[AN: Weird week so far... I've drawn the power puff girls and Professor Utonium, and did the Mojo Jojo voice for stuff at work... So over all... Just keeping me from writing and editing! lol. Anyway, here's the next chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it, feel free to review, message me, or just read!]
Anger, jealousy, and love, the most destructive forces.
Kurt was in the danger room during a practice with the X-Men team.
Storm was flying, sending bolts of electricity at the holographic enemies, Jean was sending psychic blasts and throwing the enemies towards each other, Cyclops sent optic blasts at structures, causing them to fall and trap some of the enemies, Wolverine was over in a whole mess, causing catastrophe...
Kurt was grabbed from behind, he was surprised, and teleported randomly, appearing too high to land normally on the ground.
Wolverine grabbed the enemy on his back and pulled them over onto the edge of the building he was standing on, ripping the hologram's body off of him and throwing it away. "Keep your head in the game, Elf, I can't save your skin all the time," he growled as he knocked another enemy off the side of the building.
"Ja," Kurt blushed and teleported onto one of the enemies, teleporting them above a group and dropping him, another puff of smoke and he was knocking two guys through the air off of the building then another one, and he landed on one, holding on and rolling, stopping at the edge of the ledge and throwing the guy off.
The simulation ended, and they walked out, Logan pulled his cowl back as he and Kurt brought up the rear. "You gotta take a breath and forget about your problems when you're fighting, Elf. Otherwise you might not be alive enough to see who you're thinking about at the end of the fight," he said as he passed him, headed to the showers in the locker room.
Kurt followed more slowly. Logan was right. He needed to focus more during training, or he might accidentally teleport into someone or something, and there would be no coming home from that...
Then he'd never see Kerri again...
Kerri walked to the dressing room after her shift at the club. She felt like she was still buzzing with the music and energy from all the people who had been there.
She went to her cubby, expecting to find her clothes, but when she opened it, there was nothing except her coat and the bag she'd brought her uniform in, and it was empty.
She heard running water and faint giggling, and followed the sound to the bathroom doorway.
As she looked in, she saw her clothes, soaking in the sink.
"That'll teach her to think that she's better than us," she heard a voice from behind her.
Kerri closed her eyes, focusing on taking all her anger, gathering it into one spot, and letting it go, just letting it wash away. Interestingly enough, Logan had taught her this as a part of meditation training.
Tammi put a hand on her shoulder from behind. "Oh my gosh, who did this?"
Kerri opened her eyes and went to the sink, taking her clothes out and turning the water off before she wrung them out. "A couple of children," she answered.
Tammi helped her wring out her clothes, but they were far too wet to wear, especially in the February air.
"Don't let them get to you," Tammi told her as she pulled on her own jeans.
"They're just ridiculous," Kerri said as she pulled on her coat. She was going to have to wear her tiny uniform home.
"Yeah. You know, they'd go easier on you if you wore the uniform tight like everyone else," she commented.
"It's just uncomfortable to wear tight clothes, embarrassing..." Kerri told her. "I- I don't look good enough..." Kerri mumbled the last part.
"Sure you do, you know, I saw a couple of the customers looking at you, too," Tammi told her.
"Nah, I don't think so..." She took her wet clothes and pushed them into her bag.
"It might help to get used to wearing them around normally. How much did you make on tips today?" Tammi asked to change the subject.
Kerri pulled the wad from her bra, the only place to keep anything in her uniform, and counted it. "Eighty," she answered. "How about you?"
"Two hundred," she said as she moved it into her purse.
"Wow," Kerri said. "You're training me, how did you do that?"
"Well, it's about how the customers see you. You'll get more if you wear make up and do your hair all special, you know," she said.
"I um, I don't really know how to put on make up or do hair or anything..." Kerri admitted.
"What, really? You're eighteen, right? You never learned how to do make up or hair?" The shock was evident on Tammi's face, and Kerri shook her head in answer. "Here, come over here, I'll show you a couple things."
Kerri followed her to the huge mirror and watched as she took a cold curling iron and showed her some techniques to style hair.
Kerri pulled up into the garage. It was almost three thirty, and everyone should be asleep, she should be safe wearing her uniform in.
