Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER TWENTY TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Billy has taken over guarding the typo box from Joaquin...be warned-his American English isn't as good as you'd think...And I think getting yelled at scared poor Joaquin. He's hiding under my bed. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink deserve huge shiny stickers or something for archiving alllllllll this stuff! Readers/Reviewers: I'm all sparkled with happy to hear from you! And *happy dance * that you're still reading.The The Killer Kitties (tm) seem to be peeking out from under furniture lately. They still fear me...hee hee hee. However, I don't think it'll last long. I'm wearing Kevlar socks to protect my ankles, just in case...

"Kitty, may I speak with you?" The Professor was sitting squarely in the middle of the foyer as Kitty padded from the rec room on her way back to bed, glass of ice water in hand and eyes bleary.
"Um...sure?" She swallowed hard, sleep fleeing her eyes as she noticed the stern expression on Professor Xavier's face. "Do I need to get Logan?"
"No, this is between us. I fear Logan will take this too personally on your behalf..." He turned his chair and headed towards the study, Kitty following with no small amount of trepidation. "Would you mind?" he asked as they passed into the room, gesturing to the light switch.
Kitty nodded mutely and flipped the lights on, wishing suddenly that she had worn a robe or even her nicer pajamas. _Didn't know you were going to get waylaid by the Professor, though, did you? _ She say uneasily on the edge of the sofa as the Professor adjusted his chair to face her at an angle, leaving her plenty of space so that she did not feel threatened. _He thinks I don't notice these things. I know...doesn't make me feel better, though... _ The Prsor sor smiled slightly and she knew that he could hear every thought in her head. "Is this about the Danger Room?" she askoftloftly, rolling the glass back and forth between her hands.
"Do you think it is?"
"Is it?"
"Do you think it is?"
"Uh, yeah?" Kitty frowned, not entirely comfortable with this tactic of his. Usually, the Professor was straightforward when he was upset with a student. Now, Kitty felt like she was about to be psychoanalyzed.
"Do you think you should be in trouble for the Danger Room?" The Professor steepled his fingers and tapped them against his lips, considering Kitty from under beetled brows. "Was it something you did on purpose?"
"No...well...kind of...I mean, I couldn't shut of the sim fast enough because Jubilee had it locked and I didn't have the override command since Logan changed it after Bobby and Jubes made that one sim where the Backstreet Boys attacked everyone with sardines and I guess I just sort of panicked and shorted everything out!" _Strangely, that dot mot make me feel better... _
"Mmmhmmm..."
Kitty felt compelled to continue. "And we were scared Jubilee was going to hurt Belladonna or Remy or even Rogue or Amara on accident and Cecilia was panicky so I just....zap...." She sighed and shrugged. "I'm really sorry. Logan said I have to help fix it...he thinks I need practice with my electronics but I'm actually pretty good at it..." She thought of the device currently tracking Pietro's every move and hoped the Professor was distracted enough not to catch it. "I'm babbling...sorry."
The Professor sighed. It was well past midnight and he had not even had a chance to relax since returning from Washington D.C. earlier that evening. As soon as Logan had picked him up from the airport, he had received a laundry list of shenanigans that had occurred in his absence, most negligible, but it seemed the major ones involved Kitty and that concerned him more than he had expected. "I understand that this year has been hard on you emotionally, Kitty, and sometimes stress like that makes people act out in ways that they usually would not..."
"Pardon me, but huh? I'm not acting out...I was just panicky and didn't think of another way to stop the sim..."
"This isn't entirely about the Danger Room. I'm also concerned about the missing documents from Doctor Reyes' guest room. She does not want to think it was a student that took them, but you and I both know better, Kitty. Beast did not find them in your possession or Jean's, but I am certain you know exactly where they are and would like for you to tell me why you took them."
"Um, I don't know _exactly _ where they are," she sighed, tucking her legs beneath her on the sofa in an attempt to warm them. The downstairs study was the draftiest room in the mansion, but the chill she was feeling seemed to come from within as well as without.
"Maybe exactly is the wrong word...you have a very good idea where they are." The Professor edged forward enough to make Kitty look him in the eyes. "Kitty, this is entirely unlike you..."
"How can you say that? If I'm doing it then it must not be unlike me because it's me that's doing it!" she said in a rush, feeling her stomach tighten in apprehension.
"Point..." The Professor smiled at her, mildly amused that she still retained a vestige of her sense while she was so obviously nervous. "Now, I'd appreciate it if you would stop evading my questions and answer me. I don't want to breach your trust and find out myself," he said, tapping his temple in warning.
