Anyway, Kitty and Pietro are ridiculously immature in this chapter. I’ll keep that in check in the future. I’m still not sure what’s going to happen in this story, though, if it goes my way, there will be a future chapter entitled “Real Men Do Yoga”. Be afraid. Anyway, that’s all till the bottom. Oh yeah, there shouldn’t be any spoilers for “Moulin Rouge” in this chapter (just for those of you who haven’t seen it yet). I mean, the references I make should only make sense if you’ve seen the movie, anyway.

Kitty sighed and looked at her watch once again. Only two more minutes until the movie starts. Like, come on, people, some of us are in a hurry!

The harried looking employee behind the counter finally managed to get the order together, and after fastidiously counting every dollar, dime, and penny handed to him, he was finally ready to tend to a very impatient Kitty Pryde.

“Can I help you?”

No, I was just, like, standing here for fifteen minutes for kicks. “Yes, I’d like a medium diet Coke and a small popcorn, please,” she said in the sweetest voice she could muster, considering her slightly fouled mood. The gangly young man nodded and, taking his time, began to gather the popcorn and drink. Tapping her foot impatiently, she looked at her watch once more. Great, the movie, like, starts in one minute. Hurry up!

“Here you go,” he said, pushing the snacks over to her. “That’ll be five dollars.”

Kitty blinked. Was it just her, or did everything seem to move twice as slow when one was in a hurry. It was as if she moved at a different pace from everybody else. This must be how that jerk Quicksilver feels all the time, she mused as she handed the money to the sedate employee who had so successfully wasted more of her time. “Thanks,” she uttered, grabbing her sparse meal and rushing to the appropriate theater. She glanced up at the flashing sign above the door which read: “Moulin Rouge: 7:40 - Now Showing” and cursed softly (well, “cursed” as much as she was capable of, which was actually rather mild to the ears of most people).

She pushed the door open and did a quick sprint to the front row, stopping as her eyes adjusted to the dim lights and made out two familiar faces. It was Kurt and Rogue.

Oh, no! I can’t let them see me here! It might totally crash their plans for the night! Plus, it’ll be, like, so awkward since I already turned them down!

Kitty swiftly brought the bag of popcorn up to obscure her face from their view and carefully made her way to the very top row.

“Sorry. Sorry. Excuse me,” she murmured as she squeezed her way past people and dropped down onto the middle-- and only unoccupied-- seat. Luckily, thanks to the wonder of stadium seating, she still had a very good view of the screen and noticed that the only thing she had missed so far was a preview or two. As she attempted to place her drink in the cup holder, her arm collided with the arm of the person beside her.

“Oops, sorry,” she apologized, glad that in the dark her neighbor couldn’t see her flush. She looked over at the person beside her, then squeaked in disgusted surprise. “Ew! Like, what are you doing here?!”

“Like, watching a movie,” he retorted sardonically.

Kitty couldn’t believe it. Of all the places, of all the people... Why did it have to be Pietro Maximoff she was stuck sitting next to while waiting to watch a lovely, romantic film? It would totally mess up the mood! This was bad luck at its worst.

No. Kitty was not about to let him ruin her night. She was going to do something about it. She was going to be... assertive! “Can’t you, like, move to another seat? Preferably one in a different theater.”

“Hey, I was here first!” he hissed in return. “Why don’t you move?”

“Because, I need to sit as far away from the front row as possible! So move!”

“Uh uh,” he said stubbornly, shaking his head. “You move.”

“You!”

“You! I was here first, and-- oooh! ‘Planet of the Apes’!” Immediately, his attention was drawn to the trailer on the screen, leaving Kitty with an odd, annoying feeling of rejection.

How dare he ignore me for that stupid preview! You can’t ditch Kitty Pryde that easily!

“Hey, Pryde, see any of your relatives?”

“Ugh! That was so lame! Like, can’t you think of any better insult?” At this, Pietro scowled, causing Kitty to smirk with a small sense of triumph. “What are you doing at this movie, anyway, Quickie?”

“Defying Lance the Tyrant, not that that’s any of your business, Pryde-- and don’t call me Quickie!”

“Whatever.” Kitty, having now had the last word, disregarded him with a toss of her hair and turned her attention back to the screen. The lights dimmed further and the usual Warner Brothers’ fanfare indicated that the movie was about to begin. Kitty bit her bottom lip in anticipation and bounced in her seat, forgetting all about the totally icksome Pietro Maximoff and waiting eagerly to gaze upon Ewan McGregor’s gorgeous face.

