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Between Friends
Fic Challenge 4
A soft breeze puffed gently at the curtains over the open balcony door. Moonlight turned the thin white material to a soft blue glow and filled the room with soft chalky shadows. Kurt watched through half-lidded eyes, snuggling deeper beneath his comforter. It was a chill October night, much different from the summer when he’d be laying almost naked on top of everything and groaning pitifully. Kurt always left the doors open to his balcony. He loved the wind currents that would whisper through and ruffle his fur like soft caressing fingers. He loved the scent of fresh air, of the trees surrounding the Institute, of damp mildew growing on the undersides of autumn leaves.
Kurt sat upright. Wait a moment. He knew that last scent. And it was far closer right now than any mound of fallen leaves. Another current pushed the curtains toward him, splitting apart so he could see a dark crouched figure on the balcony railing. Golden eyes reflected from the shadows of the person’s face. Kurt knew this outline like he knew the smell and he sighed in exasperation.
“What do you want Toad?”
Though unbidden, the figure leapt down from the railing, into Kurt’s room. Slowly, as if it pained him, Todd stood up. “I . . . just need to talk, man. I didn’t know where else to go.”
Kurt nodded, but checked the location of his inducer anyway. He knew that Toad wasn’t above a little acting to distract from his true motive. Todd followed Kurt’s gaze to the bedside desk and the watch. He shook his head. "I ain’t gonna need that anymore. It’s over.” His voice broke on the last two words. What Kurt could see of him was visibly trembling.
Feeling compassion and a strange sort of understanding, he reached out to touch the boy’s shoulder. “Did Wanda hurt you for real this time?”
A bitter laugh was his answer. “It always hurt, ‘Crawler. I just tried not to show it.”
Kurt knew what that was like. “Bottling things up never worked for anyone, ja? What happened?”
“It’s kind of a long story.”
Oh boy. They might as well sit down. Kurt led Todd over to the bed and pulled himself up to sit with his legs dangling over the edge. Todd followed suit, but slower and more painstakingly. Nothing like the agile creature Kurt was accustomed to fighting. When he was seated, Todd groaned faintly and rotated one of his shoulders. Something popped.
“Mein Gott, what did she do?” A more appropriate question may have been “What did you do?” but Kurt was supposed to be listening to Todd’s side of things right now.
“She ain’t done nothin’. This was Lance.”
Kurt’s stomach dropped a little. Lance had gotten involved in a fight between Todd and Wanda? And from the looks of it, taken Wanda’s side. Kurt knew now that this was a bit more serious than Wanda telling Todd he was the scum of the earth and hurting his feelings. It had to be, for Todd to come to one of his enemies in the condition he was in.
The boy seemed to have difficulty breathing regularly. He put a webbed hand to his forehead and wiped something off, either dirt or blood. “I don’t know where to begin.”
“Start where you like. If you missed something, you can always go back to it.”
Todd sighed and leaned against one of Kurt’s bedposts. “Might as well cut to the chase. Lance and Wanda are goin’ out. I came home with money for the groceries and there they were on the couch, kissin’ and rubbin’ against each other like it was mating season. I . . . I didn’t react well. Just threw the money down, stormed up to my room and slammed the door. About ten minutes later, I heard Lance storming upstairs and a knock at my door. I told him to go to hell, so he kicked the door down. He said . . . he’d had enough of my immature behavior, and told me I was just a fifteen year old kid lusting after Wanda ‘cause she had a nice figure. That he didn’t . . . shouldn’t have to apologize for being able to make her happy.”
Todd broke off, burying his face in his hands. Kurt’s heart joined his stomach. The frog-boy remained like this for a few moments, then wiped the back of his hand across his eyes and continued.
“I then brilliantly replied with ‘Like you made Kitty happy?’ Lance naturally went apeshit, and kicked my ass from here to Saturday. I shouldn’t have let him. I should’ve fought back, yo. But I didn’t ‘cause I felt dead inside. Lance is my best friend. I . . . ” I loved him, Todd caught himself from saying. “I always thought we’d be tight. And Wanda . . . you know how I felt about her. So did he, so did everyone. She didn’t want me and it probably would never have worked out.” The boy paused to take a deep ragged breath. “But I loved her. Can’t just locate the fuckin’ off switch on those kinda feelin’s, you know? Right now I wish I could.” For both of them, yo.
Todd was hurting far worse than he was willing to admit. He didn’t know how Kurt would react to news of him being bisexual. The truth was, he’d had a deep crush on Lance when he first moved in with the boy. But Lance had proven to be straight when he continually went after Kitty. Not even Pietro’s flirting could attract him away from her, and Todd had to admit that Pietro was a beautiful piece of work despite being a jerk-off Daddy’s boy. Todd had secretly worshipped Lance, hating himself whenever he got the brunette mad or upset, happy whenever Lance would smile at him. He gradually came to accept that Lance would never return his feelings and took joy in merely living with him.
Then Wanda had come along and his heart had tugged him in a different direction, confusing him all the more about his own sexual preferences. The feelings were so strong they almost overrode his attraction to Lance. Todd had been so amazed that he’d taken this it as a sign that he and Wanda were meant to be together.
Thus convinced, it was small wonder that his soul had been shattered with icepick and sledgehammer by seeing Lance and Wanda making out. Bad enough one of them had been dating regularly with no way of knowing Todd’s feelings, but now they were together. Leaving Todd alone. All alone.
Todd knew he was making a fool of himself in front of Nightcrawler, but he didn’t care. He wanted someone to listen, someone who wasn’t Pietro or Fred and more likely to take Lance or Wanda’s side.
Lance and Wanda. He hated the combination. L and W. Finders Keepers, Losers . . . Weepers.
