Important Notice: I am currently re-writing all of the chapters in this story, because, looking back, I have a lot of plot holes and my writing is pretty weak at some parts. Please bear with me I would still appreciate feedback on if you like the new version of the chapters and if it makes more sense. It would suck to rewrite everything and then have it be worse than before. Thanks! You guys are awesome

I also want to apologize for the lack of updates. I have no excuse. I'm just an awful person I hope I haven't lost too many of you. For those of you still reading, you are the BEST and I love you to pieces!

A/U: Lance Alvers was orphaned when he was 7 and sent to an orphanage. There he met Katherine Pryde, a fellow orphan at only 5 years old. Ten years later, they meet again, but this time on opposing teams.

Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, and I am not making any money off of this.

A/N: I think I may have fixed my timeline by having Lance arriving in Bayville a week earlier than Kitty. Let us hope everything works out…

The Ghosts of You and Me

Kitty stared in awe as she stepped into the mansion for the first time. "Wow…"

The Professor chuckled. "Come this way, I'll introduce you to your fellow house-mates." Kitty eagerly followed him down the hall.

"Down there is the rec room, where the students can study, relax, or just 'hang out'," he told her. "If you'll look over there, that door leads to the kitchen. Down the hall is my office, and I'll get one of the others to give you a tour, once I introduce them."

Kitty merely stood there with her mouth and eyes open wide, taking everything in, nodding. Sure, her house in Illinois was nice, but this—this place was huge!

"I believe they are all in the rec room. Let us go check, shall we?" he smiled warmly as Kitty said nothing, still looking around in wonder, trying to memorize every painting and artifact all at once. Upon entering the rec room Kitty saw a big screen TV, a cozy looking couch in front of it, a foosball table and much, much more.

On the couch, watching TV were two boys. One was black with out-of-place bleached hair, and the other was blue and furry. Blue and furry? Kitty did a double take.

"Kitty, that is Evan," he pointed at the black kid with bleached hair, who sat up and waved in return.

"Hey," he said.

"And next to him is—" the Professor was interrupted as the blue boy disappeared in a puff of smoke. He seemed unsurprised, if not amused by this, but Kitty yelped.

"Where'd he go? What happened to him?"

The she heard a bamf and something grabbed her shoulder from behind.

"Hello Kitty! I'm Kurt Vagner!" he said cheerfully. He loved meeting new people. It's what he lived for.

Kitty's reaction was less than encouraging. She screamed.

"Let go of me, you—" but she stopped herself before she finished her sentence.

Kurt stepped back, stunned.

"I'm—I'm sorry," she said, looking away, embarrassed and ashamed of her actions. "You snuck up on me… I didn't mean anything by it, I just—"

"It's okay…" he said, slightly hurt. "Professor, I'm going to get something to eat, jah?"

Professor Xavier nodded.

"I'm really sorry about that, I didn't mean to, he just scared me," Kitty said to the Professor.

"It's alright, Kitty. Most people are startled by Kurt's appearance upon first meeting him."

Kitty's face reddened with embarrassment.

"This is Scott," he continued, gesturing to an older boy sitting at a table next to Jean.

"Hi," he said, giving her a welcoming smile.

"You've already met Jean—"

Jean perked up at the mention of her name and waved, then returned to studying with Scott.

"—and this is Rogue."

Towards the back of the room, in a secluded corner, a girl was laying on an armchair, reading.

Whoa… This girl was scary looking. She wore all dark colors, and had on heavy make up. A look of disinterest was on her face when she looked up. "Hi," was all she said in her faint Southern drawl before returning to her book.

Talk about rude…

The Professor, having heard this, turned away from Rogue. "You'll have to excuse her behavior—she's just recently moved in and is still a little bitter over her mutation. She's been having…trust issues lately, so I hope you don't judge her character right now. She really is a nice girl."

"…okay…" Right. Nice…

Having said this, he turned around again to address Rogue. "Rogue, will you show Kitty to her room?"

Rogue grumbled something under her breath as she got up and put her book on the arm chair.

"Follow me," she said, and walked towards the stairs.

