waist, but he wasn't wearing anything else.
The man let out a curse in French. "This isn't the men's showers?"
That woke her up enough to start screaming, but she still didn't think to cover herself.
"Non, petite, non." He said quickly, trying to reassure her. "See, look, you and Gambit are even." He dropped his towel to the ground.
"Uhh…we'll just leave you alone, then." Samantha commented from behind them.
Gambit and Zephyr turned around to find Samantha, Anorra, Cassandra, and Rachel staring at them. They had probably been drawn in by the sound of Zephyr's screaming.
"Damn. The new guy's hot as hell." Cassandra said, tilting her head to look at him.
"And we're leaving now. Far, far away." Anorra said.
"I second that." Rachel agreed.
The four of them turned and fled, leaving Gambit and Zephyr to scramble to get their towels back around them.
"Gambit is so sorry, petite. No one has told him which showers are which." He told her.
"Um, it's okay. I, um." Zephyr stuttered, trying to think of something to say to the man who had just seen her naked. And who she had just seen naked.
"Seems only fitting that Gambit learns your name, since he knows you better than he knows anyone else here." Gambit said.
"Zephyr. My name's Zephyr." She murmured. "Nice to meet you."
Gambit grinned at her. "And more, non?"
Fortunately, she was saved from making a response by the sound of Samantha yelling, "Naked man in the girl's showers!"
"Best Gambit be leaving, petite, before the both of us get in trouble." He winked at her, then quickly exited the shower.
Zephyr waited a moment so he would be gone before she followed him out, only to find her friends grinning at her.
"Best way to meet the new guy ever." Cassandra said cheerfully.
After the teasing of Zephyr had finally stopped, at least momentarily, Cassandra, Samantha, Rachel, Anorra, and Zephyr had headed downstairs and claimed a table for themselves so they could eat dinner and gossip randomly.
"You think Gambit's taken?" Cassandra asked wistfully. "Cause, really. Damn. He's almost as hot as Logan."
"I dunno, Cass, I think he might be." Samantha said.
Cassandra frowned at her. "Why?"
"It might just be me, but I think he and Zephyr really shared something back there." Samantha replied.
"Awww, you're right." Cassandra said, pouting. "Oh, well. At least there's still Logan."
"Are you guys ever going to drop that?" Zephyr asked.
"Sweetie, we found you naked in the shower with a naked man. No, they're never going to drop it." Anorra told her.
"No, we're really not." Samantha agreed. "If you guys can tease me a bunch just for wanting Kurt's pants, then we're going to tease you endlessly for actually being naked with the new French teacher."
"And you just made it even more dirty." Cassandra said. "Now Zephyr's having naked time with the French teacher."
"They're daytime naked buddies!" Samantha said with a grin. "Now we have midnight naked buddies and daytime naked buddies."
There was a pause while they waited for Rachel to object, then, when she didn't say anything after awhile, they finally looked over at her and realized she was staring absently at the table where Bobby and Rogue were sitting.
"Aw, Rach…" Samantha said. "You really like him, don't you?"
"What?" Rachel asked, then blushed. "No! I don't even know him. He's just cute. And kinda sweet. And he liked my tattoo."
"Don't worry, there are plenty of other guys here." Zephyr told her.
"And at least one of them is bound to be single." Anorra agreed.
"Like Xavier!" Cassandra suggested. "I'm sure he's free. You can have him."
There was a very long period of silence. Then Samantha announced, "Ewwwww! Oh, God, Eww. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad mental picture. Cass, I hate you so incredibly much."
The four others burst out laughing.
"What was it?" Cassandra asked.
"You don't want to know." Samantha said. "You really, really don't want to know. Seriously, I don't want to know. It's still there! Ahh! Get it out!"
There was more laughing, then conversation picked up again. They didn't get very for before Samantha and Rachel got an announcement from Xavier in their heads.
Samantha, Rachel. Detention, tomorrow at noon, outside of classroom A.
"What? What did we do?" Samantha asked.
"I have it on good authority that you have no evidence!" Rachel said.
Zephyr, Anorra, and Cassandra stared at them.
"Uh, what are you guys talking about?" Anorra asked.
"We got detention tomorrow!" Rachel answered.
"He can't give me detention. I'm twenty-two!" Samantha said.
"Apparently he can." Cassandra said.
Samantha frowned, crossing her arms. "This sucks."
Backlash opened the fridge, looking around to see if there was anything good enough to snack on. It was about dinner time, but she didn't feel like an actual meal. Fortunately, she located a container of strawberries and pulled them out. She sat down at one of the tables, then, kicking her feet up on the surface as she munched away. Before long, Toad sauntered into the kitchen and Backlash raised an eyebrow, looking him over.
