Childish

Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.

Chapter 3

Kurt came to visit Amy at night again, teleporting into the crook of the tree where he had rested, nursing his wounds last year. He crept to the edge of the tree house and used his tail to move a branch over to tap on her window. It was not a new branch, just one with new leaves and a few new inches of length. A head popped up and peered out the window and he had this moment long fear that she had moved without telling him and it was some other little kid. But when her sunset colored head popped out of the open window and she beckoned him in avidly, he knew that it was not so.
" You came!" She whispered, furiously happy as she hugged his waist.
" You've grown a few inches since I last saw you." He murmured, hoping that his gift would fit her, but he hugged her back all the same. " Why are you surprised that I came?"
Amy backed off and jumped onto her bed, putting her hands in her lap. " Well, not quite surprised, just happy." She assured him, holding out her hands.
" Why are you doing that?" He said, looking utmost confused.
" It's my birthday, remember?" She lowered her hands the littlest of bits. " You didn't forget, did you?"
Kurt shrugged. " I don't know, maybe that's why I had this desire to bring this package with me." He took it out of his sling and handed it to her.
Amy squealed, quietly, in happiness and ripped open the silvery paper that he had wrapped it in, shoving the lid off the white cardboard box and picked up the black hat that he had fashioned for her. " Oh my goodness." She said, amazement on her face as she turned on her nightstand lamp and looked at the hat further. " It's just like Nobeards!"
" As close as I could get to it, really." Kurt picked up the pirate doll, examined his hat, and put him back down after reassuring himself that it was the exact match between the one Nobeard and Amy had on.
The same floppy style, the same silver brooch holding the same red and green feathers to the side, the same upturned right side where the feathers were, and even a small piece torn out of the brim. Amy turned to Kurt.
" Thank you, so very much." She said in a quiet voice, trembling with tears that wouldn't fall.
" Why are you crying?" Kurt asked, putting an arm over her small shoulders.
" My Da said that someday he'd go and make me a hat like Nobeards!" Amy sniffled. " But then he got too sick to do anything and then he died!" Her cries were getting louder and louder and Mrs. MacConnors had come from her room to see what the matter was.
Kurt snatched the hat and the box and paper and disappeared into the bathroom, holding his breath until Amy's cries lessened and then eventually stopped and she bade her mother go. Her footsteps were quiet as she padded to the bathroom door and opened it. She held the doorknob, looking up at him.
" I'm sorry I started crying, I just didn't, I mean..." She shook her head gently and looked down at the floor.
Kurt put the hat on her head softly and brought her chin up. He kissed her gently on the cheek and wiped away the tears that her mother had missed. " I am sorry to have upset you, but just because your father is gone does not mean that you have to miss out on things."
Amy nodded and hugged him again, strength in her limbs, which he noticed, weren't so small anymore. She was growing up, and even though she wasn't his child at all, she still had some kind of hold on his heart, and it slightly pained him to think that she was doing all this growing up without him. He was sure that that was how her father was feeling, wherever it was that he had gone after death.
I promise, I'll take very good care of Amy. I swear it on my life. Kurt told her father, hoping that his message reached the man.
" I have a present for you too." Amy said as she let go of him.
She went to her computer, which was a real computer this time and not connected to her tv, booted it up, and proceeded to log onto the e-mail website that Kitty and the rest of the kids were so keen on hogging the computer with. " I got you your own e-mail address so that we can talk to each other all year long and you don't have to keep popping over here to talk to me."
She drew back and let him look at it, and he declared himself pleased, even though the name caused some dread in him. " Furryblueelf?" He asked, a slight look of distaste on his face.
" Yep. I couldn't think of anything else, other than 'Tailedterror'." She said, logging in for him.
" I guess it isn't that bad then." Kurt said as he looked around. " I see you've already gone and fixed things up for me." He noted as he spotted her e-mail already saved in 'Contacts'.
" The password right now is 'Amy', but after you get back, you can change it if you want to." She said, sounding very knowledgeable about everything, as if he knew nothing about the Internet.
" All right, LittleBitWarrior." He smirked, knowing that somehow it wasn't her entire idea to have that as her e-mail name.
" Da used to call me that. Little Bit was ever since I was born, and when I started getting bigger, and meaner, he called me Warrior. I thought it was appropriate to go and combine the two." Kurt nodded his agreement and closed the window out, knowing that he would change the password as soon as he got home in the morning.
He turned around in the chair and pulled out a blanket and small pillow out of the bag that her present had been in. " I think your birthday calls for a small party and a sleepover to end it all." He then pulled out the small cupcakes that Storm had baked for him that day, the wax candle in the shape of an 8, and a small lighter.
Sticking the candle in her cupcake, he lighted it and then sang her a happy birthday in German, something that delighted her to no end. They ate their cupcakes, Kurt laughing at something she said and spraying crumbs all over her and the floor, which she just giggled at. Somewhere around midnight, Amy declared that she was tired, and so he snuggled himself down under her bed with his blanket, pillow, and the same stuffed teddy that he had found the first time, and fell into a contented sleep.