There was no way she was letting somebody like Pietro ruin the movie for her.

Wow, this movie’s long... Pietro noted as the narcoleptic Argentinean began to recite the words that would ultimately lead into the song “Roxanne”. Of course, this wasn’t saying much, as he had found himself thinking that earlier, when he was only twenty minutes into the movie.

However, by this point in time, every time he blinked, he found himself getting lulled away to sleepy land. He knew this didn’t stem from boredom, but rather, his bug. No matter. I’ll just take another sip of Sprite and I’ll be o-- crap!

He sucked. And sucked and sucked, but found nary a droplet of the sweet drink. Damn it! Now how am I gonna stay awake? he griped mentally as he began to chew on his straw. For the past thirty minutes, he had been functioning on hearty doses of Sprite, but without it... well, he’d probably either fall asleep or throw up, since it was also the only thing keeping the popcorn down. I knew it was a mistake to get that...

Sighing, he slumped back in his seat and glanced over at Kitty, who seemed to be lapping up every saccharine word of the flick. This didn’t surprise him, since it was probably the kind of movie girls like her enjoyed-- after all, the film was just a chick flick to satisfy the fantasies of lonely, boyfriend-less girls like Kitty Pryde.

Pietro turned his attention back to the screen, hardly wanting to admit to himself that he actually was enjoying it himself. Oh well, enjoying a romantic musical didn’t say anything about him as a guy, right? It spoke nothing of his manliness or his rock-solid sexuality. Nope, not at all.

No, Satine, don’t sleep with the Duke! Agg... what the hell am I thinking?!

Great, he was actually getting into it. He glanced at Kitty once more, watching the worry on the stupid dip’s face, and couldn’t help but feel like, in some absurd way, they were on a date. How ridiculous. Like he would ever go on a date with her anyway, when he could have any girl in Bayville-- no, in New York!

Pietro quickly looked back at the screen as Kitty curiously brought her gaze in his direction. Stupid romance. That’s the only reason why I’m looking at her-- ‘cause this movie’s got me all hopped up on this sickly sweet romantic crap. Well, she is kinda cute in a vanilla way-- no! No she isn’t! She’s nothing but one of Lance’s left-over crushes. That’s it. EndOfStory-- no, Satine!

The show went on, and somehow Pietro managed to survive the rather lengthy movie even without the aid of Sprite. Actually, by the end, he almost found himself teary eyed, but managed to prevent himself from turning into mush by concentrating on the morbidly giggling baby a couple of rows in front of him. He was caught between laughing, crying, passing out, and vomiting. Oh, the joys of being ill at a sad movie while trying to focus on the creepy laughter of a small child.

The lights brightened, and he attempted to stand up on rather wobbly legs. I’m not feeling that bad. I’m not going to give Lance the satisfaction of being right! His hand fluttered up to feel his forehead, but he wasn’t quite sure how warm he was supposed to be to be considered sick. Okay, maybe I am feeling kind of diseased...

“Hey, Pryde, feel my forehead. Am I hot?”

“What the-- like, no way! I’m not going to touch you!” she returned rather loudly with apparent disgust in her voice.

From further down the rows, Kurt and Rogue took notice to the familiar voice and stopped in their tracks to listen to the small debate going on between Kitty and Pietro.

“Feel my forehead!”

“No! Is that, like, some kind of sick fetish you have?”

“I just want to know if I’m hot!”

“You’re not hot and you’re never going to be hot!”

“Not that kind of hot! I mean warm! Am I warm?”

“Ask someone else to feel you up!”

“Oh, fine! No wonder you have no boyfriend, you’re too squeamish to even touch a guy!”

“That’s not true! I can totally touch a guy, I just don’t want to touch you, loser! I don’t care how warm you are!”

“So if I die, you won’t care that it’ll be all your fault?” Pietro questioned heatedly, beginning to feel a little faint from the arguing mixed in with all of his other symptoms.

“Like, no way! Well, maybe-- no, no I won’t, ‘cause it wouldn’t even be my fault! What are you doing here if you’re sick, anyway?”

“I told you, I’m defying Lance’s dictatorial rules!”

“Ugh, you’re, like, such an idiot!”

“I’d rather be an idiot than a dippy valley girl wannabe!”

“Hey! You albino punk!”

“You-- you!”

“Oh that was original.”

“Shut up!”

