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apachefirecatTitle: Yes
Fandom: Excalibur (X-Men)
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Shadowcat, Phoenix, Meggan/Captain Britain, Lockheed, Nightcrawler
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Kitty's not in the mood for celebrating. But maybe, with a little help from friends both old and new, she can get there after all.
Word Count: 2,210
Written For: Lands of Magic Round 10, Challenge 14: Happy Thanksgiving and FFFC s157 Micro Bingo: Thanksgiving, Football, Second Chance, and Shadows
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She hadn't wanted to wake up this morning. She had wanted to wake up after that especially grueling mission they'd had the night before and the people, both human and mutant, they'd failed to save. She hadn't wanted to wake up alone in bed again, the morning light chasing away dreams of Piotr and the others and a simpler, happier time. She'd thought she'd had problems then, but it had been nothing compared to so much of what she'd endured since she'd believed the X-Men had been killed. Of course, they weren't killed, but they were an entire freaking continent away, doing their own things, living their own lives...
Her family, and her heroes, were carrying on as though she and Kurt didn't matter. She could understand not missing Rachel -- they'd barely known her after all, even though she'd been Scott and Jean's daughter --, but she had truly felt like she and Fuzzy had been on that team for a reason. Why, Kurt had been one of the oldest X-Men! They'd claimed they'd thought them dead and that was why they had not come to Scotland after them, but honestly, none of their telepaths had found them? Or felt Rachel searching for them? Or found them through Cerebro or some other similar Shi'ar technology and sent for them? No, there was no denying it, Kitty thought sorrowfully: They just had not been important to them.
That had been humiliating and painful enough, but now with the holidays just around the corner, and her parents still divorced... Kitty shut her eyes tight and buried her face back into her pillow, fighting the urge to cry. She was far too young for all of this to be happening to her, but it seemed life didn't care what age a mutant was, yet another of those unfair differences between homo sapien and, supposedly, homo superior. She felt Lockheed stir beside her and pictured his long, pink tongue lolling out of his mouth as she heard him yawn.
"No," she protested when she felt him begin to get up to stretch. "Let's just stay here, dragon, all day." She rolled over onto her back and lifted him into her hands. "You know you're the very best friend I have, right?" she asked before bringing him down against her chest and hugging him tightly. She wondered, somewhere in the recesses of her mind, if the healer for whom Piotr had left her had bigger breasts. Of course, she did, -- and she was an adult!
It was only when Lockheed started sniffing the air, his leatherlike tail swishing back and forth with growing enthusiasm, that Kitty smelled it. She let the dragon go, and he swooped through the room, heading for the door and making it clear that he wanted her to open the door right that very moment! She couldn't suppress a small giggle at his antics. "I know, I know," she murmured, rolling her eyes. "Bacon!" She opened the door for him, and he swooped down the hall.
"I'll beat you there!" she called after him, shutting her door. She heard him chirp before she dropped through the floor and then passed through a couple of walls on her way to the kitchen. The shadows between floors and walls were not bad yet, but they'd grow worse the later the day got. There'd be things in them again, silhouettes that moved just out of the corner of her eyes, small, subtle signs that made her think of Illyana and a dimension she'd rather forget. She really did need to bite the bullet and talk to Kurt about what he experienced when Bamfing, and soon. Perhaps it was something like what she saw so often saw in this lighthouse when she was phasing through its structure. Perhaps he could keep her from having to delve too deeply into things she'd rather not.
But right now, Kitty thought, her stomach rumbling, she just wanted breakfast. She popped into the kitchen and was instantly greeted by two friendly faces who both looked far more cheerful than she felt, or had felt in weeks. "I thought th' smell might wake yoo!" Meggan exclaimed happily, spooning eggs onto a plate already stacked high with bacon. "You were about to miss th' parade on th' telly!"
"Save the parade, save the eggs," Kitty muttered. "Just give me the artery-clogging, soul-enriching bacon." She knew she shouldn't eat bacon, especially being a Jew, but who were her parents to tell her anything? After all, how many oaths and morality things were they breaking with their decision to destroy their family? Greedy pigs, she thought, sharply biting down on the first slice of bacon. "Waitaminute," she mumbled with a mouthful as 'Heed swept into the room. She threw him the third slice for she'd already almost finished the second.
"Yoo eat yuir food! I've got Mister Lockheed somehin' o' his own!" Using her spatula, she flipped the dragon an egg and then another slice of bacon.
