A Lovers Feud
By: Alex Destine
Chapter 6
~~
No way! ~~ Kitty just stood there in shock feeling Pietro's lips against hers.
But after a while she began kissing back. It wasn't so bad. Pietro was very
gentle with her; it made her feel nice inside. They both closed their eyes and
for a moment forgot the world around them.
"That
was excellent! It's the best acting I've ever seen!" Claudia was extremely
happy! Her main actors weren't just going to 'get along' they were giving the
best performance of their lives. Claudia stopped when she heard the snickering
and giggling of the other students. She looked at them and then back at her
lead actors and immediately knew why they were laughing. Pietro and Kitty had
apparently 'liked' this scene a lot more then she thought. They hadn't broken
the kiss yet.
"Well…
Maximoff I think Pryde may want to breath now." Claudia tried not to laugh.
The two mutants broke the kiss
rather reluctantly and stared at each other. The same thoughts were cruising
through their minds, they both weren't expecting to kiss and once it started
neither of them expected to like it… but they had.
"Yeah,
yeah… so, how did you like the scene?" Pietro looked at Claudia now but
everyone noticed how his cheeks had suddenly flushed to a bright crimson.
Kitty for her part wasn't saying
anything, but her cheeks too looked a strong shade of pink.
The rest of the rehearsal went
rather quietly after that. The other students said their lines while either
Pietro or Kitty answered. Once it was all over Claudia congratulated them for
their great performance and told them that whatever they had done to make it
like this, to keep it coming. They both blushed again after that.
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"KITTY! I swear, if you don't come out of that bathroom right now I'm gonna really do some damage to this door!" Rogue wasn't a very patient person but the young freshman had been in there for almost an hour! Even Jean was starting to get anxious.
"Maybe she's not feeling well?… Kitty, it's me Jean. Are you alright?"
"Yeah! Like, just a minute!" yelled Kitty from the other side of the door.
"You mean aside from the other 60 minutes you've already had? … Other people need to use these bathrooms you know." Rogue leaned against the door waiting when she suddenly felt something going through her… or rather someone.
Kitty just phased through the door and right through Rogue in order to get out of the bathroom.
"Like, sorry I took so long. It's all yours now." Kitty had this smile on her face that made her look like the happiest person alive.
"Kitty, did something happen today? You look so… so, happy." Jean wanted to find out from Kitty herself and not by reading her thoughts.
"Like, no… nothing out of the ordinary. Just another glorious school day!" and with that she phased through her door and into her room.
"That girl aint telling us something Jean." Not even Rogue had ever seen Kitty this giddy… and she was used to the girl's extremely optimistic nature.
"Maybe… she'll tell us soon I guess." Jean took a step toward the bathroom when suddenly Rogue flew by her and locked herself inside.
"HEY! It was my turn Rogue!" Jean stood out in the hall with her hands on her hips.
"Sorry…" was all that came from the locked bathroom.
******************************************************
Pietro, Todd and Lance were in the supermarket now getting the necessary groceries. They decided to leave Freddy since the huge mutant would've probably gone mad seeing all these food products.
All the way through the supermarket Lance and Todd had been giving each other meaningful glances. Pietro was acting weird. He had been humming this sweet little tune all the way in the car, he was actually walking with them instead of running all around the supermarket getting everything he wanted and he stopped to look at some flowers. That last one had scared them both.
"Umm,… Pietro, are you alright?" Lance was picking up some cereal now.
"Yeah… never better!" the white haired boy was looking for his favorite cereal.
"You seem kind of… peaceful. Somehow you've never been like that before." Todd thought his friend might be sick or something. He had never seen Pietro sick, so maybe this is what happened… he slowed down.
"Sure I've been peaceful before!… Come on Lance, remind Todd of a time I was peaceful." Pietro still couldn't find his cereal.
"You know I would… except I haven't seen you THIS peaceful before either. Did something happen today at school?… Oh my God! Pietro, are you taking something?!" Lance eyes were huge when he asked this.
"Are you on drugs?!" Todd asked.
"Oh geez! No!… why does everyone keep asking me that?!… Can't I simply be peaceful once in a while?" Pietro couldn't find his cereal, so he took his best two other choices.
"OK… just wondering. Hey, can we buy this much cereal?" Todd looked over their cart and noticed they had around five different brands.
"Sure! We have a blank check." Lance wondered how on Earth did Pietro get such a precious gift from Mystique. He guessed Mystique must've had a headache and simply to get Pietro off her case she'd give him anything.
