Chapter 10 – Kurt of Girl Trouble
Author's note – Yay, more reviews. Scott is being overprotective, but he does have a reason to be so, as I hope this chapter will make clearer; he feels protective of Kitty, even if he's being a bit mean to Kurt in the process of trying to keep her safe. After all, there does have to be some conflict to keep Kurt and Kitty apart, even if there is no real 'bad guy' being responsible for this conflict. Now on to the next chapter. Enjoy.
"I'm sorry for the way that Scott treated you on Saturday," Kitty began, "he's just trying to look out for me, that's all. He does mean well."
It was Monday morning, and Kitty had arranged for them to rehearse on Thursday lunchtime, in Room 35. That was the room that Mrs McCann sometimes allowed students to book, when they wanted a quiet place to do homework, or a place where they could do group work without being disturbed. Kurt had agreed to this, but it had become clear that Kitty had wanted to talk to him all through their first lesson that morning, and so she had stopped him the minute that she saw him in the corridor, when he had been getting a book out of his locker. She looked awkward, and Kurt did feel a little bit sympathetic towards her, even though he felt that all of her friends had been treating her rather unfairly. He shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he muttered.
"Yes it does," said Kitty. "It's only right that I try to explain." She sighed. "Scott's only trying to look out for me, he says I've been too tolerant, too lenient towards the Brotherhood in the past. And he has a point."
Kurt sighed, "I said before, it doesn't matter," Kurt insisted, "Look, I didn't want to come here," he said, "I didn't want to become part of the Brotherhood, I was ordered to."
"Yet, Scott still does have a point," Kitty insisted. "I've always thought that the Brotherhood and the X-Men – that's what we call ourselves – that we should be friends and allies, but the others have said that the Brotherhood have been given several chances, and have messed them up every time. But I still thought that they should be given another chance." Kitty looked down, and bit her lip slightly, "I was going out with Lance for a while," she admitted.
Kurt stared at her for a long moment, "You and Lance," he said, stifling a laugh, "that does not seem like a good match at all."
"It's not funny," Kitty protested, putting her hands on her hips, "he's not nearly as bad when he's not with the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants than he is with them. That's true of the rest of them as well," she added, "When they're not trying to impress each other, they can be fairly decent people, it's just when they all get together, they sort of bring out the worst in each other. You must have noticed that, living with them."
"To be perfectly honest, most of the time I just try to avoid them," Kurt admitted, "but I do sort of know what you mean. People can be very different people depending on who they are with at the time, as if a bit of their friend's personality sort of rubs off on them." He looked at her a minute, "Hey, wait, you call us the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?!" he asked.
Kitty nodded, "Well, maybe not evil exactly, but you know that they are involved in some pretty questionable stuff. Like last Saturday, when they robbed that jewellery store," she added.
"Yes, and then you came and caught them," Kurt muttered.
"I thought you said you hadn't been involved in that?" said Kitty, staring at him questionably.
"I wasn't," said Kurt, putting up his hands quickly, defensively, "I had just stopped for a coffee in that coffee shop opposite, after changing my money to American dollars and buying school supplies. That was when I saw them, when the alarm bell went off. I really did have nothing to do with it."
Kitty seemed sceptical, but did not question him further, "Well, anyway, I broke off with Lance after that," she said, "and then Scott said that I had given them all too many chances, and he made me promise not to spend time with them or to be friends with any of the Brotherhood again, at least for a few weeks, until I felt better. So I promised. So that's why he was so mean to you on Saturday. I just thought I ought to explain."
Kurt shook his head, "I can understand you wanting to be careful," he said, "but why can't we just be friends? Surely there's nothing wrong with that. We have to have rehearsals together after all, surely they would be better if we were friends. Wouldn't that make them more fun, more enjoyable?"
"Don't take it personally, but I did promise Scott. I'll attend rehearsals with you, that's fine, but that's all it is. I just can't be friends with you right now."
"It's not right for anyone to dictate who you can and can't be friends with," Kurt said. "I mean, think about dogs."
"Um, what?" said Kitty.
