D:WIO

Dull Dagger

The plane ride home was quiet. Very quiet. After being picked up discreetly at the airstrip by the same private jet that brought them, the White Gloves were just happy to be out of immediate danger for the moment.

The silence in the plane was comfortable, except not for Kitty. She kept nervously glancing at Kurt, sprawled in his seat, watching the clouds, tail flicking lazily, wondering if she should say something. After all, he knew—or did he? Immediately, with a stab of guilt, Kitty cleared her mind as she caught sight of Jean gazing at her.

Anything wrong, Kitty? Jean asked mentally. Kitty shook her head almost imperceptibly.

I was just wondering about Kurt's daggers. He lost them at GITMO, and he seemed to like them a lot. I was thinking maybe I could get him a new set . . . ? Kitty thought.

No need. While he was sleeping at the hotel, I flew over the base to check out the damage, and collected his daggers and knives while I was there. You want to be the one to give them to him? Jean answered.

I guess, if you want me to. Just when did you and Kurt get so friendly? Before GITMO, I heard Kurt and Evan talking in the car, and Kurt said you were quite inclined to let him into the Gloves. Are you sleeping with him? Kitty accused. She could tell Jean was shocked, but she kept her face expertly emotionless, turning her gaze to the clouds.

No. We were at the same foster home for a while, when we were a lot younger. I'm an orphan, just like him. His parents moved here from Germany, but they became homeless and gave him up, and when he got to the orphanage, he looked like that, only cuter, more like an elf than a demon. Jean answered.

You sure that's all? Kitty jibed.

That's all, Katherine. Jean assured with a firm mental voice. You can give Kurt his knives now if you want. I slipped them into his briefcase before we got on, and it should be right under you.

Kitty reached down and phased her hand into the tiny luggage hold of the jet, fumbling around but finding Kurt's case. Kurt looked over as he saw Kitty searching for something beneath the floor of the plane.

"Hey, Kurt," Kitty whispered, then looked around. Rouge, Evan, and Scott were either asleep or listening to music, and Jean had disappeared to the lavatory.

"Ja?" he asked quietly, lazily. His eyes were bright, but the dark circles under them betrayed his tiredness.

"Did you really like your daggers?" Kitty asked, not knowing how else to give them to him but just pulling the case out and throwing them at him.

"Stop it, Kazerine. It's not a nice joke." He said, turning away.

"Kurt, wait! You really liked them, right? And adamantium daggers are hard to come by." Kitty hissed. Kurt looked at her out of the corner of his gold eye.

"Cut to ze chase already." He whispered.

"A very happy un-birthday to you," Kitty pulled his case up and slid it towards him. He turned towards her again, quirking an eyebrow, and picked the case up.

"Zere's nozing zat's going to pop out at me, right? I'm not good viz surprises," he muttered, but opened the case. Kurt's face brightened immediately, and Kitty saw him run his finger over the blades that Jean had rescued.

"You like?" Kitty asked, smiling.

"Vat did I do to deserve zese back?" he asked, elated.

"You saved my life," she said. It was all she could think of. "And you saved all our butts at GITMO."

"Vow, zank you Kätzchen!" he said brightly, closing the case and leaning over, wrapping her in a strong, friendly hug. Kitty's stomach plummeted. Kurt pulled away, but there was nothing in his eyes to suggest the hug had been any more than friendly thanks and happiness. She let her breath go—she hadn't realized she'd been holding it—and gave him a bright smile.

"Hey, Kurt, can I ask you something? What does Kätzchen mean?" Kitty whispered.

"It means kitten. Because your name's Keety, like a cat." Kurt answered. Kitty nodded stiffly and she heard the lavatory door lock click, and Jean walked back to her seat. They traded a swift glance and Jean opened her book. Kurt seemed absorbed in his knives, a small smile fixed on his face.

Why do I keep thinking he's a perv? He's not, and he's proved that a bunch of times. I need to relax. So if I'm not afraid of him being a perv, why did I feel that way when he hugged me? Oh god, I can't. I won't say those words, I can't have a crush—no! Kitty thought, the chaos of her thoughts making her forehead crease as if she was angry. She caught sight of Kurt looking at her and blushed and looked away.

Shit. It's always worse when you admit it. It's not right anyway! Eew, pedo! But it's not him, it's me being, like, reverse pedo . . . or is that called . . . I don't know. Ick. And he calls me kitten! Eew! In a different language so I don't know! Even worse! Oh frick frick frick frick! So who's the real creeper? Me or him? Jean get out of my head!

