A/N: hi! this is a practice fic for me, my attempt at a wee romance. The beginning to this is going to be angsty, but the rest when Kurt finally meets up with Wanda, is fluffy and romancey, I hope! You know I'll probably... I dunno. Kill of Wanda or something. ^^ I'm sorry, but I've come accustomed to 'angst equals the fuzzy one'! I'll try my best, but you know how *THAT* comes out! (horrible!)

Please r/r!

NOTE: I haven't seen anything past "under lock and key" because I don't get the kids wb channel where I live *sniffle* but I have read some awesome transcripts, so I *think* I know where everything lays.... this is after Impact, before No Good Deed. ... I think....

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With All That Heart And Soul

By: Scrawler (gah! I'm embarrassed to even put my name on this thing! Irk! _)

Chapter one: Beautiful?

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Wanda Maximoff scowled as she stomped dangerously down the stairs of the brotherhood boarding house. The lights flickered on and off in tune with her anger.

"I said I was sorry!!" Freddy's voice whimpered from upstairs where he was hiding.

"THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!" Wanda growled. "MY CLOTHES ARE RUINED!"

Pietro zipped up beside her, taking his initiative as a peacemaker. "Hey, Wanda, listen, what's the big deal? You can get new clothes!" he tried, with a genuine fear of what Wanda would do to him if there was more to the case.

Wanda stomped in front of him, and crossed her arms about her chest. "I /know/ I can get new clothes." She said, and sent an angry glare to Todd who looked very hopeful peeking out from inside the kitchen. "I /will/." Todd's face fell into an annoyed pout.

"Well then, no harm done! We've got some money! And what we lack, we can sell stuff form Mystiques room!" Pietro offered.

Wanda's face fell some. "You guys should really have a little more respect for her." She said coolly.

Pietro blinked, confused, "why?"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Gee," she said sarcastically, "it's not like this is her house or anything that you all live in!!"

Pause.

"ooooooooh. That. well, I've got no problem livin' in the house of a dead chick! Thanks for the concern, though sis!" he winked.

Lance entered the house that moment, almost taking a step back being greeted with a very angry Wanda.

"uh.. what'd I miss.....?" he stammered, edging away from Wanda.

Pietro answered before Wanda even had a chance; "Fred did the wash but put in the wrong kind of cleaner and it ruined all of Wanda's clothes."

Wanda scowled.

"ruined? How? Cus we don't throw stuff out if it's a little small." Lance said, knowing very well that how some girls defined; 'ruined' was seriously out of perspective.

Wanda fisted her hands and screamed out; "THEIR PINK!!!!!!!"

Lance cowered.

"ALL MY RED CLOTHES ARE PINK, AND ALL MY BLACK ARE GREY!" she whipped around to where Fred was watching from the corner turn of the stairs. "and I blame YOU." She spat, and turned back around again.

She pushed pass Lance toward the front door.

"Give me your keys, Lance." She said, jerking her head to Lance's jeep.

"but I just washed it....." Lance's eyes grew wide.

"NOW."

Lance abruptly handed them over, and watched as Wanda sped off recklessly, fearing the returning fate of his dead jeep.

Pietro smirked. "Glad that's not my jeep."

-X-

Kurt Wagner waited outside the Professors study. There, he listened attentively to Rogue and Logan who were arguing with the Professor about something.

"Rogue doesn't want her here! Look what all she's done! I side with that!" Kurt heard Logan growl.

"I know you don't want this Rogue, but Kurt does and Mystique is his mother as well-" the Professor tired to reason with them.

That's what it was all about. Kurt slumped down against the wall. His mother's funeral. The Professor and Kurt had spoken about it earlier.

Xavier well knew any real funeral place would be suspicious about burying broken stone that resembled a woman. Kurt had gone to the Brotherhood house, again, and with all his pride aside, asked them if they would let him bury Mystique somewhere on her land. Besides the boarding house Kurt secretly felt a tinge left out of (it was his mothers house yet his enemies made their comfortable home in it and then let it waste), Mystique had quite the lot of land around it.

