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The chaos had started on a field trip.
A dumb field trip.
The zoo was loud with people more than animals. The yellin' of unsupervised brats and supervised teens were louder than the lion pit before them.
That could also just be that they weren't all too happy being chucked into a damn pit for said brats entertainment.
Some dumbasses pretended to lean over the railing for pictures. Others threw popcorn at the poor things.
… this was more sad than educational.
Todd huffed as the teachers yelled and the kids yelled louder.
Too hot.
Too bright.
Too loud .
He wanted this to be over as soon as fucking possible. It was torture.
Both seeing these poor caged animals and having to be herded with these… Neanderthals.
He could barely see the signs with the sun in his eyes, but the giant sculpted tree frog told him where they were being shucked off to now.
Amphibians.
Cold blooded, slimy things.
He adored them.
They were basically kin after all.
But, again, nothing but a loud, sad area. Where were the big open areas? Why did only the good for nothing butterflies get better enclosures then even the top dog predators? These lil guys deserved better than…. This .
He leaned closer to one. A small, brown, lumpy one.
An American Toad
Poor guy's water bowl was filthy. He just wanted to scoop 'em all up and take 'em home.
"Another day..." A small, sad voice said.
"Pard'n?" He replied.
"Gross. He's talking to the frogs." One of the girls in his group 'whispered'.
"Finally found a girlfriend, Toady Tolansky? She's just a ugly as you." Her boyfriend continued the 'jest'.
He almost made a comment about how it was a male before;
"Far too loud." Another odd voice said. It came from his left. "Mustn't be so loud." It was… coming from one of the enclosures. A little clear greenish one with dots all over. Glass frog…
Huh…?
The small gaggle of jokesters continued on as he leaned over to the poor little glass frog.
"They bein' too loud lil guy."
"Girl and yes. Far too loud." He stiffened at this. The placard must be wrong.
"Sorry, lil girl ." Wait!
"You understand?" She propped herself up more, making direct eye contact. His eyes widened. He should've looked away. "You do! You understand! Not just body language but voice! You know! He knows!"
"He knows?" One frog peeped.
"He hears!" A toad croaked.
"Calm down! C'mon!" He tried to get them to calm themselves, over and over he told them to just calm down . This had the opposite effect. All of them started peeping and croaking and trilling as he realized he hadn't spoken those words in a human language. He'd croaked right back. He'd trilled right along with them to soothe them to a calm state.
"He's doing something to the frogs!" The previous girl yelled.
"He's makin' 'em freak out!" Her boyfriend hopped in. "Mrs. Herring! He's using his powers at school!" Technically not true, but he was sure the school wouldn't care about a technicality with him .
"No! I'm not!" Wanda, bless her and thank god she agreed to even start school let alone go on this trip, had grabbed him, dragging him to the bus before the teacher could make her way through the sea of teenagers. "I wasn't! I didn't!"
"Hush up, Toad . We can only hide for so long if you're talking so loud ." She dropped in one of the seats, legs sprawled out as best as they could be. "What. Happened?"
—-
The school hadn't accepted a technicality from him, but they had accepted his reason.
Random evolution.
It happens far too often and randomly that they can only do as much about as they could do about puberty or even just a random mutation coming out in general. Add onto the fact he was just, ya know, talking to frogs , they only gave him a week long suspension.
And a week was all it took for the story to spread and warp, even with Wanda doing damage control.
Even with some of the x-geeks doing damage control.
The story was that he'd tried to create a frog army to attack everyone on the trip. The school knew better (security cameras and all that) but did nothing to stop them .
So, you could imagine his "welcome" back…
Whispers and looks he didn't need to try too hard to figure out.
He's weird.
His powers are weird.
His powers are dumb .
He's so freaky.
Why couldn't he have one normal thing about him-
"Hallo!" Came the all too familiar voice as he walked home.
He was actually… happy(?) to hear his voice.
Elf, Fuzz Ball, Blue Balls, 'Crawler, Kurt . Man of many names and talents was actually just talking to him.
No flying fists or kicks or hair pulling or bloody noses these past two weeks. Not after he'd come back. Not while they were out and bumped into each other. Hell, he'd even found out his phone number. Probably from Lance-a-lot and Kit Kat.
The real question was why .
Why did he want it?
Why wasn't he messing with him?
Why was he here now?
"Whaddya want, Fuzz?"
"Oh, come now-" He shot him a look. They both know whatever he was about to say was straight bull. "Okay, I have an… issue? Problem? I need help with something."
"And… I can help?"
"Yes!" Kurt grabbed his arm and before Todd could protest, that weightless and barfy feeling.
He'd gotten better at this after the past few years of being teleported without warning, but that didn't make him any less nauseous.
"Jeez, gimme a fuckin' warnin' next time, dawg." As he regained his land legs, the new environment slowly came into view. Weeping willows, thick air that smelled of wet earth, and moss covered almost everything. "Where…?"
