Hi there! Chapter Six is live!

Tried to get this one up a little sooner than the last one, and i was given a burst of inspiration so i was able to complete it sooner (Usually i have to let ideas fester for days before i put them to paper. . . ).

Oh, and i have now raised the rating to 'M'. The reason being, i really feel with the amount of mature content in this fic' so far, it goes a bit beyond the PG-13 level. I hope this doesn't turn anyone off, but the story takes itself where the story wants to go, and it's gone into to more mature areas. So for responsibility's sake, I've upped the rating. :)

Once again, many thanks to those of you who are reading! I hope you're enjoying the story, and if you are, i hope i can continue delivering satisfactory material! :D

Also a big thanks to those that reviewed and review! You're comments and feedback is ssooooo greatly appreciated! Really, you've no idea! ^_^

Without further ado, here's chapter two. . . I mean six.

Chapter Six

'This was a bad idea. . . Bad, bad, bad. . . Ok, but I can get out of this. Just run, don't look back, run.'

*knock knock*

'No! Not that, bad! Stop doing that!'

*Knock, knock, knock*

Kurt felt like panicking. Ok. He was semi-panicking.

His body was completely ignoring what his mind was screaming at him to do. Or rather, not to do. But despite this, he could only watch as his hand reached up once again and rapped lightly on the door before him.

"Just a minute!" A muffled voice called out from beyond the wooden door.

'Last chance. Run! You can find an excuse later!'

*click*

The sound of the latch being unlocked. . .

'It just breakfast, its just breakfast. . .'

Then the door flew open.

"Hey Kurt! Come on in." Amanda said with a smile.

Kurt mumbled a greeting as he walked past Amanda's outstretched arm- Beckoning him into her apartment. Once inside he felt his nervousness dissipate somewhat. He was here now, no going back. . . And something smelled delicious.

Amanda noticed him inhaling and laughed.

"You'll have to wait a few more minutes i'm afraid. Go on, make yourself at home." She said.

Kurt nodded and smiled, examining the apartment. It closely resembled his own, much like a mirrored image. There was a small kitchen/dining area, separated from the living area by a low banister wall, a door on the opposite side of the room lead into the bedroom.

Kurt sauntered into the living room as Amanda continued preparing breakfast, declining Kurt's invitation to help in some way. He felt a little awkward, not knowing quite what he should do. He hadn't had very many opportunity's to be guest in someones home, so he just kind of stood in the center of the room.

Gradually he began inspecting the rooms content's more closely. Amanda was a much better decorator than himself, he thought, examining the framed photographs littered around. Of course he didn't have many photographs to display, and those he had he kept hidden away, the sadness caused by their depictions too painful to withstand seeing them everyday. Amanda on the other hand, had dozens of pictures everywhere, depicting her journey from birth to the present day.

There were photo's of her first birthday (And all subsequent birthdays), her first time standing on her own, her first day at school, of her at a beach with her parent's, at family gatherings, on a horse somewhere in the countryside. Numerous cutesy photo's of her doing random kidlike things. Pictures of her and her family. . .

He paused on one photo in particular, displaying Amanda with her parent's and a smaller child, a girl of about five or six. They were gathered in front of a quaint cottage, most likely situated outside of a village, Amanda looked to be about ten or eleven and she had her arms wrapped around the smaller girl, both of them with gigantic smiles on their faces. Given the resemblance between the two Kurt deduced it must've been her sister. . . Odd. All the pictures so far had seemed to depict nearly every moment in Amanda's life, but none had contained her sister.

Kurt skimmed over the rest of the pictures and then back across the ones he had already viewed. . . Again, only the single photograph held a depiction of Amanda's sister. He picked it up and examined it more closely, noting the happy look on the girl's faces, and the equally joyful expression on their parent's faces. He felt a wave of sadness wash over him as he recalled his own parent's, or foster parent's at least, but returned his attention to the photo and Amanda's sister.

Come to think of it.

Amanda hadn't mentioned a sister before.

