OMIGOSH I'M POSTING SOMETHING THAT ISN'T HEROES OF OLYMPUS! SOUND THE ALARMS!

So, here's a reason why I haven't been updating as much lately. This isn't the sole reason, but it has taken up a chunk of my writing time. I've been focused on writing this for a bit, for some reason. DON'T WORRY! I'll be back with Heroes of Olympus very soon, as Leo is still inspiring me, but I'm far enough into this story that I want to post the first chapter.

I'm also a little nervous, since I've never written an X-Men Evo fic. That, and this one is pretty different with the characterization of Azazel.

Fair warning: Azazel is OOC from the comics. Like, extremely.

I like the look of First Class's Azazel, so imagine him when you read this. And I want to point out that even though in every single scenario of actual canon-world (movie, comics, TV, etc.) Mystique and Azazel would probably be the worst parents in the world…I have this shining star of stupidity that refuses to let me fully believe that. I just…I need one universe to let Kurt have a happy immediate family. Since Evo had a semi-regretful Mystique (as opposed to every other universe where she blatantly tries to kill or harm him, regardless of him knowing she's his mother), I went with that. That, and I have no clue how they're going to bring in Kurt's past in the movie-verse, since it's still in the air.

I seem to have a thing for Azazel being a reserved, yet sort-of good daddy to Kurt. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't a saint before Kurt was born…but I feel like it would soften him a little.

Also, Azazel is not a demon/mutant from biblical times, here. He's just a normal mutant from Mother Russia. Oh, and my headcanon to explain his mutation: although he had only gotten a tail at birth, the red skin and teleportation powers came later.

This fic will involve Kurmanda, not Kurtty (though I have no problems with that ship at all).

I do not claim to know more than basic German or more than two words in Russian, so if I say something in either language and it's wrong, don't hesitate to say so. I'll gladly fix the problem.

One last note: Kurt's accent is still kinda present. Words beginning with 'w' will be pronounced with a 'v'. HOWEVER, words like 'who' shall stay the same, as the 'w' is nearly silent and putting a 'v' there would look and sound weird. Please keep that in mind as you read his speaking parts.

I own nothing you recognize as canon in any X-Men universe.

*~Because Being Together is Enough~*

Chapter One: Lost

"Kurt? You up there?"

Kurt Wagner yawned, stretching his limbs as he stood up from his position on the roof of the Xavier Mansion. The sun was just clear of the trees surrounding the grounds.

"Ja, I am here," he said groggily.

A face popped up from just below the roof's edge. It was his friend, Kitty Pryde. She looked annoyed. "What are you doing sleeping up here? You, like, missed breakfast—which you never do!"

Kurt shrugged. "I dunno," he confessed. "I fell asleep up here last night. Guess I missed my alarm."

Kitty narrowed her eyes at him, as if she thought he was hiding something. Honestly, he wasn't. Kurt had woken up in the middle of the night (as he sometimes did) and felt like he needed to do some stretches. He'd teleported to the roof, done a few small exercises, and curled up right there, hoping to wake up when the sun rose.

"Sorry," Kurt apologized. "I'll be down in a minute."

Kitty wrinkled her nose, catching a smell on the slight breeze flowing over the roof. "Ugh," she complained, holding her nose. "Did you, like, roll in a sty last night? You reek!"

Kurt blushed, thanking God it was hidden behind his fur. "I did a few exercises last night."

"Well, could you, like, put on some deodorant before you grace us with your presence?"

Kurt shrugged and teleported into his room. Normally, he'd take a long time to shower and an even longer time to dry, normally because of all the fur care. Today, since it was Saturday, he'd just take it in the evening and go through the day with a spray of cologne and a quick brush-down (just to get the dried sweat out).

When he finally teleported down to the kitchen, there was almost no food left. Kurt shrugged and just ate the rest of it, since no one else was in the kitchen except him and Miss Munroe.

"Good morning, Kurt," Storm greeted as she started collecting the dirty dishes left by the younger students. "Running a little late today, hmm?"

"Ach, it's Saturday," Kurt said with his mouth full of eggs. "I think I can afford to sleep in a little later, ja?"

Storm smiled. "If you aren't feeling terrible, I see no reason to break tradition once in a while." She put some of the dishes in the dishwasher. "Just as long as you don't miss Logan's training session in ten minutes."

Kurt's eyes widened in alarm. "That vas today!?" He wolfed down the rest of his food within seconds. "Vhy didn't Keety tell me vhen she voke me up?" In seconds, he teleported over to the sink, placed the plates gingerly in the water—because splashing Storm was a bad idea and rude—and 'ported to his room to put his uniform on.

Two minutes later, Kurt was still the last one to show up in the yard. Logan nodded to him. "Glad you could join us, Elf."

Kurt's ears drooped a bit as a few students snickered.

Logan ignored them and pointed to the woods. "Today's class is all about stealth. Yer mission is to last one hour in the woods without me findin' ya."

"So it's like hide and seek?" Bobby asked.

Logan gave a wolfish grin. Everyone shuddered in fear. "Yeah. Like that. Only if I find ya, you'll be 'dead'. I mark you with this—" He held up a paintball gun. "—and you meet me back here for an intense workout."

Everyone groaned, already starting to draw up plans in their heads. Kurt had an idea to teleport around the woods a few times, then stop at the edge of the trees and wait for Logan to stomp around below him near the end. The sulfur would probably send the older mutant on a wild goose chase. Probably.

Logan signaled the start of the session, saying he'd give everyone five minutes to get away before he started the hunt.

Kurt 'ported to the trees, ending up in one just beyond the line, and waited, his tail swishing lazily. Kitty looked at him like he was crazy. "Seriously, Kurt? You know he's gonna find you, right?"

