The clash of metal hitting metal resounded throughout the room as Loki opened the door and slipped into the shadows to watch Kurt finish his opponent. His movements were practiced and flawless, each parry, thrust, flourish of the epee was tight and controlled but of equal merit was the way his pupil at the opposite end matched his movements. If Kurt was a great fencer, he was an even better teacher.

Kurt and the student removed their face guards and shook hands. Loki stood to the side while the students filed out of the room and Kurt caught sight of him. He had unzipped and removed his outer jacket and was working off his chest protector as Loki approached him.

"I vas beginning to think I did something wrong."

Loki clasped his hands behind his back, "I am sorry. It is not you, it is I."

Kurt's face broke into a benevolent smile, "Mein freund, come sit vith me and talk. I've missed your company."

They sat in Kurt's room in the easy chairs, Loki sitting forward, elbows on his knees looking anything but easy. Kurt had seen him in the company of Grace all week and whenever he had tried to catch him, Loki had always claimed he was busy so Kurt was ecstatic that he'd finally come to see him on his own.

"I do not believe Thor gave him the picture. I think that Sarah sent it for me."

"Why do you think this is true?"

Loki cracked his knuckles, "Because if I believe otherwise, what is there left for me?"

"Your brother is a cad, so you say?"

Loki's frown deepened, "He takes liberties with Sarah. He has taken liberties with women his whole life. He is uncouth, barbaric, insatiable. If he seeks to punish me from afar, he has done well."

Kurt tapped the rim of his tea cup, "Perhaps, Loki, it is der vay it must go." He held up a hand as Loki started to speak, "Hear me out. You have not avoided me this veek so much as your time has been taken up vith Grace. Perhaps I vas wrong before."

"Wrong about what?" Loki watched him, his brow furrowed.

"You fit vell vith Grace."

Loki stood abruptly, "She is a dear friend, she has comforted me when I needed it most."

Kurt stayed in his chair as Loki paced the floor before him.

"I think you love Miss Archer, too."

Loki stopped, staring at Kurt, "I cannot."

"Vy,?"

He resumed pacing, "It is impossible to love two women."

Kurt grinned, "It is dangerous, not impossible, though to keep two vimmen is an injustice to dem and yourself."

Loki whirled around to face Kurt, "I do not love Grace, though she has become dear to me, my thoughts stay with Sarah. Please speak no more of this to me."

He sailed past Kurt out of the room, slamming the door behind him, his long legs carrying him swiftly down the hallway, angry that Kurt had turned the conversation to Grace, angrier still for the questions it had brought to mind.

Their friendship had become an easy one, unbridled, comfortable unlike the times with Sarah when they'd feared discovery at every moment they were able to steal together, but with Grace, theirs was enriched by their setting, enhanced by shared experiences and the acceptance of those around them.

Sarah was an agent, first and foremost. Her circle included those who would seek to imprison him, or worse. To her whole family, he would remain a monster, a threat to her career, unable to share in their lives. He had many times wondered if they would even accept and welcome his children when they were born.

He entered the darkened gymnasium and sat down on the bleachers in the far corner with only the light from the EXIT sign above the door for illumination. After the poetry reading, he and Grace had begun to spend an inordinate amount of time together, talking laughing, teasing one another. They had sat on one of the couches during movie night in the common room cuddled close, sharing a bowl of popcorn. Logan had only shaken his head when he glanced at them from the other side of the room. They had come to the kitchen to cook up a midnight snack, they had lain crossways on his bed one night reading from "Leaves of Grass" even though it had conjured up memories of Sarah for him, the poetry electrifying them both as was obvious when Grace sat up abruptly and told him she had to go as it was past her bedtime. They had even spent an evening doing laundry in the laundry room, just keeping each other company, she doing paperwork, he reading a book.

The door to the gymnasium creaked open, Loki could see by the silhouette that it was Kurt.

"I am over here."

Kurt walked across the gym floor and climbed up the bleachers until he was one bench below him.

"I vanted to apologize to you." Kurt had his tail in his hand, fiddling with the pointed tip,"I had no right to say anything about you und Grace."

