Sorry it took so long…

Sorry it took so long…. My muse left me! ;_;

And instead, I got stuck with an evil writers block! -_-

(now that's just a bad combination…)

Anyway, enjoy chapter 8! =^_^=

A Lovers Feud

By: Alex Destine

Chapter 8

Rehearsals were becoming a bit boring for the young speed-demon. He knew his lines already so he was practically just helping out the other kids who couldn't say two sentences without reading from the script.

Occasionally he'd look up at Kitty who was also helping a few kids learn their lines. He didn't want to seem too obvious, after all the last thing he needed was for any one of these gossiping cheerleaders to be spreading rumors of them being together. He knew Mystique for one wouldn't appreciate that.

"Claudia, can we go now?" Pietro was a bit more then just bored, he was dying to get himself out of there and alone with Kitty.

"Our two hours are almost up Maximoff, I'm sure you can wait a little more." Claudia didn't even bother to look up from what she was reading.

"But I want to go now!" Pietro crossed his arms over his chest and starred at the play-god.

"You're so spoiled Maximoff." Claudia looked at her watch and decided they could stop for today, after all almost everyone knew their lines by now and she didn't exactly feel like putting up with Pietro's whining.

"Ok everybody listen up. We're through for today, but you better keep practicing those lines!"

"Aw, you're such a gentle dictator Claudia… what would we do without you?" joked Pietro as he reached for his backpack.

"What would you do indeed Maximoff. Practice your lines!"

"Yes mommy."

~~ Finally! It's over! The madness is over! ~~ Pietro made his way toward Kitty who was placing a few of her books in her bag. He quickly grabbed them and started to balance then on his head.

"You know Kitty, we really should practice our lines a little more." Pietro was making himself busy with the books.

"Like, that's a good idea but, could I have my books now?" she smiled at him thinking he looked cute like that.

"But I'm using them." Pietro stopped playing with them and simply placed them behind his back away from Kitty's grasp.

~~ Guess this is his way of saying he's carrying my books. ~~ thought Kitty as they made their way out of the room.

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

Kurt was pacing around his room back in the mansion. Kitty should've called by now. She always called right after rehearsals and he teleported to take her back to the institute, only she usually did that over ten minutes ago.

~~ Maybe rehearsals took longer today, or she's talking to someone or …. Or something else. ~~

Kurt wasn't usually this worried over Kitty's whereabouts but today he had decided to finally talk to her in hopes she would confide in him her little 'problem'. He was anxious enough as it was and the waiting wasn't helping.

"Alright, that's it. I'm going to find her. She has to be somewhere back at school." He would've just teleported, but he thought he needed a bit of help. And who better for the job then 'Big brother' Scott.

Scott was just coming out of the Danger Room when he felt Kurt's usual 'poof'.

"Hey Kurt, going to practice for a while?" said Scott as he was tying up his shoes.

"Not right now, Scott I need a favor. I need you to help me find Kitty."

"Why? Is she hurt Kurt? What happened?" Scott didn't want to think one of his friends was in any kind of trouble.

"No! No… relax dude! Kitty's fine, it's just… well, you know how she's been acting all different lately. Well, I just wanted to talk to her about that and she hasn't called from rehearsals yet."

"So you want to go and find her?"

"Yep, don't you want to know why Kitty's hasn't been concentrating on her practices lately. You know, as leader you should make sure everything was alright with the rest of the team."

"No need to pressure me into it Kurt, I am also curious about what she's been up to. I'll help you find her then we can both talk to her."

"Alright!" Finally someone to help him with his 'Kitty mystery'.

Kurt impatiently pulled on Scott's arm to make his way faster down toward the car.

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

"What to do? What to do?" Todd was pacing around his room still thinking of ways to solve the 'Pietro problem'. He thought about talking to his friend but he knew the white-haired boy wouldn't tell him anything. So at last the solution to his problem was:

"I have to spy on him!" so simple. Now, how to do that?

~~ Pietro must still be in rehearsals with all those cheerleaders yo! Now's the perfect time to find out who she is. ~~

All he had to do was find a way to get back to the school, he couldn't just walk there, it was too far. He would have to steal… 'borrow' Lance's car.

