Hey everyone, I got this chapter out sooner than I expected, it's not as great as I wanted it to be, but I'm having some trouble with this story. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks to my reviewers: Anti-XYo, personcreative name by the wayReddistheRose, butterfly-grl4, Idypebsaby, Pyro Tsunami, geuss who, Nameless1010, Valley-Gurl1010, KoolKitty, persian85033, anwen, ali-cat333, xmengirlzrule, you guys rock!

Don't forget to review this chapter!

Kitty had been whisked off into the jeep, carried by Pietro, before she could understand what she had just agreed to. At first, leaving the X-men was just something she had done because she was upset. She didn't realize it would take her this far. It was a thing of the moment, a decision that only took a couple of hours to make; would it make up for all the months she'd been lied to?

The boys had driven to a small store that Kitty had never been in, but looked like the place that Rogue would have shopped in.

"Okay, boys," Pietro said, taking charge, "we need a whole new wardrobe; we're talking shirts, skirts, shoes, the works people." Pietro, being the self-proclaimed leader of fashion, had decided to take it upon himself to get Kitty, what he called "brotherhood-sized."

The boys split up; each looking for a different thing that Kitty could wear. Fred came up with four nearly identical tight black shirts that were a little too low-cut for Kitty's liking; Lance came up with a jean jacket to wear over the shirts. Todd had a mini-skirt, and Pietro came with a pair of undergarments that made Kitty blush, that Lance made him put back.

Kitty looked at her new wardrobe in the dressing room. It was definitely new, nothing she would ever have dreamed of wearing before. It was revealing, but she supposed she should have expected it when she allowed four guys, only one who had a girlfriend, to pick out her clothes.

"It's...um...well..." Kitty struggled to find the right sentence. "Well, I guess, like, its okay. It's something a Brotherhood girl would wear, right?"

"Yup," Pietro said proudly, "so you like it?"

"It looks good on you Kitty," Lance said.

"Yeah, we'll have to keep the other guys off you, like, Wham!" Pietro punched the air, almost hitting Todd, which resulted in Todd hitting him back. This led to a full out war between Todd, Pietro, and Fred, who had decided to join in.

"Are they always like this?" Kitty asked Lance.

"No, they're actually behaving tonight. Must be showing off for you," Lance told her as he paid. He laughed when he saw the look on her face. If this was the Brotherhood behaving well, what had she gotten herself into?

The store was right next to a comic book store, and as they walked by, Kitty could see Jamie looking at some of the comics.

"Jamie!" Kitty yelled, even though she was mad at him, and didn't want to talk to him. "What are you doing here? You're not allowed outside the mansion."

"Oh, hey, Kitty," Jamie said, not looking up from the comic he was reading. "I always go out, they got new comics today, so I just left a multiple at the mansion, he'll cover for me."

"You do this every week?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah," Jamie said. "Hey, where've you been lately? I haven't seen you since yesterday."

"I left the X-men, Jamie," Kitty said. "I thought someone would have told you."

"You left?" This caused Jamie to actually look up. "Where'd you go...?" Jamie stopped, seeing the Brotherhood. "I know I'm just a kid, but aren't they the bad guys?"

"They're the X-men's enemies, but they don't read my diary," she told Jamie.

"How'd you know I read your diary?" Jamie asked.

"The recruits were talking about it; did you really tell Jean and Scott what was in it?" Kitty asked.

"No," Jamie said defensively, "I never tell what people have in their diaries."

"Wait," Lance butted in, "you read more than Kitty's?"

"Well, yeah," Jamie said. "I mean, I'm at home six hours a day, five days a week, usually without even the adults there, I've found every diary in the mansion, even Rogue's, and man, that wasn't easy."

"Why do you read other people's diary?" Kitty asked. "That's totally invading their privacy."

"I'm bored," Jamie protested. "See how you like it when you're by yourself all day. I have nothing better to do."

"So my dairy isn't the only one you read?" Kitty asked.

"Heck no," Jamie said, "Usually, I avoid yours; your diary is probably the most boring out of all of them."

"Oh... okay," Kitty said. After saying bye to Jamie, the Brotherhood and Kitty walked to their car.

The ride home was equally as loud as obnoxious as the fight in the store. None of them had been hurt in the fight, so they felt no reason to simmer down. Kitty had gotten a side seat, but was still in between Pietro and the door, and was doing her best not to move.

