Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing.

Chapter Two – Welcome to Mutant Manor

January 1996

Several hours later, having shown Lance to a room and made her way tiredly back to bed, Kitty forced herself to get up and into a warm shower, noticing as she did so that the temperature hadn't improved.

Finally dressed, but still bleary-eyed, Kitty stumbled downstairs to the kitchen, where breakfast was always held. She paused at the door to give herself time to prepare and phased through the door, allowing several Jamie clones to dash through her. Out of experience more than anything else, she moved around the kitchen, avoiding forgotten pieces of toast, various articles of fruit Jean was unsuccessfully levitating onto people's plates and a couple of eggs that Bobby decided to throw over to whoever had requested them.

As she fell into a chair, someone pressed a mug into her hands and she took a sip of hot coffee, sighing as the warmth spread through her, noting that it was made exactly as she liked it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Too tired to put a name to a voice, Kitty didn't bother. "I had the weirdest dream last night."

"Did Lance join the X-Men?" Rogue asked from somewhere behind her. "We all had that dream, sugar."

Not entirely sure what she meant, Kitty took another few gulps of coffee, before her mind cleared and she glanced over to the person that had given it to her.

Lance grinned. "Morning."

"Morning." Kitty returned, a smile appearing on her own face. "I thought it was rather vivid. Still, training this morning; we'll see if that smile's still there then."

"Oh, how bad can it be?" Lance asked rolling her eyes.

Kitty laughed, drawing several curious glances from her team-mates; it was well-known that she needed several gallons of coffee before she had the energy to smile and she'd only had several gulps. "Oh, just wait."

"Half-pint!" Logan called from the door. "I want a word with you."

Grimacing, Kitty downed the rest of her coffee and headed to the door, dropping her mug in the sink on the way. "What's up, Mr. Logan?"

"Suit up." Logan told her shortly. "I want you to sit in on the training sessions today; try and keep the water calm between Cyclops and Avalanche."

Kitty raised an eyebrow. "I walk through walls, Wolverine; I don't do miracles."

"Watch it, Half-pint." Logan warned, only half-seriously. "I've got a hunch you know the kid better than you're letting on."

Kitty sighed, letting her eyes roam the hallway. "Alright, we were best friends in Northbrook."

"And you haven't mentioned this before, because…?" Logan prompted.

"No one's asked." Kitty shrugged. "'Sides, if I tell them now, I'll have to deal with explaining why I never mentioned it when Mystique was around."

"Why didn't you?" Logan asked, clearly not about to let things go.

Kitty could feel herself getting irritated. "I don't know. I guess I couldn't read Avalanche as well as I could Lance; I didn't think it'd matter. I'd just lost my best friend; I didn't need the grief over who he was."

To her surprise, Logan didn't comment on the tone she knew had crept into her voice, but changed the subject. "I want to conduct an initiative test just before lunch. When someone suddenly starts drowning, which one of them will have the presence of mind to run for the life-preserver?"

Kitty nodded slowly. "Okay…One question: who in their right mind is going to go swimming in weather like this?"

An hour or so later, after several…interesting training exercises, to say the least, Kitty found herself following Logan as he passed up and down in the space between the New Recruits, now including Lance, and the uncovered swimming pool, lecturing about taking the initiative and keeping your head during a crisis.

Or rather, Logan was lecturing, Kitty was contemplating how strange it was seeing Lance in an X-uniform.

Not that it looked bad, a small voice inside her head commented slyly.

Just strange.

It was at that moment that her earlier question was answered.

"So here's your scenario." Logan announced. "There's been an accident around the pool; what do you do?"

With these words, he pulled the clipboard out of Kitty's hands, handed it to Jamie, picked her up and tossed her into the pool.

As her body hit the water, Kitty screamed at the freezing temperature of the water; she could swear she broke through a thin layer of ice as she was submerged in icy water.

Emerging with a gasp, she saw eight people sprinting backwards towards where she knew the life-preserver was kept and forced herself not to swim for the edge, resorting to treading water instead.

Somewhere in her mind, she realised that there should have been nine people trying to reach the life-preserver, but this same realisation was punctuated by another loud splash. Then strong arms were winding around her waist and someone was pulling her towards the pool ladder and she found herself in Lance's arms, utterly bewildered. "What happened to the life-preserver?"

