A/N: I do not Young Wizards. There is no explicit reference to anything after Wizard Abroad, but I think Nita is 22 and Kit is 21 here.
Maybe he'll have a girl over, maybe he'll be busy. Nita Callahan strode down the streets of Chicago, squinting at the directions she's scrawled on her hand. Maybe he just plain won't wanna see me. This is a terrible idea. She steeled herself as she approached the apartment building which matched the address her manual assigned to her best friend. Can I even call him that anymore? We've barely spoken since he left…. Three years ago, Kit had taken off for college. In his family, that was the expected course of events after high school, and Nita didn't begrudge him that. However, in her own family, the order of business was much more practical. Tom had gotten Nita a job at the same magazine he worked for, and she was helping out in her father's shop whenever she had down time. Yeesh, here goes nothing, she thought as she approached the door numbered 343. She raised her hand and knocked. Somewhat to her surprise, nothing happened. Nita nearly smacked herself. In all my awful predictions, she though angrily, how did I not consider him no being home?! She leaned against the opposite wall and pulled out her manual to the messaging pages. "New Message, to Kit…" she said aloud, but then stopped. What the hell do I say? "Um, call me when you can. Send." She slammed the manual shut and slid down the wall onto the floor to wait. She had barely hit the ground when the doors at the end of the hall burst open and a girl two or three years younger than Nita burst onto the hallway. She was medium height and slightly stocky, not fat but very curvy. She was dressed in simple but flattering jeans and a tank top, wearing a blue backpack and carrying a brown paper grocery bag. To Nita's shock and horror she stopped in front of Kit's door and hammered at it, yelling.
"Ay, tonto, ¿dónde estas? Tengo la…" the girl trailed off when she saw Nita. "Sorry, hi. Are you waiting for someone? I'm Lucy." Nita swallowed hard, but this conversation had to be had.
"Um, I was looking for an old friend, and I think he lives here. Kit Rodriguez?" The girl, Lucy, looked a bit puzzled.
"Been outta touch with him for a while, huh? Rodriguez is right, but he's going by Chris now."
Nita sighed. "Yeah, it's been a couple of years. I'm Nita, by the way. So I guess you would be his girlfriend, do you know where he is?" The girl threw back her head, laughing.
"Oh god no! We're just friends. He helps me with my homework, I cook for him so he doesn't get scurvy." She gestured at the groceries with her head. "I've got a pretty good idea where he is, but we don't have to wait out in the hall." She dug in her pocket and produced a plain brass key, which she used to promptly allow herself and Nita access to Kit's apartment. The living room/kitchen/dining room which they stepped into was small and sparsely furnished. A few pictures of his family in frames, some bits and pieces of small machinery on an end table, and a laptop computer humming in the corner. There was a handmade quilt on the back of the worn sofa, and only two chairs around the small table. It was on this table Lucy unceremoniously dumped her groceries and book bag before walking over to a small window which looked out on Lake Michigan. Lucy flung the window open and hung out of it, nearly to her waist. "Yup, he's out on the pier again. That boy cannot keep a commitment for his life…" the comment was directed mostly at herself and dissolved into muttering less than politely in Spanish. To Nita's surprise, Lucy pulled out her cell phone and hit two buttons. While the phone was dialing, she whistled a high, clear, two note melody out the window. Nita appeared behind her just in time to see Kit react to this signal. Lucy rather impatiently put her thumb to her ear and her pinky to her mouth in the universal 'call me' gesture. Nita saw Kit pull his phone out of his pocket.
"Hola, idiot. You forgot again. Yeah I know, more important things to do than hang out with your hermanita, I get it. Uh huh. But it isn't just me this time, you've got company. A girl, and she's real pretty." At this, Nita blushed. "Says her name is Nita." Nita could hear Kit's holler and stream of curses both through the phone and telepathically. Wow, she thought, how long has it been since I've heard him think? She glanced at Lucy, who was hanging up the phone. She looked at Nita curiously. "That's the most worked up I've heard him in forever. You guys have some kind of history you failed to mention? Is he gonna be mad I let you in?"
Nita laughed. "More than you know, kid. And maybe, but he'll get over it." She walked over to the shelf with the photos and ran her fingers across the familiar faces of Carmela, Ponch, and his Mama and Pop.
"You know his family?"
Nita was slightly startled by the directness of the question. "Uh, yeah. We've been friends since junior high."
Lucy smiled. "Cute. Can you tell me why there are so many pictures of his dog? Seriously, there are more of him than any other family member! Why?"
