The steaming water in the jacuzzi-sized round bathtub felt like a lover's caress as Adara sank down into it. The candlelight danced and seperated into a million golden fragments as she swirled the water with lazy satisfaction. It was the first time she'd felt good in months. The harp piece "Heaven on Earth" by Hilary Stagg was playing in the background, compliments of her portable stereo and Adara started daydreaming abstractly. Funny, she and Shayda had never taken a bath together. He'd been romantic in other ways, but had never thought of that. Sighing, she took the Camille Beckman rose scented bath gel and poured it onto the blue netted poof sponge in her hand, luxuriating in the smell. She wondered if there were rose gardens around the mansion and determined to take a long leisurely stroll around the place tomorrow. It was so nice to be a lady for a change. It was times like this that she wished she could just throw her powers away and be a normal human being.
After a slow, deliberating bath, Adara finally rose out of the water to grab a towel. But she sensed a change in the air that stopped her in her tracks, and froze. She suddenly felt not alone anymore...
Kurt arrived up in the corner of the room, as was his habit. It was safe up by the ceiling, with no chance of anyone standing on his mark. However, unlike his habit, he arrived with his eyes closed. A bit nervous? Of course. Even if Ororo had "reserved" this room for this hour, it was still the woman's bath. Despite her explicit invitation, he did feel a bit like an adolescent boy peeking through a keyhole.
Stop being so shy about it, Wagner, he chided himself. You've effectively been invited into Ororo's private room. You are expected. Stop acting like a bashful schoolboy.
He opened his eyes and froze. The lithe young woman in the bath was most definitely NOT Ororo. He swallowed hard, trying to get past the cue ball that had somehow lodged itself in his throat. A hotly embarrased flush rose to his face. Unbidden and unnoticed, the tip of his tail shook like a rattler's. This was the second time he had come upon this woman bathing.
Something's gone wrong! Adara didn't invite you in! Get out of there, you idiot! What are you staying up here for? Go!
For some reason, he just couldn't move. He could barely breathe. Fingers strong enough to crush golf balls gripped the molding nearby and started to dig in. Adara turned quickly at the soft sound of wood being crushed, towel held up to her neck.
She had just finished rubbing lotion on her posterior when she heard the noise above her. The LAST thing she expected to see was a big, blue demon stuck to the ceiling like Superglue, but there he was...Kurt...frozen and staring like a deer caught in headlights. DAMN him! Why was he always showing up at the worst moments? And always when she was NAKED???
Her primal instincts kicked in and she screamed like a banshee before tearing out of the room in a blur. She ran to her room and slammed the door, locking it. Was he going to follow her everywhere? Was no place safe? She fell back onto the bed and screamed into her pillow.
Adara's scream snapped Kurt out of his shock. She tore out of the room before he could say a word. He sat up in the corner for a few seconds longer, trying to release his death grip on the walls. Murmured female voices echoed in the hallways, one he recognized as Rogue.
"What was she doin' in there?" Rogue asked. "Storm had the tub tonight."
"Maybe they traded?" another girl asked in reply.
"Maybe Storm found her and got ticked off," yet another said. "Sounds like she got the hell shocked out of her."
"Oooh, lightning in the tub. That's gotta hurt."
"Doesn't the new girl make lightning herself?"
They were drawing closer. They couldn't find him in there. The shame was already more than he could bear. He teleported out, back to his own room, materializing on his bed. This was awful. An absolute nightmare. He had frightened the woman twice, and in the same way.
No, he reminded himself. Not frightened. Violated. You may as well have ripped her clothes off yourself as sit there and leer. How could you have committed such a mortal sin?
He should have left the second he saw her. His actions were inexcusable. Unforgivable. Adara could have become a teammate, but not anymore. She would never be able to look him in the eye without the memory of this violation. Kurt had not only wounded her, he had failed his new family as well.
Kurt curled up and grabbed his head in his hands. Panic and shame boiled up. He couldn't catch his breath. What could he possibly say to make this right? What could he possibly do? He looked over to his desk, at the rosary and the bible. He had no right to touch either of them with such filthy hands. Then his gaze dropped down to the bottom left drawer. He stared at for a few seconds, then slowly moved off the bed.
There was only one way to do this.
As the shock subsided and Adara caught her breath (and her wits), guilt took over. She'd just been thinking about herself. Maybe it WAS just an accident that he had been there. And a stalker with evil intentions wouldn't have been so protective of her on the Blackbird. During the short time she had been conscious prior to her blackout, he had been very shy and apologetic. He was as scared of HER as she was of HIM. Then why had he been in the bathroom? Who was he intending to meet in there? Why couldn't he just have knocked? Adara felt even more stupid when logic kicked in and she realized she must have scared over half the students out of their beds. What an impression she was making. The Professor would have her shipped out in the morning, she was sure!
