driftfleet | [snuggle up real close everyone]

And I thought the other Kurt was the punny one. [Turning to see him. She can't even be mad for the creeping because she's too happy to see him. That may just be her default response for a year or so until the wonder of having someone—a good someone—from home wears off. Use it while you've got it, Darkholme.]

Yeah, I guess I am restless. [He is one of the reasons she works on her German in her spare time. And there is so much spare time.] There are only so many times you can work out, stalk the network, read a book and visit your boyfriend before you find yourself kind of hoping something attacks? [She figures if anyone is going to understand that it's him.]

He had to get it from somewhere. [His lips curl up when she turns and looks right at his faintly glowing eyes, the only part of him not mostly shadowed. Part of him wishes he hadn't said a thing; he's struggling with a variation of the urge that sent him scurrying when his mother--when Mystique showed up. Words feel exhausting, and the idea of just watching from the background sounds so much easier.

And very, very lonely; besides, she'd be furious and rightly so, even though he had no intention of invading her privacy.] I wouldn't complain of the opportunity to spill some blood. [He chuckles, and it sounds rusty again after weeks of managing easy laughter.] Tempting to find this Stalker we put all these protocol up against.

[She steps in closer. There was a time long ago when this kind of thing would have frightened her. Plenty of things scared her in the beginning. She'd lost her parents and was on the run, hunted. Seeing dark blue men with glowing eyes wasn't the comfort it is today.]

I thought about it. I mean, seems simple enough for someone unknown to him to simply end the threat. But I don't know him at all or Tenno well. I'm not ending a life over someone's say so just because they were assigned to my ship and Wrath thinks he's cute.

[There's a pause.] And I haven't... [Killed anyone.] Not since home. Over a year.

[The red mark he refuses to explain is almost always the first thing to come into view--then, the rest of him, dark enough still that he could lean back and vanish again. He doesn't.]

I'm glad of that. [And he means it, despite it being one more difference between them. Kitty had turned so cruel so quickly that Kurt had worried her compassion died on the vine. He fretted more about it then than he does the prospect of killing an innocent being; he, who used to be Erik's voice of contention.] I intend to do my best to insure you never have to again.

I hope you just mean that in a making the world a better place kind of way. [She doesn't want Kurt doing her killing for her either. She wants a second chance for him too.]

[Softer.] I did try to once in the prison. I failed, but not for lack of trying. He had a power very much like mine plus several others. He'd just killed a friend of mine. Severed his limbs. Left one for me. He'd even written creepy Bible verses on the walls in his blood. [She has the best taste in ex-boyfriends.]

[He just smiles and says nothing, reaching out to stroke her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

Kitty's reaccounting of the actions leading up to her last attempt at murder draws a huff from him, a chuckle without the sound.] Under different circumstances, I'd admire his style. I'm sorry for your friend.

[She leans into the touch.] He was alive again the next day. Benefits of being in a virtual reality environment I guess. It was the first time they brought someone back like that though. [Before when they died they stayed gone or at least if they returned it was later and with no memories of a previous stay. Hearing that Kurt would admire the style turns her stomach a little. She wonders if that's a change in him or a change in herself or a little of both. Maybe it's just because of her complicated, guilt-laden feelings when it comes to the murderer in question.]

It was art for Tyki. I don't think he even knew Ianto. He was just there. [She doesn't even think it was to hurt her specifically. He would have chosen Reid for that.]

[It sounds completely unnerving to Kurt, especially the comparisons to certain religious figures he can't help but make in his own mind.] I can't imagine what that was like, to find him like that and be mourning him when he shows up again. I wish I'd been there for you then.

[The explanation of Tyki's motives get a raised eyebrow from Kurt.] Never mind, I take back my admiration. He sounds deranged. [Because that's where the line is, apparently. Creative revenge he can understand; look at what he did to Dukes. But hurting a random person just for the sake of? Too far for him. It's good to know he still has those limits.]

I guess it's better than just losing someone forever. [But it was still hard.] I wish you'd been there too. [She wonders how things would have been different if he had been. She might have just gone to him instead of making so many self-destructive choices.]

[It is good to know he has limits. She doesn't feel much better about it, but that's more because of Tyki and her own decisions though.] He was my rebound after Piotr. Tyki. The deranged one. [How do you feel about confessions, Kurt?]

I'd be terrified they'd--never mind. No, don't ask. [Because his mind went to the very horrible place of 'what if they reverted without warning?' and then he pictured it. In vivid detail, because the son of a shapeshifter will of course be a visual thinker.

~~Confessions are fine, just don't call him Father.~~ Kurt stills long enough to blink, then his expression shifts into a wry smile.] Oh, Kitty. They always burn the brightest, don't they? [He's thinking of Damask, beautiful and powerful and oh so damaged.]

Okay. Not asking. Just wondering. [She steps in to hug Kurt, resting her head against his shoulder. She's been doing a lot of that lately and really just sees no reason to stop ever. She needed that acceptance. Needed it more than she realized after what happened with Allen rejecting her for the same thing.] Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're here?

