After Greg had finished getting his things set up in the room he'd decided that maybe what Bobby needed was a little space- And he kind of needed to clear his own head too. He wound up in the kitchen, fishing in the refrigerator for a snack, when Kitty walked in.
Really walked right in.
Kitty had slipped right through the wall next to the fridge, her hand passing into it just long enough to grab an ice cold soda from the freezer and phase it out of the fridge itself, passing through Greg in the process.
Greg jolted backwards as Kitty walked straight into him- and out the other side. She cracked the soda open with a soft sound of surprise.
"Oh, Greg! Sorry about that, I didn't mean to like, go right through you like that! Oops!"
"Whoa! talk about no personal space," he chuckled, and rubbed the back of his neck. "No worry..."
He grabbed the yogurt he'd been reaching for and backed away from the fridge.
"I didn't mean to." she said as she sipped her soda. "I thought you and Bobby would still be pretty busy moving in!" She tilted her head, her hair falling in half-curled rings over the side of her face "how's that going so far?"
Greg made a slight face, popping the top of his yogurt and sitting down at the table.
"Well, its going," he admitted. "It was going better before his ex... roomie... showed up and flipped his shit."
Kitty froze, her soda raised to her lips.
"Hold on... Dorian was here? and they had another fight?" She winced "...geeze...that's bad. That's really, really bad. I wish I'd known...I could have run damage control, you know?"
"Yeah," Greg made a face, scooping yogurt into his mouth pensively with a spoon. "Might have been good. Best I could do was scare him off. Again. Feel like every time I run into that guy it's trouble."
"Yeah..." Kitty sighed, looking into the bottle "I mean, Dorian's a good guy, you know? He's just...upset. And he did something thoughtless because of it."
"He seems more than just upset to me," he grumbled. "But what the fuck exactly happened? I only overheard a little, and like, I feel weird grilling Bobby over it."
Kitty tensed visibly and glanced away.
"I don't know how much I should say..." She admitted. After a moment of hesitation she asked "...do...do you know what the fight was about? in..general?"
"Uhhhh..." he flushed a bit and looked at his yogurt instead of Kitty. "They were... dating and he was a huge asshole to Bobby?"
Kitty bit her lip. "Alright, so...I guess I wouldn't be throwing Bobby under the bus in telling you the rest...given that you already heard." She sighed "...it's complicated. But like, for a long time Bobby and Dorian were dating in secret, you know? Most people didn't know the two of them were together, and barely anyone knew Bobby , you know, liked boys."
"Yeah. I mean, not really anybody's business if he doesn't want it to be, right?" he rubbed his jaw and still looked down.. "So they were quiet about it."
"Yeah." Kitty sipped her soda and there was a moment of silence before she continued.
"but I mean...after a while Dorian really wanted to be more open, probably because we're a pretty accepting group, you know? And romance in the dorms isn't exactly frowned upon." She leaned on the counter with a sad frown "But I think Bobby was still scared, because ah...he's confided some rough stuff about his home life to me. I won't go into detail out of respect to him, but it...I can see why he was hesitant, you know?"
"Yeah I get it," he agreed, leaning on the table. Can't really blame him, at all. I wouldn't... yeah. "So they had a fight about it? Dorian couldn't take no for an answer?"
"Y-yeah. It was movie night, and w-well.." Her brow furrowed as she frowned deeper "...Dorian went to put his arm around Bobby, to cuddle in during the picture and...Bobby got nervous and rejected it. And I guess it was sort of the culmination of a lot of stuff 'cause Dorian just stormed out, and the two of them got into a huge fight in the other room."
She sighed. "...everyone could hear it. So...everyone found out. "
Greg grimaced and smothered his discomfort with another spoonful of yogurt, frowning for a moment. "Well. That sucks. I can see why Bobby's upset."
"Yeah. I ...I can understand wanting to be close to your partner, you know? I can see where Dorian's coming from, but...there was a lack of communication and it hurt them both."
"Yeah, seems like kind of a no brainer to talk about that kinda thing," he shrugged.
"Yeah, I have to agree. But like, feelings can be difficult to deal with. I super don't approve of him doing that to Bobby...but that doesn't mean i don't worry about him out there. We don't even know where he's staying."
Greg shrugged again. "If he told Bobby about it I didn't hear, but he must have found a place cause he was taking his stuff."
"Huh...so he's not coming back, I guess." Kitty sighed "Maybe he's going back to the UK..."
"The UK huh? Wondered about that accent." Greg made a face. "Do you think Bobby's going to be really busted up about it? How long were they..." He trailed off.
"9 months or so? almost 10, but that's when the whole mess happened. He'll um, probably be a bit busted about it, but I think he's healing? He should be okay soon…"
"Oh damn... that's a long time," Greg said, making a face.
"yeah, it was a pretty significant breakup." She sighed, and then suddenly shifted posture, putting on a smile. "Hey! maybe you can help distract him or something? Like, as a roommate...help him like, keep his mind off Dorian and all that?"
