[AN: Hello and welcome to another chapter of Fuzzy Images, where you'll find out what Kerri's full first name is, but not her last, she's still keeping that to herself, lol. I hope you enjoy it, and can read it, it was hard to edit with the new tiny kitten trying to climb all over me and run all over the laptop. Anyway, please feel free to vote, comment, message, or just read.]
"End of terms... Bleh..." Kitty whined at the library table they all sat at.
Kerri was helping Kurt write his paper, going over it for spelling and grammar errors, mostly just because she was done with her papers, and it gave her an excuse to sit extra close to him.
Piotr was fact finding for Kitty while she wrote things and whined. "We have to start applying to colleges soon, too! How are we supposed to get all of this stuff done at the same time?"
Kerri looked up. "You're applying to colleges already?"
"Yeah, what, are you surprised that I'm going to college?" Kitty asked in mock hurt.
"No, I just didn't think it was that time yet..." Kerri answered. She looked over at Kurt, soon he'd graduate, and then what? He wouldn't be a high school student anymore... Would he leave and go to college too?
This thought depressed her, and she had a feeling it was because she was starting to care more and more for him, and couldn't quite imagine life without him, even though she had lived and gone through it for seventeen years before she'd even met him.
Kurt reached over and gripped her hand with his. She looked up and smiled at him, turning back to his paper.
Kerri walked up an isle at the grocery store, picking up things from the list.
"Peanut butter, check, jam, check, onions, check, the other million things on the list, check," she said as she went over the three carts in front of her, Ororo, and Rouge, who had recently returned from some kind of secret mission or something.
"How much you think that's gunna be, shuga?" Rouge asked.
"About a trillion and a half dollars... You guys should shop at a bulk foods store," Kerri answered, watching a group of people staring at them as they walked past. She felt the urge to put on some true to fashion eighties punk make up and give them something to stare at. At least then she would feel like, 'of course they're looking at me, I look crazy!' instead of wondering why they were so interested in two women and a high schooler with three heaping carts of food.
They went to the register and the look of impending doom on the cashier's face made Kerri try not to giggle. It took forever and two extra stock boys to get it all bagged up, but finally, the cashier told them, "That'll be three eighty-five ninety-two."
"Wow, shuga, you shaved off at least fifty bucks from me," Rouge told her.
Kerri looked at the southern belle and laughed silently as Ororo said, "That's because you always buy a bunch of things for yourself."
"A girl's gotta have some fun!" She shrugged and winked at Kerri.
"Would you like some help to your car?" One of the stock boys asked detestfully.
"You know it, honey," Rouge winked flirtatiously to him and Kerri's smile fell a little.
She thought about how she couldn't kiss Kurt, and how much worse Rouge's situation was; at least she could hold his hand, or "accidentally on purpose" bush her hand or arm across his softly furred skin, Rouge couldn't even accidentally on accident touch anyone without them needing serious medical treatment.
"It looks as though you've passed the test," Xavier told her when they got back to the school. He gave her a set of keys that went to the van, and two cards, one for the food account, one for gas.
"Congrats, shuga!" Rouge said as she walked out of the office.
"Thanks," she said and went to the library to see if anyone was still there.
Kurt sat at the table in the library, Kitty and Piotr had left a while ago, saying that she was done, and Kurt was hitting a wall. He couldn't concentrate any more.
He could feel Kerri walking up behind him, she leaned down and pressed her cheek against his as she wrapped her arms around him. "Hallo, Kerri," he greeted her, pulling her forward and around him so she was sitting in the chair next to him.
"What are you studying now?" She asked.
He sighed and admitted, "Nozhing, I've read zhis page six times, und I can't make any sense of es."
"Sounds like it's time for a break, then," she said and stood up, reaching for his hand.
"Aber, but I have to study," he said, unsure.
"Kurt, trust me. If you keep trying to study, you're only going to waste time and get aggravated," she told him, taking his hand. "And I want to go outside anyway."
They walked out, Kurt not sure about the break, but Kerri dragged him outside despite his arguments. She carried his book in her arm as they walked, holding hands.
"Isn't it nice? It's so still and beautiful," she said, looking up at the color streaked sky above the trees.
Kurt turned off his inducer while she wasn't looking and reached his hand over to take her jaw in his hand.
Kerri felt Kurt put his hand on her jaw and looked over at him, seeing that he'd turned off his hologram, she smiled, and he leaned closer. "Nicht so schon, vie Sie," he told her softly and she stood frozen. {not as beautiful as you}
He was going to kiss her. 'Yes, yes, please!' She wished, but she could feel the mini freak out feeling in the pit of her stomach that always stopped her from being able to kiss him.
He leaned closer, almost touching his lips to hers, then moved his head and kissed her cheek. He pulled his head back with a teasing look on his face.
