i.
"You don't have to go," she calls out into the night. She doesn't know her own purpose – perhaps it's to buy herself more time, to put a stop to the whirlwind of jumbled thoughts that rush through her head. She's almost entirely sure this is what she wants. Almost. Ninety-nine point nine percent sure.
He turns around abruptly, startled, his hand already having slipped into his pocket and fisted the favored Zippo. She doesn't take it as an insult: she's been on a battlefield, she knows that if you don't act before you think you're dead. And besides, he's already lowering it, peering back at her with raised eyebrows. Despite the doubtful expression, that's a compliment, not an insult. She's pretty sure he'll toast anyone he doesn't want following him.
She uses his surprise to rush down the steps so that she can reach him, but when she's a meter away she stops, suddenly hesitant. That 0.09 percent makes itself known in the back of her head.
He breathes out through clenched teeth and closes his eyes briefly, before he shakes his head. "It's late," he points out, lifts the strap of his bag higher up on his shoulder to make it less uncomfortable. She knows how straps to bags like that can cut into your skin. "Why aren't you in bed?"
"Why aren't you?" she replies easily, challenging him with the tone of her voice. When he lets out a brief laugh and looks away, she crosses her arms.
She feels frustrated, because she's thought a lot about this lately. This – him and her alone together – because they haven't tried that before. It's always been him and her and Rogue and Bobby, or him and her and Piotr, or him and her and Ms. Munroe. This is all wrong. It's not playing out like it usually does in her head.
He tilts his head to the side and watches her, thoughtful. And then he blurts out, "I'm sorry," as if he's not used to the phrase and wants to get it out of the way as fast as he can.
A breeze sweeps past them, ruffles her hair. Shills run down her spine and she shudders. "Don't be sorry," she says and shakes her head. "Don't be sorry. Just stay. You don't have to go." She finds herself repeating the same words as before, and fleetingly thinks that the Professor would be disappointed in her clearly lacking vocabulary. There's something about him that makes her stutter and struggle to put sentences together.
"Give me one good reason I should stay," he demands.
Me, she thinks. I'm a good reason. But she doesn't say that out loud – she doesn't allow herself to say that – and instead she shrugs. There's a bitter taste on her tongue. She's pretty sure it's denial.
He smiles. He doesn't smirk, which is a first. "Not good enough, Kitty," he tells her and reaches out a hand almost as if he's going to brush her cheek with his fingers. He seems to think the better of it, though, and closes his hand into a fist wistfully instead. "I'm sure I'll see you around," is his last words to her, and then he turns around and walks down the long road that leads to the gates. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the sign reads, but lately they haven't been anything but hunted.
Kitty watches until he's gone.
AN: A Song That Goes Around, a.k.a. the fic-that-ate-my-brain. It started out as this and ended up as a fourteen pages long thing, I'm not even kidding you. It's a threeshot: this is the "prologue", the next one is the main piece and the third one's an "epilogue", I guess. The main piece is the longest, around 7,000 words. I really hope you like it, though, because even if I'm not sure where it came from, it took me about a week to write. It was seriously frustrating, but when I started, I just couldn't stop.
Also, the main part of the story takes place in France. I'm not really sure why, might be because I've been there a couple of times – considering it's just an hour away – while I've never actually been to the US. Therefore, there's a couple of phrases in French and I've tried to get them as accurate as possible, but if I didn't take French this year so if there's anything wrong with them, just send me a review. Thanks a bunch.
Edit: Just reading through and clearing up a few typos here and there.
