Getting everyone to a safe place, treated, dressed, fed, and soothed was a logistical nightmare that Kurt slept through. Todd envied that ability as he sat still and watched the world go by. No one expected him to do much but answer questions. He was one of the unfortunates who'd needed rescuing, after all, and it seemed churlish to make him do the busywork. Even his Brotherhood buddies didn't expect much of him beyond being a good sport about getting made fun of for getting himself caught by a bunch of lame-o humans.

He watched the handful of teachers from the Institute, aided by a crabby Callisto, make phone calls and arrangements, bundle groups of kids into vehicles to keep them out of the wet, send Rogue and Kitty up the road to buy out what must have been most of the snacks at the nearest gas station.

They were in the middle of nowhere right on the Vermont boarder. Nothing for miles but the dull-yet-mysterious installation of supposedly military origin. No one bothered about the place too much. Local rumors were of research into nuclear stuff that any sane person would want to steer clear of. Todd wasn't sure why he was keeping track of those tidbits, except that Kurt would probably want to know and was too busy napping on his shoulder to notice.

Todd had never been much of a people-watcher, but it was the only fun thing to do just now. A few of the captured mutants actually had homes to call, people who'd be glad to hear they were safe, and that was kind of nice to listen to. Others were going back with the X-men, and that was a big part of the tangle.

He was listening to Doug and Stacy argue about who got a particular seat on the next bus back to Bayville (not interesting) when Trixie came to drop a blanket on Kurt and hand Todd a sweatshirt. "And how're you, Mr. Grumpy Britches?"

"Chilly. Kinda worn out. Y'know."

"Not really. Where'd your pant leg go?"

"Long story."

"Okay. Is he for real passed out, there?" She pointed at Kurt.

"Prolly. He kinda catnaps a lot."

"Okay, well, whatever. And you're not being a big jerk and yelling at me right now." Trixie frowned. "So."

"So?" Even Todd could tell that was a weighted so. "Sup?"

"It's about Jasmine."

He shot her a leery look. "An'... Y'wanna talk about that now?"

"Why not? Everyone's busy with junk. Elementary espionage. You attract attention by acting like a shady weirdo, not by having conversations."

He suspected her reasoning, but whatever. He didn't want to get in another argument today.

"So what about Ma?" He remembered a comment from Dr. Rao and smirked. "Y'know, the freakos in there—they had info on everyone, or me, at least—figured she must be a mutie. Guess that's what they think when there's two of us, huh?"

"Um... Actually..." Trixie's goggles emphasized her shifty-eyed evasion.

"Aw, no way." Todd just gaped at her for a moment. He should just give up on comfortable old cornerstones of his understanding of the world, because he obviously didn't get to keep them. "Howzat even work?" Leaving aside whether he should have known (he hadn't exactly been an observant toddler), shouldn't her life have been easier? Being a mutant screwed you over when it came to the big stuff that everyone wanted, like jobs and stuff, but when you were scraping along on nothing, it was hard to imagine a power that wouldn't help a little. Wall crawling and quick, leaping escapes had kept him in stolen wallets and therefore food on many occasions, and he had a pretty dumb power. Even Doug the computer guy could probably have done something with it.

"Not very well. See, so, I wasn't even sure until I got up my nerve and asked to professor to see if he could tell. And he said yeah and he even went to see her with me."

"...Not in the last three days, I bet?" She'd been working on this a while.

"I kinda didn't wanna talk about it until I was sure." She sighed loudly. "'Cus, well, it's a big thing for you, and guess how I feel, because let's be honest, you don't even know her that well."

"Lucky me. So, um, what is it?" He knew mutants whose powers could be hidden, but Ma didn't seem like she'd ever have that kind of presence of mind.

"That's the thing. What she does is... Kind of explode brain chemistry. And processes. And thinking. So moods and sorting out what's real and what isn't and all that stuff just gets scrambled. Pretty much she makes brains act unpredictably wrong. And she's not immune."

