Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER FOURTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), I found little bits of coconut everywhere...I'd avoid macaroons for a while if I were you. The menagerie seems to be trying to spread the coconut of doom around... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me all giddy and giggly because they archive. :) ProPhile is such a lovely little smutbunny to send me the plotbunny for this fic and ideas as well. :) Readers/Reviewers: Is it a bad thing with the ducks are singing the French national anthem? Bastille day is coming up and I think they migh bui building a guillotine...

"Get away from me!" Kitty was pressed against the desk so hard that it was digging into her skin, leaving a bruise across the back of her thighs.
"Kitty, try to understand a little," the Professor said wearily.
"I understand. I understand that you're all crazy!" she cried before phasing through the floor and into one of the basements.
"That went well," Kurt sighed.
"Better than I expected, actually," the Professor allowed. "I think this situation has reached a near crisis level. Kitty is wont to vent to one of her friends and that will be very derogatory to our efforts..."
Kurt flung himself into one of the overstuffed chairs in the study and sighed. "I'll see if I can head her off at the pass..."
The Professor frowned. "Just in case, we should be prepared for the possibility that others may find out and while they may not believe the story, they will certainly talk about it and possibly make your life very difficult here both before and after you go."
Kurt made a negligent gesture with one hand and bit the nails on his other as he thought. "Have you had any luck finding Forge yet?"
"Sadly, no. Kurt, I'm afraid you must be prepared for the event that I am not able to find him."
"Nein," he said quickly, "that's unacceptable. This universe seems to almost mirror mine, like some weird funhouse reflection that's not quite right but still has all the bitou kou know? If that's true, then Forge is here." He stood and said tensely, "Professor, you have to find him. Please."
The older man nodded. "I'll do my best, Kurt. Maybe you should go find Kitty now, try and calm her down. And try not to port unless absolutely necessary until we figure this thing out."
"Yes, sir," he said more glumly thanwantwanted to. Kurt left the room without a backwards glance and stood in the hall, considering. _Where does Kitty go when she's upset? Well, to me...but not here. Who would she go to if I wasn't around? Jubilee? Jean? Rogue? Logan? No...Scott! She'd go to Scott! _ Their brother/sister relationship was an ever-present thing in his own universe but Kurt had not seen evidence of it here, so it was with some unease that he went to find Scott.
"Hey, you look blue," Scott said, then laughed at his own joke. "Sorry, man...had to be done."
Kurt laughed weakly. "No problem. Have you seen Kitty around recently?"
"She came flying by like a bat out of Hell about five minutes ago, looking for Jean. She didn't want to talk to me at all."
_He sounds a bit annoyed...maybe that means their relationship is the same here as it is at home. This could be a good thing. _ "Ah...Well, I told her something that could be a little...upsetting. I just wanted to make sure she was okay."
"What'd you say?"
"Just...something weird." Kurt shrugged. "Where's Jean at anyway?"
"How should I know?" Scott's voice became hard. "Ever since she's been messing around with Duncan, I haven't seen much of her."
Kurt sighed. "That's just not right."
"Tell me about it..." Scott's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "Wait a sec...I thought you were all for those two being together since it made Jean happy. I even remember that conversation we had..."
Kurt made a strangled noise and spread his hands in an oh-well gesture. "People change." He started backing away, avoiding Scott's pointed gaze. "Well...I'm going to go find Kitty then..."
"Hold up..." Scott crossed to him and said urgently, "Did you mean what you said last week? That you'd help out?"
"Remind me what I said again? I'm kind of...confused," Kurt said faintly. "Help with what?"
"Don't make me say it!" Scott snapped, pas a h a hand through his hair in irritation. "What we talked about...You know, Jean..."
Kurt nodded slowly. "Oh, of course. How could I forget? Just let me know what you want for me to do..."
Scott looked mildly relieved. "Great. I'll come find you after dinner. I have a plan."
Smiling tightly, Kurt muttered an incoherent response and darfromfrom the room. _What am I getting into? _ Kitty's voice snapped him out of his reverie.
"No, don't come over," she said shrilly. "Please! I'll...I'll come over there. Just give me an hour to get myself together!" She slammed the phone down so hard it jangled, mingling with the sound of a jagged sob. "Damn it," she said to the empty room.
Kurt stood just out of her line of sight, the open door affording him some protection. The study was empty, the Professor having returned to Cerebro some time before, and Kitty thought she was alone as she curled up on the sofa by the window, pressing her face into the thick tapestry arm. Kurt could not stand to watch her cry, especially knowing that he was the cause of it, at least partially. "Katzchen," he said softly, edging around the door. "Kitty...don't go."
"Get away from me," she hissed, crawdadding back against the arm of the sofa. "You're all weird now and it freaks me out!"
Kurt stopped where he was and held up his hands pleadingly. "Kitty, hear me out. I know things about you that I could only know if we'd been...together. Things that only you could tell me or show me!"
"Liar!"
