Kurt never thought he’d be claustrophobic.
While he’d sympathized with his dear friend Ororo’s fear, especially after learning why she was so terrified of trapped areas, his well-articulated joints could make tight spaces feel much more roomy if he contorted himself just right. So he’d never truly understood it.
But now, in this stuffy closet, Kurt suddenly understood what Storm had meant when she said “the walls press in on you.”
Ironically, then, how he presses his curls into the door of the wardrobe he’d been shut in as the rest of the walls seem to close in. It had never fully shut, always swinging open as if a ghost was looking through it, but Kurt begrudgingly complimented Alistaire’s blockading skill. In fact, the doors even seemed to bend inward. Sweat drips down his face, mirroring the blood oozing down his shoulder, and all Kurt can do is hope and pray for Alistaire to come to his senses.
—
Funnily enough, they’d been celebrating Alistaire. Even without Kitty, Rachel had suggested that the team needed to have some kind of fun- and Kurt couldn’t agree more. He had just given them the opportunity to host something where people could come over and (hopefully) there’d be no threats.
But Kurt learned a long time ago that nothing can ever go perfectly.
Meggan, in some kind of funk, had suddenly snapped as they waited for Alistaire’s sister. Her skin changed, but instead of reflecting someone around her, she’d become some kind of bat-creature. One with glowing eyes, huge bat ears, and fangs even sharper than Kurt’s.
She’d immediately lunged for Rachel when she tried to scan Meggan’s mind, and her new bat-strength hurtled the redhead into a faraway bookshelf. Rachel had passed out almost immediately, and Meggan turned to snarl at her team before she could even crumple to the ground.
Kurt had tried to rush her, gripping her forearms tight as he tried to soothe her. She thrashed and screamed, eventually freeing one of her talons and raking it across Kurt’s shoulder and part of his back.
The force of it had him, too, sprawled out on the ground, and all he could do was writhe on the floor, It felt like the scratch ate at him, almost like acid eating away at styrofoam. His head was already beginning to pound as he pushed himself up onto an elbow, using his other hand to try and stem the bleeding.
Good Lord, it’s so much. The blood was already staining the new shirt he’d been saving for this special occasion, and it was only a little less than shreds when it hung off of his body.
Of course, there had been a ton of commotion. He’d heard shouting and a lot of banging, probably from Brian trying to hold back his love, but it had faded out of the room only moments ago.
“Kurt? Kurt! Please get up, Rachel’s hurt and I don’t know what to do!” Alistaire’s alarmed voice is close to him, and hands guide him to an upright position. “Rachel passed out after Meggan hit her and you’re the only one who knows anything about that! Kurt?”
In his daze, he opens his mouth and closes it. Gott in Himmel, when did his mouth get so dry? He licks his lips, and his fangs poke out of the corners of his mouth.
It’s instant. Alistaire yelps, jumping back, but he collects himself almost instantly, Arms hesitantly grip Kurt’s own, and he’s a little relieved. He opens his mouth to say thank you again, but before that’s possible Alistaire shoves him into the open wardrobe in the corner of the living room.
Kurt’s head bounces off the wall, but his shoulder presses into the wall harder when he doesn’t rearrange himself before Alistaire slams the doors shut with a strength nobody knew he had. He groans at the pain, feeling the wounds tear ever so slightly more as he slumps down. It stains the closet, he knows that for sure, but he can also feel it trickling and matting the fur. Wunderbar.
Which brings him to his current predicament. The next time he hadn’t been fighting off the waves of pain that made his head spin, he’d try to push the doors open with his feet. The blockade meant he just pushed his shoulder back into the wall, and Kurt can’t help gasping in pain between each attempt. His head hangs low, and his tail has stopped moving to wrap around his leg.
Kurt squeezes his eyes shut. Why did Alistaire toss him into the closet? And why was he terrified that Kurt would get out, to the point where he was still moving furniture in front of the doors?
Of course. He bites his lip. Vampires have fangs, don’t they? And who else has fangs? Him.
