Disclaimer: Marvel owns their souls. Sadly.

Out of Bounds

She had been dancing around the gazebo for the last five minutes like she was the only person that existed in the world. She had her eyes closed and her palms were pressed up to the headphones on her ears, as though she could trap every musical note and keep them all to herself by doing so. Her feet moved expertly across the cement flooring as she took a step forward, one back, side-stepped and then whirled around a few times.

He had been watching her little show since it started. He had been sitting under a tree, listening to music of his own, attempting to configure certain melodies into different sources of power. Then he noticed her walking toward him. She hadn't noticed him and walked passed him, bobbing her head up and down to the music coming from her walkman, letting the song guide her to a place she could be alone and let the music live through her. Intrigued, he followed her from a safe distance until she reached the gazebo and began her solitary dance.

Grinning to himself, he paused his music and finally closed the distance between himself and the older girl. He waited until her back was to him then reached out to gently remove the headphones from her ears, causing her to gasp and spin around. When the shock wore off, she glared at him and snatched her headphones back and let them hang around her neck before turning her walkman off.

"Mark! You, like, almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," he chuckled softly and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked her over. "Awesome dance, by the way." He winked.

Kitty blushed a little. "Oh. You saw all that, huh?"

"Yeah," he nodded and shrugged with one shoulder. "Nothing to be embarrassed about though, you're an amazing dancer."

"Thanks," Kitty said and smiled up at the taller boy.

"You're welcome."

There was a pause in the conversation, then Kitty said, "so, what're you doing out here? Is Logan teaching an outdoor class or something?" Of course, if that were the case, Mark would have been skipping and it would have been Kitty's duty as an official member of the X-Men to bring the new recruit back to the Wolverine.

"Nah," Mark waved her off. "Just thought I'd try training by myself for a change. It's hard to concentrate on just the music when there's so much noise going on inside the mansion."

"Oh," Kitty giggled softly, relieved that she wouldn't have to report him to Logan after all. "And how's that coming along?"

"Good enough, I suppose." Mark furrowed his brow. "It's a pain trying to find the right kind of music for what I want to do, though."

"What do you wanna do?"

Mark glanced to the side and then looked back at the older mutant. "Create multi-colored lights. The kind that won't blind someone when they look at them," he chuckled softly. "I mean, sure, I can make forcefields and energy blasts, but I figure I won't ever have complete control over my powers if I only learn the offensive and defensive stuff Logan and Scott's been teaching us. Gotta learn to have some fun with them, too, y'know?"

Kitty's mouth formed a small 'o' of surprise. Not many mutants were so comfortable with their powers, and for someone like Mark to realize so early on that the X-Gene could be a gift instead of a curse surprised her quite a bit. And for him to be willing to completely embrace every possibility his powers had to offer amazed her.

Katherine Pryde was impressed, to say the very least.

"So," Kitty started after a few seconds of awkward silence and staring, "like, what kind of music have you tried?"

"I figured techno would work, but the beat's too strong and I keep getting small blasts of colorful energy," he chuckled a little sheepishly.

"Hmm," Kitty murmured and gently bit against her thumb nail in thought. A moment later she smiled brightly at him. "I'll be right back!" she told him enthusiastically and, after handing him her walkman, ran passed him and back to the mansion. About five minutes later, she returned with Evan's boom box cradled uneasily against her chest. She set it down and took her walkman back from a very confused Mark, opened it up and proceeded to place her mixed CD in the stereo.

"Kitty...?" Mark asked cautiously as the older girl knelt beside the stereo with a tiny smirk on her lips.

"Bet you haven't tried slow trance," she beamed and, after setting the system to shuffle, pressed play.

"Uh," Mark murmured to himself and took a step back as Kitty started to dance to the music now blasting from the stereo. He wondered if that was habit or if she was trying to encourage him. "It's worth a shot," he suddenly smirked and removed his headphones from his head, letting them hang around his neck. He watched Kitty spin around once before closing his eyes, letting himself drown in the music. Once he had a feel of the song, he opened his eyes again and lifted his hands. As his palms rose, small flashes of white light sprung forth, in perfect time with the beat.

Well, those lights aren't going to blind anyone anytime soon, Mark thought with a small grin on his lips. Now all he had to do was add some color.

Brow furrowed, he concentrated a little harder. And sure enough a few seconds later there was a flash of dark blue. Then pink, neon green, sky blue, blood red–

"You're totally doing it!" Kitty shouted over the music and danced over to him, smiling like a fool. Without warning, she took hold of his hand and started to guide him in the dance she had started alone.

"Kitty, I can't–" He protested as the lights started to lose their color.

"You so can," she said with a giggle. "Think of this as a personal training lesson. Now, dance with me!"

Had Mark been a less confident young man, he would have blushed. But since this lovely young lady was more than willingly handing herself over to him for the moment, he simply grinned smugly back at her and rose his hands to the sky. The color came back to the lights as he swayed with her to the hypnotizing melody, surrendering to the music the way she had when he first spotted her earlier.

Once he felt he didn't need his hands to guide the light anymore, he took hold of her hips and pulled her against his body. He continued to grin that smug grin down at her still was pleasantly surprised to see the older girl's cheek become stained with a faint blush.

"You're a good teacher," Mark chuckled, "Miss Pryde." He highly doubted that any of Logan or Scott's methods would have been quite this effective in the long run.

"Ew," Kitty laughed, wrinkling her nose. "Don't call me that. It makes—"

"Hey, lovebirds!" A voice called from a few feet away. "Break it up!"

Kitty jerked away from Mark. The lights faded instantly. "Bobby!" She shouted and fisted her hands, stomping her foot rather childishly.

"Ignore him," Mark chuckled and placed a hand onto Kitty's cheek, hoping that would coax her into staying with him. "Or at least finish the dance."

"Oh, I'm tellin'!" Bobby exclaimed.

"Excuse me for a sec," Kitty said to Mark, gently brushing his hand aside. "I have to maim him," she smiled almost sweetly before she started to walk passed him, heading for the icy mutant in the distance.

"I don't think Lance'd like you getting so cozy with one of the new guys," Bobby laughed loudly before turning on his heel and breaking into a run as Kitty started after him as fast her legs could carry her.

"It was just a dance, Bobby!" Mark heard Kitty shout and laughed softly to himself as he shut the music off and picked up the stereo, lugging it over to the tree he had been sitting under before. He resumed his previous position and turned the volume down before he turned the music on again, figuring Kitty wouldn't mind if he continued to practice with her CD for a little while longer.

-End