"You one of the newbies?" Toad asked in a distinct lower-class British accent. "Need someone to show you the ropes?"
"Not you." Backlash told him, eating another strawberry.
"I'm the best one, luv. Been here the longest, besides Sabretooth and Magneto himself." Toad said. "So unless you want the fuzzball, looks like you're with me."
"I'm with no one, frog, least of all you." Backlash said.
He hopped up on the table, crouching next to her. "The name's Toad."
"Frog, toad." Backlash said with a shrug. "What's the difference."
"Give me an hour and I can show you." Toad said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
"Toad, stop hitting on the new mutants." Pyro said, walking into the kitchen.
Toad glared at him. "Don't order me around, kid."
"Backlash, if he bothers you, hurt him as much as you want. Just try not to kill him." Pyro told her.
"If he bothers me enough there won't be anything left of him." Backlash said, picking up her container of strawberries and storming out.
"You chased her away, fire boy." Toad muttered, then hopped off the table and began looking through the fridge.
Pyro shook his head and grabbed a bottle of soda from the cupboard, then left for his room. As he approached it, though, his door shook slightly. Instantly on guard, Pyro grabbed his lighter and slowly turned the doorknob, peering cautiously inside. He relaxed only slightly when he saw Charm, sitting on the end of his bed. Her legs were crossed and she was leaning back slightly, head tilted as she watched him come in.
"How'd you find my room?" Pyro asked.
"I asked the walls." Charm said. "I told you I was expecting an escort." She grinned. "Although since we're alone, hon, I can probably be persuaded to do another things instead."
"Yeah?" Pyro challenged, a cocky smile on his face. "Like what?"
"You sure you want the answer to that, honey?" Charm asked, standing.
They had a staring contest again and, like before, Charm was the first one to break away. This time, though, instead of glancing down she moved forwards, pressing her lips against his. Her arms wrapped around his neck, fingers tangling in his hair. Surprised, Pyro froze for a moment, then went with it, slipping his own arms around her waist. After a moment, Charm grinned and pulled back.
"There, now, was that so bad?" Charm asked.
"No, I was damn good." Pyro said.
Charm laughed. "True. You were. And now, escort. Because as much as I love your hands on me, hon, I don't want a permanent scar."
Amused, Pyro made an 'after you' gesture and then followed her out, closing the door behind them. As he led her to the medical facilities, he made a mental note to talk to Magneto about just the kind of mutants he was planning on letting in.
Rachel gave a sleepy yawn as she walked back from the bathroom. She was only wearing a blue bra and a pair of matching underwear, which probably wasn't the best outfit for walking around the hall, but it was about the same time that she had run into Bobby last night and she figured there was no way it could happen again. The whole lightning never hit the same spot twice thing.
Except that lightning really did hit the same spot twice, and as soon as she turned the corner to go back into her room, she ran into Bobby on his way to the shower. Unfortunately, this time they didn't see each other in enough time and crashed right into each other. They ended up on the floor in a tangle of limbs. As they tried to untangle themselves, the towel around Bobby's waist fell loose and there was a brief moment when there was some very inappropriate touching. It was over quickly, though, and then the two of them were separated once more. They stood up quickly and Bobby hastily tightened the towel around his waist.
"Looks like this is starting to be a tradition, doesn't it?" Bobby said, attempting a joking grin.
"It really does." Rachel said, blushing. "And here I was thinking I was safe."
"Safe?" Bobby asked.
"Um, you know, since this happened last night at pretty much the same time." Rachel tried to explain. "So it, um, couldn't happen again?"
Bobby laughed. "Well, it was good logic. Wait, you were avoiding me?"
"No!" Rachel said, a little too fast. "I mean, not avoiding. Just, not wanting to run into you half naked again and give my friends more fuel."
"They teased you about last night, huh? Pete and Rogue did teased me, too." Bobby said, shaking his head with a slightly amused smile on his face. "You know, you guys should hang out with us more. Rogue could use some more girl friends, and I think Pete likes your friend Anorra. He went on about how pretty her silver scales were for about ten minutes."
"Really?" Rachel asked, giving a grin. "Did he tell you about the Danger Room session where she was pinned on top of him?"
The two of them ended up talking for nearly half an hour before Rachel happened to glance down and remember that Bobby was still in his towel.
"Oh. Um, you should probably go take a shower before it's actually time to wake up." Rachel told him.
Bobby blushed, then grinned. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. You guys will join us for breakfast tomorrow though, right?"
Rachel nodded. "Sure. See you then."
Author's Note: At the bottom this time, because I said so. Flames arebad, stupid, and result in "engorfing." And, Megan, this is what happens when you see X-3 without us. Haha. Ha. We win.