Call of the Wild: A Surprise Offer

[x-wolfcub.livejournal.com]

A visit from Kurt starts with Nick being comforted, but ends with a surprising offer.


Despite it's dark undertones, Nick was feeling a little better after Kevin's visit. Maybe it was the fact that he had gotten out that it was his sister that had attacked him, or maybe it was the plate of empty chicken bones sitting at the foot of his bed. But the boy was at least sitting up in bed. His thoughts still sat on his sister though. It was hard to imagine what had happened with her new adopted family that had turned her from the sweet, innocent girl that he knew and saved from a fire, to the mutant-hating zealot that had nearly been successful in taking his life a day before. Any way he put it, it just left him more and more confused.


There was a knock at the door, and a blue head appeared around it. "Are you taking more visitors today, Nick?"


"Professor Sefton!" The boy was shocked. Other than a visit from Julian, the professor was near the bottom of his list of expected visitors. The boy wasn't sure that he would be able to see the man he considered the closest thing to his mentor after exploding during his training session. But it was very nice to see him, even if it was leading up to a scolding. "Please, come in." He quickly moved the plate of chicken remains to the table on the other side of the bed as he did his best to sit up straight in the bed.


"Did you think I would not come?" Kurt asked gently, moving to sit in the chair at the head of the bed. "Nothing you have done could turn me away from you."


"I have to say that I'm still in shock a bit." Nick's brain was still trying to catch up with everything going on and focus on the here and now. "I figured if there was anything that could get you to turn away, disobeying you and attacking a student during one of your training sessions might just do it."


"You lost control. You are hardly the first to do that, and you will not be the last." He sighed slightly. "If I blame anyone, it is myself. I pushed you too hard, choosing Julian."


"Professor, I wouldn't be nearly where I am without your help..." The boy tried to muscle his way around, but stopped, it felt weird to be in a position where he was the one trying to comfort Professor Sefton. "There's no way I would be coming back from our little fight with those cross-waving guys in the woods."


"That, I suppose, is true." Kurt looked up and met the boy's eyes directly. "But you should not have been there in the first place. Nick, why did you run?"


"I couldn't face you after what happened to Julian. After Shiro's accident, I didn't have anyone else in the mansion to turn to as a mentor. And when I let you down I just..." The boy began fiddling with his fingers on top of the blanket. "I saw myself as the monster that Julian did, and I figured that I needed to live like it." He tried to bring his eyes up, but couldn't. "I planed on going back to Wisconsin. Living life as a wolf. I thought it would be safer that way."


"Oh, my boy..." He reached to grasp Nick's shoulder for a moment. "There will always be those who see the truly different as monsters. You and I, Julian... even my little Meggan, when I found her, had been taught to call herself Monster. But you are not, and the fact you could not face me makes that very clear. Even the wolf is not, I think."


"But it's hard to believe that there isn't a monster inside of my professor." The boy squinted for a second. "Yesterday I saw a monster in someone that I would have never expected."


"Your sister." Kurt looked at him sadly. "All I can say there is... your sister is very young and has been hurt, and I think those people are good at finding the impressionable. She may yet not be beyond change."


"It just makes you think you know, about how much parents can change you. When we were at home in Wisconsin, she was this sweet little girl, but after just a few months with those... freaks..." He paused trying to breathe for a few seconds before being able to continue on. "She's waving a huge log around, trying to kill her own brother."


"She was a child alone, and the wrong people found her", was the quiet response. "Bad luck for all concerned, except them, but do not give up hope."


"I'm trying not to, but it's hard." The boy let out a small chuckle. "It makes me wonder what's going to happen to me ya know? Being under the temporary guardianship of Professor Xavier isn't exactly the most stable family environment." His smile hid his discomfort. "But at least the foods good."


Kurt sat up straight at that. "Nothing more is going to happen to you, if I have a say in the matter. Is it a stable family environment you need?"


"It couldn't hurt." Again the boy let out a small chuckle, trying to disguise his pain. "But there isn't really a Parents 'R' Us store out there. And I doubt that Dr. Essex is really looking to adopt." He furrowed his eyebrows together. "And from what I here, that isn't really a stable environment either."


"I do not think you would want Dr. Essex for a father", Kurt said swiftly. "But there is one person I know who would very much like to be a father, to a boy who needs one."


"But doesn't Brad Pitt already have too many kids?" With the last jest, Nick was able to pull his eyes away from the sheets to find Kurt's once again. His statement had intrigued the boy enough to draw him out of his sarcastic funk, if only for a bit. "Who were you thinking of?"


"Myself", he answered simply. "If you would be willing. I have long known adoption would be the best way for me to raise a child, and though you are almost grown... you do need something settled."


"I... uh... I... wait, what?" The boy was in a state of disbelief as his eyes grew to nearly twice their normal size, fully out of his sarcastic funk, the boy finally found himself fully there in the moment. "Are you serious?"


"Completely", Kurt assured him. "I was adopted as a baby, Nick, and I know what that family gave to me. If I can give it on, to you... that would make me very happy."


"I... I just..." Suddenly the words of his biological father jumped into the head of the boy. 'If someone offers you something, it doesn't always mean it's a bad thing. Sometimes it's just ok to say thank you.' The boy caught his own tongue. "Thank you Professor. I could never have asked for anything more."


Kurt smiled at him then, tentative but very real. "Then I will start on the paperwork today. The faster the better, before you turn eighteen."


The boy let his eyes fall down to the blanket again. "I may never be able to repay you for this, but I'll do my best to try." He forced his eyes back up to Kurt's, small tears forming in the corners. "Or at least try to make you proud."


"Of that", his hand rose to the top of Nick's head, with the slightest hesitation before the next words, "my son, I have no doubt."


Nick smiled for a second. He didn't have any words, but for the first time in a very long time, the boy felt like he was at home.