Kitty made a strangled noise as she rocked slightly back and forth on the sofa. "Okay...It's like this..." Haltingly, blushing furiously, she told the Professor about how Rogue thought Cecilia Reyes was Mystique and how she came to believe it herself. "And Logan hasn't really been around her so it's possible that she's avoiding him so he can't tell she's her but now that you're back..." she trailed off and hid her face against her knees in embarrassment.
The Professor sighed. "That doesn't explain the theft or the invasion of privacy."
"We wanted to see if there was anything in her room that could show her to be Mystique. All I found was that ton of research about mutants and how it's passed down and junk-lots of theory, anyway. It seemed pretty...incriminating."
"How so?"
"Why would any one want to know that stuff unless they were a mutant themselves?" Kitty's head snapped back, her eyes wide as she gasped. "Or one of those anti-mutant people! Oh my God! What if she's one of those anti-mutant people?"
The Professor felt the beginnings of a long headache throb behind his temples. "Kitty, calm down. I can assure you that Cecilia Reyes is not a member of any sort of hate group nor is she Mystique." Professor Xavier rolled forward, stopping directly in front of Kitty, so close that she had to scoot back a bit to look him in the face. "We have previously tried to recruit Doctor Reyes to join the X Men but she is lacking comfort and confidence in her own mutation, to the point where she is only just now coming out of denial about it. Beast felt that maybe seeing how the Institute is run would convince her that mutants can live full lives without sacrificing either they social humanity or their mutant status, but I'm afraid these stunts have shaken her confidence..." A small smile touched his lips. This was not _entirely _ true, but it was close enough that he was not lying outright to Kitty. "Doctor Reyes is Beast's...friend...and I'm afraid he is very disappointed in this turn of events."
"Does he know it was me?" she asked in a small voice, missing the implication the Professor placed on the word 'friend.' "Is he really mad at me?"
"Kitty, from what you said, though you have the lion's share of the blame here, it is not entirely your doing. Rogue is to be taken to task for encouraging this action and Jubilee will certainly receive discipline for improper use of the Danger Room, but I *am * afraid that what you did is quite...serious."
"What's going to happen to me?" She picked idly at the arm of the sofa with one finger as she balanced the glass of water on her knee, slipping in and out of phase and letting it pass almost entirely through her leg before catching it and resolidifying.
"I think the best thing for you to do is help Logan repair the control panel in the Danger Room and apologize to Doctor Reyes. She does not know of Mystique so it would not be wise to tell her of your fear at this point, but apologize to her and Beast and ask what she would like for you to do, if there's anything she feels will help make up for your transgression."
"That's it?" Kitty asked with some surprise.
"Yes...What were you expecting? Fifty lashes with the paddle then go stand in the corner?" he asked with a slight crinkling of his eyes.
"I...I'm not sure..." Kitty frowned. "Am I still in trouble?"
"Let's just say I'm very disappointed in you right now."
"Ouch."
"That's the point..."

Kurt could not sleep. He tried almost every trick he knew and even some he made up because they _sounded _like they should help, but still he lay awake at one in the morning, staring at his ceiling somewhere between exhaustion and frustration. He was keenly aware of the noises of the old mansion as the world slept around him-the creak of the structure settling onto it's foundations, many layers beneath the ground, the giggles coming from Rahne and Jubilee as they conferred in the hall before Jean called to them to go to bed, and finally, the sound of Kitty's light step as she headed down the hall, past his room-_Oh, God, is she stopping? _-then silence as she went downstairs. He waited in tenterhooks for her return, a long time in coming, sure that he would be able to sleep once he knew she was back in bed. Truth be told, he missed sleeping next to her. Their sleepovers were the worst kept secret in the Institute, a blind eye turned on the events by all, even Logan, though Kurt knew Kitty's foster father was not amused by it. Every night since Ash Wednesday, he had longed to port to her room as he had nearly every night for the past four months, at least on the nights where she did not slip through his door like a ghost and smile, sliding under the sheets next to him. He missed how she could murmur in her sleep, scooting over to make room for him unconsciously and then turning so that she lay with her head tucked under his chin, twining her fingers around his tail in her slumber. _You're not helping yourself, you know...Rogue was right and you need to stop obsessing about this. _ Kurt sat up and punched his pillow back into reasonable fluffiness and turned over to lay on his stomach. _Kitty's gone and gotten herself into some sort of trouble again and now I have that to worry about on top of this whole Lent ordeal... _ He growled in frustration into his pillow. "I try to be good, really I do," he said to the empty room. A soft popping noise told him that someone was trying to sneak down the hall and he had a very good idea who it was. _Good to know insomnia is just something else we have in common... _ Kurt eased out of bed and out into the hall, not porting for fear of startling her. Sure enough, Kitty was walking as slowly and as carefully as if the floor were made from eggshells towards the stairs.