She rolled over on her side and stared out the open window. She should apologize to him, or at least explain herself. Most importantly, she wanted him to know that she knew he was not an enemy now. They couldn't work together if they were both paranoid.
Adara sighed. She had to get a drink of water anyway, so she padded down the hall (in a silky white but still somewhat conservative nightgown with a robe now) and started the search for Kurt's room. Most of the doors were closed and the mansion was HUGE. Where could it be? Maybe she should just get her water and talk to him in the morning. But she was restless, so she went anyway.
As she approached the stairs, she heard someone coming up at a moderate pace. It was the same scruffy-looking man, though this time without the beer and wearing jeans and t-shirt. He stopped and looked her up and down with an appreciative frown.
"Nice outfit," he said. "I guess you're the new girl?"
"Uh, yeah, you might say that." Something about this man sent her senses on edge. "I'm Adara."
"Logan," he said, extending his hand.
She shook it. Blue sparks literally flew between their hands as she let go, and both let out cries of surprise.
"I'm sorry!" she said, shaking her hand at the wrist. "I don't know why that happened. I didn't mean to do that!"
Logan clenched and unclenched his fist. Adara watched with horrified fascination as tiny electric burns, pinpricks of black, receded into his skin. Soon they were entirely healed.
"No, my fault," he said. "Prof told me about you. I should've known. My skeleton's laced with metal. It must have triggered something."
A metal skeleton? No wonder she felt so strange around him. How the hell did he get that? Then she remembered Kurt, the main reason she was out here.
"Um, listen, not to be rude or anything, but do you know where Kurt's room is?" she asked in a rush. "I kind of need to talk with him."
"Up on the top floor, end of the hall to your left." Logan smiled. "He might not be in, though. Storm was talking about meeting him after dinner."
Adara grew pale. "Did she say where she was going to do that?"
Logan's smile evaporated, replaced by a suspicious frown. "No. There some kind of trouble?"
Adara hit herself on the head. That must have been it! That was why the bathroom had candles and everything! She was going to meet Kurt there! THAT'S why he just teleported in.
"Oh, man," she moaned.
She bolted by Logan and bounded up the staircase. Logan wrinkled his nose and kept walking down the hallway to his room. Whatever was going on with her, it smelled more like embarrassment than fear. If it had something to do the Kurt and Ororo, he sure as hell wasn't getting involved.
Adara's heart was hammering so hard she thought it was going to set off a fireworks display through her head. She stood at Kurt's door and listened for signs of life. She could hear nothing. Finally, she knocked. "Kurt?" she stammered, feeling like a mouse. "Can I talk to you?"I...I didn't mean to barge in." she stammered, looking at him wide-eyed. "I called you, but you didn't answer. Do you want me to go?"
She heard no reply. Was he angry? Hell, was he even there? She put her ear to the door to listen and could just barely make out Kurt's voice. She couldn't tell what he was saying, but the even, rhythmic cadence made it sound like a chant. She tried the doorknob and found it open.
She peeked into the darkened room, lit by a single candle in a red votive cup. The flickering light revealed Kurt's silhouette, facing away from her and kneeling on the floor. He must have his arms crossed somehow in front of him. His tail trailed off into the darkness. There was a small open box to his right. Was that Latin? Whatever it was, it was definitely a chant, and she knew enough to recognize the word "dominus". Was he religious?
Wouldn't that beat all, Adara thought as she watched. A guy who looks like the devil, praying.
Still chanting, Kurt reached over into the box and slowly brought out a scalpel.
Kurt had the scalpel inches from his chest when he heard Adara sneeze. He blinked, stopping his hand and his chant. He stayed that way for a second, his arm suspended, and Adara sneezed again. The last sound started to shake him from his trance. He twisted at the waist to look behind him, his eyes blank, and caught Adara's frightened gaze.
"I...I didn't mean to barge in." she stammered, looking at him wide-eyed. "I called you, but you didn't answer. Do you want me to go?"
He stayed that way, knees pointed away, shoulders turned towards her, for several seconds. For anyone else it would have been a strain,yet he held the torturous, twisted position easily, with the flexibility of a contortionist. To Adara's relief, he slowly dropped the scalpel to the floor. Confusion slowly spread on his face, replacing that frightening, blank stare. Then, as if someone flipped a switch in his mind, recognition blossomed. He turned away and bowed his head.
"Please forgive me for what I have done," he whispered. "I never meant to harm you. I did not realize you were there. I was expecting someone else, but I should have left when I saw you." His next words were barely audible. "I'm so sorry."
The tears that had threatened to spill out of Adara's eyes finally did so when this revalation made her realize she was the cause of his suffering. "I should have never came to this school." she said, struggling to steady her voice. She was glad she was in the shadows where he couldn't see her...at least so she thought. She didn't realize he had night vision. "I've made everybody's life miserable."
*She* made everyone's life miserable? He was the one who had done this. Why would she feel responsible? He looked back over his shoulder again. She was crying. She held her voice steady, but Kurt saw the gleam of tears as they ran down her cheek.