Loki put his hand on Kurt's shoulder, "You did nothing wrong my friend. I should be the one to apologize to you. I should not have been so rude and in your quarters no less."

Kurt waved a hand, "Not at all, think nothing of it"

"You have given me much to think about."

"Oh? Das is good or bad?"

Loki scanned the dark gym, "I honestly do not know. I have discovered how fortunate I am to have found this place, made good friends," He smiled at Kurt, "and now I am left to wonder how much more I have discovered in the process."

"Take your time, Rome vas not built in a day, but I simply tell you dat if you find vat I said is so, den you must be honorable."

"It is difficult to discern what is honorable when your enemy does not play by the rules."

Kurt peered up at him, "Enemy? Vat enemy?"

"Those that separate Sarah from me. I would that it were so easy to go and speak to her, see her but I feel it may already be too late." he paused, rubbed his face with his hands, "I do have much to think about."

Thanksgiving week found the halls of the school preternaturally quiet. Many students had gone home for the holiday week though there were a goodly number who had no families to go to. Everyone had been assigned to pitch in helping to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner and to that end, Monday found Loki, Grace, Ororo and Logan at the A&P food store in Golden's Bridge.

Loki and Logan watched the women fill the carts, dutifully pushing them down the aisles as Grace with her clipboard, wrote incessantly as Ororo checked prices and contents.

"I don't know why I let ya convince me to come along, Ro. If I was in charge of this.."

"We'd be having franks and beans..." Ororo finished for him.

"Well yeah, I'd even heat them up, geez."

Loki leaned against a nearby shelf, "Correct me if I am wrong, this is a holiday celebrating food?"

Logan nodded, "Ya got it, pal." but Ororo gave Logan a look.

"That's how we celebrate the holiday yes, but it's about the Pilgrims who were saved by the generosity of the Wampanoag Indians during their first year here in America and they celebrated with a harvest feast of Thanksgiving together with the Indians.'

"Well, at least that's the way we're told it happened but there are differences between legend and reality.." Grace interjected,

"Pilgrims?" Loki turned to Logan.

"See," Logan shoved a thumb in Loki's direction, "Now I knew you'd lost him early on, just give him the basic idea will ya, or we'll never get out of this aisle."

Grace smacked him with the clipboard, "Oh shut up, don't be such a whine ass."

Ororo grabbed the end of one cart and pulled it farther down the aisle toward the stuffing section. "It's so tricky to shop for a small group. It's one thing for the cooks to buy in bulk for the whole school, but to judge for a large dinner party well that's the harder part."

"Thanksgiving has changed just like other holidays, just like Christmas being all about the presents.."

"Christmas.."

"Oh you gotta be kidding," Logan threw his hands in the air, "the biggest holiday of the year and you don't know about it. Excuse me, just what did you all do in Asgard, didn't you pay attention to what was happening on the bottom floor?"

"When the religion of the gods passed out of favor, we simply withdrew from Midgardian life. We cared not what they did. They knew not what we did. It was a mutual separation."

They followed Ororo down the end of the aisle and started up the next one, "Thanksgiving is celebrated now by football games,"

"Ah the game the males play in the field with two forks,"

"Goal posts, ah geez, now you make it sound all sissy like." Logan winced.

"And parades and a huge dinner," Grace continued, "Families get together, friends too. It's a holiday for giving thanks for what you have, your health, loved ones around you, even for getting to see yet another Thanksgiving..that's the literal translation..giving thanks. Does it make any more sense?"

"A holiday for giving thanks, yes. Like the feasts we have in Asgard to celebrate a marriage or a birth." he looked down at the floor then, Grace noticing and changing the subject abruptly, "How many students did I say we have remaining in the school?"

Logan tapped the clipboard in her hand, "Don't you got it written down?"

"Ah yeah," She flipped the first page over, "Thirty students and about half the staff. We're gointo be busy for the next few days. I'm glad Cookie said she'd stay on to help us."

Cookie was the head cook at the school and lived in North Salem. She wasn't going to Thanksgiving dinner until later thanksgiving evening so she'd offered to help them with the dinner prep and cooking.

