Cooking Clears the Mind... (Kurt)

Layla had run all the way back to her room, in a black cat form, after an embarrassing encounter with an older X-Men boy in the Rec Room, in which he had spoken to her but she hadn't heard him and didn't reply. She felt so bad, and couldn't understand why she hadn't heard him. She normally has excellent hearing and senses. When she got back to her room she decided she was hungry and thought she'd go down to the kitchen to cook something. Maybe that would get her mind off of what had just happened...

She ran down to the kitchen, still as a black cat, and still didn't meet anyone on the way. The mansion was very empty tonight... She walked into the kitchen and shifted back into her human form, but the kitty ears and tail still remained visible. Layla started opening cabinets and the refrigerator looking for something appetizing. She didn't feel like actually going hunting for her food in the backyard tonight.

In one of the cabinets she found a box of Macaroni and Cheese and brought it to the counter. She found a pot and filled it with water, placed it on the stove and turned the stove on. About 15 minutes passed and the water was boiling now, so she turned the heat down and poured the macaroni in the water to soften. She stirred the pasta once in a while and finally the macaroni was ready to be mixed with the cheese. Grabbing the insulated handle of the pot, Layla took it to the sink to drain most of the water.

Kurt, realizing he forgot his drink and left it on the counter, he finished his sandwich but still wanted his drink. He took off his inducer thinking he didnt have to worry about the new girl seeing him. He was wearing the same clothes as he was with the inducer on, but now he was just all blue and fuzzy.

Kurt ported down to the hallway that lead to the kitchen. he then walked in and looked around for the cola he put down but could not remember where he put it. but what he himself didnt notice is that there was someone else in the kitchen with him. The new girl was making herself some mac and cheese, she didnt see Kurt come in, she was just preoccupied with her food cooking on the stove. Kurt saw her and thought it would be best if he tried to be as stealthy as possible so the new girl doesnt see her. Kurt found the can of soda he left, it was un-opened, he then flicked the lid open and the can made a loud "CLICK" like it does when you open a can of soda. The made the new girl look up and turn around, she turned to just see a Blue Demon with Sharp Fangs and A Prehensile tail staring at her.

Kurt then went frozen, he was scared stiff...

Layla was holding the pot, heavy with water and pasta, and draining most of the water into the sink. Everything that happened right then was so fast that she barely had time to react. Again, she hadn't noticed someone entering the room, and was startled when there was a loud fizzy click from a pop can opening. She moved to turn around and accidentally spilled a few drops of hot water on her other hand. Layla gasped and dropped the pot in the sink, the macaroni didn't fall out though and the pain from the burn subsided just as quickly as it started. She took a deep breath to recover from the shock.

Layla fully turned around to see who was in the kitchen with her and was surprised to see a blue fuzzy boy with 3 fingered hands, 2 toed feet, a long demon-like tail, and golden eyes. She stood there staring at him, not knowing what to say. Then her cat eyes studied him more and she noticed he resembled the boy from before, the same hair and face, and decided it was him! Her mouth fell open. Layla hadn't expected to run into him again tonight.

She cleared her throat and looked around awkwardly. Layla felt like she was being rude, both times tonight. She took a deep breath and looked at him. With a shy smile, she said hesitantly, "Hey..." She paused before adding, "uh.., sorry about earlier... I didn't mean to not say anything. Actually, it was weird because I almost didn't even hear you until right before you walked away. I'm not usually like that, I actually have very good hearing, I just don't know why..." Layla stopped herself when she noticed she was talking so much. Feeling embarrassed yet again, she turned away back to the sink to grab the pot with macaroni. She carried it to the counter to add the cheese mix into it.

Kurt's expression changed, "Vait? She isn't scared of me? Zhis is new." He thought to himself. Kurt was amazed, this was the first person to see him for the first time and not being afraid of him. He thought it would be better to say something to her.

"Hello, I'm Kurt, sorry i i startled you i didnt expect to see anyvon else down here at zhis hour. are you all right?

Kurt thought to himself that he was off to a good start. Now to just wait for her to respond this time.