Did Alistaire really think Vampire-Meggan had turned me too? Do I really always have to be seen as a monster, before I can even explain myself?
He can’t fully blame Alistaire. If Meggan really had turned him, who knows what could’ve happened. Still, though, he lets out a low moan, opposite hand desperately gripping his injured shoulder, did he have to be so rough when trapping me in here?
It’s getting even stuffier. Kurt’s familiar with the heat; with his fur, he hates to admit that it may be one of his weaknesses. But the door doesn’t let any of the air he gasps out into the rest of the room. It stays trapped with him, as if he’s so incredibly contagious he has to be quarantined. If he’d been able to shift himself, maybe he’d be more comfortable. He angles his head up, knees drawn to his chest, and wonders if standing would be better.
For an acrobat like Kurt, there’s no challenge in standing up with only your legs. It becomes as easy as breathing to transition your balance. In a cramped space, it only becomes marginally harder.
He breathes in, as much as anybody could in his situation, and pushes himself up. His tail presses against one of the walls, and he has to release the bloodied hand that had been clutching his shoulder to steady himself against the door.
His head is spinning. So much, Kurt blearily thinks, that it feels like he’s being hypnotized by the dark. A low whine punctuates the weird silence as his aching shoulder sends pulses of sharper pain in time with his heartbeat.
If literally anybody else had been there to stop Alistaire, he wouldn’t be shoved in this closet. If Kitty especially was there, she would’ve pitched a fit that Alistaire even thought about it. Did he seriously forget I’ve always had fangs? Before they’d become best friends, or even just friends, Kitty had also been terrified of him. After she and Kurt had actually gotten to know each other, she started compensating for that mistake by being particularly protective of Kurt when his appearance caused trouble with other people. If only she was here, if only.
His eyes began to flutter shut. The closet’s darkness and heat felt like a heavy blanket over him, and his presumably dropping blood pressure as he bled was absolutely not helping Kurt stay awake right now. He strained to listen to the outside of the closet, and he could hear a second voice. Maybe Brian had found Meggan? Could Alysande have arrived, and was talking Alistaire into letting him out?
Kurt silently prayed he’d at least get to be let out, even if it meant being moved to a different prison. The squealing of a chair being moved from the closet had briefly sparked him to life, ears perking up, but a familiar shouting made it stop.
Verdammt, he was truly adamant that Kurt was a vampire. All it had taken was a moment of judgment, and suddenly he’d been stuck here for who knows how long.
His ears flatten against his head. At some point, his hand had gone back up to squeeze as much blood as he could back in, but the fur around the wounds was so wet it hadn’t even become tacky yet. Even with a half-delirious brain, his medical training screamed at him that that was bad.
Sparkles of static were starting to creep into his vision, and Kurt didn’t have the strength to stand up to the all-encompassing exhaustion that his prison had begun to impose on him. He let his body lurch forward, limp against the wall, he couldn’t tell in the dark when his eyes actually fell shut.
—-
There’s something moving the chairs outside of the wardrobe. Kurt immediately straightens, but his eyes are half-closed and the involuntary snarl he bares is wobbly. His head is absolutely pounding, and he’s aware of how tacky the fur on his back is as muscles underneath ripple.
Light pours in.
It’s… some kind of creature? But what Kurt really cares about is that Doctor Strange is standing in front of him, arms even catching him as locked knees give way.
“Kurt?”
“Hello, Stephen.” Kurt rasps, head bowed low. He tries to stand, but honestly can’t find it in him to resist the hands holding him up.
“I take it you’re not a vampire?” Strange asks in a dry voice, though it’s obviously not aimed at him.
“Nope. Never was.” He tries to manage a smile, but he can feel Strange’s eyes studying the gashes.
“I thought not. Now, let’s take a look at that shoulder.” Strange begins to steer him towards the couch, and Kurt spots Rachel laid on it. Unconscious. He tries to ask, but is almost immediately cut off by Alysande.
