Chapter 12 – Kurt of Halloween Night
Author's notes – yay, more reviews. As requested, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!
Kurt waited patiently in line, behind three people dressed respectively as a zombie, a vampire, and a witch. It had been just over two weeks since Kitty had invited him – er her – to the Halloween party, and these had been quite possibly the most frustrating two weeks of his life. As had been planned, he had met up with Kitty for rehearsals, and even though she had always been happy to rehearse with him, Kitty had refused to discuss anything other than the play during those sessions, which Kurt supposed was fair enough, since they had booked the room specifically for that purpose, and had a limited time to rehearse quite a lot of material. Yet, when he tried to talk to Kitty outside of rehearsals, she was always polite, but made it quite clear that she did not want to talk to him, that it was too soon, and that she had promised not to become involved with any member of the Brotherhood, at least not yet. Kurt would have perfectly understood if he had admitted that he had developed a crush on her, but he had been careful just to ask to be friends and nothing more, yet even that seemed to be too much for Kitty right now. And it's not just about me, Kurt reminded himself; it's also about that giant robot under the Brotherhood Boarding House. Still, Kitty had promised to talk to him – er her – that day when his watch had stopped working properly, had promised to meet him – er her - at the Halloween party and discuss what was bothering him – er her - and Kurt was sure that Kitty would keep her word, even if she would be mad at Kurt for getting her to make that promise while he was in disguise.
Over the last couple of weeks, Kurt had spent most of his free time at The Chocolate Teapot – they had decided to keep the name, although some of the people who worked there had expressed their reservations about that – since it was a place where he could go and do homework without being disturbed. The staff left him alone, as long as be brought a drink or something to eat every couple of hours or so, and anyway, Kurt could not concentrate back at the Brotherhood Boarding House, especially when the other members of the Brotherhood were fighting with each other. So Kurt had decided to spend his free time at the Mall instead, thereby avoiding the rest of the Brotherhood, and whatever it was that they had most recently been getting up to. He only really went back there to sleep and to shower, or when Mystique had demanded that he report on his school day. He had told her about how he was having rehearsals for the play. Mystique seemed to subtly disapprove of Kurt's being involved in acting, and when Kurt had asked her about this, she had replied that she would prefer that he was involved in other extra-curricular activities, activities that would help the mutant cause. Kurt had simply asked her, sarcastically, if she meant such as robbing a jewellery store. She had not criticised his acting activities again after that.
As for his plan to try and find out more about the giant robot under the Brotherhood Boarding House, that had been just as frustrating as his attempt to get to know Kitty. He had spent a few hours looking on the internet when he had had some free time in school, cursing his fat fingers, since they prevented him from typing faster and thereby accessing information quicker. But what had he really been expecting to come up? A page telling him How To Stop The Giant Robot Built By Mutants to Kill Those That Aren't Mutants? Needless to say, that had not been an exactly successful search. Well, the internet contained a lot of information, but finding just what he wanted, now that was the trouble, and it didn't help that it took him so long to type in what he wanted to find. Understandably, the information he required had not been readily available where just anyone could access it, although there was a real possibility that there was lots of relevant information there, somewhere, if he just knew where to look for it. That was the trouble with the internet; for perhaps the first time in human history, a vast array of knowledge was available to almost everyone in the developed nations, but finding the relevant information, that remained as potentially frustrating as it had been when this information had been available only to a select few privileged individuals and groups of people. Still, Kurt had found a rather interesting Japanese comic about teenagers who flew giant robots, so his search had not been a complete waste of time.
Kurt looked around the store, bringing his mind back to the present. The Halloween party was tonight, and Kurt found it mildly amusing to watch people dressed in scary costumes calmly buying chocolate eyeballs from the local store. It also meant that he could go without his Image Inducer Watch, although after the trouble he had had with it about two weeks earlier, he now always kept at least one of his watches in his bag at all times. Mystique had been cross when she had found out about him fiddling with his watch, but then again, when wasn't she cross? Kurt had arrived home, disguised as a girl, that fateful night, and Mystique had asked Kurt what he had been doing to cause such havoc to such an expensive piece of technology. Kurt had simply replied that he had wanted to see what it could do – technically not a lie – and then Mystique had taken it off of him and given it to Magneto to fix. It seemed to be fine now, but Kurt was worried in case something like that were to happen again. As for his teleporting ability, that had come back as though it had never left, leaving Kurt feeling slightly confused, but nevertheless glad, to have that very useful power back. Still, he would have liked to have known what had caused it to just stop working, so that he could do his best avoid to that happening again in the future.
"Nice costume," said a tall person dressed as zombie as he passed Kurt, "did you make it yourself?"
Kurt grinned up at him, "Mostly," he said, "although technically my parents did help me to get it started."
The zombie boy simply nodded as he left the store. Kurt let out a breath that he did not know he had been holding until that moment. It was slightly scary, being out in the open without the protection of the disguise of the Image Inducer Watch, but this was perhaps the only night of the year when he would be able to go without it, so Kurt was determined to make the most of it, even if it did make him feel slightly nervous.