“You shut up!”

“No, you shu-- uhhh...”

Kitty then watched widened eyes as Pietro fainted onto the not too sanitary floor. Oh my God, he’s dead! No, no, this can’t be happening. He’s not dead! And even if he was, it’s, like, not my fault at all! He’s the one who decided to go out while sick!

Looking around frantically, she spotted a worried Rogue running up to her row and then--

*Bamf!*

Kitty let out a small, surprised shriek as Kurt appeared next to her, looking rather confused.

“Kitty, vhat iz it?” he asked in a concerned voice, then noticed the unconscious Pietro. “Scheisse! Ah, uh, I mean, Kitty, vhat happened?”

“Yeah, and what are you doin’ here? Ah thought you said you were stayin’ home tonight,” Rogue commented as she reached the two (well, three, but Pietro didn’t really count at the moment).

“I finished my homework early, so I thought I’d catch a movie, and he was here, and I got stuck sitting next to him, and he was being a stupid jerk, then he wanted me to feel his forehead, then he, like, passed out, you know?!” she explained quickly and frantically.

“Um, okay,” the other two responded slowly, after having to decipher what the near hysterical girl was saying. There was a long pause as they tried to think of some way to solve the problem. Finally, Rogue spoke up.

“Well, as much as Ah hate sayin’ this, we can’t just leave him here.”

“So, vhat are ve going to do, Rogue?”

“Ah think you should teleport him to the mansion, then we’ll contact his... owners and have them pick him up.” Kurt gave a nod in agreement, then Rogue continued with: “Come on, Kitty, we’ll walk home.”

Kitty nodded, then stooped down and tentatively brushed her hand across the unconscious boy’s forehead. Wow, he really was burning up, she thought with a slight pang of guilt as she followed the older girl out of the theater.

“How could you bring him into the house without consulting me or the Professor!” Scott exploded as he stormed into Kurt’s room, followed by a calm looking Jean.

“Well, hello to you, too,” Rogue commented, rolling her eyes. “We called ya, at least.”

“Yeah, and, like, we couldn’t just leave him unconscious in the theater!” the still distressed Kitty exclaimed. She couldn’t help but feel it was partially her fault that her enemy fainted.

“And ze Prof already knows, mein Freund. He iz psychic, after all--”

“Bringing this-- this delinquent into the house was both careless and stupid!” Scott snapped, still furious, though he seemed to be cooling off a bit. He turned his attention to Pietro, who was lying on Kurt’s bed, still out. “What are we going to do with him when he wakes up?!”

“Call Lance and have him pick his pet albino up,” Rogue answered simply.

“Lance’s pet albino has ears, you know,” Pietro murmured softly, not yet opening his eyes. Kitty practically jumped up in excitement and rushed over to his side.

“So, you’re, like, okay?”

“I’d be better if I didn’t have to hear your shrill voice--”

“Okay, okay. Geez, maybe we should’ve, like, left him in the theater.”

“Where am I?” Pietro struggled to sit up, then glanced at the faces all around him. I had this crazy dream. And you were there. And you were there. And you were there! he thought wryly, feeling a bit like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” for a brief moment.

“You’re in the Institute. This is Kurt’s room,” Jean explained gently, though she too was eager to get the speed demon out of her home.

“Blue boy’s-- you guys didn’t do weird things to me did you? Did you?! IWantOuttaHere!” Immediately after declaring that, he leaped out of bed, then attempted to run out, but ended up colliding with Summers instead. “Gah...”

“Okay, calm down, dude,” Scott said, helping him up. “Just tell us where you live and we’ll drive you back to your place.”

“Why am I here?” Pietro inquired in a hostile voice, pulling out of Scott’s helpful hold quickly.

“Because, you, like, fainted,” Kitty offered, since she was the only one who actually saw it happen.

“Told you you should’ve felt my forehead!”

“It’s not my fault, you know!”

“It’s still your fault.”

“Nuh uh!”

“Yuh huh!”

“Nuh uh!”

“Mein Gott,” Kurt murmured in amazement as the two continued to argue.

“Will you two shut up!” Scott suddenly bellowed over the two. Abruptly, the spat ended and the two quibbling children looked at him. “Come on, Pietro, the sooner we get you out of here, the better.”

“I’m not getting in a car with you! Call Lance and have him pick me up.”

“No way! We can’t let him into the mansion, it’s bad enough you’re here!”

