This story is mine. Really, all mine. Well, all the characters belong to Marvel, and I got part of the idea from a story by Mel (thanks, Mel!), but please don't sue me, it wouldn't be worth it. Thanks to Luba, too for the beta read and encouragement!
This story takes place not long after the High Evolutionary de-mutantized everyone, but Hank and Bobby (obviously) are not in Genosha, and the Genoshan mutants are not mutating out of control. Thus, the impetus for the X-Men to confront the High Evolutionary is missing…
Just a Couple of Kids, after all… Chapter 3"Knock, knock – Kurt, are you awake?"
Kurt Wagner rubbed at his eyes and glanced at his alarm clock, then muttered a curse under his breath in German. Granted, at 8:00 in the morning he could normally be found doing his workout in the now little used danger room, but he normally got to bed before 3:00, too. The seminary, he decided as he pulled the pillow over his head, gave out far too much homework.
"Come on, Kurt, it's me, Kitty. Are you awake or should I come back later?"
Kurt considered his options. Granted, Kitty 'would' be as good as her word – if she left, she'd wait a couple of hours before coming back, which was more than he could say for many of the inhabitants of the mansion. On the other hand, she sounded a bit upset, as if she'd had to work up the courage to come and speak with him about something, and he hated to turn her away.
"Nein, Katzchen, I'm awake. More or less, anyway. Could you give me a moment to pull on some clothes, though?" He heard a giggle, quickly stifled, before her reply.
"Aw Kurt, you're just no fun since you decided to study for the priesthood. Should I come back in fifteen minutes? Or did you want to catch a shower?"
"Is the hot water fixed yet?"
"No."
"Grrr." Kurt grumbled as he climbed out of bed and wrapped a bathrobe around himself. "I may be willing to get up for you, liebchen, but an icy shower on top of it? No. I definitely need some coffee first. I'll tell you what – if you don't mind, could you bring up a cup? By the time you return, I promise to be presentable."
"That'd be a first! Back in five, then," she added quickly, before his sleep-deprived mind could formulate a witty reply.
Kurt rubbed his hand through his hair, marveling again at how different it felt to run five fingers through hair that stopped at his forehead. He wasn't entirely sure he liked being a "regular guy". While it was certainly nice to be able to blend into a crowd, he'd done that easily enough with an image inducer anyway. The loss of a great deal of his agility and the practice it had taken to adjust to the change in his balance made it all seem a mixed blessing. He knew Kitty felt the same – she told him about the number of times she'd walked into doors the first weeks, so accustomed was she to walking through them instead.
He wondered what brought her to his door this morning as he hastily donned a t-shirt and sweatpants. She hadn't sounded upset, he decided, but she certainly sounded as if she had something important to discuss.
It had been hard for her, he knew, to return to the mansion. She'd initially returned to her old room, but after only one night had moved down the hall to one that had been vacant for as long as he could remember. Too many ghosts, she'd said, and he thought he understood. The last time she'd actually lived here she'd been sharing a room with Illyana, and Doug Ramsey'd been in the adjacent wing. "Both gone", he sighed. Far too many gone.
A knock at the door brought him back to the present.
"So, Kurt, are you decent yet? Or should I wait until you're ordained?"
"Hah, hah, Katzchen, very funny. Do you think that would be long enough? No, seriously, come on in."
Kitty opened the door, carrying in one hand a tray with two cups of coffee as well as some toast, fresh fruit, and juice. She looked somewhat preoccupied, but, he congratulated himself, not upset. She glanced down at the table spread out with various books, notes, and crumpled paper, and asked, "Where can I put this?"
"Sorry, Kitty, I wasn't thinking. Here," he replied, sweeping it all into a pile. "What brings you here this morning?"
"I wanted to ask you a question. I need an honest opinion, and I know you'll give me one. Won't you?" She looked a bit apprehensive now, and Kurt wondered why.
