A/N-

I just wanted to give brief shout out to Soleana who left one of the nicest reviews I've ever received. Thanks so much for your kind words, I just wish you'd left a signed review so I could thank you more directly!

Kitty let her shoulders sag slightly as she put her hand on the door to the chemistry classroom. It was her last class of the day, and boy was she ready for school to be over.

It was the first day of her second to last year of high school. Things were supposed to be comfortable and familiar at this point. No longer an awkward freshman, but without the fears for the future that the seniors had. Everything was supposed to be just right.

Instead, everything had been just awful. She'd hoped that things would have been better than last year after their powers had abruptly been revealed mid-year, but she'd been wrong. If anything, the time since then had done more to sour the attitudes of the human students to mutants, rather than improve them.

She'd started the day by finding out she wasn't allowed to try out for the track team. She'd then spent the morning under the hard stares of people she'd once considered friends. A botched attempt to talk things over with Principle Kelly about allowing her to try out for the track team had only succeeded in working her up further. To top it all off she'd lost control of her powers and phased right through a chair she had meant to sit in.

If the Professor found out about her slip he'd be more than a little disappointed in her lack of self control. Luckily she didn't have a destructive power, or her sore temper could have caused a lot more damage.

Speaking of mutants who's bad moods caused destruction, Kitty felt her mood darken even more when she pushed open the door of the chemistry classroom.

Lance Alvers sat in the back corner, leaning back on his chair so that only two of the chair legs were on the ground. His eyes were half closed with his hands resting behind his head. He looked the image of relaxation and indifference, and she hated seeing him there.

Another thing that she had hoped for after they took down Apocalypse was that Lance would rejoin the X-Men.

It had been the perfect opportunity. Lance, along with the rest of the Brotherhood had come to their aid when they needed it most. They were doing good. They were being heroes for real this time. Not even Scott would be able to come up with a good reason for denying Lance acceptance into the Institute.

Maybe she had pushed too hard trying to get him join. Maybe Lance never was going to come over to their side. Whatever the reason, in the end what had seemed to be the perfect point for them to re-start whatever it was that was between them, ended with everything falling to pieces.

She'd gone back to the Institute, and he returned to the Brotherhood falling back on his old ways ,and that had been that. She hadn't seen Lance, let alone spoken to him in months, and she had been perfectly okay with that.

But now he was here, intruding on her already rotten day.

And she was staring at him.

Catching herself in the act, Kitty shook her head and turned away. She was thankful that his eyes were downcast and he hadn't appeared to notice her. Straightening her shoulders, she walked confidently into the classroom, defiantly ignoring that particular corner of the room. He wasn't worth her time or her notice.

She took a seat in the front row, where she'd be sure not to see the slightest hint of him.

At the front of the class, Mr. Rodden began writing down notes about thermodynamics. With a groan, Kitty pulled out her notebook to start copying down the words on the board. Not that she should be surprised, Mr. Rodden was notorious for being one of the most difficult teachers in school, so of course he wouldn't adhere to the 'no work on the first day' rule.

She smiled to herself at the thought that she still had the coolest chemistry teacher around available to her. Everyone had loved Mr. McCoy's classes during his brief stint at Bayville High, and she at least had benefited when he left his job here.

Thoughts of Beast teaching chemistry brought back memories of stink bombs, which led to places she didn't want to be thinking about. Namely the corner at the back of the room.

Not worth your time, Kitty, she insisted to herself again. So not worth your time.

Kurt had been right earlier, things were only going to get worse.

Rogue made her way into the institute, walking through the great double doors that opened up to the large, sweeping foyer. She couldn't have been happier to be home.

Logan, who was just walking down the wide staircase as she came in, nodded at her in greeting.

"Tough day, kid?" He asked in his usual gruff manner as they passed each other.

"How'd ya know?" She drawled in response.

"Definitely wasn't the sunshine and rainbows spouting out of your ears," he rumbled, causing Rogue to crack a smile.

Logan paused a moment at the door, his hand set to push it open. "If you get a moment, you might want to head up to the kitchen and talk to Ray. Seems like he had a rough time adjusting to high school."

Rogue started. "You want me to talk to him?" She asked, her Southern accent leeching out heavier than usual in her surprise. She wasn't exactly known for being good at having heart to heart conversations with people.

