Chapter 3

Storm set two plates piled high with salad and heavily loaded with tomatoes. Kia sat down across from her and took her plate from Ororo. It was Wednesday, the day after Kia's intense Danger Room session with Betsy and the others, and the two teachers were lunching together between classes. While their students were eating in the massive cafeteria on the ground floor, they shared their meal in this small break room adjacent to the main kitchen.

Kia lightly sprinkled Italian dressing on her salad and passed the bottle to her friend. "So," she spoke up, "How was the date last night?"

Storm smiled, her eyes slightly distant as she recounted pleasant memories. "Very nice. Hank took me to the new Korean restaurant just outside the city limits. He even made sure they had vegetarian meals. We had a wonderful night."

"Sounds like a good time," Kia smiled. "Did you do anything else, or just dinner?"

"After we finished eating we walked to a nearby park," Storm explained. "He tried to hire a carriage ride, but it didn't happen."

"No one would stop for you, huh?" Kia asked dryly.

"For the most part. One man finally did, but by then the idea was kind of ruined, and the horses were a bit nervous around Hank. So we gave up."

"That's too bad," Kia sighed. "I'm sorry you guys had to deal with that on what was otherwise a nice date."

"It's okay," Storm shrugged after she finished chewing her mouthful. "It happens, we're both certainly used to such things. Besides, it's the thought that counts."

Kia grinned mischievously and leaned forward. "I don't suppose Hank put any moves on you, huh?" she asked in a conspiring voice.

Both women giggled lightly. "Unfortunately not," Ororo sighed. "Even after dating for than five months, I think he just doesn't have the confidence to make the first move. Something like that is a bit too bold for him."

Kia nodded and smiled wryly. "So nothing, huh?"

"He walked me to my room and kissed me on the cheek once we got home."

"Oh, Hank's a risqué one, isn't he?" Kia laughed.

Storm shook her head and gave a rueful smile. "I think at this rate I may have to take matters into my own hands."

"Hank is just trying to be a sincere gentleman, I'm sure," Kia replied. "He's just a bit too gentlemanly, in this case."

"Yes, I know," Ororo nodded. "And Hanks ability to be a gentleman and be considerate and kind is one of the things I find attractive about him in the first place. But even still... I think it is about time we move our relationship into a deeper level. And sometimes I can be rather impatient."

Kia giggled softly and smiled at her friend. "Do you already have plans?"

"Not really," Storm replied. "But I'll figure something out. If he doesn't do some moving soon, I'll have to give him some gentle but obvious suggestions, I think."

"Good luck," Kia said. "Hank's a great guy. I'm sure he'll come around. Just as soon as he gets the idea through that thick blue skull of his."

Storm smiled warmly and carried her empty bowl to the room's mini sink. "I think it's more a matter of his head being so jammed with scientific formulas and genetic structuring that it takes awhile for him to work anything else in."

Kia laughed and brought her own bowl to the sink. She helped Storm quickly do the dishes.

"So how goes your training, my friend?" Storm asked when they finished.

"Good," Kia smiled. "The Professor is working with me a lot on getting a better feel for my powers and finding out what I'm capable, and also teaching me how to apply my powers in a combat situation. Betsy and Rogue are helping me out a whole lot in learning different fighting techniques and martial skills, too."

Storm nodded and smiled. "That's good. I think Psylocke could help you learn a lot. She knows more about hand to hand combat than almost anyone else here. I'd venture to say the only person who knows more is Logan."

"Logan?" Kia's brows arched in surprise. "He knows martial arts?"

"Indeed," Storm smiled. "He knows more forms of martial arts and fighting than any of us, probably more than even he realizes. You seem surprised."

Kia shrugged. "I guess I am. I mean, he was at a Danger Room session I went to yesterday and... well, he didn't really seem the martial-arts type. He was a great fighter, yeah, but he was more like... like a brute, I guess, than a martial artist. Well no, not a brute. An animal."

"Ah," Ororo nodded. "Yes, Logan is like that sometimes. It's a bit strange. He tends to fight in different ways depending on his mood and what kind of situation he is faced with. Sometimes he fights with more precision and technical expertise than anyone I have ever seen... and sometimes he fights as if he were a possessed demon.

"Logan has often been called a berserker," Ororo explained. "When he is calm and in control, he is very precise and calls on his extensive training in combat and martial arts... but when he becomes emotional or enraged, he fights purely on instinct and aggression."

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Kia asked. "He seemed... I don't know... almost reckless."

