Thanks as always Cheshire for the great review. Just starting to explore this new AU and how everyone fits in it and Kara's reactions are kind of my own. You may be surprised who else she gets to meet ; )

Also, you know you've made it when Logan gives you a nickname right?

"Where are you from?"

"Not here."

"Are you staying?"

"I - I think so?"

"Do you have any powers? I can make sparks look!"

"I can -"

"Aren't your parents looking for you?"

Kara wasn't sure how it had happened but she'd never made it back to the kitchen. Kitty had seen a group of kids in the living room and once she'd dragged Kara over and told them she was "new" suddenly the shy pantheress found herself in the middle of the group with questions being tossed out from every direction.

She'd done her best to answer some of the easier questions but at the mention of parents Kara caught her breath as her tail went completely still.

"Don't worry about that. We all have parent issues." Rogue cut in, ending the torrent of questions for at least a moment.

"Our parents tried selling us to the Bratva." A skinny blond girl - Kara was pretty sure her name was Illyana - explained matter of factly as she pointed over her shoulder at what must have been her older and much larger brother who was sitting with a few other older students.

"I'm Kurt. My mom is a wanted mutant bad guy ... unless you count the circus as parents and I'd rather not." A fuzzy blue boy with a pronged tail and yellow eyes raised his hand. He had a funny accent ... Kara wasn't sure from where yet but he was clearly the most excited to meet her judging by the way he had kept mentioning that she was also ... 'fuzzy.'

"Yea I'm Bolin and this is my brother Mako. Our parents put us on a plane and gave my brother a piece of paper with this place's address on it. We haven't heard from them in ... in ..." Bolin, who Kara noted Chinese with a mass of dark curls, was shorter than the other kids and overweight but smiled a lot, his voice starting to fade as he thought.

"A year Bolin. It's been just over a year." Mako said flatly, he looked only a little older than his brother but he was noticeably more reserved, thinner, and a little taller. Kara noticed he liked making little flames bounce between his fingers.

"I don't have parent issues. My dad was just here last week." Kitty mumbled, seemingly reserved for the first time. She knew this was a sensitive topic and it was rare at Xavier's for kid's parents to visit.

"I don't have parent issues either! I'm going with my dad to Switzerland this winter break to ski." An otherwise quite blond boy tossed out. He looked fairly regular if you didn't count the massive white feathered wings sprouting out of his back.

"Yea sure Warren. Same as the trip to Japan you were supposed to take in the summer. You haven't seen your dad in longer than Mako and Bolin." Illyana shot back. Warren muttered some response as he turned red and without looking at anyone shot up and left the group.

"That's not a bad idea ... anyone still want breakfast?" Illyana asked out loud and eventually the entire group, Kara included, went back to the kitchen.

"Don' worry. They all calm down in a couple days. You're just new." Rogue whispered to Kara as she slipped back to join the clearly wary pantheress who was eyeing the windows to the fall covered grounds.

The group quickly grabbed filled their plates and at Kitty and Rogue's suggestion ate outside, a huge relief to Kara who suspected that was the point.

While the questioning continued Kara could tell Rogue and Kitty were now doing their best to cover for her. Kara meanwhile looked around the group and couldn't help but compare everyone to where she'd come from.

This place was much better.

No one had tried to kill her ... yet.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the grounds and assuring various members of the group that despite it being a cloudy and windy fall day she really didn't need a coat.

Kara did her best to just stay in the background but everyone seemed pretty determined to keep asking her questions which she seemed equally determined to not answer. Bolin in particular seemed committed to asking random questions simply to get the rather quite feral to crack a smile.

It finally took someone new to save Kara from being the center of attention.

"Hello everyone." Kara looked up to see who Rogue had pointed out earlier as 'Storm', a rather tall regal looking woman with white hair Kara guessed to be older than the students but younger than Logan and the Doctor ... Kitty called her a 'cool teacher.'

