Disclaimer: I still do not own anything. :(

Chapter 2: Exodus

Lance was staring out the cab window in silence. He knew upon hearing the address Kitty'd given the taxi-driver that they were heading to the fancy suburbs with its swell houses and white fences around the well-mowed lawns. He couldn't swallow his unease that was induced not only by the surroundings which rejected him all in advance. He was about to face another failure of his past that had been haunting him since he began to think of Kitty in a different way, and he didn't feel like facing the consequences. In fact, he had surfeit of his own failures which seemed to multiply with time and didn't have the slightest intention of confessing any of them to her.

He looked at Kitty. She was snuggled up to him, watching the buildings running by. Her slim fingers were unintentionally caressing his chest through the thick sweater, forming wrinkles from the black material, her eyes distant. He could have traveled in the flitting car like this forever, inhaling Kitty's soft scent and having no destination, no expectations, no obligations. Running away from everything, being light as leaves and blown away by a gentle breeze; it was a secret dream of him. Kitty lifted her head, their eyes locked for a moment and were soon imitated by their lips.

They arrived. Lance peeked out of the taxi, catching sight of a showy family house with velvet and lace curtains hanging in the clean windows. Hell, what was he doing here at all? Once they were out of the car with their luggage at feet Kitty flashed him a chirpy smile that he couldn't return whole-heartedly. They hardly stepped across the low gate when the front door sprang open and the visibly exited Pryde parents were filing out of the house. Kitty let go of Lance's hand she had been clutching all along and flung herself into her mother's wide-open arms. Bowing his head, Lance tried to loaf as far as he could without being obvious he wanted to stay behind. He'd never felt so outsider before though he'd had many opportunities in his short life to feel so.

Finally Kitty's parents seemed to pay attention to him, yet Lance wasn't sure he welcomed it. Kitty took a step back towards him, her right hand playing around Lance's wrist.

"Mum, Dad, meet Lance Alvers," she said, her voice apparently beaming, yet a bit faltering.

Carmen Pryde made a movement that the two young mutants judged as an inviting gesture but suddenly his hand froze midway in the process. His glasses reflected the white concrete coldly as he was observing Lance from top to toe. His eyes then moved slowly, incredulously to his daughter, nearby to the state that could be called goggling. The dark-haired mutant knew Mr. Pryde's somewhat warm welcome was short-lived.

"We haven't met him before, have we?" he asked, menace in his voice. Kitty opened her mouth to deny and closed again, meeting her father's darkened and her mother's surprised gaze.

"Actually, yes, you have," she admitted finally.

That was the moment when Theresa Pryde eventually realized who was this familiar looking, long-haired boy standing in front of her in silence and low-keyed. She clutched her chest in terror.

"I can't believe you brought him of all people here!" her father snarled and seemed like he was ready to hurl himself on the rock-tumbler in any time to grab his throat.

"Kitty… And you even speak to him…" her mother whined, positively astonished, then her face grew more troubled. "Oh, no… he can't be that Lance you talked about!"

"He is," she stated, her cheeks already pink as feeling a bit embarrassment mixed with unease.

Carmen glowered at her. "What on earth happened to you, Katherine? Where've you left your common sense?"

If Kitty hadn't recognized she was in trouble, she could make sure hearing her father calling her that name. She steeled herself against his anger. "He changed, Dad. So did I. We went through a lot of things together…" she never finished as Carmen cut her short.

"Yes, I can see you changed. And I bet, to the wrong direction. I don't need much brain power to figure out whose blessed influence is responsible for it!" He casted a venom look at Lance who still hadn't said a single word.

"You're wrong," Kitty forced her voice calm and glanced from one side to the other. "Can't we just go in to talk it over?"

She saw heads poking out of the windows and front doors in the neighbourhood.

"No way! I'm not a fool to let a mad dog into my house of my own free will!"

"Lance is not a mad dog!"

"Really? He once bit us. I won't wait idly to have him bite us again."

"He won't… Look, Dad, we all made mistakes in the past, you, Mum, just as I or Lance."

"Don't dare compare my reluctancy and aversion to his murderous inclination. If you have forgotten, he tried to kill us!"

"And he saved me more than once."

Kitty knew when the words escaped her lips that it wasn't the best thing to say. Her fears were confirmed as wild concern joined the shocked worry in her mother's eyes.

Though her father still boiled in anger and didn't even register her words. "How could my own daughter make me face this delinquent? How could you… how dare you do this to us? And what on earth you expected from us to do? Grin and bear it? Isn't your disaster enough for us? And you take this… this monster along with a readiness… an ability to kill?"

"We're not ill! Nor have a disease or infection! You see? You can't still understand or accept me myself then how could you understand him if you don't even give him a chance?"

"Give him a chance? For what? To use you? Betray and hurt you? Or to seduce you, take advantage of you?" he was now howling, his voice gradually grew louder and louder. Theresa squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to imagine her little innocent daughter in a situation mentioned by her husband with a shifty and violent rebel like this boy was.

