A/N: This whole backstory/origin is a work in progress. I will be rearanging scenes and adding more in-between, so you will find [CONTENT MISSING] information in a lot of spaces. If you want to be the most up-to-date on everything related to this series, I would recommend going to /jenhunter :)
Just consider it random time skips for now.
They woke up early that night, and this time Kurt met Fallen in the main aisle even though her flashlight was on and pointed to the floor. He was nervous but fought against his own instincts just to remain there.
"Come on, it's an hour hike" she said, giving an unsure look to the boy's naked feet. She saw enough to know he seemed to be more comfortable this way, so she didn't bring it up.
She led him through her usual route towards the city. He fell a few steps behind her, so she often stopped and turned around to wait for him to catch up. He eventually gave up trying to create that distance and walked level with her. She refrained from stealing too many curious looks in his direction, but there was a lot to study about him; the way he walked, the way his tail moved smoothly behind him, the way the soft expression on his face always carried worry.
Fifteen minutes into the hike, he picked up low; "Listen, I… I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what?" she asked.
"Hiding from you."
Fallen turned her face to him, serious. "I- I was furious at first, I'm not gonna lie. I hate being lied to and it felt sort of like that. But with you I'm- I'm learning that sometimes there is another side of a story. And I realize that you had every right to be cautious of me."
"So you don't hate me for lying like that?"
"...No. You were just protecting yourself. I could never blame you for that."
[CONTENT MISSING]
Kurt stared with eyes wide at the cartoon versions of his friends and not-so-much friends moved on the screen, their voices at the same time different and bizarrely alike their own. It was a very uncanny valley type of unsettling.
Especially when his own name was mentioned.
He flinched nervously as the scene depicted his arrival at the Bayville train station, covered in a floor-length DIY hooded coat and carrying his singular suitcase. The next scene was his first meeting with Scott and Jean, already in the Professor's office.
He wrapped arms around himself, nervously watching the screen and their introductions. As they showed him tuck his hands back into the deep pockets after weakly shaking hands with Scott, Kurt felt his eyes sting with tears he refused to shed.
"What they didn't show is how Scott wiped his hand on his shirt afterwards" he whispered low. He could only make himself look over at Fallen for half a second before looking away, and it was hard for him to figure out what she was thinking from the brief look into her eyes.
They watched through the entire episode which was in a large part about his first encounter with Todd, which made him cringe on multiple levels. When the end credits rolled, he finally turned his eyes away from the screen.
Fallen was sitting backward in a chair a little behind him, her arms folded on the backrest and her chin resting on top of them. She observed him, but once again, he found it difficult to read her emotions.
"H… how many episodes of this are there?"
"52" she responded low.
"52" he echoed, shakily exhaling. 52 episodes of the uncanny valley, of seeing behind the scenes of other people's lives and having his own life on blast. 52 episodes of horror, for all he knew. He met Fallen's brown eyes again. "Have you… watch it all?"
She grimaced, almost apologetically. "Yeah. I saw some of it as a child, but after we started talking and I started suspecting that you're- well" she gestured to the screen. "I watched the whole thing again over a couple of visits to the town."
He wasn't sure what to think of any of it at all. But watching that first episode made it real for him, after trying to downplay it for hours.
He swallowed and curled up in the chair, his hands shaking as he nervously wrapped them around his knees. He flinched when Fallen put her hand on top of his shoulder, but then the sympathetic look on her face made him calm down.
"You don't have to watch it, you know" she said just above a whisper.
He hesitated for a moment. "...I don't think I could sleep at night if I didn't."
"You don't sleep at night either way."
"You know what I mean."
"I do" she gave him a brief smirk and let go of his shoulder. "So, next episode or…?"
"Ja" he took a deep breath and braced himself. "Next episode."
They ended up watching the better half of the first season, and by the time he decided he was done for now, Kurt felt emotionally drained. He eyed the button leading to the next episode almost like an addict fighting his urges.
"The show's not going anywhere, you can continue later" Fallen said. "We should go back anyway, it will start dawning soon."
Wagner exhaled, kind of grateful to be told to stop. He nodded and switched off the browser, then the system. Silence and darkness fell around them again, only broken by faint light from the corridor. Fallen got up and replaced her chair by another desk, then nodded at Kurt to get up, too.
"You need to teleport us back into the street, or preferably back to the forest. Is it doable, now that you know where we're going?"
The German got up. "I can probably take us all the way to the church or your camp in two bamfs."
"How far can you take us with one? Because I don't think I can stomach two in a row, not yet anyway."
Kurt smirked. "The edge of the woods should be doable."
"Great" she nodded and stopped in front of him, waiting.
Wagner put his hands on top of her shoulders. "Deep breath" he said, and as she inhaled he teleported them to a specific spot he remembered between the town and the wild area. He stepped back from the girl but watched carefully how she recovered and if she needs any assistance.