"He can afford to be on occasion," Storm smiled. "Part of his mutant abilities is a vastly accelerated healing factor... his body mends itself of almost any damage, often almost instantaneously. Logan can and often does absorb an amount of punishment that would normally kill someone, and shrugs it off as if it were nothing."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Kia nodded. "See, now why can't I have that ability? Then I wouldn't ever have to worry about hurting myself with all the tripping and stumbling I always do."

"You do have a healing power, to a degree," Ororo pointed out.

"I guess," Kia shrugged. "But it's not the same. Sure, I can heal myself by altering my cells... but it takes time and an effort. Automatic healing seems a lot more useful."

Storm smiled sagely and nodded. "We all have our gifts. The more you explore your gift, the more you'll realize it's the right one for you."

After lunch ended Kia headed back to her classroom and sank into her desk with a sigh. She felt slightly tired from all the training she had been doing lately, but it was an invigorating change. Kia had often been physically active, and considered herself to be in good shape. Though it had been about two years since the last time she had been in a dojo of any kind, she had maintained a reasonable amount of activity and athleticism. She had never, however, been through such rigorous and extreme demands as the X-men training regiment demanded. The sharp increase of activity her body had been subjected to in the last several months had been difficult at first, still was. Still... where she had always had a relatively slim and flat stomach, now she had the hint of femininely defined abs and a tight, firm abdomen with lean but solid muscle beneath. Her calves were tight and roundly muscled, her thighs firm and sculpted more than they'd been even at the peak of her old athleticism. She was still not in the kind of tight and toned physical condition that Rogue or Betsy were, but her fitness was obvious at a glance, and Kia was proud of the kind of progress she had been making lately.

With almost a half-hour left to kill, Kia went through a short grading session and made a pretty good dent in the enormous stack of papers and assignments before students started to filter in for the next class. She lectured briefly on their assigned reading, then let the class break into groups to converse about the nature of what they had read and to answer several semi-advanced questions related to the reading. She went from group to group, helping them to examine the text on a deeper level if they had problems seeing what was there, and even engaging in a rather enjoyable conversation with one group who seemed to be picking up the important themes better than the others. All in all, the class went well, as did the next and final class of the day.

After putting the classroom in order and locking the room till tomorrow morning, Kia went to her room and changed out of her tidy teaching clothes and into one of her favorite jeans, a pair that hugged tightly to the roundness of her hips and lush buttocks. She pulled on a light purple short sleeved V-neck top that showed off a respectable but tantalizing portion of her generous cleavage.

Kia left her room and wandered into the rec room that was most often frequented by the team. It was a large, spacious room with wooden floors and light blue walls. Wall hangings were evenly spaced around the room, and several windows let the sunlight warm the room on clear and pleasant days. A number of entertainment pursuits set up around the room. A large flat-screen TV was hung on one wall with a wide couch set in front of it flanked on one side by a loveseat and the other by two deep cushioned recliners. On the other side of the room were games of various sorts, including a pool table, air hockey, a pinball machine, and two old-fashioned arcade machines. A mini fridge with snacks and beverages was settled in one corner. The room wasn't as heavily packed with games and entertainment devices as the several game rooms around the Manor, but it also wasn't frequented by the students and teenagers like the game rooms were.

Several of the X-men were gathered there already. Rogue and Kurt were standing in one of the corners at opposite ends of the air hockey table. Rogue had a dark scowl on her face as Kurt scored another goal in what the score monitor showed was a rather impressive total. Kurt grinned wider as Rogue fished the puck out and dropped it back on the table. Kurt was wielding his bumper with his tail.

Betsy and Jean were sitting on the couch, half watching a home makeover program but mostly making fun of the show and distractedly discussing current events.

Jean was one of Xavier's first X-men, and his first actual pupil, taken on before the X-men had even been formed. She was a few inches shorter than Kia and slender, with long legs and striking flame red hair that tumbled down to her waist in a thick mane of curling locks. Her eyes were a luminous emerald green and her skin was smooth and clear. Her bustline, while not as generous as Kia or Betsy's, was nonetheless impressive, especially on her otherwise small and slender frame.

Kia glanced away from the couch. She had avoided Jean almost the entire time she had been living at the Mansion. It sometimes created a tense atmosphere. It wasn't really that she disliked Jean, but neither of them could really be comfortable around the other. Her open dislike and animosity toward Jean's husband made things rather awkward.

Not wanting to step into a tense situation with Jean, Kia approached the air hockey table. "Wow. I never knew you were such an air hockey enthusiast, Kurt."

"It ain't fair!" Rogue protested in her thick southern drawl.

