Chapter 11 – Kurt and Kitty of the Secret Meeting Place

Kurt looked around himself warily, well aware that he was in a place where he certainly did not belong. He had imagined this place, the secret girls' washroom, at times when he had been younger, imagined it to be a place where everything was pink and purple, where classical music could be heard in the air, possibly by Bach or Mozart, where there was the scent of magnolia and sandalwood being wafted in through vents, and where females spoke in soft whispers about that which he could never truly understand. However, the girl's bathroom had proven to be a huge disappointment. For a start, everything was white, some of the sinks were slightly cracked, there was no music, nor even the sound of whispering, and although there was a scent drifting around, it most certainly wasn't floral in nature. There was even graffiti on the walls (although at least this was spelt correctly, unlike in the boys' bathroom, although some of the commas were in the wrong place).

Kitty watched as Kurt started to wash his face, staring at where a female visage stared back at him. Kurt wondered if he would ever be able to tell anyone about all of this, and if they would believe him, even if he did. He turned to smile at Kitty, who had just checked outside to make sure that no-one else was around and about to disturb them by entering their secret meeting chamber. "Thanks," he said.

"It seems like you've got the world on your shoulders right now, it's no wonder the weight's getting a bit too much," she said, giving him a small smile. "Believe it or not, I do know what it's like to feel that you are not exactly being accepted by your peers for who you are. Do you want to talk about what's bothering you?"

Kurt sighed, "It's not just one thing," he said, "but lots of things, and the worst part is, there's no one I can really talk to about it all."

"I'm here now, if you need a friendly ear," Kitty said.

Kurt took a deep breath, wondering how he would explain it all to Kitty without letting her know all about his secrets, but also without lying to her, "Supposing…supposing you knew something," he began, "some secret, that someone, or a group of someones, was going to do something really bad, something that would kill a lot of people. What would you do?"

Kitty gave him a curious look, "Try to stop them, I guess," she said, "Are you in some kind of trouble or something?"

"No, at least, not exactly, not yet," said Kurt, "but I'm sort of involved with people who are. But I can't not be, not yet, because I need to find out exactly what they are up to, and I can't do that if I'm not close to them. So I need to be close in order to stop them from doing what it is that they are doing, but I don't know how to stop them from doing what they are doing…" Kurt realised that he was babbling, and noticed that Kitty was giving a questioning glance. He sighed, and shrugged.

"Maybe you should talk to the police," she suggested.

Kurt shook his head. How could he explain that he did not want to get the police involved, in case they found out that he was a mutant and quite likely an illegal alien in America? "There are issues that I don't think the police are trained to deal with," he explained slowly, truthfully, "some people have certain, um, skills that the police would not be able to fight against. Ultimately, I don't think they'd be a lot of help right now."

Kitty gave him a long look, "You need someone to help you, that much is obvious. I'll do what I can, but nothing illegal, okay?" The bell rang at that moment, and Kitty sighed, "Look, I'm going to be late for my next lesson, but we can talk again soon. There's that Halloween party coming up at the end of the month, I'll meet you there and I promise that we can discuss what it actually is that I can do to help you." Kitty reached inside her backpack and pulled out a notebook. She tore off a sheet of pink paper, and wrote something upon it in purple lettering. She handed it to Kurt, and smiled, "This is the date, time and address. Meet me there, and we can talk again. Right now, I really do have to get back to class, though." With that she waved goodbye to Kurt and left.

Kurt stared at what she had written. He knew the place, it was not that far from the Brotherhood Boarding House, easily within teleporting distance – at least it was when he had still been able to teleport. He attempted teleporting back there once more, but again nothing happened. He sighed again. Right, well, he could not exactly spend the rest of his life inside a girls' bathroom, he would have to think about what to do next. He had missed his lesson, but that could not be helped. He would tell Mystique that he had felt ill – it would not exactly be a lie, the stress of everything had meant that he had started to feel less than completely well – and put up with whatever she said to him. Then he would take the afternoon off, get his spare Hologram Inducer Watch, and remember to keep it with him at all times, in case the other one did – well whatever it had done earlier to change his appearance. Perhaps after he had gotten some rest and some sleep, he would be able to teleport again. Kurt smiled to himself. Perhaps everything was sort of working, after all. Kitty had agreed to help him – er her – which was exactly what he had wanted anyway. And was not Halloween the perfect opportunity to go without his Hologram Inducer Watch to let her see the true Kurt in all his blue and furry glory? He would tell her everything then – and if there was a problem, he would just pretend that it had been a holiday prank, and she would laugh about it and realise that he had a wonderful sense of humour, which would just endear him to her even more.

Feeling much more cheerful, Kurt snuck out of the school grounds, and made his way back to the Brotherhood Boarding House, clasping the piece of paper that Kitty had given him close to his heart the whole time.