"Personally, I can't wait for the pies." Logan said as he handed up half a dozen cans of pumpkin puree to Loki who tossed them in the cart.

"Why did Kurt not come with us today?" Loki paused, a can in his hand.

Ororo looked at Grace and Logan then at Loki, "Not all people are as understanding as those at the school."

When Loki tilted his head, Ororo sighed, "He looks radically different than you and I and that scares people so he has to stay at the school."

"That seems cruel. Why can he not do as he wishes?"

"It's more than cruel, I agree, and Kurt can do as he wishes, he just stays at the school because he understands the scene it can cause."

"Who would dare to cause trouble with any of us?" Loki glanced around the aisle they were in, "What fool would challenge me?"

Logan peered at him, "You think you're pretty tough don't you."

"Tough? Perhaps confident, would that suit you better?"

"Remember who you're talking to, the guy that throws you to the mat four days a week." Logan waggled a finger at him.

"Would you rather I resisted each time? I did not believe that was the premise of the class."

Ororo snickered, "Go ahead Loki, next time he tries to throw you, don't let him. I'd like to see him hobble around with his back thrown out."

Grace watched a smile play around Loki's lips as he shook his head, "If I were to do that, I would be left to teach the class alone and I am far from qualified."

"Hey, who said I wouldn't be able to throw you anyway?"

Loki nodded, "When we get home, we shall see, content?"

Logan grunted, "I wouldn't want to hurt my assistant, I've got too many squealing girls on my hands now."

They piled one cart with seven gallons of milk and Ororo sighed, "We're just about done here. We'll get checked out and then we'll go next door and get pizza, that sound okay with you guys?"

"Oh sure," Logan teased, "Anything to get out of cooking, right?"

Ororo turned to him with a smile, "That's right, considering I was going to make you cook tonight."

"Ooo, she told you." Grace added as they wheeled the groaning carts into the register aisle.

Grace and Ororo watched the clerk scan the items and the bill climb, at one point Grace leaning to Ororo and whispering that it was a good thing that this went on the school's checking account. Ororo handed the clerk the card while Loki and Logan stood at the end of the register staring out the window. "Getting darker earlier each day. I hate winter."

Loki nodded, "As do I."

"Still talking Shakespeare?"

Loki shrugged, "Still murdering the English language?"

Logan let out a great guffaw, "A comeback, whoa. I'm impressed." He shook Loki by the arm while the latter swatted at him.

The sun was setting as they wheeled the overloaded carts through the slushy parking lot to the big black van parked close in the third row. Ororo had reached out for the handle of the van's sliding door when all at once there came three loud bangs in succession along the side of the van. Grace who had her hands on the handle of her cart screeched, arching backwards as a snowball struck her hard between her shoulder blades. Loki whirled around to see three teenagers not more than a hundred feet away starting to run, laughing as they slipped through the snow covered parking lot heading for the side of the building to their right. "Fucking freaks!" One of them shouted behind him nearly losing his footing in the process.

Grace felt Logan brushing her off and she looked at Loki, stepping back as his image shimmered and disappeared, Ororo had been watching where the teenagers had run and Grace's yell startled her back to the group. "Where the hell did Loki go?"

The teenager slipped again just before making the corner of the building but regained his footing, still laughing breathlessly, yelled, "Guys, wait for me holy fuck!" just before the remaining breath was knocked from him by an arm across his stomach, clothes-lining him to the wet pavement behind him.

Loki bent down and snatched him up by the front of his jacket, holding his feet above the ground, "You will apologize to Miss Archer."

He carried the youth who was coughing, trying to catch his breath, kicking to get free though his feet were being dragged along behind him, up to Grace who stood there, open mouthed, staring, and set the youth before her, "Apologize."

"Hey fuck you man, fucking fre.." A loud thud followed the youth's head as it bounced off the side of the van when Loki's hand shot out, shoving the boy backwards and holding him there.

"Loki!" Ororo cried

"Continue to spew your vulgarities in front of the ladies and I shall not hesitate to rip your tongue from your mouth you rude, uncouth whoreson."

"Loki, let him go." Ororo's hand was on his arm. He glanced at her, then back at the boy, snarled at him, then relaxed his grip enough to allow the boy to slip back to the ground beside the van, but retained his hold on his jacket.