Kitty grabbed her duffel bag and ran after her. They climbed up the stairs and walked down the hall in an awkward silence. Finally, Rogue stopped in front of an open door and gestured inside. "This is it," she said. "That's mah bed, an' here's yours."

Kitty walked inside, slightly intimidated by the older girl's attitude. She set her duffel bag down on her new bed and began to unpack, putting her clothes in drawers by her bed in silence.

"Need help?" Rogue asked. Kitty jumped a little, not expecting her to say anything.

"Umm…sure," she said, and smiled.

Rogue walked over and helped her put her clothes away while Kitty set up her laptop on a near by desk.

"So how'd you end up here?" Kitty asked trying to make conversation.

"Ah…well it's a long story…Ah was livin' with the Brotherhood up until about three days ago, and—" she paused at Kitty's look of confusion.

"The Brotherhood?"

"They're another group of mutants, but they don't agree with Professor Xavier's ideals."

"Oh…" Kitty nodded and pretended to understand.

"Their leader, Mystique, tricked me into joinin' them, but when she tried to kill Scott and Ah found out the truth about her, Ah came here."

"…wow…that must have been…" Kitty trailed off, not being able to find a word to express her thought.

"Don't worry about it."

Silence.

"So what's your mutation?" Rogue asked.

"I can, um, walk through solid things…I think the Professor said something like 'corporal intangibility' but I'm not sure…"

"Cool."

"What's yours?"

Rogue stiffened. "Absorbtion. If Ah touch anyone, skin to skin, Ah'll suck away their life force: their memories, and if they're mutants, Ah'll get their powers for a little while, but Ah can't control it…"

"So you can't touch anyone?" Kitty asked wide-eyed.

"Not without absorbing them."

So that was why she was so bitter… It also explained her clothes some what—the sheer long sleeved green shirt had seemed a little odd in the middle of the summer. Kitty felt bad for having judged her by the way she looked so quickly. She was going to have to apologize to Kurt, too. She had been really rude to him, also.

You'd think that finding out I'm a mutant would make me more open-minded and sympathetic to other people…

"So what was the Brotherhood like?" Kitty asked, trying to change the subject.

Rogue scoffed. "They're a bunch a' slobs."

Kitty laughed.

"Toad, who's frog-like—green skin an' long tongue included—bathes about once a month. Fred's got invulnerable skin and'll eat anythin' that's remotely edible. Pietro's got super speed and for the most part, is a narcicist. And then there's Lance—he causes earthquakes, and he tries to keep them all in order."

Kitty laughed at each of their descriptions, but when Rogue said 'Lance' she stopped. "Lance?" she asked, more to herself than Rogue.

She received a puzzled stare. "Yeah… he got in a week ago."

"I've heard that name before…"

"Well, it's not like it's an uncommon name…"

"I know…but… I think I used to know someone named Lance…"

More silence.

"Whatever, let's go downstairs," Kitty said.

"Sure."

"Hey, guys! I'm leaving in five!" Lance called to the upstairs of the Brotherhood Boarding House. He grabbed the keys to the jeep Mystique had given him. It was amazing how much he babysat them, and he had only been there a week!

Five minutes passed and no one came down. Lance sighed. "Okay, I'm out!"

No answer.

"Okay then…" he said to himself.

While he was driving to Bayville High, he thought about the downward spiral his life had been taking since the day he was born.

He had been born in the slums of Chicago; his room had been a closet, for Christ's sake! His dad was an alcoholic; he remembered vividly how he would give his mother those terrible beatings. Then that night…that awful night that had been painfully etched into his memory…

Then Sally had brought him to the orphanage and he had met Kitty. He would never forget her. The month that they had been together at the orphanage had truly been the happiest month of his life. He remembered the way she would cuddle with him and when they would stay up late talking. The day she left was when he first discovered his mutant abilities.

Once he had turned 10, he was put into foster home after foster home. He never stayed at one house too long. They could never deal with all of his disciplinary problems and his natural rebelliousness.

And every time Sally would come to get him and sigh. "What am I going to do with you Lance? What did you do this time?"

