Let's play ball! (OTA - nudge to Kurt as I reckon this could make for a fun game!)

[hunt_the_devil]

The arrival of the ping-pong table had been in John's humble opinion one of the most exciting things to happen in a while in camp. Not that he'd go around telling everyone this fact, he instead had played it cool. John had avoided the rec room in hope that the interest and level of activity around the ping-pong table would die down enough so that

Comments

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt whistled as he walked down the hallways toward the kitchen. It was a calliope tune, something that had been so ever-present in his life for so long that he hardly heard the sharp, bright melody even as he made it. It echoed a little in the hall and he liked the warble the effect added.

Hands in his pockets, Kurt strolled past the rec room with steps a bit jauntier for the tune... and then backed up about five paces or so, the whistle still issuing from between his lips. He stuck his head into the doorway with a backward lean.

"Fantastisch!" he said, the song broken by the German, and Kurt grinned at the sight of the juggling ball. He backed his body into the doorway along with his head. "You play?"

[hunt_the_devil]

John had heard the whistled tune long before the person whistling it wandered past. He hadn't bothered to look up until the man back-tracked and stuck his head in, the strong accent (which he couldn't place but gathered it was European) surprised John but he smiled at the eagerness.

"Yeah I play. An' from that reaction I guess you do to?"

John lost concentration for a moment and the ping-pong ball bounced off the bat, flew through the air and rolled under the sofa on the opposite side of the room. Sighing John placed the bat on the table.

"Can I interest you in a game?"

John teleported across the room, appearing behind the sofa where he knelt down and rummaged around under the sofa for a moment until he found the ball. He stood up holding the ping-pong ball up like a trophy.

[fuzzylittleprob]

"I do!" Kurt agreed, pulling his hands out of his pockets. He was sure that there were good ping-pong players out of the mutants on the team, but he hadn't found them yet. He took one step into the room and had opened his mouth to answer the man (who reminded Kurt of John Wayne in a powerful and giddy way) when he disappeared and Kurt's jaw dropped.

It was like he'd melted away in a blink.

Like he'd teleported.

John snapping back into existance a breath later across the room proved it and all the air in Kurt's lungs rushed out in one whoosh. "Sie sind ein teleporter," he said so quickly that he hadn't stopped to translate, but even if he had the words might have been so close together as to be unintellegable.

It was like... Christmas. Or the first step into the spotlight in the center ring. The other man didn't look like Kurt did when he teleported--there was no smoke, no stink of brimstone--but he'd done it still. "You're a teleporter!" he repeated in English, a grin rising to split his face ear to ear.

[hunt_the_devil]

The sharp, bark of German startled John and for a moment he tensed wondering if he should get out the room pronto but from the look on the man's face (which was an eclectic mix of joy, wonderment, curiosity, puzzlement and relief) John was quickly calmed. It took him only a moment to realise that the man wasn't horrified by what John had done but instead... pleased

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt took John's hand in both of his and shook it enthusiastically, pumping it for a minute or two (probably long enough to rattle a filling loose) before remembering to let go, still beaming. "I'm Kurt Wagner," he said. "And I do know a teleporter."

There was a flourishing bow that failed to completely hide how his beaming smile had turned into a mischevious grin before Kurt disappeared with a quiet bamf sound, leaving nothing but pinkish smoke and an odd smell hanging around John.

Kurt reappeared in the same manner a moment later, sitting on the back of the couch with a smile that would have lit the entire country could it have been converted to energy.

[hunt_the_devil]

Thankful to have his hand and arm back (he was amazed Kurt hadn't shaken it free of its joint) John opened his mouth to speak but it was his turn to be cut off, by the elaborate bow followed by the sound which accompanied Kurt disappearing. He stared opened mouth at the spot where Kurt had once stood and had been replaced by the pinkish smoke which lingered (along with that odd smell.)

Turning to look at the spot where Kurt now sat John could barely contain how suitably impressed he was.

"Sweet Jesus! You're a teleporter too?!" His jaw worked up and down as he tried to form a coherent sentence. "How long you been on camp? When did your powers develop?"

