Thanks so much to everyone who has review for me thus far and please keep them coming! I know this chapter is a little emo, but it'll get better I promise. Without further a due, the next installment.

Constellations

Chapter 6: Chamaeleon

Kurt walked into the mansion after more than a year away. It was different… he couldn't decide if it was good different or bad different yet. The grounds, yards, and area was familiar, but the building itself was odd. It smelled of briskly cut branches, newly cemented bricks, and freshly painted walls. The mansion used to have a memorable musky smell of a widely used building. Now it was unused, new with no children running around the corridors; no commotion and no bustlingly about taking place. Only eight rooms were being used when there used to be hundreds. It was actually quite lonely.

It was true that the building had always been a little lonely to him because he hadn't talked to many people, but now it just felt abandoned. There was no more kids causing trouble, no more teachers screaming and yelling, and finally there was no more Professor X wheeling around the halls. Knowing the Professor wasn't going to be around to help them was a little nerve racking because Professor Xavier had been the one to actually make the trip to Germany and rescue him. He'd been really happy when someone actually took the effort to do that for him. Kurt sighed and looked around, noticing a large painting of the sky and clouds, definitely compliments of Angel.

After a crazy year of being on the run and alone, not to mention crazy valkyrie chicks trying to catch him for sport and a daughter from a psychopathic man trying to seduce him into becoming part of their evil plot, he thought it was going to be a big change. Especially going from all that to a nice peaceful mansion. And it was definitely going to be different and quieter without the professor and all the other students inhabiting the place. Hopefully that would start to change soon. He had overheard Emma and Logan talking about starting to recruit some of the old students back.

Kurt was making his way up the main staircase when he heard movement to his right. He turned that way instinctively and came face to face with a girl.

"Kitty," the name rolled off his tongue perfectly.

"Kurt," she replied tersely.

"Seems our roles have been reversed zis time," he responded jokingly.

"Seems they have."

Kurt looked at her with her arms crossed in front of her chest and a scowl plastered on her face.

"So I take it you aren't as happy to see me as I am to see you?"

"Oh," Kitty held out the syllable and raised an eyebrow, "You're happy to see me?"

Nightcrawler tilted his head slightly, "Of course I'd be happy to see you."

"Well you didn't seem too thrilled when we came to rescue you on the ship."

Kurt sighed; this conversation wasn't going exactly the way he had hoped. He was hoping more for a 'so happy to see you Kurt' and then talk about all the other baggage afterwards. He knew he hadn't handled the situation on the boat correctly, but he really didn't want to talk about it right now; "Kitty it vasn't like zat. I just vanted to help zose mutants get to Genosha. I couldn't abandon zem halfway zrough."

Kitty had hoped her voice wouldn't escalate too high, but at the moment she just couldn't control herself, "And what about me? Was I something you could just abandon?"

"I didn't abandon you Kitty! You had zee X-men zen und you have zem now! You left to go home just like I left zee mansion after it vas destroyed."

"But I was so happy when we found you; I thought you'd be happy too. I wanted you to come back with us. It's not like your ship just got to Genosha yesterday, you could have come back once the mutants were safe, but you didn't. You have the X-men too, Kurt," Kitty nearly whispered the last words.

"It vasn't as easy for me as it vas for you, Kitty! I couldn't just pick up und go home to mein parents. Zere vas no one for me und I vas lonely, I zought maybe Genosha could ease mein heart."

"You thought Genosha could mend your heart, but not me? You thought it was easy for me to just go home to my parents like nothing happened? So all this time that I've been thinking about you, worrying, hoping you were happy, that you were fine; you haven't even thought of me once? Was all the time we spent in the mansion before the accident nothing to you? Am I nothing to you?"

After the words were uttered and all the feelings had slipped from her mouth she dashed away. Kitty couldn't possibly face him after all that embarrassing stuff. It was pretty obvious that he didn't feel the same way about her.

Kurt couldn't even wrap his head around the conversation that had just happened. Kitty had never been one to beat around the bush but all those pent up feelings! He didn't know how the conversation had gotten so warped at the end, but he didn't like it. Of course he'd thought about her almost every day since they'd been separated although he hadn't imagined that Kitty would be in the same mind set as he was. He'd never meant to hurt her by not coming back right away, but he really hadn't expected her to react that way. He'd been living on the streets and had a hard time the past year, yet she'd treated his travels as nothing more than that. He couldn't help but feel jealous and angry at the fact that she'd been cozy at home all that time. If he had a choice he would have loved to be able to go home like nothing was the matter and live a peaceful life, but it just hadn't been in the cards for him.

Kurt turned to the right, moving down the hall and walked to the room that had been given to him. He pushed the door open and looked around. Setting down his meager suitcase, it was too hard to have a lot of possessions when you were on the run, he entered. The room was different from his last one. The dresser and desk were on the opposite wall of where he remembered and the bed was closer to the door. Eventually he would move it back to his liking but it was just felt weird to be in this room, in this mansion when it was so different.

After getting settled in a bit he went in search of Kitty. They were two peas in a pod, she was the Musca to his Chamaeleon, and of course he would think an analogy relating to the constellations. It was something that they both loved and had in common. He wanted to make up with her as soon as possible so everything could go back to the way it was before the explosion. Why did terrible things always have to ruin the memories of good things?

