Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Or the Neo. Or anything else profitable. But if Marvel wants to hire me to write a title starring Bobby and Kit, I'd seriously consider it…
While I'm waiting for them to call, hope you enjoy the next part of the Just Kids series…thanks as always to Luba for beta-ing, and to Beaubier, TKD, and Scribe for pestering me until I updated this. See author's note below for important information regarding an upcoming series!
Step by Step
"Whatcha doin', Kat?"
Kitty turned around and looked up, pushing her hair back from her face, and saw Jubilee standing in the doorway. "What does it LOOK like I'm doing?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"Ummm, creative room rearrangement?" Jubilee guessed, maneuvering her way between the boxes that littered the floor to plop down next to Lockheed on the bed. She stretched out her hand, and Lockheed rubbed his head against it.
"Try again," Kitty grumbled, glaring at her dragon, who was now eating up the attention as Jubilee began scratching him between his wings.
"Hmmm. Finding things to hand down to your favorite little sis?" Jubilee asked, pulling her hand away from Lockheed and picking up a purple tank top off the bed. She held it up against her, then leaned over so she could see herself in the mirror. "Hey, I liked that one!" she objected as Kitty pulled it out of her hands.
"So do I!" the tank top's owner replied. "And, no, that isn't it either, though I may have some stuff IF I get through all of this. I cannot," she added, shaking her head as she looked around the room, "figure out how I managed to accumulate all of this. I mean, I got rid of TONS of junk when I moved back here. It's only been a year. Where did all of it come FROM?"
"School'd be my guess," Jubilee replied as she stood up and wandered over to Kitty's desk. She began picking up textbooks one by one, wincing at the titles, and setting them back down again. "Don't you take any interesting classes?"
"Sorry, no books on shopping," Kitty quipped, taking the pile of books from Jubilee and dropping them into a box. "If you're going to stay, make yourself useful, okay? I've got a lot to do before tomorrow."
"If I help, can I have the purple tank top?" Jubilee replied sweetly, and Kitty laughed.
"No. But if you help, you can have the red pants you like…"
"Deal," the younger girl answered, plopping the last of the textbooks in the box. "Told you they'd be too short on you…"
"What can I say? You're the professional shopper, not me. Here," she added, tossing Jubilee a box. "Pack up the CDs and stuff, ok?"
"That's what you need!" Jubilee said, letting the box fall unheeded as she turned to pull Kitty's CD player out of another one. "Gotta have some tunes for packing, it'll make it go faster."
"You're not helping," Kitty warned.
"No, seriously Sis, this'll help." Jubilee began fishing through Kitty's CDs, reviewing them one by one and discarding the rejects into the box. "See? I'm packing, too. I'm – what do you call it? Oh yeah, I'm like totally multi-tasking."
Kitty rolled her eyes. Much as she was looking forward to the move, the preliminaries were driving her insane. Between the well-meaning friends and teammates who kept popping in to verify that she was SURE she had thought this through, and those who simply stopped by to gossip about her relationship with Bobby, she wasn't making much progress with her packing. She sat down in front of her nightstand, ignoring the monologue Jubilee was giving regarding her taste in music, and opened it. As she prepared to dump its contents into a box, a small photo album caught her eye, and she smiled and pulled it out.
"Hey, whatcha got there?" Jubilee asked as Kitty laughed aloud, and climbed over the boxes between them until she stood behind her.
"Take a look" Kitty said, gesturing to the floor next to her, and Jubilee dropped down and peered over.
"That's Wolvie!" she announced, and burst out laughing. "What in the world is he wearing?"
"I took it right after we got back from Asgard," Kitty explained, chuckling herself at the picture of Logan in what looked remarkably like a gold body suit. "Look, here's Illyana…"
"Wow," Jubilee whispered, her jaw dropping. "The pimple was pretty when she was a teenager, wasn't she? But what's up with the horns and armor?"
"More Asgard pictures," Kitty explained, then added, in response to Jubilee's quizzical look, "Illyana kind of went off the deep end and into evil sorceress mode. She got over it by the time I took the picture, but she kept the outfit." She looked at the picture again with regret; she truly wished her old roommate were here helping her pack now. Not that she disliked Jubilee; on the contrary, despite their rocky beginnings the two had become close, far closer than she had ever expected. But she'd love to have Illyana here to talk to right now…
"I wonder what happened to it?" Jubilee said, and Kitty glanced over at her, recognizing the tone as one where Jubilee was thinking up mischief.
