Note1: Here is the last chapter. I didn't wanna make an endless story of it, especially because originally it was planned to be a oneshot, lol. So I hope you don't think it has a rushed end or stuff.

Note2: Thanx guys for the reviews, I absolutely appreciate them!

Note3: I re-edited it a bit, correcting some mistakes, not much, though.

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Chapter 7: Rebirth of Future

Next morning went by quickly and calmly as Kitty and Lance were enjoying the result of the heavy snowfall during the previous days. Life seemed so weightless and carefree while they were playing like two enthusiastic kids outside. Like there was no mutant or human world with its obligations, no hatred and no parents gone away.

Meanwhile they were getting warm with red hands and cheeks after suspending the snowball fight and going inside, Kitty's aunt was getting ready for leaving to visit Kitty's parents as she had fixed it with them. She was about to leave when the bell rang.

Kitty didn't see who was at the door but she could tell by the muffled voices that there was something very wrong.

"There is no need to give me a lift, thank you," her aunt said and in the next minute no one else than Carmen Pryde appeared in the doorway. Kitty saw from the corner of her eyes that Lance took a movement as if he wanted to flee.

"Oh, what a surprise!" Carmen said upon spotting his daughter but his voice was free from surprise. On the other hand his wife, who had just shown up behind him, looked pretty astonished.

"Kitty," she gasped, and her eyes widened more as she caught sight of Lance.

Kitty squeezed her eyes shut, for a short moment the whole world seemed to be spinning around. She hadn't braced herself for this yet. Another quarrel, another split, another disappointment. Wasn't it enough parting her family once? Wasn't it painful enough?

"I knew you would be here," Carmen continued. "Okay, enough of this infantile play, you're coming home."

"I don't think so," Kitty sighed while her aunt stepped in just in time before Carmen would have turned into a fuming father again.

"You do not want to quarrel here, Carmen, do you?" she asked patiently as if she was speaking to a child.

"If it's needed I do," he grumbled. "I won't let her stay with him."

Her aunt shot him a questioning look. "Why wouldn't you?"

"You… you don't know anything about him, just, please, stay out of this."

"I do know that this young man behaved decently and politely all along he was staying here and helped me without even asking for it, not mentioning how he seemingly likes your daughter. And that is enough for me," she stated firmly. "And if you, Carmen Pryde, don't feel you can behave just as decently as the boy then I have to ask you to leave my house. I don't want any argue here."

Carmen opened his mouth but no voice came out of it. Making a face as if it meant him great pain to breathe the same air with Lance, he grudgingly nodded. Lance, whereas, was very close to slip away.

"Don't even think of it, kay?" Kitty whispered him as if being able to read his mind. "I want you to stay here for me."

Lance sighed heavily but gave his consent.

The next few minutes went by painfully slowly as no one seemed to be willing to start a conversation. Minutes later Kitty decided to ease (or rather, escape) the tense atmosphere and intended to cook lunch in the kitchen.

"Lance, would you come and help me?" she asked on her way out but was halted by her father's voice.

"It's for women. Let your mother help you."

Kitty apparently hesitated, absolutely unwilling to obey and leave her boyfriend alone with her father.

"It's okay," Lance assured her with a faint smile. Kitty smiled back, cursorily brushing his shoulders and followed her mother outside to join her aunt in the kitchen.

There was a long, tense silence fell upon the two men. Lance thought he had nothing to say so he was just sitting there, with hands in his lap, waiting for the inevitable conversation.

Indeed, Carmen started speaking. "Well, Mr…"

"Alvers," Lance helped him out briefly. It wouldn't harm more if he answered some questions of him if that was what he wanted.

"Well, fine. We should have a friendlier talk for now, hm? You know it's Christmas, it's about giving and so," the older man explained. Lance shot him a suspicious look but didn't say a word. "As you surely found it out, I want to speak about Kitty. You likely know it pretty well she has a bright, promising future waiting for her with or without my helping hand."

He halted, maybe for the purpose to emphasize his words or to get a reaction from Lance but he got nothing. Lance was pretty much aware of what was going to be said. And he was right.

"However, let me be honest to you, I can't see any future like this lying ahead for you. I was once a young man like you, I know life is expensive, especially for… the likes of you. You can't blame me for wanting the best for my only daughter. I have met a lot of young men like you, and you are no different from them maybe save for only one thing and it is your… ability to…"

"Destroy?" Lance finished for him with a hint of sarcasm.

Carmen winced. "Kind of. Well, let me straight things. I assume we both want Kitty to have a life she deserves…" he began, suddenly looking slightly troubled how to say what he wanted.

Lance then saved him by completing his sentence. "I suppose you want to offer me a pile of money to vanish without pain and trace."

Carmen grimaced but nodded. "Hm, you got it. You must admit it is the best…"

"For you. Right," Lance noted firmly, his voice as steady as never in the past few days. "But you're mistaken. It's sad you think feelings can be bought and sold."