Asking Lance and the rest of the brotherhood that was one of the worst things Kurt had to do. What's worse, though, is that they laughed and made jokes. They knew he was serious, but they didn't care at all about Mystique. Annoyed and embarrassed, Kurt asked Wanda how the Professor could contact Agatha, and perhaps she'd know of somewhere Mystique may have wanted to be put to rest.

Wanda truthfully didn't know where to find Agatha again, and as a final option, the Professor had decided that burying Mystique somewhere on the Mansions land would be possible.

That was, however, if Rogue was okay with it.

Kurt didn't see how that mattered. And if it did, how he was going to get around her foolish stubbornness of the subject.

"Kurt, she's Mystique's daughter as well." Xavier had told him.

Kurt scowled. "Ja. But she doesn't care that Mystique is her mother. She pushed her off zat gazebo, professor, I think that speaks for her opinion well enough."

Every time Kurt spoke of the event to the Professor, or if it was ever brought up, Xavier sensed Kurt reminiscing the ordeal. How he had been so close, but watched her fall. It was like slipping in a marathon. Running all their life and then a slip and they lose. Teleporting all his life and then...fate...and she lost. Mystique lost.

Xavier had given a lot of thought to that. Yes, Kurt was the only one who seemed at all pained by Mystique's death- but still. Didn't every opinion, not necessarily count in the long run, but deserve to be known? To be voiced? Keeping thoughts bottled up was a trait Mystique's children seemed to both have perfected, but as different and alike each were, the trait came in quite the difference of contrast.

On top of all this....Amanda had broken up with Kurt after their relationship, 'became too stressful' she said, and hugged him 'goodbye' out of fifth period not too long ago. Kurt seriously felt as though he needed a time out from life- just a five-minuet breather and then he'd get back into the game.

What that so much to ask?

Kurt heard Rogue yell out in frustration inside the study. Apparently so.

_Kurt could you please come into my study now?_ the Professor asked into Kurt's mind. Kurt replied yes, and entered.

There, Rogue and Logan were standing side by side opposite Xavier, who sat in his wheel chair, looking disoriented with all the arguing.

Xavier motioned for Kurt to come more into the office. Kurt did so, feeling nervous. Never before had he seen Rogue or Logan so mad. Logan's friendship and understanding with Rogue was far greater at the time, then say, Logan's levelheaded ness.

"Rogue, you must think about Kurt's feelings on the subject-"

But Rogue cut Xavier off.

"He doesn't know what he feels about her!" Rogue snapped, "I've gotten her mind in me, I /know/ she doesn't care where she is! Dump her in the trash- THAT'D BE GREAT BY ME!"

Kurt glared at her, mouth half open in disgust- Mystique, enemy, mother, leader, assassin or not, she was still a person and deserved the decent human respect Rogue so thoughtlessly left out. "Yeah like you'd be one to make any good choices about this! /YOU/ killed our mother!" he yelled.

Logan growled at that, and his claws extended threateningly. But Kurt didn't care.

He knew that hadn't hurt Rogue- it only hurt him. She had a way of double playing Kurt -intentionally or not, Kurt had a small opt for- making him out to be the one hurt by his own words, in defense to hers. It seemed he couldn't target her with anything. She'd come to an understanding in herself that since she hated Mystique, and Kurt had wanted her to have lived, then she hated Kurt for that.

She didn't care to show it.

She took a step foreword and pushed him. Kurt staggered some, not expecting Rogue to do that.

Instead of pushing back at her, Kurt jerked his head over to the crippled professor.

"That's how she takes simple human care! She shouldn't have any say in this, Professor, she doesn't care about Mystique, she proved it, at least let me have a funeral for my mother!"

Kurt's last 10 words rang throughout the study.

Kurt's face grew hot with embarrassment and anger.

"She was no mother to you elf!" Logan said, still taking Rogue's side but from a different angle of perspective.

"She left you to die more than once!" Logan continued, "and hasn't said five minutes worth of anything to you!"

