Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER FOUR (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), I've sent the ducks in search of that errant box. *kicks USPS * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are shiny and sparkley. :) ProPhile gets big heap muse cookies for the plotbunny for this one. :) Readers/Reviewers: Still with me? *blush * I knew I loved you for a reason. The armadillos are jealous. They're biting at my ankles, which can't be good... Happy Litha to those who celebrate! Hootie hoo!


Kurt stared at the girl in front of him, her face familiar but her comportment and dress not. Finally, he chanced it. "Jubilee?"
"Uh...yeah?" She was holding a tray full of food, dubbed the Fuzzy Elf Special due to it's highly caloric nature. "Um, Beast said you need to eat something before you can leave the infirmary." She shrugged and set the tray down on the table beside the bed. "You okay? Scott said you fainted."
"I, uh, don't know what happened." He reached out tentatively and picked up a lock of long black hair laying across her shoulders. "Your hair...it's so long! It hasn't been long in months!"
Jubilee snorted, a blessedly familiar sound to Kurt's ears. "It's been long since I was a kid, despite what the gymnastics coach suggests." She shoved the hair behind her ears and narrowed her eyes at Kurt. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"
"You're not wearing yellow."
She glanced down at her shirt emblazoned with "State Champions 2002-Bayville Gymnastics" and blue jeans. "No, no I'm not...is this a test or something?" she asked with her brow raise "No "No, it's just...yellow is your favorite color." Kurt pulled the tray of food closer and switched his focus from Jubilee for a moment. "Who made kugel1?"
"It was in the fridge. Kitty made it before she left. It should still be good." Jubilee poked at it with a finger. "Yeah, it didn't bite...it's still good."
Kurt smiled slightly. _That seemed normal enough...considering. _ "Um, Jubilee? Who are you dating?"
"No one," she said, almost laughing. "Who would I date around here? Scott? _You _?" She laughed outright then. "You're funny, Wagner. Really funny."
Kurt shrugged almost sheepishly. "Just checking." He took a large bite of something fried and asked around the mouthful, "What day is it?"
"Saturday...first full weekend of summer break. Duh." Tentatively, she sat on the edge of the bed and picked at the ends of her hair idly. "Scott said you thought you had been with Kitty."
Kurt almost said he _had _ been with her, but something made him bite his tongue. "I guess...I guess I was mistaken." Jubilee tilted her head sideways at him and appraised him with a glance. Feeling uncomfortable, he cleared his throat and took a sip of milk before asking, "Is Forge around?"
"Who?"
"Forge...you know...big guy, bionic arm? Forge?"
"Dude..."
"Workshop in the basement..."
"Beast!" Jubilee scrambled to her feet and backed towards the doctor's office. "Kurt's wigging out again!"
Kurt sighed and bit into a peanut butter sandwich with more extra ingredients than could possibly be healthy. _Time to lie, Kurt... _ "I was kidding," he said as brightly as he could when Beast ambled into the room, looking concerned.
"About what?" the large man asked, gently removing the tray from Kurt's lap and peering into his eyes. "Jubilee, care to define 'wigging' for me?"
"He was asking for Forge!"
"Who?"
Kurt sighed. "I was kidding with her...she was looking too serious..."
Beast frowned. "That's not your usual brand of humor, Kurt... "
"Must be the fainting spell."
"Ah, yes...that reminds me. Try not to port unless you absolutely need to and by absolutely, I mean the you're on a sinking ship in the middle of the North Atlantic and it's on fire as well and porting is the only way off. That sort of thing."
"Um..." Kurt shook his head as if to clear cobwebs, trying to follow Beast's analogy. "Okay."
"Well, you seem fine," Beast said, finishing his abbreviated exam. "Finish that tray up and you should be fine to go." Jubilee frowned at Kurt from over Beast's shoulder. "That wasn't funny, man."
Kurt smiled as gallantly as possible and said, "I'll do better next time."
"Good," the Asian girl said in a mock-huff as she turned to leave the room.
Beast smiled toothily and said, "I can't find one single reason why you fainted and why you seem to be having some perception problems but I'm wont to believe that you overextended yourself."
"Ja, that must be it," Kurt allowed, not meeting the older man's eyes, rather applying himself to a slice of apple pie.
"Kurt," the man said quietly, almost sternly, all façade of friendliness gone. "I'm concerned about you. You've been acting strangely for a few days now and if there is something going on, I want for you to feel free to tell me or any of the other adults here..."
"Nothing is going on," Kurt lied and shoved the tray aside. "I'm done...I'm going to go see what some of the others are up to, okay?"
Beast nodded. "Fine, Kurt...but I want for you to come back here for a final check before you go to bed tonight."
Kurt barely heard him as he made a beeline for the door, his headache receding in the face of his growing confusion.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty," Evan called as Kurt entered the rec room. "Pull up a control. We're just getting started."
"I'll just watch for now," Kurt said, sitting on the sofa in a half-crouch, his knees drawn up to his chin. He watched all that was going on around him avidly, taking in each tiny nuance of behavior and comparing it to what he knew of his friends. _They're acting normal but not...it's like everything is just an inch too far to the right and reality doesn't match with what I know... _ Reality took a turn for the extra bizarre just then as Amanda fairly bounced into the room, followed by Rogue.
