Title: Kinship

Summary: Kurt feels more than just hatred towards Todd.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the idea.

Author's Notes: This is SLASH. That means BOY/BOY RELATIONSHIP. If you have a problem with that, please leave now.

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Love's never straight forward. It's messy and it's painful, and there's always more downs than ups.

In many ways, love is worse than hate. People don't look at you in disgust and revulsion because you hate a member of the same sex, or someone who they find repulsive. But if you love them...

That's why Kurt was scared. He knew how much his teammates hated Todd, how much he was supposed to hate Todd, but from the moment he met the greenish mutant he'd felt a sense of kinship, of closeness, that the other X Men would never understand. Unfortunately, for him, that kinship had transformed into something more, and the reason he fought so hard with Todd was that it was a way to touch him without restraint. His heart ached every time he hit or kicked Todd, and he longed to repay every one with a kiss or a caress, but he didn't care when Todd hit or kicked him. That Todd would even deign to touch him was something he thanked God for every day.

Todd was like him. His mutation was physical, he had an extra, prehensile appendage (although Kurt wasn't sure a six-foot-long tongue could be classed as an extra appendage...damn the English Language, it was too confusing anyway), and he had the same sort of graceful, flexible body that he, Kurt, sported.

Todd knew what it was like to be looked down upon because of his mutation. Both of them had already had a taste of that revulsion and fear that could come from being gay or bi.

They'd both seen the looks, heard the whispers, felt the way people avoided touching you as if, somehow, whatever made you the way you were could be contagious.

They'd both felt the pain...

And now they were on opposite sides.

In one of his more ironic moments, Kurt reflected it was a lot like Romeo and Juliet, if Romeo was a boy with slightly green skin and Juliet a fuzzy demon.

Love was such a messy emotion, and sometimes he wished he couldn't feel it. Wished he didn't feel anything.

But emotions were part of what made him human, and he wouldn't give up that humanity, no matter the pain.

End Ficlet