Chapter 10 - 'Poked and Prodded'

The next few days at school seemed to fly by. For Kurt Wagner, this was very much a blessing. By the time Thursday had rolled around the 'blue mutant freak' was beginning to become old news. Thank God for the turnover rate of teenage gossip. He still got stares and whispers, but he could deal with that. And as long as Mr. Stratford continued to suppress the urge to kick him out of class, the week should end smoothly.

On this lovely afternoon, school was out for the day and most of the young mutants found themselves outside on the grounds enjoying the early summer weather while ignoring the vast amounts of homework they all had as finals grew near. Rogue, Jubilee and Bobby had hit the swimming pool as soon as they got home. Ray, Evan, Scott and Rahne had started up a game of Ultimate Frisbee while Amara and a few others could be found reading a book or just relaxing in the warmth of the sun.

Kurt and Kitty however, could only imagine how much fun everyone was having as they found themselves sitting in Dr. McCoy's cold, stale medlab being poked, prodded and examined by the good doctor himself.

In light of the recent events at school, the two had managed to avoid a visit up until this point, which was somewhat ironic, considering it was Kitty's phasing issues that had caused all the problems at school.

In fact, over the last few days it seemed that their problems had gotten somewhat better, even though Kurt's temporary solution was just to avoid teleporting all together. And Kitty had sworn to him that she was doing great, even though he thought she looked a little under the weather. She had just said that it must be her hay-fever kicking in.

The event that had finally drawn the line had happened this morning. The two had both managed to oversleep which wasn't that strange considering that it was usually Kurt's job to drag Kitty out of bed in the morning. So it happened that, on the rare occasions that he managed to oversleep, so did she. The rest of the group had left without them, leaving them to drive themselves to school. In their frantic rush, they had made it all the way out to the car before Kurt had realized that he had forgotten his holowatch upstairs in his room.

"Sciesse! I'll be right back Kitty."

He had bamfed away, forgetting in his rush that he was trying not to use his power. In an instant, he reappeared beside Kitty, right where he had started.

"That was fast." She had said.

It was at this point that Kurt began to worry. He had seemed to be so quick only because he hadn't actually gone anywhere. He had teleported right back to where he had already been standing.

Not once in all the time since he had gained his power of teleportation had he attempted to 'port and not been able to go anywhere. When he was beginning to learn how it worked, he had often messed up where he was going, or miscalculated just how far off the ground he needed to be, but this was most definitely a first. He even attempted to 'port to his room one more time with little success.

So, the two mutually agreed that as soon as they got home from school they would go and talk with the professor. The Professor, in return, had sent them to be examined by Dr. Henry McCoy, or 'Beast' as he was otherwise known. He had achieved this nickname by being the other blue and hairy mutant of the household, and while Kurt's slim stature earned him the nickname 'elf', Hank was built more like a gorilla. So, it was in Beast's med lab that they found themselves an hour or so later.

"You say this all began last weekend?" The doctor asked them.

The two nodded, looking a bit frustrated having had already told him that particular fact. It wasn't even so much that Henry McCoy needed to ask the question again, or that he was even searching for an answer, he just merely preferred to think out loud.

He continued to carry on with his verbal problem solving.

"And the first time you realized that there was something wrong with your ability to teleport was when you accidentally found Kitty in the attic?" He adjusted his glasses with one hand as he shook a finger in Kurt's direction and then at Kitty as he mentioned the two students. He then began to pace the room of the infirmary.

"And the second time..." He paused and flipped back in his notes before continuing. "I don't believe that you said where that happened?" He stopped pacing and turned to look at the fuzzy blue youth sitting in a chair beside his friend.

Kurt and Kitty had indeed managed to leave out that particular detail of their story, not really wanting to explain to one of their guardians that they had unintentionally ended up in the shower together.

Kitty, for her part, was glad that Dr. McCoy's attention was set on Kurt because she could feel the color rising in her cheeks as he questioned them. Kurt himself, was thankful for the fact that his indigo coat managed to conceal his own blush.

"Um." Kurt cleared his throat. "Keety vas getting ready for school, and I 'ported to the bathroom." He hoped that he had sounded innocent.

"I see." Hank said, lifting an eyebrow way above the rim of his reading glasses before returning to his pace.

"And this last time, you were already with Ms. Pryde and when you attempted to teleport you were unable to go anywhere?"

"Ja."

"Wait!" Hank stopped pacing rather abruptly and pointed at the two. "I think I'm onto something. Kurt, Kitty, come stand over here please."

The two looked reluctantly at each other before hopping down and going to the middle of the room where Henry was standing.

