Fanfic time: Misfits part 61

Continued from yesterday:

  Eventually, they had fallen asleep in each other’s embrace on the couch. Logan apparently didn’t mind, since nobody ever got into trouble while sleeping. And even if they did, the point was they wouldn’t be awake to enjoy it. That and the kids looked like they needed it. Naturally, When Logan discovered them thus, he had the obligatory heart attack (fortunately a manly silent one that Todd and Sara wouldn’t wake to) and sniffed the air for evidence. There had been no evidence of anyone having fun, so Logan had draped a blanket over them both and walked out again. He didn’t go too far. 

  Todd was dreaming. Trapped in the exhausted sleep that keeps one firmly in place for whatever is to come. Eventually the dream got deep enough to spin a plot. People always say that when things in dreams defy all reason, they become unafraid because they know it’s a dream and that it isn’t real. Knowing what’s real and what’s a dream isn’t nearly as easy as some people tend to convince themselves after they’ve woken up screaming. 

  Todd was currently being dissected in a classroom. There was no blood, no real wounds, but there was pain and things were opening. Things he didn’t want anyone seeing. Every slice, every incision made and something leaked out of it. He couldn’t hear the commentary, but he could see their faces. All the faces, all except the one holding the knife, making the cuts. There was no noise other than the ones memories made. Nobody laughed or jeered, nobody even smirked. They just watched. But there was one face that held an expression Todd couldn’t stand. More specificaly, he couldn’t stand it on her. 

  Sara was over him, dabbing at the cuts, trying to help. Everytime she touched a slit in the flesh, Todd felt her suddenly know things. And the more she knew, the more pitying that expression became. 

  He yelped and he tried to move away from her, but no matter what he tried he couldn’t move from the table, from the knife, and out of Sara’s eyesight. Todd snapped back to himself in the darkness, panting and shivering. His eyes were wet as he laid curled in Sara’s arms. Todd listened as her breath drew in and out in the even measure of deep sleep. Good, he hadn’t woken her. Still shuddering, Todd snuggled back down beside her. 

  He couldn’t have known, but at the moment, Sara was in a deep dream of her own in which she was looking for her father. She was on the dock, waving at him as he sailed in toward her on a small boatcraft. Everytime it came close, waves batted it back into the ocean. Sara was calling for him, holding a candle in the sputtering wind and trying to shield it. She wanted her father here. It had been too damn long a vigil. The intensity of her dream somehow kept the normally insomnia-suffering Chameleon locked under thick layers of sleep. 

  For Todd, this was just fine. He’d rather she not wake to see him cry. _Stupid, yo. Cause you still hurtin’ bout something that happened, she’s gotta suffer tryin’ t'make it better. The fuck you kiddin, ain’t nobody should stick around for that shit._ He buried his face against her arms, recoiling from the truth of his own inner voice. _Ain’t worth it. You ain’t worth it. She’d just pity you anyway._ His eyes stung and he had to try very hard to keep hitching breaths from turning into sobbing. The pressure built up behind them an became nearly unbearable. A few moments later and Todd realized he was silently but efficiently getting Sara’s shirt all wet. _Fuck, you idiot! She gonna wake up from that!_ It didn’t make him stop. 

  _Pathetic._ No matter what he tried, he couldn’t stop his thoughts now. _You ain’t worth shit. You can’t even trust her. Manny’s gonna keep on hurting you, and yo gonna keep freakin’ out and she’s gonna go nuts cause you can’t fight yo own battles. Worthless._

  The word’s continued on like that, until something intervened. It was a peculiar sensation; akin to a soft white arm sweeping the next wave of insults away as if they were papers on a tabletop. There was a new voice to replace the other, more sardonic version of his own. _You are worthwhile,_ she whispered. Todd couldn’t really hear it, but he could feel the love from those words sweep through his mind like fingers combing his hair. Fingers he didn’t mind touching him - that hadn’t ever tried to hurt him all her life. _I thought so. I thought so the moment you were put in my arms. You were worth so much to me._ Cool sensation on his skin - a kiss? Todd knew that voice. He ached for it just as much as he was comforted by it. Never in all his life had he heard her memory so clearly in his mind. He’d just been hearing the bad things. _She sees you as her match, Todd. Ain’t no pity there, not ever pity. I know there isn’t. You treat her right, honey. She loves you._

  His tears were drying on his face, though he felt like he had more. _I know, Mom,_ he thought back to her. A final flare of rememberance - the scent of her perfume and a snippet of a sung lullaby, and she was gone. Todd lay awake in the darkness, holding Sara close as she held him. _I love her too._

  “But are you sure it’s not… you know, intruding?" 