"He will apologize before he leaves."

"Alright, alright," The boy shouted, "I'm sorry, fuck!"

Logan's hand stopped Loki's forward motion before he could return the boy to his former position, "Come on, let him go, he's ignorant. Just a stupid kid. We don't want to hurt him."

"We do not?"

Logan pulled Loki's hand from the youth's jacket, the boy sliding around them and running the way his friends had gone, yelling behind him yet again, "Fucking freaks!"

The sirens in the distance made Ororo lean against the van with a hand to her forehead, "Here we go."

Loki turned to Grace, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine, what the hell did you do just then? You were here then you weren't. I seem to have missed that. You're a teleporter too?"

Loki didn't answer her, instead turning her around to see the back of her jacket, "You are sure you are well?"

"Yes Loki, I'm fine, that was very chivalrous of you, even though we're going to catch hell for it."

The cop cars pulled up in the parking lot where they could see the three youths who had originally thrown the snowballs run up to the cars and point in their direction.

"We could get in the van and leave like we didn't know what happened," Logan suggested.

"Not now we can't, we've got these groceries to load, let's at least start that." Ororo slid the side door open then walked to the back and opened the large double doors in the rear. "Now Loki, you're John Connor, if you protest, I swear you won't be allowed in the library for a month."

Loki bit his lip, the library was a near nightly thing for him, as quick a reader as he was. He nodded.

They were handing the bags in to Logan when the cop cars rolled up to the van and stopped. An officer, tall, ruggedly handsome, walked up to the van and looked at the group. "We just got a call from some youths that said one of your group grabbed him and shoved him against the van here for no reason. Now I know these kids and I'm pretty sure there had to be some reason. Would any of you care to elaborate on what happened?"

Loki was silent, listening to Ororo explain what had happened, when the teens had thrown the snowballs, and when Loki had run after them, grabbing the last teen and bringing him back to the van to apologize.

"You should leave that to the police. You should have called us when it happened." He turned to Loki.

"Sir, your name please?"

"John Connor." He could see Ororo behind the officer mouth "Thank you."

"Can I see identification?" The officer held out his hand.

"I regret that I have left it at my place of residence."

The officer looked at Loki for a minute, then swept the group, "Is he for real?"

Logan's jaw tightened and he balled his hands into fists, "Yeah he is, he was brought up properly unlike the scumbag kids around here."

The officer looked at Logan, "I can't say you're completely wrong sir, however he still grabbed the teen. I'm going to try and convince them not to press charges since they started it and I know Dylan's dad is up for re-election. That's all they need is bad PR, I'd suggest, Mister Connor, that you start carrying identification in the future."

The officer turned to Ororo, had her tell him the address of the school, the phone number, and said he'd be back to talk to them in a few minutes. They watched the officer gesturing towards them, talking to the boy, pointing to the store.

Grace looked towards the pizza place at the far end of the lot beside the grocery store. "I'm going to go order pizzas, we should be done soon and it's getting later. What does everyone want."

Ororo shrugged as did the others and Grace put a hand on her hip, "I'm going to order what I want then and if no one likes it, I can't help you."

"Cheese," Ororo said, Logan adding, "Sausage, geez"

Loki shook his head, "I have no preference."

She gripped her clipboard close and headed across the parking lot to the walkway in front of the grocery store.

"Should I go with her?" Loki looked at Ororo.

"No you stay here just in case the officer has to talk to you."

He was about to protest when the officer turned and headed back to the group, stopped in front of them. "The boy said he's not going to press charges but I suggest the next time something like this happens, you call the police instead of trying to handle it yourself, okay?" He glanced at Loki, "And you get some I.D on you."

The officer nodded to them and trotted back to his cruiser.

"Come on," Ororo slid the side door closed while Logan slammed the back doors shut. "Let's go eat if we can."

Loki stared off into the distance, listening to the others talk as they waited for the pizza.

"I thought for sure that we were going to end up at the police station." Logan gestured at Loki, "That was quite a trick though. I didn't know blue boy had taught you a few tricks."