Nita was saved from explaining by the door banging open and Kit Rodriguez rushing in panting, in his entire 6'2 splendor. Nita's jaw nearly dropped. Holy cow. In the one awkward conversation they'd had, just after he left, he'd mentioned that there was a lot of free time in college and he's been working out a lot. The results of those hours were clearly visible. Lucy didn't appear to notice how jaw-droppingly attractive Kit was, and immediately started castigating him. "¿Porqué no usas las notas en el refrigerador, como discutimos? No me gusta nececistando buscar para tu cada semana." Kit sighed. (Why don't you use the notes on the refrigerator like we talked about? I don't like having to look for you every week.)
"Lo siento m'ija, pero no tengo tiempo ahora." He shooed her unceremoniously into the kitchen, and then switched to English. (Sorry sweetie, but I don't have time right now.) "Luce, if you're set on it you can start dinner. Got enough for three?" Lucy nodded, apprehensive.
"Chris, if you two need the evening we can just as easily do this tomorrow. It'll keep." She went to gather up her stuff but Kit stopped her.
"Luce, there's no way I would submit Nita to my cooking. You stay; we just need to talk for a bit, ok?" Lucy nodded, still nervous, but smiled at Nita. She started pulling various vegetable out of the bag, and other ingredients out of her back pack, while Kit grabbed Nita's arm and pulled her through the door that led to his bedroom. "What the hell, Nita? No mind touch, no message, barely a call in three effing years and then you show up on my door step unannounced?" Nita's eyes filled with tears. It was as if all of her worries about this visit were coming true with a vengeance. What is the point of being oracular if it doesn't warn you when you're about to totally embarrass yourself? She though somewhat petulantly. Aloud, she said:
"I'm sorry, Kit. I just, uh, I guess I missed you." The first tear spilled out of her eye and fell down her cheek. Kit's expression softened.
"I missed you too Neets." He reached out and pulled her into a hug, which made her acutely aware of his muscular body pushed up against her far more slender one. The hug ended rather earlier than Nita would have wanted it to, and she sighed to herself as Kit let her go.
"So Chris, huh? When did that happen?"
Kit blushed. "Few weeks after I started. All my professors called me Christopher, and explaining Kit just took too long. After I got used to it I stopped minding so much."
"Am I still allowed to call you Kit? I'm not sure I could learn a new name at this point."
"Don't worry, I'm still Kit to my family and old friends. Enough about my name, how've you been? How's the magazine?"
"Pretty great, and it gives me enough free time to practice my own stuff too. I've been working with Tom on the spell writing, and it's been pretty cool. Not as exciting as college, I guess. What's the story with the girl?"
Kit grinned. "Lucy is amazing. I met her about a year ago, she's a Spanish major and we work out a deal where I help her out and practice her conversation skills and she cooks. She loves cooking, hates the cafeteria food so she swears I'm doing her a favor by giving her an excuse to cook something else."
"She's pretty cute." Nita fought to keep her expression neutral as she waited for his response to this.
Kit wrinkled his nose. "I guess so. Not really my type and she treats me like a big brother. It is nice not being the younger sibling, I guess."
Nita laughed, half with humor and half with relief. "Tell that to Dari."
"No thank you, I'd rather keep all my appendages!"
The two friends laughed for a few moments, and Kit took a seat on the bed.
"So what were you doing out on the dock?"
"Just talking to some fish. That lake is disgusting, we were talking about planning a cleanup operation sometime."
"Kit…" Nita trailed off.
"Everything okay?"
"That girl, Lucy. She called you on a cell phone."
"Not everyone can read my mind, Neets."
"Does she know?"
"How do you think that would come up? 'Hey Chris, how was your day?' 'Oh just fine, I talked to a largemouth bass about how dirty his house is.' It's just easier not to talk about it." He turned towards the window, staring pointedly away from Nita.
"Kit, I'm sorry. I guess I've just only seen you with other wizards or our parents and it's just weird for me."
"You think this isn't weird for me? Jesus Nita, I have to hide about seventy percent of my entire adolescence from everyone I meet. Lucy is the closest friend I've made and she didn't even know your name until today because our entire relationship was built around something I can't talk about. Jesus, I knew you were sheltered but this is a little crazy."
Nita felt the tears building up again. "Sorry," she choked out. Kit reached out and pulled her onto the bed next to him.
"I'm not mad Neets. I just need you to understand how hard it is to not be completely honest with yourself. I know you probably can't understand it because you're pretty much the most upfront person I know, but sometimes the rest of us have to keep the skeletons in our closet.
Does he seriously think I have no secrets? What about him? She couldn't help but be a little proud that she'd been in love with her best friend for the past nine years and he'd never noticed.
"I get it, Kit. I really do. I know I should have called or something but I just suddenly had to see you so I popped over." Kit slung his arm around her shoulder in a sort of half hug, pressing his cheek into the top of her head.
"And I'm really, really glad you did."