Time passed quickly. Even though it was only 7 o'clock, the sky had turn black from the dark clouds.
I found myself on the Bayville Park and sat on a bench.
It was wet, but I was soaked as well so I didn't mind.
I miss being home.
Now we would probably be watching a movie in the small living room. Today is Jean's turn to pick a movie.
Kurt always brings those huge bowls of popcorn for everyone, but he usually finishes his own at the beginning of the movie and then proceeds to steal from everyone else.
Why did this have to happen?
I can't even face them, especially after our fight.
Truth to be told, it has been three years since that happened to me, but I still blame myself.
There should have been something I could have done to prevent it.
Even though deep inside I know I couldn't have, I was just a kid. They, my mother, the circus, the forest and Jack were all part the environment I grew up in, it's all I had ever known. I never knew there was something else for me, I didn't know I had a choice.
Suddenly I heard footsteps approaching and I got alarmed, placing my hand on my knife on my waist.
"Scott!" I said relived.
"Here you are! Everyone is looking for you!" He said and sat next to me on the dump bench.
"You were?" I asked surprised.
"Of course, we are a team" he said and I looked down in shame.
"Even after all the things I said?" I asked hopefully and he laughed slightly.
"Yes, even after them," he said and placed his arm around my shoulder.
"Now will you tell me what's going on between you and Kurt?" he said and I flinched away from him.
"I don't want to talk about it, let's just go home," I said standing up, but Scott grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back down forcefully.
"What are you doing?" I snapped back at him, obviously angry. He knows I don't like being touched suddenly, especially pushed!
"Come on, Kathryn, why don't you stay with me? Let's talk about it. " Scott said and he sounded weird as hell.
"I said I don't want to talk about it! If you don't want to drive me home, I can walk by myself!" I shouted, standing up again and he grabbed both my wrists harshly.
"Let go!" I said not recognizing the person in front of me, his grip becoming stronger and stronger.
This isn't Scott.
It can't be.
"Game over Mystique," I said and I phased my arms away.
"The game just began ShadowCat " she said as she turned to her real form and I tried to run.
"Not so fast," she said grabbing the back of my shirt from its collar and ripping it.
I stopped moving, my scars exposed yet again, but at least not to a friend.
I trembled both in frustration and from the cold.
"What do you want from me?" I asked and I felt her hand across one of my scars. I immediately pulled away and turned to face her.
"I want to offer you sanctuary," she replied and I scoffed.
"Like you did with Anne?" I asked and tried to cover my back.
"Anne is safe and happy," she said and I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Is she?" I said, doubting her.
"Yes, she is, and you can be too. The brotherhood is a team of people like you, broken, unwanted and misjudged from their appearance," She paused for a moment and look at my scars before continuing.
"Your scars, they want you to hide them you are hiding them from the people that are supposed to care about you no matter what. You saw Kurt's reaction he was disgusted with you, he pitied you! That's the reaction everyone else will have as well," she said and I shook my head negatively.
"That's not true!" I tried to deny her, but the fear in my expression gave me away.
"Yes, it is, but I won't judge you or pity you because I know that you have been though something, and you survived it. You are a warrior not someone worth pity," she said and I bit my lip. She is trying to turn me around but a few well-said words can't erase what she and her team of mutants did to us.
Her beating me close to death, her buddy giving me a permanent mark of our fight on my face.
Lance betraying me and hurting my feelings.
Kurt and Ororo passing out because of how she manipulated Anne.
Fred kidnapping Jean and fighting Scott.
Evan getting in jail because Pietro blamed him of stealing from those lockers.
And let's not forget the constant bulling we have to deal with every day at school from the brotherhood, because of her guidance on them.
"I am no warrior and a few sweet words won't change my mind. I am standing with the X-Men, there Is no way I'm ever fighting against them on your side," I finally said and I saw an angry expression flash on her face.
"Kathryn Leah Pryde you are so lucky that you are too useful to kill yet," she said and kicked me to the chest.
The impact made me fall backwards in pain, landing on the bench hard.
I stood up, ignoring the burning pain on my back.
I felt the earth beneath me vibrate and I could hear familiar voices.
They actually came for me.
I smiled happily.
I grabbed my knife and cut through Mystique's upper arm, her palm immediately moved to her wound in pain, but soon she struck back.
She tried kicking my legs, but I jumped and kicked her in the face, she fell to the ground that was full of mud due of the rain.
She groaned because of the impact, but smirked.
"Anne, now!" She yelled and I turned to see a terrified Anne.
I knew exactly what Mystique wanted her to do.
"You don't want to do this, believe me my memories let's just say are too dark, even for you," I said trying to prevent her for absorbing my memories.
She looked between me and Mystique, who was slowly standing up.
Mystique then quickly shoved me into Anne, but I phased and fell to the ground instead.
Mystique was losing her patience with me and was already coming after me.
I stood up and she tried to punch me, I grabbed her fist before it could make contact with my face and as I held her hand in place, I kicked her knee, breaking it in the process.
She screamed in pain, but I didn't bother helping her, she has healing powers anyways.
I let her go and she fell to the ground, I turned ready to go find the others, who were probably fighting the brotherhood. If I was guessing correctly from the earthquake I felt earlier.
But at that moment I knew I was losing this fight.
Anne's palm touched my forehead and I screamed, pain rushing all over my body, I could feel all my energy, memories, powers getting absorbed by her.
I fell limp to the ground, my vision blurred, nothing but numbness, I couldn't move.