[There are things she...would tell Winn, but they are so much easier to say to Kurt. Though in this particular case all three of them have been with "the bad guy." Whether it's Kurt's Damask, Kitty's Tyki or Winn's Banshee.]

[His arms fold around her easily as breathing, Kurt's cheek resting against the side of her head. Her hair smells the same as it always does, and that's comforting enough that he closes his eyes for a second.] I'll be here for you until you don't need me.

[Which he anticipates happening, because look at her. She's grown and healed so much, and there will come a point soon when his presence holds her to old wounds and ways of thinking. Kurt hopes he's a good enough man still to walk away when the time comes.]

Good. Forever it is then. [She'll just have to teach him some new ways of thinking and help him heal then. There's absolutely no amount of parting she's going to be okay with. He's her Kurt. She pulls back to smirk at him.]

And you're supposed to say how glad you are that I'm here because of my general awesomeness and several points of specific awesomeness too. [Because who would she be if she wasn't also a bit of a teasing brat at times?]

[He manages a smile quickly, thank the imaginary god. It even looks genuine, bright and teasing; whether he did it before she could notice the pained look on his face, he sincerely hopes.]

Oh, but of course. The radiance of your beauty lights all dark corners of the ships, surpassed only by the brilliance of your mind.

[He's good at what he does and she manages to miss it. Oh, she knows the man is full of all kinds of pains. That's just part of who they are as exiles from that world.]

Okay, at least make it plausible, Kurt. [The brilliance of her mind definitely landed better for her better than the radiance of her beauty.]

[That bit gets a skeptical eyebrow.] You know, there was a man a little while ago encouraging people to seek out their virtues instead of their perceived flaws. I think I might have to arrange a meeting.

Or perhaps procure you a pair of glasses.

You mean Sam? I know him. He seemed kind of overwhelmed with responses so I didn't bother to congratulate him on noticing how edgy I was. [Since, yes, she would have been more likely to make a joke than list a positive quality.]

Perhaps you should have.

[His voice softens, anticipating the need for privacy despite their fellow crew seemingly being busy elsewhere.] Kätzchen, why don't you believe me when I tell you that you're beautiful?

[She shifts from casually amused and deflective to uncomfortably awkward quickly just with the sincerity and softness of his tone.] I... It's not like I think you're lying to me. [He is a Darkholme and all, but she trusts the man more than anyone else in her life right now.] And it's not like there's anything wrong with the way I look. [She just sees herself as average. Pretty sometimes. Maybe even most days. But beautiful? Gorgeous? Stunning? Those aren't words for her. Even at the dance with all the compliments she shifted them all to "her dress was beautiful."]

[Kurt listens to her flimsy reasoning with a thoughtful expression on his face, nodding at each point. In the darkness behind him, his tail drifts through the air before dipping, reaching out with intent to loop loosely around her waist.]

Kitty, do you have a mirror in your room?

[Um, hi, Kurt's tail.] ...Yes? [She has a feeling the moment the word is out that she's going to find herself teleported into that room. She just doesn't know why, but she does trust him.]

Good. I have a point to prove to you. [She has very good instincts, because the next thing he does is teleport them both to her room. Long gone are the days when he was too insecure to 'port without a firm grip on his passenger.

He somehow manages to reappear crouching on her bed, his tail unwinding as soon as the smoke clears. Leaning back on his heels, Kurt folds his arms on his knees.] So why don't you believe me, then? Now that we're away from a public area.

Oh, just like old times. [The smell of sulfur and that odd feeling that comes with teleporting. It used to be close to second nature even though it wasn't her power. Would that she could stay on that topic, but he seems pretty serious about this one that she's having trouble with. She may also be misunderstanding why he's so intent on it.]

Kurt, it's not a trust thing. I trust you more than anyone. [More than Winn. More than any of the other X-Men here. She doesn't say she trusts him with her life though. She does, but after Piotr it's not a thing she even wants to discuss really.

She smiles trying to make light of it because it's starting to feel heavy.] You know how you can be with the flattery. It gets a little thick.

I know that you do. [The reassurance comes spoken in a soft voice, with a softer smile. Of all the things Kurt's lost faith in over the years, Kitty didn't live long enough to be one of the few X-Men he did.

Tilting his head, Kurt's tail taps a muted tempo on the bedsheets.] I know. I say it that way so you'll laugh, and not be embarrassed. Also so your many admirers won't skin me alive of jealousy, and don't tell me Winn's the only one to show interest. I won't believe it.

He's not. I'm sure I disappointed Tyrion when I said I was seeing Winn. [Others have flirted too though it's hard to say how seriously.]

...It's not like I think no one could want to be with me. [If that's what this is about? Then again, there is that voice saying they could want to be with someone else more. The one that makes her worry Winn will come back with new memories of a love back home that she couldn't stand up to like with Reid. Even that is an oversimplification and distortion of what happened with him and his new memories of Maeve.]

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