Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. Whether or not that goal can be reached, we'll see... This is The 365 Project, 9 January.

Disclaimer: "X-Men: Evolution" and all associated characters and situations are the property of Marvel, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

Consider this a side-story to my "Sons of Liberty" series to make up for the Wanda Arc stories taking so long. I promise, I haven't forgotten it!


"Sons of Liberty"
'On A Night Like This'
by J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'


Katherine Pryde had a problem, growing up in Illinois, she had gotten all the lectures from her parents; 'Stranger Danger'; 'Just Say No'; even 'The Birds and The Bees'. The problem was that she wasn't in Illinois anymore. She wasn't even at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning anymore. She was literally a room away from her boyfriend; and with her powers, locked doors and walls of any thickness were no obstacle, they were practice. Her first night at the Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding House she had slept in his bed and it had felt so right to be there next to him as they slept.

Only yards away and yet still so far. She liked Lance... She didn't always like his attitude towards the law, but she loved - she loved - how willing he was to fight when he thought something was unfair or unjust. She liked the way he didn't back down when he thought he was right and the way he could take charge of a situation and show no fear, how he looked out for the rest of the Brotherhood - his family...

More importantly, maybe, she liked their banter; their closeness... She liked the way he held her as they sat on the couch when the Brotherhood was watching something on TV, the way he carried her books in school like someone out of an old pop-love song, the way he held her hand when they walked... No, there was no 'maybe' to it, she liked the way he made her feel special - not because she was a mutant or because she had a high I.Q., things that everyone else had always focused on - but because she was Kitty Pryde, his girlfriend and a member of the Brotherhood.

All of which made the feeling when they had to part ways at the end of the night and go to their own seperate rooms that much more painful. It always felt like something was missing whenever they were apart like that...

'Like peanut butter without jelly,' Kitty giggled as the thought occured to her.

Kitty's sixteenth birthday had been only weeks before she had left the Institute and it felt like ages, meaning that the next two years until she was eighteen and they wouldn't have to part would probably feel like it'd take forever. 'Just Say No' wasn't perfect, even with 'The Birds and The Bees', Kitty had discovered; Lance Alvers was like a drug and she was most definately hooked, every night she had to fight the temptation to repeat that first night, she had the powers that would let her...

But Lance made her feel special, and that always stopped her; he made her feel special and she wanted times when they were together to be special too. She didn't want to sleep beside him so often that it lost that feeling of happiness and safety that it gave her, as though nothing in the world could touch her as long as he was with her.