Author's Note: Abby frightened me by yelling at me in German, so in this chapter Anorra falls down and hits her head on a table, then has to walk around with a big bump for the rest of the week. Yes. That is what happens. Really. And it sounded funnier when Paesha suggested it, so I probably didn't word it right. But, oh, well. Usual disclaimer and stuff about flames. And that's all. Yup.

Chapter Seven

Most of the week passed relatively quickly, and before they knew it Friday morning had arrived. Bobby and Rachel had somehow managed to run into each other in varying stages of undress every night that week, despite changing their hours about erratically, and Gambit had succeeded in irritating Rogue as much as possible. Logan had given Cassandra fighting lessons every night, and the lessons had grown progressively longer with each day. Kurt had upped their German lessons to two nights a week, Monday and Wednesday, but other than that, Samantha hadn't seen much of him. Anorra was still incredibly shy around Piotr, but the day they had spent together seemed to make her relax somewhat, as she was now capable of holding a conversation with him. Zephyr and Warren had been slightly shy around each other as well, although they had been making it a point to hang out as much as possible.

Which was quite a bit, since a group was slowly forming between the five new women, the two new men, and the three more or less veterans. They were all about the same age, although Cassandra, Gambit, and Samantha were a bit older than the others, and they seemed to get along fairly well. By now, all of them were pretty much settled in.

And so the women decided it was time for a prank. Which was the reason that Cassandra, Samantha, Rachel, Rogue, Zephyr, and Anorra were currently in Gambit's room, sneaking quietly over to his bed, where he lay sleeping.

"Where'd we get the handcuffs again?" Rogue asked softly.

"They're mine." Samantha whispered back, holding them up.

"I don't think we want to know why Sam has handcuffs." Cassandra said.

"I second that." Anorra agreed.

"Ha ha." Samantha muttered. "They're from…"

"Shh!" Rachel hissed.

Gambit stirred briefly, but then settled back down into sleep. The women looked relieved, then snuck the rest of the way over to his bed.

Samantha snapped one end of the handcuff around Gambit's wrist before giving a wicked grin. "Come here, Rogue, you can do the other one."

"With pleasure." Rogue said, moving over to her. "Where are we…"

She trailed off as Samantha darted out a hand and closed the other end of the handcuff around Rogue's out-stretched wrist.

"We told you we were going to handcuff him to something really awkward." Cassandra said with a satisfied grin.

"Welcome to the group!" Zephyr told her, rather loudly.

"I'm gonna kill you guys!" Rogue shouted, her Southern accent thickening.

The five women backed away so Rogue couldn't reach them without dragging Gambit out of bed. She tried, though, tugging on Gambit enough so that he finally woke up.

He blinked at them, then gave a slow smile. "Told you, petite, the women cannot resist Gambit."

"Get out of bed, swamp rat, I have some people to kill." Rogue told him.

"Okay, chere, but Gambit thinks you may not like the outcome." He said, throwing off the covers and sliding out of bed. Apparently totally unembarrassed about being completely naked, Gambit stood next to Rogue, peering down at their handcuffs. "If this is your idea of a practical joke, Gambit likes the way you think."

"We should have figured he'd sleep naked." Anorra muttered.

Cassandra grinned. "I did figure it. Why do you think I was so cheerful about this plan?"

"We're not letting you go until you two can get along." Samantha informed them. "So place nice, kiddies." With that, the non-handcuffed people dashed out of the room, closing the door behind them.

Rogue glared at Gambit. "Put your damn pants on."

"Fine, chere, but Gambit can think of many things to do without them." He said. "The others did say to play nice, non?"

"My idea of playing nice doesn't involve you being naked." She replied.

"Give Gambit a little while, ha can convince you otherwise." He told her with a wink, but he obediently went over to the dresser. They spent a few moments trying to figure out how he could put on his pants without her touching anything, but eventually the jeans were on.

"Better." Rogue said.

"Gambit thinks things would be better if you had no shirt, either." He said.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "You ain't charming, Gambit, you're just irritating."

Gambit placed his free hand over his heart. "You wound Gambit, chere. What he ever done to hurt you?"