“But Ali said your teeth were-“
“They’ve always been like this.” Kurt grits his teeth. That’s the whole reason he was locked in a closet, for however long? The guy most people think is a demon has sharp teeth? “Alistaire, I’d like to have a word with you, later. In private!”
He grumpily plops down onto the arm of the couch, and Doctor Strange begins to examine his shoulder even more. Nobody speaks for a minute, until Stephen addresses Kurt.
“Does your lighthouse have a proper infirmary? These wounds are very deep, and I’d prefer to staple them instead of stitching.”
Kurt’s breath catches in his throat. Staples? He’d known that they could be used, but there’s no way Excalibur has one in the first aid kit. “I’m afraid not. We only have a first aid kit, in the kitchen cabinet under the sink. It should have a needle and thread, if you can use that.”
Strange scowls. He turns to his apprentice, and there’s a moment of understanding between them. The minotaur casts a portal, and disappears through it. It remains open, though, and moments later he returns with what looks like a tackle box of equipment. Strange gestures the box open, and studies its contents.
He chooses a syringe, and Kurt can feel his tail wagging anxiously.
“There’s no need to be anxious, Kurt. I’m simply going to do this the old-fashioned way- I was, after all, a surgeon. I just need to numb the area so I can close the wound without you teleporting away.”
Kurt simply untenses in silent permission, and he feels Strange begin to disinfect a small spot on his back, right next to the wounds. He’s almost off-guard when he feels the needle prick his skin, and it takes everything in Kurt not to jump away hissing until the syringe is removed.
As the medicine starts to kick in, Strange tries to disinfect the area, though it’s difficult with the matted fur clinging to edges of the cuts. He sighs, choosing a razor from the box, and continues to magically manipulate the equipment so that he can shave a square of Kurt’s fur off.
Kurt lets out an indignant squawk, but with how weak and tired he is it’s more of a pathetic squeak of frustration. Alistaire and his sister have moved to keep watch over Rachel and look out for Brian and Meggan, but Stephen’s minotaur assistant continues to aid however he can,
Once he’s able to properly disinfect the three gouges, Doctor Strange lets out a low apology to Kurt. “I understand that you may not feel the pain, but this will not be pleasant.”
With no other warning, Kurt feels the staples pierce his skin. It’s an horribly unpleasant feeling, even if it doesn’t hurt, but Strange works fast so that the drugs he’s given Kurt don’t wear off before he’s done. Each one lets out a little schwip where they go in, and it’s honestly taking everything in Kurt to not throw up at just the noise.
His eyes are screwed shut by the time Stephen stops, even if his body hasn’t moved. He can feel the gauze pads being taped on over, now grateful for the slightest bit of warmth they give his shaved skin, and then the wrappings of bandages that are expertly guided by Strange’s magic. It’s all finished off by a sling to keep him from extending that arm, and orders to fill a pain medicine prescription and take it easy. That part is especially forceful.
He turns his focus to Rachel, who’s beginning to stir, and busies himself by taking care of her. The numbness is just beginning to wear off by the time the sounds of fighting reach their basement, and Kurt has to fight the urge to wall-crawl to the basement, in favor of stumbling down the stairs to find Meggan and Brian locked in a brawl.
Strange is able to sort them out, though, forcing the evil energy out of Meggan, and after some aspirin he shares with Kurt he and Rintrah make a grand exit through a portal.
Kurt’s about ready to call it a night and pass out in his bed for several days when Brian begins to interrogate him.
“Now, Kurt, let me get this straight. Alistaire had you locked up in a closet all night because he thought you were a vampire?”
“Ja,” he tries to shrug, but his shoulder burns at even the idea of movement. “He forgot my teeth always looked like-“
“It was a mistake! I wasn’t familiar with Kurt’s dental formations! Toss me off a bridge, why don’t you?” Alistaire cuts in, and the two other men begin to argue, leaving Kurt to himself.
Seeing that he may have to play mediator soon, he starts to question Widget about the portal he’d used to bring Brian home from the park instead of heading to bed. “So you… focused on the dimensional nexus in the basement?” he questions the little machine, only to get little clicks and whirrs in response.
