A/N: I'm sorry if the Danger Room doesn't live up to your expectations, but hey, they are living on a budget of zero! Side note, to the guest who posted about me saying "Zank you" instead of "danka" (actual German), I used the accented English version because it wouldn't make sense for him to say something to her that he knew she wouldn't understand (spoiler alert: Kitty doesn't speak German).


She pulled him into a space structurally identical to their living room. The ceiling was curved and the walls composed of cement, industrial lights donning the space where they met. Though they were carbon copies, Kurt couldn't find anything else similar between the two rooms. Instead of bare walls he found that bright red target of every size had been painted all the way around they room. What looked like mechanical leftovers of a failed science project adorned the spaces in between, some occasionally twitching. The combination of these strange decors made it look like the room itself was alive—bleeding—every robotic twitch a call to be put out of its misery.

"Are you coming or what?" she called to him. Kurt had been gawking from the doorway so long he hadn't noticed her wander to a rectangular metal table across the room. He slowly made his way to Kitty along the wall, taking care not to trip on any of the hundreds of extension cords winding their way around the edges of the room. Kurt continued to stare in confusion at the room's fixtures and couldn't decide whether it was amazing or horrifying.

"Calm down" Kitty interrupted as she looked up, "It's not like something's going to fall apart if you touch it." She turned her back to Kurt and continued to busy herself with something on the table. As he approached her, he noticed that most of it was occupied by a large panel. The table was large and surprisingly clean of debris considering the rest of the room. The panel itself looked liked a frustrated child's jigsaw puzzle, the buttons, pieces that were never meant to be together but had been bent to fit. Many were in different stages of rusting, while some looked brand new without a scratch. "Vhat is all of this?" he finally asked.

"Everyone's nicknamed it 'The Danger Room'. I thought we would just call it, I don't know, 'The Training Room' or something, but they didn't think that did it justice. I don't think they're too fond of what I've done with the place." Kurt hesitated before asking, "Vhat you've done with ze place?"

"Everything in here is something that I've tinkered on."

Confusion still clouded Kurt's face. "How in ze world did you make all of this?"

"I just scavenged anything even remotely resembling gears until I came up with some real parts. You'd be surprised by what people will throw away! Most of this stuff was still in working condition…kind of."

"Kind of?"

"I was able to get most everything working with little tweaks and part replacements. A few were a little more difficult to deal with, but I got them up and running eventually. But this..." She turned to the large control board in front of her, "I built this baby from scratch," she said, lovingly rubbing the side of the panel. "Every piece on here had to be hand-picked and tested for compatibility with the mainframe. Not a single button or dial on here is from the same machine. This one is from a timer. This one's from an alarm clock…", she said pointing to different switches. "But vhat can you do vith those? I don't mean to be rude, but an alarm clock is an alarm clock. How did you get all of this from all those pieces?"

A mischievous look donned Kitty's face as she continued, "Well I …modified them."

"Um…care to explain modified?"

"Oh you know, just integrated machines that were never meant to be combined and re-wire them to do things their inventors never dreamed of." The mischievous look returned and she suddenly grabbed Kurt's arm in excitement. "Want to see?!"

Kurt was shocked by the sudden contact and almost recoiled back from it, but quickly reminded himself that if he was going to stay here, he would need to get used to the idea of people actually touching him. He was reminded of the hug Kitty had given him the day previous, remembered her wrapping her arms around him. He was certainly warming up to the idea of Kitty touching him…He shook the thought from his head. "Sure."

Kitty didn't seem to notice any of this and turned quickly to the panel. Her experienced fingers ran rapidly over the switches as she flipped them into different positions. "Pick a target" she said, barely turning her head up from the controls. "Um…that one", Kurt replied, pointing to a lopsided target about twenty feet away. He looked back to find her head turned back down, putting the last pieces in place. Finally her fingers stopped and she turned back to Kurt. "Show time."

Three mechanical arms suddenly emerged from the clutter near the ceiling. Though initially unstable looking, their motions were fluid and seamless as they all turned and aimed in tandem. The cannons glowed and on an imaginary count of three, the room saw a flash of yellow light. Kurt heard the cannons slide back into their places as he lowered his hand from in front of his eyes, revealing a singed bull's-eye. "Vhat vas that?"

Kitty smiled. "It's a directed energy cannon. I configured the processor to condense the energy being fed into it through the energy conduit to concentrate it enough to actually make a semi-solid beam projectile."

Kurt just stood there in confusion and awe. Intelligent, beautiful, and kind. Jesus this girl was perfect. After a second of Kurt staring at her, she giggled. "It's basically a laser gun."

"How ze heck did you make that?"

"I used some gears from the heaps at the dump, but most of them are composed of pieces of old laptops, air ducts, microwaves…" Kitty began counting off her fingers.

"You made that out of a microwave?!"

She laughed. "Multiple microwaves", she pointed out. Kurt rolled his eyes. "You are missing ze point. You are a genius."

Kitty suddenly turned to the panel and busied herself with messing with the dials. Was she blushing? After a second, she turned back to Kurt. "You really think so? I mean, it's pretty simple stuff, anyone could do it. With a manual and parts and equipment I mean—" "I really think so", he interrupted the babbling, placing his hand on her shoulder. "This is amazing Keety. That dream of yours, to invent great things? It's already happening." She gave him a grateful look. "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me." She placed her hand on his. "Really."

She looked up and became immediately trapped in his gaze. His golden eyes were warm and soothing beyond anything she could have dreamed they could be. They were brighter than any energy blast she could build. They had an intensity of their own. They had already pierced her heart and she knew it. No amount of struggling could prevent that. She had hid so long, and yet this boy was able to break through every shield she had ever built just by looking at her. She knew he would be the end of her, and as he tightened his hand around hers, she realized she didn't care. Her other hand reached his face, and she leaned in closer.

A sudden knock on the door shocked them back to reality.

Kitty cringed as Kurt dropped her hand and Evan entered the room. "Hey Kit, do you know where Rogue put the…Are you guys in the middle of something ?" Kurt's head immediately snapped up. "Nothing. In fact I vas just leaving. " Kitty must have hid the hurt on her face well, because Kurt started walking. "In fact, I think I should go to bed. It's getting late." He quickly said goodnight to Evan and bamfed away.

Nothing? He thought that was nothing?!

Evan looked to the dissipating smoke cloud, then to Kitty. "Um, I was just wondering where Rogue put the cards."

"On top of the bookshelf" she squeaked, never looking up from the ground as she phased through the door. She ran to her room, thankful that she reached her it before she started to cry.


A/N: Oh snap. Please tell me what you think is going on in Kurt's head right now. I really want to see your guesses.