The froggish boy curled in on himself with a low wail of anguish.
“Shhhh, shhh,” Kurt soothed, wrapping his arms around the boy. He’d been waiting patiently for the moment Todd would accept his touch as comfort. It looked like this was it. Todd neither broke away nor did he voice protest. He was sobbing so hard, perhaps he couldn’t. Kurt continued to hold him, but tensely, until he felt Todd lean into the embrace and wrap his own arms around the elf’s torso. Kurt sighed in mixed relief as his hands moved to stroke Todd’s back. He could feel hot tears soaking into the fur between his neck and shoulder. Todd’s body shuddered against him every time he took a breath.
Something was happening inside Kurt. The elf’s eyes were misting over, as if he himself could feel Todd’s pain. More than anything he wanted to end it, to see the boy smile carelessly again. To be infuriated and yet amused whenever Todd’s lightning-quick tongue lashed out to smack his posterior as he walked by the boy’s desk in detention. To hate and love him as he’d been doing for years.
And more than anything, Kurt wanted to prove to Todd that someday he would be loved. If not Wanda, then someone else would see the good in him and take a thrill in the bad. Someone would hold him like this when he cried, stroke his hair and caress his cheek when he doubted his own worth.
Todd was pressed against him, soaking up everything Kurt did as if he’d never received a kind touch in all his life. Blue was so different from anyone he’d met before. Who else would go out of their way to make him feel cared for?
Todd looked up from Kurt’s shoulder to gaze at the elf with forlorn gratitude. Kurt smiled, letting one of his fangs slip adorably over his bottom lip. Deep sadness still shone in Todd’s amber eyes, reinforcing Kurt’s wish to lift the boy’s heart from the gutter and raise it where it could never fall again.
However Kurt might have achieved this, kissing Todd was the last thing on the elf’s mental list of options.
Which is why both of them were initially shocked as hell when Kurt leaned forward and planted his warm lips over Todd’s. The moment of turning back was lost as tongue rubbed against tongue and the inside of each other’s mouths. An unknown amount of time passed before Amanda’s sable eyes spurred Kurt’s conscious back into play.
"GOTT!" He jerked back with such force that Todd nearly fell off the bed. Steadying the boy with both hands, Kurt rattled off a litany of apologies, both to the frog-boy and Amanda, who was miles away and asleep in her own bed.
Todd held up a webbed hand, and when that did not slow the stream of panicked elf babble, placed a finger against Kurt’s lips. “Shhh, it’s okay, dawg. It’s cool. I know you didn’t mean business.”
“You did?” Kurt whimpered. His mind was still reeling. The kiss had been wrong, even though it was given for all the right reasons. How could he ever look Amanda in the face?
Todd’s face looked exhausted and was streaked with dirt and tears. How could he presume to look him in the face? Ashamed, Kurt looked down at his hands. Todd sighed. “You are entirely too hard on yourself, you know that, fuzzy? If you meant that kiss to be anything about lust, we’d be doin’ it right now.”
Kurt blushed and Todd took private amusement, but kept his voice serious. “I know you wanted to prove a point, and you did. That matters to me a lot.” Webbed fingers rested lightly atop Kurt’s furred digits. “Guess I shouldn’t give up hope, right?”
The panic was winding down. A kiss between friends; between kindred spirits. Its sole purpose was a balm against loneliness and pain. There was no reason to hate himself for that, was there? Kurt’s heart budded with relief. He pulled Todd into another warm embrace. “No, you shouldn’t. Danke Gott. I was scared I’d broken your heart again.”
“As if. You don’t got one mean bone in your body, yo.” Todd could feel another sniffle coming on. This was starting to become just a little mushy for his taste, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away and resume the tough guy act just yet. Christ, when had he played tough guy at all tonight? “Thanks for bein’ here, y’know? You don’t know how much I needed this.”
“I think I do,” Kurt whispered back, tracing patterns on the back of Todd’s neck. Todd’s breathing gradually became slower and more relaxed. Kurt leaned back, taking Todd with him until they were both lying down on the soft bed. Kurt’s tail wrapped around Todd’s ankle, removing one sneaker and then the other, flipping them both over the edge of the bed to thump inaudibly on the carpet. Kurt felt the overwhelming urge to yawn and did so, turning his face away so not to regale Todd with the evidence of what he’d eaten for dinner.
“I dunno if I should sleep here, man,” Todd mumbled sleepily, making no move whatsoever to rouse himself from where he was nestled against the elf. “Won’t Wolverine have kittens or something?”
“Only if the rumors about him and Sabertooth are true,” Kurt wisecracked. Todd buried his face in Kurt’s shoulder again, this time in a fit of snickering. Kurt knew it was cheesy to laugh at his own joke but he joined in, happy to hear Todd’s laughter once again.
Todd’s mirth dwindled back into comfortable silence, and soon enough, he was asleep. Kurt’s tail looped in a perfect circle to scratch an itch in the middle of the appendage, then gently wound back around Todd’s legs. Kurt could feel the room getting darker as the moon sunk below the horizon. He was content to lie and watch Todd’s face become one with the shadows of the room before lapsing into his own world of dreams.
END.
Summary: Todd is heartbroken and turns to the only person he can think of for comfort.
Pairings: One-sided Todd/Lance, One-sided Todd/Wanda, Lance/Wanda (oooh, burn), Todd/Kurt fluffiness (yay!), Kurt/Amanda (aw dammit!)
Rating: PG-13 for language and other things. It's so schmoopy it'll leave you with a toothache. But angsty. Yes.
Disclaimer: If Todd belonged to me, he'd never see the light of day. ^-^ If Kurt belonged to me as well, the two of them would still be locked in my closet until they kissed and made friends. Or f*cked like bunnies. La dee dah.