Disclaimer: I do not own X-men Evolution or Baby-think-it-over. Marvel and Warner Brothers own X-men Evolution. People whose goal it is in life to torture poor high school health students make baby-think-it-over, damn them.
Kitty's heart rose in her chest as she walked into her Health classroom Friday afternoon. Lance sat at the desk next to hers and was busy writing something. "Hey, like, whatcha doing?"
He hid the paper with his hand, "Nothing!"
"Show me!" She pleaded eagerly, sitting down at her desk.
"It's no big deal, really," He stuffed the paper back in his bag. "So, what's up?"
"Nothing. Hey, how'd you get here so fast?" Kitty asked, recalling that he was usually late. "The past few days you've been coming in late claiming you got lost."
"I have Gordon third period," He grumbled, staring at the wall.
Kitty frowned. "Gordon? But she's right…Oh my god! Did you seriously not know that your classroom was right around the corner? You've been going around the entire school?"
Lance was never happier to hear the bell ring, meaning that he didn't have to answer that question. The teacher told them to get some paper out, since they were going to be taking notes on a video about pregnancy and birth. Joy.
The movie was actually somehow grosser than it sounded. No one in the class felt like watching people give birth over and over with a front row view. Luckily for Kitty, she was still in the back of the classroom away from the television and the teacher's desk, so she passed a note over to Lance.
Hey, do you know where you want to go tonight?
He looked surprised as she pushed the folded paper on her desk. Shooting a look at the teacher and seeing that she was doing something on her computer, he unfolded it and read Kitty's writing. He scribbled something back, then flipped it on to her desk.
There's a new pizza place that I heard actually lets mutants in. We could go there. You like pizza, right?
She grinned and wrote back.
I love pizza. I'll meet you in the parking lot after school.
Ms. Smith decided she was actually going to periodically ask questions about the movie now, so they had to pay attention. Double joy.
Kitty wrote down comments sporadically, but she never heard a pen or pencil scratching against paper at Lance's side. She looked over at him. He wasn't writing and had a disturbed look in his eye. When she was about to lean over and ask if he was ok, Ms. Smith turned the lights on. The movie was over.
The class had a short discussion about the video until there was only five minutes of class left. She wrote two page numbers on the board, "This is you homework," Ms. Smith instructed the class, "along with spending time with your partners. I'm going to pass out a time log sheet. Log the minutes you spent together and have a witness sign it for extra credit. If I think you're lying, you will lose points. Now, if there's anyway you can record the times with a video camera or such, you'll get the extra points and then some."
She glanced at the clock. "We have a few minutes left, so you can get started on your homework if you want."
The class began chatting as most got out paper to do their work. Ms. Smith came up to Lance holding something in her arms: A baby. "Lance, I know you missed this part of class, but I was hoping you'd be willing to take it home for the weekend so you can get that grade as well," she said, more as a demand than any sort of question.
Avalanche stared at it with wide eyes. "What is it?"
"Baby-think-it-over. It is a simulation of a real infant. It has porous skin, it cries, and you have to continuously support its head like a real child." She placed it in Lance's arms so that he was supporting the baby's head. "This is the key," Ms. Smith informed as she held up a small, black, plastic thing. "When the baby cries, you put it here in the back," she indicated a keyhole in the back, "and hold it there until it stops crying. That could be anywhere from five minutes to thirty-five minutes depending on what the infants need is at the moment. This will be strapped to your wrist so you don't have to worry about losing it."
"It cries? Loudly?" Lance was wincing.
"Yes, it does. It will count the minutes you didn't address the baby's needs, as well as if you mishandle it, drop it, or don't support its head. It will also say whether or not you've tried to tamper with it." Ms. Smith pointed to one side of the classroom where there was a scale and measuring tape. "Go weigh and measure her, then you can come tell me her name for her birth certificate. Kitty, give him a hand, please."
Kitty helped Lance measure the girl, and then weigh her gently. "What's wrong, Lance? You don't like the baby? I think she's cute! I had a boy on my turn."
