Playing with Fire

Not mine, just wish they were.

AN ORDINARY DAY?


Kurt sat at the small desk in the room he shared with Scott, tail swaying restlessly through gap gap in the ladderback chair and tongue protruding between his lips in concentration as he conjugated Latin verbs on the worksheet before him. Pausing, he absently took a bite of potatoes from the plate next to him before flipping to the next page and beginning to translate. It was a short passage from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars and it was only a matter of ten minutes or so before he let his pencil drop, homework complete.

He took a moment to collect his work and place it in the appropriate binders before shoving everything into his overstuffed backpack. That done, he rose from his chair and stretched cramped muscles before hopping into a relaxed crouch on the edge of his desk to finish his dinner in comfort.

It had been, in some respects, a comfortingly ordinary day, he reflected as he worked his way through the rapidly cooling remains of his dinner. The only other person he had encountered before setting out for Our Lady of Sorrows had been Rogue as she staggered into the kitchen just in time to grab a cup of coffee and a bagel before they left. The short drive to the small Church just outside of Bayville had been spent in companionable silence, while his 'sister' worked on increasing her blood caffeine to safe levels - safe, that is, for anyone forced to deal with her before lunch.

He had spent the drive reflecting on the content of his impending confession and by the time they arrived at the tiny Church he had felt suitably prepared. There had been only four or five other cars in the lot - the early morning Latin Mass was not the most popular service of the day - and he had taken care to park Scott's beloved roadster at the far end, away from any threat of harm. Especially since his room mate wasn't aware that he had 'borrowed' his ride.

He had been suitably gratified by Rogue's response to 'his' church. He'd come to love the tiny stone building with its comforting combination of brilliant stained glass, rough stone and warm, dark wood all permeated with the lingering aroma of candles and incense. Just walking through the time worn and sunbleached doors into the narthex brought him a sense of peace and connectedness. He felt tensions he had not even been aware of drain from him as he was enveloped in the timeless tranquility of the place.

There had been only a handful of elderly parishioners scattered through the first few pews when they entered - some kneeling in prayer, rosaries in hand, others sitting in quiet contemplation as they awaited the start of the service. Kurt had quietly explained the significance of the Holy Water in the font by the door as he had led Rogue into the small sanctuary, and pointed out the stained glass panels marching down either side of the narrow nave, bathing the tiny church in muted rainbow colors. Her relief when he assured her she was expected neither to genuflect nor cross herself had been evident, but she had oohed and aaahed appreciatively in all the right places as he had continued her abbreviated tour, finally choosing to examine the beautiful marble statue of the Blessed Virgin while she waited for him to make his confession.

That done he had rejoined her, feeling lighter by far, and taken his regular seat in one of the rear pews and let the familiar cadence of the Mass wash over him. By the time the service was over he felt like he might actually be ready to face the rest of the day, although he wasn't quite ready to raise his sights to the rest of the week.

In contrast to the companionable silence of the earlier drive, they had spent the return trip in easy banter punctuated by Rogue's shrieks and threats of retribution as he teased her by using the winding road to test the performance capabilities of Scott's little roadster. It had been good to hear her laugh, better to be the one responsible for her laughter.

The rest of the day had passed in a typical whirlwind of activity. He had helped Scott and Logan install toilets in seven bathrooms, they hadn't even taken a lunch break. They had simply eaten sandwiches which one of the Jamies had delivered to them while they worked. _Mein Gott, I could almost wish to never see a toilet again if that weren't so impractical!_

The schedule was grueling, but none of them (well, except maybe Amara) minded too much - in fact, most of their work was entirely voluntary, not mandated by the adults. The more they got done, the sooner they could move out of the 'catacombs' as they'd taken to calling their current quarters. The way things were going, it actually ed led like they might get to start moving in by the end of the week. Of course, there'd still be a lot more finish work to go even then, and none of them would have any furniture yet, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for privacy, windows and, most importantly, escaping the metallic echoes of the bunker.

Kurt was actually more than a little tempted to start sleeping in his 'room' as is, but the Professor insisted they at least wait until all the electrical and plumbing work was complete and the flooring installed. That should be by Friday at the latest, and Friday night they'd all be happily camping out with blankets on the floor.

Between the day's work and begging off dinner in order to finish his homework Kurt had had no difficulty with his resolution to avoid Kitty. It meant missing out for the second night running on movies and popcorn in the common room, but considering how he'd ended up spending last night that was probably a good thing. His time would be much more productively spent in the Danger Room running through some of those sims Logan had promised to program in for him. He was still sore in every muscle from the night's exertions, his cuts and bruises ached and burned, and he was running desperately short on sleep, but he knew it wasn't enough.

_No, not enough,_ he thought as he dropped lightly down from the edge of his desk. There was absolutely no way he was going to go to bed tonight until he was so exhausted that just getting there would be a challenge. He might deserve to be punished for what he'd done with...to...Kitty yesterday, but there were some little corners of Hell he simply wasn't willing to visit, whether he deserved to or not.

