NYC - A night on the town (tag: Maddie)

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt pulled his coat around his body as he stepped out of the bar, protecting himself against the cool night breeze that ruffled his hair. He'd expected it to be warmer this time of year in New York, but they were close enough to the ocean, he supposed, for there to be a chilling wind.

His tail kept the door open as he stood, and he glanced around the street for any protesters, but it seemed that they had given up for the night. Thank the good Lord. He didn't want to have to deal with them as well.

Turning back to glance at Maddie, he couldn't help but notice that once she was standing and moving, her shirt became even more revealing than before. Chuckling to himself, he stuck his hands the pockets of his slacks (specially tailored so the cuffs flared out to hide most of his feet, God bless Charles Xavier for his attention to detail). "I think you may be right, Madelyne. It probably will be best to let you change."

"Which way is your hotel? Far enough to need a cab?"

[maddy]

The way he held the door open with his tail made her smile broadly as Maddie wandered out of the bar, and his comment on her shirt actually made the redhead break into amused chuckles as she started leading him down in the right direction.

"No, it's only a few blocks, actually." She could have travelled faster were she like Kyle, and willing to be public about her identity as a mutant, but there were few people in the world that Maddie actually trusted with her secret. The world did not seem ready to accept them unconditionally yet, if it ever would be. So for the moment, she did her best to keep her mutation under her proverbial hat.

Which probably made it odd, that she was strolling down toward her hotel with one of the most obvious mutants she'd ever come across. That she'd let her temper get the best of her that day in Washington still had Maddie kicking herself, but she wasn't entirely disappointed if it meant that she got to spend time with Kurt. He was so adorable when he got flustered - and he was so easy to fluster.

"That one." Pointing across the road with one hand, Maddie smiled suggestively and made no move to stop her shirt from gaping open. "I won't be a moment."

As tempting as it was to invite him up, Madelyne had a feeling that Kurt would have to politely decline anyway. When she was returned, she was wearing a simple pair of dark blue jeans and a white top - high necked, although the outline of her underwear could still be seen through it (she wasn't perfect, after all). Much less distracting than before, in her estimation. She fixed Kurt with a smile.

"So, where to?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt walked along next to Maddie, keeping mostly to the shadows that lined the street near the buildings and between the streetlights. He was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea to be walking about; his previous experiences in public, circus aside, certainly didn't hold a great air of promise.

Neither did the furtive glances of people walking by, their quickening steps as they moved past as swiftly as they could. Kurt had been growing more used to the atmosphere at Xavier's, and he'd lost some of the anxious caution he'd had before. He could feel it swiftly returning; he'd not forgotten the blazing torches or the firing guns of the villagers.

However, torches were rare in New York City (even if guns weren't, but there were none in sight), so Kurt kept time with the red-haired woman as she led the way down the street.

"That one. I won't be a moment."

Nodding and giving her a little smile as she turned and walked away, Kurt breathed a sigh of relief inwardly that she had gone up herself. He had been half afraid that she was going to invite him to her room, and while the relative safety and privacy it would have provided were certainly welcome ideas, Maddie herself seemed to be less... Restrained? ... than Kurt had originally believed.

Which meant she could be a lot of fun, but it could be potentially dangerous. And danger was not something Kurt was looking for at the moment.

Stepping back into the darkest shadows to one side of the door, Kurt unconsciously shifted the ever-present gateway around him, and slowly he appeared to vanish, the light bending around him so that all anyone would see was a pair of yellow eyes peeking out at them. Fortunately, New Yorkers never looked twice, so no one noticed him standing there, still with years of practice.

It wasn't long before Maddie returned, looking considerably more conservative than before, though the streetlamps caught the white of her shirt and let Kurt know just what color she was wearing underneath. Stepping out of the shadows, he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, anywhere with too many people is, sadly, a bad idea. Perhaps I could give you a tour of the roofs of New York. They have a much better view anyway."

[maddy]

It was a shame that he thought that way, but Maddie knew that there was truth to Kurt's statement. People were still not used to mutants, particularly those with a more extreme physical appearance. He was right - it was sad, and she nodded slowly.

