Katie she waited the few moments it took him to open the door, shifting from foot to foot. What should she say? Should she try and explain why it took her so long to return it, or just hand it to him? Should she say anything about how often she wore it, or just apologize for not getting it washed first?

The door opened, and Scott stood there, looking as though he'd finally been sitting down to relax after dealing with the not-so-terribly-pleasant hotel employees. He still managed one of his trademark, warm, knee-melty smiles, however. "Katie... is there something wrong?" he asked, puzzled by her presence.

Katie blushed, catching herself before she burst "Never mind!" and ran. She shook her head 'no'.

He sighed, leaning comfortably in the doorframe. "That's a relief... I've had to deal with these assholes for a good half hour and gotten about a million 'sir, this is a hotel, kindly remove your sunglasses, you don't need them" 's in the past ten minutes." he groaned, running his fingers through his hair and rumpling it so that it stood on end in odd places. Very cute. "So if anything were wrong, I'd probably explode, or implode. Whichever is more unpleasant." he finished, grinning slightly.

Katie laughed. "Well, I wouldn't want you to explode into Scott confetti..."

His grin widened. "Its nice to know someone doesn't want me to explode." There was a short pause, Katie tried to fight down the urge to give him a giant, sympathetic hug and give his hair a good ruffle.

"Well, I didn't come to give you any more problems to solve... just to, eh, give you back your sweatshirt..." She held it out to him, biting her lip. "Sorry it took me so long... I was going to put it through the wash or something first, but I kept forgetting." On purpose, of course. It was simply too much fun to sleep in the sweatshirt, the closest she'd ever gotten to sleeping in his arms.

Scott smiled, "That's fine, I don't mind. To tell you the truth, I almost forgot that you had it..." he chuckled, running his fingers through his hair again, accepting the sweatshirt with the other hand.

Katie blushed. Well, if he had forgotten she could have gotten some more use out of it! Damn.

Scott did a very unexpected thing, lifting the sweatshirt to his nose and inhaling deeply. He grinned, tucking the sweatshirt under his arm, "Besides, if you had washed it, then it wouldn't smell like you anymore..."

Katie was absolutely floored. She stood there, blinking at him, entirely uncomprehending. He wanted his sweatshirt to smell like her? "Th-thanks?" She squeaked out after what felt like an eternity, blushing deeply. Besides making a part of her wonder if maybe Nicole hadn't been right, it made her feel ridiculously good about herself and the way she smelt.

Scott's grin faded into a fairly calm expression, though the smile that remained failed to disappear. "Uhm, d'you want to come in? I'm just in the middle of unpacking... If you'd like to have a talk or something... you must be quite lonely since Nicole's not here." his grin returned at the end of his sentence as he mentioned Nicole.

Katie smiled, her blush (if it was possible) even darker and higher on her cheeks. "Uhm... sure, I'll come in... And yes, it does suck that Nicole's not here. Not that I don't like Kitty or anything... but Nicole." she sighed as she entered the room, Scott who had been standing aside to let her, shut the door behind her.

"But you and Nicole are inseparable? Yes, I've noticed" he chuckled.

"Well, it's what happens you know... we were really good friends before, being the only mutants and all..." Scott's room was, if possible, nicer than hers. Or at least it was a bit larger, though that could have been all in her head. Katie sat down in one of the comfy chairs (it would have been a bit too suggestive to right down on his bed. And she wasn't brave enough for that). "And we already knew each other before transferring, so it just got worse. Or better, depending on how you look at it."

Scott nodded, smiling sympathetically. He moved toward his bed, on which an open suitcase was laid, some of its contents were sitting in piles on the bed next to it as if Scott were about to put them away before Katie knocked. He bustled around putting things away. Putting a comb, his visor, and an extra pair of sunglasses on the bedside table. All the while he spoke to her, as though it were normal for her to sit and watch him unpack his personal possessions and have a conversation at the same time. "Naturally you and Nicole already had a bond, though a slightly strange one. You two have arguments often, don't you? I've seen you two sitting at opposite ends of the table at dinner then by the next morning be completely made up... "

"Well... we have different personalities, obviously... so there's a conflict every now and then. And it's never about anything important, so of course we manage to make up." Katie shrugged, though he had his back to her at the moment. Her relationship with Nicole was definitely not quite as weird as her relationship with Scott. They didn't have a relationship, did they? It was odd. She would have been confused as to whether he actually liked her or just felt sorry, but then he said things like the sweatshirt-bit, or acted as though they had a real, comfortable friendship going. "I don't think its that strange... I mean, all friends fight sometimes."

Scott turned to his suitcase again picking up a pile of socks, white T-shirts, and boxers and quickly stowing them into a conveniently near drawer. Then he turned to Katie once more, sitting on his bed for a moment. "Well, no. I suppose its not all that strange, but Its a little strange how you two haven't branched out at all, given that you're with kids of your own kind and age group now. That's all", he mused, shrugging then getting up once more. He seemed not to want to stay still. He flashed a smile at her before stowing the rest of his not particularly embarrassing articles of clothing in another drawer, then putting his suitcase in a small closet to the right of his bed.