He briefly considered again whether he should offer her some more formal sort of apology and concluded, *again*, that doing anything to remind her of the incident was probably an extremely bad idea. The few times their paths had crossed today she had blushed and looked quickly away. It just confirmed the wisdom of his decision. He'd already told her how sorry he was before he sent her away, anything further was rubbing salt in the wound. He'd just have to try harder to stay out of her way for a while.

It didn't really help matters that every time he had seen her he had flashed back to some very inappropriate memories. Once today he'd found himself standing at an upstairs window watching as she bent to pick up a flat of plants and had felt his breath grow short and his pants grow uncomfortably and embarrassingly tight. Thank God that he had been both alone and in baggy pants at the time.

"Oh God, you fucking pervert," he groaned, leaning back on the edge of his desk and screwing his eyes shut in frustration. But it didn't stop him from shivering at the remembered sensation of her hands on him, stroking through his fur and her body pressed against his...straining?

"Aagh! Nein, nein, NEIN!" He pounded the desk 'til his hand ached, trying to settle his ragged breathing, thoroughly disgusted with himself. "That is so wrong in so many ways that my head should be spinning. Scheiss!" He should be thinking of Amanda this way, not a girl he treated as a little sister. It seemed that he had more than nightmares to work out tonight in the Danger Room.

With a sigh he reached high over head to stretch out some of the kinks - he'd really have to make time for some yoga tomorrow - and then, grabbing the wreckage of his dinner and pocketing his rosary, he activated his image inducer and headed rapidly out the door and down the hall. He could drop his dishes in the kitchen on his way to the elevator and the Danger Room.



Kitty sat quietly in the corner of the couch, knees hugged tightly to her chest and only a small part of her attention oe tee television screen before her. She hadn't even bothered to get involved in the argument over what to watch. She didn't really care. She was only here because she'd finished her homework, it was too early for bed and she didn't want to be alone with her misery.

She had half hoped and half feared that she would find Kurt already settled in his usual spot in the corner of the sofa. If she could just talk to him, apologize, maybe things would be okay between them again. She hadn't really expected to find him though. Every time she'd seen him today he had carefully avoided her, refusing even to make eye contact. They'd both been busy in different parts of the mansion all day, but their paths had crossed often enough that his refusal to acknowledge her had become obvious - to her if not to anyone else.

To make matters worse, she knew she'd blushed every time she'd seen him. After the kind of dreams she'd had last night she just couldn't help it. She only hoped that everyone else had been too busy to notice. What everyone *had* noticed was how distracted and clumsy she was all day. She was forever dropping things or forgetting what she was supposed to be doing. That wouldn't have been half so bad if it weren't for the fact that she had been helping Forge and Dr. McCoy with the new Danger Room programming. She'd been so useless that they had finally, albeit kindly, sent her out to help the New Mutants with landscaping. At least if she dropped a plant or a rock it wouldn't ruin hours of delicate work.

Just before she'd left Dr. McCoy had even asked, in his uniquely wordy way, if she wanted to talk about whatever had her so distracted. Her only response had been to blush crimson and dash from the room. How could she possibly tell him that what was distracting her was the thought of getting naked and sweaty with the Institute's other resident blue furball?

Her eyes began to drift closed as she remembered the amazing sensation of his velvety fur rubbing against her skin, his rough, calloused hands so gentle as they drifted across her body. She slid further down into the corner of the couch, stretching her legs out as she began to relax.

"Hey Kitty! Watch what you're doin' wouldya?" Sam's voice broke into her thoughts as he pushed her legs out of his lap.

"Yeah, jeez Kitty, you just knocked the popcorn all over my lap." Bobby added as he began busily sweeping it off of his lap and back into the bowl Sam had handed to him.

"Oh, gross!" Jamie complained. "D put put it back in the bowl, I was gonna eat more of that."

"I'm, like, so sorry guys," Kitty offered, blushing furiously yet again, "I just, like, fell asleep and well, you know?" her voice trailed away and she reached across to help Bobby brush the last remnants of popcorn off the couch next to him.

"Oh for Christ's sake!" Ray exclaimed from his spot in the chair by the door. "Will you guys just shut the hell up and watch the show? No one else can hear with you guys chattering away over there."

"Hey, Crisp, watch your language!" Scott barked, leaning forward with a meaningful look at Jamie where he sat on the floor.

"Give them a break Ray. It's not like it's all that great anyway," Jean stated with a withering look at the screen where a half-dressed, scrawny (yet amazingly chesty) young woman was gyrating as she sang slightly off-key for a panel of judges. No surprise that the boys had voted almost unanimously for this show, while most of the girls were somewhat less than thrilled. Unfortunately, the way the numbers worked out, the boys usually won on any issue where opinion was divided along gender lines.

"And Kitty," Jean added with a kind look for the younger girl, "if you're that tired, why don't you go to bed? It's not like you haven't been just about dead on your feet all day."