This was huge, something that John knew he should be acting far calmer and more reserved over but the knowledge that he wasn't so 'unusual' anymore was fantastic.

[fuzzylittleprob]

It was huge! And Kurt wasn't so good about bothering to contain he glee. He hopped off the back of the couch. "I've been here just a week," he said, his accent a little thicker for his excitement, "maybe a day shy. I started teleporting when I was twelve. What about you? I thought I could see your skeleton when you--was it? Your actual skeleton?" It was a wonder that Kurt wasn't bouncing on the spot.

[hunt_the_devil]

"I'd say I was about six when I first teleported but that was an accident an' it didn't happen again for a few months, then randomly. I didn't get control of my powers till I was about eight. Yeah it's my skeleton! Someone said it's like my molecular structure breakin' down until the skeleton is all that's left to teleport." John was sounding remarkably like an over eager child. Like all his Christmas' had come at once!

"What about you? That pink smoke and the smell? How do you teleport?"

Suddenly there were a hundred and one new questions to ask, not to mention that need to know what was the same and different about their teleportation abilities.

[fuzzylittleprob]

"Wow," Kurt said, obvious awe in his voice. John had been so young! At eight all Kurt had been doing was highwire and that was downright boring compared to teleportation. He ran fingers through his hair.

"I actually think I go through another dimension," Kurt said, dropping his hand and shrugging. "I do not see it. I could be wrong. But my mother said that was where the smell and the smoke came from and she knew about those things." His smile waned slightly at the mention of his mother, who made him think about Jimaine, and Stefan...

He shook the thoughts away. "But to think that you're actually breaking your body down. That's incredible!"

[hunt_the_devil]

"Says the guy who passes through another dimension!" John tugged off his hat and set it down on the table. "It's just what we do, I guess after a while it becomes the norm and you don't think of it being any different."

John leant back against the ping-pong table, it was then that he remembered he still had the ping-pong ball shoved in his pocket, placed there during the revelations. Throwing it up and down John watched it twirl before catching it.

"So you a pro solo player at this then huh?" Nodding towards the table John was curious to see if Kurt had played similar games during his childhood.

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt laughed. "I can beat myself any day of the week," he joked, walking over to where the extra paddles were sitting and picking one up. He didn't even want to take his eyes off John, thinking he might disappear.

Ha! He could!

"But sadly I always know what move I'm going to make," Kurt added, shaking his head ruefully and trying to keep a straight face.

[hunt_the_devil]

Picking up the paddle nearest to him John bounced the ping-pong ball a couple of times before knocking it over to Kurt.

"Well then I guess we'd better get a game goin' an' see if you are as good as you reckon you are."

John was waiting for the catch, the slip up that meant that he had been lied to. He really wouldn't put it past Stryker to be that mean.
It was so hard to believe that there was someone like him on camp, but not just that! John was excited and over-joyed by the fact that there was someone he could talk to who'd understand his abilities and heck maybe they'd push each other to see how good they really could be.

[fuzzylittleprob]

"Oh," Kurt said with a sharp little smile as he returned the ball with a mere flick of the wrist that sent it easily back, "I'm good." And he was, but he bet that John was, too.

Kurt was entirely ready for the best game of ping-pong of his life. His face steady in a loose smile, he sank into a bit of a crouch and waited.

[hunt_the_devil]

"We'll see."

John simply smiled and caught the ball. He steadied himself, suddenly dropping the ball and waiting for it to bounce once before hitting it surprisingly hard for a serve towards Kurt.

Oh yes. The game was on.

[fuzzylittleprob]

Kurt was ready, unsurprised to find a real challenger in the other teleporter considering how he'd spent his own time alone across a ping-pong table.

The ball was smacked back with the same velocity, sailing over the net to hit the opposite side of the table with another sharp sound. They could start easy. He was still grinning.

[hunt_the_devil]

John didn't bother with the frivolities of being a good opponent, if Kurt was as good as he seemed to think then John was eager to put him to the test. Not to mention having a decent person to spar against was fantastic!

The ball was returned again with a resounding crack of the wooden paddle against the plastic ball. It bounced over the net towards Kurt.