[Author's Note: This vignette, in slightly longer form, has been posted at fanfiction.net, but was taken down when I rebooted my fic.]
Elise, the human cook at The Xavier Institute For A Better Tomorrow, hunched, alone on a bench in the gazebo, hoping the sound of the rain would provide privacy in case she cried.
A blue face popped upside-down over the edge of the roof. "Boo," it said, followed by a wide white smile. Nightcrawler sprang from the roof, somersaulting backwards to the steps before doing soggy cartwheels to the middle. "Guten Morgen."
"Not a good time to visit."
She felt rather than heard him approach, his words spoken so softly that they were almost drowned out by the downpour, "If you wish to discontinue our association, I will certainly understand. Some words, they do damage which cannot be easily mended."
She headed for the archway.
Poised at the threshold, she halted, progress impeded by Kurt, who had leapt up and raced across the ceiling to drop down on the third step. "I am sorry to have disturbed your solitude. Stay here, and I will go."
The sight of him, apologetic and sopping wet, did her in.
"Doesn't matter, Elf." She shoved her hand out; he grasped it and came back in to perch on a table in the middle and drip dry.
She crossed to the rim and sat on the bench. The silence between them danced around the wooden structure.
"It was nothing. It means nothing," he pleaded.
Elise tried one more time to hold it in, but the dam broke. "It's ... not ... right," she said between sobs. She pulled a Spider-man bandana from her back pocket and wiped her eyes. "I feel like breaking something. Or someone."
"One must forgive. The writer of the contemptible letter was ignorant." His tail was whipping around like a mixer, betraying the calm voice.
"He doesn't even KNOW you!" Elise exploded. "I can understand being vituperous if you had said or done something to him—"
"Such as balancing a bowl of warm oatmeal on the top of his door and yelling, 'Emergency meeting'?"
"Don't try to make me laugh, Circus Boy. I am so angry I could probably bend Logan's bones with my teeth."
"Only if you allow me to sell tickets."
"Stop it."
The pointed shoulders of his uniform rose and fell. "Why weep and curse when you can laugh and make sport?"
"Because what that thimble-head did was wrong!" Her fists balled. "Because I want to align his wheels!"
"To whom does vengeance belong?" He had moved so close to her that she could feel the warmth of his body contrasting with the cool rain slipping down the side of the railing.
"I can out-religion you any day. Don't even try."
The pale yellow eyes glimmered, an almost opal sheen. "It pains you so deeply, this letter full of hatred?"
"Of course."
"The evil thoughts were directed at me. Why cry over someone else's misfortune?"
"Because it was a stab at you, dunderhead! To suggest that you would be better off at some research facility, as if you were ... you were ..." but the anger punched out any possiblity of finishing the sentence. Hopping up, she paced the circumference until she could push the truth from the confines of her heart. "You're my best friend. How could I read anything that horribly offensive and not be hurt?"
"It is only one jab, and will not be the last. They're a part of life. One must bear them, and practice forgiveness." Kurt opened his arms; Elise stepped close enough for a hug as he continued, "To let them eat you away inside would be to hand a victory to the side of evil."
"There you go again. Making me feel like a loser because you're so freakin' holy."
He shook his head, splattering her with the chill of retained raindrops. "You know I am not. But we won't stop striving towards the goal." He pushed her away a fraction. "You're getting my uniform soggy with those hysterical female tears."
Straightening up, Elise headed toward the exit. "You know which buttons to push. I grant you that."
"But at least you stopped crying."
She turned. His goofy grin caused something inside her to unwind at last. "Wanna race to my lair?"
"If you promise not to sell me to the makeup testing laboratories."
"Dude, there is not enough money in the world to make me interested." She winked as they crouched side by side, preparing to dash. "First one there gets the clean towel." Pushing him off the slippery stairs, she watched him plummet onto the muddy ground as she ran, hollering, "Mark, set, go!"
FV&TTT 2010 Spring Challenge Entry: "Tears Of A Clown"
- Elfdame
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FV&TTT 2010 Spring Challenge Entry: "Tears Of A Clown"
"Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton." From Chapter 9 of _Brother Odd_ by Dean Koontz / from Chapter 10: "Life you can evade; death you cannot."
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FV&TTT 2010 Spring Challenge Entry: "Tears Of A Clown"
![grin :D](./images/smilies/grin.gif)
I lahv it. I love Elise. She rocks.
Will get mine posted.... eventually.....
~Def.
"A dedicated follower of nothing." -- graffitit artist in Brick Lane, London, England.
Right across the lane from the demon and just down the wall from Wolverine.
RIP Kurt Wagner. You were the character who brought in me into comics, who introduced me and inspired me. Now your death has sent me away again. Wherever you are in the Marvel Universe, I hope its someplace pleasant.Right across the lane from the demon and just down the wall from Wolverine.
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FV&TTT 2010 Spring Challenge Entry: "Tears Of A Clown"
Oh! I think I've read the story on fanfiction.net! I love the Elise character, I look forward to read more on the site! ![wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
![wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
FV&TTT 2010 Spring Challenge Entry: "Tears Of A Clown"
Cute!
:thumbup
![happy :)](./images/smilies/happy.gif)
R.I.P. Nightcrawler. 1975 - 2010
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