“Would you two shut up? All this noise can’t be good for my concussion!” Rachel interjects into the argument, though her voice may be louder than the other two’s combined.
“Sit down, Rachel,” Brian says gently, but that only makes her angrier.
“You sit down!” Alistaire reaches the punchline before her, and now she’s absolutely wound up.
“I will not!” She shrieks, and the men exchange glances.
“Actually, Rachel, I think Brian is right about this one.” Alistaire amends, and it seems the argument is changing tides.
“I don’t give a shit!” Her volume has hit the point where Kurt is the one with a headache, and he tries to speak up.
“Would you all calm down?” He asks, in his most gentle, most polite, most pleading voice.
“Shut up, Kurt!” All three of their voices say in unison, and he visibly withers under each one’s first gaze. In Rachel’s case, literally fiery. His tail goes still and he gives them all a long, saddened look before disappearing in a puff of smoke to his room.
Meggan bursts into tears.
—-
Kurt reappears in a similar puff of purple smoke, immediately collapsing on his bed. He makes no moves to actually get ready for bed, even though his pants are speckled with dried blood. Instead, he sits in thought, trying to fall asleep as fast as possible before the itty-bitty dams of aspirin burst against the ocean of pain he knows will come from his shoulder.
Telling me to shut up, even though Alistair is the one who shoved an injured teammate into a closet for most of the night. Hmph.
He’s stewing in similarly resentful thoughts for quite some time, until even the midmorning sun isn’t enough to keep him awake.
His eyes slip closed, and Kurt doesn’t even remember the pain prescription Doctor Strange wrote for him.
—-
He wakes up some time later, but he’s not able to glance at his alarm clock before he feels like Meggan’s claw marks are tearing him apart once again.
Kurt can’t even yell. All that escapes his mouth is the slightest whimper. He presses his face into his pillow, shaking silently as cries threaten to escape. The crying only pulls at the staples more, and what could've been muffled by a single pillow has graduated into open sobbing, each time making the pain worse.
—-
Rachel wanders around the kitchen as she waits for water for tea to boil. Non-caffeinated tea, Kurt had sternly told her. It had been hard to take him seriously with his shakiness, but she grudgingly respected their team medic’s orders. And she had to admit, a caffeine headache might make her already pounding one worse.
That’s why she dropped to the floor when she felt the most invasive declaration of pain she’d ever felt. Clutching her head and groaning, Rachel reached for the counter to haul herself up.
As she still tried to gain her bearings, Brian and Meggan had rushed in.
“Wha was tha?” Rachel slurred, trying to tune out the mental screaming that still echoed in her mind. She couldn’t tell what was going on- the sudden mental grenade had totally scattered her thoughts.
Meggan had turned blue and fuzzy, and there were tears streaming down her face. Brian had this look of concern and slight disgust, like he was offended she’d take on the form of someone else.
“I think it’s Kurt, she gasped, “When I… when I hurt him, I think it was worse than he and Doctor Strange clued us in on.”
The group immediately raced to Kurt’s room to find him laid across his bed, cries wracking his body. It was an honestly awful sight- their “team leader,” somebody who acted as their rock and mediator, someone who tried to stay strong for the others, had become so incredibly vulnerable. Blood soaked through the bandages on his back, and it had smeared a little on his sheets, too. The same pants he’d been wearing during the “incident” were still covered in dried blood.
Meggan dives forward, placing herself on an edge of the bed to run her fingers through his hair. Her form became even more similar to Kurt, with dark and curly hair, but she continued to cry just as much as she initially had.
She looks up at Rachel, eyes puffy, If her eyes didn’t mirror the solid gold of Kurt’s, they’d probably be incredibly bloodshot. “Please let him sleep. That’s all he wants to do- but it’s just so, so awful.”
It had become against Rachel’s moral code to do something that invasive to her friends- but the eerie sight of Kurt openly crying, absolutely unaware that any of his teammates were there, had her nerves shot.