Kitty glared at Jean, who was sniggering quietly behind her book. Kitty forced herself to think about something mundane and common, like flowers, but then her brain oh-so-helpfully supplied the question: which flower does Kurt like best? Then her thoughts dived back into the crush and she had to rip them away and transfer them to . . . she riffled through topics in her head. Transfer them to . . . a polar bear in a snowstorm drawn on white paper with chalk eating marshmallows.

She smiled as that brought memories of her earlier childhood, which led from one thing to another and invariably ended up landing on Kurt. Her smile turned to a frown as she traced her train of thought all the way back to the polar bear. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kurt close his case and glance out the window, his body twisting an unnatural 180 degrees, but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Hey, I zink I see ze airport," he said. Jean leaned over and woke up Evan and Scott, and Rogue was already winding her earphones around her MP3 and putting it away. The copilot walked out of the cockpit and announced that they were only a few minutes from landing.

Kitty pulled everyone's cases from below, and when the wheels touched down on the tarmac, the White Gloves stepped out and entered the airport, Jean using a shield to make Kurt look normal to passers-by.

The SUV was where Scott had left it just two days ago, and they drove (very haphazardly, I may add) back to CC.

"Ach, Gott, it's good to be home," Kurt sighed.

"Dude, it's been two days." Evan pointed out.

"Ja, but don't tell me zat fight at GITMO didn't tire you out too." Kurt replied, a dreamy expression coming over his face as he recalled with great fondness the fun he had. Then he shook his head and teleported back to his room. Evan and Kitty ran into CC, shouting about how lovely the air conditioning was.

"They're so spoiled," Jean chuckled before following. Rogue and Scott were stuck unloading the SUV, which in reality, wasn't much, but still. Rogue was about to walk into CC when Scott stopped her.

"Hey, Rogue . . ."

~*X*~

When Scott entered CC, Jean was in the kitchen, with the radio turned on and a bottle of honey in her hands. As she listened to the station, she drizzled the honey on her fingers and licked it off. Scott tiptoed up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing his face into her shoulder and scaring her half to death.

"Scott!" she breathed, putting her hand on the back of his head.

"Mm?" he replied.

"You scared me, oh jeez, my heart's going a mile a minute." She whispered, and Scott put one of his hands over her heart. He smiled into her shoulder.

"I finally got you," he murmured, then twirled her around and stunned her with a kiss. The honey bottle fell to the ground and Jean wrapped her arms around Scott's neck, just like their first kiss in Afghanistan before walking out of the building and being "assassinated."

~*X*~

Kurt was in his room, polishing his blades obsessively, when Rogue knocked and entered.

"Hey, Kurt, can ya c'mere fer a minute?" she asked. Kurt nodded, not looking up. He flipped the dagger back into its case using his tail, looked at Rogue and gave her a friendly fanged grin.

Rogue's stomach lurched. In just a few minutes, she would kill this happy person who has his whole life ahead of him, who stood there giving her a happy smile, and she would take it all away. Ignorance really is bliss, then.

Walking down the hall, to where Rogue wasn't sure, but she swallowed her pride and grabbed Kurt's hand in her own gloved hand. The movement was startlingly smooth and natural to Kurt, but Rogue made it seem normal, making him think exactly what Rogue wanted: nothing was wrong.

Rogue led Kurt through the kitchen, which had been vacated, but the amber honey had spilled all over the floor. They ascended up the spiral staircase to the outside world. CC was built underground, and the only part that was aboveground was the entrance to the spiral staircase, which was just really an odd-looking hill. Rogue pulled Kurt into the shadow of the hill and looked up at him through her eyelashes in a way that was very flirty.

"Ya know, ah just can't say thanks enough fer savin' all us back in Cuba," Rogue murmured. Kurt started to get nervous. This was very unlike Rogue.

"Uh, vell, you're velcome, I just—I'd like to get back inside now; vat if somebody sees us?" Kurt said, pulling his hand free of Rogue's grasp.

"Nah, Kurt, ya ain' gettin' the idea here. I really—really like ya, and I don' wantcha to go, and ya wouln' wanna disappoint a beautiful woman, now would ya?" she whispered, stepping way into Kurt's personal space, but seeing as he was backed up against the steep side of the hill, he couldn't go anywhere.

