I still own nothing but the writing, Lucy/Carson, and a few random thugs.

And I have found that I enjoy writing for Toad more than anyone else, because he has so much wonderful potential and is still so (gosh-darn) angsty! You will be seeing more of him in later chapters, in case I did not insinuate that enough in the writing itself.

"Talking."

Thinking.

"Cason talking through Lucy."

Carson in Lucy's head.

Vorbind / Gânduri în limba română. (Speaking / Thinking in Romanian {or German})

Demon Blood: So Strange

Chapter Four -- Confusion is Contagious

Kurt wandered into the kitchen to find that Jean had taken over his spot at the sink and was talking with Kitty in conspiratorial tones. They both looked up as he sat down in a chair at the table, looking vacant and confused. "She's gone." He said, and he was right. The strange girl they had picked up the night before was nowhere to be found.

Jean and Kitty shared a meaningful look. Kitty walked over and placed a hand on the blue demon's shoulder. "I'm sure she'll be fine. It sounded like she was taking pretty good care of herself without our help."

"Ja, before she broke her arm. I'm vorried about her. Mostly about Lucy. Carson just seems, unstable." He ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "She even said something about kidnapping her if they stayed here." He glanced up in time to catch the back end of another shared look being passed over his head. "Vhat? Vhat is it?"

Kitty giggled. "Kurt, don't you, like, already have a girlfriend?"

"Vas?!" Kurt jumped up, startled. "No! I mean, ja, I do! I don't like Lucy like that, I'm just vorried about her, that's all!"

Jean joined the ghost in laughing at Kurt's reaction. "If you say so."

"Yeah Kurt. We all know how you like 'funny girls'." Kitty said with a grin.

He smacked one hand to his forehead. "I just meant that she's a strange vone! She has another person living in her head, how is that not veird?"

"Just uncommon, Kurt." Storm noted, walking into the kitchen. The girls immediately toned their teasing down and went back to the dishes. "Although I supposed one could call Lucy's relationship with Carson… 'weird'."

"Exactly! They fight constantly!"

Ororo shook her head. "Actually, I was referring to the detail that they are, in fact, sisters; not alternate personalities. The Professor tracked down their information by searching for female twins in approximately their age range. I'm on my way to speak with them now, to offer them a permanent home here at the institute."

Kurt sighed. "Vell you're a little late for that. They're gone, most likely by Carson's initiative."

The weather witch raised an eyebrow. "Gone?"

"Ja. Gone. Poof. Out the vindow. Futsch(1)."

Kitty giggled. "Yeah, and Kurt's mad 'cause he never go to tell her he likes her."

"I do not!" He protested irritably.

"We'd better tell the Professor." The woman said, crossing her arms.

"Tell me what, Ororo?" Professor Xavier rolled into the room.

Kurt spoke for her. "Lucy and Carson are gone."

He brought his hands to a peak in front of his mouth and frowned. "Really? Did you see them leave?"

"No, but they are not in their room, and I cannot find them anyvhere."

"Hm. We'll have to inquire as to their whereabouts in the morning. And yes, Kurt, I do believe they will be returning." He added, answering the blue boy's unasked question. "While Carson appears to be the more forceful of the two of them, she does show a certain respect for her sister. I believe this stems from the fact that the current residency of her mind was originally Lucy's body alone. She will not simply run off without telling her first, for the same reason she allows Lucy to do most of their talking. She considers the time she spends being Lucy time on loan. Lucy wanted to stay, so she'll always bring her back."

"And you can tell all this from just vone look in her head?" Kurt said incredulously.

The Professor chuckled. "No, no. In fact, most of what I know of the two of them is more from their interactions than their thoughts. Their minds are far too jumbled to get a clear picture that way."

"But do you think she'll, like, come back?" Kitty piped up from the sink where she and Jean were finishing up.

"I should hope so. I believe we can do more for those girls than either of them realize."

----------

This was not Todd Tolensky's night.

Or week.

Or month.

Or year.

Come to think of it, things hadn't gone in the mutant's favor in so long he would only stop just short of saying this wasn't his life. Because, y'know, that wouldn't make any sense.

Todd walked slowly, making an outstanding effort to keep his legs moving in the 'normal' fashion, one foot coming down in front of the other in an alternating pattern instead of both at once. It was annoying, but not as many people glared openly at him when they couldn't see him hopping or catching flies with his tongue. It was his equivalent of that blue X-man's image inducer. They each had their own, all mutants did. Their own ways of pretending to be human, pretending they fit in.