"I have a boyfriend, swamp rat. So stop with the flirting." Rogue said.

"Gambit, he only kids." He said. "He doesn't mean to get you so riled up. Maybe you like it, non?"

Rogue glared at him. "See, it's stuff like that. Knock it off."

He smiled back at her. "Okay, chere, for you, Gambit will be a good boy."

And he actually was. They managed to hold a decent conversation for a while. But just when Rogue was actually starting to enjoy herself, Gambit ruined it by commented, "You sure you are not too hot, chere? Maybe you would feel better with less clothes on."

"No, I would feel better if I wasn't handcuffed to a chauvinistic asshole." Rogue replied, glaring daggers at him.

Gambit looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, Rogue." He reached a hand over and placed it on the chain running between their handcuffs. The chain links glowed with red sparkles, then blew apart, freeing them.

Rogue pulled her hand away angrily. "You could have done that the whole time? Why didn't you?"

"Maybe Gambit want to be close to you, chere, and this is the only way he could." He told her softly.

"You don't want to be close to me." Rogue said, a bit unsettled by the sincere and slightly hurt look in his eyes. "You'd die."

"Gambit could find a way." He said.

Rogue shook her head. "You can't. Bobby's already tried."

"Then maybe he hasn't tried hard enough, non?" Gambit said, then opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a red silk scarf. He spread it out and held it up to his lips before leaning over and kissing her. The thin sheet of silk protected him from his powers, but allowed them to feel just about everything. Startled, Rogue froze, but soon found herself leaning into the kiss. For a long, slow moment, everything seemed perfect.

Then Gambit pulled away, dropping the scarf around her shoulders. "For you, chere, a man ought to do anything."

He got up and walked out, then, leaving a very confused and unsettled Rogue to stare after him.

"You aren't mad at us, are you, Bobby?" Zephyr asked as she walked with him down the hall. They were both TA's form Storm's beginning piloting class, which had just let out.

Bobby glanced at her. "Shouldn't you be asking Rogue that?"

"Oh, I will." She said. "But it was your girlfriend that we handcuffed to another guy."

Bobby winced a bit. "Yeah, I do wish you had picked someone who wasn't constantly trying to get with Rogue."

"Nothing will happen." Zephyr assured. "You and Rogue are really cute together."

He blushed slightly. "Thanks. But I'm starting to wonder if maybe we both would be better off somewhere else."

Zephyr frowned. "What do you mean?"

Bobby shrugged. "I don't know. It's just, this Gambit guy hasn't even been here a week and she's already spending more time with him than with me. And before that it was Logan…." He shook his head. "It's nothing. Never mind. I'll catch you later, okay?"

Without waiting for her to answer, Bobby speed up, ducking around the corner and disappearing.

"I'm bored, Pyro." Charm commented from where she was lounging on his bed, watching TV. "There's got so be something amusing we can do while we wait."

Pyro rolled his eyes. He didn't bother to remind her that she had a TV in her own room which was perfectly functional. It wouldn't do any good. She would probably just smirk at him and make some comment about the view being better in here. Charm didn't even bother knocking before entering his room anymore, she just tossed open the door and sauntered in, demanding attention without saying a word. It was a good thing Pyro took care of any actual business in his office, not in here. He didn't exactly mind, as she was definitely better company than anyone else currently here. Even if she did constantly try to get into his pants. Pyro wondered what would happen if he just agreed one time. He had a feeling Charm was all talk.

Still, though, she was no worse than Toad. Well, maybe she was, a little. But the amphibious mutant had attached himself to Backlash, much to her distaste. He flirted with her constantly, despite her negative responses. The halls were often filled with the sound of them arguing. Pyro was of the opinion that the two of them should just shut up, have sex, and then move on. Before they endangered Magneto's mission. When Backlash was alone, though, she was an asset. She was intelligent, calm, and cool-headed. She had actually helped with the little excursion they had planned for that night.

