This story is mine. Really, all mine. Well, all the characters belong to Marvel, and I got part of the idea from a story by Mel (thanks, Mel!), but please don't sue me, it wouldn't be worth it. Thanks to Luba, too for the beta read and encouragement!
Just a Couple of Kids, after all… Chapter 4Kitty Pryde walked down the corridor from Kurt's room rubbing her nose, his laughter still ringing in her ears. "I really, really hate doing that," she muttered to herself, glancing at her hand to make sure her nose wasn't bleeding. "It's been months! And I still walk into things whenever I get distracted!"
Distracted was an understatement, she mused. Why, why was she getting so preoccupied about a simple compliment? "He probably didn't mean anything by it, anyway," she told herself firmly. "Katherine Pryde, get your act together. You're acting as if you were still fourteen years old. Just because he's about the best looking guy you've seen with the X-Men since Doug, has a great sense of humor, actually spent time in the real world, and doesn't make you feel like you're putting your foot in your mouth every two seconds – oh, who am I fooling anyway? I like him. So, what am I going to do about it?"
Kitty was still considering her options when she turned the corner. The next thing she knew, she was more or less sitting on the floor, looking at an equally bemused Bobby Drake.
"We have got to stop meeting like this!" he said with a grin as he stood up and reached down to help her up. "What will people say?"
"They'll say, 'Kitty's a klutz,' that's what", she replied as he pulled her to her feet. "And they'll be right, too," she added, smiling. She noticed suddenly that his hand was warm, that his grip on hers was strong but not pressing, and felt a brief surge of disappointment as he let go. "I just cannot get used to this! Before –" she glanced up at him, and saw him nod. The whole former-mutant community now shared a new meaning for the word "before". "Before, when I got distracted, I turned intangible. Annoying, sometimes, but at least I wasn't knocking anyone out."
"Might have been a bit disconcerting to the people you walked through, though," Bobby commented, his eyes half closed and his thumb and finger stroking his chin as if he were seriously considering it. "Nah, I'd much rather have a gorgeous girl knock me off my feet than go right through me. I'm used to them looking through me, you understand, but walking right through? No, I think that would be too much for my already low self-esteem. At least I know I've got your attention!"
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Kitty answered smiling, then winced a bit as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
"Hey, are you okay?" Bobby asked, his grin changing instantly to a look of concern. "Maybe we should take you to see Hank? I'm so sorry – here I am joking and you're hurt…"
"No, really, I'm ok – I just twisted my ankle a bit. Don't worry," she added, seeing that he still appeared upset. "I do this like, three or four times a day, at least. Not people usually – just walls, desks, you name it. You'd think, after being Wolverine's sparring partner for so long, that I'd be used to bruises!"
"Still, you should really get off your foot, at least for a bit. How about a coffee? There's probably still some left from breakfast, or I can make a pot? It's the least I can do, after all," he pleaded. "Come on, you wouldn't want me to spend the rest of the day moping around feeling guilty when you could have me as your willing slave instead, would you?"
Kitty laughed, thought briefly about the coffee she'd just had with Kurt, and dismissed the thought at once. "No, I couldn't be responsible for that," she agreed. "After all, who knows what you'd walk into if you were that distracted!"
"See? I knew you'd come around. Now, here," he said, putting his arm around her. As Kitty leaned into him, she decided that perhaps walking into people wasn't so bad after all.
(Two cups of coffee later…)
"…so there we were, watching Hank give his first lecture on superhumans on the university lecture circuit, when out pops this guy dressed in a frog costume. I mean, a frog costume, can you believe it? While he's still trying to convince us we should let him join the Defenders, we're attacked by another guy dressed up like a walrus. Had about the IQ of one, I'll give him that…"
Kitty grinned, half-listening to Bobby's story and half watching him tell it. He used his whole body when he talked, she decided, ducking a bit to avoid his arm as he demonstrated the flight of the walrus-guy through a wall. It was a nice body, too, she mused. Slim without being skinny, not muscle-bound like so many of the X-Men. She hadn't liked the latter since Piotr; maybe he'd turned her off to really big men. While Bobby was taller than she was, he wasn't so tall that she got a kink in her neck looking up at him. "Just about perfect," she decided, remembering how his arm had felt around her back, imagining she could she still felt the residual heat. "Funny, you'd never think a guy named Iceman would be so warm. Not that I'm complaining…"
"Hey, Earth to Kitty…" she heard, and blinked her eyes as Bobby waved his hand in front of them. "Am I boring you? I'm sorry – sometimes I get carried away." He wasn't laughing, now – instead, he looked despondent, and Kitty felt a sharp pain of remorse.