Kurt didn't know weather to fight and yell out, or cry. /She was still his mother- no matter what they said! And what they were saying was making the fact of her death worse! She'd never would have another chance to let him know /why/./

Kurt told them just that.

"-And she's going to be given a funeral, I don't care what you think about it Logan, or you Rogue. If you find it funny to dig her up and dump her off into the ocean then that tells me just where /you'll/ end up!" 'friendless in the depths of hell', Kurt had to bite his tongue to remain from saying aloud, "but at least I'll know /I/ did the right thing, and /I/ can be at peace with her to as much as this will let me!"

With a final and quick mental word with the Professor, Kurt was given permission, and left the study with a 'bamf' of sulfurous smoke.

Kurt reappeared in his room, and calmed himself.

'Forget Rogue. Forget Logan. They're without morals. Just have the funeral as soon as possible....'

Kurt began the arrangements. He'd need a casket, one that he'd buy himself. He always had quite a stash of money pilled away, one for collage and then some for a car. Over the years he'd accumulated quite a load. He could afford some flowers, and a casket. He could dig the hole himself. He'd have himself a one-man funeral.

Deciding that if all that, he might as well, because no one would be there to judge him, attend via no image inducer.

This meant he'd have to buy a nice pair of pants, already having a nice enough shirt. Kurt thought on it a moment- if no one was going to be there, and what he was going for Mystique was /MORE/ than enough that she really deserved, then why bother with the extra bit?

Kurt sighed- but, one-half of him argued, why not?

Realizing it was too late for any real shop to be open, and he'd not yet checked the prices on caskets, that he could at least find a nice pair of slacks at the mall.

He thought out loudly enough for the Professor to catch onto his message, and Kurt teleported down to the garage where he took one of the extra cars the Professor had to buy.

Kurt drove himself alone to the mall.

-X-

Wanda entered the mall and through which opening she came, did she enter into the food court. People murmured around, as they recognized her as 'one of the mutants'. She didn't care, though, if they were smart they'd stay out of her way. But if they were foolish in actions, she could take them out. And she would.

Lucky enough for them, Wanda's image was intimidating enough so no one said anything directly to her.

It was then that Wanda realized she didn't know where to go, where to buy something to wear, and surely, if she did find such a store, she'd have one hell of a time trying to find her way back.

She'd only been at the mall once before.....but at the time she certainly didn't browse around. It was to battle.

Wanda decided she'd simply continue one direction, until she found something. If nothing, she return to her starting point and then go another, different, direction from there. Sure, it'd be a while, but the though of wearing a pink and grey uniform as, 'Scarlet Witch' was too degrading.

After a good half hour of searching, Wanda rested on a mall bench, angrily cursing the format of malls everywhere.

She was lost in the mall.

'How pathetic' some might think. But /some/ had never spent their childhood, and some of their teenage years in an asylum.

She was /not/ some of those people.

Wearily, she looked around her. A single store caught her eyes, because in that store, was someone she recognized. Someone she knew.

Nightcrawler.

After a moment of staring, Wanda shrugged. 'so he's buying something. It's not against the law or anything.'

But then she knew she was lost, and needed some sort of assistance.

The only foe she couldn't face up and win against- the mall. Alone.

Debating her pride, Wanda came to the conclusion that /yes/ he was an X- Men, but she had helped him when she set up a meeting with Agatha (not that that turned out to any progress) so, he should help her. It was only fair.

She sat up, and walked into the store.

-X-

Rogue ran from the professor's study -Xavier in mid sentence to her- and entered the first room in the hall. That room was Kurt's.

In a fit of rage, Rogue ripped the bed comforter off, and sent everything flying off his desk and dresser. She threw his picture of his parents against a wall, and the frame shattered. She tore down the curtains from the balcony, and then slid down to the floor.

She cried there, angry at the professor's decision to let Kurt have Mystiques funeral on the Institute land. It was his own property, and though Rogue threatened that she'd report to the authorities that he was burying someone on it, Xavier was not going to change his mind.

