A/N - I heart you all. Thanks for your patience guys... As promised, I'm not abandoning this story (the thought never even crossed my mind) in fact, I have been working on something "new".
See the quotes there? "New"? Those quotes are important. That's all you're getting out of me for now. ;)
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please leave a review!
Remy looked up when the door swung open and cracked loudly against the doorstop, seeing Kitty clomp in with Rogue not far behind her.
"I'm done. I'm so done. I'm going in Monday, and I'm quitting. That's right, I quit. I'm a big fat quitter." Kitty announced as she kicked her shoes forcefully into the coat closet.
"Well I wouldn't say fat, but it wouldn't hurt to lose a few." Pyro shrugged without looking up from the Lego skyscraper he was making.
"Bad day?" Remy smiled, turning his attention back to the TV.
"Ch'yeah!" She snorted.
"I thought you and Rogue were going out for some... girly movie night or some shit."
"We are." Rogue nodded, "Kitty needs to... freshen up."
Remy knit his brow and Kitty rolled her eyes,
"No, Kitty needs to wash the stench of 20 different knock-off perfumes from her skin." Kitty snapped, "Seriously, someone doing an article on 'smell a-likes' instantly means that the Editor's assistant gets to rub crap perfume all over every inch of uncovered skin. Some of them burned, guys. And Channel No. 5 is not a creative knock-off name. Come on."
Remy pressed his lips together in an attempt to hide the smile that was forming.
"What else happened." Rogue prompted, taking a seat on a bar stool with a grin.
Kitty threw her hands in the air and let out a breath, "I was talking to this bitch Janice from accounting, who apparently is some kind of part time professional colour analyst. She kept insisting that I'm a spring. Me! A spring! Can you imagine?!"
"The horror." Remy deadpanned.
"Yeah! She kept saying my personality was way too bubbly to be a Summer. Whatever the hell that means. I mean, I'm not opposed to being a Spring, I'm just saying that I'm totally not."
"That bitch." Remy shook his head.
"What else happened." Rogue prompted again.
Kitty frowned, "Oh! The cherry on top of the cake of crap! I heard this morning that they're making another Star Wars movie. With the original cast. As if making Han Solo a pansy who shoots second wasn't bad enough, now we have to watch geriatric Han, hanging out at the intergalactic old folks home complaining about how lazy Jedi's are now-a-days. Thanks a lot for ruining my life George Lucas."
"That's a rumor, it'll never happen." Pyro grumbled with his eyes fixed to the Lego skyscraper.
"Yeah well, the idea is out there now. You can't un-hear crap like that." Kitty huffed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a shower. I smell like a cast member from Jersey Shore."
"Make it snappy, the show starts at 6:30." Rogue called out after her, getting an unintelligible grumble in response.
Remy knit his brow after Kitty shut her bedroom door, "I hope that Star Wars thing isn't true. Could you imagine a 60 year old Leia in that gold bikini?"
Pyro grimaced dramatically, "Old boobies. Not cool mate." He glanced down the hallway quickly, noting that Kitty had occupied the bathroom before glancing back at them with a grin, "Speaking of boobies..."
"You're not going to see anything." Rogue called after Pyro as he got up and started down the hall, "You know she locked the door."
Pyro waved her comments off and continued on his quest, leaving Remy and Rogue alone in the living room.
Rogue rolled her eyes and crossed the room to take a seat next to Remy on the couch, "So I hear you had a run-in with the golden couple this past weekend." She kicked her feet up on the coffee table and shook her head, "You guys could have given me a heads up, you know. I was completely blindsided when they got back. They were all up in arms about me coming to visit you guys. They're alright with Kitty living here, but my coming to visit is apparently crossing some kind of line."
"We are pretty awful." Remy conceded.
"Scott actually tried to forbid it." She smirked, "He used those words, I shit you not."
"He thinks you're going to corrupt me or something." She continued.
