Chapter Text
Reconciling Differences
by Rowena Zahnrei
Part One
"There he is!"
"I see him!"
"He looks just the same as when he left!"
"Hey, Kurt! Over here!"
Kurt Wagner looked over to where his friends were waving at him from the bottom of the escalator, an enormous grin splitting his pale, hologram- shielded face.
"Hallo, meine Freunde!" he called, and waved back, hopping off the escalator and rushing over to them. "Long time, no see, ja?"
"Long time!" Scott repeated, his grin almost a match for Kurt's. "It's been almost three months, man! Summer's practically over!"
"How was the circus?" Jamie asked brightly. "I hear you really wowed the crowds!"
"But of course!" Kurt smiled, drawing himself up with a theatrical flourish. "As meine Mutti told me, any appearance by the Incredible Nightcrawler is sure to pack the house, and it had been a few years since they last saw me perform. Did you guys get my poster?"
Jean nodded, quickly unfurling a tightly rolled cylinder of thick, shiny paper.
"You bet," she said. The poster proudly featured the Incredible Nightcrawler as the star acrobat of the Szardos Bavarian Circus. It was large and festive, the bright, rich colors just tasteful enough to fall short of garish. "You look so happy on this thing, we wondered if you would want to come back here!"
Kurt shook his head.
"Nein," he told her. "The circus is wonderful, but it isn't 'real', if you know what I mean. The audience still thinks I am wearing a costume. Besides, it's not all fun. All I did for the first few days after I got there was pose for publicity photos! It was awful! But, I actually liked this poster, though."
Kitty tilted her head slightly, regarding him with a strange, narrow-eyed expression that Kurt wasn't quite sure how to interpret.
"I looked up your circus on the Internet," she said, her tone somewhat accusing. "You never told us you were so famous! I mean, you've, like, even got your own doll!"
Kurt winced, seeming rather embarrassed.
"Ach, you mean the Bamf?"
Kitty nodded, a small smile tugging at her lips despite her apparent annoyance.
"Yeah," she said. "It was so cute, I just had to order one."
Kurt's eyes widened.
"You didn't," he stated in something akin to horror.
"I did," Kitty retorted, her smile twisting into a smirk as he flushed so deeply it showed through his hologram. "It's sitting on my dresser as we speak."
"Lieber Gott!" Kurt moaned, hiding his mortified face behind his hand. "Those dolls were not my idea," he told her. "It was all Margali. She said- "
"Hey, Kurt," Bobby broke in, "is it just me, or is your accent kind of stronger than it used to be?"
Kurt shrugged, shifting his feet uncomfortably as he answered.
"I don't know. It might be. After all, I have hardly spoken a word of English for three months!" He sighed, a little sadly. "I didn't realize how much I missed German until I started using it again."
The others nodded in sympathy although they knew they couldn't really understand how he was feeling. They had never had to live in a country where they couldn't speak their first language. After a moment, he looked up, his brow furrowed.
"Where is Rogue?" he asked.
The question seemed innocent enough, but the others shared uncomfortable looks at the sudden reminder of why Kurt had left in the first place. It had been the Professor's idea that he get away from the mansion for a while to get back in touch with his adopted family in Germany. The death of his mother, the shape-shifting mutant terrorist known as Mystique, had hit Kurt very hard-despite the fact that she had abandoned him as an infant only to turn up again, years later, as one of the X-Men's most cunning and dangerous enemies. Aside from telling him that she was his mother, the two had barely even spoken to each other. It had surprised almost everyone how deeply her death had affected her estranged son, and Rogue's actions had only deepened that fierce pain.
"She...uh...," Kitty started.
"She's back at the mansion," Jean said.
"Oh," said Kurt, his expression falling slightly in disappointment as he clutched the carry-on bag hanging at his side. "I have a present for her." He brightened, his brilliant smile returning with a vengeance. "I have a present for everyone, actually! I really missed you guys while I was away."
"Presents!" Bobby grinned, looking up at Scott. "What did you get me?"
Kurt laughed.
"I'll show you when we get home, ja?" Then he sobered, suddenly appearing rather worried. "That is, if Herr Professor can-"
"Kurt," a new voice interrupted. The gathered teenagers turned as their mentor, Professor Charles Xavier, rolled towards them in his electric wheelchair. "The problem has been taken care of. You can go get your bags now."
Kurt's darkened eyes lit up, a delighted grin nearly splitting his face.
"Dankeschon, Herr Professor!" he exclaimed. "Das ist wunderbar! Where do I go?"
"Just over there," Xavier pointed across the crowded room to the baggage claim. "Number four."
As Kurt hurried off to collect his luggage, the other X-Men regarded their founder with open curiosity.
"What was that about?" Jean asked.
"Airport security was giving Kurt some trouble about his swords, so I-"
"Wait a minute," Bobby interrupted. "Did you just say 'swords'? Like, you mean swords as in 'swords'? As in real, honest-to-goodness-"
"Swords, yes," Xavier completed, his tone dry. "Three of them, very finely crafted. He had wanted to bring them with him when he first came to America several years ago, but I had refused. Now, however, I feel he is mature enough and skilled enough to handle the responsibility of owning such potentially dangerous weapons."
Bobby stared for a moment, then he started to back away towards the crowded conveyor belts.
"I think I'll go help Kurt with his luggage," he said, running off before anyone could object.
Scott frowned.
"I think I'll go too," he said. "Just in case."
Jean shot him a knowing look, and he flushed slightly before loping off on his long legs in hopes that Kurt would let him carry his swords instead of Bobby.
"So," Kitty said, speaking to herself but facing Jean. "Kurt's not only, like, totally famous, but he's a fencer too. And he's never said anything about any of it! I can't believe him!"
"Yeah," Jean said, looking over at the three excited boys. "But then, I guess that's Kurt. He lives for attention but, somehow, it never seems to go to his head."
Kitty snorted, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Maybe if it did, we wouldn't be finding out all this stuff about him now. I mean, we've known him for, like, years and everything, but right now it's like I don't even know him at all!"
"Why? Just because he brought home a few swords?" Jean shook her head. "You've always known he'd been with the circus. We've all seen him practicing his routines in the Danger Room. You could have asked him about Germany at any time, but you didn't. None of us did, really. It's not like he was deliberately keeping things from us. It's just that we never bothered to find out about the life he led before he came here."
"You're right," Kitty acknowledged, her eyes widening slightly as Kurt lifted a large, overstuffed suitcase from the conveyor belt with a surprisingly graceful ease. "And, if you ask me, it's about time we did something about that."
To Be Continued...