Playing with Fire

STILL don't 'em - but if you want to give me the best birthday present ever then Kurt'll do quite nicely. Yeah! I'm 35 today - way too old to be writing explicit stories based on under age characters from a Saturday morning kids' show don't you think? Me too, but who cares, it's fun. Maybe someday I'll make the leap into the ever so grown up world of comic-verse?

I rather like this chapter btw - I think it's my personal favorite. A _little_ bit of comic relief from the angst fest - but plenty angsty w/more to come. I love elf torture! Also, the much awaited full on smut fest will finally show up *next* chapter.

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*bold*

Yeah, I know I mix italics up for both thought and emphasis - I just love italics and bold seems a little too, I don't know...bold? I realize that for this site where nothing shows up looking right anyway it would be easier to keep _ for thoughts and * for emphasis, but that would require more reformatting than I am frankly willing to do, so...

Hope you enjoy.


DAZED AND CONFUSED


It was well a one one in the morning when Kurt finally staggered unsteadily through his door. He leaned heavily against the doorframe and yawned broadly behind his hand as he tried half-heartedly to wave Logan away. He had to admit that he wouldn't have made it this far without the older man's help, but he was not about to be tucked into bed like a wayward toddler, no matter how drunk he was. He did find himself very glad of the fact that Logan had little more need for artificial light than he did, because even the moonlight falling across the floor of his room was blindingly bright in his current, _sensitive_ condition.

Logan had been, predictably, true to his word. He worked Kurt until he was very close to dangerously over-extending himself. They had worked with and without weapons, with and without powers, he had run Kurt through sims requiring strength or speed or skill, and sometimes all three. It had been just over two and a half hours of unmitigated hell on earth. When it was all done and they had both showered and changed, Logan had determined that the younger man was still fully conscious, cognizant of his surroundings and capable of remembering his own name and had thence taken it as his personal duty to rectify all three conditions.

Now Kurt found himself in the unique position of carrying on a drunken conversation with the Wolverine at bumblefuck in the morning while trying not to wake his fellow students. Well, drunken on his end anyway. With his healing factor Logan had only managed to attain a state best described as 'relaxed', despite drinking _at least_ two beers for every one Kurt downed. Of course, for the Wolverine relaxed was something of an accomplishment.

"Danke, Logan," he told the feral mutant. "I'm fine from here mein Freund." He yawned again, this time not bothering to cover it, and Logan watched in apparent bemusement.

_Probably wondering how long 'til my face splits in two,_ Kurt thought irrationally as he peered at the older man through half closed eyes.

"Ya sure you c'n manage Elf? You're pretty damned plastered," Logan responded, sounding uncharacteristically mellow.

_Ja, he may not be drunk, but he's definitely feeling more relaxed than usual._ Kurt thought through a beer-induced haze. Aloud he answered, "Ja Logan. Mein Gott, if I could not manage to drag my own ass to bed anything short of blind drunk they might revoke my German citizenship. And I am not - quite - *that* drunk yet." He paused, swaying slightly. "Aber ich schliesse verdammt bin!" he added with a drunken snicker.

He was vaguely aware of the fact that he was grinning like an idiot, but he didn't really care. _It's amazing what half a case of good, dark German beer can do to a man's inhibitions_, he thought hazily. He was pretty damn certain that he had actually been trading insults with the Wolverine at some point in the last few hours - perhaps several points, he really wasn't too clear on much that had happened since about eleven-thirty. He also seemed to remember actually trying to badger the older man into singing German folk songs with him. Not only that, but there was Logan, standing in the students' hallway, reeking of beer, with a grin on his face and...shushing...Kuike ike a three year old.

_Mein Gott, I hope I remember this in the morning!_ he thought with drunken fervor but not much real hope. He'd been thoroughly shit-faced enough in his sixteen years that even at the height of inebriation he realized the futility of trying to hold on to any details.

"Quiet down Elf. Ya don't need to wake the whole damned house," Logan was hissing in an exaggerated stage whisper and Kurt found himself doubling over in laughter, trying desperately but ineffectively not to make any noise.

A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and he was propelled gently but firmly into his room, tears running down his cheeks and still wheezing with now silent laughter. The door closed behind him with an audible thump.

"Something funny Misfit?" Logan asked in what was doubtless meant to be a dangerous voice, an effect that was compromised somewhat by the fact that he was trying to stifle his own laughter.