Rogue was distraught. Why was it that Mystique kept haunting her?

She remembered what Kurt had said. 'don't help her and it'll haunt you the rest of your life'. She hated him for being right.

But then again, she wanted wrong. If helping Mystique- who ruined everything, Rogue thought- was right, then she wanted nothing but the opposite. She wanted everyone to forget it and move on. She wanted away from the ever right of the institute.

Rogue dried her tears and looked fuzzily around the room. It looked like a disaster area. Like she'd been there.

"Good."

She stood up, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

-X-

Kurt fingered the pair of slacks at hand. He didn't really care for them, but at a reasonable price, and fit (though he'd have to tailor them for a tail, later), they were ok. Despite that, Kurt just didn't feel up to finishing his task so quickly, and returning back to the institute. He thought for a moment, where else could he go? The theatre was open, but with that new Poorly-Made-But-None-The-Less-Extremely-Anticipated-Movie- With-Millions-Of-Hot-Chick-And-Dick-Scenes type of movie out, it'd be packed and not too enjoyable. Those movies had not plot, Kurt saw.

A swish of a striking scarlet color in the corner view of his eyes made him turn around, only to see Wanda Maximoff, 'Scarlet Witch', come up, and stop a few feet from him.

"Erm," he shifted to face her completely. "hi?"

"Hello." she said.

Kurt glances around, confused.

Wanda shifted her weight to her left leg, and stood slightly slanted to the floor; as if trying too hard to be at ease.

"You may be wondering what I'm doing here-"

"Yeah." Kurt said, a little too quickly.

Wanda put her hands on her hips. "I need to buy some clothes, but I'm lost."

"Oh."

Wanda needed help finding a way through, and out of the mall. She didn't want to give up the conversation.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

Kurt's face fell some. "ah, I'm buying a pair of slacks, for Mystique's funeral...."

Wanda blinked in surprise.

"Oh....um- sorry?"

Kurt shrugged it off.

Wanda saw he didn't look too happy. Maybe earlier he'd cried or something, he kept his eyes half closed. Unsure, but not knowing what else to say, she opted for; "She got me out of the asylum..." referring to the subject of Mystique.

"She dropped me into a river." Kurt said without skipping a beat.

"And never contacted you any time after?"

"Not since a while back. A little after I first joined the X-Men....."

"Huh. Looks like I've got more a reason to set up a funeral for her than you."

"Maybe." Kurt shrugged a shoulder.

"Definitely" Wanda concluded.

Kurt's eyes narrowed. ".....Are you trying to make a point?"

Wanda sighed. "Just that you don't have to do that for her. A funeral."

"I.... I should, though. Rogue wont. The Brotherhood-"

"Wont"

Kurt was a little annoyed by that, but overlooked it. Wanda probably was never very good with people's feelings, most of the time. She had her own to figure out. Though she was surprisingly understanding about taking Mystique the statue back from the brotherhood.

"Ja. And I'm her son so why not; okay?"

Wanda heard his voice rising. "Okay." She agreed with him lightly.

Kurt shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to come out as cross, and I should thank you."

Wanda blinked, confused, "For what?" she asked.

"You helped set up that meeting with Agatha....even if it did end like it did, it was help. Thank you."

"....You're welcome..."

Kurt placed the pants back on the rail.

"None of these fit." He said with an easy smile; obviously trying to change the uncomfortable mood.

"You have to buy clothes, ja? You never struck me as someone who wanted to mall crawl."

Wanda fisted her hands. "I /don't/ 'mall crawl'" she snapped, "like I said, Fred ruined my clothes and will pay dearly for that later. I don't know my way around this stupid mall, and since no ones doing much of anything about Apocalypse right now, I might as well get something to wear."

Kurt objected, "The professor and Dr. McCoy are looking into it."

"That doesn't mean anything's going to happen." Wanda said.

"Maybe, maybe not. But anyway, mind if I...er..." Kurt fidgeted, "hang out with you? I can help you around here, since your lost and all..."

