"WE DID IT!" Kurt leapt up into Pyro's arms, who gladly caught the elfish boy and swung him around.

"You were great. The whole crowd loved you." Pyro's shining green eyes seemed to make Kurt feel warmer, even standing in the breezy night. Having teleported behind the big top, Kurt and the others were getting out of their costumes and relaxing after completing another show.

White eyes pierced through the darkness like it was daylight, and Kurt watched as the people exited the circus. They all smiled and talked loudly with each other, being pushed along in the mass of humanity that rushed for the exit.

Soft hands lay on Kurt's shoulders, and he turned to see John, still grinning.

"Thanks John. Without you, I know I couldn't have done it." 'We'll be there for you.' Feeling a pang of guilt at turning to someone else for help, Kurt finally remember that the X-Men were bound to have realized he was gone.

"I really should go home..."

John looked at Kurt, his smile forced and unnatural.

"Home to who?"

"To the people I'm staying with. They're...kind of like a family to me." Kurt couldn't look John in the eyes and pretended to be interested in some of the people exiting the big top. But Pyro's eyes were boring into the back of his skull and he eventually had to turn and face him.

"I'm sorry John. I just really need to go home. It's been great, but..." Kurt gnawed on his bottom lip, unsure of how to put it. The circus was his old family, he thought he had put it behind him, moved on. But now, being back here, he had fallen into the role of the demon again.

"Okay, but can I ask you a favor first?"

Kurt nodded hesitantly.

"You go back to these people, and then come back here tonight. Just for tonight, sleep with me."

"Wha-" Kurt made a strange choking noise in his throat and stumbled back, looking utterly confused.

"Not like that." Pyro laughed and lightly slapped Kurt's forehead. "I mean stay in the room with me tonight, so I can help you with your nightmares. Give you a dose so you can go back home and not worry about it."

His heart pounding wildly, Kurt managed a wide eyes nod. John had never been a very subtle person to begin with, and when they had lived at the circus together, it had always been Kurt finding convenient excuses to not be alone. 'But if it keeps me under control...I guess I could spare one night.'

"Okay. I'll be back here at 1. Wait for me outside the trailers."

Pyro smiled and leaned forward, giving Kurt a small kiss on his forehead. Kurt smiled and then wandered off a ways, until he was at the edge of the forest. With a quick wave of his hand, Kurt began the system of teleportations that would lead him back to the mansion.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Scott and the other X-Men sat slack jawed in the benches long after everyone else had emptied out of the big top.

"I-I just can't believe it. Like, why would he DO that?" Kitty stood up and began to pace back and forth down her aisle, clearly worried.

"She's got a point. I mean, Kurt never goes anywhere without his projector, why would he purposely pretend to be a demon. Man!" Evan slammed his fist down on the wooden benches and earned a strange glance from the circus workers who were cleaning up a few rows up.

"Yeah. It's like he's in a freak show. Maybe someone's makin him do it?" Rogue looked over at Jean. The red head seemed oblivious of what was happening and just stared back at the girl.

"What?"

"Check and make sure the elf isn't bein controlled." Rogue rolled her eyes and looked unusually pleased with herself, stealing a glance at Scott to see if he had noticed.

"I can't Rogue. Kurt specifically asked the professor and I not to read his mind."

Bobby sprung up so suddenly that he caused Amara to leap up in her chair. He smiled apologetically to her then rounded on Jean.

"You don't have to read his mind. What if you just skimmed it a bit?"

"I don't know..."

"Come on Jean." Evan leaned towards her, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah Jean, just to make sure he's not like dead or anything." It was amazing how Evan, Bobby, and Kitty could get into exactly the same position, with the same pleading grin.

"Go ahead Jean. Just enough to make sure he's safe." Scott nodded to her and Jean felt better. As long as it was an order from their leader, it was fine.

Putting her fingers up to the sides of her head, Jean closed her eyes and her lips became pursed together in concentration.

"Why do all psychics do that when they read minds? Does it make a difference or something?" Amara whispered into Rogue's ear. The older girl just shrugged.

