11/3/2013 A/N: Finally, another chapter! It's been, what? Two and a half months since I last updated anything? I don't even remember...Anyway, enjoy Chapter 10!

Chapter 10

Kurt had been out doing acrobatics for at least an hour before he stopped to rest; he had already made at least two complete circuits around the city. He paused on the rooftop of the courthouse, which also housed a large clock, and crouched in the shadow of a decorative gargoyle. Looking very much like a gargoyle himself, he took a few minutes to rest before heading back home, and simply observed the scene below him. This was the nightlife part of town; the streets below him were flooded with light, coming from streetlamps and lit upper story windows and colorful neon signs advertising all sorts of things. Cars rushed past on the street before him, not so many as there had been in the daylight but still in just as much of a hurry. People dotted the sidewalks, mostly couples on a date or folks going out with friends for a night's adventure.

After maybe ten minutes of simply looking around, Kurt caught sight of a long haired woman in a black dress dashing into an alley across the street from his position. He squinted past the glare of the neon lights, and saw that the woman had darted around a corner like she didn't want anyone to see her.

His curiosity piqued, Kurt teleported across the street to the rooftop of one of the buildings framing the alley, ten stories above the street. He peered over the edge of the roof, taking note of the area below and how the shadows angled against the brick walls. The alley used to be a 'T' shape, with the upper bar of the 'T' connecting with both streets and the lower stem running between two buildings to end at a brick wall. Now, it was separated into a sort of upside down 'L' shape, the upper bar of the 'T' cut unequally in two by a high, rudely constructed wall of boards.

A couple of dumpsters stood near the opening of the alley, and several dozen wooden pallets were stacked haphazardly against the wall of boards. Around the corner, out of sight of the street, was a rusted out car with no wheels, its axles propped up on cinder blocks. Scattered about this part of the alley were various odds and ends that had been tossed out and forgotten until the next time the garbage collectors made their rounds.

When Kurt had scouted out the best hiding places, he clambered over the edge of the rooftop and began crawling head first down the wall, weaving his way past windows and fire escapes towards the ground. He came to a stop on the wall maybe twenty feet above where a grown man's head would be, staying as still and quiet as the shadow he was hiding in. He looked around the alley from his position, but he paid more attention to his ears than his eyes. Soon, he caught the sound of something furtively scrabbling behind a large, cracked, wooden table top that had been taken off its legs and leaned against the wall.

That was probably where the woman was...but why? Her dress didn't look like something a homeless person would wear, and if she were a hovel worker then surely she would have a more comfortable setting for her 'customers'. Maybe she was planning to run away to another city and she was hiding some valuables here in preparation? An alley like this was hardly a safe hiding place for anything in Kurt's opinion, but maybe running away was better than whatever alternative this woman would face otherwise...

Kurt's musing was interrupted by rough, male voices coming from around the corner. The woman heard them, too: Kurt clearly heard her frightened gasp, probably as she huddled lower in her hiding place. Among the voices entering the alley, Kurt made out one that seemed to belong to the leader.

"Spread out and search, boys! The mutie lover couldn't have gone far!"

This was met with shouts of eager approval. Just before someone turned the corner, Kurt teleported from his place on the wall, landing behind the rusted out car. He peered under the car to see a group of people turn the corner, maybe a dozen high school age boys and young men. They promptly began searching the alley and knocking random things over, throwing out taunts about mutants and mutie lovers the whole time.

Kurt furtively crawled under the car completely, knowing it was only a matter of time before someone came nosing around this spot and found him. Sure enough, someone came over and began peering inside the car. Kurt stayed still within the shadows; he could see the person's legs from his place beneath the car, it was someone wearing a grey suit. Fortunately for Kurt, the person in the grey suit didn't have time to look underneath the car before one of his cohorts gave a triumphant shout.

"Hey, I found her!"

The bully kicked over the tabletop, cracking it even more, to reveal the woman huddled on the ground behind. She promptly scrambled to her feet to make a mad dash for freedom, but two of the bullies grabbed her by the arms and dragged her towards their ringleader.

"HELP!"

