The road they were going down was long and lined with Ash trees, she hadn't seen another car, bike or trailer since they'd turned down this side road almost an hour ago. Her stomach grumbled and she leant up so that she could talk in Wolvie's ear. Everyone else was so much taller it was reassuring you have someone that close to her own height.

"We nearly there?"

He nodded rubbing the ever present stubble against her cheek, and stoppin' the bike.

"We walk from here Darlin'"

She looked about, they were in a sort of parking spot, it was quiet but she could almost hear music in the background, above the sounds of small birds and animals, she turned to the man beside her.

"Can you hear the music, or am I goin' round the twist?"

He nodded a smile twisting his mouth, but he didn't answer, she stamped her foot, only Wolvie drove her to that gesture and his smile deepened at the corner of his mouth.

"There's music darlin' there's also a guide, when he halls his ass out of the tree and stops oglin'"

A slightly miffed sniff was heard and she spun around in time to see a slight man of around a year or so older than her slipping out of the tree, next to the bike, his skin was rippling from the colour of the foliage to finish off at a light surfers tan as he stood on the ground. His eyes were a light green of new spring leaves and matched his slightly effeminate features.

"The Angel said to expect you to be insulting, so I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that"

She wanted to laugh at the slightly upper class voice that sounded so slightly miffed at her partner but Wolvie's hand on her arm made her stop.

"Prince Ta'nell, I didn't know you were still here"

Then man made a slight shrug before pushing shoulder length blonde hair back behind one pointed ear.

"It's interesting here, so I stay"

He turned to her then and looked her over, she didn't much like the feeling it gave her of being an slightly substandard piece of meat.

"What're you lookin' at ya pointy eared freak of nature"

She saw Wolvie's eyes close and that long suffering look she'd seen a few times before when she'd thrown them into a fight appeared, but nothing happened, the man merely raised his chin a notch and looked back at Wolverine.

"The Angel was right, you do bring trouble with you"

He turned back to her.

"I am looking at you Miss Lee, to make sure that passing through my protections will not harm you, I apologise if my conduct is unbecoming, my nurse told me often enough that staring is rude"

He smiled briefly and she noticed that his pupils weren't round, they were slitted the way a cats were. Then he moved off into the woods diagonally to the road and stopped a few meters in to wait for them.

"Wolvie, who's that he talks with a worse culture shock than Warren, and prince? We don't have princes, this is America, I had enough of that with M"

The older man was watching the younger before he turned back to her, his eyes were dark with concern.

"Start thinkin' before you act or you'll be back to bein' kidded, He's a Prince alright and he's got enough power for most of the mutants on this world to step light around him"

She stared at Wolvie for a moment and then looked at the slight figure in the trees with disbelief, he didn't look like anything, and then she thought of Stephen Strange the Earth's sorcerer supreme who looked like a businessman and herself and Magneto and Wolvie. She nodded to him.

"Sorry, but he's got such a 'tude"

A wry smile appeared as Wolvie slid after the other man

"No ones perfect Darlin'"

She had time to reflect on that as they moved through the undergrowth, no ones perfect was it really that simple, the answer for all the things that had been torturing her? She filed it away for later thought, concentrating on getting through the woods, her time at college hadn't helped her keep her woods skill. Suddenly there was a cry off to her left and the Prince stopped dead and called out.

"Daemon, come here now"

She looked around for another man of this ones age or a teenager or somethin' she strained her ears for the sound of steps and almost leapt out of her skin when a little winged shape slammed into the Prince's chest forcing him to wrap his arms around it to stop it falling. Laughter rang out as the young man turned with a wry smile on his face.

"May I present Daemon to you Miss Lee, since he'll probably dog your footsteps"

He was holding in his arms a child of around five years with beautiful white feathered wings, he looked like a tiny cherub his cheeks still possessed of enough baby fat to make him cute, dark violet eyes and rich auburn hair told her that he would be a lady killer when he was older. His eyes at that moment though were fixed on Wolverine.

"Logan, up"

She felt her eyebrows rise and her eyes widen as Wolverine who scared most people with sense lifted the child out of the princes arms and placed him on his shoulder before turning to show her to him.

"Kiddo, this is Jubilation Lee, a good friend of mine, you be nice and stay out of her head"

The tiny child nodded and held out a tiny hand, she took it lightly and realised that it was almost the same size a her own, and there were already the start of calluses to match hers, she felt a tug of empathy with the little one before she released his hand, the prince who had been watching nodded and moved off.

She was lost in thought again when her feet registered the change from wood to cultivated ground, she didn't stop though until the music that had teased her ears at the edge of the road came back to her, she could hear the words now

"Of all my demon spirits, I need you the most I'm in love with your ghost"

She knew the Indigo Girls tune but it wasn't being accompanied by a guitar. She looked up and saw a woman perched on the porch of an old colonial style house singing to herself and playing what looked to be a harp.

As if Jubilee's gaze had touched her she looked up and she could see the smile that broke across her features from where she was, it reached out and touched.

She quickened her step to catch up with the other two even as they reached the woman, she almost ran the last few steps as Wolvie held out the child the woman sighed

"Daemon, will you never be still?"

Close too she was beautiful in the same was as Storm was, that exotic loveliness. Her eyes were the same colour as the little boys a dark purple but her hair was silver, not silver blonde but a true metallic colour, it made her eyebrows and lashes almost fade into the porcelain of her face. She was dressed in black jeans and a black pullover her hair loose in a pool on the porch. She was speaking again.

"It had been some time Logan"

She was surprised to see a trace of colour catch Wolvie's cheeks, the little boy had settled in the woman's lap as if he belonged there, she could take a guess that this was his mother.

"Well Ange' I need a favour"

The woman sighed and it rippled across the harp strings in a cascade of noise

"You always need a favour Logan, but first your companion?"

Wolvie turned to her and there was an odd pleading in his eyes, an unspoken 'be nice' he pulled her gently in front of him.

"This is Jubilation Lee"

She found herself under the woman's stare, she didn't look through her as the Prince had she almost seemed to watch her and then she smiled, as if she'd seen something hat she hadn't been expecting.

"Welcome to my home Jubilation. I am Dark Angel"

She felt a little odd, as if the woman, Dark Angel had tugged at a corner of her soul then she felt her mouth curling at the edges into an answering grin.

"Call me Jubilee"

Dark Angels smile widened and then she looked at the Prince and it softened slightly.

"Ta'nell, where did you find him this time"

The Prince looked uncomfortable and then shrugged

"In the woods, he was only trying his wings milady"

She watched Dark Angels half smile at that and smiled as the woman hugged him closer.

"No harm done then, Logan I have a few things to do, your usual room is your's the one next to it will have to do for Jubilee, you don't normally bring guests, Damon will show you the way"

The prince had vanished during the speech and Dark Angels eyes were suddenly very far away as the little boy rose from her lap and ushered them into the house. Jubilee looked over her shoulder once as they went in and was almost sure she saw a tear trace down Dark Angels face as she looked out into the woods.