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 6
***************************************************************************
'Take one for the team, she says. Wanda might hex me when she sees me! This is such a mess. And why is Kitty learning to play guitar for a rock band? She even hates it when I play Rammstein a bit louder than usual. Is Lance manipulating her? She has seemed a little different lately... mein gott. What am I thinking here? I'll just play along until I can talk to Jean or the Professor about this.' Kurt shook his head, wandering down a hall. Lance mentioned which room may be Wanda's. He raised a hand to knock, but the door swung open with Wanda facing the stunned Kurt.
"You X-Men better have a good explanation for this." Wanda looked as though she was about to power up.
Kurt's eyes widened. He held up another hand and said, "Don't! I'm here on a peace mission! Please don't hurt me."
Wanda rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him into her room and shutting the door. "So talk peace. Why were you about to knock on my door? I don't think it was to borrow a cup of sugar."
"Ja... you're right about that." He cleared his throat. "So Lance and Kitty... they're trying to make some kind of band... for some reason.... and I volunteered to be the drummer!"
"Uh, okay." Wanda crossed her arms, looking over Kurt.
"And... uh..." He smiled, "The rumor has it you can play bass guitar. You'd look pretty fantastic on a stage with us."
"Dream on, X-Man." Wanda sneered.
"C'mon, please?" Kurt begged, "Kitty is going through so much effort just to do this. It'd be really disappointing if the only reason it couldn't happen is because we couldn't find a bass player, even though we know people who play bass but they just don't want to."
"You're not very convincing. I bet they never send you on the recruitment missions, huh?"
"They don't. Hey! Don't make fun of me!" Kurt was embarassed.
***
Back in the room, Lance sat with a combination cassette and cd deck with a small pile of cds in front of him. He was making a tape. Kitty was still at her usual place in front of his bed, playing through a song.
"... Guess it makes it easy, not to blame it on me. Raise the industry stock. Teenagers that die, under the influence of rock." Kitty partially sang.
Kitty made a face, "I don't think I've heard this song before. I mean, I like the lyrics and it seems pretty easy to play through, but I'm not sure how it goes."
"Don't worry, it'll be on the tape. Very good song, though. It was an unreleased track from a band I followed for a while." Lance had a pair of headphones half up to his head, his hand pressing record on the stereo system.
"Wow, I really went for the rare one then." She shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. It's still a good song." Lance smiled.
She nodded, returning back to playing the guitar. She flipped the page and started on another song. "Hey Lance. I mean, I'm trying really hard here... but a week is still only a week. Do you really think I'll get this before then?"
"I have no doubts. You're doing great." He encouraged. Kitty wasn't spectacular and still very rough around the edges, but she was better now than she was three days ago when they had started. This encouraged him a lot. He also had never felt as close to her in the entirity of them dating or even knowing each other as he did now.
She smiled at his words. Kitty couldn't find the confidence in something she found so confusing and different from everything she had known up until that point. Playing guitar was like that for her. Just sounds that came together that made a song, but not perfect, and not good enough for her. It was the perfectionist in her. That's what made this so hard, but Lance made it seem easy. Made it easier for her to swallow and comprehend.
"... you're like day." She sung through lyrics. "And I'm like night. but if we can get together maybe things can work out right. I can see so much in you. Why can't we just see this through? Why must everything in this life be so complicated? But through all this pain it's not you I blame, why can't you feel the same."
"That's the one I need to work on." Lance added. "That'll be fun."
"Oh, like you have anything else better to do." She joked. "You're just as bad as Kurt."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lance looked over at Kitty.
"He was joking earlier about how he just might be overly busy saturday or something." She shrugged. "Just a joke."
"We will be busy, though. Once we get everyone together... it'll be non-stop practice, each day after school for you guys. Maybe we should practice over at the Institute? You guys have way more room than we do here."
Kitty made a face, "I'm not sure I want to practice at the Institute. I mean, I didn't even want to get Kurt involved."
"Why?" Lance took this the wrong way, "Are you embarassed you're hanging out over here again?"