Todd made his way down the stairs looking all around him to see if he was being watched. No Lance in sight and Fred was busy watching TV. Todd looked over the kitchen table and saw the car keys. Now was a good a time as any. He quickly grabbed them and made his way to the door.

"Where you going?!" bellowed the giant mutant.

"AAAHH!…. SHHHHH! Freddy, be quiet!" so much for going by unnoticed.

"I'm just… going out to buy something. Be back later."

"And you're leaving with the car keys because…?"

"Aw man! You saw that?… ok fine, I'm going back to the school. Maybe I can catch Pietro with his new girlfriend."

"I'm going with you."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No you're NOT!"

Fred stood up and walked over Todd. Obviously he looked huge in front of the small mutant.

"YES I AM!"

"…. Ok, fine… whatever. But don't make any noise. I want to leave without being spotted by Lance. Where is he anyway?"

"Said he had to go and buy something." Fred was happy he finally got his way.

"Good! We can go now!"

The two boys made their way toward Lance's old car, Todd was beginning to get a little scared. If anything happened to that car it was his funeral, but right now Todd couldn't stop to think about that. He had to find out what was going on with Pietro.

Fred sat in the back seat as usual and Todd placed himself on the drivers seat. He placed the key on the ignition and turned. Sure, Todd didn't have his license yet, but he knew what he needed to know about cars.

He let go of the break pedal and lightly pressed on for gas as he looked back so he wouldn't run over anything… or anyone.

But the car wasn't moving. He looked at everything again, the car was in reverse and he was pressing the gas pedal not the break. Why weren't they moving?

"Freddy! I think you're too heavy!"

Fred thought for a moment, then he looked back at Todd with a 'nice try' expression.

"Lance drives us both to school everyday so why would my weight be a problem now?"

"Alright Freddy, fine… but really, you had to think about it before answering that?"

All Todd felt next was a semi-hard punch on his arm.

"OUCH! Fred, stop that!… I'm sorry, I'm sorry…. Now calm down and sit down, I have to figure out a way to get this car moving."

"Does it was gas?" Fred asked trying to help.

"Yes it has."

"You pressing the right pedal?"

"Duh! Freddy."

"Don't 'duh' me, you're the one who can't move the car."

"Ok ok… what else? What are we missing?"

"Do you have a licensed driver?" asked a third voice.

"What kind of a question is AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Lance was standing right next to the driver's window and looking down at Todd's attempt to steal his car.

"Did you kiddies need a joy ride?" Lance was not amused by what he was seeing. Todd was trying to drive his car… HIS car.

"Ok, umm… I can explain…" Todd played with his fingers trying to come up with something. "Fred needed to go to the hospital cause he was sick and we didn't know where you were so I was going to take him!"

Lance snuck his head inside the car and looked at Fred who was still sitting on the back seat. Fred was not playing along.

"Sorry Todd, Fred is not sick. Try again."

Todd sighed in defeat. He might as well see if he could have Lance's help on this.

"Ok… we were going back to school cause I wanted to check on Pietro. You know he has been acting weird, so I thought maybe he had a new cheerleader girlfriend or something."

"You think he's got a girlfriend now?"

"Yeah well, remember at lunch today?… before your flying meatloaf extravaganza, Pietro was smiling at this table full of cheerleaders and…. well,… I don't want the Brotherhood to lose him because of some airhead!"

Lance stared at Todd for a while.

~~ So this was his problem? He really thought Pietro would just ditch them? ~~ Lance wasn't so sure Pietro wouldn't, but he couldn't let Todd worry about that.

"Todd… if Pietro has a girlfriend then that's his business and all we have to do is make fun of him when he gets home. That's all. Now get out of my car."

"But don't you want to find out if it's true? All we have to do is check now that he's still at rehearsals." Todd wanted to find out so badly.

"And if it's true, then what? We can't stop him from having a girlfriend you know. If he were avoiding his Brotherhood duties and such then that would be different and Mystique would kick his ass but he's not. So what would we accomplish by going there?"

