Chapter 10- Instinct
““I strongly disapprove of the idea of sending one of the New Mutants on this mission,”” Charles Xavier was in the middle of a half-discussion half-argument with his instructors, all three of them instead of just Logan and Ororo. Though Logan and Ororo knew the X-Men well, Beast knew more about the New Mutants than either of them.
““Look, to people here she won’’t look like anything but a big feral dog, especially with her brown coloring, and she’’s proven she can track,”” Logan leaped in. They’’d had this argument before.
Beast sighed and shook his head. ““I believe I am, Professor, on their side. Rahne has proven her remarkable tracking abilities, in both natural environments and when Logan and I have done our best to make the scent difficult for her to follow. As Amanda can’’t teleport, she should be easy enough for Rahne to follow, even within the confines of a city.””
Ororo nodded her assent. ““You have the results of her training sessions, Charles, and I for one was impressed with them. Logan can do better, but he has the tutelage of years behind him. And people would pick up on a single person following them around, but no one will notice a stray or feral dog.””
The professor put a hand to his head, as if thinking, then started to refute his teachers.
““I can do it, Professor.””
The three teachers whipped around to see Rahne, halfway transformed from wolf to girl (or from girl to wolf) in the doorway. Her padded feet and wolf’’s grace allowed her to enter without even Logan noticing her, as she had spoken before her scent reached him. ““I know I can.”” She was entirely human again, a well-brought up Scottish girl whose short-cropped reddish brown hair was nearly the same color as her fur. Clear eyes met Xavier’’s and challenged him as a wolf.
Wolves are amazingly intelligent, in their own way. They always know when to back down. And Rahne carried the wolf inside of her, eons of instinct balanced by human reason. Both Rahne and the wolf were more than confidant that they could handle this, tracking anywhere, anytime. Except for teleporting, Rahne thought, and the dormant wolf nodded ruefully.
In any staring contest, this included, Rahne won. ““Are you so confidant of your abilities that you would trust your life to them?””
““Yes.””
““What about Amanda’’s?””
If Rahne hadn’’t considered her answer for a moment, the Professor would never have let her go. It would have been a sign of overconfidence. But Rahne did think her answer over, and conferred with the wolf. ““Yes.””
““Without question.””
““There is question in everything, Professor. I know I can do this, as long as I have visual backup so I don’’t stray too far behind.””
Xavier sighed. ““Kurt insisted on coming in any case. He’’s tracking her visually, Scott is doing the human following, checking up on the places they go and keeping track of certain members. You will have to be able to find her at all times, no matter how far away.””
““Aye. How do I keep in touch with the other members? Wolves can’’t talk, Professor,”” Rahne pointed out.
““I would suggest, Rahne, that you transform just your mouth and vocal chords should you think you are falling behind. We can strap a walkie-talkie onto your collar,”” Beast suggested.
Red flashed around a corner, away from the door, as they began to discuss the finer points of lupine surveillance. Jean, trailing emotional discord behind her, stalked off to her room without even noticing when Scott leaped out of her way. Slamming the door shut with a forceful telekinetic blast, the BOOM! echoed throughout the house. Kurt, eating a frozen drumstick with his tail while perched on the back of a chair in the room below her, flinched.
Scott, much as he loved her, had been abused by Jean’’s ‘‘moods’’ for long enough.
As final as the echoing BOOM had sounded, Scott dared to throw her door open, livid. It surprised Jean so much she was silent for a moment. ““It’’s been weeks, Jean, and Amanda hasn’’t shown any hints of ill will whatsoever! She even took the mansion, and that we only introduced ourselves because we need her help, well enough. What is with you? She’’s a perfectly nice person -- we wouldn’’t have FOH to worry about if more people were like her!!””
““Rahne’’s going with you, did you know that?! She’’s one of the New Mutants, and they’’ve barely got a handle on their powers! They can hardly stay alive in the Danger Room, how can she expect to do better in a city?!”” Jean shouted.
““Every mutant here knows their limits. Even the New Mutants, Jean, this isn’’t about Rahne. Why are you so against Amanda?”” he demanded.
““She’’s hiding something, Scott! Something about her provokes every telepathic sense I’’ve got!!”” shrieked Jean.