The brunette blinked a couple of times and inhaled sharply, looking a little pale for a second before returning to normal. She tucked her hands into her pockets and as soon as she got bearing of her surroundings she started walking back into the woods, acting like she's fine.
Kurt followed, falling a few steps behind her.
"You were pretty annoying at the beginning of that series" she commented casually. "Obnoxious and reckless."
Wagner puffed his cheeks. "I'd love to see how you acted a few years ago and judge how mature you were at the time."
"Oh, you'd be surprised" the girl laughed and looked over her shoulder at him, amused. "I was too serious for my age at every age. I think it might just be because of neglectful parents and chronic depression."
Kurt was quiet for a moment as he thought about it and slowly leveled his steps with the brunette.
"I guess we all cope differently" he said at last. Off the corner of his eye he saw her questioning look. He smiled sadly at her. "I dealt with my issues pretending they don't exist. Acting like I don't have a single care in the world for one example."
"Ergo, the ever-careless jokester?"
"And the reckless prankster" he echoed her, then smirked again. "It seemed to work for a couple of months before I couldn't keep it up anymore."
"It showed" she stated.
Kurt shifted his eyes to her, worried and intrigued by the fact that she had a glimpse into his life that he was yet to see. He wondered how much she knew that he would never suspect that she would.
"In the later episodes" she started explaining, her voice softer now, "you seemed to withdraw, become more quiet and you know… exhausted with everything."
The German's glowing eyes shifted to the ground in front of them, tired. "I guess even if I tried to hide something, the show would've told you all you need to know about me."
"The show would only show me brief, oversaturated glimpses of your life" she said. "I want to know you as a person, not as someone's caricature of that person."
Kurt's face turned away from her, and with his eyes gone from her sight, she could barely make out his shape against the dark forest as they continued walking. He was quiet for a long time, and she didn't know what could be going through his head, but she decided to leave the room for silence and let him be the one to break it when he was ready.
They arrived by the cathedral in silence.
"I think I'd like to stay here tonight if you don't mind" she said. "Take a nap for a few hours before I hit the city tomorrow one last time."
"I don't own the place" Wagner smiled at her as he opened the door and waved his hand to welcome her inside the cathedral.
The girl went in and dropped her bag in one of the pews, then went over to the altar and picked up one of the candle stands she put there before. She placed the stand near her bag and proceeded to light the candles. "I've been asking around and found someone who can get me an ID" she picked up. "I've avoided spending money for this exact reason. It might not be foolproof but it will provide a little more security, I think."
Kurt seemed confused and alarmed. He walked around to the pew two rows down from Fallen's and swiftly climbed on top of it, crouching on the backrest that doubled as a prayer book shelf for the person in the back. "You want to have a forged ID?"
She shrugged, proceeding to remove and rearrange things inside her bag to make it into a pillow. "I will only use it if it's really necessary. The guy says it'd check out and he supposedly does a very thorough job to make it so, but I'd be stupid if I took his word for it. Still, it's better to have it maybe check out than not have it at all."
Wagner continued to frown. "Isn't it dangerous getting stuff like this? I mean, the people who forge stuff-"
"Are criminals" she finished for him and then turned to him, her arms resting on her hips and a critical look on her face. "Your point?"
Kurt raised his hands defensively. "I get that you get it. Don't bite. I'm just worried you'll get hurt seeking out people like that."
Fallen turned her eyes back to the makeshift bed she was creating on the bench, something colder entering her eyes. "Well, apparently being a criminal runs in my blood, and they recognize their own" she said just above a whisper.
The sound of her voice made Kurt want to shut up. He quietly got off the pew and onto the main aisle.
"I'll… go to sleep now. Goodnight, Fallen."
"Yeah. Night."
He watched her back for another moment before teleporting up to the nook where he made his own sleeping area.
xXx
Kurt sat up abruptly with a gasp before breaking into quick breaths and slowly realizing that he's alright, even if the images his brain projected in his sleep said otherwise. It was a miracle he fell asleep at all, to be honest.
The morning light poured in through the warm-toned stained glass beside him, slowly washing away the impact of his nightmare.
He could hear low sounds echoing through the open space of the church and he crawled over to the edge of the construction platform he was on. He only caught a glimpse of Fallen on top of the altar and saw her turn her head to him; he withdrew quickly back to the round window.
"You awake?" the girl asked.
"Ja. I'll be there in a moment" he said and picked up the loose hoodie he used as an extra cushion to sleep on. He put it on and teleported to the main aisle below.
Fallen turned around on top of the altar to face him, looking kind of critical and he wasn't sure if it was the fact that he chose to teleport instead of climb down, or something else, but he chose not to dwell on it for the sake of his mental state.
"You probably shouldn't be standing on top of it" he noted looking up at the girl casually standing on the stone table.
"If any gods mind they're welcome to make me get off" she stated, looking almost like she dares him to argue against it.