"Wow." Jean's hand went back to her lap and her eyes shot open.

"What is it?" Scott stood up, at the ready for the command to save his friend.

"He's...happy. Very happy. Ecstatic even."

"What?" For some reason, Scott sounded a little unhappy about Kurt's joy.

"And he ain't bein controlled?"

"No Rogue. He's just...enjoying himself."

"I don't like this." Kitty stood up. "I say we go and talk to him. Find out what's up."

"Well, he has to come back to the institute sometime right?" Amara said softly. Scott nodded to her.

"Amara has a good point, we can ask the Professor what to do about it, and if we do confront Kurt, we should do it when he comes home."

The X-Men nodded to their leader and finally left the big top, heading back home through the quiet summer night.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Kurt stood at the refrigerator, hungry as always. 'Chicken. Too small. Roast. For dinner tomorrow night. Hmm...ah-ha!'

Wolverine smelled something strange coming from the kitchen and peered around the door. Nightcrawler was hanging upside down from the ceiling, over the stove, with a skewer in each hand and foot. On each metal skewer were about five marshmallows.

"ELF!"

Kurt jumped from the scare and nearly lost the hold his tail had on the ceiling fan. He looked sheepishly at Logan, and held out his left foot, putting the skewer up to his nose.

"Would you like a roasted mallow?"

"No. And if you keep that up, you'll be the one roasting." Scowling, the older mutant stalked away. Kurt just watched him go, not sure how anyone could turn down a free toasted marshmallow.

Taking his many marshmallows, Kurt jumped down from the ceiling and walked out into the lobby of the mansion. It was quiet, almost everyone was still out even though it was getting late.

Curling his tail under him, Kurt sat down on the couch and began the arduous task of getting each marshmallow of his hot metal skewers. The sticky white marshmallow was causing him problems as he tried to eat it. The blue fur around his mouth wasn't helping either.

His pointed ears perked up as he heard footsteps approaching the front door. The doors opened and a warm night breeze ruffled Kurt's fur as a large group of the X-Men entered.

Scott nodded to the blue mutant before making a beeline for the stairs. Bobby followed quickly after him. Kitty yelled a quick hello before heading for the kitchen with Spike and Amara.

"Hello Kurt. How was your day?" Jean was the first to truly speak to him, and smiled as she did so. Rogue snorted behind her and stomped up towards where Scott had gone. Jean just ignored Rogue's hissy fit and looked back at Kurt, cocking her head to the side as she waited for an answer.

"Umm...kinda dull. I just went down to town for a while." Kurt lied and went back to gnawing on his mallows.

"Okay." Jean seemed content with this answer and wandered slowly off to some part of the mansion.

Kurt got the distinct feeling that he was being ignored, and, being Kurt, decided to find out why.

A cloud of smoke later, Kurt was standing at an opposite end of the mansion, the direction Scott and Rogue had headed. Crawling along the wall, Kurt didn't even have to control his mutant powers. His feet and fingers instantly stuck to the surface, and his tail balanced his body as it traveled along. Sometimes he forgot how good it felt to be seen for what he was, even if that was a demon.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"So what do we do professor?" Scott sat in the soft armchair, looking into the fire as he told Professor Xavier all that had happened that day. Rogue lounged against the doorway and put in her two cents every now and then, to the professor who sat serenely in the center of the room, his head propped up on his hands.

"I can't read his mind. And neither can Jean. We must respect his wishes. In all honesty, I'm not too worried about him."

"What?" Rogue stepped fully into the room, confronting the professor. "He was put out there like a freak show, for people to stare at and call a demon. How can you not be worried about him? And the dream thing."

"We are all concerned for Nightcrawlers well being, I assure you Rogue. But everyone in this institute is guaranteed a right to privacy. Being mutants, we all have our personal demons to face. And most would prefer to do so alone."

Rogue understood the tone in the professor's voice and gave him a quick nod of understanding before heading for the door. She could hear the heavier footsteps of Scott behind her as they exited the study and closed the heavy wooden doors.