"…. We wouldn't be wondering anymore?"

Todd had a point.

"Ok move I'm driving."

Todd immediately moved to the passengers seat as Lance got in. He couldn't believe the older boy had agreed to help him. There was just one thing that was bothering Todd.

"Yo man, why wouldn't the car move before anyway?… I did everything I could and nothing." Todd watched as Lance pulled on the emergency lever he had neglected to acknowledge before. "Oh…"

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

Kurt and Scott had looked everywhere. Where was this girl!?

"Kurt, let's go back now. Maybe she took a ride with another of the kids back at rehearsals."

"Let's just check one more time ok? I'm sure we can figure out what she's been up to if we wait just a little." Kurt was very persistent today.

"Why don't you just ask her back home?"

"You really think she'd say anything Scott."

"Ok fine, we're looking one more time and then we're out of here."

"Good. Let's split up this time, maybe we'll find her that way. Let's meet back at the lockers." And then Kurt 'poofed' leaving Scott all by himself.

"Great… well… might as well look a bit more." Scott wanted to go home now.

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

"Fred. I do NOT think he'd be inside the garbage can." Lance was beginning to see that finding Pietro was going to be a difficult job. They had arrived at the school several minutes ago and still nothing.

"Yeah, but people sure throw away some interesting stuff…" Fred took one more look inside the can before being pulled away by Lance.

"Yo! I think we better split up since none of us know where those stupid rehearsals take place."

"Fine, good idea Todd." Lance was beginning to get a headache. "We'll meet back at the lockers."

Now all alone Lance kept walking around the empty school.

~~ Only demented people like us roam a school on a Friday afternoon, … figures…. ~~

True, Lance wished he could be spending his only afternoon off doing something else, but he also wished to know what Pietro was up to. If the young sophomore really did have a girlfriend then that explained an awful lot about his behavior this past week. Still, Lance wished Todd was wrong on that assumption.

~~ If I were a hyperactive, annoying white-haired sophomore… where would I be? ~~ Lance simply kept walking, unfortunately that took him to one of the many places he knew for sure Pietro would never be caught dead in.

~~ How on Earth did I end up in the library? ~~ Lance sighed as he set down taking a rest. ~~ If I don't find that little punk soon, I'm gonna shake this entire building! ~~

Lance would've done that too, if he hadn't heard a little noise coming from behind one of the shelves.

~~ AHA!… decided to play hide and seek with me, did ya Pietro?! You are so busted! ~~

Lance started to move slowly toward the direction of the sound. He figured Pietro had spotted him and was trying to scare him by jumping from behind the shelve.

~~ Now I've got you! ~~

Lance suddenly jumped, grabbing a boy and pinning him to the floor.

"HA! Thought you'd scare me didn't ya?!" when Lance looked down however, he was face to face with…

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

"If I were Pietro, where would I be?…. that has got to be the stupidest question ever." Todd was keeping his mind busy as he kept looking for his friend. What would they do if Pietro really did have a cheerleader girlfriend? He wasn't sure… maybe Lance would stuff him inside his locker like he did when Pietro had the sugar high. Not that such an action would help… but still…

The young mutant kept walking, but unlike Lance his steps had the sense to direct him somewhere where Pietro might be. The gym.

~~ Nope, no Pietro playing basketball here. Maybe he's off in the pool… ~~

Todd turned around but he didn't get very far as he heard the soft sound of a gentle 'poof'. What followed after that wasn't as gentle.

"OUCH! DAMN IT! GET OFF OF ME!!"

"Sorry… AH! Todd?"

"Blue boy?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" both boys asked at the same time as Kurt was pinning Todd on the floor.

"Hey! You poofed on top of me so you answer!" said Todd as he pushed Kurt away from him.

"Well… I was in the cafeteria when suddenly I met up with Blob and he said he was going to eat me… guessed I panicked and teleported away. Problem was I didn't have a clear destination." Kurt was smiling sheepishly at Todd.

"Figures…" Todd wasn't surprised to know Freddy was looking for Pietro in the cafeteria.

