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, or scenes that I sped through. 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.

Fallen stopped and turned around to look at Kurt as he stalled at the edge of the woods, nervously eyeing the road they were about to cross and the suburban area it led to.

He noticed her waiting and met her eyes briefly. "I… I think I'll teleport to the other side if that's okay with you."

"You could" she said carefully and walked back over to him. "Or you could face your fear."

Wagner's eyes shifted to her in shock, like he didn't expect her to figure out his reasons. He stepped back as she came closer. The girl calmly looked at the road and a couple of nearby houses before she turned back to him.

"There's nobody around. Just come with me and don't waste your energy on teleporting with all this gear. We have a long hike ahead of us yet."

She could see his chest rising quickly in anxious breaths, his eyes betraying his state of fight or flight. She stepped closer to him, and he stepped back again.

"Easy" she whispered. This time he let her come to his side but still pulled his hand away as she tried to reach for it. "Come on, now" she left her hand hanging in the air.

Wagner swallowed, now looking preoccupied with her offered hand rather than the potential of any people on or around the road.

The girl wiggled her fingers at him.

Eventually, he slowly lifted his hand and let her take it, giving him a sense of butterflies mixed with nervous tightness in his chest. As the girl pulled him across to the opposite side of the road and into the woods over there, his main focus was on the sensation of their fingers wrapped around the other's hand. She let go all too soon, snapping him out of the tunnel vision.

"There you go. That wasn't so bad, was it?" the girl smirked at him, and for a moment he thought she was asking about the hand-holding. Luckily he realized she meant getting through the suburban area before he said something embarrassing. He just smiled shyly at her, unable to hold her gaze.

Fallen nodded her head at the woods and kept leading the way to whatever was waiting for them ahead. Kurt fell a couple of steps behind her, musing on the unexpected friendship that he found in this new, stranger world. He felt like a lot happened in little more than a month, especially considering that he spent nearly all of it shrouded in darkness. The girl should be nearly a stranger to him, and yet he felt closer to her than to some people he knew for years.

If following this nearly stranger into the unknown wasn't a testimony to that, he didn't know what else could be.

"You're a really good friend" he said, smiling to himself.

The brunette looked over her shoulder, confused if he was talking to her. "I'm trying to learn how to be one, for sure" she nodded her head in consideration. She did say before that she never cared to try for anyone before him, and it made him feel weirdly special, in a good way. "I haven't done anything spectacular for you, though."

Kurt caught up with her as she spoke and gave her a brief look with a smirk. "It's the little things that matter."

Fallen considered it a moment. "Like what?"

Wagner turned his face to her, and she looked back, questioning, but unhesitant. A few seconds later, "Like not looking away" he said. He grazed her naked arm with the back of his fingers. "Or flinching away."

She looked from the spot he touched on her arm to his face like she was trying to comprehend how something so little can mean so much.

"Well, you're the flinch-away master here" she stated. "Anyway… I don't think either of those things should grant me the status of 'a good friend', it's all kind of… the normal things to do."

"It's never been that with me" Kurt said, emotional heaviness creeping into his voice as he locked his eyes with the ground a dozen feet ahead of where they were walking. "I guess normal things to do stop being so obvious when you're not considered normal, even by your friends."

He could see off the corner of his eye that Fallen was observing him for a moment, but he tried not to overthink it too much.

"You need better friends" she stated eventually, her eyes turning to the forest again. "If the bar is so low that all I need to do is look you in the eye and not act like you're made of acid, then there's clearly a problem. And it's not you."

Kurt's eyes opened a bit wider, the idea of him not being the problem oddly new and liberating. He needed to take a moment to breathe because his throat clenched.

xXx

The evening came and with it the time for their first camp to be set up.

"Do you still want to find a net cafe to keep watching later tonight?" Fallen asked as she arranged a bunch of rocks in a circle.

"Yeah, I'd like that… 'like' being used very loosely here."

The brunette looked over at him with a smirk. "No doubt. Alright, then set up some of the snares nearby, maybe something will get caught through the night. I'll finish preparing the fireplace and we can eat."

Wagner nodded and focused on his quest. Thirty minutes later he teleported back to their camp, and his heart immediately rose to his throat. He stepped back, his eyes fixated on the fire.

Noticing something is wrong, Fallen looked around from where she was sitting with her back against a log.

"You alright?" she asked.

Fear burned in the German's eyes as fiercely as the glow of the flames themselves. He was slowly stepping backward, his face more and more altered by shock and terror, and his stare trained on the fireplace.

Already familiar with the look from his flashbacks of attempted stoning, the girl got up and stepped over the log. "How about you take a breath, huh?"

