Author's Note: All exchanged between the Illyana, Kitty and Illyana's parents take place in Russian. Kitty and Illyana interact in English still.

It was one of the farmhands that met Illyana and Kitty at the bus stop the next afternoon, saving them a long trudge through the snow up to the main house. After sitting down for so long, first on their flight from JFK to Amsterdam then from Amsterdam to Ust-Kut the day before, then on the three hour bus ride to get from there to Lake Baikal and the Rasputin's farm, Kitty almost wished he hadn't, just so they'd get to stretch their legs for a little, and because it seemed like Illyana was still not as prepared as she could be. As soon as they were out of the bus and in the below-zero air with their heavy suitcases, however, that thought disappeared quickly.

Despite how long she had taken to pack, when they had left their hotel to catch the bus the next morning, Kitty had quickly realized she had forgotten gloves. And, with her hands wrapped in one of her scarves, she and Illyana had run back to the hotel gift shop to buy her some before their bus left. Still exhausted from the day before and suffering from a serious case of jet lag due to the thirteen hour time difference, the girls had found two seats in the back where they could snuggle up against each other and catch a little more sleep. Or, at least, Kitty had gotten some more sleep. She wasn't sure about Illyana. Every time a bump in the road had jolted her awake, she had found the blonde staring out the window, a thoughtful frown on her face. Kitty had made sure to kiss that expression away before she laid her head back on her shoulder and drifted off again.

It wasn't the first time Kitty had been to Russia, but she did hope it would be her last. It wasn't like she didn't like Illyana's parents, they had always been kind to her. But the first time she had met them it had been to tell them of their daughter's sacrifice. The second time, to tell them of their son's. She was the bearer of bad news for their family, an omen that something tragic had happened to their loved ones once again. Even squashed in the front seat of the cab between Illyana and the farmhand, she could not suppress the creeping feeling of dread. Russia, to her, was the place where she came to accept her loved one's death, twice. Where she had to look their parents in the eyes and tell them that they weren't coming home, not ever. Where she had had to keep herself from crying because their pain had been more than hers. Because she didn't deserve to be hurting as much as they were.

Outside, the lake where she had scattered Piotr's ashes stretched out behind the horizon, its waters likely freezing. Kitty felt a whole new kind of sickness that had nothing to do with having been on the move too long. She wouldn't let Illyana in on that, however. Her girlfriend had enough to fret over as it was. Instead, she smiled and held her hand and watched the main building grow larger in the windshield.

It was a gorgeous, snow-coated two-story farmhouse made of dark wooden logs and accented with lighter ones. The roof had a long, steep slant over the left side that led into a covered deck that served as a workshop of sorts and over the right, a much shorter slant that served as a covering for the second floor balcony. The house was littered with windows to allow in plenty of natural lighting and leading up to the front door was a wooden ramp that was covered in snow and ice.

As the cab pulled up to the house, surrounded by birch trees that had lost a battle with the harsh Russian winter, Illyana's grip on Kitty's hand tightened significantly. She still wasn't ready for this, but there was no turning back now. Definitely not now that the farmhand had slid out of his seat and the door was opening and she could see her mother, aged by worry and stress, peaking out as if to make sure that what she was expecting was truly happening. Illyana's breath caught in her throat and she swallowed hard, looking to her girlfriend and forcing a smile.

Kitty smiled right back at her, twisting her head to drop a tiny, reassuring kiss to the blonde's shoulder that wouldn't be recognizable as what it was from outside. She picked her beanie up from her lap and positioned it on her head, making sure it covered her ears, too, as the farmhand opened the door beside Illyana.

When she stepped out into the biting winter air, everything she had gone over in her head to say to her parents blew away with the harsh wind. She turned to help Kitty out of the car, her attention finally drifting towards where her parents now stood on the tiny excuse for a porch. The two women turned to help the farmhand with their bags only to be waved off, so instead Illyana thanked him with a small exchange in her native language. They then made their way up to the wooden walkway, boots crunching the snow beneath their feet. Illyana might have moved faster, too, if it hadn't been for the layer of ice that threatened to send her toppling onto her ass. What a way that would have been to present herself after all these years.

