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Peter never meant to end up back at the school. He thought he’d do something meaningful, only he wasn’t exactly sure what he could do that would help. He wasn’t really achieving much with his life. He’d broken one guy out of prison, several years back. A guy that was probably his father, and hadn’t spared him a second look. A guy that had gone on to cause all kinds of problems. And since then he’d just kind of… drifted. There hadn’t seemed to be much point in anything.
He’d tried a few times for a relationship. Flirted with more than his fair share of omegas and betas, even a few alphas. It just didn’t… work. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, it was more that non-mutants didn’t get it. They didn’t get what life was like for mutants, because in their eyes mutants were just some kind of exotic treat.
That was probably why he’d gone back to the school. Because at least there he wasn’t the only one who was weird. And he couldn’t help hoping that his dad would come waltzing back in, and things would pick up. But there was no sign of a supervillain at the school, and most of the kids were just trying to live, and he wasn’t sure if he should be there. But leaving felt wrong and he didn’t know where else he could go.
So he stayed, and he worked it out. He spent time with some of the other students, tried to make friends, tried to learn. It didn’t come natural to him, but he wanted to work out where he belonged. And after a few weeks… the school didn’t feel like home, exactly, but it felt closer to it.
It was closer to home than anywhere else he had, and he told himself he could work with that. He didn’t really have any good friends - Jubilee was fun enough, but Summers was boring and followed the rules, and Jean would tell on him if he caused too much trouble or tried anything too impressive. But Charles… Charles seemed different from the angry man from before. He was in a wheelchair, but that wasn’t the difference - it was how he seemed to have calmed down, how he seemed to be happier, kinder. It felt like he fitted, and that made no sense but Peter couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous of what Charles had. The older alpha had made somewhere he belonged, somewhere he was happy.
Peter didn’t think he’d get to be happy. His thoughts were too quick for that. But close to happy, he thought maybe he could do. It had to be worth a try.
It was a Saturday. He’d finished his chores, because cleaning never took him long at all.
Which meant a lot of the others argued for him to get stuck with doing all the cleaning, but that wasn't fair, because he wasn't responsible for all the mess, and it still took him effort. But it was alright, because Charles got that. He understood that just because Peter could do something faster, it didn't mean that it didn't take effort for him.
But because Charles was reasonable, Peter had finished with his chores, and was lazing around when Raven appeared. She wasn't alone. Raven was pretty awesome, even if she wasn't blue. She'd brought with her someone who was. A blue-skinned omega, who clutched to her side and ducked his head, clearly not used to being around people.
"Who've you got there?"
"Nightcrawler," the youth answered with a shrug. "Kurt. Kurt Wagner." He had a strong accent, one that almost sounded like it had escaped from a horror film, and fanged teeth, and yellow eyes and a pointed tail to go with the blue skin. It sounded like he should be some kind of monster, but he wasn't. He was standing there awkwardly, his head bowed, his arms around himself.
Peter noticed the weird hands straight away. He tried not to stare. A lot of the kids at the school were used to staring and they hated it.
"I'm Peter. Quicksilver. I'm fast."
"I..." The omega stared at him, his tail swishing from side to side. "I am faster."
"Not possible," Peter said with a wink. "But I can race you."
"Zat... vill not be necessary," the omega muttered, wrapping his own tail around himself like a child seeking comfort.
"Be nice, Peter," Raven said. "He was in an underground mutant fighting ring."
"Oh." Peter looked at the omega, and felt angry. He was clearly afraid. Peter hated that there were humans out there that'd take advantage of people for being omegas, for being mutants. It was times like this that he thought sometimes that Magneto'd had a good point.
"Don't pressure him for answers you don't want him to give," Charles's voice spoke in his mind, gentle. "I know you're worried, Peter, but the best thing we can do is give him a home now."
Peter tried to think back agreement without being too loud about it. "Want to race?"
"Outside?" the newbie asked, his tail swishing.
