(Author's Notes: Just an update in warnings before you dive into the next episode. Remember, this is going to be slash. Also, there is some triggery content later on that I'm not sure I warned about previously. So turn back now, if you must!)

Episode 2: Disappearing Act

"Check it out, yo!" Todd bounded in, letting the front door slam open. He held his prize high in one over-sized fist.

Lance glared at him from the kitchen and made a shushing motion. The phone receiver was pressed tight to his ear. Ah, no wonder. Any interruption of a Kitty-Cat Call usually got that look.

Todd turned right and headed into the TV room instead. Tabby had stretched herself across the couch, and was flipping through the TV channels and popping gum. Pietro and Fred were in the armchair and on the floor (respectively), playing cards with the bored idleness that only boys wasting time after school could. All three looked up as Todd entered.

"Yo, check it out!" He waved his fist, showing them the bills and favoring them all with a shit-eating grin. "I got enough to feed both Freddy and Fuzzy!"

Tabby's eyes widened, and her gum bubble deflated. Then, she burst into motion, jumping off the couch and yanking the money out of his fist.

"'Ey!"

"Whoa!" Her jaw dropped as she sorted through the bills. "There's gotta be two grand in here."

Fwip. Pietro peered over her shoulder. "How'd-you-get-that-much-money-Toad?"

Todd smiled smugly. "S'like I said, dawg. Me an' the ATM on fifth… we gots what you call a mutual understandin'."

Pietro nodded, but Tabby's eyebrows shot up. "You hacked an ATM machine? Since when can you do stuff like that?"

Pietro shrugged, still hovering at her shoulder. "He-does-stuff-like-that-sometimes. It-pays-the-bills-so-it's-best-not-to-question-it."

Todd just grinned cheekily (almost proudly!) and made to take the bills back, but Tabby held them out of range, shoving him away with a hand to his forehead.

"Aw, man! Give 'em back!"

"No way. Who knows what you boys would do with this money?"

"I'll-hold-onto-it-then." Before she could protest, Pietro had snatched the money out of her hand and zipped to the other side of the room.

"No way!" Tabby cried. "You're as bad as he is!"

"I'll hold it," Freddy offered from the floor.

"I-am-the-most-reliable-member-here. Therefore-I-will-be-entrusted-with-it."

"You ain't reliable, foo."

"None of you dunderheads are," a new voice spoke, and Lance appeared from nowhere—phone still firmly attached to his ear—and plucked the bills from Pietro's hand. "I'm taking this, and using it to actually pay for stuff we need."

"Aw…" Todd bounced over to Lance and gave him his best puppy-eyed expression. "Ya sure we can't spare jus' a lil-"

"No, Toad. We're not getting you an mp3 player."

Todd sat on one end of the couch. "I wasn't gonna—"

"No bike. No computer. No hot tub. Fuck no on the car, the cell phone, the flatscreen." Todd felt himself sinking dejectedly into the couch. "No game consoles, vehicles, or electronics of any kind. Just no. Got it?"

Todd mumbled into his own shirt. "Yeh. I got it."

"Okay." Lance pocketed the money and gave them all one last look, then returned his attention to the receiver and headed back toward the kitchen. "Sorry about that, Pretty Kitty. Toad was being usual self, but I'm back now."

Todd stuck his green tongue out at Lance's back as the boy disappeared through the doorway. Tabby settled onto the couch beside him and returned to flipping through the TV channels.

In the relative quiet, Todd became aware of a soft scratching sound behind him. Dejection making way for curiosity, he peeked over his shoulder and saw Kurt. The furball was hanging upside-down by his tail from the picture window's curtain rod (the curtain had disappeared weeks ago), scribbling frantically into a writing pad that was raised (lowered?) to obscure his face.

Todd blinked. "Yo, what's Fuzzy doin'?"

Pietro had flopped back into the armchair. He slapped a hand over his forehead and groaned, "Don't-even-ask."

"I am observing," the German said, not even pausing in his writing.

Todd turned to face more toward Kurt. "Huh?"

The pen stopped moving, and the writing pad lowered to reveal a pair of mischievous yellow eyes. "I am observing teens in zheir natural environment enacting social situations, so as to better understand zhem."