Todd tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. "So say she starts up when she's around sixteen."

"Late, but not crazy late, yeah."

"An' suddenly a good girl acts all screwy, gets herself knocked up by a creep, walks out on her family..."

"Yup."

"Shit, none of this was ever her fault..."

"I wouldn't go that far. The one thing it really changes is now we know why the meds never worked very well." Trixie rested her chin in her hands. "And why they never got a good diagnosis. But I don't know if there's a big difference between mutant nuts and just regular nuts."

"Yeah, but somethin' like that, kiddo..." Todd shoved the hair back from his face nervously. "No one would of guessed, specially not back then. How was she supposed to get fixed if they didn't know how she was broken?"

"Maybe, but it's not like she ever worked that hard... I just wanted you to know. Anyway, she's going to do sessions with the professor. Maybe get it under control. The big thing is to keep her from scrambling herself whenever it goes off, and even Professor Xavier didn't really have a guess at how long that could take, since she's been doing it for so long now and some of the damage is probably permanent. Maybe she'll actually be able to shoot confusion rays at people someday, but I wouldn't hold your breath."

Todd had never sorted through his own messy feelings about his mother and he knew he wouldn't be able to begin to suss out Trixie's, but he felt like he should try to do some good. "She wants to do right by us. Y'know that, right?"

"As long as it doesn't get in the way of her doing whatever she feels like."

"Just... Give her a chance? Y'don't gotta call her Ma. A shot. S'all I'm askin', Tiny."

"She's not going to turn into a real mom even if she does stop being crazier than a shithouse rat, y'know." Todd blinked a few times at the language. Trixie didn't mind other people swearing, but she usually restricted herself to seventh-grade caliber insults. "I'd like that, too. ...We can talk about it later. I'm gonna help Jean with stuff." She abruptly stood and walked away.

Todd sighed, closing his eyes. The news was surprising, yeah, but he didn't think it really changed that much for him. Now he was an offshoot of the accident that had wrecked his mother's life, not the accident itself, but that didn't exactly make him feel better about himself. And the burden of a baby had still kept her from going back to her parents (who must have been first-class jerks, but that didn't help) and probably from doing more to help herself.

And it was worse for her. At least if she had just been screwed in the head one of the normal ways, they could work with that, but there wasn't a cure for really shitty mutant thing. Maybe Dr. Rao's research actually would do her some good...

Unless, of course, Trix was right. Right about what, he wasn't sure. Todd drew his knees up to his chest and rested his forehead there, figuring he'd just hang out until someone told him to do something. He felt Kurt shift a bit on his shoulder and envied his insta-relaxation skills again.

At that particular moment, Kurt was awake and feeling very awkward. He hadn't meant to listen in. He'd only woken up halfway through, nudged out of his doze by the more piercing tones buried in Trixie's voice. He hadn't quite caught on at first and he'd listened while he tried to wake up, and once he had figured out what was going on, he'd decided to play possum rather than admit he knew anything.

Leaving aside the invasion of privacy there, now that he was awake he was aware of a weird crick in his neck from sleeping like this and really wanted to move. Pretending to wake up would push this over from passive to active deception.

He was saved from that particular dilemma by Callisto, who's voice was enough to rouse a bear from hibernation. He didn't even fake jumping and then flailing as he fell off Todd's shoulder. "You joining us coming back, Todd?"

"Back? Oh, um..." Todd looked over to where Pietro and Lance were arguing. They'd come just for him. They still kinda liked him, in their weird way. Besides, there were more complications. "Back where? Don't tell me they left our hideout nice an' tidy for us." He watched Kurt right himself and shake out his bedhead. Heh. Cat.

"Oh, no, it's a mess. We salvaged what we could, but when all our living spaces could be knocked down by kicking, it's no surprise that they did it. And we don't know when they might be back. Xavier's been putting us up in the basement of the Institute while we figure out what to do next."

"Ooh, we're classin' up the Morlock stronghold, huh?" Todd was stalling.