"I found this one night while walking around the estate." The blue mutant walked around, touching each tree he passed. "You should see it at night. The fireflies light up the trees so beautifully." He spun around one of them and his genuine, playful smile definitely didn't make Todd's heart leap into his throat. Absolutely not. "I need your help with some friends I found out here."
"Friends?"
"Frogs!" He exclaimed. "I heard about your evolution. Congrats, by the by. I just don't want them to get hurt is all. I've been trying to take care of them but… I… don't exactly know what I'm doing." Kurt laughs. His laugh was stupid Todd decided, shoving his hands into his hoodie, keeping his eyes down and making his way forward. "Technically it's tadpoles, mutti and vatti must have hopped off somewhere."
"Some frogs are like that. Some are pretty good parents, though. 'specially the dudes." He pulled his hands out again, moving them around, getting into his presentation. "'specially the African Bullfrog. They're mean as hell, but damn good pops. Saw a video of one savin' his babies when the water hole was dryin' up. But mainly, yeah, most frogs leave things up to chance with them." Fuzz was staring intently at him now. Great. "An'.... uh…. Sometimes the tadpoles… eat their unborn brothers an' sisters. Shit be like that… y'know. Nature an' junk." Now he was just talking. Shut up.
"Nature is very scary." Was all he said. "Tell me more. I wanna know everything I can." His eyes were interested and intense
"Well… I wanna know what kind o' frogs they are first."
"Oh. Looks like one returned." A rather big frogs sat by a patch of the lake. "Hallo big boy, are you papa? I'm sorry if we're upsetting you, but we just wanna help."
" Back off. " Came the croak of the large male. " Back, you beasts."
"Yo, dawg, it's chill." Elf watched Todd as he kneeled, wanting to calm the Bullfrog down. Definitely a regular American Bullfrog, mean as hell and territorial. But, he seemed to calm as Todd spoke. "I… uh…" A cricket caught his eye as it jumped on his shoe. A nice big juicy one. Quick as a flash, he nabbed it up and held it up. "I got food for ya. And we can get more."
"Tell him I just wanna help him and the babies." Kurt whispered into his ear. Warm breath on his ear made his dumb mind freeze for a second.
"Uh… he just wants ta-"
" I heard, beast-thing ." He responded. " Not deaf, just small. You speak frog, beast-thing ?"
"Amphibian, and kinda yeah." Slowly he crept forward with the wriggling cricket.
" Pathetic. Too small. No nutrition. I demand more, beast-thing ." He thought bullfrogs ate crickets. This one must be picky.
"Uh-"
" That. I demand that." It turned towards the lake, 'pointing' at what looked like a lobster. "Damned thing ate babies. Couldn't catch. Demand revenge. Demand head . Body too. Ate babies eat him now."
"Oh… kay…" Todd noticed one of his hind legs were a bit messed up. He probably could get to far on his own right now.
"What did he say?" Todd pointed to the crawdad as it came to shore, clearly taunting the father. Now that he was closer, he heard the tadpoles. They sounded like a horde of babies and toddlers. He didn't understand a damn thing, but could definitely tell they were scared and stressed. "Oh! That's easy!" Elf easily teleported over the thing before porting over to Todd and the bullfrog, who didn't like that one bit. He puffed up and screamed at the two.
" Back foul beast-things before I kill you both." Todd was sure they couldn't do that, but stayed back nonetheless. Kurt held the crawdad outstretched, trying to avoid the pinchers. " Give. Give monster, beast-things. Demand justice."
"Okay okay, dawg, chill." He took it and tossed it towards the angry father.
" Kill babies will you?" And just like that, it was gulped up. It's tiny legs wriggled but it was too late for him. Once he'd eaten the crawdad, he seemed to calm. " Fine. Beast-things shall help. Keep monsters away. Bring food. "
"Okay… food and protection. We can do that." Fuzz looked to happy about that.
_____
That's how it started. A deal with a bullfrog to help with him and his little babies.
They seemed fine enough, but he'd yell at them both if they got too close or were too late or even too early.
Today was worrisome though…
It was a rather hot day, or night he supposed, as they trudged to the pond. Too hot…
Todd tried to ignore it, thinking of how much worse it must be for the little ones. Kurt had found more crawdads at a local market, along with some smaller things for the tadpoles, and Todd grabbed some worms. Nightcrawlers. Big, white, wriggling nightcrawlers. Fuzz had admitted he'd never seen one and Toad was more than happy to change that. The two had trekked this way to feed them properly two or three times a week.
Fuck, it's hot!
"Hallo, papa frog!" 'Crawler happily showed off a crawdad to him. He said he'd just hold the others to feed him for the next few weeks. Beats having to buy food every time. "We bring meat and bugs."
" Too loud. Quite, beast-thing. "
"Ya gotta keep it down, Blue balls."
"Oh! Sorry. We got something for the babies too." Fuzz did some research on tadpoles, which Todd gave him props for that, and was a bit flattered …? by, and made something for them. The pond was too damn small to properly house enough food for the whole lot of them. "Just some greens blended up and put in a bag for the babies." He cooed over the edge of the pond, treating them as actual babies.
Food! Food! Food!