Her parents' excitement was too much to contain, her mother practically shaking with relief, with pure joy at being face to face with the daughter she thought she'd lost. Her father was better at keeping it together, but not much. His smile was hidden behind a graying beard, but it was there. Before Illyana had even made it to the porch, her mother was practically throwing herself at her with open arms, enveloping her tightly and pulling her within arms reach of her father. He piled on too, the three of them locked together in an embrace that was much overdue. It wasn't long before she could feel her mother trembling and the hot tears that fell against her neck.

"Oh, Illyana," she sobbed as Illyana did the only thing she could do: hold her tighter, "We have missed you so much."

"We are so glad to have you home to us," her father put in, squeezing the both of them as if he could not stand the thought of their bodies not being as close to his as possible. Kitty stood back watching all this, unable to keep the smile off her lips or the tears from welling in her eyes.

"I've missed you too," Illyana told them, laying her head against the top of her mother's, unwilling to pull away from the hug. This wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was going to be. She was comfortable, and while she had initially thought she would only be holding on to their embrace for the sake of her parents, she soon realized that she was doing it for herself, too.

It took them all some time to pull away from each other, and even then they did not drift far apart. Illyana's mother had her arm wrapped securely around her daughter's as her father helped the farmhand with their suitcases and ushered them inside. Their first stop was just inside the front doors where both of her parents stopped to welcome Kitty as well with hugs and a kiss to her cheek from the two of them. After they had taken their shoes off, it was up the old, creaky stairs to the spare bedroom where a mattress had been laid out and done up next to the bed that was already there. It'd been freshly tidied, obviously for their arrival, and the wooden shutters on the windows were pulled open to allow whatever amount of sunlight that spilled through the sky of heavy, gray clouds to shine into the room.

After more hugs and kisses between the family, Mr. and Mrs. Rasputin reluctantly left them alone to clean themselves up while they prepared them something to eat.

'Something warm,', Kitty hoped. As soon as the door had closed behind the pair, she turned to her girlfriend, pulling off her scarf and beanie as she did and tossing them onto her suitcase.

"Soooooo?" she drew the sound out, a grin on her lips as she closed the distance between them to wrap her arms around the blonde's waist, "What do you think?"

"It's weird to be home," Illyana said, her expression mirroring Kitty's happily as she draped her arms over her shoulders, "But a good weird. It feels...nice?"

"Your parents were definitely happy to see you," Shadowcat put in, as if it truly could have been otherwise.

"It was much easier than I imagined it'd be," Magik admitted, lifting a hand to her head to brush her hair behind her ear before she dropped it back down to Kitty's shoulder, "I feel so much better now. I'm not even sure what I was really worried about."

"We better get changed so you can go downstairs and spend more time with them then, huh?" she suggested, retracting her hands to the blonde's hips and smirking up at her. Illyana raised a well-groomed eyebrow, a tame little grin settling on her lips.

"What is that look for, Katya?" She asked her, one hand trailing across her shoulder and coming to rest where it met her neck.

Kitty pressed her lips together, though that did not completely disguise her expression, "What look?"

"I saw that smirk," Illyana called her out, her fingers tracing lightly against her skin.

"It wasn't a smirk," Kitty argued, though the slight grin on her face told Magik that she was well aware she had been caught imagining the both of them undressing, "It was a smile. Because I'm happy for you."

"Uh huh," the tone in the blonde's voice conveyed her disbelief, but in case it wasn't clear enough she squinted skeptically at her girlfriend while her grin remained intact, "Okay, Katya."

Kitty's own grin came out in full force then, and she pressed up on her tippy toes to steal a kiss from Illyana's lips. Magik's hands dropped to Shadowcat's sides then, gently helping to hold her up as she tipped her head downward to deepen it. The other girl's fingers moved into her hair instead, carefully entangled in her silky blonde locks. They remained like that for a good few moments, before silently agreeing that they should be concentrating on getting back to Illyana's parents instead of keeping them waiting.

The two had quickly gotten changed, cleaning themselves up a bit before they made their way downstairs to the kitchen where the pleasant aroma of dried mushroom soup invaded their nostrils and stirred the growling stomachs they'd been ignoring since the bus ride. It was a smell Illyana remembered fondly from her childhood, a meal that no one did better than her father and the memories brought a smile to her face as she sat down in the seat across from her mother.