Layla set the pot onto the counter and walked to the fridge to get the milk, butter, and a couple cheese slices. All these extra ingredients with the cheese mix was how her mom used to make this kind of Macaroni and Cheese, and it tasted a lot better than how the simple directions say to make it. She listened to him talk and actually paid attention this time. He introduced himself and she had remembered correctly, his name was Kurt, and obviously German by the accent in his voice.

After just finishing adding all the extra cheese, etc, and putting the pot back on the stove to heat again, Layla turned around once again to face him as he spoke. "Hi, I'm Layla," she said with another shy smile. She looked at her hand where the hot water burned her when he apologized for startling her, "Oh, it's alright, I'm fine. The water only burned for a second."

Her eyes kept darting away as if she was distracted, because she didn't want to seem rude by continuously staring at him. And she didn't want him to think she was having weird thoughts about his blue furry appearance, which she wasn't. But she was thinking, 'So this is why he lives here... And he must wear one of those holographic watches like what I have to go to school too. I wonder if he has any special powers besides his physical appearance...'

Kurt was happy to here that she at least spoke to him. But she was staring at him strangely. Maybe she was pondering about the way he looks. Kurt was now staring off and noticed that she had a tail, but it was more cat like than his. Kurt thought he should be polite and help tidy up the counter a bit. he used his tail to pick up the carton of milk. he probably should warn Layla about Kitty. she has a problem with drinking out of the carton that everyone in the mansion has to use.
Kurt decided to break the silence between them. "So vhat is you're special gift, aside from the adorable little tail of yours?" Kurt chuckled a little. he wasn't teasing her or something but he really didnt know how to interact well with new people, especially someone who is a couple years younger than him. "don't be nervous if you dont vant to show me you dont have to... and to make you feel not so nervous ill show you what i can do."

with a blink of an eye Kurt was gone with a "BAMF" and just a cloud of smoke was left. He reappeared on the chandelier on the ceiling of the kitchen. he was hanging off by his tail which is something he loved doing. he looked down at her...

There was a short moment of awkward silence and, while Kurt walked over to the counter to put the milk away for her, Layla carefully stirred the melting cheesy pasta. Now that it was almost done cooking, it smelled so delicious and her stomach growled a little bit. She grabbed a bowl from the upper cupboard, and then hesitantly grabbed another one, wondering if he might want some too. She set the bowls down on the counter and put some Macaroni and Cheese into her bowl.

The silence was broken when Kurt spoke again, and Layla's face turned pink when he mentioned she had an adorable cat tail. She glanced at the floor giggling a little bit, realizing the irony of the situation, while her black furry tail swished back and forth a couple times as if she was suddenly self conscious. She always assumed people would think she looked weird, but now she could see there was someone else she could relate to, who probably felt the same way she did about appearances. This was the first time someone had said something positive about her different physical attributes.

Suddenly he disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared hanging from the chandelier by his tail. The lightning fast teleportation made her jump, as she wasn't expecting it. She looked at him, hanging upside down like a spider monkey and she smiled. "Pretty neat!" she said, and then shifted into a small black house cat. She jumped onto the table directly under the chandelier where Kurt was hanging and mewed.

Kurt looked with interest, "very cool" Kurt smiled revealing his sharp demon fangs. But he quickly relaxed his mouth so not to scare the little black cat/girl. Even though she didn't seem to be scared of him he feels that showing one of his more scarier physical aspects. Even though he has grown to actually think that he looked pretty cool sometimes, and that looking like a demon can be pretty sweet, not that he still wasn't afraid to go to school without his inducer and let everybody at school know that he is a mutant. when mutants became public, everybody at the Institute became victims of extreme prejudice at school. All that is except Kurt. The film footage never caught a good shot of him so the local news people couldn't identify him like they did everyone else. Kurt was still in cognito so to speak. its not like he enjoyed ditching his friends but he just didn't want to give up being normal yet. that was towards the end of the last school year, and after their big fight with apocalypse. Now the new school year has started and the other students have come to understand Kurt's position. But he still hangs around them and socialized with them at school. The normal students just thinks he is some weird mutant supporter. But Kurt was fine with that. But hopefully he will find it to overcome this adversity in the near future so he can be able to say he is proud to be a mutant.