Aphedria, though, was still a mystery to him. She stayed in her room most of the time, when she wasn't killing things in the training room. When they passed each other in the halls, she either completely ignored him or made some snide comment that was meant to hurt him. Occasionally she, Backlash, and Charm disappeared for hours, then returned with a smug smile or satisfied airs about them. Magneto didn't seem to care what they were doing, so Pyro didn't worry about it, either. Besides, he now had a small pile of cash stowed away in his room from the times Charm had come back from one of her trips only to dump money on his bed and inform him that she didn't need it.

Charm had started talking again, although not to him. She was speaking in her other language, the one that allowed her to talk to objects. Apparently when he had ignored her earlier comment, she had turned her attention to one of the things in his room.

"What are you doing now?" Pyro asked, not bothering to keep the annoyance from his voice.

Charm glanced over at him and smiled. He often ignored her like that, disappearing into his own little world. If she cared about him, she might have been irritated that he was shutting her out, but as it was, she found it more or less amusing. He was probably thinking about fire. She saw him in the training room, once, and his control over the flames had been utterly perfect. And he had been grinning the whole time, obviously enjoying it. Which was why it surprised her that they had yet to do anything beyond that one kiss, despite all of her suggestions. For someone so dangerous, he was certainly being cautious now. Huh. Maybe he was gay. That would suck. Unless she could talk him into a threesome.

In any case, the fact that they hadn't done anything was probably why Charm wasn't bored of him yet. It didn't occur to her that having sex with someone on their team and then ditching him wasn't the best of ideas. And it probably wouldn't, unless someone pointed it out to her. Even then, she most likely wouldn't care.

"Having a conversation with something that listens to me." Charm said finally. Well, actually, she was trying to. But since she wasn't touching his flame throwing contraption, she was having difficulties talking with it. She generally had to be touching objects to speak with them, unless they knew her well enough to recognize the sound of her voice.

"If you're looking for someone to listen to you, then you shouldn't be in here." Pyro said.

Charm smirked at him. "Like we ever really talk, hon. I can think of much more fun things to do with you."

Pyro shook his head. "Shut up and change the channel. This show sucks."

"You're closer," She replied, and unfortunately, she was right.

Damn. It was going to be a long wait. Then a slow smile crossed Pyro's lips as he thought of the look on the Icebox's face when he saw him again. It would be worth it.

"Don't be too mad at us, Rogue, okay?" Samantha asked. "We were just teasing."

The six women were gathered in Samantha's room. After Rogue had come to find them with only half of a handcuff, Samantha had unlocked it, grumbling about being owed a new pair. Which everyone ignored, since they didn't want to know why Samantha needed handcuffs. Rogue had been visibly upset, though, so they were trying to make things better.

"We've all done it to each other. As sort of a welcome to the group." Cassandra said. "When we first became friends with Rachel, we hollowed out tennis balls and filled them with pudding, then put them in one of those automatic tennis ball shooting things. By the end, she was completely covered."

"And when Zephyr joined, we put her in one of the art classrooms in just a bathrobe while she was sleeping. We told the nude model she didn't need to come, so when the students came in the next morning they all drew Zephyr instead." Rachel told her.

Zephyr blushed. "It was the most embarrassing thing ever. But not as fun as when we put dye in Anorra's shower. She was hot pink for a week. And there was a hot pink dragon chasing us around for awhile."

"And then we realized Cass and Sam had started the whole pranking thing, so we put a bunch espresso in her food and locked her outside. She ran around like and idiot and colored all over one of the dorm walls." Anorra said.

"And they put all of my furniture on the roof. It took me forever to get it all down." Samantha finished. "So see? It just means we love you."

Rogue shook her head. "Y'all couldn't have picked a prank that would be less confusing for me?"

Cassandra blinked. "Huh?"

"Never mind." Rogue said, then grinned. "Of course, y'all do know that this means I have to get you back."

Samantha hugged her. "Yay! You've officially become one of us."

"Be afraid." Anorra said. "Be very afraid."

Cassandra fidgeted nervously as she sat in a chair in front of Xavier's desk, waiting for him to come in. She had seen something, something horrible. Something she absolutely did not want to come true. She just hoped that Xavier would believe her when she told him. Or tried to tell him, anyway.

