So, I finally got a review from LadyLoin, who was kind enough to lend her perspective on things. One thing she had addressed was what she referred to as a "magic potion" scenario - which entails instead of jumping right to Kurt and Kate making the beast with two backs, that they somehow "trick" her into drinking his ... genetic material (for lack of a better term), so I did hop back to Ch. 4 to address it, because plopping it in the story at this point would break the flow where in Kate would have asked for the alternative long ago.
Secondly, LadyLoin had pondered that if Kate had acquired some Kurt's appearance (phenotype) why she would also not develop his gender- at first I said to myself "because I am the author", but then I did give it a thought- when you receive a blood transfer- while possible to contract disease, antibodies, etc.- even if the donor was male and you were a female, you'd never turn into a boy- so in that same aspect, I suppose I am treating the mutant gene as a disease (not that it is) in that she presents some of Kurt's features, but as her body metabolizes it, she reverts back to "normal"
One more thing, I am immune to my own grammatical and spelling errors, though I do catch them from time to time, if you spot one, just tell me the word and chapter an will find it, you can email me at sydneykate@gmail.com and I would be grateful, - I hate it when my train of thought is disturbed by errors, so I'd like to not plague my readers with the same annoyance.
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Kate had gotten herself straightened out the best that she could; it's not like she had a change of clothes and a mirror at her disposal. She wasn't sure what to do about Kurt, she wasn't really even sure what he had done -- He had said that she wasn't being honest, but she didn't like it. She had too many other problems on her plate to put it aside and focus on the finer qualities of her demonic stalker who seemed to moonlight as a rapist. Then again, who would buy that scenario- he'd say it was selfless and he was "saving her", dealing with her for her own good. "Fucking pious asshole," she mumbled as she opened the door to the room and peaked out into the hall. She deemed that the coast was clear, the hall darkened with night and not a soul around, and toed her way down the red rug, listening for creaks in the floors.
"There you are," a voiced called out from a room. Beast had stepped out into the hall and leaned on the frame of the doorway. "Where's Kurt?"
"I don't know, I'm not his mother, go find him yourself-" she took a step to continue going down the hall and Beast had placed a hand on her shoulder.
She whirled around, his hand falling from her, and gave him a look that pierced the dark, "Don't touch me." Her words sounded like a threat was soon to follow, and her posture confirmed it.
He put his hands up, as to show surrender, "I'm sorry, do you need to talk?" He stepped away from the door and motioned for her to go into the room with light from what appeared to be a fireplace casting a long shadow on the wall.
She paused herself for a moment, not sure if she did or didn't want to talk. As far as she knew, Beast was the only person who hadn't threatened her, invaded her mind, or-- "I guess-" it was her best try at non-hostility.
She had sat herself down in a chair with high arms and he placed himself across from her in the chair's twin. He didn't say anything at first, leaving the move to be hers; not to rush her, but he grew more and more aware of her discomfort and inability to collect herself. "What did happen with you, today?"
She looked at him, his appearance much easier to feel at ease with because he spoke lowly and gently- somewhat unobtrusive. "I don't know-" she sniffled; the only sign that she had been crying quietly to herself. "I think, I don't feel like I've been myself here, and I can't seem to stop."
He sunk into his chair, "You mean the snarky comments?"
"Yeah, and I've been so--"
"Rude?"
"Bitchy," she found the right word, "and now something happened that can't be taken back, and I think it's why-" she choked back the sounds that wanted to come forth- the crying and the wailing that she'd have done if she'd been alone in her apartment.
Beast had been looking at her in the light; the orange light had revealed the bruises against her paler skin, the glistening of tears streaming down her cheeks to the point of her chin, and blue pigmentation of the right side of her face and ear -- like it had crept around from behind her head. "I have a fairly good guess as to what happened, and I have an equally strong hypothesis as to why- But I feel like this is something we should bring up with the Profes-"
"No!" she yelled out against the idea, "I can't bear the thought of anyone knowing, I feel so-" she choked again, "ashamed of myself-"
"I can't say that I saw this coming," he had gotten out of his seat and knelt beside her, "he's usually peaceful and passive. I don't think anything you could have done would justify it-"
A gentle knock on the door forced Kate to hold back her sobbing. It was Xavier, still dressed in his day clothes, still awake as ever. "May I?"
