~
Author's Note ~
I just
found out that short stories like this are called "one-shots." Well,
I love the one-shot format, because you can include all sorts of different
"universes." This next universe features Kurt and Kitty, because I personally
love that pair, even if it's just platonic, and some folks who reviewed said
they like it, too.
To the
wonderful people who have reviewed so far: Jaganashi,
key, the person without a bug collection, ZOTRM, The Logic of Nine, and wllw979
--- thank you all!
Zoken: Yes, Kraut was intentional. I didn't x-pect
anyone to catch that. Good on you! :D
Neko-Chan: Thanks for the Kitty praise. I love writing that character.
She's hilarious. By the way, I'm a big fan of "Carol of the Bells"
--- I just haven't reviewed yet. But I will! Promise!
Wydinel Sheergale: Of course there will be
more! It's coming right now.
Rhona: *blushes* Thankies. BTW --- I know
you're not a Kurtty fan. This next one has her in it,
but just as a friend. Hope that's okay.
I must
say, I can't wait to write more of this for all you great people . . . with one
unfortunate exception, which really made me upset.
I just
want to get this out of the way right now. Constructive criticism is great, but
flaming is just bad and wrong and evil, and I refuse to put up with it. I
assure you all that I'm not a horrible person. However, like the U.S. government and terrorists, I do
not negotiate.
To that
end, I am about to make an example of someone. Here is a flame, from one reader
with the screen name of Molly Broad.
~ Right, no affence
on your story or anything, but wats
up with u? R u totally against Nightcrawler
or something? Wats all this TOTAL FREAK and
MEEK,UGLY,SKINNY MOUSE BOY shit all about? Nightcrawler/Kurt is a gorgeous, strong, awesome, young,
cute guy! Not a meek, measliy, puny, mouse freak who
always gets beaten up! He is 1 of the X-men and all the X-men are his best
buddies! Shadowcat is his girlfriend-NOT HIS ENEMY!
Please-stop making it look like Nightcrawler
is a freak who has no friends and he always gets beaten up like some geek! Hes not sum goofy freako-hes the most cool guy in the history of X-MEN! ~
Did you
get through all that gibberish? Good for you. Here is my response.
~ Molly
Broad. You can take your misspelled, misguided comments, which only show how
badly you have misinterpreted "Dark Night of the Soul," and blow them
out your ass. You're just a goddamn moron. Don't come back this way again. ~
To any
potential flamers: If you verbally abuse me, I will return the favor. I am not
afraid of you.
To
readers: Sorry, everybody. I know that was messy, but nobody should have to put
up with this garbage. Please enjoy the next story.
Summary: Pain in the night leads to a blossoming, of sorts.
Warning: Thar be one cuss word in this. Begins with "s." I think you can guess it.
=== THE SPURT ===
Kitty was thirsty again. It was the third time this week she'd gotten outrageously thirsty at three in the morning. With a sigh, she flapped back the covers and hoisted herself off the pillow. When miasma of sitting up finally abated, she hopped off the bed and stumbled out of the room she shared with Rogue.
It would have occurred to any sensible person by now that keeping a glass of water on their bedside table would save a walk to the kitchen. But Kitty liked her water ice cold, and only the fridge's filtered tap would do. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she trudged down the hallway, her bunny slippers making little squeaks every time her feet hit the floor.
She was almost at the kitchen, passing Kurt's room on the right, when she heard it.
"Ooooooooooh."
She stopped and stared at the door.
"Ooooooooooh," came the noise again.
"What is that? Like, the wind?" she wondered aloud.
"Ooooooh! Ach! SHHHIT!"
Kitty's eyebrows went up. That was definitely not the wind. She phased in through the door, her thirst forgotten for a moment, and let her eyes adjust to the dark bedroom. The pale moonlight was stabbing in through the window, illuminating a squirming lump of covers in middle of the bed.
She tiptoed toward the dancing fabric, wondering what in the world was going on, when the blankets went flying.
Kurt wore nothing but sweatpants and a tank top. He was lying on his side, panting. Quick as a whip, he curled his legs to his chest, gripped his knees tightly and let loose a string of very colorful German words.
