Not two days ago
I was having a look
In a book and I saw a picture of a guy fried up above his knees
I said, "I can relate,"
Cause' lately I've been thinking of combustication as a welcomed vacation from
The burdens of the planet earth
Like gravity, hypocrisy, and the perils of being in 3-D
And thinking so much differently...

So pardon me while I burst into flames
I've had enough of the world
And it's people's mindless games
So pardon me while I burn
And rise above the flame
Pardon me, pardon me
I'll never be the same...

-- from 'Incubus - Pardon Me'

---

Kurt Wagner often took morning walks in the pale sunshine around the grounds of the mansion. It was one of his little things. He liked walking out in the sunshine before everyone bitched at him to put his image inducer on. Logan knew about his little excursions but didn't mind knowing that everyone has their moments before they flip out. So it was little surprise that Kurt was roaming the grounds just killing time before morning workouts. He found one of his favorite things to do was to sit in a tree and just listen to things.

So it was more of a surprise then normal to actually hear something. Kurt sat in a hemlock beside the main field/clearing and listened as voices began to come closer. His eyes quickly opened from their not quite sleeping state and he looked over his shoulder to see what the sound was. Using his tail as a balance, he was able to slide around enough to see Kitty walking with someone along the side of the clearing closest to him. He looked closer and noticed that it was Todd. 'Toad? What's Kitty doing with that creep?' he pondered as he peered closer and closer. They were out of his range of hearing but he noticed that she was standing in front of him and seemed to be tipping his chin up. And then, he saw them kissing! His heart nearly fell down into the bottom of his stomach as he saw them blush shyly at one another. Considering he was already happily dating Amanda, he didn't wonder so much about Kitty as a love partner, but she was still her friend...and old crushes die oh, so hard...

Just as soon as he decided to drop in on them and crash their little party, Todd hopped away and Kurt saw Kitty smiling and waving at him. He saw the blush on her face and frowned. Didn't she know how much of an ass that Todd was? He remembered back when they worked together to free Wanda and remembered how much of a dick he could be when he needed something...but then he also remembered the time he kissed Wanda afterwards. He remembered the tenderness on his face and wondered if something similar was happening now. For it was truly only Kurt, himself a misunderstood mutant, who knew that if Todd washed up and became less creepy, he'd be a heartthrob the likes of which Bayville had never seen. He knew it and it made him nervous. Kurt considered himself to always be in competition with Todd and now this just seemed to come up.

"Kitty!" Kurt called out in a loud voice as he teleported from the tree to Kitty's side. She gasped as he popped up next to her.

"Kurt! Like, warn me before you decide to scare me," Kitty replied, playfully punching his arm.

"What were you doing with Todd just now?" Kurt asked, getting right to the heart of the matter.

"What do you mean, Kurt?"

"I saw you two kissing! And with him! What's going on, Fraulein?" Kurt could feel his deep German accent get thicker and thicker as he spoke but he couldn't help it. He had to know.

"Kurt! You were spying on us?!" Kitty asked incredulously, her face beginning to Blanche over.

"Nein. I just happened to hear you as you two walked by my tree. I was out for my morning run..." Kurt began but was stopped as Kitty put her hand in front of his mouth to silence him.

"We were just talking, Kurt. Nothing happened that I didn't want to happen..." Kitty said slowly, "And besides, it was just a kiss on the cheek. Like, it wasn't like he French kissed me or anything like this. It was just a spur of the moment thing."

"Oh really?" Kurt raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You seemed to really like having him kiss you, Kitty."

"...Yeah Kurt, I did. If you're so nosy, like, you should know the truth. I did like it when he kissed me," Kitty replied, her eyes dropping down to the ground and a smile rising up on her face. Kurt couldn't believe his ears but decided to take a different route with his questioning.

"Well what did you two talk about, Kitty? You must have been talking some serious stuff to have him kiss you," Kurt said with a relaxed look and a tiny smile. Kitty totally took the bait and broke into a huge smile.

"We were talking about how he might join the X-Men. He's kind of looking for a new place to stay and I wanted to know some stuff about him before he made a decision, so..." Kitty began but was cut off by Kurt dashing off at high speed, his face contorted into a huge grin and his tail swishing from side to side. Kitty wasn't sure but she thought she could hear him screaming at the top of his lungs, "Toad's joining the X-Men! Toad's joining the X-Men! WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!" She sighed. 'For being a boy, Kurt could be such a gossip', Kitty thought. She walked back to the mansion, feeling a strange sense of bewilderment wash over her.

