This story is mine. Really, all mine. Well, all the characters belong to Marvel, and so do the X-Men, though they don't deserve them, but please don't sue me, it wouldn't be worth it.
As always, thanks go out to Luba for the beta read and encouragement, and to everyone who's been so great about providing feedback!
Sorry about the delay on this chapter! Don't worry – Bobby and Kitty's adventures will continue!
Just a Couple of Kids, after all… Chapter 11When Bobby and Kitty finally separated, he reached out to wipe the last of the tears from her face.
"Better?" he asked, smiling.
"Ummm – uh, huh," she replied, smiling back, then looked, Bobby thought, a little embarrassed. "I hope you didn't do that just because…"
"No, I wanted to do that last night, but I didn't want you to think I was rushing things," he replied, grinning sheepishly. "I mean, it's hard to believe we just met a couple of days ago..."
"I know," she answered. "I feel like I've known you a lot longer than that. You must think I'm a real drip, though – every time I see you I'm crying about something. Really, I'm not like this usually…"
"Hush," he replied, cutting her off, and stroking her hair with his hand. "Don't sweat it, Kit, it's been a rough couple of days. It's going to be just fine." He hoped, for her sake even more than his own, that he was right. He could hardly believe what had just happened, but he certainly wasn't complaining. It was even harder to believe that just yesterday he'd been trying to convince himself he didn't stand a chance with her, and here she was in his arms.
Maybe this was all a dream…but he sure hoped it wasn't.
"Of course, that's assuming we make it through the current crisis," he added, changing the subject before he could convince himself that he was suffering from hallucinations. "I briefed part of the team this morning…"
"I know," Kitty replied, and, much to his surprise, hugged him hard. "I wanted to thank you for standing up to Warren for me."
"You heard?" he asked, bewildered. "Oh, did Logan tell you?"
"No, was he there? He didn't say," Kitty answered. "No, I was in the hall when Warren started off, and decided not to come in. I really wasn't awake enough to deal with him," she added apologetically, "but I wanted to hear what he had to say. I was really impressed by how you handled him."
"Me?" Bobby asked. "Oh, come one, Kit, it was no big deal…" he added, feeling his face turning red.
"Oh sure, no big deal," she teased. "Bobby, you couldn't have handled him better. He ended up looking like an immature fool, while you…"
"Sounded less like an immature fool than usual?" he quipped.
"Sounded like a mature, confident adult," she replied, ignoring his comment entirely. She giggled, and Bobby looked at her quizzically. "I don't think he knew what hit him. He didn't even see me when he came out, he just kept shaking his head as if he were trying to wake up from a bad dream."
"Well, he had it coming," Bobby said. "Anyway, I haven't seen Jean yet, but I suppose we should talk to her about setting up a meeting…"
"Don't bother," Kitty said sharply, turning away. She walked over to her bed and sat down, absently petting what looked like a stuffed purple dragon.
"What do you mean," he asked, puzzled. "Did you talk to her already?" He suddenly did a double take. He must be seeing things, he decided, but it had looked as if the dragon moved…he shook his head, deciding that perhaps he was hallucinating after all.
"Yeah, I stopped in on my way back from the kitchen. I don't know what's going on with her, but…" Briefly, she relayed the gist of her conversation with Jean, ending by telling him what Wolverine had said. Bobby shook his head, puzzled.
"That definitely doesn't sound like Jean. I mean, shit, normally she wouldn't even talk to me that way, and I got the impression yesterday she has a much higher opinion of you. She actually blew off the whole thing?"
"Yeah, made it sound like I was making mountains out of molehills, and I should be more concerned about my education than the security breach."
"Weird. Whatever she's got on her mind, it must be scrambling it. What do we need to do next? I told everyone we'd get the systems back up – Rogue's threatening e-mail withdrawal symptoms, which could get ugly, but if you've got homework, I'm sure she'll live."
"Well, I've got a class this afternoon, but it's just Visual Basic, and I can e-mail the instructor my homework, if I get it done. He doesn't really care if I show up," she confided. "I need the credit for graduation, but I know about as much about VB as he does."
"Graduation? I thought you just started college this year?" Bobby asked, as he watched Kitty's hand stroke the stuffed animal. No, he wasn't seeing things – it had actually flipped over and wrapped its claws around her hand. "Umm, Kitty…" he started to say, but she was already answering his question.
"I did, and I didn't.
I took some correspondence courses while I was at Muir, and tested out
of a bunch of others," she replied, blushing.
"I've got the senior level courses in my major to take, of course, and
my lab science ones, but I started out as a second semester Junior."
