Chapter Text
Lance starred at the calendar, more specifically one single day and made a face like this date was set to be his execution. This was a habit which had shown up out of the blue for the past couple days and not a single member of the Brotherhood had any idea why. Instead, the two girls and three boys just looked at each other and shrugged. Before anyone could say something, though, Lance’s face flinched in sudden anger as he turned around, muttered something about the garage, stomped out and closed the door behind him. Loudly.
One moment went by, then another. Suddenly, Tabitha clapped her hands together, causing all to flinch. The look on the face was from someone who has had enough.
“Okay, that’s it! What is going on with him?”
“I don’t know,” Toad replied, widening the distance between him and Boom Boom while doing so. Better safe then sorry but Tabitha was already shifting her attention at Quicksilver and Blob.
“Don’t look at us,” Pietro hurried out, “we have no idea why Lance is acting all weird. He’s never done that before.”
“How about you go and ask?”
“Why don’t you go yourself? You girls love to talk feelings!” Pietro replied and Tabitha looked at him like he had done a bad joke.
“Among ourselves! Lance is a man! But you’re right. We just need the right woman for the job. I am gonna call Kitty. Should have probably done this much sooner.”
Tabitha stormed out of the room, out of sight of everyone else but once she stood in front of the telephone, she stopped. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the phone and dialed the number of the Institute. Waiting for someone to pick up, she breathed: “Like hell I am ever gonna talk about feelings with a guy I used as fuel for lonely nights.”
“Excuse me?” came Kitty’s cold voice through the phone and Tabitha froze. Did Kitty hear that? She didn’t hear that, right? She couldn’t have heard that.
When did Kitty get on the phone and why the heck did it have to be Kitty?
“Kitty! Its Tabby. Mind coming over? You need to do some girlfriend stuff with Lance.”
Tabitha winced the moment her words left her lips, recognizing a very poor choice of words immediately.
“EXCUSE ME? I am coming over!” Kitty shouted, loud enough for Tabitha to suddenly move the phone away from her hear. The call ended and the blonde grimaced. Kitty most definitely heard some of her breathed words. Tabitha took a deep breath, scratched the back of her head and turned around.
Pietro stood there, leaning against the wall and grinning from one ear to the other.
“I suppose Kitty is coming over?”
Tabitha frowned, folded her arms across her chest and tried her best to glare at the speedster. Which only worked to a degree.
“Yes, she is.”
“Doing girlfriend stuff?”
Tabitha cried out but Pietro was gone before she could throw one of her little bombs at him.
Kitty arrived only seconds later, transported by Kurt straight into their living room and enough anger in her eyes to make Tabitha glad Kitty did not have a mutation like Scott.
“Finally! You’re here!” Wanda said with audible relief, immediately catching Kitty’s attention. Meanwhile, Tabitha was eyeing Freddy’s back but dismissed the idea of hiding behind it. Not much use on someone with Kitty’s power.
Kitty, suddenly more confused then angry, replied: “Wait, what is going on here?”
Pietro, chuckled and answered, walking around Kitty while doing so: “Our respected leader displayed a certain change in behavior over the last couple days. So, we, as his happy followers decided that you, as his girlfriend and honorary Brotherhood member, should get to the bottom of it.”
It took a moment of stunned silence before Kitty blinked, now utterly confused. “What?”
“Ignore him,” Tabitha said while rolling her eyes and grabbing Kitty, “I take you to Lance.”
“What was that about?” Kitty asked once they left the living room.
“Speedy just had his five minutes of still not being over his daddy not making him boss when he sent him back after we saved him with some degree of competence but just the contact. Thanks again for your help, by the way. You and Rogue really did some good there. Good thing you approached us early.”
“Yeah, sure… so, about what you said?”
“God, forget it, okay?” Tabitha groaned, “I knew it sounded as stupid as it did the moment I said it. You’re just supposed to talk with him, okay?”
“I can do that. I did notice something was off last time we met. I simply thought he was kinda busy”, Kitty said while taking Tabithas hand to phase both of them through the front door.
“Well, I guess he his. With something at least. Oh and don’t think too much about the ‘honorary Brotherhood member’ stuff. Its just an inside joke because you’re Lance’s girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t planning on changing teams anyway. Nothing against you guys but I like where I am now. Besides, it not like we actually still fight against each other.”
“Exactly”, Tabitha replied, ignoring the magnetic elephant in the room. That moment, they met the garage and Tabitha raised her voice.
“Yo Lance! Kitty is here!”
Lance, below his jeep, moved and came out of the garage immediately. His initially surprised face softened with a smile. Tabitha decided to leave quietly. Girlfriend stuff was better done by the girlfriend.
Kurt scratched his head, seemingly forgotten by Kitty and everyone else. How had he ended up in a situation like this?