Kurt grinned. "I know."

Five minutes later, Kurt saw Logan making a bee-line right for him. "Elf, really? Not even gonna try?"

"Perhaps if you try to hit me, Herr Logan…"

Logan cocked his gun. "You asked for it, blue boy."

Kurt began a series of 'ports around Logan, confusing the man with bursts of sulfur and flashes of light. Logan snarled and started shooting. Soon, Kurt 'ported about a mile into the woods. He could see birds fly into the sky from where Logan howled in annoyance. Even from so far away, Kurt could hear him yell, "Nightcrawler!"

Kurt smirked and 'ported to other spots, nearly running into a student here and there. Ray actually yelped when the furred mutant appeared on a branch above him. He covered his mouth, realizing his mistake, but Kurt gave him a thumbs-up in a 'he's nowhere near here' signal before disappearing again.

When he made it to the opposite end of the woods on Xavier's property, Kurt stopped to take a breather. His hanging tail was the only indication of anyone being in that particular tree. He didn't worry about it too much, considering it would take a good minute for Logan to reach this area.

Kurt watched the scenery before him with narrowed eyes. Birds flew around the area, various animals trotted through, and a slight breeze ruffled the leaves of the trees surrounding Kurt.

Suddenly, Kurt heard a sound. He looked around, wondering where it was coming from. It sounded kind of like a scream, but nothing like the screams of the students running from Logan. Kurt teleported a few yards, determined the direction of the screams, and kept 'porting in the same direction.

He ended up at the starting area. Ray, Jamie, Bobby, and Kitty were already there, covered in paint. They were all trotting towards the cliffs, looks of worry on their faces. Kurt 'ported to the cliffs and looked down.

A couple of girls were dangling dangerously on the cliff wall near the raging waves. Kurt recognized them as new students, one that could breathe fire and one that could super jump.

"Help," Super-jump-girl (Kurt thought her name was Marie?) yelled. "We're stuck!"

Kurt started climbing down, using his wall-crawling ability to reach them. "How did you end up like this?" he called to them.

Abigail, the fire-breather, was shaking and looking at the water in fear. "Marie and I were playing soccer and we…I fell."

"Couldn't Marie jump back up here with you?" Kurt asked.

"Not if there's not enough room," the jumper protested. "I tried, but that only made our little ledge smaller!"

Kurt nodded. "Okay, okay. I've got you. One at a time, though, sorry."

He grabbed Marie first, 'porting her safely to the group already gathering up on the cliffs. It was easy enough, and Kurt was not thinking it would be harder than this.

Then he tried to grab Abigail. The girl flailed, accidentally spitting fire when Kurt suddenly 'ported in front of her. The fire startled Kurt, hitting him in the chest. It knocked the wind out of him, and he accidentally fell back, dragging Abigail with him. They hit the water hard before Kurt could get his thoughts together. Kurt sank and hit his head on one of the bigger rocks, and Abigail was flung sideways, flailing and thrashing in the water. Abigail kept trying to swim, disoriented and freaking out. Kurt was taken by the current, unconscious.

Thankfully, Kitty had gone back towards the woods to get Logan, who had found everyone except Kurt—and was very annoyed with that fact.

"Whadd'ya mean the elf's in the ocean?" Logan growled. "What the heck's he doin' there?"

"He was helping the new girls get to safety," Kitty explained as they ran for the cliffs. "Abigail freaked out and they ended up in the water!"

Logan dove into the water without looking to see where the two students were. He hit the water pretty hard, but quickly got over it as he swam towards the panicking Abigail. He grabbed her and brought her to the surface.

"Where's Kurt?" he sputtered.

Abigail gasped for air. "I don't know," she yelled. "He sank!"

Logan swam as fast as he could to shore, dumping Abigail there and telling her to wait for Scott to reach her. Cyclops was picking his way down the slope as fast as he could.

Logan dove under again, slicing through the waves, looking for any sign of Kurt. The bad thing was that the elf was blue and blended into the shadows. And the water was still dark because of the rising sun's shadows from the cliffs, so it made it extra hard to find him.

Logan came up for air and spun around. "Kurt!" he called. "Where are you?"

Kitty and Rogue scanned the water, ready to alert Jean if they saw Kurt pop up. The minutes dragged on and on, and nerves ran high as Logan kept coming up and going under with no success. Jamie and his doubles searched the grounds in case the blue boy had teleported out.

By the time Logan came back to shore, exhausted, an hour later…everyone assumed the worst.

Meanwhile, about three miles down the coast, a wet furball washed up onto the shore. Kurt groaned and tried to haul himself further up the sand, but his head pounded so hard he flopped back down. The waves were shallow enough to not drown him, gently making his hair float around him.

His ears pricked at the sound of footsteps in the sand. A pair of shiny, black Oxford shoes came into his view. Kurt tried to look up, but didn't get past the person's legs.

A long, red devil's tail swished lazily behind the person. Kurt's eyes widened, watching it curiously.

Kurt began to see black spots. He closed his eyes, trying to make the world stop spinning.

He felt a hand on his head, gently running its long fingers through his hair. It paused at the back of his head, where Kurt's pain had reached a climax.

"Syn," said a deep, growling voice.

Darkness swallowed Kurt whole, and he barely registered being picked up by strong, yet gentle, arms.

A/N: So? What do you guys think? Interesting enough to get me into the X-Men Evo writers club? I hope I'm doing it justice!

Abigail and Marie are OCs of mine, but are not too important. If you guys use those two, I don't care. They're filler only.

Also, I know it kinda went by a little fast at the beginning there. Not as fast as some other stories I write, but I did try to drag it out a little.