  "Liebe, if it’s intruding, Todd has the freedom to flip me the bird. It’s just an offer. He needs someone to talk to. Someone who isn’t Sara.”

  Amanda frowned a little, walking beside him through the dark hall. She hadn’t really questioned him when he tapped on her window, thinking he just wanted to watch the stars with her for an hour out of the night. She could read Kurt’s worry about Todd to the point where some of it was rubbing off on her. It was good that Todd and Sara had found each other, and seeing them together reminded her of her own happiness with Kurt. But sometimes she couldn’t help but be concerned that Kurt got a little too worried with others’ problems. Especially if he thought he could do help. It was something he could get (and had gotten) stung by. 

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want Kurt to help. Amanda was fretting more that Todd would take things the wrong way and explode in anger at Kurt. He was right though. Todd did need *someone*. 

  “I take it you did your behavior-reading thing again?” she asked Kurt as they rounded a corner. He remained quiet, but Amanda saw his expression turn sheepish. “What did you find that he can’t spill his guts to Sara about?”

  “I might be wrong of course. But trust me, liebe, there are some things a guy just doesn’t want his girl to know." 

  "You mean when girls don’t want their guys to know certain things about monthly woes?” Amanda smirked. 

  Kurt rolled his eyes, but he smiled. “Let’s leave that one right where it lies. It’s close enough.” He stopped in front of the place Sara and Todd were sleeping and listened to the breathing. “Well, one of them’s asleep.” Not many people were up this early, but it was the only time Kurt would be able to talk to Todd in private without risk of eavesdropping. He took a slight breath and looked at Amanda. She nodded, knowing her task. Kurt pushed the door a little and took a step in. “Allo?” he called softly, not wanting to startle anyone. 

  There was movement on the couch and a tousled frog-boy sat up, blinking over the back of the sofa to peer at Kurt. “What?” he rasped, sounding confused. Kurt took a cautious step forward. 

  “Sara still asleep?” the elf asked casually, keeping his voice low. 

  Todd turned to look down for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah. Surprisingly. Guess I been too high maintenance.”

  Kurt frowned a little at Todd’s tone. “You want something to eat?" 

  Todd was still staring at Sara’s face. It looked a bit pale, bluish because of her scales but a lighter shade. And that expression. Was she dreaming? Todd clambered off her and flushed when he saw how wet her shirt had gotten. He tugged a blanket over her and smoothed down the edges around her, stealthy as a cat so as not to wake her. 

  He still hadn’t answered Kurt’s question. "Drink?” Kurt ventured. 

  Todd had the makings of a beautiful dehydration headache. “Sure,” he said. “I could use a glass of water. Bet she could too.” He got up carefully and walked around the couch. Kurt was able to take in the way he walked, the hunch of his shoulders and the eyes glued to the floor. Todd looked as drained as he had when Mystique still ran things. Dragon-scarred. Kurt offered a smile to the boy as he passed, which Todd neither recognized or responded to. Definitely dragon-scarred. He exchanged a glance with Amanda who nodded and walked into the room to sit with Sara. She’d read there, just so Sara would know where Todd was when she woke up. 

+

  Todd was a bit more responsive when he’d had his third glass of water. Judging by the red about his eyes, which Todd probably wasn’t aware of yet, he was going to need plenty more. Kurt was in the process of making some coffee. “So… I take it you’re declaring holiday from school today?”

  “Yeah,” Todd muttered. “Wouldn’t you if some weird creep you knew tried starting up shit again?" 

  Kurt blinked. Todd didn’t keep things very close to the vest in the early scrambled hours. "That teacher?”

  Todd realized his mistake mid-gulp. He grimaced as he swallowed then thumped the glass on the table, sloshing water on his shirt. “Damn. I shouldn’t talk to anybody til I’ve had coffee." 

  He brought up the dry end of his shirt and tried to mop the water up. Kurt came over with a towel. "Here.” He dried the table with a few swipes and tossed the towel to land beside the sink. He sat down across from Todd. “Probably a good idea to stay home for today. But you know, you can’t do it forever." 

  "Wanna bet?" 

  "You’d let Sara go to school alone with said creep?”

  Todd looked up sharply. He hadn’t thought of that. “Dude, no. He… he’s harmless now." 

  Kurt looked pointedly at Todd’s blistered hands. "Doesn’t seem harmless.”

  He crossed his arms with an exasperated huff, hiding his hands from Kurt’s view. “It’s me he wants to mess with." 

  "If that’s so, he’s not going to just stay at school and wait for you to show up again.”

  “Look fuzzy, he don’t even know who I am. He thinks my name is Kenny!”

  “When you stop showing up to school he’ll figure it out, man.”