“So, uh, Kurt, right? How are you doing?” Wanda suddenly asked, reminding everyone he was still around too. Toad immediately grinned and jumped over but Pietro was faster.
“Nightcrawler! How’s it going? I heard you got a girl, Miranda?” Pietro hurried out, running over and putting an arm around Kurts shoulders.
“Amanda”, Kurt replied automatically, his tail spinning a bit.
“You got a girlfriend?” Wanda chimed in, immediately blocking any response either Toad or Quicksilver could have given. Kurt frowned.
“Uh, yes, why?”
Wanda blinked, raised her hand and hurried out: “Nothing, really! I mean, I can get that, you’re kinda cute.”
Everyone just starred at Wanda.
“Uh, th-thanks?” Kurt finally stuttered, keeping an eye on both Toad and Pietro. Before Amanda, he would gladly taken that compliment from any girl. Wanda wasn’t any girl though. Wanda blinked again, then blushed.
“N-No problem.”
“What’s no problem?” Tabitha asked, having returned without anyone noticing. Tabitha, however, noticed the room, blinked and folded her arms across her chest.
“Something is going on here. Spit it out!”
“Wanda said she likes Kurt!” Toad suddenly cried. Tabitha felt a sting of pity for the boy. Obviously one-sided crush was obviously one-sided but hearing the one you liked liked someone else? That hurt. That said, Tabitha looked looked over at Kurt and had the shadow of a mischievous grin on her face.
“Well”, she said, trying her best to let her teasing to be not too audible, “I can understand that. Blue has something cute about him.”
“Not you too,” Pietro groaned, while Toad was at a loss for words and Kurt looked like he was fighting several feelings at once right now.
“I know, right?” Wanda latched onto it and, briefly, Tabitha felt almost guilty. Considering the condition she was in right now, memories and everything, Tabitha wasn’t actually sure Wanda completely understood the meaning of her words. Poor girl probably didn’t have any experience with boys either way.
Oh, well.
“It’s his fur”, Tabitha said with a grin, raising one finger, “it makes him look so fluffy.”
“Fluffy?” croaked every boy in the room at once. Then, every boy at once commented on that as well and Kurt used his power to get out of there, leaving behind the smell of sulfur.
Tabitha snickered until Wanda spoke up: “I don’t think we should have brought that up.”
“Well, boys usually don’t like being called fluffy, right boys?”
The boys only grumbled their answer and Tabitha snickered again. Until, again, Wanda spoke up.
“So, I should not tell a boy I like that I find him fluffy, alright.”
“You can name me fluffy any time of day, buttercup.”
Wanda didn’t even dignify Toad’s words with an answer. Unlike Pietro, which distracted both of them into a little fight both girls ignored entirely.
“No, you shouldn’t”, Tabitha said and added: “Cute still works, though. Just not with someone like Blue who has a girlfriend. At least not when that girlfriend is around. Actually, you better never say that to someone who has a girlfriend.”
Wanda nodded slowly and said: “I see. So I can never tell Lance he is cute either.”
Once again, Wanda had everybody’s undivided attention.
In the following silence, Fred wondered if it was okay for him to grab a bag of popcorn.
Kitty looked after Tabitha for a moment before turning around to Lance. She gave him a quick kiss, trying to come up with something that wasn’t as subtle as a hammer to the face but found herself at a loss here. Sighing inwardly, she braced for the inevitable while Lance was cleaning his fingers on a towel.
“Lance, what is going on?” Kitty asked, slight frown on her face.
“What do you mean?” Lance replied, too casually to be convincing. Kitty put a hand on his forearm.
“Don’t. I already know you have been busy the last couple days.”
Lance blinked in confusion, then frowned in anger before taking a deep breath. He looked away, over her and then back to her, into her eyes. For a moment, it looked to Kitty like he was thinking about something. Then, he nodded to himself as if he had made a decision.
“Yeah, I-I was, I guess. There is something personal coming up. Say, do you have time this weekend? To make a little trip.”
Kitty blinked, surprised by this unexpected turn of events. She leaned her head, thinking.
“I do, actually. I mean, there is the usual stuff but I can sit out one time. Why?”
“We gotta do a little journey. We gonna stay overnight, by the way. So, you might wanna pack… whatever girls pack when staying overnight.”
Kitty couldn’t help but chuckle at this last words. Her smile froze when she realized what this could imply. They hadn’t tried anything since their failed one time. Sure, they still kissed one another but that was about it. Was Lance thinking about giving it another try? Was that it?
No, Lance was too direct for that. He would have told her, she was sure of it. What else was there?
“Kitty?” Lance suddenly asked and Kitty realized she had been starring at Lance without saying anything. She felt heat creeping up her face and blinked.
“S-Sorry. Was lost in thought. Anyway, I can go with you on that journey.”
The sudden relief on his face made Kitty’s heart ache. Just where were they going to go?