The young boys kept buying things they would've normally thought twice about, but it wasn't everyday they got the chance to spend any amount of money. They almost had their cart full when Pietro stumbled across the chocolate section.
"Oh no! You're not buying anything from there!" Lance tried to block Pietro's view of the chocolates.
"Oh come on! They're not for me!… get out of the way Lance!" Pietro was actually thinking of a pretty young brunette who might appreciate the gift.
"Then who are they for?" Todd asked looking bewildered, then he flashed Pietro a mischievous smile. "I'm sorry man, you're just not my type." Todd grinned.
"Ew! Shut up Toad! They're not for you! Like, that's just like, totally gross you know!"
Lance and Todd stopped what they were doing and looked at their friend. Not even Pietro himself believed he had just said that.
"Pietro, did you just sound like a Valley Girl?" asked Todd pointing at him.
"NO!… you guys just heard wrong."
~~ Who talks like that? ~~ Lance was busy thinking of where else on this Earth had he listened to someone talking that way before. Right now that memory didn't wish to surface.
"Come on Lance! Move! Just one box of chocolates, nothing more! Promise!" Pietro would've simply run past his older friend, but Lance was holding on to his arm. It seemed the only way to stop the speed demon, but only for a short while.
"No! You know how annoying you get while on a sugar high. There's no way you're buying that!" Lance thought he had won the argument until Pietro whispered his next words into his ear.
"Let me buy it or I'll tell everyone about your cute little apron at "Little Washu's Candy Factory"!"
"Ok… just ONE box." Lance was beaten.
"Are you nuts Lance! What are you doing?!… I'm not sitting next to him at lunch again!" Todd didn't want to deal with a sugar-high Quicksilver.
After buying everything they needed they headed back home to put the groceries away while taking special care to hide their favorite things from Fred. Once in his room Pietro took the box of chocolates and wondered if it was the right idea to give this to Kitty. They had only kissed once, and it had all been because the play demanded it. Still… he had liked it. Maybe she had liked it too… so he was going to present her this little peace offering in hopes that… that what? That she likes him back? That wouldn't change the fact that she was an X-men and he belonged to the Brotherhood.
~~ Maybe she'll join us the way Rogue joined them… yeah right Maximoff, not happening! ~~ Still,… Pietro could always hope that whatever he had with the young freshman was at least going to last a little longer.
************************************************************
For some reason school on Thursday didn't seem so bad. Pietro had woken up earlier then Lance and had made breakfast for the entire Brotherhood. It basically consisted of weird shaped pancakes and toasts, but it was something no one was expecting.
The classes that day seemed easier for some reason too, even Mr. Smith's evil 'right-before-lunch' class. Pietro was awake during the whole thing, a never before seen event.
The whole day was turning out to be rather good and sometimes Pietro had to stop himself from smiling too much. He knew his friends were already giving him weird looks, but he couldn't stop this oblivious-to-everything mood he had on. Of course, that all stopped when the last bell for school rang and all the students ran to their lockers to drop off books and then ran even faster home.
Pietro was in front of his still closed locker while Todd and Fred waited for Lance to show up.
"Oh man! I can't wait to go home!" Fred always loved to go straight home the day after the others had gone to buy groceries, which meant it was now his turn to make some of that food disappear.
"Of course you can't. You're going home to eat, I'm going to study yo!" Todd was still not over his tests and he had to get a good enough grade so his summer wouldn't be spent back in school.
"Well, that's not my fault!" said Fred as he ate a bag of chips. "Hey Pietro, don't you have to go to rehearsals now?" He had been wondering why his sophomore friend was still with them, after all Todd and himself were waiting for Lance cause he had to drive them home but Pietro was staying.
"Yeah, but I thought I'd keep you guys company." Pietro smiled at the big mutant. He had been doing that so much during the day that neither Todd nor Fred felt like asking him why he did it. In truth Pietro couldn't wait for Lance to get here so he could take the other two away. He had to get his box of chocolates, which was inside his locker, and he knew he couldn't take that out in front of these two. Fred would probably want to eat them and Todd would ask too many questions… as if Pietro was going to mention anything about a girl again.
Just then they saw Lance walking toward them while dragging his half empty backpack across the floor.
"Ok… you guys have your stuff ready, right? I'm late for work already so I want to go now… Pietro, aren't you supposed to be in rehearsal?"
"Yeah…" Pietro sighed, "I'll… I'll go in a little while…"
~~ Maybe this wasn't such a good idea… Kitty might hate me for yesterday. ~~ Pietro was having second thoughts about all of this. What if she didn't like him back? What if she hated him now? What if… What if she was on a diet and couldn't eat the chocolates?! … girls were always on some weird diet…
Still, he had gone this far, right? Pietro Maximoff was not a quitter! He was going to see for himself if she liked him back… but not now.