"So, why are you here?" Kurt wasn't expecting to see a Brotherhood member still in school on a Friday… unless they were up to something.

"Did you trash the lockers?!"

"Whaa…? NO! Geez, most we always be doing something bad to make you X-geeks feel almighty and good." Todd just wanted to get away from Blue boy as soon as possible.

"Then why are you here?" Kurt was more curios then worried over the reason why Todd might still be in school at this hour.

"As if I'd tell you!… Why are you here?" Todd crossed his arms waiting for an answer from Kurt.

"I… well… I'm looking for someone. I don't suppose you have seen Kitty anywhere?"

"Oh no, thank God! The more distance between me and that little girl the better." Todd had better things to do then be with Blue boy right now so he turned around to leave.

"Are you looking for someone too?"

"What?" Todd turned around suddenly.

"Well, you looked as if you were looking for someone. Maybe we can help each other?"

Kurt wasn't a fan of the Brotherhood, but he didn't believe he had to be mean to them. Maybe if they all tried a little harder they could be nice acquaintances instead of enemies.

Todd sighed, he really didn't like the X-men but among all the other annoying members he supposed he could stand Kurt the most. Regardless of their first meeting.

"Fine, whatever… just don't be poofing around or something like that."

"Alright, no poofing." Kurt smiled as he started to walk besides Todd. "So, who are you looking for?"

"…. A white-haired, fast talking idiot." Todd wanted to find his friend and smack him.

"You mean Pietro? Does he always run off like this?" Kurt asked the now annoyed Todd.

"No, not really… but I swear he has got to be the most annoying member of the Brotherhood!"

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

"You have got to be the most annoying member of the X-men!" screamed Lance as he saw himself pinning down none other then Scott Summers.

"I'm the annoying one? What do you think you're doing jumping me down like this?!" Scott was shoving Lance away.

"I didn't know it was you!!" Lance was out looking for one annoyingly fast boy and instead got someone that was simply annoying. "What are you doing here anyway? Classes were over a few hours ago, don't tell me your working on some extra credit thing or I'm going to be sick."

"What I'm doing here is none of your business Alvers, and I could ask you the same thing." Scott thought Kitty might be in the library since she enjoyed the quiet she got there. She was always complaining how noisy things were at the Institute sometimes. But having come face to face with his 'not-so-favorite' person left little desire to find the young freshman now.

~~ That's it! I'm going to meet Kurt back at the lockers and go home! Chances are Kitty is probably there right now. ~~

Lance wasn't having much fun on his search either.

~~ That's it! I'm gonna get Todd and Freddy and we're going home! I don't care if Pietro has a cheerleader girlfriend. He could date the entire squad for all I care! ~~

Both boys started walking at the same time and would've continued if the small door hadn't made them get stuck.

"Move it Summers!"

"I was here first!"

After both boys managed to get out of the library alive Lance started to walk toward the lockers with Scott following angrily behind.

"You following me now Summers?" Lance wanted to get rid of this X-freak.

"I'm heading this way I don't know why you're going too." Scott was going to kill Kurt for this. Lance saw as Scott took out a small 'cell phone' type of machine from his pocket and started to call for Blue Boy to meet him at the lockers.

~~ Great! Stupid rich X-geeks even have state of the art Walkie-Talkies. ~~

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

"But Scott!…. oh alright, I'll meet you at the lockers… Kurt out."

"What the heck was that?!" Todd had never seen such a machine. It looked like a cell phone, but not really…

"This? … it's our communicator."

"You guys even have state of the art Walkie-Talkies?…. god you're spoiled."

"No, it's not like that…" Kurt smiled a bit. Now that he thought about it, they were a little spoiled.

"So you have to meet Summers at the lockers?"

"Yeah, he apparently got tired of looking for Kitty." Kurt wished they had found her, he wanted to know so bad what was up with the young girl.

"Can't really blame him" This got Todd an evil glare from Kurt. "Hey! I didn't mean anything against Pryde… I'm kinda tired of looking for Pietro myself."

