ASTONISHING X-MEN

"All the Summers' Pryde"
Rated PG-13 for language and adult situations

by R. John Burke

X-Men Eternity Message Board: http://solofan.proboards76.com/index.cgi

DISCLAIMER: The X-Men are a copyright of Marvel Comics. I don't own them, but this is only non-profit fan fiction. No money is involved and no infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Taking a break from my big dramatic series (X-Men Eternity) to write some fluff. This story takes place in the regular, 616-reality, just before the House of M, and probably right after the Danger arc in Astonishing.

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"Kitty, watch out!"

Kitty Pryde phased half a second before Scott Summers' optic beam would have cut her in half. She didn't mind; thanks to Scott's attack, the alien vampire thingie sneaking up behind her didn't get a shot at her neck. As a rule, Kitty liked to keep alien vampire thingies as far away from her neck as possible.

The creature flew through the air and landed in a knot of trees. It was about six and a half feet tall, skeletal, and pasty white in color, with lidless eyes and a set of incisors that could've given the Beast a run for his money. Thanks to Sage's monitoring equipment, they'd tracked its rampage to a small community in upstate New York, and had managed to intercept it and stop it from killing anybody.

Unfortunately, it had decided to press the issue on a night when Logan was off with one of his thirteen other teams, Hank was in the middle of some delicate experiments, Emma Frost was doing some more telepathic consulting on the Sentry case, and Piotr-- well, Kitty didn't always know *where* Pete's head was since his return, but tonight it wasn't at the mansion, and neither was the rest of him. So she and Scott had come alone, doing the Batman and Robin thing, still pursuing Scott's new agenda of goodwill through superheroing. So far, they were doing a bang-up job.

Well, that wasn't fair. They'd only been fighting the creature for five minutes, and although it was one of the tougher alien vampire thingies Kitty had ever encountered, it looked to be almost down for the count.

"Kitty..." Scott said.

"I've got it." She circled around to approach the creature from behind while Scott kept it in front of him. ZRAAACK!!! Another burst of red shot from Scott's visor, nailing the nasty thing in the chest. Kitty let it phase through her and hit the ground, then turned and administered a kick that seemed to take the last of the fight out of it. It tried to rise once; then its head lolled and it lay still.

Then it disintegrated, with a nasty sizzling sound and a stench that made Kitty wish she wore a nice, thick mask.

Scott looked a little stunned. "I-- didn't hit it *that* hard..."

"No," Kitty said, kneeling on the ground beside it. She held up a blinking device. "I think it had a suicide mechanism. Y'know, some cultures prefer death to dishonor."

"Well, now he's got both."

"Aw, I think fighting bloodthirsty monsters makes somebody grumpy." Kitty frowned at the device. "Wonder what this button does?"

"Kitty, be--"

SPROING. Suddenly they weren't alone in front of the trees. There was a pod-shaped alien craft a few meters away, with its door open and its ramp extended. It reminded Kitty of something that might have picked up E.T.; the techie part of her brain got goosebumps.

"Wow. Cloaking device. *Nice*."

Scott cleared his throat. "This might be more of a Fantastic Four thing."

"C'mon, Scott, you mean to tell me you're not even a *little* bit curious about what's in there?"

"Such as the shrunken heads of his previous victims?" The man called Cyclops frowned. "Kitty, I just don't know if there's anything we can really do to--"

"Please? One look. I'll... I'll take over half your classes for a month! C'mon, how often do I get a chance to play with a computer *that* cool?"

"Besides the-- I don't know-- billion-dollar mutant-sensing computer we've got at home?"

Kitty rolled her eyes. "I grew up with *that* one."

"Right." Scott sighed. "One look. If you can't figure it out immediately, we call Reed Richards."

"Deal!" she grinned, and bounded up the ramp.

It was a good thing she did so phased, because it kinda tried to blast her on the way in. Kitty picked out a panel on the inner wall and phased through *that* a couple of times, to the sound of sparking.

"Okay!" she called to Scott. "I think I disabled the security system."

"You *think?*"

"Oh, get your butt in here. Big, brave Cyclops. You can fight Apocalypse on a moment's notice, and you're scared of a little spaceship?"

Reluctantly, Scott climbed the ramp. "Did I mention my parents were abducted by aliens?"

"Well, sure, but not these *specific* aliens. You can't blame *all* aliens. That's racist."

"Kitty..."

"Here we go!" she said, plopping down before a display console at what she took to be the pilot's station. "Let's see... wow. *Wow*. This makes Windows XP look like an abacus."

"I actually prefer my abacus to Windows XP," said Scott, looking over her shoulder.

"You made a computer joke. An effective one. I'm impressed. I..." Kitty's eyes lit up. "*Wow*."

"What?"

"Universal translator program, I think. I touched this button and... watch, I'll do it again."

Scott frowned at the controls, while Kitty repeated what she'd done before: Flicked a switch and-- poof-- the weird series of alien symbols and images on the screen were suddenly intelligible. If Kitty blinked her eyes, she could see that weren't *really* in English, but she felt as if they were, and her brain understood them just as well.

"Not bad," Scott said. "Now do you have one that translates Logan?"

"That's mean," Kitty said, punching his arm. She kept working on the controls. "Huh. Look like this guy's homeworld isn't far from Kree space... oh, good news. There's no invasion fleet coming."

"*Very* good news."

"They're solo hunters," Kitty continued. She brought up a new menu. "They do this for sport."

"I think I'm offended."

"I *know* I am. And-- huh. What's this? 'Camouflage system?' Am I reading that right?"

Scott squinted through his visor. "I *think* so, but then it's a little alien marking that looks like a duck. How would I know if we're reading it wrong?"

"You think it's a duck? Because I'd say a turkey or--"

While she bantered, Kitty's hand brushed past a button she hadn't meant to touch. She barely realized she'd done it before she felt a jolt, and then she...

Then she had the weirdest experience. Like an out-of-body experience. The world seemed to spin around her, and... she was looking at herself. Kinda herself. The spirit world seemed to be painted in shades of reds and yellows...

"Whoa!" she said-- or actually, her body said without her-- and she fell right through the floor. "What the--"

Kitty tried to... to do something, but she couldn't because there was a weird thing on her head. She scrambled to take it off, and...

ZRAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!! Blew out the side of the spaceship with an optic beam. Kitty screamed; for a second, she was in a panic, but her wits returned all at once and she had a crazy idea what had just occurred--

"Omigosh!" she cried. She ran to the newly-created hole in the wall. "Scott! You've gotta concentrate! My natural state is phased, remember? If you don't focus, you could just keep phasing 'till..."

"I figured that out, thanks," said her own voice.

Kitty whirled-- or rather, Scott Summers' body whirled, under the direction of Kitty Pryde's brain. She beheld herself, standing on the ramp and gazing, wide-eyed, at...

Kitty looked down at her own body, and wished she hadn't. She was *way* too tall, and... and thick in the wrong places, and her eyes burned something fierce. She just wanted to rip this silly visor off and scratch them right out of her head.

"*You* concentrate," said her body-- said *Scott*, she realized. Scott in her body. "Even with the visor, you have to make some effort to control the beams."

"Gotcha," Kitty said. She didn't quite know how to do that-- except she did. She'd managed to rein in Scott's optic blasts about as quickly as he'd figured out her phasing. But it had taken the Professor years to teach them those skills! "Scott, I think there's some muscle memory at work, or... or psychic residue, or something. We've sorta got each others' instincts."

"Great," he said. Kitty had never realized her voice sounded so funny. Not that it wasn't creepy enough hearing Scott's strong tenor coming out of her throat. "Now, which of us has the instincts to change us back?"

"Um--" Kitty sat back down. She felt like her butt barely fit in the chair; geez, *everything* was just slightly the wrong size. Tiny differences, maybe, but she felt like a klutz! It took her a moment to relearn the controls. "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh? I don't want to hear uh-ohs right now, Kitty. No more uh-oh's, because--"

"Quiet!" Kitty snapped, startling herself with the volume of Scott's voice. "Geez, I never knew I could be such a whiner..."

"I never knew I sounded like such a prick..."

"Hey! Watch-- my mouth!" She sighed. "Well, this is great. I think I blasted the mechanism that changes us back."

"You have got to be kidding."

"Don't think so." Kitty scanned the screens more frantically-- then sighed with relief. "Okay, here it is. Wow, it's got better help files than XP, too..."

"Well, what does it say?" Scott asked. He managed to make her own voice sound as catty as Emma's.

"It *says*... okay, this is a device they use to fit in among the natives. They... kidnap some innocent, swap bodies with him, and just... blend, you know?"

"That's hardly sporting," Scott said.

"Dude. They're alien vampires. You expect 'em to play nice?" Kitty kept searching. "Ah. Oh, good. Oh, thank goodness. It wears off-- I think, like 50 hours max, and it wears off."

"Two days," said Scott. "We can handle two days... like this."

"Yeah, we'll just head back and tell Hank and he can... uh, oh."

Once again, the slight whine in Kitty's own voice. "Another uh, oh. I am really starting to hate uh, oh."

She sighed. "Do me a favor. Try to say 'My name is Scott Summers.'"

"Sure. My name is Skaaaaa...." He trailed off into something unintelligible, making Kitty's voice sound like she was drunk. "What the hell? My name is Skkkkuuu..."

"Lovely." Kitty pounded the controls. With Scott's strength, she nearly broke something. "I think it sets up a mental block of some kind. They might use this ability kinda like castling in chess... y'know, only when they really need to disappear in a hurry. It'd spoil the game if their victim could give them away."

"Great," said Scott. "They're paranoid *crazy* alien vampires."

"I guess. I don't think we can write it down either, and it says here it screws up our brainwaves... even a telepath can't tell the difference. So no running to Emma."

"Okay." Scott in Kitty's body crossed her hands over her chest...

"Hey! Hands off!"

"Oh. Sorry." He dropped the hands to her sides. "So... we'll just wait here for two days, until it wears off."

"Why bother? The team knows where we went. They'll just come looking for us."

"What do you suggest, then?"

Kitty shrugged. "It's only two days."

She wished Scott would wipe that look off her face-- she looked so clueless. "Don't you dare suggest what you're about to suggest."

Kitty looked innocent. She doubted it worked on Scott's face. "Well, really... I mean, why upset everybody?"

"You don't think it'll possibly upset things to have two X-Men in the wrong bodies?"

"Well, not unless the Brotherhood attacks in the next two days... we couldn't be *that* unlucky, could we?"

"Historically speaking?" Scott arched an eyebrow.

"Look, d'you think I'm thrilled with this? I have got *such* a headache..."

"Sorry," Scott murmured. Kitty recognized the look on her own face. He was embarrassed that she was being hurt by his inability to control his power.

"It's okay," she said. "We've all got issues. I mean, thanks to me, you might phase into the center of the Earth at any moment."

"I was trying not to think about that." Scott-as-Kitty leaned heavily against the console. "This is absurd."

"Yup. C'mon, we need to re-cloak this thing, assuming that gizmo still works."

Scott frowned at her. "When did you start giving the orders?"

Kitty gestured down at her new, six-foot stud of a body. "Um, hello? I'm the leader of the X-Men now."

"Do *not*. Do *not* get cute about this." He jabbed one of her fingers at her.

Kitty laughed. "Besides, I'm kinda dealing better."

"I know. I don't do well when I'm this far outside the box."

"You think?"

Scott sighed. "And I'm staring at my body from the outside. And I think I'm... sort of turned on by it. That is disturbing me on so many levels."

Now it was Kitty's turn to blush. "Yeah, um, like I said. There's some mixing of the instincts."

"Oh dear. Kitty, don't tell me you're... that you have..."

"Oh, no no no no no NO!" She waved-- his hands. "Don't take it personally. *Please* don't. But, y'know... you're in the body of a young woman. And, honestly, your regular body is..." she mumbled, "kinda hot."

Scott looked pained. "Please don't say that."

"Sorry. I didn't..."

"Really, though?" He quirked open one of her eyes. "I would have said I was putting on weight."

"You think?" Kitty patted her-- his midsection. Still felt solid to her. "Huh. If it'll make you feel better, I'll work out tomorrow, extra hard."

"Oh, no. No working out."

"C'mon, Scott, have some fun with this! It's sort of a unique opportunity!"

"Kitty," he said slowly, "if you work out, you'll have to shower afterward."

"Oh." She would have phased into the ground, if she still could have done that. "Yeah, so no workout. But Scott?"

"What?"

"I um... how do I put this?" She studied the ground and mumbled, "I think you have to go to the bathroom..."

