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Late Gifts
by Pirate Turner
"Hey, Kurt, can ya meet me at the park in front of that statue guy?"
"Sure zing, Kitty," the blue German instantly answered, "but vhy?"
"I wanna give ya something, Fuzzy, and I don't really want the rest of the gang knowing about it, ya know?"
Confusion creased the young mutant's furry brow. "Vhat could it be zat zey shouldn't know about?" he asked her over the phone.
"Get here, and find out." The mysterious answer came, and then the phone went dead in his hand. Kurt looked at it for a moment and then shrugged. {If Kitty vants me,} he thought, {I'm there.}
"Rogue," the shy voice came over the line, "could you meet me in the park, please?"
"Sure, Scott," the Southerner answered without hesitation, "but what's up?"
"It's not really something you talk about over the phone, Rogue," he told her, "and it's also something that I'd like to discuss in private without any chance of interruptions."
{Away from Jean?} Rogue thought in surprise. "Ah'll be there. Ah'm headed out the door now." She hung up and nearly ran out of the mansion in her eagerness to get to Scott.
Kurt had almost reached the statue in the center of the park when he happened to glance sideways and saw Rogue swiftly sprinting in the same direction he was headed. "Hey, Rogue!" he called to her. "Vhere are you going in such a hurry?"
"Ah've gotta get ta the statue," she called to him from the other side of the pathway. "Ah'm meetin' some one!"
Even as Rogue's green eyes sparkled with excitement, Kurt's eyes darkened in surprise. "Zat's funny. It's the same direction I'm headed, but Kitty zought we'd be alone zere."
Rogue slowed and sprinted across the path to join her friend. "What did ya say?" she asked him, confusion creasing her brow. "Ah couldn't have heard ya right. The person Ah'm supposed ta be meetin' there was determined that we wouldn't be interrupted but would be alone."
"That's odd. Kitty sounded the same way."
Rogue's hopes that Scott might have finally been about to announce his true feelings to her began to die away as she stopped and looked questioningly at Kurt. "Ya think they've cooked up whatevah it is tagether?"
"I don't know," Kurt shook his head, "but suddenly, I've got a very bad feeling about zis." Rogue nodded in agreement, and both young mutants slowed their paces as they drew closer to the statue's location.
They stopped when the statue came clearly into their view, and their heads turned from side to side as their eyes scanned the entire area only to find no sign of any other living being except for the tall and silent trees. "See anything?" Rogue whispered softly to Kurt.
"Living?" he asked. "Nein, but there is something over there in front of the statue." He pointed to two boxes wrapped in bright paper with red bows.
"What do ya think it is?" Rogue asked, her eyes focused on the boxes and not moving nor even blinking should she miss some sign that might warn them of danger.
"Presents?" Kurt asked with a shrug.
"What would they be doin' out here in the middle o' nowhere?"
He shrugged again. "No idea," he admitted sheepishly.
They slowly approached the boxes, and as they drew nearer to them began to circle them suspiciously. Their eyes carefully scanned every inch of the boxes with each new step. Finally, they stood above the packages, staring down at the boxes. "They're addressed to us," he observed in a quiet whisper.
"Yeah," Rogue agreed, "but look at the sender." She then read, "With Love, Mom."
"You zink Mystique sent them?" he asked in a hushed whisper.
Rogue nodded gravely. "Who else would have or even could have put presents here, pretended ta be Kitty and Scott ta lure us here, had the nerve ta call herself our Mother?"
"No one," Kurt was forced to admit. Silence reigned for several minutes that seemed to drag on into hours as the two teenagers stared down at the presents. It was Kurt who finally broke the silence. "I've never received a present from her before."
"Ah did, but then Ah didn't know she was Mystique. Any way, that was still a long time ago."
"Vhat do you zink zey are?"
Rogue shrugged. "Does it mattah?"
Kurt thought for a moment. Even if Mystique had given birth to him, she had never been in his life before he had moved to America and joined the X-Men. She had abandoned him as a baby. He had a mother, and Mystique certainly was not her. "Nein," he finally answered. "Zere were so many years when I was growing up that she could have found me an' told me who she was, but she never did -- at least, not until she could use it to her advantage."
"She's good at usin' people," Rogue quietly agreed. "Ah ain't got any clue what's in those boxes. It could be anythin' from a bomb ta money, but whatevah it is it's too late. She doesn't care 'bout either one o' us. If she did, she wouldn't be sneakin' 'round like this or fightin' 'gainst her own so-called children. Whatevah's in those boxes has just gotta be a new way fer her ta use us." Rogue turned away from the gifts and began to walk off.
Kurt hesitated as his yellow eyes gazed down at the gift with his name on it. As a kid around Christmas, he had always wondered what it would be like to receive a present from his birth mother, but now that he had, he didn't dare open it for fear that it might explode in his face. His shoulders sagged as a heavy sigh escaped his lips. He then turned, unseen tail tucked between his legs, and silently followed Rogue.
From high above in a nearby tree, two golden eyes had watched the teenagers come and leave, and two sharp ears had heard every word they had whispered. Only the watcher knew what was in those gifts for it had been her own hands, though they were now deadly talons, that had baked those two cakes, that had taken such care to make Rogue's coconut in such a way as to appear to be the jolly face of Santa Claus, that had carefully shaped Kurt's German chocolate cake into the form of a Christmas tree, and that had been burned while removing the cakes from the oven. Had her children only trusted her enough to open their gifts they would have found the notes she had written both, explaining to them as best she had been able to why she had done to them all that she had and why she had to give them up and explaining to them both that, despite everything, she still loved and missed them.
The majestic eagle spread its wings and took to the air. As it soared higher into the sky and then away from the park, its cry pierced the still air. A single tear fell from the proud bird's eye as Mystique's heart broke again.
The End