Beast looked over at Kate for an answer, he was trying to keep things on her terms, but what he got was silence and avoided eye contact, "Perhaps it would be best, he offered and returned to his chair.
"What were we talking about?" he asked politely, unassuming that anything was wrong. Kate remained silent, waiting for him to chime in saying he knew already, or that he could hear her thoughts, or some indication that the question had been redundant.
It was Beast who spoke, "It seems Kurt and Kate had an altercation of sorts.... and Kate is taking it as though she is responsible."
"Do you think you are, Kate, responsible for this?" Xavier asked, staring in the fire.
"I think I did something-" her fingernails dug into her palms, it was the only thing that would ground her, "he was trying to be so nice to me, and I kept shooting him down."
"Exactly what kind of an altercation was this?" he felt lost. He looked at Beast for an answer, seeing how Kate was selectively cooperative, Beast made a face and Xavier understood immediately, "oh..." he went quiet for a moment, is attention elsewhere, "I doubt anything you could have said would have pushed Kurt to uncharacteristically do something quite so - thoughtless."
"I don't think it's just what I said," she had the sneaking suspicion he just took a dip in her brainwaves with that wandering mind of his.
"Your feelings, your anger -- it would seem that Kurt may be influenced by this, just as you are able to access the language centers of his mind- you may have unintentionally driven him to--" he tried to put it gently, "overpower you."
She was quiet for a moment; it had been what she was thinking. When Kurt had grabbed her by her hair, she had felt her own anger looking for an outlet, and Kurt looking for one as well.
"I will talk with Kurt, I doubt he's even aware that he channeled your anger," he reached his mind out for a moment and looked for Kurt, "I can tell you now that he's sulking on the roof, regr-" Kate had BAMFed out of her chair, leaving Xavier and Beast to their thoughts.
Kate landed about a foot off the roof, crashing down on her back and started to slide down the slope. A hand grabbed her forearm and pulled her up into a sitting position. It took her a moment to get over the adrenaline rushing through her to refocus on where she was- the roof. She looked around but there was no sign of Kurt. “Kurt?” she called out into the darkness.
“Was?” he responded.
“I’m sorry!” She tried to stand up, to walk over to where she thought he was hiding. “I know why you did it-“ she slide a little but caught her balance.
“Ah, fraulein, I don’t know why I did it, I doubt you-“
“It was me! Xavier said that you picked up on my anger, …and stuff,” she figured she’d try to work around Kurt having caught her enjoying his display, “You didn’t know it was me, because you didn’t know it was possible – Like I didn’t realize I was speaking demon-talk until you pointed it out to me… and now I am able to feel the difference, between us-“ She continued creeping over to the side of the roof where a chimney and some sort of an air conditioning system stood. She heard a BAMF sound shortly after and plopped herself back down, figuring Kurt had left her.
A hand touched hers and she looked up quickly to see who she needed to throw off the roof, “It’s German,” he corrected her and sat beside her, tucking his knees under his chin, “Are you being reasonable because I am?”
She had to think of it for a moment, the feeling of regret for her actions, her somber mood, and the need to make amends were not really things she was noted for, “Maybe, but,” she placed her hand on Kurt’s back, “I think it only intensifies what’s there. I mean, I don’t really want to be an asshole … all the time, and it’s just something I do when I’m, you know?”
“Scared?”
“Yeah.” She took her hand back, “It’s weird that I didn’t pick up on this whole… empathy thing, until after you, you know?”
“Had my way with you?” He smirked at her, feeling some of the guilt lift off of his shoulders.
“Yeah, we’re not close enough for you to be saying stuff like that-“
“We aren’t?” he nudged her with his nose, “because earlier today, you had my c-“
She stood up abruptly and whacked him upside the head, “Oh no, you will not be refe-“
“How about when you were spasming underneath me, saying how godly I am?”
Her face was horrified and filled with disgust, “That never happened!” she threatened to back hand him again, “and, it never will.”
“At least not for a while,” he pointed at the blue pigment in her face, “we won’t be able to tell each other apart.” She touched the skin on her face; fear welled up in her and she quietly hoped that whatever he was talking about would be going away.