He walked past the stairs and to the left side of the hall, the girl's side. When he reached where he remembered her door used to be he realized there wasn't a door in that spot. Kurt felt a little foolish not knowing where anything was or whose room was whose. He moved a few feet forward and then knocked on the door. This one had to be Kitty's.

A few seconds later the door opened. He saw surprise flash across her features, "Kurt."

"I'm sorry, but I don't like zee vay ve left zings."

Kitty gestured for him to enter and he did. Her room looked almost exactly the same way it did last time he'd been in it. She must have taken pains to recreate it so perfectly. He sat on the bed and looked up at her.

"I'm sorry too I lost my head, I just…" she took a deep breath and sat on her bed next to him. She didn't really know what she wanted to say. Kitty had kind of just confessed her love for him, what did you say after that?

"I know you feel like I betrayed you in some vay, but I didn't. I did vhat I had to do."

"What you… had to do?" Kitty repeated.

"I needed to leave und stay hidden."

"That has nothing to do with the fact that you never contacted me!"

"You can't understand how hard it vas for me because you never had to spend your life hiding zee vay I have."

"Seriously Kurt I understand that situations may have been harder or worse for you because you don't have the security blanket of looking normal, but that doesn't mean that just because I look like this means I've had no struggles."

"Vhat could have possibly happened to you Kitty. You had your parents und your home, und I'm sure zey took care of you," Kurt replied.

Kitty jolted up from the bed, "My parents were being harassed because people saw the news and the neighbors knew I went to that school, Kurt. It's not hard for people to put two and two together. I was so worried for my parents so I left. I was worried about you too and terrified what would happen if someone saw you and told the MRD! I thought Genosha could ease my loneliness too because I couldn't find you! I hoped and prayed that maybe we would meet each other on our journey and we could be together again! If I could have found you if I knew where you were, I would have been there in a heartbeat Kurt! It's not like I didn't tell you where my parents lived and it's not like I didn't invite you to come there if anything ever happened or if you needed me. I wanted you to need me. You're the one who left without a word and never came looking for me."

By the end of her speech Kitty had a steady stream of tears leaking down her face with a dumbfounded Kurt still sitting on the bed she had long ago abandoned. It was true. Everything she said was true and she wasn't going to take any of it back or regret it.

Kurt was dumbfounded, shocked, and he felt regret. He felt regret for a lot of things now. Regret for thinking that she couldn't honestly be interested in him so he'd used that as an excuse to never look her up. Regret for spending that year lost and alone when there was someone who wanted, who was waiting for him. And most of all the regret of hurting Kitty's feelings and making her feel this way.

"What's all the yelling about?" Logan poked his head into the room. The scene he came across was one that wasn't exactly happy looking. Kitty had tear stained cheeks and Kurt looked like he had just taken a good punch in the gut.

Kitty glanced at Logan then pushed past him out of her room and towards the bathroom. Both men heard the audible slam and clicking of the lock in place. Logan looked over to Kurt, worry clearly written on his face. He'd be the last one to admit being nervous, but when Kitty had taken off the month before, after they had finally found Kurt, Logan had truly been worried. It was the first time he was unsure of how the girl would act. She was like the pillar of strength, always cheerful, always happy, always trying to make everyone get along, you could count on her. If there was a problem she'd be the first person to jump in and try to solve it before anything bad could happen. In the end she had clearly come back because she saw it part of her duty to help mutants or humans in need, but more than that she realized they were friends. Kitty considered each and every one of the X-men a special part of her family and the pieces just clicked into place. Logan was like the dad, Storm the mother, Scott an uncle, Beast the family doctor, Bobby an older brother, and Kurt, Kurt had been the biggest part of all. He had been friend, partner in crime, team member, but most of all he was the love.

And somehow Kurt had shattered that strong front. Logan didn't know how or why but he knew that she was hurting and hurting bad.

"You should… give her time."

Kurt snapped his head towards Logan like he couldn't believe he'd spoken those words. Logan was the last person to give advice, but when he did, it was more often than not 'go patch things up.' He must have hurt Kitty more than he could possibly imagine and it made him feel absolutely terrible.

._._._._.

Mystique watched as Magneto talked with Blink and a few of the other mutants that guarded the island. She sighed and wondered what he was up to now.

"What is it Mystique?"

She glanced over, realizing the others were already gone. Mystique must have sighed louder than she thought, "Nothing, I was just trying to figure out what you were planning next."

"What makes you think I'm planning something?" Magneto raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

"When aren't you planning something?" she snickered.

"You know me too well. I was just going over some plans I have relating to Senator Kelly and the sentinels."

"What is it about?" Mystique wondered getting up from the couch and looking over his shoulder at the blueprints and papers.

"Nothing, just going to speed up some objectives to get it done with quicker."

The red haired, blue mutant nodded in acquisition but didn't stop eyeing the plans in his hand when he went over to his desk. It seemed like things were starting to come together. She'd have to be careful; Magneto had been getting a bit arrogant lately. Having a private escape route of her own might not be a bad idea.