As soon as Logan had released his grip on the younger mutant's shoulder Kurt had leaned heavily against the wall and slid helplessly down to the floor, still laughing sporadically. "Nein, Logan. Nein, nothing funny at all mein Freund," he managed to gasp.

"Okay, kid, up you go," the older man told him, his voice steadier as he reached down and dragged Kurt bodily to his feet. "It's time for good little elves to toddle off to bed now, and I don't want to see your fuzzy blue face until after lunch. Understand?"

By this time Kurt had been bodily moved to the small half-bath adjoining his room and was beginning to regain some control of himself. The alternative seemed to be the very real prospect that Logan would, indeed, insist on getting him all tucked into bed like a 'good little elf.'

"I'm going, I'm going," he protested with inebriated dignity. "Can't a man have some privacy around here," and he placed one hand firmly in the center of Logan's chest (well he'd meant it to be the center anyway, and close counts, right?) and pushed him firmly (he hoped) out of the bathroom, closing the door a little *too* firmly behind him.

"Man? Hmmph!" he heard Logan's sardonic voice from the other side of the door.

He leaned heavily against the vanity, laughing again at the tone of Logan's voice and trying to convince himself that he really did have the energy to brush his teeth before bed. He finally stopped laughing long enough to compromise on a brief gargle with the mouthwash he'd left sitting on the counter earlier when he'd unpacked, nearly choking himself when he randomly remembered the look on Logan's face when he'd triedget get him to sing "Let it Be" an hour or so back. Spitting hastily into the sink, he wiped his face on the one towel he'd left hanging there and then spent a very necesscoupcouple of minutes recycling a significant percentage of the beer he'd imbibed over the course of the evening.

With a contented sigh, he left his pants lying on the bathroom floor and began to shrug out of his t-shirt as he emerged from the bathroom and began to weave unsteadily in the general direction of the pile of blankets he'd brought over to use as a bed. He nearly jumped out of his skin when someone reached out and helped him pull his shirt the rest of the way over his head (a good thing, since he had been in the process of becoming hopelessly tangled in the damn thing).

"Are you *still* here?" he growled with mock ferocity as Logan's face swam blearily into focus in front of him. It really was becoming more effort than it was worth to keep his eyes open, or even to stay on his feet. He was barely even aware of the fact when the older man lifted him easily as he swayed on his feet and his knees began to buckle. By the time Logan laid him gently down in the nest he'd made of Kurt's blankets while the boy was in the bathroom, the teen was completely unconscious and beginning to snore softly.

"Sweet dreams, Elf," the feral X-man said softly, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, "God k you you need 'em," and he let himself silently out into the hall to begin his nightly rounds of the mansion and grounds. He wouldn't seek his own bed unless and until he was sure that every member of his 'pack' was safe and accounted for.

Kitty hesitated briefly outside the door to Kurt's room. There were no sounds in the darkened hallway beyond the muffled snores resonating from behind some of the other closed doors.

She wasn't even sure that Kurt was in there. He hadn't been when she had checked at twelve thirty on her way to bed with everyone else after movie night ended. She'd sat up with her door ajar, trying to read but in reality listening for the sound of him returning, difficult as that would be to hear. She didn't know when she had finally drifted off to sleep, only that she had awoken with a start as she slipped uncomfortably down the wall where she had been propped up with her book. She hadn't bothered to plug her digital alarm clock in yet and had had to check her watch in the dim glow of moonlight through her window to find that it was after three thirty. Whatever Kurt had been doing since his Danger Room session with Logan, he would have to be back in his room by now.

So three forty-five found her standing uncertainly outside the door to his room, still fully clothed and trying to work up the nerve to go in. Nervously, she checked the pocket of her jeans once more for the small foil packet she'd 'liberated' from the med-bay earlier, during a break between movies. She had no clear idea where this 'conversation' she planned might go, but she did know that if it headed anywhere along the same track as Saturday afternoon she didn't want it derailed in the same way. She felt her cheeks go hot and knew she was blushing scarlet as the full impact of exactly what she was about to do hit her for the first time. She almost turned back - almost. Before she could lose her nerve she took a deep breath and phased quickly and silently through the door into Kurt's room.

