Kurt and Noriko, backdated to 10/4/2015

[om_nightcrawler]

Kurt and Nori talk about theater and family among other things.



Kurt sat in the middle of the school auditorium’s small stage. Playbooks were spread out around him and a notebook filled with the scribbles of his notes was balanced on his lap. The school year had just started and there was still a lot to do. Writing up lesson plans was never done, even when you were only helping with them.

Brow knitting in thought, Kurt picked up one of the playbooks. He flipped through, reading as he wrote in his notebook with his tail.

The door to the small room on the side of the stage, the one where all the lights were stored, was ajar, and out of it escaped a few metallic noises, then a very frustrated sound. Then, finally, a "Screw it," and some more metallic noises.

Kurt smiled at the sounds and looked up at the storage room. It sounded like he wasn’t the only one struggling with the work that needed to be done. He set the playbook and his notebook down on the floor, hopped up onto his feet, and walked over to the ajar door. Pushing it open the rest of the way, he leaned against the doorframe.

“Having trouble?” he asked, smiling.

Noriko was scowling at her gauntlets as she set them aside, but she did briefly glance at Kurt. "I wanted to see if I could do a decent job in here wearing them." The answer was clearly no, hence the displeased tilt of her lips, and she sat back on the floor to pick up a screwdriver and go back to working on the light in front of her. "How's it going?"

“Good,” Kurt answered with a smile. He walked into the room and sat on the floor across from Noriko, his legs crossed under him. “I was working on lesson plans, but I think it is time for a break. What are you working on?” He leaned in to look at the light.

"Just regular maintenance, dusting them off and checking the lamps," Noriko answered, and opened the light. "They get so freakin' dusty, just lying around." She grabbed a cleaning cloth to get most of the dust out of it, then used an air duster to get the last of it.

Kurt sat down on the opposite side of the lights as Noriko. “Want a hand?” He held up his. “I have two perfectly good ones,” he grinned, “und an even better tail.”

Noriko smiled at that, and nodded towards the screwdriver. "You open them up, I dust them out?"

“Sounds like a plan,” Kurt said and he swiped up the screwdriver with his tail. Scooting closer, he passed the tool to his hand and then started to open up the first light.

"Oh, can you plug them in to check the lamps still work, first?" Noriko asked with a nod at the plug lying there. "Sorry," she added, for not warning him before.

Kurt huffed like he was annoyed, but then grinned big at Noriko. “So demanding.” He picked up the plug with his tail and stuck it in the socket. When it lit up, he unplugged it and went back to opening the light up. “So, how have you been?”

"All right," Noriko replied, finishing work on that light and beginning to close it back up. "Busy. Actually enjoying bartending." Which she had hoped for, but you never knew. She could have hated it.

“That is great,” Kurt said with a smile. “I will have to stop by sometime and see you in action.” He pushed the open light over to Noriko and pulled another over to himself.

"You know, I had all those preconceptions about Damon," she admitted as she grabbed the new light. "I didn't really know him when he was at school." After the Anders thing, she'd avoided anyone with that kind of power. "But he's alright."

Kurt plugged another light in. “I cannot say. I do not know him well personally, and the experience I did have with him was not good. I am glad you and he are getting along, though.” He unplugged the light and began to unscrew it. “Is the bar busy?”

"It's doing well," Noriko confirmed. "People seem to like the atmosphere, and the mutant-friendly thing means a lot of people show up hoping to see something crazy."

Kurt didn’t like the idea of people going to a club for mutants to gawk at the mutants. He supposed, though, it was unavoidable. Wherever there was something to gawk at, there were people who would come and gawk. “I am glad to hear it is doing well. We need more places like it.” Pro-Mutant places, places runned or owned by mutants.

"We'll have our own Village before you know it," Noriko stated with a purse of her lips. It was hard to tell what she thought of the idea.

Kurt made a noise that was neither an agreement nor a disagreement. His first thought of own villages was forced segregation. Ghettos, or the Roma his family descended from, forced to live outside the rest of society.

"How are things with you?" Noriko asked, glancing his way before focusing back on the light she was working on. "How're the preparations coming along?"

“With?” Kurt passed a open light over to Noriko.

"The wedding," Noriko answered, closing up the previous light.

Kurt nodded. “Ah, ja, sorry,” he replied. “We both have been so busy that we have put it on hold for now. Just until Blaine finishes with school, at least.”