Theresa folded her fingers around his arm in an attempt to calm him down, with no success. Her husband's face was already red. In front of them their daughter was trembling and Theresa could just stare at her. She was her same little Kitty who once hid in her embrace on stormy nights and still she couldn't recognize her in the old way. There was a slight change on her pretty, dear face. Determination, maybe. Somehow she looked grown up. There was a bitter oldness stitched into her brows and a deep, mourning sorrow as she listened to her father's preaching.

"Okay, I heard enough," it was the first time when Lance said something. He stepped forward to Kitty, keeping a comforting distance between him and the fuming man who looked at him like he was preparing himself for something disastrous like having his own house fall down on his head. "There's no sense in quarreling with them. I better get lost."

Kitty was gaping, caught wordless. "I… no wait… it shouldn't happen this way. I was the one who invited you."

"No problem, Kitty, take it easy," he shrugged light-heartedly, making his way towards the gate. She was at his heels. "Meet you in Bayville."

"Stop, Lance. You just can't walk away like this. You don't even have a ticket back to Bayville."

"Hey, it's me who you're talking to," he faked a smile. "Don't worry about me."

"I… it's no good," she pursed her lips sadly. "I planned to spend my time with you. I didn't want you to see how they can kick up dust. Oh my god, it's so embarrassing," she whispered under her breath, her head low.

"Hey, look at me, Kitty-cat," he placed an assuring hand on her shoulder, forcing her to lift her head. "Don't worry about it. I exactly expected this and can't blame anyone beside me."

"Don't say this, Lance. They flung terrible things in your face. I totally hate you were right."

"Doesn't matter, I'll live. Don't be angry with them… Hey, cheer up!"

"I can't," she felt tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. "I so wanted to be with you."

"Then I'll stay in the town for a day or two if you want," he offered airily. Kitty blinked at him, her eyes huge and wet. Lance swallowed a lump in his throat and when he started to speak his voice was hoarse and full of emotions. "I wish I could kiss you now."

Kitty chuckled, blushing a bit. Her smile was fugitive, though. I wish you did it, she thought downcastly as he turned round to walk away.

"Where're you going to?" she inquired in a haze. Lance stopped short on his way, and for a long second he remained motionless before turning back once more.

"Dunno. The orphanage may let me stay there for a few days." His words resounded vacant, his forced easiness cracked as a bad plaster. Both of them knew very well that he was lying. He would never ever go back there. "Merry Christmas, Kitty!" He flashed a smile, so gentle, so caressing that her heart ached.

And he was gone in a minute, she couldn't even return his gesture.

She remained standing there, rooted to the spot for endless minutes. Something was scratching her from inside as in a wish to break out. Minutes were gone by, hours, years, the last leaves of an old aspen, storm-grey clouds and sighing wind. Somehow everything seemed to be waiting for something to happen. The dead, tense silence before thunders was similar to that.

Kitty let her mother to place hands on her shoulder to lead her inside, she paced obediently, without own wills like a plastic doll. Stairs, knob, scent of pine, warmth, her baggage on the floor, click of a door. She blinked. She was in the house, leaning against the front door. And she didn't feel like at home. Everything was familiar and simultaneously unfamiliar as well, the painted wood under her palms, the stairs across the hall – all were strange props in an unknown play.

"I suggest forgetting this little interlude and enjoying our time together," she heard her father's voice.

Somehow even before he spoke, she had known he would say this. And her stomach twitched. No. No. It wasn't right this way. Something was terribly wrong.

She never saw her mother's gaze. Theresa Pryde was watching her from the doorway of the living room, and was crying inwardly. Mother's heart couldn't be misled. She knew she'd lost Kitty somewhere beyond the range of genetic mutation long time ago. She squeezed her eyes shut as Kitty faced them.

The young X-man was trembling despite her coat and the heating as realization hit her. She'd been blind to perceive her life didn't bind her to Northbrook anymore. She was not able to fulfil her parents' secret dreams about their daughter's future. She was already far beyond the threshold where she could have still turned her back on the mutant life and live a normal one with conventions and traditions as she was expected. Northbrook always drew her back to a rate where she had a notion about herself being absolutely unable to make an own decision and still depended on her parents. Here she was always transformed back into the teenage girl she'd been when her powers manifested.

She felt the ropes and bindings around her body that tied her with her parents but could not still tear it up. It hurt.

She had to play her trump to save what she could.

"Sorry, Mum, Dad," she barely recognized her own voice. Every word was a pinprick in her throat. And soul. "I have to leave."

It was said. The die was cast.

"Darling, you have just arrived now."

There was no surprise in her mother's voice, no command, only pure entreaty. By contrast, her father looked pretty pissed off. Kitty was inwardly preparing for their consent to make her stay even if it meant they had to let Lance into their home, though she was fully aware of the irreversibility of the events.

"So you want to chase after him like a puppy? I won't tolerate this!" Carmen stated warningly.

"I was afraid you would say this," Kitty sighed, eyes filled with sorrow. Those ropes were bleeding. "I'm not gonna let him be alone again. We're going back to Bayville. I'm sorry." Despite her words she didn't budge.