Kitty paused, ears keen. _Did I just hear a door open? _ She did not turn around, just listened. _No footsteps...no movement that I can hear...must just be the ghost acting up again... _ She tightened her hold on the sneakers in her hand and stepped lightly down the stairs, the cold marble making her draw a sharp breath at first contact with her bare feet. Kitty frowned, silently cursing herself for not getting new shoes while she was shopping with Tabby and Jean. _Stupid squeaky tennies. If it wasn't still cold out I wouldn't even bother... _Once in the foyer, she craned her neck to make sure no one lay in wait in the rec room, prepared to pounce on her and ask what she was doing up so late. Seeing it was all clear, at least as much as she could see in the dark, she did the same check for the study and sighed with relief. Sitting on the bench to put her socks and shoes on, a movement on the stairs caught her attention. Staring hard into the dark, she looked for the ripple of shadows she thought she had seen. "Hello?" she whispered loudly. "Logan? Is that you?" Only silence greeted her. With one last, fraught glance at the stairs, she hurriedly put on her other sock and shoe only to see something move out of the corner of her eye again. Freezing mid-lace, she said, "Kurt? That'd better be you..."
Kurt bit his lip to keep from responding. He wanted to ask her what she was doing, why was she still up, but had a feeling that she wanted to be alone. _Otherwise she would've woken me up. Or one of the girls... _ He hunched down on the bottom step, narrowing his eyes in the dark so that she could not see the reflection of light off their yellow-gold surface. Kitty stared into the dark a bit longer, her expression moving from a worried frown to bland acceptance. If he did not know better, he thought to himself, Kitty knew she was being watched. Humming under her breath, Kitty knelt on the bench and, leaning back to check for something along the panes (_Must be the alarm system she doesn't want to short out, _ he reasoned), she passed through the glass and onto the porch with a little hop-step to regain her balance from the three-foot difference in elevation. Kurt followed on swift, silent feet, watching from the window until he saw her disappear near the garage before he ported onto the porch, feeling a definite drain from lack of rest. Shaking himself to clear the wooziness, he trotted after her, footsteps that would have been too quiet for most to hear distinct to his ears, the strawberries-and-cream scent of her soap and shampoo mingling with the warm tang of her skin to aid in leading him on the right path.
Kitty smiled to herself, ducking her head so that the neck of her sweatshirt covered her mouth. She knew it had been Kurt on the stairs-long practice had enabled her to be one of the few people who could differentiate him from the shadows whenever he chose to go, as she called it, "all Nightcrawler-y." She had also heard the faint bamf of his teleporting outside as she lurked just past the garage, letting the still-dark morning hier uer until his quadrepedal gait could be heard drawing closer. Now, she kept her head down as if she could not be bothered, pretending to be alone in the dark as she walked at a brisk pace towards a small grove of trees Storm called sacred, claiming them to be alive with spirits of nature. Usually, Kitty joined in the giggles of the other students whenever Storm waxed poetic about the flora of the Institute, but inside, she agreed with the weather witch. _Especially about this grove...It always feels like it's watching me or something... _ She slowed her pace as entered into the deep shadows of the trees, pausing long enough for Kurt to draw even closer, then plunged into the earth-perfumed depths of the mini-forest.
Kurt did not break his stride as he rose into a bipedal gait, dusting his hands on his pajama bottoms as he followed Kitty into the grove. Kitty sat in the approximate middle of it all, sitting on the slightly damp ground and leaning against one of the larger trees, branches just budding in the slowly warming weather but limbs throwing dark stripes even in the moonless predawn hours. He stopped several yards from her, preparing to settle in and just watch her, feeling vaguely like a pervert for deriving pleasure from such a thing, when she spoke, startling him into a very un-Nightcrawler-y jump.
"Storm said this is a black poplar. We didn't have these in Chicago."
"Oh." _Brilliant, man. Just brilliant. _
"Or maybe we did and I just never saw any. I lived in suburbia where the trees are new1 and the money is old...At least that's what it seemed like."
Kurt took several steps towards her, stopping when he was close enough that she could see him clearly. "Did you know I was following you the whole time?"