"It's definitely drier than the sewer down there," Kurt said, surprising him with a surprisingly bright smile. "We stayed there while the mansion was rebuilt after Mystique managed to blow the place away. It was kind of cramped, but there are a lot less of you than there were of us, ja?"

"Comfy," he said. Come to think, Kurt had a thing about wanting to help the Morlocks more, didn't he? That must be what he was all psyched about.

"Cool. Um, I'm gonna go check with the guys, but... prolly." He turned and hopped away rather abruptly, leaving Kurt and Callisto watching him in mild confusion.

Lance shot him a thumbs-up as he leaped over to them, and he didn't think Pietro was ignoring him on purpose. He seemed flustered about something. The difference between agitated Pietro and regular, everyday Pietro was a very fine line, but he'd gotten pretty good at spotting it.

"'Sup, fools?"

"I usually feel pretty good after I take out some anti-mutant crazies," Lance said in perfectly satisfied tones. "Plus..." He nodded over to Kitty, who laughed and waved back.

"Nice," Todd said noncommittally. Usually they'd tease him, but there was a point where you only embarrassed yourself when you laughed at a guy for scoring. And he'd developed some perspective on the whole thing. "How you guys gettin' back?"

"Same way we got here." Lance nodded at his baby, parked a ways off, with a distinct "are you stupid" look. "It's a couple hours. Better not rain." Putting the top down with Freddy in the car was basically impossible. "It might be kind of a tight fit. We don't usually all cram in..."

"Pietro!" Both Todd and Lance glanced over to enjoy Quicksilver's reliably entertaining cringing when his sister yelled at him. "What did you say to Lorna?"

"What? I... Pretty much not anything!"

"That's what I thought. She is coming back with us and you're getting one more undeserved chance to make something halfway right in this family."

"Um, I guess I'll see if I can get a ride with the X-geeks, then..." Lance said, looking over at Kitty again.

Todd wouldn't have begrudged him that if this weren't so convenient. "Nah, y'let Wanda drive an' she'll bring the princess home with two flats an' no fenders." Girl drove angry. And Pietro was too much of a spaz to allow behind the wheel. He could probably just run home, but that'd spoil Wanda's plan and no one wanted that. "I'll hitch a ride with the Morlocks."

"...Okay. But, you know, stop by sometime."

"Aw, man, don't get weird." Actually, he was rather touched, but he could no more express that than Lance could get across the initial sentiment. It was okay. They were all fluent in emotionally stunted teenage boy. He headed back to join Callisto. Kurt had wandered off to help translate for the creepy twins and family, and Todd decided not to catch him for a goodbye.

Half of him said that Kurt had stuck with him this long and that was hardly going to change now. The other half insisted that things in there had gotten too weird, that for Nightcrawler to still want to hang with him would require acknowledging sleeping together and allowing for moments of weakness that shouldn't have been shared with anyone. And the impulse that told him he wasn't worth it was always the one he'd believe.

Besides, they were going to the same place. He crammed into a fairly wretched old plumber's van that smelled of cigar smoke and weird chemicals, tucked between Lucid and Cybelle, and steeled himself for a long haul home.

He fell asleep ten minutes in. Sometimes exhaustion could do what nothing else managed.

There were enough rooms in the basement to accommodate the Morlocks comfortably. They even still had beds and furniture from when the students had been encamped. Todd opted out of a roommate and wound up with a room that looked like it had probably been intended as a closet, but it was damn spacious compared with his spot in the sewer and a palace next to a creepy prison cell. Now he could just get over being in the Institute and how nervy it made him.

The Locks hadn't saved much of his stuff. If you weren't a natural tinkerer, it was hard to tell what among his bits of machinery was broken beyond repair. But Callisto had picked up his book-box, handing it over with a wink. He kind of hoped she hadn't looked inside, but it didn't really matter if she had. He wasn't cool enough for juicy secrets.

Sitting in the basement of the enemy compound, really wanting company and not feeling at all up to finding it was probably not the idea time for a trip down memory lane. He told himself he just wanted to make sure nothing had been damaged.