She got out of the car and grabbed the wet bag that held her clothes and made her way into the school.
As soon as she got in, she took off her coat and wrapped it around her bare legs, hoping to warm them up by rubbing them.
She heard the sudden sound of a glass falling on the carpeted floor, and thankfully not shattering.
She shot up dropping the coat and bag, her ears and tail escaping into reality as she looked up wide eyed at one of the other students.
He stared at her, especially her long looking legs and her chest in it's still semi tight shirt.
Kerri started feeling weird, no one had stared at her like that before, not even Kurt, or, at least he was gentleman enough to avert his eyes when he started thinking like that.
Finally his voice broke the silence, "Hi."
"Hi," she said, grabbing her coat and holding it up to hide herself and taking her bag as she ran up the stairs to her room.
When Kerri got to her room, she caught sight of herself in her mirror. She wasn't pretty like Tammi, her hair was just in a ponytail to get it out of her face, and her face was free of make up, but she could put some on, and she could put her hair up...
She'd never thought she could just look cute, but maybe she could...
Maybe get some decent tips...
When she woke up in the morning, she went through classes, but was distracted by planning how she could try to do her hair, getting dirty looks from Scott, concerned glances from Ororo, and interested stares from professor Xavier.
After class, she showered, shaving her whole legs, not just to the knee, then went to the Walmart with her tips from the night before, and found a curling iron, hairspray, and eyeliner, she ran out of money before she could figure out what else to get.
She got back to her room and dumped the contents in the bag onto her bed, ripping through the packaging and pulling out the items.
She spent three hours on her hair, trying to remember how Tammi had shown her to move it. After the first little bit, though, she had gotten an idea of how it worked to make it nice, the rest of the time was because her hair was now past her butt, since she didn't ever really get it cut.
She trimmed her own bangs, making them frame her face, and curled them a little to help them fall cutely without effort. 'This isn't so bad,' she thought, 'pain in the ass at first, but doesn't get messed up easily, so you don't have to keep worrying about it.'
She finished her hair, pulling it up and doing multiple small ponytails, then gathering them all into a ponytail on top of her head, so that the strain didn't hurt and pull her hair. She sprayed it with hairspray to try and keep the curls, going over it again to make sure it was still good. It was a nice effect; a high ponytail, her long, long, long, hair falling straight, and the last five to eight inches curled cutely.
She took the eyeliner and one of the pictures from the dance last year, trying to make the same pattern on her eyes.
It turned out ok, not awful, but still not beautiful. Oh well, it was her first time using it, who could blame her?
She pulled on her uniform, not going to take any clothes for the two girls to soak today.
The only problem was that everyone was still up, and probably around in the common areas she'd have to walk past.
She thought for a moment.
Before, last year, Kitty had told her to wear a long coat to cover up when they'd gone out to a club, did she still have it? She looked through her closet and triumphantly pulled out a long jacket.
It wasn't really warm, but she'd have a car.
She put it on, and it only went to mid thigh. 'Well, it's long, but not long enough...' She thought. She'd look like a flasher, wearing only shoes. She pulled out a pair of workout pants to wear under it, then looked at herself in the mirror and headed out.
She kept her head down as she passed the areas where other students were, trying not to draw attention to herself, but of course, here that only worked the opposite way.
The other students noticed her, even though they didn't say anything, and they noticed how she looked, too. Her eyes were highlighted, and she'd gotten them close enough to Kitty's work that they looked good, and her hair looked nice...
What was up? A date? Or, was she finally starting to care about how she looked?
When she got to work, Danni and Tammi were sitting in the dressing room while Danni put makeup on for the night.
Kerri walked in and they looked back at her. "Oh, you look cute!" Danni exclaimed. She was looking very cheery in her nurse outfit. The kicker being that she was almost finished with nursing school and actually knew all the terms and procedures, which is what the customers really wanted to hear.
They were strange fellows.
Kerri ducked her head and pulled her jacket and pants off, stuffing them into the cubby, and Tammi called her over to them.
"Kerri, come over here, Danni, can you believe that she doesn't know how to do make up?" Danni and Tammi showed her some stuff with the make up, painting her face to look young, cute, and natural.