“Brian, go grab some of the gauze pads and bandages. The ones he has on are totally useless now.” She offers, seeing how Captain Britain has frozen in place, not sure what to do. He immediately turns, being given a mission, and by God, he knows how to complete a mission.
Rachel turns back to Kurt, who’s still crying, and tries to push past his primal hurt to shut off his synapses so he can just sleep. A risky move, sure, but it pays off as his breathing slows and his tail slows down from the aggravated swishing it’d been doing.
Brian returns, entire first aid kit in tow, and places it gently on the foot of Kurt’s bed. He and Rachel quickly set to work, just dumping the soiled bandages on the floor to clean up later. Once they have the layers of gauze off, and as much blood as they can wiped away, Meggan gasps.
“Oh my,” her eyes full of tears again, “I did that?”
None of them had seen the actual aftermath of Strange’s triage. Sure, he’d informed them it took almost 55 staples to close the wounds, but it seems like so much more when it’s laid across someone’s back.
The shaved skin was puckered underneath the staples, showing the tension of the work. The wounds still oozed some blood, but Rachel could even feel her stomach turning as Brian and Meggan turned away. The skin was so, so raw, and the pink of muscle was a shocking contrast to Kurt’s blue skin and fur.
Each swallowed deeply, holding back bile, and Rachel rewrapped his shoulder as fast as possible, silently thanking the world for unsqueamish surgeons who could deal with things like this everyday, and especially for the fact that they had a magical one as an ally.
There was an unspoken decision in the group: they'd keep a vigil over Kurt until he woke up again, and all of them seemed willing to take every shift. They sat silently together, watching the sun rise for the second day since the whole vampire episode.
The light filtered through the windows, conveniently where Kurt’s eyes were. He stirred for a minute, and twin slits of gold opened up as he studied the scene. His three remaining teammates all sat around him, watching with concern, and he tried to break into a charming grin to get their eyes off of him- off of his torn-up shoulder.
“Ach, and here I thought we’d cancelled the sleepover after the party. I don’t suppose there were any pranks while I was asleep?”
The joke landed totally flat. All anybody could do was stare at him, annoyance starting to creep into their faces. It was wiped away almost magically, though, when Rachel started talking in a low voice.
“Kurt, are you actually alright? You were screaming last night, and you’d been bleeding everywhere. I had to shut off your pain receptors so you could sleep. We’re worried, seriously.”
He meets her gaze. It’s hard to look all around him without harming himself, and he feels a twinge in the middle of his shoulder blade. Wincing, he admits, “I do believe Doktor Strange gave me some kind of prescription, but I do not think I’m in the condition to go get it. He has also instructed me to take it easy, though I don’t think it’s possible for me to."He smiles a little wistfully at that last part, knowing that his climbing gym downstairs may become off-limits for quite some time.
Meggan cocks her head, golden hair falling into her face at that remark. “You could always take a small vacation- this could be the perfect time for you to step away from all of the Excalibur drama!” She flashes a winning smile. “Brian and I would be happy to cover for you, so you can get away and heal.”
Brian looks over at her, a little wary, but his expression evens out and he nods in agreement. “Really, Kurt, it may be nice for you to get out of the lighthouse and heal away from all the action.”
Whatever motives they may have for sending him away, Kurt honestly does agree with them. It could, he thinks, be the perfect opportunity to search for Kitty, or at least a way back. And they are right, since the lighthouse seems to be a central point for weird and often violent happenings.
He dips his head, mouth pulled up in a smile. “I think I agree. Would you all mind helping me pack? I’m sure we can settle the details as we do.”
There’s a chorus of agreement around him, and as Rachel helps him up to the kitchen to eat and talk plans, and Meggan and Brian go for a small date as part of their trip to pick up pain medication for Kurt. Even though they'll be down two, Kurt still finds himself grateful that his team is so willing to give him the chance to get away for a while.
His eyes sparkle as he studies the map he’s pulled out to plan his vacation. A relaxing one, for sure. No matter how grateful he is for the group he and Kitty found, Kurt is absolutely ready to exchange this lighthouse and its chaos for another place and its own chaos for a little bit.