At Todd's look, Pietro explained, "Apparently-he-got-stuck-watching-Animal-Planet-for-three-hours-before-he-figured-out-how-to-use-the-remote."

"Ja. Now hush. I am taking notes for later study." The eyes disappeared, and Todd just turned back to sit forward again with a baffled expression.

Tabby, however, turned to glance back at him. "Hey, I didn't know you could write."

"Yeah, that's right." Todd turned back around too. Then, both Tabby and Todd hopped over the back of the couch and moved to peek at Kurt's notes. They each took a spot on either side of the upside-down boy and looked at what he'd been writing. As one, they tilted their heads to the side.

"Not vell," Kurt admitted bashfully. "Und not in English."

"I'll say," said Tabby. Todd was too busy trying to wrap his mind around some of the words on the paper. Kurt made a squawking noise as Tabby snatched the pad out of his grip and tossed it carelessly across the room. "Forget that and let's just watch the tube."

"Zhe tube?"

"TV, Blue."

"Oh." He thought about it for a moment. "I did zhat all day vhile you vere at school."

"But you didn't watch it with us. Come chill with us, and we'll show you what 'enacting social situations' is all about."

"Ja, okay."

Kurt dropped to the ground, and the three of them returned to the couch. Tabby kicked up her legs and splayed them across Todd's lap. Kurt, meanwhile, seemed perfectly content to perch on the back of the couch.

Fred had grabbed the remote while they were distracted, and had changed the channel to the Food Network. Even when Todd's tongue snapped out to snatch it, Freddy didn't relinquish the remote, which left the rest of them suffering through some chubby guy in an apron tossing a skillet around. Tabby started making faces at the TV host, making both boys stifle snickers, which in turn earned them annoyed looks from Pietro.

It was Monday afternoon, three days after Tabitha and Kurt had joined the Brotherhood (one with their permission and the other not), and, already, it felt like they had been there all along.

Tabitha's easy, fun-loving take on life kept things exciting and fun, which made her a perfect foil for Lance when he was in his tough-guy leader mode. Plus, it wasn't like any of the boys was going to complain about having a hot chick around, no matter how psycho she was.

Kurt was completely the opposite. He was quiet most of the time, but he was energetic, inquisitive, and there were times Todd could see hints of mischief in his smile. Kurt had been sleeping in Todd's room (Lance: "You adopted him, so you get to deal with him.") on a pile of spare blankets on the floor, and the boy tended to wake Todd up at all hours to ask silly questions. Like "Where does our water come from?" and "What is that box on a pole in front of the house for?"

Sometimes, Todd and Kurt got along so easily that Todd forgot how new to everything Kurt was. Then, Kurt asked a question about the function of a toothbrush or something, and it all came crashing back.

Case in point:

"Vhat are zhose things he's putting in zhe food?"

"Who cares, yo?"

"Apricots," said Fred, not taking his eyes from the screen. "He's makin' apricot crostata. It's an Italian dessert."

"Oh." Kurt's head tilted curiously. "Is it good?"

"Yeah. It's great in summer, 'specially if the fruit ain't too tart."

They fell quiet again, watching the chubby man make his dessert.

After about half an hour watching the Food Network, Lance reappeared, twirling his keys around his finger and conspicuously lacking the phone. "All right, losers. I'm going out for groceries. What do we need?"

"I got a list of ingredients," Fred said, finally looking away from the TV.

"Forget it, Blob. I'm getting the basics; nothing fancy."

"Toad-needs-an-assload-of-soap. Preferably-perfumed."

"'Ey! Ya tryin' to kill me, foo?"

"You're gonna get flour an' eggs an' stuff at least, right?" Fred pressed.

"Sure, big guy," Lance said with an eyeroll.

"I zhink I need a brush or somezhing. My fur's been shedding everyvhere."

"I'll-say. I-feel-like-I'm-sitting-in-a-blue-haystack-here."

"Okay." Lance motioned them to silence and counted items off on his fingers. "We'll try a different brand of soap for Toad. Grooming stuff for the furball…"

Todd sank into the couch cushion, pouting and grumbling. He hated cheap grocery store soaps… they always did funny things to his skin. Usually painful or itchy things. But if he didn't use something, Pietro and Lance took matters into their own hands. Which was much worse.

Tabitha popped her gum. "Oh, I think I need tampons."

