A/N- This chapter is a little bit later than I would have liked, but I was pretty busy hacking into Rogue's blog with Kitty. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I strongly suggest you take a little venture over to Lizzieturbo's profile and check out Brilliant Mind of Rogue. I'm not even going to mention the prequel because that's a little bit too much self promotion for my liking (*cough*BeautifulMindofKatherinePryd e*cough*)

Please show me some love for this chapter. I literally wrote it in two days. On the birthday gift my husband gave me. Happy birthday to me :)

True to Remy's word, he was up and ready to go by 10:50 the next morning. Otherwise known as 'first thing'. He drove them up to Kitty's old place of residence, a quaint little rental home in a mediocre area of the city, and parked in the driveway.

"You're coming in with me right?" Kitty asked nervously, looking at Remy through the corner of her eye, "I'd just feel a lot more confident if-"

"Yes, I'm coming in with you." Remy cut her off as he killed the engine, "Make sure you let me know if you want me to knock him around a little bit. We should have a code word. And. And is our code word. Every time you say and, I'll take that to mean that you want me to beat the shit out of him, sound good?"

Kitty gave him a smile and unbuckled herself from the seat, "Thanks, but I doubt that will be necessary. I just want to go in, get my things, and get out. Minimal interaction."

"Alright, let's go then."

He led the way up the path to the front door, where he stopped and waited for Kitty to muster up the courage to knock. After a few deep, calming breaths, she gave the door three hearty knocks and waited patiently for the door to open.

Lance looked down at her, and then over her head to Remy before returning his expectant stare to her.

"I just came for the rest of my things." She explained.

He narrowed his eyes skeptically, "You had to bring your new boyfriend with you for that?"

"Remy is just here to help me carry things, Lance. Don't be difficult."

Lance let out an unamused laugh, "Remy." He chuckled, "First name basis and everything now."

"We live together." Remy said flatly, "Besides, it rolls of the tongue a lot easier in the heat of the moment."

Kitty gave him a pointed look before turning back to Lance calmly, "I don't want to make a big deal out of this."

Lance worked the muscles in his jaw silently as he considered his options.

"Who's there, yo? Is that the pizza I ordered?" A voice from somewhere behind Lance called out. "I was hopin' they'd be slackin' off. 30 minutes or it's free bitches."

With a reluctant breath, Lance pushed the door open, allowing Kitty and Remy to enter.

"Oh..." Toad grinned from his seat on the trash and clothing littered couch, "It's the little woman. Thanks for movin' out, boo. I moved in when you ran off... I gots me a mad sweet crib now, yo. The honey's be all up in this place."

Kitty scrunched up her nose as she scanned the filthy living room, "Yeah... I'm sure the honeys can't get enough of this place..."

Remy grimaced when he stepped inside and did a quick visual sweep of the immediate area, "You sure you want your stuff back from here? We might need to call a HazMat team in to get it out safely."

"You got a problem with my home?" Lance stiffened his spine and clenched his jaw, "You wanna make something of it?"

"Chill out, homes." Toad said, hop-walking over to the three in the open doorway with a grin, "You just bitter cause he's tappin' that sweet Kitty ass."

"Ew! Toad!" Kitty frowned, "Nobody is tapping anybody's ass, okay? Can we just get this over with, please?"

"He stays here." Lance glared at Remy.

"Not a problem." Toad nodded, smacking Remy on the back as he led him towards the filthy couch, "We can hang out."

Lance brought Kitty to what used to be their shared room while Toad cleared a spot on the couch for Remy to sit, which he did very reluctantly.

When his weight settled onto the couch, it made an unsettling crunch sound causing him to instinctively grimace,

"It's alright, dawg." Toad reassured him as he flopped down in the pre-formed butt groove, kicking his feet up on the cluttered coffee table on top of a stack of Playboy's. "That's just the couch settling, yo."

Remy grumbled an unintelligible response while Toad began to channel surf.

"So how's life with the little honey? You still live with Pyro and Colossus, right? How does that work, do you share her or something? Or do you all have a foursome?" Toad asked as he scanned through the channels, "Is it okay to have a foursome with three dudes and a chick? Or is that gay? I've always wondered what the rules of orgies are."

Remy closed his eyes and let out a soothing breath, "We don't have sex together. None of us."

"F'reals?" Toad squinted at him skeptically, "I mean, I could see keepin' Pyro out of it, but-"

"None of us." Remy repeated as Toad settled on an episode of Jerry Springer featuring sex trade workers and the clients who apparently love them.

"That's to bad, G." Toad shook his head as he tossed the remote to the coffee table and grabbed a bag of potato chips that had basically been ground to a fine dust. "I bet you get to see her wearin' her sweet little nighty around. Shit. I'd be drillin' a hole in the wall if I got to live with a sweet honey like that..."

Remy looked at Toad through the corner of his eye, "Drilling a hole in the wall? Is that a figure of speech?"

