There were four ▒safety▓ houses and eight kind old ladies and thirteen bars and seven nightclubs and nineteen crack houses, there were half a dozen labs and two houses of ill repute and six billion holes in the walls where someone could crawl into and hide, and for the past seven hours Kurt had been searching all of them. A light snow was falling over Bayville, a gentle, picturesque reminder of the season. Business fronts were drowned in red and green and gold and plastic garlands stretched across main street, all the skeletal trees a twinkle with little white lights that looked like fairy lights in the snow.
It was Christmas. And it was already night time, the sun going down early this time of year. Main Street was quiet. What cars wandered out this time, on this day, were muffled by the snow, dropping the whole world into a soft, uneasy silence. The snow fell like ash, building slowly over everything, covering it and smothering it and hiding it from view. The movie theatre was still open. As were some of the bars, most of the clubs, all of the hiding places someone might go when there was no other way to spend their Christmas, all alone on this cold day.
Kurt had been in all of them.
He▓d looked out of place, a clean cut kid in an expensive new parka, wandering through the doors of the shelters and looking at the faces. Sometimes people had asked him if he was looking for someone, and he▓d told them yes, a boy his age in a brown sweater and jeans, with messy hair and yellow eyes, have you seen him at all? And they▓d tell him no, sorry, not for months now. Where else could he be? And they▓d tell him about one more hole in the wall, one more old lady who opened her back rooms to lost kids on Christmas, and one more place where desperate kids could get shot up for the cost of a blow job and their pride. And Kurt, chest heavy, would trek out into the snow once more.
Todd hadn▓t been at the Brotherhood house. Kurt had been to midnight mass, and slept, and woken this morning to spend his Christmas with the Institute, everyone opening their handful of presents and laughing and sticking bows onto Scott▓s head whenever they could get away with it. They▓d eaten breakfast and some of them had headed off to do ▒charity work▓, manning soup stations and shelters, and Kurt had snuck off with that group, stuffing Todd▓s present into his coat pocket and disappearing when they got close.
Freddy had been the only one up at the Brotherhood house, having slept on the couch, and he▓d scrubbed at his eyes as he told Kurt no, he wasn▓t here, he hadn▓t been here for a day or so now. Well where had he gone? Freddy had shrugged. Somewhere in town. Todd didn▓t have anywhere ELSE to go on Christmas. The Brotherhood house had looked bare and unseasonable. There was no Christmas tree, no twinkling lights, just a collection of beer cans in the living room and a stale smell of cigarettes. Kurt had wondered, briefly, how they would spend their Christmas.
Kurt. A voice interrupted in his mind. It▓s getting late. You▓re going to miss Christmas dinner, why don▓t you come home?
Kurt clamped his jaw, and tried to ignore Jean▓s voice. It was, unfortunately, impossible to ignore a telepath.
The Professor▓s calling everyone back. she said gently.
Nothing. He kept walking down the covered path of Main Street, listening for the sounds of life in the buildings.
She tried a gentler approach. Look, I know you want to find him, but it▓s late and it doesn▓t look like he wants to be found. Maybe he▓d spending Christmas with his family, did you think of that? Either way, there▓s nothing you can do for him, why don▓t you come on home, warm up by the fire and we▓ll have Christmas dinner, all together? Tomorrow he▓ll probably be back home, safe and sound, and you can see him then.
But tomorrow won▓t be Christmas! Kurt shot back, thought singed with a flare of desperation. It was true, it was late, and maybe Todd WAS somewhere he wanted to be, but it was CHRISTMAS, it was god damned Christmas and he▓d thought maybe this year neither of them would have to spend it alone.
But he had spent it alone, wandering the streets in his blue parka, looking for one lost boy among the many.
Kurt. she said softly. Come home.
Kurt lowered his head, fingers clutching the little wrapped box in his coat pocket. He wasn▓t going to find him. Not today. He▓d already looked everywhere there was to look, everywhere he could think of. Now he was just relying on luck and hope and maybe just a little bit of favor from God on this day of all days.
