Title: The Purging of the Red

Fandom: X-Men: Evolution
Characters: X23, Jean, mansion females, Kurt

Prompt: # , Red
Word Count:
Rating: G
Summary: The girls get tired of Jean lording her naturally luscious red hair over them.

Part 1

"She's got to go," Rogue yelled at Kitty as she stomped into their room. Laura and Kitty watched from Kitty's bed as Rogue yanked a drawer open, snatched her brush out of it, and started dragging it through her brown and white hair with unnecessary force.

"What's got to go, Rogue?" Kitty asked while finishing the French braid she was doing to Laura's black hair.

"Jean! I can't do it anymore! She was in there absolutely flaunting that stupid red hair everywhere. It was an insult, I just know it! We need to get rid of her." Rogue threw the brush back in the drawer and sat down hard on Kitty's bed, nearly knocking Laura and Kitty off in the process.

"Watch it," Laura muttered, clinging to the footboard. Kitty straightened up and put herself between the two.

"I know it bothers you, remember how Tabby gets angry about it too? But we're not getting rid of Jean just because she has awesome hair. That's silly. That would be like getting rid of Kurt because he sheds in the pool, or Laura for being herself." Kitty patted Rogue's arm sympathetically.

Laura said nothing, just scowled a little harder and glared at the furniture. Footsteps grew in the hall, and then Jubilee peeped around the corner, trailed by Rahne.

"Are you guys talking about Jean? You know yesterday she borrowed my sunglasses- you know, the yellow ones?- and she totally pulled the look off better than me. I got so angry I just had to leave the room and shoot off some fireworks."

"Who, Jean?" Tabby and Amara appeared from the opposite direction and joined the rapidly growing group. "What's going on now?"

"Jean was brushing her hair at me again," Rogue complained, waving them all in. Rahne shut the door behind them as they entered and seated themselves around the room.

"Urgh! Yes! I found one of her hairs in my laundry yesterday," Tabby said from her perch on Rogue's bed. "I want to do something to Miss 'Yes it's my natural color'. Like cut it off."

"No, we can't do that! I think that's why Scott goes out with her," Amara said in alarm. "I don't want to be responsible for their relationship failing!"

Rogue snorted. "Oh, please. They're the same person. I think if one of them tripped the other one would too."

"Besides," Tabby smirked. "We're all redheads to Scott anyway."

"Oh, that's not funny," Rahne said.

"Then stop laughing," Tabby replied smugly.

"I just don't know how much longer I can put up with this," Rogue sighed. "Is she like this when she's alone?"

"Hey, yeah. Laura, your bed's in Jean's room. What's she like without the rest of us?" Jubilee asked.

Laura stopped scowling and looked up in alarm. "Don't drag me into this, I'm still in trouble from that other thing."

"See, I don't really care. Does Jean sit around and stare at herself in the mirror, or style her hair or something?" Rogue asked, crossing her arms.

"Or try stuff that one of the rest of us totally did? Like stealing my look?" Jubilee asked. Laura shifted. The answer to all the questions was 'yes', but she wasn't going to say anything. It honestly didn't bother her. Yes, Jean's hair was amazing, but at least Laura could keep a tan. That trumped good hair.

"I bet it's really soft, Jean's hair. Does she do anything before bed, like wrap it up or something?" someone asked.

"Oh, I have it!" Tabby interrupted, bouncing up and down on Rogue's bed (causing Amara to fall off behind it). Laura sighed to herself when the attention shifted. So far, so good. There's only so many times she can get in trouble each month before the Professor started having words with her, and the quota was dangerously near much earlier this month than usual. "We'll dye it!"

There was a collective gasp around the room.

"Dye…Jean's hair?" Amara said as she climbed back onto the bed. "That's so…."

"Genius," Rogue finished, grinning. "I'll put a couple dollars in for that cause."

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

"I really don't think this is such a great idea," Rahne said. "I'm a redhead too, you know."

"Yes, but your hair's too wiry to be jealous of. You use pet shampoo." Jubilee said. Rahne stuck her tongue out at her.

"No, we can't dye Jean's hair!" Kitty cried out, waving her arms frantically to get attention. "Because whatever color we dyed it would be like a challenge. I refuse to have to put up with a brunette Jean, she'd leave me in the dust!"

Laura sighed and slowly slid off the bed, trying to be as quiet as possible. She needed to be far away when this plan was fully hatched. This is why she hung out with the boys, they didn't plot elaborate revenges against each other.