"You boys have fun," Raven said. "I've got to catch Charles up on some things." She walked off, and the omega stood there nervously, looking at Peter as though he was about to tear his head off or something. Peter tried to smile and not take it personally.
He closed his eyes for a second, then winked, then used his powers to race out into the gardens and back. In the time it had taken the newbie 'Kurt' to blink, he'd picked several different flowers. He held out the improvised bouquet, and Kurt smiled toothily.
"You are very fast," Kurt agreed. He walked with him towards the doors. As soon as they could see the garden outside, there was a puff of smoke, and Kurt had been replaced by the smell of sulphur. A look outside showed him at the other end of the garden. A second later, he was back. "Not quite as good as you, but I think zat I did vell enough."
"You can teleport?"
"Ja."
"Oh. I thought that, like, your powers were that you were blue."
Kurt blushed, his skin becoming a warm purple colour. Soon after Charles was asking to meet the new boy, so Kurt had to take him in for a meeting.
Over the next few days, Peter learned a lot about Kurt. The accent was from Munich, and he'd been happily living in a circus before he'd been taken to fight. He didn't want to go back though. He hadn't been to America before, and he didn't know what a mall was. Charles arranged for him to be able to go to a church on Sundays, because apparently he cared about that stuff.
Peter was a bit worried, because Kurt didn't exactly look normal, but Jean went with him, and Jean was strong enough to stop anyone hurting him. He liked her. She was smart, strong. And enough of a bad influence to get her boyfriend to be interesting.
As the sun set one evening, Peter caught sight of Kurt sitting up on the edge of the roof, his legs swinging. There was no easy way to gain access, but Peter wasn't foolish - he was able to use his speed to move a ladder, then clamber up before Kurt realised he'd been seen. He appeared beside him, and Kurt jolted.
Peter was briefly worried that he’d managed to startle him badly enough that he was going to fall off of the roof, which would be awkward - he hoped he’d teleport on the way down, but if he didn’t it was going to lead to an awkward splat on the pavement and a load of yelling. And no more Kurt, which Peter didn’t like the sound of.
He reached out, and grabbed Kurt before he could go splat, and Kurt set him a shy smile, his tail twitching from side to side. “Vat is it?”
“Just wanted to check you were okay because you were on here and like… I don’t know, I just wanted to check you were okay.”
“Ja. It is just that it is beautiful up here,” Kurt answered. “And a little peaceful. I am very grateful to the Professor for giving me a home, and yet-”
“It can be a bit chaotic?” Peter gave him a knowing smile. “I get it. We all do. It’s not easy, trying to live with the amount of chaos around here. It’s good you’ve got somewhere quiet.”
“It is good for you too,” Kurt answered. “You can sit with me if you vant, it is more peaceful here and it feels…” He fell quiet for a moment. “I vould like the company.”
“Well then,” Peter grinned at him. “I can’t let you down.”
The weird thing about Kurt was that Peter found he could sit with him and it could be quiet without it being a problem. I mean, there was also the whole blue thing, and the tail. But those were just being a mutant, that was normal. What was weird was that being near Kurt made Peter feel a little bit calmer, and the world seem slightly less overwhelming. He could manage almost a minute before he started to fidget and he knew that for most people that wasn’t very long, but for him it was like waiting for years and years and years.
Kurt looked at him, and smiled, his lips drawing back to show his pointed teeth.
“What?” Peter asked.
“I like it here with you,” Kurt answered, his tail reaching up to brush Peter’s wrist. Peter reached for it, trying to pet him, then remembered that was probably rude. He thought of swimming pool signs which said nice and clearly ‘no petting’, but he couldn’t help thinking that was unfair when Kurt was just very very pettable. He put the complaint aside, leaning back on the roof to stare up at the sky.
“Yeah,” Peter muttered. “I like it here with you too.”
Peter often ended up hiding on the roof with Kurt. It was his favourite place to be, where things just seemed to make sense and it wasn’t boring and slow.