"Right, sorry, I thought -" She shrugged, since she'd clearly been wrong, anyway, and got started on the next light. "When's that, then? How long's he planning on studying for?"

“It is alright,” Kurt reassured Nori. “We have not really told many people.” He got started on the next light too. “It is for two more years. He is studying education, with a minor in music. He is very busy, but he is loving it.”

"What about you?" Noriko asked curiously. She had no idea what Kurt did when he wasn't teaching them.

Kurt plugged in the light. This one didn’t light up and, with a small frown, he unplugged it again. “Oh, I am good.” He tightened the bulb. “TAing drama. Writing for SHIFT. Training with my mutation. Fencing.... I am heading up a club for students with physical mutations.” That was... Wow, a lot, actually. He hadn’t realized. He hadn’t thought of himself as ‘busy’, not in the way Blaine was, anyway.

“I have been getting to know my father and his family too. Which is...good. But, awkward sometimes.” Kurt leaned over to plug in the light again. It lit up this time, casting a bright, cheerful glow.

"What are they like?" Noriko asked. She had no idea what his family situation was, but asking why he was only now getting to know his father was a little too personal.

Kurt unplugged the light and pushed it toward Noriko. “They are nice,” he said. “My father likes the same movies as me. We have the same nose and a similar sense of humor. I have two half-brothers and a step-mother too. I do not know what surprised them more: That I existed, or that I was a mutant. But, they have been very welcoming. They make sure I feel like family.”

“Going from a growing up in a circus troupe in secret to the son of a duke is,” Kurt chuckled, “strange to say the least.”

"What's the story there?" Noriko was curious, and she gave him a small, sheepish smile. "If you don't mind talking about it." It sounded like a good story.

“I do not, but thank you for checking,” Kurt said with a smile. He drew another stage light over. “He saw me on television when Blaine and I were on Ellen. He hadn’t known where I was. My mother had run away with me after I was born.”

Kurt plugged in the light, then unplugged it again when it lit up. “She was a mutant too, a shapeshifter it sounds like, and had kept it a secret. When she gave birth to me, the...form? she had been holding slipped and he found out the truth. He was...surprised and did not react well. She panicked and ran.” He smiled. “She was blue and had yellow eyes. Like me.”

The smile slipped and faded. “I am not sure what happened to her or how we got separated.”

"If he managed to track you down, hopefully she will, too, some day?" Noriko offered, screwing a flap back on. She wasn't sure whether hope was a kindness or not, but there it was.

Kurt smiled and replied, “I hope so.” It was wishful thinking, maybe, but what was wrong with a little wishful thinking?

"Family can surprise you," she stated evenly, thinking of her brother rather than her parents.

“That is true,” Kurt agreed, then went quiet for a moment as he opened up the light. “It is alright if she does not come to find me. I just hope that, wherever she is, she is happy.”

Noriko nodded; she understood the sentiment, even if she did not share it. "You're a better man than me." She didn't sound bothered by it, though.

“I do not know about that,” Kurt replied with a smile and pushed the light over to Noriko.

"Well, you're a better man than me, at least," Noriko added, with a slightly different emphasis. She still believed her original statement, though. She didn't have that kind of forgiveness for her parents.

Kurt laughed. “I will give you that one.”

Noriko huffed out a quiet laugh along with his, then let the silence stretch for a few seconds before asking, "Hey, do you know anyone on the tech side of things, in New York?"

“For the theater?” Kurt asked as he reached for another light.

"Yeah," she confirmed with a nod, and closed the light back up after having cleaned it.

Kurt plugged in the light and it emitted a bright, white glow. “I know people in Salem Center. They probably know people in New York. Are you looking for a job?

"After I graduate," Noriko confirmed. "I thought maybe I could try my hand at it for real." Working at Evolution was great, but she didn't want to be a bartender forever.

Kurt smiled. “You would be good at it.” He had no doubt about that. Noriko was a hard and dedicated worker. “I will put a word in with them. I am sure they could help you find something.”

"Thanks," Noriko nodded. "I have a lot to learn, but - I'd make it worth their while." She'd learned things very touch and go, here, without a proper technician teaching her anything. She knew she'd have to learn a lot of things over, and she was ready for it. 

“I know you would,” Kurt replied, sure of it. “Any theater would be lucky to have you, mein Freund.”

Noriko gave him a small, brief smile. "Danke schön." She didn't know much German, at all, but she knew that much.

“Bitteschön,” Kurt replied with a smile.