As one, all the boys cringed at the dreaded word (all except Kurt, who probably didn't know what it meant).

"Oh hell no," Lance said, waving his hands in front of him.

"That's nasty," Todd added helpfully, still pouting.

"Vhat are 'tampons'?" Kurt asked, looking worried by the others' reactions.

"I-believe-the-term-is-'feminine-hygiene-products'," said Pietro with a shudder, adding air quotes for effect. Kurt just seemed to look more confused.

"Fine, you babies," Tabby said with an eye roll. "But I'm not doing laundry, then."

It took a minute for her meaning to sink in.

"EWWW!" Todd shrieked.

"Yuck-yuck-yuck-yuck-yuck…"

"Fine!" Lance said. "I'll pick up… those things. Just stop talking about it!"

Tabby sat back, smiling victoriously. Kurt continued to look around in confusion.

"All right." Lance rubbed his eyes. "So, soap for Toad. Brushes for Fuzzbutt. …stuff… for Tabby. Are we good on shampoos and stuff?"

"Oh yeah," Tabby said, snapping her fingers. "I think I might have used the last of the shampoo. Girl's gotta get her hair just right, after all."

"No, ve have more," Kurt piped up. "Pietro's got some special vuns in his room."

That made everyone glance over at the speedster, whose face had gone suspiciously red. "I-I-I-most-certainly-do-not! WhywouldIhaveshampooinmyroomI'mnotagirl."

He'd dropped the spaces between his words entirely. Oh yeah, he was guilty.

"You know," Fred said slowly, "I always wondered how he got his hair so sleek an' shiny."

"Ooh, you have the expensive stuff, don't you?" Tabby pressed. "I'm totally gonna borrow it."

"Idonothave-expensiveshampoos-inmyroom!" Pietro squeaked unintelligibly. "Andwhattheheck-wasthefurballdoing-inmyroom-anywayhuh?"

It took a second for everyone to figure out what Pietro had just said, but then Kurt's brows furrowed in trepidation. "Vas zhat not okay?"

"OFCOURSEITSNOTOKAY!"

Kurt flinched, as if he expected Pietro to hit him.

"Hold up," Lance said, motioning for a calm that wasn't going to happen. "Furball, you went into Pietro's room?"

"Ja…" Kurt seemed to curl in on himself as he took in everyone's expressions. "You vere all at school, und I vas bored. So I explored."

"'Took a look around' explored? Or 'dug through the dresser and crawled under the bed' explored?"

"…the second vun?"

Lance's jaw set… a sure sign of an oncoming quake. "Did you do this in other rooms?"

"…ja."

"Every room?"

"…ja…"

"My room?"

The house shook around them briefly… but not as hard as Kurt had started to shake. Todd could feel his trembling through the couch cushion.

Everyone was frowning or glaring at the blue furball.

"What-the-hell?" Pietro spat, intelligible again. "Are-you-a-spy-or-something?"

Fred frowned. "I don' like other people going through my stuff."

"You better not have gotten into my panty drawer or something," Tabby said.

Todd stayed quiet.

After getting control of his temper, Lance stalked toward the cowering mutant. "Don't ever touch my fucking stuff again, you—"

Kurt winced and cowered away as Lance reached him, closing his eyes and bowing his head submissively. Lance cut himself off. All of them had seen enough hardship to recognize that posture: he expected to be hit… and accepted it.

Lance's hands curled into angry fists, but he made no more moves toward Kurt. Finally, he sputtered, "Damn it, get out of here!"

Kurt didn't need to be told twice. He disappeared with a bamf and a puff of brimstone-scented smoke.

Lacking a legitimate target, the room was left with tension. Todd, who had been conspicuously silent through the entire thing, quietly slipped away before everything exploded (possibly literally, with Boom Boom involved).

Todd made his way up the stairs and to his room. He poked his head in, and didn't see anyone inside. But the shades were drawn, casting everything into shadow. After quietly shutting the door behind him, he walked over to his bed and lowered himself to the floor, peering into the darkness under it.

There. A soft sheen of fur from what little afternoon sunlight could get into the room.

"You okay, Fuzzy?"

The shadows shifted, and a pair of watery yellow eyes peered out at him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Yeh, I figured. Ya wanna come out, or should I jus' give ya yer blankets now?"

