Ororo had no idea how long she slept once she made it to her own room. It could have been a few hours, it could have been an entire day. All she knew was that the afternoon sunlight greeted her eyes when next she opened them. She lay in bed for a few minutes longer, not quite willing to leave, and turned away from the light. As she did, she saw that there was something on the table a few feet away from her. She blinked a few times, forcing her eyes to focus. It was a loaded tray. Not one of the heavy plastic ones for everyday use, but a silver tray, with a silver teapot, china cup, white-wrapped sandwich, and a few red roses arranged casually in front of it all.
She sighed as she slowly rolled out of bed, a smile on her lips. There was only one person who would go to that much trouble for her.
She stood gingerly at first, expecting that searing "you shouldn't be out of bed" fire to lance into her once more. But now the pain in her right side had dulled to something much more manageable. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she could straighten up without her stoic mask. In the mirror she could see the mark, a dull, reddish-brown, vaguely regular circle, similar to a healing burn. Considering one was able to see daylight through it a few days ago, it was still hard to believe it had mended so well. There might not even be a permanent scar when it was done.
She padded softly over to the table and poured what she expected to be water or cool tea out of the teapot. To her pleasant surprise, it was coffee, and it was still warm enough to steam. This wasn't one of their insulated containers. When did Kurt bring this up? Had he been checking in on her every fifteen minutes? Or did he just have extraordinarily good timing?
You're going to make me feel guilty with all this attention, Kurt, she thought as she unwrapped the sandwich. Not that I don't appreciate it…..
She hadn't been hungry when she woke up, but at the first bite of food, she found herself nothing short of ravenous. She devoured the sandwich in short order, and bolted her coffee after that. After finishing off the small pot, she glanced down at the roses.
That's it, Ororo. When you think about eating the roses, it's time to raid the kitchen. Goddess, I haven't been this hungry in years. One sandwich should have been enough, and I've had enough coffee to have me doing handsprings all day….
She tossed on some clothing and headed out. The halls were all clear, and she heard little of the usual institute activity downstairs. Classes must have ended. A quick glance out of a nearby window confirmed her suspicions: on a beautiful, warm day like this, most of the students were outside. She'd probably get to the kitchen without interruption. But as it turned out, she wasn't so much interrupted on the way as she was sidetracked by the voices in the common room.
"Sorry, guys, but I don't have any blue," a student (was it John?) said. "I want red."
Kurt must have snorted very loudly for Ororo to hear him at this distance. "You are not sorry. That's another Draw Four Wildcard, isn't it?"
"Uh… yeah, it is."
John's words were immediately followed by hoots and cheers. Curious, Ororo looked into the room. Kurt was sitting at the table with six other students, playing a card game. Judging by the size of the drawing pile, there were at least two or three decks combined into one. Also, judging by Kurt's expression, and the large pile of Uno cards gathering at his spot, he wasn't doing very well. He sat at the table, chin in his hand, and sighed as John drew four more cards from the main deck and added them to Kurt's heap. At that point, one of the players facing the doorway saw Ororo.
"Miss Munroe! Are you doing okay?" she asked.
The rest of the table turned to see her. As Kurt turned the rest of the way, Ororo saw that one of his eyes was completely red where the whites should have been. She winced.
"Better than Mr. Wagner, it seems," she answered as she walked in. She pointed to her left eye. "How did that happen?"
"Oh, this?" he asked back. He looked down with a slightly embarrassed grin. "It's nothing. Sometimes this happens when I have a bloody nose. Some blood vessels burst in my eye. It looks worse than it is."
"It certainly looks awful. It doesn't hurt, does it?"
"No, not at all. I think my hand hurts worse than my eye."
He pointed to the pile of cards in front of him. Some of the kids snickered. Ororo gestured for them to keep playing while she stood near Kurt. Play resumed, as loud and boisterous as ever. One thing about Uno that Ororo had figured out early on; it was invariably accompanied by swearing, name calling, shouting, and smart-ass comments. It was impossible to play quietly.
"Aren't you supposed to pick those cards up and look at them at some point?" Ororo asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Kurt threw his arms open wide. "Why bother? I haven't played a single card this entire game! All I do is get stuck with them!"
Adding to his words, play skipped to John again, who played a red Draw Two card. More shouts. John drew two more cards for Kurt's growing pile.
Kurt pointed to the deck, John, and the entire table. "Look at this! Why am I here? All I do is eat cards!"
"Speaking of eating, thank you for the tray," Ororo said softly. "I have no idea how you kept the coffee warm, but I appreciate it."
"I would refill it every so often," he answered, just as soft. "When it cooled, I made another small pot and gave what was there to Kätzchen. I have never seen a girl go through so much coffee."
