Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER SEVEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), just so you know for future reference...cats can't tat. No matter what they try and tell you, it's just not gonna happen. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are nice and wonderful and shiny and sparkley for archiving. :) ProPhile is special too for sending the plotbunny this way. *g * Readers/Reviewers: 110 degree heat index. The armadillos and I are melting now. *sigh * But I still love each and every one of you people for reading and reviewing and reading some more... :)

Kurt and Kitty sidled into the kitchen, looking more suspicious than not. "Would you like something to eat?" Kitty asked a little too loudly and precisely.
"Ja, that would be nice..." Kurt sat stiffly in one of the chairs at the table and began fidgeting with his tail.
"What's with you, yo?" Todd asked around a mouthful of something that seemed to have been a member of a fruit bearing family at one time. He had been sitting on the counter, just out of Kurt's line of vision, but his voice made the blue mutant jump and turn to face him. "You look like someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning."
Kurt stared at Todd, his mouth hanging open in surprise. Kitty heard the silence fall heavily and turned, hyperaware of the tension now thick in the air. Kurt had risen to a crouch, his hands tight on the edge of the table, teeth bared in barely suppressed ang Tod Todd had stopped mid-chew, his eyes going wide in surprise. "Kurt!" she yelped as he leapt forward, clearing the table and a good three feet of floor before grabbing the front of Todd's shirt.
"What are you doing here?" he snapped, dragging the other teenager to the floor from the counter.
"Kurt, stop it!" Kitty cried, grabbing hold of his tail and pulling just hard enough to be painful.
Tfellfell back against the linoleum with a thud, too shocked to have reacted quickly. "Dude...not cool," he finally managed. "What the fuck?"
Kurt was tense, radiating energy as Kitty shoved insinuated herself between the two would-be combatants. "Kurt, Todd lives here now, remember? He's one of us now!"
Kurt blinked and stared at Kitty as if she had grown another head. "Since when?"
"Since almost a year ago, space case," Todd said, now angry. "What the Hell is your problem? Attacking me like that... man, you're just lucky I didn't kick your mangy ass!"
Kitty held up a hand, silencing Todd. "Kurt had a little...accident...this morning...he's not quite himself today."
"Accident?" Todd tilted his head to regard Kurt appraisingly. "He don't look hurt, yo."
Kitty gritted her teeth and lied, leaning against Kurt casually as if nothing else were out of place. "Something went wonky when he ported...he's just a little out of sorts for the time being. He'll be fine later..."
Kurt took a breath and forced himself, against his better judgment, to apologize. "I'm sorry for jumping on you like that, Toad..."
"Todd," Kitty corrected sovocevoce.
"I'mry fry for jumping on you like that, _Todd _. I don't know what I was thinking..." _Other than that you're supposed to be in the Brotherhood and last I checked, that meant you weren't welcome here...What the Hell does Kitty mean he joined us? _
Todd nodded cautiously. "I...uh...I think I'm gonna go check on Rogue. I think she might be awake by now..." He edged past the duo, fairly running when he got to the door leading out to the rec room.
"Kurt, sit down," Kitty sighed after a moment. "We need to talk."
"So I figured." He resumed the seat he had abandoned when he noticed Todd in the kitchen and stared at Kitty. "Todd is with us now...what else do I need to know?"
"I'm not sure what all to tell you... I mean, if Forge figures out how to get you back and get my Kurt here pretty quickly, I don't want you to have all this stuff rattling around your head and messing you up."
Kurt sighed. "Katzchen, I think I'm already messed up enough as it is just from the little bit I've seen..."
Kitty nodded in vague agreement and sighed. "I'll give you the bare bones so you don't kill anyone or something. Okay, Remy and Jubilee are together, Lance and Amara are together and both of those guys live here now..." she rattled off an outline of everything that had happened that she felt was important, details such as her parents disowning her, Logan and Storm having a vague relationship, Magneto's exploits. When she wound down, she noticed that Kurt seemed to be nearing catatonia. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure...I think...I think that in this universe, I live quite a different life than in my own."
