But in the Munich Circus...

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

She waited quietly, her eyes on the man’s face until they moved to watch the sand. With the small shift of her head her hair fell to hide her face. As she listened, Nina contemplated his words. She could relate to his past. The girl had not known that there were places on Earth where humans were considered “freaks” alongside mutants, and she frowned at that ignorance which contrasted all her time already spent in the world. Nina had forgotten that humans could be as cruel to their own as they were to others. 

“That is..interesting. I would definitely like to see it, if you truly mean to take me.” She paused, considering her words just as carefully as Kurt did. “I want..to know about your childhood. Your mistakes and your triumphs. One day..” Nina sighed, nudging a mound of sand with the toe of her boot until it toppled over. “One day, I wish to know your life story. When you’re ready. When you think that you can tell me without hiding anything.” As her wings cramped from the cold, she extended them to their full length, shaking out a tangled bit of feathers towards her right flank. A thought slipped into the back of her mind, and she gave a wry, humorless smile. “If you’re still around, by then.”

“Perhaps one day we can truly swap stories, though mine is not a very pleasant one - not really one I tell.” Kurt licked his lips, the tip of his tongue darting over furless blue skin. “I suppose it is not really a long story from your point of view.” He expelled a breathy laugh from his nose, but unconsciously folded his arm over his stomach, where, beneath layers of clothe and fur, the “T,” “I,” and partial “E” of “tier” were still etched into his skin. The horrific images flashed through his mind: the jeering faces, the flash of the knife, the horror on Margali’s face, his own blood flowing across his hands.

Kurt gave himself another shake and quickly dropped his arms, hauling his mind back to the present before memories of his second attempt rose his mind. He glanced at Nina, thinking of her father’s powers.

“Did you get any of that?” he asked, trying not to sound too bitter. Telepaths could be frustrating, especially for someone whose appearance made most people disinclined to tell him anything. 

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

She took in the pensive look on his face, leaning against his side in an attempt to bring him back to the present. It is what? Nina didn’t know, but it seemed to have Kurt worried. When he came back to her, he gave his head a light shake, and continued speaking. The last bit of his explanation made her eyes snap from gazing out at the ocean to his face.

“What?” She didn’t intend for her question to come out quite so harshly, so she continued after clearing her throat. “Is that even possible?”

Her initial “what” had Kurt fear that his using the word “freaks” had been a very bad move indeed, but when she continued, he wondered if it hadn’t just been shock.

“For people with physical mutations to be looked upon as normal? Yes, yes it is possible. It is rare, but it happens. There was the school, of course, but I suppose you mean by humans.” Kurt thought for a moment, trying to pick the right words this time. “The Zirkus is a funny place filled with funny people. We look after our own no matter what. Many of the humans had been told by the world they were freaks so who were they to look on me as a monster?” He shrugged, realizing he was probably getting a little too deep. “Anyway, I grew up there so I was always just a kid to them.”

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

Nina waited through the silence only a few seconds before she gave up and lifted her eyes to his face, watched him look out over the water, noticed they had stopped and turned towards the ocean. The change in him startled her, she wondered for a moment if he wasn’t bipolar himself, and Nina stood silent and shocked at the change of subject. She scrambled for an answer. 

“Uhm—no. I haven’t. My father can’t go to them.” She said quietly, examining the excitement he radiated. “I would love to.” She gave a wry little smile. “Nothing is really a trip to someone who’s been all over the world.”

“I suppose not,” he agreed, “but it is-.” What? What was this great circus he was thinking of? Was it still something to see? Had it ever been? It’s hard to look at one’s own art objectively. Was it really anything special other than being his first home, the place he’d learned so many important things? It was there that he’d made friends, learned about family and love, learned acrobatics, learned that home wasn’t the place but rather the people. It was also where he’d learned he was freak, learned to hate himself, learned to fight - presumably to protect himself. And where had that left him? Holding Stefan’s dead body to his chest? Nearly bleeding to death for a the second time?

Kurt shook himself. “You will like it. And they will like you.” He thought of Margali, who he imagined really would like Nina. She had the sort of attitude that Margali professed to hate, but secretly loved. Not quite how Jimaine had been, but close. ”People like us,” he searched for the right word “we are not freaks there.”

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

Nina gave him a smile and a little shove through their linked arms in return.