Kitty started to protest and thhoughought better of it. She was tired enough that she certainly wouldn't have any trouble getting to sleep. She'd just proven that by dozing off in the crowded, noisy common room. And if she was going to have any more of those dreams, she certainly didn't want to have them in a public place.

Face burning, she got up and started to pick her way through the other teenagers littering the floor like puppies.

"Oh, and Roomie," Rogue sing songed at heretlyetly as she passed her, "don't *make* me have ta wake you up again tonight. 'Cause Ah'll break out that bucket o' water if I have to, or maybe," she looked speculatively at Kitty's flaming cheeks, "maybe Ah'll just listen a little longer tonight!" and she favored Kitty with a wicked smile.

"Dibs on her spot!" yelled Jamie, scrambling up from his place on the floor.

"No way squirt," Evan answered as he jumped over the back of the couch and directly into Kitty's vacated place, accidentally kicking Sam in the head in the process,. "Too little and too slow, you are a certified floor sitter for the foreseeable future!"

"Aww man!" Jamie complained as he stretched back out on the floor. "I am so sick of always being the youngest around this place. We *seriously* need some more students - little ones, like ten year olds or something that I can boss around."

"That is *so* the last thing we need," Bobby broke in, ruffling the younger boy's hair. "More midgets running around Squirt? There's enoughyou you as it is!"

"Will you guys shut the fuck *up*!" Ray finally almost shouted, achieving a few brief moments of peace and quiet while yet another scrawny but chesty girl took her turn to gyrate and sing. However, before Kitty had gotten out of earshot down the hall the noise had started up again.

_No wonder Mr. Logan insists on having a room as far away from everyone and everything as he can get,_ Kitty thought with a half smile, _If I had his hearing I'd, like, want to be on the next floor down too. The ambient noise level with this many teenagers around must sound almost as bad as camping next to a freeway during rush hour._

By the time she reached her room she no longer felt like you could use her face to light the place, but she was still feeling uncomfortably warm and, well...interested. She hoped desperately that Rogue had been joking, because she was fairly certain that, given the way her day had gone and the incident in the common room, she knew *exactly* what her dreams were going to be like again tonight. The worst part was, she was really looking forward to getting to sleep.



Logan looked up from the book he was reading as he heard quiet, almost silent, footsteps going past his door. Tlf wlf was heading to run a Danger Room sim before bed. He briefly toyed with the idea of following him to watch, make sure the little squirrel didn't overdo it and hurt himself, but decided to settle for checking in on him if he hadn't come out in an hour.

There'd been more than one occasion in the Elf's first weeks that Logan had entered the Danger Room for an early morning run-through only to find the kid collapsed in a bleeding heap in a corner because he'd been too hurt or too exhausted to make it back to his room. After the second time, he'd programmed the systems to automatically power down and sound an alert in his room based on the Elf's vitals. He couldn't do anything that sophisticated here, but then he hadn't given the kid access to any of the truly dangerous sims at this location and besides, it simply didn't pack as much punch as the larger facility at the mansion. He should be okay for now.

Logan sat listening long enough to hear the locker room doors open and close twice as Kurt suited up and then headed out again. Then there was the sound of another set of doors, followed shortly by the distinctive sound of the Danger Room powering up. After listening a moment longer Logan reached for the beer on his bedside table and took a long drink before wiping his lips on his flannel shirtsleeve but he still didn't go back to his book. Instead he thought back on a conversation he'd overheard between Scott and Kurt earlier in the afternoon, while they were working on the plumbing in the downstairs men's room.


_"You okay, Kurt?" the older boy had asked, concern in his voice.

"Ja Scott, I'm fine," but the elf had glanced between Logan and Shades as though uncomfortable with the older man overhearing.

"It's just, you were awful sick last night man. Did you see Dr. McCoy this morning?" Scott glanced at Logan as well and he wondered if the older boy was ry asy as thick as he seemed sometimes.

"Nein Scott, I told you, I'm fan man. Just let it drop, will you?" Kurt pulled his head out from under the sink he'd been working on to glare at Scott.

"Yeah, whatever Kurt, if you say so. But jeez, when I woke you up last night man, you shoulda *seen* the look on your face. For a second there I thought you were gonna try and take my head off."

"Whatever Scott! Could we just get back to work here? I don't really want to spend the entire day with my head under this verdammt sink!" Logan had seen a pair of golden eyes fixed nervously on him from the darkness beneath the sink.

The older boy had finally let the matter drop, but not before the elf had pumped enough stress hormones into the air to just about give Logan the jitters._


He took another drink and hoped that he wasn't going to be scraping the elf up off the Danger Room floor in an hour, but he would if he had to. Maybe the kid'd be ready for a beer by the time he dragged his ass out of there for the night. Logan knew alcohol didn't solve any problems, but sometimes it just didn't hurt to get that last little push over the edge when you were running for all you were worth and the demons were catching up with you anyway. Logan didn't know a hell of a lot about kids, but he sure as hell knew about trying to outrun ghosts.