Katie considered his comment. Well, yes they hadn't branched out... in fact, Katie hadn't even thought of really making any other friends other than Nicole. Though that certainly was an option... but it was sort of nice having only a small circle of friends (a somewhat complicated circle now that Arch was no longer her boyfriend... but he would get over her... right? They could become just good friends... right?) "Having Nicole to confide in. It's nice. Instead of having a huge, complicated, group of friends..."

Scott came to sit in front of her, on the very end of his bed, resting his head in his hands. He smiled, "Well, when you put it that way..." he chuckled, shrugging. Katie smiled, and Scott's lips spread into that wonderful, knee-melting grin once more and Katie was quite immediately glad that she was sitting. No matter how uncomfortable she felt.

He got up once more and Katie couldn't help but giggle behind her hand in slight amusement before he turned to her with a slightly quizzical look on his face. He raised a brow, and then seemed to decide against commenting. Instead he inquired, "Would you like a drink or anything? I've got some water bottles in the little refrigerator they've supplied," he offered, moving over to a small icebox that Katie had over looked. It was situated in the small space between the two separate bedside tables of the two teachers (slightly larger than Katie and Kitties') beds. "And you don't mind if I pull the shades...? My glasses are starting to give me a headache and the hotel put in shades similar to mine as a safety precaution..."

"Of course I don't mind!" She exclaimed earnestly. Why would she mind? She'd get to see his eyes, and its not like there was anything out the window worth seeing anyway. Just more parking lot bordered by vaguely brooding-looking trees.

"Thanks", as he was wrestling with the shades, she got up and made her way to the fridge.

"Would you like a drink? I can get you one while you're busy."

Her legs screaming as she stretched them stiffly, Katie moved to cross the room. She knelt before the small icebox and opened it, a cool draft of air playing over her knees. She shivered ever so slightly while goose bumps rose. The contents of the small refrigerator consisted of three bottles of spring water, and several of those small complimentary bottles of champagne, and a half of an orange wrapped in cling wrap. She took out two of the three bottles of water, and then turned around to face Scott, to see him turning away from the shaded windows, removing his sunglasses. His eyes remained closed for a short while as he massaged his temples gingerly, sighing.

She resisted the urge to sigh heavily as well, watching him. Poor Scott... it wasn't his fault that he had those headaches, and needed special, high tech shades to keep himself from blowing holes in people and/or furniture. He didn't deserve that, poor guy. So she stood there, watching him as he finished massaging his temples, and began very carefully opening one eye. When nothing adverse happened, he looked up at her, eyes all sparkly and wonderful as he smiled at her.

Katie held in a gasp. Scott's eyes flashed a bright blue/violet in the artificial lamplight in the room. It wasn't exactly unusual for a blue-eyed person to have their eyes shift colors slightly depending on the lighting. In fact, considering what other things that Scott's eyes were capable of doing, the slight color change was practically normal. Katie couldn't help but note that the violet had such a lovely effect on his warm smile…

It made Katie's knees feel more Jell-O like than usual. Katie gave herself a few seconds to admire Scott's amethyst-esque eyes before mentally shaking herself from her stupor, and willing her legs to cease their wobbling in order to move forward to hand Scott his bottle of water. He smiled, gratefully accepting the cool bottle, and pressed it to his forehead as he sat down on his bed. Katie sat down across from him on the (slightly more comfortable than a chair) second bed opposite him. She removed the cap and took a sip of her water, her mouth felt dry all of a sudden…

Scott tried to ignore Katie for a few seconds more as he soothed his temples, rolling and pressing the cool bottle to each painfully pulsating point. A part of him desperately wanted to avoid temptation and to send her away; while the other longed to have her remain and keep him company… he needed someone to talk to. His internal turmoil made his temples throb even more painfully. When the pain faded he sighed in relief, finally glancing up to see Katie shifting comfortably on Nightcrawler's assigned bed.

Their eyes met, and she smiled. Their eyes met…. He couldn't help but grin at this prospect, feeling rather cheerful after such a very horrible experience with irritable and biased staff, to look right into her eyes and have her acknowledge that he did so. "So, how do you like the hotel?" He asked in a rather cheerfully cynical manner, "They're very friendly people, the staff, aren't they?" he chuckled rather ironically, unscrewing the bottle cap and taking a sip of water, never breaking eye contact. It was nice, eye contact that is…

Katie's eyes crinkled slightly at the corners as her soft giggle of amusement stroked the increasingly (sometimes maddeningly) tender spot that he had developed for her. Scott nearly choked on his sip of water as the butterflies in his stomach started up again.

Katie, taking another careful sip of her water (terrified she'd do something stupid like spill it on herself and look like an idiot in front of him), was enjoying the eye contact as well. It was such a nice change, being able to see his (gorgeous!) eyes and really know that you were making eye contact with him. Oh, he had no idea, did he? How much she longed for those eyes to show her an emotion they never would?

