A Pre-Flight Fight
"Katya?" Piotr knocked on Kitty's locked bedroom door. He could hear her angrily rooting through dresser drawers inside. A few minutes later she opened the door violently. Piotr's brain went Ulp! She was not happy.
"C'mon in if you want." She spoke in a flat-line type of voice. Yep. Definitely not happy. "I was just getting my bag together."
"Katya. I wasn't saying that I could stop you from going. I just… I just would like you not to go." There, he thought, that will help.
"I got that impression." Or not.
"Well, I still think is bad idea." His accent was thickening. He was upset. "I mean, Wisdom cannot be trusted and-"
"And neither can I?" Kitty's hands were on her hips again. This was not going as well as Piotr had anticipated.
"Of course I trust you, Katya! I just think that perhaps we should not tempt fate with this sort of-"
"Piotr! For God's sake! I am not going with Pete because I like him! I am going with Pete because it is for my own good. If you would pay attention for ten seconds or trust my judgment for the smallest of moments, maybe you'd see that there might be a reason for this!" Piotr was silent for a few moments.
"What do you mean, Katya?"
"People are out to get me, Piotr. People with the potential to do major damage to me and to the Institute. It is in my, and the students, best interest to go away from here until they are taken care of."
"Then I go with you! We go… we go visit Russia! We go anywhere, but you go with me! Not with the Englishman!"
"I am not property, Piotr! You cannot just assume that I will do whatever you say just because you say so! This is just like earlier!"
"Earlier? Katya, I still am not completely sure what I did!"
"Of course you're not!" Kitty began slamming around the room again, throwing things into her bag. "You never know! You're so bloody oblivious! Piotr, you couldn't accept that I had it under control! It just wasn't okay with you that I might possibly have control of a situation. Logan taught me, you know! I know what I'm doing!" Kitty stopped packing to light another cigarette. Usually, she refrained from doing this around Piotr because it upset him. Now, that was part of the reason for lighting up in the first place.
"Katya," Piotr was almost afraid to say anything, "Must you…" Her glare caused him to trail off in his usual anti-smoking tirade. He was in way too much trouble to object.
"Yeah. I must. You drive me to it with your complete lack of awareness." She sighed and took a drag. "Piotr, you have no idea how frustrating you can be sometimes. I mean, half the time I talk to you and you just stare at your fucking sketchpads, and you don't even look up. I try to tell you about something that's really important to me, and if you don't find it absolutely riveting, you can't be arsed to even pretend you care. And you're always, always, treating me like I need your protection." She sat down on the bed and looked at him, "Am I always going to be 15? I was serious downstairs, Piotr. I need to know if I am ever going to be an adult to you. I am 21 years old, Piotr, and I am tired of being the skinny, geeky girl who took care of your sister and followed you around like a puppy. I am my own person and I have parts of my life that have nothing to do with you." She looked around quickly to make sure that no one was listening, "Piotr, I took out a Black Air Base with Pete, and now they want revenge. These people are scary, Piotr. They have resources and agents that would kill me and everyone I love. I need to get away from them. This requires that I got with Pete and we hide while we try to work out how to take these people out of the way. This is not a personal attack on you, I'm not leaving you, and I'm definitely not leaving you to sleep my way across England with Double Oh Negative out there." She snorted. "Pete and I were over a long time ago, and I really don't know what else I can possibly say to make it clearer to you." She took his hand, "I need you to trust me here, I am not leaving you, and I will come back to you when this is all taken care of." Piotr sighed and looked away for a minute.
"Fine, Katya." He shook his head, "If you say so, then I have no choice but to trust you. You are right. You are an adult and I have to give you the choice and respect your decision." Kitty's expression lightened, and she put out her cigarette.
"Thank you, Piotr!" She hugged him and thought to herself This is going to be fine. He's really coming around.
Piotr was thinking, 'If he touches her I break him in half like little, English twig.'
Outside, in the hangar, Pete was thinking, 'Glad I brought the eyepatch…'
Alright- for those of you who don't know, in the X-Force issue where Pete is talking to Alistaire Stuart, Alistaire makes a reference to Pete's eye-patch. Pete says that it gives him the mutant power of 'being incredibly sexy.' It was just a dorky reference.
Oh! And that theatre-geek reference in Chapter 1 was a reference to Sondheim's 'Sunday in the Park with George' in which the artist repeatedly blows off his girlfriend because he needs to 'finish the hat' on his painting. It is something of an in-joke in my theatre department with our resident artists.