It's a New Year

Thanks to the people who reviewed. So, since you requested it, here's the next (first) chapter.

Logan walked through the hall, dodging around running students.

"I'm serious, Bobby." Rogue said, rounding a corner up ahead, holding hands with Bobby. Logan smiled somewhat at the sight of the huge smile on her face and her hands free of gloves.

"It wouldn't work." Bobby said.

"What wouldn't work?" Logan asked, tilting his head somewhat in curiosity.

"Logan!" Rogue said, smiling more. "I was telling Bobby about that prank you mentioned. The one with the mentos and coke." They all moved to the side as more kids ran by. "They all seem pretty happy."

"Yeah except…were there always this many kids here?" Logan asked, dodging around another bunch.

"Well that one there can duplicate himself." Bobby said. He looked at Rogue. "Alright miss smarty pants, let's go try this out then."

"We'll have to do it outside." Rogue said. "We'll see you later, Logan." They walked away and Logan kept going until he got to the office that now belonged to Ororo but used to belong to Xavier. He walked in through the open door and Ororo looked up from the papers in front of her.

"Logan, hi." She said.

"Hey…everything good?" Logan asked.

"Everything's running smoothly." Ororo said, shifting the papers around. "All the bills are done, the students are all settled in. It might have taken a year but everything seems to be back to normal."

"As normal as we can get with Charles and Scott you mean." Logan said.

"Logan, it's been an exact year." Ororo said. "It hurts but he wouldn't want us…"

"Trust me, Storm. I'm fine." Logan said, smiling slightly.

"Alright…then go teach a class." Ororo said, smiling. Logan rolled his eyes but left. He went outside where Warren was with a bunch of students.

"Hey wings, how's it going out here?" Logan asked, approaching the group.

"Waiting for you." Warren said, turning slightly.

"I think you got a fan club." Logan said, quietly. Warren looked over at a few girls who were all looking at him with a dreamy expression. Logan smirked as Warren went slightly red. "Well I'm here now so you can go…do whatever it is you do."

"Right." Warren said. He left and the girls sighed in disappointment. Logan shook his head. He ran the kids through a series of work-outs.

Rain started falling and the young girl in the dark room looked out her window. She couldn't see much but it was still better to look at then the emptiness of the room. She didn't look any older then late-teens, early twenties. Her brown hair was long and somewhat tangled. In more light, scars were visible across her back and around her wrists. She wore a small shirt that covered her chest but left anything beneath it bare, as well as shorts that only reached mid-thigh.

"Oh…" She muttered, watching lightning strike down barely twelve feet away from the house she was in. She sighed and looked down, wincing as her hand touched her stomach. She didn't think about it long because the door banged open and her eyes snapped around to look at the dark figure that stood in the doorway. She closed her eyes but couldn't help the shiver as she awaited her 'punishment' for some crime or another that she had no clue existed, let alone had the ability to do.

She didn't have to wait long. She did, however, have to wait a while for it to stop and when it did she was too tired and beat to even care about her ritual. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall asleep. She didn't notice the puff of smoke that had suddenly appeared in the room but she did register the smell and the fact that she was being watched. With a slight whine, she opened her eyes and took a deep breath to scream but the man in the room with her slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Shh, shh, shh!" He said, pressing a finger of the other hand against his own mouth. "Please, don't scream." Her eyes widened as she looked at his hand. There were only three fingers! "If you stay quiet, I will get you out of here." Her eyes looked at his face which she couldn't see well. His voice had a German accent. She relaxed and he removed his hand. "Can you stand?"

"Umm…" She muttered, slowly getting onto her hands and knees. After a moment she stood up and wasn't fast enough to keep the whimper of pain covered up. The man in front of her whipped around to look at the door and ran into the wall. The girl winced at the noise.

"Time to go." The man said, spinning back around to look at her as light appeared under the door. "Hang on." Before she could ask, he threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. She closed her eyes as she felt herself suddenly move just as the door was thrown open. It was the strangest sensation ever and as soon as she felt ground beneath her feet, she would have fallen if he still didn't have a tight grip on her. She fainted then and the man's grip on her tightened.

Back in the room the man stared around before his eyes narrowed. He turned around to look at the other men that had followed him.

"Find her." He said. The other men left and he looked into the room again. "Somebody's in trouble…"

She woke up with the sun hitting her face. She rolled onto her side before she realized that she was on something soft. With a surprised gasp, she sat up and looked at the bed she was lying on. It wasn't very pretty but it was still softer then the hard floor she had been sleeping on for so long.