Kara noticed that while other adults and older students had already stopped by to check in on them, the group seemed to hold themselves a bit more at attention for this one.

"You must be Kara." Ororo smiled warmly at the dark feral who nodded in return, "do you mind if I steal you from your friends for a moment? I have some things for us to do and I think I may have found you a place to stay."

Kara was clearly surprised by the news. She'd assumed she would be staying with Rogue and Kitty ... there had been a warm spot of sun in the corner she'd already marked for a place to sleep or the couch in the 'living room' seemed soft enough.

"I - I get a room?" Kara's tone was enough to get Ororo to smile even wider as she nodded and held her arm out in a clear sign for Kara to follow.

But before getting to a room, it had turned out that Ororo had wanted Kara to take tests. Lots of tests.

They'd gone to the library where Kara was actually stunned by the amount of books, something Storm noticed and informed her that when she wasn't in class she could come in and take any book she wanted.

"Class?" Kara asked slowly turning away from the rows of books around her and back to the never ending pile of questions.

"Of course. This is a school after all. Now we don't have quite enough students to have grades so we sort everyone into groups by subject and level. I'm not sure what you learned in school before you came here. But -"

"No school." Kara rumbled distractedly as she continued to slowly scribble in answers. Ororo stopped her slow pacing to look over at the focused young feral and sighed internally as she realized how naive she must have just sounded. Of course a mutant like Kara wouldn't have been able to go to school. She likely rarely got to leave her home before she was taken by ... well whoever Logan had rescued her from.

Logan had actually suggested they hold off on all the testing but Xavier and Ororo had agreed that getting Kara settled and onto a normal schedule would be the best course.

"Well you'll be in school now," Ororo said warmly which only got a shrug from the feral. "And we have plenty of other things to do as well. There are sport teams, art, archery ... does any of that sound interesting? I could sign you up for that too." Ororo tried helpfully.

"Don't know." Kara muttered again ... she didn't even understand all these questions and growled to herself.

"Well you must enjoy to doing something. What is it that like you to do ... what are you good at?" Ororo couldn't help it, she wanted Kara to have something nice to think about. All Ororo could think about was how less than a day earlier she'd been wiping this poor girl's blood out of her fur. There had to be -

"I hunt." Kara tossed out. Ororo raised an eyebrow as Kara rubbed her shoulder, seeming to be focused on her test as her brow furrowed. Ororo took a moment to process that answer and shook her head a little at her own bias ... she might be a child but she was still a feline feral. Of course she hunted.

"Hmm ... well we don't really have a group for that. Is that - is hunting something you did before?" Ororo asked gently but Kara had suddenly stopped writing.

"Can't - don't talk about it." Kara answer came out as a low rumble. Why ... why did all these people keep asking her about family ... about before? It was mostly shadows anyway. The adults the kids ... it - it wasn't supposed to matter. Logan had said so.

Ororo had been around enough children and particularly teenagers when the best thing to do was simply give them space and after a quick apology she let the pantheress finish her assessments in quite.

After a couple of hours and an exhausted growl Kara finally tossed away her pencil.

"Excellent," Ororo quickly gathered up all the papers, "I'll grade these along with Dr. McCoy and I'll let you know what your class schedule will be. And now ... how about that room?" Ororo didn't hide her smile as Kara might have seemed a bit reserved but her tail went into overdrive.

Kara followed Storm across the Mansion and up to the same wing where Kitty and Rogue had their room though down a different hallway. Ororo didn't stop until she came to the end of the hall and with a gentle knock, not getting a response, letting Kara slowly step inside.

Kara realized quickly this was not like the room she'd seen before. Or any room for that matter.

Kitty and Rogue's room was an explosion of bright colors, open drawers, clothes thrown every which way, and the walls a mash of posters and mirrors. This one was ... calm.

Kara took a few more steps into the room and appreciated how - how un-overwhelming everything was. Even the walls, a light shade of purple, and black curtains which blocked out almost all of the light coming from outside made the room feel cooler than the hallway.