Kitty watched as he panted and sweated, the tendons in his furry arms bulging and receding as he rode out a wave of intense pain. Clueless but concerned, she stepped into the moonlight and looked down at him. She hoped he would open his big yellow eyes and see her. No such luck --- they were screwed shut.
She didn't know what to do. It was a little scary, frankly. He wasn't even moving now, just working his jaw and moaning. Biting her lip, she came to a decision. Very gingerly, she reached down and touched his shoulder. He stopped muttering.
His eyes opened at once, very wide, and he stared at her, breathing hard. A tear escaped and ran down his cheek. They both ignored it, mostly because Kurt looked more baffled than anything else.
"Keety?" he panted. "Vas…"
"Kurt, I was going to get some water and I heard you. What's wrong?"
Kurt panted some more, then tried to explain. He had to stop and breathe every couple of words.
"Vell… it hurts."
Kitty snorted. "Like, duh! Where?"
"Oh, you know." He panted a bit. "Everyvere. Mein legs. But zee arms aren't… doing so good either. And my back. Shoulders. Tushie. It really sucks."
Kitty smiled. "Did you just say 'tushie?'"
Kurt gave her what could only be described as a long-suffering, 'how could you?' look. Her smile faded.
"I'm sorry, Kurt. Well, listen. Let me get you some aspirin or something."
"Nein, Keety, don't do it."
Kitty sat down next to him. "Why not? You're in pain."
"Ja, but… remember two months ago? Ven I had dat headache?"
"Oh," she said, her eyes getting wide.
She remembered that very well. It was Finals Week, and Kurt understandably had something approaching a migraine. The professor gave him two pills. He read the label on the bottle: "may cause drowsiness." Deluding himself into thinking he had a normal body chemistry, he shrugged and took them.
He didn't wake up for three days.
By the time he did wake up, he'd missed his last two tests. The professor got his teachers to allow him to come to school on Saturday and make them up, but the delay made him miss his flight home. He ended up with an insane travel plan, a patchwork of three different airlines and two train rides --- six stopovers in all.
And the effects of the medication had scared the bejeezus out of everybody. That was of course, except for Evan. As soon as he realized "the fuzzy one" was just asleep and not in a coma, he threw Kurt over his shoulders like a bearskin and skateboarded around the mansion announcing that he was Conan the Barbarian until Scott stopped him.
Oh yes, Kitty remembered that.
But she was at a loss as to what to do. Kurt turned away from her and tried to contain his writhing. He was lousy at hiding it. A little moan slipped out. Kitty felt something tweak in her chest and she frowned. This was just horrible.
"You poor guy," she said, rubbing his arm gently.
And then something bizarre happened. His tail stopped twitching erratically. Intrigued, Kitty rubbed further down his arm. Kurt rolled over onto his back, blinking up at her. The moonlight hitting his eyes made them look like white lanterns.
"Zat feels good," he said sincerely. "You know vhat I sink this is?"
"What?" she asked.
"Growing pains. Ven I vas nine, I had zem in my legs. Mama rubbed zem for me, and the pain vent avay."
Kitty looked at him, saw the silent plea in his glowing eyes, and kept going. She rubbed his shoulders, his other arm, and his legs. Then she helped him flop onto his side again so she could reach his back. About halfway down, she realized she was sweating with the effort, and that her charge was emitting a soft noise, almost like a purr. He was grateful, and she could tell.
She was not, however, going to touch his 'tushie.' Kurt's tail seemed rather disappointed by this, but the rest of him looked content and relaxed. She got him on his back again and he blinked up at her lazily, with a sleepy smile.
"Tank you, Keety," he mumbled, and promptly fell asleep.
"You're velcome," she said with a grin, pulling the covers up to his furry jaw.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The agreement was unspoken: they would keep the rubbing thing to themselves. They did this so well that no one got wise to Kitty making trips to Kurt's room every night, and that was very fortunate. Because for the next week, her visits were like clockwork --- on the dot at 11:45. That was usually when the pain was the worst.
But on the sixth night, Kitty came in to find Kurt sitting in bed, reading. She was a little surprised. Normally the mansion's resident fuzzy dude had the lights off and was tossing and turning by now. He smiled at her.
She tried to smile back, but it wouldn't come. Here she was, finally getting content and used to "playing nurse," and her patient was feeling okay. He didn't need her anymore. Kitty wasn't sure whether to be happy for him or annoyed.
