Notes: I want to thank Lu Baihu for making me get this fic done: he poked & prodded me into writing it, was major help with the dialogue (writing well over a third of it), never mind betaing it…
Okay it's probably obvious by now but this is an AU from shortly after I started writing it — in broadcast order, "Walk on the Wild Side" — in proper time order, "Shadow Dance".
This turned out rather short compared to the other chapters… But it's the last part so…
Warnings: Femslash.
Pairings: Rogue/Kitty.
Kitty and Rogue stand with Amara and Jubilee in the Bayville Galleria, near the garage entrance. "Meet back here at 8." Rogue says firmly.
Jubilee gripes, "That's only 4 hours…"
"Yeah," Kitty chimes in looking unhappy.
"Come on, we've got school tomorrow, so curfews at nine." Rogue rolls her eyes, "And Ah'm the one who'll get in trouble — Ah'm driving."
"All-ll ri-ight" Jubilee whines.
Kitty sighs, "Oh well. Rogue, if you don't mind…"
"See you two at 8. Now where did you want to go, Love?"
"Hmm, there's always 357 if you wanna…"
"Dress up my favorite doll…" Rogue grins.
"Let's see — for fun, or actually buying stuff?"
"Mostly fun, but if we see something special…"
"Yeah, if it's not too much-" ~spent a lot for the dance…~
They head into the store, and begin to look around.
"Look at this, Kitty," Rogue says lifting a dark blue shirt.
"Hey — mmm…"
"No, this one's more your color." This one's a mid-blue blouse with pink trim.
"I don't know…" Kitty holds them both up.
"Hmm…" Rogue looks up and sees one of Rayne's friends coming over towards them. "Kitty…" She points. ~Can't deal with any more…~
"Who-" She stops, recognizing the girl. ~Oh God~
"Hi, Kitty; hi, Rogue."
"Hello." Rogue says nervously.
"Um-" Kitty starts.
"Look, I wanted to say I'm sorry about last week…"
Rogue blinks in shock.
"What-why-" Kitty tries to say.
"I never thought about it, just listened to everyone, went along with the crowd…"
"Easy ta do." Rogue reassures her. ~Least you realized it~
"I've seen the two of you around though — you're not hurting anyone…."
"Why would I?" Kitty seems taken aback. ~Hurting anyone?~
"That's what they say that your kinda girls are predatory, preying on other girls… pretty obvious they have their heads up their asses"
"Yeh." ~People say — believe — shit like that?~
"If I didn't know I couldn't even really tell you two are together…"
"What? Where'd that…"
"I mean you call each other love and sweetie and stuff but you don't even kiss in public, barely hold hands — Oh I dunno it's just you nothing like I was always told," She continues, hesitantly, "Lesbian girls were…"
"Well duh I mean, like, with what happened, we just don't kiss a lot, period…" ~that's for only special people, like you, Rogue …~
Rogue nods, "We try to keep our private lives private…"
"I can understand that — Thank you for making me think, not just assume…"
"What happened?"
"You two and the others made me realize how normal it is — you aren't anything like what people say…"
"Well normal does as normal is, right?"
Rogue giggles, "Kitty…"
"I ought to leave you two to your shopping?"
"Well, now that we know," Kitty shrugs, "Doesn't bother me—"
"If you want to talk…" Rogue suggests.
"No, no, just enjoy your shopping."
"Another time, then? Really, I don't mind…" Kitty asks.
"I'll see you at school, then," The girl says.
"Thank you."
"G'bye…" Kitty trails off.
The girl heads off waving to the girls.
Rogue blinks, "That was odd."
"Not really — just hope there's more like her…" Kitty says thoughtfully.
"Yeh — maybe someday…" ~No one'll…~
"Anyway, um, about this - or this…" Kitty holds each of the shirts up.
"They both look good — let's see how they look on." Rogue tugs Kitty towards the dressing room.
The girls sit in a restaurant at the mall, looking at their menus.
"So what're you getting?"
"Lemme see, the Cajun steak is so good here…"
"Knew ya - popcorn chicken for me," Kitty says, "and drinks?"
"Iced tea, need something cool with that. D'ya want ta get anything from the appetizers?"
"Nah, s'okay, I'll just take a cold, icy soda…"
Rogue replies teasingly, "Too bad Bobby's not here, he'd fix that up for you…"
Kitty smirks and crosses her arms. "Humph. Waiter!" They order quickly, and then return to the conversation.
"I'm just teasing ya." Rogue reassures Kitty.
"I know, just playing too."
"Okay…" The waiter brings their drinks. Rogue picks up her straw out of her drink without removing the paper from the top, and puts the other end in her mouth, her eyes twinkling.
Kitty gives Rogue a confused look.
Rogue carefully aims the straw at Kitty, and then blows the paper at her.
Kitty raises an eyebrow and glares at Rogue looking slightly uncomfortable, and more than a little annoyed. She takes the paper and crumples it. "Rogue…" She says warningly.
Rogue puts her straw back in her drink and says, "Sorry, acting like I'm Jamie's age aren't I?"
Kitty rolls her eyes. "You're forgiven — this time, anyway."
"You just make me forget everything…"
Kitty smirks and looks at her drink, "I can guess why…" Kitty idly twirls her straw around the soda. "But let's get to the stuff first." The waiter brings their plates, and they start eating.
