*Chapter 13*
~What's In A Name?~
Zero mentally growled as he shoved his hands deep into his coat pockets. The late November weather was absolutely miserable. According to his holo-watch, it was 1:00 PM but it looked more like 6:30 PM as high gray clouds smothered the sun's cold light. Gusts of cold wind were made stronger by the artificial canyons formed by the numerous skyscrapers. The air temperature was so low that some shaded puddles were beginning to ice over. Anybody who had to be outside today was bundled up in heavy coats, gloves, scarves, and hats to protect themselves from the wind and cold. Zero growled aloud this time.
"Where are we going?" Zero asked.
"You'll see." Kitty replied in a teasing, singsong voice.
"Tell me." He growled as he struggled to keep up with the fast pace she was setting.
"No." She chirped while weaving effortlessly through the sidewalk traffic.
"Slow down." Zero grumbled as he clumsily followed her lead.
"No." Kitty repeated. "I want to get there before it gets too dark." She explained.
"Where are we going?" Zero asked again.
She gave him no answer. He glared venomously at her back. It took all his self-control to keep his tail from thrashing too violently, sometimes it could slip out of his holographic disguise if he did that. She just made him so mad sometimes that he wanted to hit something. At first, he'd been able to ignore her; but the more contact he had with her, the more she affected him. Over the past month, she found every single string and button he possessed and yanked and pressed all of them. No one back at the Facility had ever managed to do that, but they hadn't really tried either. So long as he obeyed their every command, so long as he was a good boy, they left him alone.
"Hurry up slowpoke! This way!" Kitty called out to him as she darted around a corner, Zero almost had to run to catch up.
The street they were on now was narrower and much less crowded then the last, which was a small relief to Zero, he really hated crowds. Kitty slowed her pace slightly and looked at the signs of various small shops that lined the far side of the street. Zero began to wonder if this walk was really a shopping trip in disguise. But Kitty never crossed the street to enter any of the stores, she just kept on walking. This went on for several blocks as they walked in silence.
"Are we there yet?" Zero snapped in frustration. The cold wind was getting strong enough to pierce his fur and the unpleasant sensation was making him irritable.
"Almost." Kitty calmly replied. Zero glared at her, wasn't she cold at all? She certainly didn't look like it. Suddenly Kitty stopped nearly causing Zero to trip over her.
"What are you stopping for?" He growled.
"What do you know about Chicago?" Kitty asked.
"Not much, why?" He replied, irritated and confused by her sudden change of subject.
"Just tell me what you know." She firmly commanded.
"Chicago is a large, modern city located near the middle of America. It has a lot of tall buildings. It has a lot of traffic. A lot of people live in Chicago. It's very cold and windy. That's it." Zero answered in monotone. A devious smile slowly formed on Kitty's face.
"Close your eyes." Shadowcat commanded.
"What?" He asked warily.
"Close your eyes." She insisted.
"Why should I?" Zero asked suspiciously.
"Close. Your. Eyes." Kitty slowly repeated.
"Fine." Zero growled and finally did as he was told.
"Now keep them closed and no peeking." She warned.
"Whatever." Nightcrawler grumbled. He jerked in surprise when he felt a pair of hands grab a hold of his shoulders.
"Relax," she laughed. "It's just me. Now let's go, and remember, no peeking." Kitty ordered.
"Why do I have to keep my eyes closed?" Zero asked nervously as he stumbled blindly ahead.
"It's a surprise!" Kitty chirped while she pushed him from behind.
"What if I run into something?" Zero wondered.
"You won't run into anything silly." She replied.
"How do you know?" Zero challenged.
"I'll make sure you won't, now relax! Don't you trust me?" Kitty asked jokingly.
"No, I don't." Zero seriously replied.
"Well you should." Kitty said, sounding a bit hurt at his answer.
"Are we almost there?" Zero grumbled.
"Almost, just one block more." She softly replied. After walking a block, though it felt like more, she stopped him. "Okay, you can look now." She whispered in his ear. Zero swallowed and opened his eyes.
"What am I looking at?" Zero asked after several minutes of confused silence.
"What do you think it is?" She cheerily asked.
"Uh, the ocean?" He asked, feeling very stupid.
