Just a little story that I have been working on in between the craziness of my life at the moment. I'm sorry if its not what you expect at first but i kind of wrote it without thinking about where i was going with it. But anyway even if you hate it or you only read the first 3 paragraphs, please Review so i know what to do in the future to improve my stories! As always the reviews can be Positive or Negative, one word or a paragraph, I don't mind just so long as I get some kind of Feedback! So anyways enjoy! :)x
Written in Kitty Pryde's POV
The masquerade ball that Professor Xavier hosted every year was one of my favourite times of year at the mansion. Never have I known a celebration like it, to me it's a bigger event than even my birthday.
Every year the female students would arrive in the grand hall to find the boys stood in groups of 5, with masks and hoods covering most of their distinguishing features, and the girls would be placed into one of the groups to dance with each boy in turn. At the end of the five dances, the girls would have to regroup and try to identify the boys, if they succeed they get the chance to choose which of the five they want to dance with but get any wrong and you would have to a triple danger room session with Logan in the morning after.
Last year I got placed in a group of girls that consisted of Rogue, Jean, Jubilee and Rachel. Not a bad group to have been in but it made it more obvious who the boys we were paired with were before we had even started dancing. After the dances we all too easily guessed the identities. Scott, while dancing with Jean had slightly his mask down to show his visor so Jean would pick him, not that she needed his help as she'd already scanned all the boys head to find out the identities. Gambit, who had broken the rules of no talking, just to flirt with every girl in his thick Cajun accent not impressing Rogue but she still chose him. Bobby, who in his joyous mood accidently froze his hand to Jubilee confirming what me and Rachel had suspicions that they were a couple after she chose him. Angel, whose wings you could hear fluttering underneath his costume was left for Rachel as she let me choose the last of our masked comrades. Colossus, his strong grasp of everyone's hands had given away the gentle giants identity, without adding the fact that he was a million miles taller than everyone else taking part in the event.
It had been a dream come true for me at the time. It was known by most of the mansion that me and Piotr had history and had dated repeatedly, briefly each time, yet we both still harboured deep feelings for each other. Though this time I had hoped that the dance would help to bring a more permanent and stable relationship between us but how wrong I was. Piotr had announced after the dance that he had fallen for another who made him feel more love than the love that he felt for me. Naturally I didn't accept it well and since then its been a very rocky road between us that many still wouldn't dare even describe us as friends anymore.
It was more of a dreading feeling leading up to this years masquerade. Not only would there be a chance that I would have to dance with Piotr again but Logan had upped his punishment to four back to back danger room sessions (a terror thought to everyone). Rachel took my hand like last year and walked me through the giant double doors, to help comfort me for the shocks that were bound to happen on the other side of the wall. All the girls walked in, in twos before standing in a crowd in front of Professor X who had a top hat on a stand next to him. It wasn't long until it clicked that in the hat were all the girl's names, the slips of paper that decided your fate for the rest of the night.
Time seemed to slow down as each name was picked up and read out and you were sent over to a group of hidden figures. I felt Rachel's fingers slip away from mine as she was picked to join one of the not yet formed groups but relief flooded over me when my name was read out to join her. After a couple more minutes the 4 groups of five people had been determined. Across the hall from us was a group of the mature X-Women, consisting of Jean (Phoenix), Ororo (Storm), Betsy (Psylocke), Moira and Emma (Ice Queen). The group to the left of them included mainly the younger students, Shan (Karma), Dani (Mirage), Paige (Husk), Jubilee and Megan (Pixie). Then the other group contained Amara (Magma), Rogue, Hope, Sooraya (Dust) and Nori (Surge). And the final group was made up of me, Rachel, Laura or X-23 the clone of Wolverine, I don't how they managed to get her to sign up for this but she doesn't look happy at all, Illyana 'Magik' Colossus' sister and one of my closest friends after Rachel, and Alison (Dazzler) the woman that loves to sing and dance on a stage.
As soon as everyone was gathered together, we could feel the boys circling us, stopping after two rotations they tapped us all on the shoulder in perfect synchronisation. They then held out their hand waiting for us to take it once we had turned around.