Greg choked slightly. "Distract him? Like, like what?"
"like...train with him, or like...hang out? you know...like a new friend?" Kitty cocked her head. She raised her eyebrow "what'd you think I meant?"
"Nothing," he insisted, rubbing the back of his neck. He felt a flush rising on his cheeks. "Sorry, I'm just... not really good with people, I guess."
"Well..I mean, you're in the right place to get better at it!" She grinned "we've got people all over."
"Y-yeah," he nodded. "I'm gonna try, for sure."
"Good...and you'll like, talk to Bobby? He probably doesn't wanna be alone right now..."
"You think? I was thinking he might need some space but you know him better than me."
"He'll probably take a bit of time for some space." She said "but then he'll be right back looking to distract himself. He's got a hard time, like, sitting still, you know?"
"Yeah, he seems the type," Greg nodded. "I'll try to like, make sure he doesn't spend too much time in his own head I guess... donno how much good I'll do, but I'll try."
"Anything you can do would be nice, Greg… it'll be nice to have a new friend in the house...for all of us."
"Good. Good, cause I wanna be a friend. Yeah." he smiled a little awkwardly.
"Yeah...I bet it's been pretty lonely being the new guy in town, too." Kitty said with a compassionate smile.
"Everybody's been welcoming, which is nice."
Kitty grinned "good. because I was worried after hearing a bit about what happened at the end of that tour, you know?"
"With my sister?" he frowned.
"Yeah..." She sighed "and the sabotage..."
"Yeah," he sighed along with her. "Well, I wasn't about to hold sabotage against you guys..."
"We really appreciate it...that kind of thing doesn't happen very often, you know? ...not never...but not often."
"Yeah. Professor Xavier told me a little about it this morning when I talked to him after the danger room."
"Did he give you the X-men pitch?" She asked, grinning wider now. "I'm one of them, you know."
"He did. and he asked me to join the team. So I guess that makes us teammates."
"Oh!" Kitty beamed "yeah it does!" She raised her soda to him in salute. "I mean, it does if you decide to actually join up, at least."
He raised his yogurt goofily in a returning gesture. "I already told the professor I was in."
"Heck yeah! So far it's only been like...small things. The occasional troublemaker...some minor crime...recruitment and rescue...but maybe sometime soon we'll get a big mission."
"I'll try to be ready," he promised with a smile. "Can I ask who else is on the team?"
"Well...Bobby is. And Ororo and Piotr...me...Kurt.."
"Sounds like mostly everyone I've been getting along with," he said with a little smile.
"You'll fit right into the X-men, Greg. ...you're part of the team already, if you ask me."
Greg's smile widened. "You really think so?"
"Yeah! We've done some sims together and we all really like hanging out with you around the school! You pretty much fit right in!"
"That;s nice to hear. I uh, haven't really had a place I fit in before." He rubbed his shoulder thoughtfully, his mind drawn back to all the rough incidents in Red Oak.
"you didn't huh?" She smiled that sympathetic smile again, brushing her hair over her ear "...a lot of people here can relate to that."
"Seems like it," he nodded, meeting her gaze.. "Guess I'm in good company."
"You are." Kitty leaned over to lightly punch his arm "Welcome to the X-men, Greg! You should pick out a codename soon!"
"A code name?" he asked, punching her back lightly.
"Yeah, for when you're in the field!" She chuckled, ..and his fist went right through her.
She winked "i'm Shadowcat. I tried a few , but I think that's my favorite."
"Sounds very metal gear," he chuckled. "Huh. A codename. I'll think on it."
"Yeah! You should, because if you don't think of a good one you'll get teased about it forever." She joked "like poor Bobby."
"What's Bobby's?" he asked curiously.
"Guess." She laughed into her hand. "Just take a guess and I'll tell you how close you are."
He rubbed his chin. "Aw man, I'm terrible at this game. Mr. Freeze?"
"Close." She closed her eyes "Iceman."
Greg groaned. "Nice, man. Did he pick that himself or uh, fail to pick one?"
"He got to his first in-field mission, forgot to pick one and had to pick it at the last minute." She said with a wink "And now it's stuck."
"Yeeeah, alright I'm definitely going to give it some serious thought," he shook his head. "Any suggestions?"
"Hmm...you have those cool shadow powers, right? where do you turn into the big shadow demon man?" She tapped her chin "Demonspawn? no..too long.."
"I mean, it's the same length as Shadowcat," he pointed out. "But you might be right."
She furrowed her brow, tapping her finger against her chin in thought
"Shade? Nocturne? Reaper?"
"Huh... Nocturne's not too bad..." he nodded. "Yeah... maybe..."
"Just be sure to have one ready soon...or you'll wind up like.. Devilman or something." she grinned "avoid Bobby's fate, Greg." She finished her soda and tossed it in the trash with a wiggle of her fingers
"Avoooiiid ittt..." She said in as spooky a voice as she could manage as she walked, backwards, through the wall.