When he turned 15, his mother, who was still in a psychiatric ward, grew incurably ill. Sally had driven him to the hospital where she was being held and he visited her for the last time.

He would never forget that day either.

She hadn't recognized him. His own mother recalled absolutely nothing about him. She didn't even acknowledge him when he tried to speak to her, to say good bye. She babbled on and on about the crimson in the carpet, and how the stain would never come out, and then would scratch at her hands, an eerie echo of Lady Macbeth attempting to wash blood off of her hands that wasn't there.

He had cried that day. He had been so angry at everyone, at everything. His father, that bastard, for doing this to both of them, his mother for not even recognizing him when she said she'd loved him more than life itself, Kitty for leaving him to his cruel fate, and himself for letting it all happen, for not doing anything.

But Sally had been there. She had let him cry on her shoulder as she patted his back lovingly. She had always been there for him. She was his pillar of strength.

About a month later, when Sally called him to tell him that she had died, all of his hope died along with her. He just gave up.

He would get into even more trouble just to get his mind off of things. His latest scheme had been to steal and then sell the answers to the final exams of several classes, but that had gotten him expelled and then Mystique had showed up, and here he was.

He didn't really feel bad at all about leaving. He didn't give a shit about his latest foster family. That pretentious woman and her perfect son could think him dead for all he cared. There was nothing to keep him in Chicago. Once, long ago, he'd had a reason, but she'd left him like the rest of them.

Not that it was her fault…She didn't do it on purpose…

The one thing he did feel bad about was not being able to say goodbye to Sally. He supposed he'd call her someday, thank her for all that she had done for him, even if it had never really worked out. She had good intentions. And she was the only person in the entire state of Illinois that he had ever really respected or listened to. He would miss her, and he was sure she would miss him. He really did have to call her. For closure. He owed it to her.

Lance pulled into the parking lot and just sat in his jeep since the bell hadn't rung yet. Ten minutes later, Toad and Fred showed up. Both of them were breathing heavy.

"Yo! Why didn't you wait for us?" Toad gasped, once he managed to regain his breath.

"I told you guys I was leaving," Lance said, holding in a laugh at the thought of Fred running.

"You could have at least waited five minutes—you got here early after all, yo," Toad said.

"Yeah—we had to walk all the way here!" Fred cried indignantly.

"You walked?"

"Yeah, it's not like we had a car or anything," Toad said, resentfully.

Lance laughed. They had completely missed his point.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he replied, grinning.

Toad opened his mouth to say something, but just then, the bell rang.

"Come on, let's get going," Lance said, getting out of his jeep.

First period came and went. Lance had been held after class by a disgruntled teacher for making disruptive comments during lecture notes, and now had only two minutes to get to his next class on the other side of the building.

"Shit," he murmured to himself as he shoved his way through hordes of people, only to be met with more. Just as he was approaching his locker he ran into someone, knocking them down.

"What the—" the girl, who was now on the floor, complained.

"Sorry," Lance said, not really meaning it. He stuck out a hand anyway, to help her up.

Lance looked her over as she finally got to her feet. She was a petite girl, with long brown hair and clear blue eyes. Something in Lance's brain clicked. It was like seeing a ghost. She looked like an older version of Kitty Hail!

The girl cleared her throat. "If you're done staring at me now, I'd like to have my hand back…" But she had been staring at him, too. His face seemed so familiar, but she couldn't place it! It was very frustrating, to say the least.

"Oh, right… Sorry about that…"

"Sure," she said, and began to walk away.

And that's when he heard it.

"Hey, Kitty! Wait up!" Rogue, who had left the Brotherhood a couple days after he had joined, was calling the girl he had bumped into.

It can't be! Kitty?

Wait, he reasoned with himself. There were plenty of girls who went by Kitty…right? How could he be sure that this was her? His Kitty.

Snap out of it! It has to be her, not many people go by Kitty, and she looked exactly her…

"Hey, Kitty! Wait!" But by the time he said this, she was already gone. He sighed. He'd just have to find her after school. He had to find out if she was Kitty Hail.

A/N: Review!