August 4, 1992

"It's been amazing meeting you," Rahne said, "That was a great performance. I've never been to a circus before."

Amanda smiled. Kurt stood next to Amanda, his arm over her shoulder. Remy had already gone up, citing that he felt like practicing his cards. The rest had stayed downstairs, but David knew they would have to go upstairs soon. It was late and they would have to start for Westchester early.

David saw Sharon look at Rahne and Amanda and grin. Rahne had done little more than talk about how amazing the performance had been through dinner, and Amanda had patiently answered her questions.

"This detour was worth it," Sharon said, her voice low.

"I was hoping it would be," David said.

Sharon turned to him.

"You really made a difference to her," Sharon said.

"Please, it was just a circus visit," David said.

Sharon touched his arm. David remembered the electric kiss on his cheek only a few days ago. He wanted to reach out and touch her skin again, but restrained himself.

"One day, and one day soon," Sharon said, "I hope that you give yourself half the credit you deserve."

"You make too big a deal out of things," David said, rolling his eyes.

Sharon rolled her eyes.

"One day, you'll see yourself for what you really are," she said.

She smiled at him before moving away. David watched her for a minute and then cleared his throat, feeling strange. Kurt left Amanda's side and walked up to David.

"I've got to get going," he said, "They close the doors to their area at two, and it's one thirty right now."

"You're walking her home?" David asked

Kurt grinned shyly, his tail wagging back and forth.

"I'll be right back afterwards," he said.

David smiled at Kurt's eagerness. On the way back to the hotel Kurt had walked holding Amanda's hand. They made a strange couple to look at, but with their matching grins David couldn't help but notice how perfect they were.

"Alright, but not too late," David said.

David winked and Kurt's face flamed. He laughed as his brother spluttered over his words.

"I wouldn't...David, that's just-"

"I'm just messing with you," David said.

He punched his shoulder.

"I'm happy for you," David said, "She seems like a great girl."

"Thanks," Kurt said.

His brother rubbed the back of his neck.

"No idea how I'm going to tell mom and dad about this," he said.

David felt the world slow down.

"Wait, you haven't told mom and dad about Amanda?" he asked.

"I've mentioned her briefly as a friend," Kurt said, "They...they don't know how I feel. I just didn't know how to tell them, and I thought that it would be easier after I told you."

David leaned against the wall.

"You told me first?" he asked.

"Of course," Kurt said.

He looked back at Amanda. She inclined her head towards the door.

"I've got to go," he said.

"Alright," David said.

Kurt grinned and walked over to Amanda. He took her hand and Amanda made her excuses to Rahne. Then, in a flash of black smoke, they were gone. Rahne smiled and then yawned. Sharon put her hand on her shoulder.

"We've got to get some shut eye," Sharon said.

She looked at David and frowned.

"David, are you okay?" she asked, "You look a little...weird."

"I'm fine," David managed, "Just a headache."

He waved.

"I'll see you in the morning," he said.

He walked out of the room, his pace even. Once he was out of their sight he started running up the stairs. He didn't quit running until he reached his hotel room. David fumbled with the lock before he got in.

He shut the door slowly and leaned up against it. Remy was slumped in their hotel room. David suspected that he'd been raiding the mini-bar. Normally he'd make a plan to give him a talking-to, one loud enough to make his hangover painful. At the moment it was immaterial.

The room seemed as though it was spinning slightly. Amanda was the first girl that Kurt had fallen in love with, and he had told David first. Remy, Sharon, and Rahne knew, but that wasn't the point. They had come for other reasons, and he hadn't straight-out told them. David had come because Kurt had been trying to introduce Amanda to David first.

He was glad that the two of them were in love. His brother deserved all the happiness he could get. David knew that he'd had it tough over the past few months, being rejected by the other volunteers and having to contend with the Mutant Registration Act. Amanda was something good that had come out of all of that.

David pushed away from the door and walked to the hotel's balcony. He looked over the street, feeling a little tired. He knew that the world was spinning around them, that they were on the brink of something terrible. He wasn't sure how he knew that it was going to be terrible, but he did. All they were experiencing now was the calm before the storm, and it promised to be a terrible storm indeed.

Yet, in the middle of it, he found himself wondering about an action that his brother had taken. It seemed silly, but he was old enough to know that, despite cataclysmic events, life kept trundling along somehow.

In all reality, it wasn't that different from what he'd been doing for years. He'd shown Kurt his acceptance letter to Yale before he'd told his parents he'd even applied. He'd done that because he trusted Kurt when he was unsure how he felt towards his father. Kurt had done it because he had craved his approval and support, possibly more than he'd craved that of his parents.

He turned his hand over and looked at the scar on his palm. He remembered grabbing his brother's tail and cutting his hand open, the act of a defiant and desperate child to make another child feel better. It had been to silly to think that cutting his and his brother's hands to participate in a childish ceremony would change things.

It hadn't changed anything. All it had done was reaffirm what he had already felt for his younger brother, what he'd felt since the moment he'd seen his mother holding Kurt in the living room. He wasn't alone, would never be alone. Not now that he had a brother.

His actions had given what he and his brother were a name: blood brothers. It was deeper, in some ways, than if they had actually been born brothers. Brothers didn't have to fight against their own fears, didn't have to forget that one of them wasn't considered their actual brother in the eyes of some.

For some reason Kurt had always looked up to him. He remembered Sharon telling him once that he was easy to look up to, that he was brave. She always told him that he was more than he was. David wished he could believe her. She was so smart, so amazing, that he found it unlikely that she was lying.