I took hold of the mystery man's hand and instantly the music began to start. He held me tightly to his chest as we waltz around the room with the rest of our group. Everytime I peaked up to try and figure out who he was, a bright smile was etched onto his face and I could notice the faint appearance of a blond piece of hair trying to escape from being trapped under the hood. His hand was also extremely cold at to touch and at that point it brought me back to my senses and I knew exactly who I was dancing with. A bigger smile appeared on my lips and I noticed the hood slightly nod as if he had realised that I knew his identity. We carry on dancing to the beat swaying in perfect timing, it made me joyful as I had recently grown close to him since my break up with Piotr and this lad had always been here for me when I needed a friendly face. He knew exactly how to cheer me up and we had made our names among the Mansion for our numerous pranks that we had pulled. I only just noticed the music slowing down and I knew that I would have to move on. As the music came to a complete halt, we pulled apart from each other, he kept a hold of my hand and lightly kissed it before pulling away.
We were then told to regroup in our circles and the ritual started again as the boys circled us before stopping and tapping us on the shoulder. Before I had even taken the hand of this one I knew exactly who it was. The green glow radiating from his eyes was impossible to mistake for anyone else's. I smiled shyly at him as we hadn't really had much to do with each other and I knew I had to tread carefully as Laura like him a lot and being on her bad side something that everyone even Logan is afraid of. I noticed just how much of a graceful mover he was and could tell exactly why Laura liked him. This dance felt like it was going on for a bit longer and I dared to make a glance to the side to see the other couples who all looked cosy in each other's company and like they were enjoying themselves. I turned back to the this masked crusader and instantly felt the intensity of his eyes upon me as he twirled me around and giggled at me as I lost a bit of balance in the giant heels I was wearing. He placed his hands on my sides to keep me balanced and smiled an inviting smile to which I gave back. As the dance once again came to a close I hoped that I could get some time in the future to get to know this guy just so long as Laura didn't kill me first. He repeated the procedure of kissing my hand and I walked over back to join Rachel and the rest of our group.
I felt a muscular hand reach out to me this time and the height of this dancer made it even more obvious than the last one. My mood immediately dampened dramatically and I even considered letting go of this ones hand and refusing to dance but I knew that wouldn't go down well and I didn't want to spoil anyone else's evening. I could feel his grip try and hold me closer but I didn't get any closer than I had to. I didn't even dare to look up to his face to see what he was feeling. To me the sooner this dance ended the better. I could hear him quietly muttering something trying to get me to look up at him but I just couldn't do it and the more I stayed dancing with him the more I wanted to cry but I wouldn't let him see my weakness, not on this night, no tonight is a time to move on and have a good time. I held the tears back and felt a wash of relief when the music finally ended. I pulled my hand away before he could reach to kiss it and quickly walked off away from the masked one before he caused my heart any noticeable pain.
The fourth dance was different. I went in to it with the same attitude as the second dance. I tried to decipher who it was but I couldn't tell. I couldn't see their hair, I couldn't tell anything from their touch, I couldn't tell anything from their eyes or how they were dancing. They were sunken as far into their hood as physically possible. They were smiling back at me in a shy way that I sort of recognised but couldn't put a face to. Well, not naming 1 out 4 isn't so bad, so long as the others had a slight clue as to who this mystery caper is. I ignored trying to figure out who he was and just focused on enjoying the dance. It was very pleasurable the way he held me at arm's length but made me feel like I was even closer. The way he held my gaze felt like he was drawing me into another world. I was sad to feel him come to a halt with the music but it just made me excited to find who his identity was.
The final dancer caught my eye immediately and gave the biggest smile known to man. It brought me back to the time I first met this dancer, he had given me the exact same smile just with a piece of wheat in his mouth. We hadn't spoken in a while as he was on a different X-men team to me but we had grown close when I had originally joined the X-mansion and not many people knew just how close we used to be. I smiled back to him as big as I could manage and he took my hand to begin dancing and held me close to his chest. We danced around the room gracefully and I was glad to be dancing in his arms and for him to possibly be my last dance of the night. I thought back to when I did one of my numerous Danger Room sessions on my own, just I was setting it up he walked in the room acting all cool and pretending he was in charge. I hadn't believed a word he was saying so challenged him to a battle and I was mesmerised when I first saw him fly through the sky above me. I may have been gob-smacked at what he could do but I still beat him and I won't ever let him forget that. I moved my head so I could look up at him, his eyes stared back at me. His grin hadn't gotten any smaller and I could tell that he was enjoying this as much as me. I was even more upset when the music came to an end this time. He kissed my hand before backing off to stand around the edge of the room with the rest of the male students.
"You now have a few minutes to decide who you think you have been dancing with" Professor X's voice boomed inside all of our heads.