Play had reversed direction. Now Anna, to Kurt's left, held up another Draw Two card, the second of two cards in her hand.
"I'm really, really sorry, Mr. Wagner," she giggled. "And Uno, everybody."
"Oh, why break with tradition?" Kurt shouted. "I haven't played yet! Why start now?"
And so Kurt was given two more cards, and play once again passed him by.
"What's Kitty doing that she's drinking so much coffee?" Ororo asked.
"She's still in the lab," Kurt said. "She's like a little pit bull when it comes to computers. As long as you have slept, she has been awake, working on that hard drive."
"How long has that been?"
"A good 30 hours. Herr Professor was to stop it, but she begged him to give her more time. I think he only lets her do this because it's so important to find something on that computer."
So she'd been out a full day. That explained why she was so damned hungry.
"Has Hank come back yet?" she asked.
"He called early this morning. He should be back by dinner tonight, he said." A memory lit his eyes. "That's right, you were sleeping when we got her call! Do you remember Beth and Toshiro Hidoshi in Virginia?"
"How could I forget? Something about saving each other's life will do that."
"She had the baby yesterday. Seven pounds, nine ounces, a little boy, healthy as you could want. They were talking about naming him after Logan." Kurt grinned. "You should have seen his face. I don't think he knew what to think about that."
"Um… Mr. Wagner…?" Anna asked. She held up her final card. "I'm out."
"And you went out with another card to make me draw, yes?" he asked back.
She nodded, her lips twisting in a frantic, and futile, attempt not to smile. It was another Draw 4 Wild card. Kurt bowed his head in acquiescence and gestured for more cards to come his way.
"I have no trouble with other games like poker, but I have no luck with this one," he sighed, watching four more cards find their way onto the heap. "My first hand, and I never got to play."
The students started counting the points in their hands, laying the cards face up on the table as they figured. Another student brought out the pen and paper to keep track. Kurt gathered his cards into a neat stack and started to fan them out for the first time. Ororo looked over his shoulder and bit her lip.
He calmly looked up over his cards at the rest of the table. "And the scoring? Just to make sure, it is twenty points for letter cards and fifty points for wildcards? And the game ends at 500?"
"Yeah," John said. "How many you got?"
In response, Kurt dropped his cards on the table, which prompted shouts of disbelief. He must have been holding over half of the wild cards in the deck. At a quick glance, he had over 600 points sitting in his hand. Then he closed his eyes, bowed his head, and raised his arms in triumph.
"I win."
There was an explosion of laughter. Someone, probably several someones, shouted that he did not win, that you were supposed to have the fewest points, not the most. None of it seemed to matter to Kurt. He stood up, eyes still closed and arms still raised, as if acknowledging a standing ovation.
"I have ended the game in record time," he spoke loudly over the objections. "The Amazing Nightcrawler has gained more points in one hand than anyone in history." He pushed his chair back in with his tail as he bowed. "And as it would not be sporting of me to beat you all so soundly again, I will now leave you to wallow in defeat."
He was so good with the kids, Ororo thought. He fit with them so well. She, Scott, and Charles were mentors at all times. Hank was friendly, but he was an outsider, and his vocabulary and intellect made him unapproachable. Logan was like a notorious uncle who taught you how to play poker, drink whisky, and shoot a pistol when your parents weren't looking. Kurt…. Kurt was a friend. Maybe it was all business in his gym class, but once outside that teacher/student barrier fell at the first opportunity. He would play with them, and they would play back. He performed, and they watched.
After all, would Scott have even been invited to play cards with them? Let alone accepted the offer?
He and Ororo moved away from the table as one as the kids shuffled the cards for another round. She couldn't help but stare at Kurt's reddened eye. She knew the blood would likely be reabsorbed by the end of the week, but it was going to look horrendous until then.
"I don't think that sandwich was enough for you, liebling," he said softly as they left the room. "But I wasn't sure what else you'd be in the mood for, and I didn't want to have soup and salad growing old while you slept."
"It gave me the energy to get down here without fainting," she replied. "The silver tea set and roses were a wonderful touch."
"What kind of man would I be to neglect such things?"
From literally out of nowhere, Kitty ran into them both. Or, rather, ran through them. Ororo's stomach did uncomfortable flip-flops. I wasn't painful to have Kitty phase through you, but it was very disconcerting.
The second she realized what she had done, Kitty spun around, panting. "Guys, I finally got in. I got it working. You guys gotta get down there. I'll tell the professor."
Before either Kurt or Ororo could ask for clarification, she was gone again, dashing through the nearest wall. They glanced at each other. The electronics lab. Without saying a word, they both headed downstairs.
TBC...