““YOU don’’t like her because you can’’t read her mind!”” Scott flung back.
““The Professor can claim all he wants that it’’s because I can’’t read her mind, but I’’ll NEVER believe that!! There’’s something wrong with Amanda Sefton, AND I FOR ONE INTEND TO FIND OUT WHAT!!!!”” Jean screamed.
““FINE!! Do what you want. I WILL HAVE NO PART IN IT.””
And Scott Summers turned his back on Jean Gray, leaving only the sound of the door closing behind him.
*
Every time Jean entered a room besides the dining room at dinner, Scott would take one look at her and leave. Every time he brushed roughly past her on his way out she would catch a flash of his thoughts. At first, it was anger that she was being ‘‘unreasonable’’ as he thought it. Then it was disgust, and finally merely a wish to drive home a point.
Even if Jean didn’’t get it, or was too stubborn to admit it, the others noticed.
““Man,”” Evan whispered to Kurt as Scott left the basement (the first one, the one that was really a basement for the mansion and not any of the sub-basements or ‘‘secret’’ levels) two days later. ““What is with Scott? After years of drooling over Jean he just gets up and leaves whenever he sees her coming!””
Kurt shook his head. ““They got into a huge fight Monday after school. I was in the kitchen, right underneath her bedroom, and I heard incoherent screaming.””
Kitty leaned over from the other side of the couch so she could see Kurt. ““Is that, like, what was hanging in the air Monday? I could totally feel the, like, astonished fury all the way from, like, down here!””
Jean let out an exasperated noise when she caught what they were whispering about, whirling around with a bright red flash and stomping up the stairs again. The trio left in the rec room could feel the irritation saturating the air. ““Like, yuck,”” Kitty complained. ““So much for like, the movie.””
““Yeah. I’’m outta here!”” Evan darted for the stairs, Kurt and Kitty close on his heels to escape the mental stench Jean left behind.
*
““Got his scent, Rahne?””
The half lupine scent Scott a Look and nodded. ““Aye. Off then!”” Rahne sprang and was instantly on all fours, running through the mansion. She soon slowed to the wolfs trademark loping gait, smelling as she went. Two hours ago, Kurt had walked through the mansion and left a trail for her to follow. The X-Men and New Mutants had been asked to walk around the mansion as much as they could, to cover up his scent. Rahne would have to lock onto that particular scent, because there were ‘‘phantom’’ Kurt scents all over the place. This was the hardest training exercise she’’d ever done.
The wolf grinned, showing canines minted white. She lifted her nose to the breeze, sorting and identifying scents as she went. The trail was easy for now; not many people had walked it yet. As luck would have it, as soon as the wolf sorted, identified and catalogued every scent, she ran across a barrage of others. Ahh. At last, a challenge!
Rahne paused to take in the explosion of scent. Then she followed the fur/running/having fun scent that was uniquely Kurt. Then she reached an intersection of hallways, and his scent went two ways. The wolf paused to examine the situation, while Rahne thought What did he do -- multiply the way Jamie does?!
She caught a whiff of foolish pup from the wolf. He backtracked somewhere down the left-hand path. As Rahne went over the wolfs reasoning she fully agreed and continued down the hallway. As she was following the scent through the air still, she didn’’t notice when it wandered up the walls until she abruptly lost it.
Now the wolf was puzzled. Kurt didn’’t teleport, he wasn’’t allowed to. So what had happened?
The wolf offered no answers. Right. I’’ll do it myself, then! Rahne stuck her tongue out at the wolf, who gave an eloquent lupine shrug. She had no answers for the girl. Rahne backtracked a bit, actually putting her nose to the ground to follow the scent and discovering, to her surprise, that the smell wasn’’t on the ground! Examining the area around her, she reared up and ran her nose over the spot on the wall where he’’d stood. By keeping track of his exact path, she discovered he’’d gone through a doorway while still on the wall, turning around down the hallway. Clever elf!
The wolf cocked her head as Rahne made her way through the halls, careful to keep track of Kurt’’s precise path so she didn’’t loose him again. From there on out it was fairly easy, even through the confusing array of familiar scents and Kurt’’s attempts to break his trail. He was good, very good, but so was she. And she had the instincts of a predator who had been hunting by scent for longer than humans had been evolving.
