jean- i know,i'm sorry. i was suppose to get this chapter up by thursday but i had a total brainwave and decided to change the plot. my mind's twisted, it doesnt keep to one idea. eh, here's to hoping you'll enjoy the story. thanks to those who reviewed. -smiles-
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Wanda twirled the telephone cord round her finger as she waited patiently for the other person to pick up. She glanced at the photo on the mantel frame. Wanda gave a rare smile. The photo was taken on Alex's first birthday.
His birthday was held on the grounds on the Institute which meant a lot of noisy, hungry teenagers. The picture was taken just before a full-scale food fight had started. That day also marked the official day that Remy and Rogue finally announced their relationship to the others.
There was a click as the recipient of the phone call finally picked up. "Hello?"
"Hello, Pietro Maximoff speaking." A business-like, no nonsense voice answered.
"Pietro, Wanda here." Wanda started, "I'm calling on behalf of Kitty."
Wanda stopped when she heard him scrabbling around for something. "Hello?"
The scrabbling sound stopped. "Sorry. I was on the speakerphone." He coughed, trying to sound casual, "What were you talking about?"
"Well, Kitty wanted to arrange for you and Alex to meet. She thinks it's best that Alex have and know his dad."
"Oh," He sounded hopeful, "Okay. I would like to get to know Alex too. Is this Thursday okay? I don't have any meetings scheduled then."
Wanda hesitated. She knew that Kitty was free then but Kitty never mentioned when she wanted Pietro to meet Alex. She made a quick decision then. "Then it's settled. You can meet them at their apartment. Goodbye Pietro."
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"Why did I agree to this?" Kitty asked John for the hundredth time.
His attention diverted to his lighter, John did not reply immediately. "It's because you're a good mother and do not want to deny Alex his right to know his father despite how much you don't want to."
Kitty swallowed a mouthful of coffee, thinking of possible excuses to get out of meeting Pietro. She had intended to drop Alex off at the Brotherhood and let Pietro and Alex bond with each other until evening when she would pick Alex up but Alex was adamant that his mother would accompany him and his daddy. If she didn't know better, she would say that her son was trying to set her up.
She glanced at the clock. "I'm going to shower. Keep an eye on Alex, John." She warned him.
John immediately flicked the lighter closed and stuffed it into his pocket. He ambled into Alex's room where Alex was lying on his stomach, rolling his toy truck back and forth.
John was playing with Alex when the doorbell rang. At first, John ignored it, thinking Kitty would answer the door but when the doorbell rang again, he got up to answer it, Alex behind him.
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Pietro stood outside the door, he heard footsteps. He was actually nervous. He didn't know what to expect from Alex or Kitty. He had been surprised by Wanda's phone call that he had knocked over the papers he was reading.
He had jumped at the chance to see Kitty that he never thought what he was going to do during the little bonding session with Alex. He knew so little about Alex, what were they going to talk about?
The door opened and revealed Pyro, Alex clutching his leg. Pietro scowled at Pyro as Pyro let him in. "What are you doing here?" Pietro asked rudely.
Pyro was about to retort when he was interrupted. "Oh, Pietro, I wasn't expecting you to come yet. Take a seat first; I'll be back in a few minutes. John, could you, like, come here for a second?"
Pietro stared at Kitty. Her hair was twisted into a loose bun, a few strands framing her face and she was clad in a bathrobe, Pietro gulped. This was definitely unexpected. He felt jealous as John followed Kitty into her room.
Pietro's heart sank. Was what Lance suspected true? Was Kitty and Pyro together? Even if it were, Alex did not look affected by it.
Speaking of Alex, the young boy had latched onto Pietro and was chattering away nonstop. Pietro knelt down, face to face with Alex. "Were would you like to go out for lunch?"
Alex looked unsure, biting his lip –an action that strongly reminded Pietro of Kitty. "Well… Mommy and I always go over to Grandpa Xavier's house for lunch coz Mommy needs to go to work after that and I stay there 'til Mommy comes back."
Pietro chuckled as Alex took a deep breath after he had rushed to reply Pietro's question. Maybe his powers did rub off Alex. Alex tilted his head sideways, looking at Pietro. Unsure of what to do, Pietro continued kneeling in front of Alex, straining to hear any sound from Kitty's room.
"Grandpa Logan and Uncle Remy and John were right." Alex declared.
Pietro turned to face his son. Grandpa Logan? He had to stifle a snicker at the way the boy said it. "What?"
Alex looked impatient. "You know," Alex made a 'snickt' sound as he clenched his fist, "He's my grandpa."
"No. I mean, what do you mean that Grandpa Logan's right?" Pietro asked, his attention now focused on his son.
"They said that one day my daddy would come back. Mommy never talks about you. Uncle John says." Alex stopped abruptly and ran and buried his face in his mother's leg.
Pietro got up. John had stepped out of Kitty's room, his facial expression unreadable. John nodded at him before he left the apartment. Kitty managed to untangle her son from her leg and turned to face Pietro.
"I'm sorry, Pietro. I know the original plan was for you and Alex to spend the afternoon but he's a little," She mentally searched for the right word, "clingy. I guess it leaves me no choice but to follow you two. I hope you don't mind?" Kitty watched Pietro for his reply.
Pietro was, in fact, pleased. He didn't mind Kitty joining them. "It's no problem. In fact that's probably better since you would know what Alex would like to do." Pietro answered smoothly.
