Chapter Eight
Dead silence.
An unusual thing in the Xavier Institute at lunchtime.
Kitty's smile was getting just a little strained as she looked around the game room at the students frozen in various positions around the fooseball and pinball tables, sitting in armchairs, or just standing around. All silent. All staring. Beside her, Pyro seemed to have regained his footing after her disconcerting first impression, and was leaning against the door frame, lighter in hand. Kitty glanced at him. He eyed her, and it was perfectly clear that he was just barely restraining the sniggers. She gave him the patented Kitty Pryde Glare of Megadeath. He widened his eyes at her innocently, but his mouth was still twitching dangerously.
"Don't you dare laugh," Kitty hissed at him out of the corner of her mouth. John sucked his cheeks in and winked at her. Well. He really had regained his footing. Shoot. Kitty then turned to the still-frozen tableau. "Uh, hey, guys! You all remember John, right? Oh, for those of you who don't know him, this is John Allerdyce. Say hi to the nice mutants, Johnny." There. Who's laughing now?! She smiled proudly at him. And then squeaked when Pyro, moving with that same unearthly (in her opinion) speed, was suddenly right behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. He squeezed her playfully.
"I thought we agreed to cut the suspense, Kitten," he said loudly. "Tell them about the twins!" She twisted her head to stare at him, shocked. He was snickering now; she could feel his chest moving. Kitty stepped through his arms, ignoring his shudder. Okay, she was relishing in it.
"Pyro is gonna be staying here for awhile."
"Because of the twins?" It was Rogue, sounding dryly amused.
"He's, like, helping me with something." The other students, taking their example from Rogue, seemed to have realized that Pyro wasn't a threat. More or less. Sam spoke up.
"Right. Pregnancy's gotta be hard on a single mom." Kitty glared first at Sam, then at Rogue. The first looked mildly accepting, and mildly amused. The second looked... well, caught between wanting to laugh at Kitty and wanting to yell at Pyro.
"I am not-" John bit his lip. This was going better than he'd thought. No way was he going to be a pawn in whatever Kitty's game was!
"Aw," Jubilee said, interrupting Kitty, "can I be godmother?"
"I am not pregnant with John's babies!" Her shriek rang in the air. And that, of course, was the moment that Logan walked in.
The stocky man looked at Kitty. Looked at John. Kitty gulped.
"We were, ah, I mean, it's not like, it was his fault, I didn't, we were just introducing- I mean, I was introducing him to-" Logan walked out.
John was smirking. Kitty narrowed her eyes dangerously at him, taking cruel pleasure in the way he swallowed. Her look was very clear: You. Will. Pay.
Just then, as they stared at each other, a new voice shouted something into the silence.
"Um, hello?! Have you guys forgotten that he's our enemy?! He almost killed Bobby!" Kitty couldn't place the voice, and any chance she had of recognizing it was gone because almost as soon as the last word finished, other people started yelling. Rogue and Jubilee were the only ones quiet. Jubilee had her 'tell me everything later' look on, and Rogue... well, Rogue just had her gaze fixed steadily on Pyro.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Kitty gasped for breath after her shout, cringing just in case the windows shattered above her. There was a rattle, but no broken glass. Everybody shut up. No one was used to quiet, friendly Kitty screaming at them. "Okay. Listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. John did some bad things, it's true, but he's not doing them anymore. The reason he's here is that-"
"He's trying to kill us all in our sleep!"
"-IS THAT- are you listening now? Good. The reason he's here is that he risked himself and his freedom to warn me about something that probably saved my life. So leave him alone." One of the newer students, a dark-skinned, blond-haired boy named Evan who was related to Storm, stepped forward. He shook his arms, and long spikes slid out to jut from his forearms. He barred them across his chest, preparing to throw. He glared at Pyro.
"Maybe so, but he's also a traitor. He betrayed the X-Men, and he tried to kill Iceman! And the rest of you guys! Are you saying we just forget about that?!" Kitty opened her mouth, but John was already moving towards Evan, leaning in to invade the shorter boy's personal space. A fireball hovered in his left palm as he sneered.
"You wanna go, Spikey?" Evan held his ground defiantly.
"Bring it on!" Pyro grinned wickedly and shifted his left shoulder minutely, but that was all the warning Kitty needed. She leaped forward, grabbing his arm just as he was bringing the fire-filled hand up to attack.
"Cut it out, guys," she said quickly. Pyro's bicep was tense beneath her fingers. He looked down at her, breathing hard, a crazy light still flickering behind his honey-colored eyes. Kitty widened her eyes at him earnestly, raising her brows. She looked to Evan, but kept her hand restraining Pyro. "Spyke, stop it. You heard me. He's only going to be here for a while, and he warned me when he could have just run. I owe him a lot." The black boy spared her a glance before looking back at John. His nostrils flared angrily, but with a single, harsh jerk of his arms, the spikes slid back in.
"Watch your back," he growled. Pyro's lips tilted in what should have been a smile. Instead, it looked more like a snarl. The fireball in his palm shifted and changed until it shaped a clenched fist, the extended middle finger pointing at the ceiling. Evan's lip curled, and Pyro closed his own fist around the flame one, extinguishing it effortlessly.
"Watch yours, Spikey," he replied in a mock-friendly tone. "Wouldn't want those hedgehog pins to get... a little... hot..."
