"Sehr Gut, Kurt," congratulated Amara. "Now, the next page."
"One side will make you grow taller, the other will make you grow shorter." Read Kurt slowly. "One side of what? The other side of what?" thought Alice to herself. "Of the mushroom," said the Caterpillar..."

Six weeks had passed since Kurt had finally accepted Charles' offer of a place amongst the X-Men. It was now the first Monday of the winter break, and the students, still in the habit of rising early, were mostly crowded around the dining room. Amara was helping Kurt with his English, reading from a book she'd found in the library. She glanced around the room at the others.
At one end of the table, Evan and Jamie were looking at a skating magazine and arguing over which board design was better. Bobby, Jubilee and Rahne were sitting to one side, listening to the argument and making the occasional comment. Rogue and Kitty sat nearer to the center of the table, wondering why they had bothered to get up at this time of morning; Scott and Jean were across the table from them, engaged in some obscure argument over how big a jerk Duncan Matthews was.
At the far end of the table sat the adults. Ororo was at the head of the table, reading the morning newspaper and patently ignoring the two men on either side of her. Logan's hair had mostly grown back, although he was still being teased about the makeover that Hank had given him. Recently Logan had taken to carefully sniffing out anything he saw before touching it, in order to ensure that Hank had not tampered with it. Hank sat directly across the table from Logan. His fur had mostly regained its normal hue, and aside from a nervous tic that had started in the corner of one eye, he seemed perfectly calm. He wasn't. The two men sat, unmoving, glaring suspiciously at one another. Neither man had dared to sleep at all for the past five nights, and both were approaching their respective limits. Currently, the betting pool as to when, exactly, one of them would undergo a nervous breakdown was at $250, and increasing every day.

Amara resumed listening to Kurt, to whom she had recently become rather attached. Unlike the rest of these peasants, he showed her a decent amount of respect. It's not just that... her conscience began. Quiet, you, she thought at it. It was then that a voice caught her attention.
"Kurt?" called Charles from the doorway. "Could you come over here for a moment, please?"
Kurt closed his book and stood. "Danke, Amy, du bist..."
"Ah!" Amara wagged a finger at him. "In English!"
Kurt grinned, then bowed and kissed Amara's hand. "Thank you, Amy," he said clearly. "You are very kind with me." With that, he strolled away to where Charles waited. The others regarded Amara with amused expressions.
"Amy?" asked Jean incredulously.
Amara blushed. "It's short for Amara. He won't stop calling me that," she muttered. "Stupid peasant thinks he's so funny..."
Rogue and Kitty grinned and exchanged glances with Jubilee.
"You know," commented Rogue, "to 'teach someone a new tongue' is just a figure of speech..."
"Like, yeah," agreed Kitty. "Although it DOES add a whole new meaning to the term 'international affairs'..."
"So," asked Jubilee, "are we gonna hear about any 'trans-country relations' taking place?"
Amara looked at the paintings on the wall and scowled furiously in an attempt to hide crooked smile from the others. She failed. Dismally.

Kurt reached the Professor's chair. "Yes, herr Professor?" he asked.
"Here." Charles offered something to Kurt. "Put this on."
Kurt took the proffered object – an expensive-looking sports watch – and buckled it onto his wrist. He examined the object closely. "Danke, herr Professor, but why give me..." Kurt trailed off expectantly.
Charles smiled. "Press the top button once and the lower button twice," he ordered. Kurt did so, and gasped involuntarily at the change.
He was normal. Pink skin. Five fingers. His large feet appeared to be in sneakers. He looked just like everyone else.
"How... how is this possible?" he whispered.
"It is a holographic projection," explained Charles. "It should allow you to go out with the others in public, and perhaps extend the boundaries of you world." He met Kurt's eyes and smiled warmly. "I thought it rather unfair that you should spend all your time in the shadows..."

Everyone jumped as Kurt let out a whoop and leaped into a series of backflips that carried him back across the room. Righting himself, he tightly hugged the nearest person. That person happened to be Amara, who squeaked as her eyes went wider than dinner plates. Kurt didn't notice; instead he broke away from the embrace and walked over to a mirror set into one wall. Watching his reflection, he raised one pink hand and touched his human-looking face. As he did so, somewhere deep inside of him, a great weight fell off his heart. For the first time in almost three years, laughter began to bubble up inside of him, and he opened his mouth and let it come. Tears of joy pricked the backs of his eyes. He laughed because he was happy; he laughed because he was free; he laughed because he was alive and well, against all odds.
At long last, he was safe. He had finally found his place.

01500-4127 was dead.

Long live Kurt Wagner.

The End