The woman managed to give only one cry for help before one of her captors clamped a hand over her mouth, muffling any further sound from her.

Kurt studied the woman as she was held in place before the bullies' leader. She had a dark, exotic sort of coloring, and wore a single strap black dress and black boots; her long hair had been done up in numerous braids with a few glass beads scattered throughout, to match the bangle bracelets on her wrists. She must have looked elegant in a trendy way when she had left her house earlier, but she didn't look so elegant now. Her hair was mussed up, her boots were scuffed, and there was a six inch long slit on one side of her skirt that clearly hadn't been made that way on purpose. The woman was younger than Kurt had initially thought; she couldn't have been any older than himself.

"Well…" The man in the grey suit mused out loud, more to intimidate the woman than anything else, "What do you say we teach this mutie lover a lesson, boys?"

This suggestion, casually stated like he was commenting on the weather, was met with shouts of mean approval. Kurt scowled, guessing what sort of 'lesson' the young man had in mind for the hapless woman. He, for one, wasn't going to stay around and watch. He took a deep breath, preparing to teleport back to the rooftops, but his previous doubts and confusion about the humans vs. mutants issue chose this moment to come flooding back.

What was he doing? That wasn't a regular hater in the bullies' grasp. That young lady was one of the few humans who were brave enough to take a stand in the mutants' defense. Kurt didn't know what Mystique thought about such people, but he himself was rather divided on the matter. On the one hand, mutie lovers were still humans just like the haters, with all the potential to become haters themselves. On the other hand, taking a stand on a controversial issue that could get one killed was an implication of great character, nothing at all like a fool taking sides on an issue they didn't understand.

Both these points had equal weight in Kurt's mind; after a few moments of mental struggle he reached a compromise. He would stick around long enough to see how things played out. If the woman's bullies decided to simply beat her up, he would stay out of it. But if they decided to outright kill her or worse, then he would step in and show those scumbags that mutants were serious business.

After a few moments, the cheering from the bullies died down somewhat. The bully in the grey suit stepped forward and punched the girl in the stomach, hard. Her cry of pain was muffled, her mouth still covered by her captors. With the first blow having been struck, the grey-suit man stepped back and allowed the others to surround the girl. They eagerly proceeded to hit and kick her from head to toe, sometimes two or three at once, and giving shouts of approval if one of them landed a particularly painful blow. The girl struggled vainly, responding with more muffled cries of pain at each blow.

Kurt still crouched in the shadows beneath the old car, watching silently. The minutes passed, the beating went on. The girl was too battered to stand by herself now. She sagged in the arms of her captors and gave a few pleading whimpers. At a signal from the grey-suit man, the bullies let her drop to the ground in a bruised heap. Grey-suit man regarded her with a stern air for a moment, and reached into his trousers pocket. He pulled out a small object, but none of the other bullies had the chance to see what it was.

"What's that?!" One of the other bullies gave a surprised outcry; he had caught sight of a pair of glowing yellow eyes underneath the car. His cover blown, Kurt leaped out from his hiding place and tackled the grey-suit man with a feral growl. The object in the bully's hand was knocked out of reach; Kurt promptly gave an expert hand-chop to the back of the hapless bully's neck. The bully slumped face down on the ground, unconscious.

"It's a mutie!" A tall man with an army jacket and built like a tank, shouted a rather unnecessary warning to the others. Kurt stepped away from the grey-suit man's prone body but maintained a crouching posture for intimidation purposes; he narrowed his eyes as he gave another meaningful growl, and swished his tail back and forth like he was an angry jungle cat ready to pounce. It seemed to work, the bullies were edging away or staying rooted in place from fear and confusion. The girl lay on the ground where she had fallen, forgotten in the face of the far more dangerous threat.

After a few moments had passed, a few of the bullies got up the nerve to charge Kurt all at once. They underestimated him, or they were simply not strong enough. Or both. Kurt parried every blow that came his way and struck back, downing an opponent with each blow of his own - an average of one person every two seconds. After those who had initially charged him were down, he promptly leaped upon those who had hung back indecisively. One or two better trained bullies managed to stay on their feet for more than a few seconds, but they were still no match for the mutant.

