The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, I'm sending Billy and Joaquin over with heaps of chocolate for all the language help and that other character will show up soon in the fic...hee hee hee . InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me feel special because they're special and archivey. Happy joy. :) Readers/Reviewers: The Art Project of Doooooooooooooooom may be a card...I'm not sure. It's difficult to tell at this point with all the hissing and meowing, but the blood trails led to the art supplies and some poster board is missing...



Kitty pulled Rogue aside as they headed out the door, gripping the Goth's elbow with a strength the taller girl had not known her friend possessed. "Rogue, about this boycotting Valentine's thing...that's kinda silly, don't you think? I mean, what Beast said made sense...If you tell Todd you want to do something, I'm sure he'll be okay with it... And I just made up with Kurt and don't want to screw that up!"
Rogue rolled her eyes and waved off Scott's incessant horn-honking, trying to hurry them out the door lest they be late for class. "Look, Beast is old. That sort of thing works for him and people like you and Kurt, but not me, not Jubilee, and apparently not Jean. We're boycotting. And if I see so much as one friggin' red heart in this house, I'm going Wolverine on somebody!"
"Did I hear my name?" Logan loved sneaking up on the teenagers at the mansion, his presence invariably making them jump or yelp or both when he was unexpected.
Rogue and Kitty did not disappoint. The girls jumped apart and Kitty glanced quickly at Rogue, then at the door when Scott honked again. "We were just...um...bye!" She grabbed Rogue again by the elbow and dragged her friend out the door.
"Those girls get weirder by the day," he grumbled under his breath, turning only to the the other female he was having doubts about in terms of sanity. "Storm."
"Logan," the weather goddess replied coolly. "They're all off to school?" She moved past him and headed towards the kitchen, in search of tea.
"Yeah...Listen, Ro, we need to talk...I don't know what's wrong with you, with us, lately..." He took a breath and forced the words out, "I want to fix it. I want to make you happy."
Storm pressed the button on the electric kettle and seemed to find her tea bag very fascinating as she turned Logan's words over in her mind. Finally, she spoke. "What's wrong is that I don't know what you want from me. You love me, I know-I don't doubt that at all. What I want to know is, how? Do you love me like you love your bike? Somethingractractive to your eyes, something good for fun and," she stopped her self from saying 'a ride' and diverted her stream of consciousness to "...and convenient for your needs? Or do you lme lme like you do these students? Someone to take care of and adore you while you play lord and master? Or is it something else?" She faced him then, a little pleased and a little disturbed to see the look of confused horror on his features. "Do you love me like I want to be loved, like I love you?"
"How..." he licked his suddenly dry lips. "How do you love me, Ro?"
Storm shook her head sadly. "I love you in all those ways, and more than that. I love you lyou'you're part of my soul, Logan. No matter where you may be in the world, running back to Alkali Lake or Japan or Timbuktu or anywhere else, I will love you just as much as if you were right in front of me. I hurt when you hurt, rage when you rage..." She paused and calmly, disaffectedly, poured water from the whistling kettle into a mug and dropped the tea bag in. "Logan, I love you with every single fiber of my being and soul in this life and the next, and tha that will follow it. And I know you well enough to see that you want to run, hide from this and you know what? I'm going to let you. Do what you need to do and come back when you have an answer for me. How do you love me, Logan?" He stood stock still, not sure he had heard anything she just said, as she passed him in a waft of clean skin and flowerd ind incense. When he could finally unlock his legs to move, he headed right for the one person who had put up with his uncharacteristic whinging for the past week-Beast.

Kurt was wholeheartedly embarrassed. The first thing he saw when he turned down the hallway leading to his locker was a hideous amount of red, white and pink balloons. Kitty giggled and said, "Looks like your secret admirer struck again, sweetie!"
"Don't jinx me," he groaned. He could tell, even from fifty feet away,was was his locker the balloons were tied to. Scott snorted and slapped him on the back, veering towards his own locker with a murmured, 'way to go, stud,' that made Kurt groan again in embarrassment.
Kitty's eyes widened as they neared his locker. "I was kidding..." She stared at the arrangement, somewhat in awe. "Wow...two dozen of 'em..."
"You want them?" Kurt asked sullenly, not sure how to open his locker with the balloons tied to the handle.