"What do you mean?" she asked, coaxing him to tell her. "What...what am I like for you there?"
"I'd rather not say," he state glumly. "Are we _really _ a couple here? I mean...you're not kidding with me because you think it's what I want to hear and you feel bad for me?"
Kitty glared. I thI the sort to do that in your universe?"
"I don't think so..."
"If I am, I give you full permission to kick my ass for that, okay?" Kitty sighed and sat down opposite Kurt, resting her chin on her hands as she pieced together her words. "I don't know what to tell you... I don't want to influence what happens in another time and place."
"You seem very concerned about that," Kurt pointed out, mimicking her posture and leaning forward. He was too elated by tact act that Kitty was not only talking to him seriously but was now absently brushing her bare foot against his leg to really take in the fact that he seemed to be living out a bad sci fi movie.
"Chaos theory is a little to palpable for me to go affecting things willy nilly right now," she said faintly, staring into space.
Kurt smiled. "Now that sounds familiar, that tone of voice...you always talk all smart around me."
"That wasn't smart. That was just...talking."
"Well, it's a lot different than the Valley girl speak you use with everyone else."
Kitty bit her lip and leaned closer to him. "Kurt, are we even friends where you're from?"
"I'm not sure how to describe it..."
Kitty looked down at the wooden grain of the table shamefacedly. "You know what? I don't want to know. I don't think I would be very y kny knowing..."
Kurt found a seed of courage somewhere underneath all the confusion and stood, moving around the table to sit next to her. Tentatively, he took her hand and held it between two of his, staring at the contrast between her pale skin and his dark blue fur. "You never would have let me do this there. You never would have talked this long to me there."
"Why not?" she breathed. _This isn't Kurt, _ her mind screamed at her. _He just looks like your Kurt...this is someone else's...damn it, don't get all breathy and swoony! _
"You are more interested in...other people."
"Lance," she stated bluntly.
"Ja, Lance." He could not keep the bitter tone out of his voice. "I won't interfere though since you seem determined to be with him..."
"Kurt," she sighed, "listen to me very carefully. I am an idiot. A big idiot. It took being friends with you to make me see how wrong Lance was for me and how miserable I really was with him." She scooted closer and laid her free hand against his cheek. "I really don't think my other self is happy with Lance. I think...no, I know that we are meant to be together no matter where we are in the universe."
"How do you figure?" he managed, slightly shaken by her fierce intensity.
"I know. Netzach."
"You've said that before...what do you mean?"
Kitty sighed again. "I have sooooooo much to tell you. First, though, we've got to get you acclimated to this place. Can't have you freaking out about everybody, can we?" A plan was forming in Kitty's mind, something to not only distract her from worry but maybe make this Kurt happier when he got back where he belonged. _If I know my Kurt, he'll be doing something similar wherever he is right now...assuming the swap over was direct and he took this one's place. Damn it, don't complicate things, Kitty Pryde... _ Kurt stared at her with luminous eyes, unsure what to say. She took his hand in hers, twining their fingers together. "First lesson, get used to me touching you. And you're going to have to touch me a little, too... We're very, um, affectionate."
"Katzchen, you don't expect us to..." he trailed off, very embarrassed.
"No, of course not! I couldn't be unfaithful to you even if you're you...you're not the you I know...you know?"
"Um...give me a minute and I can untangle that."
Kitty giggled at the expression on his face. "Come on...we're going to start easy. Jamie and Jubilee are in the gym."
"Easy?"
"They won't ask as many questions as the others..." _I hope. _

Todd sat by Rogue's bed, his eyes drifting shut from drowsiness born of boredom. Rogue shifted and snuffled softly in her sleep, making his eyes snap open. "Marie?" he said quietly.
Her eyes crinkled at the corners and she frowned. "Todd?"
"Are you awake?"
"Mostly...what time is it?"
"A little after one."
"PM?"
"Yeah."
Rogue opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for a moment. "I slept late."
"It's Saturday."
"What happened to Friday?" she sighed. "My head hurts."
