Kurt and Amanda; Kurt and Laurie; Kurt and Wanda

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Amanda shows up at Kurt's door to borrow his shower, and gets a call from Wanda wanting books that are in her car. Being covered in soot, she sends Kurt to retrieve them and take them to the brownstone. After a brief conversation with Laurie on the way, he does so... but not all the books he brings are the expected ones.



You just had to push it, didn't you?, Amanda berated herself as she made her way up to the staff floor and Kurt's room. With Angelo in Ireland for the wedding, and Marie busy doing something, Kurt's was the logical next choice. She got more than a few odd looks as she passed people in the halls, but then again, being covered in soot from head to toe tended to get you those. Bouyed by her success with the elemental spell, strange as it was in its urban form, she'd decided to have another go at Air. The cloud of soot hadn't been quite what she'd anticipated, and there was no way she was going back to New York like this.

Her knuckles left little black smears on the door as she knocked. "Kurt? You in?" she called hopefully. "Little sister in distress here."

He opened the door with a smile, which vanished into bemusement as he saw the soot all over her. "...what have you been doing? And do you need to borrow my shower?"

"Please? I don't want to get this shite all over my car." Amanda's eyes were big and pleading in her blackened face, and her bottom lip stuck out a little. "I was practicing, and a spell went up in my face. Literally."

He eyed her in amusement, standing aside from the door. "You do not have to give me that face just for use of the bathroom. Save it for bigger things."

She stuck her tongue out at him as she moved past him into his suite, careful not to touch anything or shake off too much of the mess on her clothes. "Well, I'm probably going to have to borrow some clothes as well, so..." she said, pulling a face at the taste of soot. "Do you have any of those girl clothes left from when you got swapped? Or a pair of sweat pants and a shirt?" She figured she could roll up the legs of the pants well enough to get home.

"I am sure I can find something suitable. And a plastic bag", he added with a glance at her outfit. "Or two."

"Oh, funny man, is it? Maybe I should give you a big, sisterly hug for that..." There was a shrill ringing from the pocket of her jeans, and she jumped a little. "Bloody phone always scares the shite out of me," she muttered, digging in her pocket for it. Flipping it open (and leaving soot all over it) she held it to her ear. "Hey, Boss Lady. What's up?"

She listened for a moment, her expression changing. "Oh, shite, you know, I didn't even realise I had those. Yeah, they're in my car - I was doing some work the other day when Arizona came up and I completely forgot. When do you need them?" Another pause, punctuated by Amanda glancing at her watch. "Fuck, there's no way in the state I'm in right now that I can do that." Then her glance moved to Kurt, and her expression brightened. "Hang on a tick, Boss Lady, I might have an answer." Covering the phone with one hand, she asked Kurt, brightly. "So, feel up for a quick bamf to Wanda's place? I've got some books she needs pretty urgent sitting in my car."

She was going to turn on the little-sister pout again if he so much as hesitated, Kurt knew... and it wasn't as if seeing Wanda would be a hardship. He smiled slightly. "I suppose I could manage that."

"Brilliant." Amanda's word echoed her smile, teeth very white in her sooty face. "Wanda? 'S fine - Kurt'll get them to you - I'll get him to get them out of my car while I'm in the shower... Nah, powers accident. Angelo's in Ireland, remember? I'll tell you the whole gory story when I see you." Folding closed her phone, Amanda stuffed it back into her pocket. "Kurt, you're a life saver - is it okay if I give you my keys and you go down and get the stuff out of my car? I should only have a few books in there - just grab whatever you see and I'll sort things out later?" She gestured at herself. "I probably shouldn't go anywhere near a book right now."

"It would not be good for them at all", Kurt agreed solemnly. "Yes, I will do it. Though I hope your keys were safe in your pocket." No, he wasn't going to stop teasing her.

She stuck her tongue out at him again. "They're fine," she told him, pulling them out of her front pocket with a jingle and dangling them in front of him. "Thanks, Blue - I owe you dinner or something for this."