"It's gone to be mended." Lance answered, letting her to the ground. "Professor Xavier told everyone this morning."

At this the other New Recruits look sheepish and Logan slapped his hand against his forehead. "Dammit! Of course it has! Shadowcat, Avalanche, inside and get dried off before you both catch hypothermia. Everyone else, lunch is in fifteen minutes."

Kitty had already started moving and Lance had to jog to catch up with her. "You okay?"

"Fine." Kitty answered shortly. "Just mad at Wolverine; all he had to do was ask and I'd have dived. I don't know why you jumped in though; you could have just pointed out that the preserver wasn't there and he'd have cancelled the session."

"Yeah." Lance glanced over his shoulder at the others. "But I wanted a chance to sweep you off your feet."

At that moment, the others caught up with them, cutting any further conversation short and leaving Kitty to ponder just what he'd met.

I wanted a chance to sweep you off your feet.

Several nights later, Kitty lay awake, unable to sleep, still wondering. Since Magneto and Mystique had gone, they had become close again, but they were still just good friends, despite what the X-Men and Brotherhood believed.

But did he want something more?

More importantly, did she?

Was that the reason why he made her whole day better just by smiling at her?

Was that the reason why she made excuses to hold him or touch him?

Was that the reason why she didn't want him to let her go earlier?

It would be difficult, she knew; it was hard enough just being friends…then again, they were on the same team now…

For how much longer? A snide voice asked. It wasn't the same voice that had commented on the X-uniforms earlier.

Kitty groaned, rolled over and buried her face in her pillow. This must be what Rogue feels like.

For the last couple of mornings, the X-Men had been waking up to discover that vehicles had been wrecked during the night.

Scott, of course, had pointed the finger immediately at Lance, with no provocation or proof whatsoever.

Although she had to admit that she had no other suspect in mind, Kitty knew that Lance wouldn't do something stupid like that and, if he had, only the milometer would have given any indication that the vehicles had been taken at all.

As Kitty finally began to doze off, speculations of the perpetrator flying around her head, along with unsolved feelings and questions, the knocking started.

Sighing, Kitty sat up again, looking across to see if Rogue had heard, but the other girl merely twitched slightly and continued sleeping peacefully. Climbing out of bed, she slipped to the door and opened it.

"Lance, what are you doing here?"

"Ssh!" Lance warned, glancing around. "I … What are you wearing?"

Kitty looked down and felt a blush heat her cheeks. Her nightwear comprised of an old shirt she had been given in Northbrook … which had originally belonged to him. "I … er … never got round to giving it back."

"Keep it." Lance told her. "Looks better on you anyway. Come on."

"Where are we going?" Kitty whispered, following him.

Lance didn't answer her. He led her through the dark, silent corridors until they reached the underground hangar. Emerging on to the observation deck, Kitty heard a familiar low hum beneath them that negated her need for an answer. "They're not…"

The only people who would … They are in so much trouble …

"They are." Lance corrected grimly, as the Blackbird rolled out from underneath them. She took his hand and pulled her towards the railings. "Start phasing!"

The next morning, a full week after Lance had joined, Kitty had overslept. As if returning the Blackbird wouldn't have been difficult enough on its own, Jubilee had managed to spark the controls.

For once waking up immediately, Kitty sat up, rubbing her eyes and getting ready to give Bobby, Jubilee and Sam the lecture they escaped the previous night. Should have known those two were behind it. She showered and dressed quickly, all the while berating herself for not seeing it sooner.

The two had been friends since they met and practically inseparable since the day both had decided to replace all the shaving cream in the mansion with whipped cream.

In many ways, they reminded Kitty of herself and Lance back in Northbrook.

Just as she was about to leave the room, Rogue burst in herself. "He's leaving!"

Kitty blinked. "Pardon?"

"Lance." Rogue elaborated. "He's leaving."

Kitty took an automatic step back. "What? But he didn't do it; it was…"

"We know." Rogue said heavily. "He tried to take the blame for it, but Bobby 'fessed up. All three of them are on probation."

"So why is Lance leaving?" Kitty asked, trying to work her head around it.

Rogue shrugged. "Says it's not working; none of us are ready for that sort of change yet."

