It was a little hard for even gregarious Kurt to make conversation as they sat in the oppressive little room waiting for the experiments to start. Sean was grumpy and Polaris skittish, and Kurt was forced to admit he was still tired and in pain, and none of that led to talking much after they'd given him the basics.
It was too warm, while the cells had been too cold and he'd gotten used to that over... whatever number of hours he'd slept. There were weird drafts, too. His fur kept prickling in funny directions. Whenever he thought of a funny way to phrase a complaint, he'd remember that Todd wasn't here and neither of his current companions seemed likely to get his jokes.
It was almost a relief when Sean's collar beeped and little red lights sparked to life all along the rim. "Oh, nice, they gave us a bit of warning today. Cover your ears, kids."
"Why?" Kurt asked, but all he got was a glare. Polaris not only covered her ears but rolled under the table. He figured it might be best to follow her, but he wasn't quite quick enough. The noise seemed to shoot between the small gap in his fingers and hammer right through his skull. It was more like a physical blow than sound, and even as his head pounded it knocked him to the ground, clutching his ears desperately. It didn't do much good. The smooth, armored walls reflected the sound waves back and forth until the blows seemed to come from every direction. The whole room shook and he couldn't get his footing. The table was on its side and Polaris was curled behind it, but she didn't look like she felt much better than he did. He didn't think it was worth uncovering his ears to get up and join her.
Kurt tried to bring his tail up to cover one ear, figuring he still had half the tip and it would be a little extra insulation. It still hurt too much to allow anything like his usual control, though, and when he lifted it from the relative protection of his body and into the sound-battered air, the smoldering pain burst into fire.
He gave up on trying to get away and slumped where he was. He turned his eyes toward Sean, who seemed to be almost as badly off, red faced and wobbly, clinging to his chair with his jaw locked open. The tiny part of this overwhelming force that Kurt really experienced as sound didn't seem to be a human voice, but hell, he was blue and fuzzy. Who was he to judge.
He had no idea how much time had passed when it was over. It felt like hours, probably was minutes at most. Sean slumped and nearly fell out of his folding chair. Polaris poked her head up over the edge of the fallen table like a curious, green groundhog. Kurt crawled a few feet to the nearest wall and sat against it.
"Well, that was fun," he said, breaking the silence. His voice sounded far away and floaty.
"Ear's bleeding, Nightcrawler," Polaris said, obviously speaking loudly though it didn't sound like it. "That'll happen. Sorry, we should have warned you."
Kurt raised his hand to check. Yup. Wonderful. He'd always thought he had too much blood. Gingerly, he picked up his tail to check for new damage. The bandage was still there, but there were new red stains. He shook his head, regretted it, and tried to think. "So they don't want mutants gone so much as with on and off buttons?"
"I'm pretty sure there's some dissent in the ranks," Sean said hoarsely. "They're a big fan of me. Almost never let Lorna go."
"Polaris," the girl said firmly. Kurt was a bit touched that she'd fastened onto the idea so firmly. "They're definitely scared of my powers, though. The last time they flipped that switch on me, um, we all got a few days in drug testing while they rebuilt the room."
Kurt was impressed, though it was hard to find a way to express that when everything was pain. "What's your trick, then?"
"I'm kind of telekinetic, but only for metal? I guess that doesn't make much sense." She frowned. "I can sense it, too. Reach out and grab it. I can even fly with it, sort of. As long as there's something in the right part of the periodic table, I can push off it. Though it's easier when I have some myself. When I was at home I kept ball bearings in my pockets and files in my shoes." The frown let in a small smile. In spite of everything, she was proud of her powers.
And Kurt was a little curious, he had to admit. He knew of some near-duplicates in terms of powers, of course. He lived with Jean and Professor Xavier and he'd been witness to Sabretooth and Logan. And while there were pairs like Scott and Alex or Todd and Trixie whose abilities seemed to fit right in a family tree, there were also Wanda and Pietro or Ororo and Evan. That she had Magneto's powers precisely didn't have to mean anything, but...
Well, he wouldn't try to bring it up. Not with creepy scientists listening and the fact that it was probably a delicate subject to bring up to a girl who didn't yet have freshman English under her belt.