"John, shut up," Kitty whispered fiercely at him. Her fingers tightened painfully around his arm. The room was very still, tension pervading the air. John tilted his head, looking down at Kitty's upturned face, and smiled.
"No worries, Kitten," he said calmly. "We've had our fun. Right, Spyke?" He drew out the name snidely.
"Right, Fireboy." Evan put the same derogatory emphasis on the nickname. He went back to sit with his friends, moodily sipping a soda. Kitty laughed a little nervously.
"Okay. Well, that was exciting. Anyway, you guys, just deal with it." As she pulled an unprotesting Pyro from the room, Kitty couldn't help but notice that Rogue's cool, unreadable gaze had never once left the ex-Brotherhood member.
When they were in the hall, Kitty turned to John and sighed.
"Good job. Five minutes and you've already got, like, a mortal enemy." He shrugged, looked pleased.
"This place needs some excitement," Pyro said, stretching his arms out. "I wasn't looking forward to being stuck here, but maybe it'll be fun after all. Besides, you're the one who said, and I quote, 'plenty of people to scare the wits out of'. So technically, it's all your fault." He watched, surprised, as she visibly calmed herself down. Suddenly, the bright smile was back and she was latched on to his arm again.
"So, where next? How about the grounds? I bet a bunch of people are out there. Bobby, probably. He and Eric- that's one of the new boys- were gonna play a game of ice hockey. With powers."
"What, on the fountain? Popsicle going to freeze it?" Again, he pulled his arm away from her, sidling closer to the wall. She didn't seem to notice. Pyro had enjoyed getting her off-balance in the game room, but now she was back to whatever her big, secret plot was. And he didn't like it.
"Yeah. And Eric's power is growing these really cool blades, like, all over his body. Ice-skating blades, you know? So he can, like, fall anywhere and still skate."
"Wonderful," Pyro muttered. "Now ask me if I care."
"Don't be a jerk," Kitty said lightly. They passed an empty classroom and John snagged her elbow, swinging her with him as he ducked through the door. He steadied her and then stepped hurriedly away.
"What's going on, Kitten?"
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"What's going on, Kitten?" Kitty found herself caught in his intent stare, and fought back a blush. He knew. Shit. Well, she hadn't really expected her 'be nice to him no matter what and eventually he'll get over his mental/emotional constipation' idea to pan out for a long time, but she'd hoped to last longer than a single morning.
"What are you talking about," she tried. He shook his head, eyes narrowed, and in that moment he looked exactly like he had the first time she'd stolen his lighter over a year ago.
"Why are you acting so weird?"
"How do you know this isn't how I usually act? It's not like you've stuck around to figure that out," she said defensively. He snorted.
"Because even before I left, when you didn't know me, you always treated me like I was Dracula or something, and then after you fell on me, you acted like I was a mosquito that occasionally amused you. Not this... bubbly, Powderpuff thing." She opened her mouth for a retort, and then had to pause.
"You know who the Powderpuff Girls are?"
"I know a lot more than that, including the fact that you. Are. Acting. Freakishly. Unlike. You. So I repeat: what's going on?" She took a deep breath.
"WellIthoughtthatifIjustactedlikeeverythingwasokayandwewerefriendsthenyouwouldjustgetoverthisstupidbadguything." He blinked at her.
"Pause. Rewind. Play, slomo."
"You're an idiot, John Allerdyce!"
"Okay. The condensed version, huh?" He didn't seem to be getting it. Kitty stomped her foot.
"You. Are. An. Idiot. John. Allerdyce!"
"How many times are you gonna say that? 'Cause if it's any more than two, I have better things to do. People to scare, hair to singe."
"What is wrong with you!" She wasn't sure why she was blowing up at him. A spoke in her menstrual cycle? Hormones? Insanity? Whatever it was, Kitty's patience had just run out. She'd tried thanking him and he'd scared her half to death. She'd tried being nice, and he took out his aggression on Evan. She'd tried being stern, and he'd laughed in her face. She'd tried explaining, and he'd made light of it.
"Same thing that's wrong with you: you." She gasped.
"Why do you have to be so mean?!" He waved a hand around.
"How did you get from Powderpuff to Little Sister Version Two?!"
"Are you saying I sound like a whiney little girl?"
"I'm saying that if you have something actually important to say to me, you better say it, because I don't need this from you!"
"You wouldn't have this from me if you weren't such a- such a jackass!" He whipped his hand to his forehead in a mock-faint, affecting a southern accent.
"My, oh, my, Scarlett, what a temper you have!"
"You know, maybe I wish Bobby had just left you outside that gate!"
"And maybe I do too! Then, I wouldn't have to have you yell at me along with EVERYTHING else that's fucked up in my life!"
"Why is it so different? Doesn't everyone yell at you? Tell me, Johnny," she spat, hands on hips, "do you have any friends? At all? How about family? Do your parents even bother to keep in touch with-"
"You shut the hell up about my family," he hissed, his eyes utterly closed to her. Kitty did a doubletake, startled by the soft venom of his tone. She felt heat and looked down and there was fire, fire in his hands, fire snaking up his arms until he forced it back and made it vanish like the camaraderie they'd shared just fifteen short minutes ago.
"I-"
"See you, Kitty," he said, and walked past her and out of the room.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to the emptiness, her eyes wide and filled with failure. He'd called her Kitty.
Somehow, that hurt most of all.