She settled for feeling stupid and out of place.
"Hey," she said. It came out a little squeaky.
"Hi, Kätzchen. How ah you?"
"Um, okay, I guess." She nervously started playing with her hair. "Well, I, uh, I'll be going. You look okay."
"Do you vant to stay?" Kurt asked her. It was a little blunt, and a little sudden, but just what she needed.
"Yeah, o-okay."
She went over and sat down primly on his bed. He marked his place in "The Call of the Wild" and set the book down on the bedside table. The two of them stared at each other, neither able to think of anything to say. At least, Kitty was stumped. Kurt finally opened his mouth.
"I vanted to tank you. You really helped me out, and ah, I can feel somesing happening to me."
"Yeah? For real?"
"Ja. I sink, if ziss is anyting like before, I'm gonna get a lot taller!" he said, and flashed his fangs in a shy grin. "Maybe I'll even be as tall as Scott, eh?"
With just a few words, he'd made her comfortable again. Kitty laughed.
"Kurt, Scott's like, 6'2" or something. There's totally no way, mine froind," she said, in horrible German.
Kurt ignored her accent. "Ja, vell, a guy can hope, right?"
"That's true," she said, taking his furry hand. "And you're welcome. Any time, ya know."
They shared a shy glance, and Kitty saw Kurt's cheeks go purple. His version of a blush, she realized. It was kind of cute. After a moment of silence, she let go of his hand and got up.
"Well, I'm going to bed. I guess I'll see you in the morning. Tomorrow's Saturday, right?" she said, with a yawn.
"Yep. See you tomorrow."
She waved, and phased through the wall of his room. Kurt turned off the light and went to bed, pain-free for the first time in a week.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The next morning, everyone in the kitchen got a bit of a shock. The X-men were at the table. They'd gotten to sleep in a bit, while the new recruits had been woken up at the crack of dawn to tango with Logan in the Danger Room. Scott was slurping up milk and the remnants of his cereal, Jean was finishing her bagel, Evan was wolfing down one of those toaster pastry things, and Rogue and Kitty were having oatmeal. Kurt walked in.
Scott saw him and choked. Jean whacked him on the back. Everyone else either stared or started whispering.
Kurt was extremely tired, so he didn't even notice the commotion. He had indeed undergone a change during the night --- he was about six inches taller. His body had gone from lean and skinny to unbelievably lean and skinny, compensating for the sudden change in height.
"Oh. My. God!" Kitty said, way too loud.
"Dang, Kurt!" Evan said, finding his voice. "What the heck happened to YOU?"
"Whoa," Scott said, and coughed.
"Ah thank somebody grew," Rogue said, and smiled.
Kitty got up and went over to Kurt, who had sleepily opened the refrigerator and was poking around inside.
"Kurt?" she asked.
Kurt blinked at her with half-closed eyes, his fur going every which way.
"Ja?"
"Have, uh, have you looked in a mirror, lately?"
"No, vhy?" he asked, scratching his head.
"Cuz, like, you just had a spurt," Kitty said, with a smile. She pointed at the hallway mirror.
Kurt went over and examined his reflection with interest. His white undershirt now came only to the middle of his belly fur, and the legs of his pajamas were way too short. He looked at his tail, which was longer than he remembered it. And was that stubble? Some parts of his cheeks had turned a bit furrier than the rest of him. He whirled around and grinned at Kitty, then walked back into the kitchen, puffing out his chest.
Scott stood up as Kurt strode over. For the first time in his life, the wiry German found himself face to face, literally, with the other boy. So he proudly announced, gesturing wildly, "Ha! I'm as tall as YOU are now! Whoo HOO! WHO da fuzz man!! YEAH, baby!"
He swayed his hips and danced over to the refrigerator to get some food, and everyone started laughing. Despite his new height, Kurt Wagner was exactly the same. He poured some Cinna-Cubes into a bowl, washed some milk over it, and sat down at the table. It was cacophony. People were alternately talking to each other, giggling at him, or asking for food.
"Amazing that you did all that, and not a single growing pain," Scott observed over the din.
Kitty and Kurt shared a brief look.
"Freak of nature, zat's me!" Kurt replied cheerfully, and dug into his breakfast.
THE END