Wanda blinked, unsure, "don't you X-Men have training sessions and stuff like that to do? I just wanted you to show me to a store I could find what I need, and how to get out of here."

Kurt laughed nervously. "ja. That's what I'm putting off now. Things are a little complicated back at the institute. I kinda wanted a minute out of it. Where'd you come in?"

Wanda looked around, confused, and opted to just say, "A food court."

Kurt laughed uneasily. "Then you'd probably get lost if even I told you how to get back here."

Wanda scowled, not knowing if he was making fun or her or not. "You're in quite the laughing mood. Surprising if you didn't stay up in your room, mourning the death of your mother all day."

Kurt knew she was just caught on an edge at him. She didn't mean it to be so hurtful. Masking again, he raised an eyebrow. "no.....not as of late," he tried to joke. He hated at that moment how Wanda almost sounded like Rogue. 'But she's not,' Kurt told himself, 'she /was/ asking how you're holding up, nothing Rogue would do now. And she doesn't have simple people skills, so humor this.'

Wanda could see he was tense. His posture showed that much.

"Sure" she said finally, "We can 'hang out'." Feeling that the mutant before her really didn't /need/ to be back at the institute so soon, either.

Kurt's face lit up almost instantly. "Wunderbar! So, I guess I'll get these. Tailor them later......" Kurt bought the dark pants and was back at Wanda's side.

"Where do you need to go?" he asked.

Wanda chewed her lip. "I don't really know. I've never been here...."

Kurt laughed. Wanda glared- what was so funny?!

"What's so funny?" she snapped as she and Kurt walked out of the store.

"Nuzzing, nuzzing, it's just..." a smile played itself upon Kurt's homographic features.

"Vhen I first came here, and had to get some civvies the only person besides Jean vas Scott, and Jean vas busy so Scott took me. And, heh, lets just say his sense of style doesn't serve me well."

Wanda raised an eyebrow.

"I looked like his clone till I found a different store. The most horrible mornings I had- waking up, getting dressed, and looking like Scott."

Wanda smiled too.

Kurt looked around, deciding what store would be best fit for her.

"Um, that store there, the Gap, and limited too or whatever are Kitty's favorite stores." He looked at Wanda. "We should steer clear of those, ja?"

Wanda nodded absently, not having a clear-cut image of who 'Kitty' was.

"Wet Seal is over there, and that's that a-ber-crom-bie....gah, crazy name, well, that's that over there. But you could find that same stuff in a pile of one of those navy donations to children." Kurt noticed Wanda was looking at him as though he was speaking a different language. He might as well been.

"heh. Sorry. Let's cut to ze chase, ja? Ah! The store around the corner is the only one...Rogue... tolerates. Wanna try there?"

Wanda noted the hushed tone he used when he came and said Rogues name.

Nodding and following Kurt, Wanda thought a moment, putting all the pieces together. She knew Mystique was dead, but no one really gave any real story of the ordeal. Wanda had let it pass because it wasn't so much her business, than knowing Kurt, who'd spoken to her not shortly back, was far more affected by it.

".....What happened?" Wanda asked as she walked along side with Kurt to the respective store.

Kurt's eyes glances over her, dark, and then closed once.

"You don't know.....?" He asked her.

"Not everything." Wanda said quietly. "Just that she's dead."

Kurt stopped, and sighed. "Vhy not?" he mumbled, and started his explanation. "In short, Vanda, after I came to the brotherhood house and brought mystique back to the institute, rogue told me -screamed at me- that if I didn't get rid of Mystique, she vould. And, uh, your going to think this is stupid, but, the stone mystique was /crying/."

Wanda stared at him blankly- did he really believe that?

"um, heh. And so I brought her to the professor and Mr. McCoy, but they said it was nothing. She was dead." Kurt stopped a moment, and continued rather shakily. "I /know/ what I saw. She cried, Vanda, she was still alive. And then I had the meeting with Agatha...."

Kurt had stopped.

