Illyana and Pietro, late night

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Illyana's in the kitchen. Pietro comes into gloat.

Pietro almost had to laugh when he walked into the kitchen and found the Rasputin girl hovering over the teapot almost exactly the way she had been the first time they'd met. It wasn't that he'd been looking for her, precisely, but some opportunities were simply too good to pass up.

He crossed to the refrigerator in perfect silence, made himself a ham sandwich, and chewed and swallowed the first bite with all evidence of enjoyment before finally looking up at Illyana. "I don't believe I've ever met a deposed ruler before. Do I bow?"

Illyana's glare was immediate and icy. "Gosh, sarcasm," she said, crossing her arms. "There's a new one. How impressive." She'd have left, but she needed to hydrate, and she'd had about all the water she could stand in the last couple of days. Besides. She'd been there first.

Pietro shrugged amiably. "When something works, why fix it? It's only when things aren't working--if one were trying to retake one's demon dimension singlehandedly, for example--that one should perhaps try something new."

"Yeah, yeah, I got the memo, okay. I'll go think very hard about what I did." She had actually done so, in a way, but Pietro was not bringing out her better nature.

"I'm sure." Pietro took another bite of his sandwich. "It has to be said, however, that much though I appreciate you taking my advice, I don't think much of your choice of allies. Even my sister's presence barely brings up the tone of the place."

"My choice of - " She stopped, figuring it out, then rolled her eyes, leaning back against the counter. "Yeah. Because the X-Men are so great themselves. In fact, the last time I had problems in Limbo, they - oh, no, wait. I was stuck there for eight years." It wasn't exactly fair, but he was incredibly, incredibly annoying, and she had this perpetual headache.

Pietro rolled his eyes right back at her. "In point of fact, according to the files, the very last time you had problems in Limbo the X-Men helped you repel a demon invasion of the school. Not that I'm particularly fond of most of them but even I think it's perhaps a little gratuitous of you to blame them for not knowing time flows differently between dimensions."

Illyana looked unconvinced. "Yeah. They repelled the tiny demons. I repelled the huge one intent on breaking my neck, thank you." She really didn't want to keep on with the X-Men - toward whom she was largely ambivalent, all things considered - so, pouring hot water into a cup, she added, "Besides, even given all that, the X-Men seem to have suffered an influx of very annoying people. Whereas at least I've got a job with the less annoying ones."

"You just say that because you don't know all of them yet. I'm sure you'll find plenty of reasons to find them annoying as you go." Pietro slid into a chair, managing somehow to make the very motion look smug. "But I suppose, by a suitably loose definition, they do still qualify as allies. How hard to swallow was that pride of yours, in the end?"

Illyana's look could have killed. Fortunately for all involved, her mutation was much less violent. "Well, aren't you well-informed. But, sadly, I think after this conversation I will never find anyone as annoying as you are. So the real question is, is it a secondary mutation, years of practice, or just genetics?" Her hands were unhurried as she waited for the tea to steep.

"I do try to be." Pietro smiled lazily; whether he was referring to being well-informed or being annoying was anyone's guess. "And who can say where nature leaves off and nurture begins? Dedication and practice surely count for a great deal either way."

She frowned at him discouragingly. "I'd have to go with effort," she said with the air of final judgment. "Nobody's grated on my nerves like this since Clarice pulled my hair."

"Very good. So glad we agree." Pietro gave her a quick seated bow. "And thank you for the compliment; I've met Clarice. If I'm more irritating than she is, clearly all that hard work has not been in vain."

Illyana rolled her eyes, but the truth was that he was actually less annoying than - say - Remy LeBeau. About a million times less. Even if he stuck his nose in where it didn't belong. "Okay, okay. You've gloated, and I am much too concussed to continue on in the hopes of one-upping you. Are you happy? Or shall we continue, because as amusing as comparing you to Clarice is, there's a limit to how much I can think of her before becoming nauseous, and we are steadily approaching that limit."

"Eminently satisfied, thank you. And I should hate to see you exceed your limits, so I'll take my leave." Pietro actually grinned at her. "And since I should also hate to leave you out of sorts, this last: I have to train with her, a fact Summers failed to mention until after it was too late to back out without telling him why. My hell dimension is right here already."

Illyana actually smiled at that, though with shades of his own smugness. "Well, she couldn't have happened to a nicer person. Anyway. Have fun with that." She waggled her fingers at him, taking a sip of her tea.