The photographs were all old and the damage went back years. When he was nine, a school counselor had helped him laminate them, so while the spots and stains remained, they were part of the picture nowadays, as far as he was concerned. The letters and cards he'd crammed into comic book sleeves or plastic bags, since that was easier than figuring out where the laminator was in subsequent schools and breaking in.

He had them spread out on the bedside table when a knock on the door made him jump. "Yeah?" Probably Callisto again.

"Hi, we have pie," Trixie announced as she threw the door open. "Pie for everybody, even if they are hiding out and being an antisocial butt."

Eh, what the hell. "I like pie." He got up and walked to the door. There were, as promised, three pies sitting on an aluminum cart, with Jean and Kitty handing out slices.

"Don't worry," Trixie said comfortingly. "Kitty didn't make it."

"I heard that!"

Todd nodded, though he was, despite himself, looking around for a glimpse of blue. It emerged from the room Torpid was sharing with Scaleface. Kurt had the little girl on his shoulders, and while it looked like putting her down gently did require more effort than it should have, he smiled at her anyway. She'd kind of taken to following him around like a puppy after he'd brought her new toys.

...Actually, he kind of got that.

"So, um, pie?" he commented quietly once the furball was close enough to hear.

"I guess they wanted people to have something good happen to them today." Kurt shrugged expansively. "So, well, everybody likes pie. It was already served around upstairs, but we had to chase you since Facade just brought sandwiches down for you guys. You want chocolate or blueberry?"

"Chocolate."

"Good choice."

"It has coffee in it," Kitty said dryly.

"Coffee is amazing." Kurt grinned at her shamelessly. "I'd be passed out by now otherwise."

"You mean like everyone told you to do?" Jean asked, rolling her eyes a little.

"Sleeping is boring." Actually, he just didn't want to be alone in a dark room. He wasn't ready to have only his thoughts for company. Being silly was as great a defense mechanism as always. He handed Todd his slice with a bow that he intended to evoke fancy French dining but looked more like a cross between drunk ballet and a Japanese greeting.

Todd caught the plate with both hands before Kurt dropped it. "Go to bed, Crawler."

"Nein. Can't make me."

"Hey, Todd, this is your room?" Trixie called before he could get the response he deserved for that. "Gotta remember to come and bug you and... Oh, wow, look what a cute baby I was!"

"Trix, get outta there..." Todd sighed and walked after her.

Kurt watched them for a few seconds too long. Kitty elbowed him. "Oh, look, an extra piece of caffeine pie. Better stay down here and eat it."

"Um..." She set the plate firmly in his hands, nodded toward Todd's room, and turned to help Jean clean up. He took the hint and headed over, but he stopped in the doorway.

"Kurt, come see how cute I was!" Trixie called cheerfully.

He looked at Todd, who shrugged, and figured that was as good as an invitation. Kurt sat on the edge of the bed, taking a bite as she held up a not very good picture of what looked to him like an ordinary enough baby being held by a nurse. He was aware you were supposed to approve of babies, at least, so he nodded. "Ja, cute."

"And here's frogface over here." She handed him another photo, this one of a girl he recognized as a much more fresh-faced, cheerful Jasmine with a rather uncomfortable-looking guy in his mid-twenties who screamed skeevy. He tried not to pay any attention to the man, but he couldn't pretend he wasn't interested. He couldn't miss that Todd had his father's nose. It had apparently even been broken in roughly the same way at some point.

What was more interesting was that the baby in the picture looked pretty normal to him. From what Todd had said, he'd have guessed that anyone could have glanced over and seen something out of the ordinary, but this seemed to be a flesh-colored, squirmy bundle of bog-standard child.

Todd must have noticed his surprise. "Had my mouth closed. Can't see my hands, neither."

"Babies kind of all look the same to me. At least I'd have been able to tell which one you were, ja?" He realized he'd been holding the picture a bit too long, probably, and handed it back to Trixie.