Todd had slapped Pietro, which had caused him to elbow Kitty.

"Hey, Pietro, stop it!" Kitty yelled, scooting as far away from him as possible.

"Yeah, guys calm down," Lance called from the front seat.

"Oh of course, Lancey-pooh," Pietro mocked.

"We wouldn't want to bother his precious Kitty- cat, now would we, yo?" Todd laughed.

"Just be quiet back there," Lance said, glaring at them through the mirror.

"Yes sir!" They both saluted. Then, turning towards each other, they started taking turns on different ways of flipping the other one off.

Todd did some martial arts moves with his hands, finally ending up with the middle finger in the air.

Pietro started to list things, without talking, putting down one finger at a time, until the middle finger was the only one left.

Kitty watched with slight, fascination, slight disgust as Pietro and Todd continued flipping each other off, and moved on to other random things. All while not saying a word, so Lance didn't know what was going on.

She couldn't help it, she giggled. Pietro and Todd turned to her for a second, and then went back to what they were doing. Kitty didn't know if it was a Brotherhood thing, or a guy thing, but it was seriously weird.

Once they got back into the house, Pietro raced off to his room, the other boys headed to watch TV, and Kitty went to get dinner ready.

Bending down to get pots and pans was too difficult in Kitty's new miniskirt, so she settled on just making a quick salad. Of course, when Blob came in, he told her that a salad wasn't big enough to fill him up, and that she would have to make something else, but when she tried another dish, Todd walked in and said he wouldn't eat that. Kitty ended up changing the meal three more times before the boys would eat.

"This is good, Kitty," Todd said, as he ate some hamburger helper. Since Kitty wouldn't eat it, she was eating a salad, still fuming over the menu changes. She worked hard on her meals, and the boys never said thank you, they just demanded their way.

"What's wrong, Kitty?" Lance asked, noticing she didn't look happy.

"Nothing," Kitty responded, and went back to eating.

After, dinner, while Kitty was washing dishes, Lance walked in, picked up a towel, and started drying.

"It's okay Lance, I got it," Kitty said, taking the towel away from him.

"What's wrong Kitty?" Lance asked.

"Nothing, Lance," Kitty said.

Lance gently took her face in his hands. "Something's wrong Kitty," he said. "You might as well tell me. Is it about dinner?"

Kitty sighed, knowing Lance wouldn't leave her alone until she told him. "Yes...well, not really, it's part of it. Oh, Lance, I'm so confused," Kitty said, and for the second time that day, collapsed in Lance's arms, crying.

"Hey, it's okay," Lance said, trying to comfort her.

"No it's not!" Kitty said. "I lost my best friends, I mean, I know that Jamie isn't bad after all but still, I got beat up by jocks, I'm wearing an outfit that would make my mom faint if she ever saw me in, and I'm living with my former enemies..." She stopped suddenly. "Lance, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that..."

"I know," Lance interrupted her, "it's okay, just remember, we're not your enemies anymore."

"I get that Lance," Kitty said, "but it's hard to accept."

"I know, when I joined you guys, I was always worried that I would have to fight the guys, I wasn't sure who's side I would have taken," Lance said. "Listen, how about you save the dishes for later, and we have a Brotherhood family night?"

Kitty brushed some of the tears away with her hand. "Brotherhood family night?" She asked. "What's that?"

"We get some soda's, some popcorn, play a game, watch a movie, I don't know, something to kind of, initiate you into the Brotherhood," Lance said.

"That sounds like fun, Lance," Kitty said, and allowed herself to be led into the living room.

"Hey, guys!" Lance called up the stairs. "We're going to watch a movie, get your butts down here!"

Pietro was down the stairs in a second. "Why?" He asked. "We only watch movies together on Sundays, it's Tuesday."

"It's a welcome thing for Kitty," Lance said.

"Oh, well, can I pick the movie?" Pietro asked.

"No way, yo," Todd hopped in, "it's my turn to pick the movie."

""No it isn't," Fred said, "it's my turn."

"Kitty gets to pick," Lance said. "It's her first night with us, she chooses."

Pietro looked like he was about to protest, but stopped when he looked at Kitty. He could tell she had been crying, and decided to give in to Lance's request, the first time that he could remember.

"So, what do you want to see, Kitty?" He asked instead.

"How about Finding Nemo?" She suggested, but decided against it when she saw the looks of disgust on the boy's face. "Um...do you guys like Pirates of the Caribbean? It was always a favorite at the instit..." She stopped, and looked like she was about to cry again at the mention of the institute.