***

Todd, for his part, hopped back home silently ruminating over the events of the past few hours. He had gone from being unwanted and unappreciated by people to being cared for. It was a lot to deal with. He remembered Storm's sweet smile at him as he was eating and he wondered if he had found someone who cared about him or could care about him. He liked Storm. She seemed like she wasn't as uptight as the rest of the house. She seemed like she had actually been in the real world and dealt with the loneliness he dealt with. He liked her eggs as well. She cooked good and his stomach quietly let him know that it agreed with him.

Todd saw the Brotherhood house in the distance and wondered if he'd get time to speak to Kitty again. He smiled as he remembered kissing her cheek though he wondered what made him do that. He didn't think of Kitty as much more then Lance's ex-girlfriend...but he now wondered what she'd be like if they hugged and kissed and dated. He saw pictures of her dancing in front of him and smiled even more. She was very pretty and unlike Wanda, she actually smiled at him. Just as he realized how much he didn't want to scare Kitty off no matter what he decided, he reached the house.

Todd opened the door and walked in. The lights were off but considering it was late afternoon he didn't consider that to be very odd at all. What he saw next, however, wasn't what he expected. There, in the TV room sat Lance and Wanda, kissing as if they had been separated for ten thousand years. Lance sat back and it seemed that Wanda was between 12 to 18 inches from being fully in his lap. They sucked face and caressed one another furiously, not noticing the small pale green boy that stood in front of them, watching them with a slightly hurt look in his eyes. Todd watched them and fought back the urge to cry. After a long moment, Lance finally saw Todd looking at them and pushed Wanda back to speak.

"So you're home," Lance said flatly. "I guess this is a shock..."

"Duh, yo," Todd replied, finally finding his voice to speak. "But please, don't let me stop you guys from what you were doing. I was just going up to my room."

"Good! Go on and sulk you big baby!" Wanda shouted, showing off a surprisingly bitter tone with Todd that she rarely used. She didn't even know why she was yelling at him just that it felt good to let off some steam at him. She was tired of having to explain herself to everyone, especially someone who just didn't get it that she didn't like him. "I hope you cry and cry and cry!"

"...I hope I do. But not because you want me to, Wanda, but because I hope I can still cry for someone like you, yo." With that Todd hopped to the stairs and made his way to his room. Wanda tried to slide back into Lance's embrace but was pushed away by the rock tumbler.

"I should go see how he is," Lance murmured softly. Wanda frowned and scowled at the direction of the stairs.

"Lance, we talked about this. We like each other. Why do we have to explain ourselves to anyone else but each other? As far as I'm concerned, Todd is a little creep and he doesn't have the right to feel bad about me," Wanda said, her voice abnormally acidic and mean and short. Lance just looked at her for a long moment and sighed.

"You're going to say that, even as Todd sits up there and cries about you? He loves you, Wanda! I mean, I know I like you but damn...he saved your life and you don't even give him the common courtesy of letting him down a little easier." Lance stood up and walked to the stairs. "I'll be right back."

"Lance, if you go up those stairs, you can consider you and I to be over. I'm not hand holding that little wart while I'm here," Wanda said softly, her voice even colder then normal. Lance just looked at her and shrugged.

"He's my friend, Wanda. I need to talk to him."

***

For a long moment, Todd just stood in the center of his room and let the images wash in front of his eyes. He felt his irises change and swirl and the blood rushed to the tips of his face. But as soon as his face burned and fired up...it all stopped. All the feelings he had stopped being as sharp. He looked up and saw the small room he lived in just as it was: a small dark room in a not nearly as large as it could have been house in a shitty neighborhood. He saw everything so clear: He could stay in the Brotherhood house and be cold and miserable and only have Fred as a friend and watch Lance and Wanda make out and be bullied by Pietro and be intimidated by Mystique and shamed by Magneto...or he could try his luck with the X-Men. He could work as hard as he humanly could for once instead of just slacking off and he could prove everyone wrong.

As blind as he was to the truth, there was simply no reason to think otherwise. His face contorted into a sad, sardonic yet peaceful smile. He hopped to the closet and began to pull out clothing from the racks and shelves. Then he picked up a small suitcase and figured out what in the room he actually wanted to keep and what he could just as soon leave behind. Just as he began to put things in their proper order, a knock sounded at the door.

"Go away, yo," Todd said to the door in general. The knock repeated with more urgency. Todd sighed and stepped over to the door to open it. It was Lance, holding a sad look on his face.

"Can I talk to you, Todd?"

"It's a free world, yo. You'll just have to talk to me while I pack, yo," Todd said as he hopped back to the pile of things he was sorting. Lance stepped in and closed the door.

"You're packing? Where are you going?"

"The X-Mansion, yo. I'm leaving the Brotherhood, Lance. I just need to figure out what I'm taking and what I'm going to leave behind." Todd set a bunch of clothes aside and began to fold up a few shirts and his uniform for battle. Lance watched all this and frowned.