"You know, I think that sounds like a wonderful plan, Kurt." For a moment she wondered just how they would get up there, whether she would be... helping, but then she remembered that part of his mutation allowed him to teleport.

Her lips twitched into an amused smile.

"You'll be taking us up, yes? So... how does it work? Do we have to be... touching?" She'd never met a teleporter before, and in any case Madelyne never liked to assume that two similar powers worked in the same way. Both she and Kyle could fly, if they wanted to, but they had very different abilities.

Before he could answer, her grin turned cheeky.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wagner, I promise I will behave." She couldn't help it that she found him attractive, but she could at least do her very best to keep him comfortable, even if it meant sacrificing some of her own fun.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt looked at the rooftops around them, judging distance, trying to imagine topography. They were all too high for him to see exactly what was there, and he didn't want to endanger Maddie's life.

At least, he knew that what he was about to suggest wasn't as dangerous as it sounded. He hoped she would take it the same way.

Chuckling, he looked back at her. "Ja, we will have to be touching. The best idea is to be as close as possible; otherwise the teleporting can be rather... jarring for the passenger." Watching her grin, he smiled. "Frau Pryor, if you have never teleported before, I have very little worry about you behaving.

"Now, all the rooftops are too high to safely know what is up there, and while I can probably make it up myself and be fine, I don't want to risk you as well. Instead we are going to do something that may sound a little risky, but it should be quite fun."

Glancing up, he pointed up into the sky. "We are going to teleport there," he said, "level with the rooftops on either side. We will be there no more than an instant; I just need to see what is on the roof to make sure we don't wind up with someone's aerial poking through our middles."

He gave her a smirk and opened his arms. "Do you dare?"

[maddy]

"Mr. Wagner." All she could do was smile as she stepped forward, sliding her hands underneath his coat and pressing herself extremely close to him.

"I'm not worried, Kurt. Don't forget that I have... talents of my own." Standing there as she was, her face only inches from his, her body pressed up against his warmth, Maddie couldn't help but grin. Or, apparently, insert a little bit of double entendre into her words.

"You know, I think I'm going to like this rooftop tour. That was a wonderful suggestion." She wondered just how jarring the teleportation would be - going through it twice in quick succession would be interesting, to say the least.

"Am I close enough?" She gave him another one of her amused smiles before resting her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and looking rather content. Any passers-by would have thought the pair of them sweethearts, at least until Kurt did his thing and they disappeared up onto the rooftops where there were no passers-by.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt was prepared for her arms to close around him (it made teleporting easier, honestly - he was always a bit worried about what would happen if contact was lost mid-teleport), but he wasn't expecting them to slip inside his coat as she pressed up against him. If he had worn his leather vest, it would have lessened the contact slightly, but instead the cotton shirt he had on offered little protection with Maddie flush against his front.

Willing his body to relax (Relax! RELAX!), he took a deep breath, his twisting tail the only sign of nervousness. Very close. She is very close. He smiled back at her. "Believe me, Madelyne, I am aware of your talents." Most of them, at least. He carefully skipped over the hidden meaning in her words, focusing instead on the teleport ahead of them.

"You are more than close enough," he said quietly, wrapping his arms around her and turning his face to the sky to both look where he intended to go and throw a silent prayer for strength to Heaven as her head rested on his shoulder. "Brace yourself."

They were gone in a puff of acrid smoke, reappearing a good 10 or 15 stories above the street. Kurt's head whipped around, catching sight of the roof opposite Maddie's hotel, and he focused briefly.

Inertia had started to catch up with them, Maddie's red hair beginning to flair in the first stage of the drop, when they disappeared again, appearing half an inch from the rooftop and settling down with a quiet thump. Blowing a strand of red hair from where it had draped across his nose, Kurt looked around. "There we are. Safe as can be."

[maddy]

She didn't open her eyes until their feet were firmly on something solid and Kurt declared them safe. Actually, Maddie didn't open her eyes for a good ten or fifteen seconds after that, breathing slowly and letting her stomach settle from the two teleportations and the moment of inertia that she'd felt, if not seen.

"Well," she finally said, opening her eyes and looking up at him, "that was certainly... different." For a long moment she just looked up at him, smiling softly, before she finally drew her arms out from underneath his coat.