Pulling myself away from my thought I walked over to join the others yet again, where Rachel placed her arm around my shoulders in support, I guess she figured out Piotr was one of the dances. Illyana stood on my other side giving me a reassuring smile. Alison and Laura nodded to me as well.
"So that's one of them identified, Laura did you get any of them?" Rachel asked quickly moving on from the subject that no one dared to mention.
"Julian was one of them" Laura stated simply "Illyana who did you guess?"
"I got all but one of them I think." Illyana said before we nodded for her to continue " I think I danced with Sam first, then he who won't be named" (I'd got Illyana a Harry Potter dvd for her birthday and she was obsessed with it) "I don't know who I had third but then it was Julian and unmistakeably Bobby."
"Well done Illyana, that's more than I got" Alison said giving the youngster praise and encouragement that she always needed. "I don't know who the other one is either, do you two know?"
I shock my head in defeat, at the rate this was going it was an early morning wake up call with claws. "I don't know who it was but I could guess" Rachel spoke up "We just need to hope his name isn't called out in one of the other groups." We all nodded agreement and waited for the other groups to finish their discussions.
It wasn't long until the other groups grew silent and we all turned to the front of the hall to see the Professor and hope that our group wasn't the first to be chosen. We were in luck when Amara, Rogue, Hope, Sooraya and Nori were picked first. Rogue stepped forward to give their predictions first "We think that our masked boys were Remy, Alex, Nate, Shiro and Jean-Paul." Rogue stepped back to join the rest of the group.
The next group to announce their thoughts were the older X-men, who with three telepaths on their team, we reckoned they would have all their people right. Storm stepped forward for them and calmly spoke their chosen names " Logan, Scott, Warren, Namor and Forge". She quietly stepped back into line and the next group took stage.
Shan, Dani, Paige, Jubilee and Megan were the next group that had to step forward. Megan stepped forward looking a lot more sheepish than usual. "Erm we think it was Doug, Quentin, Sean, Jono and ….. Shiro" She whispered the last name so quietly hoping no one would hear but that was impossible with so many telepaths in the room. The two groups that named Sunfire as their dancer both looked at each other in shock, both knowing that only one of them was right and the other was soon to know the true definition of Pain. Megan looked down at the floor trying to avoid eye contact with anyone and anyone could tell that she was thinking the worst.
Finally it was our time to share our answers and we were just happy that we sort of knew our masked misters. Rachel stepped forward before looking back towards me to see if I was okay about saying You know who's name, I nodded and so she began "Well don't worry guys we might be joining you with only 4 certain names, Anyways here goes Piotr, Bobby, Sammie, Julian and I hope its you wearing your Hologram machine thingy Kurt, or whoever it is behind that mask can join us for the Lovely Danger Room Session" Rachel muttered before re-joining us. Taking a deep breath we all awaited the answers to who was who.
The boys split into the four groups of people and stood in a line one behind each other. The front person of each line would take it in turns to reveal themselves and this process would repeat itself for the rest of the lines. The male from the first group was revealed to be Alex, a sigh of relief filled the room as he went to stand over by the girls of that group. The next group got to see Scott unmask himself before walking over to join them before the third revealed himself to be Quentin with a sarcy "How on Earth did you know it was me?" as he walked on. Our first lad was revealed to be Julian who walked over and stood next to Laura.
It took a little bit longer to reveal the next three lines to be revealed but so far everyones guesses had been correct as we saw the reveals of Remy, Logan, Doug, Sam, Jean-Paul, Warren, Jono, Bobby, Nate, Namor, Sean and unfortunately for me Colossus. As it got down to the last person everyone was starting to get anxious as to who was who. We knew at least 5 of us would be in with Logan in the morning but their was still time for more to join them. The last person of the first group, started to pull down his hood to show Shiro staring back at them, sending the rest of the group into hysterics at their escape from punishment. The second group felt so confident that Jean used her telekenisis to pull back Forge's hood and mask, leaving their groups with all cheers and smiles just not as loud as the other group. Next to them the younger X-men were struggling to deal with the fact that they guessed wrong that they didn't really pay attention to Robert revealing himself. Finally we were up, I was squeezing Rachel's hand so hard it was turning white but her face showed she was just as nervous as me. We saw the hand of the last mask reach up to pull his mask off before stopping frozen in that position and all of a sudden he had vanished in a puff of red smoke. Letting out a deep breath that I didn't know I had been holding, I let go of Rachel's hand as she started throwing insults at Kurt for nearly making us lose.