There was a flash, and a trail of smoke, and Main Street was empty.
Todd came home some time before midnight, wandering up the front steps in the cold but used to it, now. The lights were off in the main room, but the television was on, the program long since changed to the late night black and white movie, this one starring Doris Day. Freddy was in his usual place on the couch, wheezing faintly when he breathed and dead to the world. Pietro was in the other chair, sprawled and reeking and obviously responsible for a good number of the beer cans littered around the room. He guessed that meant Magneto hadn▓t called him this Christmas. As usual. He wasn▓t surprised; the Boss didn▓t seem big on the whole ▒family▓ thing.
Lance must be up in his room, asleep. Or he could hope. Todd drifted slowly upstairs to the bedrooms and yanked the blankets off Pietro▓s bed, coming back downstairs with them. He dropped one over Pietro▓s body, tucking it under his shoulders since he kicked in his sleep, and draped one over Freddy. Freddy was too big to properly cover, but it should help, at least. Todd crept over the beer cans, turned the television off, and went back upstairs to his own room, and sleep.
That Friday night Todd was where he always was, sitting in the little Grecian amphitheatre in the park. Snow had dusted everything white, but the trees had caught the worst of it, boughs heavy and drooping. The sky was clear and the stars were bright, and Todd▓s eyes were lifted heavenward, watching for meteors or constellations or angels, for all Kurt knew. He tromped over the soft snow, hands in his pockets and glaring. Todd heard him and turned, smiling a little, eyes distant.
⌠Hey, dawg.■ Todd said, and Kurt thought he had to be cold, in just a sweater like that.
⌠Hey.■ Kurt said shortly, climbing over the edge and sitting down next to him on the upper row of the amphitheatre. ⌠So where were you.■ he said bluntly.
Todd blinked at him slowly, and frowned. ⌠Where was I when?■
⌠Two days ago. Christmas. Where WERE you?■ Kurt demanded. ⌠I went to the boardinghouse to try to find you but you weren▓t there. I went around to everywhere I could think of, to the homeless shelters, the safe houses, I even went to the drug houses and you WEREN▓T THERE!■
Todd flinched a little at that last, stung, and his hand drifted to cover the inside of his left elbow. He didn▓t defend himself.
⌠So where WERE you?■ Kurt demanded again. ⌠Where were you hiding?■
Todd shrugged a little, helplessly. ⌠Just out. Around. You know, out.■
Kurt glared at him. ⌠Yeah, I know ▒out▓. I was ▒out▓, too. You know how bloody long I was out looking for you? Seven hours. I would have been longer but Jean made me come home. Seven God-damned hours and I couldn▓t find you! Why did you run off like that? It was Christmas, I thought we could spent it together. You know. Like┘Like normal people.■
Todd was quiet for a moment. ⌠You┘wanted to spend Christmas with me?■ he asked faintly.
⌠Yeah! We▓ve been doing this for what, nearly a year now? This would have been our first Christmas together. Like, Together.■ He stopped, and fidgeted with the zipper pull on his coat. ⌠I just thought this year we wouldn▓t have to spend Christmas alone, you know?■ He finished lamely.
⌠Alone?■ Todd said, staring at him. ⌠Dawg, you got a whole school full of XGeeks who wanna spend Christmas with your fuzzy ass, there▓s no way you had to spend it all on your lonesome. Why is it such a big deal if I was there or not? Why me? It▓s not like┘┘you know.⌠ Todd stopped himself, and looked down at the snow dusted concrete between his feet.
Kurt watched him for a moment. Then he slipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out Todd▓s gift, small, lopsided, and inexpertly wrapped. He thrust it into a blinking Todd▓s hands.
⌠Merry Christmas.■ Kurt said quietly. He stood up while Todd stared in dumb shock at the little box, and with a flash of pale light and brimstone he was gone, leaving Todd sitting alone in the little Grecian amphitheatre in the park.
Todd stared at the space where Kurt had just been. Slowly, he looked back down at the package.
He cursed, and scrambled up off the step, heading for the Institute and Kurt at a run.