"It smells very nice," Kitty spoke up as she slid into the seat next to Illyana, watching as Mr. Rasputin carried in a large, ceramic pot from the kitchen with gloved hands. He set it down carefully and sat down himself. He took their bowls from them one at a time, dishing out equal, generous portions into each and smiling as he passed them back.

"How was your trip?" Mrs. Rasputin asked, peering at them from over her glasses. Illyana and Kitty exchanged a knowing look and the blonde couldn't help that amused grin that cracked across her face. She quickly suppressed it, looking down to her bowl for a moment before her gaze found her mother's.

"It was fine," she finally assured her, "we had fun."

"I think I'd forgotten how long it takes to get out here," the brunette added, dipping her spoon into the steaming broth. She lifted it to her lips, blowing delicately across the liquid so she wouldn't burn her tongue.

"We're glad you came to see us," her father put in after swallowing a spoonful of his soup, "and we're glad you came, too, Katerina. You've been such a good friend to our little snowflake."

Illyana turned her head slightly to give Kitty a smile, inconspicuously slipping her free hand from the table and instead placing it on her girlfriend's thigh. She gave it an appreciative squeeze. In silent acknowledgement, Kitty lifted her leg slightly to press it into her hand.

"How could I not be?" she smiled back at the Rasputins before her gaze drifted to the blonde instead,"She's always been such a good friend to me."

By the abyss, Illyana wanted to kiss her. There was hardly a moment when she didn't want to—or, rather, when she didn't think about it. But that moment when Kitty's eyes met hers, it occurred to the blonde just how difficult it was to hold herself back now that the dam had been broken and she no longer had to hide how she felt. At least, not with Kitty. But here, in the presence of her parents where it needed to stay under wraps, she was finding it hard to keep herself from acting on her new habits. If it'd been anyone else, Illyana might have done it anyway but her parents were different. It wasn't like Logan or Scott or Emma. She was very consciously aware that the relationship between herself and Kitty might not be taken well by her mother and father. Whether or not she thought it was because of them both being young women or because of Kitty's relationship with her brother, she hadn't figured that out yet. Maybe it was both. Either way, she hadn't grown up with her parents, she didn't know the way they saw things and there was no easy way to find out. She knew she'd have to tell them eventually before they found out some other way, but their first meal together in years was definitely not the time.

So instead, Illyana just smiled wider and gave her leg another squeeze.

"Illyana, can we ask you something?" her mother asked before poking her spoon into her mouth to take a bite. Illyana inwardly cringed at the thought, but outwardly she nodded. Mrs. Rasputin glanced to her husband, then back to her daughter, "If you were alive all this time, where were you? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

A few days after they had first found Illyana, before they had called her parents to let her know that their daughter was alive, the girls had talked to Scott and Emma extensively about what they could tell them. Naturally, Illyana didn't want them to have to hear the reality of what had been done to her and spinning a believable tale that didn't stray too far from the truth had taken some work. Still, Kitty doubted that the blonde would feel that comfortable telling it, so she jumped in.

"The doctors at the hospital we found her in said she had been in a coma for the last three years," she started, "She didn't have any identification on her, so they had no one to call, and she didn't show up on the machines we have back at the school until she woke up two months ago. We think that she must have pushed herself way too hard fighting those creatures" — she avoided using the word demon— "and teleported herself right before she fell into the coma."

Both of her parents nodded thoughtfully, digesting the information before her mother's gaze lifted to find the blonde's, "And you don't remember anything?"

She did, of course, but she had no intention of letting that on. She didn't want to retell the story, didn't want to have to recall the events once again. So instead, she lied. Illyana shook her head slowly, putting on a sad smile so it at least looked like she was upset that she supposedly had no memory of the events. The table descended into a solemn silence after that, its occupants focusing on their meals for a time, letting that sink in, before anything else was said again.

Illyana's father spoke this time, "We saw you two on TV fighting that monster in New York."

"I didn't realize we made the news in Russia," Kitty mused, an excited little grin tugging at her lips.

"That's good, right?" Illyana asked, the upward inflection of her voice indicating her own excitement.

"It reminded us why we worry so much but I don't know what any of us would do without you," a proud smile hung at the end of Mr. Rasputin's words.