Kurt then watched the cat he looked at it and thought she was quite a cute cat. "So is that all you can do? Not zhat i'm not already intrigued."

Kurt then thought he might show off a little bit more, and he then jumped from the chandelier to the wall and used his acrobatic abilities and his wall crawling skills and crawled down the wall and flipped down to the floor landing on his feet. Then he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl with his tail and brought the apple to his face and took a big bite out of the apple. that is one advantage he enjoyed having his big Fangs for, helps him get bigger helpings of food into his system better...

Layla purred in amusement as Kurt was showing off. She figured he was obviously very agile, fast, and acrobatic, similar to her. She smirked because, well, he asked for more, so she decided to step it up a little bit. She jumped down off the table and when she hit the floor she shifted into a full grown lioness. Pacing back and forth, Layla growled playfully, but was careful to keep her claws sheathed for his safety. He had been showing off his demon-like fangs, so she showed off her lion fangs in a low roar. She could shape shift into any breed of cat, wild and domestic, which allowed her to hide well. Her feline flexibility was probably what made cheerleading so easy for her, now that she was on the Bayville High School cheerleading squad.

She lowered herself into a hunting crouch, her eyes fixed on Kurt, and her tail swished slowly back and forth.

Kurt went wide eyed. "Oh Wow, zhat very cool". Kurt then went down on all fours and tried to compete with her by trying to seem more animal like than human. he wasn't actually going to hurt her he just thought it would be fun to play along with Layla's little game. his tail started swishing back and fourth showing he was anxious. he then smile very slyly to show his fangs which gleamed in the kitchen lighting. he now awaited to see what Layla's next move would be....

A loud rumbling sounded from her throat, almost like a growl but instead was more like a purr of laughter, when Kurt copied her. 'Guess he wants to play,' thought Layla, laughing to herself. She shifted into a tiger, bigger than the lion she was a second ago, and actually the biggest of all the cat species. She was hoping to intimidate him a little more just for fun. Now she took up a lot of kitchen space and wasn't sure if she could actually perform a play fight here in the kitchen.

Instead, without hesitation, she leaped up from her crouch on the floor and dashed as fast as she could in such a small crowded room, across to the other side of the kitchen where Kurt was located. When she was close enough to touch him, Layla reached out a big heavy paw, claws sheathed for safety, and aimed for him, but not in a way that could seriously cause pain.

Kurt saw the girl transform now into a full grown lion. He was shaken a bit from the size of the beast. But he was able to put the fear aside and remembered it was just a little girl, well... not so little girl now. He now realized that the lion/girl is leaping at him, "Zhis vill be interesting" he said to himself and bringing his tail around to wave around in from of his face.

Just as the lion was about to reach at Kurt, a loud "BAMF" and the lion just landed in smoke where the demon/elf/boy was standing. Kurt reappeared on the wall behind her. he snickered at the lion/girl a bit, b/c now the lion was just standing still in confusion to where he could have gone. Kurt just hoped that no one else enters the kitchen to see a full grown lion in the middle of the kitchen and Kurt crawling on the wall.

Layla's paw ended up swiping through a cloud of smoke, as Kurt teleported again. She swung her big tiger head around looking for where he had disappeared to, and found him crawling along the wall again. She knew she wasn't going to be able to reach him that way, so she just shifted back into a black house cat and lay down on the cold tile floor in surrender. Layla accepted that even though she was fast, he was faster and more able to escape in any situation, whereas she was only earthbound. Besides, she didn't want to tear the whole kitchen apart trying to chase him.

She had to let the Macaroni and Cheese cool anyway, so the black cat just simply laid on the floor not knowing what to do next.

Kurt saw Layla turn back into a cat. He saw the cat lay down in surrender. "Smart choice" Kurt said jokingly . Kurt then flipped off the wall and back on the floor. He walked over a pet the back of the little black cat. Remembering that the black cat wasn't a real cat in the first place, he stopped so he didnt look or feel like a creep. "So what other interesting things can you tell me about yourself? aside from the ability to change into different types of felines."