Rogue was another of Kia's close friends. She liked Rogue's spirit, the fiery and enthusiastic approach she took toward everything, though the Southern Belle could be calm and collected when the situation called for it. She was just under Kia's height at 5'8", but had broader shoulders and a more powerful build. While certainly still feminine and womanly, Rogue was the most muscular and toned of all the female X-men, probably owing to her superhuman strength and the frequency of which she got directly involved in the more rigorous and physically demanding aspects of being an X-woman. Her hair was one of her most defining features, a rich chestnut brown that tumbled down to her shoulder blades in thick, almost shaggy locks. However, at her forehead hairline were thick locks of bright white hair, twisting through her hair in two wild streaks that stood out starkly. Her breasts were quite generous and amazingly perky and round, sitting high on her chest. Her hips were rounded softly and her buttocks were juicy. Her legs were one of her most impressive aspects, long and lean with firm, succulent thighs rippling just under the surface with the muscles of a true female athlete.

"Kurt's beatin the pants off me and Ah'm tryin' my best," Rogue complained. "He ain't even usin' his hands! He's rubbin' it in mah face on purpose!"

"My tail needed a stretch," Kurt replied with a wide grin.

Rogue groaned and glanced up at Kia. "You comin' to the trainin' session tomorrow?"

"When is it?" Kia asked.

" 'Bout four," Rogue replied. She gave a dramatic cry as she desperately tried to deflect Kurt's next shot.

"I should," Kia replied. "I missed my session this morning because I had to meet with some students. Scott left me a note telling me absences like that aren't acceptable. I threw it in the fireplace."

"Ve have all been receiving such notes, Kia," Kurt offered. "I tink Scott... he is stressed, ja? It is not zat he is singling you out."

"I guess," Kia grumbled.

"Ororo's leadin' the exercises tomorrow. You'd pro'ly like them lots more than the ones Scott does," Rogue added.

"Yeah, probably," Kia agreed. "Ororo and Hank's simulations are always interesting at least."

"I vill be zere too, ja?" Kurt smiled. "You must come, I tink!"

"Well, now I'm obligated," Kia laughed. "I'll be there as long as it doesn't take me too long to get changed and all after my last class. I've already missed enough this week. Having Scott lecture me is bad enough. I don't want Charles to start too."

Kurt grinned wildly and swung his bumper with his tail, hitting the puck. It ricocheted into the table wall once, twice, a third time, and then plopped into the goal, easily slipping past Rogue's wide blocking attempt. Rogue cursed softly and fished the puck back out.

Bobby Drake entered the room. Bobby, codenamed Iceman, was fairly average in appearance, just slightly under average height and about as tall as Kia, with dusty brown hair and brown eyes. He was lean and well muscled, but not impressively built. Bobby was, however, quite powerful in his own right. He had the ability to vastly lower his external and internal body temperature, allowing him to change his body into an icy form that was nearly as hard as stone. He could also freeze the moisture and air molecules in the air, allowing him to form things from a jagged spike of ice for hurling at an enemy, to a sweeping ice-slide to 'surf' upon.

He plopped onto the couch beside Psylocke, grabbed up the remote, and changed the channel to a sleazy music video. Betsy glared at Bobby for a moment, then, with a glance at Jean, punched Bobby solidly in the side of the head. Bobby, however, was quite used to the brutal nature of Betsy's roughhousing, and cooled his body into its icy shell just a moment before Betsy struck.

"Fuck! Bobby!" Betsy cursed, shaking the ache from her hand. Bobby snickered.

"Such language, Betsy. And I thought young Drake was our resident trouble maker," Hank admonished as he walked into the room.

Henry 'Hank' P. McCoy was codenamed Beast for good reason. Though possessing tremendous intelligence, a PhD in biochemistry, and knowledge in the field of genetics and mutations equal to and in some ways surpassing Xavier's own, Hank had quite a prominent physical mutation. He was animalistic in appearance, his enormous body wide and thick and slightly ape-like. He was covered in thick, bright blue fur, and his arms hung down nearly past his knees. He had claws at the tips of his thick fingers, though he had long ago adjusted to them and learned to use them for precise and delicate tasks such as lab work and typing. He was heavily muscled and, upon first glance, struck many as a fearsome monster. That, however, could not be further from the truth. Hank was a gentle and compassionate man, given far more to intellectual pursuits and moments of wit, cleverness, and poetry than acts of violence. Eloquent, playful, and intelligent, Hank was one of the pillars of the X-men and had served the role of friend, confidant, and problem solver more often than anyone on the team could remember. He was also a highly skilled acrobat second only to Nightcrawler, his agility and grace belying his size and strength.