In less than a minute, the bully with the army jacket found himself facing the mutant alone, most of his associates too stunned to do anything to help him. The few bullies who had kept their wits during Kurt's initial attack hung back in fear, not wanting to get near such a skilled fighter again, but unsure of running away. The army-jacket man, shocked by Kurt's menacing appearance and speed of attack, fell into a defensive stance and waited warily for the mutant's next move.

Kurt, with a slow, mocking smile, lifted up a three fingered hand to motion at the army-jacket man. The gesture carried unmistakable meaning.

Bring it on.

His anger kindled at the mutie's cocky attitude, and the army-jacket man promptly switched his stance from defensive to offensive. He charged with a growl; almost immediately he leaped straight at Kurt, pulling back one fist for the strongest punch he could muster. Kurt, with an almost careless attitude, simply grabbed the army-jacket man by the front of his shirt with both hands and whirled around in place. In an instant, Kurt had brought the army-jacket man to face the direction he had charged from, his whirling maneuver increasing the larger man's momentum. Next thing the bully knew, the mutie had thrown him head first into the brick wall of the nearest building. The blackness of unconsciousness engulfed him before he even slumped to the ground.

The other bullies that Kurt had taken down earlier had recovered somewhat and were back on their feet, but they were greeted by the sight of both their leader and the main muscle of the group laying unconscious on the ground. This only increased their fear and reluctance to fight the mutie again. Sufficiently cowed, most of them took advantage of the lull in the fight and ran away as fast as they could. A few of them nervously stayed long enough to retrieve their fallen comrades. One of them lifted the grey-suit man onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry, and two others grunted in effort as they lifted up the army-jacket man into a two-handed seat carry.

Struggling with their stunned comrades, the bullies moved towards the exit, giving Kurt a wide berth as they passed by. The bully who carried the grey-suit man got up the nerve to throw out one last taunt.

"You only got us by surprise, freak. If you had attacked us head on-"

"Well, I didn't, so shut up." Kurt cut him off coldly.

The bully gulped nervously at the hard look the mutant was giving him with those freakishly glowing eyes, and promptly hurried out of the alley, leaving the two remaining bullies to catch up as best they could with their army-jacket clad burden. Presently, the frightened scurrying of feet faded away and there was no one in the alley but Kurt and the girl.

Kurt was rather surprised to see that the girl was still there; he had expected her to run away alongside the bullies, even injured as she was. She was still on the ground where she had fallen, but now she had propped herself up into a halfway sitting position. She trembled with the effort of staying upright and not falling over in pain, but she was clearly trying to hide it.

"Are they gone?" The girl asked, through teeth clenched against the pain. She warily scanned the alley like she expected to see her assailants still surrounding her. Kurt resigned himself and cautiously approached her.

"Yes, they're gone, I chased them away." Kurt replied neutrally.

The girl looked up at him, seeming to notice him for the first time. Her eyes widened in surprise, apparently forgetting the pain of her injuries as she realized just what he was. The cynical part of Kurt's mind took over at this point; he looked away from the girl and silently began calculating the odds of which reaction she was most likely to give him: an angry outburst at having to be rescued by a despised mutie, or a shriek of fear as she begged him to not hurt her. Of course, she might simply faint or run away, not even bothering to speak to him...

"Thank you…for saving me."

Those five words, spoken in a grateful, almost overwhelmed whisper, surprised Kurt like nothing else he had encountered before. For a moment he was too surprised to even look back at her. This human was thanking him...she wasn't running away or yelling at him, but actually thanking him! Kurt opened his mouth, and closed it again. What was the proper thing to say in a situation like this? A simple 'No problem' seemed too casual, but a long, fancy speech would sound contrived and fake.

Kurt shifted awkwardly, not having the slightest idea what to do…

A/N: And thus begins the romantic tension! What will Kurt do with the situation he suddenly finds himself in? Find out in the next chapter, whenever that will be! I'm going to do my best to update my other stories now, so you might have to wait awhile for that...