"I didn't say that. Don't put words into my mouth, Lance." Kitty idly strummed the guitar, "There are way too many people at the Institute. They might disrupt the rhythm we have here. They even might try to doubt us. I don't want that doubt. I don't want the distraction. I just want to be here, with you. It's been such a positive experience so far for me, I just don't want to have Scott step in and tell us how stupid we are thinking we can do this in a week when... as far as I'm concerned, WE CAN. Does that make sense?"
Lance nodded, still not quite believing her excuse, "Sure Kitty. But you are going to have to tell someone why you're over here every day. They do worry."
"That's up to me, isn't it? Don't worry, Lance. You're safe." Kitty stretched and yawned.
"Hey, you okay? You look pretty tired." He looked over at her, "Don't overwork yourself. Lay down if you're feeling tired. I'll take you guys home when I'm done making the tape and Kurt comes back."
"Huh? I guess. I've been staying up pretty late figuring this stuff out. I guess I lose track of time is all." Kitty glanced at her watch. It already was well into the evening.
Lance walked over and took the guitar from her. "Alright, lay down. I'll pick up everything and get Kurt in a minute."
Kitty rolled her eyes, "Fine, whatever. I was just---"
"You'll figure it out later, then. Don't worry. You need to know how the songs go anyway, so playing around with them isn't going to help you much at all. Especially if you're singing it all wrong. Just lay down." He pointed to the bed. She sighed and nodded, taking up the left side of the bed tiredly.
Lance went back to the stereo system. He stopped the tape and rewound it, then put it in the second side of the system. He put a second tape in the recording side. After the tape on the other side rewound, he pushed play, then record on the other side so that it dubbed over what was on the first tape to the second. Lance packed away his electric guitar, unplugging the amplifier and putting both away in his closet once again. He sat down on the right side of the bed, leaning back against his pillow. Lance flipped on the television and made sure the volume was almost nothing, flipping channels to stop on some music video channel.
Kitty stirred. She turned over in her sleep to place her hand on top of Lance's chest. Lance blinked and tensed under her touch.
'Be cool, Lance. She's just moving in her sleep.' He sighed and put the remote down on his bedstand.
She moved closer, her body now snuggled up gently to his left side. Lance hesitated, unsure of how to react exactly. He carefully put his left hand on her back. Kitty placed her head against Lance's chest in response.
Lance looked uncomfortable. Was it okay if she didn't know what she was doing? He shook her shoulder softly, "Hey pretty Kitty, you're moving in your sleep."
Kitty's eyes sleepily blinked open. She snuggled in closer, tilting her head to nuzzle against his neck. One or two sensitive kisses touched his skin.
"K... Kitty." Lance stammered.
She blinked her eyes open again, lifting herself just slightly so that she was over him. Kitty closed the gap between her and Lance with a kiss, her body now laying mostly atop him.
***
Kurt continued wearing down Wanda's protests. "It'd be a great experience! Besides, I doubt anyone will care if you're any good. They let me be in the band!"
"Wrong thing to say, blue boy." She glared. "What's in it for me? Why should I bother?"
"A warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside that you're doing something good?" Kurt smiled weakly.
"Not reassuring. I don't need warm fuzzies." Wanda crossed her arms.
"Well... there is a cash prize I think?" Kurt hinted.
Wanda sighed, "You won't leave me alone unless I say yes, right."
"I think you've figured me out, fraulien. Will you, please?" Kurt begged.
"If you leave now, then yes." Wanda gave in.
"Wow! Thank you!" Kurt jumped up hugged Wanda.
Wanda stuggled, "Let me go."
"Oh! Sorry, sorry." Kurt stepped back and smiled. "Lance knows what songs we're going to play, so you should talk to him."
"Right, just leave already." Wanda looked annoyed.
Kurt left Wanda's room. He moved down the hall back to Lance's room. Kurt knocked on the door and got no response, then he turned the handle. It was locked.
"Hey guys, not funny. Let me in." He knocked again. "Kitty? Lance?"