"I… I think I'm going back home with you guys…" Pietro said as he began to get uncomfortable.
"Why?" Lance knew there was something wrong with Pietro now… he almost sounded… insecure about something.
"No way!" Todd grabbed his books in one hand and Lance's arm in the other as he tried to pull his friend. "He'll get bored and Freddy won't help and I need to study! You know Pietro makes a racquet when he's bored! … Besides, you have to go to rehearsals now!" Todd was going to do anything in his power to have a quiet afternoon to study. With someone like Quicksilver around, quiet times weren't that many.
"Fine, fine… kick me out of my own home why don't ya!" Pietro crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against his locker.
"You could go to the mall with me while I work?" said Lance trying to help his friend.
Both Fred and Todd looked at each other, then at Lance as the same thought came to their minds.
"You work at the mall?!" asked Todd voicing their thoughts while still starring at Lance.
~~ Oh no!… ~~ Lance looked at his friends and realized his secret was out.
"Well… yeah, nothing big really…"
"Yo! Man, we didn't know it was at the mall. Which store?" Todd had for the moment forgotten about his studies.
"Umm… well… it's really no big deal… and … WE HAVE TO GO NOW!"
"Come on! Tell us!" Fred was just as curious about the location of his friend's job.
"You guys really want to know?"
Pietro supplied enthusiastically.
"YES!" replied both Todd and Fred.
"No!" said a worried Lance.
"Well…" Pietro leaned closer to Todd
as Fred did the same thing in order to listen. It was as if they were talking
about the world's greatest secret. "Lance here works at this really neat place.
Freddy would really like it… and so would you Todd…. You guys suuuuuure you
want to know?…"
"Pietro! Say it already!" screamed
Todd.
Lance
was just standing in a corner waiting for the jokes that were surely going to
come at his expense.
"Lance…. Works….. at…. JOHN'S MIGHTY
GUN AND AMMO STORE!"
"Whaaa..?" cried all three boys.
"Yeah, that's right… dangerous place
to visit, gives people vengeful ideas." Said Pietro trying to sound convincing.
"Yeah, yeah… that's right…." Lance
was beyond relieved. If these two had found out where he really worked he never
would've heard the end of it. That, and Fred would be constantly bothering him
in order to get free candy.
"Ok, now we really should go…
Pietro, what are you going to do?" Lance looked at his friend and wondered why
he suddenly didn't wish to go to rehearsals.
"Umm,…. Well, I don't know…"
~~ Honestly! I can't just 'not' show
up… ok fine! I'll do this… I can do this… sure I can do this… should I do
this?…. Yeah, yeah I should this. ~~ Pietro's way of convincing himself
sometimes proved complicated.
"Nah, it's ok… I'm staying. But only
cause Todd needs to study." He elbowed his young friend in the ribs as Todd's
eyes suddenly grew wide.
"Oh my God! I have to study! Move
Lance! MOVE!" Todd grabbed Lance by his arm and started to pull.
"Ok! Ok… geez, hold on a minute… see
ya back home Pietro. OUCH! Todd! QUIT IT!"
Fred
followed his two bickering friends as they headed toward the exit. Once alone
Pietro opened his locker and took out the troubling box of chocolates.
~~ The stuff I get myself into… ~~
thought the young mutant as he hid away the box inside his backpack and headed
toward rehearsals.
**********************************************************
Kitty Pryde was nervous. But why was that? She didn't do anything to feel nervous about, right? Still, she had been fine the entire day and now suddenly she had this feeling in the pit of her stomach, all she wanted was to run away.
~~ Like, maybe I shouldn't be here… everyone is like probably talking about what happened yesterday…. Maybe like, I should've told Jean what happened. ~~
She remembered yesterday all too clearly… amazing how much things changed after that one little moment. Before things had been simple. Brotherhood = bad; X-men = good. That was it, she fought the Brotherhood and saved the day… but now, how was she to fight Quicksilver when all she could think about was that kiss? And would Pietro fight her back? Did he feel the same things she was feeling right now? Did he even care? Kitty didn't know… and she wasn't sure she wanted to know…
"Where on Earth is my male lead?!" Claudia was walking around giving everyone the evil eye as if they were actually hiding Pietro behind their backs.
"Why most he do this to me?!" Claudia kept running around the stage.
~~ Like, where is he? ~~ Kitty was used to Pietro being late, but he was really outdoing himself now. Was he late because of her? Because he didn't wish to see her again? Maybe he wasn't going to show up at all… no, he wouldn't do that. This was a challenge for him. He'd show up to finish the play.