"Yeah…"
They eat for a while, talking about nothing and everything. As they finish eating Rogue says, "Nice to spend some time just us together."
"I know."
"Wish it could always be like this — just two teenagers out on a date, our biggest worry being curfew…"
"If it can't always, let's try our best to make it, like, who knows? Maybe it'll happen, really."
Yeah… Here's to Someday." Rogue raises her glass for the toast.
"To someday," Kitty responds.
Kitty and Rogue are sprawled on their bed talking when the door edges open and Rayne hesitantly sticks her head in "C-can I talk to you?".
Kitty stares blankly at Rayne. ~What the hell?~
"I guess," Rogue replies without letting go of Kitty. ~If she's here ta…~
"Thanks." Rayne says. She pulls Kitty's desk chair around to face them and sits down.
"So…" Kitty starts.
"Umm… well, I wanted to apologize to the both of you…"
"What?" Kitty says, surprised. ~Apologize?~
"I'm serious…I never meant anything like that to happen." Rayne continues.
"So why…" Rogue says.
~Really?~ Kitty looks unsurely at Rayne .
"I freaked, called a couple of my so-called friends to vent and well… I'm really sorry." Rayne apologizes, again.
"What? Why-why'd you do that?" Kitty asks. ~Thought we were your friends, at least before…~
"You two kinda freaked me… I was just trying to… vent I guess, chose the wrong people, and worse I listened to them — I doubt you'll really accept this but I am truly sorry," Rayne says.
Kitty pauses, "Why's that? I mean, like, what happened on Thursday, and everything…"
"I'd always been told stuff like this," She waves at the other two, "was wrong and there were my friends saying the same thing… Turns out one of my other friends was like you two. Wish I'd called her instead of the ones I did."
"Yeah." Rogue murmurs, waving for Rayne to continue. ~Me too, big time~
"What really threw me for a loop was something she said, 'You can't know what it's like hiding, afraid some one will find out…' Michelle, made me remember that these 'friends' I was listening to would probably want me dead if I shifted in front of them…"
"I can guess, like, if we did things like that too…" ~Gay, Jewish, Mutant. Can I get any different?~
"I don't expect you to forgive me, but I wanted you to know I'm not…"
"I think we get it — like, how was she when she wanted to come out, like, why?" Kitty asks. ~Never woulda had the guts~
"I think she and her girlfriend were just sick of hiding…"
"Ah," Rogue says. ~We never had that choice~
"Hmm." Kitty's lip curls, "Y'know, if she ever wants to come to the G-SA-"
"Her girlfriend's involved, I think, but I'll mention it…" Rayne sighs, "Look I haven't finished my homework yet, so…"
"Yeah, like, if you wanna talk tomorrow" Kitty looks over at Rogue. "I'll listen, I promise."
Rogue nods in agreement.
"Thank you…" Rayne says gratefully, standing.
"See ya." Kitty replies.
"Night," Rayne says as she leaves the room.
"That was…" ~Weird, good but weird — way weird~
Kitty takes a deep breath, "Whoa."
"I neva expected…" ~To live peacefully with her — never mind…~
"But, like, be thankful she did." ~One less thing to worry about~
"Yeah…" Rogue says. Then a chiming sound comes from under the shopping bags piled on Kitty's desk. "Wha—"
"E-mail-" ~Prolly junk~ Kitty gets up and retrieves her laptop.
"You think…" ~Your mother?~ Rogue asks pulling Kitty into her lap.
Kitty opens the laptop and then her mail. "Mom," she says wonderingly, and opens the message.
"Everything okay?" Rogue asks.
"Lemme see - 'Your dad's at his first meeting now, and I'm at an Internet cafe across from the hotel. You can see I got a new Yahoo account — [email protected] — Your dad's calmed down a little, and I hope he will change his mind…
"'Please write back soon, Love Mom.'" ~Lordy…~
"Oh…" ~Thank God~
Kitty raises her hand to her mouth in shock.
Rogue hugs her. "That's great!"
"I know…" ~Can't believe…~
Rogue shifts Kitty so she can type more easily "Going ta write back now?"
"Yeah, tell her the news I think…"
"Okay." Kitty leans over the keyboard and starts typing.
Dear Mom
Got your email — Rogue and I are fine. We've got school in the morning so I can't type too long. Not much has happened since you left — we did some shopping, and Rogue took me to dinner. Oh and one of the girls here who wasn't to comfortable with us came by and apologized… I hope you're right about Dad but until then, I'm fine here.
Miss you already.
Love Kitty.
>Send<
Thank you to Everyone who has reviewed this (if I missed someone, I'm sorry) —
FF.net:
Anemixus, Brisk18507, Gwen, maxine mcginnis, J.DeLuca, Julianna Hawk, K-chan, Katzztar, Lucky439, Paigey-Wan the (insert rest of title here),
psychodelic barfly, Quimby, RogueDarkness, Sailor Moirae, & Utahraptor
X-fiction:
janmarie86, & Wyze
EvolutionSlash:
allenby_biarzury, DracheMagus, Rachel Smith, & TKRatSlayr
And thank you again to Lu Baihu without whom this fic probably wouldn't have been written — it certainly wouldn't be as good.
Sequel? Well sort of — I've got another story planned in this AU but it's not exactly a sequel; it's not focused on Kitty and Rogue.