Kurt raised his voice, "I'm coming in!" He concentrated and activated his mutant teleportation power. Kurt bamfed into Lance's room in a poof of smoke.
Lance was laying on the bed, pinned beneath Kitty as she layed atop him. They were kissing pretty intensely. Lance's hands rested at her hips.
"What are you doing!? Get your hands off of her!" Kurt shrieked.
Kitty pushed back from Lance. She blushed, looking at Kurt with a large amount of embarassment.
"... It's not what you think!" Lance spit out.
"It's exactly what I think. Kitty! What exactly ARE you getting into here?" Kurt accused.
She sat up and moved across the bed, waving a hand, "But uh... I just... really Kurt, it's not that big of a deal."
Lance agreed, "Uh... right... calm down, Kurt."
"..." Kurt vocalized sternly, "We're going home. Now. Get your things, Kitty. We have to go."
Lance sighed. He walked over to the stereo and said, "Hey, wait. Don't forget this." He handed Kitty a cd and two tapes. "Two tapes... one for you... one for him." He idly glared at Kurt, but kept his cool. "All the songs you picked, and one or two more that I taught you. Take the songbook and practice. Okay? I'll see you tomorrow." He reached up and touched Kitty's cheek.
Kurt took Kitty's hand and tugged her away from Lance, "C'mon, let's go."
"...okay, well... bye Lance... yeah. Thanks." Kitty picked up her backpack and the songbook. She glared at Kurt as they teleported from the bedroom.
***
---Authors Notes----
Silindro mentioned in a review to add Artists/Songs of some of the stuff I'm having them play. Totally spaced it until now, was thinking of actually doing it on the final chapter, but then I realized people might actually want to know how some of these songs go if they're unfamiliar with the less mainstream stuff. As of this moment, those chapters are re-edited to reflect songs that were sung or mentioned in them.
"Influence of Rock", by 12 Volt Sex (www.12voltsex.net)
"Little Differences", by Save Ferris
"In The Garage" - by Val Shrum (kiyonekatz at yahoo dot com)
Chapter 6
***************************************************************************
'Take one for the team, she says. Wanda might hex me when she sees me! This is such a mess. And why is Kitty learning to play guitar for a rock band? She even hates it when I play Rammstein a bit louder than usual. Is Lance manipulating her? She has seemed a little different lately... mein gott. What am I thinking here? I'll just play along until I can talk to Jean or the Professor about this.' Kurt shook his head, wandering down a hall. Lance mentioned which room may be Wanda's. He raised a hand to knock, but the door swung open with Wanda facing the stunned Kurt.
"You X-Men better have a good explanation for this." Wanda looked as though she was about to power up.
Kurt's eyes widened. He held up another hand and said, "Don't! I'm here on a peace mission! Please don't hurt me."
Wanda rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him into her room and shutting the door. "So talk peace. Why were you about to knock on my door? I don't think it was to borrow a cup of sugar."
"Ja... you're right about that." He cleared his throat. "So Lance and Kitty... they're trying to make some kind of band... for some reason.... and I volunteered to be the drummer!"
"Uh, okay." Wanda crossed her arms, looking over Kurt.
"And... uh..." He smiled, "The rumor has it you can play bass guitar. You'd look pretty fantastic on a stage with us."
"Dream on, X-Man." Wanda sneered.
"C'mon, please?" Kurt begged, "Kitty is going through so much effort just to do this. It'd be really disappointing if the only reason it couldn't happen is because we couldn't find a bass player, even though we know people who play bass but they just don't want to."
"You're not very convincing. I bet they never send you on the recruitment missions, huh?"
"They don't. Hey! Don't make fun of me!" Kurt was embarassed.
***
Back in the room, Lance sat with a combination cassette and cd deck with a small pile of cds in front of him. He was making a tape. Kitty was still at her usual place in front of his bed, playing through a song.
"... Guess it makes it easy, not to blame it on me. Raise the industry stock. Teenagers that die, under the influence of rock." Kitty partially sang.