Scott glared at her. Kitty never would have thought her own face could look so scary.

****

A couple of hours later, they drove up the driveway at the Xavier mansion, Kitty at the wheel in Scott's body, Scott in Kitty's body staring resolutely out the window with her hands tightly folded.

"Sure you don't need to go?" Kitty said.

"I'm positive."

"I don't mind, Scott. I know I drank that big cup of coffee the same time you did, so you must..."

"I am absolutely positive, Kitty." He grimaced. "I am perfectly capable of holding it for two days."

She laughed. "Maybe *you* are, but that's *my* bladder, and..."

He sighed. "We should have called Hank up there, he could have seen the ship for himself and then even if *we* couldn't tell him, he'd have put the pieces together..."

"We're public now, Scott. That fight was on the local news. Did you really want to call in the team an' the jet an' then try to explain for the cameras how a couple of X-Men swapped bodies?"

"It would be less embarrassing than this," he grumbled.

"It would really not." She gave him what she hoped was her most leaderly smile. "It's two days. We'll explain to everyone when we can do it without getting all tongue-tied. And do it from someplace more comfortable. Like our own bodies."

Scott grunted. The gates opened in front of them. Kitty guided the car inside.

"Fortunately, the teams are busy with other things, so we'll just keep to ourselves as much as possible. Hey... c'mon, Scott. I said I'd take your classes for you, didn't I? Well..."

"I'm literally phasing right into my seat," he said, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah. Sometimes it gets harder to maintain when I'm tired. Just hang in there. Almost to bed."

"Bed." Scott sat straight up. "What if Emma gets done in New York? You realize you'd have to...?"

Kitty laughed. "You would *so* be sleeping on the couch, my friend."

"You say that now. But if this body reacts to... um, me... *believe* me, yours is going to react to her."

Kitty wrinkled Scott's nose. "I didn't need to think about that."

"And I didn't need to hear your little critique when you came back from the woods," Scott said. "We're even."

"Hey, I was complimentary! Very much so. I thought you'd feel more comfortable if..."

"Well, I don't. Let me assure you, I don't."

Kitty parked the car. "C'mon. Hank'll be first. Hank's an easy one."

"Hank's *smart*."

"So are we."

"The evidence suggests otherwise." Again with the eyebrow. Kitty had never been glared at by herself so much in her entire life.

She swung open the door. "Come on. We'll make it a game. I'll bet you anything I can convince 'em I'm you longer than you can convince 'em I'm me... I mean, you're me. I mean..."

"I am going to regret this," said Scott, unbuckling his seatbelt with a groan.

A few minutes later, they were standing rather awkwardly, side-by-side in the foyer, when a bundle of blue fur traipsed by, clutching a mug of coffee and some printouts...

"Ah, the wandering heroes return," said Hank McCoy, the Beast. "How were things with the parasitic bloodsucker?"

Kitty couldn't resist: "I'm sure Emma's fine. And the alien vampire thingie's dead, too."

Hank looked at her, a little cockeyed. He held back a laugh, but just barely. "Er, Scott, I think perhaps you develop a sense of humor when tired. An odd one."

"We're fine, Hank," Scott said immediately. "Go get some sleep."

"My dear, that commanding tone in your voice sets me all a-quiver. Fifteen more minutes. I merely wish to recheck these findings, and then I'll sleep. Scout's honor."

"No tricks, Hank," said Kitty, noticing his crossed fingers. "Remember, we're updating your database in the morning."

Hank blinked at her. "I thought I'd only discussed that with Kitty."

"I told her," said Scott-as-Kitty. "On the drive."

"You told *her?*"

"Him!"

Kitty patted her own shoulder. "We really bonded on the trip. I'm just like one of the girls."

Hank peered at them over the tops of his spectacles. "Are you two quite certain there's nothing...?"

"We're real tired, Hank," said Scott. That much was true.

"*Really* tired," Kitty stressed.

"Apparently," said the Beast, and he shrugged. "Well, I shall leave you noble warriors to your gender confusion. Guten abend, as my fellow blue fuzzies are wont to say..."

He disappeared back into his lab. Kitty leaned Scott's body against the wall and sighed.

"Yes," said Scott-as-Kitty. "I can see how this is going to work for two days."

"It wasn't *that* bad."

"Not until you took a vicious swipe at my girlfriend." Scott frowned at her. "Remember: You've me now. You *like* Emma."

"Couldn't I just pretend I like bubonic plague? Or canned asparagus? Or Sentinels, or..."

"You *love* her," Scott said, unusually honest.

"I... you do?" Kitty winced. "Ew. I mean, I sorta understood when I thought, you know... just her body an' all, but... ew."

"You should talk about taste. You're pals with Wolverine."

"But I don't get all kissy-face with him, so it's not icky."

"Thank Heaven," Scott said, "for small comforts."

Kitty sighed. "We'll do better in the morning."

"We'd almost have to."

They walked up the stairs to bed. A moment later, they passed in the hall, as Kitty hurried to her proper place in Scott's room and he to hers. It was going to be a long two days.

****

First Day

Scott Summers rose early, after a uncomfortable night spent in Kitty Pryde's body-- and in every stitch of her clothes, because he didn't even want to contemplate the issue of underwear. As a youth, it had taken him long enough to figure out how to *unfasten* a bra... he was fairly confident he couldn't correctly wear one. Which was a shame, because the one Kitty had put on was kind of chafing, and...

He stopped cold, and shuddered. Later, when they'd restored sanity, he would offer Emma one million dollars to wipe the memory of that thought from his mind.

Needing a distraction, Scott decided to take a walk around the grounds. That worked out somewhat better; he walked a couple of miles without even starting to get winded. It crossed his mind to be impressed with Kitty's fitness level. Then he needed a distraction from his distraction.

He found one at the top of a little rise, where he could look out over and watch the sun rise across the grounds, brilliant sunlight illuminating a carpet of green, set against a sky so clear and blue it made his eyes water... or maybe those were tears streaming down Kitty Pryde's cheeks. He felt a flare of embarrassment, and tried to blame it on being in her body, with instincts other than his own, but after a few minutes, he decided it didn't matter whose tears they were, and decided just to sit back and enjoy the show...

"Wow," he breathed, thinking of that time with Jean...

A footstep, barely audible, and there was someone standing behind him. Scott hadn't even noticed Wolverine's approach, until...

"Enjoyin' the view, pun'kin?"