"I was the one to violate your privacy," he said softly. He turned around completely, a bare-chested silhouette with gleaming yellow eyes. "You have always been welcome here. The sin is mine, not yours."
In the candlelight, he looked more like a shadowy gargoyle than ever. To Adara, he was both threatening and alluring, his yellow eyes like beacons that sought her very soul. She could read the story of his life in his scars. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he'd been through a lot.
"It's not a sin if it's not intentional.." she said. "And I bet ten thousand to one my sins are worse than yours."
She pinched her nose to squelch another sneeze. Kurt glanced back at the scented candle. It must have been triggering her allergic reaction. He bent over it and blew it out. Only the window, the curtains drawn to each side, gave light now, and it was dim indeed. Adara held her breath as she realized that Kurt was gone, without a sound or the whiff of sulfur. But a second later, the lamp on his end table turned on seemingly by itself. She almost jumped. Kurt was standing at the end table, his hand on the switch, even though she KNEW no one had been there seconds ago. He was utterly invisible in the shadows.
She could see more of him, now. He was only wearing a pair of jeans, a pair that must have been very new, considering their unfaded, deep indigo. Adara was used to jeans clinging tightly, outlining every line, every curve of the wearer. His clung tightly to his slender waist, but was loose everywhere else, flaring out at the bottoms. It must have been troublesome for him to get his long, oddly-shaped feet through anything more confining. He turned towards her, his tail swishing back and forth with slow, lazy movements.
"If you wish, I can open the window," he offered. "I think the candle and you do not agree."
Adara smiled slightly at this wry humor, still keeping her distance from him as she sat with her knees up, hugging them. "I'm always a sucker for cool night air."
Her glance darted from his face to his well-formed, though exotic body, to the
room and its spartan decor. Her discreet gaze fell again to his jeans and she had to admit that for a demon lookalike, he looked damn good in them. And that tail...it was almost scandalous. Now SHE was the one having sinful thoughts! Then she noticed the scars again and returned to her previous concern. "Why do you cut yourself like that? They look like symbols of some kind."
Kurt opened the window, letting in a cool night breeze. To Adara's distraction, he then turned and sat on the sill facing her, half in and half out of the window. He perched on the edge, his toes curling around the wood. Was he trying to keep his distance for her sake or his?
"One for each sin," he said quietly. "It is...a personal matter between myself and God."
Adara winced in guilt. She should have known better than to ask him such a question. And she should have known better than to ask her NEXT question, but she blurted it out anyway.
"Who WERE you going to meet in the bathroom, anyway? Or is that none of my business either?"
He sighed. "It is not important. What is important is that I did not expect you to be there. I did not intend to frighten you so, though it seems I have done so twice now. Herr Xavier provides a place of safety. The last thing I would want is for you to leave. It isn't safe for you outside, so it seems."
His gaze darted away to several different corners of the room before he forced himself to look at her again. The one person who didn't know what he'd done, someone with an untainted opinion, and here he was about to tell her. He took a steadying breath.
"I was forced to make an attack on the President of the United States," he said.
Adara's eyes widened. "You what?"
He looked away again. The subject was less than comfortable. "Only now do I remember little bits of it. One minute I was in an abandoned church, the next I'm on the President's desk with a knife in my hand and fire in my arm." He touched his left arm, running his finger along a scar that seemed bulky and out of place with the other fine lines that adorned his body. "I'm told I went through the entire secret service to get to him. They had no hope of stopping me."
Adara could feel her anger rising, not at him, but at whoever had done this to him. They sounded like the creeps who had held HER prisoner, and made her do things against HER will.
"Who did this to you?" her eyes glittered in the semi dark. "No WONDER you have issues! There's nothing I hate worse than bullies with power trips who will step on anyone's toes to get what they want. Does the public know by now that it wasn't your choice to do that? That you were being controlled? God, I HAVE been underground too long..." She closed her eyes and rubbed them stressfully.
"President McKenna knows the truth," he replied. "Xavier found the files on the Weapon X program and made them known. We hand-delivered them to his desk." He paused. "I cannot say the President was happy to see me again. He almost jumped out of his chair." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "But we must have made a good impression somehow, as the warrant for my arrest is no more. As to what the public believes...." He shrugged. "They believe what suits them. It is nothing new. Outside of the circus, I have never been so well thought of."
"That makes two of us." Adara smirked. "People didn't think much of me before I went out of the public eye either." She paused, looking up at him with interest. "You were in the circus? Wow, you HAVE been around!"
He cocked his head, curious. "How could you not be well thought of? I would think any man would be fortunate to stand at your side."