"None of us ate very much yesterday," Rachel explained as Kitty rolled her eyes at the Brit. "Meggan seems to be noticing, and it also seems that they've noticed what today is even before us Yanks." She grinned at her.
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, yawning and popping another piece of bacon into her wide open mouth.
"It's Turkey Day," Rachel explained. "Brian didn't want Meggan trying to fool around with a turkey -- "
"I wonder why," muttered Kitty as she remembered their first few mornings in this very kitchen in the lighthouse keep and the smell of eggs burned to a blackened texture. Meggan tried hard, but she was still a kid at heart with much to learn. Then again, who was she kidding? She was a kid -- that's why the X-Men hadn't wanted her! "Nope, none of that," Rachel teased, seeing her best friend's face fall again. "Let's watch the balloons," she said, indicating the telly in the corner. "Brian kept tinkering with it until he finally got it to pull in an American broadcast. There's Snoopy now."
"Where's Elf?" Kitty asked. "He's the Macy's Day Parade fan." Indeed, he was, and as she idly watched the giant balloons drift by on screen, she remembered him once making the remark, pointy tail twitching, that maybe if he was to pretend to be a participant in the parade, he could at least walk down the Big Apple without scaring all the humans. They shouldn't have to --
"WHOA!" She jumped up and into a fighting stance immediately as the kitchen shook.
"It's all right," Rachel told her. "It's just the boys. They're playing football."
"You mean soccer, right?"
"No." She shook her red head. "I mean football. At least Brian's super-powered version of it."
"This I've gotta see," Kitty murmured and walked through the walls again to take a look. For just a moment, she was dazzled by the brilliant blue of the sky and how cold the wind was whipping around her. Here, in Scotland, the trees actually changed colors, and the seasons truly changed. She hadn't noticed the differences, as deep down in her sorrow over the X-Men and busy with missions as she'd been and kept herself, but standing there, only her top half poked through the wall, she noticed it in full. The wind was gusty, blowing swirls of leaves around, while the sky was the most startling, vast blue she'd seen in... She couldn't remember how long in that moment.
The moment was shattered in the next second, however, as Brian collided with the wall. He had the football clutched to his chest and was doubling around his muscular mass around it as Kurt struggled to pry the ball away from his clutches with both arms and tail. Kitty watched them for a moment. They were completely oblivious to her presence, and Kurt looked younger than she'd him in... well... truly, ever.
She watched for several minutes before drawing herself back into the kitchen. "Looks like they could use some help to really get a good game going." She smiled.
"Let's do it!" Rachel exclaimed, pushing her plate away and jumping up from the table. "Girls versus boys?"
Meggan frowned. "Can we girls really play somethin' like that?"
"Sure, we can!"
But she grimaced and shook her head. "I'd rather not. Yoo two go ahead, though. Heed an' I'll stay an' watch th' parade."
Lockheed, curled contentedly into a lazy ball of purple scales and wings, in front of the telly cooed as though agreeing with her.
"An' I'll put some more bacon on in a minute."
At that announcement, Lockheed's grin widened. "COO COO!"
Kitty rolled her eyes but laughed again for the second time already that day. "Come on," she said, grabbing Rachel's hand. "Have fun, dragon! Don't spoil him too much, Meggan; I don't want to have to compete!" She was laughing as she phased herself and Rachel through the wall.
"I like the sound of that."
She frowned at her best friend. "What? Competition?"
"No. You laughing. It's about time."
Kitty shrugged her shoulders. "I know I've been dumpy lately. I've got reasons to be, though."
"Yes, but we also have reasons to be happy. Kitty, don't forget the future I come from. That could happen still. That could happen to all of us. It could start at any moment. You may not have your parents together, and you might miss your team, but it's not like you can't go back there if you really wanted to -- "
"It wouldn't be the same," she murmured, looking quickly away into the vast blue of the sky. "Come on." She tugged Rachel's hand. "Do we really have to talk about this now?"
"I guess not. I just..." She sighed. "I just want you to be happy."
"I want us all to be happy."
"It looks like Kurt is," Rachel said, watching the boys play their game.
"He won't be for long!" Kitty teased as she launched herself, phasing through Brian but grabbing the ball away from him as she did so. "Our ball now!" she announced, tossing it back to Rachel. Yet as they played under such a beautiful sun, she couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, they were getting a second chance not just at life and at a new superhero team, but maybe this team, too, could prove to be more than just another superhero team. Maybe they could become a family too.