* * *

And so it went for the next five years until Amy had finally reached her teen years at the tender age of thirteen. That year, instead of all the pirate stuff that he had been giving her, like the velvet cape, the cutlass and gun set with a matching belt, and even a pair of real leather boots, he got her something different indeed.
This year, Kurt came in complete daylight because she had e-mailed him and told him that her mother was going on a date that day and would be out all night. This time he didn't bother teleporting to the tree, just popped right into her room. She lay in her bed, and it looked like she hadn't even gotten up for the day, even though it was almost twelve in the afternoon.
" Amy?" He asked quietly, brushing a hank of black hair out of his eyes. " Amy, I'm here."
She rolled over, making a small whimpering noise and Kurt saw that she was asleep. She had grown, he noted. Her hair was unbound, something that he had only seen in her when she was awake, and she seemed paler. She turned again, and something felt not right to him.
He stood over her bed, turning back the covers a little, making sure that she had something decent on, and she did, so he sat down on the little sliver of the bed that was left. He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her gently, making sure that her eyes opened. She felt clammy, and he could see the sweat beading on her forehead.
" Kurt...." Amy breathed, her eyes half open and dilated, the blue a mere line around the orb of her pupil. " Happy birthday to me."
" Amy!" Kurt cried, dismayed at how high her temperature was. " What's wrong? Are you sick? Why didn't you tell me?"
She put her hands out, or tried to. She moved stiffly, her chest barely rising with breath, and it seemed harder for her to speak. " I've been... sick for a time now." She smiled and gave a little cough, one that seemed to echo in the room. " I had a dream about... Da last night... He said I'd be with him."
Kurt shook his head. " When?"
Her voice became a gasp. " Soon."
The word turned into a horrible gasping, racking cough, dry and solid. She was fighting for breath, and she leaned over her pillow for support, her shoulders shaking as she fought to overcome the fit. Her eyes were closed when she rolled back over and Kurt's hands shook as he saw what she had coughed up.
Blood.
" I'm having to say good-bye," She said, brushing a limp hand across his chest. " I'm-" She didn't get a chance to say what it was that she wanted to, because she dissolved in another coughing fit, but this one didn't dissipate. Instead, her coughing got worse and worse, and blood started dribbling out of the corner of her mouth.
Kurt had had enough of it. " Amy, I'm taking you to where I can save you." He told her as she weakly fought him when he picked her up in his arms.
" I don't want to be saved." She said dryly, tears starting to form in her eyes.
" Everything's cold, Kurt."
He hugged her close to his body, then snatched Nobeard off the bed and closed his eyes. " It's going to be alright. I promise."
" You had better keep that promise." Was the last thing before he had them racing through space to the Institute.