X-Men Evolution is a trademarked product from Marvel, all the characters are owned by Marvel and not me. This is a work of fiction based off of said series. I make no money off this, yadda yadda yah.

"In The Garage" - by Val Shrum (kiyonekatz at yahoo dot com)

Chapter 2

***************************************************************************

The Jeep pulled in next to the Brotherhood House. The trip to the rental store seemed successful, Kitty held a plastic bag with a few movies inside and a with her other arm she grabbed her backpack. Lance hopped out of his side of the vehicle. He grabbed the pizza box and locked up the Jeep before heading to the front door.

" --- Yes. I know. Curfew at nine, got it. We're just going to study, eat, and maybe catch a movie, no big. Sure, Scott. I know. Whatever. G'Bye." She hung up her phone. "I swear, I even think about having a semblance of a normal life and I get the total third degree."

"Well, I am dangerous, you know." He smirked.

"So you think." She grinned and waited for Lance to open the door.

"I'm wounded. I built up a reputation that says otherwise, dear Kitty." Lance opened the door and held it for Kitty to enter after him. He moved down the hall to his own bedroom. Once they entered, he carefully took a look down the hall to make sure they were safe, then closed the door behind them.

"Reputation, schmeputation, I know the truth, Lance Alvers." She took a seat on the edge of his bed. Kitty opened up the bag to pull out a movie and tossed it to Lance.

"We'll see about that." Lance caught the movie. He put it and the pizza down on the dresser and jumped to playfully to tackle Kitty.

She let out an 'Eek!' noise and phased before he came in contact with her. The result was Lance falling straight through Kitty, and Kitty laughing at him for his effort. She grabbed the movie and went to the television-movie-player-combo Lance had set up.

Lance groaned, "You could have let that happen."

"Buuuuuuuuuuuut... I didn't." She turned on the television, getting a remote to start the show for them.

Lance set up some pillows to be used for support against the wall, "No fun."

"Never." Kitty turned off the lights. She started up the movie, sitting next to Lance on the make-shift couch.

He shrugged and pouted in his own way, arms crossed over his chest as a familiar movie studios logo splashed across the screen.

Kitty nudged him just slightly, then slouched to lean her head against his shoulder. Lance blinked, then instinctively un-tensed. He placed his arm around behind her to set on the other side of her. He took this moment to smile. 'Oh I get it, she was just being playful.' He turned his head away from gazing at her to pay attention to a movie he'd seen probably a good twenty times. The title appeared on the screen.

Back to the Future.

"You know, I used to watch this every time it came on television." Kitty commented, "It's got that magic, you know."

"Magic? Like what?" He asked as she settled comfortably against him.

"Captivation. It's like completely mesmerizing in a way that only obnoxious film students and college professors can gloat about in late afternoon college courses at prestigious art schools that are too expensive to attend for normal people, but they do it anyway." Kitty rambled.

"I think I see where you're going with that." He smiled at his own memory. "I mean, even I remember wanting to grow up to be Marty McFly."

"Get out!" She teased, "You? I don't see it."

"I never said I really made it." Lance chuckled.

"Ooh, I like this part. Shh." Kitty quieted Lance and continued to watch the movie.

Lance moved his right thumb slowly up and down along her clothed shoulder. He tilted his head, noticing and taking a note of the smell of the shampoo she used that morning. 'I never paid attention to that before.' He thought, 'I guess we don't get very many quiet moments.' He caught his mind wandering away and stopped. Lance concentrated on the movie again.

Kitty closed her eyes. She felt nervous. Her stomach tied in knots because she was so close to someone. Close, where she had never been before. Her teenage years had only just started a short while ago, so any moment like this was new and exciting. Kitty moved her hand to rest on his stomach, her own fingertips moving along near his clothed abdomen. She could feel a little muscle tone underneath the thin, black shirt. A small blush appeared across her cheeks. 'Snap out of it.' She mentally told herself. Her eyes focused once again on the movie.

"My favorite scene, where everything just... works out right." Lance whispered.

The movie character started playing the song Johnny B. Goode with the band. Lance added, "I can do that."

"Sure you can." She snuggled against him.