“Hm, I should probably go and talk to them, right?” Lance hummed, scratching his chin. Kitty gave him half a smile and folded her arms across her chest. She said nothing but nodded slowly and clearly. Lance took a deep breath.
“Alright, alright. I go talk to them. They should at least know I am not gonna be around for the weekend.”
“I am coming with you. Kurt brought me over and I think he is till around.”
Nightcrawler was, as a matter of fact, no longer around. If anything, it actually looked like something happened but no one wanted to involve Kitty or Lance into it. Which suited Kitty just fine. Sure, she was curious but she was also fine not being involved into everything concerning the Brotherhood.
Not when there was something much more important and clear to take care of.
Weekend came faster then Kitty would have thought. Yet, she was still ready when Rogue told her that Lance’s jeep was outside the front gate. Kitty’s first thought on that was about the reason why Lance wouldn’t simply drive up to the front door. Her second thought was remembering how she needed Storm to convince to not do anything.
Probably for the better Lance remained outside.
“Anyone I should evade on my way out?” Kitty asked while shouldering her bag and giving one last look around her room. A corner of Rogue’s mouth curled upwards and she replied: “Normally I would advise to evade you but since its about you this time…”
“Very funny”, Kitty said dryly and saw Rogue’s second corner of the mouth curling up as well. She leaned herself against the wall.
“Hey, I am just saying. Jokes aside, Storm and Jean have an eye on Logan and Scott. So, you should be good.”
“Never thought I would be glad that Jubilee isn’t around.”
Rogue chuckled: “I know what you mean but hey, you said it wasn’t about trying it again.”
“And it isn’t!” Kitty hurried out, slight blush on her face. Rogue shrugged, still smiling.
“Hope you don’t mind me wishing you good luck anyway?”
“Not at all”, Kitty grinned and phased out of the room.
“Hey Kitty. Wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to drive up to the front door”, Lance said, giving her a smile that was barely good enough to pass as real but not good enough to fool her. Kitty still chuckled and leaned over to give Lance a quick kiss before grabbing her seat belt. Their bags were stored on the backseats.
“Yeah, that was probably the better idea. Anyway, I am ready.”
“Then let’s do this”, Lance sighed and started the engine. Kitty didn’t say anything at first but Lance didn’t say much either. Music came out of the radio, they drove through the city but Kitty frowned when they left Bayville behind. Lance had told her it would be a longer trip, so she wasn’t surprised they would leave Bayville for that but she started to think Lance could come up with the reason for this journey.
“Lance-”
“My dad was a cool guy, you know?” Lance suddenly started and Kitty got quiet. Kitty got very, very quiet. They had talked about a lot of things. She knew that Lance regretted being a little angry shit to the first, and in hindsight best, family that tried to adopt him. She knew that another family had only adopted him until the wife got suddenly pregnant. She knew that another family only adopted children as a means to an end. She knew a lot about the family that adopted Lance over the years, a true mixed bag in a way. She also knew that he was adopted across states at least once.
What she knew very little to nothing about, however, were his parents. The little tidbits she knew, she knew only after convincing him for that much. That Lance suddenly started talking about his parents out of his own was unprecedented and would have been unbelievable for Kitty.
“He had his own little car repair shop. It wasn’t really big or anything but it was him and two other guys there. He was the boss there and things weren’t bad. They would often listen to music, rock or pop while working. I actually let my hair grow like that because I remember him having longer hair too. His was a bit longer though. Reached the shoulders, I believe and he had bit of a beard and a jacket like mine. He could actually play the guitar too. No idea if he was actually that good but back then, I thought he was great. I also remember him having tattoos and piercings but I can’t recall any details on them. None at all.”
Lance stopped talking and Kitty barely dared to breath. She knew half of this stuff already but she didn’t give a damn. A faint idea of what this trip was about popped up in the back of her mind.
“My mom was great too. A delinquent when she was younger, from what I have been told. Can’t really say anything about that but what I do remember is a kitchen with the smell of cookies or muffins in the air and a pair of boxing gloves in the corner. My mom was a great baker. I remember her always being asked to bring some of her baked goods along when the neighborhood was meeting or whatever. She was also doing boxing but I think that was more for exercise and potential self-defense. At least I don’t remember her having any actual fights in a ring and everything. Maybe though, they just didn’t want me to see that back then. I got her hair color, by the way, though her hair was shorter then mine is now.”
Lance fell silent again and Kitty gulped. This faint idea was becoming more weighty by the second.
“Lance”, she whispered wide-eyed, fighting with herself whether or not she should put a hand on his body, “where are we going?”
Lance tightened the grip on the wheel so hard, his knuckles turned white and the jeep sped up as he pushed even more. Then, after a moment of felt eternity, he answered.
“We are going to visit my parents because the anniversary of that day is coming up.”