They finished working without further incident. The tension ebbed away with more work to focus on.

The other volunteers were very friendly to them, perhaps to make up for it, or maybe they were naturally. Logan was told he was pretty handy at this building thing.

Logan refrained from saying, "For a mutant?" for once.

Shine and Wally didn't seem to know about what Kurt had said or how he'd been upset. They noticed he was quiet, but he didn't explain, so they thought the whole thing had blown over...until the car ride home in the respective cars they took. They could tell something was off.

Shine was with the girls, so she just asked. You know...because with girls, you ask.

"It's nothin'," Rogue said.

Which meant it was something.

"Don't give me that," Shine said.

"Oh, why not just tell her?" Mystique said meanly. "I'm sure she'll find out later anyway. They're in such close confidence."

"This has to do with Kurt?" Shine said at once.

"How'd you know?" Rogue asked.

"I noticed he was a little down, and I can't think of any other man in that other car she could say that about other than my husband," Shine said. "Is it personal?"

"Not really." Storm was driving. "He scolded us severely."

"Not you," Jubilee said.

"Well, he scolded anyway," Storm said. "Reproved us, I should say. But it has concerned me that he may be right."

"I feel awful," Rogue admitted. "I didn't want him to think we was treating anyone different..." She glanced at Shine uneasily. "Do you think we act closed off to humans?"

Shine stared at her with a look that anyone who knew her well would have recognized as utter disbelief. It was little hard for Rogue to read though.

"Closed off in what way?" she said carefully.

"Like we don't trust them," Storm said, "and, perhaps, that we don't want to, even when they act kind to us."

Shine was silent for a long moment. Then she said, "Did you forget that I am a human?"

Silence for a moment.

"Well, yeah, but you ain't the same," Rogue said.

"Since when?" Shine said.

"That whole future thing makes you different. You said yourself--they don't have mutants where you come from."

"What?" Mystique said.

"Shh," Jubilee said. "None of your business anyway."

Mystique looked puzzled.

"She'd find out sooner or later." Shine shrugged. "But I don't know if I want to explain in the middle of this conversation--so later.... But, Rogue, why should it matter? Humans are not defined by our societal settings, are we? We're humans. We have human DNA, a human soul, a conscience. What else makes us human?"

"Sure, but you can't be as biased against mutants," Rogue said. "Around here we can't just trust everybody."

Shine laughed a little low. "You didn't trust me either. Not that I blamed you. Who would? But Wally and I noticed right off you were harder on us because we were humans. Sabretooth was given more of a chance. The fact that your power didn't work on us was enough to make us fearsome in some ways, but also just not sharing the experience of being mutants was brought up often enough in those first few weeks. I got tired of it, but I expected it."

"You expected it?" Storm said. "Why did you not ask us to stop, then? Or explain?"

Shine tugged her hair. "Why do you think we concealed that we had powers from you to start with?"

"I've been wantin' to ask you that," Rogue said. "Wasn't sure when the right time would be...but why did you do that? Did you think we'd think they were weird."

"Oh, no, Sweetie, you're still thinking like a mutant," Shine said. "You expect people to be afraid to be thought of as freaks for having a power, but Wally and I spent a lot of time recently--over 18 months, in fact--in places where not having a power is what made us freaks. Losers, even. Wally not so much. I had an interesting time. But our gifts let us hold our own, and they cared more about our refusal to conform than anything else. The outcasts of those places were the ones who thought we had it lucky. Coming here, I had every expectation it would be the same. We didn't have a plan at first, but I felt God wanted us to keep our gifts to ourselves, not to try to impress you with them and brag how we could hold our own here."

"I see some merit in that, but not when it had become such an issue," Storm said. "Surely it would have been easier to just explain."

"And have your acceptance of us be based on our powers?" Shine said the most hurtful thing she'd ever said to them...hurtful, because she didn't say it at all like she was trying to be cutting. She just said it like it was a fact.

All the girls were real quiet then.

Mystique, however, looked at Shine with some interest finally.

"You tested them?" she said.

