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 18

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It had been almost a week and a half since the last time Lance had spoken to Kitty. After a week, he finally stopped calling and just got updates from Kurt instead. He stood in the local cd store, headphones on from one of the listening stations as he previewed some new music idly, to kill time.

A body slipped in behind the boy, hands moved quickly to cover his eyes. Lance, startled, pulled the headphones off quickly. The person moved in closer and whispered into his ear, "Guess who?"

"Kitty!?" He moved forward to turn around and view the girl behind the voice. He wasn't wrong, but there was still a bit of shock on his face as he viewed her.

The brunette looked different than the last time he had seen her. Her hands rested on her hips, a smile across her face. The major change was not style of dress or mannerism, but the fact that her hair was pretty short. The ponytail completely gone, her hair flaired out and styled.

"What happened to you?!" He stepped forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're gone for almost two weeks and your hair... what happened?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." Kitty sounded just a little bitter about that. "I'm glad I'm home, though. Miss me?"

"Like you wouldn't believe. Summers must hate me by now, with how often I called."

"Scott never much liked you before. So that's not something new." Kitty smiled.

"So what's with this Meg Ryan thing you have going here? I mean... it's different..." Lance carefully touched Kitty's now shortened hair.

"I'm not too fond of it either, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and deal with whatever life throws at you." Kitty made a face, but didn't seem to want to elaborate, "Want to go somewhere? I figure, if I'm stuck out of school today, might as well make the best of it." Kitty commented.

"When'd you get back?" Lance asked.

"Like an hour ago. Way too late to do anything productive today." She crossed her arms, seemingly annoyed with herself.

"Uh okay. Let's get the jeep, we can go somewhere to eat if you want." They exited the music store.

"Great, anything but Asian. I'm thinking... Italian maybe? That'd be nice. Something completely drenched in tomato sauce sounds like a winner to me." Kitty stretched, climbing into Lance's jeep.

Lance got into the drivers side. "Sounds good." He started up the vehicle and drove to the nearest Italian place. They got seated inside the restraunt and looked over the menus. He looked over at her for a long moment, saying softly. "Wow, you look... older."

"Would you believe, I feel older too? It's been a long week or so." Kitty looked at Lance, then back down at her menu.

"If you want to talk about it..."

"I don't." She stopped him.

"Right, but if you do, I'm here."

Kitty nodded, "I know you are." She smiled warmly and picked something out to order. The waiter comes to the table and takes their menus and food orders.

"Well, lucky for you, I've got a surprise for you. What are you doing on saturday?" Lance asked, returning the warm smile.

"Oh no you don't. I am never performing in anything like that again."

Lance laughed, "Not a chance. I wouldn't do that to you. No, this is way better. Close your eyes."

Kitty didn't like that idea, but hesitantly did. "Okay?"

He reached over the table and took her hand, carefully unfolding the fingers so that her palm was facing upwards. He placed a piece of paper in it. "Alright."

Kitty closed her fingers around the paper, then opened up her eyes. She looked down at it, "A train schedule?"

"Right. Look at the one I have circled?" He urged.

"New York City? Got something in mind?" She raised an eyebrow, not following.

Lance reached back to take her hand in his, "I was thinking, since I had a little bit of extra cash... you know, because of the contest... we could take a trip to the city together and finally see 'Rent'. My treat."

Kitty blinked. She looked down at the hands that held hers, then back up into Lance's brown eyes. "... I... no. Lance, no. That's your prize money. You should save it, buy something you NEED."

"Who needs anything? I've got what I want." He took a serious tone. "And I want to do this, with you."

The food arrives at the table. Kitty abruptly pulled back from Lance, "Well, I think you should keep it and use it on something important."

"You are important. Don't you get that?" He started to eat his food.

Kitty let out a soft sigh, "Yeah, but..."

"But nothing. I want to do this. I'd rather spend it on something I want to do instead of something useless that I don't really need." Lance added. "It'll be fun."

"Sure, okay. We'll go then." She submitted to his whim. "Are we inviting Kurt and Wanda?" She asked, absentmindedly.

"Uh... I dunno. Should we?" Lance wasn't sure about that.

"...ooh... OH... you wanted this to be like a... you and me and that's it sort of thing..." She poked a fork into her pasta idly.

"Sorta, but now that you mention it, we could ask them if they'd want to come. It's only fair."

"It's not like they're dating or anything though. This'll be a bit of a... date thing, right?"

"Well, of course. I'm not ASKING you to go as 'just a friend', you know." Lance smirked.