Her eyes stayed locked on his face when he replied. “Hm. Well.” She didn’t really know what to say to that. Assume that he was staying near the X-Men? That hurt too much too soon. Tell him that he was staying with them? And lead to either dishonest guilt-tripping, or piss him off and sound like a brat. Ask him to stick around?

..And sound desperate. 

Desperate. It wasn’t a word she liked; every bit of Spartan in her blood roiled at the thought. Perhaps a suggestion, then. Compromise. 

“You could stay with us.” And Nina, with her head ducked down low, feet shuffling, brow furrowed and jaw clenched tight, couldn’t just leave it at that. Because that sounded desperate. And Gods be damned if she wasn’t a nervous, prideful little thing. “I mean, I heard—well not heard, kinda gleaned—from my father. About the school. And how everyone’s off of San Francisco now, not New York?” Her voice lifted a bit, though it wasn’t actually a question.

“But we won’t be around here for much longer. On this coast—well, hell, maybe not even in this country” She let out a shaky breath. “You know him, he’s restless. M’sure his little trip to California has more to it then just getting us to talk. He never stays in one place for a long time. And I’ll follow him anywhere. So.” Only now did she notice all of the pretense had dropped from her speech pattern. Oops. Too late now. “You could stay with us.”

Kurt smiled. Didn’t sound like too much actual staying was going to be involved in this arrangement. Of course, he didn’t want to run off. He wanted to be with his, well, his family, for lack of a better word. Or maybe that was the better word. At any rate, he wanted to be with them, Demetri and Nina, but he wasn’t about to abandon everyone else he loved. Not anymore.

He swept his hair out of his eyes with his free hand, looking out over the ocean for a moment, yellow eyes pensive, almost hard. Then, suddenly as his seriousness had hit him, it was gone and he was all energy and bouncing smiles, the giddy twenty-one year old, instead of the ageless, broken demon.

“Have you ever been to a circus?” he asked her, eyes alight, excitement pulsing from him. “I mean a proper one where the people are actually talented and actually care about each other - and the animals. Does not seem like the sort of thing Demetri would go in for, but I could take you. I know a great one. Bit of a trip. But worth it.”

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

“Still sucks, though. You’re worth more than that,” Nina muttered.

She picked up on his discomfort immediately, and read the deliberate way he gave his answers as unease on the subject. Perhaps others had made an attempt at finding the answer in less than humane wa—. Nina cut the thought of quickly; it pissed her off more than she thought it would. “Will you stay with the X-Men?” she asked quickly after, as a distraction. She continued in an attempt to qualify the question, “I mean, despite marrying my father and all. Where will w—you stay?”

“Thanks,” Kurt replied quietly, touched.

“Where will I live?” he clarified. “I do not know, to be honest. Wherever I am needed, I suppose.” He shrugged, slopping shoulders rising slightly towards pointed ears.

After the school-. He’d once again been displaced from his home, but a life on the move was what he was used to, what he was meant for if his powers were any indication. While he’d loved having a real home in the traditional sense at the school, he’d also been restless. Maybe it was just the circus that had filled him with Wanderlust, but it was so much a part of his nature that it hardly mattered anymore where it had come from. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t have much of a desire to stay anywhere.

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

fuzzyelf:

daddyslittlesoldier:

Nina threw her head back and cackled at that. “The man has fought the most disgusting monsters that I have ever seen with Uncle Gabriel and prevailed, but a little teleporting and he loses his shit?” She grinned at Kurt as they shared the irony. 

“He makes no sense.” She carded fingers through her bangs, pushing them away from her face, tucking them behind an ear as she took a deep breath of cool air. The trees were still barren, but she could no longer feel frigid cold that seeped into your very bones; the smell of spring was approaching. Sliding both arms around her back, Nina tugged on the long, home-sewn zippers that ran from shoulder to lower back, and pushed her wings through thee provided slits. Stretching sinew and tendon with a sigh of relief, the girl unfurled them to their full twelve-foot span behind her. 

Kurt laughed with her, trying to shrug off the feeling that there was something wrong about him operating on the same level as his lover’s daughter.

“I suppose it is an acquired taste.” He shook his head. “It is nice not to be treated like a taxi, though.” He said it jokingly, but it really did get old. While being useful was always nice, he usually couldn’t stay wherever they ended up unless it was a fight. 

He watched her unfold her wings, feeling that slight pang of jealousy he felt every time he’d watched Warren or Demetri do the same thing. While it might be easier to hide a tail than wings, Warren had, at least in Kurt’s mind, the better end of the bargain. What human hadn’t fantasized about flight? No one fantasized about being blue.