When the Professor finally came in, he was accompanied by Logan and Cassandra's nerves took a jump upwards. Great, now she was going to make herself sound like an idiot in front of Logan.

"Thank you for seeing me, Professor." Cassandra said.

Xavier smiled. "Of course, Cassandra. What is it you needed?"

She took a deep breath. "I think you should increase the security tonight. I can't tell you why, it's just really important. Please."

Xavier looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "I can do that, if it will make you feel more at ease."

"Not just security systems." Cassandra insisted. "Someone. A guard, or maybe more than one."

"I'll do it, Chuck." Logan said. "I don't sleep much, anyway."

Cassandra shot him a grateful look. "I can stay up, too. Please?"

Xavier paused. He could read the fear coming off of Cassandra and sense that she was telling the truth, but there was something in her mind blocking him from knowing anything else. It was entirely possible that she was psychic, and didn't even realize it. Or that he just couldn't see it. It may be the same force that seemed to make her unable to speak of her second power. Finally, he nodded. "Very well. I will also send out a message to let anyone staying up late know that they should be on their guard."

Cassandra sagged with relief. "Thank you. I wish I could tell you, but…"

Xavier shook his head. "It's not important, Cassandra. We trust you."

Zephyr let out a slow breath to try and calm herself as she took one last look in the mirror. She was wearing a feathery shirt in varying shades of purple, lined with beaded designs in light blue. It was sleeveless and clung to her upper body like a second skin. Her skirt was the same color blue as the beads and came down to just below her knees. The style was loose and flowy, the kind that flared out with every spin. Blue and purple beaded slippers adorned her feet, completing the outfit. Most of her hair was left straight, but a few curled strands mixed in amongst the rest. There was light blue eye shadow on her lids and glittering lips gloss covered her lips.

She had tucked the lip gloss in her purse, since she and Warren had decided to eat dinner before the movie and she figured the gloss would be all gone by the end of their meal. They were going sooner than they had planned, since Cassandra had begged them to see an earlier show. She wouldn't say why, but Zephyr trusted the older woman, so Warren had called the theater and moved their tickets to the movie before their original one and their dinner reservations to an hour earlier.

He was late, though. By about five minutes. It wasn't much, but it was making Zephyr nervous. What if he had changed his mind? Maybe he didn't like her after all, or maybe he had only asked her out of gratitude because she showed him around and he was now regretting it. Before she could get too paranoid, though, a knock came on her door. She went to answer it and Warren was standing there, looking gorgeous in khaki pants, a pale blue dress shirt, and a long brown trenchcoat.

"Sorry I'm late." Warren told her.

"It's not his fault!" Samantha shouted from behind him. "We cornered him!"

"We had to make sure he was good enough for you." Cassandra agreed.

"And now we're leaving. Have fun!" Anorra said.

"Don't do anything we wouldn't do!" Rachel called.

"Don't tell her that. Now she'll do something bad." Rogue commented, her voice fading as they started leaving.

"Sorry about that." Zephyr said, blushing. "They're sort of over-protective."

"I noticed." Warren said with a grin. "Don't worry about it. You're lucky to have such good friends."

"They're your friends too, you know." She told him. "And where are your wings?"

"Under my coat." He answered. "I have a harness that keeps them flat against my back. And the professor gave me this image inducer so I don't look like a hunchback."

Zephyr frowned. "I miss them. But I guess it'd be easier to sit at dinner or in a movie theater without them."

He nodded. "It will be. You ready?"

"Yup." She said, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her. "Let's go."

"You look really pretty, by the way." Warren told her as they walked down to the garage.

Zephyr blushed. "Thanks. You look good, too. Even without your wings."

They made small talk as they drove to the restaurant, then while they were waiting to be seated. After they had ordered their food, Warren asked, "So where are you from?"

"Juno, Alaska." She answered. "I came out here to go to college, but my dad and little brother are still back there."

"And they're okay with you being at Xavier's?" Warren asked.

"They don't know." Zephyr said quietly. "When I transferred to Xavier's, I told them I had gotten a scholarship to a private college. They were thrilled." She gave a slightly sad laugh and shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. My mom knew, anyways."