In the past few weeks she had told him of her parent's, her village, her pet's and even mentioned other assorted family member's. But in all their conversations she hadn't once spoke of having a little sister, or any other sibling, he was sure.

"Her name was Hannah."

Kurt turned and saw Amanda standing behind him. She was looking sadly at the framed picture in his hand.

"She was my sister." She spoke softly, turning her gaze up to Kurt's eyes.

Kurt looked back at the picture in his hand's, feeling the weight of the implication behind Amanda's use of past-tense.

Amanda gently took the photo from his finger's, and Kurt felt a brief moment of panic, in case she noticed the odd shaped hands beneath the hologram. But Amanda paid no attention, her focus on the two children in the foreground of the photograph.

"I, uh. . . I don't have many pictures of her. But this one is my favorite." She said with a smile. "We were both so happy. We'd just moved and our grandparent's were visiting. . . Look at us. Cute."

Amanda's smile faded and Kurt felt the need to say something, but he didn't know what. So he stayed silent and watched Amanda placed the photo back upon the shelf. She turned to him and gave him a halfhearted smile.

"Pancakes are done."

Kurt nodded slowly and followed Amanda towards the table, where awaiting them was a feast unlike any he had seen in a long, long time.

Egg's, scrambled and fried, bacon, sausage, pancakes, biscuits, jam and potato hash, all lay spread at before him. His brain nearly went into meltdown at the sight. . . And the smell!

'God in Heaven. . .' He thought, the array of food before him lighting up his eyes.

Amanda noticed his reaction and grinned.

"Well? Sit down, it'll get cold!" She laughed.

Kurt promptly plopped down in the awaiting chair.

"My God, Amanda! I thought you promised pancakes, not a feast fit for a king!" He exclaimed.

Amanda laughed again.

"That I did, but I promised you breakfast as well!"

Kurt's closed his eyes and deeply inhaled the aroma.

"This." He said. "THIS is a breakfast!"

Amanda giggled at the look on his face.

"What are you waiting for? Dig in!" She said.

And Kurt was all too happy to oblige. He gleefully loaded his plate with a serving and a half of everything present, manners all but forgotten as he ate. . . And ate. . . And ate.

A half-hour later and Kurt sighed contentedly, leaning back in his chair and feeling as though his life was now complete. Amanda just grinned at him, her own breakfast already long eaten.

"Wow Kurt, you know, I knew you liked to eat. . . But I didn't expect you to clear the table!" She said.

Kurt grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry Amanda. . . It was just soooo good. . . " He sighed.

"I told you." Amanda smiled.

"Yeah, you told me. And I believe it!"

Amanda laughed and Kurt joined her, though the motions of laughter threatened to burst his overfilled belly.

They sat in silence for a few more moment's, while Kurt closed his eyes and enjoyed his contentment, whatever nervousness he'd felt earlier now completely gone.

"Kurt?"

"Hmm?"

There was no reply, so Kurt tentatively opened an eye. Amanda was still seated before him, but she had a far away look in her eye. He studied her features for a moment, before she finally turned her head and looked at him. He could tell right away what she was going to talk about.

"My sister. . ." She started, trailing off.

Kurt decided to risk a little.

"Why haven't you mentioned her before?" He asked, hoping it wasn't the wrong thing to do.

Amanda sighed.

"I guess. . . It's because I try to forget her sometimes. I try to. . . Pretend."

*. . . *

"She died when I was ten. We had just moved to a little village. And we. . . We were so happy. All of us, my whole family. It seemed like everything was perfect."

Amanda paused, trying to gain control of her emotions.

"Amanda. . . You don't have to- "

"No, i'm fine. It's just. . . It's still hard. It hurt's."

Kurt felt his heart ache to see his new friend so deeply hurt, he wanted to give her hug, to comfort her. . . But he couldn't. And then she continued, making what seemed bad all the more worse.

"I said she died. . . But she didn't. She was killed. Someone murdered her. They kidnapped her and. . . They. . . "

"Amanda, please. Don't." Kurt pleaded.

