xp_logs | Kurt and Forge, Wednesday afternoon

Kurt arrives back at the mansion, without checking his phone for any text messages he may have received, and runs into Forge - who somehow persuades him to go out and be social. With strangers.

Forge whistled as he wandered up from the garage, twirling a wrench in between his fingers. A little bit of a tune-up was always good for his mood, and right now he was just south of what could be described as 'giddy'. In his absence over the summer, Dani had been fastidious with oil changes and basic maintenance on the school's small fleet of automobiles, but he was more than happy to spend the morning supine on a cart under any one of the vehicles, adjusting transmissions, steering linkages, anything at all that was working less than efficiently.

If his mood had been a car, however, it would have dropped the clutch and slipped right out of gear when he hit the foyer and saw who was walking through the front door.

Kurt looked... tired, was the best word for it, though it had little to do with lack of sleep and more with the strain of the last couple of weeks. The announcement of Stefan's wedding had only slightly eased it. He looked up at Forge now, and managed a smile. "Good afternoon, Forge."

"Oh, hey, afternoon," Forge answered, sliding the wrench into a pocket. "It's afternoon? It is. Yes, so it is. So, back from Europe? Family stuff, I heard?" Idiot, don't bring up family! Especially not if he hasn't talked to Marie yet and... argh, Forge thought to himself, mentally giving himself a kicking.

Kurt nodded, giving the younger man a slightly odd look at the babble, then visibly dismissing it. "Family stuff, yes. A funeral, and now a wedding to be arranged. Which is why I am back - my brother would like my friends to be there, any who wish to go."

"Ah," Forge said, suddenly getting an idea. "As fun as it sounds, I can imagine all the family drama's stressed you out recently, right?"

"That would be one way to put it, yes", was the wry response. "My family does not do ordinary drama, it seems. Why do you ask?"

"Well," Forge offered casually, "you look more stressed than usual - then again, the scars always kind of made you look all stressed and growly, so it's easier to tell now. Anyway, Friday. There's a get-together put on by a social networking group. For mutants, I mean. Sort of a casual meet-and-greet, get to know people outside your normal circle, et cetera. Marius and I are going, you ought to come along."

"...you are inviting me to a mutant social networking group with yourself and Marius." That was half-amused, half buying time to consider a real answer. "Are these people you have already met?"

"Nope, that's the point," Forge insisted. "New people, Kurt. Really, how often do you get out of here where you don't have to worry about people judging you for what you look like, or having to cart around one of those damn image inducers? It's going out on a limb, but that's a good thing. There's a world outside the gypsy caravan and these four walls, one that doesn't involve flying around in a big black jet."

"...very rarely", Kurt admitted. "Though I try to do it more often than I did, and without the inducer where I can. But are you sure... I am unusual even among mutants, you must recognize that."

"So's Hank McCoy," Forge riposted.

"Hank McCoy invented the image inducer", Kurt pointed out. "My point was, you and Marius would be fine at any such night. People have been afraid of me - good people, not only the prejudiced."

"And no one's going to ever react differently if not given the chance," Forge explained. "Here you've got a setup where you're dealing with people who are going to be open-minded, willing to look past differences - or maybe just look at them in a different light. What's the worst that could happen?"

Many things occurred to him, but Kurt told himself firmly he was being paranoid... and more than that, his mother's words came to mind again. Youth is a very precious thing, Kurt. Do not waste yours. Live. Love. Don't bind yourself only to duty, or you will find one day that duty is all you have, and it is a very heavy burden. "In this instance, I suppose not much. All right."

"All right?" Forge was surprised to hear Kurt actually agreeing to go out and meet strangers in public. Ah well, there was a saying about gift horses and mouths. "All right, then. We're heading out Friday evening, I'll drive." He looked at his watch and hissed under his breath. "But right now, speaking of driving, I have to jet off to a meeting at the Tesla Club. Friday, though!"

"Friday", Kurt agreed, hoping he hadn't just agreed to a big mistake. "Enjoy your evening."