They can finally talk. Just basic single syllable words, short sentences, and usually all at once.
Why was it so hot. Not even wet hot. Dry hot. He felt like a walking desert.
"Hallo, lieblings." Kurt sang a german song, probably a lullaby, as he spread the greens over them. As Todd knelt by him, ignoring the multiple reasons for his dizziness, they watched the babies happily eat. It felt…. Weirdly domestic.
The thought of Fuzz holding a tiny blue webbed handed baby flashed for just a second in his head.
Why? Why did that jump to mind? He's never thought of kids, why-
That's dumb dumb dumb!
Shut up, stupid brain!
Why is it so hot!?
"Todd?" He couldn't breath. Somehow he found himself laying in the surprisingly cool grass. He couldn't hear anything but his blood rushing in his ears. He was alone. Alone? No no no. He didn't want to be alone. Why was he alone?
….
Cold.
Something cool slowly covered his face.
"Mmmm…"
"-kay? Todd?" Elf leaned over him with a water bottle. Oh… Kurt's fur looked like the night sky… and his eyes…
"... like stars." He immediately felt a flush of a different kind of heat as Kurt smiled.
"You scared me. Are you okay?"
"Just… hot."
"Here, I got some water." Papa frog croaked at them both. A general croak, just to grab their attention. "Some for you too, papa." He poured the rest onto the grateful amphibian, before giving Todd a fresh one.
Babies and stars and ARGH!
Dumb brain.
Stupid stupid stupid .
_____
The two sat and watched the time go by with the bullfrog dad and his tadpoles.
Slowly they became froglets. Todd almost cried (what were these dumb feelings?) watching them get bigger and start to talk better. He could understand them more and Kurt wanted to know every word. He'd lean into him as he told him what he could understand, they were still children after all (and Kurt was far too close causing some short circuiting).
Kurt laid by the lake one day as the babies got used to walking around, even crawling near the boys, much to papa bullfrog's dismay. Kurt swirled his fingers around the fireflies as the babies watched in awe. They really did look so pretty…
" Too obvious, you are, beast-thing. "
"Huh."
" Too obvious. Your feelings. Pretty beast-thing is too distracted to notice. But I notice. "
"I-! You-! Shush, old man! " He switched to croaking to keep Kurt out of the loop. " What feelings? No feelings! "
" Old, not blind. Nor stupid. " Kurt was humming now to the baby toadlets. It was… kinda… cute. " See . Same look. Dumb, beast-thing. Not even human and I know. I know feelings. " The fireflies fluttered around Kurt, glowing and flashing and shining on him while the babies tried to peep along with his song. " 'What feelings?' Those feelings. Good with babies, too."
" Shush! "
"What are you fussing about over there, you two?" Kurt's eyes were glowing as he seemed to disappear in the disappearing shadows as the sun rose. An evolution of his own, he'd discovered over these weeks. "These babies need to get to bed soon, yes?"
"And we gotta get some sleep soon." Fuzz hummed in agreement as he carefully moved the babits laying on him aside.
"'Least it's Saturday." He yawned, flopping onto Todd without a care, and 'porting them away. The sudden pressure change made him yelp, clinging to 'crawler for his life. He had the nerve to laugh.
If he wasn't so tired, he'd fight him for making his stomach flip from the hot breath and vibrations on his neck. Kick at him for the goosebumps from the softness of his fur. Claw at him for the way his heart jumped at his throaty laugh. Damn elf…
But he was tired.
So, instead, he held him a little closer… and fell… asleep…
____
"Like, omg!" Todd didn't want to move at the shrill voice, so he ignored it.
Didn't make it stop, though.
"Kitty…. Get oooout." The mattress beneath him turned over, covering him like a weighted blanket.
"I'm soooooo telling Jean! She owes me ten bucks!"
"Oooout…" A rumbling came over his body.
It was so nice…
So calming…
…
"Todd? Are you awake?" Kurt held onto Todd tighter, a comfortable pressure that made his muscles and bones ache happily.
"No… Let me sleep."
"Mmmm…" He opens his eyes to see Kurt just… watching him… very closely. "Morning."
"'S bright."
"Allow me." Fuzz 'bravely' pulled himself away ( ignore the ache of the missing pressure ) and closed the curtains before slipping beside him. "Those babies are tiring me out. Jeez Louise, I never thought being a co-parent would be so draining." He yawned dramatically and draped an arm and leg over Todd. "But I think you make a good papa." Todd's heart squeezed at this and he barely noticed him getting closer again, snuggling close and getting nose to nose. Forehead to forehead.
"Y-yer not too bad yerself, fuzz nuts." This was… nice. Cozy, even. Domestic.
A toddler rushing into the room wouldn't be out of place-
Shut up about babies!
"Let's just sleep for now. We deserve it." He places a small, sleepy kiss on his forehead before pulling himself back on top of Todd, bringing that comforting pressure back, and pulling him back into sleep.
Dreaming of waking up in a lovely home to the smell of breakfast and laughter.
Maybe this wasn't as terrible as he thought it would be.