When they were done, Kerri looked at herself in the mirror.
She was cute, really cute.
The whole rest of the week, Kerri made a lot more tips, bought make up and practiced using it, bought a long duster coat that hid her uniform, and showed up to class looking quite a bit more dressed up and pretty than usual, mostly due to hold over make up that she just couldn't quite wash off, which the other students noticed.
One day when she arrived at work, she saw a poster that said there was going to be a Valentines Day party on Valentines Day, and realized that Valentines Day was next week.
She'd completely forgotten.
As she drove home, she wondered; what was Kurt going to do for Valentines Day? Last year, they'd gone to a movie together, but this year, they couldn't be together.
Kerri really missed him, she thought about him all the time, no matter how much she tried to remember that he was supposed to be a liar.
She snuck through the door into the school.
She knew it was his night to be the hall monitor, and she decided to find him, see what he was doing. She snuck along the halls, but it wasn't until she walked along the outside wall, peeking around the corner to the spot they had watched the stars so often last year.
He looked unhappy, gloomy... maybe even depressed...
Her heart throbbed painfully at the thought that he hurt. She didn't want him to hurt.
Shouldn't he be happy? He had a girl for Valentines Day, she didn't have anyone...
But wait, if he was really with Capra, why was he moping over in their special spot? Was he thinking about her?
Kerri's heart throbbed with hope. If he was thinking about her, sitting in their special spot, maybe he really did still love her...
He did keep telling her he did...
Maybe she was just to afraid to believe him, afraid to get hurt...
She turned and went to her room, quietly so he didn't hear her.
Kurt watched as the stars glowed brightly above him.
He'd never really celebrated Valentines Day before he'd come here from Germany, not because they didn't have it, it was just hard to get a date when you looked like a fuzzy blue demon and all the girls screamed when they saw you.
His first Valentines Day in America, he'd asked a girl out, a normal human girl that didn't know he was a mutant, and they'd gone to a movie, but when it came to the end of the night and her hand had held onto his...
She hadn't been pleasantly surprised.
Then the year after that, he'd asked a fellow mutant, but when she kissed him, of course she found out what he really looked like, and, again, wasn't pleasantly surprised.
Then last year, he'd asked Kerri out.
It had been their first date, out to the movies, they'd watched a horror movie, and they hadn't kissed, or properly held hands, but it had been the best date in his life.
She was the odd one out, she seemed to really dislike it when he wore his image inducer, genuinely liking the way he looked...
He felt a squeezing in his heart. He wanted to plan something special for her, a real romantic Valentines Day...
If only he could.
Scott seemed to be keeping his eye on them, still.
'Kerri... Kerri Kerri Kerri, mein lieb, mein schatz...' he thought to himself as a shiver ran down his spine. He decided to go back inside where it was warm. {my dear, my... there's that word again! lol still not telling you until the climax!}
As he turned to stand, he thought he saw a flash of sandy strawberry-blond hair at the edge of the corner. He wished it was Kerri, but it was probably just wishful thinking on his part.
Kerri walked into the building where she worked, taking off her long duster and folded it a little before sticking it into her cubby.
She was distractedly thinking about if she should do anything for Kurt for Valentines Day, after all, she still loved him, even though she tried to stop, and if he really still loved her.. It would at least be nice to give him something...
"What's on your mind?" Tammi asked as she and Danni walked into the dressing room.
"Um... Just thinking about Valentines Day," she told them.
"Oh, you have a boyfriend?" Danni asked.
"Well..." Kerri didn't know how to explain the complicated situation, or if she wanted to.
"Ooo, I feel drama coming on," Danni said and, pulling Kerri over to a chair by the vanity so she could start putting on make up, exclaimed, "spill!"
Kerri tried to not tell them for a few minutes, but with these two, it was as impossible as trying to keep something from Kitty; eventually her guts spilled.
"Wow," was all they said.
"I- I can't... Wow..." Danni stuttered, staring at her in the mirror, her hand hovering in the air.
"Yeah," Tammi agreed. "That's tough... So, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know, I keep seeing him with that girl, I don't even know how he really feels about me..." Kerri told her.