"No, try again!" She giggled.
"The sea?" Zero guessed feeling really, really stupid.
"Nope!" Kitty giggled.
"Then what is it?" Zero grumbled, no longer in the mood for her game.
"That is Lake Michigan." Shadowcat gleefully stated. Zero scanned the horizon silently for a minute.
"That can't be right, it's too big to be a lake." Zero replied.
"But it is a lake." Kitty insisted.
"Whatever." Zero mumbled.
"Really, it is a lake." She insisted. Zero remained silent, there was no way the massive body of water he was looking at was a lake.
"Come on, I'll prove it." Kitty declared. She grabbed his wrist and proceeded to drag him off the cold sidewalk and onto the equally cold sand.
"Hey, let go!" Zero snapped as he struggled to conceal his nervousness. How exactly was she planning to prove this to him?
"Now," Kitty began as they stopped just short of the water's edge. "Taste a little bit of the water. If it's salty, then I'm wrong. But if it isn't, then I'm right."
Zero noticed her determined expression and realized she was being completely serious about this. Then he looked down at the water, it didn't look all that clean to him but he supposed that was why he was only supposed to taste a little bit of it. He freed his left wrist from her grip and crouched down to stick his finger in the water. It was like sticking his finger in liquid nitrogen and he couldn't help jerking his hand back. Zero felt the girl's eyes on him as he brought his damp fingertip to his mouth and hesitantly tasted it. It didn't taste very good, but it wasn't salty. Kitty was right, it was a lake.
"I told you so." She replied with a smug smile on her face.
"Whatever." Zero mumbled as he slowly stood back up.
"Come on, let's go." Kitty said and tugged on his sleeve.
Zero obediently trudged after her as she strolled along the cold, abandoned beach. The wind gusted stronger and colder than it had in the city and Zero began to shiver. High above a pair of gulls wheeled silently as they rode the wind gusts in the colorless, cloudy sky. Zero shoved his hands deep into his pockets and curled his half-numb tail around one leg in an attempt to keep a little bit warmer. Kitty still didn't look all that cold to him. After a good ten minutes or so of walking Zero had had enough.
"Can we go back inside now?" Zero asked, not caring if it sounded like he was whining.
"Hm? Oh sure, I guess so." She mumbled distractedly. She turned to lead him back the way they'd come but Zero's patience had run out. He was sick of the cold and the wind and refused to stay outside a moment longer. He marched up behind her and firmly grasped her shoulders.
"Shortcut." He whispered in her ear before she could ask him anything. Within a fraction of a second, Zero visualized the main room of the apartment, and with a little concentration, brought them there. In the blink of an eye, the scenery of the beach was replaced with the yellow-orangish walls of the living room. He then pulled off his coat, hung it on a hook by the door and flopped down on the couch without a word. The girl stared at him the whole time.
"Thanks for the ride." She said after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. "But next time a little more warning would be nice."
"Fine." He mumbled as he switched on the TV. Before he had any chance to relax, Kitty flopped down next to him. She scooted up against his side, pinning him between her and the arm of the couch. She kicked off her slip-on sneakers and tucked her feet beneath her as she snuggled tightly into his side. "W-was-?"
"I'm cold." She interrupted. "And I'm not going to move until I warm up again." Kitty declared.
Zero swallowed hard, he was trapped. Zero struggled not to squirm as the American girl cuddled against him, seeking to steal some of his body heat. Zero swallowed again and tried to focus on the TV hoping that it would help him ignore her presence. It almost worked too had she not messed with his holo-watch. Out of nowhere Kitty reached over and pressed the two buttons, which activated and deactivated the watch's hologram function, which caused his disguise to blur into static before disappearing. It seemed he'd been wrong before in thinking she wasn't cold. She was actually colder than he was. When she touched his wrist he found her hands were colder than the lake water.
"Why did you do that?" Zero asked, greatly confused.
"You don't need it anymore, you're inside." She mumbled into his shoulder.
"Do you have to sit so close?" He grumbled.
"Yes, so get over it already." She muttered while deftly snatching the remote from Zero's hand. "Do you know what Thursday is?" She asked. Zero was really starting to hate how quickly and easily she changed the subject on him.
"Nein." He quietly replied.