"Oh, no, Bobby – no, really!" she stammered, as she could see he didn't believe her. "No, my mind just wandered for a second – I really should get to work, although I'd much prefer to sit around here all day."
"Work? Are you late – I could give you a ride if you need one," Bobby replied quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't know – most of the guys around here don't have jobs per se, so I just assumed…"
"Neither do I, though I've got some resumes out there. No, I've just got some work to do on the security system - it's acquired an intermittent glitch that's got me worried. I've been playing around with it in my spare time, but I had a paper due yesterday morning so I haven't worked on it for a few days."
"That's right – Hank said you were a real computer whiz. Think you could take a look at my laptop later? I installed an upgrade to my accounting software and now my modem keeps trying to dial out."
Kitty wasn't sure, but she suspected that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Bobby's laptop; he had that look on his face that she was beginning to associate with him thinking up mischief. "Well, maybe there's nothing wrong with it now, but I bet there will be later," she mused. "Gotta give him credit if he can manage it, though – most of the people around here wouldn't have a clue how to deliberately make their modem auto-dial randomly. I wonder if he'll pull it off?"
"Sure. This'll probably only take a couple of hours – you want to meet around three o'clock?" she replied, trying to sound casual while thinking about whether or not she could realistically do her homework while she troubleshot the computer system so that she wouldn't have to deal with it later.
"Three it is. Want to meet in the library? Or did you have somewhere else in mind?" he asked.
Kitty bit back the answer she
wanted to give, and said, "The library's fine.
I'll see you at three." She got
up from the table, tested her weight on her ankle and found that it no longer
hurt and walked up to the door. Very
deliberately, she opened it before walking through, and was rewarded by the
sound of hands clapping behind her.
"This is not good. This is really not good."
Kitty stared at the screen in front of her, her visual basic text book abandoned. The evidence was all there, but it was hard to believe nonetheless.
"I really should have kept more on top of things," she told herself firmly. "I knew the systems were in a shambles after the fire – I should have taken some time off from classes and got them repaired sooner." She reminded herself that Jean had been unequivocally opposed to her taking a leave of absence from her studies, had in fact insisted that they be her first priority.
"Yeah, and Jean understands computers, right? No, Pryde, you've got no one to blame but yourself."
"I'll have to notify everyone immediately", she decided, and got up from the chair she'd been sitting on. As she opened the door, she saw Bobby, his hand poised as if to knock.
"I didn't mean to interrupt you," he said, lowering his hand, "I just wanted to let you know that if you were busy we could always do the laptop another time. She glanced briefly at her watch, and saw that the digital display was blinking 4:15.
"Aww shit – Bobby, I'm really sorry, I didn't realize how late it was. But I am going to have to take a rain check – we've got a biigg problem here."
"Anything I can do?" he asked, falling into step with her as she hurried down the hall.
"Yeah, see who you can round up for a meeting. I'll go tell Jean myself – in case you didn't know, she's pretty much running things these days. Tell them to meet in the briefing room in fifteen minutes, ok?"
"Your wish is my command, milady. Want to give me a heads-up as to what the meeting's about?" he asked, and she could see the concern in his eyes.
"Well…" she stopped and turned to look up at him. Something about him was so reassuring, and she found that she couldn't wait for the meeting, she had to tell someone. Had to calm down and get things straight in her mind before she presented the info to the others, to Jean – they'd all had so much faith in her abilities…
"We've been hacked."
"Huh?"
"The legacy virus info, the mission logs, damn, probably even those damned Xavier protocols. Someone's been into all of it. Shit," she added, as she ran her hand up her forehead and through her hair, "someone's downloaded all of it. I am such a fuckin' idiot!"
"Kitty…"
"Don't you dare tell me it's not my fault!" she yelled, stomping her foot. "I knew we had system problems. I knew there was a glitch in the security system. Glitch, huh – actually, there was no security system. Whoever it was shut the whole works down, and put in a subroutine that made things look as if it was running. After making it glitch intermittently first – that's my favorite part – so that we wouldn't suspect anything. So I wouldn't suspect anything. And now…" she trailed off, shaking her head.
"Kitty." she heard again. Bobby's warm hand lifted her chin so that she was facing him. "It'll be ok. Believe me." He put his arms around her, and she found herself pressed against his chest, his fingers stroking her hair gently as the tears ran down her face.
"Just trust me, it'll be ok," he repeated quietly, and somehow, she found herself believing him.