The day after Colossus arrived, the X-men tested him out in training. He did well.

And this prompted Xavier to ask all of the teens if any of them wished to try training to be X-men.

"We have talked about it, and I think all mutants should know how to defend themselves," he said, "and have fighting suits to aid their powers. If you should wish to join the X-men eventually, we could consider that, depending on how well you do."

"I'd like to," Ryan said. "But my mutation isn't really useful...it's just weird." He sighed.

Xavier didn't argue that.

"Learn to fight?" Kevin wasn't so certain. "I don't know if I want to hurt people."

"Perhaps, but consider what happened to young Trinity," Xavier said. "There is no telling when such a situation may present itself. And if you want to protect people, Kevin, you must train to use your power with restraint, or next time it may kill someone."

Kevin took that seriously.

"Me?" Kitty looked up. "I don't know if this whole X-men thing is a good fit for me. I mean, if it'd help me gain control, I guess I could train a little."

"You will want to learn self defense," Scott said.

"I guess that's true," Kitty said. "But I don't want to get beat up by any older, power-happy recruits either."

"We start off against robots before we train with each other," Xavier said. "And they are perfectly safe, with the proper supervisor. You'll work with one of us first, then, if you're ready, you can arrange for solo training."

Kitty shrugged. "Sure. I guess that's reasonable."

Jubilee mimicked her behind her head at Ryan, who tried not to laugh.

"I already train," Jubilee said. "So do I get seniority?"

"Well, I was going to ask if you'd like to help oversee it," Xavier said, "since you have been with us for a while now, and perhaps someone their age showing them the ropes, as it were, would be useful."

"Sure," Jubilee said. "It'll be nice not to be the rookie anymore."

Kitty shot her a look. "So I have to take cues from her?"

"Is that a problem?" Scott asked.

"No," Kitty said flatly. "I just don't know if that counts as 'adult' supervision. How safe are these robots?"

"You think I can't handle it?" Jubilee said.

"I would feel better if an adult were there." Kitty shrugged.

"What, you need a babysitter?" Jubilee said.

"Enough," Scott said. "It's reasonable for Kitty to want one of us senior members present also. Jubilee, you can help her in the scenario while we watch, how about that?"

"Terrific," Jubilee said dryly.

After they broke up the meeting, she complained to Ryan.

"Now I have to babysit that snob! I mean, I don't mind Kevin so much, though he can be scary, but you hear her--she thinks I'm an idiot! Well, sorry I'm not a college student at 14! But geez!"

"I thought she was 13," Ryan said.

"I think she turned 14 a few days ago," Jubilee said. "Something about her parents calling to wish her a happy birthday. She's just a kid."

"Well, I don't know, Jubilee. I was 15 when I came here," Ryan said. "My birthday was last month, remember?"

"Well...yeah, but you weren't a brat," Jubilee said. 

"Aren't you 15?"

"No, I turned 16 over the summer," Jubilee said. "I can drive legally now. Rogue let me drive before that, you know, but Scott was such a stickler for it. Come to think of it, I'm not sure Rogue has a license."

"I'm just saying Kitty's not that much younger than us," Ryan said. "And she acts kind of old, don't you think?"

"Her? No," Jubilee said. "She acts spoiled. Ugh, reminds me of some kids at the schools I went to. Miss Likstar keeps telling me it's just that she's adjusting, but how long does adjusting usually last? I didn't act like that when I arrived."

"Didn't you tell me you buzzed Wolverine on your first day?" Ryan had heard this story from both Jubilee and Morph.

"Well, yeah, but I thought he was a bad guy," Jubilee said.

"And got captured by Sentinels," Ryan added.

"But that wasn't me being a jerk!" Jubilee said.

"I don't like her either," Ryan admitted. "But I guess the Christian thing to do would be to try to get along anyway."

"Anything in the Bible about what to do when someone drives you crazy?" Jubilee asked.

"I think it says to pray for them," Ryan said.

"Then I'm praying that Kitty gets a better attitude," Jubilee said.

[I read some comments that said Kitty was conceited, in their opinion. I could kind of see why she might be. I think it depends on how you spin her character. Still, if I was around people who made it so clear they didn't like me, I doubt I'd want to kiss up to them either. So...kind of feel like there's blame on both sides here.]

Warren was going to start training also, as a matter of fact.

"We start together--we like brothers." Colossus was trying to be nice to him.

"Sure." Warren was an only child, and it showed. "Brothers... Look, I mostly just need a lot of space to use my mutation, so be careful if we're in the room together."