"Knew?" Warren repeated.

She nodded. "My mom died when I was twelve. She knew about my powers, though. She was the one that told me how wonderful they were. I always believed her when she said they were a blessing."

"That must have been nice." Warren said. "My mom died, too, when I was just a baby. It's always been just my dad. And whoever he could pay to take care of me."

"Your dad didn't spend much time with you?" She asked softly.

"No. He tried, but, well, he was just busy." He said.

"Then it was his loss." Zephyr told him firmly, reaching across the table to place her hand over his. "Anyone who wouldn't rather spend time with you than do anything else is a little crazy."

"He wanted to." Warren said. "But he had other things to do, to try and help me. To try and fix me."

Zephyr frowned in confusion. "Fix you?"

Warren shook his head, obviously not wanting to talk about it.

Zephyr didn't press him. Instead, she gave his hand a squeeze and told him, "Well, it doesn't matter. You're perfect, just the way you are."

Warren smiled shyly and squeezed her hand back. "So are you."

There were nearly a dozen mutants moving stealthily about the mansion grounds. Pyro, Toad, Backlash, Aphedria, and Charm were among them, accompanied by seven other mutants that had thrown their allegiance in with Magneto and the Brotherhood. One of them had the ability to shield their bodies from cameras and their minds from psychics, even one as powerful as Xavier. She could only shield eleven people, which is why only eleven were there. Shielding was her only power, though, so she would have to be protected during the battle. Now, though, they crept up to the back entrance of the school.

Charm moved over to the door and placed her hand on it, speaking to it quietly. A tense couple of minutes went by, then the door opened itself.

Two rooms away, Logan jerked up from his spot on the couch. Cassandra had fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder, but his movement startled her awake.

"What is it?" She asked, but Logan shushed her.

"Chuck." He said quietly. "We got company."

I haven't sensed anyone. Xavier replied mentally.

"Trust me, Chucklehead, there are people in here." Logan said.

All right, Logan. All X-men, please report to the back entrance downstairs. Immediately. Xavier announced to the mansion. Students, please remain in your rooms and assume lockdown positions.

"Looks like Zeph and Warren aren't going to get to finish their date." Cassandra said quietly as she followed Logan.

"Just remember your training, Cassandra." Logan muttered, then gave a slightly wicked grin when he came upon the mutants entering the mansion. "Lose your way, bub?"

"Shit." Pyro said. "Secondary mission, people, go."

Two of the mutants disappeared.

"Rush them." Pyro said. "Aphedria, Wolverine. Anyone else, the girl."

Toad grinned and hopped up in the air, landing right in front of Cassandra. Cassandra made a fake lunge for him, then turned and ran out the back entrance, hoping to draw him after her. Sure enough, Toad followed her outside.

"Cassandra!" Wolverine shouted, starting after her. Toad was an expert martial artist, there was no way Cassandra could take him.

Aphedria stood in front of him, reaching out her hand and speeding up his metabolism, wasting away his flesh as his body ate at it. His healing factor kicked in, though, replenishing it as fast as it was taken away. It kept him busy, though, enough so that a few more of the mutants pushed past him. Fortunately, they were met by the rest of the X-men, minus Zephyr and Warren. They were in varying stages of dress, but all looked ready for battle. The fight began, and with the X-men pushing the invading mutants back, it was soon moved out into the yard.

There were only nine of the invading mutants left. The psychic mutant was defenseless, and Charm had to maintain contact with her in order to extend her red energy shield, which moved their numbers down to seven. Wolverine had instructed Colossus to attack Aphedria, whose powers had no affect on him, since he didn't have a metabolism in his steel form. Backlash had called her black whip and charged it with crackling energy, but it was no use to her when her opponent kept using his powers to teleport back and forth. The other Brotherhood mutants were trying their hardest, but it was obvious they were losing.

Pyro switched on his flamethrowers to create a flame, then began shooting flames in all directions, forcing the X-men to retreat.

"Iceman!" Storm shouted. "We need to keep him from turning those on again!"

