Ok, last chapter was sad, and this one is maybe a little too...it's definitely not happy. Umm, that's all I really have to say. When I put the next chapter up I'll have lots of notes to all the people who have reviewed...HINT HINT!!!!

~*~*~*~*~

Kurt stood awkwardly at the top of the stairs. The entire mansion was eating together tonight... in his honor, or something stupid like that. He had been in his room for weeks, too ashamed to see any of the other kids. They would come to his door and talk to him through it, all of them worried about him no doubt. He couldn't face them though, not after he had snapped like that. He would refuse to answer them but they kept talking to him just the same.

They told him that the boy Rogue had touched was recovering and wasn't going to press charges; his parents were too afraid to. Jean told him how Duncan and the goon squad had spent some time in jail and were waiting for a court date, along with many other participants of the brawl. Evan told him that the brotherhood had nearly brought down the entire school the next day, but for some reason they backed out just before Lance took out the science hall. Kitty had come by the most. She let him know that most of the kids didn't want to go back to school, and that the professor had decided to give them a few days off. She would sit by his door and hum Celine Dion songs and Kurt almost let her come in after he realized that the reason she wasn't talking was because she was trying not to cry. But he hadn't. Amanda came by a few times as well, telling him how sorry she was, and how the kids at school had stopped bullying her once they realized that all the mutants at the school were on her side.

The adults were the only ones he would let in to see him. Ororo brought him meals, and Hank came for regular once overs of his wounds. Logan and the professor would just come up and talk to him and try to get him out of his comatose like state.

He had made it past the 'out-of-it' point one day when the professor had finally gotten fed up with him. It was the first time Kurt had ever seen the professor so exasperated. He felt that was probably what did it actually. Something clicked when he realized that not even the professor knew what to do and he realized he had to snap out of it.

His emotional anguish had plenty of time to melt and its place was nothing but anger. Kurt wasn't a bitter person, but he couldn't help this. It was like he had no other option but to be mad. He had decided he was never going back to school. He knew that if he did he would either lose it again, or attack any one who so much as blinked at him funny.

It was Logan that had finally convinced him to come out of his room. Logan wasn't exactly the best at tender moments, but it was his 'straight up' attitude that had made Kurt consider seeing his friends again.

"Look elf, if you don't come down soon your friends are gonna snap too. The half-pint practically makes herself sick worrying about you and I've caught her crying outside your door more than once. Scott's been a complete drill sergeant, worse than normal anyway; snaps at the younger recruits all the time. Not that it's anything new, but his humor is dryer than ever, if you can believe that. Red can barely levitate a spoon, and I think if Evan has to spend one more night in the same room as Bobby and Jamie he's gonna lose his mind."

So here he was, at the top of the staircase, about to face his friends. He hobbled down the stairs slowly with his crutches. He knew he could take the elevator but the longer he could put this off the better.

Everyone's eyes were on him as he entered the dining room. He wanted to bolt out of there as fast as he could. He hated the look of pity on the younger recruits' faces. The older ones smiled at him and gestured for him to take his seat.

It was deftly quiet and any minute now he was going to yell at them. Thankfully, Evan broke the silence first.

"Dude, what happened to your eye?"

Kurt grinned and the table erupted into giggles. His left eye was still a mess; swollen almost completely shut still. It was a dumb comment, but it was all the table needed to loosen up a bit. Kurt gave Evan a grateful look and picked up his fork.

Everything was going fine. His friends just talked to him like he hadn't become a hermit for three weeks. Then things turned for the worse.

"So, uh, do you know when you'll be coming back to school?" Scott asked.

Kurt forced himself to swallow. "I'm not going back," he mumbled into his plate.

Jean gave Scott a nervous glance from across the table. "Uh, Kurt, you have to go to school. You can't just drop out."

"I'll get tutored zen." Kurt said with a shrug. He was getting annoyed. All his anger was making him edgy and the last thing he needed was to get into a fight with the team captain.

Kitty reached across the table and put her hand on Kurt's. "We understand Kurt, it's just that we like, well, think you should give it one more try, ya know?"

That did it. He wished more than anything it hadn't been Kitty, but it was, and he couldn't stop himself. He scowled at her and pulled his hand away.

"You don't understand ANYSING!" The table of chattering teens suddenly went silent. "Za only sing you had to put up wiz was a few whispers and zen zay got over it! No von tried to kill you!"

He was snarling, fangs bared and everything. Kitty sat back further in her chair. She had never been truly afraid of Kurt, but she had never seen him do anything like this before either.

"You sink you are so unfortunate don't you Miz Cazrine?" Kurt closed his eyes and the fur on his neck rose, "You sink zat it vos terrible for you vight? Vell you're vrong!" he was standing now, leaning across the table inches away from Kitty's face. The students could barely understand him as his accent went from bad to worse, and then to half English half German. "I'll bet your glad za whole sing happened! I'll bet you phased srough my inducer on purpose!"

He didn't believe it, but he couldn't stop the words from coming out. 'Stop it! This is Kitty! The girl who makes you forget how to form a sentence every time you see her. Don't do this to her! She was only trying to help!'