Kurt reached out to take the keys. "I will hold you to - " He cut off as a sooty hand was firmly wiped down his face.

"Just sharing the love!" she told him, mischievously, before skipping back out of reach and fleeing to the bathroom. "I'll try not to use all your soap!" she called over her shoulder.

********************

Kurt still had a streak of soot down his face as he made his way to Amanda's car, keys in hand. She'd already gone into the bathroom and shut the door before he remembered he'd need to wash too, and it wasn't as if it mattered all that much. So, he'd just take the books to Wanda and wash his face later.

Laurie noticed Kurt walking toward the cars in the driveway, and followed him curiously with her eyes for a moment. He appeared to have had some sort of encounter with a chimney sweep considering the soot on his face. "Alright there, Mr Sefton?" she called out.

He looked up at her with a ready smile. "Fine, thank you, Laurie. How are you?"

"Good. You're looking like an extra from Mary Poppins though, what happened?" Laurie asked, curiosity outweighing her normal respect for a teacher's privacy.

"If you mean the hair, Monet", he answered, the smile turning wry. "If you mean the soot, my dear little sister decided to take revenge for being teased."

Laurie blinked for a second, trying to figure out why he was calling her Monet and then realised he was referring to the fact his hair was pink and Monet had done it. "What did she do?" Laurie asked, curious about just what revenge Amanda had wrought.

"Oh, nothing very much. Just shared some of the soot she was covered with, then locked herself in my bathroom to take a shower."

"Why was she covered in soot?" Laurie asked, trying to hide a grin behind her hand. It wouldn't be nice to laugh but she was hard pressed to keep a straight face.

"Something to do with a spell she was practising that went off in her face, she said", Kurt relayed. He wasn't entirely unamused himself.

"Does that happen a lot?" Laurie asked, remembering the out of control light that Amanda usually had good control of. "Her having spells go off in her face?"

"Not that I've known of", he said, not overly concerned. "But, I suppose, she is relearning her powers, trying new things... powers accidents do happen, in those situations."

"I guess." Laurie replied, looking back toward the school. She'd promised to meet her suitemates for some movie watching. "I've just never seen her powers go all wonky before. It just seemed weird."

He caught the glance, and smiled. "Do not let me keep you, Laurie, if you have plans. I am sure there is nothing to worry about with Amanda."

"You'd tell me if there was though, right?" Laurie said, starting to walk backwards slowly as she did. "She's been good to us kids, I don't want to see her get hurt."

"If there was anything you could help with in any way", he offered, "I would tell you immediately."

"Gonna hold you to that." Laurie said with a grin, abruptly turning around and taking off at a run. "Try not to get hit with anything else colour or soot related!"

********************

Scowling, Wanda closed the cover to another book and shoved it out of the way. There was only so much she could glean out of the books she had with her and while the project she was on wasn't urgent to the point of death or anything, it was still something she wanted done and out of the way. But hopefully there would be a quick delivery soon and she could continue on.

She wouldn't have to wait long. Only a few minutes later, there was the familiar sound of Kurt's teleportation. The usual smell followed a moment later, though he'd gone for right by the front door, to limit the amount of apartment affected by the smoke.

"I swear, I just might staple an air freshener to you somewhere," Wanda said, smiling as she stood. She saw that he was, indeed, carrying things and clasped her hands in front of her. "You are a life saver and so is Amanda for remembering she had those." There was a pause and then a snort. "The pink is fetching, Kurt."

He'd brought every book he could find in the car, unsure which ones Amanda had meant and knowing he could just put any extras back in the car on his return, or bring them to her later. There was still soot on his face, though he at least made an effort to brush it off. "You are welcome. I hope these are the ones you needed. And thank you. Monet seemed pleased with it."

Wanda caught the movement and gave him a weird look as she took the books from him. "Why on earth are you sooty? You look like you've been climbing in a slightly dirty chimney." As she talked, she walked back to her table and started to sort, a little surprised to see how many books had been brought over. That couldn't be right...

