Kurt and Vic - Sunday afternoon

[x-victor.livejournal.com]

The resident wall-crawlers meet, on a wall of all places. They get to know each other and bond a bit.



Mindful of the incident with Sarah, Kurt had picked a wall this time that had no windows looking directly into any private rooms. In any case, he'd already mastered climbing that wall.

He was trying a different outer wall now.

Victor raised his head to look--well, down--at whatever was rustling below him, only to find that there was someone else climbing on the wall. He shook his head ruefully; it was strange to think that he wasn't the only one who could do that anymore. "Hello," he called to the blue man below. Someone had mentioned that there was a teacher who could climb walls and was blue; this must be him.

"Hello!" Kurt returned cheerfully to the green boy clinging to the wall above. "I had heard we had a new student. Your name is Victor, yes?"

"Yeah, Victor Borkowski. Or just Vic. It's nice to meet you." He smiled, thankful that he could use 'don't want to accidentally plummet to my death' as an excuse for not shaking hands should the need arise--although the man below him might understand the sticky; he wasn't sure if he was sticking to the wall or holding on to it. "And you're one of the teachers, right? I'm sorry, I don't remember your name."

"Kurt Sefton. Very pleased to meet you, Vic. And yes, I teach gymnastics and German to those who choose the classes." He smiled back. "How are you finding the school?"

"Big," he admitted, "although I bet everybody says that. But I like it so far. Everyone here is really nice. It's a lot different from what I'm used to."

"You are not used to people being nice?" He tilted his head, but there was understanding in his eyes. "Have you always looked different?"

"Oh no, I meant the school--everyone looking--well, everyone being used to people looking different," he corrected, tripping over himself to get the words out. "My hometown is a really cool place, and everybody was used to me. I've always been green, yeah."

He shook his head, starting over. "I meant that I'm not used to the school in general, I guess. I'm the only mutant I know of in my town, so it's a little strange to meet everybody here and not stand out for being green. Well, maybe for being green--it sounds like I'm the only one here who's this color--" He stopped as the realization that he was starting to babble a bit dawned on him, and a sheepish smile crept across his face. "Um. Yeah. That's all I meant."

Kurt chuckled, warmly amused. "You may find some who are curious about the colour, but harmlessly so. You are, indeed, the only green student we currently have. There was another, a boy named Miles, but he lives in California now."

"Yeah. Nobody walks up to me and tries to touch me here, or rub my head or anything like that. It's nice." He stretched, pushing out so that his fingertips and toes were the only thing touching the wall, before coming back flush against the building again. "How long have you been a teacher here?"

"Oh, it must be... six years, now", Kurt told him, watching this display with interest. "And I have always found it just such a welcoming place."

"That's good to hear," Victor replied. "I mean, I don't know why it wouldn't be--that would be kinda silly, considering. But still." He shifted again. "Um, I'm not trying to be rude, but Johnny said that Mr. Beaubier and one of the other teachers were in the circus. Was that you?"

"It was!" He brightened visibly. "And there is no insult, I very much enjoyed my time there. I grew up in a small circus, in fact."

"Oh, wow, yeah. That's pretty cool," Vic said admiringly. "What did you do in the circus?"

"I was an acrobat, mostly. With some ventures into knifethrowing and other such things... but my natural talents lend themselves to acrobat work."

Vic grinned at that. "Mine too, I think. Johnny mentioned that he thought the three of us should work together on some of that stuff."

"Considering where we are, I would more than believe that." He grinned back. "And I would be very happy to work with you and Johnny."

"Cool! I'll tell Johnny. We'll have to teach him to climb on walls so we can have class outside," he joked.

"Johnny would have to grow his fingernails more than he would like, I think", Kurt said, deadpan. "But perhaps he might like the challenge of doing it without."

Victor giggled at that. "He'll probably be happy to stick to the trees, I guess. There's more room for us wall climbers up here that way," he said with a conspiratorial wink.

