A/N - Hey all! It's been a few weeks, and your patience is greatly appreciated. I've been incredibly sick, and I'm also incredibly pregnant, and sometimes I just don't have the energy to write like I used to. But rest assured, I will never abandon this story. Thanks in advance for all the wonderful reviews you're planning on leaving me! ;)

"It is way too early." Pyro complained as he climbed out of Piotr's vehicle after Kitty, slamming the door shut behind him, "What kinda Farmers Market opens at 8:00 in the morning?!"

"The farmers have been awake since 5." Piotr pointed out with a smirk, "I think 8:00 is reasonable."

"Nobody forced you to come." Kitty rolled her eyes, falling in step next to Piotr and Remy.

Remy snorted and shook his head, "Nobody asked you to come."

Kitty knit her brow and glanced at Pyro through the corner of her eye, "Why did you come?"

"I like the tie dye booth." Pyro rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with a yawn, "Chicks who buy tie dye are easy. Everyone knows that."

"And they don't wear bras." Remy added. Pyro gave him a wink and made a popping noise with his lips,

"Exactly, mate."

"That's incredibly stereotypical and a little gross." Kitty scrunched up her nose, "But probably not too far from the truth."

"Plus, the hemp stuff they sell smells really good." Pyro added with a nod before hurrying off in the direction of the hemp tent.

"I like the crafts." Kitty announced to no one in particular as they passed by a vendor selling hand made children's toys no child would find any enjoyment in. "They make me feel all ambitious. Like, I could totally make one of those sparkly scarves, if I wanted to."

Piotr looked at the rack of sparkly scarves Kitty was referring to and then looked back down at her skeptically.

She rolled her eyes, "It was just an example."

Remy wisely ignored Kitty and went straight to work, sifting through a large display of Heirloom tomatoes. "You just don't get this quality from a super market." He commented as he plopped a few tomatoes in his grocery bag. "This is what a tomato should look like!"

Kitty raised an eyebrow, "Red?"

Piotr cracked a grin and began looking at the selection of strawberries.

"Look at the size of this tomato." Remy announced, holding up a mid sized Heirloom to give it a smell, "This is impressive!"

Kitty's eyes wandered around the tomato display and she shrugged, "Sure. Hey," She stepped over to the cherry tomatoes and picked one up, "Why don't you get some baby tomatoes. They're so cute."

"They're not baby tomatoes, they're cherry tomatoes."

"There is a big difference..." Piotr muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"You say tomato, I say to-mah-toe." Kitty elbowed Piotr in the ribs and laughed with a snort, stopping suddenly when she noticed the irritated look that had crossed Remy's face.

"Why don't you go look at the clothes. Some of the farmers wives knit sweaters with pictures of cats on them." He waved his hand towards the other end of the market to indicate where these cat sweaters could be found and Kitty pressed her lips together,

"Score." She rolled her eyes before heading off two browse the rest of the market on her own.

She wandered her way through the slightly crowded market, incredibly tempted to use her powers to stop pushy patrons from continually bumping into her when the aroma of freshly baked bread caught her attention. She followed her nose to the booth peddling bread and got herself a free sample, triumphantly popping the carb into her mouth as she moved onto the handmade jewelery.

She was admiring a pair of teal blue dangly earrings when Pyro came to an abrupt stop next to her and threw an arm around her shoulders.

"Gotcha something." He grinned.

Kitty heaved a sigh and shook her head, "Is it melons? Are you making a boob joke?"

Pyro scoffed and rolled his eyes, "C'mon, I'm funnier than that." He pulled his arm off her shoulders and held up a tie dye t-shirt with a wink, "For casual Fridays at work!"

Kitty smirked and took the tie dye shirt, "Thanks. This is totally conservative."

"Conservative, and yet fun." Pyro pointed out.

Kitty laughed and opened her mouth to add more, when Pyro looked past her with bright eyes.

"Hey!" He shouted suddenly, "It's Steve! Steve and Susan!" He knit his brow and looked down, "Susan? That ain't right..."

Kitty turned to see what Pyro was talking about, going rigid when she saw the couple walking hand-in-hand, directly in their direction. "Jean." She whispered as her mouth went dry, "Jean and Scott." She pushed Pyro out in front of her and did her best to duck behind him.

"What the hell are you doin'?!" He asked, trying to look back at her over his shoulder, "Are you off your rocker?!"

"Shhh!" Kitty hissed, "Don't let them see me!"

"Why not?!" Pyro frowned as he continued to attempt looking back at her over his shoulder, "They're your friends, aren't they?" He waved at the approaching couple with a wide grin.

"Pyro...?" Scott knit his brow suspiciously when he recognized the crazy red head frantically waving at them, gripping Jean's hand a little tighter.