"Hey, sweetie!" Amanda caroled, sitting next to Kurt and pulling him into a hug in one motion.
Rogue said in a very flat tone, "She was coming up the walk as I was comirom rom the lake." Her tone said that she was loathe to have let the other girl into the house.
"You look like you don't feel good," Amanda said, frowning. "What's wrong?"
"Everything," Kurt groaned, extricating himself from the girl's grasp was some effort. "Um...do we have a date today?"
"No," Amanda laughed. "You haven't asked me out...I just wanted to come by and say hi and...visit. Or something." She shrugged and smiled.
Kurt sighed inwardly. _ Amanda always was a big one about showing up unannounced. Somehow, that wasn't as annoying when we were dating. _ "I'm really not up to visiting or...something. Can I take a rain check?"
Amanda's face fell. "Oh." She stood slowly and avoided his gaze, smoothing nonexistent wrinkles from her jeans. "I guess I'll go then. I should be running errands for my mom anyway..."
Evan glared at Kurt and said, "We're just settling in for a fight to the death over Twisted Metal...you should stay. It'll be fun."
Amanda looked at Kurt, then Evan, then the game and repeated the sequence. Her desire to visit with Kurt was writ plainly on her face, making the blue-furred teenager wince visibly. Setting her jaw, she said, "I'd love to stay."
Kurt sighed through his nose. "I've got to go talk to the Professor...I hope you'll excuse me..." He pushed himself over the back of the couch and headed towards the study, deciding to just start looking around randomly for the man until he found him. He did not hear Evan coming up behind him until the other teenager grabbed his arm. "Was?"
"What the fuck, man? You spend the semester flirting with the girl, calling her at all hours, even carrying her damned books home from school, and when she finally starts giving in to your...whatever you have that passes for charm...you start pulling back!"
Kurt blinked in confusion. _I'm in a coma, aren't I? This is a coma dream. That's why it's so weird. _ "I don't love her..."
"I know, I know, you love Kitty!" Evan hissed, mindful of the roomful of ears so close by. Someone called for him to hurry up, the game was starting, and Evan rolled his eyes. "You said you were giving up on Kitty and Amanda seemed the best choice. What happened to that, huh?" Poking Kurt in the chest with one finger, he said, "You're my friend, man, but I'll kick your ass if you fuck her over. Got it?"
Kurt stared after him dumbly. _What fresh Hell is this _?2 Forcing his feet into motion, he stumbled towards the study and knocked. Receiving no answer, he peeke and and found the room empty. _Of course not. Why should he be somewhere easy to find? _ Kurt took a breath and decided to chance it. _*Professor? _ *
There was a lengthy pause and then came the answer. _*Kurt? What is it? _ *
_*I need to talk to you. May I come see you now? _ *
_*Of course...I'm in the hangar. _ *
Kurt was thankful twhatwhatever was messing with his perceptions of reality had left the mansion in its familiar layout. There was a moment when he was sure that the security mechanism guarding the hangar would not admit him, but after the briefest of pauses, the door hissed open and revealed the Blackbird sitting next to a smaller plane and an unfamiliar helicopter. "Kurt," the Professor said, sounding a little surprised but not enough to sound unusual, "you are without your holo."
"Ja...why wouldn't I be?" he asked, his brows shooting up. As he crossed to the Professor where he sat with Logan, poring over what seemed to be detailed plans for an addition to the mansion.
"I was beginning to fear you had become too dependant on it's false image. I'm glad to see you as you are..." The Professor smiled and Logan made a soft noise of annoyance. "You needed to speak with me, Kurt?"
"Can I do it...alone? No offense, Herr Logan..."
"None taken, Elf. I've got to call the Prydes anyway and remind them I'll be there early for Kitty." The gruff man stood and gathered the plans into a neat roll. He took a deep sniff and leaned closer to Kurt. "You smell...off."
Kurt jerked his chin defiantly. "I smell fine!"
"Not dirty, Kid. Just...off." Logan took another deep sniff, aware of the Professor's sudden, though subtle, interest. "Like somewhere else. Someone else...you but more."
"More?" Kurt asked tentatively, wondering just what "more" smelled like.
"You're you but...not."
"Logan," the Professor intoned, "the Prydes..."
"Yeah...starouaround, Elf. Don't go nowhere. I want to talk to you when I come back."
Kurt nodded a bit sickly and waited as the door to the hangar hissed closed behind Logan. "Professor, something happened to me this morning."
"He's right..." the older man said suddenly, "you're yourself and not at the same time."
"Was?"
Professor Xavier narrowed his gaze and wheeled closer. "May I?"
Kurt nodded and forced himself to relax.3 He felt the probing fingers of the Professor's mind began stretching across his mind and he bit his lip, the sensation almost unpleasant. Kurt felt rather than heard the suggestion to be calm and let go of his guards, if only for the time being. The trickle of feelings became an almost unbearable torrent as the Professor touched on first one memory, then another, seemingly unlocking hidden doors within Kurt's mind. As quickly as it started, the feeling stopped. "Well?" Kurt asked.
Professor Xavier looked, for the first time that Kurt could ever remember, disconcerted. "Kurt, I think we need to go to my study. Now."
1 Noodle pudding.
2 Shakespeare...but I can't remember if it's Merchant of Venice or Othello and I'm too lazy to look right now. Sorry.
3 Forced and relax....isn't that an oxymoron?