Family Ties

Family Ties Chapter Forty One (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

 

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse and Hamster Witch, I’m sending Sean with soup and
tea and blankets for your cold!
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink get musecookies for archiving! J ProPhile is extra special because he
inundates me with smut. My virgin
eyes…*sob * Ramsey, Tex and Jubilee get
muse kibble for being lovely helper types.
J Readers/Reviewers: Bear with me. From here on out, the story is going to pick up
some speed (do I hear a sigh of relief from some of y’all? LOL) but I’m going to try and make sure it
all remains coherent and such Let me
know if it turns into a “huh?” kinda thing…
J

 

 

 

Kitty’s
hands were shaking, making the pole she clutched shiver and thereby the chuppa
tremble over her cousin’s head. Harry shot her a worried look before returning
his attention to the ceremony, much to the collective relief of the wedding
party. She could feel her father’s
glare burning her skin and the sounds and voices of the ceremony buzzed in her
ears like bees, her concentration broken by fear and nervous energy. Halfway through the goings-on, she chanced a
look towards her father and nearly laughed aloud in relief. Logan was on one side of him, Kurt on the
other, and both seemed to be pinning him in place, standing so close that their
arms touched his, smiling beneficently.
Look like cats in cream…Oy, this can’t be good… She snapped to attention, realizing that the
ceremony was wrapping up, and plastered a smile on her face. The sound of breaking glass seemed to
trigger autopilot in Kitty’s mind and the procession from the synagogue to the
reception was a colorful blur. She was
scarcely aware of the trail of people following them and the songs in Greek and
Ladino echoing off the walls of the temple as they wound towards the community
center in the back; the one thing she could focus on clearly was the knowledge
her biological father, the one person she did not want to see above all others,
was behind her. It did not matter that
Logan and Kurt were there as well, just that Mort Pryde was in the same place
she was and she knew, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all Hell was going
to break loose later.

 

Kurt edged
away from Logan and Mort at his first opportunity. Kitty was not kidding, he found out, when she said there would be
dancing. Almost as soon as the last
person was inside, the music began and he lost sight of Kitty in the crush of
family members seeking to congratulate Esther and Harry. Verdammt shoes! I’m tripping all over myself!
He nearly plowed into a short older lady, peering into her cup of
wine, as he tried to make his way to where he last saw Kitty. “I’m sorry,” he began, but was brought up
short by the woman’s keen gaze.

“What are
your intentions towards Aikaterine?”

“Was?” He tried to take a step backwards, away
from the woman, but found himself pressed against a table with no means of
escape. As if on cue, two more women
joined the first and all fixed him with the same sharp gaze as if they could
read the secrets of his soul with a single blink.

“What are
your intentions,” she repeated,hasihasizing the word, “toward Aikaterine?”

“Yes,” one
of her cronies, the one with the falsely red hair, added. “How serious are you?”

Kurt was
fairly certain some of his favorite body parts were making a hasty retreat
northwards in sheer terror. “I…I’m very
serious.”

“Hm.” The three women exchanged a look that
bespoke silent communication before Hannah said sternly, “Come. Sit with us. We want to talk to you.”

 

Kitty
finally disentangled herself from Esther’s near-panicked grasp long enough to
throw Harry in the line of fire before plunging into the crowd to find
Kurt. She saw Logan, stuck to Mort like
glue, and wondered briefly where Storm was.
Maybe she’s in the ladies’ room… She was prevented from pursuing
that line of logic, however, by two things.
The first was the sight of Kurt being dragged—literally—to a table in
the far corner by her three great aunts.
Even as she drew a panicked breath and made to dash across the packed
dance floor towards them, a strident, almost nasal voice stopped her in her
tracks. “You dare show your face here,
you whore?”

She
actually felt all the color drain from her face as she turned to face the
source of the voice. The music still
played, a loud Greek folk tune that meant the circle of women in the middle of
the floor provided an absurd backdrop to the confrontation she had not
expected. Her mother stood, fists
clenched at her side, mouth pinched and eyes narrowed, at the edge of the dance
floor not ten feet from her. Her voice
had been loud, but not quite loud enough to carry over the music. “Mother,” Kitty said as flatly as she
could. She knew Logan had heard,
despite the bouzoukis, and would not let her linger long, but she could not
keep from responding to the woman who had disowned her. “I’m so glad you could come wish Esther pinepiness. Now if you’ll excuse me…”
she made to step around her and continue on her way, but her mother stepped in
front of her.

“Don’t call
me that! Never call me that again!” she
hissed.

Seriously
considering selling my story to Jerry Springer about now… “Okay,” Kitty said with a calm she did not
feel, “excuse me, you heartless bitch, and let me cross the room to get away
from you and all your bad karma!”

“Something wrong, ty?”ty?” Storm asked in pacific tones from somewhere near her left
shoulder. Kitty sagged with relief for
a brief moment before straightening and nodding curtly. “Ah, so nice to see you, Mrs. Pryde,” Storm
said smoothly, aware that people were starting to notice something was
amiss. Logan was exerting very little
effort in keeping Mort at his side, but Storm could tell there was something
brewing in the non-mutant’s mind in the way of a supposedly clever plan.

