A/N: Hey. Sorry for the long wait. Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy. And please R&R! Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution.

Chapter 9:

"You know, you came back just in time," Kitty stated as she walked with Lance towards the stairs.

"Just in time for what?" Lance looked at her quizzically.

"For the double wedding we're going to have!" Kitty announced proudly. "Kurt's and mine. And Rogue's and Scott's."

Lance stopped in his tracks. "No way!" he exclaimed. "You and blue boy are actually getting married?"

Kitty grabbed Lance's arm and pulled on it roughly to get him moving. "His name is Kurt and yes we really are," she told him.

Lance shook his head for a second as if to clear it and then said, "Well then congratulations."

"Are you going to be around for two weeks, cause I'd really like you to come?" Kitty asked, sending him a hopeful glance.

"Actually I was planning on staying for awhile," he confided in her.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he confirmed.

They finally reached the top of the stairs when Lance realized, "So Rogue and Scott, huh? I guess that means Pietro lost out. How'd he take it?"

They turned the corner heading for the bedrooms.

"He took it ok. After all, he just wanted Rogue to be happy. But don't worry about him, Pietro has some, lets say, prospects on the horizon," Kitty informed him, grinning to herself.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, dumbly, as they walked down the hallway.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," she answered mysteriously. She abruptly stopped in front of a door and turned to Lance. "This is Todd's and Fred's room."

Before she could knock on the door he quickly asked, "How've they been doing? Is Toad still with Rahne and Fred with Tabitha?"

"Fred and Tabby are still together. But Toad recently cheated on Rahne," Kitty said, somewhat enjoying being Lance's informant.

"What a …Toad," he said in some disgust.

"Well, yeah I guess. But he apologized and Rahne's ok with it now."

She knocked on the door and got no answer, so she knocked even harder and got the reply, "Go away. We don't want what you're selling!"

Kitty sighed. Out of all the people in the mansion these two were the hardest to get out of bed. She phased through the door, quickly unlocking it and opening it.

"Hey!" Toad yelled sitting up. He rubbed his eyes a couple of times to adjust to the light Kitty had turned on. "What do you think you're doing?"

Fred sat up, also rubbing at his eyes, wearing a dazed and confused look.

"I brought you guys a very special visitor," Kitty said, her smile practically blinding the two.

Toad flopped back in bed saying, "If it ain't Halle Berry in her Catwoman outfit, I don't care who it is."

Kitty had to laugh at that.

"Nice to see you're keeping up with the one tradition the Brotherhood established. Being lazy," Lance stated, stepping into the room.

Both Toad and Fred bolted right out of their beds at the sound of the familiar voice.

"Lance?" Toad shrieked, when he registered who it was. He launched himself at his old teammate. He hugged him tightly and Lance returned it. Then he stepped back abruptly. Deepening his voice, he said, "Umm…Hey man, how's it going?"

Lance just laughed at his younger friend's antics, patting him on the shoulder. He looked beyond Toad and saw that Fred went back to his bed. He was sitting up staring at Lance with a scowl on his face.

"Aren't you glad to see me Fred?" Lance asked.

"No," Fred replied curtly.

Lance looked from Kitty to Toad, obviously taken aback by his short answer. "I'm sorry Fred for leaving without saying goodbye. But I just had to go."

Still no answer, he looked to Kitty for help and she gave him a look that said, 'Just give it time.'

"Ok, well it was nice seeing you guys again. I think I'll go see Pietro now," Lance added, waiting another second before turning away to leave.

Just as he was about to take step, the big, lumbering mutant jumped out of bed and hugged the old team leader from behind.

"Freddy…Freddy, old…pal," Lance got out. "I…I can't breathe."

Fred abruptly let go. "Oops, sorry about that," he said, sheepishly.


Pietro was sound asleep when he woke up to a loud bang on the door. He turned over and pulled his pillow over his head, yelling, "Go away!"

"Pietro, can I come in?" he heard Amara's voice coming from the other side of the door.

"No," he called back, an instant reply.

She tried to open the door, but found it locked. "Hey, you locked it!"

Pietro smirked under the pillow but didn't reply.

It was silent for a minute and he should have known she was planning something. The next thing he knew he heard a loud hissing noise, then a clunking noise, something dropping to the floor, right before the door popped open.

"Amara! How many times have I told you not to melt the door handle off!" he yelled, exasperated, coming out from under the pillow.

She stood there with a smug look on her face, looking triumphant. And Pietro couldn't stand that look so early in the morning. He just had to do something about it. So he did the only logical thing he knew to do. He picked up the pillow that had covered his head and threw it, hitting her in the face dead on.

As soon as the pillow dropped to the floor, Pietro knew that what he did was definitely not logical. The look on her face told him she was going to get him and good.

Amara bent down and picked up the fallen pillow. She smiled sweetly at him, a little too sweetly, making him cringe. And the next thing he knew the small, petite girl was hitting him with the pillow with considerable force.

Pietro blocked her the best he could, but at the same time he couldn't help laughing. Which probably made her madder.

When he was a little fed up with being her punching bag, he somehow managed to grab both her arms stopping her attack, making him fall backwards onto the bed with her landing on top of him.

Their faces were inches apart and he could feel her breath on him, coming out fast; he could feel her chest against his heaving for breath.

"Say you're sorry," she breathed out.

"No," he replied smugly.