My heart relaxed a bit and I turned my head to glance to see Sammie and Bobby joking about as usual. Bobby had his back to me but Sam saw me and gave me another of his massive grins. From the corner of my eye I could see Colossus looking in my direction while being talked at by Illyana. Laura and Julian were a little distance away from the group talking to each other. Alison came over to me and we started talking about the relief of not getting any person wrong. We were really having a good time until the bell that signals the time to choose rang out to deafen everyone. The boys all stood in a long line next to each other against one of the walls. Each group of girls was given a couple of minutes to make up their decision of who to dance to before revealing it to everyone.
Alison was the first to speak up about who she believed should dance with who. "Laura and Julian are a definite pairing, so that leaves four boys and four girls. I don't mind who I have so you three decide on who you want and I'll take whoevers left." We all nodded in agreement as no one was going to get Julian other than Laura and Alison was always the one who didn't mind who she danced with.
"Can I dance with Kurt?" Rachel asked quite bashfully which I have to admit was a surprise. Me and Illyana accepted her decision and went on to deciding on the other three.
"If you want Katya, I will dance with Piotr." Illyana said knowing how awkward it would be with me and him.
"You don't have to if you don't want to" I said not wanting to ruin her night just because she felt sorry for me.
"No I want to dance with him. Besides I have seen how you look at Sam and I know that you both would love to dance with each other, and Alison seems to not be able to keep her eyes off of Bobby." Illyana said as honest as she always was.
"Thank you" I said back to her before we were summoned into a line, standing against the wall opposite of the Boys, for the Broadcast of our choices.
The boys opposite us had replaced the masks over their faces but kept the hoods down. Looking at them now it was easy enough to name every single one of them without worrying about getting any of them wrong. Our attention was turned back to the Professor who was sat next to Hank (Beast) who was announcing to everyone that they were ready to pull out names.
All the names had been put back into the Top hat, where Hank would pull them out one by one, for that person to stand forward and announce the name that they had decided upon spending the rest of the night with. Hank stood up and pulled the first name out "Dani."
Dani stepped forward and away from the line. Her face looked at Hank as she announced the name "Robbie." The Brazilian stepped towards her, bowed and kissed her hand before walking her over to one of the other walls to listen to the rest of the pairings.
"Emma" The white queen stepped forward with a smirk on her face, any one that knew her like I did knew that she was planning something, but what was anyone's guess. "Scott" The words echoed around the room as everyone remained silent. Jean's face was full of rage, she had obviously been the one that was going to originally dance with Scott. Even Scott's face was showed some shock but he just stepped forwards and repeated exactly what Robbie had done just before him. As they started moving towards the wall, Emma screamed as Jean most likely attacked her mind. It was then Jean's turn to scream as Emma launched her attack. The screams came thick and constant until the Professor Shouted "ENOUGH" to bring both girls back to their senses "Emma can have the first half of the night with Scott and in 2 hours time she will swap partners with Jean. Then you will both join the 5 girls in Logan's Danger Room sessions in the morning." Both girls stared at each other before turning their attention to the upcoming Powers.
The rest of the pairings had pretty much gone without a hitch. So far we had Betsy and Warren, Dazzler and Bobby, Rouge and Remy, Laura and Julian, Jean and Namor, Hope and Nate, Shan and Quentin, Amara and Shiro, Ororo and Forge, Sooraya and Jean-Paul, Jubilee and Sean, Moira and Logan, Nori and Alex, Rachel and Kurt.
There were four girls and four Boys left to be decided. "Paige" the youngster stepped up slowly. It took her a couple of seconds before she blurted out "Jono." Her brother stepped towards her smiling at the decision, bowed to her and lead her towards her friends upon the wall on the right hand side of the boys line.
"Megan" The last of girl from the other three groups stepped up. Her eyes were glued to Doug even before she uttered his name. They had been growing closer over the past few months and I was happy for them, I just wished that they would have a wasted a bit more time.
It was left with Sam and Colossus standing against the wall both looking anxious as me and Illyana trying to figure out which one had them. "Kitty" My heart nearly stopped as my name was read out. I stepped forward only for Illyana to grab my arm to stop me from walking any further.