"Latex allergy..." Kitty sighed. "Besides, it's not nice to regift, especially so obviously."
"Are you laughing at me?" Kurt asked with a mock-snarl, trying valiantly to untie the bunch of strings.
"No, just near you. Here, guard me..." Kitty moved in between him and the locker, taking his armful of books and shoving them in one by one. She pulled the remainder of the books out and handed him off. "Taa daa!"
"Useful mutation, Liebes," Kurt sighed, kissing her on her forehead. "Oh, hey Amanda!"
Kitty turned and looked in the direction of Kurt's gaze and saw Amanda, grinning as she wove in and out of groups of students milling in the hallway. "Want a balloon?"
"You like 'em?" She could not help but notice Kitty's narrowed gaze. "Hey, Kitty."
"Hey...you know who sent these?" Kittyed wed with little friendliness in her voice. _I can't help it...I still want to pull her hair. _
"I'm guessing," Amanda said, leaning across Kurt to peer at the tiny card tied to one of the balloons, "his secret admirer."
Kurt shook his head in confusion. "But who is it?"
"I don't know, sweetie," Amanda said, earning a low growl from Kitty. "I mean...Kurt. Want me to ask around?"
"Sure," Kurt said at the same time Kitty said, "No."
"Sorry," Kitty amended. "It's Kurt's deal. Don't listen to me." Kitty leaned against the locker, fighting the surge of jealousy she felt as Amanda promised Kurt she would ask around and then smiled prettily at him, flipping her hair over her shoulder and patting him on the arm.
"Oh, Kitty, I mean to tell you," Amanda said brightly, turning away from Kurt, "I'm really sorry about this whole dance thing."
"It's okay...I'm still forbidden to go but at least the Professor got everything else straightened out," she sighed bitterly. "I know you didn't set it up or anything."
"Well, here's the hard part for me to tell you two..." Amanda bit her lip and edged away from Kitty unconsciously. "Kelly's making it mandatory that the people on the ballot go to the dance. Together."
"What?" Kurt exploded, surprising Kitty. He tensed visibly and both girls backed away then. "No offense, Amanda, but I don't want to go to the dance with you! He can't dictate who we go out with!"
"It's some stupid school spirit thing," Amanda explained. "I think it's stupid, too... I was kind of hoping to go with someone else my self....maybe we can just show up together and figure something out then..."
Kitty knew she was scowling and knew she looked less than cute but she did not care. "You two work it out. I'm going to class. I have to make sure Paolo got his verbs right..." She squeezed Kurt's hand and stalked away, her shoulders hunched in annoyance.
"This is ridiculous," Amanda sighed.
"Tell me about it..." Kurt batted away a balloon that had taken a southerly course. "You know, though...I think I have an idea...Come on." Kurt and Amanda set off down the hall, heads bent together conspiratorially, something Duncan Matthews found y _ y _ interesting.

The day did not improve for Kurt. In his first period class, there was an ornate card on his desk which spilled glitter all over his clothes when he pulled it out of the envelope. In second period, Kitty was sullen, though she did not seem mad at him. In fact, he reflected ruefully, the love poem taped to his desk in that class gave her a good giggle at his expense. Third period brought Staring Paolo, as Kurt had taken to calling him, and Scott, who was still in a bad mood. "Balloon?" Kurt offered, having taken to handing them out to anyone who looked twice at him.
"Sure..." Scott accepted a red one, then popped it with his pencil. "Another?"
"Er....sure..." Kurt handed him the remaining three balloons and winced with each ensuing pop. "Feel better?"
"I will on Friday..." Scott slouched low in his seat and glared at the blackboard all through class.
The bell rang around the time Kurt was ready to scream in frustration over the mysteries of trigonometry, drawing a sigh of relief from everyone in the room. "Scott, wait up," he called as his friend gained the door. "I want to talk to you!"
Paolo lurked nearby as Scott sighed and asked, "What's wrong? Kitty gone weird again?"
Kurt rolled his eyes. "No, it's just there's a problem about Friday."
"Tell me about it!" Scott sighed, leaning against the doorframe.
"Um, pardon me..." Paolo broke in. At the sudden glare from both Kurt and Scott, he quailed visibly but then took a deep breath and said in a rush, "I was wondering if you might be able to help me because there's this person you know that I want to ask to the dance on Friday and I'm really afraid to talk to the my self because they're so beautiful and so nice and so...so..."