"Hells no. I'd literally drill a peep hole in the wall so I could watch her get changed, yo." He explained as he crammed a handful of chip crumbs into his mouth.

"That's disgusting."

"To each his own." Toad shrugged before suddenly perking up with interest, "Now that I got my own sweet crib, I plan on bringing all the honeys home. I stocked up on condoms, got 'em in bulk."

"Costco."

"Yeah!" Toad nodded enthusiastically, "One question though, when the box says extra large... is that just the size of the box? Or is it the size of the penis?"

Remy closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Toad-"

"Or is it the size of the cooch? Because this little homie don't plan on goin' anywhere extra large if you know what I mean." Toad continued, pointing to his groin.

Remy checked the time and rubbed a hand over his face, "Can't you ask Lance these things?"

Toad scoffed, "Lance ain't a playa. Not like you. You know shit. Do you use gel in your hair, or is it that pomade stuff?"

"It's gel." Remy answered, hoping to just humor Toad until Kitty was finished.

"Hmm, gel doesn't work on me." He said thoughtfully, "It stings. I tried putting it on before I shaved, but it makes my razor all gunky. And after it just burns my balls to hell."

Remy stared at Toad for a minute before frowning, "Balls?"

"Yeah, my berries, bro. I assume manscaping involves some type of styling product. I'm new to the whole grooming thing, but it makes sense."

Remy stood up and gave his head a shake, "I'm gunna go see if Kitty's finished yet." He announced, picking his way through the filthy living room. He slowed down as he tackled the hallway, watching where he stepped to make sure he didn't land on a pair of dirty underwear and peeking inside the rooms as he passed to locate Kitty.

"Hey, Kitty." He called out as he walked, "We gotta get going... I need to Google if it's possible to get tetanus from a couch."

He pushed the last door at the end of the hall open and his eyebrows shot up. The room was relatively clean, in comparison to the rest of the house. The bed spread was gender neutral, but clearly picked out by a woman, and the windows had curtains on them. Real curtains, not blankets nailed to the wall above the window.

But as shocking as the sight of a tidy room oasis in this filthy desert was, it was nothing compared to the sight of Kitty and Lance going at it up against the oak dresser on the opposite wall.

"Remy!" She squeaked, wide eyed and swollen lipped, phasing herself away from Lance which caused him to fall against the dresser. "I'm almost done here-"

"Oh yeah, it looks like you were pretty close to finishing." He crossed his arms and leaned against the door jamb.

"It's totally not what it looks like-"

"Really? Were you just looking for your laptop in the back of his throat?"

Kitty let out a breath and crossed her arms haughtily, "No..."

"Guess she just needs a real man to satisfy her, Papi." Lance said with a smirk as he attempted to recover from being discarded against the dresser.

"Why do you keep talking like a Mexican gangster?!" Kitty blurted out, "You're from Illinois, Esse. Give it a rest." She turned back to Remy and gave her head a shake, "Momentary lapse in judgment."

Lance let out a laugh, "Three minutes ago you were begging me to nibble on your ear-"

"Lapse in judgment!" Kitty repeated firmly.

"This is your problem Kitty, you have no idea what you want! One second you're all hot and ready to go and then suddenly you're back to being a frigid bitch! It's like you have perpetual PMS!"

Kitty knit her brow, "Oh yeah, way to be super mature about this Lance."

"Listen, I may not be the perfect boyfriend. I'm probably not a stud in the sack like Frenchy McCajun over there, but that doesn't mean I deserve to be jerked around, Kitty."

"I'm not jerking you around. You dumped me. Remember?"

"After you moved out of our house to live with three men."

Remy laughed and Kitty turned her angry look to him.

"What?" He shrugged defensively, "The dumbass kind of has a point..."

"He does not have a point." She spat, "If anyone is being jerked around it's me. Not him. I am not jerking him in any way."

"You are indecisive." Remy pointed out, "It takes you forever to decide what to eat, not to mention how much trouble you have deciding where to work."

Lance snorted, "Oh, I know all about that. Like it's some big life choice. Waitress or receptionist? Just decide already, so they don't shut off our hot water."

"Yes! Thank you!" Remy tossed a hand at Lance, "Pete says I'm being insensitive, but come on already, right?"

"Uh, you are being insensitive, and it is a big life choice." Kitty frowned.

"You're just so dramatic about it." Remy continued, "You're going to give yourself a brain aneurism over an 'interview bra'."

"That's nothing man, you should see her trying to get dressed for college." Lance shook his head, "It's like Project Runway or some shit."

"Alright," Kitty rolled her eyes, "I think we're all done here-"

"I have known many, many women," Remy said, ignoring Kitty's subtle cue to shut up, "But I've never known one to be so weird about her clothing."