Pun'kin? Scott wanted to gag, but he forced a smile at the short, almost feral mutant: "When'd you get back?"

"Just now, an' not a second too soon. This bein' everywhere at once ain't all it's..." His visitor frowned. "You okay, kid? What's with th' tears?"

"Oh!" Scott wiped at Kitty's eyes. "I, uh, I don't get enough chances to appreciate this, that's all, Wolverine."

Another frown. "We bein' formal this mornin', *Shadowcat?*"

"Sorry. Logan. Uh, well... I guess I've always thought we were a little... too informal."

He wouldn't have believed it, but Wolverine almost looked hurt. He hid it quickly, under cover of lighting a cigar: "Sure thing. So next time you get brainwashed by a ninja clan, Miss Pryde, I'll just look th' other way an' mind my own business..."

"I didn't mean it like that. I..."

He looked away, wondering how the hell to get out of *this* one. In his own body, he could trade barbs with Wolverine all day and it was an accepted part of their relationship. Logan just shrugged it off as him being a dick. Kitty's approval appeared to mean somewhat more to him, and Scott didn't know quite how to be *nice* to the hairy midget...

He settled on a sigh. "Sorry. Rough night last night."

"Need t' talk about it?"

"No." He peered at the other from the corner of his eye. "You actually do care, Logan. This is a side of you I... other people, I mean... don't see enough."

"Yeah, well, don't let it get around."

They stood in silence for a moment. Scott-as-Kitty wondered what one was supposed to talk about with a 100-year-old ex-assassin one happened to be buddies with. Then, suddenly, Logan leaned over and...

*Sniff*.

He cleared his throat. "Are you, um, smelling me, Logan?"

*Sniff, sniff.*

"I know I slept in these clothes, but you don't have to be rude about it..."

"Nothin' personal, kid. I dunno... for a second, I thought somethin'... wasn't right."

Scott tried a nervous laugh. "Silly. I told you I was fine."

"Yeah. I guess." Logan dropped his cigar on the ground after a single puff, ground it into the dirt, and turned back toward the woods. "Have fun sightseein'."

He disappeared as suddenly as he'd come. Scott cursed, a string of unfamiliar words when muttered under Kitty's breath. Damn those enhanced senses of his! That was *another* good reason not to try to pull this off. He thought for a second about abandoning the whole charade... somehow...

But, really, what could Logan prove? He smelled like Kitty. Probably, by this point, a little *too* much like Kitty. Could the difference in body language really be *that* apparent after only just a few moments?

Scott decided to stay far away from Wolverine-- not that that wasn't his usual plan, anyway. Any further thoughts he had along the lines of giving up were strangled when the sun inched a little higher up in the sky, making a small lake in the distance sparkle in a way Scott had never seen-- *could* never have seen-- through his visor.

"Wow," he repeated, and forgot the rest.

****

Kitty Pryde awoke, groped for her alarm clock, and blasted Scott's bedside lamp right off the table before she remembered which body she was in. Grumbling, she slapped ruby quartz glasses back into place and changed as mechanically as possible, then hurried downstairs and starting guzzling coffee and dropping aspirin by turns. Thanks to Scott's damned optic beams, she felt as though she'd awakened with a monstrous hangover. She decided that would probably help her emulate Scott's demeanor, but all the same, she wanted to scream. How did he go through *life* like this?

She was on her second cup and her third aspirin when Kurt Wagner-- Nightcrawler-- padded into the room and started pouring a cup for himself. Kurt's team had just returned from an adventure in the Savage Land, bringing with them the previously-deceased Psylocke, now in the prime of health. Two days ago, that had qualified as strange to Kitty.

"Guten morgen," Kurt said, sitting down at the table.

"Heya, fuzzy-elf." She needed a moment to realize he was staring at her. "What?"

"What did you call me, Scott?"

"Oh. Kurt. Morning, Kurt."

"Ja," Kurt said, and sipped his coffee. "Er... Scott, I realize it is not my place to interfere, but..."

"Then don't," Kitty said, pain making her unusually gruff. She thought it sounded very Scott-ian.

"Of course. I meant no offense."

"Aw... sorry." She rubbed at Scott's brow. "Headache. What's the problem?"

"Perhaps later," Kurt said, and sipped his coffee.

"C'mon, fuz... c'mon, Nightcrawler, let's have it."

Kurt looked uncomfortable. "It is Rachel. She is still very upset with you."

"What, about that thing when she came back from the Savage Land? That was nothing, she'll..." Kitty noticed Kurt staring at her, and groaned. She simply could not concentrate on playing a role with her temples throbbing like this. She snapped her fingers a couple of times. "No, sorry, that's why she was annoyed with... Kitty. She's annoyed with me for... for... Emma!"

"Indeed," said Kurt. "Will you talk to her?"

"What am I supposed to say? 'Sorry your mom's dead, I'm too busy sleeping with this skank to care? Just read 'Hamlet' and you'll understand?'"

Kurt spat out his coffee. He jumped up from the table. "You know, Scott, perhaps we should address this when you're feeling... this is, when you're not so..."

"Insane?" Kitty suggested. "*Really* bad night."

"Ja, I gather it must have been."

BAMF! Since Kurt 'ported out instead of using the door, leaving the dining room all foul with the stench of brimstone, Kitt knew she must have flustered him pretty badly. Her forehead dropped against the table.

"I *suck* at this."

"Yes. Yes, you do," said Kitty's own voice. She turned to see Scott in the doorway. She was a little disappointed that his body apparently had no reaction whatever to *her*. Not that she would have really wanted that, but as a point of pride...

"You changed your clothes," Scott observed.

"You didn't."

"Damn straight. Please tell me that's the same underwear, at least."

"You men. I swear, you'll wear the same pair until..."

"Let's just tell them," he said.

"We *can't*. C'mon, we can do this! How hard can it be, acting emotionally stunted?"

"About as hard as cleaning up after that dragon of yours."

"Lockheed?"

"He threw a fit just now. Then he *bit* me." Scott held out her own, newly-bandaged finger. "I think he's onto us."

"Yeah. Our rapport is..." she winced. "I hope you put disinfectant on that. I expect my body returned in the condition I gave it to you."

Scott made a face. "Yes, well, after you... gave me your body... it had a chance encounter with Logan."

"How'd that go?"

"Badly. He sniffed me."

"He does that. You get used to it."

