Chapter 36

Truth of the Past

Kurt was numb. Life as he knew it was over. His identity was no longer a secret masked by the nickname 'Nightcrawler'. They knew his real name now, and if they didn't know who he was in relation to Kitty yet, they would soon. And once they knew that bit of information he could expect terrible physical pain as he was beaten within an inch of his life for abandoning her all those years ago. They probably would be disappointed that he had no protest with that idea, everything they threw at him he knew he deserved. He leaned limply against a tree trunk with his eyes closed as he awaited his fate, whatever it might be.

"Wait, you know him?" Bobby asked Kitty obviously confused.

"Yes, Bobby, she does. He is the man that she is married to." Jean replied, answering for the apparently speechless Kitty.

"She never said anything about him being blue and furry." Bobby complained. Kurt wanted to bang his head against the tree he was using as a support repeatedly.

"Bobby, do you think her parents would've agreed to marry their only daughter to me if they knew I looked like this?" Kurt hissed opening his eyes to give a cold venomous look to the Iceman.

"Well, um, no." He conceded.

"There, that is why she never said anything about me being blue and furry. She never knew about it." Kurt sighed.

"Remy wonders, how could you hide such an obvious trait from her?" Gambit asked before Bobby could come up with another silly question.

"A spell." Kurt replied simply.

"What kind of spell, how does it work?" Bobby asked curiously.

Kurt frowned; shouldn't Bobby be at his throat for being the husband who abandoned the girl he adores? Perhaps that hadn't fully clicked in his head yet. With a tired sigh he demonstrated his spell so that he wouldn't have to try to explain it. He thought a specific phrase in the Gypsy tongue, the only phrase he knew in that language, and did a few hand signs behind his back so no one could see them. It wasn't that he didn't trust any of them or feared that they would use what they saw to betray his somehow, it was simply old habit. Then he began to feel the first tickles of change. There was never any pain involved in the change; he was shielded from it by the nature of the spell and the speed of the change itself. In less than half a minute a swirling bubble of opaque, off-white light surrounded him, and then vanished revealing his human form.

"Hey! Y-you were that guy!" Bobby squeaked in excitement.

"What guy?" Piotr asked.

"The one who saved me from getting my head chopped off!" Bobby replied, still very excited. In fact, it seemed that he was so excited and grateful he scampered over and gave Kurt a hug. "Thank you so much!" Kurt knew that she was probably in no mood to answer him, but he asked her anyway.

"Can I hit him? Please?" He begged Kitty. She was still visibly upset, but she nodded her permission to him and Kurt went ahead and smacked Bobby on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Bobby asked sourly, releasing his grip to rub his sore head.

"I don't enjoy getting hugs from men who don't happen to be related to me." He explained. "And besides, this seems like an odd time to be enthusiastically thanking me."

"That's right, now start talking bub." Logan growled, appearing at Kurt's side seemingly by magic. Kurt felt himself break out into a nervous sweat.

"Ask away." He replied, looking towards Kitty for a starting point.

"How long have you been, well, blue and fuzzy?" Kitty asked after some thought.

"My whole life. That's why I have no mother. She took one look at me when I was born and ran off never to be seen again." Kurt replied.

"So, even when I knew you before, you looked like you do now?" She asked softly.

"Yes," he sighed sadly.

"Was I ever going to find out about this fact?" She demanded.

"Yes, of course. The plan was when you came to live with my family you would be told and shown everything. However, that never came to pass." He explained.

"Why did that not happen? Why did you disappear?" She asked the big question, her voice filled with a deep anguish.

"Simple, your parents found out about my dirty little secret, where horrified and appalled, and threw me out with threats against my life and the lives of my entire family. My retainers were in such a rush to whisk me away that there was no time to even give warning or leave a message." Kurt replied, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

"How did they find out?" She inquired.

"Good question, that's something that I would like to know as well." Kurt grumbled sourly. For a while there was silence and he almost began to think that was the end of it.

"Why didn't you ever say who you were before? You've led us around for well over a month, you had plenty of opportunities to speak up before. Why did I have to drag it out of you?" Kitty asked; her tone sad, confused, and hurt.

"Easy, I'm a gutless coward." Kurt snorted.

"You are?" Kitty asked sounding very confused. "You weren't one the last time I checked."

"Perhaps I should explain." Kurt mused as he abandoned his spot at the tree to sit closer to Kitty and move away from Logan's intimidating presence. "If I told you who I was as soon as I spotted you, would you have believed me? And if I proved it to you, what would you have thought of me? Probably what you think now, maybe even worse than that. That was a situation I was hoping to avoid." Kitty looked off deep in thought and Kurt allowed himself to relax.

"So do your pants still have a tail hole?" Bobby asked suddenly.

"No, dank sei Gott. The spell takes care of little things like that. It would be something of a problem if I had to cart around a spare pair of pants for whenever I change shapes." Kurt muttered.

"Oh, so that explains why you're wearing boots now." Bobby replied in understanding.

"Exactly." Kurt confirmed, rubbing at his wedding band that had magically materialized along with his boots.

"Hmm, if you had that spell all along, why didn't you slip into the towns after us to see what we were up to?" Jean asked curiously.

"I dislike using my spell unless it is necessary, which is most of the time. It renders me almost completely human and I cannot access my Cursed abilities and I find that bothersome and uncomfortable. So I generally avoid any area or situation that would call for looking like a normal person." Kurt explained. Then he found a question of his own. "Just what are you doing out here? You never told me."

"We didn't tell you because it didn't look like you could follow us into town and help. And the fewer people know what we're doing here the better." Logan growled from where he stood by the tree.

"Ah, I see." Kurt muttered.

"Now let's get going, we've wasted enough time." The feral man grumbled, stalking off to prepare to break camp.

Exhausted by the round of questions, Kurt trudged off to wait with Schwarzi as the others prepared to leave. With a stretch and sigh he collapsed next the black stallion that was lying on the soft, leafy forest floor. As he rested against Schwarzi's black flank he reversed the spell with practiced ease breathing a sigh of relief once the change was complete. Schwarzi was used to these magical transformations and didn't pay it any mind, but the other horses around him snorted and stamped nervously. While he waited he considered his drastic change in fortune. His name and identity was no longer a secret so there was no longer any need to worry about discovery. So far, they hadn't decided to beat him to a bloody pulp, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't change their minds later. Kitty still had to absorb and mull over all that she had seen and what he had told her. Once her shook wore off he would see what her decision concerning him was. And now, I wait…