This is an epilogue to "Mainstream." It's probably been done, but I
wouldn't know, so please excuse in advance.
SPOILERS AHEAD, obviously. Beware.
Summary: A conversation between Kurt and Kitty leads to something unexpected. NOT KURTTY!!!
=== DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL ===
After Professor Xavier had made his announcement that the school board had voted to let mutants back into Bayville High, and Jean had succinctly informed him that his announcement was of the "good news, bad news" variety, everyone had muttered goodnight and tromped off to bed.
In one of the boxy, gray cubicles in the underground sleeping area, Scott was asleep, and snoring away loudly. He had the bottom bunk. Kurt, lying fully awake on the top bunk and plugging his elvish ears, was tempted to smother his roommate with a pillow. He opted instead for 'porting out of cubicle and into the kitchen.
He appeared on the metal table in his pajamas, and shielded his pale yellow eyes from the stark light of the overhead lamp. He crouched there, alone in the empty room. The lamp cast deep shadows on him, making his blue- black hair glitter and bringing every plane of his face into stark relief.
If he was honest with himself, Scott's snoring wasn't the thing keeping him awake. The way he'd acted that day at school was nagging at him like a hangnail, or a loose thread on a nice sweater. He hopped nimbly off the table, and began to pad back and forth across the room on his big furry feet.
He paced and thought, and thought and paced. The minutes wore on, and he kept clomping across the room, trying to figure himself out --- an difficult task to begin with, and a nearly impossible one this late at night. Finally, at 1:30, he sat down at the kitchen table and sighed, coming to a terrible realization.
He was a coward.
That was the only thing he could think of. He was just . . . bad. Useless. Evil. Absently, he scratched at an itch on his fuzzy cheek and wondered why he hadn't seen this sooner. Very slowly, he let his head sink down into the crook of his arms. His arrow-tipped tail kept twitching for a while, but then it too succumbed to his shame and began to droop.
That was how Kitty found him at 2 in the morning, when she came in to get a snack. Too nervous to sleep, she phased through the wall, and squinted into the light. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she saw a familiar blue person sitting in a chair, curled over the table, his hair flopping every which-way and his tail practically hanging off his ass. She didn't know what to make of it.
So she grabbed two glasses, the carton of milk, and some leftover banana bread, and set them down on the table.
"Hey," she said, shaking his shoulder.
Kurt came awake, sat back in his chair, and blinked at her. "Ah? Oh. Keety. Hi."
"Hi. Are you okay?" she said, sitting down across from him.
Kurt paused, slapped a little smile on, and said, "Ja. Fine."
"You don't look fine," Kitty said, breaking off a hunk of banana bread. "What's wrong?"
Kurt was caught. On the one hand, he hated that he was so bad at hiding things. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he could talk about this with Kitty.
Kitty was still staring at him, stuffing her mouth with banana bread and raising her eyebrows like she expected an answer. Kurt was too tired to fight off her glance.
He let it rip.
"Vhy are you even talking to me?" he said, quietly. "I vas horrible to you today."
Kitty blinked at him, one of her cheeks pooched out with banana bread. "Kah, nah yih fkarring mee."
Kurt raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Vhat?"
Kitty swallowed, and took another piece. "You're scaring me, Kurt. You weren't horrible."
"Sure I vas. I pretended I didn't know any of you," he said, and angrily grabbed a fistful of the sweet bread. "Vhen da crisis came, vhen it came time to be brave and show myself, and stand wit all of you, I cheekened out. I ran away. Pretended I vasn't part of here, that you veren't my friends. I'm jast yellow --- dat's awl."
They sat in silence for a while. Kurt shoved the entire ball of bread into his mouth and started munching on it, crossing his arms angrily and staring at the table top. His tail began to twitch again. Kitty chewed and swallowed, mulling everything over.
"First of all," she said finally, pouring out two glasses of milk, "You're blue, not yellow."