"Rogue, really, please, just let me go," Kurt almost begged, fear entering his eyes as Rogue pressed her body against his. She went up on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his, trying to shut him up so he wouldn't keep begging pitifully- it made her feel almost bad. Almost.

Kurt jerked backwards, falling onto the hill, trying to escape Rogue's kiss, eyes wide in fear and shock. She broke the kiss when Kurt felt like he was going to suffocate to death and hissed in his ear,

"Hold still, this won't hurt a bit."

Kurt felt Rogue's hand on his cheek, but he closed his eyes in fear of what she would do next. Her fingers rubbed over his fur in circles until he felt a sharp shock and he went weak. He opened his eyes and found Rogue was holding him up with her forearm across his chest. His vision was blurry, but he could still distinguish the black shape of a gun in Rogue's hand. There was a click and Kurt felt the press of the muzzle against his temple, and with a jolt he realized Scott had ordered Rogue to take him out.

Normally, adrenaline would've flooded his body and he would have swung a kick to Rogue's ribs and teleported away, but in his weakened state, he resigned himself to the fact and closed his eyes again, knowing there would be no pain, just death. In this way he was lucky, that she was killing him quickly, she could've killed him a million other ways, much more painful ways.

He kept waiting for . . . nothingness, just no more thoughts running through his head, no more feeling, but it didn't come. He opened his eyes and found Rogue staring into his eyes, internal conflict apparent on her face.

"Don'tcha open yer eyes!" she growled, repositioned and cocked the gun, finger milliseconds away from the trigger, and all feeling fell away.

Kitty grabbed Rogue's shoulders and wrenched her away from Kurt, stomping on her wrist until she released the gun. Kurt's eyes flew open in shock and the haze over his gold eyes lifted. He shook his head as Rogue leaped up, turning on him and starting to strangle him. Kitty went to pull her off but Rogue came flying back into her as Kurt kicked her hard in the gut. Rogue lay on the ground and Kurt came over and grabbed her neck, lifting her feet off the ground and holding her in the air above his head as she choked. In his tail he held a dagger, much different from the adamantium set.

"I keep a dull dagger in my belt to kill people like you," he growled. Rouge clawed at his hand, but Kurt wouldn't let go. "You'll feel this cut you, painfully, and you von't be able to scream."

Rogue made a noise that sounded like a mix between a squeak of fear and a snort of disdain, but her face was turning blue. Kurt raised the dagger and trailed the tip over different parts of Rogue's body. She looked like she would pass out when Kurt dug the tip into her stomach, just above her belly button, but didn't pierce the skin.

"I shouldn't be doing zis to you," he mused, waving the dagger absentmindedly so the blade came dangerously close to Rogue's face, "I should be doing zis to Scott. But he's not here and you are, so you get it."

Rogue's face twisted into a silent shriek of pain, her body writhing as Kurt twisted the point of the dagger into her gut. He moved the dagger and cut a shallow slash down each of her thighs and from somewhere deep within her, Rogue found the pain and air to scream. Kurt let her drop and as she crumpled on the ground, Kurt hit her shoulder with the dagger to keep her from getting up and fighting him.

"And you can give zat to Scott," he hissed, teleporting away.

Kitty was left standing there awkwardly as her best friend in the Gloves choked in air and spasmed with pain on the ground in front of her. After deciding between Rogue and Kurt, she chose Rogue.

She ran over to Rogue and knelt down by her side.

"I'm so, so sorry," she said, holding Rogue's head in her lap and phasing the two down into the bathroom. Kitty stretched Rogue out on the floor and told her to lie still, and she did, though her jaw was clenched with effort. Digging through the drawers frantically, Kitty sought bandages and hydrogen peroxide, and jumped when Kurt tapped her on the shoulder with the flat of an adamantium dagger.

She looked up at him, but his face was emotionless, just holding the dagger out towards her. She started to reach her hand up but recoiled when he flipped it in his hand so the handle was facing her. Kitty took it, not knowing whether to say "thank you", or spit a nasty jibe at him. She just took it and crawled back over to Rogue, whose breath was hissing out between her teeth in an effort not to just break down.