Amanda nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, the pain and sadness on her face made Kurt want to be anywhere else but here.

"I'm sorry." She spoke. "I know you didn't want to hear that."

"No, don't be. Sometimes you need to talk. To let it out." Kurt said.

Amanda gave a nod.

"Well. That's mine. . . Whats yours?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Kurt replied, confused.

"My story, the one that hurt's. The one that makes me wanna forget. The one that makes me do the things I do. . ." She stated. "So. I've noticed you, I know when you're carrying around something that hurt's. So what is it?"

Kurt's mind suddenly raced. . . What should he tell her? After all she just opened her private box of pain to me. . . I can't just sit and pretend I can't care. So what do I say?

The truth?

Kurt sighed and looked Amanda in the eyes.

"I can't tell you." He said quietly.

"Why?"

"Because. . . I can't."

Amanda frowned.

"Kurt. . . You can tell me. Please?"

Amanda made as if to reach across and grab Kurt's hand, but he quickly moved it away, leaving her to grab nothingness.

This gesture didn't escape her, and she gave Kurt a hurt look.

"It's ok, I only told you about my kid-sister getting raped and murdered. If you don't want to tell me about whatever it is that has you so afraid. Then fine." Amanda said, standing from her chair. "It's almost time to leave for the Uni. I should get ready."

Kurt felt guilty and he noticed the bitter look on Amanda's face, but he got the hint. And it seemed he wouldn't be getting a ride to the University after all. He apologized to Amanda and then left, showing himself out.

Walking back towards his apartment, he felt an old familiar depression starting to come back over him.

"Miss me?" Said the voice, malice evident in his heart.

Kurt sighed.

'I knew this was a bad idea.'

"Uhhh. . . Where's the milk?"

"Dunno."

"Um. . . What about OJ?"

"Dunno."

*pause*

"Egg's?"

*sigh*

Lance was getting tired of answering these question's. Hell, he was already hungry, and he knew well enough he wasn't getting anything from the empty cupboard's in this place. Now Fred had the tenacity to ask for the placement of every food item he could think of, a waste of time since there wasn't much of anything left now.

"I don't know 'Blob'! Maybe you ate it all?" He snapped at the large mutant, calling him by his fitting, albeit insensitive, nickname.

Fred looked somewhat hurt by the offending 'term of endearment'.

"I don't like being called that." He said slowly.

"Lose some weight then, fat-ass. . ." Lance muttered.

Fred looked as if he was about to say something, but closed his mouth and began re-searching through the kitchen's cupboards, looking for any food he could find, finally settling on the time-tried and tested-true choice of Ramen.

Lance just ignored him and returned to his task; cutting lines of cocaine on the kitchen table.

He was really itching for a fix, but his stash was empty and at the moment he had no way to procure any more of the precious stuff, so he settled on stealing some of Pietro's coke. Besides, at least he wouldn't be hungry for awhile afterward.

The sound of someone coming down the stair's nabbed his attention and he glanced up to see who it was.

Ah. . . Kitty. Just in time.

"Hey Kit." He called out to her as she entered the kitchen.

"Hi Kitty!" Fred greeted, although with his mouth full of Ramen it sounded more like "Hif Kippy!"

Kitty mumbled a greeting to the two boy's and set about trying to find some food to make breakfast with, although, noting the presence of Fred, it was unlikely.

Lance noticed her searching the cabinet's and snorted.

"Don't bother, fatso here's already ate everything."

Fred frowned at Lances comment, and Kitty gave him an apologetic smile. In all honesty he was about the only one she could tolerate in the household anymore. He smiled back and offered her part of his Ramen (What was left of it. . . ), but she politely declined. Partly because eating after the big man didn't seem very appealing.

Lance finished dividing 'his' cocaine and began insufflating it direct off the table, ignoring the need for a blowstraw.

'That's better. . .' He though as the drug began it's effect's.

