WARNING:
THERE IS EXPLICIT SEX AND BONDAGE GAMES IN THIS STORY. I marked this clearly in the header. The sex is graphic, but all loving and consensual (and not that much worse than a typical romance novel). If reading sex scenes like that would offend you, please don't read this.

If you want to comment, send email to <luba@lubakmetyk.net>

Part 1

Flying the Midnight Runner down to London, Kitty Pryde had to work hard to keep her mind focused on the readouts from the instrument panel, while also keeping a cautious eye on the empty sky surrounding Excalibur's hypersonic plane. But only a few wispy white clouds dotted the otherwise uncluttered field of dusky twilight blue this far to the north, except to the west where a spectacular sunset glowed on the horizon.

"Do you wish me to take the controls, Katzchen?" Kurt Wagner had offered to accompany her down to London and pilot the plane back to Muir, since neither Kitty nor Brian liked to risk relying solely on the robot autopilot for the return trip through the crowded London and central England airspace.

"No, thanks, Fuzzy," she replied without much enthusiasm. "I never feel comfortable with somebody else flying, you know that."

She'd refused Kurt's offer to take the controls because she thought that the usually enjoyable task of piloting would help take her mind off the frustrating day -- no, the frustrating week or two, really -- that she'd been having. But it proved harder than she'd expected to keep her attention where it belonged. Sensing her mood, Nightcrawler spent most of the trip sitting silently in the back reviewing some papers he'd brought along, but the gregarious team-leader couldn't refrain from repeated if definitely awkward attempts to strike up a conversation.

"So, am I correct in my recollection that it has been almost a year since Herr Wisdom joined us, Katzchen?" Wagner tried again. "Shall we all have another expedition to the local pub when you both return, to mark the occasion?"

That hit a particularly sour note. "Let's not think about that until we do get back, Kurt. I have no idea how long this'll take."

"It has been a long and eventful year," Nightcrawler remarked quite casually. "And I have been very pleased to see Moira experience no major difficulty with the Legacy virus for such a prolonged period. Her usual combativeness with Herr Wisdom seems quite undiminished, a good sign."

"I keep telling you, Kurt, his name is Pete," Kitty snapped, then her voice softened. She wouldn't have had this year with Pete -- she would have lost his after just having found him -- if it hadn't been for the acerbic Scotswoman's medical expertise. She was truly happy Moira's skills were helping her control her own disease, as she'd helped so many others in her long career. "Yeah, I'm glad Moira seems to be doing fine. Her work is too important for any interruption or slowdown and, besides, I can't just imagine Muir without her."

It should have been a special time, a special day. It had been just a year ago today that she and Pete had gotten close while breaking into Black Air's Dream Nails base, and had ended up in bed together that night for the first time. And their first time -- her first time -- had been special indeed. It had been a wonderful year since then, too, as that first heady rush of infatuation had only grown and deepened with time. The rude, obnoxious Wisdom had quickly become the center of her existence, until she couldn't imagine her life without him, and she knew he felt the same.

But loving, caring, attentive, understanding and incredibly sexy though he was -- in private, at least -- old-fashioned romance was not Pete's strong suit. She'd hinted delicately once or twice about this anniversary during the past few weeks, to be met with looks of blank incomprehension. Moira had noticed, though, and had asked Kitty what was up, and had tried to help by dropping a few much more pointed reminders of an upcoming special occasion. Pete had noticed those, of course -- not too surprising, really, since Moira believed in the sledgehammer approach, especially in anything to do with the despised Sassenach. But, when he'd asked Kitty later what the bloody hell that Scots harridan was on about now, the young girl just couldn't get up the nerve to bring up what the much older and more experienced Wisdom would undoubtedly consider sappy sentimentality.

"Are you planning any private festivities, to mark your first year with Herr... err... Pete? Amanda always insists upon celebrating all special dates, often quite obscure ones by my view, but I have learned to fall in gracefully with her plans." Wagner smiled fondly at the thought of his longtime love.

With Nightcrawler's questions really starting to get on her nerves, Kitty increased the plane's speed slightly, slowly, hoping he wouldn't notice. "You pretend to complain but I know you love her making a fuss about you two, Fuzzy. Somehow, though, I doubt Pete is sentimental about things like anniversaries."

"His is not the only opinion which matters. You *are* sentimental about such things, Katzchen. You always have been. And perhaps he should learn to indulge you for a change." Wagner had known her longest of all her friends -- since she'd first joined the X-men at thirteen, they'd been together continuously. She might appear tough, older than her years, but she was still a young woman with romantic dreams and fantasies.

"I don't want to force Pete to be somebody he isn't. He's with me, and that's all that really matters." But Kitty's voice wasn't completely convincing.

She'd almost talked herself into ignoring the upcoming anniversary, several times. But it mattered to her, to try to do something to mark the occasion. It was a milestone, and she wanted to celebrate it, to thank Pete for all the love and attention he'd always given her, to congratulate herself for making the right decision about her future despite the others' doubts and warnings. After an entire year together, today she felt more strongly than ever that she'd not only made the right choice back then, but that she'd been incredibly lucky to be offered the chance. She didn't intend to ever let Pete's obvious disdain for what he considered romantic fripperies blind her to the so much more important wholehearted love and support he did give her so unstintingly. She didn't want to take that for granted, ever -- she wanted to thank him for the last year, officially, to show him just how much it had meant to her.

