Author's Apology: It's been a while, hasn't it?

This is set in first person (or rather, first people), throughout the days and weeks after the defeat of Apocalypse at the hands of our favorite mutants. I'm going to try to keep this completely in character, which means couples and relationships are what has been shown.

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To What Awaits Us

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29 September, 2005

Lance Alvers

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Man, today is a good day.

I don't want to sound like some pansy-Summers'-clone, but I think life is finally starting to go my way. Who would've guessed?

Going to help the X-Men take down Apocalypse, Magneto, was the best thing I ever did. It was good to actually be treated as an equal by them. The Brotherhood finally got a little respect. Yeah, that was a good day as well. Oh, screw it, a good week.

Kitty, her head on my shoulder, shifted and smiled at me. Her eyes moved back up to the sky that seemed so close this afternoon.

"Hey, Lance," she sighed, stretching her arms out to the clouds, "Do you think it'll be like this for much longer?" I closed my eyes, curiosity way too dozy this afternoon.

"What'll be like what?" She let out something of an indignant little snort.

"Weren't you paying any attention at all?"

Oh man, leave it to Kitty to throw you a curve ball. What was she going on about? She sighed and punched me lightly on the shoulder. Or it was intended to be lightly, at least. Man, Dog-face has really been putting the X-Men through the ringer.

"Peaceful. I asked if it'll be peaceful for much longer. Like this, like right now." I pushed open an eye and looked at her dumbly. What the hell am I meant to say to a question like that? Do I look like a philosophical thinker or something?

"The way I see it," I said slowly, carefully, "It couldn't get much worse than it was with Apocalypse running around, could it?" She sighed again, her bottom lip sticking out, just a little. The Kitty in question sat up and yawned. No, lie back down, don't make me get up. Don't want to move right now. She picked at the grass almost dazedly.

"I can't help feeling that everything's going to turn to-"

"Sh-"

"Mush." she finished forcefully, trace of a smirk on her face. I shrugged, and the action spoke for itself. 'Just-trying-to-help'. Her hand found its way to my wrist and she yanked me up, surprising me with her strength yet again. I grimaced, but didn't complain. The last thing I wanted was an annoyed Ms Pryde on my hands, after all. Kitty stared at me, searching for something.

"Do you wanna go out to dinner tonight?" she asked in a faraway voice. I swallowed, forcing down my frustration with it. How do you tell a girl raised in upper-middle class Illinois, whose been living in a mansion for over a year, that you have no money? "It doesn't have to be somewhere fancy," she conceded quickly, obviously realising her mistake. "I just wanted to go out with you. For us to be alone, y'know? Away from everyone else."

I guess she hadn't realised that the Brotherhood haven't gotten any money in three months.

"Or… You could always just come over to the Insti-"

"What is this supposed to be? A date or a mercy mission?" I didn't mean to snap at her, but it was going to burst sooner or later. Her eyes dropped and she stood up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you or anything," my Kitty said quietly. "I'll be going now." Didn't even look at her.

"Yeah," I muttered, "Whatever." Damnit, stand up! At least try to stop her from going. I finally looked up. Not surprisingly, she was gone.
Way to go, Lance.

Leave it to you to ruin the perfect day.

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"Hey, Lance, nice one," Pietro said quickly. Obviously. He hit me on the shoulder and laughed. "I've never seen Kitty-Cat movesofast," He turned and zipped into the kitchen, rummaging for food he would never find. "Which, of course, is only fast for a slowmolikeyou."

Whatever.

Ignoring him, I walked into the living room and threw myself on the couch. Fred, who was sitting on a chair by my feet, reluctantly offered me some stolen chips. I groaned and waved my hand in dismissal.

Where's the pleasure in eating drool-covered chips, anyway? He grinned with a glee that only showed when he realised he could have a whole bag of chips to himself.

Lucky him.

Oddly, I felt my stomach rumble. It's not good when you're watching Freddy eat, and still feel hungry.

God, what is this? Some kind of prison camp?

And where the hell is Magneto when you need him?

"Pietro!" I yelled suddenly, forcing myself up. "Is there anything in the kitchen not covered in one-ton mutant saliva?" He was standing in front of me, foot tapping before I had finished.