"Kitty?" he asked again, nervously. He
was sorry to change the subject, especially since his already high opinion of
Kitty's intelligence just jumped several notches, but he was having trouble
concentrating. Whatever that thing was, it was now staring at him, and he
suddenly noticed it had very large teeth.
"What?" she asked, pulling her hands into her lap, which caused the creature to stare at her instead.
"What is that thing?"
"What is what?" she asked bewildered. "Oh, that's right, you've never met Lockheed. Lockheed, this is Bobby – now, be nice, Dragon," she said, as Lockheed sat up and looked him over. Bobby suddenly felt as if he were under inspection, and wondered what the correct protocol was when being introduced to a – dragon?
"That's Lockheed?" Bobby asked, amazed. Lockheed continued to stare at him, which was disconcerting to say the least.
"Yes…what's the matter?" Kitty asked, looking a bit annoyed.
"Oh, nothing – I saw him mentioned in the logs, but no one ever described him. I thought he was your pet dog or something," Bobby admitted.
"A dog?" Kitty laughed. "No, he's definitely a dragon – or at least, some sort of alien species that looks like one. Come on – say hi, and get acquainted," she urged.
"Umm, hi Lockheed, pleasure to meet you," he said in a tone of voice he hoped sounded confident, as he held out his hand and prayed the dragon wouldn't take a bite out of it.
Lockheed inched forward, and to his great surprise, put his paw? claw? in Bobby's hand. Bobby, still dazed, shook it without thinking.
"Oh good, you two are going to get along," Kitty said, and Bobby could hear the relief in her voice. "I thought so, when he didn't, umm, object before, but I wasn't sure. Lockheed's been with me for what seems like forever – haven't you, Dragon?" she said, and Bobby saw Lockheed nuzzle against her hand. She resumed petting him, and his eyelids grew heavier – almost like a cat's. "He's usually friendly, but he never could stand Pete."
"How come?" Bobby asked absently. He realized he was still staring at the dragon, and forced himself to look at Kitty instead.
"I don't know – I don't think he liked the smell of his cigarettes," Kitty answered. "He was always trying to hide them from him – Lockheed was hiding them, I mean. He hid Pete's clothes once, too," she added laughing. "Pete – well, he was NOT amused, to say the least."
Bobby grinned despite himself. "No, I'll be he wasn't. He turned to Lockheed, and said, "Well, Lockheed, I don't smoke, so maybe you can leave mine alone, ok? I don't have that many with me – this was just supposed to be a vacation, after all." He wasn't sure, but he thought he saw Lockheed wink.
Kitty smiled, and Bobby was very glad he'd passed the draconian inspection. He suspected he wouldn't have been in Kitty's life very long if he hadn't. Returning to the original subject, he asked, "Anyway, how long with the homework take?"
"Probably about twenty minutes, though I do need to start my Russian Lit paper, too – it's due next week."
"Why don't I start things up, then?" he asked, holding up his hand when he saw she was going to object. "No, hear me through. You said you've got the connections down, right?"
"Well, yeah, but I have some work to do on them before I bring them up…"
"Right. I was just thinking – if I don't touch the external connections, I could still bring up the servers, right? I mean, it's mostly just flipping switches, and I can probably handle that while you finish your VB homework. At least then the servers will be up when you're ready to move forward, and Hank can access his database, which I'd prefer he could do before he starts whining. I don't know if you've ever been treated to one of Hank's whines," he joked, "but I have, and I'd rather forego a repeat performance. If I get stuck," he added, grinning, "I'll wait until you're done."
"Hmm, fair enough," she answered, after thinking it through for a minute. "Just don't turn on the server in the back left-hand corner of the room. It'll freak if it can't find an external connection."
"No problem," he answered. "No touch back left computer. Got it. I'll see you in a bit," he added.
It was an hour later, and Bobby Drake was bored.
The problem, he decided, was that none of these computers had Solitaire loaded. Solitaire was a great time killer, guaranteed to make waiting for gorgeous brunettes go much faster. He'd turned on the servers, carefully avoiding the one in the back left corner. That had taken about ten minutes. He'd spent another ten walking around and making sure they all came up nicely. They had. Since then, he'd flipped through Kitty's Russian Lit book, the operating manual from one of the servers, and had systematically crumpled up a large number of useless printouts and practiced throwing them into the garbage can, but even that had grown boring after a while. He was trying to decide if he should go hunt down Hank and trust that Kitty would come and find him when she was done with her homework, or if he should go get his laptop which at least did have Solitaire loaded, when there was a knock at the door and Kurt Wagner walked in.
"Oh, Herr Drake, I was looking for Katzchen – is she here?" Kurt asked, looking around.
