Call of the Wild: On the Prowl

[x-wildchild.livejournal.com]

Kyle and Catseye go looking for Kurt, in the hopes that he has seen Nick.



Kyle could hear the shower turn off through the door to Kurt's suite, and knocked on the door loudly than he normally would have. "Yo, fuzzy, soon as you're done in there, and not like, naked, we kinda need you. Something's up!" He called, loud enough to be heard through the door. And probably just about everywhere else too. Kyle's voice carried well.

"Mister Kurt! We cannot find Nick! He is not where he is supposed to be!" Catseye was pacing before the door, extremely tense. "I am going in through his window," she told Kyle, unable to stand still and wait while Kurt languished in the shower.

That got very hasty footsteps, and a dripping but safely towel-clad Kurt threw the door open. "No need for that, Catseye. What do you mean, he is not where he is supposed to be?"

"We were going to go to the Burger Shack for lunch but that was a long time ago and I never found him to drive him there and I did not find him waiting for me at the Burger Shack and he is not here at the mansion now and he is not in the woods and nobody took him to the city and I cannot smell his scent on the bus so he did not go on the bus and I think he is lost!"

"Yeah, everything she said, also dude, pants, and I've got a couple of scent trails of him in the woods but they're all criss-crossed and crap and..." Kyle let out a frustrated growl and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Nick was one of 'his' kids, not that the age difference was huge, but he liked the kid, and he got just how much of a pain in the ass Nick's powers were. "And at least one of 'em smells pissed off or freaked out, I'm never sure with Nick."

"There was an incident earlier", Kurt said quietly, ignoring the pants comment. "During a training session, Julian was injured and Nick ran off while I tended to him. I thought he needed time to calm himself and he would come back, but... I think now would be the time to start looking for him."

"Yesyes his smell was angry, veryvery angry and also freaked out," Catseye agreed with Kyle, nodding emphatically, when what Kurt had said sunk in. "Nick hurt Julian? But it was an accident yes? Nick hurt Julian and he did not come to talk to me about it?" Her gaze fell to the ground and she felt a sad sort of shock running through her.

"Five bucks says accident and Nick freaked." Which would explain why it smelled angry and scared. "Or Keller was a jackass." It wasn't that Kyle thought Julian was a bad kid, but Nick had mentioned they didn't get along. "Or both. Okay, so he didn't sign a car out, and he's not on the grounds, or Catseye and I would've found him. And he's probably ditched his phone somewhere, because if I was gonna go be a dumbass on purpose, that's what I'd do." He had, in fact, been a dumbass more than once. "So, where would he have run off to?"

"It was... mostly an accident. I do not believe Nick truly meant it... the wolf was in control at the time." He shook his head slightly. "He has nowhere and no one to run to off the grounds, which means he could go anywhere. I suppose we should start with the nearest train and bus stations."

"Yesyesyes who should go where? Should we all go together or split up?"

"I swear to God, that kid's wolf form and I are gonna have a little feral to feral talk one of these days." Nick was a good kid. His wolf form... made Kyle want to stare the kid down until he rolled over on his belly or something and that gave Kyle sort of a wiggins of his own. "Together I think? Hate to say it, but there's a chance he didn't run off like a dumbass." Not something Kyle wanted to think about.

"Together", Kurt agreed. "Just in case. And I think I will also ask Lex along. He knows Nick well, he would want to be involved."

Catseye cuffed Kyle upside the head and tried to jump on him to get him in a headlock. "You are not going to talk to Nick's wolf form because you do not mean talking you mean fight and you are not fighting Nick! Nick is mine and he does not mean it when his wolf form does something mean!"

"Ow! Ow, hey, ow! I mean talking to!" He just meant the kind of talking to that was half growls. The headlock wasn't so bad. It was the shaggy hair caught under Catseye's arm that hurt. Kyle twisted around, trying to keep his hair from pulling. "Lex is good people. Puts up with that codename too, which, dude. Hamster. I mean, for reals."



And then they go looking for Lex, who also has not seen Nick, and decide to go looking for him because it's worrysome.



Since moving in to Jay's suite Lex had known no peace, not that he minded, but it was good to finally get to enjoy an afternoon without the blue man playing all his music. He sat in a plush chair, newly void of several stacks of sheet music, and held the book to his chest. The choice was whether or not a nap would be more enjoyable than reading. "This is the life," he laughed aloud. A nap was definitely the way to go.

Just as he closed his eyes, ready to let go of all the turmoil his training was causing him, there was a loud pounding on the door. Not today, he thought with more than a bit of frustration. If this isn't important I will shock someone. Aloud he kept his tone neutral, "One moment!"

"Man, if he's just getting out of the shower too, I say we search all the showers for Nick." Kyle muttered, before the door opened. At the sight of a clothed, if grouchy-looking Lex, he shrugged a bit, almost to himself. "Short version, Nick's missing, we think he bugged out after he and Keller had some kind of stupid whatever, and Catseye and me can't find him and Kurt thinks we should go looking for him, you included." Sometimes, the extremely-short summary was easiest. "I miss anything?" Kyle asked, glancing over his shoulder at Kurt.

"That would be the gist", Kurt agreed, unsmiling. "I thought you would want to be involved in the search."

Lex dropped his book wordlessly and stepped into the hall, checking for the hidden blade at in his belt. "I assume you checked the forest? If not, then we should start there." He hadn't seen Nick much in the past few weeks but he knew what it was like to have a girlfriend. Even so, he wasn't about to let any harm come to him for lack of trying. His face went taut as he closed the door, with the boy's power he could be anywhere.

"Yeah, checked. Couple of old scent trails, couple of old tracks, and he's not in any of his usual places. Pretty sure he's off grounds." Kyle was obviously struggling to keep the growl out of his voice, and the more he thought about Nick, the more difficult it got. He was torn between worry and being pissed off that the kid had run off - and that something had driven him to it.

"I smelled the bus stop to get to Salem," Catseye added. "No Nick smells there. He must be here somewhere, somewhere we cannot catch him. Maybe he went one way when Kyle and I were smelling another way? That is why we need more people to help us look!"

"If I show you the exact spot I last saw him", Kurt asked, turning to the ferals, "would that help you establish which way he went? If he did not take a bus, perhaps he hitch hiked somewhere."

"It's a start. We might even find out where he's heading," Lex tried to sound optimistic as he spoke but was betrayed by the strained look in his face. If they couldn't find any trace they'd probably have to ask the Professor to help. That was not something Lex wanted to have to do. At least partially because he didn't want Nick to get into any more trouble than he was already in.

"I hope so", was the quiet response. "I would have gone after him straight away, but there were other concerns... I really thought he would come back."

"Yeah, starting from scratch is good." Kyle glanced over at Catseye and gave an apologetic shrug. "Might be a good idea to go get one of his socks or something. It's kinda embarrassing, but it helps keep the smell fresh in my head. Hate to ask you to go break into your boyfriend's room and all that, but it'd help."

"I can get you all his clothes if it will help," Catseye nodded emphatically, and bounded off without waiting for an answer.