"You're going nowhere. Do you really mean he'd stay by your side after he gets what he wants? Or are you dreaming of getting married to him? Do you think I raised you just to throw you into the arms of a thug at the end who wouldn't ever be enough to provide you a proper livelihood? What do you want? To be the wife of a cheater, fraud or worse? Or his shameless lover? I thought you were smarter, Kitty! Love or… desire," he practically spat the word, "won't feed you!" he finished in cold rage.

Kitty clentched her fists, her nails dug white crescents into her palm. How could they be able to understand her without having the faintest idea of her everyday life in Bayville? Still she didn't want to terrify them with admitting her fights against world-threatening monsters and unleashed mutant evils. How could they take the fact that their small young daughter is a kind of peace-fighter? They also hadn't seen her facing death with Lance, hadn't known anything about their petty quarrels and need for getting back together again. After all the things they'd been through together, their relationship grew more than a silly, teenage burst of feelings. It was settled deep inside her, braced her as an abundant source of vigour in many occasions when she needed something to make her carry on.

"You don't understand this," she whispered, stalking towards her baggage and grabbing its handle. "I have a life to live. I had to take this step once. If you can't accept my decision we have to part here."

"Don't dare, Katherine…" Carmen grasped her arm to hold her back but she phased through his grip with no effort. He snatched back his hand as if she'd burnt him, a bit shocked.

"You see?" she observed, her face distant and more hurt than ever before. "I don't belong to your world anymore. I haven't belonged since I found out what I am. I'm not gonna leave the mutant world and yes, Lance, for anything. Neither for your will. Sorry, I love you but you wanna bind and browbeat me into a role I can't play."

She stepped to the door as her father raised his voice once again.

"If you step out that door, there would be no turning-back."

This time though, her mother didn't remain in silence.

"Hang on a minute, Carmen!" she rebuked her husband gently but with force. In that second she looked like her daughter very much. "You cannot disown her. I as well have a say in this matter, I'm, after all, her mother."

"She won't be hanging out with that filthy thug, not with my approval," Carmen turned to her wife, growing angry again.

Kitty saw the situation was about to explode into an endless war so she decided to leave. Even if they'd let her to stay, she wouldn't have wanted to. Not after a fight like this. Too heavy words had been casted at each other. "Merry Christmas."

She wasn't sure they heard her. It was so sad she had to part her home nearly unnoticed and leaving nothing but discord behind. So this is how childhood ends, she wondered. Among yells and uncried tears. Welcome, Kitty Pryde, to the world of adulthood.

She stepped out of the house and dashed away after Lance without looking back. If she did so, she'd have cried.

In the meantime Lance was sitting on a bench in a park nearby. He tried to consider all possibilities that provided him the chance to spend one more day in Northbrook. He didn't have to waste too much time in this process. Beside the orphanage and his last two foster homes he knew only his former pals in the town. Well, none of them was enough attractive to give it a try. He was about to get up and walk away to hitch-hike or find any other possibilities to get back to Bayville when he heard the noise of rolling wheels of a surely heavy suitcase against the concrete sidewalk. Glancing up, he caught sight of a desperate Kitty craning her neck in the frantic searching for something or better to say someone.

He crossed the road in haste, feeling a fit of joy and compassion in the same time. He could imagine what had happened in the Pryde house. Kitty threw herself into his arms, clinging to him for dear life.

"I…I just left them. They would never understand me. Nothing's changed since that night, nothing at all. They're pretending nothing's happened to me and I'm pretending the same. They turn a blind eye to my mutation but I got tired of it."

Her face was flushed and troubled, silky brown locks curtained off her eyes. Lance cupped her chin reassuringly, his fingers brushing her ears softly.

"It's okay now, Kitten. Maybe you finally managed to open their eyes with your departure."

"I don't think so," she stared at the ground, still clunching his sweater. She was so lonely, so lost and wrecked. "I don't know anything."

"Then it makes two of us," he smirked weakly. Once her dear smile flared up on her face, he leaned down and kissed her lovingly as if he hadn't kissed her for years. Still feeling awkward under the state what their former friendship transformed into, she was hesitant and shy. Soon she got the hang of it, though, and melting into his hug, she kissed him back with all her heart. Here in his arms everything felt just so simply right.

"Now where shall we go?" he asked finally. She bit her lip, still a bit blushed, thinking hard.

"I don't wanna go back to the Institute. We'd be separated again."

Both of them knew the truth was she still wasn't ready to leave the town.

"Then what? I sure as hell don't have enough dough for a hotelroom," he admitted through gritted teeth.

"I as well don't have enough," she pouted her lips, then beamed. "I have an idea."

"Oh, great. Just don't say it's another kind relative of yours," he snickered. Kitty laughed briefly.

"Well, actually, she is. My father's aunt. She lives alone in a small house in the other part of the town. I like her very much. I guess there's a chance she would let us stay there. If not, we can still travel back home, huh? Let's get a bus."