"You're right, the view is nice from up here." Tucking her hair - which had grown rather discheveled over the trip - behind her ears, Maddie looked around rather curiously. It was a very different view to Washington DC from above.

"God I've missed New York." Sticking her hands in her pockets, she wandered over to the edge of the roof, looking down at the streets below. It was a good way to travel - getting to cling to Kurt was only an added bonus - although the smell of the smoke and the way her stomach had reacted made her wonder if it was always like that. No doubt he'd have gotten used to it over the years, though.

"So, are you going to be taking us from roof to roof like that all night, Kurt?" Her overly innocent expression betrayed that it wasn't the idea of the smell clinging to her clothing that Maddie was thinking about.

"Not that I'm complaining. It was a wonderful suggestion."

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt looked around at the surrounding rooftops and windows, searching out any faces that might be watching, but their appearance seemed to have gone unnoticed. His tail unconsciously waved through the smoke, dispersing it more quickly. "The smell does go away," he said absently, still glancing around as she pulled away.

Walking to the edge of the roof next to Maddie, Kurt looked out at the lights across the city at night. "It is always quite the view from up here. Much like the night sky on the ground."

Setting on foot on the ledge at the edge of the roof, Kurt breathed deeply. He liked it up here. It was peaceful, only the loudest noises filtered from the ground, and even in New York, those weren't as common as people thought. He was certain there was a song about it, but the title escaped him at the moment.

Turning to glance at Maddie as she looked at him, he smiled ruefully. "If I were to put you through that in quick succession, I fear you would lose everything you had been drinking all over my new shirt." He looked around. "Still, unless you plan on building a cable car to get us from rooftop to rooftop, it would seem the only way to get around. We shall have to take short breaks between roofs, I think."

Smirking as she spoke into his mind, he shot back at her, Pray that you do not make me forget where I am going, as he pointed to the next rooftop. "When you are ready, Madelyne, let me know and we can move on."

[maddy]

"Perhaps not a cable car," Maddie grinned at the thought he directed to her, but didn't make any verbal or telepathic acknowledgement of it, "but I'm sure that I could help some other way." After all, she could levitate herself with her telekinesis, and she could certainly levitate Kurt... It was just a matter of trust, and whether he would prefer to use his own powers or not. Up here in the dark, she felt confident enough that using her abilties would not attract attention, or at least not attention that would specifically be able to put her name out there publicly as a member of the mutant community.

For the moment, though... "I think I am ready." A few more breaths of the cool night air and Maddie turned to face him again, fingertips brushing over the scars on his face before she loosely rested her bare arms around his neck.

"How did you get them?" God, but she actually appeared innocent as she stood there close to him, her eyes fixed on the patterns that the scars made across his face. Somehow she doubted that she'd be able to lull him into a sense of security, though, not with the amount of flirting that she'd been doing over the entire night.

Sometimes Madelyne was glad that she was only a low-level telepath. There was something about the idea of simply mentally manipulating someone into your bed that seemed incredibly boring to her. She personally enjoyed the chase, whether it was successful of not.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt thought about what she'd said. If she was half as powerful as Jean had been at the height of her abilities, Kurt had no doubt that she could take them both from rooftop to rooftop. And it might come to that later, depending on how they both felt, but for the time being, Kurt was more than happy to teleport from place to place.

He wasn't sure exactly when he'd gotten used to the feeling of teleporting. He could remember the first time he'd disappeared; when he'd landed less than 10 feet away he'd promptly lost his lunch. It took a while for him to grow accustomed to the smell and feeling, but now he didn't notice at all.

Kurt felt the heat gather under his collar as she brushed her fingers over his scars, ruffling the soft fur on his face. He licked his dry lips, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Religious fervor," he said with a humorless chuckle just before they teleported, appearing a good 12 rooftops away.

[maddy]

"Oh?" Maddie raised her eyebrows, breathing deliberately through her nose to keep the nausea under control. Yes, an interesting - and rather useful - way to travel, but she thought that perhaps it would be better once she'd gotten a chance to get used to it.

She was making the assumption that she'd be able to get used to it in just one night - or maybe she was making the assumption that she'd get to travel that way in the future. Well, Maddie was hoping that she'd get to see Kurt again - and not just because she wanted to see him naked, either.