"Better you than me, Stripes."

Rogue rolled her eyes, but she had to agree with his assessment. Logan may be the only one less well equipped to deal with other people's problem than she was.

"Fine, I'll talk to him," she relented. "Where are you off to anyway?" She asked, noticing for the first time the motorcycle helmet tucked under his arm.

"It was all your first day back at school, and everyone I've seen so far looked like hell," he replied. "I'm planning on getting out of here before I get roped into cuddly conversations to cheer you up."

"So you're ducking out and leaving me to deal with them?" Rogue raised an eyebrow at him. Apparently the one thing that scared Logan was angsty adolescents.

Logan shrugged noncommittally. "Like I said, better you than me." Almost as an afterthought he added, "Besides, I think you'd be a good person for him to hear from in this case." With that he pushed open the door and was gone.

Rogue scowled at the place he had been standing, then turned and headed up the stairs. If Logan thought she should talk to Ray, then she might as well get it over with.

As Logan had said, Rogue found Ray in the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter with his hands resting on the marble countertop behind him and a brooding expression on his usually up beat face. His bright orange bangs which normally stood up stock straight, drooped over his left eye which was surrounded by a dark ring.

"Logan sent you to talk to me?" Ray asked, surprise and a little bit of disbelief lacing his words.

"He said you had a rough day," Rogue replied, feeling no more comfortable with this arrangement than Ray appeared to be.

"Can we just leave it at "I had a rough day"?" Ray asked hopefully. Rather than meet her eye, he turned his head to look out the window.

Outside it was beginning to rain, not a lot, but the heavy clouds rolling in hinted at an oncoming downpour. Rogue could see Logan on his motorcycle, just reaching the gate at the edge of the property. She was absurdly pleased to see the rain fall on him after he left her with this arduous chore.

"We could, but Logan will be back later and then you'll have to have this conversation with him," Rogue countered. "Why don't you just spit it out and be done with it?"

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Rogue pursed her lips and leaned against the opposite counter. She tried her best to appear as if she had no better place to be and wasn't intending on going anywhere soon, when in truth she could think of a dozen things she'd rather be doing.

"I got in a fight at school today," Ray sighed, his words coming out stilted and reluctantly.

"That much is obvious," Rogue nodded toward the shiner gracing his face. "Did you use your powers?" Rogue hadn't heard of any freak electrical discharges at school today, but the prospect of Ray using his powers in a fight against humans was undoubtedly a bad one.

"No," he replied forcefully, turning back toward her. "But I should have, or I wanted to, or I don't know." Rubbing a hand across his face, Ray let out a groan. "Let me explain."

Shifting his weight onto his hands resting on the counter behind him, Ray hoisted himself up a top the counter. He sat there with his feet swinging off the ground and started speaking.

"High school…" his voice trailed off as if searching for the right words. "High school's different than I expected."

That's what everyone says, Rogue thought wryly to herself. Supposedly the best time of your life, until you find out that its hell.

"It wasn't so bad, everyone knowing we were mutants last year," Ray continued, his eyes downcast. "We were the older ones in school. No one messed with us because we were the big guys. Following social hierarchy I guess. At Bayville High though? We're freshmen, freshmeat," Ray was beginning to sound almost frantic at this point, but at least his speech was no longer stilted. At least they were getting somewhere. "We're easy targets.

"It was during lunch. I was outside when I saw this group of guys corner Roberto and start calling him out for being a mutant. I got fed up listening to them so I stepped in."

"So, you got into a fight with them," Rogue let the words fall blandly. This was beginning to take longer than she had hoped.

"Yeah, and apparently I don't focus enough on my powerless training," Ray said, a tinge of dark humour in his voice as he pointed at his black eye. "I'd look a lot worse if it weren't for the fact that a teacher came out and broke us up."

"A fight with bullies? That's what's got you so down that Logan sent me of all people to talk with ya?" Rogue asked, starting to feel irritated by how must of a waste of time this endeavor had turned out to be. "Scott dealt with Duncan and half the football team on a daily basis last year."

