"Okay it doesn't count if it's off the grounds."
Kitty squeezed Rachel's hand, pulling her through the woods. "We're almost there." There was a clearing overlooking the lake. To the east was the school. Most of the buildings were much more modern than Kitty remembered, glass and metal structures that seemed to have a futuristic look to them. A kind of optimistic future that Kitty had always hoped for. "I had to put it in a place where Logan couldn't just sniff it out. Inside would be easy mode."
Letting go of Rachel, Kitty walked up to a tree. She phased her hand inside and pulled out a bottle with the Three Ships label. "This probably cost him like 80 bucks. Remind me to sneak a hundred into his room. Assuage the guilt a little."
Rachel tapped the side of her nose. "He'd know it was you."
Kitty fished a glass out of the tree next. "He probably already does. I did what I could to hide my scent, but he's a blood hound. He just couldn't prove it was me enough to do anything about it."
Taking the bottle, Rachel looked it over. "So. How often did you come out here for a nip."
"Only a couple of times." Kitty held up the glass. "I was mostly saving it for the right occasion. Something like tonight."
"How about we share a glass, and then put it back," Rachel suggested. She opened it and poured. "Make some more of those right occasions."
Kitty took a sip. It had a very rich taste, with various fruits and a hint of vanilla. She closed her eyes, humming in delight. "Oh it's still so good. The first time I tried it I about coughed up a lung."
"You just needed to develop your taste for it." It had a smokey flavor that Rachel found appealing. She passed the glass back and they shared it, standing hand in hand beneath the stars. Kitty's hair tickled Rachel's shoulder as she leaned her head there. Rachel didn't want the moment to end.
Kitty returned the bottle after pouring one more glass, then leaned back into Rachel as they finished that one too. Rachel's arm slid around her, and Kitty turned her face into her shoulder.
"Getting cold?"
Just as reluctant to let go of the moment as Rachel was, Kitty shook her head despite her shivering. "No. Very warm."
"Uh huh." Rachel started to walk them back down towards the school. "You're warm, so that's why you're shivering like a leaf."
Kitty laughed, pretending like she was trying to crawl into Rachel's skin. "Shut up."
Once inside and warming up again, Rachel started to walk Kitty towards her room.
She laced her fingers through Rachel's until they stopped. "So. Dinner a success?"
Rachel cupped her hand on the back of Kitty's head and leaned down to kiss her. Shock rippled through Kitty before she melted into Rachel. She could feel the fire raging between them. As Rachel's kisses grew more insistent, Kitty grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her through the closed door.
Stumbling after Kitty, Rachel wondered if they needed to stop, but she felt Kitty's mind weaving together with her own. It was like a warm embrace, familiar and friendly and a little needy.
I don't want to stop.
"Oh good." Rachel breathed. She pushed Kitty towards the bed and Kitty fell back onto it after her knees hit the edge. Kitty's anxiety was coming through loud and clear and she wanted to do all she could to sooth Kitty's nerves. And her own.
Breathless, Kitty ran her hands up Rachel's legs as the redhead moved to straddle her, then pulled Rachel down to kiss her again. Rachel's telepathic reassurances relaxed her and she used their mental link to reassure Rachel about how she liked to be touched.
It suddenly got cold and Rachel realized that her dress had been phased off, exposing her skin to the air. She lifted her head and laughed. "That's cheating."
Kitty's hands stopped moving. "Should we stop?"
"I don't want to." Rachel put her hands over Kitty's and guiding them up her stomach. She drank in the heat sparking in Kitty's eyes and answered with fire of her own.
Sunlight was just peeking through the curtains, but Kitty was already awake. She lay on her side, gently stroking her fingers through Rachel's hair. The light made Rachel's hair light up like a bonfire. The hours that Kitty tended to be up at were early enough that Rachel had always considered them downright evil but today it let Kitty bask.
Kitty's eyes fell to the mark on Rachel's back. Black, with thick lines in the shape of a bird's wings and body, it looked more like a tattoo than a mark of death but Kitty knew how that could be deceiving. She slid her hand down and trailed her finger down one of the lines. Rachel stiffened under her. "I'm sorry."
Shivering, Rachel turned her head to look at Kitty. "...it's okay."
