Hell Hath No Fury

Hell Hath No Fury… Chapter Seven
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, Uberbeta, and German Kitty Poker… EEK! Readers/Reviewers: Sorry for the delay… *BLUSH * *toes carpet bashfully *


“Three weeks,” Jean muttered to Kitty. “Three weeks and all he does is hide in that room and skulk around Professor Xavier.”
“And me,” Kitty pointed out petulantly. “He skulks around me!”
“Is that really something to be proud of?” Jean flipped her bangs of her eyes and glared at Liz Sherman, the young woman who had driven them all back to the Institute and just…stayed. She was not overly fond of the pyrokinetic, not because she was cute and funny and shy and had that whole girl next door gone oddly wrong thing going for her, but rather because she was just too…nice. The males all seemed to want to protect her and the females all wanted to be her friend. Liz seemed to catch the direction of her thoughts and smiled and waved at her from across the dining hall, returning her attention to Kurt and Hellboy. Jean sighed and poked angrily at her scrambled eggs. She had tried, early the first week, to scan Liz, but found herself blocked out tightly and forcefully as the Professor would block her. Liz had seemed to know then, too, and given her the same friendly wave. Flicking her glance to Kitty before continuing her dissection of her breakfast, Jean muttered, “All three of ‘em are just…odd.”
“Look who’s talking,” Kitty responded tartly, stirring her yogurt. “I think she’s very nice.”
“That’s because…” Jean cut herself off and literally bit her tongue.
Kitty raised a brow. “You’re just mad that she’s got Scott all google eyed.” She giggled slightly as she caught sight of the teenager in question hurrying to sit next to Liz under the guise of some important discussion topic vis a vis the new training schedule. Kitty added in confidential undertones, “I think she’s really sweet. If I were a guy, I’d hit on her.”
“Me-ow,” Bobby snickered, sitting down next to her and adding a purr. “I’d pay to see that.”
“That’s the only way you would get to see anything of me, Bobby!” Kitty retorted, grabbing her breakfast dishes and standing. “I’ve got to change for practice. See ya later, Jean.”
Bobby maintained his grin until Kitty vanished into the kitchen with her dishes, then he sighed and seemed to wilt. “What did I do this time?”
Jean rolled her eyes. “If you have to ask, you really don’t want to know.”

Kitty was not scheduled for the gym until ten thirty that morning but she had a lot of thinking to do. She had tried, repeatedly, to bring Kurt out of his shell but it seemed futile, even more so since the Professor had given him the image inducer. Sure, she admitted to herself as she ran on the treadmill, he was a little freaky to look at, what with the tail and fur and fangs and…well, everything, but at least he didn’t have slime or something. She slowed, frowning. That she knew of anyway. She was so wrapped in her thoughts that she did not hear the door open to the gym or the sound of someone coming up on her, so it was that she jumped, turned and fell on her rear when Kurt greeted her.
“Tut mir Leid!”1 He felt his heart climb into his throat as she glared up at him, her annoyance and embarrassment writ large on her face for one brief moment before she became the familiar face he knew. “I’m so sorry,” he repeated in English.
“It’s okay,” she said, standing after a brief struggle with the treadmill itself, turning it off with a savage jab to the button. “I know I’m not scheduled for another hour or so but I just had to…um…” She shrugged, blushing slightly. Telling him that she ran to try and work out her muddle of thoughts, especially about him, would be a little too much for him, she thought. He did not need to try and worry about her, something she was sure he would do given that he had already worked himself into a tizzy over Jubilee’s missing CDs during his second week at the Institute. “I just had some free time,” she finished lamely.
He nodded, his eyes revealing his uncertainty. “Kitty…”
She smiled brightly, feeling slightly like she was a kindergarten teacher trying to convey a job well done. “It’s all yours, Kurt!”
He chewed his lower lip while she grabbed her towel and blotted sweat from her and and neck. She looked uncertain as to whether or not she should say something else and just shook her head slightly, turning to go. “Wait!” he burst. “I wanted to ask you something…”
“Um… okay…” She turned to face him again, noticing that he was shedding, a visible problem despite his inducer. Blue fur dotted his clothes and drifted towards the floor with each movement. “Is something the matter?”
“Ja. Nein… Weiss nicht!”2 He pushed his hair from his eyes, sending more fur spiraling and drifting towards the floor. “It’s just…” He sighed again and shifted agitatedly. “I need to talk to you,” he said finally.
“I know,” she replied as patiently as she could. “You said something similar a minute ago.”
“I mean…” He muttered under his breath in German, closing his eyes as if to gather his thoughts. “Okay. It’s like this…” He paused again, this time a bit longer, and Kitty sighed unwillingly. “Mein freund… Hellboy… he says that the Professor has this machine here which can see things, others like us…”
“Uh…kinda…” She felt her brows creep upwards as she wondered what he was getting it. “It’s called Cerebro and that’s how he found you. It detects mutants with active powers…”
Kurt nodded, pleased that she knew about it. “Gut. I need for you to show me how to use it.”
1 Literally, “it hurts me” but usually, I’m sorry. Thanks, Foxy!!!!
2 Yes, no, I don’t know! more thanks to Foxy, lol.