"Say it, or else…" she threatened, trying to pull her arms out of his grasp.

He stopped her struggle. He flipped her over and had her pinned to the bed, with him leaning over her.

"Or else what?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

The smirk infuriated her but at the same time it sent a wave of something else through her body. Something she didn't quite comprehend.

Amara looked down to see his bare chest and even lower noticing he was only in his boxers. She instantly blushed against her will. Pietro noticed her blush; he finally realized that he was half naked.

Just as he was about to get off of her, he heard someone say, "Oh, so this is what you meant when you said he had some prospects on the horizon."

Pietro looked up quickly to find two people laughing, one was Kitty, but the other was…."Lance?"

He quickly got off Amara, who also sat up, straightening her clothes.

"Lance, what are you doing here?" he asked, confusion apparent on his face.

"Well I was coming by to say hi, but if you guys are busy, I could come back later," Lance suggested.

Amara flushed even darker and Pietro's face was fast matching her own.

"Um…I have to go. I'll see you later Pietro. Nice to see you Lance," Amara quickly blurted out. Then she ran out of the room so fast she could have been a match for Pietro.

Pietro scowled at her retreat. He realized that he didn't find out why Amara was there in the first place.

"Sorry, I guess we scared your girlfriend away," Lance teased.

Kitty laughed. "I'll leave you two alone. I'm going to check on Amara."

As soon as she was gone Pietro blurted out, "She's not my girlfriend."

"Oh really?" Lance asked skeptically, raising one eyebrow.

"No she isn't. In fact she's only my best friend," Pietro replied, with a 'beat that' look on his face.

"Anyways…so how's everything going?" Lance asked casually. He turned his back to Pietro and started perusing his C.D. collection.

"How's everything going? Well there's a loaded question," Pietro commented, leaning against his stereo to face Lance.

Lance put down the C.D.'s and looked up at Pietro. "Look man, it wasn't my choice not to keep in touch."

"What, all your pens run out every time you tried to write a letter?" Pietro asked sarcastically.

"No, my grandmother kept offering to mail my letters. Turns out she was just trashing them along with anything I got from you guys," Lance explained.

"Oh," Pietro said, pondering this new information.

"When I found out, I decided to come here. Now here I am," Lance announced.

"I see," Pietro said, monotone.

"And I'm just in time for the weddings," Lance said, trying to get a reaction out of his friend.

That did the trick. Pietro let out a frustrated sigh and went to flop back onto his bed. "Augh! Don't remind me!"

"What? Kitty told me you were happy for Rogue," Lance said, quite perplexed.

"I am," Pietro confirmed.

Lance went over to Pietro's desk and looked at all the pictures there. Some mixed with all the X-men, some with Toad and Fred, even one with him, Evan and Wanda, but mostly there were a lot of him with Amara. "So you're not over her then?"

"I am," Pietro said.

Lance turned back to his friend. "You're not making any sense."

"Have you seen Wanda?" Pietro sat up and asked out of the blue.

Lance looked taken aback. He turned back to the pictures and picked up the framed one of brother, sister and Evan.

"Yeah."

"So you know she's with Evan, right?" Pietro continued. Lance imagined a knife in his back with Pietro twisting it.

"Uh huh," Lance choked out.

"And you know it's serious," Pietro asked.

The knife turned too far and Lance put the picture down. "What's your point?" he asked now irritated.

"My point is you want my sister to be happy, I know you do. But how do you feel about her and Evan?"

"Like I want to hit something or someone," Lance confessed.

Pietro stood up and rummaged through his dresser. "See that's exactly how I feel."

"But it's not the same," Lance disagreed. "You've moved on. You've got somebody else." He picked up a photo and held it out to Pietro.

Pietro took the photo from him and saw that it was the one taken on his birthday. Amara had just smudged some cake in his face and he had his hand out ready to return the favor.

He smiled at the memory. All of the sudden he shook his head abruptly. "Amara? Look, she's just my friend," he reiterated, putting the picture down.

"I saw the way she was looking at you when we came in. It was definitely not a look of friendship. Open you're eyes, she wants you!" Lance encouraged.

"No she wants John," Pietro said in denial.

"John? You mean that psycho Pyro?" Lance asked incredulously.

"Yeah, he's an X-men now." Pietro took in his shocked look. "Yeah a lot of changes have been made since you've been gone…but anyways, they've been hanging out a lot.

Lance let out a sigh. "I don't know what's been going on while I was gone. But I know what I saw. And I know you're a fool if you ignore it," Lance said adamantly.

"Yeah, yeah," Pietro attempted to shrug it off. "Now if you don't mind, I need to get dressed." He started shoving him out the door.

"Ok, ok, I'm gone," Lance said. "See you later."

Lance left and Pietro shut the door behind him. He leaned against it, his forehead touching the door. "Augh! Lance, why couldn't you just shut up!" he said. Now his head was full of all sorts of thoughts.


8o8o8o8


Well there it is. I hope you liked it. Please review and let me know what you think. And I'll try my hardest to update soon.

Next chapter: Wanda and Lance have a late night talk.

Reviews:

Pyro Lady: You like Michael and Rahne together? Chapter 11 should be a chapter you'll like then. Thanks for the review.

Mark C: Rogue and Scott will be making an appearance soon. They've kind of been put on the back burner, now that we have new triangles and couple problems to explore. Thanks for the review!

Thanks for the great reviews! Keep them coming.