"Okay." Kitty resumed tracing the markings. She leaned down, kissing Rachel on the shoulder as her fingers moved down Rachel's back, only stopping when tears started to make Rachel's eyes glimmer.
Rachel moved onto her side and wrapped her arms around Kitty, burying her face in her chest. A lot of bad memories and death surrounded the mark, but good memories too and it always left Rachel feeling confused. Kitty's fingers had scared her at first, but then she'd grown to like it. More good memories to scar over the bad. "Thanks."
Holding her, Kitty ducked her head down to kiss her cheek, and changed the subject for Rachel's sake. "Last night was amazing."
"You were amazing." Rachel sat up, pushing Kitty onto her back and admiring the way Kitty's hair spread across the pillow. "So when's our next date, Kate? And do you have plans for lunch?"
"Well I was going to meet with my other girlfriend but I guess I can pencil you in."
Rachel's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. "Does that make me your main girlfriend then, and not the one on the side?"
"Uh I totally didn't mean it that way."
Of course she didn't. Disappointment made Rachel's chest ache. "I figured."
"Did you want me to mean it that way?" Kitty sat up, pulling Rachel against her. She whispered. "It can mean that way."
Rachel didn't answer her, because she didn't really have an answer. She thought it was kind of stupid. They hadn't seen each other in five years. It took time to develop that kind of depth. Or it was supposed to. Rachel wondered if something was wrong with her, to have these feelings return a thousand times stronger than they had ever been.
Suddenly, Kitty was kissing her slow and gentle, her mind opened to her. Rachel hesitated only a moment before diving in, swimming through Kitty's mind and guided by the ghost of her thoughts. At the end, they stood on a plateau overlooking a sunset.
"I remember this place." Puzzled, Rachel looked around, taking Kitty's hand. "I think. I think I was here in a dream."
"You might have been, I never closed our link and you could have wandered in while sleeping. I always … here was where I could imagine myself the way I was supposed to be. And where I could come to find the things that made me happy." Kitty turned to Rachel. "When I heard the name Kate, it sank into me and came to this place in my mind and it stayed there until I was ready to accept it. Maybe the name came from your thoughts or what you told me about your future, or maybe I heard it elsewhere before we ever met. I don't really know. But it clicked and I suddenly knew who I was."
"Thank you for showing me this." If Rachel felt this kind of relief that Kitty had found herself, she could only imagine how Kitty must feel. Rachel had always been lost. Out of time and out of her mind, a daughter of two legends she never felt like she could live up to. Kitty had been that anchor that helped keep her in place, the light house in a storm or the landmark that always helped her find North. Whoever she was meant to be, she hadn't found it yet, but she felt like she was going in the right direction when Kitty was around.
"I've never shown anyone else." Kitty squeezed Rachel's hand. "But I figure, if I can show anyone, it's you. It's...always been you. Always." If Kitty believed in soul-mates, Rachel would be hers. A woman who came through time and found her. Who always accepted who she was even before Kitty had accepted herself. Maybe they'd needed the years apart to really see that. "Can we be a thing? I'd really like to be a thing."
"I wonder who'll win the office pool on how long this took." Rachel let go of Kitty's hand only so she could hug her instead. "We can be a thing. God..."
"Illyana," Kitty predicted, nuzzling her head into Rachel's neck. "She's spent the past three days trolling me with questions about the wedding and requests to be the one to pick out the music."
Rachel laughed, and they snapped back to Kitty's room. Kitty wiped at Rachel's cheeks, and tried to sound less choked up than she was. "But I think we can take that slower."
"We can cheat." Rachel leaned into the touch. "Set a date and elope so that we win it all."
Kitty smiled. "We'll need an accomplice. I'll talk to Logan. He can take a cut for that whiskey."
They let the silence take hold. Kitty kissed Rachel's neck, slow and lazy. It was a struggle to keep herself from tearing up.
"Kitty?" Rachel's arms tightened around Kitty . It was really sinking in what she'd said a moment ago. And it was dawning on Rachel that she felt the same way. Or it would if she hadn't always known it. "It's always been you for me, too. Always."
"Welcome home," Kitty whispered. "For both of us."
**FIN**