"We're not going to let anything like this happen to her again," Kitty assured them. This time, she did slip her hand under the table to cover her girlfriend's hand with her own, entwining their fingers. Illyana looked to her and smiled, but it quickly turned into an amused little grin.

"I'll be fine as long as I keep teleporting all my problems away, right Katya?" She asked, giving her hand a playful squeeze even as her parents looked on in obvious confusion.

"Right," Kitty gave her a definitive nod in return, before finally turning back to her soup.

Their lunch lasted well over an hour between trying to eat and talking, answering any questions her parents had to the best of their ability. There was a lot they left out about things, stuff neither of the girls wanted to say or Illyana simply had no desire to talk about it. There were things she just wanted to keep private and she expected people to understand that. With the X-Men, it was okay. They all had things they preferred to keep to themselves. Kitty didn't let her get away with keeping a lot in, but that didn't bother her so much. It had when she was younger, and she's snapped at the slightly older mutant a few times over it, but Illyana liked to think she'd grown up a bit since then.

After they'd washed up, Illyana had decided she needed some fresh air, even if said air was bitterly cold and there were snow flurries falling from the overcast sky above. They'd bundled back up with Kitty in a heavy coat with her beanie and her scarf and gloves while Illyana had opted for a fleece pullover jacket with gloves of her own, and the two had set out down the trail to the lake.

The trail was covered in snow and hadn't been walked in a long while it seemed, but even though she had been so young the last time she'd gone down this path she still remembered the way. She also might have fudged a little on the time it'd take to get down there, but after the initial whining groans of the brunette, the distance between the farmhouse and the lake hardly mattered anymore. They changed up from simply walking side-by-side holding hands, to practically skipping and swinging their arms between them, to Kitty piggybacking on Illyana and then switching it around, laughing and teasing each other all the while. It seemed like they could make fun out of almost every situation, even when Kitty could no longer feel her toes and her nose felt like a deformed ice cube that had gotten stuck to her face.

The trail eventually diverged, one path leading up to a two-story lake house that seemed to have been recently converted from a basic boat shed into something more livable and more modern, the other to the shore of the lake itself. The girls took the latter, bringing their journey to a stop at the edge of the lake.

Kitty fixed her beanie so it covered more of her ears and rubbed at her nose with the back of one hand. "Why couldn't your superpower be something to do with heat?" she asked her girlfriend.

"Well, it is, but I think we'd both rather stay here right now," Illyana teased her, reaching for the front of Kitty's beanie and dusting her fingers against it to knock off the snowflakes that had gathered on it.

"We did just walk all that way," Kitty agreed, then suddenly stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, "My lips are cold."

"Your subtlety is astounding," Magik laughed, placing her hands on the brunette's cheeks, drawing her into an affectionate kiss. After a moment, she pulled away, "Better?"

"Someone has to nudge you along," the other girl laughed, reaching for Illyana's sides to pull their bodies together. She tucked her face against blonde's neck, hoping to get some feeling back into her nose. "What would we have done if I had never come to your room that night to tell you that I wanted to kiss you?"

"You would have made everything awkward," Illyana pointed out, grinning as she pressed a kiss Kitty's temple.

Kitty scoffed at that, pulling away just enough to glare at her girlfriend, "I would have made everything awkward?"

"Who's the one that held it together for all that time and didn't say a word?" The teleporter reminded her playfully, pushing Kitty's face back to her neck.

"And where did that get you?" Shadowcat pressed, her words slightly muffled in the other mutant's hair, "If I hadn't said something..."

"I'm not gonna tell you you're right, if that's what you're fishing for," Illyana teased, stroking her fingers through her brown locks. Her grin slowly faded into a smile instead, one that was full of admiration even if Kitty couldn't see it where she was. The blonde's free arm wrapped around Shadowcat's waist, pulling her closer still, "But I'm glad you did, Katya."

Illyana pressed her face against the side of Kitty's head, closing her eyes as her voice lowered, more serious now, "There hasn't been a whole lot of "good" in my life, but out of all of it, you and us are the best things that have ever happened."

The other girl screwed her eyes closed, her hands tightening around the part of Illyana's jumper that was bunched up in her gloved hands. "You're going to make me a crybaby again," she warned.