"Yeah, Kitty, Pirates is fine," Lance quickly rushed in, nodding his head to Fred, signaling him to put the movie in.

And so the Brotherhood spent the night in the living room. Lance and Kitty were on the couch, Kitty leaning against Lance, a blanket covering them both, Fred on the computer chair, Pietro on the bean bag chair, and Todd, having been kicked off of everything else, was on the floor. Everyone except for Lance had fallen asleep sometime during the movie, comfortable in the room with everyone else. They didn't have to worry about anything right now. They were a family, and that was enough. Lance smiled to himself as he turned the TV off with the remote, and fell asleep, using Kitty's head as a pillow.

Earlier that day

Rogue had been stuck in one of her classes later than usual, and when she got out, a fight was just breaking up.

"Hey Rogue," a short girl with glasses, Jodi, called out. Jodi was one of the few humans who still talked to mutants, but probably because she didn't know that they were mutants. Jodi was one of those people who didn't know anything that was going on in the world around her.

"Oh, hey, Jodi," Rogue said. "What happened here?"

"You didn't hear?" Jodi asked. "Wow, it was all over school. Well, Kitty went over to the Brotherhood, and the football players didn't like it, so they decided to go beat her up."

Rogue instantly became worried. "What happened then?"

Jodi shrugged. "I don't know," she said, "I couldn't see over the people who were watching."

"Did any of her friends help her?" Rogue asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I saw some of your friends, Bobby and Kurt, walk out of the crowd." She looked thoughtful for a minute. "I'm pretty sure I heard Kitty call after them, but I could be wrong, but they all just walked out from the fight."

"Are you saying they didn't help her?"

"Nope," Jodi said. "I would have helped, but I couldn't get through... Rogue? Rogue, what's the matter?" She asked, as Rogue stormed off.

Rogue was furious. She had to walk home, since she missed the bus, but the long walk did nothing to calm her down. They just left her! Who knew what could have happened to her. How could they just leave her there?

When Rogue got inside, she went straight to the rec. room, where the students usually went to after school.

"Okay, ya yahoos," Rogue said, her southern drawl coming out. "Which one of you was at the fight today?"

"What fight?" Scott asked.

"The one between the jocks and Kitty," Bobby told him calmly.

"The one were these so-called teammates just left Kitty by herself!" Rogue shouted. "You know she's not allowed to use her powers, how could you just leave her?"

"She left us!" Bobby said.

"That's no excuse to just let her get beat up like that!" Rogue said.

"Hey man, it works out, she left us, we left her," Bobby said.

"And besides," Sam said, "I saw the Brotherhood help her, she's fine except for a couple of bumps and bruises."

"Well, I guess that proves one thing," Rogue said. "The Brotherhood is better teammates then us." She was about to storm out, but Scott stopped her.

"Rouge, come on, she thinks she can get along without us, let her," he said. "Let her see how much she needs us, and she'll come back in no time."

"And if she ever does decide to come back, are you going to let her stay? I mean, she is an 'enemy' now; she's evil, isn't she? Admit it Scott, you wouldn't let her come back, would you? Would you?" She took Scott's silence for an answer. "Well, then I hope you can live with yourself," she said, using the line he had said to her when she was their enemy.

Wolverine, who had walked into the room in time to hear what was going on, stormed out after her. "I think you guys need to learn what team work really is," he said before he left. "You're all grounded, and I mean extra chores and everything, until you understand what jerks you've been."

The remaining X-men and New recruits stared at each other in shock.

"She's the one who left us!" Bobby called after him. "Why are we being grounded because she screwed up? She should be in trouble, not us!"

"Shut up, Bobby," Kurt said. "She left us, but she had every right to," he glared at Scott and Jean, "but that's no reason to stoop down to the Brotherhood's level. Logan and Rogue have every right to be mad, we messed up, we left a teammate, even if it is an X- teammate, maybe we aren't the good guys we think we are." He bamfed out of the room, leaving the X-men to once again think about what had just happened.

Yeah, I made Jamie a good guy, but I couldn't help it, I hope this chapter kind of helps explain why the X-men were being such jerks, but I'm just getting started, really. I'm going to forget the X-men for a while, focus on the Brotherhood and Kitty, but tell me if you want to see more of them. Thanx. R&R!