Well, a girl couldn't help but wonder how far religious fervour had spread those scars. Not to mention her curiosity about whether he was furry all over. And the tail...

Her mind had wandered, and an almost dreamy smile had appeared on her face as she stood there still with her arms around his neck.

"I'm sorry." Casting her eyes down demurely, she drew her arms back and looked around, wondering how far they had travelled.

"How far can you go in one jump?" Obviously he had to know where he was going to end up, hence that comment about ending up in a tv antenna, but she couldn't help but wonder about his limits.

He still hadn't shown her any of his acrobatics yet, either.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt watched her curiously, her breath warm against his skin. Somehow he got the impression that she wasn't an avid churchgoer, so he was glad she hadn't pressed for more information about what that meant. He'd had enough strange looks when he'd explained that the scars were all self-inflicted. Her expression was shifting, though, and part of Kurt wanted to know exactly what was running through that head of hers.

Of course, another part of him realized that it was probably safer and less embarrassing out here. Not that it wasn't going to be embarrassing enough if she stayed pressed against him. He could feel his body threatening to react to her, and he definitely didn't need that happening.

Releasing her as she pulled away, Kurt took a deep breath of the cool air. They'd moved somewhere into the 20-story range, and the air was a bit chillier up here where the wind blew, but it was comforting in his lungs. Hopping to the edge of the roof, he jumped up on the three-foot wall, balancing and looking down at the street.

"I can usually go a couple miles in any direction. More going north or south." He watched the lights of cars go down the avenues, the people looking like toys from so high.

She was being surprisingly calm. He hadn't expected her to look anywhere near demure after giving him a view down her blouse. It was oddly comforting, and he felt himself relax slightly.

[maddy]

"I wonder why that is." Sometimes mutations didn't seem to make sense. Maddie had often wondered if they put their own barriers onto their abilities, but then surely they'd put limitations on that made sense in their own minds.

Maybe that did make sense to Kurt, though. If it hadn't before, it must now - surely you'd get used to that kind of thing over time. It still made her wonder, though, why north or south should make a difference. Maybe it was something to do with how his teleportation worked.

Leaning over the little wall, Maddie joined her blue companion in looking down at the street below. The height put an entirely different perspective on the city, one that she hadn't gotten for quite some time. She didn't have a habit of using her powers in public, after all.

Rubbing at her arms, Maddie wondered if perhaps a jacket would have been a good idea. It had been warmer down on the street than it was up here, and there hadn't been so much of a breeze down there.

"You know, I grew up here, but I don't think I've ever seen the city from quite this perspective before." It looked like Washington - Kyle had a penchant for dramatic poses on the rooftops of buildings - but there was an entirely different flavour to it. New York was a hell of a town, and there was nowhere else she'd been that compared.

But now she was getting all sentimental. She shook her head a little and stepped back from the edge, looking out into the well-lit night for their next destination.

"If we're doing the rooftop tour, are we going to do the sights?" She couldn't help but grin. Seeing what King Kong had from the top of the Empire State Building could be fun.

[Nightcrawler]

"It has been theorized to have something to do wtih magnetic poles, though what exactly I cannot be sure." Kurt wasn't going to work all that hard on testing his limits - the last time he had, he'd woken up after sleeping for two days, and it had taken the people at the circus most of that time to find him.

Kurt watched her rub her arms out of the corner of his eye. Slipping his coat from his shoulders, he draped it over the wall between them, still looking down at the street. "It is a marvelous sight from up here, and so few people know the beauty so far up."

Turning on the wall as she turned, he stayed crouched, watching her look around and smiling. "The top of the Empire State is a marvelous view, and I can get us there. It will be windy, though; you will need to be ready."

Fortunately, Kurt had been to the top of the huge skyscraper before, and he knew where to land. It certainly would have been easier before they added the antenna, but there was enough room on the ledges below it to stand easily.

[maddy]

Smiling, she picked up the coat and slipped it over her arms, a vague sort of smile on her face. It was still warm from him, and she could smell him on it - it was almost intoxicating. Madelyne couldn't help but think that his innocence, how sweet and kind he was, and how easily flustered by her behaviour, was part of the appeal for her.