  Todd groaned in frustration, mostly because Kurt had a point. Several of them. Damn him. “So that means what, I have to go to school and pretend everything’s okay?" 

  "Nein.” Kurt took a breath. “It’s not easy for me to suggest this, because it’s the last thing I’d do if I were in your place. But you have to go to the –" 

  "What, Principal Kelly? I have to go blabbing everything to the counselor maybe? Or to Xavier? Forget it man! That’s more humilation than I need. I can deal with the creep, I got kickin’ powers! He comes one step too close to me or Sara or anybody else, and I’ll kick him through the wall! And who are you to act like you’d know what it’d be like in my place?! Huh? How the fuck would you know?!”

  Kurt looked at him steadily, keeping eye contact. Todd glared back for a few moments. Then realization hit him, hard. He sat down slowly, still staring at Kurt. “Fuckin’ Christ. You know what this is all about, don’t you?” Todd asked weakly. “You know what he did…?”

  “…I have a pretty good idea." 

  The silence was awkward and long. Kurt waited it out patiently while Todd wavered between embarrassment, guilt, and fear. 

  "I know you had dragons too, dawg. But I didn’t know any of yo dragons did that kinda shit,” he managed finally. 

  “I didn’t always have the inducer,” Kurt answered softly. “Certain people took an interest." 

  "Lemme guess. They wanted something exotic?” The frog-boy muttered. 

  Kurt shrugged and let the gesture vaguely affirm it. “And you?”

  “Well, not really. I’m happy to say that was all before the six-foot tongue developed,” Todd said darkly. He’d kept his mouth clean. Manny’d been more interested doing things to him than the other way around. As it was, Todd had bitten Manny’s hands more than a few times. No punishment had ever quite managed to beat that reflex out of him. It was therefore a matter of importance to keep sensitive anatomy well out of range of the boy’s teeth. 

  “So… so knowin’ all that, you must know that it’s gonna be hell if I go to anyone. Especially Kelly. What if he don’t believe me?”

  “He’ll believe you if he can be bothered into doing a background check." 

  "And if he can’t be bothered?”

  Kurt grinned without humor. “Trust me. He’ll be bothered." 

+

  Sara couldn’t feel the comforting weight on her any longer, yet her body still felt as heavy and wooden as a log. She had a headache starting and part of her shirt was damp. Sara blinked at it, and noticed the lack of Todd. She sat up too soon and the headache pounced. "Ooogh. Todd?” she called, leaning back slower than she’d sat up. A glass of cold water was pressed into her hand. Sara’s eyes refocused onto a smiling black girl’s face. “Hey. Todd’s in the kitchen. Didn’t think you’d wake so soon." 

  "Todd’s in the kitchen?” Sara drank the water and started to return to herself a little. The armchair across from the couch was indented and there was a book overturned across the cushion. A small light was on, filling the room with a rosy orange tint. “Is he okay?” she asked, more awake. 

  “He should be. Kurt’s with him. I haven’t heard any explosions yet. I think they might be cooking breakfast.” Amanda sniffed the air. “There’s the coffee at least." 

  Sara could smell it too. She took another sip of her water, shaken by the unfamiliarity of waking this far before sunlight. The sky outside was still dark, just barely turning a lighter purple around the edges. Dawn and the sun was far from coming to her aid. "I didn’t finish my dream,” Sara muttered. She knew she’d had one too, about her father. She couldn’t yet remember all of it. Dreams were so frustrating when they turned smoky. She took another few gulps from the water glass.

  “So… you’re here. You’ve been waiting for a while. How long ago did Kurt kidnap my poor boyfriend for guy-talk?”

  Amanda chuckled. “Todd was already awake. Didn’t look like he got much sleep." 

  Sara looked down at the damp side of her shirt. It no longer looked damp on the surface, but she could feel the difference close to her skin. "The poor dear.” She also noticed how Todd had tucked the blanket around her, so carefully to keep her warm. “I should probably go help with breakfast then." 

  "Let the men cook,” Amanda said, curling back onto her chair. “I heard you were banned from cooking anyway on account of making Kitty gain pounds. And Kurt owes you breakfast the way he’s been ranting and raving over your porridge.”

  Sara smirked. “At least gaining weight is the only fault they find with my cooking.”

  “It keeps Kurt from going to Gut Bomb every morning. I know the boy needs calories, but he needs to stop clogging his arteries at the same time." 

  Amanda put her legs over the arm of the chair and fiddled pointlessly with the book pages. "Hey. You don’t think it’s rude of us, do you? Coming in like this?" 

  Sara read a worry in Amanda that had been trying not to blossom all night. She smiled reassuringly. "If it helps Todd in any way, it’s more than welcome.”