"What's up?"

"AH!" Rogue jumped up in the air and clutched her hand over her chest. Scott looked a little startled, but was naturally less jumpy than Rogue.

"Don't EVER do that." She growled at Kurt, who was on all fours...on the wall. He tilted his head towards her, so that she was no longer sidewise.

"Sorry. I didn't know you'd be coming out of that door."

Scott looked quickly at Rogue, and could tell that she had just had the same thought. If Kurt had heard what they were talking about...

"So what are you up to?" Nightcrawler noticed how nervous Scott seemed while asking this. His voice was slow, as if he was expecting something.

'It must be because of what happened. They're still all afraid of me. I bet he thinks I was on my way to kill him and the others.' Kurt leapt lightly to the floor and grinned up at them, being unusually cheerful, even for himself.

'He must have heard us talking to the professor. If there really is something wrong with him, he might take his anger out on us.' Scott tensed up, but didn't take a step back from being face to face with the blue mutant.

"Just going for a walk, but I think I'll go to sleep now. Night." All that was left of him was a puff of smoke and the smell of brimstone.

"Do you think he was listening?"

"I don't know Rogue. I trust the professor, but I think we may have to take matters into our own hands. Get the group that was at the circus today and bring them to my room." Rogue nodded and began to walk down a corridor. "Oh and Rogue?" She turned around. "Don't let Kurt notice, okay?"

Rogue snorted and continued down the hall, obviously insulted by the request. Scott just laughed and headed for his room.

Twenty minutes later, Rogue, Bobby, Amara, Evan, Kitty, Jean, and Scott were suited up and sitting in various places in Scott's room.

"So how are we gonna help Kurt?" Evan demanded, stoked and ready to go in guns blazing and save his friend.

"We have to." Rogue stood by him, nervously glancing out the window every now and then, as if someone were spying on their plans.

"Okay, but how do we help him?" Amara piped in.

"Yeah, she's got a point. What are we gonna do?" Kitty and the other all turned to Scott, their leader, even though he was as clueless in this as they were.

"Do we have any ideas?" A diplomat to the end.

"We could ask him about it. He may have a good reason." Jean finally spoke, but seemed hesitant about even doing that. She could sense a strange feeling coming from the boy, ever since the night he had attacked them. And then, she could see straight into his mind. There were no clear images or memory, it was unlike any mind she had ever read before.

"If he had wanted us to know about it, he woulda told us."

"Kitty has a point. Okay, well, the circus is the key here, right? Maybe we should go down there and search for clues?" Scott's brilliant idea had fizzled into a Scooby Doo episode before his eyes.

"Uhhh, guys?"

Everyone turned to Jean, who had suddenly stood up. Her eyes were glazed over, and she was staring out into nothing. Rogue looked at Evan and twirled her finger around her head. Evan laughed, and caused Jean to loose her psychotic image.

"He's on the move."

"What?" Jean stepped back at the shouts, and everyone began hushing each other after the sudden outbreak.

"Okay, where is he going?" Scott whispered.

"He's porting. It's hard to get a fix on him. But I'd say he's heading south."

"The circus is south." Bobby yelled, and everyone shushed him just as loudly.

"Move out. We'll follow him there and keep an eye on him, but just enough to make sure he's safe."

The X-Men nodded and decided that all the vehicles would have made too much noise and woken up the entire mansion, so they decided to hoof it. The fair grounds were no more than 5 miles away, so they began to ran, fly, skateboard, and slide their way there.

Panting, Kitty looked over at Scott and grimaced. "Like, can't those of us without good means of transportation at least have grabbed a bike or something?"

Rogue nodded vigorously and glared at Bobby as he created loops of ice and slid along them like a roller coaster.

"I wish I could fly."

Scott just shook his head as they slowed down and approached the darkened fair grounds.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sorry this took a while. I am working on three very in depth stories right now, so I'm doing large updates that are few and far between. But don't worry, there's only one more chapter of this fic. And it's a big one. ^_^ leave a review!