"Colossus very careful--and hard to damage," Colossus said, not concerned.

Kitty walked up to them.

"So I guess I'm starting training too," she said. "Along with that MacTaggert guy...so that's terrifying."

"Is terrifying?" Colossus said. "Why?"

"The reality bending thing." Kitty crossed her arms. "I'm still finding all these other mutations a lot to keep up with."

"Didn't you ever meet any mutants before?" Warren asked.

"Not really," Kitty said. "I didn't think there were any. If there were, they must have hid it pretty well. Frost was the first other one I met.... What about you? Aren't you some kind of billionaire? Did you ever meet other mutants in your big house?"

"Not until I was attacked by them, usually," Warren said. "I can thank Mystique for that mostly...other than that one Cable guy..."

"What does cable have to do with anything?" Kitty asked.

"No, Cable the...never mind," Warren sighed. "I don't even know what his deal was."

"We don't have cable where I live." Colossus was also confused.

"Not like the television!" Warren said. "Honestly!"

"Well, you're the one who said it--why are you getting snippy with us?" Kitty shrugged.

"I wasn't," Warren said, irritated. "Don't take things so personally, kid."

"Don't call me kid." Kitty frowned. "I was in college, all right? Anyway, in Jewish culture, I'm an adult already."

"Great for you, but this is America," Warren said. "And technically you're still a kid."

"My parents always say you're grown up when you act like grown up," Colossus said, trying to smooth things over.

Warren looked at him, then sighed. "Sure..."

Kitty looked at her feet.

"Why you want to fight, little mouse?" Colossus asked her.

"I don't really want to," Kitty said. "But Professor X thinks I need to learn to defend myself.... I guess so. I don't want to get caught like I did again.... If I could use my mutation at will, I could have gotten out of that."

"This is wise," Colossus agreed. "But fighting is no good, it's true. Better to settle things peaceable."

"For mutants?" Warren snorted. "Good luck."

"Is it true you used to be one of the four horsemen I saw on TV?" Kitty asked. "Someone told me that."

It was Wolverine.

"Someone's been talking about me, huh?" Warren said. "Who, Mystique? It was her fault."

"How is that her fault?" Kitty frowned. "She seems cool."

"Cool?" Warren was one of those people who will tell you what not to like about someone if you say something nice about them.

[People like that suck, don't they?]

"If by cool you mean blind follower of Apocalypse and executor of his orders. She--"

"Sir," Colossus interrupted, "perhaps is best not to frighten girl too much."

"No, I can't take it. What?" Kitty said.

"Well, to put it simply, she's bad news," Warren said. "Don't trust her."

"But why? That's not a reason." Kitty's know-it-all tone came out. "You have to give me more than that. How do I know you just don't like her?"

"Trust me, kid, I wouldn't look like this if it wasn't for her."

"Like an angel?" Kitty said.

"No, blue," Warren said. "And metallic."

"She can make people blue?" Kitty said. "Like she's blue? That's weird."

"No, she can't make--I mean yes, but it was a machine," Warren said. "And it's not the blue, it's the evil."

"Blue means evil?" Kitty said. "What about Kurt, then?"

"You better start over," Colossus said. "You are confusing me also."

"Look, I don't want to go into the details," Warren said. "It's not a nice story, but you need to understand this--Mystique is trouble. We should be glad she's gone."

The doorbell rang right then.

"It'd be funny if that was her now," Kitty said

"This isn't a sitcom," Warren said. "There's no way she'd come back here willingly."

"Then answer it," Kitty said, smirking.

"Fine," Warren said.

Why he wanted to prove a petty point to a 14-year old, he wasn't sure.

"Is this joke in America?" Colossus asked Kitty.

"Is joke if he's serious," Kitty said.

"Joke...if serious?" Colossus shook his head. "I not understand."

"Just watch," Kitty said.

Warren flew to the door and opened it without looking out the peephole first.

Mystique was standing on the doorstep.

Kitty choked on a gasp of laughter.

"What in the h--- are you--?" Warren began.

Mystique punched him. With no warning.

He stumbled back. It was harder than he expected.

"Why, you--" he cried.

Mystique punched him a second time.

Morph had just been coming in from the kitchen to find the new recruits...and saw this.

"What...?" he said blankly. "Did I miss something?"

"What the h--- was that about?" Warren yelled at Mystique, his wings going up.

"This is your fault!" Mystique said, sounding very teed off. "You and your big mouth! And that little, twit girlfriend of yours!"

