Kendra might have been cool and confident during classes on Friday, but the moment she'd finished all of her homework she realized she was nervous about her date the next day even though there was no reason to be. She had felt a connection to the Professor shortly after they had met, but had never been quite sure how he felt about her at the time. She figured she was probably too young and had formed a friendship with him out of the classroom that had given her a much better understanding of him than she couldn't have hoped to achieve as a smitten student. They'd shared a lot of interests and spending time with him had become a habit over the years she'd been attending the school, then recently the dynamics of the relationship had seemed more personal than friendship with how much more times they sought each other out even if it was as simple as just having a cup of tea together on the veranda outside his sitting room.

She hadn't known it would work out that way of course, though Jean and Ororo had been trying to find ways to 'discreetly' get her to visit the Professor more frequently in hopes that it might like typical best friends would. Kendra would have done the same thing for them, but both of them were married so all she could do was tease them about their spouses. Jean's husband Scott lived in the mansion as a teacher, while Ororo's husband T'Challa visited her often and she'd leave for long periods of time to see him over in his kingdom of Wakanda, but both looked like they had everything going for them.

She drew herself away from her thoughts and decided to go for a swim, changing into her bathing suit. Instead of going to the pool, she programmed one of the danger rooms to the parameters for her favorite vacation spot over in Exmouth, Australia. She stepped inside to see it looked exactly like Turquoise Beach in every way, except she knew it was just a representation of the real thing. She walked into the water and used her powers to help her breathe once below the surface. She'd discovered this ability quite by accident when she'd been caught in an undertoe while swimming off the coast of Sydney and had managed to get out from the undertoe to the surface.

Swimming in the danger room was close enough to actually being at Exmouth that it made up for the fact she only got to go home during holidays, though the mansion felt like home too. She'd come to love everything about this place, as different as it was from her birthplace. Australia had monsoons and heatwaves and all sorts of dangerous predators in the ocean and the Outback, whereas Storm always kept the weather moderate when she was around and the only dangers usually were other mutants.

Kendra? A familiar mental voice brought her back to the present and there was a brief image of a wheelchaired figure on the beach.

Oh hey, Professor. Be right there. She pushed herself to the surface next to a pod of dolphins and cut through the water like them back to shore.

"You can call me Charles, you know." He said aloud as soon as she was walking back onto land.

"If you insist." She managed cooly as she wrapped her towel around herself. "I know we're not really supposed to use the danger room like this, but I didn't see any harm in it."

"Actually, I think you are one of the few that can handle the unpredictable nature of this place, which you have never taken lightly. After all, it's not something you do very often and you pretty much lived in the ocean back in Australia and know a great deal about marine life and their habits."

She smiled. "Yeah, I was always more at home in the sea even before I discovered my powers. Back at the orphanage before I got adopted the kids called me a mermaid, which I was more flattered than insulted by. The blue hair I started to get certainly didn't help, though I got used to the teasing and rebelliously liked how different it made me. They could think I was stealing blue hair dye or using koolaid all the time as much as they wanted, it wasn't like I could convince them otherwise."

"You are very wise, Kendra. Are you finished or shall I let you resume your swimming?"

"I think I'm done. You want to have a cup of tea or something, Charles?"

"I would enjoy a cup of tea with you and a game of chess. We could meet in my sitting room after you've had a chance to change?"

"Sounds good to me. I'll shut down the program and join you once I'm dressed in normal clothes."

He nodded. "I'll see you in a few miinutes."

She watched him leave and went up to the controls, shutting everything down and going back to her room. She slipped off her bathing suit and put on jeans and a t-shirt instead. She brushed her damp hair so it wouldn't be a tangled mess and headed to Charles's sitting room. She found him waiting at his chess table wiith a steaming pot of tea. She sat across from him and accepted a cup he held out to her. "White moves first, Charles."

"So it does." He smiled faintly and moved one of his pawns. "Do you think Rouge is settling in okay?"

"Looks that way. She came out of her shell a lot after her first week and is making friends in class from what I can tell. When I spoke with her after Wyn's party she sounded more comfortable and sure of herself. That made me reflect a lot on how I've changed, yet am still the laid back Aussie everyone met when I first came here."

"I'm glad, she seemed flighty when she first arrived." He watched her move one of her knights. "I got the impression her friend Logan talked her into staying."

She shrugged. "Probably. He seems to like it here too."

"Yes, he does. I offered to help him with restoring his suppressed memories and he accepted."

"That's great, I'm sure having bits of one's past missing is unnerving."

He nodded and smiled as she put him in check. "Your strategy today is unusually patient."

"Someone wise once told me aggressive moves don't always ensure victory. Check mate."

"You sound quite attached to them."

She couldn't resist as she leaned across the table and kissed him in reply.