As he left into the cold autumn air, he looked around himself, wondering if anyone suspected that this was not a costume, but his real self. He also wondered if anyone else, in their fancy, scary clothes, was also a mutant like him, whose appearance had to be concealed on practically every other night of the year, but on this night alone, was allowed to be free from any camouflage. It felt almost like being naked, lacking a layer of protection that had nearly always been there, showing his true self to the world, a world that might not yet be ready to see his true self. It was exciting, and more than a little scary. He looked up at the moon, and smiled slightly to himself. He might be further away from his family than he had ever been before in his life, but at least there were some constants; the same moon that shone down on him right now also shone on his parents back in Germany. He smiled at that thought. His German mother had been so pleased when he had emailed her about having the leading role in Mrs McCann's play, so proud of him. She had written excitedly about how wonderful it was to have an actor in the family, and had suggested that this was only a small step until he became a serious Shakespearean actor in London, or maybe Broadway, since he was already in America, and perhaps Kurt would be able to meet his acting hero, Alan Cumming, who Mrs McCann might know, since they were both Scottish. Kurt had laughed at that, told his parents that there were actually quite a few Scottish people, and that he had no intention of becoming an actor when he left school, but that it was a fun hobby and a chance to do something different and make friends, but nothing more.
And Kurt had intended for it to help him to make friends, or rather, friend. Having been rehearsing with Kitty for a couple of weeks now, he could almost remember his lines without needing to be prompted. It didn't hurt that his feelings for Kitty seemed to be growing, to the point where he was not so much acting, as using the script to express in a safe way the way in which he really felt about her. As for Kitty herself, she was as professional as could be imagined when rehearsing, and at times Kurt almost thought that she believed what she was saying, when she spoke her lines towards him, yet as soon as they left the safe area of rehearsals, she was polite, but not friendly towards him. It was clear that this acting in rehearsals was just a part of a course to her, a chance to earn credits from Mrs McCann, but that she did not feel anything towards Kurt. Kurt had to admit that he was developing a little crush on Kitty – oh, who was he trying to fool, he had a crush on her about the size of America, Canada and Mexico combined – and he had to flirt with her when he was playing Romeo. And she flirted back as Juliet, and Kurt could not help hoping that it was more than just acting. He knew it was for himself – method acting, Mrs McCann had called it, when you got inside the head of your character to such an extent that you practically became that character for the duration of play. It was frustrating, but Kurt could not talk to Kitty about anything other than school work; she made it clear that they could not be friends, at least not yet. And it was not as if Kurt just wanted to be her friend for its own sake – although that was indeed a part of it – he also needed to turn to someone to ask for help concerning how to deal with a giant robot that might start killing people, and he didn't know where else he could turn to for that help.
Kurt made his way back to the Brotherhood Boarding House. He could have teleported, but he had decided that it was better to avoid that whenever it was not necessary, since he still did not know what had happened to prevent him from teleporting that day, and did not want to risk that happening again. He was still wondering about that, feeling slightly worried about what had actually happened, and whether he had been the only one affected by it, when his sharp ears pricked up upon hearing angry voices. Frowning slightly, he made his way towards the sound, and it soon became clear that it was the Human Defence League, once more shouting about the danger that mutants posed to 'real human beings'. Great, thought Kurt sarcastically, I'd almost forgotten about those idiots with all the other things that I have to worry about right now. But he made his way towards them anyway, keeping a safe distance from where a tall, pale man at the centre of the crowd was busy shouting, and receiving enthusiastic applause in response from those that were clearly listening attentively to his words. Kurt folded his arms across his chest, and listened to this man, who was obviously their leader.
"…And so begins the next stage, our enemies will not stop until they have enslaved us, they wish to make us their property, their chattel, and to put themselves as gods, to control us at their will. And if we resist," here he raised his hands above his head, and then moved them down quickly, in a cutting motion, "they will cut us down, destroy us, try to tame us like sheep. They suspect that they can control us with threats, that we will obey their commandments, be docile as these mutants take over. But, brothers and sisters, we will not lay down, will not let them defeat us without a fight. This very night real humans will be prepared to take back control, to prevent them from enslaving us. Never again will we let those mutants, those inhuman monsters, treat us like their property, their cattle, to be culled and consumed at their will, from now on, we will fight back, brothers and sisters, against these inhuman monsters and their monstrous ways…"
Kurt shook his head, and made his way home. You're so full of hot air, he thought to himself, but you never seem to actually do anything. You just prance around and make speeches about mutants, and how you will defend yourselves against them, but that's all you ever do. Which is just the way I like it; I certainly don't want you to start actually doing what you keep on claiming you intend to do. I've got enough to worry about right now with rehearsals and a giant robot to stop. He looked back at the small crowd, but they didn't seem to have noticed him – well, why would they? He was, after all, just another uninteresting student, dressed up in his costume for a Halloween party – at least, that's what the world seemed to think of him right now, and Kurt had no intention of letting them know the truth of what he really was, at least not yet.
He made his way back home, and sat down at his desk. He had a few hours until the Halloween party tonight, so he had plenty of time to get ready. He wanted to look his best for Kitty, even if he was going to be showing her his blue and fuzzy self for the first time. He looked at the note she had given him – er her – when they had met earlier that month in the girls' bathroom. Surely Kitty would keep her promise and talk to him, even if that promise had been delivered under slightly false pretences. Kurt sighed, and decided to take a shower. He would have to tell her all about himself soon, he could not expect her to open up to him without him also doing the same. He would tell her that he was a mutant, might even tell her that he was blue and furry – after all, what was the worst that could happen? And then he would ask her about this great big giant robot and what should be done about it. Kurt got out of the shower, and dried himself off. He had to open up to her, had to tell her everything, there was just no other way in which he could expect her to help him. And, after all, this was not just about him anymore. He had to stop that robot, and time was starting to run out. If Kitty could not help him, then he didn't know who he could turn to. No, tonight was the night, since this might be the only night when he could show Kitty his true form, when he could let her know everything that had been worrying him ever since he had first come to America.
He dressed himself in a smart, black suit, and stared at himself in the mirror for a long moment, wondering what Kitty would say when she saw his blue and furry self. He had never felt more naked and vulnerable, as he made his way towards the party, and towards telling Kitty everything.