"Say, Kitty. How about you go buy some milk and shit, huh? I'm kind of hungry." Lance said.

He turned and noticed the expression on her face.

"Oh, right. . . " He mumbled and pulled out what few dollar's he had from his pocket, tossing them onto the table towards Kitty, returning to snort another line in the same motion.

Kitty gaped at him with an angry expression spreading across her face. Lance didn't notice until it was too late.

"Oh! Right! Like, I'm just gonna go buy fucking grocery's for you while you sit on your lazy ass and blow your head full of coke! Yeah! I'll do that! Gee, um, let me see, what do you want? Anything specific? How about a nice big bag of FUCK YOU ASSHOLE?!" Kitty screamed, her temper skyrocketing.

Fred had the good sense to stand back, although not quite enough sense to leave the room. Lance just whirled his head, slightly shocked by Kitty's outburst so early in the morning.

"Well, hell Kitty. I just want something to eat. I mean, come on, it's not like you have anything better to do."

At that moment there was a sound akin to a steam-whistle, as Kitty shrieked in anger.

This time Fred decided it'd be a good idea if he was somewhere else and he backed quickly out of the kitchen, going to warn the others that they'd better avoid the downstairs at all costs.

In the meantime Kitty shoved the table, scattering Lance's cocaine and sending the fine powder onto the front of his shirt.

"Shit!" He cried leaping up. "You stupid bitch! That's like a hundred bucks worth of fuckin' coke!"

Kitty grabbed the handful of bill's he had tossed to her earlier and threw them towards him.

"There ya go! There's six dollar's worth of I dont give a fuck!" She yelled.

Lance was furious now, not only did he not get breakfast, he just lost all the buzz he would get for the day, and he'd have to explain to Pietro later why part of his stash was all over the front of his shirt. That dumb bitch! Who the hell did she think she was anymore?

"That's it!" He bellowed. "I've had it!"

"No Lance! I've had it! I'm sick of this shit and I'm sick of starving and I'm sick of every fucking drug you can think of being pandered around in here!" Kitty retorted. "I'm sick of those mindless goons that live here, i'm sick of waking up feeling like shit and most of all I'm sick of YOU!"

There was a brief pause as Kitty's voice carried throughout the house, her words echoing every bit of truth as she poured out her disgust into them.

Lance stood there, anger boiling within him, his hands shaking, and in turn, sending slight tremor's throughout the house.

"I'd personally smack the bitch for calling us mindless goon's." Said a voice from behind him.

Lance turned his head and saw a small crowd had formed, at a safe distance, within the common area. It was Pietro's voice that had broken the silence, and he and the rest of the household's inhabitants who dared venture near Lance and Kitty during one of their argument's, stood near the staircase, watching intently, as if this was the only entertainment they'd get for the day.

"Yeah! Come on, show her who's boss!" Another voice jeered, this one belonging to mutant named Todd.

Lance turned his attention back to Kitty, his anger unabated, and only further fueled by the gathering crowd. He couldn't let her show him up in front of all his friends. . . But then again. He knew how deceiving she appeared. The anger and fight one could find within that petite frame was a little frightening and right now she was giving him a soul-searing stare, as if to say "Don't you even think about it.".

But he did. . . What if he gave her just a little slap? A forceful one, sure, and one that showed he was the one in control here, but not enough to really hurt her. Just enough to show everyone he meant business, and enough was enough. He could envision how that'd go. . . He make to strike her and she'd phase right through him, and then he'd end up having a body part phased off. He had no idea if she could actually do that or not. But she'd once threatened him with it, saying she'd phase off a very, very important appendage. And for all the luck he had, he thought it'd be best to not take chances.

"We'll settle this later." He said menacingly, but aloofish, trying and failing to appear threatening.

"No. . . No, Lance we won't." Kitty spoke, her anger still present but dissipating into a resolve. "We won't settle anything, because i'm done."

Lance took a step back, not believing what he had just heard. What the hell did she mean 'She's done.'?

