Thanks so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story so far, and I hope you like this next part! :D


Part Two

Kurt crouched at the edge of the mansion's roof, his four long, thick toes curled around the high stone railing. He crossed his arms on his knees and leaned forward, gazing out over the school's moonlit grounds with his night-adapted golden eyes.

"Hello, Kurt."

A cool breeze tousled his wavy hair and he jumped down from the rail, his tail lashing in surprise. Ororo Munroe smiled, her white hair shimmering like starlight as she alighted on the roof beside him.

Any other night, Kurt would have happily rushed to close the distance, to playfully take her hand and charm her with a quip from his beloved old movies. But the mischievous blue Elf didn't seem up to his usual banter. If anything, he seemed pensive, his shoulders hunched and his eyes downcast – a posture Ororo hadn't seen him take since she and Jean first found him, hiding and afraid, after escaping the cruel mind control of Weapon X.

"I thought I'd find you up here." She spoke gently, though her eyes were concerned. "What's troubling you? We thought you would be pleased at the prospect of seeing your family again."

"I am," Kurt told her, his low voice oddly strained. "That is… I know I should be. I have been searching…worrying about them for so long. My mother, my sister, all my dear, dear friends… Receiving Jimaine's message – her invitation… It should be a big relief, ja? A delight, even, to know that she and the circus are doing so well…"

Ororo picked up on his unspoken words. "Without you?"

Kurt turned his head away, his slender form melding with the shadows until he was all but invisible. "Perhaps… Sort of. But there is more to it. I'm not sure how to explain..."

He leaned back against the railing, his palm pressed to his forehead and his thick fingers buried in his hair.

"I did not expect to feel this way."

Ororo clasped his shoulder and he leaned into her touch, his spaded tail wrapping lightly around her ankle.

"Then let me listen," she said, brushing an indigo curl behind his pointed ear. "The way you always listen when one of us is hurting or confused."

"Ach, meine Schatz…" He sighed but, rather than snuggle in closer, as he so often did when they talked alone, together, Ororo felt him tense and pull away.

"Kurt…?"

He hopped back onto the high stone rail, crouching like a Notre Dame gargoyle as he reached back to her with his tail. Hesitantly, she gave the spade a gentle squeeze, her wary concern fading to a more familiar warmth when the strong tail, just as gently, twined itself around her arm.

"I feel…" His soft voice shivered with pain and she stepped closer, leaning against the cool, lichen-crusted rail beside him. "I feel I am mourning a loss. That something very deep, very precious, has been taken from me. And I know here, in my head and in my heart… It's too late to get it back. What I have lost cannot be restored."

"Hmm." Ororo nodded, leaning her snowy head against the dark shadow of his leg as she waited for him to go on.

"Before I was taken – before those Weapon X soldiers grabbed me…jabbed me with their tranquilizers…stuffed a bag over my head so I couldn't see, couldn't jaunt away…"

He breathed deeply, his golden eyes fixed on the moon as he fought to keep the images, the raw memories from overwhelming him.

"My life was nothing like it is now. I did not have the friends, the responsibilities, the freedoms I have here. The circus was my home, my world. Yes, we traveled from place to place but, apart from the odd art-house cinema or parade, I did not leave the grounds. Oh – sometimes I wished to. I dreamed of going to school, of visiting museums and parks…of sipping coffee at a café. But my mother, Margali…she kept me so busy with training and chores and so many other things, the melancholy and anger of being denied these things rarely touched me. The trapeze were my life. Performing my art, sharing that joy with the cheering crowds… That was my purpose."

He lowered his head, tracing the scars on the back of his hand with a thick, yellow-nailed finger.

"I was nineteen when they took me…tore me from that world. For so long, my need, my yearning to go back, to see my mother and my sister, to feel them hold me in their arms…" He sniffed and rubbed his nose with his sleeve. "My love for them felt stronger than that awful base. More real than anything those Weapon X scientists could do to me. At first, I would dream of my homecoming. It was like an escape from that place…that freezing metal cell where they kept me – not like a prisoner. I was a lab animal to them. A specimen, not a man. They beat me when I prayed, shocked me when I cried. And then, they began those treatments…"

Kurt reached back to touch the rough, round scar at the back of his neck, and Ororo felt the terrible shudder that ran through him.

"They took my memories, Ororo," he said hoarsely, his golden eyes tearing. "They stole all sense of time. When I finally came back to myself… I was crouched over the President of the United States. My shoulder burned from a gunshot, and I held a knife in my hand."

He sniffed harder and Ororo reached for him, resting her head against his arm. Slowly, his juddering breaths evened out, and he covered her warm hands with his.

"I did not want to do the math…to learn how long those monsters had kept me from my home, from the world. From myself. But I knew…it was obvious I was no longer nineteen. It was like…like a terrible time jump. I'd grown taller, older, with no clear memories to fill the years. My circus had gone, moved on or possibly even broken up without me being a part of it. And the longer the Professor and I searched, the more surely I came to understand…the homecoming I'd dreamed of would remain a dream…"

Ororo squeezed his hand, and his tail squeezed her arm back, his scarred face shiny with tears as he stared, unblinking, at the moon.

"That is what they stole, Ororo," he said. "That is why I mourn. The circus slated to perform in Las Vegas is no more my home than I am the boy Jimaine once knew. That naive young man can never, now, return to her. And, as good as it will be to see my sister strong and well…to finally hold her in my arms… It will not be the same for me either. As dear Kätzchen has pointed out, I am here. An X-Man. My priorities are different now. And so is my heart."

Unwinding his tail from her arm, he stepped down from the railing and Ororo rushed to embrace him.

"I know what you mean, Kurt," she spoke into his shoulder. "I lost my own home…so long ago. It was taken from me, not by Stryker, but by violence just the same. I was trapped in the rock and rubble of what had once been our house…trapped for hours with the bodies of my parents…"

"Ororo…" Kurt held her close and she clung to his strong shoulders.

"It is why I fear confined spaces," she confessed to him. "Even to this day."

Kurt immediately loosened his grip, but she shook her head, pulling him closer. "I don't mean this," she said, turning her blue gaze to his golden eyes. "Oh, Kurt… You have grown so dear to me. I can't be sorry that you've found your new home here, with us."

Kurt swallowed, his eyes filling with tears of an entirely different kind. "Danke, meine Liebe," he whispered into her hair. "It has helped to talk this through with you."

"Just a taste of your own sweet medicine," she said, and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. Kurt blushed, breaking out in a happy, bashful smile.

"Then, you will come with me?" he asked, holding her hands in his.

"You couldn't keep me away," Ororo assured him. "Logan too. He's been curious about your circus from the start."

Kurt looked down, his lips tightening. "Las Vegas is sure to be very different from the rural circuits in Europe and Canada," he said. "But I must admit, my own curiosity is beginning to outweigh my apprehension. I may even start looking forward to this…now I know you'll be with me."

He kissed her hand, and Ororo smiled, leaning close to rest her head against his shoulder.

"Should we go inside?" she asked, but Kurt shook his head, twining his tail around them both.

"Not yet," he said, and smiled. "I am feeling wonderfully at home right here."

To Be Continued…


References Include – X-Men 2: Nightcrawler Prequel; Uncanny X-Men #102: Who Will Stop the Juggernaut?; my Arrival Quartet, etc.

Next Time: Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Storm touch down in Las Vegas, but what will they find there? Stay Tuned, and Please Review! :D