Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father Chapter Ten (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...ficcage deluge in about a day...be ye warned! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are sparkled for archiving/hosting! ProPhile: See? No one thinks ALL you like is smut! Do y'all? *ahem * Readers/Reviewers: Now! With Plot!


The atmosphere in the close room was complicated, to say the least. Tension warred with boredom, apprehension and curiosity as the Professor regarded what he considered the core group of students, those who had been with him since the Institute really started to live up to it's name, the ones he felt a special bond with... He had never felt so mutually disappointed and irritated in his entire life. Kitty and Jubilee exchanged looks of silent disapproval while Jean pointedly made her mind a very neutral blank, no sign of any emotion tangible to his cursory sweep of the room. Rogue was slightly less hurt by the events of the previous month. She was simply confused, as they all were to an extent, and wounded in her trust and pride. Todd and Lance were ambivalent, as was Amara. The two former Brotherhood males seemed to take it as par for the course, which bothered Professor Xavier more than he wanted to let on, while Amara accepted it with a tinge of pride. It was what she would have done, he knew without reading her mind, she would have sacrificed a few for the good of the many if she had been in charge. That, he decided, was something he needed to talk to her about, the difficulty of choice-making in battles of all sizes. Remy straggled in last, following Sean, both looking grim. He nodded almost imperceptibly, some outward signal of inward decision, and began. "You might have noticed a subtle increase in the student population today..."
Kitty snorted. "Like, duh." She hunched in on herself, scowling slightly. Her face had pinkened despite the bravery in her voice and she did not quite meet the Professor's mild gaze.
He cleared his throat gently and went on as if she had not spoken. "Unfortunately, despite our efforts to the contrary, only a handful of the new dorm rooms are fit for habitation. It will be at least another week before the rest are completed with furniture and the wiring checks out. Until then, I am going to ask that you pair up since you are privileged enough to have single rooms...with the exception of Todd and Lance, of course..."
"Um, Herr Professor," Kurt began tentatively. "Am I going to be sharing a room?" Despite countless nights shared with Kitty and little or no incident, Kurt knew that, without warning, his nightmares could surface. He was still self conscious enough about his appearance that, coupled with a natural need for order and privacy, drove him to want, no, need, the single room. "I mean...if I had to, I could but..."
"No worries, Kurt," the Professor smiled kindly. "You're still going to room alone, as is Rogue, but everyone else is going to be assigned a roommate. Remy, you are sharing with Ernie, Jubilee, you are sharing with Annie and Rahne, you will share with Aggie."
"Professor," Emma said softly from the corner, her gaze pointed. "The new one..." She glanced significantly at Logan. "Is she still out there?"
Logan nodded. "Pissed as Hell, too..." He sounded almost pleased with that assessment.
Professor Xavier nodded. "Poena..."
As soon as the name left his lips, Amara was on her feet. "She can stay with me," she blurted. Her eyes were wide and breath suddenly jerky. "Poena can stay with me!"
Professor Xavier recoiled slightly at her outburst. "This streak of volunteerism is startling, to say the least..."
Lance frowned. "Um, Amara? You sure about that? You don't like sharing space with me half the time..."
"Poena," she fairly growled, "is staying with me!"

Kitty left the meeting feeling even more unsettled than she had before. She had thus far escaped a roommate but, according to the Professor and Logan, another two students were coming within the next day and she would most likely be sharing her room before Monday. She knew Kurt was following her out of the study and up the stairs to her room, but she did not even turn around to acknowledge him until she was well inside her bedroom, Kurt teleporting from one side of the door to the other. He stood, hands hanging loosely as his side as if he were unsure what to do with them, regarding her with a nearly forlorn expression. "What?" she snapped.
"Katzchen," he sighed, "I wish you would not be so angry with them... It was a very bad mistake, in the end, but it started with mostly good intentions." He kept his opinion that the intentions were ill conceived to himself for the time being. "You can't be angry forever."
"Watch me," she harrumphed, stalking to her dresser. She began pulling her pony tail down, first the elastic then the barrettes holding the wisps off her face. "How can he just expect us to take 'I'm sorry' as a good enough apology? Why did he even get involved with that project when he knew...he KNEW what they tried to do to us!" She shook her head violently, sending her hair whipping about her face in a halo of dark strands. "He KNEW," she repeated, reaching for her brush.
Kurt took a deep breath and padded over to stand behind her, just out of reach, just in case. "Liebes, they are human. They make mistakes. I'm not saying I have totally forgiven them but it is important not to hold this anger inside. It will make you bitter, You'll be like a peach. Pretty on the outside, ugly on the inside where the pit is..." He knew as soon as he said it that it was the wrong thing to say.
Kitty carefully set the brush down on the dresser and turned to face him. She was not, he noticed, red as she usually got before she had an outburst but rather very pale. "Kurt, in the past two years, I have had my parents disown me, my cousin murdered, my entire family tree turned upside down and inside out. On the good side, you and I got together and I know that you're the one. Logan fostered me. I made peace with Lance and Amara. And I thought I had been blessed enough to be part of a new family, a family of choice instead of biology. But, Kurt," she paused and sighed. "Kurt, he betrayed me worse than my bio parents ever did."
Kurt felt a welter of sorrow and pain begin in his chest region but he swallowed against it. "Liebes, didn't you ever think this is hard for him, too? For all of them? They have to live with the fact they hurt us every day. They have to know that they've fallen off their pedestal every time they look at us..." He reached out and laid a hand on her arm. She tensed but did not pull away. "Katzchen, I'm not saying you should do it right away, but at least think about forgiving them...Especially Professor Xavier. He's trying very hard..."
"Not," she said tersely, "hard enough."

A/N Kurtty love next chapter, some Logan/Ororo ness and MORE PLOT!!!