"It's not that…But how are we supposed to go out tonight with the baby?" Lance held it awkwardly until Kitty rearranged his arms.
"We could do what I did. I like just left it with Rogue, she loves these things." Kitty took the child from him and brought it to Ms. Smith at her desk.
"Ready?" The teacher asked pen poised over the birth certificate.
"Uh huh. She's nineteen inches long, six pounds, seven ounces. Caucasian, with brown hair and blue eyes." Kitty smiled at the baby as Ms. Smith attached the key to Lance's wrist with a hospital bracelet.
"Name?" Ms. Smith and Kitty both looked at Lance.
"Uhhh…I dunno. You name it, Kitty," He shrugged.
"But it's your baby!" She protested.
"We're supposed to be married, which makes it our baby." He smiled at his ingenious.
"Wow, like, thanks, Lance," Kitty grinned. "Let's see…how about…Callie? I had a cat name Callie. And Callie Alvers sounds totally cute!"
"Callie it is then," Lance smiled at her. Ms. Smith wrote it down as the bell rang. She gave Lance the packed baby bag and the car seat/carrier he had to carry the baby around in.
He and Kitty left class together and started walking towards his locker so he didn't have to carry around the car seat all day. "Hey, you said you had a boy. What did you name him?"
Kitty paused. "I don't remember. Oh, there's Kurt. I'll see you after school, Lance!" She jogged ahead, but Rogue caught up with her.
"Don't remember what you named your baby, huh?" Her roommate asked with a smirk. "I believe you named it Lance…"
"You totally promised you'd never tell anyone!" Kitty glared at her.
Rogue smiled. "Oops. Musta just slipped my mind…"
Kitty gave Rogue a little push in the side, stuck her tongue out at her and ran ahead.
Rogue rubbed her side and went to catch up. "Oh, very mature!"
Lunch went less than smoothly on the conversation front. Scott and Kitty still weren't speaking to each other, so the others tried uneasily to make up for the silence. After a while, Jean claimed that she and Scott had to see one of their teachers and left, easing the atmosphere at the table.
Kitty was never one to stare at the clock; it was well known that a watched pot never boils, or, in this case, a watched clock never ticks. Yet, in her last class of the day, her eyes constantly strayed to the timepiece of the wall. She was excited about her date with Lance. Unless he didn't think it was a date, then she didn't either.
When the bell rang, Kitty was already packed and was the first one out the door, almost missing the homework assignment her teacher shouted. She had trouble with her lock. Was it anticipation that made her hand so shaky? If there wasn't the ban on powers, she would have given up and phased through it, as it took her five minutes just to get it open, not to mention gathering what she needed for the weekend.
Lance was waiting by his jeep when she exited the school. He was holding the baby with one arm and the carrier with the other. "Hey, there," she grinned.
He looked up at her. "Oh, hi," He glanced back down at Callie, "About the kid…"
"Right, right," Her blue eyes scanned the parking lot for a red convertible. Luckily, Scott was only parked a few spots away and Kurt and Rogue were climbing in the back seat. "Rogue! Come here for a second!" Her friend hesitated. "Please?"
Kurt nudged her and nodded towards Kitty, causing the southerner to sigh, but climb out of her seat. "Yeah?"
Shadowcat took the baby from Lance's arms and put it in Rogue's. "Could you watch her for us? Like, it would be so much easier. No use alienating ourselves from the only pizza place in town that likes mutants with her wailing."
Rogue's face softened. "Sure…she's beautiful…what's her name?"
"Callie," Kitty smiled.
"Callie…" Rogue stroked the infant's face affectionately.
"Yeah. We'll pick her up when Lance drops me off at home," She looked over where Kurt, Scott and Jean were waiting to go. "Kurt, c'mere for a minute!"
He walked over, looking curiously at the bundle of joy in his sister's arms. "What's going on?"
"Rogue's babysitting while Lance and I go out," She piled the baby bag and car seat in Nightcrawler's arms. "Thanks."