"Amanda decided to share", he said wryly, omitting to mention it was because he'd teased her mercilessly from the moment he opened the door. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes, of course," she replied, sounding distracted. Holding a volume up, she turned to Kurt, frowning. "Where did you get this at?"

"...from Amanda's car", he said slowly. "I did not know which ones she meant for you, so I brought them all."

Ignoring Kurt, Wanda turned back and quickly sorted the books into two piles. She looked confused, and a bit worried, as she pulled one of the stacks closer to her. "These were the books that went missing," she said. "Did Amanda say anything about finding them? I was sure if she had she would have told me."

"Not to me", Kurt said with a frown. "And I would think she would have mentioned it, when she asked me to bring them, to make sure I picked up those as well."

Flipping through the books, she kept frowning, an edge of worry creeping in. "What spell was she doing earlier? The one with the soot?"

"She did not say", he told her. "Just that it had backfired as she did some practice."

"None of this is making any sense," Wanda murmured. "I noticed a power jump the other day but did not think much of it." George had looked, and acted, rather robust, along with Amanda's shielding spell and there really had not been that much of a city to draw from.

"...that is not the only oddity", Kurt said after a moment, reluctantly. "I do not know if you noticed her apology to Cain on the journals?"

"What happened?"

"It seems she has recently refreshed the wards on the mansion, the more supernatural kind of security, and... somehow this time they were powerful enough to keep Cain out. He spent the night in the boathouse until she could undo it."

"Well." Wanda blinked. "I haven't really spoken to her much about her powers lately but I think I'm starting to get worried. Especially with these missing books..." It wasn't sitting right with her, none of it was.

"What are the books?" Kurt asked, intent and more than slightly concerned.

"The ones I asked you to bring over are research books, most of them focusing on the why's and who's." A hand reached over and tapped the second stack before resting against the top of the books. "These contain actual magic and power, and they were part of Stephen's collection that he asked us to keep safe."

Kurt kept his hands well away from the second stack, eyeing them warily. "And where were you keeping them?"

At that, Wanda gave him an amused look and pointed to the walls. There was not one wall that didn't have a bookcase on it somehow and all of them were full. "With the rest of them. They're in order, of course, and these were in the section by the bedroom."

He nodded. "I only wondered if they were somewhere more secure. They would not have been hard to find, then, for someone who knew what they were, even if not exactly where?"

Wanda nodded reluctantly. "No, they really would not have been. All you need is to get into the apartment, really."

He turned to glance at the door, knowing he'd see nothing. "And for a person skilled enough... what kind of security do you have on the apartment?" He was, all too clearly, grasping at anything but the obvious answer.

"More than adequate." Wanda's words were now clipped, not in anger at Kurt, but in growing frustration.

"And that means?" he asked shortly. "Mundane, or magical?"

"Magical because, really, who would want to break in here with us?"

"Certainly not someone who knew what they were looking for, unless it was something they wanted or needed very much", Kurt allowed grimly.

Wanda stared at him, the look on her face stubborn. "I can tell where this is leading," she said quietly, "and I have never been one to step around the issue. You think this is pointing toward's Amanda, yes? She's been pushing herself so very hard since she'd been taken and maybe...I don't know. I have my doubts but maybe she is pushing herself so hard in this direction...?"

"If I could see any other explanation, I would take it", Kurt said helplessly. "She is my sister - I do not want to think this of her. But you have just told me the security here is more than adequate, except for someone who can get safely past magical security without alerting Amanda. Can you think of anyone else who might have known the books were in your apartment, and could reach them?"

"No," she admitted, turning to stare out one of the windows. "There are several reasons why she could be doing it but we won't find out unless we ask her. I do not want to spend time speculating behind her back...we would just run ourselves in circles and it would not be helpful to Amanda, innocent or guilty."

"Then perhaps we should ask her. As you say, it would not be either helpful or fair to go about things in any other way."

"Agreed. Let me put these away, first..." Now that there would be action, Wanda felt better. Whatever happened, if it turned out Amanda did or did not do this, there would be an explanation. And they could work from there, whatever it happened to be.