Kurt had always pushed David to be better, even when he wasn't very proud of himself. David still wasn't very proud of himself, didn't know how he could be. He'd done so much that was wrong, messed so much up when he'd been trying to do the right thing. Even his ideas about redeeming himself had gotten himself branded as an even worse failure.

And through it all, Kurt had believed that he was a good person who could come through it all. David wanted to laugh at his brother's blind faith in him, but he also wanted to cry. The world was falling apart and his brother still believed in him.

David looked at the stars and found himself wondering about his father and mother. What were they thinking that night, the Mutant Registration Act only days from going onto the floor? How were they feeling as they watched their lives' work erode? How did they feel about the world that the next generation was getting?

A profound sympathy entered him, as well as anger. His parents had fought the good fight for so long and received so little reward in return. This was what it was all coming down to, and it was terrible to think of. Hadn't they both deserved better?

You've all got what you deserve. Finally.

Shut up, David thought.

What, upset about being told the truth you freak? Upset that someone can finally-

Shut up! David screamed.

The voice fell silent. David gripped the handrails and concentrated. After a moment he felt the blood coming out of his nose. He sank to his knees and gritted his teeth, fighting the feeling that he was breaking. He wasn't broken, no matter what anyone believed.

He opened his eyes and breathed in the night air. For the first time, he wondered if anyone besides him had actually seen him as broken. Kurt never had. It was becoming more and more apparent that Sharon hadn't. His mother hadn't.

Then there was his father. David felt tears come to his eyes, tears of disappointment. David wasn't broken, but he began to wonder if he would have broke himself being part of the X-men. All he'd wanted to do was to make things right with his father, to apologize for being angry that he had to hear others' thoughts, for not waiting for him to save them at the hotel, for not being patient afterwards as his father tried to help. Instead he had ruined what he'd seen as his greatest chance to make up for everything.

Then again, did he have to be an X-man? Hadn't Warren created a life outside of the X-men, a life to be proud of? David gripped the bars of the balcony and pressed his head against the cool metal. For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to cry.

His father would have been proud of him no matter what he was doing. David couldn't help but feel resentment at being held back, but his reasons seemed a little less bitter now. He took a deep breath and pulled himself up.

David stumbled back into the hotel room. Remy was still fast asleep, but David didn't give him more than a second glance. He felt his hands shaking as he grabbed the phone, the clumsy way that they dialed the familiar digits.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to say to his father. He wasn't sure if he was going to apologize, if he even should. Maybe it was enough to tell him that he loved him, that he wasn't angry anymore. All he knew was that he needed to talk to him.

David waited as the phone continued to ring and wiped the blood away from his nose. At last someone picked up.

"Dad?" David asked.

"David?"

David felt his heart sink. It wasn't his father: it was Scott. He sounded exhausted, but surprised.

"Yeah," David said, "Sorry, I know it's late. But, uh, could I talk to my father?"

There was a long pause on the other end. David waited, feeling something like apprehension creep into him.

"David, a lot's happened," Scott said, "We meant to contact you, we really did-"

"Scott, what happened?" David said.

He could feel his heart pulsing cold blood through him, could feel a headache starting up. When Scott spoke away his words seemed distant. David listened and responded, running on auto pilot, his hand gripping the side of the bed.

After a while Scott hung up. David let the phone fall to the floor. It dangled slowly on its cord. He had no idea what to do or where to go. Everything was sinking and the blood kept dribbling from his nose.

The door opened and Kurt stepped in. His brother was grinning, but the grin faded when he saw David.

"David, what happened?" he asked.

David looked up. He wiped his nose with his sleeve and stood up.

"Wake Remy up and call the girls," he said, "We have to get to Westchester."

"Why?" Kurt asked, worried, "What happened?"

David swallowed.

"Dad's been poisoned. He's comatose."


A/N: I've wanted to write Kurt and David as brothers since I wrote the ending to Sins of the Father, but I was trying to keep those stories in line with movie canon, so I couldn't do that. However, I thought that it would be an interesting look at what was sure to be a complicated relationship. Writing the dynamic between these two was really exciting, as well as how the universe developed around their childhood. Kurt is fairly straightforward, the kind of person who would look up to his older brother. As for David, in the cartoon X-men Evolution David was portrayed as a rather more bitter character, and I wanted to explore that resentment.

Alex and Lorna were fun to follow-up on, especially having Angel finally break free from the Brotherhood to join Lorna. Magneto's continued complicated feelings about his daughter are an ongoing problem, and one that we'll see more of. As for Lorna and Alex's children, some of my readers might be familiar with Luna, who I've used in the past. In comic-verse she's Quicksilver's daughter and Lorna's niece. Since Lorna never had any children I enjoy using Lorna. As for Max, he's based on the mutant Magnus from the Exiles, one of my favorite X-men comics. In another universe he's Magneto's son.

I am a fan of Siryn/Deadpool as some of you know, and I wanted to mention the two of them in this story. Sharon is based on the mutant Catseye: she's not Hank's daughter but she seemed to share several characteristics with him. While her feelings for David is something written for this fic, her friendship with Rahne is not. I look forward to seeing you all again in two weeks with "Legacy," the final story in this series.

Thank you all for reading and reviewing, and a special shoutout for Princess-Amon-Rae, whylime, Fanatic4Fiction, Knight of Wings, C. S. Tolkien, Chocolate and caramel, and Orihime-San! And thank you to everyone who reviewed anonymously!