Kitty shook her head, "I'd be disappointed if you were." She blushed, "That is, I know we're more than that now." She bit her tongue. Another thought popped into mind that she chose not to vocalize. 'And while we're at it, we should stay the night in the city together. Rent a hotel room. Yeah, right. Really bad idea.' She spoke up, "... maybe it is a good idea to ask them along, anyway. We don't have to spend the whole time with them, but an invitation to the show should be good enough. They may just say no. And while we're on the subject, are they ACTUALLY dating or what? That's all I've heard about, is how Kurt's hanging out at your house a lot lately, or out with Wanda. Did I miss something?"

"Didn't he have a girlfriend? What's her name... Amanda?" Lance recalled.

"I thought so too, but then he had some trouble with her parents. Something with Toad, and his image inducer. Apparently she was forbidden to see him, so the relationship was hard to upkeep. I'm not sure, but I thought they called it quits for a while." Kitty replied with a hum. "Still. I just can't get over that."

"As far as I know, nothing is going on. That is, as far as I know. They just kill time a lot together." Lance shrugged.

"Time for me to tease Kurt later." She grinned. "Y'know, after I dull down the initial shock of my change in appearance."

Lance said softly, "It's different, yeah. But... you look nice."

"You're just saying that because I'm self conscious about it." Kitty pointed the fork at him.

"No! Really, you look great. I'm not just being nice." He smiled and finished his plate.

"Thanks." She didn't seem to believe him. "So... what, should I ask Kurt? Or is this going to be our little secret?"

Lance shrugged. "Your choice. I'd like it to be just us... but... I'm not sure."

"No, it's okay. It'll be just us, then." Kitty smiled, making the decision. She idly played with her short hair.

"Okay then. The plan'll be we head out early saturday morning and attempt to rush, then if that doesn't work out I'll bite the bullet and get normal tickets."

"Rush? What's that?" Kitty blinked.

"So like... the creator, he thought it'd be a good idea to allow normal folks without the funds to catch Broadway shows the ability to see them for an inexpensive price. Every day they have something like fourty... or twenty... something like that.. tickets set aside for awesome near the front seating. First two rows. They call it 'rushing'. In some places, they have it so you stand in line for many hours... first come first serve. However, since this is an every day sort of thing, instead of having campers - they do it in a lottery type fashion. They draw the winners two hours before the show from a bucket, sell the tickets, and that's it. Only twenty dollars a ticket, too." Lance explained.

"You sure know a lot about that..." Kitty looked curious.

"I had a friend who liked it."

"Old girlfriend, perhaps?" She teased.

"Maybe. Why, jealous?" Lance smirked, obviously teasing.

"No. She's not here now, I don't think I have much to worry about." Kitty said confidently.

Lance paid the bill and got ready to leave. "Ooh, look at the confidence level on YOU. That week away must have been something else."

"That's one way of putting it." Kitty got up and followed Lance out. "I guess just drop me off at the Institute. I have some stuff I need to do... and probably loads of homework to catch up on. The Professor already told Kurt to pick up my homework from my classes, so it's all fun until friday."

"Lucky you."

"Lucky me, indeed." Kitty said sarcastically.

***

The jeep pulled up to the Institute. Kitty pointed to the box, "I'll walk from here. Trust me." She leaned over and hugged Lance, "See you soon. Bye."

Lance hugged back with a "Bye" as well. She hopped out of the jeep and phased through the front gates, giving Lance one last wave before he pulled away.

Kitty walked back to the mansion. Not with too much of an agenda or even drive to get back inside of the mansion walls. She phased through the front door, then she heard it.

"Half-Pint! What in the blazes are you doin' outside?" Logan demanded.

"I went for a walk. I don't see what the big deal is." She looked at the door, then back at Logan. Almost innocent.

"You've done more than walkin'." He took a sniff. "I told you to stay put. We've still got a few things to go over about that trip."

Kitty looked at Logan, "I just needed to get away from everything for a few minutes. Respect that, 'kay? I came back as soon as I was finished. You know it's been rough. I needed a dose of something more down to earth." She resigned, "I'm sorry. I'll try to remember that my actions sometimes take on a life of their own and that it's not just me, but there's a whole family of people who worry about me. Blood related or otherwise."

"Still got that fighting urge, don'tcha?" Logan asked.

"I'm working on it." She side-glanced.

"Doin' a better job than I would." Logan commented. "C'mon, let's get you settled back in."

"Yes sir."

***