Scott leaned heavily on the table. It was a nice change from the usual straight-arrow thing he did. Kitty had never before imagined having a body with such... good posture.

"How many more hours?"

Before she could reply, Hank wandered into the room, yawning and stretching like the big cat he was. "Greetings, fellow-travelers. And how are we upon this fine and lovely morning? I'm reminded of my Whitman: 'Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers...'"

"It was... lovely," Scott said, "really."

Kitty recognized that tone in her voice. They shared a look, and a little smile...

"I'm glad somebody else thinks so, kitten. Everyone around here appears to be tense this morning... Logan, Kurt, and now Scott..."

"I'm fine," Kitty mumbled, hoping her head wouldn't fall off when she nodded.

Hank sipped from his cup. "Ready to upgrade that database?"

For about fifteen seconds, nobody answered.

"Um, Kitty," she said to herself, "I think he's talking to you."

"Oh! Uh... you know what, Hank? I'm really not up to that today. Can't it wait... maybe two days?"

Hank frowned. "I'm trying to catalog our data about Dr. Rao's mutant cure, in hopes of developing a means to counteract it. I really could use the extra space."

"Yes, but trust me, Hank. I really... I have a lot to... look at the time! I've got to go..."

Scott-as-Kitty hopped out of the chair, drained his coffee, and phased right through the wall on the way out. Kitty was glad *somebody* was enjoying his new power...

"Unusual," Hank said, frowning at Kitty-as-Scott. "Well, perhaps she's still a bit flustered by Piotr's failure to show yesterday. The boy's been... mercurial, since his return... and you know that's hard on her."

"Tell me about it," Kitty said. Then a horrible thought occurred: "Omigosh, Piotr! Please *please* don't let her run into *him* today..."

Kitty swallowed her own coffee, burning Scott's mouth, and hurried out of the room.

Left alone and somewhat confused, Hank cleaned his spectacles, dropped them back on his nose, and said:

"Omigosh?"

****

By lunchtime, Scott was about ready to pull Kitty Pryde's hair out of her head. He wasn't well-acquainted with the case histories of the students she advised, and he fumbled his way through her computer classes on the pretext of making his students explain the course material to *him* (and actually learned a few things). Worst of all, he'd never realized how many of Kitty's male students were developing crushes on her. She might not have known either; there was just a certain look in some of their eyes that Scott remembered well from his adolescent days of mooning over Jean. Or would have remembered, if he could have ever seen his eyes then.

Kitty's were hazel. He knew because he spent a solid half-hour just staring at their reflection. When it came to being trapped in an attractive female body, Scott was flawlessly, almost obsessively respectful. But he was turning into an absolute slut about the novelty of being able to see his own eyes in the mirror.

All in all, the experience of being Kitty wasn't as bad as Scott had feared... and then Piotr Rasputin showed up.

First of all, the hormonal part was supremely distracting. If he'd been embarrassed by the way Kitty's body reacted to *him*, the way it reacted to Pete was...

*She's crazy about you, my friend. Just sleep with her already!* he thought in Colossus' general direction. *And if you had -any- idea who just advised you to throw caution to the wind, you'd know we just set new records for irony...*

So when he saw the young Russian across the grounds, Scott thought it a good idea to proceed in the exact opposite direction. Unfortunately, Kitty's strides weren't very long compared to Pete's, and there was nothing there to phase into, so Piotr caught up to him before he could duck into the mansion's back door.

"Katya!" Piotr called. Scott sighed and turned. No place to hide.

"Yeah, Pete, uh... I'm really busy today. Why don't we have lunch, day after tomorrow? My treat."

"You are angry," Piotr said. "I wanted to explain about last night. I needed... I took a long walk. I had no idea a mission would come up. You know I would not leave you to--"

"No, really, Pete, don't. I, um... I need time." Scott took a deliberate step back from the big man. "And, uh, space. *Lots* of space."

"I..." He hung his head. "I understand."

"No, you don't," Scott said, relenting half against his will. "I do."

"You... do?"

"Yeah, Pete. I know what it's like to be... scared of yourself. To have so much going on in your head that you're afraid you'll hurt someone you love by opening up. But it hurts them more if you don't, and besides you never know when... when you'll lose the person you care about more than anything."

"More than... anything?" Piotr said hopefully.

*Huh,* Scott thought. *Lucked into that one. He thinks I... that is, she meant him. Maybe I'm better at this relationship stuff than I thought.*

"Treasure the people you love, Piotr. Don't take them for granted, not for a second. Otherwise, they'll be gone, and you'll never have had a chance to tell them... anything."

"I..." Piotr reached out and grabbed what he thought was Kitty's hand. "Katya, there are... things I would like to say to you."

Scott phased through his hand, panicking. He reached for the door handle-- failed to concentrate, and phased right through it. Tried again.

*Screw it,* he thought, and phased through the door.

"Katya!"

He poked his head back out. "Two days, Pete. I promise. Trust me."

"I do."

"Okay." Scott hurried through the door and didn't look back. He thought perhaps he'd go check on Lockheed. The nasty little thing hated him now, and was liable to breathe fire on him. Suddenly, by comparison, that didn't sound so bad...

****

"No, I can't say we have taken any unusual readings," Reed Richards was saying, on a video monitor in Sage's loft. "No anomalous life-forms, either. Why do you ask?"

Kitty shrugged Scott Summers' broad shoulders. "Well... thanks. Just confirming a theory."

Richards frowned. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure we'd have noticed anything if it was there. Some of our computers have been on the fritz for months..."

"Since Magneto's attack on New York?" Kitty guessed. Richards nodded. "Yeah, that happened to us. All that electromagnetic activity blanked some sectors of data. You might have to rewrite a bit of code for the tracking program."

Richards blinked. "I'll... look into that. I had no idea you were so computer-literate, Cyclops."

"I'm full of surprises," she said, and signed off. Then she nodded to the large black man a little distance away, who stood guard over the monitoring equipment that had belonged to his friend. "Thanks, Bishop. I'll get out of your... um, hair."

Bishop ran a hand across his clean-shaven pate. "Sure, Scott. Hey... you expecting the aliens to land or something?"

"Can't be too careful," Kitty said, and exited the loft.

