"It's cold."
Kitty turned her head towards her wife, raising her eyebrows, "It's the Alps."
"I wasn't expecting it to be this cold," Rachel complained, sticking her tongue out at Kitty.
"Careful, it'll freeze!" She danced out of Rachel's reach, then tripped on something and fell into a bank of snow. She could hear Rachel laughing and accepted her fate.
"That's what you get." She helped Kitty out of the snow and smiled at her. "This was a good idea. Even if it's cold."
Getting away from the school had been Emma's idea, of all people. Kitty had joked she'd just wanted them out of her hair while she completed her hostile takeover of the school, but she knew she'd been overworking. Kitty really, really needed a vacation. Needed to not define her life around the X-men and the school. They were a part of it, but not the only part.
Penny for your thoughts? That other big part of her life nudged her mind gently, and Kitty let her in.
Just admiring the view.
Rachel laughed. You sappy romantic.
Leaning in, Kitty gave Rachel a quick kiss. "Aren't we supposed to be, I don't know, Skiing?"
"You mean instead of hanging out in the snow? This hike was your idea."
"I just wanted to… get some place," Kitty said vaguely, squeezing Rachel's hand before continuing her trek.
Rachel rolled her eyes, but followed along. If Kitty noticed her shielding them from the cold with her powers, she didn't say anything or complain about it.
It was another hour before they reached whatever spot Kitty had decided upon. She turned to Rachel, and gestured towards a majestic view of the mountains and the slopes. "Happy anniversary."
"It's beautiful." Rachel squeezed Kitty's hand.
"Not as beautiful as you."
"There's that sappiness again."
"You love it." Kitty leaned back into Rachel's arms, smiling to herself as Rachel nuzzled her hair. She was lucky, so lucky. Luckier than Domino even. To have Rachel as her wife. The woman who'd accepted her, who'd loved her, who had always, always been there for her. She felt a kernel of guilt because she hadn't always been there for Rachel.
"I love you. And I've never taken you for granted, and I've never been angry that you left. You did what you had to do to find yourself. And you're happy."
"Mind-reader."
"Obviously." Rachel kissed Kitty's ear, and Kitty could sense there was something more.
So she waited patiently, for Rachel to speak either with her voice or her mind, whichever was most comfortable.
It was with her voice that Rachel spoke, as though she wanted to say it out loud, like that would make it more real, "Kate, have you thought about kids at all?"
Kitty blinked, turning in Rachel's arms and looking up at her, "I've...had the occasional thought about it. But that's a thing for future us."
"I just…" Rachel held Kitty close, "You know. You know where I'm from, when I'm from."
Of course Kitty knew. Rachel had shared those memories with her a long time ago. Before Kitty had transitioned, even. A terrible future, most of them dead or in camps, and the terrible things she'd endured and been forced to do. A world where mutants were hunted to extinction.
Rachel seemed to be thinking the same thing, seemed to be on the verge of losing herself in that past, that future, so Kitty gently shook her, "Hey. That's not going to happen here. You gave my timeline the chance yours never had, and that other me, she gave you the chance she never had."
"I don't even know if I want any. But it's… an option now." Rachel didn't know how she felt about it. The future looked bright for them. It could very well be a good world to raise children in, and if she was going to be a mother there was only one person she wanted to do it with.
"We've only been married a year," Kitty replied, lifting her hands to brush at Rachel's tears. "We've got time. To talk about it, to think about it. We could have some of our own, we could adopt, we could do both."
Kitty would kind of like to do both, and from the soft smile Rachel gave her she realized that thought had come through loud and clear.
"I know you've always wanted at least one."
"It's all that babysitting and teaching," Kitty joked. She stepped back, taking Rachel's hands and threading their fingers together. "Remember when you held Nate in your arms?"
"Yeah?"
"I kind of knew then what I wanted, and that I wanted it with you. But... It's both of us or nothing, Ray."
She rolled her eyes, "I'm already convinced. Not … right now. But someday. For myself. And for us."
Someday. Once, them being in love had been a someday. Them being married another someday. Kitty realized that that was life, a series of somedays that sometimes came true.
"Do you know how much I love you?"
"You married into my fucked up family," Rachel pointed out.
"Yeah…" Kitty gave her a crooked grin,"That takes a hell of a lot of love to put up with."
She smacked Kitty on the arm, then pulled her into another kiss. It was something Kitty would never get enough of, and she hoped she never would. The feel of Rachel against her body, the taste of her skin, that comforting feeling at the edge of her mind. It was a rare day when they weren't on the same page, and even though it had been a year it still felt like the honeymoon was only yesterday.
Making love to a telepath was always so much more than the physical or the emotional. It was like being on another plane of existence. Kitty could feel Rachel slipping into her mind, stripping her bare as she stripped their jackets and clothing off. Rachel's skin burned like fire under her hands. That presence in her mind also burned like fire, filling her, consuming her. She could feel herself with Rachel's hands, see herself with her eyes. As she dropped to her knees in front of her, Kitty knew that Rachel would taste herself on Kitty's lips just as Kitty would feel everything she did to Rachel.
She looked up at her and down at herself, and then, like always, they blended together into one.