"Would you imagine if they were out together, wouldn't that be strange?" Kurt laughed at his own comment. Now that was impossible.

Todd stared at him for a moment, then realized he was joking and laughed as well.

"Freddy will go on a diet before those two can stand in the same room without killing each other." Todd decided to follow Kurt to the lockers since the Brotherhood's search for their friend had also failed. He figured Lance would be more then happy to go home now.

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

Kitty tried to push Pietro away when the need for air felt intolerable. Not like she wanted to pull away from the boy, but she had to breathe. She mumbled something that Pietro didn't seem to understand.

"Mmmm?…" came Pietro's replay.

Another mumble from Kitty. This time Pietro pulled away from the girl as she gasped for air.

"I said…. I needed air!" Kitty said between breaths.

"Oh… sorry about that." Pietro felt a little sheepish about that last kiss. It seemed that after rehearsals that was all they were doing instead of practicing as they should've done.

Now they were in front of Kitty's locker as the young girl kept looking inside for the infamous picture of the disaster Evan had caused inside the Professors office.

"I like, practically had to steal this picture from Kurt's room."

"Oh my Kitty, you're turning bad."

"Like, shut up!" Kitty playfully hit Pietro's arm. "Here it is."

She handed him the picture and Pietro simply stared at it for a while before bursting into laughter.

"Evan always made a mess of things…. May I keep it?" Pietro asked sweetly.

"Like, Kurt will probably miss it."

"Please?!"

"Evan might not like you having that picture."

"PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!!!"

"ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! Like, you can keep it for a little while." She didn't stand a chance against his whining.

"Great!" Pietro quickly put it away in his backpack.

"Like, we really should be going home now. It's getting late."

"But we haven't practiced at all!" Pietro said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Like, whose fault is that?!" Kitty placed her hands on her hips.

"Fine, fine… let's just practice a little now before we go…"

"Oh alright…" She guessed there was no harm in that.

They both stood in front of each other holding their scripts. Pietro then got all serious as he started.

"Ok… I say one line here…" he looked over at Kitty to continue.

"We're like, not going to practice much today, are we?" Kitty said knowing too well what he was up to.

"Kitty, just humor me please." Said Pietro trying to remain serious.

"Fine, like whatever…" Kitty smiled a bit. "Then like, I say another line."

"Then I answer…" Pietro was moving closer to Kitty now.

"Then I answer back…." Kitty placed her arms around his neck.

"And then… we kiss."

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

"I swear Summers, you keep following me I'm gonna go crazy!" Lance had enough of Scott Summers 'the human tail'.

"For the last time, I'm not following you. I'm meeting Kurt at the lockers." Scott was loosing patience with Alvers fast.

"Then meet him somewhere else!"

"Why don't you go somewhere else?"

"Cause I'm not the one with the fancy Walkie-Talkie! Call him and meet somewhere else!"

Scott just stared at him for a long while. Oh, how much he wanted to take off his glasses right about now. Still, he was the one who had to remain calm since it looked like Lance wasn't going to.

"Lance, we're almost there. Let's just ignore each other while we wait for the others."

"Fine, but you just better keep away from me Summers or I'm….." Lance stopped dead on his tracks.

"Yeah, I know Alvers. 'You're going to go crazy'…. Alvers?… Hey, Lance why you stopped?" Scott looked over the direction Lance was staring before stopping dead on his tracks.

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

"Come on Todd! Scott and Jean were made for each other." Said Kurt as the two boys kept walking to meet their friends.

"Yeah, I guess. I still don't know why Freddy liked her at first. Still, you have to admit Rogue and Lance would make a cool couple." Todd was almost 100% sure Lance felt something for the Goth girl.

"I guess they have a few things in common…. Hey Todd, why are we talking about couples?" Kurt suddenly realized they were practically gossiping all the way.

"I dunno man, you brought it up."

"I did?"

"Yeah, when you mentioned Pietro and Kitty being together… now that was a bad match Blue boy."

"Oh yeah… sorry about that. Still, I wish we knew where they were. What if they're in trouble or something like that?!"