She didn't know how long they played, but she did see how quickly everyone else separated when Meggan called out the window, announcing there was more bacon and about to be never-before-seen balloons. Each year brought the arrival of new balloons. Maybe it could bring the arrival of new friends too.
"Hey, Rachel," Kitty asked as she tagged along at the end of the group going indoors, "what were you saying earlier about Brian not wanting Meggan to kill a turkey?"
"I'm taking us out for dinner tonight, Kitty, anywhere you want."
"Me?" she asked in surprise. "Why me?"
The multi-billionaire shrugged. "Why not?"
She puzzled over his words for a moment before a wide grin finally won out.
"But make it somewhere fancy," Rachel urged. "Give us a reason to dress up."
"Ah," Kurt protested in his gentle way, his long, blue tail swishing, "let ze fraulein choose."
Kitty looked from one expectant face to the next before suggesting with a sly smile, "How about the local tavern?"
"Katzchen, vou cannot drink!"
She grinned. "Never stopped me before when Logan was around, Fuzzy. You ever try saki?"
At all four of their thunderous looks, Kitty held up her hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, no saki! But yeah, let's do the tavern. I won't drink! I just... We can actually go there and be ourselves. Kurt doesn't have to have his image inducer on, and I can take 'Heed and not have to worry about stupid hunters or reporters."
"Fine," Brian announced with a laugh. He reached down and gently scratched Lockheed's head, where he currently reclined in Meggan's lap. At least the dragon and his best girl seemed to have made good friends. Perhaps before this night was out, the Yanks would be happy with them again too. "Lockheed here can have the best steak in the house, medium rare."
"I'm sure he'd like that," Kitty said appreciatively and found herself beaming too. Maybe there was something to this idea of a second family found and a day of giving thanks after all. They were no X-Men, but they were friends. They had been there for them when the X-Men had not been, and rather that was because the X-Men couldn't have been or had chosen not to be, maybe that didn't matter. Maybe what mattered was that they were, and they had brought them into their lives such as they were, and yeah, maybe, just maybe, they had found another family.
"Does this mean I get to dress you up?" Rachel asked, teasingly, but at the grin on her friend's jubilant face, Kitty quickly found herself saying yes: yes to new outfits, yes to new friends, yes to a new team and a new home, and yes, even yes to a new family.
The End
Fandom: Excalibur (X-Men)
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Shadowcat, Phoenix, Meggan/Captain Britain, Lockheed, Nightcrawler
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Kitty's not in the mood for celebrating. But maybe, with a little help from friends both old and new, she can get there after all.
Word Count: 2,210
Written For: Lands of Magic Round 10, Challenge 14: Happy Thanksgiving and FFFC s157 Micro Bingo: Thanksgiving, Football, Second Chance, and Shadows
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She hadn't wanted to wake up this morning. She had wanted to wake up after that especially grueling mission they'd had the night before and the people, both human and mutant, they'd failed to save. She hadn't wanted to wake up alone in bed again, the morning light chasing away dreams of Piotr and the others and a simpler, happier time. She'd thought she'd had problems then, but it had been nothing compared to so much of what she'd endured since she'd believed the X-Men had been killed. Of course, they weren't killed, but they were an entire freaking continent away, doing their own things, living their own lives...
Her family, and her heroes, were carrying on as though she and Kurt didn't matter. She could understand not missing Rachel -- they'd barely known her after all, even though she'd been Scott and Jean's daughter --, but she had truly felt like she and Fuzzy had been on that team for a reason. Why, Kurt had been one of the oldest X-Men! They'd claimed they'd thought them dead and that was why they had not come to Scotland after them, but honestly, none of their telepaths had found them? Or felt Rachel searching for them? Or found them through Cerebro or some other similar Shi'ar technology and sent for them? No, there was no denying it, Kitty thought sorrowfully: They just had not been important to them.
That had been humiliating and painful enough, but now with the holidays just around the corner, and her parents still divorced... Kitty shut her eyes tight and buried her face back into her pillow, fighting the urge to cry. She was far too young for all of this to be happening to her, but it seemed life didn't care what age a mutant was, yet another of those unfair differences between homo sapien and, supposedly, homo superior. She felt Lockheed stir beside her and pictured his long, pink tongue lolling out of his mouth as she heard him yawn.
"No," she protested when she felt him begin to get up to stretch. "Let's just stay here, dragon, all day." She rolled over onto her back and lifted him into her hands. "You know you're the very best friend I have, right?" she asked before bringing him down against her chest and hugging him tightly. She wondered, somewhere in the recesses of her mind, if the healer for whom Piotr had left her had bigger breasts. Of course, she did, -- and she was an adult!
