Galatea

Galatea Chapter Forty Three (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/Ndessdess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... *sends Tims with tea * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are 'smores goodness for archiving/hosting. * G* ProPhile will be a bust smutmuse again soon! And Morgan gets Remy-glomps for her Gold Key-ness. :) Readers/Reviewers: *throws beads * I can't help it. I'm part Cajun. It comes out this time of year.


"Lookit!" Kitty giggled. "Watch... Lucas, where's my nose?"
Lucas burbled, swayed slightly in Kitty's loose grasp and patted her nose. Kurt smiled appreciatively. "Now can he find his own?"
"Lucas, where's your nose?" she asked primly. Lucas seemed to think about it, then patted her nose again. "Well, it is a nose..."
The baby stopped burbling and frowned as much as his infant muscles would allow. He hiccoughed, then let loose a wail that would have put Banshee to shame. "Is he wet?" Kurt said loudly to be heard above the din.
"No, I just changed him! He's not hungry either!"
"What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know!" Kitty lifted Lucas and began pacing, patting his back and thinking frantically. "Maybe he wants his mom?"
"Which one?" Kurt groaned, reaching for the infant. "I have sisters. Let me..."
Kitty handed him over and nearly sighed with relief when the doorbell rang. "Be right back," she said hastily, practically running to the door. Kurt just waved her off and commenced tickling Lucas with his tail.
Kitty winced as Lucas shrieked anew and she wondered, briefly, if his precog abilities were telling him something. She opened the door with a sympathetic frown for the infant and froze. "Piotr!"
"Katerina." He spared her a curt nod. "Is...he...here?"
"He? I assume you mean Kurt." She glanced over her shoulder and stepped back as Piotr leaned forward. "Um, wait here a sec..."
Kurt chose that moment to wander out of the rec room and into the foyer. "Katzchen, I think he was just..." His face became a mask of bland annoyance. "What do you want?"
"Katerina, she suggested we talk, da? And you called me once but we dit tat talk. So," he shrugged, "here I am. To talk." He smiled at the baby and waved one finger. "I know I have been gone a bit but...Katerina? So soon?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. This is Lucas, Tabby's son."
Kurt gritted his teeth. "He doesn't have another way to be," he snapped, Lucas's whimpers starting to grow even louder.
In rapid Russian, Kitty told Piotr to take a seat in the rec room. "Kurt, come with me," she added in English. She grabbed his flailing tail and led him perforce into the hall bathroom, locking the door behind them. "Stop it!"
"Stop it? He..."
"Yeah, I know," she snapped. "Look, I've tried to be good about this, tried to go along with you and help you and your sisters and Piotr and..." she sighed and rubbed her temples. "Frankly, Kurt, you're being very childish."
"Was?" His astonishment was genuine. "You don't have siblings to worry over! You have no idea what..."
"Stop talking now," she ordered, folding her arms over her chest. "I've tried for days to be different for you. I tried not to make plans, I've tried not to be pushy, I've tried..." She paused, closing her eyes to keep her temper. "I've tried very hard to be someone I thought you would like but you know what? I was stupid. I don't have to try. You love me. I tried to be perfect...okay, I didn't try too hard, but when you went off on me because of that damned navel ring, I wanted nothing more than to be your ideal. I't d't do it, Kurt. I can just be me. Annoying, plotting, pushy, giggly, occasionally intelligent Kitty Pryde. I will never be skinny again, not like I was before, I will never just sit there and let people I care about drown in their problems when I can do something about it, like I did for Amara." She opened her eyes to find him staring at her, agog and agape, and she forced herself to continue. "All this changing I've been trying to do, it never occurred to me that you might need to change a little to."
"Was...how?" Old insecurities were starting to come back with brute force. Dragons he had thought long slain were rearing their ugly heads, dripping self doubt.
"Be nice to Piotr," she sighed. "That's it. Your sister cares about the big hex nut for some reason and it hurts her that you're such a jerk about it. I know I don't have sisters of my own or whatever, but you know...I love your sisters like family now and it hurts me, too, when you hurt them."
Lucas had stopped crying some moments before and was now cooing happily, gumming the collar of Kurt's t-shirt. The teenager felt an alarming sense of vertigo as her words sank in. She doesn't hate you, his mind shouted. Stop being stupid, another part of it screamed. "Be nice? That's it?"
"Kurt," she said quietly, taking Lucas from him, "I love you. Nothing is going to change that, not even if you lost your mind and became a priest or something.1 But if you snark about Piotr and Katja one more time, I am going to kick your fuzzy tail all over the Danger Room!"
He smiled faintly in relief. "Katzchen, I don't want you to change..."
"I know. We talked about iemememember?" She leaned forward and kissed him awkwardly due to Lucas being between them. "I know you and Piotr are never going to be best friends or anything, but the least you could do is hear his intentions for Katja."
"Do you think he will tell me his true ones?" he mused, raising a brow. "I know, if you had a brother, I would never let on that most of my intentions towards you involve nudity and some chocolate."
"Kurt!" she choked. " The baby!"
He grinned. "Ja, and I'm sure I just traumatized him. I'll have to make sure he gets therapy when he's older. Liebes, wish me luck. I'm going to go make nice with Piotr."
"Godspeed, John Glenn2," she intoned gravely.
He rolled his eyes at her. "Does this mean no more potentially federal offense "G "Girl Scouts honor," she said solemnly, crossing her heart. It did not occur to him until he was on the other side of the door to ask if she had ever been a Girl Scout.

A/N Next, Jean/Scott smut, then Amara's final INS visit, then epilogue. Whooo!


1 Random comic-verse reference
2 Another random reference. NASA's communication to astronaut John Glenn during lift off of an early space mission.