“Do people demand you take them places often?” Nina inquired quietly, tilting her head towards him curiously. It wasn’t a novelty concept. People were selfish, and they asked the same of her and her father often as well. Even if not for a specific location, she quickly grew tired of people asking her for the experience itself. 

On the subject of Kurt’s teleportation, an idea occurred to her. “I wonder if there’s a science behind it. About where you go on the in-between,” she mused. Nina didn’t miss the gleam in Kurt’s eyes as he caught sight of her stretching. Pulling her wings back in and close around her shoulders, brushing the tips of soft down feathers against his tail, Nina looped her arm through his and locked their elbows together. Her eyes flitted back to the sand as she shoved that hand back in her pocket. Too late, it seemed, the hope was firmly settled in. 

“Eh, it could be worse,” Kurt shrugged. After alarming enough people back at the school, people at stopped pestering him for short jumps and they’d learned soon enough that he could only take them so far.

He frowned at her second question. “I suppose,” he said carefully. “It is sort of hard to explain. The short version is that I’m basically just taking a short cut through another dimension,” he explained as they walked arm in arm. “I have always just found it better not to think about it too much.” He remembered nights haunted by the fear that he really was channeling the powers of Hell. Poor little Catholic. 

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

Nina threw her head back and cackled at that. “The man has fought the most disgusting monsters that I have ever seen with Uncle Gabriel and prevailed, but a little teleporting and he loses his shit?” She grinned at Kurt as they shared the irony. 

“He makes no sense.” She carded fingers through her bangs, pushing them away from her face, tucking them behind an ear as she took a deep breath of cool air. The trees were still barren, but she could no longer feel frigid cold that seeped into your very bones; the smell of spring was approaching. Sliding both arms around her back, Nina tugged on the long, home-sewn zippers that ran from shoulder to lower back, and pushed her wings through thee provided slits. Stretching sinew and tendon with a sigh of relief, the girl unfurled them to their full twelve-foot span behind her. 

Kurt laughed with her, trying to shrug off the feeling that there was something wrong about him operating on the same level as his lover’s daughter.

“I suppose it is an acquired taste.” He shook his head. “It is nice not to be treated like a taxi, though.” He said it jokingly, but it really did get old. While being useful was always nice, he usually couldn’t stay wherever they ended up unless it was a fight. 

He watched her unfold her wings, feeling that slight pang of jealousy he felt every time he’d watched Warren or Demetri do the same thing. While it might be easier to hide a tail than wings, Warren had, at least in Kurt’s mind, the better end of the bargain. What human hadn’t fantasized about flight? No one fantasized about being blue.

(Source: fuzzyelf)

Awkward Learning Experiences

daddyslittlesoldier:

An amused smile passed over her lips, and it held firm as Kurt teleported back. Nina felt no shame in admiring the way it fell off his shoulders, and for a moment—just a moment—she could see the gleam in his eyes that explained perfectly the interest that had captured her father.

He looked entirely too pleased with himself, surrounded by little clouds of wispy smoke. The ordeal left the entire room smelling strongly of sulfur, and not even her nose twitched in dismay. It was a smell she was all too used too; though in her case it had been the scent of Hell, not her father’s teleporting boyfriend.

Amused smile still in place, Nina flicked the lock on the knob with her thumb and strode out, shoulders slumping in a fully relaxed position as she took comfort in Kurt’s pride. Attempting to impress her. He was not only honest, but sweet too. “Talented, aren’t you?” she murmured as she closed the door behind him, eyes admiring the ocean’s tide. 

“I do what I can,” replied Kurt with a shrug, his accent rough against the foreign words. His time with the X-Men had taught him that he was by no means the coolest kid on the block, but even he had to admit sometimes that teleporting was pretty awesome. 

He fell into loping stride beside her as they made their way towards the beach. Almost without realizing it, he was allowing his natural, his not-exactly-human posture to show. He wasn’t moving on all fours, as he sometimes did when he was running, but he didn’t force the curve out of his spine like he tended to do when he was around human-looking people. He felt strangely comfortable around this girl. It was nice, in an odd way.

“It makes your father sick, though. He cannot handle it.” He laughed. It really hadn’t been funny the first time he’d tried to teleport with Demetri, but in retrospect it was rather amusing that a basic part of Kurt’s existence was too much for Demetri’s self-healing stomach to handle. 

(Source: fuzzyelf)