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Peter was always weird about people touching his things. Most people don't like when others touch their things without permission, but Peter cares a lot about highly specific things. For Kitty, she would be upset if someone touched something a friend gave her. For John, he didn't want people touching his lighters and matches. For Kurt, people touching his tail is off limits, but that's more of a physical thing. However, Peter gets upset to the point where he might start crying if someone touched his plate, or his glass, or his silverware, anything he eats off of, really.
He hated it if someone touched something that was meant to touch his mouth or that would touch something he's meant to eat. That's his big issue. It's normal to not want to use a fork that fell on the floor, but he won't use one that was set on the table. It had to be on a napkin or on his plate, and he had to put it there. If Kurt filled Peter's glass, he had to be careful not to touch a specific side of it because that's the side Peter liked to drink from. If Kurt was handing him a plate or a bowl, he was sure to not touch the inside of either. It didn't matter how well he washed his hands, Peter would silently start to break down at the thought of using something that was dirty.
Kurt learned all of that the hard way.
He was the school's newest arrival, and quickly became Peter's closest (and only) friend. The first night Kurt was at the school, he noticed Peter walk over to the only spot that didn't have a table setting. “Sit there, I'll be right back,” Peter said, pointing to the seat next to the empty one. Peter flickered in and out of sight and returned with his own table setting. Kurt didn't question it out loud, but he was definitely confused.
They sat next to each other at dinner one night and Kurt offered to serve Peter something that was on the other side of him. Peter accepted and thanked him, but saw Kurt holding his plate, his fingers spread underneath it to keep it up, but his thumb hooked over the lip to keep it balanced. Anything that was on that side of the plate was untouched. Kurt was just happy to help him. He didn't know he did anything wrong because Peter never said anything about it.
Kurt had been having trouble sleeping so Hank prescribed him some sleep meds. He was instructed to take them with dinner, so he brought them in a little vial down to the dining hall. During dinner, he took his meds with the glass that was closest to him. Kurt looked around, feeling several pairs of eyes on him and the group surrounding him was silent.
“That was…” Peter started. “Nevermind.”
Kurt was confused. He looked at Peter and back down at the hand that was holding the glass on the table. Oh. That was Peter's glass.
“Oh, Peter, I am sorry. I have not used mine, you can have it,” Kurt apologized, giving Peter his untouched glass.
To Kurt it was untouched. To Peter it was disgusting. “No, it's fine,” Peter insisted, poking at his food with his fork. “I'm gonna go upstairs. Anyone want this?” He offered the rest of his food to other people and Piotr took it. After handing Piotr his plate, he was gone.
Kurt looked around at the people who were still watching him. “Vhat did I do?” He asked.
“Peter is…” Kitty started, trying to be nice.
“Picky,” Bobby finished for her.
“A spoiled brat,” John said snarkily.
“That's not it and you guys know it,” Kitty elbowed Bobby since she couldn't reach John from where she was sitting.
“He has problem with eating,” Piotr said.
John rolled his eyes. “There's something wrong with him. If someone even breathes near his food he immediately loses his appetite.”
Kurt nodded. “I do not know vhat to say to him, zhen.”
“Just say you're sorry. He'll be upset with you for maybe five minutes until he'll redirect that onto himself,” Bobby said.
“I vill talk to him later,” Kurt said.
“He's usually in the kitchen around 11:30 if he doesn't get enough to eat at dinner because of something like that,” Rogue told him.
“Has Dr. McCoy checked him for OCD?” Scott asked.
Jean closed her eyes for a moment. “No, but he's thought about bringing him in. Apparently Professor Xavier knows how Peter acts and has asked Dr. McCoy to talk to him.”
“Good. Fix him,” John muttered.
“There's nothing to ‘fix’,” Kitty said, reaching through Bobby to slap John on the shoulder.
“I don't know if anything can,” Jean said. “The Professor has asked me to try doing exposure therapy with him, but when he tried eating something with a setting I gave him he started crying. Peter even saw me put everything out there, I made sure not to touch anywhere that would upset him!”
Kurt tuned out the rest of their conversation and finished his dinner before going upstairs. He wanted to do what Rogue suggested and check on him later in the kitchen, but he just took his sleep meds and Hank said they should kick in about 30 minutes after he takes them. He decided that in the morning he'd talk to Peter.