The thing was, the more time he spent with him, the more he realised that it wasn't the roof that was great. It was time with Kurt. Which was kind of awkward, because the omega showed no sign of interest in him.
At first, Peter had been scared that Kurt was only spending time with him out of politeness, but as time passed Peter thought that wasn't the case - he thought that Kurt did like him, just not necessarily the way that Peter liked Kurt. He told himself that was fine. He could live with that.
One evening, after a long time in the danger room, Kurt nuzzled his shoulder and smiled. "You know, Peter, zat you, you are my best friend in ze whole vorld."
"Yeah, well, right back at you," Peter answered, embracing him in return. "I'm glad I get to know you."
"You are a very good friend to me. I vill forever be grateful zat you are my friend," Kurt told him, and he said it with such sincerity that the only response Peter could manage was to smile.
The school was good for Kurt. He seemed happier, the longer he spent there, and he didn't seem stressed all the time. Peter supposed that even if it was chaotic, the school was probably a better place to be trapped than a fighting ring, and knowing that he was determined to make it better. Which meant a lot of unauthorised field trips, and games, and training together.
He found Kurt hesitating outside the danger room early one morning, while everyone else was still asleep. His tail was twitching from side to side, and his head was bowed, his lips moving in silent prayer.
Peter cleared his throat, even though he was sure he shouldn't interrupt. "Hey, Kurt, what's wrong?"
"I..." Kurt hesitated. "The simulation yesterday was a little too real. I do not wish to let down my friends in an emergency, but I fear zat I might."
"I don't think you would," Peter tried to reassure him. "And we can practice together."
"Zat would be good," Kurt agreed, reaching for his hand, and teleporting him through the forbidding looking door and into the large open space that there was beyond, ready for them to fight. Peter was used to the space in the middle of battle. It looked different empty.
He couldn’t resist running around the room quickly. Once he’d done a proper circuit, he did it again, running at a more human speed so that Kurt could chase him. Kurt caught him after a few bamfs, wrapping his arms around him.
“I have caught you!” Kurt announced, triumphant, his tail wrapped around Peter’s waist.
“Yeah you have,” Peter grinned, aware of just how close the other man was to him. He wanted to lean in, to kiss him. He smelled really good, but it wasn’t just that. Peter wanted him because it was Kurt. He leaned in towards him.
Kurt blushed, and disappeared out of the room, leaving Peter trapped inside.
Kurt was hiding in his room for the next three days, because it was his time of the season, and Peter tried not to think about it. He hadn’t even realised that Kurt was close. He’d just been left in the Danger Room, trying to think very loudly at Jean without the Professor picking up on his thoughts, and he wasn’t sure that it worked but in the end she came to get him, and no one mentioned the whole accidentally getting trapped thing, so he guessed it was okay.
“How is he, Summers?” Peter asked, feeling kind of anxious. He wished he had a tail, because he thought a tail would be really good for showing when you were feeling nervous or anxious about things, but he didn’t have a tail.
“He’s fine,” Summers answered, frowning a little. “He’s embarrassed he left you, he wanted me to apologise to you.”
“It’s… I don’t mind. I get it.” Peter shrugged. “When you’ve got to go you’ve got to go, and he can go fast, and…” Peter hesitated and frowned. “Does he look purple to you?”
“Yes, why?”
“Just wondered,” Peter answered, attempting to get his thoughts back into some kind of order. “He’s okay though? He’s not ill or-”
“He’s fine. He wants to go on suppressants, because we talked about it, he just… hadn’t been before, and he wasn’t sure whether it was right, but we’ve spoken about it and…” Summers shrugged, his hand tapping his pocket. Peter knew that there was a pack of suppressants in there, because Scott panicked if he didn’t have some on him at all times. Peter was a dick, but he knew there were some things you didn’t poke at, and that seemed like the kind of thing you really didn’t poke at, so he didn’t.