"Oh, I see, you try to moralize now," Carmen remarked contemptuously.

"No. I try to be honest. I used to be thinking once in the way you're thinking now. I was sure feelings can be defeated and wiped away but that's just not right. If you think you can turn my feelings for Kitty into money then be afraid because I'll attempt to buy her feelings for you."

His answer wasn't disrespectful or anything but Carmen's face lost its faked calmness. "Okay, kid, let's try to clarify it from another aspect. If you like her, as I suppose you do, then you would leave her to let her avoid a miserable life."

Lance closed his eyes for a moment. "I knew you'd finally come up with this." The most effective weapon he had to face with was this. And it chimed in with his own thoughts and fears but no way he would let him know it. No way he would leave Kitty by command. He shook his head. "I'd betray and disgrace her emotions, not to mention I would spit on myself if I did so and not tried to build a life together."

It wasn't as if he'd become sure this whole chaos called relationship between him and Kitty was proper. But Carmen's attitude and words made him want to revolt and not surrender like a dolt.

"What kind of future can you provide her on your own? Since I will never finance your heroic efforts," his hands balled into fists.

"And I would never accept your precious funds, thank you. There's no need to be concerned for your bank account, I don't angle for it."

"Don't dare use this tone against me," he huffed, apparently displeased.

Any other would-be conversations were wound up as Kitty returned with a face that clearly showed she had been braced herself for at least one dead person. Lance arranged his features into a nonchalant expression. He had no intentions to share his recent experience with her. It would have been unnecessary to make her feel even much worse than before.

The lunch didn't turn out to be better but at least there was no need to speak as their mouth was busy.

"And, umm, Lance, do you have some plans for the future?" Theresa asked when the dessert was served. No doubt she tried to behave friendly, but Kitty knew it wasn't the best thing to ask.

Indeed, Lance lowered his fork and buried himself in his apple pie. "Um, I guess at first I'd like to get my GED," he shrugged. Kitty felt a proud smile spreading her face. Actually, her parents weren't that ecstatic.

"GED? Why? How old are you, by the way?"

"Uh, well, nineteen," he admitted, feeling the trouble breathing down his neck.

Theresa almost goggled. "And you still don't have? You failed?"

Kitty felt it was time for her to speak. "Lance was expelled from school merely for being a mutant," she blurted out a bit angrily, suddenly having all the recent bother and misery about her school overrun her. Her mother seemed to be confused and even her father looked surprised.

"B… but then… what about you?"

"Oh, like, don't worry. I still attend the school."

Her parents apparently were suspicious. "Then he why not?"

This time it was Lance who answered, not less gloomily. "Because Professor Charles Xavier didn't feel like being responsible for others than his own students. Since I don't belong to under his wings I had to leave school."

Kitty was slightly indignant. "Hey, you just can't blame him. You did everything to be expelled again."

"Really? I thought I did everything to be gotten back to school. Since I don't have any almighty patron who would promote my interests, I had to use my own means," Lance pursed his lips. "That's another matter Kelly only used us – just as everyone else."

Kitty's face fell. Carmen watched them with cocked brows, having a faint smile on his face. My, my, he thought, everyday quarrels? By the way, he had his own ideas about Lance's own means and he didn't like them unseen.

"You're right," Kitty whispered sadly. "We all made mistakes."

Carmen seemingly didn't like his daughter's groveling. In the meantime Theresa cleared her throat as if she didn't hear anything in the past few minutes. "And after getting GED?" she inquired.

"Well," Lance spoke up hesitantly. "I thought about joining the SHIELD."

"What?!" Kitty exclaimed, her face suddenly went pale. "You're serious?"

"Yep, just a recent idea."

"What is this Shield? Sounds… um… threatening."

"It's a state organization for defending mutants from the attacks of human anti-mutant terrorists who wanna harm them."

"But it sounds quite… fine," Theresa cast a questioning look at her daughter. Kitty hugged herself, swallowing all those words Wolverine had casted at Nick Fury and his organization. What Lance said was a little whitewash. She grew concerned.

"But it's dangerous."

"Not more dangerous than…" Lance trailed off as meeting Kitty's now very much awake gaze. "…than any other jobs," he finished warily.

Kitty flashed him a grateful tiny smile before sinking back to concern. "You will be far away too often."

"I know, but I thought sometimes we could work together."

That wasn't the best thing to say, Lance realized as both adults turned a shocked face towards them. "What? No way! My daughter should never be participated in any dangerous actions!"

Kitty winced. "Easy, Mum! I would just, like, stay in the background, providing information and stuff. No big of a deal."

Lance stole a glance at her and felt sad. So, these are the lies of love.

"So you say it's a security force?" Carmen continued the examination. "And you would use your… ability to fight humans?"