"It's Thanksgiving. I don't suppose you know what that is, do you?" Kitty asked quietly.
"Nein, no I don't." Zero replied.
"Basically, it's a holiday where people gather together with their families and eat a lot of good food." Kitty explained.
"Oh." Zero mumbled, really wishing she'd shut up and go away.
"Since my family lives pretty close to the city, I was thinking of asking Mr. Logan if we could go visit for Thanksgiving. Would you like to come?" Kitty asked looking at him hopefully.
"Sure." He grumbled. Maybe if he agreed to everything she asked him, she'd go away sooner.
"Great!" She chirped flashing him a bright smile before hugging him.
"G-get off!" Zero yelped, weakly trying to twist away from her grasp.
"Wait," she said suddenly, loosening her grip. "There could be a problem. How am I supposed to introduce you to my parents?" Kitty asked worriedly.
"What do you mean?" Zero asked, squirming slightly.
"I mean when you come over and meet my parents, what am I supposed to say your name is?" She asked.
"Tell them anything you want." Zero grumbled.
"Tell them what? Your designation? Or one of your nicknames? That's not going to cut it with them I need a real name to tell them." Kitty insisted.
"Make up whatever name you want." Zero replied.
"I don't want to. I lie enough to them already, I'd rather give them a little bit of truth then a complete lie." Kitty said forcefully. Zero turned to face Kitty and saw that she was serious.
"I don't have a name." Zero flatly responded. She stared blankly at him.
"Don't be stupid, of course you have a name." Kitty replied.
Zero remained silent, he really didn't have a name. Once, in another life, he'd had one, but not now. That innocent little boy had died years ago and the name went with him. Now he was nothing, people could call him whatever they wished because he had no real name. He was nothing. Nothing never needed a name so neither did he. But Kitty didn't seem to see this, she was asking him to raise the dead with that question, and that was one thing he wouldn't do. He turned back to face the TV.
"I really hate lying to them, but if I told them the truth then they'd take me away. I'd lose all my friends, my teachers, my second home. I like what I do, but if they ever knew, then it would all be over for me. They think that they sent me to an elite boarding school for Mutants. They think I'm here working on some special research projects for my classes. If we go there to visit for Thanksgiving, Mr. Logan becomes my history teacher and you would be a classmate. But that's just another lie like my school and the class project. I'm so sick of lying to them." Kitty half-whispered.
Why she'd started talking was a total mystery to Zero. At first he didn't even know who or what she was talking about, but somewhere in the middle it became clear. She was talking about her parents and why she lied to them. They had no idea what their daughter was really doing. They thought they'd just sent her to some special boarding school, not a Mutant group that worked for the American government. She wanted to be honest with them, but if she was they'd steal her away from her friends and teachers who she seemed to value as much as her mother and father.
Perhaps she was trying to appeal to some emotion of his to persuade him into giving her a name. Or maybe she was just talking to herself and never really meant for him to hear it. Whatever her purpose truly was didn't matter to him. He didn't care. Her family meant nothing to him. Her friends meant nothing to him. He didn't know them. They didn't know him. Their fate did not interest him in the slightest. Kitty's lies and her heavy conscience were none of his concern.
"Please." Kitty whispered. "Please tell me."
She hugged his left arm loosely while one of her hands gently stroked the soft blue fur of his forearm. She was petting him, just like mama used to do when he was lonely or sad. A warm, tingly sort of sensation slowly drifted up his arm and over his body. Zero slowly turned and glanced at the girl who was clinging to his arm. Normally she looked either bright and happy or dark and very angry. But now she looked so sad and alone. She'd sounded a little upset earlier when he'd said that he didn't trust her, and he wondered if that meant that she trusted him. The silly little girl who used to be afraid of him now trusted him, and she didn't even know his name.
"Kurt Wagner." He said. Kitty stopped petting him and looked up confused.
"What?" She asked.
"My name is Kurt Wagner." He softly replied. Kitty smiled.
"Kurt Wagner, that's a nice name." She murmured as she leaned her head on his shoulder and began to pet him again. It was a good name he supposed, too bad it wasn't really his name. But since she wanted him to have a name, this would have to do. That little boy that he used to be was dead and gone, he didn't need that name anymore.