Jamie and Kitty and The CUTE!

[x-kitten.livejournal.com]

Kitty has been practicing alternate uses of her powers...


Kitty had her eyes closed tight as she let the music wash through her, guiding her steps as she flowed through the motions she had been studying most of her life. Her eyes weren't closed simply because she was sure of her steps, though. That she was sure of her steps was incidental. Instead, her eyes were squeezed close simply to hide from herself the knowledge of what she was doing or, more specifically, where she was doing it. She was dancing in the middle of the school's dance studio - a perfectly normal activity, except that as well as being in the middle of the four walls, Kitty was also posed almost equidistant between the floor and ceiling.

But with her eyes closed, Kitty had no idea how far she had strayed. She had started on the small stage and had closed her eyes and phased out after turning on the music. She'd been unaware when a pirouette had swirled her a few inches past the edge of the stage, and been completely oblivious to the fact that a series of jetes - allowed to continue until it felt right for her to land - had brought her further and further off the ground. The ground wasn't important to her right now. The only thing that meant anything was the sound of the music and the motion of the dance.

And so she spun through space, skirt twirling about her legs as her hair flew freely behind her, lost in her own private world of grace and beauty.

It had occasionally been remarked that Jamie had an almost uncanny ability to find Kitty, wherever she happened to be. This was, of course, partly because he could search nearly the entire mansion and grounds all at once.

But it didn't hurt that he knew all her favorite haunts; he poked his head into the dance studio as the third stop on his search, and paused in the doorway for a long moment, just staring.

Then he noticed she was standing a good three feet above the floor; he shook his head, grinning in sheer amazement, and walked quietly over to where he could catch her if she phased back in unexpectedly.

"Hey, love," he said softly, "don't look now, but I think you're giving Katrina and the Waves a run for their money."

Jamie`s voice broke through her distraction, but Kitty had enough control over both her powers and her body not to fall. She suspected it would be possible to simply will herself to float down to the ground, but if it was she hadn`t figured out how to convince her subconscious of this idea. Instead, slitting her eyes open enough to get an idea of how high she was, she `walked` down the image of a staircase she created in her mind to the floor before phasing in. Turning to smile at Jamie, she stretched out her hand. "It worked. It really worked." She looked exhilarated.

Jamie took her hand and drew her closer, smiling. "I knew you'd find a way." He flicked a glance up at the ceiling. "And no becoming immune to gravity and spinning off into the void of space never to be seen again, I notice. That's a nice bonus."

"Nope," Kitty said, smiling. "I'll explain why later. For now..." She leaned forward to kiss him. "Dance with me?"

"Always." Jamie dropped his other hand to Kitty's waist and cocked a mischievous eyebrow. "We going to be going up that imaginary staircase at any point?"

Kitty didn't usually lead - despite protestations to the contrary, Jamie had become quite a good dancer - however, this time she settled into his arms and guided his steps as she phased them both out. "Could be," she said, then kissed him again, closing her eyes as she carefully angled her steps upward.

Jamie didn't notice at first that they'd left the ground--even without her mutant power, Kitty had a way of making him feel like he was walking on air.

But after a while, it was impossible not to notice that the ceiling was a lot closer than usual, and Jamie laughed in sheer wonder and delight. It wasn't quite flying. Not quite--but it was closer than he'd ever been, maybe closer than he'd ever be, and it was . . .

"Amazing," he breathed. "Kitty, you're amazing."

Kitty had her head resting against Jamie`s chest as she led him through the steps she knew so well she could see them even with her eyes closed. She smiled at the tone of awe in his voice - someday she`d be good enough at this to watch it with her own eyes, but for now just seeing it through his reactions was good enough. "Love you," she said, the smile widening. "And I`m glad you like this. No trying swing dance up here, though."

"No, that'd probably be bad. Wrong kind of music, anyway." He chuckled. "Besides, I like dancing like this better. More being close, less flinging around."

"The flinging around has it's good points, but only on the ground," Kitty said with a smile. "And I definitely approve of being close."

"I think I'd be afraid I'd drop you, or throw you across the room, or something. That would be bad." Jamie smiled back. "This, on the other hand, is wonderful."

"I am remarkably resilient," Kitty informed him, then sighed as she heard the music winding down. "Going to have to go down to change the CD, if you want to keep dancing."

"That's why the repeat button was invented, you know," Jamie said, stealing a kiss. "Situations exactly like this. But I do want to keep dancing, so I suppose we'd better get down there." He glanced down at the floor, getting another little thrill from seeing his feet just hanging there in midair. "Any suggestions? I dunno if I can follow you down your invisible stairs--I might not be imagining the steps in the same place you are."