"Dogs," Kurt repeated, "when they meet somebody new, they just want to be friends, and run around and chase sticks and balls and small rodents and things. They don't care what colour their friends are, or how big they are, or what country they are from, or anything like that, they just want to be friends. Of course, they do tend to sniff each other's butts upon first meeting, which seems to be a niche interest when it comes to humans," he gave her a small smile and a wink.
"And you were doing so well until you started to talk about dogs' butts," she said with a little laugh. "Maybe later, Kurt," she said, reaching out to touch his hand in a reassuring manner, only for Kurt to pull it away quickly, so that she would not know that his hand was furry. She gave him a slightly questioning look, but shrugged it off, "but right now, Scott really does have a point. I'll see you Thursday for rehearsals, but that's all it is. We just can't be friends right now. I really am sorry."
Kurt sighed, but nodded, and walked away, feeling rejected and irritated. He had some free time until his next lesson, so he had a chance to think carefully about everything that Kitty had said. Kitty's comments had really started to frustrate him. It just wasn't fair! He had not wanted to come to this country in the first place, had not wanted to become a member of the Brotherhood, and now Kitty didn't want to be friends with him because he was a member of the Brotherhood! And he had to deal with a giant robot that was going to go around quite possibly killing people. And he didn't know who else to turn to apart from Kitty. He sat down on a bench, and tried to reason with himself. Well, was there anyone else he could talk to about the giant robot? He could try this Professor Xavier, but he was reluctant to go back there after what had happened the last time. Mrs McCann maybe? But she already thought that this was part of the story he was writing, and so would be unlikely to be able to give him much help. No, Kitty was the person who could help him with this, he was sure of it. But she did not want to be friends with him, because he was a member of the Brotherhood. So perhaps he should leave the Brotherhood, go somewhere else. But no, he wasn't sure how to go about that, and the courts had ordered him to spend time with his biological mother, Mystique. What he really needed to do, he thought, was be someone else. Of course, that was not really a practical thing to consider…
…Or was it? He looked down at his watch. Good, he still had a while until his next lesson. Perhaps he could do something with this watch, change his appearance, create another sort of hologram or whatever it was the watch actually did to disguise his body, and make himself look like someone Kitty would like to be with. So all he had to do was fiddle around with it, to make himself look like essentially a younger version of one of the most handsome Hollywood actors he had ever seen. Grinning to himself, he started to fiddle with the watch. He moved near a window, so that he could see his reflection clearly. Good, the image was changing, making him look taller, paler, more handsome. Nice, but not good enough. He fiddled with the buttons for a few minutes more. Now, to make me look like someone so unbelievably handsome that Kitty will just not be able to resist talking to me, he thought, still fiddling with the buttons on the watch. Then he felt a small electric shock, not enough to really hurt, but enough to startle him slightly. He shook his head, and looked back at his reflection, to see what he looked like now.
His reflection stared back at him.
At least, he assumed it was his reflection.
A tall, fairly attractive but slightly plump brunette girl was staring back at him, blinking in surprise.
Kurt looked down at his chest, and then quickly looked up again, blushing slightly. Yet indeed the watch had created the illusion of…um…girl parts on his chest. Well, that was not what he had been trying to do, and indeed he did not even know that he could do that. He started to fiddle with his watch to attempt to change his appearance back to what it had been before.
