This was absolutely not her scene. That's what Kitty told herself as she clutched her cranberry and vodka close and tried to melt into the shadows of the busy bar. It was a Friday night and she had been suckered in to going out with her friends. But not just going out, going speed dating.

It's not that Kitty was anti-social, she loved hanging out, and she was a pretty prodigious dater, she just didn't like the feeling of being paraded in front of people-men, women, it didn't matter-like some slab of meat. It didn't help that it was Jen who had forced her to come out. Kitty couldn't compare to Jen. Really, no one could.

Jen, who was in her final year of law school, had this ability to morph from a mousy brunette attorney-in-training into this outrageous, vivacious mass of energy. Kitty loved her for it, but, man, did Jen always end up finding herself on center stage, often literally.

In social occasions that were potentially less than savory, Jen showed up in wigs of fantastic colors. It was a habit she had gotten into when she started doing burlesque performances in her off hours. Nobody really wants a lawyer who strips for funsies, Jen had said, so she adopted the habit of wearing bright wigs, and eventually it just sort of flowed into her social life as well. Tonight Jen was wearing a luxurious, wavey emerald green that was one of her particular favorites.

Kitty watched Jen with a bemused smile as she boisterously shouted over the crowds with her two equally statuesque friends, Carol and Monica. Both were pilots who has served in the military, but when not in active duty Monica worked as a transportation pilot, bringing gear to and from bases, and Carol as a radar tech. They were both a little older than Jen, and seemed amazingly relaxed in the crowd, chatting quietly in response to Jen's roaring laughs.

When Jen had decided to drag her along, Kitty had called her cousin, Jean, begging her to come along for protection. Though she was not yet 20, Jean had more wisdom than a lot of Kitty's peers. She was the spitting image of her older sister, lithe and hipless, with bright red hair. She had also dealt with her older sister dying. Most of the time she was calm and collected, but Kitty knew what could happen if something hit an emotional nerve. Jean could explode. She handled herself well, though, and now that she was going to college near Kitty, they tried to visit every week or so. Thank god Jean had said yes, and came along.

She abandoned Kitty when she saw some friends from school enter the bar, waving brightly at them with her x-ed right hand, marking she was under 21. Kitty didn't mind being abandoned terribly, and she scanned the growing crowd for familiar faces. There was Kurt, flirting brightly with his flight attendant girlfriend, and Scott standing awkwardly in the corner with some of the students he TA'd, trying to avoid making eye contact with James and Ororo, who were chatting at the bar, James chugging a beer while 'Ro gracefully sipped a martini. Kitty saw one of her roommates, Luke, casing the room for potential hookups, and she thanked the stars that her room was on the other side of the one floor apartment she shared with Luke and Danny, who was oddly missing from the scene. Then she spotted Misty, Danny's on-again-off-again flame, and she knew exactly why Danny hadn't shown up tonight. They'd had a fight a few weeks ago about Misty's friends visiting that still hadn't been resolved. Kitty didn't know the details, but she did know it was better not to get involved. Kitty then spotted Felicia, glowering in the general direction of Peter Parker and his friend and coworker, Anna Maria. Kitty made a beeline for them, relieved to see she wasn't the only awkward dork here.

She and Peter had worked at the same think tank the year they got out of college. Peter had continued to work with them as a full time scientist, which was honestly pretty amazing. Kitty was significantly less decisive, and had been floundering for a few years, trying to make up her mind about if she wanted to go to grad school or find a better job. For now, she liked her work at the non-profit, along with teaching dance part time in the dojo and community center below their apartment to subsidize her rent.

Peter waved, brushing his messy brown hair out of his eyes. "Howsit going, Kitty?"

"Not too bad, just trying to avoid looking like a complete idiot."

"Let me guess," Anna Maria squinted one eye, crossing her small legs. "Jen dragged you." It was a statement, not a question.

"Ding ding ding." Kitty rolled her eyes. Anna Maria was super sharp, but you didn't have to be a genius to know that Kitty was a sucker for her friends. She had been sucked into all sorts of projects, helping Iliyana practice fencing, petitioning with Rachel, building independent websites with Doug...she was rarely able to tell anyone 'no.' It was endearing, and probably dangerous for her health, like the time she spent three days cleaning the wetlands with Meagan during a massive storm. The good thing was that her friends were just as willing to return the favor, as Jen claimed she was doing now. "I believe her exact wording was 'you need to get out of the house and get dirty.'"

Peter guffawed , "I wish she'd say that to me." Anna Maria slapped his shoulder, rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, I don't know why she wants to endure something so awkward as a series of 60 second dates..."

"Ego boost?" Peter offered with a smirk, before Anna Maria slapped him again. "Ow, come on, it's a joke!"

"You're a joke," she responded with her own slight smirk.

Kitty laughed softly at her squabbling friends when a hush fell over the crowd. Dressed in head to toe white, Emma Frost took the stage-which was little more than a step up that musicians usually played live music on. Kitty couldn't help but hate Emma a little. Okay, a lot. It was a deep, upsetting, visceral hatred, and no matter how much she tried (or how often Jen insisted "you'd like her if you got to know her"), she could not help but dislike the platinum blonde ice queen.

"Thank you all so much for coming tonight. As you know, this is the first of our rounds of speed dating here at the Hellfire Club-" a name far more dangerous than the club actually was. It had been co-opted from a well known (some say notorious) social club that had been shut down in the 70s. "We'll do a series of rounds tonight, for people of all persuasions. Even if you aren't interested in participating in the current round, please feel free to head to the bar, have a few drinks, and chat. Do you all have your assigned numbers?"

The crowd answered with a rousing 'yes'.

"Our first round will be the classic, though some would say archaic, men and women, and those who choose to identify as such. Gentlemen, since we're playing this the old school way, it's your job to rotate from lady to lady when the bell is rung. Ladies, please take your seats."

Those playing obliged, and Kitty settled down at her table next to Jean, taking a big breath and steeling herself for some truly horrible dates