It took her a moment to get her bearings in the dimness of the moonlit room. The lack of furniture made the space seem even larger than it was and she stood for a moment, just inside the door, as she lo for for any sign of Kurt's presence. The double doors out onto Kurt's balcony were still open from earlier in the evening, admitting a silver trail of moonlight and a cool spring breeze. The only change from earlier was a rumpled pile of blankets in the middle of the floor, just at thge oge of the wide band of moonlight spilling across the floor from the doorway. There was no sign of Kurt anywhere. Kitty was about to cross the room and check to see if Kurt was occupying his favorite perch on the balcony rail when she was startled by the sound of a soft moan from somewhere in the room.

She stopped, eyes wide in the moonlight, as she scanned the room once again and finally managed to discern the vague outline of a body where Kurt lay curled atop the jumble of blankets. Even focusing all her attention on the sleeping teen she could not make out any details beyond the simple fact that he was there. She mentally kicked herself for forgetting that he was all but impossible to see in anything but the best of light unless you already knew where he was. She wondered if he had actually been asleep there already when she came by earlier, after all, if he'd remained silent she could have walked right past and never even known he was there.

No matter now, though. With an effort she stilled the trembling in her hands and stepped closer to the make-shift bed, unsure how much of her shivering was due to nerves and how much to the cool breeze from the door. Between staring very hard and greater proximity she could now see that he was curled up on his side, wearing nothing but a pair of plaid flannel boxers, his tail draped along his side with the tip twitching lazily just a few inches from his face. He had made no further noise since the moan that had alerted her to his presence, but as she watched he stretched, inhumanly graceful even in sleep, and rolled onto his back. He came to rest with one arm pillowed behind his head and the other draped across his middle, thick fingers running through the velvet fur of his belly as his tail undulated restlessly between his feet.

Kitty stood, transfixed, as he moaned again, lips pulling back from gleaming fangs in a grimace that could be pleasure or pain, and she noticed for the first time the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his breath coming in quiet, but none-the-lessoredored gasps. She hesitated, almost turning to leave, but surely...if he was having a nightmare then...then it would be best to wake him anyway?

"Kurt?" Her voice seemed loud in the vast emptiness of the dark room, though in reality it had been barely above a whisper. No response - she took another hesitant step towards him, crossing into the shaft of moonlight from the doors as she moved, and tried again, slightly louder this time.

"Kurt? Wake up Fuzzy. Please, we...we need to talk." He shifted in his sleep, his tail lashing out abruptly to the side as he rolled slightly towards her, eyes still shut and fangs still bared. She didn't know if he had moved in response to her voice or to some internal stimulus, but three more quick steps and she was beyond the bar of moonlight and at his side, reaching a tentative hand for his shoulder as she knelt on the blanket beside him.

"Come on Fuzzy," her voice squeaked and her hand was trembling with nerves as she leaned tentatively over him, grasped his sleep warm shoulder and gently shook him. "Wake up already, Kurt. If you had any idea how hard this is..." her voice trailed off as golden eyes blinked blearily up at her and a strong, three-fingered hand reached up to grasp her wrist and stop her shaking him.

"Kaetzchen?" he asked sleepily, his voice low and warm and a slow smile curvhis his lips. "Commst du hier."

Kitty had absolutely no idea what he was saying and found she really didn't care as he rolled back slightly so that he could reach up with his other hand and pull her down to him. His thick fingers tangled roughly in the soft hair at the nape of her neck and it was a matter of only a few inches to close the gap between them. Then his lips were pressing firmly, insistently, against hers and she forgot everything but the warmth of his skin and the musky sweetness of his mouth.

He maintained his grip on her neck, but she gasped as the other hand left her wrist and drifted down to grasp her backside at the same time that his tail wrapped around her waist and she felt herself pulled, unresisting, to lie full length along him. He had parted her lips with his tongue and was exploring her mouth in a way that sent ls dls down her spine, his hand gripping her ass and pulling her more tightly to him. She felt his erection pressing against her crotch and surrendered to the almost overwhelming desire to run her fingers through his fur. He shivered beneath her as she ran her right hand softly along his bare side, first with the nap of his fur and then, more firmly, against it. She let her hand dip beneath the waistband of his boxers to caress his flat hip and felt him moan against her mouth, shifting slightly to allow her to slip her hand beneath him and grasp his firm yet velvet soft ass.