But nothing happened. Perhaps the small electric shock had shortened a circuit, or something, but he could not seem to make it change from the current image of the brunette girl. Kurt looked around himself for a moment, suddenly panicking that someone would be angry at him for being a strange girl on the school ground – now that was a problem that he never thought he would have! Of course, he could always remove the watch, but then his blue and fuzzy self would be revealed to the world, which would cause a whole load of potentially even worse problems. He fiddled with the watch a moment longer, but nothing changed. Kurt was feeling more and more frustrated as he tried to undo whatever it was that he had done to the watch, and, as he did so, he suddenly felt the pressure and the tensions of the last few weeks bearing down on him, becoming almost too much to bear. He had been forced away from his loving family, to come here and stay with a bunch of people who were involved in some form of criminal behaviour, on the wrong continent where no one spoke German, and he had to deal with the Human Defence League obsessives and a giant robot that had been built to kill people. And now his watch had broken, the image that kept his true self hidden creating a completely different hologram. He could have coped with any one of these stressors alone, but the pressure of everything building up all together was suddenly becoming too much. He felt a slight tingling at the side of his eyes, and suddenly felt a sense of shame that he might start crying – and what was the use of self-pity after all? He had to deal with his issues, not let them overwhelm him. Kurt tried to calm down, to think rationally. He got his breathing under control, and wiped the side of his eyes. All he had to do was to teleport back to the Brotherhood Boarding House, get his spare watch, and teleport back here, and no-one would ever know about this. Then he could just tell Magneto or Mystique that something was wrong with his watch, and ask them to fix it. They probably would not be very happy about that, but Kurt did not really care that much about what either of them thought about him. So he concentrated on the Brotherhood Boarding House, on his room, and then thought towards his room, the way he always thought towards the place that he wanted to teleport to.
And nothing happened. Kurt remained exactly where he was. Kurt felt frustrated, and tried again, but still remained exactly where he was.
Okay, so why was this not working? Granted, Kurt was feeling some degree of stress, which could be affecting his ability to teleport, but that had not stopped him from teleporting since the first month or so when he had first learned how to teleport. Of course, he was under a lot more stress now than he had been back then, but he should at least be able to teleport a short distance, and the Brotherhood Boarding House was not that far away. Fine. He would try to teleport to somewhere even closer, then. He looked at the other side of the school yard, concentrated on an area just under a tree, and thought towards that spot.
Still nothing happened. Kurt could feel himself starting to panic again. Ever since he had learned to control his teleportation power, he had been able to teleport at least that short distance without any trouble. Now he could not even teleport a few feet. He felt suddenly scared, lost, lonely, in the wrong body, in the wrong country, on the wrong continent, so far away from everyone he had ever loved, with no one he could talk to about his problems, and a load of mutant hating obsessives just waiting for an excuse to hunt him down, not to mention a great big robot that he did not know how to stop. And now he could not even teleport to a place of safety. It had finally become too much. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks and clouded his vision, and he felt anger and embarrassment that he could no longer stop himself from crying. Honestly! He had only been a girl two minutes, and already he was crying, surely he was better than that! "Labradoodle, labradoodle, labradoodle," he muttered to himself, in the vague hope that it would make him feel better, but it did not seem to be working.
"What's wrong?" Kurt looked up through his tears, and saw Kitty standing there, looking at him - er, her - with concern. Great, thought Kurt, now I've gone and embarrassed myself in front of the very person I desperately want to impress. What else can go wrong?
Kurt sniffed, and looked down, "Everything," he muttered, noticing that his voice sounded quite high-pitched through his tears, "everything's going wrong, there's all sorts of trouble going on, and I don't know how to stop it, and I'm miles away from home and anyone that I could have trusted to help me."
"You're homesick," said Kitty, "it's nothing to be ashamed of, I got a bit like that when I joined the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Come on, let's get that pretty face of yours cleaned up. I'll check that there's no one in the bathroom so that no one else needs to see you like this," she added kindly.
"Uh, the girl's bathroom," Kurt said, "I, uh, can't go in there!"
"Why not?" Kitty asked.
"Um…" Kurt tried to think of a reasonable excuse, but failed. Right now, he had a huge desire to teleport away from everything, including Kitty and America, or failing that, for the ground to open up and swallow him whole, but he remained stubbornly on the same spot. Kitty just shook her head, and grabbed the sleeve of his jacket; thankfully not touching his fur as she did so.
"Don't be silly," she admonished kindly, "I said I'll check in there to make sure that no one else is there, if you are worried about being teased by your friends. Now come on," she pulled him gently towards her, towards that secret and private place that only females were allowed to go to. More than anything, Kurt really wanted to teleport away from her, to go back home and forget about everything that had happened to him ever since he had been ordered to come to America. And what was strangest of all was that his plan to get to know and be friendly with Kitty was kind of working, just not in the way that he had imagined, or intended, as he entered that secret and forbidden female shrine.