"No, really. I'll show you if you want."

Kitty nodded, "Sure, after the movie then, 'kay?"

The movie played out it's course. The ending song played as the credits rolled. Kitty reluctantly stretched and sat up. Lance looked a little disappointed, but played it off by stretching, himself. He moved to turn the lights back up and shut off the television.

"So what was this you could do?" She leaned back, curiously observing the dark haired boy.

Lance smiled warmly, "Oh, that? Okay." He opened the closet in his room. He pulled out a small amplifier, plugging it into the wall. Lance then took a case off of the upper shelf. He opened it to produce simple white and black electric guitar. He plugs it in and goes through strumming the strings. "... it's a little out of key, hold on..." Lance seemed uniquely excited.

Kitty blinked and sat up. Her interested now completely piqued. "So you're pretty good at this?" She asked, a bit stunned.

"I guess." The tone he used was very confident. Not really a modest moment, but almost a sarcastic one. He turned up the volume on the guitar then started playing through the introduction to 'Johnny B. Goode.' He threw in a fancy riff or two in there, only adding to the fact that he knew he was showing off for a girl he obviously liked a bit.

"You... guess?" She only partially picked up his sarcasm. "You're not guessing." Kitty moved to sit at the edge of the bed, captivated a little by Lance's performance. "Where do you hide it all?"

"Hide?" He stopped playing, setting the guitar aside. "What do you mean?"

"Your talent? You just totally blew my expectations out of the water. Why don't you do something with this?" A very honest question, Kitty thought.

"What? You mean this?" Lance laughed, "It's a hobby. Look at who you're talking to, Kitty. I don't exactly think I've got an overwhelming desire to be a rock star."

She shrugged, a little confused. "I just don't see why you don't work on good things like this to maybe... I dunno... add something." Kitty didn't want to say what she was thinking. 'So you don't have to grow up to be a loser.' She shook her head, "Stuff like that... it's hard for me. I have no talent in music. I'm better with computers and dancing."

Lance rolled his eyes, "Neither did I, but I learned. It's not that hard, really. I'll teach you."

"What?! No! That's silly!" She waved a hand, trying to avert attention from the idea.

"It's not silly. C'mon, just try it?" Lance touched Kitty's hand, and pulled her off the bed. He sat down on the ground. Kitty followed and sat next to him.

"I'm gonna suck." She whined. She hated not being good at something.

"Everyone tends to when they first try. The key is trying, Kitty."

"Whatever, Lance." She carefully picked up the electric guitar. Kitty pulled the strap over her neck and awkwardly gripped the frame.

He nodded, "Good. Looking good." Lance moved in close behind her, taking his right hand and placing it over hers, and then also carefully moving her left hand up along near the top of the fretboard. "I'm going to teach you a really easy song. You only need to know three chords."

"But I don't KNOW three chords!" She seemed annoyed.

"Relax, Kitty." He said softly, "Now first, look at my left hand. I'm going to put my index finger on the second string, which is on this fret. See? Then I'm going to put my other two fingers on the first string, and the sixth string here." Lance paused, "This is the G chord." He moved his right hand off of hers. "See how I'm holding my hand, like this? I want you to make your hand look like that, then play the guitar."

"Don't I use a guitar pick, or something?" She asked, a little concerned.

"It won't hurt without it. Just do it like this for now." He took his right hand and placed it on her wrist to guide her down to the strings.

Her fingertips stroked the strings of the guitar softly, echoing in the room the sound of a G chord.

Lance smiled, "Okay, that was good. Now I want you to do it for real."

She emulated his hand position from before, and strummed a very off sounding note. Lance looked at the neck of the guitar and carefully moved one finger over, "Last string, babe. Try again." He voiced. She strummed once more, with a small smile on her face now.

"Okay, now what?" Kitty sounded a bit excited to learn. Learn more, at least.

Lance nodded, "Hold on, Kitty-Kat. You're jumping ahead. But I'll teach you the next one anyway. This one is easy. It's the A chord." He demonstrated by placing his fingers on the second fret, along the third, fourth, and fifth strings. He said, "Now, with this one, you try not to strum all the strings. Just the bottom four."

