I forgot the disclaimer last chap, my bad.  Anyway, here it is:

Disclaimer: No, I don't own the X-men… such a shame isn't it? Oh and I probably don't own anything you think you recognize.

Note: I'm debating whether or not to bump up the rating… I really don't want to get kicked off of ffnet.  Any opinions?  I think the rating's ok for the story so far, but for future reference, it might get moved up.

Thanks to: hjh-31, somekindafreaky, and GcArchangel4qs for lovely reviews, they made me all happy.  I might start responding to individual reviews... later.  I'm being kind of lazy right now, and finals are next week, so I don't really have the time.  But thanks a bunch guys!

Fear and Escape

By: Bitrona

Pietro was shocked.  The girl wanted his help?  She knew who he was, she must know.  Their last fight together wasn't TOO long ago, was it?  Of course she remembered, he was the one to kick her out of the battle, and yet... she wanted his help?  Still holding her up a little, he sorted out his options, and realized within three seconds that he could either leave her or take her with him.  Within five seconds, the dirt road was alone and at peace once again.

----

Kitty knew he was holding her, and she knew she should have fought against him, but even if she did, where would she go?  Besides, she was too tired, and she still hurt, and actually… she just wanted to go back to sleep.  'My it's windy today' she thought.  It felt good against her face.  It was as if it was cleansing her of all wrong, and she found it very refreshing.  And then the wind stopped, and she felt herself being placed on something soft.  In the next instant, she had fallen asleep.

----

Pietro had decided he wanted to help the girl.  Maybe only for lack of better things to do, but that's what he decided and so he brought her back to his apartment.  Besides, she had asked for his help.  'I'm no Gambit, but I'm not so heartless just to leave a girl to die.  Or am I?  Well since I took her back here, I guess I'm not.'  He certainly was having a hard time figuring out his reasons.  'I haven't dated a girl for months, so that's not it.  She's not my friend… so that's not it.  Heck, I don't even know her!' Changing his focus, he tried to find things around his apartment that would aid her.

Pietro rushed around, annoyed because he had no idea what would help her.  Not knowing what to do was incredibly annoying.  'I found Shadowcat, took her back to my apartment, and now she's sleeping in my bed getting the sheets covered with dirt and who knows what else, and...' Pietro moved next to the bed.  'And... Actually she's kind of pretty.  I suppose she could be a nice girl.  Good thing I don't like nice girls, eh?'  Frustrated, and not knowing what she needed, he settled to reading some books.  Forty-seven books later, Kitty finally woke up.

Pietro was there in a heartbeat.  He opened his mouth to say, "Have a nice sleep?" but she beat him to it with a groggy "Where am I? …What? Quiksil-... like, what do you want with me?!!"  Her tone of voice had changed, and was getting increasingly loud. "You're not even part of the Brotherhood anymore last I checked, so like, what do you want?!!"

He put his hand over her mouth to stop her from talking, but she just phased through him and tried to run out the bedroom door.  Unfortunately, she cut the corner too close and ended up running into the doorframe and falling back onto the floor.  He was instantly on top of her, holding her down, hoping that she wouldn't think to phase.  He looked at the glaring Shadowcat, and proceeded to talk.

'Love the gratitude' Pietro thought to himself.  "Look, Shadowcat, don't you remember anything?"  He went on to explain about the pervious night's events, and how he had found her at the side of the road.  Gradually throughout the story, her glares softened, and she began to look as if she were going to cry.

Ending the story, Pietro frowned.  "Now what's the matter Shadowcat?  I saved you, aren't you at least going to say thanks?" Pietro was getting impatient.  It wasn't often that he helped out someone for no particular reason at all, especially an X-man, and the girl wasn't showing any appreciation whatsoever.

"Stop calling me Shadowcat, I'm like, not an X-men anymore.  And my name's Kitty." she sniffed.

'Oh duh' Pietro thought.  He should have remembered her name from Magneto's files- Kitty?  'No that's not it, it's Katherine.  Kitty for short apparently.  Yeah, Hideous name.'  He thought a little more.  'Katherine Pryde.  Got it.'  She was saying something to him, so he looked back down at her.  He noticed that she had stopped crying, and looked kind of angry.

"For like, the last time, get off of me!!"

He smirked, "Most girls would love being in your place right now."

"OFF!!"

Pietro got up, and dusted himself off.  The girl was filthy dirty; he figured she ought to take a shower.  "Pryde, go take a shower, you're filthy."

"Hey!  You jerk! Wait, how did you like, know my last name?  I don't even know who you are."  Kitty was confused.  She knew he was Quicksilver.  She also knew that he was one of the Brotherhood boys, but she didn't remember him being at any of the recent battles, so she figured he had split.  'Funny the professor didn't mention any of this... maybe he thought it didn't concern us.'

"The name's Maximoff, Pietro.  I know facts about all my enemies, and four months ago, you were one of them.  Since you're not an X-man anymore, I don't really care either way about you, except for the small fact that you're filthy dirty and getting crap all over my room."