Kitty made a face, "I don't think I've heard this song before. I mean, I like the lyrics and it seems pretty easy to play through, but I'm not sure how it goes."
"Don't worry, it'll be on the tape. Very good song, though. It was an unreleased track from a band I followed for a while." Lance had a pair of headphones half up to his head, his hand pressing record on the stereo system.
"Wow, I really went for the rare one then." She shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. It's still a good song." Lance smiled.
She nodded, returning back to playing the guitar. She flipped the page and started on another song. "Hey Lance. I mean, I'm trying really hard here... but a week is still only a week. Do you really think I'll get this before then?"
"I have no doubts. You're doing great." He encouraged. Kitty wasn't spectacular and still very rough around the edges, but she was better now than she was three days ago when they had started. This encouraged him a lot. He also had never felt as close to her in the entirity of them dating or even knowing each other as he did now.
She smiled at his words. Kitty couldn't find the confidence in something she found so confusing and different from everything she had known up until that point. Playing guitar was like that for her. Just sounds that came together that made a song, but not perfect, and not good enough for her. It was the perfectionist in her. That's what made this so hard, but Lance made it seem easy. Made it easier for her to swallow and comprehend.
"... you're like day." She sung through lyrics. "And I'm like night. but if we can get together maybe things can work out right. I can see so much in you. Why can't we just see this through? Why must everything in this life be so complicated? But through all this pain it's not you I blame, why can't you feel the same."
"That's the one I need to work on." Lance added. "That'll be fun."
"Oh, like you have anything else better to do." She joked. "You're just as bad as Kurt."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lance looked over at Kitty.
"He was joking earlier about how he just might be overly busy saturday or something." She shrugged. "Just a joke."
"We will be busy, though. Once we get everyone together... it'll be non-stop practice, each day after school for you guys. Maybe we should practice over at the Institute? You guys have way more room than we do here."
Kitty made a face, "I'm not sure I want to practice at the Institute. I mean, I didn't even want to get Kurt involved."
"Why?" Lance took this the wrong way, "Are you embarassed you're hanging out over here again?"
"I didn't say that. Don't put words into my mouth, Lance." Kitty idly strummed the guitar, "There are way too many people at the Institute. They might disrupt the rhythm we have here. They even might try to doubt us. I don't want that doubt. I don't want the distraction. I just want to be here, with you. It's been such a positive experience so far for me, I just don't want to have Scott step in and tell us how stupid we are thinking we can do this in a week when... as far as I'm concerned, WE CAN. Does that make sense?"
Lance nodded, still not quite believing her excuse, "Sure Kitty. But you are going to have to tell someone why you're over here every day. They do worry."
"That's up to me, isn't it? Don't worry, Lance. You're safe." Kitty stretched and yawned.
"Hey, you okay? You look pretty tired." He looked over at her, "Don't overwork yourself. Lay down if you're feeling tired. I'll take you guys home when I'm done making the tape and Kurt comes back."
"Huh? I guess. I've been staying up pretty late figuring this stuff out. I guess I lose track of time is all." Kitty glanced at her watch. It already was well into the evening.
Lance walked over and took the guitar from her. "Alright, lay down. I'll pick up everything and get Kurt in a minute."
Kitty rolled her eyes, "Fine, whatever. I was just---"
"You'll figure it out later, then. Don't worry. You need to know how the songs go anyway, so playing around with them isn't going to help you much at all. Especially if you're singing it all wrong. Just lay down." He pointed to the bed. She sighed and nodded, taking up the left side of the bed tiredly.
Lance went back to the stereo system. He stopped the tape and rewound it, then put it in the second side of the system. He put a second tape in the recording side. After the tape on the other side rewound, he pushed play, then record on the other side so that it dubbed over what was on the first tape to the second. Lance packed away his electric guitar, unplugging the amplifier and putting both away in his closet once again. He sat down on the right side of the bed, leaning back against his pillow. Lance flipped on the television and made sure the volume was almost nothing, flipping channels to stop on some music video channel.