"Well, I'm not Scott," Ray replied harshly. "I'm not the leader guy who sets an example for everyone else. I wanted to fry those guys!" His hands fisted tightly in his lap, and Rogue could see a muscle tighten in his neck. "I still do!"

Did he think Scott hadn't itched to take off his shades and give Duncan a dose of his own medicine a thousand times over?

"You think that would have helped," she snorted, entirely unimpressed with him. He might have been only a few years younger than her, but he was taking this like a complete child.

"Would have made me feel better that's for sure," Ray replied just as sourly. "Don't you ever wish you could just slip off a glove and knock someone out when they call you a freak?"

"No, no ah don't," she replied quickly, and angrily. That was an entire can of worms this boy did not want to be opening. "Ah don't like using mah powers, 'cause they hurt me."

"I forgot, you're all high and mighty like Scott now aren't you?," Ray scoffed turning back to the window. "Are we done yet? Or is the part where you tell me I would have hurt myself emotionally if I used my powers against a poor defenseless human? I shouldn't even have fought them in the first place, right?"

That was exactly what she had been going to say. Coming from him she realized how ridiculously clichéd and fake it sounded. How much like Scott it sounded. That thought stopped her short.

Taking a deep breath she tried to take this seriously rather than the small annoyance she had up till this point. There must have been a reason why Logan wanted her to be the one to talk to him, so maybe she needed a second to see things from Ray's perspective.

She was used to being an outcast even before she'd discovered her powers. At school, ever since mutants had been revealed to the world, she'd been dealing with the constant bullying. Ray had said he hadn't. This was new to him.

Maybe she should cut him some slack.

"No Ray, I'm not gonna say that," she replied, her voice no longer angry. Be honest with him, she told herself. "Because ah probably would have done the exact same thing you did."

"You would have?" Once again a look of surprise crossed his face. Not so much like Scott now, am I?

"Look, ah get where you're comin' from, and you're right, there are times when I'd love to hurt everyone at school who tells me ah don't belong there," she replied . "And ah know how shitty you feel right now. Scott would tell you exactly what you just said, but ah think you did the right thing."

"Really?"

"You stood up for a friend, but you held yourself back from actually hurting anyone," Rogue reasoned. "Sounds good to me."

Ray seemed to deflate at that. Without the anger, he just looked like a sad kid. A kid who shouldn't have to deal with such harsh persecution. "Does it ever get any easier? Dealing with it all?"

"No," Rogue replied, remembering the uncomfortable stares that always followed her in the hallways. "But we just have to deal with it anyway."

With a puff of sulfurous smoke Kurt appeared in front of the door to Kitty and Rogue's room. He was clad in his comfiest pair of pajamas, and had a phone clutched between the three fingers of his right hand. He reached his other hand up to knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Kitty's voice floated back to him.

"It's me," Kurt replied.

"Come in."

Rogue was sitting on her bed, her knees tucked up to her chin and a book resting on them. She had headphones in, blaring music loud enough that Kurt could just pick out the strings of The Blistering Boils latest hit. She lifted a hand to wave when he entered, but then returned to her book.

Across the room Kitty was sprawled out on her bed. Open in front of her were both a notebook and what looked like a chemistry textbook.

"Kitty, we've only had one day of class," Kurt grinned. "What could you possibly be studying for?"

"I have Mr. Rodden for chemistry," she groaned dramatically. "He's giving us a quiz tomorrow to see how much everyone remembers from last year."

Kurt winced. He'd had Mr. Rodden last year, an experience he'd gladly forget.

Kitty flipped both the textbook and notebook closed, before sitting up in her bed. "What's up?" She asked, tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her ear.

"I was hoping you'd do a favour for me," Kurt said, holding the phone out to her. "Would you call Amanda's house?"

Kitty looked at him quizzically. "You want me to call Amanda? She's your girlfriend."

"I know, but her parents don't want her talking to me," Kurt replied, hoping she would go along with his scheme. "So, I thought maybe you could call, just in case her parents pick up. Then you can hand the phone over to me."

He never should have doubted her. Kitty's eyes lit up and she grinned at him. "Sure Kurt, I'll be like Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliette," she said gleefully. She reached a hand out and took the phone from him. "What's her number?"

Kurt supplied it and waited anxiously as the phone rang. After a moment he heard the click of someone picking up on the other end of the line.