She could feel that her cheeks were on fire, but she turned and walked off. "Come on, Casanova."
Kurt grinned and followed her to a place by the swimming pool where fire flies flew around, flashing brilliantly and fading quickly.
They sat down on some chairs that Kerri faced away from the pool so they could look at the last of the sunset turning to grey over the trees. There was no one outside, since everyone was studying still.
"So, Kurt what do you think?"
"It is very nice and calm," he answered, watching the sky.
"Did you know that you get forty-six genes total from your parents, which means you get how many from each parent?" Kerri asked from her chair.
"Tventy-zhree," Kurt answered, still watching the sky.
"What are the four letters for the compounds that DNA is made of?"
"A, T, D, C," he realized what he was saying and looked over at Kerri, who had his biology book open in her lap and was asking him questions.
She smiled at him. "See? You just needed a break."
"Finally!" Kitty cried as they left the math class on Friday. "I only have two tests left!"
Kurt laughed and teased, "Ja, und I have only vone!"
"Lucky ass! Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to say, you've been looking really happy lately, and..." Kitty looked around to make sure no one was too close, "I was wondering what that meant?" She wiggled her eyebrows.
Kurt looked at her, confused. "Vhat?"
"Come on, have you swapped spit with Kerri yet? Or, maybe more?" Kitty asked, giving up subtlety.
"No, ve haven't," Kurt blushed, finding it hard to explain Kerri's inability to kiss him to Kitty.
"Well, you have to hurry! You know the school year's ending in a few months, and you're going to graduate, what are you going to do after that?"
Kurt had thought about this, and decided that he didn't want to go to college, he wasn't sure what he was going to do with his life, but he supposed that he should figure it out soon. "I don't know, maybe I'll just stay here and be an X-Man..."
Kitty changed the subject, "you know that the yearly formal is coming up, right?"
"Again?" He asked and felt past emotions of sadness running through him.
"Why do you sound so sad? You have a girlfriend to ask out this year." Kitty pointed out.
Oh, yeah. This year it was going to be different. He had a date, as soon as he asked her, and he wouldn't have to be the third wheel for Piotr and Kitty. He was going to be able to hold Kerri close all night and dance with her... Well he could waltz, he wondered if she knew how to waltz.
They all arrived at the table and Kitty announced, "I think I want to sleep in tomorrow. Let's plan something for later that night."
They were agreeable to that, especially since Kerri still refused to acknowledge that there was a nine am, and claimed that she wasn't really awake whenever Kitty pointed out that she was awake for classes, and Kurt knew he'd be tired after all the studying and tests, and danger room next period. "So vhat are ve going to do zhen?"
"I meant, let's just plan to do something tomorrow night and we'll figure out what we're in the mood for then," Kitty explained.
"Ok," Kerri agreed, figuring at least she'd get a decent night's sleep. She'd been having trouble sleeping lately and had been laying awake in bed, although recently she had taken to sneaking through the halls at night, unable to sit still for very long.
Kerri wandered down the halls, her bare feet silent of the floor.
She walked down the hall to the front door, wanting to go outside, when she heard a voice from just behind her, against the wall, "Where d'ya think you're going?"
Kerri froze. 'How did I miss Logan standing there?' She turned to look at him. "I just couldn't sleep..."
He made no comment, but pushed off from the wall with his shoulder and walked toward the door.
Kerri wasn't sure what that meant, so she followed him. They walked out onto the lawn and Logan turned to her, suddenly throwing a punch.
Kerri's eyes widened and she dropped to the ground, dodging his fist. She rolled out of the way as his next attack landed right where she had been. She felt her tail press out as she stood up and watched him.
Logan swung his fists through the air again, making her jump back to avoid them, liking that she hadn't started whining that he was attacking her, and had just gone with the moment. "Tired yet?"
Kerri ran at a tree, running up it, then jumping off of it to flip backwards, landing on Logan's back for only long enough to jump off again. "Not really," she told him.
They fought on the lawn for an hour before Logan told her to go to bed, and she obeyed, walking up he stairs to her room and falling asleep in her bed.
Kerri was aware that Kitty was shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her. "Come on, Kerri! It's like, two in the afternoon!"
"Mmmmph," Kerri replied, still refusing to open her eyes.
"Where did you get all those bruises? And all that dirt?" Kitty asked, mystified, as she pulled the blankets back.
"Training..." Kerri mumbled through her pillow.
"Training for what, the getting your ass kicked and rolling in the dirt Olympics?" Kitty asked, pulling her to a sitting position.
"Yes," Kerri said, standing and walking across the room.
"Where are you going?" Kitty asked.
"To shower, you forgot the pig wrestling event in the Olympics," Kerri answered.
Kerri stepped out of the shower and dried herself as she watched the steam rise from her skin. She threw on a robe and went back into her room, using the towel on her hair.