To break the intense eye contact Kurt had with the fire, she stepped in between to obscure his view of it. His eyes shifted to her and maybe it would work if he hadn't kept stepping back, now his feet hitting the discarded backpack; not very coordinated in this state of mind, Kurt yelped and fell back, rolling off onto the ground.

It seemed to translate to an attack in his mind because he started gasping and crawling back, suffocated yelps of fear drawing from his throat along with some pleading in German that she couldn't understand.

As she tried to step closer to him his eyes turned to her with a look like she was to murder him then and there. Unsure of what to do, she crouched down, trying to make herself seem less imposing and she put her hands in front of herself where he could see them, but didn't dare to reach out to him yet.

"It's alright, Kurt, it's just me, Fallen… You're safe, the danger is just in your head" she tried to soothe him. He stared back at her with panicky breaths, but some conscious realization mixed with the fear in his gaze. "The fire is just for us to stay warm and eat… It won't hurt you. I won't hurt you" she tried to keep it up, and it seemed to work.

The fear turned to understanding, then to shame, and ended at misery as Kurt looked away from her, shut his eyes tight, and turned his face towards the ground. She carefully moved around him and knelt down beside him, but as she reached to touch the back of his arm he suddenly jerked up with a gasp and widened eyes.

His eyes closed again and he cradled his face in his hands, shivering for a moment. With a deep breath, he dropped his hands again, calmer now, but didn't dare look up at her.

"I'm sorry" he whispered faintly. "It was just…"

"...Memories?" she filled in softly.

He grimaced as if in pain before nodding. "Yeah."

"...Do you want to talk about it?"

He looked at her briefly, but feeling the shudder of his chin he turned his gaze away again. He was quiet for a lingering moment, but eventually swallowed, bit his lips, and started softly; "There isn't much to say" he paused, considering it. "Just people in the village where I grew up… were pretty old-school when it comes to dealing with stuff like… what they thought I was. So when they got their hands on me when I was about 13 they… tied me up to a stake and set fire to it."

"You mentioned it in passing" she whispered. After a moment she scoffed bitterly. "Shit, people can be so fucked up."

"I don't blame them" he whispered back, gazing into the night. "They were as scared of me as I was of them."

"Except one party was right to be scared and the other nearly murdered my future friend, so don't mind me if I DO blame them."

Wagner scoffed with a sad smirk. They were quiet for a moment before the girl asked low;

"How did you get out of that situation?"

"I teleported" he said. "At least now I know that's what it was. Back then I had no idea I was the one who made it happen, I just thought- that it was some bizarre divine intervention that made me disappear and appear somewhere else. I don't know" he exhaled, finally loosening his curled-up position. "I wish I figured it out and learned how to teleport on demand after that though. It would have saved me from so much- hell, later on."

"...The hell is over now" the girl stood up from the ground. Kurt looked up hesitantly as she offered her hand to him. "Come on, sit with me by the fire."

For a moment he just kept looking between her face, her hand, and the fireplace, but eventually, he took the offered hand and stood up. The girl moved towards the fireplace, and - although apprehensively - he let her pull him along. She sat down with her back against the log and urged him to join her. He did and she let go of his hand.

He sat down; the fire seemed too close for comfort at first, but the less he felt like he was about to be thrown into the middle of it, the more the warmth of it felt nice, and the less he expected the flames to become a deafening cacophony, the more its soft crackle seemed relaxing. He inhaled sharply when he felt Fallen's hand on his back, but exhaled slowly as she ever so gently rubbed his shoulder blade through the layered clothes.

The girl rested against the log and observed him as he leaned forwards, curling up with arms wrapped around his knees. With interest, she watched how his tail - seemingly absentmindedly - wound around his ankle and slithered around his calf, and his prehensile toes curled, digging into the sandy ground.

He still looked anxious, but it wasn't nearly as bad as before. He just stared into the flames, lost in his own thoughts, but not anymore overwhelmed by them.

She continued to gently massage his back, trying to ease him. She knew that any sort of physical contact made him tense, but she slowly started to pick up on his contradictory relationship with proximity. One bit at a time she was starting to be able to distinguish what kind of touch would be unwelcome and which is just anxiety-inducing at first, but something he wants in the long run.

"You're a lot to unpack, you know" she said low.

Kurt snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at her confused.

She smiled sleepily. "It's fine though. We've got time."

xXx

They took a nap and went to the nearest town past midnight. After Fallen looked around on her own to find a good place, Kurt teleported them to an office building that didn't have any security cameras inside offices or passwords on the computer.