"He's probably right." Kitty muttered. "'Scuse me." Slipping past Rogue to Lance's old room, she found him packing his duffel bag. "You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?"

Lance smiled weakly. "Course not, Pretty Kitty; you're just the hardest."

Kitty narrowed her eyes at him. "If you call me that one more time, I swear I'll…"

Lance interrupted. "You'll tear out my intestines, wrap them around my neck and use them to strangle me. I know."

Now it was Kitty's turn to smile. "I need to think of some new threats; that doesn't seem to work anymore."

"You never follow through with it." Lance told her, shouldering his bag.

Kitty knew he wasn't surprised that she walked with him down to where his jeep was parked, not in the garage, but just past the gates in the park.

There were two parks in Bayville – an official park and an unofficial park – and the Institute was separated from the Boarding House by five miles of dirt track bordered by the unofficial park, which was technically wood-land left over from that within the grounds.

"You know, Jamie's going to miss you." Kitty commented, watching Lance heave his bag into the front seat. "You're the only person who doesn't treat him like a baby."

"Well, I never had a little brother." Lance grinned at her. "He's a good kid. And he thinks the world of you."

Kitty nodded silently, knowing why that was, but sworn to secrecy. "I'm going to miss you as well."

Lance sighed, turning to face her. "Kitten, I'm only going down the road."

"Do you really believe that?" Kitty challenged quietly, turning her head so he couldn't see the tears sparkling in her eyes.

He always did know her too well.

"Kitty…" A calloused hand cupped her face, turning it gently so she could see his own. "I'm leaving them. Not you. I shouldn't have come; the Brotherhood needs me. Mystique didn't exactly leave us with a lot."

"Have you told Daniel and Samantha?" Kitty asked, lifting her head.

Lance shook his head. "No. Apparently Mystique didn't tell them where I was going; they were kinda worried."

"'Kind of'?" Kitty repeated. "Lance, we thought you were dead! I went to your funeral!"

"God, no wonder you were mad at me!" Lance groaned. "I'm so sorry, Kitten; I had no idea."

"What about your mom?" Kitty whispered, not wanting to open up the old emotions the current subject invoked. "Could she help?"

Lance sighed. "Kitty, I haven't talked to my mom since I moved to Northbrook. As far as I know, nothing's changed and Mom isn't any better."

Kitty grimaced sympathetically; Mrs. Alvers' breakdown was prompted by her husband's passing followed by her daughter – Lance's twin sister – collapsing, falling into a deep coma. She knew how close Lance had been with his sister and how much it had affected him. "You have to do something, Lance; it's not fair that you have to live like this."

"Well…" Lance hesitated. "I'll go home for spring break, see how she's doing. Everything will be fine, Kitten. And I promise that nothing is going to change between us."

Kitty closed her eyes. "Lance, what are we?"

"We're friends." Lance answered. "Good friends."

Kitty opened her eyes again, silently begging him to continue, an uncomfortable lump in her chest.

"I don't think we can be anything more, Kitty." Lance whispered, taking her hand. "As much as I'd like to. Not until things have settled down."

"You could stay." Kitty told him. "That would make things settle down."

"Kitty, I wish I could." Lance tugged her hand gently and she moved forwards, feeling his arms encircle her, holding her in an embrace that was secure and comforting. "But I can't."

Kitty pulled back slightly to look up into his face. "You would like to be something more though?"

"Well…yeah." Lance admitted.

"Me too." Kitty agreed softly. "But not now?"

"Not now." Lance confirmed. "It'll happen, Kitten; I want you with me too badly for it not too." He dipped his head and brushed a kiss against her lips, a simple gesture that was heavy with emotion, before releasing her and getting in the car. "If I'm not in school Monday, you can assume that duct tape was involved and I'll need your help. Especially if the others are wearing large smirks. See you later, Kitten."

"Yeah." Kitty murmured automatically. "See you."

She barely noticed Lance driving away; her lips were tingling from where his had touched hers, her legs were trembling from the weight of his words and her mind was spinning.

You're right, Lance. It will happen. You will be mine. You already are.

Smiling to herself, Kitty turned slowly and headed back inside. She knew she wasn't going to play this game for long.

AN: Reviews make my day and I've had a really bad one. So direct the arrow onscreen to the button and click; it won't take long! You know you want to!