His comment completely caught her off guard. She was so flattered she was speechless, but felt like she didn't deserve it. Especially when he knew nothing of her past. "You don't know me." she shook her head, hoping he didn't see the furious blush that flooded her face. "I was a troublemaker even before the Air Force...and my later confinement. People thought I was a freak even as a teenager. I never fit in anywhere. It wasn't just my pale skin and bright eyes that threw them off.. I was a loner. And to tell you the truth, I liked it that way. I found my peers...immature." Her eyes sparkled with anger from past memories. "My ability to set things on fire and light up the lives of those around me started when I was 13. Most girls just get their periods. I went through a baptism of fire. "
He regarded her with a different air, now. Gone was the frightened, self-castigating guilt. Gone was the confusion and uncertainty. It wasn't so much he took control of the situation as he blended in. He gracefully stepped off of the sill, never once using his arms to steady himself. His feet seemed to grip and relax more like talons than toes. His movements were so fluid and so alien....
I never thought I'd be using that word in a positive light again, Adara thought.
He gestured to the chair by his desk. "You cannot be that comfortable on the floor. Would you rather sit here?"
She looked him up and down quickly so he wouldn't think she was ogling him. There didn't appear to be any burns. He LOOKED ok. But she couldn't tell. It was just another excuse to check him out. Then again, she always went for the unconventional men. Not that he would EVER know that...at least not for now. Besides, she had her suspicions that he and Storm were getting it on. She blocked out the wave of jealousy and longing that threatened to sweep over her at the thought. Every man she had gotten a crush on had rejected her. She wouldn't allow herself to like him too much...or to fall in love. He would just be another failure. It was a pattern of expectation that had come of too many disappointments. She would feel lucky if he would just be her friend. At least that way, she didn't have to guard her heart. It was a game she was used to playing. Be just nice enough to them to win their friendship, but hold back the rest if they didn't want more. And they never did. Adara had learned to stop trusting men a long time ago, especially the ones that seemed too good to be true.
She now gazed out the window as a soft breeze came through the window. Feeling a little hot, she walked slowly closer to it, but still stood about three feet away from Kurt. The breeze lifted her hair in sections and blew it in slow motion. For a moment she got lost in it, staring at the full moon outside as it lit up her face and shone in her eyes.
Kurt moved aside to grant Adara better access to the window. Interesting. She seemed so tense before, curled up by the door as if afraid. He expected her to stay that way. The fact that she decided to draw near was curious. Did she fear him, or didn't she?
It could be that she's not even thinking of me right now, he thought. The way she stares out the window, she must be staring somewhere else. She has such bitterness inside, just under the surface, and so much she aims at herself.... Are all American women so angry underneath? Or is it just the outcasts that I see?
"The moonlight suits you," he told her.
She blinked and turned to him. "I'm sorry?"
He reached up and moved a lock of her hair out of her face with one finger. "I said, the moonlight suits you. You are at home in it, even if you do not feel at home here."
She closed her eyes and bit her lip as Kurt lightly touched her face in the process of moving her hair. He retracted his hand; her face was very warm. She was still on the edge of tears. Kurt could hardly believe it was all stemming from him.
"I think, Adara, that I am not the one who should be speaking right now," he said, his voice low. "If you need to unburden your heart, at any time, I would be willing to listen. Nothing you tell me would leave my lips."
Adara kept up the tough act. ::Keep it casual, never let him know your true feelings:: she told herself. "It's just my allergies." she congratulated herself on the godawful coverup.. "Makes my eyes water." She hastily wiped her eyes on her arm, then backed up. The breeze was getting stronger through the window. "I'm tired...I'd better go." She looked at him with a slight smile. "I'm glad we finally got to properly introduce ourselves. 'Night, Kurt."
Adara walked out of the room, a million thoughts and feelings chasing through her head. Kurt looked after where she had gone for a long pause until a suddenly-appearing figure in the window suprized him. It was Ororo.
Kurt stepped back as the smiling woman glided up to the sill and hovered. "You should keep your window closed, Kurt." she joked. "There's a weather watch tonight."
He invited her into his room by way of an extended hand. "Ororo, where were you? I went to the bath, but--" He bit off his words and quickly changed gears. "Did I have the wrong time?"
Ororo shook her head, feeling a little guilty and smiling. "No, Kurt. I was tired, so I fell asleep a little longer than I thought." She paused and sniffed the air slightly. "It smells like roses in here."
She picked up on the rose-lotion Adara was wearing. Wonderful. None of his incense, nor his candle, gave off that smell. Well, did he tell her the truth, and risk her hating Adara? Or did he lie through his teeth, and risk Ororo finding out and hating them both? He sighed and ran his fingers through his curly hair as she landed in the room. Honesty always worked best. At least it would be over sooner.
"Ororo, you didn't warn Adara about 'bath reservations', did you?" he asked quietly.
Ororo threw her head back and sighed in exasperation as she replied, "No, I forgot all about it. My fault. Don't worry about it, Kurt." She smiled and walked closer to him. "Remember the 'rain check' on that kiss?" She tilted her head slightly in that mock-innocent way she had and linked her bare arms around his neck.
