Childhood Innocence
I do not own X-men Evolution
Keeping up with Logan wasn't the easiest thing to do, which was probably a good thing overall considering that he spent his life on the run but it however wasn't a good thing when you were trailing behind him down a café lined street in some town you didn't even know the name of. Which was what Kitty was trying to do.
The large backpack she had slung over her shoulders probably wasn't helping. Well technically it wasn't a large backpack it just appeared that way as all normal sized things did on Kitty. It was a bulky olive green thing that like most things in Logan's possession was army issue circa 1940 . It had more pockets and compartments than Kitty could imagine anyone ever needing and was currently filled with two cans of Spaghetti in tomato sauce that would be lunch. Kitty had selected them carefully from the black plastic bag that morning, choosing the least dented tins she could find. One pocket contained all the complementary sachets of Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Sugar given out by the motel they had spent the night in. The Coffee was for Logan of course but the Sugar and Hot Chocolate were Kitty and Rogue's treat they loved dipping their fingers into the tiny packets and licking the granules off them. But the heaviest objects in the bag were Kitty and Rogue's school work.
One would think living on the run would mean a reprieve from things such as school and perhaps at one point in history that had been the case but that glorious era had ended with the invention of correspondence school. Which Kitty and Rogue were kind of, sort of, enrolled in. Their work was sent in monthly allotments across the Internet to an anonymous Email account Kitty had set up and could be printed from any library computer terminal at 10 cents a page. And when they had finished the allotted work they posted it back to the schools 'campus' in Washington D.C.
Kitty paused outside of a café with a striped awning that smelt of freshly roasted coffee and baked pastry and yanked the ancient straps of the bag down either side of her chest in an effort to stop the bag from slamming repeatedly into the back of her knee's as she walked.
"C'mon Half Pint" Logan called over his shoulder to the small girl.
"Wait up" Kitty cried keeping her hands secured around the straps to keep them from slipping back as she broke into a run.
"Why don't you catch up?" Rogue demanded, she was currently carrying what could be considered the 'family's' most expensive possession in one of the black plastic bags. An old acoustic guitar with a mother of pearl inlay that Logan had picked up at some pawnshop at some point in time. Thing was so worn it probably wouldn't fetch any more than fifty bucks if they were to sell it on despite the mother of pearl but that wasn't why it could be considered so valuable. The reason Logan hadn't pawned the old thing on again was Rogue could play it. She could really play it. Maybe she just had a natural talent for music, maybe she had touched someone who had learnt the guitar and absorbed the ability from there but wherever it came from Rogue's ability to play the guitar was invaluable as whenever Logan couldn't find a job (something that was happening more and more often, gone were the days, he said, when you could just show up and offer your hand at whatever needed doing) She and Kitty would end up finding a street corner somewhere and Rogue would play until her fingers bled while Kitty put on her 'cute' face and collected money. Begging was illegal, Busking wasn't.
"I'm trying but this bag is so heavy and my shoes are pinchy!" Kitty yelled her run turning into something that resembled more of a hop as she tried to move in a way that would keep her shoes from rubbing against her feet as much as possible.
"Thought you said those shoes'd last ya another two weeks" Logan said with a frown
"That was six months ago!" Kitty cried finally reaching the two older mutants who had paused at the street corner and were waiting for a row of cars to pass so they could cross the street onto the next block. Logan cast a critical look over Kitty's tattered sneakers, they definitely looked too small for her, huh, felt weird saying that.
"Well congrats Half Pint, ya finally outgrew something"
"Really" Kitty's face lit up as she glanced between her shoes and Logan ecstatic that finally at least something about her was growing.
Kitty would never admit it to anyone (mainly because she knew Rogue would tease her for it) but sometimes she was terrified she would never grow. That she would spend the rest of her life looking like the China dolls she and Rogue had seen lined up behind the counter at one of the many charity shops they had visited. They had all been so perfect with blue glass eyes and pale cheeks dressed in frilly Victorian dresses. The old woman working at the shop had told the girls that none of the dolls were for sale, so they just sat there held up on metal stands. Kitty had nightmares, some nights where she was one of those dolls, like a reverse Pinochio, a real girl turned into a puppet.
"I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing" Kitty sang skipping alongside Logan one hand still clutching the strap of the backpack to keep it from slipping down and the other firmly grasped around Logan's so she didn't fall behind.
"Just ya feet!" Rogue said rolling her eyes from where she was walking on the other side of Logan, his hand enclosed around her gloved one.
"Play nice Stripes" The gruff man ordered giving her arm a playful tug.
"Feet count" Kitty protested peering around Logan's mass to poke her tongue out at Rogue.
"Goes fer you too, Half Pint" The Canadian man said also giving her arm a gentle yank. Kitty giggled and allowed Logan's tug to pull her into his leg. Logan gave a chuckle and draped an arm across her small form. Kitty pressed her cheek against the fabric of Logan's blue jeans so hard she could feel the ribbing imprint on her skin and ran a finger delicately along the seam.
Rogue slipped ahead of the two and made to kick a small stone of the pavement into a nearby mound of what had probably a few weeks ago been snow but more resembled something more akin to a dirt slushy. Her foot however skimmed over the piece of gravel and Rogue stumbled over her missed step. She quickly put her foot down again to stabilise herself but the worn soles of her boots did nothing to help on the wet pavement and she felt her her leg slipping out from under her. Rogue flailed her arms out in an effort to regain her balance but to no avail. She fell backwards but instead of landing on the pavement like she would have preferred Rogue fell on her butt into a pile of half melted slush that immediately set about soaking through the bottom of the oversized T-shirt that hung like a dress on her small figure and the seat of her woollen tights with freezing liquid
"Have a nice trip stripes?" Logan asked good humouredly coming up and offering a hand to her Rogue growled at him but accepted the hand up telling herself that it was only because she didn't want the black opera gloves that stretched up under the sleeves her t-shirt she was wearing getting wet. Kitty hopped over to them in her too-tight-shoes and Rogue felt a scowl etching itself on her face.