“Well, I’m not getting in a car with any of you X-Freaks, so you either call Lance, or you’re stuck with me,” Pietro said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest to indicate how serious he was.

“Geez,” Scott muttered, then threw an “I’m going to kill you” look at Kitty, Rogue, and Kurt, who were now regretting their good deed. “Fine. Tell me your number and I’ll call him.”

“I don’t wanna give my number to you.”

“I need to know it anyway, since I’m stuck doing that stupid project with Alvers, so give me your God damn number!” Scott demanded, finally losing his temper and grabbing the smaller boy by the front of his shirt.

Pietro stared at Scott with widened eyes, then stammered: “O-okay.”

Lance threw an “I’m going to kill you” look at Pietro as he cautiously stepped into the mansion. “What the hell are you doing here?” He already knew why Pietro was there, but it seemed like the proper question to snap at the boy.

“They kidnapped me!”

Lance glanced suspiciously at the five miffed X-Men, then took his younger teammate by the arm like he was leading a small child. “Okay, let’s go. Thanks for not leaving him in a gutter somewhere,” he muttered reluctantly.

“Good riddance,” Rogue uttered under her breath.

“Oh, hey, wait up, Alvers!” Scott suddenly said, causing Lance to stop and face the spectacled mutant.

“What?”

“Um, here,” he said almost bashfully, handing a small sheet of paper to the surly teen. “My number. I figure we should get together sometime this weekend and start working on that history project.”

Lance stared at the piece of paper like it was about to explode, then shrugged. “Whatever,” he muttered, stuffing it into his pocket. He then continued to pull Pietro out of the house, and as the door shut behind them, Scott turned to Kurt, Kitty, and Rogue and said: “You guys are so grounded.”

Meanwhile, Lance was dragging Pietro to his Wrangler, scowling. “Why the hell did you go out? I told you to stay home tonight!”

“I was feeling all right, and I was bored, so...”

“So you decided to go hang out at a movie with the X-Geeks?”

“No. They happened to be there by coincidence. I just wanted to prove to you that I’m healthy enough to leave the house!”

“And so you passed out in the theater,” Lance remarked as he got into the driver’s seat and thrust the key in the ignition. Instead of turning the car on, he turned and stared at Pietro expectantly.

“What?”

“You do realize that you’re going to be doing the cooking for the next two weeks, right?”

“I can handle that.” I’m the only one of us who can cook a half-decent meal anyway.

“And the laundry.”

“Fine.” Piece of cake.

“And my homework.”

“Hey!” Fine. I’ll just put really stupid answers down for everything, ha ha ha!

“Like I’d trust you to put the right answers down,” Lance said, managing to smile a bit. “Anyway, serves you right for not listening to me.”

“Sorry, mom.”

Lance rolled his eyes and started the jeep. “You’re also grounded from the television and your non-existent friends.”

“Hey, that’s just cold. And since when did you have the authority to do that?!”

“Yeah, well, because of your ingenious actions, I have to actually get started on my stupid project with that stupid X-Geek Summers. And I have the authority because I’m the oldest, so there.”

“Tyrant.”

“Thank you.”

Pietro buckled his seat belt and slouched back in his seat. This is all that stupid Kitty Pryde’s fault. If she had just left me unconscious on the floor, this wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve woken up on my own and just gone back home... where Lance would still find out I’ve been out of the house, but he probably wouldn’t’ve cared as much because he wouldn’t have known I had actually blacked out. Stupid Kitty Pryde. She probably planned this somehow! I’ll get her for this!

A/N: My God, this chapter is almost all dialogue. *shudder* You know, if you really want to read a good Pietro/Kitty fic, read Alex Destine’s. Oh, and there’s somebody who reviewed that apparently knows me, but... I don’t know who you are. :D Well, I probably do, but not by the screen name and... yeah... that’s all. I’m just a little curious.

Poor Lance, he has very little time in this chapter. Oh well, the next should be mostly about him. And maybe Freddy and Todd’ll get some more scenes, since I love ‘em so much. There’s one thing I learned from writing this chapter: I HATE WRITING ABOUT THE X-MEN! Damn! Why, oh why, did I have to make this an X-Man/Brotherhood Boy story?! Erm, anywho... yeah... I hate writing accents... Stupid Kurt and Rogue. By the way, they’re not dating in this fic (if it seems like they are), they’re just hanging out together.

You know, I like the thought of writing slash right now more and more. Bye bye! *time to work on a different story for the evening!*