Subject: [OTL]: [Excalibur/X-men] Reminiscence (1/1)
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 07:21:46 EST
From: wanttakehave@aol.com


Title: Reminiscence (1/1)
Author: Sobia Helen
Summary: Kitty and Rachel have a late night conversation.  About Wolverine.
Disclaimer: Kitty Pryde, Rachel Summers, Wolverine, and the X-men universe
are property of Marvel Entertainment.
Timeline:  Set in an unspecified future, post Mekanix.
Rating:  PG-13.

________________________________________________________

Their late night conversations were one of the few things they had been able
to revive from the Excalibur days.  Everything else had changed, but the
conversations remained.  They weren't nearly as regular as they used to be then,
but Rachel enjoyed them more now.  Personal questions, back then, had only
served to remind her of her perforated memory.

"Then there was the thing with Piotr.  God, I thought I would never get over
him," Kitty said now.

Tonight's topic seemed to be break ups, which Rachel was grateful for.  Her
lack of healthy relationships meant that Kitty was doing most of the talking.
Rachel noted that this was a conversation they could not have had seven months
earlier, when Rachel had told Kitty of her return.  There were things that
needed to be worked out, and it had taken them time to do that.  Nor could they
have had it four months ago, when she had moved in with Kitty in her Chicago
apartment.

"I could've told you that that wouldn't have worked out," Rachel replied.

"Well, hindsight is never wrong," Kitty retorted.

"Neither is telepathy," said Rachel.  "Piotr wasn't exactly into...well,
girls."

Kitty turned around on her side to face Rachel now, propping herself on her
elbow.  "There is no way I could've missed that."  Rachel just looked at her
with an amused expression, but did not take back her earlier statement, and so
Kitty said, "Was there?  He dumped me for that alien healer!"

Rachel smiled indulgently. "No, love, he dumped you for a woman he would
never have to sleep with."

Kitty's eyes fluttered in thought, and Rachel had to force herself to stay
out of her head.  She finally said, "Were you ever going to tell me that?"

"Eventually."  said Rachel.  "I don't know.  Probably, especially if you had
tried getting back with him."

"I almost did!" Kitty protested.

"Almost," Rachel said.

Kitty fell silent for a moment, and then asked, "How did I miss it?"

"He was your first real crush.  So it's understandable."

"Well, not exactly.  He was my first real attainable crush."

Rachel was barely able to contain her laughter at Kitty's use of the word
attainable.  She waited to hear more details.

Kitty didn't disappoint, "I used to have the biggest, sort of on-and-off,
crush on Logan."

Rachel laughed, "Logan?"  She pulled herself up into a sitting position, and
rested her back against the headboard of the bed, "I think I kind of knew
that.  Your thoughts went ballistic only every other time he was in the
room."

"Was I that obvious?"

"Only to a telepath," replied Rachel.

Kitty turned around to lie on her stomach, and then eventually propped
herself on both of her elbows, "You mean the Professor knew?"

Rachel was beginning to wish that she had not started this conversation,
"Probably not," she confessed.  "I wasn't big on following the Ethics of the
Telepaths back then.  So I used to peek.  A lot."

"I knew it!" exclaimed Kitty.

Rachel reached to ran her hand through Kitty's hair, which spilled down on
the pillow, "So this crush...did Logan ever find out?"

"Probably.  I don't think I ever really got over it," she shifted closer to
Rachel and continued, "And we had a little...well, moment after I got back from
Excalibur."

Rachel's hand went still in Kitty's hair, "A moment?"

Kitty took hers hand in hers, "It wasn't anything major.  A little more than
making out, but it couldn't have gone anywhere.  I wasn't completely over
Pete, then, and I'm not sure he saw me like that."

Kitty was projecting thoughts as she talked, and this was one of the things
Rachel loved about her.  She never really tried to shield her thoughts,
especially from her.  She picked up on the incident Kitty was referring to,
"A *little* more?"

Kitty smiled playfully, "Jealous?"

"Hardly," Rachel smiled back.  "While we're sharing...I had a crush on Logan,
too."

Kitty giggled, "When?"

"A bit after I got here."

Entangling her fingers through Rachel's, Kitty asked, "Didn't he threaten to
kill you?"

Rachel nodded, "Yes.  More than once, in fact.  I think that kind of
contributed to the crush."

"You liked him because he tried to kill you?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly playing with a full deck," she explained.

"So you're saying that I just wasn't psychotic enough for you back then?"

"You weren't," Rachel said, leaning down to kiss her.  "But that never
stopped me."

"Hmmm," Kitty said, "It's pretty coincidental that both of us had silly,
unrequited crushes on Logan."

"I never said unrequited," Rachel pointed out.

"You're kidding!"

"Not even a little," she smiled.  "Jealous?"

"Only because you got there before I did," Kitty laughed.

"Liar." Rachel tucked down on Kitty's hair. "So, want details?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Always."

Kitty lay her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes, "When was it?"

They had started the conversations as a way to ward off insomnia, and Rachel
noticed that it seemed to be working for Kitty now, "Before Excalibur.  It
started a while after I first got here."

"Started?"  Kitty opened her eyes long enough to shoot Rachel a piercing
look.

"It was no more than three times."

"Three times?  How did I miss this?"

"The same way you missed the thing with Piotr," Rachel said. "And because we
never did anything at the mansion."

Kitty opened her eyes again, "You guys planned your encounters?"

"It wasn't like that," Rachel protested.  "It was mostly all accidental."

"Explain."

"I'd rather not."

Kitty closed her eyes again, "What happened to you wanting to share the
details?"

"I changed my mind."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Rachel asked.  "You're just going to let it go?"

"Yeah.  But only because I'm sleepy, and I don't want to miss the Secret Ways
of Seducing the Wolverine."

"It wasn't like that,"  Rachel said again.

"I'll be the judge of that," replied Kitty.  "Tomorrow."

"Okay," Rachel said, reaching over to turn off the bedside lamp. "Goodnight."

"Hmmm. 'night," Kitty replied.

And Rachel was even less sleepy now than she had been when this conversation
started.

--end--