"Nah, she'd doing her homework – she should be here in a while, though. Want to take a seat?" Bobby asked, gesturing to a chair.
"If I'm not interrupting?" Kurt replied, looking at the scattered "basketballs" that hadn't made it into the can and smiling.
"Hardly," Bobby answered, rolling his eyes. "I was just debating Rogue's reaction if I flooded her e-mail with exciting excerpts from the Shi'ar computer manual. In other words, I'd love some company."
"The systems are back up, then?" Kurt asked, pulling up a chair.
"Only internally," Bobby answered. "I promised Kit I'd wait until she got here to do anything else."
"Oh," Kurt replied dejectedly.
"Problem?" Bobby asked.
"Vat? Nein – I just have some research to do, and I wanted to access the internet. I'll have to go down to the seminary, I suppose. Did Katzchen indicate how long it would take to get us reconnected to the outside world?"
"Not really, just that she's got some work to do on the firewall," Bobby answered. "But hey," he added, having a sudden thought. "My laptop's got its own internet connection – want to use it to dial out? I wouldn't think that would cause any problems."
"It shouldn't – Warren's been in the library for hours dialing out with his. Would you mind?" Kurt asked, relieved. "I'm a bit behind on my work, and I really don't want to run into my instructor until my assignment is done."
"Nah, no problem. Let me leave a note for Kitty, and we can go down to my room and get it." He quickly scrawled a note letting Kit know he'd be back in a few minutes, and he and Kurt began the trek to his room.
"So, Bobby, how are you and Katzchen getting along?" Kurt asked, and grinned mischievously as Bobby looked at him in surprise.
"Come now, Bobby – you know how the rumor mill around here works as well as anyone," Kurt answered, putting his hand on Bobby's shoulder. "You two no sooner left the mansion last night than Rogue had told half its inhabitants. Besides," he admitted, "Kitty talked to me yesterday morning. When I saw how the two of you interacted at the meeting, I assumed…if I was wrong, I apologize. Perhaps I read too much into things."
"No, it's ok" Bobby replied, wondering vaguely if he should listen to Rogue's gossip more often – maybe he'd find out what he was going to do next before he did it. "We're getting along fine. I even passed inspection by her dragon – at least, he didn't bite off any fingers, which struck me as a positive sign."
"Ah yes, Lockheed is rather protective of Kitty. I've never known him to bite, though – at least, no one who wasn't actively attacking, that is."
"Well, that's reassuring," Bobby said, as they stopped at the door to his room. "Want to come in? It'll take me a minute to get everything together."
"Sure."
As Bobby began to bundle up various cords and peripherals, Kurt wandered around the room. "You know, despite the many years I spent away from the mansion, I always left some things here, too. Of course, many of them were destroyed with the various explosions of the building," he joked, "but somehow it always seemed more like home, knowing that some part of me remained here."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I've been here so seldom, relatively speaking, over the last couple of years, but I can't bring myself to get rid of this stuff," Bobby replied, gesturing at the clutter on his desk and the posters on the walls. "Of course, it could also just be we're too lazy to clean up…"
Kurt looked for a moment as if he were seriously considering the idea, then grinned. "A definite possibility, Herr Drake, but let's let everyone assume a more sentimental cause – I'm sure it will enhance both our images far more than the truth would," he said. The two of them grinned at each other, and Bobby thought, not for the first time, how much better he would have fit in with the second group of X-Men. He remembered how he'd originally objected to their "invasion" of the mansion, and shook his head, embarrassed even at this late date by his reaction. He'd gotten to know Kurt fairly well at Scott's bachelor party and other occasions, and had been on the team at the same time as many of the others, most notably Storm and Rogue. While he wouldn't trade Hank's friendship for anything, he thought it would have been much more fun having classes with Kurt, Rogue, and Kitty than it had been with Warren and Scott, both of whom had spent more time drooling over Jean and glaring at each other than they had doing anything else.
"Before we go – a word about Katzchen?"
"Yes," Bobby answered, bracing himself for the "Big brother" treatment.
"I once threatened Herr Wisdom with what Brian and I would do if he hurt Kitty," Kurt added, clasping Bobby's shoulder and grinning. "Remind me to share the story with you some time – I still wish I had a picture of the look on his face. I've heard nothing bad about you, and Hank vouches for you. Since I've come to value his opinion in the last few months, I'll hold off on the threats, for now."
"Thanks, I think," Bobby replied cautiously.