"That's cool," he said instead, with all the enthusiasm he could muster. "So, um, is that going to happen again soon?"
"I think they take readings and shite. They want to know what it does to people, not just what they can make me do." Sean flashed Kurt's favorite rude gesture toward the ceiling. Kurt followed suit.
"That a German thing, too?"
"Nein, I just don't really have a middle finger. It's the best I've got."
"It's like this? A backwards peace sign?" Polaris asked, holding up her own effort.
"Bang on, lass." Sean's collar began to light up again. "Oops. Guess they didn't like that."
This time, Kurt got behind the table.
Todd wasn't very good at picking a method of defiance in the face of torture. One moment he was determined to be quiet. Constantly, eternally saying nothing, whatever she did to tick him off or bait him, until she went nuts. The next, he thought it might be a good idea to just blather constantly and annoy the hell out of her that way, make sure that any bit of information she might want was wrapped in so many layers of stupid insult and pointless blather that she'd never get anything out of him. Sometimes he just wanted to complain.
He wasn't exactly being tortured, here, either. The chair was really uncomfortable, but she didn't usually try to stop him wiggling, and it wasn't going to kill him. He'd tried to rest in more unpleasant places. She took blood a few times, which he objected to, and stuck a couple wires on him. He expected that to be kind of cool, if terrifying, but it turned out that these wires, at least, just stuck onto the skin with fancy tape. And that to get them in the right place required a lot of poking and that a few inches be shaved, which was far more embarrassing than it was frightening.
Altogether, being a captive lab rat was a lot less interesting than he felt it should be. And he did find his mind veering over and over back to Trixie and Kurt. Kurt's family was across an ocean, and they were his adoptive parents, so no one would think they were secretly mutants, too. Probably. And while Kurt's secret identity thing was definitely really important to him, it wasn't more important than the safety of a little girl. Was it? What did it do to the equation when that little girl had the protection of the freaking X-men? And that people who'd kidnap random mutants would probably not keep promises to stop doing that in a specific case?
Whenever he thought too much about who he was going to have to betray, he tried to pay attention to Dr. Rao instead, but she made it hard. She was as detached and boring as the experiments she was doing. Sometimes she'd turn on a radio to a soft rock station with exactly no personality, and it must have been that fancy-ass satellite radio, because it never seemed to break for weather or commercials, which at least might tell him about where they were. When she wasn't in the mood for bland music, she worked quietly, occasionally telling him to move in some particular way with all the passion of a lunch monitor.
Just when he thought he'd have to scream or faint or something to keep from going nuts, she shuffled a bunch of papers together with a businesslike snap and smiled. "You have some very interesting variants on your physiology, Mr. Tolansky. You won't be working with me often; you're mostly slated for drug testing. But I am a bit intrigued, and you'd think I'd be jaded by now."
"Yeah, that's sad for you, lady."
"But, of course, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's session."
"Lemme guess. You get Nightcrawler."
"He's a fascinating little horror, I must say. A preliminary scan shows essentially nothing that's identifiably human. All the work of one little gene."
"Yup, he's pretty cool."
"Young love," she said flatly. Todd glared at her, but he wasn't arguing. Considering they doubtless had footage of him and Kurt sharing a bed when there were two in the room, he didn't think it was worth it. "And I thought it was stomach turning when there were normal people involved."
Todd imagined spitting slime in her smug face. It helped, but it made him miss having access to his powers more. "So what drugs am I testin'?" If she felt like being chatty, he could take advantage, right?
"Chemical ways to mimic the collars, mainly. They have some unpleasant long-term health effects that modulated doses might help us avoid."
"Why all the science?" He had to ask. "You just wanna get rid of us, yeah? An' that collar don't turn K-Crawler into a vanilla human, it just keeps him from doin' his extra trick. There's easier ways, right?"
"Teenagers. Everything must be black and white." She shook her head. "This base is constructed around combining resources and doing what we can. We don't all have the same end game. What I'm working toward is a cure, and until gene therapy technology improves, treating the symptoms is the best I can do."
"A cure. You crazy bitch." He was extra angry because some small part of him latched onto the idea in an entirely different way. If it weren't for his mutation, after all, his dad might not have walked out, he might have had a family that worked, he might have been able to at least fasten onto the other rejects at school, actually been able to find a girlfriend...