Kurt clapped a hand over Paolo's mouth. "Is it Kitty?" he growled. Paolo's frantic head shaking was the only thing that saved him from a full-on Nightcrawler growl.
Scott was a little amused at Kurt's flare of jealousy. "Who is it?"
"I'm kind of afraid to tell you because, well...um...well it's kind of touchy."
"Touchy?" the two mutants asked at once.
"Um, nevermind!" Paolo blurted, his face flaming red as he ducked around Scott and ran down the hall at full tilt.
"That was weird," Amanda said, coming out of the room behind Kurt. "You ask Scott yet?"
"No, I hav had had the chance..." Kurt edged slightly away from Amanda, conscious of Scott's narrowed gaze and his assessment of the girl's proximity. "Scott, there's no nice way to bring this up, but are you and Jean going to the dance on Friday?"
Scott made a noise akin to a growl and said, "I don't want to talk about it!" before turning on his heel and marching down the hall to lunch.
Amanda sighed softly. "Well, there goes that idea."
"No, let me talk to him at lunch. Meet me at my locker after school and I'll let you know. Right now, Kitty's waiting for me. Later, Amanda!" Kurt hurried off in the same direction Scott had, feeling slight pangs of guilt for what he was going to suggest to Scott.

"Come on, Amara, spill!" Kitty poked at Amara's arm with her spork, making the Nova Roman wrinkle her nose in distaste.
"Do not smear your salad dressing on me, peasant!" she snarled without thinking.
"Ooooooh. Touchy. Miss Lance, do we?" Rogue singsonged, setting her tray down across from Amara. "He's only in detention...go stick your head in the door and say hi."
"Shut up, Mrs Tolensky," Amara snapped. Rogue threw a green bean at her and said something rather rude in German, courtesy of Kurt still swimming around in her memories. "Now who's touchy?"
Kitty sighed and interjected, "How's the Valentine's boycott coming along?"
"Not as well as I'd hoped," Rogue sighed. "Since the guys weren't going to do anything anyway, it's sort of an exercise in futility."
Jean made a snorting noise. "I just wish this damn holiday would pass. If I see one more doily heart, I'm going to scream. Loudly. And make something explode."
Kurt laughed as he sat down next to Kitty. "Still in a bad mood, are we?"
"Depends. Has Scott said anything to you about coming down off his high horse and discussing this like rational adults?" Jean asked before taking a sip of her juice.
"Not to me he hasn't," Kurt allowed, stuffing half his hamburger in his mouth at once as he slid his arm around Kitty's waist, his mood going up a few notches when she settled against him.
"So Amara, are you going to tell me or what?" Kitty asked, bringing the subject back to her main concern. "If he's going to keep harassing me, I want to know why!"
Amara did not respond, merely finished her orange and opened her milk box before speaking. "I will not say it in front of Kurt."
"Why not?" Kitty whined, a sigh emitting from both Rogue and Jean at the drawn out game of cat and mouse.
"Because," Amara sighed tiredly, "he's a guy and if a guy knows this secret, it'll be worse than a girl knowing."
"Would it help if you pretended I had breasts?" Kurt asked, grabbing Rogue's and Kitty's dinner rolls, shoving them down the front of his shirt, thrusting his chest out. "Just call me Kurt-ina."
"I am so never kissing you again," Kitty sighed.
"Mine are better," Rogue snorted. Kurt held one of the rolls out to her and she shook her head. "All yours, bro."
Amara kept the smirk off her face quite well. "I'll tell you for now that it involves something you saw. Or that he thinks you saw. About a week and a half ago. In the general area of the gym."
"Vague, yet undescriptive," Kitty said with a note of annoyance in her voice. "Hey, here comes Scott..."
"I've got to go," Jean said, her eyes brimming all of a sudden.
"Me, too," Kitty said, dragging Rogue to her feet. "Rogue and Amara are coming with me."
"We are?" Amara asked, struggling.
"Yes," Kitty said, over a resigned sigh from Rogue. "You have to pee."
"Thanks for telling me. I was worried."
Kurt laughed as he watched his girlfriend drag the two other girls off after Jean, invariably towards the bathroom, he thought. Scott was watching the departure of the girls with an expression Kurt could only describe as pain. _It's about to get worse, mein Freund. _