He ignored his own thoughts as he continued to verbally tear the poor girl apart. "Vell are you happy? Are you!? Of course not! You're just a stupid valley girl who takes her looks for granted, so of course you don't understand! I'll bet no von ever looked at you za vay zey look at me! Zen you'd understand!"

"Kurt!" Her voice was panicky and Kurt opened his moist eyes. He looked straight into her face and immediately wished he hadn't. Her big blue eyes were wide open and filled with fear. He noticed that his tail had wrapped itself around her slender neck. He pulled away from her and stumbled over his chair.

"Ich bin erbärmlich! Ich bin so erbärmliches Kätzchen! Ich weiß nicht, was ich dachte. Ich bin so erbärmlich." (AN: Apologizing, yadda yadda) Kurt stumbled to his feet and clutched his head. "I'm sorry Keety." He didn't know what to do. All he wanted was to get out; away from all their stares, from their eyes, from Kitty's eyes.

A soft "BAMF" filled the room and everyone gasped.

Kurt landed at the top of the stairway and collapsed. He had hoped to make it to his room, but he didn't have the strength. He just laid there, listening to the professor try to calm the kids downstairs.

'I scared her. I tried to choke her! Why did it have to be Kitty? Why, why, why!?'

He heard footsteps heading out of the dining room and out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of brown ponytail disappear through the large front doors. More footsteps followed and he heard a few of them mount the steps behind him. Kurt just laid there. He couldn't have moved if he wanted to.

Evan stood next to Kurt and exhaled noisily. "You know man, you really blew it down there."

Kurt turned his head and looked at Evan's shoes. "Vell zank you captain obvious. Tell me somesing I don't know."

"Ok, I will." Evan sat down so that Kurt could at least see his face. "Kitty was the only one of us who went back to school after your attack."

Kurt rolled his eyes. "And your point is vaht?"

"I wasn't done. Anyway, she got up and stood on top of a lunch table and declared that Kurt Wagner was her friend and gave about a ten minute long speech on how stupid some people are for treating others the way they do. She looked ridiculous man, but she didn't care. Just kept talking, making people listen to her. Finally some dork asked her why she cared so much, she was beautiful and anyone who made fun of her appearance would be a fool, and would she please shut up. So she looked the kid straight in the face and just stared at him. Know what she told him Kurt? She told him that it was because of people like him that people like her are terrified of setting foot on campus. That even though she wasn't blue and furry, she still knew what it was like to be labeled a freak and be looked down on for no other reason other than being different."

Kurt tried to sit up but failed. Exhausted, he took a moment to catch his breath. "Thanks Evan, you veally know how to make a person feel better." He narrowed his eyes at the blonde and made mo effort to ebb some of the sarcasm out of his voice. "Vaht was za point in telling me all zat? To send me on an even longer guilt trip? Vell danke, Mr. Daniels, I veally appreciate it." Kurt told turned his head to the other direction.

"Look man, I told you that so you'd know that Kitty was serious. She does understand. We all do. We just have to go through it in different ways. We totally get why you were so down and stuff man, but you need to get over it already. You don't get special privileges to act like a jerk just cuz you've got fur. I also told you that so that maybe you'll reevaluate your situation with Amanda."

Kurt turned to look at Evan again and furrowed his brow. "Vaht's she got to do wiz zis?"

Evan shrugged. "I dunno man, just seems like you took the first person that excepted the fuzz. Amanda just doesn't seem right for you somehow, and it isn't exactly a secret that you used to have a thing for Kitty. Besides, as much as that Amanda girl talks, does she even hear you?"

Kurt stared at him, totally lost. His comment had come totally out of left field. He let it soak in slowly.

"Vhy vould I bother with Keety? She's, she's..." Kurt couldn't think of an intelligent thing to say. 'Beautiful, smart, funny, understanding; thooose could be inserted there, but I can't exactly tell him that. Heck, who wouldn't bother with Kitty? An idiot, an insecure fuzzy blue idiot, that's who'

Evan shook his head and shifted nervously. "Never mind dude. Just, lay off of Kitty ok? Maybe talk to her when she gets back."

~*~

Kitty slumped against the trunk of the tall oak. Her mind was buzzing and she was not at all interested in sorting her thoughts out. She knew Kurt wasn't really mad at her, just mad in general and she just happened to be the one to set him off.

But still, it had been like a slap in the face. Even though she knew he didn't mean it, part of her was scared that he was right. She did take her looks for granted. Always whining when her hair didn't flip just right, or that her ears were too pointed.

She blinked back her tears and tried to ignore the twinge of heart ache that was threatening her. She knew Evan had gone to talk to Kurt. Maybe afterward, Kurt would want to say something to her.

'Evan better not tell him a thing. If Kurt knew how I felt about him, he'd like, totally have more problems to deal with.'

She looked up through her tear streaked eyes as she heard the soft crunch of grass beneath someone's feet. Amanda was walking briskly toward the mansion's double doors.