The sun was already down when she started her walk back to the mansion. She could hardly believe she'd made it through her first day without giving up the secret. Her headaches had even subsided a bit during the day, as she got used to Scott's power. The color blindness was still irksome, but on the other hand, the looks of awed respect she got from students and even from some of the X-Men were nice. Kitty had always had a bit of a problem being taken seriously-- "the non-threatening Shadowcat," Emma had called her. *Everybody* felt a little threatened by Cyclops. Kitty wasn't sure she'd want to live like that, but for a change, it was nice.

Possessing Scott's muscle memory and unerring instinct for spatial geometry, she'd even skinned Gambit at a game of pool. That had been fun, even if she *had* gotten some weird looks when she collected the money. Not a bad day.

She made her way up the stairs, remembering to go to Scott's room on the first try this time. She yawned and stretched, wondering how much Scott would mind if she changed in front of the mirror. Not *all* the way; it wasn't like she'd never seen him shirtless, and...

She wandered into the bedroom in search of a nightshirt, and suddenly something-- some *image*-- flashed into her mind. A snippet, very definitely aimed at her and very... provocative. Kitty jumped and turned toward the bed...

Emma Frost lay there, stretched out on the bed, chin propped up on one fist, and ran her free hand seductively down the curves of her side.

"Hello, darling," she said. "See anything you like?"

Ew, thought Kitty, ew ew ew ew ew ew... But even more galling than Emma and her brazen attitude was the fact that Scott's body really, *really* liked it.

"I-- um," she stammered, "I thought you were still in... Manhattan..."

She smiled, licking her lips in the process. "In my opinion, Robert Reynolds needs a padded cell, *not* the services of a stunningly beautiful mutant telepath. Besides... I couldn't stop thinking about you. I'm so sorry about the way we left things."

Kitty kept trying to move Scott's body, but it really didn't want to move as Emma climbed off the bed and sashayed across the room. All at once, she *got* the big deal about Emma Frost, and it seemed to amount to: *Men are even stupider than I thought.* Judging by Scott's reaction, they could barely think straight in her presence *before* she used the telepathy...

"Oh, um, yes, the-- the Danger Room thing. Well, Emma, I think-- um, you know, I'm really not in the mood to discuss it right now."

She pressed right up against Scott's body. "Does that mean I'm forgiven?"

"I, um..." She thought: Crap wanna phase need to phase NEED TO PHASE RIGHT NOW! How did other people manage having to make it all the way to the door all the time? "Forgiven. Sure, Emma, but..."

"Good." Emma kissed what she thought was Scott, with-- with tongue and everything!

"WHOA!" Kitty jumped back, turned, and ran right into the wall. The urge to phase was strong. She almost knocked Scott's glasses off, and *that* would have disposed of the wall for good.

"Scott... what's the matter, dear? Your thoughts are so strange, I can't quite interpret..."

*My thoughts are: Ew ew ew ew EW EW EW.* Aloud, she said: "Emma, it's *really* not the time. Please. I'm begging you."

"Yes, I know. I've never seen you like this. It's exciting."

"EW!" Kitty said aloud. She couldn't hold back any longer: "What the *hell*? You think you can just show up in here and flash a little skin and all is forgiven? It *can't* be that easy! Scott Summers is not a pushover, lady!"

"I... I never said you were."

"Yeah, *right!* You just act like you can snap your fingers, and all the X-Men will come running! Let me tell you something: Everybody knows who-- who I really love. *Everybody*. You think you're a big deal around here? You're nothing but a bad joke."

"I..." Emma sank down on the bed and turned her head away. "Go, then."

"*Thank* you," Kitty said, feeling guilty. She hadn't meant to do that. Scott was going to kill her for it, and rightfully so. But she'd been so flustered, and so embarrassed by the reaction of this body to that witch, and she'd *finally* had the ammunition to really take Emma down a peg...

She got as far as the door when she heard the tiny, choked sound from the bed. She was crying. Emma Frost was crying.

"Damn," Kitty muttered, and returned to sit at the edge of the bed. "I'm... I'm sorry."

"Not, you're not."

"Actually, to my complete shock, I am." Kitty hesitantly took her hand. "I didn't you realize you-- we. I guess it didn't hit me until just now that we really loved each other."

"I have never been under the illusion that you really loved me," said Emma, not looking at her.

"You're wrong. He-- I do. I told me so, and why would I lie?" Emma glanced up, giving her a funny look. "Look, Emma... you can't imagine what I've been through in the last two days. I'd tell you now, except... well, I can't. Give me till tomorrow night, okay? I can explain."

Emma pulled her hand away. "Just go."

"Yeah." Kitty took a deep breath, stood, and turned. "I swear to you, I never would have said that. That was something... childish, from a very small and stupid part of my mind."

"Tomorrow night, then?" Emma whispered, just when Kitty thought she hadn't heard.

"Yeah. I promise."

This time, perhaps, Kitty deserved to phase through the floor... or under a rock. She just used the door instead.

****

Day Two

Logan watched as Kitty Pryde emerged from the mansion, took a long circle around the grounds, and ended up on top of that same hill. He felt bad spying on the kid, but something was niggling his senses and it wouldn't go away. Until he knew, it paid to be cautious.

He watched and waited, not making a sound, until she finally turned-- with a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders-- and returned to the Mansion proper. School was already in session by that time, and Logan watched from the trees as she headed for her first class, and was intercepted by... Emma? He thought about getting closer, to hear what was being said, when suddenly:

Click-CLICK. The sound of a rifle's bolt at his ear. A scent-- Logan had been too keyed in on Kitty to catch it before-- beside him.

He sighed. "If this is Avon calling, we don't want any."

"Quiet, mutant scum! I represent the Order for the Purification of Humanity, and we're here to..."

"Whatever," said Logan. He popped his claws, turned, and skewered the guy in one motion. He grinned at his attacker, who had just enough consciousness left in him to gape. "Human supremacists. Save th' world from scary muties. Been there, killed that, who's next?"

Click-CLICK. This time, Logan's ears made it a couple of *dozen* bolts, scattered all through the woods. Apparently a whole *lot* of 'em were next.

"Okay," he said, tossing the first intruder aside. "But you gotta take a number..."

****

Scott was just wondering how he could make it through Kitty's advanced programming class without weeping bitter tears, when he heard Emma's voice behind him. Adrenaline hit him in a rush-- she hadn't returned last night, had she? She hadn't run into...

"Miss Pryde, may I speak to you for a moment? It's horribly important, thank you very much..."