Unlike before, when the churns in Illyana's stomach had been anxiety and nausea at the idea that what she said would change or ruin everything, when her constricted breath had been out of fear and her inability to form sentences had been because she couldn't bring herself passed her own self-loathing—it wasn't like that at all now. She was happy. There were butterflies fluttering joyfully in her gut at the feeling of Kitty's hands at her hips, her breath wafting over her neck and her body so close. It was like this every time. It was how she knew. It was how she'd always known, even when their touches had just been friendly cuddles and hand holding when they'd been roommates. It was why the breath catching in her throat and her sudden lacking of the ability to form coherent sentences this time were because she was trying to find a way to get the words out without sounding like the world's biggest dope.

Illyana's lips moved but no sound came out, like she was practicing the words without actually saying them. But finally, she pressed her lips together and brought her hands back to Kitty's face.

"Katya," She cupped her cheeks and gently pulled her away so they could look at each other eye to eye. Illyana smiled at her and for a long few moments she just looked at her in adoration, her thumbs stroking over her smooth, lightly freckled cheeks. She soon found her voice again, "I love you."

Right then, Kitty didn't care that her face had just been removed from its warm little hiding spot. She didn't care that her feet were so painfully cold that all she wanted to do was stick them in a bucket of boiling water. She even stopped thinking about the fact that they were standing on the shore of the very lake where she had scattered Piotr's ashes and where she used to wish she had been able to scatter Illyana's, too. She wasn't sure how long she had been waiting to hear those words from the blonde's mouth, wasn't even sure if she had been consciously waiting at all, but now that they were out she knew that some small part of her had been.

That she had loved that bratty, spoiled six-year-old the day they had first met had never been a question. The love for the fifteen-year-old that had become her best friend had never been one, either. Where along the way that love had turned into something more, she didn't know, and right then she supposed the specifics didn't really matter at all. Because yes, she had been waiting for Illyana. She had been waiting to make sure that whatever happened between them happened on her terms because pushing her into something she wasn't ready for or something she wasn't comfortable with or just something she wasn't plain sure about had never been on her agenda. Because Illyana wasn't good at expressing her feelings and trying to weasel them out of her would have been painful for the both of them.

There were so many times when Kitty had bitten her lip to keep those words from coming out, because she was scared that she wouldn't mean it how Illyana wanted her to mean it, because she was scared that one day she might want to take it back or make it stop to avoid some kind of imagined future pain, because Illyana might not mean it if she said it back.

But she meant it now and Kitty was sure. She smiled at her despite how much her face hurt from the hard bite of the cold, "I love you, too."

And there it was, her favorite thing in the world; that stupid, goofy little grin Illyana always did. In the second it took for her to grin back at her, Illyana wrapped her arms all the way around Shadowcat's body and pulled her upwards, holding the older mutant against her body. She brought their lips together again, deeply and affectionately, and suddenly it didn't matter as much that the snow had noticeably picked up, the bitter wind encouraging the flakes to swirl and dance around them.

It was a long time before they broke apart, and not only because embracing like they were was a very good way to keep warm. Even when they did withdraw, they kept their arms securely wrapped around each other, their heads resting against each other's shoulders, faces pressed against necks. Kitty could feel Illyana's chest rising and falling against her own, could feel the slight weight of her arms on her waist and her hot breath against her skin. But she could also feel the cold seeping through her clothes, penetrating deep into her bones and then, despite their proximity, she started shivering. And, finally, she lifted her head and realized just how heavily the snow was falling now. It had already filled in their footsteps on the just-visible trail they had taken out to the lake.

"Uhhh," she started, "Should we go back, or start building an igloo now?"

Illyana grinned, her teeth chattering together involuntarily as she tipped her head backwards to indicate the lake house behind her. She retracted one of her arms from Kitty's waist and dug into her jacket pocket instead, producing a keyring that she dangled on her finger, "I have a better idea."

Kitty's gaze, first locked on the building almost entirely obscured by the snowfall, drifted back to Illyana and the keys in her hand, "Where did you get those?"

"Papa told me to take them, just in case," Illyana said, tipping her head playfully, "But I was gonna take them anyway. Come on."