Turning Kara noticed LOTS of black, purple, and grey jackets, shirts, jeans, sweatshirts and skirts, all hung neatly on a simple metallic rack. A couple of boots and sneakers stacked neatly below that. She was pretty sure Kitty didn't even own anything black.

A huge drawing of a mandala hung over the desk while small strange plants lined the wood shelves nailed into the wall. Curiously, the pantheress went over and sniffed them. Her ears perked up. They were real. She liked that. And books ... stacks of books surrounded the bed.

Kara looked down at the two books Ororo had handed her as they had left the library.

There was a scent in the air she couldn't quite place which she assumed was coming from the candle lit on the desk. It was nice.

"Ah Raven," Kara spun back to the door having momentarily forgotten Ororo was even there, "I wanted to introduce you to your newest roommate. This is Kara, she just joined us last night."

Kara tilted her head a little as Raven stepped around the corner and gave Kara a look that closely mirrored her own, the both of them just taking each other in. She was a little older than Kara. Stoic dark blue eyes, dark black hair that faded into purple, black crop top matched with grey torn jeans, combat boots and a well worn leather jacket.

"Huh. Guess it could have been worse."

Kara cocked her head confused while Ororo frowned.

"Raven…" and even the pantheress picked up the warning in the woman's regal tone, the bit of wind suddenly surrounding them catching her attention.

"I trust that I can leave her in your care?" and Kara noted how the red jewel on Raven's necklace flashed momentarily before the older girl sighed.

"I'll do my best." she deadpanned earning a nod from Ororo.

"Well I'll leave you two to get to know each other then. Kara, the bed is already made and there are some basics in the bathroom. I hope you enjoy your stay here." and the pantheress just watched as the storm goddess made her way out. She really hadn't seen anyone as graceful as Ororo before. Despite the tests ... she kind of liked her too.

There was a bit of awkward silence after that. Both girls being equally ungifted in the art of small talk. There was another sigh.

"So I bet you're pretty disappointed to be rooming with me huh? I mean, I must seem like such a downgrade from princess Kitty. " Raven said sardonically, a tone Kara was trying to understand. It was like she was insulting Kitty by insulting herself. Weird. Not really getting it, Kara just shrugged.

"I like it here." Kara shrugged as she carefully placed her two books on the windowsill by the other - her bed. Kara's tail gave an amused flick at the thought.

"I'm not popular. No one will talk to you if they think you're like me." Raven's tone was almost accusing.

"Is 'popular' good?" Kara wondered as she considered moving the books to the floor but instead nudging them into a better spot closer to the window.

"If you like being vapid and shallow." Raven answered back with a vigor that at least got Kara's attention.

"What can you do?" Kara had picked up that this was a popular question here.

"Telekinesis, flight, some telepathy and psy-blasts are the useful ones ... the empath part is a drag." Raven had clearly answered this before. A few more minutes of silence passed as Kara explored. Raven wasn't used to someone else being the quite one.

"You know they call me a witch right?" Raven tossed out as she sat cross legged on her own bed, eyeing her newest roommate questioningly.

"You're not a witch." Kara took a seat directly across from Raven, mirroring her style, which raised an eyebrow.

"You sure about that?" Raven scoffed back, "You'll be my third roommate this month alone."

"You kicked them out?" Kara answered back, the first bit of hesitation in her soft rumble. She didn't know Raven could do that.

Raven for her part just laughed hollowly.

"They ran out. Last one didn't last two nights." Raven warned, the shadow behind her seemingly growing in size. Kara narrowed her eyes.

"Why?"

"Cause they were scared." Raven's tone shifted slightly as a leaf that had blown into the room suddenly froze as a dark purple haze covered it and began to slowly turn in the middle of the room. Despite the orange sky outside, the light slowly darkened as a similar purple glow enveloped Raven.

Kara gave the leaf a look of interest, earning a smirk from Raven, who just as quickly lost it as both eyebrows now shot straight up as the leaf found itself pinned to the wood paneled wall behind her head, a pencil Kara had taken with her from the library placed perfectly in its center.