Kitty was reclining on her bed waiting for her, reading a magazine when she opened the door.
Kerri walked to her dresser and took out a pair of panties, pulling them on under the robe, and looked for a bra.
"You should wear that one I got you," Kitty comment from the bed.
Kerri glanced over her shoulder at the other girl. "You got me a bra?"
"Yeah, like forever ago, remember?"
Kerri vaguely remembered a bag that she'd thrown into her closet to look at later, that she'd never really gotten the time to go through, forgetting about it, mostly. She opened her closet, knelt on the floor in front of it, and pulled out the bag, digging through it, finding a bra that was white with blue leopard print across it.
"Do you like it?" Kitty asked from the bed, sounding like she already knew she did.
"It's nice, thank you." Kerri blushed a little and pulled the top of the robe down so she could put on the bra.
"No problem," Kitty told her, reading through her magazine still.
Kerri pulled out a pair of jeans and pulled them on, tying the sash on the side to keep them on. She was pulling a shirt out when there was a knock at the door and Kitty went to open it.
"Kitty! Just a second, I'm topless!" Kurt heard Kerri cry out through the door and blushed.
A moment later the door opened and Kitty's face met him. "Oh, hi Kurt." She opened the door wider, but Kurt stayed outside.
He held up an envelope. "Ah, zhis is for Kerri..."
Kerri took it and he looked around at her room as she opened it.
She looked at the paper and pulled the piece of plastic from it.
"Is that your new license?" Kitty asked. "Let's see it!"
Kerri handed it to her to avoid having it ripped out of her hand.
Kurt and Kitty leaned over to look at the ID and looked up at the same time. "Your name is Kerrigan?"
Kerri nodded to them as she grabbed her comb and started on her hair.
"Like, Nancy Kerrigan, the ice skater?" Kitty asked.
"No, more like Sarah Kerrigan, the assassin from Starcraft." She looked up to see them staring at her in confusion. "It's an old video game, my dad was a giant nerd, too."
They all sat in the rec room, and Kitty convinced them to play a card game while she waited for it to get later.
When Kerri got back from the kitchen with a fresh drink, she saw that Kurt was looking a little uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything when Kerri asked what was wrong, probably due to the look Kitty gave him.
After they finished the next round, Kitty got up and grabbed Kerri's hand. "Kerri, I've got something for you, come look at it."
Kerri stood up, looking confused, and followed Kitty up to the girl's dorm.
Kurt sighed as he watched Kerri being dragged up the stairs.
"Don't worry, she'll be ok," Piotr told him.
Kerri walked into Kitty's room after her and stood nervously, feeling that she was being ambushed.
"Ok, it's over here," Kitty walked to her closet and pulled out a stack of clothes, laying them on the bed. Kerri walked closer, wondering what was so special about these particular clothes.
"Ok, now, let's find something for you to wear!" Kitty said as she pulled out another stack.
Kerri looked up at her. "For what?"
"Our double date!" Kitty said, bursting with joyful energy.
Kerri felt excited about this date for some reason. 'Maybe it's because I'll finally be able to kiss Kurt,' she dismissed.
They shoveled through the clothes and Kitty got Kerri dressed up in a pair of black with neon green hearts printed, thigh high socks, not nylons, socks, which Kerri thought were so weird they were cool, a black skirt that fell to mid thigh, and a neon green shirt with only one strap. Kitty pulled out a pair of black one inch heels and helped Kerri convert the bra to being one strapped so the other one didn't show, then stepped back to admire her work.
She seemed pleased because she sat Kerri in the chair at her vanity and started on her hair, brushing it out and twisting it up with a clip so that it was shorter and fell around her face sexily.
Kitty quickly got dressed while Kerri played with her hair in the mirror, flicking it back and forth.
Kitty pulled her hair up in the mirror over Kerri's shoulder and put it into a ponytail so it flipped around when she moved.
"Here, let me do some make up on you," Kitty said, picking up one of her weapons.
Kurt stood at the bottom of the stairs, now dressed in a pair of jeans and a nice shirt. He looked up the stairs, then turned to resume his agitated pacing. 'Vhat is Kitty zhinking!' He thought as he paced while he and Piotr waited.
"Kurt, she will be fine. We're X-Men," Piotr told him again.
"Ja, aber, it's so different from anyvhere else we've been before... Vhat if she has a problem? Vhat if her tail slips out or somezhing?" Kurt worried.
"You'll be there, won't you?" Piotr pointed out.
Kurt realized that Piotr was right. He'd be there to protect Kerri in case anything went wrong. And he and Piotr were full-fledged members of the X-Men, even if Kerri wasn't and Kitty had only agreed to be a reserve at first and they'd never changed it.
He sighed and walked back past the stairs again.