"Of course you do, he told you he loves you, and she's his student, right? Maybe she just has to talk to him about class," Danni said.
Tammi rolled her eyes. "You're such an air head, she's probably more interested in learning about bedroom studies from him than drama."
Kerri glared at the vanity table where her hand was.
"Don't say that, he sounds like a really nice guy," Danni tried to comfort her. "I think Tammi meant what are you going to do for Valentines Day?"
Kerri looked up at the kind but silly nurse in training. "I don't know, I'm still not allowed to see him."
"Well, you could leave him something, you know, something he'd know was from you, then he would at least know you still liked him," Tammi said.
"Yeah, maybe," Kerri said.
Valentines Day was upon them, and Kerri wandered around the school during her free period.
She decided to go find a something small for Kurt, having decided that maybe it was worth risking her feelings.
She wandered around the store for a while, finally finding something to get for him; a small box of chocolates with a chalkboard front and a small piece of chalk.
She made it back to the school with enough time to get ready for work and sneak over to Kurt's room to leave the candy.
She quickly touch up curled her hair and pulled it up into a ponytail, pulled on her little uniform, and large duster, then took the heart and tried to think of something to write on it.
'I love you is too bold,' she thought, 'hearts isn't telling...' She tried to think of the right thing to write, but she was having a hard time; this was the first time she'd gotten something for anyone. After a while she had it, and when she got done the front said, "To Kurt, from my heart, Kerri."
She nodded and put it into her large pocket, then, holding her duster closed, she made her way into the hall and over to the boy's dorm.
She snuck up the hall to his door and was about to put the chocolates down and ding dong ditch when she heard voices at the end of the hall. She hid behind the edge of a doorway, flattening herself against it, and tried to tell who was talking.
"Nein, I couldn't," Kurt's German accent floated to her.
"Don't be so modest, I just wanted to give these to you, you know, since it's Valentines Day. In America it's a day when everyone gives chocolate, not just boyfriends and girlfriends, so it's ok." It was Capra's annoying voice echoing down the hall.
"Vell, I guess," Kurt trailed off.
Kerri felt rage flow through her. Anger was flooding from her and she didn't care.
He was with that girl again. On Valentines Day.
Of course he was, how could she have thought any different? He didn't love her, never had, probably.
She took out the heart and spat on it, smearing her hand across it, trying to wipe it off. She didn't get it all off, but she didn't care. She thought, 'I got these for him, let him have them,' then threw it at the bottom of his door, hoping it would crack or scatter everywhere, she wasn't sure what she wanted, only that she was mad.
She stormed out of the hall and down the stairs, not noticing that her coat was open and flowing out behind her, showing everyone her uniform.
Kurt walked to his room, holding the big bag of candy kisses from Capra. He looked at them and sighed.
He didn't want to accept anything from her; the only one he wanted Valentines chocolate from was Kerri, but she was still avoiding him and wouldn't talk to him.
He was looking at the ground when he got to his door, and it was a good thing, because he might have missed the small heart shaped box on the floor if he hadn't been.
He picked it up and turned it over. He saw that the front was like a chalkboard and it said, "To Kurt."
The rest of it was streaky like something else had been there, but it didn't matter; he recognized the hand writing, and it belonged to Kerri.
She had gotten him something for Valentines Day. She was thinking about him today, the day of lovers.
His heart soared in hope and happiness. Maybe she wasn't as mad at him as she seemed; she had a pretty thick shell when they'd met, maybe she'd just gone back to self preservation mode.
When Kerri got to work she slammed the car door and went into the building. She jammed her coat into her cubby, and Tammi came up to her asking, "What's up?"
Kerri took a breath to calm herself down, not wanting to slip and grow a tail or anything. "Fuck him, that's what," she said as a pain pierced her heart. It hurt her to speak about him so harshly, and that made her madder. "He was with that other girl, I saw him. Stupid..."
Tammi put her hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
It turned out that the waitress's part in the Valentines shenanigans was to wear little cupid wings while they worked.
Kerri walked through the dark room and placed a large slice of cake on a table where a tiny blond sat, surrounded by five men who were waiting to watch her eat it.