Swallowing the heavy, admiring sigh until it was nothing more than a light exhale, she smiled ironically herself. "Yes, they are… I had an elevator man be kind enough to close his doors on me, even though there wasn't anyone else in the elevator." She took another careful sip, biting the urge to giggle simply because he made her happy. "Though I did meet a rather nice man she hadn't wanted to describe him as old; that seemed a bit mean who was waiting for the elevator too." Katie usually wasn't the type for prolonged eye contact, and with anyone else it would have creeped her out by now. But, this being Scott after all, she didn't mind too much. It was just so very easy to lose herself in those eyes, drowning in the blue/violet…

Scott rose his eyebrows a fraction of an inch. "A nice man? A nice hotel staff member? Or do you mean just a normal guy?" he queried, his voice sounded sort of funny to Katie, constricted and concerned.

Katie shrugged; it really wasn't that big of a deal to her. " Well I wouldn't call him 'normal'. He was a mutant too... he was uhm... well I wouldn't call him old, but he was on the elderly side. He had gray/white hair that sort of thing... But he had a cool metal suitcase that he made to follow him around. He could manipulate metal and magnetic forces..." she said, her voice becoming more and more animated as she saw Scott was listening intently, with an interested expression. She wondered for a moment why he looked so interested, but continued anyway. Maybe the hotel staff was so very boring that she seemed really thrilling by comparison? "He was really nice, though. Said his name was Eric. Eric L-something, I don't know, the door closed on the other half of his sentence. He looked a bit Jewish, maybe Levine? Something like that? But, yeah. He sort of made up for the irritating elevator-man." She paused for another sip of water.

Scott nodded, his face a mask of thought. He scratched his chin, apparently thinking. "You're sure that he said his name was Eric?" he inquired after a while, quite suddenly, making Katie jump slightly at the abruptness of the question.

She nodded fervently, "Mmhmm. He was just beginning to tell me his last name before we got to my floor and the elevator man gave me a nasty look. I got out and he didn't tell me the rest... he just said to have a good time on my school trip..." she explained. As Katie explained this to him, Scott broke their eye contact, looking slightly concerned.

He glared at the wall to his left (Katie's right) apparently deep in thought. He stood slightly and he began pacing. Before Katie could coax the reason for his concern from Scott however, with a loud PFFF Kurt appeared in a puff of blue smoke.

"Scott," he said, temporarily unaware of Katie. His amber eyes shone brightly in Scott's direction. " I saw..."

"Magneto?" Scott offered, finishing Nightcrawler's sentence for him, who nodded in agreement. "Katie", Scott gestured towards the hitherto unnoticed girl, "was just telling me about how she ran into him in the elevator".

Katie nodded as well, and Kurt smiled at her. "Only," she added, blushing a little and looking a bit awkward (and more than a little surprised to find out his identity), "I didn't know who it really was". So that nice old man she'd had a conversation with was really Magneto? She never would have guessed, never would have pegged him for the extremist that he was. But that was the whole point, wasn't it? Magneto wasn't really a "bad guy", not in the comic-book sense of right and wrong. Just someone who had a different view from their own. Thinking that the two adults would probably prefer to discuss this sort of thing without a student hanging around, she took it as her cue to leave. "I guess I'd better go, then. Thanks for letting me hang around?" She offered to Scott, getting up and starting for the door (more than a little reluctantly. She'd been having such a wonderful time staring off into Scott's eyes longingly...)

Scott looked up from exchanging extremely perturbed glances and concerns with Nightcrawler. He looked slightly let down, the eyes that would melt thousands of hearts if only they had the chance shone with disappointment. He nodded, sighing heavily, his hand moving to massage his temples once more. "Yes well, its dinner time anyway, you had better head down to the hotel dining room before you get seated with someone you really don't want to sit with." he shrugged.

Katie smiled sympathetically, really wishing that she could stay just a little longer. Scott really did seem sort of... well, lonely. He didn't deserve it, the poor guy. She allowed herself to put as much affection into her smile as was (not entirely) 'allowed' (i.e. a lot) before she left the room.

She laughed slightly when Nightcrawler waved slightly enthusiastically, grinning. "Save me un seat. I suppose zat no one vould vant to seet with a man with a devil tail...Oh und Scott too. He can't seet all by himself either!"

Katie nodded. "Okay!"

---

Authors' Note: Hello! Terribly, terribly sorry to be so late... the last bit of school is always the most stressful! Well, Rum and I have gotten out at last, and so we ought to be doing some serious catching up. To keep you all amused, we're having a contest!

-Self-inserted characters are practically a norm for fanfictions. First person to PM us correctly matching Rum and I with our respective self-inserted characters, will win a cameo!

It won't be as another schoolmate or a reccuring character, but it won't be a "and this chick walked by" sort of thing either. You'll get a few lines, and the satisfaction of inclusion.

Good luck!