"She's not my--what are you talking about?" Warren said. "How dare you come here and attack me! I outt--"

"Easy there, boy." Morph grabbed him before he could do something they'd all regret. "Mystique, what's going on?"

"What's going on?" Mystique sounded oddly close to breaking down. "I am unemployable! That is what's going on."

"Do I hear yelling?" Shine came running down the stairs and jumped the last few steps. "Raven? What are you doing back here?"

"She's unemployed." Colossus had followed that part. "Who is this?"

"That is Mystique." Kitty was gaping.

"That is her?" Colossus said. "Oh...I get it--she is blue. That was joke."

"No...it wasn't," Kitty muttered.

"Who is this?" Mystique cast a look at him. "Colossus? Hmm, he was on one of the recruitment lists, come to think of it. Not that it matters. Thanks to that witch, Psylocke, the entire underground of mutants thinks that I have, in their words, 'sold out'."

"Oh..." Shine said knowingly. "Come to think of it...we should have seen that one coming. Of course they would spread the word after what happened. But everyone? I mean how many contacts do you have?"

"That's really none of your business," Mystique said. "The point is, all of them have already heard that I can't be trusted."

"Isn't that true?" Warren said.

"As an agent!" Mystique snapped. "And I was told, in so many words, that if I showed up at any of their meeting places, I would be shot on sight. Do you know how many places that rules out in this country? A lot!"

"Well, how is it my fault? I didn't spread the word," Warren said. "And why should I care? One less bad guy to worry about."

"I swear if I could," Mystique said, "I'd beat the crap out of you."

"I'd like to see you try!" Warren looked dangerous.

"All right--time out." Shine made the hand signal. "Morph, help me here."

"Right, Warren, get out of here," Morph said. "No sense letting this turn ugly. Go on."

"But...you saw..." Warren said.

"We'll handle it, just go," Morph said. "Now."

Warren glared but flew out the door. 

"I'm not sure threatening to beat the crap out of someone is the best way to recommend yourself," Shine said. "Why are you so angry at Warren? It was Psylocke's fault."

"He tipped her off," Mystique said darkly.

"He didn't intend it to go that far," Shine said. "Go fight her, she's the one trying to screw you over."

"If I could find her, I might," Mystique said angrily. "But I can't. Or rather, I could, but they'd shoot me...so..."

"So...you're saying you're hard up?" Shine said.

Mystique suddenly looked at her feet. "I suppose that is the case..."

She sighed. "I don't even know why I came here. Just to have someone to blame, I guess."

"Here I thought this was about to go a whole different direction," Morph said, amused. "I mean... Shine..."

"I know," Shine said. "Didn't you come here to ask us for help?"

"And why would you help me with this?" Mystique said. "You don't like the others... Anyway, what does it matter? I hope you're all happy. I'll have to start all over..." She looked a little scared, actually.

"And are you broke?" Shine asked.

"I walked here," Mystique said. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "Not that it wouldn't be easy to steal...though usually that's beneath me, but if I have to..."

"You're just casually going to admit to us you're going to go rob someone?" Morph said.

"No, this won't do," Shine said. "You have to stay here. Come on, it makes the most sense. What if Psylocke has them all looking for you also? She can be quite persuasive. She won't forget a slight like what happened at the camp. I was afraid of this happening, and now it has. You go out there alone, and it's handing it to them."

"I don't see how being here, the place they'd look first, is better," Mystique said sourly. "And I don't love your company that much."

"Do you love any company you stay around at a given time?" Shine said. "Sorry if we're not doing something illegal. I mean...maybe we are. I don't ask.... But, still, secret groups, undercover ops--isn't this kind of your cup of tea? It's either that or going back into faking being human. How long can that last?"

Mystique frowned at her. "I knew you'd try to turn this into a ploy to get me to stay here, but this is more blunt than I expected."

"And you came here knowing I'd do that and hoping I'd say it in a way that didn't make you sound pathetic for giving in," Shine said. "So allow me to save you the trouble of acting like you're going to refuse. You know it's the most sensible option already. At least we won't kill you. We owe you anyway for the camp. You can cash in, how about that? And it beats the street, doesn't it?"

Silence.

Kitty wondered if this would work. She didn't know much about Mystique, but the woman seemed kind of hard bitten.

Morph glanced at Shine uncertainly.

Shine softened a little, and, in a low voice the others could barely hear, she said, "Please, Raven."

Mystique seemed to be weakening.