Watching him walk over toward her, Layla didn't run away like normal cats would, and just calmly stayed in one spot. Her cat ears flicked a little bit when he started petting her. She purred, it was almost like getting a massage, which she loved in the first place. But then he stopped and she sat up before shifting back into a girl, her kitty ears and tail still there. She stood up and walked over to get her bowl of macaroni and sat at the table to eat it.

Layla replied, "Well... I don't know really... I'm not all that interesting," she laughed a little bit. "I just see myself as a normal person, nothing too special apart from my powers. I like reading, singing and dancing to music, going to movies, shopping. Typical girl stuff..." She figured that since they hadn't even officially met or spoken to each other since tonight, he probably didn't know what her activities were in school. "Well, you obviously saw me practicing my horrible cheerleading stuff, since the homecoming football game is next Friday night. And I'm also in the high school choir too."

"Zhat is vat you were you doing? cheer leading, please accept my apologies i didnt know and i didnt want to say anything in case i was wrong. i thought you were pretty good." i guess you're cat like reflexes really help you get and edge."

Kurt was hoping she didnt take offense when he said what he just did. he was not saying the cheer leading was bad, he just didnt know it at the time she was cheer leading and didnt want to offend her in case she was trying to dance or something, and she defiantly was a much better dancer than him but any means.

She laughed and looked down at her bowl of macaroni. She wasn't so sure that she was really that good. "The seniors are better. I mean, I'm just a freshman, but yeah I guess my cat abilities help a little bit." Layla wondered if anyone else from the Institute was going to the homecoming game, and realized she should practice even more this next week leading up to the game so that she really didn't suck. Still looking at her bowl and playing with the cheesy pasta with her fork, she asked, "... Are you... planning on going to the game?" Just then, Layla wondered to herself why she felt so nervous all of a sudden.

"Ummm...." Kurt's expression changed, he now became nervous to why she was asking him these questions. "Im Not sure, i was going to ask my Girlfriend Amanda Sefton to the dance but we actually just broke up, now i was planning on asking out another but i dont think she would want to go with me, she is another student here. But i think im just gonna stay that night." Kurt looked away from her and looked down at his feet. His relationship with Amanda has ended, and he was over her but what was really getting to him was that his crush he had for a long time on Kitty, they are friends but he longed for more in their relationship.

he then looked back at her and quickly put on a fake smile even though he was now thinking about his Kitty relationship issues.

The sudden change of subject surprised her and she jolted her head up from looking at the table. Obviously he misunderstood her, and her face turned bright pink yet again. "Oh uh.... I asked about the game...... Not the, um, dance..." She put her head lower a little bit and looked down at her food again, trying to hide her face and suppress her quiet snickering laughter. 'Holy crap!' she thought to herself, 'Why did he mention the dance?! Ive been so embarrassed a lot tonight!!!' Thing is, she actually had been thinking about the dance the last few days, but no one had asked her yet and she thought she would either just go alone or not at all. She hadn't decided yet, but was now embarrassed that Kurt had thought she meant the dance. Layla thought that she actually wouldn't mind if he were going to ask her, but she hadn't meant for the conversation to go in that direction at all. Even though they never talked before, she had thought that he did have a girlfriend but she didn't know the girl's name, and wouldn't have tried to interfere in any way anyway.

Then she calmed herself down and was serious, "But.... Sorry about your girlfriend though..." Layla allowed herself a quick glance at him and could see that their break up was really bothering him. So she quickly finished her macaroni in silence, feeling like maybe she should head back to her room.

Kurt realized that he has jumped the gun a bit and mentioned the dance instead of the game. He felt so stupid....then he heard Layla apologize about his break up he accidentally mentioned. before he could have been able to say anything he teleported back to his room. He didnt know what he could have said to her he didnt know if she was going to ask him to the dance but for some odd reason the thoughts about Amanda And Kitty popped into his head and he lost control of himself... he must have sounded like a fool. But then he thought to himself "No, she couldn't have been nudging me to go to the dance with her, im sure she doesn't have a crush on me, i mean look at me," he then stood in front of his mirror and took a good long look at himself. Plus the fact that Layla was a Freshman and him a Junior lessened the fact that Layla was interested in him at all.....