“That’s cool. He smells really good,” Peter muttered. “I mean, you probably don’t want to hear that. But yeah. Well. Can you let him know it’s fine and I was just worried about him?”
Summers nodded. “You able to step up for a training exercise later? We were going to have Kurt on evac, but he can’t-”
“Yeah, I’ll do that,” Peter agreed, glad to have something to take his mind off of Kurt.
Eventually, Kurt felt well enough to be back out at the school and on missions. It was only three days that he’d had to hide in his room, but Peter thought it felt like forever because any time he couldn’t see Kurt felt like forever. His room had never been as tidy as it was. He was glad that his mum didn’t know about what was going on because she’d definitely tease him for getting so worked up over a boy, only Kurt was like, the best guy he’d ever met and definitely worth getting worked up over.
Peter zoomed over to him the moment he was out of his room, then realised that might not be helpful, so he thought about backing off only Kurt had seen him by then so backing off would also look kind of rude.
“Vat?” Kurt asked, swishing his tail. “You look vorried.”
“No, I, uh. I’m really glad that you’re feeling better is all,” Peter managed to say, mostly coherently.
“Thank you,” Kurt answered, and leaned in and hugged him tightly. Peter knew that it was a friend-hug, not a wish-you-were-my-boyfriend hug, but he still liked it a lot.
Once Kurt was back, Xavier called them both in to his office. Peter was very tempted to immediately blurt out that he hadn’t stolen anything, which was true.
The Professor gave Peter a knowing look, and Peter swore mentally because Xavier was a telepath.
“I am,” Xavier agreed, looking between them. “There’s a rescue mission coming up, the team is going to be led by Summers, and I thought both of you should go, if you think you can work together and concentrate.”
“We work together great!” Peter answered, a bit confused as to why that would even be asked. “We’re a great team, just ask Summers, he must think that or he wouldn’t-”
“I know, Peter. I just wanted to check that you were both comfortable with it before I agreed. For what it is worth, I think you’ll both be a big asset to the team.”
“Thanks,” Peter answered with a wide grin. He’d never been really seen as an asset to a team before, and he kind of wanted to ask for it in writing, but he made himself focus.
“I vill do my best not to let anyone down,” Kurt said, and Peter patted him on the shoulder.
“You’re going to be great Kurt.”
Kurt beamed, and nodded shyly. “I vill do my best,” he repeated.
That afternoon, Summers gave them the mission brief. A little girl with a fairly minor power, able to change the colour of things she touched, had got into trouble at school for turning her classroom and classmates barbie-pink. Peter thought that was pretty funny, only apparently William Stryker had gone to investigate her, and that was a lot less funny. She’d gone missing, and the thought was that she was in some kind of secret mutant lab, which sucked. No kid should have that happen.
So Summers wanted Kurt to go in and grab her, with Jean communicating to keep her calm, and Peter was there for distraction, which was good because Peter was great at distractions. And Summers was there to blast any dangers out of the way. It all sounded really easy, and like it would be simple, which is the kind of thing that Peter realised was said in movies before everything went to shit. He ignored that thought.
It all went to shit anyway.
Stryker was smart enough to realise that mutants weren't gonna just leave a little kid to be cut open in horrible experiments, so he'd set a trap for them. Kurt bamfed in, and the trap slammed shut. Peter heard Kurt scream over comms.
Now, the smart thing to do if someone got caught by the bad guys was to wait and let Summers come up with a plan. Peter knew that. Peter had listened to loads of lectures from Summers about exactly that thing, and he knew it, he just didn't really give a shit about the smart thing to do when Kurt was scared.
So rather than wait, he ran. Kurt was trapped in some kind of electrified cage - he was curled up around the little girl, who was crying. Peter fought back the urge to laugh, because the little girl could turn things pink if she wanted to, and had apparently decided that Kurt was less scary if he was Barbie-pink. Peter didn't think it looked great, really, but the Professor had said it was temporary.
"Kurt?"