"Wouldn't you of been kinda not born yet?"

"Ja, well..." He peeked over Todd's shoulder but carefully avoided looking at the letters. That was a different level of personal entirely. There was only one more picture, this a department store portrait of an even younger Jasmine with a bland looking, middle aged couple.

Trixie kept him from having to ask. "I haven't seen this one."

"Ma ain't the kind to go savin' negatives." Todd shrugged.

"Why do you even have it?"

"'Cus I like seein' her, well, happy, I guess." He shrugged and looked over at Kurt. "These'd be the grandparents who kicked out a pregnant teenager."

"I guessed," he said uncomfortably. "I guess I should leave you two..."

"Don't worry, I got homework to do. I'm out. Bye, boys." Trixie bounced off the bed. Hard to say if she was faking the smile or not. She disappeared rather quickly and slammed the door behind her.

"What's with her?"

"Family stuff is weirder than usual today." Todd shrugged and picked everything up, shuffling it inside a textbook with the middle sliced out. Clever.

"Oh." He was quiet a moment. "You look as tired as I am. Should I leave you alone?"

"Nah. Um, I mean, no rush." He leaned against the wall, bringing his knees up under his chin. "Gonna finish that?"

Kurt looked down at the mostly-eaten slice of pie he'd been working his way through steadily. There was no indication he wasn't going to finish it. Oh, well. He speared the last good sized-bite worth and held up his fork. "Here."

He expected Todd to catch it with his tongue, but he leaned in and bit it off the normal way. It was adorable.

...This wasn't going to work. Maybe this wasn't a good time, with both of them exhausted, and freaked out, but there'd probably never be a good time to declare his feelings for a former enemy who was also a guy and from an entirely different world. But he'd seen what ridiculous ways people twisted themselves up pretending not to like each other. Jean and Scott's little melodrama had put him off seeing mutual pining as romantic for life. He was sure it had been bad enough for Todd, but he couldn't do anything about that.

Of course, resolution aside, he had no idea what you were supposed to do to break romantic tension. He also wasn't sure what he wanted to do once he'd made it clear. Were they going to go for pizza and to the movies like a normal couple? That was hard to picture. Hard to get started without an endgame in mind. Feelings. Yuck. "So, um, how are you? You kind of disappeared in there..."

"Just went back with the Locks is all, fool."

"Locks? Is that official?"

"Prolly Callisto'll swat me for it. Happens."

"Okay. Well, you still hid down here once you got back. Unless you were getting some sleep?"

"Nah. I mean, you gonna sleep anytime soon?"

Not alone, I'm not, he very nearly said. "So...?"

"So I was bein' bitchy. Happens sometimes. Y'blame me?" Todd huffed. "Besides, I'm still pissed, Mr. I'm gonna throw myself on a bomb."

"It would have worked."

"Yup."

Kurt was quiet, wondering if this gulf needed to be breached just to be friends, all else aside. "There were little kids in that room. Plus, you know, all those people, and who knows who might have been up or down a floor." Todd didn't look convinced. Worried, he reached over and caught the other boy's hand. The heat of his palm made Kurt shiver.

Well, that was kind of stupid. They'd spent another night in the same bed since he'd figured this out, admittedly not quite as close as the other ones. Holding hands shouldn't be this intense. It was just because he was generally wound up, he was sure.

Todd cracked a bit of a smile. "Ain't that just like you, huh, Nightcreeper?" He didn't pull his hand away. Kurt had the odd impression that the air was charged like a storm was about to strike, that the room had darkened strangely everywhere but right where his eyes rested, that his heartbeat was unreasonably loud but every other sound muted by an odd buzz.

Kurt made his decision. "Jawohl." He leaned forward, a little too fast and unsteadily, so that he had to catch himself with one hand on Todd's shoulder. He'd considered going for the cheek, but this was really an all-or-nothing situation. Either screwed or not, he helped himself to a soft kiss on Todd's mouth.