Kurt gave her a wide, incredulous grin. She knew? Of course, she had to know. She must have heard Adara scream all the way through the mansion. Everyone else surely did. She understood it was an honest mistake on both their parts. A great weight lifted from his chest as he pulled her closer, shutting the open window with a push of his tail. Perhaps the night was not a complete loss after all.
After a slow, deliberating bath, Adara finally rose out of the water to grab a towel. But she sensed a change in the air that stopped her in her tracks, and froze. She suddenly felt not alone anymore...
Kurt arrived up in the corner of the room, as was his habit. It was safe up by the ceiling, with no chance of anyone standing on his mark. However, unlike his habit, he arrived with his eyes closed. A bit nervous? Of course. Even if Ororo had "reserved" this room for this hour, it was still the woman's bath. Despite her explicit invitation, he did feel a bit like an adolescent boy peeking through a keyhole.
Stop being so shy about it, Wagner, he chided himself. You've effectively been invited into Ororo's private room. You are expected. Stop acting like a bashful schoolboy.
He opened his eyes and froze. The lithe young woman in the bath was most definitely NOT Ororo. He swallowed hard, trying to get past the cue ball that had somehow lodged itself in his throat. A hotly embarrased flush rose to his face. Unbidden and unnoticed, the tip of his tail shook like a rattler's. This was the second time he had come upon this woman bathing.
Something's gone wrong! Adara didn't invite you in! Get out of there, you idiot! What are you staying up here for? Go!
For some reason, he just couldn't move. He could barely breathe. Fingers strong enough to crush golf balls gripped the molding nearby and started to dig in. Adara turned quickly at the soft sound of wood being crushed, towel held up to her neck.
She had just finished rubbing lotion on her posterior when she heard the noise above her. The LAST thing she expected to see was a big, blue demon stuck to the ceiling like Superglue, but there he was...Kurt...frozen and staring like a deer caught in headlights. DAMN him! Why was he always showing up at the worst moments? And always when she was NAKED???
Her primal instincts kicked in and she screamed like a banshee before tearing out of the room in a blur. She ran to her room and slammed the door, locking it. Was he going to follow her everywhere? Was no place safe? She fell back onto the bed and screamed into her pillow.
Adara's scream snapped Kurt out of his shock. She tore out of the room before he could say a word. He sat up in the corner for a few seconds longer, trying to release his death grip on the walls. Murmured female voices echoed in the hallways, one he recognized as Rogue.
"What was she doin' in there?" Rogue asked. "Storm had the tub tonight."
"Maybe they traded?" another girl asked in reply.
"Maybe Storm found her and got ticked off," yet another said. "Sounds like she got the hell shocked out of her."
"Oooh, lightning in the tub. That's gotta hurt."
"Doesn't the new girl make lightning herself?"
They were drawing closer. They couldn't find him in there. The shame was already more than he could bear. He teleported out, back to his own room, materializing on his bed. This was awful. An absolute nightmare. He had frightened the woman twice, and in the same way.
No, he reminded himself. Not frightened. Violated. You may as well have ripped her clothes off yourself as sit there and leer. How could you have committed such a mortal sin?
He should have left the second he saw her. His actions were inexcusable. Unforgivable. Adara could have become a teammate, but not anymore. She would never be able to look him in the eye without the memory of this violation. Kurt had not only wounded her, he had failed his new family as well.
Kurt curled up and grabbed his head in his hands. Panic and shame boiled up. He couldn't catch his breath. What could he possibly say to make this right? What could he possibly do? He looked over to his desk, at the rosary and the bible. He had no right to touch either of them with such filthy hands. Then his gaze dropped down to the bottom left drawer. He stared at for a few seconds, then slowly moved off the bed.
There was only one way to do this.
As the shock subsided and Adara caught her breath (and her wits), guilt took over. She'd just been thinking about herself. Maybe it WAS just an accident that he had been there. And a stalker with evil intentions wouldn't have been so protective of her on the Blackbird. During the short time she had been conscious prior to her blackout, he had been very shy and apologetic. He was as scared of HER as she was of HIM. Then why had he been in the bathroom? Who was he intending to meet in there? Why couldn't he just have knocked? Adara felt even more stupid when logic kicked in and she realized she must have scared over half the students out of their beds. What an impression she was making. The Professor would have her shipped out in the morning, she was sure!
She rolled over on her side and stared out the open window. She should apologize to him, or at least explain herself. Most importantly, she wanted him to know that she knew he was not an enemy now. They couldn't work together if they were both paranoid.
Adara sighed. She had to get a drink of water anyway, so she padded down the hall (in a silky white but still somewhat conservative nightgown with a robe now) and started the search for Kurt's room. Most of the doors were closed and the mansion was HUGE. Where could it be? Maybe she should just get her water and talk to him in the morning. But she was restless, so she went anyway.