"How long have you known me?" he replied, his eyes searching her face.
"Five, no, six years I think. Why?"
"Have you ever known me to be less than honest with you?"
"No."
"Well then, why would I start now? Go ahead," he continued, sitting down and beginning to peel an orange, "ask away."
"Okay, then," Kitty said, nervously drumming her hands on her coffee cup, then taking a deep breath and looking him square in the eyes.
"Do you think I'm pretty? And would you go out with me?"
"What Katzchen, I never knew you cared!" he answered jovially, taken by surprise by the question. "You should have…no, liebchen, I'm sorry. You're serious, aren't you?" he added, as she blushed.
"Very." She looked upset now, as if she felt this had been a bad idea.
"Before I answer, may I ask why you're asking?"
"I'd rather hear your answer, first."
"All right then." Kurt leaned back in his chair, and pretended to look at her critically. "Beautiful hair frames a pixie face. A petite body which masks the strength and training of a ninja. Yes, Kitty, despite the vows I plan to take, and those I have already taken, I must say, I do think you're pretty. As did Peter, Doug Ramsey, Alisdair Stewart, the crown prince of an alternate Britain, Pete Wisdom, and that SHIELD intern you met last year, just to name a few. If it weren't for my vows, and the fact I consider you a very close friend, I would certainly be interested in going out with you, as you put it. I assume that's the question you meant to ask, yes? Now, can you tell me what this is about? For," he added jokingly, "if you have come to seduce me, I do have a prior obligation."
"Oh you!" Kitty laughed. "Even if you were to renounce your calling, I'd have to beat a path to your door. Right behind Cerise and Amanda, and who knows how many others. No," she continued more seriously. "It's just, well, I don't have a very good track record with relationships, you know?"
"Neither do I, if you think about it."
"None of your ex's are dead, either."
"No, but it's been close a few times, true? Add in that Cerise is now with the Shi'ar, and Amanda in Limbo…"
"It's not the same," she replied, rubbing her hand through her hair. "They're still alive, and they could come back. In both cases, they'd probably both be willing to pick up where you left off, true?"
"Do you think that death changes that? That if Doug, or Pete, or that officer you told me about that you and Rachel met in World War II Britain, could return from the dead, they wouldn't be interested in you anymore?" he answered seriously.
"I – I don't know. Doug and I never really dated, you know. We were just the team supreme, computer hackers extraordinaire. Emma Frost once said he was in love with me, but I was never sure if I should believe her or not."
"Just because you hadn't reached that stage in your relationship doesn't mean it might not have happened, you know," Kurt replied gently, reaching out to touch her hand. "I'm almost certain it would have, had you not been dating Peter at the time."
"Who dumped me for an alien healer he couldn't even communicate with," she retorted.
"His problem, not yours. And no," he interjected as she opened her mouth to object, "let's be honest. Peter has a knack for wanting things he can't have. And remember, he did come back to you, didn't he? Too late, far too late, but he did come back."
"Yeah, I know. Pete wouldn't, though. I didn't even know he was with X-Force until we got their message."
"Well, liebchen, Pete had his own ghosts to fight. And don't be so sure he was unaffected by your breakup, either. I never told you," Kurt said seriously, "but Meggan went to see him not long after we left Britain."
"She did? What did he say? Why didn't she tell me?" Kitty asked angrily.
"Well, as I understand it, he didn't say much, being rather too intoxicated to make much sense. Meggan did say he kept muttering about how he wasn't good enough for you, and how he always knew salvation couldn't be that easy. She didn't tell you," he added as she began to look upset, "because when she returned later, he'd checked out of the hotel she'd found him in, and she didn't want you to worry. By the time she told me, we'd already received the news from X-Force, and I didn't see any point in troubling you."
"I kind of wish you hadn't, now," she said, obviously disturbed. "Do you think, if I hadn't broken up with him…"
"He might still be alive? Perhaps. Or he might still be dead, and you with him. Or you might have broken up over something else. Your relationship was already strained, by that point. Perhaps applies only to the future, never to the past."