"What happened during that?" Wanda asked.

Kurt gave a snort. "She died."

Wanda stood in the silence, waiting for Kurt to elaborate.

With some difficulty, he did.

"I had Mystique in a gazebo waiting for Agatha to show up, and then Rogue came up walking around, too. Agatha....she said there was nothing she could do. But if rogue touched her, that'd give her enough of a power jolt to get out of her trapped mutation."

Wanda could hear the strain in his voice, retelling his tale.

"Rouge didn't help mystique... I told her if she didn't, it'd haunt her the rest of her life. She burst out in anger and... she pushed Mystique. She broke the railing of the gazebo, and fell. I teleported to grab her.....but....I missed" Kurt concluded with some difficulty. "I missed her, too taken by surprise, and watched as she smashed into a million stone pieces on the beach." Kurt turned away as they finally approached the store.

Wanda was shocked at the story. Did that mean....?

"Rogue killed your mother?" she asked before she could have thought to hold her tongue. Kurt cringed some.

"/Our/ mother. She birthed me, and adopted Rogue. And Rogue killed her so I'm here getting pants for the funeral." Kurt looked angry.

"Hey, I'm sorry..." Wanda didn't know what to say.

Kurt mentally told himself to shut up. His problems didn't have to hers. "Nein. It's ok. Just.....now you know."

Wanda touched his arm, he didn't shrink away, he was just a little surprised.

"I know." She said quietly.

Kurt's posture loosened, and dawned down. He smiled at Wanda, briefly, before she turned away to the hustle and bustle of the store. She glanced around, instantly seeing what she needed.

Kurt watched as she picked up a black, form-fitting shirt, and red tie up one, and a black tie up one. She snagged a few pairs of black pants. She took them to the checkout counter without even trying them on.

"Aren't you going to see if they fit?" Kurt asked, eyeing her various selection of clothes.

"Um, no, they should fit." She said. Kurt shrugged, and casually looked over the clothes. A tiny smirk formed and he smiled at her.

"You bought three pairs of the same outfit." He observed, smiling some, "Vhat are you? A cartoon character?"

Wanda fisted her hands by her sides- which was 'Wanda' for someone like Kitty, or jean putting their hands on their hips. "No. If I were I'd spin around nude."

Kurt reddened some. Obviously, someone had seen their boarding house mates watch Looney Toons.

"Ack, vell, I was just thinking maybe you should see if they fit. These are on sale, you couldn't take them back if they didn't fit. It'd be a vaste of money."

Wanda starred at her clothes, and then took them into her arms.

"I might be a while." She said.

Kurt just shrugged and smiled. Wanda entered a dressing room.

After a minute, Kurt heard Wanda call out to no one particular; "There's no mirror in here!!"

"Zeres a few out here." Kurt said.

Wanda hesitated a moment. What was that in his voice? Slyness, or, shyness?

Oh well.

Wanda stepped out and Kurt was met with en eyeful. How she ever got into those sleek, tight fitting pants he thought he'd never know.

(A/N: one day Kurt!! One day in an AU! Or in the comics, Kurt, the comics!!! ^^)

"wow." Kurt breathed out.

Wanda smirked. "I didn't ask your opinion."

"I'm sorry, it's just your really-"

Hot?

"Beautiful." Kurt's face flushed red as he said it.

Beautiful? Wanda's brow softened into an arch so that it looked as though she were confused. Was that a compliment? Had she gotten one like that before? Where someone treated her with respect and the decency of telling her she was beautiful? Not some word to be over used, and under meant; 'hot'?

"Beautiful...?" Wanda repeated slowly.

Kurt shrunk in his seat. "You must think I'm a total eediot now....."

Wanda snapped out of her trance; "um, no! not at all...." She whirled around back into the dressing room.

She hugged a shirt to her chest- 'beautiful'?

___________________________________

A/N: um, end of chapter one. 0.o hope it was ok... Please review and tell me what you thought! What I could do better, what you liked or didn't, etc! or whatever. ^^

thanks,

Scrawler