"I know," he said, laying a careful hand on her wrist. "The Professor said that you're going to have...um...I think he called it backlash for a while."
Rogue nodded. "Yeah. It hurts, having someone else in here like this."
Todd bit his tongue. The Professor had told him in no uncertain terms that Rogue was depressed, very much so, and did not want to deal with the reality of having killed Empath, even though it had been an accident. She was sublimating her feelings of guilt into pain, making the excuse that it was because of her newly absorbed abilities. The empathic skills were actually very faint, suppressed by great force of personal will on her behalf, but they were still present, niggling at her with other people's feelings, sometimes rushing into her and sometimes just ghosting along her own emotions, confusing her. She had taken to staying in bed up to sixteen hours at a time, only coming out of her room when everyone was asleep. Empath talked to her sometimes, taunting her, goading her to use her new abilities, abilities that she would cry back were not hers at all. Todd knew the Professor had been helping Rogue as much as he could, as much as she would let him, teaching her methods to suppress these ghtsghts that were not truly her own but coming from within her. Rogue was fighting it, though. "Baby," he said softly, scooting his chair closer to the bed and sliding his hand down to hold her fingers with his own, "you need to get up sometime...you can't hide forever."
"I can try," she said. "Besides, does anyone really notice?"
"Yes, they do," he said. He had come prepared, wearing his old winter gloves out of deference for her standoffishness even though they both knew it was a safe time for them. He brushed the white forelock out of her eyes and smoothed it behind her ear. "Every one is asking about you, wondering why you're hiding away..."
She rolled onto her side and glared at him. "Todd, don't start."
"Start what?" he asked with a tinge of innocence. "I'm just saying..."
"I can feel it, you know...you're not feeling bad for me, which is good. You feel...you feel frustrated. You're almost angry."
"I'm not angry with you," he said firmly. "I'm mad at...at him. For doing this to you."
"He didn't do anything to me. I did it to myself." odd odd blew out a harsh breath and stood, carefully moving to sit on the bed. "Marie, if you want to stay locked in your room until doomsday, that's fine. I'll stay here with you until you make me go. I'm not going to let you mope yourself to death, though. I know some things about feeling the way you do, wanting to die and wanting to...to hurt yourself, to hurt someone else, just to stop feeling so bad."
Rogue closed her eyes again and Todd was sure she was going to pull away from him, but instead, her fingers tightened in his grip and she said somewhat thickly, "It's safe right now, just for today, you know."
"I know."
"And you're not trying to...to...um..."
"No."
"Do I look that bad?" she said with the ghost of a smile.
"Marie, you know that's not why I'm here," he said tiredly.
"I know. I love you, too..." She reached up tentatively, her fingers skimming his cheek quickly, testing responses, making sure that she was not going to drain him as she sought comfort from the familiar and tender. "Kiss me...please?"
Todd nodded faintly, a barely discernable movement as he moved closer to her, her face upturned and tear streaked, bare of make up and looking strangely young, almost too young, he thought. At the first touch of his lips against hers, Rogue stiffened. He pulled away slightly but she made an urgent noise and grabbed him, her hand on the back of his head pushing him closer. This time he did not pull away when she grew tense, instead kissing her more certainly, tasting her lower lip with tiny licks and nips until she parted for him.
Rogue felt safe then, not afraid as she had been, the voice in her head quelled for the time being. She felt Todd against her and that was it. She did not feel his emotions, not even an inkling, just what was in her own head, her own body responding to the gradually deepening kiss. She finally had to break away to breathe, tucking her head under his chin to do so. "Todd," she breathed, "I love you so much."
"I love you, too," he replied, tightening his arms around her.
Rogue sighed, feeling for the first time in days like she could face the world. She opened her mouth to say something but a rush of bile-black eon aon assailed her. Anger, not hers or Todd's, jealousy, bitterness and then the vitriol of rage boiled within her. Her head felt as if it were about to crack under the tremendous pressure building within it as she shoved Todd away so roughly that he fell off the bed.
"Marie!" he yelped, hitting the floor with a painful thud.
"Go," she gasped, curling into a fetal position. "Just...go..."