Kurt didn't answer right away, and for a moment Todd wondered if he really would spend the rest of the night hiding under the bed. But then, the shadows moved again, and Kurt started to crawl out. Todd stood up and moved aside to give him room.

As Kurt pulled himself up, he crouched low on the floor and glanced up at Todd uncertainly. "Is everyvun very angry vith me?"

Todd bounced onto his bed, letting himself stretch out. "Nah, I wouldn't worry about it. Pietro'll complain fer a while, and Lance might be pissed for a bit, but they'll both get over it. You just gotta let 'em work it off, dawg. An' I never knew Freddy to hold a grudge, ever."

Kurt crawled hesitantly onto the end of the bed and started tugging at the sheets. "I did not know I vasn't allowed in zhem. I zhought ve could use zhe whole house."

"Yeh, well, bedrooms are kinda special, y'know?" Todd played with his toes, trying to think of a way to explain it. "Everyone gots to have a private place, yo. Somewhere they feel safe in, where they gots all the control. That's what bedrooms're for."

"Oh. So vhen I vent into zheir rooms, I vas breaking into zheir sanctu-varies?"

"Yeh, ya could put it like that."

Kurt tugged at the sheets, his eyes lowered. "So vhat about vhen I use your room? I'm invading your private place, aren't I?"

Todd took a moment to think that over, then shrugged. "I guess, but I don't mind, foo'." Kurt's eyes looked up at him hesitantly. "Really, foo'. I'm like you… I ain't got a need fer as much space as everyone else. I'm just happy to have a space at all, yo."

Kurt nodded. "I've never really had a sanctu-vary."

"Ya can use mine, Fuzzy."

A tentative, broken smile showed through, and Todd caught a flash of a pointed fang. "You mean zhat?"

"'Course."

Kurt grinned more fully, bouncing on the bed experimentally. Todd bounced back, and they were suddenly back to messing around and getting along like they'd been best friends for years.

At times like that, it was easy to forget how broken Kurt was. Then again, Todd was broken too. It was all about gluing the pieces together, then finding a way to hide all the cracks.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurt didn't dare emerge from his and Todd's bedroom until the next morning.

When he did emerge, it was because there was a scent wafting up through the house that he couldn't describe.

He rolled off his makeshift bed and crept out of the room, careful not to wake Todd. He continued down the stairs and into the kitchen. There, he found Fred lumbering around the kitchen, tending to something sizzling on the stove.

"Mmm…" He said before he thought about it, moving to peer into the skillet. "Das riecht vunderbar. Vhat is zhat?"

"Cheese and bacon omelets. My own recipe." Fred frowned. "Hey, could you get off the counter?"

Kurt blinked and obediently scuttled off the counter. He wilted as he mumbled, "Sorry."

"No big deal. I just don't want little blue hairs in all the food if I can help it." Fred shook the skillet a bit, flipping the omelet over. Then, he started breaking eggs into a little bowl. "You wanna taste?"

"You're not angry vith me?"

Fred wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Why'd I be mad? You didn't do nothin'."

Kurt hesitantly moved to stand next to Freddy, watching him poke at strips of bacon in a pan. He was steadily getting better at standing on his hind legs, but nonetheless was happy to lean on the counter for support. "I vent into your room."

"That was yesterday," he said simply, and that was that.

Kurt watched Freddy cook for a while, fascinated. He'd seen food vendors cook at the carnival, but never anything as complicated as the breakfast Fred was preparing. Fred obviously took pride in his meals.

"So zhings like zhis… is zhis zhe sort of zhing you learn at school?"

"This?" Fred paused thoughtfully over his grated cheese. "Nuh-uh. School's no good for learning to cook."

"Oh." Kurt's tail twitched as he watched Fred move back to the stove, flipping the omelet again. "Vell, vhat sorts of zhings do you learn at school?"

"Ah, gee. I dunno. Math and writin', an' stuff."

Kurt's head tilted to one side.

Lance walked in, mid-yawn, then blinked owlishly at the messy countertops. "I thought I smelled a Fred meal."

"Hey Lance," said Fred. "Kurt's wonderin' about school."

"Yeah?" Lance moved to the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. He tore it open as he turned toward Kurt. "Like what?"