And the tail. She really did like the tail.

"Windy? I'll do my best not to lose my grip." Smiling, she looked down at the ground for a moment, doing her best to stay in the pattern that seemed to have him more relaxed. Relaxed was good. Better than scandalised at her behaviour, anyway - for a moment she wondered just what he'd tell the rest of the X-Men about their evening.

Well, that all depended on just where it went, she supposed.

From looking at her, it wouldn't have been easy to determine exactly what path Maddie's mind was wandering down right at that moment. Outwardly, she gave no sign of what she was thinking, except perhaps the slight curl at the corner of her lips that betrayed her pleasure at the train of thought.

"Well then," she cocked her head to one side to look at him still up there on the little wall, using her telekinesis to push herself away from the rooftop and land softly beside him. "Shall we?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt smiled a little crookedly as she pulled on the coat. His arms were ever so slightly longer than normal, and his frame, while thin for a male, was still broader than hers. Her hands nearly disappeared in the sleeves, the tips of her fingers poking out to show her red manicured nails. It was almost the beginning of one of the clowns back at the circus - although Maddie was considerably more attractive than Boscoe had been.

Chuckling, he ran a hand through his hair as the breeze blew it out of place. Really should get it cut, he thought absently, but I'm growing rather fond of it. "Somehow I don't think you'll have any problem staying exactly where you please," he said.

His yellow eyes followed her as she floated up to land quietly beside him. Maybe you should have let her cover transportation, Kurt. Rising to face her, he wrapped his arms around her back and fixed the picture of the top of the Empire State firmly in his mind. His eyes unfocused for a moment, and with a bamf! they were gone.

[maddy]

He very possibly should have let Maddie handle transportation, but she was quite enjoying the almost-instantaneous jump from place to place. As he wrapped his arms around her, she closed her eyes - for some reason, she really didn't want to know just where they went during the jump - and waited for some signal of their arrival on the Empire State Building.

There was no smell this time, as the wind buffeted them and whipped it away the moment they arrived. Opening her eyes with a smile, Maddie reached out with her mind to steady herself and focused until there was an invisible barrier around them to protect them from the wind. And keep her hair from getting any more mussed than it already was.

It was the most she'd used her powers in some time, and the most she'd ever used them in a public place. Of course, it wasn't like they were in the middle of a crowd, or even in a place that anyone was likely to be looking at them, but it made her feel a little uncomfortable. As though she was revealing too much about herself.

"You're right, the view is wonderful." Pulling her hair back behind her ears and away from his face, Madelyne gave Kurt an amused smile and stepped away from him.

"Do you come up here often?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt hunched his shoulders as soon as they appeared on the ledge, his feet unconsciously sticking to the surface of the building as well as they were able. The wind ripped at his clothes, and he looked down at Maddie, his arms still around her.

She was... smiling?

Suddenly the wind stopped. Glancing around, Kurt's brow furrowed in slight confusion until he looked at Maddie again.

Telekinesis. More useful than duct tape.

Not that Kurt had ever found much use for duct tape anyway. It just didn't keep things steady like everyone said. He'd discovered that the hard way as a teen when he'd tried to duct tape a trapeze back together and had fallen. He never tried that again.

He let his arms fall back to his sides, sliding them into his pockets and glancing out over the city. "Not as often as I could. Still, it is considerably more dangerous with someone to help with the wind, and Ororo has told me more than once that changing that much weather for pleasure is 'simply unethical.'"

[maddy]

"It's a good thing I'm not changing the weather, then." Though really, just getting rid of a little bit of wind? How was that so bad? This Ororo... Whoever she was, she sounded like a real stick-in-the-mud, and it was a shame that she kept popping up in Kurt's thoughts.

For a moment, Maddie found herself thinking about just how she could distract him from that. Her smile intensified.

The wind was still howling around her little shielded square - no point in making it much bigger than the two of them, all it would do was take more effort than necessary - and little bits of dust could be seen building up along one side.

"Surely it wouldn't be dangerous for you though, if you fell you could just teleport back up...? Of course, if you've usually got someone with you when you come up here, I can see how that would be an entirely different matter." She had to resist the urge to smirk, but her eyes were smiling as she looked out over the city.