"I suppose I can't stop you if you want to make me do this," she said lowly. "But the others will never allow it, so it doesn't matter what I think."

"Warren wouldn't like it," Morph said to Shine.

"Will the X-men allow it?" Shine asked him. "You know everyone best."

"I think they'd allow it maybe if Warren wasn't here..." Morph said. "But unless you can talk him into not throwing a hissy fit, it's gonna be tough to convince them it's a good idea. Is it a good idea?"

"Well, probably not," Shine said. "But I have always thought a bad idea was preferable over a heartless one. What kind of people would just toss her back out to the wolves? She's not that bad."

Mystique gave Shine a weird look, like she didn't think she'd say it like that.

"True, but you know Scott," Morph said.

"You should let her stay," Kitty spoke up.

They turned to look at her.

Kitty shrugged. "I owe her one... I mean, I don't get this whole thing that well, but it'd be pretty mean to not help, wouldn't it? Aren't you supposed to be heroes?"

"I think Kitty has said it," Shine said.

"Is good to show kindness," Colossus agreed. "Any mutant who needs help is friend of mine."

"Huh, he is exactly like how I heard," Mystique said dryly.

"Sweet?" Shine asked.

"Gullible," Mystique said.

"I don't know if being nice is gullible," Morph began, then, "Right...look who I'm talking to."

"What is gullible?" Colossus asked.

"Don't worry about it," Kitty said. "Is Warren going to be okay?"

"We'll see," Shine said. She walked over and patted Kitty on the shoulder. "But nice, Kitty. I'm proud of you."

"For what?" Kitty said oddly.

"Sometimes it's hard to stick up for someone if other people are angry at them," Shine said. "Takes guts. You're finding your footing here a little, aren't you?" She glanced at Morph. "Better get the others. The sooner we settle this, the better for everyone's nerves."

"Yeah..." Morph said, laughing nervously. "Boy...this is going to be interesting..."

Mystique was rather surprised he was going along with it so easily. Shine she knew would...

She felt rather as if she was using them. Normally she'd only do something like this if someone put her up to it.

But oddly, no one had. They all just assumed she had already switched sides.... No doubt Magneto would make sure of that story.

So...really...she had no plan.

Why did that make her feel more guilty than actually being there to trick them would have? Something was wrong with her.

But...what else was there to do? She was nothing if not practical. She had run out of options.... This was it...

The camp had ruined her. If she could salvage her career as a villain for hire at all, it would take a while. People would have to let this blow over.... Usually you could resurface after a while and people would assume you'd gotten over your little heroic phase, as they called it. Even Sinister had had one of those...sort of.

But it could take her months for that...

Maybe longer...

On the other hand, going back to living as a human would have solved that problem but created another. Then she'd really lose her contacts and credibility also.

Besides...ever since leaving her life with the count...living as a human had become incredibly difficult to Mystique.

Maybe it was abandoning Kurt that made her feel that she didn't belong with humans anyway. And it was too risky. She'd spent most of her time working for other mutants since then.

[From what I can glean, this is true. Timeline wise, Kurt on the show is 25 when he meets Mystique, and we know that she adopts Rogue at around 13, and something like 8-10 years seem to go by between then and Rogue and Kurt meeting, and Rogue isn't that much younger than Kurt. So we can assume she met Rogue about 12-16 years after she abandoned Kurt, and there seems to be no sign of her doing anything except villain stuff in that time. I might just be making assumptions, but there's a poetic justice in the idea that I think might make sense from the original creator's perspective.]

She thought about all this while they were gathering the other X-men.

Shine came back to ask her if she'd talk to them directly.

Mystique couldn't keep these thoughts in her head anymore. Perhaps she was incapable of it now.

"Don't you think I'm using you?" she spat bitterly. "Doesn't that make you feel like a tool? Don't pretend like you don't think so."

Shine stared at her like she'd lost her mind.

"Do I feel used?" she said oddly. "You are quite a strange woman, Raven."

Mystique just stared at her a moment.

"I know very well what it feels like," Shine said, after a pause. "Better than you think, actually. I can't change what you feel like it is, you know...but it does not have to control me. Eyes open, right? I cannot be used if I let it happen. One could say I let you, so I used you, if we get into semantics. Do you want help or not?"

Mystique was silent.

