Back again!

Here's another chappie, and some more moral/emotional conflicts in this one.

Thanks for reviewing! Enjoy!

Ch. 3

In the well of cold that Kitty had lost consciousness in, a small streak of warmth hit her. She shivered, and tried to move, but found that she couldn't. Something was restraining her.

Struggling again, a weight grabbed her on the shoulder, and pulled her over slightly. She groaned at a pain in her back, and cringed, feeling blindly what was there.

The weight came again, but this time another force picked her up, and set her down lightly. How far away from her original spot, she couldn't tell.

She felt again towards her back, surprised to find that there were bandages wrapped around her middle. With a great deal of willpower, she opened her eyes.

Two feet stood next to her head, behind them a fire. Her vision kept blurring, so she couldn't even tell how far away the objects were.

The feet stepped back a little, and a blurry blue face leaned down next to her.

"Hey, Katzchen." The soft, caring voice of a fuzzy blue elf reached her ears.

"K . . . Kurt?" Kitty tried to get up, but Kurt's hand pushed her back down to the ground.

"En ze fur!" He said happily, but no smile came to his face.

"Where are we? And why do I hurt? . . . Ow . . ." Kitty groaned a little, a hand clenching her bandaged stomach.

"Vell, I found you in a puddle, and you had a gash across your stomach from something. So, I made a camp." Was there . . . smugness in that last comment?

Wait . . . Kurt made a camp? He couldn't even figure out how to use the microwave!

"But . . . How . . ."

Kurt blushed slightly. "I had to carry you. You aren't that heavy, you know. Must be the veggie diet, no?"

"Well, yeah! I mean, come on! Like, everyone who eats animals and things always end up fat and stuff!"

He huffed. "Not everybody."

A quizzical look possessed her face. "What do you mean by that?"

"Me."

Kitty looked down at his body, and noticed that he was no longer wearing a shirt. She quickly turned away, blushing redder than a ripe tomato. This was too much. "Kurt, would you, like, put some clothes on or something?"

He smirked. "I can't."

"Huh?"

"You're wearing my shirt."

She lifted up the bottom of her shirt slightly, and realized that the bandages that were around her middle were actually shreds of shirt.

His shirt.

"You . . . did this for me?"

"Ja. That's a bad cut in you, Keety." He smiled warmly to reassure her. "Not very deep, but I was afraid that I was going to lose you."

She blushed more, if possible. "Yeah, uh, thanks." The weirdest thing was, was that she didn't even really know why she was blushing.

It was only Kurt after all.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak! Rumble rumble!

Kurt laughed. "Looks like someone's hungry!"

Kitty laughed with him, and sat up slowly. The pain in her torso was more annoying than anything else, but there was no point in making the wound worse.

"So, what do we have?"

"Fish, fish, and look!" Kurt turned around to the fire, showing several long scars that criss-crossed on his back. From the fire, and the spit above it, he pulled off two large fish, carp by the look of them.

"More fish." His comical smile faded slightly, seeing Kitty's reaction to it. "Look, this is all I got, so unless you have any ideas about what to eat, then this is what you get."

Kitty took the fish on a stick and grimaced. "I guess this one time won't hurt . . ." She took a bit out of it, and considering it had no spices added to it, it was surprisingly good.

"Hm." She mumbled in a mouthful. "Not bad."

"You get used to it."

Kitty's eyes widened, as Kurt's saddened. Not with shock, but with a combination of other things.

Kurt's point of view

I shook my head, trying to rid my head of all those horrific images . . . of hate. Why did everyone have to go on appearance? I was just sick of it.

I took a bite of fish. The smell and taste brought back even more memories. Living on my own in the woods because my German village hated him . . . Just for my looks.

I shook my head again, chewing on the fish. At that moment it had no taste. All that I thought about was . . .

"Why'd you go?" I looked up at Kitty, the sadness in me was too great to hide, and from the look she gave me back, I knew that I hadn't hid it very well.

I did my best to smile, but it faded quickly. "Because I don't belong there." Turning back to the flames, I couldn't have faced her eye to eye then.

"That's it?"

A little irritated, I turned back to her. "Ja! I mean, how many creatures in the vorld look like me anyvay?"

Kitty's eyes were screaming something, but what? "I thought that you said that looks don't matter . . ."

"Not to us, Keety. But to everyone else in the vorld, I'm just a monster."

My head hung. "And nothing more."

"But that's what the institute is for, right?" I heard her take another bite of fish. "To --"

"Get control of our powers, I know!" I snapped, perhaps a little too harshly. "I have control over my powers, Keety. Not over my looks."

"But . . ." I looked up at her, demanding without words that she come up with a good explanation of why I had to be like this, and everyone else didn't have to be.

"We care about you . . ." Her voice was barely a whisper.

"'We'?" My voice was rising, but I didn't care. "WE?! Come on, Keety, you know the truth. The professor cares, but not all that much. He has other things to vorry about. Logan doesn't care at all. The only reason why he's here is to figure out his past, and nothing more."

"But --"

"WHO Keety?!?! Who?! Scott? Jean? Spike? Rogue? And even my own mother doesn't care!! WHO CARES ABOUT A FUZZY ELF?!!?"

Kitty looked back up at me, tears so thick in her eyes they were glossy. "Are you that blind, Kurt?"

My rage was gone, now replaced with so much guilt I could have cut it with a knife.

"Why would you care about me, Keety?"

"Who wouldn't?" Her tears had begun to fall, but she was smiling. She didn't need to say anything:

I could stare that smile for hours.

She lay down, facing away from the fire. I sat on the opposite side, doing the same. "Goodnight." She said softly.

"Goodnight, Katzchen." I looked over at my branch "backpack" that she had rolled onto. I was going to have to replace that.

I sighed, my sadness less than the last three days.

The three days that she hadn't woken up.

Now on to Logan and Beast . . .

"I am so gonna kill that elf when I get my hands on him . . ." Logan sneered, clenching his hands into fists, shaking one up in the air. Three days out in the wood, and still hardly a sign of them.

"That's if we can find him first. He's much harder to track than I thought." Beast sniffed the air. Still nothing.

He and Logan had set out the night after they found out that Kurt had gone, but it was incredibly hard to track him. Only a few two-toed footprints here and there, but it looked like he went to the trees later, and the rain had washed most of the scent away.

This was getting difficult.

Beast swung up to the treetops, and checked more of the branches. "I think that we should have left earlier, Logan. It's hopeless right now. Plus I can hardly see in this dark."

"Seein' as your appearance ain't exactly a noel prize winner, I think this was a better idea. 'Sides, we at least came prepared." He pointed to their backpacks. Smirking, he said, "If there's one thing that will bring Fuzzy back, it's food."

"What about Kitty?" Beast asked, swinging down and landing on the ground with a loud thump.

"I don't really see why she left in the first place, but she and Fuzzy always seem to find each other."

Beast nodded at Logan's comment. If Kitty had indeed come looking for Kurt, she might be able to bring them back. The scientist highly doubted that mere food could bring Kurt back, since he hadn't even brought anything with them.

Why did he leave?

"Hey, fuzzball! You comin'? I think I got a whiff of 'im!"

Beast sighed. Tracking someone was one thing, Logan said he actually enjoyed it. But Beast guessed it was all a matter of who with. He sighed once more before running after the metal-boned man on all fours.

His thoughts could wait until tonight.

However, another set of yellow eyes were watching them.

End chapter.

All right, there's another one. Thanks again for the people who are reviewing, it's encouraging.

Next chappie in a week! (if people review, that is)