"Yeah..." she turned her face up to him with a smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling in amusement. "Don't feel bad. You're still all stealthy and creepy but I can just tell, you know."
Kurt smiled faintly. "Good to know I still have my mojo.2 Can I sit down?" At Kitty's nod, he sat down across from her, leaning back against a tree he was proud to remember was a sugar maple. The silence between them lengthened and Kurt sought a topic to break it. "I've never seen Chicago."
"It's not bad...I miss it sometimes." She shrugged and tucked her knees under her chin, clasping her hands around her shins. "But mostly, when I think about it, it makes me sad about my family."
"Katzchen, you know there's nothing you could've done to change it...You're a mutant and..."
"No, I'm not sad because I'm a mutant. I get sad because my biological family is never going to be happy, they'll never understand what it means to really love someone for who they are and they'll always be grasping for things they should never have."
Picking up a leaf and rubbing it back and forth between two fingers, Kurt sighed. "You're something else, Kitty."
She snorted. "Nah, I'm just too tired to be bitter right now. Ask me tomorrow how I feel about my family and you'll get a different answer." She reached across the space between them and plucked the leaf from his hand to tuck behind her ear like a flower. Offering him a cheeky grin, she said, "Now you...you have nothing to complain about in terms of family!"
"Don't get me started!" he groaned. "Do you know how hard it is to get privacy with three sisters running around? Much less during the time of year when we're in the circus!" He made a gesture with his hands that bespoke years of frustration
"Yeah, but Kurt," she said more quietly, rising up onto her knees to lean across and press a finger against his forehead as if pressing home a point, "they love you for who you are. They don't care if you're blue and fuzzy or pink and un-fuzzy. They love you so much they let you come here because they think it's what's best. I came here because my parents wanted to hide me away." She sat back on her haunches and looked suddenly serious. "Promise me that you'll never make our kids feel bad about who they are."
"Katzchen!" he said, a mixture of appalled and thrilled. He rather liked hearing her speak of their future with certainty-it was never "if we have kids" or "if we get married," but "when."
"I know you wouldn't, but I had to say it. Sort of a cosmic thing...Listen to me. I'm so tired I'm turning into Shirley McClain!"3
Kurt chuckled. "I love you anyway. Even if I made you resort to going into that store..."
"It wasn't so bad," she said, picking up on the subject change. "It would've been funny if I didn't have to get that blue, plastic..._thing _!"
"Schatz, please don't mention that!"
"Sorry, sorry..." She grinned at him suddenly. "I've been practicing my German!"
"Oh?" he said, slightly strangled. The memory of many truncated German lessons that d ind in a sweaty heap on the floor or bed flooded Kurt's face with warmth.
"Yep! Let me think a sec...okay." She cleared her throat and said primly, "Möchtest du etwas Mongoose Gelee?"
Kurt forced himself not to laugh. "Was?"
"Möchtest du etwas Mongoose Gelee?" she repeated with less certainty. Kurt could no longer help himself and he snickered, clapping a hand over his mouth as he saw the hurt look on Kitty's face. "What did I say?" she demanded, hands on her hips.
"You just asked me if I wanted some mongoose jelly."
"Oh. That's not what I thought it meant..." A slightly concerned look came over her face. "Um...Ich habe eGansGans geheiratet."
Kurt burst into whoops of laughter at that. "You married a goose!"
"Damn it. That's it!" she said in disgust, standing suddenly. "I'm not going to practice by myself anymore! I'm going to end up in an insane asylum in Germany at the rate I'm going!"
Kurt stood as well, clutching his stomach. "I'm sorry, Liebes, it's just you said it so seriously, and I could just see the look on my father's face if you said that to him!"
Kitty tried to frown but ended up smiling at her own mistakes. "So you're saying I wasn't Germanically correct?"
"I don't think "Germanically correct" is even correct English..." Kurt settled down but was still grinning. "I love you, Kitty."
"I love you, too." She automatically wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, long habit having programmed her mind to follow the words with demonstration. He leaned into her, sighing softly against her hair as her fingers trailed down his spine to the base of his tail. There was a small, harsh moan and Kurt stiffened in her grasp disappearing suddenly. Kitty frowned, angry with herself for making him react to her touch. _Damn it. Jubilee was right. I'm going to have to wear a straitjacket by the time Lent is over... _



1 I'm sure you've seen those neighborhoods with massive new houses but little skinny trees out front that look odd in front of the houses until years have gone by...
2 Shameless Austin Powers moment.
3 Personally, I like the woman. Kitty's just being snide.