Kurt rolled his eyes.
"And secondly, yeah, I was kinda mad at you, but like . . ." she sighed. "Okay, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but you're like, a total freak."
She said this so seriously that Kurt started laughing. That got Kitty giggling, too.
"I mean, don't get me wrong. You're great, and we all like you, and I know *Amanda* likes you," she sing-songed, "But you have so much crap to deal with that we just TOTALLY don't. I don't blame you for wanting to hide."
"Ja, but I deed."
"I'm not done yet. You have to stop all this. All this fear and 'oh my god, here they come with the pitchforks,' that whole deal. You gotta just bust out, Kurt, and like, the hell with it. Ya know?"
Kurt laughed. "I don't theenk 'busting out' is deh technical term." He grabbed a glass of milk and drained half of it.
"But you know what I mean."
"Mm."
"I mean, I'm totally as freaked as you are about going back to school tomorrow. God, I so do not wanna face Lance. That's gonna suck!"
"Is dat vhy you're up?"
"Kurt, I called him a 'hood.' I totally insulted him. And knowing the Boneheads, somebody's gonna wanna get back at me," she sighed, ruffling her hair. "I'm just really nervous." She took a swig of milk and stared at the loaf pan. "Okay, if you don't stop me, I'm totally going to eat all this banana bread."
Kurt pulled it away from her.
"Thank you."
"You're velcome. You know, ah, at school tomorrow I can, ah, valk in wit you, if you like. So you don't have to talk to him."
She smiled at him. "I'd like that."
He nodded at her. They both got up and put the food away, and found themselves facing each other in the doorway.
"I'm sorry I vas such a jerk."
"It's okay," she said, and they hugged each other tight. "I know it's tough, but just try not to be so afraid. I think people might actually like the real you. Heck, *I* do."
She phased out of his friendly grip, and with a little wave, disappeared into the wall. Kurt stared after her, lost in thought, and 'ported back to bed.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The next morning, everyone was up at 6 a.m. It was out of habit. They couldn't have any sessions in the Danger Room today. Bombed-out shells weren't useful practice areas, and in any case, the danger of sleep- deprived mutants causing a small avalanche and getting killed by big pieces of rock and metal was way too real.
The breakfast table was deathly silent. Everyone was nervous, thinking their own thoughts, except Evan, who was digging around in the refrigerator.
"Hey! Who ate all the banana bread?" he said, annoyed.
"We could possibly get killed in the halls today, Evan. Banana bread isn't even on the radar," Scott snapped at him.
"Keety and I got hungry last night," Kurt said, in an effort to stop the fight. "Sorry."
Both Scott and Evan glared at him, but he knew it wasn't about the food. He looked glumly down at his cereal and didn't say anything else. Kitty, who was sitting next to him, flushed in embarrassment.
The car ride to school was equally silent. Professor Xavier gave them all a lift in a rented van. All the cars in the garage had exploded in one fell swoop when DEFCON 4 engaged.
"Have a good day, everybody," he said, pulling up in front. "I'll be here at three."
"Thanks, Professor," Scott said. "C'mon, people. Move out."
Everyone stood up and filed out of the van, heading up the front steps. There were stares, and the other students began to close in on them. The Professor stayed parked for a moment, just in case.
One particularly lunkheaded individual sauntered over to Kurt, who was in the back with Kitty. He grabbed Kurt's backpack, swinging the kid around to face him, and snarled in his face.
"Hey! Kraut! I didn't know you associated with these freaks! What the hell's wrong with YOU?!"
The rest of the team stopped and turned on the situation. Kurt shook the guy's hand off. But instead of looking around in fear and running, he just gazed at the kid calmly. With a soft grin, he reached for his watch.
"Zerr is nutting wrong wit me."
