The Kiss

~*~

Every moment marked

With apparitions of your soul,

I'm ever swiftly moving

Trying to escape this desire.

The yearning to be near you,

I do what I have to do.

-Sarah McLachlan

~*~

"I've got to say, Pryde, you're a great teacher," Pete whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her, causing a shiver to go through her body. He grinned at her reaction before backing away slightly. She followed him back to his table. She sat beside him at the booth. He took a drink of the scotch and offered the bottle to her.

"No thanks, I'm probably going to have to drive you home to begin with."

Pete frowned slightly. "Give me some credit, Pryde, I can hold my liquor better than that." He lit up a cigarette and she moved across from him.

"Do you have to do that?"

"Yes."

"Do you have to do that right here?"

"Let me smoke, bloody fascist."

"'Fascist?!" she demanded.

"You heard me."

She crossed her arms. "Jerk." She stood walking back to the dance floor and moving to the music. He watched as she moved and sighed taking another drink.

"Mon ami," Remy said in greeting as he sat down looking exhausted.

"What happened to you?" Pete asked raising an eyebrow.

"Ma femme," Remy said with a wry smile. "Remy not as young as he used to be. All that dancin' is a little tirin'."

"Yeah."

Remy followed Pete's gaze and smiled. /So Roguey was right./ "You like de petite chat?"

Pete looked at him confused for a second before figuring out what the other man was talking about. "I don' know what you're talkin' about, mate."

"Remy has eyes, mon ami. It be obvious."

"Alright, LeBeau, what are you doing?"

"Merely pointin' out de fact that you have a ding for our petite chat."

"You're in on it too. Is this a bloody conspiracy?"

"If it helps, mon brave, de chat likes you."

"Where would you get that idea, is insulting the way the girl shows she cares?"

Remy smiled. "Non . . . well peut-etre. De chat has only really had one *crush* and dat was on Monsieur Summers. All we know is that with you de chat is different."

"Right . . ." Pete shook his head taking another drink. "You people are creepy."

"Specifically?" Remy asked.

"No, the whole bloody spandex circus." Remy chuckled at that phrase mentally filing it away. Jubilee, Bobby, and Rogue came over. Rogue sat on Remy's lap, the other couple sat beside them in the same fashion.

"Where's Kitty?" Rogue asked scanning the crowd for her friend. Pete nodded to the dance floor and Rogue walked out to join her friend causing Remy to sigh at the loss of his girlfriend. The two girls began to dance together talking softly. "Why're you out here by yourself?"

"Apparently Mr. Wisdom doesn't enjoy dancing," Kitty said.

"He seems to enjoy watching," Rogue said slyly. Kitty rolled her eyes.

"God, he can be such a jerk."

It was Rogue's turn to roll her eyes. "So says every straight woman about her guy."

Kitty allowed her self a smile at that. "So you and Remy have problems like that?"

"Not that, the swamp rat and I only have problems when he ogles every female within site range."

"He's a flirt?"

"'A flirt' doesn't describe Remy," Rogue said shaking her head. "Flirting is like an art form for him."

"Ah." Rogue grabbed Kitty's arm taking her back to the booth with her. Rogue went back to her seat and Kitty sat beside Pete. Pete sighed putting out his cigarette when she sat down.

"Don' get used to it," he warned her. "It was pretty much finished t' begin with."

Kitty nodded but smiled at him just the same. "Thank you." He nodded, as close to a 'you're welcome' as he was going to get.

Later

The two left the club getting into his car. They had decided to start home before the others. Kitty yawned stretching out in the seat. Pete glanced at her and smiled. He glanced behind him and frowned. "I think we're bein' followed." Kitty glanced in the mirror.

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"That car has been followin' us for the last three miles, at each turn." He glanced back again. "Watch." He turned left and the car turned too. "See?"

"What do we do?"

"Have your seatbelt on?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He made a sharp right and floored the gas. She gasped.

"What are you doing?"

"Outrunning them," he stated.