"When did I become a pack mule?" Kurt mumbled, but went to put the stuff in Scott's car anyway.
"Hey, if Scott gives you any trouble, just hit him," Kitty whispered to Rogue. "Like, without your gloves."
Rogue wasn't listening. "Uh huh, sure…"
"Yo, what about the key?" Lance asked, indicating the bracelet on his arm.
"Uh….here," Kitty pulled his arm down and out of sight, quickly phasing it off his wrist and on to Rogue's. "Like, you totally didn't see me do that."
"See you do what?" Rogue raised an eyebrow, then looked over at the convertible. "Scott looks like he's gonna burst a blood vessel, I should go."
"Ok, thanks again Rogue! We'll see you when we get back," Kitty told her while climbing into the green jeep.
"Take your time!" Her roommate walked back to Scott's car, where the older teen actually looked like he was going to have a heart attack or a stroke or something equally dangerous and bad to your health where your face turns so red it's practically purple.
Lance's driving to the restaurant reminded Kitty of his namesake: an avalanche. "Like, slow down!" She cried as she saw him pushing sixty on a regular street. He was all over the place, switching lanes erratically. "Lance, pull over!" She finally demanded.
The jeep slid over to the side of the road. "What? We're almost there."
"We need to talk. What is up with you? You're driving like a total maniac!"
"I am not. Can we just go?" He reached down to put the car back in drive until Kitty reached across him and took the keys from the engine.
"No. I'm not driving another second with you until you quit acting like you're trying to kill yourself!" She phased them under her car seat where he couldn't reach them.
"Feh. Like you care," He stared away from her as his words hit her like a brutal slap across the face.
"Wha…what? Of course I care!" She was finding it hard to breathe as his silence stabbed her heart over and over. "Lance…what's wrong?"
"No one cares! When we were watching that movie today, everyone thought the baby was so cute even though we had just watched it be born! And when that one was sick from a low birth rate everyone cared even though they'd never met the kid!" He was holding on to the door for stability. "Everyone wanted the baby. All parents seem to love their babies and want them. But not me. No ones ever wanted me! I'm just a hood, right? Who would ever want me?"
For perhaps the first time in her life, Kitty was utterly speechless. She did the only thing she felt was right. Throwing her arms around his neck, she squeezed back tears that threatened to leak from her eyes. "Me! Lance, I want you! I'll always want you!"
He was frozen in her grip. His brain had ceased to function. Luckily, Lance's body responded faster than his brain did. So as she pulled back then leaned forward again to press her lips to his, he responded desperately. Their lips blended together for a moment. They denied themselves of air for almost a minute, holding and clinging to each other as passion rushed through their bodies and poured into their lover.
Once air was the only option before unconsciousness, they reluctantly pried their lips apart. Each lung inhaled the oxygen at a frantic pace as their minds worked their way around the situation that had just occurred. When he had finally recovered, Lance reached a calloused hand out to cup Kitty's chip, stroking her soft chin.
His head leaned down to intercept her lips once more. This kiss was slower, caring, but no less intense. Lance's hand moved from his cheek to get tangled in her silky brown hair as she gripped his sleeveless brown jacket. Her eyes remained closed even as he broke away, tracing his thumb on her bottom lip that throbbed from being pressed against his.
"So…hungry?" He nuzzled her neck lightly.
Her sparkling blue eyes opened and she giggled. "Sure."
With one last quick kiss, he turned forward and tried to start the car again. "Uh…Kitty?"
"Hmmm?" She asked, still drunk with the memory of how he felt and smelt and tasted.
"The keys?"
"Huh? Oh, right!" She reached through the seat and tossed him his keys.
Lance started the jeep and the pulled back on the road. "Thanks."
The date was nice. Luckily, the pizza was the best in town and none of the owners or the servers gave them a second glace except to ask if they wanted more to drink. Reluctantly, after grabbing some ice cream, Lance had to drop Kitty back to the Institute to make the curfew for this weekend. Of course, not without a few distracting detours.
