Kurt looked upon Kassandra, his golden eyes in no hurry to cease making love to her even after the rest of his body was well spent. She had just pulled on a pink tracksuit and tied her hair back into a loose ponytail. "Laufst du jetzt? Didn't you just get a good workout?"

"Du bist immer wilkommen, mit mir zu kommen," said Kassandra, leaning over to lightly graze Kurt's lips with her own.

"Ja doch." Kurt drew Kassandra into a much deeper kiss before letting her go. Persuading her to stay and knuddeln some more would not be difficult. But she could be if she skipped her mile-a-day minimum. "I'll be right behind you."

"Das ich will gern sehen." Kassandra smiled, dodging a tridactyl blue hand aimed for her rear, then disappeared.

"Ach, solche Dreistigkeit!" Kurt threw on some sweats and scrambled out after her, deftly avoiding stumbling over his pants as he hastily pulled them up. Perhaps he had some energy left for a jog after all.

Kassandra was glad she got a good head start on Kurt. She needed just a moment to think. Just what would she, could she, tell anyone about these dreams, visions, whatever they were? Were these glimpses into another reality mere reflections of her difficulties adjusting to a happy, if not entirely perfect, new life? Kassandra hoped so. Even at her best, she did not handle alternate realities well. The ability to see and control the timelines within one reality could overwhelm her, physically and mentally, if she wasn't careful, even with her healing factor. And rare glimpses into parallel universes, such as what she'd seen upon her first encounter with the beings some called the Celestials, tended to leave her disoriented, even, on occasion, to the point of doubting her sanity. Of course this helped her relate when Brian Braddock requested her counseling after his own tumble through time. Wait- when had she ever counseled the King of England? When had any of that happened?

At any rate, her ability to return to her place within time depended very much on being solidly grounded in one reality. And yet lately, she'd been seeing events from alternate timelines in her sleep as well as whenever she stepped outside of time- one past in each of two different realities for each person whose timelines she might try to read. And she could not shut it out. She had seen things like this before in the fractured timelines she observed when studying disassociative disorders or cases of total amnesia. No, that had to be in her own other reality, nicht wahr? She was no psychologist. Or was she? There was no sense in delaying another day, Kassandra decided. She'd call Professor Xavier immediately after breakfast.

Verdammt, not again! Who was this Xavier? Cassandra Web could handle this sort of thing. Oh, that's right. She said, despite symptoms similar to generalized anxiety or something like that, nothing was wrong. How about Dr. Strange? But the only Xavier Kassandra ever knew about died in the revolution before she was even born…nicht wahr?

Ah, well. If she could indeed see into another reality in which she was a psychologist, maybe she could take a thorough look and figure out a thing or two. "Gemütarzt, heilt dich," she thought to herself.

Kurt scrambled down the bluff. He even skipped using the long staircase that wound its way downward, as was his habit. It might have been quicker and easier to teleport down to the beach, but he preferred climbing anyway. Plus, he reasoned, it wouldn't make any difference how quickly he could get there. He would catch up with Kassandra only if she wanted him to.

And apparently she did. No sooner had his hands and feet hit the sand in his own unique running stride than he skidded to a halt.

"KURT!" A tearful, terror-stricken, breathless Kassandra appeared before him, running hell for leather, sweat and tears coursing down her face, allowing him just enough time to stagger upright before she barreled into his arms, knocking him over.

Kurt clutched her firmly until the racking, consuming sobs subsided, struggling to will his own alarm at this outburst into submission. "Kassandra, meine Liebste, was ist los?"

"Kurt, ich sehte…" Kassandra gulped. "Ich sehte ein anderes mal, eine andere Realität. Es ist kein Traum! Ich bin sicher!"

Kurt took a deep breath, then brushed away Kassandra's tears. A lifetime being raised by none other than Raven Darkhölme on a steady diet of war stories, groomed for nothing other than a career ensuring that mutants would remain forever victorious had not prepared him very well for showing compassion in others' moments of weakness. Nonetheless, this tender little gesture came surprisingly naturally to him. Perhaps it was something about Kassandra, or more likely the fact that married life necessitated it, that brought this out in him. His mother could complain all she wanted. And she did, frequently, about how he married a mutant raised among and identifying with- oh, the horror- flatscans! He felt he was a stronger man for this, regardless. "Kassandra, alles ist in Ordnung…"

"Nein, Kurt," she said. "Alles ist nicht in Ordnung. Ever get the feeling like this… this existence is too good to be real?"

"Ja doch. Immer," said Kurt warmly. He then quickly apologized as Kassandra's face clouded over again even more ominously. There was just no humoring her, especially when she was in that mood. "Es tut mir leid, Liebste. But whether or not any of this is too good to be true, now's probably not the best time to worry about that, nicht wahr?"

Kassandra nodded slowly, trying her hardest to pull herself together. Kurt had always been patient with her and her idiosyncrasies, as she had to be with him and the attitudes his mother tried in vain to impart to him, but she knew better than to take that for granted. Nobody she knew of who went by the name Darkhölme regarded tolerance for any kind of frailty a virtue. "I think it would be better to discuss this over breakfast, anyway."

"Gut," said Kurt. "Care for a port up? You look like you've already run much more than your usual mile."

"Well…" Kassandra smiled again at last, threading her fingers through the lank indigo waves that Kurt had finally succeeded in growing out. "I was warned about accepting teleports from strange men, und…"

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Translations:

Laufst du jetzt?- Are you running now?

Du bist immer wilkommen, mit mir zu kommen. - You are always welcome to come with me.

Das ich will gern sehen. - That I will like to see.
solche Dreistigkeit!- such insolence!
Gemütarzt, heilt dich- Mind doctor, heal yourself.

Ich sehte ein anderes mal, eine andere Realität. Es ist kein Traum! Ich bin sicher! - I saw another time, another reality. It's no dream! I'm sure!