"Katzchen!" I heard Kurt scream and soon saw his barely makeable figure above my head.
"Elf" I breathed out.
"Katzchen, stay awake, please don't pass out on me, please," he pleaded but I couldn't.
At that moment everything went black.
-Time Skip-
I felt myself slowly gaining consciousness, but my head was still ringing in pain.
I tried opening my eyes but they just felt too heavy.
I moved my arm slowly to my head and rubbed it in pain.
I groaned and finally opened my eyes, but quickly covered them with my hands as light met me.
"Katzchen!" I heard Kurt say softly and re-opened my eyes only to find him next to me, sitting in a chair.
"I.., " I tried to speak, but really, I didn't know what to say.
I looked around and realized I was back home, in my room.
"What happened?" I asked kind of confused.
"Anne, she touched you and you blacked out on me," he answered he seemed to feel really uneasy.
A laugh escaped my lips, realizing he was worried about me and he looked at me with wide eyes.
"It's not funny! I was worried sick! For a moment I thought, I thought that you." he yelled but he trailed off, his voice became a whisper at the last part of the sentence.
"Now you know how it feels," I said standing up slightly on my bed.
"Yeah, I guess," he said smiling as he finally understood how I felt when he had passed out on me.
"But the worst of it was that the last time we spoke together, we fought, because of my mistake," he said and looked down in shame.
"It's not your fault, if someone is to be blamed is me," I said and he stood up from his chair.
"Of course, it is! This is all my fault; I shouldn't have entered your room without your permission and after that it went downhill. You got mad at me and then avoided everyone else and then Mystique happened and before I knew it you got hurt! If I had just stayed out of your room at that moment, none of those things would have happened. I get it if you are still mad at me,"
He said and tried to walk away but I grabbed his furry hand and pushed him down on my bed next to me, he seemed shocked by my action, and even more shocked when I put my arms around him.
I hugged him.
"Listen to me Kurt, it's not your fault, and I am so sorry that I made you feel this way. Truth is, I was never really mad at you, I was mad at myself, because of the way I am, because I didn't stop those things from happening to me, and now I am afraid that I will lose you guys, because I didn't help myself when I needed it the most. People never treated me the same after finding out about my past, but I didn't care at least not until now, I care about you people so much and I don't want our bond to get ruined now, now that I feel that my life is actually worth something,"
I finally admitted my truth, and he hugged me back even tighter.
"That's what you were worried about? That we will push you away? That won't ever happen you are part of this family. You know, I thought it might have been that. You and I have a pretty similar past, we have both been mistreated for things we couldn't control. That's what I tried to explain to you when Evan, Jean and Scott walked in. You are afraid that I would pity you or change the way I act around you because of this. But let me ask you, did your opinion about me change when you saw my true form for the first time?"
He asked and I pulled away to face him.
"No, I wasn't expecting it, but no I still thought of you the same way, they are a part of you after all and I care about you," I said making clear that his appearance never bothered me or ever will.
"See?! Then why should a pair of scars change mine? Those scars are a part of you. You are my friend and I love every part of you. I know that you had a rough past, and to be honest I knew that even before I even found out about your scars," he admitted.
"What do you mean?" I asked genuinely confused.
"You are always so defensive, overprotective of everyone, and you knew how to handle yourself even before the institute. The way you acted shows that you have gone through something that resulted in you losing your trust in people, you know that life isn't always a wonderland and you expect the worst most of the time," he said and I smiled.
It was true.
"I thought the same of you, being hunted down because of your appearance, I bet life wasn't a wonderland for you either," I said and he nodded.
"Life can be hell but as long as we stick together, I think we will be okay," he said and my smile widened.
"Come here! " he said laughing and opened his arms wide for me.
I jumped into his hug without hesitation.
I am so happy it all worked out in the end.
"I see you two figured your problem out" I heard Scott say and we both pulled away to face them.
Scott was standing next to Jean on my doorway.
"Yep," Kurt giving them a thumbs up and I chuckled.
Jean sat next to me on the edge of the bed and placed an arm around my shoulder.
"You got us very worried, you know," Jean said and I looked at her with sympathy.
"I am sorry about everything, including the fight we had," I said regretting all my prior actions.
"It's alright, I don't know what happened between you two, but I could feel the intense emotions you were having, so your reaction was understandable," she said smiling down at me.
"How did you find me?" I asked remembering the fight.
"Cerebro detected you were using your powers, and then it detected Mystique and the brotherhood right at the same spot, so we knew that you were in trouble, please for gods shake, don't run of like that again!" Scott said and threw his arms in the air.
"Scott is right, next time you have a problem, talk to us before you go running off. Poor Scott freaked out when he saw you on the ground next to Kurt," Jean explained and I nodded.
"Sorry," I said in a whisper.
"I guess I could forgive you, but it will cost you," Scott said and Jean tried muffling her laughter.
"What?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"A hug!" he said and sat on the bed with us giving me a one-arm hug and I hugged back.
"Just this once!" I warned him.
"Hey! Having a group hug without me! How dare you!" Evan exclaimed running inside my room and jumping into my bed, trying to hug us all as we laughed.
"Evan!" Jean shouted as she fell to the ground being pushed by Evan and we all stopped laughing.
"Jean, I am sorry," Evan said and Jean smirked.
"You will be!" She yelled jumping back on bed tickling Evan and anyone else who got in her way.
Our laughter could probably be heard all over the mansion and I wouldn't want it any other way.