"What the hell do you mean?" He said, voicing his thought.

"What I said. . . I'm done. With you, with this place, with them, with everything. I'm done." The finality in Kitty's voice gave no room for expansion. She meant it, this was it. Enough truly was enough.

Lance still couldn't believe what she was saying. She couldn't be 'done'. There was no being 'done'. Not from him, and especially not from her.

"I'm going to pack my things, and i'm leaving. Goodbye." Kitty said, moving around the table and towards the stair's.

Lance caught her arm as she walked by.

"What the fuck are you doing?" He asked.

"Leaving, Lance. Now, goodbye." She replied, phasing from his grip.

Lance felt a wealth of emotions bubble inside him, most all of them unpleasant. Anger, frustration, disbelief. . . Fear?

Suddenly he felt his anger well up. There was no way he was going to be afraid of losing some dumb bitch like her. He let out a growl and spun around, his fist closing the distance between him and Kitty.

'I'll show you who's gonna be done. . .' He thought, with gleeful malice.

Kitty had her back turned and was walking towards the group of mutants gathered at the base of the stairs, she was resolute in her heading, and failed to notice Lance lash out. His fist connected with the small of her back, all the force of the anger he felt in that moment being channeled into his attack.

The punch caught Kitty off-guard, and she let out a pained cry as the force of Lance's strike cause her to sprawl forward, knocking her off her feet and onto the hardwood floor below.

Lance gave a satisfying exclamation as he saw the petite brunette go down.

'That'll show them! And her!'

Kitty was writhing on the floor, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her.

Lance stood over her, a slight malicious smile spreading across his face. . . Hmm. . . There was something about seeing her writhing on the floor that was kind of. . . Hot?

His grin grew wider as he felt a surge of power run through him. HE was in control now. No longer would he be laughed at by the other inhabitants of the house. Now they would see, he wasn't going to let a little wimp like Kitty tell him what to do.

So caught up in his perverse fantasy, Lance failed to notice Kitty had regained her breath, though painfully, and now had a look on her face that none present would soon forget. Her anger was unbridled now, and she leaped to her feet, ignoring the pained response that the middle of her back gave her.

Lance suddenly became aware that she was no longer writhing on the floor and was now rapidly approaching towards him, the most terrifying and feral look he had ever seen fixed upon her face.

'Oh shit!'

His brain had time to make one last thought, before Kitty's fist impacted with his face, an explosion of stars cascading outward, before fading to black.

His body fell backward with a thud, although he was no longer conscious to feel it. Nor the multiple blows that Kitty rained down upon him once he hit the ground.

He was surrounded by inky blackness, his only protection from the wrath of one Kitty Pryde.

And there it is!

Ok, so yep, breakfast at Amanda's, a bit of an awkward piece to write, but i think i'm pleased with it.

Also, what's up with everybody getting such sad backstory's? Amanda's was just supposed to be a supporting character, now she's got a sad story too! Maybe it was a little forced with how quickly she opens up to Kurt. . . But i think i'm having pacing issues. Just trying to move the story along since i kinda stalled the first few chappy's. And besides. . . Maybe Amanda isn't quite opening up like it seems. Hmm? Oop's. Did i say that aloud? Whatever could that mean?

Yeah, i dunno. I'm making this up as i go along.

Oh and yes, i did write part of this chapter from Lances POV. Although i've got my main character's lined up, there will be deviations from time to time to help flesh out things and to offer a bit of a different perspective. Plus Lance will still have a part to play later on.

And no, i know it may seem like i'm making him out to be a major bad dude, but this isn't a Lance-hate fiction. Although i do hate the whole Lance and Kitty thing, i like Avalanche's character. And him being a somewhat bad guy already makes it easy to have him be a bit of a brutish a-hole. 'Sides, Kitty showed him what-fer. :P

Ok! Now, it my not seem like it, but this chapter has set off a chain of events for Kurt and Kitty. Things are in motion now, and they had better hold on tight. Especially poor Nightcrawler. 3)