Arrogant bastard.

"No, Lance, thereisn'tandhasn'tbeen for the last forty-eight hours."

Wow, Speedy, that time of the month?

Man, I wanted to say that.

But I can't afford to.

Because Pietro is our ticket away from starvation.

"Then I guess its time for us to go on a little shopping trip."

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Big Supermarket's are always the best for big hauls; he had told me when we jumped out of the jeep. It wasn't such a big deal if there were a few packets of this missing here, a bottle of that, there.

Yeah. Pietro would know.

"Jesus, Lance, you looked like you've never done this before," he said, leaning against the door, smirking at me.

"Of course I have, you idiot. I lived in an orphanage for half of my life," I growled. "Just because I'm not into ripping off people left, right, and centre, like you doesn't mean I've never lifted a few… Items."

Infuriatingly, he only laughed.

"No need to get your pantiesinatwist."

Argh. Damn, sometimes I just wanted to beat the crap out of him.

I looked at the large, sprawling store on the other side of the street. Still pretty busy right now, should be able to get in and out without too much trouble. I glanced back at him and folded my arms.

"Are we going to do this, or are we just going to stand here looking like a couple of idiots?" I spat.

"Well," Pietro stated. I already hated it. "How about you stand here looking like an idiot, and I go do this by myself. You'll only slowmedown. I mean, why the hell did you insist on coming, anyway? It's not likeIneedagetawayride."

I scoffed at the idea of leaving Pietro in a poorly guarded store. He would try and take the whole damned shop with him, the ambitious little creep. I was damage control.

"Like I can trust you, Pie-" A sudden gust of air speeding past me caught the words as they fell from my mouth.

Damn.

Disregarding the traffic, I darted across the road for the second time today. Stupid Bayville motorists, getting in my way at a time like this.

Crisp, conditioned air greeted me when I entered. It would be kind of nice, if it wasn't so damned clinical.

Kind of like the Institute.

A shaky voice dropped me back into reality.

"Aren't you one of those mutants?"

Crap. I turned and saw the checkout girl staring at me, wide eyed. Stupid, close-minded norms. Don't they even realise we saved them from Apocalypse? I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to reign in my temper.

It didn't work.

"Yeah, I'm 'one of those mutants'. So?" I felt another gust of cold air blow past me, surrounding me before it ran out the doors that still hadn't closed after my entrance.

I heard a few whispers among the shoppers, and a few openly heated stares.

"So?" I pressed, looking at her again, and advancing a few steps. She backed up until her back bumped against the other side of the counter. My eyes shifted to a small knot of people, who had formed a few feet away. What the hell was this? Strength in numbers?

Idiots. I could take them all out in a minute.

"Hey, back away, freak!" one of the bigots yelled. I turned and growled at him. The creep almost looked surprised that I had acknowledged him. What did he expect? I was just going to lie down and take it?

"What the hell are you gonna' do if I don't?"

Yeah. That shut the bastard up. I regarded them slowly, and was barely able to resist the urge to spit on them. I turned and stalked out, glaring over my shoulder at the checkout girl. Stupid kid.

Thank god, yeah right, that I was practically at the door. Last thing the Brotherhood needed was even more bad publicity. I shook my head, and looked over to my jeep on the far side of the road. Pietro leaning on it, the same way he was before, scowling at me.

Man.

Today was a really bad day.

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I honestly cannot apologise enough (to myself and to you guys), on how long it took me to finally dish out this chapter. Argh. Blame it on my brother's porn that screwed with our computer for about three months. For some reason, it just started letting me back onto Fanfiction.net a week ago- without interrupting me with Warnings and Pop-ups and stuff.

Apologies aside, I just want to say thanks to people who continue to review this (if there are any left, after a three month long interval). You guys rock. And the Pietro/Lance stealing thing- It's weird, I've now seen it in another fiction and in an RPG since I wrote this chapter, but I don't have the heart to change it. It all adds to the plot later, people. And speaking of this chapter, it's been sitting on my desktop for, yeah, you guessed it, three months.

It always has been a magical number.

And yes, this is still going. I'll be sure to put up Chapter Eight in a few days. And I'll try to keep to that pace.

I'm back, yo.