A/N: Merry Christmakwanzaakkuh, everyone! I'm now the proud owner of a Gwen Stefani CD and a computerized sewing machine (I make a lot of my own clothes. Less expensive, much cooler).

Happy New Year, as well.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for the aforementioned stuff. And Gwen and Co.

Chapter Ten

"What number am I thinking of?" Kurt asked exhaustedly.

"Three thousand and twelve." Gwen yawned and began rocking back and forth.

"What word?"

"Sword."

"What am I thinking about?"

"That you're tired and bored with these little exercises and you can't remember where you put Captain Blood."

"Yes, that's completely right." Kurt glanced at the clock by his bed and sighed. "Gwen, it's very late. No, wait, it's very early. Shouldn't you get to bed soon?"

"Probably." She ignored his suggestion and instead stretched out on her back over his bed sheets, her legs draped onto the floor beneath her. Kurt was sitting upright against his headboard, pinching the bridge of his nose in fatigue. Gwen knew she had been overstaying her welcome for quite a while, but was too exhausted to leave. "I think I'm going to fall asleep."

"Your father will notice you're missing."

"Oh. Right." The truth of his statement was what eventually propelled her to sit upright, sighing. Then, with her new mental powers, she addressed him telepathically: Come with me?

Why?

I'm going home next week, she told him with a slight hint of sadness.

Summer was drawing to a close. Although both Sigfried and Gwen were happier in Europe than they had ever been in America – he with his reclaimed family, she with her newly found – but she had to go back to school in the fall, and he needed to resume his job at the movie store. However, Kurt and the circus would not be staying in Germany much longer either. They would be off performing in Paris in just over a month. The idea of separating from her uncle was fairly upsetting, but she hadn't found a way of addressing the problem. Asking him to walk home with her was the initiation of what would be a very long, painful goodbye.

Upon her request, Kurt had nodded resignedly and stood up, offering his three-fingered hand to Gwen. She took it, and used his strong arm as leverage to pull herself off of the bed. The sudden change of blood flow in her body resulted in dizziness, and she fell against the man in front of her, almost knocking him over. Rather than push her away, he patiently steadied her and lead the way to the door of his trailer.

Outside, the dark sky sprinkled with a few brilliant stars. Gwen smiled up at them – they always made her feel so comfortable and at the same time thrillingly small; it was hard not to enjoy the sight of them late at night – but also noticed the faint tinge of lavender pink on the horizon. It really was extremely late. Or, as Kurt had said, early.

"Sorry for keeping you up," she muttered, rubbing her eyes. He shook his head.

"It's not a problem," he assured her. As they approached the gate in front of the circus, he began fumbling through the pockets of his jeans, searching for the keys to the padlock. Everyone in the troupe, from the acrobats to the cooks, had the copy, ensuring their freedom. Kurt was no exception.

After they had made it out onto the road leading to Gwen's house, he crossed his arms. This act wasn't a sign of incendiary attitude, but rather an effort to warm his forearms. The air had been getting cooler as the season dwindled into autumn. However, she had known this when she had left that night, and doubled up on her shirts. The weather only bothered her exposed face and hands, the latter of which she stuck in her pockets. As an afterthought, she removed her arm from her side and wound it through Kurt's. He didn't object, but instead smiled down at her.

"It's too bad you're not going to be with us in France," he said. "Stefan goes to school there. You could have met him."

"Wish I could go," she grumbled. In addition to the incentive of meeting Kurt and Amanda's brother, the idea of another school year made her feel ill and filled her with desperate longing to go with her uncle. But her father would never let her. He didn't even know that Gwen had been sneaking out every night.

Kurt laughed, though, as if he had read her mind. "If you can convince Sigfried to let you come with us, then by all means, go ahead."

"Thanks, but the law says I have to be subjected to torture."

He looked at her quizzically.

"Seventh grade."

"Ah."

"Everyone in my class is an idiot, anyway. I think it's because I'm a year older than all of them." She sniffed disdainfully. "I'm too mature for them."

"Yes, that's probably it." He laughed again, then thought about her words. "Why are you a year older?"

Gwen had a sour expression. "I was held back in preschool. Apparently they thought I was deaf. Turns out I just didn't feel like talking to other people."

"Why not?"

"I don't remember. I bet it was because everyone kept calling me Skeletor."

"Skeletor?"

"That's a really old cartoon character, who happened to look like...well, a skeleton."

"I see." Kurt looked as if he was trying not to laugh. Gwen pushed him.

"Oh, stop it! It's not funny."

"I know." Despite this, he was still grinning. She shoved him again.

"It's great that you think my being teased is so funny," she said sarcastically. He shook his head, his fangs still showing.

"No, I don't. Children are, though."

"If they're so great, how come you didn't go to school?" Gwen asked, still annoyed by his previous declarations. He rolled his eyes at this, however.

"Guess," he told her. She momentarily regretted her question, knowing it had been a bit rude, and loosened her disapproving frown. Seeing that she had done this, he continued talking. "I learned how to read when I was younger – there wasn't very much else to do when I was living with Raven's friend – but Mom has taught me some math. It's not much, though. I'm not good at it."

