On with the story!

I don't own the x-men

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Danielle was getting tired now but she couldn't sleep. She remembered what she had gone through when Mindbender had done the same thing to her. She remembered looking up and seeing her own eyes on that woman's face.

Kurt's temperature was gradually rising and he'd started groaning in his sleep.

"Going through his own memories" she whispered to no one but herself

Danielle went to the kitchen and came back with a cold, wet flannel. Kurt's whimpers quietened and he went easily back into a deep sleep.

He'd been unconscious for nearly 8 hours now and Danielle was getting exhausted. Her eyes kept on closing and more than once she opened them to find herself on the floor.

"Danielle?"

Danielle looked up to see that Kitty was standing in the door way

"What do you want?" Danielle sighed

"Why do you hate me?" Kitty asked

"Because you are the first person who truly made Kurt feel like a monster" Danielle replied simply

"What? I KNOW I'm not the first-!" Kitty wasn't exactly proud of her argument but she was interrupted

"Kurt's never had to live with someone who he scared before! Those other people who screamed and prayed for God saw him for a few minutes, hours max!" Danielle cried

Kitty looked at the floor

"I'm sorry, I-It's just that I had a strange dream" She muttered

"We all have strange dreams every once in a while" Danielle shrugged

"You and Kurt were in it" Kitty continued

Danielle froze, she remembered what mindbender had told her: 'I can infect your dreams, leak your secrets into another persons slumber'.

"What did you see?" She asked

"You were both younger, about 8 I think" Kitty noticed that Danielle dropped her flannel and it was with a shaking hand that she picked it back up again

"That all?" Danielle wondered

"No, you were hiding. From a mob" Kitty paused

"In a cave?" Danielle's voice was unsteady all of a sudden

"Yes, and Kurt, he- he started crying. He said that he hated that you might have been hurt while they were chasing after him"

"He never valued his life, in his eyes mine's worth more" Danielle broke down and started to weep.

Kitty was unsure of what to do, if she comforted Danielle would she get mad at her? Kitty wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry!" Danielle cried "It's all my fault! I didn't mean for him to get hurt! He was just a kid! He needed some freedom!" huge tears rolled down her cheeks

"Danielle! Come on. It wasn't that bad. Neither of you were hurt that badly" Kitty reasoned

Danielle looked up at her "You only saw us in the cave?"

"I saw you leaving but that was it" Kitty admitted

"There's more" Danielle said sadly "As we were going home the mob found us again, there was no where to run. They discarded me, I couldn't get to Kurt" Danielle cried harder "I was afraid that they were killing him so I fought through and what I saw, my own cousin being beaten for all he was worth, made me so sad and so.....there are no words for what I felt"

Kitty sat down next to Danielle and the two girls, who were in a sense enemies. One was jealous of the relationship the other had with Kurt and one angry and the relationship the other had with Kurt. They hugged.

"It wasn't your fault" Kitty whispered

"He begged me, got down on his knees for me to sneak him out. He wanted a life Kitty, that's all he's ever wanted" There was a short silence "Mama and papa had to carry him home. He was unconscious for a week. I wanted to be shouted at, punished especially by my aunt and uncle but they didn't do anything. They just forgave me and that was that"

"Surly you'd, like, prefer being forgiven" Kitty said

"I felt so bad inside I started to punish myself on the inside. I've never forgiven myself"

There arms were still tight around each other but Danielle began to pull away.

"Come with me" She said simply

"Where?" Kitty asked

"You'll see"

*

Kitty HATED horse riding and she knew that she wasn't going to be able to walk for a week but she waited eagerly to see where they were going on Nightrider.

IT took them a few minutes but Kitty still felt ill from all the motion.

Danielle walked on ahead into the house in front of them

"What's this place?" Kitty asked

"Kurt's home" Danielle answered simply

"Really? Like, WOW!" Kitty smiled

"You won't say that soon" Danielle mumbled.

Kitty was lead up a tight staircase and to a room. The paint on the door was chipping.

"Kurt's room?" she guessed

"You know it" Danielle sighed.

Kitty was surprised by how much of a mess there was. Kurt's room in the institute was simple and plain. Here there were clothes thrown everywhere, scrap pare in every imaginable place.

"This is Kurt's room?" She asked

"Yep" Danielle replied.

Kitty noticed that in the corner there was a chest of drawers, above it there was a black sheet which was clearly covering something.

"What's under that sheet?" Kitty asked

"I'll show you if you like" Danielle moved forwards and took out the pins that were holding the sheet up.

Kitty gasped, under it was a mirror but the mirror had been smashed. It had shattered long ago.

"Who did that?" She had already guessed but she had to ask

"Kurt, he's don't that a total of seven times, a few months before he left for America he declared that he could no longer stand to look at himself and covered it"

"But that's awful!!" Kitty cried

"Says a lot about him doesn't it?"

Kitty looked around, she was seeing a whole different Kurt Wagner. A Kurt Wagner who was so ashamed of himself he smashed mirrors, a Kurt Wagner who didn't care about whether he lived in a tip.

A Kurt Wagner who simply didn't care