"Is that so?" Remy raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Apparently you're a bad influence." Rogue knit her brow thoughtfully for a moment, "I kind of see his point. I mean, you did basically kidnap me."
"You people need to look up what that word means." Remy rolled his eyes irritably, "You were free to leave at any point."
Rogue gave him a level stare and he shrugged defensively, "You were!"
"Well, regardless of the details surrounding that situation," Rogue frowned, "He's completely oblivious to the fact that you don't forbid a girl from seeing a guy. Especially not this girl."
Remy smirked and stretched his arm out along the back of the couch behind her, "Makes me more appealing, no?"
"No," Rogue huffed, "It just pisses me off and makes me want to do it just to stick it to him."
"Well feel free to stick it to me, to stick it to him, any time." Remy winked.
She turned to him with a grimace and he shook his head with a sigh,
"I know, that was bad." He rubbed his forehead, "I've been working doubles and I think all of the carbs you keep force feeding me are slowing down my brain."
"Working doubles for... Mindy?"
"Cindy." Remy corrected, "And yes, as a matter of fact."
Rogue let out a laugh, "Damn Lebeau, you really would do anything for a piece of ass. Eat a box of sprinkled donuts, work a double shift-"
"Well, that was partially for the money."
She cut her eyes to him, cautiously.
"For working the extra shift." He clarified, making sure she understood that he was not paid for sex. "I mean, the sex is a perk, but getting all those extra tips is really the icing on the cake."
Pyro scurried back into the living room with a mischievous grin, returning to his spot on the floor amongst his Lego city mere seconds before the shower could be heard shutting off.
"Mission accomplished?" Remy raised an eyebrow, "Can't be, I didn't hear any yelling..."
"Mission ain't over mate." Pyro man giggled to himself as he pieced together another building.
The bathroom door opened, and they all quietly listened to Kitty's light footsteps heading to her room, and the door shutting behind her. Pyro stifled his excitement to the best of his ability as they waited for a full minute before Kitty burst out of her room and flew down the hall like a bat out of hell with her hair sopping wet and her towel still wrapped around her body.
"I'm going to kill you!" She shrieked at him, clutching her fluffy white towel around her chest with one hand as she tried to grab Pyro unsuccessfully, before he hurried across the living room. "Where are my clothes?!"
"You want 'em back Pryde, you know the price!" Pyro grinned tauntingly.
"Wait... you hid her clothes?" Remy knit his brow and craned his neck to look at Pyro, "That was your master plan?"
"Maybe." Pyro smiled, "Or maybe I burned 'em..."
Kitty let out a growl and made another lunge for Pyro, "I will literally kill you Pyro! Where are they?!"
"He hid everything?" Rogue frowned, "What about the clothes you were wearing when you went into the bathroom, he couldn't have hidden those."
"No, but they smell like the inside of a sultan's pajamas. I can't wear them! It kind of defeats the purpose of the shower, you know." Kitty barked, "I can't go around smelling like Night Swept all evening."
"Well there's no way he could have hidden everything." Rogue looked back at Pyro dubiously.
"Oh," Pyro nodded smugly, "I hid everything. Nice nickers by the way."
Kitty sucked in a breath and narrowed her eyes in a dangerous glare, "Give me back my clothes, Pyro."
"Or what, Sheila?"
Kitty grabbed Pyro's newly built Lego town hall off the coffee table and held it up, "Or Johnopolis is going to suffer from it's very first town disaster."
Pyro narrowed his eyes back at her, "You wouldn't."
"I swear to God, I will go Godzilla all over this shit."
When Pyro didn't respond fast enough for Kitty's liking, she threw the Lego town hall to the floor, effectively smashing it to bits, just to prove her point.
Pyro let out a squeak. "This is all your fault to begin with!" He threw his hands up, gesturing to his sprawled out Lego city, "You're just making it worse! For every building you break, I'm making three in its place!"
