Calm

"Piotr. You are the best ever." Kitty stretched out on the bed, enjoying her back massage. Her boyfriend grinned and continued his ministrations. "Logan's katas this morning really zapped my energy. I have aches in muscles that I didn't know I had…" Kitty groaned as Piotr found a particularly large knot in her right shoulder blade. She gritted her teeth and let him work it out, trying not to let him know it hurt. If he knew that it hurt, he'd probably stop, and that wouldn't do the knot any good. Piotr always stopped when it hurt. At all. It was actually kind of frustrating sometimes to still be treated like a porcelain doll. Oh shut up, her brain complained, you love him. Now stop sabotaging yourself! She started to turn over so that Piotr would stop his efforts. She had more work to do, and if he kept going, she would go to sleep.

"Shto? Is something wrong, Katya?" Piotr cocked his head at her thoughtfully while his hands rested now on her stomach. She smiled at him.

"Nothing, babe. I gotta go run now before Logan finds out that I wimped out up here." She flashed him a winning smile and pulled her t-shirt on over her sports bra. "I'll be back in about 45 minutes, big guy. Finish the hat." She nodded towards the canvas that he had been working on when she came in after her session with Logan and he had abandoned it to help her with her aching muscles. He smiled at their inside joke and nodded.

"Da. I will finish the hat. You go running. And when you return, we can go and get some dinner?" He phrased it as a question as he usually did, allowing her to make the final decision.

"Sure. That's fine. I'll need to shower first though."

"That is fine. Perhaps I will need one as well…" Piotr approached her where she was putting her hair back in the mirror and pulled her back against his chest. She grinned and leaned into the embrace, halting her motions for a minute.

"That'd be great, Piotr. Sorry if I've been a little crazy for these last few days, but I've been dealing with the kids' finals and stuff like that, and I've had to meet with a lot of them outside of class." Kitty smiled up at him. He lowered his face and kissed her on the forehead. He liked to do that.

"It's fine, Katya. You are busy. I have things to do as well," his face took on a teasing smirk, "It is not as though I am pining away tragically until your return." Kitty grinned and pulled him down for a real kiss.

"Maybe you should be, big stuff, maybe you should be." She pulled away to finish putting her hair up. Once it was done, she waved and exited the room through the door, running right into Wolverine. "Oof! Sorry, Logan."

"'Sallright. You done runnin' already?" He raised a suspicious eyebrow. Kitty ducked her head, a little embarrassed to have been caught by her sensei.

"Nah. I took a little break," she admitted, "I was just going to run now."

"Mmhmm." Logan took a drag on his cigar and smirked at her. "Get gone or I'll have to give Petey a hard time for distracting ya." He tucked the cigar back between his teeth and cast his eyes towards the door to Piotr's room. Kitty snickered as she imagined Piotr's face bright red as it would certainly be at that kind of lecture. Piotr still wasn't completely comfortable with public acknowledgement or their... releationship.

"Nah, Logan-san." Kitty rolled her eyes at her mentor, "That's alright. I'll go for my run now!" Kitty headed away from Logan down the hall and towards the path she used for running. She grabbed her iPod off of the kitchen table as she passed by and had it thumbed to the mix that she worked out to before she was even on the path. She began her run, completely, blissfully even, unaware of the turn her life was about to take...

Anyone who gets this super theatre-geek reference will earn double points and I'll post the answer in a later chapter just in case ;)