She was somewhat surprised at how rapidly this was progressing, but couldn't quite muster enough concern to try and slow things down - his lips, his body, his hands, it all felt so good. It wasn't until he flipped her to her back with the same ease he had demonstrated Saturday but little of the gentleness that she began to realize that something was not - quite - right.

She forced herself to really look at him for the first time since his kiss had sent her body into overdrive. The golden eyes burning down into hers in the dark were still glazed with sleep and almost blank, and he seemed not... rough...so much as uncharacteristically aggressive. She knew from Saturday, and even just last night, that it wasn't like Kurt to move so quickly. She was beginning to realize that she had perhaps interrupted not a nightmare, but a dream and that, moreover, she hadn't actually succeeded in waking him up after all.

_Oh there is no way that this can be good_, she thought with a hint of panic. _If I wake him up now things could be *very* bad, but if I don't wake him up now things *will* be even worse. How the *hell* did I manage to get myself into this one?_

He brought one large hand up to lightly caress her cheek as he deepened the kiss. The warmth of his breath and the ragged gasps of his labored breathing were almost too much for her and she actually considered not waking him at all, or at least not yet, she didn't want this to stop. Then, abruptly, his knee was pressing between her thighs and his hand had slipped from her cheek to fumble awkwardly at the button on her jeans and she knew she had to do something. She might want to sleep with him, but this was *not* the way she wanted it to happen.

With an effort she turned her head to break the kiss and reached up to grasp him firmly by both shoulders. She gasped as he simply took the opportunity to shift his attention to her jaw and neck, alternately kissing and nipping at her sensitive skin as he wrapped his aro around one of her ankles and used it to tug her legs farther apart.

She was having trouble finding her voice, but when the button on her jeans suddenly gave and he switched his attention to her zipper she managed to squeak out, "Kurt! Hey, Fuzzy, wake up." She shook hintlyntly, pushing him away from her at the same time, but it didn't seem to have any effect. The zipper followed the button in short order and a calloused hand slid down the front of her pants.

"Come on Kurt!" her voice was louder now, more emphatic as she realized waking him might not be as easy as she'd thought and things were getting more than a little out of hand. He paused briefly in his attentions to her neck and his hand froze, but then his lips were seeking hers again and she had to turn her head sharply to avoid him.

"Wake up Fuzzy, come on. You've got to wake up and stop this!" Her voice was rising and she was beginning to panic in earnest as his hand began to fumble at the front of her panties. She knew how much stronger he was and how little hope she had of physically stopping him from doing anything, but she wasn't willing to call for help. That would be much too humiliating for both of them. She pushed sharply against both of his shoulders at once and almost yelled in his face, her voice breaking with a mixture of fear and anger, "Kurt, please stop. You've got to wake up and stop this!"

This time she was sure she'd gotten through to him. He froze as still as one of Bobby's ice sculptures for the space of perhaps ten heartbeats, while his golden eyes blinked groggily down at her in confusion. Then confusion was rapidly replaced by shock and then even more quickly by horror.

"Oh mein Gott im Himmel," he gasped as he threw himself away from her, backpedaling rapidly until he fetched up against the wall. "Kaetzchen? Was in der Holle?" His eyes were wide and, she thought, terrified as he stared at her, unblinking, from across the room. In the darkness they were virtually all that she could see of him. "Ich bin sehr traurig, Kaetzchen. Bitte, ich weiss nicht wie dies geschehen ist..."

He continued to babble almost non-stop in German, his voice trembling. _My God I've made a pig's breakfast out of this!_ she thought angrily. _Why on earth didn't I just phase away? I could have woken him up after, or just crept off to bed and he never would have known. Shit, now what do I do?_ She felt like crying, but she was fairly certain that would only make matters worse, especially since it looked like Kurt was dangerously close to tears himself.

Aloud she said, "Kurt, it's okay. I'm really sorry, I...I didn't realize you were still asleep and...well..." She had no idea what to say or how to explain what had just happened, besides which, she didn't think he had heard a word she'd said anyway. He was still speaking in panicked and rapid fire German, and she couldn't understand any of it besides the frequent repetitions of 'bitte' and 'ich bin traurig'. She pushed herself awkwardly to her feet, feeling ridiculously self-conscious, and forced herself to cross the room to where he crouched, trembling, against the far wall, his eyes now fixed firmly on the floor.

