A/N: This started out as one fic inspired by the end of "Mainstream." However, it appears that my muse is a hopeless romantic at heart, so it turns out there are going to be three stories, one for each established Evolution couple.

Disclaimer: The Evo characters belong to Kids WB. The chapter titles are from songs by The Corrs.

They had been calling for her almost as soon as everyone had arrived home and silently gone their separate ways. Ororo, Jean, Xavier. Even Kurt had tried to talk to her before she went down the hall to her own room. Her response to each had been something to the effect of, "Leave me alone." Now she was curled up in bed, closing her eyes to keep the tears in. It didn't work. She kept seeing his face in the darkness.

Strutting around the school like he and his friends owned the place, treating the normal kids like crap.

Standing with Jean's rotten ex-boyfriend.

Reactivating a rivalry that had begun as soon as he and Scott started going to school together.

Screaming in her face. Sending the ground under her feet into seismic spasms. As if they were back to being enemies, as if nothing had changed. All those months that they had spent getting closer.and closerand closer. Had they really meant nothing to him? Not a single thing?


The door opened, spilling light into the darkened room. "Go away!"

"Okay, fine. I can just sleep someplace else tonight."

She raised her face. "Sorry." She could hear footsteps crossing the room, and then, perhaps the most shocking thing about this evening, the springs squeaking on her own bed. What was Rogue doing? She had always hated Lance. Like I should, too, now. Fool me twice, shame on me.


"You all right?"

"Yeah," Kitty said, a little more harshly than she meant to.

"Sit up."

Kitty did. Rogue's pale face looked paler in the dim light. "I said I was okay."

"You don't look okay. You don't sound okay."

"I don't want to hear any I-told-you-so's. I know I was, like, a total idiot for thinking he'd changed." The next six words spilled from her mouth before she could hold them back. "Do you guys think so, too?"

"We were fooled ourselves. And we wanted you to be happy. I lived with Lance. And later, I soaked up part of him while we were fighting. Remember? There was a lot of filth in there. Bad memories, almost made me feel sorry for the guy. But there were a lot of thoughts of you, too. He's wanted you since the day he first saw you." Was Kitty imagining it, or did her roommate almost sound wistful?

"What about when he came to join us? I mean, you didn't exactly make him feel welcome."

"I thought his feelings for you were making him do dumb things, sure. But I didn't doubt that he had them."

"He's got a funny way of showing it," Kitty muttered.

"And I'm not saying you should forgive him, either. I'm only telling you what I know."

The cordless phone on the nightstand shrilled once, twice. "Bet it's him," Kitty said. "I'm not here."

Rogue had picked the phone up. "Xavier Institute." She made a face. "Speak of the devil." Pause. She glanced over at Kitty, who was mouthing, I'm not here! "She's not here." Pause. "Don't you dare call me a liar, Lance Alvers." Pause. "Okay, she's here, but she doesn't want to talk to you. " Pause. "Didn't you hear me the first time? I said she doesn't —" Pause. "Okay. But if you make her feel any worse" Pause. "Good. You should be so scared." She held the phone out. "You might as well. He's just going to keep calling."

Kitty accepted the phone as gingerly as if she were picking up a poisonous snake. "What?"

"Kitty?"

"I said I'd take the phone." She tried to make her voice as cool as possible. "I don't have anything to say to you. Besides, I thought I was —"

"Too good for you." His tone sounded like it had the day after the soccer game incident, his please-forgive-me voice. She would not let herself be tricked that easily again. X-Men don't let their emotions rule them. X-Men don't let their emotions rule them. X-Men don't

"I know what I said," he went on.

"Then —"

"Would you let me finish?" he snapped. "You said, 'This is the real you.'Well, you're right. It was."

"Lance, get to the point."

"But so was when we first met. And when we were at the dance together. And when we were rescuing the X-Babies. And when I tried to head you off before you could get mixed up in the fight at the mall. I'm not super-good like you, Kitty. But I'm not all evil, either. I've got a lot of different parts to me. You helped me discover the good ones, but you have to deal with the bad ones, too. Treat me like a human being."

"As soon as you start acting like one!" she screamed into the phone. She could see Rogue wince. "I thought you'd, like, grown up since we first met. But then you go and attack my friends, twice."

"You didn't have to be involved. I tried to warn you the first time, and tonight it was between us and Summers."

"I couldn't just leave. I care about my friends."

"More than you care about me?" he demanded. I walked right into that one, she thought.

"Oh, my God," she said softly, covering her eyes like that might block out his image. Not Avalanche, super-powered mutant minion, but Lance. Dark eyes, dark hair, smile that looked like he wasn't used to being happy. Always ready with a joke or a vote of confidence. To remind her that maybe it didn't always matter what other people thought of her. Go away, she willed it. Come on, girl, be strong. Stop thinking about him. Pretend that it never existed. Pretend that it was all a lie, even if it wasn't.


"'Oh, my God,' what?"

"Oh, my God, this is exactly where we started. The words 'Forget them, you're with me' mean anything to you?"

Silence. "Okay, you've got me. But I've changed since then. I thought you knew that."

"I thought I knew it too. I even thought it might be for real." It was her turn to pause. "But now I've lost all chance I ever had of being accepted by them. Even if they let us back in. Which they won't. And don't say that it doesn't matter what they think of me," she cautioned. "Because it does. And don't you dare try to use your past as an excuse. I'm sorry for what happened to you, but if you're as tough as you say you are, then you can get the hell over it. Either you want to be with me, or you don't. But you can't pretend like the things you do when you're in costume don't matter when we're together. Neither of us can make that mistake again."

Now his voice was rising again. "You think that because I'll never be perfect like you, because you can't save me, I don't deserve you. Is that it?"

"Lance —"

"I'm not going to walk on eggshells for the creeps at our school just to please you. I'm not going to make nice with Summers and the rest of your little cult. If that's what I have to do to get you to care about me, it's not worth it."

"I never wanted"

"Me, neither," he said. "You thought I'd changed. You're right. I changed just enough so I could actually believe that someone like you could see me for who I was. We both fooled ourselves."

She could barely get the words out. "Don't call again."

"I won't, believe me."

"Don't come near me."

Silence again, and she knew he wondering the same thing she was. How are we going to end this? "See you around?" "Have a nice life?" "Good riddance?" None of them seemed right. She could just hang up. Or he could. Then they wouldn't have to say anything at all. What he actually did say was, "I won't. Wish I could say that I wouldn't if I wanted to. But I can't help how I feel."

"You have to."

"I can't." No, she prayed. Please don't say it. But he did, anyway. "I'm sorry, Kitty. And I love you."

No. Don't you do this to me. Do not. She slammed down the button on the phone, tears streaming from her eyes. "I love you, too," she whispered.