They pulled up in front of the mansion and he killed the engine for the jeep. "So…uh…" He ran a hand through his hair.
"Why don't you come inside so you can get the baby?" Kitty suggested.
Lance hesitated. "I dunno."
She kissed him again reassuringly. "Like what are they gonna do? Attack you?"
Her smile and kiss made him give in and he got out of the car with her. She reached for his hand and squeezed it as he walked her up to the door. The door was unlocked, so Kitty just opened the door and went inside. "I'm home!"
Kurt, Bobby and Sam came out of the next room, looking relieve. "Oh, good, Kitty, you're home," Kurt sighed in relief before noticing her company. "Lance…"
Kitty looked from Lance to Kurt, noticing the worried look on the blue boy's face. "Kurt? What's wrong?" He didn't answer. "Sam? Bobby?" They looked away. "Like, what's going on?"
She heard voices from a separate hallway: Jean and Scott's. When they entered the room, it was as if an ominous presence had settled into the foyer. Before anyone realized it, Scott had run across the room and punched Lance's face with all his might.
Kitty screamed as Jean ran over, trying to hold her boyfriend back. "Scott, stop it! You don't know anything! You can't just accuse him!"
"What the hell was that, Summers!" Lance wiped away a small trickle of blood that ran from a cut on his lip.
"How can you show your face here after what you and your friends did?" Scott raged, fighting against Jean's hold. He apparently forgot the fact that his girlfriend had the power of telekinesis.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he was bracing himself for an attack: either giving or receiving one. Kitty reached for his hand, holding it for more her sake than his.
"What Scott's trying to say is," Jean started, still holding on to the furious Cyclops, "The Brotherhood attacked City Hall."
"What does that have to do with me!" Lance tried to calm himself down, but that was never an easy thing around the X-geeks. Especially Scott.
"You live with them, don't you? You have to know something about this!" Scott had given up on working against Jean; it would not only hurt his relationship, but probably his physical being as well.
"Hey, you live with Wolverine but you don't know everything he does!" Lance snarled.
"How do we know you weren't part of this?" Cyclops asked.
"He was with me all night!" Kitty said angrily. "I can't believe you'd accuse him of this! He only brought me back because of curfew!"
"Oh, so if it weren't for the curfew, you were planning on taking her to your attack too? Or maybe you were just going to meet up with your other teammates after you dropped her off!" Scott was angry again.
"Scott!" Kitty cried in disbelief. She had seen him angry, but couldn't remember seeing him like this.
"I think I should leave," Lance said face a mask of rage.
"That's probably for the best," Jean sighed, trying to remain calm. "And you and I need to talk," she said to Scott. Her green eyes flashed angrily as she lifted him with her TK so he couldn't run away.
They hadn't notice Rogue had come down the stairs until she cleared her throat. "Here," she whispered, handing him Callie inside the carrier along with the baby bag.
"Thanks," he murmured gruffly. "I'll see you around, Kitty." He turned and stormed out of the house.
"Oh, he forgot the key," Rogue suddenly realized.
"I'll take it," Kitty offered immediately, taking the bracelet off her wrist and racing outside, phasing through the front door. "Lance! Lance!"
He was strapping Callie into the car. "Yeah?"
"You, uh, forgot the key…" she whispered, slipping it on his wrist.
Lance grabbed her arm protectively, kissing her deeply as she wrapped her other arm around his neck. "Kitty…I…" He reached into his pocket, producing a folded sheet of paper and handed it to her. "Just take this."
She did so before returning to kiss him again. For a few more minutes, their lips were pressed against each other frantically. More than anything, Kitty didn't want him to leave. She was deathly afraid he would never come back.
"I have to go," he told her finally.
She stepped back nodding. Her hand gripped the bars of the gate as Lance got into his jeep and drove away. Kitty took a few deep breaths to steady herself before walking back towards the front door. She couldn't go inside. Not yet.
Instead, Kitty found a comfortable spot on the steps to read her letter, with the light from the windows enough to see the letters on the page.