"You're running out of Lego's Pyro. Don't think I didn't notice." Kitty grabbed a house and tore it apart, dropping the blocks to the floor, "And for the last time, the door was OPEN."
"It was not open!"
"It was open!" She shouted, grabbing Pyro's fire station and throwing it against the wall directly behind his head. "Now give me my damn clothes back!"
"You can have 'em back as soon as justice is served!"
"Justice." Kitty scoffed, "Since when do you give a damn about justice. I've seen you try to set an old woman's car on fire."
"Hey. That old lady was asking for it." Pyro shot back defensively, "She parked in my spot."
"She parked in the handicapped spot!"
"Which is where I was going to park!"
Kitty let out another growl, throwing another Lego house to the floor.
"You're doin' this the hard way! Just show me your titties and we'll all happy."
The front door opened, and everyone turned to see Piotr standing in the doorway with a small, lithe redhead. Her ginger hair was swept up in a smooth bun and her brown eyes did a slow, uncomfortable scan of Johnopolis before settling on the nearly naked Kitty. She sucked in a slow breath and straightened her spine stiffly, cutting her eyes quickly over to Piotr.
Piotr cleared his throat, attempting to retain his composure at the incredibly odd situation he'd just walked in on and gave Anya a reassuring smile.
"Anya, these are my... roommates." He turned back to them and knit his brow, "Remy, Pyro... Kitty... that is Kitty's friend, Rogue..." He ran a hand over his face and shook his head.
Kitty smiled, clutching her towel a little bit tighter with her sopping wet hair hanging limply on her shoulders, "Anya! We've heard so much about you."
"So much." Pyro nodded with a matching polite smile. "Although he didn't tell us you were a ginger."
Piotr gave him a sharp warning look and Pyro clamped his lips shut.
"I wish that I could say the same." Anya looked up at Piotr and lowered her voice, "I did not realize that Kitty was... a woman..."
Rogue snorted, but wisely kept her comments to herself, and Kitty blinked at Piotr blankly for a moment before regaining her composure.
"Yeah I guess-" She cleared her throat, "It's a common nickname around here, but I guess you wouldn't hear much of it in Russia."
Anya pressed her lips together in a tight smile and gave Kitty a calculated once-over.
"Pete and I are just friends." Kitty continued, picking up on Anya's unspoken hesitance to accept this new information, "Totally platonic. He might as well be gay. I mean, obviously he's not." She chuckled and tossed a hand towards her, "Obviously..." Her chuckle fell flat and she shook her head, soldiering on, "But you know, I could be gay to him too. I'm totally not. But that's like, you know, how he would see me. Not in an erotic way, or anything. You know, like, fantasies or anything..."
Remy turned his eyes to her in slight disbelief over how quickly she had managed to shove a foot in her mouth. She sucked in a breath and went on,
"We're just like two... platonically gay... friends. Who are straight. It's all very... platonic." She let out a flat laugh and shrugged, "It's... nothing."
"Wow." Pyro's eyebrows shot up, voicing what everyone else was likely thinking.
Remy stood up and crossed the room to stop in front of Anya and Piotr, "You'll have to excuse her. She inhaled a dangerous amount of cheap perfume today. There's a good possibility that it did some permanent brain damage." He dipped his head to Anya with a sickly sweet smile, "Besides chere, you're far to beautiful to be jealous of that." He tossed his hand back towards Kitty who frowned silently.
"Oh yeah, Sheila," Pyro nodded, "You're gorgeous. Ol' Kitty here. Bleh."
Kitty scowled at Pyro who pressed his lips together sheepishly, "Just tryin' to be nice..."
Her scowl remained unwavering until Pyro dropped his gaze, temporarily admitting defeat. "I'll... go get your clothes."
Kitty turned back to Anya with another awkward smile, "It was really nice meeting you." She shot Piotr a quick apologetic look before following Pyro down the hall to her room.
Once they had left, Remy turned back to Anya with another smooth grin, "She's almost always wearing clothes. Promise."