Kitty groaned. 'Speak of the devil...Great, just great. Why does she make him so happy? I just don't get it. She is like, more dense than me! At least I let people talk to me before I try playing tongue hockey.'

She had noticed the look on Kurt's face at school when Amanda had lunged at him and started talking a mile a minute, barely giving Kurt a chance to answer.

Kitty kicked at the grass. 'I like, so don't think he's gonna have the energy to deal with her right now.'

~*~

Kurt was sitting up in his bed, about to try and sleep, when a knock interrupted him.

He knew the professor had probably told all the other kids to leave him alone until morning, otherwise the whole school would have been at the top of the stairs with him and Evan. He was thankful that the professor had let Evan up though. He needed a good kick in the arse and Evan was the perfect person to get it from. Scott would have just made it seem all 'leaderish' and any of the girls wouldn't have made it harsh enough.

Too exhausted to get out of bed, he called for the person to let themself in. His heart sank as Amanda entered.

"Hey sweety, are you ok?"

Her voice was soft, and there was genuine concern in it. For a split second, Kurt thought she might actually wait for a response.

"You look exhausted. Want me to get you something?"

Kurt's split second to answer her ended and he let out a sigh. With that short moment, all his hope for Amanda faded. She was still talking, telling him how sorry she was all this had happened, how terrible he must have felt. She was saying all the right things, but that wasn't what he wanted her to do.

"Amanda." He interrupted her quietly.

"Yes sweety?"

"Amanda, if I broke down vight now, vaht vould you do? Like if I veally just lost it."

Amanda cocked her head to one side and gave Kurt a strange look. "K-Kurt?"

"Or if I told you I veally vasn't ok, and zat I veally needed to talk to someone about it, to jest let it all out, vaht vould you do?"

Amanda just stood there, gaping at him.

"Zat's vaht I zought. Amanda, I can't be vith you anymore. It isn't fair for you, or for me."

"Bu-...Kurt? I don't understand."

"Zat's vhy. You don't understand. Look Amanda, most of za time, I veally am as happy as I act, but zen zere are za times vhere I just can't fake zat carefree attitude, but you don't know about zat part of me, and I don't sink you ever vill."

"I-I can try. If you let me. Kurt, I really like you, a lot. And, well, I'll do whatever it takes to..."

Kurt took in her sad eyes, now filling with tears. He slouched. He hated this. Why did Evan have to be right? Why couldn't Amanda be what he had thought she was.

"Zat's not all zere is to it." His voice got really quiet. "I do have feelings for you Amanda, just not za kind you vant me to have. Zere is- vell, it's complicated."

"It's that Kitty girl, isn't it." Amanda's voice was barely a whisper.

Kurt's eyes widened. "How did you...?"

Amanda shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Just the way you are when she's around I guess. You laugh differently, and you just, I don't know."

Kurt looked sheepishly at the foot of his bed. He didn't want to meet Amanda's tear filled eyes. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. I know you really wanted to have something with me, us. Just, I'm not really what you thought I was, or wished I was. You didn't want it to end up like this, right?"

"No, I truly didn't. It jest vouldn't be fair."

Amanda nodded and the two teenagers shifted their gazes away from each other in the awkward silence.

"Well, I better go." Amanda said quietly. She walked over to Kurt and put her hand on his shoulder. "Just, when you get through all this, know that I'm still on your side ok? I expect to still hear from you know and then ok?" She laughed a little and kissed Kurt's cheek. "And by the way, your accent gets thicker when your nervous."

Kurt smiled slightly and wrapped his arms around Amanda. "I'll see you around zen?"

Tears streamed down Amanda's face as she nodded. "Ja, see you around."

Unable to postpone her tears, the brunette spun around and nearly ran out of Kurt's room. She ran down the stairs, nearly running into Evan and Bobby as she went. Bursting through the huge doors, she forced herself to a slow jog. Looking up, she saw a disheveled Kitty heading toward the house.

The two girls stopped in front of each other, some reason knowing that their tears were being caused by the same person.

"He's like, a total heartbreaker ain't he?" She said laughing.

Amanda giggled slightly. "What'd he do to you?"

Kitty shrugged. "He just said some stuff. He didn't mean it though. He's got a lot to deal with. He needs to get it out somehow. I'll bet he feels bad though. How bout you?"

"We broke up."

Kitty's eyebrows shot up into her bangs. "I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, I understand why and all."

"But it still hurts." Kitty finished for her.

The two girls stood in silence again. Amanda shivered as the breeze picked up. "Look Kitty, I think your right about him needing to get this stuff out. Maybe not tonight, but sometime, maybe you should go and you know, listen to him a bit."

Kitty nodded.

"He really cares about you ya know," Amanda said quietly.

Kitty looked at the ground, "yeah, I know."

Amanda sighed, "Well, I've gotta get home. Bye Kitty."

"Bye."

Yay! Amanda is gone! LoL. I feel kinda bad but she just bugs me. I may not be a huge Kurty fan but it's growing on me...and anything is better than Amanda hehe. Please R/R...I greatly appreciate when people do that.