"It probably got blown up with the mansion," she replied, pushing aside her reflections and keeping a close watch on Jubilee's reaction. "Why? Or don't I want to know?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing," Jubilee stammered. "I just thought if it was around it'd make a cool Halloween costume, that's all."
"Uh huh. Try again, little Sis…"
"I thought Angelo would get a kick out of seeing me in it?" she ventured.
"From the other side of the country?"
"Well, I could send him a picture…"
"One more try," Kitty said, actually now curious despite herself. She was beginning to agree with Bobby; his prankster apprentice was coming into her own.
"Ok, fine. I thought I'd sneak it into Paige's closet when I go visit to see what her mom's reaction would be," Jubilee finally admitted, and Kitty chuckled. She'd give a lot to see the conservative Mrs. Guthrie's reaction, herself.
"Well, if it's anywhere it's probably in the storage basement. Want to go check? I've got to go down there and pick out some furniture anyway," she said finally.
"Sounds good," Jubilee said, jumping to her feet. "Besides, it beats the hell out of packing."
"Oh, you're not getting out of that," Kitty warned her. "We'll come back and finish. But a break sounds pretty good to me, too."
Jubilee started to move toward the door, but Kitty just laughed. "Come here, we'll take the express route."
"Huh – nooooo! I HATE phasing!" Jubilee protested as Kitty grabbed her arm, and they began dropping through the floor. Two stories later, Kitty let go of Jubilee and solidified, smirking as her "sister" dropped to her knees and ran her hands over the floor to make sure it was solid. "Shit Kat! Don't DO that to me!"
"You know, no one else freaks out like this," Kitty observed snidely. Despite the fact they'd gotten closer, or perhaps because of it, she LOVED to see her usually cocky "sister" disconcerted. And phasing always did it.
"It's – it just totally creeps me out, ok? Solid stuff's supposed to be, like, solid. And so am I. I'm just like, not supposed to be going THROUGH other solid stuff. It's totally wrong."
"Oh fine," Kitty said, still grinning as she reached down and helped Jubilee to her feet. "You want to come look at furniture, or just go look for Illyana's demon sorceress outfit?"
"I'll come, I'll come – just, can we go through doors? By opening them, I mean?" Jubilee pleaded, glaring at Kitty.
Kitty just shook her head, still grinning. "What a wimp. I think I'll tell Logan." She watched Jubilee straighten up abruptly and glare up at her.
"You wouldn't dare."
"Oh, wouldn't I?"
"I'll tell Warren you and Bobby swiped his credit card…" Jubilee threatened.
"Ok, ok," Kitty relented, laughing. She sincerely hoped she'd be long gone from the mansion before Warren got the bill from their dinner. "We didn't swipe it, though; Betsy gave it to us."
"Yeah, like Wings'll believe THAT! How are you and the Bobster doing, anyway?" she asked nonchalantly as they made their way to the part of the basement where old furniture was stored.
"Fine…" Kitty replied, glancing sideways at Jubilee. "Why do you ask?"
"Just nosy," the younger girl replied, but she looked as if she wanted to say more. "Umm, Kat? Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, Jubes, what's up?" Kitty asked, growing concerned. Jubilee looked positively pensive, which, in her experience, was a new expression for her. "Is something wrong?"
"No – I mean, nothing's wrong, I just wondered – I know Bobby's slept over in your room, so I figure you guys gotta be doing something in there other than playing with Lockheed or doing your homework –"
"Probably a safe assumption," Kitty answered cautiously. She knew Jubilee and Bobby had been friends for quite some time, and wondered suddenly if her younger "sister" might have been nursing a crush. She hoped not; she knew from her own experience with Rachel and Alistaire that no matter how hopeless a crush might be, it didn't make it any easier to see the guy interested in someone else. Especially when that someone was a friend.
"Well, I just wondered, I mean, it's not like I don't KNOW about stuff like that, 'cause I totally do, you know, I just wondered how YOU knew YOU were ready…" Jubilee trailed off, and Kitty saw she was blushing.
"Are you talking about Seth?" Jubilee mumbled something incomprehensible, and Kitty sighed, though she was relieved that her fears were laid to rest. "Jubes, you're just –" Kitty stopped abruptly, realizing that Jubilee wasn't much younger than she had been when she'd first slept with Pete Wisdom. "No, you're not," she said, shaking her head. "Sorry – I get pissed when people tell me that. You're NOT a kid, or at least, no more so than I was. But Jubes, Bobby isn't, I mean, I wasn't…" she stumbled over the words, suddenly uncomfortable, then took a deep breath. "Bobby wasn't my first, Sis. Pete Wisdom was, back when I was with Excalibur."