Kitty smiled, her face guarded. "I did promise him that you would take him to MacDonald's."
Pietro nodded. "That's easy enough. Come on, Alex." Pietro extended his hand to Alex.
Alex immediately scrabbled at his mother's jeans and looked up at her, eyes wide with terror, the most adorable pout on his face. Kitty sighed, rolling her eyes as she picked Alex up. "I'm really sorry, Pietro. I have no idea what has gotten into Alex. He normally is very chatty and not the least bit shy. Maybe the fact of having you as his father is too new to him."
As Kitty carried Alex out of the apartment, Alex buried his head in the crook of his mother's neck. As they walked to the car, Alex finally looked straight ahead at Pietro who was walking behind Kitty. Alex quickly stuck his tongue out at Pietro before burying his face into Kitty's neck again.
Pietro stopped suddenly. Of all the nerve of this little boy, he had been tricked. Alex had shown him the other side of himself, a side his mother probably didn't know about. If he knew any better, he was sure that Wolverine and Pyro were behind this and Alex had been more than willing to participate.
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One lunch meal later, Pietro found himself on the receiving end of Kitty's glare and his hands full of a hyper three year old boy. "I said I was sorry." Pietro said, his hands in mock surrender.
Kitty continued glaring at him. "Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows better than to give a kid sugar!"
"I only gave him one." Pietro started.
"You gave him cotton candy plus you bought caramel popcorn and chocolates for him when we went to watch the movie." Kitty interrupted, her eyes daring him to deny the facts.
Pietro winced at her annoyed tone. "Okay, okay. There's a playground nearby right? Let him exhaust himself there then."
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Pietro watched as Kitty mopped Alex's sweaty face. She kissed him softly on the forehead before sending him off to play again. He felt a little pang. Had he not left, he and Kitty would still be together and Alex might have another sibling or just be spoilt rotten.
Kitty flopped back down next to him. "Just looking at Alex having fun and I wish I was three all over again." Pietro admitted.
Kitty looked at him curiously. She had been trying to avoid conversation with Pietro until now. "Why?"
Pietro glanced at Alex who was happily swinging himself. "Not to have a care in the world. Nothing too trivial to worry about, the biggest worry would probably be whether there would be veggies for dinner. No idea what's going about in the world –conflicts, mutants, war, something I won't care about."
Kitty was silent as she registered what he had said. "You do have some good points. I mean, no responsibilities, nothing! To have Mom and Dad to protect you from anything and everything that's even the littlest bit frightening. That sounds like a dream you know."
Pietro chuckled before turning serious again. "But I don't mind. If I really were three, I would never have met you. Kitty, I…"
Kitty's face suddenly looked pained. "Please no. Pietro, I spent four years alone, I was so sure I was over you. Don't make this difficult for me."
Pietro felt like someone had just stabbed him. "Difficult, why? Is there someone else in the picture already? It's that Pyro fellow isn't it, Lance told me about him. I knew he always was against me." Pietro clenched his fists.
"No, no. It's nothing like that. Oh, Pietro, you need to listen first." Kitty put her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him.
Pietro fell silent, waiting for her explanation. Maybe it's time to listen from the right person instead of getting different opinions from the people around.
Kitty licked her dry lips as she tried to start from the beginning. "It came as a shock that day I received your letter. I had gone to the doctor's the day before and after he confirmed my pregnancy, I actually felt happy and had planned to share the news with you. Then Tabby comes and delivers your letter and it was like my world crashed."
"I spent two weeks in denial before Logan finally heard about it and he rushed back from wherever he was to give me a pep talk. It was afterwards that I confessed to him then Rogue about my pregnancy. Thinking we could find out more about where you'd gone, we approached Wanda. She was surprisingly nice and she took the role as Alex's aunt seriously."
Pietro was about to ask something when she smiled before continuing.
"We had gone on a mission when I was attacked. John and Piotr had saved me there but I almost lost the baby then, I was injured pretty badly. It was then that I finally openly admitted I was pregnant."
Kitty quickly scanned the playground for her son before turning back to Pietro. "The gang, that's Wanda, Rogue, Remy, John and Logan, were really supportive. I mean, some people from school knew about Alex and they called me all sorts of horrid words but they stuck up for me. The moment my parents refused to accept Alex was when we became family, they stayed up all night with me as I contemplated on aborting Alex."
"When Alex was born, it was totally natural to have one or more of them around. I guess we kind of grew on each other. Remy and Rogue had started dating then, it was very sweet. Logan and Wanda, having the lack of love in their lives, Alex was their precious gift, a bond, someone special to hold dear. Our circle was beginning to close."
Pietro swallowed and asked the question he had been dreading. "What about you and Pyro?"
Kitty's eyes sparkled at that thought. "He asked me out, several times actually, before I finally accepted."
Pietro was speechless for a few minutes before he asked the horrible question. "What about now?"
At this point, Kitty did not look at him. "We're engaged. The wedding's in July." Kitty whispered to him.
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jean- school's startingsoon meaning my mom's gonna ban me from the computer so updates wont be so frequent, sad to say that.Please review!
by the way, coz the plot'sa little different from the original, i think it's time i ask you people for your opinion. Do you want Pietro/Kitty or Pyro/Kitty? Cheers!