"Vell, I vas vondering vhat sorts of zhings you learn zhere."

Lance snorted a laughed and took a swig from the carton. "Nothing useful, I can tell you that."

"Oh."

Freddy added, "I mentioned math an' writin' an' stuff."

"Well, yeah. I guess you can learn that stuff." Lance paused thoughtfully. "Don't really see the point. The main thing I think Fuzzy's been missing is the whole social aspect."

"Social aspect?" Kurt echoed.

"Yeah. Like how to deal with people. Which chicks are the easiest versus the best to pick up. Whether or not digging through someone's room is okay."

Lance stared at him for a moment, and Kurt shrank back. "I'm sorry!" he blurted. "I'm very, very sorry. I didn't know vhat I vas doing."

"Yeah, I figured. Just… don't do it again, all right?"

Kurt nodded vehemently.

Lance took another swig of juice. "So you've seriously never been to school before?"

"I've had trainers… do zhey count?"

"Uh…. no."

Freddy flipped the omelet off the skillet and onto a plate.

Whoosh.

It disappeared in a silver blur.

"Hey!" Fred shouted after him. "First come first serve, Pietro!"

"Whoever-came-first-should-have-moved-faster!" the speedster returned from somewhere in the house.

Fred shrugged and poured some eggs into the skillet.

Lance grabbed a piece of bacon off the sizzling pan while he waited. "You're lucky, fuzzball. We've got to go to school, whether we like it or not. Trust me: you're better off."

"But it's so boring here during zhe day."

"Kurt, you've spent most of your life in a cage. Now you're bored?"

Kurt flashed a lopsided grin. "Ja, I vas bored zhen, too."

Lance just shook his head and took another swig of juice.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurt soon found that, when it came to personal transgressions like invasion of privacy, the Brotherhood was surprisingly willing to forgive and forget in favor of more current issues. In fact, when Tabby caught Fred and Todd gawking at the PJ pants and lacy black negligee that she used as a nightie, all thoughts of Kurt's mistakes disappeared in the chaos, borne away by the sounds of explosions, shrieking, and Tabitha's amused laughter.

In fact, the Brotherhood transgressed against one another regularly, if the verbal abuse Lance levied around was any indication. Pietro's arrogance was overlooked, as was Fred's occasional bouts of uncontrollable temper. And Todd always shrugged off the others' casual abuse of him with a yellow-toothed smile.

And Kurt could kind of see why. When all things were said and done, the Brotherhood was still in it together, 'us against the world.' Each boy (and girl) had his (and her) issues, cracks in their tough rough-and-tumble exteriors that they didn't want anyone who might judge them to see. But the Brotherhood boarding house was a judge-free zone. Let your issues show, and you might get heckled for it, but at least it would be from someone who is just as messed up as you. It was a curious sort of bonding, one Kurt doubted most children experienced, but one into which Kurt fit perfectly.

Even so, his curiosity was a constant tug against his common sense, begging him to leave the safety of the boarding house and explore the world that had opened up before him. He knew first-hand what kind of greeting he would get if anyone but the Brotherhood saw him… but that did little to stop the yearning. The boarding house got small very quickly, and soon it began to feel like a bigger cage. Worse, the leash that was holding him back was his own appearance—something he could never do anything about.

The yearning was the worst when the others were at school, and his longing was accompanied by the ache of loneliness and the restlessness of boredom. He was active by nature—he'd always known that—and being cooped up in a house that he could barely run through without breaking a sweat was another hand rubbing his fur the wrong way. He was supposed to be free… so why was he having the same problems he'd had when he was caged?

He never told the others about his restlessness, but he suspected they could tell anyway. Every time he rushed to greet them when they got home from school, he could tell by the looks on their faces that there was something unusual in his manner. Pietro had once commented that it was "like-a-dog", but Kurt wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that.

That was another thing that bothered him. He was deplorably socially stunted, and knew it. He was learning—the rest of the Brotherhood was always quick to point out when he was doing something strange—but even the Brotherhood couldn't teach him everything. They were just as abnormal as he was, only in different ways.

What he needed was to see normal teenagers in normal situations. And if daytime TV had shown him anything, then the place to do that was at school.

Thus, after over a week of being cooped up in the boarding house, Kurt decided to follow the others to Bayville high school.