As she approached the stairs, she heard someone coming up at a moderate pace. It was the same scruffy-looking man, though this time without the beer and wearing jeans and t-shirt. He stopped and looked her up and down with an appreciative frown.
"Nice outfit," he said. "I guess you're the new girl?"
"Uh, yeah, you might say that." Something about this man sent her senses on edge. "I'm Adara."
"Logan," he said, extending his hand.
She shook it. Blue sparks literally flew between their hands as she let go, and both let out cries of surprise.
"I'm sorry!" she said, shaking her hand at the wrist. "I don't know why that happened. I didn't mean to do that!"
Logan clenched and unclenched his fist. Adara watched with horrified fascination as tiny electric burns, pinpricks of black, receded into his skin. Soon they were entirely healed.
"No, my fault," he said. "Prof told me about you. I should've known. My skeleton's laced with metal. It must have triggered something."
A metal skeleton? No wonder she felt so strange around him. How the hell did he get that? Then she remembered Kurt, the main reason she was out here.
"Um, listen, not to be rude or anything, but do you know where Kurt's room is?" she asked in a rush. "I kind of need to talk with him."
"Up on the top floor, end of the hall to your left." Logan smiled. "He might not be in, though. Storm was talking about meeting him after dinner."
Adara grew pale. "Did she say where she was going to do that?"
Logan's smile evaporated, replaced by a suspicious frown. "No. There some kind of trouble?"
Adara hit herself on the head. That must have been it! That was why the bathroom had candles and everything! She was going to meet Kurt there! THAT'S why he just teleported in.
"Oh, man," she moaned.
She bolted by Logan and bounded up the staircase. Logan wrinkled his nose and kept walking down the hallway to his room. Whatever was going on with her, it smelled more like embarrassment than fear. If it had something to do the Kurt and Ororo, he sure as hell wasn't getting involved.
Adara's heart was hammering so hard she thought it was going to set off a fireworks display through her head. She stood at Kurt's door and listened for signs of life. She could hear nothing. Finally, she knocked. "Kurt?" she stammered, feeling like a mouse. "Can I talk to you?"I...I didn't mean to barge in." she stammered, looking at him wide-eyed. "I called you, but you didn't answer. Do you want me to go?"
She heard no reply. Was he angry? Hell, was he even there? She put her ear to the door to listen and could just barely make out Kurt's voice. She couldn't tell what he was saying, but the even, rhythmic cadence made it sound like a chant. She tried the doorknob and found it open.
She peeked into the darkened room, lit by a single candle in a red votive cup. The flickering light revealed Kurt's silhouette, facing away from her and kneeling on the floor. He must have his arms crossed somehow in front of him. His tail trailed off into the darkness. There was a small open box to his right. Was that Latin? Whatever it was, it was definitely a chant, and she knew enough to recognize the word "dominus". Was he religious?
Wouldn't that beat all, Adara thought as she watched. A guy who looks like the devil, praying.
Still chanting, Kurt reached over into the box and slowly brought out a scalpel.
Kurt had the scalpel inches from his chest when he heard Adara sneeze. He blinked, stopping his hand and his chant. He stayed that way for a second, his arm suspended, and Adara sneezed again. The last sound started to shake him from his trance. He twisted at the waist to look behind him, his eyes blank, and caught Adara's frightened gaze.
"I...I didn't mean to barge in." she stammered, looking at him wide-eyed. "I called you, but you didn't answer. Do you want me to go?"
He stayed that way, knees pointed away, shoulders turned towards her, for several seconds. For anyone else it would have been a strain,yet he held the torturous, twisted position easily, with the flexibility of a contortionist. To Adara's relief, he slowly dropped the scalpel to the floor. Confusion slowly spread on his face, replacing that frightening, blank stare. Then, as if someone flipped a switch in his mind, recognition blossomed. He turned away and bowed his head.
"Please forgive me for what I have done," he whispered. "I never meant to harm you. I did not realize you were there. I was expecting someone else, but I should have left when I saw you." His next words were barely audible. "I'm so sorry."
The tears that had threatened to spill out of Adara's eyes finally did so when this revalation made her realize she was the cause of his suffering. "I should have never came to this school." she said, struggling to steady her voice. She was glad she was in the shadows where he couldn't see her...at least so she thought. She didn't realize he had night vision. "I've made everybody's life miserable."
*She* made everyone's life miserable? He was the one who had done this. Why would she feel responsible? He looked back over his shoulder again. She was crying. She held her voice steady, but Kurt saw the gleam of tears as they ran down her cheek.
"I was the one to violate your privacy," he said softly. He turned around completely, a bare-chested silhouette with gleaming yellow eyes. "You have always been welcome here. The sin is mine, not yours."
In the candlelight, he looked more like a shadowy gargoyle than ever. To Adara, he was both threatening and alluring, his yellow eyes like beacons that sought her very soul. She could read the story of his life in his scars. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he'd been through a lot.