Kurt rolled his eyes. "Why are you up there anyway?"
"During one of our talks back when you were lurking around, you mentioned that being in high places helps you find a new perspective. I'm trying to see if it works and figure out a solid plan for where to go from here."
Wagner snickered. "You aim too low."
"Excuse me?"
"The high places?" Kurt seemed amused. "I meant more like the rooftop."
The girl looked up at the tall ceiling. "I don't know if I'd trust it to hold me, the place is half collapsed as it is."
Wagner shrugged with a smile. "I go there all the time, it's fine."
Now it was the girl's turn to roll her eyes. "I don't have an ability that will save me from a fall" she said and jumped off the table.
"You have a friend who has that ability, though."
"We're friends?"
Kurt's face dropped.
She playfully punched his shoulder as she walked by to her stuff. "Just kidding. We're friends."
The boy pretended to chuckle but exhaled with relief when she was back to him.
"Maybe we can go to the roof when I'm back from the town with the ID and supplies for the hike. I went to my camp when you were asleep, by the way. These wouldn't last much longer" she said, pulling two apples out of her bag. She caught one between her teeth and started throwing the other one, letting it fly two feet up before catching it again.
She slowly stopped when she noticed Kurt backing away from her. Turning her eyes to him she saw the absent fear in his eyes that watched the apple in her hand. She lowered her hand with it, pulled the other apple from her mouth and swallowed the one bit she got off of it as she watched Kurt's face return to normal, but anxious.
"What was going on in your head just now?" she asked in a low, but matter-of-fact tone.
The German's eyes shifted from the apple in her hand to her face. He went through an array of emotions in the span of a few seconds before exhaling with resignation. "Ever heard of the term 'stoning'?"
"I'm going to go ahead and assume you don't mind recreational drug use" she said, looking down at the apple in her hand. "Throwing stones at someone until it kills them."
Kurt swallowed. "Ja."
"People tried to do that to you?"
"Once. Ja" he said even lower.
She watched him for a lingering moment before sighing low and approaching the alarmed boy. She lifted the apple for him to take instead of tossing it to him like she initially intended to do.
After a moment of looking lost, the boy took the apple.
"Thanks" he said low.
She just smirked briefly at him and went back to collect her stuff. "I'll be a while today. You can use that time to pack up my camp and collect some of the snares and stuff. I'll meet you here and we'll take off tomorrow morning. Sounds good?"
Wagner's grip on the apple tightened as he smiled shakily at her. "Sounds great."
[CONTENT MISSING]
She looked at the plastic ID card in her hands one last time, finding it to her satisfaction, and slipped it into the pocket of her black pants.
She looked at the pair of combat boots in the window, then down to her high-top black and white sneakers that were almost falling apart after the long time of being her only shoes. Their rubber soles were cracked, not made for the runaway life and by now making her socks wet every time she stepped in mud.
Her eyes lifted again to the leather boots with holsters going halfway up the calf and a really thick sole. The ID cost her almost all the money she saved up before running away and what she gathered on the run. Between that and the supplies for the upcoming hike, her savings have run dry. If she got those shoes she would have little more than pennies left. But she needed shoes she can trust not to fall apart, and the sneakers were long past their usability state. At this point, it was but an investment.
She took a break, readjusted the backpack she got for Kurt and entered the shoe shop, greeted the clerk and picked up one of the boots to examine it. She liked that it had a lot of weight to it.
"Why are there screws in the bottom?" she asked.
"To hold the outsole and insole together, so you don't have any risk of the sole ever coming off. The heel and the toe area are also reinforced with steel caps for protection. You could call them military-grade boots for regular folk. I know a lot of people wear it all year round, too. I was one of them in my younger days."
At almost double the price point of other winter boots it was definitely not the cheapest and didn't seem the warmest option either, but it sure was by far more sturdy and long-term than any regular shoe. The metal reinforcements sounded more than appealing to her, too.
She waited a few minutes as the man searched the back for some of the smallest sizes for his 5'2'' client, then she put them on and after a few minutes of tedious adjusting of the laces, she stood in front of the mirror and surveyed her image. She smirked uncontrollably. That looks more like me.
"I'll take it. You can keep the box."
Trashes her sneakers immediately after leaving the store.
xXx
Early the following morning Kurt seemed completely comfortable on the tall rooftop of the cathedral and he just appreciated the view after he made sure Fallen is not freaking out about sitting there. The girl seemed fine with the height, which he was pleased about because having company in his getaway felt good and fresh. She wasn't even looking for support, instead her arms were wrapped around her knees, the rising sun reflecting in her brown eyes as she watched the vast horizon and sparkling white mountain tops.
"It is beautiful" she admitted low. "I guess that sometimes making it all about survival makes me forget to appreciate the good parts."
And he was just glad he was able to stop her racing mind so she can be in the moment for once.
A/N: The last scenes are rushed but I will build on it later on.