Kitty,
You saw me writing this in class, so I kinda wrote a different one in 6th period. I hope you don't mind.
I don't know if you've noticed or not, but…I can be kind of awkward when I need to say stuff. I'm not like Pietro, who will say the first thing that comes to his mind. And I'm REALLY glad I'm not Pietro.
I just wanted to say that I'm really glad that you're my partner. And that we're going out tonight. Because I like you, I mean, you're pretty and nice and stuff. And smart. Yeah, you're smart too.
The next few lines had a lot of scratches and cross outs, as if he still wasn't sure what he wanted to say.
I guess I just wanted to know that I'm glad I met you, even if you are an X-geek. You're the best one there is. Not that there's much competition.
God, I don't even know why I wrote this letter. I should just scrap it, it's not like it matters anyway. But I guess as long as I'm writing this, I should get it out. I love Kitty Pryde. I think she's gorgeous and wonderful and perfect. I'm not even sure what love is, but I still think I love her. Because 'like' doesn't mean the same thing as I feel.
So, if I'm brave enough to give this to you, I just want you to know that I love you. And I hope you love me too. And if you don't well…I dunno. You don't have to I guess. It'd be nice though. Real nice.
-Lance
A drop of water hit the paper and Kitty wiped it up quickly, not wanting to ruin the perfection of the article. Instead, she set the beautiful letter aside and buried her head in her hands. Only then did she cry.
A/N: Yes, I know it's angsty, but conflict creates angst. And if this were all fluff I'd probably be giving myself cavities real soon and I've been eating enough junk lately as it is. Why did the Brotherhood attack City Hall? If you keep reading you'll find out. I mean…after I figure it out…
I do like this chapter though. There are tons and tons of Lance and Kitty moments, plus a few cool Rogue parts for all of her fans out there (though I must admit I am far from a diehard XME Rogue fan). Oh, and before anyone asks, I don't not like Scott. I like the conflict Scott and Lance create. I think Scott is sexy as hell, though that could have something to do with the fact that Kirby Morrow is his voice actor and Kirby is my future husband. Oh, yes, I asked him.
I really have no idea where I came up with the whole "Lance gets upset from the movie" thing, except for maybe being mentally disturbed from actually having to watch that movie. He is in foster care and it never says much about his past, so I just went with it and worked out some angst to move the romance along. And now I'm going to go hug my Sea World polar bear I named Lance. PLEASE tell me what you think of the letter. I really like it, but I'm not sure if I captured him as well as I could.
Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated.
Bant: Yeah, I have those Health projects right now, and they're not a picnic. I will check out your fic when I have a chance. I'm not too big on Kiotr (as you can probably tell, I'm a Lancitty fan), but it's always good to give new things a chance! I'm glad you like the story!
DOJ: I'm so glad I have everyone in character. If there's one thing it's a stickler for it's that none of my stories are out of character. I hate that. I'm so glad you've continued to read the story, you're so sweet! Thank you!
El Diablo: I love everything that is Lancitty. I downloaded the clip from Joyride where he "rescues" her from the pool (even though I have the DVD) and I watch it nonstop. So if either of us is a dork, it's me. There will be tons more Lancitty in the future, so I hope you read it!
Tillallareone: Thank you for saying everyone is in character. I hope you like the story.
Emi: That is the funniest thing you've ever said. I like the idea of Beast Boy being Kitty (since he can technically be a kitty…), but the thought of Lance being Terra makes me crack up every time I think about it. Don't ask why, you know I'm odd. reads it and cracks up again
Half-n-Half: Finally! Someone else feels my pain! What the hell is it with Starbucks trying to kill us? I'm so happy you like the story, yours are hilarious!
Numbuh half way hell: Thank you! And I don't know why the bottom fell out. The guy at the store said it was because when people take one out of the fridge the others fall down and it gets weaker, but I'm a conspiracy theorist, so I think they're just trying to kill us. But that will not stop me from finishing this story, so I hope you enjoy it and keep reading!