"Nightcrawler," Summers voice snapped in his headset. "And out of there Quicksilver, we don't need you trapped as well."
Peter ignored him, because he could, and focused on what was before him. Kurt was cuddling the little girl, who was wearing an adorably pink set of clothes. They looked like they should have been white for science experiments, but they looked better in pink.
"I'm going to get you both out of there," he promised. "Kurt, you look after uh..."
"Amelie," the girl said with a pout, crossing her arms and glaring at him for forgetting her name.
"Yeah, that," Peter tried to smile. He could hear Summers trying to reason with him, to work out a safer plan, but that would take time and they didn't have time when Kurt was trapped. He closed his eyes and concentrated, then he began to run.
First off, he had to make sure they were safe. There were a few guards around, so he stole their guns and put them on the floor, and gave them a cup of water each instead. Then he went to find some way to turn off the big electricity supply to the cage, and he tried not to worry about it. There was a whole panel with a bunch of different switches, but he couldn't understand them.
He felt a sudden wave of panic, which he knew was ridiculous, but he didn't want Kurt hurt. Or like, the little girl, but his main concern was that Kurt might get injured and he couldn't work out how to get him out.
Moving this fast was exhausting, and it wasn't like he could read through a manual. Then he saw a big red button and a big switch. It looked like the one in the danger room that overrode stuff and turned it off if there was a problem, so he thought he'd use that.
He threw the switch, and the electricity flickering around the room gave out, the door opening. Peter allowed himself to return to moving at the normal pace because that was easier, walking over to the door as it opened and ignoring the cries from the guards. "Kurt, take her and get out."
The problem with moving at normal speed so that people could hear what he was saying was that they were moving at the same speed as him. He got several glasses of water thrown at him, which was kind of rude, but not actually dangerous.
And then one of the bastards reached into a holster at his side and pulled out another gun.
Kurt disappeared in a puff of ridiculously pink smoke, just as a bullet struck Peter in the leg. Which was the worst place to be shot, in his mind, because he couldn't run with a bad leg. The man was reaching for his walkie-talkie, and at some point the rest of the guards were going to realise that their guns were in the bin, and Peter wondered if the others would be smart enough to leave. Kurt would be alright, and so would the kid hopefully, so he thought that was probably going to be fine. He was a bit shot, that was all, but it didn't matter. The man with the gun was aiming at him.
He stopped, and reholstered his gun, and moved forwards.
"Let me see," he said, and Peter realised the other guards weren't moving at all.
"That's so creepy when you do that, you do realise that right?" Peter told the guard, staring into his eyes.
"Peter, you're bleeding, we can argue about that later," Jean snapped through the guard. "Let me see your leg."
Peter rolled his eyes, but let her do that, the guard she was controlling putting pressure on.
"We're on our way."
"Is Kurt alright?"
"He's fine. You two..." Jean huffed, the guard frowning a little and applying a bit more pressure than was actually needed on the injured leg. "Summers is on his way, I'm just holding this room and-"
Whatever she was about to say was thrown off by Kurt reappearing in the room. "I left ze girl with Phoenix," Kurt was saying. He was still pink, a red blush on his face. "I vas vorried."
"Oh." Peter grinned at him. "Yeah, well, I'm fine and-"
"Ah, thank you Nightcrawler," Summers said as he walked into the room and ruined the mood. "I had hoped that you could come and help with this, we need to get him out of here." Summers considered. "Nightcrawler, we can support him between us if you can get us back to the Blackbird."
"I can do zat," Nightcrawler agreed, and the world went black, and it got its colour back, and they were by the Blackbird. Peter's leg hurt a lot, and Jean's hair was tinged with pink. The little girl was curled up beside her, frowning, but as soon as she saw Kurt she squealed and waved.
Kurt looked tired. Peter knew he found teleporting tiring, especially if he was taking other people along for the ride, but for some reason he'd come back anyway, and teleported both him and Summers out.