"It's not a sin if it's not intentional.." she said. "And I bet ten thousand to one my sins are worse than yours."
She pinched her nose to squelch another sneeze. Kurt glanced back at the scented candle. It must have been triggering her allergic reaction. He bent over it and blew it out. Only the window, the curtains drawn to each side, gave light now, and it was dim indeed. Adara held her breath as she realized that Kurt was gone, without a sound or the whiff of sulfur. But a second later, the lamp on his end table turned on seemingly by itself. She almost jumped. Kurt was standing at the end table, his hand on the switch, even though she KNEW no one had been there seconds ago. He was utterly invisible in the shadows.
She could see more of him, now. He was only wearing a pair of jeans, a pair that must have been very new, considering their unfaded, deep indigo. Adara was used to jeans clinging tightly, outlining every line, every curve of the wearer. His clung tightly to his slender waist, but was loose everywhere else, flaring out at the bottoms. It must have been troublesome for him to get his long, oddly-shaped feet through anything more confining. He turned towards her, his tail swishing back and forth with slow, lazy movements.
"If you wish, I can open the window," he offered. "I think the candle and you do not agree."
Adara smiled slightly at this wry humor, still keeping her distance from him as she sat with her knees up, hugging them. "I'm always a sucker for cool night air."
Her glance darted from his face to his well-formed, though exotic body, to the
room and its spartan decor. Her discreet gaze fell again to his jeans and she had to admit that for a demon lookalike, he looked damn good in them. And that tail...it was almost scandalous. Now SHE was the one having sinful thoughts! Then she noticed the scars again and returned to her previous concern. "Why do you cut yourself like that? They look like symbols of some kind."
Kurt opened the window, letting in a cool night breeze. To Adara's distraction, he then turned and sat on the sill facing her, half in and half out of the window. He perched on the edge, his toes curling around the wood. Was he trying to keep his distance for her sake or his?
"One for each sin," he said quietly. "It is...a personal matter between myself and God."
Adara winced in guilt. She should have known better than to ask him such a question. And she should have known better than to ask her NEXT question, but she blurted it out anyway.
"Who WERE you going to meet in the bathroom, anyway? Or is that none of my business either?"
He sighed. "It is not important. What is important is that I did not expect you to be there. I did not intend to frighten you so, though it seems I have done so twice now. Herr Xavier provides a place of safety. The last thing I would want is for you to leave. It isn't safe for you outside, so it seems."
His gaze darted away to several different corners of the room before he forced himself to look at her again. The one person who didn't know what he'd done, someone with an untainted opinion, and here he was about to tell her. He took a steadying breath.
"I was forced to make an attack on the President of the United States," he said.
Adara's eyes widened. "You what?"
He looked away again. The subject was less than comfortable. "Only now do I remember little bits of it. One minute I was in an abandoned church, the next I'm on the President's desk with a knife in my hand and fire in my arm." He touched his left arm, running his finger along a scar that seemed bulky and out of place with the other fine lines that adorned his body. "I'm told I went through the entire secret service to get to him. They had no hope of stopping me."
Adara could feel her anger rising, not at him, but at whoever had done this to him. They sounded like the creeps who had held HER prisoner, and made her do things against HER will.
"Who did this to you?" her eyes glittered in the semi dark. "No WONDER you have issues! There's nothing I hate worse than bullies with power trips who will step on anyone's toes to get what they want. Does the public know by now that it wasn't your choice to do that? That you were being controlled? God, I HAVE been underground too long..." She closed her eyes and rubbed them stressfully.
"President McKenna knows the truth," he replied. "Xavier found the files on the Weapon X program and made them known. We hand-delivered them to his desk." He paused. "I cannot say the President was happy to see me again. He almost jumped out of his chair." He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "But we must have made a good impression somehow, as the warrant for my arrest is no more. As to what the public believes...." He shrugged. "They believe what suits them. It is nothing new. Outside of the circus, I have never been so well thought of."
"That makes two of us." Adara smirked. "People didn't think much of me before I went out of the public eye either." She paused, looking up at him with interest. "You were in the circus? Wow, you HAVE been around!"
He cocked his head, curious. "How could you not be well thought of? I would think any man would be fortunate to stand at your side."
His comment completely caught her off guard. She was so flattered she was speechless, but felt like she didn't deserve it. Especially when he knew nothing of her past. "You don't know me." she shook her head, hoping he didn't see the furious blush that flooded her face. "I was a troublemaker even before the Air Force...and my later confinement. People thought I was a freak even as a teenager. I never fit in anywhere. It wasn't just my pale skin and bright eyes that threw them off.. I was a loner. And to tell you the truth, I liked it that way. I found my peers...immature." Her eyes sparkled with anger from past memories. "My ability to set things on fire and light up the lives of those around me started when I was 13. Most girls just get their periods. I went through a baptism of fire. "
He regarded her with a different air, now. Gone was the frightened, self-castigating guilt. Gone was the confusion and uncertainty. It wasn't so much he took control of the situation as he blended in. He gracefully stepped off of the sill, never once using his arms to steady himself. His feet seemed to grip and relax more like talons than toes. His movements were so fluid and so alien....