"I suppose it came out to that," Shine said. "I realized later why it had to be that way. It couldn't have been any other way. I am a human--that is what I am. If I used my gifts to try to claim I was part of the mutant group, I would have been using it the wrong way. My gifts are to help me do what I do. They are not trophies. They are not ID cards to get accepted. I am what I am. Wally also. He uses his speed often enough to do things a lot like the X-men do, but he's not an outcast, and he's not a mutant, so playing that card was no good for him either. The only way to see what it felt like to be different was to be different ourselves, to allow ourselves to be passed under the light without anything but our message and our personalities to go by. Anyway, I got utterly sick of people asking about powers first thing in the last mission I was on. I told them I didn't have one like them." She frowned. "And I got used to seeing that look of disappointment in their eyes. It made me mad. I never asked any of them what their power was when I met them, I just asked their name. To me, that was what mattered. Whether you can shoot lasers or not, it's not important. God gives some worlds superpowers...others, He doesn't. Wally and I combine those two things: the test of power and the test of not having it. We have never held each other in any sort of contempt for that, and we treated everyone accordingly. I told you, Rogue, about Samson, remember? He had special strength... That didn't make him more godly. If anything, it went to his head. That's all we cared about."

She fingered the edge of the car door. "Does that answer your question?"

It answered it more than Rogue wanted.

She put a hand to her head. "I...feel so...stupid."

"I never thought of it," Storm said, "but not having a mutation, among all of us...is like us having it in the rest of the world... How...strange. Such a thought should have been obvious from the start."

"It never is," Shine muttered. "Empathy is a learned trait. It's never obvious."

Jubilee winced. "That's...kind of rough."

Mystique laughed, but it was still bitter. "Why would you put yourself in such a position on purpose?"

"I guess it's like Paul said," Shine said. "'I have become all things to all men.' He didn't present himself as any different from anyone who he was preaching and ministering too. I have always tried to adjust. But we also have to think that means more than just superficial similarities. Powers don't matter, but position does. Knowing how to be poor, how to be the stranger, how to be clever, how to be simple...it's work, for sure, but at the very least, you're memorable. I can't bear to be ignored. I can take anything other than that."

Mystique realized she'd gone about this all wrong.... Of course, you really couldn't ignore Shine...

"But we dunderheads just missed the whole point," Rogue said. "That's what you're saying.... And you never said a word?"

"Actually, we did, a few times, point out that we were getting treated differently," Shine said.

"Kurt said it too," Storm mused. "But we didn't heed him. I apologize, Miss Likstar."

"You were never that bad, Storm," Shine said. "Nothing to really apologize for. Anyway, in some ways it was natural. Who would have thought we were normal? We're not normal anyway. But who is? Normal is a fantasy. It doesn't exist."

"People kill for such fantasies," Mystique said.

"People kill for less than that," Shine said, "so what?"

"You really didn't think we'd take to you if you had powers, did you?" Rogue said, still sounding upset.

"Not all at once," Shine said. "I thought sooner or later, but then, I don't really know. I guess I don't expect people to like me. Wally does. It was harder on him. I can be...difficult for people to handle. Part of that is my own fault, part of it isn't. Strong conviction just tends to do that...and I suppose, Storm, you remember why I just expect it to go that way."

Storm bit her lip.

"I'm working on that, but of course we paid attention from day one to see how it looked," Shine said. "I had everyone's reactions pretty much predicted from then. I can't say I was wrong. There were some pleasant surprises."

"No one was worse than you thought?" Storm said.

"Only Scott--but it's not so much he's worse as it's harder to deal with in person," Shine said. "I was pleasantly surprised by you girls mostly. You're kind even when you don't understand...but a lot of people are not kind to what they don't understand."

The rebuke in that was obvious. And the poor reflection on the X-men, who ought to have known better than this.

Was she doing this on purpose? Or was she just honestly expressing her thoughts, and it was just that ugly on their side?

Either way though, she was right. They had done just what she'd said. How could they have not seen it before?

Storm was only a little comforted that she'd apparently not been so bad. She knew she'd still contributed.

Rogue felt more guilt than she maybe really needed to, but that was Rogue.

Jubilee was faster to shake it off. "I think I was pretty nice, though, after the first few days."

"I think you were," Shine said. "It wasn't all about nice, though, it was what was expected of us. It's changed now, hasn't it? Because of what Creed did. I hope that is not just because we revealed our powers... It seemed it was time, but I did wonder if anything would change. I'm glad that not everything did. But you think we are more capable now?"

"I don't think I ever consciously thought that," Storm said. "We could understand your reason for hiding it. I do now. Only...you hid something in order to not be accepted... What is the use of that? Why make it harder for yourself?"