Jean came over, and gave Kurt some of the good drugs while Summers got them away from the lab full of scary scientists. The little girl had turned her chair pink as well, and Peter couldn't help thinking his sister would have loved a power like that. But Peter would probably have to get used to getting pink hair if she did, so he was glad she didn't.
The drugs made him feel kind of sleepy and dizzy, so he ended up having a bit of a nap and he woke up again in the medical room, with Beast glaring down at him in a way that made Peter wonder if he could pretend to still be asleep and avoid the lecture he was sure was coming. It turned out he couldn't because Beast was concerningly good at realising he was awake.
He was gentle as he treated him, but Peter could tell he was mad. "I heard you were being stupid."
"I was just doing what I needed to," Peter answered, aware he sounded grumpy. "I didn't want him to get hurt."
"You..." Beast gazed at him. "No, I don't suppose you did. You should talk to him. You're going to need to take it easy the next few weeks. I can put a cast on to support your leg but the forces... you're going to have to take it slow, alright."
"But-"
"No. Peter, if you damage your leg to the point it needs amputation you won't be able to go at full speed any more, because I don't think it's possible to create a prosthetic that can handle the amount of stress you put your body under."
Peter glared at that, but found himself thinking about being in a wheelchair. He guessed that probably couldn't go his full speed either but it might be fun. He let Beast rant at him until he felt better, and by then he was tired and so he did fall asleep.
It was dark when he woke up, and he was aware of a sudden weight against his chest. He didn't understand what it was, but he patted awkwardly and found himself brushing against cotton pyjamas. His eyes flickered open. There was a mess of dark blue hair against his chest, and inhuman hands wrapped around his shoulders. Kurt was deeply asleep.
"Kurt?"
"Ja?" Kurt asked, tensing and looking around. "Tu' mir nicht weh-Peter? Vere am I?"
"Hey, Kurt. Did you... did you sleep-bamf in here?"
"Oh..." Kurt sat up and blushed - purple now rather than red, and Peter grinned.
"At least you're back to blue."
"Amelie calmed down," Kurt answered. "I am sorry. I did not mean to disturb, I know zat you need ze rest I just... I vas dreaming about you."
"You dream about me?" Peter grinned at the omega, reaching to stroke his hair, guiding him back down. "Sounds like you like me."
"I... am sorry. I do not mean to be any kind of problem, I just-"
"I like you too, you know," Peter murmured, wrapping arms around him. Kurt's tail twisted around him protectively, curling around his waist.
"Your tail's being weirdly cuddly, Kurt."
"Oh. I am sorry, I can try and stop-"
"No!" Peter frowned. "No, you don't need to make it stop, it's very cute, it's just..." He shrugged. "I thought you just wanted to be friends."
"I vant to be friends!" Kurt protested, gazing at him with wide amber eyes. "I vant to be friends very very much, it is just zat I also vant more. If zat is vat you want-"
"I want that," Peter agreed, leaning in and kissing Kurt's forehead.
Kurt leaned up and kissed him. Peter would have assumed that it would be weird to kiss someone with fangs because the fangs were all pointy, but actually it was pretty nice, and definitely something that he thought he could get used to.
Kurt pulled away after a few moments, a faint blush back on his face. "I zink zat... you need to be careful in future. You could have gotten hurt trying to help me."
"You're worth it," Peter told him, making Kurt giggle slightly, and blush harder.
"I vill try to be," Kurt promised, and reached out to squeeze his hand. "I vant to be... I vant to fight with you. You made me feel like zis is my home."
"It is your home."
"I know zat," Kurt answered. "But it is my home because it is vere you are. And i vant..." Kurt smiled shyly up at him, his tail twitching from side to side in obvious nerves, which Peter couldn't help thinking was the most adorable thing ever. "I vant to be your home too."
Peter grinned. He was going to be stuck on bedrest and recovery for weeks, and Magneto still didn't give two hoots about him. But he had friends, and he had stuff he could do, and he had Kurt. Things were going well. "You are my home."