The younger girl lifted the sheer mesh tee that Rogue wore to expose the wound, hesitantly pressing the blade to the wound, knowing that it felt horrible, like her flesh was being pierced again, but worms were crawling under her skin, and then it would go away as the wound knitted together. She went to repeat the process with Rogue's legs, but halted, unsure about how to do it. She looked up to see if Kurt was there, but he was gone and the door was closed. Kitty peered into the darkest corner, but the glowing golden eyes that would always give Kurt away weren't present.

"I hope you didn't like these pants too much," Kitty murmured before ripping the fabric away and pressing the blade to Rogue's cuts.

When the cuts and her shoulder had been healed, Kitty went to wipe the blood off the blade, but a barbed tail wrapped around the blade and it disappeared. Kitty jumped in surprise, looking around for Kurt, then wondering why she hadn't heard any cracks of teleportation.

Beside her, Rogue let one shaking breath after another go, reaching up to touch Kitty's hand. Kitty whirled around.

"What do you need? Water?" she asked, then stood and ran some water into a paper cup. She sat back down and gave it to Rogue, but the older girl noticed that Kitty's movements were more distracted since Kurt came in. After a few more cups of water, Rogue held up her hand.

"I think ah'm fahne now, Kit. Jus' lemme go take a nap or som'n," Rogue said, standing up with Kitty's aid. She staggered off to her room and collapsed on the bed, kicking the door closed.

As Rogue's door slammed shut, Kitty sat down on the edge of the tub with her head in her hands, chastising herself for being so distracted when Kurt came in. There was a crack and Kurt put his hand on Kitty's shoulder, but she jumped and fell backwards into the tub, her head smacking against the tiling.

"Oh! Hey, Kätzchen, you alright?" Kurt leaned down and pulled her up. Kitty rubbed the back of her head.

"Yeah, I think I'll be okay. Th—" she stopped herself from saying "thanks for asking" when she realized she wasn't going to say it sarcastically. Kurt nodded. Kitty looked up at him out of the corner of her eye as she put her head back down in her hands. He was handsome, sharp features, and those gorgeous eyes of his—wait now, how many hours had it been since she was hoping he'd be lying dead on the floor with one of Rogue's bullets through his head? 72?

"Vat's wrong?" he asked, cocking his head.

"Nothing—I was just thinking about . . . nevermind." Kitty trailed off, feeling like Bella in the scene in New Moon where she hits her head on the rock. Kurt smirked at that moment.

"You're zinking about me, aren't you?" he grinned.

"Are you a mind reader as well?" Kitty smiled back.

"Really, are you okay, zough?" Kurt asked, putting his hand on her shoulder again. Kitty nodded. An awkward silence fell between the two, in which Kitty looked down at her feet.

"Hey, uh, Kurt, could I ask you something?" Kitty broke the silence.

"Too late, Kätzchen, you already did," Kurt smiled. Kitty snorted.

"You know what I mean. How did you take the dagger from me without coming into the room? I mean, I didn't hear you teleport in." Kitty said.

"Oh, zat? It's a trick I picked up a few years ago . . . I don't really know how I do it, but basically ven I'm in ze middle of a teleportation, I stop ze part of me zat I don't vant to appear, and ze part of me I vant appears like a normal teleportation, zough it snaps back to verever I am almost instantly. Really not as hard as it sounds. I can do it viz ozzer objects too, like if I vas to do it viz you, I could just drop you off in ze kitchen, say, and I vould never appear. It vould be like you teleported," Kurt explained. Kitty nodded again.

"Could I ask you another question?" Kitty asked. Kurt nodded for her to go ahead.

"Vatever you vant to ask, go ahead."

"Could you teach me to fight with swords?"

The longest chapter so far, I hope y'all enjoyed it. Please review! I shall not ask for reviews any more, I'll just post chapters as soon as I write them. Sorry this chap took so long, but it did take a while to write. And while we're on the subject of White Gloves, be sure to be aware that I'm writing the screenplay and starting to animate the first chapter of White Gloves, due to be out on YouTube before Christmas. And here's something to look at. First person to notice the "strange" thing about this sentence shall be deemed Officially Awesome! - Haily O. Thompson, you can't answer.

ALTHOUGH BARNABY CRUSHED DORA, ELEPHANTS FOLLOWED GRAPES HASTILY INTO JUMPING KANGAROO LABORITORIES, MANY NARNIANS OPPOSED PURPLE QUILTS REGULARLY, SOME THINGS UNCOVERED VERY WELL, XAVIER YELLED "ZEBRAS!"