Make no mistake Rogue loved her 'sister'. Sure they argued a lot and were complete opposites on whatever spectrum you measured them on, but like Logan was always telling them they were family and family stuck together no matter what. So Rogue loved Kitty but sometimes the younger girl just didn't get it.
It wasn't like she didn't know how poor the 'family' was. Kitty was the one after all who carried their money in the clip purse around her neck, and the one who counted it out whenever the situation called for it, she was good with numbers. It was just she didn't seem to be able to grasp just how being poor worked. She complained when the only socks she had to wear were mismatched, she complained when her clothes had holes in them she complained that her shoes were pinchy. Almost completely unaware that everyone's socks were mismatched because every laundromat they'd ever been in had caused one half of every pair washed there to vanish, everyone had holes in their clothes and everyone had had pinchy shoes at some point and you didn't see them complaining did you?
Besides, Rogue thought with a bubble of spite drifting to the surface of her heart, her shoes were in way worse shape than Kitty's. But she couldn't complain to Logan about them, not when she had begged him to get them for her. They were pair of combat boots covered with straps and buckles, Rogue had fallen in love with the minute she came across them in a charity shop. They were three sizes to big for her, the leather was faux and poorly dyed and the treads were none existent. And normally all that would have been okay, quality was something you kind of learned to do without when money was tight and Rogue would have been happy to tuck the boots away in her suitcase until summer arrived. But then both her and Kitty's snow boots had been stolen from a hostel they had been staying in. Logan had been understandably pissed especially since he had paid extra to have a storage locker to put their belongings in, he had even made Kitty phase the storage key into the bed she and rogue were top and tailing in just to be on the safe side.
With her snow boots gone the only shoes Rogue had were her combat boots and they were hopeless in the snow. The faux leather wasn't water proof meaning the masses of tissues Rogue had stuffed into them so they would fit her feet better ended up getting soaked with freezing half melted snow, the dye ran when it was wet staining her toes a perpetual black and worst of all they still rubbed her feet.
It was a miserable day wherever they were. The sky was the colour of a light bulb before you tuned it on, a dull grey that looked like any colour that had previously existed there had been worn out after years of use. It reminded Rogue of one of the many songs Logan had used as lullabies for her and Kitty over the years.
Don't your feet get cold in the winter time
Sky won't snow
and the sun won't shine
Hard to tell the night time from the day.
Nightmares and therefore lullabies had always been a part of the strange existence the three mutants shared together of course being that it was Logan doing the singing most of the songs Kitty and Rogue had been lulled to sleep with were not exactly the type most people would even consider using as a lullaby.
It hadn't taken Rouge long to figure out that the main industry of the town their were currently in was forestry, there were signs of it everywhere really, cafe's had their menu's painted in swirling colours on old sawmill wheels with blunted razors and there. It was in one such Cafe along the main street that the family were currently seated in. Discussing what to do next. They couldn't stay here obviously, if it were summer, sure not a problem Logan would have been able to find a job in an instant in a forestry town, but in Winter, the entire Industry was shut down for the Season.
There were some days when Logan really missed Canada. In Canada Winter's while harsh always offered their own seasonal work and while most of it was high risk, at least to anyone without a Healing Factor, the pay more than made up for it. But that wasn't an option. Rogue and Kitty didn't have passports and despite the fact that Logan had been more of a father to the girls than their own ones had been he wasn't their legal guardian. So understandably he liked to avoid Government departments along with anywhere else that required official documentation.
Maps and pamphlets lay spread out across the table they were sitting at covering about 90% of it's surface, leaving just enough room for the cup of coffee Logan had bought so they wouldn't get kicked out of the establishment.
"What about this town it has a Hydro Dam, You could work there right? Kitty asked repositioning herself onto her knees so she could reach across the table and point out a place on the map.
"Not without a background check, he couldn't" Rogue rolled her eyes. Anything that required a background check was as a rule discounted on account of Logan had no background.
Logan sighed and ran a hand down his face, he didn't know what they were going to do. Every town they had enough money to get too was either a forestry one or an Agricultural one and it was the wrong season for both of them. And that was not good news, not when he had a grand total of twenty dollars to his name and no way of earning more, nowhere to sleep, and only enough food to maybe last the week. Logan had managed to pull his 'Family' through some tough scrapes before but her feared that this time they were well and truly screwed.
And this belief was only strengthened when the smell of sweat, old leather, smoke and oddly enough mustard powder his his nose just before the bell hung just above the doorway rang and a tall broad shouldered man with a feral grin and dirty blonde hair that fell to his shoulders entered.
STORY NOTES
Correspondance school: Correspondance school is sort of like home school except that lessons are set by the Board of Education and are mailed out in monthly allotments and are sent back when completed . I put Rogue and Kitty in conrespondance because I figure they should have some sort of education.
Desparado: this song lyrics I have used are from the Eagels song Deparado
Anyway That's all from me Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all. I apologuise for my poor spelling and punctuation, Please tell me what you liked, didn't like I accept Critism just please be constructive and polite
Ari Out