"Let's be fair here," Kitty held up a hand, "When you say you've known women, you mean in the biblical sense. Not in the literal sense, okay? I'm totally not the only one who is weird about her clothing."

"She's got to do everything her own way, she's a stubborn control freak." Lance continue. "Have you seen her 'work out' yet?"

Remy shook his head and Lance rolled his eyes dramatically, "Instead of getting a gym membership like a normal person, or even going to a yoga class or some shit, she dances around the house like kid on acid. She says it's good cardio, which is just bullshit."

"I do not dance around the house." Kitty said defensively, "It's one of those dance video games... and it totally works."

"Yeah, she says it works the core." Lance continued to laugh, "I've seen her core. It's not working."

"Oh yeah, because P90X really worked out well for you, string bean." She spat. "And if I'm so horrible to live with then why were you begging me to ditch the Acolyte tools to move back in with you, not five minutes ago?!"

"Momentary lapse in judgment." He frowned.

Kitty cast her eyes down to the boxes of her belongings sitting on the floor next to the bed and silently stared.

"I'm just going to start taking these boxes to the car." Remy announced, hoisting up one of the three mid sized boxes and swiftly leaving the room in awkward silence.

Lance let out a breath and rubbed the back of his neck, "You weren't horrible to live with." He shrugged and fixed his eyes on the carpet between them. "Not when you were happy."

She looked back up at him and worked the muscles in his jaw, "Well I'm happy with my home now."

"For how long Kitty?" He shot back, giving her a frown, "You'll get restless there too, I guarantee it. You've turned into this... commitment-phobe or something. You couldn't commit to the X-dorks, you couldn't commit to me, you couldn't commit to school-"

"It has nothing to do with commitment, Lance. Maybe I just reevaluated things, and realized that they weren't as important to me as I thought." They were both silent for a moment before Kitty pursed her lips and cleared her throat, "You know, maybe I just didn't want to finish school..."

"You weren't talking about school."

They stared at one another in tense silence until Remy stepped back into the room for the last box. "All set?" He asked, clearly picking up on the increase in discomfort in the room, "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"No. Let's just go." Kitty shook her head, carrying her box past Remy as he picked the remaining box up off the floor.

"And...?" He eyed Lance dubiously.

"No, Remy. No and."

He followed her out to the car, dropping the box into the trunk after her and slamming it shut. They drove in silence for a good ten minutes before Remy finally sighed,

"What the hell did you have in that first box? It felt like a box of weights or some shit."

"Books." She said quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the scenery rushing by out the window.

"School books...?" He glanced at her through the corner of her eye and she made no move to respond. "Like for college?"

"Remy, I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Good," He shrugged, looking back at the road, "Because I don't really care anyways."

Kitty pressed her lips into a tiny smile and glanced at him quickly, "Thanks again for helping."

"I have to ask, petite." Remy shook his head, "What possessed you to start makin' out with the slum lord? I thought you were past that... You ain't gunna start crying and listening to Avril Lavigne again, are you?"

She let out a long breath and crossed her arms, "He told me... he still loves me."

Remy gave her a single nod, "So your first reaction is to make out with him?"

"I didn't know what else to do!" She threw her hands in the air defensively, "I got caught up in the moment, okay? I guess that's just yet another one of my many flaws. Excuse me for not being perfect."

"I didn't mean that-"

"You totally made it clear when you were getting all buddy buddy with Lance." She scowled at him before doing her best impression of his accent. "Oooh Kitty! You're so indecisive! You're weird about clothes! Blah blah blah!"

"Okay, first of all, I do not sound like that." Remy began, "And secondly, I know it's hard for you to believe, but I'm not perfect either you know."

"You just blew my mind." Kitty rolled her eyes.

"It's true. Like, one of my earlobes is slightly larger than the other one."

"Oh the horror." She snorted.

"And I'm no treat to live with either. I put the toilet paper back on the holder upside down, just because I know it pisses you off."

"These aren't exactly shocking revelations Remy." Kitty sighed.

"I hide a package of Twizzlers under my pillow."

Kitty turned to look at him, staring silently for a moment before knitting her brow, "Come again?"

"Twizzlers. You know, licorice."

"Yeah, I know what Twizzlers are Remy." Kitty shook her head quickly, "Why do you have them under your pillow? You're the one who eats organic everything and rags on us for eating anything even remotely unhealthy."

He pursed his lips and glanced at her through the corner of his eye with a shrug, "Sometimes I get sick of eating carrots. I like Twizzlers."

Kitty laughed, "Twizzlers!"

Remy set his jaw and shot out a breath, "It's not a big deal."

"Twizzlers!"

"Just don't tell anybody, okay? I have an image to up keep."

"You're like a little girl!" She continued to laugh, "Little Remy with her bag of Twizzlers!"

"Alright..." He rolled his eyes with an irritated sigh, "Get it out of your system."

"Do you keep them with your diary?"

"Okay, that's enough."