"Why?" She asked, "Isn't that confusing?"

"It might be, but after a while you don't even think about it. You just know where your hand is supposed to be and you play it." He shrugged, "You don't play it because it doesn't sound like an A chord with those two up here. It's too low. Now you try it?" He moved his hand and allowed Kitty to try again.

She took a deep breath and placed her fingers in the proper place, this time. She paid attention to where her right hand was and strummed softly.

"That's good! Real good." Lance smiled. His body pressed just slightly into hers from behind, he suddenly thought about how he might get his ass kicked if the wrong person saw. He blushed, "Okay, so now try switching between G and A. Just go back and forth, really slow. Get used to playing a rhythm with your right hand. I'll help." He put his hand over hers and guided her strumming for a minute. He eased off when he felt she was getting the idea. "Okay. One last chord. This one is the D chord." He moved back to position his fingers on the last three strings. "This one is just like A. You only strum those last four strings again."

Kitty nodded, now fully concentrating on the whole ordeal. She positioned her left hand carefully, then started to softly strum the electric guitar nervously.

"Now switch between all three of them. Try your best to move from one to the next without pausing." Lance said.

"I'm trying. Really, Lance." Kitty started off stumbling through, but evenually started to flow a bit better into each chord. She paused and clenched and unclenched her left hand, "Wow, this can really cramp you up."

"It's fine, we're almost done. Now you can play a song." Lance said enthusiastically.

"I can probably play MANY songs. What song am I learning to play?" She asked.

"Breakfast at Tiffanys. It's really simple. You start with a D, then it goes G, A. Twice. Then D again, going into a G, A, then D. Over and over again. Last verse switches it up a bit with a D, then A, then G."

"I don't know, it sounds complicated." She tried to work her way out of it.

"You can do this. I know you can." He says softly, "Now... play it like I told you."

Kitty whined, "Here it goes..." She started slowly, playing the chords in order like Lance had told her.

Lance waited until she made it to where the first verse starts. He took note of her slow speed and sang melodically into her ear, "... You'll say that we've got nothing in common. No common ground to start from, and we're falling apart."

She relaxed under the sound of his casual singing voice. Lance continued, "... you'll say the world has come between us. Our lives have come between us. But I know you just don't care."

"That's not true." She muttered under her breath. Lance waited for her to make it to the chorus.

"And I said 'What about Breakfast At Tiffanys?' She said, 'I think I remember that film, and as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it.' And I said, 'Well that's the one thing we've got.'" Lance closed his eyes, recalling the tune from memory.

Kitty stopped strumming, mid-way. She turned her head to look at Lance. An unsure expression on her face.

Lance opened his eyes, turning to face her, "Keep going?", he asked.

She shook her head 'no'. Kitty tilted her head to one side and moved in to close the gap between her and Lance. Her lips softly pressed against his.

At first Lance was stunned. The weight of the situation finally caught up. He closed his eyes and deepened the kiss, carefully unhooking the electric guitar from it's strap so he could move it over. He put his hands at her sides and moved her closer before she finally broke the moment.

Kitty pulled away. She touched her forehead to his, eyes still closed. "...I ...it's late." was all she could muster.

"... yeah..." Lance didn't want to let go her go just yet, though. "... can't call the Institute and say you decided to stay longer, maybe the whole night... huh?"

"Uhm...no... sorry." She blushed, but let out a sigh. "Curfew. We all have it." Kitty reluctantly moved away from Lance after a long moment. "... but hey, this was really... seriously educational."

Lance blushed too, now, packing away his guitar. "Well...there's more I can teach you. More where that came from."

Kitty smiled, realizing that kind of statement could possibly be taken the wrong way. She went to the door and looked back over at Lance, "Then I suppose I have to stop by again tomorrow, huh?"

Lance blinked, then smile. "... if you insist... I'm willing."

"Great, I'll be back tomorrow. Goodnight, Lance. Sleep well." She waved and left out through Lance's bedroom door to the hallway, on to her journey home.

***

---Songs---

"Johnny B Goode", by Chuck Berry

"Breakfast at Tiffanys", by Deep Blue Something