"Not scared," Kara verbally shrugged as Raven slowly turned back from the pinned leaf, "what are those?"

Kara's pointed over Raven's bed at the large grid of pictures. Raven glanced back quickly, not quite ready to take her eyes off her newest roommate, and gave Kara a confused look.

"They're vinyls." Raven's tone making it clear she thought Kara was messing with her.

"What's a vinyl?" Kara leaned forward, head cocked slightly to the side.

"What's a - it - they're music. You know albums." Raven's tone shifted slightly to one of mild disbelief ... almost amusement.

The pantheress for her part just nodded as she looked at the 'vynls' with interest. She didn't know what that meant but she really liked the art on them ... they had funny names too: The Velvet Underground, Arctic monkeys, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, The Smiths, Blondie.

"What's a green day?"

"Whats a gree-" Raven let out a huff and getting off the bed she carefully began rifling through her leather bag before gesturing - pausing - and then gesturing for the panthress to get over there.

Shrugging, Kara carefully made her way over and crouched next to Raven as she pulled out her phone and an earpiece device.

"I can't believe you just asked me that … ok -" and Kara lowered her ears a little at Raven's pause, noting how the older girl was staring at her upturned ears and then the ear piece.

The panthress felt her previously curled tail unfurl a little, it was dumb of her to assume Raven would be willing to share her green day. Raven however just rolled her eyes and tossed the earbuds back in her bag.

"OK never mind, give me a second." and Kara watched in surprise as Raven levitated a pair of headphones from her desk.

"These have better audio quality anyway." and Kara growled a little as the headphones were fit snugly over her head. She stiffened a little when she saw Raven press play and closed her eyes in anticipation.

Raven raised her eyebrow when she saw Kara's eyes pop open as her pupils dilate a little, her tail slowly beginning to sway across the floor.

"You… You doing alright there kid?" but Kara didn't seem to hear her and had started tapping her claws gently against the wood, that tail thumping in rhythm. Raven couldn't help but laugh a little, internally at least. The little panthress's face had despite all of this, remained as stoic and focused as ever.

At first Kara found the music ... well loud. Way too loud and messy too. But letting herself be carried by the sounds, focusing on the rhythms, how they overlapped, the beats and the breaks, listening to this sad, strange and even exciting sound again and again even as it drew out and repeated itself . Kara felt like she never heard anything like it.

She realized that barely even after a day at Xavier's there were a lot of things, people ... even words that she didn't understand. This was the opposite. She couldn't understand a word from this "Green Day," but she could understand what they were trying to say. She liked it.

The panthress was so engrossed with it, she didn't even notice Raven quickly make a mix on her ipod and quietly lean against her bed, book in hand, not too close of course. Both of them just engrossed in their activities in companionable silence.

It was dark out, when Raven finally levitated the headphones off Kara, the latter giving what Raven assumed was an annoyed huff.

"Don't want to spoil you. Gotta preserve the specialness." Raven explained sagely, getting a begrudging nod from Kara.

"I like music." Kara stated as if making the decision for the first time. Raven just shook her head, now definitely amused. She wasn't sure if this roommate was going to stick around ... but she wasn't completely terrible in the meantime.

Logan was working on his bike because he needed to do something that would actually show progress.

He'd reached out to the few members of SHIELD and Avengers he thought he could trust and had come back with nothing. Same thing with the few other teams he helped out. Had even asked Elektra if the Hand had been making noise lately.

Nothing. No one seemed to have any intel on a valuable feral never mind a pantheress.

The same pantheress who had been taking her in the kitchen ... was now down the hall ... and almost silently slipping into the garage. Kid was good. Most he would have caught coming down the stairs.

"You don't sleep Salem?" Logan gruffed as he tightened the side panel.

"Night is better. Quieter." Kara rumbled right back, perched on top of Logan's shop stool taking in her surroundings as it rolled behind him.