"How's it goin', Jean and Scott." He gave them a wink, "I remembered your names."

"Yeah..." Jean smiled politely, "That's ni- Kitty?!"

Kitty smacked her head against Pyro's back and let out a sigh before plastering a smile on her face and peeking out from around him, "Hey! What are you guys doing here!?" She exclaimed with forced enthusiasm.

Scott's frown deepened as he looked at her from behind his red shades, "I think we should ask you the same thing..." He looked back at Pyro.

"Just checkin' out the ol' farmers market." Pyro grinned, putting an arm around Kitty, "They got pants made of hemp. Almost bought a pair."

"Oh!" Jean continued to smile politely and gave Kitty a nod, "That's... nice!"

"We're not together." Kitty said abruptly. "I mean, we're here together, but we're not together together."

"Why y'gotta say it like that?" Pyro frowned, "I'd be an excellent boyfriend. I bought you that shirt." He nodded his head towards the tie dye shirt in her hand to make his point.

"Why are you together?" Scott turned his stare back to Kitty.

"Scott." Jean whispered abruptly, reminding him that it wasn't any of his business.

"We're roommates." Kitty explained quickly, "That's all."

"Yeah, she won't even show me her boobs." Pyro groused, "Which ain't even fair considering she got a nice eyeful of my donger."

Jean's eyebrows shot up and Scott cleared his throat, "Kitty-"

"Your hair looks really good Jean!" Kitty cut in, attempting to change the subject, "Did you get it cut... or...?"

"You know, we still have your room available back at the Manor." Scott began, eying Pyro warily from behind his shades.

"Scott!" Jean clipped.

"What?" Scott shrugged defensively, "I'm just saying if she's so desperate for a place to live that she has to live with him, she could always-"

"Kitty," Remy interrupted, coming to a stop next to her with a frown, "You like Brussel sprouts right? That's a Jewish thing, isn't it?"

"Sure, Chinese food an' Brussel sprouts." Pyro rolled his eyes.

"A Jewish thing?" Kitty knit her brow.

Piotr gave Scott and Jean a small polite smile, "Hello." He greeted with a nod.

Scott gaped at Kitty, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Scott!" Jean snapped before returning Piotr's polite smile, "Hello Piotr, it's nice to see you." She turned her attention to Remy and struggled to keep her polite smile in place, "Gambit..."

A smile spread across his lips and he gave her a wink, "It's always nice to see you, chere."

Scott let out a deep breath and shook his head, "You live with all three Acolytes?!"

Remy rolled his eyes with an irritated sigh, "Yeah, and we have orgies every night." He looked back at Kitty, "Now, back to the Brussel sprouts-"

"And Rogue knew about this all along! All those times she was 'going to hang out at Kitty's', she's been fraternizing with the enemy!" Scott worked the muscles in his jaw and frowned at Jean, "I can't believe she'd just stand by idly and let this happen!"

Remy chuckled and shook his head, "I'd hardly say Rogue is being idle... and she definitely hasn't been doing much standing-"

Kitty jabbed him in the gut with her elbow and shot him a sharp glare, "It's none of Rogue's concern, Scott. Just like it's none of yours."

"I assure you, there are no orgies." Piotr grimaced at Remy, "Katya is perfectly safe."

"They aren't Acolytes anymore." Jean added with a nod.

Scott pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, "I just don't think this is a healthy environment for you to be in, Kitty. You're going through an emotional crisis. You need-"

"I need you to back off." Kitty stated firmly.

"I'm just saying that the death of your parents is a big deal. I've been through it, I know." He frowned.

Remy knit his brow and dropped his eyes to Kitty, "Your parents died?"

"Yes." She sighed and rubbed her forehead, "It's not a big deal. I don't want to talk about it."

"You need to talk to about it, Kitty." Scott continued, "You can't just keep running from your problems. All the books I have on the grieving process clearly state that it is best to confront your issues up front. Talking about it is step one."

"I don't think this is the place to be talking about it, Scott." Jean smiled politely at the three boys.

"We're worried about you." Scott continued in spite of Jeans subtle hint to put a lid on it, "You drop out of school and move in with that Lance character. Now you're living with them." He tossed a hand towards the guys, "Have you even started going back to Columbia yet?"

"Colombia?" Pyro's eyebrows shot up, "Like... the country?"

"Like the school." Scott frowned, "You're very gifted with computers, Kitty. Don't throw that away."

"I'm not throwing anything away." Kitty snapped, "I don't need a degree in computer science to prove that I'm smart, Scott."

"No, but it would help you in finding a job. Which you wouldn't need to worry about if you were still an X-Man."