I never thought I'd be using that word in a positive light again, Adara thought.
He gestured to the chair by his desk. "You cannot be that comfortable on the floor. Would you rather sit here?"
She looked him up and down quickly so he wouldn't think she was ogling him. There didn't appear to be any burns. He LOOKED ok. But she couldn't tell. It was just another excuse to check him out. Then again, she always went for the unconventional men. Not that he would EVER know that...at least not for now. Besides, she had her suspicions that he and Storm were getting it on. She blocked out the wave of jealousy and longing that threatened to sweep over her at the thought. Every man she had gotten a crush on had rejected her. She wouldn't allow herself to like him too much...or to fall in love. He would just be another failure. It was a pattern of expectation that had come of too many disappointments. She would feel lucky if he would just be her friend. At least that way, she didn't have to guard her heart. It was a game she was used to playing. Be just nice enough to them to win their friendship, but hold back the rest if they didn't want more. And they never did. Adara had learned to stop trusting men a long time ago, especially the ones that seemed too good to be true.
She now gazed out the window as a soft breeze came through the window. Feeling a little hot, she walked slowly closer to it, but still stood about three feet away from Kurt. The breeze lifted her hair in sections and blew it in slow motion. For a moment she got lost in it, staring at the full moon outside as it lit up her face and shone in her eyes.
Kurt moved aside to grant Adara better access to the window. Interesting. She seemed so tense before, curled up by the door as if afraid. He expected her to stay that way. The fact that she decided to draw near was curious. Did she fear him, or didn't she?
It could be that she's not even thinking of me right now, he thought. The way she stares out the window, she must be staring somewhere else. She has such bitterness inside, just under the surface, and so much she aims at herself.... Are all American women so angry underneath? Or is it just the outcasts that I see?
"The moonlight suits you," he told her.
She blinked and turned to him. "I'm sorry?"
He reached up and moved a lock of her hair out of her face with one finger. "I said, the moonlight suits you. You are at home in it, even if you do not feel at home here."
She closed her eyes and bit her lip as Kurt lightly touched her face in the process of moving her hair. He retracted his hand; her face was very warm. She was still on the edge of tears. Kurt could hardly believe it was all stemming from him.
"I think, Adara, that I am not the one who should be speaking right now," he said, his voice low. "If you need to unburden your heart, at any time, I would be willing to listen. Nothing you tell me would leave my lips."
Adara kept up the tough act. ::Keep it casual, never let him know your true feelings:: she told herself. "It's just my allergies." she congratulated herself on the godawful coverup.. "Makes my eyes water." She hastily wiped her eyes on her arm, then backed up. The breeze was getting stronger through the window. "I'm tired...I'd better go." She looked at him with a slight smile. "I'm glad we finally got to properly introduce ourselves. 'Night, Kurt."
Adara walked out of the room, a million thoughts and feelings chasing through her head. Kurt looked after where she had gone for a long pause until a suddenly-appearing figure in the window suprized him. It was Ororo.
Kurt stepped back as the smiling woman glided up to the sill and hovered. "You should keep your window closed, Kurt." she joked. "There's a weather watch tonight."
He invited her into his room by way of an extended hand. "Ororo, where were you? I went to the bath, but--" He bit off his words and quickly changed gears. "Did I have the wrong time?"
Ororo shook her head, feeling a little guilty and smiling. "No, Kurt. I was tired, so I fell asleep a little longer than I thought." She paused and sniffed the air slightly. "It smells like roses in here."
She picked up on the rose-lotion Adara was wearing. Wonderful. None of his incense, nor his candle, gave off that smell. Well, did he tell her the truth, and risk her hating Adara? Or did he lie through his teeth, and risk Ororo finding out and hating them both? He sighed and ran his fingers through his curly hair as she landed in the room. Honesty always worked best. At least it would be over sooner.
"Ororo, you didn't warn Adara about 'bath reservations', did you?" he asked quietly.
Ororo threw her head back and sighed in exasperation as she replied, "No, I forgot all about it. My fault. Don't worry about it, Kurt." She smiled and walked closer to him. "Remember the 'rain check' on that kiss?" She tilted her head slightly in that mock-innocent way she had and linked her bare arms around his neck.
Kurt gave her a wide, incredulous grin. She knew? Of course, she had to know. She must have heard Adara scream all the way through the mansion. Everyone else surely did. She understood it was an honest mistake on both their parts. A great weight lifted from his chest as he pulled her closer, shutting the open window with a push of his tail. Perhaps the night was not a complete loss after all.