xp_logs | Log - Mommy Dearest

Kurt arrives at his family's camp, and has a long talk with Margali on Certain Subjects.

He'd flown in that day, getting the first available seat after he checked on where the clan currently were. He'd wasted no time in making his way to them - on actual transport, rather than 'porting, since it wasn't a site he was familiar with - and now he was standing in the doorway of Margali's caravan.

"Mother, we need to talk."

Margali lay down the mending she was doing, meeting Kurt's abrupt appearance with an implacable expression. "Come in then, Kurt," she said calmly, indicating the chair in front of her. "Sit down."

He obeyed, tail lashing nervously as he curled up in the chair. He found himself suddenly unsure of how to broach the subject, and was silent for a few minutes, thinking. Finally, he asked, "How much do you know about my birth mother?"

So, it had come to this. Margali leaned back in her chair, eyes on the nervous young man in front of her. "I've told you the story of how she came to our camp, alone and pregnant. We gave her shelter until she gave birth to you."

He nodded quickly. "I know the story, yes. But... was there nothing to tell you who she was? Nothing at all?" Realizing how this sounded, he added hastily, "I do not wish to find her. You are my mother. I... want only to know."

"Something has happened." It wasn't a question.

Another nod. "Yes. I recently underwent a routine check-up, including blood tests. During the comparison with my old results, some mistake was made, and all results anything like mine were pulled up. One set in particular was very much like mine. One taken from samples found after a security breach at the mansion." He paused. "I think perhaps you can guess whose they were."

"And you came to me for confirmation of your fears, did you not?" Margali's tone wasn't unsympathetic, but neither was it overly comforting. Kurt's foster mother was by necessity a strong woman, sometimes stern. But there was no doubt she loved her children, including Kurt. "The name she gave us was Wagner, but she has another. One you know." She paused ever-so-slightly - they were a circus family, and the dramatic, the show, ran in their veins. "Mystique."

And there was the confirmation. He'd been hoping she'd give another explanation, but there it was. He closed his eyes, nodding. "As we thought. Can I ask... how is it that you know this?" And why did you never tell me?

"For a long time I had only fragments, pieces, not the whole picture..." Margali closed her eyes, remembering. "The labour was long and hard, and she - your birth mother - she suffered. I aided her, as best I could, even when she would have no-one with her. Considering what I saw, it was not so surprising." Opening her eyes again, she met Kurt's yellow ones. "It was a glimpse, nothing more, but for the shortest moment, she was not the typical young German girl who came to our camp one dusk. She was as midnight blue as you are." She added, almost reluctantly. "You have your mother's eyes."

"...I know", he said slowly, reluctantly. "I... met her, once, more than two years ago now. I do not know how I did not see it." And he tarted to wonder, a little, if one of the others might not have noticed. "So you... saw her in the newspapers, and recognised her?"

Margali nodded. "Not for many years later - that Magneto and his Brotherhood..." She made a gesture, an old-fashioned warding against the evil eye. "Last year, there was an incident, and that one blurry photograph. When I saw it, I realised it was the person you had spoken of, the shapeshifter woman called Mystique. And the woman who left you to me."

"I wonder why she did leave me", he said quietly. "I always thought it was because she could not raise a physically mutated child, where she was, but if she was with Magneto..."

It was she who named you," Margali told him unexpectedly. "And left you with a family who would care for you, raise you with love regardless." She reached forward and touched his cheek lightly with fingertips that were roughened from hard work and outside living.

He looked up, eyes wide and startled. "She gave me my name? I... did you ever tell me that? I do not remember."

She had the grace to look ashamed. "I did not. When you were a boy, I felt... I feared if I told you that, you would try and seek her out. And after Gemile, I feared losing another child."

Kurt looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "That, I can understand. I would not have left you, though. And I will not now, more than I have already done. But I wish you had told me, when I was old enough to understand."

"One of the lessons of becoming an adult is learning one's parents are as flawed as we," Margali admitted with a brief, wry smile. "I am sorry, Kurt. You were my child, as much as any of the others, and perhaps I held on too tightly. And then once I learned who your mother was, the mortal enemy of those you align yourself with now..." She spread her hands, a helpless little gesture. "I hoped that this moment would never come, even as I knew it would." Dropping her hands into her lap again, she gave him an almost longing look. "How long can you stay? It has been too long, and Jimaine misses you. As do Stefan and I."

"I will stay for a time", he agreed readily - she was right, he had left it far too long between visits. "A week, perhaps two. And I promise you that I will visit more often, as far as I can."

"A pity that Meggan could not be here as well... still, it is a blessing that you are. Come, we shall talk further of this, but not before you have eaten." Margali rose from her chair, perhaps a little more stiffly and slowly than usual - the change in seasons was making itself felt more strongly every year. "Jimaine has been preparing the evening meal more often than not, and she does well."

"Meggan will come with me another time, perhaps. She is busy with school work just now." He didn't offer to help her up, knowing his mother's pride and dignity, but stuck close by just in case. "I look forward to eating with you again."

"And I look forward to having you with us." Margali lay her hand on Kurt's arm, half-squeezing, half leaning on it. "Your family misses you, Kurt. More than you realise."