"Yes. But if I'd left the repeat button on and you hadn't come by who knows how long I'd have been dancing." Kitty held Jamie's hand tighter. "Don't worry. I'm the one who has to know where the floor is." She slitted her eyes open again and started going down the stairs in her mind.

"Well, I would've come by eventually, you know. I tend to do that." Jamie watched Kitty's feet closely at first, just to make sure he wasn't surprised by where the air started holding his weight again, but the trip back down wasn't nearly as tricky as he'd thought.

"Yes, you would have," Kitty agreed, "but I didn't know when." Deciding that caution was the better part of not imbedding her boyfriend's feet in the floor (or something), Kitty phased back in when they were still a few inches up and let gravity do the rest normally.

Jamie landed reasonably softly and--more importantly--nowhere near Kitty's toes; dance class had, he noted, done some good for his foot-eye coordination. He grinned at her, not letting go of her hand as they went over toward the CD player. "Y'know, if we ever want to really screw with Angie's mom's head, we could do this out on the lake sometime when she's visiting."

Kitty laughed. "Actually, that was pretty much the first thing I said when I told Dr. MacTaggart what I wanted to work on in her powers class." She eyed the cd player then glanced at the wall clock. "What do you think, do we have time for one more?"

Jamie raised an eyebrow, grinning. "You told her you wanted to mess with Angie's mom's head? She's really a nice lady apart from the tendency to follow me around praying." He shot a glance up at the clock, then squeezed her hand. "And I always have time to dance with you."

"No, of course not," Kitty said, sticking her tongue out at him. "I said I wanted to walk on water. I was in an odd mood. And good." She popped her dance disk out of the player and swapped it for one of the disks Al had left out for class - much easier to dance to than the music for her ballet classes. "Here. You get to lead this time and we`ll keep our feet on the ground."

"Don't see what's so odd about that. Walking on water sounds fun." He smiled, foot tapping to the music. "Want to keep an eye on what you're doing this time, huh?"

"Not exactly," Kitty said with a smile. "Want to be able to see you." She turned away from the cd player back into Jamie's arms. "You're one of my favorite views, you know."

"Now that I think is still a little odd. I don't think I'm all that fascinating, personally." Jamie moved them out onto the dance floor as the song started. "Not, y'know, that I'm complaining that you think I am."

"Well that, at least, is good. Cause complaining would be a waste of your breath. Gonna think that for quite a while, I think." Kitty happily let Jamie guide her around the floor, quite pleased that he`d gotten much better at this. "Goes with the whole `loving you forever` thing, really."

"And I have to say, I like that thing. I'm a fan of the thing. It goes so well with my love you forever thing." Jamie spun Kitty out into a twirl, then brought her back, grinning. "And hey, I finally got that working. No more crack-the-whip."

Kitty laughed. "I greatly appreciate that, actually. You are getting really good at this, you know. Turns out all those classes aren't a waste."

"Hey, now, be fair, I never said they were. Lot of fun, actually--must be my partner." Jamie wrinkled his nose. "Mind you, all the catch-up practice is a lot less entertaining. I think dancing with me is a lot more fun for you than it is me. I used to step on my feet a lot, and I'm a lot heavier than I think I am."

"Did you really practice dancing with yourself?" Kitty asked, tilting her head at him. "No wonder you can follow the girl's part when I lead." She grinned.

Jamie stuck his tongue out at her. "If I use a dupe, I can practice whenever I feel like it, instead of just whenever somebody else has free time, and then I end up not stepping on your toes, which is the whole point." He grinned. "Makes me a little dizzy after a while, though, two viewpoints on the same room both going around and around."

"And in opposite directions, at that. I`m not surprised you get dizzy. I am impressed that you don`t get confused about which foot goes where. No wonder your brain gives Professor X a head ache," she teased.

Jamie snickered. "The docs won't let me name the little abnormal structures in there, though, which I think is pretty unfair since it's my brain. I think Bob is a perfectly nice name for a cellular cluster, don't you?"

"Hah, yes. I think it`s a wonderful name. I`m not going to ask why they won`t let you name them. I know why they won`t let you name them. But why on earth did you ask?"

"Well, c'mon, I've got bits in here nobody's ever seen before. It's like Halley's Comet. Or the islets of Langerhans, I guess, only not in the pancreas. I'm chock-full of scientific discoveries, and I figure I should get dibs on naming 'em. But I have this sneaking suspicion the docs are having horrible visions of having to teach people about the Bob complex with a straight face, or something." Jamie grinned. "Can't imagine why."

Resting her cheek on Jamie`s shoulder, Kitty giggled. "I`m sure I have no idea."