Iceman reached out and covered the burning areas in ice, putting out the flames. Telepsa, who was currently in her humanoid dragon form, wrapped the end of her tail around Pyro's wrists and held him as high as her six-foot-tail would allow, dangling him above the ground and keeping him from reaching his flamethrowers.

"Got him!" Telepsa growled, her voice slightly strangled due to the fact that her jaw had reshaped itself in order to be able to hold her fangs.

Wolverine had pinned Toad's arms behind him, but Backlash's whip cracked through the air and wrapped itself around Wolverine's neck, causing him to release Toad. Toad lunged to try and free Pyro, but Colossus stopped him before he could reach Telepsa. Cassandra snuck up behind Backlash and punched her in the face, giving Wolverine enough time to grab the whip and use it to flip Backlash over his head.

With Colossus distracted, Aphedria moved to attack Iceman but flaming tennis balls were thrown at her head from above and she was forced to dodge them. One of the other mutants had cornered Rogue until a barrage of exploding playing cards drove him away as Gambit came to her rescue. Someone had thrown some kind of knife that was able to move at an incredible speed, and it was heading right for Nightcrawler, who was engaged in battle with another mutant. Fortunately, Samantha as a lion leaped for it and batted it aside with a paw, knocking it off its course.

In the middle of all of this, Zephyr and Warren finally arrived. Warren was flying with Zephyr cradled in his arms, and as they touched down, they immediately joined the fight.

Charm, whose voice had been lost in the noise of the battle, began screaming what sounded like a song in a different language. For a long moment, the battle continued unchanged, and then Pyro's flamethrowers switched on, leaping into action. Startled, Telepsa dropped him in an effort to save her tail. Pyro let out a cackle and began flaming things again, and Iceman was forced to turn his attention back to the fire mutant. One of the mutants had taken the form of a stone giant, and had been battling with Colossus until the stone being got in a lucky shot and Colossus was knocked unconscious.

"Take him inside!" Storm yelled. "Telepsa, can your dragon form carry him?"

Telepsa immediately shifted to her dragon form and nudged Colossus onto her back. Then she was off, darting into the mansion as fast as she could go. Her coordination didn't seem to be very good, though, as the sound of her scurrying, then thudding into a wall, then scurrying again and repeating the process sounded from inside the mansion. Backlash finally succeeded in hitting Samantha with her whip, and the lash caused the shape shifting mutant to fall out of her lion form and back to human in mid leap. She would have fallen to the ground, but Nightcrawler caught her and teleported her to safety.

Storm's eyes grew white, then, as she began calling up a storm to end this.

"Pyro!" Charm yelled. "Do we hold?"

There was a moment of silence, then, "No! Fall back, we're done!"

The invading mutants fled as lightning chased them, and a pouring rain quenched the last of the fires that Iceman had been unable to put out.

Do not chase them. Xavier ordered. The threat is gone, and we need to evaluate our situation.

Wolverine growled and probably would have disobeyed, but Cassandra had gotten a long gash down one of her legs and was currently leaning against him for support. Samantha was unconscious in Nightcrawler's arms, and Rogue had one of Gambit's arms around her shoulders as she struggled to hold him up. The others had various scraps, bruises, and injured limbs, but nothing too bad. Unfortunately, a good part of the backyard was in ruins.

"Gambit thinks this will take forever to clean up, non?" He murmured as Rogue helped him back inside, following the others.

Warren and Zephyr lingered outside in front of the door for a moment after everyone else had gone in.

"Sorry our date got interrupted." Warren told her. "You think we could try again something?"

"I'd like that." Zephyr said. "But our date's not over yet."

"It's not?" He asked, looking confused.

"Nope. The date's not over until you've kissed me good night." She said, giving him a bit of a shy smile.

"Oh!" Warren blushed a bit, then leaned over to place a gentle kiss on her lips.

Zephyr returned it, slipping her arms around his neck and absently running her fingers through the feathers on his wings. Then, she pulled away and smiled. "Good night, Warren."

She turned and walked inside, leaving him to stare after her with an expression that was both thoughtful and pleased.