"If I have luck, yes," Lance smirked ironically. He didn't want to add that he more probably has to fight dangerous mutants instead. "It's dangerous enough, though, to have a high chance of dying in any minute."

Kitty furrowed her brows. She suspected an earlier fight of words between the two men, and she didn't really like it.

In what followed Lance didn't participate. He was eagerly waiting for the moment when the Prydes would leave the house, and he was much surprised when they finally got off – without Kitty. Deep inside, the pessimistic part of him had been whispering she would go with her parents. Of course, it didn't happen smoothly but Kitty insisted on staying and that moment Lance found her the most wonderful creature on Earth. She was Kitty Pryde. And she'd really grown up.

Maybe time had come for him as well.

"When did you drop your animosity you felt for me?" Lance asked Kitty after a long silence.

They were nestled up against each other on the couch. Next to them the Christmas-tree was flooding them with overpowering pine-scent. He could see their deformed reflection in a golden ball swinging on a slim branch.

Kitty was musing for long, recalling the stations of their troubled, surging relationship. "I guess during the summer after we escaped the Asteroid M. my animosity cracked. I don't know why or how, it just did. At the beginning of the next school year it was slowly fading away. The first turning-point was when you saved me from that statue. In that silly moment I hated you and was thankful as well, and wanted to blame you and forgive you, and so many inexplicable things."

"So big bad Lance Alvers confused you badly," he said with a half-smirk, and tightened his embrace around her. Kitty, chuckling, leaned her head back, resting it on his shoulder.

"Yeah, he did, that fool. It was all so strange like if I had two different personalities," she smiled. "Then the second was when you teamed up with Duncan against us."

She could feel his body wince, and placed a comforting arm on his, turning her face a little more towards him, before going on with her words.

"That moment I realized you meant more to me than a simple acquaintance. I understood that our fragile, twisted friendship was more important for me than I had thought before, or else it shouldn't have hurt me so bad."

"I betrayed you then for the second time," Lance breathed. It was still painful speaking about those dark days. Speaking about his fool little self.

Kitty agreed. "I felt so. I was… aching inside. That's why I told you those words then; I only wanted to hurt you as much as you hurt me. After that I decided to forget you and I managed to, on the surface. I even convinced myself that I got over you. Only at the third turning-point did I realize I was so wrong. After several months passing by without as much as a word said between us when I first talked to you again I knew at once I still had feelings for you. I knew I'd underestimated my feelings before."

"And I disappointed you again, yeah? It was when you asked for my help against Apocalypse," Lance moaned. "Betrayal number three."

Kitty smiled sadly. "Something like that. When you opened the door I grew full of chaotic thoughts, emotions and memories at your sight, I had high hopes in you but you rejected. And it hurt just as much if not more as before. I couldn't understand myself. When you shut the door and I left the place alone I hated you for everything, for meaning so much to me. And somehow liked you at the same time." And so wanted to cry, she thought to herself.

"God, I've done so many things against you," Lance mumbled ashamed.

Kitty stirred in his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest, placing a palm on his heart. "It's not the end. I'm talking about the turning-points but I still have one last." She crumpled his shirt into her palm. A sigh escaped her lips, and left her the feeling she just shook off the burden that had been pressing on her in the past few days. "It was two nights ago when I was lying in the bed, sleeplessly and waiting for you. I was so worried. With every passing moment I as well passed away a bit. I knew I couldn't get peace till I didn't have you near me."

Lance closed his eyes. He knew it was too late. There was no turning back. He left never-going-by traces in her and it would have been only another betrayal, and not only against her but against himself as well, if he'd left her again. He said once and he determined now that he would try with all his being to make them be a couple. He wasn't sure it was right this way. Neither knew he whether it could last long or be steady. The only thing he ever knew and learnt bitterly was the fact that nothing was for free, as always in his past, now as well he had to fight hard for his life, his future and his dreams. And had to believe that he could have, dare have dreams.

Kitty nestled closer to him. When they were in such peace it was so hard to believe they could oppose, fight and yell at each other. It was so hard to imagine a future where they wouldn't be together like this. There must have been other outcomes than ending up in hurting each other. There was no use weeping over old hurts and bad memories, no use of cursing his blood if it had not much to do with his future, and hating a father that never really was his.

He had options and he could choose. And he chose Kitty.

There had been so many things wedged in between them, lies and truths, loyalties and betrayals, cowardice and thoughtlessness, friends, parents, foes, social classes and education, and still… fate made them meet, made them break up more than once and it even made them give a chance to each other. Maybe, only maybe it was no accident. Maybe, only maybe they really matched in a strange way.

"Well what's now?" he asked.

Kitty looked up at him, smiling affectionately. "Tomorrow we're going back to Bayville. I have some things to arrange at the Institute." Lance glanced at her, puzzled, and she touched his face with warm, tender fingers, forcing him to lean closer to her. She then added, whispering against his lips. "Some old battles to fight."

The end