"Are we going to watch you continue to be obnoxious?" the girl teased as she proceeded to find the site where they last streamed the show.

"Show me one person that's not ashamed of how they acted at fourteen or fifteen" Wagner crossed his arms and arched his brow.

The girl opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself and just smirked with amusement. "I'll let you know" when I get there, she added in her thoughts. "How long ago was this for you anyway?"

Kurt had a blank expression for a lingering moment as he tried to do the math. "Four or five years, something like that. Closer to five. Long enough not to be judged for my actions anyway!" he threw his arms up exasperated.

The girl laughed a bit at him. "There's that obnoxious side of you showing through again."

Wagner puffed his cheeks, crossed his legs and arms and stared at the screen. Fallen plopped on another chair beside him and nudged him with her elbow, causing his serious face to shatter as he snorted.

It was until they reached episode 10 that Kurt leaned in, tense and wide-eyed.

As the episode progressed and it was confirmed that Kurt was experimented on as a baby, she could see his shivering.

"They never told you after all, did they?" she asked in an absent tone.

The shuddering breath Kurt took was all the answer necessary.

xXx

They watched until episode 24, and the emotionally draining process was finished off by the cherry on top as Kurt watched the cartoonized boy grab his on-screen version's wrist so much his inducer started malfunctioning and the illusion blinked away. The bully let go of him with a scared yelp and called him a rat. When the scared boy was about to go tell everyone what he found out, Jean came from the back and wiped his memory of ever finding out what was under Kurt's watch.

The on-screen Kurt looked away looking exhausted and defeated, said 'he heard it all before' and teleported off-screen.

Kurt in front of the screen looked equally exhausted and ashamed. She wasn't sure if he just needed to sleep or if this scene in particular further killed his mood, but he looked lifeless.

She leaned over past him and stopped the video.

He looked up at her, worried.

"You need rest" she whispered and put her hands on top of his shoulders. He tensed immediately.

xXx

Later that night they were back at the camp, facing each other as they rested against the log.

"That last episode got to you, huh?" she asked. "What that guy said, and all."

Kurt turned his eyes further away. "Like I said there… it's nothing I haven't heard before."

"...And that's supposed to make it better?"

The boy looked taken aback by the question.

"Regardless of how many people treat you like shit, it doesn't make any of them right" she stated. "Same with guys at the Institute… just because they had reservations towards you, doesn't mean there's anything actually wrong with you."

Kurt swallowed, his eyes glistening. "They just never fully got past the way I look. I thought they would, but they never stopped treating me a bit… differently if I had my inducer on than if I didn't. So if I wanted everyone to be relaxed around me, I had to keep it on. I stopped trying to get close to people without it."

Fallen nodded slowly as she chewed, connecting the dots. "I can see how that added to you being so reserved around me now, that the inducer doesn't work at all."

Kurt smiled faintly at her, apologetically. "I can see you at least trying to treat me like I'm just some random guy" he smiled shakily and stood up. "Even if sometimes I notice you… look me up."

Fallen swallowed the food, lifting her finger in the air for Kurt to see just before he turned his back to her and walked a few steps. "First of all, I don't treat you like 'just some random guy', because guess what - I don't generally try to be nice to random people. In your case, I just want to, because I like you. And I never said that to anyone genuinely or unprompted, so mark my words in a calendar or something" she smiled at him as he looked over his shoulder at her. She resumed a neutral expression and took another bite of the beef jerky. "And second of all, sure, I look you up and down sometimes" she ran her eyes over his back and down the long tail. "You are interesting, so I observe. But I don't mean anything bad by looking at you."

Kurt still stood with his back to her. "I know" he whispered, looking into the distance.

She swallowed her bite and put away the rest of the packet. It was time to drop the bomb. "Then why are you scared whenever I come close?"

Kurt turned around to her, and the glisten of unshed tears in his eyes struck her so much that she quietly held her breath. His voice was low and uneven; "Because I never had anyone close like that."

The way he said it left room for so many interpretations, but with every one of them running through her head, she felt there is not one that isn't heartbreaking.

Wagner turned his face away from her again and continued before she made up her mind whether to ask him to elaborate; "I feel like if not for necessity, no one would come any closer to me than you are now. So if keeping some distance and using some hologram was good enough to pat that out into a regular friendship, I was down."

"...Kurt?"

Apparently the care and firmness in her voice was commanding enough that he turned around to her again.

"Come back here, please" she asked in a soft whisper.

He hesitated but returned to sitting beside her against the log. She reached to his arm, and despite his flinch, pulled on it to urge him to sit facing her. Now both of them resting with their sides against the log facing each other, his eye contact fragile, her's demanding.