"Kurt, really, it's okay," she told him again, kneeling down beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder. He flinched away from her touch, but she ignored it and reached out with her other hand to lift his chin and force him to look at her. "Please Fuzzy, listen to me. Stop this, it was my fault. I'm so sorry," her voice broke on the last words and she could feel tears beginning to spill down her cheeks. At least the torrent of German had subsided and Kurt was looking at her again, tears glistening in the corners of his luminous eyes.

The horror seemed to have given way to confusion again and his mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before he managed to force any words out in a strangled voice. "Kaetzchen, how...? I mean...what? Ach! Verflucht! I don't know what I mean." He dropped his head into his hands, but looked up again quickly, concern on his face. "Did I hurt you Kaetzchen?" he asked, almost choking on the words.

"No Kurt, no!" she answered without hesitation, and she saw some of the tension ease from his face. "Kurt, you didn't do anything, not really."

"Danken Sie Gott," he mumbled, leg hig his head fall again. "I, I am sorry Kaetzchen but...but could you tell me what happened? I can't seem to remember anything. I...I think perhaps that I am still a little drunk." He looked up at her again and she could tell, even in the dark, that he was blushing a darker shade of blue and she almost laughed before she realized what he was saying.
_Drunk? What the *hell*?_ Her thoughts were interrupted when he continued in a rush. "That is not an excuse, Kaetzchen. There is no excuse, but bitte, please I just need to know what happened."

"Oh God Kurt, I am, like, so sorry," she said again. "You don't *need* an excuse you fuzzy idiot. If you'll just get that through your head this'll be so much easier. Do you, like, have fur in your ears or something?"

He looked at her, startled, and there was the faint beginning of a smile on his lips before it was replaced by concern and confusion. He opened his mouth as though to speak again, but she ploughed right over him.

"Will you just shut up and give me a chance to explain?" she asked, trying very hard to keep her voice light. "I...I came in a while ago, hoping to...talk...to you about Saturday and, and earlier," she told him. Her voice was not quite steady, but she figured she was doing well to get it out at all at this point. She dropped her hand from his shoulder and took one of his oddly shaped hands instead, squeezing it gently and resisting the uro sto stroke his fur. "I, well, I just couldn't sleep without trying to get things cleared up. Not after how miserable this whole week was, and all over, like, a *stupid* misunderstanding."

He was looking at her in total mystification now and she couldn't meet his eyes anymore. She dropped her gaze instead to where their hands were clasped in her lap, blushing when she realized that her jeans were still completely undone. "Anyway, like I said," she continueda rua rush, "I came in to talk to you but, well, you were, like, asleep. I almost left then, but, well you...you looked like you were having a nightmare so...so I decided that I should wake you up."

She knew that she was flushing scarlet to the roots of her hair now and had to force herself to go on. "Well, it turns out that, I guess it wasn't really a...nightmare, more of a dream I guess," her voice was fading out in mortification and she forced herself to look back nto nto his eyes. He looked at least as embarrassed as she felt, he was obviously beginning to understand where this was going now. "I thought I'd woken you up because you, like, opened your eyes and looked at me and then, well...Things kinda got out of hand before I realized that you were still asleep so I, like, made sure you were awake this time," her voice had trailed off into a whisper at the end as she looked into his wide golden eyes.

"I really am, like, *so* sorry Kurt," she told him again. "I know I, like, sound like a broken record, but can you please forgive me?"

He took a deep, shuddering breath and then smiled at her. It wasn't his light up a room grin, but it was a smile. "There is nothing to forgive Kaetzchen," he told her softly. "I am just glad I did not hurt you meine Liebe," and he reached out to gently wipe the tears away where they had pooled and run down her cheeks.

"No more misunderstandings, okay Fuzzy?" and before he could so much as move she had thrhersherself into his arms, her face buried against the velvet fur of his chest and her arms wrapped firmly around his middle.

"Nein Kaetzchen," he answered softly, "no more misunderstandings."



As usual, all translations courtesy of babelfish, freetranslation.com, and/or my own very sketchy memory of 2 years of college German. Or was it 3 years? Like I said, *very* sketchy.


Danke - thank you
mein Freundy fry friend (male)
aber ich schliesse verdammt bin - but damn am I close
Commst du hier - come here
mein Gott im Himmel - my God in heaven
was in der Holle? - what in the hell?
Ich bin sehr traurig - I am so sorry
Bitte, ich weiss nicht wie dies geschehen ist - please, I don't how this happene¬