"Kurt I want you to try and teleport to the hallway just outside of this room, okay?"
"All right." Kurt shrugged his shoulders before a thick black cloud of sulfur replaced him for a fraction of a second before he returned in it's place. He looked at Kitty and then over to the doctor as if to say, "I told you that wouldn't work."

Hank was scribbling stuff down on his clipboard and didn't pay any attention to the looks he was receiving from the two kids.

"Excellent. Now Kurt, try the same thing again, but this time take Kitty with you."

"I don't think that is such a good idea Herr McCoy. Vhat if something goes wrong. I have no control over vhere I'm porting right now, I wouldn't vant something bad to happen to Keety."

Kitty smiled inward, appreciating Kurt's concern over her well being.

"I understand your concern Kurt, but I would not ask you to do such a thing if I didn't trust that it would be safe." Dr. McCoy stated simply.

Kurt reluctantly turned to face his best friend and put his hands on her shoulders. He felt much more relieved now that he could see that she didn't look worried.

"Here goes nothing." She said.

The residual sound of Kurt's signature 'bamf' could be heard as Kurt and Kitty reappeared. Kurt stood with his eyes shut, his hands still on her shoulders.

"Fuzzy! You did it!" she squealed before hugging her relieved companion.

Kurt opened his eyes one at a time, glad that he hadn't accidentally teleported his best friend into a wall or anything.

Caught in the moment he hugged her back. This was what made his life tolerable these days. He could completely loose himself in a hug from Kitty. When she was in his arms, he would absorb her warmth and scent and devote it to memory making all other problems in his world fade away in mere seconds. Today she smelled of Pear scented bath products and cherry chapstick, mixed with the lingering odor of fire and brimstone from their port.

Hank cleared his throat rather loudly from the doorway, to gain the attention of the two teenagers who quickly ended their embrace and followed the doctor back into the lab sitting down in their respective chairs.

"So let me explain what I have concluded." Beast said as he flipped back through his pages on his clipboard.

"It seems that, Kurt, you have been able to help Kitty gain control over her phasing." He flipped through a few more pages. "And every time Kurt's teleportation had been off, he has ended up wherever you, my dear, have been." He looked over his reading glasses at Kitty. "Which appears to be unaffected if he's teleporting with you." Hank began to rub his chin absentmindedly as he thought this over.

The trio sat in silence for quite some time while Hank mumbled to himself and scribbled notes as he continued to flip through his chart.

Kitty sat spinning her ring around her thumb in idle amusement and yawned as she could feel her eyelids growing heavier by the minute. It felt as if they had been there for ages. She glanced over to see how Kurt was doing and smiled when she saw the look on his face which clearly read, "What the hell is he doing?" As he watched Dr. McCoy work.

She thought back to the hug they had shared earlier in the hallway. She herself had always been a touchy- feely person, but Kurt had most definitely not been. It had taken much work over the time they had been friends to make sure that he felt comfortable around her. Even so, it seemed, as they had discussed in the hammock earlier that week, that he had not been as comfortable as she had thought. But it seemed as though they had made great progress since then.

Now, when she hugged him, he hugged back. It was a wonderful sensation for her. It was one place where she felt truly safe, even in light of all the problems the two of them had faced recently. As she thought this over, she realized just how much she enjoyed hugging Kurt and just how much she ached to be near him whenever she could. Her daydream was cut short by Beast breaking the silence.

"I think I've got something!" Hank abruptly spoke up, causing the two to jump a little in their chairs.

"Saturday, when you two were caught in the storm, you teleported both of you to safety, correct?" Hank again, pointed to Kurt.

"Ja. First vhen ve vere falling I had to teleport us up and then again to get us to the camp."

"Why did you risk teleporting so far, so soon after a vertical teleport?" Hank asked full of curiosity.

"A tree vas about to fall on us."

"Why didn't you just phase the two of you out of harms way?" Hank looked over at Kitty who was also clearly trying to remember.

"I did phase us." Kitty came to realize.

"So you used both of your powers at the same time?"

"Ja."

"I guess so."

"Zhat's a bad thing, I take it?" Kurt asked.

"Indubitably." Hank stated simply. "Although, that could explain why all of a sudden, your powers are affecting one another. They seem to be connected, some how, 'tethered' to each other, if you will. You can't teleport without being drawn to Kitty. And you can gain control over your powers when Kurt is near." The blue doctor trailed off.

"And this helps us how?" Kitty asked a little flustered.

"Well, at the moment it doesn't, but Jean should be done running the tests on those samples I took earlier. And hopefully by tomorrow we should have some more answers."

Dr. McCoy, the scientist at heart, seemed rather excited about these strange findings and wasted little time shoeing the two students out of his lab so he could continue with some more research.

The pair, not really feeling any more at ease, made it upstairs just in time for dinner.