Emma seized Kitty's arm-- which now belonged to Scott-- in a grip so tight, it might have belonged to her diamond form, and pulled her into a doorway, out of range of students' prying ears...

"Emma, what's the..."

"I'll make this brief, Miss Pryde, as I'm sure neither of us wishes to endure the other's company for any longer than necessary. I'd like to know precisely when you began your affair with Scott."

*Okay,* Scott thought. *Didn't see THAT coming...*

"My-- my WHAT?!"

"Don't waste my time, luv. Practically everyone thinks you've been acting strangely since your little getaway weekend. Was that the start of it? Or has it been going on since you returned to the team?"

"Emma, that's absurd! I don't know what you're..."

Emma's eyes flashed. Whatever she thought she was saying, she really believed it. "I think it's perfectly obvious. He treated me horribly last night, and *you* were practically the only thing on his mind the entire time."

*Yeah,* Scott thought. *She talked to Kitty. I'm dead.*

Emma frowned in concentration. "He's all over your thoughts, as well. And you obviously haven't changed your clothes this morning. So where did you sleep, Miss Pryde? Or shall I say, with whom? Disgusting little trollop."

"Okay, first of all, she's-- I'm not a trollop! Secondly, I can explain!"

"Go ahead, then."

"Okay." He took a deep breath. "I actually *am* Skkkllllyaaaa! Damn!"

Emma blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Look, I'm just-- we're not, okay?! Read my mind if you don't believe me."

"You know very well I can't. I get only vague images-- another reason to suspect you're hiding something."

"Well, I am, but not what you think. You're going to have to take my word for it, Emma."

"Based upon our close, personal friendship?" The White Queen sneered. "What's the matter, dear? Tired of your tin Romeo rebuffing your advances? You won't find Scott any easier to--"

"Emma!" he exclaimed. Then something flickered in his peripheral vision, and he sighed with relief. "Oh, look, Logan's killing people on the edge of the school grounds. Finally, something *normal.*"

Emma glared. "Don't think this gets you off the hook."

"Believe me, I know I'll *never* be living this down..."

They ran to help.

****

"Rachel!" Kitty exclaimed, approaching her best friend in the X-jet hangar, where she was checking out a minor steering upgrade. Kitty stopped short when the young redhead turned to look at her. She'd never seen Rachel unhappy to see her, before.

"What is it?"

"Um... I wondered if you had a second. I wanted to talk."

"Does it have to be now, Scott? I'm kinda busy here."

She ducked back into the jet and reached for the tool she'd been using. Scott's hand came down on her wrist. "It has to be now."

"I really don't know what we have to say to each other."

"How about, 'I'm sorry this is hard on you?'"

Rachel's green eyes flashed. "If you're sorry, you don't do something. If you keep doing it, you're not sorry."

"Interesting choice of words." Kitty-as-Scott frowned. "Look, Ray... you know how much it hurts to lose someone you love."

"Yeah, I do," Rachel set her jaw. "But I didn't stop loving them and... and do what you did to Mom."

"Ray..." Kitty took her friends' hand in the unusually large ones she was using now. "Sometimes a person doesn't have to die for you to lose them. Sometimes you lose them slowly, for a long time... and that leaves a hole inside you. A hole that hurts more than anything. And... and when you find something to fill that hole, sometimes you don't act the way you should. You don't do the right thing or the smart thing. And maybe you're sorry later... maybe you're even sorry at the time. But what's done is done. I don't want it to ruin our relationship."

"I don't know if I can accept that," Rachel said, and drew her hand away. "But thanks, Scott-- for talking to me like... well, a friend, if not a daughter. Like something other than an inconvenience from an alternate reality. Thanks for that."

Kitty smiled. "No problem. Maybe, now that we're talking, we could do it again... in a couple of days."

"I'd like--" Ray trailed off, frowning. The Phoenix emblem appeared over her eye. "Oh boy. I'm sensing maybe fifteen hostile minds right above us."

"You-- you do? Wait-- like real minds? Like somebody-has-to-lead-us-in-combat hostile minds?"

"Is that a problem?" Rachel asked.

"Ummm..."

*But*, her mind said, *at least it's too many to be the Brotherhood...*

****

Scott phased through one of the humans, solidified behind him, and knocked him out with two blows. He thought he'd known the capabilities of his team, but he'd never really considered Kitty's potential as an offensive force until he'd had to use her abilities himself. Her ninja training was even more extensive than he thought-- Scott wondered if he'd retain any of those techniques when he returned to his own body.

*Maybe I should have to walk a mile in the moccasins of -all- my teammates,* he thought. Then he achieved his goal, having fought his way to Logan, and remembered that he didn't *really* want a skeleton forged of adamantium or a smoking habit.

"Hey, pun'kin," Logan said, slashing another soldier's throat in the process. "Havin' fun?"

"You have an odd sense of fun, Wolverine." Scott-as-Kitty dodged a blow, reached *inside* the man's body armor to grab him, and used his momentum to toss him aside. "I'm worried they might have encircled the perimeter. We may have to..."

Logan laughed. "We won't have t' do anything, darlin'. Cyke's over that way."

Scott blinked. "So?"

"So, if we take care of our business, he'll take care of his. Man's never let us down yet."

Another swing. Scott dodged, kicked, and knocked down another own. "I... didn't realize you knew that."

Logan laughed, nearly cut a man's gun arm off, and laughed some more. "Hell, just 'cause a guy's a dick don't mean he's all bad. Just between us, Cyke's as good at what he does as *I* am."

"Wow." Scott tripped an onrushing attacker, so that he fell right on the Wolverine's claws. "Thank you, Logan. That... really means a lot. Sort of."

Logan looked like he might ask what was meant by that, but then the next wave was upon them, and they didn't have any further time to bond.

****

The fifteen soldiers on the other side of the compound probably would have been given a lot, actually, for the honor of fighting off *only* a couple of mutant martial artists, as opposed to a ticked-off former Phoenix with telekinesis to beat the band. Rachel Grey ripped up a metal wall of the hangar, divided it into a dozen pieces, and set them up at staggered intervals near the line of invaders.

"Scott!" she cried, and it took Kitty an extra half-second to see what she intended.

"Oh, no," she murmured. "No *way* can I make that shot..."

--Yes, you can,-- said a voice in her mind. --I'll guide you.--

Kitty whirled; Emma Frost had somehow fought her way to their side of the mansion, but had eschewed diamond form in favor of just staying low and keeping the team in telepathic contact. She nodded to-- well, she thought to Scott-- from a few meters away.

