Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story, but I do own the story. If it resembles anyone else's in any way, it is unintentional.

Author's Note: Here is just a cute little story I've been thinking up for a while. I hope you all enjoy it :)

Springtime. Birds singing, sun shining, pure blue sky devoid of a single cloud...and a river that was so still it mirrored that perfect azure sight as if it were the sky itself. But the way Mystique remembered this place, remembered this river, things were not so peaceful.

Mystique walked along the river, thinking of how it had stolen one of her most precious possessions from her forever no more than a year ago. No...she knew what this river had done. She would not let herself be fooled by its peaceful appearance. She sighed painfully with the memory, still so fresh in her mind. She'd seen her infant son, only a tiny baby at the time, slip from her hands and fall into this very river. It had not been so still then. It had been raging, with fierce rapids that she was still surprised hadn't killed him. She'd tried to follow him and save him, she really had, but she'd been too late.

Her son had been adopted by that German couple. And since that moment she'd resolved that her son was lost to her forever and she swore to never think of him again. However, no matter how much she'd never admit it, she'd thought of him every night. Mostly in dreams. But they always ended the same. He'd fall from her hands again and then fade away. More often than not, she'd wake up highly upset. Quickly, she'd shake it off, and then go about her daily business as usual. But it was getting to the point where she could deny it no longer. She honestly wanted to see her son again.

Mystique soon realized, that while she was lost in her thoughts, she had come upon the same little house by the river that she'd seen her son taken into. Hopefully he would still be there. Hopefully, Magneto's experiment didn't have some sort of long-term effect that had killed him by now. But she didn't want those sort of thoughts in her head. Though she'd pushed the event to the deepest regions of the back of her mind, she doubted that she'd ever forgive Magneto for what he'd done. But that was not her concern at the moment.

Cautiously, she made her way up to the side window, which was open. Assuming the form of a small bird, she sat on the windowsill and peeked inside. She had a perfect view of the living room from here. It was empty and silent. Fairly well kept, however. Mystique took a moment to survey the scene, wondering if anybody was home or if anybody even lived here anymore, when there was a sudden change in scenery.

A small green ball rolled into the room. Mystique looked at it questionably, but she wasn't left to ponder it for long. From an adjacent room came the unmistakeable sounds of a child's laugh. Mystique watched as her fuzzy little blue son came into the room. He half-walked, half-crawled, stumbling the entire way, happily into the room, chasing after his ball. He plopped down onto the floor beside it, picked it up and began to bounce it up and down, giggling the whole while.

Mystique watched in contentment as a certain sense of closure came over her. At least her son wasn't dead, she knew that now. And he was obviously well. His foster parents at least didn't treat him badly in any way that she could see.

Kurt dropped his ball and it rolled behind him. He turned to look for it, but instead he found something else. Something a lot more interesting. A blue rope of some sort with a pointy tip was lying on the ground behind him. He jumped up and made a grab at it, but it was gone. Confused, Kurt looked around, wondering where it went to. Suddenly, he found it again, to his left. He turned again to hopefully snatch it, and again it moved.

Mystique watched in vague amusement. What exactly was he doing?

Becoming frustrated, Kurt turned around and around, trying to catch the elusive thing that just wouldn't sit still. Faster and faster he went, but the blue pointy string was faster.

If Mystique had not been in the form of a bird, she might have burst out laughing. Her son was actually chasing his tail! It would have been the first time she'd laughed in many years. Never in her life had she seen such a thing.

Kurt's pursuit of his tail didn't last much longer, as he began to turn too fast and eventually fell back onto the floor. After the dizziness wore off, he discovered that his tail was finally still, and he grabbed it victoriously. Now satisfied, Kurt put the tip of his tail in his mouth and starting sucking on it happily. Mystique fluffed herself up amusedly, making a small tweet as she did so. The sound caught her son's attention, and he looked up to the window where bird-Mystique sat.

He smiled, and with his tail still in his mouth, said, "Vogel. Hallo, Vogel." And he waved enthusiastically at her.

Mystique was completely taken aback at this new attention to her that she wasn't sure what to do at first. How could she acknowledge him? Would it be wise to? Without even thinking, Mystique tweeted again and fluttered her wings. Her son laughed at that, something that admittedly tugged at her heart just the tiniest bit.

"Hallo. Hallo!" he said again, waving as he did so.

A strange sort of happiness that Mystique had never felt before suddenly overcame her. Before she had resolved to come here, she had sworn to herself that she would not think of him as her son anymore. After all, he wasn't. But she forgot all that now, and fluttered her wings again and chirped twice more.

It seemed to amuse him further, as he kept on laughing, something that just made Mystique happier. She was about to flutter her wings again, but something stopped her. Kurt had lifted himself up to a standing position and was attempting to walk over the window. All the happiness in Mystique melted away and was replaced with a confusion that she didn't understand. She waited there, motionless, as her son half-fell, half-walked his way to the window, still stumbling with every step.

He finally made it to the window and held on to the edge of it to keep from falling. He looked at her, grinning with that carefree smile that all children had. Though Mystique liked his the best. "Hallo," he said cutely, waving again.

*He's not my son. He's not my son anymore.* In her mind, Mystique fought a mental battle with herself that couldn't have lasted more than ten seconds, but one that she felt could shape the rest of her life. She could have transformed back into her true form, swept up her son, and gone to raise him herself. Or she could leave him here, where he would be happier, where his foster parents could obviously provide better for him.

*He's not my son anymore.* Bird-Mystique chirped once. This could very well be the first, only, and last conversation she'd ever have with her son. And would he even remember it? No. Of course not. He couldn't be more than a year old. No...Mystique had lost her son to the river that night and he was gone forever.

Her mind was made up. Mystique looked into her son's...no...not her son...that little boy's smiling fuzzy blue face. There was only one thing that she couldn't decide. Should she choose to remember this face forever, or forget it altogether? She wasn't sure. But she was sure that she was never coming back here again. She didn't have the time to take care of a son anyway.

Without another sound, she leapt off the windowsill and flew away. She flew to the back of the house and took her normal form again. Peeking around the corner, she could see that Kurt was still at the window, looking around for the bird that she had been. Of course, he'd never see that bird again. And he'd never know that that bird was his mother. She never intended to lay eyes on him again, whether in life or in dreams.

*Now that that's taken care of, maybe I can finally get some sleep at night without HIM bothering me all the time,* she thought to herself. Mystique started to leave, but heard one last thing as she made her way home....

"Tschüs tschüs, Vogel. Tschüs tschüs."

Mystique sighed. "Goodbye, son."

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Is there a category for cuteness?? Well, there should be! lol So what did you all think? Liked it? Disliked it? Saw some stuff that could be changed? Then review! As they make me happy ^___^ Anyway, I've always found baby Kurt/little Kurt far too adorable, and I really just wanted to write something with Kurt as a little boy. The whole Kurt/Mystique relationship is also one that intrigues me, so that's another reason why I wrote this short little story. Please, please, please let me know what you thought of it! I would highly appreciate it :)

Although the German is really self-explanatory in this, I suppose I'll just give the translations anyway.

Vogel = bird

Hallo = Hello

Tschüs tschüs = Bye bye