It was like a game. See how long you can go without someone calling you a freak. Make it an hour and you get one insult with no time penalty. Survive a whole day and you could win the grand prize! Todd smiled dryly. He was up to five minutes, but that was only because he hadn't made eye contact with anyone since he left the store. The package of cigarettes Wanda had sent him for was clutched in one of his hands, both of which were shoved deep into his pockets. The clerk hadn't even thought to card him, assuming from tint of his teeth and the light cloud of stench that followed him around that he was not only of age, but had been smoking for a while. The boy shook his head, as though someone were actually there to disbelieve his denial. A young couple moved to the other side of the street to avoid walking too close to him. Well, they didn't say anything, so no penalties. Seven minutes and counting.

The box felt wrong in his hand. Ironically enough, the thing he hated most about the cancer sticks was the way the smoke smelled. Todd didn't understand how anyone could smoke, knowingly filling their lungs with tar and who knew what else. He would take his flirtations with death unadulterated, thank you very much. Letting go of the cardboard in his pocket for a moment, he rubbed the bandages on his wrists. The still-healing cuts were starting to itch.

Nine and a half minutes. If he made it to ten it would be a new personal record for the week, not counting the few hours a day he was asleep.

"Hey freak!"

So much for that.

"Toad! Hey! Tolensky!"

Todd hunched his shoulders further and lost concentration on his footing for a moment, stumbling forward before regaining his balance and resuming his forced gait. "Lemme 'lone, yo." He muttered, idly hoping his harassers would give up and go away.

Someone hit him squarely between the shoulder blades and he fell, catching himself just before his face made itself very closely acquainted with the pavement. "Hey freak, you owe us some cash." Todd got his feet back under him but didn't rise from a crouch, looking up at the trio of boys from a toad-like squat. "We know you swiped our wallets, so just hand them over and nobody gets hurt."

He stood, still bent, and started walking again. "I didn't steal nothin'."

One boy tripped him and another pushed him into the side of the building closest to them. "Come on mutie, we know you did." They each too one of his arms and started pulling him toward a nearby alley. None of the people walking by saw anything. As far as they were concerned, these were just a few boys taking a late-night walk with a friend. Down a back street. With no street lights or overlooking windows. Damn.

Panicking a little, he started to protest. "But I didn't take nothin', bro, I swear!" Todd instantly regretted his choice of words, the ringleader's face contorting in a sneer of hatred as he shoved him to the ground.

"'Bro'? You think I'm your 'bro', freak?"

"N-nah man, just an expression. Look I don't got any money, can't you just let me go?" he asked with a half-hearted not-quite-a-smile.

Boss's sneer turned into a smirk and he tested his knuckles against the palm of his hand. "Sorry, no can do."

"But I-" the boy's fist collided with the side of Todd's face at the same time that his buddies let go of his arms, the force knocking Todd into the brick wall at the rear of the offshoot. He stumbled and leaned against the barrier for support. "Don't want trouble." He muttered. One of the boys landed a knee to his stomach and he fell forward, gasping for breath. His powerful tongue didn't do him much good when he was choking on it.

They were laughing. "Come on DJ, it's your turn, get one in!" Kick the toad, win a prize. Todd looked up and DJ's shoe made contact with the underside of his chin, slamming him back against the wall. Stars exploded behind his eyes as he slid down the bricks, trying to remember how to stand upright.

"Nice one!"

"Did you see his face?"

"Yeah, I- aah!" The sentence was cut off by an uncharacteristically high-pitched scream and a loud thud. Todd blinked and sat up, peering through the darkness and his foot-induced headache to see what was going on.

A figure in a long, brown, slightly singed-looking trench coat landed a kick to the ringleader's stomach, expertly bringing a leg to his knees to sweep him off his feet. The motion continued into a kick-flip to one of his friends' solar plexus with a follow through to a punch to the last one's left eye. Two of the boys ran off, shouting something about freaks of nature, and the figure heaved Boss to his feet. "Get moving." Todd would have laughed if it didn't hurt his face. The man absolutely hauled ass to get out of there.