But the guy whose life went right? He didn't know that guy. It sure as hell wasn't him. His hands and tongue and slime might be to blame for every shit thing that happened to him, but they were him. Maybe someone who was just normal plus the power to blow things up could lose it and keep themselves, but not him.
Suddenly, the lack of access to slime to spit was cause for panic, not a temporary setback. He'd been thinking in terms of obstacle and escape, but if Doctor Crazy had her way, he'd just be gone.
"I'm not arguing with a seventeen year old. We'll talk again soon. And do think about K-Crawler this evening, won't you?" She pushed a button and the gun guy (who'd been switched out once while Todd was in the chair, but who sure as hell seemed like the same dude) kept the weapon on him while Dr. Rao unstrapped him.
He was too perturbed to make trouble for his guard on the way back to his cell. Once they were in the hall of glass boxes, he looked into each one. A lot of these people were obviously mutants. He saw scales and weird colors and even a set of wings like a dragonfly's. Their lives, like his, had to be built around what they were. Maybe some of them would be glad to give it up, but he couldn't be the only one who felt cold at the idea of having his power permanently stripped. And some of the ones who could pass for normal must live by their powers. He sure as hell couldn't conceive of Pietro without his speed.
He shuffled into his cell, sort of glad that he was back before Kurt. He wanted to be alone for a while.
Without a clock or a window, Todd found himself measuring time by the way it felt. Enough of it went by for him to find a place to keep his fear and anger over the premise of a cure and start being worried before Kurt stumbled in.
Kurt took two uncertain steps toward the bed, registered Todd out of the corner of his eye, and decided to take a stab at explaining. "I can't hear anything," he said, not sure how loud his voice was coming out. Too loud, from the way Todd winced. He dropped it down a little. "Sorry. Um, the guy I was in with today has... screaming powers, and they triggered them about ten times. I might be deaf now."
Todd nodded, frowned, and said something. The constant whine in Kurt's ears was slightly modulated, maybe, but there was no chance of actually making out what he was saying. "Nein, not working. Can't hear you." Todd was quiet a moment, then tapped his ear and raised his eyebrows. Kurt followed the movement to his left ear, which had bled a bit since the first time. "Oh, ja, that. It hurts, but there isn't much to do about it. Und my entire body is one big bruise, so I think I'll just pass out." Todd shrugged and threw him a thumbs up. Kurt crawled into the bed and sprawled on his stomach, too tired to care how much he hurt.
But before he could get to sleep, Todd poked him. He thought about ignoring it, but that didn't seem like a good idea. He raised his head and Todd pointed to the screen. Small blessings. He couldn't hear that irritating voice telling him to get in the shower.
Kurt rolled off the bed, kicked his jumpsuit off and toward the glowy square, and braced himself in case the collar went off to punish him for keeping the little thread cross around his neck. After a moment, when nothing happened, he hurried to get under the hot water. The antiseptic smell was annoying, but he was a mess and the heat soothed some of his bumps and bruises. He managed to just not think about the transparent walls, and he moved away only reluctantly when the water shut off.
Then hurried the best he could through getting dressed. This jumpsuit was too loose, but the tail hole was in the right place. He might have surrendered to this particular indignity, but he still hated the sense of exposure.
Todd only looked up from his pillow when the shuffling noise stopped. He better not lose his hearing. He glanced quickly over, established that Kurt was on the bed and dressed, and reluctantly walked over to the corner. He was halfway there when the robot bitch piped up. He flipped off the screen.
"I learned today that might not be the best idea," Kurt said, too loudly again and with an uncharacteristically bitter smile.
"Whazzat mean?" Todd kept moving while he asked, forgetting to keep his face toward Kurt.
"Are you talking? I can kind of tell now, but I can't make anything out."
"You are so goddamn attractive it ain't fair an' yer hair smells good."
"Still nothing, mein freund."
He was sure to not smile until he turned away to undress. So one thing about this might not suck. Todd was still pissed about the shower thing, though. He hadn't even done anything today. He still smelled like disinfectant and itched from last time. He did not need more damn showering. It was almost worth the collar getting pissed at him, but hot water and nasty soap won out over agony by a narrow margin.