"Not gonna argue that. You settlin' in OK?" Logan asked half-listening as he reached for his beer. He'd mentioned Raven as a good fit ... that kid needed someone that didn't scare easy.

"It's ..." Kara seemed to be struggling to find the right word, "different."

"Different can be good. Especially from where I pulled you from." Logan responded, earning a rumble of agreement from Kara. Logan let the two enjoy the night's silence for a bit longer before he spoke again.

"You want me to guess or you just wanna ask it already?" Even if she didn't look nervous Logan could scent that Kara was anxious about something. Though that tail was a dead giveaway as it twitched right at the end. That and the way she kept rubbing her shoulder.

"Really safe?" Kara's soft rumble was enough for Logan to put down his tools and spin to face the pantheress directly.

"If I tell you something is safe you believe it. I wouldn't let anythin' happen to this place. Or these kids," Logan leaned down a bit so he met Kara's eyes, "that includes you Salem," he saw the younger feral's eyes shoot out at the night, "No one knows that you're here. If you're worried bout someone comin' after ya ... don't."

Kara let what Logan was saying sink in as she finally asked what he knew she'd been building to.

"I really get to stay?" Kara rumbled.

"Long as you want." Logan smirked but as he was about to push back he paused, the wind shifting causing him to sniff the air as Kara's ears swiveled, her brow furrowed as she looked at Logan questioningly.

"Get lost Salem." Logan didn't growl but his tone was enough for the younger feral to nod and leap from the bench clear to the door inside.

Logan kept his eye on the door a few moments after Kara slipped through it before taking a steadying breath and turning back to his bike, finishing his beer and popping open a second in almost the same movement.

He was gonna need it as a single set of footsteps crunched up the gravel drive to the open garage.

"What ya doin' here Fury?" Logan growled suspiciously without looking up from his bike as the enigmatic Director of SHIELD stepped into the light.

"Good to see you too Logan. Let's call it a debrief from your last Avengers mission." Fury replied casually though not believing Logan would buy any of it. Still ... he needed to play the game.

"You ain't never come around here for a debrief before." Logan rumbled, turning his attention back to his engine and taking a pull from his beer.

"I read the team field report and I thought I'd drop by personally. Read like there was maybe something missing." Fury asked, his gaze taking in everything, evasive as ever.

"Not much to read cause there wasn't much to report. That 'lead' you sent us out on was a bust. Place could have been shut down by SHIELD all on it's own. No need to waste our time." Logan grumbled as he reached for a wrench.

"If it was all 'bullshit' than why did you ghost the team? Rogers mentions you came straight back here after the mission." Fury mused.

"Like I said. Was a waste of time. I did my job and didn' feel like having this exact conversation."

"That job include putting a bullet through Widow's shoulder and leaving her in that hole?" Wolverine tossed his tools aside, mildly amused at the length Nat had gone to cover herself. Bout time they got to it.

"Don't know what you're sniffin around for Fury but -"

"I want the target." It wasn't just what Fury said but the tone as if it was already a foregone conclusion that got the true growl to rise out of Logan as he finally stood across from the Director.

"Get out Fury." Logan snarled. Fury didn't budge.

"Logan one way or another it's coming with me or ending up at SHIELD. It's your call how that happens. Last thing I want is word of this school getting out and I end up seeing this place raided from a briefing room at the White House." Logan did not miss the threat Fury was leveraging but he didn't back down. He just took a step closer to Fury.

"Her name is Kara and she's staying right where she is. Send whoever you want to come get her ... just don't expect me to send em back to ya." Fury took his time measuring Logan's reaction when his eyebrows slowly went up.

"You really have no idea what you have here ... do you?" Fury sounded suspicious but more surprised and with that turned on his heel to go.

"Who is she to you Fury?" Logan barked as Fury headed down the driveway.

"It's not who she is to me that matters Logan. And if you don't know? I'd find out for the sake of your precious 'school.'"