*CLICK*
The image of the short, meek, tousle-haired kid faded away, leaving a blue, fanged, wild thing in its wake. It wore beige cargo pants, a white tank top, and an open, red flannel shirt. Dressed like this and perched proudly on his two-toed, gargoyle-like feet, Kurt was something else. His tail, sticking out through a neat hole in his pants, energetically whipped back and forth.
"Nutting at awl."
The bully screamed like a girl and promptly fainted. A bunch of his friends, caught between laughing at him and running for their lives, opted for the latter, and took off. Kurt smiled proudly and walked over to Kitty, who was staring at him, her mouth hanging open. She snapped out of it and smiled. He gallantly offered her his elbow. She laughed and took his arm, passing Lance and sticking her tongue out at him. She heard a growl and felt a tiny tremor, but she didn't care. He really was just a hood.
Kurt walked Kitty to her first class, then wandered off in the direction of Algebra, watching with a mixture of amusement and annoyance as people kept about a three foot distance from him in all directions. Finally he stopped and turned on the crowd. It was mostly girls. They stood there, staring at him, silent.
"Shoo!" he said, waving his arms at them. They scattered briefly, but then pressed forward again. Kurt was getting exasperated.
"Mein Gott. Vas de matta, you vanna pet me or someting?" he said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Any of you says yes and you'll have a lot of trouble. Real quick," came a strong voice behind him.
He turned around and stared in surprise.
"The fuzzy dude is with ME," Amanda finished, and smiled.
The crowd dispersed in two seconds.
Kurt gave her an incredibly goofy grin, and she gave him a thousand-watt smile in return. They walked off to class, arm in arm.
THE END
Author's Note: One thing in this deviates from "The Canon." The fact that the Professor drops everybody off at school is directly contradictory to the scene in, I think it was "The Stuff of Villains," when Scott gives everyone a ride to school in his car and Kitty loses her toothbrush in Beast. That was funny! Anyway, my thingie is incorrect, but I figured, why post that in the middle of the story and ruin the flow?
Whatever you have to say about this, go for it. Good stuff, I like. Bad stuff, I can take. Believe me. :D
Ta,
Kiki
SPOILERS AHEAD, obviously. Beware.
Summary: A conversation between Kurt and Kitty leads to something unexpected. NOT KURTTY!!!
=== DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL ===
After Professor Xavier had made his announcement that the school board had voted to let mutants back into Bayville High, and Jean had succinctly informed him that his announcement was of the "good news, bad news" variety, everyone had muttered goodnight and tromped off to bed.
In one of the boxy, gray cubicles in the underground sleeping area, Scott was asleep, and snoring away loudly. He had the bottom bunk. Kurt, lying fully awake on the top bunk and plugging his elvish ears, was tempted to smother his roommate with a pillow. He opted instead for 'porting out of cubicle and into the kitchen.
He appeared on the metal table in his pajamas, and shielded his pale yellow eyes from the stark light of the overhead lamp. He crouched there, alone in the empty room. The lamp cast deep shadows on him, making his blue- black hair glitter and bringing every plane of his face into stark relief.
If he was honest with himself, Scott's snoring wasn't the thing keeping him awake. The way he'd acted that day at school was nagging at him like a hangnail, or a loose thread on a nice sweater. He hopped nimbly off the table, and began to pad back and forth across the room on his big furry feet.
He paced and thought, and thought and paced. The minutes wore on, and he kept clomping across the room, trying to figure himself out --- an difficult task to begin with, and a nearly impossible one this late at night. Finally, at 1:30, he sat down at the kitchen table and sighed, coming to a terrible realization.
He was a coward.
That was the only thing he could think of. He was just . . . bad. Useless. Evil. Absently, he scratched at an itch on his fuzzy cheek and wondered why he hadn't seen this sooner. Very slowly, he let his head sink down into the crook of his arms. His arrow-tipped tail kept twitching for a while, but then it too succumbed to his shame and began to droop.