"Why are you leaving the house, Todd? What do you think the X-Geeks can offer you that we can't?"

"I think the X-Geeks can give me a second chance to not be a dirty outsider. Maybe they're wrong like we're wrong...but at least with them I won't have to be cold and alone and not appreciated as much, yo. I mean, I didn't come home last night cause Storm made me stay and then fixed me breakfast. She treated me like I was someone who needed a meal and a shoulder to cry on, yo. She didn't treat me like I thought they would," Todd said as he continued to stuff things into the small bag. He paused for a moment, looking down at the nearly full bag with a wistful smile. "Maybe I can learn what being accepted is like."

"...And you don't think you're accepted here?" Lance asked softly, still not able to believe what he was hearing. He didn't want Todd to leave...did he?

"No, Lance, I really don't. I really feel like I'm just not really a part of this team anymore. With Wanda here and Pietro being the hyper asshole he can be, I'm just not good enough here. No one has seen how much I've been trying to get better for everyone. You think I like getting my ass kicked by the goodie-goods when I go out and try to steal and pickpocket to bring money for this fucking house?!" Todd yelled, finally losing his cool and zipping up his now full bag and hoisting it on his shoulder. He hopped over to the door and stood up to yell some more things into Lance's face. "You think I like being lied to by Mystique and hurt by Magneto and ignored by you and insulted by Wanda, that fucking cunt?!"

"Todd...yo, I know we've been short with everyone around here, but don't go there about Wanda, man. It's not you. You're better then that," Lance replied, genuinely shocked at how things were turning out. He knew he had to find a reason to stay. "Just stay, Todd. I'll find a way to make things better. I swear it."

"Why are you offering now, Lance? Why weren't you offering two weeks ago when I came home beaten up by Duncan and his crew, yo? Why didn't you defend me when I begged Magneto to give me some backup so I could kick their asses? I showed him the security tape I got that had me being beaten by them and all he did is laugh and tell me I needed to fight for once!!" Todd screamed his voice about to break. For a moment, all his anger at being small and short and simple seemed to want to boil over but just as soon as it started it once again stopped. He sighed and looked up at Lance with a sad smile. "You just came too late, yo. I gotta go, yo. I gotta go do this...I gotta see if I can make it on the straight side for once..."

"...If they fuck with you, Todd, you come back home, ok? I promise that if you do, things will be different. I promise that," Lance said, his shoulders slumping slightly as he conceded defeat. "I'm sorry I was too late to keep you from going."

"Don't be. Who knows, yo? Mabye the X-Geeks have the right idea after all?" With that, Todd hopped past Lance and hopped down the stairs. He turned the corner and went into the kitchen where he saw a sheet of paper and a pencil on the counter. He penned a note as his eyes finally began to fill with tears, his cheeks reddening and flushing as the gravity of the situation began to finally show up in his mind. He finished the note and hopped back into the common room, taping the note to the TV as he went by. He nearly made it to the door before a voice stopped him.

"Where are you going, Toad?" Wanda said acidly.

"I'm leaving, Wanda," Todd said softly, "And my name is Todd. Todd Tolensky, in case you hadn't fucking noticed."

"Oh, so now you decide to get a backbone? Where are you going, Toad? Running away cause I don't like you like you like me?" Wanda said, her voice becoming spiteful and childish. For a moment, Todd wavered between telling Wanda where to go...but he decided to take the higher road.

"No. I'm leaving because I need to find out what it's like being in a place where people might be able to love me for me, warts and all. I ain't good looking but I'm someone's child, yo. That means I have a right to find happiness. I just hope you find happiness as well." He stepped to the door and turned the knob but looked back at Wanda with a sad smile. "You know, I do still love you, yo. It's a shame you don't love yourself." At that Todd left, leaving a speechless Wanda Maximoff to stare in his wake and wonder what just happened.

---

A/N: Wow! What a chapter. Now, some random notes:

1. I apologize if I offended any X23 fans in my previous A/N. I just feel so strongly that the pairing for Todd needs to be with either Todd/Kitty, Todd/Rouge (I'll explain that in a later section...mabye. :D) or Todd/Wanda that I'm kind of beginning to write the last real plot curves as based on relationships and such. But I still need ideas so please don't think I discounted your ideas! I appreciated all the feedback I've gotten to this point.

2. I know the Scarlet Witch is living up to her name in this part, but Wanda, like Todd, is going to go through a lot of changes in this fic. She's not explained now...but believe me, she will be. So all you pro-Wanda fans, don't be alarmed.

3. Please review. It's all the reward I have for writing these chapters. Please. I'm begging you.