"Seriously?" Jubilee asked excitedly, her entire mood switching between one breath and the next. "Hey, Paige totally owes me ten bucks – I TOLD her you guys were shacking up, and she didn't believe me! Cool! I get to collect AND embarrass her, all in one visit."
"Glad my sex life won you a bet," Kitty said, her voice oozing sarcasm.
"Yeah well, I'll buy you ice cream," Jubilee offered, her enthusiasm only slightly squelched. "Anyway, tell all! I mean, as long as we're on the subject, and you have, like, ALL this experience…how *is* Bobby in bed, anyway? I mean, does he measure up?" Kitty rolled her eyes, but Jubilee ignored it and continued. "Is he as good as Pete? Cuz it's kinda hard to picture; I mean, he's BOBBY, after all…"
"Why, do you have another bet?" Kitty asked drily.
"Nah, just curious," Jubilee replied, smirking. "Come on, Kit, I'd tell you…"
"Do I ask?"
"Well no, but if you did I'd totally tell you, right? I'll bet you've got like, tons more experience than the Bobster…" Jubilee coaxed, and Kitty chuckled. Jubilee wasn't too far off, there.
"Well, let's just say that what Bobby may lack in experience he makes up for in enthusiasm, ok?" Kitty offered, grinning. It was true enough, after all, but she was looking forward to furthering Bobby's experience, once they were in their own place. There were just too many interruptions at the mansion to do anything INTERESTING…
Jubilee giggled. "KNEW it! So, if Pete was your first, you didn't do anything with Piotr, right? Or did you after? Or…"
Kitty sighed as Jubilee's question brought her out of her daydream. "No Jubes, I never did anything with Piotr. Not then, and certainly not since. But weren't we originally talking about you?" she said, changing the subject back to where they'd started from.
"Oh. About what I was saying…oh, nevermind. Whatcha say we go find you some furniture?" she asked quickly, and started walking again.
"Jubilee?" Kitty said quietly, and the younger girl turned around.
"Just – before you make a decision, go talk to Hank, ok? Because you never know when something might come up," she added, winking and thinking back to her own, unexpected experience on the Midnight Runner, and thanked whatever god looked over impulsive mutants that Moira had already had her on the pill to regulate her periods.
"Yeah, good idea," Jubilee said thoughtfully, then grinned. "Thanks, Kat!"
"For what?" Kitty asked, puzzled since she felt as if she hadn't offered any real assistance whatsoever.
"For not saying, 'You're too young', or "Why are you asking me this?' or anything like that," Jubilee answered. "It's like, it's kinda cool, having a sister, or something pretty close to it."
"Yeah, well we DO need to have a talk," Kitty answered, grinning as an idea suddenly occurred to her. Talk about the perfect opportunity…and a bit of revenge for the embarrassing questions, to boot.
"About what?" the younger girl asked, looking at Kitty suspiciously.
Kitty just put on her best innocent look. "Oh, Amarantha wanted me to find out exactly what your intentions were regarding her brother. Because, according to their customs, you have to get my permission to ask him to marry you…"
"Whaaat?" Jubilee protested, her eyes widening. "Like, I just started dating the guy! I'm not getting married! You are SOOO making this up!"
Kitty chuckled. "Nope. According to her, I'm your closest female relative. So, if you really want to get things moving with Seth, you'd better be a REALLY big help with this move…" she said, tapping her face with two fingers while grinning up at the ceiling.
"Like, did she REALLY say that?" Jubilee asked, sounding as if she were about to panic. "I mean, did she think I was…does he think…damn, I don't even know what *I* think! But why would you…nevermind," she finished, shaking her head as if to rearrange all the thoughts that were simultaneously rattling around in it. "What the hell – I'll help! I'll help! Just tell her I am SOOO not ready to get married, ok?" she pleaded. "I mean, I'm not even sure I'm ready to sleep with the guy!"
Kitty listened to Jubilee continue in much the same vein while they picked out some not-too-abused furniture, glad that she, at least, didn't have to worry about cross-cultural implications in her relationship. And hoped that Mrs. Drake wouldn't be hinting around about her and Bobby getting married during the move. Because she had to agree with Jubilee there – she wasn't ready to get married, either.
But moving in together was a nice first step.
________________________________
A/N: For all those who asked what I've been doing that's keeping me from updating – well, among other things, I've been collaborating with Beaubier on a new series called Fallen Angels. Since ff.net, in their infinite wisdom, prohibits the double-posting of stories, we've created a new author id for the series. So keep your eyes open for a new story by Fallen X-Angels within the next few days – we should have the first chapter up soon!