Ten minutes later, fifteen into her pseudo hunt, the wolf froze just before she turned a corner. Rahne, annoyed, demanded What?! at the wolf. The wolf only gave her a look that said figure it out, pup. Rahne, knowing she wouldn’’t get another answer and would probably blunder if she didn’’t follow the wolfs instructions, took in everything around her.
And realized her quarry was close.
Very close.
Around that corner she had been about to turn.
Good pup, wolf grinned at girl, who grinned back. Time to give the wolf an outlet for her screaming need to stalk, and the girl a chance to scare the person who usually did the scaring.
Not even Logan could have heard her coming around the corner. Pointed ears flicked back and forth, keeping track of every movement, and finely honed muscles placed each padded paw soundlessly.
Kurt never had a chance.
*
The elf (who had been forced to brush out his fur because it was sticking straight out after he turned and saw Rahne standing there, mane up and grinning as only a wolf can) was lying contentedly on a couch in the rec room. Amanda was lying neatly in front of him on the couch, both stretched out to watch the movie. Kurt hardly remembered the movie at all; it seemed he had spent most of the time watching her. The light from the tv flickered across her hair, creating and banishing shadows. His tail was trapped beneath his leg because it had a mind of it’’s own, one much more devious than his own.
As for her, Amanda had spent a good part of the movie watching Kurt’’s tail, almost disappointed when he caught it beneath one of his legs. They took up almost the entire couch, considering that she was lying on her stomach, braiding and unbraiding a strand of hair with nerves. They were perfectly comfortable while the movie was on, but when it ended (as movies were wont to do) they would be left with an interesting situation. Curse Kurt’’s parents for bringing him up right! Curse hers, too, for that matter. And of course, every time things started to get interesting, one of their friends had interrupted them.
Amanda shifted and glared at the door, as if forbidding Bobby and Jubilee to enter.
““Hmm?”” Kurt cocked his head at her, wondering why she’’d moved.
““Nothing. Just making sure no one was walking down here, as seems to happen every other time we’’ve been alone yet,”” Amanda rolled her eyes up at Kurt, smiling wryly.
He locked his legs to keep his tail from escaping.
““So says she who dragged me around for six hours.””
Amanda laughed, mock-swiping at him. Kurt ducked. ““Will you stop bringing that up! You’’re kicking a dead horse!””
Kurt’’s face contorted as he looked at her. ““Vas?!””
““Oh. Sorry. It’’s an expression -- it means you’’ve exhausted a subject and kept going. Kicking a dead horse.”” She couldn’’t believe this. They were lying on a couch, in a cozy basement, doing their best to attempt to watch a movie, alone, and she was talking about beating horses to death.
Kurt shuddered. ““I think I’’ve decided to pass on the English and American expressions. Some of them are downright revolting.””
And now he was saying revolting.
Romantic conversation is dead.
As the credits rolled up the screen, and the triumphant music played, Kurt got a devious look on his face for about half a second. Amanda, of course, caught it. ““So!”” he announced cheerfully before she could ask. Then in one fluid movement he pushed himself up, off the couch, and held Amanda in his arms as she screeched in surprise. Wrapping her arms quickly around his neck so she wouldn’’t fall off, she started laughing hysterically. Kurt couldn’’t resist twirling around a few times before stopping to let her down.
““What do you wish of me Lady ‘‘Manda?”” he asked, bowing gracefully and grinning. He flourished an imaginary billowing cape.
‘‘Manda, for her part, could hardly stop laughing long enough to answer. ““How about a kiss from my knight in shining armor?”” Laughter died, and for a moment neither moved.
Neither would ever be quite sure who kissed who, but they both nearly melted. Amanda leaned against the back of the couch, a little dizzy. ““Another?”” came Kurt’’s soft voice.
This time he knew Amanda kissed him, her slender arms sliding around his neck while his crossed over her back. When he drew back, he found Amanda grinning at him from under a curtain of brown hair. ““What? Not thinking of stopping, were you?”” she teased.
““The thought never crossed my mind,”” he promised, eliciting a giggle which he took the liberty of cutting off. She buried her fingers in his hair.
Kurt let his tail have it’’s way.