Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER SIX (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ...t...the menagerie made you a cake! (Don't eat it...I don't know where they got the ingredients so just smile and nod and put it aside for now!) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are sparklebunnies for archiving. :) ProPhile gets dancing muses for his plotbunny. :) Readers/Reviewers: Sing with me now... "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Foxfeather! Happy birthday to you!!!!!!!"

Kurt wondered if he was having a migraine. The pain behind hiss was was reaching nearly blinding proportions as he said through gritted teeth, "How am I supposed to keep this a secret, Professor? Kitty will _know _!"
Professor Xavier, looking a little more than passably worried, said, "That is only a small part of the present problem... Kurt, if what I've seen is true, we might be in over our heads. Who did you say made this device?"
"A mutant named Forge. You can probably find him if you use Cerebro!"
"If he exists here... I admit, I find it more than a little disconcerting that other realities do seem to exist. I know it is possible given the laws of physics et cetera, but when one is actually confronted with the truth of the matter..." He huffed out a frustrated and confused breath. "Kurt, this is difficult, more so than I can even begin to imagine I'm sure, but you will need to be patient. I need to...to see what I can do. I will try and find this Forge fellow immediately. In the mean time, I suggest you pretend injury...act confused."
"That won't be a problem," Kurt snorted.
"Act," the Professor continued a little more sternly, "as if your fainting spell has lasting effects-other than the obvious. Use temporary amnesia as your excuse for forgetting where things might be, for example..."
Kurt sighed. _It's not where things are that bothers me... _ "Katzchen...Kitty...she is coming back tomorrow, ja?"
"That she is...Kurrom rom what I gathered from your mind, you and she have a very different relationship than the one you have here."
"So I gather..." He stood shakily and passed a hand over his mouth. "I...I will have to adjust for now."
"I'm afraid so."
"Professor...please," he began, choking on an unwilling sob. Shaking his head and straightening his shoulders, he said, "Professor, please help me get back where I belong."
"Of course, Kurt...I'll do everything I can to get you back."
Kurt nodded. "Where is my room please? I think I need to lay down."
"Of course..." The Professor told him where his bedroom was located and Kurt registered with some surprise that it was where Kitty's room was in his universe and that thought made him more sad than he was a moment before. Unwilling to attempt teleportation, he trudged up from the study and then down the hall, not even registering who he passed in the hallway. He made it up the stairs with little incident, only drawing to a stop when he reached the door to his (_Kitty's _, his mind cried) room. The door was shut tightly and he had a sinking feeling what to expect. Closing his eyes, he opened the door and stepped through, shutting it behind him quietly before chancing a look around. The walls were very bare, the shelves containing only school texts and the few books he had brought with him from Germany. His bed was severely made up, the sheets pulled to tight corners, the pillows strangely crease-free as if he had never slept on them. He knew better, though. He remembered being like this, needing to create severe order in his corner of the world just so he could feel safe. Everything was very neat and tidy, not a speck of dust to be seen, even, he knew, on the very top shelf of the bookcase. A stereo and stack of CD's sat in one corner, on the floor where he knew his self in this world liked to listen to them. A television, portable phone and DVD player were housed in a wooden entertainment center he whe wall opposite his bed, a neat line of titles beneath them on a narrow shelf, all old titles and many foreign. _Just like I remember... _Kurt felt overwhelming sadness then, realization sinking in that, in this urse,rse, he had never progressed beyond the shy, painfully awkward teenager who had first come to the Institute several years before. He crossed to the bed and sat heavily on the crisp sheets, an old urge to stand and straighten them immediately niggling his mind. _You're not him anymore. You're you. You're not afraid...you know these people even if they aren't quite the same...you can do this. You can make it until the Professor finds Forge. What if he doesn't? Gott im Himmel, what if he doesn't? _

"Was that Amanda in the rec room earlier?" Rogue asked absently, focusing almost entirely on the book before her.
"Yeah," Evan responded. "She came to see Kurt but he blew her off to talk to the Professor. I don't think I'll ever understand that dude. It's like he fell from another world or something."
Rogue snorted, flipping a page with rapt attention. "One of 'em is gonna pop soon."
"It'll be Amanda. She's got it so bad for Kurt and he was so leading her on..." Evan laid down on the bed next to Rogue, on his back while she lay on her stomach. "Dracula again? Predictable little Goth girl..."
She closed the book carefully, marking her place with the djackjacket, and rolled onto her side to face him. "I might be predictable, but that never put you off me before."
"Nope, sure hasn't," he grinned, reaching for the scarf loosely tied around her neck and pulling on one edge.
"I didn't mean Amanda and Kurt," she said, reaching for the scarf and pulling it out of his grasp. "I meant _Kitty _ and Kurt. She's not happy with Lance."
"Rogue baby, that's not our problem. Kitty is _never _ going to see Kurt like he sees her and Kurt is never going to stop moping and hiding from her, so it's better that we don't even worry about it."
"Kitty," Rogue said, sitting up, "likes Kurt. A lot."
"So says you," Evan teased, sitting up as well and reaching for her scarf again. "She just feels sorry for him is all."
"Is it?" Rogue asked, one brow shooting up. "She told me she liked him."
"It's pity," Evan stated. "Pure and simple."