"I'm going to interpret the fact that you are not flat out refusing, to mean you have no other plan," Shine said. "As embarrassing as I'm sure this is, and I can imagine it, believe me, but isn't a little embarrassment preferable to the alternative? I'll give you a chance now: You can walk away. If you don't, I'm going to take that as you knowing this is the best option, and I don't want to hear any more crap about being used, then. Fair enough?"

A few agonizing seconds went by.

"Going once," Shine said.

"Shut up," Mystique finally said.

"And you're still here," Shine said. "So I guess that settles it...so, can you please come explain yourself to them? And I will try to keep the snide comments to a minimum if it helps."

"It won't matter," Mystique said. "They will just say it when you are not around."

"Then it's inevitable. Might as well face it." Shine shrugged. "It's good that you came here. I read in a book once that one mile can be harder to walk than 50, or whatever it was. I think that's very true. I have always found the distance I had to walk to make an apology felt much longer than the one I had to walk to get a check. Same principle, I suppose."

"None of your speeches, please," Mystique said. "And stop looking happy."

"I'm sorry. I will try to look miserable." Shine adopted a pout that was not convincing. "I'm not gloating, you know, I'm just not dismal like you."

"Be more dismal," Mystique said.

But this was getting close to banter, Shine thought, and she took it as a good sign. Perhaps Mystique was getting over her nerves a little.

Somehow, actually, Shine's manner did make her feel better. At least nothing could ever make Shine possibly act normal, and that was reassuring in its own way.

Same principle with Morph, probably, who certainly didn't act normal about the whole thing either. 

The other X-men?

Well, they all had the expected reactions.

But Rogue actually said that they should help her.

"She helped us," she said. "I have been ungrateful too many times. We need to fix that. If she's here, she's not out there makin' trouble for us. Should we pass up that chance?"

"I see no difference, really, with her being here before and being here now," Xavier said. "As long as all of us are all right with it. Perhaps some good will come of this, after all...who knows? At the very least, if Magneto is looking for her, I'd like to have a chance to stop him. If he comes here, that is more likely."

"Great," Logan muttered.

But actually, he put up hardly any protest at all, to most of their surprise.

* * *

Shine quite happily informed Mystique later that she was "in."

Mystique was not so happy.

"Don't think this changes anything," she said.

"Raven," Shine said, suddenly looking up with that glint in her eye that Mystique had seen enough times to be wary of, "I think I have been very patient with you and understanding. Would that be about right?"

"In so many words," Mystique said warily.

"Then trust me when I say this," Shine said sweetly, but it was fake sweet. "If you say those words one more time, I will dump you into the swimming pool."

Mystique raised an eyebrow. "You think you could?"

Shine put a hand on her hip. "I know I could."

Mystique knew she could too.

"That's not that much of a threat," she said.

"Want me to do it?" Shine took a step forward.

Mystique backed up. "All right, fine. I don't feel like a swim right now."

Actually she hated pools for personal reasons.

Shine shrugged.

Mystique rolled her eyes.
"I always wondered if you had a limit to how many times someone could rebuff your efforts before you lost patience. This is the answer?"

"I didn't count," Shine said. "But everyone has a limit, don't they? I suggest we make the most of it...and that brings me to a more unpleasant order of business." She cleared her throat and pulled out a piece of paper.

"They said I'd be the best person to explain this, which means no one else wanted to deal with your lip about it, but there will be some rules and conditions to you living here of your own volition this time. Fair is fair."

"What kind of conditions?" Mystique said warily.

"I negotiated them," Shine said, smiling smugly at her. "So hopefully nothing too unfair. Of course you know the usual: No killing, maiming, poisoning, etc. or you're gone...or perhaps turned in, since we're doing that now. But that shouldn't be any trouble for you."

Mystique couldn't tell if that was a joke or not.

"But the more minor ones that we're implementing to promote harmony around the house with all these new people is we're asking everyone to be civil to each other," Shine said. "No serious physical fighting is allowed between guests, outside of training. No verbal abuse is allowed--you'd think that'd be obvious, but apparently it wasn't. We can't control attitude and snide remarks, unfortunately, but I would discourage them if you want to keep your situation comfortable."

She consulted her list. "You're not a student, so the schooling thing isn't really a question, unless you want to join our study, and you're welcome to do that. Otherwise, you won't be expected to contribute to any of that. But no one is allowed to live here and not do something to contribute to the household well being. We've still been working this out. Warren patrols, since we've had to up security. Some of us teach, and since we've been doing that, the newbies have been taking over more chores just so no one is over taxed. Our own rooms are our responsibility for the most part, but we had to make schedules for cleaning and vacuuming and stuff. We do our own laundry, for obvious reasons, but if you could just have your floor clear on vacuuming or sweeping day, that's considered polite to whoever has that duty. And any personal items, if you have them, should be out of sight if you don't want them seen."