That was how Kitty found him at 2 in the morning, when she came in to get a snack. Too nervous to sleep, she phased through the wall, and squinted into the light. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she saw a familiar blue person sitting in a chair, curled over the table, his hair flopping every which-way and his tail practically hanging off his ass. She didn't know what to make of it.
So she grabbed two glasses, the carton of milk, and some leftover banana bread, and set them down on the table.
"Hey," she said, shaking his shoulder.
Kurt came awake, sat back in his chair, and blinked at her. "Ah? Oh. Keety. Hi."
"Hi. Are you okay?" she said, sitting down across from him.
Kurt paused, slapped a little smile on, and said, "Ja. Fine."
"You don't look fine," Kitty said, breaking off a hunk of banana bread. "What's wrong?"
Kurt was caught. On the one hand, he hated that he was so bad at hiding things. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he could talk about this with Kitty.
Kitty was still staring at him, stuffing her mouth with banana bread and raising her eyebrows like she expected an answer. Kurt was too tired to fight off her glance.
He let it rip.
"Vhy are you even talking to me?" he said, quietly. "I vas horrible to you today."
Kitty blinked at him, one of her cheeks pooched out with banana bread. "Kah, nah yih fkarring mee."
Kurt raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Vhat?"
Kitty swallowed, and took another piece. "You're scaring me, Kurt. You weren't horrible."
"Sure I vas. I pretended I didn't know any of you," he said, and angrily grabbed a fistful of the sweet bread. "Vhen da crisis came, vhen it came time to be brave and show myself, and stand wit all of you, I cheekened out. I ran away. Pretended I vasn't part of here, that you veren't my friends. I'm jast yellow --- dat's awl."
They sat in silence for a while. Kurt shoved the entire ball of bread into his mouth and started munching on it, crossing his arms angrily and staring at the table top. His tail began to twitch again. Kitty chewed and swallowed, mulling everything over.
"First of all," she said finally, pouring out two glasses of milk, "You're blue, not yellow."
Kurt rolled his eyes.
"And secondly, yeah, I was kinda mad at you, but like . . ." she sighed. "Okay, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but you're like, a total freak."
She said this so seriously that Kurt started laughing. That got Kitty giggling, too.
"I mean, don't get me wrong. You're great, and we all like you, and I know *Amanda* likes you," she sing-songed, "But you have so much crap to deal with that we just TOTALLY don't. I don't blame you for wanting to hide."
"Ja, but I deed."
"I'm not done yet. You have to stop all this. All this fear and 'oh my god, here they come with the pitchforks,' that whole deal. You gotta just bust out, Kurt, and like, the hell with it. Ya know?"
Kurt laughed. "I don't theenk 'busting out' is deh technical term." He grabbed a glass of milk and drained half of it.
"But you know what I mean."
"Mm."
"I mean, I'm totally as freaked as you are about going back to school tomorrow. God, I so do not wanna face Lance. That's gonna suck!"
"Is dat vhy you're up?"
"Kurt, I called him a 'hood.' I totally insulted him. And knowing the Boneheads, somebody's gonna wanna get back at me," she sighed, ruffling her hair. "I'm just really nervous." She took a swig of milk and stared at the loaf pan. "Okay, if you don't stop me, I'm totally going to eat all this banana bread."
Kurt pulled it away from her.
"Thank you."
"You're velcome. You know, ah, at school tomorrow I can, ah, valk in wit you, if you like. So you don't have to talk to him."
She smiled at him. "I'd like that."
He nodded at her. They both got up and put the food away, and found themselves facing each other in the doorway.
"I'm sorry I vas such a jerk."
"It's okay," she said, and they hugged each other tight. "I know it's tough, but just try not to be so afraid. I think people might actually like the real you. Heck, *I* do."
She phased out of his friendly grip, and with a little wave, disappeared into the wall. Kurt stared after her, lost in thought, and 'ported back to bed.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The next morning, everyone was up at 6 a.m. It was out of habit. They couldn't have any sessions in the Danger Room today. Bombed-out shells weren't useful practice areas, and in any case, the danger of sleep- deprived mutants causing a small avalanche and getting killed by big pieces of rock and metal was way too real.
