All cats are gray in the dark
by ladymaja
Summary: Kitty (22 yo) is spending her summer vacation in Canada at Logan's cottage when suddenly she gets attacked and captured. In order to escape she's gonna need to take a helping hand from a killer.
Chapter Six: The smell of civilization
Kitty lies back in her seat. She haven't sad a word since the pants-incident 'cause she's still mad at him. It's been 20 minutes now and he's still grinning like a Cheshire cat. She's totally pissed.
The car starts to choke and sputter. Creed manages to pull over. Right after that, the car dies.
"Looks like we ran out of gas." he says.
"Great. Now what?" They get out and look around. Creed sniffs into the air. Just like Logan usually does. They have a lot of common habits.
"That way!" he says pointing left. "I smell civilization."
"You smell civilization? What does civilization smell like?" she wonders.
"Cigarette smoke, fried food and gas." he says "Everything we need right now."
"Yeah, except if it's the hunters."
"Well, there's only one way to figure that out." he says and goes after the smell. She follows him.
"What if it's them?" she asks.
"Well, then we're gonna have to steel another car or some gas. I mean we can't just walk home from here. We're too far north."
"You could just walk home." she says in a low voice. He stops and looks at her but she's avoiding his look.
He really could just walk away. He doesn't need a car. He's Sabertooth. According to Logan, he's often mistaken for Big Foot by hikers. The snow and the cold is not a problem for him. He can survive in the wild on his own just fine.
"That's right. I could." he says finally catching Kitty's attention. She's worried. Now she regrets what she said, giving him the idea of leave her back.
"I could just walk home. It would take about two weeks to reach the borders. I could hunt animals and eat them raw, 'cause there's no chance to set a fire in this weather. I could survive the snow storms in caves or scratch a hole into the ice cold ground to sleep in. But if there's any chance to avoid that, I'm gonna snatch it!"
And with that, he turns on his heels and walks on. She's looking at his back as he moves further. It takes her a couple seconds to realize, he just said "No, I'm not leaving you here." in his own standoffish manner. She heaves a sigh of relieve and start to run to catch up with him.
After about two hours of walking they find a small village in a valley. It's next to a pavement road. At least now he knows which way to go.
"Thank God! It's not them." says the Kitten next to him, and she heads down. Victor grabs her hand.
"Wait! We don't know that for sure yet!"
"What are you talking about? Do you see any mutant hunters down there? I don't! Just let's go, and ask for some gas. I'm sure they would help people in need."
"Why would they help any random strangers, who ask for free gas? Don't be so trusty! What kind of trash are they talking into you at Xavier's? You know Kitten, people in the real world won't give you anything for free, no matter how nice you ask! That's not how it works! "
"How do you know that?" she replies angrily and phases her hand out of his grab. "Have you ever asked for anything nicely? I bet you hadn't! I am not gonna go there and steal a car or even just gas!"
"You don't know for sure if there aren't any hunters! And even if there aren't, we might be wanted by them. You know, for money. Anyone would sell us off for a good cash!"
"You're being paranoid!" she says and starts to walk down ways.
She's so damn annoying! She would just walk right into the hunters arms. Anyway, Victor follows her.
There's a small, raunchy dinner right at the edge of the village. Victor sniffs into the air. No sign of their enemy. But the smell of fried bacon catches his attention. He didn't even notice how hungry he was untill now. The Kitten must be even hungrier by now. He looks at her, and nods, giving her permission to go in. She smiles and opens the door.
As the bell above the door clangs, everybody in the dinner turns their way. In this case everybody means two men sitting at the counter, another at a table, a blond waitress and the cook of course, who's sitting behind the counter, having a break. He's smoking.
The Kitten sniffs at the smoke, but she sits down at a table and hangs her oversized coat on the back of her chair. Victor takes the seat opposite her.
The waitress comes up to them. She looks up and down on Victor and smiles.
"What can I get ya'?" Victor reads the tag on her shirt. Her name's Cindy and she, unlike the Kitten, has the D-cups he loves so much.
Victor smiles back.
"Anything, darlin'! As long as it's greasy, and a lot of that." he says and she chuckles flirtatiously.
"Fried eggs and bacon good to go?" she asks.
"Make it double! And a mug of beer. Or two." they laugh.
"What 'bout you, honey?" she turns to Kitty. Victor's still starring at Cindy, but when he doesn't hear any answer from her, he turns her way too.
If looks could kill. . . She won't move her eyes from him, and she looks so angry, and huffish and. . . jealous?
He's surprised. But he likes this situation. He winks at her and grins, to annoy her. But she just turns to the waitress and asks:
"Do you have anything low-fat?" God, she just so stuck-up! Not his type at all. Cindy on the other hand. . .
"Water." says Cindy and laughs. Victor smiles too, and he shakes his head.
"I'll have toast and scrambled eggs then." she says with an emotionless face. "And some ice tea."
"You got it!" she twitters, then she smiles at Victor once again, turns on her heals and goes to the cook.
Victor checks out her ass, and turns to Kitty.
She's not looking at him, she's starring out the window, but she looks mad.
"What's wrong, Kitten?" he asks grinning.
"Nothing's wrong! Everything's fine! And it's Kitty! Not Kitten! You may call me Kitty, or Katherine, or Ms. Pryde, but don't ever call me Kitten again!"
Victor chuckles. Right now she's hissing exactly like an angry kitten.
"All right then Ms. Pryde. If you excuse me, I need to go the restroom." he says sarcastically. He stands up and bows to her. She ignores him, so he just walks to the restroom.
What the hell was that? Did he just openly flirt with that tramp? Uhm. . . woman.
Well, technically they're not a couple or anything like that. But they came in together, they sit to the same table. . . If a man and a woman do that, you assume that they're a couple. You don't just walk up on them and flirt with him like that tramp. . . like that WOMAN just did. And he? He enjoyed it. He played along with her. Right in front of her! How humiliating is that?
She's so lost in her thoughts, she doesn't even notice them coming towards her.
One of them takes Victor's place, the other pulls a chair from another table next to hers.
The two guys from the counter. They're about 40 years old, they smell like cheese, wet dogs and alcohol, and they're missing some teeth. In a nutshell: They're disgusting!
"How you doing, darlin'?" asks the one in front of her, the skinny one.
"Did your boyfriend leave ya' all alone?" asks the other. He's fat like a pig, and as he leans closer to her, she can tell that he smells like a pig too. She's feeling sick. His smell is so strong, she can't take it anymore. She just has to draw apart from him. Smell of civilization, yeah, right!
"He'll be right back!" she says trying to hide the disgust in her voice.
"Sure he will, honey!" says the fat pig grinning "Question is, will you still be here when he gets back?"