Fractals

Fractals Chapter Six (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse. Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *kicks bad things * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly and smooshy for archiving/hosti :) :) ProPhile: Smut in the next chapter! Morgan: Did you get the stories? Readers/Reviewers: The ducks are plotting again. This time, I fear it involves pumpkins…. In the meantime, thanks for reading/reviewing!

“I’m not really that hungry,” Kitty admitted finally, pushing a bite of the vegetarian dinner Kurt had labored over across her plate. “I guess I’m just worn out from traveling.”
Mrs. Wagner raised an eyebrow. “It was a two hour drive.” Before Kitty could protest, she added, “Through suburbia.”
Kitty blushed and looked down at her plate. “Sorry. It smells wonderful, though…”
Kurt sighed. “It’s okay, Liebes. You don’t have to eat it. You’ve had a shock and you need to absorb it. Your father…”
“Did I tell you about the physics lab?” she burst suddenly, her face animated. She picked up a roll and toff off a piece, popping it in her mouth. “It’s brand new… the old one burned down or something last summer so this year, they have these really high tech facilities. Not that the old ones weren’t, but these are like, extra-modern.”
Kurt and his motherhanghanged glances, some unspoken communication passing between them. “Pardon me,” Mrs Wagner murmured. “I smell something burning.”
Kitty frowned only slightly as Kurt’s mother hustled into the kitchen from the lanai. “But there’s nothing on the burners…”
Kurt reached across the table and laid his hand atop Kitty’s. “Liebes, your father died. It’s okay to be upset about it, even if you weren’t on good terms. It’s natural.”
She resisted the urge to fling the torn dinner roll at him. “Kurt, I’m not talking about it.” She took up her fork again and took a bite of the meat loaf-esque entrée. “Soy?” she asked, seeking to change the topic.
“Mostly,” he said, diverted for but a second. “Katzchen, I’m worried. You’re not usually one to be so…so…” He paused, stuck for the English word. “Damn.”
“I’m not usually one to be so damn?” She quirked a brow and smiled, a corner of her mouth quirking up in amusement. “I’m not sure that’s an adjective.” She turned her hand palm-up under his and laced their fingers together. “Kurt, I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about him. It’s over. One less thing to worry about.”
“What about whatever it is you had planned with my mother?” He tried to keep the hurt tone out of his voice and winced inwardly as he realized how petulant he sounded. “Why did you take her off like that after you found out?”
Kitty’s expression became closed. “Kurt, I love you more than anyone or anything and you know I don’t like keeping secrets from you, but right now, the less people know, the better. Please…” She fixed him with a serious, albeit pleading expression. “just wait until Sunday and you’ll know He He frowned slightly. “If you say so…” He glanced at the sliding door leading to the kitchen and, satisfied they were not going to be interrupted, continued, “I just don’t think it’s healthy for you to close off like this!”
Kitty dropped her fork and withdrew her hand, leaning back. She folded her hands in her lap and leveled an irritated gaze at him. “Kurt, the man is nothing to me. Nothing. He was a sperm donor, as far as I’m concerned. Logan has been more of a father to me in these three years than Mort Pryde ever was.” She shoved her chair back and stood, tugging her ponytail into place in agitation. “I’m going to go lay down. I have a headache.”
Kurt rose as she did but did not follow. He felt sick all of a sudden and wanted to fly to her and apologize, beg forgiveness, but he restrained himself. _Forgiveness for what? _ his common sense demanded. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain. _I am not going to apologize for being concerned. I refuse to be the sort of person who lets fear make me weak. _
“Fear of what?” Jean asked idly, coming through the waist-high gate that led onto the side yard. She looked tired and felt worse.
“Nothing,” Kurt snapped before regaining control of his voice. “Sorry. Stressful evening…”
Jean took note of the place settings in addition ts ans and raised a brow. “Your mom and Kitty, right? Where did they go off to?”
“Ah, Kitty was not feeling well,” he trailed off, looking mildly suffused. “Why aren’t you eating with the others?”
Jean shrugged slightly, looking a bit sad. “I was tired of the looks. Getting stared at and whispered about is one thing, but when you can hear what they’re thinking…”
Kurt raised a brow. “Block them out. Don’t pay any attention to them.”
Jean raised her formerly downcast eyes and found his. She looked less strong than he knew her to be, less certain. “It’s not so easy… There’s a lot of high projectors in there now and no matter how hard I try, some of it seeps through. I’ve been… less than strict in my training lately.”
Kurt nodded. “And… Scott? How is he?”
Jean closed her eyes. Scott, she thought to herself, was the worst of all. He did not think negative things about her as she thought he might nor did he think of her in desperation. The few times she had allowed herself to wander through his surface thoughts, he had been resigned, depressed and, in today’s horrifying episode, thinking about a blonde who worked at the auto part store. “He’s fine. Just… fine.” She turned on her heel to head into the house but Kurt stopped her with a word.
“Jean…”
She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I came back to the main house because I was failing school. I was too distracted, trying to work and be a wife and be a student… I can’t fail, Kurt. You don’t unders wha what this means to me. This wasn’t my plan, to get married at eighteen and have to work like this. I was supposed to graduate with honors, get a scholarship, go premed and have a residency before I turned thirty!” She shook her head. “I love Scott. I can’t blame him for this. I moved back here, I separated from him because I didn’t want to hate him when I failed.”
Kurt moved towards her sligh wan wanting to comfort his friend but not quite sure if a hug would even be enough to take the edge of the self loathing he was sure she was feeling. “And now that you’re not failing? Why don’t you go to him? He loves you, Jean, and misses you.”
She sighed and straightened, becoming a shade of her usual self. “It’s not that simple, Kurt. I’ve made a choice, I chose a different path and now I have to live with it.”
He watched her with sadness welling in his chest as she let herself into the kitchen and disappeared into the shadows of the room, leaving him on the lanai with the sun setting to the west. He glanced at the food, now cold, congealing on the plates and made a face of mild disgust before starting to gather the dishes. He could hear the others faintly, through many walls and doors, still in the dining hall. He planned on cleaning off the table, putting the dishes in the dishwasher and heading to his room to sulk, or, as he preferred to call it, think, but someone else had other plans. A bt flt flash of light made him hiss and drop the stack of plates in his hand, scrubbing at his eyes to gain focus before he set off, running on instinct, in the direction of the flash, the sound of rustling shrubbery and a muttered curse as someone tripped over a paving stone guiding him. Kurt teleported over the wall and was running before his vision truly cleared. As the spots stopped dancing before his eyes, a figure in a gray sweatsuit resolved itself before him, running all all they were worth towards fencfence, a camera in their hand. Kurt growled to himself and leapt for them, teleporting again to cover part of the distance, tackling them to the ground in a blink. The figure gasped and cursed and thrashed but he did not let them up. He dug his fingers into their shoulders, his tail wrapped around the wrist of the camera bearing hand, shaking it, trying to knock the device loose.
“Let me go!” the stranger gasped. “I can’t breathe with you on my chest.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Kurt ground out between clenched teeth, teleporting once more.