Genosha, Day One

[just_a_phase]

Getting to Genosha--at least, if you want to be as discrete as possible and not announce to all the island that you're X-Men--involves more flight transfers than Kitty wants to think about at this point. More than once she drowsily woke up to find her head on Piotr's shoulder.

He didn't say anything about it, so she didn't either.

But after the second time, she found she'd also wake up with a faint smile.

They're finally here, though, finally through customs and security, and they can just...be. Be the two of them. Be lost in the crowd.

It's a little scary, and a little neat, and a lot needed.

Her head's on Piotr's shoulder--well, upper arm--again as they walk by the shoreline, and for once...

Kitty Pryde has nothing to say.

And she thinks that's okay.

Comments

[konocc]

They both needed a break, and, apparently, they had both thought of going to this small mutant-friendly county for that break.

He suggested they just go together - as friends. Of course, he also suggested the separate rooms - because they were friends.

And he was Czar of All the Russias!

That was his mind and heart though, and for once the dark clouds of regret are staying away, too. Even if the winds of fate might shift tomorrow, he'll treasure her touching him in a quiet, intimate way today. As a breeze whips her hair around, he stops to curl a strand around his fingers and gently slide it back behind her ear, daring to graze it just slightly with his fingertips before pulling her closely for warmth.

[just_a_phase]

After the shared mental illusion they'd had where he'd died--where she'd had to be there, watching him, and kiss his dead body, whispering she'd loved him--there was no way in hell she was going to say no to his suggestion.

She's not at all certain how this will work out, but she's determined to enjoy it. To enjoy being with him. With her Peter.

She smiles and looks down a little when he moves her hair back. When he starts to pull her close, she deliberately moves towards him on her own power as well. It makes it doubly clear where she wants to be. And with whom she wants to be.

Here and now, for the moment, she feels at peace.

"It's beautiful here," she says quietly, more into his chest than anything else.

[konocc]

Piotr moves his fingers into her hair, pulling her even closer into him. Even if he's had others in his life, he will never stop loving her. It's just hopeless. So, slowly, ever so slowly, he places a lingering kiss on the top of her hair, inhaling the scent of it as he does so.

The voice of his control grasps ahold of him once more. Here we are again, and 'again' is not up to you.

She feels his body stiffen. Even though he's not physically moving, he's backing himself down on all levels again.

[just_a_phase]

She feels it, and Kitty wants to sigh. She doesn't know the right words, not for this. Not with him.

So after a moment, she wraps his arms more firmly around herself and presses her face more firmly against his chest. After a few seconds, she finally murmurs, "I'm not cold, Piotr. And that was--was more than okay."

It's all she can think of to say and to do. The best opening, the clearest one, she can give--and so she does.

[konocc]

"Can you pretend to be cold?" he asks, pulling her back in. Still, the wall is there now. He won't let this go too far, but his heart is dancing in his chest and she can hear it, just as clearly as she can hear the ocean rolling in on the beach they're walking on.

[just_a_phase]

She looks up at him, eyes dancing. "What if I don't want to have to pretend anything?" She deliberately rises on her toes to kiss the underside of his jaw faintly before whispering, "I'm not 14 any longer," as she settles on the ground and against his chest again.

And she's not cold, but oh, she enjoys his warmth.

[konocc]

Direct hit. Kitty can feel all of Piotr's muscles tense as his willpower places a vice grip on his impulses, but some responses are just automatic. He takes a half step back and gazes down at her.

He swallow hard. "It is not about that. We -" His voice is thick. "We have been like this a very long time," he reminds her. "We can break each other."

[just_a_phase]

"It's exactly about that," she retorts, and keeps her eyes locked on his while they talk. "And yes. We can break each other. I remember each time one of us has broken the other. Have you--have you ever thought about what that means? How we can do that to each other--and especially when we're not together?"

Then Kitty looks away at the water and takes a deep breath. "...You died in the Professor's mental illusion--but I had to watch you die. Hold you while you were dead. I don't--I don't want us to stay like this any more. We've been this way for a long time, like you said."

Kitty looks back at him, jaw slightly sight, voice firm.

"I want a change. I want us to change."

[konocc]

"I think about it every day," he admits, then adds. "No. That's...not right. I let myself think about it twice a day - or else I will be a jerk." He says 'jerk' with a slight bit of mirth. It has been at times, her favorite descriptor of him.

He straightens. "I want to be good for you. I know I have not been."

[just_a_phase]

She doesn't look away. "So start being good for me--and to me--now. Show me you can be right now." Please.

[konocc]

He takes her by the shoulders in a forceful grip, throwing her just a little off-balance as he does so. His eye bore into her and his expression is so determined as to look almost angry.

But when the kiss on her lips, it's as soft as flower petals, and it lingers while his calloused fingers run lightly over her cheek.

And, as powerful as it is, he's still holding back.

[just_a_phase]

She knows he's holding back--and it does make her a little angry, if only a little.

So she replies the only way she can.

Kitty doesn't hold back at all. Wraps arms tightly around him and kisses him with all she is.

He died, in Xavier's mental game. She'll never ask him what that was like.

Kitty, though? She held Piotr while he was dying, then when he was dead. Listened to his last words. Cried as she kissed his rapidly cooling lips, trying to ignore the way blood was slowly trickling from one corner of his mouth.

Whispered I love you, and wonders if any of him knows that part.

But she doesn't wonder much, because she wants to forget that fake hell. (And hell it was, even if she understands Xavier's reasons--even if she can agree there was no other option.) This is real, instead.

