Kurt teleported Alistaire up the driveway.
BAMF!
X23 turned with a smile towards the noise. She wrinkled her nose as the wind brought the subtle (to us, anyway) smell of brimstone on the breeze.
"Ahh!" Alistaire shook it off. "That's … disorienting." He said at last looking back down the driveway.
"Re-orienting if you ask me." Kurt smiled.
"Yes. Maybe that's a better way to put it." He smiled. "It was so sudden."
Kurt crossed his arms and nodded. "I can't get over the English interest in Mutancy. Back in the U.S. I had to be disguised all the time. I have mutant friends who don't leave Xavier's because of their appearance."
"Living like shut-ins?" Alistaire asked, shocked.
Kurt smirked. "Trust me, Xavier's place isn't exactly the worst place in the world to be cooped up."
Alistaire's eyes glazed over slightly and he whispered. "It's sad, none the less."
Kurt nodded and spoke slowly. "Yeah. Maybe it is."
Kurt's nerves suddenly went active and he stood up strait. "I'll meet you inside Alistaire." He gestured. "Go on ahead."
"Sure thing." Alistaire finished sniffing his sleeve curiously as he wandered away. "Humph.".
Kurt spun slowly on his heel as he spoke. "Yeassssss?" He asked in to the darkness.
A large shadow near a stack of boulders giggled. "How'd you know?"
"I used to practice this game with Logan." He told her.
She emerged from the shadows and he could see the concern on her face.
"What is it?" He pressed.
"I don't know yet." She looked around, considering everything. "I met… Forge today."
Kurt looked towards the lighthouse. "Oh, he's here?"
"Yeah." She looked towards the house and then back at him. "But… He spoke… in my head… before I met him."
"What?" Kurt was puzzled. "How?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. But he… helped me. On the boat. He… told me what to say… when I was hungry."
Kurt absorbed this. "What did he say when you met him?"
"He knows he did it. We talked all about it." She looked away.
Kurt leaned back on his heels. "Forge likes to figure things out." He said at last. "And he likes to explain things. I don't know how or why he was speaking in to your head … But I don't think he meant any harm."
"I don't think so either." She looked back towards the lighthouse. "But…" She swallowed.
"What is it?"
"Does he live here now?" She asked quietly.
"For a while, maybe longer. Is that a problem?"
She shook her head. "No. It's… good. Just… scary."
Kurt looked at her in concern.
She blushed. "In… in a good way." She looked away, slightly shy.
"Oh!" Kurt understood. "I see." He looked back and forth between her and the lighthouse. "I guess… my best advice is… just…" He swallowed. "Take it slow?"
She took a deep breath and a step towards the lighthouse.
Kurt fell in to step beside her.
She looked him in the face. "Thank you." She said softly. "For helping me out of the water."
He reached out without thinking and stroked her hair back affectionately. "Anytime." He smiled.
She idly touched her hair, thinking about how he had just touched her. That was … nice… She thought. And … I let him touch me… She realized, half shocked.
Well… it IS just Kurt… She smiled and followed him inside.
"What the…" Kurt looked around. The entire lighthouse interior was bathed in light.
Small robots skittered around and flew by.
"Forge?" Kurt called out.
"In here!" He called out from a room at the top of the stairs.
Kurt climbed the stairs slowly, taking it all in. It's clean! Did he repaint too? Hey, wasn't there a hole there before?
Even X23 was shocked. After all, Forge hadn't been there all that long.
The railing no longer shook or chipped. The stairs no longer looked as though they might give. They looked stronger and more stable.
Kurt slipped in to the room in question. It was X23's.
No longer was the room drafty. In fact the windows were sealed and the room brightly lit.
"Look at what he's doing!" Kitty smiled at X23. "It'll be done tonight!"
X23 looked around in amazement. Small robots were creeping along the ceiling, installing track lighting. The 'vacuum' was spinning glass like a web, filling in the windows before it went back to eating away the ruined carpet away to reveal the hardwood floor underneath.
Forge stood calibrating his control pad. "I don't understand…" He looked at a hole in her wall. "They wont fix it."
She smiled. "That hole… belongs there." She said.
"Oh." Forge looked at it, tilting his head. It was just a hole that went through the wall and in to the closet. Instead of telling the robot to fill it – he instructed it to make it symmetrical and frame it. It jumped to work right away.
"What's it for?" He asked her.
She just shook her head and smiled.
Her door was back on its hinges and she noticed that he had installed a lock that could only be opened from the inside. She reached out and turned the lock. It was strong and solid, but moved with a fluid precision.
She looked at him and he smiled in understanding.
"Thank you." She said quietly, and she turned and slipped out of the room.
Kurt turned and looked at Forge. "Really, thank you." He intoned.
Forge just shook his head at Kurt. "You're living here – alone - with two girls?" He smiled a big, wide, mocking grin. "Wagner, abandoned house or not – You know how to live."
Alistaire laughed. "You should have been here the day I found them all in bed together."
Kurt looked at him. "Alistaire!"
"Well, he's from the U.S., remember?" He smiled, offered his arm to Kitty and walked out with her.
Kurt shook his head and laughed. "It's been a great night." He said at last, watching the little machines scurry and work.
And then it all seemed to slip away. "Do me another favor?" Kurt asked him. "A bigger one?"
"Sure. Anything." Forge looked around.
Kurt looked concerned. "I don't know exactly what happened to her, but …"
Forge looked out the door without any doubt as to who they were talking about. "She's been hurt, somehow." He agreed.
"Used." Kurt told him. "By a man …unless I miss my guess. And she's both… fragile … and volatile, right now."
"How bad?" Forge asked.
Kurt closed his eyes and took a deep, long breath in through his nose.
Then he exhaled slowly and met Forge'e eyes with his own.
"She was over her head in bloody, shark infested water … and debated taking my hand to get out."
"Damn." Forge dropped his head, and he seemed for a moment to be lost in a shadow, in the center of the brightly-lit room.
Kurt swallowed. "She's getting better… But it's going to take time."
Forge nodded. "And space." He added. And faith, trust, hope, dedication, resolve, perseverance… "I get it."
"Thanks." Kurt smiled sincerely. "I mean it."
Forge nodded, and then it seemed that an idea occurred to him. "Oh, by the way, don't use the gas. The whole system leaks. I had to turn it off at the source but there's still some in the pipes."
Kurt nodded several times and with a hint of a smile he said: "I'll try and keep that in mind."