He half heard Logan, his mind as far away as his attention, "He did not teach me this one."

Grace heard the flat tone of his voice and put a hand on his thigh causing him to jerk away though he didn't look at her. He felt her slide away from him a bit and his mood grew darker.

"This is what I mean, can you imagine if Kurt had been with us?" Ororo took a sip of soda.

"Yes, he would have cornered them all and dragged them back by his teeth." Loki muttered.

"And maybe gone to jail for it. Violence is not always the answer." Grace chided him,

"And what of this code of Hammurabi that I have heard of, an eye for an eye? Does that not make more sense?"

Grace folded her arms, "I would think that Kurt would have schooled you on the bible with all the time you spend in his company. What about turning the other cheek?"

"What about "Vengeance is mine?" we have discussed the bible indeed."

"Guys, pizza?" Ororo put her hands up to silence them as the waiter set the pizza in the middle of the table. Ororo handed out the plates, Grace taking Loki's and setting it before him when he kept his gaze on the table top.

As she handed out the slices, Grace put one on Loki's plate. "You might want to eat. It's a long time until breakfast."

She watched him for a moment, shrugged when he didn't move and picked up her own slice.

After a time, his stomach won out and he made short work of the slice before him.

"Do you want another?" Grace asked, handing him another when he wordlessly held out his plate to her.

"Yeah a little meat on them bones wouldn't hurt you a bit." Logan quipped.

It was approaching seven in the evening by the time they left the pizza parlour and piled into the van for the ride home, Logan up front talking to Ororo, Loki and Grace in the bucket seats across the way from each other. He had leaned his head back against the rest and closed his eyes, trying to force from his mind the still present images of himself taking the boy by the throat, crushing his windpipe until his fingers met through muscle, bone and flesh, finally cracking his skull on the pavement. Grace slid a gloved hand into his own as it dangled by his side and this time he squeezed her fingers gently in response.

"Thank you," She whispered. "For giving that little shit hell."

He turned his head towards her, raised her hand and planted a kiss just below the knuckles. She could feel the pressure of his lips on the leather for a brief second, her mouth dry, heart beating a staccato rhythm in her chest as he let her hand go and returned to his former position. She touched the spot on her glove furtively, pressing her thumb to it as if to hold the kiss in place and closed her own eyes to rest, unaware of Loki's gaze across the expanse of the van's interior.

They had finished putting the food away in the large refrigerators by ten. Grace had then excused herself and headed upstairs to her rooms where she had set down on the bed and drawn her gloves off, holding them in her hands, the events of the day replaying in her mind. Loki revealing yet another talent, defending her honor, kissing her hand, that was the big one. She'd wanted to keep holding his hand but knew full well that wouldn't have gone unnoticed by Ororo or Logan of course most of all by Loki.

The time they were spending together nowadays felt like a gift. A barrier had been crossed that night in the kitchen. They had subsequently begun to spend their free time together and when she would see in her head the images she had received from him when there had been nothing but pain and rage and destruction in his mind seemed like a forgotten nightmare, no more so than the times when they seemed so close, so intimate, something she'd never had before, that she'd had to step back and remind herself that he wasn't hers to have. The night they'd read poetry to each other had been particularly difficult, listening to him, his voice, feeling his shoulder, hip, touching her own, she had forced herself to leave, willing herself not to run from the room for the impossible thoughts she'd been entertaining. Now he had defended her, put himself in danger. If that punk had decided to tell the cops his name, it surely would've gotten to Fury in New York that he'd been in trouble, that might have initiated another visit from Thor. He'd taken a great chance in doing what he did and it left her to wonder how deep his feelings ran in return.

She stood up and put the gloves on her nightstand, pulling her dark blue sweater over her head and tossing it in the laundry basket beside the bathroom door, unzipping her jeans and stepping from them where they joined the sweater in the basket as she walked into the bathroom, emerging minutes later in a long nightgown, sliding between the sheets and turning out her nightstand light, the grey-blue light of a snowy sky casting a shadowless glow into the window beside the sitting area. She sighed then, reached to the nightstand, pulled her gloves onto her pillow and closed her eyes.