Kerri shook her head as she walked away, to another table to take their order. The two men at the table looked her up and down, taking in her large, outgoing smile, then ordered, and Kerri went to the kitchen window to stick the order in. When they left, they left a nice tip.
She wasn't twenty-one, so legally she couldn't serve alcohol, but she took the orders and delivered any food or other drinks.
She spent the night running around, doing her job, and was the only one who didn't seem to have troubles with the added girth of the wings. One of the other waitresses, however, turned at the window and knocked a pitcher of soda on her.
Kerri took a sharp inhalation of air as the cold liquid washed down her. "I'm so sorry," the girl told her.
"It's ok," Kerri said, shaking her hands and shorts before following Sal's order and going to the dressing room and digging in the boxes for a dry uniform.
She took a quick sink bath so she didn't get sticky when the soda dried.
Unfortunately, Kerri couldn't find another loose uniform, and had to put on a tight one to finish the rest of her shift.
After the shift Kerri and Tammi walked into the dressing room, and Tammi threw her wings off. "Jeez, I hate those things, I almost knocked over almost everything!"
"I don't know, they're not so bad," Kerri said as she took her wings off.
"How did you manage to be so graceful? I didn't see you hit anything!" Tammi demanded with exasperation.
"Guess I'm just graceful," Kerri said, not wanting to mention that she sometimes had wings and these little ones were nothing compared to hers.
Kerri was coming in from work when Kurt found her. He'd waited for her, and, wanting to give her something for Valentines Day, he'd gotten a cute little leopard cat that had a heart patterned ribbon around it's neck. He hid it, holding it with his tail so he could surprise her.
She stepped out of the car and her coat swung open as she stood, revealing her tight and tiny uniform.
Kurt stepped forward, but stopped as he saw the barely there uniform.
Kerri looked up and stopped walking as she neared him. She looked down to see what he was staring at, and found that it was her uniform. She looked back up to him and her heart started pounding in her chest.
The look he was giving her stirred something in her, made her want him to keep looking. It was a possessive wanting look, like he wanted to claim her.
She shook her head and closed her jacket, hiding herself from view.
Kurt looked up to her face. "Vhat vas zhat?"
"My work uniform," she told him.
"Vhat?!" He demanded. "Zhat is a vork uniform?!"
"I'm a waitress," she said.
"A vaitress? Dressed like zhat?! Vere is it zhat you vork?!"
"At a club," she told him.
"Vhat kind of club is zhat?!" He demanded.
"The one I work at," she said, her agitation at him from before surfacing.
"How can you valk around in zhose clothes and..." He gestured vaguely, unsure how to say what he was thinking.
"And what, work? Earn money? Be around other men?" She asked with a harsh tone. Her hands clenched into fists and her breath came fast and ragged. She dodged past him and went into the school, up to her room.
Kurt stood in the garage for a few minutes, confused and agitated and... jealous.
He teleported to his room and laid on the bed, holding the valentines cat in his hands, running his fingers over the soft fur, trying to calm himself.
Her clothes had been so revealing. She said she worked at a club, and with how she had looked right now, her hair done up, make up on, tiny clothes...
Every time he thought of her uniform it seemed smaller than before, and his pulse raced at the picture it presented.
She was so beautiful, and he was so attracted to her...
And she wore that uniform to work, at a club, where he was sure other men were...
How was he going to keep other men away from her when he wasn't allowed to be around her...
He groaned in agony at the position he was in.
As Kerri got to her room, she slammed the door behind her. Not that a door could keep Kurt out if he wanted to get in, but it made her feel better.
"How can you walk around in those clothes and..." she gestured around vaguely and muttered under her breath as she paced back and forth agitatedly. "What, he doesn't want anyone else seeing me in skimpy clothes? Wants to have me all to himself, but that stupid girl too? He's so..." her fists waved through the air. She stopped pacing and turned to her closet. "If he's worried about someone else seeing me in revealing clothes... I'll show him something to be afraid of..." She dug around in the back of her closet until she found the bags of clothes Kitty had given her at the beginning of the year.
"Won't know what hit him..." she muttered darkly.