"She has a job, Cyclops." Remy cut in curtly, "She doesn't need Daddy Warbucks spoon feeding her through life."

"You're running away from your problems, Kitty." Scott continued, ignoring Remy entirely, "The books I've read have all clearly stated the importance of not running. You're just prolonging the process, which is only going to prolong your grief-"

"Okay!" Jean gave them a big grin, "It was great to see you Kitty. We're really happy to see you're doing so well."

Kitty pressed her lips into a terse smile and nodded silently.

Scott worked the muscles in his jaw as Jean bid them all farewell before the two carried on their way through the market, leaving the four roommates in awkward silence.

"Alright," Remy began, turning to look down at Kitty, "So these Brussel sprouts-"

Kitty let out a deep breath and rubbed a hand over her face, "I'm pretty sure I saw someone selling fresh bread over there." She muttered, waving her free hand off in another direction before trudging into the crowd to find the bread vendor.

Remy knit his brow and let his shoulders slump, "What did I say?" He turned to Pyro with a frown, "Was it the Jewish thing?"

Pyro lifted his palms skyward and shrugged.

"We should go see if she is alright." Piotr informed them, starting off after Kitty.

"Do we have to?" Remy grumbled, reluctantly following when Piotr ignored his question.

Pyro pursed his lips thoughtfully for a moment as he fell in step next to Remy, "Maybe she's just really against Brussel sprouts."

After ten minutes of searching, they found Kitty sitting alone at a picnic table a short distance from the market, gnawing away at a loaf of bread which was easily the size of a small child.

Piotr sat down across from her, folding his hands on the table silently while Remy plopped himself down beside him. Pyro straddled the bench next to her and propped an elbow up on the table.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Kitty muttered, shoving a chunk of bread into her mouth.

Remy furrowed his brow, "About the Brussel sprouts?"

"It's not that big of a deal, you know?" She continued with her mouth full of bread, "I just don't want you to make it a big deal."

"Make what a big deal?" Remy turned to Piotr with a confused frown, "Is this about C3P0 back there acting like we're infected with the plague? Because I gotta say petite, we're used to it."

Kitty looked up at Piotr and blinked silently at Remy's ignorance.

"I think she is talking about her parents death." Piotr explained, "And probably about dropping out of school."

Remy's face twisted up and he snorted, "What, you think I'm going to try to force you to talk about your issues?"

"...No." Kitty mumbled with her eyes downcast.

"Yeah, what do we look like, Oprah?" Pyro laughed, "Not Dr. Phil, I can't stand that bloke."

Kitty lowered her giant loaf of bread and pursed her lips, "I'm just used to everybody getting on my case about it all, you know? Trying to force me into opening up and trying to force me into going back to school-"

"Listen," Remy began, "The last thing I want you to do is open up. You'd start all that emotional crap with the crying and the talking..."

"We are not going to force you into anything, Katya." Piotr reassured her kindly.

"I'm a pretty good listener though." Pyro said proudly, "I mean, I don't always pay attention, but I get the gist of the conversation."

"And as for forcing you to go back to school? That's just stupid." Remy rolled his eyes, "School is a waste of time."

"Boring!" Pyro added.

"Well, I would not say that furthering your education is a waste of time." Piotr said diplomatically, "Especially not if it is something you are passionate about. But no one can make that decision for you."

Remy leaned against the table and leveled his stare at Kitty, "All school is good for, is beefing up your resume."

"An' what the hell is computer science anyways?" Pyro snorted, "That sounds like a made up course Sheila."

Kitty cracked a grin and shook her head.

"Now that I think about it, you could have at least put something about exceptional computer skills on your resume Kitty, honestly. Maybe then you wouldn't be working for some donut eating fashion editor." Remy shook his head condescendingly.

"I think you mean exceptional compufer skills." Piotr grinned.

Kitty's smirk grew and she swatted at him from across the table.

"You could have put the orphan thing on there too." Pyro said with a serious nod, "A little bit of sympathy goes a long way."

Remy nodded in agreement and Kitty scowled, "That's just stupid."

Pyro's eyes widened with a brilliant idea blossoming in his mind, "You should have put that you were willing to work topless on your resume too! I mean, it just looks good, it doesn't have to be true."

Kitty cut her eyes to Pyro and shook her head, "That is really stupid."

"Gives a whole new meaning to casual Friday's, hmm?" He grinned, wagging his eyebrows, "Course, you'd come home and wanna let the girls roam free. We would be okay with that. Actually, you might even find it therapeutic. Freeing, ya know?"

Kitty rolled her eyes and let out a breath, "Pyro, I'm not showing you my boobs."

Pyro gave her an innocent shrug, "I'm just tryin' to help! It could work... you never know..."