xp_logs | Laurie & Kitty

xp-shadowcat.livejournal.com posting in

Laurie and Kitty chat about life at the mansion.

It wasn't always easy to appease Terri Pryde when she was on a mission.

Kitty had been sitting on the corner of the lawn for twenty minutes, holding the phone so hard with her fingers that they were starting to curl. She didn't know whether the aching of her ear was due to the length of the conversation, the heat of her old cell phone or simply her mother's constant, tinny voice going on and on about the same subject. The subject that Terri hadn't stopped being on since Kitty's twenty-fifth birthday.

"No, Mom," she said. "There isn't anyone I'm interested in." And she sighed, deeply. "Can we just talk about something else?"

That opened the floodgates.

"No, no, I'm not trying to make you feel bad, Mom....no, I swear...yes, of course I would tell you.... yes, even if he wasn't..." Kitty's attempts to talk were drowned out by another flood of words from Terri. Kitty sighed again. Her mother's voice was so loud now that it was drifting a little past the phone. Leaning in, her cheek grazed the speakerphone button and Terri's words shot into the air.

"It's okay if you want to be gay married--just tell me. It's legal now, you know, honey. Lots of the gays have child--"

With a sudden jump, Kitty tapped the button to shut her mother's voice down. I hope no one heard that. "No, Mom, I'm not gay... yes, if I was, I would tell you... yes... uh-huh... no. I did ballet because I liked it...yes... yes, I know you like...uh-huh....yes...look, Mom, I've really got....I love you but I have to g-...Mom...I'm going to hang up the phone now, okay?...yes, yes, I'll call you. I promise...yes, in a couple days...Yes, I love you too...Bye!"

She hung up before her mother could say anything else. With a long sigh, Kitty stared at the phone in her hand and opened her internet browser. Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that someone else had come up behind her and gave her a rueful smile. "Hi."

"So, you were either just talking to a parental figure, or a really clingy beau. Either way, good morning." Laurie said before gesturing to a space beside her. "Mind if I sit? I was about to start meditation."

"Not at all. Hope I didn't spoil it for you." Kitty wiggled over to make room. "And yeah. It was my mom. I don't really call her enough but when I do..." She shrugged.

"Parents can be trying, but I always try to remember that it comes from a place of love," Laurie replied, sitting down beside Kitty on the lawn. It was not the smooth descent of before when she'd had two biological arms but she managed well enough. "At least, some parents. Are you close to to your Mom?"

"Mmmm...not really. But I'm trying. It was my dad I was closer to." She leaned back, kicking off a sandal so she could toe the grass. "How about you?"

"My father was never in the picture," Laurie replied, attempting to be as honest as possible while skirting the edges of the new world. "My mother and I were very close but her work with the underground and my studies get in the way of family meetings these days. Have you thought much upon what you wish to do now that you're here?"

"I keep thinking and maybe that's the problem," Kitty admitted. "I need to get out and do." She smiled at Laurie. "I guess, in the end, I'll try to find my way into helping out with one of the missions. I wondered about teaching but I don't feel quite... I'm not sure where I'd fit in." What she had thought but not said was that she didn't feel quite adult enough to teach. Charles had possessed a gravitas and maturity that set a standard in Kitty's mind too high for her to reach to.

"Is there anything in particular you feel drawn to subject wise?" Laurie asked curiously. She'd never had Kitty's particular problem herself - once she'd settled on being a Doctor, that was that.

"Mmmm...maybe dance but I don't know. What I did before was sort of...different than here." Kitty said "different" when she meant "illegal." At least at times. Then she paused. "You said your mother works with the underground? What do you mean?"

"She was an investigative reporter before we found out I was x-gene positive," Laurie explained, curling an arm around her knees. She wasn't wearing her prosthetic at the moment to give her shoulder a rest. "Once I came to Xavier's she wanted to help in any way she could. Mostly that's been feeding information to the X-men but she also works with a lot of homeless youth centers and makes sure mutants kicked out by their families have a place to go. She's not got any foster's right now but since M-day there's a lot less of us around."

Kitty swallowed. "Yeah...I know." Her own pain was healing but every once in a while, a word or sentence made it throb right back up.

She smiled at Laurie. "It's good to know though that there are people out there in the world to help and not just at the Mansion. When I was gone... I got used to the opposite, I think. Hiding all the time, hoping that I didn't accidentally phase..." She grinned and tugged a strand of hair. "It feels so good to be here."

"One day we won't have to hide," Laurie replied, brushing hair back over her shoulder as she tipped her head back, staring at the blue sky above. She was one of the lucky ones, she knew. Since she'd learned to control her powers she'd never had to worry about slipping up. Unless you knew what to look for, you'd never even know she was using her powers at all. "Why did you leave, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I was eighteen. Thought I could do anything I set my mind to," Kitty said. "That included living a normal life." She brushed the word normal with her fingers, making bold quotes in the air. "Normal is anything but."

"You remind me of Doug," Laurie replied with a fond smile. It had taken them forever to get her boyfriend to admit there were different levels of normal. "I've found that normal is what you make it - in the end it can't ever be something that won't work for you. Trying to find that sort of normal just makes you crazy, and lonely."

"Well, I've spent years being both so I guess you're right." Kitty grinned. "But tell me, what about Doug? Did he ever figure normal out?"

"He's getting there," Laurie replied, the amusement and affection clear in her tone. "Marie-Ange, Wade and I are slowly bringing him around to the idea that happiness is worth more then normalcy."

"It is." Kitty rose. "But sometimes people don't understand happiness when they see it." She thought to herself that she had squandered it herself, so many years ago.