"Hi, could I talk to Amanda?" Kitty spoke into the phone. Kitty was silent for moment while someone on the other end said something. "It's Ki-Katherine," Kitty caught herself, sending a conspiratorial wink in Kurt's direction. Another pause as the other speaker said something, followed by Kitty replying, "Great. Thanks."

She took the phone from her ear, and held it back out to Kurt. "It was her mom. She's just going to get Amanda."

"Thanks Kitty, you're the best!"

"I know," Kitty grinned cheekily. "Now run off Romeo, you don't want us listening in on your lover's talk."

Laughing at Kitty, Kurt placed the phone against his ear and teleported back to his own room. Once there, through the phone he heard the tell-tale signs of someone handing off a phone someone else.

"Hello?" Amanda's uncertain voice met his ears.

"Hi, it's Kurt," he said, almost giddy that his plan had worked.

"Kurt? How'd you manage to convince my mom to let you talk to me?" Amanda asked, her voice raised in surprise. Nonetheless, she sounded happy with the results.

"It wasn't me," he replied. "We have our dear friend Katherine to thank for giving us this chance to talk to each other."

"Katherine? Oh you mean Kitty!" Kurt could hear the smile growing on her face. "Kurt, you're a genius!"

"I have my moments," Kurt replied. He was definitely feeling giddy now. Settling himself comfortably on his bed, he asked "So, how was PE?"

"You were so right Kurt, that woman's a monster," Amanda replied animatedly, falling easily into the conversation. "My calves are still sore from running!"

With firm hands, Spyke climbed down the rungs of the ladder which led into the bowels of the sewers. Leaping off the last rung, he landed with a small splash in a puddle of water which had accumulated due to the heavy rain. Choosing not to think about what he could be walking in, Spyke sloshed through the water in the direction of the Morlock's den.

After months of living in the sewers he knew them like the back of his armor-plated hand. The twists and turns which would have lost others like a labyrinth were more than just a home to him. They were security for those he had come to think of as family.

Unsurprisingly, Callisto was the first to hear his approach. She looked up, her one good eye furrowed not in suspicion as it once had been, but in faint concern. "You're back." It was as close to a warm welcome home as he'd ever hope to get, and that was just fine.

A tap on his arm had Spyke looking down to see Torpid at his side. Her oversized hands, which would have garnered many stares (and worse) above ground, were safely enclosed in her large rubber gloves. Her eyes were wide and worried, a question in the corner of her mouth.

"No sign of him yet, kid," Spyke tried to keep his voice light for the child's sake. Torpid nodded, accepting his answer, but the slight crease in her brows didn't disappear. He ruffled her hair in a brotherly fashion, which brought a small smile to her young face. "Don't worry, everything'll be fine."

Behind Torpid, Callisto was beckoning at him. "Catch ya later," he called to Torpid, then went to follow Callisto down a side passage she had entered.

He found her leaning against the wall of the sewer, seemingly unperturbed by the mysterious piles of something clinging to the surface beside her. "It's been three weeks since we've seen him Callisto," Spyke said. "Aren't you even a bit worried?"

"I've told you before Spyke, Calliban doesn't need you looking after him," Callisto replied, her eye hard. "Before you joined us there'd be times when he would go off on his own for long periods of time and we wouldn't hear a thing from him."

"But for this long?" Spyke implored, trying to get her to see reason. "Callisto, I'm telling you. Something's not right about this."

"And I'm telling you that in a week when he shows up you'll realize how ridiculous you've been for worrying over him," she replied.

Her expression softened, and she reached up to put a hand on his shoulder, not at all phased by the spikes that sprouted there. "Spyke, I appreciate how much you care for us, I really do, but we're a more independent bunch than Xavier's kids. He'll be fine, trust me."

Taking her hand from his shoulder, she turned and flicked her wrist in a wave. Then she headed back up the passage.

"I hope you're right," Spyke muttered as he watched her disappear into the gloom of the sewers.

A/N-

So another chapter all done. This one took a little more effort for me to iron out all the details, especially the conversation between Rogue and Ray, but I'm reasonably pleased with the results.

As always, I'd love to hear from you, and I try my best to reply to any and all reviews I receive!