Kurt shut the door between them and the rest of the mansion. "Promise me you won't run away and I'll tell you all that I know about you and then you can decide for yourself." He waited until she nodded slightly, still pressed against the back of the sofa, before he continued. "You're a practicing Sephardic Jew. You don't like people knowing because you feel it should be private, but if you really care about someone, you don't mind and you even started teaching me about your faith when we got together. You paint your hands and feet with Henna for certain holidays and you go every Friday night to temple in town."
"You could have just found that out on your own," she said hotly, but still not trying to flee.
Kurt sighed. _I can't tell her about Ruth and I can't tell her about her family...unless... _"You have problems with your family. Big ones." He knew he had hit home when her mouth dropped open in surprise. "Your real name is Aikaterine, not Katherine, and your family's original last name is Greek. Prydakos, not Pryde." _I didn't tell her about it never really being changed so that's okay. I think. _ "You have tons of problems with your mother and father and they even tried to hospitalize you once because they wanted to cure your mutation. You're very close to your Yaya and you're very proud of your heritage. You even belly dance to keep the tradition in your family and you are quite good at it. You've won awards for it back in Chicago."
"Wha..." She was leaning forward avidly as if she had never heard any of this before but he could tell she was just in some sort of shock from the way she was staring at him. "What else do you know?"
"I know that you speak Greek, Russian, Yiddish and Ladino fluently. I know you're a closet science buff and are a lot smarter than you let people think. You say "like" and "um" and all that so much because you had a speech impediment as a child and that was how the speech therapist told you to slow down your talking so you wouldn't stutter so badly. You're favorite food is anything fried but because you're a vegetarian you have to stick to tempura vegetables to get your fix of it. You hate zucchini but love yellow squash, which I've never been able to figure out since they both taste the same, you have a secret stash of candy in your top left desk drawer behind all the index cards and highlighters you seem to always have too many of, you say your favorite color is pink but last I checked, you seemed to favor blue." He could not help the grin that stole across his features at that, thinking how that development had only seemed to arise after they started seeing each other.
Kitty closed her mouth and shifted so that she was sitting more comfortably on the sofa. "Is that all?" she asked challengingly. "All that stuff you could have found out on your own... Without me," she added, though she did not sound convinced even to her self.
Kurt closed the distance between them quickly, half expecting her to phase out of his reach or worse, and said, "You believe in the concept of Netzach. You have a fantasy about making love in the woods in the winter, even though you know it's too cold to do that in New York. You're ticklish here," he said poking her side just above her hip, "here," her collar bone, "and all down the back of your legs."
"Kurt!" she cried, batting his hand away.
"I know how you like to be kissed, I know how you like to be touched and I know you have a birthmark shaped like a tiny footprint on your lower back right below your waistline. I know you're much happier when you weigh more because you hate seeing your ribs and frankly, I'm much happier when you're heavier, too."
"Shut up now please thank you," she said in a rush. Her head hurt and she was almost certain she was having a stroke. "I need to think..."
"Take your time," he said, leaning back against the opposite arm of the sofa. "I just want you to know that I'm not asking anything of you, not really. You're not mine to love like that so I'm not going to press any attentions on you that you don't want."
"I don't know what I want anymore." She stood suddenly and gasped, "Oh, God! I've got to go! I need to go see Lance!"
"Kitty, please don't go!" He stood and grabbed her arm when she would leave and she let him. "Lance isn't good for you."
"If I'm not yours to love, I'm not yours to tell what to do," she said coolly, her shocked mood gone. She pulled out of his grasp and backed away a few paces before adding, "I'm Lance's girlfriend."
Kurt sank back onto the sofa with a bitter sigh. "Fuck."
"Problems?"
"Gah!" He leapt and clung to the ceiling with little effort. "Herr Logan! Don't scare me like that! I shed!"
"Hmm." The older man eased into the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. "What were you saying to Half Pint? And get off the ceiling before you leave fingerprints. Chuck hates having to have the ceiling cleaned after you kids go all weird."
Kurt dropped to the floor and stood cautiously just out of Logan's reach. "You already heard what I said, otherwise you wouldn't have asked."
"If I hadn't just come from seein' Chuck, I'd think werewere nuts."
"He told you?" Kurt asked incredulously. "Why?"
"He's found something. Someone who might be able to help." Logan looked up and down once more. "And I think you need lots of that."
"Mein Gott, this is incredible!" He tried to surge past Logan but was stopped by an arm across his chest. "Uf!"
"Not so fast, Elf. It's not so easy. This guy he's found is in jail. Federal. Hard time."
"Was?"
"I'll let Chuck explain it to ya..."
Kurt felt alternately numb and elated as Logan half-dragged him towards the Professor's private study, one that was inaccessible to anyone not invited expressly by the man himself. "Herr Logan, just a moment..."
"What is it?" Logan stopped just outside the unassuming oak door of the study and turned almost curious eyes to Kurt.
"Could you...would it be possible...for you to follow Kitty to the Boardinghouse? I think she might have some trouble."
Logan nodded sharply. "Just go talk to Chuckles. I'll take care of Half Pint."
Kurt sighed in relief and soon found himself alone, contemplating the door. "Here goes nothing..."