"You are awake!" She jumped as the man's accented voice reached her and she looked around before spotting him on the couch. She frowned because she really couldn't see him, only the trench coat and hat. "Do you have a name?" She didn't say anything but watched his head rise slightly. Not enough for her to see anything though. "Would you like to know mine first?" She still didn't say anything. "My name is Kurt Wagner. I am also known as the incredible Nightcrawler but that tale can wait." As soon as he said 'tale', a blue one fell from behind him and onto the couch where he sat before it lifted and swayed slightly.

"Oh…" She said, backing towards the head of the bed, her eyes wide.

"No, no, no. Please don't be afraid." Kurt said, grabbing at his tail with blue hands. "Please, I won't harm you. I promise." For some weird reason, she believed him. After all…he did safe her. She crawled across the bed before getting off it and walking over to him. She could feel his eyes watching her even if she couldn't see them. One of the blue hands went up and she stopped. "You don't want to come closer." She tilted her head. "You have yet to tell me your name."

"I…I don't…" She said, dropping her eyes.

"May I give you a name?" Kurt asked. She looked at him curiously before the tiniest of smiles appeared on her face as she nodded. "I think…you should be…Grace." Her head was tilted again. "I don't know you well…at all really…but you are handling all of this so gracefully." The tiny smile returned, slightly larger then before. It was gone after a while and she stepped closer. Before Kurt could stop her, she took the hat from his head so that his blue face and yellow eyes were visible.

He expected her to scream. Expected her to back away and look fearful. But all she, Grace, did was tilt her head again before reaching out and tracing one of the marks on his face. Her touch was light, as if afraid, but gradually as her finger left one mark and moved to another, the pressure increased and soon she was sitting next to him and examining all that she could see of his body. He explained the marks and she only nodded. Kurt was a bit amused by her fascinated look as she held one of his hands and turned it over to look at it from different angles.

"We have to be leaving soon." He said, finally. "Grace…" She looked up after a second. "I am going to bring you somewhere safe for you. But first…" He lightly pulled his hand from hers and got up. She watched him walk over to a bag by the bed that she hadn't noticed. "I have some clothes for you to wear to hide your own marks."

"Umm…thanks." Grace said. She changed into the blue long sleeved shirt and black pants before dragging her fingers through her hair to get the knots out. After a while she gave up and joined Kurt back in the main area of the motel room. They left shortly after. Kurt did a good job of hiding all his blue-ness as they went to the bus station and got on a bus. Grace wondered how they had gotten to the motel. If there was one thing she knew, it was that where she was…there was no civilization for quite a while in any direction you went.

"I don't think these people will try to hurt you." Kurt muttered, watching Grace as she looked at the people on the bus somewhat fearfully. She looked back at him before turning her attention to the window on the other side of him. She watched the landscape roll by and felt somewhat at peace now, feeling as if the farther she went, the more space she put between herself and danger. After a while Kurt told her that there was still quite a bit of traveling left to do and so she agreed to get some more sleep. Once she was asleep, Kurt looked out the window and contemplated how this had all come to be.

He had left the Xavier institute after the death of Jean Grey and did some traveling. He wasn't really sure why he felt like doing that but at the moment he was glad that he had decided to do it. Kurt had been sitting in a park when he heard some people talking about the old, seemingly abandoned, building to the north of the city that wasn't actually abandoned. He had heard that one of the people had gone by there and swore they saw a young girl, no older then their own child, who looked awful. Kurt, not normally curious about these things, went anyways and he watched through the window as the girl next to him was beaten.

What shocked him wasn't so much the beating (which was a considerable shock by itself) but, when he looked at the wall next to him, the plants that had climbed up were quivering as if angry. There wasn't any wind to make them move and he couldn't figure out how they were doing it. So he returned the previous night and waited until it was all clear before teleporting himself in and teleporting both he and the girl out…just in time too. He had then taken the unconscious Grace to the motel room and had rushed off to find some suitable clothes for her. He had returned barely ten minutes before she woke up. And now she was asleep again, leaning against him, and he felt the need to be protective of her. Thankful for the gloves he wore, he put an arm around her shoulders before closing his eyes. He didn't allow himself to fall asleep but that didn't mean he couldn't rest.

The only place he could think of safe enough to bring her was the Xavier institute and so that's where they were heading.