"You know, the Bible says that when Jesus walked the earth, He had nothing in His outward appearance to draw people to Him." Shine said. "He was poor too. Nothing to offer them but His message and His work. He started small, but People were drawn to His goodness--and some only to His power. They left Him after He did what they wanted. They used Him. He allowed it, but His closest followers were not like that. They loved Him. Jesus said difficult things to sort out the true followers from the ones just in it for the fun and the ease of it. The Word also says 'buy the truth and do not sell it'. I take that to mean we give all we are for truth, but we do not truss it up with all our finery to get people to take it. We can be compelling, but we cannot use shallow tricks to make it go down easier. If using a power to make yourself seem more approachable is one way to sell yourself, and the truth, to people, it's a pretty poor way. Kurt wouldn't do it, and neither would we. He is all things to all men too. He doesn't care if you're human or not. He treated us the same from the moment we met."

"Oh...that's why you told him what you were..." Jubilee replied, "because he was cool about it."

Shine nodded. "It's a sure fire test. People who take you as they find you can handle a lot."

Mystique bunched up a fold of her dress in her hands, frowning.

The girls were silent for the rest of the ride home.

* * *

Later, they told the others what had been said.

Even Gambit was somewhat shamed by what the reason ended up being, though he wouldn't say it outright.

Logan said the whole thing had been a trick to test them to see if they'd be fair...and they'd failed it.

"Perhaps we didn't fail it completely," Jean said. "They admitted it wasn't so bad."

"That it was a problem at all is concerning," Xavier said. "I thought of it after the other day. They feel disparaged by us."

"The don't just feel it, Professor," Rogue said. "We actually did it. I know I did. And we're supposed to be protectors...heroes.... I can't get it out of my head how normal Likstar made it sound. Like she was used to it. Like that was all they could expect of us. I ain't never felt so ashamed."

"If I may, I don't think she meant that," Storm said. "I know her a bit better now. I think she is just trying to have realistic expectations...to not look down on or judge others unfairly. There are reasons for it. If her expectations are a little lower for that, it's well meant...and it seems they were only realistic--we played into them."

"Dey shoulda jus' told us," Gambit said.

"Why should it matter?" Logan said. "If we'd wanted to take 'em as we found 'em, we would have anyway. Preacher was right--we ain't so good at this as we think we are."

"I'm sure all of you are very fair," Xavier said. "It is one of our principles to be accepting of everyone."

"Yeah, so why didn't we accept 'em?" Rogue asked.

"Because they were hiding something," the Professor said.

"We're all hiding something," Morph spoke up, surprisingly. "We all hide from the world, don't we? Some of us more than others. We hide here, in this house. It's just as she said. We're safe...or safer...but out there, it's not the same.... I wasn't really here for it, but, judging them for hiding things, it seems like the last thing we could do."

Xavier frowned.

"Professor?" Jean said. "I felt...a shift there.... What is it you're thinking of?"

"Morph just reminded me of this strange remark. Again, Miss Likstar...she seems to get around. She just said that I could reprove them for keeping their secrets when I told Washington that I was a mutant... I thought it was a strange things to say. There are security risks involved in exposing myself, to all of us, but they didn't risk anything by telling us the truth."

"How exactly do we know that?" Logan said. "What if they did?"

"Dey don't tell us dat either," Gambit said.

"I'd be willing to believe it," Storm said. "And think, Kurt and Jubilee both kept it a secret after they knew. Doesn't it seem they must have been told a good reason to do so? Jubilee is not one to keep secrets from us. I don't think Kurt is either. Perhaps the reasons we were told is true, but there may be other ones. Telling us too much might endanger the future, perhaps."

"I'd understand that, if they'd just have said it," Xavier said.

"Should they have to say something so obvious?" Storm said. "Or should we have given them the benefit of the doubt? As we did Bishop? And Cable...who were mutants.... I cannot be the only one wondering if we truly based all of this on knowing they were humans. Or am I the only one who just never really considered that humans would do the sort of things we do, and they do, and have reasons unrelated to mutants to do them? Perhaps I am the only one that self-centered."

"You're not," Rogue said. "You're not self centered, Storm. Don't take it so hard, gal. We're all guilty here."

"Perhaps we have become a little narrow in our focus," Xavier said. "But freeing mutantkind is our business, and I see no other reason for anyone to come to us but to help or hinder us from doing it. We couldn't be sure."

"Is it so impossible that someone could just have a goal outside that?" Logan said. "'Cause, it sure sounds like it."

"Well, dey is helping mutants now, or dey think dey are," Gambit said.

"We drove them to that," Storm countered. "We made it impossible for them to do as they wished here. Does no one remember that Shine met the Morlocks because she left the house, upset after something you said to her, Gambit?"

"What?" Gambit had forgotten this, actually. "You sayin' it my fault?"