He hopped away from the shower and tugged on the jumpsuit the moment the water stopped. The room was unpleasantly cold and for the first time, he actually thought about earning those points for good behavior. Getting to turn the heat up would make a big difference in his comfort when he had no choice but to be wet and wear a flimsy bit of polyester. In the sewer or the boarding house when the gas bill hadn't been paid, he could have at least layered on a couple sweatshirts.
Arms crossed sullenly across his chest, he walked to the second bed. Kurt looked like he'd fallen asleep. Lucky him. Todd had hoped he'd get a chance to explain the thing with his identity and the threat to his sister, not to mention the mutant cure crap. He was pretty sure Kurt would say that he should tell, or maybe that they were definitely lying about Trixie being safe if he blabbed, or something that would make the decision for him. Decisions sucked.
It wasn't something he could try to communicate through vague gestures. And trying to do that at all made him angry. He wasn't at all clear on what they'd been doing with his koala bear all day, but it made him want to kick some scientists and thugs really hard. He was almost glad the doctor lady claimed Kurt was with her tomorrow. If it was anything like his session, at least she wouldn't hurt him.
Todd realized he was watching Kurt sleep and had been for a while. The part of him that listened to his sister informed him that it might be creepy. He rearranged himself, turning a bit to the side, clutching his pillow to his chest and leaning against the cold wall. This way he could steal a quick glance at Kurt every so often, but he wouldn't be a total skeez about it.
He was particularly cute curled up like that, and he looked small. The urge to go over and push the wet hair out of his face, maybe whisper something into the more damaged ear, was unnervingly strong. Apparently the Toad was losing it already.
He jumped at a beep from the screen. It took him a moment to come back to earth, but he caught on eventually that dinner was here. He was fairly hungry and he didn't think Kurt had even finished his box of slime, so he didn't even think about defying the current instructions. Instead of white boxes, he found what looked like really lousy TV dinners, even by his standards. The contents of the trays faintly resembled Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Not Mrs. Wagner's cooking, but a lot better than he'd expected, actually. And it was hot, so he shouldn't let Kurt sleep.
"Hey, wake up, fool." He'd hoped that would work, but wasn't surprised when it didn't. "Oy. Nightcrawler." Nothing. He gave up and poked Kurt's shoulder.
"Mmph?"
"Dinner."
"Huh?" Kurt smiled weakly. "Oh, hey, I heard you say something. I just don't know what it was."
Todd tried not to wince. Talking too loud. He pointed at the little cardboard tray in his hand and Kurt sat up, overbalanced, and barely kept from slumping back onto the bed. "Oops. Eardrums just aren't working, I guess." He tried for a self-deprecating smile, but his eyes betrayed fear.
Todd held out the tray and made sure it was firmly in Kurt's hands before he let go. He hopped onto the bed and sat down while Kurt puzzled over the flimsy plastic spork that had to be pulled out of the cover. He ate comically quickly once he worked out the weird utensil.
"You got a screwy metabolism, man," Todd observed. He was attempting slow bites to make it last longer, a method he wasn't great at. Especially when it wasn't the kind of food he really wanted in his mouth for long.
"I what?"
"Oh, hey, I think you got a word in there."
Kurt finally looked up from the empty tray at him, and Todd raised an eyebrow when he broke into a real smile. Something about the subtly sharp teeth, brilliantly white against the deep blue... But. Not immediately relevant. Why the grinning? "What?"
"You have the same hair as your sister when it's clean und dry," Kurt said, snickering. "It's fluffy." He reached over quite suddenly and tousled Todd's hair. "Entschuldigung. I'm sure it isn't that funny. I'm tired and I spent all day being attacked by sound."
It was pretty fortunate for Todd that Kurt didn't even try to hear his response, as it didn't consist of any actual words, just disorganized stammering. There was no reason this kind, silly gesture should shoot to the core of him, a white-hot tongue of fire that warmed him in spite of everything. Kurt was always easy with touch, and after the way he'd woken up, Todd hadn't expected any more shocks like this. But logic hardly had anything to do with this, and he had to look away to hide the telltale look Trixie had warned him about.
