WHO: Raven Darkholme and Kurt Wagner WHEN: recently WHERE: Hinkles WHAT: They discuss something they should have discussed in the damn movie! WARNINGS: Talk of death, child abandonment, horrible mutant things STATUS: gdoc, complete
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Mystique walked into Hinkles, after adjusting to her surroundings. The town wasn’t too big and the technology made a huge jump since she had last seen it. She was able to use a map on her phone to find it. Amazing. Scary, but amazing.
The burger place didn’t seem like the best place to have this conversation. But it was a public place, which meant Kurt wouldn’t try to kill her or yell at her. Whichever was worse.
She scanned the restaurant, as a blonde with a big black floppy hat and a sundress on. It was all shapeshifted onto her. She could do that sort of thing, she could look like anyone, dress like anything.
She spotted Kurt and sat across from him. “Hello, Kurt.”
---
Kurt hadn’t had the foggiest idea of where to meet Raven. Mystique. Whatever she preferred to call herself these days. But it was a public place, and it was where he felt safest meeting the woman. He wasn’t exactly sure what the woman he was meeting was going to look like this time, but he had an idea that it wasn’t going to be as a blue mutant.
He wished he had that option sometimes.
“Do you prefer Raven or Mystique,” he asked when she sat across from him. First things first, right? His German accent was a little heightened as he spoke, but not on purpose. It was what happened when he was nervous. At least he was remembering to speak English.
He had ordered his usual burger and fries, but discovered that he didn’t have much of an appetite. He was pushing around the same fry.
***
“You can call me whatever you’re more comfortable with. I want you to be comfortable. What’s your mutant name?” She spoke softly to him, knowing full well what she did to him was wrong. And that his father was dead. And Raven didn’t think she’d ever see him again-- and now here he was, grown up and not in need of her. So maybe she made the right choice.
---
Kurt was silent for a moment, considering her words. She wanted him to be comfortable. Now, of all times. Why couldn’t she have wanted him to be comfortable when he was growing up. His voice was soft when he spoke, “They called me Nightcrawler at the Munich Circus,” he offered. “So I suppose that works as well as anything.” He studied her, his head tilting slightly.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t the child you wanted,” he said finally.
***
“No,” she pleaded with him. “No, don’t say that. I couldn’t have a baby. I couldn’t hide you. You didn’t … shift the way I did. Keeping you a secret was hard for my job. My job was to protect mutants. And I failed that, I failed you. I failed your father, Azazel. He was killed by Trask. They used him for experiments. It was all too much, Kurt. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She reached out for his hand, her own hand scaling up and turning blue as she touched him if allowed.
---
“But you’re blue, Raven. You of all people should know how hard it is, trying to be like everyone else. But at least you can make yourself look like everyone else. You can blend in. The most I can do? Blend in with the shadows and hope no one sees me.” He sighed softly, and just shook his head. “I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing in your position, to be honest.”
He allowed the blue hand to touch his, and he looked up at the woman. “At least I can teleport out of a bad situation. That’s something, right?”
***
She didn’t say it aloud, but that’s how he survived. He teleported off that bridge she threw him off of. When they were chasing her. “What can I do to make it up to you? Can I? Is it even in the realm of possibility?” She drew her hand away and folded them in front of her. “I was fighting so we wouldn't have to hide. I was fighting for the dead ones, my friends.” She hoped somehow, this would sway him. What she did was unforgivable.
---
Kurt sighed softly. He was angry with her, yes. Abandoning her child like that… but he could understand why. He truly could. He would have made it hard on her to blend in, he would have made it difficult for her to do any of the things she planned on doing.
“I don’t know, Raven. I mean… you mean a lot to the Professor. Charles. And to Erik. But it’s going to be difficult for me, you know? Just sitting here is difficult. I wasn’t a wanted child, I know that. But I also know how hard I would have made things for you. But you threw me off a bridge.”
***
“I wanted to keep you. That’s why I didn’t get an abortion. I wanted to raise you, my beautiful blue baby. I had to make a choice. I was being chased when they discovered you. They pulled me from the house and dragged me through the street as I held onto you.” She took a deep breath, trying to not relive that moment.
“I don’t know if I mean anything to Erik. He tried to shoot me to save the mutant race. I would have done the same to him, but the fucker shot me.”