Kitty was about to argue, but decided against it when she saw herself in a wall mirror.  'Ew! He's right, I do look horrible.'  "Where's like, the bathroom?"

While Kitty was taking a shower, Pietro sat on the side of the couch thinking.  It wasn't often he wasn't moving, but he had some questions and he wanted to figure out some answers.  'Why was she crying yesterday?  I hope she doesn't plan on staying... but then again, she says she's not an X-man.  Where else is she going to go?  Ugh, well maybe she'll be a good form of entertainment.  And she can cook my food.  And I wont even have to pay her!'  Pietro was really getting into the idea of having Kitty stay with him as a servant of some sort, when he remembered something else.  'While I was telling her what happened yesterday, she seemed so... hurt.  Well, I didn't hurt her when I ran into her, cause she's fine now.  She didn't even say anything about the fact that I tripped over her.  Maybe I only hit her hand or something.  So why was she hurt?  And how did she manage to stop crying so fast just now!'  Frustrated, Pietro realized he hadn't had any breakfast and figured he ought to eat something.

Pietro was in the kitchen plastering some mustard onto a slice of bread when he heard Kitty call out for him.  "Maximoff!"

Finishing his sandwich at super speed, he was at the bathroom door munching down the remains of his breakfast within the blink of an eye.  "What do you want?"

"I um, have like, nothing to wear... can I borrow something?"

Pietro chuckled to himself.  'Ah she wants me.  Poor girl.'  He left to get a shirt and some jeans, before deciding she would probably need more than that.  "I only have my clothes here, but I don't think they'll fit you awfully well.  Oh well, here's a shirt for now, what size do you wear?"

"I'm not like, telling you my size!"

"Oh c'mon, I'm just going to go get you some stuff.  What size do you wear."

"…I'll take your shirt for now, don't worry about the stuff."

"Geez, what size do you wear?? You can't wear what you had on yesterday, it's filthy."

"I'll wash it."

"You'll wash it?"

"Yes I'll wash it, now go away I have to finish cleaning up."

"FINE.  Be stubborn why don't you."

He left the shirt by the door, and ran off in a huff.  'Dumb girl, I'm just trying to help her.  If she doesn't want any help, fine.  She won't get any help.'  It was then that Pietro glanced at the clock and realized he had to be at work in ten minutes.  His job was in Foothill, a nearby city, so he needed to leave in five minutes.  Walking into his room, he got ready, and knocked quickly on the bathroom door.  "I'm leaving. I'll be back around six if you're still here."  Without waiting for a reply, he went out the front door and left.

Kitty poked her head out of the bathroom, her hair in a towel, and looked around.  'If I'm still here... I guess he's not kicking me out just yet.  Although I suppose if he didn't want me hear at all, he wouldn't have told me to take a shower, or brought me back in the first place, or... I don't know.  Ugh I need to dry off.'  Kitty picked up the shirt that was outside of her door, and finished drying off.  She felt extremely naked with only an oversized shirt on, but figured she could wash her own clothes and put those on before he got back.  That is, if she stayed or not.  Kitty sighed.  There was a lot she needed to figure out...

----

Pietro decided to work in the delivery department because it gave him a lot of extra time to do whatever he wanted.  A normal day at work consisted of him waiting impatiently for Joe, his boss, to finish writing down where things needed to go, leaving to pick up the stuff, running around delivering the things at various intervals of time (this was so people wouldn't become suspicious of him delivering fifteen packages in ten minutes), and wandering around doing random things.  It was a good thing his job wasn't in Bayville.  He might have had to deliver something to someone he knew, and although he could have easily gotten around the predicament, he preferred to play it safe.

Today, work was no different.  Pietro arrived two minutes early, and was greeted by an unenthusiastic Joe.  Soon Pietro was running around the city... well, delivering things.  The delivery company Pietro worked for is sort of like UPS or Fed-Ex.  Except it was a local organization, and it had a good reputation.  That good reputation should mostly have been credited to Pietro-mainly because he always delivered everything on time.

As usual, he was done delivering early.  He wandered around Foothill looking for something to do.  Foothill was a city, similar to Bayville, except maybe a little bigger.  Nobody who lived in Foothill cared much about strangers, so he wasn't worried about people coming up and talking to him.  Four months ago, Pietro would probably have entertained himself by getting girls, but lately he just didn't feel up to it.  The girls he always hooked up with were definitely hot, no doubt about that, but they were boring.  Boring as shit.

Eventually, he ended up at the city library, and sat down with a book in hand.  He couldn't concentrate, however.  He kept thinking about how Kitty was doing.  He really wanted her to stay... it was awful lonely living by himself in an apartment, hiding away.  'Man, and it's so boring.  At least she'd be someone to talk to.'

At six in the afternoon, Pietro got off work, and hurried back to the apartment.  Instead of opening the door and rushing in, however, he stopped and stared at the handle.  He cautiously unlocked the door and slowly turned the knob.  'God I hope she's here...'