It was only when Lockheed started sniffing the air, his leatherlike tail swishing back and forth with growing enthusiasm, that Kitty smelled it. She let the dragon go, and he swooped through the room, heading for the door and making it clear that he wanted her to open the door right that very moment! She couldn't suppress a small giggle at his antics. "I know, I know," she murmured, rolling her eyes. "Bacon!" She opened the door for him, and he swooped down the hall.
"I'll beat you there!" she called after him, shutting her door. She heard him chirp before she dropped through the floor and then passed through a couple of walls on her way to the kitchen. The shadows between floors and walls were not bad yet, but they'd grow worse the later the day got. There'd be things in them again, silhouettes that moved just out of the corner of her eyes, small, subtle signs that made her think of Illyana and a dimension she'd rather forget. She really did need to bite the bullet and talk to Kurt about what he experienced when Bamfing, and soon. Perhaps it was something like what she saw so often saw in this lighthouse when she was phasing through its structure. Perhaps he could keep her from having to delve too deeply into things she'd rather not.
But right now, Kitty thought, her stomach rumbling, she just wanted breakfast. She popped into the kitchen and was instantly greeted by two friendly faces who both looked far more cheerful than she felt, or had felt in weeks. "I thought th' smell might wake yoo!" Meggan exclaimed happily, spooning eggs onto a plate already stacked high with bacon. "You were about to miss th' parade on th' telly!"
"Save the parade, save the eggs," Kitty muttered. "Just give me the artery-clogging, soul-enriching bacon." She knew she shouldn't eat bacon, especially being a Jew, but who were her parents to tell her anything? After all, how many oaths and morality things were they breaking with their decision to destroy their family? Greedy pigs, she thought, sharply biting down on the first slice of bacon. "Waitaminute," she mumbled with a mouthful as 'Heed swept into the room. She threw him the third slice for she'd already almost finished the second.
"Yoo eat yuir food! I've got Mister Lockheed somehin' o' his own!" Using her spatula, she flipped the dragon an egg and then another slice of bacon.
"None of us ate very much yesterday," Rachel explained as Kitty rolled her eyes at the Brit. "Meggan seems to be noticing, and it also seems that they've noticed what today is even before us Yanks." She grinned at her.
"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, yawning and popping another piece of bacon into her wide open mouth.
"It's Turkey Day," Rachel explained. "Brian didn't want Meggan trying to fool around with a turkey -- "
"I wonder why," muttered Kitty as she remembered their first few mornings in this very kitchen in the lighthouse keep and the smell of eggs burned to a blackened texture. Meggan tried hard, but she was still a kid at heart with much to learn. Then again, who was she kidding? She was a kid -- that's why the X-Men hadn't wanted her! "Nope, none of that," Rachel teased, seeing her best friend's face fall again. "Let's watch the balloons," she said, indicating the telly in the corner. "Brian kept tinkering with it until he finally got it to pull in an American broadcast. There's Snoopy now."
"Where's Elf?" Kitty asked. "He's the Macy's Day Parade fan." Indeed, he was, and as she idly watched the giant balloons drift by on screen, she remembered him once making the remark, pointy tail twitching, that maybe if he was to pretend to be a participant in the parade, he could at least walk down the Big Apple without scaring all the humans. They shouldn't have to --
"WHOA!" She jumped up and into a fighting stance immediately as the kitchen shook.
"It's all right," Rachel told her. "It's just the boys. They're playing football."
"You mean soccer, right?"
"No." She shook her red head. "I mean football. At least Brian's super-powered version of it."
"This I've gotta see," Kitty murmured and walked through the walls again to take a look. For just a moment, she was dazzled by the brilliant blue of the sky and how cold the wind was whipping around her. Here, in Scotland, the trees actually changed colors, and the seasons truly changed. She hadn't noticed the differences, as deep down in her sorrow over the X-Men and busy with missions as she'd been and kept herself, but standing there, only her top half poked through the wall, she noticed it in full. The wind was gusty, blowing swirls of leaves around, while the sky was the most startling, vast blue she'd seen in... She couldn't remember how long in that moment.
The moment was shattered in the next second, however, as Brian collided with the wall. He had the football clutched to his chest and was doubling around his muscular mass around it as Kurt struggled to pry the ball away from his clutches with both arms and tail. Kitty watched them for a moment. They were completely oblivious to her presence, and Kurt looked younger than she'd him in... well... truly, ever.