~~ But like, wait a moment… was yesterday like just a challenge for him as well? ~~
That was the part Kitty didn't want to know. Maybe that kiss hadn't meant anything to him, but for her… well, it was her first kiss. Her first real one. With a boy.
~~ And out of everyone in this school the guy to finally kiss me had to be Pietro Maximoff. ~~
The little room filled with light at that moment thanks to the opened door and through it walked Pietro looking all smiles and sunshine at Claudia.
"Hi Claudia!" his voice was very sweet… too much so.
"Don't you 'hi' me! You were supposed to be here a whole hour ago!" Claudia was always very concerned with keeping on schedule. Pietro was obviously ruining her chances of that.
"But I have a good reason!" Pietro cried out as he approached the small group of kids who were practicing their lines.
"I'm not your homeroom teacher Maximoff. I don't want excuses I want you HERE! … Now go practice your lines with Pryde."
Kitty had been looking down at her script as if it held all the secrets of the Universe. She didn't want to look up, she didn't want to look at him right now. He was probably looking at her, expecting her to do something… but she didn't know what.
Pietro for his part simply looked at Kitty. She wasn't moving; she hadn't even looked at him yet. She was probably angry with him. He didn't know what he had expected her to do… but at least she could look up at him!
He looked at Claudia with pleading eyes practically begging to practice with someone else. Claudia wouldn't have it though.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Go and practice with Pryde now, we have to make up the lost time."
Pietro walked rather slowly toward the young girl and sat next her without saying anything. They both pretended to be extremely preoccupied with anything else when in fact they were each waiting to see who would talk first.
~~ This is stupid! Why am I putting myself through this? ~~ Pietro was tired of not knowing what Kitty was thinking so he decided to break the silence.
"So… umm, what shall we practice now?" he wasn't looking at her when he asked, he was too busy studying the floor.
"I don't know… whatever." Kitty was also busy looking at some distant spot on the wall.
"I don't suppose we could practice yesterdays scene again? … or maybe not." Pietro saw the look on Kitty's face at that question. She seemed shocked, then she looked a little hurt.
~~ So like, that's what it was to him, just another kiss from another girl … Like, don't know why I'm upset, I should've been ready for this you know. ~~ Kitty was disappointed… but mostly at herself for letting her imagination get the best of her.
~~ Ok… 'yesterday' is a bad topic right now. ~~ he really didn't wish to upset Kitty, too late for that now though. Pietro would've found a way to fix this situation if Claudia's voice hadn't broken his concentration.
"Maximoff! Come here a sec!" Claudia screamed from the other side of the little room.
"Yeah! … Umm, Kitty. I'll be right back, alright?" he didn't wish to leave her now, but the almighty 'play god' called.
For the rest of rehearsal Pietro and Kitty practiced scenes with the other actors and couldn't really talk much. Kitty was glad for that, but Pietro was starting to get edgy. He wanted to talk to her alone and he wasn't getting a chance and this was making him angry. Finally after about two hours Claudia decided they had practiced enough for the day.
~~ Wow! Isn't she benevolent… ~~ Pietro was just oozing with sarcasm right now. He couldn't wait to catch Kitty alone so they could talk … only problem was, there was no Kitty.
"Where she go?!" Pietro screamed at no one in particular.
"Huh?" Claudia looked up from what she was writing and starred at her male lead.
"Where is she? Where's Pryde?"
"Umm, I think she left already… you might catch her on the pay phone though." And with that Claudia returned her attention to whatever she was writing.
Pietro grabbed his bag and tried to run as fast as he could but without using his powers. He finally caught up with her in the middle of the hallway.
"Hey! … so umm, where you going?" he smiled at her trying not to make her angry.
"Home, where does it look like?" she wasn't being really helpful.
"Ok… listen, I really want to talk to you Kitty."
"What about?"
"You know what about!" Pietro tried to control himself. "Why are you mad at me?"
~~ Ok, stupid question, but at least she'll talk to me. ~~ thought Pietro as he waited for her answer.
"I'm not mad at you Pietro."
"You're not?" he looked bewildered for a few moments. He wasn't expecting her to say that.
"No. If you're talking about what happened yesterday I'm completely fine with it you know. I mean, it's for the play, right? Nothing like, important or whatever."
"Right… nothing important." Pietro's agitated mood was suddenly becoming depressed.
~~ Damn it, damn it, damn it! ~~ Pietro was mentally kicking himself.