Kitty stirred. She turned over in her sleep to place her hand on top of Lance's chest. Lance blinked and tensed under her touch.
'Be cool, Lance. She's just moving in her sleep.' He sighed and put the remote down on his bedstand.
She moved closer, her body now snuggled up gently to his left side. Lance hesitated, unsure of how to react exactly. He carefully put his left hand on her back. Kitty placed her head against Lance's chest in response.
Lance looked uncomfortable. Was it okay if she didn't know what she was doing? He shook her shoulder softly, "Hey pretty Kitty, you're moving in your sleep."
Kitty's eyes sleepily blinked open. She snuggled in closer, tilting her head to nuzzle against his neck. One or two sensitive kisses touched his skin.
"K... Kitty." Lance stammered.
She blinked her eyes open again, lifting herself just slightly so that she was over him. Kitty closed the gap between her and Lance with a kiss, her body now laying mostly atop him.
***
Kurt continued wearing down Wanda's protests. "It'd be a great experience! Besides, I doubt anyone will care if you're any good. They let me be in the band!"
"Wrong thing to say, blue boy." She glared. "What's in it for me? Why should I bother?"
"A warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside that you're doing something good?" Kurt smiled weakly.
"Not reassuring. I don't need warm fuzzies." Wanda crossed her arms.
"Well... there is a cash prize I think?" Kurt hinted.
Wanda sighed, "You won't leave me alone unless I say yes, right."
"I think you've figured me out, fraulien. Will you, please?" Kurt begged.
"If you leave now, then yes." Wanda gave in.
"Wow! Thank you!" Kurt jumped up hugged Wanda.
Wanda stuggled, "Let me go."
"Oh! Sorry, sorry." Kurt stepped back and smiled. "Lance knows what songs we're going to play, so you should talk to him."
"Right, just leave already." Wanda looked annoyed.
Kurt left Wanda's room. He moved down the hall back to Lance's room. Kurt knocked on the door and got no response, then he turned the handle. It was locked.
"Hey guys, not funny. Let me in." He knocked again. "Kitty? Lance?"
Kurt raised his voice, "I'm coming in!" He concentrated and activated his mutant teleportation power. Kurt bamfed into Lance's room in a poof of smoke.
Lance was laying on the bed, pinned beneath Kitty as she layed atop him. They were kissing pretty intensely. Lance's hands rested at her hips.
"What are you doing!? Get your hands off of her!" Kurt shrieked.
Kitty pushed back from Lance. She blushed, looking at Kurt with a large amount of embarassment.
"... It's not what you think!" Lance spit out.
"It's exactly what I think. Kitty! What exactly ARE you getting into here?" Kurt accused.
She sat up and moved across the bed, waving a hand, "But uh... I just... really Kurt, it's not that big of a deal."
Lance agreed, "Uh... right... calm down, Kurt."
"..." Kurt vocalized sternly, "We're going home. Now. Get your things, Kitty. We have to go."
Lance sighed. He walked over to the stereo and said, "Hey, wait. Don't forget this." He handed Kitty a cd and two tapes. "Two tapes... one for you... one for him." He idly glared at Kurt, but kept his cool. "All the songs you picked, and one or two more that I taught you. Take the songbook and practice. Okay? I'll see you tomorrow." He reached up and touched Kitty's cheek.
Kurt took Kitty's hand and tugged her away from Lance, "C'mon, let's go."
"...okay, well... bye Lance... yeah. Thanks." Kitty picked up her backpack and the songbook. She glared at Kurt as they teleported from the bedroom.
***
---Authors Notes----
Silindro mentioned in a review to add Artists/Songs of some of the stuff I'm having them play. Totally spaced it until now, was thinking of actually doing it on the final chapter, but then I realized people might actually want to know how some of these songs go if they're unfamiliar with the less mainstream stuff. As of this moment, those chapters are re-edited to reflect songs that were sung or mentioned in them.
"Influence of Rock", by 12 Volt Sex (www.12voltsex.net)
"Little Differences", by Save Ferris