"I'm saying that, had you been more welcoming, maybe their focus would have been on us more," Storm said. "It's our own fault if they went out. You hardly can blame them for doing what you dared them to do, I notice. It is getting old."

Storm never lectured anyone this much, and they were astonished at how thin her patience seemed to be.

"Storm, are you all right?" Xavier said.

"I don't know," Storm said. "I am disappointed in all of us, perhaps, but I feel that is not the point...or the real reason I am upset. I don't know.... I think we perhaps missed a chance here. I hope it's not too late to get it back.... What if the chance was important, and we let it slide by? That doesn't concern anyone else?"

"What could dey really have to offer us," Gambit said, "dat we'd have missed so much by a few weeks?"

"Perhaps if you actually tried to talk to them normally, you'd know." Storm was cutting. "As it is, you have never given them a chance. We have made them the outcasts...and they let us. This does not bother anyone else?"

"Of course it do!" Rogue said. "But if they let us, they must have been okay with that, right? I mean, maybe we need to focus on what to do now."

"I don't feel this warrants the whole team taking action," Xavier said. "They are our guests, and they are trying to do something. Let them do it--but a few misunderstandings are no reason for us all to up in arms and rush to right wrongs that they may not even be holding against us. Rogue, there is no need to do some sort of penance. It was an honest mistake, and now it's over. An apology would suffice."

Rogue didn't look satisfied with that.

"Why you so worked up, Chere?" Gambit asked her.

Rogue shook her head. "Maybe I kinda started to like them," she said. "I don't know when it happened, but they grow on a person. They're good people too. They're trying to help us. I feel like we've treated them all wrong from the start. That does bother me. I don't know how to fix it, but we should. Why, if they were one of us, we'd all try, wouldn't we?"

"But dey ain't," Gambit said.

For whatever reason, that remark did not go over well.

Rogue sat up suddenly and glared at him, then she huffily got up and flew out of the room.

"You missed the point of this entire conversation," Storm said, also angry. "I think I'm done here, Professor, if that's all right."

She left also.

The men and Jean all looked at each other.

"They were...very upset," Jean said, finally. "They do like our guests a lot... I confess, I myself have started to like them more," with a cautious look at Scott. "They mean well."

"I still don't," Scott said. "And this is just the trouble with the team I was afraid they'd cause. I want order, not fighting. And how can two people who aren't even mutants be causing this much trouble in our team just by existing? I don't understand it at all. What is their sway over Storm and Rogue?"

Jean shrugged.

Logan stood up. "I'll tell you what one thing is--the rejection didn't go both ways. They accepted us, however awful we were to them, right off." He made a fist. "Like Preacher does. They all do. Maybe the girls like that. It's rare enough. Even other mutant don't always like us." He left also.

"Him too," Jean said, unnecessarily. "I think he blames himself. They came for him."

"I still wish he'd explain what that meant," Scott said.

"Enough of this," Xavier said. "I think we're giving it too much attention. It will blow over. Scott is right--there is no need to fight amongst ourselves over it. We can resolve it in our own ways. It's not X-men business what we do about them. Enough meeting over it. For now, they are living here, and that is all. They aren't a problem for us, and we must stop blowing it out of proportion."

Jean privately thought that he might be missing the point, though she didn't dare say so. Whether or not they were a problem for the X-men as a force, if they affected them this deeply as individuals, it would come back around the force sooner or later. And in what way?

* * *

https://youtu.be/dbObOC1lPeY

["Forgiven and Loved"-- Jimmy Needham.]

Shine and Wally wondered what the X-men had all met to talk about. Jubilee was excluded, and Hank was still at work, but the others sure seemed in a hurry.

Then Rogue came storming out, and she was in tears, but she didn't stop to talk to them.

"I wonder what happened?" Wally said.

"I told you we talked on the way," Shine said. "But I can't imagine she'd be crying over that. Someone must have said or done something else."

"Now that you told them, you think they'll feel sorry?" Wally said.

"Is that the point of telling them?" Shine said. "I thought they should understand. We would have to explain sooner or later."

"It'd be nice if they were decent enough to feel sorry," Wally said.

"Maybe we should let them decide in their own time," Shine said.

They heard Storm whoosh past. A chill wind seemed to follow her.

Storm could control her powers fairly well, but Shine had begun to notice a subtle drop in temperature when she was in certain mood, and more static in the air when she was in others. If you weren't close, you'd never know, but it was there.

After a bit of talking about nothing in particular, Shine and Wally were interrupted by Logan coming in.

After a moment, he said, "Storm and Rogue told us everythin'."

Wally looked a little askance. "Well...and?"

