I do not own X men. Thank you so much for the reviews!

John was dead. The Professor was dead. Scott was dead. Everyone around her seemed to be getting killed in this stupid war. Claire thought that coming to the mansion would free her from her sadness but it just brought more to her.

Her room was on the second story overlooking the maze, but it also overlooked the grave of the Professor. She avoided looking out it. Even though she hadn't known the Professor very well, she still shared in the heavy sadness that hung everywhere.

It took her several days but she finally went out to see it. She went at night, somehow the daylight seemed harsh and exposing these days. She stood in the moonlight in front of the monument erected in his honor. An eternal flame burned on it, casting shadows across the grass.

The Phoenix, Jean Grey, had completely disintegrated his body, Ororo said, so there were no remains.

Claire hadn't known Professor Grey personally, but she had been known for her kindness and intellect. The guys said she was a kind of nerdy supermodel and the girls looked up to her as everything they wanted to be.

Now just the mention of her sent chills up people's spines.

"Hey there." Claire turned towards the voice of Warren. He walked over and stood next to her, looking down at the memorial.

"Hi." she replied solemnly.

"It's nice here. I wish I could have met the man who started all of this." he said regretfully.

"He was okay." she shrugged.

Warren was confused. "You seem offly upset over a guy who was 'okay'"

"We didn't really see eye to eye I guess." she knew everything she said was encoded but she really wasn't in the mood for a confessional.

For a while neither of them said anything. Then Warren turned to her with an idea.

"Would you like to go for a fly?" he asked.

"No thanks." Claire wasn't to fond of the idea of being hundreds of feet in the air with nothing but someone's grip keeping her from falling.

"Oh come on. I only recently started to fly around. My dad has pretty much kept me under lock and key since he found out I was a mutant."

Claire looked at him in a different light. She had known his father was the man who had introduced this cure. Somehow she thought him being rich would mean he was more privileged and not have to go through the same abuse as everyone else.

"It's amazing up there." he coaxed.

She paused, but just for a moment. "Might as well." she shrugged. Suddenly she didn't care. So what if he dropped her? So what if they got hit by an airplane?

Warren shed his jacket and shirt and threw them to the side. Claire blushed slightly, it hadn't occurred to her that he wouldn't be wearing a shirt.

He stretched his wings to their full expanse and Claire gasped. Warren gave her a questioning look. Claire came closer, mesmerized by the moon reflecting off the pure white feathers.

"Can I touch them?" she asked.

"Sure." he said nervously. No one had ever touched his wings other than in experiments by his father's lab goons.

Claire circled around behind him, eyes wide in wonder. The moon made the wings look like two ghosts without conjuring the same fear as ghosts do. She let her hand gently brush over the silky feathers a few times. Then she noticed the wings' bones and touched their smooth surface as well. She was running her fingers along the bone when Warren shivered.

"That tickles!" he said, laughing a little.

His words brought her back to reality. This wasn't a pet or a piece of soft fabric, this was a person she was stroking and she suddenly was creeped out by her boldness. She let her hand drop and went around to the front of Warren.

"What do I do?" she asked him.

"Well, I've never taken someone along with me so..." he looked uncertain.

They tried a few different ways and decided that him holding her bridal style was the easiest and most comfortable. When she had wrapped her arms around his neck he swept her feet out from under her and counted down.

"3...2...1!" He unfurled his wings and flapped, sending them soaring into the night sky.

The air in Claire's lungs suddenly disappeared like it did when she rode rollercoasters. Her eyes forced themselves shut to protect themselves from the air they were moving quickly through. Then all of a sudden they stopped.

"Open your eyes." Warren said gently.

Her eyes flew open, but she hadn't expected to be up so high and they quickly closed again.

"Ahh!" she yelled in surprise. Her arms that had been draped around Warren's neck tightened so much that only the jaws of life could have pried them off. Her body began curling into a little ball to try and protect herself and Warren started to lose the steadiness he had had.

"Hey! Claire! Calm down! I've got you, don't worry!" trying to regain his hold on her.

Claire didn't relax but Warren regained his steadiness.

"Do you want me to go lower?" he offered. All she could do was nod.

He descended much slower out of consideration for her.

"I didn't realize you were afraid of heights." he apologized.

"I-I'm not." came her muffled stutter. She had buried her face between her arm and his chest in an attempt to avoid peeking.

He laughed. "You can open your eyes now." he assured her. She slowly peeked out and saw that they were indeed lower. They were right over a lake surface, their reflections looking up at them. Reflection Warren was smiling. Claire gazed at them and gave a small smile, the first one in days

"Why here?" was all she could get out.

"I don't know. I just thought you might like it." he shrugged.

"I do." she smiled a sincere smile not completely void of nervousness.

"Do you have any requests?" he asked.

"Um..." she tried to think of somewhere.

Before she could answer he had already started off. She tried to keep her eyes open the entire time, but she would flinch whenever he seemed inches from catching his wing on a tree. He stayed low to the ground this time and after a few minutes they had finally reached their destination.

"How did you know?" she laughed as he set her down in the center of the maze at the Xavier mansion.

"Lucky guess." he smiled. She spent a few seconds regaining her footing, his hands not leaving her waist. She broke away from him, smiling politely. He got the hint and led her to one of the paths leading into the rest of the maze.

As Warren turned the corner Claire heard a clicking noise behind her. She turned towards the benches and fountain that decorated the center of the maze and froze.

In a path entrance exactly opposite the one she stood in was John, who extinguished the flame from his hand ignitors, causing it to click. She stared at him for several moments, frozen in a moment in time.

"Claire?" called Warren.

Claire turned to look at him come back around a corner of the path. "Are you okay?" he asked, puzzled.

Claire turned back to look at John but he was gone.

"Yeah, I'm coming." she said, taking a hesitant step to follow him.

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