The figure quickly scaled the fire escape and sped off across the roof of the building. Its rescue-ee stood and watched it disappear before wandering back out onto the street. He could feel the beginnings of a bruise forming on his cheek, but he simply checked his pocket for the cigarettes and headed home. Whoever they were, they obviously didn't know who they were saving.

It took Todd another fifteen minutes to walk home and not one word, degrading or otherwise, was spoken to him the entire time, but he wasn't counting anymore. "Close the door Toad, you're letting all the bugs in!" He looked up at a very irritated Lance and realized he had been standing, motionless, in the open doorway for the better part of a minute. He pushed the door shut and hopped up the stairs, the rockhead pushing him a little to keep them from actually touching.

He made his way down the hall to Wanda's room and gingerly knocked on the door. "What."

"Um, I brought you the-"

"Shove them under the door." She said curtly, cutting him off. Todd hesitated, then slowly complied. The only reason he did these things for her was because he never got to see her anymore. Wanda spent all her time not at school holed up in her room practicing magic. Every time she asked him to run an errand for her he did it in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her in one of her oh-so-rare good moods, but each completion only left him with another disappointment.

He slouched into his room and flopped down on the edge of the dirty mattress that served as his bed with an inaudible sigh. He pulled a white and red cloth out from under his pillow and carefully unwrapped the small blade from within its folds, watching the way the moonlight filtered in from between the broken blinds and danced across the always sharp edge in his hands. It was the only thing in the room not covered in a layer of filth or debris. His mind tripped over the form of his rescuer and his grip tightened. Whoever they were, they didn't know I'm not worth saving.

----------

Carson hopped from one balcony to the next up the side of the institute, finally coming to the one outside her borrowed room and landing on the railing in a gargoyle-esque crouch. Lucy was still sleeping soundly.

BAMF!

"Vhere have you been?!"

"Whatthe-" Carson pinwheeled backwards and all but fell off her perch as a blue teenage boy appeared out of thin air directly in front of her. She grabbed the bar and one of her feet slid off, making her overbalance and land chin-first on the ground at his feet. "How the frack did you do that?!"

"Vhere vere you?!"

"Did you just teleport?!"

"Don't change the subject!"

"Trebuie să fie o ea a fost cautati!" She exclaimed, far too excited to be bothered with English.

Kurt, irritated, responded in turn. Two can play that game. "Warum haben Sie sich verlassen, ohne jemandem etwas zu sagen?! Wohin gingen Sie?!"

Carson blanked out, momentarily forgetting what she was doing as the foreign words rolled off her. "What?"

He crossed his arms stubbornly. "I'll translate mine if you'll translate yours."

"Deal."

"I vas asking vhy you left vithout telling anyone. Vhere you vent. You?"

She grinned, glad for the opportunity to avoid answering his questions. "You must be the one she was looking for."

He blinked. "Vhat?"

"Lucy. She's been looking for someone for the past three years, saying they should be able to help us. I think that someone is you." Carson looked extremely pleased with herself and breezed past him into the room, sitting down on the bed and stretching upward.

Kurt shook his head. "I really don't know vhat you're talking about."

The rust-haired girl grinned. "Neither do I. She never told me. Something about not getting my hopes up. But I'm in her head, so she couldn't hide everything from me. I know she needs a teleporter for whatever it is she's got planned, and so far the only one I've met is you, înger de meu iad.(2)"

"Vhat?"

"Goodnight!"

"Vait! Vhat are you talking-" The girl fell sideways onto the pillow, asleep. "-about?" Lucy was curled against the mattress, not quite snoring but sleeping soundly. It was as though she had never left at all.

Carson grinned inside her sister's head and settled down to join her in sleep. Sorry înger, but you don't get to find out anything before I do, and neither of us is learning anything before Sleeping Beauty here joins the land of the living.

Kurt stared at the sleeping form in utter confusion for a full five minutes before giving up and porting out to inform the Professor that their wayward guest had returned home.

- (1) - Futsch. -- Gone.

- (2) - înger de meu iad. -- angel of my hell.

I hope you all are now as confused and intrigued as I set out to make you at the beginning of this chapter! I swear, more stuff will start making sense soon. (Although I will answer the individual questions [as long as they're not too revealing] of anyone who wants more information on something.)

And I really want to give Todd a hug. And a bath. But mostly a hug.

Reviews are GREATLY APPRECIATED!

--Dotskip