The breakfast table was deathly silent. Everyone was nervous, thinking their own thoughts, except Evan, who was digging around in the refrigerator.
"Hey! Who ate all the banana bread?" he said, annoyed.
"We could possibly get killed in the halls today, Evan. Banana bread isn't even on the radar," Scott snapped at him.
"Keety and I got hungry last night," Kurt said, in an effort to stop the fight. "Sorry."
Both Scott and Evan glared at him, but he knew it wasn't about the food. He looked glumly down at his cereal and didn't say anything else. Kitty, who was sitting next to him, flushed in embarrassment.
The car ride to school was equally silent. Professor Xavier gave them all a lift in a rented van. All the cars in the garage had exploded in one fell swoop when DEFCON 4 engaged.
"Have a good day, everybody," he said, pulling up in front. "I'll be here at three."
"Thanks, Professor," Scott said. "C'mon, people. Move out."
Everyone stood up and filed out of the van, heading up the front steps. There were stares, and the other students began to close in on them. The Professor stayed parked for a moment, just in case.
One particularly lunkheaded individual sauntered over to Kurt, who was in the back with Kitty. He grabbed Kurt's backpack, swinging the kid around to face him, and snarled in his face.
"Hey! Kraut! I didn't know you associated with these freaks! What the hell's wrong with YOU?!"
The rest of the team stopped and turned on the situation. Kurt shook the guy's hand off. But instead of looking around in fear and running, he just gazed at the kid calmly. With a soft grin, he reached for his watch.
"Zerr is nutting wrong wit me."
*CLICK*
The image of the short, meek, tousle-haired kid faded away, leaving a blue, fanged, wild thing in its wake. It wore beige cargo pants, a white tank top, and an open, red flannel shirt. Dressed like this and perched proudly on his two-toed, gargoyle-like feet, Kurt was something else. His tail, sticking out through a neat hole in his pants, energetically whipped back and forth.
"Nutting at awl."
The bully screamed like a girl and promptly fainted. A bunch of his friends, caught between laughing at him and running for their lives, opted for the latter, and took off. Kurt smiled proudly and walked over to Kitty, who was staring at him, her mouth hanging open. She snapped out of it and smiled. He gallantly offered her his elbow. She laughed and took his arm, passing Lance and sticking her tongue out at him. She heard a growl and felt a tiny tremor, but she didn't care. He really was just a hood.
Kurt walked Kitty to her first class, then wandered off in the direction of Algebra, watching with a mixture of amusement and annoyance as people kept about a three foot distance from him in all directions. Finally he stopped and turned on the crowd. It was mostly girls. They stood there, staring at him, silent.
"Shoo!" he said, waving his arms at them. They scattered briefly, but then pressed forward again. Kurt was getting exasperated.
"Mein Gott. Vas de matta, you vanna pet me or someting?" he said, putting his hands on his hips.
"Any of you says yes and you'll have a lot of trouble. Real quick," came a strong voice behind him.
He turned around and stared in surprise.
"The fuzzy dude is with ME," Amanda finished, and smiled.
The crowd dispersed in two seconds.
Kurt gave her an incredibly goofy grin, and she gave him a thousand-watt smile in return. They walked off to class, arm in arm.
THE END
Author's Note: One thing in this deviates from "The Canon." The fact that the Professor drops everybody off at school is directly contradictory to the scene in, I think it was "The Stuff of Villains," when Scott gives everyone a ride to school in his car and Kitty loses her toothbrush in Beast. That was funny! Anyway, my thingie is incorrect, but I figured, why post that in the middle of the story and ruin the flow?
Whatever you have to say about this, go for it. Good stuff, I like. Bad stuff, I can take. Believe me. :D
Ta,
Kiki