"Don't worry I'll make sure he doesn't bother you for not choosing you" She whispered only loud enough for me to hear. I nodded and thanked her for letting me dance with Sam. She was giving up her chance to dance with any of the lads that she liked in our group just so that I wouldn't have to be with her Brother. I felt guilty for it.
"I'll make it up to you I Promise!" I whispered back before hugging her and stepping forward. Everyone in the room had watched the exchange and I was betting that the telepaths were the only ones who actually knew what was going on. I looked up at the two boys. Sam had his head looking at the ground, I guess he thought that I was going to choose Piotr over him. Whereas Piotr had his eyes fixed on me as though he expected me to say his name. I took a deep breath before uttering the word "Sam."
Sam looked up at me shocked before making his starting his way over to me but he was stopped by Piotr who placed a hand on his shoulder forcing him to face him. I couldn't hear what they were talking about but things sounded like they were starting to get heated. I turned to Illyana who walked towards me and shrugged her shoulders not having a clue what's going on. Out of nowhere, Kurt and Rachel teleported in front of us.
"Piotr thinks there's something that's been going on between you and Sammie." Rachel explain obviously still listening in to their conversation. "Sam says there was nothing going on and that you and him have been old friends but Pete doesn't believe him. He's also demanding that Sammie let you dance with him instead."
Professor X was trying to get into the minds of the two lads to sort out the problem but didn't seem to be achieving anything. So I stepped towards them knowing exactly what to do, Illyana came with me hoping to knock some sense into her brother. As we got closer we could hear what they were arguing about and when they noticed us advancing they stopped and turned towards us. Sam looked down as though not knowing what to say and like he was ready to admit defeat. On the other hand Piotr looked smug with himself as if he expected me to take his side of this whole thing. I gathered my breath to speak but Illyana spoke before I could.
"I asked Kitty to pick Sam so I could dance with you brother. I didn't fancy dancing with anyone else and I knew Kitty wouldn't mind as she and Sam have been friends for a long time." Illyana explained with a few exaggerations but it just made me feel guilty for using her to get me out of this sticky situation.
"Its okay Illyana, you don't have to stick up for me this time. Illyana chose to dance with you Piotr because she knew that I was struggling being around you. And beside I wanted to dance with Sam because we haven't seen each other in months and I miss spending time with him like we used to." I smiled to Sam as I finished the sentence to make sure he knew I meant every word, he smiled back and bowed his head accepting everything I had said. I turned my attention to Piotr who seemed to still be confused and not seeming to take in the fact that this was my choice. "You left me for someone else Piotr, It hurt and you can't just expect me to forget about that. I'm sorry if you don't understand that but you left me broken and I need to move on like you did." I turned my back on him and grabbed Sam's hand to pull him away from the Rasputins.
By this time everyone had started to dance and ignored what had been going on. "Kitty?" I stopped still as Sam said my name. Letting go of his hand I turned round to face him. His mask was no longer on his face and he had lost his smile, replacing it with a thoughtful look. "Why didn't you tell me what happened between you and Pete?"
I wanted to use the excuse that we hadn't spoken for a while at that time but that would be a complete lie. He'd helped me get over Piotr I just gave him a different reason for why I was upset whenever he saw me. "I .. I didn't want ruin all the good times that we had together" I felt a tear slide down from my eye but before I could wipe it away, Sam reached his hand up and wiped it for me.
"Nothing would have ever changed all the great times. If you told me the truth I would have done everything in my power to take your mind off it" Sam expressed while resting his hands on my shoulders.
"I'm sorry" I said and let my head fall to look down at the floor. I feel ashamed that I ever thought that he wouldn't understand what was going on. I hadn't mean to say that the reason I was upset originally was due to family troubles back home, but I just found it too much to tell him about the whole Piotr situation as I hoped that he would have no reason to find out any other time.
All of a sudden I feel his muscular arms reach around my body and pull me closer to him in a hug. I lift my head to rest it upon his chest and listen to the words he mutters quietly. "You don't have to be sorry just be honest with me from now on" I nodded into his chest to show I understood. "So do you want to dance or not?" I pulled away from his grip to look up at his face. The smile had returned and his eyes stared into mine waiting for an answer.
I smiled back to him and wiped away any remains of tears and held out a hand for him to grab hold of, to which he accepted and we started waltzing around the room in our little bubble ignoring everyone else. For tonight would be our night together and from now on no one was going to ruin this unless they wanted to feel my anger. It was just me and Sam, the old friends that would from now on battle through anything together.