"Well, except for Rachel."
"Even for Rachel. Even Rachel, with her temporal powers, could not change things that had already occurred in her personal past. Do you think if that hadn't been the case she wouldn't have tried to save the X-Men? Or Franklin Richards? But we're getting off the subject. If not for a sudden desire to seduce my irresistible but unavailable self, why all these questions? Did you meet someone at the University?"
"No," she laughed. "Or not really, anyway. A couple of guys have asked me out, but I've turned them down. No, I take that back, I went out for pizza with one, but we just weren't on the same wavelength."
"It must be hard, trying to talk to 'outsiders', so to speak."
"How'd you guess? I mean, how do I answer questions about what I've been doing the last six years without revealing that I was a mutant who belonged to the X-Men and Excalibur. Despite being powerless now, even former mutants are targets, as the recent FOH attack demonstrates. And let's face it, most 19 year olds haven't been out of the country, let alone the galaxy. It makes it a bit difficult to find a common frame of reference."
"I can understand that. It's funny," Kurt mused. "Most of us used to date outside the superhuman community. Oh, not Scott and Jean of course, but the rest of us. We didn't hide what we were from our significant others, but it didn't seem to matter as much. I'm not sure when or how that changed. But, back to the issue at hand, if not someone at school, then who?"
"Umm, Bobby Drake."
"Bobby?" Kurt nearly stabbed himself with his orange peeler in shock. Laying it on the table, he continued, "You're joking, correct? Why, you've known him – no, you haven't, have you? He left the X-Men before you joined the team, and by the time he returned we were in Britain. But I thought you'd met at Scott and Jean's wedding, at least?"
"We might have, I suppose. I was pretty busy videotaping, so I didn't really talk to anyone, and when I did, it was mostly the former New Mutants. But what's wrong with Bobby? I just met him yesterday," she continued, watching Kurt's face carefully, "but he seems nice."
"Nothing's wrong with him, I guess, you just took me by surprise. Yes, Katzchen, he is very nice, and has quite a sense of humor. A bit warped, at times – I recall he once attempted to stick the tip of my tail in a bucket of ice water while I was sleeping to see if – well, anyway, that was some time ago. I can't say I know him very well, actually. He left for college shortly after I joined."
"He went to college? A real college?" Kitty asked, surprised.
"Yes. I think Jean said he majored in finance, or something dismal like that. Quite a prodigy, now that I recall the conversation, he started college at seventeen. Though I believe he was ahead in his studies from being forced by circumstance to attend classes with Jean, Scott, Hank, etc."
"Oh, he was with the first class of the X-Men then – I guess I didn't put two and two together." She looked disappointed. "He was probably just joking, then – all of them still see me as a kid."
"Well, they see me much the same way, despite my obvious decrepitude." As Kitty snorted, he added, "But then, given the way Jean spoke of him, they see Bobby much the same way."
"Why? He was one of their class, after all."
"For the same reason Wolverine and Storm have had a hard time realizing you've grown into the beautiful young woman you are. He was the baby of the class, a couple of years younger than the others. That's a tough mental adjustment to make."
"Hmmm," Kitty chuckled. "So we do have something in common, at least. That's a start." She stood up, then leaned over and kissed Kurt on the cheek. "Thanks, fuzzy elf, I needed that."
"You're welcome. But while I appreciate the sentiment, I don't thing the term applies any more," he replied with a grin.
"Sure it does. You haven't shaved yet this morning!" And, laughing, she turned and walked into the door, winced, opened it, and walked out, her shoulders squared against his laughter.
"Ah, the joys of being a baseline human," Kurt said to himself with a chuckle. "Bruises for Kitty, and, almost certainly, razor burns for me." He sighed, picked up his bathrobe, and went to confront the icy shower that awaited him.