Hank was accompanied by Ororo. Both were very nicely dressed, Ororo in a calf length, slinky dancing dress of pale cream that complimented her light hair and dark coloring and clung to her curves. Her volumous hair was piled up on her hair and pinned in place, trailing down here and there to call attention to her long neck. Hank was wearing what was likely the closest Storm was letting him get to a suit on this date; black dress trousers and a rich green button up shirt. Both had been obviously custom made for him, and fit him well, almost giving the illusion that his body was simply largely built and not inhuman. His long sleeves had been rolled up slightly, a rare touch of casualness in Hank's otherwise professional and gentlemanly appearance. Storm stood close to him, her arms twined about his.

"Aren't you two looking fancy," Bobby grinned. "Let me guess, Hank. You've won yet another award for outstanding achievements in the field of genetics, and you're going to the ceremony."

"Close," Hank chuckled. "I fear my tango and samba are getting rusty, and Ororo has graciously offered to help me amend them."

"Huh?" Bobby muttered.

"We're going dancing, Bobby," Storm explained.

"Yes. We'll be the talk of the town," Hank grinned, showing pointed canines. "The graceful Nubian princess in all her dance-floor prowess... and the dancing blue monkey."

Kia laughed and smiled at Hank. "Just be sure not to step on her feet, hank. You're what, 400 pounds now?"

"Please Kia, you'll give me a complex," Hank laughed. "And I've been dieting. I'm down to 395 pounds, thank you."

"We'd better get going Hank," Ororo suggested. "I want to dance for a few hours at least before we go get dinner."

"We shall depart then," Hank smiled.

"Have a good time," Jean called from the couch.

"We will," Ororo said, tugging slightly at Hank's thick arm. "All of you enjoy a pleasant evening."

"Be careful," Kia waved.

"Bye you two," Betsy said, still gripping her sore hand and shooting a glare Bobby's way.

As Ororo and Hank stepped out the room, Scott appeared in the doorway, glancing around the room till his gaze fell on Jean.

Scott 'Slim' Summers was the leader of the X-men by virtue of his being Xavier's first X-man. He was one of the tallest people on the team at 6'3" and, as his nickname suggested, had a lean build, straight up and down with long but muscled limbs. His hair was short and a dark brown. His Mutant power, the ability to project powerful beams of concussive force from his eyes, forced him to wear either a visor or glasses made of ruby quartz crystals to control the fearsome blasts. His face was thin and currently pinched slightly at the mouth.

"Jean, can I see you for a minute? In private?"

Jean hesitated a moment then nodded, rising and bidding the rest of the team goodnight. Betsy watched her go for a long moment before returning to the TV and flipping through channels distractedly.

When Kia turned back to Rogue and Nightcrawler, Rogue was staring at the floor, jaw clenched visibly. After a moment she forcefully slammed her bumper onto the table, making it move almost a foot across the floor. Kurt teleported out of the way just in time.

"Rogue? Vat did I do?" Kurt asked in concerned confusion.

"Ah just don't wanna play any more!" Rogue snapped.

"Are you okay?" Kia asked.

Rogue started out the room, calling over her shoulder, "Ah'm goin' outside."

"Walking or flying?" Kia asked.

"Uh... walkin Ah guess. You wanna come?"

"Sure," Kia nodded. "You want a coat?"

Rogue gave Kia a funny look.

"I'll get us some sweaters," Kia shrugged. "I'll meet you by the stairs."

"Vat was zat all about?" Kurt asked Psylocke as the two women exited. Betsy shrugged, seeming distracted.

"Maybe scoring fifty three points against her five didn't set well with her," Bobby suggested.

Kia and Rogue strode down one of the Mansion's beautiful garden paths. Though too early for the plants and flowers to be in bloom this far in upstate New York, evergreens were prominent in this part of the gardens, tall trees and wide shrubs still green and thriving among their hibernating cousins. The memories of a beautiful summer lingered with the promise of lush, colorful months soon to come.

Rogue wore one of Kia's old college sweatshirts. It was gray and baggy about the bust. Kia wore a blue sweater that fell straight at her waist. Rogue was upset, the set of her face and the way her jaw worked and slight frown at the corner of her lips a clear indication of this.

"You aren't this upset about losing that game, are you?" Kia stated more than asked.

Rogue shrugged slightly, looking out over the gardens. "Nah. Ah guess not."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kia asked gently.

Rogue shrugged again, a hesitant, guarded motion. She pulled her shoulders up and put her arms about herself, though the evening was hardly more than chill.

"Ah feel kinda stupid."

Kia patted her shoulder companionably. "I won't think you're stupid, Rogue. We're friends. You would probably feel better if you talk about it."

"It's just... Ah keep seein' couples... it was bad enough with just Jean an' Scott. Now Hank and Ororo got together. An' there've been plenty others over the years, too. An' it's the same way everywhere else, not just here in the Mansion. Ah guess Ah just feel like everyone's got someone but me."