Mystique raised an eyebrow. "You're serious about this list?"

"Perhaps in villain groups none of this is thought necessary." Shine looked up, with a firm look. "But I've had more domestic fights over this kind of thing than anything else, and we have over 20 people living here right now. If we're not all going to spend most of our day squabbling over nothing, this is how it has to be. And it will affect you. Do you want the cleaning duty people to chew you out?"

Mystique shrugged. "I don't have any belongings anyway."

"We'll get you some, if you're going to live here," Shine said. "No worries, you can pay us back by helping with chores. You have three choices. You can either be on cleaning, which is what most of the Morlocks chose because it was easier to learn, or there is patrol, but I have to say the boys have kind of cornered that one, and you're not suited to it power-wise anyway. Or we have weekly shopping excursions now, and we trade off because it's exhausting. Xavier won't let me get things shipped directly to this house still, which is ridiculous." She rolled her eyes like a regular house matron would have. "But we have to make do. It takes at least three people, usually, to carry it all. What I'd give for Prime shipping, but it's not invented yet....Anyway." She shrugged. "So we alternate with that."

Mystique stared at her. "You really expect me to pick one?" she said.

"They all sound too fun?" Shine said dryly. "Fine, I can pick one for you, or Storm or Jean can. We all kind of oversee this together. But if you want the chance to negotiate, ask me. They won't give you options. Now is there anything I'm forgetting...?"

She tapped her chin.

"Oh...if you do stick around a longer time, you can perhaps join in training and even missions also, but that was a tentative suggestion, so don't bank on it. Mostly they just think that's what you're good at so maybe you'd be more amenable to that idea, but, of course, no one was sure you'd want to help the X-men..."

Mystique had given this some thought herself actually.

"I already considered that," she said stiffly. "I really don't care who I work for as long as it gets me what I want. But I have no wish to be associated with the X-men publicly. If I did anything, it would be in disguise."

"Fair enough," Shine said. "Can't blame you there, myself. I'm nervous about the same thing, for a different reason...but... And of course, there are the church projects, which is our department and Kurt's. That's entirely voluntary, but if you think it'd suit you better to get out of the house..."

"Maybe it'd be better to just clarify," Mystique said, "I'm not going to live here on charity. I'll contribute whatever is necessary...but I won't babysit, understand?"

"Oh, they wouldn't let you do that," Shine said.

"So don't bother asking me what I prefer," Mystique said. "Just pick something. I don't care."

"You may want to rethink that statement," Shine said. "I will hold you to it if you don't."

Mystique was about to say she had no need to retract it...then thought better of giving Shine that much freedom.

"Fine, anything unless it's something I absolutely refuse to do. Which I'll know if you bring it up. Not sooner."

"Okay...smart," Shine said. "And I think that's about it. If you need any essentials, please make a list too. Anyway, welcome aboard."

Mystique shrugged.

"One more thing." Shine changed her tone. "And you won't like this...but it might be wise to consider going by your real name at least part of the time. We have visitors over here sometimes, and new arrivals could be coming at any time, and we'll have to go out in public. Do you really want to be known as Mystique if that happens?"

Mystique swallowed back the first angry retort that came to mind.

"You already use my name--without permission--what's to stop anyone else?" she said dryly.

"I'll take that as a concession," Shine said. "Thank you...we've been telling the kids to think of code names, but I guess you have the opposite problem. But that's it, I think. Let me know if something else comes up."

"I don't know whether to be unnerved or impressed by the way you have turned this place into an organized machine instead of whatever it was before," Mystique couldn't help but say. "More organized than anyone I've worked with that I can recall."

"Really?" Shine looked genuinely flattered. "I'm not a really organized person, you know. This is all survival strategy I learned on the job the last few trips--to save my sanity and Wally's. The X-men actually did put up a fuss about it when I first suggested it, but now that we have, like, 15 people here other than them, they've shut up about it, I noticed. Probably all think we'd have lost our minds if I didn't think ahead about it. I swear, Xavier doesn't know the first thing about running an actual school..."

She seemed likely to go on about this for a while, and Mystique preferred it to talking about herself, so she let her.

[Shine is me in real life, honestly, when it comes to teaching. But believe me, you learn a few things when you watch kids all the time. Thank the Lord for structure.]