"Which is not to say that I don't have the right to make such threats later, if circumstances warrant," Kurt added firmly, letting go of Bobby's shoulder. "Kitty is like a sister to me. I reserve a brother's right to threaten if necessary." Bobby stared at him, trying to decide if he was serious or not, until Kurt began laughing. "In the meantime, though, would you like to accompany me? I may need assistance in forcibly removing Warren from the modem line. I really need to get this assignment done. And, if you would be so kind, would you help me set up your laptop?"
"Sure. I almost forgot - I've got to make it stop dialing randomly," Bobby answered. In response to Kurt's questioning look, he added, "Hey, I figured it was a good way to get to know her – who knew we were about to be hacked, anyway?" Kurt stared at him for a moment, then began laughing again. Realizing how ridiculous he had sounded, Bobby joined in, and together they walked down the stairs to the library, trading stories about outrageous things they'd done to meet girls.
"Domina, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked Seth, typing frantically while Domina paced behind him, dictating.
"If we would choose allies, best we test them first, don't you agree?" she replied in a tone that strongly indicated it would be wise to agree.
"Of course, Domina."
After he'd helped Kurt get the laptop setup in the library (Warren, unfortunately, was no longer there when they arrived), Bobby returned to the computer room, where he found Kitty hard at work in front of the computer he hadn't turned on.
"Hey, how's it going?" he asked.
"Pretty good – I'm actually pretty much done here," she replied, not turning from the monitor. "I got security restored, and I think I've weeded out all the back doors they inserted to get back in. Did you get Kurt set up?"
"Yeah, not a problem," Bobby answered, sitting down behind her.
"What about your modem problem?" she asked innocently.
"Oh, it seems to be ok now," he replied. He was glad she wasn't looking at him; he was fairly sure his face was bright red.
"Oh good – it took you a lot less time to fix it than it did to set it up," she answered.
"Yeah, well, all I had to do was remove the script – hey, you knew all along?" he blurted out.
Kitty laughed. "No. I suspected, but I didn't know until just now. I'm kind of flattered, actually – no one ever screwed up their computer just to have a reason to talk to me before. You'll have to tell me how you did it sometime – I might want to use it on someone."
"Sure, not a problem," he replied, relieved that she wasn't mad. "Hey, what do you want to do after this?" he asked. "We could go catch a show, or –"
"Hmm, this is strange," she said suddenly, interrupting him. He turned to see what she was looking at.
"What's strange?"
"I just brought up the T1 line a few minutes ago, and I thought I'd check my e-mail. It looks like we've got a message from our former hackers."
"What does it say?" he asked, peering over her shoulder.
"Just an address, actually," she said, puzzled. "In New York City, no less. You think it's an invitation?"
"Sounds like," Bobby replied. "Think we should go tell Jean?"
"Why bother?" Kitty answered, turning to face him. "She didn't want to be bothered with the whole thing before, I can't imagine she'll be any more interested now. Well, maybe she would be," she admitted, "but I really don't see that telling her is necessary, anyway. It'll just go to committee, and everyone will debate it for days before they do anything. Why don't we just go check it out?" she asked teasingly. "After all, Jean did say we should take care of the computer systems, right? Finding out why it happened is a logical component, I'd say."
Bobby grinned. "Oh, Jean'd LOVE that. The two kids off by themselves on a mission? And without clearing it with her, first? I dunno, though – maybe we should get some backup, just in case," he added, unsure that they should be jumping into this blindly.
"Ok, so we leave a message. With Kurt, maybe. He's trusted me to act on my own initiative before, so I doubt he'll say anything, but he can come bail us out if we're not back in a day or two. I don't know about you, but I think I'd rather check this out ourselves than drag the whole team into it."
Bobby thought it over. Unlike Kitty, he wasn't accustomed to solo missions – Scott had frowned on that sort of thing. Or at least, he'd never sent Bobby on one. Grimacing at the thought, he made up his mind.
"Ok, I'm in. How do you want to play this?"
Kitty thought for a moment, then stood up. "Here's our story – we're going out tonight."
"Original. Seems to me I asked you out tonight," Bobby quipped.
"See? It's believable. Best type of cover story – keep it simple. Out to dinner, I think, and then we'll play it from there – that'll keep everyone else from wanting to tag along."
"Sounds good. Let me guess – I should go tell Rogue?"
"Hmmm, I was thinking Hank, but Rogue'd probably be better – she gossips more. Tell anyone you run into, though – it can't hurt. The more people think we're out for a night on the town, the less likely it'll be that they'll question what we really are doing. In the meantime, I'll go tell Kurt what's really going on, and get some gear together. We meet out at your car in say, an hour?" she asked, and Bobby could sense she was really in her element. Kurt had mentioned something about Kitty being a natural born field leader during their time with Excalibur – Bobby could understand why, now.
"It's a deal."