"You're going to get us killed," she said not admitting to the rush of adrenaline flowing through her, she loved this!

"Maybe." He grinned as he made another sharp turn. "Fun isn't it?" The car was gone now. "Okay, now, let's go home."

"And we're going to do that how? Do you know where we are?"

He turned to her raising an eyebrow. "Don't you?"

"No, I've never been to this side of town before." He pulled over.

"There's a map in the glove box." She opened it and pulled out the map looking at what was under it.

"Why do you have a gun in here?"

"Protection, Pryde, and judging by what just happened, I might need it." She frowned at that. He looked at the map for a few minutes. "Hell, I have no clue of where we are."

Kitty undid her seatbelt and leaned slightly over him to look at the map. "Okay, I think we're here." She pointed at a place on the map. "So all we have to do is drive to here." She pointed to another spot. "That will lead to Millers' which will take us back to the main road." She looked into his eyes, her mouth inches away from his. "See, its simple." He nodded not taking his eyes away from hers.

"Simple," he repeated. He leaned towards her catching her lips against his. She tensed in surprise and quickly pulled away.

"Why did you do that?"

He smirked. "Because, Pryde, I have wanted to do that since you nearly knocked me unconscious. And tonight, seeing you in that outfit, it was all I could do to not be all over you." He smiled brushing a hand through her hair. "Are you sayin' ya didn' enjoy it?"

"No, it was just unexpected."

"Ah." He leaned into her and kissed her again. This time she didn't back away. She leaned into the kiss, kissing him back softly. He grinned against her lips at her reaction and nipped her bottom lip causing a soft gasp from her, which allowed him to deepen the kiss.

She could taste the scotch and the cigarettes on his breath and found that this taste from him was just . . . right somehow. She heard him groan deep in his throat as she returned the kiss passionately, moving her tongue against his. He found that there was nothing more erotic than her unsure ventures and the soft taste of cherries that was just. Kitty. He pulled away.

"What's wrong?" she asked worried.

"Nothing, Pryde, but breathing is important you know." She smiled shyly. "That wasn't unexpected, right?" She sat down in her seat looking up at him. "Well, Pryde, I guess we should go home." He pulled back onto the road and she gave him directions on how to find the way. They got out finding that the others were already home.

"Oh no," Kitty whispered. "Man, I'm never going to live this down."

"Don't worry, `bout it, Pryde," Pete said with a grin as he slipped an arm around her waist. "Just tell `em you were in my car . . ." he leered at her. "You can come up with the activities."

"There's no way that I would tell them that we were . . ." she stopped shaking her head.

"Of course, Pryde," he said releasing her. She looked up at him surprised by the hurt on his face. "I didn' mean t' imply anythin'."

She reached out taking his arm. "I don't mean not tell them about us," she said. "As soon as I get upstairs to my room I plan on telling Rogue and Jubes about everything."

Now he smiled at her. "Just don't mention the car chase."

"Why?"

"Just trust me, luv." Her face brightened considerably at that term of endearment. He lowered his head and softly kissed her. "Ready t' go in?"

"Uh-huh," she said still looking up at him. He chuckled kissing her once more. They walked inside together. The others were watching them knowingly. "What?"

"Not very observant are ya, Kit?" Rogue asked nodding to the window where the group was facing. Kitty flushed at this. "Well, gentlemen, it's our bed time. We'll see you in the morning." She grabbed Kitty's arm. Kitty looked at Pete smiling.

"Goodnight."

He returned her smile. "`Night, luv." She blushed again as Rogue dragged her upstairs.

"He is so cute," Jubilee gushed. "What happened? What took you guys so long? You left ten minutes before us. What were you two doing?"

"We just kissed," Kitty said shrugging. "We got lost, and were sitting looking at his map and he leaned over and kissed me."

"Kit, you have got to be the most innocent person I know," Jubilee said. "You have this hot, older, British guy all alone and you just kiss once."

"Twice," Kitty said defensively. The other two girls chuckled. Kitty shook her head and got dressed. "Goodnight, guys."