"Relax Kurt… Pietro has probably been home an hour ago and I'm sure Kitty is back at that over sized house of yours."

"Yes, you're probably right."

Kurt and Todd were now turning the corner that led to the lockers where they were supposed to meet Scott and Lance when Todd suddenly stopped causing Kurt to bump into him.

"Ouch! Hey man! Why did you stop?" asked Kurt as he rubbed his head.

"Oh my God…." Todd couldn't believe this.

"What?.." Kurt looked over to see what kept Todd in such shock; however what he saw made him wish he hadn't been so curious.

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

"No, no Pietro in the cafeteria." Fred was quite proud of his search for his friend. Not only did he check the whole cafeteria, but he made sure Pietro wasn't hiding inside the fridge as well. He had to eat a few things to make sure though.

~~ Guess Lance and Todd must be at the lockers by now. ~~ He hoped Lance hadn't forgotten him cause there was no way he was walking home. Besides, he had to tell Lance about his encounter with the Blue Elf of the X-geeks. He was sure Lance would approve of his action to attack.

Now, he wasn't really going to eat the young boy. He just wanted to scare him off. Freddy kept walking towards the lockers when he saw two figures standing at the far end of the hall. As he approached them he noticed one of them was Todd and he was standing there with a look of horror on his face. Next to his small friend was none other then the Blue Elf who also looked shocked for some reason.

Normally he would've attacked the smaller X-men, but he noticed the whole hallway was in such an eerie silence that neither Todd nor Kurt felt like breaking. That made Freddy curious and he just had to see what was so important that had his friend (and the X-men) so captured.

Making his way behind the two young boys without them noticing Fred looked over what was happening. His brain needed some time to register what was happening. In the middle of the hallway stood his friend Pietro Maximoff, but he was not alone. There was this girl with him, but not just any girl, but an X-men! What was she doing to him? The only answer Fred could come up with was an attack. So he took a deep breath and bellowed as loud as he could.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY FRIEND, YOU X-FREAK?!?!?!?!?"

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

Pietro and Kitty quickly broke the kiss and stared at the person who had screamed at them from the end of the hall.

"Damn it Freddy! You gave me a heart attack!" said Todd as he placed his hand where his heart was pounding a mile a minute.

"You didn't have to scream in our ears Blob!" Kurt's heart was ok, but his ears had received most of the damage done by Fred's outburst.

Pietro and Kitty were just standing there looking over the three other mutants. They had seen them. They knew now, both the X-men and the Brotherhood knew they were together. However, neither Scott nor Lance were present so the situation could be saved.

"Todd! Fred! What do you guys think you're doing here?!" Pietro was annoyed his kiss with Pryde had been so rudely interrupted.

"What are we doing here? Pietro we should be asking you that! What are you doing here with HER?!" Todd didn't know if Pietro being with an X-men was better or worse then him being with a cheerleader.

"None of your business! You guys better not tell Lance about this! Got it?!?"

"Kurt, like… I thought you were at the Institute you know." Kitty tried to talk to her friend but it seemed he wasn't going to talk back. "Listen Kurt, please don't tell Scott. He'll just go ballistic and there really is no reason for him to know anyway."

"Wasn't she attacking you?" Fred still didn't get it.

"What do you think Freddy?! Did I look like I was being attacked?" Normally some sort of smart-ass response along the lines of: 'And what an attack it was!' would come right about now from Pietro, but the thought of Lance knowing about this was making him nervous. "You just better not say anything about this! You three got that? One word to either Lance or Scott and you're all dead!"

"Pietro…" came the soft call from behind the young speed-demon.

Pietro didn't bother to look back. He knew that voice. It was Lance. Kitty however did turn around.

"Umm… hi Scott." Said a shy Kitty Pryde as she stood besides Pietro holding his arm.

~~ So Scott's here too…. Great. ~~ Pietro slowly turned around and came face to face with the two older members of each group.

~~ Oh crap! ~~

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

End Chapter 8

Dum, dum, duuuuuuum!…. ^_^

Let us all pray my muse will keep working…. Or that I may buy a new one from K-mart.