“Not a
thing wrong, Miss Munro,” Kitty said, pinning a false smile on her face. “I was just going to go get my boyfriend and
teach him how to dance to Greek music.”

“Sounds like
a plan to me,” Storm smiled.

Mrs. Pryde
shuddered with anger. “How dare you
bring her here? How dare you people
pollute this family with your…your…”

“Our what?”
Storm asked, one brow creeping up slowly.
“I don’t recall Esther saying you were invited. I wonder who’s the more offensive of us?”

Kitty used
the opportunity to slip away, all eyes in the crowd on the brewing
confrontation between Storm and her mother.
No one truly noticed her weaving through the tables and sidling next to
Kurt. Beneath the music, still playing
a little too loudly, she said, “Need a rescue?”

“Ja,” he
breathed, relieved that the aunt’s attentions were diverted towards their
niece-in-law. “Schnell!”

“Aunties, I’m
going to show Kurt the memorial garden.
I’m a bit light headed from not eating today and I could use some fresh
air…”

Hanna
looked at her with a furrowed brow. “We’re
not done talking to your young man yet.”

“Um, can it
wait until later?” she asked with a pointed look towards her mother.

Channah
turned to face her and scowled. “This
is most inappropriate.”

“Give it a
minute,” Kitty muttered. “It’ll pass!” There was a collective gasp as Kitty’s
mother struck at Storm, who avoided the open-handed blow neatly. “Come on, Kurt. Move it!” She dragged him
by his wrist towards the open bar and ducked behind a large potted palm. “Can you port us out front?”

“What if
someone’s out there?” he asked worriedly, peering between the fronds towards
the near-hysterical Mrs Pryde. Logan
and Mort had joined the two women and the music suddenly screeched to a
halt. Esther, he noticed, was looking
more resigned than upset. I don’t
even want to know what family reunions with these people are like…

“Everyone’s
in here. Trust me!”

Kitty
sounded near desperate so he relented.
In a stomach-dropping blink, they were outside the main doors to the
synagogue and Kitty looked a mixture of relieved and nauseated. “Sorry, Liebes,” he sighed, embracing her briefly
before setting her at arm’s distance. “Are
you going to be sick? You have nothing
on your stomach…”

“I’ll be
fine. Come on, let’s walk.” She took his hand and led him away from the
portico and towards a narrow footpath leading to a meditation garden.

“Kitty,
aren’t you a little worried about…” he jerked his thumb towards the reception
hall meaningfully.

“Honestly?”
she asked, pausing beneath an arch shrouded in some fragrant vine. She peered up at him with a look of pure
exhaustion on her face and said tiredly, “I could care less at the moment. Yeah, I’m embarrassed they’re doing this and
yeah, I’m a little scared of what’s going to come out, but I know most of the
people in there wouldn’t believe my father if he told them we were mutants so I’m
not worried about that. What I am
worried about,” she continued, disentangling her fingers from his and pacing
deeper into the garden, the moonlight picking her dress out of the shadows as
she walked, “is how this looks for Harry and his family. They’re not going to
like their son being related to the Prydes after this.”

“I don’t
think they’d hold your parents against Esther, would they?” Kurt asked,
following her at a short distance.

Kitty
sighed and turned to face him, tilting her chin upwards in an invitation to a
kiss. “I think I would, if I were them.”

Kurt slid
his hands around her waist, mindful of just where they were and restraining
himself from a more invasive embrace. “You
know, even after know how crazy your parents are, I love you anyway. And I’d still marry you in spite of them.”

Kitty
blinked up at him owlishly. “You know
we’re too young for that!”

“Rom marry very
early, Liebes. Fourteen or fifteen is
the norm.”

“Ugh!” She shook her head as if clearing a bad
image. “Why?”

“Why not?”
he reasoned, shrugging.

“Look at
Jean and Scott!”

“We’re not
Jean and Scott.”

“No,” she
sighed, “we’re not. Jean’s family is
normal compared to mine.”

“You know,”
he said softly, brushing a stray lock of hair from her eyes, “you choose your
own family.” He could feel her breath
tickling his collar bone, ruffling his holo-disguised fur, and closed his eyes
at the sensation. “Just because someone
gives birth to you doesn’t make them family other than for DNA purposes.”

It was
Kitty’s turn to frown. She fiddled with
his shirt buttons idly as she carefully said, “But you’re still tied to the
ones who brought you into the world.
You can’t will them away…”

“You can
try,” he said flatly, holding her closer.


“You know
what I thought of the other day? What
am I going to tell our kids when they ask about their grandparents on my side?”

Kurt felt
an odd twinge at the phrase “our kids,” but forced himself not to show it. “You tell them Logan is your father and they
can call him Gramps.”

She
giggled. “I don’t think he’d like that
at all.”

Kurt opened
his mouth to respond, but snapped it shut at the sound of police sirens
approaching quickly. “Well, I think the
reception is over…”

Kitty
groaned and hid her face against his chest.
“Get me out of here!”

“Any place
in particular?”

“Bed?” she suggested
hopefully.

“Your wish
is my command,” he said with all the chivalry he could muster.

 

A/N Next Kurt/Kitty chapter will have smut, I promise!