"No one likes it." Gwen said this with an air of total conviction, having undergone several dreadful experiences with numbers. The upcoming grade would introduce her to basic algebra, something she was not looking forward to in the least.

Kurt squeezed her arm against his side affectionately, nodding in agreement. "She gave up when I was sixteen. I'm surprised she stuck with it for so long." He stared down at her – he needed to crane his neck a bit, she was so short – and when she said nothing more, he finally touched on the topic that had been previously mentioned.

"Are you going to come back to Germany?" he asked her. She glanced up at him, then stared down at her slowly moving feet.

"I don't know," she finally admitted, after a brief pause. "Vati's certainly hinted at it enough. He really likes being with his cousins again - well, they're your cousins, too. I think he really wants to come back next summer. It all depends on whether or not he can leave his job again. I don't know why they wouldn't let him; he's their best employee. Wouldn't they want him to be happy?"

"That makes sense," Kurt said. "But if you are here next year, my circus is always around the city during the season."

"Really?" Gwen, who had been feeling quite desperate the past few weeks, suddenly felt her hopes rise the smallest amount. Her anxiety had been like a heavy wet blanket thrown across her body, and the slight relief her uncle's implication had brought her helped her breath a little more easily. Subconsciously, she remembered the inhaler sitting on her bedroom table back at the house. "So...we could see each other again?"

Kurt thought for a moment. "Maybe, if everything works out. But I have an idea."

"Yeah? What is it?" Gwen stopped Kurt from moving. Her house was just down the road now, and she knew the family wouldn't take the unexpected arrival of their mutant relative kindly. Bringing him all the way there would not be a good idea.

He pulled his arm out from hers, and turned to face his niece. "We could write to each other. If you can get to your mail before your father sees my letters, then I can send you the new addresses of the circus. So even if we don't see each other next year, we can still talk to each other." He studied her expression. "Gwen?"

She was grinning broadly, the happiest she had been in a long while. "That's perfect! Vati's usually at the store in the afternoon anyway, so I can get the mail before he comes home." Feeling quite lightheaded with respite from worry, she began jumping up and down. "How come I didn't think of that?" she shrieked. Her screams pierced the still morning air, and Kurt smiled too.

As Gwen was celebrating rather loudly, her extreme exhilaration suddenly began melting a little, giving way to a calmer, more acquiescent joy. With a jolt, she stopped bouncing, realizing that she was tuned in to her uncle's mind frequency once again. However, when she had been reading his thoughts, she had only gotten a glimpse of his emotions. She was a bit deep at the moment, heavily surrounded by Kurt's emotions; similar to when she had read Sigfried's memories...

Then, in an instant, his past became her own, and it was too real and scary.

...Kurt as a baby, listening to Raven cry in her sleep...

...Kurt in Raven's friend's house, watching the daughter, Caroline, glare at him...

...Kurt holding his arms over his head as Caroline hit him...

...Kurt being held under the bathtub water, praying for his life...

...Kurt sobbing in his room after finding out that Raven left him so totally alone...

...Raven's friend's body on the floor, stiff and cold from a heart attack...

...Caroline yelling "Freak!" at him until her voice grew hoarse...

...Kurt somehow managing to disappear from her rough grasp and reappear a few feet away, shrouded in a cloud of bluish smoke...

...Kurt running for his life, the cut on his arm throbbing...

...Margali finding him under her caravan and taking him inside, where it was warm and safe...

...Kurt being shown how to operate a trapeze, feeling proud of his own natural ability for the first time...

...Kurt watching Amanda brush her red hair...

...Kurt spotting the scrawny, ragged girl sitting near him in the stands of the circus and winking at her...

Abruptly, Kurt's storm of memories stopped coursing through Gwen's head, and they were back on the road, facing each other. His face looked slightly worried, and his mouth was moving. It took her a few seconds before she heard him ask if she was all right.

She wasn't, of course, but he had no idea of what had just occured. For a moment, she toyed with the notion of telling him about it. Before she did, however, she glanced at his forearm. The scar there was perhaps slightly more jagged than the others covering his body, and for an second she could feel her own skin smarting.

"I'm fine," she managed to sputter out finally, before faking a yawn. "I think I just need some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, Kurt."

He nodded, before saying, "Goodbye," turning around, and walking back the opposite way they had come, still not looking completely assured that she was okay.

As Gwen was watching him disappear into the distance, she let her breath catch up with her pulse before even trying to remember what she had just seen. It was all so frightening, much worse than her father's. He had actually been threatened; he had believed that he was going to die. How old had he been there? Four? Five? She wasn't sure what the worst part of it had been, but the image of him crying after Raven had left him stuck out the most. Shuddering, she began to trundle up towards her house, where she knew her Sigfried would be waiting. At least she could count on him.

Kurt's memories were everything she had been scared of seeing. Briefly, she remembered her old friend Liam...the permanent dark circles under his eyes; his distracted, empty stare; the five fingerprint bruises he had on his arm one morning. The deep purple was set forever into her mind, burning for eternity.

Gwen reached up to touch her frozen cheek and started when she found a tear coursing down it.