Kurt had already moved on, dropping his tray on the tile, grabbing their water, almost bashing his head straight into the wall. Moron. Todd looked away to pretend he hadn't seen the embarrassing loss of balance, and took the opportunity to see what Kurt was talking about in the smoky reflection that looked back at him from every wall.
It was definitely not as fluffy as Trixie's, but then, he didn't have some kind of crazy nanostructures mutated into his hair, so that made sense. It was kind of poofy and curlier at the ends was all. He didn't think the difference was that big, but if Kurt liked it, then maybe hot water wasn't that bad. He finished the last bite of his dinner, tossed the trash to its designated spot, and dropped onto the bed with his drink.
He wasn't sure if Kurt would get up or tell him to. He hoped not. Todd wasn't even sure if this was the bed they'd slept in last time. Being surrounded by mirrors was really disorienting. He suspected that had been a fluke, and when he felt a tug, he started to get up. Time to be kicked back across the room.
"Get off the blanket. It's cold."
Surprised, he scooted up toward the pillow so Kurt could pull the blanket out. They'd both been too tired to bother before, but it hadn't felt as cold before, either. (Was it too paranoid to think that the thermostat was being used to make them just a little crazier?) Todd wanted to suggest pushing the beds together or at least grabbing the other pillow and blanket, but he was pretty sure that even an oblique acknowledgment of what they were doing would end it, so he just lay back down. Without being so bone-tired, two bodies crammed onto a narrow, squishy mattress without even being against a wall seemed like it would be uncomfortable.
He found he didn't care much once Kurt settled in beside him. Even if he couldn't find a comfortable way to sleep, this would be a pretty okay night. There was just a hint of the Kurt smell under the lingering antiseptic reek. Allowing for the tons of concrete and terrifying security above his head, the possibility of having his powers "cured" or being interred here forever, the food and conditions lousy even by his Morlock standards, Todd was feeling pretty good.
Kurt, less so. His teasing and stupid jokes had been edging on hysteria all night, and it wasn't just his hopefully temporary deafness that drove his voice up. Part of the problem was that he was used to his hearing being good and his balance impeccable, and screwed up ears rewrote his relationship with the world in a disorienting way. He felt trapped in his own head. Not being able to teleport was upsetting, but he'd dealt with that before. Not being able to correct his movements in a nanosecond as he hurled himself from high places? That was scary.
And worrying about that felt selfish. What about Sean, who'd been gasping and practically unconscious when they were all marched out the that room? Sweet, tough little Lorna, looking ill but refusing an arm for support. All the mutants here. Todd, whose day he knew nothing at all about. He was the only X-man handy, and that made it his job to save them.
Save them? He couldn't even sit up without lurching in random directions.
The cold suddenly bothered him. Kurt tried to move so the shared blanket would come up to his chin and bumped into Todd. "Sorry." Twitchy. He was twitchy. Needed to calm down and get a little rest...
Todd squeezed his shoulder and said something he couldn't make out. (It happened to be "You're kinda adorable when you freak, Care Bear," but he didn't get a word.) His friend looked diminished and tired, probably almost as bad as he did, and the creepy light and mirrors made it worse. Kurt twisted his head to bury his face in the pillow.
The hand that ran down his hair and stopped between his shoulder blades was surprisingly strong. It was too easy to think of Todd as weak instead of wiry. His legs might have been inhumanly strong, but the rest of him was almost a match. Kurt felt muscles relax that he hadn't known he was clenching. He didn't hear the soft sound that came out when he sighed.
Watching Kurt calm down like a spooked kitten soothed by petting was actually pretty awesome. Todd kept it up as long as it seemed like he could get away with it, running his fingers through the fine hair and down slim shoulders. As long as this lasted, nothing mattered but the chance to be deliciously greedy, soaking up the sensation. Last time he'd stolen a touch, it had been cold and hollow and left him feeling like more of a loser, but right now Kurt wanted him to do it. He didn't dare think about what that meant, but it changed a meaningless-if-pleasant tactile experience into something fantastic.
When Kurt's breathing evened out, Todd didn't hesitate to curl up close to him. Let the boy wonder be everyone else's hero. The Toad would just worry about taking care of him.