"Ya got us," Logan said. "Ya wanted to see what we'd do.... I remember ya said I'd not take it so well if someone hid something from me, right? Guess ya got that last laugh."

"I don't find it funny, Logan," Shine said. "Am I laughing?" She was serious. "Look, I didn't explain it to make you all feel bad--I knew it might, but you all ought to know. What you do with it is up to you. It was what we chose to do, and we put up with the difficulty willingly. You don't owe us anything for that. Now that you know, what do you think? Are we the people you thought?"

"I thought from day one you were tricky." Logan was blunt.

"She is that." Wally clearly didn't include himself in that.

"Cunning as a serpent, harmless as a dove," Shine said, "as Jesus said. I don't mean any harm by it, you know."

"Yeah, I know.... Ya could have done a lot worse," Logan said. "You've got to be the most schemin' person I've ever met that didn't seem to want to do anything really bad with it. It's uncanny."

"I get that a lot from my students," Shine said.

"But they love her." Wally rubbed her shoulder. "It's endearing after a while, isn't it? Shine's love language is tricking you into realizing things are the way they are. It's like fooling you in reverse: She tricks you to un-fool you."

"Wow, that's really sweet," Shine said, "and...kind of unsettling. I guess like how you play dumb to make other people smarter, huh?"

"I'm not that tricky, Shine. I just roll with it." Wally shrugged.

"Well, anyway--" Shine lifted her hands. "--for better or worse, this is the way I am, Logan. Now you know. Take me or leave me, but it was also kind of God's idea.... I get this side from Him, you know. Jesus was very tricky. When we say we want to be like Jesus, some of us take that to new extremes, I guess. I always saw patterns and understood what people wanted easily enough. Once I was old enough to put it together, I became an advice giver.... Now I find being sly about it can get better results. This is the truth about us. And if you want to learn from us, I'm afraid this is how I do things.... But hey, by turns we're quite open and blunt...too blunt, some of my kids say."

"It's funny though," Wally said.

"You encourage me, that's the problem," Shine said. "But yeah...anyway, your call, Logan."

"Well, if I know you're gonna do it, I guess it's not so bad." Logan scowled. "At least you're upfront about it. But now I'll see it comin'."

"I guarantee you'll fall for it anyway," Shine said totally calmly. "Sorry...I'm good at it. But I won't use it to hurt you, ever, if I can help it. It's just too odd, you know--as for our powers, there are a few other reasons to not reveal them other than to test people. But I don't think it's time to explain why."

"Whatever," Logan said. "Just no more surprises."

"Oh, no way. Always surprises," Wally said. "Surprises are fun."

"Ugh..." Logan grunted in annoyance, but he knew it was inevitable anyway.

He left them to think on that.

Storm came in not long after.

"After Logan, I hope you're not here to apologize," Shine said.

"I think I know what you'd say if I tried," Storm said. "Expectations, right?"

Shine shrugged.

"You didn't have to set the bar so low," Storm said.

"But it wasn't low," Shine said. "To err is human. I had biases once, just like all of you. I probably still do about a few things. I try."

"Same," Wally said.

"As annoying as it was, we know you're subject to error, like all of us," Shine said. "That's not a low bar."

"Well," Storm said, "I think in light of all I saw today, and heard, I have come to a decision."

Wally leaned forward. "Really?"

Storm nodded. "I don't want to waste any more time. You have something I've never seen before. Kurt does also.... It's powerful...and...when you talked, Miss Likstar, about how it was for you and how you've changed, I thought it was something I wanted.... Maybe I just didn't know it. But we all wish to be better than what we are.... You make people better than they are."

"No, we don't," Shine said. "God does that."

"God moves through you," Storm said. "It's one and the same, in a way, isn't it? Or am I misunderstanding?"

"No...that is sort of biblical," Shine admitted. "Do you know what you're asking though, Ororo?"

Storm did a double take.

"Who?" Wally said.

"I thought...it was more appropriate to use a real name at this time," Shine said.

[I wish I knew how to pronounce it.]

"Well...I think I do," Storm said.

She got down on the floor. "Is this an appropriate position?"

"It doesn't matter, but if it suits you, you feel free," Shine said. "It's quite simple though. Nothing ritual about it."

"Well, perhaps it just feels right," Storm said. "I guess I'm traditional in that way."

"Well, that's fine," Shine said.

She squeezed Wally's hand.

"We'd be really glad to welcome you, Storm."

https://youtu.be/OXcrEVFZOXs

["Meant to Live"-- Switchfoot.]