*Trust EMMA?* Kitty thought. *Can't I trust Doctor Doom instead?*

She took a deep breath, turned, and with the combination of Scott's instincts and the picture Emma put in her mind: ZRAAACK! She blasted the first metal plate with a full-strength optic beam that bounced from it-- to the next one-- to the one after that-- and on down the line, knocking down soldiers as it went.

"YES!" Kitty exclaimed, pumping her fist in a very un-Summerslike manner.

Then she felt the jolt of horror from Emma's mind. So far, all the attackers had been on foot, but now something-- some kind of armored vehicle they'd either stolen or cobbled together, like a cross between a tractor and a small tank-- came out of the woods right behind Emma. It didn't look very sturdy. But it did have a couple of nasty-looking submachine guns attached, both pointed at the White Queen's heart.

*Aww...* Kitty thought.

"DIAMOND!" she cried, and Emma morphed even as Kitty ripped Scott's visor off his eyes and opened them wide.

*ZRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!*

When she'd affixed the visor again, she saw that the humans were still there-- they'd bailed as she'd attacked-- and that Emma was still there, lying prone on the ground in her diamond form. The armored vehicle wasn't there anymore, or not more than little shards of it.

Kitty wondered if she'd overdone it. She wondered if, maybe, Scott would have known better than to take that shot. She wondered if she'd just rid herself of Emma Frost in a way she'd never even *contemplated*, and was horrified that might be the case.

She ran toward her fallen teammate, but suddenly stopped short. One of the humans, somehow missed in the confusion, had a rifle stuck in her gut and a scowl on his face...

...until he suddenly fell back, screaming, trying to slap out his hair, which was on fire.

"Lockheed!" Kitty-as-Scott cried, grinning up at the little dragon, who hovered in the air above her.

No time to celebrate. She fell to Scott's knees beside Emma, checking for a pulse... how did you check a freaking diamond for a pulse, anyway?

The woman in her arms morphed, and big blue eyes looked up at their rescuer-- or who they thought it was, anyway.

"Scott," Emma breathed, and kissed him. Kitty let her do it, this time. It was for a good cause, such as it was. She hadn't showered for two days in Scott's body, but she'd never felt dirty until this moment.

****

The Order for Purification of Humanity turned out to be just what Logan had said: Another bunch of kooks, no different from some of the others they'd encountered, though a bit more shabbily armed. They'd never been a real challenge for the X-Men, and the team hadn't taken a single casualty in putting them down. They had *inflicted* a few, but Logan promised to write somebody a nice, long note of apology, just as soon as he ran out of beer and had nothing better to do. Lockheed didn't apologize at all.

Kitty Pryde and Scott Summers had traded bodies at around ten PM, two nights ago. As the hour neared midnight, they sneaked out of the mansion and met atop the little hill where Scott had liked to watch the sunrise.

"Do you think anyone bought it?" Kitty asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure we were terribly convincing."

"Hey, this was really really hard! This Y chromosome thing... noooo, thank you. I'll just take back my X-*woman* status, thank you very much."

"If you insist. I'm going to miss it, though... um, not being a woman. The other part." Scott shrugged Kitty's shoulders. "The seeing part."

He couldn't have seen anything now, but even just to have his eyes open, to see dark that was *dark* instead of tinted by optic beams, seemed to be a big deal for him...

"I'm gonna miss reaching the top shelf," Kitty said. "Kicking ass, taking names. That sort of thing."

"Thank you so much, Kitty. You have no idea what it..." Scott trailed off. "Reaching the top shelf? Is that all my body's good for?"

"Well... most of the better parts belong to Emma."

"Emma!" he groaned. "No *idea* if she'll believe us..."

"She will, if you tell her the truth." Kitty smirked. "The alien's mind-ray fried our brains, releasing all our pent-up desires. But, alas, our brief and passionate affair was not to be, 'cause you only have eyes for her. For, um, some reason."

Scott laughed. "Well, it's not like the truth sounds any *more* believable."

"Trust me. Plus, it'll make Pete awfully jealous."

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Scott said. "He might want to talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Rachel might want to talk to you."

"Thanks for that. I didn't know how to--" Scott checked his watch and cleared his throat. "It's time."

"Oh. Um, d'you think maybe we should be... I don't know, touching, or..."

"Just to be safe..." said Scott, and using Kitty's body, he stood on tiptoe and kissed her. Kitty was surprised, then dizzy, as her mind seemed to be swirling around and around the kiss, and then...

...finished it back in her own body. She gasped, pulling away from Scott, checking to make sure everything was in place...

"Hey!" she said. "My finger *really* hurts."

"Blame Lockheed," he said innocently.

"And I'm bruised all over! You should've phased quicker during that fight!"

"At least I left your relationship intact..."

"Dude. I kissed Emma for you. That, I believe, is above and beyond the call of *any* duty."

"You kissed Emma?" Scott grinned as he led her down the hill. "Did you consider selling tickets? Because there's a committee of male students who'd pay for a new Danger Room, just to see that..."

Kitty punched him. Hard. Scott didn't fight back, fully aware that he'd deserved that one...

****

Scott Summers had almost made it back to his room-- where he hoped against hope that Emma would be asleep, so facing the music could wait until morning-- when he wrinkled his nose. The corridor was thick with nasty cigar smoke.

"You're up late, aren't you, Logan?"

The Wolverine grinned. He leaned against the wall near Scott and Emma's room, brushing ashes from his cigar onto the carpet. "Just thinkin'. Good scrap today."

"If you say so. They all run together for me."

He started past Logan, but the other X-Man stopped him. "I was thinkin'... defensive, my ass. Kitty took out as many as I did today. We oughta use her on offense more often."

"I had the same thought. I'll take it under advisement."

"Do that. Y'know, Summers... I noticed the dragon saved your butt in combat. Gettin' old?"

Scott fought back annoyance. "No more than you, old man."

Wolverine laughed. "Fair 'nuff. Thing is, though, I didn't think Lockheed liked ya that much."

"I'm good with animals." He arched an eyebrow. "Will that be all, Logan?"

"Yeah, I think that about covers it..." He let Scott push past him in the corridor. "Pun'kin."

Scott gaped at him. Logan winked, put out his cigar, and walked the other way...

END

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