During their meal, Kurt seemed to be the only one who noticed that Kitty wasn't really eating. In fact, the more he watched her, the more he noticed that she looked rather ill, she seemed absolutely exhausted and had rather noticeable bags under her eyes.

He approached her after dinner, but she insisted that everything was fine before heading upstairs to do some last minute homework before bed.

Kurt realized too, that with all the time they had spent in the infirmary that afternoon, he had quite a bit of homework himself. After reading two chapters, finishing his English paper and completing thirty questions for math, it was nearing 1:00 am and Kurt decided to grab a small snack before heading to bed.

He wandered quietly down the dark hallway, not needing any artificial light with his heightened eye sight. As he descended the stairs, he thought to himself how bothersome it was to have to walk everywhere, if he had teleported to the kitchen he could have been back already.

He was half way across the living room when he heard a movement. Glancing over the darkened room he noticed the back of a curly head of hair leaning against the couch.

"Katzchen?" He whispered softly.

"Kurt?!" She jumped, it seemed she had been nodding off a little and he had surprised her.

"Vhat are you doing down here in the dark?" He asked as he wandered around to the front of the couch to find her sitting in some boxer shorts and a matching baby tee.

"Can't sleep." She muttered and Kurt noticed that she looked even worse than she had at dinner.

"You look like you're tired." He stated, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm exhausted." She squeaked, it seemed as if she might start crying.

"Katzchen, vhat is wrong?"

"I'm scared." She said so softly that he even had to strain to hear it. A moment later, she continued. "The other morning, when you found me phasing through my bed?" He nodded. "Well, that's like, not the only time it's happened. The next day I woke up on the floor in one of the subbasements..." She shook a little as she spoke and Kurt put his arm around her, silently waiting for her to finish. "...I couldn't figure out where I was."

"I'm just so afraid of what could happen. I mean, what if I phase out underground and I can't find my way back before I run out of air?" Her voice became louder and more frantic as she went on. "Or what if I phase halfway into a wall and then wake up solid?"

"Ever since I first discovered my power, I have had this nightmare where I start phasing through the ground and I keep on falling and falling until I'm so deep underground that there's no light and no one to help me... I feel like that nightmare is coming true." A shiver ran through her body and several tears rolled down her cheek.

"I haven't slept in days, Kurt."

He pulled her closer to him and held her tight, trying to comfort her. A small part of him was a little hurt that she hadn't told him sooner about all of this, but he also knew that for whatever reason, she had done it with his best interest in mind. He ran his fingers through her hair as she cried softly into his arms, when he had a realization.

"Maybe the good doctor hasn't discovered how to cure us yet, but I do believe that ve have a temporary solution to our problem." He stated.

Kitty wiped away the last few tears and looked up at her friend.

"Eet seems that your powers vill stay in check as long as you have me around."

She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow, her sleep-clogged thought was not understanding what he was proposing.

Kurt stood gracefully, lifting Kitty up into his arms and teleported them both into his dark bedroom. The moonlight was coming in through his french doors casting blocks of light across the carpet. Kurt softly padded over to his bed and gently laid her weak form upon it.

"You'll be safe with me Katzchen, now you can get some sleep." He pulled the covers up over her.

"Aren't we breaking a few school rules?" Kitty asked, a yawn cutting into the last word.

"I won't tell." Kurt placed a hand over his heart. "Besides, I'm sure they vould understand."

This gained him a smile. He walked around to the other side of the large four-poster bed and grabbed the other pillow. He began to move away, when she called out to him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'll be right here on the floor next to you. You'll be fine." He assured her.

Even in her exhausted state Kitty was able to appreciate his display of gentlemanly behavior.

"Kurt, I'm not about to let you sleep on the floor, just come up here." She patted the empty spot beside her.

She could sense his unease, no doubt, he was again feeling a little self conscious about someone so close to him. Worrying that his tail or fur would make them uneasy.

"Kurt really, I'm okay with it if you are."

It took another moment, but he finally crawled into bed next to her. Of course, not before stopping to slip on a T-shirt to go with his pajama pants.

As he settled in, Kitty curled up next to his form.

"Thank you." She said softly.

"Of course, meine liebe." He responded even quieter, a little bit surprised at himself for his choice of words. He needn't worry whether or not she had noticed, because he could tell by the rhythm of her breathing beside him that she had already fallen asleep.

"Good night Kitty."

End chapter 10 - 'Poked and Prodded'

NEW - want to see an illustration for this chapter? Follow this link: img./albums/v664/Queequegg17/kkcarrysmall.jpg

A/N: Sorry that took so long, hopefully the next one should be sooner. Look forward to some obvious Kurtty-ness in the next few chapters! As always thanks to everyone who reviewed! I got an awesome response with the last chapter, please keep it up and review this one as well!