However, that decision then left her with another problem -- what to do for their anniversary. She'd decided early on that one obvious item on the agenda should be to do a sexy strip for him. Pete always appreciated that, and enjoyed it tremendously, even though he still very rarely asked her to perform for him, for some odd reason she'd never figured out. The few times he had, hesitantly, he'd always sounded just like a little boy asking for a special treat he wasn't sure he'd be allowed to have. So she tried to be careful to remember to put on a special little show for him on random occasions, always amply repaid by his undisguised infatuation and unmistakable arousal. But that meant that just doing a strip for him might not be special enough to really show him what she felt.

"Amanda found me a wonderful wool sweater on your recent shopping expedition, and she insisted on modelling for me several items she'd purchased for herself. I hope you were able to locate some things for yourself, also."

"Yes, I thought that new sweater looked a bit familiar." Kitty glanced back from studying the instruments for a moment. "And I did manage to pick up a few things, although Amanda and Meggan both beat me in the loot this time out."

"One of the very few disadvantages of being headquartered at Muir, unfortunately, the lack of shops nearby..." Kitty snorted inelegantly at the patent insincerity in Nightcrawler's voice. "I often believe Amanda insists on continuing her job primarily because it allows her to fly to distant cities and shop there."

"I have to admit, that sounds like a pretty good fringe benefit to me, too." If Kurt wasn't going to bring up Amanda's often-stated goal of maintaining some contact with the real world, Kitty wasn't going to open that particular can of worms either.

She'd gone out shopping several times in the last week or two, with Amanda or with Meggan, and once with Rahne. But what could you buy someone genuinely uninterested in material possessions? Ten years as a spook had taught Pete not to become attached to anything, especially not to anything personal and recognizable. Books, games, CDs, puzzles were all too ordinary, too mundane for what Kitty had in mind. Amanda had suggested a watch or a man's ring, perhaps, a wallet or a briefcase. Kitty had considered her idea of a watch, but that hadn't felt quite right.

Meggan had suggested clothes. Kitty knew Pete still had no intention of changing his usual undertaker look, and buying him new white shirts or black suits also didn't seem the thing for such an occasion. She'd tried getting him new ties in the past, colorful ones, conservative ones, funny ones, anything except dead black stringy ones, and he usually thanked her half-heartedly and buried them somewhere she could never find them again. Finding an expensive men's novelty shop, she did, however, get him some new underwear -- silk boxers, in black with tiny red hearts, in rich blue with yellow smiley faces and (with a mental apology to Lockheed, but she couldn't resist) a pair with little St. Georges killing the dragon over and over. Pete might like knowing she had on sexy silk and lace under her usual loose and comfortable clobber, sneaking a hand in occasionally to cop a feel, but she got just as big a kick remembering what a riotous rainbow was lurking just under Pete's stolid black trousers.

That, plus Rahne's unexpectedly expert help just that afternoon in picking out an expensive bottle of good, rare Scotch and an elegant cut-glass decanter and matching pair of whiskey glasses, intended to subtly remind him quality was better than quantity, seemed the best Kitty could manage. But then, just as she'd decided that and gotten back to Muir to do some required scene setting, things had gone rapidly downhill. Wisdom wasn't even there, Kurt had told her -- he'd gotten an urgent call from a friend in London and left her a message that he hadn't known how long she'd be and couldn't wait, but would call later, after Brian had dropped him in the capital.

"I apologize again for permitting Herr Wisdom to leave without awaiting your return, Katzchen." Her comments on finding Pete gone had been blistering, indeed. "But his caller said it was urgent, and we did not know how long you would be gone."

"It's all right, Fuzzy," Kitty sighed, too tired to start the battle over his inappropriate formality again. "I know, it's my own fault. We should have taken our communicators along, but we got so hung up trying to convince Douglock to stay behind that we just forgot."

"You are only a few hours behind him." Nightcrawler's tone was smooth and soothing. "Nothing will have happened in that time, and I am sure he will relay all the details of whatever he is involved in to you as soon as you have joined him. I did not wish to press him upon what might have been personal business."

Kitty had spent a frustrated and irritated hour trying to fix one of Moira's more recalcitrant data entry terminals before being forced to give it up as an impossible job in her current mood, just when Pete had finally called in. He sounded rushed, telling her he needed her in London with him for backup during a meeting he'd set up for that evening. He didn't let her get hardly a word in but just gave her detailed instructions on finding the hotel, recommending she come in down from the roof since the meeting was set for the penthouse and this way nobody in the lobby would see her arrive, telling her to check the suite out quickly and then hide in the bedroom so that she could see and hear things in the sitting room, ringing off in a hurry as soon as she'd agreed.

So here she was, anniversary plans and presents abandoned, dashing down to London for another night of probable chaos and mayhem, trying to console herself with the fact that Pete needed her. He'd said that he needed her for backup, but Kitty was willing to bet, based upon previous experience, that he'd need her for other more personal if equally physical activities before whatever mission he was now on was over.

Continued in Part 2...