"Who put the distance between us just now?"

"What?"

"We were sitting here, just like this. And who changed that?"

Kurt looked a bit lost and under attack. "I… I got up…"

"Yeah" she said. "Seriously, since we started talking in that church I kept fighting myself over the fact that I found someone that seems worth my time and effort, because I never accounted for spending ANY of my time or effort on ANYONE, but here you were, making me care. And yet you dare to make yourself sound like shit to be poked with a stick AT BEST."

He stared back at her like a fish gaping for air.

"Listen, I get that it didn't come from here" she poked her head and pointed to indicate she actually meant his head. "It came from out there" she gestured at the surroundings. "Some people made you feel like you're not worth much. And I will not excuse any-fucking-one of them for giving you shit. But enough of you echoing their stupid opinions" she looked at him pleadingly. "You can't keep being like 'I'm unworthy, untouchable, unfriendable' and on and on… your body is different than others', so what? You didn't trade your brain for a tail, right? Use it to filter through their bullshit!"

Kurt still looked stunned, and didn't say anything so she continued a bit softer;

"For the record… I don't care, alright? Your fur, all the other stuff, it's none of my business or concern. Even if it was and I hated everything about you, you shouldn't care. But I know you do, so I want you to know that I'm not silently judging you behind your back. I'm just trying to be your friend and accommodate our differences as best I can. And as a friend, I'm tired of pretending I don't notice how often you conceal yourself as if my eyes could burn a freakin' hole right through you and flinch like my every move or touch is a threat."

Kurt seemed to melt against the log, his temple slipping into his hand and his entire body deflated. He closed his eyes, but she could see tears slip out from underneath his eyelids as he inhaled through clenched teeth.

She softened her body and tone. "Did I hit a soft spot?"

He nodded fervently.

Herself new to this whole dynamic of actually giving a crap about someone, Fallen wasn't sure what her next move should be, but she put her hand on the closest part of the boy's arm and gently squeezed it as she gave him time to process and compose himself. After her aggressively-supportive monologue, she felt like she owed it to him to stand down and wait for his next move.

She wasn't sure how long it took; Kurt silently shivering, breathing shakily and letting tears flow, but at last she shifted her gaze from the wet tracks in the fur on his cheeks to his eyes as they opened slightly.

"Do you mean it?" he asked so low she could barely catch it.

She wasn't sure which part he was asking about, but she meant every word, so she nodded.

The German closed his eyes again. "You really won't care?"

"Only in the best way" she responded low. "How is it if any concern to me if my friend is blonde, or brunette, or redhead, or blue… white, or black, or Asian, or blue? Every person on this fucking Earth is a little different from every other person, you're just a bit- MORE" she shrugged. "But I don't need you to be LESS to-"

She cut and held her breath in surprise as the boy leaned forward and slipped into her arms, his previous resistance seemingly gone or at least - put on hold of the moment. Her arms instinctively found the most natural way to wrap around him, and one of her palms ended up gently cupping the back of his head.

"See? I told you I don't bite" she whispered softly.

He shuddered against her, first once, then twice. She held him a bit tighter as she heard his suppressed sobs.

"You can hold me, too" she told him gently.

She could feel his arms that were folded between them now unwind and get hold of her shirt. He shook a little harder. She held him a little tighter.

"Let it all out" she said and without much thinking placed a kiss on top of his head.

'Damn. You made me so soft, so fast' she thought, but somehow couldn't find it in herself to be mad about it.

Kurt pulled back and sniffled wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. Fallen pulled a pack of tissues from her back pocket and offered it to him.

Another minute passed in silence between them. At last Kurt took a deeper breath; "I'm sorry for the meltdown" he whispered as he fumbled with a tissue.

"Kurt… it's okay to have emotions. Don't make me spell it out for you, because I will."

He cleaned his nose, but still sniffed a bit, and his eyes were not tearing up anymore but still glistened. "How are you always so composed?"

Fallen snickered. "Am I?"

"You're running away from a family that apparently earned it- I'm sure your situation would give people a breakdown or two."

She smirked at him sadly as she rested her elbow on the log and her head against the hand. "Oh, I broke down, a lot. And I had unhealthy coping mechanisms" she looked at the knuckles of her other hand where little scars were visible from up close, most of them coming from punching trees. She lifted her eyes back to him. "But it was all before I ran away from home. Now I'm- I don't know. Focused. And hopeful, too. Why would I be crying these days if these are the best days I ever had?"

Kurt was looking at her for a lingering moment, then smiled sadly. "Did I tell you already that I admire you?"

She smiled mischievously at him. "You can keep the compliments coming regardless."