She had never intended to fall for him. After all, this was Avalanche she was talking about. He was crass, he was snide, he was rude, he was a Brotherhood boy for God's sake...but most importantly of all, he was already taken. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he had a soft spot in his heart for a certain chestnut-haired, blue-eyed freshman, hell, it was so damn obvious that even someone as dense about romance as Evan Daniels or Scott Summers could figure it out. And although Kitty had shied away from him in the beginning, it was equally obvious that she was warming up to Avalanche, going as far as kissing him--albeit on the cheek.
So Avalanche was already taken, but the fact that he and Kitty were two steps away from becoming an official couple had never been an issue with her until she herself had fallen for the darkly handsome senior. She had never intended to, romance itself seemed to be getting more complicated by the minute these days, and she'd figured that one crossover relationship with the Brotherhood was more than enough--the X-Men really didn't need two of their team members head over heels with a Brotherhood boy. And they most certainly did not need two of the X-Men falling for the same member of the Brotherhood; all the in-fighting, tension, and screamed accusations of betrayal would tear the team--no, not just team, family--apart from the inside. But she couldn't control her growing affections for Avalanche--or Lance, as she had secretly started referring to him in her mind and in her heart--and so she dealt with her feelings the only way she knew how: she hid them from the rest of her teammates and from Professor Xavier.
She
had often wondered to herself how this mess had started in the first place.
In the beginning, she doubted she could survive being alone with Lance
without launching into a verbal exchange with him that would subsequently
lead to physical combat. Lance himself harbored ill feelings for her as
well; he seemed to take it upon himself to put her down every single day,
going as far as accusing her of dyeing her hair, making snide remarks about
how she must have gotten breast implants...anything to make her want to
turn right around and choke the daylights out of him. She didn't know whether
Lance resented her because he felt she'd somehow done him some wrong, because
she was everything he wasn't--surrounded by people who loved her and who
cared for her, never having to worry about where her next meal was coming
from--or simply because she was an X-Men. And once those insults started
flying, she didn't care why he despised her so, either. It took every ounce
of willpower to hold her head high and keep on going, to ignore his ruthless
insults and not get into an argument with him. However, the insults and
snide remarks seemed to stop one day, when she sent an anger management
book to his locker. She'd written on the cover, in her neat, careful handwriting,
that maybe if he spent half as much time strategizing with his teammates
rather than thinking up insults about how her hair looked fake, then he
might actually start winning battles against them every so often. Naturally,
Lance had been waiting for her after school. Rather than the verbal assault
that she'd been expecting, however, all he did was hand over the anger
management book.
"You
misplaced this," he'd grunted curtly. However, she managed to catch a brief
flicker of admiration in his eyes, perhaps from the way she'd handled his
constant belittling of her, and that one look had filled her with a giddy
triumph that she'd neither expected nor welcomed.
She had hoped that that would be the end of Lance. Unfortunately, it was not to be. The next time she'd encountered him was under darker circumstances. While during a field trip, her partner had fallen into a deep hole, and had pulled her down with him in an effort to save himself. While the two lied down there, crumpled up in a heap of tangled limbs, she'd fretted over what to do and whether she could somehow contact the Institute without revealing herself and the other X-Men to her non-mutant companion. She didn't have to ponder over her dilemma for long though, as a familiar--though not necessarily welcome--face appeared from the edge. She had easily recognized Lance Alvers, and noted with growing despair the amused smirk on his lips. However, after a few seconds of silence, he'd finally grunted, "I'll get a rope," and disappeared from view only to emerge with the promised item. She'd been suspicious and wary at first, but Lance showed no signs of threatening to let go of the rope at anytime, and both herself and her companion had climbed to safety. As she sat there, dumbstruck, she wondered why Lance--a member of the Brotherhood--had rescued her, a member of the X-Men. At the time she'd convinced herself that he had only done it to get on Kitty's good side, nothing more. Certainly he couldn't still hold that grudging admiration from the anger management book incident. Or, she thought to herself, maybe he still did, as he reached out with a hand and offered to help her up. After a few moments of hesitation, during which she'd timidly avoided making direct eye contact with him, she'd accepted his offer.
She certainly hadn't expected to develop any feelings for him after that incident. After a few minutes, Scott and Kitty had arrived at the scene and had rushed to help her up. Lance had quickly dropped her hand, as Scott gave him the evil eye. Lance had simply stood there, not the least bit fazed by the expression of hostility on his rival's face, and smirked smugly, a smirk that quickly melted into a genuine smile when Kitty shot him a grateful look. That had been the end of the whole ordeal...until the car ride home, during which she'd realized, to her immense horror, that she'd developed affections for Lance Alvers.
Not even now did she know when those feelings had emerged--be it that brief moment when he'd returned the anger management book and had allowed the grudging admiration to emerge, or that day when he'd rescued her from the hole and had reached out to help her up. All she knew was that she hated herself for falling for him. Hated herself for not choosing someone else to like--why not Scott, every girl in the Institute seemed to have a thing for him, anyway. But most of all, she hated herself because in order to pursue a relationship with Lance, she'd have to betray Kitty. And that was a sacrifice she was not willing to make, no matter who the boy was. Kitty was like a sister to her. And no boy was going to come between them. She'd promised that to herself. And when she made a promise, she intended by all means to keep it. Or at least, she told herself, as she gazed off into the sunset, do her best to keep that promise.
So, how'd ya like it? Should I continue? Burn it to the ground? This is my first Evo fic (I've written a number of Gundam Wing fics before), and as if that ain't bad enough, it's my first serious attempt at romance (all my other stories are humor), but if you're gonna flame, then feel free to fire away. Constructive criticism would be better appreciated, though -_-. Oh, and by the way, I purposely kept the girl's identity a secret. All the hints you're getting is that she's not Kitty (duh) and she ain't Tabitha, either (she's one of the X-Men, which leaves Jean, Rogue, Rahne, Jubilation, and Amara).