"You're as romantic is a dead flea, you know that?" she groused, letting him pull her towards him by virtue of the scarf. "Kitty said she likes him and she wouldn't lie about that. She does care. And she's really not happy with Lance..." She bit back the whole story, how Lance was a little too rough sometimes, pushing her to do things she really did not want to do, making her feel bad about herself in front of others, even going so far as to needle her to join the Brotherhood with the time-worn reason, 'If you really loved me, you'd do it.' Instead, Rogue just sighed as Evan pressed the thin fabric of her scarf over her lips and leaned forward, pressing a tender kiss through the silk. "She likes him," she murmured again when he pulled away.
"Rogue," Evan sighed, "let it go!"
"Kurt doesn't want Amanda!"
Evan cursed under his breath and rolled off the bed, passing a tired hand across his eyes. "Rogue, listen to me. Kurt has been all over Amanda like white on rice for months now. He flirts with her, he teases her, he writes her notes...he likes Amanda!"
"He flirts with all the girls, even Storm! That's just the way he is!" _When he's not being so painfully shy it makes your heart hurt to look at him... _
"He likes Amanda!" Evan growled more forcefully. "I'm not going to help him hurt Amanda by pushing him on Kitty!"
"Why are you so worried about Amanda?" Rogue asked in all curiosity. "I didn't think you cared one way or the other about her."
"I don't," he protested, some of the fight gone out of him. "It's just I'm tired of hearing you go on about how Kitty likes Kurt. It'd be cruel to tell him so, or even give him a hint. He'd himshimself into knots trying to get her attention, worse than he does now. He'd throw himself into the supposed courtship so hard that he'd probably have a nervous breakdown when she flitted off after Lance again or worse, Scott. You know Fearless Leader's been giving her the eye, too."
Rogue snorted indelicately. "Scott and Kitty? In what universe would _that _ happen?" She laughed outright then, picturing the couple. "That'd be like brother and sister dating!"
"Scott doesn't think so..." Evan sat back down on the bed and laid one hand atop Rogue's jeans-clad knee. "He's tired of waiting for Jean and wants to date other girls."
"But _Kitty _RoguRogue laughed again. "That's just sick and wrong."
Evan snickered a little. "No worse than Kitty and Kurt!"
Rogue's smile became quickly false. She did not know why it bothered her so much that Evan was against the idea of her best friend and the German teenager getting together, but she knew she was going to try her hardest to make it happen. "Evan," she said as sweetly as she cou"wan"want to go on a group date tomorrow night?"
"A group date? What are we, twelve or something? I think we're old enough to go out on our own!"
"Oh, come on," she said, getting to her knees and moving towards him. She straddled his lap and laid one gloved hand on either side of his face. "It'll be fun. A bunch of us getting together and just hanging out..." She pressed her center against him, feeling him grow more aroused with each passing second.
"We do that here," he breathed, closing his eyes as she moved against him.
"We could go to the movies..." whispered in his ear. She could feel his shaky breath against her neck as she ground against him, brushing her breasts against his chest. "Or just go somewhere and hang out there instead of sitting around here..."
"Rogue," he began, but was cut off when she pressed one shirt-clad breast against his lips. Groaning in his throat, he covered the peak of her nipple with his mouth and drew on her through the cotton fabric.
They had not been together very long, but Rogue knew what Evan liked when they did this, what to do that would bring him quickly to release. She moaned a pleasure she did not quite feel, rocking her hips more quickly, pressing against him and rubbing his arousal with her center through their clothes. He drew hard on her breast and she hissed through her teeth, not in pain but distinctly unsure about whether she liked the feeling or not. Evan gripped her buttocks tightly, squeezing and kneading the rounded flesh as she worked against him, murmuring into her skin as she muttered endearments, thickening her drawl because he had once told her it was sexy. Rogue sighed and pulled away just enough to break his hold on her breast. Ignoring the rapidly cooling damp spot on the front of her shirt, she murmured, "Are you close?"
"Kind of," he panted, laying back and pulling her down on top of him. He thrust up against her, making her shift dangerously, her bare face coming a little too close to his neck for her comfort. He noticed and paused, adjusting so that she was resting against his chest, her legs still astride him, and he began thrusting against her again.
Rogue made the appropriate sounds, feeling herself grow increasingly more aroused in spite of herself. She felt a little bad about using this vague form of sex in order to get her way, especially when it was about something most would consider petty, but she did not stop what they were doing to assuage the very slight guilt. _Evan likes it and he likes me...no harm no foul, right? _ Evan groaned suddenly, the sound loud in her otherwise silent room, and she steeled herself for the inevitable. He gripped her hips tightly, holding her against him as he lost any sense of rhythm, bucking madly beneath her. Rogue felt the hot dampness spread between them through the layers of clothing and sighed. She could repeat exactly what he was going to say verbatim now.
"Damn...baby, we have got to figure out another way!" Evan stroked her hair idly and sighed, holding her against him as he regained his breath.
"Mmm."
"I need to go get cleaned up."
"Mmm."
"Are you gonna be up long?" He shifted her off him and sighed again, wincing as the sticky fluid against his skin began to cool and become mostly disgusting to his sense of touch.
_Longean yan you were. _ "I think I'm gonna turn in, actually...see you tomorrow, though. I was thinking we could all go around two..."
Evan paused, halfway off the bed. "We?" He sighed. "Okay. Two it is then. See you in the morning, Rogue."
"Night, Evan." Rogue rolled onto her side, back to him, as if she were going to fall asleep then and there. She waited for the long minutes until he stopped staring at her, turning off the light and shutting the door behind him as he went. She counted to ten and got out of bed. _Kurt should still be up...he's a night owl. He's gonna jump at the chance to go on a date with Kitty, even if it's a group of us going! _