"Ok… guess that's about it…" Pietro turned around to leave when he suddenly remembered the box of chocolates he still had in his backpack. He didn't feel like eating candy right now, and he certainly wasn't going to give them to Freddy.
For a brief instant Kitty thought Pietro had left her for good. She wasn't as relieved as she thought she'd be, instead she was rather sad. Things were quieter when he wasn't around and even (dare she say it?) boring. Spending these past few weeks with the young speed demon had really messed up her perspective of fun.
She felt that maybe she should've told him the truth. That the kiss had indeed been important to her, she just didn't know if he'd laugh at her or joke about it. Suddenly she felt someone was beside her again, she turned to see Pietro walking by her looking a bit nervous about something.
~~ Like, why is he still following me? Didn't we like, settle this already? ~~ Kitty thought as she stopped and turned to face him.
"Did you like want something?" Kitty didn't sound annoyed or sarcastic; she simply wanted to know the reason why Pietro was still standing in the hallway with her.
"Well… I kinda… well, I … IgotthisforyouandIthoughtyoumightwantitevenifnothingishappeningbetweenus."
Kitty blinked a few times. She really hated it when he talked this way.
"Can you like repeat that?"
"Iwantedyoutohavethis." He said as he gave her the brown bag that held the pink box of chocolates.
Kitty still didn't understand a word Pietro had just said but he was handing the bag over to her so she just took it and looked inside. What she saw shocked her.
She took out a small pink heat-shaped box of chocolates. It didn't have a card or anything like that. Apparently Pietro had forgotten of that little detail. But he had thought of giving her something… why had he bothered buying her this when he didn't care?
"Well… it's not important or anything like that but you know, I thought you'd like it more then Fred would. And God knows I'm not buying him anything, he eats enough as it is. Why, just the other day we were practically out of food and we had to go to the supermarket last night or we would've starved…" Pietro was babbling.
~~ He bought this? Pietro bought this for me? ~~ Kitty wasn't really listening to Pietro's tale of Fred 'the human vacuum cleaner'. She knew he was just talking nonsense to avoid looking as embarrassed as he felt. She looked up at him now. He was avoiding making eye contact with her; he just kept talking while looking at his feet or at some of the lockers. At that moment Kitty felt that Pietro was the sweetest boy on this planet.
~~ He looks so embarrassed and so lost…. I wish he'd be quiet though. ~~
Pietro was busy talking about… something. He wasn't even sure what he was babbling; all he knew was that he could see Kitty starring at him looking all pretty like that and he knew that if he starred back she'd just look away. So his plan was … what? To talk until eternity? He had to stop; he just didn't know what to do after he did. Fortunately Kitty made the decision for both of them.
Silence filled the school's hallway as Pietro felt something warm and soft on his lips. He blinked a few times trying to understand why he wasn't talking anymore. He didn't recall shutting up.
He looked down and saw Kitty's cute little lips on his. She was standing on the tip of her toes as she was trying to make up for their height differences. He leaned forward a bit so she wouldn't feel so uncomfortable and slowly placed his hands around her back. He didn't want her to think he was being disrespectful or anything like that.
They stayed that way for a few moments, neither of them daring to further the kiss any more then a simple brush of the lips. It didn't matter though; it was enough for both of them now.
Kitty backed away slowly but she could feel Pietro leaning forward a bit more to make up for the space between them.
~~ Boy is he eager! ~~ Kitty had to laugh at Pietro's attempt to keep the innocent kiss going. She gently pushed him away though.
They stood starring at each other for a while. Kitty was doing some serious blushing while Pietro too looked a bit red around the cheeks… not that he'd admit it.
"So… you liked the chocolates?" Pietro asked after a while.
Kitty just looked at him and placed her hands on her hips as if saying: 'stupid question!'
"Ok, I'll take that as a yes… So, what do we do now?"
"I was like, hoping you'd tell me. I mean, you know the others are like so totally not going to understand." Kitty said as she started to look worried.
"Hey, don't worry about that right now alright." He smiled fondly at her.
If you would've told Pietro Maximoff a week earlier that he was going to be in love with a member of the X-men he would've laughed so hard tears would've been coming out of his eyes. He didn't know how it happened, but he knew he had to keep it.
He just hoped the day his friends found out they could be a bit more understanding. He'd have to tell them eventually…
~~ … Just NOT this week… or this month… or the one after… ~~ Pietro wasn't really thinking about telling them in the immediate future… or anytime after that.
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End Chapter 6
Ok, Hope you guys liked it! =^_^= Aren't those two just the cutest little things?! ;P Tell me what you guys think alright… later!