---
Kurt bit his lower lip lightly, and just shook his head. “I wish you had come to me sooner, Raven. I didn’t know what I was, I didn’t know why I was so different from everyone else I knew, everyone else I encountered. I was the only person of my color I knew, and I didn’t know why. I was the only person who could teleport. I was accepted at the circus, yes, but only as a novelty. A freak. It wasn’t until I met Charles that I knew I was okay. That I knew I wasn’t a freak, that there were others out there like me. Actually… it wasn’t until I saw you on the news that I figured that out.”
***
“On the news, stopping Magneto? Or when I jumped out of the window and he shot me?” She was curious, but that wasn’t the point. The point was she abandoned him. “I didn’t know where to find you. I was looking. There was a mutant that could track other mutants, Caliban. I had to find him first.”
---
“Stopping Magneto.” He reached toward Raven for a second, “This is not the Erik you remember, Raven. He comes from a time before all that happened. He won’t know he shot you, he won’t know why. Maybe it’s for the best that he doesn’t know.” He sighed softly. “You had a reason for leaving me behind, right? You wouldn’t have done it without a reason. Just like Erik shooting you, there had to be a reason. ...you can’t expect me to be okay with everything, especially if you can’t be okay with the Erik who is here.” He leaned back against his chair, and proceeded to play with the fries in front of him. “Erik’s okay here. He’s a good guy. He’s made sure I’m okay, multiple times. I drunkenly crashed on his couch, and he didn’t care.”
***
“He’ll turn one day. He’ll go mad from it all. Unless Charles can stop him from it.” She didn’t want to hear about Erik. She wanted to hear about Kurt. “You were in the circus? And you can teleport?” Raven reached for one of his fries and nibbled on it. “Azazel could teleport. He also had a tail like you.”
---
“Charles may be able to stop him from it. The two are rather close, Charles may have some influence over him. I’m not sure. But I really don’t think that Erik is going to try to kill you, Raven.” He nodded at her questions, “I was in the Munich Circus for a long time. They pretty much raised me. Then I ended up in East Berlin, they were trying to make me fight other mutants. One was named Angel. You know, the whole demon angel thing.” There was a slight smile when Raven reached over for one of his fries. “You can have them. I’m not very hungry.”
He considered telling her about himself, it was what she seemed to want. “I can teleport. Charles has been helping me with it, while I’ve been here. He bought me dinner for my birthday. I’ve been living with a man named Sam Wilson, because I was seventeen when I arrived here and needed a guardian.”
***
“Where do you live now? You’re eighteen now?” She was glad Charles took care of Kurt while she wasn’t here. She was glad someone did. Raven didn’t know who Sam was, but she was thankful for him, too. “Did you and Charles talk about me? He took me in as a child.”
---
“I’m eighteen, yes. I still live with Sam. I work at the pizza delivery place. Apparently it’s the place to work if you can deliver pizza quickly.” He shrugged a bit at this. “I knew you and Charles were close when you were younger. I told Erik and Charles what I knew of you. We didn’t talk too much about it, though. I don’t really like to talk about it.” He stole one of the fries he said Raven could have. “They gave you an apartment, right?”
***
“Yes, they gave me an apartment.” She didn’t know if she should offer to let Kurt live with her. It would be weird, your mother showing up and kidnapping you from your foster father. She was quiet for some time before saying it, “Would you… like to live with me? Or are you set with Sam? Or you can come over anytime you want. I want to get to know you. Charles is dead set on me settling down and telling me we’re safe here.”
---
Kurt wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that. He didn’t want Sam to feel like he was abandoning him just because Raven arrived in Madison Valley. He wasn’t sure he’d be comfortable living with Raven. But… it might be a good thing. He had wanted to know his mother while he was growing up. Now he had a chance to know her.
“We are safe here. The only threat on my life I’ve had is by some guy who swears I stole his girlfriend from him.”
He sighed softly, knowing he had to give her an answer to her question.
“I… will,” he said, a bit hesitantly. He knew how hard adjusting to Madison Valley was. He knew that with Charles and Erik being from a different time period than Raven would be hard as well. He didn’t want to push her away, when he had a chance to get to know her. “I’ll need to talk to Sam.”
What was he getting himself into?
***
“You will?” She was surprised, she didn’t think he’d want to. She wanted to spend time with him, as much as possible. She wanted to make him dinner and give him a curfew. But he was 18 and she missed out on all that. The least she could do was give him a place to sleep where she slept.
“I’ll start making up the room.” What was she getting herself into?”
---
Kurt was just as surprised as she was that he had agreed. It hadn’t been what he had been expecting to come out of tonight. He nodded at her question, though, “I will.” He just wasn’t sure how he was going to tell Sam.
“Just give me some time, yeah? I need to tell Sam and get my stuff together.” He smiled at her.