She watched for several minutes before drawing herself back into the kitchen. "Looks like they could use some help to really get a good game going." She smiled.
"Let's do it!" Rachel exclaimed, pushing her plate away and jumping up from the table. "Girls versus boys?"
Meggan frowned. "Can we girls really play somethin' like that?"
"Sure, we can!"
But she grimaced and shook her head. "I'd rather not. Yoo two go ahead, though. Heed an' I'll stay an' watch th' parade."
Lockheed, curled contentedly into a lazy ball of purple scales and wings, in front of the telly cooed as though agreeing with her.
"An' I'll put some more bacon on in a minute."
At that announcement, Lockheed's grin widened. "COO COO!"
Kitty rolled her eyes but laughed again for the second time already that day. "Come on," she said, grabbing Rachel's hand. "Have fun, dragon! Don't spoil him too much, Meggan; I don't want to have to compete!" She was laughing as she phased herself and Rachel through the wall.
"I like the sound of that."
She frowned at her best friend. "What? Competition?"
"No. You laughing. It's about time."
Kitty shrugged her shoulders. "I know I've been dumpy lately. I've got reasons to be, though."
"Yes, but we also have reasons to be happy. Kitty, don't forget the future I come from. That could happen still. That could happen to all of us. It could start at any moment. You may not have your parents together, and you might miss your team, but it's not like you can't go back there if you really wanted to -- "
"It wouldn't be the same," she murmured, looking quickly away into the vast blue of the sky. "Come on." She tugged Rachel's hand. "Do we really have to talk about this now?"
"I guess not. I just..." She sighed. "I just want you to be happy."
"I want us all to be happy."
"It looks like Kurt is," Rachel said, watching the boys play their game.
"He won't be for long!" Kitty teased as she launched herself, phasing through Brian but grabbing the ball away from him as she did so. "Our ball now!" she announced, tossing it back to Rachel. Yet as they played under such a beautiful sun, she couldn't help thinking that maybe, just maybe, they were getting a second chance not just at life and at a new superhero team, but maybe this team, too, could prove to be more than just another superhero team. Maybe they could become a family too.
She didn't know how long they played, but she did see how quickly everyone else separated when Meggan called out the window, announcing there was more bacon and about to be never-before-seen balloons. Each year brought the arrival of new balloons. Maybe it could bring the arrival of new friends too.
"Hey, Rachel," Kitty asked as she tagged along at the end of the group going indoors, "what were you saying earlier about Brian not wanting Meggan to kill a turkey?"
"I'm taking us out for dinner tonight, Kitty, anywhere you want."
"Me?" she asked in surprise. "Why me?"
The multi-billionaire shrugged. "Why not?"
She puzzled over his words for a moment before a wide grin finally won out.
"But make it somewhere fancy," Rachel urged. "Give us a reason to dress up."
"Ah," Kurt protested in his gentle way, his long, blue tail swishing, "let ze fraulein choose."
Kitty looked from one expectant face to the next before suggesting with a sly smile, "How about the local tavern?"
"Katzchen, vou cannot drink!"
She grinned. "Never stopped me before when Logan was around, Fuzzy. You ever try saki?"
At all four of their thunderous looks, Kitty held up her hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, no saki! But yeah, let's do the tavern. I won't drink! I just... We can actually go there and be ourselves. Kurt doesn't have to have his image inducer on, and I can take 'Heed and not have to worry about stupid hunters or reporters."
"Fine," Brian announced with a laugh. He reached down and gently scratched Lockheed's head, where he currently reclined in Meggan's lap. At least the dragon and his best girl seemed to have made good friends. Perhaps before this night was out, the Yanks would be happy with them again too. "Lockheed here can have the best steak in the house, medium rare."
"I'm sure he'd like that," Kitty said appreciatively and found herself beaming too. Maybe there was something to this idea of a second family found and a day of giving thanks after all. They were no X-Men, but they were friends. They had been there for them when the X-Men had not been, and rather that was because the X-Men couldn't have been or had chosen not to be, maybe that didn't matter. Maybe what mattered was that they were, and they had brought them into their lives such as they were, and yeah, maybe, just maybe, they had found another family.
"Does this mean I get to dress you up?" Rachel asked, teasingly, but at the grin on her friend's jubilant face, Kitty quickly found herself saying yes: yes to new outfits, yes to new friends, yes to a new team and a new home, and yes, even yes to a new family.
The End