"We will keep the walls just for ourselves", Kurt agreed easily. "And perhaps Yvette, should she ever decide to join us, but she might be a little hard on them."

"She's the one I'm not supposed to touch, 'cause she's all spiky, right? Yeah, I think you're right. She was kinda hard on my Frisbee--I mean, it wasn't a big deal or anything," he amended. "But I bet that her climbing the walls might lead to Mr. Xavier being a little bit mad if she's not careful."

"Oh, she tends to be very careful, and he does not often get mad for such minor things, but it is probably best to keep the wall-climbing club just the two of us until someone else with similar powers arrives."

"Cool," Vic grinned. "That works for me." He regarded the teacher curiously. "Were you doing anything specific up here, or were you just climbing around?"

"I like to test myself, from time to time", Kurt told him. "To make sure my abilities are still up to scratch, as it were."

Vic nodded. "Do you mind if I ask how you're holding on?" The ivy obscured Kurt's hands, making it hard to see if the older man was clinging to the vines or to the brickwork himself, or if he had some stickiness himself.

"Not at all." He lifted one hand clear to show the boy, his tail flicking up to slip between the bricks in its place. "My nails, you see, are very thick and grip well. I find handholds in the brick."

"Oh, cool! It looks like your tail helps, too." Vic peeled one hand off of the wall and waggled his fingers, pads towards Kurt. "I'm sticky. My tongue is, too, but I bet the wall tastes bad."

"My tail is useful for that and for balance", Kurt agreed, peering up curiously at Vic's fingertips. "I imagine it would. Old brick is not a good thing to eat, and then there is the risk of poison ivy. You are like a gecko?"

"But without the bad accent or the ad campaign, yeah," Vic said. He shrugged. "My head's a little spikier, too."

"So I see." He grinned. "I find those of us who look truly different often have the most fun with our powers."

"I could see that, yeah." Vic relaxed, and realized he'd tensed slightly at the gecko comment. Which was silly; it's not like the blue guy was going to call him Geico or anything. "Just because it's already obvious that we're different, right?"

"Indeed, and so we gain nothing by hiding what we can do. And what we can do often seems to include abilities like yours and mine, in extreme cases like ours. I also teleport, but that came later."

"Wow. I can't do anything like that," Victor admitted somewhat sheepishly. "I mean, this is pretty much it for me. Oh, and my tongue is really long." He turned his head to the side, away from Kurt, and flicked it out several feet. "But yeah, I don't have anything really cool like teleportation. Is that hard?" he asked curiously.

"My own ability that way is quite limited", Kurt admitted. "And it is harder when I am tired, or trying to carry more weight than my own... but in the best circumstances, it only takes concentration. The first time I did it was quite accidental."

Vic blinked. "Yikes. I bet that was really scary. Did you go very far?"

"I had gone roaming with my brother", he explained. "Too far for us to get home before dark, when our mother had told us to. I suppose I was thinking very hard of getting home, and then suddenly there I was. I suppose perhaps two or three miles?"

The boy nodded. "So you can go pretty far, then? Do you ever teleport to, like, Abu Dhabi for a vacation or anything?"

"Oh, my limits are far below that. I can only manage twenty miles or thereabouts in one jump, which makes crossing oceans that way impractical at best. Clarice - the purple girl you will certainly see around the mansion - could do that."

"Yeah, you'd probably get a little wet," Vic said straightfaced, then smiled. He stretched again; while he could stay where he was for quite a while, his muscles were starting to complain about the angle a little. "Have you found anything cool in your wall-climbing adventures?"

"There is a bird nest about three feet to your left, where most of a brick has crumbled away", Kurt told him. "And I find the life in amongst the ivy to be most interesting."

Vic's face lit up. It hadn't occurred to him that there were things living in the vines, but of course it made sense. "Could you show me?"

That got a grin, broad and natural and obviously pleased by the boy's interest. "I would be glad to."

"Awesome," came the reply. The boy pried a green arm loose to extend it in courteous invitation. "After you."