"Oh, good point," Amara said. "Let's dye Jean's hair as long as it isn't to brown."

"Or black! She can steal my shades but she will never steal my hair color!" Jubilee said angrily, hitting the arm of the computer chair with her fist.

"Oh, good point. We can't do blonde either. Not that I totally couldn't pull it off better than Miss Prim-and-Proper, but- hey, where are you going?" Tabby said, pointing at Laura. She took a glance around the room and bolted for the door.

"I refuse to be part of this!" she cried, almost touching the knob before Rahne tackled her and Amara leaned against the door.

"Quick, knock her out or something!" Rahne garbled from a half wolf, half human throat.

"Get off me or I'll hurt you! I've done it before!" Laura said, trying to get the werewolf off her without actually hurting her or breaking anything. Rogue got up to absorb her and thereby knock her out.

There was a knock on the door, and everybody froze and stared with wide eyes as the door tried to open. Amara leaned against it harder and it shut again.

"Hey, cut it out!" a male voice said. "Honestly, the one time I try to use a door and it's slammed in my face!"

"Oh, it's Kurt," Kitty said. "Should we let him in?"

"Might as well," Rogue sighed and sat back down on the bed, "He'll come in anyway."

Amara stepped away from the door and opened it, revealing a very confused Kurt standing awkwardly. "Well? Get in here!"

He raised an eyebrow but entered, and the door slammed shut again immediately after he was completely inside the room. He saw Rahne laying on top of Laura in the corner and looked around. "Am I missing something?"

"We're going to dye Jean's hair," Kitty said helpfully. Kurt glanced back at Rahne and Laura.

"Are you sure?"

Rahne blushed and slid off Laura, changing entirely back to human. Laura sat up and grumbled, scooting away from the corner.

"So what do you think would look the worst on Jean? Blonde? Grey?" Jubilee said.

"We should just shave her," Tabby yawned.

"Whoa," Kurt said, raising his arms and backing towards the door, "I'm not going to be a part of this, cleaning the X-Jet for a month isn't worth that."

There was a general groan around the room, and an unspoken agreement to launch an estrogen attack on the only present male.

Jubilee jumped up and put one of her arms through Kurt's while Rahne did the other, and they led him baffled away from the door.

"Um, why do you want to mess with Jean?" he managed to get out, suddenly acutely aware that he was outnumbered by the female sex.

"See, you don't have to put up with the sort of thing girls do. Everything is a competition with us," Tabby explained.

"No, someone else talk. It always sounds like a great idea coming from you," Kurt said, "This is not a good idea at all."

Laura crept the few remaining feet to the door as the girls explained about Jean's insolent hair attitude, and slowly reached up to the knob. As they swung Kurt slowly around to their point of view, she swung the knob slowly around and opened the door, getting a view of the hall. She glanced back toward the group, which was still focused on Kurt, and inched the door open a little further.

"Hey! Laura!" someone said angrily, but it was too late, she was off, bolting down the hall as fast as she had on any mission. Except that this time, there was no mission. The idea was to stay away from the trouble and not be told words by the Professor. She randomly ran down halls, turning whenever the opportunity presented itself. She leapt onto the railing and slid down the banister in her socks, and-

-Kurt caught her at the bottom and teleported them right back into Rogue and Kitty's room, where the girls who had chased her were returning.

"It's too late to back out now," Rogue said with irritation.

"I was never in on this, you started before I could leave," Laura pointed out, shoving her way out of Kurt's grasp.

"Wow," Jubilee said between gasps for breath, "teleporting is the best."

"I hope no one heard that," Kitty said nervously, peeking out the door down the hall in each direction.

"I'll scream," Laura said, glancing at other escape routes.

"No, listen. We'll make this fun and hard to pin on one person," Tabby said, "I'm a pro at this sort of thing. We need to go shopping, right, and we'll go find a hair dye that would look horrible on Miss Jean, and then tonight when she's asleep we'll sneak in and dye it. Is she a heavy sleeper, Laura?"

Laura sighed and stared longing at the window. It didn't really matter if she tried to escape, not with a teleporter around. And if she killed Kurt she'd be in a lot of trouble, more than just dying someone's hair. The very first rule Logan and the Professor had agreed upon for her was "Do not kill fellow students.

"Yes," she growled.

"Fabulous," Tabby grinned, and the other girls grinned with her.