Piotr is here, and alive, and warm under her mouth, and she wants nothing more than for this to go on forever.

[konocc]

There she is after all this time - his Kayta. He wishes he could just bottle this moment forever. Piotr shivers as she grabs hold and offers herself with a wildness he wasn't sure she could ever muster for him again.

In a tribute to those days, he tucks her in tightly while he falls back - tackled - under her and lets himself give in more to her touch.

But this doesn't mean he's letting go of his restraint. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knows what he wants in exchange for it. Springing it on Kitty now wouldn't be fair. Sadly, she can read him way too well...

[just_a_phase]

"Oh, for Christ's sake," she finally groans, and kicks his ankle (though not with her full strength, nor near it). "Would you please remember we're both finally not only legal adults, but also physically, mentally, and emotionally matured to the adult level?"

She's definitely not pulling away, even if she did kick his ankle.

[konocc]

He actually has the nerve to smirk at her frustration. "It's not that," he replies dreamily.

Oh course before he can explain they spot an officer of the law coming towards them with intent. Piotr lets out a groan.

[just_a_phase]

"This is your fault," Kitty hisses. "Remember when we were attacked by robots on our first date? That was your fault too. Right now, it's all your fault, an explanation by what you meant by, 'it's not that,'" she finishes, all in one breath.

Then she smiles as politely and kindly at the officer as she can manage. "Is something wrong, sir?"

All his fault. Giant Commie Jerk.

[konocc]

10 minutes later, after one looming Russian manages to convince the nice officer he merely fell rather than concocted to the opening stages of public indecency they are once again walking. This time on the boardwalk and pointedly away from the officer.

Piotr has a tiny, uncharacteristic smirk on his face as they move away from prying eyes in silence. He's also decided to be infuriating and let her try to guess what the smile is about.

[just_a_phase]

It is infuriating. For a second or two, she's ready to demand--many things, really.

Then her stance relaxes, slightly, while a small smile crosses her face. The stance and expression together always end in something interesting, be it being kicked out a country, spray painting the walls of Xavier's with Illyana, gleefully hacking the accounts of Frost Industries, or essentially dancing on the necks of the bad guys of the day.

After a few seconds, she takes a few steps towards him so they're toe to toe and look upward. "I? Did not fly halfway around the world to play around," she informs him, same small, simple smile on her face, same relaxed stance as she totally ignores that thing called "personal space".

[konocc]

He's delighted she's ignoring it.

"Why did you come with me on this vacation, Katya." He emphasizes her nickname just enough...

This is fun. He hasn't felt like this playful in ages. Maybe the past can be just that.

[just_a_phase]

She shakes her head like she's disappointed. "If you need to ask, I'm worried you'll never know," she says back, but then her face--

It neither softens nor hardens. It simply becomes utterly open and honest in a way it rarely has been since the first year or so at Xavier's.

When she speaks, it's both careful and slow.

"Because in the illusion from hell...you may have been the one to die--but...but I was the one who was holding your body. And that's not how we're going to end."

[konocc]

Piotr raises his eyebrows. "I don't completely agree."

He stops walking and turns to face her outside of a dance club. "I have every intention of dying in the arms of a beautiful woman, but only after a long, happy life this time."

[just_a_phase]

She mentally counts to five to keep her temper.

Why did I fall for such a goddamned jerk?

"If you deliberately push the buttons of other beautiful women the way you push mine, you might need to modify that plan, Petrushka."

She wants to hold her head up and just walk by him into the club.

Except this is as much serious as it is fun, so instead she wraps her arms around him from behind. (Well. Around him best they go.)

"//I relearned there what you already taught me when you and the other X-Men went to Australia. It is harder to be the one left behind than the one who goes. It's harder yet to have to watch the one going and not be able to do fucking thing to help. You told me to live for you, Rasputin. You damned well better plan to be living with me.//"

Her arms tighten briefly. Then she lets go off him and moves past him, getting out her ID so she can enter the dance club.

[konocc]

Piotr finds himself leaning into the cool brick exterior of the building, watching her as she slides past him into the club. Piotr looks up at the sky.

When did he become so discontent with her being a just a friend? There was problems before Zsaji but - He sighs and (lightly) punches the brick behind him. Very little makes any damn sense except he's damn sure Kayta isn't second place for him anymore. Maybe that was the barrier? If so, he's certain he's grown beyond it.

He maneuvers his way into the same club, determined to stop brooding on the question and let the evening play out as it may.

[just_a_phase]

She doesn't normally have any problems with The Cranberries--in fact, they're in her top ten favorite groups--but she wishes they never existed when she hears the song playing as she enters the club.

Well. so what. Piotr has to hear it too.

Kitty doesn't wait for him. Just starts to dance on her own, because she doesn't need a partner to dance fantastically.

She may want one, though. If so, she's just waiting for the right one to come. Not the men and women who are eyeing her.

Kitty can dance alone all her life. But that doesn't mean she isn't hoping the right one comes to her.

[konocc]

Piotr watches her an moment, but doesn't join. Instead, he moves past her, past the bar and up to the DJ booth. The DJ nods and Piotr then moves to the edge of the floor. He's not dancing yet. He's enjoying watching her sink into the arms of her oldest friend music.

It's only after that the next song begins to play.

Piotr leans into her hair. "One of the few American things I had growing up," he explains, kissing her softly in that one place on her jaw, just by her ear, where only he ever kisses her, letting his lips linger before saying, in time with the music, "I love you."